I expect the greatest ethics from our police officers and gendarmes, Mr. Macron said recently, adding that he did not want to generalize or harm the credibility and dignity of French security forces, but that the attitude of officers in a small number of cases was not acceptable.

But longtime critics of the grenades were unconvinced that Mr. Castaners announcement marked a turning point in the governments approach to law enforcement.

One group of lawyers representing protesters who have been wounded by the grenades expressed satisfaction that police violence was now at the heart of public concerns. But they said in a statement on Sunday that the interior ministers announcement was a public relations move in the context of increasing media coverage of police violence.

It has been 14 months since we publicly warned Mr. Castaner about the dangerousness of these firearms, the lawyers said, referring to a letter they had written to the interior minister in the fall of 2018.

That was at the height of the Yellow Vest protests, when violent clashes between demonstrators and the police around the country led to a spike in the use of force by officers, who used rubber projectiles, dispersal grenades that spray smaller rubber pellets upon exploding, and tear gas grenades.

Several protesters have lost hands to the GLI-F4 grenades, which were also used in 2014 against environmental activists in western France who had set up camp on the site of a shelved airport project. Other protesters were injured in the feet and legs by shards of the grenades.

The GLI-F4s, which are roughly seven inches long and contain about an ounce of TNT, release tear gas and a strong blast of air upon loudly detonating. They are meant to be used by police officers to disperse aggressive crowds.
A U.S. prosecutor overseeing the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation said Monday that Britains Prince Andrew has been uncooperative in the inquiry so far.

Speaking at a news conference outside Epstein's New York mansion, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said prosecutors and the FBI had contacted Prince Andrew's lawyers and asked to interview him.

To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation, Berman said.

The Associated Press has asked Buckingham Palace for comment.

Andrew announced last year that he was withdrawing from his royal duties amid renewed attention of his friendship with Epstein, and a woman's claim that she had several sexual encounters with the prince, starting when she was 17.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre says that after meeting her in Florida in 2000, Epstein flew her around the world and pressured her into having sex with numerous older men, including Andrew, two senior U.S. politicians, a noted academic, wealthy financiers and the attorney Alan Dershowitz, who is now part of President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team.

All of those men have denied the allegations.

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew three times at Epstein's request, including once in London in 2001 at the home of Epstein's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Andrew and Maxwell have both denied any knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing teenage girls. In a TV interview last fall, Andrew insisted he was out having pizza with his children on the night Giuffre says they were together in London.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has vowed to aggressively investigate and bring charges against anyone who may have helped Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell last summer while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Andrew has said publicly suggested he would willingly cooperate with an investigation.

Berman made his remarks about the case during a joint appearance with members of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit victim services agency, to discuss a new New York law that made it easier for people to sue over childhood sexual abuse.

He wouldn't discuss the Epstein investigation in detail, but reiterated that the case didn't end with his death.

Jeffrey Epstein couldnt have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward, he said.

Two guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein the night he was found dead have been charged with falsifying the jails log books to indicate they were performing checks on prisoners, when they were actually sleeping or browsing the internet.
PITTSBURGH  The Steelers are needy. They also have to be thrifty.

Pittsburgh doesnt pick until No. 50 overall comes up on the board. The team is projected to get a late-third round compensatory pick in exchange for having lost LeVeon Bell to free agency. But that doesnt leave the Steelers with a lot of chances at top end talent.

Thats kind of what the Senior Bowl is for, though. The all-star game that Mike Tomlin said he was looking forward to in his end-of-season press conference tends to lend more of a platform to mid-range or late-round prospects than the best of the draft class.

Enter the following:

Joshua Kelley, RB, UCLA

One of the offensive stars of the week and game day, Kelley tore off 15 carries for 105 yards for the North. That said, Kelley could still fall to the Steelers. He has the makings of a future every down back. And while the same may be true of Benny Snell Jr., there is so little certainty in Pittsburghs running back room, especially with James Conner on the last year of his contract.

Bradlee Anae, OLB, Utah

Even with a strong showing on Saturday, Anae is looking like a Day 2 or Day 3 pick, very much in the mold of, say, Anthony Chickillo, who is on the second year of a backloaded contract. Bud Dupree may also be lost to free agency, which would likely cause Pittsburgh to throw numbers at the position beyond T.J. Watt.

The 6-foot-3, 257-pound prospect would be something of a special teams project, at least initially, for the Steelers.

Adam Trautman, TE, Dayton

About once a year, either late in the draft or in undrafted free agency, the Steelers go to the mat and re-prove Tomlins oft-repeated line of We dont care where you come from. Trautman might be that player this year. The Steelers need a tight end who can block. Vance McDonald is on club option years. Nick Vannett is a free agent. Zach Gentry  the teams fifth-round pick at the position last year  still has to prove he can be an NFL blocker. Pittsburgh will want competition, if nothing else, at the position and Trautman has reportedly shown signs of being able to provide as much. He also caught two passes for 10 yards on Saturday.

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PARK CITY, Utah - Since losing the 2016 election to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has released a memoir about that defeat, launched a political action committee and penned another book about gutsy women with her daughter, Chelsea. But Clintons most prominent return to the public eye has come at the Sundance Film Festival, where the former Secretary of State unveiled a candid four-hour documentary series, Hillary.

Clinton is aware that some thought she would slink away after 2016.

Yes, they did, didnt they? Clinton said in an interview in Park City. Well, that was never an option.

Nanette Bursteins Hillary, which Hulu will debut March 6, is a more direct and long-form portrait of Clinton than has ever been done on camera. You might say its a bid for Clinton to reassert her legacy, to tell the story of a career and life that, she feels, has often been distorted by scrutiny, notoriety and scandal.

Still, Clinton isnt ready to contemplate her legacy. What she does think is important is situating her story in a larger narrative.

What Nanette does really well is to place my story in the larger arc of womens lives, womens history, womens movement, and also the political system, said Clinton, speaking alongside Burstein. It seems to me that part of the reason I became controversial is because I was thrust into the public spotlight as a different kind of first lady.

And particularly when I took on the work of health care reform, trying to get us to universal, affordable health care, I was being burned in effigy, which I had forgotten, Clinton said. But she found footage of it, which says more about the times and the expectations about what women and certainly first ladies should or shouldnt do.

Clintons return to the spotlight, in the midst of a competitive Democratic primary, has already caused waves. In the documentary, she disparages Sen. Bernie Sanders, saying, Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. Its a small moment -- 15 seconds, Clinton points out -- from some 35 hours of conversation recorded more than a year ago when she wasnt thinking about the 2020 election. She was thinking about the 2016 election.

I will do whatever I can to support that person, because that wasnt my experience in 2016, says Clinton, adding that she will absolutely endorse a Democratic candidate at some point.

Though Clinton stumped for Barack Obama after he won the nomination on delegates (but, Clinton reminds, not in votes), Sanders support for Clinton, she feels, was minimal after their race.

That didnt happen in 2016, said Clinton. And Im just trying to sound the alarm that we need to unify if were going to defeat Donald Trump and what he stands for and the danger he poses to undoing so much of what we as a nation have achieved through lots of struggle over 235 years.

That Sanders has become the most headline-grabbing part of Hillary is ironic. For Burstein, one of the focal points of Hillary is to not only represent Clinton as a human being, rather than a political caricature, but to contextualize her, and the polarizing effect she has inspired, in the politics of gender.

There is this criticism that shes always known and calculated that shes going to be president. Which, A, is not a bad thing, and, B, is actually not true, Burstein said. There is an interview in the film with one of her colleagues at Yale Law School who says in in the early 70s the idea that a woman could be president was just so off the radar.

At Sundance, Clinton has been a regular presence. She attended the premiere of the Jamal Khasshoggi documentary The Dissident, which she calls terrific. Experiencing a film festival, she says, has been thrilling.

But Clintons mind is mainly on the upcoming election. One of her chief concerns is that the vote wont be carried out properly.

It is a concern because once the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, they took away one of the most useful tools for holding states and local jurisdictions accountable for what they did around elections, Clinton said. And I was the first candidate running for president on the Democratic side who faced both the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and Citizens United. So I saw firsthand the concerted effort to purge voters and suppress voters. Thats still going on.

Clinton, who beat Trump in the popular vote, favours the abolition of the Electoral College. The person who gets the most votes should win, she said. The Electoral College is an anachronism that foils the rights of the majority of Americans to choose our leaders.

Clinton also cited the role of social media platforms and, in particular, Facebook, in a potential repeat of Russian interference.

The attacks on the fundamental right to vote and run our elections free from illegal, unconstitutional and certainly foreign interference is going to be even more sophisticated today than it was four years ago, Clinton said.

But Clinton does think some things have changed in the last four years, especially for Trump.

I think theres a story now to be told. Before he was a blank slate. He was a guy that people saw on their TVs. As you know, he was a reality TV star, Clinton said. Now I think theres a record that hes going to have to be held accountable for.

In Hillary, all questions were on the table, Burstein says. Clinton grants that Hillary isnt something she ever expected to do.

I am a little bit surprised to be sitting here talking about a documentary of four hours about my life and my times, said Clinton, laughing. But Im really glad I did it. I am incredibly grateful. But I also think a lot of whats in it is relevant to today.
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In the 17th century, famed astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei is said to have climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa and dropped two different-sized cannonballs. He was trying to demonstrate his theory  which Albert Einstein later updated and added to his theory of relativity  that objects fall at the same rate regardless of their size.

Now, after spending two years dropping two objects of different mass into a free fall in a satellite, a group of scientists has concluded that Galileo and Einstein were right: The objects fell at a rate that was within two-trillionths of a percent of each other, according to a new study.

This effect has been confirmed time and time again, as has Einstein's theory of relativity  yet scientists still aren't convinced that there isn't some kind of exception somewhere. "Scientists have always had a difficult time actually accepting that nature should behave that way," said senior author Peter Wolf, research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research's Paris Observatory.

Related: 8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life

That's because there are still inconsistencies in scientists' understanding of the universe.

"Quantum mechanics and general relativity, which are the two basic theories all of physics is built on today ...are still not unified," Wolf told Live Science. What's more, although scientific theory says the universe is made up mostly of dark matter and dark energy , experiments have failed to detect these mysterious substances.

"So, if we live in a world where there's dark matter around that we can't see, that might have an influence on the motion of [objects]," Wolf said. That influence would be "a very tiny one," but it would be there nonetheless. So, if scientists see test objects fall at different rates, that "might be an indication that we're actually looking at the effect of dark matter," he added.

Wolf and an international group of researchers  including scientists from France's National Center for Space Studies and the European Space Agency  set out to test Einstein and Galileo's foundational idea that no matter where you do an experiment, no matter how you orient it and what velocity you're moving at through space, the objects will fall at the same rate.

The researchers put two cylindrical objects  one made of titanium and the other platinum  inside each other and loaded them onto a satellite. The orbiting satellite was naturally "falling" because there were no forces acting on it, Wolf said. They suspended the cylinders within an electromagnetic field and dropped the objects for 100 to 200 hours at a time.

From the forces the researchers needed to apply to keep the cylinders in place inside the satellite, the team deduced how the cylinders fell and the rate at which they fell, Wolf said.

And, sure enough, the team found that the two objects fell at almost exactly the same rate, within two-trillionths of a percent of each other. That suggested Galileo was correct. What's more, they dropped the objects at different times during the two-year experiment and got the same result, suggesting Einstein's theory of relativity was also correct.

Their test was an order of magnitude more sensitive than previous tests. Even so, the researchers have published only 10% of the data from the experiment, and they hope to do further analysis of the rest.

Not satisfied with this mind-boggling level of precision, scientists have put together several new proposals to do similar experiments with two orders of magnitude greater sensitivity, Wolf said. Also, some physicists want to conduct similar experiments at the tiniest scale, with individual atoms of different types, such as rubidium and potassium, he added.

The findings were published Dec. 2 in the journal Physical R eview Letters .

Originally published on Live Science .
Hailing the accord signed with Bodo groups on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it would usher in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness and that those associated with armed resistance groups would now enter the mainstream and contribute to the nation's progress.

He said the accord will lead to transformative results for Bodos as it successfully brings together leading stakeholders under one framework and would help Bodo people get access to development-oriented initiatives.

"Ushering in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness! Today is a very special day for India. The Accord with Bodo groups, which has been inked today will lead to transformative results for the Bodo people," the prime minister said on Twitter.

He said the accord stands out for many reasons as it successfully brings together the leading stakeholders under one framework.

"Those who were previously associated with armed resistance groups will now be entering the mainstream and contributing to our nation's progress," he said.

In a series of tweets, the prime minister said the accord with Bodo groups will further protect and popularise the unique culture of the Bodo people.

"They will get access to a wide range of development oriented initiatives. We are committed to doing everything possible to help the Bodo people realise their aspirations," he said.

The government on Monday signed an accord with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam, providing political and economic bonanza sans a separate state or Union Territory.

The All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state since 1972, and another group called United Bodo People's Organisation were also signatories to the accord.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tighter quarantine system crucial to fighting new virus



Health authorities across the world are on high alert as a viral epidemic originating in China is spreading at an alarming pace. More than 2,790 people have been infected globally with the new coronavirus since the first case was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, last month. Most of the cases  2,744 as of Monday  occurred in 30 Chinese provinces, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The death toll in China has jumped to 81, with 76 in Hubei, which has reported 1,423 confirmed patients.



Concern is growing that the virus could spread more rapidly not only in China, but also throughout the world. Thailand has reported eight confirmed cases, followed by five in the United States and four each in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. France and Japan have reported three cases each, Vietnam, two, and Nepal and Canada, one each.



South Korea is no exception. On Monday, the country reported its fourth confirmed case of the virus. A 55-year-old Korean man, who returned from Wuhan last week, tested positive for the new strain of the virus, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The country's first case was reported on Jan. 20 when a Chinese woman from Wuhan was diagnosed with the pneumonia-like illness. Two other patients were Korean men in their 50s.



Now at stake is whether the Moon Jae-in administration can mobilize all possible means to prevent the further spread of the virus here. The government plans to designate all of China, including the virus epicenter of Wuhan, as a "coronavirus risk area" subject to tougher quarantine rules starting Tuesday. President Moon ordered a thorough check on all travelers arriving from Wuhan. The country raised its alert level one notch to "orange," the second highest; and is seeking to send a chartered flight to the Chinese city as early as Thursday to evacuate 500 to 600 South Koreans from it.



No one can overemphasize the importance of an early response to an epidemic outbreak. However, the Chinese authorities appear to have failed to contain the highly contagious virus in the early stages. Of course, it is very difficult to detect an outbreak quickly  the problem is that many patients show no symptoms during the incubation period that can last about 14 days.



China has  somewhat belatedly  imposed travel restrictions and other stricter measures, including the lockdown of Wuhan and 16 surrounding cities to check the spread of the virus during the Lunar New Year holiday when hundreds of millions of Chinese usually travel to their hometown or abroad.



As President Xi Jinping pointed out, the virus outbreak has created a grave situation. The Wuhan virus knows no borders in this globalized world. That's why Beijing should step up international cooperation in the fight against the virus. The World Health Organization said that the outbreak was not yet a global emergency although it was an emergency for China. But it is not the time for complacency as it is feared the virus could find its way into many other countries unless proper precautions are taken.



There is neither a vaccine nor an effective cure for the virus. So the best option is to put in place early detection and a tighter quarantine system. The government alone cannot win the battle against the virus as seen in the case of the 2002-03 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). People should join the battle by following personal hygiene rules faithfully. It is also necessary to minimize the potential fallout of the epidemic on the economy.


BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

No country has ever thought that Iran would survive so much pressure, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani said at a meeting of the governors of Iranian provinces, Trend reports citing IRIB.

Everybody, including both Iran's friends and the countries that do not have good relations with Iran, expected that Iran would not resist more than a couple of months, Rouhani said.

It's a difficult period for Iran, as the country has been facing the worst economic, political and propaganda pressures for two years, the president stressed.

Rouhani noted that the pressure on the Iranian people is greater now than ever.

The US imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 and expanded the list of sanctions in several stages. The sanctions have had huge negative impact on Iran's economy.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - In a new report released in July 2019, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN Human Rights Office said airstrikes in Libya killed at least 53 migrants and refugees at the Tajoura detention centre, one of the bloodiest incidents since hostilities began in April 2019
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
In the White House's Green Room, President Donald Trump lavished praise on a longtime supporter and friend: billionaire investor Stephen Schwarzman, who was at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. that day to celebrate the signing of the "phase one" trade deal with China.

In the ornate parlor, Trump dubbed the financier "the great Steve Schwarzman" and Schwarzman responded in kind, thanking the president and calling the Jan. 15 signing of the deal "an important day."

But over the next several months, the two allies could find themselves at odds over an obscure piece of legislation that may prove instrumental to the president establishing his populist bona fides on the campaign trail, and could cost Schwarzman millions of dollars: surprise medical billing.

The term refers to a problem that policymakers say is becoming increasingly more common: patients receiving bills for medical procedures months later and learning that they aren't covered by insurance.

Putting an end to surprise medical billing is one of the White House's top health-care priorities this spring, along with cutting prescription drug prices.

But the policy push could put Trump at odds with his longtime friend and advisor. The White House declined to comment for this article.

Blackstone Group owns a company called TeamHealth, a physician practice firm that specializes in emergency medicine. The company, which was purchased by Blackstone in a deal valued at $6.1 billion in 2016, has been criticized for sending its own "surprise" bills to patients who received emergency care outside of their insurance plan.

TeamHealth and another firm, Envision Healthcare, spent more than $28 million on an ad campaign last year fighting legislation to end surprise medical billing  without disclosing who was paying for the ads, The New York Times reported.

The ad campaign was sponsored by a group called "Doctor Patient Unity," and said big insurance companies have a "scheme to profit from patient's pain" through rate setting. Blackstone Group opposes one of the bills making its way through Congress that would set payments from insurers at a certain level.

At the White House, officials worry that patients are increasingly getting walloped by surprise medical bills. Standing up for voters who are grappling with high medical bills also plays well at the polls.

Blackstone says it supports ending surprise medical billing, and is backing one of several proposals now working its way through the House.

"Blackstone's portfolio company TeamHealth fully supports federal legislation to end surprise medical bills through an approach called independent arbitration, which has proven successful at the state level and has wide, bi-partisan support in Congress," said a spokesman for the firm. "The company also has a long-standing policy against balance billing patients."

But it's not clear that the Trump administration will end up backing the position supported by Schwarzman's firm. Arbitration is just one option being discussed on the Hill, the other is a "benchmark" proposal that is sometimes referred to as "rate setting" and would limit fees.

A senior administration official told CNBC that both Schwartzman's preferred option and the benchmarking idea his firm has lobbied against are under consideration.

"We continue to have discussions with the Hill regarding several options including a market based benchmark and arbitration," the official said, adding that arbitration was not the White House's "originally preferred" policy outcome. "We have concerns about the overuse of arbitration and will be closely monitoring any changes to the legislation," the official said.

Blackstone's critics say the arbitration compromise the firm is backing tilts too far toward doctors and hospitals  and therefore would be the most favorable to Blackstone's company of any of the measures gathering steam on Capitol Hill.

A spokesman for TeamHealth dismissed an alternate compromise provision focused on "rate setting" as overly beneficial to large insurance companies.

"Big insurance companies have spent $74 million lobbying Congress for a rate setting law that would be a huge financial benefit to them while harming patients and their ability to see a doctor," he said. "Rate setting stalled because surprise medical bills can't be fixed with doctor shortages, hospital closures, and loss of access to care."

A senior Democratic aide said the surprise-billing legislation  whatever form it takes  is one of just a small number of items with bipartisan support that could survive an election year and impeachment politics and get signed into law.

"The question is whose ox is getting gored, and in what quantity," said the aide, who didn't want to be identified discussing political strategy. "There is a general interest in getting it done."

All that sets up an unusual political dynamic: Aides for Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could end up working on the same side of the debate, while Trump splits from his ally Schwartzman.

Still, there's a general wariness on the part of Hill Democrats of dealing with the volatile and unpredictable Trump White House, and a suspicion that the president may switch sides even as the bill is still moving.

"Nobody has any illusions about the nature of this White House," the senior Democratic aide said. "There's not a lot of faith to be put into staff pronouncements of where Trump is."

House aides expect to mark up surprise medical billing legislation in February ahead of a May 22 deadline for the expiration of various so-called health extenders provisions that impact Medicare and Medicaid that were passed in the end-of-the-year spending bill.

As for Schwarzman himself, there's no word on whether he discussed surprise billing with anyone at the White House during his recent visit.
New Delhi: The Uttar Police Police claimed to have solved the murder of businessman Gaurav Chandel following the arrest of a sharp-shooter of the notorious 'Mirchi' Gang operating in the western region of the state.

According to the police, the accused, identified as Umesh, was nabbed after a brief encounter with the joint team of Noida Special Task Force and Hapur Police on Sunday. The police also seized the pistol recovered from him. In the meantime, the Hapur Police is looking for his associate, Aashu, who is currently on the run.

During the interrogation, the accused told the police that the Mirchi gang was also involved in the murder of a BJP leader some time back, said an IANS report.

Chandel, a Noida's Gaur City resident, was murdered after being robbed of his mobile phone, laptop and car, near his house in Greater Noida on January 7. The deceased used to work at a private firm in Gurugram and his body was found near sector-123 of Greater Noida.

The family of the deceased later alleged that when they went to the police to lodge the missing complaint, they found policemen sleeping, who then asked them to come again next morning after 10 am. The family claimed that they found the body of Chandel dumped on the street in Greater Noida region near 4 a.m.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had extended financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to Chandel's family and promised the early arrest of his murderers.
Fine Gaels approach to the 2020 election campaign has been dismissed as project fear by the partys lead opponents, who have described it as the sign of a party becoming increasingly desperate.

No matter what we say they will attack us, Fianna Fails finance spokesman Michael McGrath said this morning. They have clearly chosen to play the man and not the ball.

They say we are reckless, and not fit for office, then the next day they say they want to go into Government with us, he said.

Mr McGrath was speaking, along with Offaly TD Robert Troy, at his partys insurance policy launch in Dublin.

Fine Gael have, Mr Troy said, kicked the issue of exorbitant insurance premiums across industry to the long grass.

There has been a completely hands off approach by Cabinet, Mr McGrath said, citing the fact that Michael DArcy, the minister with responsibility for insurance reform, does not hold senior office.

We know from parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests that there was no direct interaction with the insurance industry, he said.

His party has now pledged to fully establish the nascent Judicial Council in order to provide guidance on personal injury claims, and reform the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) in order to make it an offence not to comply with it.

The party also pledged to establish a publicly funded Garda Fraud Unit, to publish insurance fraud data, and to work to remove dual pricing from the market, a trend which Mr McGrath described as simply not fair.

Most of the announcements were relatively light on detail, with the major thrust of the presentation being that an elected Fianna Fail Government will prioritise the insurance crisis where the current administration has not.

We will have a determined focus, and a Cabinet and ministers willing to get their hands dirty.

Mr McGrath said that, should his party be elected, it would immediately call a crisis summit as a matter of priority to discuss the issues facing the sector.

It is vital that we get a hold of data and put an actual cost on liability in Ireland, he said.

However, much of the conference was taken up by comparisons with Fine Gaels record in Government, and in rebutting accusations that have been made regarding the perceived lack of detail in Fianna Fails proposals.

On that subject, Mr McGrath said that his partys manifesto, released last Friday, is fully costed, and that the detailed tables demonstrating same will be released on Tuesday.

He was less willing to be drawn as to what kind of Government Fianna Fail will actually be in a position to form, given it has ruled out any sort of coalition with either Fine Gael or Sinn Fein despite those options would appear to offer the most stable alternative administration.

That issue was drawn into focus by a tweet from the Taoiseach this morning who suggested that the possibility of Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail working together has been whispered privately and not so privately for months within the party.

Mr McGrath however resisted repeated questioning asking for clarity on the matter.

The message were getting from the public is that they want a change in Government. We want to lead that Government. We have 84 candidates, and every one of them believes they have a chance of being elected, he said.
A teenage boy has been suspended from school and told he will not be walking at his graduation because of his haircut.

DeAndre Arnold, 18, from Texas, was told his dreadlocks violated the dress code and was given an ultimatum  cut them off or miss walking across the stage with his peers.

The policy at Barbers Hill High School prohibits hair that touches the collar, ears or in the face, and he was told to change it over the Christmas break if he wanted to come back to school.

But, DeAndres mum claims his hair doesnt break the policy as he always has it tied up.



After multiple meetings with school officials and an unfair ultimatum, DeAndre told KRIV he decided not to cut his hair and was punished with in-school suspension.

It was only at this point that DeAndre was given the news that he wouldnt be able to walk the stage with his peers at his graduation unless his abided by the school dress code.

And DeAndre family stands by his decision, insisting that he will not be cutting his hair too.

DeAndres father is Trinidadian, so hair is at the forefront of his culture and heritage.

Gary Monroe of the United Urban Alumni Association also said: DeAndre [and] his family should not have to go through this. But I expect it from a board that has zero diversity.

Both the school board and Greg Poole, superintendent, refused the appeal and claimed that their issue hasnt been raised against DeAndres dreadlocks, but the length of them.

Greg claimed: There is no dress code policy that prohibits any cornrow or any other method of wearing of the hair. Our policy limits the length. Its been that way for 30 years.

But DeAndre isnt giving up there. With the help of his supporters and family, theyre planning to take the school board to the federal court with 48 hours if they do not offer a solution.

DeAndres father said: I wont stand for anybody bullying my child. He has rights. All he wants to do is graduate.

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The makers of Deepika Padukone-starrer 'Chhapaak', based on acid attack survivor Laxmi Aggarwal, told the Delhi High Court on Monday that the victim's lawyer was given credit in the film screened in Indian theatres.

However, the lawyer was not given credit in the international releases of the movie as the filmmakers thought it had to be done here only.

The submission was made before Justice Najmi Waziri on behalf of the film's director Meghna Gulzar and producer Fox Star Studios against whom contempt proceedings have been moved for violation of the court's direction to give credit to Aggarwal's advocate -- Aparna Bhat -- in the movie which released on January 10.

The lawyers appearing for Gulzar and Fox Star told the court they will take instructions on a possible solution and the court, thereafter, listed the matter for hearing on January 29.

The court said if filmmakers have misconstrued its January 11 order, to give credit to Bhat for inputs she shared with them, it will be looked into and if required, they will have to make amends.

Justice Prathiba M Singh had on January 11 directed the film's director and producer to acknowledge the advocate in the opening credits by including the line "Inputs by Ms Aparna Bhat, the lawyer who represented Laxmi Agarwal, are acknowledged".

The lawyer has contended that the film was screened without complying with the direction and therefore, contempt of court proceedings be initiated against the filmmakers.

The January 11 order had come on a plea by Fox Star Studios challenging a trial court's order asking it to acknowledge the contribution of the advocate.

Since the movie had been released, the high court had directed that the film will not be shown in theatres with effect from January 15 without adding the credit line for advocate to digital copies.

In theatres where physical copies of the film were to be supplied by the producer, the changes had to be carried out with effect from January 18, it had said.

The film producer's advocate had said the trial court did not hear them before passing an order and an ad-interim ex-parte injunction was passed which is unusual.

The counsel for Bhat had said she had fought the case for Laxmi Agarwal pro-bono and was not seeking any publicity and she was approached by Gulzar to get some authenticity in the movie.

He had said that Bhat's assistance was based on her communication with Gulzar that her contribution would be acknowledged.

Bhat, in her plea before the trial court, had said that despite representing Laxmi in courts for several years and helping in the making of the film, she was not given credit in the movie.

She had said the filmmakers took her help in the entire process of writing and shooting the movie, but did not give her credit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As a responsible tour operator, we want to make sure porters are truly appreciated for all of the work they do. It is our duty to ensure that all porters are treated fairly, receive steady work and have safe working conditions. -Judi Wineland, Thomson Safaris co-founder

Thomson Safaris works with more than 750 porters, as it takes a crew of nearly half a dozen porters to accompany each individual climbing the mountain. The hard work and dedication of Thomsons porters has helped lead to a 98% summit rate for trekkers. On Thomson Safaris Porter Appreciation Week website, past guests share their Kilimanjaro stories and personal thank you notes to the porters who helped them every step of the way.

As a responsible tour operator, we want to make sure porters are truly appreciated for all of the work they do, Thomson Safaris co-founder Judi Wineland said. It is our duty to ensure that all porters are treated fairly, receive steady work and have safe working conditions.

As part of the weeklong campaign, Thomson Safaris will offer free rental gear (up to a $400 value) and a $100 donation to the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) for each trek booked within this week. KPAP is a non-profit dedicated to improving the working conditions of porters and promoting socially responsible Kilimanjaro climbs.

The Kilimanjaro tourism industry provides jobs and stable income to thousands, with many Tanzanians moving to the Kilimanjaro region to work as porters. The industry is also partially credited by the World Bank for the areas 100 percent school enrollment rate and 85 percent adult literacy rate.
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Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") acquires right to earn up to 50% interest in the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project for project level investment of CDN$20,000,000After earn-in and completion of feasibility study, JOGMEC provided right to acquire additional 1% interest in the Project for CDN$5,000,000 and to elect to exclusively fund development of the Project subject to Namibia Critical Metal's right to maintain a 26% carried interest in the ProjectNamibia Critical Metals to act as operator during earn-in period through to completion of Feasibility StudyHALIFAX, NS / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Namibia Critical Metals Inc. ("Namibia Critical Metals" or the "Company" or "NMI") (TSXV:NMI) today announced that it has signed an agreement with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") to jointly explore, develop, exploit, refine and/or distribute mineral products from the Company's 100% owned Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project ("Project") in northwestern Namibia. The agreement provides JOGMEC with the right to earn a 50% interest in the Project by funding $20,000,000 in exploration and development expenditures. Once JOGMEC has completed and exercised its 50% earn-in and a feasibility study has been completed on the Project, JOGMEC has the right to purchase an additional 1% interest in the Project from the Company for $5,000,000 and thereafter to exclusively provide funding to develop the Project subject to the Company's interest in the Project not being diluted below 26%. All amounts are in Canadian dollars.Pine van Wyk, Chief Executive Officer of Namibia Critical Metals stated "This partnership with JOGMEC brings strong technical and financial capacities to move the Lofdal project forward. It provides alignment with, and access to significant industrial groups in Japan looking to secure long-term supplies of dysprosium, terbium and other heavy rare earths. It should also be noted that this agreement is structured such that no equity will be issued and is totally non-dilutive to NMI shareholders. JOGMEC is mandated to seek a stable supply of natural resources for Japan and we are delighted that they have recognized the potential of Lofdal.Agreement DetailsThe agreement with JOGMEC contemplates that the Company's Lofdal rare earth project will be held in a subsidiary of the Company ("ProjectCo") and JOGMEC will have the right to earn up to a 50% interest in ProjectCo by contributing a total of $20,000,000 to exploration and development expenditures on the Project in three phases. JOGMEC has the right to accelerate funding at any point during the earn-in period.During the first term of the earn-in, JOGMEC will contribute $3,000,000 to ProjectCo to fund exploration expenditures on the Project during the period commencing on the effective date of the agreement and ending March 31, 2021. The first term funding amount is a firm non-refundable commitment by JOGMEC and JOGMEC earns no interest in ProjectCo for completing the first term expenditures.Upon completion of the first term expenditures, JOGMEC is entitled to elect to contribute $7,000,000 to ProjectCo to fund exploration expenditures on the Project during the second term period commencing on April 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2024.Upon completion of the second term expenditures, JOGMEC is entitled to receive 40% of the shares of ProjectCo and to elect to contribute $10,000,000 to ProjectCo to fund exploration expenditures on the Project during the third term period commencing on April 1, 2024 and ending March 31, 2028. If JOGMEC elects not to provide the third term funding, the Company has the right to acquire JOGMEC's 40% interest in ProjectCo for $7,000,000. Upon completion of the third term funding, JOGMEC is entitled to receive an additional 10% of the shares of ProjectCo.After completion of the earn in expenditures and a feasibility study on the Project, JOGMEC is entitled to increase its ownership in ProjectCo to 51% by acquiring an additional 1% of ProjectCo from the Company for $5,000,000. JOGMEC is also entitled to elect to exclusively fund development of the Project provided that the Company's interest will not be diluted below 26%. If JOGMEC has acquired the additional 1%, the Company will pay JOGMEC $5,000,000 for the dilution protection.Exploration programs and budgets will be approved by a management committee established by the parties and Namibia Critical Metals will undertake the exploration programs as operator for ProjectCo.Overview of the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth ProjectThe Lofdal Heavy Rare Earths Project is the most advanced project in the Company and comprises Exclusive Prospecting Licence ("EPL") 3400, located 450 kilometers northwest of the capital city of Windhoek, and approximately 25 kilometers northwest of the town of Khorixas in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia (Figure 1). EPL 3400 covers a total of 314 square kilometers centered on the Lofdal carbonatite complex which hosts a number of rare earth occurrences, including the Area 4 deposit.Figure 1 - Company project areas in Namibia highlighting location of the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project near KhorixasMineral Resources and Significance of Xenotime MineralizationCurrent mineral resources at the Area 4 deposit are estimated to be 2.88 Mt of Indicated mineral resources at a grade of 0.32% TREO1 yielding 9,230 t of REO, of which 7,050 t are estimated to be Heavy Rare Earth oxides ("HREO") and 3.28 Mt of Inferred mineral resources at a grade of 0.27% TREO yielding 8,970 t of REO, of which 6,700 t are estimated to be HREO1.1 "TREO" refers to total rare earth oxides; "HREO" refers to heavy rare earth oxides; "heavy rare earths" as used in all Company presentations comprise europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu) and yttrium (Y). Light rare earths comprise lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd) and samarium (Sm). "Heavy rare earth enrichment" is the ratio of HREO:TREO, expressed as a percentageMineralization at Area 4 is unique in that the rare earth mineralogy is dominated by the heavy rare earth mineral xenotime. Xenotime was the world's historic source of heavy rare earths, primarily derived from heavy mineral sands deposits and separated using classical solvent extraction
I have often had cause to think that there are few ills in my life that might not be eased by a trust fund. Not the sort of stonking stash of cash that might make a person fret about kidnapping, but a big comfy cushion; the sort of nest-feathering financial security that might allow you to knock off work at 10am to watch telly or go fly-fishing.

In the past, I have been very judgmental of the idle rich; my Scottish Presbyterian heritage chafes at the notion of non-working. But I suspect that with the right sort of financial inducement, I could reconcile myself to life among the leisure classes.

Fiction, however, offers stark warning that money does not confer happiness. Ann Patchetts most recent novel, The Dutch House, offers a 20th-century cautionary fairytale. Maeve and Danny are rich siblings, left by their mother with their distant father. Into their enchanting childhood home, the Dutch House, comes an evil stepmother and stepsisters, who gradually push them out. Even as adults, they are consumed by their desire to regain that lost childhood realm.

Patricia Nicol shared a selection of fascinating books featuring rich people including Villa America by Liza Klaussmann (pictured left) and Ann Patchetts The Dutch House (pictured right)

Villa America by Liza Klaussmann also makes a focal point of an exotic house; the French Riviera home of Sara and Gerald Butler, the wealthy Americans in exile who, in the 1920s, bankrolled the shenanigans of the Lost Generation of writers.

At their South of France holiday home, they hosted everyone from Hemingway to Cole Porter. F. Scott Fitzgerald partly modelled the doomed Divers in Tender Is The Night on the glamorous pair. Gilded and beautiful, they were also damned by personal misfortune.

Henry James and Edith Wharton wrote definitive novels about wealthy Americans being taken advantage of in Europe. Jamess The Wings Of The Dove is a heartbreaker. The beautiful, clever but poor Kate Croy speculatively encourages her lover, Merton Densher, to court dying American heiress Milly Theale. Duplicity and cupidity can have a souring effect though.

Maybe its not so bad to not have a steady stream of readies.
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Holocaust survivor Marian Turski, 93, said he would probably not live to mark another major anniversary at Auschwitz. So please forgive me that there will be some emotions in what Im going to say, he said, addressing the younger generations. He said that even though just 25 years had elapsed since World War I when the second broke out, it felt distant, and that he understands that young people today feel detached from the horrors of the Holocaust.
The storms began just as residents of Brumadinho, a town in the same state, gathered for the first anniversary of a dam break that left up to 270 dead. The fire department, which scrambled to help victims of the storm, is still looking for 11 people who went missing and are presumed dead after the dam burst, releasing an avalanche of mud.

A community activist in Brumadinho, Fernanda Perdigao de Oliveira, said she felt as if last years tragedy was happening all over again.

There were landslides in several roads, she said. Minas became a time bomb with these torrential rains.

Brumadinho is one of 120 towns that are now under a state of emergency because of the current storm, according to local fire departments.

The National Mining Agency said Monday that it demanded that companies in charge of the dams keep a close watch on them in Minas Gerais and three other states at least until Friday.
A small U.S. Air Force jet crashed Monday in Taliban-held territory in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, south of the capital. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board the plane, but an Afghan official said two pilots were found dead amid the wreckage.

Provincial government spokesman Arif Noori told CBS News' Ahmad Mukhtar the plane appeared to have been flying between the southern city of Kandahar and the capital Kabul, about 200 miles to the north. Ghazni province is between those two locations.

Noori said the bodies of two pilots were found at the crash site and that the plane was completely destroyed. He did not mention any other casualties.

ghazni-province.png

Map of map graphic highlighting Ghazni province in Afghanistan CBS News

A U.S. military official confirmed to CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin that an Air Force E-11 had crashed in Afghanistan. The official said the cause of the crash was still being investigated and he would not discuss the fate of the crew.

Unverified images from the crash site emerged on social media, showing the tail end of a destroyed jet bearing U.S. Air Force insignia.

The U.S. Air Force uses the E-11A, a twin-engine jet made by Bombardier, as a flying command and communications hub.

According to a 2018 article on the Air Force's website, 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron flies the jet out of Kandahar Airfield equipped with a "Battlefield Airborne Communications Node" (BACN).

BACN "is like Wi-Fi in the sky," In the article, Captain Jacob Breth, a pilot with the squadron, described the BACN as "like WiFi in the sky." The Air Force said the unit was developed "in direct response to communication shortfalls during" a 2005 joint U.S.-Afghan mission in Afghanistan, which became the storyline in the Hollywood movie "Lone Survivor."

us-plane-crash-afghanistan.jpg

An image taken from video posted online by a Taliban spokesman purportedly shows the wreckage of a U.S. Air Force E-11 communications aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan's Ghazni province on January 27, 2020.

Story continues

The Taliban claimed it had downed the plane soon after the images surfaced suggesting it was a U.S. aircraft, but the insurgent group has previously tried to take ownership of events it actually had nothing to do with.

Ariana Afghan Airlines, the country's state-owned flagship carrier, was forced to issue a statement strongly denying multiple earlier reports  including from Afghan government officials  that one of its planes had come down.

"All of Ariana Afghan flights are operating normally" the airline said in a post to its Facebook page.

Afghanistan's Civil Aviation Authority also said in a Facebook post that it had received no reports of a civilian airliner going down.

Meadows: Republicans would face "political repercussions" for breaking with Trump during trial

Minnesota begins early voting under new system

Giuliani denies knowing Parnas and Fruman at time of 2018 video
Your bone marrow produces about 500 billion new blood cells every single day - roughly equivalent to the number of stars thought to be in the Milky Way. Being so prolific, however, comes with a price: medical interventions that aim to disrupt cell growth and differentiation, such as chemotherapies and radiation, can hit the bone marrow extremely hard, causing serious side effects like anemia, severe bleeding, and increased infections. Efforts to understand and reduce bone marrow toxicity have been hampered by the marrow's inaccessible location, as the only way to effectively study living marrow tissue in humans is to take invasive, painful biopsies from patients' bones.

Now, a new organ-on-a-chip (Organ Chip) technology advance from the lab of Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University opens a window into this understudied field: a Human Bone Marrow Chip that effectively replicates drug- and radiation-induced toxicity responses observed in human patients at clinically relevant doses. The chip also replicated blood cell formation defects seen in patients with a rare genetic disorder, and correctly predicted the existence of a previously unknown abnormality in the marrow of those patients. The research, which was carried out in collaboration with investigators at Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and AstraZeneca, is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

"Traditional in vitro cultures of bone marrow cells often do not predict how our bone marrow behaves when exposed to hematotoxic drugs, even when those cultures are treated at concentrations and timeframes that match those experienced by actual patients," said co-first author David Chou, M.D., Ph.D., a Clinical Fellow at the Wyss Institute and in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (HMS). "Unlike classic culture methods, the Bone Marrow Chip provides a more physiologically accurate microenvironment and allows dynamic drug dosing, which may explain why our model was a better predictor of drug-induced toxicity responses."

Building better bone marrow

The Bone Marrow Chip emerged from work co-funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which wanted a tool to study the effects of acute radiation syndrome on bone marrow, and the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Ingber's team had developed an earlier version of the Bone Marrow Chip with support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which they integrated into a multi-Organ Chip human "Body-on-Chips" platform that quantitatively predicts human drug pharmacokinetics in vitro and is described in two separate articles in the same issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The Bone Marrow Chip is USB-sized and made of clear silicone rubber, with two hollow, parallel channels separated by a permeable membrane. The top channel is filled with human patient-derived bone marrow progenitor cells (CD34+ cells) and bone-marrow-derived stromal cells embedded in a matrix gel to mimic the three-dimensional nature of marrow tissue, while the lower channel is lined with human endothelial cells to mimic the blood vessels that permeate the marrow. A liquid medium that supports the growth of CD34+ cells and their differentiation into a plethora of different blood cell types is flowed through the vascular channel to feed the bone marrow cells and remove waste.

The researchers cultured the Bone Marrow Chip for up to 28 days, and compared the state of the cells in the chip with CD34+ cells that were grown either in static suspension cultures or static gel cultures in a plate at multiple timepoints. The Bone Marrow Chip improved the survival of the CD34+ progenitor cells and supported the growth and differentiation of neutrophils (white blood cells) and erythrocytes (red blood cells) over a longer time period than the other two methods. In addition, some of the more mature neutrophils migrated from the marrow channel into the vascular channel of the chip, which mimics the behavior of these cells in living marrow.

Demystifying drug toxicity

Having confirmed that the Bone Marrow Chip recapitulates the growth, maturation, and migration of bone marrow cells observed in vivo, the team next tested whether it could predict drug-induced bone marrow toxicities more accurately than static suspension or gel cultures. They grew bone marrow cells for 10-12 days using all three methods, then exposed them for two days to a range of concentrations of the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil, which is known to cause bone marrow toxicity. The Bone Marrow Chip displayed the expected damage and death of bone marrow cells at patient-relevant concentrations and exposure times, while the other culture methods required much higher, potentially unsafe drug levels before displaying toxicity behavior.

To see if its predictive power would prove useful for preclinical drug safety testing, the researchers next exposed the Bone Marrow Chip to an AstraZeneca drug candidate, AZD2811, that is currently in Phase II clinical development for the potential treatment of cancer. In previous Phase I trials, when administered as a pro-drug, a 2-hour infusion producing a high peak concentration of AZD2811 caused a decrease in both red and white blood cells, while a 48-hour infusion producing a lower concentration caused a bigger drop in white blood cell counts but, surprisingly, had no significant effect on red blood cells. The Wyss team was able to precisely replicate the clinical trial patients' drug exposure profiles (pharmacokinetics) on the Bone Marrow Chip, and saw that the chips displayed the expected clinical results while suspension cultures of the same cells did not.

The team also used the Bone Marrow Chip to investigate AZD2811's mechanism of action, which would be difficult to study in human patients without performing a bone marrow biopsy soon after drug infusion. They observed that exposure to AZD2811 selectively decreased the numbers of immature dividing blood cell precursors while the numbers of more mature red and white blood cells were essentially unchanged, which confirmed a preexisting hypothesis about how the drug affects bone marrow cells.

The chips were then exposed to ionizing gamma-radiation similar to what cancer patients can be exposed to during radiation therapy, which is another potential cause of bone marrow damage, and they once again displayed the appropriate toxicity at human-relevant radiation doses. These results highlight how the Bone Marrow Chip could be used to study the effects of radiation on human bone marrow as well as search for novel ways to mitigate radiation-induced injury, which the Wyss team is currently exploring.

"Not only does the Bone Marrow Chip match and predict the effects of drugs and radiation on human bone marrow, it also enables detailed studies into the physiology of cells that are healthy versus cells that are damaged. This new method could become an important tool in preclinical testing because it could significantly reduce our reliance on animal models, which often fail to detect and predict side effects, are notoriously expensive, and raise ethical questions," said co-first author Viktoras Frismantas, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute. "We could even study a complete cycle of human bone marrow injury and recovery in response to drugs, which is not possible in alternative in vitro model systems or in animal models.

"Organ Chip technology has the potential to enhance and accelerate our ability to translate science into innovative medicines for patients," said Stefan Platz, Senior Vice President of Clinical Pharmacology and Safety Sciences, R&D at AstraZeneca. "Our collaborative work with the Wyss Institute highlights the potential of human Bone Marrow Chips to mimic both disease and drug-related injury. The ability to efficiently use human cells rather than animal models offers numerous benefits, both in terms of translatability to the clinic and reduction of animal usage. This publication represents an important milestone in demonstrating how these systems can accurately predict clinical effects."

A subtle finding in a rare disease

To round out their studies, the researchers looked at whether Bone Marrow Chips created using bone marrow cells from children with a known genetic disorder developed characteristics similar to those found in real bone marrow from patients with the same deficiency. They focused on Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SDS), a rare disease that is caused by a genetic mutation that results in bone marrow failure with abnormally low cell counts, especially reduced white blood cells, and which has not been well-studied given its low incidence and because animal models fail to reproduce the known hallmarks of human disease.

The team cultured CD34+ cells from two SDS patients with normal bone-marrow-derived stromal cells and endothelial cells in the Bone Marrow Chips for two weeks, and saw that these produced much fewer blood cells and showed reduced white blood cell maturation compared to chips with CD34+ cells from healthy donors, much as occurs in patients. They also discovered that neutrophils maturing in the SDS Bone Marrow Chips did not upregulate the gene that produces the protein CD13 as much as neutrophils maturing in normal Bone Marrow Chips, which had not been previously noted in SDS patients. The researchers then reviewed clinical data from bone marrow samples taken from patients with SDS and found that 50% of them displayed this aberrant pattern of lower CD13 expression discovered in the Bone Marrow Chip.

"This finding opens up new avenues of investigation into the causes of bone marrow failure," said co-author Akiko Shimamura, M.D., Ph.D., who is a Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Director of the Bone Marrow Failure and Myelodysplastic Syndrome Programs at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. "The development of this novel bone marrow failure model provides a platform to test new therapies for these devastating diseases."

The team of researchers and clinicians is continuing to work with its collaborators on the Bone Marrow Chip. They are studying the biological differences between red and white blood cells' responses to AZD2811 and are evaluating whether the chip can be used to develop well-tolerated dosing regimens. They have also received additional funding from the FDA to use this model to search for novel countermeasures to enhance bone marrow recovery after radiation exposure, and to explore sex-specific responses.

"This collaboration between biologists, engineers, and clinicians across the Wyss Institute's consortium of institutions, and with experts in industry and government, demonstrates the kinds of advances in medicine that can be made when organizations that have a common goal contribute their respective expertise and talents to meet that challenge," said Ingber, who is the Wyss Institute's Founding Director, Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at HMS and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "With this model in hand that can also replicate patient-specific marrow responses, we are in a position to assist in the design of human clinical trials for rare genetic disorders and advance personalized medicine in ways not possible before."

###

Additional paper authors include former Wyss Institute members Yuka Milton, Liliana Moreira Teixeira, Arianna Rech, Sasan Jalili-Firoozinezhad, Carlos Ng, Youngjae Choe, and Oren Levy; current Wyss Institute members Susan Clauson, Richard Novak, Rachelle Prantil-Baun, Amanda Jiang, Elizabeth Calamari, Brooke Furlong, and Lucy O'Sullivan; Rhiannon David, Petar Pop-Damkov, Douglas Ferguson, Alexander MacDonald from AstraZeneca; Lorna Ewart formerly at AstraZeneca; O?zge Vargel Bo?lu?kbas?? from the Dana Farber/Boston Children's Center and Blood Disorders Center; Cailin Joyce and Carl Novina from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School; Kasiani Myers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital; Olga Weinberg from Boston Children's Hospital; and Robert Hasserjian from Massachusetts General Hospital.

This research was supported by the US FDA; DARPA; AstraZeneca; the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering; the National Institutes of Health under award numbers r24dk99808, 5u01hl134812, r01dk102165, and 5t32ca009216-37; the US Department of Defense under Award No. W81XWH-14-1-0124; Dana-Farber Cancer Center; and the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine.
Dr. Paul Jones allegedly used his own sperm instead of anonymous donors' sperm while performing artificial inseminations

The Colorado fertility doctor being sued for allegedly using his own sperm to artificially inseminate patients is claiming the women don't have a case because they asked for - and received - sperm from an anonymous donor.

Court documents obtained by the Daily Sentinel showed that lawyers for former fertility doctor, Dr. Paul Jones, have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that his patients and their families filed against him in October 2019.

At least six families filed the lawsuit against Jones - who practiced at Grand Junction, Colorado's Women's Health Care of Western Colorado - claiming negligence and fraud over the fact that he allegedly used his own sperm in their successful artificial insemination procedures between 1975 to 1989.

The lawsuit against Jones was raised after a series of strangers were shown to be close, familial matches after being linked in DNA testing service databases. It's claimed that Jones is the half-siblings' biological father.

Jones' court documents - which were filed on December 27, 2019 - did not include a denial that Jones had used his own sperm in the infertility treatments.

At least six families have sued Jones (pictured here in October 2019) claiming negligence and fraud over the procedures which occurred between 1975 and 1989

Sisters Maia Boring (left) and Tahnee Scott (right) discovered they had at least eight other half siblings after doing an at home DNA test. Jones was allegedly their shared father

Childhood pictures show Maia (left in polka dots) and Tahnee (right in yellow), and Maia holding baby Tahnee. Their mother turned to Jones for artificial insemination after her husband suffered testicular cancer

Instead, Jones' lawyers argued that the mothers 'ignore they sought Jones' assistance to obtain artificial insemination by anonymous donor... this is what Mothers received.'

Jones' lawyers also wrote that the 'Mothers have not plausibly alleged a breach of the professional services Jones was enlisted to provide.'

They also argued 'that all mothers asked for anonymous donation, and all mothers received anonymous donation.'

His lawyers also said that the medical negligence claims were invalid because there were 'no facts regarding how Jones failed to use a professional degree of care, skill, caution, diligence and foresight.'

The families also sued the clinic where Jones worked at the time the women were allegedly impregnated with his sperm for negligent misrepresentation, fraud and breach of contract.

Lawyers for the Womens Health Care of Western Colorado said in their response to the suit that because the families were unaware of their sperm donors' identity for more than 20 years, the sperm donation was, in fact, 'anonymous' according to the word's dictionary definition.

Jones carried out the artificial inseminations while working at Womens Health Care of Western Colorado in Grand Junction, Colorado (pictured)

The lawyers included the Merriam-Webster definitions of the word as being 'of unknown authorship or origin' and 'not named or identified.'

And, because the mothers were unaware of who the sperm donor was during the procedures, there was no breach of contract, Women's Health Care's lawyers argued.

The families' lawyer, Patrick Fitz-Gerald, told the Daily Sentinel that they 'don't believe' that the sperm donor was anonymous because that anonymity should flow both ways.

Not only should the mothers be kept in the dark about the identity of the donors, but the donors should not know who the mothers and the children are.

'Jones knew these were his children and, in some cases, even treated them,' Fitz-Gerald said.

Jones' lawyers said that the doctor had 'an obligation to conceal' the identify of the sperm donor because the mothers themselves had asked the donor to be anonymous.

Consequently, Jones 'cannot fraudulently conceal that same information' as the mothers 'admit that they chose ignorance of the facts they now allege were concealed.'

Expiration of the statute of limitations was also listed among the reasons for dismissing the former patients' case against Jones.

Jones' lawyers said that the Colorado Revised Statute for health care professionals provides a two-year statute of limitations for 'actions alleging negligence, breach of contract, lack of informed consent or other action.'

Jones said the first allegation in the lawsuit was over a procedure carried out in 1975 and the last occurred in 1989, and that the 'Mothers could have pursued the identity of their childrens natural father, had they wanted the information' up until two years after the birth of their children 'in order to have preserved a claim.'

The families' lawyer, Fitz-Gerald, said that the statue of limitations hasn't ended because the DNA matches were only recently discovered.

When asked about whether he had used his own sperm during artificial inseminations he carried out, Jones, then 80, told 9 News in October that, 'I don't deny it. I don't admit it' and said it was 'Because I don't want to have any incriminating evidence against me.'

Sisters Maia Boring and Tahnee Scott were among the children born via anonymous sperm donor that turned out to have been allegedly fathered by Jones.

Their mother, Cheryl Emmons, told 9 News that she and her husband, John Emmons, had turned to Jones for the artificial insemination procedure after John suffered testicular cancer.

'I really thought he was doing a good thing for me and my sweet husband,' Cheryl said, adding the Jones even helped deliver the girls and took picture of the happy family in the delivery room.
There seems to be new activity toward establishing a long-awaited Palestinian central bank.

Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) Gov. Azzam Shawwa revealed Jan. 14 that arrangements are being made for the bank, though he provided no details. He had noted in a Dec. 23, 2019, interview with the Saudi Mubasher Info news website that Palestinians have been dreaming of turning the PMA into a central bank for several years now. These expectations follow a decade of efforts that are to culminate with President Mahmoud Abbas ratification of the 2015 Banking Law, which deals with the Palestinian central bank specifically.

This declaration shed light on the bank's possible intended purpose and existing banks' attitudes toward the effort. There are concerns that the Palestinian Authority (PA) might seek to control the banking sector, and some in the industry also believe there are political conditions and obstacles that might hinder a central bank's establishment.

A PMA official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that efforts to form a central bank started in 2006 with the adoption of the PMA strategy. "The PMA began drafting the banking law in 2015 following in-depth discussions with local and international authorities including faculties of economics in Palestinian universities, local Palestinian banks, Arab banks and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," he said.

The official added, "We expected the president to ratify the law in late 2017. However, such a decision needs political will and is linked to complex political, sovereign and economic considerations. The PMA headquarters in Ramallah is still awaiting a final decision regarding whether the sign should read 'Palestinian Monetary Authority' or 'Palestinian Central Bank.'

Many Palestinians believe that establishing a Palestinian central bank requires prior coordination with Israel through the international community. They believe Israel otherwise might see the move as a prelude to declaring a Palestinian state, which could result in more economic sanctions on Palestinians. Israel also might think a central bank would allow the PA to make good on threats to revoke all agreements signed with Israel, especially the 1994 Paris Economic Agreement.

Saif Al-Din Awda, an economics professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The establishment of a central bank requires the PA to keep consulting with the World Bank, the IMF and the International Quartet Committee [for Peace in the Middle East]. The PMA is logistically and technically ready to turn into a central bank, but such an announcement needs careful coordination to avoid a clash with Israel, as this could create problems for the banking system and negatively affect Palestinians.

By the end of October 2019, total Palestinian cash reserves amounted to almost $1.16 billion, as the total assets of Palestinian banks exceeded $16.7 billion and the total deposit portfolio exceeded $13 billion. Meanwhile, total credit facilities extended to the PA amounted to $8.86 billion.

There are 14 Palestinian banks, with 368 branches. The banks in recent months have extended several loans to the PA to help it weather its persistent financial crisis.

Palestinian Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara announced Sept. 4, 2019, that, up until February 2019, the PA had borrowed $450 million from local banks to cover the salaries of government employees, and this negatively affected the liquidity available with banks. The maximum amount that the PA could borrow from Palestinian banks in 2019 was $500 million.

Farid Ghannam, undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Finance in Ramallah, noted April 24, 2019, at a symposium organized by Transparency Palestine - AMAN that the PA employs 133,200, including 33,800 in the Gaza Strip and 99,400 in the West Bank. He said their salaries amount to $1.77 billion in total per year.

Mohammed Abu Jayab, editor of economic newspaper Al-Eqtesadia in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The [effort to establish] a central bank lacks several tools that are quite necessary, [especially] a local currency. Also, the Palestinian economy is suffering from structural distortion amid an inability to control Palestinian land, air, and seaports. Add to this that local banks are concerned there might be a hidden agenda behind establishing a central bank, which is to control and acquire local banks.

Shawa's announcement sparked divergent opinions among Palestinian economic experts, who said Jan. 19 in separate interviews with Al-Najah news that Israel isn't likely to approve of this step, which requires Palestinian political independence to begin with. And in the event the central bank is announced without a Palestinian national currency, then the bank will be stillborn and will only amount to a political statement.

Samir Abdullah, former Palestinian minister of labor and planning in Ramallah and now a senior researcher at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute - MAS, told Al-Monitor, The tendency to announce the establishment of a central bank dates back to several years, and I don't know if its resurgence has anything to do with negotiations with Israel, because it would be difficult for it to be unilaterally declared by a Palestinian decision. The banks primary mission would be to issue a national currency, and I expect Israel to reject such a currency.

He added, "There are 4 billion Israeli shekels in the Palestinian market, and these return an annual profit of $50 million to Israel. If the PA doesn't obtain Israeli approval or at least guarantee that Israel does not oppose such a step, we would be facing economic sanctions Palestinians can't afford because all of their financial transfers go through Israel.

The Palestinian banking system deals with only four currencies: the Jordanian dinar, the US dollar, the Israeli shekel and the Egyptian pound.

Palestinians know very well that this may not be the time for a central bank announcement, and there are economic obstacles hindering such an announcement in light of a rupture with Israel and increased tension with the United States.

Reports about the imminent establishment of a central bank may carry an implicit threat to Israel that could plunge the two sides into a new political crisis that would require the international community's intervention. And this is what the PA is aiming for, as it looks for another mediator between it and Israel alongside the United States.
Can't allow every person who thinks of some solution to COVID-19 to file petition: SC

SC asks Jharkhand govt if it wants to withdraw sedition charges in Pathalgarhi case

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: The Supreme Court has asked the newly elected Jharkhand government to clarify whether it wants to withdraw cases against four tribal activists booked under sedition charges for allegedly writing Facebook posts supporting the Pathalgarhi movement in the state.

The top court was informed by the accused that the Hemant Soren government in the state had, in one of the first decisions of the Cabinet, announced that it would take back all criminal cases related to the movement.

Pathalgarhi is a name given to a tribal protest which seeks autonomy for village sabhas (gram sabhas). Those demanding Pathalgarhi want no laws of the land to be applicable to the tribal people in the area. The Pathalgarhis reject government rights over their forests and rivers.

As part of the movement, Pathalgarhis erect a stone plaque or signboard outside the village/area, declaring the village a sovereign territory and prohibiting the entry of outsiders.

Stones hurled at BJP's pro-CAA rally in Jharkhand, police use teargas

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta asked standing counsel for Jharkhand, Tapesh Kumar Singh, to take instruction and inform it in two weeks about any decision of withdrawal of cases.

"List after two weeks. In the meanwhile, learned counsel for the state of Jharkhand is directed to get instructions as to whether the state intends to proceed with the criminal cases registered against the petitioners," the bench said in its order uploaded recently.

At the outset, advocate Joel, appearing for four petitioners led by one J Vikash Kora informed the court that new government was sworn in the state and it announced in its first cabinet meeting that criminal cases arising out of Pathalgarhi movement will be taken back.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

Advocate Tapesh Kumar Singh representing the state said that if that is the case then the petitioners should withdraw their appeal against the Jharkhand High Court order of last year refusing to quash the cases against them.

The bench, however, asked Singh to take instruction from the competent authority and appraise it in two weeks.

The Jharkhand High Court had on July 22, last year, declined to quash the sedition charges against four accused -- J Vikash Kora, Dharm Kishor Kullu, Emil Walter Kandulna and Ghanshyam Biruly -- who were booked for inciting supporters of Pathalgarhi movement through their Facebook posts to attack police officials after three police guards of former BJP MP Karia Munda were abducted in the year 2018.

According to the prosecution, an FIR was registered against the accused under section 121 (waging war against India), 121A (conspiracy to wage war against India), 124A (sedition) of the IPC and also under provisions of Information and Technology Act.

Twenty people were booked in the case out of which only four approached the Supreme Court for quashing the sedition and others charges made against them.

Confident that new Jharkhand Govt will work for all, tweets Rahul

In an affidavit filed in the top court during the last month of previous BJP government, the state had said that an investigation was underway but there was sufficient material to show that the accused had, through social media and Facebook, undertaken "anti-national", "unconstitutional" activities against the unity and integrity of the country and incited communal and caste-based unrest.

"Further the prosecution case is that the petitioners and others, through social media, were spreading false messages, deluding people and causing misunderstanding and instigating a large number of inhabitants of the districts to disturb the peace by spoiling social and communal harmony," it said.

The state said that it was clear through the messages of the accused that wrong interpretations of the Constitution were given to incite anti-national feelings and to spread propaganda based on community and castes.

On January 22, supporters of Pathalgarhi movement, armed with lathis and axes had kidnapped seven villagers and later killed them in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand for allegedly opposing their stir.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren postponed his scheduled cabinet expansion due to the incident and had ordered setting up of Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.
The raging Australian and Amazon wildfires have raised a burning question for all of us - why the very technology, that has been a major facilitator to human evolution and growth could not predict, manage or control its destruction? To those of us who are in the business of technology, it is time to ask a few tough questions in our boardroom meetings and take ownership of solving the problem. After all, what is growth worth if the planet itself is in peril?

As someone who has witnessed the digital revolution unfold, I may not have a full-proof plan to address the climate emergency, in fact, we don't even have the visibility of all evolving technologies that may be required to solve the climate emergency. But, I am clear and convinced that we have to start now and start with the available technologies which in their own right are very powerful and transformational.

For instance, high-speed connectivity of 5G and network of the future has the power to seamlessly relay data, videos, and pictures, across devices. The power of big data when harnessed through quantum computing and made intelligent and actionable through AI, can not only monitor, locate and analyse the problem, but help find solutions in tandem.

Imagine farmers using the power of drone fitted cameras to monitor crops across large farms or medicines being supplied to remote locations like hilly terrains or flood-inundated areas.

India is endowed with large reservoirs of fresh water, yet, it has not been possible to make potable water available across every household. But this is possible, with the adoption of desalination technology that can reduce the pressure on our freshwater demand. It is encouraging to note that the government is invested in this space - for the first time in India 'Ministry of Jal Shakti' has been formed, which literally translates to 'water power' in English and reflects how serious water challenges are for the country.

It is also a great example of how countries can cooperate and collaborate to solve bigger problems. In this very instance, India is leveraging Israel's technology to solve its water crisis.

I am glad India has taken a leadership position on key renewable energy like solar. The iconic Gandhi Solar Park at United Nations headquarters in New York epitomises our commitment to the same.

This will not only help India draw onto renewable energy in a big way, but it will also help in rebalancing the world energy dynamics in favour of sustainability. While at the same time it underlines that we need to do more, not just as India, but as global citizens.

The testimonies to renewable energy sources are aplenty. For instance, wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and bioenergy have helped many developing countries in Asia and Africa.

A large population has been able to achieve economic sustainability through infrastructure development and by offering affordable renewable energy to the rural population. It has also helped achieve social sustainability.

Electricity generated from solar power technology has also helped children to read at night and provided well-lit classrooms.

Importantly, it has paved the way for adult education. Another shining example is of electric vehicles which can reduce pollution and offer a cleaner alternative to conventional vehicles.

Strategy to a sustainable, ecosystem demands an innovative and fresh thinking approach. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and the internet of things, when combined, can be a formidable force in addressing the current climate emergency.

We all as individuals at a company, community and global level have a role to play.

For instance, in my organisation, besides the sustainable development goals, we are also successfully leveraging the potential of robotics to carry out seeding initiatives using drones even on inaccessible terrains.

We are also executing sustainability initiatives like the ban of single-use plastics in our campuses and green plantation drives across the country. Simply put, each one of us needs to walk the talk.

(The author is Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra)

Also Read: Robots and Humans: Combined potential will help businesses deliver unprecedented results

Also Read: Budget 2020: Want to fix the slowing economy? FM Nirmala Sitharaman should begin with agriculture

Also Read: Budget 2020: Will FM Nirmala Sitharaman address Indian medical device industry's Woes?
By Trend

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will meet with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan in Geneva on Jan. 29-30, Spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva told Trend Jan. 27.

Abdullayeva was commenting on the information spread by the Armenian media about the meeting.

As you know, Elmar Mammadyarov has recently announced a meeting with his Armenian counterpart in late January, the spokesperson noted. In this regard, confirming the disseminated information, I would like to note that Elmar Mammadyarov will meet with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Armenian foreign minister in Geneva on Jan. 29-30.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Sean Copeland was about two years into a bachelors degree when he was offered a full-time gig at a radio station.

He was studying education, and the salary he was offered to work as a radio personality was higher than what hed get paid as a first-year teacher. So, he dropped out of school, opting to launch a radio career over earning a degree.

It worked out for him. Today, Copeland has been working in radio for more than a dozen years.

Still, he wanted to finish what he started. And having a Plan B  especially in media  cant hurt.

About a decade after dropping out of college, Copeland went back to school in 2016. Instead of pursuing a degree in social studies education, he chose to study business management. He enrolled at Western Governors University Indiana and completed a four-year degree in 1-1/2 years. In 2018, after he finished his classes, he received a promotion.

Before going back, Copeland was among the roughly 750,000 adult Hoosiers who started a degree but never finished it, leaving school for a variety of reasons. And hes a success story for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, which in 2016 launched an initiative called You Can. Go Back.

The campaign aims to shore up the number of Hoosier adults with either a college degree or a high-quality training certificate. In 2015, the commission set a lofty goal for the campaign: It wanted to see 200,000 adults with some post-secondary education go back to school and earn a degree by 2020.

Today, more than 19,000 Hoosier adults have re-enrolled in some sort of post-secondary education. More than 11,000 of them have finished degrees.

And while thats a far cry from state officials goal, they say theyre making progress, despite headwinds that often stand in the way of adults earning a degree. And theyre not taking their foot off the pedal.

You Can. Go Back. plays into a larger goal set by Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, which aims to ensure that at least 60% of adults nationwide hold a credential beyond high school by 2025. Indiana also adopted that goal and currently stands at about 43%. By helping 200,000 Hoosiers with some post-secondary education earn a degree or certificate, the state would reach that 60% mark.

Across the country, some 36 million Americans have some college credits but no degree, according to a 2019 report by the National Student Clearinghouse. That report found that over the past five years, 3.8 million people across the nation returned to college, and 940,000 of them have completed a degree. More than 1 million are still enrolled and taking classes.

Indiana ranks among the 15 states with the highest number of students currently enrolled that previously had some college credit but no degree. It falls behind neighbors Illinois, Ohio and Michigan but ahead of Kentucky.

Teresa Lubbers, Indianas higher education commissioner, told IBJ that many people have viewed the commissions goal to re-enroll past attendees as low-hanging fruit. But she said getting adults to go back to school is hard.

Many of them have families and full-time jobs that make earning a degree difficult. They are certainly unlikely to enroll full-time at one of the states traditional four-year colleges. And even with online courses, finding the time to do the work can be difficult, she said.

Finances can stand in their way, as well as issues, such as poor grades or unpaid tuition, that may have led them to withdraw in the first place.

Thats why its important for colleges to make it easier for adult learners to earn a degree, she said.

Since the commission launched the You Can. Go Back. Initiative, 30 public and private institutions have worked with the commission on the effort.

Legislation passed in 2015 helped launch the initiative and required public universities to begin reaching out to former students who hadnt graduated. The schools could handle that outreach on their own or hand it over to the commission. Many chose the latter option, Lubbers said.

So, in spring 2016, the commission launched a marketing strategy to reach students who had earned at least 25% of their credits before leaving school. They targeted students who had dropped out within the last decade, as they were deemed most likely to return.

The commission worked with the universities to find email or mail addresses for students and began reaching out via digital mail, post cards and even outdoor signage. That outreach delivered a simple message to former students: A lot has changed and so have you. You can go back.

Lubbers said the commission tried to individualize the messages to have the most profound impact. The marketing depicted single moms and men who had recently lost their jobs. Altogether, the commission sent out 270,000 targeted emails and 120,000 direct postcards.

It also offered $7.5 million in adult student grants to make returning to school more affordable. Students were eligible for $2,000 in grants, and the commission encouraged institutions to offer additional financial aid, such as tuition discounts.

The commission also encouraged schools to offer forgiveness for academic and financial holds that might prohibit a student from returning. For example, if students previously failed to meet satisfactory academic progress to stay in school, but it has been two years since they left, the commission recommends they be readmitted.

And the commission recommended schools do what they can to make returning possible, from offering online or flexible courses to extending the time staff are on campus to help students.

Schools have since launched programs targeting adult learners or beefed up programs that already existed. Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University, for example, work with the state as providers of the workforce ready grant, which pays for students to earn a certificate in a high-value industry.

Purdue University, meanwhile, purchased for-profit Kaplan University in 2017 to shore up its online programming. It specifically targets adult learners.

Now called Purdue Global, the online school has awarded more than 700 credentials to Hoosiers since 2018. Those credentials run the gamut, from certificates to doctorate degrees.

Betty Vandenbosch, chancellor of Purdue Global, told IBJ that 91% of Hoosiers enrolled in Purdue Global had some post-secondary education coming in. And 63% of them are 30 or older.

Altogether, nearly 3,000 Hoosiers are enrolled at Purdue Global.

We really cater to people who got started, didnt finish for some reason or another and came back, she said. We make sure that students first of all have an experience that fits adults.

We also make sure that they get credits for everything they already know, she said. I think thats really important because an adult doesnt have time to relearn composition if theyve already learned composition.

Because students at Purdue Global get credit for courses theyve already completed, many can finish a bachelors degree in less than two years, she said. And the courses are online, meaning students can work when their schedules allow.

The resulting degree can be life changing. Studies show students who earn a bachelors degree typically see a $13,000 pay increase, Vandenbosch told IBJ.

Our whole mission is to help our students get in, learn what they need to learn and move on to the career they deserve, she said. We have to reach those students where they are today and help them move forward in a way thats practical given their current circumstances.

Copeland, the morning host and program director at WYXB-FM 105.7, had a similar experience at WGU.

He was able to finish his bachelors degree in about 18 months. Thats because WGU allows students to take courses at their own pace, and they can take final exams early if they feel prepared.

Copeland finished a marketing class in a day and a half, for example. His managerial accounting class, however, took longereight weeks.

He said in many traditional university settings, it often feels like work experience and academia are at war, but at WGU they co-existed. I cant imagine anything being more flexible, he told IBJ.

Now, Copeland is taking graduate classes at IUPUI to become a therapist, a degree he hopes to finish in August. He plans to continue to be a morning radio host in the morning and take therapy clients in the afternoon.

Its a great accomplishment, Copeland said of finally finishing his bachelors degree and beginning his masters. Working in media and journalism, you know that industry is constantly changing. Its good to have a plan B. Its good to have a side hustle, if you will.

Copelands story is exactly what the commission wants to see.

The legislation that created the initiative is set to sunset, although the commission plans to continue the program and lawmakers might extend it. Coming soon, the commission expects to launch new ways to reach former students and answer their questions and is working with a marketing company to bring more sophisticated digital tools online.

Were not stopping at 2025, Lubbers told IBJ, saying that Hoosiers are going to need to continue to be skilled up to meet future job demands. Education is no longer something thats completed at one time, she said. Instead, its turning into a lifelong process, where students can return for certificates, training and credentials.

Its safe to say the efforts that are underway now will be continuing.
UPM Commits to UN Business Ambition for 1.5C to Mitigate Climate Change Global Compact, a group of more than 9,500 companies that are collaborating to foster more sustainable ways of doing business, launched the Business Ambition for 1.5C in 2019 that calls for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Jan.27, 2020 - UPM commits to the United Nations Global Compact's Business Ambition for 1.5C, joining leading companies in a promise to pursue science-based measures to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C. UPM will strive to mitigate climate change and drive value creation through innovating novel products, committing to a 65% CO2 emission reduction and by practicing sustainable forestry. The 1.5C ambition is a response to increasing concern about the severe consequences of a failure to stop global warming. UPM is among the first global forest industry companies making this commitment. "UPM has a unique opportunity to make a positive impact and contribute to mitigating climate change by tangible actions. We innovate climate-positive products and turn them into growing businesses. At the same time, we limit risks from climate mitigation policies and physical impacts of changing climate. This is important for the long-term value of the company," says Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO of UPM. UPM is committed to climate-positive forestry, which is critical for the company's business. Sustainably managed forests are also more resilient to changes in the climate. We will ensure that we always grow more forests than we harvest, and we will work to improve our forests' growth and ability to absorb more carbon. In the future, UPM will also annually report the carbon sink levels of its forests, and the reporting system will be developed further. The annual average carbon sink of UPM's forests in Finland has been 1.3 million tonnes of CO2eq during the last five years. Decreasing the use of fossil fuels is the most important way to mitigate climate change. UPM has made a systematic global review of its opportunities for reducing emissions using existing technologies. We have also analysed the financial impact of each carbon action. Based on this assessment UPM today makes a commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions from fuels and purchased electricity by 65 per cent from the 2015 levels by 2030. In addition, the company aims to reduce the emission levels of its supply chain by 30 per cent. Innovating novel products beyond fossils is the core of UPM's Biofore strategy. UPM develops safe and sustainable products and offers alternatives to fossil materials. Many of the company's products are already proven to be climate-positive. In the future, UPM aims to scientifically verify the climate impacts of all its products. "Companies can be leaders in driving ambitious climate action. Committing to the Business Ambition for 1.5C allows them to thrive while the global economy shifts to a net-zero future by 2050. We will continue to mobilise other companies to commit to science-based targets across their operations and value chains," said Heidi Huusko, Senior Manager at the UN Global Compact and member of the Science Based Targets initiative's Steering Committee. Last week, UPM was included on the CDP 'A List' for leading efforts against climate change. CDP is a global non-profit organisation that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It has been voted the number one climate research provider by investors. Through the renewing of the bio and forest industries, UPM is building a sustainable future across six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Paper ENA and UPM Plywood. To learn more, please visit: www.upm.com SOURCE: UPM
E-commerce major Flipkart on Monday said it has signed a MoU with Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd (GSHHDC) for promotion of local handicrafts.

The agreement is part of Flipkart's Samarth initiative under which the Walmart-backed company is helping artisans, weavers and craftsmen set up their business on the Flipkart Marketplace.

As part of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), GSHHDC and Flipkart will work together to enhance business and trade inclusion opportunities for artisans, weavers and craftsmen in Gujarat, a statement said.

Eligible sellers under GSHHDC will receive training and incubation support from Flipkart in the form of onboarding, business insights, dedicated seller support and warehousing, it added.

"The MoU with Flipkart is the start of a new era for Garvi Gurjari. The handloom and handicraft artisans living in remote areas of Gujarat will now be able to use Flipkart's platform to expand their market reach," GSHHDC Managing Director Mahesh Singh said.

Along with marketing their products, the artisans will gain valuable knowledge about developments in designs, colour patterns and selling techniques from the platform, he added.

"With every artisan who becomes a part of Samarth, we take a step further in making e-commerce more inclusive for all Indians and contributing to the economic growth and prosperity in the country," Flipkart Group Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The police in Katsina State have arrested a housewife, Rabi Shamsudden, 19, for allegedly stabbing her husband to death in Malumfashi Local Government area of the state.

The police Spokesman, Gambo Isah, a superintendent of police, told journalists in Katsina that the incident occurred at Danjanku-Tasha village on Monday at about 4 a.m.

Today, January 27,2020, we received report that one Rabi Shamsuddeen, 19, of Danjanku-Tasha in Malumfashi Local Government, allegedly stabbed her husband, Shamsuddeen Salisu, 25, with knife to death.

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The shout for help by Salisu attracted neighbours. When the people went to offer assistance, they discovered that the door to the compound was locked.

Some of the people jumped into the compound and found the victim in the pool of his blood; crawling out from his room with a wound in his stomach.

The neighbours also told the police that the wife (Rabi) was (allegedly) seen holding a knife with blood stains, he said.

The police spokesman said that Salisu was immediately rushed to Malumfashi General Hospital, where the doctors confirmed him dead on arrival.

He said that the police were investigating the matter, while the suspect was in police custody, and would be prosecuted after investigation.

(NAN)
The government on Monday announced a plan to sell its entire stake in Air India, renewing its attempt to sell the state-owned airline after a similar move in 2018 failed to attract any bidder.

A document released by the government on Monday invited initial expressions of interest (EOI) in the airline and set March 17 as the deadline for the submissions. The Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), headed by Union home minister Amit Shah, approved the release of the preliminary information memorandum (PIM) for inviting EOI for the disinvestment move.

Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the airline was a great asset and its position was fragile due to heavy debt. He said Air India, as a brand, will continue to fly but it needs to be privatised.

Due to its accumulated debt of about 60,000 crore, its financial position is in a very fragile condition and Air India is currently under a debt trap. Any private investor can turn it around and make Air India a profitable venture by bringing operational as well as financial efficiencies. The government has limited financial resources whereas the private investor can bring the required capital to make it turnaround. We hope and wish that Air India remains a vibrant airline and fly forever, Puri said.

Mondays announcement only marks the first of a multi-stage process. The government has given time till February 11 for the submission of written queries on PIM and the share purchase agreement (SPA) while the last date for submission of the expression of interest is March 17. It will announce the qualified bidders on March 31 following which the Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued. The government has not yet announced the date for the RFP stage.

The move is also a politically contentious one. The Congress criticised the Centre over the move. The sale of Air India has been going on for the last six years since 2014 when this government assumed office. A special group of ministers (GoM) was formed to look into it. Five ministers deliberated on it. If the government seriously wants to sell Air India, they should look for a real investor and have to go for a real strategic sale. The government has been misleading on the issue, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.

CPI general secretary D Raja blamed the governments bad policies and maintained that the national carrier has the potential to emerge as a powerhouse in the aviation sector.

Experts also said the timing of the Centres move amid an economic slowdown could pose a challenge.

While divestment is a positive step, it has to be when you have a strong platform, not with a wobbly economic base. After the first failed attempt, it makes sense for the government to divest and find a company that can help make the Maharaja stronger... And this should be done especially when we have a positive economic climate. At the moment, the investment sentiment with India is not conducive There are several external risk factors also in aviation such as oil prices, the Iranian crisis and the corona virus outbreak, etc., said Mark Martin, founder and CEO of Martin Consulting, an aviation consultancy.

As part of the strategic disinvestment, Air India plans to sell its entire stake in Air India Express and 50% shareholding in equal joint venture Air India SATS Airport Services (AISATS). All the three will be sold together and management control of the national carrier will be transferred to the investor, the government said. The government previously offered only 76% of its stake for sale.

In November, Puri told Parliament that the national carrier, which loses 26 crore a day, would have to shut down if it was not privatised. In 2018-19, Air Indias net loss was provisionally estimated at 8,556.35 crore. It has a debt of over 60,000 crore, half of which has already been taken out of the books and parked in a special purpose vehicle, Air India Assets Holding Ltd.

In its latest plan, the government will target selling its entire stake in the airline and 50% of a ground handling unit. The successful bidder will have to take only a debt of 23,286.5 crore (the 2018 offer required them to take on a little over 33,000 crore) , while the liabilities will be decided depending on current assets at the time of closing of the transaction, according to the PIM. The remaining amount of the total 60,074 crore debt, as on March 31, 2019, will be transferred to the special purpose vehicle. The firms land and buildings at the Delhi and Mumbai airports and the corporate office, which are core assets for running the airline, will be given to the new investor on a right-to-use basis for a limited period, the document added.

Puri said that after no bids were received for the national carrier in the first attempt made in 2018, the government learnt its lessons and analysed critical areas to make the current disinvestment bid more attractive to the prospective Interested Bidders (IBs). The government in 2018 called bids for a 76% stake sale in Air India including 100% in subsidiary Air India Express and 50% holding in ground handling company AISATS but failed to get even a single bid amid reports of a consortium of Indigo (Interglobe Aviation) and Qatar Airways being interested.

Air India and Air India Express had combined revenue of 30,632 crore in 2018-19, which is the highest among Indian carriers, Puri said.

The government said it was committed to paying certain employee-related dues before the closing of transaction. The total employee strength of the two companies is 17,984, out of which 9,617 are permanent employees. About 36% of the permanent employees will be retiring in the next five years, Puri said.

The government has relaxed the bidding norms wherein net worth for potential bidders is fixed at 3,500 crore and minimum stake for an individual consortium partner is lowered to 10%. The net worth criterion was 5,000 crore in the 2018 bid document.

Another key change is that an entity can put in a bid on the strength of its parent, which means that an entity floated by a big corporate can participate in the disinvestment process, a person aware of the PIM details told Press Trust of India.

Staff dues of about 1,383.70 crore on account of Justice Dharmadhikari Commissions recommendation on past arrears will be paid by the government.

As per the conditions decided by AISAM, the liabilities to be retained in Air India will be equal to certain current and non-current assets.

(With inputs from agencies)
The police in Plateau State have confirmed the killing of 13 persons by unknown gunmen in Kwatas village in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The police said this in a press statement by its spokesperson in the state, Ubah Ogaba.

Mr Ogaba said five others were injured in the attacks.

On the 26/01/2020 at about 2030hrs, the Plateau State Command received an information that at about 1930hrs, unknown gunmen attacked Kwatas village, Bokkos District, Bokkos LGA of Plateau State, where 13 persons lost their lives while five persons were critically injured and receiving treatment at General Hospital Bokkos.

He said upon receiving the information, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Isaac Akinmoyede, deployed detectives, conventional policemen and PMF personnel to the area with the directive to restore peace and effect arrest of the perpetrators of that dastardly act.

The police called for vital information that will aid in arresting those involved in the attacks.

The command is also urging the good people of Bokkos LGA to remain calm and continue with their lawful businesses as the security men are on ground to restore peace, the spokesperson said.

Earlier, Governor Simon Lalong expressed anger over the deaths.

In a statement by his spokesperson, the governor described the attack as yet another attempt by criminals to take the state back to the dark days of insecurity that he said the government has substantially overcome.

While commiserating with victims and families of those killed, the governor directed security agencies to go after the perpetrators of the crime and ensure their arrest and prosecution. He vowed that the state would no longer tolerate the wanton loss of lives.

My heart again bleeds by this tragedy as the lives of innocent citizens are cut short for no reason. Security agencies must go after those who are behind these attacks and their sponsors so they can face the law and be taught a lesson.

We do not need another cycle of bloodshed in Plateau State as all well-meaning citizens have committed to peaceful coexistence and tolerance. My administration will not allow anyone, no matter how highly placed to jeopardise this peace.

The governor again restated his determination to work with the federal government and relevant stakeholders in strengthening the community policing architecture in the state with robust intelligence gathering and early intervention to forestall reoccurrence.

The attack on Sunday night came barely two weeks after a similar one in Mangu Local Government Area of the state which left 12 people dead.

Kwatas is a neighbouring community to the Plateau State University, Bokkos.

A resident of the area, Adamu Hardo, told PREMIUM TIMES that the violence began on Sunday afternoon when unknown gunmen shot at some youth at a joint where they were drinking a local brew known as Burkutu. He said that provoked angry youths in the community into reprisal attacks targeted at Fulani communities in the area.
When you download Ubers app, you agree that youre older than 18, that youre not using a stolen credit card to pay your driver, and  if youre like one Philadelphia woman and fracture your spine in a Center City car crash  that you wont seek a jury trial against the ride-share giant.

But, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge has ruled that, because Uber cant prove that Jillian Kemenosh actually read the companys terms and conditions before she signed up or rode in the car that ran a red light, she cant be forced to settle her claims behind closed doors.

Sitting in the back seat of an Uber in March 2018, Kemenosh was more than halfway home on a four-mile trip from Columbus Boulevard to her Center City apartment when the driver of the 2010 Toyota Highlander ran a red light at 16th and Vine Streets, crashing into another vehicle.

Suffering a fracture to her spine, concussion, and traumatic brain injury, Kemenosh sued Uber, its local subsidiaries, and the driver, requesting a jury to determine her payout.

But, Uber argues in court documents, by approving the ride-shares terms and conditions when she downloaded the app in 2013, Kemenosh had already forfeited her right to a jury, agreeing instead to resolve any legal disputes only through binding arbitration, which forces users to waive their rights to sue and settle matters privately.

Proponents of arbitration say that its faster and cheaper than court. But critics say it revokes a consumers right to publicly take action against a company.

Our entire judicial system is founded on a trial by jury, said Kemenoshs lawyer, Joseph L. Messa Jr.

In a 19-page opinion this month, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Abbe F. Fletman sided with Kemenosh, determining that because the app makes it possible to register for Ubers services without clicking on a hyperlink to review the companys terms of service, the registration process did not properly communicate an offer to arbitrate under Pennsylvania law.

Uber and a lawyer for the company did not return requests for comment. Uber has until Feb. 3 to appeal Fletmans ruling.

Had Kemenosh been required to click a link, check a box confirming she read and agreed to Ubers terms and conditions, or received email notice of the companys policies, Ubers arbitration-only rule would perhaps be valid, the judge wrote.

In this matter, however, Uber took none of these steps, Fletmans opinion said.

This isnt the first time a question over Ubers arbitration clause has appeared before a court.

In 2018, after pressure from U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D. Conn.) and 14 women suing the company for sexual harassment by drivers, Uber lifted its arbitration agreement for riders or drivers pursuing legal action against the ride-share company for sexual misconduct.

Also that year, a federal appeals court refused to endorse Ubers arbitration argument in a lawsuit brought by Boston-area riders who accused the company of overcharging for rides to the airport. The panel determined that Ubers policy section failed to grab the users attention.

But in 2017, a federal judge bemoaned but backed the companys contract, sending a Connecticut mans suit over illegal price surging into arbitration, writing: This being the law, this judge must enforce it  even if it is based on nothing but factual and legal fictions."

When it comes to requiring customers to approve a terms and conditions contract with an arbitration clause, Uber is not unusual, said Charles B. Casper, a Philadelphia-based consumer and class-action defense lawyer who is not involved in the Uber case. The clause is typical of many cell phone, cable television, and rental car contracts, Casper said.

But whether Uber gives customers notice that theyre forfeiting their right to a jury is a fair question, Casper said.

Customers agreeing to a companys terms and conditions can generally find an arbitration clause in a contract written conspicuously in bold-face type or all-capital letters.

For Messa, the question is one of transparency.

You have e-commerce companies here that want to financially benefit from customers but limit their rights from liability, Messa said. The constitutional rights of citizens here shouldnt be taken lightly.
Holidays warm

The Weather Bureau expects fine and warm to sultry weather for the Australia Day weekend in Sydney. The Railways Department expects about 100,000 people to travel from Sydney to country holiday resorts during the holiday period. More than 300 trains will carry them. During last year's Australia Day holiday period, 297 trains carried 90,300 passengers. Special timetables have been arranged for the holiday, full particulars available at booking offices.

Advice to migrants

Some migrants were being imbued with the idea that it was not necessary to work in Australia, a delegate of the Federal Council of the Graziers' Association, Mr. W. P. A. Wright, told the Australian Citizenship Convention. "I think it should be the function of the department head not to allow migrants to come to Australia thinking that the streets are paved with gold, he said. The convention was called for by the Minister for Immigration.

End to rationing "opportune"
A Hoboken man robbed a Washington Street pet store and then stole a sign outside a restaurant down the block as he fled, Hoboken police said.

Jose Vanegas, 23, was arrested just before noon on Jan. 23 after police chased him down on in the area of Park Avenue and Third Street. Vanegas and Police Officer Steven Albert ended up on the ground when Vanegas resisted being handcuffed, police said.

Vanegas was charged with robbery, aggravated assault and resisting arrest, Lt. Danilo Cabrera said.

Police say Vanegas took six dog jackets from Hoboken Pet at Fifth and Washington streets without paying, and punched a store employee twice in the head when the employee tried to stop him from leaving, Cabrera said.

The employee followed Vanegas and watched him steal an outdoor chalkboard sign from East LA, on the same block, Cabrera said. When an East LA employee came outside, Vanegas fled. The employee chased Vanegas until he spotted Albert, who picked up the chase, Cabrera said.

Vanegas disregarded Alberts command to stop, and he was eventually arrested by Albert and Police Officer Bernardo Munoz. During the chase, Vanegas dropped the chalkboard and several of the dog jackets, Cabrera said.

Albert suffered an abrasion to his knee and was treated at the scene, while Munoz injured his hamstring.
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By Laman Ismayilova

Baku Book Center will host an exhibition of young artists on February 3.

The event is co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Azerbaijan State Art Gallery, Azertag reported.

The project aims to discover and support talented artists.

About 60 paintings by more than 30 young artists will be on display at the exhibition. At the end of the event, the artists will be awarded with diplomas.

The Baku Book Center offers a wide range of books of various genres in many languages, including Azerbaijani, Russian, Turkish, English, Chinese, French, German, Arabic. There is a convenient search for the desired book thanks to the installed touch monitors.

The Baku Book Center was officially opened to visitors on September 1, 2018. It is located near the Khagani Park.

The main goal of the Center is to encourage people in reading book as a bearer of cultural, spiritual values and useful knowledge.

Here booklovers can also take part in presentations of books, literary and musical evenings, meetings with cultural and art workers, thematic master classes and much more.

The Center also organizes events with the participation of international organizations and diplomatic missions.

By the decision of the CIS Executive Committee, Baku Book Center has been awarded the diploma "For the great work in development of domestic book distribution and international book exchange in 2018."

The Azerbaijan State Art Gallery was created by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the period of National Leader Heydar Aliyev's leadership in 1972 on the base of the Azerbaijan State Exhibition Hall, functioning since 1960.

Creativity workshops, master classes, art exhibitions and other events are organized at the gallery with the aim to increase interest in fine art and discover new talents.

The State Art Gallery collects paintings, graphics, sculptures, decorative-applied art works and contemporary art from more than 10000 unique art pieces created by Azerbaijani artists.

The Gallery carries out the search and formation of cultural and aesthetic forms based on rich traditions of national art in the preservation and restoration of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Cyber Stocks Soaring From Conflict With Iran

Cyberattacks are likely to have a negative impact on the United States, but some companies stand to benefit. Chief among the beneficiaries are likely to be cybersecurity stocks whose products and services are bound to see increased demand.

As the hostilities between the Trump administration and Iran increase trading cyber security shares and active traders seem more definitive as the cybersecurity investment space is making traders good money. This will continue while the US continues to fight it out with Iran and even Iraq on the battlefield and Twitter.

For US investors an important measure is The Exchange Treaded Fund Prime Cyber Security Index deliverd using the ticker symbol of HACK which has been surging since the US drone assaination of a top Iranian general. Refered to by professional traders as simply the cybersecurity ETF, the investment vehicle counts cyber security stalwarts Cisco, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet among its top 10 holdings.

US evidently think that public corporations along with governmnet and other oranisations will aggressively ramp up spending on cyber security protection.

The ETF outperformed the S&P 500 the last five sessions during the peak of the geopolitical tensions in the first week of January, rising 2.5% versus unchanged for the broader S&P. Public cyber security comanies with shares traded outside of the ETFs top 10 holdings have also benefited: CrowdStrike went up 8.7% and FireEye has addedn 5% to its share price.



Iran is responsible for a minimum of 14 major cyberattacks around the world in recent years, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 2011 to 2013, Iran is said to have unleashed cyberattacks on major US financial institutions including JPMorgan, Bank of America and CapitalOne.

'The most likely course of action cyberattack is still against an ally that has possibly spent less time and energy on hardening themselves against cyber threats. Saudi Arabia likely presents an easier target with less ability to retaliate effectively,' according to one anlayst at Academy Securities.

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This article was produced in partnership with The Connecticut Mirror, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network .

Frustrated with the lack of options for low-income families in Connecticuts tony suburbs, the governor and the leader of the state Senate are calling for new measures to entice towns to build more affordable housing.

Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said that he is poised to tie state spending on transportation upgrades in affluent communities  such as new or renovated train stops  to local approval of more affordable housing projects.

If you want some funding for that transportation hub, I want affordable housing to be a big part of that, the governor said.

The comments, made during a wide-ranging interview taped Wednesday for the CT Mirrors Steady Habits podcast, follow a series of articles published by the Mirror and ProPublica showing the lengths wealthy towns have gone to block affordable housing, and by extension the people who need it. These exclusive zoning requirements have rendered Connecticut one of the most segregated states in the nation.

The governors comments appear to be a retreat from his administrations previous stance, which emphasized local control, and came as other leaders in the state demanded action.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, a Democrat from New Haven, said that breaking up pockets of poverty will be a priority in the legislative session that begins in less than two weeks.

There are too many communities in this state that have ignored their obligation entirely to accept some affordable housing, Looney said. We have to break through the hypocrisy of the reasons that people give in many cases for not supporting family housing in their communities.

We have to continue to bear witness to the fact that we do not have the degree of affordable housing that we should, he continued. And that communities should not be able to rely upon local zoning and local practices to the extent that they are right now, to bar the development of that in their communities. Its an issue where the needs of the state need to take precedence over the needs of  or the wishes  of individual towns.

Looneys remarks came during a press conference the Senate Democratic Caucus held Thursday to unveil the top issues they plan to take on this legislative session.

The mayor of Hartford, a city where 39 percent of the housing is reserved for poor people, said the state needs to abandon policies that have left neighborhoods throughout the city segregated.

We talk always in our cities about combating poverty and trying to help families lift themselves up, but the truth is that we have a high poverty rate in our communities, in part, because we have  by policy  made this a community that can only be poor, Mayor Luke Bronin said during a press conference last Friday in Hartfords Clay Arsenal neighborhood.

It was the first time that Bronin, just two weeks into his second term, publicly focused on housing policy that has fueled the concentrated poverty in Connecticuts cities. The press conference, called in response to local residents simmering frustrations with their housing conditions, gave the mayor a venue to air his concerns.

Ive thought about this for a while, but the more time I spend in this office, the more I see the profound consequences of our policy choices on housing, and on development, that have resulted in some of the starkest disparities youll find anywhere in the nation, Bronin said in a subsequent interview.

Bronin was joined last Friday by Connecticuts U.S. senators, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats. They called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build more mixed-income housing in Hartford, instead of focusing on housing entirely reserved for the poor. They also asked the federal agency to raise the amount Section 8 vouchers are worth, so that voucher holders can afford to live in better neighborhoods, and to increase the enforcement of fair housing laws to reduce discrimination.

The Mirror and ProPublica reported this month that while federal Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers were created years ago with the intention of giving recipients a choice about where to live, the subsidy often traps people in struggling communities.

Bronin and the governor met last week to discuss specific steps that can be taken.

I want to get more market-rate housing here in Hartford, Lamont said on the podcast taped Wednesday. I dont want this to be a place [just] for poor people. I want this to be a place for everybody.

The governor pointed to communities like Simsbury and others in Fairfield County, including his hometown of Greenwich, which were featured in the Mirror and ProPublicas investigation.

You know, I think they are nuts not to allow their downtowns to develop a little bit, not to have more multifamily housing, not to have more affordable housing, not to allow more of their community to live where they work, he said.

Local officials in towns that have rejected affordable housing point to frail public infrastructure, clogged streets, a lack of sidewalks and concerns about overcrowding as reasons for denying projects.

Lamonts administration has not always been so forceful. Asked numerous times over the course of his first year in office to discuss his affordable housing policy, the governor said he preferred to leave decisions about what gets developed  or doesnt  to local officials.

A carrot or a stick?

The Lamont administration and Senate Democrats agree that more incentives are needed for towns to build more low-income housing. They have different views, though, on whether those who dont should face consequences.

I would like to start with a carrot to tell you the truth, Lamont said.

Either way, the director of the House Progressive Caucus, which comprises 44 of the 151 members of Connecticuts House of Representatives, released a statement on behalf of the caucus saying lawmakers are just pleased this debate is finally being brought to the forefront.

The Progressive Caucus is supportive of any legislative efforts to make housing more affordable, the statement from Eli Sabin, the director of the progressive coalition, reads. He pointed to numerous bills that its members have introduced in previous legislative sessions to tackle exclusive zoning by town officials and fair housing legislation. We are committed to advancing meaningful bills again this year.

Relying on incentives, however, has its skeptics.

Civil rights attorneys said they believe linking transportation funding to affordable housing will have only a small impact. Thats because some affluent communities arent all that interested in bringing in public transportation, said Erin Boggs, the leader of Open Communities Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group in Connecticut.

They are perfectly happy without this money, she said. In the history of segregation and civil rights in our country, this cannot be accomplished by incentives alone. We absolutely need a well thought through system to address towns who do not comply.

Likewise, State Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor and co-chair of the legislatures Housing Committee, said that he prefers using incentives, but there are communities where there is a role for a firmer approach.

Maybe thats a place where we use a stick, he said.

John Dankosky, the host of CT Mirrors Steady Habits podcast, contributed to this report.

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas is a staff reporter for The Connecticut Mirror covering education and housing. Email her at jrabe@ctmirror.org and follow her on Twitter @jacquelinerabe .
A KORAIL official sprays disinfectant at Seoul Station, Monday, as part of the nation's ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus here. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



The government faced growing pressure from civic groups and political parties Monday to ban Chinese people from entering the country amid mounting fears over the spread of a new coronavirus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.



Calls from citizens and politicians for the entry ban are increasing after Korea confirmed its fourth case of the Wuhan coronavirus at a time when the death toll has already reached over 80 in China, with the viral illness having already spread to other parts of the world.



A petition on the presidential office website demand the ban has garnered more than 400,000 supporters as of Monday morning.



The petition, submitted last Thursday, called for the government to impose the ban at least during the seven-day Chinese New Year holiday.






Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Twenty students were injured after their school bus met with an accident near Poonjuthi in Madurai on Monday.



The incident took place during the early hours when the students were on their way to school. As per visuals from the spot, the vehicle appeared to have skidded off the road.

The injured students, who hail from Melur and Tirubuvanam in Madurai, are undergoing treatment at Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital.

A case has been registered by the Tirubuvanam Police over the matter and an investigation is underway. (ANI)


Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister

Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation'

Coronavirus scare: Kerala CM writes to PM seeking special flight to airlift stranded Indians

India

oi-PTI

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting the Indians stranded in Wuhan province of China, the epicentre of coronavirus, saying the ground situation there has further worsened.

In a letter to Modi, he said since the situation in Wuhan was grave, it would be appropriate to operate a special flight to Wuhan or a nearby functional airport and airlift Indian nationals stranded there.

Vijayan also wanted the Prime Minister to give necessary instructions to the Indian Embassy in China to act pro-actively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including Keralites, stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

Coronavirus epidemic: Death toll climbs to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases

The Chief Minister offered assistance of medical professionals from state in case of evacuation of the Indians from Wuhan.

Chinese health authorities have announced the death toll due to coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 27, 2020, 17:44 [IST]
Britain got its first foretaste of life after Brexit on Monday, after the UK government went unrepresented at an EU summit that draws up rules on fishing quotas and farming regulations.

No British ministers or officials attended the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels  where key decisions including fishing quota allocations are made.

While today's meeting was technically the final one the UK was allowed to attend, officials and ministers are already standing down early ahead of Brexit on Friday  when Britain will lose all rights to representation.

The UK will still be fully bound by EU rules during the Brexit transition period until 2021, and is also expected to be effectively permanently tied to many once it has signed its future trade deal.

But it will no longer have a say in drawing up EU rules, losing its seats on the EU council, MEPs in the European Parliament, and its ability to appoint a Commissioner.

A UK official confirmed that there was "no UK attendance at ministerial or official level" at the Monday meeting, which happens each month.

Last week a Brexit Party MEP voiced concern about the UK going unrepresented at such policy-setting events, provoking derision and accusations that she did not understand the downsides of Brexit.

The so-called "Agrifish" council meets once a month. Annually, it sets the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for each species of fish, and decides on the allocation of fishing opportunities between fleets. Quotas for 2020 were set in October 2019.

It also has to give the say to new EU legislation on food production, rural development, and fisheries management.

There are other council configurations for the other policy areas covered by EU law - such as consumer regulations, justice, foreign affairs, and transport.

Rules made at all these bodies and more will apply to Britain. New rules made during the transition will also apply to the UK under the agreement signed by Boris Johnson.

Leo Varadkar, the Irish PM, reiterated the EU line that the UK will have to make concessions on fishing if it wants market access (REUTERS)

The UK's absence comes amid debate over how the future trade deal between the UK and EU will handle fishing and the extent to which EU fleets will still have access to British waters after Brexit.

Asked whether the UK accepted it will have to trade access to its fishing waters for the opening of EU markets to British financial services companies, Boris Johnsons official spokesman said: Our position on fishing is not going to change We are going to be taking back control of our own fishing waters.

We have been clear on that both in the manifesto and when the PM spoke to the Commission president. The EU should be in no doubt about our determination on that issue.

Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes Show all 8 1 /8 Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes Conservative party leader Boris Johnson drives a JCB through a fake wall POOL/AFP via Getty Images Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes PA Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes AFP via Getty Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes PA Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes REUTERS Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes PA Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes AFP via Getty Bizarre: Boris Johnson drives 'Brexit' digger through boxes AFP via Getty

It will be for the UK to determine, in the best interests of the UK, who fishes in its waters.

Asked whether the PM remained committed to the goal set out in the Political Declaration of resolving the issues of fisheries and financial services by July, the spokesman said: We will be ready to start having this conversation about the future partnership in February. The EU have said that they are not ready to do that, so the discussions will begin in March.

Its in both sides interests to make progress as quickly as possible, but in terms of the timetable and the scheduling for the negotiations, thats not been set out yet and will need to be worked upon.

But Irish leader Leo Varadkar echoed the EU line on the issue on Monday, telling the BBC: "You may have to make concessions in areas like fishing in order to get concessions from us in areas like financial services."
WASHINGTON - The Lunar New Year parade felt different to Stephanie Cheng this year.

For one thing, there were a lot more face masks. Standing in a hallway at the Chinatown Community Cultural Center, where she serves as executive director, Cheng said she saw many men and women - among the large crowds gathered downtown Sunday afternoon - walking around with their noses and mouths obscured.

The center itself purchased 40 light purple surgical masks, Cheng said, and stocked up on hand sanitizer "just in case." But it was to little avail, she acknowledged, because far fewer people than usual showed up to eat the center's popcorn, watch its New Year's performances or try their hand at Chinese calligraphy.

"I don't know if the coronavirus is why they stayed away, but maybe," Cheng said.

The virus, a mysterious pneumonia-like illness that emerged in China's Wuhan region in late 2019, has claimed at least 80 lives in China, triggering emergency health measures and spurring global panic. As cases surge worldwide - in places including France, Japan and Taiwan - the United States confirmed its fifth infection this weekend.

The outbreak came a few days before the Lunar New Year festival, the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar. Beijing and other large Chinese cities canceled their celebrations in a bid to help contain the virus.

In the District of Columbia, the parade went on. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, led the way; dancing dragons, children spinning Chinese yo-yos and a man dressed as a panda marched down H Street NW to the beat of snare drums and the cry of red vuvuzelas, inspiring cheers and selfies - some featuring face masks.

Changdae Kim struggled to stay focused on the festivities. As he sold tickets to upcoming events behind a table in the community center, his thoughts drifted to his girlfriend, who is earning a business degree in China.

A week ago, after reading about the coronavirus online, Kim, a Korean American resident of D.C., broached the topic during the couple's daily FaceTime call. He told his girlfriend to stay inside, and she said she would, promising to stock up on food.

Kim, 28, asks her regularly for updates about the virus. Though his girlfriend lives far from Wuhan, everyone around her is worried, she's told him. Whenever someone offers surgical masks for sale online, she said, the masks are gone within minutes.

"She's constantly afraid about it," Kim said.

As he puffed on a cigar and eyed passing parade-goers, Kit Lee said he also fears for loved ones in China. Relatives on both his mother's and father's sides of the family still live in the country, Lee said, though none are near Wuhan.

Lee, a 51-year-old Fairfax, Virginia, resident, emigrated from China in 1979. His mother, who also immigrated to the United States, called her family in China on Sunday morning. All are healthy and coronavirus-free so far, Lee said - and all of them vowed never to go outside without face masks.

Halfway around the world, Lee's son is following a similar plan.

Brandon Lee first learned about the coronavirus during AP biology class at Falls Church High School in Virginia last week, he said. The lesson lingered. Biting into chasu bao - a golden-brown bun filled with pork - on Sunday, the 17-year-old pointed to his pocket.

"I've got a mask right here," he said, "and I'm putting it on the minute I finish eating this."

Others took different precautions.

Sue Hsu, 73, and her daughter Susan Hsu, 40, were determined to bring Susan's 2-year-old son to see the special New Year's parade. But they weren't taking any chances: They bundled the boy behind a blockade of blankets in his blue stroller and packed extra wet wipes. Thirty minutes into the parade, Sue had already wiped her grandson down once.

"I'm worried," said Sue, a Taiwanese American who has relatives in Taiwan. "I watch YouTube news clips about the virus every day."

Still, some displayed little concern about germs, coronaviral or otherwise.

Midway through the parade, children danced through the streets, flinging handfuls of plastic-wrapped fortune cookies into the air. A little girl in a long red coat picked one off the pavement and offered it to a police officer.

He looked around. Then he took it.
The Lagos State Government has banned the operation of motorcycles (popularly called Okada) and tricycles (popularly known as Keke) across the state.

Gbenga Omotosho, the commissioner for information and strategy, in a statement Monday said the decision was taken after a robust assessment between the government and the state security council.

The assessment focused on the safety of using motorcycles and tricycles as a means of transportation. The statement said the casualty figures arising from their use are scary.

From 2016 to 2019, there were over 10,000 accidents recorded at the General Hospitals alone, Mr Omotosho said.

This number excludes unreported cases and those recorded by other hospitals. The total number of deaths from reported cases is over 600 as at date.

The rate of crimes aided by motorcycles (Okada) and tricycles (Keke) keeps rising. Motorcycles (Okada) and tricycles (Keke) are also used as getaway means by criminals.

The ban, according to the statement, will be enforced in 15 local governments and local council development areas across the state. They are Apapa LGA and Apapa Iganmu LCDA, Lagos Mainland LGA and Yaba LCDA, Surulere LGA and Itire-Ikate and Coker-Aguda LCDAs, Ikeja LGA and Onigbongbo and Ojodu LCDAs, Eti-Osa LGA and Ikoyi-Obalende and Iru/Victoria Island LCDAs, and Lagos island LGA and Lagos island East LCDA.

The full enforcement will begin on February 1, the statement said.

This is the first stage of the state governments plan to sanitise our roads and protect Lagosians from the negative effects of these illegal modes of transportation, the statement said.

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The law is very clear. Motorcycles (Okada) and tricycles (Keke) are banned on all highways, bridges and the listed roads (see below).

Lagos has one of the worst traffic gridlocks across the world. To avoid spending hours in traffic, commuters often patronise faster  and potentially riskier- alternatives like commercial motorcycles. In recent years, bike-hailing companies such as Gokada, ORide, and Max.Ng have sprung up across the city to help residents navigate the incessant traffic snarls.

The government statement did not state specifically if the ban affects the bike-hailing companies. But a spokesperson to the governor clarified to PREMIUM TIMES that they are included in the ban.

They are not registered with the Lagos government before the ban.

A spokesperson for ORide told PREMIUM TIMES the company would respond to the ban soon.

FULL LIST OF MAJOR ROADS AND BRIDGES AFFECTED BY THE BAN

Major Highways

1. Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

2. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway

3. Oworonshoki-Oshodi Expressway

4. Lagos-Ikorodu Expressway

5. Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway

6. Eti-Osa/Lekki-Epe Expressway

7. Lagos-Badagry Expressway

8. Funsho Williams Avenue

9. Agege Motor Road

10. Eti-Osa Lekki Coastal Road

Bridges

1. Iyana- Ipaja Bridge Agege

2. Dopemu Bridge Agege

3. Airport/Ikeja Bridge

4. Agege Motor road/oshodi Loop, Oshodi

5. Mushin/Isolo Link Bridge

6. Dorman Long Bridge

7. Ojuelegba Bridge

8. National Stadium Flyover

9. Apapa-Iganmu Bridge

10. Apapa-Ijora Link Bridge

11. Liverpool Bridge, Apapa

12. Mile 2 Bridge-Loop, Amuwo-Odofin

13. Okota (cele)/Ijesha Link Bridge

14. Apakun/Apapa-Oshodi Bridge Network

15. Ikorodu Road/Anthony Clover leaf Bridge

16. Trade Fair Flyover Bridge

17. Festac/Amuwo-Odofin Link Bridge

18. 2 Flyover Bridges along Alhaji Masha Road

19. Ojota Clover leaf Bridge

20. Ogudu Bridge

21. 3rd Mainland Bridge

22. Maryland flyover

23. Ikeja General Hospital Flyover Bridge

24. Kodesoh Bridge, Oba Akran, Ikeja

25. Opebi Link Bridge

26. Sheraton-Opebi Bridge

27. Jibowu/Yaba flyover Bridge

28. Carter Bridge, Lagos

29. Bariga-Ifako Bridge

30. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway/Alapere Bridge

31. Bariga/Oworonsoki Bridge

32. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway/Gbagada U-Turn

33. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway

34. 3rd Mainland/Oworonsoki Bridge

35. Eko Bridge

36. Apongbon flyover Bridge

37. Cowry Bridge (Officers Mess)

38. Mcwen Bridge (Bonny Camp)

39. Marina/Ikoyi Bridge

40. Ikoyi/Obalende Bridge
A settlement of 1.4million compensation for the widow and three children of murdered Garda Tony Golden was approved by Mr Justice Michael Twomey in the High Court today.

Siobhan Phelan SC told the court it had been agreed that Ms Nicola Golden, the late gardas widow, would receive 961,000 with 439,000 being divided up among the couples children Andrew, Lucy and Alexandra.

Ms Phelan, who appeared with barrister Eamonn M.J. Coffey and James McGuill Solicitors for the family, said Lucy (10) would receive 137,000 for mental distress and loss of dependency; Alexandra (8) would receive 146,000 and Andrew (6) would receive 156,000. The money will be lodged to their benefit in court until they are 18 but application for interim pay-outs on their behalf may be made to the court.

Micheal OScanaill SC, who appeared with barrister Joseph OSullivan and Tanya Canning for the Minister for Expenditure and Reform, told Judge Twomey that the parties had agreed to mediation and had met in Dundalk on Friday and had finalised all issues.

He said a global figure of 1.4million had been agreed and details of how much would be received by each dependant would be outlined to the court by Ms Phelan. He said that on behalf of the Minister and everyone engaged in the mediation he wished to extend deepest sympathy to Ms Golden and her three children following their tragic loss.

Judge Twomey, sympathising with the family while approving the settlements, complimented all parties involved in the mediation on the basis that it had prevented the family from the stress of a full trial to measure compensation.

Ms Golden was a State nurse with the HSE at the time of the murder but had not worked since the shooting of her husband and, the court heard previously, could no longer work in the position.

Garda Tony Golden was 36 when he had been shot after responding to a domestic violence complaint in Omeath, Co Louth, on October 11, 2015. He was shot five times and killed in a murder-suicide attack that had shocked the nation.

In uniform and unarmed he had accompanied Siobhan Philips (23) to the house she shared with her physically abusive partner Adrian Crevan Mackin only to have been brutally killed by him, a known dissident Republican who had been released on bail on a charge of membership of the IRA. He had previously been given a three-year suspended sentence on firearms charges in the North.

Mackin, after shooting Garda Golden, shot his partner four times, including one bullet to her head before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

Ms Philips, who survived her injuries, is living in Co Down. She had two children by Mackin and has issued personal injury proceedings against the Commissioner of An Garda Siochana, the Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General alleging negligence.

Todays court orders included all of the Golden familys legal costs which are to be adjudicated upon in default of agreement.
[January 27, 2020] PharmaMar and Bionical Emas Launch Expanded Access Program for Lurbinectedin in Relapsed Small Cell Lung Cancer in the U.S.

MADRID, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PharmaMar (PHM:MSE) and Bionical Emas, a global specialist Clinical Research Organization (CRO) have today announced the launch of an Expanded Access Program (EAP) for lurbinectedin to treat patients in the United States (U.S.) with relapsed Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC), who are unable to enter clinical trials and there are no appropriate alternative treatments. Dr. Jack West, Associate Clinical Professor, City of Hope Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, said: "I welcome the availability of lurbinectedin through the EAP as an option for patients. This disease has few compelling alternatives in this setting, so this would be a very welcome option for physicians and patients alike." SCLC is a very aggressive cancer that is usually diagnosed with advanced, often metastatic disease, thus limiting the role of traditional approaches and usually posing a worse prognosis when compared to other lung cancers1. In the U.S., approximately 10-15% of lung cancers are small cell1. Approximately 30,000 new cases of SCLC are recorded in the U.S. every year2. The treatment of relapsed SCLC has not changed substantially in more than two decades. SCLC is one of PharmaMar's priority research areas. In December 2019, the Company announced the filing of lurbinectedin's New Drug Application (NDA) for the treatment of relapsed SCLC with the FDA under the "accelerated approval" program. "SCLC is a devastating disease for patients and their families, having limited effective treatment options. We are excited to be able to provide access to lurbinectedin to eligible patients across the U.S.," said Tom Watson, Executive Vice President, Bionical Emas. "I am happy to see the launch of the lurbinectedin EAP in the U.S. today. Relapsed SCLC is a very aggressive disease with existing second line treatments showing only limited effectiveness. As oncology physicians, we are constantly looking for new treatment options for our patients. There is only one approved drug for the second line treatment which has modest benefit and significant side effects, and there re currently no other open EAPs. Providing access to this new option for patients requires time and investment from the Company and it is greatly appreciated by physicians in the clinic," said Dr. William Jeffrey Petty, Professor, Hematology and Oncology, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.



Healthcare professionals wishing to request access to lurbinectedin under the EAP or who would like to find out more should do so by emailing [email protected]. Further details concerning the EAP in the U.S. can be found on Clinicaltrials.gov.

Legal Warning This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction. About PharmaMar Headquartered in Madrid, PharmaMar is a biopharmaceutical company, focused on oncology and committed to research and development which takes its inspiration from the sea to discover molecules with antitumor activity. It is a company that seeks innovative products to provide healthcare professionals with new tools to treat cancer. Its commitment to patients and to research has made it one of the world leaders in the discovery of antitumor drugs of marine origin. PharmaMar has a pipeline of drug candidates and a robust R&D oncology program. It develops and commercializes Yondelis in Europe and has other clinical-stage programs under development for several types of solid cancers: lurbinectedin (PM1183), PM184 and PM14. With subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria and the United States. PharmaMar wholly owns other companies: GENOMICA, a molecular diagnostics company; Sylentis, dedicated to researching therapeutic applications of gene silencing (RNAi). To learn more about PharmaMar, please visit us at www.pharmamar.com. About Bionical Emas Bionical Emas is a specialist CRO combining Clinical Development, Early Access Programs and Clinical Trial Supply. Its Early Access Programs provide companies a route to allow access to pre-approved medicines to help patients with unmet medical needs. Access is provided in response to physician requests, where no alternative treatment options are available, and the patient is not eligible for clinical trials for the condition. https://bionicalemas.com/ About lurbinectedin Lurbinectedin (PM1183) is a synthetic compound currently under clinical investigation. It is a selective inhibitor of the oncogenic transcription programs on which many tumors are particularly dependent. Together with its effect on cancer cells, lurbinectedin inhibits oncogenic transcription in tumor-associated macrophages, downregulating the production of cytokines that are essential for the growth of the tumor. Transcriptional addiction is an acknowledged target in those diseases, many of them lacking other actionable targets. Please visit our website at www.pharmamar.com 1 American Cancer Society, https://www.cancer.org/cancer/small-cell-lung-cancer/about/what-is-small-cell-lung-cancer.html (accessed December 17, 2019) 2 SEER Cancer Stat Facts  Lung and Bronchus Cancer, https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html (accessed December 17, 2019)

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Hillary Clinton has accused Facebooks authoritarian chief executive Mark Zuckerberg of intending to use the platforms immense power to re-elect Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

Mr Trumps defeated 2016 opponent told The Atlantic of her horror at Mr Zuckerbergs influence and his apparent unwillingness to tackle misinformation, for which she suggested several damning motives.

They have, in my view, contorted themselves into making arguments about freedom of speech and censorship, which they are hanging on to because its in their commercial interests, Ms Clinton said.

Facebook has sparked a bitter row with its decision to allow politicians to lie in paid advertisements, despite banning ordinary users from doing so.

Senior Facebook officials have sought to justify the decision in terms of free speech, claiming the public should see politicians unedited statements even if they are not aware of their falsity.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

Mr Trumps re-election campaign has already courted controversy with a misleading Facebook advert pushing a conspiracy about possible challenger Joe Biden.

In a phrasing that suggested she believed the social media giant inadvertently influenced her defeat in the 2016 election, Ms Clinton said there was reason to believe that Facebook is not just going to re-elect Trump, but intend[s] to re-elect Trump.

Mr Zuckerberg has been somehow persuaded, Ms Clinton claimed, that its to his and Facebooks advantage not to cross Trump. Thats what I believe. And it just gives me a pit in my stomach.

The Facebook co-founder was recently forced to deny the president had lobbied him after NBC discovered the pair enjoyed an intimate White House dinner, which was not publicly disclosed.

They merely talked about things that were on his mind, and some of the topics that youd read about in the news around our work, Mr Zuckerberg told CBS News.

In October, Facebook decided to include the platform of the alt-right, Breitbart News, in its high-quality news section, days after Politico revealed Mr Zuckerberg had been hosting off-the-record dinners and informal talks to discuss free speech with controversial right-wing journalists like Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson, and politician Lindsey Graham  a staunch Trump defender.

The meetings came amid unsubstantiated allegations that the site was censoring right-wing news sites. Twitters CEO Jack Dorsey also reportedly undertook similar meetings.

While the substance of Mr Zuckerbergs presidential meeting remains a mystery, Ms Clinton said she believed the pair shared comparable views on certain subjects.

Asked about Mr Zuckerbergs previous statements on the relationship between facts and opinions, she said: Its Trumpian, she said. Its authoritarian.

Mr Zuckerbergs aversion to one Democratic presidential hopeful is public knowledge. In leaked audio, Mr Zuckerberg has indicated he would go to the mat and fight Elizabeth Warren, whose antitrust policies he described as an existential threat to Facebook.

Ms Warrens position is representative of growing interest in and suspicion of the platform in Washington.

These concerns were bolstered after it emerged Cambridge Analytica was able to identify and target swing voters in 2016 using data harvested from some 87 million Facebook users by exploiting a loophole on the site via a quiz app.

 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Facebook's Zuckerberg over allowing politicians to lie in ads

During a congressional hearing into the data breach Mr Zuckerberg publicly apologised for not doing enough to prevent fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy, adding: We didnt take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake.

The 2016 election is viewed by many as the first US election to be notably impacted by online misinformation. False and misleading news articles and images appeared on many voters Facebook newsfeeds, which several studies have credited with helping to propel Mr Trump to victory.

We did not understand what was going on below the radar screen, Ms Clinton said, not in direct reference to Facebook. However, she compared the social media platforms power to that of a national government.

I feel like youre negotiating with a foreign power sometimes, the former secretary of state said, referencing her dealings with those at the highest levels in the company.

[Mr Zuckerberg] is immensely powerful, Ms Clinton added. This is a global company that has huge influence in ways that were only beginning to understand.

Facebook has been contacted for comment.

Following publication of this article, Breitbart News has asked the Independent to place on record its position that it rejects the statement made by Steve Bannon  the former executive Chairman of Breitbart News- that the site is a platform of the alt-right.
Rev. Lee Hong-jung, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea, poses during an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Park Ji-won



NCCK leader vows churches' role for social inclusion, peace



By Park Ji-won



Gay and lesbian rights are a thorny issue for churches all around the world. As can be expected from members of conservative circles, there are vocal critics of sexual minorities. Still, considering the sensitivity of the issue, it is no surprise that many Korean churches either remain silent or hesitant to make their stances about the issue public.



But a group of Korean churches have defied the norm and openly support gay and lesbian rights, saying sexual identity is a basic human right and thus claim they need to be respected.



The group at the center of public attention is the National Council of Churches in Korea, a coalition of Korea's oldest churches better known by the acronym NCCK.



Rev. Lee Hong-jung, general secretary of the NCCK, reiterated that there has been no change in the church group's position on gay and lesbian rights, although their stance has invited a slew of criticism from many Korean churches.



"When we see people in difficult situations, even though they had past criminal records, it is natural for we Christians to help them," he said during a recent Korea Times interview at his office in Seoul. "Of course, homosexuality is not a crime. What the NCCK is trying to say is that people's basic human rights should be respected including sexual identity. It is all about human rights."



Rev. Lee serves as the de facto representative of the coalition, participating in various international meetings including one for the World Council of Churches. The NCCK has been an active supporter of the proposed anti-discrimination act, which has yet to be introduced largely due to fierce opposition from conservative Christians.



He noted sexual minorities need to be dealt with in an ethical manner, but also from the perspective of God's love.





A Christian activist holds a banner urging the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to take down the rainbow flag in this May 27, 2019 file photo. The U.S. Embassy raised it ahead of the Queer Culture Festival in central Seoul in June last year. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Staff and management at the pub where a woman died during a lamington eating contest have broken their silence a day after the incident.

The woman, in her 60s, was taking part in the Australia Day competition at The Beach House Hotel in Hervey Bay, Queensland, when tragedy struck at about 2pm.

Queensland Ambulance Service told Daily Mail Australia the woman had a seizure before choking on the lamington, causing her to stop breathing.

She died at Hervey Bay Hospital.

The pub's management took to Facebook on Monday to offer condolences to the victim's family.

The Beach House Hotel Hervey Bay posted to social media expressing their 'deepest condolences' after a woman died during a lamington eating contest at the venue

The woman, aged in her 60s, was taking part in the lamington eating contest at The Beach House Hotel when she had a seizure which caused her to choke on a lamington and die

'The management and staff of the Beach House Hotel offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of one of our patrons following the tragic event at our venue on Australia Day,' the post read.

'We acknowledge and thank our supportive patrons, staff, and the Queensland Ambulance Service for their prompt and professional response while this tragic incident was unfolding.'

The bakery which provided the lamingtons and pies for the eating contest, the Top of the Bay Bakery, also extended condolences online.

'We are deeply saddened by the tragic incident at the beachouse hotel yesterday. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family,' the post read.

A pub-goer who witnessed the incident said it was a 'very sad day' for the community.

Top of the Bay Bakery supplied the lamingtons for the competition (pictured) along with pies which were also part of the day's festivities

On Monday bakery staff also took to social media to express their 'heartfelt condolences' to the woman and her family (pictured)

'Sadly a lady died during the lamington eating competition,' she wrote on Facebook.

'This lady shovelled the lamington into her mouth with no restraint... inhaled the coconut and arrested.

'The pub was very quick to respond with CPR, and the ambulance rocked up... working on her for over half an hour. It didn't look good.'

Another witness told The Courier Mail she was filming the competition for her friend when the incident unfolded.

'I was filming and just as my friend finished I noticed she was dribbling so I rang 000 as she fell to the ground. I was talking to 000 until they arrived,' she said.

The witness said a manager and a security worked on the woman until paramedics arrived.

A video taken during a similar competition at the same venue in 2017 showed people rapidly trying to eat as many lamingtons possible

'They put a sheet up around her and worked on her for at least another half an hour,' she said.

'They shocked her a few times and were still doing CPR as they took her out about 30 to 40 minutes later.'

A third witness, Michelle Iffland, said the woman was happy and smiling before the incident.

'One of the saddest things I have ever witnessed,' she wrote.

'I'm so sad right now. One minute she was happy the next she was gone.'

The hotel's annual Australia Day festivities also included a pie eating competition, a thong-throwing contest and prizes for being best-dressed.

The competitions were in conjunction with the local Top of the Bay Bakery, which could not be reached for comment.
Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, bid farewell to its last Airbus 330 aircraft after its service of 19 years in the airlines fleet.



In a farewell event at Bahrain International Airport, members of Gulf Airs executive management and aircraft engineers and maintenance technicians joined to celebrate sending off the aircraft on its final flight as part of the airlines fleet.



During the event, Gulf Airs chief executive officer Kresimir Kucko said: Today we bid farewell to one of our historic flagship jets. This Airbus 330 aircraft served the national carrier for almost 20 years and supported our growth during the last two decades."



He also added: Gulf Air started its fleet modernisation programme in 2018 which began with the delivery of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. As of today, all our long haul routes are operated exclusively by Dreamliners which showcase our new brand and new livery. By the end of this year we will receive the last three aircraft of our Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner order."



Gulf Air fleet, by 2023, will include 39 new aircraft: 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, 12 Airbus 320neo and 17 Airbus 321neo. - TradeArabia News Service


The WHO disease classification will now include a disease called CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder.

CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder diagnostic code will be incorporated in the classification revision to be published on October 1, 2020.

The unique ICD-10 code will facilitate clinical and epidemiological research and improve patient care.

The rare genetic disease CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder (CDD) has been designated with a new disease code in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), the medical classification list from the World Health Organization (WHO). The CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder diagnostic code will be incorporated in the October 1, 2020 classification revision.

The medical classification, currently in its tenth revision (ICD-10), uses a list of alphanumeric codes to document a person's medical condition. For example, a person with migraine headaches will receive the G43 code, and a person with type 2 diabetes the E11 code. These codes are then used for clinical research and care, and increasingly also for health insurance billing and reimbursement. According to the WHO, about 70% of the world's health expenditures are allocated using ICD codes for reimbursement and resource allocation.

There are many medical conditions that do not have a code in the international medical classification, and these diseases can be invisible for most clinical research and have difficulties accessing insurance and reimbursement.

This previously included CDD, a rare genetic disease that leads to frequent seizures shortly after birth and severe impairment in neurological development, with most affected people being unable to walk, talk or care for themselves.

"Obtaining an ICD-10 code for CDD is a big milestone for our field and one more step towards having approved therapies and ensuring patient access to these treatments," said Ana Mingorance PhD, Chief Development Officer at the Loulou Foundation, a private non-profit foundation for CDD therapeutic development which spearheaded the ICD-10 code effort. "One of the reasons why we requested a code for CDD is because there are four ongoing clinical trials for therapies that might treat the disease, including a clinical study in the latest stage before approval. With an ICD-10 code for CDD, everything from research to reimbursement will become more efficient."

"We know that CDD occurs in approximately 1 in every 40,000 births because of genetic studies," explains Karen Utley, co-founder and President of the International Foundation for CDKL5 Research (IFCR), the largest patient advocacy group for CDD families in the United States. "But because there was no ICD-10 code for the disease, each of these patients is being coded in a different way at hospitals and we have no way to identify who they are or to know how many are out there."

ICD-10 codes are used by clinicians, health insurance companies, and public health agencies across the world to represent diagnoses. The disease classification is reviewed once a year, in a process managed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), housed within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, IFCR and the Loulou Foundation submitted a proposal to the NCHS for the creation of a new unique code for CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder. "The existing ICD-10 codes were not specific enough to capture the multisystem effects of CDD," said Dr Eric Marsh from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the leading clinical investigators in the disorder and the Principal Investigator at the CDKL5 clinical Center of Excellence who also participated in the proposal. "This leads to the inconsistent records and introduces friction into clinical care, insurance authorization and research studies, all of which depend on ICD-10 codes."

The proposal included support letters from numerous medical organizations including the American Epilepsy Society, American Academy of Neurology, and the Child Neurology Foundation, as well as from leading patient advocacy organizations like the National Organization for Rare Diseases. Several pharmaceutical companies also contributed support letters.

Following the evaluation, CDD was successfully granted a new code (G40.42), in an acknowledgment that it represents a separate medical condition with unique medical needs and that it therefore required its own ICD-10 code.

This milestone follows another major achievement for the CDD patient community, which on November 1, 2019, hosted a Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting with the FDA, in which caregivers shared their experiences and future treatment expectations with the regulators.

The Loulou Foundation, IFCR, and the International CDKL5 Alliance, representing worldwide CDD patient advocacy groups, believe that the new ICD-10 code for CDD will help improve the quality of life of people living with CDD, and urge the medical community and healthcare leaders to advance policies and protocols to ensure early access to genetic diagnosis that will identify currently undiagnosed cases of this disorder.

About CDD

CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder (CDD) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder resulting from loss-of-function mutations in the CDKL5 gene. Presenting first as infantile spasms within the first weeks of life which progresses to intractable epilepsy, CDD patients also display profound neurodevelopmental delay, with generalized hypotonia, impaired motor skills, and severely impaired speech and vision. CDD patients also have impaired sleep, gastrointestinal function, and respiratory issues. With an incidence of approximately 1 in 40,000 live births, CDD is one of the most common monogenic pediatric epilepsies, with several thousand patients estimated in the US and Europe alone. No therapies exist to treat the neurodevelopmental symptoms of CDD, and the epilepsy associated with CDD is poorly managed by current anti-seizure medications.

About Loulou Foundation

Loulou Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation dedicated to therapeutic development for CDD. Founded in 2015, Loulou Foundation drives pre-clinical, translational, and clinical research on transformative therapeutics for CDD, with the goal of delivering meaningful treatments and eventual cures for CDD to patients and their families.

www.louloufoundation.org

About International Foundation for CDKL5 Research (IFCR)

IFCR is the largest US-based patient advocacy group for patients and families living with CDD. Founded in 2009 by families with members living with CDD, IFCR is dedicated to improving the lives of CDD patients and families, through education and research programs. IFCR has pioneered the establishment and development of CDD clinical centers of excellence at medical centers across the United States, to provide the highest quality, multi-disciplinary care for CDD patients and their families.

www.cdkl5.com

About the CDKL5 Alliance

The CDKL5 Alliance is the international network of patient advocacy groups for CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder (CDD), comprising organizations from 18 different nations on four different continents. The role of the CDKL5 Alliance is to provide rapid communication and coordination between the different CDD patient advocacy groups, to support each other and share best practices in CDD education and clinical research and care.

www.cdkl5alliance.org

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005604/en/

Contacts:

Enquiries/Media:

Daniel Lavery, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Loulou Foundation

Director, CDKL5 Program of Excellence, Orphan Disease Center

Perelman School of Medicine

University of Pennsylvania

T: +1 (215) 746-6725

E: dlavery@louloufoundation.org

www.louloufoundation.org

Karen Utley

Co-Founder and President

International Foundation for CDKL5 Research (IFCR)

E: kutley@cdkl5.com

www.cdkl5.com
Jing Ming Zhang became the CEO of Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited (HKG:2389) in 2014. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

See our latest analysis for Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group

How Does Jing Ming Zhang's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited is worth HK$997m, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as HK$714k for the year to December 2018. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at . We note that more than half of the total compensation is not the salary; and performance requirements may apply to this non-salary portion. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations below HK$1.6b, and calculated the median CEO total compensation to be HK$1.8m.

This would give shareholders a good impression of the company, since most similar size companies have to pay more, leaving less for shareholders. Though positive, it's important we delve into the performance of the actual business.

You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group has changed over time.

SEHK:2389 CEO Compensation, January 27th 2020

Is Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited Growing?

On average over the last three years, Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 64% each year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue changed by just 0.5%.

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's good to see a bit of revenue growth, as this suggests the business is able to grow sustainably. Although we don't have analyst forecasts you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Story continues

Has Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited Been A Good Investment?

With a three year total loss of 61%, Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. So shareholders would probably think the company shouldn't be too generous with CEO compensation.

In Summary...

It looks like Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited pays its CEO less than similar sized companies.

Since the business is growing, many would argue this suggests the pay is modest. Despite some positives, it is likely that shareholders wanted better returns, given the performance over the last three years. We're not critical of the remuneration Jing Ming Zhang receives, but it would be good to see improved returns to shareholders before the remuneration grows too much. In this case we may want to look deeper into the company. There are some real positives and we could see improved returns in the longer term. Shareholders may want to check for free if Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group insiders are buying or selling shares.

If you want to buy a stock that is better than Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- The Cannon River Sustainable Farming Association will have its annual conference Feb. 1 at Seeds Farm in Northfield.

The event kicks off at 9 a.m. with keynote speaker Lori Cox of Roots Return Heritage Farm who will present current statistics for small, diversified family farms, review barriers and possible solutions, and discuss how farmers can become a catalyst for their own farm business.

Following the keynote speaker, there will be a chapter meetin,g including an update on the Cannon Valley Grown initiative, a report on the artisan grain cluster, and discussion on 2020 educational workshops. New chapter board members will be elected.

The Cannon River Sustainable Farming Association is also seeking a chapter coordinator that will be a part-time paid position.

The conference will end with a presentation from the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota Executive Director Theresa Keaveny. A hotdish potluck will follow. All attendees are encouraged to bring their favorite hotdish to be entered in the annual competition or another dish to share.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Cannon River SFA Chapter encompasses sustainable farmers, food makers and like-minded consumers in the general area of Dakota, Dodge, Goodhue, LeSueur, Rice, Scott, and Steele counties.

The Cannon River SFA annual meeting is free and open to the public.

For more about the the association, go to www.sfa-mn.org/cannon-river/ .
This was Iowa caucus night back in the mid-1970s. And these are members of the national media covering the voting. It was so unusual to see national media in Iowa back then that people actually paid to watch them. The Democratic Party charged $15 a head for people to watch the media watch the people. See, in previous years, Iowas caucuses just hadnt attracted national attention. There are 3,000 frozen media members in downtown Des Moines  Just over a decade later, Iowa is the place to be.  Its Iowa caucus night. Lets party. [shouting] The caucuses are now a key part of the presidential election cycle. Bush, 57. Theyre the first chance to see what kind of support candidates have among voters. So how did we get here, from caucuses that only Iowans seem to care about to the national spectacle we see today? Turns out, a lot of it was accidental. For most of Iowas history, its caucuses were dominated by political insiders. There was little room for input from rank-and-file members. An historian writing in the 1940s put it like this: The larger number of party voters were deprived of a voice. But the old ways start coming to an end in 1968. The countrys in turmoil, and so is the Democratic Party, mostly over the Vietnam War and civil rights. Basically, the party establishment wants to handle things one way, and many rank-and-file members have other ideas. All this comes to a head as the Democrats hold their national convention. Protesters gather outside. So do police. Inside, the mood is also tense. All this division leads the Democratic Party to rethink the nomination rules to include the voices of all party members in the process. This is how we come to the moment when Iowa becomes key to electing a president, basically by accident. First up, how Iowa became first to hold a presidential contest. It starts with new rules to give everyday members more of a say. So by 1972, winning Iowa now involves four stages. Iowans choose their top candidates, first at the precinct level. These are the caucuses at the heart of this story. But technically, theres further voting at the county, congressional district and state levels. The new rules make things a lot more inclusive, but this creates new delays. Committees need to be formed, and everyone needs to have up-to-date party materials. The problem is, the state party only has an old mimeograph machine to make copies of all this. Its really slow. So because of an old machine and a bunch of new logistics, the party decides it needs at least a month between each step to do it all. The national convention is set for early July, so youd think that the state-level convention would happen about a month before, in June. Except, the party cant find a venue thats available to hold everyone. That little detail helps push everything earlier in a chain reaction. See whats going on here? The precinct caucuses now have to happen early in the year. The party chooses a date that makes Iowas the first presidential contest. The New Hampshire primary has been the first kickoff contest since the 1950s, but Iowa Democrats arent necessarily looking for national attention. They just think itll be fun to be first. Still, attention is what they get. The story begins with George McGovern. People didnt know much about the Iowa caucuses. As a matter of fact, there wasnt a great deal of interest in them. Hes the long-shot candidate. Hes been at the bottom of national polls. He often walked the campaign trail alone, little known by the voters. Most people think this guy, Edmund Muskie, is going to be the big winner in Iowa. That challenge is great, but we can meet it. Then comes caucus night. As the people vote, state party officials gather at their headquarters. Richard Bender is one of them. And we had about 10 or 12 press people show up. These press people included one guy, Johnny Apple. Johnny Apple, a 37-year-old political correspondent for The New York Times. Iowas Democrats arent ready to publicize the results right away. They hadnt expected much demand. According to Bender, only Johnny Apple asked for them that night. I happen to be fascinated with such things, so I made it my business, beforehand, to understand it. Bender sets up a phone tree to gather results from across the state. He adds them up himself with a calculator. And the next day, Apples article helps swing the national spotlight onto the caucuses. Hes got quite the story to tell. Muskies won, but just barely. Not the runaway win people were expecting. And McGovern comes in a strong second. No one expected that, either. The reformed caucus rules helped a long-shot candidate rise to the top. And because this is happening so early in the election now, and because Apples article gives the results national coverage, something else happens. That got picked up by some of the national news shows. The Democratic front-runner has been damaged in Iowa. And wow, all of a sudden, we were being paid attention to. McGovern eventually wins the Democratic nomination. I accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart. He loses the presidential election, but some havent forgotten what those early caucuses did for McGovern, including Georgias former governor, Jimmy Carter. Three years later  There was a major headline on the editorial page of the Atlanta Constitution that said, Jimmy Carters running for what? [laughter] And the What was about this big. [applause] Im running for president.  Carter heads to Iowa before any other Democratic candidate. Hes got no national profile. He didnt have hordes of press following him around. It was a very lonely campaign. Washington pundits call his candidacy laughable. I remember when we couldnt find a microphone. Jimmy Who? becomes a catchphrase. Carters own campaign film plays it up. Jimmy who? I dont know who he is. But as long as Iowans come to know him and like him, Carter bets that the media will start paying attention, just like with McGovern four years earlier. Carter campaigns as locally as possible. One day, he learns that hes been invited on a local TV show. And I said, that is great. I cant believe it. I said, What are we going to do? He said, Do you have any favorite recipes? And I said, What do you mean, recipes? He said, Well, this is a cooking show. Well, they put a white apron on me and a chefs hat. That was my only access to TV when I first began to campaign in Iowa. His opponents are in Iowa, too, but they spend far less time there. Carter wins. Surprisingly top of the class after his win in a somewhat obscure race in Iowa against the others. You cant tell until we go to the other 49 states, but its encouraging for us. A year later  I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear   he becomes the 39th president. Now we need to head to 1980 because we havent talked about the Republicans yet. Heres the states Republican chairman that year. Hes asked why Iowas caucuses have become so important. I think because Jimmy Carter got his start in Iowa in 1976. The Republicans in Iowa are keen to copy the Democrats success, and one candidate in particular gets inspired by Carters underdog win: George H.W. Bush. Hes running against Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and others, and hes near the bottom of the pack. Your name isnt really a household word, but Ronald Reagan can  But Bush goes big in Iowa. He gets a surprise win. Its a far cry from just months before. I was an asterisk in those days. And my feelings got hurt. And now, Im no longer an asterisk. Bush is now the third underdog to get a boost from the caucuses. The next morning on CBS, he distills the essence of this new Iowa effect. We will have forward, Big Mo on our side, as they say in athletics.  Big Mo?  Yeah. Mo  momentum. Bush loses to Reagan, but becomes vice president. And the desire to capture the Big Mo from Iowa has only grown, thanks in large part to Iowas embrace of being first, and the media storm that descends every four years. Thats despite the fact that most candidates who win  This is a job interview.  dont become president. Plus, many point out that the states overwhelmingly white population doesnt reflect the countrys diversity. I actually think that we can find places that represent that balance of urban and rural better. But the race to get the Big Mo out of Iowa persists because its the first chance to upend expectations, and put political fates in the voters hands.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Luckys Market on Monday announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Luckys grocery store on the western edge of Cleveland is one of seven Luckys stores that will remain open. The grocers other 32 stores, including in Florida and Colorado, will shutter as the company restructures.

Luckys decision to file for bankruptcy and close stores comes after Kroger announced plans in December to pull its investment in the company. Luckys plans to hand over control of five leased stores to ALDIs and sell an additional store.

The six other Luckys Markets that remain open across the country are:

 Traverse City, Michigan

 Columbus, Ohio

 Columbia, Missouri

 Melbourne, Florida

 North Boulder, Colorado

 Fort Collins, Colorado.

A note posted at the Cleveland Luckys on Saturday told customers that the store was experiencing a product shortage in the wake of the store closures. The notice said the customers should expect things to be back to normal by Tuesday.

Due to the large-scale store closings that Luckys Market recently experienced, our delivery schedule has been frozen. As a result, our store is undergoing a product shortage, the note read. We apologize for the inconvenience and greatly appreciate your patience. Thank you for sticking with us through this time!
UPDATE: Family of Stephanie Parze to start foundation for domestic abuse victims. Its an epidemic, dad says

The ex-boyfriend of 25-year-old Stephanie Parze, whose body was found Sunday in the woods off Route 9 in Old Bridge, admitted to killing her in a note he wrote to his parents before he took his own life in November, authorities said Monday.

About 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, two teens, ages 17 and 18, walking south on Route 9 found Parzes body just south of Old Mill Road in Old Bridge. The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office announced Monday morning that a medical examiner had confirmed the remains found Sunday were Parzes.

The cause of Parzes death has not yet been determined, said. Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni

The prosecutor was joined at a press conference by the Parze family, who thanked the community for the extensive searches since Parze disappeared in October.

This is an extremely somber day for us. Our lives are never going to be the same," her father, Ed Parze, said, choking back tears. "Stephanie is home - shes coming home, at last, where she belongs.

Ed Parze is joined by his wife Sharleen Parze in thanking those who helped search for their missing daughter, Stephanie, during a press conference Monday at the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

John Ozbilgen, 29, had previously been identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of Parze before he committed suicide.

In the note Ozbilgen left, he wrote that He had had enough and he could not do life in prison," Gramiccioni said. He also admitted that what his parents would hear in the news was true except for charges of child pornography.

Ozbilgen acknowledged he had dug himself a deep hole," the prosecutor continued. He never disclosed where he disposed of Stephanies remains.

Gramiccioni said the investigation remains ongoing, but prosecutors are confident Ozbilgen acted alone in killing Parze.

That guilt belongs to John Ozbilgen and John Ozbilgen alone, he said.

The Ozbilgen family attorney, Richard E. Incremona, told NJ Advance Media that the familys sincere condolences and heartfelt feelings go towards Ms. Parzes family."

In terms of the prosecutors conclusions, Incremona said, they have their own feelings and opinions of that. I dont see a point in expressing that in any detail.

Gramiccioni said his office brought in the Parze family shortly after they found the suicide note and spoke with them about it in general terms.

They knew we had concluded that Ozbilgen was responsible for her death, he said of the Parze family.

Ed Parze said the family plans to start a foundation in Stephanies name to benefit battered women. Ozbilgen had been accused of assaulting Stephanie Parze about a month before she disappeared.

Its an epidemic," Ed Parze said, of domestic violence. "Its out of control.

The discovery of Parzes body brings to an end months of police and community-organized searches in New Jersey and New York.

Gramiccioni said police had executed 50 search warrants at 10 different locations. Ozbilgens house had been searched five times.

On the evening of Oct. 30, Parze and her family went to see a psychic show in New Brunswick. When they returned home to Freehold Township, Parze went to her late grandmothers house, where she had been staying. Her family reported her missing when she didnt show up to her nanny job the following day.

John Ozbilgen was released by Judge Paul Escandon at his detention hearing at the Monmouth County Courthouse on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019. He is charged with child porn and has been identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Parze, 25, of Freehold Township.Russ DeSantis | For NJ Advance Media

Ozbilgen was identified by authorities as a person of interest in her disappearance in early November. The Staten Island native was arrested on a child pornography charge on Nov. 8 after images were found on his phone as authorities investigated Parzes disappearance, authorities have said.

During a court hearing for Ozbilgen, prosecutors revealed that he sent Parze 10 angry text messages the night she was last seen by her family.

Gramiccioni said a leading theory is that Ozbilgen strangled Parze at the Freehold home she was staying late Oct. 30.

Just days after a judge released Ozbilgen from jail, he killed himself inside his familys Freehold Township home.

Police investigate a wooded area along Route 9 south in Old Bridge,NJ where the body of 25-year-old Stephanie Parze was found on Sunday.Noah K. Murray | For NJ Advance

Gramiccioni said Ozbilgen became a person of interest early in the investigation based on his relationship with Parze and some social media communications. Ozbilgen also had a history of domestic violence, Gramiccioni said, with three reported incidents, including the one where Parze was a victim.

He said authorities concluded and confirmed that Ozbilgen killed Parze prior to his suicide. Gramiccioni declined to comment on the evidence but said the note reaffirmed his offices evidence against Ozbilgen.

Though the prosecutor said firmly Ozbilgen acted alone, he did say its possible more charges could be filed after detectives tie up some loose ends.

There is not a co-conspirator out there thats running on the streets, he said.

Previous reports had indicated that Ozbilgen was in an area on Staten Island following Parzes disappearance and a search inside Long Pond Park in Richmond Valley by the New York Police Department was widely reported by local media. Gramiccioni said a knife, some articles of Ozbilgens clothing and a rubber car mat were recovered by police on Staten Island, but nothing had any DNA linked to Parze.

I think the most important development to focus on is that Stephanie was found, Gramiccioni said. Of course all of us hoped and prayed that we would find her alive, even against the odds of the evidence in this case. But today, we sincerely hope and pray that the Parze family has some level of closure.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.

Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Army in 1945, and hundreds of survivors returned to the complex in commemoration, AP reports.

Why it matters: Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest camp built by Germany during World War II and where the Nazis killed 1.1 million men, women and children, most of them Jews.

In photos:

A survivor attends the official ceremony of the 75th anniversary on Jan. 27. Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, president of Germany, lays a wreath in commemoration on Jan. 27. Photo: Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images

Survivors and family members place candles on a monument on Jan. 27. Photo: Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images

Former prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau carrying a floral tribute on Jan. 27. Photo: Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Lea Rosh, chairwoman of the Association Monument for the Murdered Jews of Europe lighting candles on one of the concrete steles of the memorial in Berlin on Jan. 27. Photo: John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

A survivor mourns during a flower-laying ceremony on Jan. 27. Photo: Natalia Fedosenko/TASS via Getty Images

Go deeper: Pope Francis urges people to vow "never again" on Holocaust
Newly appointed panel member Benita Mehra was forced to resign Saturday from the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire after being exposed as having financial links to US cladding manufacturer Arconic.

Mehra was forced to step down after having been hand-picked by the Conservative government, as the bereaved and survivors of the fire threatened to boycott the second phase of the inquiry, which begins today. The decision to appoint her was described as a slap in the face by the survivors and bereaved group Grenfell United.

Mehra chaired the Womens Engineering Society (WES) from 2015 to 2017, which received a charitable donation of 71,000 from the Arconic Foundation for an apprentice conference in 2017, three months after the Grenfell fire. The sum was the largest grant paid out by the Arconic Foundation that year. The Guardian reported that Mehra personally helped draft the application for funds. She remains a trustee of the WES.

US conglomerate Arconic supplied the deadly cladding that led a small kitchen fire in a Grenfell flat to become a raging inferno. The cladding consisted of thin outer aluminium panels filled with flammable insulation, which gives off noxious gases when ignited. The core was manufactured by the firm Celotex.

The other company implicated in the blaze was Rydon, the construction company contracted by Conservative-run Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council to oversee the refurbishment of the tower in 2015-16. That supposed upgrade transformed the tower block into a death trap.

In its initial findings published last October, the inquiry identified the main cause of the rapid spread of the fire and resulting massive loss of life to be the flammable cladding that encased Grenfell Tower. The first report stated: The principal reason why the flames spread so rapidly up, down and around the building was the presence of the aluminium composite material (ACM) rainscreen panels with polyethylene cores, which acted as a source of fuel.

Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick said the panels melted and acted as a source of fuel for the growing fire.

Arconics legal representatives are due to give their opening statement to the inquiry tomorrow. The second phase will examine the decisions which led to the installation of a highly combustible cladding system on a high-rise residential building and the wider background against which they were taken.

Concurrent with the inquiry is a lawsuit alleging wrongful death lodged in the US by the families of 69 victims of the fire and 177 survivors against Arconic and Celotex. The suit is also against Saint-Gobain, the French parent company of Celotex, and white goods maker Whirlpool. It was a refrigerator fire that started the inferno.

The plaintiffs lawyers base their argument on the premise that Arconic sold the cladding knowing it was flammable, it could spread fire and it could and would kill.

Two-and-a-half years since the horrific fire, no one has been arrested, let alone charged, in the deaths of 72 men, women and children on June 14, 2017. Moreover, work to remove flammable cladding on 315 other residential tower blocks in the UK has still not begun.

It was just before Christmas that the Conservative government quietly announced a change in the composition of the panel to preside over phase two of the inquiry. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to Moore-Bick seeking endorsement of Mehra, described as an experienced chartered engineer, to replace Professor Nabeel Hamdi. Mehra would sit alongside architect Thouria Istephan, joining Moore-Bick on the three-person panel.

The survivors had demanded from the outset that a panel be appointed to assist Moore-Bick, and Professor Hamdi was their preferred choice.

In his letter, Johnson assured Moore-Bick that in accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005, I must not appoint a person to the panel who has a direct interest in the matters to which the inquiry relates or a person who has a close association with an interested party unless those links could not be reasonably regarded as affecting the impartiality of the inquiry panel.

Ms. Mehra has confirmed she is not aware of any conflict of interest and Cabinet Office officials have also undertaken due diligence which has not identified any concerns.

Moore-Bick accepted the appointment, with an inquiry spokesman saying it was confident that Benita Mehras former presidency of the Womens Engineering Society does not affect her impartiality as a panel member.

Unhappy with the governments lack of explanation for Professor Hamdis replacement, it was survivors and bereaved group Grenfell United that uncovered Mehras links with Arconic. Karim Mussilhy, the vice-chairman of Grenfell United, told the Guardian, Her society has been supported by Arconic. She will look at it from the perspective of Arconic doing good things for the industry, that they are a great organisation. Her perspective will be affected.

How can she sit next to Sir Martin Moore-Bick when Arconic will be on the stand and is one of the organisations we need answers from in terms of what caused the deaths of our loved ones?

Emma Dent-Coad, the former Labour Party MP for Kensington, tweeted that the appointment was [t]he final nail in the coffin of justice for Grenfell.

Labours press team meekly requested that Boris Johnson should reverse his thoughtless decision to appoint Benita Mehra to the Grenfell Inquiry and apologise.

Fire Brigades Union leader Matt Wrack tweeted, Another disgrace. We warned from the start that a public inquiry is no guarantee whatsoever of justice. Boris Johnson seems determined to prove us right.

The fact is that Labour under Jeremy Corbyn and the Fire Brigades Union gave the inquiry their full backingwith a few caveatsas a vehicle for justice for those whose lives were devastated by the fire. The FBU now feels it must step up criticisms of the inquiry, but at no stage, despite threats to do so, has it ever called for a withdrawal of support. It therefore shares full responsibility for the outcome.

The first phase of the inquiry, limited to considering the events on the night of the fire, concluded by deflecting culpability for the Grenfell deaths away from the companies and the central and local governments and onto deficiencies in the way the London Fire Brigade operated.

This also covers up for the role of successive Labour and Conservative governments over decades in deregulating the building industry to maximise profits. No mention was made of the massive cuts to the London fire service, including the closure of 10 fire stations forced through by Johnson when he was mayor of London, and his dismissive attitude to firefighters concerns, telling them to Get stuffed.

The appointment of Mehra only exposed the whitewash and cover-up of the crimes of the guilty parties that marked phase one of the inquiry and will continue throughout phase two.

The survivors and bereaved families face years of further trauma. The findings of phase two of the inquiry are not expected even to be published until 2023. The Metropolitan Police have already met relatives and survivors to inform them that the police investigation into the fire, running alongside the inquiry, will not lead to any chargesif any are ever broughtuntil the second phase inquiry findings are published and a subsequent police study of its conclusions has taken place. It is suggested that this could take until 2025fully eight years after the fire!

During the second phase, 200,000 documents are being prepared for analysis, 10 times the number dealt with in phase one. There will be eight modules, including on the refurbishment of the tower, how cladding products are tested, and residents complaints to the Council before the fire. Twenty-one companies and 600 individuals will have core participant status.

Mehras removal from the panel does not alter the fact that the fundamental purpose of the inquiry is to protect, rather than punish, the guilty. The Socialist Equality Party and the Grenfell Fire Forum urge that all further cooperation with the inquiry end and that those fighting for justice demand the immediate arrest and trial of all those responsible for the social murder that occurred at Grenfell.

For further information visit the Grenfell Fire Forum Facebook page
Elon Musk SpaceX

Mike Blake/Reuters

Elon Musk's space exploration company, SpaceX, plans to launch up to 42,000 satellites into orbit to beam internet down to remote parts of the Earth.

SpaceX has already put close to 200 Starlink satellites into orbit, and astronomers say their observations of space are being affected by bright streaks of light caused by the reflective spacecraft.

SpaceX said it would solve the problem by putting a dark coating on future satellites.

However, it's an extremely difficult feat of engineering to paint a satellite dark, and astronomers say it doesn't address many other concerns they've voiced about mega-constellations of satellites.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SpaceX, Elon Musk's powerhouse of a space exploration company, could be on course to seriously compromise humanity's study of outer space.

Among its many rocket launches and plans to colonize Mars, SpaceX has a more Earthling-focused project. Its Starlink project aims to put up to 42,000 satellites into orbit around the Earth, where they would beam down data providing internet to remote parts of the globe. SpaceX has been busily launching the satellites in chunks, flying 60 into orbit at a time. The company currently has 180 satellites in orbit and plans to launch new batches every two weeks or so for the rest of 2020.

The sudden proliferation of Starlink satellites has been met with anger by both professional and amateur astronomers, as Starlink satellites have been leaving bright streaks across astronomical images.

SpaceX responded with a solution: Make the next batch of satellites dark. On January 6, the company launched 60 satellites coated in an "experimental darkening treatment," but was not forthcoming on what that treatment involved.

Elon Musk promised in a tweet that Starlink wouldn't "inhibit new discoveries or change the character of the night sky."

Story continues

His assurances haven't assuaged the community's fears, and a legal paper due for publication later this year argues that the FCC's approval of Starlink's plans broke environmental law.

Experts told Business Insider that painting satellites dark is not only an extremely difficult feat of engineering, but it also does not address some of the most pressing concerns of the astronomical community.

SpaceX didn't respond to repeated requests for comment from Business Insider.

"No one would normally paint a satellite black"

SpaceX's announcement that it was painting its satellites dark came as a surprise to experts like Giorgio Savini, director of the University College London Observatory.

"Deciding to paint a satellite black is not something you do lightly," Savini told Business Insider.

One of the biggest problems with painting a satellite dark is heat regulation. Dark paint absorbs the heat of the sun, causing the satellite to heat up huge amounts and then cool when it goes into the Earth's shadow.

spacex starlink internet satellite spacecraft solar panels arrays earth orbit illustration 00002

SpaceX

"Temperatures varying in space is something you don't want because that means that mechanical structures heat up, they dilate or they contract and when they cool down and heat up, and things aren't where they're supposed to be," he said. He added that some electronics will stop working if they exceed 120 degrees centigrade.

Designing a coat of paint that can withstand the rigors of space without peeling off is also no mean feat. SpaceX has not said which material it's using in its coating.

"It's not a case of just picking any old paint," said Ben Jensen the CTO of Surrey Nanosystems, the company which patented the extremely dark coating Vantablack, which has been used on spacecraft and has been in orbit since 2015.

vantablack

Surrey NanoSystems

Coatings like Vantablack or the industry-standard Aeroglaze Z306 are accessible to companies like SpaceX but are normally only used to paint components of spacecraft rather than the whole thing.

"No one would normally paint a satellite black because of all the problems it causes," Jensen said.

Firstly the paint has to be able to resist atomic oxygen particles that circulate up to 1,000 km into space and aggressively erode substances made of long chains of molecules, like paint. Secondly, it has to be designed so more volatile elements of the paint from being lost to space as "out-gas," causing the paint to lose mass and flake off.

Dark satellites could be worse than bright ones

Even if SpaceX manages to navigate the various engineering problems and launch completely dark satellites, these could come with their own problems.

One of the main ways astronomers look for things like exoplanets is by monitoring the light given out by stars. When a planet passes in front of a star it blocks the light causing a brief flicker that can be detected and investigated  this is called "occultation."

starlink train

Vimeo/SatTrackCam Leiden

The worry is that dark satellites passing in front of stars could mimic this phenomenon.

"We're going to be wasting an awful lot of time following these up," said David Clements, an astronomer at Imperial College London. "[An occultation] might be a real dip because the star might be doing something strange, or it might be one of these satellites, how are we going to tell? We can't."

The sheer number of Starlink satellites planned (42,000) is what makes this a pressing threat: "If we were talking about one or two satellites I wouldn't be worrying too much," said Savini.

The satellites could still play havoc with radioastronomy

A dark coating doesn't address one of the major problems with the Starlink satellites: They could compromise a sub-field of astronomy, called radio astronomy, that studies normally invisible wavelengths of light.

Radio telescopes are extremely sensitive devices that detect bursts of radio energy coming from outer space. They're generally kept in radio-quiet reserves, with no cellphone towers for miles and signs telling people to switch off their cellphones if they approach.

Parkes Radio Telescope

REUTERS/Stefica Nicol Bikes

"The prospects for radioastronomy are arguably even worse than for the optical side," said Clements.

This is for two reasons, Clements said: firstly to transmit data to provide internet Starlink will have to use a broad range of frequencies, and second, the number of satellites circling the Earth will cover an extremely large area of the Earth's surface.

"The footprint of these satellites is going to be much, much bigger than ground-based transmitter making it much harder to establish preserves," Clements said. "They are going to be blinding the radio telescopes, possibly quite literally if the signals are going to be strong enough to damage the receivers that we're working with," he added.

Astronomers worry this is the beginning of a satellite avalanche

On top of the technical problems surrounding Starlink satellites specifically, the push of commercial companies into space could signal the start of a larger trend. Savini pointed to Amazon's plans to launch a similar constellation of satellites.

"It becomes like every other sector, a race to quantity. Bigger, better, cheaper," said Savini.

While Savini said he doesn't oppose the use of commercial satellites in space, he worries that a sudden acceleration of launches could end up breaking ground-based astronomy.

"Who's stopping other people saying well if it's just about the money I'm going to put Coca-Cola streaming across the sky and that's it, and we've lost capability. Then that means that astronomy, to progress, needs to launch satellites and we can't do anything from the ground, and that's going to be a big slow-down in terms of science," he added.

"Unfortunately, popular culture sees astronomy as a hobby rather than a science and they forget an enormous portion of physics that we know now is thanks to astronomy. Which, at the end of the day, is the biggest lab we have at our disposal," he said.

To Clements' mind, the fact that tech billionaires are spearheading these constellations is an even bigger cause for concern.

"As far as SpaceX is concerned, they're definitely doing the move-fast-and-break-things approach of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, only in this particular instance they're breaking the sky and they're breaking chunks of astronomy," he said.

Despite Musk's insistence that SpaceX is engaging with astronomers, Clements' outlook on the channels of communication between SpaceX and the scientific community was bleak. "It really does knock the confidence of people trying to engage with them to come up with some kind of compromise because you don't feel you're being listened to," Clements said.

Watch how SpaceX is trying to buy out a village in Texas to make way for its epxerimental Mars rockets.

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Linkedin Dan Martin (Agence France-Presse) Shanghai, China  Mon, January 27, 2020 10:07 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20610f540 2 Health China,animals,wildlife,outbreak,health,virus,coronavirus,SARS Free

The animal-borne SARS virus 17 years ago was supposed to be a wake-up call about consuming wildlife as food, but scientists say China's latest epidemic indicates that the practice remains widespread and a growing risk to human health.

Like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which was traced to bats and civets, the virus that has killed dozens in China and infected almost 2,000 people is believed to have originated in animals trafficked for food.

Final findings are yet to be announced, but Chinese health officials believe it came from wildlife sold illegally at a meat market in the central city of Wuhan that offered everything from rats to wolf puppies and giant salamanders.

The so-called "bushmeat" trade, plus broader human encroachment on wild habitats, is bringing us into ever-closer contact with animal viruses that can spread rapidly in our uber-connected world, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a global NGO focused on infectious disease prevention.

The Global Virome Project, a worldwide effort to increase preparedness for pandemics, which Daszak is a part of, estimates there are 1.7 million undiscovered viruses in wildlife, nearly half of which could be harmful to humans.

Daszak said the project's research indicates we can expect around five new animal-borne pathogens to infect humanity each year.

Read also: With Wuhan virus genetic code in hand, scientists begin work on a vaccine

'New normal'

"The new normal is that pandemics are going to happen more frequently," he said.

"We are making contact with animals that carry these viruses more, and more, and more."

Viruses are a natural part of the environment, and not all are the stuff of sci-fi horror.

But the recent track record of animal-hosted viruses that "jump" to humans is sobering.

Like SARS, which killed hundreds in China and Hong Kong in 2002-03, Ebola also was traced to bats, while HIV has roots in African primates.

Today, more than 60 percent of new emerging human infectious diseases reach us via animals, scientists say.

Even familiar menu items like poultry and cattle -- whose pathogens we have largely adapted to over millennia -- occasionally throw a curveball, like bird flu or mad-cow disease.

"For the sake of these wild species' future, and for human health, we need to reduce consumption of these wild animals," said Diana Bell, a wildlife disease and conservation biologist at University of East Anglia who has studied SARS, Ebola and other pathogens.

"But, 17 years on (from SARS), apparently that hasn't happened."

Wild-meat consumption itself is not necessarily dangerous -- most viruses die once their host is killed.

But pathogens can jump to humans during the capture, transportation, or slaughter of animals, especially if sanitation is poor or protective equipment not used.

On Thursday, the southern province of Guangdong, a center of rare-species consumption, said it was immediately halting trade in wild animals.

Similar promises were made following SARS, yet conservationists say the trade continues, aided by loophole-riddled Chinese laws regarding many species, and episodic or just plain lax enforcement.

Chinese authorities have addressed the problem partly by encouraging a farmed-animal industry.

This has included for endangered species like tigers, whose parts are prized in China and other Asian countries as aphrodisiacs or for other uses.

But that comes with its own downside, by providing a channel for more sought-after wild-caught beasts to be laundered as "farmed", Bell said.

She adds that wildlife traders also have become more savvy, avoiding market scrutiny by selling directly to restaurants.

Read also: Virus silences Lunar New Year celebrations in Beijing

'Difficult to stop'

Environmental groups say Chinese demand, fuelled by rising consumer buying power, is the biggest driver of the global bushmeat trade today.

Some rare species have been prized in China as delicacies or for unproved health benefits since ancient times.

Traditionally, a host gains "face" by serving guests or business partners expensive, hard-to-acquire wild fare.

Yang Zhanqiu, a pathogen biologist at Wuhan University, said modern demand also is bolstered by widespread distrust of a Chinese food industry tarnished by years of repeated safety scandals.

"People will think: wild is natural, natural is safe," Yang said.

"Everyone wants to eat better, so there is a market for wild animals."

Daszak said "it's very difficult to stop an activity with 5,000 years of cultural significance."

But recent surveys strongly indicate that China's younger generation -- swayed partly by animal-rights campaigns involving popular Chinese celebrities -- are much less inclined to tuck into bat, rat, or salamander, he added.

"I think that in 50 years this will be a thing of the past," Daszak said.

"The problem is that we live in such an interconnected world today that any pandemic like this can spread globally in three weeks."

Topics : China animals wildlife outbreak health virus coronavirus SARS
A Texas A&M University graduate student who was suspected of showing symptoms of coronavirus does not have the deadly pneumonia-like virus, university officials said Sunday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Texas A&M officials Sunday that samples tested negative for the respiratory virus. The strain of coronavirus has sickened nearly 3,000 and killed 56 in China, officials said.

We are very pleased with this news and grateful to those community caregivers involved for their expertise, proactive action and compassion demonstrated in treating our student, said Martha Dannenbaum, director of Texas A&Ms Student Health Services. We wish to thank the Brazos County Health District, which offered guidance and transparency throughout this case.

On HoustonChronicle.com: State's second suspected coronvirus case under investigation at Baylor

The student visited an emergency room out of concern that he had been in Wuhan, not the severity of his symptoms, a Brazos County Health District official said.

A Baylor University student who recently traveled to China is also being tested by federal health officials for a possible case of the virus. The student is experiencing mild symptoms and has been isolated as a precaution, Baylor officials said Friday.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that may produce respiratory illnesses in some people, according to the CDC. Strains that occur in animals may evolve and infect humans, such as the 2003 SARS and 2012 MERS outbreaks, and can be fatal.

Health care providers in Brazos County are still aware of public health guidance about the virus.

There are five reported cases of the virus in the United States as of Sunday. Affected patients were located in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California, Washington state, Maricopa County, Arizona and Chicago, Illinois and have been isolated during treatment. All had traveled from the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has been the city hardest hit by the outbreak.

U.S. health officials said Sunday its likely more cases will be reported in the coming weeks, but said the risk of the virus spreading in the U.S. is low.

For the general public, no additional precautions are recommended at this time beyond the simple daily precautions that everyone should always take, the CDC said in a statement Sunday.

Five major U.S. airports have began conducting public health screenings for the virus. Houstons George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport has not begun screenings, but has posted flyers around security checkpoints advising travelers going to and from Wuhan to watch for symptoms of sickness and avoid animal markets, touching live or dead animals and handling animal products.

Travelers should avoid all non-essential travel to Hubei province in China, where Wuhan is located, officials said.

This report contains material from wire services.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com
The Supreme Court Monday sought the West Bengal government's response on a plea of a BJP leader seeing direction to make him a party in the petition related to alleged murder of BJP activist Dulal Kumar in 2018 in the state.

The body of 32-year-old BJP activist was found hanging from an electric pole in Purulia district's Balarampur of West Bengal on June 2, 2018 after the Panchayat election in the state.

BJP spokesperson and senior lawyer Gaurav Bhatia had filed a PIL seeking a CBI probe into Dulal's alleged murder.

"You (state government) file the response to the impleadment application within four weeks," said the bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

Bhatia, who has sought probe into the death of Dulal Kumar, said the that he be allowed to pursue the PIL and be also made a party in the case.

During the brief hearing senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal government, said one day the apex court will have to decide whether a political activist can be allowed to file a PIL based on newspaper reports in such cases.

The top court took note of Bhatia's objection to Sibal's submissions and said, "We are conscious that opposition parties are also using the forum of this court".

Referring to the details of the case, Bhatia said the body of Dulal Kumar was found hanging from the electric pole and despite the family of the deceased naming six persons as accused for the killing, the state police took 20 days in lodging the FIR.

Police did not give the copy of post-mortem report of the deceased to his family member, the lawyer said, adding that the police recorded the statement of "entire 'mohalla'" but did not record versions of the family members of the victim.

Sibal opposed the submission of Bhatia and said that the plea has been filed on basis of newspaper reports and the death was the result of an extra-marital affair of the deceased. The plea was vehemently opposed.

The bench has now posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

The top court on March 26, 2019 had asked the state government to furnish the report of medical board constituted by it to ascertain the cause of the death of a Dulal Kumar.

In the PIL, Bhatia had sought CBI probe into the death of three BJP workers -- Shaktipada Sarkar, Trilochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar -- in 2018.

The apex court was satisfied with the action taken by state police in the death cases of Sarkar and Mahto and had decided to close the proceedings in the PIL with regard to their death.

"In the case involving the death of Shaktipada Sardar, three of the accused named in the FIR have been charge-sheeted and they are presently in custody. In addition, other persons not named in the FIR have also been charge-sheeted...

"Having regard to the above facts and availability of alternative remedy to the family members of the deceased, we decline and would not like to continue to entertain this writ petition insofar as the death of Shaktipada Sardar and Trilochan Mahato is concerned," it had said.

It, however, had kept alive the plea with regard to the death Dulal Kumar.

Besides seeking CBI probe, the PIL has also sought compensation of Rs 50 lakh each to the family members of the deceased BJP workers.

The plea has also sought direction to the state to grant "adequate police protection to the family members of the victims as there is an imminent threat to their lives".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dong Ho village in Song Ho commune of Thuan Thanh district, the northern province of Bac Ninh, is known as the cradle of one of the most famous folk painting genres of Vietnam.

A painting of the Dong Ho folk painting genre

Telling the history of Dong Ho paintings, artisan Nguyen Dang Che, who has been working hard to preserve this genre, said according ancestors documents, the craft of making paintings in Dong Ho dates back to the 16th century, and it is now more than 500 years old. So far, no one has ever heard about the founder of this craft, and all the quintessence of this folk painting genre has been handed down from generation to generation by artisans for centuries.

This genre had been in its prime before 1944. At that time, local residents mainly earned their living by making paintings to sell in the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival and producing votive papers. The village was busy all year round, and there were up to 17 clans involved in making paintings. Usually, the whole village made votive papers from the first lunar month to the 15th day of the 7th lunar month. From the 8th to the 12th month in the lunar calendar, they turned to producing paintings for Tet.

At that time, the 12th lunar month was the busiest period as there were six market days for selling paintings in this month. The first market day fell on the first day of the 12th month, and it was opened every six days, on the 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st and 26th. People from far and wide flocked to the market to buy paintings and then went to various places to re-sell them to others to decorate their homes during Tet. The atmosphere was bustling all the time with busy buyers and sellers, Che recounted.

According to Prof. Dr Truong Quoc Binh  member of the National Cultural Heritage Council, Dong Ho is a long-standing folk painting genre that is the most famous in Vietnam and deeply imbued with the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people. With the diversity in terms of design and theme, Dong Ho paintings reflect all social aspects, from customs, daily life to the spiritual life of the people in the Red River delta.

Over hundreds of years of development, Dong Ho folk paintings have become an indispensable spiritual food for a large number of people from all social strata in the country for many centuries.

Each painting has its own meaning, reflecting aspirations of the working class, from simple to sacred and noble things. Such paintings as Vinh hoa (Honour), Phu quy (Wealth), Tien tai (Richness), Ga dai cat (The rooster of good fortune), Phuc (Happiness) and Tho (Longevity) show the wishes for a new year.

Meanwhile, to commemorate national heroes, artisans created Hai Ba Trung tru giac Han (Trung Sisters defeat the Han enemy), Ba Trieu danh quan Ngo (Lady Trieu fights against the Wu troops), and Ngo Vuong Quyen danh Nam Han (King Ngo Quyen fights against the Southern Han troops), among others. To inspire the traditional fondness for learning and the respect for teachers, there are such works as Hieu hoc (Fond of learning), Vinh quy bai to (Returning home to pay tribute to ancestors after achieving academic honours), Muc dong doc sach (Herdsman reads book), and Thay do coc (Toad teacher).

Dong Ho paintings also criticise bad habits, vices, as well as injustice in society. Among them, Dam cuoi chuot (Mices wedding) is a profound satirical implication. The cat represents the ruling class that is greedy and eager for bribery while the mice, representing peasants, are wise and always stay alert to the cat. Meanwhile, Danh ghen (Scene of jealousy) criticises some mens womanising while secretly giving advice to them to help prevent a family tragedy.

Tu quy (The four seasons), Tung hac (The pine and the crane), Ke cuc (The rooster and the chrysanthemum), Lien ap (The lotus and the duck) imply the virtues of honourable persons. There are also paintings depicting traditional cultural activities of the daily life or festivals in the northern region like Danh du (Swinging), Danh vat (Wrestling), Ruoc trong (Drum procession), Mua rong (Dragon dancing), Mua lan (Kylin dancing), and Choi trau (Buffalo fighting).

Additionally, some works were also inspired by old stories that praise the faithfulness and moral standards such as Tong Tran  Cuc Hoa, Luu Binh  Duong Le, Thach Sanh, and Truyen Kieu.

Che noted doing this craft, artisans also created new works reflecting changes in society. Notably, when the westernisation movement was popular in the early 20th century, Dong Ho artisans made many paintings that criticised the miscellany and preposterousness in society at that time.

Those paintings include Nhay dam (Dancing), which depicts a bar with waiters and two couples dancing a waltz; and the couple of paintings Trai tu khoai  Gai bay nghe (Four joys of men  Seven jobs of women), which condemns the self-indulgence of urban men and women in the French-ruled period.

Following the success of the August Revolution in 1945, the whole country joined hands in addressing hardships and eradicating illiteracy and hunger, and artisans of Dong Ho village became part of those drives by paintings promoting mass education.

A number of works were also made to support other movements then such as Vua san xuat vua chien dau (Concurrent production and combat), Bao ve hoa binh (Protecting peace), or Kien thiet quoc gia (Contributing to the nation). Some also features modified proverbs written in the national script so that they can become closer to ordinary people.

Artisan Che said during the resistance war against the US, he also created more than 10 paintings under new themes by himself like Hop tac xa mua ban (Trading cooperative), Cai tien nong cu (Innovating farm tools), Bac Ho voi thieu nhi (Uncle Ho and children), and Phu nu ba dam dang (Three resourcefulnesses of women).

Particularly, in Khong cho chung no thoat (Do not let them escape), he depicted the scene of Vietnamese troops and people arresting a US fighter pilot during the 12 days of the USs air raid on Hanoi in 1972. Many foreigners have come to buy this painting, he said.

With its unique values and diverse content, Dong Ho folk paintings are not only precious heritage in the countrys art treasure but also hold an important position in the worlds fine art history. Given this, the genre was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage.

A dossier is being compiled to seek UNESCOs recognition of the Dong Ho folk painting genre as part of the humanitys intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding./.VNA
The Fire Department on Monday announced the distribution of 15 trauma kits to city schools. The backpacks were funded through a grant in conjunction with the Police and School departments. Fire Chief Sammons explains what's in the trauma kits. Police Chief Wynn says the kits are part of active shooter preparations but will be useful for any medical emergency. PreviousNext

MEMA Grant Puts Emergency Medical Kits in Pittsfield Schools



Police Chief Michael Wynn, left, Fire Chief Thomas Sammons and Eric Lamoureaux, community coordinator for the Pittsfield Public Schools, at Monday's announcement. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  All city public schools will receive backpack trauma kits equipped to handle a multitude of emergency situations.

Fire Chief Thomas Sammons alongside Police Chief Michael Wynn and Eric Lamoureaux of the Pittsfield Public Schools announced Monday the delivery of 15 trauma kits that were secured through a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency grant.

"This is a whole approach the city is taking in responding to an active shooter," Sammons said at Fire Department headquarters on Monday morning. "The Police and Fire Department have worked together on active shooter scenarios and these kits have a lot of the same items that we carry and deploy."

Sammons said the grant was submitted in the fall and was a joint effort between the Fire, Police, and School departments. The grant was $9,735 in total; each kit cost around $650.

"This is a great example of three city departments working together for the common good of our residents," the chief said. "It is unfortunate that we have to think about this but it is better to plan ahead then to not think about it."

Sammons opened one of the packs that contain five sub packs containing a clot pack, quick clot dressing, pressure dressing, occlusive dressing, eyewash and a stretcher among other items to provide immediate wound care in an emergency.

Wynn said the kits are really active shooter kits congruent with emergency services' developing active assailant protocol. But he said the packs have a variety of uses and are more likely to be applied in a different emergency situation.

"The closer we can get the trauma kits to the front line, the more likely it is going to have a positive impact on the outcome," he said. "So although we are planning for the worse case ... these kits can be applied in a variety of circumstances. It doesn't matter if there is a car crash in proximity to the school or there is a laceration that occurs in one of the shops."

Lamoureaux said the kits would likely be delivered to the schools next week and representatives from emergency services would train the head nurse and staff on how to use them. From there, they will train medical response teams set up in each building.

"Many times it is the staff first-responders within the building who need to act first until fire, police, and EMS arrive," he said. "As we distribute these kits to the buildings ... the schools' medical response teams will be trained in how to use them."

He said he was thankful for the partnership between the schools and city first -responders and that the school has also trained staff in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and will continue to expand this training.
President Donald Trump could face legal and ethical obstacles in taking care of the mounting legal bills for his impeachment trial  with some advisors acknowledging they are on the payroll and others seeking to provide counsel gratis.

There is still incomplete public information about the president's powerhouse team of legal eagles whose defense could easily and quickly climb into the $2 million range, and far beyond if his trial is slowed by witnesses being called.

His leader personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, who has been pushing back against Democrats inside the Senate chamber, confirmed Friday that he was getting paid for his impeachment work. Former O.J. Simpson defense team member Alan Dershowitz is not.

'Yeah, lawyers are,' Sekulow said in response to a question from DailyMail.com about whether he was being paid for his legal advice.

Trump impeachment lawyer Jay Sekulow is being paid by the president for his counsel, he said

On the public payroll: Donald Trump does not have to pay for White House Counsel Pat Cipollone (right) and his staff, including Mike Purpura (left), who spoke on the first day of the president's defense

'I wouldn't say paid advisor  I'm the president's retained counsel,' Sekulow said. 'I don't discuss my legal fees, but we're paid for our legal [work],' he responded.

Asked whether Dershowitz was getting paid, Sekulow responded: 'I'm not getting into ... ' before abruptly dispensing with the question.

Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor who articulated the Trump team legal position that abuse of power is not a crime and therefore not an impeachable offense, told DailyMail.com he has not asked to be paid.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz said he has not asked to paid by the president, who put the Harvard Law professor on his team

Trump, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $3 billion, could shell out millions in legal fees, though some lawyers doing work for him are not charging

Robert Bennett, attorney for President Clinton, speaks to reporters at a news conference Friday, March 13, 1998, in Los Angeles. He tells DailyMail.com he was advised he wasn't able to do legal work for Clinton for free

However that posture could invite scrutiny down the road about whether the legal representation constitutes an unallowable gift, former Bill Clinton impeachment lawyer Robert Bennett told Dailymail.com.

'If Alan Dershowitz is a counsel of record or one of them, he's got to charge the president. Otherwise what he's doing would be used as a gift,' said Bennett, who is now senior counsel with Schertler, Onorato, Mead & Sears.

Dershowitz said he would check on the issue and that if he ends up being paid, he would contribute the funds to charity.

Bennett speaks from experience. He said that when Clinton first asked him to represent him in the Paula Jones case, 'I had offered to do it for nothing. But the White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, after checking, said that we could not do that that  it would be some sort of a favor and viewed as such,' he said.

'So I billed him at some reasonable rate. I then later learned that he and Mrs. Clinton had two umbrella insurance policies which covered some of the actions which made a lot of money on their behalf,' Bennett, 81, added. The couple 'paid a substantial bit of money out of their own pocket,' he recalled.

Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel during the Bill Clinton impeachment who joined Trump's legal effort, isn't saying for now on what basis he's working. 'I'm not commenting at all at this time, and will remain mum for now,' he told DailyMail.com. Starr practices with the Lanier law firm.

In his remarks at the Senate trial Monday, Starr warned of a modern 'age of impeachment,' adding: ''Like war, impeachment is hell. Or at least, presidential impeachment is hell.'

The president's legal fees are already piling up, with Trump amassing a top team of experienced litigators who could each easily charge $800 an hour or upward for their services.

'This doesn't have a standard. There's not too many case where you're representing a president,' said Bennett, who didn't want to hazard a guess on billing rates for the task.

For an overall price tag for Trump's impeachment defense, Bennett estimated: 'It would be in the millions,' and called $2 million a reasonable estimate.

Clinton created a legal defense fund to help defer legal costs that ballooned to $9 million fending off the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky probes. He had four lawyers on his impeachment team.

Helping keep down costs for Trump is his use of White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputies in his office. Cipollone's salary is $183,000 a year, White House records show.

Two more of his team work for Cipollone; Patrick Philbin, who is a deputy White House counsel on $168,000 a year; and Michael Purpura, who has the same role and salary.

Lawyers account for their time in small increments that quickly add up when billing clients for phone calls, emails, strategy sessions, and printing costs that can quickly add up, especially with a team of 10 lawyers and associates who assist them.

The length of Trump's impeachment trial is still not known. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said he was not paid by Trump for his investigative work in Ukraine that has featured in the case against by Democratic managers.

Former federal prosecutor and independent counsel Robert Ray is also on Trump's team. Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, is part of the White House communications team so her salary is paid by taxpayers. Jane and Martin Raskin are personal lawyers for the president who helped him fend off the Mueller probe. Eric Herschmann is with the Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP that has done legal work for Trump for years before he was president.

Rep. Adam Schiff singled out Trump lawyers in his closing arguments Friday night. 'I'm looking forward to that constitutional argument by Alan Dershowitz,' Schiff said, mentioning his points on abuse of power. He said he was looking forward to Starr's arguments on obstruction of Congress in light of his bringing an obstruction of justice article against Clinton.
The Koreguaje Tribe: Threatened Guardians of the Northwest Amazon

A vulnerable culture living in a severely degraded section of the Colombian Amazon is in desperate need of international respect and support.

The Revelator

To visit South Americas indigenous Koreguaje tribe  and see the destruction that has been wrought upon it  you need to start in the southwestern Colombian city of Florencia.

Arriving by air in Florencia, which is the capital of Caqueta Department, gives you a panoramic view of the regions near-total conversion from Amazon rainforest to cattle pasture. Only a few pockets of forest remain, surrounded by urban sprawl and agriculture.

The profound effects of this mass deforestation become even more evident when traveling by land and river deeper into Caqueta.

Along the Orteguaza River, from Puerto Arango down to the Caqueta River  a journey of about 55 miles  grasslands and cows dominate what was once forest. The degradation of the land, waterways and riverbanks is evident everywhere you look, and the lack of consciousness of this damage can feel demoralizing.

Caqueta itself is a microcosm of Colombias most pressing social and environmental problems. Land is power in Colombia, and the thirst for land in Caqueta has been the main driver behind conflict and deforestation for decades.

The seeds of mass land conversion and conflict in the department (Colombias equivalent of a state) were planted with abandoned development projects that encouraged migration to the Amazon frontier in the 1960s. Since then the landscape has been entirely transformed by pastures and coca plantations. Coca, the base ingredient for cocaine, is a sacred medicinal plant to many South American tribes, including the Koreguaje, who call it hipie.

And matters are only going to get worse. Recent concessions granting additional development rights to oil companies now threaten to degrade the land, water and local communities even further. Meanwhile illegal gold mining has become pervasive throughout the Amazon, with some of the worst destruction concentrated in the Colombian Amazon along the Caqueta River Basin.

Much of this destruction starts on a small scale before ballooning out of control.

Laws for land titling and wealthy landowners encourage poor smallholder farmers to clear land to eventually consolidate into large ranches, Amazon deforestation expert Dr. Dolors Armenteras told me recently. As a result around 1% of landowners in Colombia hold 81% of productive land.

The process often begins with land grabs and fires, which portend mass-scale land conversion along new and expanding frontiers of deforestation. Insecure land tenure and negligent state enforcement even allow this process to occur within protected national parks and indigenous territories.

The result is the transformation of nominally public forests into private, forest-free landholdings, Armenteras and co-authors wrote last year in Nature

Deforestation rates have skyrocketed in Caqueta since the 2016 Colombian peace accords , even in designated indigenous reserves and protected national parks . As a result Caqueta is now the Colombian Amazons most active deforestation frontier.

And also one of its last lines of defense.

Deforested land, cleared for cattle pasture along the Orteguaza River. Caqueta, Colombia. Photo by D.H Rasolt

The Koreguaje Tribe and the Orteguaza River

The area along the Orteguaza is the current home of the Koreguaje tribe, a proud and deeply threatened ethnic group whose ancestral territories stretched all the way to Florencia.

The Koreguaje see themselves not just as protectors of the forest, but part of it. They refer to themselves and their still-widely spoken language as Korebaju, which is interpreted through their worldview as people of the earth.

Its a testament to their resilience that theyve been able to preserve their language this long, as indigenous languages are severely to critically endangered in many parts of Colombia and South America.

Despite this long history and success in preserving their culture, today fewer than 2,000 Koreguaje endure in their territories following a painful history of forced enslavement, Christianization , land grabbing and displacement dating back to the 18th century.

Smaller populations of Koreguaje live in the slums of Florencia and Bogota, where they fled after the cocaine trade brought deforestation, aerial glyphosate spraying assassinations and forced displacement to their homelands in the early 1990s  all occurring within the context of Colombias prolonged civil war . This violent epoch of the coca lasted until the mid-2000s. Many of the members of this diaspora have unsuccessfully petitioned to reclaim land that was lost.

Ive worked with the Koreguaje for nearly four years, on projects ranging from water quality to food security, alternative energy and income sources, and the transmission and preservation of traditional knowledge. Their situation urgently needs more attention  not just for their sakes, but to protect an ecologically vital section of the Colombian Amazon.

What remains of Koreguaje territory now represents some of the only standing forest along the degraded Orteguaza River, though their ability to keep living off the land and river has been seriously compromised.

The Koreguaje have traditionally survived on fishing, a rotational form of subsistence slash-and-burn agriculture common to Amazonian tribes known as chagras, and occasional hunting. Seasonally flooded palm-tree forests known as  cananguchales  along the Orteguaza and the less voluminous Peneya River are at the center of traditional Koreguaje health and culture.

But these bodies of water and the many fish that spawn within them are disappearing. Fish throughout the region are also contaminated with mercury from illegal gold mining, and the reduction of ancestral territories following conflict and deforestation has greatly diminished the food available from chagras and hunting.

Its not only the Koreguaje who are at risk from the destruction of their surrounding ecosystems, including the Andean-Amazonian Piedmont . According to geographer Juan Gonzalez, who worked for years along the Orteguaza studying sediment flow and soil erosion, the river serves as a confluence of different water types that are critical to the integrity of communities and ecosystems tens to thousands of kilometers downstream.

A Koreguaje woman preparing fish within a flooded forest. Photo by D.H. Rasolt

Neglected Guardians

Through all of this, the Koreguaje and neighboring Muina-Murui (Huitoto) communities that live along the Caqueta River have remained  guardians of the forest  in this highly threatened, important part of the Northwest Amazon.

I spoke with Koreguaje leader Oliver Gasca last year while in his reserve.

We know our territory, he told me emphatically. We know how to live here, what animals to eat, how to raise a family, and we respect our land and the Mother Earth. Look all around this region. It is pasture and dying land. Now look at us. We are the only ones with trees, and we keep losing more land and people.

Despite their moderate success in protecting local forests, the Koreguajes rights and holistic worldviews continue to be neglected.

As Gasca recounted: White people come and tell us what we need to do: We need to stop hunting because the animals are disappearing. We need to stop fishing because the fish are contaminated with mercury from gold mining. We need to stop working our chagras, we need to stop having many children because there is not enough food and territory for them and we need to stop using our traditional plants when we are sick

This all used to be our home and we were strong and the forest was strong. And people come here and tell us what we need to do after they caused all of these problems with their Western worldviews? They need to listen. We will go extinct  and so will the forest without us.

While Gascas feelings  which echo those of many indigenous leaders  are entirely justifiable, that categorical us against them perspective has the potential to change. There are people listening, and there are tools, initiatives and global movements gaining momentum that recognize the importance of indigenous rights and distinct worldviews.

Importantly, Colombia also has a legal structure that supports strong environmental and indigenous rights to life, health, education, autonomy and territory, although in practice these rights are consistently ignored or violated. In fact, its a running joke among those trying to improve the situation that Colombia is a lawless country with the best laws in the world.

But the legal framework for protecting and preserving the Koreguaje culture and territory remains in place, and international pressure and support are likely needed to ensure its effectiveness and accountability.

Global Movements and Agreements

The Guardians of the Forest paradigm recognizes indigenous communities as stewards of the immense biodiversity and ecosystem services of tropical forests, and its easy to see why.

Globally, indigenous communities manage at least 300 billion metric tons of carbon within their forested territories, above- and belowground. Indigenous territories also contain approximately 80% of the worlds biodiversity. Evidence from around the world has shown that indigenous communities with secure rights and tenure to their collectively held lands have extremely low rates of deforestation and land degradation. Policies for further securing indigenous land rights and amplifying their territories are also becoming recognized as some of the most cost-effective means of curbing deforestation and mitigating global climate change, and were recently recognized as such in a 2019 special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

And a  Rights of Nature  movement, firmly grounded in holistic indigenous worldviews like that of the Koreguaje, has been gaining steam around the world, especially in Colombia . But the actual impact of any shift away from anthropocentrism remains to be seen.

Broad legal frameworks, such as the Colombian constitution and international environmental human and indigenous rights accords and declarations , are an important component in protecting vulnerable indigenous people like the Koreguaje, especially if governments are held accountable . Unfortunately these agreements often neglect distinct indigenous worldviews and the unique circumstances communities deal with on a daily basis.

The recent  Leticia Pact , developed in response to international uproar over rising deforestation rates, is an example of a broad-brush regional agreement, among seven Amazonian countries, aimed at coordinated forest management. But most Koreguaje leaders I spoke with this past year were unaware of the details of the pact, and when they learned more, they were skeptical about its implementation and upset that indigenous communities had not been properly consulted or included. They also felt the pact failed to respect their autonomy

These are common contentions of indigenous people, whose rights and worldviews are consistently marginalized while the Western world goes about its unsustainable business.

Forested Koreguaje territory is visible in the background beyond an active deforestation frontier in Caqueta, Colombia. Photo by D.H. Rasolt

Community-based Research and Projects

A more open collaboration between researchers and indigenous leaders could be powerful.

Scientists, in particular, have much to gain by understanding the more sustainable models that underlie the traditional practices and knowledge of indigenous people. Conversely, introducing scientific tools that support communities autonomously determined needs could help protect their traditions, knowledge and capacity to monitor, adapt and defend against threats. I, and other researchers, have gained a great deal of knowledge and perspective by working with the Koreguaje, while helping them to implement techniques and projects to increase resilience and preserve traditions.

To Koreguaje leaders, though, any project is relatively superficial when it doesnt fortify the connection between the increasingly disconnected tribal youth and the cultures dying traditions.

As the displaced Koreguaje leader Juven Piranga told me, Without the roots, the tree wont grow.

Piranga expressed fears that the impending deaths of the few remaining wise elders could also spell the death of the Koreguaje culture.

Supporting efforts to document and transmit the unique circumstances, knowledge, language and traditions of the Koreguaje and other critically threatened cultures should be of high priority to researchers and citizens alike.

Possible Economic Alternatives

Indigenous tribes throughout Colombia are being bombarded with propaganda about the economic benefits of opening up their territories to visiting outsiders, and the Koreguaje are no exception.

Colombias tourism industry is booming , but unfortunately the message forced upon indigenous leaders is shortsighted and deceptive. Mass tourism, ecotourism, and the more niche sectors of ethnotourism and  ayahuasca tourism  (ayahuasca, or yage, is a sacred traditional hallucinogenic drink for the Koreguaje) all pose high degrees of cultural risk for the Koreguaje and other traditional Amazonian tribes.

More integrated and circular economic solutions that respect and reinforce traditions, autonomy, pride and ecosystems are needed if alternative income sources are to be part of the answer for the Koreguaje. These approaches must still be implemented with caution by those looking to trade with Koreguaje communities, to avoid a dependence on external markets that might lead to the abandonment of other traditional practices.

The preservation and commercialization of directly sourced traditional crafts from indigenous communities, especially those made from natural fibers and pigments, holds promise. Profits can be reinvested into community-based-programs that fortify traditions and conserve and regenerate ecosystems where the natural fibers and pigments flourish. Koreguaje women make crafts of deep cultural significance from the fiber of the cumare palm tree , with natural pigments from countless different endemic plants.

Other integrated alternative income options for the Koreguaje  assuming their remaining ecosystems are preserved  could include high-value non-timber forest products that incorporate an intercultural collaboration between modern agroecological models and traditional farming practices. Their neighbors, the Muina-Murui, are already incorporating these models.

From the consumer side, supporting integrated and circular socioeconomic systems has the potential of making positive impacts within vulnerable communities like the Koreguaje.

Solutions Through Systems Thinking

The imminent risk to, and potential disappearance of, the Koreguaje and their surrounding ecosystems must no longer be viewed as an isolated circumstance. Its caused by systemic problems and has cumulative consequences. As an international community, we must think more in systems, as the Koreguaje do, if we are to fully appreciate the importance of their culture and territory.

The devastating loss of the Koreguaje would mean the loss of countless generations of accumulated knowledge, traditions and practices developed sustainably within their ancestral lands. This loss will be felt throughout the region. The degradation of the Orteguaza River will continue to have basin-scale impacts on the increasingly threatened downstream ecosystems of the Amazon. Mass-scale deforestation in Caqueta threatens irreversible biodiversity loss, while contributing to the Amazons march toward the tipping point of becoming a carbon source. The Koreguaje have demonstrated their ability to protect the forests of their territories, and neither they nor the interconnected living planet can afford to lose any more.

Daniel Henryk Rasolt is an independent researcher and writer and the founder of Unbounded World , which provides an integrated approach to environmental and cultural preservation. He holds a degree in astrophysics and works in diverse disciplines related to energy, the environment, health and traditional cultures. His interdisciplinary and intercultural approach has a basis in complex systems science. Find him on Twitter @DHRasolt

Note: This article originally appeared on The Revelator , an online journal of environmental news and thought, and is published under a Creative Commons license . The Revelator is an initiative of the Center for Biological Diversity . The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Revelator, the Center for Biological Diversity or their employees.

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New York, United States  Thousands of Indian Americans, joined by several civil rights organisations, have staged protests across dozens of US cities against policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that critics say undermine the countrys secular constitution.

On Sunday, which marked Indias Republic Day, Mohammad Mustaqeem and his eight-year-old son, along with thousands of others, gathered outside the Indian embassy in New York to protest against the recently passed citizenship law that makes faith a basis for attaining Indian citizenship.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) coupled with a plan to implement a nationwide counting of citizenship (National Register of Citizens or NRC) by Indias Hindu nationalist government has triggered widespread protests in the South Asian nation.

In the northeast Indian state of Assam, nearly two million people were dropped from the citizenship list in 2019 and many fear a nationwide NRC will possibly render millions of Indians stateless.

Mustaqeem from the eastern Indian state of Bihar says his nephew Mohammad Irfan was among those injured last month when police stormed the library inside Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi.

Modi has started war against Muslims

Mustaqeem says his nephews left leg and right hand were fractured in the police action, which caused a public outcry. The students were protesting against the CAA and the NRC that activists say discriminates against Indias Muslims.

I cant go back to India right now. But I have come here to protest against the war Modi has started against Indias Muslims, Mustaqeem told Al Jazeera.

He accused the Modi government of waging a war against Muslims, students, Dalits and marginalised sections of society.

Instead of studying, my nephew is under treatment in Araria [Bihar state]. Is this the India we want to hand over to our next generation? Mustaqeem asked.

India American protesters hold banners at an anti-CAA demonstration in New York City [Mohammad Ali/Al Jazeera]

Waving hundreds of Indian flags, protesters raised banners against Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The New York protest was part of nationwide protests and marches organised by the recently formed Coalition to Stop Genocide  a broad coalition of Indian Americans and US-based civil rights organisations such as the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, Equity Labs, Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha of New York, Black Lives Matter and the Jewish Voice for Peace.

The protesters demanded the repeal of the CAA in India, and called for action by the US government, including possible sanctions on Indias Home Minister Shah, as recommended by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

What is happening in India, is happening in the name of Hinduism. But the Hinduism that we practise is inclusive and has love at its centre. Whereas the Hindu nationalism is exclusive by definition and seems to have hatred at its centre, said Sunita Viswanath from Hindus for Human Rights.

The protesting men, women and children of all ages held banners and shouted slogans against the Indian governments right-wing policies. They unfurled the Indian flag and recited the national anthem to mark their Republic Day.

A poster said Hindu + Muslim = Indias greatest love stories. You cant change that, while another said, When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. Many posters referred to Martin Luther Kings dream vs Indias Nazi vision.

We, the people of India

With a banner flaunting Dalit icons like Saint Ravidas along with Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar  the architect of Indias constitution  Sitaram joined the protest along with his friends from Connecticut.

It is wrong to assume that the CAA is only against Muslim community. Laws like CAA and provisions like NRC and NPR represent the destruction of the constitution brick by brick by Narendra Modi, the 52-year-old said.

If we dont speak now, there will be nothing and no one left to speak for, said Sitaram, who is associated with the International Bahujan Organization  a Dalit group.

He and other protesters read the preamble of the Indian Constitution reminding Modi that India belonged to We, the people of India, as Modi has been accused of pushing a Hindu supremacist agenda.

Shaik Ubaid, one of the organisers, said that protests were happening not only in India but around the world and it represented a global consensus against the draconian policies of the Modi government.

They are also a clear indication that the world will not stand idly by while Hindutvas supremacist worldview takes India down the path of fascism, said Ubaid who was part of an initiative which led to a ban on Modis entry into the US after the 2002 Gujarat religious riots.

Reverend Chloe Breyer, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York, said that Martin Luther King Junior, who was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, called to speak for the voiceless.

The CAA makes an enemy of Indias own precious people, damaging the pluralistic democracy that has existed since 1947 and has been such an inspiration to the world, Breyer told Al Jazeera.

Hope

Students of Harvard University and representatives from the Indian diaspora also staged a 24-hour protest at Harvard Square in Boston to coincide with Indias Republic Day.

A lot of times I get tokenised because of my Dalit identity. It becomes almost a vulgarised presentation of Dalit body on a stage. But this protest I feel like I have agency and I am part of a larger dialogue, said Suraj Yengde, a researcher at Harvard University.

But I would also hope that now that Dalits are coming for Muslims, there will be reciprocity in future, Yengde, author of a recent book, Caste Matters, told Al Jazeera by phone.

The protesters in Washington DC marched to the Indian Embassy.

The brutal crackdown by government in India on the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests has created a situation in which women in large numbers have come out on the streets to challenge the divisive-communal-fascist agenda of the government, said rights activist and Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey, who travelled to Washington, DC from India.

It gives a hope that democracy and constitution can ultimately be saved by the common people from a government which is bent upon destroying them, he added.

A protest was also organised outside the Indian consulate in San Francisco.

Indian Americans and people of conscience in the US are seeking accountability from the Hindu nationalist regime that wants to turn Indian Muslims into foreigners and render them stateless, said Ahsan Khan, President of the Indian American Muslim Council.
Year after year, Canada figures among the top-ranked countries when comparing post-secondary attainment rates. In 2018, 62 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds in Canada held a post-secondary title or degree, way above the 44 per cent average among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries.

What few people realize is that Canadas remarkable system of colleges and institutes is what pushes us so far above average. Canada boasts some of the best universities in the world and the share of Canadians with a bachelors degree is slightly above the OECD average, but its our robust and accessible college system that really sets us apart.

In 2018, 26 per cent of all Canadians aged 25-64 had obtained a short-cycle tertiary diploma, which are usually granted by colleges and institutes, compared to an OECD average of only 7 per cent.

That difference is huge, but its not too surprising for those of us who work closely with colleges and institutes. It is first and foremost a testament to the value these institutions provide to Canadians and their communities across the country.

In fact, 95 per cent of Canadians, and 86 per cent of Indigenous people, live within 50 km of a college or institute campus or learning centre. Being present in so many communities, they are able to serve Canadians where they live, and provide them with accessible training opportunities that meet their needs, as well as the needs of local employers.

That focus on the local economy is also why colleges and institutes use program advisory committees that allow local experts and employers to weigh in on curriculum development and program requirements in order to ensure they are up to date and meet industry needs.

This is especially valuable in these times of rapid technological progress and disruption where many jobs and sectors are changing dramatically. It is this deep connection that makes colleges and institutes among the most adaptable post-secondary institutions in the world.

Chances are that the vast majority of Canadians entering the workforce these days will need to return to school at some point to hone their skills or even shift to another sector altogether as industries change. Access to flexible programs and credentials, continuing education, online learning, as well prior-learning assessment and recognition will all become essential assets going forward.

To ensure Canadians have as many opportunities as possible for re-skilling or upskilling we need to embrace a culture of lifelong learning. The good news is that Canada has a strong foundation on which to build, as colleges and institutes across the country are already working hard to provide diverse, flexible learning options, and deliver for their communities.
Judge Seamus Hughes has warned a mother of four to settle a 150 speeding fine owed since 2015 or run the risk of further sanctions, telling a court: If I wait another three years she might have seven children.

Aisling Murray, of Portanure Lane, Gowna, Cavan had been fined following an offence on August 3 2015.

The penalty had been imposed on February 18 2016 with a due date of June 17 imposed by the then presiding judge.

However, at last Tuesdays District Court sitting it was revealed Ms Murray was a mother of four and was still not in a position to pay the sum handed down.

Judge Hughes said he was not taking Ms Murrays familial circumstances as an excuse.

She didnt have four children in August 2015 and if I wait another three years she might have seven children, he said, amid much amusement throughout the courtroom.

Asking Ms Murray when she would likely have the 150 to hand into court, Judge Hughes told her: Pick your date wisely.

A date of February 11 2020 was consequently pencilled in for the said payment of the fine.
The leading left-wing candidate to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader insisted that it was 'b******s' to suggest British voters did not want socialism - despite the party's election humiliation, it was revealed today.

Rebecca Long-Bailey told an event at the weekend she had been left in a 'state of shock' by the scale of their defeat on December 12, when Labour handed Boris Johnson an 80-seat Tory majority.

At a dinner for retired Blyth Valley MP Ronnie Campbell on Saturday she said she had been convinced that at worst the election would result in a hung Parliament - as it did in 2017 - and Labour could in fact have won.

She said she had been dumbfounded because 'everybody loved the Labour Party' in the 'peoples republic of Salford' - a reference to her Greater Manchester constituency.

'I was in a state of shock and it was as if everything I believed [was] being ripped up before my very eyes, that everything we fought and we're so proud of was suddenly invalidated, [that] no-one wanted us, no-one wanted socialism,' she said in a recording leaked to the Huffington Post website.

'And then I pushed that thought out of my head because I thought ''that's b******s''.'

Rebecca Long-Bailey said she had been left in a 'state of shock' by the scale of their defeat on December 12, when Labour handed Boris Johnson an 80-seat Tory majority

At the same event Jeremy Corbyn seemingly backed Ms Long-Bailey as his successor by hailing her as 'our candidate'

Jeremy Corbyn led Labour to its worst election defeat since the 1930s in December, a humiliation by Boris Johnson that led to the Labour leader announcing he was to step down.

Community union backs Starmer with call for Labour to rebuild as 'a party of Government' The Community trade union today became the latest to endorsed Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour Party leadership. The centre-left organisation joined Unison and Usdaw in backing the shadow Brexit secretary to replace Jeremy Corbyn. The union also backed education secretary Angela Rayner for the deputy leadership post. Community's general secretary, Roy Rickhuss, said: 'This year marks a decade of the Conservatives in Downing Street. This comes from a run of four devastating general election defeats, where life-long Labour communities, across our industrial working class heartlands, have turned away from the Labour Party. 'It is clear Labour has to rebuild itself as not only the party for working people, but as a party of Government that looks to our countrys future.' Advertisement

Ms Long-Bailey is the leading left-wing candidate to replace him, but she faces tough competition from current favourite Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, and outsider Lisa Nandy.

The winner will be announced on April 4.

At the same Saturday event Jeremy Corbyn seemingly backed Ms Long-Bailey as his successor by hailing her as 'our candidate'.

The outgoing Labour leader delivered the apparent endorsement at the retirement party.

It is more evidence that Ms Long-Bailey is the Left's favoured option to replace Mr Corbyn in the contest, due to finish in April.

Unite chief Len McCluskey, a close Corbyn ally, heaped praise on Ms Long-Bailey over the weekend after his union supported her.

According to The Times, Mr Corbyn gave a glimpse of his own views at the event on Saturday night.

After paying tribute to Mr Campbell, a fellow member of the left-wing Labour Campaign Group, he reportedly said: 'It's an absolute pleasure to be here alongside Becky Long-Bailey, our candidate for leader.

'I've known Becky since she came in to parliament and we've worked very well together. She has done the most to develop our trade union policies.'

In a swipe at other contenders, he added that Ms Long-Bailey had been 'steadfast' during the failed coup by Labour MPs in 2016.
The creamy layer of the world population has collectively generated an enormous amount of wealth in the past 20 years.

Indias richest one per cent hold more than four times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the countrys population, while the total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than the full-year Budget, according to the study, Time to Care from Oxfam.

One of the most significant goals of inclusive and equitable development is poverty elimination. Although India has made rapid progress in several fields, its impressive economic growth has not trickled down to the larger population. Indias millions still continue to face mounting daily challenges and are struggling to meet the bare basic necessities of subsistence: education, health, housing, employment and adequate food. The fruits of Indias newfound prosperity have not flowed to the countrys low-income layers, and the outcome has been quite skewed. While a minuscule minority is enjoying astronomical prosperity, the vast majority continues to grapple with the same old problems.

The father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, had said that elimination of poverty was his mission and was also the prime objective of Swaraj, or freedom. In his famous speech, Freedom at Midnight, the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned, The ambition of the greatest men of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, our work will not be over. Nehru reminded the country of the tasks that lay ahead and emphasised: The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. That mission of Gandhi and ambition of Nehru remains still a mirage, a far, distant dream.

INDIAS ECONOMIC DIVIDE

India has witnessed relatively high aggregate economic growth, but also abounds in persistent and endemic deprivation and deep social failures. Appalling poverty and staggering inequalities continue to characterise the lower social and economic pyramid. Barring an impressive growth in per capita income which has inherent faultlines, India is actually falling behind its neighbours in South Asia in every social indicator that matters, from literacy to child malnutrition to access to toilets. This imbalance is largely on account of the continued neglect, in the post-reform period, of public involvement in crucial fields such as social security, basic education, healthcare, gender equity, and civil rights. Indias development landscape is dotted with schemes that sounded ambitious but were very poorly led and funded and simply didnt deliver.

The creamy layer of the world population has collectively generated an enormous amount of wealth in the past 20 years. Most of that newly generated wealth has gone to those who are already affluent. This has particularly been acute in developed countries.

There are two main areas where changes to policy could boost economic equality: taxation and social spending.

1. Progressive taxation where corporations and the richest individuals pay more to the state in order to redistribute resources across society.

2. Social spending on public services such as education, health and social protection, is also important. There is a strong case in India for free, universal public services.

One of the ideas India is seriously weighing is Universal Basic Income (UBI). In a UBI system, the government gives citizens a regular infusion of free cash with no strings attached. There are, however, several downsides: In the words of Thomas Piketty, the renowned French economist, The cost of substantial fiscal redistribution would be considerable, because it would decrease the return on investments (for individuals) in human capital and thus decrease the incentives for individuals to make such investments. It is important that UBI should not be seen as a replacement for properly funded public services and social protection measures  these are the essential building blocks of fair and thriving societies. UBI should, in fact, be an additional tool in the social welfare arsenal.

While providing free income for a short period, we need to plan for empowering grassroots communities to chart out their path out of poverty. This will require a recast of our development paradigm. The perception that the poor do not have skills or would not be able to survive on their own is now being widely recognised as a myth. This conclusion is grounded in the premise that a paternalistic conceit of low-income communities and negative beliefs perpetuated about them has hindered their development. The new findings are challenging traditional development wisdom  particularly the fallacious assumption that the poor need a great deal of advice, aid, support and motivation to improve their lives.

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME (UBI)

Universal Basic Income is an old idea that is gaining traction as governments look to revamp their social safety nets. India is the most serious new aspirant. If implemented, India would join Finland in providing free money to its citizens. However, in terms of the Congress Partys promise, the poor will continue to draw other social benefits. There is not much evidence of UBIs potential and it would be a drastic step to adopt it with little proof that it works.

UBI is a broad, non-targeted periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all, rich or poor, on an individual basis. The idea is to ensure that every person in society has the means to live with a modicum of freedom and dignity, independent of ones capacity to earn or the availability of employment. Cash transfers are not tied to the recipients behaviour, and they are free to spend the money as they wish. In contrast, an example of a conditional, in-kind transfer in India would be the mid-day meal scheme, where the meal  an in-kind transfer  is conditional upon attending school.

UBI offers less scope for corruption than most anti-poverty schemes because all individuals are entitled to the same amount of money. Moreover, the digital payment mode leaves no scope for middlemen to sponge funds. The recent transfer of the governments first tranche of basic income into farmers accounts was accomplished quite seamlessly.

A UBI guarantees that people will not be impoverished, will not go hungry, and will be protected from job loss due to automation while cutting the need for many other forms of social security. A basic monthly income can also replace a string of welfare subsidies for the poor that India currently has in place, although the Congress Party has been very clear that it has no intention of tinkering with them. Getting a guaranteed, regular infusion of cash can certainly make people happier and less stressed (even if that cash isnt enough to cover all their needs). Yet most countries arent doing it.

In India, over a hundred schemes are delivered to the same set of beneficiaries through mutually insulated administrative silos, each set up by Central government ministries jealously intent on guarding their respective fiefdoms. Thus, a convergence of these schemes at the point of delivery is made virtually impossible. This negates any positive effect that would operate if the beneficiaries themselves were to have the authority to plan the utilisation of these resources and match them to their own priorities.

Digital tools have made possible the idea of directly transferring cash to Indias poor instead of attempting to provide services directly. Direct transfers represent a paradigm shift in how India handles the welfare of its poor. Cash transfer initiatives can also plug the massive inefficiency with which the Indian government handled its welfare programs in the past. For example, under the food security program, the government would set a high fixed price for grains from farmers, purchase these grains directly, and then redistribute them to the poor at a lower price, making up the difference with a massive subsidy.

However, cash transfers are no panacea for Indias poverty problem. Some quasi-cash transfer plans, such as the food stamp programme, restrict spending to only essential items such as food. Compared to traditional policies relying on subsidies and direct provision of goods, direct cash transfers increase the autonomy of Indias poor. But they also present substantial risk. To ensure that cash transfers reduce poverty over time, the poor must spend more on food, education, and healthcare. In some cases, additional spending power could go toward inessential consumption  spending that does little to improve the lot of Indias poor.

Although India is a good case for basic income, there are several challenges. The leadership class repeatedly turns to policies that sound appealing but are doomed to fail  and then their failure ensures that the country wont face the issue head on. The government will have to change course and shift away from the legacy mindset to get things right.

The writer is a member of the Niti Aayogs National Committee of Financial Literacy and Inclusion for Women
According to statistics from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, close to 90 percent of homeless veterans are male. About 45 percent of them are African American or Latino, a number that is higher than their percentage of the general population. A veteran is more likely to experience homelessness between age 31 and 50.
You dont have to be a bibliophile to want to visit one of these stunning libraries.

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, USA

The collection at this five-storey library dates to 1857 and contains 300,000 items, many of them from the 19th century. Designed in the Greek Revival-style, the librarys atrium-style stack room has five tiers of cast-iron balconies, with decorative embellishments, and a latticed skylight that soars 61 feet above the ground.

Photograph: georgepeabodylibrary / Instagram

Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

With its rich Neo-Manueline interior, this library is truly fit for royalty, and holds the biggest collection of Portuguese literature outside Portugal. There are more than 350,000 volumes in the collection, including rare books. Finished in 1887, the library has colourful stained glass windows, intricate balustrades, and a multi-coloured skylight. The library also houses a beautiful monument made of ivory, marble, and silver that celebrates the Portuguese discoveries of the 1400s and 1500s.

Photograph: megustaleermex / Instagram

Old Library Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

The largest library in Ireland, the Old Library at Trinity College is home to more than seven million volumes, the most well known among them being the beautifully embellished The Book of Kells, a Gospel volume dating to the early 9th century, and The Book of Durrow, another illustrated medieval gospel. The librarys main chamber is the 213-foot-long Long Room, which houses 200,000 of the oldest books in the librarys collection. The room has a barrel-like ceiling, oak bookcases, and dark wooden interiors with marble busts of philosophers and writers lining the room.

Photograph: Diliff / Wikimedia Commons

Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK

The structure of this famous library follows the English Palladian style and is the oldest example of a circular library in England. The Bodleian is home to more than 13 million printed items, which include a Gutenberg Bible and Shakespeares first folio. With its roots in the 14th century the Bodleian is one of the oldest libraries in Europe.

Photograph: Diliff / Wikimedia Commons

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Abbey Library of Saint Gall, St Gallen, Switzerland

The library and the rest of this medieval Carolingian abbey were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, highlighting its importance as a significant monastic library. The librarys 160,000-plus collection covers a wide range of topics, with some manuscripts dating to the 8th century, and is oldest in Switzerland. The interiors feature a magnificent Rococo hall, an opulent example of the Baroque style, beautifully carved wood, stucco and paint.

Photograph: Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen / Wikipedia Commons

Strahov Monastery Library, Prague, Czech Republic

The library at this 12th century monastery was completed in 1679 and houses thousands of editions of the Bible in the magnificent Theological Hall. The interiors have a distinctly Baroque feel with splendid ornate stuccowork featuring several Biblical frescoes, and gilded carved wooded decorations.

Photograph: Malenka / Pixabay.com

Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany

This public library isnt as opulent or grand as most of the others on this list, but its modern innovative design is inspiring in its minimalism. Bright, clean, linear, and minimal architecture are the highlight of this library with its gleaming white surfaces and airy spaces. The reading room or gallery hall is shaped like an inverted pyramid, stretching from the fourth floor to the top and features wide terraces and lightning-shaped staircases that make it one of the most popular destinations for taking photographs in the city.

Photograph: O Palsson / Flickr

Handelingenkamer, The Hague, The Netherlands

Built at the end of the 19th century, this four-storey library belongs to the Dutch Parliaments. It has a distinctly Renaissance design, heavily influenced by Chinese aesthetics. This is seen in the Chinese motifs, like dragon heads, seen in the cast-iron balustrades and staircases, as well as the red, green and gold colour scheme. The roof is a leaded glass dome that washes the interiors with natural light that filters all the way down the four stories to the ground floor.

Photograph: rijksoverheid, Arenda Oomen / Wikimedia Commons

Admont Abbey Library, Admont, Austria

The majestic library at this Benedectine abbey was built in 1776 and is the largest monastery library in the world thanks to the dazzling library hall, which is 70 meters long. Design in the Baroque style, the gold and white interiors have seven cupolas showcasing beautiful frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte and noteworthy sculptures by Joseph Stammel, two famous Baroque artists.

Photograph: roll robots / Wikimedia Commons

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, New Haven, USA

This Yale University library is one of the largest libraries in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Completed in 1963, the building is starkly modern and houses the collection in a six-story glassed-in book stacks. These towers have windows made of thick Vermont marble panels encased within a steel frame clad in granite. These panels protect the works from direct sunlight, while also bringing some of the exterior light to the interiors, giving the space a warm light.

Photograph: Gunnar Klack / Flickr
The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the state government to inform it of the reasons for the delay in according sanction to prosecute a legislator in connection with an alleged corruption case.

Justice Sunil Thomas gave the direction while considering a plea seeking a direction to the state government for according sanction to prosecute V K EbrahimKunju, MLA, in connection with alleged corruption in constructing a bridge at Aluva near here during his tenure as minister in the previous Congress-led UDF.

Counsel for the government informed the court that more time was required as it was a case involving a former minister.

The court directed the government to submit its reply before February 24.

According to the plea, the treasury suffered a loss of Rs 4.2 crore due to alleged corruption in the construction of the bridge connecting the famous Aluva Manappuram where a Shiva temple is located.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
When Deborah Dugan took her post as the chief executive of the Recording Academy, which oversees the Grammy Awards, in August, she inherited an organisation in meltdown and was tasked with getting it back on track.

The problems were myriad. The Grammys, which have long skewed old, white and male, feel only tangentially in touch with contemporary pop music. Big-name stars have been distancing themselves from the event. Its record on diversity, both behind the scenes and at the winners' podium, has been dismal. When faced with questions about the Grammys' gender imbalance, Dugan's predecessor, Neil Portnow, said that women needed to "step up".

Deborah Dugan at the 20th Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas last year. Credit:AP

In just a few months on the job, Dugan spotted trouble: voting irregularities in the nominating process; improbably hefty payments to lawyers; conflicts of interest among board members; a scheduled board vote to approve a sizable bonus for Portnow, despite the fact that he had been accused of rape by a musician, and the allegation had not been disclosed to all board members. (In a statement, Portnow said: "The allegations of rape are ludicrous and untrue.") Behind the scenes of what is described as "music's biggest night", Dugan found malfeasance and rot.

The catch: The Recording Academy didn't want to change. On January 16, 10 days before this year's Grammy Awards, Dugan was placed on leave after being accused of bullying by an administrative assistant and removed from the academy's Los Angeles offices. Perhaps not coincidentally, Dugan had filed a memo last month detailing her concerns that "something was seriously amiss at the Academy". After her ouster, she doubled down in a discrimination complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Technology is shattering legacy financial systems that can't keep pace with market demand  and Brex is at the forefront. It's one of fintechs buzziest startups, aiming to rebuild B2B financial products starting with corporate cards for technology companies.

Brex

Brex

The company was quietly launched in 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, two 22-year-old engineers who previously founded Pagar.me, one of Brazil's largest payment processors.

Brex already has more than 1,000 customers signed up with the help of backing from investors including PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, early Facebook investor Yuri Milner, former Visa CEO Carl Pascarella, and esteemed startup incubator Y Combinator.

And we caught a glimpse of the Series B pitch deck Dubugras and Franceschi used to win them over.

In it, they lay out a clear problem: Technology startups often had trouble securing corporate credit cards  even if they had millions in the bank  because legacy banks and card issuers wanted to see company credit histories, which young institutions simply couldn't produce.

They had a simple solution: Remove the restrictions of legacy technology by giving instant approval to startups based on their available cash balance, including money raised through venture, rather than credit history.

In the deck, the founders outlined their plans to help startups of all sizes instantly get cards with higher limits, as well as automatic expense management and seamless integration with existing accounting systems.

As part of our coverage of the genesis of today's successful companies, BI Prime received Brex's permission to offer a look into the startup's full 19-slide pitch deck, which includes considerations such as:

The startup's mission

Key team members and previous backers

The size of the market opportunity

A step-by-step plan of how to solve credit cards for startups

Some of the card's coolest features

Data points showing how to scale the business

Story continues

BI Prime is publishing dozens of stories like this each and every day. Want to get started by reading the full pitch deck?

Read the original article on Business Insider
For an entire generation, for the first time in nearly three decades, personal economic insecurity has escaped from the cage of confusing statistical interpretations and debates on classifications of slowdown  is it cyclic, or is it structural?  and has gripped them at a personal level.

Those who dont understand economics, or discern the difference between slowdown, stagflation and depression, also know this much from the pinch they feel  we are all in trouble. Beyond political arguments, TV debates, contrasting op-ed pieces, seminars on economy, views of experts, common Indians are feeling the pressure, and it is tightening. Common people are responding in simple commonsensical ways to inoculate themselves against a possible worsening of the situation  by cutting costs, forgoing or postponing purchases, stepping on the pedal on caution in investments, increasing savings, avoiding risks.

The government has accumulated a plethora of challenges on the economic front. Added together, it leaves no one in doubt that the slowdown is upon us  beyond any scope for denial.

The government has a duty to solve the problem, and the first step is to acknowledge the existence of a problem. Having done so, if not publicly, within, the Narendra Modi government, instead of getting bogged down by the largeness of it, must harness it as a great opportunity to do a 1991 redux. Or call it Reforms 2.0.

It is indeed an opportunity disguised as challenge. After all, tinkering with a good economy is too risky, not doing anything is an option when things are good. But, in an economy doing as badly as ours is today, reforms are expected, demanded and expected. Reforms, big bad bold ones, are not only inevitable as a solution out of this rut, but can also provide an aura of political vision and boldness to those who unleash it.

Beyond academic debates, the Indian economy needs two major changes  more investment and more expenditure. Investments from industrialists and businesses, domestic and global, would create jobs, capacity and supply; increased expenditure from common people would boost demand and consumption, and create a demand for more investment.

That is the problem too. Industry does not want to invest and common people dont want to spend. Which is why we have been continually slowing down.

The government has tried to kill the slowdown beast with a thinking that it can spend its way to growth and prosperity  wherein instead of trusting and creating an ecosystem where businesses would love to invest and people would love to spend  they would do both. It has failed, as it was wont to.

The mindset of the Narendra Modi government must metamorphose from a trust premium in the bureaucratic muscle to spend taxed money to achieve prosperity for all, or hope to create a $5 trillion economy based on demand created by government expenditure in infrastructure. It must shift the onus of responsibility, power and trust to the private citizen. It must reform.

The simplest way to hit the ball out of the park on expenditure and investment is to reverse the thinking and push expenditure through citizens and investments through the private sector.

Here, the first major move in the Budget must be the complete abolition of income tax. This move can singularly put around `5 lakh crore a year, `20 lakh crore in the next four years, into the hands of earning Indians to spend. If this be the highlight of the Budget, it would not just make headlines, but history.

If the risk feels too great, not from fiscal deficit concerns, but political, another way is to still route that money into the hands of citizens by half. Cut all income tax rates by half, thus ensuring half the money is pushed into the hands of taxpayers. But declare the other half collected by income tax as being collected only for direct cash transfer into the hands of the poor. Split the cake of `5 lakh crore typically collected annually as additional wallet shared by rich and poor.

The captains of industry would be reinvigorated to revitalise their under-utilised capacity or build new ones to grab a share of this new additional purchasing power unleashed into the economy. Either approach, an astronomic quantum of money transfer from government to citizen, without any string, is the best way to address demand and consumption.

The second, to boost private investments as well as to make up for revenue losses, is to privatise public enterprises, not tactically, but wholesale, and as a principle. A declaration of not just intent that barring five enterprises maximum, including railways and in defence, the government would sell off everything, especially banks, insurance, media, steel, energy, telecom, civil aviation, mines within the next two to three years would bring back the global, and business, focus back to Indias economic story. Let the government exit business as a player completely in big strides.

Thirdly, the 2020 Modi Budget must set a new template to minimise government by rationalising the scope of taxes and subsidies. Historically, both ideological and pragmatic considerations have denied any consensus on how much to tax, how much to subsidise. There can, however, be a simple rationalisation based on ending double transactions that nullify themselves.

In simple words, if you impose one tax, and provide one subsidy to the same person  the net effect will be nullified on the citizen, but enlarges the government. Taxing subsidiary beneficiaries and subsidising taxpayers is a zero-sum game, which only leads to harmful augmenting of government size, enlarging the bureaucracy like cancer, but benefits neither citizens nor the economy.

Post the Budget, reforms in labour, land acquisition, setting up and running businesses must all be aimed at cutting government power, reducing need for licenses and permissions, lowering needless compliances, and reducing bureaucratic power. A push must be given to ending discretionary political and bureaucratic power in the economy.

Living up to his own oft-proclaimed mantra, least governed is best governed, Mr Modi can, and must, set back the Indian economy on track with a sui generis Budget, matching the 1991 reforms declaration, pushed as we are to the brink, and snatch the initiative.

The only words to guide him to courage during this daunting task are three questions, if not now, when; if not here, where; and if not he, who? In the lead-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had declared  Modi hain to mumkin hain  the Budget on February 1 will be the acid test for can he, and will he?
Then-national security adviser John Bolton speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington on Jan. 28, 2019. (Holly Kellum/NTD)

Top GOP Senators Dismiss Bolton Allegation That Trump Sought Ukraine Quid Pro Quo

Top Republican senators dismissed leaked details from former National Security Adviser John Boltons upcoming book, saying the allegations were not new.

Theres nothing new here. It does seem to be an effort to sell books, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, told reporters in Washington on Monday.

The basic dynamic of the obligation of the House to take the time they have to put a case together doesnt change. I dont think it changes any fundamental information, nor does it change the basic case that the House has to put the case together, added Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the No. 4 GOP member in the Senate.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) argued during an appearance on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Monday that the House could have called Bolton but didnt, and the Senate shouldnt do the Houses work for them.

They want us to do the investigative work. And thats not the job of the Senate, Ernst, the vice chairwoman of the Senate Republican Conference, said.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney briefs media at the White House in Washington on Oct. 17, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Bolton reportedly alleged that he, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani were in a meeting where the president spoke with Giuliani about former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was fired last year.

He also alleged Trump also told Bolton that he wanted to keep withholding congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine to try to force officials there to open investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and Bidens son Hunter Biden.

Mulvaney denied the claims, as did Trump.

According to a declassified transcript of a July 2019 call, the president asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into allegations of corruption surrounding the Bidens. Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company, from 2014 to 2019 while his father told audience members at an event in 2018 that in 2016 he pressured Ukrainian leaders into ousting a prosecutor who was probing his sons employer.

Hunter Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, waits for the start of his fathers debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky., on Oct. 11, 2012. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)

The Bidens have denied wrongdoing while Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry based on the July call. House Democrats argued that because Joe Biden is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the request amounted to asking a foreign country to interfere in the 2020 election.

Trump was impeached by House Democrats on Dec. 18, 2019, and is on trial in the Republican-held Senate.

Two GOP senatorsSens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah)said the details of Boltons book bolstered the case for calling Bolton to testify. A third Republican signaled she might vote to call witnesses. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, meaning Democrats need four GOP members to vote with them.

I stated before that I was curious as to what John Bolton might have to say, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in a statement. From the outset, Ive worked to ensure this trial would be fair and that members would have the opportunity to weigh in after its initial phase to determine if we need more information.

Ive also said there is an appropriate time for us to evaluate whether we need additional informationthat time is almost here. I look forward to the White House wrapping up presentation of its case.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) arrives at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 27, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Other Republican senators joined GOP leaders in suggesting they wouldnt vote to call Bolton.

Senator Romney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the president during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is over. Its time to move on! Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) said in a statement.

It really doesnt change anything, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said at a press conference.

Democrats, meanwhile, argued that the leaked details should compel Republicans to vote to hear from Bolton.

If GOP senators refuse to hear from Bolton now, they will most certainly hear from him when he releases his book in March. Wouldnt it be better to get the facts before we vote? Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement. The American people deserve the truth during the trial, not after.

John Boltons account of his conversations with Trump is the smoking gun that should shake Senate Republicans to the core, added Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). We cant wait for the Impeachment Trial to be over. We cant wait for his book to be published. We need to hear the truth.
Tuomas Hiltunen, the former top administrator at the Barenboim-Said Foundation who came to Fort Worth Opera after Darren Woods was fired in 2017, resigned last week, saying only that he and the companys Board of Trustees had different visions of the direction and goals of the company. The Boards announcement cited Hiltunens reduction in expenditures and said, As we move forward, our top priority is, and always has been, ensuring that the financial health of the company is secure for decades to come.  KERA (Dallas)
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Donegal, chef Kwanghi Chan from Bowls restaurant in Dublin draws on his heritage to fuse Asian tradition with modern Irish tastes.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

300g hoisin sauce

300g yellow bean paste

2 tbsp sesame oil

5 tbsp soy sauce

5 tbsp XO brandy or dry sherry

5 tbsp honey

20g caster sugar

6 tbsp ginger, chopped

5 tbsp garlic, chopped

2 tbsp ChanChan spice seasoning, available from Lidl, or Five spice powder

3 slabs of baby back pork ribs from your local butcher

Baking/parchment paper or aluminium foil

300g warm water

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. Mix the hoisin sauce, yellow bean paste, sesame oil, soy sauce, XO brandy or sherry, honey, sugar, ginger, garlic and spice seasoning or spice powder in a shallow bowl until totally combined.

2. Separate half of the marinade sauce into a jug and use later.

3. Put the other half of the marinade into a bowl and add the baby back pork ribs. Put on a pair of kitchen gloves and mix and rub the marinade into the ribs. This will get all the flavour and spice into the meat. Put into the refrigerator for 1-3 hours, or cover and refrigerate overnight for best results.

4. After marinading, preheat oven on medium heat (175C/ 350F). Give the ribs a turn so all the marinade is covering the ribs and discard the marinade.

5. Line an oven tray with baking/parchment paper or aluminium foil. Place the pork ribs on the tray and bake for 30 minutes on one side. Rotate the ribs with tongs and brush again with the marinade two or three times. This will give the ribs full flavour and a beautiful glaze .

6. After turning ribs on the other side, place back in oven for another 25mins, When the meat is cooked, it will fall off the bone easily. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the tray.

7. For some extra sauce, put the remainder of the marinade into a small saucepan. Add a small drop of water and bring to a boil; reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened. If it's too thick, add a little more water.

8. Cut the pork ribs and sprinkle with some toasted sesame seeds and serve with a fresh vegetable salad, boiled jasmine rice and the extra BBQ sauce.





Broccoli, Fermented Black Bean & Peas With Sichuan Peppercorns

Expand Close Broccoli, Fermented Black Bean & Peas With Sichuan Peppercorns. Food styling and photography by Jennifer Oppermann / Facebook

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Serves 4

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

500g tender stem broccoli, trimmed to 1cm at base of stem

20g Sichuan peppercorns

50g Irish rapeseed oil

15g Chinese black vinegar

4 garlic cloves, chopped

20g fermented black beans, available in Asian stores

200g green peas, get frozen ones if you cannot source fresh ones

4 tbsp vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce, or oyster sauce

2 tsp sugar

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp light soy sauce

Method

1. Boil water with a pinch of salt in a large pot. Add teaspoon of sesame oil and cook the broccoli for around 1 minute until it still tender and crunchy. Drain and leave a in the pot.

2. Heat up a small sauce pan and when hot, turn down the flame. Add in the Sichuan peppercorns for 2 mins. This will release the tangy, unique flavour of the peppercorns. Add 40g of the rapeseed oil, take off the heat. Set aside and let it sit to infuse for 10 mins. Add the Chinese black vinegar, whisk to combine and leave to one side.

3. Heat the remaining 10g of rapeseed oil in a wok. Fry the chopped garlic until brown. Do not burn, as this will give a bitter taste to the finished dish. Add the black beans and keep the wok at a medium heat until the full aroma has been released from the beans.

4. Add in the broccoli and peas. Turn the heat to medium and stir fry for 2 minutes.

5. Add in the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar and a pinch of salt to taste. Mix well and serve warm in a bowl with a drizzle of the Sichuan peppercorn dressing on top.

Kwanghi's restaurant Bowls on Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, is among the restaurants offering lunar feasts in the Carroll's Irish Gifts Taste of Asia programme as part of the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival, which runs until February 10. See dublinchinesenewyear.com





King Prawn Potsticker Dumplings

Expand Close King Prawn Potsticker Dumplings. Food styling and photography by Jennifer Oppermann / Facebook

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Makes 30 dumplings

Ingredients

For the filling:

500g king prawns, de-veined

50g bamboo shoots, finely chopped

5g ginger

6g cornflower

50g scallions, finely sliced

5g garlic, minced in garlic press

6g sugar

6 tsp soy sauce

3 tsp sesame oil

1 tbps Shaoxing cooking wine, available in most Asian supermarkets

 tsp ground white pepper and salt

30 dumpling or gyoza wrappers (or you can also use won ton wrappers, available from Asian markets)

Dampened cloth or paper towel

5 tbsp vegetable cooking oil

Method

1. Clean and de-vein the king prawns. Marinate with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes and wash thoroughly under running water.

2. Chop the prawns coarsely, followed by the bamboo shoots.

3. Put the prawns, bamboo shoots, ginger, cornflower, scallions, garlic and sugar in a bowl and stir to combine.

4. Whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil and cooking wine in a bowl and then stir into the prawn mixture. Add in pepper and salt.

5. Place this mixture into a food processor for 5-6 minutes until it is a sticky consistency.

6. On a dry surface, lay out one gyoza or dumpling wrapper, keeping the remaining wrappers covered with a dampened cloth or paper towel.

7. Spoon one teaspoon of filling into the centre, then moisten halfway around the edge with a wet finger. Fold the dry half of the wrapper over the wet half to form a half-moon shape.

8. To seal, using thumb and forefinger of one hand, form tiny pleats along the dry edge of the wrapper, pressing the pleats against the moistened border to enclose the filling. The dumpling will curve in a semi-circle Or you can start in the middle, pleat out to one edge then turn the dumpling over, and pleat in the opposite direction.

9. Stand the dumpling, seam-side up, on a baking sheet and gently press to flatten the bottom. Cover loosely with dampened cloth or paper towel. Form the remaining dumplings in the same way. If you cannot perfect the pleating method, just pinch the edges together to create a seal.

10. Heat the oil in a large, non-stick skillet or frying pan over a moderately high heat, until it is hot, but not smoking.

11. Remove it from heat and arrange the potstickers in a tight circular pattern, standing up in the oil. They should touch one another. Cook, uncovered, until the bottoms are pale golden, for two to three minutes on a medium heat, to avoid them burning. You just want to crisp up the base at this stage.

12. Add an espresso coffee cup amount of water, then cover the pan tightly with a lid and cook until the liquid has evaporated. The bottom of the dumplings should be crisp and golden after three to five minutes. Add two more tablespoons of water if the pan looks dry before the bottoms are browned.

13. Remove the lid and shake the pan to loosen the pot stickers, until the steam dissipates.

14. Serve immediately with dips and pickled salads of choice on the side.

Expand Close Kwanghi Chan, photography by Jennifer Oppermann / Facebook

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Food styling and photography by Jennifer Oppermann
Peter Heller, of Lafayette, shows off his flag while waiting in line for President Donald Trump's visit to Wildwood, at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and E. Montgomery Ave in Wildwood, New Jersey, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Trump will hold a rally at the Wildwoods Convention Center on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Read more

 READ MORE: Follow along for live updates from Trump's rally and the scene in Wildwood

President Donald Trump will arrive at the New Jersey Shore on Tuesday for a campaign rally in Democrat-turned-Republican Jeff Van Drews district, at a moment of political uncertainty for both Trump and his new ally.

One is enduring only the third impeachment trial in U.S. history, a proceeding rocked Sunday by new revelations from a one-time ally. The other is still trying to find his footing in a new party. Both face challenging reelections in November.

On Sunday, Trump saw one of his key impeachment defenses undermined when the New York Times reported that his former national security adviser, John Bolton, wrote in an unpublished manuscript that Trump directly tied the withholding of military aid for Ukraine to whether the country aided in investigations of his political rivals. That increased the political pressure on Republicans to have Bolton testify in what has so far been a speedy impeachment trial free of witnesses or new evidence.

Just two days before that, the strength of Van Drews newfound loyalty to the president was called into question with the emergence of a voicemail he left for a voter. I havent voted for him, I didnt support him, I will not vote for him," Van Drew said of Trump in the Nov. 30 message, just three weeks before he defected to the GOP and pledged the president his undying support."

Meanwhile, on Monday, Wildwood was jumping. A line of more than 1,500 people stretched for several blocks from the doors of the towns convention center, hoping to guarantee themselves a seat. It was a jovial crowd, a sort of MAGA tailgate.

All of it could make for an unpredictable Tuesday down the Shore. While Van Drew was still scheduled to ride with Trump on Air Force One to Wildwood and speak at the event, it remains to be seen if a president known for demanding fierce loyalty from Republicans will voice full-throated support for him when the moment arrives.

It will be an attempt for [Van Drew] to demonstrate to his new colleagues that he is respected by the president and has the ability to deliver him to their district for a major event," said John Farmer, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. I see it primarily as an attempt to shore up Van Drews status as a Republican."

In many ways, personal support for Trump has become the new dividing line in Washington, more than any specific policy issue  a reality hammered home during the ongoing impeachment trial. Republicans who have vocally criticized the presidents behavior have been drummed out of the party, despite conservative voting records. Van Drew, one of the only Democrats to oppose impeachment, saw that stance effectively end his political future in his longtime party.

Similarly, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan had a voting record that won praise from top conservative groups in Washington. But his days in the GOP were numbered after he called for impeaching Trump in May. He left the party a few months later and is now an independent.

In Van Drews case, opposition to impeachment overwhelmed everything else, and his support among Democrats plummeted. Because of impeachment, and more broadly because of his stance on Trump, he is now a Republican.

And since Van Drews party switch in December, hes had to contend with criticism from both sides. Democrats are furious at the betrayal, while local Republicans have been skeptical of his conservative bona fides. He has voted with Trump only 7% of the time since taking office, according to a tally by the website FiveThirtyEight. He has a 100% rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

But even though Van Drews path to reelection remained precarious, he received a welcome sign of the strength of Trumps support in the Republican Party on Monday. David Richter, a millionaire construction executive who was seen as the GOP front-runner in the district before Van Drew switched parties, said he would switch districts and run against freshman Democrat Andy Kim instead. Another Republican challenger, Brian Fitzherbert, dropped out of the race Friday.

Having the president fully endorse [Van Drew] and embrace him, it just doesnt make sense for me to continue in this race, Richter said. I have endorsed Jeff Van Drew and will support his re-election campaign."

Wildwood was awakening from its usual winter slumber Monday afternoon. Pubs were organizing rally watch parties. RVs with Trump signs were parked at the Walmart in nearby Rio Grande, and Trump rally regulars were camped out near the Convention Center as early as Sunday.

Weve been nonstop, said Nancy DelPizzo of Toms River, N.J., who was selling Trump merchandise out of an RV in the Walmart lot.

Trump merchandise stands popped up, transforming summer beachwear shops into political souvenir shops, and Trump banners were hung from motel decks.

People took video selfies with a helicopter making practice landings near Wildwood High School behind them, and protesters held sign-making workshops. Throngs of counter-protesters are expected Tuesday, as Trumps appearance has unified some 30 different anti-Trump groups and four Democratic candidates running in the primary to face Van Drew. One event will feature Martin Luther King III, eldest son of the late civil rights leader.

This will be the first time a sitting president has campaigned in New Jerseys 2nd Congressional District since President George H.W. Bush visited Vineland in October 1992. In the fall of 1984, President Ronald Reagan stopped in Hammonton during his reelection travels. And President Theodore Roosevelt made brief whistle stop remarks there.

Police have cautioned about big crowds and long lines. The ticketed rally allows admission on a first-come, first-served basis.
Police in Sebastopol on Friday arrested a 16-year-old in connection with a months-long vandalism streak.

The male juvenile was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, according to the Sebastopol Police Department.

In November 2019, police responded to a report of vandalism in a public bathroom. Investigators said the suspect had tagged the letters PEAK and KKS inside the bathroom.

Over the next few months, victims, witnesses and police observed many more identical incidents of vandalism on mostly public surfaces throughout the city.

The suspect used permanent marker, spray paint and other methods in almost 200 separate incidents of vandalism. Since the vandalism was unique in both style and content, investigators believed the same suspect committed the tagging.

During the investigation, police installed hidden video cameras in public places throughout the city to catch the suspect on video and were ultimately able to identify the suspect with additional help from social media and local school officials.

After identifying the suspect, police arrested him at his school. Police said the suspect admitted to committing the vandalism.

The estimated damage due to the vandalism was in the thousands of dollars, police said.

A project that could bring 2,800 jobs to a site in Oakley in east Contra Costa County will break ground with the help of city and county leaders at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The Oakley Logistics Center, a light industrial site at 6000 Bridgehead Road near where BNSF Railway tracks and the Antioch Bridge/state Highway 160 meet along the southern bank of the San Joaquin River, is a project by Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development.

The developer, which has similar light manufacturing and distribution properties around the country and clients that include Amazon and Ford, says one tenant has already been secured but its identity is not yet being disclosed.

According to a city staff report, the development is expected to bring 2,800 full-time jobs and generate $475.4 million in total economic activity in the county, including significant revenue for the city's General Fund and the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District.

The project is at the location of a former DuPont chemical plant that stopped production in 1998. The City Council gave final approval to the plans last month, making way for the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.

The plans call for five buildings to eventually be built on 143 acres on the site. Two buildings have planned construction starting this month and the full buildout is expected to finish within four years, according to the city.

Inspection work will require closing the new bicycle/pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays starting Monday and continuing through Feb. 14.

The path will also be closed from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Feb. 3 through Feb. 7 for repairs to the moveable barrier that separates bicyclists and pedestrians from westbound traffic.

"The Federal Highway Administration requires highway bridge inspections to be conducted every two years, and Caltrans aims to conduct as much of the inspection work as possible during the winter months to avoid closures of the bicycle/pedestrian path during the spring and summer," the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said in an announcement.

Westbound motor vehicle lanes will remain open during the path closures.

The four-mile-long path opened to the public in November.

San Francisco officers who had the intersection of Jones and Market streets under surveillance Friday afternoon arrested two men after witnessing a robbery.

The robbery was seen about 4:20 p.m. and "Cops swarmed in and took both into custody," the San Francisco police Tenderloin station said via Twitter.

Taken into custody were Philip Meredith, 27, of Berkeley and Robert Salvador, 24, of San Francisco. Both had prior arrests, police said.

The department's Gang Task Force is investigating the robbery.

Salvador had previously been arrested as a suspect in a January 2018 shooting incident at Treat Avenue near Cesar Chavez Street, police said.

Meredith had recently been released following a previous robbery arrest, police said.

One resident was injured and two travel trailers were destroyed in a fire Friday in Oakley, the East Contra Costa Fire District said.

The blaze on Live Oak Avenue was reported shortly after noon and crews arrived to find both trailers on fire and a number of other vehicles threatened before it was extinguished.

The fire did minor damage to a boat at the site.

Officials said misuse of electrical extension cords was the likely cause of the fire.

A 53-year-old San Francisco man was arrested Saturday evening at the MacArthur BART station in Oakland on charges that include battery, making criminal threats and violating a prohibition order, BART police said.

Eugene Stevens was taken into custody about 8:20 p.m. and booked into Santa Rita jail.

San Bruno police arrested two East Bay residents Saturday for allegedly attempting to use counterfeit currency to make purchases at The Shops at Tanforan.

Police were notified shortly after 7 p.m. after a business reported receiving counterfeit bills. The suspects then allegedly tried to pass more bills at another business.

Police identified 22-year-old Antioch resident Mykeda Tyjohnay Blackmon and 27-year-old Oakland resident Damar Eric Williams as suspects and a search turned up more phony currency in their possession, police said.

They were booked into the San Mateo County Jail on fraud and commercial burglary charges.

A man who allegedly drove into several parked cars Saturday evening was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and other charges, San Bruno police said.

Officers were called shortly before 8 p.m. to the 500 block of Fourth Avenue, where they found damaged cars and the driver, 30-year-old San Bruno resident Julio Cesar Bernal Garcia.

Before he was sent to the hospital, Garcia was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, operating a vehicle under the influence while on DUI probation, not having an ignition interlock device, and driving on a suspended license.

Garcia's injuries were not considered to be life threatening.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact the San Bruno Police Department at (650) 616-7100 or sbpdtipline@sanbruno.ca.gov. Information can be left anonymously.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
3 rockets in direct hit on US embassy in Iraqi capital: security source



Baghdad, Jan 26 (AFP) Jan 26, 2020



Three out of five rockets fired on Sunday directly hit the US embassy in Iraq's capital, a security source told AFP, including one that slammed into a cafeteria at dinner time.

The US embassy did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment, but a statement by Iraqi security forces earlier Sunday said there were no casualties in the attack.

The diplomatic mission, which lies in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, has been regularly hit by rockets in recent months, but none of the attacks have been claimed.

Sunday's attack was the second in a week on the embassy, after three rockets landed near the mission on January 20.

A US source separately told AFP that last Monday's attack saw at least one rocket land near the deputy ambassador's residence.

The attack on Sunday was the first time a direct hit was reported.

The attack took place earlier in the day than usual, with AFP reporters hearing the booms on the western bank of the river Tigris at precisely 7:30pm (1630 GMT).

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the attack, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war.

One month ago a rocket attack on a northern Iraqi base where US troops are stationed killed an American contractor.

In retaliation, the US carried out a strike on Kataeb Hezbollah, a hardline Iraqi armed faction that is part of the Hashed al-Shaabi military network, which has been incorporated into the Iraqi state.

At least 25 Kataeb Hezbollah fighters were killed in the December 29 strike and their supporters besieged the US embassy in retaliation.
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it has five functional molecular laboratories for diagnosing and detecting Lassa fever in the country.

The Director General of the centre, Chikwe Ihekweazu, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja that the laboratories are located at NCDCs National Reference laboratory in Abuja, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo, Federal Medical Centre Owo in Ondo State, Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki and Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

Mr Ihekweazu, a medical doctor, said presently, samples from suspected Lassa fever patients from South-South states and some states in the South-West are tested at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital; while samples from South-East states are tested at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.

Samples from states in the North are tested at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory Abuja and samples from South-West states are tested at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, while Federal Medical Centre, Owo in Ondo State, the newest laboratory, collects samples from Ondo State only.

The NCDC boss noted that the five laboratories in Nigeria had the capacity to diagnose Lassa fever in the country.

He added that each laboratory costs about N100 million to equip initially, and millions of Naira to maintain functionality.

He explained that NCDC had established a sample transportation mechanism to ensure that samples were sent from state capitals to designated laboratories.

The director general, who said laboratories were critical to reducing turnaround time between identifying a suspected case and confirmation, noted that each laboratory provided diagnostic support for a number of states in the country.

This is to ensure prompt case management and other response activities, thereby reducing the number of deaths.

According to him, Nigeria is contributing to research and other activities for the development of a Lassa fever vaccine.

He said the NCDC headquarters, laboratories in the three main treatment centres in the country  Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre Owo and Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, as well as the Virology Laboratory of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, are contributing to the research.

Mr Ihekweazu added that the laboratories would also play key roles in the Lassa fever epidemiological study that would provide data to guide research and response activities.

He, however, said the study would begin before the end of March 2020.

Meanwhile, 25 persons have so far died from haemorrhagic fever, while over 100 patients have been quarantined at designated treatment

centres across the country after being infected with the disease, caused by virus from rodent urine and faeces.

(NAN)
Vine took the internet by storm after is as launched in 2013. Very soon, the short-form video service garnered 200 million active users and was acquired by Twitter. In 2016, Twitter disabled Vine uploads and only allowed users to view content that was previously uploaded. Now Vines successor is back and has already catapulted to the top of Apples U.S App Store.

Byte is created by Dom Hofmann who was the brains behind Vine. Despite its popularity, Vine was shut down because they couldnt find a way to make it profitable. Many of todays YouTube celebrities owe their humble beginnings to Vine. The launch of Byte was supposed to happen in 2018, however, it was delayed indefinitely. According to Randy Nelson of Sensor Tower said that Byte ended up as the No. 1 Free App in the U.S App Store as of Friday. Furthermore, it has also topped the App Store in Canada and countries like Australia and the U.K.

Interestingly, Byte has landed in the U.S market at a time when its rival TikTok is facing flak from the U.S lawmakers. The lawmakers believe that Chinese companies are influencing American consumers and the app has also been known to create national security risks. Byte is starting out small and has mentioned its rather humble beginnings on the community guidelines.

Byte features a feed of others videos, Explore tab that lets you check out others accounts and an Activity page for the like and follow notifications.

Our Take

Vine is an important event when it comes to the evolution of short-form video service. Snapchat and other similarly themed video capture apps were not so popular back then. Now things have changed, apps like TikTok have an enormous userbase and offer a slew of features. That being said, we believe the Vine loyalists will mostly give Byte a try. We hope that the app continues to garner users and shape up as a better (and secure) alternative to TikTok.

Do you think Byte can recreate Vines magic? Let us know in the comments below.

[via Time
A 35-year-old woman was arrested on Monday for allegedly strangling her two-month-old daughter in Kolkata after she said the baby was kidnapped by an unidentified man.

Police recovered the infants body late on Sunday from a manhole behind the familys apartment in Beliaghata in east Kolkata.

The woman has confessed to having killed the child, police said.

We have arrested the woman Sandhya Malo on charges of killing her baby Sanaya Malo. She claimed that she was tired of the baby and killed her. Further investigation is on, Ajoy Prasad, deputy commissioner (eastern suburban division), said.

The woman, a housewife, had claimed that a man had barged into her second floor-flat when she was alone.

She said she fell unconscious after he pushed her and later found her daughter missing. The family raised a hue and cry and a search was initiated.

The woman allegedly strangled the infant with a tape.

When the police interrogated the woman they found some inconsistencies in her statements but later she confessed to the crime after sustained questioning, officials said.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman killed the child because of post-natal depression. We could be taking the help of a psychiatrist if necessary, a senior police officer said.

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California spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year on health care but sees relatively little improvement in health. Amid debate about how to curb these costs, we should be looking at what is making people sick. As a practicing physician married to a farmer, I believe one key to our health is held not by doctors who take care of us when we are sick but by farmers who can keep us healthier.

That key is soil. Soil health is human health, and as such our farmers are critical stewards of our health.

Rich, healthy soil contains a web of organisms that perform critical functions. The more diverse these organisms are, the more effectively the soil holds water and the faster it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to stabilize the climate. Theres also evidence that bio-diverse soil helps plants resist disease and use nutrients more efficiently.

Like the ground beneath our feet, our guts harbor a collection of microorganisms. They perform critical functions for our immune systems and brain development as well as our ability to absorb nutrients. The more diverse the organisms inside us are, the more they modulate the inflammation that is central to illnesses such as heart disease, asthma, Alzheimers, autism, depression and cancer.

These organisms are critical to our health, and one source of them is the soil. Our health is inextricably linked to the soils health.

We have a major untapped opportunity to improve our health by helping farmers adopt practices that build soil health and eschew synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. And these chemicals are derived from the same compounds that are raising our global temperatures and turning California into a tinderbox: fossil fuels. The federal government has subsidized these chemicals to help farmers fight pests and weeds instead of doing so through safer and better management practices.

After more than half a century, we see the results. Thousands of farmworkers, their children and their communities face risks of acute poisoning as well as long-term health consequences from daily exposure, including cancers and developmental disabilities. The residues end up in our food and bodies. Bees, birds and other wildlife are disappearing, the water table is contaminated, and soil biodiversity is compromised.

We need to reverse the damage. Recovering from these petrochemical dependencies would simultaneously improve human health, ecosystems and resilience in the face of climate change. Through a relatively short-term investment in abandoning practices that harm us, we can make significant long-term gains.

Parallels can be seen in Californias public smoking ban of 1995, which led to substantial drops in hospital admissions for heart attacks, strokes, asthma and other diseases. These benefits continue to grow, reflecting the impact on longer-term diseases. Not only are fewer people dying, but the low cost of implementation is more than offset by a corresponding drop in health care expenditures. A 10% national decrease in smoking is predicted to result in a $63 billion reduction in health care costs the following year.

Strictly regulating industries that make people sick saves lives and money. And we now know that whats making the planet sick is also making people sick. We can heal the planet and the people simultaneously by changing the industries that are harming us.

Lets give farmers the technical and financial assistance they need to make the transition to farming practices that prioritize soil health. By eliminating synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides while encouraging practices that revitalize our soils, we can improve soil health, human health and the planets health.

Dr. Rupa Marya is a member of the Healthy California for All Commission and an associate professor of medicine at UCSF.
New Delhi: In a big development, Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Monday (January 27) approved the draft bill to abolish the legislative council. The information was shared by YSRCP MLA Gudivada Amaranth to ANI.

The Council has already sent a decentralisation bill to the Select Committee.

It is to be noted that TDP, which enjoys the absolute majority in the 58-member legislative council, had been delaying two bills dealing with the decentralization of the Andhra Pradesh's capital. According to reports, the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), miffed with the constant roadblock created by TDP in the council, took the decision in today's Cabinet meet to abolish the council.

Live TV

Though YSRCP has a majority in the legislative assembly, 151 of 175 members, in the 58-member upper house, it has only nine seats. TDP with 26 seats has a full-fledged majority and controls the major part of the council.

The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra had decided to skip the crucial session of the Legislative Assembly today against the abolishing of the council. TDP is alleging that the ruling party is poaching the MLCs.

The Andhra Pradesh upper house was first abolished in 1885 when the TDP had come to power and the Congress was in the majority in the council. The council was later restored in 2007 by Jaganmohan Reddy's father and then Chief Minister, late YS Rajasekhar Reddy.

(With ANI inputs)
US aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan, AP reported referring to a Taliban spokesperson.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Army declined to comment on the Talibans statement, but the footage from the crash site, shared on social media, shows that this is a US Air Force plane.

Afghan journalist Tarik Ghaznival told the AP that he had seen a burning plane. According to him, he saw two bodies, the front of the aircraft was badly burned, and the body and tail of the aircraft were practically not damaged. However, the AP notes that this information could not be verified from independent sources.

Taliban spokesman Zabihulla Mujahid said the US Air Force crashed in Ghazni. According to him, the crash site was about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the US military base.

US Central Command spokeswoman Beth Riordan declined to comment on Taliban claims.

She previously admitted that US military officials are investigating reports of a disaster in Afghanistan.
STAMFORDA homeless New York claims to have been on a mission ordained by God when he was allegedly caught trying to steal about 250 packages out of the West Avenue post office in Stamford on Sunday afternoon.

Leon Clinedinst, 37, of no known address, was charged wtih first-degree burglary, first-degree larceny and first-degree criminal mischief before being turned over to postal inspectors Monday morning.

Sgt. Sean Scanlan said the arrest came after an alarm was reported at the mail facility at 4 p.m. Sunday. But after checking the doors, the patrol officers were about to leave when another alarm came in.

Outside in the parking lot police discovered a gray Ford transit van parked and running from the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

While watching the outside of the post office one office saw a white middle aged man wearing a brown jacket walk out of the front entrance with a large rolling bin filled with unopened packages, a police report of the incident said. The man, identified as Clinedinst, told the officer he worked for Mount Sinai Medical Center and he was picking up some packages to put into his van.

When police asked him for identification he showed them an ID badge, but the picture on the badge showed a young dark skinned man with the name Felipe Garcia, which did not match Clinedinsts description at all.

Scanlan said there were more than 100 packages in the bin.

Hes got them loaded up in a giant plastic container, like those used by the postal workers, like they are six feet long and four feet wide, Scanlan said.

Officers then pulled a back door very hard and it opened, showing where Clinedinst probably entered from.

Police ran the license plate for the van and called the hospital and were told the van was stolen earlier in the day, Scanlan said. Police estimated the vehicle was worth about $22,000.

It was stolen, but they kind of gave it to him, Scanlan said.

Clinedinst told police he was having some trouble with his feet and went to the hospital. When it came time for him to be discharged at noon Sunday, he had no transportation.

He wanders around the hospital for a little bit and goes down to where they keep all their vehicles. Hes still wearing some hospital garb on and tells a guy, They just hired me, I have to make a delivery. The guy asks who he works for and he tells them Mount Sinai. The guy hands him a set of keys and hops into this van, Scanlan said.

While pulling out of the hospital, Clinedinst sees a white car and he thinks God has ordained him to follow whereever this white car goes, Scanlan said.

The white car pulls onto Interstate-95 and gets off at Exit 6 in Stamford and looses sight of the car at the post office at 317 West Ave.

He thinks it is a sign from God to go into the post office and take the packages. He doesnt know what he is going to do with them, but he is taking them and that is when we catch him in the act, Scanlan said.

During a 45-minute interview with police, Scanlan said Clinedinst told them he was on a mission ordained by God.

Scanlan said the postal inspectors will charge Clinedinst with theft of mail and burglary of a federal building.

He was arraigned at the Stamford courthouse Monday after noon when Judge Bruce Hudock ordered that he be held in lieu of a $100,000 court appearance bond.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
While the cause of [the] crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available, said Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in a statement Monday.
Over the years, Rochester has fostered a large and active community of both artists and art connoisseurs. While Rochester has the famous George Eastman Museum and the notable Memorial Art Gallery, it also hosts numerous smaller galleries, art spaces and studio communities. Since the 90s, the Neighborhood of the Arts has expanded and diversified. With the help of city planning and public art installations, the neighborhood has become walkable and distinct from the rest of the city. If you want to explore Rochesters rich art offerings, check out these galleries and art spaces, some of which exclusively feature work by local artists.

Rochester Contemporary Art Center

Location: 137 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14604

Hours: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m Wednesday | 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday

Contact: (585) 461-2222 | Website

In 1977 a small group of artists banded together to show their work in a creative space that would serve as an alternative to museums and commercial galleries. Today, the same organization, now known as the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, has more than 1,000 members. RoCo also founded and still administrates Rochesters First Fridays. At RoCo, youll find contemporary art across numerous mediums. Exhibitions to look forward to this year include Dissolving The Frontier: New Colorado Video + Performance Art.

The Yards Collective

Location: 50-52 Public Market Way Rochester NY, 14609 (Within the Rochester Public Market, upstairs from Javas)

Hours: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. during First Fridays | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday

Contact: (585) 210-0533 | Website

Located within the Rochester Public Market, The Yards Collective is both an art gallery and community space for artists to network and grow their craft. The collective has permanent studios and communal art spaces for rent and also offers residencies and classes. As a result, The Yards Collective constantly rotates exhibitions and hosts events and showcases. A notable exhibition this year will be the We Want As Much exhibit hosted by the Politits: Art Coalition. The artwork will commemorate 100 years since the passage of the 19th Amendment.

The Hungerford

Location: 1115 E Main St Rochester, NY 14609

Hours: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. during First Fridays | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the second Saturday of each month

Website

The Hungerford Building, formerly a soda syrup manufacturing facility, now features an assortment of small businesses and art studios. Located across the street from the Rochester Public Market, The Hungerford is open to the public during First Fridays and the second Saturday of every month. Resident artists include a realist painter, a figure sculptor, a fiber artist, a jewelry artist, printmakers, watercolor painters and more.

ARTISANworks

Location: 565 Blossom Road, Suite L Rochester, New York 14610

Public Hours: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Contact: (585) 288-7170 | Website

ARTISANworks makes visiting an art gallery a social affair. The unique art

gallery/event space encourages guests to party amongst the art. You can visit ARTISANworks during public hours and explore the themed rooms filled with eclectic art and nostalgic collectibles. Or, you can host a party, conference or group tour at the extravagant facility. ARTISANworks is also such a popular wedding venue that the facility hosted six weddings in one weekend back in October. If you spot a piece of art that you like while partying, you may be able to rent it.

Oxford Art Gallery

Location: 267 Oxford St # 1 Rochester, NY 14607

Hours: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays

Contact: (585) 271-5885 | Website

Rochesters Oxford Art Gallery has thousands of artworks in its inventory and has shown and sold fine art for more than 40 years. While many Rochester galleries focus solely on contemporary art, Oxford Art Gallery also exhibits period art including both American and European works from the 18th through 20th centuries. At the gallery, youll find paintings, prints, sculptures, murals and more.

Art Museum of Rochester

Location: 610 Monroe Ave, Rochester, New York 14607

Gallery & Cafe Hours: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays | 5 p.m. to 12 p.m. Monday to Saturday

Contact: (585) 615-9015 | Website

If you enjoy both brunch and contemporary art, grab your friends and head to the Art Museum of Rochester. AMoR is both a retail art gallery and a cafe serving brunch, cocktails, wine, beer and espresso. While you eat, drink or play pool, you can enjoy the surrounding pieces of art produced by local artists. The gallerys main room changes shows every month.

Anderson Arts Building

Location: 250 Goodman St N, Rochester, NY 14607

Hours: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. during First Fridays | 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. the second Saturday of each month

Website

The Anderson Arts Building, home to the Anderson Alley Artists, is central to Rochesters Neighborhood of the Arts. The building, once a shoe factory, now holds four floors of art studios. Artist mediums include ceramics, jewelry, fiber, calligraphy, photography and sculpture. Studio hours vary by artist, and some artists offer classes throughout the week. Visitors can also explore the studios during First Fridays and the second Saturday of the month.

Axom Gallery

Location: 661 South Avenue Rochester, NY 14620

Hours: 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday

Contact: (585) 232 -6030 x 4 | Website

Axom Gallery has the mission to provide a provocative forum where diverse art forms, artists and audiences can come together and offer a point of view that encourages quality, vision and learning, according to their website. The gallery exhibits both established and emerging artists who work in two or three-dimensional mediums and new media. You can stop by the gallery next time you visit the South Wedge.

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Luis Arce, the candidate for Evo Morales's Movement for Socialism party, said he would return to Bolivia Tuesday from exile in Mexico to begin campaigning for May 3 presidential election. "Tomorrow I'm going to be in Bolivia," Arce told a news conference during a stopover in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, where Morales -- who appeared alongside him -- is based. Arce, a 56-year-old former economy minister, joined growing criticism of interim President Jeanine Azez who announced on Friday that she would run in the elections. "The fact that the de facto president is running raises huge questions about the transparency of the electoral process," Arce told reporters. Anez assumed the presidency on November 12, two days after Morales resigned following three weeks of sometimes violent protests against his controversial re-election in a poll the Organization of American States said was rigged. Morales initially fled to Mexico, where he was given asylum, before moving to Argentina in December. Former presidents Carlos Mesa and Jorge Quiroga have also joined the presidential race along with regional leader Luis Fernando Camacho, a key player in the protests that led to Morales's resignation. The Movement for Socialism has been leading in the polls, with 26 percent of voter preferences compared to just 12 percent for Anez, who is running fourth. "In all the polls we are first," Morales tweeted in reaction. "We are ready to beat the coup and regain the homeland."
High-grade silver mineralization in historic trenches

Detailed mapping, trenching and soils program for 2020

Tim Project is 12 kilometers from Coeurs Silvertip Mine

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 27, 2020 -- Alianza Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V: ANZ, OTC: TARSF) (Alianza or the Company) has signed the Option Agreement relating to a Letter of Intent with a wholly owned subsidiary of Coeur Mining, Inc. (NYSE:CDE) (Coeur), to explore the road-accessible Tim Property (Tim or the Property) in the southern Yukon Territory. Exploration at Tim is targeting high-grade silver-lead mineralization similar to that being mined by Coeur at its Silvertip operation, located 12 kilometers south of the Property.

Coeur can earn an 80% interest in the Property by (i) funding $3.55 million in exploration over five years and (ii) making scheduled cash payments totalling $575,000 over eight years. Coeur must also fund a feasibility study and notify Alianza of its intention to develop a commercial mine on the property on or before the 8th anniversary from the date of notification of the class 1 exploration permit.

We are very pleased to have partnered with Coeur to advance the Tim Silver Property, stated Jason Weber, President and CEO of Alianza Minerals. Tim looks to be a Silvertip analog, and the Coeur team is an obvious choice to move the project forward. It will be a great advantage to have Coeurs geological expertise applied to the project.

The 2020 exploration program at Tim is expected to target high-grade silver-lead-zinc Carbonate Replacement Mineralization (CRM), similar to that found at Coeurs Silvertip operation. Coeurs tentative exploration plans are in-line with those recently announced by Alianza, and will consist of detailed mapping, soil geochemical surveys and reopening old trenches, which date back to 1988.

Tim Property  History

In 2013, Alianza completed a focused work program and re-evaluated a historical zone of silver-lead rich Carbonate Replacement Mineralization (CRM) originally exposed by mechanized trenching in 1988. Historical chip sampling across the zone returned 352 g/t silver and 9.12% lead across 4.00 metres. In addition to this exposure, similar mineralization was also reported in adjacent trenches 180 and 250 metres on either side of the central trench. This zone has never been tested with drilling. Alianza resampled the central trench in 2013, returning 3.7 metres assaying 365 g/t silver and 7.5% lead from a channel sample.

About Alianza Minerals Ltd.

Alianza employs an exploration model of joint venture funding and self-funded projects to maximize opportunity for exploration success. The Company currently has gold, silver and base metal projects in Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Nevada and Peru. Alianza currently has two projects optioned out in Nevada and Yukon Territory, and is actively exploring on two others. Alianzas current partners include Hochschild Mining plc and Coeur Mining Inc.

The Company has 82.4 million shares issued and outstanding and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ANZ and trades on the OTC market in the US under the symbol TARSF.

Mr. Jason Weber, P.Geo., President and CEO of Alianza Minerals Ltd. is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Weber supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this release.

For further information, contact:

Jason Weber, President and CEO

Sandrine Lam, Shareholder Communications



Tel: (604) 687-3520

Fax: (888) 889-4874



Renmark Financial Communications Inc.

Melanie Barbeau

mbarbeau@renmarkfinancial.com

Tel: (416) 644-2020 or (514) 939-3989

www.renmarkfinancial.com



To learn more visit: www.alianzaminerals.com

























NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE, OTHER THAN PURELY HISTORICAL INFORMATION, INCLUDING STATEMENTS RELATING TO THE COMPANY'S FUTURE PLANS AND OBJECTIVES OR EXPECTED RESULTS, MAY INCLUDE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE BASED ON NUMEROUS ASSUMPTIONS AND ARE SUBJECT TO ALL OF THE RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES INHERENT IN RESOURCE EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT. AS A RESULT, ACTUAL RESULTS MAY VARY MATERIALLY FROM THOSE DESCRIBED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS.




Thailand introduces $9 tourist fee

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Oil is getting more expensive
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, ze further said, we are not being allowed into any jobs in the outside community due to stigma attached. The only source of livelihood is begging, which was criminalised as per the Transgenders Persons (Protection of Rights), 2019 Act. How are we supposed to survive? Instead of making efforts to give us jobs through reservation, they are building detention centres. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: If the CAA gets implemented, transgenders, orphans, old people and beggars would be the first ones to be kept in detention camps, transgender protesters claimed. The Centre wo-uld like to make smart cities and do not want to see any of such people as transgenders roaming around snarling, said representatives from the transgender community.

Everything is being done strategically. The laws would get implemented in majority of the states, no matter what and how we protest. Once implemented, they cant be taken back and people who protested would be made to accept them forcefully. They would get used to it, eventually. This is what always happens, said Mx. M Rachana, a transgender activist, who represented the community at a discussion on the Constitution in the city on Sunday.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, ze further said, we are not being allowed into any jobs in the outside community due to stigma attached. The only source of livelihood is begging, which was criminalised as per the Transgenders Persons (Protection of Rights), 2019 Act. How are we supposed to survive? Instead of making efforts to give us jobs through reservation, they are building detention centres.
by Kamel Abderrahmani

Kamel Abderrahmani looks at the pressures put on those who criticise the ideologies that rule the Muslim world. In Islamic countries, legal jihad goes after intellectuals, researchers and even scholars of Islam who dare take a critical look at the religion.

Paris (AsiaNews)  Silencing any criticism of Islamist thought, especially in matters of religion, is the aim of legal jihad, this according to Kamel Abderrahmani. This form of jihad varies according to location, whether in the West or countries where Islam is the state religion. In Algeria, reformist Islam specialist Said Djabelkhir has become one of its victims. Here are the thoughts of a young Muslim scholar. (Translation by AsiaNews).

Freedom of expression is dying in the Muslim world. No one can express themselves freely if what they think transcends the framework of a single majority mindset. When it comes to religion, the pressure increases, intensifies, and any discussion becomes almost impossible. In other words, muzzling the voice of critical thinking about religion is an action akin to judicial jihad, which means bringing to justice anyone whose words, humour and opinions unmask, criticise and demystify the violent nature of the followers of a religion that claims, despite everything, to be a religion of peace, and yet seeks to muzzle, silence, and suppress critics.

To that end, "judicial jihad" operates under different mechanisms when it is carried out in the West as opposed to countries with Islam as the state religion. That is to say, the way it is done depends on location and the nature of the political system. For example, in the West, we hide behind groups  generally the work of the Muslim Brotherhood  aimed at fighting racism or Islamophobia, so that intellectuals are prosecuted just because they consider Islam as a dangerous religion in their writings.

In Muslim countries, "judicial jihad" targets intellectuals, researchers and even Islam specialists who dare take a critical look at the religion, providing critical readings of Islam and interpreting religious texts differently from official and dominant views. They are often prosecuted for contempt of Islam and the prophet or attacking the perceptions of Islam and sowing discord in society. Given such a situation, how can we reform this religion if we attack, prosecute and ban freedom of thought and expression? How can we pretend to be against Islamist terrorism whilst enacting repressive laws? How can we revolutionise Islam if intellectuals are muzzled, their thoughts subjected to an ideology and legal threats?

In the past five years, Said Djabelkhir has become one of the intellectuals who are often targeted in Algeria. As one of most controversial scholars of Islam, he has received several death threats on his Facebook page. Despite complaints against "electronic jihadists", Algerian authorities have done nothing and his complaints have been dismissed.

Lately, and not for the first time, he himself has become the subject of a complaint following a row over the celebration of Yennayer, the Berber New Year, considered a pagan festival and illegal by Salafist Mufti Mohamed Ali Ferkous. This Salafist guru issued a fatwa to ban the celebration from Algerian customs and traditions. His decree is not that different from those issued by Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia who consider all celebrations as heretical, except for two Sunni festivals, Eid El-Fitr and EId Al-Adha, and the birthday of the prophet.

Given this Salafi trend  which consists somehow in classifying Algerians according to their religion  and the silence of the Minister of Religious Affairs, Said Djabelkhir took a stand and via his Facebook page said that this holiday has no religious connotations for it to be banned in the name of Islam and that the latter incorporates certain pagan practices such as the pilgrimage and the sacrifice of sheep on Eid.

Said Djabelkhirs views are solid and well argued, which is why he drew the wrath of the Minister of Religious Affairs, who, in a statement at a conference on national unity in the Berber heritage, called for action to stop those, like Djabelkhir, who take advantage of Algerias cultural diversity to sow discord in society. Such an attitudes raises a question: Who really is really dividing Algerians? Who is defending their pluralism? Who wants to classify them according to their religion?

For their part, the coordination of imams, Islamist lawmakers as well as certain Islamists want to put Djabelkhir on trial for "attacking the perceptions of Islam and sowing discord in Algerian society". Concretely, such threats took shape following a complaint filed with the court in Sidi M'hamed, Algiers, by a nefarious professor at Djilali Liabes University in Sidi Bel Abbes under Article 144 bis 02 of the Algerian Penal Code, a repressive code that shows the hybrid character of the Algerian regime, a mixture of dictatorship and religion. On the basis of the former, the scholar of Islam is charged with mocking the sciences of religion and Islamic rites and harming the prophet Muhammad, which constitutes the offence of blasphemy. In order to turn his action into reality, the plaintiff, funded by the Islamist monster, hired three lawyers.

Conversely, Said Djabelkhir can rest assured. What he said is not fortuitous but the result of years of research and work in the field. His positions are all justified by religious texts that Sunni scholars try to hide from Muslims. In short, as an Islam specialist, Said Djabelkhir represents a danger for the obscurantist mindset Islamists use to keep society under their control.
BOSTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CyberSaint Security, the developer of the leading platform for automated, intelligent cybersecurity risk and compliance, today announced 833% bookings growth in 2019. The company also reported increased global expansion, a more than doubled employee headcount, alliances with leading systems integrators, and inclusion in the latest competitive landscape report published by Gartner.

The company attributes much of this dramatic growth to the fact that digitalization has created the need for new technologies that support modern business models and empower the redefinition of key leadership roles. Over 30% of Chief Information Security Officers' effectiveness will be directly measured on their ability to create value for the business in the next few years, and new roles directly tied to securing digital transformation are emerging (Gartner). CyberSaint's focus on streamlining cybersecurity program management from assessment to Boardroom inherently supports these trends.

"Our ability to simplify and scale large, seemingly complex implementations at a dramatically rapid time to value has put us in a strong position going into 2020," said Jerry Layden, CyberSaint Chief Revenue Officer. "We are excited to be providing enterprise business, IT, and security leaders with the visibility and automation to manage risk and compliance in a way that empowers every stakeholder with actionable knowledge and clarity."

CyberSaint's value is unique to the security and risk management market in the company's approach to technology innovation. The CyberStrong platform leverages patented artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to dynamically suggest program improvements, optimize compliance, offer risk remediation action planning, and prove return on security investment (ROSI) that aligns cybersecurity program goals with organizational objectives. The platform allows teams to automate much of the assessment process and workflow  reducing time to baseline by 75% or more as reported by CyberSaint's customer base. With much of the market moving off of static spreadsheets or legacy governance, risk, and compliance systems, CyberStrong provides a substantive solution for these enterprises that reinvents the industry status-quo.

CyberSaint's approach to cybersecurity program management resonates with both technical and business leadership, contributing to the company's rapid expansion. Leveraging the platform's real-time graphics, metrics, and reports, CyberSaint's customers easily track their cybersecurity program maturity and have access to recommended remediation plans at any moment in time. CyberStrong's Executive Dashboards enable management to have a dynamic view of risk and compliance across all of their initiatives, and newly released Governance Dashboards contextualize customers' cybersecurity posture in business terms for C-Suite and Board-level decision making.

"Cybersecurity risk is often managed in silos and misunderstood by leadership teams," said Padraic O'Reilly, CyberSaint Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder. "Our customers and partners have the desire to mature towards an integrated approach that validates cybersecurity as a true business function, cutting across OT, IT, and all other business areas. We are grateful to be building to the needs of the market and will continue to listen intently to what capabilities our customers need to be successful. Our team is encouraged to meet this increasing global demand with a solution that is redefining how modern organizations measure, view, and act on risk."

About CyberSaint

CyberSaint Security is a leading cybersecurity software firm that empowers organizations to manage cybersecurity as a business function by enabling measurement, enhancing communication and improving cybersecurity resiliency. The Company was named a 2019 Info Security Product Guide's Security Startup of the Year, Built in Boston's "50 Startups to Watch in 2019", and one of "Boston's Coolest Companies". The CyberSaint team is made up of company builders, security leaders, industry veterans, academics, technologists, and disruptors who align to enable cybersecurity resilience and boost business productivity through innovative technology.

About CyberStrong

The CyberStrong Platform is an integrated risk management solution powering automated, intelligent cybersecurity compliance and risk management. Built on the gold-standard foundation of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, CyberStrong provides a single pane of glass through which CISOs, Boards, and security teams can measure, report on, and mitigate enterprise-wide risk. CyberStrong's unparalleled time-to-value, breakthrough Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning automation eliminate manual effort and empower organizations to make informed business decisions that reduce risk while driving overall business value.

For more information, go to https://www.cybersaint.io

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cybersaint/

twitter: @CyberSaintHQ

Media Contact:

Alison Furneaux

[email protected]

SOURCE CyberSaint Security

Related Links

https://www.cybersaint.io


The new amendments aim to broaden the scope of terrorist entities to include hostile television channels involved in inciting violence and promoting terrorist activities

The Egyptian parliaments Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee began on Monday morning discussing new amendments to the so-called terrorist entities law (law no.8/2015).

The new amendments aim to widen the scope of entities labelled as terrorist or being involved in funding terrorist activities and operations.

Article 1 of the 2015 law will be amended to place Muslim Brotherhood-linked television channels broadcasting from Turkey and Qatar on the list of terrorist entities. The list will also include radio stations and social media accounts involved in inciting violence and terrorism.

The last period showed that a number of television channels were involved in inciting violence and promoting terrorist operations, and so these channels should be placed on the list of entities designated as terrorist, said the amendment, adding that this will include channels established by individuals, companies or institutions.

The amendments also state that individuals labelled terrorists will be stripped of all forms of government subsidies, primarily food subsidies.

These, once labelled terrorist, will also lose all kinds of public memberships, including those in professional syndicates, boards of companies, sporting clubs, and unions, said the draft law.

In funding terms, the amendments state that all assets owned by terrorist entities will be frozen.

The returns of these assets  owned either directly or indirectly by a terrorist entity  will be confiscated, said the draft law, indicating that these assets could be financial or economic resources such as oil or natural resources, as well as all forms of property, documents, legal tools, national or foreign currency, financial or commercial securities, tourist and banking cheques, documentary credit, and all returns or profits generated by all these assets or others."

The amendments also state that entities publicly declared as terrorist will be banned from exercising any activities such as gathering money or holding meetings or having offices.

All forms of promotion  such as raising the slogans of terrorist activities  will be also banned and incriminated, said the draft law.

The amendments also state that individuals listed as terrorists will be stripped of passports and barred from assuming public posts or joining parliament.

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San Francisco, Jan 27 : In a sensational revelation, an investigation on Monday claimed that the popular Avast antivirus -- installed on nearly 435 millions Windows, Mac and mobile devices globally -- harvested users' data via browser plugins and then sold it to third parties, including Microsoft and Google.

The joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag that relied on leaked user data and other company documents found that "the sale of this data is both highly sensitive and is, in many cases, supposed to remain confidential between the company selling the data and the clients purchasing it".

The leaked documents accessed for the investigation were from a subsidiary of the antivirus giant Avast, called Jumpshot.

The Avast antivirus programme was installed on a person's computer which collected the data, and Jumpshot repackaged it into various different products which were sold to big companies.

"Potential clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, Sephora, Home Depot, Conde Nast, Intuit, and many others," the report claimed.

In a statement, Avast said it has stopped providing browsing data collected by the extensions to Jumpshot.

Some clients even paid millions of dollars for products that include a so-called "All Clicks Feed", which can track user behaviour, clicks, and movement across websites in detail.

In copies of contracts with Jumpshot clients, one marketing firm paid over $2 million for data access last year.

Avast offers a selection of free and paid-for antivirus and security tools, in both free and in paid-for formats.

According to the investigation, Avast also recorded "porn site visits that are anonymized, offered the date and time the user visited the sites, as well as search terms and viewed videos in some instances".

Multiple Avast users told Motherboard they were not aware that Avast sold browsing data, raising questions about how informed that consent is.

The investigation also that Avast is still harvesting the data, but via the anti-virus software itself, rather than the browser plugins.
STAMFORD  A Stamford husband and wife in their 80s were found dead Monday morning, accidentally killed by a car idling overnight in their first-floor garage, police said.

Capt. Richard Conklin said a medial examiner was present at the scene in a single family home on Long Ridge Road, and the couples deaths appeared to be accidental.

Unfortunately this looks like a tragic accident. It looks as though a car was left running in the attached garage, Conklin said.

He said that the fumes inside the garage permeated into the house and the two appear to have been killed by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Conklin said police received a call in the mid morning about the two residents, whose name police were not releasing until the next of kin were notified.

This certainly speaks to the dangers of accidents similar to this and this is a very tragic situation, he said.

At the scene at around 10 a.m. Monday, Sgt. Sean Boeger called the deaths untimely. Police had kept a garage door open at the home apparently to help air the structure out.

Boeger added that the deaths did not appear to be suspicious from a criminal standpoint.

The bodies were discovered at about 9 a.m. Monday.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
Once in the city, he called the helpline number and reported to Fever Hospital, where an isolation ward has been set up for those with suspected infection by the new strain of coronavirus that is spreading worldwide from China.

Hyderabad: A scientist who arrived from China on a Malaysian Airlines flight on Sunday night entered the city without thermal checking at the Rajiv Gandhi International airport. Once in the city, he called the helpline number and reported to Fever Hospital, where an isolation ward has been set up for those with suspected infection by the new strain of coronavirus that is spreading worldwide from China.

Three others were also admitted in the isolation ward on Monday, taking the total number to eight.

Three samples were taken on Monday but are lying with the Fever Hospital as the bureaucratic tangles are delaying their transportation to the National Institute of Virology at Pune.

The samples have to be transported by road. With no sanctioned budget, health department units are asking each other to fund it. The samples need to be placed in bottles and packed in containers which have to be sealed in three layers. These are to be packed in another container and those handling it have to wear gloves and masks. The samples have to be sent in a private vehicle and not in public transport as there is fear of the virus escaping.

This requires containers, sealers and capable handlers to ensure that there is no possibility of the virus escaping.

Health officials fear that more people will report to Fever Hospital as there have been continuous calls to the helpline number. There is panic among those who visited China in the first two weeks of December also. They have been calling in and asking whether they should get evaluated for the virus.

Dont go out after you arrive from China

A senior doctor on condition of anonymity explained, Only those who have symptoms of cough, cold and fever are being checked. Or those who feel that they are suffering from some type of fatigue. So far, the reports have been negative. Those who are now coming from China need to be quarantined. They must not move out for seven to 10 days and must practice self-isolation.

Officials from the Union health ministry will arrive late on Monday night and will inspect Gandhi Hospital, which has 20 beds which are ready in the isolation ward. The nurses and paramedical staff have full body protection gear which will be used only when the coronavirus cases are confirmed. The team will then visit Fever Hospital and senior health officials.
: The gossip in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly lobbies through Monday, as the House discussed a resolution seeking abolition of the Legislative Council, that the two ministers representing the Upper House would quit their posts, didn't quite prove right.

Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue) Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose and Fisheries Minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana are members of the Council and there was talk in the lobbies that they would resign from their posts taking the moral high ground as the government decided to abolish the Upper House.

Nothing of the sort happened till late Monday night.

The Assembly adopted a statutory resolution, seeking that the Council be abolished under Article 169 (1) of the Constitution.

The Centre will now have to enact an enabling law in Parliament before the President issues a formal notification bringing the existence of the Council to an end.

Since this process will take a lot more time and the House will remain in existence till then, the ruling YSR Congress leadership contended that the two could continue in the Jagan Mohan Reddy Cabinet.

"Even after the Council ceases to exist, the ministers can remain in the Cabinet for a further six month period as per the Constitution," a senior minister, who did not wish to be quoted, pointed out.

But Boses tenure as MLC ends on March 29, 2021 while Ramana has time till the same day in 2023.

So Bose can hold his Cabinet post for 14 more months.

The two, who have been with Jagan since the formation of the YSRC, lost the Assembly elections in April 2019 but were accommodated in the Council after the government assumed power.

Abolition of the Council will deal a blow to the Telugu Desam, which currently has a majority with 28 members, including party supremo Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh and veteran leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The content of the covert recording that photographer Javier Caso made of two policemen who interrogated him during his trip to Cuba seems like something from the short Monte Rouge, or the German film The Lives of Others. It is a real gem, representing direct evidence of several human rights violations, not only suffered by Javier Caso, but entire groups of people, such as artists on the island, and Cubans residing off it.

The two agents, who identified themselves as members of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) could well be members of the counterintelligence (the name could not be more apt) wing of the Interior Ministry. They boasted that they belonged to the fifth most effective police force on the planet, but they didn't realize that their interrogee was recording their abusive behavior.

During the interrogation, the agents (whose aliases are not even worth citing here) provided irrefutable, documented evidence of the Cuban state's violations and abuses of its citizens, for consideration by the UN Human Rights Committee, the Human Rights Commission of the OAS, the European Parliament, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and any other relevant international institution, governmental or non-governmental, covering the human rights situation in Cuba. The inept and abusive conduct exhibited by the two agents of "the fifth most effective police in the world" has given a new connotation to the term "useful fools;" in this case, useful to the cause they claim to fight against.

Among other things, their words provided direct and unequivocal proof of the following:

1- If you are not affiliated with and recognized as an artist by the only state organization established to control creators, you are not considered an artist, so your art is illegal, as are you.

2 - If you are Cuban and you live off the island, you are still subject to the Cuban police's surveillance and censorship laws. You cannot write or reproduce whatever you wish on the Internet, because they are watching you. The price to pay if you want to express yourself freely elsewhere is that you will be barred from visiting Cuba, or arrested and subject to legal proceedings exclusively handled by Cuban law enforcement and officials. In addition, you may be harassed during your stay, your passport may be withheld, you may be summoned for interviews with the police, and run the risk of missing your return flight, and having to pay for a new ticket.

3- When you are in Cuba you cannot use a professional camera, even if you are a photographer, without a license to use it on the island.

4 - During visits to Cuba you cannot visit family or friends who are under surveillance by the government's security apparatus. You must avoid them and, when you get back home, you cannot publicize their situations on social media.

5 - You are threatened with retaliation against close family members in this case a sister and parents if you continue with what the agents consider inadmissible behavior. During the interrogation the two agents referred to those who opposed the Constitution as "a small minority." Is it necessary to ask, at this point, the actual size of that "minority," dismissed as a "tiny group" in another of these agents' blunders. After recent conflicts, the powers that be in Cuba should take another look at the numbers.

If their laws are absurd, their agents are even more so. None of their tactics work in an era of new technologies, and a generation that has lost their fear of them. Javier Caso recorded them, and Miguel Coyula and Lynn Cruz whom the two agents said they were "watching" made public their absurd posing as dashing cops.

I would have liked it if these two agents of (in)security and (dis)order, upon exiting the interrogation room, had slipped and fell upon a puddle of the red paint used by Clandestinos on the wall of the police station. That would have been the icing on the cake.
Photo: Unsplash

You can leave your umbrella at home through Tuesday, but light rainfall is in the forecast for Miami later in the week, according to the seven-day forecast from drone-powered weather service Saildrone. The best chance of rain is predicted on Friday at 68 percent, with the potential for light rainfall of 0.73 inches.

Also expect light winds through Tuesday. Winds are forecast to rise as high as 21 mph on Saturday, and stay moderately strong through Sunday.

Temperatures will reach their coolest on Sunday, falling to 69 degrees, with highs in the 70s the rest of the week. Skies will be cloudy through Tuesday and partly cloudy on Thursday.

This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The Conservatives originally supported HS2 as a modernisation symbol during their opposition years. It would run north from Heathrow along the M40 corridor as an alternative to a third runway at the airport. Now we are on course to have both that runway and HS2, if Boris Johnson gives the scheme the go-ahead after a review panels report.

That muddle over purpose is the right place to begin reviewing where HS2 has got to. Once they took office, David Cameron and George Osborne promptly reverse-ferreted (reverse-tracked?) on the scheme, and almost immediately adopted Andrew Adonis plan  remember him?  to run HS2 from Euston to Birmingham and beyond.

The best part of ten years on from that decision, the critics have been proved right on costs. Three years ago, the Taxpayers Alliance estimated that these would come in at some 91 billion, not the 55 billion originally stated. The latest calculation is 100 billion. The price could be even higher.

This site has long argued that the plan is the white elephant of white elephants  that HS2 comes with environmental, visual and communal costs; that mid-to-late twentieth century technology may be out of date by the mid-to-late twenty-first, and that one doesnt need a high speed service to update the West Coast main line.

It would have been far better, as the ConservativeHome Manifesto argued six years ago, to scrap the scheme and re-direct the planned public investment in its entirety to a Northern Infrastructure Fund, providing core finance for a generational programme for transport and communication links between key urban centres.

Osborne is still defending HS2, and his rationale remains narrowly political  avoiding anything much to do with delivery (such as taxpayer costs and passenger use) and concentrating almost entirely on perception (such as what cancellation might mean for the Governments image).

This is to reheat the argument that has driven the scheme: that Britain should commit itself enthusiastically to grands projets, that a U-turn would be a morale-sapping admission of failure, and that HS2 is a symbol of Conservative commitment to the north and midlands.

It is a case that will weigh heavily on Boris Johnsons shoulders as he contemplates responding to the review panel  and to Lord Berkeleys minority report claiming not only that the costs are out of control but that the figures have been fiddled.

The Prime Minister will be sensitive to the claim that if he, the Brexity Hezza, U-turns on HS2 then any big future scheme he advances  a land bridge to Ireland; his beloved new airport in the Thames Estuary, some Ozymandian space exploration enterprise  will be mocked out of its own headlines.

Junking the plan would also open him to accusations of betraying the Midlands and North. As it happens, Conservative MPs are divided about the scheme, and no less north of the Watford Gap that anywhere else. But there is a knotty political problem in the West Midlands.

Our columnist Andy Street is committed to HS2, and is up for re-election this spring. Is Johnson really going to pull the rail line from under his feet? The West Midlands Mayor is only one frame in a broader picture. Our readers will be aware of sunk costs. These are by definition financial. But theres such a thing as sunk political costs, too.

John Downers pro-HS2 piece on this site last year is a useful introduction to the concept. At one level, the article on behalf of the scheme from a group of business leaders was what it said it was  an account of how one job-creating project can produce job-creating spin-offs.

At another, it told a story of how there is now  to adapt Eisenhower  an HS2-Industrial Complex: contractors, suppliers, archaeologists and even, apparently, environmentalists. To mix metaphors for a moment, its a gravy train with many fingers in it. Furthermore, Phase One of the project is already under way.

Department of Transport officials have previously mulled pulling Phase Two  or at least Phase 2b, which would run HS2 from Crewe to Manchester and from the West Midlands to Leeds. One friend of ConHome told the site that this would be a very British solution  a half-built railway.

It would make Johnsonian sense to do it all the other way round: in other words, announce that Phase 2 will be undertaken first. There have been briefings that such will be the decision. But even if technically viable that would be to abandon Street  unless a reason can be found to put a decision off manana-style.

We are not at all sure about these briefings. Paul Maynard, the Rail Minister, is said to be supportive of the scheme. Dominic Cummings is instinctively sceptical about it but has his eye on other matters. And then there are those sunk political costs: that mass of interwoven lobby interests.

It needs no genius to point out that the idea of sunk economic costs is a fallacy. That of sunk political costs may be too. Johnson will never be more powerful than during these first few months after his great election victory. If he wants to tell the HS2 lobby to take away their Ninky Nonk, there will never be a better time to do it than now.

And we would. But the Prime Minister is bound to be asking some very hard questions. These will include: how many alternative schemes for the Midlands and North are anything like shovel-ready? If our aim is to ensure that Red Wall seats gain visibly by 2024, how many would do so, were HS2 to be scrapped?

For all these reasons, we suspect that the scheme will get the go ahead  perhaps with some fig leaf to hang over the rising costs; possibly with some apparent new gain for the North. And Street will sail towards his poll in May with a cracking chance of being re-elected.

I fear the worst, one HS2-sceptic within Number Ten told this site yesterday. Steve Barclay said on The Andrew Marr Show that his gut feeling was that the plan will go ahead. Cabinet Ministers like Barclay dont usually advertise what their stomach is telling them without good reason.

Were here because were here because we here because were here, the old First World War song had it. So it may well be with HS2. Its here because its here  because a mass of political as well as taxpayer capital has been poured into the scheme. And more will come.

Slow train coming; fast train coming. On and on and on HS2 is likely to go, consuming taxpayers money like the furnace in some old steam monster, belching out its over-runs like black smoke  with a mass of reports and inquiries panting along in its wake. Its a high price to pay for this legacy from Camerons modernisation project.
Caitlin Wiesen, United Nations Development Programme resident representative in Vietnam

The United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) Human Development Report 2019, titled Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st century (HDR 2019) was recently launched in Vietnam  a country that has embarked firmly on people-centered development and has prioritised equality in its socio-economic strategies and plans.

The launch of the report took place globally around the world last December. It is the first of a new generation of human development reports for the UNDP, to accelerate thought leadership, and drive conversations on the future of development, and in so doing, advance progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The UNDP is delighted to have partnered with Thomas Piketty (author of the best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century) and his team at the World Inequality Lab to produce this report which focuses on new ways of measuring and approaching inequalities. The topic of the report in 2019 is a pertinent one as systemic inequality is deeply damaging our society and harming the human development progress.

There is much that Vietnam can be proud of in this report. Indeed, the countrys progress in human development has been remarkable. Between 1990 and 2018 the countrys human development index (HDI) value increased rapidly, with an average annual growth of 1.36 per cent. This places Vietnam among the group of countries with the highest HDI growth rate in the world. During the same period, Vietnams life expectancy at birth increased by 4.8 years, mean years of schooling: by 4.3 years and expected years of schooling: by 4.9 years and gross national income (GNI per capita) increased by 354.5 per cent. As a result, Vietnam has shifted from a low HDI country in 1990, to just shy of high human development in 2018. Today Vietnam ranks 118th among 189 countries on HDI, and the countrys HDI value is only 0.007 point below the high human development groups threshold.

Achieving equality

Notably, Vietnams human development progress has been achieved with relatively low increases in inequality. Vietnams loss of HDI score due to inequality in 2018 is 16.3 per cent, its loss of income due to inequality is 18.1 per cent, and its GNI coefficient at 35.3 are among the lowest in the East Asia and Pacific region.

In fact, when taking into account Vietnams inequality-adjusted HDI, the country is eight places higher than its ranking in 2018.

Vietnam has also been performing well in terms of gender equality. The gender development index value of 1.003 puts the country in the top group out of five groups of 166 countries in the world, with Vietnam ranking 68th out of 162 countries in gender inequality index.

Particularly commendable is the share of seats in parliament which places Vietnam among the top third of countries globally. However, there are important areas for improvement: Vietnam ranks among the bottom third of countries globally in terms of sex ratio at birth (1.12), violence against women by non-intimate partners (34.4 per cent), and women with accounts in financial institutions or with mobile money service provider (30.4 per cent).

When going beyond national averages, as HDR 2019 calls for, disaggregated data shows larger disparities by geographical locations and ethnic minority groups.

Turning to performance in sustainable, environmental development, HDR 2019 highlights Vietnams forest coverage as among the top third of countries globally. At the same time, it is among the bottom third of countries in terms of carbon emission per capita. Addressing this will be a key challenge to ensure the sustainability of Vietnams growth.

Importantly, while Vietnam is among the top third of countries in terms of unemployment rates, it is among the bottom third in terms of skilled labour force and vulnerable employment.

This reflects a reliance on simple skilled labour and poses a serious risk of losing jobs to automation, potentially deepening inequalities in the next development period.

This is why the topic of HDR 2019 is so important. Failure to address the systemic challenges to tackle a new generation of inequalities will not only slow-down sustainable development in this century but also further entrench inequalities and harm the progress of human development in the next century. The report analyses inequality and its causes by looking beyond income, beyond averages, and beyond today.

Inequality cannot be only framed around income, fed and measured by the notion that making money is the most important thing in life. Vietnam has recognised this and was among the several countries in the world that have been pioneering the application of multi-dimensional poverty measurements and approach since 2015.

The countrys achievement in reducing multi-dimensional poverty is also remarkable: with the Ministry of Planning and Investment value of 0.019 it ranks 29th out of 102 countries and is among the top countries in East Asia and Pacific on this indicator.

Inequality is also looked at through the lens of distribution of power, be it political or monopoly in the market. Going beyond income will require tackling entrenched social and political norms embedded deep within different nations or population groups histories and cultures. Dignity as equal treatment and nondiscrimination can be even more important than the imbalances in income distribution.

Maintaining progress

Beyond averages, the report calls for analysing and addressing the life-course gender gaps and inequalities among different population groups and geographical locations. Vietnams disaggregated data show that despite the remarkable progress at national level, ethnic minority groups lag behind in many human capabilities such as life expectancy, health and education (especially vocational training and tertiary education), and multi-dimensional poverty.

This suggests a challenge for Vietnam to ensure no-one is left behind.

For the future, the report articulates the rise of a new generation of inequalities. Just as the gap in basic living standards is narrowing, with an unprecedented number of people in the world escaping poverty, hunger, and disease, the abilities people will need to compete in the immediate future have evolved. A new gap has opened, such as in tertiary education and digital literacy  opportunities once considered luxuries that are now considered critical to compete and belong, particularly in a knowledge economy, as Industry 4.0 accelerates. Allow me to quote Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator: We also need to avoid a new great divergence in our societies driven by AI and digital technologies. There is historical precedent for technological revolutions to carve deep, persistent inequalities, as took place in the industrial revolution. How we adopt and use new technology is in our hands, and it can be guided to be a force for good.

At the same time, climate change, gender inequality, and violent conflict continue to drive and entrench basic and new inequalities alike.

The report suggests that, just as inequality begins at birth and defines opportunities for children, adults, and elders, and permeates those of the next generation, so, too, policies to prevent inequalities can follow the lifecycle.

Integrated solutions addressing multidimensions of inequality should start early and span throughout three key stages of peoples lives: before they reach the labour market, to address sex birth selection, nutritional, health and educational gaps between children and young women and men; once they are in the labour market, to harness the power of labour, industrial, gender, and anti-trust policies to level the playing field; and after the market, to make sure taxes, transfers, subsidies, and social services equalise the opportunities for the haves and have-nots.

Politicians and policymakers have a range of choices that, if correctly combined for the context of each country or group, will translate into a lifelong investment in equality and sustainability. Equitably strengthening enhanced human capabilities such as tertiary education, digital literacy, and climate resilience will be key for Vietnams human development in the 21st century.

Vietnam is at a critical juncture as it designs its next Socio-Economic Development Strategy, with decisions made today determining whether the country will continue its current pattern of growth with relatively low inequality or whether new forms of emerging inequalities will be further entrenched and deepened with unsustainable growth pathways.

The UNDP stands ready to partner with Vietnam in the journey to achieve all goals and leave no-one behind, through sustainable, inclusive, and equitable development pathways.
Two of the country's banks are selling off many of their ATMs.

The move is raising concerns there will be a hike in fees as a result.
Providing a specialised isolation detention unit for a "deeply disturbed" middle aged woman who is a danger to staff, other patients and herself would cost more than 1m, the High Court heard.

The HSE says it doesn't have that money and says her present accommodation in a mental health facility, while not ideal, is the best that can be provided at the moment.

It says the 1m plus bill would be in addition to present costs of having two nurses permanently chaperone her because she has been involved in hundreds of incidents, including self-harming and assault, since she was first admitted to the facility in 2014 under mental health legislation. One nurse resigned after being seriously assaulted by her and a second is still out on long-term illness as a result, the court heard.

As a result of her involvement in some 196 incidents in 2015, she had to be housed in a common sitting room in the facility where she can be permanently monitored by staff and CCTV at the nurses station, the court heard.

Last September, she was made a ward of court which meant president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, reviews her detention at least twice a year.

Today, the judge ordered her continued detention for another four weeks.

He said he would put it back for this period after he heard that an inspector with the Mental Health Commission expressed concern in relation to recording and registering of her situation in the specially monitored area she has been put into. Seclusion of patients must be done in accordance with approved guidelines and protocols, the court heard.

The judge was told by a solicitor appointed in 2014 to represent the woman following her committal to the mental health facility that recently her behaviour had improved.

He (solicitor) believed she needed a bespoke unit because the situation in which she is presently accommodated was not appropriate even though he said staff were doing their best for her. While her health had improved physically, it had not improved at all from a mental health view, he said.

The solicitor also told the judge she was effectively in seclusion as the room she is in is locked, she does not have access to other patients and could not do so without proper supervision as there would be a risk of assault by her.

The General Solicitor for Wards of Court, who represents her interests under wardship, said the wardship situation had not changed the pressure on the HSE to provide a specialised unit which it was accepted was very expensive.

A solicitor for the HSE said her client did not accept the current arrangement was seclusion in the way it is defined by the guidelines.

What was being provided was the clinically appropriate way at the moment of nursing her, the solicitor said. She cannot be allowed return among other patients, particularly in view of the ferocity of the assaults on two staff, she said.

The HSE was acutely aware of the inappropriateness of her current situation but it was "the best place at the moment taking into account capital constraints", the solicitor said.

Mr Justice Kelly said there was a concern the current situation compromised her dignity. She was locked in a room with little or no therapeutic space, he said.

All the evidence before him was she was deeply disturbed as a result of a psychiatric condition for a long time. He had last September authorised appropriate restraint, monitoring and seclusion in accordance with the guidelines.

While the general wardship solicitor and her solicitor appointed under mental health legislation view her current placement as inappropriate it was the best the health service can provide with the budget at its disposal, he said. Efforts to find a place for her in the UK were not successful.

He directed that a report be provided by the court's own independent mental health service inspector and put the case back for four weeks with the detention order remaining in place until then.
The leadership of Ghanas mission in China will today, January 27 meet with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deliberate on the deadly coronavirus which hit that country a few days ago.

As of January 26, the new coronavirus has reportedly infected at least 2,463 people and caused at least 80 deaths.

It has also spread to other countries.

A statement signed by Edward A. Boateng, Ghanas Ambassador to China said the meeting will give them the opportunity to discuss how we can manage the ongoing situation.

The Ambassador in the statement also said the African Diplomatic Corps will meet with the World Health Organization to deliberate on the necessary protocols needed to be taken with regards to the over 4,600 African students in Wuhan and ultimately, all Africans at the epicentre of the virus in Wuhan.

We at the Ghana Embassy, Beijing, take the well-being of all Ghanaians seriously and are monitoring the situation, he added.

He urged Ghanaians living in China to adhere to health and safety protocols and to make it a point to follow news updates on the coronavirus on CCTV News, BBC, CNN and CGTN.

Do not take information from unapproved social media sources. Also, contact your doctor or known medical personnel if you have any medical worries. This is indeed a tough time for all but we are a strong and determined people and together we shall get through it all, the statement added.

Below is the full statement from Ambassador Edward A. Boateng: UPDATES FROM THE AMBASSADOR OF GHANA ON THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN CHINA

Fellow Ghanaians

Good afternoon.

I wish to bring to your notice that on Monday, 27th January 2020 an emergency meeting will be held with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss how we manage the ongoing situation. The African Diplomatic Corps will also meet with the World Health Organization to deliberate on the necessary protocols needed to be taken with regards to the over 4600 African students in Wuhan and ultimately, all Africans at the epicentre of the virus in Wuhan.

In addition, the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has been made aware of developments with regards to the spread of the virus and contingency plans are under discussion.

I want to reiterate however the need for all not to panic, rather be each other's keeper and do well to take all the prescribed precautions and also take the flu shot once movement restrictions are relaxed or lifted.

Furthermore, we have reached out to the International Migration Organization and other organizations to see how best to address the issue at hand.

I would once again want to entreat all, to adhere to the health and safety protocols and to make it a point to follow the news updates on the coronavirus on CCTV News, BBC, CNN and CGTN. Do not take information from unapproved social media sources. Also contact your doctor or known medical personnel if you have any medical worries.

This is indeed a tough time for all but we are a strong and determined people and together we shall get through it all.

We at the Ghana Embassy, Beijing, take the well-being of all Ghanaians seriously and are monitoring the situation.

Sincerely,

Edward A. Boateng

Ambassador

----citinewsroom
YOKNEAM, Israel , Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumenis Ltd., the world's largest energy-based medical device company for aesthetic, surgical and ophthalmic applications, announces the launch of its newest platform, the LightSheer Quattro. Following a successful US launch in 2019 the platform will be showcased at the 22nd International Master Course on Aging Science (IMCAS) conference in Paris, France from 30th January  1st February 2020. The Lumenis booth is N242.

LightSheer Quattro is the newest addition to the premium Lumenis LightSheer family positioning it ahead of the market, as a flagship solution in the diode laser hair removal industry. The system offers clinically proved laser hair removal treatments for all skin types with either 805nm or 1060nm wavelengths with no down time as well as treatment of pigmented and vascular lesions. The newest addition to the LightSheer family allows practitioners to deliver excellent clinical results by combining High Speed Vacuum assisted technology with ChillTip Integrated Contact cooling technology, providing patients with comfortable, effective, fast and safe treatments. The compact and portable LightSheer Quattro system is upgradeable and a great addition to a MedSpa or a Medical office, whether experienced or just starting out in the industry.

"The LightSheer Quattro allows me to customize treatments with confidence, treat all skin types and achieve optimal results for every patient", says Dr. Marco Lucrezio from Ugento (LE)  Italy. "My patients enjoy short and comfortable treatments with long lasting results," added Dr. Lucrezio.

"Lumenis is excited to introduce our newest addition to the LightSheer product line, a solution for all those seeking a tried and true, versatile laser hair removal system," said Tzipi Ozer-Armon, CEO of Lumenis. "The LightSheer technology and brand have been industry benchmarks for over 20 years, driven by well-established, proven clinical benefits."

Lumenis will introduce the LightSheer Quattro during the IMCAS conference in January. At the event Lumenis will also showcase additional leading systems including: Legend Pro+ (RF-assisted ultra-thin electrodes treatment combined with direct current, TriPollar RF, DMA muscle stimulation and TriFractional) , SPLENDOR X (Alexandrite and Nd:Yag powered by BLENDX technology) and NuEra tight (temperature-controlled RF technology for skin tightening, Cellulite & skin laxity treatment). Please visit https://lumenis.co.uk/solutions/aesthetic/news-events/events/imcas-world-congress-2020/ for a detailed agenda of activities at the conference. For more information about the Lumenis family of products, please visit the Lumenis booth (N242).

About Lumenis

Lumenis is a global leader in the field of minimally-invasive clinical solutions for the Surgical, Ophthalmology, and Aesthetic markets, and is a world-renowned expert in developing and commercializing innovative energy-based technologies, including Laser, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and Radio-Frequency (RF). For 50 years, Lumenis' ground-breaking products have redefined medical treatments and have set numerous technological and clinical gold-standards. Lumenis has successfully created solutions for previously untreatable conditions, as well as designed advanced technologies that have revolutionized existing treatment methods. Lumenis is a portfolio company of XIO Group, a global alternative investments firm. For more information visit: www.lumenis.com



Forward-Looking Statements

Information provided in this press release may contain statements relating to current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events that are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may include but are not limited to the Company's plans, objectives and expectations for future operations, including its projected results of operations. Forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "believe," "should," "intend," "plan," "project" or other similar words, but are not the only way these statements are identified. These forward-looking statements are based upon our management's current estimates and projections of future results or trends. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, contact Katie Elliott at [email protected]

SOURCE Lumenis Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.lumenis.com


Swedish think-tank analyses financial data from four companies to develop comprehensive picture of Chinas arms trade.

Newly-available data suggests that China is the worlds second-biggest arms producer, behind the United States and ahead of Russia, a leading conflict and armaments think-tank said on Monday.

A lack of transparency means the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has excluded China from its annual global rankings of arms makers, but it said credible financial information had become available for four important companies.

The data, covering the period from 2015 to 2017, allowed SIPRI to compile what it called the most comprehensive picture of Chinese companies weapons production to date.

With the increase of available data on these companies, it is now possible to develop reasonably reliable estimates of the scale of the Chinese arms industry, the institute said.

The four companies had combined estimated arms sales of $54.1bn for 2017, it said, which would put them among the top 20 arms producers in the world.

Three of the companies would be ranked in the top 10.

China paraded new weaponry, including the vehicle-mounted DF-17, during a parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of Peoples Republic of China on October 1 last year [File: Ng Han Guan/AP Photo]

Total US arms sales in 2017 were $226.6bn, and in Russia, $37.7bn, according to the think-tanks Top 100 list for that year.

Aircraft and avionics group Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) would rank as the sixth-largest arms producer, with estimated 2017 sales of $20.1bn, while land systems-focused China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) would place eighth with an estimated $17.2bn in sales, the institute said.

The other two companies it looked at, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) and China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC), had estimated sales of $12.2bn and $4.6bn, respectively, a spokesperson for the institute said.

Chinas foreign and defence ministries did not respond to faxed requests for comment during a public holiday. Calls to AVIC, NORINCO and CSGC went unanswered and China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) declined to comment.

The Sweden-based think-tank has said global expenditure in 2018 hit $1.8 trillion, its highest level since the end of the Cold War, fuelled by increased spending in the United States and China.

US arms sales that year were $246bn, Russias were $36.2bn and the United Kingdom had $35.1bn in sales, it said.
Burma Amid Coronavirus Fears, Two Feverish Workers Quarantined at Myanmar-China Border

Health workers conduct screenings at the checkpoint in Muse, Shan State on the Chinese border on Sunday. / Ministry of Information

MANDALAY  As the Ministry of Health and Sport extends border screening stations, two Myanmar nationals with a high fever were detected at the Muse checkpoint on the Chinese border in northern Shan State on Monday.

A spokesman for the Muse General Hospital said the feverish man and woman were under medical surveillance.

The man is suffering from flu and he was treated in the outpatient department. The womans temperature is exceeding 38 degrees Celsius. She is under surveillance. It is too early to say if they are infected with the coronavirus, he told The Irrawaddy.

They were migrant workers traveling back to Myanmar from Ruili for Chinese New Year, the spokesman said.

We began screening travelers on Jan. 15. These are the first cases of fever we have found. They are in quarantine and under surveillance. We are doing all the tests for them, he added.

The ministry said there were checkpoints in Panwah in Kachin State, Chinshwehaw in Kokang and Mongkoe in eastern Shan State.

The Mongla Peace and Solidarity Committee in Mongla Special Region 4 in eastern Shan State said it had closed all casinos and canceled public ceremonies.

Mongla, on the Chinese border, is a popular destination for Chinese New Year with Chinese and Thai tourists heading to its casinos, restaurants, karaoke lounges and gambling dens.

The committee said in a statement that medics were screening arrivals at the border and urged the public to contact the authorities if they were sick or saw others who were suffering.

The sale of wild animals for food has been forbidden in markets and restaurants. The statement warned against spreading fake news and threatened to prosecute anyone caught distributing confusing rumors.

We worry about the spread of infection and have told the public to use proper hygiene, wear masks and avoid public gatherings, said U Nyi Rang, a spokesman for the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

He said the border checkpoints had quarantine centers which were ready to treat patients.

Authorities at the border in the Kokang Special Region in northern Shan State are enforcing screening.

The authorities are distributing handouts on the virus and what precautions to take, said U Kyaw Ni Naing, the Lower House parliamentarian for Laukkai.

The Fruit Commodity Exchange at Muse on Monday told traders to stay away.

It said no Chinese traders were buying fruit.

Fruit traders and farmers should not send their goods to Muse. They will be left to rot as no one will be here to buy them until China declares the virus is controllable and lifts the travel ban, said U Sai Myint Bo, the chairman of the commodity exchange in Muse.

The Mahagandayon Monastery, one of Mandalays main tourist destinations, has banned Chinese visitors.

The jade market, which depends largely on Chinese jewelers and traders, is also almost deserted.

The jade traders also cannot visit the Chinese border to sell their goods due to the travel ban. Most think the new year will be disastrous for the jade trade, said Ma Khet Khet Tin, a jade and jewelry trader.

On Sunday, China said the death toll from the coronavirus was 81 with 2,827 confirmed infections. The numbers could not be independently verified. There were 461 patients in a critical condition and 51 patients had been discharged, the authorities said.

The World Health Organization said on Sunday that there were three coronavirus cases in Japan, four in South Korea, two in Vietnam, eight in Thailand, one in Nepal, four in Australia, three in France, four in the United States, four in Singapore, four in Taiwan and four in Malaysia.
Today marks the reopening of the all-new InterContinental San Juan, following a multimillion-dollar reimagination that ushers in a new decade for the beachfront hotel. Situated minutes from the nightlife of Old San Juan overlooking the palm-fringed Isla Verde beach, the seaside oasis has been completely renovated to reflect the tropical spirit of the destination while appealing to todays modern traveler. Outfitted with the latest in design, technology and comfort, each new touch reflects the rich culture of Puerto Rico and reinstates InterContinental San Juans status as a top destination for both business and leisure travelers. The resort offers 398 guest rooms and suites, over 24,000 square feet of meeting and event space, an outdoor lagoon pool with a swim-up bar, seven restaurants and bars serving up a variety of exquisite cuisines, and a full-service spa.

We are thrilled to unveil the reimagined InterContinental San Juan, which has been a labor of love as we sought to update the resort while staying true to the local culture and personality of the city, said Michael Herrmann, general manager of InterContinental San Juan. The revitalized resort offers contemporary amenities for todays traveler while welcoming back guests with familiar faces, serving up our brand of Puerto Rican hospitality.

Designed by Boston-based Parker-Torres Design, all guestrooms, suites, and Club rooms have been updated with a crisp blue and white palette combined with soft wood tones that echo the islands pristine beaches and bright waters. The redesigned accommodations reflect the vibrant yet relaxed energy of the destination. San Juan-based 3MG-PR spearheaded the design of the lobby, restaurants and landscaping, ensuring guests are welcomed by the local culture and beauty of the island as soon as they walk through the doors. Intentional touches that highlight the spirit of the region can be found throughout the hotel, including new art pieces, furnishings, and pops of color that rival Old San Juans vibrantly painted homes.

Beautifully decorated suites, including an entirely new master suite and two executive suites, provide VIPs, honeymooners, and groups with spacious accommodations during their stay. Besides social travelers, InterContinental San Juan remains a hub for business travelers, with over 24,000 square-feet of meeting space that can be configurated for a variety of meeting needs. An updated conference floor, pattered with rich textures, houses meeting rooms featuring floor to ceiling windows with scenic views. The largest spaces are the 6,036-square-foot Preciosa Ballroom, the 5,065-square-foot Grand Ballroom, the 2,850-square-foot Caribbean Ballroom, and the 2,344-square-foot Atlantic Ballroom.

InterContinental San Juan is home to seven restaurants and bars including Ocean Breeze, known for having the only toes in the sand oceanfront bar in Isla Verde serving up inventive cocktails and fresh salads, sandwiches and homemade pizzas, and SAK-I, offering an artful blend of Asian flavors with a tropical twist. Additional dining options include Ruths Chris Steak House; Aleli, the hotels main breakfast restaurant; La Bodeguita, a cafe and wine bar offering gourmet breakfast, lunch and evening delights; Akua Bar, a casual swim-up bar serving light lunch and popular tropical cocktails; and Karaya, the resorts indoor/outdoor main bar.

In addition to a full-service fitness center, guests can also relax at the newly remodeled Akua Spa (opening February 2020), which features a sauna, steam bath and five private treatment rooms where guests can enjoy signature ocean-inspired massage, face, and body treatments for the ultimate vacation experience.

Interest in Puerto Rico is stronger than ever as major airlines continue adding nonstop flights to the sun-kissed paradise from more and more U.S. cities, giving visitors access to the Caribbean without having to bring along a passport. Room rates on average at InterContinental San Juan start at $329.00/night. For more information about InterContinental San Juan or to book your stay, please visit http://www.icsanjuan.com.

About InterContinental San Juan:

Set in picturesque Carolina, Puerto Rico, the InterContinental San Juan is a cherished landmark and lead attraction for both business and social travelers. The 398-room and 16-story property combines the beachfront sophistication and modernity of the setting while providing guests a variety of high-class amenities. The resort features a full-service ocean-themed spa, four restaurants with a variety of cuisines, a lagoon-style pool with a swim-up bar and over 24,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space. The property re-opened in January 2020 after a multimillion-dollar re-imagination that reflects the dynamic culture, local flavors and amazing adventures the island of Puerto Rico is known for. All new rooms, restaurants and amenities are ready to welcome guests back to rediscover a corner of paradise on Isla Verde beach.
West Bengal on Monday passed a resolution against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) becoming the fourth non-BJP state to take the legislative route and be on a collision course with the NDA government which asserted every state should implement the Act as it was a central law.

The Assembly in Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal approved the resolution brought by the state government demanding that the CAA be repealed forthwith, as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it is "against the Constitution and humanity". The resolution was backed by both the opposition parties Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front but opposed by the BJP.

Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab in the recent weeks passed resolutions against the new citizenship law that has triggered nationwide protests and a vicious political slugfest.

Unfazed by more and more states adopting a formal resolution against the CAA and refusing to implement it, Defence minister Rajnath Singh said it is not a law to hurt the sentiments of any religion but to give relief to victims of religious persecution in neighbouring countries.

"The CAA is a central law and everyone(state) should implement it," he told a rally in Mangaluru which recently witnessed violent anti-CAA protests in which two people lost their lives.

Accusing the Congress of misleading people on the issue, he said the party should not forget its duty towards the nation just because it is in the opposition.

Mahatma Gandhi had told Jawaharlal Nehru to give citizenship to minorities like Hindus and Sikhs if they come to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled that vision by bringing in the law, Singh added.

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha termed the passing of anti-CAA resolutions by non-BJP states a constitutional crisis, saying this can't be ignored.

He stressed there was no need to bring the legislation as it was "anti-democratic" and "divided people on the basis of religion".

"There is a constitutional crisis. You cannot ignore state governments. You have to take them into confidence," Sinha told reporters in Lucknow when asked about resolutions passed by states against the CAA.

In a related development, the Congress moved the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) demanding action against alleged police atrocities on anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh, claiming that victims have been made accused in case-related FIRs and no police officer has been named.

The delegation, led by senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, met top NHRC officials in Delhi and made a detailed 31-page representation which included videos and photographs as "evidence" of alleged atrocities and human rights violations in the state.

After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi alleged the UP government has "gone to war against its own people" and urged the NHRC to act decisively to protect the "Constitutional rights of our citizens".

After the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi told reporters, "In Uttar Pradesh, there has been gross human rights violations. We have submitted videos and photos to the NHRC."



The BSP demanded withdrawal of cases lodged by the UP government against women protesting against the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

Women have been staging protests in different parts of the state including at the historic Clock Tower in Lucknow, demanding scrapping of the CAA and NRC.

In a tweet, BSP supremo Mayawati said, "Wrong cases filed against women and others protesting against CAA/NRC by the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government should be immediately withdrawn, and those who lost their lives during this time should also be extended proper help, this is the demand of BSP. Around 100 women protesters have been booked for violating prohibitory orders at the clock tower.

As anti-CAA protests continued in several parts of the country, Yoga guru Ramdev alleged that certain political parties are acting irresponsibly and spreading fear over the the amended law through rumours and lies. He did not name any party.

"I believe that all Muslims are not involved in it. Crores of Muslims are patriots and they too are unhappy and this is defaming them. All responsible people need to rectify this," he said.

Shaheen Bagh, which has emerged as the epicentre of the protests in Delhi, sparked a fresh political slugfest with senior Congress leader P Chidambaram hitting out at Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, saying "mocking" this protest, which "represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi", amounts to "mocking Ahimsa and Satyagraha".

Prasad had earlier in the day said the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh spearheaded by women is offering a platform to the 'tukde tukde gang' under the garb of opposition to the CAA.

The BJP leader also alleged that the protest was emerging as "a textbook case of a few hundred people trying to suppress the silent majority".

"Now, the Law Minister calls the protesters at Shaheen Bagh as part of the tukde tukde gang. The real tukde tukde gang is the ruling party that is determined to divide India on religious lines," Chidambaram said in a tweet.

The term 'tukde tukde gang' was used to brand JNU students after the 2016 stir but BJP leaders have used it to refer to political opponents. They have used it in their speeches during several rallies to attack the opposition, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Full Interview with Holocaust

Survivor, Theodore Haas

Holocaust Survivor Denounces Anti-Gun Movement

Unlike many interviews with Holocaust survivors, this one conducted by Aaron Zelman, founder, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (12500 NE 10th Pl Bellevue, WA 98005. Phone: (800) 869-1884; one year membership $25) with Theodore Haas, a JPFO member and a former prisoner of the infamous Dachau concentration camp, is a clear warning to all freedom loving peoples to keep our guard up against arrogant politicians who are hell bent to create governments that control our lives.



In pre-Nazi Germany, the good, law-abiding citizens dozed while government passed laws (all purported to be for the public good) that paved the way for tyranny to flourish. Haas, who survived years of Nazi persecutors, is speaking out to Americans who are now dozing while our government, at the strong urging of leftists in the media and others in society they influence, passes laws (again supposedly for the public good) to ban and severely restrict firearms ownership. Theodore Haas believes 'gun control' is a prelude to totalitarian rule



-- The editors 1990.

Q.) How did you end up at Dachau? How old were you?

A.) November 9th, 1938 was Kristalnacht -- The Night of Broken Glass -- The night Synagogues were ransacked and burned, Jewish owned shops destroyed; I guess you could call it the night the fires of hell engulfed the soul of humanity. I was arrested November 10th, "for my own personal security." I was 21 years old. My parents were arrested and ultimately died in a concentration camp in France. I was released from Dachau in 1941, under the condition that I leave Germany immediately. This was common procedure before the "Final Solution."

Q.) What did you think when you were sent to Dachau? What did you know about Dachau beforehand?

A.) My first thoughts were those many others: "The world has gone mad." I knew that the life expectancy at Dachau was relatively short. I knew beforehand that inmates were abused. The horror of Dachau was known throughout Germany. People (Germans) use to frighten their children, "If you do not behave, you will surely end up at Dachau." A famous German comedian, Weiss Ferdl, said "Regardless how many machine gun towers they have around K.Z. Dachau, if I want to get in, I shall get in." The Nazis obliged him; he died at Dachau.

Q.) How did you accept the fears of Dachau?

A.) Due to the constant hunger and extreme cold weather, one becomes too numb to even think of fear. A prisoner under these conditions becomes obsessed with survival; nothing else matters.

Q.) What were the living conditions like in Dachau?

A.) We were issued one quarter of a loaf of bread. That was to last three days. In the morning, we picked up, at the kitchen, a cup of roasted barley drink. There was no lunch. At dinnertime, sometimes we got a watery soup with bits of tripe or some salt herring and a boiled potato. Our prison clothes were a heavy, coarse denim. They would freeze when they got wet. We were not issued hats, gloves or underwear.

The first night, about 500 prisoners were stuffed into a room designed to hold 50 (Believe me, it is possible). Later on, we were forced to sleep on straw. As time went on, the straw disintegrated and we became louse infested. The guards delighted in making weak and ill clothed prisoners march or stand at attention in rain, snow, and ice for hours. As you can imagine, death came often due to the conditions.

Q.) Do you have residual fears? How do you feel about German re-unification?

A.) I have nightmares constantly. I recently dreamed that a guard grabbed me. My wifes arm touched my face, and I unfortunately bit her severely. German re-unification, in my opinion, will be the basis for another war. The Germans, regardless of what their present leadership says, will want their lost territories back, East Prussia, Silesia, and Danzic (Gdansk). My family history goes back over 700 years in Germany. I understand all too well what the politicians do not want the people to be thinking about.

Q.) You mentioned you were shot and stabbed several times. Were these experiments, punishment or torture?

A.) They were punishment. I very often, in a fit of temper, acted "while the brain was not in gear." The sorry results were two 9 mm bullets in my knees. Fortunately, one of the prisoners had a fingernail file and was able to dig the slugs out. In another situation, I was stabbed in the washroom of room #1, Block 16. Twice in a struggle where I nearly lost my right thumb. A German prisoner Hans Wissing, who after the war became mayor of his home town, Leinsweiler, witnessed the whole situation. We stayed in touch until a few months ago, when he died.

Q.) Do you remember some of the steps taken by the Nazis to de-humanize people and to make them feel hopeless? How were people robbed of their dignity?

A.) If you had treated an animal in Germany the way we were treated, you would have been jailed. For example, a guard or a group of them would single out a prisoner and beat him with canes or a club. Sometimes to further terrorize a prisoner, the guards would form a circle around a prisoner and beat him unconscious. There were cases of a prisoner being told to report to the Revier ("Hospital") and being forced to drink a quart of castor oil. Believe me, this is a lousy, painful, wretched way to die. You develop extreme diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and severe dehydration. If the Nazis wanted you to live and suffer more, they would take measures to rehydrate to victim.

Q.) What was the routine like at Dachau?

A.) Three times a day, we were counted. We had to carry the dead to the square. Each time, we had to stand at attention in all kinds of weather. We stood wearing next to nothing, had weak bladders, while our tormentors had sheepskin coats and felt boots. The bastards really enjoyed watching us suffer. I remember how the guards had a good laugh when one of them "accidentally" let loose with a machine gun, killing about 30 prisoners.

Q.) What did people do to try to adjust to Dachau? Keep up their spirits up?

A.) There were some actors, comedians, and musicians among us. Sometimes they would clandestinely perform. One of the musicians got hold of a violin and played for us. To this day, it remains a mystery how he got his hands on a violin. I still keep in touch with other prisoners. I am a member of the Dachau Prisoners Association. Each year I go back to Germany to visit.

Q.) Did people ever successfully escape? Do you remember acts of bravery?

A.) Nobody escaped, only in the movies does the "hero" escape. Guards received extra leave time for killing prisoners that got too close to the fence. I do, however, think all prisoners were heroes in their own way. Especially the German prisoners, for they would not acquiesce to the Nazis. They suffered greatly too.

Q.) Did the camp inmates ever bring up the topic, "If only we were armed before, we would not be here now"?

A.) Many, many times. Before Adolph Hitler came to power, there was a black market in firearms, but the German people had been so conditioned to be law abiding, that they would never consider buying an unregistered gun. The German people really believed that only hoodlums own such guns. What fools we were. It truly frightens me to see how the government, media, and some police groups in America are pushing for the same mindset. In my opinion, the people of America had better start asking and demanding answers to some hard questions about firearms ownership, especially if the government does not trust me to own firearms, why or how can the people be expected to trust the government?

There is no doubt in my mind that millions of lives could have been saved if the people were not "brainwashed" about gun ownership and had been well armed. Hitlers thugs and goons were not very brave when confronted by a gun. Gun haters always want to forget the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which is a perfect example of how a ragtag, half starved group of Jews took up 10 handguns and made asses out of the Nazis.

Q.) Did you have any contacts with the White Rose Society (mostly German students against Hitler)? Did anyone try to hide you from the Nazis?

A.) I did not, but my local friend, Richard Scholl, had two cousins or nephews who were members. Both were executed in Munich (I believe) for standing up for decency and freedom. Not enough people knew about the White Rose Society. There were many non Jews who were not anti Semitic and were very much opposed to Hitler. It was impossible to hide people from the Nazis in Germany -- it is so densely populated and food was rationed. Another point that many people fail to understand is that in Germany, you had a situation where the children were reporting to their teachers if their parents listened to the BBC on the short wave radio, or what they were talking about at home. If a German was friendly to a Jew, he was warned once. If he failed to heed the warning, he would disappear and never be heard from again. This was known as "Operation Night and Fog."

Q.) Do you think American society has enough stability that Jews and other minorities are safe from severe persecution?

A.) No. I think there is more anti-Semitism in America (some of it caused by leftist Jewish politicians and organizations who promote 'gun control' schemes) than there was in Germany. This may stun some people, but not all Germans hated Jews. My best and devoted friends in Germany were Christians. I perceive America as a very unstable society, due to social tinkering of the Kennedy/Metzenbaum-type politicians. When I first came to this wonderful country after World War II, America was vibrant, dynamic and promising society. There really was an American dream, attainable by those who wanted to work. Now, due to the curse of Liberalism, America is in a period of moral decline. Even worse, corrupt criminals hold high political office, and you have police officials who dont give a damn about the Bill of Rights. They just want to control people, not protect and serve. When you study history, you see that when a country becomes an immoral manure heap, as America is rapidly becoming, all minorities suffer, and ultimately, all the citizens.

Q.) What words of warning would you like to give to young people who will soon be eligible to vote?

A.) Vote only for politicians who trust the people to own all types of firearms, and who have a strong pro-Second Amendment voting record. Anti-gunownership politicians are very dangerous to a free society. Liberty and freedom can only be preserved by an armed citizenry. I see creeping fascism in America, just as in Germany, a drip at a time; a law here, a law there, all supposedly passed to protect the public. Soon you have total enslavement. Too many Americans have forgotten that tyranny often masquerades as doing good. This is the technique the Liberal politicians/Liberal media alliance are using to enslave America.

Q.) What message do you have for ultra-Liberal organizations and individuals who want America disarmed?

A.) Their ignorance is pitiful -- their lives have been too easy. Had they experienced Dachau, they would have a better idea of how precious freedom is. These leftist should leave America. These Sarah Brady types must be educated to under-stand that because we have an armed citizenry, that a dictatorship has not yet happened in America. These anti-gun fools are more dangerous to Liberty than street criminals or foreign spies.

Q.) Some concentration camp survivors are opposed to gun ownership. What message would you like to share with them?

A.) I would like to say, "You cowards; you gun haters, you dont deserve to live in America. Go live in the Soviet Union, if you love 'gun control' so d--- much." It was the stupidity of these naive fools that aided and abetted Hitlers goons and thugs. Anti-gunownership Holocaust survivors insult the memories of all those that needlessly perished for lack of being able to adequately defend themselves.

Q.) It appears the Liberal left in America is tolerating, and sometimes espousing anti-Semitism. Why do you think so many Jews still support the leftist form of Liberalism?

A.) It is for this very reason that I firmly believe that we harbor more stupid and naive people in our midst, than any other group of people. It amazes me how Liberal Jews have such short memories that today, they would be so supportive and involved in setting up the mechanics of 'gun control', so that a Holocaust can happen again. All theyre doing is playing into the hands of the very clever communists who are masters at conning Americans.

Q.) Why did you join JPFO?

A.) I feel every Jew should be armed to the teeth, as should every American. I joined JPFO because as a group, we can stand up up Liberal Jewish gun haters and also to Gestapo minded anti-gun police who want total control of the people. I wish JPFO was in existence years ago. I believe the Jewish involvement in gun control would not be anywhere close to what it is today, but better now than never.

To deny that an unarmed citizen could benefit from being well armed in a predicament such as this,

is to Love a Lie, more than to love the truth!

Back to Top


TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CareerSource Florida is releasing The Study on The Gig Economy and Florida's Workforce System, the result of a six-month, research-driven exploration that is among the first of its kind in the nation.

The study, commissioned by the state workforce development board, presents findings about the characteristics of independent workers and the expanding nature of gig work, which includes a variety of non-traditional work arrangements often enabled through online platforms. Drawing on national and Florida-specific data, the study identifies challenges and opportunities associated with the growing trend for both workers and industry. The report reinforces the importance of adapting education and training programs to meet Florida's changing workforce needs.

"The emerging gig economy is constantly evolving and transforming how Floridians can make a living," said Governor Ron DeSantis. "The findings of this study can help inform statewide policy and maximize prosperity for Florida's workers and businesses."

Historically, gig work has been more prevalent across creative and professional service industries and in occupations well-suited to task or project-based work. Now, the gig economy is expanding to include a wider variety of professional, technical, business and consumer services and includes a greater diversity of skill levels.

"With its business-friendly climate and quality of life, Florida already is a draw for entrepreneurs. Encouraging gig and non-traditional work arrangements could further strengthen our state's position in the national and global economy," said CareerSource Florida President and CEO Michelle Dennard. "On the individual level, gig work is shown to provide unemployed or underemployed workers with opportunities to gain work experience and build transferable skills  an important priority of our state board."

CareerSource Florida has established a multidisciplinary workgroup of business, industry and community leaders from across the state to help determine how Florida's workforce system can meet the demands of businesses and workers in the gig economy.

"Florida's workforce system is diving even deeper into this data to explore innovative ways to respond and support both businesses and working Floridians as business models evolve," said workgroup leader Stephanie Smith, Senior Manager of Public Policy at Uber and a member of CareerSource Florida's Board of Directors.

The study shows workers enter the gig economy for numerous reasons. Both full-time and part-time gig workers cite flexibility, freedom, independence, lifestyle, opportunity and earnings potential. The range of talent and skills available to businesses allows them to use gig workers to fill a variety of workforce needs, from seasonal work in hospitality or retail to immediate access to specialty skills, language or niche needs. Gig workers can provide valuable support for the launch of a new product, entering new markets, or even integrating new software.

"CareerSource Florida is a pioneer in undertaking this kind of research," said Evan Enarson-Hering of Cambridge Systematics, which conducted the study. "Our research revealed areas of opportunity that will help CareerSource Florida and its collaborative partners lead the national conversation on the growing gig economy."

SOURCE CareerSource Florida
Writers from Russia, Spain, Argentina, Latin America, Australia and Bangladesh will attend the three-day Kolkata Literature Festival (KLF) as part of the International Kolkata Book Fair (IKBF), organisers Publishers and Booksellers Guild said on Monday.

KLF director Sujata Sen said veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee will deliver the key note address at the KLF inauguration.

The seventh KLF will be held from February 6 at the IKBF ground.

Sen told newsmen that veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee will speak on the contribution of little magazines in the growth of Bengali literature on the inaugural day of the KLF.

There will also be a discussion on the life and works of polymath and social reformer Iswarchandra Vidyasagar on his 200th birth anniversary. A special tribute will be paid to writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen, who passed away in November, 2019.

The IKBF will be held from January 28 to Feburary 9.

"One distinct feature of the literary meet will be that the large crowd visiting the book fair will be able to attend the sessions and ask questions to the guest speakers," Publisher and Book Sellers Guild president Tridib Chatterjee said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Libyas oil production took a nosedive to less than 300,000 bpd last week, from over 1 million bpd following a blockade of its main oil export terminals, which has in turn prompted the shutdown of several large fields, the National Oil Corporation said as quoted by Reuters.

At the end of the week this improved somewhat, rising to a little above 320,000 bpd.

Tribal groups affiliated with General Khalifa Haftars Libyan National Army, itself affiliated with the eastern government of Libya, occupied the terminals last week and seized several fields in Libyas main oil producing region.

Among the affected fields were ShararaLibyas largestand neighboring El Feel, the two contributing almost a third of Libyas total output.

The Libyan National Oil Corporation declared force majeure on oil exports soon after the news of the seizures broke and warned that the blockade could cost the country $55 million daily, the Libya Observer reported. The blockade will also cost Libya between 500,000 and 800,000 bpd in lost oil production, according to different reports.

Before the blockade, Libya was pumping around 1.3 million bpd.

The blockade took place ahead of peace talks between Haftar and the UN-recognized Government of National Accord. The talks ended with no definitive result, although the negotiators upheld a ceasefire and an arms embargo agreed earlier by a dozen foreign countries and several regional organizations, but not by the warring parties in Libya. The latest media reports from Libya suggest the ceasefire and the arms embargo have not held.

Al Jazeera reported earlier today the LNA had advanced on the city of Misrata, seizing a town on the way that was under the control of the GNA. The GNA responded, which resulted in clashes that left three people killed. Misrata is a key stronghold of the GNA complete with several militias loyal to the government.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The West blames the Wuhan coronavirus on Chinas love of eating wild animals. The truth is more complex

by CHARLIE CAMPBELL

January 28,2020 | Source: Time

It was no secret to anyone in Wuhan that Huanan Seafood Market sold a lot more than its name suggested. While one side of the low-slung warren of stalls did primarily stock fish and shellfish, the other offered a cornucopia of spices, sundries and, if you knew where to look, beavers, porcupines and snakes.



It was well-known for selling lots of weird, live animals, says James, an English teacher who for five years lived a few hundred feet from the market, and who asks TIME to only use one name due to the sensitivity of the situation. So nobody was surprised at all when it emerged that the virus might have come from an unusual animal.



Scientists have confirmed that the pneumonia-like disease, like around 70% of new human pathogens, was zoonotic or transmitted from an animal. But they are still investigating exactly what creature might be the source of the novel coronavirusdubbed 2019-nCoV and belonging to the same family as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).



As Wuhan coronavirus infection rates soar to more than 830 people across more than half a dozen nationscausing 26 deaths and leading to the unprecedented lockdown of 13 Chinese cities comprising more than 30 million peopleresearchers are examining Chinas penchant for consuming wild animals and whether that ultimately played a role in the outbreak.



The 2002-2003 SARS pandemic was eventually traced to civet cats sold in a similar style of wet market in southern Guandong province, and some foreign tabloids are circulating unsubstantiated claims that the Wuhan coronavirus originated from everything from bat soup to eating rats and live wolf pups.



Its certainly true that many Chinese are obsessive about freshness. Even small supermarkets commonly have fish tanks where shoppers can purchase live seafood. (This reporter was once served slices of sashimi still attached to the carcass of a gasping fish.) Eating wild animals is also considered a luxury because of their rarity and cost, much like game is in the West. Some practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine also believe that eating exotic creatures can cure certain ailments and boost male potency.



This is just part of Chinese culture, says Yanzhong Huang, a public heath expert at the Council for Foreign Relations. They love to eat anything alive.



Wild animals are, of course, especially problematic because their murky provenience makes it difficult to ensure they are free of disease. For this very reason, health campaigns in Africa warn people against the consumption of bush meat, which has been linked to the spread of countless diseases, including HIV/Aids.



However, Adam Kamradt-Scott, associate professor specializing in global health security at the University of Sydney, says this way of thinking is often flawed. While scientists first thought that Ebola started with the consumption of bat meat in a village of south-eastern Guinea, they now believe that the two-year-old girl known as Child Zero was likely infected via bat droppings that contaminated an object she put in her mouth. MERS was also primarily spread from live camels to humans through association, rather than the eating of camel meat.



Its not simply a matter of the consumption of exotic animals per se, says Kamradt-Scott. So we need to be mindful of picking on or condemning cultural practices.



Ultimately, though, experts say that its hard to downplay the problematic nature of wet markets (so named because of the large quantities of water used to slosh the floors), especially those that also sell live animals. A mixture of urine, feces and other bodily fluids from live, wild creatures ends up mixing with blood from butchered animals, providing ideal opportunities for viruses and bacteria to thrive.



Says Huang: As long as there are still wet markets, we will continue to see these outbreaks popping up.

 2019 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Pune Posts: 704 Thanked: 5,081 Times

Day 10. The magnificent men and their magic machines - Kohima to Roing (Part 1) Light at the end of the tunnel - the sissiest cops - surviving a train challenge - fishtailing and rally cross in a river of mud - crossing the Ram Setu - when in doubt, call Paul







Er. Imnayanger Imchen,

Coordinator

NEPeD-CERES



On the morning of 17 February 1942, the Sun got into His chariot, and coaxed His seven horses to start their daily ascent into the skies. As He looked down upon Singapore, He blinked and did a double take. Under His very nose, at Farrer Park (now known as Farrer Park Field), a historic moment was unfolding.

Assembled in the park, were 45,000 Indian POWs. Three men, in turn would address them.



First was one Colonel Hunt of the British Malayan command. Two days before, on the 15th, Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, commander of the British Commonwealth forces in the Malayan campaign, had formally surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army, when they overran Singapore.

Colonel Hunt was present that day, to formally hand over charge of the 45,000 Indian soldiers of the British Raj, to the Japanese.





British troops surrendering to the Japanese Imperial Army, Singapore



Second to speak was Major Iwaichi Fujiwara of the Imperial Japanese Army. He formally accepted charge of the troops from Colonel Hunt and invited them to join the Japanese Army. You are our friends and allies, not POWs he proclaimed.



Major Iwaichi Fujiwara

The last to speak was Captain Mohan Singh. He coaxed his fellow countrymen to accept the Japanese offer and fight to overthrow the British rule from India. They would not serve under the Japanese, like they had served under the British, but as equals. By their side. He outlined the plan of forming their own Army. Indian soldiers, fighting to liberate the motherland.

This Army, he went on to add, would be called the Indian National Army!

His short but fiery speech was received with wild enthusiasm and excitement.

It was a moment in history. For the first time since 1857, numerous Indians, from all corners of India, had banded together to liberate their motherland. That day, on that field in Singapore, the INA, was born!



Major Iwaichi Fujiwara greeting Captain Mohan Singh

40,000 Indian soldiers joined their forces with the Japanese that day.

Captain Mohan Singh, was now elevated to a General and put in charge of the INA. He was a soldier and an excellent orator. Unfortunately, a diplomat, he was not. Though he got along extremely well with Major Fujiwara, he would go on to have severe disagreements with the Japanese High command, and was removed from his post on 29 December 1942 and placed into Japanese military custody.

But what of the INA? Who would lead them now?

I will! said a strong firm voice.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, formally took command of the INA in June 1943.

INA was revived as the Azad Hind Fauj!



In March 1944, the INA, along with the Japanese Imperial Army, attacked the British troops assembled at Kohima, who were preparing for an invasion of Myanmar, which was under Japanese control back then. A pitched battle ensured on Garrison Hill and in the end the British forces prevailed. There were heavy casualties on both the sides. The place, where the commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives were given their last rites, is today know as the Kohima War Cemetery.



War cemetery. Kohima town can be seen in the background.



I woke up that morning, opened the window to let the fresh air in, and right there, across the road, was the entrance to the cemetery.

During the planning stages in Pune, we had discussed the tentative route we should travel, things we would do and places we would visit. Kohima war cemetery had been one of them. But I always had second thoughts about it.

Did I genuinely want to go and pay my respects (no point in going if it was not genuine). And pay respects to whom? I gave two hoots about the non Indians who fell that day.

3 Australian

5 Canadian

1082 British.

Did I respect them as soldiers? Of course. They had made the supreme sacrifice for their flag and country.

And that was the problem. Their flag and country was different than mine.

And what about the Indian soldiers?

330 Indians too, are buried there. And a memorial stands for an additional 917 Sikh and Hindu soldiers, who were not buried but cremated as per their faith.

So a sum total of 1247 Indians and 1090 non Indians. All gave their lives so the Union Jack could continue to fly over my country.

What if those 1247 had made the supreme sacrifice from the other side? Would the outcome have been different?

Probably.

Someone has rightly said, the biggest word in any language is If!



Consider some numbers.

In his book, out of which 2,65,900 were Indians!

265,900 Indians serving under 45,500 British! Indians were five times the British!



And we still lost that war as well.

History has show, misplaced loyalty and infighting have been our downfall since centuries. And the sad saga continues even today. We never learn from history.



Before I wrap up this topic, I would like to clarify something. I have nothing but utmost respect for each and everyone who serves in uniform. Today similar men in uniform guard our borders, so people like me, can sit in their armchairs and spew opinions on What If



Note: For those who might want to find out more, on what happened to the INA post independence, I recommend



---------------------------------------------

As it turned out, I was saved from the moral dilemma I might have faced. The cemetery opens at 09:00. We were long gone from Kohima by then.



Kohima, Nagaland - Roing, Arunachal Pradesh

Today, we would travel from Kohima to Roing.

Google said just above 12 hours.

But going by past experience, we knew better and we vacated the hotel around 08:00 in the morning.

It was good we had an early start, because eventually it took us 19 hours!



The day started off bad for me. I had thought, 08:00 meant we could swiftly get out of town. I had forgotten, we were in Kohima.



Everything here is built on hills. There is nothing like swiftly here. Just winding roads and careful driving at very moderate speeds.

Then there was the quality of roads. Inside Kohima, the roads are good. As soon as we exited the corporation limits, the road conditions deteriorated. We had faced similar bad roads yesterday, almost all the way from Imphal to Kohima.



And lastly there was the fact that I hadn't had my coffee yet.

All this meant, I was in a foul mood.

Fortunately, around half an hour down the road, we found this small place.

The weather was awesome.

The coffee was perfect.



Here is another pic at the same location. Notice the bike in the background. We found, biking is big in the North East. Lots of people, especially youngsters, have done beautiful modifications to their bikes. Wide handles a la Harley Davidson, additional headlights, growling exhausts to name a few. End result? Awesome mean machines!

They have also probably formed riding clubs, because we saw groups of them at quite a lot of places.

And all of them, each and everyone of them, always rode with helmets!

Got to give it to these youngsters. They definitely understand the value of safety!



Also notice the dust on the car. The wiper fluid has left stains. The sides are absolutely caked with mud. The only clean surface is the wiper arcs on the windshield.

Doesn't she look absolutely beautiful?

We petrol heads are a strange breed. At home, we strive to keep our cars spotlessly clean. But once out on the road, we absolutely adore all this dust. We wear it just as proudly aa a soldier would wear his war wounds.

With pride!

A badge of honour if you will!!

This car has been places!!!

This car has been through exciting adventures!!!!



And then there are some, who just don't get it.

https://youtu.be/O0lCQSEb-Rs



Why dude, why?

The dirty glass is causing problems. The dust shows up in the photos.

Hello! We have this huge windshield at the front which is clean! Why can't you take pics through it?

Because not everything interesting is in front. Sometimes it's at the sides.

It is in front initially, if you pay attention and are quick enough!

Were you paying attention at that huge pothole back there? Were you quick enough?

Of course I was. I manage to avoid it by inches didn't I?





And thus we bickered on in good jest, as two friends cooped inside a car for days to an end will bicker.

All the way to Dimapur.

Which is like 68 Km away from Kohima.

And took us four hours!

Why?

This is why.

https://youtu.be/6ETS-bVCIes



Check out the road condition.

One interesting thing to note here, is that tanker. No, it's not leaking water. Well not unintentionally anyway. It is actually doing it on purpose.

That tanker has a pipe attached to it's back. Water gushes out of this pipe through a series of holes drilled into it. It is an ancient but efficient technique, to keep the dust settled on the ground. And we were seeing this ancient technique in action, in May 2018.

To be fair, we did see lots of construction equipment by the roadside. Someone had noticed the problem, and kick started the huge government machinery into action.

But all this was too late for us. We continued to crawl along in low gear.



Unlike yesterday, road conditions did improve eventually and we picked up speed.

Some time later, driving through the snaky mountainous road, we spotted something which looked like a roadside shop. Seeing it was abandoned, we decided this was a perfect place to pull over for a smoke break.



The moment we stepped out of the car, we noticed something, almost immediately!

The smell!

We could smell the forest!!!

We sucked in this beautiful smelling air into our lungs, as much as we could.

It was fantastic!



No costly perfume in the world can ever compete with this beautiful forest aroma! Never!





People in cities would probably pay an arm, leg and a kidney for such a fantastic view!



It's times like these, places like these, we often pondered on the big philosophical question.

What is happiness?

We city dwellers think money is happiness and we eagerly take the plunge into the rat race.

Come to North East once, and you will realise, people like these mountain folk from Nagaland, have discovered the real secret to happiness long time back.



Note the good road conditions.

Note the good road conditions.

On a tree, right next to where we had stopped, was a board.

Fire wood for sale.

This didn't make any sense at all! Why would anyone pay for firewood, when the whole forest was literally next door?



Probably this was why the shop was abandoned.!

They had gone out of business over a bad business idea!!



Like all good things do, these beautiful vistas too came to an end. We drove out of the mountains, out of the beautiful forests, and onto the plains.

Say hello to traffic!

Say hello to vehicle fumes!!

Say hello to civilisation!!!

We had arrived in Dimapur.



Ashutosh signalled me to pull over, while he made a few phone calls. Some time later, he got whatever information he was looking for, and plotted the route on his phone. We followed the navigation instructions and eventually reached our destination.

We were at



Not everyone can be a doctor or an engineer. So the Government of Nagaland, has set up such institutions like NTRTC, with an objective to impart vocational training in manufacturing tools, dies, fixtures and jigs, among other things. But we were not really here to for that. We were here to meet some magicians. And we found them in a place tucked behind NTRTC.

And this is the magic they create!



Hydroger



Electricity is transmitted immense distances over power lines. Tall poles are erected at regular intervals and power lines are strung over them. It is laborious and costly work. We take these things for granted, especially in cities. But what about far off remote places? Say a hamlet of 5-10 houses? On some mountain far away?



All these years, such places were simply ignored. Out of sight, out of mind. Things have drastically changed in the recent years. Among other things, the Govt. aggressively pushed for electrification of each and every village and hamlet in the country. This scheme was a huge success, ahead of it's schedule.

We were here to meet the awesome people, who had actually made this possible on the proverbial last mile of the power lines. We were here to see their magic machines in action!

In 2007, the Government of Nagaland founded the



Initially, they conducted some experiments with nano generators of Chinese make.

Soon they identified two major problems. Like most of the Chinese stuff, these generators were unreliable. And more importantly, why use Chinese goods? Why can't we make it in India?

Numerous rounds of design and testing later, they were ready. The first indigenous hydroger was ready!



Here is how it works.

The hydroger is a small generator, which depends on water to generate electricity. A pocket hydro electric plant, if you will.

NEPeD has a dedicated team which travels to remote villages. Many times, such a journey takes days. On foot!

Then they scout the nearby area for perennial streams or other suitable water sources. All kinds of tests are done to confirm there is enough water available.

Then they come back.

And go to the remote village, once again! This time with the hydroger.

Check out this video to see how it's done.

https://youtu.be/QEzCWhHr6Bc

That applause and those cheers?

That's job satisfaction folks! Pure unadulterated job satisfaction!!



We had been listening to Shri. Imnayanger Imchen tell us all the details!

We were literally stunned hearing all this!

Imagine Govt. officers walking days to check for streams! And walking once again to do the actual installation!



Sir, is it possible to see this hydroger in action?

Sure! Why not!



https://youtu.be/J5K9vz8BjaI



And these amazing folks at NEPeD haven't stopped at that!

They also run a program called Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy Studies (CERES) as well.

This program is two fold. Utilise the NTRTC youth to mass produce the Hydroger

Train someone from the remote village to maintain and repair the hydroger after installation. Not only that, they interact with the villagers, and encourage them to decide their own tariff! Your village, your electricity consumption, you decide how much everyone should pay for maintenance and repairs! NEPeD will offer the Hydroger and train the repairman. What started off as a rural electrification scheme for Nagaland, has now expanded all over the North East. NEPeD regularly works with



Everyone likes their work appreciated. I am sure so do NEPeD.

Why not drop them a line of congratulations? Or perhaps order your very own Hydroger for your farmhouse? Or maybe sponsor one for the next remote hamlet on their list.

You can get in touch with the NEPeD folks



-------------------------------------------------------

Soon after Dimapur, we exited Nagaland and entered Assam.

Again.

Every time I drove into Assam, majority of the times, I found the roads to be bad. Would it be any different this time?

Of course not!



Bad roads in Assam. Again!



By now it was around five in the evening. We had stopped at a roadside hotel for lunch and had been travelling for almost nine hours now. One huge problem for drivers, especially on long routes, is boredom. How many mile stones would you read? How many unpainted speed breakers would you curse? How many potholes would you avoid. In the end, repetition begets boredom and before you know it, all things seem to merge in your head. They key is to keep your brain refreshed by constantly giving it new input to process.

But this was the 10th day on the road for us.

Whatever things we wanted to discuss, had been discussed.

Songs? We were carrying tons of songs. Meh! Done it. Heard it for the zillionth time.

Besides Ashutosh was busy on the phone today, helping out one of his clients. I had tuned out long time back. All that talk of taxes and numbers and what not, meant falling off to sleep for me. Not a good idea while driving.



So I did, what I always do.

I imagine myself to be a Cheetah. Or an X wing star fighter pilot of the Rebel Alliance.

If I am a Cheetah, I need a prey to chase and hunt. If not, I need a TIE fighter.

Soon I found one. A TIE fighter. So pilot it is today. Pew! Pew! Pew!



We had been travelling through rural Assam and I was bored. The road was the usual Assam road. Potholes. traffic and animals sitting anywhere on the road. Suddenly I spotted flashing lights in my rear view mirror and I moved over to the side a bit to give way. A police gypsy zoomed past us. It was a lone vehicle, but still had a red flag hanging out. The back was full of policemen with automatic rifles and I realised they were probably part of some convoy. That explained the flag. But why was he alone? Where were the rest? Probably he had been delayed and was rushing to catch up.

Perfect!

Government vehicle, flashing lights.

This was the vehicle I should follow. It will clear all traffic on it's way, and we can sail through in his wake. Police vehicles and ambulances are like Moses at the red sea. Time it properly and you can be the next in line, crossing the Red Sea!

The chase began!



I had to be careful here of course.

To start with I was driving a vehicle with MH plates.

In Assam.

And chasing an Assam police vehicle.

Full of armed Assamese cops.

So at a safe distance, I continued to follow him. It was working out perfectly as expected. He would weave through all the impediments and I would follow. After some time, he realised what I was doing. I suspect the driver exchanged some words with the cops at the back, and suddenly two of them peered out, gazing at me intently. But I think they realised we were harmless. I mean which criminal would get into a high speed chase behind a police vehicle, driving a bright coloured easy to spot vehicle, that too with out of state number plates?

None.

So they ignored us.



In the end, the inevitable happened. He had 88 horses under his hood. I had 110. I overtook him. The X wing had shot down the TIE fighter!

The thrill of the chase was temporarily gone. I eased off the accelerator a bit and dropped behind him. I was trying to think, how soon should I do it all over again, when it happened!



We were passing through forested areas when he disappeared into a curve. I followed him in, a few seconds later



I stood on my brakes, the ABS system kicked in while I frantically worked down the gear box. I had managed to come to a halt literally two inches behind him. My left front wheel had climbed down the tarmac, but I had successfully managed to avoid a collision!



And then, unbelievably, he started to reverse!

The stock Terrano horn is very loud. I slammed my palm on the steering wheel, and fortunately he stopped just in time.

He moved ahead a bit, and frantically reversed, circumventing me, and came to a halt a few feet behind me.





What the hell is going on!

And then, I noticed the elephant in the room.

Literally!





That disgusting coward!

He was the one with a vehicle full of people carrying automatic weapons.

And still he had sneaked behind me!

What a sissy!

He probably hid the same way behind his mom, when he was a kid!! Probably still does!!!

I was absolutely disgusted!!!!



First he stops on a blind curve on a highway. Imagine what would have happened if I had banged into him.

Then he tries to reverse and almost bangs into me! Again imagine if he had.

And to top it all, he runs and hides behind me.

And these guys are cops! Carrying automatic weapons!!



In the meanwhile, the elephant, oblivious to all this drama, had calmly crossed the road and had went off on his way. I shot the gypsy a withering stare in my mirror and floored it.

I never saw him again.



-----------------------------------------------------------

For quite some time now, we had been travelling on Assam roads and it had turned dark outside. We seemed to be passing through predominantly rural areas. Tea plantations had dominated the landscape. But all of them had vanished now. All I could see in my headlights was the road and the typical signboards, milestones and white painted lines. Traffic continued to be sparse in many places and we appeared to be the only vehicle on the road.

Suddenly, far away, there was a strange illumination in the sky. It was heavily overcast and the clouds seem to glow in a strange orange reddish hue. Sometimes, clouds high up in the sky, might reflect the sunlight beyond the horizon, even when it is dark on the ground. But this was something different. Something slightly scary. Had we somehow driven into Mordor?



Ashutosh had dozed off and I nudged him awake. I pointed out the glowing coals in the sky and he said "Digboi probably".

Jejeebhoy? Some Parsi dude? What are you talking about? Are you fully awake? The clouds! Look at the clouds!

Yup. Digboi. Not Jejeebhoy! D.I.G.B.O.I. Do you think you need a hearing aid?



As it turned out, he was right. About Digboi. Not the hearing aid.



In 1825, British Army officers passing through the jungles of upper Assam, stumbled upon a strange type of mud. It smelt different, was wet, but still caught fire if you took a match to it. Crude was literally oozing out of the ground.



1825!

Thirty two years before the first war of Independence!

Manikarnika Tambe was a mere three year old child back then, probably playing with her dolls in Varanasi! It would be years later, that she would walk into the history books and become immortalised as the Rani of Jhansi.



Fast forward a few years after her death.

In 1882, a Canadian engineer, one W L Lake had gone into the Assam jungles, probably for shikaar, when suddenly a bunch of elephants emerged from the forest. He noticed their feet were stained with oil. Dig boy, dig! He urged his natives, remembering the oil strike in Pennsylvania just 23 years back.

Thus Digboi.

Or at least the story goes that way.

They (or someone else in reality) started digging and struck oil. A huge plume of crude gushed high in the sky. They capped it and build machinery to harvest it from the ground.

And they are still doing it today.

Digboi has the world's oldest working oil well in the world!

No wonder, it is known as the Oil City of Assam.



Unfortunately, the route Ashutosh had charted, did not take us through Digboi. We were on the outskirts of Dibrugarh.

Now Dibrugarh is a heavily industrialised area. The whole district is dotted with numerous oil and natural gas rigs and of course their refineries. Traffic, mainly trucks, suddenly picked up. The road was a typical Assam road. Potholed. On top of it, it had rained rather heavily some time back. I was fed up of the constant gear change. It was time for a smoke break. I pulled over.



You know what, I am thinking there could a short cut.

Oh yeah? Tell me more. I love shortcuts. I am game for anything to avoid this traffic.

See this turn? If we take it, I think we will be on a road which will bypass Dibrugarh itself! Only problem is this break in between, on the map.

Lets go and check it out. Who dares wins!

And so we took the right turn.



Visibility was poor. The rain had switched on a slight drizzle, worsening things. We continued to crawl along a narrow lane. Now a left turn, and right there in front of us was a road which looked to be in excellent condition. I congratulated Ashutosh on his excellent navigation and got on to the road.

The road was really good and I could speed up. Some time later we passed quite a lot of construction machinery and vehicles parked by the roadside. We drove quite some distance. Not a single pothole since we got on to this road! Encouraged, I picked up more speed. This was awesome! We were going to bypass Dibrugarh altogether and join the road to Tinsukia directly! Wonder why none of those trucks are taking this route! Probably they were not as smart as us, we sniggered a bit.

Suddenly, the car fishtailed! Violently!!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Fortunately I remembered the correct thing to do in such situations! I let go off the accelerator and without touching the brakes, I turned the wheel towards the direction of the skid. Swiftly working down the gearbox, I managed to bring the car to a dead stop.

We let out a huge sigh of relief and peered outside.



And saw almost nothing.

It was pitch black. Raindrops clung to the glass, further reducing visibility. Even a high beam was not that helpful. Later on I would discover, the headlights had a film of dust and mud on it. From what we could see, we deduced we had driven into a sea of very slimy mud. Ashutosh opened his door to step out and realised it was quite a few inches deep. No point in getting out. The oozing mud was everywhere.

So this is why there was a break on the map. The road was still under construction!

And this is why the truckers gave this road such a wide berth!

They were the smart ones!!



Now what? Turn back. No other option.

Easier said than done. The mud made any kind of steering almost impossible. It was like driving in water! The car was all over the place and I had almost zero control. In the end, I used almost the whole width of the "road" to point the wheels in the right direction.

Back on the proper road, we meekly followed the trucks. Later on, outside Dibrugarh, when we stopped for dinner, I took a look at the tyres. They were absolutely caked in mud on the sides. It had been a close call indeed!



-------------------------------------------------------

In India, there are all kinds of drivers, and over the decades I have been driving, I believe I have met all types. There are good drivers and there are bad drivers. And then there are bad drivers with high intensity lamps fitted to their vehicles. And they make copious use of it at night.

They always drive with a high beam on. But surprisingly, these same morons will avoid using any kind of indicators.

And as if this was not enough, there are the types who just cant keep their hands off the horn.

Have vehicle, will honk.

For no reason whatsoever! Just for fun! Some even manage to play tunes on their horns!

Punekars will understand what I am talking about!!

   ,   ! !



Dinner done, we were headed towards Tinsukia. Suddenly a bright light in my outside rear view mirror almost blinded me! I shifted my head position a bit and carried on. After some time, a loud honk bellowed!

What is wrong with you! There is a whole lane to my right, which you can use, if you wish to overtake me! Just go ahead already!

And overtake me, he did. And just before passing, he blew his horn one more time!

This time it was LOUD! Very loud!

Irritated, I looked towards my right.

Good God!

It was a train!!!!



We were running parallel to the railway tracks, and the train had just overtaken me!

And that last honk had been a challenge!

It was a matter of honour now!

The hell with the potholes. The car suspension had survived worse roads than this!



I will show him the consequences of challenging someone from the land of the Marathas!

Jai Bhavani!!

Jai Shivaji!!!



The race was on!

https://youtu.be/X6hAYIglgDk



https://youtu.be/vLqEoEANwuc



And that's how I earned the bragging rights of challenging a train to a race...and winning!





Ladies and gentlemen, meet the undisputed champion of the race, my Nissan Terrano 110PS!

I am just as proud of her, as Maharana Pratap was proud of his beloved Chetak!!



----------------------------------------------------------------

Kilometre after kilometre we sped on. It was well past midnight now. Our headlights pierced the darkness and we gobbled up the roads. It had been a very long day for us, full of frustration due to bad roads and I was on the verge of exhaustion. My shoulder muscles ached and I felt my right knee stiffen a bit. All this braking and accelerating had taken it's toll. It had not been an enjoyable drive at all. There had been numerous stops for tea or cigarettes but there are only certain amount of cups you can drink or cigarettes you can smoke to keep fatigue at bay. I was staying focused on sheer will power.



And then, from the darkness to my left, Ashutosh said the three magic words.

Almost there now!

In an instant my brain was refreshed! I knew what he meant!! We had discussed this many times and agreed, this would be one of the major milestones of our expedition.

We were about to cross the mighty Lohit!

We were about to cross the Dhola Sadiya bridge!!



Dhola and Sadiya are two ports on opposite banks of the Lohit river. Over the decades numerous boatmen have successfully ferried numerous people, their belongings, and many a times even their vehicles onto the other side. The boatmen make a good living from this and the residents manage to cross over without any hassle. Works out for everyone.



Well, almost!

Not good enough for us! said the Army.

Typically, the Army guards the borders. Arunachal Pradesh is a border state. Ergo, our Army needs to be in Arunachal Pradesh.

However, one lesson which the debacle in Sino Indian war of 1962 taught us, was that Army needs to reach the border swiftly!

Shockingly this valuable lesson remained only on paper.



Check out the unbelievable timeline

2003 - first feasibility project undertaken (this is a mind boggling forty one years after the war)

2009 - bridge approved (six years)

2011 - actual construction began (two years)

2014 - still under construction. (three years of delays and cost hikes)

In the meanwhile, the Army continued to use the longer route (six hours travel time longer) whenever they wanted to move from northern Assam to Eastern Arunachal.



In 2014, the current Govt. decided to fast track this, and on 26 May 2017, the bridge was officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi.

And here we were, on 24 May 2018, almost a year to the day after the inauguration, about to cross over the same bridge.

https://youtu.be/27IGUTmwGWU



For all those who expected to see the bridge in the video, you are right. This is just the approach road and we stopped shooting the moment we neared the bridge. And for good reason.

Two days back, on our way to Imphal, we had almost got shot, thanks to my stupidity. That memory was still fresh in our minds.

You have seen the barricades in the video. As we neared the bridge, there were even more. And a bunch of of security personnel. With automatic weapons.

An out of state car, approaching a bridge built exclusively for the military, at 02:30 in the morning, and someone in the car filming. Not a smart idea. And that's why we didn't stop in the middle of the bridge either.

But we did do it on our way back. You can see it in all it's glory when I write about it in the next few instalments.

For now, this is it.



As we neared the bridge, we were not asked to stop or produce identification or anything. Just multiple pair of eyes, peered at us intently. In fact I got so nervous, that I switched on the interior lights. See? No bad guys here! No reaction. Hesitantly, I drove on. And kept on driving.



The Dhola Sadiya bridge (also known as the Bhupen Hazarika Setu), spans the Lohit river and with a length of 9.15 Km, it is the longest bridge in India.

Here I was, at the start of the bridge. Glorious 9.15 Km of unhindered road stretched out in a straight line, right in front of me. There was no other vehicle in sight.

The bridge winked at me.

And a voice in my head whispered.

This is what you have been waiting for since Pune! Go on!! Do it!!!

Oh yes! I concurred.

And I floored it.

The turbo kicked in around 2000 RPM and we shot ahead like a bullet. A quick change up the gear box and in a few seconds, we were gliding in top gear!

One eye on the road, the other on the speedometer, accelerator jammed to the floor. I kept on piling up speed. The dashed line on the tarmac continued to zoom past us faster and faster, till it was a mere blur of a continuous white streak! The adrenaline pump was working overtime! What a rush! What a magnificent high! Oh what an awesome feeling!

Sadly, it was all over in a few minutes.

But totally worth it!

Mentally I ticked off one more item as Done! on my todo list!



--------------------------------------------------------------

We had stopped for a celebratory smoke after crossing the bridge, and had strutted around a bit! Like squirrels who had successfully crossed the Ram Setu!!

Back in the car, a furious discussion ensued.

Exactly how many tanks do you think will fit in the width of the bridge.

A few days back, at the Rhino Heritage Museum, Shillong, we had stood right next to real tanks and had even taken selfies. And this qualified us to be armchair military experts!!

Unfortunately we had different ideas of how wide exactly was a tank. Thus the debate!



Somewhere near Shantipur, we crossed the state border. We had entered Arunachal Pradesh!

Some time later, a turn in the road, and out of the darkness, a torch shone onto us. Inspite of the glare, we could see in the background, a light lazily rotating in mid air. Security check!

I switched on the interior lights and pulled over.

A bunch of uniformed men with automatic weapons surrounded the car. I rolled down the window.

Jai Hind Sirjee!

Jai Hind! Who are you and why are you here at this hour?

Going to Roing! (Heh! It rhymes and sounds a bit funny now. But back then it was all serious)

Roing? Why?

A rather detailed explanation followed. We were politely asked to get out of the car. Government issued photo IDs were presented for scrutiny. The boot was opened for inspection.

Eventually everyone relaxed.



You can't go to Roing!

What! Cant go? Why not? Road blocked due to landslide? Are we on the wrong road or something?

You can't go now. You need a permit. You can get one only in the morning!

Oh bother! The permit! Of course! We had forgotten all about it!

OK. So what do we do now?

There is a police station ahead. Few meters beyond it, is the check post where you would be issued the permit. Best you stop there for the night.

Sir we really cant wait the whole night. Its three in the morning now, and we have been on the road since 08:00 yesterday.

I don't issue permits. I can't help you. Try telling all this to the officer who does. At the check post.





He had a point. Bidding him goodbye, we moved on.

We pulled over near the check post. No sign of anybody. We checked the police station. No sign of anybody there either. There was nothing else to be done. We were discussing how it's possible to push the seats back and sleep in the car, when headlights approached from the opposite direction. It was a truck. They pulled over. The driver got down with some paper in his hand and walked to the house next to the check post. Curious, we followed.

He rang the bell. After a while, a gentleman stepped out, rubbing his eyes! He inspected the paper and pulled out a thickish register. A flurry of stamps. Sign here! He told the trucker.

That was it! This must be the officer who issued permits! At last!

Once the trucker was gone, we introduced ourselves, explained where we had come from, and requested the permit.

I am sorry. I can't I don't have the authority.

But you have the official stamp. You have the register. You are the authority.

No. I just maintain the exit register for vehicles. I don't have the authority to issue you a permit.



[word limit reached]

[contd...] On the morning of 17 February 1942, the Sun got into His chariot, and coaxed His seven horses to start their daily ascent into the skies. As He looked down upon Singapore, He blinked and did a double take. Under His very nose, at Farrer Park (now known as Farrer Park Field), a historic moment was unfolding.Assembled in the park, were 45,000 Indian POWs. Three men, in turn would address them.First was one Colonel Hunt of the British Malayan command. Two days before, on the 15th, Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, commander of the British Commonwealth forces in the Malayan campaign, had formally surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army, when they overran Singapore.Colonel Hunt was present that day, to formally hand over charge of the 45,000 Indian soldiers of the British Raj, to the Japanese.Second to speak was Major Iwaichi Fujiwara of the Imperial Japanese Army. He formally accepted charge of the troops from Colonel Hunt and invited them to join the Japanese Army.The last to speak was Captain Mohan Singh. He coaxed his fellow countrymen to accept the Japanese offer and fight to overthrow the British rule from India. They would not servethe Japanese, like they had served under the British, but as. By their side. He outlined the plan of forming their own Army. Indian soldiers, fighting to liberate the motherland.This Army, he went on to add, would be called the Indian National Army!His short but fiery speech was received with wild enthusiasm and excitement.It was a moment in history. For the first time since 1857, numerous Indians, from all corners of India, had banded together to liberate their motherland. That day, on that field in Singapore, the INA, was born!40,000 Indian soldiers joined their forces with the Japanese that day.Captain Mohan Singh, was now elevated to a General and put in charge of the INA. He was a soldier and an excellent orator. Unfortunately, a diplomat, he was not. Though he got along extremely well with Major Fujiwara, he would go on to have severe disagreements with the Japanese High command, and was removed from his post on 29 December 1942 and placed into Japanese military custody.But what of the INA? Who would lead them now?said a strong firm voice.Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, formally took command of the INA in June 1943.INA was revived as theIn March 1944, the INA, along with the Japanese Imperial Army, attacked the British troops assembled at Kohima, who were preparing for an invasion of Myanmar, which was under Japanese control back then. A pitched battle ensured on Garrison Hill and in the end the British forces prevailed. There were heavy casualties on both the sides. The place, where the commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives were given their last rites, is today know as the Kohima War Cemetery.I woke up that morning, opened the window to let the fresh air in, and right there, across the road, was the entrance to the cemetery.During the planning stages in Pune, we had discussed the tentative route we should travel, things we would do and places we would visit. Kohima war cemetery had been one of them. But I always had second thoughts about it.Did I genuinely want to go and pay my respects (no point in going if it was not genuine). And pay respects to whom? I gave two hoots about the non Indians who fell that day.3 Australian5 Canadian1082 British.Did I respect them as soldiers? Of course. They had made the supreme sacrifice for their flag and country.And that was the problem. Their flag and country was different than mine.And what about the Indian soldiers?330 Indians too, are buried there. And a memorial stands for an additional 917 Sikh and Hindu soldiers, who were not buried but cremated as per their faith.So a sum total of 1247 Indians and 1090 non Indians. All gave their lives so the Union Jack could continue to fly over my country.What if those 1247 had made the supreme sacrifice from the other side? Would the outcome have been different?Probably.Someone has rightly said, the biggest word in any language isConsider some numbers.In his book, History of Modern India , Bipin Chandra tells us, in 1857, during the war of independence (wrongly called mutiny by British historians), the strength of the British army (East India Company army actually) was 3,11,400 soldiers....265,900 Indians serving under 45,500 British! Indians werethe British!And we still lost that war as well.History has show, misplaced loyalty and infighting have been our downfall since centuries. And the sad saga continues even today. We never learn from history.Before I wrap up this topic, I would like to clarify something. I have nothing but utmost respect for each and everyone who serves in uniform. Today similar men in uniform guard our borders, so people like me, can sit in their armchairs and spew opinions onNote: For those who might want to find out more, on what happened to the INA post independence, I recommend this and this article, to get a short version of the story.As it turned out, I was saved from the moral dilemma I might have faced. The cemetery opens at 09:00. We were long gone from Kohima by then.Today, we would travel from Kohima to Roing.Google said just above 12 hours.But going by past experience, we knew better and we vacated the hotel around 08:00 in the morning.It was good we had an early start, because eventually it took us 19 hours!The day started off bad for me. I had thought, 08:00 meant we could swiftly get out of town. I had forgotten, we were in Kohima.Everything here is built on hills. There is nothing likehere. Just winding roads and careful driving at very moderate speeds.Then there was the quality of roads. Inside Kohima, the roads are good. As soon as we exited the corporation limits, the road conditions deteriorated. We had faced similar bad roads yesterday, almost all the way from Imphal to Kohima.And lastly there was the fact that I hadn't had my coffee yet.All this meant, I was in a foul mood.Fortunately, around half an hour down the road, we found this small place.The weather was awesome.The coffee was perfect.Here is another pic at the same location. Notice the bike in the background. We found, biking is big in the North East. Lots of people, especially youngsters, have done beautiful modifications to their bikes. Wide handles a la Harley Davidson, additional headlights, growling exhausts to name a few. End result? Awesome mean machines!They have also probably formed riding clubs, because we saw groups of them at quite a lot of places.Got to give it to these youngsters. They definitely understand the value of safety!Also notice theon the car. The wiper fluid has left stains. The sides are absolutely caked with mud. The only clean surface is the wiper arcs on the windshield.Doesn't she look absolutely beautiful?We petrol heads are a strange breed. At home, we strive to keep our cars spotlessly clean. But once out on the road, we absolutely adore all this dust. We wear it just as proudly aa a soldier would wear his war wounds.With pride!A badge of honour if you will!!This car has beenThis car has been through excitingAnd then there are some, who just don't get it.And thus we bickered on in good jest, as two friends cooped inside a car for days to an end will bicker.All the way to Dimapur.Which is like 68 Km away from Kohima.And took usWhy?This is why.Check out the road condition.One interesting thing to note here, is that tanker. No, it's not leaking water. Well not unintentionally anyway. It is actually doing it on purpose.That tanker has a pipe attached to it's back. Water gushes out of this pipe through a series of holes drilled into it. It is an ancient but efficient technique, to keep the dust settled on the ground. And we were seeing this ancient technique in action, in May 2018.To be fair, we did see lots of construction equipment by the roadside. Someonenoticed the problem, and kick started the huge government machinery into action.But all this was too late for us. We continued to crawl along in low gear.Unlike yesterday, road conditionsimprove eventually and we picked up speed.Some time later, driving through the snaky mountainous road, we spotted something which looked like a roadside shop. Seeing it was abandoned, we decided this was a perfect place to pull over for a smoke break.The moment we stepped out of the car, we noticed something, almost immediately!The smell!We could smell the forest!!!We sucked in this beautiful smelling air into our lungs, as much as we could.It wasNo costly perfume in the world can ever compete with this beautiful forest aroma! Never!And people actually lived here!People in cities would probably pay an arm, leg and a kidney for such a fantastic view!It's times like these, places like these, we often pondered on the big philosophical question.What is happiness?We city dwellers think money is happiness and we eagerly take the plunge into the rat race.Come to North East once, and you will realise, people like these mountain folk from Nagaland, have discovered the real secret to happiness long time back.On a tree, right next to where we had stopped, was a board.This didn't make any sense at all! Why would anyone pay for firewood, when the whole forest was literally next door?Probably this was why the shop was abandoned.!They had gone out of business over a bad business idea!!Like all good things do, these beautiful vistas too came to an end. We drove out of the mountains, out of the beautiful forests, and onto the plains.Say hello to traffic!Say hello to vehicle fumes!!Say hello toWe had arrived in Dimapur.Ashutosh signalled me to pull over, while he made a few phone calls. Some time later, he got whatever information he was looking for, and plotted the route on his phone. We followed the navigation instructions and eventually reached our destination.We were at The Nagaland Tool Room & Training Centre. Not everyone can be a doctor or an engineer. So the Government of Nagaland, has set up such institutions like NTRTC, with an objective to impart vocational training in manufacturing tools, dies, fixtures and jigs, among other things. But we were not really here to for that. We were here to meet some magicians. And we found them in a place tucked behind NTRTC.Andis the magic they create!Take a step back and think how electricity reaches your home, and charges whatever device you are using to read this.Electricity is transmitted immense distances over power lines. Tall poles are erected at regular intervals and power lines are strung over them. It is laborious and costly work. We take these things for granted, especially in cities. But what about far off remote places? Say a hamlet of 5-10 houses? On some mountain far away?All these years, such places were simply ignored. Out of sight, out of mind. Things have drastically changed in the recent years. Among other things, the Govt. aggressively pushed for electrification of each and every village and hamlet in the country. This scheme was a huge success, ahead of it's schedule.We were here to meet the awesome people, who had actually made this possible on the proverbial last mile of the power lines. We were here to see their magic machines in action!In 2007, the Government of Nagaland founded the Nagaland Empowerment of People through Energy Development (NEPeD) . They identified bright officers who were in Govt. service back then, and told them to take charge of this organisation. Their mandate? Clean green energy for rural electrification.Initially, they conducted some experiments with nano generators of Chinese make.Soon they identified two major problems. Like most of the Chinese stuff, these generators were unreliable. And more importantly, why use Chinese goods? Why can't we make it in India?Numerous rounds of design and testing later, they were ready. The first indigenous hydroger was ready!Here is how it works.The hydroger is a small generator, which depends on water to generate electricity. A pocket hydro electric plant, if you will.NEPeD has a dedicated team which travels to remote villages. Many times, such a journey takes days. On foot!Then they scout the nearby area for perennial streams or other suitable water sources. All kinds of tests are done to confirm there is enough water available.Then they come back.This time with the hydroger.Check out this video to see how it's done.That applause and those cheers?That's job satisfaction folks! Pure unadulterated job satisfaction!!We had been listening to Shri. Imnayanger Imchen tell us all the details!We were literally stunned hearing all this!Imagine Govt. officers walkingto check for streams! And walking once again to do the actual installation!And these amazing folks at NEPeD haven't stopped at that!They also run a program called Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy Studies (CERES) as well.This program is two fold.What started off as a rural electrification scheme for Nagaland, has now expanded all over the North East. NEPeD regularly works with other state governments and even NGOs and helps them replicate their time tested successful business model all over the North East. If not they would have required to walk weeks, not days to reach remote villages in other states. And you know what, after meeting these awesome folks, I am sure, they would have happily done it!Everyone likes their work appreciated. I am sure so do NEPeD.Why not drop them a line of congratulations? Or perhaps order your very own Hydroger for your farmhouse? Or maybe sponsor one for the next remote hamlet on their list.You can get in touch with the NEPeD folks here Soon after Dimapur, we exited Nagaland and entered Assam.Again.Every time I drove into Assam, majority of the times, I found the roads to be bad. Would it be any different this time?Of course not!Assam roads never fail to disappoint you!By now it was around five in the evening. We had stopped at a roadside hotel for lunch and had been travelling for almost nine hours now. One huge problem for drivers, especially on long routes, is boredom. How many mile stones would you read? How many unpainted speed breakers would you curse? How many potholes would you avoid. In the end, repetition begets boredom and before you know it, all things seem to merge in your head. They key is to keep your brain refreshed by constantly giving it new input to process.But this was the 10th day on the road for us.Whatever things we wanted to discuss, had been discussed.Songs? We were carrying tons of songs. Meh! Done it. Heard it for the zillionth time.Besides Ashutosh was busy on the phone today, helping out one of his clients. I had tuned out long time back. All that talk of taxes and numbers and what not, meant falling off to sleep for me. Not a good idea while driving.So I did, what I always do.I imagine myself to be a Cheetah. Or an X wing star fighter pilot of the Rebel Alliance.If I am a Cheetah, I need a prey to chase and hunt. If not, I need a TIE fighter.Soon I found one. A TIE fighter. So pilot it is today. Pew! Pew! Pew!We had been travelling through rural Assam and I was bored. The road was the usual Assam road. Potholes. traffic and animals sitting anywhere on the road. Suddenly I spotted flashing lights in my rear view mirror and I moved over to the side a bit to give way. A police gypsy zoomed past us. It was a lone vehicle, but still had a red flag hanging out. The back was full of policemen with automatic rifles and I realised they were probably part of some convoy. That explained the flag. But why was he alone? Where were the rest? Probably he had been delayed and was rushing to catch up.Perfect!Government vehicle, flashing lights.was the vehicle I should follow. It will clear all traffic on it's way, and we can sail through in his wake. Police vehicles and ambulances are like Moses at the red sea. Time it properly and you can be the next in line, crossing the Red Sea!The chase began!I had to be careful here of course.To start with I was driving a vehicle with MH plates.In Assam.chasing an Assam police vehicle.Full of armed Assamese cops.So at a safe distance, I continued to follow him. It was working out perfectly as expected. He would weave through all the impediments and I would follow. After some time, he realised what I was doing. I suspect the driver exchanged some words with the cops at the back, and suddenly two of them peered out, gazing at me intently. But I think they realised we were harmless. I mean which criminal would get into a high speed chasea police vehicle, driving a bright coloured easy to spot vehicle, that too with out of state number plates?None.So they ignored us.In the end, the inevitable happened. He had 88 horses under his hood. I had 110. I overtook him. The X wing had shot down the TIE fighter!The thrill of the chase was temporarily gone. I eased off the accelerator a bit and dropped behind him. I was trying to think, how soon should I do it all over again,We were passing through forested areas when he disappeared into a curve. I followed him in, a few seconds laterAs I entered the curve, imagine my horror when I noticed he had come to a dead stop, right in the middle of the lane!I stood on my brakes, the ABS system kicked in while I frantically worked down the gear box. I had managed to come to a halt literally two inches behind him. My left front wheel had climbed down the tarmac, but I had successfully managed to avoid a collision!The stock Terrano horn is very loud. I slammed my palm on the steering wheel, and fortunately he stopped just in time.He moved ahead a bit, and frantically reversed, circumventing me, and came to a halt a few feetme.And then, I noticed the elephant in the room.Literally!A wild elephant was crossing the road!That disgusting coward!was the one with a vehicle full of people carrying automatic weapons.And still he had sneaked behind me!What a sissy!He probably hid the same way behind his mom, when he was a kid!! Probably still does!!!I was absolutely disgusted!!!!First he stops on a blind curve on a highway. Imagine what would have happened if I had banged into him.Then he tries to reverse and almost bangs into me! Again imagine if he had.And to top it all, he runs and hides behind me.And these guys are cops! Carrying automatic weapons!!In the meanwhile, the elephant, oblivious to all this drama, had calmly crossed the road and had went off on his way. I shot the gypsy a withering stare in my mirror and floored it.I never saw him again.For quite some time now, we had been travelling on Assam roads and it had turned dark outside. We seemed to be passing through predominantly rural areas. Tea plantations had dominated the landscape. But all of them had vanished now. All I could see in my headlights was the road and the typical signboards, milestones and white painted lines. Traffic continued to be sparse in many places and we appeared to be the only vehicle on the road.Suddenly, far away, there was a strange illumination in the sky. It was heavily overcast and the clouds seem to glow in a strange orange reddish hue. Sometimes, clouds high up in the sky, might reflect the sunlight beyond the horizon, even when it is dark on the ground. But this was something different. Something slightly scary. Had we somehow driven into Mordor?Ashutosh had dozed off and I nudged him awake. I pointed out the glowing coals in the sky and he said "Digboi probably".As it turned out, he was right. About Digboi. Not the hearing aid.In 1825, British Army officers passing through the jungles of upper Assam, stumbled upon a strange type of mud. It smelt different, was wet, but still caught fire if you took a match to it. Crude was literally oozing out of the ground.1825!the first war of Independence!Manikarnika Tambe was a mere three year old child back then, probably playing with her dolls in Varanasi! It would be years later, that she would walk into the history books and become immortalised as the Rani of Jhansi.Fast forward a few years after her death.In 1882, a Canadian engineer, one W L Lake had gone into the Assam jungles, probably for, when suddenly a bunch of elephants emerged from the forest. He noticed their feet were stained with oil.He urged his natives, remembering the oil strike in Pennsylvania just 23 years back.Thus Digboi.Or at least the story goes that way.They (or someone else in reality) started digging and struck oil. A huge plume of crude gushed high in the sky. They capped it and build machinery to harvest it from the ground.And they are still doing it today.No wonder, it is known as the Oil City of Assam.Unfortunately, the route Ashutosh had charted, did not take us through Digboi. We were on the outskirts of Dibrugarh.Now Dibrugarh is a heavily industrialised area. The whole district is dotted with numerous oil and natural gas rigs and of course their refineries. Traffic, mainly trucks, suddenly picked up. The road was a typical Assam road. Potholed. On top of it, it had rained rather heavily some time back. I was fed up of the constant gear change. It was time for a smoke break. I pulled over.And so we took the right turn.Visibility was poor. The rain had switched on a slight drizzle, worsening things. We continued to crawl along a narrow lane. Now a left turn, and right there in front of us was a road which looked to be in excellent condition. I congratulated Ashutosh on his excellent navigation and got on to the road.The road was really good and I could speed up. Some time later we passed quite a lot of construction machinery and vehicles parked by the roadside. We drove quite some distance. Not a single pothole since we got on to this road! Encouraged, I picked up more speed. This was awesome! We were going to bypass Dibrugarh altogether and join the road to Tinsukia directly! Wonder why none of those trucks are taking this route! Probably they were not as smart as us, we sniggered a bit.Suddenly, the car fishtailed! Violently!!Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!Fortunately I remembered the correct thing to do in such situations! I let go off the accelerator and without touching the brakes, I turned the wheelthe direction of the skid. Swiftly working down the gearbox, I managed to bring the car to a dead stop.We let out a huge sigh of relief and peered outside.And saw almost nothing.It was pitch black. Raindrops clung to the glass, further reducing visibility. Even a high beam was not that helpful. Later on I would discover, the headlights had a film of dust and mud on it. From what we could see, we deduced we had driven into a sea of very slimy mud. Ashutosh opened his door to step out and realised it was quite a few inches deep. No point in getting out. The oozing mud was everywhere.So this is why there was a break on the map. The road was still under construction!And this is why the truckers gave this road such a wide berth!They were the smart ones!!Now what? Turn back. No other option.Easier said than done. The mud made any kind of steering almost impossible. It was like driving in water! The car was all over the place and I had almost zero control. In the end, I used almost the whole width of the "road" to point the wheels in the right direction.Back on the proper road, we meekly followed the trucks. Later on, outside Dibrugarh, when we stopped for dinner, I took a look at the tyres. They were absolutely caked in mud on the sides. It had been a close call indeed!In India, there are all kinds of drivers, and over the decades I have been driving, I believe I have met all types. There are good drivers and there are bad drivers. And then there are bad drivers with high intensity lamps fitted to their vehicles. And they make copious use of it at night.They always drive with a high beam on. But surprisingly, these same morons will avoid using any kind of indicators.And as if this was not enough, there are the types who just cant keep their hands off the horn.Have vehicle, will honk.For no reason whatsoever! Just for fun! Some even manage to play tunes on their horns!Punekars will understand what I am talking about!!   ,   ! !Dinner done, we were headed towards Tinsukia. Suddenly a bright light in my outside rear view mirror almost blinded me! I shifted my head position a bit and carried on. After some time, a loud honk bellowed!And overtake me, he did. And just before passing, he blew his horn one more time!This time it wasVery loud!Irritated, I looked towards my right.Good God!We were running parallel to the railway tracks, and the train had just overtaken me!And that last honk had been a challenge!It was a matter of honour now!The hell with the potholes. The car suspension had survived worse roads than this!I will show him the consequences of challenging someone from the land of the Marathas!The race was on!Andhow I earned the bragging rights of challenging a train to a race...and winning!Ladies and gentlemen, meet the undisputed champion of the race, my Nissan Terrano 110PS!I am just as proud of her, as Maharana Pratap was proud of his beloved Chetak!!Kilometre after kilometre we sped on. It was well past midnight now. Our headlights pierced the darkness and we gobbled up the roads. It had been a very long day for us, full of frustration due to bad roads and I was on the verge of exhaustion. My shoulder muscles ached and I felt my right knee stiffen a bit. All this braking and accelerating had taken it's toll. It had not been an enjoyable drive at all. There had been numerous stops for tea or cigarettes but there are only certain amount of cups you can drink or cigarettes you can smoke to keep fatigue at bay. I was staying focused on sheer will power.And then, from the darkness to my left, Ashutosh said the three magic words.In an instant my brain was refreshed! I knew what he meant!! We had discussed this many times and agreed, this would be one ofmajor milestones of our expedition.We were about to cross the mighty Lohit!We were about to cross the Dhola Sadiya bridge!!Dhola and Sadiya are two ports on opposite banks of the Lohit river. Over the decades numerous boatmen have successfully ferried numerous people, their belongings, and many a times even their vehicles onto the other side. The boatmen make a good living from this and the residents manage to cross over without any hassle. Works out for everyone.Well, almost!said the Army.Typically, the Army guards the borders. Arunachal Pradesh is a border state. Ergo, our Army needs to be in Arunachal Pradesh.However, one lesson which the debacle in Sino Indian war of 1962 taught us, was that Army needs to reach the borderShockingly this valuable lesson remained only on paper.Check out the unbelievable timeline2003 - first feasibility project undertaken (this is a mind bogglingyears after the war)2009 - bridge approved (2011 - actual construction began (2014 - still under construction. (In the meanwhile, the Army continued to use the longer route (six hours travel time longer) whenever they wanted to move from northern Assam to Eastern Arunachal.In 2014, the current Govt. decided to fast track this, and on 26 May 2017, the bridge was officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi.And here we were, on 24 May 2018, almost a year to the day after the inauguration, about to cross over the same bridge.For all those who expected to see the bridge in the video, you are right. This is just the approach road and we stopped shooting the moment we neared the bridge. And for good reason.Two days back, on our way to Imphal, we had almost got shot, thanks to my stupidity. That memory was still fresh in our minds.You have seen the barricades in the video. As we neared the bridge, there were even more. And a bunch of of security personnel. With automatic weapons.An out of state car, approaching a bridge built exclusively for the military, at 02:30 in the morning, and someone in the car filming. Not a smart idea. And that's why we didn't stop in the middle of the bridge either.But wedo it on our way back. You can see it in all it's glory when I write about it in the next few instalments.For now, this is it.As we neared the bridge, we were not asked to stop or produce identification or anything. Just multiple pair of eyes, peered at us intently. In fact I got so nervous, that I switched on the interior lights. See? No bad guys here! No reaction. Hesitantly, I drove on. And kept on driving.The Dhola Sadiya bridge (also known as the Bhupen Hazarika Setu), spans the Lohit river and with a length of 9.15 Km, it is the longest bridge in India.Here I was, at the start of the bridge. Glorious 9.15 Km of unhindered road stretched out in a straight line, right in front of me. There was no other vehicle in sight.The bridge winked at me.And a voice in my head whispered.I concurred.And I floored it.The turbo kicked in around 2000 RPM and we shot ahead like a bullet. A quick change up the gear box and in a few seconds, we were gliding in top gear!One eye on the road, the other on the speedometer, accelerator jammed to the floor. I kept on piling up speed. The dashed line on the tarmac continued to zoom past us faster and faster, till it was a mere blur of a continuous white streak! The adrenaline pump was working overtime! What a rush! What a magnificent high! Oh what an awesome feeling!Sadly, it was all over in a few minutes.But totally worth it!Mentally I ticked off one more item ason my todo list!We had stopped for a celebratory smoke after crossing the bridge, and had strutted around a bit! Like squirrels who had successfully crossed the Ram Setu!!Back in the car, a furious discussion ensued.A few days back, at the Rhino Heritage Museum, Shillong, we had stood right next to real tanks and had even taken selfies. And this qualified us to be armchair military experts!!Unfortunately we had different ideas of how wide exactly was a tank. Thus the debate!Somewhere near Shantipur, we crossed the state border. We had entered Arunachal Pradesh!Some time later, a turn in the road, and out of the darkness, a torch shone onto us. Inspite of the glare, we could see in the background, a light lazily rotating in mid air. Security check!I switched on the interior lights and pulled over.A bunch of uniformed men with automatic weapons surrounded the car. I rolled down the window.(Heh! It rhymes and sounds a bit funny now. But back then it was all serious)A rather detailed explanation followed. We were politely asked to get out of the car. Government issued photo IDs were presented for scrutiny. The boot was opened for inspection.Eventually everyone relaxed.Oh bother! The permit! Of course! We had forgotten all about it!He had a point. Bidding him goodbye, we moved on.We pulled over near the check post. No sign of anybody. We checked the police station. No sign of anybody there either. There was nothing else to be done. We were discussing how it's possible to push the seats back and sleep in the car, when headlights approached from the opposite direction. It was a truck. They pulled over. The driver got down with some paper in his hand and walked to the house next to the check post. Curious, we followed.He rang the bell. After a while, a gentleman stepped out, rubbing his eyes! He inspected the paper and pulled out a thickish register. A flurry of stamps. Sign here! He told the trucker.That was it! This must be the officer who issued permits! At last!Once the trucker was gone, we introduced ourselves, explained where we had come from, and requested the permit.[word limit reached][contd...] Last edited by Aditya : 29th January 2020 at 08:36 . Reason: Mention of overspeeding
Pennsylvanias Capitol grounds will soon become the first in the nation to have a monument commemorating the U.S. constitutional amendments that gave African American men and women the right to vote, as well as pay homage to those Harrisburg residents in the Old Eighth Ward, where the Capitol now sits.

The multi-purpose interactive monument, called A Gathering at the Crossroads" and designed by sculptor Becky Ault, will feature four bronze life-size depictions of abolitionists and famed orators with ties to the region and Pennsylvania and who worked to help fulfill the nations founding fathers promise that all men are created equal."

The orators - William Howard Day, Thomas Morris Chester, Jacob T. Compton and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper  will be shown gathered around a pedestal inscribed with the names of 100 legendary leaders of the Old 8th Ward, where newspapers account say people poured into the street to celebrate the passage of the 15th amendment.

Construction of a monument to commemorate the 15th and 19th amendments to the U.S. Constitution and pay homage to the people of Harrisburg's Old Eighth Ward, which the state Capitol Complex now sits, is expected to begin on March 25.

The monument will be located on the Capitol grounds near Fourth and Walnut streets outside the K. Leroy Irvis Office Building in an cobblestoned circle to be known as the Irvis Equality Center.

The groundbreaking for the $400,000 monument will be held on March 25 with an expected dedication date of June 15.

At a news conference on Monday about the project, Lenwood Sloan, who is serving as executive director of the monument committee, announced the kickoff of an eight-week campaign to raise $25,000 to help cover the monuments costs that the City of Harrisburg has offered to match.

To date including the challenge grant, he said $290,000 has been raised. Contributions can be made through the projects website at monumentpaus.com.

As part of the overall project, Sloan said they are hoping to locate descendants of people who lived in the Old Eighth Ward who were forced by the government to vacate their homes and businesses to make way for the state Capitol Complex. He said they want to have as many of them as possible in attendance at the monuments dedication.

To help with this hunt for descendants, the committee has enlisted the aid of Messiah College history professor David Pettegrew and his students in the colleges Digital Harrisburg program. Pettegrew said thus far, they have succeeded in finding more than 40 people.

Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin County, said he was proud to cosponsor a resolution in the Senate calling for the monuments construction

Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, who was among those who spoke at the news conference, said, Im pleased that the commonwealth will now have a statue that memorializes these significant milestones. And once again, Pennsylvania will serve as a first and a model for other states to follow in memorializing and documenting such an important part of our history."

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad on Monday presented a Rs 6,229 crore draft budget for the year 2020-21 with a proposal of 12 per cent hike in property tax and 15 per cent hike in water tax.

Gaikwad presented the budget to the Standing Committee chairman Hemant Rasane and mayor Murlidhar Mohol. The standing committee will prepare the final budget on the basis of the draft budget.

Gaikwad said that administration expects an additional income of Rs 150 crore from the proposed property tax hike which will also be applicable for the cellphone tower companies, IT and ITES companies. The PMC administration is expecting Rs 1,970 crore revenue from property tax and Rs 749 crore from building permission department, he said.

In addition to the hike in property tax, the residents will also have to pay an additional 15 per cent amount in water tax, which has been approved by the general body as a part of the 24X7 water supply project implementation.

The commissioner also proposed introduction of a traffic park and solar buses in the city in this years budget.

PMC administration is expecting Rs 1,970 crore revenue from property tax and Rs 749 crore from building permission department.

On the expenditure side, the budget expects spending Rs 1,860 crore on salaries for its employees and the PMC commissioner has kept Rs 2,373 crore for development funds.

The commissioner in his draft budget has also proposed building more hostels for working women and increase safety of women.
A former construction project manager for a real estate development company has pleaded guilty to defrauding banks, construction companies and his employer out of more than $200,000, federal prosecutors say.

Gregory Meeker, of Barrington, R.I., pleaded guilty to 12 counts of bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Weisman announced Friday.

While working at Newport, R.I.-based Landings Real Estate Group, he would submit invoices to the company, many of which were false or inflated, in the names of subcontractors, prosecutors said.

Instead of delivering the checks to the subcontractors, Meeker forged endorsements on the back of the checks and deposited them into his own bank accounts, authorities said.

Meeker is scheduled to be sentenced on April 7.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Fraud Construction
The chief of staff of the Air Force has confirmed reports from the Taliban that a U.S. military aircraft crashed in Afghanistan earlier Monday.

Speaking to a group at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security, Gen. David Goldfein said the plane that went down was an Air Force E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, aircraft.

According to earlier reports, the plane crashed in Ghazni province to the east. Ghazni has been under majority Taliban control since 2015, shortly after U.S. combat forces formally drew down in Afghanistan.

Local journalist Tariq Ghazniwal reported that the crash took place about 10 kilometers, or 6 miles, outside of an unspecified U.S. military base, according to an Associated Press report. It's not yet clear how many were aboard or if any casualties were sustained.

"It appears we have lost an aircraft. We don't know the status of the crew," Goldfein said, adding the Central Command officials are in contact with relevant parties to investigate the situation.

U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Army Col. William "Sonny" Leggett confirmed on Twitter the crash was not the result of hostile fire.

"There are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire," Leggett said. "[The] Taliban claims that additional aircraft have crashed are false."

The general urged caution on initial reports coming out over social media and other outlets.

"In my experience ... first reports? Always wrong," Goldfein said.

A U.S. official told Fox News there were fewer than five people aboard the aircraft when it went down.

BACN broadcasts data to pilots flying in an increasingly contested environment, boosting their situational awareness for beyond-line-of-sight activity. Developed by Northrop Grumman, BACN is the result of a longstanding Air Force effort to bridge the gaps between tactical data links that normally would not be able to transmit information to one another.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne is working to free Australian families trapped in China, where hospitals are under strain and cities in lockdown as the coronavirus spreads.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Senator Payne was working "around the clock" to find a way to evacuate 100 Australian children and young people unable to get out of Wuhan, after the Chinese government shut down transport in and out of the city.

"We are working to make sure theres support for those Australians ... We are also working on, as are other countries, to try to secure their ability to return to Australia," Mr Hunt told ABC radio on Monday morning.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne is working to get Australian citizens out of Wuhan. Credit:AAP

"So at the moment, we know that there are over 100 young Australians, were gathering the information. DFAT is reaching out through international co-operation  co-operation with the Chinese authorities  to gather the names and details of all of the Australians."
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Kolkata, Jan 27 : A Chinese national, suspected to be suffering from coronavirus, has been admitted in the state-run Infectious Diseases Hospital here.

She has been kept at the isolation ward.

A state Health Department team examined 28-year-old Hu Mai. Later, Director of Health Education, Debsish Bhattacharya said she was stable.

It is learnt that Hu Mai had left China six months back, and visited Namibia, Madagascar and Mauritius before reaching India on Janaury 24.

After she came here, the woman felt sick and went to a private health facility, which referred her to the ID Hospital in Beleghata on Sunday.

However, Kolkata Municipal Corporation authorities claimed the doctors have not seen any symptom of coronavirus in the patient.

"She got panic-stricken. Our doctors monitored her condition through the night on Sunday. They examined her yet again on Monday. The doctors say she doesn't have any classical symptom of coronavirus," said KMC Mayor-in-Council member Swapan Samaddar.

He assured the people of Kolkata that the authorities were prepared to deal with any eventuality in connection with the virus which has caused a worldwide alert.
Death toll from the deadly coronavirus rose to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases of the disease reported from the country on Monday.

According to Chinese-state agency Xinhua, 769 new cases have been reported on Sunday.

The virus originated in Wuhan city of China in December and has since then has spread to various cities around the

Overseas, confirmed cases were reported in Thailand (7), Japan (3), the Republic of Korea (3), the United States (3), Vietnam (2), Singapore (4), Malaysia (3), Nepal (1), France (3) and Australia (4).

China has imposed quarantine and travel restrictions, affecting the movement of 56 million people in more than a dozen cities, amid fears that the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year.

Health authorities around the are taking action to prevent a global pandemic as the virus continues to spread, with cases reported in Australia, France, the United States and seven Asian countries besides China.However, the Health Organisation (WHO) has acknowledged that the respiratory illness, which has been traced to the city of Wuhan, is an emergency in China.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
OSWIECIM, Poland  Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp prayed and wept as they marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation, returning Monday to the place where they lost entire families and warning about the ominous growth of anti-Semitism and hatred in the world.

We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes, Polish President Andrzej Duda told those at the commemoration, which included the German president as well as Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.

The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying, but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it, Duda said.

About 200 camp survivors attended, many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who traveled from Israel, the United States, Australia, Peru, Russia, Slovenia and elsewhere. Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz or other Nazi death camps during World War II, but were joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

They gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that had transported people to Birkenau, the part of the vast complex where most of the murdered Jews were killed in gas chambers and then cremated. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.

Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, brought the crowd to tears with the story of a survivor who was separated from his family: The man watched his young daughter, in a red coat, walk to her death, turning into a small red dot in the distance before disappearing forever.

After the end of the war, when the world finally saw pictures of gas chambers, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with the Nazis, he recalled. But now I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, the open and brazen spread of anti-Jewish hatred.

Do not be silent! Do not be complacent! Do not let this ever happen again  to any people! Lauder said.

Marian Turski, a 93-year-old Polish Jewish survivor, said he did not expect to make it to the next commemoration and wanted to transmit a message to his grandchildrens generation: That the destruction of the Jews began with small steps that were tolerated. What began with banning Jews from sitting on benches in Berlin evolved in incremental steps to ghettos and death camps. And that such horrors could happen anywhere, even in the United States.

Auschwitz did not descend from the sky, he said, crediting those words to Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, among those present. Calling for people to not be indifferent, he said: Because if you are indifferent, you will not even notice it when upon your own heads, and upon the heads of your descendants, another Auschwitz descends from the sky.

As a Jewish survivor recited Hebrew prayers for the dead, the crowd bowed their heads or wiped away tears. Clergymen of other faiths also prayed.

Then, with the famous gate and barbed wire illuminated in the dark and cold evening, guests marched in a procession to place candles at a memorial to the victims set amid the remains of the gas chambers.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by the Nazi German forces at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned and killed there.

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem last week to mark the anniversary in what many saw as a competing observance. Among them were Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britains Prince Charles.

Politics intruded on that event, with Duda boycotting it in protest after Putin claimed that Poland played a role in triggering World War II. Duda had wanted a chance to speak before or after Putin to defend his nations record in face of those false accusations, but he was not given a speaking slot in Jerusalem.

Those claims comes as many Eastern European countries in recent years have been mythologizing their own peoples behavior during the war and suppressing knowledge of wrongdoing, something Polands government also has been criticized for.

Duda said Monday at a news conference that he felt that in Jerusalem, Polish participation in the epic fight against the Nazis was ignored.

At the commemoration, he did not mention Russia by name. Yet he stressed how Poland was invaded and occupied, losing 6 million of its citizens in the war, half of them Jews. He recalled how Poland fought the Germans on several fronts, warned the world in vain about the genocide of the Jews, and for decades has been a responsible custodian of Auschwitz and other sites of the German atrocities.

Distorting the history of World War II, denying the crimes of genocide and negating the Holocaust as well as an instrumental use of the Auschwitz for whatever purposes is tantamount to desecration of the memory of the victims, Duda said. Truth about the Holocaust must not die.

Among others attending the observances at Auschwitz, which is located in the part of southern Poland that was occupied by Germany during the war, were German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. The U.S. was represented by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Organizers of the event in Poland, the Auschwitz-Birkenau state memorial museum and the World Jewish Congress, have sought to keep the spotlight on survivors.

On the eve of the commemorations, survivors, many leaning on their children and grandchildren for support, walked through the camp where they had been brought in on cattle cars and suffered hunger and illness and came close to death. They said they were there to remember, to share their histories with others and to make a gesture of defiance toward those who had sought their destruction.

I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage to them, said Yvonne Engelman, a 92-year-old Australian who was joined by three more generations now scattered around the globe.

She recalled being brought in from a ghetto in what was then Czechoslovakia by cattle car, being stripped of her clothes, shaved and put in a gas chamber. By some miracle, the gas chamber did not work that day, and she later survived slave labor and a death march.

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron paid his respects at the citys Shoah Memorial and warned about rising hate crimes in the country, which increased 27% last year.

That anti-Semitism is coming back is not the Jewish peoples problem: Its all our problem  its the nations problem, Macron said.

Hundreds of diplomats and guests along with several Holocaust survivors joined U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande for a ceremony at the United Nations in New York.

May we make a pledge: We stand united against hate, said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor. We stand united against anti-Semitism. We stand united against xenophobia and racism and any form of bigotry.

Guterres said that solidarity in the face of hatred is needed today more than ever, and that the U.N. will stand firm every day and everywhere against anti-Semitism, bigotry and hatred of all kinds.

___

Associated Press writers Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Thomas Adamson in Paris and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this repor.

___

For more stories by The Associated Press on Auschwitz, go to https://apnews.com/Auschwitz
Trump confirmed last week he plans to dramatically expand the travel ban to include more countries.

Washington, DC  On the third anniversary of the announcement of United States President Donald Trumps Muslim ban, Democrats said on Monday that the House of Representatives will soon consider legislation that would repeal the travel ban and limit the president from imposing future restrictions based on religion.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will consider the NO BAN Act which would overturn the ban and prevent the president from establishing future restrictions unless the administration provides strong evidence to justify it in consultation with Congress.

House Democrats continue to stand opposed to President Trumps cruel, un-American travel ban in all of its iterations. In the coming weeks, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up and bring to the floor the NO BAN Act to prohibit religious discrimination in our immigration system and limit the presidents ability to impose such biased and bigoted restrictions, Pelosi said in a statement.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on Monday that his panel would take up the bill in two weeks. The bill was introduced in April, and is supported by nearly 250 members of Congress and hundreds of civil rights, faith, national security and community organisations from across the country.

Three years after the Trump Admin launched its outrageous Muslim travel ban, reports indicate the Admin is preparing to expand this dangerous policy. Democrats will continue to stand up against Trumps efforts to dishonor our proud immigrant heritage. https://t.co/7CHCB6CHb0  Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 27, 2020

The bill has a chance of passing in the Democratic-led House, but faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In a news conference held outside the US Senate, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, one of the authors of the NO BAN Act denounced what he called the intentional use of cruelty in the Trumps administrations immigration policy and said the Muslim ban was based on prejudice, populism and discrimination, rather than fact or security considerations.

Our whole effort in introducing this legislation and trying to move it forward is to say our Supreme Court got it wrong, Coons told reporters.

Trumps first travel ban, which targeted several Muslim-majority countries, was announced without warning on January 27, 2017, days after the president took office. It created outrage and led to chaos in airports across the country as hundreds of travellers were detained and thousands of previously issued visas to the US were revoked.

After lower court rulings invalidated the first two iterations, the Supreme Court on June 2018 upheld the third version of the ban which applied to citizens of five majority-Muslim nations  Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen  and put restrictions on some travellers from Venezuela and North Korea.

The current ban suspends immigrant and non-immigrant visas to applicants from the affected countries, but it allows exceptions, including for students and those who have established significant contacts in the US.

The move comes days after Trump confirmed he was planning on expanding the ban. Although he did not say which countries will be added, US media reported the expanded ban may include Belarus, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.

Any expansion to the ban is expected to draw more legal challenges by rights groups who say the travel restrictions unfairly target Muslims, has separated families and prevented people from accessing vital education and healthcare in the US.

Trump doesnt just want a border wall, hes creating an invisible wall keeping out people around the world based solely on their religion, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said at Mondays news conference. That is why we will keep fighting until we finally are able to repeal this Muslim ban and put this hateful policy in the waste pin of history where it belongs.

I still believe in an America that protects the free exercise of all religions. I still believe that Congress shall make no law establishing a religion. Three years after the #MuslimBan, I will continue to fight for that America. #NoBanAct  Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) January 27, 2020

Trump campaigned in 2016 on a promise to ban Muslim immigrants and refugees from entering the country.

He has made cracking down on immigration the focus of his presidency and it is a core topic for his reelection drive before the November 3 vote. He has pushed for the building of a border wall along the USs southern border to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from entering through Mexico.
Whisky makers are a curious lot. It takes a special kind of person to wait years and even decades to find out if their work is any good  if, in fact, their long-term focus will translate to plaudits and recommendations from the whisky-drinking public.

One-part bon vivant, one-part mad scientist, Dr. Bill Lumsden is a passionate creator of single-malt Scotch and an enthusiastic whisky drinker. His business card says hes the Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, where hes been making stelar malt whiskies since 1998. A three-time winner of Distiller of the Year at the International Spirits Challenge, Lumsden is a perpetual fount of innovation that flows like the waters of the Tarlogie Springs  the source that feeds not only the Glenmorangie distillery but also Lumsden and his teams new innovation lab, which is slated to open early in 2020.

InsideHook caught up with him during Signet Week at the distillery, when men and now women of Tain crank out the special chocolate malt spirit that will be used to make one of the brand and Lumsdens most lauded expressions: Glenmorangie Signet.

Do you remember your first sip of whisky?

Absolutely! I was 16 years old at the time and it was blended scotch called Stuarts Cream of the Barley, and it was pinched from my friend Davids parents drinks cupboard. It ended in tears and actual bloodshed, because we were completely hammered. We drank a bottle of Sherry and then we drank some of this whisky. I have to say I didnt much care for it at the time, but I ended up getting blood all over the case of Davids big brothers, Gibson Les Paul guitar. So he beat the shit out of us.

But my first proper, serious, appreciative taste of whisky was a few years later, in 1984 and it was a glass of Glenmorangie 10-year-old. And I thought, yeah, all right! The reality was it was highly likely to be either Glenmorangie, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet or Macallan. But it happened to be Glenmorangie and I thought, this is a lot different from what I remember. I enjoyed the subtlety and the complexity of it. But a lot of people dont believe me when I say it was Glenmorangie.

Beyond those first sips, can you tell us about your early experience with whisky?

After that I became so entranced by it. My father passed away last year, but he was a big whisky drinker, and he always said that I would come to appreciate and enjoy whisky. He was absolutely right. I was really intrigued by the huge variety of whisky. The variety, then, in the 80s, is nothing like it is now. But even so, all the different distilleries, I thought, wow, Im a Scotsman born and bred. Ive lived here all my life and Ive just been ignoring all of this heritage and tradition on my doorstep. So, I ended up just experimenting. I was a student and didnt have a lot of money and I would go to a lovely bar in Edinburgh, which I still go to, to this day, and its not changed that much, called the Jolly Judge. Its a really cool wee place and they had a decent selection of malt whisky. So once a week, or once a fortnight I would go in there and treat myself to a new dram of whisky and I worked my way through the shelf there. At the same time, I was studying my PHD and it just all crystallized in my mind. Im going to work in the Scotch whisky industry.

Can you trace that back to a specific whisky that inspired you to spend your life making whisky?

I would have to say, it was Glenmorangie because it was the first one Id tasted. If Id started off with something a little bit more intense, like a Lagavulin or an Ardbeg or something, I might not necessarily have fallen in love with it as much as I did. So it started off with Glenmorangie, but then, like I say, it was just the sheer variety. I was also deeply intrigued by the fact that some of the distilleries were quite obscure. They were names which people found difficult to pronounce and all of that appealed to me. I just found that within that category there was such a stunning range of different tastes and different characteristics. As someone who gets bored very easily, that deeply appealed to me. So it was like a perfect storm of things coming together. The geekiness, the heritage, the huge wide variety. And if Im honest, I also liked the fact that its not everyones cup of tea.

Well, now that whisky and malt whisky are very popular, and since you want to run against the grain, what are you into now?

In terms of running against the grain, I mean I partly do that through my work by introducing obscure expressions. Some of the projects Ive been working on are real fun projects. They might not necessarily end up giving me the most delicious whisky Ive ever made, but thats not the point. Its just something different. I suppose my drinking repertoire, as Ive gotten older, has become much narrower, and basically now, I drink whisky, I drink wine and occasionally drink beer, and I almost dont drink anything else. Which is probably a bit boring of me. I should be more open minded to trying other things, but I know what I like.

First of all, you need to be quite single-minded about what you want to do.

What are the most important things youve learned along the way?

First of all, you need to be quite single-minded about what you want to do. There will always be naysayers and people trying to put barriers in your way and trying to hijack your ideas. So, you have to be quite strong. Ive got a vision of what I want to do, and Im very determined to see it through.

The second thing Ive learned is that work vaguely within the rules, but dont let the rules restrict you or stop your doing something. If you can do it, find a way to work round about the rules, again to help you achieve your goal. And I think that the other thing Ive learned, which I hope has stood me in good stead, is that at the end of the day, Im just like everyone else out there. Im just a whisky drinker. So not to get ahead of myself, maintain a degree of humility. I like meeting other customers and consumers and really getting their opinion on things. Even if they dont particularly like some of the things Ive done, you always learn from that.

What are your current inspirations?

Whats inspiring me a lot just know is, the whole new wave of new distilleries. I hate the use of the C word, because in reality, all it means is theyre small. What we do, what Macallan do, what Glenfiddich do, is craft. We take great care of our product, weve been doing it for many years, we know what were doing. So the fact that these new kids on the block are arguably stealing a little bit of the limelight, thats inspiring me to try even harder, and innovate a bit more. Im reading some of them saying, Oh, were going to own innovation. They even put a list of what theyre going to do. And I read through it and I think, Boring. Did that 20 years ago, did this, did that. The fact that a lot of them are by, through necessity, bottling of whiskys at three years old, and frankly theyre not much good, in my opinion. Ive tasted quite a few of them at whisky fairs and things, and for the price theyre charging, they are not a good advert for our industry, in my opinion. I guess thats spurring me on to try and make my whiskys even better. Weve got a bit of a challenge there that its exciting for people to see these new brands, but why spend a hundred pounds on a bottle of three year old, which is frankly going to be a bit rough, when you can spend 35 pounds on a really decent bottle of 10-year-old or 12-year-old. So, Im watching this very carefully, and I do wonder how many of these distilleries will still be here in years to come.

How have those American whiskeys influenced the way you make whisky?

I thought I was pretty high up there in terms of knowledge about wood. But in the great scheme of things, some of the stuff that the guys at Sazerac or Buffalo Trace have done, has taken it way on to the next level. So its made me take a step back and think, maybe I need to consider this or consider that.

Where do you personally want to take whisky now?

Where I would like to take whisky is actually where I think it already is, but people just dont know it. In terms of the amount of work, the amount of love, the amount of passion, the amount of knowledge that goes into making this product, to me its just head and shoulders above anything else thats made throughout the world. And by that I even include top quality wine, which to me is a much simpler production process.

So I would like to try and just spread the gospel. And I know that very few people are going to drink whisky all day, everyday, but when youre in the mood for it, to me, it just hits that spot like nothing else. So I guess what Im saying is, Id like to slightly democratize whisky and make sure that any serious drinker, anyone who seriously appreciates good things in life, must have whisky as part of their repertoire.

And what do you want the people who drink it to come away with?

I would like them to be interested enough to learn a bit about how its made. But at the end of the day, if they dont do that, I would just like them to sit and think, wow, this is something really special.

If you could only have one glass more, what would you pick?

I think it would have to be my 1981 Glenmorangie distillery managers choice, which was one single, first fill ex-bourbon hogshead, that I discovered in the warehouse when I was distillery manager. It was just such a sublime example of Glenmorangie, so I bottled that cask by hand. We got a weights and measures approved flask, put the labels on ourselves and it was just such a wonderful project. Ive actually still got two bottles of it left in my cellar, so that would probably be the last one I would ever drink.

The post The Evolution of a Whisky Maker appeared first on InsideHook.
After an 18,000 strong sellout crowd in Queenstown last weekend, the annual Summer Concert Tour moved onto its North Island leg this weekend with 15,000 fans descending on Taupo Amphitheatre for the sold-out Taupo Summer Concert.

Celebrating Greenstone Entertainments 10th anniversary and the 9th Taupo Summer Concert, hot and sunny summer conditions greeted international acts, Smash Mouth, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Anastacia, George Thorogood & The Destroyers and Billy Idol.

Billy Idol. Photo: Matt Jordan/Jordan Creatives

Providing the opportunity for local New Zealand artists to perform to audiences of this scale, organisers this year offered the opening set of the day to Jam Dr., as concert goers set themselves up for the day with their picnic baskets, chilly bins and sunscreen.

With the picturesque back drop of the Waikato River in the background, Smash Mouth took to the stage at midday, and got the crowd warmed up with their 90s ska pop hits including All Star, Walkin On The Sun and Then The Morning Comes.

Next up was an incredible set from Creedence Clearwater Revisited, who on their farewell tour, had concert goers cheering for more after a set of songs from across the 60s and 70s, with just some of them including Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary.

Anastacia, who along with her dancers and band, was next on the bill. They wowed the audience with a great stage performance as well as her smash hits from the early 2000s - Im Outta Love, Sick and Tired and Left Outside Alone.

As the show rolled into the late afternoon and early evening, fans geared up for the final two acts of the day.

George Thorogood & The Destroyers were a hit when George punched out his mega hits of the last 45 years including Bad To The Bone, Who Do You Love, and One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.

Ending the day in style, Billy Idol and his band, including his wicked lead guitarist Steve Stevens, had a fitting finish playing a collection of their 80s smash hits - the likes of Rebel Yell, Eyes Without A Face and Dancing With Myself to name but a few.

Already 33,000 fans have experienced these amazing artists in either Queenstown or Taupo, says CEO of Greenstone Entertainment Amanda Calvert. We cant thank all the fans enough for coming along to support these fantastic artists who make the long journey to New Zealand to share their first class talent with us all. We now move onto the final sold out show of the tour on Sunday in the amazing Whitianga.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Religious Faith, Secularism and Gandhi

The following paper was presented at an International Winter School on Globalistion and Religious Diversity: Issues, Perspectives and the Relevance of Gandhian Philosophy, organised by the Ambedkar University, Delhi and Aarhus University, on January 8-14, 2020.

Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I find it most relevant to talk about a subject like religious faith and secularism. Gandhi, a truly religious man, struggled throughout his life to make the people of this country understand the importance of togetherness among people of all religious faith, particularly Hindus and Muslims.

He said: My religion teaches me to love equally.1 His ideas of religious and cultural pluralism, interfaith communal harmony and non-violence are still relevant today with the ascendancy of religious fundamentalism around the world and within the country.

His spiritual bondings earned him friends beyond religious boundaries. One of his closest friends was C.F. Andrews, a Christian who served Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan, the abode of universalism. In Gandhis words, It was not a friendship between an Englishman and an Indian. It was an unbreakable bond between two seekers and servants.2

Now, when we go through the lives of such personalities  like Tagore, Andrews and Gandhi, and many other intellectual figures of that period we find a strong element of spiritualism in their religious understanding. Gandhi was very close to Tagore. Though they differed in their ideas on nationalism as Tagore was more of an internationalist and opposed to narrow sectarian nationalism, but they were very intimate to each other. Both were spiritual, and free from religious chauvinism. Tagores perception of Godliness in nature led him to a higher level of connection with the Almighty.

It wont be out of place to make a distinction between religion and spirituality. Without having interest in religion, ritual and scriptures, one can still attain spiritual experiences. Peter Heehs, an American historian, in his book, Spirituality without God, deals with this theme. He argues that most of the religious people think about atheism as non-belief in God or an aggressive denial of God. But there are also non-dogmatic atheists who simply do not believe in Him and Her, yet gets spiritual vibes, good and positive by simply sitting, or walking on the seashore, or hills, or listening to a particular kind of music. This experience is a deeper one which ignites an enlightenment. For example, yoga and Tai Chi Kuan help in mental growth without being ritualistic, superstitious and dogmatic.

One needs to understand the moral and ethical aspect of religion which has a sublime character. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, though a born Hindu, embraced Buddhism at a later stage of his life, and said: Real religion lives in the heart of man, not in the Shastras. He also said: Man and morality must be the centre of religion. If not, religion is a cruel superstition.3

Gandhi was very similar to Ambedkar in his observation when he wrote: Religion was not an intellectual exercise but a heart grasp.4

We had a tradition of Bhakti and Sufi which were independent of orthodox scriptures. How-ever in course of time it was overshadowed by ritualistic aspects of religion. India, being a Hindu majority country, the ills of that religion were naturally to have a cascading effect on our society at large.

Hinduism, with over-emphasis on ritualism and scripture and departure from the mystic components of Bhakti has slowly given a huge space to an aggressive, arrogant, dogmatic, and violent form of Hinduism which for many is not true Hinduism, and which is detrimental to our composite culture of multi-religious assimilation, and particularly blending of Hindu and Muslim religious identities.

Here Id like to quote from the famous Chicago address by Swami Vivekanand in September 11, 1893 on the platform of Parliament of Religion. He said: I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.

The element of spirituality receded from religion with overemphasis on performance of rituals mechanically and scriptures without any understanding.

I need to recall the words of Tagore. Disturbed at the stream of political events, he wrote in 1931: In Hindu society, rituals have taken the name of religion. For this reason, a difference in rituals creates a deep chasm among people... the mental attitude that attaches greater significance to superficial rituals is bound to have human understanding that is confined or limited.. This dearth is apparent in every discussion, even in the national conferences and it becomes evident that the invisible barrier that will carry around us is based on superstition. It is subtle, therefore difficult to overcome. Even if we deny it in public, it remains in our subconscious without us being aware of it. Religion has not been able to bring us together. Instead it has build a thousand walls and reinforced them by calling them per-historic truths... Our main identity remains either as a Hindu or a Muslim.5

Religion has lost its essence of ethical and moral value and has beceme a bedrock of blind faith, superstition, irrationalism, bigotry and hate.

Gandhis political journey started from South Africa from 1893 onwards, with his legal work with the Indian indentured labourers who lived virtually as slaves. At the height of repression, Gandhi was waiting for an interview with the Minister of Interior, General Smuts. At that juncture,Gokhale had asked C.F. Andrews to go to South Africa to assist Gandhi in his talks with Smuts.

Gandhi later wrote about Andrews dedication: Ive known him setting out for South Africa at a moments notice at the late Gokhales behest. This is true and silent Tapascharya.6 In fact Gokhale had a great influence on Gandhi and Andrews. In a letter to Gandhi on April 5, 1914, Andrews wrote about how Gokhale convinced him to assist Gandhi. We want you men of religion within the political movement to keep it wholesome and sweet.7

Gokhales idea was to absorb the political into religion so that there could be no separation between the two. Gandhi also echoed the same voice at a speech in Bangalore on May 8, 1915. Mr Gokhale taught me to spiritualise the political life of the country and political institu-tions of the country. He inspired my life and is still inspiring [it]. In that, I wish to purify myself, and spiritualise myself, I have dedicated myself to that ideal.

In one word, those leaders wanted to spiritualise the political life of the country with ethical norms of love, acceptance, friendship, largeness of heart, and not religionise with a dogmatic, narrow and confined mind. That has been the perspective of my first part of the presentation  to differentiate between spirituality and religiosity, between true religion and fake religion, between spiritualisation of political life and interplay of religion and politics.

II

Now I come to my second part: How interplay of religion and politics by certain political forces destroyed the efforts of such spiritual persons like Gandhi. Religion or religious identities started playing a decisive role in various nationalist movements in the colonial period. The symptoms of such religious revivalism could be traced to the earlier period of our nationalist struggle when Tilak in Maharashtra launched Ganesh Utsav to bring the common people into the orbit of anti-colonial movement. Resolutions on cow protection were placed on Congress sessions.

When Gandhi launched the nationwide Khilafat Non-Cooperation movement in 1920, leaders like Jinnah opposed it as he was not in favour of bringing religious issues like Khilafat into the political arena. Jinnah never took any real interest in any pan-Islamic programme, and felt that it might imperil the Hindu-Muslim entente.8

Pan-Islamism, an ideology that sought to consolidate Muslims across the world against western imperialism did not become a living force in India until 1911, when a war broke out between Italy and Turkey. Britain formed a secret alliance with Italy. This led to the alienation of the Indian Muslims from the British. They felt that British imperialism was bent on destroying their Islamic culture.9

The alarm Islam in danger was imbued with fanatical hatred against Christianity and British colonialists, not directed against the Hindus.

Gandhis South African experiences of non-violent satyagraha, and working for the rights of the Indians, mostly Muslims, made him realise that Hindu-Muslim unity was imperative and indispensable for achieving Indian freedom from colonial rule. The anti-British component of Pan-Islamic Khilafat movement created an opportune moment for Gandhi, a political space for launching a countrywide national struggle against the British. Thus, in 1919-20, under the leadership of Gandhi, Congress launched the Non-Cooperation Movement by raising the Jallianwala and Khilafat issues together. Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali became Gandhis close allies during the movement. A devout practicing Hindu, he had no problem to embrace his Muslim friends, as he did in South Africa.

Though Jinnah, then a moderate, and a few extremist Muslims and extremist Hindus, for different reasons, were not comfortable with Gandhis idea of bringing the Khilafat issue into our national struggle.

Gandhi had a vision of India, akin to his secular precept. On October 6, 1920, he wrote in Young India: Swaraj for India is an impossible dream without a union of all Hindus and Muslims of India.

His vision of Swaraj India was indeed secular. His entire political philosophy was secular in the sense that he did not believe in state religion, even if the whole community had one religion.10 It is important to remember what Gandhi had observed: The Hindus and Mohammedans, the Parsis and the Christians who have made India their country are fellow countrymen, and they have to live in unity, if only for their own interest. In no part of the world, there are one nationality, one religion, synonymous terms. Nor has it been so in India.11

Ramchandra Guha, in his seminal work on Gandhi, has rightly mentioned: For Gandhi, Muslims and Christians were as much part of the nation-in-the-making as Hindus. Seeing them as foreigners, or susceptible to foreign influences was so to say foreign to his way of thinking.12

Inter-faith harmony was the essence of Gandhis secularism. Since the period of Non-Cooperation Movement, Gandhis conflict ensued within Congress as well as outside Congress with the political parties based on religious identities. On the one hand, we witnessed a large number of Muslims attending Congress sessions, but on the other hand, Hindu Mahasabha members, though members of the Congress stood indifferent or distant from the 1920 movement. Gandhi was disturbed to find many Hindus filling in the vacancies created as a result of resignation of the Muslims from government posts during the Non-Cooperation Movement. In a pointed reference to them, Gandhi wrote in 1920: At the moment, I wish to say a few words to the Hindus alone... any Hindu taking up a job given up by a Muslim will have acted as an enemy of the latter, and non-cooperation will become if not impossible, extremely difficult.13

Hindu Mahasabha did not consider the British as its No. 1 enemy, rather it perceived the British rule providing a protection to the Hindus. Gandhi understood this attitude and he minced no words to admonish them at the Calcutta Congress of 1920. He said: Many Hindus believe that British rule serves at any rate to protect Hinduism and, therefore, whatever other harms it may do, the protection of Hinduism is a sufficient compensation. I can think of no more humiliating idea which can occur to a Hindu.14 That was the beginning of a long conflict between secular ethos of Gandhi and the dogmatic forces opposed to him.

He was attacked from both sides, first by the Hindu supremacists, and then by some of his own Muslim partners from 1930s onwards. In this conflict between Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism, the inevitable victim was the concept of secularism. A political scientist, D.E. Smith, rightly apprehended that a nationalism imbued with a spirit of militant religious revivalism is not likely to lead to a secular independent state.15

It is difficult to trace the entire process of the conflict in such a short space. Still, certain points need to be highlighted.

Hindu Mahasabha leaders were very critical of Gandhi as is evident from their leader, B.S. Moonjes observation. He wrote: Since the rise of Mahatma, to dictatorship in the Congress, the Congress has developed a tendency that may aptly be called a pro-Muslim mentality at the cost of Hindu interests with the ultimate object of placating and winning them over to merge in the Congress.16 Similarly, Bhai Paramanand wrote: I am convinced that if the Congress had not thought of Hindu-Muslim unity, if Gandhi had not made his ill-fated pact with the Ali brothers, it could have made a significant contribution to the achievement of freedom.17 They considered Hindu Muslim fraternization as superficial.

With Gandhis emergence in Congress, Hindu Mahasabha (RSS not yet born) failed to play any decisive role as a lobby within the Congress. As historian Christophe Jaffrelot puts it: Gandhi did not leave the Hindu Sabhaites much room for manoeuvre in Congress, and more generally, in the Indian public sphere.18 But outside the Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha was growing. The attendance at the Mahasabha session was far more than that of the Congress. In spite of the fact that the Congress session was being presided by Gandhi himself.

The ideological basis of Hindu Mahasabha was strengthened by its leader, V.D. Savarkar, when he spelt out the Theory of Hindu Nation in 1920 in his book, The Hindutva: who is a Hindu?, which was published in 1923 in Nagpur. He talked about Hindus as a nation, and also about foreign invaders. He considered Muslims as invaders and failed to understand migration as a part of historical process through the world. And failed to understand the cultural assimi-lation with the intermingling of races and the beauty of unity in diversity and cosmopolitan culture. His vision of India was different from that of Gandhi. He was convinced as D Keer, the official biographer of Savarkar has mentioned that for Savarkar, the Muslims were the real enemies, not the British.19

Let me quote from Savarkars Hindutva: Who is a Hindu: In this prolong furious conflicts, our people became intensely conscious of ourselves as Hindus and were welded into a nation to an extent unknown in our history. It must not be forgotten that we have all along referred to the progress of Hindu movement as a whole, and not to that of any particular creed or religious section thereof  of Hindutva and not Hinduism only Sanatanists, Satnamists, Sikhs, Aryas, Anarays, Marathas, Madrasis, Brahmins, Panchamasall suffered as Hindus and triumphed as Hindus.20 With the foundation of RSS in 1925, the concept of Hindu Nation surfaced repeatedly in the speeches of leaders of both Hindu Mahasabha and RSS.

The concept of Hindu Nation began to overshadow the concept of Indian nationalism.

The overwhelming presence of Hindu Maha-sabha in the Congress and in their opposition to contentious issues like electoral representation alienated the Muslims within the Congress. The Nehru Report of 1928 and subsequent rejection of Jinnahs 14 points distanced the Muslims to the extent of uniting the two wings of the Muslim Leaguethe extreme group of Mahammad Shafi and the moderate group of the League, represented by Jinnah. Even the Ali brothers moved away as they felt that Congress had become a tool of the Hindu Mahasabha.

Where to place Gandhi in this conflict between the two forces?

Gandhi, a helpless person forever, was trying to reach a point of reconciliation as he even admitted that it would be very difficult to obtain Swaraj in 1930, if there was no unity.21 But Hindu Mahasabha leaders were perturbed by Gandhis attitude of conciliation. B.S. Moonje wrote to Malaviya on July 31, 1928: You should tell Mahatmaji that if he were to yield to those points (Jinahs 14 points), you would be painfully obliged to lead the opposition on behalf of the Hindus even against him, Gandhi, Jinnah and Motilal combined.22 The economic dependence of the Congress on the financiers who were at the same time financing the Hindu nationalist movements possibly impacted the shifting of the political ideology of the Congress in the last 1920s.

The cleavage between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League widened. Their vision of Swaraj of India was different. BS Moonje, in his presidential address, at the April 1927 annual session of Hindu Mahasabha in Patna, even before the Nehru Report of 1928, said: I can only imagine that Swaraj where the Hindu in his forefathers land of Hindustan shall be prospering and supreme.23

On the other hand, at the All Parties Conference in April 1930, Mohammad Ali, close associate of Gandhi during the Khilafat Non-Cooperation Movement, said; We refuse to join Gandhi because his movement (civil disobe-dience movement) is not a movement for complete independence of India, but for making 70 millions of Indian Musalmans dependent on the Hindu Mahasabha.24

Nobody listened to Gandhis voice. On the contrary, we heard Savarkar speaking at the 19 session of the Hindu Mahasabha in Ahmedabad in 1937, explaining his two nation theory at length. He said: Let us bravely face unpleasant facts as they are. India cannot be assumed today to be a unitarian and homogenous nation. But, on the contrary, there are two nations in the main  the Hindus and Muslims in India.25

Three years later, resolution on Pakistan was passed by the Muslim League.

Though Hindu Mahasabha did not represent the entire Hindu population of India, neither did Muslim League represent the entire Muslim population, but their respective position of the Two Nation Theory proved to be a great challenge for the Congress, particularly for Gandhi. Religious sentiments and identities were whipped up by the Two Nation Theory pro-pounded by political leaders of both Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League. Muslim League leaders became the spokesperson of Indian Muslims though it actually represented upper middle classes having no contact with the Muslim masses.26 They spread the fear of Hindu Raj once India gets freedom. This synchronized with the increasing strength of the Hindu nationalists as number of RSS volunteers already rose upto one lakh by 1940.27

III

In the midst of fear psychosis and distrust between the two communities, the discourse on transfer of power began. Gandhis secular vision of India with no state religion made him carrying on his single agenda of bringing these two conflicting forces together. Gandhi met Jinnah several times in 1944, in spite of strong protest from Hindu extremists. In fact, there had been five attempts at his life since June 1934 as he was considered not only soft towards the Muslims, but destroyer of Hindu religion by Sanatanists, who opposed the Temple Entry Bill.28

After the Poona Pact on September 24, 1932, Ambedkar said on Spetember 25- I think in all these negotiations a large part of credit must be attributed to Mahatma Gandhi himself. I must confess that I was surprised, immendsely surprised when I met him that there was so much in common between him and me.29

Last years of Gandhis life reflect his vision of a united secular India. He moved around from Noakhali to Kashmir, to different corners with one mission. Throughout his life, he undertook several fasts as a penance to communal violence, striving to become the best cement between the two communities. He said as early as September 1924 my longing is to be to cement the two with my blood, if necessary. Before I can do so, I must prove to the Mussalmans that I love them as well as I love the Hindus.30 He succeeded on many occasions, but the root cause of such communal violence remained, public being fed by the distorted narratives of our history.

When Gandhi, as a crusader of non-violence was asked in 1946 to show the way of quelling riots, he answered in a pretty long speech whose last lines were: Several lives like mine will have to be given if the terrible violence that has spread all over is to be stopped and non-violence reign supreme in its place.31

India was moving towards Partition which was no doubt a defeat for secular nationalism and a victory for religious nationalism of both the Hindu and Muslim varieties. Gandhi was firm against the Mountbatten plan. When he was asked by Mountbatten to put his proposal in writing, Gandhi sent his one-page draft note. It suggested that Jinnah should be asked to form the government with cabinet ministers of his choice. If Jinnah rejects this offer, the same offer be made to Congress. Gandhis original proposal was rejected by the entire Congress Working Committee except Ghaffar Khan. Gandhi sent the news back to Mount-batten.32 Gandhis main intention was to stop the Partition.

A disheartened Gandhi was nowhere in Delhi when the actual transfer of power took place on August 15, 1947. Even the Congress was totally against the Partition till February 1947. However within four months, the political scenario changed and most of the Congress leaders felt that give-in to the Muslim League might bring an end to the prevailing, uncontrollable, communal frenzy, and thereby, restore peace. Finally, when the AICC passed the resolution on Partition, many of the Congress leaders considered it to be a temporary one. Abul Kalam Azad said: The division is only of the map of the country and not in the hearts of the people and Im sure that it is going to be a short-lived Partition.33

Azads anticipation proved wrong. It only reflects the unhappiness of the Congress to this Partition Plan. The tense situation forced the leaders to accept the Mountbatten Plan.

Gandhi felt helpless to convince everybody who seemed to be impatient for independence. A few days before the AICC resolution on Partition, Gandhi said in a monologue: Should the evil I apprehend overtake India and her independence be imperilled. Let posterity know what agony this old soul went through thinking of it. Let it not be said Gandhi was party to Indias vivisection. But everybody is today impatient for independence. Therefore, there is no other help.34 Gandhi lived with a moral loneliness throughout his leadership... he increasingly felt helpless about the long standing problem of Hindu-Muslim unity.35

Gandhi could not share the countrys jubilation. He stayed in Beleghata in Kolkata on the day of independence which turned into a place of pilgrimage. There one witnessed many a moving scenes of Hindu-Muslim fraternization. Gandhi, being a spiritual person, observed the day by fasting and spinning, without holding any special function. When a government official went to him for a message, he said: I have run dry. When it was conveyed to him that if he declined to give any message, it might not be a good thing and might be misconstrued, Gandhi replied: There is no message at all. If it is bad, let it be so.36

IV

Gandhis cherished dream of Hindu-Muslim unity and togetherness and his life-long mission of a united India shattered with Partition. But that was not the end of the story. In order to understand the religious faith and secular ethos of Gandhi, his last days were most significant. He came to Delhi from Calcutta on September 9, 1947 in a communally charged scenario, where angry Hindu refugees were up in arms against local Muslims. A few days letter, on 15 September, he said in his prayer meeting: Let the Hindus and Sikhs take the right step and invite the Muslims who have been driven out of their home to return. If they can take this courageous step, worthy from every point of view, they immediately reduce refugee problem to its simplest terms.37 He also said: The transfer of millions of Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims is unthinkable. It is wrong. The wrong of Pakistan will be undone by the right of resolute non-transference of population. I hope I shall have the courage to stand by it, even though mine may be the solitary voice in its favour.38 (ibid)

All his speeches, during his last prayer meetings, were to bring sanity to the nation. Being a truly devout Hindu and Rambhakt, his religious faith never debarred him from being secular in his political philosophy. His Hinduism never made him anti-Muslim or anti-Christian. His life was an example of a person who had no contradiction between religious faith and secularism.

Spiritualisation of politics, as envisaged by Gokhale, was absolutely different from interplay of religion and politics which led to Partition of India. Gandhi stood for spiritualization of politics with the idea of unity, love, fraternity, togetherness and a bond among all human beings.

Gandhis vision of communal harmony was detested by many who wanted a Hindu Rashtra and send all the Muslims to Pakistan. How the speeches of RSS leaders and other Hindu extremists poisoned the minds of Hindu youth is clear from a letter of Sardar Patel who in anguish after Gandhis assassination wrote to MS Golwalkar on 11 September 1948: All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organise for their protection. As final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the invaluable life of Gandhiji.39 Patel was angry when those forces who killed Gandhi distributed sweets after his death.40

Why was Sardar Patel angry with the extremists? To understand that, let us go back to December 1947 when in the first week M.S. Golwalkar remarked referring to the Muslims: No power on Earth could keep Muslims in Hindustan. They shall have to quit this country. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to keep the Muslims in India so that the Congress may profit by their votes at the time of elections. But, by that time, not a single Muslim will be left in India... Mahatma Gandhi could not mislead them any longer. We have the means whereby such men can be immediately silenced. But it is our tradition not to be inimical to Hindus. If we are compelled, we will have to resort to that course too.41

When the Hindu extremists were spreading such poison to enthuse the Hindus, Gandhi was firm in his mission of Hindu-Muslim togetherness and a secular India. Here we need to remember that at a time when Kashmir was attacked by Pakistani tribals, Gandhi was busy in Delhi taking up the issue of financial quota to be given to newly born Pakistan. The Nehru government had been pressurised by the Hindu public opinion, influenced by Hindu Mahasbaha/RSS propaganda, to refuse the due share of financial quota to Pakistan. Gandhi took it up as a moral issue and launched his fast unto death on it.He began his fast on 13 January noon in 1948. A few lines from the long speech he delivered reflects his determination and firmness on the matter: Death for me will be a glorious deliverance rather than that I should be helpless witness of the destruction of India, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. That destruction is certain if Pakistan ensures no equality of status and security of life and property for all professing the various faiths of the world. And if India copies Pakistan.42

Gandhi suggested to Sardar Patel, the then Home Minister, that the question of Pakistans share of the cash assets, which had been withheld by the Union Government should be given priority. Gandhi himself wanted to go to Pakistan. The entire Cabinet met Gandhi on his bed to consider the issue while he was on fast. Hindu extremists regarded this act of Gandhi as the most glaring evidence of appeasement of the Muslims.

Gandhis philosophy of life and idea of India was not confined to narrow religious pers-pective; he had a broader vision of not targeting anybody as enemy or any country as enemy. This was possible because he was truly a spiritual person and opposed to politicization of religion. Gandhi said: Religion is a personal matter which should have no place in politics.43

Gandhi had to give his life for secular ethos. He was considered pro-Muslim and an obstacle to the success of majoritarian ideology growing rampantly around that time. He became a martyr of Partition, being shot dead on January 30, 1948 not by any mad fanatic, but by an associate of a Hindu extremist ideology and planned conspiracy. His name was Nathuram Godse, who never regretted his action. He said: I am not at all sorry what Ive done.44 The narrative of Indian history and civilization, the narrative of Partition and Nationalism, pro-pounded by the Hindu extremists failed them to understand Gandhi, his religious and political philosophy.

Gandhis speech, during his last fast on 15 January 1948, clarified his position and vision which has a lot of relevance even today. He said: My fast, as Ive stated in plain language, is undoubtedly on behalf of the Muslim community in the Indian union and, therefore, it is necessarily against the Hindus and Sikhs of the Union and the Muslims of Pakistan. It is also on behalf of the minorities in Pakistan as in the case of Muslim minority inthe Union.45 He felt that his fast would give the right guidance to the newly made two dominions...46

V

Gandhi could not witness the making of the Constitution. But all his followers understood his vision of India. They refused to follow the theocratic pattern of Pakistan. They all knew the message of Gandhi, that India is not the land of the Hindus alone, rather for those who had come and made this country as their own. Sardar Patel, one of his close followers, has said on October 7, 1950: Ours is a secular state. We cannot fashion our policies or shape our conduct in the way that Pakistan does it. We must see that our secular ideals are actually realized in practice. Here every Muslim should feel that he is an Indian citizen and has equal rights as an Indian. If we cannot make him feel like this, we shall not be worthy of our heritage and our country.47

In fact, Gandhis words of caution to the Congress organisation are still relevant. He said: ... the Congress can never become an organization of the Hindus. Those who seek to make it such will be doing great harm to India and Hinduism ... people professing different religions have mingled to form the Indian nation and they are all citizens of India and no section has the right to oppress another section.48

Secularism does not mean absence of religion, neither appeasement of minorities. It means neutrality to religion so far as the state is concerned. In the words of Ambedkar, the state shall not recognise any religion as state religion and guarantee to every citizen the liberty to conscience. Gandhis life, philosophy, doctrine of love, harmony and communal unity prepared the ground for the foundation of a secular state.

For Tagore, Gandhi was a Mahatma, a great soul. For Subhash Chandra Bose and many others, he was the Father of the Nation. For a scientist like Einstein, Gandhi was the supreme moral compass.

It was Gandhi who made us the post-independence generation, understand through his life, sacrifice and martyrdom, the meaning of true religion, spirituality and ethos of secular nationalism, and how religious faith and secularism are not contrary to each other. He made us understand the difference between true religion and fake religion, between secular nationalism and religious nationalism. To celebrate his life on his 150th birth anniversary, we need not make Gandhi a symbolic icon. Rather we need to walk in his footsteps.

Endnotes

1. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 25, p. 202.

2. Gandhi wrote this after Andrews death in 1940. See Uma Das Gupta edited Friendships of Largeness and FreedomAndrews Tagore and Gandhi: An epistolary account 1912-1940. OUP, Delhi; 2018 p. xxxi.

3. Balchandra Mungekar edited The Essential Ambedkar; Rupa, New Delhi, 2017, p. 352.

4. Uma Das Gupta, op. cit., p. xxxvi.

5. Rabindra Rachanabali, centenary publication Volume 13, pp. 363-364, translation is mine.

6. Uma Das Gupta: op. cit., p. xxx.

7. Uma Das Gupta, op. cit., p. xxxvi.

8. Home/Political/Deposit: February 1918, file no 29 and kw. NAI. For details see Gargi Chakravartty: Gandhi: A Challenge to Communalism, Eastern Book Centre, New Delhi, 1987, p. 54.

9. Tara Chand: History of the Freedom Movement in India,Vol I, 1967, p. 365.

10. N.K. Bose: Selections from Gandhi, Ahmedabad 1968, p. 287.

11. CWMG, Volume 10, p. 29.

12. Ramchandra Guha, Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World 1914-1948, Penguin India 2018, p. 361.

13. Navjivan, June 27, 1920, CWMG, Vol 17, pp. 514-515.

14. Navjivan, August 29, 1920, CWMG, Vol 18, p 203.

15. D.E. Smith, India as a Secular State, in Rajeev Bhargava edited Secularism and his Critics, OUP Delhi, 1998, p. 190.

16. Indra Prakash, A Review of the History and Work of the Hindu Mahasabha and Sangathan Movement, Delhi, Second edition, 1952; preface by Dr B.S. Moonje, p. vi.

17. ibid, Forword by Parmanand, xxxxiii.

18. Christophe Jaffrelot: Hindu Nationalism: A Reader; Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2009. p. 14.

19. D Keer; Veer Savarkar: Popular Prakashan 1988, p. 161)

20. Quoted in Christophe Jafferlot: op. cit, p. 93.

21. Mahatma Gandhi: source material from the History of the Freedom Movement, Vol 3; Part II, p 416).

22. Jaykar Papers, 437, NAI.

23. Indra Prakash, op. cit, p. 102.

24. quoted in R Coupland, The Indian Problem: 1833-1955; Bombay 1942, p. 111.

25. SamagraSavarkarWangmaya, collected works of Savarkar, Hindu Mahasabha, 1963 p. 296.

26. Ram Gopal, The Indian Muslim: A Political History: 1858-1947; Bombay 1964, p. 251.

27. Tapan Bose et. al, Khaki Shorts, Saffron Flags, Orient Longman, New Delhi 1993; p. 24.

28. Govt. Record, Ramachandra Guha, op. cit, p. 483.

29. Guha, op. cit, p. 439.

30. See WMG Volume 25, p. 202.

31. D.G Tendulkar; Mahatma Volume 7; p. 171.

32. see CWMG: Lixxxvii; pp. 254-255, quoted in Ramchandra Guha op-cit pg. 827.

33. quoted in Dilip Hiro, The Longest August; the Unflinching Rivalry between India and Pakistan, Nation Books, New York, 2015, p. 97.

34. D.G Tendulkar; Mahatma Vol 7, p. 415.

35. Introduction by Uma Das Gupta, op. cit, p. xxxv.)

36. D.G Tendulkar, op. cit, Vol 8, p. 80.

37. ibid, page 120.

38. See Neerja Singh, Patel, Prasad and Rajaji: Myth of the Indian Right; Sage Publication, New Delhi, 2015, p. 82.

40. ibid.

41. from Delhi Police Records, quoted in Ramchandra Guha, op. cit, p. 864.

42. D.G. Tendulkar. op. cit.,p. 247-248.

43. CWMG; Vol. 76; 1972; p. 402.

44. Ramchandra Guha, op. cit, pp. 882-883.

45. D.G Tendulkar op. cit, Vol 8, p. 259.

46. ibid.

47. Sardar Patels speech at Hyderabad; Neerja Singh op. cit, p. 78.

48. CWMG; lxxxviii, p. 452-453, quoted in Ramchandra Guha, op. cit., pp. 834-835.

The author is a former Associate Professor in History, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi.
That history, Burton mentioned in his remarks, is showing strains, with the troubling, recent trend of anti-Semitic attacks, including those carried out recently in New York by young black men who belong to an extremist wing of the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Sadly, the lesson of never forget that is so often repeated by Jews to remind every new generation of what can and did happen in a democracy, is needed now as much as ever, said Bud Rosenbaum, chairman of the museums executive committee. A larger, modernized museum will serve as an education point for thousands of future schoolchildren, like the ones Burtons father used to bring regularly in the early days of the 25-year-old facility.

There will come a time when the people who lived through the Holocaust, who suffered incomprehensible losses, will be gone, having taken in their last breath on earth.

But that day hasnt come yet.

So 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, six Holocaust survivors, including two who spent time at concentration camps, lit candles here to remember the history that defines so much of their existence.
WASHINGTON -- Oleh Sentsov, the Ukrainian film director who was held in Russian prisons for more than five years, will be meeting with officials on Capitol Hill this week as he seeks to persuade the United States to take a tougher stance on human rights abuses in Crimea and the militarization of the peninsula.



Sentsov, who was freed by Russia in a prisoner swap with Ukraine in September, will meet with State Department officials, members of Congress and attend a meeting of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, he said at a briefing at the Ukraine Embassy in Washington on January 27. He will be joined by other Ukrainian human rights activists.



The 43-year old said Russia continues to hold hundreds of political prisoners in occupied Crimea and eastern Ukraine as well as in Russia itself, with many kept in inhumane conditions and subject to torture. He is hoping U.S. pressure will help get them released.



They are not receiving normal food, they are not receiving medical attention. It is really an underground pit, he said of the prisoners.



Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following the ouster of Ukraines pro-Kremlin president, Viktor Yanukovych, and backed separatists in the Ukraines eastern provinces, setting off a war that has killed more than 13,000 since April of that year.



Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was swept to power last year amid promises to end the war, won the release of 35 Ukrainian political prisoners including Sentsov in September and then another 76 from separatist-controlled regions in December as part of a swap with Russia.



Zelenskiy has promised a third swap to free political prisoners held in Crimea, though no time frame has been given.



Russia still holds 96 political prisoners, most of whom were detained in Crimea, including 69 Crimean Tatars, according to Ukrainian NGOs. Anywhere from 101 to 184 are still held in the separatist-controlled regions, according to NGOs and the Ukrainian government.



The freeing of Crimean prisoners may prove more difficult because those individuals are now considered Russian citizens following the annexation, said Andriy Kurkov, president of Pen Ukraine Center, an NGO that seeks to protect freedom of speech.



Moreover, the prisoners held in Crimea are not well known, making it difficult to round up international support, he said.



There are no well highlighted cases of Crimean Tatars. They dont have celebrity prisoners among them. If some cases could be highlighted in the [United] States and become almost symbolic representatives of this group, it would be much easier for the Ukrainian government to talk about possible exchange of Crimean Tatars, he said.



Tamila Tasheva, the coordinator of CrimeaSOS organization, said the situation in Crimea has fallen off the international radar screen as the world focuses on the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to settle the fighting in eastern Ukraine.



We dont have a communications platform for Crimea. We dont have many countries that support Crimean projects such as supporting local NGOs, she said. It is a problem.



Sentsov, a 2018 Sakharov prize laureate, is now trying to use his international recognition to help draw more U.S. and global attention to the situation in Crimea.



Russia agreed to release prisoners last year amid international pressure, the Ukrainian activists said.



The filmmaker and his fellow activists traveled to the UN headquarters in New York on January 24 to discuss developments on the peninsula with diplomats from various countries.



Following his meetings in Washington, Sentsov will give a speech in Utah at the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States.



The United States can maintain that pressure on Russia to release the Crimean prisoners by imposing sanctions and using its global influence, said Voldoymyr Yelchenko, Ukraines new ambassador to the United States.



Most countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are quite indifferent to the Crimean issue and see it as a problem that Russia and Ukraine must solve on their own, Yelchenko said.



But we understand that without more sanctions and international pressure it will never be resolved, he said.



The activists will ask officials to impose sanctions on officials in Russia and Crimea responsible for human rights abuses on the peninsula and raise concerns about the growing Russian military presence on the island, the ambassador and activists said.



Crimea is gradually turning into a huge military base. What for? What is Russia preparing for, Yelchenko said.



They will also ask the State Department to nominate another envoy to Ukraine after Kurt Volker stepped down in September amid the House of Representatives' impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump, said Maria Tomak, co-founder of the Ukrainian NGO Media Initiative for Human Rights.



The activists trip to Washington comes just days after National Public Radio reported that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insinuated that Americans dont care about Ukraine.



Yelchenko said he wasnt going to rush to judge Pompeos statement.



Officially, we know quite well that Ukraine has very strong bipartisan support in Congress as well as strong support in the State Deparment, he said.



Yelchenko will meet with Pompeo later this week in Kyiv as he makes his first official visit to Ukraine since becoming the nations top diplomat in 2018.
The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday the plea of Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case, against the dismissal of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday the plea of Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case, against the dismissal of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind on 17 January.

The trial court has issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts  Mukesh,Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar  at 6 am on 1 February.

As the last-ditch attempt, Mukesh through his counsel on Tuesday sought an urgent hearing on his plea against dismissal of the mercy plea before the top court. "If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this," a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said while assuring Mukesh's lawyer that his plea would be given due weightage by the mentioning officer.

"Execution case will be given top priority," said the bench, which also comprised Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant.

Later in the day, the mentioning officer considered the urgency of Mukesh's plea and ordered its listing before a three-judge bench comprising Justices R Bhanunathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna at 12.30 pm tomorrow.

Mukesh had moved the mercy plea after the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence. The apex court had also rejected the curative petition of another death row convict Akshay (31).

The other two convicts, Pawan (25) and Vinay, are yet to file curative petitions before the Supreme Court.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of 16 December, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

Six people  Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Ram Singh and a juvenile  were named as accused. The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013. The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began.

The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years. He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20 years old.

Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013.

On Saturday, a Delhi court said that no further directions were required on a plea by the lawyer of the death row convicts alleging that prison authorities were not handing over certain documents required to file mercy and curative petitions, and disposed of the petition.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain said the convicts' lawyer can take pictures of the relevant documents, diary and paintings from the Tihar jail authorities. The court had noted that the jail authorities had already complied with the request made by the convicts by supplying the documents whatever was lying with them.
Bangkok, 27 January 2020  Already a fast expanding Asia-Pacific serviced apartments brand with two properties in two prime locations in Bangkok, Shama Serviced Apartments by ONYX Hospitality Group is doubling its neighbourhood presence in the Thai capital by adding Phrom Phong and Yen Akat to its portfolio in 2020.

The two new properties  Shama Sukhumvit 39 Bangkok and Shama Yen Akat Bangkok  will complement the existing Shama Sukhumvit Bangkok in Ploenchit and Shama Lakeview Asoke Bangkok.

Developed by Walton Asset Limited and managed by ONYX Hospitality Group, Shama Sukhumvit 39 Bangkok in Phrom Phong is scheduled to open in February 2020 as an extended stay residence with 52 apartments in five different one-bedroom and two-bedroom layouts. The property features a pool and terrace, gym and kids playroom.

Situated in the heart of what has affectionately been referred to as Bangkoks largest Japanese neighbourhood, Shama Sukhumvit 39 Bangkok is a short stroll from the EM District comprising the Emporium and Emquartier shopping malls, Samitivej Hospital, numerous international schools and Soi Thonglor, best known for fine cuisine, buzzy bars and hip coffee shops.

Shama Yen Akat Bangkok, developed by SP Plus Property Company Ltd and managed by ONYX Hospitality Group, is scheduled to open in September 2020 with 136 units, welcoming both short stay as well as extended stay guests. The property will offer a restaurant, gym and a rooftop pool terrace with barbeque pit.

A prime residential enclave of lower Sathorn, Yen Akat has been widely referred to as one of the citys most liveable neighbourhoods with diverse eating options from street food and coffee bars to trendy cocktail lounges and award-winning restaurants. The property is located next to The Market Place Nanglinchee community mall and is a short stroll to the Central Rama 3 shopping complex.

Shama is a leading and award-winning provider of premium serviced apartments, with a portfolio of 11 properties in China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Upcoming Shama openings are anticipated in Johor, Malaysia and additional locations within mainland China.

Shama was named the Best Serviced Apartment Operator of Asia for the 7th time at the AHF Asia Hotel Awards 2019. It was also named the Best Serviced Apartment Operator at the Hong Kong Business High Flyers Awards 2018.

Based in Bangkok, ONYX Hospitality Group has a growing regional portfolio of 50 operating properties across three core brands in eight markets. The Group has a robust development pipeline of 25 new properties in markets such as China, Malaysia and Laos, and has set a target of having 99 hotels open by 2024 as part of its journey towards being the best medium-sized hospitality player in the region.
New Delhi, 27 Jan : With Delhi Assembly polls edging closer, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be reducing the gap with the ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) in terms of voter ratings. The IANS/C-Voter Delhi Tracker data on Monday showed that BJP has yet again improved its overall voter rating position by 2 per cent over the last one week.

According to the data for the week beginning January 27, the BJP has secured 31.2 per cent of voter approval as compared to 29.2 per cent on January 20.

Over the same period, AAP has dropped from 53.8 per cent to 50.6 per cent, showing 3.2 per cent decline in popularity.

The Congress continues to trail far behind even though it has improved its position by almost 2 per cent, from 3.4 per cent on January 20 to 5.3 per cent on Monday.

Monday's survey sample size comprised 2,322 Delhi voters.

Going further back to January 16, only 26.3 per cent of Delhi voters had favoured the BJP when queried as to who they would vote for in the Assembly elections, if polls were to be held on the same day. For the same day, 55.4 voters had swung towards the AAP.

The IANS/C-Voter Delhi Tracker survey projections on January 6, when the Election Commission had announced the schedule for Delhi Assembly elections, had given the AAP 53.3 per cent of votes and a seat tally of close to 59, while the BJP got 25.9 per cent of votes and just eight seats.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to the polls on February 8 and the results will be announced on February 12.

In the outgoing Assembly, the AAP had won 67 seats which came down to 62 after five of its legislators were disqualified. It lost one more seat in a bypoll after the seat was vacated by an AAP legislator, who won in the Punjab Assembly polls.

With barely two weeks remaining for D-Day, it remains to be seen if the BJP can bridge the gap with AAP, but the steady growth can definitely give the party an impetus to push forward towards a victory that has been eluding it for at least 22 years.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A Marine who shot and killed a fellow officer in his barracks in a row during a video game has been sentenced to six years in military prison.

Cpl. Spencer Daily, 21, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter at a court martial in South Carolina on January 6.

Daily admitted he had pointed his gun at Cpl. Tyler Wallingford while the pair were drinking alcohol and playing video games at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort last April.

The corporal, who said he had accidentally fired his weapon, was sentenced to 69 months of confinement, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Cpl. Spencer Daily (pictured left), 21, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the fatal shooting of Cpl. Tyler Wallingford (right) at a military barracks last April

Both men were aircraft ordinance technicians with the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, based in Beaufort, South Carolina (their base is pictured)

Daily had been the only suspect in the shooting since Cpl. Wallingford was fatally wounded on April 12 last year.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service said he was found guilty of 'willful discharge of a firearm under circumstances to endanger human life' as well as involuntary manslaughter.

'Daily claimed that while drinking alcohol and playing a video game with the victim, he pointed his gun and accidentally shot the victim,' a statement said.

Responding to the verdict, Cpl. Wallingford's aunt Amy Hansen said: 'RIP Tyler Wallingford. Love you and miss you soooo much!'.

At the time of his death she said: 'I still can't believe my nephew is gone. My family is absolutely devastated. Tyler was just an adventurous fun loving young man.

'His whole life was an adventure. He absolutely loved the outdoors and being pushed physically to another level.'

Friends and relatives paid tribute to Wallingford on social media as an 'amazing soul'. He was a volunteer fire fighter in his home town of Standish, Maine

Daily (pictured) had been the only suspect in the shooting since Cpl. Wallingford was fatally wounded on April 12 last year

Friends described Cpl. Wallingford as an 'amazing soul' who 'touched so many people's lives.'

'You were such a good man,' said one friend in a tribute on social media.

Both men were aircraft ordinance technicians with the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, based in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Wallingford was buried with full military honors in his home town of Standish, Maine, after his death last year.

The 21-year-old came from a family of firefighters, and worked with the Standish Fire Department while in high school.

Daily is originally from Youngstown, Ohio.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Equitable Food Initiative is proud to welcome Ana Luisa "Lulu" Rivera Collazo in the newly created position of workforce development specialist. Rivera Collazo will be responsible for training EFI leadership teams in workplace collaboration and problem-solving skills.

Ana Luisa "Lulu" Rivera Collazo Joins Equitable Food Initiative Staff

Rivera Collazo is no stranger to EFI and has been training on EFI farms since 2016 prior to joining the staff as a full-time facilitator in late 2019. Her full-time hire comes at a critical growth period for EFI as it begins to build capacity and expand to more farms across North, Central and South America. EFI facilitators have already trained leadership teams on 57 farms with workforces totaling more than 35,000 farmworkers.

Gretta Siebentritt, director of workforce development at EFI, remarked, "Lulu's dedication to her work and her exceptional skills in facilitation and building leadership teams is a valuable skill set so we're very glad to have her on board full time. Her experience is well-suited to help our growing number of farm operations looking to train and develop strong leadership teams."

Beyond her work at EFI, Rivera Collazo has farming in her DNA. Having been raised on a family farm on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, she quickly grew attached to nature and agriculture, which led her to earn a bachelor's degree in education with an emphasis in outdoor recreation. Her work experience is extensive, with roles as outdoor educator, facilitator and community organizer where she assisted groups in developing strong, healthy relationships and building thriving communities.

Today Rivera Collazo resides in San Diego with her partner and three children, though her heart will always be in her native Puerto Rico. She enjoys spending free time practicing art in various forms, including sculpture. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, Rivera Collazo dedicated time to climate resiliency and disaster relief in the Caribbean islands.

About EFI

Equitable Food Initiative is a nonprofit certification and skill-building organization that seeks to increase transparency in the food supply chain and improve the lives of farmworkers through a team-based approach to training and continuous improvement practices. EFI brings together growers, farmworkers, retailers and consumers to solve the most pressing issues facing the fresh produce industry. Its unparalleled approach sets standards for labor practices, food safety and pest management while engaging workers at all levels on the farm to produce Responsibly Grown, Farmworker Assured fruits and vegetables. For more information about Equitable Food Initiative, visit www.equitablefood.org.

View a list of EFI-certified farms at https://equitablefood.org/efi-certified-farms/.

Contact: LeAnne R. Ruzzamenti, (202) 524-0540, [email protected]

SOURCE Equitable Food Initiative

Related Links

http://www.equitablefood.org


Love Never Dies will embark on its first ever UK tour, it has been announced.

The show, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Ben Elton, additional lyrics by Charles Hart, orchestrations by David Cullen and Lloyd Webber, is based on The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth. It is a sequel to the hit Phantom of the Opera and revisits the characters later in their lives.

The touring production of the show first ran in Australia and is directed by Simon Phillips, with set and costume design by Gabriela Tylesova, choreography by Graeme Murphy and sound design by Mick Potter.

The piece will open at Curve in Leicester on Saturday 26 September 2020 where it will play until Saturday 10 October 2020. The show will then play Manchester Opera House from Wednesday 14 to Saturday 24 October 2020, with further venues and casting to be announced soon.

First debuting at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End in 2010, the show has been seen in countries across the world, and recently completed a US tour.
The deadline for officers to decide on their career path in the biggest organisational rejig in the central banks 85-year history ends on January 31.

The immediate fallout could be its disruptive impact on the supervisory process for 2020 -- and beyond -- given the manpower shortfall, even as more entities are set to come under closer central bank scrutiny.

The Reserve Bank of India is heading towards a human resource crisis, with a majority of its officers indicating to their reporting heads that they want to opt out of the unified regulatory and supervisory cadre, which came into effect from November 1, 2019.

The deadline for officers to decide on their career path in the biggest organisational rejig in the central banks 85-year history ends on January 31.

The immediate fallout could be its disruptive impact on the supervisory process for 2020 -- and beyond -- given the manpower shortfall, even as more entities are set to come under closer central bank scrutiny.

The turmoil is expected to figure at the RBIs central board meeting to be held on February 15 in New Delhi, in which the progress on the unified oversight cadre will be reviewed.

The move is being seen within the central bank cadre as the first step towards hiving off the oversight functions into a separate entity. This was recommended by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, chaired by B N Srikrishna, in March 2013, though no formal deliberation has been initiated by the finance ministry on the subject with the central bank, said a source.

The last hive-off from the central bank was in 1982, when the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development was set up -- the RBIs agricultural credit department, rural planning and credit cell, and Agricultural Refinance Corporation were moved into the newly formed entity.

Senior officials who handle extremely sensitive portfolios are set to formally escalate the matter to the RBIs central board ahead of its meeting on February 15.

The RBIs character is that of a full-services central bank, and we want to convey to them the path ahead has to be thought through carefully, said an official, hinting that a fine-tuning of the current plan might have to be worked upon.

Another person said, The groundwork to facilitate the setting up of a specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre -- mentioned in the RBIs Annual Report for 2018-19 -- could have been better.

This is because only a small committee headed by executive directors Rabi N Mishra and Malvika Sinha, and a couple of chief general managers was formed to go into it, said the person, adding, We would not have been in this position if this had been done.

When contacted, the RBIs spokesperson said, These are the central banks internal organisational matters.

The majority of officers between grades B and C, and in higher ranks who want to opt out make the core of the three key departments in regulation as well as in supervision governing banks, co-operative banks, and non-banking finance companies, which were folded into two specialised units -- the Department of Regulation (DoR) and Department of Supervision (DoS).

The current level of staffing in the DoS (post-merger) stands at 750 (comprising officers from grade B to F) and represents a shortfall of 150 in the sanctioned strength.

With the three-year lock-in for the specialised cadre ending in 2022, and a wider set of entities coming under the central banks scrutiny, the manpower shortfall is seen inching up to 400, and perhaps more. The staffing pattern in the regulatory department could not be ascertained, but the profile is akin to that in the supervisory department.

The big worry is also the lesser number of days being allocated for on-site inspection, pressure to make changes in the observations made in the inspection reports, and lack of recourse for the delayed or poor quality of information submitted to the central bank, when these are called for.

This, a third person, said, is to be seen in the context of the blowout in the shadow banking and urban cooperative banks, as also the increasing number of frauds, burgeoning bad loans, and poor corporate governance in a few banks.

Also of concern is the bulk of officers are wanting to opt out of the specialised cadre even when they can aspire for faster promotions, compared to their colleagues in the general cadre. The fear is many in the specialised cadre may find their career paths to becoming executive directors or deputy governors (for the slot from within RBI) blocked.

The central banks organisational restructuring folded its banking, NBFC, and co-operative banking regulation departments into the DoR. Similarly, banking, NBFC, and cooperative bank supervision departments came together to form the DoS. The freshly minted DoR has eight CGMs, led by Sourav Sinha, while the DoS has 10 CGMs, led by J K Dash.

The dilemma is that the central bank has travelled far down the road towards a unified cadre, and a College of Supervisors is to be set up in Chennai to augment and reinforce supervisory skills. It is creating an internal supervisory research and analysis wing to supplement and support these activities as well.

Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters.
Lucknow, Jan 27 : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Monday demanded immediate withdrawal of cases lodged by the Yogi Aditynath government against women protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

BSP president Mayawati tweeted: "Wrong cases filed against women and others protesting against CAA/NRC by the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government should be immediately withdrawn, and those who lost their lives during this time should also be extended proper help. This is the demand of BSP." In several districts of Uttar Pradesh, women have been staging protests against the CAA.

In Lucknow, at the historic Clock Tower, women have been on protest since January 17.

Station House Officer of Thakurganj Police Station, Pramod Mishra, had said on Saturday: "Around 100 women protesters have been booked for violating prohibitory orders at the Clock Tower here." He said that a case has been registered against 10 women and 100 unidentified women for violating Section 144 of CrPC, while protesting at Clock Tower. Apart from this, eight persons have been arrested,"
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting the Indians stranded in Wuhan province of China, the epicentre of coronavirus, saying the ground situation there has further worsened.

In a letter to Modi, he said since the situation in Wuhan was grave, it would be appropriate to operate a special flight to Wuhan or a nearby functional airport and airlift Indian nationals stranded there.

Vijayan also wanted the Prime Minister to give necessary instructions to the Indian Embassy in China to act pro-actively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including Keralites, stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

The Chief Minister offered assistance of medical professionals from state in case of evacuation of the Indians from Wuhan.

Chinese health authorities have announced the death toll due to coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chetana Belagere By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Every day, Shankar Reddy wakes up inside his small jail cell and looks ahead to another day as a university student.

He is serving a jail term for the last six years for killing a relative by stabbing him.

But thanks to the initiatives of the Prisons Department, which focus on correction rather than punishment, Reddy, like 78 other inmates in Karnatakas jails, is burning the midnight oil.

These jail inmates are pursuing courses like journalism, post-graduation in criminal justice, cooperative law and business, Master of Arts in English, etc.

"Karnataka State Prisons Department has been declared as the number one in the entire country and we aim to correct, reform and rehabilitate prisoners to enable them to become good human beings and socially responsible citizens in society. Improving education will reduce chances of repeat offences and those who seek to improve their education will be seen as role models for other inmates," said DGP (Prisons) NS Megharikh told TNIE.

Of the 78 convicts who are taking up the exams, more than 20 are women. Many of them are pursuing certificate courses in food and nutrition.

The higher education courses they have taken up are mostly part-time or distance learning programmes from open universities.

The names of the convicts have been withheld on request.

Studying while in jail gives hope

Most of the convicts who are pursuing higher education are serving jail terms in murder cases, some extremely gory murders. But they have the mind and heart to reform.

Take for example, a man who is serving sentence for killing his wife has taken up a post-graduate diploma course in criminal justice, explained Megharikh.

TNIE also spoke to a few murder accused who completed their graduation courses while serving jail time, and are now released or acquitted by higher courts.

Studying for a degree while inside "gives a sense of purpose and hope as well as offers a realistic pathway towards living a different life upon release," said Siddanna (name changed) who was only 18 years when he was jailed in 2006.

I was imprisoned after I was accused of killing my uncle in a group clash near our fields. I am now 40 years old. I have done BCom, MCom, MA in Journalism and MBA in Marketing while inside the prison. I am now working with KS International, a company which has presence all across state. I am thankful to S T Ramesh, the then DG, who motivated me to take up the courses after I expressed my interest in studying, said Rudresh.

Velu, convicted in a murder case, did his MBA in 2014-15 from University of Mysore, then did a doctorate in BASM Alternative Systems of Medicine (Indian board alternative medicine, Kolkota).

After his release in 2017, he pursued MD in Alternative Medicine and is now practising at his village in Tamil Nadu.

"I am forever a learner. Learning at every step is important. I was acquitted by the High Court but I spent a good eight years in prison. I wrote a letter to a guide from the university there and sought help. Several friends inside and outside helped me complete my course," said Velu.

The department provides them access to a full-fledged library, guest lectures by university teachers on request, printouts of study material and also a little help from prisoners themselves. The fee is also provided by the department itself.

There is also an educational centre with blackboard, desks, etc., for prisoners.

"Satish Gupta, a software engineer who was convicted, was a hero to all MBA aspirants. He helped many of us clear our entrance examinations as he would chalk out our daily study timetable and also explain how to answer the question papers. There are many like him," explained Rajkumar, another convict in a dowry death case.
T hree teenagers and two men have been jailed for life for stabbing a 19-year-old man to death in a north London hair salon.

Sheareem Cookhorn, 21, of Tottenham, who was also found guilty of possession of a firearm with intent will serve a minimum of 28 years in prison.

Tyrell Graham, 18, of Leyton, who pleaded guilty to possessing a knife at an earlier hearing, will serve a minimum of 25 years.

Both were found guilty on Friday, December 6 of killing Kamali and of the attempted murder of a second man, aged 20.

Tyrell Graham and Sheareem Cookhorn / Met Police

The lifting of reporting restrictions today means that the three teenagers involved can also be named as Jayden ONeil-Crichlow, Shane Lyons, and Ojay Hamilton, all aged 17.

They will all serve a minimum jail time of 21 years for Kamalis murder and for grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the second man.

The Old Bailey heard how Kamali, a father-of-one, was knifed as he sought refuge in a hairdressers as his attackers gave chase like a pack of animals.

His 20-year-old friend was stabbed eight times and shot in the buttock but survived.

Police in Wood Green after the attack / PA

On the night of the murder, the five defendants, along with two unknown individuals, set off on bicycles towards Wood Green at around 7pm to target rival gang members.

They were armed with at least five knives, including a machete and a small sword, a handgun and a shotgun.

As they approached a Vue cinema complex on Lordship Lane, the group spotted Kamali and his friend and immediately produced the knives and guns.

Cookhorn fired shots at the victims but they missed. One bullet was later recovered in a nearby shop, having travelled through an open door, narrowly missing customers and staff.

The victims group prepared for a fight but changed their minds and decided to flee when Cookhorn fired his handgun.

The defendants group soon caught up with the 20-year-old and surrounded him, stabbing him eight times and shooting him once in the buttock. However, their attack was interrupted when Kamali - who had managed to return to his parked car - drove towards the defendants in a failed attempt to frighten them off.

The defendants turned their attention to Kamali and began to strike the vehicles windows and windscreen with their weapons.

The 19-year-old tried to escape by reversing his car away but became stuck when he backed into several parked cars. He left his car and ran into a hairdressers across the road hoping to barricade himself inside.

But the defendants followed and Kamali suffered fatal stab injuries, dying in hospital hours later.

Murder Victim Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck with his one year old daughter

Describing the shocking incident , Detective Chief Inspector Simon Stancombe said: Having chased down Kamali and his friend like a pack of animals they set about them with a ferocity I have rarely seen. Not content with the damage they had caused that night they then boasted about their murderous exploits in amateurish drill videos.

In truth, there are no winners, no bragging rights or anything to be proud of. One man is dead, another has life-changing injuries, a family is utterly bereft and five young men will spend the best days of their lives behind bars.

I want to pay tribute to Kamalis family who throughout this trial have maintained their dignity in very difficult circumstances.
The three astronauts were sealed inside the spacecraft.

They were 10 minutes away from a simulated liftoff to practice what would happen less than a month later for real.

It was 6:31 p.m. on Jan. 27, 1967, when a fire started in Apollo 1 killing Air Force Col. Virgil I. Grissom, one of the seven original Mercury astronauts; Air Force Col. Edward White II, the first American to walk in space; and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Roger B. Chaffee, a rookie awaiting his first flight in space.

The capsule in which Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed when a flash fire broke out in the pure oxygen atmosphere on January 27, 1967, during a launch pad test at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. (NASA.gov)

The simulation, according to newspaper reports at the time, had started in the morning on Jan. 27 at Cape Kennedy. The astronauts entered the spacecraft at 1 p.m. The hatch was closed at 2:50 p.m.

At 6:31 p.m. one of the astronauts said, Fire in the spacecraft!

A split second later, fire that originated from inside the cabin penetrated to the outside of the spacecraft and surrounded the moonship in an instant.

Emergency crews had the Apollo doors opened in 5 minutes but were confronted with intense heat and dense smoke. The three astronauts apparently died instantly.

This 1967 file photo shows the charred interior of the Apollo I spacecraft after a fire which killed astronauts Ed White, Roger Chaffee, and Virgil Grissom on Jan. 27, 1967. A NASA official said the rehearsal had reached 10 minutes away from a simulated blastoff, one of many tests that was to precede the planned flight in the next month. (AP Photo)AP

The tragedy of Apollo 1 was the first fatalities for NASA. Three other pilots had died but all in off-duty accidents.

Grissom was the second American to fly in space. He was the pilot of the second Project Mercury flight on July 21, 1961, and the command pilot of Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965. The Gemini mission made three revolutions around the earth.

White was the first American astronaut to walk in space. He was the pilot of Gemini 4. His space "walk" was on June 3, 1965.

Chaffee was preparing for his first space flight.

After the Apollo disaster, NASA overhauled the Apollo spacecraft with a quick-release hatch, removing everything flammable from inside the module and no longer using pure oxygen.

According to a story by United Press International, The Patriot on Jan. 29, 1967, Worlds Mighty, Little People Mourn Deaths of Astronauts

The charred interior of the Apollo I spacecraft shown after the flash fire that killed astronauts Ed White, Roger Chaffee, and Virgil Grissom, January 27, 1967. (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A wave of shock and sorrow at the death of Americas first Apollo astronauts yesterday circled the globe their spaceships had conquered.

The irony that these men, whose goal was the moon, should die only 200 feet from the ground was hard to bear.

President Lyndon B. Johnson said, Three valiant young men have given their lives in the nations service, he said. We mourn this great loss and our hearts go out to their families.

Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, said, A tragic loss to the whole nation.

A horse drawn caisson bearing the body of astronaut Virgil Grissom rolls through nearby Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Jan. 31, 1967. Walking beside the flag-draped casket as honor pallbearers are astronauts, from left on this side of caisson, Marine Col. John Glenn, Air Force Col. Gordon Cooper, Navy Cmdr. John Young; from left on far side of casket, Donald Slayton, Navy Capt. Alan Sheperd and Navy Cmdr. Scott Carpenter. Grissom was killed in the Apollo 1 fire on launch pad on Jan. 27. (AP Photo)AP

Astronauts for the first Apollo Mission (L-R) Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee. (NASA.gov)

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All Hardin-Jefferson ISD schools will be closed Monday due to a potential threat, the district said early Monday in a statement.

From H-JISD:

"Late Sunday evening HJISD was made aware of a possible threat made on social media. We are working closely with local law enforcement. To ensure the safety of our students and staff, all campuses will be CLOSED, Monday, January 27th in order to give school officials and law enforcement more time to investigate. We realize that this last-minute notification is an inconvenience, but as a precautionary measure, and for the peace of mind of our families and community, we feel this is the best course of action. HJISD takes every rumor of a threat to our schools very seriously, and we will continue to do the best we can to keep our students and staff safe."

Evadale school district was also closed Monday as a result of a social media threat, officials confirm.

From Evadale ISD:

"Each day we at Evadale ISD are entrusted with the well being and safety of all students and staff members. School safety is our top priority and responsibility. We are well aware of the impact from violence that takes place on school grounds due to the numerous school tragedies across our country. We must take this time to review our own school safety procedures and plans to ensure that safety of our students and staff.

With that being said, Evadale ISD is in the process of investigating a threat that was made on social media late Sunday evening. This threat was brought to my attention and immediately prompted an investigation with the cooperation of staff members along with the Jasper County Sheriffs Office. The information in the post made to social media was false. Please know that school administration is working as quickly as possible to resolve the issue. The school will post updates to the district Facebook page as well as the district phone messaging system as they are available."
A homeless woman has died after she went to sleep outside an apartment garage in Oregon and was run over by a driver who did not see her lying in the driveway Friday morning, police said.

Tercell R. Stintson, 47, was conscious and talking when authorities arrived outside the apartment on 92nd Avenue in Portland, about 6:25am, according to a police report.

But when she was taken to a hospital for treatment, she took a turn for the worse and passed away, the Portland Police Bureau said.

A homeless woman has died after she went to sleep outside an apartment garage in Oregon and was run over by a driver who did not see her lying in the driveway Friday morning, police said. Pictured is the apartment building on 92nd Avenue

The driver had told police that his car had been backed up into the garage.

'When he came out to his car to go to work, he pulled forward out of the garage and felt a bump,' police said in the report.

A follow up investigation is planned by authorities, the Portland Police said

'He stopped but did not see what he had struck'.

'He continued pull out and felt another bump,' the report says. 'That's when he realized that he had run over someone. He immediately called 911 for help.'

The woman's injuries were not initially thought to be life threatening, police said, but the woman later died in hospital.

No charges were filed against the driver, who was not identified.

A follow up investigation is planned by authorities, police said.
A married couple convicted of the female genital mutilation (FGM) of their daughter in the first case of its kind in the nation's history have been jailed.

The couple both pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of carrying out an act of FGM on a then one-year-old girl at an address in Dublin on September 16, 2016.

The 37-year-old man and 27-year-old woman also pleaded not guilty to one count of child cruelty on the same day. They are both originally from an African nation but cannot be named to protect the identity of the child.

On the eighth day of the trial, the jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on all counts after almost three hours of deliberations.

Passing sentence today, Judge Elma Sheahan sentenced the male accused to five and a half years imprisonment.

Judge Shehan sentenced the female accused to four years and nine months imprisonment.

At an earlier sentencing hearing, Detective Inspector Dany Kelly told Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, that on the date in question, the accused man attended at a hospital with his daughter who was bleeding from her perineal region.

Det Insp Kelly said the accused man gave an explanation that the child had sustained the injury by falling backwards onto a toy. Medical professionals were of the view that this explanation was not credible and that the injuries were not accidental, counsel said.

Gardai were notified and carried out a search of the accused's family home. They seized the toy claimed to be responsible for inflicting the injury and no blood was found on the item following a forensic analysis.

Dr Sinead Harty gave evidence during the trial that in her professional opinion, the injury sustained was not consistent with falling on a toy. She said the head and glans of the victim's clitoris had been completely removed.

In interview with gardai, both accused denied that FGM had been carried out on their daughter. The victim's father said he did not agree with the practice. His wife said she had been a victim of a different form of FGM herself.

The court heard that the victim and her two siblings are currently in the care of their mother's eldest sister.

The court heard expert evidence that FGM is a cultural phenomenon that goes back many thousands of years and arising predominantly from East Africa. Dr Deborah Hodes said it has no nothing to do with religious beliefs and is absolutely not a principal of the Muslim faith.

Speaking after the sentencing, Superintendent Declan Daly, Garda National Protective Services Bureau said: "Todays conviction and sentence represents the first of its kind in Ireland. It sends a strong and important message that Female Genital Mutilation, the mutilation of children and young girls, is not and will not be tolerated. It is a heinous and barbaric practice which is a criminal offence in Ireland.

"Ireland has a long and proud history of embracing traditions and customs from abroad, however there can be no welcome for any activity which brings harm to children.

"Our communities need to be vigilant and aware of this crime and anyone who suspects or believes a child is likely to be subject to Female Genital Mutilation either here or being brought outside the country for the purpose of Female Genital Mutilation, to contact their local Garda station, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or call the Child Abuse Reporting line on - 1800 555 222."
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, second from right, is briefed on preparation to prevent the spread of a new type of coronavirus from China during his visit to Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Monday. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



President Moon Jae-in ordered the authorities, Monday, to check on the health of all people coming from the Chinese city of Wuhan amid growing concerns over the outbreak of a newly identified coronavirus that has killed at least 81 people and infected more than 2,700 there.



The order came hours after a fourth case was confirmed in Korea



According to Yoon Do-han, senior presidential secretary for public communication, Moon issued the instruction during a luncheon with his senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae.



The measure comes as the third and fourth patients here apparently showed no symptoms during a temperature check at the airport when entering the country.



"The symptoms can occur later (after coming into the country), so we need to check the current conditions of people (who have entered here)," Moon was quoted as saying by Yoon.



"The President ordered all-out efforts to prevent the virus from spreading, calling for pre-emptive measures," Yoon said, adding that Moon ordered medical personnel from the military, and its facilities, to be used if necessary.



Moon also called for the relevant ministries to keep tabs on any possible economic fallout from the epidemic. The finance minister is set to hold an emergency meeting today, according to the presidential office.



The reaction comes one day after the head of state promised pan-government efforts to tackle the disease, saying that his administration remained on high alert with an around-the-clock response system in operation.



"Now that the government is taking every necessary effort along with local authorities, I ask the people to have trust in the government and not to be excessively anxious in connection with the measures needed," Moon said in a press statement.



His remarks came as 130,000 Chinese tourists are estimated to have visited Korea during the Lunar New Year holiday  from Friday to Monday  raising concerns they may have spread the virus.





Olympic women's hoops qualifiers moved out of China over coronavirus concerns Gov't under pressure to ban Chinese from entering Korea Wuhan coronavirus feared to dampen Korea's growth momentum China extends holiday to contain virus as death toll rises The government also raised its infectious disease alert level one notch to "orange," Monday, amid rising public concern.



Besides taking measures to prevent the spread of the virus here, the government is also considering evacuating Korean citizens from Wuhan by arranging a charter flight.



About 500 Koreans are estimated to be living in Wuhan and the Korean Consulate General there recently asked about chartering a plane to leave the epidemic-stricken city, with more than 400 people saying they wanted to leave.



Last Friday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun presided over an emergency meeting with ministers to discuss stepped-up measures against the virus, including the charter flight. Also on the same day, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha held a video conference with the Korean consulate in Wuhan to tell staff there to seek cooperation from the Chinese authorities for the possible evacuation.



The Chinese foreign ministry and other agencies would have to approve of such an evacuation.



"The government is closely working with the Chinese authorities to evacuate Korean citizens using a chartered plane," a Korean foreign ministry official said.



The United States plans to pull its citizens and diplomats out of the Hubei Province capital today.



The Chinese authorities recently shut down travel in and out of Wuhan  including commercial flights  to contain the spread of the coronavirus.



"We now understand that foreigners can leave Wuhan by car after receiving approval from the Chinese government, so the consulate there is receiving relevant applications," a government official said.



The Korean consulate in Wuhan said on its website that if an airborne evacuation operation was not practical, it would seek to charter buses.



The foreign ministry has raised the travel advisory level for Wuhan and the Hubei region to "red" and recommended that citizens leave the region. A "red" alert is the third highest in the nation's four-tier travel warning system.



"We advise all Koreans to withdraw from the region unless they are on urgent business, and anyone planning to travel to the area should cancel or delay their trip," the ministry said in a release.



Prime Minister Chung also visited Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Monday, to check on preparedness against the disease.



"Based on the experience of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the central and local governments have strong pre-emptive and countermeasures for prevention," Chung said.



"I urge citizens to cooperate as well. People with suspicious symptoms should contact the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) call center on 1339 before visiting a hospital."



According to the KCDC, a Korean man, 55, who returned from Wuhan Jan. 20, tested positive Monday.




WASHINGTON - Two Republican senators said Monday that new revelations from John Bolton bolstered their case for summoning witnesses in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, as fresh allegations from the former White House official left Senate Republicans scrambling as they faced renewed pressure to seek new evidence.

In his forthcoming book, former national security adviser Bolton alleges that Trump directly tied the holdup of nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to desired investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The disclosure upended the Senate as the second full week of Trump's impeachment trial began. Democrats insisted that the Senate must call the former White House official as a witness.

Trump faces two charges - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Many senior Republicans dismissed details from Bolton's book as nothing new - and nothing that would change Trump's expected acquittal by the GOP-controlled Senate. A close Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he wanted to see the unpublished manuscript of Bolton's book or at least be briefed on it.

But two key GOP senators - Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah - said they expect other Republicans to back a push for new evidence as part of the trial.

"I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton," Romney said Monday, repeatedly calling Bolton's testimony "relevant." "It's important to be able to hear from John Bolton for us to be able to make an impartial judgment."

Collins said reports about Bolton's unpublished manuscript "strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues."

The book, "The Room Where It Happened," is scheduled for publication March 17, but the White House could attempt to delay its publication or block some of its contents. The manuscript has been submitted to the National Security Council for a standard review of classified material, and an NSC spokesman said Monday that no White House official outside the NSC has reviewed it.

Two people familiar with the book, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the project, confirmed that it details Trump tying aid to the desire for Biden probes and details a number of conversations about Ukraine that Bolton had with Trump and key advisers, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

But privately, some senior Republicans were left uncertain about how the revelations would ultimately affect a key vote expected later this week on whether to admit additional witnesses and testimony into the impeachment proceedings. GOP senators, apparently blindsided, have called the White House, asking who knew what and when, according to a senior administration official.

"This sort of caught everybody by surprise," said Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D.

Two other Republican senators being closely watched by Senate GOP leaders and the White House - Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - were as noncommittal Monday on additional witnesses as they were before the news emerged about Bolton's book, which was first reported by the New York Times on Sunday.

"I stated before that I was curious as to what John Bolton might have to say," Murkowski said. "From the outset, I've worked to ensure this trial would be fair and that members would have the opportunity to weigh in after its initial phase to determine if we need more information.

She added: "I've also said there is an appropriate time for us to evaluate whether we need additional information - that time is almost here. I look forward to the White House wrapping up presentation of its case."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and most of his ranks have been aiming to wrap up Trump's impeachment trial later this week, with the White House legal team finishing its arguments later Monday or Tuesday and then senators engaging in up to 16 hours of questions for both sides.

A protracted fight over witnesses and documents - should that key vote allow them later this week - could significantly drag out the length of Trump's trial. One idea floated by Graham was for senators to look at Bolton's unpublished manuscript. But for that to happen, Graham, said, the Bidens would also have to be investigated.

That was the consensus, Republicans said, after a closed-door party lunch, when senators concurred that if Bolton were called, the Senate would similarly have to summon the Bidens, according to Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.

McConnell's message to the conference was that, "remember, we passed a rules package that gives us an opportunity to vote on this very issue of witnesses after we hear both sides and ask our questions," said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

"That seemed wise at the time and seems even wiser now," Cramer said.

Numerous other Republican senators - including Joni Ernst of Iowa, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mike Crapo of Idaho and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia - reserved judgment on Monday, particularly on whether the Bolton revelations make them more likely to favor calling him and other witnesses.

Thune said he did not "personally see it as a game-changer."

"I think a lot of our members are going to look at it and say it doesn't change the basic facts of the case, and I don't think that it does," he said.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., dismissed it as "nothing new."

Meanwhile, some Republicans also began questioning the credibility and motives of Bolton - a longtime figure in GOP national security circles.

"You've got to keep in mind, for the first time in his life, he was fired," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. "That does have an effect on people."

Bolton has said he resigned.

Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., lumped Bolton in with Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani who has turned over a trove of documents to congressional investigators and has implicated the president in the Ukraine dealings.

"Are Mr. Parnas and Mr. Bolton telling the truth? I don't know," Kennedy said. "But given the circumstances under which they are making the allegations, I wouldn't bet my house on it. And if I were betting your house, it would only be a maybe."

Even as they used the latest revelations to pressure Republicans on calling additional witnesses, some senior Democrats were skeptical that enough GOP senators would ultimately acquiesce.

"I think he has probably reached the point where he has fewer than four who will vote for the motion for witnesses and believes that he ultimately has all the votes he needs to exonerate this president," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said of McConnell. "If that's what these members of the Senate want to carry home from this experience, I think they're going to be surprised at the reaction."

- - -

The Washington Post's Erica Werner, Karoun Demirjian and Paul Kane contributed to this report.
A 14-year-old student Liticha Princess Sbongile Nelson has been found dead.

She was found dead on the East Rand, South Africa.

Liticha, a grade 9 pupil at Graceland Education Center in Elsburg, Germiston, went missing and her body was found in a bush on Friday.

She had been raped and murdered.

Read Also: I Was Robbed And Nearly Raped  Female Producer Recounts Her Ordeal

The 14-year-old had gone missing on Wednesday after she failed to return home from school. She had been left behind by the school transport and had to walk home.

Her grandmother panicked when her grandchild did not come home and started checking around the neighbourhood.

She went to report the teen missing to police but was told to bring a photograph of the child, the education department said in a statement.

The grandmother then went to school and reported the child missing, where it was confirmed that she did not come to school on Wednesday.

It is also concerning that the school failed to assist the parent, the department said.

The grandmother then mobilised the community on Friday and found her corpse in the bush

Sadly, the grandmother had to go back to the Elsburg police station to inform them about the gruesome discovery. We, are informed, Laticia and a group of learners from Dukathole in Germiston, were on Wednesday, January 22 2020, left behind by the departmental scholar transport and unfortunately had to turn back home. It seems Laticia was left behind by her peers while walking back home, apparently after complaining about a heavy school bag, which she was trying to fix. Accordingly, that was the last time she was seen by her peers, said the department.
Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 8:15PM

Freedom Mobile now offers live messaging support using WhatsApp. The Shaw-owned regional carrier announced on Twitter, saying this method is a way to make "it even easier to get assistance." The tweet adds a link to Freedom's WhatsApp number, where its customers can reach them through the messaging app.

If you click the link through your smartphone, it will open up a chat window to the carrier's official WhatsApp account. If you're on a computer and have WhatsApp installed, it will do the same. If you don't have WhatsApp on your PC, it'll open to WhatsApp's website to either ask you to download the app or use the web version to send a message.

You will get a notice in the chat window that this is the official Freedom Mobile account. We must note that this approach is how Facebook plans to monetize WhatsApp. After backing off of filling the messaging app with ads, the company plans to open a better business-to-customer communication on it. The approach is admittedly more useful than what Facebook initially wanted to do.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:56:01|Editor: zyl

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People take part in a protest in front of Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 27, 2020. A group of people gathered in front of Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday to announce their opposition to any "possible" talks with the United States over the thorny issues, Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua)

TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A group of people gathered in front of Iranian Foreign Ministry in the capital Tehran on Monday to announce their opposition to any "possible" talks with the United States over the thorny issues, Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported.

The protesters denounced any inclination inside the country about the "possibility" of negotiations with the United States, according to the report.

They carried placards and chanted slogans stating that after the assassination of the Iranian senior general by the United States, the negotiations would be impossible.

Earlier this month, U.S. airstrike near Baghdad international airport assassinated Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
: Observing that the situation in coronavirus affected Wuhan province in China was worsening, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting stranded Indians, including those from the southern state.

Sharing the concern of Kerala, Vijayan, in a letter to Modi, said the ground situation in Wuhan has worsened and the state had information from relatives of students from Kerala studying at various Universities in Wuhan that the situation there was "grave".

There were also reports that Yichang area has also been affected, he said.

"It may be appropriate to consider operating a special flight to Wuhan/a nearby functional airport and airlift the Indian nationals stranded there and bring them back to India", Vijayan said, days after he shot off two letters to External Affairs minister S Jaishankar.

Vijayan also offered the assistance of medical professionals from Kerala in case the Indians being evacuated from Wuhan needed medical attention.

"On behalf of the State of Kerala, I would like to offer the assistance of medical professionals from our side in case the Indians being evacuated from Wuhan are to be medically attended to", he said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media here.

He also wanted necessary instructions to be given to the Indian Embassy in China to "act pro actively" and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including keralites stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

The Chief Minister had earlier written to Jaishankar, requesting steps to have a comprehensive assessment of the emerging situation and to provide necessary assistance to the people of Indian origin, most of whom are students of Wuhan University.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
What is 5G?

5G is the fifth generation upgrade to mobile telecommunications.

It does not consist of a single new operating system but a system of systems that will so dramatically increase data speeds youll be able to download a movie in just three seconds.

It will also increase internet capacity a thousand-fold when its fully operational.

What is the difference between 4G and 5G?

4G, like all the Gs before it, is principally designed for smartphone browsing.

But 5G is far more ambitious, linking together all kinds of devices, from household appliances such as fridges and washing machines to cars and electricity meters.

Huawei has repeatedly denied that it is an arm of the Chinese state, but as a Chinese company it is vulnerable to the control of a dictatorship with an appalling human rights record

It is supposed to create what has been termed the internet of things, where everything we use in our day-to-day lives can be controlled remotely.

For example, you could use the 5G network to control your washing machine from the other side of the world.

It could also speed up the development of driverless cars by allowing vehicles to interact with each other.

Why do we need it?

In its strategy document for 5G roll-out, published in 2017, the Government predicted that global data traffic would grow from 3.7 exabytes (3.7 billion billion bytes of information, where one byte is equivalent to a short email) in 2015 to 30.6 exabytes in 2020.

Thats the same as if the number of passengers on Londons Tube network grew by 53 per cent every year. Without an upgrade, existing systems face being overloaded.

But there are also government policies which are dependent on 5G. If we are to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050  the ambitious target unveiled by outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May last summer.

For example, we will need to make much smarter use of the electricity grid.

Under Theresa Mays premiership, the Government announced that Huawei would be allowed to provide equipment for the periphery of the 5G network, such as masts, but not the control systems at the core of the network

The 5G network would allow appliances like fridges and electric car chargers to switch in and out of the grid when needed.

Are there risks?

Yes. An internet of things, where every appliance is inter-connected, provides new opportunities for hackers to interfere with electronic systems.

They could potentially seize control of vehicles and cause them to crash, or hack smart door locks to gain entry to a house.

Hostile nations could exploit 5G to try to disrupt our utility supplies, nuclear plants or airports. There are also serious privacy issues as 5G will make it easier for governments and corporations to track our lives one click at a time.

But there are also advantages  5G networks involve far more secure data encryption.

So while there will be more appliances for hackers to target, doing so wont be easy.

Whats the problem with Huawei?

Whoever builds the 5G grid, or supplies equipment for it, could potentially plant bugs to allow interference with the network or enable mass surveillance by accessing data.

Huawei has repeatedly denied that it is an arm of the Chinese state, but as a Chinese company it is vulnerable to the control of a dictatorship with an appalling human rights record.

We wouldnt allow a Chinese company to supply fighter jets for the RAF, goes the argument, and therefore we shouldnt allow one to supply vital communications infrastructure.

Former national security adviser Lord Ricketts has dismissed the fears, however, saying: I personally think we can find a solution which does allow them to have some role.

Another serious concern is what it would mean for Britains role within the Five Eyes network of security partners  the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain  who exchange intelligence. Canada has yet to make a decision, while New Zealand initially stopped Huawei providing 5G equipment but has since said it has not imposed a complete ban.

The Government is most likely to stick to its existing policy, which is to allow Huawei to build communication towers and other peripheral equipment for the 5G network but ban it from the core parts of the network

Why is the US worried?

Donald Trump doesnt trust Huawei to build even the smallest part of our 5G network and the US has warned that it might be reluctant to share intelligence with the UK if we employ the Chinese company  although MI5 chief Andrew Parker recently claimed that this is an unlikely consequence.

Some have argued that the US is only saying this as a protectionist ruse in its trade war with China.

But that doesnt explain why Australia, too, has banned Huawei from building its own 5G network.

The chair of Australias intelligence and security committee, Andrew Hastie, claims it is a question of digital sovereignty, while his colleague James Paterson points out: Successive Australian governments banned Huawei from our broadband and 5G networks with very little controversy.

In any case, no US company currently makes 5G network equipment. Instead, the US is considering subsidising Swedish firm Ericsson and Finnish company Nokia in order to help develop its own 5G network.

In the US T-Mobile has already switched on a slower version of its 5G network, claiming it covers 200 million people.

What about our other allies?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reluctant to ban Huawei, fearing retaliation against German companies exporting to China.

France, too, has said it will allow Huawei to build parts of its 5G network.

Donald Trump doesnt trust Huawei to build even the smallest part of our 5G network and the US has warned that it might be reluctant to share intelligence with the UK if we employ the Chinese company  although MI5 chief Andrew Parker recently claimed that this is an unlikely consequence

Isnt Huawei already involved?

Under Theresa Mays premiership, the Government announced that Huawei would be allowed to provide equipment for the periphery of the 5G network, such as masts, but not the control systems at the core of the network.

These security services claim that the risk to 5G from using a Chinese supplier is manageable.

But one complication is that our existing 3G and 4G telecoms networks already contain equipment manufactured by Huawei.

In 2005, for example, BT signed a contract with Huawei that allowed it to connect customer lines to the main part of the network.

Does 5G have to include Huawei?

Our government claims that Huawei has such a technological head-start in creating 5G equipment that shunning it would delay the introduction and increase costs.

Alternative, though significantly more expensive, suppliers are ZTE, which is owned by the Chinese government, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung (South Korean) and Viettel (owned by the Vietnamese military).

The cost to the Government of Huaweis input into 5G is unknown, as is the time frame.

Restricting Huaweis involvement would delay the launch of 5G by up to two years and cost the economy between 4.5billion and 6.6billion, according to a 2019 report by the telecoms industry body, Mobile UK.

What is the most likely outcome?

The Government is most likely to stick to its existing policy, which is to allow Huawei to build communication towers and other peripheral equipment for the 5G network but ban it from the core parts of the network.

There may also be measures to reduce future reliance on China by imposing a cap on Huaweis share of the market.

What are our alternatives?

We could upgrade the existing 4G network which would give extra capacity for now.

But in the long run it would lead to Britain lagging behind in telecommunications.
Three people were allegedly injured by a tiger, which had moved out of a Bhandara forest near the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border, after more than 2,000 local residents allegedly attacked it with stones. However, the forest department claimed that only one of the three men was mauled by the animal, while the other two were hurt after falling down from their car and had nothing to do with the tiger.

Meanwhile, in another incident, a 42-year-old woman Varsha Jibkhate was killed by a tiger in forest areas near Tulana Mendha village in Brahmapuri forest division on Friday, forcing the forest department to constitute teams to try and tranquilise and capture the animal.

In the Bhandara forest case, Vivek Hoshing, deputy conservator of forest, Bhandara, said the tiger retaliated only after the residents got too close to it, and subsequently fled, as seen in a video taken by a villager.

Forest department officials said the same tiger had been spotted a week ago and may have injured a local resident in the vicinity. The department had on January 18 issued an alert for seven villages  Binaki, Supri, Gondekhara, Gondetola, Sihora, Chulhad, and Khapamohadi  asking them to inform the department if the tiger was spotted in the inhabited areas. Last week, the principal chief conservator of forest issued permission to tranquilise and relocate the animal.

According to forest department officials, the incident occurred around 12pm, when locals spotted the tiger sitting in a field along the Tumsar-Bapera Road. On Saturday, after we were informed of the tigers presence, two police personnel and our officials cordoned off the area, where more than 2,000 villagers had gathered, said Hoshing. Despite asking the villagers to not go close to the animal, many people approached it [from another side], armed with sticks and stones and wanted a closer view of the big cat. The scared tiger then retaliated. A video taken by villagers clearly shows a large number of people being stopped by us, and other curious villagers getting too close to the animal.

The video, taken by a local resident who had climbed a tree, was widely shared.

The injured were admitted to a local district hospital. One person suffered minor injuries owing to the tiger, while two others were injured after falling down from their car, and had nothing to do with the tiger, said Hoshing.

Range forest officer Govind Luche said the tiger, most likely a male, had dispersed from forest patches within Madhya Pradesh looking for new territory. The animal mostly moves within forest patches at night, but maybe came this close to the state highway in search of food, leading to panic. Villagers have been asked to not move alone, especially at night, and carry torches, he said.

Attempts to tranquilise the animal are still on, said Hoshing, adding that it had not been seen in the vicinity so far. Local villagers constantly spread misinformation about sightings. If only the animal is spotted repeatedly along the forest fringes will we initiate any attempt to trap it, said Hoshing.

On Friday, the forest department had found a dead blackbuck and a wild boar close to Gondekhara village. We are not sure, but we believe that the tiger may have made these kills, said Hoshing.

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Ceremonial border personnel meetings between Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army were held to jointly celebrate India's 71st Republic Day and starting of Chinese Lunar Year, a defence spokesman said on Monday.

The meetings were organised on Sunday at Nathu La in Sikkim and Bum La and Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh, he said.

The BPM mechanism has evolved as an important interface where local issues are discussed and resolved thereby fostering confidence amongst the border guarding

troops and ensuring peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the defence spokesman said.

The events commenced with hoisting of national flags and rendition of the national anthems of both the countries, followed by cultural programmes.

Delegations of both the countries interacted with each other in a friendly environment and extended greetings, he said.

The proceedings reflected a mutual desire to maintain an environment of peace and tranquility along the LAC which is a prerequisite for good relation between India and China, he added.
Imperial Valley News Center

Businessman Pleads Guilty to FCPA and Money Laundering Violations in Scheme Involving PetroEcuador Officials

Miami, Florida - An Ecuadorian businessman living in Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with a $4.4 million bribery and money laundering scheme that funneled bribes to public officials of Empresa Publica de Hidrocarburos del Ecuador (PetroEcuador), the state-owned and state-controlled oil company of Ecuador, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBIs Miami Field Office.

Armengol Alfonso Cevallos Diaz (Cevallos), 57, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith of the Southern District of Florida to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2, 2020.

Cevallos admitted at the plea hearing that, from 2012 through 2015, he conspired with others to pay bribes of $4.4 million to PetroEcuador officials by using the mails and means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, including U.S.-based companies and U.S.-based bank accounts, in order to obtain and retain business. Cevallos also admitted that he conspired with others to conceal and promote the bribe scheme by laundering funds through Miami-based shell companies and bank accounts and by purchasing properties in the Miami area for the benefit of certain PetroEcuador officials. Specifically, as alleged in the indictment, Cevallos admitted that he solicited and intermediated bribe payments from an oil services company for the benefit of PetroEcuador officials, and that he helped launder those bribes and others he had paid to PetroEcuador officials on behalf of Ecuadorian contractors and his own companies.

Todays plea follows 12 public charges and guilty pleas against other individuals in the departments ongoing investigation into bribery and money laundering involving PetroEcuador. The individuals who have been charged to date for their roles in the bribery and money laundering schemes include former PetroEcuador officials who received and concealed the bribe payments, businessmen and contractors who paid the bribes to obtain lucrative oil services contracts from PetroEcuador, and financial advisors and other intermediaries who enabled and facilitated the bribery through the use of U.S. and offshore companies and bank accounts.

The FBIs International Corruption Squad in Miami is investigating the case. Assistant Chiefs David Fuhr and Lorinda Laryea and Trial Attorneys Jonathan Robell and Katherine Raut of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Trial Attorneys Mary Ann McCarthy and Randall Warden of the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) are prosecuting the case.

IRS-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Criminal Divisions Office of International Affairs have provided significant assistance in this case, as have public authorities in, among other countries, Ecuador and Panama.

MLARSs Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other financial institutions, including their officers, managers, and employees, whose actions threaten the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system.


More word from the ongoing attempt to bring the people responsible for years of CIA torture to justice: one of the three waterboarding specialists at Guantanamo was called "The Preacher" because while he was drowning suspects to the point of near death, he "would at random times put one hand on the forehead of a detainee, raise the other high in the air, and in a deep Southern drawl say things like, 'Can you feel it, son? Can you feel the spirit moving down my arm, into your body?'"



The sadistic torturer's real name isn't known. He was codenamed NZ7.

Tales of The Preacher's behavior first surfaced in "Enhanced Interrogation," the torture apologia penned by James Mitchell, the rogue psychologist who designed the CIA's torture program (his company was paid $80m for this work, which also included instructions for anal rape, freezing people to death, and shoving hummus and nuts up men's asses).

Mitchell testified again about The Preacher this week during a pre-trial hearing for five of the men charged with planning and abetting the 9/11 attacks.





Mitchell's testimony paints him as a moderate torturer who was locked in internecine struggle with the CIA's in-house "interrogation chief," codenamed NX2 and believed to be Charlie Wise, a notorious torturer who practiced his craft in Nicaragua for the Contras (Wise died in 2003).





Mitchell describes how, on his tours of CIA torture sites, he would express concern that the techniques employed would maim the victims, and was silenced and even effectively incarcerated  confined to an overseas base with no contact with the outside world. He said he was only released because the "tension" was "damaging morale."

CIA Director Gina Haspel was complicit in both torture and the subsequent coverup. In May, 2018, she was confirmed as Trump's CIA chief. Six Democrat Senators voted to confirm her: Joe Manchin [WV], Heidi Heitkamp [ND], Joe Donnelly [IN], Bill Nelson [FL], Mark Warner [VA] and Jeanne Shahee [NH].

When the senior officials flew in, on 17 August, he waterboarded Abu Zubaydah even though he was quite sure the detainee had no actionable intelligence to surrender. It was done purely as a demonstration for the agency VIPs. And he applied the technique to the maximum extent allowed, pouring water on to a cloth on the prisoner's face for 20 seconds and then a full 40 seconds. According to a CIA cable describing the event, Abu Zubaydah went into spasm. The visitors were stunned. "Some of the folks were tearful," Mitchell said. "I was tearful, but I cry at dog food commercials," Mitchell claimed. The psychologist's eyes did indeed well up on a few occasions during his testimony this week, but the tears came when he was describing what he saw as his personal sacrifices. In contrast, he described waterboarding dispassionately, characterising it as "temporary discomfort".

Chilling role of 'the Preacher' confirmed at CIA waterboarding hearing in Guantanamo [Julian Borger/The Guardian]

(Image: Crown, modified)

(via JWZ)
By PTI

INDORE: A 72-year-old CPI (M) activist succumbed to the burn injuries on the January 26 evening which he had suffered after setting himself ablaze two days earlier here in Madhya Pradesh, police said on Monday.

Though police had not given out the motive behind Rameshchandra Prajapat taking his own life, a CPI (M) leader claimed that he seemed "highly disappointed" because of the "stubborn attitude" of the Central government on the overall CAA-NPR-NRC issue.

Police had found pamphlets denouncing Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the proposed National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from Prajapat's bag at Geeta Bhavan square, the spot of the incident.

ALSO READ: 72-year-old anti CAA activist sets himself ablaze in Indore

"Rameshchandra Prajapat had set himself on fire last Friday (January 24) by spraying some inflammable substance on himself. He died on Sunday evening during treatment at the MY Hospital," said Tukoganj police station in-charge Nirmal Kumar Shrivas.

When asked about the possible motive behind Prajapat's act, the police officer said they are investigating.

"Prajapat had suffered nearly 100 per cent burns, and because of his critical condition, police could not record his statement. We are investigating," he said.

When asked about recovery of pamphlets from Prajapat's bag, the police officer said no conclusion should be drawn merely on that basis.

Meanwhile, a CPI (M) leader has said that Prajapat was regularly taking part in the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protests in various parts of the country.

"It appears that Prajapat was highly disappointed because of the stubborn attitude of the Central government on the issue of the CAA, the NPR and the NRC," said Kailash Limbodia, Member, Rajya Sachiv Mandal, CPI (M). He, however, added that the party would never support such extreme steps.

Limbodia claimed that Prajapat himself had prepared the pamphlets mentioning the Centre's "stubborn attitude" towards the CAA-NPR-NRC regime despite nationwide protests.

He appealed to the Centre to hold a dialogue with protesters and resolve the protests.
A 16-year-old Australian girl was sexually assaulted during a high school trip to India after she was cornered by a male passenger on a crowded train.

The student from a high school in Victoria had been travelling with 14 classmates and their chaperones as part of a World Challenge expedition last month.

The terrifying incident unfolded when the teen, who did not want to be named, had the urge to use the toilet during the 21-hour journey from Haridwar to Udaipur.

Fearing for her safety, the girl had asked a friend to accompany her to the bathroom before a stranger suddenly groped her buttocks.

A 16-year-old female student from a high school in Victoria was sexually assaulted during a high school trip to India after she was cornered by a male passenger on a crowded train (stock image)

The teen recalled feeling shaken, but ultimately raised the alarm to one of the team leaders, who quickly confronted the man.

She eventually grew the courage to defend herself and the rest of her classmates and approached him herself.

'I went up and said, "You've been staring at us. Don't touch me and don't touch the girls." He didn't know any English and he just stood there silently,' she told The Age.

'My legs were shaking, it was affecting me physically a little bit.'

The girl revealed the majority of the overnight journey had been an ordeal as male and female passengers had been 'grabbing and shaking' the girls as they tried to sleep in their bunks in a bid to find space on the crowded train.

The girl had been travelling with 14 classmates and their chaperones as part of a World Challenge expedition last month. The educational travel agency offers trips to 50 destinations around the globe

The incident was so traumatising the teen said her friend burst into tears just before getting off the train.

Officials at the school accused World Challenge of making a mess of the disastrous train trip after it booked the students on separate carriages as opposed to keeping them grouped together.

According to The Age, organisers had tried to arrange swaps with passengers in a bid to get the students together, but they could not accommodated.

The situation then worsened when new passengers came aboard and tried to take the students' bunkers for themselves.

World Challenge's General Manager Mark Walters said the student travel agency makes regular trips to India and said this was an isolated incident caused by a booking error.

Although the student said she did not want to seek legal action, her mother has slammed the organisation for failing to inform parents immediately after the incident took place.
Leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov has sacked the regional government just four months after it had been formed.



"I have made a decision to dismiss Ingushetias government," Kalimatov wrote on an Instagram post today. He did not explain the reasons for his decision.



Kalimatov took over the region on September 8 after he was elected by lawmakers. Days later, a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Konstantin Surikov was formed, RFE/RL recalls.



On January 22, Kalimatov appointed Vladimir Slastyonin as first deputy prime minister and Liana Pliyeva as acting economy minister.
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Hundreds of AMU students overnight blocked traffic on the main Aligarh-Moradabad Highway demanding release of a student who was held for allegedly heckling the AMU Vice Chancellor during his Republic Day speech, a university official said on Monday.

The blockade, which started on Sunday evening, continued till 2 am, the official said.

AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor was on Sunday heckled by a group of students during his Republic Day speech here soon after he termed as "unfortunate" the recent happenings on the campus and said peaceful protests will be allowed on any issue within the ambit of law.

Four students identified as Tahir Azmi, Rafiuddin, Sudhir Gulati and A Mujtaba Faraz, who were involved in the heckling, were handed over to police.

In the afternoon, a group of protesters collected at the gate of the AMU Proctor's office demanding the release of the four.

Three students were later released by the police.

AMU Proctor, Prof Afifullah Khan, said three students had been released whereas Faraz was sent to jail.

As the spread in the campus, huge crowds of protesters started collecting near the Purani Chungi gate of the University and blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad Highway.

In view of the protests, exams of the AMU Engineering College were cancelled on Monday.

AMU Proctor, Prof Afifullah Khan told PTI, "The examinations which were to be held at the AMU Engineering College on Monday could not be held as a large number of protesters collected at the gates of the Zakir Hussain College of Engineering.

Referring to the students' demand for the release of Faraz, the Proctor said a group of teachers and top university officials have met senior district officials and, We are hopeful that Faraz will be out on bail.

The AMU campus has been witnessing protests against the amended Citizenship Amendment Bill and over 1200 students, including those not identified, have been booked in about a dozen odd cases connected to different protests.

The students are also demanding the resignation of top University officials for "failing" to secure justice for those students who were allegedly the victim of police excesses during anti-CAA protests.

Security arrangements in and around the AMU campus have been further beefed up.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
leader accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of just doing a "make-up and plastic surgery" on the health system in Delhi.

The Delhi health system was developed by then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, said two-time former MP in his video series 'Kaam ki Baat'. He is late Sheila Dikshit's son.

Raising question over Mohalla Clinics, Dikshit said Kejriwal came up with the idea to hide his failure of not improving the health facilities. The government had not opened a single hospital in the last five years, he added.

"The Delhi government (headed by the Congress) increased the number of hospitals from 18 to 39, beds from 4,000 to 12,000, doctors from 440 to 2,400 and dispensaries from 180 to 650," the leader claimed.

The Congress government had set up the best liver, cancer and orthopaedic hospitals, apart from trauma centres where anybody could seek free health services, Dikshit added.

The Congress leader said hospital projects, launched by the previous governments, in Madipur, Sarita Vihar, Vikaspuri and Burari had remained incomplete.

Many hospitals with finalised DPR could not be opened in five years, including the Mother and Child Hospital in Trilokpuri, he alleged.

The former MP said the free treatment touted by the government was a farce as the facility was already in place for trauma cases when the earlier Congress government demitted the office.
The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Monday said it has increased prices of select models by up to Rs 10,000 with immediate effect to offset the impact of rising input costs

New Delhi: The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Monday said it has increased prices of select models by up to Rs 10,000 with immediate effect to offset the impact of rising input costs.

The price change varies across models and ranges up to 4.7 percent (ex-showroom Delhi) and are effective from 27 January, 2020, MSI said in a statement.

Maruti announces price increase. Co says price change varies across models & ranges from 0% to 4.7% (Ex-Showroom - Delhi); new prices are effective from January 27 pic.twitter.com/30ks2Bi3xZ  CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) January 27, 2020

The price of entry-level model Alto range has gone up in the range of Rs 9,000-6,000, S-Presso between Rs 1,500 to 8,000, WagonR between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000.

The company has also increased the price of its multi-purpose vehicle Ertiga between Rs 4,000-10,000, Baleno by Rs 3,000 to 8,000 and XL6 by up to Rs 5,000 (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

Currently, the company sells a range of vehicles starting from entry-level small car Alto to premium multi-purpose vehicle XL6 with price ranging from Rs 2.89 lakh to Rs 11.47 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- After firing three of his lawyers, Amir Williams appears to have sidelined his last hope of a legal defense: himself.

Two weeks ago, Williams, 26, opted to represent himself in a murder trial after courtroom blow-ups with his three prior attorneys. As the trial was scheduled to begin today, Williams protested, raising last-minute legal concerns and saying hes not prepared.

Judge Matthew Doran had made arrangements for Williams to appear at his trial in regular clothes instead of a jail jumpsuit. Doran had appointed Williams a stand-by counsel, Graeme Spicer, to join Williams at trial and be available for advice.

But Monday morning Williams came to court in tan Onondaga County Justice Center attire, and he insisted the trial not move forward. He said if the judge continued the trial, he wanted to return to his jail cell to start preparing his appeal.

Williams is accused of shooting to death Zyree McMullen, 26, on Sept. 15, 2018 outside a Near West Side market.

Williams said he hadnt had time to review all the documents in his case. Prior lawyers had not shared certain materials with him, he said, due in part to a protective order preventing certain witnesses and their information from being shared with the defendant.

Williams said hed been delivered boxes and boxes of paperwork as well as numerous DVDs in the last two weeks.

Its impossible for me to defend myself, Williams said. I would look crazy at trial.

Doran said Williams and his attorneys had been provided with evidence in the case over a 13-month period. He said there was nothing unusual about discovery in Williams case.

After Williams asked repeatedly to waive his appearance at his trial, Doran granted the request.

Doran said hed bring Williams back into court regularly during the trial to ask if hed changed his mind.

This is a serious matter, Doran said, repeatedly discouraging Williams from leaving. Doran asked Spicer to remain in court to observe the trial and share information with Williams.

But jury selection went on as planned. About 75 jurors entered the courtroom for voir dire, or questioning Monday morning. The process of choosing the jury is happening now, performed by prosecutor Shaun Chase, without any input from the defense.

Its new to me, Chase said in court.

If Williams opts to remain outside of the courtroom, the case will proceed without any defense -- that means no one but the prosecutor will deliver opening and closing arguments. It will be up to Chase alone to question witnesses.

A defendant opting not to be present in court is not unheardof, Judge Doran noted. Defendants from time to time choose to sit out their trials, leaving the case in their attorneys hands.

Yet Williams choice to leave court while he was supposed to be representing himself left everyone in the courtroom scratching their heads.

The judge referred to two cases in New York state from the 2000s in which defendants did not present any defense while attempting to represent themselves. In both of the cases, which were slightly different from Williams', appeals courts upheld the convictions, according to Doran.

On the other hand, Onondaga County has recently seen two murder defendants, Derrick Wilson and Dwight DeLee, successfully represent themselves, and win acquittals. In both of those cases, however, the defendants were highly involved in their own cases for many months. And not only did they appear at trial, but they were active advocates for themselves.

Another man, James Everson, recently demanded to go to trial without a lawyer -- only to regret his decision days later and beg a judge to allow his lawyer back on the case.

This is obviously ... a unique situation, Doran said of Williams.

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Bengaluru, Jan 27 : Noted international daily Financial Times (FT) on Monday ranked the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore's (IIM-B) executive post-graduate programme (EPGP) as the best among Indian business schools.

"I would like to inform you that as per the latest FT rankings made public today, we are ranked as number one in India for the EPGP under global MBA category," said IIM-B Director G. Raghuram in a mail to the students and faculty, with the subject line 2020 FT global MBA rankings.

In 2019, FT adjudged IIM-B's EPGP as second best and in 2018 as third best in India.

According to the public policy professor, FT has ranked the one-year IIM-B programme as fifth best in Asia and 27th globally in its category, rising up from 49th place in 2017.

"This was based on data gathered in 2019, but related largely to the class of 2016 (graduated three years ago)," said Raghuram, attaching a table juxtaposing the premier institute's performance to IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Calcutta and the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB).

In 2020, the British daily ranked ISB's executive programme 28th in the world, followed by IIM-C at 42 and IIM-A at 61.

Some of the parameters FT examined in the evaluation include salary today, weighted salary, salary increase, value for money, career progress, employed at three months, female faculty and female students, among others.

Separately, Raghuram also shot a mail in the institute's internal network about IIM-B architect B.V. Doshi being named for Padma Bhushan recently.

"I am happy to inform you that Doshi (IIM-B architect and Pritzker architecture prize awardee) has been conferred with Padma Bhushan in 2020," Raghuram wrote.

The professor said he spoke to Doshi on Sunday when he told him about the importance of IIM-B architecture in his professional journey.
Panama's King Moves the Queen

Enlarge Image Ricardo Martinelli Reuters

Center-right Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli is an outspoken critic of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. Back home in Panama, though, Mr. Martinelli is laying the groundwork for a power grab of his own. If he prevails the region will take another step backward on the freedom trail, yet the Obama State Department remains silent.Mr. Martinelli's term ends on July 1 and the constitution bars him from re-election. But the wealthy supermarket magnate is not letting go so easily. He has made his wife, Marta, the vice-presidential candidate on his Democratic Change Party (CD) ticket for the May 4 presidential election. The presidential candidate is Jose Domingo Arias, his former housing minister.The Panamanian Constitution anticipates the caudillo who tries "moving the queen," as this tactic is known elsewhere in the region, to get around a prohibition on re-election. Its Article 193 states that relatives within "the second degree of marital relations of the President of the Republic" may neither be president nor vice president immediately following his term.A constitutional challenge to Mrs. Martinelli's candidacy has been brought to the Supreme Court. But the president seems to be betting that the fiveof ninejudges who regularly vote in his favor will do so again.The Panamanian democracy is on the ropes once more. This time Mr. Martinelli has asphyxiated it by waving money under the noses of the political class.The economy has grown fast in recent years and to hear Mr. Martinelli tell it, he gets things done like no other president before him. That may be true. According to legend, Mussolini made the trains run on time. But the consolidation of power that allowed the Italian dictator to crush dissent and silence opponents ended in disaster. It may be no different in Panama, where the bombastic president publicly vilifies his adversaries and uses the tax authority against them.Since taking office in 2009, Mr. Martinelli has nearly doubled the national debt to almost $20 billion. His CD party won only 14 out of 71 seats in the last election, but it has since acquired 23 additional legislators from other parties. Four other legislators have joined in a governing coalition.Perhaps something metaphysical inspired these conversions. It is also possible that all that borrowed money played a role. Congressional allies who approve Martinelli projects and judicial nominations, according to media reports, are recipients of generous public funding directed by the president, while his opponents receive far less.It's hard to know how the money is being used because Mr. Martinelli has eliminated credible oversight. The attorney general and the comptroller general are supposed to be independent of the executive. Instead they are presidential cronies. The comptroller general, as I reported here in 2012, is the former internal auditor of one of the president's companies and a longtime Martinelli associate.This lack of transparency has invited scandals. One includes the allegation that Mr. Martinelli received millions of dollars in kickbacks from an Italian supplier of radar equipment and helicopters partly owned by the Italian government during the time his friend Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister of Italy.Mr. Martinelli calls the charges "soap operas." But prosecutors in an Italian court, who charged Vlater Lavitola as one of the alleged Italian middlemen in the bribery scheme, have named Mr. Martinelli as a beneficiary of those bribes. Mr. Lavitola's trial is scheduled to begin in June. Curiously no American companysubject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Acthas been awarded any major contract during what has been the largest public-works spending spreenot related to the Panama Canalin the history of the country.If the CD ticket does not win the election, the incoming government is likely to closely scrutinize this and other charges of Martinelli monkey business. That could explain what appears to be heavy-handed campaign tactics. In March the president of the electoral tribunal, one of the last independent institutions in the country, alleged that the CD had gained access to personal and confidential information about voters held by the electoral authority and is using it for the campaign.Tens of millions of public dollars are being spent advertising the government's public-works projects ahead of the vote. In flagrant violation of the constitutional prohibition on campaigning by the president, Mr. Martinelli openly promotes the CD ticket.The electoral tribunal will play a key role in oversight and vote counting in a race that is expected to be tight. As such its reputation for integrity is crucial. But in recent weeks Mr. Martinelli has been attacking its reliability and even the impartiality of its president, as if he seeks to undermine the court's authority.In 2012, Mr. Martinelli tried to pack the Supreme Court by adding three new seats to guarantee his influence and raise the odds that he might overcome the prohibition on re-election the way Daniel Ortega did in Nicaragua. When Panamanians went to the streets to resist, he withdrew the proposal. The lust for power remains.Write to O'Grady@wsj.comEn instantes traduccion completa del articulo.
Proper structures must be instituted to ...
by Benigna Menezes*

The Villa Balconi residence is located in Vegavaram, in Andhra Pradesh. The 40 guest nuns spent the day in prayer, studying the Word of God, thanking those who animate the liturgy every day. Deacon: "The proclaimed Word belongs to the here and now."

Vijayawada (AsiaNews) - The missionaries of the Immaculate Conception, the women's congregation associated with PIME, celebrated the first Sunday of the Word of God yesterday in the house that houses the elderly nuns in Vegavaram, in Andhra Pradesh. The structure, named "Villa Balconi", houses 40 missionaries who joyfully welcomed Pope Francis' invitation to celebrate the event. They spent the day in prayer, studying the Word of God, thanking those who animate the liturgy by reading the passages of the Gospel and directing new readers to this fundamental ministry for the Catholic Church.

The sisters met on the evening of Saturday 25 January and listened with enthusiasm to the circular letter from the superior, Sr. Daisy, who explained the meaning of the day, wanted to strengthen "the relationship between the Risen Lord, the community of faithful and the Holy Scriptures, which is essential for us who are Christians". Yesterday the official celebrations began at 7 in the morning with an introduction by Sr. Sophia Ouseph and the songs sung by the choir. Following, the procession with the censer, the cross, a garland of candles and the book of the Gospels carried by the superior of the missionaries of Charity, Sr. Gilson, the celebrant, sprinkled the faithful present in the chapel with blessed water.

The homily was animated by a deacon from the Holy Spirit seminary. He explained the need for Sunday of the Word of God because it is the word proclaimed every Sunday in our Eucharistic celebration; it is the word we hear in every circumstance of daily life and the ones we pronounce at any time. Let it become a moment of salvation for us and a gift for others .

The Word proclaimed, he continued, belongs not only to the past, but to the here and now. It is given to this liturgical assembly to give shape, challenge and support its continuous following the Lord. The Scriptures nourish the courage of the community: even more than before we are called to ensure that the Word of God strengthens us as individuals and communities ".

At the end of the homily, all the readers of the weekly and Sunday liturgies approached the altar and were blessed. Gilson addressed them saying: You have been called to proclaim the Word of God in the assemblies of the people of God. In so doing, share the Church's mission in proclaiming the Good News to all people. May the Word of God be alive and active in your lives, so that we can honor the living God in spirit and truth. By proclaiming the Word of God to others, accept it yourself in obedience to the Holy Spirit. Meditate on it constantly, so that every day you can love the Scriptures more and show in everything you say and do the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ. "

* Missionary of the Immaculate Conception
Former Coronation Street star Neville Buswell, who played womaniser Ray Langton, has died aged 77.

He died on Christmas Day in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas, where undertakers today confirmed the news.

Born in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire in 1943, Buswell joined the soap's cast in 1966 and was a regular on the famous cobbles for more than a decade.

Neville Buswell died on Christmas Day in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas. Undertakers in the area published an obituary which is believed to have included a touching tribute

His character Ray famously married Deirdre Barlow before abandoning her and moving to Amsterdam (picture above shows the characters on the show in 1975)

He left the show later that year before returning in 1968. For the next ten years he was a firm cast member on the show.

Buswell was best known for playing the love interest of Deidre Barlow.

He married her before abandoning her with a young baby, moving himself to Amsterdam.

He was written out of the soap in 1978 and his character was diagnosed with cancer when Deidre married Ken Barlow.

After the soap he moved to the US and is not thought to have returned to the UK often.

Buswell started his acting career by appearing in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and on stage in plays.

After leaving Britain, he worked as a croupier in Las Vegas for 13 years before becoming the manager of a casino.

He also had a job as a mortgage broker before making a cameo appearance as Ray in the one-off special Viva Las Vegas in 1997.

A still from a Coronation Street episode in the 1970s showing the Langtons sitting down to tea

Buswell was written out of the soap in 1978 and his character was diagnosed with cancer when Deidre (pictured) married Ken Barlow

In 2005 he returned to Coronation Street, this time for a six-week run.

A decade after he left the show he was caught up in a child sex probe and was accused of sexually assaulted a teenage girl in his dressing room in the 1960s.

At the time Lancashire police requested he return to the UK to be interviewed, but he refused.

Coronation Street fans paid tribute to Buswell on Twitter today.

One wrote: 'This is sad. As a child I watched #Corrie & remembered him marrying Deirdre! #RIP Neville.'

Another added: 'Sad to hear of the death of Neville Buswell.

'Here he is as Ray Langton in Coronation Street being belted with an ashtray by Elsie Tanner in June 1976. RIP. #corrie.'

After leaving the soap, Buswell moved to the US where he worked as a croupier and is not thought to have returned to the UK often.
Several hundred employees of the BMC-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking on Monday held a march in Dadar to protest against management apathy and its privatisation moves.

BEST runs buses, with a daily ridership of 30 lakh, in the metropolis and also supplies power to homes in the island city.

The 'long march' was organised by the BEST Sanyukta Kamgar Kruti Samiti, a joint action committee of unions in the undertaking, along with citizens' group 'Amchi Mumbai Amchi BEST'.

The action committee has sought the merger of the BEST and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation budgets, and demanded that the BEST management review its decisions of reducing staff, hiring private buses and plying conductor-less buses.

This is the first major agitation by BEST staff after the decision in July last year to reduce minimum fares for ordinary and non-AC buses to Rs 5 and Rs 6 respectively, and pegging maximum fares at Rs 20 and Rs 25 for the two classes.

BEST Workers Union chief Shashank Rao said, "The BEST management has issued an advertisement for hiring 400 conductors on contract basis. We have decided not to let a single worker step inside depots. We will also meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to discuss our demands."



BJP MLA Nitesh Rane, who took part in the protest march, hit out at CM Thackeray alleging he had time to think about the "night life of Mumbai but not the plight of BEST workers".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Just weeks into their probe of racism and dysfunction in the Peel public school board, three provincial reviewers say they have already consistently heard painful accounts of traumatic experiences in schools and school communities.

The narratives shared with us signal a profound lack of respect in relationships, demonstrated by stories of marginalization, discrimination, differential behaviour, and harassment, says their interim report, obtained by the Star.

Ena Chadha, Suzanne Herbert and newly appointed reviewer Shawn Richard are looking into complaints of racism  in particular anti-Black racism  as well as issues overall with equity, hiring and leadership.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce ordered the investigation in early November after the Peel board reached out for help as it grappled with allegations of anti-Black racism, a trustee who referred to the diverse McCrimmon Middle School as McCriminal, and after a senior administrator in charge of anti-discrimination launched a human rights complaint.

So far, the review team has received more than 350 interview requests as well as email, mail and phone submissions, which they characterize as a strong public response.

The review began in December, and that month alone they spoke to 50 people, both individually and in groups.

Richard, a lawyer, was appointed later last month after concerns that no one from the Black community was on the front lines.

At the time, Lecce noted that the entire review was being overseen by assistant deputy education minister and human rights lawyer Patrick Case, a prominent member of the Black community who was part of a review team in 2017  with Herbert  that issued a scathing report on racism and a lack of leadership in the York Region District School Board.

The trio filed their interim report on Peel to Lecce on Dec. 30, and their final report is due by spring.

In a statement, Lecce said he has met with the reviewers to better understand their immediate observations of systemic anti-Black racism, and lack of adherence to governance, leadership, trustee conduct and hiring and promotions practices.

I believe students and families deserve better, Lecce said. It is my hope that the final report will build momentum for the transformational change racialized families are seeking, after a period of inaction.

Their interim report says we have received written and oral submissions from many individuals and groups representing diverse perspectives on the issues within the scope of the review.

The reviewers have also been examining various documentation, minutes of board meetings, board policies and data. We have consistently heard painful accounts of traumatic experiences in schools and school communities that speak to systemic and historical disparities between and across racial, ethnic and cultural groups with respect to access to programming, services, academic achievement, transitions to post-secondary education and the workforce, hiring, and promotion, as well as discipline measures both in education and employment.

They go on to say that a profound lack of respect (is) demonstrated by stories of marginalization, discrimination, differential behaviour, and harassment. To date, these sentiments relate to leadership, governance, human resources, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia and other forms of inequities put forward by students, parents, educators, staff, senior administrators, elected officials and community members who we have met with thus far.

The Peel District School Board is the second largest in the province, with more than 155,000 students in Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon schools, and about 17,000 staffers. Its student body is highly diverse, with the three largest groups identifying as South Asian (45 per cent), white (17 per cent) and Black (10 per cent).

So far, the reviewers say that all stakeholders, from students and parents to educators, staff, senior administrators, trustees and community members, have expressed consensus that the review is a much needed intervention to better understand the challenging and compounding dynamics operating within the (Peel board) and broader community.

However, there has been some criticism that given the tight timeline, the review will not be as comprehensive as needed. The reviewers say they will identify the problems and make recommendations, but more work will need to be done.

The board, they say, will need a process that will allow community members to directly speak their truth to trustees and senior staff in order to regain public confidence that will be necessarily longer-term and that will be monitored by the ministry, they wrote.

Those theyve interviewed have told us that they expect that this review will assist the (Peel board) to become more transparent and responsive in its commitment to provide inclusive learning and working environments where all students and staff feel respected.

Last month, Lecce himself met with some Peel community members who told him part of the problem is a lack of diversity among teachers.

Lecce said that Regulation 274, which was brought in under the former Liberal government, impedes boards in hiring because it forces schools to hire the most experience supply teachers for full-time jobs, rather than their top choice or who will be the best fit.

The regulation is a part of the current negotiating round between teacher unions and the province.

The Peel review team had at least 13 days of interviews in January  in Brampton, Mississauga, Malton, Etobicoke and Toronto  and notes that considering the urgency to complete this review and the volume of requests to participate in the review process, we will not be able meet with everyone who has expressed interest but promises that all written submissions will be looked at.

Lecce said he wants families to know the government is listening and is fully committed to combating racism and improving equity and opportunity for their children.

He pledged to continue to empower students  notably from racialized communities  to be a part of the solution, to have a voice, and to work collaboratively to eliminate obstacles to academic success and well-being.

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It is the annual event that has accomplished chefs quaking in their toques: Monday's 2020 edition of the Michelin restaurant guide for France reveals the winners and losers of its coveted ratings stars. This year's edition of the so-called gastronomy "bible" caused a stir even before its official release, when it was revealed Michelin has stripped renowned chef Paul Bocuse's flagship restaurant of one of its three stars. The red guide, which can make or break culinary reputations, angered many in the industry by downgrading the iconic Auberge du Pont de Collonges -- the oldest three-starred restaurant in the world created by Bocuse, nicknamed the "pope" of French cuisine. He died in 2018. But Michelin boss Gwendal Poullennec defended the move by insisting stars are not "inherited", and "must be earned every year". "We obviously understand the emotion that the loss of a star can provoke, but there is no exceptional treatment," he told AFP. "All establishments are evaluated anonymously by our inspectors every year... whether you are an iconic chef or a young chef who takes the risk of being plunged into debt by opening a restaurant." Poullennec told AFP no other three-starred restaurants ran the risk of being downgraded in this year's guide. According to Michelin, restaurants are selected on four criteria: the quality of the ingredients used, mastery of flavour and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef reflected in their cuisine, and lastly value for money and consistency between visits. One star denotes "high quality cooking", two stars "excellent cooking", and three stars "exceptional cuisine". - Cooking under pressure - Of 30,000 restaurants listed worldwide, only about 130 have attained the highest distinction. Critics say the process has rendered Michelin stars untenable as more and more diners baulk at spending a fortune on a meal. A handful of French restaurateurs have in recent years relinquished their prized three-star status because of the stress of being judged by Michelin inspectors. The 2003 suicide of three-star chef Bernard Loiseau was linked, among other reasons, to speculation that his restaurant was about to lose its three-star status. Last year, Michelin downgraded three three-starred restaurants: the Auberge de L'Ill in Alsace, which held the highest accolade for half a century, Pascal Barbot's Parisian restaurant l'Astrance, and Marc Veyrat's Alpine restaurant the Maison des Bois, which was awarded its third star just a year earlier. Veyrat sued the guide for suggesting -- wrongly, he insists -- that he had used cheddar cheese in a souffle. His lawsuit was rejected. - From France to Japan - The guide was born in a very different guise, when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, founders of the eponymous tyre company, brought out a travel guide in 1900 to encourage motorists to take to the road and so boost business. There were fewer than 3,000 cars in France at the time. Initially free, the red guidebook included maps, a how-to on changing tyres and lists of petrol stops, mechanics, hotels and eateries along the route. The first run of 35,000 copies was such a success that guides for Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Spain followed. The three-star ranking for restaurants was introduced in 1931. In 2005, the Michelin Guide branched out of Europe with a New York guide, followed in 2007 by editions for San Francisco then Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It moved to Asia with a Tokyo version in 2008 when 90,000 copies, in English and Japanese, flew off the shelves in 48 hours. More than 30 million Michelin Guides have been sold, according to its website. ccid-cds-may/mlr/wai/qan Gwendal Poullenec, director of the Michelin Guide, insists stars are not 'inherited' but must be 'earned every year' Almost two years to the day after the death of famed chef Paul Bocuse, Michelin revealed his iconic restaurant had lost its coveted three-star rating Chef Marc Veyrat, seen celebrating after winning three Michelin stars in 2018, lost one the following year and sued the guide for suggesting, wrongly, he insists, he had used cheddar cheese in a souffle The guide was born when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, founders of a tyre company, brought out a travel guide in 1900 to encourage motorists to take to the road and so boost business
Washington, Jan 28 : The death toll in a fire which destroyed a dock containing around 35 boats in the US state of Alabama rose to eight, with more fatalities feared, local media reported.

All eight people known to be missing were confirmed dead, said Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Mecklaus, adding "that number could go up, because we don't know how many were on boats." Mecklaus said at least seven people were rescued on the scene and transferred to hospital for treatment of their injuries.

About 35 boats were consumed in flames, some of them sinking and others floating away, as a result of the fire in Jackson County Park in Scottsboro, according to Mecklaus.

"The dock is collapsed; we can't get to all the boats right now," said Jackson County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen. "We have a list of residents here and we are trying to confirm (the) whereabouts of everyone." The blaze was reported shortly after midnight, when people residing in the boats were sleeping. The fire consumed the wooden dock and an aluminum roof covering many of the vessels, cutting off escape routes for people and debris fell into the water, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Scottsboro Fire Department, Scottsboro Police Department, Jackson County Sheriff's Office, along with other agencies and volunteers, were on the scene responding to the incident.

The cause of the fire was under investigation by the State of Alabama Fire Marshals Office and the Scottsboro Fire Department, according to Harnen.

Information on Jackson County Park's website shows the park has a walking trail, boat ramps, and fishing and swimming docks on the Tennessee River.
GRAFTON  There was snow on the ground and only one recreational vehicle at the campground at Pere Marquette State Park because it is the slow season.

But it will be a lot slower within a few weeks, when the Jersey County campground shuts down for about six months for refurbishment and upgrades.

The campground is expected to be completely closed for about 155 days, and reopen in July or August, depending on when the actual work starts. While work is primarily in the RV campground, it will also close the tent camping areas and the campground picnic shelters.

That means the park will lose the spring, and probably a good part of the summer camping season.

Were excited, site superintendent Chris Hespen said. The upgrade is long overdue, and Im excited were able to provide that in the region. But theres no good time to renovate a 365-calendar day campground.

The $1 million project will include a major upgrade for electrical and water services, an additional watering and grey- and black-water dump station, and general upgrades to the 80-site facility.

A major part of the work will be improving the electrical service. Most sites are now set up for 30- and 20-amp service. The renovation will add 50-amp service to all of those sites.

We have very few with 50-amp service, Hespen said. The evolution and upgrading in todays campers require more amperage.

A lone camper was sitting on the host site Thursday. The campground host is responsible for overseeing the campground. Because it is a long-term site, it is equipped with electrical, sewer and water. The renovations will include the creation of a second host camper site with those amenities.

The project is under the direction of the Illinois Capital Development Board. Hespen said it will begin as soon as the board gives approval, which is expected in the near future.

Until then, he said, they are not taking any reservations at the campsite, but camping will still be available.

During the work, the entire campground will be closed because of the hazards created by the construction. Theres going to be open trenches, Hespen said.

While there is not much interest now in the campground, he said it usually picks up in March or April for spring turkey hunters and people wanting to get outside.

Its not unreasonable at the end of March or April for people to have cabin fever and want to get out of doors, he said.
Poisonous snakes kill more than 90,000 people each year across the globe, with about 1.2 million to 5.5 million snake bites occur annually. Despite the venomous bite, scientists have limited knowledge of the snakes venom, complicating efforts to develop treatments. A new study has found that snake venom gland cells can be cultured in the lab as adult-stem-cell-based organoids, producing real venom, which can be used to develop treatments.

The inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), also commonly known as the western taipan, the small-scaled snake or the fierce snake is the by far the most toxic of any snake  much more so than even that of sea snakes  and it has the most toxic venom of any reptile when tested on human heart cell culture. It is estimated that one bite possesses enough lethality to kill at least 100 fully grown men. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_taipan

A team of researchers at the Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute (KNAW) has developed a way to grow snake venom gland cells as organoids, which secrete active toxins found in snake venom. The new discovery holds promise to help reduce the impact of snake venom.

For years, scientists have created mini-organs or organoids for adult human and mouse stem cells, which are able to divide and grow into new types of tissues in the body. They have been used to create tiny guts, brains, and livers, for study and possible development of treatments. However, they havent used the method in reptiles before.

Organoids have become a crucial tool for scientists to study many disease processes, and even in testing potential drugs. Now, they are being used in the production of snake venom, as published in the study published in the journal Cell.

More than 100,000 people die from snake bites every year, mostly in developing countries. Yet the methods for manufacturing antivenom haven't changed since the 19th century. It's clear there is a huge unmet medical need for new treatments, Hans Clevers of the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said in a statement.

Collect venom glands from snakes

The team wanted to see if they can produce or grow mini versions of reptile organs in the laboratory, starting off with snakes. They set up a team-up with snake experts in Leiden, Amsterdam, and Liverpool, collecting venom glands from nine different snakes.

They tried to grow mini versions of the glands in a dish. With the use of some changes in the environment, the team developed a special method that helps grow snake venom glands. One of the main differences in growing mini organs from humans is that snakes have lower body temperature, which meant that the snake organoids only grew in temperatures lower than 32 C.

The vast majority of venom toxins

The team used a high-resolution microscope to study the organoids produced. They found that in the organoids, there are many venom components or toxins made by the snakes.

"We know from other secretory systems such as the pancreas and intestine that specialized cell types make subsets of hormones. Now we saw for the first time that this is also the case for the toxins produced by snake venom gland cells", Joep Beumer from the Hubrecht Institute, explained.

Further, the team discovered that tweaking certain factors in the growth of organoids can help change the contents of the venom, providing control on which type of venom will be produced.

Aside from being able to determine venom content, the new study can help scientists produce venom to be used for antivenom production. It can also be utilized to produce targeted venom-based drugs in the future.

Future studies may use venom gland organoids to dissect the stimuli and timing of venom production and secretion. The ability to indefinitely expand these organoids and repeatedly harvest venom supernatants in a highly defined environment may help overcome hurdles posed by the significant variation in snake venom composition, the researchers wrote in the paper.

Finally, the current study opens new avenues for bioprospecting of snake venom components and may be developed into a production platform for (modified) snake venom, allowing novel therapeutic strategies to tackle snakebite, they added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Despite reports saying otherwise, Nadine Lustre is still part of VIVA Artists Agency (VAA).

In a statement released Monday, VAA denied that the actress had split from the talent management company, saying Lustre " has a valid and subsisting Management Contract" with them.

VAA released the statement in response to earlier reports that Lustre would be self-managing her career.

"Under the law, Nadine cannot unilaterally withdraw from her contact wit VICA," said VAA.

The management company added it would take appropriate action against anyone in breach of her existing contract.

Lustre has not released a comment in response to VAA's statement.

Lustre recently figured in the news after she and now ex-boyfriend announced their split earlier this month.

READ: No more JaDine: Nadine Lustre, James Reid confirm split
WASHINGTON  Sheriffs deputies in Lake County, Fla., on Monday arrested a notorious tormentor of the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, charging him with the unlawful possession of personal identification.

Wolfgang Halbig, a former contributor to Infowars, the online and radio show hosted by the far-right provocateur Alex Jones, has spread false claims for years that the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting of 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., was an elaborate government hoax aimed at confiscating Americans firearms. When challenged or confronted by Sandy Hook families, Mr. Halbig has released their personal information, taunted them or emailed them photographs of what he claimed were their dead children all grown up.

Mr. Halbig, of Sorrento, Fla., was arrested after a complaint filed by Leonard Pozner, whose son Noah, 6, died in the shooting. The arrest affidavit said that Mr. Halbig repeatedly emailed Mr. Pozners Social Security number, date of birth and other information to a long list of recipients, including multiple different law enforcement agencies and news stations.

Mr. Pozner has tried since 2014 to stop Mr. Halbig from targeting Sandy Hook families and other victims of tragedy. In response, Mr. Halbig posted online a 100-page TransUnion background report on Mr. Pozner, which included his address and delicate personal information. Mr. Pozner lives in hiding.
The theatre collective alleges Delhi University's Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies cancelled their play on Kashmir on the grounds of political correctness.

Days before they were scheduled to perform at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies annual cultural fest, members of the Alternative Space Project went from one classroom to another promoting their upcoming performance. However, on 24 January, a day before the fest was to take place at one of Delhi Universitys top commerce colleges, their play chronicling the history of Kashmir, was cancelled.

Although the young theatre practitioners have had brushes with censorship in the past, the phone call delivering the news left them flustered. We were told by certain professors that the topic was too sensitive to be discussed in present times, says Karan Chaudhary, who apart from being the writer of of the contentious play, Aksariyat Akliyat, happens to be a former student of the college. He spent months studying the mythical and political narratives which continue to colour perspectives on Kashmir with his director, Vivek Tyagi, before taking it to different Indian cities. Just last month, the group was at Mumbais fabled Prithvi Theatre to stage the play as part of Thespo 21, the youth theatre festival.

The independent theatre collective alleged that the college authorities abused their power and let their political opinion cloud their decision to take the play off the programme. They also accused a certain professor of being aggressive while explaining their stance on the issue. A professor had an issue with a dialogue in the play about an exchange between Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawahar Lal Nehru. He thought it was incendiary and factually incorrect, recounts Chaudhary. However, when Firstpost contacted Dr Poonam Verma, principal, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, she stated that the professors maintained decorum while holding a long discussion with the theatre collective. As an educational institution, we have to ensure neutrality on political matters and we uphold that value system, Dr Verma said. She insisted SSCBS offers professional courses and would not want to encourage anything that could ignite controversies.

However, members of the Alternative Space Project believe the move to call off their act was based partly on their understanding of the historicity of the Kashmir conflict and partly on maintaining a veneer of political correctness.

One of professors said they did not want their institution to turn into a second Jawaharlal Nehru University, recounts Tyagi. As it has been widely reported, Left students at JNU, in an act of coordinated mob violence on 6 January, were attacked by a group of masked persons, speculated to be members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. The attackers assaulted at least 34 students and vandalised institutional property.

In her response to the professors statement, Verma unequivocally backed the faculty members, and said she trusts the collective wisdom of the teachers. On being asked why the professors, some of whom work closely with the Student Council, had not taken note of the play before, she said, The screening should have happened before but it could not be done. There were about four to five teachers who came to me and said the play could create controversy as it had some instigative matter (sic). As an educational institute, we can not allow the campus to be used as a platform for such expression. Verma says although she has not read the script of the play, she would side with the teachers on such matters unless the issue at hand was something drastic that needed further investigation.

While the artists like Chaudhary and Tyagi did not expect to have the show cancelled after they had promoted it on social media, Verma says debate is allowed on the campus, but nothing that affects the academic pursuits of students would be encouraged.

For Chaudhary, who served as the president of the Student Council in 2018, it is difficult to put the incident in perspective as several other productions revolving around the Kashmir dispute and fascism have been performed widely on campus. Fasci-Tantra, a 2018 play drew analogies between fascism in Germany and India, was not screened by faculty members despite being performed over 70 times. Additionally, the institutes dramatics society had also staged Rizwaan, a production on insurgency in Kashmir, on multiple occasions. On the need to safeguard academic interests, Verma said, Something that has happened out of ignorance in the past shouldn't be considered a precedent.

The theatre practitioners in question have decided to move on, but insist on an apology letter. The college administration has left that to the Student Council to tackle. It is not about the apology. It is about them understanding our perspective, Verma asserts.
TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao (left) refuses to accept a sweet offered by minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav during a press meet at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad on Monday. (S. Surender Reddy)

Hyderabad: The ruling TRS on Monday completed its rout of the civic bodies polls, sweeping 112 municipalities out of 120 and all the 10 corporations. The Congress won four municipalities, the BJP and the MIM two each.

The State Election Commission (SEC) has postponed the election of chairperson and vice chairperson in Medchal municipality due to lack of quorum and in Nereducharla because of a controversy raised over the voting by Congress Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao as an ex-officio member. These elections will be held on January 28.

The TRS had absolute majority to form councils in 82 municipalities and five municipal corporations, the Congress in eight municipalities and the BJP in three. The ruling party grabbed two from the Congress and one from the BJP using its ex-officio votes  those of MPs, MLAs and MLCs.

In the other 31 bodies including the Nizamabad, Boduppal, Ramagundam, Meerpet and Badangpet municipal corporations, the TRS won with the support of rebels, independents and the MIM.

In Thukkuguda, the BJP had won nine wards out of 15 and the TRS five. The ruling party then used the ex-officio votes of minister Sabita Indra Reddy, Rajya Sabha member Dr K. Kesava Rao and MLCs Nayani Narasimha Reddy, E. Mallesham and K. Janardhan Reddy.

The BJP lodged a strong objection with the SEC for allowing Dr Kesava Rao, to vote as he represents AP in the Rajya Sabha.

KTR claims TRS has wide voterbase

In the 15 wards of Adibatla, the Congress won eight, the TRS six and the BJP one. The TRS used the ex-officio votes of MLC Srinivas Reddy Rajya Sabha member Banda Prakash and local MLA M. Kishan Reddy to win the council.

In Nalgonda, the Congress and the TRS were even at 20 wards each out 48 but the TRS took over the municipality with votes of MLCs Gutha Sukhender Reddy, T. Chinappa Reddy, N. Vidya Sagar and Palla Rajeswara Reddy.

In Kosgi, the Congress and TRS won seven each out of the 16 wards but the TRS took the help of two independents and ex-officio votes of Mahbubnagar MP M. Srinivas Reddy, MLA P. Narender Reddy and MLC K. Narayan Reddy to sail home.

In Nereducharla, there was high drama as the collector refused to permit Congress Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao to vote as an ex-officio member. The Congress approached the State Election Commission (SEC) challenging the order.

The SEC set aside the order of the collector and permitted Dr Ramachandra Rao to vote in the council election on Tuesday in view of the bulletin released by Parliament earlier recognising Dr Ramachandra Rao as Rajya Sabha member from Telangana state.

After the results, TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao told reporters that a lion share of seats had been given to leaders from the BC, SC, ST, and minority communities which did not have strong political representation until now.

He claimed that no other party can deliver social justice the way the TRS does. As per the directions of TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, utmost importance was given to the marginalised sections in the election of municipal chairpersons and mayors. By this, we have shown our commitment towards the welfare of BC, SC, ST, and minorities, Mr Rama Rao said.

He noted that leaders from these sections had won general category seats and added that 58 chairpersons and mayor and 45 vice-chairpersons from the TRS, totalling 103, had been elected.

While Suryapet was reserved for general women, Ms Annapurnamma from the Scheduled Caste community had been elevated as chairperson.

In the Medchal district, the chairperson's post in the general category at Pocharam municipality was given to Mr Redya Nayak, an ST leader. In Kagaznagar of Adilabad district, a Muslim leader had been elected in the general category municipality.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said there will always be a seat at the European Council table for the UK if their Brexit adventure does not work out.

Speaking after a meeting with EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier, the Taoiseach said he was sad that UK was leaving later this week but said he is optimistic that a new relationship could be developed in the coming year.

On Friday, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, well say goodbye to an old friend embarking on an adventure, he said.

We hope it works out for them. But if it does not, there will always be a seat kept for them at the table, he added.

Mr Varadkar said Ireland will be part of Team 27 during the trade talks which will commence in the coming weeks.

He said he did not see the forthcoming trade talks as a contest and added that he would like to see the EU and UK work together to strike a deal that is mutually beneficial.

Time is short and a negotiating mandate will be agreed at the EU Council in March, but were up for it, he said.

Mr Barnier thanked the Taoiseach for the courage he showed during the first phase of Brexit negotiations.

It certainly wouldnt have been possible to reach this agreement without the hard work, passions and unity of everybody here in Ireland, he said.

He also thanked Tanaiste Simon Coveney, European Affairs Minister Helen McEntee and all the other politicians in the Dail and the Seanad who showed solidarity during the first round of talks.

Its time for round two and this time it will be very short. We will maintain the unity and we want to find an agreement that works in the interest of the whole EU, he said.

Mr Barnier said he will work with any government elected by the citizens of Ireland. He said the EU was not read to ask for concessions or offer any ahead of the talks and warned a no deal Brexit is still possible.

This negotiation is not usual because at the end of this year, because the UK is leaving the single market, it is his choice, and hes leaving the Customs Union. If we have no agreement it will not be business as usual in the status quo. We have to face the risk of a cliff edge, in particular for trade, he said.

Earlier, Mr Varadkar said the European Union will have the upper hand in post-Brexit trade talks with the United Kingdom and questioned Prime Minister Boris Johnsons timetable of striking a deal by the end of the year, the BBC reported.

In an interview with the BBC, The Taoiseach compared the two sides to soccer teams and suggested that the EU would have the stronger team due to its larger population and market.

The European Union is a union of 27 member states. The UK is only one country. And we have a population and a market of 450 million people, he said. He also said it would be difficult to strike a deal by 2020.
Hundreds of AMU students block highway, demand release of arrested student

India

oi-PTI

Aligarh (UP) Jan 27: Hundreds of AMU students overnight blocked traffic on the main Aligarh-Moradabad Highway demanding release of a student who was held for allegedly heckling the AMU Vice Chancellor during his Republic Day speech, a university official said on Monday.

The blockade, which started on Sunday evening, continued till 2 am, the official said. AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor was on Sunday heckled by a group of students during his Republic Day speech here soon after he termed as "unfortunate" the recent happenings on the campus and said peaceful protests will be allowed on any issue within the ambit of law.

Protests at AMU following JNU violence

Four students identified as Tahir Azmi, Rafiuddin, Sudhir Gulati and A Mujtaba Faraz, who were involved in the heckling, were handed over to police. In the afternoon, a group of protesters collected at the gate of the AMU Proctor's office demanding the release of the four.

Three students were later released by the police. AMU Proctor, Prof Afifullah Khan, said three students had been released whereas Faraz was sent to jail. As the news spread in the campus, huge crowds of protesters started collecting near the Purani Chungi gate of the University and blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad Highway.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

In view of the protests, exams of the AMU Engineering College were cancelled on Monday. AMU Proctor, Prof Afifullah Khan told PTI, "The examinations which were to be held at the AMU Engineering College on Monday could not be held" as a large number of protesters collected at the gates of the Zakir Hussain College of Engineering.

Referring to the students' demand for the release of Faraz, the Proctor said a group of teachers and top university officials have met senior district officials and, "We are hopeful that Faraz will be out on bail".

The AMU campus has been witnessing protests against the amended Citizenship Amendment Bill and over 1200 students, including those not identified, have been booked in about a dozen odd cases connected to different protests. The students are also demanding the resignation of top University officials for "failing" to secure justice for those students who were allegedly the victim of police excesses during anti-CAA protests. Security arrangements in and around the AMU campus have been further beefed up.
Britain's Prince Charles Expresses Hopes Of Visiting Iran

01/27/20

Source: RFE/RL

Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, said in a newspaper interview that he would like to make an official visit to Iran, calling it "such an important part of the world." "Yes, obviously I would like to [go to Iran]," The Sunday Times quoted him as saying in an interview to be published on January 26. "I know that Iran has been such an important part of the world for so many centuries and has contributed so much to human knowledge, culture, poetry, art. I mean, really remarkable people."

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Charles talks to @RoyaNikkhah about climate change ("My grandchildren's generation are standing up and saying, 'What are you doing? We can't go on like this.") and his hopes for peace in the Middle East https://t.co/MJkRZABf7X  The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) January 25, 2020

However, asked about a future royal visit, a spokeswoman for Prince Charles said: "There are no plans for the Prince of Wales to undertake an official visit to Iran."



The comments come as tensions remain high between Tehran and the West, particularly with Britain and the United States.



Washington and Tehran engaged in tit-for-tat military strikes earlier this month.



Britain, meanwhile, has demanded that Iran release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals imprisoned there.



Last July, Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker two weeks after British forces near Gibraltar captured an Iranian oil tanker. Both ships were eventually released.



The British prince told the newspaper that he tries to be a peacemaker and that he has prayed for peace in the Middle East.



"I do think the most important thing is a just and lasting peace," he said.



Britain's royal family generally steers clear of speaking on political matters in public.



Based on reporting by The Sunday Times and Reuters
Uttar Pradesh police on late Sunday arrested three criminals following an encounter in Shahabad area of Rampur.

Two of them were also injured in the police encounter and were admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Mishra told ANI that the men were arrested for being accused in a murder case that had occurred last week.

"We have deployed a team at the incident spot and are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter," he added while speaking to ANI.

More details in this regard are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Details of a new book by John Bolton likely will upend the Senate's impeachment trial of Donald Trump, pressuring a handful of Republicans to consider demanding his testimony as the White House paints him as pushing false claims to drive up sales.

Democratic senators and presidential candidates are saying the conservative hawk should be called as a witness in the trial after the New York Times on Sunday reported the president last year told Mr Bolton, whom Mr Trump fired in September over policy differences, he wanted to keep a $391m military aid package for Ukraine frozen until that country's government announced investigations into his US Democratic rivals, including Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden.

The Bolton revelation should alter the Senate's trial on removing Mr Trump "very dramatically", House Democrats' lead impeachment manager, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on Monday morning.

"Our view is this is already overwhelming," Mr Schiff told CNN, saying Mr Bolton's testimony only further adds to testimony by other current and former Trump administration officials who told the House last year the aid package was directly tied to Mr Trump's desired investigations.

"This is the test of these senators," Mr Schiff said. "The question is: Do they want to hear the truth?"

Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Show all 26 1 /26 Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Donald Trump Accused of abusing his office by pressing the Ukrainian president in a July phone call to help dig up dirt on Joe Biden, who may be his Democratic rival in the 2020 election. He also believes that Hillary Clintons deleted emails - a key factor in the 2016 election - may be in Ukraine, although it is not clear why. EPA Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal The Whistleblower Believed to be a CIA agent who spent time at the White House, his complaint was largely based on second and third-hand accounts from worried White House staff. Although this is not unusual for such complaints, Trump and his supporters have seized on it to imply that his information is not reliable. Expected to give evidence to Congress voluntarily and in secret. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal The Second Whistleblower The lawyer for the first intelligence whistleblower is also representing a second whistleblower regarding the President's actions. Attorney Mark Zaid said that he and other lawyers on his team are now representing the second person, who is said to work in the intelligence community and has first-hand knowledge that supports claims made by the first whistleblower and has spoken to the intelligence community's inspector general. The second whistleblower has not yet filed their own complaint, but does not need to to be considered an official whistleblower. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Rudy Giuliani Former mayor of New York, whose management of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001 won him worldwide praise. As Trumps personal attorney he has been trying to find compromising material about the presidents enemies in Ukraine in what some have termed a shadow foreign policy. In a series of eccentric TV appearances he has claimed that the US state department asked him to get involved. Giuliani insists that he is fighting corruption on Trumps behalf and has called himself a hero. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Volodymyr Zelensky The newly elected Ukrainian president - a former comic actor best known for playing a man who becomes president by accident - is seen frantically agreeing with Trump in the partial transcript of their July phone call released by the White House. With a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of his country, and the Crimea region seized by Vladimir Putin in 2014, Zelensky will have been eager to please his American counterpart, who had suspended vital military aid before their phone conversation. He says there was no pressure on him from Trump to do him the favour he was asked for. Zelensky appeared at an awkward press conference with Trump in New York during the United Nations general assembly, looking particularly uncomfortable when the American suggested he take part in talks with Putin. AFP/Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Mike Pence The vice-president was not on the controversial July call to the Ukrainian president but did get a read-out later. However, Trump announced that Pence had had one or two phone conversations of a similar nature, dragging him into the crisis. Pence himself denies any knowledge of any wrongdoing and has insisted that there is no issue with Trumps actions. It has been speculated that Trump involved Pence as an insurance policy - if both are removed from power the presidency would go to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, something no Republican would allow. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Rick Perry Trump reportedly told a meeting of Republicans that he made the controversial call to the Ukrainian president at the urging of his own energy secretary, Rick Perry, and that he didnt even want to. The president apparently said that Perry wanted him to talk about liquefied natural gas - although there is no mention of it in the partial transcript of the phone call released by the White House. It is thought that Perry will step down from his role at the end of the year. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Joe Biden The former vice-president is one of the frontrunners to win the Democratic nomination, which would make him Trumps opponent in the 2020 election. Trump says that Biden pressured Ukraine to sack a prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that Bidens son Hunter was on the board of, refusing to release US aid until this was done. However, pressure to fire the prosecutor came on a wide front from western countries. It is also believed that the investigation into the company, Burisma, had long been dormant. Reuters Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Hunter Biden Joe Bidens son has been accused of corruption by the president because of his business dealings in Ukraine and China. However, Trump has yet to produce any evidence of corruption and Bidens lawyer insists he has done nothing wrong. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal William Barr The attorney-general, who proved his loyalty to Trump with his handling of the Mueller report, was mentioned in the Ukraine call as someone president Volodymyr Zelensky should talk to about following up Trumps preoccupations with the Bidens and the Clinton emails. Nancy Pelosi has accused Barr of being part of a cover-up of a cover-up. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Mike Pompeo The secretary of state initially implied he knew little about the Ukraine phone call - but it later emerged that he was listening in at the time. He has since suggested that asking foreign leaders for favours is simply how international politics works. Gordon Sondland testified that Pompeo was "in the loop" and knew what was happening in Ukraine. Pompeo has been criticised for not standing up for diplomats under his command when they were publicly criticised by the president. AFP via Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Nancy Pelosi The Democratic Speaker of the House had long resisted calls from within her own party to back a formal impeachment process against the president, apparently fearing a backlash from voters. On September 24, amid reports of the Ukraine call and the day before the White House released a partial transcript of it, she relented and announced an inquiry, saying: The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Adam Schiff Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, one of the three committees leading the inquiry. He was criticized by Republicans for giving what he called a parody of the Ukraine phone call during a hearing, with Trump and others saying he had been pretending that his damning characterisation was a verbatim reading of the phone call. He has also been criticised for claiming that his committee had had no contact with the whistleblower, only for it to emerge that the intelligence agent had contacted a staff member on the committee for guidance before filing the complaint. The Washington Post awarded Schiff a four Pinocchios rating, its worst rating for a dishonest statement. Reuters Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman Florida-based businessmen and Republican donors Lev Parnas (pictured with Rudy Giuliani) and Igor Fruman were arrested on suspicion of campaign finance violations at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC on 9 October. Separately the Associated Press has reported that they were both involved in efforts to replace the management of Ukraine's gas company, Naftogaz, with new bosses who would steer lucrative contracts towards companies controlled by Trump allies. There is no suggestion of any criminal activity in these efforts. Reuters Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal William Taylor The most senior US diplomat in Ukraine and the former ambassador there. As one of the first two witnesses in the public impeachment hearings, Taylor dropped an early bombshell by revealing that one of his staff  later identified as diplomat David Holmes  overheard a phone conversation in which Donald Trump could be heard asking about investigations the very day after asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political enemies. Taylor expressed his concern at reported plans to withhold US aid in return for political smears against Trumps opponents, saying: It's one thing to try to leverage a meeting in the White House. It's another thing, I thought, to leverage security assistance -- security assistance to a country at war, dependent on both the security assistance and the demonstration of support." Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal George Kent A state department official who appeared alongside William Taylor wearing a bow tie that was later mocked by the president. He accused Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trumps personal lawyer, of leading a campaign of lies against Marie Yovanovitch, who was forced out of her job as US ambassador to Ukraine for apparently standing in the way of efforts to smear Democrats. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Marie Yovanovitch One of the most striking witnesses to give evidence at the public hearings, the former US ambassador to Ukraine received a rare round of applause as she left the committee room after testifying. Canadian-born Yovanovitch was attacked on Twitter by Donald Trump while she was actually testifying, giving Democrats the chance to ask her to respond. She said she found the attack very intimidating. Trump had already threatened her in his 25 July phone call to the Ukrainian president saying: Shes going to go through some things. Yovanovitch said she was shocked, appalled and devastated by the threat and by the way she was forced out of her job without explanation. REUTERS Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Alexander Vindman A decorated Iraq War veteran and an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, Lt Col Vindman began his evidence with an eye-catching statement about the freedoms America afforded him and his family to speak truth to power without fear of punishment. One of the few witnesses to have actually listened to Trumps 25 July call with the Ukrainian president, he said he found the conversation so inappropriate that he was compelled to report it to the White House counsel. Trump later mocked him for wearing his military uniform and insisting on being addressed by his rank. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Jennifer Williams A state department official acting as a Russia expert for vice-president Mike Pence, Ms Williams also listened in on the 25 July phone call. She testified that she found it unusual because it focused on domestic politics in terms of Trump asking a foreign leader to investigate his political opponents. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Kurt Volker The former special envoy to Ukraine was one of the few people giving evidence who was on the Republican witness list although what he had to say may not have been too helpful to their cause. He dismissed the idea that Joe Biden had done anything corrupt, a theory spun without evidence by the president and his allies. He said that he thought the US should be supporting Ukraines reforms and that the scheme to find dirt on Democrats did not serve the national interest. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Tim Morrison An expert on the National Security Council and another witness on the Republican list. He testified that he did not think the president had done anything illegal but admitted that he feared it would create a political storm if it became public. He said he believed the moving the record of the controversial 25 July phone call to a top security server had been an innocent mistake. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Gordon Sondland In explosive testimony, one of the men at the centre of the scandal got right to the point in his opening testimony: Was there a quid pro quo? Yes, said the US ambassador to the EU who was a prime mover in efforts in Ukraine to link the release of military aid with investigations into the presidents political opponents. He said that everyone knew what was going on, implicating vice-president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo. The effect of his evidence is perhaps best illustrated by the reaction of Mr Trump who went from calling Sondland a great American a few weeks earlier to claiming that he barely knew him. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Laura Cooper A Pentagon official, Cooper said Ukrainian officials knew that US aid was being withheld before it became public knowledge in August  undermining a Republican argument that there cant have been a quid pro quo between aid and investigations if the Ukrainians didnt know that aid was being withheld. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal David Hale The third most senior official at the state department. Hale testified about the treatment of Marie Yovanovitch and the smear campaign that culminated in her being recalled from her posting as US ambassador to Ukraine. He said: I believe that she should have been able to stay at post and continue to do the outstanding work. EPA Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Fiona Hill Arguably the most confident and self-possessed of the witnesses in the public hearings phase, the Durham-born former NSC Russia expert began by warning Republicans not to keep repeating Kremlin-backed conspiracy theories. In a distinctive northeastern English accent, Dr Hill went on to describe how she had argued with Gordon Sondland about his interference in Ukraine matters until she realised that while she and her colleagues were focused on national security, Sondland was being involved in a domestic political errand. She said: I did say to him, Ambassador Sondland, Gordon, this is going to blow up. And here we are. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal David Holmes The Ukraine-based diplomat described being in a restaurant in Kiev with Gordon Sondland while the latter phoned Donald Trump. Holmes said he could hear the president on the other end of the line  because his voice was so loud and distinctive and because Sondland had to hold the phone away from his ear  asking about the investigations and whether the Ukrainian president would cooperate. REUTERS

To attempt calling Mr Bolton as a witness, Democrats need to hold their 47 votes in line and pick off four Republicans. The reported revelations in the book manuscript already is raising the temperature for moderate GOP senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Cory Gardner of Colorado. Also likely to receive calls to join Democrats in voting to bring in Mr Bolton during the trial are Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander and Utah senator Mitt Romney.

The manuscript contradicts Mr Trump's account of the aid freeze. He contends he held up the monies over concerns it would not be spent properly because of severe corruption inside the Ukrainian government. The book also reportedly will reveal that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not agree with the opinion of Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani that helped lead Mr Trump to fire former American Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

But Mr Trump and top aides are pushing back against Mr Bolton's account, with White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham saying on Monday morning the Trump team finds timing of the leaked details "very suspect" because the New York Times article coincides with the start of online pre-sales of the coming book. Her boss flatly denied Mr Bolton's account.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Mr Trump, a noted night owl, tweeted just after midnight.

Around sunrise in Washington, the president fired off this tweet: "The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate!" Mr Trump appears to be trying to keep Mr Bolton's testimony out of the Senate trial. That's because the Senate's impeachment rules limit the evidence the senator-jurists can consider only to information the House uncovered during its investigation last year.

"There can be no doubt now that Mr Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the President's defence and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump," the seven House Democratic impeachment managers said in a statement that dubbed the book details "explosive".

"Senators should insist that Mr. Bolton be called as a witness, and provide his notes and other relevant documents," the Democratic managers said. "The Senate trial must seek the full truth and Mr Bolton has vital information to provide. There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published, when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision Senators must now make  whether to convict the President of impeachable offences."

Mr Schiff said on Sunday night that the revelations in the coming book show why Mr Trump is threatening to invoke executive privilege to block his former national security point man's testimony.

"Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the President's defence," the California Democrat wrote in a tweet. "If the trial is to be fair, Senators must insist that Mr Bolton be called as a witness, and provide his notes and other documents."

Should four GOP senators join the 47 Democrats in supporting a measure expected on the chamber floor this week to mandate calling Mr Bolton as a witness, it likely would set up a court fight with the White House over the true scope of executive privilege.

The prospect of a lengthy court fight, however, did not stop senior Democrats from immediately demanding Mr Bolton testify.

"John Bolton has the evidence," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday evening.

"It's up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trump's actions testify in the Senate trial," the New York Democrat said in a tweet.

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democratic presidential candidate, also said the manuscript means Republicans should join her party in voting to call Mr Bolton as a witness.

"As I've said all week, the truth will come out. And it just did. Testify," Ms Klobuchar tweeted.

Spokespersons for those five GOP senators, as well as Mr Trump, had not responded for requests for comment.

Mr Trump said recently that Mr Bolton would have little to add during the Senate trial, contending he was not involved in the White House's internal Ukraine policy deliberations. Mr Bolton, however, has said he would testify if called, prompting Mr Trump to threaten to invoke privilege  and a likely court battle.

The book no doubt will ignite a debate over the legal bounds of executive privilege  and could mean Mr Trump will deliver his State of the Union address on 4 February before he is expected to be acquitted by the Senate.

One of his hand-pick impeachment attorneys, Alan Dershowitz, has long advocated for the concept of so-called blanket privilege. Under this theory, a president has the authority to block the testimony of some of his closest aides to ensure that individual and those that might follow them in their positions feel they can give the commander in chief candid advice

"Each branch of the government has a form of executive privilege," Mr Dershowitz told Fox News last summer. "The president is perfectly entitled to invoke executive privilege. If they think it goes too far ... let the courts decide."

But for every believer in an expansive executive privilege, there are as many sceptics.

"It should be clear that the privilege does not apply to impeachment," Jonathan Shaub, assistant solicitor general for the state of Tennessee, wrote recently for Lawfare. "The executive's privilege, in my view, is limited to oversight. ... As a result, executive privilege--and all its attendant prophylactic doctrines--should be set aside."
Lebanon: tension in Beirut for parliament session, protests Discussing budget bill. New demonstrations called

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JANUARY 27 - The centre of Beirut saw tension on Monday morning ahead of a highly awaited session of parliament, which had been postponed several times, to discuss the budget bill. The popular anti-government protest movement on Monday called for new demonstrations and sit-ins around the area of parliament, which has been increasingly placed under more protection by law enforcement.



The parliamentary session, which was originally scheduled for mid-November of last year but was postponed several times due to protests that began in mid-October, constitutes the first true institutional and political test of the government led by Hassan Diab, which took office in recent days.



Authorities decided to close the main streets leading to the centre of Beirut, in particular around Martyrs' Square, Riad Solh Square, and the streets that lead to the centrally located but inaccessible Place de l'Etoile, where parliament is located.(ANSAmed).




The Gambian government on Sunday launched a crackdown on a weeks-old movement demanding the departure of President Adama Barrow, following violent demonstrations in which medical officials say three protesters were killed.

Tension has been building in The Gambia, a tiny West African country surrounded by Senegal, over Barrow's decision to stay in office for five years after initially pledging to step down after three.

Police in the capital Banjul on Sunday fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters, who responded by throwing stones and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police arrested 137 people at the demonstration, it added.

The government later announced a ban on the "Three Years Jotna (is up) Movement", the group that has spearheaded weeks of protests calling for Barrow to step down.

In a statement, spokesman Ebrima Sankareh said the group was a "subversive, violent and illegal movement" that was "determined to illegally overthrow the constitutionally elected president".

The group's president Abdou Njie was also arrested on Sunday, according to an AFP journalist, although the government would not confirm it was holding Njie.

Three people were killed in Sunday's clashes according to Kebba Manneh, director of the Serrekunda hospital where victims were taken.

Red Cross sources said 28 people were taken Sunday to Serrekunda hospital, close to where protesters had gathered in the districts of Old Jeshwang and Stink Corner on the outskirts of Banjul.

The government denied that any protesters were killed on Sunday.

Among those arrested were the director of the King FM radio station, and a radio presenter who had been charged with inciting violence, a station employee told AFP.

The head of another radio station, Digital FM, was also arrested and it was not known where he was being held, Saikou Jammeh, secretary general of Gambia Press Union, told AFP.

Authorities later moved to shut the two stations, accusing them of serving as platforms for inciting violence and broadcasting for the anti-Barrow movement and threatening "the security of The Gambia".

Sunday's clashes broke out after demonstrators tried to change their itinerary to get closer to the city centre.

"Let's go and burn everything that belongs to Adama Barrow and his family," one protestor called out to those alongside him, the AFP reporter heard.

"We will protest until Barrow resigns," said another who identified himself as Amadou Sanyang. "He is a traitor who betrayed the population's trust, we are going to teach him a lesson."



On Saturday, hundreds of Gambians had marched on the outskirts of Banjul, responding to the call of victims associations demanding justice for sweeping rights abuses and murder suffered under former dictator Yahya Jammeh's 22-year rule.

Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron fist but fled in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to Barrow.

Since January 2019, around 190 witnesses have appeared before a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) set up to investigate abuses under Jammeh's rule.

Last week, thousands marched to demand he be allowed to return from exile in Equatorial Guinea.

They argued he has a right to do so under a joint statement from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations, published at the time of his exile.

But Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou warned that Jammeh would "face immediate arrest and charges of the most serious kind" if he returned, including "crimes against humanity".

Barrow, a relative unknown at the time, defeated former autocrat Yahya Jammeh in elections in the tiny West African state in 2016.

"No one can force me to leave the presidency before 2021," he said recently.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
General election candidates will be briefed on a major health scandal in Limerick tomorrow involving a 2.9m respite centre for disabled children which has lain idle since being completed 15 months ago because the HSE does not have the money to support its running costs.

As the state-of-the-art St Gabriel's Children's Respite House, located in Mungret on the outskirts of the city, remains closed children with significant physical disabilities in need of overnight respite care must be driven to Dublin to avail of an overnight break which parents say is untenable and unfair.

The St Gabriels day care centre located in Dooradoyle, two miles away, caters for over 80 children from the Mid-West who have complex physical disabilities.

The respite house, which was built on time and within budget, comprises six beds to care for children who are on oxygen, suction and are PEG fed. The opening of the centre would add over 2,000 new bed nights to the Mid-West for children's residential respite.

The costs of the new house came from voluntary fundraising and the JP McManus Benevolent Fund.

CEO of St Gabriel's Maire O'Leary said: "The respite house cannot open and will not open until a budget is provided. There was 5m announced from the budget 2020 for additional respite funds, but none of that money is coming our way.

"We are so proud to have achieved what we have with a state-of-the-art facility in place to provide much-needed respite care, for undoubtedly the most vulnerable young people in our region.

Data courtesy of The Irish Times

"We did this after lots of consultations with parents who said it was the number one need they have today. And also the HSE locally have left us in no doubt as to the need for this centre."

Lorraine Tierney, whose 13-year-old son Dylan attends St Gabriels day centre, said the development of the new house has been an incredible achievement.

"It speaks volumes as to the generosity and spirit of the people of this region and all us parents are so excited about it. Its not just a house so that parents and carers can get some respite but these children don't have the same social outlets as other children and the respite house can be their 'play date', their special place to get away. It is so frustrating.

"Day by day our faith in the system is being eroded. Our hope is being frustrated."

General election candidates have been invited to meet parents and St Gabriel's staff at the idle centre tomorrow to be briefed on the situation.
India's 71st Republic Day was celebrated in South Africa with a host of cultural, patriotic events organised by the country's missions attended by hundreds of Indian expatriates.

The Consul General of India, Johannesburg, Anju Ranjan unfurled the Indian tricolour and read the president's message.

The Republic Day programme in the Indian Consulate's Parktown suburb in Johannesburg was attended by more than 500 people, including Indian expatriates and local people.

The celebrations in Johannesburg started on January 25 itself when Ranjan hosted a dinner for a select group of guests from the business, cultural and diplomatic sectors on the eve of Republic Day.

Speaking at the dinner, Ranjan detailed plans for community interaction in the coming year, promising closer links with the communities of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo provinces.

Ranjan promised unprecedented number of cultural programes -- dance, music, language -- and yoga classes by the consulate and the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre.

She assured the business sector of concerted efforts to grow mutual trade.

The High Commission of India in Pretoria also held the celebrations on Sunday with unfurling of the national flag, reading out the presidents message by High Commissioner Jaideep Sarkar. Indians and friends of India took part in the celebrations.

High Commissioner Sarkar also echoed Ranjan's views, adding that the history and journey of the two countries -- India and South Africa -- were intertwined.

(Image Credit: Twitter/@indiainjoburg)
Fire broke out in the storeroom of a private school in West Bengal's Howrah district on Monday, fire officials said.

Old papers and files stored in a room in the top floor of a school in Howrah's Tikiapara area caught fire at around 10.30 am, a fire brigade official said.

Two fire tenders doused the blaze within half-an-hour and nobody was injured in the incident, he said.

Students were yet to arrive in the school when the fire broke out, the official said, adding that the cause of the blaze is yet to be ascertained.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The police in Enugu State on Monday paraded three herdsmen alleged to have been terrorizing Enugu State and its environs.

The herdsmen, according to the police, carried out some high profile kidnappings in the state.

The suspects include Adamu Mohammed (AKA suleiman) from Taraba State, 25 years; Musa Ibrahim from Katsina State, 28 years and Dauda Alhaji from Nasarawa State, 31 years.

They were arrested on January 18 and 22 at their various hideouts in Ebonyi State.

The gang was said to responsible for the kidnap of a Catholic priest, Cyprian Ugwuanyi.

Mr Ugwuanyi is the parish priest of St. Paul Catholic Church, Ogbosu Umulokpa in Uzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu State. He was abducted on January 10 along Ezeagu/Uzo-Uwani road in Olo Village at about 5:30 p.m.

The suspects were also responsible for the kidnap of a PDP women leader in Igbo-Etiti LGA, alongside her son and her driver along Enugu/Ugwogo/Opi/Nsukka road on December 21, 2019 at about 7:30 p.m.

They also allegedly kidnapped one Ejike Ugwuanyi on January 14 at Obollo Afor in Enugu and one John Okoli, his mother and two sisters at the boundary between Umumba in Ezeagu LGA of Enugu State and Ebenebe village in Anambra State.

All their victims had been rescued and reunited with their families, the police said.

The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Ahmed Abdurrahman, paraded the suspects at the commands headquarters in Enugu.

He said their arrest was made possible following the vigorous pursuit of the suspects.

The command pursued the suspects vigorously to one of their hideouts and recovered a GSM belonging to one of them. We trailed them and arrested them at their various hideouts in Ebonyi State.

They will be charged to court immediately investigations are concluded by the command, the commissioner assured.

Items recovered from them include one AK47 rifle with eleven rounds of live ammunitions and three locally made long guns with eighteen live cartridges, the police said.
President Lyndon B. Johnson hands a pen to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the historic Civil Rights Act in the East Room of the White House on July 2, 1964. (AFP/Getty Images)

Retropolis The Past, Rediscovered
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Changes are expected in the Police of Armenia, Acting Police Chief Arman Sargsyan told reporters at a briefing.

We are going to have a new-quality police. On the sidelines of the judicial reforms the issue of making changes in the Police is also being discussed. The concept already exists, and I think that the changes will be visible, he said.

The Acting Police Chief said these changes firstly relate to the formation of a new image of a police officer. The police officer should be more educated and be well aware of his duties and rights.

Police is a living organism and is changing which is positive. I assure you that the work done with the citizen is going to be of new quality, he said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
H olocaust survivors today spoke about the horrors they experienced as the world marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

Survivors and their families will be joined by world leaders and the Duchess of Cornwall for a commemoration service at the former Nazi death camp as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Satellite events have been organised across the world, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge set to attend a UK service in Westminster. Prince William is due to give a speech and meet Holocaust survivors.

Hannah Lewis, 82, who lives in north London, is due to travel to the Auschwitz ceremony. She has spoken about the trauma of watching Nazi soldiers shoot her mother.

Ms Lewis grew up in the Polish town of Wodawa, near the Ukraine border. In 1943 her family was taken to a labour camp in nearby Adampol.

Alicia Melamed-Adams with her family

Her father escaped the camp and joined the local partisan movement, which warned Jewish captives of imminent raids by Nazi death squads. During the final winter of the occupation Ms Lewis became ill and when her father reappeared to warn his wife and daughter of imminent danger she was too sick to flee. The following day her mother was led away and shot while Ms Lewis watched on from a hiding place.

Soviet soldiers liberated the camp in 1945, but Ms Lewis remained at Adampol with the other survivors until she was reunited with her father. She said: Suddenly my father appeared. He must have walked for days to get to me and he didnt even know I was alive. I was incredibly relieved and delighted, but I missed my mother. It was difficult to find some sense of normalcy after that.

Hannah Lewis

In 1949 she moved to Britain to live with her great-aunt and uncle. She has spent the past decade working with the Holocaust Educational Trust. She said: Today has to be recognition of the danger of what happens when power is misused and how it can lead to enormous tragedy.

Other survivors have also been sharing their experience with the BBCs Inside Out programme, to be broadcast tonight. Alicia Melamed-Adams was 13 when Nazis invaded her hometown of Drohobycz, in Poland, and murdered her family. She was sent to a work camp but escaped and remained in hiding until the end of the war.

In 1950 she moved to England, where she married a fellow survivor and settled in north London. After the war she found a photograph of herself at the camp, which she said was like a miracle. She told the programme: Here I am carrying the bricks. If you fell down and hurt yourself you were shot.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: The Narendra Modi-led Central government signed a 'historic' and the third accord with the Bodos in Assam on Monday to solve a near four-decade-old insurgency problem but it is likely to face a challenge in implementing particularly two commitments made through the accord.

The first one being, the inclusion of villages contiguous to Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) having a majority tribal population to BTAD. The second being the protection of the rights of Bodos living outside BTAD by way of inclusion of them in the list of Scheduled Tribes (Hill) of Assam in a time-bound manner.

Four Lower Assam districts such as Kokrajhar, Chirang, Udalguri and Baksa, which fall under BTAD, are partially administered by the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council. They together have just one Lok Sabha seat (Kokrajhar) and the non-Bodos constitute around 70 per cent of the voters.

The non-Bodos being wary of the Bodo accord was evident from Mondays Assam bandh which was called by several of their organisations. The bandh crippled normal life in parts of BTAD.

There has also been a growing divide between Bodos and non-Bodos living in BTAD after 600 villages, allegedly with zero Bodo population, were included in BTAD in 2003 following Centres signing of the second Bodo accord with erstwhile insurgent group Bodo Liberation Tigers.



The Centre said a Commission will be appointed to examine and recommend the exclusion of villages with majority non-tribal population from BTAD and inclusion of villages contiguous to BTAD and having a majority tribal population to BTAD.



ALSO READ | Bodo Accord will usher in new dawn of peace, harmony, togetherness: PM Modi

However, the non-Bodos living in BTAD are likely to resist any move to include any new village in BTAD even if it has a tribal majority population.



Granting ST (Hill) status to the Bodos living outside BTAD is a commitment which the Centre had made in 2003 but could not implement it as there has been a resistance in some areas, particularly the hill district of Karbi Anglong, from other ethnic communities. They fear if the Bodos settled there are granted ST status, they would cut into their benefits, including reservation of seats for STs in various fields.

Promod Bodo, who is the president of All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and a signatory of Mondays accord, said if everything committed in the accord were implemented in letter and spirit, it would help bring in permanent peace in BTAD.



ALSO READ | Peace Accord will lead to full, final solution to Bodo issue: Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

He was hopeful the government will not face any hurdles in implementing the commitment about granting ST (Hill) status to Bodos living outside BTAD.

'I dont think there will be any problem while granting ST (Hill) status to Bodos living outside BTAD as the Assam and Central governments and concerned ministries studied every aspect. If the government has a will, everything written in the accord can be implemented early,' Promod Bodo said while speaking to The New Indian Express.

He said he would observe if the Centre raises the issue in the next Parliament session. He also did not feel the government will face a challenge in including villages, contiguous to BTAD and having tribal majority, to BTAD. 'There will be a problem if people want to create a problem,' he said.

Observers closely following the Bodo movement say implementing contentious issues may continue to prove difficult.
To mark the opening, Finastra welcomed an audience of banks, fintechs, government bodies and industry partners to a celebration event, with keynote speakers Chemi Peres (Co-Founder, Pitango Venture Capital) and Dr Amiram Appelbaum (Chief Scientist, Ministry of Economy and Industry). Also on the agenda, the "Fintech Factor" showcased four of Israel's most innovative fintechs - AIO , CRiskCo , Sonarax and Vala - who delivered rapid-fire pitches. AIO, voted as the favorite by the audience, is now integrating its solution to Finastra's APIs through FusionFabric.cloud.

Eli Rosner, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Finastra, said, "Finastra has been operating in Israel for many years, and during the last few, we've seen a surge in the number of fintech developments. According to PitchBook data, fintechs headquartered in Israel raised over US$143 million in funding in 2018, 145% more than 2017's $58 million. As we step up the pace of adoption on FusionFabric.cloud, it's crucial for Finastra to have a more significant presence in the region and help drive innovation and collaboration in the industry. We look to strengthen our collaboration with local financial institutions, academia, fintechs and government bodies to achieve this."

Sagive Greenspan, SVP, General Manager, Payments and General Manager of Finastra Israel said, "Israel has been Finastra's main hub for payments for many years. We have developed a team of research and development and global services specialists who deliver payment solutions for some of the leading banks in the world. The new office offers a collaborative environment that will inspire our employees, breed creativity and encourage innovation. Ultimately, this will enable Finastra to increase its footprint with existing clients as well as to grow its customer base by positioning innovative solutions in payments and across other business lines."

Finastra aims to become the most inclusive and diverse employer in fintech, a key part of which includes ensuring its offices deliver a modern working environment to drive collaboration. To facilitate this, the office in Israel blends some of the most modern technology with fun and creative decor, which includes themed scrum areas and a fully equipped music room.

finastra.com

About Finastra

Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com.

SOURCE Finastra

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https://www.finastra.com


Dube allegedly went on to show Mr Maplanka some telephone calls which he allegedly said were between him and Mr Dliwayo-Saungweme as a way of convincing him that he bought the bus.
(Newser)  Police say a man at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport pointed a laser at planes trying to landand in one case, the pilot of a small aircraft reports being temporarily blinded. When a helicopter from the Manatee County Sheriff's Office zeroed in on the man, he pointed the laser at that aircraft too, says the sheriff's office. (See video here.) Authorities later arrested 41-year-old Charlie James Chapman. The scariest moment involved a Cessna Skyhawk, whose pilot was practicing takeoffs and landings with another person aboard, reports the Herald-Tribune.

story continues below

The pilot says the laser beam temporarily blinded him, though he managed to land safely. He told authorities that his vision remained blurry even after landing. A United Airbus 320 also was struck by the man's laser. That jet has the capacity to carry 150 people, though it was unclear how many were aboard when the incident occurred Wednesday night. Chapman, who police say also threw rocks at their helicopter, is charged with pointing a laser at a pilot with injury, pointing a laser at a pilot without injury, and resisting arrest. Police haven't speculated about a motive. They say they found a laser pointer in his pocket during the arrest, per NBC News. (Read more lasers stories.)
Boston - Affecting more than 7 million adults in the United States, gout is characterized by a sudden onset of pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and caused by the formation of urate crystal in small spaces between joints that builds up when high amounts of uric acid circulate in the blood. While gout is linked to consuming some foods, including red meat, seafood, and alcohol, it is also a common complication of blood pressure management and a frequently cited reason patients don't take their medication as directed. However, few studies provide guidance for physicians selecting antihypertensive medications for patients at risk for gout.

A new study led by physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reports that the antihypertensive drug amlodipine lowered long-term gout risk compared to two other drugs commonly prescribed to lower blood pressure. The findings are published in the Journal of Hypertension.

"Our study is clinically relevant as the prevalence of gout has been rising in the United States and the number of Americans meeting newly-revised diagnostic thresholds for hypertension has doubled," said corresponding author Stephen Juraschek, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at BIDMC. "Our study demonstrated that amlodipine was associated with a lower risk of gout compared with chlorthalidone or lisinopril, which has never been reported prior to this study."

Juraschek and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of the data generated by the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT). This clinical trial evaluated the effect of common blood pressure drugs on cardiovascular outcomes in more than 20,000 participants treated at 623 medical centers in North America between 1994 and 2002.

"Further research is needed to confirm these findings," said Juraschek. "Other health outcomes, such as heart failure, should also be considered with choosing a blood pressure drug."

###

In addition to Juraschek, authors included Robert H. Shmerling, MD, Jennifer L. Beach, MD, and Kenneth Mukamal, MD, MPH, MA, all of BIDMC; Kara M. Simpson, PhD, and Barry R. Davis, MD, PhD, of the Health Science Center at Houston at the University of Texas.

This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (K23HL135273). The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding.

BIDMC is in the community with Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, Anna Jaques Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Lawrence General Hospital, Signature Healthcare, Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare, Community Care Alliance and Atrius Health. BIDMC is also clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Jackson Laboratory. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit http://www.bidmc.org.

BIDMC is part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, a new health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,000 physicians and 35,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.
Nath discussed the issue with Mahabodhi Society president Bangala Upastia.

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Monday decided to fund construction of the famed Sita temple of Nuwara Eliya in Central Province of Sri Lanka.

Chief minister Kamal Nath issued a direction to the officers concerned to prepare a blue print for construction of the temple, a press release issued by state publicity department here said.

He suggested constituting a committee comprising officials of the MP government and Sri Lanka government and Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka to oversee construction of the temple.

Mr Nath discussed the issue with Mahabodhi Society president Bangala Upastia.

Sources said the state government has decided to make a budgetary allocation of `5 crore for the purpose.

State law minister P.C. Sharma had held discussions with the officials of Sri Lanka government on the issue during his recent visit to the island nation.

According to epic Ramayan, demon king Ravan had held Devi Sita in captivity in the place after abducting her.

In fact, the initiative to renovate the Sita temple was taken during the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

However, the Kamal Nath government decided to make budgetary allocation for construction of the temple.

The initiative to build the temple was taken during the previous BJP government in the state, BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said.
Li Keqiang inspects efforts to control spread of deadly virus and promises reinforcements as death toll rises to 81.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has visited Wuhan to inspect and direct efforts to control a deadly virus outbreak and promised reinforcements, as provincial authorities face accusations of not responding in time.

Li, clad in a blue protective suit and mask, thanked medical workers in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, as the death toll rose on Monday to 81.

Li  thanked front-line medical workers for their all-out efforts in treating patients and urged them to pay attention to their own protection, Xinhua news agency said.

He required efforts to guarantee medical resources supply, race against time to treat patients and ensure adequate market supply and stable prices.

He said 2,500 more medical workers would arrive in the next two days.

Li is the most senior leader to visit Wuhan since the outbreak began and he is in the head of the governing partys top leading body for the control of the novel virus epidemic.

China on Monday expanded sweeping efforts to contain the viral disease by extending the Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection.

The coronavirus has killed 81 people in China while the total number of confirmed cases rose sharply to 2,744, with cases found in around a dozen countries as far away as France and the United States.





Wuhan jiayou!

Li inspected efforts to contain the epidemic and was shown on state television leading medical workers in chants of Wuhan jiayou!  an exhortation to keep their strength up.

He also visited the construction site of a new hospital due to be built in days.

On Chinas heavily censored social media, where dissent is typically suppressed, local officials have borne the brunt of mounting public anger about the handling of the virus.

Some lashed out at the Hubei governor, who had to correct himself twice during a news conference over the number of face masks being produced in the province.

If he can mess up the data multiple times, no wonder the disease has spread so severely, one Weibo user said.

Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang told state broadcaster CCTV the citys management of the crisis was not good enough  rare public self-criticism for a Chinese official  and said he was willing to resign.

The city of 11 million people is in virtual lockdown and much of Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, is under some kind of travel curb.

People from Hubei have faced scrutiny within mainland China, as well, with many facing suspicion from officials about their recent travels.

Hubei people are getting discriminated against, a Wuhan resident complained on the Weibo social media platform.

A county in northern China is offering 1,000 yuan ($145) to tipsters who report the presence of anyone from Wuhan who has not registered with authorities, local government TV said.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha here on Monday termed the passing of anti-CAA resolutions by non-BJP states a constitutional crisis, saying this can't be ignored.

He stressed that there was no need to bring the legislation as it was "anti-democratic" and "divided people on the basis of religion".

"There is a constitutional crisis. You cannot ignore state governments. You have to take them into confidence," Sinha said when asked about resolutions passed by states against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

He expressed apprehensions that the Centre "might impose the president's rule" if the legislation was not implemented.

"They can do it. They are mad people," Sinha said while interacting with mediapersons in the presence of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha.

The former BJP leader was here as his march from Mumbai to Delhi's Rajghat for the propagation of the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi reached the city.

Further commenting on the legislation, Sinha said, "It is anti-democratic and against the basic structure of the Constitution. This type of amendment in the citizenship law was not needed."



He said an atmosphere of "ashanti, kolahal aur dar" (unrest, uproar and fear) has surfaced in the country due to government initiatives.

"Due to the CAA and the announcement of the NRC, people are afraid and agitating. It's the responsibility of the government to reach out to those who are in fear and agitating to ally their apprehensions and establish peace but it is not doing any such thing," he said.

"They are dividing people on the basis of religion. We we are going back to the pre-1947 era when some others used to do it," he added.

Sinha also accused the BJP of indulging in the vote-bank by "breaking social fabric" of the country and asked where was the spirit of "Team India" preached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.

"Where has the Team India spirit gone? Are governors not behaving like nominees of the party (BJP). Be it Kerala or West Bengal," he said, stressing that chief ministers of states were also included by Modi in the "team" to take the country forward.

Sinha alleged that the government was diverting people's attention from core issues.

"The government is not concerned about the condition of the youth, farmers and other issues like unemployment. It is only diverting the attention of people from core issues by using a language which cannot be termed democratic," he said.

Sinha said the CAA cannot be implemented in the present state due to the language used in it and alleged that people are being identified in UP districts despite the fact that rules have not be formulated yet.

"About the economic situation, Sinha said, "Air India is not selling as there is no appetite in the market to purchase it."



"There is absolutely no elbow room left on fiscal side...In the past five to six years, they have pushed the government to the brink of bankruptcy," he claimed.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav too questioned the allegations of foreign funding to anti-CAA protesters, asking what were the government agencies.

"The government is suppressing truth and resorting to violence. They should adopt the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi," Yadav said.

Shatrughan Sinha said that the "anti-national policy" of the government will not be tolerated by people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The claim: We were living outside of Houston and thats when I found it. A commuter college, 45 minutes away that cost $50 a semester.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 2020 Democratic presidential contender.

Warren, D-Mass., who often stresses her Texas ties, is referring to the University of Houston, where she got her bachelors degree in 1970.

PolitiFact ruling: Mostly True. It would have been more accurate for Warren to have said that tuition at the University of Houston was $50 a semester, a claim she has made multiple times in the past. When considering associated fees and expenses, the total cost per semester was closer to $100.

Discussion: Today, tuition at the University of Houston costs about $4,000 per semester for an undergraduate student taking 12 hours.

University records show that tuition for Texas residents taking a full course load while Warren was enrolled was $50, but additional fees brought the total cost of attending the school up to about $100 a semester.

Chris Hayden, spokesman for Warrens campaign, said it was clear her claim was referencing tuition and not associated expenses. He highlighted multiple occasions when Warren specified that she was talking just about tuition.

About PolitiFact PolitiFact is a fact-checking project to help you sort out fact from fiction in politics. Truth-O-Meter ratings are determined by a panel of three editors. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and PolitiFact rates statements based on the information known at the time the statement is made. See More Collapse

Warren graduated from the University of Houston in 1970, according to a copy of her curriculum vitae.

At PolitiFacts request, the University of Houston provided university bulletins detailing information such as tuition and fees for four academic years around the time of Warrens graduation: 1966-67, 1968-69, 1969-70 and 1970-71.

Across the four academic years, the tuition varies based on a students residency (Texas residents pay less in tuition) and the number of hours a student registers for each semester.

For Texas residents taking 12 or more hours, the maximum amount listed, tuition fee amounts edged up each of those years, and the total costs ranged from $89 a semester to $108 a semester. These calculations dont include the cost of books or other school supplies.

For more on the research and the conclusion, visit Politifact Texas, www.politifact.com/texas/
AGC honors Thompson, Salinas, Martin, Wilcox

By SEAN LEWIS

AGC of Washington

Wilcox

During its 2020 annual convention on Jan. 24 in Bellevue, the AGC of Washington honored three outstanding members of the construction community  Andy Thompson, John Salinas and Connie Sue Martin  for their commitment and dedication to the industry and the local community.

The association also honored Rep. J.T. Wilcox as AGCW's 2019 Legislator of the Year and Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. as Leader of the PAC.





CONTRACTOR

OF THE YEAR

Andy Thompson

Granite Construction

Thompson

Thompson was recognized for his unwavering support on behalf of AGC members in 2019. He is a high-energy individual who represented AGC members on many fronts and, in all matters, steps in and takes a leadership role. Thompson is a member of the Construction Project Advisory Review Board and is participating in the tedious process for the reauthorization of CPARB this year. He is involved with the WSDOT Design/Build Committee as well as the AGC Government Affairs Committee, where he consistently brings balanced opinions. He has testified multiple times to the state Legislature on construction industry matters.

Granite believes in mentoring smaller construction firms and, accordingly, allows Thompson the time to be a first-class mentor in the WSDOT mentor-protege program to multiple firms. Thompson is also one of the founding members of AGCW's Diversity and Inclusion Committee, where he still participates.

Granite Construction is a heavy-civil/highway and paving contractor and has been a member of AGC of Washington since 1936.









SPECIALTY

CONTRACTOR

OF THE YEAR

John Salinas

Salinas Construction

Salinas

Salinas has devoted time (that he quite frankly doesn't have) to participating in the city of Seattle Priority Hire Advisory Committee and taking a lead role communicating the impacts of community workforce agreements or project labor agreements on contractors and WMBE firms. He has been a thoughtful committee member, representing AGC's values of free and open competition exceptionally well. He also has spoken on AGC's behalf to Seattle Public Schools about the impact of community workforce agreements on his business. With the ever-expanding use of CWAs in the Puget Sound region, Salinas' message is an important one for area WMBE firms.

Salinas is the third-generation leader of Salinas Construction, specializing in commercial and residential concrete construction, including airfield construction, in the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific rim.









ASSOCIATE

OF THE YEAR

Connie Sue Martin

Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt

Martin

Martin is the chair of the AGC Environmental Committee and is being recognized for her outstanding leadership in the negotiation, passage and the implementation of the state's Expedited Voluntary Cleanup Bill. Her efforts in this matter included, but were not limited to, testifying on AGC's behalf to the state Legislature and negotiating with the state Department of Ecology. This important legislation speeds up the cleanup of certain contaminated properties in order to get them into productive economic use. She also is playing a leadership role in the controversial fish passage culvert issue in the state.

Martin specializes natural resource, real estate and construction law.









Sean Lewis is the marketing director for AGC of Washington. He has been in the western Washington construction industry for more than 25 years.





Other Stories:
A Baylor University student suspected of coming down with the deadly coronavirus raging in a city in China does not have the pneumonia-like infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention informed the Waco university Monday the students viral samples tested negative for the virus, which has now killed 81 Chinese people and sickened nearly 3,000, the vast majority in China. The Baylor student had developed mild flu-like symptoms after returning to campus.

This is very good news and we are deeply grateful to our local and university healthcare providers and officials and the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District for their approach to this case, their proactive guidance and expertise and the compassionate care extended to our student while we awaited the CDC results, said Dr. Sharon Stern, medical director for Baylor Universitys health services division.

The news came a day after the CDC cleared a Texas A&M student of having the virus. That student, who also developed mild symptoms after returning from China, went to an emergency room out of concern Wednesday evening and health officials announced they were investigating it Thursday. The Baylor students suspected case was announced Friday.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas A&M student tests negative for coronavirus

Two other people in the state suspected of having the disease have also tested negative, the Texas health department said Monday. Officials did not provide locations for those patients.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that may produce respiratory illnesses in some people, according to the CDC. Strains that occur in animals, such as 2002-2003s SARS virus and 2012s MERS virus, may evolve and infect humans and can be fatal.

More than 100 people in the U.S. have or are being evaluated for the virus and five, all of whom had recently traveled to China, have tested positive. The outbreak originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where most of the deaths have occurred. The first death in Beijing was announced Monday.

There have been no deaths from the virus outside China, but cases have been confirmed in 15 other countries, most in Asia but also in Australia, Europe and North America.

todd.ackerman@chron.com
BETHALTO  The Bethalto Community School District has contracted with Blue Refuge, an Atlanta-based organization dedicated to reducing active-shooter threats, to provide protection, response training and mental-health services for at least five years.

School safety is evolving and becoming more complex, said Dr. Jill Griffin, Bethalto superintendent. At the heart of our mission, we believe every student deserves to enter our schools feeling safe and secure, with the peace of mind to learn and grow.

Were grateful to forge this partnership with Blue Refuge, she said. They have a people first mentality and comprehensive approach, which very much aligns with our vision as a school district.

The partnership will introduce an array of tools, technologies and services to Bethalto Community Unit School District 8. The joint initiative, to be implemented in phases beginning this month, follows deep conversations between the two parties about a tailored approach that best serves the districts needs.

In January, the district began implementing protection solutions including integrated alarming and emergency notification technology. The system will be responsive to buttons on staff badges; when pressed, the buttons send instant alerts across the school and to local law enforcement and district personnel. The notifications are tagged with the exact location of the alert-sender within the school.

In addition, Blue Refuge will provide mental health training for counselors and faculty, administered by Blue Refuges on-staff licensed mental health practitioner.

In February, Bethalto schools will implement social media monitoring, along with protective window films to help guard against intrusions. Active-shooter response training also area planned throughout the district and Stop the Bleed kits will be distributed to each classroom.

Led by an on-staff mental health professional, Blue Refuge also will implement training programs for school counselors and faculty to teach risk identification and therapeutic responses. The solution is designed to recognize signs of distress or emotional crises.

Our philosophy is proactive rather than reactive, said Blue Refuge CEO Marcus Craig. As we see youth mental health continuing to decline, creating positive communities and connective relationships will be increasingly critical in schools.

Blue Refuge wants to be a part of the process of supporting, healing and helping the social and emotional well-being of todays youth, he said.

Blue Refuges team of mental health, safety, and technology professionals also will serve in a long-term capacity, providing input on how to prevent and respond to school violence as technology and community needs evolve over time.
Larry Abrams helps Emily Thomas, a teacher at Farrell Elementary in Philadelphia, find appropriate books for her students at BookSmiles in Cherry Hill. Read more

Philadelphia teacher Emily Thomas stared in awe when she stepped inside the BookSmiles warehouse in South Jersey: Thousands of books were piled almost to the ceiling.

Like a child in a candy store, Thomas smiled with glee as she pored through the free books, looking for the best selections for sixth graders in her English class at Farrell Elementary in the Northeast.

This is incredible, said Thomas, an educator for three decades. Its almost like a teachers dream come true. You can come to get books for free.

BookSmiles is the brainchild of Larry Abrams, a third-generation teacher who turned his passion for books into a giveaway to empower fellow educators to share books with students who may have few or no books at home.

 READ MORE: Teachers spend hundreds from their pockets on school supplies: 'Honestly, there's no choice'

Since 2017, Abrams has distributed about 225,000 books, about 60% to Philadelphia teachers. He ultimately wants to give away one million and is looking into expanding to other New Jersey towns.

That is my dream, that is my vision: that every child grows up with lots of good books, said Abrams, 52, who has two adult children. I just dont think its fair as a teacher that some kids have advantages that other kids dont.

Teachers from across the region flock to a 1,000-square-foot book storage unit in Cherry Hill on Wednesdays and Sundays to browse through boxes and piles of donated new and slightly used books. The books are sorted in categories and by reading levels.

On a cold night last week, a steady flow of teachers, some first-timers like Thomas, showed up at the book bank on Old Cuthbert Boulevard in Cherry Hill. Volunteers sorted donations as the tunes of Irving Berlin played softly.

Patricia Holland, a reading teacher at Fine Elementary in Pennsauken, said the free books would allow her to let every student in her class pick a book to keep. She was excited to find a Pete the Cat book, a favorite among her students.

I could never afford to give them all books, said Holland, who often purchases supplies for her classroom.

Judy Stein, a retired teacher who reads to kindergartners at VeteransMemorial Family School in Camden, picked books to give as gifts for Valentines Day. She was there with volunteers from Bookmates, a literacy program that targets Title I schools.

The kids love it, said Stein, 75, of Cherry Hill.

 READ MORE: South Jersey school principal reads bedtime stories to students via Facebook Live to encourage a love of reading

The teachers are allowed to take as many books as they want to become what Abrams calls literacy warriors. Thomas left with 350 books. Abrams encourages teachers to use the books in their classrooms, build libraries, or give them to their students and encourage them to share with siblings.

About 12,000 books are given out monthly. A recommended $10 annual fee allows teachers to return as often as they like.

The books are donated by volunteers who sponsor collection drives, publishers, bookstores, schools, churches, civic groups, and parents happy to give away books their children have outgrown, Abrams said. Books also can be dropped off at book donation stations.

Several school districts in South Jersey, including Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Woolwich, Haddon Heights, Haddonfield, and Marlton, each donated at least 1,000 books, Abrams said. For his bar mitzvah in November, Sam Becker, 13, of Cherry Hill, enlisted neighbors to help donate 4,100 books.

Abrams grew up in Tupper Lake in upstate New York. His parents were special-education teachers who later taught in prisons. He never believed that he would follow in their footsteps.

After graduating from the University of Rochester with a bachelors in English, Abrams served in the Navy for four years as a commissioned officer. He spent six months aboard an aircraft carrier during the Persian Gulf War.

Abrams managed a Kinkos for seven years, before he found his calling at age 32: teaching. He obtained a teaching certificate from the College of New Jersey and in 2001 landed a job as an English teacher at Moorestown High, in one of South Jerseys most affluent districts.

Three years later, Abrams moved to Lindenwold schools, in one of the poorest districts in the region. He teaches five English classes a day to ninth and 12th graders.

 READ MORE: Pennsylvania and New Jersey reading scores decline on nations report card

Abrams said he was inspired by a student, the mother of a 2-year-old, to launch BookSmiles especially in underserved communities such as Lindenwold. When he asked the teen what she read to the toddler, the answer shocked him:

She smiled and said that her girl was too little to understand, going on to say, Reading to children just isnt part of my culture, he recalled.

Abrams quickly organized his first book collection, netting 1,000 books. He began storing books in his classroom and later in the garage of his Cherry Hill home, which was filled to capacity with 10,000 books.

Last August, he moved the nonprofit operation and the books to a unit in an office park with a $7,000 donation from a book publisher. He also recently hired a part-time worker.

Its the right thing to do to give kids books, Abrams said.

The BookSmiles Book Bank is at 1879 Old Cuthbert Blvd., Unit 33, Cherry Hill, N.J., 08034. For more information: booksmilesnj@gmail.com.

.
Duke Reale, of Galloway, is the first in line for President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Duke Reale, of Galloway, felt a little antsy as he waited for the arrival of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Again Rally" scheduled for Tuesday at the Wildwoods Convention Center.

What's the best way to calm the nerves? Be first in line, which is where he found himself Sunday afternoon, arriving at 2 p.m ahead of approximately 20 other Trump supporters who had their chairs set up in a neat line down the sidewalk.

"I felt the energy with Trump coming," said Reale, as he sat in a folding chair next to the entrance of Fox Park on Atlantic Avenue, the staging area until they are moved to the convention center parking lot Monday.

Don't Edit

Richard Snowden, of Buffalo, New York, right, talks while standing in line for President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. Snowden was second in line. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Second in line, dressed in a grey striped suit with a red tie, stood Richard Snowden, of Buffalo, New York.

"I've attended 62 previous (Trump) rallies and I kind of always like to get there early."

What that means for Snowden, he says, is that he is assured of a spot up front. Only about 7,500 people  the first in line  will be admitted to the convention center.

The Jersey Shore town in Cape May County was buzzing Sunday, less than 48 hours before Trumps schedule rally to support Congressman Jeff Van Drew who recently switched from the Democratic party and declared his allegiance to the Republicans and Trump.

Don't Edit

(Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The rally, scheduled to start at 7 p.m. pm Tuesday, is a first-come, first-serve basis for the 7,500 ticket holders that will fit inside the convention center.

In interviews with NJ Advance Media, people said they were coming hundreds of miles  some as far away as Florida  to see the president.

Theres expected to be overflow viewing areas outside of the convention center, along with other amenities including portable bathrooms, food offerings, and other merchandise vendors who have secured permits from the city.

But to keep your position in line, more than two days before the event, requires teamwork and being comfortable with your living arrangements and new roommates.

"The first 15-20 people that come here, we form an extended brotherhood or an extended family type situation," said Snowden. "We cover for one another so we take our breaks."

Getting there early also has the perk of parking your vehicle close, so your bed is nearby.

'My car's right there," Snowden said, pointing to the street only a few steps away from where he was standing. "I'll sleep in my car two or three hours tonight."

Anyone that goes to a restaurant, your spot is saved. How about a pee break? Your spot is saved. Of course street side pizza delivery is always an option said Snowden.

"I've got this figured out," he said. "I've done 60-some rallies, if I haven't figured it out by now, I'm in trouble.

Don't Edit

Chairs hold positions of the fist in line for President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020.(Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Fences line the Wildwood Convention Center parking lot, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Covering the convention center parking lot and boardwalk were fences set up to coral the thousands of people expected to descend on the boardwalk and join Snowden in the next two days.

Curious onlookers walked the boardwalk, stopping to take a few pictures of the surrounding scenes,and if for only a moment be part of South Jersey history. Others walked the streets, happily greeting each other as they passed.

Across from the convention center workers from the Oceanic Hotel were busy hanging Trump banners on the balconies as people walked in buying rally merchandise.

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Brian McDowell, of North Wildwood, operates his Trump merchandise stand at the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and Third Avenue in North Wildwood, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

A few miles up the road in North Wildwood, Brian McDowell, who said he appeared on the third season of "The Apprentice," Trump's reality show, operated a merchandise stand at the intersection of Third and New Jersey Avenue.

"Lasted two weeks and got fired," said McDowell of his appearance on the show.

But that didn't stop him from being a Trump supporter.

"I thought that of all the candidates that declared, that Donald Trump was by far the best candidate to be President of the United States."

McDowell said business has been great other than a few cars driving by giving them the finger yelling out F-trump.

"But for the most part it's been a huge positive response here."

For more photos of Wildwood preparing for Trump's visit, see below. Here's a complete list of what you need to know ahead of the event.

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The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Workers sweep the steps of the Oceanic Hotel, across from the Wildwood Convention Center, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. The hotel will be selling Trump merchandise. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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A passerby takes a picture of the Oceanic Hotel, across from the Wildwood Convention Center, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Colleen Sowers, of Wildwood Crest, buys Trump shirts in North Wildwood, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Mercedes Nunez, of North Carolina, left and her sister Nikki Micciche, of Long Island, wait in line for President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Carol Holtzapfel, of cape May, poses for a picture in front of a President Donald trump cut out in North Wildwood, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Fences line the Wildwood Convention Center parking lot, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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A woman poses for a picture by the The Wildwoods prepare for the arrive of President Donald Trump and his "Keep America Great Rally," Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Trending footage has purported to show a female medical worker in China crying and screaming 'I can't take it anymore' after working day and night to treat coronavirus patients.

According to online accounts, the 14-second video was taken in a hospital in Wuhan and captures an exhausted doctor breaking down in an office.

MailOnline cannot independently verify the clip, which went viral on Chinese social media last week but has been taken down since.

According to online accounts, the 14-second video was taken in a hospital in Wuhan and captures an exhausted doctor breaking down in an office. MailOnline cannot independently verify the clip, which went viral on social media last week but has been taken down since

A separate trending video, posted by a social media user called 'Jing Tang', purports to show a male doctor yelling at a hospital's manager over the phone. In the video, which also remains unverified, the man is seen scolding the manager for not helping him out in treating patients

A separate trending video, posted by a social media user called 'Jing Tang', purports to show a male doctor yelling at a hospital's manager over the phone.

In the video, which also remains unverified, the man is seen scolding the manager for not helping him out in treating patients infected with the deadly virus.

As a result, he had to work non-stop in the lead up to the Chinese New Year, he shouted in the clip.

The original uploader removed the clip from his social media accounts last Thursday. In a post, the web user apologised for publishing the video, explaining that he had not considered its impact his act would bring to the doctor in question.

The coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 82 people - all in China - and sickened more than 2,890. Pictured above, medical staff help a patient walk into a hospital in Wuhan yesterday

China's Premier Li Keqiang (centre) visited ground zero today to oversee containment efforts in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where the disease first appeared late last month

The coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 82 people - all in China - and sickened more than 2,890.

The health crisis has led the authorities to quarantine at least 56 million people living in central China's Hubei Province and cancel Lunar New Year festivities around the country.

Following the outbreak, scientists fear more than 100,000 people may have been infected already, considerably more than official toll  others have said it could as high as 350,000.

In a sign of the mounting official concern, China's Premier Li Keqiang visited ground zero today to oversee containment efforts in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where the disease first appeared late last month.

More than 500,000 medical workers in Hubei Province have given up their Chinese New Year holidays and returned to their posts to fight the deadly disease around the clock.

The province, especially its capital Wuhan, is still facing serious shortage of medical resources, according to the provincial governor Wang Xiaodong.

The health crisis has led the authorities to quarantine at least 56 million people living in China's Hubei Province. Members of a military medical team are pictured heading for Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, where most of the coronavirus patients are being looked after, on January 26

Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang admitted withholding information of the coronavirus after being widely accused of covering up the truth of the epidemic. A military medical worker is pictured taking over the work from a medical worker at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital on January 26

To help fight the outbreak, China's central government deployed 450 military doctors to Wuhan last Friday.

The National Health Commission also sent six teams comprising 1,230 medics from around the country to Wuhan, with six more back-up teams on standby.

As the coronavirus outbreak accelerated, a large number of videos have emerged on social media since last Thursday, appearing to show the situation inside hospitals in the epicentre Wuhan.

China has expanded sweeping efforts to contain the viral disease by extending the Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection as the death toll soars

Hong Kong announced it would bar entry to visitors from the province at the centre of the outbreak following a warning the virus's ability to spread was growing. Chinese experts have warned that the virus can be passed on between humans before symptoms show

Increasingly drastic anti-disease efforts began with the January 22 suspension of plane, train and bus links to Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in central China where the virus was first detected last month. Medical workers are seen spraying disinfectant in goggles on January 26

One of the widely circulated clip purports to show corpses of coronavirus victims left unattended in a corridor of a hospital flooded with patients in Wuhan.

The footage was uploaded by a web user, known as 'magic girl Xiao Xi', who claimed to be a nurse in the city.

A woman, believed to be the blogger, can be heard saying from behind the camera: 'Three corpses, [they] have been lying here all morning. Some of them died in the wee hours. Nobody has come to deal with [them] yet.

'And doctors, nurses and patients, they all work in such an environment. This is what is going on in a designated hospital. Not a single person is here to manage.'

The Chinese authorities declared the video inauthentic.

The Communist Youth League of China claimed that the audio of the clip was added afterwards and the clip did not reflect the situation in the city's hospitals truthfully.

While the epicentre remains in Wuhan and the central Chinese province of Hubei, it has since spread to some of the country's biggest cities -- including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. Pictured, a mother adjusts her child's face mask at the Beijing railway station on January 27

The Wuhan virus has been detected in a dozen other countries -- as far afield as North America and Europe -- but only via a handful of people who travelled primarily from Wuhan. Pictured, a girl wearing a mask peaks through a plastic curtain at the Beijing railway station on January 27

The World Health Organisation has upgraded China's risk to other countries as 'high' because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak and admitted the 'moderate' rating it issued last week was a mistake.

The WHO's chief is in Beijing for crisis talks and today admitted the danger of the infection spreading to other countries is higher than previously claimed and is 'very high' inside China.

A total of 15 countries or territories outside of China have now confirmed cases, with Cambodia the latest to announce and a second case diagnosed in Canada today, in the wife of the Toronto man who was the first patient.

Beijing also today saw the Wuhan coronavirus claim its 82nd death when a 50-year-old man died in hospital in the nation's capital.

China has extended its New Year holiday by three days to February 2 to fight the outbreak as people have now been diagnosed with it in every corner of China, except for Tibet.

Unverified footage purports to show corpses of coronavirus patients being left unattended in the corridor of a hospital. The Communist Youth League of China claimed that the audio of the clip was added afterwards and the clip did not reflect the situation in hospitals truthfully

A team of scientists in the UK believe more than 100,000 people have been infected already but many of them without knowing, and expect the case and death tolls both to continue rising as the outbreak goes on.

The damage has spread to the stock markets, too, as investors fear travel cancellations and business closures, as well as growing panic outside of China, are damaging the world economy.

Researchers in Hong Kong have warned the outbreak could become a 'global epidemic' if the Chinese government doesn't start 'draconian' travel restrictions on its citizens.

Beijing insists it is continuing drastic efforts to contain the outbreak. Measures currently in place reportedly include:
National finalist: Platinum award

Transportation



Jacobs Engineering Group

Photo provided by Guy F. Atkinson Construction The new avalanche bridges were designed to allow snow and rock to travel underneath the spans and into the lake.





Project: Keechelus Lake avalanche bridges

Client: Washington State Department of Transportation

When the Washington State Department of Transportation was considering widening a portion of Interstate 90 along Keechelus Lake at Snoqualmie Pass, its advertised project design called for replacing the existing westbound snowshed with a longer structure that covered all lanes to protect drivers from avalanches. But the Atkinson/Jacobs design-build team had a better idea.

Once the Atkinson/Jacobs team was awarded the contract, it submitted a Cost Reduction Incentive Proposal (CRIP) to replace the contract snowshed with twin 1,200-foot-long bridges that span the avalanche hazard. Not only do the elevated bridges virtually eliminate road closures due to avalanches, rockfall and snow removal, but they remove millions in long-term operations and maintenance costs for the owner.

The Jacobs design team worked with nature  rather than against it  to design a span that would create a safe passage between a steep mountainside and a lake amidst winter snowfall and often heavy traffic.

The horizontal and vertical alignment of the bridge superstructure was critical in making an avalanche bridge meet project goals for improved safety against avalanches and rock fall. The bridge had to be high enough to clear avalanches and snow accumulation, yet not so high that the grades would be dangerous during icy conditions. The horizontal location had to provide room for falling rock to miss the roadway, yet stay out of the lake, which was too deep to accommodate bridge foundations.

A major step in the development of the avalanche bridges was development of design criteria for avalanches in the Cascade Mountains. The project team brought in world-renowned snow behavior experts to help develop an avalanche model that could predict conditions unique to the Cascade mountain range.

The result was two man-made structures that do not attempt to stop nature  avalanches pass under the highway and into the lake, just like they did before a highway was constructed across the pass.

The new bridges allow for year-round use of the interstate without fear of closure due to rockfall or avalanches.

The avalanche bridges provide a combined savings of approximately $37 million over the life of the structures, a cost largely attributed to the difference in operations and maintenance costs between a snowshed (which requires upkeep of electrical, lighting, ventilation and other systems) and bridges (requiring routine inspections, plowing and de-icing).





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Delhi Police Special Cell on Monday arrested a sharpshooter of Tillu Tajpuria gang who was an accused in MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) case.

Accused identified as Amit was carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakhs for over two years.

Besides, Amit, another rewarded criminal wanted in some murder cases, identified as Ravi was also arrested.

He is known as a member of Sunil Rathi, Neeraj Bawana gang, whose names figure amongst Delhi's Top Most Wanted criminals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
F orget the nights big winner Billie Eilish  the true star of last nights Grammys was Lizzos flute.

Wearing a crystallized, off-the-shoulder gown by Christian Siriano, the Juice diva opened the show with a shoutout to the late Kobe Bryant followed by an exuberant mash up of Cuz I Love You and Truth Hurts alongside a troupe of ballet dancers in illuminated tutus.

(Getty Images ) / Getty Images

Her trusty wind instrument then made a show-stopping arrival on stage by floating down from the ceiling on plexiglass.

It was a fitting entrance for Lizzos flute, aka Sasha, who is fast becoming a sassy star in her own right  she even has her own fan Instagram account with 322K followers and counting while North Americas largest flute store, The Flute Center of New York can thank the Lizzo effect for a reported sales spike of 30 per cent last year.
President Donald Trump's impeachment trial may not result in his removal from office, but it could help determine whether his Republicans retain control of the Senate in the November congressional elections.

For the handful of senators who face tough re-election battles this year, their vote to acquit or convict Trump, or even to call witnesses in the trial, could loom large when voters consider whether to give them another six-year term, analysts said.

Republican strategist , predicted that the impeachment will play a major role in campaign ads for years.

"We will be seeing the ghost of this impeachment for (election) cycles to come," Bowers said.

Democrats need to pick up four seats from Republicans to win a majority in the Nov. 3 election, in which Trump also will be on the ballot.

The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabato's Crystal Ball, three nonpartisan election services, estimate that between five and seven incumbent Senate Republicans are at risk of losing their seats, as do two incumbent Democrats.

Democratic political groups are scouring Republicans' media appearances for statements about the trial they think may incense some voters, like saying there is no need to call witnesses. Then they are using these clips on social media to solicit donations for Republican opponents.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in December, which alleged he abused his powers and obstructed Congress by pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump says he has done nothing wrong. His acquittal is seen as likely in the Senate because at least 20 Republicans would have to vote for his removal.

Embattled Republicans like Corey Gardner of Colorado and Martha McSally of Arizona might face a voter backlash if they vote to wrap up the trial quickly, as Republican leaders want, instead of calling for more evidence and witnesses, which could potentially upend the proceeding.

"It could add to their potential problems, if they look like partisan soldiers and not independent, free-thinking senators," said Stuart Rothenberg, senior editor at Inside Elections.

Voting against further evidence would shore up support from Trump conservatives back home, but it could hurt Republicans' chances of appealing to independent voters in states such as Maine, where Republican Senator Susan Collins is hoping to win a fifth six-year term.

Collins already was facing a backlash over her vote for the 2017 tax-cut bill and her 2018 vote to confirm conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Now, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats, has launched a website to pressure her to vote for more witnesses and evidence, as she did in the 1999 impeachment trial of Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The normally easygoing Collins has bristled lately over trial procedures, after casting several preliminary votes against witnesses and evidence. She said she likely will vote to subpoena witnesses after both sides present their cases.

"This thoughtful approach is what Mainers appreciate most," Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley said.

Gardner has sidestepped the question in Washington and at home in Colorado. A Gardner campaign official said political concerns would not influence his decisions during the trial.

McSally has taken a more confrontational approach, calling a CNN reporter a "liberal hack" after he asked her whether she would vote to see more evidence, and set up a website at www.liberalhack.com to raise money off the incident.

An anti-Trump political group then bought www.liberalhack.org to fundraise against her. Her office declined to comment.

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, another Republican running hard for re-election, has frequently criticized the Democrats' case for impeachment during breaks in the trial.

Asked by Reuters about Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine, Ernst said, "He will do what he wants to do. It's probably not the way I would have handled it."

Another vulnerable Republican, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, showed no sign of concern earlier this week, telling reporters that he intends to vote for Trump's acquittal.

Most Americans think senators should act as "impartial jurors" during the trial, a Reuters poll released last week found.

However, Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, warned that Democrats risk overplaying their hand because many independent voters did not want to see an impeachment trial in the first place.

"Democrats are taking a big gamble, because it could just as easily go against them," he said.

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Australians trapped in China as the deadly coronavirus spreads are not able to register on the Smartraveller website, which previously allowed people to alert the federal government to their location and movements overseas.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) quietly shut down the website's itinerary registration feature on November 21, just weeks before the first cases of the coronavirus were detected in Wuhan, where 100 young Australians are now trapped.

Australians trapped in Wuhan cannot register their details on the Smartraveller website. Credit:Getty

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said on Monday the government was still working to identify those Australians stranded, while discussing with China and other nations how to evacuate citizens after transport in and out was halted.

An FAQ page on the Smartraveller website said the government's ability to provide assistance in "do not travel" destinations was "severely limited, whether or not you tell us you're there" and advised Australians "not to go there and to leave if they are there".
Toxicology tests are being carried out on the bodies of three children who were found dead in their Co Dublin home on Friday night, to determine if they had any medications or substances in their systems at the time of their deaths.

An initial post-mortem exam on Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla McGinley (3) in Dublin's city morgue was not conclusive in determining the cause of death.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster then decided on the toxicology tests and these are not expected to be completed for several days.

The tests, which cover a wide variety of substances, will potentially help in identifying the children's cause of death.

The bodies of the children were found in their home at Parson's Court in Newcastle, Co Dublin, after gardai responded to a 999 call and arrived on the scene at around 7.45pm on Friday.

The children's father, Andrew McGinley, arrived home to find one of his children lying dead downstairs and the others upstairs.

Their mother, Deirdre Morley, a nurse at a Dublin hospital, had earlier been found walking disorientated on a road nearby.

She was taken to Tallaght University Hospital and was still undergoing treatment there last night.

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Investigating officers are waiting for approval from her doctors to interview Ms Morley, who they believe holds the key to what took place in the house on Friday afternoon or evening.

Gardai said they were not looking for anybody else in connection with the incident.

Gardai have appointed a liaison officer to remain in contact with Mr McGinley and the extended family.

Officers have appealed to anybody who spotted anything unusual around the house on Friday to contact them at Clondalkin station on 01 6667600, where an incident room has been established, or on the Confidential Line: 1800 666111.

The house remained sealed off yesterday while forensic experts worked there.
Addressing an election rally in Rohtas Nagar, Shah said, "To develop Delhi, vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If this happens, Shaheen Bagh will be clearly affected". The BJP leader has consistently made Shaheen Bagh, the much-talked-about anti-CAA protest site in Delhi, a key election issue.

New Delhi: Alleging that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was backing rioters and those indulging in violence, Home Minister Amit Shah, here on Sunday, urged people not to re-elect a government that could disturb the city's peace.

He also accused the Congress and the AAP of inciting riots, spreading violence and provoking people.

"The Narendra Modi-led central government is doing all the work that languished for the last 70 years. By removing Article 370, Kashmir has been made an integral part of India. Today, on the Republic Day, the national flag was hoisted with full pride in the entire nation as well as in J&K," the Home Minister said.

He said the Kejriwal government topped all the surveys for lying. "The Kejriwal government has only made big promises in the past five years, did nothing. He had promised not to take government bungalows, use government vehicles, build 1,000 new schools, install 1.5 million CCTV cameras, provide free Wi-Fi facilities, regulate temporary employees, provide clean drinking water and air. But he didn't fulfil any of these promises," the BJP leader said.

As soon as the BJP government was formed in Delhi, houses would be built in the slum areas, he said and reminded people that 1,731 unauthorised colonies had been legalised by the Modi government. "The Kejriwal government's work was done by the Modi government," he said.

Raising non-implementation of the Ayushman scheme in Delhi, Shah said around 1 crore poor people across the country hab been benefitted by it. "Kejriwal didn't allow implementation of the scheme in Delhi due to vote bank politics," the former BJP chief said.
Some will walk away with bitter regret. Others will march off with their flag held high. But British MEPs of every stripe face an emotional final week in Brussels. Those who believed in the European project were defeated by what they see as the "blatant lies" of the eurosceptics. Those who came to Brussels to undermine the European Union are triumphant and keen to celebrate Britain's "escape". The leader of the Labour Party delegation, Richard Corbett, has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1996. "You get many MEPs coming up to you, giving you hugs, saying very kind words, about what we've done, how much they will miss us," he told AFP. Corbett was in a park behind the parliament's modern headquarters, sitting on the same bench where he gave his first interview, just next to an appropriately named museum. "To come back here in a way to end it off is a very special moment. We're next to the House of European History and this is of course a historical moment," he said. On the 65-year-old's scarf are the UK and EU flags, and the dates of the beginning and end of Britain's EU membership, like the headline of an obituary: "1973-2020". Along with another 71 British members he will leave office on Friday, at midnight Brussels time, the moment of Brexit. Is Corbett bitter? "Yes. Because the Leave campaign that won the referendum nearly four years ago now was one of the most mendacious campaigns in political history," he said of the 2016 vote that put Britain in the exit lane. Corbett's opponents in Britain's Brexit Party, who campaigned in European elections on a platform that put themselves out of a job, are far more cheerful. Brexit Party leader and long-standing MEP Nigel Farage will give a farewell "Brexodus" news conference on Wednesday and be gone by 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) that evening. Other party members will stay on until Friday, led by Anne Widdecombe MEP, a former British minister who left the Conservative Party and retirement to join Farage in Brussels. They plan to march away from the parliament in formation, carrying the Union Jack, to take a Eurostar train to London in time to join Farage there for a "party to celebrate Brexit". - Rubbing noses in it - The pro-Brexit brigade are not all former Tories like Widdecombe. Claire Fox was a Revolutionary Communist before joining Farage's revolution and was only elected in May last year. "I'm here at a moment of history," she told AFP, arguing the European Parliament's inability to generate its own legislation, which is drafted by the unelected European Commission, is undemocratic. "I'm not intending to be triumphalist about it. I'm not wanting to kind of be overly rubbing people's noses in it or anything of that nature," she said. But she is pleased "to have taught the people who are in the establishment a lesson, because they really did treat people with contempt". For Fox, the future for Britain looks bright, even if she does not support Prime Minister Boris Johnson's efforts to negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with Europe. "I'm very optimistic, I'm excited about the possibilities," she said. "I'm not optimistic that the negotiations between the EU and the UK will go well over the next years. That's different. But at least we now know that we have a chance of bringing democracy home." Whereas MEPs like Corbett are leaving long careers in European politics, the passion surrounding Britain's Brexit debate has also thrown up newcomers who ended up having short parliamentary shelf lives. Green MEP Magid Magid, 30, dares hope that his adoptive country of Britain -- he was born in Somalia -- will one day return to the European Union. "As Britain we need to figure out what we want to be," he told AFP. "Do we want to be like a small island, Little Britain, where we're just trying to be in the pocket of Donald Trump and the United States? "You know what? I still think that maybe in the future we'll be back in the European Union. Maybe I'll have a little bit more grey hair in my beard, but I'm quite hopeful," he declared. For the time being, perhaps, his battle is at home. Pro-Europe MEPs fear that without Brussels' rules, Britain will water down environmental protections and workers' rights. Another MEP, Liberal Democrat Shaffaq Mohammed, is also thinking of future generations. "My daughter is 13 years old," he said. "I would love for her to have the opportunities that people have had for the last 40 years of being able to live, study and work in Europe. I hope she still can." But for this generation, the adventure is over. "The next few days, I'm packing up my boxes. I'm sadly making staff redundant. I'm beginning to think what I might do for the future but I've not decided yet," Corbett told AFP. "I'm saving up to buy a horse to ride away into the sunset." Britain's Union Jack flag will be lowered Friday as the country finally quits the EU Britain's Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox smiles while posing during a photo session in her office at the European Parliament in Brussels on January 21, 2020. British Green party MEP Magid Magid thinks Britian will one day return to the EU
I knew people were going to ask what the bandage was in the photo, and I knew I didnt want to say, she said. Luckily, the situation was resolved with a quick text to the new friend, who promptly removed the post before too many people saw it. Still, Ms. Blanco said, that moment changed the way she thinks about interacting with people online and off.

It made me more aware of and sensitive to what other people might not want to share, she said.

In Discipline and Punish, the French philosopher Michel Foucault theorized that the mere suggestion of surveillance is enough to alter our behavior, as we internalize expectations and monitor ourselves in an effort to conform to them. This was, to Foucault, ultimately more threatening to an individuals personal freedom than actually being locked up behind bars.

So what does the threat of being photographed midbite at a friends birthday party, or cutting loose on the dance floor after one too many, do to the texture and quality of those moments, particularly when the image may end up being seen by several thousand followers?

Ill go out on a limb here: Foucault probably wouldnt have been a fan of social media.

People are absolutely modifying their behavior in what I consider to be the most frightening ways. They are, first of all, mentally surveilling themselves, mentally keeping an eye on what theyre doing, Dr. Nippert-Eng said. We need to start thinking about the social costs of losing our privacy. In a democracy you always want people to feel empowered to say and do things that are unpopular but important. Today, many people feel like theyre being constantly judged.

And what about when its for someones business? When I did a makeup trial for my wedding, I went to one artist who posted an unflattering before-and-after picture of me on her Instagram without my permission, Avery Carpenter Forrey, 31, said.

Ms. Carpenter eventually decided to shrug it off. But experience like that touch on questions such as: Does using a service equal consent to be used as marketing material for that service? Did agreeing to have her photo taken mean it could be used  filtered and edited  in any way the poster wished?
Social media users have not taken lightly the comments made by the vice president, Mahamadu Bawumia while addressing some Zongo chiefs

According to him, the Akufo-Addo government is unmatched since the beginning of the fourth republic.

YEN.com.gh in a native post however sought responses from Ghanaians on the comments made by Ghana's vice president.

READ ALSO: Our first term economic record is unmatched in Fourth Republic  Bawumia (Video)

Social media users do not seem pleased with the comment made by the vice-president and have descended heavily o him.

Markus sarcastically reacted to the post in affirmation to a lot of negative things.

Alhassan believes the vice president was bluntly telling Ghanaians lies.

Thomas also pinpointed all the wrong things that has gone wrong under the Akufo-Addo administration.

Adom believe the claim is completely false and gave facts and figures to back his claims.

READ ALSO: EC has bribed top journalists to support new voters' register campaign - Asiedu Nketia

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated that the record of the Akufo-Addo government is unmatched since the beginning of the fourth republic.

According to Bawumia, the program of economic recovery that the government put in place, upon it's assumption of office, has been significantly successful.

He made this comment at the ongoing consultative meeting of the National Council of Zongo Chiefs at Kyebi in the Eastern Region.

In other news, President Akufo-Addo has opened up about one of Ghana's biggest challenges being unemployment, and has revealed what he is doing to solve it.

Speaking to China Global Television Network group (CGTN)s Tian Wei at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Akufo-Addo stated that he is constantly seeking to create employment opportunities for the youth in Ghana.

According to him, the solution cannot just be getting employed in the public sector but also seeking to do something for oneself.

READ ALSO: BNI reportedly picks up Sammy Gyamfi after TV discussion

Tiwa Savage's full performance at Detty 3 in Ghana | #Yencomgh

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Source: YEN.com.gh
What are high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional grounds for impeachment? According to President Trumps lawyers, they must be, at the very least, actions that could be charged as serious crimes.

The central charge by House Democrats  that Trump abused his powers by withholding military aid to coerce Ukraine into investigating a potential Democratic opponent, Joe Biden  alleges no crimes at all, let alone high crimes and misdemeanors, as required by the Constitution, the presidents legal team stated in its initial filing to the Senate.

House Democrats newly invented abuse of power theory collapses at the threshold because it fails to allege any violation of law whatsoever, the lawyers said in a later filing.

Or, as former Harvard law Professor Alan Dershowitz, a member of the presidents defense team, put it during a CNN debate last month, Every controversial president has been accused by his political opponents of abuse of power. Expect the team to be pushing these concepts when Trumps impeachment trial resumes in the Senate Monday.

Dershowitzs contention is hard to dispute. Foes accused Abraham Lincoln of abusing his authority in 1863 by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring an end to slavery in rebel states, without seeking congressional approval. The courts rebuked Lincoln for ordering suspension of habeas corpus in 1861, thus allowing rebels and their supporters to be arrested and tried in military courts.

And Barack Obamas executive order in 2012 that granted a reprieve from deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 was denounced by his opponents as an abuse of power, challenged in court and possibly overturned by a new executive order issued by Trump that is now before the Supreme Court.

The missing ingredient in those examples is any allegation that the president defied the rule of law for his own benefit. Exhibit A is Richard Nixon, who interfered with an FBI investigation of the Watergate break-in, authorized payoffs and wiretaps, and sent his plumbers to burglarize the office of a former psychiatrist of Vietnam War whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg  grounds for an article of impeachment charging Nixon with abuse of power.

Dershowitz doesnt go quite as far as Trumps other lawyers. He says an impeachable offense might include conduct that wasnt criminal, but it has to be criminal-like and akin to treason and bribery, the grounds stated in the Constitution. But that isnt a widely shared viewpoint in the legal community.

Abuse of power by a president counts as an instance of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors under the Constitution, 17 prominent law professors said in an open letter to the Senate last Monday. They included Charles Fried of Harvard, who was U.S. solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan, as well as Walter Dellinger of Duke University, who held the same position under President Bill Clinton; UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky; and Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe.

There is a very broad consensus that serious abuse of power is grounds for impeachment and removal from office, said David Sklansky, a Stanford criminal law professor and former federal prosecutor.

Its not a unanimous view.

Josh Blackman, who teaches constitutional law at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said in a column for the New York Times that Trumps attempt to use Ukraine to improve his re-election prospects was unwise but not impeachable.

Receiving a personal political benefit does not transform an otherwise legal action  requesting an investigation  into impeachable conduct, said Blackman, who did not mention Trumps withholding of military aid. Presidents who take such actions with an eye toward the ballot box should be judged by the voters at the ballot box.

But Jason Whitehead, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach, said the drafters of the Constitution designed impeachment as a political check and balance against the president for conduct that is a violation of the public trust.

And on the Senate floor Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., cited a memo that William Barr, now Trumps attorney general, wrote to the Justice Department as a private lawyer in June 2018, supporting the departments position that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.

The fact that the president is answerable for any abuses of discretion and is ultimately subject to the judgment of Congress through the impeachment process means that the president is not the judge in his own cause, Barr wrote.

Advocates of a broad view of impeachment also make historical arguments. Robert Weisberg, a criminal law professor at Stanford, said extortion and bribery, crimes very much in the nature of Trumps alleged dealings with Ukraines president, were not defined as federal crimes until well into the 19th century, but were clearly impeachable much earlier.

Others point to a British case that took place during the drafting of the Constitution. Warren Hastings, a British official in India, was accused of mismanagement and other misconduct and was impeached by Parliament, although he was not accused of a crime. When he went to trial in 1788, his prosecutor, Edmund Burke, said Hastings was one who by the abuse of power (has) violated the spirit of law and must be held accountable.

Hastings was later acquitted. But John Mikhail, a Georgetown University law professor, said in a series of Twitter postings that his case was a major reason the constitutional grounds for impeachment, initially drafted to include only treason and bribery, were expanded to encompass other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@BobEgelko
Police of Ho Chi Minh City seized the largest-ever volume of drugs and uncovered a big number of sophisticated and transnational drug rings in 2019.

The drugs seized in a case uncovered by HCM City police (Photo courtesy of HCM City police)

Last year, the municipal police seized 356kg ofheroin, 1.36 tonnes of synthetic drugs, 5.8kg of cocaine, 40.8kg of marijuana,and more than 39kg of other drug types. They also dealt with nearly 4,000people involved in drug trading, storage and transportation.



Notably, on March 27, 2019, police detained ChenTsen Wei (born in 1986) and seized 895 heroin bricks while this Taiwanese nationalwas driving a truck near the An Suong roundabout in Trung My Tay ward ofDistrict 12. This is the biggest amount of heroin caught red-handed in Vietnamso far.



Probing into this case, police found that Chenwas part of a transnational ring led by Yu Chi Fu, a Taiwanese born in 1953. Upto 446 heroin bricks were discovered on November 3 when police searched fivesuspected locations in the suburbs of HCM City.



The drugs were found to have been traffickedfrom Cambodia to Vietnam and then hidden in containers of goods to be shippedto Taiwan (China) by sea.



In April, police also uncovered 1.1 tonnes ofsynthetic drugs trafficked by Chiang Wei Chih and Yeh Ching Wei of Taiwan andtheir accomplices. This is also the biggest-ever amount of synthetic drugseized in a case.



For 2020, the HCM City Department of PublicSecurity said it will enhance coordination with relevant agencies and ramp upactions to prevent and control drug crimes while taking measures to curb the increasein the number of drug addicts.



Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam askedlocal police to crack down on trans-provincial and transnational drug rings aswell as drug hot spots, increase the examination of restaurants and bars, andenhance resident management to prevent the formation of communities of illegalresidents which may lead to law violations.



Meanwhile, Secretary of the municipal PartyCommittee Nguyen Thien Nhan said drug fight is an urgent and also regular andlong-term task that requires persistence, drastic actions, high determinationand close coordination among all-level authorities, sectors and socio-politicalorganisations./.VNA
Manchester United's Diogo Dalot has expressed elation over his club's massive win against Tranmere Rovers, saying that they gave a 'proper fight'.

"If we didn't come with the right desire and the right mentality, we could make it more difficult. Like I said today we did a good job, right mentality, proper fight, respect the opponent and we get the win," the club's official website quoted Dalot as saying.

Manchester United secured a 6-0 win over Tranmere Rovers in FA Cup on Sunday.

Dalot has largely been sidelined through injury this season and scored his first Manchester United goal in the match. He admitted that the road to recovery was a 'tough journey' for him.

"It's been a tough journey but like I said, these kinds of things, a win and a goal make us feel like I'm doing a good job in fighting, working every day and taking the opportunities," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

Report Includes:

- An overview of unicorn markets and discussion on how presence of unicorn impact the market

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05842629/?utm_source=PRN

- Comparative study on U.S. Unicorns and Chinese unicorns and discussion on how Chinese unicorn affecting U.S. unicorn market

- Information on competitors involved and venture capital in the industry



Summary

Unicorns are mythical creatures usually found in fables, myths and children's lore.They are represented by a horse with a horn that may or may not have wings on its back.



According to these tales, unicorns are exceedingly rare and possess magical properties.They are strong, fierce and noble creatures, and their horns can be used as cures or poisons.



Cups allegedly made of unicorn horns (but in fact from rhinoceros' horns, elephant tusks or narwhal tusks) were popular across the world in the Middle Ages, from Europe to China.Unicorn blood was also considered to be healing, and there were many curses in existence for killing a unicorn.



The earliest recorded unicorn artwork was from Mesopotamian drawings, and the earliest available references were found in myths of China and India. The earliest reference in Greek Literature was by Ctesias (c. 400 BCE), who was probably describing a rhinoceros instead. In our modern age, the term "unicorn" is used to describe a financial behemoth. This usage was coined by the venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013 to describe a privately held company with a billion-dollar valuation. She called such companies unicorns because they were few and far between; no more than forty existed when the term was coined.



This report provides an overview of unicorns and the positive/negative impact they have in the sectors and geographies in which they operate. Some of the challenges facing unicorns and their investors are also reported.



What Are Unicorns in the Financial Market?



Unicorns are privately held organizations with a valuation exceeding a billion dollars.From less than 40 in 2013, when the term was coined, we now have nearly 500 unicorns.



It seems they have multiplied rather quickly, which is the reason new terminologies such as "decacorns" (unicorns with $10 billion valuations) are making their appearance.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05842629/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Amira Shanshiry is one of the nine finalists in a nationwide contest to name NASAs Mars Rover. She submitted the name Promise.

Shanshiry is a fourth grade student at Hanlon Elementary School in Westwood, and submitted the name to NASA for the impending mission to Mars later this year.

The Mars rover promises to bring to light major discoveries about life on Mars. Moreover, the rover will help astronauts land on Mars, said Shanshiry in her submitted essay. As the rover keeps its promise, Americans will unite and bond over the success of its space adventures. Kids around the world will be curious, and maybe someday become astronauts themselves.

In an interview with NECN, Shanshiry said it was her sister that informed her about the contest and that she has always had an interest in space. In Girl Scouts, she would observe planets and their moons through telescopes.

I started thinking about what it means to promise, said Shanshiry in the interview with NECN. Its to commit to something, putting a lot of effort and hope into it, and I think that really fits the mission.

You can vote for Shanshirys submission through Monday, Jan. 27.
Almost 200 migrants have braved freezing temperatures in a bid to cross the English Channel as French and British border patrols stop 15 boats in just one week.

Border forces on both sides of the channel have been alerted to small boats making attempts to reach UK soil.

At least 180 migrants tried to cross from the continent to Britain between January 20 and January 26, according to figures from UK and French authorities.

This comes despite repeated warnings about the dangers of making the trip in a small boat.

A French patrol boat is pictured above. The Home Office says it is 'tackling illegal migrant crossings on all fronts with every agency'

The English Channel is the world's busiest shipping lane, with 500-600 ships passing through the narrow strait every day.

What is more, air temperatures along the UK coast this week dipped as low as 1C (33.8F), data from the Met Office suggests.

The Home Office says it is 'tackling illegal migrant crossings on all fronts with every agency' and working alongside their counterparts in Europe.

More crossings over the weekend brought the total number of migrants picked up by Border Force and brought to the UK in the last seven days to at least 94.

Migrants picked up by border force officials in Dover Harbour on January 21

Tony Eastaugh, Home Office director for crime and enforcement, said: 'We have extra patrols on French beaches, drones, specialist vehicles and detection equipment which has been deployed to stop small boats leaving European shores.

'And it's working.

'Last year one hundred people smugglers were convicted for a total of 320 years.'

On Saturday a Border Force vessel was alerted about 5.30am to a boat entering UK waters which was carrying a group of 26 males and two females who have presented themselves as Pakistani, Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian nationals.

The group was taken to Dover in Kent, where they were to be medically assessed, before being interviewed by immigration officials.
By Tami Hultman and Reed Kramer

Washington, DC  Amid rising attacks by Islamic supremacists, the American military presence in Africa has come under scrutiny in U.S. policy circles, as well as among African analysts.

Some two-thirds of the approximately 6,000 U.S. troops in Africa are stationed at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti City. As many as 800 are deployed in Somalia and Kenya, and another 1,400 are reportedly in west Africa.

Members of Congress have voiced concern about indications that the Trump administration is moving towards reduced military engagement on the continent. Deteriorating security in several African regions has prompted fears of growing instability, as well as fears about the methods used to contain the spreading violence.

A devastating surge in terrorist attacks against military and civilian targets is producing alarming humanitarian consequences, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the United Nations Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel told the Security Council earlier this month. An update issued January 18 by the U.S. government-funded Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) says militant Islamist groups in Africa set a record pace of activity in 2019, with attacks doubling since 2013.

The Pentagon is examining the level of support needed for military operations across Africa, which are conducted by the U.S. Africa Command, known as Africom. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military, said last week that he expects the review to be completed within two months.

News of the review has sparked what government relations consultant Riva Levinson calls bipartisan, bicameral Congressional push-back. A drawdown of U.S. forces, if implemented, would be in defiance of the White Houses own Africa policy, of U.S. national security interests in preempting threats to the U.S. homeland and in contravention of commitments to our NATO allies, Levinson wrote in a column for The Hill.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jim Inhofe, a senior Republican from Oklahoma, opposes a downsizing of Africom, which he says provides an enormous value to the nation for an extremely modest level of investment. In a January 16 statement, Inhofe said: Africa has been and must remain a key theater for our counterterrorism efforts.

Eleven members of the U.S. House of Representatives have voiced similar concern, led by Armed Services Committee Vice Chair Anthony G. Brown, a Maryland Democrat. Rather than retreat from African affairs, it is in the interest of the United States to continue to share democratic values and military expertise with developing nations across the continent, the bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on January 14. The letter argues that U.S. troops are vital for regional stability and for countering terrorism, human trafficking and illegal trade.

Three days later, the chairman and ranking member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith and Mac Thornberry  the committees senior Democrat and Republican, respectively  warned Esper to carefully consider the adverse implications of reducing our force posture in Africa, according to MilitaryTimes.

Limited security resources for Africa

The American National Defense Strategy adopted in 2018 allocates military resources first to deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, followed by opposing Russias expanding influence and supporting European allies. Those priorities leave fewer resources for Africa, Milley said on January 17, following a meeting with French Army Gen. Francois Lecointre to discuss the terror threat in west Africa. But economy of force doesnt mean zero, and thats important, he added.

A large-scale pullback from West Africa that could shut down operations at the recently completed $110 million U.S.-built drone base in Niger is under consideration by the Pentagon, the New York Times reported in December. The newspaper said the cutback could include ending cooperation with French forces countering the expanding insurgencies in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Those policies could lead to a significant reduction in the number of American intelligence officers posted to Africa, the Times reported in a follow-up story.

A prior pull-out of 700 U.S. troops, mostly from west Africa, was announced by the Pentagon in late 2018  a 10 percent reduction in the 7,200 American military personnel then stationed across the continent.

Cutting back on U.S. military resources for Africa makes little sense, says career diplomat Phillip Carter III, who served two years as deputy to the Africom commander for civilian-military engagements and was ambassador to Cote dIvoire and Guinea. Africom is the second busiest U.S. combatant command but is also the smallest. It should be enhanced in order to support U.S. national security objectives, Carter told AllAfrica.

Senator Inhofe said the Defense Department is rightly focusing on China and Russia but should take into account that both countries view Africa as a critical battlefield to fulfill their global ambitions and challenge U.S. interests.

Two other influential senators, Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Chris Coons, voiced a similar view four days later in a joint letter to Esper. They warned that any withdrawal or reduction would likely result in a surge in violent extremist attacks on the continent and beyond as well as increase the geopolitical influence of competitors like Russia and China.

Al-Shabaab Islamic extremists, once focused on Somalia, have spread south into Kenya. Splinters of the Islamic State have been reported in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa, in Tanzania in east Africa and in Mozambique in southern Africa.

A January 5 al-Shabaab attack on the Manda Bay Airfield, an oceanfront Kenya Defense Force base on the countrys northern border with Somalia, killed an American soldier and two contractors. At the base, U.S. forces provide counter-terrorism training for African partners in the region. Although neither the U.S. President nor the White House has commented on the attack, Africom has responded with stepped-up security measures and a vigorous publicity offensive.

The Africa Command dispatched members of its East Africa Response Force. On January 19, U.S. forces conducted an air strike on al-Shabaab fighters who posed a direct, immediate, and significant threat to our partner forces  a Somali National Army Unit near Bangeeni  Africom said in a press release.

The Manda Bay attack so alarmed the Pentagon, the New York Times reported, that 100 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were dispatched to bolster base security. The loss of three Americans was the largest since four U.S. soldiers died in Niger during an ambush in 2017  and underscores the American militarys limits on the continent, which includes limited intelligence capacity, the Times January 22 article said.

In a guest column submitted to AllAfrica, Africom spokesperson Col. Christopher Karns dismissed al-Shabaab claims that 17 Americans died in the attack. The insurgents specialize in lies to create doubt about the international communitys resolve to reduce their influence, he wrote. U.S. Africa Commands cost-effective efforts are helping to keep the United States, Africa, and international partners more secure.

The challenge in west Africa

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Part of the U.S. west African contingent is stationed at a $110 million air base in Agadez, Niger, which became operational two months ago. The facility, built and paid for by the United States but owned by Niger, is used by the U.S. Air Force to launch armed drones to surveil and target insurgent groups across the Sahel.

U.S. forces in the region provide logistical and air support for France, which has 4,500 troops fighting alongside a G5 Sahel Force that includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Following a G5 Summit in Pau, France on January 13, where the African presidents endorsed French military support, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would send another 220 experienced troops to bolster the counter-terror campaign. The six leaders agreed to form a new Sahel Coalition to boost coordination between Sahelien forces and the French counter-terrorism mission.

Macron called the African heads-of-state together after facing public protests in west Africa over continued French presence as well as criticism at home for problems in the counter terror campaign, including a November crash of two helicopters in Mali which claimed the lives of 13 French troops. A week earlier, 30 Malian soldiers died in an attack in the area bordering Burkina Faso and Niger.

This week, after a visit to Chad and Mali last week, French Defense Minister Florence Parly is in Washington, DC, seeking to convince her American counterparts to maintain support for the multi-national effort in the Sahel.

Casualties from terrorist-attacks rose five-fold since 2016 in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the UNs Chambas said is his report to the Security Council, adding that the geographic focus of terrorist attacks has shifted eastwards from Mali to Burkina Faso and is increasingly threatening west African coastal States.

Nigeria is facing similarly escalating challenges. As Africas most populous country and largest economy, it is key to whether the west African region will become more chaotic or find pathways to peace.

In northeastern Nigeria and the border areas it shares with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, Boko Haram and its offshoots  including the ascendant Islamic State in West Africa  are widely estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. Seven million people in three Nigerian states are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

There has been a notable resurgence of Boko Haram activities across the three Northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, and especially around Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, trying to cut it off from surrounding cities and environs, according to a special report by Nigerias Daily Trust published January 26, which says the insurgents are becoming more daring.

Vehicles traveling on the main traffic artery into Maiduguri are regularly attacked, with Nigerians on Twitter complaining that optimistic statements about the roads safety by military spokespeople are lies. A January 20 attack took Maiduguri off the power grid.

The same day a United Nations-run displaced persons camp serving 55-thousand people at Ngala near the Cameroon border was hit. The U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs said the aid hub was the direct target of a complex assault, which killed at least a dozen people, burned a section of the camp and destroyed one of the only UN vehicles available for distributing food and supplies.

Military solution or dialogue?

A single strategy for building peace is seldom seen as viable. But whether to lead with military might or with addressing underlying causes of conflict is a critical choice.

While policy makers proffer various strategies for combating extremist violence, there is general agreement among African researchers, analysts and peace activists that military solutions are insufficient at best  and often counter-productive. To be effective, UN peace envoy Chambas told the Security Council, counter-terrorism responses must focus on gaining the trust and support of local populations.

Africoms reliance on drone strikes is just playing whack-a-mole, tweeted Hussein Sheikh-Ali, a former Somali national security adviser and founder of the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute research center. He advocates dialogue with al-Shabaab as the only viable path to peace, telling the Washington Post, I believe that this strategy will not in any way affect al-Shabaabs short or long-term capabilities.

Al-Shabaab forms part of Somalias socio-political fabric according to Roselyne Omondi, a conflict and peace researcher and associate director of the Nairobi-based HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies. Unlike in Kenya, where al Shabab is a stubborn stain on the Kenyan social fabric, in Somalia  she writes  the group collects taxes, and provides services, such as sanitation, improved roads and security.

Rather than reducing spending on counter-terrorism efforts in Africa, the United States, she says, should review its policy and revise it in ways that will help to counter violent extremism in the two countries, and, by extension, the region.

The Africom commander, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, is also pressing for using military force as a complement to other approaches, rather than as the solution, telling the U.S. Congress that very few, if any, of Africas challenges can be resolved using only military force. Consequently, U.S. Africa Command emphasizes military support to diplomacy and development efforts. When his successor, U.S. Army Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, testifies on Capitol Hill in a few weeks, he likely will be asked to elaborate on how Africom is employing non-lethal actions, alongside drones and training, to fulfill its mission.

A range of actions beyond armed response is required to address not only the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram, but also the escalating conflict between farming and herding communities over scarce land and water, Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, a leading Nigerian peace and conflict specialist, said in an AllAfrica interview.

One vital pathway to peace lies with the civilian population, said Ibrahim, a Senior Fellow and former Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, who chairs the editorial board and writes a column for Premium Times. Local leaders, especially religious leaders, have an important role to play in conflict resolution and diminishing the recruitment efforts of extremist groups.

The recent rise in al-Shabaab attacks in Kenya and Somalia could lead to African security planners rethinking their counter-terrorism policy, the East African reported on January 20. In a year when the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) is considering reducing its troops in Somalia, al-Shabaab has launched several assaults in the two countries since December, killing at least 130 people. The article says that some experts think Amisom and partners like the U.S. have been too focused on the armed efforts to tame al-Shabaab.

After a year-long reporting project focused on Countering militancy in the Sahel: What works? What doesnt? the New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) listed amnesty and demobilisation schemes backed by financial and vocational support for surrendering fighters as essential ingredients for a successful peacebuilding strategy.

Yemi Adamolekun, head of the good governance and accountability organization Enough Is Enough Nigeria, says that part of why Nigeria is unpeaceful is huge amounts of poverty: people fighting over scarce resources, insecurity, distrust  people desperate to survive. Only when human needs are addressed, she says, can troubled nations such as Nigeria build peace.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes young Rishabh Pant is immensely talented and the stumper will be making his way back to the Indian playing XI "sooner than later".

Ponting, who is also associated with the Delhi Capitals as mentor in the Indian Premier League (IPL), also said on Monday that he is looking forward to work with Pant in the upcoming edition of the cash-rich league.

"Rishabh Pant is a young man with a huge amount of talent. I am looking forward to working with him again during the IPL and I am sure he will be back in the Indian team sooner rather than later," Ponting said while replying to one of the users during his interaction with fans on Twitter.

The Indian team management had decided to hand K.L. Rahul the dual role of a 'keeper-batsman' in limited-overs by dropping Pant from the playing XI in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand.

In the recent times, Rahul has shown satisfactory work with the glove and has been outstanding with the bat as well.

The Karnataka batsman scored half centuries and played crucial role in India's comprehensive victories in the first two matches, courtesy which the Men in Blue have taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of budget carrier IndiGo, on Monday reported a steep rise in profit after tax at Rs 496 crore for the three months ended December 2019, mainly helped by higher income

New Delhi/Mumbai: InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of budget carrier IndiGo, on Monday reported a steep rise in profit after tax at Rs 496 crore for the three months ended December 2019, mainly helped by higher income.

The company had a profit after tax of Rs 185.2 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.

Its total income surged a robust 25.5 percent to Rs 10,330.2 crore in the latest December quarter from Rs 8,229.3 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Of this, passenger ticket revenue was Rs 8,770.30 crore, an increase of 24.1 percent y-o-y, while the ancillary revenue during the quarter stood at Rs 1,037.30 crore, registering a growth of 28.8 percent over the year-ago period, the airline said.

#3QWithCNBCTV18 | @IndiGo6E Q3: Yield at Rs 3.88 vs Rs 3.83 (YoY) while load factor comes in at 87.6% vs 85.3% (YoY) pic.twitter.com/dELREanBdc  CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) January 27, 2020

The yield or average ticket price increased 2.1 percent in the December quarter to Rs 3.88 per km, from Rs 3.83 per km in the third quarter of 2018-19. At the same time, the fuel cost reduced 2 percent to Rs 334.19 crore as compared to Rs 341.04 crore, as per the filing.

"I am very enthusiastic about the way we have been developing our network, connecting cities, large and small, to provide more choice to our customers. We have added small cities, such as Shirdi and Shillong, to our network while extending our reach to major cities such as Hanoi and Guangzhou," IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta said.

The airline started operations on seven new international routes and 17 new domestic routes and operated a peak of 1,634 daily departures during the quarter, he said.

While expanding, IndiGo has also been paying a lot of attention to its customer service levels and for the quarter, the airline's on-time performance was number one among the Indian carriers, Dutta added.

The airline said the year-on-year capacity increase in available seat kilometers (ASK), which is a measure of passenger carrying capacity, is expected to be 20 percent for the March quarter and 23 percent for 2019-20.

For the financial year 2021, capacity increase in ASKs is expected to be around 20 percent.

Total cash balance stood at Rs 20,068 crore, which included Rs 9,412 crore of free cash and Rs 10,656 crore of restricted cash, according to the filing.

IndiGo added 12 aircraft during the quarter under review. Its fleet had 257 aircraft, comprising 126 A320 Ceos, 96 A320Neos,10 A321Neosand 25 ATRs at the end of December 31, 2019.
A man who previously served prison time for assaulting his wife and daughter is now accused of beating and sexually assaulting a woman during an attack last week.

The assault by 54-year-old Jeffrey Poliskiewicz began Jan. 19 and lasted all night at his home in the 1100 block of Mill Road in Plainfield Township, Slate Belt Regional police said.

Poliskiewicz would not let the woman leave home until she promised not to call police, and he made her take a shower to destroy DNA evidence, police said.

The victim on Saturday went to the St. Lukes Hospital Anderson campus, and it was the hospital that contacted authorities. Bethlehem Township police, who cover the hospital campus, notified Slate Belt Regional police that the reported attack occurred in their jurisdiction.

Poliskiewicz was arrested and charged Saturday with aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, sexual assault and related charges. He was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail.

You just thank God she was able to get away, who knows what would have happened, interim police Chief Jonathon Hoadley said.

Police said the victim suffered multiple fractured ribs and a vertebral artery dissection in the attack. Photos provided to police, taken of the victim on Wednesday, showed bruises all over the victims body and cuts on her lip.

Ten years ago, Poliskiewicz was accused of assaulting his then-wife and daughter.

The victim testified Poliskiewicz dragged her through a field into a barn, where he shoved her head into a wall, threw her onto hay and concrete and repeatedly beat her with steel-toed boots.

The woman also testified Poliskiewicz assaulted his then-teen daughter by choking her and placing a hand over her mouth and nose.

In a plea deal with prosecutors, a felony charge was dropped in exchange for Poliskiewicz pleading guilty to simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, making terroristic threats, stalking and unlawful restraint.

Poliskiewicz was sentenced to eight to 16 months in prison, followed by five years probation for assault and related charges. Records show probation in the case was terminated early, in 2013.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Job Title: Program Accountant  Pader Agago

Cluster

Organisation: World Vision

International

Reports to: Programme Manager

Duty Station: Uganda

About US:

World

Vision Uganda is a Christian relief, development and advocacy non-government

organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to

overcome poverty and injustice. We currently work in over 82 districts in

Uganda implementing projects in health & nutrition, water, sanitation &

hygiene (WASH), livelihoods & community resilience, education and child

protection. World Vision (WV) is committed to the protection of children and

adult beneficiaries from exploitation and abuse and will not employ people

whose background is not suitable for working with the beneficiaries above. All

employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of all applicable

background checks, including criminal record checks where possible.

Job Summary: To provide financial

technical support to the programme/cluster in accordance with World Vision

accounting policies and procedures and the Acceptable International Financial

Accounting standards.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

 Financial management:

Raise, receive and review voucher interface files and ProVision requests from

the programme/cluster for the completeness/accuracy of data, account codes and

provide feedback on daily basis

 Financial management:

Review and manage the mobile money transactions for the programme/ cluster and

ensure timely and accurate mobile reconciliations by 10th following month

 Financial planning &

budget management: Complete and consolidate the programme/AP Budgets, upload

into Horizon by August and to Share point by December each financial year

 Monitor budget and

cash-flows by ensuring expenditures are within the budget limits, identify and

provide variances explanations for management decision making by 13th monthly

 Financial reporting:

Generate and review Sun systems generated and other financial reports for the

programme/ cluster and share/discuss the reports with the cluster teams on 11th

monthly and have final reports filed at the cluster by 15th each month

 Risk management: Take

lead in the cluster internal and external audit and ensure that audit

recommendations are implemented on a timely basis, that is within the 90 days

 Update asset registers

to monitor and manage programme/ cluster assets) in accordance with WV Finance

Manual on quarterly basis

 Carry out routine field

visits to ascertain value for money and items reaching correct beneficiaries

 Capacity building:

Provide technical financial support and hands on to programme/ cluster

Assistant Accountants, Program staff and partners within the cluster

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

 The ideal candidate must

have a university degree, with a major in Accounting/Finance/Auditing

 Partial professional

qualification in A.C.C.A, CPA, CA, CIA or CMA or equivalent.

 A minimum of three

years post qualification experience.

 At least 3 years

relevant technical and business work experience

 Extensive Computer

knowledge in Microsoft Excel, Vision Excel, Word, PowerPoint, SUN Accounting

and Access is required.

 Must have proven

knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Internal Control

Procedures.

 Written and Oral

Communication skills are essential, and the incumbent must be a team builder,

who is able to work successfully in a multicultural environment

 Experience of working in

the field(communities)

 Knowledge of project

management and project cycles

 Additional professional

qualifications

How to apply:

All

suitably qualified candidates are encouraged to submit your application and

complete Curriculum Vitae. Apply online by visiting World Vision

Internationals e-recruitment jobs portal at the web link below.

Click

Here

Deadline: 31st

January 2020

For

more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our

facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "We are pleased that FAIR Health Consumer continues to be of vital assistance to consumers across the country who are navigating the complexities of the healthcare system. Learning more about the users of our cost lookup tools and educational resources helps us in our ongoing efforts to refine and expand the website."

Searching for Cost Information

Attracting hundreds of thousands of users a year, FAIR Health Consumer includes medical and dental cost lookup tools that allow users to search for typical costs of healthcare procedures in their geographic areas. In 2019, the top five medical terms searched with the medical cost lookup tool were:

MRI; Knee; Dermatological; Colonoscopy; and Physical therapy.

The list was similar to the 2018 list, except that in 2019 "CT scan" dropped from second place out of the top five, while "knee" moved into the top five, into second place, and "dermatological" and "colonoscopy" switched places.

In 2018 and 2019, the top five dental terms searched were the same:

Root canal; Crown; Implant; Orthodontic; and Cleaning.

Gender and Age

In both 2018 and 2019, women outnumbered men among FAIR Health Consumer users. In 2019, 57 percent of users were female, 43 percent male.

As in 2018, adults across the age spectrum used the website in 2019, with the largest age group in both years being individuals aged 25-34. This was the age breakdown in 2019:

18-24: 6.6 percent;

25-34: 27.8 percent;

35-44: 21.4 percent;

45-54: 16.8 percent;

55-64: 14.7 percent; and

65+: 12.7 percent.

Insurance Status

As in 2018, all types of insurance status were represented among FAIR Health Consumer users in 2019, including out of network (31.6 percent), in network (28.5 percent) and uninsured (12.8 percent).

Where Are Our Users?

The top 10 states from which visits to FAIR Health Consumer originated in 2019 were:

New York ; California ; Texas ; Oregon ; Florida ; New Jersey ; Illinois ; Georgia ; Pennsylvania ; and Virginia .

The top eight states were the same as in 2018, but that year Virginia was in 9th place and Ohio in 10th. In both years, all four US census regions (Northeast, South, Midwest and West) were represented.

Who Are Our Users?

FAIR Health Consumer users in 2019 showed signs of varied interests. Their number included value shoppers/bargain hunters, cooking enthusiasts, avid news readers, avid investors, health and fitness buffs, travel buffs and mobile enthusiasts/early technology adopters.

Most Frequently Visited Resources

In addition to its cost lookup tools, FAIR Health Consumer has educational materials, including articles, videos and a section of resources with helpful links to outside organizations. The most frequently visited resources were those on costs, state resources, locating providers, insurance appeals and dental.

For an infographic with these statistics, click here.

Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 30 billion claim records contributed by payors and administrators who insure or process claims for private insurance plans covering more than 150 million individuals. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health houses data on Medicare Advantage enrollees in its private claims data repository. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:

Dean Sicoli

Chief Communications Officer

FAIR Health

646-664-1645

[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health

Related Links

http://www.fairhealth.org


We have all seen the local foods movement continue to expand. Customers looking for foods produced in their region have even been paying more to know where that food was grown. Now, the state of New Hampshire, home to approximately 96 dairies, has taken that momentum a little bit further with a bill signed into law last August that allows milk produced in the state to be sold at a premium of 50 cents per gallon.

The bill passed after a 2018 survey of over 500 adults revealed that 85% said they would pay more for milk produced in the state if they knew the money was going back to farmers. Interviews at grocery stores in and around the area echoed similar results.

Of the 50-cent up charge, the law provides that 43 cents will go to New Hampshire farmers  an additional $5 for every cwt. sold in-state. Unsurprisingly, dairy producers like the sound of that.

But on the other side, processors and retailers arent so sure about the measure.

Hood Milk is a Massachusetts-based processor with plants in multiple states including New Hampshire. The company has not been interested in participating, presumably because of the difficulty in separating and labeling milk solely from New Hampshire cows.

The Northeast Dairy Foods Association, a trade association representing processors, distributors, and manufacturers in eight states, opposed the bill for similar reasons. The law is unique, but it is flawed, according to Executive Vice President Bruce Krupke. This kind of program is, at very best, extremely difficult to implement for a lot of reasons and is thus, not workable, added the organization in their address to the states legislature.

Krupkes concerns also include how out-of-state processors that sell milk in New Hampshire could be harmed as well as the logistical costs of administrating and overseeing the program.

Premium milk is mostly at a standstill in the state as consumers and dairy promotion boards work to convince manufacturers and retailers that this is a worthwhile endeavor. So far, its been difficult to have those conversations. New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food Commissioner Shawn Jasper is encouraging consumers to talk to their retail store managers so the stores suppliers hear that local milk is what their customers want.

The motivation behind the bill was to support local farmers, but Krupke wants consumers to know this is not the only, or best, way to show your concern. Its very simple, he said when asked about local farmers going out of business. The answer is, have a glass of milk with a meal once in a while. Thats it. We dont need to have this program implemented administratively, logistically increasing the price for consumers, when the answer is to simply consume more of the product.

Hoards Dairyman
Federal investigators have accused Prince Andrew of providing zero cooperation with their investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators about his alleged history of sexually abusing young girls.

In developments that reverberated from New York to Buckingham Palace and beyond, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman stood outside of the late Epsteins New York apartment, to say both FBI and federal prosecutors were seeking the princes help. So far there had been zero cooperation, he told reporters.

The original charges against Jeffrey Epstein contained a conspiracy charge, and we alleged that there were conspirators involved, and Jeffrey Epstein couldnt have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that our investigation is moving forward, Mr Berman said.

Nicholas Biase at the US Attorneys Office in New York confirmed to The Independent that Prince Andrew had not offered any cooperation, and the office was working in close coordination with the FBI to get him to speak with authorities. He could not comment about the timelines of their correspondence and when they last spoke with his representatives. Previously, the prince said he would cooperate if required.

The prince has repeatedly denied accusations levelled at him, most powerfully by Virginia Giuffre, who has claimed she was trafficked by the disgraced late US financier, and forced to have sex with his friends, including the British prince when she was 17 years old. She said the assaults took place in London, New York and Epsteins private island in the US Virgin Islands.

Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Show all 9 1 /9 Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in court Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein attends court as he pleads guilty to solicitation and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution, 2008 Zuma/Rex Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in court Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to felony solicitation and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Epstein, allegedly paid several girls under the age of 18 in return for naked massages at his Palm Beach, Florida estate Zuma/Rex Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's car Jeffrey Epstein is whisked away from the Palm Beach County jail in a black car shortly after 6am on 22 July 2009. Epstein left the jail through the sally port, where prisoners are brought in, rather than through the main doors where prisoners are routinely released Zuma/Rex Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's mugshot Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's mugshot, taken after he was indicted for soliciting a prostitute on 26 July 2006. Beginning in mid-March 2005, Epstein became the target of a sexual battery probe conducted by the Palm Beach Police Department, according to the affidavit, which alleges that Epstein paid a series of underage girls to engage in sexual activity with him. In a 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein, Donald Trump called the moneyman a 'terrific guy' who 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' Epstein, who reportedly runs a multibillion-dollar investment fund, travels in his own Boeing 727 (upon which he has transported Bill Clinton to Africa) and owns a 45,000-square-foot mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jack Goldberger, Jeffrey Epstein's attorney Jeffrey Epstein's attorney, Jack Goldberger, talks with reporters gathered outside the Palm Beach County jail on 22 July 2009 after Epstein was whisked away from the jail in a black car Zuma/Rex Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Florida Police department sexual offenders database picture of Jeffrey Epstein taken in 2013 Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's mansion His Palm Beach mansion in Florida Google Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's island The private Caribbean island, Little St James is part of the US Virgin Islands NBC News Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's island The private Caribbean island, Little St James is part of the US Virgin Islands NBC News

In an interview with the BBCs Panorama programme in December, she urged the British people to support her.

He knows what happened. I know what happened, and theres only one of us telling the truth, and I know thats me, she said.

I implore the citizens in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being OK. This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked, this is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys royalty.

In a now notorious interview with the BBC in November, the 59-year-old royal, who has since stood away from his duties with the royal family, Prince Andrew denied ever meeting Ms Roberts Giuffre, as she is also known, despite being photographed with her. He also claimed that due to a peculiar medical condition he was physically unable to sweat at the time, in response to her claim that he had been profusely sweating.

 Prince Andrew: I stayed at convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's house because I am 'too honorable'

He did admit to spending time at Epsteins homes, where he said he never witnessed any suspicious behaviour or saw anything unusual about the young women in the properties.

I thought they were all staff, he said.

Reports dating back several months suggested the authorities wanted to speak to the the Queens third son. In his BBC interview, he said was prepared to give testimony under oath if push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so.

Later, announcing his decision to stand away from his royal duties for the foreseeable future, he added: Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.

The prince was one of many celebrities and high-profile figures to have at one of time or other associated with Epstein, including Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, Robert Maxwell and even Donald Trump.

Most broke off contact with him after he pleaded guilty to a charge of sex with a minor in 2008 and sentenced to 13 months in jail.

But Prince Andrew maintained the friendship, even staying at his house in New York after his released from jail in 2010, something he has since said was an error.

In the summer of 2019, Epstein, 66, was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of girls and young women, charges he denied. He took his own life while awaiting trial.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: This issue is being dealt with by The Duke of Yorks legal team. Buckingham Palace will not be commenting further on this particular matter.
Egypt's Minister of Defence Mohamed Zaki and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohamed Farid received on Monday in Cairo the commander of the United States Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie and an accompanying delegation to discuss strategic cooperation between Egypt and the United States.

"The meeting reviewed the Egyptian Armed Forces' efforts to eliminate terrorism and achieve safety and stability in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as a number of issues of mutual interest in light of strategic cooperation to achieve the common interest of Egypt and the United States," a statement by Egypt's Armed Forces spokesperson said.

The commander of the USCC affirmed the US' keenness on pushing forward strategic cooperation between Egypt and the US Armed Forces.

Chief of Staff Farid discussed with the US commander a number of issues of mutual interest including military cooperation and joint trainings between the Egyptian and the US army, topped by the 'Bright Star' drills.

The meeting was attended by a number of the Armed Forces commanders and the US ambassador in Cairo.

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Sales of $533 million, down 7% versus prior-year quarter

Net income of $32 million, or $0.53 per diluted share

Income from continuing operations of $34 million, or $0.56 per diluted share

Adjusted income from continuing operations of $8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share

Adjusted EBITDA of $88 million

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) today announced preliminary1 financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2020 ended December 31, 2019. The global specialty materials company serves customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets.

Sales were $533 million, down 7 percent versus the prior-year quarter, driven primarily by weaker demand in consumer end markets, the impact of the prior-year business loss at Pharmachem, and weaker demand in industrial end markets. Net income was $32 million compared to a loss of $48 million in the prior-year quarter. Income from continuing operations was $34 million compared to a loss of $71 million in the prior-year quarter, or $0.56 per diluted share compared to a loss of $1.14 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted income from continuing operations was $8 million, down from $9 million in the prior-year quarter, or $0.13 per diluted share, down from $0.14 the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $88 million, down from $100 million in the prior-year quarter due primarily to lower sales in Specialty Ingredients and higher plant-turnaround costs in Intermediates & Solvents.

As expected, results in the quarter were challenged by market weakness and the impact of business loss that occurred last year, said Guillermo Novo, Ashlands chairman and chief executive officer. The combination of actions we are taking internally plus the prospect for less global uncertainty in the coming quarters should support our momentum for steadily improving results during fiscal year 2020.

We took important steps over the past few months in realigning the Specialty Ingredients business by adding new leadership, beginning the process to empower the business units to drive success in their businesses, and starting some cost-improvement activities, added Novo. I look forward to sharing additional thoughts on our plans and the progress we have made on the conference call with securities analysts tomorrow morning.

Reportable Segment Performance

To aid in the understanding of Ashlands ongoing business performance, the results of Ashlands reportable segments are described below on an adjusted basis. In addition, EBITDA, or adjusted EBITDA, is reconciled to operating income in Table 5, free cash flow and adjusted operating income are reconciled in Table 7, and adjusted income from continuing operations and adjusted diluted earnings per share are reconciled in Table 8 of this news release. These adjusted results are considered non-GAAP financial measures. For a full description of the non-GAAP financial measures used, see the Use of Non-GAAP Measures section that further describes these adjustments below.

Specialty Ingredients

Sales were $505 million, down 9 percent from the prior-year quarter, due primarily to weaker demand in consumer end markets, the impact of the prior-year business loss at Pharmachem, and weaker demand in industrial end markets. Unfavorable foreign currency reduced sales by 1 percent.

Operating income was $44 million, down 19 percent compared to the prior-year quarter on an adjusted basis. Adjusted EBITDA was $102 million, down 9 percent from the prior-year quarter, as lower sales and gross profit were partially offset by lower selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs.

Intermediates & Solvents

Sales were $28 million, up 22 percent from the prior-year quarter, as sales in the prior-year quarter were weaker than normal.

Operating income was a loss of $12 million, down from zero in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $9 million, down from $3 million in the prior-year quarter, as the previously-disclosed planned catalyst changeover plus the unexpected maintenance work at the Lima, Ohio facility resulted in $12 million of additional costs versus the prior year.

Unallocated & Other

Unallocated and other expense was $15 million, compared to $33 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to lower restructuring-related expenses and the elimination of stranded costs. Adjusted unallocated and other expense was $8 million, compared to $16 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to the elimination of stranded costs.

Outlook

Chairman and CEO Guillermo Novo will provide commentary on the outlook for Ashland during the conference call with securities analysts on Tuesday, January 28, 2020.

Conference Call Webcast

Ashland will host a live webcast of its first-quarter conference call with securities analysts at 9 a.m. EST Tuesday, January 28, 2020. The webcast will be accessible through Ashlands website at http://investor.ashland.com and will include a slide presentation. Following the live event, an archived version of the webcast and supporting materials will be available for 12 months.

Use of Non-GAAP Measures

Ashland believes that by removing the impact of depreciation and amortization and excluding certain non-cash charges, amounts spent on interest and taxes and certain other charges that are highly variable from year to year, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin provide Ashlands investors with performance measures that reflect the impact to operations from trends in changes in sales, margin and operating expenses, providing a perspective not immediately apparent from net income, operating income, net income margin and operating income margin. The adjustments Ashland makes to derive the non-GAAP measures of EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin exclude items which may cause short-term fluctuations in net income and operating income and which Ashland does not consider to be the fundamental attributes or primary drivers of its business. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin provide disclosure on the same basis as that used by Ashlands management to evaluate financial performance on a consolidated and reportable segment basis and provide consistency in our financial reporting, facilitate internal and external comparisons of Ashlands historical operating performance and its business units and provide continuity to investors for comparability purposes. EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin are defined as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA divided by sales for the corresponding period.

Key items, which are set forth on Table 8 of this release, are defined as financial effects from significant transactions that, either by their nature or amount, have caused short-term fluctuations in net income and/or operating income which Ashland does not consider to most accurately reflect Ashlands underlying business performance and trends. Further, Ashland believes that providing supplemental information that excludes the financial effects of these items in the financial results will enhance the investors ability to compare financial performance between reporting periods.

Tax-specific key items, which are set forth on Table 8 of this release, are defined as financial transactions, tax law changes or other matters that fall within the definition of key items as described above. These items relate solely to tax matters and would only be recorded within the income tax caption of the Statement of Consolidated Income. As with all key items, due to their nature, Ashland does not consider the financial effects of these tax-specific key items on net income to be the most accurate reflection of Ashlands underlying business performance and trends.

The free cash flow metric enables Ashland to provide a better indication of the ongoing cash being generated that is ultimately available for both debt and equity holders as well as other investment opportunities. Unlike cash flow provided by operating activities, free cash flow includes the impact of capital expenditures from continuing operations, providing a more complete picture of cash generation. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect adjustment for certain non-discretionary cash flows such as mandatory debt repayments. The amount of mandatory versus discretionary expenditures can vary significantly between periods.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share is a performance measure used by Ashland and is defined by Ashland as earnings (loss) from continuing operations, adjusted for identified key items and divided by the number of outstanding diluted shares of common stock. Ashland believes this measure provides investors additional insights into operational performance by providing earnings and diluted earnings per share metrics that exclude the effect of the identified key items and tax specific key items.

About Ashland

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a premier global specialty materials company serving customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care and pharmaceutical. At Ashland, we are approximately 4,700 passionate, tenacious solvers  from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators  who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com to learn more.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Ashland has identified some of these forward-looking statements with words such as anticipates, believes, expects, estimates, is likely, predicts, projects, forecasts, objectives, may, will, should, plans and intends and the negative of these words or other comparable terminology. Ashland may from time to time make forward-looking statements in its annual reports, quarterly reports and other filings with the SEC, news releases and other written and oral communications. These forward-looking statements are based on Ashlands expectations and assumptions, as of the date such statements are made, regarding Ashlands future operating performance and financial condition, as well as the economy and other future events or circumstances. These statements include but may not be limited to Ashlands expectations regarding its ability to drive sales and earnings growth and realize further cost reductions.

Ashlands expectations and assumptions include, without limitation, internal forecasts and analyses of current and future market conditions and trends, management plans and strategies, operating efficiencies and economic conditions (such as prices, supply and demand, cost of raw materials, and the ability to recover raw-material cost increases through price increases), and risks and uncertainties associated with the following: the impact of acquisitions and/or divestitures Ashland has made or may make (including the possibility that Ashland may not realize the anticipated benefits from such transactions); Ashlands substantial indebtedness (including the possibility that such indebtedness and related restrictive covenants may adversely affect Ashlands future cash flows, results of operations, financial condition and its ability to repay debt); severe weather, natural disasters, cyber events and legal proceedings and claims (including product recalls, environmental and asbestos matters); and without limitation, risks and uncertainties affecting Ashland that are described in Ashlands most recent Form 10-K (including Item 1A Risk Factors) filed with the SEC, which is available on Ashlands website at http://investor.ashland.com or on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those stated, projected or implied by any forward-looking statements. Ashland believes its expectations and assumptions are reasonable, but there can be no assurance that the expectations reflected herein will be achieved. Unless legally required, Ashland undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

1Financial results are preliminary until Ashlands Form 10-Q is filed with the SEC

 Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Investor Relations: Media Relations:

Seth A. Mrozek Carolmarie C. Brown

+1 (302) 594-5010 +1 (302) 258-5549

samrozek@ashland.com c cbrown@ashland.com

Attachment
S Raja By

Express News Service

THENI: Dharmapuri, a sleepy little village some 14 kilometres from Theni, is one of those hinterland hamlets known for its rustic charm. However, coursing beneath its arcadian appearance is a strong martial spirit that is the pride of the villagers.

For generations, it has sent hundreds of brave men and women to the countrys military and paramilitary forces; tales of their brave deeds inspiring the next generation to serve the nation. Even as we speak, 400 jawans from this village ensure that we are safe.

Boys and girls in the village start training from a young age itself, not unlike the ancient Spartans, whose valour colours the history. The village ground is the arena where they toughen their mind and body. Youth dedicate their evenings not to binge-watching but to blood, sweat and tears; their focus an impenetrable fortress. Overseeing their training are village elders -- retired military personnel determined to get the best out them.

Every jawan, returning home on leave, also trains the youth and inspire them to join the forces. One of them opens up to the TNIE, Joining the Indian Army was a dream from childhood and now I am living my dream. It is the camaraderie among the youth, including serving jawans, that is another aspect of the village. Nothing can describe the happiness one feels when he finds his brothers

Parental support

Most parents in the village oblige their wards wish to undergo training and prepare themselves for recruitment. To them, this is a matter of pride. Speaking to TNIE, Selvam, a retired Army officer, said that youth from the village dream of joining the forces and serve the country. Many of the village

elders are retired army personnel, and tradition of sending youth to the forces continues to this day.

Starting young

Boys and girls in the village start training from a young age itself. The village ground is the arena where they toughen their mind and body. Youth dedicate their evenings not to binge-watching but to blood, sweat and tears. Overseeing their training are village elders  retired military personnel
By Olivia Rose

THE CARIBBEAN Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has told the TCI to develop a deeper understanding of the risks of terrorist financing.





This includes taking into consideration cross-border movement of cash such as wire transfers and travellers cheques through customs.





The Caribbeans anti-money laundering watchdog published its 235-page Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluation Report on the TCI on Monday (January 20).





The document summarises the anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures in place at the time of its visit from September 10-21, 2018.





The exhaustive report analyses the level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)s 40 recommendations and the level of effectiveness of the TCIs AML/CFT system.





It also provides recommendations on how the system could be strengthened.





In a prioritised list of recommended actions for the TCI, the report stated: "The country shouldconduct risk assessments to develop a deeper understanding of the risk of terrorist financing, taking into consideration cross-border movement of cash including wire transfers and the movement and cash and bearer-negotiable instruments through customs.





The CFATF also recommended that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) should ensure that the corporate service provider, legal, real estate and trust sectors are complying with their obligations to identify high-risk customers.





"The FSC should also ensure that these sectors undertake a review of these business relationships to determine compliance with current customer due diligence requirements.





Reports findings

Members of the TCI Financial Action Task Force Committee held a press conference at the Office of the Premier on Monday to announce the report and summarise the findings.





The committee was established under the Proceeds of Crime Ordinance and is responsible for coordinating AML/CFT assessments in the territory.





Committee chair Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles said the report outlines recommendations on how the territorys anti-money laundering regime can be strengthened





She said: "In general the report found that there are structural elements in place in the TCI for an effective AML/CFT system.





"The TCI is politically stable and has demonstrated a high level of commitment in addressing the money laundering and terrorist financing issues, rule of law is effective and the judiciary is capable and independent.





She stressed that the report should give confidence to investors, since it underlines that the TCI is committed to tackling money laundering on all fronts.





"On the basis of those structural elements that establish an effective AML/CFT system, it should provide confidence to the business community and also for those who are interested in investing in the TCI as a member of the international financial community, that TCI is committed to implementing and maintaining an appropriate, effective and risk based framework and strategy to combat money laundering.





The attorney general said the report noted that the TCI has a fair understanding of its money laundering risks based on its National Risk Assessment prepared in collaboration with the private sector.





She said: "The TCI has progressively advanced its legislative framework to address gaps in the countrys AML/CFT framework.





"Proceeding the CFATF visit in September, the TCI made a significant number of investments to its AML/CFT laws and subsidiary legislation and issued guidance notes and more than 15 pieces of legislation were implemented.





"In terms of technical compliance the report recognises that the legislative measures implemented by the TCI has significantly enhanced its technical compliance framework.





"The TCI has been rated compliant on 15 recommendations, largely compliant on nine recommendations and partially on 16 of all the 40 recommendations for the CFATF.





In terms of effectiveness, similar to the TCI, many countries around the world are currently undergoing the fourth round of FATF mutual evaluation.





Effectiveness

Braithwaite-Knowles explained that some 180 countries in total are confronting a new standard of effectiveness that and there are ratings for effectiveness.





"Countries including the TCI have experienced challenges in ensuring that there is sufficient progress being made in compliant with these newly introduced international standards, that deal with statistics and being able to prove the effectiveness of your system.





"So in terms of effectiveness, the TCI has achieved a moderate level of effectiveness for six outcomes and a low level of effectiveness for five others.





However, of the nine countries assessed by the CFATF in the Caribbean, the TCI ranks in third place in terms of technical compliance and third place in terms of its effectiveness.





The attorney general underscored that although this is good news for the territory, there is still much work left to be done.





"The report noted that the AML/CFT supervisory regime is in need of further enhancement to ensure that financial institutions and the designated non-financial professions and businesses such as the legal profession, casinos, dealers in precious metals and real estate brokers implement a robust risk based assessment and mitigating measures to effectively address their AML/CFT risks, the attorney general stressed.





Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson in her brief remarks acknowledged the hard work of the committee in ensuring the TCI is on par with international AML/CFT standards.





She said: "I am pleased that the report does not just recognise the obligation and the positive commitment of the Government but also the hard work and efforts of the committee here in the Turks and Caicos.





Cartwright Robinson explained that the Government recognises that there are deficiencies in the report and will ensure the territory maintains the stipulated international standards.





"I want to pledge my Governments commitment to working collaboratively, not just with the key stakeholders in the public sector but also the private sector to say that were all in this together.





"I know that with much work and resources we can certainly meet the standard and achieve what were seeking to in terms of the international standards that are set for us.





"I want to again congratulate the team, it's been a valiant effort, you have my full support.

Governor Nigel Dakin echoed her sentiments as he acknowledged the work of the local committee in helping the TCI achieve its AML/CFT benchmark.





"To echo the words of the premier, the team behind us did an extraordinary job ...what weve witnessed in the months running up was extraordinary cross collaboratively - its a model for the way we should be working together.





"Weve included anti-money laundering within the National Security Strategy and that has recently been approved by the Cabinet and we are going to address those issues highlighted in the report.





He said he is aware of the strong collaborative support from the private sector.





"We will be showing significant progress towards the goals that have been set and it will show TCIs very high level of commitment to this area, the governor added.




Nekkar ASA has been awarded a grant under Innovation Norways Environmental Technology program of MNOK 10 to develop, pilot and test a Closed Cage for fish farming. The development will be done in cooperation with a renowned fish farmer.

Nekkars closed technology will provide multiple benefits in terms of production control and efficiency. The lice and waste problems the industry face today can be dramatically reduced. The cage is less capital intensive compared to land based and offshore solutions. It can be placed in most existing locations in addition to open up for new locations, primarily near shore.

The closed cages will give all the benefits of control of environment, fish welfare and increased growth. In addition, the Nekkar solution will reduce the risk of unintended escape by dual safety of the cage. The main construction material is all flexible and light weight.

The development and piloting phase will be ongoing until 2023.

Bergen, 27 January 2020

Nekkar ASA

www.nekkar.com



Contact person:

Toril Eidesvik CEO

M: +47 900 78 218





This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Start the new decade with a bang: Hastings Tea & Coffee has expanded its menu to include wine and beer! It's an exciting new year when the cosmopolitan cafe of White Plains, NY burgeons with novelty: red, white and sparkling wines, sake, and craft beers. What's crazier? Tea Wine, tea infused wine made freshly at Hastings Tea & Coffee Lounge.

Hastings Fruit & Flowers Tea Infused Pinot Grigio Hastings Tea & Coffee Lounge

Hastings Tea & Coffee started as a tea spot, named by the Best of Westchester as a "tea lounge with a coffeehouse feel, a must-visit for the tea lover." Btw, the coffee is awesome too! A recent review from a customer raves: "I'm Italian born and raised and lived in New York City for over 10 years, and can guarantee this is one of the best espressos I've had in NYC."

A portrait of what it used to be: At 7:30am, you stop by for a coffee, to read the newspaper and relax before work. Or maybe you are hustling to the office with a hot green tea. The hours pass, and you're aching for that glass of wine or beer but you don't want to go to a crowded, stuffy bar or restaurant.

Beginning in Feb 2020, Hastings Tea & Coffee Lounge will expand its hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to 10pm to cater to wine bar demands, exploring the amazing selection of highly rated (90+ point) wines from the world. There are now five reds, four whites, and one sparkling, including Wine Enthusiast #1 Wine of 2019! Four finest local craft beers are available on the menu, sourcing from a brewery in Tuckahoe. Happy hour is at 4-7pm daily with wine starting at only $5 per glass.

Hastings Tea & Coffee Lounge offers serenity and relaxation. It is centrally located in downtown White Plains. With new seating and a wide range of delicious drinks, you can unwind in a comfortable space. Try the delightful Hastings Fruit & Flowers Tea infused Pinot Grigio, rich in Vitamin C.

What are you waiting for? Stop in today for a welcoming atmosphere, and an unparalleled drink. Enjoy a glass of wine or craft beer with a friend and colleague, or a date. Try the famous Tea Service and French Press coffee. Hastings Tea & Coffee Lounge is a new destination.

GO: 235 Main Street, White Plains, NY, 914-428-1000, hastingstea.com

Media Contact:

Joan Jia

[email protected]

914-564-9374

SOURCE Hastings Tea & Coffee
[January 27, 2020] Saki Selects Jeff Mogensen as General Manager of SAKI America

Saki Corporation, an innovator in the field of automated optical and X-ray inspection and measurement equipment, announces the selection of Jeff Mogensen to the position of general manager of SAKI America, Inc. Mogensen will be responsible for all sales, R&D, application support, service, and operations for Saki's 3D solder paste inspection (SPI), automated optical inspection (AOI), and automated X-ray inspection (AXI) equipment, software, M2M communication initiatives, and relationships throughout the Americas. Mogensen has 39 years of electronics industry experience in various roles, including key account manager, vice president of sales, and general manager, for companies manufacturing inspection and placement equipment. "We are excited that Jeff has joined our team at this time of growth and expansion in the Amerias," said Norihiro Koike, president of Saki Corporation. "Jeff has built successful teams serving customers across multiple segments both locally and globally. We look forward to having Jeff lead our efforts to support customers in meeting their manufacturing goals and challenges. Please stop by our booth, #2025, at IPC APEX 2020, being held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA (News - Alert) from February 4-6, to talk to Jeff about your inspection needs."



For more information contact Saki at [email protected], or visit our website at www.sakicorp.com or www.sakiglobal.com. About Saki Corporation

Since its inception in 1994, Saki has led the way in the development of automated recognition through robotic vision technology. Saki's 3D automated solder paste, optical, and X-ray inspection and measurement systems (SPI, AOI, AXI) have been recognized to provide the stable platform and advanced data capture mechanisms necessary for true M2M communication, improving production, process efficiency, and product quality. Saki Corporation has headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, with offices, sales, and support centers around the world. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005225/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Memphis, TENN., Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe announced today that Amazon is continuing its investments in the Volunteer State by establishing a new, state-of-the art fulfillment center in Memphis.



Amazon will create 1,000 new full-time jobs, with industry leading pay and benefits starting on day one, at its new Shelby County fulfillment center. Employees at the 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center will work alongside Amazons innovative robotics technology to pick, pack and ship smaller customer items, such as books, electronics and consumer goods.



Amazon currently operates fulfillment and sortation centers in Charleston, Chattanooga, Lebanon, Memphis, Murfreesboro, and Nashville, a Prime Now Hub in Nashville and various other facilities supporting last mile delivery operations across the state. The company is in the midst of building a corporate office in downtown Nashville, which will house the tech and management functions for Amazons Retail Operations division.



Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $6.5 billion into its local fulfillment center infrastructure and through compensation to thousands of employees in the state. Amazon's investments in Tennessee contributed an additional $4.5 billion into the states economy, and using methodology developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Amazon estimates its investments in the state have created an additional 6,000 indirect jobs on top of the company's 6,500 direct hires.



Amazons fulfillment network supports millions of small, medium, and large-sized businesses worldwide through its Fulfillment By Amazon offering. There are more than 30,000 authors, sellers and developers in Tennessee, growing their businesses and reaching new customers on Amazon products and services every day.

QUOTES

Amazons decision to create 1,000 new jobs in Memphis is a testament to Tennessees position as a leader in the logistics industry. Across Tennessee, Amazon employs 6,500 Tennesseans, and that number continues to grow. I am proud to see Amazon make this considerable investment in Memphis and expand the job opportunities for our residents in West Tennessee.  Governor Bill Lee



This is a big win for Memphis and Shelby County. For years, Amazon has been a tremendous partner, and we are pleased to welcome its sixth fulfillment center to Tennessee. Todays announcement reaffirms that Tennessees strong workforce, quality of life and pro-business environment are attractive to the worlds leading businesses and brands.  TNECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe



Tennessee is a great state for business and Amazon is proud to continue our growth and investment with our newest fulfillment center in Shelby County. We are proud to call Tennessee home and are grateful for the strong support we have received from state and community leaders. We look forward to creating great jobs, with industry leading pay and benefits that start on day one, in a safe, innovative workplace for residents across the region.  Amazon Director of Regional Operations Rob Packett



Ive said all along that I want all Memphians, all neighborhoods, to feel the momentum we have in our city right now. What better way to do that than to welcome a worldwide brand like Amazon into the Frayser community. This project will bring in new jobs, new development and new life to an already strong Frayser community. I mean it when I say Memphisall of Memphishas momentum!  Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland



We are excited to welcome Amazon to North Shelby County. We are thrilled that Amazon continues to see the value in Shelby County as it expands its Mid-south footprint. The 1,000 new living wage jobs will be a great addition to the Frayser community. Shelby County Government looks forward to supporting the great partnerships with Amazon and the City of Memphis as our economy continues to grow.  Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris



All of us who partner together for new economic development and job growth in the Tennessee Valley congratulate Amazon on its decision to locate in Memphis. This announcement demonstrates the powerful impact that the partnerships between entities like TVA, MLGW, the City of Memphis, Shelby County, the Greater Memphis Chamber, economic development agencies and the State of Tennessee have in our communities. This is economic growth that directly impacts lives through new jobs and opportunities, which is exactly what our mission of service is designed to accomplish.  TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash



Amazons commitment to bring 1,000 jobs to North Memphis is another strong signal that Memphis is a community where global brands can grow and thrive. We are excited to see economic momentum reaching every corner of our city and we appreciate Amazons investment to bringing jobs to Memphis. Greater Memphis Chamber CEO Beverly Robertson



Memphis, Tennessee is no stranger to the logistics and distribution industry, and Amazons expanded presence in Shelby County will be a great addition to our region, business community and workforce. This jobs announcement also shows the Memphis economy is gaining momentum and our commitment to partnering with business can create more economic opportunity for people who work for a living."  Sen. Sara Kyle (D  Memphis)



"The addition of Amazon to our community puts our momentum on steroids. Quality jobs and pay lead to home ownership, increased business opportunities and, most importantly, neighborhood stability. To say we are excited about the acquisition is an understatement."  Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D  Memphis)



About the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Developments mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. To grow and strengthen Tennessee, the department seeks to attract new corporate investment to the state and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth. Find us on the web: tnecd.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @tnecd. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/tnecd.

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NEWTOWN BOROUGH >> The Newtown Borough Council welcomes the new year with three new members of council and a new borough mayor. District Court Judge Mick Petrucci was on hand on January 3 to administer the oath of office to the towns new mayor, Republican John Burke, who replaces longtime mayor Charles Corky Swartz who decided not to run for...
(Natural News) In a startling insinuation, a researcher who found evidence that social media behemoth Google manipulated search results in order to manipulate U.S. elections in favor of Democrats said he believes his young wife was murdered by the tech giant.

The researcher, Dr. Robert Epstein, 66, suggested in a tweet on Sunday that the fatal car crash of Misti Dawn Vaughn, 29, was no accident, especially after police noted that there were no drugs or alcohol involved in the crash.

Last year, after I briefed a group of state AGs about #Googles power to rig elections, one of them said, I think youre going to die in an accident in a few months, wrote Epstein.

A few months later, my beautiful wife #Misti died a violent death. Makes you wonder, he continued, tweeting a link to a December 29 story published by the UK Daily Mail detailing his accusations.

Last year, after I briefed a group of state AGs about #Google's power to rig elections, one of them said, "I think you're going to die in an accident in a few months." A few months later, my beautiful wife #Misti died a violent death. Makes you wonder. https://t.co/D2lw4e7QPI pic.twitter.com/c7zT1nn4K0  Dr. Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein) January 20, 2020

#Misti's awesome Ford Ranger was broadsided by a Freightliner semi towing 2 loads of cement. I had my ear to her heart for most of the last 100 minutes of her life. I heard her take her last breath, & heard the last beat of her heart. Mine is broken. https://t.co/D2lw4dQfr8 pic.twitter.com/d0RqnkR2y8  Dr. Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein) January 11, 2020

Last month, Vaughns Ford Ranger reportedly spun out of control on a slippery road in California, veering into the path of a tractor trailer rig. A few days later, she died of her injuries.

According to the San Diego Tribune:

It happened around 8:05 a.m. on north Interstate 15 near state Route 78, California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer Mark Latulippe said in a statement.

It was unclear why the woman lost control of her Ford Ranger, but the truck slid out of control  and slid across the lanes into the path of a Freightliner semi hauling two dump trailers, Latulippe said.

Another vehicle driven by a 19-year-old woman hit Vaughns Ranger but neither she nor the 50-year-old truck driver were injured.

Epstein moved to cover his tracks, so to speak

Through extensive research, Epstein, a psychologist by training, discovered that through algorithm manipulation, Google and other social media giants can influence voting patterns. Their control of information flows can influence election outcomes.

In particular, as The National Sentinel reported in March 2019, Epstein said he believes that Google manipulated searches, news feeds, and other data to the point that it cost at least three Republicans their seats in the 2018 midterms:

The scientist and AIBRT analyzed Google searches that were linked to a trio of highly competitive congressional races in southern California that were won by Democrats. In doing so, the team discovered that Googles clear democrat bias likely flipped those seats away from GOP candidates.

In the days leading up to the midterms, he preserved more than 47,000 election-related searches on Google, Bing, and Yahoo, along with the nearly 400,000 web pages to which the search results linked, he said.

An analysis of the data proved clearly a pro-Democrat bias in election-related searches. He said when Google placed a simple multi-colored Go Vote logo on its home search page in the days leading up to the election, on the surface it doesnt even look like a manipulation but it most certainly was, Epstein says, no matter how subtle it seemed.

Earlier, Epstein noted that individual employees at Google have the power to manually remove material, remove content that we see, and they do so often with political ends.

And now, after being warned by someone  apparently at least semi-seriously  his wife has met a terrible fate.

Is it possible that the tech giant punished him for his whistleblowing ways? Of course it is. And whats more, Epstein is clearly worried about what may come next. A few days after his initial tweeted theory about Google, he tweeted again to let everyone know hes not suicidal.

BTW, although losing Misti is devastating for me  there will never be another Misti in my life, after all  I AM STILL NOT SUICIDAL. Hear that, #Google? Hear that, #Hillary?https://t.co/6EnwQ5BNC0 (2-min. video) pic.twitter.com/V4eoAvDfnD  Dr. Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein) January 4, 2020

Then, as if to cover his tracks so to speak, Epstein tweeted:

And, no I don't think #Google or #Hillary had anything to do with Misti's death, but for you conspiracy theorists out there, here's a recent article about Misti's accident from one of the world's largest tabloid newspapers, the @DailyMail: https://t.co/D2lw4dQfr8  Dr. Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein) January 4, 2020

Conspiracyor conspiracy theory? You be the judge. But it certainly sounds as though Epstein is concerned about something.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NewsTarget.com

TheNationalSentinel.com
Andrew Demma, 41, was arrested in October 2018 for possessing more than 3,600 images and 230 videos of child pornograph

An Iraq War veteran who received a one-day prison sentence after his defense argued his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused his child pornography addiction will be re-sentenced, as the Sixth Circuit found the punishment was 'unreasonably low'.

Andrew Demma, 41, pleaded guilty in June 2017 to possessing nearly 4,000 images of child pornography depicting 'adult men raping and otherwise sexually abusing pre-pubescent girls,' the Department of Justice said.

Demma secured his single day sentence after three psychologists said his addiction to child pornography was a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he received after two tours as a medic in Iraq.

Court documents show one psychologist said that Demma's actions were 'directly resultant from experiencing the ravages of war as this impacts children.'

Similarly, U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice said Demma's law-abiding life, military service and apparent low risk of re-offending made the veteran's case rare.

Three psychologist argued that Demma's (pictured) addiction to child pornography stemmed from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he received after two tours as a medic in Iraq

Instead of a lengthy prison stint, Demma was ordered to pay $45,000 to nine known victims, be on supervised release for 10 years, do 100 hours of community service, submit to drug testing and counseling.

In response, the Department of Justice has said: 'There is no evidence in the record to support the proposition that military veterans suffering from PTSD typically become addicted to child pornography.'

The Sixth Circuit based their decision on the size and content of Demma's collection, as well as the fact he accessed the inappropriate images daily using complex software.

A new sentencing date has not been announced since the Sixth Circuit sent the case back to Dayton, Ohio.

Demma was initially arrested in August 2015 after authorities conducted a search warrant at his home and seized several electronic devices.

They found more than 3,600 images and 230 videos of child pornography, of which Demma had begun watching in 2010.

He was sentenced in October 2018 with the one-day sentence, which the judge said was satisfied the day Demma was processed by U.S. Marshals.

In addition to his prison sentence, Deema was ordered to pay $45,000 to nine known victims, be on supervised release for 10 years, do 100 hours of community service, submit to drug testing and counseling

In a letter included the prosecutors' sentencing memorandum, a psychologist cited Demma's history in which he inadvertently killed children, including a nine-year-old girl and her family.

'The truth is I dont know the answers more than anybody else does,' Demma said, Dayton Daily News reports.

'I know my actions were my own choice... What part my past experiences played in my willful behavior Im not sure... Not once have I attempted to blame my behavior on my past experiences.'

A psychologist said Demma accessed child pornography to 'bring pain to himself, to redo within his mind the pain he experienced in Iraq.'

However, one psychologist argued that Demma was not using child pornography as a coping method, but most likely was attracted to minors and simply happened to be in Iraq when he became exposed.

Deema (pictured): 'It is a great mixture of feelings  shame, cognitive dissonance  to know that Ive contributed to the horror of those types of experiences. None of that is lost on me'

U.S. attorney Laura Clemmens agreed, saying: 'This is not someone who stumbled upon child pornography.'

Clemmens also read partial statements from four child pornography victims or their parents, including one who said children are 'not sexual objects or toys. These children are my pride and joy. They are my world.'

'These people are real. Their stories are heartbreaking,' a statement said.

Demma, who admitted to once holding a job where to spoke to children who had been sexually abused, said that he never suffered from similar abuse.

He said: 'I wasnt abusedI can only imagine.

'It is a great mixture of feelings  shame, cognitive dissonance  to know that Ive contributed to the horror of those types of experiences. None of that is lost on me,' he added.
First, he hemmed me in, then he wound down his window to demand to know, with a face pinker than raw gammon, what I was doing driving the wrong way round a one-way car park.

I explained that I'd never been to that particular car park in Dublin before and, obviously, didn't know it was a one-way system, otherwise I wouldn't have been going round it in the wrong direction, would I?

As I was talking, he stared at me quizzically, eventually noting my Northern Irish accent and then, looking me straight in the eye, said: "We're civilised down here."

"Civilised," he added, triumphantly, just in case I hadn't got the point.

Anyone from Northern Ireland will be familiar with the smug air of superiority that comes over people south of the border when they're forced to acknowledge the existence of northerners.

Read More

Most of the time, they try to keep it under wraps, but at moments of annoyance it just bursts out.

It's a weird mix of condescension and contempt, all wrapped up in the absolute conviction that they're just more, well, civilised than you are and that you should be grateful they let you come to their precious capital city at all, rather than being sent back to the savage northern wilderness where you belong.

Whether he meant it that way or not - and he probably didn't, because he's a decent man - that was the attitude which came through from Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin's latest remarks, explaining why he thinks Sinn Fein is not a suitable coalition partner for his party in the Dail, despite the fact they're a part of government in Northern Ireland as of automatic right.

The question has been given new urgency by the calling of a general election in the Republic for February 8.

It's unlikely either of the two main parties will win enough seats to take power alone, so the question of who to bring in as coalition partner has returned to haunt the contest.

Fine Gael has been playing footsie with republicans for the last few years, as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar sought to build an anti-Brexit alliance.

But getting into bed with Mary Lou McDonald would probably be a step too far for the party's respectable, middle-class supporters.

Micheal Martin, meanwhile, has steadfastly ruled it out, even though many of his colleagues think Sinn Fein, as long as they behave themselves, would make a natural fit. If Sinn Fein is so unfit for government, why do these people demand that it be done in Northern Ireland?

Micheal Martin acknowledged that there was a difference in his attitude to Sinn Fein's participation in government north and south, but struggled to justify it, despite referencing the fact that the security services have consistently flagged up the continued existence of the IRA army council and its influence over political representatives.

It's not just about government, either.

Mainstream political opinion in the Republic was equally hypocritical about the release of prisoners under the Belfast Agreement.

They insisted that it was right to let out those who had murdered RUC members, while being horrified at any suggestion that the men who shot dead Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched post office van raid in Co Limerick in 1996 should benefit from the same deal.

The implication appeared to be that it wasn't as bad for republicans to kill serving police officers in Northern Ireland.

This insufferable sanctimoniousness is echoed in attitudes towards social issues, such as same-sex marriage.

It's common to hear sniffy commentators in Dublin dismiss people in the north as backward for not, as they see it, embracing progressive change in the same way that the Republic has.

In fact, public opinion in Northern Ireland is no less liberal. A 2018 poll put support for same-sex marriage here at 76%, significantly higher than the 62% which voted for it in Ireland's 2015 referendum.

It just so happens that legislative change was hampered by local political difficulties, that had to be overcome by the intervention of Westminster.

It doesn't mean that people here are any less enlightened than self-congratulatory citizens a few miles down the road.

That's what made it so interesting to observe the recent row over the Irish government's plan to commemorate members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police, who served in uniform during the pre-independence period.

Ministers were forced to cancel the planned, one-off, small-scale commemoration, intended as part of an ongoing Decade of Centenaries, after an outburst of hysterical outrage from nationalists, who chose to portray it as a calculated insult to those killed in that era by pro-British forces.

Not unreasonably, unionists took a clear hint from this that, for all republicans' promises to cherish British identity in any future united Ireland, the reality is quite different.

The row demolished the Irish Republic's smug conviction that they're above the tribal excesses of Northern Ireland.

Throughout the Troubles, the tone of much southern commentary often went no deeper than asking why people 'up there' couldn't all just get along with one another, instead of coming to blows over matters of identity.

If only nordies were as reasonable as us, they tut-tutted, things would never have got out of hand.

The same, sneering attitude invariably seeps through when negotiations between parties here break down periodically.

It's as if we're savages who must be saved from our worst natures by the benevolent intervention of wise heads from Dublin and London.

Northerners must be forgiven our amusement to see how easily people who were once so sure that they were above all this ethnic conflict suddenly went full 'tiocfaidh ar la', like Martina Anderson at a hunger strikes rally, just because they were asked to remember fellow Irishmen who happened to be on the 'wrong' side of history in the run-up to partition.

Public opinion in the Republic - not just among Sinn Feiners, who fall into sectarian rhetoric like a drunk tumbling off the wagon, but from otherwise sensible people, too - couldn't even cope with being reminded that there were plenty of Irish men and women a hundred years ago who didn't want to leave the British Empire and that they shouldn't be airbrushed from memory.

The row ended with the Wolfe Tones' version of Come Out Ye Black and Tans at number one in the music charts.

Read More

It didn't take much, did it? One scratch on the surface and all the tribalism came oozing out.

Seems people in the Not So Beautiful South aren't so different from those of us in Northern Ireland on whom they've looked down their noses for years.

Call me petty, but I like to think that yer man in the car park was one of them.
Local government chairpersons sacked by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Monday resumed in their offices.

The federal government directed the state government to recall the officials, based on a judgment of the Supreme Court that governors cannot arbitrarily dissolve elected local government councils.

Mr Makinde shortly after his inauguration in May last year dissolved the local government councils and in December appointed caretaker committees to run government at that level.

The sacked chairpersons were elected in the May 12, 2018, local government elections conducted by the administration of former Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

They, however, challenged the decision of the governor in court.

Abass-Aleshiloye while addressing journalists at ALGON office in Ibadan.

Reports from the 33 local government areas and 35 Local Council Development Areas on Monday showed that the majority of the chairpersons resumed amidst reports of violence in some of the councils.

READ ALSO:

In Oluyole Local Government Area, Ayodeji Abass-Aleshiloye resumed his office and held a prayer with some of his followers.

The same things were recorded in local government areas such as Ibadan South-East where Bimbo Omiyale resumed work.

Reports from Ibadan East Local Council Development Area, Ogbomoso Central Local Council Development Area, Iseyin Local Government Area, Itesiwaju Local Government Area and Ibarapa Central also indicated that the chairpersons returned to work.

There were reports of violence in Ibadan South-East local government area in Mapo, which made the chairperson, Mr Omiyale, to leave his office immediately.

Abass-Aleshiloye while addressing journalists at ALGON office in Ibadan.

Mr Abass-Aleshiloye who is the Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), insisted that he and his colleagues were ready to cooperate with Mr Makinde to move the state forward at the grassroots level.

Addressing journalists at ALGON office in Ibadan, the state capital on Monday, Mr Abbas-Aleshinloye said they had employed all peaceful and legal options to reclaim their mandates eight months after they were sacked.

Abass-Aleshiloye while addressing journalists at ALGON office in Ibadan.

He added that their resolve to resume was premised on the Supreme Court judgment which declared that governors have no power to dissolve elected local government councils.

Mr Abass-Aleshinloye urged local government workers to return to their various offices, against the background of the decision announced on Sunday by the workers to stay away to avoid being caught in violence over the development.

The ALGON chairperson also urged the people of the state to remain law-abiding and not to panic. He alleged that all their efforts to meet the governor were rebuffed by Mr Makinde.

Mr Abass-Aleshiloye said it was unfortunate that only the Oyo governor remained adamant over the return of the local government chairpersons in his state, stressing that their colleagues also illegally sacked in Ogun, Ekiti and Kwara had been recalled.

Abass-Aleshiloye while addressing journalists at ALGON office in Ibadan.

We have resumed, though NULGE (local government workers) members did not come today. We talked to the people, we held a prayer and we urged people to be law-abiding. Till the time that I left, there was no problem.

But, we just heard that there were some hoodlums that are going around to unleash violence on the people. But, we assured people that we will be peaceful. By law, I am the chairmen of Oluyole Local Government Area.

Abass-Aleshiloye while addressing journalists at ALGON office in Ibadan.

I am still compiling the report, we have majority of our people that resumed today, but there are some elements that want to attack us. We have instances in Ekiti, Kwara, Ogun where the sacked chairmen have been returned. Why will Oyo State be different?

This is a self-inflicted pain on the people of Oyo State. For almost eight months that we have not been in the office, we waited. We are law-abiding people. Makinde has never called us. We must finish our tenures. We have spent one year in the office before he came an we must finish our tenures.
Industry Update

Appointment

27 January 2020

Hunter Jones

Appointed General Manager

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A member of the Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG ) task force team, Jones has extensive experience in property operations working directly with on-site teams and corporate revenue management throughout his eight years with the Atlanta-based, private hotel investment, ownership and management company. Most recently Jones served as the general manager at Courtyard Rockaway-Mt. Arlington, during which time the property was awarded the "Largest House Profit Increase Year Over Year" in 2018. He was also the acting general manager for Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Mahwah in Mahwah, N.J. during the same time. Over his 20 years in the hospitality industry, Jones' experience spans from Atlanta and Albuquerque, N.M. to Dallas and Branson, Mo. with roles that include several task force positions, as well as assistant general manager and general manager.

Hilton Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 17 world-class brands comprising nearly 6,000 properties with more than 954,000 rooms, in 117 countries and territories. Dedicated to fulfilling its mission to be the worlds most hospitable company, Hilton earned a spot on the 2019 Worlds Best Workplaces list, and has welcomed more than 3 billion guests in its 100-year history. more information

Recent Appointments at Hilton Nathan Decker - Director of National Accounts 12 January 2022  Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort - an iconic resort nestled on 40 acres of lush, tropical gardens fronting Maui's Wailea Beach - is pleased to announce the appointment of Nathan Decker to the role of Director of National Accounts. read more

Juan Corvinos Solans - senior vice president (SVP) of development, architecture and construction for the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) 17 December 2021  Hilton (NYSE: HLT) announced the appointment of Juan Corvinos as senior vice president (SVP) of development, architecture and construction for the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA). During his 12-year tenure with Hilton, Corvinos has created and nurtured a team of development experts strategically based throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as Miami - the U. read more
Boarding schools have been told to be on the lookout for racial abuse against Chinese students as the coronavirus outbreak rampages their native country.

Teachers were warned to 'stay alert for signs of xenophobia' in person and on social media amid concern bullies might tease the pupils about the disease.

The Boarding Schools' Association (BSA) said these students may be extra sensitive about the epidemic because they have loved ones back home.

In new guidance issued today, the BSA said it had not heard of any cases but wanted staff to be prepared to 'cover every eventuality'.

Chinese children make up around one in six of all international students in boarding schools in Britain, latest figures indicate.

A woman and a child wearing face masks arrive in Manila, Philippines, after flying from Guangzhou, China amid the coronavirus outbreak

The coronavirus outbreak has now killed 82 people and struck down more than 2,800. Cambodia today became the latest country to confirm the virus has spread there. The government confirmed a Chinese national who travelled to the city of Sihanoukville was infected

The Asian nation sends more pupils to UK fee-paying schools than any other country in the world.

Updated guidance was published on the BSA's website this afternoon, giving member schools information about how to support Chinese students.

It read: 'Stay alert for any signs of xenophobia by students towards one another, or by any external audiences, either in school or on social media sites.

'Such behaviour should not be tolerated and action should be taken against anyone acting in this way.

'They [Chinese pupils] will be worried about themselves but more particularly about their friends and families.'

A separate section on pupils travelling to China advises schools that they should tell students who decide to travel that 'protective measures could well be in place before they return'.

'Depending on how the virus spreads in that time, this could include the need for returning pupils to be quarantined,' it added.

Panic has spread out of the Hubei province, where the outbreak began almost a month ago, and into the wider world. (Pictured, unverified video shows people having their temperatures taken on a plane after arriving on a runway in Milan, Italy, from Hong Kong)

Medical staff in Wuhan, the crisis-hit city at the centre of the outbreak, help a patient off the back of an ambulance on Sunday

Schools should work with guardians to develop quarantine processes, the guidance says, adding: 'This should not be seen as an over-reaction or 'scare-mongering' but is based on experience gained from the progress of previous such diseases.'

On the issue of xenophobia, A BSA spokesperson said: 'We have not heard of anything happening in our schools, and we don't envisage it happening in our schools, we are trying to make sure we are covering every eventuality.'

The BSA also says it understands that some schools have already cancelled visits from prospective parents, agents and pupils from China.

'While cancellation may be unnecessary, it is obviously prudent to minimise any unnecessary risk,' it says.

It comes as the death toll from the lethal coronavirus climbed to 82 today, and number of infections rose to nearly 3,000.

The outbreak's epicentre, Wuhan city, and the wider Hubei province have been completely sealed off, effectively quarantining 60million people.

Airports were reported to have been shut, planes grounded, and trains and buses banned from leaving or entering the region in a desperate bid to stop the outbreak.

The Foreign Office warned 'against all travel to Hubei province due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak', adding 'if you are in this area and able to leave, you should do so'.
Leading republican Pat Fitzpatrick has told stunned friends how he was inches from being killed by a masked assassin.

A bulletproof jacket saved the 58-year-old's life when a lone gunman blasted him the back as he walked through the Short Strand district of east Belfast on Saturday evening.

This is the second time that Fitzpatrick has survived a murder bid. In 1988 he lost an eye when a UVF gang opened fire on him as he sat in his taxi.

A good friend of Sinn Fein Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey, the injured grandfather was also close to slain IRA chief Jock Davison, who was gunned down by criminals in 2015. Detectives' main line of inquiry is that the weekend attempt on his life may have been carried out by the same gang.

Speaking from his hospital bed on Saturday night Fitzpatrick, known as 'Pat Fitzy' by republicans, told friends that he cheated death by inches.

"Pat Fitzy was saying that if the gunman had aimed at his head rather than his back he would be dead," one source told the Belfast Telegraph.

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"The bulletproof jacket saved his life. If he had not been wearing it he wouldn't have stood a chance.

"You can tell from the wound on his back how much damage would have been caused if it weren't for the body armour. There is a huge red welt on his back caused by the impact from the bullet."

Fitzpatrick, who is from the Markets area of Belfast and is well-regarded in republican circles, was convicted in 2016 of possessing a police-issue Glock pistol and six rounds of ammunition with intent, and having the weapon without a certificate.

He armed himself with the handgun over fears that he would be murdered by the criminal gang which shot dead his Provo pal Davison.

The man Fitzpatrick feared the most was Kevin McGuigan Snr, who was blamed by republicans for carrying out the killing, which he denied.

Paranoid that McGuigan had been seen outside his west Belfast home, Fitzpatrick armed himself with the Glock 19 pistol that had been stolen from the PSNI.

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The weapon was among a cache that Davison in his capacity as the IRA's Belfast leader held back from decommissioning in 2005 for what sources have described as "defence purposes". Insiders claim that the handgun was stolen from police the previous year during raids on the homes of republicans following the IRA's 26m Northern Bank robbery.

Among the properties searched was that of top Provo Sean 'Spike' Murray in west Belfast. While cops pulled his property apart the holstered Glock was left unattended in an unlocked PSNI vehicle parked outside.

Our sources insist it was stolen by a republican sympathiser and handed over to the IRA. Jock Davison ended up in possession of the handgun which was held back from decommissioning.

Only the IRA boss and a group of his closest friends including Pat Fitzpatrick knew of its whereabouts.

They were also given strict instructions that the 'clean' Glock - which had no paramilitary history - was to be used solely for defence purposes.

In August 2015, two months after the Davison execution, McGuigan himself was shot dead by pals of the Provo chief. He was gunned down outside his heavily fortified east Belfast home in front of his screaming wife Dolores.

Immediately afterwards police raided the homes of republicans who were closest to Davison, including that of Pat Fitzpatrick.

When heavily-armed police hit the house he attempted to escape out the back door with the stolen PSNI Glock 19.

But Fitzpatrick noticed officers in the garden so he turned and went inside the property. He was eventually arrested in a downstairs bedroom in which the handgun and ammunition were discovered.

When Fitzpatrick appeared in the dock of Lisburn Magistrates Court the following day a detective revealed the Glock's identification markings had been removed.

"This shows a forensic awareness," he said.

The detective also confirmed that the raid on Fitzpatrick's home was connected to the Kevin McGuigan murder investigation, saying: "He remains a suspect in the murder of Kevin McGuigan."

It was further revealed that Fitzpatrick had been a member of a gun club and previously held a firearms licence, but this had expired."

The court was then told that the republican remained silent during 14 police interviews, but did present a written statement in which he accepted possession of the weapon.

Fitzpatrick's solicitor said his client obtained it to "protect his family", and that "he was only going to be using this in a defensive way".

It was explained that Fitzpatrick was in poor health having suffered near fatal liver failure.

His solicitor said this had been brought on my pain medication the republican had been taking since being shot in the face at point-blank range in a 1988 loyalist assassination attempt.

A week after surviving the murder bid his good friend Brendan 'Ruby' Davison was gunned down at his home by the UVF.

Ruby Davison was the uncle of Jock Davison, and like his nephew was the Provisional IRA's Belfast OC when he was assassinated.

Pat Fitzpatrick, then aged 27, was pictured at the wake of Ruby Davison sitting next to his friend's coffin with bandages covering the UVF bullet wounds to his eye and arm.

Prior to being convicted of possessing the stolen PSNI gun Fitzpatrick was considered a key Sinn Fein supporter in south Belfast.

In June 2015 he was pictured at a Sinn Fein event alongside the party's former council candidate Cora Grogan.

And in March 2013 Fitzpatrick was photographed with Sinn Fein's Belfast city councillor Deirdre Hargey at a commemoration for teenage IRA member Jim Templeton on the Ormeau Road.
The Union Ministry of Health on Monday strengthened the vigil along the India-Nepal border at the entry point in Panitanki, West Bengal after a confirmed case coronavirus in Nepal. The death toll due to the coronavirus has sharply increased in China to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

A Nepali student home from China tested positive for the new coronavirus, an official in Kathmandu said on January 24, making it the first confirmed case in the Himalayan nation. "One patient tested positive for coronavirus. He is a Nepali student studying in China," Mahendra Shrestha, a Nepal Health Ministry spokesperson, told news agency told Reuters.

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The student had come home on holiday from Wuhan in China, a ministry of health statement had said. He is being kept under surveillance and those in close contact with him were being investigated. The ministry had said that it was seeking health information from all passengers travelling from China into Nepal.

Along with West Bengal, there will also be an intensive screening of people along the Indo-Nepal border in Uttarakhand to deal with the menace of the coronavirus. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan spoke to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on this subject on January 25. Harsh Vardhan had told the Chief Minister, "Arrangements are being made for screening people coming to India through Nepal border adjoining Uttarakhand. Apart from the screening, the Health Ministry will immediately provide all possible assistance to the state."

The confirmed cases of pneumonia in China caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition. Sunday saw 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths, all in Hubei province of which Wuhan is the provincial capital, the National Health Commission (NHC) said.

The NHC on Sunday said the new coronavirus is contagious even in its incubation period, which lasts up to 14 days, and that the virus' ability to spread is getting stronger.

The figures also showed that 17 confirmed cases had been reported in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, with eight in Hong Kong, five in Macao and four in Taiwan. Overseas, confirmed cases were reported in Thailand (7), Japan (3), South Korea (3), the United States (3), Vietnam (2), Singapore (4), Malaysia (3), Nepal (1), France (3) and Australia (4).

There are signs showing the virus is becoming more transmissible. These walking contagious agents' (hidden carriers) make controlling the outbreak a lot more difficult, a top official said. To curb the epidemic, China has decided to adopt a host of measures including delaying and reducing conferences and major events, extending the current Spring Festival holidays and supporting online work.
Malaysia banned visitors from the Chinese city of Wuhan and its surrounding Hubei province on Monday, in a bid to contain the spread of a deadly virus. A statement by the prime minister's office said the authorities will temporarily halt all issuance of visas for Chinese citizens from the area with immediate effect. "The government has decided to suspend temporarily all immigration facilities ... to all China nationals from Wuhan city and the surrounding Hubei province," it said. Malaysia has reported four confirmed cases of the flu-like virus which started in the central-Chinese city and has spread worldwide. All four, including two children, are in stable condition. They are tourists from Wuhan who entered Malaysia for a holiday via neighbouring Singapore. The virus, similar to the SARS pathogen, has claimed at least 81 lives -- all of them in China. Malaysia welcomed 2.94 million visitors from China last year and is aiming to raise this to 3.48 million this year. The prime minister's office said the ban will be lifted when the situation returns to normal. Meanwhile, a campaign by Malaysians on petition website change.org urging the government to bar Chinese nationals from entering the country has gathered more than 383,000 signatures of the 500,000 target as of Monday evening. "The government should think more of the health of Malaysians," the petition said. "Don't wait until there is death among Malaysian people then only the government wants to take some preventive action."
Jaipur, Jan 28 : While the Narendra Modi government is garnering praise for giving Padma Shri to five grassroots workers from Rajasthan for their significant contribution to the society, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state is raising questions over felicitation of few officials by the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government despite their poor performance.

One of the officials in question is Jaisalmer District Collector Namit Mehta, who has been honoured for his work in the district programme, disaster relief, rural development and locust control.

His felicitation has come at a time when locusts continue to attack crops, creating havoc for farmers in western Rajasthan. Farmers there had incurred huge losses due to crops damage, BJP spokesperson Laxmikant Bharadwaj told IANS.

According to officials, crops worth Rs 700 crore have been damaged but only Rs 47 crore has been released as compensation.

The next official in question for being felicitated is Ummed Singh, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry Department. He has been honoured by the government and given a certificate of merit, while the reasons for death of thousands of migratory birds in Sambhar Lake, which falls in Singh's ambit, remain unanswered.

The government ignored his failure and decided to honour him, Bharadwaj said.

Similarly, Rudharam Sain, nayab tesildar from the Election Department, was feted at a time when the letters had been exchanged between the Panchayat Raj Ministry and the Election Commission on account of delay in pools due to delayed work of delimitation.

Surprisingly, he has been awarded for his exemplary work in panchayat delimitation.

Bharadwaj said the Centre feted those who contributed to the society in a big way and who deserved it.

But the Rajasthan government was simply felicitating sycophants and undeserving officials. "It is feting those who work in accordance to set standards and norms, which stand synonymous to poor governance," the BJP leader said.

Meanwhile, state Congress vice-president Archana Sharma said, "The BJP seems to be making issues because they don't have any issue. If administration is doing good job, it needs to be acknowledged."
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his immediate intervention to evacuate Indians stranded in Coronavirus-hit Wuhan in central China. He asked the Union Government to send special flights to Wuhan to evacuate stranded people.

In the letter, he said, since the situation in Wuhan was grave it would be appropriate to operate special flights to the area to airlift Indian nationals stranded there. He said among the stranded majority are students from the state.

It may be appropriate to consider operating a special flight to Wuhan/a nearby functional airport and airlift the Indian nationals stranded there and bring them back to India. I request you to give necessary instructions to the Indian Embassy in the Peoples Republic of China to provide necessary assistance to them, he wrote. Two days ago the CM had sent a similar letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

In Kerala, more than 500 people who returned from China, mostly students, businessmen and tourists were screened for the virus in the last three days and all of them tested negative. Since the incubation period of the virus is 28 days they have been asked to stay put in their houses and stop interaction with others. A team of doctors from Delhi visited Kochi and examined the preparedness of the state in case an emergency.
The US State Department has raised its travel warning to Level 3, warning passengers to "reconsider travel" to China as the Wuhan coronavirus spreads in the world.

The new travel advisory for the country was announced on Monday, and comes as airlines have begun issuing waivers for individuals with planned travel who are worried about the virus.

The State Department had last week issued a Level 4 advisory  the most severe  for the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak. Non-essential US personnel have already been evacuated from that area, meaning Americans who remain may have trouble receiving help.

"Reconsider travel to China due to ... coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Some areas have increased risk," the travel advisory reads, noting that officials have seen an increase in the number of patients experiencing pneumonia as a result of the virus

The outbreak has raised alarms since it was first discovered in December, with more than 2,900 cases reported including at least 44 throughout the world, including confirmed cases in four US states, France, Canada and Australia. In the UK, over one thousand people who had travelled to Wuhan recently are being tested or monitored, but not cases have been confirmed as of yet.

Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Show all 154 1 /154 Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Paramedics wearing personal protective equipment carry patient on a stretcher on to an ambulance in North Point district in Hong Kong, China Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker wearing protective gear takes a rest as he waits for ambulances carrying patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at an entrance of a hospital in Daegu, South Korea YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker sprays disinfectant on an ambulance after carrying a patient infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Daegu YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People wearing protective face masks shop at a supermarket in Casalpusterlengo, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown due to the new coronavirus outbreak EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A trolley bus is disinfected amid fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus in Pyongyang, North Korea REUTERS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant as a precaution against the COVID-19 coronavirus in a local market in Daegu, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a protective facemask walks outside a nearly empty shopping mall at lunch time in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing protective facemask and gloves puts a drawing made by a girl living in the area asking residents to wear protective gear, next to a quarantine notice for people who have travelled and a notice asking people to register outside a residential compound in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman 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hospital in Chuncheon, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Soldiers in hazmat suits sanitize cargo from a China Airlines plane at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan City, Taiwan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Barricades are seen to block the entrance a the gate of a local mall in a nearly empty area in Beijing, China Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor wearing a protective facemask waits for customers at a shop in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The body temperature of an Iraqi child returning from Iran is measured upon her arrival at the Najaf International Airport AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers hand out free facemasks at a shopping district in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers wearing 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attend to a patient inside an isolated ward of Wuhan Red Cross Hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A drone operated by the Suwon municipal government flies around Changyong Middle School spraying disinfectant, in Suwon, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers transfer medical waste at Leishenshan Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a protective mask rides a bicycle with his children in Guangzhou, China EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers in protective suits disinfect a railway station as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Changsha, Hunan province, China cnsphoto via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman repatriated from Wuhan carries a child as she walks upon her arrival at the Van Don airport in Vietnam's Quang Ninh province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff checking the body temperature of a patient who has displayed mild symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker in protective suit transports oxygen tanks at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Boys wearing protection masks, gloves and modified water bottles sit on a cart at the airport arrival terminal in Guangzhou EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Employees work on a production line manufacturing protective suits at a clothing factory in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province cnsphoto via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits move a patient at an isolated ward of a hospital in Caidian district following an outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in protective clothing, including face mask and gloves, carries a bucket as he works inside of The County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton, southern England, after it closed for "urgent operational health and safety reasons", following reports a member of staff was infected with the strain of the novel coronavirus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers of the ecology and environment bureau collect samples from the sewage system of a hospital in Xinle, Hebei province China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man in protective clothing cleaning the County Oak Medical Centre GP practice The British government warned the outbreak of novel coronavirus was a "serious and imminent threat" and reported four new cases that brought the total recorded in the country to eight. Two hospitals The Royal Free and Guys and St Thomas', have both been designated as "isolation" facilities, with both currently housing Britons who have returned from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to the newly completed Huoshenshan temporary field Hospital in Wuhan. The global coronavirus death toll rose again with Hong Kong announcing its first death from the outbreak on 4 February EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff wait as coaches carrying Coronavirus evacuees arrive at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, in Milton Keynes, after being repatriated to the UK from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A crew member of the cruise ship Diamond Princess talks to a worker wearing protective gear standing near the vessel, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Doctors scan a patient's lungs at Huoshenshan temporary hospital built for patients diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan Xinhua News Agency/AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People wearing protective suits walk from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with around 3,600 people quarantined onboard due to fears of the new coronavirus, at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Indonesians who arrived from Wuhan are sprayed with antiseptic at Hang Nadim Airport in Batam. People evacuated from the Chinese city at the centre of a deadly virus outbreak, were transported to a quarantine zone on a remote island at the edge of the South China Sea, shortly after landing Indonesian Foreign Ministry via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman wears a protective mask as she shops in a market in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members hugging each other in an isolation ward at a hospital in Zouping in China's easter Shandong province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A portrait of Dr Li Wenliang is left at Li's hospital in Wuhan. He is regarded a whistleblower on the outbreak and died of the coronavirus which triggered wide-spread mourning on Chinese media Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Officers in protective gear enter the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where people tested positive for coronavirus, after the ship arrived at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Firefighters and personnel from the health ministry participate in a drill to prepare for the potential arrival of passengers infected with the coronavirus at the Viru Viru International Airport, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Scientists are at work in the VirPath university laboratory as they try to find an effective treatment against the new Sars-like coronavirus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits attend to patients at the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital to receive patients with mild symptoms caused by the virus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A girl wears a mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus outbreak, in Bangkok, Thailand Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man is transferred from the World Dream cruise ship to an ambulance at the Kai Tak cruise terminal in Hong Kong as health officials conduct inspections AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers from a disinfection service company enter Lotte Department Store in central Seoul, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man who arrived from Hubei province talks with police at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor holds a handheld digital thermometer near health officials preparing a health check for arriving passengers from China at Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A resident walks across an empty track in Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A scientific staff member works in a secure laboratory, researching the coronavirus, at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members preparing equipment to meet passengers of a military plane, which evacuated citizens of Russia and ex-Soviet countries from China's Wuhan province Vsluh.ru via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff wearing protective suits as they prepare to disinfect a Vietnam Airlines plane at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi Vietnam Airlines/AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A South Korean person, who was evacuated from Wuhan, arrives at the National Medical Center after showing suspected symptoms of novel coronavirus, in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Officers in protective gear escort a person (under the blue sheet) who was on board cruise ship Diamond Princess and was tested positive for coronavirus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor being disinfected by his colleague at a quarantine zone in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Buses carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan, arrive at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Indonesian health officials conduct an exercise drill in transporting a patient requiring isolation at the Belawan port in Medan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Pasteur Institute in Dakar, designated by the African Union as one of the two reference centres in Africa for the detection of the new coronavirus that appeared in China, is hosting experts from 15 countries on the continent this weekend to prepare them to deal with the disease AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A government worker disinfects a co-worker after visiting a quarantined woman's home in Qingdao EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An aerial view of the deserted roads and bridges in Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers hold a strike outside the Hospital Authority as they demand for Hong Kong to close its border with China to reduce the coronavirus spreading Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person has their tempriture checked in Qingdao, China EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Malaysian nationals being directed from a bus by health officials in protective suits as they arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, after being evacuated from Wuhan Malaysia's Ministry of Health/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People hoping to buy face masks crowd outside a medical supply shop that was raided by police for allegedly hoarding and overpricing the masks, as public fear over China's Wuhan Coronavirus grow in Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government has been heavily criticized after failing to immediately implement travel restrictions from China, the source of a deadly coronavirus that has now killed hundreds and infected thousands more Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Residents wearing masks and raincoats volunteer to take temperature of passengers following the outbreak of a new coronavirus at a bus stop at Tin Shui Wai, a border town in Hong Kong Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Italian citizens repatriated from Wuhan going though a health control zone after landing at the Mario De Bernardi military airport in Pratica di Mare, south of Rome, prior to be placed in quarantine Italian Defence Ministry/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers arrange beds in a 2,000-bed mobile hospital, set up in an exhibition center, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor checks conditions of occupants in a hotel accommodating isolated people in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city of Wuhan, arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital. The Chinese army deployed medical specialists to the epicentre of the spiralling viral outbreak that has killed and spread around the world AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A baby wearing a protective face mask is pushed by a woman as they arrive from Shenzhen to Hong Kong at Lo Wu MTR station AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A health worker checks the temperature of a woman entering a subway station in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A young child wears a protective mask and is covered in plastic while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance crews arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, as it prepares for a return flight from Wuhan, China. Eighty-three Britons and 27 foreign nationals who were trapped in Wuhan are being flown back to the UK Tom Maddick / SWNS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman carries a baby wearing a protective mask as they exit the arrival hall at Hong Kong High Speed Rail Station Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Camp beds at a Medical Assessment Center set up at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on the eve of the arrival of German citizens evacuated from Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Funeral parlour staff members in protective suits help a colleague with disinfection after they transferred a body at a hospital in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Muslims wearing masks pray for the victims of coronavirus at a mosque in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical officials waiting for people who wants to check the novel coronavirus at Myeongdong shopping district Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children wear plastic bottles as makeshift homemade protection and protective masks while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A patient assisted by medical staff gets off an ambulance in Wuhan AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People line up to buy face masks from a medical supply company in Nanning, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Countries began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by a new virus that has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by SARS Chinatopix via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Millions spent their normally festive Lunar New Year holiday under lockdown Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children with face masks wash their hands before prayer at Erawan shrine in Bangkok. Thailand has detected eight Coronavirus cases so far AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An Indonesian health officer points at the screen of a thermal scanner for passengers China confirmed that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus virus can be transmitted between humans AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Hospital workers wearing protective eyewear and masks examine an Indonesian student who returned from China in quarantine at a hospital in Banda Aceh AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance staff dispose of an outfit at the hospital in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person checks the temperature of a passenger to help stop the spread of a deadly virus as he arrives at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International airport in Palembang AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Nepali students, wearing face masks, attend a class at Matribhumi School in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Two Buddhist monks wear face masks while walking along a street in Yangon AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting a residential area in Ruichang, part of Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020. - China is rushing to build a new hospital in a staggering 10 days to treat patients at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak that has stricken thousands of people, state media reported on January 24. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) HECTOR RETAMAL AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Vapor blurs the goggles of an ambulance driver while they work, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff getting on an ambulance in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor of traditional masks wears a facial mask at his shop in Thamel EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An ambulance driver talking with medical staff in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers produce protective suits at a factory in Nantong AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers scanned by thermal imaging for body temperature as they go through health measures and procedures after they landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Thai royal guard wears a mask while on duty at the Grand Palace in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A shopper wearing goggles with a face mask and gloves uses a self checkout machine at a supermarket in Wuhan AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Italian Red Cross putting on protective gear, getting ready to give health checks to passengers that landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of the Hong Kong government's Civil Aid Service gestures at the entrance to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village which is being used as one of two quarantine centres for people who have been in close proximity with suspected cases of a SARS-type virus. Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan STR/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Malaysia Health official checks passengers going through a thermal scanner upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting Yingtan North Railway Station, China China banned trains and planes from leaving the major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on January 23, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed lives and spread to other countries AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A passenger walks past a quarantine control station at Narita airport, Japan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Patients queue up to seek treatment in Wuhan Tongji Hospital Fever Clinic, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Quarantine workers spray disinfectant at Incheon International Airport, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of staff checks the temperature of a guest entering the casino of the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau, after it reported its first case of the new SARS-like virus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Three Gorges Medical Laboratory offering free masks to the public in Yichang, China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Gabriel Leung, right, chair professor of public health medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, speaks about the extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conducting searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine officer at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, uses an electronic thermometer to check the temperature of passengers arriving by plane from Wuhan The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A screen shows cancelled flights at Tianhe airport in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials hand out information about the current coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A store owner argues with security guards as he attempts to enter the closed Huanan wholesale seafood market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Handan, China's northern Hebei province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff and security personnel stop patients' family members from being too close to the Jinyintan hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus maya-goodfellowAn airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A rescue worker walks past a notice about new coronavirus that has broken out in China Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials wear face masks at an inspection site at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A staff member checks body temperature of a child after a train from Wuhan arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine station measures passenger body temperatures at Narita Airport JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a notice displayed near a quarantine control station at Narita airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a poster alerting on coronavirus screening ahead upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An employee sprays disinfectant on a train, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Kazakh sanitary-epidemiological service worker uses a thermal scanner to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms possibly connected with the previously unknown coronavirus, at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading "face masks are sold out" at her pharmacy in Shanghai AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A notice for passengers from Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wears a mask while riding on mobike past the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market Getty

The death toll has reached at least 81 in China, with many of those deaths coming from elderly people with pre-existing conditions.

Experts suggest that the actual number of infections could be much higher than the few thousand that have been reported, with professor Neil Ferguson at Imperial College in London telling the Guardian that his "best guess" is that there are around 100,000 people infected. Another figure put together by the University of Hong Kong suggests an outbreak closer to 43,000 people.

US health officials have warned American lawmakers that they are far from having the situation from under control in America. That warning came as the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the there are potentially up to 110 cases of the virus in 22 states.

"We should be worried and concerned about this potential epidemic," said senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, after a briefing from health officials last week.

"What I heard in response to many questions is a tentative answer ... we need to know more," he continued.

So far, just five cases have been confirmed in the US. Canada reported its first patient on Monday, and said that 19 cases were under investigation in Ontario.
Days ahead of a debate in the European Parliament on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), based on resolutions tabled by its members, the European Union's mission in India on Monday said that the EP is an "independent institution sovereign in its deliberations".

The Delegation of European Union to India on Monday said," The European Parliament is an independent institution, sovereign in the organization of its work and in its deliberations. The text referred to are draft resolutions by political groups in the European Parliament."

Although there has been no official reaction from the external affairs ministry, sources had earlier said that CAA is an internal matter of India adopted through democratic process after a public debate in both houses of Parliament.

The sources also called on those members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who intended to move the resolutions in the European to engage with the Indian government to get "full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further."

The amended Citizenship Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Meanwhile, the draft resolutions are expected to be debated in the 751-member European Parliament in Brussels on January 29 followed by voting on January 30.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Chinese student who travelled to Ireland from Wuhan in recent days has been isolated as a "precautionary measure" amid coronavirus fears.

The patient, who is a student at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), arrived in Ireland yesterday, having left Wuhan before the city was locked down and is showing no symptoms of the virus.
A Thai park official implicated in the alleged killing of an environmental activist will not face prosecution for murder due to "insufficient evidence", the attorney general's office announced Monday -- a move condemned by rights groups decrying impunity for enforced disappearances. Ethnic Karen leader Por Cha Lee Rakcharoen -- known as Billy -- vanished in April 2014 while he was working on a lawsuit accusing officials of destroying homes of ethnic minorities in Kaeng Krachan national park. Then-park chief Chaiwat Limlikitaksor was one of the last people to see him alive, after Billy was detained for apparently collecting honey illegally. Chaiwat denied any involvement in his disappearance, claiming he had released the community activist. Five years on divers found burned fragments of a skull stuffed in an oil drum in the park's reservoir in April, while other bones were scattered around the lake. The remains were believed to be Billy's body based on forensic identification using his mother's DNA, said officials from Thailand's Department of Special Investigation. Chaiwat and three other park officials were implicated in legal cases that include charges of premeditated murder, detention and robbery. But on Monday, the attorney general's office issued a non-prosecution order against the four defendants on these charges due to "insufficient evidence", said spokesman Prayut Petchkhun. The DNA tests linking the bone fragments to Billy's mother is "not enough" to identify whom exactly the remains belong to, he added. The office will only seek prosecution for the charge of "performing or failing to perform duties that lead to damages to a person", Prayut said. The Department of Special Investigation could re-examine the case and still contest the attorney general's decision. Vowing "to fight" Monday after the announcement, Billy's widow Pinnapha Phrueksapan said she will push for a detailed statement on why the attorney general was dropping charges. "It's hard for me to understand this decision. It's impossible that a person went missing or was murdered, but there is no explanation behind it," she told reporters. Thailand is among the deadliest places in Asia for environmental and rights defenders -- the United Nations has logged over 80 cases of enforced disappearances in the country since 1980. Activists have long called for reforms to a legal system dictating that a body needs to be found in order for murder charges to be filed against suspects. "If culprits can successfully hide the bodies or leave no evidence, the Thai legal system cannot prosecute them," said Pornpen Khongkachonkiet of Cross Cultural Foundation. "This system endorses the crime... there needs to be a new law to make enforced disappearances a criminal offence."
www.fergusonlibrary.org

Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of Felon, will be at the Ernest A. DiMattia, Jr. Building of The Ferguson Library in Stamford for a book talk and signing on Monday evening, Feb. 3.

Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration in fierce, dazzling poems  canvassing a wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood and grace  and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life, the library says on its website.
UW Extension Names Associate Director

Mandy Marney

An administrator known for her efforts to break down work silos and foster teamwork is a new associate director of University of Wyoming Extension.

Mandy Marney began her new job duties last week. She previously served as a district director for research and extension at Kansas State University. Before that, she was a program director at the University of Missouris Agricultural Experiment Station. She served as a community development specialist for extension and as an extension associate in bioengineering.

Mandy comes to Wyoming with a wealth of experience working with rural communities and county governments to ensure extension remains relevant and responsive to their needs, says Kelly Crane, UW Extension director. I am excited to have Mandy join the UW Extension team, and I look forward to her continued success working with our extension educators to serve Wyoming communities.

Marney says her efforts at Kansas State University created an atmosphere among faculty and staff members that encouraged specialized and transdisciplinary programming.

We are increasingly finding that extension is poised to tackle complex social issues, she says. Moving beyond an interdisciplinary to a transdisciplinary approach has allowed us to tackle multiple facets of issues such as culture of health, local foods and rural development.

Marney earned three degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia: a Ph.D. in human environmental sciences with a graduate certificate in community processes; a masters degree in environment and behavior, architectural studies; and a bachelors degree in agricultural journalism.

UW Extension has offices in every Wyoming county and the Wind River Indian Reservation. 4-H is the youth arm of UW Extension, and its state offices are in the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
As the school year looms, West Australian authorities are scrambling to finalise guidelines for schools about managing the risk of the deadly coronavirus, while some principals are advising parents to keep their children home if theyve potentially been exposed.

On Monday, just days before WA schools return for the year, Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy advised one of the people being investigated for coronavirus in Perth looked likely to test positive.

Western Australia's chief health officer had earlier on Monday revealed four people who had symptoms and had travelled recently were being tested in the state.

Education Minister Sue Ellery said she was not able to give advice on what schools should do just yet because the Education Department was still working with the Health Department in developing guidelines.
J o Brand's joke about throwing battery acid at politicians will not be pursued further by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.

Referring to political figures who had been hit by milkshakes, the comedian said on Radio 4's Heresy show in June: "I'm thinking why bother with a milkshake when you could get some battery acid."

An Ofcom spokeswoman said: "Acid attacks are extremely serious crimes. We found that these comments had clear potential to offend listeners.

"But we also considered the audience's likely expectations of Jo Brand's style - and of this established show, which sets out to challenge accepted views in society through provocative comedy.

"We also took into account that Ms Brand immediately qualified her comments, making it clear they shouldn't be taken seriously or acted upon."

The comment came just a few days after Nigel Farage had a milkshake thrown over him (Reuters) / REUTERS

After making the remark acid remark, Brand added: Im not going to do it, its purely a fantasy. But I think milkshakes are pathetic.

The comments were made on June 13 and Ofcom said it had received 444 complaints about the episode, including one made through the BBC complaints process.

Following the broadcast, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who just days earlier had had a milkshake thrown at him while campaigning in Newcastle, accused Brand of inciting violence.

Commenting on Twitter, he said: I am sick to death of overpaid, left-wing, so-called comedians on the BBC who think their view is morally superior.

The corporation's Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) said at the time it did not uphold the aspect of complaints on incitement of violence as it had considered the context in which the words were spoken.

A spokesperson from the BBC said: We note the findings and that the BBCs ECU concluded the comments did not condone violence and that no subject matter should be beyond the scope of comedy.

Scotland Yard said a referral was considered but no further police action would be taken in relation to the allegation.

It was believed the allegation reported to police was not made by Mr Farage or the Brexit Party.
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Democratic strategist Lynda Tran says none of the candidates can win the nomination without strong support from African American voters  and I have yet to see data that indicate anyone in the field is making meaningful strides against Vice President Biden on that front. And Tran is right that Biden leads among black voters. However, the consistent second choice among those voters is Sanders. Even when senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris were still in the race, Bernie often outperformed them in polls of African Americans.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A 43-year-old San Francisco man was sentenced on Friday in federal court to 200 months in prison for conspiring to distribute fentanyl, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Kia Zolfaghari pleaded guilty to the fentanyl conspiracy as well as weapons and money laundering charges on July 12. According to his plea agreement, Zolfaghari admitted that from May 2014 until June 2016, he agreed to work with others to distribute and possess fentanyl.

He admitted that his role in the conspiracy included buying a pill press, using it to manufacture pills, and selling the pills, principally online. Zolfaghari admitted he stamped the pills in a manner consistent with genuine oxycodone and advertised the pills as oxycodone, but that the pills contained no oxycodone and instead contained fentanyl.

The sentence was handed down by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston.

Fentanyl is a highly potent opiate that can be diluted with cutting agents to create counterfeit pills that attempt to mimic the effects of oxycodone. The San Francisco medical examiner's office recently reported a large spike in fentanyl-related deaths -- in 2019, 234 deaths in San Francisco are estimated to have involved fentanyl, compared with 90 in 2018.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Border Patrol Stops Dangerous Human Smuggling Attempt

Calexico, California - U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector stop a dangerous human smuggling attempt near the American Canal Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred at approximately 5:29 p.m., when Border Patrol agents operating the Remote Video Surveillance System observed a group of individuals running northbound from the All American Canal approximately seven miles east of the Calexico West Port of Entry.

Agents observed a utility truck arrive near the area and the individuals proceeded to jump inside the truck.

Agents discovered 14 people

crammed inside a metal utility box.

Patrol agents arrived on scene and detained the driver along with 15 other individuals. Agents discovered 14 individuals stuffed and laying on top of one another in the rear metal utility box and one man on the front passengers seat floor covered with the drivers jacket.

Agents questioned all individuals regarding their citizenship and determined that five were citizens of Mexico and 10 were citizens of China illegally present in the United States.

Agents arrested the male driver and the other individuals and transported them to the El Centro Station for processing.

The driver, a United States citizen, is being held in federal custody pending further criminal prosecution.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Supremo Sharad Pawar voiced his support on Sunday for the tribal community's demand for recognition of their indigenousness from the United Nations. "Tribals are the original inhabitants of the country, we support their demand for recognition of their indigenousness from the United Nations," said Pawar.

READ | Confusion In MVA: Sharad Pawar Openly Contradicts Maha Home Minister On Wiretapping Charge

Installation of statues of social reformers

Earlier on Sunday, the NCP chief had insisted on the installation of statues of social reformers including Tantia Bhil in the premises of the Parliament.

"On January 26, the birth anniversary of Tantia Bhil will be celebrated across the country. I will try to have deliberations with the President, Prime Minister and the Speaker regarding the installation of statues of those who have contributed to the country including Tantia Bhil in the Parliament premises," the NCP leader said in a programme organized for celebrating the birth anniversary of Tantia Bhil.

READ | Delhi Police Deny NCP's Allegations Of Withdrawing Sharad Pawars Security Cover

Asserting that Tantia Bhil and the architect of the Indian Constitution Babasaheb Ambedkar were born in the land of Madhya Pradesh, Pawar emphasized on the need to work for the tribals in the state. Pawar said, "The Kamal Nath-led government will work for the tribals in the state. Great Bhil and Ambedkar were born here, in this land. I feel that there is a need to take some steps for the development of our society", said Pawar.

READ | Sharad Pawar Claims 'Muslim Didn't Vote For BJP', Party Comes Up With A Witty Response

Tantia Bhil was a member of the Bhil tribe which is the indigenous Adivasi community. Tantia who was considered a dacoit by the Britishers was recognised as a heroic figure by the Indians. Some accounts of the pre-independent era have also described him as an Indian "Robin Hood". He is known for his contributions to the society and the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Tantia who was first arrested around 1874 for his aggressive stand against Britishers, turned to more serious crimes of theft and kidnapping after serving a year's sentence. He was again arrested in 1878 but could manage to escape in three days and from then on took on the role of a dacoit.

(With ANI inputs)

READ | Will Meet Goyal To Get Onion Export Ban Revoked: Sharad Pawar
The Haryana government had decided to organise an 'International Saraswati Mahotsav' from Monday to showcase its rich cultural and rural heritage.

The government had sent invitations to envoys of several countries to take part in the event.

The annual festival from January 27 to 29 will honour the river Saraswati. A seminar will also be organised on river and water conservation.

Haryana government Additional Chief Secretary Dheera Khandelwal took stock of the preparations ahead of the start of the event.

The event will also showcase Haryana cuisine's, a hut and a replica of an ancient well, giving a real feel of the state's values and culture.

Khandelwal said that there will be no use of plastic at the event and the emphasis will be on usage of eco-fiendly products.

The 3-day long event is being held at Pihowa near Kurukshetra, which has been ornamented like the bold town of Surajkund.

The festival will feature a craft fair by various departments of the government.

Apart from painting exibitions, chanting of shlokas, presentation of patriotic songs and cultural programs will also be held at the event.
By Mark Gleeson

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - England bowled South Africa out for 274 runs on Monday to win the fourth test at The Wanderers by 191 runs and ensure an emphatic 3-1 series victory.

Mark Wood took four wickets as the home team crumbled in the evening session after threatening to offer stoic resistance earlier in the day.

England completed the task with a day to spare with South Africa falling well short of their 466 run target in what would have been the highest fourth innings test chase.

The success is a massive boost for a young English team who overcame several obstacles on a tough tour and calms questions over Joe Root's captaincy.

"It took a lot to pick ourselves up after losing the first test and that's been extremely pleasing. It's taken a big effort from every one and it's a very exciting time for English cricket," said Root as he took the series trophy.

For South Africa it marked a 108-year low as they lost for the eighth time in their last nine tests for their worst run since 10 defeats in 11 tests between 1910 and 1912.

Wood took 4-54 -- finishing with nine wickets in the game -- and Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes added two more for England as they took the last six South African wickets for 39 runs.

The home team were facing a near impossible target of 466 and provided a flicker of resistance but lost wickets at crucial intervals.

"England were better than us in every department with both ball and bat," said home skipper Faf du Plessis.

"We have to give them credit for being the better team."

Rassie van der Dussen scored 98, falling agonisingly short of a maiden test century, before being tricked into offering an easy catch, just five balls after Du Plessis had been bowled by Stokes for 35.

Their 92-run partnership for the third wicket kept alive unlikely home hopes after South Africa were 90-2 at lunch.

Quinton de Kock hit another swashbuckling knock, but by the time he fell for 39 runs, with eight wickets down, the contest was already over.

Story continues

Van der Dussen was given out leg before wicket to Chris Woakes with just the third ball he faced on Monday and almost ran out of time as he dithered over whether to review, but then won a reprieve as the ball was shown to be missing the wickets.

He took advantage to hit 15 fours and two sixes in a boundary-filled innings and will be livid with the way he went out, essentially ending hopes of fairytale for both himself and his team.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Christian Radnedge)
A married couple convicted of the female genital mutilation (FGM) of their daughter in the first case of its kind in the nation's history have been jailed.

The couple both pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of carrying out an act of FGM on a then one-year-old girl at an address in Dublin on September 16, 2016.

The 37-year-old man and 27-year-old woman also pleaded not guilty to one count of child cruelty on the same day. They are both originally from an African nation but cannot be named to protect the identity of the child.

On the eighth day of the trial, the jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on all counts after almost three hours of deliberations.

Passing sentence today, Judge Elma Sheahan sentenced the male accused to five and a half years imprisonment.

Judge Shehan sentenced the female accused to four years and nine months imprisonment.

At an earlier sentencing hearing, Detective Inspector Dany Kelly told Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, that on the date in question, the accused man attended at a hospital with his daughter who was bleeding from her perineal region.

Det Insp Kelly said the accused man gave an explanation that the child had sustained the injury by falling backwards onto a toy. Medical professionals were of the view that this explanation was not credible and that the injuries were not accidental, counsel said.

Gardai were notified and carried out a search of the accused's family home. They seized the toy claimed to be responsible for inflicting the injury and no blood was found on the item following a forensic analysis.

Dr Sinead Harty gave evidence during the trial that in her professional opinion, the injury sustained was not consistent with falling on a toy. She said the head and glans of the victim's clitoris had been completely removed.

In interview with gardai, both accused denied that FGM had been carried out on their daughter. The victim's father said he did not agree with the practice. His wife said she had been a victim of a different form of FGM herself.

The court heard that the victim and her two siblings are currently in the care of their mother's eldest sister.

The court heard expert evidence that FGM is a cultural phenomenon that goes back many thousands of years and arising predominantly from East Africa. Dr Deborah Hodes said it has no nothing to do with religious beliefs and is absolutely not a principal of the Muslim faith.

Speaking today after the case Chief Superintendent Declan Daly, Garda National Protective Services Bureau said todays conviction sends a strong and important message that Female Genital Mutilation, the mutilation of children and young girls, is not and will not be tolerated.

"It is a heinous and barbaric practice which is a criminal offence in Ireland.

"Ireland has a long and proud history of embracing traditions and customs from abroad, however there can be no welcome for any activity which brings harm to children.

"Our communities need to be vigilant and aware of this crime and anyone who suspects or believes a child is likely to be subject to Female Genital Mutilation either here or being brought outside the country for the purpose of Female Genital Mutilation, to contact their local Garda station, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or call the Child Abuse Reporting line on - 1800 555 222."

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an offence contrary to the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012

Dr Deborah Hodes, who helped set up a clinic in the UK which specifically tries to assist young women who have had FGM done to them, prepared a report for the court outlining the long term effect on the victim as a result of this act.

In the report, Dr Hodes sets out that FGM had nothing to do with religious beliefs or any form of religion. She said it was absolutely not a principal of the Muslim faith and nothing about being Muslim required FGM to be carried out.

Dr Hodes said FGM is a cultural phenomenon that goes back many thousands of years. She said it is not exclusively but predominantly arising from East Africa around the horn of Africa.

She confirmed that because of the nature of the type of FGM in this case, there will in the future be no physical effect on the victim's urinary system, no obstruction to her vagina, no menstrual problems and there will be no effect on her ability to have sexual intercourse in the future.

The two accused came to Ireland in 2008. The woman is a naturalised Irish citizen, while the man faces a deportation order which is currently under review pending the completion of these court proceedings.

Both accused have no previous convictions. They have been remanded in custody since the date of their conviction by a jury.

Colman Fitzgerald SC, defending the father, said there are standard international classifications of FGM and that there are different categories of greater severity than the type in this case. He submitted this offence can be placed as not being the most serious kind of FGM.

Mr Fitzgerald said that in all respects, save for this act for which he has been convicted, his client had been a good, loving and caring father. He said there is no reason to believe his client is likely to be involved in criminality in the future.

He said when his client's daughter was clearly in trouble, he brought her to hospital and made no attempt to try and wait it out. He said his client's reaction, the fact that he went for help, is something that should go towards mitigation.

Patrick Gageby SC, defending the mother, said that his client is a married woman with three young children. He said that in all respects save this previous breach, his client appears to have been a very caring mother with well adjusted and healthy children.

Mr Gageby said there may be some irony in his client pleading that she is the mother of three small children in mitigation. He offered that courts have on occasion offered leniency to people in a position similar to his client.

He said this appears to be the first conviction under this statute. He asked the court to temper its public obligations with the requirement to visit a proportionate sentence on his client.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- When Law360 included Outten & Golden LLP on its annual "Employment Practice Group of the Year" category in January 2019, it was a fitting tribute to the firm as it celebrated its 20th anniversary. Its unprecedented fourth consecutive appearance on this year's list is a fitting start to Outten & Golden's next decade.

Outten & Golden's 70 lawyers work from offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. In 2020 they will open a fifth office in Los Angeles. As Law360 noted, they are "known for often taking on matters that involve novel employment law issues and high-profile parties."

The firm provides full-service representation to employees at all levels of an organization and is highly regarded for outcomes it achieves in sexual assault, harassment, discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and other workplace disputes, as well as its successful efforts on behalf of executives and professionals involved in employment contract negotiations and separations, partnership and equity arrangements, and expatriate issues.

Equally respected for its accomplishments in class and collective actions, Outten & Golden has secured millions of dollars for large groups of employees in highly visible lawsuits alleging wage and overtime violations, illegal background checks, and widespread discrimination. Law360 cited several of the firm's key achievements in these areas over the last year.

In March 2019, Outten & Golden had a lead role in settling a series of legal actions alleging that Facebook enabled advertisers to digitally discriminate against certain users based on race, age, and other protected categories. The resolution included Facebook's agreement to overhaul its platform and implement new features to prevent unlawful discrimination in online employment, real estate, and credit ads.

In another triumph in 2019, Outten & Golden attorneys helped obtain conditional certification for a collective of more than 3,000 job candidates who alleged PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP engaged in age discrimination by rejecting their applications in favor of younger applicants. Additionally, in December 2018, the firm won conditional certification for tens of thousands of hourly retail workers in a wage-and-overtime lawsuit accusing Stage Stores Inc. of illegally forcing them to work off the clock without pay. And, in October 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal challenging class certification in an action alleging prison contractor Geo Group violated labor trafficking laws by forcing immigrants in a Colorado detention facility to perform work without proper compensation.

"We are tremendously proud to again earn the Practice Group of the Year honor from Law360," said Adam T. Klein, the firm's managing partner. "It is recognition of the immense talent of our people and our endless dedication to the valued clients who place their trust in us."

Outten & Golden LLP focuses on advising and representing individuals in employment, partnership, and related workplace matters both domestically and internationally. The firm counsels individuals on employment and severance agreements; handles complex compensation and benefits issues (including bonuses, commissions, and stock/option agreements); and advises professionals (including doctors and lawyers) on contractual matters. It also represents employees with a wide variety of claims, including discrimination and harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, disability, national origin, religion, and age, and retaliation, whistleblower, and contract claims. The firm handles class actions involving a wide range of employment issues, including economic exploitation, gender- and race-based discrimination, wage-and-hour violations, and other systemic workers' rights issues.

Outten & Golden has nine practice groups: Executives & Professionals, Financial Services, Sexual Harassment & Sex Discrimination, Family Responsibilities & Disabilities Discrimination, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Workplace Rights, Discrimination & Retaliation, Whistleblower Retaliation, Class & Collective Actions, and WARN Act.

Outten & Golden has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

For media inquiries, contact Managing Partner Adam T. Klein at (212) 245-1000 or [email protected]

SOURCE Outten & Golden LLP
Mincon equipment in use in drilling in South Africa

Peter Lynch, chief operating officer at Irish drilling equipment maker Mincon, has stepped down from the company in order to "pursue other interests and to move closer to his family in Dublin."

Mr Lynch will be retained by the Shannon-headquartered group as a consultant, and will continue to provide specialist services to Mincon when required, the company said in a statement.

The role of chief operating officer will not be retained.

The regional leaders, Jussi Rautiainen (Europe-Middle East), Martin Van Gemert (Africa), Tom Purcell (Americas) and Steve Atkinson (Asia-Pacific) will continue to report to Mincons CEO Joe Purcell, who is supported by Mark McNamara as chief financial officer.

Mr Lynch initially joined the group as chairman in 2013, helping to guide Mincon through its IPO, before taking up a full time, executive role as chief operating officer in 2015.

Mr Purcell thanked Mr Lynch for this contribution to the company.

I am very pleased that Peter will be maintaining his involvement in and association with the group as an advisor in a consulting capacity for the coming years, Mr Purcell added.

Last week Mincon acquired the Finnish firm Lehti Group for 8m.

Mincon said the acquisition would "further enhance" its manufacturing capabilities in the geo-technical and construction markets.

The move follows Mincon's 2017 acquisition of another Finnish drilling engineering firm, PPV.

Lehti is already a significant manufacturing partner to Mincon. The Clare firm accounted for about 9m of Lehti's 13m turnover last year.

Lehti has projected 2019 earnings of 2.2m.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 22:43:50|Editor: yan

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TOKYO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The president of a utility company that operates a nuclear power plant in western Japan on Monday apologized for a string of serious mishaps at the plant including a control rod being mistakenly removed from a reactor.

Keisuke Nagai, president of Shikoku Electric Power Company, offered his apologies to the governor of Ehime Prefecture, Tokihiro Nakamura, for the mishaps and vowed to get to the bottom of the causes.

All three nuclear reactors at the Ikata nuclear power plant lost power on Saturday, with one of the power outages occurring during the inspection of one of the reactors.

Prior to that, local residents were also alarmed earlier in January when a control rod, which suppresses nuclear fission, was removed from the plant's number 3 reactor by mistake.

Fears and mistrust have been rising among those residing near the plant, with Nakamura telling Nagai that "concerns and distrust of Shikoku Electric have risen to unprecedented levels."

Nakamura went on to say that Shikoku Electric should relocate the head of its nuclear energy department to the town of Ikata, so as to make information better available to concerned residents and in any event "take thorough measures" to ensure locals have all the information required.

The Shikoku Electric chief also said Monday that the utility will halt a planned appeal against a high court-issued injunction this month to suspend the faulty plant's number 3 reactor.
Ten prestigious Garda Youth Awards were presented at Punchestown at the annual Kildare Garda

Youth Awards in association with Newbridge Silverware on Friday.

The event was attended by a host of dignitaries including MC for the evening 2FMs Keith Walsh, An Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail, Garda Chief Superintendent John Scanlan, Superintendent Oliver

Henry and Newbridge Silverwares Martin Kilduff and Simone Hassett-Costelloe.

The overall winner announced on the night was Castlefen Young Mens Group, which provides young

men from the area of the Castlefen estate in Sallins support through participation in sport and

engagement in personal development and drug education programmes.

The group are supported by the FAI (Late Night Leagues), Kildare County Council, Foroige, Naas Rotary Club and An Garda Siochana.

The Special Achievement Award this year went to a thoroughly deserving individual, Valeria

Baxaneanu from Leixlip. Valeria arrived in Ireland in August 2016 and she spoke no English. Her

father became very ill in 2018 and there was a risk of the family not being able to stay in Ireland.

Valeria cared for her father and with help of the staff in Confey College, Valeria went onto to achieve

fantastic results in her Leaving Certificate is now attending Maynooth University. All of the staff at

Confey College that knew her are in awe of her achievements and her composure in the face of

adversity.

There were eight other award categories presented on the night with Leah Doyle and Roisin Hobson

from Colaiste Chiarain Community School in Leixlip taking the Group Award. The girls took the

initiative to set up and run a breakfast club in their school each Friday morning. Colaiste Chiarain in

Leixlip has a broad socio-economic catchment and there are children who are attending the school

who are living in poverty. The breakfast club caters for some of these children. It is hard to imagine

the impact that this has had on some of the students and the girls contribution cannot be

underestimated. The fact that this is a peer-to-peer initiative and is so successful is testimony to the

two girls. There is now an established group that are supported each Friday in the breakfast club,

with anywhere between 30 and 40 students per week.

A Community Safety Award was presented to Grainne Christie from Kilcock who initiated the

establishment of the Community First Responders in Kilcock. The Community First Responders went

live in December, 2019 and there are currently 36 volunteers involved with the group and since going

live the Community First Responders in Kilcock have responded to a number of emergencies. Since

going live, Grainne co-ordinators the activities of the group.

There were also two Garda Youth Awards presented for each Garda District within the Division of Co.

Kildare and the winners were announced as Anastasia Popusoi and The Ahahas Youth Group from

the Leixlip District, Naomi Moore and Sam Downey from the Kildare District and Adam Stacey-Hayes

and Aoife Jones from the Naas District. Each recipient has overcome personal challenges and

contributes enormously to their local communities in many ways.

This is the fourth year of the Kildare Garda Youth Awards in association with Newbridge Silverware.

The awards celebrate outstanding young people between the ages of 13 and 21 years.

Kildare Gardai along with Newbridge Silverware recognise that a lot of good work is being done by young people in every community throughout the county, which should be awarded.
(Kitco News) - Gold futures have risen to their highest level in nearly three weeks, drawing a safe-haven bid amid worries about China's coronavirus spreading and hurting the global economy, as well as a weekend attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq, traders and analysts said.



Look for momentum-based chart buying to add further steam to the rally should these factors push gold above $1,600 an ounce again, one strategist said.

As of 9:57 a.m. EST, Comex February gold was $6.90, or 0.43%, higher to $1,578.50 an ounce. The metal peaked at $1,588.40, its most muscular level since Jan. 8 when worries about a possible war between the U.S. and Iran prompted a safe-haven bid.



"A big part is that is the coronavirus hitting stocks and possibly spreading," said Daniel Pavilonis, senior commodities broker with RJO Futures. "The market is trying to factor in what type of dent in global GDP [gross domestic product] from a slowing down in the world's second-largest economy and [the virus] spreading into other countries. It could be pretty big."



All three of the major U.S. stock indices opened at least 1.8% lower on Monday.



George Gero, managing director with RBC Wealth Management, commented he often describes gold prices as a barometer of geopolitics and the economy, rising when conditions are worsening, and vice-versa.



"Now it is also a barometer of our well-being," he said, referring to the health scare boosting gold.



While the virus is capturing the bulk of the headlines in the financial press early Monday, traders also listed to still other factors prompting a bid in gold. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst with Price Futures Group, cited the rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq.



"There is a mixture of geopolitical risks, along with concerns about the fallout from the coronavirus and how that will affect capital flows going forward," Flynn said.



Uncertainty about the U.S. impeachment process and Brexit may also be lending some support to the precious metal, Gero said.



Flynn looks for gold to maintain a bid while the market continues to monitor the factors currently underpinning prices.



"We should see the strength at least until midweek until we get more answers about the virus and the response [to the attacks] from the U.S.," Flynn said.



Should gold top $1,600, however, momentum-based buying would likely be triggered, Pavilonis said.



"At $1,600, it would become more technical," said Pavilonis. "Then I think you would see buyers come in on [an expectation] for more of a longer-term trend and buy, whether this virus fizzles out or not. We're getting close to the old highs."



While gold is higher so far Monday, Commerzbank did characterize the virus as both a "blessing and a curse" for the yellow metal.



Risk aversion has risen, the bank pointed out. Thus, gold is being bought as a "crisis currency" and safe haven, Commerzbank said. But the virus also may be curbing gold purchases in China, the world's largest gold-consuming nation, analysts continued.



"While gold is in demand as a kind of insurance for financial investors  as can be seen primarily from the ongoing ETF [exchange-traded-fund] inflows  the coronavirus could depress physical gold demand in China," Commerzbank said. "Because public life there is grinding more and more to a standstill, some market observers expect less gold to be bought around the Chinese New Year's festival this year, which is normally a period of high demand."
Highlights Nokia 7.2 was launched in September last year in India

Nokia 6.2 was launched a month later in October

The price cut on the smartphones is as high as Rs 3,800

Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 are now seeing a massive price drop in India, just in time before HMD Global prepares for the launch of new devices at the upcoming MWC Barcelona. The price cut on both smartphones goes as high as Rs 3,800, which could make the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 stout contenders in the mid-range smartphone market. Nokia 7.2 was launched last year in September while the Nokia 6.2 was released in October in India.

Nokia 7.2, Nokia 6.2 price in India dropped, here is the new pricing:

As listed on the Nokia online store, the Nokia 7.2 is now priced at Rs 15,499 and Rs 17,099 for the 4GB/64GB and 6GB/64GB variants, respectively. However, Amazon India lists Rs 14,873 as the current online price of the Nokia 7.2 4GB/64GB variant while the 6GB/64GB variant is listed at Rs 16,500. The launch price of the Nokia 7.2 started at Rs 18,599.

The Nokia 6.2, on the other hand, will cost Rs 12,499 if the purchase is from the Nokia online store for the lonesome 4GB/64GB model. Amazon India is selling the Nokia 6.2 at even a lower price of Rs 12,199. Nokia 6.2 was originally launched at Rs 15,999.

Ostensibly, the Amazon deal is better and comes with additional offers such as 5 per cent instant discount on HSBC Bank cards, no-cost EMI payment option, and other partner offers.

Do these offers on Nokia 7.2, Nokia 6.2 make sense for you?

HMD Global has secured a strong foothold in India's smartphone market ever since it entered. But the competition has been fierce, especially coming from the Chinese counterparts, such as Xiaomi that sits atop the pyramid. Nonetheless, the Finnish steward of the Nokia brand is relentless and wants to enter the list of India's top five smartphone brands. As a measure to ensure that expectation, HMD Global has to do more than just making gorgeous smartphones.

In our reviews of some recent Nokia smartphones, we have praised how beautifully Nokia phones are crafted. While the specifications on these smartphones are not quite the match to those of its competitors across price ranges, Nokia phones stand out because of their looks, and, of course, the brand equity.

Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 are undoubtedly good phones but the price cut is just the icing on the cake. At Rs 14,873 (considering the lowest available price), the Nokia 7.2 comes across as a steal deal, if you want a looker that is also loaded with reasonably good specifications. The Nokia 6.2 is another smartphone to go for, especially if your budget is a little tighter. At Rs 12,119, it is worth your money.
Saorview customers in Co. Louth may notice a change in service as the frequency is changing. Customers in Louth are likely to be affected by the frequency change and should take action now to avoid any disruption in service.

To find out if you are affected and what you need to do visit saorview.ie/changes

Why is this happening: Following a decision by the EU, some of the TV broadcast spectrum that is used by Saorview is being reallocated for other purposes. This is part of future-proofing Irelands infrastructure.

When is this happening: Between now and 4th March 2020.

Who is affected: Many customers wont notice anything at all, some will need to take action to ensure their service continues.

What does this mean: Many customers won't notice any change. For some a simple rescan or their Saorview box or TV will solve any issues. A small number of customers will need to take further action and should contact Saorview if a channel rescan doesnt work.

Speaking of the change in frequency, Head of Saorview Jim Higgins had this to say: Most Saorview customers will experience perfect continuity of service. Some customers will need to do a simple channel rescan, while a small number of customers may need to take further action. We want to support our customers through this EU led frequency change, and our helpline and call centre is primed with the answers our customers need to continue to enjoy Saorview.

Higgins continued: The important thing is to check if you are affected and to take action now if needed. Customers are still able to enjoy service on both the new and old frequencies but after March 4th the old frequency will terminate.

If you are unsure whether you are affected or not, go to saorview.ie/changes , call 1890 222 012 / 01 258 3540 or email info@saorview.ie to find out more.
A vehicle in rammed into a car in Islamabad, killing a woman and injuring five of her family members, according to a media report.

The Pakistani driver of the embassy vehicle has been arrested and booked, police said.

The incident happened on Sunday at Islamabad's Margalla Road when the speeding Toyota Land Cruiser of the hit the Suzuki Khyber car from behind, killing the woman on the spot, the Express Tribune reported on Sunday.

The police said that one of vehicles involved in the accident might have driven through a red light.

The injured were driven to the Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital, where medics said one of the injured was in a critical condition.

The deceased woman has been identified as Nadia, the paper reported.

Accidents involving vehicles of the diplomatic missions are common in

In April 2018, a motorcyclist was killed after being hit by a vehicle driven by the military attach at the in Islamabad, the paper reported.

Similarly, in February 2013, an SUV driven by an administrative assistant at the US Embassy hit two motorcyclists near Kohsar Complex on Margalla Avenue, killing one of them and injuring the other, the report said.
LeBron James' tears upon hearing of Kobe Bryant's passing Kobe Bryant Emotions ran high as he left the Lakers' plane

LeBron James broke into tears upon disembarking the Los Angeles Lakers team plane on Sunday after learning of Kobe Bryant's death.

The pair were close and LeBron only overtook Kobe in the NBA's all-time scoring list on Saturday, moving into third place.

He was seen crying and hugging people as he left the plane on Sunday evening.
He has battled against the backdrop of a broken system that is wasting taxpayer money, ignoring rule-breakers and covering up bad news while one of our most valuable resources, the pastoral estate, is degraded to crisis point.

But his recently published memoir, The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource, reveals how his dream to restore the land to productivity has repeatedly brought him to the brink of financial ruin.

David Pollocks decade-long sustainability project on his familys West Australian cattle station, Wooleen  involving long periods of de-stocking, rehabilitation and rotational grazing  has had plenty of glowing media attention.

These are not the words of an unemployed drifter but perhaps Australias best-known pastoralist.

Being broke is exhausting, says David Pollock. You try not to think about it but it pervades everything  [you think] at least the country is improving  ride it through to the end. Well find a way. Dont give up. What else are you going to do?

Its turning on the computer for strictly an hour a day. Its using the evaporative air-con only if the temperature exceeds 45 degrees. Its plugging the holes in the Landcruiser with foam, buying everything from the op shop, and eating chicken-neck stew. A lot of chicken-neck stew.

David and Frances Pollock know what staring into the financial abyss is like.

While the rangelands are theoretically a renewable resource, overstocking by both managed and unmanaged animals has been the norm, leading to widespread degradation. Erosion and lack of biodiversity now threaten the resource's ability to renew itself, Pollock writes.

Wooleen is one of 285 stations making up the Southern Rangelands, which stretch between the Pilbara, South West and desert interior, and include the Gascoyne, Murchison and Goldfields-Nullarbor regions. They cover more than 40 per cent of WA.

Meanwhile, the public enjoys cheap and plentiful grass-fed beef and thinks all is well within the WA pastoral estate, which produces about $300 million worth of cattle for the states $850 million beef industry.

Everybody knows about it, but its been going on for so long that everybody is used to doing nothing about it, Pollock tells WAtoday.

His fellow pastoralists generally keep their heads down, try to make their living and regard him as a renegade or hopeless idealist. None of his neighbours have so much as mentioned the book to him.

The average age of pastoralists is 60 and few are handing stations down to their children, who want nothing to do with a tough business proposition in a declining landscape, Pollock writes.

Despite this, in 2015, 435 out of 437 WA stations had their leases renewed. The government said this was because of a high level of compliance among lessees.

Pollock references a 2011 Department of Agriculture report, released under freedom of information laws in 2014, showing 70 per cent of the leases in the Southern Rangelands were considered unviable.

Erosion eating into once-productive grasslands: the soil in the sweetest pasture is removed first. Credit:Wooleen Station

Indeed, the damage represented by the mining scars on WAs landscape are tiny in comparison to pastoralisms death by a thousand cuts.

Effectively, we have been mining our pastoral resource through erosion of the topsoil over the past 150 years, Pollock writes.

Degradation began to emerge during times of drought, culminating in the outback Armageddon of the 1930s. But the land has never had time to recover, instead being subjected to sustained maximum stock levels.

There is now only one staffer left on this project, Pollock writes.

This required up to eight full-time agriculture department staff researching the ecosystems and mapping conditions.

Most were completed in the 1970s and 1980s and revealed severe degradation and soil erosion. Most recommended reducing stock numbers.

In the 1960s, growing awareness of a crisis brewing in the rangelands prompted the government to commission surveys of the baseline condition of all regions including all stations.

Pastoralists therefore have no incentive to keep the land in good condition or mount a decade-long rehabilitation project; Certainly, their accountants would advise them against it, Pollock writes.

It instead announced new sites would be installed and checked by pastoralists themselves, people Pollock says had a vested interest in making sure that nothing terrible was ever reported.

The damning government State of the Environment report in 2007 showed the land was still declining. In response to the resulting pressure to act, regulator the Pastoral Lands Board announced the monitoring sites installed on each station in the 1990s, that were regularly checked by a team of trained and experienced agriculture department staff, were never in fact meant to be the basis for regulation, and would be scrapped.

There has been no monitoring of what pastoralists are doing on 90 million hectares of Western Australia since 2008, Pollock says.

Wooleen in 2004: no perennial grass, no production, no protection for the soil or native fauna. Credit:Wooleen Station

There is no telling whether there will be anybody left within the Western Australian Department of Agriculture who has enough knowledge of the Southern Rangelands ecosystems to even attempt the final one, Pollock writes.

It took the lone staffer 10 years to complete the second-last survey  he was due to complete it in 2019  and the final one remains outstanding.

He recounts the non-mandatory half-day of training conducted for pastoralists.

Pastoralists, Pollock among them, were advised to buy a plant identification book that had been out of print for almost 15 years.

A board member present told them to make up the names of the plants if we didnt know what they were.

And that someone qualified would review the data.

Pollock wondered who the qualified person might be, since the only employee left in the department who understood the pastures enough to run the workshop was about to retire and has since done so.

Pollock himself wrote to the board saying it was ignoring its legislated function to develop policies to restore the rangelands.

The chairmans reply told Pollock that he was correct that the board has done very little to develop policies ... I hope that over time and in the near future ... we can begin to tackle some of the big, difficult problems.

It was soon after this reply the board lost its nerve and scrapped the monitoring sites altogether.

Wooleen in 2014 showing minimal perennial grass, minimal production, minimal protection for the soil and native fauna. Credit:Wooleen Station

Rogues can overstock 440 per cent and report themselves without fear

Pollock describes an industry largely self-regulating through the Pastoral Lands Board, which he calls a lobbying arm of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association.

He makes a scathing comparison between the reporting on the pastoral resource and the comparably valuable fisheries resource.

The 2013/14 report on the condition of the WA fisheries resource was hundreds of pages long, for example. It described Department of Fisheries officers being at sea 90 days a year, doing regular land, sea and aerial patrols, using specially equipped 4WDs, quad bikes and vessels, sophisticated surveillance equipment, with an enforcement unit patrolling the coast from Onslow to Kalbarri. They were across valuable assets such as Ningaloo and Shark Bay Prawn Fishery and conducting catch, licence, gear and marine safety inspections.

Fisheries prosecuted 450 people in the 2013/14 financial year alone for exploiting the resource.

Their regulation board did not have any fishermen on it.

By comparison, the 2013 report on the condition of the WA pastoral resource base was 23 pages long.

It noted that in one district 61 per cent of leases were carrying more stock than the land could cope with.

It cautioned that since the government withdrew staff from the monitoring sites in 2008, even these capacity estimates used for its report could not be relied on.

Overseen by Emily the dog, Frances Pollock plants sedges in the Murchison riverbed to help prevent erosion. Credit:Wooleen Station

One pastoralist was brazen enough to report to regulators he was carrying 4.5 times more stock than he was supposed to.

But nobody has ever been prosecuted for exploiting pastoral land.

Three of the six government appointees to the pastoral board are pastoralists.

Current Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan has read The Wooleen Way and distributed it among senior bureaucrats.

She says despite controversy in the pastoral community, there is extraordinary merit in Pollocks achievements and ideas, which have consolidated the governments thinking as it finalised a pastoral lands reform package during 2019.

The Minister says the reform includes legislative change so the boards lone environmental member will be appointed by the environment minister of the day, not the lands minister.

We had to persuade industry this was a good idea, she says.

She says there will still be three pastoralists on the board, but they wont all be pastoralists antithetical to progress.

Wooleen in 2018: profit from perennial grass, year-round protection for native species, and robust ecology. Credit:Wooleen Station

The reform would also restore station monitoring sites and compel pastoralists to go through a quality assurance and monitoring program before they can renew leases.

Breaches of the lease will have consequences ... it has to be a culture that we are serious about this, she says.

Sustaining our meat-eating future

Pollock writes that there is a great deal more at stake than livelihoods; that the current system will not ensure future food security for the planet.

If a fishery is shown to be depleted, it is closed for a time to protect residual stocks, but this does not occur for grazing plants, he writes.

Pollock wants a stewardship program to financially support pastoralists while they destock, to recover from historical degradation, while also creating new models to managing rangelands.

Family businesses are already managing the estate and are best placed to most economically oversee the process, he says. The long-term future in a meat-eating world is likely to continue to be predominantly based on pastoralism, and stewardship programs are a necessary part of the solution.

He estimates immediate destocking of the rangelands for 10 years would cost around $400 million total, $40 million a year.

Each station would need a little over $100,000 per year on average for fixed costs and maintain infrastructure.

And while the $400 million figure is a useful starting point for imagining a large-scale solution, partial implementation would be enough.

Happy cows on the Wooleen lake. Pippa decides whether she wants to be a cattle dog. Credit:Wooleen Station

It would get enough properties to shift from this path towards a more sustainable one, and get quick runs on the board.

It would create properties every pastoralist could visit in their local region for a desperately needed vision for the future.

The sole responsibility for fixing the problems of an area larger than France should not fall entirely on the 290 couples who happen to be managing it at this time, he writes.

It would also result in something more controversial: a decrease in supply and a rise in beef prices, which would improve life for pastoralists, but might be a hard sell in the city.

If it comes that we have to pay more for meat, so be it, Pollock tells WAtoday.

If the debate is we dont want to pay more for meat, we prefer to degrade our resources to the point we cant use them any more, well, we make that decision all the time in other areas, he says.

But eventually, the problem will get bad enough that people will say we have to do something about it now.

The sooner we do it, the cheaper it will be; the longer we take, the more expensive it will get. But we need to have this conversation, and we need to have it knowing the facts.

Pollock tries to pass on his passion for perennial grass to a TV film crew. Credit:Wooleen Station

Minister MacTiernan says the fundamental message of what Pollock has done, to give the land a break and do radical destocking to allow regeneration, is a very important one.

She acknowledges it would be very difficult for other pastoralists to replicate Pollocks results alone, and says the government is open to a stewardship program.

We are absolutely taking on board the need for a destocking regime, she says.

WA has requested 10 per cent of the federal governments recently announced $100 million drought relief fund for this purpose.

A light ahead

The days of financial desperation are over, with the publicity received to date, plus the square kilometre array being installed next door helping Wooleens tourism business thrive.

Were not going broke any more, so thats good, Pollock says.

Any money we do have goes back into fixing the landscape, so we are never going to make any money, but thats where we get our satisfaction from that anyway.

Theyre going to have to put up with us for a long time yet.

The Wooleen Way is in bookstores now. Credit:Scribe Publications

And despite the outrage that fuels The Wooleen Way, there is hope at its core.

Pollock writes of the heady delight of seeing grasses regenerate after destocking, and how after seeing one area recover a species long absent, he kept the cattle off another year.

Loading

His greed for grass outstripped his desire for the other kind of green, despite his accountants lamentations.

This says something important about the human condition, and our ability to adapt, he writes, close to the end of The Wooleen Way.

My point is that greed may be something that we can use to our advantage. Far from being the reason that we will never achieve something, it may be the reason that we accomplish it all the sooner.
U.S. troops blocked on Sunday a Russian military convoy from accessing oilfields in Syrias northeast, in the fourth such skirmish in eight days, Turkish news outlet Daily Sabah reported.

The Sunday incident, in which the Russian convoy turned around and returned to a Russian base, was the latest tension between American and Russian troops in Syria since January 18.

After their convoy turned back on Sunday, the Russians sent a helicopter which was intercepted by two U.S. helicopters and forced to land, according to the report.

The Al-Hasakah province in the northeast and the Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria bordering Iraq are the two major oil and gas provinces in the country.

After a surprise announcement of pulling the U.S. troops out of Syria in October last year, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the United States would protect Syrian oil fields from ISIS.

President Trump claimed that the U.S. had taken control of the oil in the Middle East, tweeting that The U.S. has secured the Oil, & the ISIS Fighters are double secured by Kurds & Turkey.

The President did not elaborate on what he meant by securing the oil, but speculations about the Presidents statement assume he was referring to the U.S. special forces that have beenand will continue to bein control of oil and gas fields in Deir Ezzor, Syrias oil region.

President Trump has vowed to protect Syrian oil fields from ISIS, and the United States may leave 500 troops in northeastern Syria and send in battle tanks and other equipment with the purpose to help the Kurds in the area to protect oil fields that used to be controlled by Islamic State during its so-called caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.

Last month, Turkish media reported that the United States had moved more equipment from Iraq into Syria to boost the protection of the oil and gas fields in eastern Syria.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Iran has made it impossible for followers of the Baha'i faith to obtain a new national identification card unless they renounce their religion.



Since the smart ID card is required for access to basic government services or to make bank transactions, rights activists maintain that the application process is the latest in a series of discriminatory state policies that have targeted some 350,000 Baha'is in Iran since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.



The application process essentially forces Baha'is to declare themselves from one of four religions that are recognized by Iran's constitution: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism.



The Baha'i faith is not officially recognized in Iran. Application forms for the identification card do not specify other faiths and do not include an option for applicants to declare they are from "other religions."



Thus, to obtain new identification car, Baha'i applicants have to violate one of the basic principles of their faith -- an express prohibition against lying about their religion.



Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), says the new rule is "severe and undisguised discrimination."



He describes the application process as "a flagrant violation of Iranian and international law."



"With this new rule, the Iranian government is effectively stripping many religious minorities in the country of their basic rights and access to the most fundamental services as citizens," Ghaemi said in a January 27 statement.

'Devious Sects'



In January 2019, conservative lawmaker Mohammad Javad Abtahi called on the Interior Minister to remove the option "other religions" from application forms for national ID.

Abtahi claimed that the option was legitimizing "devious sects," a term Islamic hard-liners use to refer to the Baha'i faith.

Simin Fahandej, a spokeswoman for the Baha'i international community in London, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda on January 24 that the application process for the new identification cards is yet another case of state pressure on Baha'is.



"This is another example of the harassment Baha'is have been subjected to in the past forty years," Fahandej said. "This means that Baha'is have to either give up their religion or give up their citizen's rights," she said.



Rights activist Bahareh Hedayat, a former political prisoner who'd been held for seven years at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, posted details on Twitter last week about what happened when a Baha'i questioned the application process.



Hedayat shared what she said was a reply from the National Registry Office, saying: "Dear citizen---the religion you have in mind has not been included in the law and no solution has been considered. You may submit your application under the current conditions."



Human Rights Watch says Iranian authorities routinely harass, prosecute, and imprison Baha'is solely for practicing their faith. The U.S.-based rights group says Iranian authorities also destroy burial places of Baha'is.



In recent years, many Baha'is have been banned from attending universities. Their private businesses have also been shut down and dozens have been imprisoned on vague charges.



Javaid Rehman, the United Nations' special rapporteur to Iran, said in a July 2019 report that Baha'is "have suffered from the most egregious forms of repression, persecution and victimization."
I'm A Celebrity's Charlotte Crosby was scared to her wits on Monday night's episode.

After a challenge with campmate Miguel Maestre in a river in the South African jungle, the 29-year-old spotted what she thought was a crocodile.

Overcome with fear, the Geordie Shore star shrieked and flailed her arms wildly.

Crikey! I'm A Celebrity's Charlotte Crosby, 29, (right) shrieked and flailed her arms wildly on Monday night's episode, as she spotted a CROCODILE just metres away from her in a river

Miguel, 40, came to Charlotte's rescue as he got up close to the crocodile.

Seconds later however, the Spanish chef realised it was just a prank by hosts Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris.

Miguel threw the toy into the distance, leaving Charlotte instantly relieved.

'That's so unfair': Miguel Maestre, 40, (left) came to Charlotte's rescue as he got up close to the crocodile. However, he soon realised it was a prank and the crocodile was just a toy

'You bastards!' Charlotte directed at the hosts, while Miguel added: 'Oh, my God, that's not fair! That's so unfair.'

Viewers praised Miguel for his heroism and bravery in a number of tweets.

Hero: Viewers praised Miguel for his heroism and bravery in a number of tweets

'The fact that Miguel deada** punched what he thought was a real f***in' crocodile just solidifies what a bad a** he is,' one wrote.

Another said: 'Find a man who'll punch a croc to protect you, even if it's not real.'

'Miguel punching a crocodile is the heroic mood I want to carry forward in 2020. WOW,' one viewer also posted.

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Ten
Trucks loaded with embezzled humanitarian aid that is supposed to benefit Sahraouis held against their will in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps are now stranded on the Algerian Mauritanian borders.

In a move to end embezzlement by the Polisario separatists who have been trading in the suffering of the civilian Sahraouis in Tindouf camps for decades, Mauritanian authorities required that all trucks should submit to the customs a detailed itinerary showing the origin of the goods, except that in this case the goods are not meant for sale since they are part of the humanitarian assistance donated to the Tindouf camps population.

Mauritanian authorities have born for years the brunt of smuggling of humanitarian aid with the involvement of Polisario and Algerian officials, causing Mauritanian customs significant losses annually.

In the face of the connivance between Polisario leadership with smugglers, illegal migration networks and terrorist groups, Mauritania had in 2017 to close its borders with Algeria and declare its north-eastern borders with Algiers a military zone.

The Mauritanian decision to prevent sale of embezzled humanitarian aid on its market has added a strain to its ties with Algeria, the Polisarios paymaster.

Border Crossing

The decision also cast a light on the low-return of a border crossing between Algeria and Mauritania which was opened last summer to rival Moroccos Guerguarate crossing.

In October 2018, Mauritania ended trade anarchy by imposing customs duties at its borders with Algeria.

The border crossing with Mauritania was sought by Algerian authorities as a gateway for exports to Africa. But Algeria which imports everything apart from oil and gas has nothing much to export.

Algerian agricultural products could not compete with Moroccan produce which are exported by sea and trucks through the Atlantic road where climate is milder compared to the continental Algerian-Mauritanian route.

In two-days , fresh fruits and vegetables from the hub of Agadir can be sold in the markets of Nouakchott making it harder for Algerian exporters to compete on the Mauritanian market.
Government says its fight against corruption cannot be described as totally lost as recent corruption reports show Ghana has improved its scores.

The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, made this statement on Sunday while addressing the media.

He said the government is committed to follow through with the anti-corruption fight and do more.

The 2019 global Corruption Perception Index ranked Ghana 80 out of 180 countries with a score of 41, the same score as 2018, slightly below the global average.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah noted that although there's more to be done in the fight against corruption, he said data shows that the government's efforts so far are yielding significant results.

The Government of Ghana pledges to continue with the recent efforts that have led to improved scores in the recently released corruption perception index and the global corruption barometer. There is still a lot of work but the numbers are speaking for themselves. 2015, 76% were of the view that corruption was increasing, by 2019, only 33% hold that view so when someone goes around and say that the fight has totally been lost, that is not the view as the data shows when the experts conduct the survey, he said.

While the government touts the development as being on the right track, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the latest score on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) signifies President Nana Akufo-Addo's failed fight against corruption.

The party in a statement signed by its National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi said the drop by two places on the index is a dent on Ghana's reputation.

These latest results of the CPI highlight President Akufo-Addo's failed fight against corruption in Ghana, as the country could not improve upon its paltry score of 41 points recorded in 2018. According to the latest survey, Ghana ranked dropped from an already low ranking of 78 to 80 out of 180 countries, thereby achieving the unenviable feat of being behind countries such as Namibia, Senegal and Rwanda in the fight against corruption.

Our drop of two (2) places on the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI), is yet another dent on Ghana's reputation and a testament to the endemic corruption that has engulfed the Akufo-Addo government. This latest CPI confirms the recent Afrobarometer survey findings by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD), that 53% of Ghanaians think that corruption has worsened under the Akufo-Addo-led government.

In the latest index, Denmark and New Zealand top with 87 points each. Syria, South Sudan, and Somalia were at the bottom of the Index with 13, 12 and 9 points respectively.

The highest-scoring region was Western Europe and European Union with an average score of 66, while the lowest scoring region was Sub Sahara Africa, with an average score of 32.

In 2015, Ghana scored 47 and in 2016, came down to 43. In 2017, it recorded the worst performance with an average score of 40 out of 100 and rose marginally to 41 in 2018 and maintained that figure in 2019.

Even though Ghana performed better than neighbouring Burkina Faso as well as Lesotho, the country could not catch up with countries like South Africa, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe that scored better than Ghana in 2018.

---citinewsroom


Here are the companies the Yahoo Finance team is watching for you today.

A big upgrade for Chipotle (CMG). UBS has boosted the stock to neutral and raised its price target to $900 a share. Analysts there say they underestimated customer demand, and recent results at Chipotle "significantly exceeded our expectations."

U.S. State Attorneys General will meet Justice Department attorneys this week to share information on their investigations into Google (GOOGL), according to multiple news reports. The meeting could ultimately result in the two groups joining forces in the investigation. They're looking into whether Google's behavior may harm consumers through its control of online advertising and search traffic.

Elon Musk is making a few environmental promises. The CEO of Tesla (TSLA) says the upcoming German factory will use less water than originally promised and won't cause an issue for drinking water in the region. On top of that he tweeted that only a small part of a forest would be cut down to build the factory. Environmental groups are concerned about the impact of the factory, which Tesla hopes to open later this year.

Employees at Amazon (AMZN) want their voices heard. Over 350 workers violated the company's policy by publicly criticizing its climate practices. Public comment by workers needs to be approved by executives. The group of workers plan to post a video today about the danger of climate change while promising that they can't be silenced.

And theres some redemption for Warren Buffett. That's because the husband-and-wife owners of DC Solar, a company which Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) invested $377 million into, are going to jail for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme. The Ponzi scheme totaled an estimated $912 million. Prosecutors called it the largest scheme in the history of the Eastern District of California.

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Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news
At least 22 private clinics across the UK are said to perform hymen-repair surgery. [Photo: Getty]

Campaigners are urging the government to ban virginity-repair surgery.

Muslim women can be outcast or even murdered if their other half or family discovers they had sex before marriage.

READ MORE: When's the 'right' time to lose your virginity?

Many therefore opt for surgery to restore a layer of membrane at the entrance of the vagina, creating the illusion of an intact hymen, the BBC reported.

Although technically legal, the General Medicine Council (GMC) guidelines state consent may not be valid if given under pressure or duress exerted by another person.

Banning hymenoplasties, however, may drive backstreet operations that put Muslim women at risk of infections, bleeding and a host of other complications.

The hymen is a thin piece of skin that partially covers the entrance to the vagina, according to the NHS.

It usually breaks during sex, however, it can also easily tear as a result of exercise or tampons.

Often considered a hallmark of virginity, women may not know if their hymen is intact, with not all experiencing pain or bleeding when it breaks.

According to the World Health Organization, there is no examination that can prove a girl or woman has had sex  and the appearance of girls or womans hymen cannot prove whether they have had sexual intercourse, or are sexually active or not.

Nonetheless, at least 22 private clinics across the UK are said to perform hymen-repair surgery, according to The Sunday Times.

The procedure costs around 3,000 ($3,925) and lasts up to an hour.

READ MORE: I Was a Virgin All Through College, and This Is How I Feel About It Now

Campaigners argue these clinics are cashing in on Muslim womens fear of appearing impure on their wedding night.

Extramarital sex is forbidden by the Quran.

One clinic offering the procedure is The Gynae-Centre in London, which claims the operation is simple.

The surgery reportedly involves excision of the torn edges before stitching them with fine dissolvable sutures.

Story continues

The hymen actually has a secondary layer that will be sown up to cover the torn skin, its website states.

As it grafts together once more, the hymen will appear intact.

Or if for any reason this is not possible then a new hymen can be created from the lip of the vagina.

Another medical centre - Regency International Clinic in London - adds: We strongly believe were giving these women a second chance.

A woman who has lost her virginity when underage or as a result of rape or assault should not suffer for the rest of her life.

One Muslim who knows the dangers of sex before marriage all too well is Halaleh Taheri.

The student, 26, arrived in the UK from Morocco in 2014.

After moving in with a man, her father demanded she return to Morocco for a virginity test.

Discovering her hymen is not intact, Miss Taheris father reportedly hired someone to murder her.

Miss Taheri, founder of Middle Eastern Women and Society Organisation, fled back to the UK but lives in fear her father will discover where exactly she lives.

Rapper TI sparked a social media backlash last year when he said he subjects his daughter to an annual hymen examination to ascertain she is a virgin.

READ MORE: What Its Like to Be an Old Virgin

Around 9,000 people Googled hymenoplasty or similar terms in the UK last year, the Independent reported.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock claims he is looking into ending the dreadful practice.

The British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology argues the operation has zero medical benefit, with doctors bound to do no harm.

Writing in the BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, gynaecologist Dr Ihab Usta - from the American University of Beirut - claims men are going into clinics requesting a gynaecological examination of their prospective wives before marriage to ensure that such an operation has not been done.

He worries the procedure makes women suspects in the eyes of their men.

The operation is done for women, yet the sole purpose is to deceive men, Dr Usta wrote.

Yet, not everyone is convinced a ban is the best course of action.

Girls could end up dying if banning this procedure isn't done with proper care, Miss Taheri said.

Others think the surgeons behind the procedure have good intentions.

I believe doctors' motives are genuinely for protection against abuse, Dr Khalid Khan, professor of Women's Health at Barts and the London School of Medicine, said.

Colin Melville, medical director and director of education and standards at the GMC, argues it is up to the doctor to gauge whether a cosmetic intervention is voluntary.

When it comes to safety, The Gynae-Centre claims the procedure is relatively safe but carries a small risk of infection and prolonged bleeding, on top of the complications that can come with anaesthetics.

Side effects of general anaesthesia are rare, however, patients are at risk of anaphylaxis, waking during the operation and even death, according to the NHS.

Occasionally there is a resulting problem of stricture or hymen over-correction, The Gynae-Centres website adds.

This is where the opening becomes narrowed, meaning that the next act of intercourse will be difficult.

The Gynae-Centre and Regency International Clinic have been approached for comment.
Bengaluru, Jan 27 : Japan's leading financial institution Credit Saison is partnering with Indian financial technology non-banking finance company (NBFC) Capital Float for providing digital financing to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country, an official said on Monday.

"We have jointly developed a co-organisation model to provide capital to MSMEs as they will be able to apply for our loans online and receive approvals at the earliest through our technology and Credit Saison's underwriting platform," Capital Float co-founder Sashank Rishyasringa told IANS in an e-mail interview.

The six-year-old city-based Capital Float leverages technology and big data analytics to offer credit to businesses across the country through proprietary digital loan underwriting and domain expertise.

"We plan to invest in India in a big way and build a loan book of $1 billion over the years, with a major part of it in the MSME sector. Our alliance with Capital Float will enable us to deploy a major part of the capital to the MSME sector," said Credit Saison Managing Director (Asia-Pacific) Kosuke Mori on the occasion.

The Union Finance Ministry has encouraged co-lending of MSME loans as a game-changer for scaling up lending to the underserved and unbanked businesses and individuals.

"We have also integrated at a technology stack and API (application program interface) level, enabling a seamless experience for the end-borrower," Mori said.

Capital Float has lent Rs 8,500 crore in digital credit across the country over the last six years since it was co-founded, and manages the largest co-origination ecosystem in the sub-continent.

Credit Float plans to lend an additional Rs 1,500 crore to MSMEs in the ensuing fiscal (2020-21) with Credit Saison, with which we will double-down on their segments where the credit demand is underserved, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

"Our focus will be on providing credit to small manufacturing and services firms, followed by small retailers using digital payment modes," said Rishyasringa.

Credit Float has raised funding from marquee investors such as SAIF Partners, Sequoia India, Aspada Investments, Creation Investments Capital Management LLC, Ribbit Capital, and Amazon.
SOLON, Maine (AP)  A Connecticut woman was killed when her snowmobile crashed at the edge of a frozen pond, ejecting her from the machine, wardens said Sunday.

Michelle Pavia, 43, of Stamford, was driving off the pond when the snowmobile crashed into the shoreline, sending her hurtling toward trees Saturday night, wardens said. She was not wearing a helmet and died at the scene, wardens said.
Extreme adventurer Mike Horn says embracing failure is a learning process that makes life "broader" and helps break mental boundaries.

Horn was sharing the lessons he'd learned as an explorer in a talk at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.

The South African adventurer has attempted to climb to the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world at 8,611 meters (m) high which is located on the China-Pakistan border, three times.

Recalling his most recent attempt to scale the mountain last year and the decision to turn back at an altitude of 8,200m amid dangerous weather conditions, Horn said he didn't mind failing on his goal.

Above an altitude of 7,500m was the "death zone," he explained, where hikers could only last 22-26 hours on the 7% oxygen available.

Horn pointed out that reaching the K2 summit was only half the battle, as hikers still had to make back below the death zone within that short window, which was where many fell into danger.

In strong winds, Horn said he realized that he therefore could make it to the summit but he "would never come back." This proved to be a possibly life-saving decision, as the hikers that continued their climb along the same route were hit with an avalanche, which killed two people in the group.

"When you're so close to your goals and objectives in life, it's very hard to fail because success is so close and breaking boundaries for me is that fine line between failure and success," he said.

In 2019, Horn completed an expedition through the North Pole, which saw him finish his circumnavigation of the world via both poles.

"You sail your boat up into the unknown, knowing that you might never come back but what is quite amazing is that's where I feel alive, that's where my life has a purpose," Horn said.

Finding this purpose made "all the impossible" disappear, which is how the explorer said he managed to push beyond his own comfort zone.

"The moment an idea fascinates you, the moment you get excited about something, the impossible no longer exists," he added. "The moment you don't want to do something, that's when the impossible becomes bigger than the will to actually achieve."

Horn was the first man to do the longest crossing of Antarctica, a distance of 5,100km, alone in just 57 days. He is also known for circling the globe around the equator without motorized transport.

He said these achievements demonstrated how "we all have that capability of going beyond what we think we're capable of doing."

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New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal is most likely to table a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the state Assembly on Monday (January 27). According to reports, the resolution will be brought in a special assembly session at 2 pm today.

"A special session of West Bengal Assembly will be held on January 27 at 2 pm to discuss and pass a resolution against CAA. We urge all parties to support the resolution," West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee had told ANI earlier.

The TMC has been a vocal opponent of the CAA and NRC and has made it clear that it will be not implemented in the state.For quite some time, Banerjee has been organising mega rallies against the CAA and the NRC and has launched attacks on the BJP-led Central government over these issues.

Live TV

Recently, the Kerala government moved the Supreme Court challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act. The state Assembly had also passed a resolution calling for the withdrawal of the legislation.

Apart from Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan have also passed anti-CAA resolution in their assemblies. On January 25, Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao that the state government has called a special session to discuss the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and is most likely to pass a resolution on it.

KCR also further hinted towards joining hands with other parties to lead a nationwide campaign against CAA and appealed to the Supreme Court to take down the newly formed Act.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea speaks during a press conference about gang violence at NYPD headquarters in New York City on June 27, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

NYPD Commissioner: Bail Reform Law Linked to Crime Spike in NYC

New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea has attributed the recent increase in crimes in the city to the new bail reform laws that came into effect on Jan. 1.

Speaking at a press conference on Jan. 24, Shea told reporters that he believes the rise is linked to the implementation of the new bail reform laws (pdf) that abolished cash bail for defendants arrested for many misdemeanors, including assaults without serious injury, and other nonviolent felonies, and include specific provisions encouraging courts to release defendants on recognizance while their cases are pending.

The courts decision to release a defendant must also not be based on an assessment of the defendants future dangerousness or risk to public safety, the law states.

Nonviolent offenses include most property crimes, such as theft, larceny, embezzlement, receipt of stolen goods, and arson of personal property; various drug and alcohol-related crimes, traffic offenses such as speeding; and contract crimes such as fraud and tax crimes.

In the first three weeks of this year, were seeing significant spikes in crime. So either we forgot how to police New York City, or theres a correlation, Shea said.

If you let out individuals that commit a lot of crime, thats precision policing in reverse, and were seeing the effects in a very quick time, and that is why were so concerned.

Elaborating further on his concerns with the new law, Shea said: You have to have a situation where dangerous individuals or individuals that repeatedly commit crimes and victimize people are kept in, and if judges dont have that ability, I think were all in trouble.

We are seeing increases in crime at the beginning of this year, and thats directly attributable, I believe.

NYPD crime data (pdf) through Jan. 19 compared with the same period in 2019 showed robberies up 31.5 percent, burglaries up 15 percent, grand larceny up 5.6 percent, and a 67 percent surge in stolen vehicles. The total for all serious felonies was up 11 percent over 2019.

Murders are down by 50 percent so far, with the NYPD counting 10 in the city so far in 2020, compared to 20 in the same period of 2019.

Shea told reporters on Jan. 24 that while he supports some aspects of the new reform, some things still need to be adjusted.

Someone committing a crime and sitting in jail because of their bank account, or lack of a bank account, has to be corrected, so there are many things in that bill that we support, he said.

But there are clear things that have to be fixed, and the clock is ticking.

The police need tools to keep New Yorkers safe.

Shea said he traveled to Albany on Jan. 21 to discuss the matter and his concerns with state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-N.Y.) and aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Nothing is more important to us, he said of police worry about the bail laws.

Activists in the bail reform movement have praised the new legislation for curbing discrimination against poorer defendants.

However, those opposed to the new laws have expressed concerns about potential implications for public safety, suggesting that eliminating bail may lead to violent criminals returning to the streets.

President Donald Trump also criticized the controversial reform in November 2019.

So sad to see what is happening in New York where Governor Cuomo & Mayor DeBlasio are letting out 900 Criminals, some hardened & bad, onto the sidewalks of our rapidly declining, because of them, city. The Radical Left Dems are killing our cities. NYPD Commissioner is resigning! he wrote on Twitter.

More than 40 states are currently considering bail reform measures.
Japanese automaker plans to launch one new product every year, starting with a compact SUV, as part of its revised strategy for a turnaround in the Indian market, a top company official said on Monday.

The company, which has so far failed to make an impact in the market, now plans to focus primarily on the brand in the country and introduce multiple products with different body styles, including SUVs and sedans, going ahead instead of depending only on its SUV lineage as part of an earlier plan announced in 2018.

It will also continue with brand, with focus on providing value proposition to the customers.

"We plan to launch at least one new product every year going forward. The first product is going to be an all-new compact SUV which would be rolled out in the first quarter of the next financial year," Motor India Managing Director Rakesh Srivastava told reporters here.

The company would launch multiple products in order to build a profitable and sustainable business in the country, he added.

Currently, Nissan sells six models in India under both Nissan and brands.

Commenting on the new product, Srivastava said the model has been designed in Japan keeping in mind requirements of the Indian market.

"Globally, we have a range of SUV products. We are now looking to enhance our commitment to the market by coming out with a new offering in the B-SUV space (sub four metre compact SUV)," he noted.

The company currently sells Kicks and Terrano SUVs in the C-SUV segment (one above B-SUV). It is only selling around 300 units of Kicks per month, while Terrano sales remain miniscule.

Srivastava said the company has gained useful insights from the Kicks and that would help the company introduce the new product in the market.

When asked to comment on future of brand in the country, Srivastava added that the company would keep selling value products under the brand while focusing on high-selling SUV models under the Nissan lineage.

He added the headquarters has left the responsibility of the Datsun brand to hosting nations.

Earlier, it has been reported that Nissan was looking to discontinue the Datsun brand globally as part of a cost-efficiency exercise.

He said the brand still has relevance in the Indian market, accounting for about 70 per cent of Nissan India's sales and is planning "product interventions" in future to strengthen it further.

In September 2018, Nissan had announced its MOVE 2022 strategy under which it looked to position Nissan as premium mainstream brand in India building on the company's SUV heritage. It had kicked off the strategy with the launch of SUV Kicks last year.

Under the MOVE 2022 strategy it had looked to fix its business operation in India along with Saudi Arabia, where it has made significant investment but hasn't had much success.

Under the strategy, the company had said it would address the mass market segment in India with its Datsun brand.

Asked if the change in the Indian market strategy has to do with the issues faced by the Renaul-Nissan alliance in global level, Srivastava replied in the negative.

It is all due to the changing landscape in the market, which has evolved so rapidly and the company has to keep in pace with it, he added.

When asked to comment on sales outlook for the coming financial year, he said that the company would like to grow in tune with the industry, which is expected to post "single-digit" growth.

On the company's BS-VI transition, Srivastava said Nissan will not offer small diesel engines but is currently working on its line-up for both petrol and bigger diesel engine vehicles to comply with the new emission norm.
[January 27, 2020] Zentiva Celebrates The Parc's Impressive Scientific Track Record in 2019

PRAGUE, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zentiva welcomed The Pharmaceutical Applied Research Center (The Parc) to their Prague headquarters to celebrate the first anniversary of The Parc Awards. The Parc is a unique research platform designed to prepare future generations of pharmaceutical scientists and engineers. Twenty-nine students are currently included in the program and an outstanding track record has been achieved in 2019: 16 publications, one patent application, 30 conference presentations, six plenary and keynote lectures, eight research grants and five students finalized their studies. "2019 was a hugely successful year. I'd like to clearly emphasize the energy all our partners bring to the project. We now have 29 PhD students in the program and what is really important is the joint supervision students receive from both scientific/academic and industrial supervisors. This creates a unique combined industrial-academic environment which is the strength of The Parc for 2020 and the future," says Ondrej Dammer, The Parc's Operational Director. Prof. Frantisek Stepanek, The Parc's Scientific Director added, "I feel very proud, especially of the students. I have had the opportunity to see them develop over several years from being young undergraduates joining The Parc to becoming Master's graduates and then joining the PhD program. It is really satisfying to see the progress that they have made, both as individuals, as professionals and, of course, as scientists." This year, The Parc Awards went to two young talents. Denisa Lizonova was awarded the Student Choice Award 2019 for her project on 'Modified Liposomes for Drug Delivery' and Vojtech Klimsa received the Expert Choice Award 2019 for his work on 'High Throughput Screning of Spray Dried Formulations'. Both awards are sponsored by Zentiva.



Pavel Sebek, Zentiva's Development Director and one of the founders of The Parc recalled its history and growth from an idea born 5 years ago: "We are so proud of what has been achieved to date. The combination of top-level science training combined with the development of industrial, business and leadership skills is not only unique but recognized across Europe. The future is in the hands of our young and creative cluster of students who have the ambition and skills to be at the top of pharmaceutical science and technology and are energized to make a difference in the pharma world. What makes me especially proud is that some of the students have decided to work for Zentiva after completing The Parc program and have become valuable members of our international development team." About The PARC

Initiated by Zentiva, The Parc was created in association with three academic partners: the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague; the Faculty of Science of Charles University; and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. This highly successful initiative has brought rising talent together with leading pharmaceutical and academic experts, all working to accelerate innovation in drug research & development. The Parc provides world class academic education combined with practical hands-on industrial and business experience under the leadership of scientists, engineers and managers both from academia and the pharmaceutical industry. It enables students to gain graduate-level training in pharmaceutical sciences bridging chemistry, pharmaceutical technology, biopharmacy and clinical research. Results of the students' research are frequently directly implemented in real world products launched to market to help patients. Collaborating with academic partners across Europe, The Parc also offers secondments for students and research experience exchanges supervised by top academic scientists. More information about The Parc can be found on www.theparc.eu. About Zentiva

Zentiva is a producer of high-quality affordable medicines serving patients in Europe and beyond. With a dedicated team of more than 3,000 people and a network of production sites - including flagship sites in Prague and Bucharest - Zentiva strives to be the champion of branded and generic medicines in Europe to better support people's daily healthcare needs. At Zentiva it is our aspiration that healthcare should be a right and not a privilege. More than ever, people need better access to high quality affordable medicines and healthcare. We work in partnership with physicians, pharmacists, wholesalers, regulators and governments to provide the everyday solutions that we all depend on. Learn more about Zentiva on www.zentiva.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082238/Zentiva_The_Parc_Awards.jpg Media Contact: Ines Windisch

Head of Corporate Affairs & Human Resources

ZENTIVA GROUP, a.s.

U Kabelovny 130  102 37 Prague 10  Czech Republic

Cell: (+420) 601-341-444

E-mail: [email protected]

www.zentiva.com

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Residents of Chinas Hubei province, where the new coronavirus outbreak was first reported, will be banned from entering Hong Kong from Monday as China tries to halt the rapid spread of the outbreak, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Chinas Cabinet also announced it will extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 2 and schools will return from their break later than usual, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Health authorities around the world are racing to prevent a pandemic of the virus, which has infected more than 2,000 people in China and killed 56.

A handful of cases of infection have been reported in other countries, including Thailand, Australia, the United States, France and Canada. No fatalities have been recorded outside China.

The mayor of Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province and at epicenter of the outbreak, said he expected another 1,000 new patients in the city, which was stepping up construction of special hospitals.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because much about it is still unknown, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

Chinas National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said the incubation period for the virus can range from one to 14 days, during which infection can occur.

The Lunar New Year holiday, traditionally celebrated by hundreds of millions of Chinese traveling around the country and abroad to see family, began on Friday but has been severely disrupted by the outbreak.

Ma said China would intensify its containment efforts, which have so far included transport and travel curbs and cancellation of big events.

The virus, believed to have originated late last year in a seafood market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife, has spread to cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

Alibabas Taobao online marketplace said it has removed sales of face masks from shops that show unstable prices or false advertising, as prices for the products surged.

The World Health Organization this week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was on his way to Beijing to meet officials and health experts dealing with the coronavirus.

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has six confirmed cases, will also ban entry from Monday to people who have visited Hubei province in the past 14 days, the citys government said. The rule does not apply to Hong Kong residents.

Hubeis governor, Wang Xiaodong, said on Sunday he felt agonized and responsible for the outbreak. He described the situation as severe and said medical supplies were still tight.

China confirmed 2,051 cases of infection as of 7 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Jan. 26, while the death toll from the virus remained at 56, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of these efforts.
He noted that the government failed as guardian of justice and security during the war

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte apologized for the actions of the Dutch government during WWII during the National Remembrance Day in Amsterdam, as NLTIMES reported.

He noted that the government failed as guardian of justice and security during the war and surprised and pleased the Jewish community.

The Prime Minister underlined that some officials of the government stood against the Nazi regime; however, there were a few of them and most of them just followed the orders.

And yet, it was too little all in all. Too little protection. Too little help. Too little recognition", he said.

Chairman of the central Jewish consultation CJO Eddo Verdoner commented on the apologies of Dutch PM and underlined that they came too late for many, but are nevertheless very welcome.

"This came as a surprise for us. It is good that it has now been clearly stated what went wrong. It is a historic moment. A milestone," he said.

Besides, Jewish foundation CIDI called the apologies a "historic step."

As we reported, Ukraine has observed a minute of silence in the memory of the Holocausts victims. Today, on January 27, the whole world recollects the victims of the Holocaust, the systematical genocide of Jews by German Nazis.
The experts explain far-reaching, and troubling, intentions behind the efforts.

Russia is trying to set a precedent of allowing access of representatives of unrecognized states to various international platforms.

If the plan succeeds, separatist movements around the world, especially in Europe, will be given a free hand to lay claim to participation in any international platform, and subjectivity in foreign policy, IGTDS think tank reports.

Ulrich Oehme, a Russian lobbyist in the Bundestag, launched an initiative at the Council of Europe aimed to set up talks between the unrecognized "republics" of Ukraine's Donbas and the country's central government in Kyiv, as well as to give the de facto Russian-controlled Donetsk and Lugansk the opportunity to voice their position at the Council of Europe. The PACE delegate believes that a very important participant  "certain areas" of Donetsk and Lugansk regions  is lacking in the Normandy format of talks which now involves valid states  Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine.

An initiative to bring the unrecognized entities into talks was also discussed within the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, widely supported by Russia.

Ulrich Oehme says he intends to engage more Bundestag and PACE members on the initiative.

The point is, the think tank underlines, that the initiative was never conceived by the AfD deputy.

Read alsoPro-Russian act by German delegate to PACE

In fact, he has voiced and is now promoting the Kremlin's strategy to legitimize occupied and unrecognized territories.

Oehme is likely to be oblivious to the fact that he is being exploited, although the level of his Russia contacts and ties suggests a possibility of him acting at Russia's direct request, the analysts say.

Sources in Ukrainian diplomatic circles in the United States and Canada have told IGTDS this approach will give a chance of presenting Russian puppet regimes in the east of Ukraine as independent political actors and shift public perception of war in Ukraine to the level of an "internal conflict". This will enable Russia to steer clear of the charges of occupying parts of Ukraine and then channel similar rhetoric to other territories occupied by Russia, such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria. Over the past five years, Moscow has been pro-actively and openly supporting separatist regimes in Europe, Africa, and Americas, providing them with media platforms in Russia.

The Kremlin believes the effort to legitimize self-styled "republics" as independent actors will pave way for Russia to get sanctions lifted and set a precedent where further possible acts of aggression against neighboring countries, like Belarus, or a further military expansion in Ukraine, will be considered in the scope of internal conflicts boiling within those countries' borders.

However, in their comments to IGTS, European security and defense experts, including from France, Spain, Romania, and Italy, voiced concerns that such strategy would allow Russia to influence the European policy more effectively through bringing separatist movements to international platforms and giving them weight in EU, for example, those in Catalonia or Corsica.

Therefore, strategic plans voiced by Ulrich Oehme are obviously meant to create a fragmentation mechanism for the Western European states, Africa and Americas, by exploiting international and regional organizations, rather than just targeting Ukraine.

As soon as the separatist movements get their say at such organizations as the PACE, the Council of Europe, or the United Nations and to convey "their own opinions", this will set a precedent where such movements and groups will be empowered to put pressure on sovereign governments, while third parties will get wider opportunities to destabilize democracies using hybrid tools.

Read alsoRussian delegation's credentials appealed at PACE

For example, Moscow may retry to destabilize the situation in Romania by bringing the so-called "political activists" representing the Szekely Land, territory inhabited by the Hungarian minority to the regional platforms at the PACE and the Council of Europe. The Kremlin may also test scenarios of internal conflicts within NATO member states by setting introductory notes hampering the Alliance (or the EU) forces' efforts to resolve the issue and raising doubts about the effectiveness of major security institutions in the region and across the world.
Adam Schiff claimed Monday morning that Donald Trump engages in 'organized crime speak' after the president took a hit at the Intelligence chairman for his role in the impeachment proceedings.

'I don't think you view this tweet in isolation. This is a president who accuses me of treason and has accused the whistleblower of treason and said, 'there are ways to treat people  we used to have a way of treating people who are traitors and spies,' Schiff told CNN as he prepares for the sixth day of the Senate impeachment trial.

'I don't think there's really much doubt that he wants to at least give the suggestion that the retribution should be of a kind other than at the ballot box,' Schiff continued 'This is, you know, the president's kind of organized crime speak.'

'And that people would tolerate that or not condemn that in a president, you know, just shows how this president has brought down the stature of his office and debased the public discourse,' the lead impeachment manager lamented.

Schiff's comments comes after Trump tweeted on Sunday what the California Democrat perceived as a threat.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said Monday morning that Trump engages in 'organized crime speak' when reacting to a tweet he said was meant to be 'personally threatening'

'I don't think there's really much doubt that he wants to at least give the suggestion that the retribution should be of a kind other than at the ballot box,' Schiff said of the president's comments against him

On Sunday, Trump said Schiff, who is leading the impeachment manager's prosecution team, 'has not paid the price, yet' and called the California Democrat a 'very sick man'

'Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!' Trump posted to his Twitter over the weekend.

When CNN's New Day host Alisyn Camerota asked if he felt the tweet was a threat for his involvement in the impeachment proceedings, Schiff said: 'I think it's intended to be personally threatening.'

'I think that's exactly what the president has in mind,' he said. 'The fact that he would even leave it ambiguous tells you that this is a president, who we know, has tried to intimidate witnesses, tried to discourage other people from coming forward, like the whistleblower. So sadly, this is part and parcel of the kind of conduct we've seen from this president.'

Schiff, the Intelligence Committee chairman, led the impeachment inquiry in the House and is now heading the team of representatives prosecuting the president in the Senate trial.

He has become one of the biggest focuses of the president's ire when it comes to impeachment.

Monday marks the sixth day of the impeachment trial in the Senate, and will be a continuation of the president's defense team's opening arguments.

Schiff also argued that John Bolton, Trump's ousted national security adviser, should be called as a witness to testify in the Senate impeachment trial

Later this week, a vote is expected to decide whether the defense and prosecution will be permitted to call new witnesses to testify in the trial.

Democrats have said they want to hear from former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and that desire was renewed over the weekend after a New York Times report revealed Bolton detailed in an upcoming book that Trump did link military aid to Ukraine to a probe into the Bidens.

Schiff, however, said he has not read the unpublished manuscript yet, and believes Bolton's testimony is relevant with or without the new information from the upcoming book.

'You know what i think is more important than the manuscript are John Bolton's notes,' Schiff said in reference to the notes he took in real time while serving as Trump's national security adviser.
(Kitco News) Large speculators trimmed their net-bullish positioning in gold futures by 3% during the most recent reporting week for data compiled by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Still, during the week-long period to Jan. 21 covered by the report, Comex February gold rose $13.30 to $1,557.90 an ounce, while March silver rose 6.6 cents to $17.808.

Net long or short positioning in the CFTC data reflect the difference between the total number of bullish (long) and bearish (short) contracts. Traders monitor the data to gauge the general mood of speculators, although excessively high or low numbers are viewed by many as signs of overbought or oversold markets that may be ripe for price corrections.

The disaggregated report shows that in the week to Jan. 21, money managers net-long position fell to 223,832 futures contracts from 230,459 the week before. There was long liquidation, as reflected by a decline of 4,133 longs. There was also some fresh selling, as gross shorts rose by 2,494 lots.

It seemed like the situation with Iran had calmed down, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst with at Price Futures Group.

Hard feelings between the countries intensified at the beginning of the year when the U.S. launched a drone strike that killed a prominent Iranian general, and Iran responded by firing missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq. Gold rose to a roughly seven-year high.

The metal later eased, however, with liquidation said to be occurring when U.S. and Iranian officials made comments that appeared to de-escalate the conflict.

That may have changed again over the weekend, Flynn added, referring to rockets fired at the U.S. embassy in Iraq.

Meanwhile, George Gero, managing director with RBC Wealth Management, said some traders were likely starting to even out positions ahead of options expiration on Tuesday.

In silver, money managers net-long position came in at 56,558 lots, down modestly from 57,179 in the prior week. The long liquidation (decline of 2,221 longs) outpaced the short covering (decline of 1,600 shorts).
Theres a literary war going on over a book about migrants in crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins, elicited ferocious fuss and combating reviews even before its release earlier this month.

Writing in the New York Times, staff critic Parul Sehgal said: There are so many instances and varieties of awkward syntax I developed a taxonomy. There is subtext announced at booming volume. There are the strained similes.  There are perplexing bird analogies.  Then there are the real masterpieces, where the writing grows so lumpy and strange it sounds like nonsense poetry. I found myself flinching as I read, not from the perils the characters face, but from the mauling the English language receives.

Other reviews about the narrative were glowing  including one that also appeared in the Times. In it, Lauren Groff, the author of the bestselling novel Fates and Furies, wrote: I was sure I was the wrong person to review this book. I could never speak to the accuracy of the books representation of Mexican culture or the plights of migrants; I have never been Mexican or a migrant. In contemporary literary circles, there is a serious and legitimate sensitivity to people writing about heritages that are not their own because, at its worst, this practice perpetuates the evils of colonization, stealing the stories of oppressed people for the profit of the dominant.

Groff hit the nail on the head. The fuss is because Cummins is neither Latina nor of any Mexican heritage. And that caused a lot of fireworks on the internet, where people of color go to get the hearing they feel is often missing in mainstream media.

First up was Myriam Gurba, writing on the academic blog Tropics of Meta, who told her story about being asked to write a review for a feminist magazine and turning in such an on-fire takedown that the editor told her it was spectacular but a nonstarter, because Gurba wasnt famous enough to level such criticism.

The nicest thing I can say about (American) Dirt is that its pages ought to be upcycled as toilet paper, she wrote.

Theres no question that Cummins story lacks a certain authenticity  she may have visited Mexico a lot to research the story, but she identifies as white, even though she does have a Puerto Rican grandmother.

We can criticize inauthenticity in lots of literature, though.

The real issue here is that legions of Hispanic, Latino and Latinx writers, authors and journalists who either have written an authentic border-story book, or have pitched one and been turned down  or write about real people in real immigration crises all the time but are roundly ignored  see a white lady getting a windfall of opportunities (the book has gotten Oprahs love, plus a movie deal) for writing stilted trauma porn about brown people.

This isnt an issue of who can or should write fiction about people who are not their own so much as its about who gets to write about important issues that are about their own people.

I can think of so many great, knowledgeable Latino/Hispanic/Latinx writers who could have tackled a fictional treatment (or already have but got little notice for it) about the border. But they arent recognized by the same brown-averse white media and publishing establishment that made the choice to uplift a white author and not let Latinos even review the book.

And did I mention the barbed-wire table decorations at the official launch party? Ugh.

In the end, Groff put it best: Perhaps this book is an act of cultural imperialism (but) American Dirt is written for people like me, those native to the United States who are worried about what is happening at our southern border but who have never felt the migrants fear and desperation in their own bodies.

Its good that Cummins is getting the word out about the atrocities at the border. I just wish it werent to the exclusion of others who could tell the story from a more authentic perspective.

estherjcepeda@washpost.com
FedEx is an international logistics company that provides transportation solutions for individuals, companies and e-commerce to 220 countries throughout the world. FedEx Ghana is one of the states, with the main branch in Accra Ghana. Unlike other logistics companies found in the country, this one specializes in all types of goods and can reach various destinations around the world.

Image: instagram.com @fedex

Source: Getty Images

The main goal of FedEx is to connect people to goods and services. It offers the advantages of reliability, convenience and efficiency. With the company, products and services reach their desired destination within the agreed timeline and in the best condition possible.

There's no need to worry about when and how your goods will arrive at your relatives in the U.S. or any other destination of choice, this company have you covered. The FedEx Ghana Accra branch offers, among other things, local goods deliveries, international connections up to 220 countries globally. You will enjoy rapid, reliable, punctual delivery at the click of a button.

FedEx Ghana contact

The company operates on a round-the-clock basis, meaning that your parcels will be delivered anywhere and at any time. Their network reaches far and wide to ensure that none of its customers is disadvantaged. If you need to reach the company, use the following contacts:

Company: Integrated Air Services

Integrated Air Services Physical address: #138 Airport West Residential Areas, Accra, Ghana

#138 Airport West Residential Areas, Accra, Ghana Tel : +233 501605000 / +233 501631000

: +233 501605000 / +233 501631000 Service available: Export/Import

Further, you can write to the company through their website by filling a form. Once you submit the form, a response will be sent back to you through your email and a short message to your phone.

FedEx Ghana Accra working hours

Like most businesses in Ghana, this company operates on all weekdays save for weekends. The opening hours for weekdays are as follows:

Monday to Friday : 08:30 to 17:30

: 08:30 to 17:30 Saturday : 08:30 to 12:30

: 08:30 to 12:30 Sunday and public holidays: Closed

FedEx Ghana branches

Image: instagram.com @fedex

Source: Instagram

If you are in Ghana, you are not only limited to the Accra branch. It has several branches in major towns and cities across the country.

1. Federal Express (FedEx) Branch Office

Address: 1st Floor, Swanzy Shopping Arcade, Accra

2. FedEx

Address: P.O.Box KIA 9518, Accra

3. IAS Ghana Federal Express (FedEx)

Address: No. 60, Mango Tree Ave., Asylum Down, Accra

3. FedEx Ghana airport office

Address: At The Yellow Container, Airport Post Office, Accra

4. IAS Gh. Federal Express(FedEx)

Address: 1st Floor Kenroses Bldg., Collins Ave., Takoradi

5. IAS Gh. Federal Express (FedEx)

Address: Ground Floor, SSNIT Bldg., Sunyani

6. IAS Gh. Federal Express (FedEx)

Address: SSNIT Bldg., Wa, Wa

7. IAS Gh. Federal Express (FedEx)

Address: 1st Floor, GCB Bldg., Cape Coast, Cape Coast

8. Federal Express (FedEx) Airport-AFGO

Address: Courier Dome, Accra

9. FedEx Ghana Kumasi

Address: Opp. Presby Adum, Kumasi

Contact: T 0322 023545 / M 028 9117655

These are the contact details for customers seeking the location of the company branches. The FedEx Ghana address for different branches comprises of both the location and contact details.

READ ALSO: Ghanaian 'lovers' in Germany exchange heavy blows after break-up in viral video

FedEx Ghana jobs

Do you have the desire to work in a challenging yet rewarding working environment where you get to nurture your professional and personal attributes? It offers you the opportunity of a lifetime.

Currently, there are no jobs specific to Ghana, but registering with them and posting your CV will see you receive regular updates on the available openings. Some of the specialities applicable in the company include:

Quantity surveyors

Clearance agents

Management specialists

Software developers

Customer care specialist

Customer coordinators

Operations agents

Logistics coordinators

Drivers

Vendor assistants and many more.

FedEx Ghana rates

Fedex Ghana location in Accra offer a myriad of services and solutions for customers. Their portfolio includes transportation services, business services, and e-commerce solutions.

The charges are variable depending on the type of goods, services needed and the distance covered to deliver the goods. Also, the rates are determined based on the history of usage.

One of its advantages is the all-in-one shipping solution it provides to customers. While on their website; you can actually estimate the time and amount chargeable to ship goods from one destination to another.

Some of the details that you will need to key in the form include the place of origin, and the destination desired. You will also provide additional information, including the weight of your goods, and the date of shipping. Finally, you will receive the package and shipment details, and the transit times. This will enable you to not only make crucial decisions regarding your shipment but will also allow you to plan for the future.

Parcel specification for shipping and charges

For a parcel, you will need to provide the dimensions of the box, its weight, and address. For example, exporting a package weighing 20 kg, and measuring about 40 centimeters all round, from the U.S. to Accra, Ghana, you will pay about $422.22. The package will arrive in the destination within 2-5 business days. That means that if you send a parcel on Monday, it will be delivered within the same week. However, it would be best if you excluded holidays and weekends in the count.

For a comprehensive list and breakdown of FedEx Ghana charges, write them through the provided details or make contact through the available FedEx Ghana contact number. From there, you will be directed by their customer care personnel on the exact charges.

Federal Express is your home of convenient shipping solutions to more than 200 countries across the world. If you need any help with getting your goods moved from one destination to another without having to seat it out, then FedEx Ghana is here for you. So far, they have several branches in the country and offer all the services internationally.

READ ALSO: Badu Bonsu II: The Ghanaian king whose head was preserved in a jar in a laboratory

Source: YEN.com.gh
LONDON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BAC Credomatic, one of Central America's premier financial groups, has been chosen ahead of a competitive field to receive a host of honours as part of the World Finance Digital Banking Awards 2019. The organisation, which was founded in 1952, has been recognised for its ability to deliver digital services while simultaneously championing a customer-centric approach.

In appreciation of the bank's culture of innovation, BAC Credomatic was named Best Consumer Digital Bank across its six markets (Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala). In particular, World Finance was impressed with the bank's commitment to delivering an omnichannel experience through the launch of several concept branches across the Central America region.

In addition, BAC Credomatic's Banca Movil app picked up awards for Best Mobile Bank App, also across the same six markets of Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. Banca Movil gives BAC Credomatic customers greater control over their finances, allowing them to check their balance, make payments and set savings goals from their smartphone.

The banking landscape in Central America has developed rapidly in recent years, benefiting from a strategic focus on digitalisation and financial inclusion. This evolution has certainly been felt in the offices and meeting rooms of BAC Credomatic, where a fundamental shift in organisational structure has allowed the bank to focus on customers rather than products.

BAC Credomatic's new approach appears to be paying off. The decision to invest in both human talent, as well as new digital solutions, has resulted in the bank achieving new heights in terms of customer service. It is for this reason that it is a worthy recipient of multiple World Finance Digital Banking Awards.

To find out more about BAC Credomatic, pick up the latest issue of World Finance, available online, on mobile and in print now.

www.worldfinance.com

World News Media, which is the parent company of World Finance, is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world.

Contact Information

World News Media

Barclay Ballard

Editorial Department

+44-(0)-20-7553-4177

[email protected]

SOURCE World News Media
Somerset-based Brook Food celebrated 21,125 worth of donations at its charity cream tea event.

The tea party took place in the companys test bakery this month to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The equipment supplier donated 25 for every order it received of 1,000 or more to a different local charity each month.

Guests included representatives from the 12 charities, including: St Margarets Hospice; MIND; RNLI Minehead; Exmoor Pony Centre; Musgrove NICU; UKIST; Steam Coast Trail; The Fire Fighters Charity; AT West; The Royal British Legion (Watchet); Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance; and the Taunton Association for the Homeless.

Having all our charities here to celebrate the end of our anniversary donations was lovely. To confirm the overall total raised and hear the individual stories from each of the organisations about how the money has been spent, has been interesting, said Ann Wells, commercial director at Brook Food.

Local friends of the company also attended: Glenmore Bakery provided scones, while Roadwater Village Hall organised mugs, tables and chairs. Creamery Roddas supplied cream.

We have supported 12 local causes who offer a huge cross-section of support to different areas of the community. This has been a really great experience for us all. Our staff have recognised that their hard work, ensuring the orders weve taken are fulfilled, has been a huge contribution in us being able to make these donations, Wells added.
The University of Dayton Human Rights Center and UD Center for Social Concern will hold an event to memorialize victims of gun violence and discuss how gun violence threatens human rights from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 1401 S. Main St.

"On the six-month anniversary of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, we want to bring the entire community together to memorialize the victims of those two shootings as well as all victims of gun violence," said Shelley Inglis, executive director of the UD Human Rights Center. "We also want to raise awareness of the risks to human rights posed by gun violence, discuss state and national laws dealing with gun violence, and foster discussion of future steps we all can take to end gun violence."

Supported by the Human Rights Center's Endowment for Education in Non-Violence, the forum's first session, from 2 to 3:30 p.m., will be geared to UD faculty, staff and students and will address how gun violence is a human rights issue, El Paso's response to the intentional targeting of Latino men and women in that city's mass shooting, and the current status of gun violence in the courts and legislation in Ohio and nationwide. Speakers include Barbara Frey, senior lecturer in the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Minnesota and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights violations committed with small arms and light weapons; Christina Garcia, director of the crime victims program at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas; and Jeff Schmitt, University of Dayton associate professor of law.

The second session, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. will feature Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, State Sen. Peggy Lehner, former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl, Artemis Center Executive Director Jane Keiffer, YWCA Dayton Advocacy Manager Sarah Wolf-Knight, Dayton Children's Hospital pediatrician Nora Vish, and former Ohio senator and President of the Ohio Conference of Units of the NAACP Tom Roberts. The session also will include a presentation by Jared Grandy of Daytons Human Relations Council on the Greater Dayton Safety Planning Commission's public health approach to gun violence.

Between sessions, there will be a free public information and advocacy fair where local groups working to combat gun violence will share how the community can be more involved in their efforts.

The evening will end with a vigil and brief performance by the University's Common Good Players, memorializing the victims of the mass shooting in the Oregon District. The Common Good Players are a performing arts scholarship program that uses performance to engage organizations during orientations, seminars and trainings on major social issues like diversity and equity.

Light refreshments will be available.

For more information, contact the Human Rights Center at 937-229-3294 or the Center for Social Concern at 937-229-2524.

For advance interviews, contact Shawn Robinson, associate director of news and communications, at 937-229-3391 or srobinson1@udayton.edu, or Meagan Pant, assistant director of news and communications, at 937-229-3256 or mpant1@udayton.edu.
The Calcutta High Court on Monday acquitted three men who were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in a 2015 murder case.

A division bench comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Suvra Ghosh ordered the release of the three men after finding the evidence against them inconclusive.

Prabhat Majhi (36) was found dead beside a waterbody with injury marks on his body at Patisara village in Nanoor police station area of Birbhum district on September 6, 2015, Kallol Mondal, the lawyer for the three appellants, said.

His brother Benukar Majhi filed an FIR with the police the same day claiming that Prabhat had left home early in the morning to feed his cows in the barn, but did not return. His body was found a few hours later.

Based on Benukar's allegation, Uttam Dhibar, Dilip Dhibar and Jagabandhu Mete -- all residents of the same village -- were arrested. A knife was recovered from a field in the village by the investigating officer.

Benukar had also claimed during trial that one of the three accused had enmity with him and that could be the reason for the murder of his brother.

Additional sessions judge, Bolpur, convicted the trio and sentenced them to life imprisonment in January, 2016.

The convicts then filed an appeal before the high court two months later.

After hearing the two sides, the division bench found the evidence, which was circumstantial, to be inconclusive. There was no eyewitness in the incident, Mondal said.

The division bench acquitted the three persons of the murder charge and ordered their release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Monday said it will launch its V-Class Marco Polo camper at the upcoming Auto Expo.

The V-Class Marco Polo camper will come packed with a whole host of living space concepts, Mercedes-Benz India said in a statement.

"At Auto Expo 2020, beside launching the AMG GT 4 Door Coupe and unveiling the A-Class Limousine and the New GLA SUV, we also will be launching something unique and never seen before in India," Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director & CEO Martin Schwenk said.

Inspired by the success of the V-Class Luxury MPV in India, he said: "We will be launching the V-Class Marco Polo Camper."



The V-Class Marco Polo embodies these very characteristics combining outdoor ruggedness with Mercedes-Benz's luxury and technology, he added.

"The V-Class camper is surely going to create a lot of interest among our customers, who already have shown overwhelming response to the V-Class luxury MPVs," Schwenk added.

The Mercedes-Benz Marco Polo will be launched on February 6 at Auto Expo 2020, the company said.

The expo will be held from February 5-12.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"At Cengage, inclusivity is a core value to our corporate culture," said Michael E. Hansen, CEO, Cengage. "We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse environment, and it is a great honor to be acknowledged by HRC as part of the Corporate Equality Index. I am immensely proud of the efforts made by our team  driven by employee advocates  to advance this commitment."

As part of its commitment to workplace equality, Cengage advances its support for LGBTQ employeesand diversity efforts broadlyin a number of ways, including the company's Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). ERGs are voluntary, employee-led groups organized around shared experiences or affinity to help to build a positive and supportive workplace. Last May, Cengage joined the Human Rights Campaign Business Coalition for the Equality Act, a group of leading U.S. employers that support federal legislation that would provide equal protections to LGBTQ people.

"The impact of the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index over its 18-year history is profound. In this time, the corporate community has worked with us to adopt LGBTQ-inclusive policies, practices and benefits, establishing the Corporate Equality Index as a primary driving force for LGBTQ workplace inclusion in America and across the globe," said HRC President Alphonso David. "These companies know that protecting their LGBTQ employees and customers from discrimination is not just the right thing to do  it is also the best business decision. In addition, many of these leaders are also advocating for the LGBTQ community and equality under the law in the public square. From supporting LGBTQ civil rights protections in the U.S. through HRC's Business Coalition for the Equality Act, to featuring transgender and non-binary people in an ad in Argentina, to advocating for marriage equality in Taiwan -- businesses understand their LGBTQ employees and customers deserve to be seen, valued and respected not only at work, but in every aspect of daily life."

The results of this year's CEI showcase how 1059 U.S.-based companies are not only promoting LGBTQ-friendly workplace policies in the U.S., but helping advance the cause of LGBTQ inclusion in workplaces abroad.

The CEI rates companies and top law firms on detailed criteria falling under five broad categories:

Non-discrimination policies

Employment benefits

Demonstrated organizational competency and accountability around LGBTQ diversity and inclusion

Public commitment to LGBTQ equality

Responsible citizenship

The full report, is available online at www.hrc.org/cei.

About Cengage

Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. As the largest US-based provider of teaching and learning materials for higher education, we offer valuable options at affordable price points. Our industry-leading initiatives include Cengage Unlimited, the first-of-its-kind all-access digital subscription service. We embrace innovation to create learning experiences that build confidence and momentum toward the future students want. Headquartered in Boston, Cengage also serves K-12, library and workforce training markets around the world. Visit us at www.cengage.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

About Human Rights Campaign Foundation

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

Media Contacts :

Emily Featherston, Cengage

617.757.8035, [email protected]

SOURCE Cengage

Related Links

http://www.cengage.com


Janata Dal (United) Secretary-General KC Tyagi on Monday said that he and his party are Gandhiwadi (followers of Mahatma Gandhi) and believe that Hindus and Muslims and peacefully co-exist. He remarks came in response to a media query about Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's observation that Pakistan's founding-father Muhammad Ali Jinnah's victory "will be completed if the new citizenship law leads to the NRC" that threatens to deprive a large section of India's population of their citizenship on religious grounds.

"We are Gandhiwadi and we think that Hindus and Muslims can live together. Those who wanted to go with Jinnah went (to Pakistan) in 1947," Tyagi said.

The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) has supported the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, in both Houses of Parliament and helped in its passage. The move has led to a stir in the JD(U) party with senior party leaders Prashant Kishor and Pavan Varma taking strong exception to the party's stance on the controversial law.

Recently, party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that Pavan Varma, a retired diplomat, was free to join any party he liked.

On a question about actor Naseeruddin Shah collecting signatures of 300 prominent persons against the CAA and Register of Citizens (NRC), Tyagi on Monday said that everyone had a right to express their opinion in a democratic country.

"Political activists, film activists, social activists... everyone has a right to give their opinion in a democracy," Tyagi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WUHAN, Jan. 26 -- Central China's Hubei Province has been working to expand local supplies of medical equipment as it battles the novel coronavirus that infected over 1,000 in the province, according to local authorities.

The province will spend 80 million yuan (11.56 million U.S. dollars) on expanding the production capacity in the city of Xiantao, a major local medical equipment manufacturing base, said Wang Xiaodong, governor of the province.

It is estimated that the daily production of protective suits will be expanded to 12,000 in three days and 30,000 in 10 days, Wang said.

The province has also received 3.5 million masks and 45,000 protective suits from other provinces and the central government, he said.

As of Sunday, the province received 88.55 million yuan and 31.32 million yuan from the Hubei Charity Federation and Red Cross Society of China Hubei Branch, respectively, for buying protective gears.
A massive explosion Friday leveled a warehouse in Houston, killing two workers, damaging nearby buildings and homes and rousing frightened residents from their sleep miles away, authorities said.

The explosion happened about 4:30 a.m. inside a building at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, which makes valves and provides thermal-spray coatings for equipment in various industries, authorities said. The building was reduced to burning rubble and debris, and some of the surrounding buildings suffered heavy damage to parts of their walls and roofs.

Killed were employees Frank Flores and Gerardo Castorena, Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a Friday evening news conference. The two had arrived at their workplace early and were using its fitness gym when the blast happened, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Authorities believed there were no other fatalities but another 20 people were injured, two other warehouse workers and 18 others from neighboring homes and businesses, Turner said. None of the injuries were thought to be life-threatening.

Acevedo had said earlier that a family member of one of those killed was a U.S. Marine currently training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and called on the Marines to let the man return to Houston.

Local and federal officials will be at the scene for the next three to four days working through the ruins to determine what caused the explosion, Acevedo said. Authorities dont believe the explosion was intentional though a criminal investigation is underway, he said.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said hazardous materials crews have secured the valve on a 2,000-gallon (7,571-liter) tank of propylene that had been leaking. Propylene is a colorless gas used to produce chemicals in plastics, synthetic rubber and gasoline. It is highly flammable and can explode in a fire. People exposed to propylene can become dizzy and light-headed, and the gas can also cause liver damage.

Nearby homes sustained significant damage. Some were knocked off their foundations.

Manny Jawa, a volunteer with the Houston office of the American Red Cross, said his agency had helped about 100 people who came to an evacuation shelter that had been set up around 6 a.m. Friday at a church near the blast site. The shelter offered residents food and water and information about help they could receive.

Officials said that they planned to open an overnight shelter at a different church for residents who had been displaced from their homes and had nowhere else to go.

Danny Wilson, 63, who lives less than a mile from the site, said he was sleeping when his wife woke him up.

She heard a big noise and the (grandkids) were running out of their rooms, Wilson said. She said it was some kind of explosion or somebody was trying to get in.

Wilson said he first checked inside his home to make sure nobody had broken in and then he went outside and talked to neighbors to find out what was going on and to check for any damage.

I didnt notice any broken glass and I looked at the back window and it was shattered big time, Wilson said.

He said the blast also broke glass on part of his front windows.

Everybody seems to be OK now. Thats the main thing, Wilson said.

Miguel Ramirez, 65, tried to get out of his bedroom to see what had happened, but his bedroom door would not open.

Ramirez said he had his son hand him a small screwdriver through an opening underneath the door and he used that to remove the pins from the doors hinges so he could get out.

Once he got out, Ramirez said he found that a large portion of the ceiling in his living room had collapsed onto the floor and sofa. Chunks of insulation were on the carpeted living room and on the couch. The wooden beams on the ceiling were exposed.

The explosion also shattered the sliding door in his kitchen that leads to his backyard. Bits of glass were strewn all over the kitchen floor and a dining room table that still had plates from when the family ate Thursday night. The blast also knocked a light fixture from the ceiling in the kitchen.

The good thing is nobody got hurt, said Ramirez, who lives about 500 feet (150 meters) away from the company where the explosion occurred. He lives in the home with his wife, son and daughter.

The blast shook other buildings, with reports on Twitter of a boom felt across the city. Pena said there were no reports of hazardous air quality, based on monitoring done by a hazardous materials team.

The family-owned business manufactures valves and provides thermal-spray coatings for equipment used in the chemical, mining, petroleum and aerospace industries, among others, according to its website. In a statement Friday night, Western Grinding said it is working diligently to address the situation and cooperating with the federal, state and local authorities investigating the accident.

The statement also said: Our hearts go out to the families and businesses impacted by this incident and to our community. At this time our immediate concern is the safety and wellbeing of everyone in the area and our employees.

About 90,000 people live within 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) of the company, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Houston police tweeted that officers were blocking off streets, but no evacuation was ordered. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said first responders checked on residents of nearby homes.

Turner said on Twitter said there was no hazard in the air from all indications, but that authorities continued to monitor.

This part of Texas is home to the highest concentration of oil refineries in the nation and has experienced a series of explosions in recent years. Last July, an explosion at an ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, east of Houston, left more than dozen people with minor injuries and put nearby residents under a shelter-in-place advisory for three hours.

In December, two blasts in the coastal city of Port Neches shattered windows and ripped the doors from nearby homes.

Two homeowners are already suing Watson Grinding, accusing the company of negligence and demanding more than $1 million in damages. According to one lawsuit filed by homeowner Sophia Navarro, the blast blew out the windows of her home, with glass strewn inside and outside, and fractured the homes walls and foundation.

This is not the first time Houston has seen massive explosions, nor is it the first time that widespread areas of Houston and surrounding areas have suffered from the effects of such a massive explosion, the lawsuit says.

Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pollution
THE daughter of Patricia OConnor told gardai when she was arrested: "!you have someone for the murder" and he had "put his hands up."

A Central Criminal Court jury heard when Louise OConnor was initially arrested on suspicion of killing her mother, she said she "didnt harm a hair on her head."

Her partner Kieran Greene had already been charged with murder after telling detectives he had killed Patricia (61), dismembered her body and dumped the remains in the Wicklow mountains.

"Theres only two people who know what happened that day, me ma and Kieran," Louise said in interview. "Me mas dead and Kierans locked up."

A jury was hearing evidence in the trial of Mr Greene (34), who is on trial for murder, while Louise OConnor (41), her daughter Stephanie (22) and Louises ex partner Keith Johnston (43) are accused of impeding the investigation.

They all deny the charges.

Ms OConnor, a grandmother-of-seven and retired hospital worker was allegedly murdered on May 29, 2017 at the house at Mountainview Park, Rathfarnham she shared with family including her daughter, granddaughter Stephanie and Mr Greene.

Her remains were found scattered over a 30km-wide area in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains between June 10 and 14, that year.

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Sgt Barry Turner told the jury today he arrested Louise OConnor at Mountainview Park on the morning of September 2, 2017 and brought her to Bray Garda Station.

He agreed with Michael Bowman SC that Louise OConnor had initially been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Detective Sergeant Brian Hanley and Detective Garda Declan OBrien were present for the interview.

The court heard they asked her if she understood why she had been arrested.

"No really," she replied. "For the murder? You have someone for the murder. Put his hands up. Not really. You have the daughter here."

Asked about her mother, she said Patricia had told her and Stephanie every day that they should have been "aborted, raped."

They were "walking on eggshells every day" and Patricia "wouldnt let my father (Gus O'Connor) get a medical card."

Her mother was "fighting over silly things - bricks and mortar," she said, and this was mostly since she retired.

"My father never raised a finger to her," she said.

"My ma tried to beat the head off me with a teapot," she said, adding that she ducked. Her mother had also "kicked the cat around the house" and this was on the day she left, she said.

The argument "could have been over a claim on the car" her mother owned and Kieran drove, she said.

"I never raised a finger to her, never in my life," she said. Her mother would say "you are useless, you are retarded, your kids are useless, get out."

"That is something you shouldnt have to listen to from your mother," she said.

Her father was staying with her brother and was "heartbroken," Louise O'Connor continued in interview.

She said she had Graves disease but did not have a condition called Graves Rage.

Her mother had told her she should use Graves Rage to kill her father and "split the proceeds" but she said no, that she was not going to prison.

Her mother had never raised a hand before the teapot incident, she said.

Louise OConnor told gardai she had gone out to Nutgrove Park with her children and father that evening.

"Two weeks later we found out Kieran was after killing her," she said.

She did not see her mother leave but heard her shouting and the door slamming, she said.

She was in the bathroom and she went out to see her mother "down the end of the road," having turned left.

"She was always getting up and going off," she said.

Before her mother left, she had shouted "Ill be back when that bastard pops his clogs," she said.

She had "a case or something" with her.

She did not call out to her mother, but went back into the house, had a smoke and put her children to bed, in her boys' room.

She said she did not hear her mother come back, or anything after she went to bed.

Apart from the park, she said they went to the shopping centre that evening and she did not know what time she got back.

Mr Greene told her "my ma walked into the shower when he was there and she was fuming."

She said her mother was wearing "something green" when she left. She had her mothers phone as Patricia "didnt want one, she didnt want to talk to people."

The jury heard Gus OConnor was also in custody in Bray garda station at the time his daughter was being interviewed.

"Kieran put his hands up to what he done, you have my da here, he wouldnt hurt a fly, Im upset about that," she told gardai.

"Theres only two people who know what happened that day, me ma and Kieran. Me mas dead and Kierans locked up," she said.

"People say bad things, it doesnt mean they do bad things," she said.

She said she had already told gardai that Mr Greene broke down and said what he had done.

Gardai asked what she had thought happened before that.

She said she did not know; they had contacted Patricias family in Kilkenny and nobody had seen her.

"I understand how bad the situation got," she said. "I dont understand why he did what he did, I cant understand why he didnt get an ambulance, why he didnt call the guards," she said, adding that there were answers she needed and she had to ask Mr Greene face to face.

She said she had been in the bathroom and her mother had been "coming down the steps" outside the house when she shouted "when the bastard pops his clogs" or "something nasty, anyway."

"I didnt harm a hair on her head, I never did," she said. "I will go to my grave knowing I didnt harm a hair on her head."

When she was out on the swing smoking, "I was sitting there thinking oh my God, shell be back and throw us all out."

She thought what her mother was wearing was a green jacket. When she left, she said "was that nanny?"

Asked if her mother smoked, she told gardai: "lashed the weed out of it, all day."

Gardai asked if she had had any idea or suspicion that Mr Greene might harm her mother.

"No suspicion of murder," she said. "I knew something bad might happen. I was begging for us all to leave, for the council to give us a house. I never thought it would come to that."

She was asked if they had been offered a house.

"Yeah, it was miles away," she said. "I wanted to walk the kids to school, I wanted a place big enough for my dad."

She was asked if she had her suspicions when her mother was missing that something had happened to her.

"In the house? No. After she left the house? Yeah," she said, adding that her brother and one of her childrens birthdays had passed in the following days and "no contact from her. I started to get worried."

The charge against Stephanie OConnor is that she disguised herself as her grandmother on the night of the alleged murder to pretend that she was still alive, while her mother Louise is accused of agreeing to this.

Mr Johnston is alleged to have assisted Mr Greene in buying implements to use in the concealment of Ms OConnors remains, and to have refurbished the bathroom at the house to destroy or conceal evidence.

The trial continues before the jury and Mr Justice Paul McDermott.
After being diagnosed with heart failure two years ago, David made a slight adjustment to his morning routine.

Since then, the first thing the 75-year-old Toronto resident does upon waking every day is activate an app on his smartphone called Medly. Next, he weighs himself, takes his blood pressure and measures his heart rate, using a Bluetooth-enabled scale and cuff. Results are automatically transmitted to the app.

Following that, David answers a handful of yes/no questions asked by Medly, related to common heart-failure symptoms. Among them: Is he feeling fatigued today? Is he short of breath? Are his ankles swollen?

Thanks to a sophisticated and personalized algorithm, the app can automatically detect subtle, but concerning changes in Davids heart-failure symptoms. Whats more, it can tell him how to respond.

For example, if Davids weight suddenly rises, that could indicate fluid retention, a common and concerning symptom, signalling worsening heart failure. Medly would send him an alert advising him to take a water pill to help his kidneys shed excess fluid and salt, thereby making it easier for his heart to pump.

For very serious symptom changes, for example fainting, the app would send an alert advising him to immediately go to an emergency department or call 911.

There is no question that if anything turns up, the app will let me know. I feel quite comfortable knowing that the Medly system is keeping an eye on me, exclaims David, a pseudonym. He asked that his real name not be published because he doesnt want to make his confidential health information public.

David is one of 350 heart-failure patients in the Medly program, which was launched just over three years ago at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at Toronto General Hospital, part of the University Health Network. By enabling early interventions in response to symptom changes, the program has resulted in dramatic improvements to patients health and reductions in their use of hospitals.

Thats significant because heart failure is the number one reason for hospitalization in Canada.

With Medly, heart failure-related hospitalizations have been cut in half and symptoms have improved. A biomarker for heart failure  B-Type Natriuretic Peptide  has dropped by 59 per cent. The biomarker is a protein hormone in the blood that decreases in value when heart failure stabilizes. Other measurements have shows significant improvements in quality of life and self-care.

The Medly program will soon be expanded to Toronto Western Hospital, another campus of the University Health Network. Plans are also in the works to roll it out to the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority, which provides health-care services along the eastern coasts of James Bay and Hudson Bay, including to many underserved Indigenous communities.

Given Medlys success, its creators have pitched the Ontario government on expanding its usage provincewide.

It fits with the governments goal of using technology to make the health system more efficient, said world-renowned cardiologist Dr. Heather Ross, division head of cardiology at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.

We have to change the way we are delivering care because what we are doing now is very expensive. It is tertiary and quaternary-centre focused, she said, explaining that the health system is too focused on treating patients once they become acutely ill and end up in hospital.

Its not putting the patient first, she continued, noting that the health system needs to do more to keep patients as healthy as possible and out of hospital.

Heart failure is a condition that develops when the heart muscle is not strong enough to pump as well as it should.

Ross refers to heart failure as an epidemic, noting that more than one million Canadians suffer from it. One in five Canadians over age 40 has a lifetime risk of developing heart failure. Half will die within five years of diagnosis.

In the first year after diagnosis, a patient is hospitalized for an average of 26 days.

The genesis of Medly dates back almost nine years when Ross was approached by student Emily Seto, who was then working on her PhD in health informatics at the University of Toronto. Seto proposed doing her doctorate on telemonitoring technology.

Ross liked the idea because it checked a number of boxes. First, it aligned with the provinces goal of stretching every health dollar further.

Second, many patients stood to benefit. There are 350,000 patients with heart failure in Ontario and an inordinate number of them are not on guideline-directed medical therapy, meaning they are not on the right medication regimens, Ross said.

That correlates with their risk of dying, she warned.

Medly can help in adjusting medication doses. Drug titration for heart-failure patients can take up to 10 weeks, requiring hospital visits every two weeks. For patients in northern Ontario, that would mean frequent and expensive flights to Toronto or long drives with pricey parking fees.

But with the app, patients dont need to travel to get their prescriptions tweaked. The eight cardiologists who are now working with Medly can adjust prescriptions with guidance of the symptom changes they see on the app.

If there is a need for a Toronto-based cardiologist to speak with a northern Ontario patient, it is possible for the Medly program to be complemented with video visits via teleconferencing.

Medly allows cardiologists to expand their reach, use their time more efficiently and see more patients.

Ross pointed out that heart-failure patients typically have appointments with their cardiologists every six months, even when stable. But with Medly, the stable patients dont need to make as many office visits.

If I can avoid visits that patients dont need to see me for, like uptitration of medication, it will increase my capacity to see other patients, Ross said.

The app also extends the reach of registered nurse Mary OSullivan, clinical co-ordinator of the program. From a dashboard on her computer, she can manage all 350 patients in the program, an unusually large caseload for a single nurse.

The algorithm is what really makes it manageable, OSullivan said, explaining how Medly is programmed to meet each patients need.

Any alert that goes to a patient, signalling concern with a symptom change, also goes to OSullivan and to the patients cardiologist. OSullivan gets about 60 alerts in a morning. Most are for issues that patients can handle themselves, such as changing water-pill doses.

OSullivan triages the alerts, attending to the most urgent ones first. Fewer than one per cent are deemed critical. Those might involve patients who have fainted or whose pacemakers have activated because of irregular heart rhythms.

OSullivan usually ends up speaking over the phone to about half the patients who were alerted for reasons such as high heart rates, low blood pressure or irregular heart rhythms. She liaises with their cardiologists on response plans, which could involve medication changes, appointments at the heart function clinic or some education on heart failure.

Its cool. I think this is the future. There are so many patients who live remotely but still need this high-touch care, OSullivan exclaimed. Its like having a direct line to doctors like Heather Ross. In the past, that wasnt possible.

Since he began using the app, David has received only one alert. The app detected that his blood pressure was low, and he received an alert on his phone, asking how he was feeling. He checked his blood pressure later in the day and it was fine.

David said the daily tracking of his weight, blood pressure, heart rate and symptoms helps him stay on top of his health.

It creates an awareness. I have to stay trim, exercise and watch what I eat, he said.

Im feeling great. Im in better shape than I have ever been, he added, noting that he is participating in master swimming competitions.

Work to improve Medly is ongoing. A new partnership has been formed between the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and the University of Torontos Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence to integrate big data and machine-learning algorithms into cardiac care. That will allow Medlys algorithm to be fine-tuned.

Patients have told us that they feel safe with Medly. It isnt that we have put an app between us and the patient. We have created an extension of our program into the patients environment, Ross said.
Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister

Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation'

Chapra girl admitted to ICU after she showed symptoms similar to Coronavirus

India

oi-Mousumi Dash

Patna, Jan 27: The outbreak of Coronavirus in China has claimed 80 lives so far and 2,744 confirmed cases of the fatal affliction till date. A girl from Chapra in Bihar, who recently returned from China, was admitted to ICU at Airport Health Organisation Government of India in Chapra after she showed symptoms similar to that of Coronavirus on Monday.

Meanwhile, the girl is reportedly on her way to Patna, she'll be admitted at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Monday.

First suspected case of coronavirus in Bengaluru, found to be negative

Amid this, the Airport Health Organisation Government of India has confirmed that no passengers to Bengaluru is having a history of the visit to Wuhan.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

In the last 14 days, China reported positive with the fatal Coronavirus. Total 392 passengers underwent thermal scanner screening from Sunday to till 8 am today at Bengaluru International airport.

Over 100 people have been kept under observation in Kerala and Maharashtra following thermal screening for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus (nCov).

Thermal cameras have been installed at the pre-immigration area of the seven major airports in India and airlines staff will bring the passengers to the health counters before the immigration check.
By Abdul Qadir Sediqi

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan forces used ground attacks and air strikes in multiple operations against the Taliban during the last 24 hours, killing 51 fighters in an escalation that signaled renewed deadlock in peace talks.

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that government forces had conducted 13 ground offensives and 12 air strikes in nine provinces, adding that 51 "terrorists" had been killed, 13 wounded and six arrested.

Local officials in the northern province of Balkh said at least three women and four children were killed in the air strikes, prompting protests in front of the provincial governor's office.

The government pledged to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the reports of civilian deaths.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said it had staged two more attacks targeting security forces over the weekend, following sporadic assaults last week.

Afghan security forces' checkpoints in Kunduz were attacked on Saturday night, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement, adding that 10 members of the security forces were killed and three wounded. Taliban fighters also captured a large weapons cache, he said.

In a separate statement, the Taliban said its fighters had ambushed an Afghan forces patrol in Balkh, killing eight security personnel.

The spike in hostilities comes as U.S. and Taliban negotiators in Doha take a two-day break for consultations about how to overcome recent hurdles in the talks, a source close to the process told Reuters.

Negotiations between the two sides began last year in Doha but have been interrupted at least twice after Taliban attacks on U.S. military personnel in September and December.

Last week, another round of talks kicked off with U.S. Special Representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad meeting repeatedly with the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Multiple sources close to the talks said the Taliban had agreed internally to halt attacks against U.S. forces and "reduce" assaults against Afghan government interests.

Over the last week, however, reports of attacks by Taliban fighters on government installations, including police stations continued to filter in from different parts of Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Matin Sahak from Mazar-e-Sharif; Writing by Gibran Peshimam)
Britain is due to leave the EU on January 31 (PA)

German exports to Britain dropped by about 4% during the first 11 months of last year amid concerns about the UKs future relationship with the European Union, a German trade body has said.

The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce said exports to Britain fell by three billion euros (2.5 billion) to 73.6 billion euros in the year to November compared with the same period in 2018.

This follows consecutive year-on-year declines since 2015, the year before Britons voted in the referendum to leave the EU.

Britain is due to leave the bloc on January 31, starting a transition period that both sides hope to conclude with a free trade agreement by the end of 2020.

Eric Schweitzer, the president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, called for the EU and Britain to engage in intense discussions to avert negative repercussions for businesses on either side of the English Channel.

Mr Schweitzer said that Britain has already slipped from being Germanys fifth most important trading partner to seventh since the Brexit referendum.
The Young Explorers Club met Saturday in the Parker Science Building at Illinois College.

Professor Lawrence Zettler and five of his students instructed some 17 Young Explorers Club students on how to use microscopes to observe microscopic life in local lake water. They observed roundworms, amoebas and other items.
Quim Torra in the Catalan parliament. ALBERT GARCIA

The Catalan premier Quim Torra on Monday refused to give up his seat in the regional parliament, ignoring decisions by the Supreme Court and the Central Electoral Board stripping him of his credentials after he was found guilty of disobeying electoral rules.

The separatist leader called on the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Roger Torrent, to also ignore these orders, but the latter refused and warned Torra that if he took part in the days voting, his vote would not be counted.

Losing his seat in parliament does not automatically mean Torra could not continue to serve as the Catalan premier

In the end, Torra got all the representatives from his own party, Together for Catalonia (JxCAT), to abstain from voting on four motions that were on Mondays agenda. The move evidenced the division between JxCAT and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), the other main separatist force in the regional chamber, and took the region one step closer to early elections.

Speaker Torrent, of ERC, had said that the parliament urgently needed to vote on important matters such as the budget or financial aid to repair the damage caused by Storm Gloria. But Torra argued that obeying the orders against him would be to dismantle the Catalan institutions.

Torra demanded that he not be stripped of his seat in the regional parliament, after the speakers committee in the chamber backed a decision from the Barcelona Electoral Board to substitute him as a lawmaker. The general secretary of the Catalan parliament, Xavier Muro, had announced earlier on Monday that he had ordered the start of procedures to name another deputy from JxCAT party to take Torras place.

Spains Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Torra should lose his status as a deputy until it issues a final ruling on the politicians appeal against his 18-month ban from public office. In December, the Catalan Regional High Court found Torra guilty of disobedience for refusing to remove banners in support of jailed pro-independence leaders from public buildings during an election campaign, something that violated regulations on political neutrality.

Catalan Socialist Party leader Miquel Iceta reiterated his call for early regional elections

The top court did not rule on whether stripping Torra, a hard-line separatist, of his position as a lawmaker in the regional parliament would mean the pro-independence leader would have to step down as premier of Catalonia. This decision, in principle, must be made by the Catalan parliament, according to its own rules.

For weeks now, the political future of Quim Torra has been in the hands of the Supreme Court. The criminal bench of the court must rule on Torras appeal against the 18-month ban from public office for disobedience. And the administrative bench must review the decision of the National Electoral Board (JEC) to strip Torra of his position as deputy in the Catalan parliament because of this ban from public office.

At the start of a parliamentary session on Monday afternoon, Torra asked to take the floor and called on the speaker of the chamber, Roger Torrent, to guarantee his rights as a deputy as he has always done. Not doing so, the hardline Catalan separatist argued, would be to put the continuity of the institutions at risk. When he finished speaking, Torra was applauded by just a smattering of deputies in the chamber. The deputy premier, Pere Aragones of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), remained in his seat and did not clap.

When it was the turn of the opposition to take the floor, the speaker suspended the session for several minutes after deputies from center-right group Ciudadanos, which opposes independence for Catalonia, began to chant Criminal, criminal at Torra.

Minutes later, the head of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), Miquel Iceta, took the floor, arguing that the division among the pro-independence forces in the parliament is stopping you from governing. Iceta reiterated his demand for regional elections to be called.

Torra responded by claiming that the Spanish state wanted to usurp his role as deputy, and called on Torrent to respect the will of the voters who had put him in office. Earlier, the speaker told the parliament that he disagreed with the decision by the JEC, but that any votes passed in the chamber in which Torra participated would be declared null and void. Jessica Albiach, a deputy from Catalunya en Comu Podem, called on Torra to stop this disobedience, which doesnt lead anywhere.

The speakers committee has backed the removal of Torras seat, but believes that he can continue to serve as premier under the governing rules of the chamber. In the wake of the decision, Together for Catalunya was seeking to hold a vote on whether or not the general secretary of the parliament has the powers to rule on the removal of Torra from his seat .

Pro-independence groups in the parliament  who are governing in coalition  held meetings over the weekend in a bid to reach a unified response to the decision made by the JEC, but were unable to do so. The president of the ERC group, Sergi Sabria, said after the speakers committees decision emerged: We have to protect the role of premier, we will do all that we can so that he continues to be a deputy, but at the same time we have to guarantee the validity of votes as important as the budget and the sovereignty of parliament.

The head of Ciudadanos in Catalonia, Lorena Roldan, welcomed the decision by the speakers committee, and warned that if Torra entrenched himself in the role, her party would do everything within its reach to have him removed. Both Ciudadanos and the conservative Popular Party (PP) no longer consider Torra to be the regional premier of Catalonia.

English version by Simon Hunter.
EAST LANSING, MI  A Detroit man is charged with several felonies in connection with the robbery and sexual assault of three Michigan State University students.

The Associated Press reports that Lamont Rodgers, 24, faces first-degree criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, home invasion, assault and gun charges, according to the Ingham County prosecutor's office.

The women were attacked about 6 a.m. Friday after a man with a handgun entered an East Lansing apartment through an unlocked door.

The women are students at Michigan State, according to the Lansing State Journal.

Their injuries werent life-threatening, investigators said. They were treated by emergency workers Friday and taken to a nearby hospital.

READ MORE:

Man arrested after 3 women assaulted, robbed near Michigan State University
Love Island host Laura Whitmore marked her boyfriend Iain Stirling's 32nd birthday with a sweet Instagram post on Monday.

In a series of snaps, the stand-in presenter, 34, looked as loved-up as ever as the show's voiceover artist sneaked onto the set of the Cape Town villa for a cheeky kiss.

The Irish beauty, who stunned in satin red co-ords from Sunday's episode, hurried her man into her 'office' and gazed adoringly at him, before he quickly ran off as she resumed her work duties.

'You're the best person I know': Love Island host Laura Whitmore marked her boyfriend Iain Stirling's 32nd birthday with a sweet Instagram post on Monday

Laura, who has been in a relationship with the birthday boy since July 2017, captioned the image: 'When bae sneaks into your office to say hello! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best person I know.'

During the latest episode, the former T4 star left the contestants at the edges of their seats as she revealed the public have been voting to save their favourite couples.

Rochelle Humes' sister Sophie Piper and her love interest Connor Durman were voted as the least favourite pair, and their fellow hopefuls being tasked to boot just one of them from the show.

Cheeky: In a series of snaps, the stand-in presenter, 34, looked as loved-up as ever as the show's voiceover artist sneaked onto the set of the Cape Town villa for a kiss

Nice surprise: The Irish beauty hurried her man into her 'office' and gazed adoringly at him, before he quickly ran off set as she resumed her work duties

'Someone's entering the villa tonight': The comedian referenced Love Island's latest episode on Sunday while posing with a personalised balloon of Laura

Hilarious prop: The media personality reposted an image from Laura's Instagram Story, which featured an animated swimming float with Iain's face

Over the weekend, blonde beauty Laura hit back at fans' claims she's contributing to the climate crisis by flying to and from Cape Town during the duration of the ITV2 dating show's winter edition.

A concerned fan took to Twitter to express their thoughts on Laura's stint, claiming the host could present the series' spin-off AfterSun from South Africa, instead of the English capital.

They said: '@bbc5live why is Laura Whitmore flying from South Africa every weekend to do her Sunday morning radio show then back to SA to present Love Island? Surely there are studios she could broadcast from in SA? #ClimateCrisis.'

'Im an advocate of offsetting carbon footprint': Over the weekend, the blonde beauty hit back at fans' claims she's contributing to the climate crisis by flying to and from Cape Town

Conflicting: A concerned fan took to Twitter to express their thoughts on Laura's stint, but Laura defended her flights as she said she only travels to SA at specific points in the series

Insisting she only travels to the villa at specific points in the show, the media personality shared: 'Hi Jane, love island aftersun is filmed in London - as all the guests are based in the UK.

'Im only in cape town for the finale, public voting etc. And Im an advocate of offsetting carbon footprint youll notice on my Twitter. Thanks x.'

Meanwhile, it's been reported that Caroline Flack, 40, has jetted back to the UK following a relaxing break in Los Angeles after reportedly being told by ITV bosses she can return as Love Island host if she is cleared of assault charges.

She was spotted in her home town on Saturday, amid claims she has given up alcohol ahead of her TV comeback.

Last month, Caroline announced that she was stepping down from Love Island after she was arrested for assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, with Laura stepping in as her replacement on the winter series.

The star was last spotted leaving the UK at Heathrow airport on December 29, with sources claiming she'd jetted to LA to clear her head and escape the scrutiny around her trial.

It has now been claimed that Caroline is in a much better place and has given up alcohol in preparation for her TV comeback.

A source told the publication: 'Caroline has not touched alcohol since before Christmas and has been getting to the gym every day.'
Update - 13.35pm: The US military has said it is investigating reports of a plane crash in a Taliban-controlled territory in Afghanistan.

US Army Major Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash.

Maj. Riordan declined to immediately comment further.

However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the US military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

 First video of a US Air Force plane crash in the Ghazni in Afghanistan.



This is a US Army Bombardier E-11. pic.twitter.com/IhCySx4qDU  air plus news (english) (@airplusnews_EN) January 27, 2020

Earlier: Mystery over plane crash reports in Taliban-held area in Afghanistan

A plane has crashed in a Taliban-held area of Ghazni province in Afghanistan, according to local officials.

Officials initially said it was a passenger plane from Afghanistans Ariana Airlines, but the airline told the Associated Press that none of its planes had crashed in Afghanistan.

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

The number of people on board and their fate was not immediately known, nor was the cause of the crash.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1.10pm local time (8.40am Irish Time) in Deh Yak district, 80 miles south-west of the capital Kabul.

He said the crash site is in territory controlled by the Taliban. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

But the acting director for Ariana Airlines, Mirwais Mirzakwal, dismissed reports that one the companys aircraft had crashed.

The state-owned airline also released a statement on its website saying all its aircraft were operational and safe.

Earlier: Afghan passenger plane crashes in Taliban-held area

A passenger plane from Afghanistans Ariana Airlines has crashed in a Taliban-held area of Ghazni province, local officials said.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1.10pm local time in Deh Yak district, which is held by the Taliban.

Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

File photo of an Ariana Airlines plane

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

The last major commercial air crash in Afghanistan occurred in 2005 when a Kam Air flight from western Herat to the capital Kabul crashed into the mountains as it tried to land in snowy weather.

The war, however, has seen a number of deadly crashes of military aircraft.

In 2013, an American Boeing 747 cargo jet crashed shortly after take-off from Bagram air base north of Kabul en route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

All seven crew member were killed.
Half of Americans plan to escape to warm weather this winter, according to new research. A poll of 2,000 Americans found that 35% typically travel to a warm vacation destination during the winter months as an attempt to escape the winter blues. People are escaping the brutal cold in search of more tropical weather for a little mood boost. A whopping 88% think traveling to a warm destination during the winter boosts their mood. The study conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with Apple Vacations looked at the weather dilemmas and vacation habits of 2,000 Americans and discovered 93% consider the weather of travel destinations when planning their trips and vacations. Over the course of the entire winter season, 72% tend to get sad  with those aged 36-48 more likely to feel down this time of year. Which is why a staggering 91% feel like traveling somewhere warm during the cold winter months. In fact, those surveyed admit to enduring A LOT just so they can have the opportunity to travel to a warm locale as the temperatures begin to dip below freezing. Forty-eight percent would be willing to stand in line at the DMV just to escape the brutal cold and head somewhere warm while a further 44% would happily sit in eight solid hours of traffic if it meant they could get to a tropical, warm destination and away from the frigid weather. But, that isn't all that those studied would endure to guarantee a warm winter vacation. Thirty-nine percent would get a root canal for the chance at a warm getaway while another 38% would give up caffeine for a trip somewhere warm and tropical in the winter. "Offering over 1,000 miles of coastline, luxurious lodging, incredible cuisine and action-packed excursions, Dominican Republic's year-round perfect and ease of accessibility makes planning a winter escape to paradise look like a walk in the park," said Lucien Echevarria, New York executive director for the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism. Americans are turning to warm travel destinations because they are tired of what the brutal winter weather brings. Thirty-five percent of those studied say having their umbrella break during a heavy rainstorm and getting to work soaking wet are the worst things about winter. Thirty-three percent dislike that winter brings dark mornings and another third similarly agree that never seeing daylight is a winter dislike. From colds and flu (31%) and stepping into puddles (31%) to black ice (29%) and icy sidewalks (31%) there are a lot of drawbacks to being in a cold climate during the winter months. Over a quarter (26%) of those studied reveal runny noses are something they hate when it comes to winter while a further 23% get annoyed by the wind chill factor in their area. When planning these winter trips, Americans have a lot to consider during the planning process. In fact, the number one thing Americans are most concerned about when planning a vacation is the safety of the location. A whopping 56% of those studied reveal they look for safety of their destination and location when planning their trip. Other factors Americans consider when planning their getaway include: weather (56%), hotel/accommodation amenities (54%), length of travel (50%), and price of tickets/accommodations (45%). Results also reveal 73% opt to take these excursions away from the brutal cold with their spouse or significant other while a further 61% bring their kids along for the adventure. From Aruba and the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica and Belize, Americans have or plan to travel to a variety of warm-weather destinations this winter. One in five have already traveled or plan to travel to the Dominican Republic to escape the bitter cold this winter. "From the sunny shores of Punta Cana to the colorful charming streets of Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic's hospitable people, lively culture and pristine landscapes help solidify our country as the premier Caribbean destination to recharge from the winter cold," said Echevarria.
As part of the announced Board changes, Sir Nigel Rudd will retire as BGF Chairman in June 2020, at the end of his third term in the role. Sir Nigel became Chair when the company was founded and has been instrumental in helping to steer the successful expansion of the company ever since.

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director Neil Johnson, who has served on the Board since 2011, will become Deputy Chairman to uphold the strong governance under which BGF operates. These changes have been ratified by the Board and shareholders of BGF and will be effective as of 30th June 2020.

Sir Nigel Rudd said: "Stephen Welton has expertly led BGF's growth and expansion, combining a deep understanding of entrepreneurship in Britain with vast experience of the investment industry. I am delighted that as Executive Chairman he will continue to build on the work of the past nine years, leading the company into what I know will be a very bright future.

"It has been an absolute honour to have served as Chairman whilst BGF made roots in cities and regions across the UK and Ireland."

Stephen Welton said: "I want to thank Sir Nigel for his tremendous contribution in supporting an idea back in 2011 and helping us to turn that into a significant investment company today. We know that we have his continued support and offer him the very best wishes for the future.

"I am delighted to take on the role of full-time Executive Chair. BGF has created an investment platform capable of identifying brilliant businesses and deploying capital, in volume, across all regions and sectors to support the entrepreneurs and innovators of the UK and Ireland. As we enter a new decade, with growing optimism across UK plc, our opportunity now is to continue to build on that platform and help expand the country's growth capital industry."

Neil Johnson, Senior Independent and Non-Executive Director who will transition to Deputy Chair said: "The Board and shareholders of BGF welcome Stephen's forthcoming appointment as Executive Chairman, recognising the significant achievements that have been made over the past nine years. I am pleased to move to the role of Deputy Chairman, where I will continue to provide support and guidance to both the company and its shareholders."

BGF has invested over 2bn across more than 300 companies. The company has most recently added to its network of 14 offices with new openings in Cambridge, to support its growing investments in life sciences, and Cork to drive further expansion in the Republic of Ireland.

Notes to Editor

To support the newly created role of Executive Chairman, the following changes have been made to BGF's executive and operational teams:

Andy Gregory has been promoted to Head of Investments, UK and Ireland. Andy has been with BGF since 2011 most recently as Head of Investment for the North, Scotland and Ireland. Before BGF, Andy held senior roles in the private equity industry, including as a Director at LivingBridge (then ISIS Equity Partners). Andy sits on BGF's Executive Committee and will manage BGF's regional investment team.

Alistair Brew, Head of Investment Operations, will change reporting lines to John Swarbrick, Head of Portfolio, who sits on BGF's Executive Committee. Jane Vinson has been promoted to Regional Portfolio Head for the South. Jane joined BGF in 2016 from Octopus Investments. Ben Barker has been promoted to Regional Portfolio Head for the North. Ben joined BGF in 2016 from Caird Capital. Jane and Ben will join BGF's Investment Committee.

About BGF:

BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested more than 2.1bn in over 300 companies, making it the most active investor in the UK.

BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs.

BGF invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 14 offices.

through its network of 14 offices. In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent  the Canadian Business Growth Fund  based on BGF's funding model. This year, Australia will launch its own Business Growth Fund, demonstrating the growing international adoption of the BGF model.

www.bgf.co.uk

@BGFinvestments

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082172/Stephen_Welton_BGF.jpg

SOURCE BGF
By Express News Service

BHOPAL: More than a month after curfew was imposed following large-scale violence by anti-CAA protesters in Jabalpur town of Madhya Pradesh, fresh violence in the form of stone pelting was reported on Sunday.

The incident happened when pro-CAA right-wing Hindu outfits were taking out the Tiranga Yatra to mark the Republic Day.

When the Tiranga Yatra reached the communally sensitive Anand Nagar area under Adhartal and Gohalpur police station areas, the police stopped them from going further.

Those taking out the Tiranga Yatra were allowed to go till where they were permitted, but they started insisting to go ahead through the area where the other group has been gathering since last few days. The Tiranga Yatra people wanted to go through the barricaded area insisting that those gathered in that area, including women were hindering road traffic particularly school children and that too when school examinations are close, said Jabalpur district collector Bharat Yadav.

While the district administration and police was talking to Tiranga Yatra group, the other group which has been protesting against CAA-NRC in Gazi Bagh (Anand Nagar) area since around a week, started raising slogans, which made the situation tense.
A woman who returned from China last week was admitted to a Patna hospital on Monday with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus that left 80 people dead in the neighbouring country, officials said.

The woman who is in her 20s returned home to Chapra, the headquarters of Saran district, from China on January 22 and she was taken to the Chapra Sadar Hospital three days later.

From there, the woman who was pursuing a PhD from the Tianjin University in China, was referred to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Monday.

"She has been kept in an isolation ward. Her blood samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences here for tests," PMCH Superintendent Dr Vimal Karak told PTI.

The mode of treatment will be decided based on reports of the tests, Karak said.

Asked if it is a case of Coronavirus, he said the Chapra Sadar Hospital referred her to the PMCH saying it is a suspected case of coronavirus.

"I can't say anything on this until I get test reports from the NIV in this regard," the PMCH superintendent said.

In view of the deadly virus spreading rapidly outside China, including Nepal, Bihar health department on January 25 had issued an 'advisory' asking district officials and hospitals to stay alert and monitor the situation.

Nepal shares 729 kilometres long border with Bihar. The death toll due to coronavirus epidemic rose to 80 in China on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a new recurring feature, First Read Tech will be talking to leaders in government and technology about the intersection of the two fields and how New York can lead through innovation. This weeks installment features Phil Goldfeder, senior vice president of public affairs at Cross River Bank and former member of the New York state Assembly.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As more financial institutions embrace technology, what are the advantages of a community bank like Cross River?

Community banks like Cross River are more nimble and able to adapt to changing environments quicker and more efficiently than the larger banks. Its easier for smaller community banks to recognize potential innovations and adapt; with the bigger banks, its like turning a battleship. Its hard to change legacy policies, legacy systems, enormous bureaucracies that have built themselves in. Cross River has sort of been leading that charge, since 2008, when we were founded, in partnering with technology companies, providing the back end financial services that technology companies are unable to provide. The reason for that is simple. Technology companies want to innovate; they want to create new mechanisms to provide access to financial services, access to payments, access to money, but theyre not banks and they dont understand what goes into regulatory compliance and consumer protection and the myriad state and federal laws that were built to ensure consumers were safe. And thats kind of where Cross River and community banks come in. We provide the regulatory foundation and the consumer protection foundation that tech companies are looking for to enable them to build the cool, innovative technologies that will provide access to financial services.

New York is the financial capital of the world, but were really starting to see growth in FinTech companies here lately. Are we going to see more of that growth in the coming years?

Youre seeing technology companies that historically have remained in single verticals, start to expand. What I mean by that is companies that were payments companies, thats what they did. Companies that did lending, thats what they did. Today, more and more, youre seeing the expansion of what used to be single verticals. The more that technology companies expand the vertical offering, I think, there is a more natural inclination to be closer to the financial center, to connect with the more traditional financial center  and that is in New York.

As a former Assemblyman, do you think that the tech knowledge gap that lawmakers tend to have is starting to close by any degree?

As a former member of the Assembly in New York, I saw issues like online gaming, like ride-sharing, and youre seeing it today with e-scooters  its a process. I dont think people truly understand that the nature of an elected official is to do deep dives on dozens of issues every single day. So each new issue is a process. Its incumbent upon the technology companies, the banks who are investing in FinTech, to engage with the policymakers and regulators to explain it, to help them understand what the companies are doing, how theyre doing it, and how its going to improve the lives of their constituents.

For the rest of today's tech news, head over to First Read Tech.
BEIRUT - The Islamic State group vowed in an audio message released Monday that the extremists will start a new phase of attacks that will focus on Israel and blasted the U.S. administrations plan to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Despite carrying out deadly attacks throughout the world over the past years, IS has rarely targeted Israel. The audio appears to try to win the extremist group popularity in the region at a time when President Donald Trumps Deal of the Century is expected to be announced in the U.S. soon.

The Palestinians have not been consulted on the much-trumpeted deal and have pre-emptively rejected the U.S. proposal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington Sunday night vowing to make history at a planned meeting with Trump for the unveiling of the deal.

IS spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi urged in the 37-minute audio members of the extremist group to carry out attacks against Israel. The message was released by the groups al-Furqan media.

The rallying message comes at a time when IS has suffered major defeats over the past year including the death of its leader and founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a U.S. attack in northwestern Syria. The extremists also lost in March last year the last sliver of land they controlled as part of their so-called caliphate declared in 2014 over wide parts of Iraq and Syria.

After the death of al-Baghdadi, the group named in late October his successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

He and his brothers in all states have vowed to begin a new phase, which is to fight the Jews and restore all that they have usurped from Muslims, the spokesman said about al-Qurayshi.

The message exhorted the soldiers of the caliphate especially in Egypts Sinai Peninsula and across the Levant to attack Jewish targets as they are near to Israel.

The spokesman added: To Muslims and Palestine and elsewhere, be a main force in fighting Jews and frustrating their plans such as the Deal of the Century.
More than 340 Amazon employees are protesting the company's external communications policy.

The employees signed onto a Medium post published Sunday by advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. It includes signatures and quotes from Amazon employees, all of whom are named, across several divisions of the company.

By participating in the post, the employees are all defying Amazon's external communications policy, which forbids employees from speaking about the company's business without approval from management.

"Amazon participates in the global economy, where it has a substantial impact on many issues," Michael Sokolov, a principal engineer at Amazon, said in the post. "Expecting its employees to maintain silence on these issues, and Amazon's impact on them, is really a reprehensible overreach, and I am proud to take this opportunity to demonstrate my unwillingness to comply."

The protest was intended to show support for two Amazon employees who the company threatened to terminate for publicly criticizing its climate policies. Maren Costa, a user experience designer, and Jamie Kowalski, a software development engineer, were warned that doing so was in violation of Amazon's external communications policy.

Earlier this month, Costa and Emily Cunningham, another user experience designer, appeared in a video from Sen. Bernie Sanders, which took a swipe at CEO Jeff Bezos' stance on the climate.

The group also posted a video to Twitter on Tuesday that features Amazon employees saying they "won't be silenced" as a result of the company's external communications policy.

Tweet with video

Amazon said it encourages employees to engage with teams inside the company on issues like sustainability. Employees can also voice their opinions by submitting questions at Amazon's all-hands meetings or joining internal interest groups, as well as attending lunches and office hours held by Amazon executives, in which discussions are confidential, the company said.

"While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics, we do enforce our external communications policy and will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems," Amazon spokesperson Jaci Anderson told CNBC in a statement.

Anderson added that "of course" Amazon is passionate about the issue of climate change.

Scott Ogle, a queue management analyst at Amazon, wrote in the post that the company's "role in the climate crisis is staggering and alarming." Ogle added that Amazon's public stance on the climate "does not add up" with its cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services, or AWS, working with the oil and gas industries.

The employees aren't just protesting Amazon's stance on climate issues. Software development engineer Max Eliaser said Amazon should shut down Ring, the smart doorbell company it acquired in February 2018. Ring has faced pushback over the past year for its partnerships with law enforcement agencies and privacy concerns. Earlier this month, Ring acknowledged it fired four employees for abusing their access to customers' video feeds.

"The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society," Eliaser said in the post. "The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back."

Employees also called out AWS doing business with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been routinely criticized for mistreatment of asylum-seekers and refugees. Others criticized the "brutal labor conditions" in Amazon's warehouses. It's an issue that has been highlighted repeatedly, including in a recent Reveal investigation, which found that serious injuries are much higher at Amazon facilities compared with national averages.

Amazon employees have increasingly pressured the company to address its environmental impact. At Amazon's annual shareholders meeting in May, thousands of employees submitted a proposal asking Bezos to develop a comprehensive climate change plan and reduce its carbon footprint, though it was ultimately rejected. The proposal was based on an employee letter published in April that accused Amazon of donating to climate-delaying legislators and urged the company to transition away from fossil fuels.

The employee group said in a release that Amazon's response to their demands has been "mixed." In September, Bezos announced that Amazon aims to rely on renewable energy entirely by 2030 and have net zero carbon emissions by 2040. The plans were largely viewed as a response to employees' demands.

The day after Bezos' announcement, more than 1,000 employees walked out as part of the Global Climate Strike and to protest Amazon's climate policies.

The employee group claims Amazon changed its external communications policy when it learned employees were planning to stage the walkout. However, Anderson, the Amazon spokesperson, previously told CNBC that the company's policy isn't new and that it was revised to make it easier for employees to submit requests to speak publicly.

Amazon isn't the only tech giant to face employee unrest. Google has seen internal tensions grow over the past several years, as employees have protested issues like the company's government partnerships and its handling of sexual misconduct allegations, among other things.

Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech industry news.
SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (AP)  The fire chief in Scottsboro, Alabama says at least eight people were killed in an explosive fire that consumed at least 35 vessels along the Tennessee River.

Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus said all eight people known to be missing were confirmed dead, and that number could go up, because we don't know how many were on boats" that sank.

At least seven people were sent to hospitals suffering from exposure to the frigid water or the flames. The fire quickly consumed the dock as people were sleeping, cutting off their escape routes and raining debris.

Necklaus said about 35 boats were destroyed, some of them sinking at the dock and others floating away before going under. He said divers need to locate each one and search them individually to be sure.

Boaters leaped into the water to escape an explosive fire that consumed at least 35 vessels docked along the Tennessee River early Monday. Authorities said there were fatalities as seven people were sent to hospitals and seven others were initially reported missing.

The blaze was reported shortly after midnight as people living in the boats were sleeping, and consumed the wooden dock and an aluminum roof that covered many of the vessels, cutting off escape routes and raining debris into the water.

"We woke up hearing screams and popping noises," Mandy Durham, who was with her boyfriend in a nearby boat, told The Associated Press. When we woke up, we could see red through the window.

"Within 15 to 20 minutes, the whole dock was in flames," she added. "All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and thats a lot of fire.

The blaze destroyed the B dock, about 50 yards (46 meters) from the A dock where the boat of Durham's boyfriend was moored.

"There were numerous people rescued from the water who had escaped by going into the water," Jackson County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Rocky Harnen told The Associated Press shortly after dawn. We're trying to get divers down here to search for possible victims.

People were jumping onto a boat at the end of the dock because fire had consumed the middle portion and that was their only escape. But then the flames spread to that boat, leaving water as their only way out, Durham said.

"Water was the only place they had to go," Durham said. Its just extremely sad. It's horrible.

Harnen said "we have some confirmed fatalities, but we don't have an exact number yet. He added that several of those hospitalized suffered from being in the water, and some were burned.

Necklaus said earlier that seven people were hospitalized and seven others were missing as the fire destroyed at least 35 boats docked in Jackson County Park.

Harnen said officials are trying to account for about seven people who had places on the dock.

"They had slips here," Harnen. That doesn't mean they're in the water and it doesn't mean they're dead. We're making attempts to find them.

It's been a challenge for rescuers to reach the victims.

"The damage from the dock has fallen on top of the boats, and some of the boats have drifted off," Harnen said. The aluminum roof and wood structure was destroyed, as were about three dozen boats.

Hours after sunrise, smoke was still rising from the remains of a wooden dock, and pieces of metal that once formed the roof were partially submerged. Police and fire boats with flashing lights were positioned near the charred remains, and a yellow floating boom was being deployed around the marina to contain spilled fuel.

Most of the boats that were destroyed had people living on them permanently, but some mainly spent weekends on them, Durham said. The park on the Tennessee River includes a boat ramp, a dock and a restaurant, and offers boat rentals, according to Jackson County's government website.

Everybody is just hoping to find the ones they knew on that dock. There were families there. Its devastating, Durham said.
A project led by the University of Houston, Baker Hughes and Diamond Offshore Drilling will test whether a series of mental exercises can improve offshore safety. Photo: Getty Images

The risks of working in the offshore energy industry are well-documented  long hours, dangerous equipment, extreme weather and weeks away from family and friends. The results can be catastrophic, illustrated by the 2010 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 people and spilled millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

A partnership between academic researchers and two energy companies, Diamond Offshore Drilling and Baker Hughes, will build new evidence-based tools to enhance safety by examining whether simple exercises designed to increase mindfulness can reduce the risks. The work, led by Christiane Spitzmueller, professor of industrial psychology at the University of Houston, Kasia Curry at Baker Hughes and Brian Carrico at Diamond Offshore Drilling, will translate research on mindfulness to the energy industry.

Participating offshore workers will undergo training as part of a 30-day exercise, consisting of two brief exercises daily. Follow-up employee surveys and company records will be integrated into a database to allow analysis.

Kevin Wetherington, chief health, safety, environment, security and quality officer at Baker Hughes, said the research could have a broad impact.

By partnering with UH on mindfulness applications to the offshore industry, we are not only equipping our employees with tools that support a safer and healthier work environment, but also participating in a broader discussion across the industry about cultural shifts necessary to apply best practices proven in other industries, Wetherington said.

The work is funded with $802,000 from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Co-investigators include Peggy Lindner, assistant professor in the UH College of Technology; Jaye Derrick, associate professor of social psychology at UH; Mike Zvolensky, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of psychology and director of the Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory at UH; and Rhona Flin of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

Spitzmueller said the exercises teach people to focus on the moment and on specific tasks. Based on research in other industries, including health care, the researchers expect to find a link between mindfulness and better safety outcomes.

In this case, mindfulness isnt a new-age concept but one designed to signify better awareness of what is happening on the offshore installation. The exercises will be modified from those used for the military and first responders to make sure they match the cultural environment offshore, Spitzmueller said.

Up to now, many people have been thinking of mindfulness as something akin to their wifes yoga class, she said. That may not be culturally appealing to offshore workers. Through our project, we are working to reap the benefits around mindfulness while generating mindfulness exercises that work for offshore workers.

Success will be defined as lowering rates of safety-related incidents, both for process safety  things like equipment downtime  as well as personal safety. Participants will be surveyed to determine if health and sleep has improved, benchmarked against workers who did not participate in the exercises.

Industry executives said the project is an example of creative efforts underway to improve offshore safety.

Carrico, who is Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) International and Process Safety manager at Diamond Offshore Drilling, said concern for health, safety and the environment dominate every aspect of the business. We are excited to be an integral part of such a leading-edge research project, which will provide invaluable information from our employees working offshore, he said.

Neil Hall, vice president for HSE, Quality and Maintenance at Diamond, agreed.

The team is embarking on something that is entirely new to the offshore drilling industry and will hopefully help us continue to improve our HSE performance and ensure all our workforce comes home safely, he said.

Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at UH, said the project holds promise for a variety of operations. He is also director of the Subsea Systems Institute, a national research center founded to improve worker training and offshore safety.

An easy-to-implement safety program would be useful across a number of operations, but thats especially true offshore because the stakes are so high, Krishnamoorti said.

Alberto Ramirez, vice president of North America Offshore for Baker Hughes, said the goal is to develop an effective tool for the industry. Assisting personnel to focus on the moment will ultimately help individuals identify hazards and assist them to safely complete tasks, he said.
More details emerged from the recently disclosed Operation Night Fury: Group-IB helps take down a cybergang behind the infection of hundreds of e-commerce.

Operators of the JavaScript-sniffer family, dubbed GetBilling by Group-IB, were arrested in Indonesia. The arrest came as a result of a joint operation Night Fury initiated by INTERPOLs ASEAN Cyber Capability Desk (ASEAN Desk) that involved Indonesian Cyber Police (BARESKRIM POLRI (Dittipidsiber)) and Group-IBs APAC Cyber Investigations Team.

The operation is still ongoing in five ASEAN countries with which the intelligence was also shared. This case marks the first successful multi-jurisdictional operation against the operators of JavaScript-sniffers in the region. According to Group-IBs data, the suspects have managed to infect hundreds of websites in various locations, including in Indonesia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Brazil, and some other countries. Payment and personal data of thousands of online shoppers from Asia, Europe, and the Americas have been stolen.

The three suspects with the initials ANF (27 y.o.), K (35 y.o.), and N (23 y.o.) were arrested in December 2019 in two different regions in Indonesia  Special Region of Yogyakarta and Special Capital Region of Jakarta  as part of the joint operation Night Fury carried out by Indonesian Cyber Police and INTERPOL with the help of Group-IBs Cyber Investigations team. During the special operation, Indonesian Cyber Police seized laptops, mobile phones of various brands, CPU units, IDs, BCA Token, ATM cards. The suspected operators of the GetBilling JavaScript-sniffer family are charged with the theft of electronic data, which carries up to a 10-year jail sentence in accordance with Indonesian criminal code.

Strong and effective partnerships between police and the cybersecurity industry are essential to ensure law enforcement worldwide has access to the information they need to address the scale and complexity of todays cyberthreat landscape. This successful operation is just one example of how law enforcement are working with industry partners, adapting and applying new technologies to aid investigations and ultimately reduce the global impact of cybercrime, concluded Mr Jones.

Craig Jones

INTERPOLs Director of Cybercrime

There are many challenges and obstacles in cross-border hi-tech crime investigations like this. The Night Fury Operation showed that these obstacles could only be overcome with close collaboration between national law enforcement, international organizations and private companies. Effective multi-jurisdictional coordination of efforts between Indonesias Cyber Police, INTERPOL and Group-IB allowed to attribute the crimes, establish the perpetrators behind the JS-sniffer and arrest them. But more importantly to protect the community and raise public awareness about the problem of cybercrime and its impact.

Idam Wasiadi

Police Superintendent, Cybercrime Investigator at Directorate of Cybercrime of CID of Indonesian National Police

With cybercrime being a growing threat across the region, the ASEAN Desk was launched by INTERPOL to assist law enforcement agencies enhance their proactive response against cybercrime. Through this operation, it is clear that timely intelligence sharing and coordinated actions are the ways forward to effectively combat cybercrime regionally and globally.

James Tan

INTERPOL Acting Assistant Diector (Strategy & Capabilities Development)

JavaScript-sniffers (JS-sniffers) targeting ecommerce websites is a type of malicious JavaScript code, designed to steal customer payment and personal data such as credit card numbers, names, addresses, logins, phone numbers, and credentials from payment systems, and etc.

Group-IB has been tracking the GetBilling JS-sniffer family since 2018. The analysis of infrastructure that was controlled by the suspected operators of GetBilling arrested in Indonesia, carried out by Group -IBs Cyber Investigations team, revealed that they have managed to infect nearly 200 websites in Indonesia, Australia, Europe, the United States, South America, and some other countries. However, the investigation in other ASEAN countries continues, and the number of websites infected with GetBilling family is likely to be higher. According to the investigation, stolen payment data was used by the suspects to buy goods, such as electronic devices or other luxury items, which they tried to resell online in Indonesia at below the market price.

Fig. 1 Example of GetBillings malicious script

Fig. 2 Example of stolen payment and personal data stored on GetBillings servers

Group-IB Cyber Investigations team determined that some of the GetBillings infrastructure was located in Indonesia. Upon discovery of this information, INTERPOLs ASEAN Desk promptly notified Indonesian cyber police. Further investigation discovered that the GetBillings operators were not new to the world of cybercrime. To access their servers for stolen data collection and their JS-sniffers control, they always used VPN to hide their real location and identity. To pay for hosting services and buy new domains the gang members only used stolen cards. Despite that, Indonesian cyber police in cooperation with INTERPOL and Group-IBs Cyber Investigations team managed to establish that the group was operating from Indonesia.

This case showed the nature of cybercrime  the operators of the JS-sniffer lived in one country attacking websites all around the world. It makes evidence collection, identification of suspects, and prosecution more complicated. Another thing that the case demonstrated vividly is that international cooperation and cyber intelligence data exchange can help effectively tackle modern cyber threats. Thanks to Indonesian Cyber Police and INTERPOLs prompt actions, Night Fury became the first successful multi-jurisdictional operation against the operators of JavaScript-sniffers in the APAC region. It is a great example of coordinated cross-border anti-cybercrime effort, and we are proud that our threat intelligence and digital forensics expertise helped to establish the suspects. We hope this will set a precedent for law enforcement in jurisdiction too.

Vesta Matveeva

Head of Group-IBs APAC Cyber Investigations Team

By leveraging its own infrastructure for monitoring of underground forums and cardshops, Group-IB has collected comprehensive information about the carding market and is capable of identifying various anomalies. According to Group-IBs annual 2019 threat report, the number of compromised cards uploaded to underground forums increased from 27.1 million to 43.8 million in H2 2108-H1 2019 year-on-year. The size of the carding market, in turn, grew by 33 percent and amounted to USD 879.7 million. The sale of CVV data is also on rise today, having increased by 19 percent in the corresponding period, and one of the key reasons behind this trend could be JavaScript-sniffers.

GetBilling family was first described in Group-IBs 2019 report Crime without punishment which is a deep dive into the world of JSsniffers. According to the author of the report Viktor Okorokov, threat intelligence analyst at Group-IB, at the time of the reports publication, in total Group-IB Threat Intelligence team discovered 38 families of JS-sniffers. Ever since, the number of JS-sniffer families, discovered by the company, has almost doubled and continues to grow. JSsniffers have caused many security incidents in past  the infection of the British Airways website and mobile app, payment-card attack on the UK website of the international company FILA etc.  and continue to gain popularity among cybercriminals. Most recently, in December 2019, JS-sniffers hit the APAC infecting the websites of Singaporean fashion brand Love, Bonito.

To avoid big financial losses due to JS-sniffers, its recommended for online users to have a separate pre-paid card for online payments, set spending limits on cards, used for online shopping, or even use a separate bank account exclusively for online purchases. Online merchants, in their turn, need to keep their software updated and carry out regular cybersecurity assessments of their websites.

Press release is available here.

About the author Group-IB:

Group-IB is a leading provider of solutions aimed at detection and prevention of cyberattacks, online fraud, and IP protection. Group-IB is a partner of INTERPOL, Europol, and has been recommended by the OSCE as a cybersecurity solutions provider. Group-IB is a member of the World Economic Forum.

Pierluigi Paganini
Bandon Crab Fest Party Adds a Second Day at New Southern Oregon Coast Favorite

Published 01/26/2020 at 9:50 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Bandon, Oregon)  The year 2019 brought many great things for the southern Oregon coast town of Bandon, including the inaugural Bandon Crab Fest. The instantly high-profile event was created as a means to be a "rotating fundraiser," with the proceeds from that initial crustacean gathering being awarded to the Bandon Historical Museum. (Photo above: crab boats off the north coast, courtesy Seaside Aquarium).

2020 brings on the fun again, this time with a collaborative partnership with the Bandon Chamber of Commerce. Fellow seafood lovers and wanderers of the Oregon coast will get together again on February 22 and 23 for the second annual Bandon Crab Fest, now extended as a two-day event after the first one proved so popular.

Organizers say those with seafood allergies have the option of prime rib available, leaving little excuse to not bounce on down to this beachside party.

Crabbing is an integral part of the Bandon community, and this event was created to celebrate and honor that longtime tradition. This years fundraising efforts will go to the Bandon High Industrial Arts vocation class and scholarships.

With another day added comes expanded fun. Some of Bandons favorite musicians will entertain throughout each meal. Saturday nights dinner is enlived with dancing, music and all kinds of frivoloity, while Sunday afternoon brings easy listening and a mellower flavor and vibe. Saturday nights fun happens around dinner time, while Sundays spread goes from noon throughout the afternoon.

Ticket prices vary from $45 for an individual up to a table of eight for $450. Ticket details are found at www.bandoncrabfest.com.

It all takes place at Old Town Farmers Market. 250 1st Street SW. Bandon, Oregon. 541-347-9616.

Saturday Schedule:

6 p.m.  10 p.m.: The crab dinner is on. If for some reason crab is not available (such as due to unforeseen issues in the cab industry) a substitution will be made. If youre allergic to shellfish you can substitute this for prime rib.

6:30 p.m.  8 p.m.: Hecktic Week. This energy-packed duo entertains with powerful vocals and beat-driven grooves. Its a foot stomping and soul touching sound that is a blues-influenced infusion of nostalgic country, folk, and rock.

8:30 p.m.  10 p.m.: Johnny Wheels & the Swamp Donkeys. The diversity of the members musical backgrounds becomes evident as the worlds of R&B, Soul, Jazz, Funk, and Rock are blended under a Blues umbrella.

Sunday Schedule: doors open at 11:30 a.m.

Noon: crab dinner (until 5 p.m.).

12:30 p.m.  2 p.m.: Caught Red Handed. This local band is known for their strong three-part vocal harmonies, flashy solo instrumental breaks, and quirky on-stage conversation. They like to engage the audiences and work hard at making each performance a fun experience for all.

2:30 p.m.  4 p.m.: Jeff Kloetzel. Influenced by many musical genres including pop, rock, folk, blues and contemporary island, there should be something for everyone in Jeffs set list.

For further details and lodging packages see https://bandon.com/crab-fest/. More photos of the Bandon area below:

























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A brazen airliner is still selling flights from London to the coronavirus-ravaged Chinese city of Wuhan from as early as this weekend, MailOnline can reveal.

For as little as 205 travellers can book online with Air France to fly from Heathrow to the outbreak's epicentre on Sunday evening.

The journey involves an overnight stay at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in the French capital but arrives in Wuhan on Wednesday morning, local time.

MailOnline was able to order 549.11 return flight tickets and take them to the checkout on Air France's website.

The plane would have supposedly flown out of Wuhan on Thursday morning bound for Heathrow.

It comes despite Wuhan and the wider Hubei province, home to around 60million people, supposedly being completely sealed off and quarantined.

Airports were reported to have been shut, planes grounded, and trains and buses banned from leaving or entering the region in a desperate bid to stop the outbreak.

The Foreign Office warned 'against all travel to Hubei province due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak', adding 'if you are in this area and able to leave, you should do so'.

MailOnline understands airliners have been given a preliminary travel ban into the city which expires on Sunday. But it is presumed the ban will be extended.

For as little as 205 travellers can book with Air France to fly from Heathrow to the outbreak's epicentre on Sunday evening

MailOnline was able to book a return flight that cost a total of 549.11 and involved an overnight stay in Paris

The coronavirus outbreak has now killed 82 people and struck down more than 2,800. Cambodia today became the latest country to confirm the virus has spread there. The government confirmed a Chinese national who travelled to the city of Sihanoukville was infected

The Foreign Office is desperately drawing up plans to evacuate British nationals via chartered planes out of Wuhan.

But despite the stark warning to steer clear of the virus-stricken city, Air France was still offering tickets from London to Wuhan as of Monday afternoon.

The airliner told MailOnline it 'complies with the request of the authorities', who have closed Wuhan airport until February 2nd (Sunday).

It said that if the ban was extended, it will cancel further flights. A spokesperson added: 'Following the situation in China, Air France has implemented commercial measures for all its distribution channels.

'Passengers with a reservation to and from China until 29 February can cancel their trip free of charge or postpone it until 31 May 2020.'

Cases of the never-before-seen virus in China have now been confirmed in every province of China except Tibet.

Medical staff in Wuhan, the crisis-hit city at the centre of the outbreak, help a patient off the back of an ambulance on Sunday

Thermal scanning at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Indonesia shows people's temperatures beside their heads  those who have high temperatures will be checked to see if they have a fever

Panic has spread out of the Hubei province, where the outbreak began almost a month ago, and into the wider world. (Pictured, unverified video shows people having their temperatures taken on a plane after arriving on a runway in Milan, Italy, from Hong Kong)

The Chinese government insists it is continuing drastic efforts to contain the outbreak.

The coronavirus has now killed 82 people and infected nearly 3,000 in under a months.

Scientists following the outbreak closely believe the true number of infections to be beyong 100,000 people.

Chinese citizens have been banned from booking holiday tours and flight and hotel packages in other countries, according to the New York Times.

It comes as leading health bosses in the UK warn the virus may already be on home soil.

Professor Yvonne Doyle said the first case is likely to be somebody already in the UK who did not have any symptoms when they landed.

The rapid-build hospital in Wuhan started to take shape today, January 27, as hundreds of people work tirelessly to build the pre-fabricated structure in a matter of days

Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to prevent the spread of the never-before-seen coronavirus

In hope of halting a potential outbreak in Britain, she said it is 'absolutely critical' the public health service and the NHS are ready for when the first case happens.

The Foreign Office is in talks with the US about how to evacuate hundreds of Britons stranded in Wuhan because of the killer coronavirus outbreak.

Officials are waiting for Beijing's permission before carrying out the unprecedented operation to repatriate almost 300 Britons.

China today announced it had extended its New Year holiday until February 2 to fight the outbreak, which has struck down more than 2,800 people.

Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director and director of health protection for PHE, admitted that airports are 'important' spreaders of viruses.

But in an interview with Sky News she added: 'The most likely place we might find a case is somebody in the country already.

'It's absolutely critical the public health service and the NHS are ready to diagnose that and are able to designate the person to the right facilities.'

Asked if she was alarmed about a UK case, she said: 'I think, with infections, health is global.

'We've been here before, we've dealt with Middle Eastern virus, we've dealt with SARS, we deal with flu regularly, which can be dangerous, but we're ready.'

And asked if there could be cases already in Britain, she said: 'I would expect so.'

Professor Doyle said efforts were continuing to trace the 2,000 people who have entered the UK from China on international flights.
Mercy Grief group

SPRINGFIELD - Mercy Medical Center, 299 Carew St. will hold a weekly grief support group for people who have experienced loss of a spouse, partner, family member or friend. All are welcome. The group meets every Monday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. (excluding major holidays) in the Deliso Conference Center, O'Hare Room on the lower level.

NAMI Connection Recovery Support Group

AGAWAM - NAMI Western Massachusetts, the local organization of the National Alliance on mental illness, offers the following NAMI Connection Recovery Support Group Programs: Agawam, meets Thursdays 2:30 to 4 p.m., at NAMI Western Mass. office, 324A Springfield St. Call for more information, 413-786-9139. Easthampton, meets Mondays, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Easthampton Congregational Church, 112 Main St. Call Ellen for more information, 413-923-8481. The NAMI Connection is a recovery support group program that offers respect, understanding, encouragement and hope. NAMI Connection groups are free and confidential, held for 90 minutes, designed to connect, encourage, and support participants using a structured support group model, led by NAMI trained facilitators living in recovery themselves.

Baystate Regional Cancer programs

WARE - Baystate Regional Cancer Program at Baystate Mary Lane announces the 2019 Support group listing.

Breast Cancer Support Group: open to all women with breast cancer regardless of stage of treatment. meetings are held the 4th Wednesdays of every month, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Circle of Angles, A Quilting Support Group for People Who have been touched by Cancer: meets twice monthly on Tuesdays of every month, 10 a.m. to noon.

Expressive Writing Through Cancer: open to all cancer diagnoses. meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of every month, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

General Cancer Support Group: open to all cancer diagnoses. Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Partners in Caregiving: an early evening support group for caregivers of people with cancer. Meetings are held the 2nd Tuesday of the month, 5 to 6:30 p.m.

All meetings are held at Baystate Mary Lane, 85 South St. For more information, contact Camille St. Onge, LICSW, Oncology Social Worker at the Baystate Regional Cancer Program, 413-967-2245.
However, Muslims have been excluded conspicuously. So have been the refugees from Sri Lanka and Myanmar and the tribals from Bangladesh who do not follow any of the mainstream religions listed in CAA.

Obviously the amended citizenship law was brought in after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam found as many as 1.4 million Hindus of the total 1.8 million people as non-Indians who, if denied Indian citizenship, would defeat the BJPs declared goal of weeding out each and every infiltrator. Now, the Modi government says all Hindu refugees would be given Indian citizenship under CAA.

The students and faculty of the Jamila Millia Islamia first saw through the BJPs game plan of targeting Muslims to mobilize the Hindu votes in its favour through the CAA. They took to streets in protest. The government launched a violent attack on the campus with the police thrashing students and teachers and destroying the library and other university property.

The government assault on the Jamia Millia university stung the sentiments of students and teachers of scores of other universities and institutions all across the country. Thousands of them turned up at peaceful protest demonstrations.

Top functionaries of Gandhian institutions have maintained a conspicuous silence, maintaining safe distance with anti-CAA movements

Adding salt to the wounded sentiments of the academic community was the surgical strike by the masked armed goons on the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in which several students and faculty members were grievously injured.

Campuses all across the country rose in protest against the Modi regime. From Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University to Jadavpur University, Allahabad University to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, students and their teachers took to streets holding peaceful protest demonstrations. These were all spontaneous. There was no call from any political party or leader.

The government unleashed police on the protesting youth, beating them up with brute force. The worst police action was in Uttar Pradesh where chief minister Yogi Adityanaths men in uniform went on a rampage, plundering shops and homes of Muslims, physically assaulting minor boys after dragging them out of Madarsas.

Sedition cases and other serious charges including attempt to murder, arson and the use of explosives were slapped on peaceful protesters across many cities including the state capital Lucknow.

Instead of silencing the protests by the use of brute force, the nonviolent movement against the government gathered momentum with women coming out in large numbers to sit on day and night dharna in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Patna and scores of other cities across the country.

People foiled the BJPs attempt to create communal divide on the issue of new citizenship law and its associated steps of National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) by forging unity among Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh communities whose members took part in all the protests.

The movement against CAA, NPR, NRC, in fact helped in bringing together Muslims and Hindus, Dalits, Adivasis and Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in joint action programmes. For the first time after the post-Godhra state-sponsored anti-muslim pogrom of 2002, Muslims dared to join the protests against the BJPs communal politics.

While the anti-CAA, NPR, NRC protests in cities have found space in print and TV media, those held in towns away from metros and state capitals have gone unreported, though many of them, like the three-day convention of Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims in Palgarh, Maharashtra or in Gulbarga in Karnataka were attended by thousands of people.

Though all the Save the Constitution movements across the country have been completely peaceful, top functionaries of institutions proclaiming themselves to be followers of Mahatma Gandhi have maintained a conspicuous silence, some of them even maintaining safe distance with these movements.

A redeeming feature, however, is the open support the movement has received from some celebrities of the film, theatre, art, culture, science and academics world.

Creative artistes have come up with songs, slogans, skits, standup comedy shows, cartoons and posters extolling the Azadi movement for reclaiming our secular, socialist and democratic republic and exposing the diabolical game of the Sangh Parivar and the Modi government to impose a Hindu Nation.

---

*Senior Ahmedabad-based journalist, grandson of Mahadev Desai, Mahatma Gandhis personal secretary

Seventy years after the people of India gave themselves a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic, the youth from university campuses and women in towns across the country are up in arms to reclaim the republic from a fascist regime out to impose a Hindu nation. Waving the national flag and taking oath to save the Indian Constitution, the youth and women are raising the war cry of Azadi (liberation) from hunger, poverty, unemployment, oppressive patriarchy and divisive bigoted communal politics.There is no single leader of this Azadi movement, no Mahatma Gandhi-like iconic figure who had liberated the country from the British rule through nonviolent direct action called satyagraha.Each young man and woman of this second freedom struggle is guided by the preamble of the Indian Constitution which promises liberty, equality and justice to every citizen irrespective of their caste, creed, colour and gender.The actions and statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues, BJP leaders and the rank and file of the Sangh parivar have given the saviours of the Constitution reasons to fear that those in power in Delhi are hell bent on replacing the secular, socialist democracy with Hindu nation based on Manusmriti, the ancient codebook based on Brahminical socio-political order.Events and developments since Modi returned to power for a second term, this time with a whopping majority of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, had given sufficient reasons to suspect the intent of the ruling party of subjugating the various constitutional institutions including the judiciary, the executive and even media, the fourth estate.The last straw on the proverbial camels back came when the Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill and it became an Act (CAA).CAA became the first instance of religion being overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under the Indian nationality law. The CAA paves the way to grant Indian citizenship to members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious minorities who fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014.
When sharing news links on social media, how can you tell theyre credible sources of information?

This question was among the topics discussed Friday at a community conversation event, in which Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery spoke about news literacy.

Lowery is a journalist at The Washington Post and was a lead on the Post's "Fatal Force" project that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016. He is also the author of They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement. In 2017, Lowery became a CNN political contributor.

Friday afternoon, he spent an hour talking about his career and the importance of news literacy to an audience at Creative 360 in Midland. Amy Robinson, WCMUs news director and host of All Things Considered, facilitated the conversation on stage with Lowery.

Together, they talked about the challenges working against news literacy, which could be defined as a persons ability to consume news and use critical thinking to determine how trustworthy each source is.

Lowery said it can be difficult for consumers to decipher whats credible amid news shared on social media, especially when there are non-credible news sites that look legit.

The idea of news literacy is how do we all train ourselves to decipher reliable sources from non-reliable sources; to be responsible news consumers and responsible news sharers, so that were not contributing to this problem? he said.

To start, there are a few characteristics that credible sources will have. Lowery said a credible news source isnt one that never makes mistakes, but rather, one that takes accountability and works to correct mistakes that are made. Credible reporters will also publish their real name with each article, as well as have contact information that is easily accessible in the interest of being publicly accountable and transparent.

While Lowery acknowledged that almost anyone can do journalistic work, he mentioned that trained journalists work with a set of standards, ethics and transparency. So, its important to support reporters and journalists. At the same time, he said, it is important for journalists to bring their audience with them, and explain how a story came about, when necessary.

We should do everything in our power to show people that were just trying to be fair, he said.

So why is being news-literate important? Lowery said its because having a shared reality  agreeing on the facts  is the foundation for everything else. Its the key to having an informed, mobilized population.

We dont have to interpret the facts the same way; we dont have to like the facts, he said. The carpets blue and I wish it was red, but I want to live in a world where we all agree its blue. How do we even begin that debate ... if we cant even start by agreeing that its not red carpet?

In the second half of the presentation, the audience had the opportunity to ask questions and did so until the event timed-out. Many audience members voiced their concerns about things such as news outlets being owned by conglomerate corporations, hypocritical click-bait advertisements on news websites, and subscriber pay walls.

I worry about that too, Lowery said, relating to someone who was concerned that news is becoming a commodity only for the people who could afford subscriptions.

Lowery ended the conversation by talking about the importance of two-way communication between news outlets and their audience, and how social media plays a role in the news conversation today.

Part of being news-literate; part of being a responsible and engaged news consumer is having that two-way conversation  letting an outlet know when they get something wrong; letting them know when they do a great job; remembering at the beginning of the year to renew your subscriptions; and being actively engaged in this process, he said. Because as we all know, free press is important to our democracy and its something that I think we all should support with our energy, with our minds, but also sometimes with our wallets.

The community conversation event was co-hosted by WCMU and the Midland Daily News.
Last week, travelers looking to avoid traffic on their way to Atlantic City found themselves marooned in a nature preserve 60 miles off-course thanks to an issue with Waze.

The problem seemed to be specific to those people trying to reach the Borgata Hotel and Casino.

When users searched for the Borgata in the traffic optimizing GPS app, an ad appeared with the correct street address, but for some still unknown reason, it was tied to an incorrect GPS pin in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area.

Several hundred travelers trying to reach Atlantic City using Google's Waze app for directions found themselves instead directed into the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area (pictured above) more than 60 miles away

The issue appeared to affect several hundred people, who found themselves bouncing down the sandy and unpaved roads of the nature preserve an hour's drive northwest of Atlantic City.

My department towed 10 cars in 5 days that were stuck," Lt. Christopher Parise of the Jackson Police Department told CNN.

A Waze response to the error report stated 249 others reported the same location error in the past couple days, so hundreds have been misled back there.

The Jackson Police made an announcement warning people about the confusion in a Facebook post, which drew over a hundred comments from locals whod already noticed the uptick in lost travelers.

I was wondering how this lovely couple ended up way back by the lake when I was hunting there last week, one user wrote.

They flagged me down and pleaded with me to show them the way out.

Another quipped: [W]ho the hell is going on unpaved roads thinking it'll lead them to a casino?

Local police say the issue likely arose because an ad for the Borgata Hotel and Casino (pictured above) in Atlantic City was associated with an incorrect GPS pin in Waze, even though the ad listed the correct street address

A spokesperson for Waze said the issue has been fixed, but there was no explanation given for how the Borgata was pinned to an incorrect GPS location even when the icon for the hotel had the correct street address.

Police advised using extra caution when relying on locations in the app that are marked with an orange ad logo.

Its not the first time Waze has led drivers astray. In 2018, the app directed a driver off a boat ramp and onto the frozen surface of Lake Champlain causing her car to fall through the ice.
EAST LANSING, MI  The case of a Michigan farmer who was not allowed to sell products at a farmers market because of his stance on gay marriage, will be headed to a federal trial after he filed a lawsuit against the city.

Apple orchard owner Steve Tennes sued the city of East Lansing after he was not allowed to participate at the city's farmers market because he doesn't allow gay couples to marry at his orchard, the Associated Press reports.

Tennes' claims that his business, Country Mill Farms, was unconstitutionally ousted from the farmer's market. A self-proclaimed devout Catholic, Tennes does not allow same-sex weddings to take place on his privately-owned farm in Charlotte, about 20 miles from East Lansing.

Tennes had been selling at the market since 2010 when he was denied a vendor's licence in 2017. City officials cited Tennes' Facebook post explaining that his family's religious beliefs prevented them from hosting same-sex weddings at the business.

Officials had modified the city-run market's rules to require vendors to comply with East Lansing's civil rights ordinance, which prohibits discrimination.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney set the trial date for Sept. 14 after issuing an order last month that partially denied and partially granted requests for summary judgement from both sides, according to AP.

The judge went on to note that the city ordinance "regulates speech based on the intent of the speaker, without consideration of any actual consequences."

A pretrial conference is scheduled for August.

READ MORE:

Banned farmer allowed to return to farmers markets for rest of season

Farmer banned at city market over gay marriage stance has day in court
The Duchess of Cornwall joined more than 200 Holocaust survivors who returned to Auschwitz to mark 75 years since the Nazi death camp was liberated, today.

Survivors and dignitaries including Camilla, 72, laid candles during the commemorations at the former camp on Monday, Holocaust Memorial Day in Poland.

She joined others from across the world for the service, which was held in a tent erected around the camp's gate house, referred to as the Gate Of Death by prisoners.

Following the ceremony, those attending walked 700m alongside the railway lines which brought prisoners to Auschwitz. The Duchess took the chance to greet some survivors with kind words.

The Duchess of Cornwall, 72, joined foreign dignitaries and more than 200 Holocaust survivors for a ceremony held at the former death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau tonight

With London Mayor Sadiq Khan (centre) Camilla laid a commemorative candle on International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day

The Duchess, dressed in black, respectfully laid her candle at the International Monument to the victims of the Holocaust tonight

Camilla and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, both respectfully laid candles at the International monuments to the victims of the Holocaust after completing the walk.

Speaking before the ceremony, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust Karen Pollock said: 'Survivors will be standing in the space where many of them were parted from their families for the last time so it will be powerful and overwhelming.

'I think all of this will be sending a strong and powerful message to the world that this is important, it matters that we remember.'

Among the survivors was Renee Salt, 90, who travelled from her home in London to return to the camp where she was taken aged 15.

The Duchess took the time to greet Holocaust survivors Hannah Lewis and Renee Salt after the ceremony

Salt and Lewis. who've both survived the Holocaust and lost loved ones during the ordeal, shared their testimonies during the day of commemorations

The Duchess of Cornwall looked solemn during the event. Following the ceremony, those attending walked 700m alongside the railway lines which brought prisoners to Auschwitz

Camilla joined others from across the world for the service, which was held in a tent erected around the camp's gate house, referred to as the Gate Of Death by prisoners.

Mrs Salt, who returns to the camp regularly to tell visitors her story, told the PA news agency: 'The first few times I went it felt terrible, I was shaking all the time I was so nervous.

'But, you get used to anything.'

She saw her father for the last time after arriving at the camp in 1944, aged 15.

She said: 'He jumped off the train, I jumped after him and by the time I got off he had disappeared like into thin air.

With hundred of survivors and dignitaries, Camilla paid her respect to the victims. The commemorations used the testimony of survivors to warn about the signs of rising anti-Semitism and hatred in the world today

Sadiq Khan followed the Duchess of Cornwall and laid his own candle at the monument in Auschwitz today

Maxima, Queen of the Netherlands (left) greeted Camilla as she sat next to her husband, King Willem-Alexander during the ceremony

The Duchess was joined by European royality including Maxima and Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (left) and Felipe VI and his wife Letizia of Spain (right)

'I never saw him again. He went without a kiss, without a goodbye, he just disappeared.'

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, gave a speech in which he condemned a rise in anti-Semitism.

He said: 'In 2020 we hear the same lies the Nazis used so effectively in propaganda.

'We will never eradicate anti-Semitism, it is a deadly virus that has been with us over 2,000 years, but we can not look the other way and pretend it's not happening.

Kate lights a candle in memory of those killed in genocides and will then meet survivors following the ceremony at Central Hall in Westminster

William read an extract from a letter written by a friend of his great-grandmother Princess Alice - famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust - about her good deeds

Boris Johnson speaks at the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony in Westminster this afternoon

'That's what people did throughout the 1930s and that's what led to Auschwitz.'

In London, earlier today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to stamp out the 'virus of anti-Semitism' as he joined the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on Holocaust Memorial Day, 75 years on from the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The Prime Minister and the royal couple were at Central Hall in Westminster for a commemorative service in honour of victims and survivors of Nazi persecution, as well as subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Mr Johnson, addressing the packed hall during a moving ceremony, spoke of the shame he feels at the continued existence of anti-Semitism in the UK.

Prince William was was joined by his wife Kate, and survivors of the Holocaust and other more recent genocides, in a candle-lighting ceremony that saw 75 lit in the hall, signifying the number of years since the camp was liberated.

Photographs of survivors taken by the duchess for an exhibition marking 75 years since the end of the Holocaust, were released on Sunday.

Kate, who took the pictures at Kensington Palace earlier this month, has described the survivors in her portraits as 'two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet.'

Today William read an extract from a letter written by a friend of his great-grandmother Princess Alice - famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust - about her good deeds

The Duke and Duchess took their positions among the audience prior to the start of the ceremony, which will feature testimony from survivors of the Holocaust
OVANDO  At a small school in rural western Montana, Mandela van Eeden stood at the front of a classroom, pointing to Australia on a large world map. On a table beside her sat several large, tree-like wooden tubes, all unique in shape and color.

Seven students, the entirety of the rural Ovando School, listened curiously as van Eeden explained the origins of the didjeridu and its importance to the indigenous aboriginal Australian peoples culture. She taught them how the ancient instrument is made with the help of hungry termites and how its used for traditional storytelling.

Have any of you ever heard the sounds of a didjeridu? she asked, receiving head shakes and facial expressions of eager anticipation.

Van Eeden then pursed her lips, set them on the end of one of her didjeridus, and let out the unmistakable low drone of the instrument.

One student stared wide-eyed into the bell-shaped end of the didjeridu as van Eeden placed it directly in front of her face. Another girls jaw dropped. One of the boys across the table giggled and a couple students even seemed slightly frightened, as van Eeden began patting her leg, inviting the students to clap along.

As the intense, deep buzzing of the didjeridu circled the room, so too did van Eeden, walking around the group of students, giving each their own up close and personal encounter with the sound of mother earth.

That was so awesome, one student exclaimed once van Eeden stopped playing.

Do you guys want to learn how to play? she asked, with a unified roar of affirmative response.

Van Eeden is host of The Trail Less Traveled, an adventure and travel radio series on 103.3 FM, where she interviews people from cultures in some of the most remote places around the world. Shes also a whitewater instructor, guiding trips through rivers across the globe.

When shes in Montana during breaks in her nomadic lifestyle, she holds workshops at schools and gives presentations as part of an outreach effort and a personal mission to pass along what shes learned.

Van Eeden is set to speak Tuesday at The Roxy about her most recent travels to the Sahara Desert and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco (see box).

The Nature Preserve

Van Eeden has been traveling since she was an infant, flying from San Francisco to South Africa at 3 months old to attend her grandfathers funeral. Her fathers side of the family has lived in South Africa since 1652.

Her mother grew up on a farm in Valier and her father came from a jersey cow dairy farm in South Africa.

Theyre both vagabonds, both travelers, she said, adding thats how they met and got paired up. Her mother was a flight attendant for 42 years, making it easier for the family to travel standby.

During the 10 years her parents were together and most of van Eedens childhood, the family had two homes: one in Billings, and the other a thatch hut on a piece of land in a remote coastal area of South Africa.

The land was purchased by her grandparents in the 60s, who turned it into a private nature reserve. The A-frame hut, made out of local thatch, timber, bamboo and baling cord, was van Eeden's home for six months out of the year and shaped who she is today.

As a small child, van Eeden learned to be a steward of the land and to live alongside the animals. The family usually traveled to South Africa during the cold months in Montana, and when they would first arrive at the hut, they would stay quiet for several hours, allowing the wildlife to get comfortable with their presence.

We would have birds consistently walking around the hut, snakes under the table, which is not super ideal if theres a little kid running around, she said.

Their home was filled with artifacts from around the world, including a didjeridu that hung on the wall, which her parents had brought back from a trip to Australia.

Its very ancient, and they told me not to touch it, she said. What do you do when youre 8 years old and someone tells you not to touch something?"

So she began to play it, mostly for fun, but developed a strong connection to the instrument.

During this time, she was home-schooled, which was mostly experiential learning.

We would go down to the tide pools in the Indian Ocean and we would actually get the crabs and dissect them and take them apart, so Im still a hands-on person, she said.

Her parents had a binder from the Billings Public Schools, which helped them follow along with what the kids back in Montana were learning, and van Eeden would write letters keeping them up to date with her progress.

When she would return to Billings, she and her parents would give a presentation to the class about their experiences at the nature preserve and living in the bush, something she said likely sparked her desire to share her travels through radio, workshops and presentations to this day.

But having two homes wasnt always easy, as shed return to Billings and go through somewhat of a culture shock, having lived in the bush with only her parents and the animals for six months.

All of the sudden now I have to wear clothes every day, she said, adding she was often naked at the nature preserve. She has memories of getting in trouble for going to the bathroom in the playground at school or in her neighbors flower beds, because in the bush, she was just used to going outside and watering the plants.

My neighbors and the teachers would talk to my parents about teaching me how to use toilets, and I dont think a lot of American parents deal with that when your kid is 7 or 8 years old.

She remembers struggling with English as a child and stood out because of an accent she still carries to this day.

She had learned how to react after coming around a corner in the bush and seeing a pack of female lions ripping apart the carcass of a wildebeest, but she had no idea what to do when a kid on the playground took a ball away from her.

Still, she describes herself as a class clown and says her peers would remember her more for the stories she brought back from her travels than for her differences.

Finding Whitewater

Twenty days after she graduated high school in Billings, van Eeden came to Missoula for summer school at the University of Montana.

It was groovy because I got to get to the community before I was just stuck on campus, which shaped a lot. She went on an orientation rafting trip with the Outdoor Program, where she fell in love with whitewater.

She started volunteering almost daily, said Elizabeth Fricke, senior assistant director of the Outdoor Program.

One thing about Mandela is that she is just a sponge," Fricke said. "Shes always wanting to get better and always staying this lifelong learner.

Van Eeden was asking more than just the questions about how to navigate water, she wanted to learn everything about her surroundings wherever they went.

So it wasnt just about the lines, which we taught her, but she also wanted to know the natural history and the geology and the human history, Fricke said.

The curiosity connects back to her childhood at the nature preserve and an ingrained importance of being a steward of the land and animals.

Its not only your job as a guide to keep people alive and to help them navigate the terrain and the whitewater, van Eeden said. Its also to be able to articulate the knowledge of the land, everything from the plate tectonics up through the biodiversity."

Fricke remembers having to throw van Eeden, who at the time was still training, into an unexpected guiding position after extra guests showed up to one of their rafting trips down Alberton Gorge.

I remember she was nervous, but she did it and of course she went through Tumbleweed, which is one of the bigger rapids, and everybody fell out of the boat, Fricke said. It was definitely a bumpy trip down, but she learned from it and kept going and didnt let it get her down.

Fourteen years later, van Eeden guides on some of the biggest whitewater around the world.

Falling in love with radio

Freshman year was pivotal, because its also when she got her first radio show, The Mandela Experience, on KBGA.

I started falling in love with learning how to be on the radio, van Eeden said. For the next five years, shed bring in art and music and tell her travel and adventure stories.

She said her fellow classmates at UM might remember her as the didjeridu girl, as she usually had at least two with her while walking around campus.

She ended up starting a didjeridu club, where she met her partner, Wesley. He was her first kiss and became her first boyfriend.

Were celebrating 10 years now, she said, adding that keeping a relationship together hasnt always been easy with her travels.

Eventually she grew tired of being the one always speaking on "The Mandela Experience," she said, and wanted to tell others stories rather than her own.

It was Wesley who suggested she propose the idea to The Trail 103.3.

So I went there with my demo tapes from KBGA. I did not expect them to give me a chance, but they did, she said.

While the interviews for The Trail Less Traveled started in the studio, van Eeden was still traveling and interviewing people abroad during whitewater guiding stints.

About a year into working for The Trail, van Eeden proposed doing remote interviews and sending her radio shows in to the station from the field.

I was so afraid to propose the idea to them, because that was my dream, she added. But some dreams come true, and for 10 years now, shes been immersing herself in remote locations, sending voices and sounds from cultures around the globe back to Missoula.

Van Eeden said she likes to gain a deep understanding of the people she talks to in the field, usually living with them for at least two months before she sits down to interview them.

That is where my heart is  to document these cultures around the world before theyre lost, because were losing cultures every day, were losing languages every day," she said. "Hopefully the listener learns more about this beautiful world that we live in and how they might contribute some of these beliefs from these ancient cultures that came before us into their daily lives.

Giving Back

Back in the classroom at Ovando School, van Eeden closes the presentation with a brief review of what they learned.

I hope that in their brain, some little seeds are getting planted about travel and the earth and curiosity of other cultures, she said, adding that her foundational message in all she does is that the world is a small place, and were all connected.

Going into the schools and playing didjeridu for the kids and giving talks ... whatever I can do to give back to these cultures, I do, because theyre giving so much to me and the world with their stories.

She continues to guide whitewater, mainly in the Grand Canyon during the summer months, and The Trail Less Traveled, which airs Sundays at 6 p.m., was recently named one of the top travel podcasts of 2020 by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK.

Fricke, who still runs the Outdoor Program at UM, said whenever van Eeden is back in town, shes always asking how she can get involved and what she can do to give back.

Its never what can I get? Its what can I do? Fricke said, adding shes proud of the life van Eeden has made for herself. I think shes living her dream. Shes learning, she stays curious, and I think its just so inspiring.

Van Eeden said even if her radio show or presentations inspire the smallest changes in people, shes done her job.

I cant imagine using my energy for anything else.

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(Newser)  A couple sought by police for months has finally been located in Hawaii, but there's no sign of two missing siblings linked to them. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were pulled over in Kauai and briefly detained, reports East Idaho News. Police seized their rental SUV and executed a search warrant of their residence in Princeville, Hawaii, but the couple was then released. They refused to answer repeated questions from an East Idaho News reporter about 7-year-old Joshua Vallow or 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. Both are Vallow's children, and neither has been seen since September. Coverage:

A deadline: Vallow has been given a court order to produce the children within five days, reports Fox 10 Phoenix. If she fails to do so, she could be held in contempt of court.

story continues below

The background: The couple lived in Rexburg, Idaho, with Joshua and Tylee, and police say they lied when authorities began investigating the children's whereabouts in September, reports the AP. The couple then fled and were missing until their being found in Hawaii on Sunday.

The couple lived in Rexburg, Idaho, with Joshua and Tylee, and police say they lied when authorities began investigating the children's whereabouts in September, reports the AP. The couple then fled and were missing until their being found in Hawaii on Sunday. Fishy death: Each has a spouse who died under unusual circumstances. Daybell's previous wife died in October of what was initially believed to be natural causes, but authorities have since exhumed her remains. Daybell married Vallow two weeks after his wife's death.

Each has a spouse who died under unusual circumstances. Daybell's previous wife died in October of what was initially believed to be natural causes, but authorities have since exhumed her remains. Daybell married Vallow two weeks after his wife's death. Another one: Vallow's first husband was fatally shot by her brother in July, when she and her family lived in Arizona, reports Fox News. The brother claimed self-defense and was not charged, but he then died himself of an undisclosed cause in December. That death is now under investigation.

Vallow's first husband was fatally shot by her brother in July, when she and her family lived in Arizona, reports Fox News. The brother claimed self-defense and was not charged, but he then died himself of an undisclosed cause in December. That death is now under investigation. Strange history: Before his death, Vallow's husband alleged in divorce papers that Lori Vallow claimed to be a "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020." Daybell, meanwhile, is a self-published author who has written about a coming doomsday, per the AP.

(Another Vallow son released a video weeks ago pleading with his mother to come forward.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Crisis is observed in the Council of Europe, head of the parliamentary committee on international and interparliamentary relations, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Samad Seyidov said.

Seyidov made the remark during the PACE winter session in Strasbourg, France, Trend reports.

It is necessary to think about the future of this organization, head of the Azerbaijani delegation said.

This morning, for the first time, I have found out that the authority of the delegations of eight countries was disputed, Seyidov said. This is a vivid example that we are now in crisis. The main reason is that member states lack mutual respect, mutual understanding.

A colleague from Armenia spoke about my country in an absolutely unacceptable way, head of the Azerbaijani delegation added. Such a statement made by a representative of the country that occupied the territory of other country that committed massacres, killed children, women, is absolutely unacceptable."

Seyidov urged to refrain from such rhetoric.

Speaking about the report on Azerbaijan, which was presented at the session, Seyidov stressed that the author of the report expressed her opinion in an absolutely unacceptable way for the organization.

If you are unable to respect others, the crisis will only intensify, Seyidov added. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to refrain from such behavior. We must think about the future of the organization. We should abandon such rhetoric and only this way we will be able to ensure the future of PACE.

A winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) kicked off on Jan. 27 and will last till Jan. 31.

Azerbaijani delegation led by the head of the permanent delegation of the Azerbaijani parliament in PACE, chairman of the parliamentary committee on international relations and interparliamentary ties Samad Seyidov are taking part in the session.

The commission included MPs Sevinj Fataliyeva, Sahiba Gafarova, Rafael Huseynov, Asim Mollazade, Sabir Hajiyev and Nagif Hamzayev.

During the session, reports of the Bureau and the Standing Committee on the work done are being heard, the results of the parliamentary elections in Belarus, the activities of democratic institutions in Poland, the safety of journalists in Europe, media freedom and other issues are being discussed.

Azerbaijani MPs are taking part in discussions and expressing their opinions.

As part of the session, with the organizational support of the Azerbaijani delegation, an event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the January 20 tragedy is planned to be held on Jan. 28.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday moved the Telangana high court challenging the order of the special court for Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate cases in Hyderabad denying him exemption from personal appearances in connection with the cases of disproportionate assets and money laundering against him.

In his petition in the high court, Jagan said he was not in a position to personally attend the court proceedings every Friday as he had the Constitutional responsibility of discharging his official duties in the capacity of the chief minister.

Moreover, his regular visits to the court would also cause huge burden on the state exchequer, as the official machinery had to make arrangements for his security and travel every week.

Since the special court for CBI and ED cases had turned down his petitions repeatedly, he was compelled to seek the remedy from the high court. He requested that his co-accused from Jagathi Publications be allowed to appear on his behalf in the CBI and ED cases.

Last Friday, the CBI court expressed its displeasure over Jagans petitions seeking exemption from appearance every week. The judge commented that Jagan cannot continuously seek exemptions from court appearances.

He ruled that Jagan should compulsorily appear before it for the next hearing on January 31 and if he failed to so, he would be constrained to pass appropriate orders.

On January 3, the court gave a similar order, dismissing his petition seeking exemption from personal appearances in the court in connection with the CBI cases. As a result, Jagan was forced to attend the court in Hyderabad on January 10. But subsequently, he sought exemptions again on January 17 and 24, on the pretext of official engagements.

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By PTI

MUMBAI: Nearly 100 lawyers took out a march outside the Bombay High Court on Monday afternoon in support of the "constitutionally valid" Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The lawyers marched from one gate of the HC to another while shouting slogans like "We support CAA", "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram".

The lawyers included senior counsel Ram Apte, advocate Uday Warunjikar, and Subhash Ghadge and Anjali Helekar, members of the Advocates Association of Western India.

"There is a presumption that every law is Constitutionally valid and the CAA is not an exception.

Unless any Act is declared as invalid the law continues, and hence we took out a march in support of the CAA," Warunjikar told PTI.

On the other hand, a week back on January 20, some lawyers had gathered outside the high court and read out the Preamble to the Constitution of India in protest against the CAA.

Protests have been going on in different parts of the country against the new law, which grants Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jain refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who had entered India on or before December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution.
Former US First Lady Michelle Obama is a Grammy winner now.

Obama was honoured with the best spoken word album of the year award for her bestselling memoir "Becoming" during the 2020 Grammy's preshow festivities in Los Angeles on Sunday.

She beat out the Beastie Boys, Erik Alexandrakis' "I.V. Catatonia", John Waters' "Mr. Know It All", and Sekou Andrews' "Sekou Andrews & The String Theory" albums in the category.

"Becoming" follows Obama's life growing up on the South Side of Chicago through her years as first lady of the United States.

She is not the only Grammy winner in the family, as her husband, former US President Barack Obama has won two Grammy awards in the same category for his memoirs "Dreams from My Father" (2006) and "The Audacity of Hope" (2008).

Obama is also the the second first lady to win a Grammy.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also took home a Grammy in the same category for her book, "It Takes a Village", in 1997, while husband Bill Clinton was president. President Clinton also won twice for spoken word and was nominated twice.

President Jimmy Carter was also a three-time Grammy winner.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado-Ekiti

FG should complement outfit, says Gani Adams

Ekiti Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has assured that the Southwest geopolitical zone has no plans to secede from Nigeria.

He said heated arguments generated by the launch of the Western Nigeria Security Network code-named Operation Amotekun were needless.

He said the Southwest region remains a part of Nigeria and will continue to be committed to a united and indivisible Nigeria.

The Governor gave the assurance on Monday when he hosted a pan-Yoruba development interest group, the Oodua Progressive Union (OPU) Worldwide who were led to his office by the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams.

Adams was in Ado Ekiti to attend the Annual World Conference of the OPU which was scheduled for Ekiti State.

Represented by the Deputy Governor, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, Fayemi said nobody should entertain any fear of secession by the Southwest over the launch of Amotekun, which he said was meant to protect all Nigerians resident in the region.

Fayemi explained that Governors in the Southwest decided to establish Amotekun to tackle criminal activities like armed robbery, kidnapping, illegal destruction of lives and property and give assurance of safety to all residents.

Read Also: Recruitment for Amotekun security outfit begins soon

He said: Amotekun is not political, it was established for the protection of our people and stem the tide of armed robbery, kidnapping, illegal destruction of lives and property.

This is the first time that the region is united on the need to raise a security platform to complement the existing security agencies to protect the lives and property of our people which is our constitutional duty.

I also want to say that the Southwest is not seceding from Nigeria.

The southwest zone remains part of Nigeria and it will remain committed to a united and indivisible Nigerian federation.

Fayemi also commended OPU for promoting the culture of the Yoruba all over the world saying his administration fully supported the sustenance of culture and using it to drive social integration, create jobs and boost tourism.

We are happy that we have this type of organisation during your (Adams) time because we believe it will cater to the interest of the Yoruba all over the world.

The Yoruba are all over the world and they are doing fine in many fields of human endeavour. Interest groups like this are needed for them not to forget their culture.

Adams disclosed that OPU was formed in 2011 in Mumbai, India to organise an annual interface for delegates from all over the world on issues bordering on the sustenance of the Yoruba culture.

Baring his mind on the Amotekun debate, Adams welcomed the agreement reached between the Federal Government and Governors in the Southwest on the security network saying it is for the progress of the

country.

He said: It is necessary for our Governors to have our own security network code-named Amotekun. Life is precious. You dont politicize the issue of security

Anything that affects Ekiti State affects the entire country and if Ekiti State is safe, the entire Nigeria is safe. If the Southwest is safe, the entire Nigeria is safe.

So, I think the initiative of Amotekun by the Southwest Governors, the President should complement it. He should even add it to their books so that the economic nerve of the nation can be safe in terms of life and property.

We dont need to continue to throwing missiles at ourselves in the media and anybody who stands as an antagonist to Amotekun, I will perceive that person in two forms.

One, he has an agenda to destroy our zone or two, he is an agent of criminals.

Definitely, the agreement between the Federal Government and Southwest Governors is a welcome development. It is for the progress of the country.
An RAF airman quit his job and sold everything to travel the world - with his pet ferret.

Charlie Hammerton, 25, from Falmouth in Cornwall was grieving following the deaths of his best friend, mother and adopted mother in just a year.

In a bid to feel more positive, he decided to travel the world with his 'best pal', rescue ferret Bandit.

He quit his job, sold his three cars and almost all his possessions, drumming up 15,000 for his dream trip, allowing him to buy a campervan.

Charlie Hammerton, 25, from Falmouth in Cornwall decided to travel the world with his 'best pal', rescue ferret Bandit

His holiday album is full of snaps of Bandit posing in front of iconic landmarks - from the Eiffel tower (pictured) to the Colosseum

The inseparable pair travelled for eight months, driving through 11 countries, from the Arctic Circle to southern Italy.

His holiday album is full of snaps of Bandit posing in front of iconic landmarks - from the Eiffel tower to the Colosseum.

Charlie has written a book inspired by the trip and now travels the country visiting schools to teach outdoor education.

He said: 'Travelling was the most amazing experience of my life and it was completely liberating.

The inseparable pair travelled for eight months, driving through 11 countries, from the Arctic Circle to southern Italy

Charlie has written a book inspired by the trip and now travels the country visiting schools to teach outdoor education. Pictured: the ferret at the Colosseum in Rome

'We followed the sun across the world and camped under the stars in amazing places.

'It was beautiful and I spent it with my best friend. I have less money now but I am much wealthier as a person.'

Charlie rescued Bandit from an animal sanctuary in 2015 and the pair have been the best of friends ever since.

The ferret even stayed with him at his military digs in RAF Coningsby whilst Charlie was working for the RAF.

Charlie rescued Bandit from an animal sanctuary in 2015 and the pair have been the best of friends ever since

The ferret even stayed with him at his military digs in RAF Coningsby whilst Charlie was working for the RAF. Pictured at the Arctic Circle

But Charlie suffered depression and suicidal thoughts after a string of heartbreaking losses in 2017.

His mother Jan died in March 2017, aged 53, after suffering with motor neurone disease.

Then his best friend Will Moss passed away aged 22 just a few months later following a following a night out with friends where his family suspect he took drugs.

At the end of the year his adopted mother Samantha passed away after a heart attack.

Living in Arnold, Nottinghamshire at the time he decided to turn his back on a promising career and plough almost all of his money into a globe-trotting adventure with Bandit.

Just a month into the trip Charlie's girlfriend, Chiara Corsa, 21, joined him and Bandit in Berlin for the rest of the adventure

The pair walked across Hadrian's Wall in aid of motor neurone disease charity, MND, and also skateboarded 40 miles across London in aid of a drug awareness charity. They are pictured in Barcelona

His adventures have included road trips with Bandit to raise awareness for different charities

His adventures have included road trips with Bandit to raise awareness for different charities.

The pair walked across Hadrian's Wall in aid of motor neurone disease charity, MND, and also skateboarded 40 miles across London in aid of a drug awareness charity.

'It was horrible for me but I didn't want to get into a rut because of it all,' he said.

'I did think about killing myself a couple of times. I didn't know where to turn.

'It took a lot of courage for me to do what I did.

'At the time I was living in a nice flat, had a good job and had three cars.

'I had a lot of savings behind me and I was lucky enough to be very secure.

'But it was all just 'stuff' to me and didn't really mean anything.

'I decided to get rid of the lot - and set off with Bandit.'

Within the space of just a couple of months Charlie quit the RAF, sold his cars and gadgets and even moved out of his flat.

He managed to drum up 15,000 - and spent 5,000 on a camper van which he would go on to call home.

Starting out in February 2018 Charlie and Bandit ventured from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Holland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain and Italy on their European road trip.

Just a month into the trip Charlie's girlfriend, Chiara Corsa, 21, joined him and Bandit in Berlin for the rest of the adventure.

They visited some of the world's most iconic places, including the Eiffel tower, Colosseum in Rome and the Arctic Circle

The pair visited more than 25 towns and cities in 11 countries and Charlie documented the adventure on a Facebook page, 'Adventures With The Bandit'

They visited some of the world's most iconic places, including the Eiffel tower, Colosseum in Rome and the Arctic Circle.

The pair visited more than 25 towns and cities in 11 countries and Charlie documented the adventure on a Facebook page, 'Adventures With The Bandit'.

He posted photos of Bandit at Europe's most iconic landmarks.

'We visited some incredibly scenic places and camped next to some of the most famous places in the world', Charlie said.

'It was incredible to do it with Bandit. He has seen me at my best and my worst and has always been with me.

'Bandit has been with me through thick and thin.'

Charlie and Bandit slept, lived and ate in their camper van before travelling back to the UK in September 2018.

Charlie and Bandit slept, lived and ate in their camper van before travelling back to the UK in September 2018

Starting out in February 2018 Charlie and Bandit ventured from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Holland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain and Italy on their European road trip

In November 2018, Charlie released a book inspired by his travels.

Before Our Adventures is available to buy on Amazon and is a story all about making the most out of a bad situation.

Charlie said: 'The trip was completely liberating and I really did have an amazing experience.

'I needed to just go out and do something for me.

'The book is all about how you can take anything bad and turn it into something really good.

Charlie said: 'The trip was completely liberating and I really did have an amazing experience'

Within the space of just a couple of months Charlie quit the RAF, sold his cars and gadgets and even moved out of his flat to afford the trip

'Everyone has the right and the ability to do that.

'It's easy to get stuck in a rut but there's no need to. I feel so much better for what I did.'

Charlie now works in schools across the country teaching youngsters lessons on how to build confidence, self-esteem and outdoor living skills, such as camping and bushcraft.

He said: 'I went through a really rough time and developed serious depression.

'I felt suicidal and just didn't know what to do with myself.

'A chain of bad things had happened to me and I had good reason to feel really miserable about my life.

'But I decided that was not what I wanted to be, I didn't want this to define me.

'I sold the lot and just took off. It was the making of me.

'I channeled the negative energy and turned it into something positive.'
27.01.2020 LISTEN

Ghana and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have taken steps to rekindle their long-existing bilateral relations.

The move, among other things, seeks to strengthen relations between Riyadh and Accra, with the aim of promoting trade and enhancing the existing mutual respect between both nations.

Ghanas Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mrs. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from Friday, January 24 to Sunday, January 26, 2020.

While in the Kingdom, Mrs. Ayorkor Botchwey held bilateral talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

During the meeting held in Riyadh, both ministers discussed ways of improving the bilateral relations between Ghana and Saudi Arabia.

She assured Saudi authorities that the outstanding agreements between the two countries such as the General Agreement of Cooperation will be finalized by the government of Ghana for signature during President Akufo-Addosvisit to the Kingdom in February, 2020.

The Minister recalled that Ghana and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed cordial bilateral relations which date back to the 1960s and indicate that since then, the bonds of friendship between the two countries have witnessed steady growth.

She added that Saudi Arabia is Ghana's oldest bilateral partner in the Gulf Region and that, Ghanas relations with Saudi Arabia have paved the way for the expansion of its bilateral relations to the rest of the countries in the region.

The scope of Ghana-Saudi relations is mainly spread across the Energy, Agricultural, Educational, Transport and Health sectors.

Saudi Arabia, therefore, continues to remain a priority partner for Ghana in the region, according to her.

The mimister thanked the Saudi Government for not only extending scholarships to young Muslim students to study in universities in Saudi Arabia, but also offering through the Islamic Development Bank, annual scholarships to Ghanaian students to undertake courses in Turkish universities in Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering and Veterinary Science, to enable them contribute meaningfully to Ghana's development.

She also thanked the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their contributions made to vital areas of Ghana's national development including education, health care, energy, road construction, as well as donations to build mosques, orphanages and provision of safe drinking water in Islamic communities in Ghana.

Meanwhile, Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo is expected to visit Saudi Arabia from the 7th to the 8th of February 2020.

His visit is aimed at further strengthening bonds between the Sean nation and its West African counterpart.

On his part, Prince Faisal, who lauded the cordial relationship between the two countries; said the Kingdom was ready to welcome President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for a State visit in February 2020 to further strengthen ties between the two countries and attract investment into Ghana for mutual benefit.

Prince Faisal charged the two sides to move urgently to finalize outstanding agreements between the two countries for deepened cooperation.

---Daily Guide
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leads a bull around a pen as he visits Darnford Farm in Banchory near Aberdeen. Photo: Getty

In discussions with Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised the prospect of Ugandan beef being sold in the UK.

Johnson was making the case for the UK as the investment partner of choice for African countries at a major investment summit in London today.

I have just told President Museveni of Uganda that his beef cattle will have an honored place on the tables of post-Brexit Britain, he said.

It comes as businesses still face the risk of a cliff edge Brexit at the end of the year given the short time available to negotiate a future trading relationship between Britain and the European Union, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator said on Monday.

This negotiation is not usual because at the end of this year, the UK is leaving the single market, it is its choice, it is leaving the customs union, Michel Barnier told a joint news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

If we have no agreement, it will not be business as usual and the status quo, we have to face the risk of a cliff edge, in particular for trade.

Britain will set out more details about its objectives for a free trade deal with the European Union next month after the country leaves the bloc on Jan. 31, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said.

We are going to publish our objectives for the negotiation (...) in due course after the 31st, he told BBC televisions Andrew Marr program on Sunday.

At stake are the terms of trade from 2021, when an 11-month post-Brexit transition period is due to expire. Negotiations between London and Brussels are expected to start in March.

The key issue is that we will have control of our rules, we will not be a rule taker, we will not diverge for the sake of diverging, we start from a position of alignment, Barclay said.

But the key opportunity is that we will be able to set our standards, high standards, on workers rights, on the environment, on state aid as part of that trade policy.

The European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of the 27 remaining EU members, will thrash out its objectives next month before putting them to EU governments on Feb. 25. Negotiations are expected to start after that.

Barclay reiterated the UKs ambition to agree a zero-tariff, zero-quota, broadly ambitious trade policy, with the European Union, while working to strike deals with other countries around the world, including the United States.
The Andhra Pradesh assembly on Monday adopted a statutory resolution for abolishing its Upper House or the legislative council after a six-hour-long discussion.

Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath moved the resolution on behalf of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. It was adopted with 132 members of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in the 175-member assembly voting for it. A lone member of Jana Sena Party, Rapaka Vara Prasad, defied the party whip to support the ruling party. As many as 18 members of the YSRC were absent at the time of voting. The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) abstained from the discussion and voting on the abolition.

A two-thirds majority was required for the adoption of the resolution as per the rules.

Reddy defended his decision to abolish the council. In fact, the Constitution does not say that there should be compulsorily a legislative council in every state. The Cabinet is answerable to the lower House and not to the Upper, he said.

Reddy said the Council has become meaningless and a hurdle for passing laws. He pointed out how the TDP having a majority in the Council stalled two bills seeking to create three capitals and also that on the introduction of English medium in government schools.

Reddy said the government was incurring 60 crore expenditure annually on the Council. He said the poor state cannot afford it anymore.

The resolution would now be sent to the Union home ministry, which will have to introduce a bill in Parliament for the Councils abolition. The exercise may take a year, officials said.

The YSRCP enjoys an overwhelming majority of 151 in the lower House. TDP has 28 members in the 58-member Council and the YSRC just nine.

Andhra Pradesh had its first legislative council from 1958 to 1985 when the then N T Rama Rao government abolished it. Reddys father, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, restored the council in 2007 when he was the chief minister.

The council works like Rajya Sabha. Once in two years, one-third of its members retire and new members are elected by local bodies representatives, assembly members, graduates, and teachers. Some members are also nominated. The YSRC is expected to have a majority in the Council by 2023 based on its numbers in the assembly.

Reddy on Monday showed video clippings of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidus speech in the assembly opposing the revival of the legislative council, saying it served no purpose and was a burden on the state exchequer.

The TDP opposed the resolution. The government has taken the decision only because the TDP had stalled the attempt to create three capitals and sent the decentralisation of administration bills to the select committee, TDP lawmaker Deepak Reddy said.

He said the YSRC took three days to adopt the resolution, hoping they would split the TDP legislators. But none of us succumbed to any pressures, Reddy said.

YSRC spokesman denied the allegations. We have absolutely no need to buy MLCs [members of legislative council] who have no value. When we wanted to abolish the council, why should we lure any MLCs?

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T he family of a young architect killed in the Grenfell Tower fire have said they want anyone responsible for the disaster prosecuted for manslaughter, as phase two of the public inquiry was set to begin today.

Marco Gottardi, 27, and fellow architect Gloria Trevisan, 26, were trapped in their flat on the top floor as flames surrounded them on June 14, 2017.

They were among 72 people killed by the blaze, having come to England from Italy three months earlier.

Phase one of the inquiry, chaired by retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick, looked at the events on the night and severely criticised the London Fire Bridge. Phase two will examine the refurbishment of the tower, including the decision to install flammable cladding.

Mr Gottardis father, Giannino Gottardi, 64, told the Standard: Too many people did not consider what might happen at the time. We do not have any anger  we are not thirsty for revenge but at the same time we absolutely do want manslaughter charges.

Seventy two people were killed by the blaze, which took place in June 2017 (Jeremy Selwyn)

We do not want punishment for its own sake but these 72 people should not have died for nothing.

People have to change and understand that what happened was very bad  to see that if you do something really bad and really wrong you are punished. Not as a revenge, but as a deterrent.

Phase two is being split into eight modules, including examining fire prevention features of the building, procurement of contractors, and testing and certification of cladding products and their compliance with building regulations.

Mr Gottardi, a retired business manager, and his wife Daniela Burigotto, 60, said they were confident in British justice, no matter how long the process takes.

Grenfell families fear it could be at least 2023 before Sir Martin publishes his final report. Police have said no decision on criminal charges will be made until the second phase is completed. Files could then be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, which would decide whether to bring charges.

The 2nd Anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire - In pictures 1 /73 The 2nd Anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire - In pictures Family and friends of the 72 people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower block during a wreath laying ceremony outside the building PA Family and friends of the 72 people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower block fire gather outside the west London building PA Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn lays a wreath outside Grenfell Tower PA Survivors march through the streets of London in memory of the victims of the Grenfell Fire REUTERS Balloons are released in memory of those who died in the tragic Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images Women look at a hoarding covered in messages of condolence REUTERS People gather before a vigil during commemorations to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire REUTERS A woman carries a sign before a vigil for victims REUTERS Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn arrives outside Grenfell Tower to meet survivors PA Members of the public at a service of remembrance AFP/Getty Images People gather as doves are released outside St Helens church, London, following a service to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA People mourn at the Grenfell tower to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire AP Members of the public release balloons at a service of remembrance for the Grenfell tower fire, at St Helen's Church in west London AFP/Getty Images A hoarding covered in messages of condolence is seen at the base of Grenfell tower two years after the fire Reuters Family and friends of the victims of those who died in the tragic Grenfell Tower fire attend a memorial service at St. Helens Church in North Kensington Getty Images Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (left) and Housing Secretary James Brokenshire (right) attend a service of remembrance at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA A vicar passes out candles at a memorial service for those who those who died in the tragic Grenfell Tower fire at St. Helens Church in North Kensington Getty Images Clarrie Mendy-Solomon, who lost two family members in the disaster reacts as she attends a memorial service marking the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire at St. Helen's Church Reuters Women looks at a hoarding covered in messages of condolence at the base of Grenfell tower two years after the fire Reuters Doves are released after a service of remembrance for the Grenfell tower fire, at St Helen's Church AFP/Getty Images Participants attend a march marking the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire Reuters People look at a hoarding covered in messages of condolence at the base of Grenfell tower two years after the fire Reuters White doves are released during a memorial service marking the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire at St. Helen's Churc Reuters AFP/Getty Images People gather as balloons are released outside St Helens church, London, following a service to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA People gather outside St Helens church, London, following a service to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA A service of remembrance takes place at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA Members of the public arrive for a service of remembrance for the Grenfell tower fire at St Helen's church in west London AFP/Getty Images A service of remembrance takes place at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire People gather outside St Helens church, London, following a service to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA Members of the public arrive for a service of remembrance for the Grenfell tower fire at St Helen's church in west London AFP/Getty Images Members of the congregation during a service of remembrance at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA A service of remembrance takes place at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks at a service of remembrance at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA Housing Secretary James Brokenshire (left)attends a service of remembrance at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA A service of remembrance takes place at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks at a service of remembrance at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire PA Tributes in memory of the Grenfell Tower tragedy Getty Images Grenfell Tower is seen near Latimer Road, Kensington Getty Images Tributes in memory of the Grenfell Tower tragedy are seen in the streets Getty Images A service of remembrance takes place at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire Alex Lentati Mayor of London Sadiq Khan attends a service of remembrance at St Helens church, London, to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire Alex Lentati A vigil is held close to the Grenfell Tower to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy Nigel Howard People obersve a memorial during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell tower fire Getty Images A woman wipes her eye during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell tower fire Getty Images Downing Street glows green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire EPA Second Anniversary vigil held close to Grenfell Tower Nigel Howard People release balloons in front of Grenfell Tower during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the fir Getty Images Downing Street is lit up green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell tower fire Getty Images Kensington Palace is lit up green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell tower fire Getty Images Kensington Palace is lit up green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell tower fire Getty Images A a message demanding change projected onto a building in Newcastle PA A man stands next to a memorial for Grenfell Tower at last night's vigill Getty Images Second Anniversary vigil held close to Grenfell Tower. Nigel Howard Grenfell Tower is seen illuminated in green to mark the second anniversary of the fire Getty Images

The Gottardi family has joined a civil suit in the US against several companies, blaming them for the fire.

If successful, it could cost the firms tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Mr Gottardi said any money would be used to help fund academic scholarships through a foundation they have set up in the couples honour. He added that the awards were a way of keeping alive Marco and Glorias memory, and were focused on work related to health and safety and improvements in construction.

He said much more needed to be done to ensure promised improvements in the safety of UK buildings are carried out. Last Monday the Government threatened to name and shame landlords who are taking too long to replace Grenfell-style cladding from next month after admitting progress has been unacceptably slow.

Engineer Benita Mehra resigned from the inquiry panel at the weekend after her links to the charitable arm of the firm that supplied the cladding emerged.
FINE Gael has been accused of "Trump-style" attacks after it published a version of the Fianna Fail manifesto with the slogan 'no costings, no credibility'.

Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath made the criticism claiming it's a sign that Fine Gael is becoming "increasingly desperate" as the election campaign goes on.

He insisted that Fianna Fail's manifesto is fully costed and "we stand over all aspects of it".

Mr McGrath said the details will be published today.

He added: "I think what we're seeing from Fine Gael now is Project Fear.

"I think they are becoming increasingly desperate that their message is not resonating with the Irish people."

He claimed complaints about "the failure of Fine Gael to tackle the housing crisis to deal with the crisis in access to health, to deal with the issue of insurance reform and the cost of living" are the issues being raised on the doors.

And he added: "I don't think the public really buy this, Trump-style operation fear that Fine Gael are now engaging in."

Mr McGrath was speaking as he published his party's proposals for tackling insurance costs.

They include holding a "crisis summit" with stakeholders including the insurance industry and the setting up of a Garda Fraud Unit.

The party also promises to increase the penalties for fraudulent claims and to work to establishing a "fully functioning Europe-wide single insurance market" to allow consumers to shop around for better deals.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail senator Dr Keith Swanick who was criticised for his voting record is not running in the forthcoming Seanad elections.

In an email to members of the Oireachtas, Dr Swanick said he made the decision not to run so he could spend more time with his family and focus on his medical practice.

However, he added: "I am not ruling out a possible return to politics at a future date when my children are a little older.

"It was an honour for me to serve in Seanad Eireann for a period of 4 years," he said.

Dr Swanick was criticised when it emerged he missed 75pc of votes in the Seanad.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said Dr Swanick had questions to answer on his voting record.

In his statement, the doctor said he used his time in the Seanad to lobby on numerous topics including government divestment in the tobacco industry, support for community first responders and constantly sought to highlight the inequities of our health system especially mental health.

"My proudest achievement is to have founded the Taskforce on Loneliness which culminated in the publication of one of the first pragmatic solution driven policy papers ever in Ireland on the topic - A Connected Island: An Ireland free from Loneliness," he said

"I wish my colleagues from all sides of the political divide the very best in their respective political careers.

"Politicians should be grounded in providing for those less fortunate than themselves and to help create a more inclusive, respectful and just society, where all views are respected including values which may be at odds with the prevailing populism of our time," he added.
FAMILIES will be able to buy State-owned sites at knockdown prices as part of a Fine Gael plan to encourage people to move to rural towns and villages.

The new scheme is central to the party's election manifesto and will see them offer potential homeowners plots of publicly owned land in rural communities at cost price.

The land will be connected to roads, water and electricity when sold and those buying the plots will be asked to contract a developer to build their homes.

Fine Gael believes there are at least 1,400 sites in rural communities it says will provide about 8,000 new homes.

Any site offered under the scheme will be big enough to accommodate between four and six new houses.

The plan is aimed at encouraging people to live in towns and villages rather than construct one-off houses in more rural areas with a population of fewer than 200 people.

Local authorities will be charged with selling sites and will not be permitted to make a profit from the sale of the land.

Councils will also be able to buy sites in populated rural areas and sell them on if it makes financial sense.

The scheme will only be available to owner-occupiers and anyone buying a site will have to commit to living in the house for a certain period.

The local authority run project will be open to first-time buyers and downsizers. The aim is to increase the housing stock and repopulate towns and villages that were badly affected by the crash.

Some of the sites are derelict bus depots on Office of Public Works land which are no longer in use. The brownfield plots will have a low market value but connected to local services ahead of sale.

Buyers will be expected to apply for planning permission themselves but as the sites are in towns they are not expected to face much difficulty.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are set to make election manifesto promises to increase the universal childcare subsidy in a move to win the votes of young families.

At an event today, Fine Gael will pledge to increase the payment for under-threes from 20-per-week to 100-per week on a phased basis.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will also say he will increase in the early childhood care and education (ECCE) free childcare scheme for three- to five-year-olds from 38 weeks to 42 by 2025. This represents savings for parents of up to 972.

Fine Gael also plans to increase the 60,000 income threshold for the targeted childcare scheme of increased subsidies.

Fianna Fail is expected to promise an increase in the child subsidy payment to 80 over the next five years. Leader Micheal Martin will also pledge to increase maternity leave by four weeks and double paternity leave, currently set at two weeks.

The party will also promise to reduce capital gains tax from 33pc to 25pc over the lifetime of the next government.

There will also be a pledge to increase the State pension by 25 a week over the next five years and hike disability payments by 10 per week.

Fine Gael has also said it will increase the pension by 5 per week every year for the next five years.

Fianna Fail will vow to ban vaping and e-cigarettes for anyone under 18 and also prohibit the sale of flavours which may be attractive to children.

The election commitments come after Mr Martin ruled out a grand coalition with Fine Gael as he bids instead to become the next Taoiseach.

His comments came after Mr Varadkar said it would be "the responsible thing to do for the country" if his party could not form a government with other smaller parties.

Mr Martin's declaration will be seen by some in Fianna Fail as a tacit admission that this General Election represents his last opportunity to become Taoiseach at the third attempt.

After failing to make his views on a grand coalition known during or immediately after Wednesday's televised debate, it was also an effort to ease any fears in Fianna Fail that the party could keep Fine Gael and some of its more unpopular Cabinet ministers in office after the election.

"We will not be entering into a grand coalition. The people want change.

"It's very clear the message we're receiving, people want change in this country. They want Fine Gael out of office.

"I've made it very clear we want to go into government with other centre parties," Mr Martin said yesterday on the campaign trail in Dublin.

"Clearly Labour and the Green Party are the other parties that we want to go into government with - obviously that is to be determined by the people - and others as well and that is our very clear position.

"That is our position, Fine Gael needs to come out of government. It's been there too long."

But Mr Varadkar insisted yesterday he was still open to the possibility having initially raised it in the first head-to-head debate of the campaign.

"If the numbers fall a certain way and the only way to form a stable government is for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to cooperate and come together I think that's the responsible thing to do for the country.

"We've seen in Spain and in Israel where politicians have plunged their country into second elections and third elections and the results don't change very much," he said while campaigning in his Dublin West constituency.

Mr Martin said yesterday Fine Gael was "demonising Fianna Fail as the worst possible incarnation" but was now proposing a possible government with the party.
This article is part of David Leonhardts newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday.

The combined population of Iowa and New Hampshire is 87 percent non-Hispanic white, which is roughly what the United States was in 1870. The states are also disproportionately older and completely lacking in cities with more than 250,000 residents.

And yet Iowa and New Hampshire are treated like a national microcosm every four years and given outsize influence in choosing the president.

Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond.

write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Matthew Continetti writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party.

writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party. Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging.

speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Michelle Cottle examines two primary contests that will shake the parties well beyond the states in play.

This makes no sense. I know the usual justifications  that the states citizens take their democratic responsibilities seriously. But when you boil down that argument to its essence, its really an argument claiming that Iowans and New Hampshirites are intellectually and morally superior to other Americans.
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said that the protest in Delhis Shaheen Bagh is a cover for people who want to divide the country.

Shaheen Bagh is not an area anymore - it is an idea where the Indian flag is being used as a cover for the people who want to divide the country. It is being supported by tukde-tukde gang, Prasad said while addressing a press conference.

Shaheen Bagh is emerging as a textbook case of a few hundred people seeking to suppress the peaceful majority, Prasad added.

He also took on the Congress and the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) for not doing anything to end the protest. Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal are silent. Kejriwal cant hear the silent voice of children who cant go to school because of the protest, of office-goers who are experiencing so much inconvenience. His deputy Manish Sisodia says he stands with Shaheen Bagh protesters. This shows their real intent, said Prasad.

Shaheen Bagh has emerged as a big issue for the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi. The protesters, led by women, are sitting on a dharna for over a month now, against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA. They want the government to scrap the new law, but the Centre has made it clear that it wont take it back.

The BJP is trying to corner the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the ongoing protest.

People are sitting on protest at Shaheen Bagh, and a 100-odd gathered in Mumbai to recreate the spiriti of Shaheen Bagh. This is different game altogether. And voters of Delhi need to understand this, said Prasad.

The ongoing protest has led to closure of Road No 13A which connects Delhi to Noida. Due to this, the commuters are facing harrowing time, and have held counter march demanding an end to the Shaheen Bagh protest. But so far, the protesters have refused to budge.

A petition was also filed in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the police to clear the protesters. But the court asked the police to take action in accordance with the law in a time-bound manner.

The police has since then appealed to the protesters, but to no avail.

The elections for 70 Assembly seats of Delhi will be held in a single phase on February 8. The results will be announced on February 11.

The AAP, which had won 67 out of 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly election, is seeking to return with an even bigger margin. The BJP, meanwhile, is trying to defeat AAP and come back to power in Delhi after two decades.
The deputy superintendent of police's arrest has raised questions about the role of collaborators in terror attacks.

Just about a year ago, on February 14, India reeled from a shock as an SUV loaded with 350 kg of explosives rammed into a bus carrying Central Reserve Police Force men in Pulwama; 44 were killed. There were several mysteries surrounding the attack which remained unexplained.

The bus was part of a convoy of 78 CRPF vehicles. Why was that particular bus chosen? Where did the SUV come from and who really financed its purchase? What motivated Adil Ahmed Dar, 22, and about to give his Class XII exam, to carry out the act?

And above all: 350 kg of explosives! Who aided it and how could such a massive amount of explosive material be collected without anyone knowing?

The nation was caught in election fever. The Balakot surgical strikes were an answer that proved the government had muscle; they put the Opposition on the defensive. Many analysts feel the Narendra Modi government returned on the back of the decisive action following the attack. But the questions lingered on.

Now with the arrest of Davinder Singh of the Jammu-Kashmir police, the light is being shone anew at an episode that is considered the worst terror attack on security forces in recent times. Especially, the role of collaborators.

On January 11, police arrested 57-year-old Singh, a deputy superintendent of police, at Mir Bazar in Kulgam, along with terrorists of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen -- Naveed Baba and Altaf -- besides a lawyer who was working as an overground worker for terror outfits.

On January 13, Singh was suspended as he had been in custody for 48 hours. Not much is known about the circumstances in which Singh came to be in the company of the people he was supposed to be hunting down. Worse was to follow -- allegations flew thick and fast about his connection with the militancy and also the Pulwama attack.

Counterinsurgency specialists, however, say the connection is tenuous as Singh was transferred out from Pulwama almost six months before the attack took place and as RDX is an unstable explosive, it is unlikely it would have been stored for such a long time.

Kulbir Krishan, a 1976-batch IPS officer from the Assam-Meghalaya cadre who has served in Kashmir, says the problem is structural. You cannot blame the 60,000-strong Jammu-Kashmir police for one bad egg. But it is clear that Davinder Singh could not have continued working in the police for such a long time unless he had someones protection. So whoever were helping him -- policemen, or politicians or administrators -- they too must be brought to book.

The fact is, using militants to fight militants is a counterinsurgency strategy that is as old as the hills. It was used by legendary policeman K P S Gill in Punjab when India backed the Khalistan Liberation Force to cause internecine warfare among militant groups.

In the northeast, many lawmakers became law-breakers: In Meghalaya, the Garo National Liberation Army was formed by a policeman who deserted the force to form his own militant group, and complete with an army and a commander-in-chief.

Champion Sangma and his Army Chief Sohan D Shira continued to run arms and explosives and extort money until Sangma was caught by the Bangladeshi authorities and handed over to the Border Security Force. Shira was killed in an armed encounter.

Counterinsurgency experts say nurturing armed groups by providing them weapons, money and other facilitation is part of the legitimate infiltration/informant activity to fight insurgency. It is possible that Singh started from that and expanded his area of expertise, such as it was.

Singh caught the attention of the Ghulam Nabi Azad/Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government when it was in power in the erstwhile state. At the time, a woman approached the J&K high court to charge Singh with extortion: She said her husband had been spirited away by Singh, who was demanding cash for letting him go. The high court passed strictures against Singh. But within months, Singh was given a promotion.

It could take up to four months for the National Investigation Agency, which has taken over the case, to prepare a chargesheet. Until then judgment on Singh must stay suspended.

But the problem is structural; Singh is just a symptom.
New Delhi: A few top lawyers received money from radical Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in Hadiya case, sources told Zee News. According to sources, Rs 92 lakh was transferred into the bank account of these noted lawyers from the said outfit.

The NIA investigations had revealed that Akhila Ashokan, the daughter of Ashokan KM, was a target of PFI activists and Sathya Sarini and was converted to Islam and became Hadiya. She married Shafin Jahan, a PFI activist.

Live TV

(Markazul Hidaya) Sathya Sarani Educational and Charitable Trust, Manjeri, Kerala, a PFI centre for religious learning which imparts religious lessons to Islam converts, was raided several times by several agencies. It has been suspected of involvement in conversions and has even been linked to ISIS. The Hadiya matter went up to the Supreme Court in the case "Shafin Jahan Vs Ashokan KM & Ors."
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Southern nationalism has moved on. Except for Sinn Fein of course, and the maverick Fianna Fail Senator Mark Daly - fired from the front bench a year ago - who occasionally pops up in Northern Ireland quoting another of his own unconvincing reports on the imminence of Irish unity.

Sinn Fein elected representatives - the more intelligent of them reluctantly - keep banging out A Nation Once Again on that republican drum, but theirs are lonely voices and few outside the cult are listening.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald was reduced this New Year to confiding to the Irish Daily Star her plans to make a united Ireland happen with the next five years.

To give some idea of how out of step she is with mainstream southern opinion, here are some recent quotes from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

Just before Christmas Micheal Martin said he was against a border poll.

"Sinn Fein has started this," he said. "It's aggressive, is perceived as threatening one community, the unionist community, the loyalist community, and in my view there is danger in how all of this has developed... my view is that the poll itself should be the culmination of a developed understanding and I believe in an evolutionary pathway."

This upset Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy: "It's deeply disappointing the leader of a so-called Republican Party would categorically rule out - as Micheal Martin has done - allowing the people of Ireland to choose their own future."

Sinn Fein had been working in a variety of areas on how institutions could work in a post-border poll, he added, but the party needed the support of the other main parties.

"It won't happen if we are the only ones, and we want others to get involved. Fianna Fail is trying to shut down a legitimate and progressive conversation on the future of our country and they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it."

The problem for Sinn Fein is Micheal Martin is expressing the view of the vast majority of responsible members of Fianna Fail. That same weekend former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said on Radio Ulster that anyone who believes Irish unity will happen next year "should go for a trip in space for a decade".

"I think in my mind two things have to happen," he added. "The institutions in Northern Ireland have to be operational, successfully, unhindered, for a prolonged period of time.

"Secondly, the actual work of how we would make a new Ireland which would be totally accommodating, where we can live together, work together, share together and understand our differences and diversities."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar echoed his political opponents.

"When we have the institutions up and running properly then there is time to have a long look at the institutional arrangements and the constitutional arrangements. We have to learn from our history and we have to understand that there are a million people in this island who are British and unionists, so we need to respect that and make sure they are part of the future and they feel part of the future."

Mr Varadkar means what he says, having seen off tersely the request in an open letter signed by more than 1,000 figures chosen from republican-friendly circles across the island of Ireland and among the diaspora for the formation of a Citizens' Assembly to reflect "the views of citizens North and South". Challenged about it in the Dail, Mr Varadkar asked whether unionists and British citizens would participate in such an assembly. If not, he said, it would be a "pan-nationalist assembly then rather than an assembly of all the citizens of Ireland".

"And that is something that would have a very different nature to something that many of us would like to see," he added.

The DUP may have done badly in the general election, but Sinn Fein did worse in terms of share of the vote. The old IRA veterans directing its nominal leadership from Connolly House and the Felons Club simply don't understand the Republic, whose citizens are questioning if there could ever be a peaceful and affordable united Ireland.

Unionists should relax. For the foreseeable future, a united Ireland is a big, green herring.
On Monday, an investigator of the Investigation Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation notified the lawyers of the Ukrainian military sailors of the procedural decision to suspend the preliminary investigation in this case.

Today, an investigator of the FSB Investigation Department notified of the adopted procedural decision to suspend the preliminary investigation in the case of the Ukrainian military sailors, lawyer Nikolai Polozov posted on Twitter.

He clarified that "the grounds and motives of the decision will become known after the lawyers receive a copy of the decision."

As reported, on November 25, 2018, Russian border guards fired on and seized three Ukrainian Navy ships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol, and the Yany Kapu, heading from Odesa to Mariupol, near the Kerch Strait. In addition, their crew members, 24 Ukrainian sailors, were captured. Three of them were wounded. A Russian-controlled court in the occupied Crimea arrested the detained Ukrainian sailors on charges of alleged illegal border crossing.

On May 25, 2019, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release 24 seamen and three ships and allow them to return to Ukraine.

On September 7, 2019, Ukraine and Russia exchanged detainees in the 35-for-35 format. Twenty-four Ukrainian seamen returned home as part of the exchange.

On November 18, 2019, Russia returned the captured ships to Ukraine.

The last time the head of the Investigation Department of the FSB of Russia extended the term of preliminary investigation in the case of Ukrainian military sailors at the end of November  for two months until January 25.

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A class XI girl student has shattered stereotypes and broken barriers after being appointed as a priest for Saraswati puja this year in a remote village in Bengal's Malda.

Rohila Hembram has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the puja at her school (Dalla Chandramohan High School), which has maintained the tradition of breaking archaic rules for quite a while now.

Interestingly, non-Brahmin teachers, irrespective of their gender, conduct puja at the school.

India Today

Another non-Brahmin teacher, Binay Bishwas, will assist Rohila in the puja.



To get over discrimination, all students -- irrespective of their gender, caste and religion -- will take part in the rituals and festivities, as instructed by headmaster Joydeb Lahiri, a report in India Today reads.

Speaking to India Today, Lahiri said he joined the school as the headmaster in 2010. He said, "When I joined the school as the headmaster there was a Brahmin priest for the Puja, but he had several demands, after which I decided to do it myself for Re 1."

Dalla Chandramohan High School

"Since then, I encouraged all non-Brahmins to take part in officiating the Puja. And this has been the tradition for the past five-six years now. Non-Brahmin teachers have been doing the Puja for all these years, and this year, I have passed it on to Rohila."

The video of him talking about ending discrimination also went viral on social media.

Rohila told India Today that she is elated to be doing the task she has been chosen for. "I am elated and excited to have been chosen for the task this year. I am fortunate that Jaydeb sir chose me this year, she said.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday directed officials to set up 10-bed isolation wards in every district hospital and medical college of the state as a precautionary measure to deal with any suspected case of coronavirus, an official statement said.

The directive came during a review meeting of health department chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the state government said.

He also directed that special vigil should be maintained at airports and on the Indo-Nepal border.

The chief minister further directed the health department officials to take necessary steps in coordination with the Union Health ministry.

Directions were also issued to spread awareness about the virus and precautionary steps, the statement said.

The Centre has stepped up vigil in areas bordering Nepal in view of a confirmed case of novel coronavirus detected there.

No case of novel coronavirus infection has been detected in the country so far. PTI NAV SMI RHL
Ariana Grande. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images

The 62nd annual Grammy Awards have arrived at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and many, many more Grammy Awards have arrived at the Microsoft Theater directly across the street. Outside of the arena, mourners have gathered to pay tribute to legendary Laker Kobe Bryant following his tragic death earlier today. The mood on the red carpet this year is certainly solemn, as the music community shares their memories and condolences for Bryant before the ceremony begins. Follow along here as more stars arrive on the red carpet.

Lizzo. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus. Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording A

Tyler, the Creator. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Ariana Grande. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Ariana redux. Photo: (C)Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording A

Billie Eilish. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

FKA twigs. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

BTS. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Tank and the Bangas. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

The Jonas Brothers. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Kevin Jonas andd Danielle Jonas. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Billy Porter. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Diplo and Orville Peck. Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording A

Rosalia. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording A

Frances Gladney and Smokey Robinson. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Common. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Shawn Mendes. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Camila Cabello. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Maggie Rogers. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Dua Lipa. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Lana Del Rey. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Usher. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Ella Mai. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

H.E.R. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

LL Cool J. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Brittany Howard. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Fineas OConnell. Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording A

Quavo and Saweetie. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

DJ Khaled. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Lewis Capaldi. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Catherine Shepherd and Brandi Carlile. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Swae Lee. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Tanya Tucker. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Roberta Flack. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Shania Twain. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Khalid. Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording A

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani. Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording A

Questlove. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Gary Clark Jr. and Nicole Trunfio Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Anderson .Paak and family. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Mason Ramsey. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Esperanza Spalding. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

J.I.D. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Bebe Rexha. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Jameela Jamil. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

James Blake and Jameela Jamil. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording A

Shaun Ross. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Trevor Noah. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Iggy Pop and Nina Alu. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Ty Dolla $ign. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Jack Antonoff. Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Ben Platt. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Ozzy Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Heidi Klum. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Omen. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Skrillex. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Bonnie Raitt. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Yola. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Lucky Daye. Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Alessandra Ambrosio. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Rick Ross. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Blac Chyna. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Jessie Reyez. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

JoJo. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Cyndi Lauper. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording A

Beck. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Luis Fonsi and Agueda Lopez. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Koffee. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Lilly Singh. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording A

Tess Holliday. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Adrienne Warren. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Mereba. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Brad Goreski. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Giuliana Rancic. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Chris Brown and Royalty Brown. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording A

Dan Auerbach. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Senora May and Tyler Childers. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording A

Lauren London. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijan has ranked 52nd out of 137 countries in the Global Firepower list for 2019.

Compared to 2018, Azerbaijan has risen one step, according to the rankings website.

Global Firepower determines a given nations Powerindex score based on 55 factors such as manpower, airpower, land strength, naval strength sea and miscellaneous indicators were taken into consideration.

According to the list, Azerbaijan's available manpower amounts to 5,042,346 people; 3,781,760 people who are "fit-for-service"; 367,000 total military personnel (67,000 active and 300,000 reserve personnel);

The country has 88 helicopters, thereby ranking 43rd in "total helicopter strength", as well as 17 attack helicopters, ranking 27th for this indicator.

As for the land strength, Azerbaijan has 665 combat tanks and ranks 32nd for this indicator. The other land strength indicators are as follows: 1,671 armored fighting vehicles (41st of 137); 187 self-propelled artillery (27th of 137); towed artillery (42nd of 137); 182 rocket projectors (21st of 137).

Azerbaijan has 31 total naval assets, among them frigates-1, submarines-4, patrol vessels-13, mine warfare-7.

An important place is given to the size of the military budget, external debt, foreign exchange reserves of a country and its purchasing power.

Global Firepower list for 2019 is headed by the U.S., followed by Russia, China, India and France. Turkey ranked 9th in the list. Azerbaijans other neighbor Georgia ranked 86th while Armenia ranked 96th.

It should be noted that Azerbaijans military budget amounted to $710.5 million in 2019 while Armenias military budget was $500 million in the same year.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet is a network of companies who collaborate to address skills needs within the technology sector. Everything we do is enterprise led, demand driven talent development and delivered to drive continuous improvement within enterprises.

The network is a non-profit body which is co-funded by Skillnet Ireland, the national agency for workforce development learning, and the member companies. Skillnet Ireland is funded from the National Training Fund through the Department of Education and Skills.

Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet is the largest network serving this sector and to date has trained in excess of 4,500 staff ensuring that Irish ICT companies remain competitive and are at the leading edge when it comes to advanced and emerging technologies.
The change of power in Georgia after the autumn parliamentary election this year may seem predetermined. Not because the ruling Georgian Dream party has done such things that the native population is fed up with them. Over the past week, the Georgian government was severely criticized by U.S. congressmen in three letters. And as an exclamation point - Senior Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement Michael Carpenter's demand to take criticism seriously and treat it with utmost importance.

Georgian Dream can pretend as much as it wants that nothing special has happened, that the opinion of a group of congressmen is not identical to the opinion of the United States - the main strategic partner, but in fact cannot but understand that the criticism received, in essence, means a requirement to share power. And Georgian Dream probably secretly there was no such situation or such a "strategic partner" at all. In any case, before the most important parliamentary elections, the results of which promise nothing good for the first time since the ruling party came to power.

What do Georgia's friends-congressmen concerned about its fate demand? They demand exactly the same thing as the Georgian opposition: holding the elections under a proportional voting system, without a majority component. All other reproaches are additional blows that the U.S. can increase if the Georgian authorities continue to harp on. These are the Anaklia deep-sea port project, the failure of which, in their opinion, leads ... to Russian President Vladimir Putin's increased influence in the entire region, the generally restored role of Russia in the region, a departure from democratic standards, an alleged pressure on American companies operating in Georgia, and other things, for which more than one regime paid the price, trying to assert its right to independence without American prompts and instructions.

By and large, none of the congressmens accusations is worth a damn. The port project seems unclear to the authorities - the consortium engaged in its implementation has never presented the government with evidence of its financial capabilities, while requiring state guarantees. The termination of the Frontera company, which had been unsuccessfully searching for oil and gas for almost 30 years, can hardly be called pressure on the Georgian authorities, because the company has entered a difficult period, arranging massive layoffs of employees late last year.

Departure from the pro-Western course - well, of course! Especially if there is an article in the Constitution about Tbilisis Euro-Atlantic aspirations, adopted, by the way, not during the reign of Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement, striving for power, but namely after Georgian Dream came to power.



A Moscow bias? If the establishment of trade relations in the absence of political relations, on which, in fact, the West insisted, is a bias, then fine.

So, what's the problem? Why does Washingtons reaction to the answers of the Georgian authorities, or rather its specific circles, looks like these answers are not received, and they are forced to repeat their criticisms again and again in order to "reach out" to Tbilisi? It would probably be too naive to explain the situation as some GM members do - that all the criticism by the congressmen was organized by Mikheil Saakashvili. It is possible that he, with his broad connections and authority, is somehow involved. But this can't all be about him.

GD was never able to completely melt the ice of distrust from the very beginning of its rise to power. The U.S. 'guide to action': GM is Bidzina Ivanishvili - an oligarch who made a fortune in Russia, which means .... While Saakashvili was one of them for the Americans.

With the aggravation of relations with Turkey, the United States undoubtedly needs a faithful, absolutely loyal ally in the region. No one excludes that Washington-Ankara relations will eventually return to the previous course, but even in this case, the presence of a second or one more devoted partner won't hurt. Georgia is seen in this capacity, out of pro-Russian Armenia and equidistant from the political centers Azerbaijan. But according to Washington, something "strange" is happening there - once President Salome Zurabishvili suddenly says that foreign military bases are not needed, but then the authorities start to think about the profitability of the Anaklia deep sea port, which, as inadvertently or intentionally U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Walker announced while in Tbilisi, can be used by submarines. Naturally, it was much easier with the UNM, which snapped a salute while in power.

Well-known human rights activist Nana Kakabadze, commenting on the Tbilisi problems in an interview with the 'Georgia and world' internet edition, said that the country needs to get out of its colonial subordination to the West, which has put a brake on all areas. According to her, that's the reason why the political system is virtually paralyzed, it doesn't feel like there's rule of law. She recalls that the Constitution stipulates that Georgia is an independent legal state, which means that the country has the right to independently determine its path, its future. And the fact that the authorities are not able to arrange an ordinary ministerial briefing without coordinating it with the U.S. embassy is a political problem that should be solved, but it is doubtful that the authorities will be able to do this. According to Kakabadze, the thinking of society should completely change, since without it, some deputies and officials will replace others, without any qualitative changes, but in care of their well-being.

GD nevertheless pretends that nothing's wrong. Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, referring to the ongoing domestic political crisis, said that the parliamentary elections will be held with a mixed-electoral system - the issue has been resolved and is not subject to review. Moreover, according to him, the electoral system should not be changed after 2020 as well to preserve Georgia's stability. Vice speaker of parliament Gia Volski, commenting on the critical letters from Washington, said that their authors are lobbying American interests, in particular, companies. GD MP Dmitry Khundadze promised that the party would respond to letters, as it always did, and it may happen that it's the authors who will have to apologize. But it looks like they are showing off.

GD cannot but understand that the congressmen's letters, 'aggravated' by Carpenters instructions to treat them with utmost importance, look like an ultimatum: do whatever you like, but fulfill the promise to hold the elections under a proportional system. That is, at least to share power with the opposition. Otherwise - do not be offended. There was even a hint of sanctions against Ivanishvili. And, it seems that tried-and-tested weapons - reminders of the horrors of the UNM and Saakashvili's rule may not be enough for Georgian Dream. But in general, there is no alternative  either GD or UNM  which has been split into several parties, but with the surviving core of Saakashvilis loyal politicians. And the point is not the inadmissibility of the return of UNM to power due to some ideals, but the high probability of settling accounts, which does not promise progress to the state and society. But it is seen and heard in many statements by representatives of the former government. The transfer of power culture still has not developed in Georgia, as in most other former Soviet countries - each new power begins, if not with the destruction of some goals or achievements of the previous one, then with derogatory criticism or unnecessary and meaningless attempts to remake the previous power as it sees fit.

The ruling GD party, rather rigidly commenting on critical letters from Washington to an internal audience, formed a parliamentary delegation led by speaker Archil Talakvadze for a visit to the United States. Taking into account the ongoing tough domestic political crisis and the attitude of Washington circles towards it, the visit seems fatal and extremely difficult. Talakvadze and members of the delegation will have to convey "their truth" to the strategic partner. It's not an easy task.
Bexar County Sheriff's Office

One man has been arrested in connection with a shooting at a West Side car wash earlier this month that left another man in critical condition.

David Olivo, 23, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the seemingly random shooting on Jan 15, according to an arrest affidavit.
After Nepal confirmed its first case of the mysterious 'novel Coronavirus disease,' the Ministry of Health on Monday strengthened vigil at Panitanki (West Bengal) entry point from Nepal.

The Ministry of Health in its statement said, "We are on high vigil in districts bordering Nepal. We have strengthened vigil at Panitanki (West Bengal) entry point from Nepal."

With no case of the Coronavirus in India so far, the authorities continue to leave no stone unturned in ensuring proper precautionary measures. On January 27, a total of 29,707 passengers from 137 flights were screened in India.

The Ministry of Health also took to its official Twitter handle and informed about undertaking adequate measures within the five states that border Nepal.

The 5 states bordering #Nepal, in particular, have reported adequate preparedness for screening; awareness and arrangements for self reporting; orientation of health officials/staff and other agencies; and #coronavirus management protocols.  Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) January 27, 2020

READ | Germany advises citizens against all but essential travel to China amid Coronavirus crisis

Nepal becomes 6th nation in the world to confirm Coronavirus case

The first case of the Coronavirus was confirmed by Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population on January 24 after the examination of the bodily fluid of a student, who had returned from Wuhan. Nepal has become the sixth nation in the world to confirm a case of the virus.

The infected 30-year-old student was quarantined at Sukraraj Tropical Hospital for five days. The first case of the virus in a foreign country was recorded on January 16 in Japan.

READ | Eerie video of Wuhan shows deserted streets, empty shops amid coronavirus outbreak

The mystery strain

It was WHO which confirmed the first case of a novel Coronavirus outside China, which has the same family as the deadly SARS virus. The UN health agency had said that the person traveling from Wuhan, China was hospitalised in Thailand and is recovering. According to the organisation, novel Coronavirus is a new strain in the large family of coronaviruses (CoV) which was not identified in humans before.

Novel Coronavirus or nCoV can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). CoV is zoonotic which means such viruses transmit between animals and humans.

READ | China in emergency mode as death toll due to Wuhan's Coronavirus climbs

READ |Suspected Coronavirus patient quarantined in Patna hospital, says 'being forcibly treated'

(With inputs from ANI)
The U.S. Justice Department is planning to hold a conference to discuss the future of a federal law which largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post, sources familiar with the plans said on Friday.

A U.S. government source said the department plans to invite a wide range of interested parties to the conference to examine the future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, including representatives of industry, Congress, thought leaders and officials of President Donald Trumps Cabinet.

The 24-year-old law has been a foundation for many internet companies, enabling Facebook Inc., Googles YouTube, and Twitter Inc. to host large amounts of videos, messages and documents while monitoring for offensive language and imagery in only limited fashion.

All three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a speech last month that the Justice Department was studying Section 230 and its scope because many are concerned that Section 230 immunity has been extended far beyond what Congress originally intended.

Barr said internet companies had absolved themselves of responsibility for policing their platforms, while blocking political speech with impunity.

Lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties have called for Congress to change Section 230 in ways that could expose tech companies to more lawsuits or significantly increase their costs.

Some Republicans have expressed concern that Section 230 prevents them from taking action against internet services that remove conservative political content, while a few Democratic leaders have said the law allows the services to escape punishment for harboring misinformation and extremist content.

But several legal experts have said amending Section 230 would harm free expression on the internet.

The tech publication The Information reported on Friday that the department was planning to hold what it described as a Section 230 workshop in February. But the source familiar with the governments plans said a date for the event has not yet been fixed.

Emma Llanso, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the Justice Department is considering holding public panels and private meetings, according to an invitation she received this week.

Several professors across the United States who study laws around speech and expression on the internet were invited to the event, according to five people asked to attend. Two said they had not been given details on the events timing, participants or format.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; additional reporting by Paresh Dave and Katie Paul in San Francisco; editing by Diane Craft and Jonathan Oatis)

Topics USA
Apollo 1 Crew

NASA

On Jan. 27, 1967, NASA experienced its first space disaster - the deaths of three astronauts during a training excercise for the Apollo 1 mission. Pictured are the three Apollo 1 prime crewmembers intended for the first manned Apollo space flight: (L to R) Edward H. White II, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and Roger B. Chaffee. A fire inside the Apollo Command Module during a test took the lives of all three astronauts. NASA had not experienced a disaster of this magnitude previously.

AS-204 Patch

NASA

This design was intended for the ill-fated mission. Apollo 1 was originally designated AS-204 but following the fire, the astronauts' widows requested that the mission be remembered as Apollo 1 and following missions would be numbered subsequent to the flight that never made it into space.

Angle on Apollo

NASA

This high angle view shows the Apollo spacecraft Command Module for the AS-204 mission (later renamed Apollo 1), looking toward -Z axis, during preparation for installation of the crew compartment heat shield, showing mechanics working on aft bay.

After the Fire

NASA

This photograph shows Apollo 1's Command Module a day after the fire that took the lives of astronauts Lt. Col. Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom, Lt. Col. Edward Higgins White II, and Lt. Cdr. Roger Bruce Chaffee. The Command Module was taken to the White Room at Launch Complex 34. The intense heat of the flash fire has clearly affected the exterior.

Apollo Spacecraft Diagram

Diagram showing relative sizes of Apollo astronauts, the Lunar Module, and the Command/Service Module.

This NASA schematic details the size of the Apollo space capsules, service modules and lunar landers that would ultimately take astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Apollo 1 Crew Outdoors

NASA

On Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1's crewVirgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffeewas killed when a fire erupted in their capsule during testing. Here, the trio post at their Florida launch pad during training.

Building the Apollo 1 Craft

NASA

Spacecraft 12 (for AS-204 mission, later renamed Apollo 1) looking toward Y-axis during installation of heat shield. Note uprighting system compressor in aft bay, at right, and Reaction Control System (RCS) valve module panel, center of photo.

Three Crew Members Check Couch Installation

NASA

The three crew members for the Apollo-Saturn 204 (AS-204, later renamed Apollo 1) mission check out the couch installation on the Apollo Command Module (CM) at North American's Downey facility. Left to right in their pressurized space suits are astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Roger B. Chaffee and Edward H. White II.

Saturn 1 Launch Vehicle

NASA

A stage of the uprated Saturn 1 launch vehicle mission unloaded from NASA barge Promise after arrival at Cape Kennedy. This launch vehicle was intended for Apollo/Saturn 204 mission (later renamed Apollo 1).

Water Egress Training

NASA

Prime crew members for the first manned Apollo 1 space flight practice water egress procedures in a swimming pool at Ellington Air Force Base (EAFB), Houston, Texas. Astronaut Edward H. White II rides life raft in the foreground. Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee sits in hatch of the boilerplate model of the spacecraft. Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom, third member of the crew, waits inside the spacecraft.

Apollo 1 Astronauts Training

NASA

Astronauts Lt. Col. Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom, Lt.Col. Edward Higgins White II, and Lt. Cdr. Roger Bruce Chaffee enter the Apollo Command Module during training for mission Apollo/Saturn 204 (later known as Apollo 1), inside the altitude chamber at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
[January 27, 2020] Behavox Announces Record Results in 2019 and Bullish 2020 Outlook

Behavox, the market leader in data analytics software for Compliance, CRM Automation and Risk, released today its 2019 report and outlook for 2020. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005455/en/ Behavox Announces Record Results in 2019 and Bullish 2020 Outlook (Graphic: Business Wire) Last year, Behavox increased revenues and diversity across all business verticals: the Company achieved greater diversity in its customer base, expanded to new geographies and attracted new talent. These, among other significant growth milestones, has resulted in record performance metrics across all categories and has set the tone for what is sure to be an even more successful and profitable 2020. Behavox accomplished the following in 2019: Signed some of the world's largest banks across North America, Europe and Asia with timely software rollouts

Realized client expansion in Japan with a continued focus on growth in Asia, and expects to acquire many more customers in this region

Won significant new clients across Canada and is well-ahead of its headcount goals in Behavox's Montreal office

A growing percentage of revenue is now generated from its CRM Automation, Conduct and Insider Threat products - as opposed to Behavox's traditional offerng of Compliance



"Behavox owes our 2019 successes to both our hardworking employees and loyal client base," said Erkin Adylov, Founder and CEO of Behavox. "Reflecting back on what we've achieved over the past five years and looking towards the next decade, we couldn't be more excited. We will continue harnessing the power of data and artificial intelligence to help companies drive productivity, glean behavioral insights and protect their most valuable assets."

Adylov noted that client reception to its suite of products and best in class service has been extremely positive. Among some of the feedback that Behavox has received: "Behavox is transformational for our business." - large global investment banking firm

"The decision to buy Behavox has paid off several times over." - one of the world's largest alternative asset managers

"Behavox is head and shoulders above competition." - multi-billion-dollar financial services company

"Behavox is what IBM (News - Alert) used to be You will be fired for not buying Behavox." - one of the largest institutional alternative asset managers in the world

"[Behavox has] been an exceptional partner that is willing to go above and beyond." - one of the biggest banks in Canada Behavox's full Software as a Service ("SaaS") offering leverages continuous software roll outs and best-in-class cloud technologies. Behavox SaaS (News - Alert) has realized an aggressive pickup in the market, which is evidenced by a record number of diverse customers - energy giants, financial services firms, technology companies and hedge funds - all of whom have been actively purchasing the offering. Just last Spring, Jefferies announced it had tapped Behavox to supply its premier Compliance platform for its global operations, which is slated to be implemented in record-time. About Behavox Ltd. Electronic communication is the lifeblood of any business. Behavox is the fast-growing People Analytics company that transforms communication data with artificial intelligence into actionable insights that fuel human productivity. After reimagining Compliance, Conduct and Insider Threat, Behavox is now automating CRM, with the path towards boosting the productivity of every employee to unleash the collective power of people. Behavox is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Singapore and Montreal. For more information visit here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005455/en/

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KABUL - A U.S. military aircraft crashed in Taliban-controlled territory in central Afghanistan on Monday, an American official confirmed, after hours of contradictory reports from local officials triggered fears of a passenger plane crash.

The surveillance plane crashed in Ghazni province's Deh Yak district, an area under Taliban control. It was unknown how many people were on board or whether there were survivors.

"While the cause of [the] crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available," said Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in a statement Monday.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed on Twitter that an "enemy intelligence aircraft" crashed and subsequently told The Post that "our mujahideen [fighters] tactically crashed the plane." He did not explain what tactics were purportedly used to bring down the plane.

Mujahid's claim that Taliban fighters caused the crash comes just weeks after Taliban leaders presented U.S. negotiators with a proposal to reduce violence and restart peace talks.

The plane was a U.S. Bombardier E-11A, an electronics surveillance aircraft that helps boost tactical communications on the battlefield.

The province where it crashed is one of Afghanistan's most volatile, with Taliban forces controlling or contesting several of its districts. In 2018, the insurgents overran Ghazni's provincial capital, and that same year a Taliban-claimed roadside bomb killed three American soldiers there.

Ahmad Khan Seerat, Ghazni's police spokesman, said Afghan special forces were dispatched to the scene.

Video footage first posted to social media by a Taliban-linked account appears to show the charred fuselage of an U.S. E-11A. The white plane in the video bears a distinctive star emblem on the engine paired with sky and dark blue stripes across its body.

The Post could not independently verify the location of the crash in the video.

The E-11A's mission in Afghanistan is essentially a flying radio tower that helps transmit communications between ground units and commanders, which is often a challenge in mountainous and rugged terrain.

"It's like WiFi in the sky," a pilot told the Air Force news service in 2018. All E-11As with that payload are operated solely out of Kandahar Airfield, according to the Air Force.

Its payload was developed after radio communication problems contributed to the disastrous Operation Red Wings mission in 2005, when a team of Navy SEALs was attacked by a massive Taliban force in rugged Konar province.

Three SEALs were killed, and 16 Special Operations troops died when their helicopter was shot down on a rescue mission. The mission was later popularized in the book and film "Lone Survivor."

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The conflict in Afghanistan has intensified in recent months as U.S. and Taliban negotiators have sought to reach an agreement that would allow for the withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from the country.

Formal talks were "paused" in December following a Taliban attack on the highly fortified U.S. air base in Bagram.

Earlier this month a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar province left two American service members dead and two wounded. Last year 20 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan, more than any other year since 2014.

There are around 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to the American military command in Kabul.

- - -

George reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. The Washington Post's Alex Horton and Joyce Lee in Washington and Sharif Hassan in Kabul contributed to this report.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's first full-year Budget is expected to provide short-term stimulants to boost consumer demand, and such measures will get a positive response from markets, an American brokerage report said on Monday

Mumbai: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's first full-year Budget is expected to provide short-term stimulants to boost consumer demand, and such measures will get a positive response from markets, an American brokerage report said on Monday.

If the government fails to take the necessary measures, the current cyclical growth slowdown can turn into a structural one, analysts at Bank of America Securities said.

Sitharaman will place the budget proposals on Saturday and all eyes are set on the government, which is likely to announce measures to revive the economic growth that may slide to a decadal low of 5 percent for FY20.

"Social spends are essential for the long term, but a short-term demand stimulus may be needed to prevent a cyclical slowdown from turning into something structural. In the whole budgeting exercise, the last is a choice we think the government could realistically make," the BofA report said.

The market will be keenly watching for action on two specific measures on the taxation front, including companies and individuals, it said.

These would include changes to the long-term capital gains tax framework to reduce tax liabilities, reduction in securities transaction tax and dividend distribution tax, the report added.

There is also a possibility of changes in personal income tax structures, where relief to the low-income earners can result in a push to growth, it said.

The tax cuts will be small as percentage of GDP because the government cannot afford to forego revenue, it said.

On the flip side, some of the measures can impact cigarette companies in then near-term through the proposals, it said.

Follow full coverage of Union Budget 2020-21 here
A 22-year-old man was arrested Saturday after police say his girlfriend was shot in the head three days prior when a gun the man had been showing off discharged, according to court documents.

On Wednesday, San Antonio police responded to reports of a shooting at an apartment complex on the Southeast Side on 4000 block of East Southcross Boulevard. As recorded in an arrest affidavit, upon arriving, officers say they found 19-year-old Ana Martinez suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.

Martinez was taken to and area hospital with life-threatening injuries where she later died, the affidavit states.

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Police found a gun underneath a bed and learned from witnesses that the man identified in the affidavit as a suspect, Jose Galindo, had been at the home earlier showing off a gun.

Galindo had apparently been handling the weapon when it discharged and a bullet struck Martinez, according to the affidavit. A witness told police she heard a single gunshot, watched Galindo run from the room and saw that Martinez had been shot in the head, the document said. There had not been an argument prior to the shooting, police said.

Authorities then went to Galindo's home on the 200 block of West Bedford Avenue, where they found his car, a black BMW. Police said in the affidavit that Galindo had come to the home following the shooting and then left his car and took another vehicle, they claim, in an attempt to elude the police.

A warrant was issued for Galindo's arrest Wednesday and he was taken into custody Saturday around 6:45 p.m., according to court records. He faces one charge of manslaughter and remains in custody on $100,000 bail.
Mental health campaign: Paracelsus' boss Marta Ra, visited the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos last week

An exclusive Swiss rehabilitation centre which has treated some of Britain's wealthiest businessmen is launching in London.

Paracelsus Recovery, which charges clients 65,000 per week to treat issues ranging from depression to sex, alcohol and drug addiction, will allow clients to be visited by its team in their homes, serviced apartments, or hotels.

The firm previously only operated out of two high-end apartments in Switzerland.

Clients from around the world, including Hollywood A-listers, entrepreneurs and royalty, stay in the Swiss apartments for a week to several months, depending on the severity of their problems.

Now demand from the UK has caused Paracelsus to replicate its model in London, where burnt-out and addiction-wracked bosses will be waited on by the clinic's team.

The service includes a consultant psychiatrist, a psychologist, a live-in therapist, and a nutritionist.

Clients can also choose to take sessions with a yoga therapist, massage therapist, personal trainer and acupuncturist, in an attempt to treat their mental health illnesses and addictions holistically.

Paracelsus chief executive Marta Ra visited the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos last week in an effort to help remove the stigma surrounding mental illness among the world's business elite.

She told the Mail: 'A lot of the time, the mental health issues our clients are experiencing are caused by loneliness.

'When people get to the top of their industry, they are under immense pressure, and they feel that they have no one around for support. We help them find ways to deal with that.'

Ra, a former banker who has previously worked for Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, witnessed the effects which extreme pressure could have on senior colleagues in the finance industry.

This inspired her to join Paracelsus, which was previously run by its founder Jan Gerber who launched the business in 2012.

The most common clients that the clinic tends to see from the UK are entrepreneurs and senior finance industry figures, many of whom are struggling with depression, anxiety, and cocaine addiction, Ra said.

Ra added: 'Everyone de-serves to be treated and cared for.'
Visitors wearing masks walk past Shanghai Disney Resort, that will be closed following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, in China.

Disney, McDonald's, Starbucks and other U.S. companies with significant footprints in China are suspending operations and instituting travel restrictions as they respond to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The virus has now taken the lives of at least 82 people in China and sickened 2,900 worldwide, including in the U.S. and Europe.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Sunday a fifth U.S. case, and President Donald Trump has said the U.S. has offered help to China. U.S. health officials said Monday they are monitoring 110 people across 26 states for the coronavirus, including the five patients who contracted the infection in China and brought it back to the U.S.

In an effort to control the spread of the virus, Chinese authorities have suspended public transportation in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and in at least nine other cities, Reuters reports.

As the virus continues to spread throughout China and across borders, it's hitting businesses around the world. The municipal government of Shanghai issued a notice Monday ordering companies not to resume work after the Chinese New Year holiday until Feb. 3, instead of Jan. 31. As a result, the Shanghai stock exchange will remain closed until Feb. 3.

All 3 major U.S. indices fell by more than 1% in intra-day trading Monday as investors reacted to the outbreak.

The travel sector is at substantial risk when public health threats like the coronavirus emerge, said CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council Gloria Guevara, who was the tourism minister for Mexico during the H1N1 outbreak.

She said 90% of the economic cost of the outbreak "is not related to the virus. It's related to the panic," and it can take between 10 months and 19 months for tourism and spending in an area to fully recover from a local outbreak.
The representation demanded action against alleged police atrocities on anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that victims have been made accused in case-related FIRs while no police officer has been named.

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over the issue of atrocities committed by the Uttar Pradesh police on people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens in the state.

A high-profile Congress delegation, led by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his sister and the partys general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi and senior lawyer and MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi presented a detailed 31-page representation which included videos and photographs as evidence of the alleged atrocities and human rights violations.

The representation demanded action against alleged police atrocities on anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that victims have been made accused in case-related FIRs while no police officer has been named.

Mr. Gandhi tweeted: A delegation of Congress leaders presented the NHRC with evidence of the atrocities against the citizens of UP by the state government, which has gone to war against its own people. The NHRC must act decisively to protect the idea of India & the Constitutional rights of our citizens.
The Congress had sent a copy of the Constitution to the prime minister on Sunday and taken a jibe at Modi, saying 'When you get time off from dividing the country, please do read it'

The Congress on Tuesday said the copy of the Constitution it sent to Prime Minister Narenda Modi on the country's 71st Republic Day was returned as the prime minister was "just not interested in the Constitution."

" We tried, but Modiji is just not interested in the Constitution," the party tweeted from its official Twitter handle, along with a screenshot of a message from Amazon stating "Your package is being returned because it was refused at the delivery address or the order was cancelled."

The message shows that the package was sent to the Prime Minister's Office at Central Secratariat in New Delhi.

Dear people of India,

We tried, but Modi ji is just not interested in the Constitution. Ab kare toh kare kya? pic.twitter.com/eRX6g0n0iA  Congress (@INCIndia) January 27, 2020

The Congress sent a copy of the Constitution to the prime minister on Sunday and took a dig at Modi, saying "When you get time off from dividing the country, please do read it."

Dear PM, The Constitution is reaching you soon. When you get time off from dividing the country, please do read it. Regards,

Congress. pic.twitter.com/zSh957wHSj  Congress (@INCIndia) January 26, 2020

In a tweet, the Grand Old Party also alleged that the Citizenship Amendment Act violates Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before law, irrespective of caste, creed and gender.

It is important to remember that it is enshrined in our Constitution that all persons are protected from discrimination of any form. Therefore, any attempt to draft laws based on discrimination are unconstitutional. #RepublicDay pic.twitter.com/njlDcorfeI  Congress (@INCIndia) January 26, 2020

The party also posted several tweets, accusing the government of subverting the Constitution through the CAA and the violent clampdown on peaceful protests.

Protests have broken out across the country, ever since the controversial law was passed by the Parliament last month. The government has clamped down on the protesters, especially in Uttar Pradesh where the police have recently booked anti-CAA protesters the under the stringent Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015.

The Congress also tweeted videos of its leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi reading out the Preamble and shared screenshots of relevant passages from the Constitution.

In a message on the eve of the Republic Day, Sonia Gandhi urged people on Saturday to rise above personal prejudices and stand united to protect the Constitution and its values, claiming that they are being attacked through a "deep-rooted" conspiracy.
Popular Front of India, a group that has been accused of funding protests against the amended citizenship law, on Monday countered a fresh attempt by the central governments Enforcement Directorate to link the organisation to the anti-CAA protests in parts of the country.

An unsigned note by the ED that found its way to social media had alleged the PFI had mobilised money to fund the protests and the ED had tracked bank accounts to back this charge. The ED note had also named some senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal and Dushyant Dave as recipients of the funds.

ED officials, requesting anonymity, had insisted that they did submit the note to the Home Ministry that is examining a request by UP Police to ban the group under Indias anti-terror law.

A home ministry dossier accessed earlier by HT describes PFI as a successor to the banned SIMI, and says it is defined largely by the radical Islamic ideology of its progenitor. This dossier had also alleged that PFI received significant funding through multiple front organisations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.

In a rebuttal issued soon after the ED note emerged on Monday, PFI general secretary Mohammed Ali Jinnah rejected the EDs effort to link the group to the protests as totally baseless.

On the charge that crores of rupees had been channeled through 73 bank accounts, the group said it was fully compliant with all the laws. The allegation that crores were transferred from the Popular Fronts accounts just before the CAA protest is totally baseless and the people who are leveling these allegations should prove these claims.

Mohd Ali Jinnah also dissed the ED for its claims that the group had transferred money to senior lawyers such as Dushyant Dave around the time of the protests.

The truth is that transfers were made in 2017 as a lawyer fees for these advocates for the Hadiya Case. This transfer was openly declared by Popular Front in various public meetings. Attributing a fees transfer that happened in 2017 as a funding for 2019 CAA protest is totally absurd and exposes the intention to defame Popular Front, the statement said.

Dushyant Davel made a similar point in his rebuttal, underlining that the only case that he could recollect where a muslim organisation was involved was Keralas Hadiya case where ultimately the Supreme Court was embarassed after ordering NIA investigation when she said I want to be with my husband.

Indira Jaising, who according to the note had been given Rs 4 lakh, denied that she had received money from PFI in relation to anti-CAA protests or for any other reason. Kapil Sibal also contradicted the Centre.

The PFI statement said another allegation leveled at them relates to transfer of funds to Popular Fronts Kashmir Wing. The group said it did not have a wing in Jammu and Kashmir.

We challenge the so called Unnamed Sources to prove that there is any wing of Popular Front working in Kashmir. Popular Front carried out extensive flood relief work in Kashmir in 2014 and built more that 100 houses for the flood victims which was also openly declared by the organization in 2014 itself through official publications.

Assigning the 2014 flood relief as 2019 anti-CAA protest funding makes it clear that there is a planned vilification campaign going on against Popular Front to stop our growth, it said.
Certain personality traits traditionally considered masculine that is encouraged during military training, are the very same traits that can worsen symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when veterans return home from the field, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.

Image Credit: Photographee.eu/Shutterstock.com

Continuing to keep up traits such as self-reliance and emotional control can also make treatment more difficult to access and less effective when it is implemented, the study found.

The importance of certain traits traditionally thought of as masculine are often encouraged in the military as a way of helping service members perform confidently and develop skills in the field.

However, lead author Elizabeth Neilson of Morehead State University says the current findings suggest that veterans with rigid adherence to traditional masculinity may be at increased risk for developing PTSD, may have more severe PTSD symptoms and may be less likely to seek mental health treatment for PTSD."

What did the study involve?

As reported in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinities, Neilson and colleagues used qualitative and quantitative methods to assess data from 17 studies conducted over the last 25 years that included more than 3,500 military veterans.

All studies assessed the association between conforming to traditionally masculine traits and symptoms related to trauma.

The studies mainly focused on men, although one paper did include men and women. They were also mainly conducted in the US, but some studies from the UK, Israel, Vietnam, and Canada were also included.

The veterans think they should be tough"

Overall, we found that strict adherence to masculine norms was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms in veterans, but more detailed analysis suggests that the association may specifically be caused by the veterans' belief that they should control and restrict their emotionsIn other words, they should be tough." Neilson

Although society members, in general, are exposed to aspects of traditional masculinity, these values are normalized and reinforced as part of training among military members, says Neilson:

"Previous research has found that military personnel reports high levels of conformity to traditionally masculine norms, such as emotional control, self-reliance and the importance of one's job."

The traits can contribute to the severity of PTSD symptoms

Although these traits can be useful for promoting self-confidence and building skills whilst on the field, they can also contribute to the severity of PTSD symptoms if a military member is faced with trauma.

Exposure to physical or mental trauma can cause a sense of hopelessness and loss of power, feelings that conflict with the traits traditionally associated with men such as being strong and in control.

This disparity between how military members feel and how society expects them to be can intensify symptoms of PTSD and almost one-quarter who return from Iraq and Afghanistan, already have the condition.

Conforming to the masculine traits can also stop veterans seeking treatment

Neilson says that adhering to the traditionally masculine traits can also impede access to necessary treatment. Previous studies have demonstrated that a certain pride taken in being self-reliant and able to handle mental trauma independently meant service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were reluctant to seek the help they needed.

Furthermore, when veterans did seek treatment, the importance placed on emotional stoicism and mental fortitude could make it more difficult to treat them, she adds.

The two most common treatment approaches to PTSD require patients to talk openly about any emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that they think might be related to exposure to trauma. One feature characterizing PTSD is the avoidance of certain stimuli such as places, emotions or scenarios that the patient associates with trauma. Part of successfully treating PTSD often involves encouraging patients to break this avoidance cycle and face stimuli that induce trauma.

"Both military culture and traditional masculine ideals lead to the avoidance of disclosure and speaking about traumatic experiences, which may interfere with appropriate treatment," explains Neilson.

The study also identified another important trend: veterans tend to reinstate their masculinity following trauma by adopting stereotypically male behaviors such as being aggressive or highly sexually active, as a way to counteract the impact the trauma has on their sense of self.

"In one study we reviewed, veterans reported engaging in frequent sex to avoid negative thoughts, because feeling sexually desirable temporarily suspended those negative thoughts about their self-worth," says Neilson.

APA recommends therapists consider talking about masculine ideology when treating veterans

In 2018, the American Psychological Association published recommendations advising therapists to consider talking about traditionally masculine ideals and the effects of societys expectations on males when treating service members.

It would not surprise me if some clinicians are already considering how a veteran's masculinity ideology contributes to their PTSD symptomology and treatment engagement. Consistent with APA's recommendations, I suggest that clinicians discuss beliefs and adherence to traditional masculinity ideologies with the patients, Neilson.

This information is important for conceptualizing patients' mental health and identifying specific behaviors to target in treatment, she concludes.
Legislation to reframe the relationship between the state and the four federally-recognized tribes in Maine is being put forward by the legislature's Judiciary Committee, based on recommendations made by a task force that met from July through December. At the end of the year, the Task Force on Changes to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act issued a report recommending 22 changes to state law concerning criminal jurisdiction, fish and game, land use and natural resources, taxing authority, gaming, civil jurisdiction, federal law provisions and trust land acquisition. For 40 years, the tribes in the state have chafed under the restrictions placed on them by the federal Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 and the state's implementing act and have sought to be like other tribes in the country, operating under federal Indian law instead of state laws. Omnibus bill planned

At its January 14 meeting, the Judiciary Committee voted to report out an omnibus bill that will include all of the recommendations. Although some concerns were expressed that some of the proposals might "drag down the bill," as Senator Michael Carpenter of Houlton, the committee chair, stated, committee members felt they should not presuppose what issues might be controversial by breaking up the bill into separate pieces of legislation.

In particular, Carpenter said he expected there will be "significant opposition on the gaming piece," which will allow the tribes to establish casinos without state approval. However, Rep. Barbara Cardone of Bangor, whose district includes the Hollywood Casino that employs many people, is a significant part of the city's tax base and could be affected by a new tribal casino, said, "I don't want to see that issue tank the other good issues" in the bill. Rep. Thomas Harnett of Gardiner stated that all of the recommendations work as a whole in recognizing the sovereignty of the tribes and should not be broken up. Rep. John DeVeau of Caribou also felt that the committee shouldn't focus on a casino but rather on doing "what's right" for the tribes.

Because gaming is subject to referendum approval in Maine and tribal casino proposals have always been defeated either in the legislature or in referendum votes, the tribes in the state have lost the economic benefits of casinos, which have generated more than $25 billion a year for tribes across the country. The tribes in Maine desire the benefit of federal laws, like the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, that other tribes enjoy. Federal, not state, law

In the U.S. the federal government has plenary power over Indian affairs, and state governments do not have authority over those affairs unless that authority is granted by Congress, as it was in Maine under the 1980 federal settlement act. The tribes in Maine are proposing that the current rubric of the Maine implementing act, in which state laws generally apply in Maine tribal territories, would be replaced with the rubric of federal Indian law, in which state laws generally do not apply in Indian country and in which Maine's tribes enjoy the same rights, privileges and sovereign status afforded most other tribes across the country.

At the task force's August meeting, Michael Corey Francis Hinton, an attorney for the Passamaquoddy Tribe, proposed that the Maine implementing act should be amended to: establish that state laws do not apply to the tribes or their lands, except as agreed by the state and the tribes or as provided by federal law; confirm that the tribes enjoy the same rights, privileges and immunities as other federally-recognized tribes, except as agreed by the state and the tribes; and confirm that federal legislation to benefit federally-recognized tribes apply to the tribes in Maine and their lands, except as agreed by the state and the tribes. A failed experiment

During the presentation to the Judiciary Committee on January 14, Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis stated that the tribes view the settlement act "as a failed experiment that left the tribes in the state of Maine stagnant in the past, with limited opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency and an archaic restriction on tribal sovereignty that few other tribes in the country endure." The tribes see the settlement act "as an effort to terminate us as governments." They have long felt that they had not agreed to the terms of the settlement act, beyond the land claims, he stated.

Chief Francis said that the settlement act restricted the sovereign authority of the tribes so that they cannot progress like other tribal nations under federal law. "It undermines our dignity," ability to provide services and to create an economy that benefits both tribal and nearby communities. Francis also pointed to the numerous legal cases the tribes have had to fight over matters from clean water to gaming because of the settlement act.

Also, the tribes have lost millions of federal dollars in combating domestic violence crimes by non-tribal members on tribal lands since the federal Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 was seen as not applying in Maine, because of the settlement act's restriction that federal laws applying to the tribes in the country that were enacted after the settlement act and would affect Maine laws do not apply in Maine, unless the federal law is specifically made applicable within Maine. That restriction also has prevented the tribes from establishing a casino in the state, as tribes in Maine, unlike the tribes in the rest of the country, need state approval for a casino.

Passamaquoddy Vice Chief Maggie Dana of Sipayik noted that the settlement act "is supposed to be a living document" but instead has been stagnant for 40 years. "We need to built a relationship between the state and the tribes," she said. "We are here for restoring our rights." Dispute resolution

The task force's report notes, "In the nearly 40 years since the enactment of the settlement act and the Maine implementing act, the tribes and the state have been at odds and have engaged in litigation over various provisions of these laws. The common factor in these disputes has been disagreements over essential issues of tribal self-determination and sovereignty."

At the July meeting of the task force, Passamaquoddy Vice Chief Dana "emphasized that the current relationship between the tribes and the state is ineffective, with insufficient consultation between the state and the tribes before the legislature passes laws that affect the tribes," according to the report. She primarily requested an increase in tribal self-governance. At the October meeting, she noted that the Passamaquoddy Tribe would like to grow its tribal court capacity and improve its criminal justice system under Passamaquoddy law, not Maine law. The tribe seeks to be treated the same as other tribes across the country. And at the December meeting, she pointed out that under a 1794 treaty the tribe was guaranteed the right to fish both branches of the St. Croix River forever, but the settlement act ended those rights and the water has become polluted. She hoped those rights would be recognized and protected.

During its meeting with stakeholders, the Judiciary Committee considered the issue of dispute resolution and tribal-state consultation. It was noted that the Centennial Accord in the state of Washington has worked well in setting forth a government-to-government relationship and in recognizing the sovereignty of each. A tribal liaison is within each state agency for consultation on policies, so that meaningful dialog between the tribes and the state takes place, which helps avoid litigation later on.

Maine Indian Tribal State Commission (MITSC) Managing Director Paul Thibeault felt that the Judiciary Committee's bill should create the design process for establishing a dispute resolution and consultation framework, looking at other successful models in the country, but should not specify the precise model to be used. He noted there should be "a heavy focus" on the consultation process so that dispute resolution would not be needed as much. The committee then asked MITSC to develop a model within the next few weeks, before the public hearing on the bill. Recommendations outlined

The specific recommendations made by the task force include amending the Maine implementing act to: establish an enhanced process for tribal-state consultation and alternative dispute resolution; recognize the jurisdiction of tribal courts over certain criminal and juvenile offenses committed on tribal trust and fee lands; equate the exclusive criminal jurisdiction of the Passamaquoddy and Maliseet courts with the Penobscot tribal court jurisdiction over offenses committed by Native defendants; recognize the authority of tribal courts to impose the maximum penalties other tribal courts are authorized to impose under the federal Tribal Law and Order Act; grant tribal courts jurisdiction over certain domestic violence criminal offenses committed by non-Natives on tribal lands against tribal victims; recognize the concurrent jurisdiction of tribal courts over offenses committed on tribal lands by tribal defendants against non-tribal victims; recognize each tribal government's authority to define all crimes and juvenile offenses committed on tribal lands over which its tribal court has jurisdiction but retain the authority of the state to define offenses over which state courts have jurisdiction.

Concerning fish and game and natural resources, the implementing act would be amended to: recognize the exclusive jurisdiction of tribes to regulate fishing and hunting by tribal members and non-tribal members on tribal lands; relinquish the state's jurisdiction to regulate fishing and hunting by tribal and non-tribal members on tribal lands; affirm the tribes' rights to exercise regulation of natural resources and land use on tribal land.

As for taxing authority, the implementing act would be changed to: recognize federal law providing: that tribes have exclusive jurisdiction to tax tribal members and tribal entities on tribal lands; that tribes, tribal members and tribal entities are not subject to state and local sales taxation; that tribal members living on tribal lands are not subject to state income tax for income earned on tribal lands; that tribal lands are not subject to state and local real property tax; that tribes have concurrent jurisdiction to tax non-members on tribal lands; and that state and local governments have concurrent jurisdiction to tax non-members on tribal lands.

The implementing act also would be amended to render the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act applicable in Maine; to restore to the tribes the exclusive authority to exercise civil legislative jurisdiction and civil adjudicatory jurisdiction over tribal and non-tribal members on tribal lands; to specify that federal laws enacted for the benefit of Indian country do not affect or preempt the laws of Maine; to recognize the ability of tribes to acquire trust land in accordance with their settlement acts and federal laws; and to specify that state and local governments do not have veto power over trust acquisitions.

Outright elimination of sections of the federal settlement act will require congressional approval, but the task force believes it may be possible to make sections of the act inoperable by enacting state legislation that provides that federal laws enacted for the benefit of Indian country do not preempt state laws.
A wine estate owned by actors and former spouses Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are reportedly teaming up with the Perrin winemaker family and another champagne house in Mesnil-sur-Oger in the Marne to create a specialty rose champagne, according to reports from Wine Spectator magazine.

"It will be the only house in Champagne to produce only rose," Rodolphe Peters, the manager of the Champagne house, told AFP newswire, confirming the magazine's report.

"The volumes will be very reasonable. About 10,000 bottles to start with and we do not plan to produce more than 25,000 bottles in the long term. The ambition is really to develop a benchmark rose champagne," said Peters.

The new venture with the actors is aiming to create a high-quality rose champagne, utilising the expertise of the Perrin family and the Miraval company, according to Peters.

"It is a family project between Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their children with the families of winemakers Perrin and Peters, the latter two have known each other for a long time," said Guillaume Jourdan, spokesman for Vitabella PR agency, which handles Varois Miraval.

Jolie and Pitt first joined up with the Perrins in 2011 to create the 'Miraval Cotes de Provence' rose wine, taking the name of their shared property in Correns, in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region in southeastern France. The property includes 500 hectares, including 50 hectares of vines, which they bought in 2008 for 40 million euros.

Jourdan said that the group has been working on the project for about three to four years. Additional time would be necessary to create the release date and packaging of the specialty champagne.
In the late 1990s journalist Mario Vallejo approached Vilma Espin in New York, when the then-president of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) had traveled to the United States to participate in a United Nations conference. In a short and quick interview, the reporter inquired about the contents of primary school books in Cuba; specifically, on the issue of the use of weapons, taking as reference a text that appears in the first-grade book A leer, on page 84. The passage reads: "The militiaman has a rifle. He loves peace. In the right hands, a rifle is good."

The founder of the FMC, who had not yet realized that she was being questioned by a channel based in Miami, replied: "We must not fall into their hands by paying attention to that kind of rubbish," and added: "Boy, don't ask me that, you're going to lose your job. "

The vast majority of school books for primary-level education in Cuba were published in 1990 by Pueblo y Educacion. The textbook itself, A leer, was "corrected" in 2010 and released again with very few changes. On page four one can see the image of a militiaman dressed 80s style. Below are illustrations and poems about the military beret, rifles, and the May 1 parades in the Plaza.

More than 40% of the paragraphs and readings present in this primary-level academic material allude to political issues and transmit socialist ideological content, some more subtly than others, while highlighting episodes of the armed struggle, and figures like Fidel Castro, Celia Sanchez, Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto Guevara. The sentences in the first grade text used to teach "C" and "Ch" refer to these last two figures in revolutionary history, with the sentences "Che fought in Cuba" and "Camilo lives".

At a panel discussion held at the ICAIC Cinematographic Cultural Center on October 28, 2010, in which researchers from the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists, and several authors of works created for primary education, participated, the outdated nature of many of these texts was recognized, with many dating from 1989 or 1990, with subsequent editions in which the changes made are almost imperceptible.

Ricardo Quiza, a historian and professor at the Department of Philosophy and History of the University of Havana, stated, in a debate with the writers published in the magazine Temas, that the textbooks are characterized by "a predominance of the history of political processes, infused with elements of Marxism and economic processes, promoting an excessively structuralist vision of society, framed with figures and data, and spiced up with the epic stories of the feats of great heroes and their feats, supposedly contributing to foster positive values, but sometimes going too far. "

A survey completed by this group of Cuban researchers and authors found that 63.7% of the women interviewed, and 94.7% of the men, considered the textbooks complementary materials for their children. In this regard Cuban writer and essayist Enrique Perez Diaz stressed that, lacking complete and updated books, students turn to other resources to do their work, such as the Internet, or the portable Wikipedia.

The study itself also revealed that most Cubans believe that their primary education manuals do not reflect the country's cultural and social diversity. Much of the complementary content and images are Havana-centric, and ignore issues like gender, race and religion.

According to Georgina Arias, a pedagogue and specialist at the Ministry of Education's (MINED) Directorate of Primary Education, "the books have many deficiencies. Around the world they are updated about every ten years. We, for obvious reasons, have not been able to do so. The ministry has not been able to tackle this task again. Everyone is aware that it cannot wait any longer, because twenty years have passed (...) a general revision is necessary, as was done at the beginning ".

Pioneers for Communism

Malena Cardenas, the mother of an eight-year-old boy, has been waiting for a visa to reunite with her husband in the United States for three months now. A few weeks ago she had to meet with the school principal because the teachers were "scaring" her son. They told him that he would have no friends there, because it was "a country of bad people." Malena has detected the influence of the curriculum's political contents in her son's behavior.

"Any adult eye, moderately trained and tired of the propaganda, can tell," she says. "Children, however, do not realize this, and incorporate that dosage of ideology into their thinking. In my son's books they were talking about socialism and imperialism when he didn't even know how to add and subtract. And it is not limited to just those texts. In the homework, for example, they are assigned sentences related to political figures, or to the CDR. Fortunately, as parents today our thinking is more independent, and we avoid being manipulated with these ideas of good and evil. "

Another mother interviewed said that she took exception to her son learning to read and write through texts that only refer to the armed struggle and "even the election of candidates." "I remember one that was about what Fidel wanted children to be like."

The first, second and third-grade reading materials repeatedly mention the word "Yankee", associating it with evildoers, in contrast to the concept of the new man and the defiant Cuban people. The book designed for the second grade was published in 1989, and in it one can find stanzas of poems like: "Throughout Cuba / the pioneers advance / they are the soldiers / of a new world"; and "Be like the brave fighter Che / is the beautiful goal of the pioneers. " At the bottom of this page, as a reading comprehension task, the authors posed the question: "What do the Cuban pioneers want to be like?"

Philosophy professor Rosa Alvarez stressed, in the publication of the magazine Temas, the importance of independent thinking in children. "Sometimes I say to my students: 'You can disagree with what I tell you'; I want them to challenge me, but to have arguments of why 'I am against this and that'. This is why I think that the education system is, to a degree, designed to create people who just repeat slogans , like parrots, and that is not the way it should be. "

According to Lourdes Ferrer, a retired teacher who currently tutors children in different subjects in her living room, the methodological curricula demanded students' Marxist, socialist education. "We had to prioritize readings related to the heroes of the Fatherland, those related to the struggle for independence, and the Revolution. That was not negotiable. It came down from above. Whatever was in the books, that is what you had to teach them."

"Every Cuban, a soldier"

The introduction to the history of the Cuban nation in school texts is rife with passages and symbols of the guerrilla struggle, as well as constant reference to formerly socialist countries. This can be seen in various poems and stories: "I know very beautiful stories / of the heroes of El Moncada, of the Sierra and the bearded ones / of the landing of the Granma" (page 86, Lecturas, 2nd grade). Next there is the image of a girl cleaning the boots of her militia parents, who will be attending a parade the next day, with a text concluding with the phrase: "I will also be in the militia, like Mom and Dad."

In Cuban schools, according to psychologist Mireya Aldama, whose has resided in the United States for years, students' political perceptions are shaped starting at the preschool level. "The children get the message, by means of repetition," says the specialist.

"A basic example is the motto 'Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che'. From an early age they are taught to identify with political figures and leaders, their images, their semblances. They are depicted as kinds of demigods, without any defects, almost otherworldly. Since the 70s Cuban books have portrayed an idyllic image of Cuba and the countries of the then-socialist camp, in contrast to the "imperialists", sometimes in a subtle way, and sometimes with a distinct ideological component. "

Another episode in the same book, entitled "Las FAR", reads: "The Revolutionary Armed Forces include soldiers, aviators and sailors. All are our comrades, and bear weapons to protect the people and defend them from their enemies. In the socialist countries the Armed Forces are revolutionary. And being revolutionary means always being on the side of the people, and always defending them."

In a short story on page 163 they call for a class exercise to act out a scene in which a Soviet girl named Natasha receives candies from a "brave and beautiful country" as a gift for "behaving like a good pioneer." Later one can read a set of verses dedicated to Cuban women, who must be card-carrying, revolutionary cederista, with a "rifle on her shoulder", a woman of "tenderness and action."

In various articles and discussions Cuban intellectuals have expressed their concern about the outmoded contents of the books, averting mention of their repeated political themes. And they have underscored, in general, that they do not address pressing social issues in the country, such as homosexuality and drug addiction. Some of these manuals even feature antiquated references to the positions of political leaders. Professor and Secretary of the Commission for the Study of the History of the Church in Cuba, Enrique Lopez Oliva, said: "I am very concerned about the textbooks. I am opposed to them, because they remind me a little of the Catholic Church's catechisms, manuals that dictate truths that one must learn by heart, and accept. "
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 27, 2020 | 09:46 AM | PADUCAH

The City of Paducah will be putting up signs downtown in the coming days to help make parking areas more visible to drivers.In a Monday press release, Paducah Public Information Officer Pam Spencer said Planning Director Tammara Tracy has been working to develop signage and identify the best locations to install signs to notify the public of available parking lots.Downtown Paducah has numerous parking lots. However, clear and consistent signage was lacking. Our goal is to bring awareness to underutilized parking lots such as the large city-owned lot at 3rd Street and Kentucky Avenue. Tracy said.Starting this week, Spencer says crews with Horizon Media Group will work to install 18 public parking identification signs in the downtown area.The parking areas that will be receiving public parking identification signs are:-Farmers Market lot at North 2nd Street and Jefferson Street-Maiden Alley lot at Kentucky Avenue and Maiden Alley-Finkel lot at Marine Way and Washington Street-Chamber lot with entrances off Clark Street, Marine Way, and Washington Street behind The Commerce Center building-Kentucky Avenue lot at South 3rd and Kentucky Avenue-Gazebo lot at 2nd and Broadway-Parking area near Transient Boat Dock and Schultz Park-Parking area at the Foot of Broadway near Wilson StageAs a planner and someone who moved to Paducah less than two years ago, I understand the benefits of wayfinding signage. Navigating a downtown urban center can be frustrating," Tracy said. "The addition of aesthetically pleasing and internationally recognized signs can make a visit to downtown safer as well as more pleasant and accessible.Spencer said in addition to the public parking identification signage, the city is working to select locations and design several ADA parking spots along Broadway.The decision to install the new signs comes amid recent public concerns from some local business owners and residents about the proposed construction of a hotel and shops in one of the largest and most frequently used downtown parking lots.

On the Net:
KYODO NEWS - Jan 27, 2020 - 22:50 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan will dispatch chartered planes to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, possibly on Tuesday, to bring back citizens who wish to return home amid a deadly outbreak of coronavirus, government officials said Monday.

The government is also considering sending a government plane in addition to the two chartered planes from Narita airport near Tokyo to Wuhan in Hubei Province and return to Haneda airport in the capital, a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

The chartered aircraft may also deliver relief supplies, as the Tokyo metropolitan government is preparing to provide 20,000 items of personal protective equipment, Motoo Hayashi, acting secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said.

At a press conference Monday, LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai said the chartered planes are "expected to leave Tuesday morning when they are ready."

All Nippon Airways Co. said last week it would suspend all flights between Wuhan, where the new virus was first identified, and Narita for the rest of this month due to the outbreak of the new virus.

Related coverage:

China extends holiday by 3 days in bid to battle virus

Japan firms worried by China's virus-related outbound group travel ban

China warns infectivity of new coronavirus getting stronger



Direct flights usually connect Wuhan to around 50 cities worldwide, including Tokyo and Osaka.

As of Friday, about 710 Japanese were registered as living in the province, according to the Japanese government. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told a parliamentary panel on Monday that Tokyo has confirmed the status of some 560 Japanese living in the province.

Honda Motor Co., which jointly operates three plants in Wuhan with local companies, said it will use the chartered plane to bring back some 30 employees and their families. A few employees of the company will remain in the city to help restart operations of the plants, which are currently closed for the Lunar New Year holiday period. It remains unclear whether the plants can resume operations following the break, a company source said.

Wuhan is known for a thriving automobile industry. Another Japanese automaker, Nissan Motor Co., and its French partner Renault SA, also have plants in the city.

Japanese retail chain Aeon Co., which operates a mall in Wuhan, said it will evacuate some of the 12 Japanese staff there, using the government-chartered flight. The families of the employees have already returned to Japan, the company said.

Semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron Ltd. and logistics company Nippon Express Co. are among other Japanese firms that will take similar emergency steps.

"We don't know the impact on the economy yet, but the outcome will be different depending on how swiftly measures are taken," Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation -- the country's biggest business lobby also known as Keidanren -- said at a press conference Monday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the Japanese government will designate pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus as a special infectious disease, with the aim of making it possible to provide urgent treatment to those infected using public funds.

The designation will allow the government to adopt similar measures as those taken for severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, known respectively as SARS and MERS, without amending the law.

The measures include the compulsory hospitalization of infected people at one of the approximately 400 designated medical institutions in Japan, as well as disinfection of sites where the virus has been detected. Doctors will be obliged to report any patients who test positive for the virus.

For those who return home on the chartered plane, the Tokyo metropolitan government said it will offer health consultations at hospitals.

China has more than 2,700 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus, with at least 80 deaths and over 460 people in critical condition, according to the Chinese government.

The 11 million residents of Wuhan are in virtual lockdown as authorities seek to keep the virus from spreading.
FREMONT (BCN)

Police arrested two juveniles and cited at least another dozen, ages 13 to 16, who were part of a group of at least 50 young bicyclists who were blocking traffic and harassing motorists in the downtown area of Fremont, police said Sunday.

Police were called Saturday mid-afternoon after the several motorists reported blocking traffic and flipping off drivers, police said. When officers arrived the group dispersed in various directions; one started throwing objects at police.

Officers stopped a large group of the 50 near Mowry Avenue and Cherry Street, while other bicyclists kept fleeing, police said. A boy throwing objects at police was eventually detained, as was another who got into an altercation at a grocery store and a third who yelling obscenities at an officer.

The group was determined to be out of the Hayward/San Leandro area and it's unknown if they are associated to the other group of juvenile bicyclists who have been causing similar problems in the City.

The bicyclist mob Saturday was determined to be from the Hayward/San Leandro area. It wasn't established Sunday whether they are associated with other groups of juvenile bicyclists recently causing similar problems in Fremont, police said.

The two juveniles arrested, for resisting and obstructing officers, were processed at the police department and released to their parents/guardians, police said.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
An Aeroflot flight en route from Khabarovsk to Moscow has returned to the airport of departure, an emergency source said.



"The aircraft has landed normally. Experts will now inspect it," TASS cited the source as saying.



According to data available on the website of Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport, flight SU1713 was scheduled to arrive in Moscow at 16:15 local time (13:15 GMT).



There are 262 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the flight.
When I knock [on] doors, they all say, Oh, I love Elizabeth. She has the best plans, and I think shed be the best president. But I dont know if she can win, said Peter Leo, chairman of the Carroll County Democrats, who endorsed Warren last fall. My hurdle as a volunteer for her has been to convince people to go with that gut feeling that Elizabeth Warren is the president that we need.
If you want to compound wealth in the stock market, you can do so by buying an index fund. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. For example, the China Kepei Education Group Limited (HKG:1890) share price is up 77% in the last year, clearly besting the market return of around -0.5% (not including dividends). So that should have shareholders smiling. Note that businesses generally develop over the long term, so the returns over the last year might not reflect a long term trend.

View our latest analysis for China Kepei Education Group

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

During the last year, China Kepei Education Group actually saw its earnings per share drop 86%.

Given the share price gain, we doubt the market is measuring progress with EPS. Indeed, when EPS is declining but the share price is up, it often means the market is considering other factors.

However the year on year revenue growth of 26% would help. Many businesses do go through a phase where they have to forgo some profits to drive business development, and sometimes its for the best.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

SEHK:1890 Income Statement, January 27th 2020

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think China Kepei Education Group will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of China Kepei Education Group, it has a TSR of 83% for the last year. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

China Kepei Education Group boasts a total shareholder return of 83% for the last year (that includes the dividends) . That's better than the more recent three month gain of 12%, implying that share price has plateaued recently. It seems likely the market is waiting on fundamental developments with the business before pushing the share price higher (or lower). While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for China Kepei Education Group you should know about.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A man walks past the bloated cadaver of an animal while retrieving stuffed animals and salvaging materials from his ruined home on Taal Volcano island, Jan. 14, 2020.

Tens of thousands of displaced villagers began returning home Monday after Philippine authorities lowered the alert on Taal volcano, which appeared to have calmed down after two weeks of spewing ash and molten rock.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) brought down the alert level around Taals main crater from four to three on Sunday, although white steam-laden fumes were still visible during the past 24 hours. The five-step alerts level 5 would indicate a major eruption.

But Phivolcs warned on Monday that sudden steam-driven and even weak phreatomagmatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, ashfall and lethal volcanic gas expulsions can still occur.

The postcard-perfect volcano on an island in a lake in Batangas province, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Manila, erupted on Jan. 12, raining ash across the islands, including in Manila and causing the capitals main airport to cancel dozens of flights. Tens of thousands were evacuated, but there were no immediate reports of deaths among villagers.

As they lowered the alert level on Sunday, authorities also agreed to allow residents in affected areas to return home, except for the municipalities of Laurel and Agoncillo, two areas that bore the brunt of the massive ashfall two weeks ago.

In the days after the volcano began rumbling, the coast guard struggled to keep residents away from the affected towns despite orders to cordon off the island.

Dozens of residents on boats crossed over to salvage materials from their homes and many local officials angrily confronted the police as they ignored warnings not to enter their towns during the past two weeks.

Ricardo Jalad, who heads the governments disaster-response agency, told reporters Monday that more than 390,000 people had been affected by the disaster. Thousands were still being served in evacuation centers or were staying with their relatives, he said.

Emergency crews were continuing to clear at least eight road networks of debris, with thick ash still covering many areas, Jalad said, adding that the provinces of Cavite and Batangas remain in a state of calamity.

Thousands of children would likely camp out in evacuation centers with their families for weeks or months, according to the international aid group Save the Children.

Being made homeless puts these children at serious risk of abuse and exploitation, Jerome Balinton, humanitarian manager for the group, told reporters Monday.

Ciriaco Santiago, a member of a community of priests and lay brothers who run a shelter in Lipa city, told BenarNews that dozens of villagers who had sought refuge there had gone home after the alert was lowered Sunday.

But about 145 people from the heavily affected towns of Agoncillo and Lemery had opted to stay with them until this week, Santiago said.

But we are continuing our feeding mission at different places that are still in the disaster zone, he said.
ZAGREB, Croatia - A Croatian army helicopter on Monday plunged into the Adriatic Sea, killing one crew member while the search is underway for the other, the countrys defence minister said.

Damir Krsticevic told reporters that an investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the crash Monday in a central area of Croatias Adriatic Sea coastline.

Krsticevic said an intense search is ongoing for the missing crew member.
The National Conference on Monday took strong exception to the dropping of words 'Sher-e-Kashmir', an epithet used for the party founder Sheikh Abdullah, from the nomenclature of JK police medals.

The party, whose top leaders are in detention since the scrapping of special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year, alleged that the administration was taking its "vendetta to a higher level" and distorting history with this move.

"It is a calibrated effort to trim every single symbol of J-K's political individuality. The present ruling dispensation in New Delhi heaving with subjective prejudices and complexes against ideals revolving around the Indian Constitution and the spirit of its accommodative federalism hasn't ceased its witch-hunt against everything recognizable with Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah," district president of the party Peer Afaq Ahmad alleged in a statement.

He said the step should be seen as yet another glaring attempt "aimed at distorting J-K's history"



"His (Abdullah's) persona is above petty recognitions, and awards. A conscious leader, he preached to his countrymen to overcome timidity and prejudices," Ahmad said, adding his vision of J-K was shorn of regional and religious prejudices.

He claimed the present ruling dispensation "still fears a leader, who has physically left the world three decades back".

NC spokesman Imran Nani Far also criticised BJP leader Nirmal Singh's reported remarks against Sheikh Abdullah.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration had on Saturday announced the change in nomenclature of police medal for gallantry and police medal for meritorious service



Principal secretary, home department, Shaleen Kabra, in an order, had said that Sher-e-Kashmir Police Medal for Gallantry and Sher-e-Kashmir police medal for meritorious service' shall henceforth be read as 'Jammu and Kashmir police medal for gallantry and Jammu and Kashmir police medal for meritorious service'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A team of doctors deputed by the Union Health Ministry to conduct thermal screening for the novel coronavirus (nCoV) at the Cochin International Airport here on Monday expressed satisfaction over the preparedness of the airport authorities.

"They (doctors) have expressed satisfaction over the arrangement made here. They examined the passenger manifests and details of 178 passengers who were screened by the airport health officers," a statement from the airport said.

The central team, comprising doctors including Pushpendra Kumar Verma, Ramesh Chandra Meena and Shoukathali, is also visiting Kalamassery Medical College Hospital where an isolation ward has been set up to observe patients.

While two persons, who returned from China where there was an outbreak of the coronavirus, are under observation in the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital, one is under observation at a private hospital here, Ernakulam district health officals said.

Their health condition is normal, officials said.

The three suspected patients blood samples have been taken and sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, they added.

On Friday last, 80 people who returned to Kerala from China were kept under surveillance by health officials in the state for possible exposure to the coronavirus that has created panic across the world, health officials had said.

While seven people, who had shown mild symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat, were being treated at various health facilities in the state, 73 others have been put under home surveillance, officials said.

An update from the airport here had said 24 passengers underwent screening for the virus but no suspicious case was reported.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
EU antitrust regulators to rule on $69 billion Aramco-SABIC deal by Feb. 27 FILE PHOTO: Logo of Aramco is seen as security personnel stand before the start of a press conference by Aramco at the Plaza Conference Center in Dhahran

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will decide by Feb. 27 whether to clear state energy firm Saudi Aramco's $69.1 billion acquisition of world number four petrochemicals group Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), a European Commission filing showed.

Aramco, the world's largest oil producer, announced the deal to buy a 70% stake in SABIC from the Public Investment Fund in March last year. It hopes the move will boost its downstream growth.

The Commission can clear the deal with or without conditions during this preliminary review, or it can open a full-scale investigation of up to five months if it has serious concerns that it could hurt competition.

Indian and a number of other countries' competition watchdogs have approved the deal without demanding concessions.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Jan Harvey)
BELO HORIZONTE  The death toll from days of intense storms and flooding in southeastern Brazil has risen to 44, authorities said on Sunday.

In addition to the dead, the number of injured stands at 12 and that of the missing was lowered from 25 to 19, local Civil Defense officials said.

The dead have yet to be identified. Many were buried by landslides or in the debris of collapsed houses, which in many poorer parts of Brazil are shoddily built.

Officials said some 17,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in 58 towns and cities across Minas Gerais state, including in the capital Belo Horizonte, as well as in nearby areas. More than 10,000 others had to flee in two neighboring states.

Images taken from the ground and the air, some posted on social media, showed the vast sweep of the disaster, with damaged houses, fallen trees and downed utility poles, overflowing rivers, collapsed bridges and flooded neighborhoods.

The torrential rains  the worst since records were first kept 110 years ago  eased off on Sunday, but authorities said the risk of new landslides would continue through Friday in towns in the Belo Horizonte area.

From India, where he is on an official trip, President Jair Bolsonaro said the government was doing "everything possible," while adding that in such a large area "it is difficult to serve everyone."

Regional Development Minister Gustavo Canuto and Governor Romeu Zema of Minas Gerais state flew over the affected area and promised afterward in a news conference to prioritize humanitarian aid for the homeless. They announced immediate aid of 90 million reais (about US$22 million).

Zema warned that without consistent, long-term public policies to reduce areas at risk, "we will see things like this many times over".

But in Vila Bernadete, a neighborhood on the edge of Belo Horizonte where six people died in a landslide that toppled seven hillside homes, a resident, Audemar Carneiro, said the area had never seemed at risk.

"Nothing like this has ever happened here," the 51-year-old said.

"It was a fairly safe place... It was an unannounced tragedy."  AFP
Anti-government demonstrators rebuilt torched protest camps across Iraq on Monday, seeking to keep up their movement's momentum after a rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad threatened an escalation.

The attack, which wounded one person, marked a dangerous shift after volleys of rockets in recent months targeted Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed.

No faction has claimed responsibility but the US has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions for previous incidents.

The latest attack sparked renewed fears that Baghdad could be dragged into a conflict between Tehran and Washington, weeks after tensions spiked following the US killing in Baghdad of a top Iranian general.

Anti-government activists fear such a conflict would derail their movement, the largest grassroots campaign Iraq has seen in decades.

They also fear a crackdown after losing the support of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who backed the rallies when they first erupted then abruptly changed his mind Friday after holding his own anti-US rally.

University students have carried the torch, gathering in the thousands in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south to insist on their demands and affirm their political independence.

"When we first came out to protest and hold sit-ins, we didn't commit to the narrative of the Sadrist movement or any other political party," said Zainab Mohammad, a university student in the shrine city of Karbala.

"We came out on our own, and we will continue until our demands our met," she said.

Protesters are demanding snap elections, an independent successor to resigned prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and the prosecution of those implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

Angered by a lack of progress, they began ramping up pressure a week ago, sealing streets with burning tyres and metal barricades. Riot police have responded with live rounds and tear gas.

Early on Monday, unidentified gunmen stormed a protest camp in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah and torched tents, an AFP correspondent there said.

The attackers fired on activists who had been sleeping there, killing one and wounding four others, a medic said.

But hours later, determined protesters had erected new tents and even built a one-room cement installation, signalling their determination to stay put.

In the oil-rich but impoverished port city of Basra, student protesters re-erected tents dismantled by authorities over the weekend, AFP's reporter said.

The main protest camp in the Shiite holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen, but protesters jumped into action Monday morning, blocking roads with burning tyres.

In the early afternoon, a funeral march made its way through the city to mourn the young man killed earlier in the day in Nasiriyah, identified as 14-year-old Ali Zuweir.

Relatives carried Zuweir's coffin through Najaf, a favoured burial place for Iraqi Shiites, holding up his portrait and weeping loudly.

This week's uptick in violence has killed 21 protesters, bringing the toll since October close to 480 dead, the vast majority demonstrators, according to an AFP tally compiled from medics and security sources.

Sadr's march on Friday saw thousands turn out to demand American troops leave the country, after the US used Iraqi airspace to carry out a drone strike on top Iranian and Iraqi officials on January 3.

Outraged, Iraq's parliament voted on January 5 in favour of ousting all foreign forces, including the 5,200 US troops deployed in Iraq.

Pro-Iran factions in Iraq, particularly those tied to the Hashed al-Shaabi military force, had long lobbied for the ouster of American forces.

On Monday, top Hashed commander Qais al-Khazali said any candidate being considered to replace Abdel Mahdi, who has stayed on in a caretaker capacity, must pledge to execute parliament's vote and oust foreign troops.

Other conditions for the new premier included holding snap parliamentary elections by the end of the year and implementing a landmark development deal with China.

Washington has blamed hardline Hashed factions, including Khazali's Asaib Ahl al-Haq for rocket attacks on the US embassy and American troops in recent months.

On Sunday evening, three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq's capital, wounding one person, according to a senior Iraqi official and a US diplomatic source.

No details were available on whether the casualty was a US national or an Iraqi member of staff at the mission.

The US embassy did not respond to requests for comment, while the US State Department called on Iraq to "fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities".

Iraq's foreign ministry said the attack would not impact US-Iraqi relations, although Abdel Mahdi and parliament speaker Mohammed Halbusi said the incident risked dragging their homeland into war.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ten years after releasing Windows 7 to the public, Microsoft officially put the popular operating system to rest earlier this month when the company rolled out the final update for Windows 7.

Just kidding.

It turns out that update actually introduced a new bug, so Microsoft is promising to deliver at least one more update that will fix the issue.

The bug wasnt a particularly serious one  when you tried to use the Stretch option on your desktop wallpaper, you might see a black wallpaper instead of the image you were hoping for.

But it would have been rather problematic for Microsoft to leave a new bug of its own making in the last official software update for the operating system. So its nice to know that a patch to fix the issue is on the way.

That said, Microsoft is not promising to deliver any additional security updates or bug fixes. So if vulnerabilities are discovered in the future that could leave your Windows 7 computers vulnerable to malware, then youre pretty much on your own.

There are some things you could do to help extend the life of your Windows 7 PC though.

You may be able to get by indefinitely by using third-party security software or just disconnecting your computer from the internet. Theres a decent chance you could upgrade to Windows 10 for free (even if the free upgrade offer officially ended ages ago), but you wont get any support from Microsoft if you run into hardware compatibility issues. Or you could try ditching Windows altogether and switching to Linux although thats probably a bigger commitment/lifestyle change than buying a new Windows PC would be for some people.

via Neowin
On Sunday, a video clip of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) surfaced on social media that showed the soldiers hoisting the national flag in knee-deep snow at 17,000 feet in Ladakh in minus 20 degrees Celsius on the occasion of 71st Republic Day.

The people on Twitter heaped praises for their bravery.

ANI took to its Twitter handle to share the video with the caption that read, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel with the national flag celebrating Republic Day at 17000 feet in the snow today. The temperature in Ladakh at present is minus 20 degrees Celsius. 'Himveers' chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'."

Watch the video clip here:

#WATCH Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel with the national flag celebrating Republic Day at 17000 feet in snow today. The temperature in Ladakh at present is minus 20 degrees Celsius. 'Himveers' chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'. pic.twitter.com/ANCe8txnFI  ANI (@ANI) January 26, 2020





The temperature in Ladakh is extremely cold and is around minus 20 degrees Celsius. The 1-minute 57-second long video shows the personnel chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Matram.

Soon after the heartwarming video was made available online, it garnered around 50.1k views along with 2.7K re-tweets.

People on Twitter are full of love and praises for the soldiers.

Check out some of the reactions here:

Wish you very Happy Republic Day to Respected #Himveers sir. We are very proud of you sir, Love you so much sir. Jai Hind Sir.  DIXIT (@ILOVEMYINDIASJ) January 26, 2020

WOW !!!

What sacrifice. You are our Heroes. No amount of gratitude from us will ever be able to match your valor and sacrifice.

VANDE MAATARAM

JAI HIND

BHARAT MAATAA KI JAI  dmishra2000 (@dmishra2000) January 26, 2020

Politicians fighting for Kursi, brave soliders like ITBP fighting for the Nation!  Kuldeep SULTAN (@kuldeep_sultan) January 26, 2020

To such brave men & women we owe our gratitude for freedom we enjoy. Jai Hind.  Kaushik Shah (@kaushikshah63) January 26, 2020

Great, We salute the brave sons of our Nation. pic.twitter.com/MO8NIgcSOu  HEMACHANDRAN NAIR (@AdvhemanP) January 26, 2020

Salute to these guys. "The Real Hero Of Our Country" #RepublicDay2020   Kunika (@Kunika35424424) January 26, 2020

Jai jai bharat of our national heros  Vivek Raj (@VivekRa10376119) January 26, 2020

No words would be enough to appreciate their dedication and courage. Salute to the "real heroes" of the nation!
OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the last two decades, the party drugs of the 1960s and beyond - LSD, ecstasy, and magic mushrooms among them - have been returning to their roots as psychiatric drugs. Since psilocybin was awarded "breakthrough therapy" status by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018, drug development has been proceeding at a feverish pitch. The latest entry, OLP Therapeutics, an Oakland, California startup, is releasing its first product line: natural, unaltered psilocybin mushroom medicines with exact, standardized quantities of active ingredients.

OLP's products are hitting the market in February in Jamaican medical settings, whereas synthetic products are years away from becoming commercially available. OLP is additionally offering trainings for therapists in the medicine's use. Key to OLP's success has been advances in the use of chromatography to cheaply test mushrooms.

OLP has formed a joint venture, Jamaica Medicinal Mushrooms, with a group of Jamaican mushroom cultivators led by Pauline Smith. Smith has a decade of experience in community empowerment and anti-poverty initiatives focused on gourmet and medicinal mushroom cultivation. This partnership ensures local Jamaican communities and farmers will benefit from the exploding international interest in psilocybin mushroom therapies.

The founders of OLP, James Keim, James McConchie, and Reggie Harris met during the successful grassroots movement to decriminalize entheogenic plant medicines in Oakland. They and their scientists share a commitment to community empowerment and access to safe, natural psilocybin medicines.

McConchie explains, "We are committed to honoring people over profit while bringing natural psilocybin medicine to the world. Our proprietary process creates safe, reliably standardized doses for therapeutic applications without altering the natural healing compounds nature has provided."

Keim, a psychotherapist and coauthor of the book, The Violence of Men, notes "The FDA's breakthrough therapy designation indicates psilocybin might be 'substantially' better than existing drugs. Research also indicates it is less toxic than aspirin and existing antidepressants. Given that one of the most common means of attempted suicide is psychiatric medication, we hope this safety difference translates to a significantly lower suicide rate."

"Psilocybin even makes therapy more interesting for the clinician," Keim adds. "Clients are much more profound and engaging after taking psilocybin. I found that my clients with PTSD and addictions can make more progress in a session or two than they can make in years of our conventional therapy. Psilocybin sessions also require a more present and engaged therapist, and it's making us better clinicians for this reason."

Media Contact:

James Keim, CEO

Phone: (510) 693-3914

Email: [email protected]

Related Links

OLP Website

JMM Website

SOURCE OLP Therapeutics

Related Links

https://www.olptherapeutics.com


(Alliance News) - The UK Competition & Markets Authority said Monday it will look into the anticipated acquisition by the refractory products supplier RHI Magnesita NV of Turkish mining company Kumas Manzeyit Sanayi AS.

The regulator said it is considering whether the acquisition may result in a "substantial lessening" of competition within the any market in the UK.

In September 2019, RHI Magnesita had said it signed a letter of intent with the sellers of Kumas. The letter of intent allowed RHI magnesita to commence competition clearance and other regulatory filings in relation to the proposed acquisition.

RHI Magnesita shares were trading 2.9% lower in London at 3,400.00 pence each on Monday.

By Loreta Juodagalvyte; loretajuodagalvyte@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 27, 2020 | 02:42 PM | CALVERT CITY

According to the Calvert City Police Department, on Saturday 36-year-old Matthew Wayne Rowe was arrested after a traffic stop.





Officers say Rowe was arrested on a Marshall County Warrant for failure to appear. He was also served a McCracken County Warrant for failure to appear.





Rowe is also facing charges related to no registration plates, no registration receipt, failure to produce an insurance card, failure to maintain required insurance first offense, failure to register transfer of vehicle, and operating a vehicle on a suspended or revoked license.



A Calvert City man is facing numerous charges after a traffic stop.
State-owned Bank of Baroda, which saw slippages soaring over Rs 10,000 crore in December quarter, is expecting the same to taper down from the next quarter, its newly-appointed managing director and chief executive Sanjiv Chadha said on Monday.

In the three months to December period, BoB's fresh slippages stood at Rs 10,387 crore, of which Rs 4,509 crore were on account of divergence found by the Reserve Bank for 2019 fiscal.

The city-based lender had reported a loss of Rs 1,407 crore in the December quarter as against a net profit of Rs 436 crore a year ago due to higher provisioning for bad loans.

"Given the fact that there are some indicators like the watch-list coming down, in terms of size, I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that the slippage levels should be lower going forward," Chadha, who took over the charge last week told PTI in an interview.

The lender's watch-list came down to Rs 10,500 crore in the December quarter from Rs 14,500 crore in the September quarter.

Chadha, who was with SBI prior to joining BoB, said if the divergence is kept aside, then slippages in the third quarter were similar to the previous quarters, which is in the region of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore.

He also said slippages will come down as the bank has been tightening its underwriting standards and loans are offered to highly rated entities.

"Nearly 70 per cent of our loans are of A-grade or higher. So, underwriting standards are much tighter than they would have been in the past. So, it should help (in reducing the slippage levels)," he said.

The bank is looking at recovery from a large stressed steel account (Bhushan Power & Steel) in the current quarter. Barring this, the bank does not have large exposure to NCLT accounts, so recoveries will mostly come through other sources.

During December quarter, there were three NBFC accounts worth Rs 2,900 crore, one chemical company worth Rs 2,700 crore and two power companies worth Rs 1,000 crore that slipped into NPAs.

The bank's gross NPA ratio declined to 10.43 per cent as against 10.91 per cent in the third quarter, while net NPA stood at 4.05 per cent as against 4.79 per cent.

Starting April 1, 2019, BoB amalgamated Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with it.

Talking about the merger, he said the move was very well orchestrated.

"Over the next few months, we must make sure that it reaches a conclusion. The plan is to do it over 12-18 months period and we will make sure that it actually happens," he said.

Chadha said merger of the three lenders will result in savings of around Rs 9,000 crore over the next five years.

"There is an estimate that over five years there would be Rs 9,000 crore of cost savings which will come on account of rationalisation of branches and treasury, among others," he said, adding one major cost cutting will be by way of three headquarters becoming one.

According to him, international operations will remain an important part of the business mix for the state-owned bank and the emphasis may change from one geography to another depending on the growth opportunities.

Chadha said the bank must play its role in terms of being a purveyor of credit to the economy and so the focus will be to have better risk management.

"We will ensure to make all the investments that are required to increase the pace of loan growth but at the same time do it in a manner which is risk-mitigated. Therefore, we will invest more in sprucing up our risk management processes," he concluded.

BoB counter closed 3.4 per cent down at 92.35 on the BSE on a day when the benchmark Sensex plunged 1.1 per cent on the global risk averseness following the spread of the coronavirus to many nations from China.
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Plans were revealed over the weekend for a massive solar farm on a 62.8 hectare (155 acres) farm in Kilcurley, just outside Dundalk.

The proposed site in the townland of Kilcurley is just over four km outside Dundalk, has the potential to power up to 11,000 homes, should it get the go ahead.

The company proposing to develop the solar farm is an Irish owned renewable energy company, located in Wexford, called Harmony Solar Ireland Limited.

According to details seen by the Dundalk Democrat, the company is proposing a development that could remain operational for up to 30 years. The developer says that this is because the life span of the solar panels is understood to be up to 30 years. It is also understood that once the 30 years are up, the land is to revert to agricultural land.

The solar panels will be mounted on long racks to form arrays, with the arrays laid out in rows running east to west across the site, facing south.

Each array will reach a height of around three metres, with a maximum height of 3.2 metres.

According to Harmony Solar, the arrays will be fixed into the ground on metal poles and will not affect the grassland around and beneath the panels. Harmony anticipates that this would allow the potential for sheep grazing during the operational phase of the solar farm.

The company has contacted residents in the vicinity of the proposed solar farm, informing them of its intentions, including plans to submit a planning application to Louth County Council.
ST-HENRI-DE-TAILLON, QUE.The Quebec coroners office has identified the two French snowmobilers whose bodies were pulled from the waters of Lac-Saint-Jean on Sunday.

Julien Benoit, 34, and Yan Thierry, 24, were two of the eight French tourists who were travelling with a guide when their snowmobiles broke through the ice last Tuesday.

Their bodies were found more than three kilometres from where the initial search began.

Quebec provincial search-and-rescue teams are still looking for the final two tourists who remain unaccounted for six days after the accident. The effort has involved dozens of police officers searching by air, land and water.

The 42-year-old guide, Benoit LEsperance of Montreal, died in hospital early Wednesday, and the body of 58-year-old French citizen Gilles Claude was found Friday. Three members of the party survived.

Read more about:
Jeff Bezos was seen in New York City with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, exclusive DailyMail.com photos show, days after it was reported she was the one who disclosed their affair to her brother, who then sold the story to the National Enquirer - not Saudi Arabia.

The Amazon founder, 56, was spotted getting off a helicopter and into a dark SUV on Sunday, while Sanchez followed behind him with her daughter Eleanor, who she shares with her ex Patrick Whitesell.

Later that night, the smitten pair were seen heading to a performance of West Side Story on Broadway, as a dapper Bezos tenderly held onto both Sanchez's arm and hand.

The couple were fresh in from Washington D.C., where they held a bash the night before at Bezos' new $23 million mansion, which was attended by Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Bill Gates and Ben Stiller.

The sighting comes after federal prosecutors said they obtained evidence that proved Sanchez's brother Michael had sold texts Sanchez had sent him containing her intimate conversations with Bezos to the National Enquirer for $200,000.

Jeff Bezos was seen in New York City with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, exclusive DailyMail.com photos show, days after it was reported she was the one who disclosed their affair to her brother, who then sold the story to the National Enquirer - not Saudi Arabia . Pictured: Bezos, Sanchez and her daughter Eleanor

The smitten pair were seen heading to a performance of West Side Story on Broadway, as a dapper Bezos tenderly held onto both Sanchez's arm and hand

Bezos dressed in a gray suit and Sanchez sported aviator glasses, a blue printed skirt and a black long sleeved top. Sanchez's daughter Eleanor held her hand as they left the theater

The sighting comes after federal prosecutors said they obtained evidence that proved Sanchez's brother Michael (left) had sold texts Sanchez had sent him containing her intimate conversations with Bezos (right) to the National Enquirer for $200,000

The couple seemed to pay no mind to the revelation, as Bezos and Sanchez looked smitten as ever as they left a Broadway performance of West Side Story.

Bezos dressed in a gray suit and Sanchez sported aviator glasses, a blue printed skirt and a long sleeved black top. Sanchez's daughter Eleanor held her mother's hand as they left the theater.

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported prosecutors in NYC obtained documents including a May 10, 2018 text message sent from Sanchez's phone to her brother Michael, containing her intimate texts with Bezos.

The Journal said it had reviewed the text messages as well as a $200,000 payment Michael received from the Enquirer under an October 2018 contract.

Prosecutors obtained the documents in an ongoing investigation into Bezos' allegation that the Enquirer tried to extort him by threatening to publish his nude pictures, as well as whether his phone was hacked.

Bezos himself has long pushed the suggestion that Saudi Arabia was involved as the Enquirer's source.

Last week, Bezos' investigators, endorsed by U.N. officials, indicated that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia had sent malicious code in a WhatsApp message that compromised Bezos' cell phone.

The couple arrived to the city via helicopter on Sunday

The couple seemed to brush off the revelation, as Bezos and Sanchez looked smitten as ever

Included in the tabloid's expose was a quote from the Bezos text message that the Journal says Lauren Sanchez had sent to her brother in May 2018

Saudi Arabia denies hacking Bezos' phone. The Enquirer claims that Michael was their source for the bombshell story that revealed Bezos' affair, while Michael denies he had anything to do with it.

'In September of 2018, Michael Sanchez began providing all materials and information to our reporters,' a spokesman for American Media told the Journal.

The spokesman said that any suggestion that a third party, such as Saudi Arabia, 'was involved in or in any way influenced our reporting is false.'

Michael told the Journal in an emailed statement: 'With spoon-fed lies and half-truths, Wall Street Journal keeps getting it wrong.'

In January 2019, the Enquirer exposed Bezos' extramarital affair with Sanchez. The same week he abruptly announced a separation from his wife of 26 years, and has been romantically linked with Sanchez ever since.

Included in the tabloid's expose was a quote from a text message from Bezos that the Journal says Lauren had sent to her brother in May 2018.

Another text message sent from Sanchez's phone to her brother's on July 3, 2018 includes a photo of a shirtless Bezos, according to the Journal.

Despite the ongoing drama, Bezos and Sanchez have put on an united front, recently seen on a trip to India and on Saturday night thew a lavish party at Bezos' new Washington D.C. home.

The Amazon founder purchased the $23 million mansion in 2016 and it underwent three years of renovations and construction.

Despite the ongoing drama, Bezos and Sanchez have put on an united front, recently going on a trip to India together and on Saturday night thew a lavish party at Bezos' new Washington D.C. home (pictured)

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared walked out hand in hand from Alfafa Dinner on Saturday night to attend a grand welcoming party at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' new Washington DC mansion

Microsoft founder and fellow tech genius Bill Gates was spotted at the elegant affair on Saturday to welcome Bezos into Washington DC society

Actor Ben Stiller, who was Sen. Mitt Romney's guest at the dinner, was seen in good spirits arriving to the sprawling mansion on Saturday

Bezos rubbed shoulders with his political friends inviting Senator Mitt Romney to the party with his wife Ann

White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway also attended sporting an elegant black halter dress for the occasion

The 27,000-square-foot home is tucked in the city's wealthy Kalorama district near the residences of former President Barack Obama and the Trump-Kushner family.

Bezos invited his high-flying friends to his home after they attended the annual, exclusive Alfalfa Club Dinner in DC.

The Alfalfa Club holds an annual black tie banquet and political roast on the last Saturday of January every year. The event is only open to the 200 members of the club and has an invitation system. The exclusive event is not open to the press.

Guests arrived in elegant suits and floor-length dresses for the swanky affair, but Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez were nowhere to be seen at the entrance to the 11-bedroom, 25-bathroom grand mansion.

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared seemed loved up as they arrived to the mansion.

Senator Mitt Romney, who was the keynote speaker at the dinner, was also dressed in a smart suit and bowtie with his wife Ann, who wore a gray satin ensemble.

White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway attended in an elegant black halter dress.

Not only did Bezos expand his political circle, but he also invited Microsoft founder Bill Gates to the event as well as actor Ben Stiller, who was Senator Romney's guest.

Many guests were seen wearing a special gold medallions around their neck designating them as Alfalfa Club members.

While several presidents have been members and former presidents including George W Bush and Barack Obama spoke at the Alfalfa banquets in the past, Donald Trump is yet to be invited.
[January 27, 2020] Zigmabit Launches Revolutionary Mining Chip

TOKYO, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zigmabit is growing fast in the crypto mining industry. The company recently launched three multi-algorithm mining rigs that assure maximum return on investment within just one month. Zigmabit just launched a customer care facility in Munich, Germany to serve customers better. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082473/Zigmabit_Launches_Revolutionary_Mining_Chip.jpg

Company logo

To view an enhanced version of this logo please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6802/50703_9878d9ea640a38b8_001full.jpg Zigbit Miners, the world's first DLC (direct liquid cooling) mining rig, is designed for the beginners as well as seasoned crypto miners. All three products are easy to use as they come pre-configured and the users only needto plug in and start mining.



Though the popularity of crypto mining has increased by leaps and bounds over the years, earning profits consistently has been a concern for many mining enthusiasts. Zigmabit is the brainchild of a team of investors dedicated to making cryptocurrency mining simpler and profitable for all.

Zigmabit ( www.zigmabit.com ) has a team of experts that have been actively involved in the crypto industry since its very early days. The company's three new crypto miners, ZigBit 2.0, ZigBit 3.0 and ZigBit 5.0 were designed with the goal of delivering products that will ensure higher profitability for the users.



The company has accomplished this objective by maximizing the hash rate to a level that has never been achieved in this industry. These miners can operate under multiple algorithms and are capable of mining Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dash. Mentioned below are the hash rate powers offered by the three miners. Bitcoin : ZigBit 2.0. 260 TH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 330 TH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 2000 TH/s

: ZigBit 2.0. 260 TH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 330 TH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 2000 TH/s Litecoin : ZigBit 2.0. 44 GH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 55 GH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 300 GH/s

: ZigBit 2.0. 44 GH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 55 GH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 300 GH/s Ethereum : ZigBit 2.0. 11 GH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 14 GH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 75 GH/s

: ZigBit 2.0. 11 GH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 14 GH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 75 GH/s Dash: ZigBit 2.0. 6 TH/s, ZigBit 3.0. 9 TH/s, ZigBit 5.0. 50TH/s In order to stand out in a highly competitive market, Zigmabit Miners has also included smart features such as closed-loop cooling system, noiseless fans, silent high-pressure pumps, super-efficient radiators, and much more.

About Zigmabit Inc.:

Zigmabit Inc. is a manufacturer of high-quality cryptocurrency miners that deliver extremely high hash power without consuming a lot of power. Their team comprises of several top-level professionals from renowned organizations such as Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, and many others. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company currently has a manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom and Newly opened facility in Munich, Germany.

Ken Naruto

PR Manager Zigmabit Inc

Ken Naruto

PR Specialist

Zigmabit Inc

[email protected] This release was issued through WebWire. For more information, visit http://www.webwire.com.

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President Donald Trump's televangelist spiritual adviser sparked outrage after praying in a sermon for Jesus Christ to 'command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now.'

Florida pastor Paula White, 53, who has a job in the White House and has been close to Trump for 18 years, said: 'We declare that anything that's been conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm.'

A video of the January 5 sermon was posted on Twitter by the liberal advocacy group Right Wing Watch and has been viewed more than 8million times since Friday.

The short 94 second clip prompted a furious backlash from critics.

But White claimed she was speaking in 'metaphors' and was merely praying for evil plans to be foiled in the lives of her congregants.

Pastor Paula White has been close to Donald Trump for 18 years. They are pictured together here during an 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event on January 3 in Miami

White joined the White House Office of Public Liaison as a religious adviser in October. She is pictured in the Oval Office earlier this month announcing new guidance on constitutional prayer in public schools

She tweeted yesterday: 'I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context.

'I was praying (Ephesians) 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

'Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life ...'

Ephesians 6:12, according to the King James Bible translation, reads: 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.'

Jennifer Gunter, an obstetrician and gynecologist who writes a column on women's reproductive health for the New York Times, tweeted: 'So Paula White wants everyone at @WhiteHouse to know she is praying for abortion.'

James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest, said: 'No pregnancies are satanic. Every child is a gift from God.

'No one should ever pray for any woman to miscarry. No one should ever pray for evil or harm to befall another person.

'Jesus asked us to pray for our persecutors, not to curse them. To love our neighbors as ourselves.'

A video of the January 5 sermon was posted on Twitter by the liberal advocacy group Right Wing Watch and has been viewed more than 8million times since Friday. She is pictured here striding onto stage in Miami for a pro-Trump event on January 3

White claimed she was speaking in 'metaphors' and was merely praying for evil plans to be foiled in the lives of her congregants. Pictured with Trump in Janaury

But others backed her claims her comments were metaphorical.

Andre Gagne, a theological studies professor at Concordia University and expert on the Christian right, said White probably was speaking in metaphor when she called for miscarriages.

He cited a book by Nigerian evangelist D.K. Olukoya that describes 'satanic pregnancies' as 'the plans that Satan has against a person's life.'

Gagne concluded: 'White is commanding that Satan's plans be aborted.'

White preaches the 'Prosperity Gospel,' which says giving money to churches and religious causes brings health and wealth, and says that she and Trump had once planned to open a megachurch together.

She joined the White House Office of Public Liaison as a religious adviser in October.

Trump and White, a televangelist, have been close for 18-years, and now she's working for the White House  a state of affairs that makes many Christians in the West Wing uncomfortable

In her controversial sermon she also vented her fury against forces that may harm the president.

With her eyes closed, she said: 'We come against the marine kingdom, we come against the animal kingdom.

'We declare that any strange winds - any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself, sent against others - we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now.'

She also condemned 'any hex, any spell, any witchcraft, any spirit of control, any Jezebel,' and 'anything that the enemy desires through spells.'

White is well known for her passionate sermons and also gave a vitriolic speech at a re-election rally for Trump in June where she declared that his opponents were a 'demonic network.'

But calling for the deaths of unborn babies, even metaphorically, is unusual for White and evangelical preachers in general due to their strident belief in the right to life and opposition to abortion rights which are one of the most important political issues for religious conservatives.

Pastor Paula White, fourth from left, and other faith leaders pray with President Donald Trump, center, during a rally for evangelical supporters at the King Jesus International Ministry church, Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, in Miami.

In a 2017 interview she said she and Trump made plans in 2006 to build a megachurch together.

'He wanted to build a house of God,' she said. 'He said, "Let's do this, let's build this before we're too old".'

White claimed Trump hired an architect and wanted her to take the project over once it was built, but a divorce from her second husband a year later sidelined everything.

She is now married to Jonathan Cain, the keyboardist from the rock band Journey.

Miscarriages are the most common type of pregnancy loss and happen in 10 to 20 percent of all pregnancies. In the United States, miscarriage is defined as the death of an embryo or fetus before the 20th week of pregnancy, after which it would be considered a stillbirth.

Presidential spiritual adviser Paula White takes authority over the marine kingdom, the animal kingdom, and all "satanic pregnancies" that seek to harm Trump or the church. pic.twitter.com/pmrJEIxCHk  Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) January 24, 2020

White and Trump first spoke in 2002 when he called her to praise her televised sermon, The Washington Post Magazine has reported.

White claims she advised him to hold back running for president in 2011, telling him: 'I don't feel it's the right timing.'

When he did run she helped his campaign by arranging a meeting with hundreds of evangelical leaders.

When he was inaugurated, White was one of six clergy members who spoke at the ceremony.

In October, she joined the White House in an official capacity, advising the president's Faith and Opportunity Initiative and handling outreach to religious groups.

White said in a sermon in November that Christians who give money to her ministry will receive life-clarifying 'visions' from God.

She prayed that congregants would open their wallets. 'Maybe that's a sacrifice of fifty dollars or a hundred dollars, maybe it's a thousand dollars, whatever it is you speak,' she told the Almighty.

'Some of us are gonna get a covenant seed right now,' she said, referring to her belief that cash donations are 'seeds' that grow into karma-like benefits that return to the giver in larger ways.
Investor anxiety thats swept the globe over the coronavirus extended to Canadian stocks and the loonie after a second person in Toronto tested positive for the illness.

Volatility on the S&P/TSX Composite Index spiked as stocks posted their biggest drop since October, joining a worldwide equity rout. The loonie weakened against the U.S. dollar and Canadas two-year and 10-year bonds rallied for a fifth straight day.

With two infected patients in Canadas most populous city, concern is rising about the speed with which the virus has spread beyond China. Its similarity to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)  a disease that killed 44 in Canada, the highest number of deaths outside of Asia  has both heightened fears and served as a reminder that the country is in a much better position to deal with a pandemic than it was 17 years ago.

Panic is the biggest risk, said Rebekah Young, an economist at Bank of Nova Scotia, by phone. When you actually look back at SARS where Canada was an epicentre, the overall economic impact was negligible. It was a very-short lived impact and in a big picture, not that bad.

For the nations stock market, its a tale of two moves: gold miners surged Monday as investors piled into haven assets, while industrial metal miners slumped as the price of copper and iron ore sank on concerns that global growth could slow. Teck Resources Ltd. dropped for a third day, to its lowest since July 2016.

Air Canada slipped for a fifth day, taking its plunge to about 12 per cent over that stretch, the biggest drop since June 2016. The airline reported quarterly losses during the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic as travellers avoided Toronto.

Canada Goose Holdings Inc. fell four per cent and Gildan Activewear Inc. slipped two per cent. Both clothing companies could see a decline in earnings.

Ballard Power Systems Inc., the fuel-cell manufacturer that gets more than 30 per cent of its revenue from China, fell as much as nine per cent.

Imax Corp., a Mississauga, Ont.-based company listed in the U.S. that gets more than 30 per cent of its revenue from China, extended last weeks drop, for a six-day decline of about 15 per cent.

A major spread of the disease couldnt come at a worse time for the nations economy, which is emerging from what may have been its weakest growth since 2016 at the end of last year. Any rebound this year could be tempered if the disease spreads into the North American country, economists said.

Economists at Scotiabank estimate that a similar outbreak to the 2003 SARS epidemic could dent the economy by just over 0.1 per cent on the level of GDP by mid-2020.

While trader jitters seep into market sentiment, some are saying buy the dip. Jefferies industrials research team said in a report that the knee-jerk reaction within the metals and mining sectors could be an opportunity to pick up stocks amid the sell-off. During the spread of SARS, the initial reaction was sharply negative for metals and mining equities but the sector rebounded sharply afterwards, which could be the case for coronavirus, the analysts said.

With assistance from Jacqueline Thorpe and Aoyon Ashraf.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially private citizens. The two cut ties with the royal family in early January 2020, and since then, theyve started a new life on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Despite the couples high-profile departure, the royal family has reportedly put a contingency plan in place in case the Sussexes return. And theres one reason why the queen seemingly doesnt have faith in their future as it stands.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Steve Back/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently left the royal family

When Harry and Meghan were first married, it seemed like everything in their lives would be blissful. But the two quickly learned that royal life would not be so kind to them. Meghan was heavily scrutinized from the moment she married into the family. Tabloids would dig through Meghans past to find anything they could to knock her down. The Duchess of Sussex was labeled a social climber, and stories were released about her reported feuds with staff members and Kate Middleton.

Meghan and Harry ultimately decided that the press treatment was too much for them to handle. The two announced their departure from the royal family at the beginning of 2020.

The two are searching for a more private life in Canada

Harry and Meghan spent six weeks on Vancouver Island in British Columbia at the end of 2019. The two wanted a break from the media and were likely doing a trial run of how life would be if they left the family. Its clear that they fell in love with the area, since they were quick to return upon their major royal announcement.

Now, the two have settled into their new home. Meghan was spotted walking the couples dogs with Archie, and she was all smiles, despite the paparazzi.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want a more private life for Archie | Dominic Lipinski/WPA Pool/Getty Images

The royals think Meghan and Harrys media scrutiny will be too much for them

Though Harry and Meghan appear to have settled in nicely, there have already been rumors that they are regretting their decision to split from the other royals. Royal family commentator Rob Shuter recently said on Good Day New York that the royal family is concerned that Meghan and Harrys media scrutiny will prove to be too much for them in their private lives as well.

Harry and Meghan were protected by the royal family when they lived on the grounds of Windsor Castle. But now that theyre on their own, some of that protection is gone (though they still have a hefty security team). The royals are reportedly concerned that they wont be able to handle the media on their own and, as a result, theyll eventually rejoin the family.

The family has reportedly put a plan in place should the couple return

Though Harry and Meghan seemed final in their decision to separate, the royal family has reportedly put a plan in place in case the two dont last on their own. The media has always been relentless toward the couple, and things havent changed much since they left the family. It seems the queen doesnt have much faith in their non-royal future and is already planning for the two to make a royal comeback.
Face masks have been flying off shop shelves following detection of the deadly new acute pneumonia virus in Vietnam.

Several supermarkets and convenience stores staying open during Tet, the Lunar New Year festival, have seen an unusual surge in people buying medical and antibacterial masks, staff at these outlets said.

The Aeon Mall supermarket chain in Hanoi has attracted large numbers of visitors and shoppers during the holiday that lasts until January 29. Of these, many people visited the face mask stall located at the entrance of the outlets. It has been among the most popular stalls, next to the fresh food and vegetable stalls.

Hong Anh, a Hanoi resident, said she was looking for a mask at the stall ever since news broke a few days ago about the virus spreading to Vietnam. Many drugstores that sell medical and antibacterial masks were closed for Tet, so she went to the retail store to buy masks for the whole family.

"There is a range of facemasks at different prices to choose from. At this time spending a few hundred thousand dong (VND100,000 = $4.3) to buy a good mask is not too expensive because there are still no vaccines against the virus, preventive steps are needed," Hong Anh said.

Quang, another Hanoi resident shopping for masks for his family, shared similar concerns.

"In a few days my children will go to back to school after Tet, so Im looking for medical masks for them and other adults to wear to school and work," he said.

Vietnam confimed the first two cases of nCoV pneumonia infection last Thursday, the first day of the Tet holiday. The Chinese patients, father and son, have been quarantined at the Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC for treatment.

The new coronavirus (nCoV) was first detected in Chinas Wuhan City last December.

While the prices for antibacterial masks at supermarkets remain stable, ranging from VND17,000-70,000 ($0.7-3) depending on the type, online sites are also selling these like hot cakes, with prices fluctuating depending on the product and the quality claimed.

After posting a mask for sale on a Facebook group, Huyen has received a few dozen orders for the 3D Unicharm masks, a Japanese product. She claims this is the most virus-resistant type that can prevent effects of environmental pollution and keep out particle dust.

It costs VND240,000 ($10.4) per box of 100 pieces. Meanwhile, the N95 mask of a US-based company called 3M costs VND22,000 ($0.95) each and can be used five times. The product is said to have at least 95 percent filtration efficiency against certain non-oil based particles.

Ngoc, another online seller who has offered the same products an hour earlier, was selling them for higher prices at VND270,000 ($11.7) and VND90,000 ($3.9) respectively.

On Sunday, the Da Nang Hospital quarantined 12 people with high fever for coronavirus infection tests, which made Tinh, a resident of the central city of Da Nang, increasingly nervous.

"Living in central Vietnam I have no choice but to force everyone in the house to use a mask when they leave the house." She has ordered five boxes of Smart masks imported from Singapore for four family members, each box costing VND300,000 ($13).

Several doctors say that a 3-layer medical mask can prevent the coronavirus so there is no need to buy masks that are too expensive. The virus weakens at temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius, especially when it gets above 25 degrees Celsius with high humidity.

Doctors also recommend keeping houses well-ventilated and keep room temperature above 25 degrees Celsius.

So far, apart from Vietnam, the virus has spread from mainland China to Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, France and Canada, infecting more than 2,500 people.

In Vietnam, as of Sunday afternoon, of patients suspected of carrying the new pneumonia virus, two (the Chinese patients, father and son) have tested positive, 22 negative and 35 are awaiting results, according to Ministry of Health data.
The Kremlins strategy in relations with Ukraine has never been based on confrontation, Russian presidents press secretary Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on political analysts guesswork that Moscow has embarked on a course towards closer relations with Kiev.



"Any changes are out of the question. The Kremlins strategy has never been based on the ideas of confrontation with Ukraine," Peskov stressed.

"The head of state has repeatedly said that Russia has always been and is in favor of good relations between the two nations," the Russian presidents press secretary recalled.
Mamata recently appealed her counterparts in the northeast and non-BJP states to study carefully the NPR form. (Photo Credit: PTI File)

New Delhi:

Launching a fresh tirade against the BJP, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday said people who are being misguided by the saffron party should be told that they are not bonded labours but citizens of this country. Mamata while making a veiled dig at BJPs national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiyas statement on Poha and its connection with the Bangladeshi identity, asked, Did you (BJP) eat air while growing up? I have never heard that a person can be recognised with their dresses and food habits. This can't be tolerated?

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee: Did you (BJP) eat air while growing up? I have never heard that a person can be recognised with their dresses and food habits. This can't be tolerated. https://t.co/SBMcTDZfbI  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2020

Recently, while addressing a pro-CAA event, Kailash Vijayvargiya said that he suspected that there were some Bangladeshis among construction labourers who worked at his house.

Continuing with her attack on the BJP, the West Bengal CM asked whether its the BJP who will decide what one will eat and what religion one will pursue. Will you (BJP) decide who will eat 'chire' or 'poha'?, added Mamata.

Also Read: Mamata Banerjee 'Couldn't Recognise' Omar Abdullah In This Picture, Calls Situation Unfortunate

Mamata Banerjee has been sharing jibes with the BJP over the passage of contentious citizenship law. She has also expressed apprehensions regarding NPR and NRC exercise.

She recently appealed her counterparts in the northeast and non-BJP states to study carefully the NPR form, its questions and criteria, before arriving at a decision on updating it.

Also Read: Congress, Left Slam Trinamool For Not Replying To Governor's Queries On Pending Bill

Moreover, the West Bengal Assembly has passed a resolution against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, becoming the fourth state to do so. Three states - Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab  have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The resolution appeals to the Union government to repeal the amended citizenship law and revoke plans to implement NRC and update NPR.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
[January 27, 2020] Iguazio Raises $24M to Accelerate Growth and Global Penetration of its Data Science Platform

Iguazio, the data science platform for real time machine learning applications, today announced that it has raised $24M of funding. The round was led by INCapital Ventures, with participation from existing and new investors, including Pitango, Verizon Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, Samsung SDS, Kensington Capital Partners, Plaza Ventures and Silverton Capital Ventures. The funds will be used by Iguazio to accelerate its growth and expand the reach of its data science platform to new global markets. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005301/en/



Iguazio co-founders Yaron Segev (left), Yaron Haviv, and Asaf Somekh. Photo: Yanai Yechiel

The demand for AI applications is on the rise. According to Gartner (News - Alert), AI augmentation alone will create $2.9 trillion of business value in 2021. However, there are still many challenges in deploying AI solutions in an effective and scalable way. An estimated 87% of data science models which have shown great promise in the lab never make it to production. This is due to the challenges of transforming a great AI model, which is functional in lab conditions, to a fully operational AI application that can deliver business impact at scale and in real time. Iguazio solves this problem and brings data science to life for enterprises worldwide. The Iguazio data science platform helps data scientists create real-time AI applications while working within the familiar machine learning stack they know and love. The platform has been deployed by enterprises spanning a variety of verticals, including financial services and telecommunications. It is being used for a multitude of real-time use cases, such as self-healing networks, ride-hailing optimization, logistics optimization, and real-time recommendations. By way of example, Iguazio announced today that Payoneer, the global digital payment platform, has deployed the platform to predict and prevent fraud with real-time machine learning. "Iguazio's unique technology facilitates the data science creation process from start to finish, enabling enterprises to deploy AI applications that create real business impact," said Tom Kennedy, Chairman of Kensington Capital Partners. "With the opportunities we are seeing for machine learning technology and the global success stories emerging from this high-tech nation, Iguazio represents a great first investment for Kensington in an Israeli company." "This is a pivotal time for AI. Our platform helps data scientists push the limits of their real-time AI applications and see their impact in real business environments," said Asaf Somekh (News - Alert), co-founder and CEO of Iguazio. "With support from INCapital, Kensington Capital Partners, and our other investors, we are ready to expand our international team and reach our ambitious goals." About Iguazio The Iguazio Data Science Platform enables enterprises to develop, deploy and manage AI applications at scale. With Iguazio, companies can run AI projects in real time, deploy them anywhere; multi-cloud, on-prem or edge, and bring to life their most ambitious data-driven strategies. Enterprises spanning a wide range of verticals, including financial services, manufacturing, telecoms and gaming, use Iguazio to create business impact through a multitude of real-time use cases. Iguazio is backed by top financial and strategic investors including Samsung, Verizon, Bosch, CME Group, and Dell. The company is led by serial entrepreneurs and a diverse team of innovators in the USA, UK, Singapore and Israel. Find out more on www.iguazio.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005301/en/

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A couple of prominent Kenyans in their 50s shared some valuable life lessons with Sunday Magazine.

1. You cant choose a career path for your child. It wont work out

I learned that when you are young, you need to choose a career that you have passion in. My father wanted me to study accounts. But I didnt want to. I chose to go into teaching, so my first degree is in education. I still did CPA 1 at Strathmore because he forced me to do accounting but within that gap year, because I am a people person I knew I would either go into things that have to do with medicine, teaching or what I do now, which is psychology. Now I teach at the university, Im a therapist and a consultant psychologist. I can do it all without anybody paying me, and even after 50 I still have all the energy to do it. People should not choose a career because of the money it gives. It should be out of the satisfaction that they get from that career. It has paid off for me in terms of the fulfilment that I have. I feel that I have influenced and mentored so many people that I may not be living in the best estates and driving the cars my age mates are driving with money in the bank but I am very fulfilled.

2. You need to resolve any childhood traumas before you become a parent

What I have learned is that you need to resolve the baggage of how you were brought up as you prepare to be a parent or immediately you become a parent. That helps you deal with your children from a clean slate. If you have anything negative from your parents, it will continue over generations because you will parent your children the same and they will also parent the same. I have learned that a parent is a major role model to the children. The way you bring them up will either make or break generations.

3. Once your kids are teenagers, quit dictating and start guidingY

our children are unique individuals from you. When they are younger you guide them in everything, but as they grow older I have learned to allow them to exercise their talents and gifts, and that from teenage hood I have learned that they also have a thinking brain. They have something they can contribute in decision-making. However, they still need to be guided until about the age of 25. They look mature but they are still looking up to you to guide them. Not to command, but to guide and support them.

4. Dont punish kids to get back at your spouse

Over the years as a family mediator and therapist, I have seen couples who, when they argue, for instance, the husband will say he will not pay school fess for the children. So the children will suffer and not go to school. They think they are punishing the spouse. The differences between you two adults should not be exposed to the children. Any time they see you two fighting, they feel very insecure and grow up with a lot of insecurity and guilt because they feel if they were never born the parents would not be fighting.

5. Your spouse isnt you. You will never agree 100 per cent on everything and that should be OK

I have learned that my husband and I are very different people. Immediately I got married I thought I would make my husband like my dad but I learned that he is a different person. We view life differently and came from different backgrounds. Initially I used to get angry but I have learned that I have to allow him be who he is and support him to support me. When I try to force him to be someone that he isnt, it creates a lot of conflict. But when I allow him to be who he is and remind myself that we are both unique and different, that we came from different backgrounds, we are happier. Do that as long as it is not negative behaviour from them. As long as the person is responsible, you need to know that your spouse is not you. You cannot think the same, you cannot do things the same way. Support him to support you.

1. Without trying out new things, you will never discover your thing.

It is always good to make projections. In the year 2000, no one would have imagined what the media landscape would look like today.So always look ahead and imagine what your career will look like in the future. Have a rough road map.Creating images ahead of time and then believing in those images is very powerful. Two decades ago, I was somewhere with a friend doing a mock interview with a video camera given to me by my younger brother. I had just finished my studies and was trying to figure out what to do next. In the mock interview, I was asking him about issues in the banking industry. Fast forward years later, I was in the media and won CNN African Journalist of the Year Award and my friend ended up as one of the top bankers in the country.My friend and I had no idea where we were going, but we created an image. I attribute it to the image that we created two decades ago. Create those images in your mind and try them, like that mock interview we had. Try things and you will discover your talents. That is one lesson I have learned. Step out and do things. In the process, you will discover your raw talent.

2. Allow the other parent to be in their childs life if they want to

Always have both parents involved in the lives of the children no matter what. Even if as a couple you go through turbulent times and your relationship collapses, always have both parents involved in the lives of the children. It gives the children a balance. No matter what happens, parenting should be a shared responsibility.

3. No one will make you happy, only you can Happiness is an inside job.

Resolve matters on the inside of you and you will not be dependent on outside circumstances to be happy. You will not need outside things to shape you. Your world view will be changed positively, and even without a meal, you will be happy.

4. Never stop learning, that is how the money will come

Never go looking for money. What you do instead is to fix yourself by constantly improving yourself. Learn, educate yourself, try out new things and if you sort out all that, money and opportunities will look for you. Education is power but learning is a superpower.

1. It is all in vain if you dont make a positive difference in society

I have come to learn that the title, power, privilege or visibility that comes with being the chief strategist of one of Kenyas largest and most influential human rights organisations is useless, if it is not used to protect the rights and freedoms of all Kenyans. What turns yesterdays freedom fighter into todays dictator is simply that they have lost their ability to see the public interest beyond their personal interests, ego and fears.

2. That you wont control everything no matter how hard you want things to work out a certain way.

As a younger Irungu, I grappled with confidence, tact and a long-term vision for my work. The older Irungu grapples with patience and the possibility that I will not have done enough by the time I die.This occurs for some as a personal intensity and can be discomforting. Paraphrased, Paulo Coelho speaks to this trait best. Our lives will see many storms and most will catch us by surprise. We have to learn that we have no real control over the weather, exercise patience and respect as we engage the fury of our environment. Though I sometimes forget, this applies to all areas of our lives.

3. Your children will leave you someday.

Dont put it on them to take care of you I started parenting 20 years ago. All of the children are now adults. Some of them are now parents too. I now understand that our children are not really ours. They are independently minded human beings that we as their parents have the privilege of being able to protect, provide for and mentor. While it would be nice if they would take care of us when my wife and I are unable to, I have released them from this obligation. Over the years, there have been difficult periods. I made misjudgments and mistakes with my time and how to really listen to my children when they were young. I tried to apply what I saw with my parents. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt.
5.1 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Southern Iran: USGS

A magnitude 5.1 quake struck Fars province in southern Iran on Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The tremor struck at around 1 p.m. UTC, or 8 a.m. ET, according to the agency. It struck at a depth of about 6 miles.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center reported that the quake registered as 5.2 magnitude and hit about 15 miles northwest of Shiraz. Effects [were] reported by eyewitnesses, it wrote.

State-run media didnt report any possible damage or injuries.

According to the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, Iran has a missile plant located in Shiraz.

In the late 1970s, before the revolution that installed the current regime, Iran hired the U.S. companies Westinghouse and Hughes Aircraft to build a missile assembly and repair plant in Shiraz in cooperation with Iran Electronics Industry, but the project was halted after the 1979 revolution, the website said. Since then, the plant has been reported as one of several alleged missile production sites in Iran. The Shiraz plant is allegedly producing fuel and components for Shahab-1/Scud-B missiles and conducting research and development.

In early January, a 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck near the infamous Bushehr nuclear plant just hours after the regime launched a barrage of missiles at U.S. soldiers housed in Iraqi bases. In that quake, there were no reports of injuries or damage.

And in December, a 4.9 magnitude tremor struck near the same area. Officials said there was no damage.

A magnitude 5.9 magnitude quake that struck the northwestern part of the country in November left at least five people dead and also injured more than 300. In 2003, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake killed more than 25,000 people in the city of Bam.

Iran lies on several major seismic faults and is prone to earthquakes.

Elsewhere in the region, at least four people have been confirmed dead following last weeks earthquake in eastern Turkey. The 6.8 magnitude tremor also injured around 1,600, reported The Associated Press, citing local Turkish authorities.

Rescue workers try to save people trapped under debris following a strong earthquake that destroyed several buildings on Friday, in Elazig, eastern Turkey, on Jan. 26, 2020. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that 86 people are still hospitalized as of Monday. Eighteen of the victims of them in intensive care, AP reported.

Turkeys Emergency and Disaster Management Presidency said around 4,000 workers and 22 dogs were involved in the search-and-rescue efforts in the region, the news agency also reported.

Turkey sits on several major seismic faults and is also prone to earthquakes.
Meteorologists say that even though there won't be a repeat of stormy winter weather for the 2020 Iowa caucuses, the pattern may have some tricks up its sleeves with major temperature fluctuations expected.

The Iowa caucuses will occur on Feb. 3, 2020, and the Democratic Party will follow a new slate of rules that may add confusion to an already complicated process in order to have the ability to do a recount if needed, according to the Iowa Public Radio.

However, the weather should pose fewer problems this year when compared to 2016.

"In 2016, the Iowa Caucus was held on Monday, Feb. 1. On that Monday night, a winter storm began to impact the state, with snow beginning in southern and western portions of Iowa during the evening hours and spreading northeastward throughout the night," AccuWeather Meteorologist Derek Witt said.

"The snowy weather continued into Tuesday, with blizzardlike conditions across Iowa for the day after the caucuses," he said. "The bulk of the inclement weather did not occur during the day of the caucuses, but history has shown that people may choose to not go out and vote simply because they don't want to travel in bad weather."

Voter turnout, and thus election results, have been linked to weather conditions in past research conducted by AccuWeather. In a 2016 analysis of overall weather trends and voting data, utilizing L2 as a resource, AccuWeather found that uncomfortable conditions, such as frigid or hot and muggy weather can deter swing voters. Additionally, women were found to be more sensitive to cold conditions than men, and younger voters, aged 18 to 24, have higher turnout rates when the weather is sunny and warm.

"This can influence election results, as those more inclined to vote or those who are very passionate about an issue will be more likely to go out and brave the elements than those on the fence or those who aren't as concerned with politics," Witt added.

Story continues

Former Iowa Democratic Party political director Travis Brock leads a caucus training meeting on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, in Ottumwa, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Thermometers are likely to read in the 40s and perhaps the 50s F across Iowa this weekend as a series of weak storms moves eastward along the Canada/United States border.

"Gusty west to southwest winds will direct the warm air across much of the Plains and Mississippi Valley," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.

The winds are likely to be more of an annoyance and not likely strong enough to have a major influence on ground travel or cause other problems like power outages.

Later in the weekend to early next week, colder air is expected to sag southeastward across the northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, and temperatures may fluctuate as much as 40 degrees Fahrenheit by caucus day.

The overall speed at which that cold air moves across the central Plains and the rest of the Midwest is likely to depend on the strength and track of a storm along the Atlantic coast.

"If the storm tracks right along or west of the coast and strengthens substantially, then it may quickly draw cold air in across Iowa and the central Plains [in time for the Iowa caucuses]," Anderson said.

"On the other hand, should the storm track way out to sea, it may suggest that cold air will be slower to arrive, and that cold air would be less aggressive in making southward progress over the Central states," he added.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

At this time, it is more of a matter as to whether light jackets versus winter coats may be needed for those venturing out to attend caucus gatherings.

It is possible that a larger temperature variation is in place across Iowa, depending on where the boundary between the warm and cold air sets up. Temperatures on either side of the boundary could vary by 20 to 40 degrees.

The lowest temperatures, perhaps as low as the teens and 20s and even lower AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures are more likely in the northwest, as temperatures could climb as high as the 50s to near 60 in southeastern parts of the state for a time on Monday.

If a cold front set to usher in the new air mass is faster, much of the state may be in the 20s and lower 30s with RealFeel Temperatures in the teens on Monday. If the front is slower, it may continue to feel like springtime with widespread 50- to 60-degree temperatures.

Normal high temperatures for the beginning of February in Des Moines, Iowa, are right around the freezing mark, 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Overnight lows typically dip to around 15 F.

"While many will call that cold, Iowans are used to wintry chill like that during that time of year," Witt said.

As the forecast evolves for the East Coast storm, most likely so will the forecast for Iowa on Monday.

In the meantime, forecasters say precipitation is not entirely out of the cards for Iowa despite the fact that a major storm is not anticipated to impact the region.

If a front moves quickly across the state, there might be a few brief rain or snow showers. However, a slow-moving front would produce long-lasting drizzle and perhaps more dangerous freezing drizzle in some areas.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri expressed disappointment over his club defeat against Napoli saying that they played 'without the right intensity'.

"We were passive today, we played at a fast pace and so everything becomes more difficult. We weren't cohesive between our departments and we were very tame from a mental point of view. We had the wrong approach and we played without the right intensity," the club's official website quoted Sarri as saying.

"It is difficult to isolate the performance of a single player or a department, I chose the attacking trident, because all three seemed to me to be in form and that they would be supported by the midfield," he added.

Juventus suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Napoli on Monday in Serie A. Despite the defeat, Juventus are still sitting on the top of Serie A table with 51 points.

However, there is only a three-point difference between them and the second-placed club Inter Milan.

Juventus will now take on Fiorentina on February 2.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Virginia model for a constitutional confederation of states

By Mark Alexander



Unless you've been sequestered on the dark side of the Moon, you're undoubtedly aware of the massive race riots and murderous gunfights that took place outside Virginia's state capitol last Monday. At least that's what the state's governor, Ralph "Blackface" Northam, and his Leftmedia echo chamber were hoping would happen at the Second Amendment rally.

Declaring a state of emergency ahead of the annual Virginia Citizens Defense League gathering in Richmond, Northam claimed, "State intelligence analysts have identified threats and violent rhetoric similar to what has been seen before other major events such as Charlottesville."

For the record, the victim in the Charlottesville unrest was run over by a car  caught in the middle of a battle between thugs from the fascist "antifa" movement and thugs from the so-called alt-right. Northam should have instead issued a diktat banning all vehicles from the capitol grounds.

Taking Northam's bait, media outlets were breathless in their warnings. As National Review's Jim Geraghty noted:

NBC News: "As gun rights rally looms in Virginia, Richmond residents fear another Charlottesville." Axios: "As Richmond braces for hate, Americans say race relations are getting worse." The Associated Press: "State officials and U.S. hate-monitoring groups are warning about the potential for violence ahead of a gun-rights rally in Virginia that's expected to draw a mix of militias, firearms advocates and white supremacists to Richmond." MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin reported during the gathering, "Right now thousands of gun-rights activists, white nationalists, militia groups [are] all swarming the Virginia state capitol in Richmond."

As it turned out, more than 20,000 citizens gathered at the capitol, some heavily armed, as is their inherent and unalienable right. But despite all the leftist and Leftmedia predictions, not a single shot was fired.

I call that "a well-regulated militia"!

The only mention of "white supremacists" at the rally was from black Second Amendment advocates in attendance, who debunked the phony racist narratives being perpetuated by Northam and the MSM.

Defense League President Philip Van Cleave observed: "It's almost like they want something to happen. It sounds crazy, but they keep [predicting trouble] and you have to start wondering if that's intentional."

For his part, Donald Trump praised the 2A advocates, asserting, "Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. That's what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away."

After socialist Democrats from the populous suburbs of Northern Virginia gained a majority in the General Assembly last November, they and Northam have been on a singular mission to disarm the Commonwealth's law-abiding citizens. In response, more than 100 Virginia counties and cities have passed resolutions establishing 2A sanctuaries, declaring their commitment to uphold our Constitution's prohibition of government interference with Second Amendment rights, and declaring they would not enforce gun-control laws passed by the legislature.

Virginia is thus at the forefront of states, counties, and municipalities passing laws or resolutions to prohibit or impede the enforcement of unlawful and unconstitutional actions, in effect giving the Constitution itself sanctuary. This is not to be confused with the Left's lawless and dangerous illegal-immigrant sanctuary movement, whereby certain states, counties, and municipalities are prohibiting or impeding the enforcement of lawful and constitutional actions.

Northam and his ilk received a quick lesson on "the law of unintended consequences" after they arrogantly attempted to undermine the rights of the people. It is grimly ironic that their anti-constitutional efforts are taking place in the shadow of that state's extraordinary Founders, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Oh, and in a state whose motto is "Sic Semper Tyrannis," meaning death "thus ever unto tyrants."

I would fully expect Northam et al. to challenge Virginia's 2A sanctuary movement, all the way to the Supreme Court.

The reaffirmation of our Constitution in Virginia and other states attempting to give sanctuary to Liberty and Rule of Law is, I think, a good place to reintroduce a concept I proposed 20 years ago as part of what is now our Patriot's Primer on American Liberty.

That concept: "A Constitutional Confederation of States."

My proposal, then as now, would be to pursue a grassroots-inspired Constitutional Confederation  an alliance of those states that are not urban-leftist mob ruled, whose delegations could assemble to affirm the authority of our Constitution in order to provide broader sanctuary for the Rule of Law it enshrines  in effect, re-ratify our Constitution and reaffirm its supremacy as law.

If we're to fully restore Liberty and the integrity of our Constitution, we must do so from the bottom up  a groundswell from grassroots Americans if it is to be enduring. We must start at our foundation, speaking with one disciplined, determined, and unified voice toward one primary objective: the reestablishment of Rule of Law.

"Constitutional Confederation" is a more complicated sanctuary concept than those alliances being formed to defend the Second Amendment, but a good starting place would be with those organizational alliances because their mission is, ultimately, the same  protection of the Constitution. An initial objective could be to obtain resolutions from the 27 Republicans governors now in office and county resolutions in the remaining 23 states, such as Virginia, with statist Democrat governors.

The initial purpose would be to educate our fellow citizens on the point that our Constitution established a Republic and is intended to reflect the consent of the governed  a nation of laws as opposed to the rule of men. Article IV, Section 4 states unambiguously, "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government."

A Confederation of States should rise to demand no less than the standard our Founder's set forth in our Constitution and affirmed in its Bill of Rights as "Article the Tenth," the Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Our Founders understood that Rule of Law would be the foundational guarantee to protect and sustain Liberty for their generation and those of their posterity. Consequently, they prescribed that all elected officials be bound by sacred oath "to support and defend" our Constitution.

But many in the U.S. House and Senate wantonly and constantly violate their oaths. They have forsaken those oaths and instead focus on redistributing others' wealth to their special-interest constituencies in order to perpetuate their own offices. We can be certain that when the number of constituents who vote for their income and provisions outnumber those who work for their income and provisions, our Republic will be lost.

The time has come to inquire with a unified voice: Because there is no explicit constitutional authority for many of the laws and regulations enacted by the legislative and judicial branches, and enforced by the central government, then by what authority do those entities make such laws and collect taxes to fund unconstitutional laws and regulations? Where there is no authority, this certainly constitutes "taxation without representation." Thus, what should be the consequence for such dereliction?

A Constitutional Confederation (as opposed to a Constitutional Convention, which poses many hazards to Liberty, would have the purpose of re-adopting our authentic Constitution as originally ratified, with amendments attached as prescribed. This confederated alliance would thus reject the so-called "living constitution" that has now adulterated our actual Constitution almost beyond recognition  accelerated by judicial diktats from the "despotic branch" of which Thomas Jefferson so presciently warned.

Although Article V of our Constitution provides the people with an authentic means for amendment, activist jurists and regressive lawmakers have altered that founding convention well beyond any semblance of its original intent. They have used the courts, legislation, and regulation to greatly expand the powers of the central government according to their decrees.

The states re-ratifying as members of the Constitutional Confederation would determine an orderly plan to withdraw from the plethora of unconstitutional diktats, regulations, and targeted taxes (Bills of Attainder) that are in clear violation of Tenth Amendment Federalism as defined in The Federalist Papers and prescribed when each state first ratified our Constitution. This serious movement to restore the authority of our Constitution is a genuine act in support of "We the People" rather than an act of insurrection. This is a proposal for restoration, not revolution, seeded most recently in the Second "Tea Party" Revolt of 2010.

This proposal could, I think, generate national momentum and would most assuredly generate a LOT of heartburn for the socialist Democrats and their legions of useful idiots. The notion of the unalienable Rights of Man are anathema to the Left's statist worldview and objective of total state authority.

Founder Patrick Henry wrote of seemingly benign encroachments upon Liberty: "It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth  and listen to the song of that syren... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."

It is time to fully object to the degraded state of our Constitution and reject any further degradation by way of "illusions of hope" that these depredations will magically repair themselves. It is the responsibility of our generation of Patriots to provide for its revitalization. In the spirit of Thomas Paine's 1776 assertion, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace," so, too, it should be in our day.

Why mention this now? First, because the 2A sanctuary movement is endeavoring to do in Virginia and other states precisely what a Constitutional Confederation can do across our entire nation, starting with resolutions in support of such a confederation.

And second, because for the last four years, we've witnessed deep-state operatives endeavoring to undermine our Constitution by undermining the duly elected president of the United States. They did so first by attempting a coup d'etat to take down Trump without firing a shot. When that failed, they undertook an impeachment charade  also originating with one deep-state operative, whose primary handlers are Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Chuck Schumer  who are now overseeing the prosecution of Trump in the Senate.

We can all agree that our nation is besieged with BIG and systemic problems. And I would submit that nearly every major problem facing our country today can trace its roots to lawless extraconstitutional legislation and policies. This notion of a Constitutional Confederation of States is representative of the BIG ideas that need to be considered in order to ensure future generations of Americans are not beset with the current degraded state of our Constitution. This proposal is entirely consistent with our Patriot mission to extend Liberty to the next generation.

As Ronald Reagan declared: "There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. ... You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."

Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall commemorated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau for Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday at a solemn service at the infamous death camp in Poland.

Leading the U.K. delegation for the ceremony alongside Lord Eric Pickles, the U.K. Post-Holocaust Envoy, the duchess joined survivors and 40 officials from across Europe for the service, which was held underneath a tent above the former camps gate house.

RELATED: Kate Middleton and Prince William Arrive for Poignant Holocaust Memorial Day Service in London

Sean Gallup/Getty

Sean Gallup/Getty

After the Ecumenical Prayers at the conclusion of the service, Camilla, 72, joined survivors by the railway lines that brought the prisoners to the camp. The duchess also helped place candles at the main memorial to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims.

The Duchess of Cornwall meets Holocaust survivors Hannah Lewis and Renee Salt following #Auschwitz75 commemorations in Poland today.#HolocaustMemorialDay #HMD2020 pic.twitter.com/rfJ4zKzTT0  Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) January 27, 2020

Polish President Andrzej Duda delivered the welcome address, which was followed by readings from survivors of Auschwitz. Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress and Dr. Piotr Cywinski, Director of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum also spoke.

Born in Poland in 1929, Renee Salt and her parents were taken by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After many years of hardship under Nazi control, Renee and her mother were liberated in 1945.



The Duchess previously met Renee in 2013 at the Holocaust Survivors Centre in North London. pic.twitter.com/gcKQqJCwGu  Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) January 27, 2020

The duchess and her husband, Charles, Prince of Wales, previously attended the National Holocaust Memorial Day service in 2015 to commemorate 70th anniversary of the liberation, where they met with Holocaust survivors.

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RELATED: Prince Charles Delivers Powerful Speech at Israels Holocaust Memorial: All Humanity Must Learn

ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty

Charles, who became Patron of The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in 2017, delivered a moving and powerful foreword at Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust Memorial, for the World Holocaust Forum last Thursday.

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The prince stated the Holocaust is everyones story, a story of incomprehensible inhumanity, from which all humanity can and must learn.

He added, The Holocaust must never be allowed to become simply a fact of history: we must never cease to be appalled, nor moved by the testimony of those who lived through it. Their experience must always educate, and guide, and warn us.
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Monday sentenced two members of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) to 15 days in jail in terror financing case.

"The Anti-Terrorism Court Lahore convicted JuD members - Haji Iqbal and Muhammad Haris - in terror financing case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)," a court official told PTI.

The court sentenced them to "15 days in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them", the official added.

The FIA's Counter Terrorism Wing had arrested both JuD members during the crackdown on the banned outfits in connection with the Pakistan government's commitment towards the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

They were booked under relevant provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

"The ATC announced the verdict against both JuD activists after the FIA prosecution witnesses recorded their statements and evidence was produced against the suspects," the official said.

Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his close aides - Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Ashram, Yahya Mujahid, Abdul Rehman Makki aand Abdus Salam Bin Muhammad - are also facing terror financing charges.

Saeed has already recorded his statement before the Lahore court in two terror financing cases against him in which he pleaded "not guilty".

The cases of terror financing have been registered against him in Lahore and Gujranwala cities on the application of Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab police.

Cross examination of prosecution witnesses against Saeed and his three close aides by the defense counsel has already been concluded.

The prosecution had produced a number of witnesses against Saeed.

The Anti-Terrorism Court-I (ATC) indicted Saeed and his close aides - Hafiz Abdul Salam, Muhammad Ashraf and Zafar Iqbal - on terror financing charges on December 11.

The CTD had registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices on the charges of terror financing in different cities of Punjab province and arrested him on July 17. He is held at the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

Saeed-led JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Last night, the internet was abuzz with the latest in the impeachment drama. In his yet-to-be-released book, an unpublished edition of which was leaked to the press, former National Security Advisor John Bolton alleges that President Trump attempted to freeze aid to Ukraine in August 2019 unless he received dirt on his political opponent nearly a month after his much-contested (by Republicans, at least) phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

All of this is interesting  and germane  material that could have an impact on impeachment proceedings. Beginning last night, Democratic members of the Senate have enjoyed a reinvigorated fervor, arguing that a failure to call Bolton to testify is an obstruction of justice. In The New York Times, two Georgetown law professors and one former Republican Congressman penned an op-ed arguing that Chief Justice John Roberts, who presides over the impeachment trial, has the authority to call Bolton before the chamber.

But more to the point, all of this is material that could have been divulged months ago, when Boltons testimony before the House Judiciary was requested  and when he refused to show up.

This recent revelation says more about John Bolton himself, actually, than it does about the president. We already know, after all, who the president is and what he is capable of. We already know  well, most of us do, anyway  that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian president in an attempt to unearth information about his political opponent. We already know that the president has a well-documented propensity to lie. We already know that his intention is not to offer transparency to the American people.

But what was a matter of debate was whether or not Bolton intended to stand up for the tenets of democracy by putting his own testimony on the record. By the time he agreed to testify, however  after first refusing to comply in the House  it was too late; the fate of impeachment already lay in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate. In the meantime, he penned a book, for which he signed a $2 million deal. It wasnt Boltons conscience that drove him to tell the truth to a wide audience. It was the cold, hard cash.

 Donald Trump says John Bolton 'would would know nothing about what we're talking about' ahead of impeachment trial

Many of us have hoped, throughout this impeachment process, for a moment of revelation, a moment in which one member of the House or Senate would regard the higher calling of democracy as more important than the power play of partisan politics. One by one, our non-heroes have failed us. This weekends opening skit on Saturday Night Live, in which Senator Susan Collins (played by Cecily Strong) told Senator Mitch McConnell (played by Beck Bennett), with a wink, that she intended to consider the facts of the impeachment case, made clear the national joke, which is that Republicans arent listening, and they never have been. Instead, they have insulted the sobriety of this trial with naps, fidget spinners, and sideways rhetoric.

John Boltons book puts this national mockery into stark perspective. We have blamed the president for the erosion of American values in Washington during the past four years, but the truth is that the permissiveness of the Republican Party has only accelerated this decline. Boltons decision to withhold relevant testimony in favor of increasing his own bank account speaks to a broader problem, the problem of the Republicans who have given Trump carte blanche to do as he pleases without consequence. Bolton is a perfect example of the moral failings of those who could have held the president accountable.

Like Senator Mitch McConnell, who agreed to comply with the White House in the impeachment proceedings, Bolton is culpable in the scandal of failing to hold power to account. Like Senator Lindsay Graham, who once argued that the testimony of witnesses was necessary for a comprehensive and fair impeachment trial, Bolton is a political beast, and not a moral one. And like the president, who opts always for self-interest over the interest of the nation, Bolton is invested in no one besides John Bolton.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

He is no hero. He is no savior to democracy. And if John Boltons book produces any good at all  and that possibility is still only a possibility  it will be nothing more than an accident, rather than the express intent of a good and decent man.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 08:14:03|Editor: huaxia

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Members of a medical team prepare to board a train to Wuhan of Hubei Province, at a railway station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, on Jan. 26, 2020. A team comprised of 150 members from 23 hospitals in Hebei left for Wuhan on Sunday to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)
SCOTTSBORO, Ala.  Fire raced through an Alabama dock Monday, killing at least eight people and torching dozens of boats as people leaped into the Tennessee River to escape the roaring flames.

Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus said eight people believed to be missing were confirmed dead. He said the death toll could rise as rescue workers access sunken hulls.

Thirty-five boats, houseboats and pontoon vessels burned in the fire. Some were docked for recreation, but for some the boats were their homes. Necklaus said the blaze was on the inland side of the dock, making rescues difficult.

The scene Jan. 27, 2020, after a fire at a boat dock near Scottsboro, Ala., destroyed 35 watercraft and left eight people dead, according to the city's fire chief.

Seven people were pulled from the water and treated for minor injuries, mainly for hypothermia from the cold water, he said. Some boats sank at the dock, he said, and some drifted from their moorings and sank.

Jackson County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Rocky Harnen said efforts to find all the boats, account for all the missing, identify those killed and notify families could take several days.

There were numerous people rescued, Harnen said. Were trying to get divers down here to search for possible victims.

This photo provided by Mandy Durham shows a fire burning on a dock where at least 35 vessels, many of them houseboats, were destroyed by fire early Jan. 27, 2020, in Scottsboro, Ala.

Julie Jackson awoke to a crackling sound, in the boat that she, her husband and child have made their home for five years now.

They moor at Dock A in Jackson County Park, a row of boat slips normally mirrored by nearby Dock B on Roseberry Lake.

The crackling Jackson heard early Monday was a fast-moving fire that  by the time she got off her boat to look  had engulfed half of Dock B.

I could hear people screaming help me, she told The Gadsden Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. I never want to go through anything like that again.

Jackson said in 18 minutes the dock was an inferno.

Mandy Durham and her boyfriend were among those sleeping on boats. She said she woke up to screams and "popping" noises.

We could see red through the window. ... All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and thats a lot of fire."

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She said she saw people jumping onto a boat at the end of the dock, but the flames spread to that boat, forcing them to leap into the water.

"Water was the only place they had to go," Durham said. It's just extremely sad. It's horrible.

Thornton writes for The Gadsden Times. Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama boat fire on Tennessee River: 8 deaths confirmed in Scottsboro
A woman's hair was set on fire by a gang of teenage thugs during a night of chaos on the Luas Red line.

Many residents in Dublin's south-central area are said to be afraid to use public transport following almost "daily occurrences" of anti-social behaviour and attacks in the area.

A serious incident was reported on the Luas Red Line on the night of January 11 by the tram's driver while en route to Tallaght.

Luas operator Transdev has since apologised for its security's "unsatisfactory" response time after a passenger's hair was set alight by a number of youths. In a further report, the driver said the teenagers responsible were smoking and making racist comments, which prompted him to call for security again.

He said other passengers onboard were "in uproar" during the incident which took place as the tram was heading from the city centre to Kylemore.

"Passengers were shocked that no security ever [responded to] this incident on the tram," he said in a logged complaint to the operator.

"Some passengers that were on the tram from The Point to Tallaght never saw a security guard and many advised me they were going to social media about this.

"Passengers heard both my calls to security and the response as they were bet up against the glass calling for help and couldn't believe what they were hearing."

The driver is now calling for Transdev to employ permanent security for its trams.

"I am embarrassed to work for the company after tonight's lack of support, for myself and the passengers," he continued.

"Luas put 'help fight racism' posters up at their platforms, and in 2020 a woman is set alight on a tram and for a 40-minute journey not one security guard was to be seen. This needs to change. A Saturday night on public transport and zero security - a shambles."

In response, a Transdev spokesperson acknowledged that Luas security staff were slow in responding to this incident.

"Security was deployed elsewhere on the lines at this particular time and did not board the tram on which the incident occurred quickly enough.

"This was not satisfactory, and we apologise to Luas customers and those affected," they added.

"Security arrangements are continuously under review and have been recently reassessed, particularly in light of recently publicised incidents of anti-social behaviour involving groups of teens in local communities along the Grand Canal close to Luas stops."

Ballyfermot and Drimnagh councillor Daithi Doolan told the Irish Independent attacks on and around the Luas occur almost every day.

"I use the Luas here all the time with my kids and am very aware of these serious incidents," he said.

"There's almost a reign of terror that's particularly targeted at foreign nationals. I've heard numerous stories about these gangs verbally and physically attacking people on the Luas at Drimnagh and also around the canal.

"If we want to ensure that people can travel safely on public transport, gardai have to be there to protect them and respond accordingly when they are called."
The phrase abuse of power appears nowhere in the federal criminal code, which lists thousands of criminal laws passed by Congress over the years. But many crimes arent written down in codes. Crimes derived from the common law  the body of law developed from judicial opinions and legal treatises rather than statutes  have been a staple of American law for centuries. Today in many states, district attorneys routinely charge people with things like assault, forgery and indecent exposure even where no statute makes those things a crime.

Common-law crimes are no harder to define with precision than crimes written down in a statute. Ask any first-year law students for the common laws definition of burglary and theyll (hopefully) be able to tell you: the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony. If someone is accused of burglary in a state where the crime isnt defined by statute, no defense lawyer would respond by announcing that burglary is vague or made up. Burglary is an established crime, even where its definition exists only in legal treatises and judicial opinions.

President Trumps defense falls apart for precisely the same reason. As with burglary, American legal treatises and judicial opinions have long recognized the criminal offense of abuse of power, sometimes called misconduct in office. In 1846, the first edition of the pre-eminent treatise on American criminal law defined this common-law offense as when a public officer, entrusted with definite powers to be exercised for the benefit of the community, wickedly abuses or fraudulently exceeds them. The treatise noted that such an officer is punishable by indictment, though no injurious effects result to any individual from his misconduct.

Courts from Michigan to Maryland have recently upheld convictions of government officials for committing this common-law crime  despite objections that the crime has never been codified by statute. And the House, in its first article of impeachment, has accused Mr. Trump of exactly what the law prohibits: He abused the powers of the presidency for corrupt purposes in pursuit of a personal political benefit.

As for obstruction of Congress, thats not only a common-law crime. Versions of the crime have also been listed in the federal criminal code since the 19th century.
I view this commemoration as an expansion of democracy. It is up to us to prepare a path of justice for women and men to follow in the next 100 years," said Maria Bomersbach

This August, as the nation celebrates the Womens Suffrage Centennial, all eyes will be on the Philadelphia region as it hosts an unprecedented two-day commemoration featuring the Justice Bell. As part of this historic event, the Womens Liberty Bell will be celebrated during multiple ceremonies from Tuesday, August 25 through Wednesday, August 26 as part of its ceremonious journey from its home at Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge Park to Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.

The Justice Bell is prominently displayed in the atrium of the National Patriots Bell Tower of the Chapel and was the gift of Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger of Strafford, Chester County, PA. In 1915, Ruschenberger commissioned the casting similar to the Liberty Bell, chained the Bell to show that womens votes were silenced and among other changes, added the inscription Establish Justice to call attention to the fight for womens suffrage.

As the most pivotal symbol in womens rights history, the Justice Bell will rightfully take center stage, once again, during Philadelphias weekend commemoration according to Maria Bomersbach, president of Washington Memorial Heritage Board of Directors and chair of Justice Bell 2020.

I am honored to Chair this once in a lifetime event, said Bomersbach. Ruschenberger said the womens liberty bell announced the completion of democracy. I view this commemoration as an expansion of democracy. It is up to us to prepare a path of justice for women and men to follow in the next 100 years.

The festivities will kick off in an exciting and inspiring way Tuesday, August 25 as nationally acclaimed female skydivers of The Highlight Pro Team, part of the Womens Skydiving Networks Project 19 initiative, are scheduled to perform a special jump at the Freedoms Foundation At Valley Forge (1601 Valley Forge Rd, Valley Forge, PA) at approximately 4 PM to pay tribute to the passage of the 19th Amendment and deliver a special champagne bottle to christen the Justice Bells journey.

After the jump, the all-female team of skydivers will lead a caravan one mile down the road to the National Patriots Bell Tower at Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge National Historic Park (2000 Valley Forge Park Rd, Valley Forge, PA). An old-fashioned suffrage program will be held from 6PM to 8PM with VIPs and music before the Justice Bell departs for its journey to Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.

The celebration will continue Wednesday, August 26 from 12PM to 2PM in front of Independence National Historical Park in partnership with the Park and Vision 2020s Toast To Tenacity, PA Daughters of American Revolution, League of Women Voters and many other patriotic and womens organizations. The Bell will be unchained and rung ceremoniously with music, dignitaries and speakers. After the ceremony, the Bell will be transported to a secure area of the park for ongoing activities and public display until September 30.

Beth Watkins, State Regent, PA Daughters of American Revolution stated Across this commonwealth, DAR members are celebrating the centennial passage of the 19th amendment. We are proud to retell the story of this historic event. The tower in which the bell resides was dedicated in 1953 after 10 years of fundraising by the DAR. Rising 114 feet up and overlooking Valley Forge National Park, it also holds one of the most unique carillons in the world.

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend both events. Times are subject to change pending further planning.

Susan Carty, Board Member, League of Women Voters, US stated We are still in the fight to demand democracy.

The Justice Bell 2020 Committee comprises leadership from the following organizations:



Drexel University Vision 2020: Women 100

Descendants of Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger

Washington Memorial Heritage

Washington Memorial Chapel

League of Women Voters

Daughters of the American Revolution

Cedar Crest College

Chester County Historical Society

Delta Sigma Theta

The Elevator Group

Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge

Descendants of Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger

Constitution Center

Independence Historical Trust

Washington Memorial Heritage

National Park Service

Valley Forge Park Alliance

Independence National Historical Park

About The Justice Bell

The Justice Bell began touring Pennsylvania in June 1915, covering more than 5,000 miles by November 2 of that year. While touring, the clapper was chained to the side of the Bell symbolizing the fact that women had no voice in choosing their government; it would not ring until 1920 when women won the right to vote. The tour was timed to support the passage of Amendment #1 to the then-current Pennsylvania State Constitution.

When Amendment #1 did not pass, and it became evident to suffragists that state legislatures were not going to pass voting rights, the Justice Bell was used to support the movement for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It traveled to Chicago and Washington, DC, as well as other localities. The 19th Amendment was proposed on June 5, 1919. Ratification took place on August 18 and was certified on Womens Equality Day, August 26, 1920. On September 25, 1920, the clapper of the Bell was unchained at a celebration held in Independence Square in Philadelphia. A figure dressed as Lady Justice approached and rang the Bell to celebrate the passage of the amendment and Justice for women through the right to vote.

The Justice Bell makes its home at Washington Memorial Chapel Rt. 23, Valley Forge National Park, Valley Forge, PA.

About Vision 2020

Vision 2020 is a national, non-partisan womens equality coalition headquartered at Drexel Universitys Institute for Womens Health and Leadership. The coalition is comprised of individuals and organizations in all 50 states working together for womens economic, political and social equality in the United States.

Vision 2020s Women 100 is a celebration of American women during the year 2020, when we mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution: womens right to vote. Throughout 2020, Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, will be to home to programs and events while members of the Vision 2020 national coalition will host sister programs across the country in support of the centennial commemoration.
Stocks in the news today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Monday's trading session based on latest developments. Investors are also awaiting December quarter earnings that are scheduled to be released today. Companies set to announce their earnings are IndiGo, United Spirits, HDFC, Wockhardt, Dr Reddy, Torrent Pharma, TTK Prestige.

Indian Bank Q3: The company reported 62.33% rise (YoY) in consolidated net profit to Rs 247.16 crore for the three months ended December 31, 2019 as against Rs 152.26 crore, recorded in the same quarter in a year-ago period. The company's total income rose 23.47% (YoY) to Rs 6,505.62 crore in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 5,269.10 crore in the same period last financial year. EPS registered a growth of 50.47% (YoY) to Rs 4.77 during the period ended December 31, 2019, from Rs 3.17, booked in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

JSW Steel Q3: The company reported 88% de-growth (YoY) in consolidated net profit to Rs 187 crore for the three months ended December 31, 2019 as against Rs 1,603 crore, recorded in the same quarter in a year-ago period. The company's total income fell 11% (YoY) to Rs 18,055 crore in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 20,318 crore in the same period last financial year. EBITDA registered a de-growth of 45.5% (YoY) to Rs 2,451 crore during the period ended December 31, 2019, from Rs 4,501 crore, booked in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

UltraTech Cement Q3: The company reported 90% rise (YoY) in consolidated net profit to Rs 711.3 crore for the three months ended December 31, 2019 as against Rs 374.1 crore, recorded in the same quarter in a year-ago period. The company's total revenue, however was flat (lower by 0.9%) (YoY) to Rs 10,354 crore in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 10,444 crore in the same period last financial year. EBITDA registered a growth of 23.7% (YoY) to Rs 1,973 crore during the period ended December 31, 2019, from Rs 1,595 crore, booked in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Sonata Software Q3: The company's net profit rose 18.66% (YoY) to Rs 75.86 crore in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 63.93 crore in the same period last financial year. The company reported 48.41% rise (YoY) in its total income to Rs 1245.47 crore for the three months ended December 31, 2019 as against Rs 839.22 crore, recorded in the same quarter in a year-ago period. Total EPS registered a growth of 18.51% (YoY) at Rs 7.30 during the period ended December 31, 2019, from Rs 6.16, booked in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Adani Gas: Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has reportedly issued show cause notices to Adani Gas over non-disclosure of crucial information during bidding process for city gas distribution projects. As per media reports, the notices seek to cancel licences of the Gautam Adani-promoted gas company and slap a penalty of Rs 400 crore against the company. In response, Adani Gas reportedly claimed that the company is fully compliant and have transparently represented facts in adherence to compliance and disclosure norms.

Infosys: The company has denied media reports that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ordered forensic audit of its books. The IT bellwether stated that it has not received any such directive from SEBI. Earlier, media reports suggested that SEBI had called for forensic audit of Infosys' books in light of the whistleblowers' allegations against the company's CEO Salil Parekh and CFO Nilanjan Roy.

HDFC Bank: The lender has chosen global executive search firm Egon Zehnder to identify a successor to managing director Aditya Puri, the country's top private lender said on Thursday. "Egon Zehnder has been recommended by the search committee and unanimously appointed by the bank's board," Neeraj Jha, a spokesman for HDFC Bank told Reuters.

Siemens: The company announced that it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire 99.22% of the paid-up equity share capital of C&S Electric Limited from its promoters.

Strides Pharma: The company announced successful completion of USFDA inspection at its Alathur (Chennai), India facility with Zero 483 observations. This is the second consecutive Zero 483 inspection for the site, the filing added.

Q3 Earnings Today: Housing Development Finance Corporation, InterGlobe Aviation, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Wockhardt, United Spirits, TTK Prestige, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Tata Steel Long Products, Navin Fluorine International, Muthoot Capital Services, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, Reliance Chemotex Industries , HCL Infosystems, DCM Shriram, APL Apollo Tubes, Lakshmi Machine Works, IIFL Finance, Welcast Steels, H.G. Infra Engineering, Gandhi Special Tubes, Bharat Seats, Bhansali Engineering Polymers, Music Broadcast, Mold-tek Packaging, V2 Retail among others will be releasing their Q3 results today.
Red squirrels and pine martens are set to benefit from 20,000 trees delivered to a forest by the Daily Mail's Be A Tree Angel campaign.

The Norway spruce seedlings will be added to woodland where hundreds of larch trees have been killed by a fungal disease.

They are being planted at Auchentorlie Forest in central Scotland, having been donated by the Mail's campaign, which together with The Tree Council is urging readers to plant trees, and businesses to pledge money towards orchards for schools.

Red squirrels and pine martens are set to benefit from 20,000 trees delivered to a forest by the Daily Mail's Be A Tree Angel campaign

At Auchentorlie, the Norway spruces will be enjoyed by walkers, cyclists and horse riders and provide a habitat for wildlife including ospreys, deer, pine martens and threatened red squirrels.

Ben Quarcoo, from Forestry and Land Scotland's team in the area, said: 'We are really pleased to accept these trees, to increase the forest coverage across the Kilpatrick Hills.'

Just 13 per cent of the UK is covered in forest although this is set to increase after the Mail's campaign has seen more than 100,000 trees planted and pledged across the country.

The Norway spruce is an important haven for red squirrels which are in decline across the UK, with only 30,000 now remaining in England, and they feed on the cones.
Britain is the United States' closest ally but their long friendship may be sorely tested as the two countries try to forge a new trade agreement after Britain's exit from the European Union.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday in London that he was optimistic that a bilateral deal with Britain could be reached as soon as this year.

But Mnuchin gave up no ground after a second meeting with his UK counterpart, Sajid Javid. Javid has insisted that Britain will proceed with a unilateral digital services tax, despite a US threat to levy retaliatory tariffs on British-made autos.

Mnuchin told reporters after Saturday's meeting that such taxes would discriminate against big US tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com.

The UK Treasury declined to comment on the private meeting.

The divide highlights the challenges ahead as the Trump administration seeks a new bilateral agreement with Britain, part of a broader push to rebalance relations with nearly all its major trading partners.

The stakes are high - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pegged the trade deal with United States as a way to ease the pain of breaking with Europe, Britain's largest trade partner. US President Donald Trump, has promised a "massive" trade deal to support Brexit, the product of a populist movement similar to his "America First" agenda.

The goodwill and special relationship the two countries have enjoyed for decades may not count for much, experts say.

"Trump is not going to be doing Johnson any favors," said Amanda Sloat, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington. "He's not going to give him a trade deal without major concessions."

Even before the digital tax issue arose, the Trump administration threatened to tax foreign car imports, which could hit British-made Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini , and Honda Civic hatchback cars.

Stiff US trade demands include increased access for U.S. farm goods, concessions that will be difficult for Britain's entrenched natural food culture to swallow.

The United States also wants Britain to change the way its National Health Service prices drugs and allow in more US pharmaceuticals, which could prove politically unpopular for Johnson's government.

Washington's demand that London block Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for national security reasons could also cloud talks.

Reaching a meaningful deal will be "exceedingly difficult," said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "There are very deep-rooted issues on which the United States and the UK are diametrically opposed."

Differences over those and other issues meant three years of US-European Union trade negotiations ran aground during the Obama administration.

Tensions boiled over at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mnuchin raised the threat of car tariffs after Javid's pledge to proceed with the digital services tax. If officials "just arbitrarily put taxes on our digital companies, we'll consider arbitrarily putting taxes on car companies," Mnuchin said.

British officials struck back.

"Let me be absolutely clear, UK tax policy is a matter for the UK chancellor, it's not a matter for the US, it's not a matter for the EU, it's not a matter for anybody else," Trade Minister Liz Truss said.

Britain exported $11 billion in passenger cars, engines, tires and other automotive components to the United States in 2018, the largest sector in a total of $127 billion in exports.

Eliminating the existing 2.5pc U.S. car tariff and averting future auto tariffs will be a high priority for Britain in the talks.

Britain will also seek greater access to US state and local public procurement contracts, and services such as US coastal shipping. But those are areas governed by US laws, and a trade agreement may not apply.

The US negotiating objectives published last year by the US Trade Representative's (USTR) office seek to grow US farm exports to Britain.

That includes the removal of non-tariff barriers, such as restrictions on chlorine-treated chicken, genetically modified crops and hormone-treated meat. Such products are common in the United States but shunned in Britain.

The United States is also pressing for full market access for U.S. pharmaceutical products and medical devices. That would require changes to Britain's NHS pricing restrictions, and could increase the cost of drugs in Britain. In comments to the USTR last year, a US pharmaceutical trade group argued that the NHS' cost controls for pricing "innovative" drugs did not "recognize their value to patients and society."

That is not likely to sway British officials. "The NHS is a religion in the UK. That's where the real red line is," said Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London. "If the US is saying: 'Pay more for medicine,' that's quite difficult to get past the Treasury and the taxpayers."

Some analysts say Washington's best bet is a limited "Phase 1" deal with Britain, as was recently signed with China. Such an agreement would not likely require approval by the U.S. Congress.

That would provide short-term political victories for both Britain's Johnson and Trump, said Lowe. Trump is seeking re-election in November.

A mini-deal could focus on financial services and convergence on some product and services regulations. It would fall far short of a deal that provides an alternative to Britain's unfettered access to the European Union that both Trump and Johnson have promised.
Its the first thing you step on when you get out of the shower or bathtub, and the only thing standing between you and a cold floor (or a wet one)  a small, but essential luxury.

But a bathmat can be more than that.

When youre decorating a bathroom, think of the bathmat as a little art piece, said Clodagh, a New York-based interior designer. Keep the towels simple, but have a little fun on the floor.

Thats what she did at the Six Senses Kaplankaya resort in Turkey, for instance: In bathrooms that were otherwise minimalist, she installed striped, flat-weave cotton mats, for a little kick of character.

Just make sure to think about where the bathmat will hang when its not in use.

Its not good over the top of the shower, Clodagh said. But on the side of the tub or the rail of a shower door, it looks decorative and nice.
When I heard on TV about the "State of the Tribes" address in Pierre, and the Tribal Chairmen meeting in Pierre about that, I knew our grandparents, great-grandparents, and especially the Treaty signers would be shaking their heads. Then I saw a picture of Governor Kristi Noem meeting with the head of the U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS), Rear Admiral Michael D. Weahkee , and I knew nothing good is coming.

Growing up, I was always told by elders, We dont deal with the state government because it is illegal. We only deal with the President of the United States or the Secretary of State, as we are our own nation. There is a protocol.

I dont blame the Tribal Chairmen from trying to emulate the white government, because that is what Colonization has always been about. Colonization was and is the forceful changing of us from who the Creator made us to be into what the white people want us to be ... them. We can never be white because our DNA is different.

In D.C. today, I sat down with senior leadership at @IHSgov to talk through a number of issues troubling our tribes. Thank you to the IHS team for helping prioritize our concerns. @IHSDirector, Paul Mango, Charles Keckler, Darcie Johnston, and Benjamin Smith. pic.twitter.com/rTZZXnus16  Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) January 17, 2020

But their Colonization efforts have hurt our DNA so much that it stops us from things like being able to speak our own language, or being so docile that we want to be just like them, just like the Tribal chairmen are doing even though some of their own tribal governments are illegal, like the Oglala Sioux Tribal government. But thats another story.

The effects on our DNA come from the natural process of survival and have been passed down through the generations on our DNA. Its called trauma imprint. But Im sidetracking from the state and the Governor, the tribes and the 1868 Treaty.

We need to constantly remember that we are a nation, not a tribe. Creating tribes and reservations was a U.S. Government war tactic to divide and conquer, and it worked. Dont forget that.

We are not tribes but are people of one nation, the Sioux Nation, and we have an International Treaty with the United States. That means the 1868 Treaty is between two (2) separate and distinct nations. Furthermore, the 1868 Treaty is still recognized by the U.S. government and has been upheld in American courts in different court cases. (See Richard v. United States , or Elk v. United States ) Hopefully it will also be upheld in Gilbert v. Weahkee, the current case against the IHS

Charmaine White Face or Zumila Wobaga, (72) is an Oglala Tituwan Oceti Sakowin great-grandmother, scientist, writer, and organizer. She can be reached at cwhiteface@gmail.com

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today

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The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), the kingdoms investment promotion agency, has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to launch the Closing the Skills Gap Accelerator.



The accelerator is aimed at increasing employability and preparedness for the future of work among the current and next generation workforce, said a statement from EDB.



The announcement was made at the recently concluded 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, which was held in Davos, Switzerland.



The accelerator is one of several such accelerators launched in partnership with WEFs Platform for Shaping the Future of the New Economy and Society.



The accelerators are national level public-private leadership collaboration platforms that address national and industry skills gaps in the face of the massive technological disruption sweeping the globe.



So far six countries have established their own: Argentina, India, Oman, Pakistan, South Africa and the UAE. The goal is to expand the model to build a global network of 15 economies accelerating closing the skills gaps by 2020.



It is estimated that Bahrain will witness a workforce growth of 8,000 workers annually, with the burden of accommodating these entrants falling primarily on the private sector. Findings from a 2019 employer survey across eight main sectors  healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, logistics, oil and gas, renewables, ICT, and startups  indicated a major gap in digital skills in the labour market.



The new accelerator will bring together the kingdoms businesses, government, civil society, education institutes, and training providers under one roof to generate local skills gap insight, develop an action plan, and drive its execution.



Khalid Humaidan, chief executive, Bahrain EDB, said: Digital transformation is happening at an unprecedented pace across the globe  and nowhere more so than in the Middle East, where ambitious reforms and diversification efforts have placed a renewed focus on the region.



But as disruptive technologies change the way we work, live and interact, skills gaps are emerging which must be filled to prepare for the future. Bahrain benefits from a young and growing population, and by equipping the next generation with the right skills we can build truly sustainable development, he said.



WEF Davos 2020 presents the ideal forum for the public and private sectors to work in close collaboration as we seek to solve the challenges of tomorrow, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
What the Sabre-Farelogix Antitrust Trial Could Reveal About Airline Technology

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday began arguing its antitrust lawsuit against Sabre over the travel tech companys planned $360 million acquisition of Farelogix, a technology business.

In courtroom 6B of Delaware District Court, Judge Leonard Stark has begun to hear a complicated case.

Justice Department attorneys allege Sabre is attempting to take out a rival. Sabre denies that. It counters that Farelogix belongs to a sector of tech providers of airline merchandising services and direct connections that is dynamic, with many recent entrants. Sabre also argues that it has the resources to enhance Farelogix, which would, in turn, rev up the pace of broader industry innovation.

Testimony over the next nine days promises to shed light on how Farelogix fits into the broader airline distribution landscape. It will also show whether the Justice Department has evidence that Sabres executives had ill intent in purchasing the company. The court may suss out if airlines have only half-hearted interest in technological innovation, compared with a full passion for strong-arming the tech middlemen over fees. Overall, the judge aims to determine whether this deal might ultimately harm consumers.

The case will likely turn on the nuances of antitrust law.

Rather than handicap the legal issues, Skift asked industry experts for their preferred outcomes from the perspective of business strategy. The responses crossed the spectrum, but we found it easier to get supporters of the deal talking on the record than opponents and easier to find supporters than opponents in general.

Some Arguments for the Merger

Several experts preferred for Sabre to get Farelogix.

Many experts we interviewed said Sabre and Farelogix were not competitors in the same, relevant product market.

I dont see Sabre and Farelogix as competitors and, even if they were, there would be no damage to anyone from the merger that a free market wouldnt undo in a relatively short time, said Jeff Klee, CEO of Amtrav, which provides technology and agents to help manage business travel, and CEO of online travel agency CheapAir.

Story continues

For some, the issue was resources. Sabre has the resources to make Farelogix an even better service to help airlines sell their tickets more creatively, known by terms like merchandising and order-and-offer management.

Several experts said they thought that the managers and leaders at Farelogix, founded in 1998, feel tired and under-capitalized.

If the merger doesnt happen, I cant see another buyer investing as much in Farelogix, said Ann Cederhall, a Europe-based senior consultant in aviation tech.

Others agreed.

Farelogix has blazed an important trail, which I give them a ton of credit for, Klee said. But as a partner of theirs, I get the sense that theyre in over their heads. Thats a big deal because a lot of people are relying on them to bring new distribution capabilities to life. Sabre has a lot more experience running and scaling large-scale systems, and Farelogix would be well-served if they could tap into that expertise.

Some experts pointed to the deals potential impact on the global market for passenger service systems [PSSes], which help airlines take bookings on their websites, help gate agents board passengers, and handle other operational tasks.

Farelogix doesnt sell a passenger service system. But Sabre does. The services Farelogix provides could help Sabre have a stronger offering in its passenger service system, Cederhall argued.

I actually see this acquisition as an opportunity for Sabre to position itself as a provider of a modern PSS, with a focus on airline IT and direct connect solutions, rather than protecting the traditional distribution business, Cederhall said.

In the passenger service system market, Amadeus has 43 percent global market share, compared to Sabre, which has 17 percent market share, as measured by passengers boarded, estimated airline technology consultancy T2RL.

So Sabre is far behind Amadeus in airline IT, and Farelogix could give Sabre some additional capabilities, said Richard Clarke, CEO of T2RL.

Farelogix is a small company that Sabre could scale and provide a succession plan for management, said Clarke. Airlines need a marketplace that delivers industrial-scale solutions, and our data indicate that Sabre and Farelogix would compete more effectively as a combined entity. As for distribution and the DOJs [Department of Justices] interpretation of the market, we just dont agree with it.

What Is Farelogix?

One trouble the judge will face in this antitrust case is deciding what Farelogix is.

Farelogix has morphed since its founding in 1998. It began with marketing talk of creating an alternative to Sabre and its peer distribution technology companies Amadeus, Travelport, and Travelsky.

In filings, the Justice Department has focused on one of Farelogixs product offerings, a direct connection between airlines and travel agencies that acts as a partial bypass of Sabres distribution services.

American Airlines and Lufthansa are among the customers of this so-called direct connect service.

Yet several industry experts we spoke to said that Farelogixs direct connection service was a very modest product with a limited number of customers and a lot of competitors. Some argued that the vast majority of Farelogixs revenues came from providing ancillary service technology instead.

Farelogix has also given up former aspirations to compete against the Sabres of the world on distribution tech, experts said.

This has led to confusion. Not long after 2015, when Lufthansa introduced a surcharge for bookings booked via so-called global distribution systems Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport, Lufthansa and Sabre entered into litigation in a Texas court about whether the surcharge violated contract terms. In testimony, Sabre argued that Lufthansa should also charge a fee for tickets processed through Farelogix because Farelogix was acting as a global distribution system in this instance. That case has gone quiet but remains open.

In todays Farelogix case, Sabre argues something different, namely, that Farelogix isnt a global distribution system, which is the service that Sabre makes a majority of its revenue from. Farelogix itself years ago abandoned talk of aspirations to becoming a lightweight competitor to global distribution systems.

One of the upstarts in distribution technology is Duffel, a creator of a travel booking system that rivals some aspects of what distribution companies provide. It has raised $56 million in venture capital funding.

From the perspective of Duffel Im not overly worried if its approved, said Steve Domin, co-founder and CEO of Duffel. I dont think Sabre would do anything drastic that would prevent us, or any other airline distribution player, to build our businesses.

Airlines might pull out of Farelogix, but there are a few other IT providers in the marketplace, Domin said. Its true that theres a healthy level of activity in the airline distribution space at the moment, however we shouldnt forget that this still represents a very marginal share of the overall market and that the historic players still completely dominate the space. If the deal fails, it will definitely put Amadeus in a much better position overall, but that probably isnt going to be a concern for the DOJ in this trial.

Some Arguments Against the Merger

No one Skift interviewed would make on-the-record comments against the merger. Far fewer experts we spoke with sided with the Justice Departments view, but there were a few.

A few industry observers claimed that Sabre has no interest at all in what Farelogix is doing. Sabre is merely interested in removing the threat before the next round of contract negotiations with a couple of key airline groups, these skeptics alleged.

These cynics pointed to history. In the early 2000s, a company called G2 SwitchWorks began winning airline customers for a preliminary version of direct connection technology. In 2008, one of the global distribution systems, Travelport, acquired the company and then buried it, experts said.

That said, Sabre has promised to extend Farelogixs existing airline contracts with Farelogix for three years and committed to maintaining existing services.

A red flag for some other skeptics of the deal is its $360 million price. Some experts argued that the price, which was more than nine times Farelogixs 2018 full-year revenue of $40 million, was too high.

If, as Sabre argues, Farelogix has lots of competitors with many startups entering, why didnt it buy another of the startups to get a comparable set of merchandising and ancillary tools, they asked. Maybe it was because Farelogix provides services to Sabres main protagonists in the booking fee and direct connect spats: American Airlines and Lufthansa Group.

Sabre might counter in court that Farelogixs merchandising is marginally better than other competitors and vastly better to Sabres internal offering. The companies had already been working together in some aspects and this would be the easiest next step.

The biggest wildcard may be potential surprise evidence. Federal attorneys hinted that they had obtained text messages and other communication where Sabre executives acknowledged that acquiring Farelogix would neuter a competitive threat and further entrench Sabre in booking services.

Cynical Take

Some cynics argued that airlines as a broad group and the four major global distribution systems as a broad group have both displayed bullying, oligopolistic tendencies on various fronts that sometimes show a disregard about the end consumer.

Both sides are always trying to find leverage in their never-ending feud that is ultimately over booking fees, cynics said.

Sabre CEO Sean Menke has heard both sides of these cynical arguments. Earlier in his career, Menke was executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Air Canada and participated in a lawsuit against Sabre over its distribution practices.

Im probably one of the few individuals who has sued their future-to-be-employer, joked Sean Menke during an interview at Skift Tech Forum 2018.

Heres what some cynics said, speaking anonymously due to the controversial nature of their comments: If airlines truly cared about Farelogix, they would have made a counter bid to buy it or a comparable rival or else they would have invested heavily to build in-house systems to make it easy for travel agencies to bypass the global distribution systems.

Airlines, through their lax approach to investing in or building tech alternatives, open themselves to a cynical interpretation of their interest in Farelogix, cynics said. Carriers might only care about Farelogixs fate because they want to have a bypass option as a form of leverage in their next round of negotiations over contract terms with the distribution giants.

Consider the comments just-retired Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson made during Skift Tech Forum 2018 when asked about Americans revived 2017 bid for a direct connection to agencies, which Farelogix has serviced.

Is it having any traction? Wilson said. I cant figure where. What does [the direct connect] do, what is it that the airlines are doing that they cant do through the technology that weve invested in and deployed. Its purely a commercial model.

Follow the Money

Airline distribution is confusing, as Skifts 2017 deep dive on the sector, Channel Shock, noted. One true north to keep an eye on while navigating the subjects complexities is this question: Who pays whom for what?

Airlines resent the global distribution systems, despite spending about $7 billion on their services last year worldwide. Airlines dislike the business model where airlines pay fees to the tech middlemen, and the tech middlemen pay incentive fees to online and offline travel agencies. The middlemen also provide most of the agent reservations technology and back-office technology agencies use.

Some of the carriers argue that todays commercial model allegedly gives the tech companies heavy influence over agencies and creates a lot of headwinds for the sector when it comes to introducing new technologies and processes.

Some airlines gripe that technology costs for distribution have not come down as fast  and innovations havent happened as fast  as in other sectors. Still, they typically only provide anecdotal evidence for that.

The global distribution systems counter than the average booking fees for distributing tickets have been declining for airlines for years while the companies have invested in new technologies, such as cloud-based systems, and in sales teams to help airlines and agencies with their needs.

Airlines also resent the profit margins of those tech companies. Publicly-held Amadeus and Sabre enjoy roughly double the margins of the largest airline groups.

From their perspective, travel tech intermediaries sometimes point out that the market capitalizations of some of the most vocal airline groups significantly exceed their own. Whos bullying whom, they argue.

The Sabre-Farelogix case wont resolve the long-running debate. Its outcome also wont stop market forces from changing industry dynamics, experts said.

A central aspect of this case is the fact that the travel ecosystem is in the midst of a transformation from historic basic travel product to more sophisticated digital commerce travel offers, said Kevin Haskins, a senior travel industry consultant with IBM Global Business Services.

This introduces an element of uncertainty into where travel distribution is headed and subsequently what are the positive or negative implications of Sabres acquisition of Farelogix, Haskins said.

Sabre will undoubtedly make a case that the Farelogix acquisition will accelerate innovation and transformation for its extensive customer base, thus bringing advantages of more advanced digital commerce capabilities to airlines, travel agencies, and ultimately a better traveler experience, Haskins said.

Theres some merit to this argument, he said while noting he has a neutral perspective on how the judge should decide the case.

One challenge for Sabre is that the crux of the issue lies in the digital transformation of travel distribution, and digital transformation tends to be most effectively driven by smaller disruptive players, Haskins said. While there are legions of travel startups looking to shake up travel, few if any have the visibility and street cred of Farelogix.

A Jump Ball

Sabre had sparked the suit last August after it became frustrated at the Justice Departments delayed review of its proposed Farelogix deal, which it had announced nine months earlier. In an uncommon move, Sabre dared the Justice Department to sue it or otherwise it would close the acquisition. The Justice Department sued.

A wild card is a broader U.S. backlash against so-called Big Tech. U.S. Attorney General William Barr last July said the Justice Department would review if it needs to address antitrust issues related to U.S. technology companies.

The government may be using its case against Sabre as a test for possible future cases against larger technology companies. For example, some of the Justice Departments court filings suggest it aimed to treat Sabres action as an effort to quash a nascent competitor, rather than a current competitor. The Justice Department has rarely taken that approach in court in antitrust cases  adding an element of uncertainty about the outcome.

Prior to the trial, attorneys for the two sides clashed over whether past lawsuits that U.S. Airways and American Airlines filed against Sabre had any relevance to a technology merger today. The Justice Department won the point with Judge Leonard Stark, and its attorneys intended to bring testimony from figures familiar with how Sabre negotiated contracts with airlines around 2006. For example, Cory Garner, American Airlines vice president of sales and distribution strategy who has testified in other cases against Sabres past practices, is set to take the stand within the trials first days.

Judge Leonard Stark has said he hopes to wrap up arguments and testimony in the antitrust case by the end of next week.

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US military recovers 2 bodies from aircraft crash site in Afghanistan originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

The U.S. military recovered on Tuesday the remains of the two individuals on board the U.S. Air Force aircraft that crashed in central Afghanistan.

The flight data recorder from the U.S. Bombardier E-11A was also recovered from the site, according to a statement from U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

(MORE: Pentagon IDs 2 US soldiers killed in Afghanistan)

A mechanical issue is believed to have caused the E-11A to crash on Monday in Ghazni province, a defense official said. A second official told ABC News that the pilots had declared an in-flight emergency.

PHOTO: The wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft that crashed in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, is seen on Jan. 27, 2020. (Saifullah Maftoon/AP)

The statement released on Tuesday reiterated that there were no indications that the crash was caused by enemy fire.

U.S. military personnel destroyed the remnants of the aircraft.

Several factors delayed Tuesday's recovery of the bodies, including weather conditions and security precautions that were taken in order to reach the location of the crash, which is in a Taliban stronghold south of Kabul, one defense official said. Afghan forces secured the area, allowing the U.S. military to conduct the recovery operations, the official added.

PHOTO: The wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft that crashed in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, is seen on Jan. 27, 2020. (Saifullah Maftoon/AP)

The Pentagon has not yet identified the two individuals killed in the crash.

A U.S. Bombardier E-11A crashed today in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.  USFOR-A Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett (@USFOR_A) January 27, 2020

In the aftermath of the crash, the Taliban said they had shot down the aircraft -- a claim rebutted by spokesperson Col. Sonny Leggett in a statement on Monday. He also called Taliban claims that additional aircraft had crashed "false."

Two 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers were killed by an improvised explosive device, or IED, while conducting combat operations in Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Jan. 11. They were later identified as Staff Sgt. Ian Paul McLaughlin of Newport News, Virginia, and Pfc. Miguel Angel Villalon of Joliet, Illinois.

ABC News' James Meek and Abby Cruz contributed to this report.
On Jan. 17, Toyota announced plans to shift production of its Tacoma pickup from San Antonio to Mexico, a day after the Senate OKd an updated North American trade pact.

The announcements timing may have been coincidental  a Toyota spokeswoman said it was not related to trade politics  but the Senates action swept aside any concerns the automaker may have had about assembling more pickups in Mexico.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign Wednesday, doesnt impose tariffs on vehicles imported into the U.S. from Mexico or Canada. On that front, its a continuation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was adopted in 1994 and came under fierce attack by Trump, both as a candidate and president.

Toyota plans to move assembly of its Sequoia SUV to its South Side plant soon after ending Tacoma production here in late 2021. The automaker said the re-alignment wont result in job cuts in San Antonio, where it employs 3,200 and its on-site suppliers an additional 4,000.

Obviously, changing manufacturing locations for motor vehicles is a multibillion-dollar decision that is not made on the spur of the moment, said Owen Stuart, a market research analyst at Freedonia Group, an industry research company based in Cleveland.

I suspect that Toyota had been planning to realign its production for a while, he said, but the uncertainty of tariffs and the trade war made them look for trade stability before committing.

Its not hard to see why. As a presidential candidate, Trump slammed NAFTA as one of historys worst trade deals. As president, his tone hasnt softened much.

In 2017, Toyota said it would build compact Corollas at a plant then in the works in Guanajunto, Mexico, the facility that will absorb Tacoma production from the manufacturers San Antonio plant.

Several weeks before his 2017 inauguration, Trump responded on Twitter: No WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax in January 2017

Toyota eventually scrapped plans to assemble Corollas at the Mexican plant. Instead, the automaker announced in 2018 that it was partnering with Mazda to build a plant in Huntsville, Ala., that would make the vehicle. The company has since said it will manufacture an SUV at that facility.

In the meantime, Toyota completed the plant in Guanajunto and began assembling Tacomas there in December.

Despite that fraught history, Toyota and other automakers won a key concession during negotiations on the revamped trade deal, forestalling potential new tariffs by the Trump administration.

Light trucks such as the Tacoma, an additional 2.6 million vehicles and $108 billion worth of Mexican auto part imports would be exempt from any potential tariffs, according to a Nov. 30, 2018, letter from U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer to his Mexican counterpart.

The side agreement clearly shows the influence the automakers have in D.C., said Mark Schrimer, director of public relations at Cox Automotive.

Toyotas North American CEO, Jim Lentz, had publicly denounced potential new tariffs before the trade partners reached agreement on the USMCA, warning that new levies could stop the automaker from reinvesting in its U.S. plants.

On ExpressNews.com: Toyota to shuffle San Antonio production  Sequoia in, Tacoma out; no new jobs expected

While Toyota said no jobs will be lost in San Antonio, neither does it plan to add new jobs.

The manufacturer will continue to produce the full-size Tundra pickup here. Itll be joined in 2022 by the Sequoia, a lightly selling SUV.

Mary Lovely, an economics professor at Syracuse University and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, sees Toyotas announcement as tied to the Senate vote.

It was a public relations thing, she said. Toyota, she said, would not want to be seen moving Tacoma production to Mexico and bringing new jobs to its Guanajunto plant but not its San Antonio facility before the Senate approved the trade agreement.

Toyota spokeswomen Marjorie Schussel said the companys announcement was tied to a ceremony for the first all-new 2020 Highlander rolling off the assembly line at its plant in Princeton, Ind.

The fact that the Senate passed the USMCA around the time of our event was purely coincidental, she said.

Toyota has created about 1,000 new jobs in Guanajuato in addition to the 2,100 workers the company employs at a plant near Tijuana, which has manufactured the Tacoma since 2004.

Mexico is not a major market for the Tacoma. Toyota sold about 5,000 of those pickups to Mexican consumers last year. The bulk of its production in Mexico, at least 80 percent, will be sold to U.S. customers, analysts says.

Toyota sold more than 248,000 Tacomas in the U.S. in 2019, according to the manufacturer.

A key part of the USMCA aims to create new U.S auto jobs and raise the pay of Mexican workers. Mexican auto production workers wages are as low as the equivalent of $3 an hour.

The agreement requires automakers to manufacture 40 percent of their motor vehicles and 45 percent of light trucks such as the Tacoma in plants where assembly workers earn at least $16 an hour. The idea is that if car and truck makers have to raise wages in Mexico, they might be more willing to open factories in the U.S., where hourly pay is higher. And if they choose to produce in Mexico, theyll raise the pay of Mexican workers.

However, the rule probably wont affect Toyota, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research.

Toyota already manufactures the engine for the Tacoma at its factory in Huntsville, Ala., and its transmission comes from a supplier in Durham, N.C. The average wage at those facilities is above $16 an hour, she said. The engine and the transmission combined, she added, account for around 45 percent of the vehicle.

A 2014 study put the average wage at the Toyota plant near Tijuana at under $4 an hour. Toyota has not released the current average hourly wage for its Mexican workers.

A 2019 International Monetary Fund study found that the new trade agreement could push average autoworker compensation in Mexico to $5 an hour.

The average worker at the Toyota San Antonio plant makes $24 an hour.

Dziczek said low Mexican wages isnt the only reason why Toyota moved all Tacoma production to Mexico. Another factor is the new plants location  in central Mexico  which allows easier access than Texas to the U.S. Pacific Coast to ship cars and trucks.

After Trumps signs the USMCA, the Canadian Parliament needs to approve it.

Randy Diamond covers energy and manufacturing in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read his stories and more local coverage on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | randy.diamond@express-news.net
The climate denialism of the rich and powerful is increasing the suffering of the poor and marginalised communities.

It will be a long hot summer in Australia. Fires of almost biblical proportions have swept across the country, devastating land, property and wildlife. More than 30 people have been killed, a billion animals have died, and more than 3,000 homes have been burned down. The cost of the bushfires has been estimated at $2bn and could climb even further.

Although heavy rain and lower temperatures this month have helped put out some fires, the threat of the blaze coming back is still imminent.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisons response to this environmental catastrophe has been to refuse to expand measures to combat climate change. In December, as the death toll was climbing and Australian fire brigades struggled to control the fires, the prime minister left the country for a holiday in Hawaii.

His attitude and actions illustrate quite well just how the wealthy and their political allies plan to rule our burning planet.

The harrowing and apocalyptic scenes coming out of Australia are only the beginning of a new normal in which climate change will result in climate apartheid. Those with the means and the resources will leave climate catastrophe zones or otherwise protect themselves from the worst effects of climate change, while poor communities and nations of the Global South, indigenous people and people of colour will bear the brunt.

Meanwhile, global corporations will continue to lobby governments to take little action on climate change and continue to undermine the efforts of climate activists.

In a July 2019 report, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned that climate change will push 120 million more people into poverty by 2030, causing displacement, food insecurity and worsening health, and posing dire threats to democracy and human rights. Perversely, while people in poverty are responsible for just a fraction of global emissions, they will bear the brunt of climate change and have the least capacity to protect themselves, Alston wrote.

In Australia, this is already apparent. The country has had devastating bush fires for years, which have disproportionately affected impoverished areas. Aboriginal communities continue to be subjected to discrimination, marginalisation and dispossession, their land seized to make way for more resource extraction.

Although the country  one of the worlds top coal exporters  is clearly suffering from the devastating consequences of climate change, more coal mines are being built on aboriginal land and more coal is being exported.

Meanwhile, the ruling political elite of the country has consistently refused to take major action on climate change, dismantle the coal industry, and undertake a massive divestment from fossil fuels. Its attitude of climate change denial has been buttressed by a regressive media establishment dominated by Rupert Murdochs media empire.

Australia is not the only country with a history of brutal colonialism which has taken a cynical, cruel and nihilistic approach to the environment, climate activists and vulnerable populations.

Six months ago, another country was experiencing devastating fires  Brazil. There the Amazon forest, which is considered a bulwark against climate change, was burning under the watch of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, another climate denialist.

In Brazil, 98 percent of indigenous land falls within the Amazon, which means that forest fires also disproportionately affect indigenous communities.

Bolsonaro not only did not take adequate action against the blaze, but his aggressive anti-environment rhetoric was also seen as encouraging farmers to start fires and clear land for more farms and pastures. Even worse, he has been accused of inciting genocide, as his political stances have emboldened acts of violence and murder against indigenous people.

Bolsonaro has also implemented a number of troubling policies that will hurt efforts to preserve the environment. Those include cutting the budget of the Brazilian environmental protection agency, easing fines for illegal pollution and deforestation, and lifting bans on growing sugarcane in the Amazon and protected tropical wetlands.

The situation in the US is not that much different, either. Last year, US President Donald Trump, another proponent of climate change denialism, threatened to cut funding for forest fire management in California after the state went through another wave of devastating fires. There, too, impoverished communities have faced the worst of the blaze.

Trump also personally intervened to cut and withhold billions of dollars in funding to Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria and a recent earthquake, because he claims the territory is corrupt and ungrateful. In doing so he followed in the footsteps of President George W Bush, whose administration launched a pathetic response to the devastation in predominantly black communities in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Trump rolled back nearly 100 rules designed to protect the air, land and water, and is removing environmental protection for half of the nations streams and wetlands. Under his watch, the US Department of Homeland Security labelled climate activists as extremists alongside mass killers and white supremacists.

Apart from these regressive policies in Australia, Brazil and the US, wealthy nations around the globe are increasingly militarising their borders to prevent a growing number of climate refugees from seeking asylum on their territories. European nations, for example, have increasingly relied on harsh measures and dubious deals with repressive regimes and violent non-state actors to keep refugees away from their borders.

These climate apartheid proponents behave as if their walled fortresses, air-conditioned and high-altitude enclaves will insulate them from the worst ravages of climate change and its most devastated front-line victims. But the reality is that there is no bailout from a climate catastrophe, even for the rich.

By now it is clear that change will not come from the top. The business and political elites are bent on maintaining the status quo, however deadly it may be.

For this reason, it is the grassroots that has to mobilise to defy climate apartheid and push for urgent climate change that includes not only divesting from fossil fuels and cutting back on global emissions, but also reforming the world economy away from the growth frenzy that currently drives it. Also, we must fight for robust economic and social rights, including a strong social safety net, social security, access to food, shelter, healthcare and decent work for all.

Global grassroots mobilisation is the only way to prevent climate apartheid from taking root and taking adequate action to save the human civilisation from dying out because of its own folly.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): A suspected case of coronavirus has been reported in Rajasthan, following which State Health Minister Raghu Sharma has directed that the patient be kept in an isolation ward.



The patient has returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China. The Minister has directed SMS Medical College Administration to shift the patient to the isolation ward immediately and to also conduct the screening of the family members.

Directions have also been issued to send the samples collected from the patient to Pune's National Virology Laboratory.

"According to the information received, 18 persons in four districts of the state have returned from China. The Chief Medical and Health Officers of the four districts have been instructed to keep all of them under constant monitoring for 28 days," said Sharma.

The Health Minister has also urged the Central Government to conduct a full screening of suspected persons arriving from international airports. (ANI)
Alwane Bahrain Society, a non-profit association, plans to hold the SMEs Finance Management Forum' to cover the best theoretical and applicable finance management theories for the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).



The Active Leaders for Women Advancement in the Near East (Alwane) is a Bahraini forum of leaders committed to the advancement of womens leadership by using innovative technologies and engaging young, new voices. The Alwane Society has been established by Women Campaign International (WCI).



That forum comes during Bahrains implementation of VAT on diversified commercial activities in Bahrain, in addition to the inauguration of Finance Fund Support that targets the provision of support to the SMEs.



The event, to be held on February 2020, is designed to help SMEs representatives to gain insights on the importance of accounting solutions as they operate their businesses under the new VAT system.



The forum provides a platform to learn new ways to enhance their operational efficiency amidst the current economic development, available financial sources, changing aspects of spending, and avoid bankruptcy.



The forum will be moderated by the CEO of Athar, financial and account expert Ali Al Marzoog.



Ammar Awachi, chairman of Alwane Bahrain, said: During the forum, the speaker will illustrate how adopting financial management solutions is a fundamental business strategy to achieve strong financial performance and robust business operations.



The participants will have an opportunity to gain new perspectives on overcoming challenges such as predicting business cash flow, market trends, customer demands, that might push them to operate without financial planning, he added.



The forum comes within Alwane efforts to support Bahraini women in the economic sector and transform their ideas to sustainable commercial projects. Figures show that female CR owners increased to more than 47 per cent of the total number of CRs in the Bahrain SME industry.



In this Regard, Awachi pointed that Bahrain, during the past two years, has provided an integrated regulatory environment for SMEs through various number of initiatives including the Council of Development of SMEs and the implementation to allocate 20 per cent of government purchases from the SMEs.



In addition to related initiatives such as the launch of the Bahrain Export Support Centre and Entrepreneurs support programmes. He paid tribute to the integrated efforts of relevant government bodies including Ministry of Finance & National Economy, Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Tourism, Bahrain Economic Development Board, Tamkeen Labor Fund, and Bahrain Chamber of Commerce & Industry.



Awachi continued: After all the efforts that were made to provide this integrated regulatory environment, we are now looking forward to seeing the impact of these efforts on the development and expansion of SMEs, improving their productivity and profitability prospects and contributing to the GDP.



We at Alwane Bahrain Society will continue to support these efforts through many actions and initiatives, among them the organisation of the Financial Management Forum for Small and Medium Enterprises, he said.



Through the forum, we at Alwane Bahrain Society aim to support these efforts, consequently, through many events and initiatives, added Awachi.  TradeArabia News Service
France, a founding member of the European Union, considers the new citizenship law an internal political matter of India, French diplomatic sources said on Monday.

The assertion came after close to 600 lawmakers in the 751-member parliament moved six resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying the enactment of the law marked a dangerous shift in India's citizenship regime.

For France, the CAA is India's internal political matter and it has been stated on several occasions, the sources said.

They said the European Parliament is an institution independent of member states and the European Commission.

The new law, passed by Parliament last month, offers citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

India has been witnessing massive protests against the new law with opposition parties, civil rights groups and activists saying that granting citizenship based on religion is against the foundational principles of the Constitution.

There has been no reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs on the resolutions against the CAA in European Parliament.

Official sources, however, maintained that the CAA was an entirely internal matter of India and that the legislation was adopted through democratic means after a debate in both houses of Parliament.

"Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination," a government source said, explaining why India is opposed to the resolutions at the EU parliament.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amman (AFP) - A Jordanian court on Sunday levelled "terrorism" charges against a man suspected of wounding eight people in a November knife attack at a popular tourist site.

The suspect, Moustafa Abourouis, 22, faces up to 20 years in prison after the stabbing of three Mexicans, a Swiss woman, a Jordanian tour guide and a security officer at the Roman city of Jerash.

At a hearing open to the press, prosecutors accused Abourouis of committing a "terrorist act" and "promoting the ideas of a terrorist group" -- a reference to the Islamic State (IS) group.

Abourouis, who is of Palestinian origins and grew up in the refugee camp of Souf, was arrested immediately after the attack at Jerash, close to the camp and around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Amman.

The Jordanian prosecutor accused Abourouis of trying to join IS, an operative of which in Syria had "ordered him to commit attacks against foreigners".

Two alleged accomplices, also Jordanians of Palestinian origin, were charged with "terrorism" in the same case. All three pleaded not guilty.

The court is scheduled to hear witnesses next Sunday, with the date for a verdict to be confirmed.

It was not the first time a Jordanian tourist attraction has been attacked.

In December 2016, in Karak, home to one of the region's biggest Crusader castles, 10 people -- seven police, two Jordanian civilians and a Canadian tourist -- were killed in an attack that also left 30 wounded.

That attack was claimed by IS and 10 people were later convicted of carrying out the assault, two of them sentenced to death.

Tourism is a key lifeline for Jordan, a country lacking in natural resources and reliant on foreign aid. The sector accounted for 14 percent of GDP in 2019.

The kingdom, bordering conflict-torn Syria and Iraq, has been working to revive its tourism industry and aims to attract seven million holidaymakers a year.
At least 10 Victorian schools have put parents on urgent alert over the deadly coronavirus, instructing them to keep any students who are at risk of carrying the virus away from school for at least 10 days.

With the new school year starting from Wednesday this week, several independent schools have sent letters that "strongly recommend" at-risk students either remain in China or self-isolate in Melbourne with their parents for two weeks.

Passengers wearing protective masks arriving in Australia over the weekend. Credit:AAP

However, the state education department has imposed far-less strict regulations. For public school students, only those who have a confirmed case of coronavirus or had close contact with a confirmed case in the past 14 days have been advised to stay away from school.

Elite boys' private school Scotch College contacted parents on Sunday, saying it was "aware of concerns regarding the spread of novel coronavirus".
MONTREAL, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Today saw the release by the Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY) and Sierra Club of yet another Energyzt "analysis" on Hydro-Quebec's energy. It's not the first time this consultant has been hired by the fossil fuel industry to discredit a clean energy generator. But maybe in this case IPPNY's consultant should have asked Hydro-Quebec for the right figures, because they've gotten a lot of things wrong. Here are a few of the most outrageous tidbits:

First, the very ironic statement "CHPE will not result in reduced global emissions". Irony #1 because it comes from the fossil fuel industry, which is creating these carbon emissions in the first place. Irony #2 because they're talking about North America's largest generator of clean, renewable energy, providing 100% low-carbon power to its markets. The truth: Hydro-Quebec's exports displace dirty fossil fuel generation, close to 8 million metric tons in 2018 alone  that's like taking 2 million cars off the roads. The report claims HQ doesn't have enough energy to supply the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line. False. In the coming years, Hydro-Quebec can count on more than 40 million megawatts of energy, each year, available for sales to adjacent markets. Had Energyzt bothered to check, they would have seen that in an HQ press release from November 1, 2019 . We were early movers in the clean energy transition, adding more than 5,000 MW to our generation fleet in the last 15 years  that's more than twice the capacity of the Indian Point nuclear station that will cease operations in 2021. We're fully committed to decarbonizing, in Quebec and through our exports. The IPPNY-sponsored report claims that Hydro-Quebec customers and neighboring markets might have to switch to fossil fuel if the company sells too much clean electricity to New York . False! (and a little preposterous). Here's why: Along with California , Quebec is a member of the Western Climate Initiative  a cap and trade system for carbon emissions. Penalties apply if we use or import fossil fuel energy. Ontario has committed to reducing its emissions in line with Canada's commitment to the Paris agreement. New Brunswick is actively looking to reduce its carbon footprint, not increase it. That Atlantic province recently signed a supply contract with Hydro-Quebec to import more of our clean hydro.

CHPE would deliver clean energy where New York needs it most: downstate, where, after Indian Point closes, 95% of electricity will come from fossil fuel. Our hydropower has a carbon footprint that's 50 times better than gas generators  and it emits no local air pollutants such as NOx that spew out of dirty fuel smokestacks and cause respiratory disease.

We hope IPPNY didn't pay Energyzt too much for this. There's a limit to flawed and biased reports, and in the race against the climate emergency, it's shamefully irresponsible. Without clean energy projects like CHPE, how long is it going to take to get significant carbon reductions? The future of the energy sector is clean and renewable, and the fossil fuel generators are just going to have to get used to that.

SOURCE Hydro-Quebec

Related Links

www.hydroquebec.com


New Delhi:

The West Bengal Assembly on Monday passed a resolution against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, becoming the fourth state to do so. Three states - Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab  have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The resolution appeals to the Union government to repeal the amended citizenship law and revoke plans to implement NRC and update NPR.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee introduced the resolution in the House around 2 pm.

The law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the Trinamool Congress opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

Rahul, Priyanka meet NHRC officials

Meanwhile, a Congress delegation led by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met top officials of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday, demanding a probe into alleged police atrocities against anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh.

The party leaders met the NHRC officials and highlighted the alleged brutalities committed by the Uttar Pradesh police on agitators during the anti-CAA stir.

The leaders who met the NHRC officials included Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khurshid, P L Punia, Jitin Prasada, Abhishek Singhvi, Rajiv Shukla and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.

They demanded a thorough probe into the the deaths that took place in the state during the violent protests against the amendments in the country's citizenship law.

(With PTI inputs)
JACKSON, MI  A man accused of nearly decapitating his girlfriend has a date for a jury trial.

Larry Maddin Jr., 43, allegedly killed Bobbi Jo Thomas, his 43-year-old girlfriend, on Dec. 10, 2017, in the Orange Street apartment they were sharing. Hes charged with one felony count each of open murder and torture and one misdemeanor count of domestic violence.

The jury trial is scheduled to start May 4, more than two years after the case was originally bound over to Jackson County Circuit Court on Jan. 18, 2018.

Police were dispatched to Henry Ford Allegiance after Maddin showed up at the emergency room soaked in blood, police said. Maddin had a small cut on his hand that was inconsistent with the amount of blood covering his body, police said.

During a Monday, Jan. 27 hearing, a Henry Ford Allegiance Health nurse testified about how Maddins clothing was handled and when it was turned over to police. She was the last witness called.

Family and friends of Thomas have been frustrated with the slow wheels of justice in the case. Multiple motions from Maddins defense attorney have slowed the proceedings, which is expected, Jackson County Prosecutor Jerry Jarzynka has said.

25 months after Jackson womans brutal murder, friends, family still waiting for justice

Maddin was on parole at the time of Thomas death. He had pleaded guilty to a 2005 armed robbery in which he used a handgun to rob a gas station, stealing a box with $350 in it and forcing a clerk into a back room, where he bound the employees hands and feet with duct tape, according to past reports.

Three days before Thomas death, Maddin had walked away from the Waterford-based Community Programs Inc., an in-patient substance abuse rehabilitation facility, officials said at the time. His sister said then that if her brother had been on his medication, he would not be charged with murder.

To read all the stories regarding this case, click here.

READ MORE JACKSON NEWS:

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Pair of party stores robbed, YMCA gets $3M gift: Top Jackson headlines Jan. 19-24

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YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of emergency situations informs that on January 27 as of 08:30 some roads are closed and difficult to pass in Armenia.

The ministry told Armenpress that the Vardenyats Pass is closed for trucks, but is difficult to pass for the passenger vehicles.

Sotk-Karvachar highway is difficult to pass for all types of cars.

The Georgian side informed that the Stepantsminda-Lars highway is open for all types of vehicles.

Drivers are urged to use winter tires.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Businesses have a role to play in reducing water pollution and keeping waterways clean.

More than avoiding penalties for violating environmental laws, business owners should make their establishments as environment-friendly as possible  its the responsible thing to do. All it really takes is a little additional investment to deliver one's civic duty of ensuring clean waterways.

The single most important thing that business owners can do is to prevent the wastewater generated by their establishments from directly draining out, without prior treatment, into creeks or other bodies of water.

The Clean Water Act is one of the key Philippine laws mandating all businesses to manage their own wastewater. They can do this by installing and maintaining their own sewage treatment plant (STP). All establishments are required to treat the wastewater they generate before its discharge to the ecosystem. The lack of a properly functioning STP would mean that the establishment is a source of pollution, and this could lead to the closure of its operations as well as the imposition of hefty fines on the business owner.

Those located in areas where Maynilad has an existing sewer network actually have a cheaper option rather than to build their own full-fledged STP, and that is to install a pre-treatment facility that can be hooked up to Maynilads sewerage system.

This is more convenient for business owners because once connected to Maynilads sewer network, they just have to maintain their pre-treatment facility so that it keeps their establishments wastewater within domestic quality standards. Everything else  from wastewater conveyance to final treatment and disposal  will be taken care of by Maynilad.

For business owners in the restaurant industry, an example of a pre-treatment facility would be grease-and-oil traps. Maynilad's treatment facilities are only designed to handle domestic-quality wastewater, so it is important that the huge volume of grease and oil produced by restaurants is removed from the wastewater that flows into the sewerage system. Without such pre-treatment facility, Maynilad will not connect the establishment to its sewer network, as doing so will compromise the integrity of its treatment facilities.

Once an establishment is properly connected to its sewerage system, Maynilad will issue a Certificate of Interconnection that the business owner can submit to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Laguna Lake Development Authority, and/or the local government unit. This certificate serves as proof of the business owners compliance with the Clean Water Act.

If you think that building an STP or a pre-treatment facility is a cost you would rather not bear, would you let nature pay instead? Ordinary citizens may be exposed to polluted waterways, which could ultimately affect public health if left unchecked.

Theres a huge price to be paid in terms of reputational damage if your company is given a Closure or Cease and Desist Order for not following the rules on wastewater management. Add to that the losses that would pile up if your business is fined and forced to shut down.

We know the stories from the rehabilitation of Boracay Island and Manila Bay, so entrepreneurs must learn from these and become proactive in learning about the laws and how to comply.

Business owners can visit the nearest Maynilad Business Area office to inquire about the requirements and procedure on how to apply for a sewer connection. Those based in sewered areas (e.g., Tondo, Dagupan, Foreshore, Legarda, Paco, Sampaloc, and Sta. Cruz) have this option.

At present, Maynilad operates 19 Sewage Treatment Plants, two Sewage and Septage Treatment Plants, and one Septage Treatment Plant with a combined treatment capacity of an estimated 664,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day. Since its reprivatization in 2007, the company has been able to treat 656,000 million liters of wastewater. The effluent its facilities produce consistently passes strict government standards for quality.

Cleaning up waterways is possible, but all stakeholders have to do their part  including business owners, who should comply with environmental laws despite the cost.
Donald Trump threw his support behind abolishing NPR amid a nasty public row after one of its host revealed Mike Pompeo had berated her using the f-word for asking him about Ukraine.

The president said 'A very good question!' as he retweeted Mark Levin, the conservative radio broadcaster, asking: 'Why does NPR still exist?

'We have thousands of radio stations in the U.S. Plus Satellite radio. Podcasts. Why are we paying for this big-government, Democrat Party propaganda operation.'

Direct federal funding represents less than 1 per cent of NPR's budget.

The backing came after Pompeo was revealed by Mary Louise Kelly to have shouted 'do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' after his aides angrily cut off an interview she was conducting with him for All Things Considered.

He did not deny threatening her, repeatedly using the f-word, and demanding she point to Ukraine on a blank map.

Instead he complained that she had broken an agreement to go 'off the record,' which she said she never made, and not to ask about Ukraine, which she also said she had not agreed to.

On Monday emails published by the Washington Post cast significant doubt on Pompeo's claim that Kelly had not agreed to ask about Ukraine.

Furious tirade: NPR host Mary Louise Kelly revealed how the Secretary of State had her summoned to his private quarters where he shouted the f-word at her, threatened her, and demanded she point to Ukraine on a blank map

Questions over account: Both allegations Mike Pompeo leveled against Kelly in his statement were disputed by her, with email suggesting there was no agreement to ignore Ukraine

Emails with Katie Martin, Pompeo's press aide, showed Kelly told the State Department she was going to ask Pompeo about Ukraine

The emails showed Katie Martin, a Republican operative who is Pompeo's press aide, pleading with Kelly to stick to Iran and saying: 'Know you just got back from Tehran so we would like to stick to Iran as the topic as opposed to jumping around. Is that something we can agree to?'

But Kelly replied: 'I am indeed just back from Tehran and plan to start there. Also Ukraine. And who knows what the news gods will serve up overnight. I never agree to take anything off the table.'

Kelly had also revealed how Pompeo demanded she point to Ukraine on a blank map - of which he apparently has a supply in his private quarters at the State Department - and he used his statement to say: 'Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine.'

He appeared to imply Kelly did not know the difference between the two countries, although his statement could also suggest that he does not know the difference himself.

Abolishing public funding for NPR, and its television equivalent PBS, has long been pushed by Republicans although it has never succeeded, even when the party has controlled both the House and the Senate.

NPR's direct federal funding in 2018, the last year for which figures have been publishes, was $1.8 million out of total revenue of $232.7 million, but it also received grants from other federal sources, and some of the income it receives from member stations would have come from the federal government too.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds both NPR and PBS nationally, and a total of 1,406 local public radio and TV stations as well as program producers, receives $455 million annually, after the House declined the White House's request to stop all its funding and the Senate ignored it.

The $455 million represents about 15% of all spending on public broadcasting, with sponsorship the largest single source.

Pompeo's NPR crisis came as he heads to Ukraine this week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Donald Trump's impeachment.

He will travel to Kiev as part of a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia.

Since November, Pompeo has twice canceled plans to visit Ukraine, most recently just after the New Year when developments with Iran forced him to postpone the trip. Pompeo will also visit Britain, as it finalizes its divorce from the European Union, along with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Trump's impeachment on charges of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress hinges on his policy toward Ukraine. Witnesses told House investigators that Trump wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son in return for releasing critical military aid to Ukraine.

And The New York Times received a leaked copy of an unpublished manuscript for a new book Bolton is writing, in which the former national security adviser claims the president told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the Eastern European nation helped with political investigations into his political rivals.

Trump has denied the charge.

Pompeo will meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky while he is in Kiev

New audio appears to show Donald Trump ordering Marie Yovanovitch's firing

'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,' he tweeted in response.

Pompeo has sought to stay above the impeachment fray and his stop in Ukraine will likely test his ability to continue to do so while leading diplomatic efforts to boost ties between Washington and Kiev that have been complicated by the process.

One of the impeachment witnesses, William Taylor, was until Jan. 1 the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

Pompeo had appointed Taylor to the post over the summer to take over from Marie Yovanovitch, whose tour was abruptly cut short last May after Trump's personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani made unsubstantiated allegations against her. Yovanovitch testified that Trump supporters had mounted a smear campaign against her.

Audio released by an attorney for Lev Parnas, one of Giuliani's indicted sidekicks, on Saturday appears to show Trump ordering Yovanovitch's firing at the urging of Parnas, who claimed Yovanovitch was telling people Trump would be impeached.

In the audio, recorded at an April 2018 fundraising dinner at the Trump Hotel in Washington D.C., Parnas appears to say, 'The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start, is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration.'

Trump then appears to say, 'Where? The ambassador to Ukraine?'

Parnas replies, 'Yes. She's basically walking around telling everybody 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait'.'

A few seconds later, Trump appears to say, 'Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.'

During her testimony to House investigators during the impeachment inquiry, Yovanovitch denied ever saying Trump would be impeached.

Taylor departed Kiev just a day before Pompeo was to have arrived on his previously planned trip.

Pompeo responded testily on Friday when asked about Ukraine and Yovanovitch by Kelly.

Repeating a frequent talking point, he said the Trump administration had done more for Ukraine than President Barack Obama had done, including supplying the country with lethal defensive weaponry.

'This administration has delivered the capability for the Ukrainians to defend themselves,' he said. 'President Obama showed up with MREs, we showed up with Javelin missiles. The previous administration did nothing to take down corruption in Ukraine. We're working hard on that. We're going to continue to do it.'

The Obama administration pushed Ukraine to do more to fight endemic corruption.

Asked about Yovanovitch, who is still employed by the State Department, Pompeo replied: 'I'll say only this: I have defended every State Department official. We have built a great team. I have defended every single person on this team. I have done what's right for every single person on this team.'

Pompeo, a West Point graduate who left the Army as a captain after a spell as a tank commander in West Germany, where he rose to squadron maintenance manager, has previously been director of the CIA before becoming Donald Trump's top diplomat.

Kelly has a master's degree in European studies from Cambridge University.
Taking a dig at the Central government over current unemployment rate in the country, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday suggested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prepare a ' Register of Educated Unemployed Indian Citizens' instead of Register of Citizens (NRC).While the Congress leader termed Register of Educated Unemployed Indian Citizens a 'unifying agenda', he calls NRC a 'divisive agenda'."I have a very positive suggestion for our PM. Instead of NRC which has led to Social Unrest throughout the Country he should prepare a "National Register of Educated Unemployed Indian Citizens". But he won't as it won't be a Divisive Agenda! It would be a Unifying Agenda!!" Singh tweeted.

The Congress has been trageting the Centre over unemployment, economic slowdown, Citizenship Amendment Act, National Population Register and NRC. The NRC is a citizen register, in which names of every citizen of India is recorded. As per The Citizenship Act, 1955, the creation of NRC is mandatory.

The NRC, which has been developed with the aim of segregating Indian citizens from illegal migrants, was implemented in Assam.

Recently, the final list of NRC for Assam was published in which 19,06,657 persons were excluded including those who did not submit their claims. A majority of those excluded from the final NRC list are Hindus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Lakewoods surprise discovery of tetrachloroethylene underneath stone slabs at the former Lakewood Hospital redevelopment site will cost about $1.72 million to clean up, officials say.

The former Lakewood Hospital site at the corner of Detroit and Belle Avenues is set to become One Lakewood Place, a mixed-use development site with 200 planned housing units and 12 town homes, along with retail and office spaces.

Demolition contractors found tetrachloroethylene under stone slabs and in soil at the site in September. Tetrachloroethylene was used in dry cleaning before it became more strictly regulated in the 1970s. The area where it was found was a laundry room in the 1950s.

Officials needed to make sure the chemical hadnt spread or affected water supplies.

The unexpected environmental remediation totaled $1,725,000.

The money will come from the Lakewood Hospital Fund, which was a result of money received from the master agreement with the Cleveland Clinic.

This money does not come taxpayer funds, stemming from the sale of facilities or from Cleveland Clinic payments, Planning and Development Director Bryce Sylvester wrote in an email. The sources of the monies included the sale of 850 Columbia Road, the sale of the parking garage, and funds for redeveloping the site.

Total costs to date for the hazardous materials abatement, demolition, site work and remediation are $7,800,000, Sylvester wrote. As of Tuesday, there remains a balance of $12,998,016 in the Lakewood Hospital Fund.

The city contracted with Brownfield Restoration Group to issue a No Further Action letter to meet the standards under the Ohio Environmental Protection Agencys Voluntary Action Program. This indicates that the site meets a slew of environmental standards and is ready to redevelop.

The cost to issue that letter is $104,346.

Also unexpected during demolition was that nearby residents claimed vibrations from the site damaged their homes. The city wrote in a community meeting presentation that the vibrations came from jackhammering to remove caisson foundations and placement of engineered fill.

Nine residents have contacted the city to claim damages thus far.

The city is working with residents and insurer, Trident, to assess the claims.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday hoped that as Brazil is one of the most important trading partners of India in the entire LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) region, trade between the two countries will grow to USD 15 billion by 2022.

"The visit of the Brazilian President Bolsonaro, is a sign of the growing importance of the India-Brazil bilateral partnership," said Goyal, during his address at the inaugural session of the India-Brazil Business Forum held here.

"The 15 MoUs signed during the visit of the President of Brazil shows the power of democracy, demography, leadership, the talent pool available in India, India's market and the aspirations of one billion Indian citizens for a better life," he said.

"The MoUs of cooperation that has been signed during the presidential visit on investments, trade facilitation, social security, agriculture, defence and double taxation makes this the most productive visit by a Brazilian Head of State," Goyal further said.

Goyal, who also holds the portfolio of railways ministry, hoped that investments will also grow in the sectors of clean energy, startups, railways and creation of value chains between India and Brazil where goods may be semi-assembled in one country and finished in another.

Goyal informed that the entire Indian Railways will be fully electrified by 2024 and the railway network in India will run completely on clean energy with zero-emission by 2030.

The minister also urged that the India-Brazil Business Leader's Forum may be activated and reconstituted to make it more relevant and contemporary to businesses in both countries.

Goyal also hoped that India's services in the wellness sector like yoga and ayurveda will further grow as Brazil has a strong community of yoga and ayurveda practitioners.

Brazil has an association of Ayurveda (ABRA), a non-profit association with offices in nine states of Brazil and members all over Brazil and the Third International Congress on Ayurveda was held from March 12 to 15, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro.

The conference saw the participation of more than 4,000 delegates, including many from India.

India and Brazil share a close relationship at the bilateral level as well as plurilateral fora like BRICS, BASIC, G-20, IBSA, International Solar Alliance (ISA) and in larger multilateral bodies like UN, UNESCO and WIPO, Goyal said.

He further said that the decade-long bilateral strategic partnership is based on a common global vision shared democratic values and a commitment to foster economic growth with social inclusion for the welfare of the people of both countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rexburg Police

A doomsday-obsessed couple from Idaho who are at the center of several missing-child and suspicious death investigations have been found in Hawaii, police announced Monday.

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow were served with a search warrant on Sundaybut authorities did not find Vallows children, Tylee and J.J., with them in Princeville on the island of Kauai.

Daybell and Vallow got married weeks after first wife, Tammy, died of what authorities at first listed as natural causes. They have since exhumed the 49-year-olds body to conduct an autopsy, which has not been released yet.

Grandparents in Doomsday Missing Kids Case Offer $20K Reward

Less than three months earlier, Vallow was widowed when her fourth husband, Charles, was shot to death by her brother in what police initially described as a self-defense situation but is now being reinvestigated.

The newlyweds attracted scrutiny when extended family told police they were worried because they had not heard from Vallows children, 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old J.J., who has special needs.

Daybell and Vallow then skipped town. Rexburg, Idaho, police publicly pleaded with the couple to disclose the childrens whereabouts but they refused to cooperate.

We strongly believe that Joshua and Tylees lives are in danger, Rexburg police said in a statement at the beginning of the month.

Rexburg Police

So Idaho authorities initiated a child-protection action on behalf of the missing kids and obtained a court order to force Vallow to produce them within five days.

We can confirm that Lori Vallow was served with that order in the city of Princeville on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, on Saturday, January 25th by the Kauai Police Department and that Chad Daybell was with her, police said in a statement.

We can further confirm that Tylee and J.J. were not with Lori and Chad and there is no evidence that Tylee and J.J. were ever in Hawaii.

The next day, Daybell and Vallow were pulled over by police with a search warrant, and their car was seized, according to the East Idaho News, which had a reporter on scene.

Story continues

The reporter asked Vallow where her children were, and she replied, No comment. Told that people across the country are praying for her children, she said, Thats great, and refused to answer further questions.

Lori and Charles had lived in Kauai for several years before moving to Arizona. She reportedly became obsessed with Daybells books on doomsday scenarios and near-death experiences, marketed for a Mormon audience, and bonded with the author.

After Charles was killed by her brotherwho later died under unknown circumstancesLori moved to Idaho, where Daybell also lived. Its believed they got married in November, reportedly in Hawaii.

If Vallow doesnt comply with the court order to produce Tylee and J.J., she could be arrested on contempt of court charges, police said.

J.J.s grandparents have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to their return. We truly believe and we hope and pray these kids are alive, grandfather Larry Woodcock said at a press conference earlier this month.

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Congress leader on Monday said the payments he received from the Popular Front of India (PFI) had nothing to do with anti-CAA protests, and were made for his legal services offered in 2017 and 2018, much before the new law was passed.

In a statement, the former union minister rubbished reports questioning the payments made to him by the PFI, and said he was paid for representing Hadiya in the famous case.

"I was paid for professional services rendered and for nothing else. Any insinuations made to besmirch my good name and defame me will be taken seriously," he said in a statement.

The Congress leader said the Enforcement Directorate has released a statement analysing the bank accounts of the Popular Front of India in which "my name has been mentioned as a recipient of Rs 77 lakh".

He said several news channels are running stories suggesting that the is funding the anti-citizenship (amendment) act agitations and the payments made to him were connected with the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"The CAA became a law only in December 2019. In all matters in which I have appeared in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the CAA, I have not raised, till date, any invoice in any matter," he said.

The Congress, however, maintained silence on the issue.

Sibal said that he was paid Rs 77 lakh in respect to a litigation in SLP of 2017 titled "Safin Jahan (petitioner) versus Asokan KM and others (Respondents)", which related to Hadiya's marriage to Shafin Jahan, which was challenged upto the Supreme Court with the NIA and the father of Hadiya being parties.

"In that litigation, I represented Hadiya, the wife. Ultimately, the marriage was upheld and Hadiya was given the liberty to live with her husband Shafin Jahan," he said.

He said the cheques when received in his office were deposited and encashed by his staff.

"The first invoice was raised on August 4, 2017 and the last of the seven invoices was on March 8, 2018," he said, adding that "The CAA was cleared by Parliament only in December 2019".

"I have raised the invoices on my Advocate on Record Mr Haris Beeran for each of the appearances," he said, while releasing details of the payments he received from the in the litigation.

Congress leader Salman Khurshid said, "It is very easy to say something out of context. If somebody's name has come who happens to be in legal profession, you must first find out that in routine legal appearances somebody has received any payment at all. Can't just lightly damage somebody's reputation and cause defamation.
Since its launch in October 1996, the Fox News channel (FNC) has been under constant attack from the leftist-dominated mainstream media. Contrary to the pervasive propaganda spewed by much of the left-of-center MSM, FNC has always been more fair and balanced, and not  like its two major cable news rivals CNN and MSNBC  knee-jerk prejudiced against conservative and Republican guests and their viewpoints. This toxic, divisive left-wing media bias has never been more apparent than during the last three years since the start of the Trump presidency.

In the opening days of the Senate trial of President Trump last week, FNC has emerged as the most popular source of news on television on impeachment, even beating the once dominant alphabet broadcast channels in the ratings. Very curious, then, is the timing of a particularly vile hit piece published last Friday in the struggling national newspaper USA Today, which, according to some accounts, will soon cease publishing its print editions after almost four decades.

Since relatively few people except guests at hotels bother to look at USA Today anymore, the anti-Fox piece by Bob Garfield last Friday escaped my attention until I saw it linked at Real Clear Politics yesterday. Its title is "If disbelieving Fox News' lies makes me a hack, that's fine with me." In the opening, Garfield writes:

I am Manu. Manu Raju, that is  the CNN reporter who the other day had a run-in with Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). He'd approached her in a Senate corridor to inquire about new impeachment evidence, and she shot back "You're a liberal hack. I'm not talking to you." Because, duh: enemy of the people. That's a Trumpism, but the underlying slander is familiar.

What the exchange that Sen. McSally had with CNN's congressional correspondent Raju has to do with Fox News is not immediately clear. Garfield, by the way, is a regular USA Today "opinion contributor." A lifelong leftist, his major gig is apparently producing pieces for National Public Radio and co-hosting a weekly local radio program on WNYC in New York City, a left-leaning, government-supported public radio station. Garfield has also written several books, he contributes articles to various publications, and he teaches occasionally at the university level.



Bob Garfield September 2009. Photo by David Berkowitz from New York, N.Y., USA (CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0).

Segueing from Manu Raju, one of his heroes at CNN, to Fox News, Garfield's article proceeds under the subhead "Fox News doesn't really produce news at all." Before citing any alleged facts to support that claim, Garfield takes the ad hominem attack route. Fox News, he writes:

... is not a news organization (at least not in the morning and prime time); it is a disinformation factory. Such demagogues as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham and the clown car that is Fox & Friends pump the co-ax full of lies and misrepresentations, vilification, dog whistles and sometimes explicit hate speech.

Eleven years now after he joined Twitter, Garfield has 23,800 followers  or about 0.6% of Hannity's 4.5 million Twitter followers. Could a bit of jealousy or audience envy be at play here, do you think?

Eventually, Garfield cites two sources for his accusations of Fox News's hateful bias. The first one is a compilation by PunditFact, a part of PolitiFact, that alleges that 59% of 160 "recent" statements made on Fox News  some going back 10 years  are "Mostly False, False, or Pants on Fire" lies. Politifact is part of the 501(c)(3) Poynter Institute. In 2017, Poynter received a $1.3 million grant from George Soros, reportedly for "fact-checking" projects other than to fund PolitiFact.

The other reference made by Garfield is to Media Matters for America (MMFA), a notorious uber-left advocacy group that has a long history of supporting advertiser boycotts of Fox News hosts' programs if not shutting down the channel entirely. MMFA has received funding from Soros.

Fox News Media Relations not surprisingly did not have a comment on Garfield's USA Today article. And why should they? If Fox News P.R. responded to every attack article or negative broadcast segment aimed at the channel, there would be time for little else.

I contacted Sean Hannity in an email care of one of his producers, publicly known as "Sweet Baby James." Hannity was unavailable for comment yesterday, but James emailed me an article published last February 22, adapted from his boss's monologue from Hannity on February 21, 2019: "Sean Hannity: Smollett case proves that journalism in this country is dead and buried." In the article, Hannity reviews some recent major stories that the MSM got completely wrong, including the false allegations against Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann, George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh  and the MSM's initial belief in the tall story put out by actor Jussie Smollet. The subject line of James's email summarized the article: "fyi  Smollet and a dozen other times we were right and they were wrong!!!!"



President Trump and Sean Hannity, CPAC, February 2015. Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0.

In fact, Garfield's and Hannity's articles make for good companion pieces to clearly see the contrast in viewpoints between the Big Lie-propagating, Trump-hating left vs. one of the leading voices of real journalism.

A final note: This case history of the latest vituperative leftist attack against Fox News should give pause to conservatives who insist that Fox News now "veers left" or is part of a "controlled opposition." Last year, I wrote several articles, including here and here, that criticized such viewpoints  based on the facts. It's useful to keep in mind that the "Fox News is Fake" meme has largely been promulgated by some commentators among a new generation of YouTube podcasters and self-appointed citizen journalists. If one thinks about it, they are in direct competition with Fox News for viewer and reader eyeballs  and in many cases, for dollars, too, since a lot of them are monetizing their online efforts.

Nothing wrong with that. But an old saying is still true and is relevant here: Caveat Emptor, or "Let the buyer beware."

Programming note: According to a news release emailed to this reporter on January 24:

FOX News Channel's Sean Hannity will conduct a sit-down interview with President Donald J. Trump which will air during the FOX SUPER BOWL PREGAME SHOW on Sunday, February 2nd beginning at approximately 3:30 PM/ET. The interview will take place at the White House and cover an array of topics. Additional portions of the interview with President Trump will be presented on FNC's Hannity on Monday evening, February 3rd (9:00-10:00 PM/ET). After the program, the entire discussion will be available online at www.foxnews.com.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. Peter's website is http://peter.media. His new YouTube channel is here. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 21:41:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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WARSAW, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Tens of survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, accompanied by Polish President Andrzej Duda, marched through the gate of the complex on Monday morning, kicking off a series of events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp.

Duda laid flowers in front of the Death Wall in Block 11. Here, several thousand people were executed.

The main ceremony marking the anniversary is scheduled to take place on Monday afternoon at the main gate of the complex. Over 200 survivors are set to participate, as well as 27 heads of state and many other representatives of countries from around the world.

The Germans established the Auschwitz camp in 1940. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was established two years later. It is estimated that more than 1 million people died there.

The camp was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945.
ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 27 - These are the main events scheduled for today in the Euro-Mediterranean area: VARIOUS CITIES - International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.



BRUSSELS - EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Oliver Varhelyi receive Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.



BRUSSELS - EU, visit by Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Qatar. (ANSAmed).




Launched in 2017 as a digital wallet platform and online payment system, Google Pay claims to have around 6.7 crore active users as of September 2019, up from 2.2 crore in September 2018. But with growing digitisation and usage of e-wallets there have also been many instances of frauds.

Moneycontrols Hiral Thanawala spoke to Mallika Kodali, Product Manager, Google Pay about how fraudsters influence users and seek personal or banking information. Apart from not revealing personal details, Mallika stresses the need to take precautions while using Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps or when unknown people call. Edited excerpts.

Q: What are the safety measures that Google Pay is taking for users?

A: We have launched Google Pay with the finest of Googles security infrastructure, leveraging our experience of 20 years of bringing some of the worlds most helpful technology products to billions of users worldwide. Some of these are, enhanced fraud protections with safetynet. In these, beyond the one device - one account safeguards offered by UPI, Google Pay is secured with Google Pay advanced fraud models and backed by Googles authentication platform, ensuring world class protections against fraud attacks and faster identification and suspension of fraudsters. We offer secure access to users. The PIN entry screens in Google Pay have been secured against remote desktop attacks since the early days of apps launch, keeping our users safe, even when widespread scams have affected other digital payments users.

Our exhaustive risk relations check at the on-boarding stage prevents known bad actors from recreating their accounts on the app. Since its launch, Google Pay uses machine learning-based scam prevention models, and also displays explicit warnings if a user receives a request from someone suspicious or not in their contacts. To prevent scams, with explicit language and prominent warnings during collect requests. The collect requests as a flow are unique to UPI and thus might be new to several users. For this reason, Google Pay displays very clear and prominent warnings to the user about what it entails at each step. Additionally, Google Pay now sends app notifications as well as SMS to inform users each time they receive a collect request to highlight that approving the request will deduct money from the users bank accounts.

Q: What is the grievance redressal procedure for fraud complaints? How should victims reach out to you?

A: For any complaints, users can reach Google Pay support via a toll-free number (1-800-419-0157) or through the 'Help' menu in the app. Users should not call customer care numbers posted on social media as they could be fake.

Q: How do fraudsters influence users and seek personal/bank information? How should users avoid fraudsters in such situations?

A: Fraudsters are now calling out of context, randomly and posing as representatives from your bank, UPI app firm or the credit card issuing bank. The purpose of their calls is to collect your sensitive data. So, when you receive a call from an unknown number claiming to be calling on behalf of your bank or insurance service provider, be very cautious. They may seek personal information about government identification number, bank account details, UPI login, bank or UPI security pin, card details, etc. You should immediately disconnect such calls. You are not required to ever, reveal these details to anyone on call, no matter how convincing they sound.

In some cases you might be expecting a call  for example, you may have contacted your bank or insurance company for some clarification or information, and may be expecting an update. Even in such cases, beware of the call conversation.

While you are on a call or are online and a fraudster seeks an instant transaction, it is a fraud alert signal. The caller would prefer standing by or holding the line until you complete the transaction. During any call from unknown persons, do not accept a collect request on the UPI app, as you may end up transferring the amount to unknown people. Avoid clicking on a link sent over SMS / email to update your know your customer (KYC), as this is usually a message from fraudsters. Also, do not share your mobile screen using unauthorised mobile apps since its a technique used by fraudsters to seek your personal information and net banking / UPI login details. Lastly, only engage with the authorised customer care number available in the companys official website while seeking any information or for registering grievances.

Q: Despite the security measures that your firm claims are in place, social media posts highlight many instances of funds fraudulently transferred out of users' Google Pay accounts. What are you doing about it?

Regarding complaints on social media, there are several instances of users wrongly accepting pay requests from fraudsters, resulting in money getting transferred from their bank accounts. It is a mistake on the user's part, and so the company is not liable. However, we are running a user awareness drive on a regular basis through print and social media.
Three members of a group that infected hundreds of websites from around the world with payment card stealing malware were arrested in Indonesia, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) announced Tuesday. The arrests are the result of a larger multi-national law enforcement investigation that continues in other countries from the Southeast Asia region.

The three suspects, aged 23, 27, and 35, are accused of using the payment card details they stole to purchase electronic and luxury items and then selling them for a profit. They are facing prison sentences of up to 10 years.

INTERPOL refers to the malware used by the group as a JavaScript sniffer, but this is more commonly known in the security industry as a web skimmer. It consists of a malicious piece of JavaScript code that is inserted into a website -- typically in its checkout pages -- and is designed to steal the personal and payment information entered by customers.

The most notorious of these web skimmers is called Magecart and has been used in a large number of attacks over the past few years, including against very high-profile brands. Magecart is used by over a dozen groups of hackers whose campaigns range from basic to very sophisticated and from widespread to highly targeted. In some of the more stealthy attacks the code is customized to work only with the victim's website.

Russian cybersecurity firm Group-IB, who worked with INTERPOL and the Indonesian Police on this investigation, tracks the sniffer used as GetBilling, but according to another company called Sanguine Security, it is part of the Magecart family.

"Sanguine Security has been tracking the activity of this group for several years and has identified not 12 but 571 hacks by the same individuals," the company said in a blog post following the arrests announcement. "These hacks could be attributed because of an odd message that was left in all of the skimming code: 'Success gan !' [which] translates to 'Success bro' in Indonesian and has been present for years on all of their skimming infrastructure."

Operation Night Fury investigation is ongoing

The three suspects were actually apprehended in December, but their arrest was not initially made public. That might be because of the larger law-enforcement effort dubbed Operation Night Fury that's underway and is looking at additional attacks in the region.

In fact, according to Sanguine, new attacks with the same code have been observed since December and at least 27 online stores are currently infected. This means other members of the group could still be at large.

Group-IB, which has been tracking GetBilling attacks since 2018, has identified almost 200 infected websites in Indonesia, Australia, Europe, the United States, South America and other regions. In addition to physical goods, the group was also using stolen credit cards to pay for hosting services and new domains that they used in their attacks. Some of that infrastructure was hosted in Indonesia, but they always used VPN services to interact with it.

"According to Group-IBs annual 2019 threat report, the number of compromised cards uploaded to underground forums increased from 27.1 million to 43.8 million in H2 2108-H1 2019 year-on-year," the company said. "The size of the carding market, in turn, grew by 33% and amounted to USD 879.7 million. The sale of CVV data is also on rise today, having increased by 19% in the corresponding period, and one of the key reasons behind this trend could be JavaScript sniffers."

The number of web skimming attacks has been growing over the past two years, with security firms detecting new such breaches every hour. Since this activity is so lucrative for cybercriminals, new skimmers have entered the underground market and have become commoditized, so these attacks are unlikely to stop anytime soon.

Arrested group a small part of Magecart

To put things in perspective, the Indonesian group was only responsible for 1% of all Magecart incidents detected since 2017 by Sanguine. The company estimates that there are at least 40 to 50 sophisticated individuals involved in web skimming activity.

E-commerce site owners and companies running shopping carts on their websites should regularly scan their websites for infections and keep their content management software and plug-ins up to date. Administrative credentials should also be strong and well protected. Web application firewalls can be used to detect and block intrusion attempts, but there are also other technologies like Content Security Policy (CSP) and Subresource Integrity (SRI) that can be used to restrict loaded scripts and prevent potential infections from impacting customers.
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Linkedin Gilang Kembara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020

As the worlds largest archipelagic state, Indonesia is in an ironic position in that it doesnt have a national coast guard to help enforce the law in our maritime territory. Nevertheless, this is expected to change in the near future as Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan recently told the press that the government would merge all maritime security agencies into the Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) as the sole national coast guard. Furthermore, Mahfud MD, the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, has begun discussions about drafting an umbrella law, or omnibus law, on maritime security.

Mahfud claimed that, despite skirmishes mainly with Chinese vessels in what we call the North Natuna Sea, President Joko Jokowi Widodo has instructed his administration to reorient maritime law enforcement. Mahfud later highlighted overlapping jurisdictions the various agencies have on our waters, and ongoing problems.

At present, Indonesia maintains various maritime security agencies to police its vast waters. During a meeting between the National Shipowners Assoication (INSA) and President Jokowi in December, at least three agencies claimed to be the nations coast guard: the Transportation Ministrys Indonesian Coast and Sea Guard (KPLP), Bakamla, and the Air and Sea Police Corps (Korpolairud).

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The government is likely to impose restrictions on imports of with a view to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce inbound shipments of non-essential items, an official said.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has suggested to its commerce counterpart to put the restrictions.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade is expected to soon come out with a notification regarding this, the official said.

Putting a product in restricted category means an importer will require licence or permission for the inbound shipment.

India's imports stood at USD 603 million in 2018-19. Out of this, from China, it was USD 311 million in that financial year. The other main exporters to to India include Malaysia, Germany, Italy, and Singapore.

China is the largest exporter of different kind of in the world.

According to estimates, China's export to India stood at around USD 1 billion.

The position of India in the sector is weak as the sector is largely fragmented and is in the unorganised segment. The size of the domestic furniture industry is about USD 5 billion. The exports stood at around USD 1.5 billion.

The government earlier this month imposed similar restrictions on imports of refined palm oil, a move which would discourage the inbound shipment of the commodity from Malaysia.
When you have a record of the radical Democrat Party caucus clamoring for impeachment of President Trump immediately after the election and continuing to the present day (and even warning that they will impeach him again and again), it's sort of hard to take them seriously.

Yet here we are.

Adam Schiff promised he had irrefutable evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election. Trump-haters were waiting breathlessly for the Mueller report so impeachment could finally proceed. But even after Mueller's impartial team of Hillary-supporters "issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants and interviewed more than 500 witnesses [and] likely compiled thousands, if not millions, of documents and pieces of evidence," Schiff's secret evidence just couldn't be produced. Agent Strzok's insurance policy did not pay out. Of course, its premiums had been tendered in fraud.

Amazingly enough, just when the scam of the entire Trump counterintelligence investigation puzzle was coming together, the House Democrats did a breakneck pivot to Ukraine. If Russia didn't work, maybe the country that interfered in the 2016 elections by outing Paul Manafort's corruption would.

Trump had to be impeached, so the manufactured Ukraine phone call scandal would have to suffice for substantive impeachable crimes.

The U.S. attorney general is investigating James Comey, et al. for misleading the FISA court to spy on the Trump campaign based on unverified opposition research paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC. And with evidence emerging that the so-called whistleblower may also have been part of an orchestrated Trump set-up, the Justice Department may need to hire more prosecutors.

Fox News broadcaster Laura Ingraham recently released news from a FOIA request that the alleged whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella (the former Ukraine director on the National Security Council), knew about the Biden-Burisma corruption. In fact, White House visitor logs show that it was Ciaramella who checked in Ukrainian officials for a January 2016 meeting. The meeting addressed Ukraine's awkward tension in prosecuting the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings while protecting the vice president  considering that his son, Hunter Biden, was sitting on Burisma's boards, receiving $50K to $80K per month for no articulable reason.

Ciaramella didn't blow the whistle on Biden corruption, but he had to protect democracy and the American Way by whistleblowing against Trump for a phone call to which he was not privy? Looks like a Democrat twofer: in a bizarre, surreal way, protect good ol' Joe by vilifying Trump for Joe's corruption.

The Biden corruption would come out sooner or later, so the Dems had to get in front of it: Biden had no corrupt dealings with Ukraine, but Trump does!

Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee recently stated that Schiff's witness, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, "the political activist in uniform," leaked Trump's phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to the so-called whistleblower over a policy dispute. (Why didn't Vindman assume the role as brave whistleblower himself?) The phone conversation was exaggerated by Adam Schiff to read like an indictment. But President Trump did something unprecedented that Mr. Schiff hadn't planned for: Trump released the transcript. By that point, however, the Democrats were already committed to the sham impeachment.

Adam Schiff had a sudden change of mind about calling the so-called whistleblower to testify in his House impeachment proceedings after it came to light that Ciaramella had been in contact with his office prior to blowing the golden whistle. Hmm.

Like the counterintelligence investigation and the Mueller investigation, could the whistleblower investigation also be an orchestrated Democrat Party/Deep State bureaucracy set-up? It sure looks like a duck.

What a tangled web the Democrats weave.

What the Democrats have actually done, they unsuccessfully accuse Trump of doing.

The Democrat-controlled House impeached President Trump for "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress."

I wonder if the Democrats ever get amused by their own, seemingly endless string of ironies.

As the leaders of the Obama administration's Intelligence Community are being criminally investigated for abusing their power by illegally working to set Trump up for baseless investigations, Trump is defending the charge of abuse of power before the U.S. Senate. The real perpetrators should be defending substantive federal charges committed in furtherance of their criminal enterprise to take out a presidential candidate and sitting president of the United States.

Top officials in the FBI didn't notify Trump that Russian agents were attempting to infiltrate his campaign (and there's no evidence they were). Instead, they secretly tried to create the appearance that Carter Page and George Papadopoulos were Russian agents. They set them up as they did Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and others in their own version of McCarthyism, searching for a Russian agent behind every bush in context of Donald Trump.

Yet one candidate actually did pay millions to hire a foreigner, Christopher Steele (who is on record expressing personal animus toward Trump), who used Russian disinformation to create a fantasy opposition research dossier. FBI director James Comey had no problem using the now-debunked dossier against Trump while bizarrely exonerating Hillary of any criminal wrongdoing.

President Trump's legal team challenged Schiff's subpoenas on a constitutional basis. Schiff's committee was never authorized by a House vote to conduct a substantive impeachment inquiry with subpoena power. The impeachment investigation began after a press conference by Speaker Pelosi, which was unprecedented in U.S. history. The Democrats chose to withdraw subpoena requests rather than take the legal issue before a federal court  because they were in such a rush to impeach. That's not obstruction of Congress. That's the exercising of legal rights.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton permanently erased over 33 thousand emails using computer software (and her staff inexplicably used hammers to destroy memory in her electronic devices) under subpoena of the U.S. Congress.

Whatever the Democrats accuse Trump of, there is a good chance they have actually committed the very crime or are in the process of committing it. The new Democrats have become the party of projection.

It's a sad day in America when the Democrats have made even presidential impeachment partisan and impossible to take seriously.

Monte Kuligowski is a Virginia attorney.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.
News

Charlotte, North Carolina - Two men were sentenced to prison for their roles in a multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme targeting the elderly and other vulnerable victims.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray of the Western District of North Carolina and Inspector in Charge David McGinnis of the U.S. Postal Inspection Services Charlotte Division made the announcement.

Robert Leslie Stencil, 62, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Michael Allen Duke, 51, of Richardson, Texas, were each sentenced by U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina. Stencil was sentenced to 135 months in prison, and was also ordered to pay $2,745,239 in restitution and to forfeit $868,317.58. Duke was sentenced to 70 months in prison, and was ordered to pay $1,635,485 in restitution.

Following a three-week trial in January 2019, Stencil and Duke were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. In addition, Stencil was found guilty of 13 counts of mail fraud, 13 counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering. Duke was found guilty of three counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

According to the evidence presented at trial, from 2012 through 2016, Stencil, Duke and their co-conspirators sold millions of dollars of worthless stock in a sham company named Niyato Industries Inc. (Niyato). Stencil played the role of Niyatos chief executive officer. Duke was Stencils top salesperson. Together with their co-conspirators, Stencil and Duke portrayed Niyato as a leader in its field, manufacturing electric vehicles and converting gasoline vehicles to run on compressed natural gas. Stencil, Duke and their co-conspirators told victims that Niyato was run by a team of high-profile executives, and that Niyato had patented technology, state-of-the-art facilities and valuable contracts. They also told victims that Niyato would use 97 percent of the money it raised selling stock to grow its business and expand operations. Stencil, Duke and their co-conspirators used high-pressure tactics when pitching Niyato stock to victims, the evidence showed. Among other things, they sold victims on the opportunity to get in on the ground floor, offering them a portion of a supposedly limited supply of pre-IPO stock at $.50 per share and promising them a 10- to 16-fold return when Niyato went public. From 2012 to 2016, Stencil, Duke and their co-conspirators repeatedly told victims that an IPO was imminent, the evidence showed.

In reality, Niyato had no patents, facilities, products or plans to commence an IPO. Niyatos true business was the sale of worthless stock. Stencil, Duke and their co-conspirators used nearly all of the money raised by selling Niyato stock for their own personal benefit, with Stencil paying salespeople  like Duke  half or nearly half of the money they solicited from each investor on behalf of Niyato. Moreover, Stencil used Niyatos bank account as his own personal piggybank, the evidence showed.

The evidence showed that, together, Stencil, Duke and their co-conspirators sold approximately $2.8 million in stock to approximately 140 victims, many of whom were elderly or vulnerable for other reasons.

Five other defendants have pleaded guilty in this matter and have already been sentenced, namely Nicholas Fleming, 64, of Northridge, California; Martin Delaine Lewis, 53, of Frisco, Texas; Paula Saccomanno, 62, of Boca Raton, Florida; Kristian F. Sierp, 48, of Costa Rica; and Dennis Swerdlen, 65, of Boca Raton, Florida. Daniel Thomas Broyles Sr., 62, of Beverly Hills, California, was also charged and remains a fugitive. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Trial Attorney Christopher Fenton of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.

The Criminal Divisions Fraud Section plays a pivotal role in the Department of Justices fight against white collar crime around the country.

Individuals who believe that they may be a victim in this case should visit the Fraud Sections Victim Witness website for more information.
GUYSBOROUGH, N.S. - Two days before former soldier Lionel Desmond used a rifle to fatally shoot three members of his family and then kill himself, his wife Shanna told him to leave their home in rural Nova Scotia after a heated argument, a fatality inquiry heard Monday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Desmond Fatality Inquiry is being held at the Guysborough Municipal building in Guysborough, N.S. on Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. A high-profile inquiry is set to begin today in rural Nova Scotia, not far from where Lionel Desmond, an Afghan war veteran with PTSD, fatally shot his mother, wife and daughter before turning the gun on himself. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

GUYSBOROUGH, N.S. - Two days before former soldier Lionel Desmond used a rifle to fatally shoot three members of his family and then kill himself, his wife Shanna told him to leave their home in rural Nova Scotia after a heated argument, a fatality inquiry heard Monday.

On its first full day of hearings, the inquiry heard that Desmond, an Afghan war veteran diagnosed with PTSD, followed his wife's advice and presented himself at the emergency room at St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S., on Jan. 1, 2017.

Lawyer Stewart Hayne, who represents doctors who tried to help Desmond, said the evidence will show the 33-year-old former infantryman first met with Dr. Justin Clark, who noted Desmond was not in distress and did not have any suicidal or homicidal thoughts.

Hayne, in his opening statement to the inquiry, said Desmond later met with a psychiatrist, Dr. Faisal Rahman, who noted Desmond was "pleasant, forthcoming, engaging, respectful and a proud father."

The lawyer said Rahman will tell the inquiry that Desmond confirmed he had an altercation with his wife earlier in the evening, and he asked Rahman if he could spend the night in the hospital to "reflect and regroup."

Desmond told the doctor that he had hit or punched a table during the argument, and he said he felt badly about frightening his 10-year-old daughter Aaliyah, Hayne said.

Hayne said Rahman, the chief of psychiatry with the provincial health authority's eastern zone, will testify that Desmond "was not agitated," and his reactions were appropriate.

As well, Hayne said the doctor will tell the inquiry that Desmond insisted he did not physically abuse his wife.

Rahman, who has experience working with veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, told Desmond he could spend the night in the hospital's emergency observation room.

Hayne said Desmond was released the next day after Rahman determined the former infantryman was "coherent and logical."

"Dr. Rahman did not believe that Mr. Desmond required hospitalization," Hayne said, adding that Rahman concluded: "Patient feeling better. Requesting discharge. Will be discharged to home."

Rahman again noted that Desmond did not display any suicidal or homicidal tendencies.

The recollections of the doctors are important because some of Desmond's friends and relatives have long complained he was turned away from the hospital before the killings.

On Jan. 3, 2017, Desmond bought a rifle and shot his wife, daughter and his 52-year-old mother Brenda before turning the gun on himself in their modest home in Upper Big Tracadie.

Desmond, a retired corporal who served with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, had been diagnosed with PTSD after two particularly violent tours in Afghanistan in 2007.

The inquiry will examine whether Desmond had access to mental health and domestic violence services  and whether he should have been able to buy a rifle.

Nova Scotia's chief medical examiner, Dr. Matthew Bowes, told the inquiry that communication snafus between government agencies may constitute a systemic failure in this tragic case.

"The transfer of information seemed to be too complicated and may have been a barrier to Mr. Desmond's care," said Bowes, the provincial official whose investigation of the Desmond case led to the establishment of the inquiry.

"The fact that our system placed a gun in this man's hands, for me, is problematic," he added. "Most reasonable people would (conclude) that someone who's acutely mentally ill should not have access to a gun."

Hayne said Dr. Paul Smith, a family physician who worked at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick, was the man responsible for granting Desmond approval for a firearms licence, even though he was aware of his PTSD diagnosis.

The inquiry heard that Smith had prescribed medical marijuana for Desmond in July 2015 to help him cope with a major depressive disorder and PTSD. Three months later, Desmond told Smith the drug had helped reduce his anxiety and depression, while virtually eliminating his suicidal thoughts.

However, Hayne said Desmond had stopped using medical marijuana by February 2016, which is when Desmond asked Smith to sign off on a medical assessment form for a firearms licence.

Though Smith was aware that Desmond was experiencing marital problems, he "felt comfortable completing the form indicating that he had no concerns that Mr. Desmond posed a safety risk to himself or others," Hayne said.

"Since learning of the (killings), Dr. Smith has had feelings of sadness that his assessment may have enabled Mr. Desmond to purchase and obtain a gun."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2020.
The NRA will be very active in 2020, as we are in every election cycle, NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter said in a statement. Unlike Michael Bloomberg, the NRA wont be pouring billions into the radical groups that are conspiring to steal freedom from other Americans. Our activities in 2020 will be smart, strategic, and reflective of the passion of our members, who turn out to vote. Our opponents cannot say the same.
NEW YORKFederal prosecutors and the FBI have sought to interview Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein, but he has provided zero co-operation, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said Monday.

Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney, revealed Andrews lack of co-operation in response to a reporters question during a news conference outside Epsteins Manhattan mansion about victims of sex trafficking.

Andrew, following a disastrous TV interview over his ties to Epstein, said in a statement late last year that he was willing to help law-enforcement agencies in their investigations into the disgraced financier and his associates.

Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law-enforcement agency with their investigations, if required, his statement said.

Epstein hanged himself last summer at a jail in Manhattan, where he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors had accused him of sexually exploiting dozens of women and girls in New York and Florida.

Shortly after Epsteins death, Berman issued a statement vowing to continue the investigation into his co-conspirators.

The case brought renewed scrutiny to Epsteins relationships with prominent figures in politics, academic and business  including Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who is also known as the Duke of York.

The prince has said he met Epstein in 1999.

One of Epsteins accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said that Epstein trafficked her to Andrew when she was 17, an accusation the prince denied.

In 2011, a photograph was published that Giuffre said was taken in 2001. The snapshot showed Andrew standing alongside her in a London apartment with his arm wrapped around her bare waist with Epsteins former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, standing in the background.

Maxwell, a British socialite who was a friend of Andrew, has been accused in civil lawsuits of recruiting girls and young women for Epstein to sexually abuse.

A few months after Epsteins death, Andrew gave a televised interview with the BBC about his relationship with Epstein that caused an uproar in Britain and prompted him to step back from public duties. During the interview, he said he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre.

During the interview, Andrew also said he would have to consult with his lawyers before testifying under oath about his ties to Epstein.
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Stunning pictures show a streak of golden light burning through a rock formation in a secluded cove in Cornwall.

The annual light show only occurs over the winter months, from December to January, when the sun traverses the sky at a lower angle than normal.

When it sets, the light aligns with a rock arch and arcs of golden light are cast through the surf created by the sea.

It attracts many visitors to the cliffs at Nanjizal beach in Sennen, Cornwall, desperate to capture a picture of the rare phenomenon.

The tall narrow passageway is called Zawn Pyg, though many know the cave by its more romantic name, 'Song of the Sea'.

Light shines through the rock formation tall in the narrow passageway called Zawn Pyg, which is part of the cliffs at Nanjizal beach in Sennen, Cornwall

When the sun sets, the light aligns with a rock arch and arcs of golden light are cast through the surf created by the sea drawing many visitors to view the spectacle

Zawn Pyg lies to the south of Nanjizal beach. Nanjizal gets its name from the Cornish 'Porth Nansisel' which roughly translates as cove of the low valley

Waves splash against the rocks as a glimmer of light is seen shining through the cove as sea foam gathers in the tidal pools

The rock formation has been photographed since Victorian times, and been the subject of countless paintings.

Nanjizal gets its name from the Cornish 'Porth Nansisel' which roughly translates as cove of the low valley.

It is also sometimes referred to as Mill Bay, due to the remains of a mill in the valley just above the beach.

Zawn Pyg is in the cliffs on the southern side of the cove and there are large tidal pools in front of it.

The tidal pools are called Big and Little Muzzan, coming from the Cornish name 'Morzawn', which means zawn of the sea - a zawn being a deep and narrow sea inlet.

One of the earliest known photographs of the winter sunset beaming through Zawn Pyg at Nanjizal was taken in the 1860s by William Brooks.

The remote Cornish beach attracts visitors to its mesmerising cove. People are advised to not visit the cove alone due to a lack of phone signal

The tidal pools are called Big and Little Muzzan, coming from the Cornish name 'Morzawn', which means zawn of the sea - a zawn being a deep and narrow sea inlet

Waves crash against the narrow rock formation as the sun creates a golden glow (left). The magical cove was once the location for the 1966 episode of Doctor Who, where the Tardis appeared on the beach

In more recent years, pictures of this natural phenomenon have become a hit on social media.

Greg Martin, who photographed the cove, said: 'In between the bigger waves coming through the cave, the Song of the Sea looks almost like a cathedral, as the mist in the air from the waves is lit up in the golden sunlight.

'To add to this cove's magical allure, it was once the location for a 1966 episode of Doctor Who, where the Tardis appeared on the beach.

A mesmerising shot of the amber glow through the rock formation which has been photographed since Victorian times, and been the subject of countless paintings

'How they managed to get the Tardis down to such a remote spot is a mystery in itself.

'Due to its remoteness, there are plenty of things to be aware of if planning a visit to Nanjizal. There is no phone signal in this cove, so going alone is not advised.

'It is also very important to be aware of the tide times, because the sea can almost cover the beach at high tide.'

Earlier this month, British actor and musician Sam Palladio, known for his part in the drama series Nashville, also posted a video of the sunset shining through Zawn Pyg.

He wrote: ' 'Welcome to the magical kingdom of Cornwall Nanjizal Beach.'
Prince William recalled how his great-grandmother saved a Jewish family from the Nazis by hiding them in her home, as he and his wife marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in London today.

The Duke of Cambridge read out a letter sent by a friend of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, who was famed for offering the Jewish family refuge at her Athens home after Hitler's Army arrived in Greece, at the Holocaust Memorial Day event.

Princess Alice of Battenberg was the Duke of Edinburgh's mother and is known as Aunt Alice by William and his family.

She has recently been portrayed by actress Jane Lapotaire in the Neflix hit The Crown.

William revealed he and Kate have told their children about the Holocaust when he spoke on stage at Central Hall in Westminster today.

The letter paid tribute to Alice's 'incredible courage' and insisted her story of bravery 'must keep being told in her memory'.

Prince William recalled how his great-grandmother saved a Jewish family from the Nazis by hiding them in her home as he and his wife marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in London today

The Duke of Cambridge (pictured lighting a candle to remember victims) read out a letter sent by a friend of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, who was famed for offering the Jewish family refuge at her Athens home after Hitler's Army arrived in Greece

Kate helped to light candles to represent each of the 75 that have passed since the liberation of Auschwitz at Central Hall in Westminster today

His wife appeared emotional as William read the letter out loud: 'When the persecution of the Jews by the Germans began, Princess Alice asked to be informed about the fate of the Cohen family.

'Having been informed by friends and by her lady in waiting about the plight of Mrs Cohen and her young daughter, the Princess decided to offer her hospitality to the two ladies; in fact to hide them in her home despite the danger this entailed.

'The Princess put a small two-room apartment on the third floor at the disposal of Mrs Cohen and her daughter.

Princess Alice (pictured left) was the Duke of Edinburgh's (right) mother and is known as Aunt Alice by William and his family

Jane Lapotaire stars as Princess Alice of Battenberg in The Crown on Netflix

Jane Lapotaire stars as Princess Alice, the Duke of Edinburgh's mother, in The Crown

'It was thanks to the courageous rescue of Princess Alice that the members of the Cohen family were saved.

How Princess Alice bravely saved a Jewish family from the Holocaust Princess Alice died in 1969 Princess Alice of Battenberg was famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust during the Second World War by sheltering them in her home. The deeply religious woman was formally recognised by the State of Israel for her bravery in harbouring a Jewish mother and some of her children from the Nazis. A nun for many years, Alice, who was married to Prince Andrew of Greece, died in 1969 and was first laid to rest in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. But it was her wish to be interred at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, a Russian orthodox church on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, near her aunt Elizabeth, the Grand Duchess of Russia, and her remains were moved there in 1988. Earlier this week, William met Evy and Philippe Cohen, descendants of Rachel Cohen who was sheltered along with some of her children by Princess Alice during the Nazi occupation of Greece. Williams homage today followed in the footsteps of his father Charles, the Prince of Wales, and grandfather Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had also visited Princess Alice's grave. Advertisement

'The members of the Cohen family left the residence three weeks after liberation, aware that by virtue of the Princess's generosity and bravery had spared them from the Nazis.

'The great-granddaughter of Rachel Cohen, Evy Cohen, said this two years ago: 'My family would not exist without the courageous act of Princess Alice.

'Her story of incredible courage must keep being told in her memory.

'My generation, the past generation and the future generation are, and will eternally be, grateful to his great-grandmother Princess Alice for the great act of bravery, risking her own life to take in a family in need.'

Last week Prince Charles, her grandson, visited her tomb on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

The royal couple also lit candles in memory of those killed during Hitler's reign of terror in Europe, as well as genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, before meeting survivors.

The Cambridges lit six of the 75 candles that shone on stage to represent each of the 75 years that have passed since the Polish death camp was liberated.

Survivors and the families struggled to hold back tears as the royals and other esteemed guests addressed crowds.

Today's deeply moving ceremony reflected on one of the darkest periods in human history, when 11million victims - including six million Jews - were gassed, shot and starved in Nazi death camps.

The notorious train-track entrance to Auschwitz, through which over a million were taken to their deaths, was stormed by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation with commemorative events taking place across Europe and beyond.

William read an extract from a letter written by a friend of his great-grandmother Princess Alice - famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust - about her good deeds
[January 27, 2020] Monsido Announces $16.9 Million Investment by Level Equity and Vaekstfonden

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Monsido, a leader in web governance solutions that enhance user experience, today announced it has secured $16.9 million in funding from Level Equity, a growth equity firm based in New York and San Francisco, and Vaekstfonden, the Danish state investment fund. Monsido will use the new capital to continue to develop its platform and expand in North American, EU, and Asia-Pacific markets. Monsido has quickly grown since its founding in 2014, doubling revenue in each of the last two years and establishing offices in Copenhagen, San Diego, and Sydney. The company's all-in-one web governance platform helps organizations optimize their website by scanning for quality assurance, content, SEO, and accessibility issues. CLICK TO TWEET Web governance SaaS vendor @monsido_com accelerates international growth with $16.9 million investment by @LevelEquity and @Vaekstfonden #Funding #Innovation #SaaS Website users today expect an error-free and accessible web experience. As the digital landscape becomes increasingly complex, organizations want to solve website problems using automated, easy-to-use tools. Digital accessibility is a growing market trend for businesses in the United States and around the world as more legislation is being passed to ensure websites are accessible for all users, includingthose with disabilities.



Monsido helps organizations quickly address web accessibility on a single platform alongside other common website errors, enabling businesses to strengthen their brand reputation and increase their bottom line. Jannik Groentved, CEO, Monsido, said:

"Level Equity and Vaekstfonden will be strong strategic partners as we expand Monsido's operations in 2020. Their support validates our vision to help our customers provide a fully optimized and accessible web experience. This investment will help us expand the platform to offer even better insights, as well as scale in our current markets and enter new ones."

Sarah Sommer, Partner, Level Equity, said:

"Monsido has an innovative product combined with a strong management team. An error-free and accessible web experience is becoming critical for both private and public sector organizations. As a result, we believe their platform has far-reaching potential in the United States and Europe. We are excited to partner with them in the next stage of their growth." Jacob Bratting Pedersen, Partner - VF Venture, Vaekstfonden, said:

"Monsido has created a strong software platform that addresses business-critical needs. We are proud to be a part of their initial success and it is gratifying to continue to fund their global expansion." About Monsido

Monsido is a fast-growing software company founded in 2014 that provides a one-stop web governance solution designed to give website visitors a superior browsing experience. Our time-saving auditing tool provides accurate and insightful information that helps organizations work with confidence to identify accessibility and quality assurance issues. This enables them to optimize their online presence and ensure compliance with legal requirements. Monsido has offices in the United States, Australia, and Denmark. For more information, visit www.monsido.com . About Level Equity

Based in New York, NY and San Francisco, CA, Level Equity is a growth equity firm focused on providing capital to rapidly growing software and internet companies. The firm manages over $1.7 billion across a series of long term committed investment partnerships. For more information about Level Equity, visit levelequity.com. About Vaekstfonden

Vaekstfonden is Denmark's state investment fund, which works to strengthen Danish companies' access to venture capital so that they can create innovation, growth, and jobs. In close partnerships with banks and private investors from home and abroad, Vaekstfonden finances companies from a wide range of industries across the country. Since 1992, Vaekstfonden has co-financed growth in over 7,900 companies for a total commitment of more than 3 billion. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monsido-announces-16-9-million-investment-by-level-equity-and-vaekstfonden-300993484.html SOURCE Monsido

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Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on January 27 appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hold a dialogue with protesters opposing the CAA-NRC-NPR regime, to prevent "further deterioration" of the current situation.

Singh also said the "movement" against the new citizenship law and the two other proposed exercises has now gone out of the hands of politicians, as it has turned into an "emotional issue".

"The movement against the CAA, NPR and NRC has gone out of the hands of politicians and political parties and has become an emotional issue, which should not be linked with politics," Singh told reporters here.

He made a brief stopover in Sehore to meet local leaders while on his way to Dhar.

Protests have been held against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country.

"Amit Shah had said that CAA bill will be followed by the NPR and then the NRC in a chronological order. Now, if they want to handle the situation properly then PM Modi and Shah should hold a dialogue with those staging protests.

"They should clear all doubts from the mind of protesters otherwise the situation will further worsen in the country," Singh added.

Answering a question on Shah's appeal to the people of Delhi where assembly polls will be held on February 8, Singh said, "As they (BJP leaders) have no issues to raise, they are setting the country on fire (by making such statements)".

Shah on January 26 said that people in Delhi should press the EVM button with such anger that the protesters in Shaheen Bagh "feel the current".
Asia is the largest continent in the world with an area of 17,212,048 square miles. The continent is home to some of the biggest countries (Russia) and the smallest countries (the Maldives). The continent of Asia has diverse physical and climatic conditions ranging from deserts to heavily forested areas. The topology also differs from one country to another. The continent covers about 8.66% of the Earths Surface and 30% of the Earths land. The continent has a total of 53 countries including Russia and Turkey which are partly in Asia and Europe. Taiwan is regarded as a country by the UN.

The Largest Country In Asia: Russia

The Russian Federation is the biggest country in Asia with a total area of approximately 6,612,077 square miles that cover some parts of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Russia is also the worlds largest country and one of the most powerful nations in the world. The area was larger before the fall of the Soviet Union as some regions seceded in its dissolution. More territories have been claiming independence, but are still technically under Russian control. The country displays diversity in climatic conditions, topography, and plant and animal species. Russia borders Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, and North Korea. Lake Baikal is Russias largest lake while River Yenesi-Angar-Selenge is the longest in Russia. The country has a coastline of approximately 23,396 miles, and 4.2% of the total area is covered by water. The lowest point in Russia is located in the Caspian Sea at 92 feet below sea level while Mount Elbrus is the highest peak at 18,510 feet above sea level.

The Smallest Country In Asia: Maldives

The Maldives is the smallest country in Asia covering a mere 116 square miles in geographical area. Maldives Islands are in the Indian Ocean in Southern Asia. The Maldives is made up of a series of 1,190 coral islands spread over a distance of 34,749 square miles. The soil of the islands of the Maldives is highly alkaline, lacking sufficient elements of nitrogen, iron, and potash, therefore limiting agricultural practice. Only 10% of the Maldives has agricultural potential. The Maldives annual temperature and rainfall range from 75.2 to 91.4F and 100 to 150 inches, depending on the location. Humidity is high but balanced by the constant sea breezes.

The Gray Boundary Of Asia

The 53 countries in Asia have unique geographical characteristics and mostly differ in size and features. Asia is the most diverse continent with respect to geography, culture, and religion with some having European traits while others have African features. There is no clear natural boundary between Asia and Europe and some scholars refer to the two together as Eurasia. The transcontinental nature of some of the countries in Asia has led to international confusion, for example, the majority of Turkey lies within Asia, but it identifies itself with Europe. The same thing applies to Egypt that is entirely in Africa but identifies itself with Asia.
While taking up many top posts such as a four-star army general and a member of the powerful Politburo, she was also believed to have played a key role in grooming Kim Jong-un as the next leader. Kim Jong-un eventually took power after his father died of a heart attack in late 2011, in the North's second father-to-son power transfer.

Kim Kyong-hui, 73, was once an influential figure in North Korea as the only sister of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the father of Kim Jong-un. She had initially kept a low profile during the early part of her brother's rule, but Kim Kyong-hui later frequently accompanied him on his inspection trips after he suffered a stroke in 2008.

According to a [North] Korean Central News Agency dispatch, the name of Kim Kyong-hui was included in a list of top North Korean officials who watched a performance marking Lunar New Year's Day with Kim Jong-un at a Pyongyang theater on Saturday. North Korea's main newspaper also released a photo showing Kim Kyong-hui sitting near Kim Jong-un and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, at the Samjiyon Theater.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's aunt made her first public appearance in about six years, state media reported Sunday, quelling years of rumors that she was purged or executed by her nephew after helping him inherit power from his father.

Kim Kyong-hui's fate had been in doubt after Kim Jong-un had her husband and the North's No. 2 official, Jang Song-taek, executed for treason and corruption in December 2013. His death was reported by the North and remains the most significant in a series of executions or purges that Kim Jong-un has engineered in what outside experts believe were attempts to remove potential rivals and cement his grip on power.

Days after Jang's execution, Kim Kyong-hui's name was mentioned in a KCNA dispatch as a member of a funeral committee for another top official. But she missed a state ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of Kim Jong-il's death days later. Her name had since never been mentioned in North Korean state media until Sunday's KCNA report.

Some North Korea monitoring groups in Seoul and foreign media outlets had speculated Kim Jong-un had his aunt executed or purged, or she died of health problems. Outside experts said Kim Kyong-hui had long suffered from liver and heart problems and high blood pressure.

It's extremely difficult to track developments in North Korea, the world's most closed country. Supposedly executed officials have later appeared on the North's state TV. Even South Korea's spy agency has had a mixed record on figuring out what's going across the border, but it previously dismissed speculation on Kim Kyong-hui's possible execution and said she was receiving medical treatment.

Analyst Cheong Seong-chang at South Korea's private Sejong Institute said Kim Kyong-hui's reemergence suggested Kim Jong-un was attempting to strengthen the unity of his ruling family as he's pushing to harden his position toward the United States in stalled nuclear negotiations.

Cheong, however, predicted that Kim Kyong-hui won't likely regain her political influence as she now has no position in the Politburo, which has already been filled with new figures.

Since Kim Jong-un's grandfather Kim Il-sung established the country in 1948, his family has carried on the veneration of royal blood, making the Kims the subject of an intense personality cult.
Conservative leader says UMC is irretrievably broken over homosexuality debate

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A conservative United Methodist Church leader has stated his support for a proposal that allows UMC churches to leave the denomination over LGBT issues.

The Rev. Joseph F. DiPaolo, member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association Council, said that while he used to support staying with the UMC to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, he stated that I no longer believe that is possible.

Recently, UMC leaders representing diverse views on the LGBT debate announced their support for a proposal called the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation.

If approved, the protocol would allocate $25 million for conservative Methodists to vote to leave the UMC and create their own Church, tentatively labeled "traditionalist Methodist."

DiPaolo argued in a column Friday that the UMC is irretrievably broken due to the debate over homosexuality.

Progressive clergy, churches and conferences stepped up their campaign of resistance, through defiance of our disciplinary covenant, he wrote.

Many bishops have been complicit, either through overt support, or by failing to exercise any meaningful accountability toward those who break their covenantal vows.

He called the proposal for separation "the doorway" to "a vibrant, renewed and global Wesleyan movement.

The UMC Book of Discipline currently states that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and prohibits clergy from blessing or being involved in same-sex marriages.

Nevertheless, many conservatives within the denomination have talked of leaving the denomination due to the endless debate and refusal on the part of liberals to enforce the rules.

While the protocol remains a proposal, the measure has garnered great attention since many prominent church leaders across the theological spectrum have expressed support for it.

In addition to the WCA, the theologically liberal UMC advocacy group Reconciling Ministries Network is also backing the protocol.

RMN supports efforts for broad reform in The United Methodist Church so that the Church can begin to repent of its anti-LGBTQ past and present and so that it can begin a new way of being the Church unpredicated on its U.S.-centric origins, stated RMN earlier this month.

In addition, the Churchs inflexible governance processes and structures may have proved adequate in an earlier era, but they are insufficient for the ministry needs of the world today.

The UMC will hold its next General Conference, where legislative proposals regarding a possible schism will be entertained, in Minneapolis on May 5-15.
As of 2019, renewables only made up roughly 5% of Ukraine's energy mix.

Ukraines long-term climate plan could significantly cut reliance on energy imports, its energy ministry suggested last week.

According to new plans published by the ministry for energy and ecology last January 21, Ukraine will focus its efforts on energy efficiency in the coming decades, with the aim of slashing power demand by 50%, Euractiv reports.

Deputy Minister Serhiy Maslichenko said the country must "reduce consumption in order to produce less. This can be done through the introduction of energy-efficient measures. In the end, we have to reach 50% savings. It will also reduce energy imports by three times."

Cutting energy dependency is a political priority in Ukraine, which severed ties with Russian gas in the wake of Moscow's annexation of Crimea. In 2018, Kyiv still imported 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas via Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.

Russian gas will continue to flow across Ukraine to Europe though, under a transit deal brokered in December that will run until 2024. Fears about the bypass Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea have upped the pressure on Kyiv to secure lucrative transit fees.

The proposed climate plan has estimated annual investment costs of 5% of GDP, which could be funded in part through an updated version of the existing carbon tax.

While efforts to reduce Russias influence are welcome, the energy ministrys pledge to take all coal power plants offline by 2050 has already been met with disappointment.

Under the current plan, Ukraine will achieve carbon-neutrality in 2070, two decades later than the EU.

Minister Oleksiy Orzhel acknowledged while presenting the strategy that coal could be shown the door before the mid-century deadline though, citing increased renewable energy investment as a main driver of decarbonization.

Ukraine's climate plan targets a 70% share of clean energy sources by 2050, although green group Ecoaction pointed out that modeling done in 2017 showed that Ukraine could hit 91% renewables by the same date.

"The aim declared in the concept could and should be more ambitious. In addition, the price of renewables falls annually," said Ecoaction energy expert Kostiantyn Krynytskyi.

Read alsoUkraine's economy ministry plans to increase share of renewable energy to 70% in 30 years

Ukraine is indeed looking seriously at mass renewables deployment and on January 24, a key advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the state is in talks with clean energy developers about boosting investment.

"We are [] talking about an alternative incentive mechanism, a new model that we will offer and that investors will be able to volunteer for," Yulia Kovaliv said during an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Nuclear energy is classed as carbon-neutral in the strategy but its share in the energy mix is supposed to drop from roughly 50% to just 20-25%. The idea is to deploy small experimental modular reactors and extend the operating lifetime of existing reactors.

But the road ahead still appears to be a long one for the Eastern European country. As of 2019, renewables only make up roughly 5% of Ukraine's energy mix, although new figures suggest that installed capacity doubled in 2019.

After the proposed plan makes its way through the legislative gauntlet, one of the next major milestones will be in 2035, when Ukraine must hit a 25% renewables target. For comparison, the EU has set a 32% benchmark for 2030.
President Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton alleges in his forthcoming book that the president explicitly told him "he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens," the New York Times first reported.

Why this matters: The revelations present a dramatic eleventh-hour turn in Trump's Senate impeachment trial. They directly contradict Trump's claim that he never tied the holdup of Ukrainian aid to his demands for investigations into his political opponent Joe Biden. Trump strongly denied Bolton's claims early Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has already seized on the story, tweeting: "John Bolton has the evidence. It's up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trump's actions testify in the Senate trial."

The seven House impeachment managers echoed those sentiments, saying in a joint statement: "There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published, when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision senators must now make  whether to convict the president of impeachable offenses."

What's new: Sarah Tinsley, an adviser to Bolton, told me: "The ambassador's manuscript was transmitted to the White House for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period. It was sent over there, to the NSC, several weeks ago."

Tinsley would not comment on the Times' report of the contents of the book that's slated for release on March 17.

Bolton's attorney Charles Cooper said in a statement that he submitted a manuscript on behalf of his client on Dec. 30 to the National Security Councils Records Management Division for standard prepublication security review for classified information, along with a cover letter.

"[W]e submitted the manuscript notwithstanding our firm belief that the manuscript contained no information that could reasonably be considered classified and on the assurance that the 'process of reviewing submitted materials is restricted to those career government officials and employees regularly charged with responsibility for such reviews' and that the 'contents of Ambassador Boltons manuscript will not be reviewed or otherwise disclosed to any persons not regularly involved in that process.'

It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript."

 Charles Cooper's statement to Axios

Behind the scenes: The New York Times learned about the contents of the Bolton manuscript before the White House press shop, per a source with direct knowledge.

Read Cooper's cover letter:

Editor's note: This article has been updated with the letter, Trump's denial, the book's release date and comments by Cooper and the House impeachment managers.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 27, 2020

New York could ban the use of facial recognition technology by police under a proposed bill unveiled Monday by state Senator Brad Hoylman.

The continuous use of this technology for broad, untargeted surveillance purposes constitutes an unacceptable mass violation of privacy and could chill New Yorkers' right to free speech and freedom of assembly, states the proposed bill.

The new proposal comes one week after The New York Times reported that the startup Clearview AI scraped billions of publicly available photos from sites including Facebook and Twitter, used facial recognition technology to create a database of faceprints, and then sold that database to police departments.

Since that article came out, Clearview has drawn widespread criticism. Twitter reportedly demanded that Clearview stop scraping the site for photos, an Illinois resident brought a class-action privacy complaint against the start-up, and U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) sent the company a list of questions about its technology. New Jersey's attorney general also reportedly told state prosecutors to stop using the company's program.

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The measure sponsored by Hoylman, a Democrat from Manhattan, would prohibit law enforcement authorites from purchasing, possession or using any facial recognition technology sytem.

Four cities -- San Francisco and Oakland, California, and Brookline and Somerville, Massachusetts -- have already prohibited the police from using facial recognition software. Portland, Oregon is currently considering a similar prohibition.

While Hoylman's new bill would specifically restrict law enforcement, the lawmaker previously introduced a law that would have prohibited landlords from using facial recognition technology in residential buildings. That effort stalled last year.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has called for the unification of efforts to preserve human values and prevent human hatred, discrimination and disrespect for human beings on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, according to a comment published on the ministry's website.

"On January 27 every year, the international community honors the memory of millions of Jews, Roma and representatives of other minorities who were tortured by Nazis because of their nationality during World War II. The Holocaust is an attempt to destroy the whole nation, it is the genocide of the Jewish people during the war. [...] Having established the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we support the remembrance of those horrific events so that they never happen again, and also prevent manifestations of xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other intolerance, which, unfortunately, are still recorded in the world," the ministry said.

According to the report, today the danger of these manifestations for Ukraine, which become elements of state ideology under totalitarian regimes, comes from a neighboring state.

"Ukraine is responding to the Russian aggressor by protecting Europe from the flames of hatred. We call for the unification of efforts to preserve human values and prevent human hatred, discrimination and disrespect for human beings," the comment said.

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President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday about the coronavirus epidemic in China that it should be taken "very seriously" and the authorities will prepare for it "as best as possible".

"I understand that today there has been an inter-ministerial discussion. I am waiting now to find out what the technical conclusions are. I think we need to take this matter very, very seriously. It seems to be a very aggressive virus and I think we must prepare as best you can for it," said Iohannis, at the Cotroceni Palace.He said he is "ready" to have it, if a discussion is required in the CSAT."I do not know if it is necessary to discuss this at the CSAT. If the Government does its job in the most serious way and I have no reason to believe that it will not be so, it is not necessary, but I am ready to discuss the matter at the CSAT if it is necessary," said the head of state.He explained in China there are totally different procedures compared to Romania regarding the construction of hospitals."There are totally different procedures. In China there is an autocratic system that gives and executes orders, while we have a democratic system, with European rules, which prepares the documentation for the auctions and seeks financing and that's why it takes longer. I admit that it has taken too long for the regional hospitals so far and I hope we find ways to speed up the procedure," said Iohannis.
27.01.2020 LISTEN

Communication Team Member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Owusu Banahene says President Akufo-Addo does not deserve a second term in office because he has failed Ghanaians in all sectors, particularly, the fight against corruption.

Owusu Banahene is of the view that the President has not lived up to expectations of Ghanaians within the last three years in the manner and way he incompetently handles the economy with cooked figures.

"Akufo-Addo has failed woefully, he does not deserve second term it will a taboo to vote for Akufo-Addo in the 2020 elections, Owusu Banahene told Kwame Tutu on Anopa Nkomo on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7.

He stressed that Ghanaians continue to complain about hardships, job loses, worsening economic conditions among others; an indication that the country is heading to the wrong direction.

He argued that President Akufo-Addo and his administration have failed to turn the fortunes of Ghanaians around as promised adding that the situation cannot be changed in an election year.
You don't have to drive through the town of Markethill to get to the house where Seamus Mallon and his family lived for the bulk of their lives. It was a point he made to this writer when I phoned seeking an interview almost two years ago.

But because I left a note of his directions at home on the kitchen table before travelling to the Co Armagh town, I had to drive through Markethill after all.

When I finally made it to his house, which overlooks the bypass road, he chuckled at my tale of woe and also noted my comment about the sheer number of union flags on display from pretty much every available lamppost.

"Yes, it was 'interesting' living here sometimes. When you consider that at the height of the Troubles every other house had someone either in the RUC, the RUC reserve, or the UDR, at a time when I was accusing them of having a 'shoot to kill' policy - which they had - it was, you could say, 'interesting'," he offered in reply to the ensuing questions.

Today, this giant of Irish politics, who fought for justice and utterly condemned all kinds of violence, will be laid to rest in his native place amid all the noise of a general election campaign.

But his story has relevance for everyone across Ireland - the more so as we make up our minds on who to vote for in 12 days' time.

Because Mallon did not drape himself in the Tricolour and bawl "Brits out", it is often forgotten that he was a very strident Irish nationalist.

He saw the Plantation of Ulster, the Penal Laws and the Partition of Ireland as "based on the same flawed policy to create a Protestant ascendancy to maintain Britain's rule over Ireland".

From his kitchen window he could see the old Mass rock which recalled the repression of the Catholic religion.

Below his home were the remnants of the old Dublin-Newry road where the armies of Hugh O'Neill tramped and fought in the late 16th century, recalling a series of ongoing and bitter conflicts. "In my lifetime, I was once again to experience 40 years of sectarian hatred and suspicion in this, my home area," he wrote in his magical memoir, 'A Shared Home Place', which was published last year.

The book, written with journalist and scholar Andy Pollack, must be required reading for anyone who cares about the future of this island and its people.

Seamus Mallon got his keen sense of history from his father, Frank, who was principal of the local Catholic primary school outside Markethill, a job Seamus would eventually take up himself.

Frank Mallon was a supporter of the fight for Irish freedom. But he lost faith after the brutal murder of six Protestants near Newry in 1922.

"The only weapons which should ever be used again in this country are words. Guns never solve problems - they only make them," Mallon Senior often told his son.

All of his life, he abhorred paramilitary violence of all kinds, whether it came from the IRA or the loyalist side.

The civil rights campaign drew him into political action, and drew him into the early days of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

"I joined the SDLP because I wanted a political party that was viable, credible and contained the ideals of republicanism without the murderous nonsense of violent republicanism," he stated simply.

For much of his working life, it was hard to do regular politics as the sectarian violence increased, and the British and Northern Ireland authorities responded with many repressive measures which further stoked tensions.

His local SDLP branch often met in his living room because business people were afraid to rent a room which could be bombed.

His canvass teams learned how to defend themselves from physical attacks by IRA supporters and loyalists. His home was attacked and he was repeatedly threatened and vilified.

But Mallon was equally critical of the RUC and the UDR, and had amassed evidence that they were engaged in "shoot to kill" policy in the fight against paramilitaries. His attitude to these entities was, like many Northern nationalists, hardened over the previous decades.

He recalled the "IRA Border campaign" of the 1950s when he was just in his early twenties. Police would stop him, saying things like: "Good evening, Mr Mallon. What is your name?"

"I was a constant critic of the Ulster Defence Regiment for its constant harassment of Catholics. But I also went to a lot of funerals of UDR men killed in Co Armagh," he recalled.

UDR members fell into two kinds: those who joined so they could bully Catholics, and those who joined out of a sense of loyalty and duty. The latter were usually professional and courteous and the overall problem turned on the failure to root out the bad elements.

He was "ambivalent" about the RUC. Many of them were his neighbours from around Markethill and he knew them to be good people.

But others joined the RUC "as a rite of passage" to membership of loyalist paramilitary groups and their police cover protected them.

"They had cover for such paramilitary activities at very senior level," he believed.

Later he would call for the resignation of RUC chief constable Jack Hermon and the North's attorney general Patrick Mayhew as he believed them complicit in the operation of what were in practice "anti-IRA killing squads".

But, above all, he believed that the IRA achieved none of its aims for which it sacrificed so many innocent lives.
Overall rents across Singapores industrial sector remained unchanged quarter-on-quarter (QOQ) in Q4 2019, the second straight quarter of no-change. For the full year 2019, industrial sector rents were up 0.1% year-on-year (YOY), mainly due to the improvement in business parks.

industrial sector

In Q4 2019, the occupancy rate slipped by 0.1 percentage point (ppt) QOQ and YOY. Meanwhile, prices of industrial sector properties saw decreases of 0.2% QOQ and 0.3% YOY as the overall land lease tenures continue to decay.

Commenting on the performance of the industrial sector in Q4 2019, Ms Tricia Song, Head of Research for Singapore at Colliers International, said:

Rents and occupancy rate in Industrial Sector

The All-Industrial rental index continued the stabilisation trend  which started from Q4 2018  and remained unchanged QOQ in Q4 2019. This marked the ninth consecutive quarter where rents remained rangebound, wavering between -0.1% and +0.1%. The latest numbers put the All-Industrial rental index at 13.6% below the peak in Q2 2014.

Overall occupancy rate, however, declined marginally by 0.1 ppt QOQ to 89.2% after holding at 89.3% for four straight quarters, mainly dragged by the single-user factory segment which saw the occupancy rate dropped by 0.3 ppt QOQ during Q4 2019. On a yearly basis, the occupancy level dropped by 0.1 ppt in 2019, compared to 2018 as full-year 2019 net new supply (at 9.3 million sq ft) outstripped net new demand (at 7.8 million sq ft).

Factory

Rents for multiple-user factory dropped by 0.1% both QOQ and YOY in Q4, due to the rental decline of 0.5% QOQ in the West Region  the only region where rents fell in the quarter. In contrast, the North Region saw a rental uptick of 0.2% QOQ, possibly due to stronger demand for multiple-user factory space amid limited supply in this planning region. The islandwide occupancy rate for multiple-user factory improved by 0.4 ppt QOQ to 87.5%.

The single-user factory segment continued to see rental increment for the third consecutive quarter, rising by 0.1% QOQ and 0.5% YOY. The occupancy level, however, dropped by 0.3 ppt QOQ to 90.8% in Q4.

Story continues

Business Park

Business park rents remained firm on healthy leasing demand, rising for the fourth consecutive quarter by 0.1% QOQ, the same pace of growth as Q3. Overall occupancy in business park space was unchanged QOQ at 86.2%, with improvements noted in Viva Business Park, International Business Park, and CleanTech Park, which saw occupancy level increased by 3.1 ppt, 0.1 ppt, and 1.3 pp, respectively.

On a yearly basis, the business park segment ended 2019 on a high note, with overall rent rising by 1.3% YOY and occupancies rising by 1.3 ppt YOY on the back of strong leasing demand from the technology, media and e-commerce sectors. We note that these companies have continuously gravitated towards newer business park spaces for better accessibility, good amenities and greater cost savings.

Warehouse

Rents for warehouse space turned around after two consecutive quarters of decline, posting a minor uptick of 0.1% QOQ in Q4, as global trade outlook improved towards the end of 2019. For full-year 2019, warehouse rents declined by 0.2%, the sixth straight year of decline, albeit the slowest rate of decline in six years.

However, warehouse occupancy declined marginally by 0.1 ppt QOQ to 88.0% as supply more than quadrupled demand to 194,000 sq ft (net). For the full-year 2019, warehouse occupancy deteriorated by 1.5 ppt.

Prices

The All-Industrial price index dropped by 0.2% QOQ in Q4 2019, with declines in both single-user factory and multiple-user factory segments. On a yearly basis, the All-Industrial price index slipped by 0.3% YOY in 2019, led by multiple-user factory which declined by 0.6% YOY, while single-user factory was up by 0.3% YOY.

We note that multiple-user factories with long land tenures of above 60 years continued to see uptick in prices, at 0.1% QOQ in Q4 2019, reflecting resilient demand from investors for industrial properties with longer remaining leases. Also, based on JTC record, the total number of caveats lodged for industrial properties across all segments in 2019 increased by 7% YOY, representing healthy investment demand for industrial assets during the year.

Future Supply

The industrial stock completed in the last quarter of 2019 was minimal at 27,000 sq ft (net). This brought total new supply in full-year 2019 to 9.3 million sq ft (net), of which more than 65% are single-user factory and the rest mainly warehouse spaces. In 2019, total new supply (net) across all industrial types was a robust 60% increase from 2018, but still 55% behind the record level of 20.9 million sq ft (net) witnessed in 2017.

Going forward, JTC forecasts new supply in 2020 to increase significantly to 23.7 million sq ft (gross), with 39% in single-user factory, 39% in multiple-user factory, 15% in warehouse space and 7% in business park. Assuming an 80-90% building efficiency for the future upcoming supply, we expect the total industrial space completed in 2020 to more than double YOY to around 20 million sq ft (net).

New supply across all industrial types is set to come off in 2021 to around 8.1 million sq ft (gross) before picking up again in 2022 at 16.1 million sq ft (gross), led by factory spaces which account for 83% of total supply. We note that business park supply is set to intensify from 2023 onwards, starting with 2.4 million sq ft (gross) of new supply in 2023 from the completion of the first buildings in Punggol Digital District.

Macro environment

Based on advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Singapores GDP grew by 0.8% year-on-year (YOY) in Q4 2019, slightly higher than the 0.7% in Q3, dragged by the continuous decline in the manufacturing sector which contracted by 2.1% YOY.

For full-year 2019, Singapore economy grew by only 0.7%, the weakest growth in a decade since the 0.1% expansion during the global financial crisis in 2009. Nevertheless, 2020 is set to improve slightly, supported by a few positives for Singapores external outlook such as a clearer picture of Brexit status and the US-China Phase 1 trade deal. MTI forecasts 2020 GDP growth to be in the range of 0.5-2.5% while Oxford Economics, as of 9 January 2020, has put Singapores 2020 GDP growth at a modest 1.4% on sluggish export outlook and soft domestic demand.

The post Industrial sector sees second quarter of no-change in rents appeared first on iCompareLoan Resources.
The third Bodo peace accord was signed in New Delhi on Monday, but non-Bodo groups and opposition parties in the state feel the deal might not bring lasting peace to Bodo-dominated areas, as expected.

On the day the deal was inked with all four factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), several non-Bodo groups called a 12-hour shutdown in protest, affecting normal life in several districts of Assam.

While Bodo groups welcomed the deal by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets, non-Bodo organisations like the All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union, All Bodoland Minority Students Union, All Adivasi Students Union, Kalita Janagosthi Students Union and All Assam Nath-Jogi Students Union blocked roads and burnt effigies of central and state ministers.

Since 2003, after the signing of the second Bodo peace accord, non-Bodo residents of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) had been seeking its review as it affected their rights. But instead of that, the Centre went ahead and signed another deal, said Naba Kumar Sarania, Independent MP from Kokrajhar.

As per Mondays deal, the name of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), which administers BTAD, would be changed to Bodoland Territorial Region along with the accruing of a slew of economic and political benefits.

The new accord is undemocratic and unconstitutional. There are just 21% Bodos in BTAD area while the rest are non-Bodos. But none of these groups were consulted prior to going ahead with the deal. This unilateral accord will lead to further isolation of non-Bodos and wont bring lasting peace, said Pranab Narayan Deb, scion of the Darrang Koch royal family.

President of All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU), Rejaul Karim Sarkar, said that while they welcome a permanent solution to the Bodo issue, Mondays accord wont bring that about.

Non-Bodos were kept in the dark when Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) was formed in 1993. The same thing happened when BTC was formed in 2003 and today it got repeated again. We appeal to Centre and state government to hold talks with all stakeholders before implementing the pact, he said.

Opposition Congress also stated that a peace deal without taking all players, including non-Bodo organisations, might not have the desired impact.

I had requested Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to listen non-Bodo groups before signing the deal so that it is foolproof. Instead of welcoming the deal, many organisations called a shutdown on Monday, which shows people are not satisfied, said leader of opposition in Assam assembly, Debabrata Saikia.

The ruling BJP, however, denied the charges and expressed confidence that the deal would be able to bring permanent peace to Bodo-dominated areas and the rest of Assam.

We welcome the pact. It will address a long standing demand of the Bodo people and since all rebel outfits and All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) are part of it, the accord will bring lasting peace, said BJP spokesperson, Rupam Goswami.

The deal wont hurt the interests of non-Bodo people living in BTAD areas. It will be ensured that their rights are protected. Those finding flaws with the accord are doing so because of their political agenda, he added.

Chief Minister Sonowal also issued a statement welcoming the deal and tried to allay the apprehensions of non-Bodo communities that the accord would hurt their interests.

No community residing in Assam should have any fear or worry about the deal. This deal will respect the rights of all the Bodo leadership and people will have to take people from other communities into confidence while implementing the deal, Sonowal said.

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YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Embassy in China is taking steps to establish direct contact with the Armenian citizens who are currently in China, the Armenian foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook.

The Embassy is in direct contact with the three Armenian citizens who are currently in the city of Wuhan of the Hubei Province. As of this moment there is no information about any Armenian citizens among those infected with the new Chinese coronavirus. We urge all citizens of Armenia living in China to send their phone numbers and residence addresses to the Embassys e-mail at [email protected] to be in direct contact, the statement says.

On December 31, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhah - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent - coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The new type of coronavirus has already been identified in other countries - Australia, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, the United States and Japan.

The number of victims of a new type of pneumonia in China has increased to 80, the number of confirmed cases of those who contracted the disease has climbed above 2,700.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
An 18-year-old Reed College student was sentenced Monday to six months of federal probation for throwing a rock and breaking the front windshield of a marked Federal Protective Service SUV outside ICE headquarters in Southwest Portland.

The encounter occurred on Sept. 20 after a global climate demonstration in the city.

"I really didnt understand how awful, how unhelpful that form of protest was,'' Alexander Pollvogt Soltesz told U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo. Im truly very, very sorry. It will not happen again.

Soltesz was sentenced after pleading guilty to damaging government property and paid $780 in restitution to cover the cost of the broken windshield.

Soltesz was standing about 15 feet in front of the driveway of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on Southwest Macadam Avenue when he threw the rock, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Uram said. The SUV was in the driveway, facing the street.

Federal prosecutors initially charged Soltesz with a felony, expecting the damage caused was at least $1,000. Fortunately, no officer got hurt and the cost of repairing the windshield was under that amount, Uram said. As a result, the government reduced the charge to a misdemeanor.

Mr. Soltesz was extremely lucky, Uram said. I know if a Federal Protective Service officer had been injured, my office would respond as seriously as it possibly could.  Its just not going to be tolerated in the future.

The teen, from Massachusetts, had been in the city only a couple of weeks for the start of his first year of college when he joined a Reed College group to protest climate change and ended up with others outside the immigration enforcement building, said his defense lawyer, Lisa Maxfield.

He has since realized that the rock-throwing detracted from any message intended to protest the Trump administrations policy of separating children and parents detained after border crossings, Maxfield said.

As part of a plea agreement, Soltesz agreed not to come within 100 yards or two blocks of the ICE building through Jan. 1, 2021.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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The death toll from a powerful gas tanker explosion that ripped through a district of Lima rose to eight on Friday, after four more victims succumbed to severe burn injuries overnight, Peru's health ministry said.

Dozens were wounded, some severely, when the truck tanker carrying Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) exploded and ignited a major fire on Thursday that destroyed several houses in the capital's Villa El Salvador district.

"According to the latest report we have eight people dead," a health ministry spokesman told AFP.

A police officer stands by the wreckage of a gas tanker that exploded in Lima, killing at least eight people and leaving dozens injured /  AFP

Among those who died of their injuries overnight were a 17-year-old youth and a 38-year-old man who had burns to 100 percent of his body, the ministry said.

"Andres Asto arrived yesterday badly burned. Unfortunately he died at 0340 local time," said Rosario Kiyohara, head of Lima's Dos de Mayo hospital.

Health Minister Maria Elizabeth Hinostrozo said several survivors are in a "very serious" condition. "They are being given full support, but the first week is critical," Hinostrozo told reporters.

Health authorities have appealed for blood donations.

The driver was killed in the blast, which happened as the tanker approached an intersection.

Forensic police inspect the wreckage of a gas tanker that exploded in Lima /  AFP

Shortly afterwards, a nine-year-old girl died of cardiac arrest in hospital after suffering severe burns, health officials said.

Investigators believe the explosion was caused when a fuel hose became detached as the truck tanker passed over a speed bump as it approached an intersection. The hose spewed LPG gas onto the street causing a powerful explosion and fire.

A firefighter sifts through the wreckage of a house destroyed in the blast and subsequent fire /  AFP

The resulting blaze engulfed 14 nearby homes in the densely populated district, which firefighters fought for three hours to bring under control, fire department chief Alfonso Panizo told state television.
Updated: County councillors have cleared an obstacle which will allow a British company lodge a planning application for a 100m 'Kildare Village' style retail centre in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.

However, the move to adopt a policy change to allow for such a type of centre to be developed in the county did not come without opposition, with several councillors expressing fears about its effect on other retailers.

Rioja Estates wants to create a 'Tourist Outlet Village' (TOV) close to the IDA industrial estate at Killacloyne, Carrigtwohill. The company says it will create 850 permanent jobs and a further 640 during construction.

Cllr Marcia D'Alton said she was concerned such a move was against the national planning framework and it would have a negative impact on retailing in Cork City and some of the towns and villages in the East Cork area.

It will be detrimental to local businesses. I'm also deeply concerned that we haven't done a carbon impact assessment on the impact on this, she said, adding the development is expected to result in 35,000 vehicles visits to it every week.

Cllr Alan O'Connor maintained the Rioja Estates plan was textbook of unsustainable development, and Cllr Holly Cairns said it would take more footfall away from other retailers.

Cllr Liam Quaide said he "didn't buy the argument" that the items for sale at the TOV would be significantly different from other shops in the area.

Cllr Gerard Murphy said the national planning framework was designed to counterbalance Dublin development and the Rioja project would help to do this.

Cllr Susan McCarthy maintained the development would counter on-line traders and it was a type of niche shopping, which you're going to get in towns and villages. She said she was worried if they turned it away it would go to Limerick, Waterford or Galway instead.

Cllr Anthony Barry said the economic benefits to the region would be huge as it would also attract a large number of tourists. He added he often went to Kildare village and saw the large number of Cork people who shopped there.

There are pros and cons in this, Cllr Seamus McGrath said. If this type of centre is to proceed we want it to come with a clear, defined action plan for (retail development) towns and villages. Cllr Michael Hegarty said it was important to send out the message that they want investment in the Cork region. It would be absolutely crazy, horrendous if we vote this down, he said.

If we hold back on this it will go somewhere else, Cllr Kevin Murphy said.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said he and his officials were strongly of the view there is retail capacity to accommodate such a centre and it wouldn't have an adverse impact on other retailers.

Mr Lucey said the council would be putting together an action programme to support retailers in towns and villages in the county.

The council's director of planning services, Michael Lynch, said 993,000 tourists came into the immediate area per year on cruise liners, or by car to visit the likes of Fota Wildlife Park Park, Cobh Heritage Centre and the Jameson distillery.

He said such a retail centre would encourage even more visits per year.

Following a lengthy debate, 42 councillors voted for the proposal with four against.
GENEVA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 23, The Geneva based Anti-Coronavirus Foundation announced that it will raise funds among crypto enthusiasts for the further financing of a vaccine against coronavirus.

The outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has killed at least 17 people and infected more than 400, and the foundation feels there might be a risk of the virus spreading to several other countries. The foundation fears the new virus may resemble or even outpass damage brought on by the SARS virus, which affected thousands of people around the world and killed nearly 800 during the 2003 outbreak.

There is currently very little known about the virus, the way it spreads, its incubation period (which is believed to be about two weeks) and who is most at risk. For now, the coronavirus is as the pathogen behind a mysterious illness that had affected 59 people in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China

Yury Myshinskiy, co-founder and CEO of CryptOcean, will chair the new foundation. The Anti-Coronavirus Foundation intends to finance the first company or group of individuals to develop a working vaccine, available for mass production and use. The first task set by the creators of the foundation is to create a $30,000,000 reward pool to be given to a person or institution which creates a vaccine for the coronavirus.

The foundation feels that it is important that all resources are mobilized to start financing of the laboratory work and clinical studies in as many medical and scientific institutions around the globe as possible to deliver the solution of the problem to be able to help the affected.

To ensure the transparency of its functioning, all transactions are to be handled in CRON blockchain, run by the firm CryptOcean under the supervision of the founding advisory board, which will be comprised of trusted and publicly recognized individuals. The foundation is registered in Switzerland, a country with high level of transparency and legislation for non-profit organizations

The blockchain platform will allow anyone to send funds to finance future research. Initially, developers are considering cryptocurrency donations, but, a Coinstelegram report referring to the official website of the project, suggests support for fiat donations will appear in the near future.

On the official website of the Anti-Coronavirus Foundation, the founders turn to pharmacological corporations, urging them to make every effort to solve the problem. The published message also urges prominent entrepreneurs, philanthropists and humanitarian organizations to help mobilize support for the affected.



For more information about the Anticoronavirus Foundation, click here

Media Contact

 2020 Anti-Coronavirus Foundation,

Rue du Pre de la Bichette 1,

Geneva, CH 1202, Switzerland

Tel: +41-225-087-789

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Anti-Coronavirus Foundation
Washington: President Donald Trump hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ahead of unveiling a "peace plan" already flatly rejected by the Palestinians -- but providing both leaders welcome distraction from their respective political crises.

The White House meeting with Netanyahu and, separately, with his arch rival Benny Gantz, thrusts Trump right into Israel's tense election scheduled in just over a month.

Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's centrist Blue and White party are polling neck-and-neck.

An Oval Office sitdown with Trump and a second session on Tuesday, when the two men are expected to roll out the peace plan, will reinforce Netanyahu's message that he has the US president's ear.

It will also boost his standing while he fights a mounting corruption scandal.

Despite signs that the White House peace plan is dead on arrival, Netanyahu is talking it up as the "deal of the century." For Trump, the two days of meetings should cement support among right-wing Christian evangelicals -- a key part of his base in the November presidential election -- just as his Senate impeachment trial climaxes.

Trump has already thrown Netanyahu a string of political presents.

These include breaking with international diplomatic consensus to recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which were seized from neighbouring Syria, and ending opposition to Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

This time, he'll be presenting a peace plan that critics say will heavily favor the Israeli side in the conflict with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians say they were never included in the plan's crafting and have rejected it in advance. The fact that they are not invited to the White House this week appears to underline their point.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday urged international powers to boycott the plan, which he said was designed "to protect Trump from impeachment and protect Netanyahu from prison".

"It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting. "This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory."

Overseen by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the plan has been gestating in secret for so long that skeptics asked whether it even really existed.

Aaron David Miller, a Mideast expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Kushner's team wants to "finally, basically demonstrate that they have a plan" -- and to do so ahead of the US presidential election.

In the short term, said Dennis Ross, a US diplomat who worked on the issue under several administrations, "anything that can divert attention away from what's going on" is the goal.

Last Thursday, Trump described the still-unpublished plan as "great" and said it "really would work".

Netanyahu said before leaving for Washington that he was "full of hope that we can make history." Gantz is also enthusiastic, saying the plan will "go down in history," allowing "different players in the Middle East to finally move ahead towards an historic regional agreement."

But on Sunday, Palestinian leaders warned that instead of bringing peace, the plan could trigger their withdrawal from key provisions of the decades-old Oslo Accords, which sought to map out peaceful Israeli-Palestinian relations.

"The US administration will not find a single Palestinian who supports this project," the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"Trump's plan is the plot of the century to liquidate the Palestinian cause." Netanyahu is campaigning on a continuation of his hardline policies that he says are needed to provide security for Israelis, but critics say condemn Palestinians in the occupied territories to an increasingly bleak future.

Adding to the prime minister's worries, the transnational radical jihadist Islamic State group on Monday reportedly vowed to make Israel its main target.

According to a purported audio message of its spokesman, IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi is encouraging the group's fighters to "launch a new phase", with major operations against Israel.
Bodo accord: Non-Bodo outfits observe 12-hour bandh in Assam

India

oi-PTI

Guwahati, Jan 27: A 12-hour Assam bandh called by various non-Bodo organisations on Monday in protest against the Centre's move to sign a peace accord with different Bodo stakeholders has brought life to a standstill in the four districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

Official sources told PTI that normal life has been affected in Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri districts but the bandh did not have any impact in other areas of the state.

Apart from burning of tyres in some areas in Kokrajhar district, no major incident of violence has been reported so far, police said. All educational institutions remained closed though some examinations scheduled in the colleges were held.

Vehicles, including long-distance buses, remained off the roads and all shops and business establishments were shut. Railway services remained unaffected so far with all major trains running on schedule, a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson told PTI.

The bandh has been called by various organisations including the All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU), All Bodo Minority Students' Union (ABMSU), All Adivasi Students' Union, Oboro Suraksha Samiti, Kalita Janagoshti Students' Union among others.

As Bodo Group agrees to peace talks, who are the Bodos explained

The non-Bodo organisations are demanding that all non-Bodo stakeholders residing in the Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD) and the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) should be included in the peace talks and made signatories to the accord that is likely to be signed on Monday.

The Centre held discussions with the Bodo stakeholders, including four factions of the NDFB, All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) and the People's Joint Action Committee for Boroland. NDFB(R) chief Ranjan Daimary, sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the Oct 30, 2008 serial bomb blasts, was granted interim bail for four weeks by a specially constituted Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court and taken to New Delhi on Saturday to take part in the peace talks.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the Centre has assured the state government that the areas under the BTAD will not be declared a Union Territory and no new areas will be added to it and that the state's territorial integrity will be maintained. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also left for New Delhi on Sunday evening to participate in the talks.

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Story first published: Monday, January 27, 2020, 14:11 [IST]
Ministers are wrestling with the huge challenge of how to evacuate around 200 Britons trapped in China by the coronavirus after a U-turn on the policy that they should stay put.

Late on Saturday, the Foreign Office switched to urging them to get out after advice from the chief medical officer, but ministers appeared blindsided by the consequences of that decision.

The city of Wuhan and the wider Hubei province, where the disease is believed to have originated, have been on lockdown for days as the authorities try to contain the virus.

Both Priti Patel, the home secretary, and the Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay ducked questions about whether airlifts were planned, saying the government was looking at all options.

There was a frosty exchange on the BBCs Andrew Marr programme when Mr Barclay referred to a fast-moving situation, the host replying: Theyre not fast moving, theyre stuck.

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Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Malaysian nationals being directed from a bus by health officials in protective suits as they arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, after being evacuated from Wuhan Malaysia's Ministry of Health/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People hoping to buy face masks crowd outside a medical supply shop that was raided by police for allegedly hoarding and overpricing the masks, as public fear over China's Wuhan Coronavirus grow in Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government has been heavily criticized after failing to immediately implement travel restrictions from China, the source of a deadly coronavirus that has now killed hundreds and infected thousands more Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Residents wearing masks and raincoats volunteer to take temperature of passengers following the outbreak of a new coronavirus at a bus stop at Tin Shui Wai, a border town in Hong Kong Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Italian citizens repatriated from Wuhan going though a health control zone after landing at the Mario De Bernardi military airport in Pratica di Mare, south of Rome, prior to be placed in quarantine Italian Defence Ministry/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers arrange beds in a 2,000-bed mobile hospital, set up in an exhibition center, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor checks conditions of occupants in a hotel accommodating isolated people in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city of Wuhan, arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital. The Chinese army deployed medical specialists to the epicentre of the spiralling viral outbreak that has killed and spread around the world AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A baby wearing a protective face mask is pushed by a woman as they arrive from Shenzhen to Hong Kong at Lo Wu MTR station AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A health worker checks the temperature of a woman entering a subway station in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A young child wears a protective mask and is covered in plastic while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance crews arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, as it prepares for a return flight from Wuhan, China. Eighty-three Britons and 27 foreign nationals who were trapped in Wuhan are being flown back to the UK Tom Maddick / SWNS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman carries a baby wearing a protective mask as they exit the arrival hall at Hong Kong High Speed Rail Station Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Camp beds at a Medical Assessment Center set up at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on the eve of the arrival of German citizens evacuated from Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Funeral parlour staff members in protective suits help a colleague with disinfection after they transferred a body at a hospital in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Muslims wearing masks pray for the victims of coronavirus at a mosque in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical officials waiting for people who wants to check the novel coronavirus at Myeongdong shopping district Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children wear plastic bottles as makeshift homemade protection and protective masks while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A patient assisted by medical staff gets off an ambulance in Wuhan AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People line up to buy face masks from a medical supply company in Nanning, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Countries began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by a new virus that has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by SARS Chinatopix via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Millions spent their normally festive Lunar New Year holiday under lockdown Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children with face masks wash their hands before prayer at Erawan shrine in Bangkok. Thailand has detected eight Coronavirus cases so far AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An Indonesian health officer points at the screen of a thermal scanner for passengers China confirmed that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus virus can be transmitted between humans AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Hospital workers wearing protective eyewear and masks examine an Indonesian student who returned from China in quarantine at a hospital in Banda Aceh AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance staff dispose of an outfit at the hospital in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person checks the temperature of a passenger to help stop the spread of a deadly virus as he arrives at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International airport in Palembang AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Nepali students, wearing face masks, attend a class at Matribhumi School in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Two Buddhist monks wear face masks while walking along a street in Yangon AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting a residential area in Ruichang, part of Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020. - China is rushing to build a new hospital in a staggering 10 days to treat patients at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak that has stricken thousands of people, state media reported on January 24. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) HECTOR RETAMAL AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Vapor blurs the goggles of an ambulance driver while they work, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff getting on an ambulance in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor of traditional masks wears a facial mask at his shop in Thamel EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An ambulance driver talking with medical staff in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers produce protective suits at a factory in Nantong AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers scanned by thermal imaging for body temperature as they go through health measures and procedures after they landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Thai royal guard wears a mask while on duty at the Grand Palace in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A shopper wearing goggles with a face mask and gloves uses a self checkout machine at a supermarket in Wuhan AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Italian Red Cross putting on protective gear, getting ready to give health checks to passengers that landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of the Hong Kong government's Civil Aid Service gestures at the entrance to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village which is being used as one of two quarantine centres for people who have been in close proximity with suspected cases of a SARS-type virus. Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan STR/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Malaysia Health official checks passengers going through a thermal scanner upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting Yingtan North Railway Station, China China banned trains and planes from leaving the major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on January 23, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed lives and spread to other countries AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A passenger walks past a quarantine control station at Narita airport, Japan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Patients queue up to seek treatment in Wuhan Tongji Hospital Fever Clinic, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Quarantine workers spray disinfectant at Incheon International Airport, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of staff checks the temperature of a guest entering the casino of the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau, after it reported its first case of the new SARS-like virus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Three Gorges Medical Laboratory offering free masks to the public in Yichang, China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Gabriel Leung, right, chair professor of public health medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, speaks about the extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conducting searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine officer at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, uses an electronic thermometer to check the temperature of passengers arriving by plane from Wuhan The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A screen shows cancelled flights at Tianhe airport in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials hand out information about the current coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A store owner argues with security guards as he attempts to enter the closed Huanan wholesale seafood market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Handan, China's northern Hebei province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff and security personnel stop patients' family members from being too close to the Jinyintan hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus maya-goodfellowAn airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A rescue worker walks past a notice about new coronavirus that has broken out in China Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials wear face masks at an inspection site at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A staff member checks body temperature of a child after a train from Wuhan arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine station measures passenger body temperatures at Narita Airport JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a notice displayed near a quarantine control station at Narita airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a poster alerting on coronavirus screening ahead upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An employee sprays disinfectant on a train, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Kazakh sanitary-epidemiological service worker uses a thermal scanner to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms possibly connected with the previously unknown coronavirus, at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading "face masks are sold out" at her pharmacy in Shanghai AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A notice for passengers from Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wears a mask while riding on mobike past the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market Getty

The pressure on the government to act rose after both the United States and France announced they would be evacuating citizens from Wuhan by plane within days.

Behind the scenes, Downing Street has accepted that some form of airlift will be necessary if the trapped Britons are to leave, but appeared some way from reaching an agreement with the Chinese authorities.

One source described the issue as being how they are evacuated, not whether, and acknowledged the challenge of trying to reach people spread out across a wide area.

We are talking about hundreds of people in the province, rather than just in Wuhan city itself, the source told The Independent.

However, ministers are encouraged by the news on the domestic front, with all 52 people so far tested for the virus in the UK found to have negative results.

After initially saying British citizens would be left in Wuhan to avoid spreading the virus to the UK, there was an overnight U-turn after health chiefs concluded that their lives were at risk.

Chinese police officers wearing face masks stand in front of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, on 26 January 2020. ( Betsy Joles/Getty Images) (Betsy Joles/Getty Images)

The Department for Health has said the current risk to the British public remains low and the government is continuing to monitor the situation closely.

However Englands chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said there was a fair chance that cases would emerge in Britain.

He said the virus looked a lot less dangerous than contracting Ebola, the recent coronavirus MERS and probably less dangerous than SARS virus. But he added: What we dont know is how far its going to spread, that really is something we need to plan for all eventualities.

Chinas national health commission revealed the diseases ability to spread is getting stronger and infections could continue to rise. A handful of cases of infection have been reported in other countries, including Thailand, Australia, the United States, France and Canada, although no fatalities have been recorded outside China.

The newly-identified coronavirus has created alarm because much about it is still unknown, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people.

It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

Health minister Ma Xiaowei said the virus can be infectious during its incubation period  before symptoms show  which ranges from one to 14 days.

China has temporarily banned live animal trade across the country in markets, supermarkets, restaurants and online.

Any place breeding wildlife should be isolated and the transportation of wildlife should be suspended, the countrys market watchdog, agricultural ministry, and forestry bureau said in a joint statement. It comes after the virus was traced to a seafood market in Wuhan believed to have been illegally selling live animals.

The World Health Organisations (WHO) director-general was on his way to Beijing to confer with Chinese officials and health experts about the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday.

In a tweet, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he wanted to strengthen our partnership with China in providing further protection against the outbreak.

The Geneva-based WHO also said editors of major scientific journals had agreed to share any papers about the new coronavirus with it before publication, with authors consent, and that this would help inform its assessment and guidance.

Additional reporting by agencies.
New warehouse supply in North America will likely exceed demand over the next two years, according to a new analysis by Cushman & Wakefield PLC.

Over the last few years, industrial properties have come to the fore as vital components of the Canadian commercial market, and the burgeoning e-commerce segment will only amplify this trend.

In late 2019, PwC Canada national real estate leader Frank Magliocco told the Financial Post that this accelerated pace should come as no surprise.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Jan. 27

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Turkmenistan is preparing for the next meeting in C5+1 format with the participation of the foreign ministries of the countries of Central Asia and the US, which will be held in Tashkent Feb. 3, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen government.

Joining efforts to help resolve the situation in Afghanistan, fostering its socio-economic revival, and connecting to the energy, transport and trade systems of Central Asia will be the subject of discussion, the Turkmenistan State News Agency reported.

Following the meeting, it is planned to adopt an appropriate joint document.

The agenda will also include issues on the development of regional partnership in a number of priority areas. Among them are the economy and energy, countering the dangerous threats and modern challenges such as terrorism, drug trafficking, cross-border crime and human trafficking, the report noted.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov at a government meeting spoke about the need to realize all the available opportunities to strengthen and expand fruitful cooperation among the countries of Central Asia and the US that is of mutual interest, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

Ashgabat is in favor of providing more ambitious and targeted international economic assistance to Afghanistan, primarily through the involvement of Afghanistan in the implementation of large infrastructure projects in the energy and transport sectors.

Examples include the projects of construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, laying power transmission lines and fiber-optic communications along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) route and the construction of railway from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.

The White House previously expressed its support for regional gas pipeline projects from Turkmenistan, such as TAPI and the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline through Azerbaijan and Turkey to Europe.
Jon Jenkins, former chief executive of Kingsmill owner Allied Bakeries, has been named CEO of Muller Milk & Ingredients (MMI).

Owner Muller describes MMI as Britains largest producer of branded and private-label fresh milk, cream, butter and ingredients products. The business operates dairies and depots across the country.

Jenkins has replaced Patrick Muller, who will continue to run Mullers home delivery business Milk & More. Muller has led a turnaround of MMI, with the company reporting it has secured profitable commercial contracts, adjusted capacity, aligned milk supply to demand and taken out unnecessary costs.

In his new role, Jenkins has been tasked with maintaining the turnaround momentum by securing the sustainable cost structures to ensure long-term success.

A huge amount of work and very tough decisions have been, and continue to be, required, said Muller, who is working with Jenkins for a two-month transition period. But we are making very good progress and we now see a clear path towards a profitable and sustainable future.

Jenkins has had a career of more than 30 years in the food manufacturing Industry, most recently at ABF-owned Allied Bakeries and Twinings. Before that, he worked at drinks business Halewood and spent 11 years with Mars.

Jenkins left Allied last year, after four years with the business, as part of a management shake-up.

His departure followed a difficult trading period for Allied that saw the business announce the loss of its largest own-label supply contract.

At the time, Allied stated that, under Jenkins leadership, the business had significantly reduced costs and improved product quality.

Jenkins said Patrick Muller left behind an excellent board and team

I am looking forward to helping my colleagues at MMI to write the next chapter in its journey and, with their continuing commitment, I know that we can secure a profitable and successful future, he added.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Paytm Payments Bank on Monday announced Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven security measures to safeguard users from fraudsters and protect their transactions.

One of the new features analyses 'rogue' apps on user devices which might trigger fraudulent transactions and advises users to uninstall them.

The bank is also leveraging AI to instantly detect suspicious transactions.

Depending on the identified threat level of a transaction, the AI either slows it down or completely blocks the payment from getting completed, the company said in a statement.

"This security feature will scan the apps installed on the user device and will pop-up a security alert whenever a dangerous app is found that may put the users' accounts at risk," said Satish Gupta, MD & CEO of Paytm Payments Bank.

No transactions will be possible until the user uninstalls that fraudulent app.

"A large number of our users have welcomed this move. We have already seen cases where these features have stopped attempts to defraud our customers," Gupta added.

The company said it has a dedicated team of over 200 cybersecurity experts and industry stalwarts to ensure round the clock security of every user transaction.

The teams are closely working with all state and central police forces and cyber-cells as well as telecom companies to detect, prevent and report fraudulent transactions for immediate action, informed the company.

The bank has submitted a comprehensive list of 3,500 phone numbers involved in SMS and call scams to authorities.

It has filed an FIR against these criminals with the Cyber Cell for an immediate action to stop the scam.
Budget 2020: In October 2019, the government announced stimulus package to help spur investments to fight the economic slowdown. This included slashing of corporate tax rates from base rate of 30 per cent to 22 per cent for all companies if certain conditions were satisfied. Lower tax rate of 15 per cent was announced for newly set up companies which start manufacturing on or before 31 March 2023. While these measures have been lauded, they have failed to result in significant increased investment. The major reason for this lack lustre response is low level of consumption and corresponding demand to provide confidence for increased investment commitments. While reduction in tax rates for individuals may have some positive impact on increase in consumption, this may not be sufficient. Businesses would need to focus on increasing exports to compensate for slack domestic consumption.

However, Indian exports have remained low for a variety of reasons. A significant amount of red tape and hurdles exist for exports. These need to be urgently identified and difficulties removed. Government could provide incentives by way of cost reductions on inputs for exports. Setting up of small industries face significant compliance and regulatory hurdles at ground level. The sectors and specific geographical areas need to be identified, processes be streamlined and made transparent for hassle free trade, commerce and industrial activities. Though India has made huge strides in improving its ranking in 'ease of doing business', a lot more needs to be done on the ground level to rouse the animal spirit for taking risks.

FULL COVERAGE: Union Budget 2020

While tax incentives have a role to play, the impact of the incentives is dampened by the difficulties faced in tax administration. Availing of tax incentives could result in litigation as creative structures may be used to claim incentives and in a bid to protect the tax base that tax officers will deny them. Trust and partnership need to be fostered between tax administration and tax payers to give desired result of tax concessions.

A major reform required is providing stability and certainty to taxation regime. Changes announced every year cause businesses to keep restructuring to benefit from newer schemes which may also lead to litigation. Once tax rates and schemes are announced, they should be allowed to stabilise and run successfully for at least 3 years. Changes should be limited to providing clarifications or for removing difficulties in implementation. Tax compliance needs to be made easy, hassle free and transparent.

In the infrastructure sector, equipment procurement and construction contracts usually require a consortium of operators to come together. This may expose them to be taxed as association of persons which leads to significant uncertainties and litigation. There needs to be a separate tax regime, recognising the special need of this sector to ensure tax certainty and ability to claim treaty benefits where applicable.

Also read: Budget 2020: Date, timings, where to watch, expectations from Modi govt's most challenging Budget

Similarly, regulatory compliances also need to be easy and transparent. Land acquisition, land leases and license processes should be stream lined. Stamp duty on these transactions is a major source of pain point. The discretionary power given to adjudicating officer for levy of stamp duty needs to be removed and stamp duties should be reduced.

Agro based industries should be given infrastructure status to provide impetus to this industry with far reaching benefits to remote villages. A significant income generating activity of agriculture remains outside the tax net. While small farmers can be kept outside the tax net, there is a good case to tax a section of farmers. Farmers who travel abroad, have expensive cars and financial investment above a certain threshold can be taxed on their agricultural income at the lowest tax rate, thereby bringing them within the formal economy.

(The author is Head of International Taxation at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas)

Also read: Budget 2020: Govt may raise import duties on more than 50 items including electronics, handicrafts

Also read: Budget 2020: Strategic disinvestment, a questionable source of off-budget financing
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday voiced his support for the tribal community's demand for recognition of their indigenousness from the United Nations.

"Tribals are the original inhabitants of the country, we support their demand for recognition of their indigenousness from the United Nations," said Pawar.

Earlier in the day, the NCP leader had demanded the installation of statues of social reformers including Tantya Bhil in the premises of the Parliament.

"On January 26, the birth anniversary of Tantya Bhil will be celebrated across the country. I will try to have deliberations with the President, Prime Minister and the Speaker regarding the installation of statues of those who have contributed to the country including Tantya Bhil in the Parliament premises," Pawar said during a programme organised to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tantya.

Adding that Tantya and Dr BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, were born in the land of Madhya Pradesh, Pawar said, "The Kamal Nath-led government will work for the tribals in the State. Great Bhil and Ambedkar were born here, in this land. I feel that there is a need to take some steps for the development of our society."

Tantya was a member of the Bhil tribe, the indigenous Adivasi community, and is recognised as a heroic figure. He is known for his contributions to the society and the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Approach with caution is my usual motto when opening a book whose pre-publication hype has been ratcheted up to 11. And the pre-publication noise around this novel has endured for over six months prior to publishing.

But caution was not required. Hype or no hype, American Dirt is the novel that, as the publicists promised, everyone will be talking about this year. And as another reviewer put it, "Even if this is the only book you read this year, you should read American Dirt". It's a sad indictment, though, on how inured we have become that it takes a work of fiction to wake us up to the terrible suffering of migrancy.

Lydia's ordinary middle-class life in Acapulco is blown apart when her family is slaughtered at a birthday party. Her husband, her mother, sister 16 people in all are sprayed with bullets while she and her eight-year-old son Luca hide in the bathroom. The paralysis of Lydia's trauma doesn't last very long as she immediately realises she must flee with her son. Her journalist husband's recent newspaper article about the Mexican drug cartels and their overlords is, she knows, the motive for the murders. And so she leaves Acapulco, knowing that in the space of a few short minutes she has become a migrant.

"Lydia had been aware of the migrant caravans coming from Guatemala and Honduras in the way comfortable people living stable lives are peripherally aware of destitution Mothers pushing strollers thousands of miles, small children walking holes into the bottoms of their pink Crocs, hundreds of families banding together for safety."

So writes the author, describing in a couple of lines how most of us see the worldwide migrant surge. It's a news item to us, it's something that happens on TV. But in imagining the story of one mother and child on the run, Cummins vividly captures everyday life for migrants everywhere. Her protagonist is lucky - if one can call surviving a family massacre lucky - in that she can pay a 'coyote' to help them cross the US border. One shudders to think about those who can't.

Because Luca has no passport, they're unable to fly, so when bus routes are exhausted they have no choice but to board La Bestia, the freight train that runs across both Americas, on which so many lives are lost regularly from migrants attempting to board and not succeeding. Two teenage girls help Lydia and Luca in their first jump from a railway walkover bridge. The girls are Honduran and their need to leave is as urgent as Lydia's. From there on, this hobbled-together family of sorts continues on a journey of extreme endurance.

The empathy in this novel elevates it far above that of heart-stopping adventure story, albeit rooted firmly in fact.

Cummins captures brilliantly the gritty steel of a mother's love. Luca keeps Lydia going; it's for him she must persist, even when her own will to live falters. And it is in the creation of these fictional characters that we witness the indescribable hardship, never mind the danger, suffered by those human beings whom Trump slams into cages.

The author's own note resounds long after you've finished reading: "Migrants are people. They are people, they are people, they are people."
The plea also said that the exercise of NPR assumes that people in India are not its citizens and shifts the onus of proving citizenship on the person itself

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of amended citizenship law and updation of the National Population Register (NPR), saying the data collection may lead to "unsanctioned state surveillance" and "is a gross invasion of privacy".

A bench, comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, issued notice to the Centre on the PIL which also challenged the rules made in 2003 for registration of citizens and issuance of National Identity Cards.

The plea, filed by Udagar Ram, Bimalesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Safi, has said that the NPR updation is "arbitrary" as it puts citizens, non-citizens and persons seeking overseas citizenship "at par" asking the same information from the entire population residing within the country.

It has challenged the vires of Section 14-A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 which was inserted through an amendment in 2004 on the ground that this provision empowered the Centre to "compulsorily register" every citizen of India and to issue national identity card to one.

"The central government does not have a stated need to prepare a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) for which the creation and updation of a Population Register is first step," the plea said. "The information being collected for the updation of the NPR may lead to unsanctioned State surveillance or unauthorized access by other arms of the State or even unauthorized access by third parties leading to grave misuse," it said.

It said the updation of NPR would amount to different expenditure from that incurred in taking Census and added that the Cabinet has approved Rs 8,754 crore for the 2021 Census and an additional sum of Rs 3,941 crore for updation of NPR.

The plea also said that the exercise of NPR assumes that people in India are not its citizens and shifts the onus of proving citizenship on the person itself. "The exercise of updation of the NPR by deeming fiction assumes that all the persons residing within the territory of India are not citizens of India and shifts the onus to the person to disclose information to prove their citizenship. This is seemingly done, without an investigation by the State to establish that the person is engaged in an unlawful activity," the petition said.

The plea alleged that the questions asked under Census, do not offend the privacy of person, however, the information sought for updation of NPR is intrusive. It also alleged that neither the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 nor the NPR Manual, 2020 specify a robust system to ensure that the data collected will be protected against misuse.

"The entire exercise of creation and updation of the National Population Register is a gross invasion of privacy of private citizens. The nature of the exercise is manifestly arbitrary with no grounds doubtfulness being specified apart from no guarantee of protection and security of the data/information so collected. Such a database would erode basic freedoms that the persons within India currently enjoy," the plea said.
The last time an American president banged the drum to start a war in the Middle East, Phil Donahue got fired from MSNBC.

Iraq is yesterdays nemesis; today Iran has taken its place. It might seem like ancient history, but in fact were in a new chapter of the same mess that began many decades ago. If the responsibility of journalism is to record eventsand to interpret them in the light of established factsthe job is impossible without cultivating a long and accurate memory, as a look back at Donahue demonstrates.

In February 2003a matter of days before the start of the war in IraqMSNBC axed Donahues primetime show, citing poor ratings. (Though it lagged behind its competitors on other networks, Donahue was then MSNBCs highest-rated show.)

It had been only eighteen months since 9/11, and so Donahues vocal opposition to the war was often cited in media reports as the real reason for his firing. Evidence emerged to support this contention. An internal memo leaked to allyourscreens.coms Rick Ellis expressed fears of MSNBC becoming a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag.

In the months after 9/11, NBC chief executive Bob Wright had pointedly told MSNBC news chief Neal Shapiro to challenge Fox from the right: We have to be more conservative than they are. Soon, swirling graphics of the American flag appeared on MSNBC alongside a new tagline, Americas NewsChannel, as Gabriel Sherman revealed years later in New York magazine.

I was naive, Donahue said when reached by phone recently. I honestly thought I might survive because I was different. Nobody was knocking Don Rumsfeld except me, at the time. MSNBC was then owned by General Electric, a huge defense contractor, and he suspects this was not an unrelated factor.

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The war began on March 20, 2003, and eleven days later Keith Olbermann took over Donahues former slot on MSNBC with a new show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which would run for eight years.

The decision to hire Olbermann kind of flies in the face of the notion that politics alone was responsible for Donahues ouster; Olbermann was no kind of conservative. He had famously quit his first MSNBC show in 1998 because the networks obsession with the Monica Lewinsky scandal was causing him to have dry heaves in the bathroom. Even so, his return began with at least a superficial attempt at evenhandedness.

News is the news. We will not be screwing around with it. As times improve and the war ends we will begin to introduce more and more elements familiar to my style, he silkily informed the Washington Post.

But the war didnt end, and Olbermann would come to oppose it quite as ferociously (and far less politely) than Donahue had; the success of Countdown would in time push MSNBC decidedly to the left. The intricate clockwork of business, politics, and public opinion clicked and turned and whirred, and turned again.

Until Olbermanns legendarily difficult, mercurial personality finally caught up with him, that is, and he was dismissed from the network in 2011.



I asked Donahue to comment on our current political and media moment.

Its just very difficult for mainstream media to think of anything but He paused.

Obedience? I suggested.

Yeah, but thats whats so insidious, they dont call it that. If you criticize America, then you dont respect the troops, youre not patriotic, you dont respect the hard sacrifices of [journalists] who are trying

And this is what upsets me. [So many in the press] are doing a hell of a job, and dont realize how much theyve surrendered to the word of the White House. He mentioned CNNs Arwa Damon, whos got bullets flyin all around her. I think about her parents, watching. Theres a lot of valor left. We havent totally lost our soul, here. But in Washington, theres an unbecoming self-indulgence, and a lot of fluttering around the White House mecca; this is the seat of great power. And its not easy to go the other way.

I think that the Washington press corps should get out of town sometimes, find out whats going on across the nation, he said. Trump! Who are those people, holding up their cameras to photograph him? Withwith his tie, that looks like a kitchen tablecloth?applauding himselfbig suit coat. Its Trump-Trump-Trump all day long, and nobodys really exploring, How did this happen? 

I might have been tempted to dismiss this as a defense of Red State Diner Journalism until I saw the Donahue episode featuring anti-war protesters Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins alongside Dan Flynn, author of Why the Left Hates America. The intensely personal way Donahue drew the two sides of the argument together onstage was nothing like the familiar Trump-safari newspaper accounts; the difference lay in his lack of detachment, the intimate approach of a humanely inclusive talk show host, rather than a professionally dispassionate reporter. By the time Hugh Downs weighed in near the end of the show, a full context was in place. If we had a justifiable war, Americans would be behind it. The reason for dissent is that theres severe doubt as to whether the proof is at hand.

Donahue told me, I think one of the reasons for [Trumps] success at the polls is the separation of elite media, elite politics, people in Congress, from the guy whose [employer] is about to leave the country. Whose kids are smoking opioids, who cant pay the college tuition. Theres a lot of broken dreams and broken hearts in this country. And I dont think the mainstream mediathe greatest media, with all the freedom to talk about all thisI dont think were hearing about it!

Well when you tried to say so yourself, you basically got fired, I said.

Thats right, I did, he said, gently.

And now George W. Bush is getting rehabilitated into this, like, kindly painter of dogs?

He really is.



This poverty of institutional memory and journalistic accountability helps to explain why, nearly twenty years later, I have to remind you that the current administration, like every administration since 2003, is still lying about its misadventures in the Middle Eastthe zero-evidence imminent threat posed by Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, assassinated in a US drone strike on January 3; the news that first eleven, and then thirty-four service members were injured in the retaliatory January 8 attacks on the Ain Al Asad air base in Anbar Province, Iraq, flatly contradicting early reports that there had been no casualties.

A crucial task of journalism is plain memory. To record, and to explain, insofar as that is possible. But to explain you have to understand, which means you have to remember. And that is getting harder. Events in the internet era have borne down on us from all sides, so thick and fast that the default state of broadcast journalism is closer to panic than to reflection.

But each of us is part of an audience of millions, and can vote with our attention for the honest, careful preservation of history. I think we should reward that focus in every possible way, whenever we see it.

The coin of the realm is the size of the audience, Donahue has often said. If you dont draw a crowd on television, youll soon be parking cars for a living. The interconnectedness of the machine means that the audience can also exercise some control over it, just by paying attention, and remembering.



Joe Scarboroughs January 3 report on the assassination of Suleimani blandly conveyed administration talking points, including the allegation, since discredited, that Suleimani had been planning attacks on US embassies; Scarborough included Secretary of State Mike Pompeos tweet of a video of Iraqis dancing in the street for freedom, thankful that General Suleimani is no more. Brett McGurk, exUS special envoy for countering ISIS, appeared with the ever hawkish Nicolle Wallace, former communications director to George W. Bush, to discuss the threat represented by Iranian-backed militias. McGurk, too, said that Suleimani had clearly, about four months or so ago, made a decision to green-light attacks on us in Iraq.

But three days later it emerged that Iraqis had not, perhaps, been so keen on the Suleimani assassination after all, when their parliament voted unanimously to expel US troops. Nor did confirmation of the planned attacks from Tehran ever surface. Soon the tone of MSNBCs coverage changed.

On January 8, Wallace declared herself astonished at Republican senator Mike Lees break with the White House on Iran, after a catastrophic briefing failed to justify the killing of Suleimani to the assembled congressmen. The Republicans in the Senate are by and large zombies, walking along as Donald Trump obliterates things like truth, the rule of law, and respect for our institutions, she said.

But as it has for a long, long time on MSNBC, a plainly anti-war voice spoke out at 8pm. Chris Hayes, though he is a more dispassionate presence than either Donahue or Olbermann, went right off on the administration: A war with Iran is madness, and it is strategically and morally a disaster in the making. How many viewers remember that MSNBC has broadcast a similar message every night in the eight oclock hour, year after year, for seventeen years?

Editors note: CJR has appointed its own outside public editors for four vital news outlets  The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC  that currently lack any public ombudsman. You can reach them at [email protected] (Any messages will be treated as off-the-record unless otherwise agreed.)

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Maria Bustillos is the founding editor of Popula, an alternative news and culture magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Guardian.
In more ways than one, the year gone by was annus horribilis for the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. From declining economic growth and a Belt and Road Initiative debacle to troubles in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, there were multiple fires that had to be doused. The Trump administration had changed not only American but the wider Western approach towards China by asking for a balanced relationship using unrelenting economic pressure. Phase one of a purported trade deal was finally agreed to by Washington and Beijing in December, which is likely to be signed soon, though the US will leave many tariffs in place in an attempt to continue to limit the supply of Chinese goods to the US market.

But just when Beijing would have thought it couldnt get any worse for it, Donald Trump gave Beijing a new year gift by escalating a crisis in the Middle East when he gave the orders to target the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. This has resulted in the most significant confrontation between the US and Iran in recent years, dramatically heightening tensions in a region already beset with multiple fault lines.

In an election year in America, Trump would have made China a focus of his foreign policy achievements given that he has pushed his rivals also to acknowledge problems in the traditional American approach towards Beijing. A broader debate on China would also entail a focus on Americas changing regional priorities in the Indo-Pacific. Compared to Barack Obamas Pivot to Asia, Trumps concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific has held greater promise even though a concrete policy approach hasnt fully materialised. But now, after the renewed turbulence in the Middle East, America will have to focus greater attention on the region. This will once again give breathing space to China which has continued to expand its military and economic profile in the Indo-Pacific.

Even in the Middle East, where America is struggling to retain its relevance, Chinas footprint has been expanding. And unlike the US, it has so far managed to be on good terms with not only Iran but also the Arab Gulf states and Israel. China is not only among the top three defence partners for Iran and its largest trading partner, it has also been expanding the scope of its bilateral engagement with Tehran. This resulted in China-Iran-Russia joint naval exercises near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz in the Indian Ocean last month. China has provided the shield which has allowed Iran to continue to develop its defence capabilities despite global sanctions.

Beijing was quick to condemn the military adventurist act by the US which goes against basic norms governing international relations and will aggravate tensions and turbulence in the region even as Tehran hoped that China could play an important role in preventing escalation of regional tensions. But Beijing has shown only limited appetite so far in taking on the US directly, apart from defending the Iranian nuclear deal and criticizing American unilateralism. In fact, it has reduced its import of Iranian oil dramatically after the ending of the US sanctions waivers last year. China was Irans biggest oil buyer prior to US sanctions but after that, despite Irans attempt to convince China to continue trading with Iran, there has been a reluctance on the part of Beijing to violate the sanctions regime. The payment for Iranian oil is also geared towards paying Iranian debts to Chinese companies that had invested in Irans oil and gas sector.

The US has maintained its primacy in the Middle East for the last several decades and the Carter Doctrine, enunciated by former US President Jimmy Carter in 1980, explicitly committed Washington to defend the oil fields of the Persian Gulf against external threats. Despite signals that Trump might be going back on this decades-old doctrine, he has once again brought the debate on Americas regional role to the centre stage. And with Chinas rise in the region, the stage might be set for a regional competition between the two. Against the backdrop of Americas recent actions, China's power and influence in the Middle East is likely to grow as it seeks greater responsibility for securing its regional interests.

Yet, there is no evidence so far that China wants to take on Americas role in the Middle East. In fact, it would like to make sure that despite its rhetoric, it treads lightly in the region, especially as this moment presents another opportunity for Beijing to strengthen its power infrastructure which has been growing weak over the past few years. Wars in the Middle East have sapped American power while emboldening China in the past. Beijing would be hoping that history might once again repeat itself.

(The writer is Director, Studies, at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi and Professor of International Relations, Kings College, London)
BJP National President JP Nadda on Monday hit out at the AAP and the Congress, alleging they are more bothered about being with Shaheen Bagh, where an anti-CAA protest has been taking place for over a month now, than with the country.

"Whatever myths are being spread about the CAA, are Congress and AAP not behind it? Wherever violence has taken place, have they not made a special contribution? Are they not the ones sitting at Shaheen Bagh?



"They say their heart is with Shaheen Bagh. They are only bothered about being with Shaheen Bagh, not with the country," Nadda said at a public meeting at Delhi Cantonment.

Alleging that the AAP sided with the "tukde-tukde gang" by not giving its approval to the Delhi Police to prosecute former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with a sedition case, Nadda said, "their patriotism is not the love for the country but the love for votes".

"Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. They were threatening to violate India's sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet.

"It is already 2020 and they have not given sanctions because acting against anti-nationals would hurt his vote bank"," Nadda claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A combination of climate change, extreme weather and pressure from local human activity is causing a collapse in global biodiversity and ecosystems across the tropics, new research shows.

The study, published today, mapped over 100 locations where tropical forests and coral reefs have been affected by climate extremes such as hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, droughts and fires. It provides an overview of how these very diverse ecosystems are being threatened by a combination of ongoing climate changes, increasingly extreme weather and damaging local human activities.

The international team of researchers argue that only international action to decrease CO2 emissions can reverse this trend.

Lead researcher Dr Filipe Franca from the Embrapa Amazonia Oriental in Brazil and Lancaster University said: "Tropical forests and coral reefs are very important for global biodiversity, so it is extremely worrying that they are increasingly affected by both climate disturbances and human activities".

"Many local threats to tropical forests and coral reefs, such as deforestation, overfishing, and pollution, reduce the diversity and functioning of these ecosystems. This in turn can make them less able to withstand or recover from extreme weather. Our research highlights the extent of the damage which is being done to ecosystems and wildlife in the tropics by these interacting threats."

Dr Cassandra E. Benkwitt, a marine ecologist from Lancaster University, said: "Climate change is causing more intense and frequent storms and marine heatwaves. For coral reefs, such extreme events reduce live coral cover and cause long-lasting changes to both coral and fish communities, compounding local threats from poor water quality and overfishing. Although the long-term trajectory for reefs will depend on how extreme events interact with these local stressors, even relatively pristine reefs are vulnerable to both climate change and extreme weather."

Tropical forest species are also being threatened by the increasing frequency of extreme hurricanes.

Dr Guadalupe Peralta from Canterbury University in New Zealand said: "A range of post-hurricane ecological consequences have been recorded in tropical forests: the destruction of plants by these weather extremes affects the animals, birds and insects that rely on them for food and shelter."

In some regions, such as the Caribbean Islands, extreme weather events have decimated wildlife, reducing numbers by more than half.

"We are starting to see another wave of global extinctions of tropical birds as forest fragmentation reduces populations to critical levels", explained Dr Alexander Lees, from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The combination of higher temperatures with longer and more severe dry seasons has also led to the spread of unprecedented and large-scale wildfires in tropical forests.

Dr Filipe Franca said that at the end of 2015, Santarem in the Brazilian state of Para was one of the epicentres of that year's El Nino impacts. "The region experienced a severe drought and extensive forest fires, and I was very sad to see the serious consequences for forest wildlife."

The drought also affected the forests ability to recover from the fires. Dung beetles play a vital role in forest recovery by spreading seeds. The study provides novel evidence that this seed spreading activity plummeted in those forests most impacted by the dry conditions during the 2015-2016 El Nino.

Coral reefs were also critically damaged by the same El Nino, explains Professor Nick Graham from Lancaster University.

He said: "The 2015-16 coral bleaching event was the worst ever recorded, with many locations globally losing vast tracts of valuable corals. Worryingly, these global bleaching events are becoming more frequent due to the rise in ocean temperature from global warming."

The last part of the study emphasizes that urgent action and novel conservation strategies are needed to ameliorate the impacts of the multiple threats to tropical forests and coral reefs.

Dr Joice Ferreira from Embrapa Amazonia Oriental said: "To achieve successful climate-mitigation strategies, we need 'action-research' approaches that engage local people and institutions and respect the local needs and diverse socio-ecological conditions in the tropics".

The scientists caution that managing tropical ecosystems locally may not be enough if we do not tackle global climate change issues.

They stress the urgent need for all nations to act together if we really want to conserve tropical forests and coral reefs for future generations.

###

The research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, was carried out by 11 scientists from 8 universities and research institutions in Brazil, United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Doctors fear that the only drug approved to prevent preterm birth, the nations leading cause of infant mortality and disability, will no longer be available to expectant mothers.

The drug, sold under the brand name Makena, has been in limbo since October, when an expert panel convened by the Food and Drug Administration reviewed the accumulated evidence and concluded that Makena is not effective in preventing preterm birth.

In a close vote, the panel recommended the FDA withdraw approval and pull the drug off the market.

That recommendation has sparked a fierce debate within the health care community. Doctors are torn between two clinical studies of the drug that had differing results: An older trial of American patients at high risk of having a preterm delivery showed Makenas active ingredient seemed to be effective. But, more recently, a larger trial of lower-risk, international patients  a study conducted by the drugs manufacturer after the FDAs request  suggested that the medicine did not work.

Complicating matters is the possibility that even if the FDA decides to let Makena remain for sale, or permits pharmacies to create their own versions of the drug for use, insurers might well refuse to pay.

Insurers are generally under no obligation to cover drugs just because the FDA approves them. And Cathryn Donaldson, a spokesperson for Americas Health Insurance Plans, said AHIP is convinced by the larger, more recent trial. Now it is clear it is not effective, she said.

This puts the FDA in a bind.

Many practicing obstetricians have been prescribing some form of the drug as standard treatment since around 2003, when the smaller clinical trial  a National Institutes of Health study  showed that the synthetic hormone 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate, or 17P, was effective in preventing preterm delivery in women with a history of preterm labor.

In 2011, sensing a market opportunity, a drug manufacturer jumped in to offer Makena  the only branded, FDA-approved version of 17P.

Makena has since effectively cornered the market. And if the FDA complies with the recommendation of its advisory panel to order Makena off the market, the action might remove all options for treating premature labor. By law, if the FDA withdraws its approval for Makena, generic versions of 17P must be pulled, too, and the FDA could decide to also stop specialty pharmacies from compounding Makenas active ingredient.

Thats why seven of the 16 members of the FDA panel have argued that removing Makenas FDA approval could do more damage than simply leaving a drug on the market that may, or may not, work.

Cutting off all access to the drug, whether it is Makena or its compounded versions, would be a big disaster, especially for women in disadvantaged communities who are at a higher risk of preterm birth, said Dr. George Saade, the director of maternal-fetal medicine and chief of obstetrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. (Saade has chaired panels awarding research grants from Makenas manufacturer.)

Its not like, Oh, theyre going to be fine, he said. No, theyre not.

If Makena stays on the market, doctors and insurers will be left to haggle over prescribing a drug that can cost an average of more than $10,000 per pregnancy. If the FDA blocks further sales, a treatment that many doctors and patients rely on will disappear overnight.

Giving infants their best start

Babies born prematurely can have problems breathing or digesting food or experience bleeding in their brains, among other life-threatening risks. Some of the children who survive struggle with lifelong disabilities. Giving them an extra few days or weeks in the womb can be transformative.

So it was considered a major breakthrough when the NIH released the results of its study in 2003, showing 17P was effective at preventing delivery before 37 weeks gestation for many women who had previously experienced preterm birth and were carrying a single baby.

That clinical trial, which studied more than 450 women in the United States, showed that about 37% of participants who received 17P had given birth before 37 weeks  contrasted with about 55% of participants who received the placebo. Researchers found no major safety concerns.

The drug seemed so clearly effective that researchers ended the study early. And the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women who fit that criteria be given 17P.

The only problem was, no one was making it, said Dr. Alan Peaceman, the chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher on the 2003 study.

Thus, for more than a decade, compounding pharmacies  specialty pharmacies that typically make prescription drugs for patients who have allergies or other conditions  created cheap injections of 17P for use by pregnant women.

At the time, a weekly dose of the compounded drug cost about $10-$20. For the same dose, Makena, the branded version that emerged in 2011 and cornered the market, cost about $1,500 from the get-go.

In 2017, a study of the drugs cost by researchers from Harvard University found no notable difference between the outcomes of women who took Makena and women who took compounded 17P  even though the mean per-pregnancy cost of Makena was $10,711 more than that of 17P.

How Makena cornered the market

In less than 10 years, the makers of Makena pushed its competition, particularly low-cost compounding pharmacies, out of the market.

Many of the women at risk of preterm birth, and the babies they have, are on Medicaid. Compounding facilities can be difficult to find. The drug was rendered inaccessible to many of the women who doctors thought needed it most.

When Makena first arrived, doctors, advocates and, eventually, members of Congress objected to its high price. Insurers, including government programs like Medicaid, refused to cover it.

At the time, Makenas manufacturer struggled to compete with the cheaper, compounded 17P. In 2012, it sued the FDA in an unsuccessful attempt to stop compounding  gaining some ground later that year when a meningitis outbreak caused by a different compounded drug drew federal scrutiny of specialty pharmacies.

In 2014, the manufacturer went bankrupt and sold Makena to AMAG Pharmaceuticals, which owns the drug today.

But compounding of 17P continued until 2016, when the FDA approved a preservative-free version of Makena and, in doing so, handed AMAG Pharmaceuticals the exclusive right to make the drug, ending the compounding of 17P.

In a press release noting its victory, AMAG said at the time that about 38% of patients were taking compounded 17P instead of Makena.

Ultimately, we felt pressured into prescribing the Makena because it was FDA-approved, Peaceman said. And especially in big systems, you are discouraged from using non-FDA-approved medicines when there is an FDA-approved medicine available.

A second clinical trial muddies the waters

For years, the results of the NIHs 2003 study reassured many doctors, insurers, health officials and patients: 17P, Makenas active ingredient, had been proven to prevent preterm birth.

When Makenas original manufacturer sought FDA approval, it cited the NIHs results to vouch for the drugs safety and effectiveness. But while the FDA granted it approval to market Makena, the agency also ordered the company to conduct its own trial to confirm it was safe and effective, though with stricter requirements: Among other things, the company would have to prove the drug was effective at preventing preterm birth before 35 weeks, rather than 37.

Nearly a decade later, AMAG released the long-awaited findings of that nine-year scientific study: Although the company also turned up no major safety issues, researchers said last fall they could not prove Makena is effective at preventing preterm birth.

With more than 1,700 women participating, AMAGs study was much larger than the NIHs. But critics said, for a clinical trial ultimately intended to prove whether Makena works for American women at high risk of preterm birth, AMAGs trial was deeply flawed.

For one thing, 35% of participants in the NIH trial had experienced preterm birth more than once, putting them at higher risk, compared with just 15% in AMAGs trial.

Also, the majority of participants in the NIH trial  about 59%  were black, while the vast majority in AMAGs trial  about 89%  were white. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preterm birth is more common among babies born to black mothers.

AMAG told the FDA that it had had difficulty enrolling enough women who fit its criteria in the United States  because if a woman was already taking 17P, generally speaking, then she was not eligible for the study. And because the drug was already considered the standard of care, a lot of American women were taking it.

Instead, 61% of women involved in the trial were from Russia and Ukraine  countries that have notably different demographics than those of the United States. Patients from the United States made up just 23% of participants in the study.

Awaiting a final verdict

Based largely on AMAGs findings, the FDAs expert panel recommended in October, in a 9-7 vote, that the FDA withdraw its approval of Makena. The seven dissenting members recommended keeping the drug on the market while conducting further study.

So far, pending a final FDA decision, Makena is still on the market. The FDA does not have to accept the recommendations of its expert panels, though typically it does. Amanda Turney, a spokesperson of the agency, said there is no established timeline for when the FDA will announce whether it will withdraw its approval of Makena.

But the about-face from the expert panel about the drugs usefulness has left all sides trying to figure out their next steps.

On Jan. 9, AMAG announced that because of uncertainty over Makena, it would divest itself of two of its other drugs, including one that was approved by the FDA last summer. In a statement in which the drugmaker also announced plans for its chief executive, William Heiden, to step down, Heiden was quoted as saying that the ambiguity about Makenas future revenue makes it challenging to invest in both our promising pipeline and in the physician and consumer marketing required to support these two new products.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said it will continue to monitor the issue but has not changed its guidance to doctors in the meantime. Makena remains the standard of care for many pregnant women who have given birth prematurely in the past.

As doctors stand by for the FDAs decision on withdrawing Makena from the market, many have suggested they will turn to compounding again if Makena disappears.

However, many withdrawn drugs are added to a federal list of drugs that may not be compounded due to failures of safety or efficacy  and if Makena is withdrawn, 17P could end up on that list, too.

That decision would also be made by the FDA, after receiving the recommendation of a different panel of experts on compounding, said Jeremy Kahn, an FDA spokesperson.

Dr. Kimberly Hickey, chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and a member of the FDA panel that voted for Makena to be withdrawn, said even if the drug is pulled from the market, obstetricians will seek out whatever version of its active ingredient remains for sale.

People will look for progesterone wherever they can find it, she said during the panels meeting, referring to the hormone 17P mimics. Theyre not just going to say, Im not going to treat you.'
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Greta Thunbergs ability to cause otherwise powerful men to lose control of their tempers is legendary, with both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin being among those unable to contain their animosity for the teenage climate activist.

But in a new twist, after Ms Thunbergs tireless environmental work caused yet another hot-headed senior US politician to publicly attack her, it appears the mans wife stepped in to defend her.

The politician in question is investment banker Steven Mnuchin, US secretary of the treasury.

When asked at the World Economic Forum in Davos, whether public and private divestment from fossil fuel companies would threaten US growth, Mr Mnuchin took aim at the 17-year-old, who has called for such measures.

He said: Is she the chief economist? Who is she, Im confused.

After she goes and studies economics in college she can come back and explain that to us, Mr Mnuchin added.

Davos 2020 - in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Davos 2020 - in pictures Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump walks out of the Marine One helicopter as he arrives for the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures Spotters gather on a viewpoint to take pictures of Air Force One (not pictured), carrying US President Donald J. Donald Trump, as it lands at Zurich Airport, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. Trump arrived in Switzerland to attend the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he arrives for the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures A Secret Service agent takes a photo as the Marine One helicopter carrying U.S. President Donald Trump flies nearby en route to the Word Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures US President Donald J. Trump smiles before addressing a plenary session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Ivanka Trump, special adviser to the president and senior advisor Jared Kushner listen as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures Artists from Fete des Vignerons perform a song "Ranz des Vaches" before U.S. President Donald Trump's speech during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures US President Donald J. Trump (R, red tie) walks in the Congress Centre after addressing a plenary session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses a panel session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg (C) listens to a speech by US President Donald J. Trump at a plenary session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump speaks dutring a bilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures Demonstration organized by Juso Schweiz (Young Socialist Party) on the sideline of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together enterpreneurs, scientists, chief executive and political leaders in Davos January 21 to 24 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 202 Reuters Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with the President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga during a bilateral meeting at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland REUTERS

Ms Thunberg responded by tweeting a graph based on UN figures illustrating the worlds rapidly diminishing carbon budget which is on course to be used up by 2027 unless emissions are drastically curbed.

My gap year ends in August, but it doesnt take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1.5 carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments dont add up, she said.

The exchange revealed the huge gulf in concern about the environment between the White House and those worried about the future of the planet, but would likely have ended at this point were it not for Mr Mnuchins wife, Scottish actor Louise Linton, who apparently took it upon herself to publicly take Ms Thunbergs side over the view espoused by her spouse.

Writing on Instagram, she said: I stand with Greta on this issue. (I dont have a degree in economics either). We need to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels. Keep up the fight @gretathunberg.

However, Ms Lintons public support was short lived, as her post was deleted without explanation about 30 minutes after it appeared, according to US journalist Olivia Nuzzi.

Mr Trump and his allies have repeatedly lashed out at the teenage activist.

In December, when Ms Thunberg was announced as Time magazines person of the year, the US president responded, saying: So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!

His team then photoshopped the presidents face onto the front cover of the magazine.
No overstay fine for tourists caught up in virus outbreak

BANGKOK: Foreign tourists whose travel plans are disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak will not be fined if they overstay in Thailand, the Immigration Bureau said today (Jan 27).

healthtourismChinesedeathCoronavirusCOVID-19

By Bangkok Post

Monday 27 January 2020, 04:30PM

Chinese tourists wearing face masks watch a traditional dance at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok today (Jan 27). Photo: AFP

Deputy bureau spokesman Choengron Rimphadi said tourists caught up in the problems caused by the epidemic and actions taken to contain it will not have to pay the usual fine.

At Suvarnabhumi, the Airport Operations Centre will help tourists stranded at the airport due to the deadly virus. The contact number is 02-132-9950, Pol Col Choengron said.

Suvarnabhumi is the main gateway for tourists entering the country.

China has sealed off Wuhan and about a dozen more cities in Hubei province in a bid to contain the viral outbreak. Flights in and out of the city have been grounded.

Bejing also extended the Chinese New Year holiday from Jan 30 to Feb 2 to limit travel and stop the spread of the virus.

Pol Col Choengron said passengers affected by the virus have contacted their airlines for a refund or to reschedule their itinerary and stay longer in Thailand. Others wanted to reroute their return trips to other airports close to Wuhan, he said.

Baby infected

The confirmed death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 81 today, with thousands more infected.

A nine-month-old baby in Beijing was among those infected, authorities said, making her the youngest person to have been confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Earlier today Mongolia closed its border crossings with China to cars, temporarily shut schools and suspended public events to prevent the deadly virus from reaching its soil, authorities said.

The measures announced by the vast, landlocked country are the most drastic steps taken by any nation so far over concerns about coronavirus, that has rapidly spread across China.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Authorities confirmed Monday that the body of an unidentified woman found in Old Bridge, N.J., is missing Freehold, N.J., resident Stephanie Parze.

It is with great sadness we announce that Stephanie Parzes remains were recovered yesterday near Route 9 in Old Bridge, the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office posted on Facebook. The Middlesex County ME confirmed her identity this morning.

The prosecutors office has scheduled a news conference for later Monday.

Parzes body was discovered Sunday in a wooded area in the vicinity of southbound Route 9 just south of Old Mill Road in Old Bridge after authorities responded around 2:45 p.m., the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office told the Advance sister publication NJ.com.

The body was decomposed, according to NBC New York.

Family and friends were gathering Monday morning at the home of her parents and siblings in Freehold," according to NJ.com. A large sign bearing the message Stephanie Come Home remains in the front yard.

Parzes father, Edward, has posted an image of candles on this Facebook Page.

We wish to extend our thanks to our partners the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office and the Old Bridge Township Police Department for their work on this investigation, said a post on the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office Facebook Page. We also want to thank the public for your remarkable efforts in trying to find Stephanie for the past few months. May God bless Stephanie and her family during this terribly difficult time.

Authorities and the Parze family have been searching on Staten Island and in New Jersey for the 25-year-old woman who was last seen by her family on the night of Oct. 30.

In November, the NYPD and police and other emergency responders from all over New Jersey converged on Long Pond Park in Richmond Valley for a major canvass. It was at least the second search of that area by law enforcement personnel.

The family and more than 100 volunteers searched various South Shore locations on Staten Island, including Tottenville, Princes Bay and Wolfes Pond Park.

In the midst of the investigation, John Ozbilgen, 29, a former Staten Islander and Parzes ex-boyfriend, committed suicide in November at his home in Freehold after being charged with possessing child pornography. Ozbilgen never was charged in connection with her death.

However, at a court appearance on the pornography charge in New Jersey, prosecutors identified him as a person of interest in the Parze case, and said he sent her 10 unanswered, angry text messages the night before her disappearance, according to NJ.com.
Clint Eastwood turns 90 this year. Most of us, if we're lucky to still be around, would have our feet up at that age, but not Eastwood.

He's still active making movies and his latest, Richard Jewell, is one of his best for years. I, Tonya star Paul Walter Hauser, who plays the title role, told Yahoo what it's like collaborating with a legend of cinema, describing the 89-year-old icon the best boss you could have.

Clint is calm, confident, focused and humble and funny, Hauser tells us.

He's the best boss you could have, because you trust him and you know you're doing something great.

(L-r) PAUL WALTER HAUSER and director/producer CLINT EASTWOOD on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures RICHARD JEWELL, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. ( 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Also starring Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell tells the true story of a courageous and idealistic security guard who saves thousands of lives from a bomb threat, only to become vilified by both the press and the people, and made to be the prime suspect by the FBI. Walter Hauser discusses the role the media had to play, in this remarkable true story.

Read more: The most exciting releases of 2020

The culpability of the media is unfortunate and still going on, probably with even more aggression and rapidity in modern times. This movie sheds some light on compromise, he said.

Films like I, Tonya and Richard Jewell show a moment in time that then spurned a whole methodology of 24 news cycle, in which it became more important to fill time and to make money, than to tell the truth.

(L-r) SAM ROCKWELL as Watson Bryant, KATHY BATES as Bobi Jewell and PAUL WALTER HAUSER as Richard Jewell in Warner Bros. Pictures RICHARD JEWELL, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. ( 2019 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.)

Though while the media does come into question for its actions here, Hauser also speaks about the importance of journalism as a craft  a vital thing to celebrate, particularity in a modern landscape, which has spawned a culture of fake news.

Journalism is a fascinating job, you get to study people, you have a great responsibility, and it never grows old, he continued.

Read more: Kathy Bates talks Me Too

I love the profession, I admire people that do it. But like with any story if there's an isolated incident of wrongdoing, you have to shed light on it, to not shed light on it would be tribalism.

Story continues

Someone who admires the Richard Jewell star reciprocally is Brad Pitt. The Oscar-nominated Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood star recently pinpointed Hausers performance in the Eastwood as one of the years most under-appreciated.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 03: Actors Paul Walter Hauser and Brad Pitt attend the 20th Annual AFI Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on January 03, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AFI)

Ill tell you a performance I just loved. I dont know if hes out tonight, but Paul Walter Hauser, Pitt told Variety at the Golden Globes.

He was just so moving in Richard Jewell. The degree of difficulty and what he gave, what he did with it was really surprising to me. I almost teared up.

Richard Jewell is released in cinemas on 31 January.
Photo: Kabob House/Yelp

Looking for a mouthwatering Middle Eastern meal near you, but don't want to break the bank?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the most excellent destinations for affordable Middle Eastern cuisine around San Antonio, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best places to venture next time you're on the hunt.

1. Casa del Kabob

Photo: Simon M./Yelp

Topping the list is Casa del Kabob. Located at 1057 S.W. Military Drive, the Middle Eastern restaurant is the highest-rated source for inexpensive Middle Eastern fare in San Antonio, boasting 4.5 stars out of 167 reviews on Yelp.

Yelper Matthew M., who reviewed Casa del Kabob on June 14, wrote, "The food is really good and well-priced. ... Had the gyro lamb and it was great, not dry."

Debbie G. added, "Everything we ordered was delicious! Place was packed. ... The veggies were perfectly charred. Spicy hummus was tasty! Pita bread was fresh!"

2. Doner Kebab Cafe

Photo: Brent L./Yelp

Next up is Doner Kebab Cafe, situated at 6851 N. Loop 1604 West, Suite 106. With four stars out of 39 reviews on Yelp, the Mediterranean and halal eatery, offering chicken wings, sandwiches and more, has proven to be a local favorite for those looking for an economical option.

In regards to the business' specialties, "Our signature Doner kebab is a mix of beef and lamb, hand-stacked everyday for fresh taste. All our meat is never frozen, and its 100% halal," as noted on its Yelp profile.

3. Kabob House

Photo: Kabob House/Yelp

Finally, Kabob House, located at 6301 N.W. Loop 410, is another prime choice, with Yelpers giving the low-priced Mediterranean, Greek, Persian and Iranian diner 4.5 stars out of 32 reviews.

"At Kabob House in San Antonio, our goal is to serve you deliciously authentic Mediterranean cuisine," the business states on its Yelp bio in the section explaining specialties. "We take pride in serving homemade dishes at a great price that stay true to the culinary traditions of Mediterranean culture. Our lamb babishka is packed with flavor and made fresh daily, and our delectable steak kebabs are cooked on the grill right in front of you."

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary owe their first-in-the-nation status partly to circumstance. Decades ago, Iowas caucus was the initial step in a long, complex process that the state used to award delegates, which meant that the voting had to happen early in the year. New Hampshire was mostly trying to save money  by scheduling its primary on the same day as many annual town meetings, which were held before the spring mud season.
The U.S. government isnt on the same page regarding Huawei, a new report indicates. Mere days after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Washington will be cracking down on what remains of Huawei stateside suppliers, Pentagon allegedly stopped that effort in its tracks.

Ross was previously convinced the legislation would be enacted this year. He said as much at this years World Economic Forum last week.

The initiative revolved around the very laws Washington already utilized to cripple the sale and licensing of American products to Huawei. However, the current framework exempts sales amounting to only a quarter of the final product, or less. Capitol Hill was reportedly looking to raise that threshold to 90%.

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Though Huawei believes in its survival even in the worst-case scenario, not many share that sentiment. As last years sanctions already crippled its global electronics business, stricter regulations would likely have disastrous effects.

Huaweis current predicament did not manifest overnight. On the contrary, the present state of affairs is merely result of over two decades worth of issues. The Huawei-Washington standoff isnt helped by the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China, either.

The worlds two largest economies will resume talks in the coming weeks after already toning down their trade war last year. That doesnt necessarily mean good news for Huawei  or anyA news.

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2020: The year of new sanctions and old problems

Namely, Washington remains adamant the sanctions aimed at Huawei are a matter of national security, not trade policy. The position is an extension of the governments long-standing stance that Huawei poses a major spying risk. The U.S., therefore, has no intention to touch upon the matter in the new round of trade talks with China. Secretary Ross confirmed as much during his visit to the Swiss economic summit earlier this week.

Even though Beijing surely has different ideas, Chinas current priorities still lie with easing stateside tarrifs on its imports. Because of that, Xi Jinpings administration will likely refrain from making Huawei-related ultimatums in the immediate future.

Naturally, the Shenzen-based behemoth continues to insists its a victim of political circumstances. Be that as it may, trouble does seem to follow it. Dozens of 21st-century legal clashes with stateside companies and the American government itself can attest to that. Its hence unlikely to find much sympathy in the West, even after Washington hits it with new trade restrictions.

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Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, remains under house arrest in Vancouver. The daughter of the conglomerates founder, Ren Zhengfei, has been fighting off a U.S. extradition request from Canada since late 2018. The DOJ charged her with financial fraud, alleging she played a key role in circumventing U.S. restrictions on trade with Iran.
KABUL  A passenger plane carrying dozens of people has crashed in Afghanistans central province of Ghazni, officials say.



There were no immediate reports of casualties.



Citing initial information, provincial Governor Wahidullah Kalimzai told RFE/RL that the aircraft belonged to Afghanistan's national carrier Ariana Airlines and was carrying about 83 people.



In a Facebook post, the state-owned Ariana Airlines denied that one of its planes had crashed.

"There has been an airline crash but it does not belong to Ariana because the two flights managed by Ariana today from Herat to Kabul and Herat to Delhi are safe," Ariana's acting CEO, Mirwais Mirzakwal, told Reuters.

Kalimzai said the airliner came down in the Deh Yak district, a Taliban-held area southwest of Kabul.



His spokesman, Aref Nouri, earlier said that the crash took place at around 1:10 p.m. local time. The cause is not known.



Our personnel are trying to reach the area. But the area is remote, and our security forces do not have access to it, Nouri said.

Ghazni Province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains.

With reporting by Reuters
A three-metre long saltwater crocodile has given one plumber the fright of his life after the reptile was found lurking near an outdoor shower.

The crocodile was found at Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation, in Yirrkala, more than 600km east of Darwin in the Northern Territory on January 22.

The corporation's executive Ashleigh Ayres told NT News it was rare for crocodiles to come so close to buildings.

A three-metre long salt water crocodile has given one plumber the fright of their life after the unexpected visitor was found lurking near an outdoor shower

'[We don't get crocs] too often thankfully,' she said.

'But that particular community has a big swamp close behind it with a lot of crocs in it so (they're) not too surprised there.'

Ms Ayres said normally the animals move straight to the sea from the beach and don't normally go that close to buildings.

Locals believe the female crocodile was chased out of the river behind the buildings by larger beasts.

The plumber who found the crocodile took a picture of the animal, which was later shared to Facebook.

'Reminder to always be Crocwise,' the caption read.

'Our plumber was hard at work yesterday in the homelands when he had an unexpecting visitor pop in to say hello!'

Ms Ayres said many in the local community got a fright from the animal.

'They tried to get the crocodile to move along out of the house and she moved out onto the beach for a while and eventually continued on into the sea ... they nudged it with a long stick a couple of times to get it moving,' she said.

The reptile was found at Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation, in Yirrkala, more than 600km east of Darwin, on January 22

However the animal didn't provide an obvious threat.

Social media users were shocked over the size of the animal.

'Imagine going to the laundry to wash your clothes [and finding that],' one person commented on the picture.

Another said: 'Lucky it wasn't the kids that walked in the shower and found her.'
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has rejected multiple approaches by Donald Trump to discuss the US president's upcoming proposal for peace with Israel, three officials said on Monday.

The Trump administration reached out several times in recent months, including via third parties, but Abbas rejected the proposals, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"There will be no discussion with the Americans until they recognise the two-state solution," one senior official said, adding that Abbas had refused to engage with Washington over what the official called Trump's pro-Israel bias.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One thing that I have learnt about elephants last year is that they love to have fun. And this viral video of two circus elephants breaking free to enjoy in snow is another example of that.

The video shows two circus elephants taking a break from their routine to play around in the snow in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

YouTube

The elephants broke free from their handlers, did not stop when the handlers were trying their best to stop them. But for their fun, the elephants ended up blocking the centre of Ekaterinburg.



The elephants escaped before their handlers could round them up for two-day journey to St. Petersburg.

The 45 and 50-year-old elephants are part of the controversial Italian Tongi Circus, which now tours Russia after live-animals in big-top performances were banned in Italy.

The elephants can be seen frolicking in about -5 degrees Celsius while their handlers make a fuss in trying to get them back to enclosures.

YouTube

"The elephants have their own character and emotions, they are very smart. They walked outside and got very happy from seeing the snow, the trees and the pedestrians who they took for spectators. Roni stayed by one of the trees while Carla walked towards a pile of snow," a spokesman for Ekaterinburg State Circus said.
Jaipur, Jan 27 : The Deputy Chief Minister of Rajastahan, Sachin Pilot feels that the ongoing protests against CAA are a culmination of several developments which have not found favour with the people. "Such a prolonged protest is not healthy. The government must talk to those who are agitating. But then, as they say, people get the government they deserve. After all, citizens voted them to power. Of course, they won't win the state elections in Delhi this time." While claiming that there is a complete lack of engagement in the contemporary political and social scenario, he added, "Never before have we seen such a lack of dialogue. I don't understand why the government is not prepared to address the concerns of its own citizens. They have been elected by the people and owe it to them," he said.

Sharing the stage with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Pilot stressed that the need of the hour was to groom young leaders across party lines as there was no dearth of bright youngsters in the country.

Refuting the claim that youngsters who come from a political background have it easy when it comes to entering politics, the Deputy Chief Minister said that someone like him has to prove himself at every step. "It's all about performance. If you don't deliver, you just can't last." Sardasai said that the BJP was more 21st century ready than the Congress. "The young are more inclined towards Modi because he is ready to speak to them in their language. Across the world, there is a hunger for superheroes. Let's admit it, he is a remarkable story and he managed to capture the template of the new India. In these times, you cannot be part of the privileged and talk down to people. Of course, now the BJP too is committing the same mistakes like Indira Gandhi. One can see the arrogance..." Stating that Rahul Gandhi seldom misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, the journalist said that under the present regime, political has become personal. "It has become us vs them everywhere. This is a vindictive government, look what they did with the writer Aatish Taseer for writing against Modi. Also, what we are seeing today in general are autocratic leaders. You say anything against them, and chances are you'll land up in jail --- Mamta Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik for example." Adding that it was time to "reclaim" the republic by reclaiming the values the county has already stood for, Sardesai said that decline of democratic institutions is worrisome. "Look at Farooq Abdullah. He is under detention for months now."

Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston
Tanko Yakasai, has advised the federal government against accepting the Western Nigeria Security Network code-named: Amotekun.He said this while speaking with journalists at the Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, on Saturday, saying Amotekun is left to operate in the south-west, it could make other regions to create armed security outfit. If Amotekun is allowed, soon it may spill over to other regions and may become out of control when other regions come up with armed security outfits that may lead to an uncontrollable situation in the country, he said.

Following the attack by Boko Haram sect on a mosque in Gwoza, Borno state, on Sunday, a 12-year-old child has reportedly died and many others injured.The attacked reportedly linked to twin suicide bombers were said to have forced their way into the mosque while prayer was going on.According to a resident, the insurgents may have infiltrated the town during a wedding which held at the palace of the emir of Gwoza on Saturday.

A medical doctor has been quarantined after showing signs of Lassa fever at Jahun local government area of Jigawa state, according to the state government.Salisu Muazu, acting permanent secretary, Jigawa state ministry of health, revealed this to journalists on Sunday.The victim, Anthony Etim, is a staff member of Medicins Sans Frontieres also known as Doctors without Borders, he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari had slammed Theophilus Danjuma, retired general, saying his opinion doesnt matter than that of millions of Nigerians who voted for his reelection in 2019.Buhari said this in an interview with The Interview by email released in Abuja on Saturday.A press statement issued by Azu Ishiekwene, MD/editor-in-chief of The Interview, on Sunday, highlighted some of the presidents comments in the interview.

Abdulmumin Jibrin of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lost the rerun election for Kuru and Bebeji federal constituency of Kano state.Jibrin was defeated by Aliyu Yako of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with a margin of 35,000 votes. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Yako as the winner after he secured 48,601 votes with Jibrin trailing behind with 13,507 votes.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Madaki Gololo, has been declared winner of Saturdays rerun elections for Gamawa Federal Constituency in Bauchi state.The Returning Officer, Dr Abubakar Mayin of Federal University, Dutse, announced the result in Gamawa town.

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Pauline Tallen, has appointed her daughter, Violet Osunde, as a special assistant in her office.Until her appointment in November, Mrs Osunde was a senior executive assistant with the National Databank Management Department of the National Pension Commission.

Nigerians have reacted to reports that kidnapped schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, gave birth to a baby boy for a top commander of Boko Haram terrorists.

Leah Sharibu was kidnapped from the Government Science Secondary School, Dapchi, Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State, on February 19, 2018.
She wed former Bachelor star Tim Robards in the Italian countryside in 2018.

And criminal lawyer Anna Heinrich looked simply sensational in a photo shared to Instagram on Monday.

The 33-year-old revealed her cleavage and lean legs in a racy black swimsuit.

Incredible: Anna Heinrich, 33, (pictured) showed off her flawless figure in a racy black swimsuit in a photo shared to Instagram on Monday

Anna's one-piece also featured a sheer mesh panel and belt buckle that accentuated her slim waist.

She accessorised simply with a delicate gold bangle, and styled her mid-length blonde locks out and in waves.

Beaming for the camera, Anna drew attention to a flawless application of makeup that consisted of defined brows, subtle kohl-lined eyes and a matte nude lip.

Baby plans: It comes after the criminal lawyer told The Daily Telegraph last week that a child with husband Tim Robards is at the 'forefront of their minds'

'Tropical state of mind,' the blonde bombshell captioned the eye-catching photo.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph last week, Anna revealed that a child with Tim was at the 'forefront of their minds'.

'It has always been on our mind but we are getting older, not that we are old but we want to have hopefully more than one kid,' Anna told the publication.

She added: 'It is something we are both very keen on.'

Family-of-four: 'It has always been on our mind but we are getting older, not that we are old but we want to have hopefully more than one kid,' Anna told the publication

The couple have been together for seven years, after finding love on the first season of The Bachelor in 2013.

Anna and Tim wed at the Masseria Potenti hotel, among the olive groves and vineyards of the Puglian countryside in Italy, in June 2018.

Tim spends most of the week in Melbourne filming Neighbours, while Anna lives at their home in Sydney.
The Republic Day celebration was about India's Constitution, but the protests also argued for protecting the values of equality and secularism enshrined in it.

Report, photographs: P Rajendran in New York

IMAGE: Protests against the CAA and NRC outside the Indian consulate in New York.

The blustery weather in New York City had driven indoors the Republic Day celebrations January 26 at the Indian consulate.

Outside, a tiny group of early protesters gathered, to hold up banners and shout 'Modi, Modi, you can't hide' in protest of the Indian government's controversial legislative measures to define citizenship and permit refugees on the basis of their religion.

Within the consulate, about 200 people had gathered to attend the flag-hoisting ceremony.

As is standard, the men came in dark coats or sleeveless jackets attributed to Modi or Nehru, depending on political and/or sartorial taste.

The women were in colorful saris or other suitably ethnic wear.

There were some children of those attending, but the gathering was dominated by the older set.

The mood-setting music included Nanha Munha Rahi Hoon and the A R Rahman version of Vande Mataram.

The smell of marigolds permeated the room. A little before 10 am, Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty stepped up to ceremonially unfurl the flag.

The Indian national anthem was sung after which the consul general read President Ram Nath Kovind's Republic Day speech.

The consul general spoke of Professor Robert Thurman and Professor S P Kothari, two people from the US who had being awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.

He went on to express his thanks to the community as he prepared to wind up his tenure in New York. His replacement is yet to be named.

The cultural programme included renditions by Deepak Dave, executive director of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan USA, of poetry extolling the national spirit by Harivanshrai Bachchan and Kavya Mishra.

"You are normalising their behaviour," protester Theresa Mathews told someone who stepped out after attending the event.

She was not mollified when it was pointed out that attendees at the flag-hoisting ceremony may have been there for national rather than political reasons.

IMAGE: Republic Day celebrations at the Indian consulate in New York.

Mathews said a fascist State such as Nazi Germany was enabled by people driven by a spirit of forbearance.

She described the recent Citizenship (Amendment) Act as being clearly against Muslims, and said the protests in Assam were a result of India's "border lands being used as a lab for horrors" to be visited upon the rest of the country later.

Mariam Thomas, another protester, stepped up to argue that a disingenuous comparison was being made with the US, pointing out that in India the new laws are not about immigration.

She said it targeted "people born there, been there for generations."

She pointed out that even family members of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, India's fifth President, were excluded from the final National Register of Citizens in Assam.

IMAGE: Protests against the CAA and NRC outside the Indian consulate in New York.

A policeman who told the group they would have to move on, expressed his sympathy for the protesters's views while still doing his job.

"I've done my homework, he told them. "I know what's happening there (in India)."

By noon, the number of protesters had swelled as other groups banded together.

They held up Indian and American flags, and banners announcing 'No more violence against constitution,' 'Stand against racism in India,' 'The more U divide, the more we multiply,' and the like.

Saeed Ahmed from Massachusetts, who was at the consulate event and the protest, found no conflict in attending both.

The Republic Day celebration was about India's Constitution, which he supported; but the protests also argued for protecting the values of equality and secularism enshrined in it, he said.

Speaking of the CAA, Ahmed said while letting affected refugees into India was laudable, keeping out Ahmediyas persecuted in Pakistan, Tamils from Sri Lanka and Rohingya Muslims facing genocide in Myanmar, spoke for selective tolerance.

Dr Shaikh Ubaid, a medical doctor in Albany who is originally from Hyderabad, said people were witnessing the ultimate eradication of democracy in India, first by "chipping away, then a frontal assault."

Dr Ubaid said the current protest was for youth in colleges who had been attacked by police, and against the Indian government's policies on asylum and citizenship that he believed augured worse things to come.

"The first step towards genocide is disenfranchisement," he said.
CONTACT: Pamela D. Wilson 303-810-1816

Email: Inquiry_For_Pamela@pameladwilson.com

Golden, Colorado  January 27, 2020

The Caring Generation - Caring for My Elderly Mother Is Killing Me

Golden CO- Caregiving expert Pamela D. Wilson hosts The Caring Generation radio program for caregivers and aging adults this coming Wednesday, January 29, on the Bold Brave Media Global Network. The program airs live at 9 p.m. EST. The Caring Generation aired initially from 2009 to 2011 on 630 KHOW-AM in Denver, Colorado.

The caregiving topic for this week's program is My Elderly Mother Is Killing Me. The factors that contribute to this feeling are caregiving situations that can be frustrating and the intentional or unintentional behaviors of family members involved in caregiving situations.

Pamela confirms, "I talk with many caregivers who feel that their daily lives are out of control. Others are embarrassed to admit the anger and frustration they feel as the result of caring for an elderly parent. In my twenty years as a caregiving advocate, these feelings are commonly experienced by caregivers who feel they have no other options. When caregivers learn to look at the situation differently, their lives and care situations improve."

Guest, journalist Maya Dusenbery, shares the topic of bias in women's health care. Maya shares how her health care experience led her to research that led her to write the book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed.

In this episode of The Caring Generation Radio show for caregivers and aging adults, Pamela shares Seven behaviors that successful caregivers avoid. Complaining may make caregivers or elderly parents who need care to feel better, but venting won't improve the situation. Complainers who have this habit may not realize that they complain until they start driving others away.

The drain of complaining results in caregivers who say that they want to run away from caring for an elderly mother or father because the situation is abusive, time-consuming, or is affecting their physical and emotional health. Becoming a caregiver is an unexpected role with responsibilities that continue to grow unless the caregiver is proactive from the start.

Caregivers fall into the habit of worrying and may do nothing or lack the insight to improve the situation. Pamela shares recommendations to avoid negative behaviors and to have uncomfortable conversations with elderly mothers, fathers, spouses, and family about the help that caregivers need. Most importantly, learning to set boundaries to avoid becoming overcommitted and exhausted.

The January 29th edition of The Caring Generation gives caregivers positive suggestions so that saying "Caring for My Elderly Mother is Killing Me," becomes less frequent. All of The Caring Generation radio shows offer tips and solutions to help caregivers feel more in control of caregiving relationships and situations.

Make plans to join Pamela D. Wilson, caregiving expert and the host of The Caring Generation radio at 6 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Mountain, 8 p.m. Central, and 9 p.m. Eastern every Wednesday night. Replays of the weekly programs are available in podcast format with transcripts on Pamela's website and all major podcast sites. More information is available on Pamela's website.

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The stakes over witness testimony at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial are rising now that a draft of a book from former national security adviser John Bolton appears to undercut a key defense argument.

Bolton writes in the forthcoming book that Trump told him that he wanted to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid from Ukraine until it helped him with politically charged investigations, including into Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Trump's legal team has repeatedly insisted that the president never tied the suspension of military assistance to the country to investigations that he wanted into Biden and his son.

The account immediately gave Democrats new fuel in their pursuit of sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses, a question expected to be taken up later this week by the Republican-led Senate. The trial resumes Monday afternoon with arguments from Trump's defense team.

Bolton's account was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the manuscript on the condition of anonymity to discuss the book, The Room Where It Happened; A White House Memoir," ahead of its release March 17.

When the Times report went online Sunday night, the seven House Democratic managers immediately called on all senators to insist that Bolton be called as a witness and provide his notes and other relevant documents. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, issued the same call.

Trump denied the claims in a series of tweets early Monday. I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump said in a tweet. "In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.

Trump said people could look at transcripts of his call, and statements by Ukraine President Vlodymyr Zelinskiy that there was no pressure for such investigations to get the aid.

Bolton, who acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on Sept. 11, has already told lawmakers that he is willing to testify, despite the president's order barring aides from cooperating in the probe.

Americans know that a fair trial must include both the documents and witnesses blocked by the President that starts with Mr. Bolton," the impeachment managers said in a statement.

First, though, Trump's legal team will begin laying out its case in depth, turning to several high-profile attorneys to argue against impeachment.

The lawyers revealed the broad outlines of their defense in a rare but truncated Saturday session, where they accused House Democrats of using the impeachment case to try to undo the results of the last presidential election and drive Trump from office.

The legal team is expected to pick up on that theme and also dive into areas that received negligible attention during the Democrats' presentation, including the now-concluded investigation into ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign.

Trump's lawyers aren't expected to take as much time for their arguments as the Democrats, whose impeachment managers spoke for about 24 hours over three days.

But they also don't need to: Acquittal is likely in a Senate where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, with a two-thirds vote needed for conviction. Still, they see an opportunity to counter the allegations, defend the powers of the presidency and prevent Trump from being weakened politically ahead of November's election.

Trump faces two articles of impeachment. One accuses him of abusing his power by asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, his Democratic rival, at the same time that his administration withheld hundreds of millions of dollars from the country. The other alleges that Trump obstructed Congress by directing aides to not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

The legal team will portray Trump as having been harassed by investigations from federal agents and Democrats since he took office, and seize on the FBI's recent acknowledgment of surveillance errors during the Russia probe. The lawyers have already hinted that they will focus attention on Biden just as he campaigns for a first-place finish in next week's Iowa caucuses.

Monday's presentation is expected to include appearances by Alan Dershowitz, who will argue that impeachable offenses require criminal-like conduct, and Ken Starr, the independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is also expected to make arguments.

Many legal scholars reject Dershowitz's arguments, saying the Founding Fathers meant for impeachable offenses to incorporate a broad range of conduct by presidents.

Dershowitz told The Associated Press last week that he understood that some critics thought his argument was bonkers but encouraged them to listen nonetheless.

Democrats argued their side of the impeachment case for three days last week, warning that Trump will persist in abusing his power and endangering American democracy unless Congress intervenes to remove him before the 2020 election.

On Saturday, the president's attorneys said there was no evidence that Trump made the military aid contingent on the country announcing an investigation into Biden.

They also accused Democrats of omitting information that was favorable to Trump's case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said that the law enforcement agencies are only "doing their job" after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) linked the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) with anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh.



The ED has sent a note to the Union Home Ministry (MHA) mentioning that there is a direct link between the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Uttar Pradesh and the PFI.

"The law enforcement agencies are doing their job, I need not make any comment. But if there is suspicious nature of transaction on a particular day then obviously it raises serious apprehension, and protests that are organised don't look voluntary," Prasad told reporters here when asked about PFI transactions.

The ED's note to the Home Ministry came after an investigation into bank accounts of PFI in some districts of western UP. During the investigation, ED found that a huge amount of money was transferred to bank accounts linked to PFI.

Protests against the CAA had turned violent at several places across Uttar Pradesh in December last year, resulting in the deaths of at least 19 persons during clashes with the police.

Earlier this month, the MHA had received a report from the UP government on the activities of PFI in the state.

UP police chief OP Singh has also said that PFI was actively involved in violent protests against the CAA. He added that some members of the party had been arrested and there was proof regarding the same. Singh also wrote a letter to the MHA seeking a ban on the PFI for its involvement in anti-CAA protests last year.

The CAA grants Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. (ANI)


Beirut: Militias loyal to Qassem Soleimani, the slain Iranian general, are secretly fighting in Syria's final rebel stronghold, leaked radio communications show.

The rare recordings reveal how Iranian soldiers and Afghan mercenaries are directing military operations in Idlib, north-west Syria, in a battle they had promised not to take part in during peace talks.

Protesters demonstrate in Tehran over the US air strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani. Credit:AP

Soleimani's powerful, shadowy Quds Force has been instrumental in helping to swing the war in President Bashar al-Assad's favour. However, Tehran is understood to have made assurances to Turkey, which backs the opposition in Syria, not to send troops to Idlib due to the proximity of the province to Ankara's border.

The commander of the Fatemiyoun Division, an Afghan Shia militia fighting under the Quds Force umbrella, said last week that before his death Soleimani had given instructions for the paramilitary group's strategy for the next five years, and that his assassination would not cause any "disruptions". The claim suggests that the militias in Idlib are there on Soleimani's command and acting out his plans.
Hope and Chad Anderson were the chairs of La Soiree on the Serengeti, the annual themed gala supporting Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas Foundation. It was held Jan. 25 at the Beaumont Civic Center.

The evening included a silent auction, unique experiences and a gourmet dinner.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:55:01|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat commended the smooth running of the recent presidential elections in Guinea Bissau.

The AU Commission Chairperson's positive remarks concerning Guinea Bissau's presidential elections came after the West African nation's recent presidential election that was held on December 29 as none of the presidential candidates won more than 50 percent of the ballots during the first round of the presidential election that was held on Nov. 24.

The Chairperson "congratulates the candidates and particularly the people of Guinea-Bissau who, by their exemplary and peaceful mobilization, have demonstrated their attachment to democracy, peace and stability in their country," the 55-member pan African bloc said in a statement issued over the weekend.

Mahamat "congratulates Umaro Sissoco Embalo on his election, in the light of the final results of the second round that was announced on January 21, and wishes him every success in the exercise of his functions," an AU statement read.

The AU Commission Chairperson further reaffirmed "the solidarity and support of the African Union to the brotherly people of the Republic of Guinea Bissau and expresses the wish for the full realization of their deep aspirations."
Kanpur, Jan 27 : A young couple was married inside the Juhi police station in Kanpur on Sunday. All the arrangements for the wedding were made by the cops.

Rahul and Naina were neighbours in the cantonment area and fell in love two years ago. However, their families were not ready to accept the relationship so Rahul and Naina quietly opted for a court marriage in July last year but continued to live in their own houses.

A week ago, Naina's family members began arranging her marriage with another youth and the couple eloped from their houses two day ago.

Naina's father lodged a complaint with the Juhi police that finally tracked down the couple and brought them to the police station. After hearing their love story, the police summoned both the families and convinced them to accept the alliance.

The families finally agreed and the cops arranged for a priest who solemnized the marriage at the temple inside the police station.

People living nearby joined in the celebrations and brought sweets for the occasion.

Rahul and Naina thanked the cops and went home.
In 2019, news outlets detailed the origins of Americas zero-tolerance immigration policy and the ways in which it fractured families. They revealed the sprawl of private detention facilities, the prevalence of ICEs use of isolation cells, and the mechanisms by which domestic law enforcement agencies monitor immigrants, as well as the journalists who cover them. And they showed the unique vulnerabilities sewn into the fabric of everyday life for immigrants in the US.

CJR and Migratory Notes surveyed ten journalists in as many cities about their work covering immigration during the Trump administration. Respondents cover immigration full-time or as freelancers; some focused exclusively on immigration, while others cover it alongside other beats. Most held their current positions prior to the 2016 US elections, though several began their jobs after Donald Trump took office. Some had spent just a few years covering immigration, while others had covered the topic, off and on, for decades.

ICYMI: Reporting on immigration in a private contractors world

Taken together, their accounts evoke a quickening, often chaotic beat that continues to suffer from a lack of transparency. Reporters shared their desires for greater supportin the forms of trauma training, language resources, and tips for expanding their networks of sources, among others. Many spoke of the works serious psychological and emotional tolls, and declared that the job is more important than ever.

I feel outraged, frustrated, and helpless every day, Julia Preston, a contributing writer for The Marshall Project who has covered immigration for more than a decade, says. So its an important time to be a journalist.

Below, CJR includes a selection of responses, which have been edited for clarity. Migratory Notes, our survey partner, recently published its list of standout immigration stories from 2019; read the list here, and subscribe to its weekly newsletter, tracking immigration news and policy, here.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

How has your coverage of immigration changed since Trump took office?

Daniel Connolly

Investigative reporter, The Commercial Appeal (Tennessee); author, The Book of Isaias

Before Trump, I almost never wrote about immigration detention or deportations, because they were quite rare in non-border areas like Memphis. During the Trump administration, I have written about those subjects extensively.



Jude Joffe-Block

Independent journalist, based in Arizona

I went from covering immigration and the border as my daily beat for the Phoenix NPR member station KJZZ and its Fronteras Desk network to becoming an independent journalist right around the time Trump took office, so my role changed, too. But what I have noticed is a ton of policy changes/court challenges moving at a faster pace than ever before, increased attention and focus on the beat, increased risk to immigrant sources, increased polarization.



Nicole Foy

Investigative reporter, Idaho Statesman

Increased detention of people through Idaho county jails. Also, immigration court cases are extremely delayed in Idaho. Our court is out of Salt Lake City, and our detained cases are in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. When they transferred Salt Lake City judges to help with detained cases in Tacoma, they pushed all Utah (and, thus, Idaho) cases back a year, minimum. Idaho is also seeing far more Central American asylum cases in the last year than we ever have.



Paola Marizan

Bilingual journalist, WNIN (Indiana)

Before Trump, I felt that I could talk about more than just immigration when it came to the Hispanic/Latinx/Immigrant communities, but now its more of that than health care, language barriers, and education coverage.



Monica Campbell

Senior editor & reporter, PRIs The World

In some ways, my coverage has not changed. I reported on challenges and policy changes affecting migrant and immigrant communitiesranging from detention conditions, changing border enforcement, and what it means to live without papers in the USunder Obama and beyond. Whats changed, beyond real policy changes under Trump and an intensification of anti-immigrant rhetoric, is that more people outside of the immigrant community are paying attentionmore people are alarmed at how the immigration system and enforcement operates in certain situations.

Have you found it more difficult to access data, detention centers, or other sources of information?

Alice Driver

Freelance journalist based in Mexico

Yes, as a freelancer I have found it impossible to get access to any detention center (even when I was working with National Geographic).



Kate Morrissey

Immigration Reporter, San Diego Union Tribune

It is difficult to get informative, on-the-record responses from this administration regarding immigration issues, but I remember struggling with this under the previous administration as well. I also have had trouble getting access to certain spaces, particularly Border Patrol stations. I finally toured one of our ports of entry for the first time late last year after asking to see it for months and months.



Susan Ferriss

Senior reporter & editor of immigration reporting, Center for Public Integrity

This is a major problem today. We have had to resort to lawsuits to obtain some information that should be accessible. Key parts of information was being withheld for reasons that are arguably indefensible and that also mask key data.



Julia Preston

Contributing writer, The Marshall Project

I feel the media need to engage in a broader effort to litigate to open up the immigration courts and the immigration system in general. The entire system is shrouded in bogus privacy restrictions that mainly serve the interests of the authorities. The lack of transparency is outrageous. The Marshall Project stands ready to work with a few partners to develop a legal strategy.



Teo Armus

Former race and immigration reporter, Charlotte Observer; currently at Washington Post

In short, yes. Given North Carolina counties changing policies on ICE detainers, I was particularly interested in looking at the past few years of detainer requests issued in ICEs Atlanta Area of Responsibilityand how many of those requests were honored by local law enforcement under new and old policies. While Syracuses TRAC [Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse] had collected detailed data on this front through Spring 2018, the researchers there told me last year that ICE had started to withhold more of this information.

What issues go under-covered in the national conversation?

Anh Do

Staff writer, Los Angeles Times

Among whats under-covered is the topic of undocumented Asians in the national debateI often hear them say its not just a Mexican dilemma and thats totally true.



Morrissey: Migration Protection Protocols/Remain in Mexico implementation started here. At first, there was limited coverage on the national level, but that has changed in the months since.



Connolly: I think immigration courts are undercovered in general. We have a big immigration court in a Memphis building thats only a four-minute walk from my office. Theyre handling thousands of cases, people travel hundreds of miles to appear in cases, and important stories are happening all the time. I know this, yet I only occasionally visit immigration court.



Campbell: The ripple effect of the processing backlog on peoples lives. How intensified anti-immigrant rhetoric affects the lives of young people from immigrant communities, including effects on health and academic performance.



Foy: Im one of the only regular immigration reporters in the state, and one of the few covering the issue for Northern Rocky Mountain/interior Pacific Northwest states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado outside Denver. Undercovered issues out here are the long distances immigrants travel for court or while detained because of distant detention centers, distant immigration courts, and very few local immigration resources. For example, until last year, when Idaho immigrants were released from ICE detention, the only DOJ-certified pro-bono immigration resource on the list they receive was in Montana.

How do you cultivate sources?

Foy: Through advocates, immigration lawyers, social media, and my own community. My church has a lot of Central American asylum seekers right now, for example. I have not had much success with immigration-authority and bureaucratic sources, and would love some ideas and training on building that network.



Preston: For immigration authorities: understand that, except for the highest levels, the people are not necessarily the policies. There are many federal agents, officials, and civil servants who were drawn to public service and are just trying to do their jobs well. If you treat them with respect, they will respect and help you. And you can better determine who are the real bad guys.



Do: I explore different communities in personspending significant amounts of time on the streets and at cultural, political, religious, and educational events, including on weekends. I visit the same people at their homes and on the job, to get dual glimpses of their roles and impacts in a given Asian group. I also find quite a lot of sources on Facebook and often cold call them on that platform, introducing the paper and the story were pursuing via Facebook Messenger. In general, older Asians and Asian Americans use Facebook more than other social media pagesthis is one good way to find them. For younger Asians and Asian Americans, I turn to Instagram.



Armus: I tried to reach out to as many different people as possible: informal community leaders, heads of local nonprofits, influential business owners, church leaders, and government officials focused on outreach. The immigrant community in Charlotte is relatively tight-knit, so showing up at major events (like government town halls in immigrant neighborhoods, the annual Latin American festival, or a back-to-school fair at a Latino community center) meant I often saw familiar faces, could chat informally about possible stories, and started to build a rapport with people who could vouch for me across town. The editor of the local Spanish-language newspaper was also generous in helping me identify sources with less of a grass-tops role in town. My best sources on the beat, however, were the exceptionally kind janitors in our newsroomall immigrants themselveswho offered thoughtful feedback on story ideas and what was resonating in their homes and neighborhoods.

How do you balance your reporting against the threat of immigration-related consequences for your subjects?

Foy: My preference is to avoid describing someones immigrant status if at all possible. I wouldnt want someone to be able to guess who is undocumented and who is not by virtue of how I describe them across my stories. In the past, Ive been asked to emphasize sources legal status when possible so readers dont assume the worst. I would greatly appreciate any type of standard I could point editors to so that I dont have to have this fight in the future without backup.



Ferriss: Im much more likely now to agree with not naming people.



Morrissey: I do my best to make sure that the subjects of my articles are informed about what it means to have their stories, names, and faces in the newspaper before they decide whether and how to participate. If I dont feel like they are fully understanding what they are agreeing toeither because of education level or something elseI may choose to go a different direction with if and how I use the information that they give me. In some circumstances, particularly in cases of domestic violence survivors or cases in which someones life is in serious danger, I may not fully identify the subject after discussion with my editor.



Connolly: I tend toward using peoples full name and photos, even if theyre unauthorized immigrants. But no two situations are exactly the same, and the Trump administrations actions have made me more mindful of the consequences. In one recent case, I spoke with five different attorneys to determine the potential consequences of writing about a specific immigration situation. My advice for reporters trying to figure this out is to slow down, take care, consult experts.



Campbell: I never move forward with a story without going over in great detail with them, in their language, what it means to speak with a reporter. Often, I may be the first reporter some people have spoken to. There can be no assumptions that someone is aware of how their story may be distributed, seen, shared, and what that may mean for them and their loved ones.

PREVIOUSLY: Between immigration authorities and the people they cover

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Brendan Fitzgerald is a senior editor at CJR.
by Brad Camara | Nuggets Correspondent | Sun, Jan 26th 2:39pm EST

Jamal Murray (ankle) has been ruled out for Sundays game against the Rockets. (TJ McBride on Twitter)

Fantasy Impact:

Murray was able to get some light conditioning work on the court during pregame warmups. There is still no timetable for his return, but he is trending in the right direction. His next chance to return will be Tuesday against the Grizzlies.
After much speculation, President Trump's defense team finally reeled the Biden family into the Senate impeachment trial Monday.

For the most part, the case against impeachment was focused on poking holes in the Democrats' opposing argument, but former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who's defending the president, made former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and Burisma  the Ukrainian gas company upon whose board Hunter Biden sat  the centerpieces of her presentation, as did another Trump attorney, Eric Herschmann.

Their point was that Burisma's corruption made Trump's investigation request legitimate, and since the Bidens were connected to the company, they were worth looking into, as well. Bondi described the younger Biden's board membership as "nepotistic at best, nefarious at worst."

A few people sensed some hypocrisy in those comments, implying that Trump supporters don't have much ground to stand on when it comes to nepotism accusations.

Pam Bondi is making the case that nepotism involving government officials is bad.  Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 27, 2020

There were a few other challenges to Bondi's argument, including the idea that, even if Hunter Biden's activities were corrupt, there are other ways to investigate foreign corruption than the Trump administration's methods in this case.

Cut through this smokescreen by corrupt Pam Bondi. There are legal avenues to investigate corruption abroad. NONE of them involve directly the president, much less his private attorney. None of Trump's actions, even if there were grounds to investigate Biden, are appropriate.  Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) January 27, 2020

More stories from theweek.com

John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi

It's 2020 and women are exhausted

All the president's turncoats


UPDATE: Stephanie Parzes body recovered from wooded area months after she went missing, authorities confirm

The body found in a wooded area off Route 9 in Old Bridge on Sunday is believed to be Stephanie Parze, a 25-year-old Freehold Township woman who has been missing since late October, based on preliminary evidence from the scene, a law enforcement source told NJ Advance Media on Monday.

The Middlesex County Prosecutors Office contacted investigators in Monmouth County who have been handling the Parze disappearance about the discovery and an autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning, according to the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case.

The body was found just south of Old Mill Road on the southbound side of the highway around 2:45 p.m, the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said Sunday. Police vehicles remained at the scene on Monday morning.

Soon after the information about the recovery of a body was made public Sunday night, Parzes father Ed posted an image of candles on his Facebook page. The Parze family has been organizing searches in various spots around their Freehold home and in New York on a near-weekly basis. A family spokesperson contacted Sunday night indicated the Parzes were not prepared to make a statement.

Stephanie Parze hasnt been seen by her family since Oct. 30, when she left the familys Route 33 house after a night out in New Brunswick. Stephanie then drove back to her late grandmothers nearby home on Meadowbrook Lane.

The next day, Parze didnt show up to her nannying job. Her car and phone were found at her grandmothers house, but there was no sign of forced entry.

Police identified her ex-boyfriend John Ozbilgen as a person of interest in Parzes disappearance. Ozbilgen, 29, was arrested on a child pornography charge after images were found on Ozbilgens phone as authorities investigated Parzes disappearance, officials said.

Ozbilgen, who was accused of assaulting Parze in August, had fired off 10 angry text messages to her the night before she disappeared, investigators said. No charges related to Parzes disappearance were filed against Ozbilgen and he was ordered released from jail pending trial in November on the child porn charge. Days later, Ozbilgen was found dead in his Freehold home and authorities determined he took his own life.

The numerous community searches for Parze in the months since she went missing included locations in Staten Island, New York as well as in New Jersey. Ozbilgen, previously lived in Staten Island and was a stockbroker there until being fired.

Woods along Elton-Adelphia Rd by Wellesley Way, Freehold Twp., were searched by officials and volunteers in an attempt to find Stephanie Parze who has been missing since October 30, 2019. The search was conducted on Saturday, November 23, 2019.Russ DeSantis | NJ Advance Media

Staff writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this post.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ.
Perretta blames austerity and the weaponisation of the War on Terror for the social, cultural and economic marginalisation of Muslim communities across the UK and explores these ideas through his three protagonists. The first describes the horror of an encounter with a stranger, with his obscene gaze who forgives him for terrorist bombs. The second tells of being a surveilled body in a stigmatised community: young innocents, full of infinity who are trying to survive this condition we find ourselves in, under-protected and overexposed. The third recounts caring for his sick mother as he describes wars waged far away from me amid declining public services.
Jason Polan, an incessant sketcher whose eclectic drawings and art projects  one was called The Every Piece of Art in the Museum of Modern Art Book  made him one of the quirkiest and most prolific denizens of the New York art scene, died on Monday in New York. He was 37.

His family said the cause was cancer.

Mr. Polans signature project for the last decade or so was Every Person in New York, in which he set himself the admittedly impossible task of drawing everyone in New York City. He kept a robust blog of those sketches, and by the time he published a book of that title in 2015  which he envisioned as Vol. 1  he had drawn more than 30,000 people.

These were not sit-for-a-portrait-style drawings. They were quick sketches of people who often didnt know they were being sketched, done on the fly, with delightfully unfinished results, as Mr. Polan wrote in the books introduction.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team arrived in the city on Monday, days after the agency was entrusted with probe into the Koregaon-Bhima-Elgar Parishad case by the Centre, police sources said here.

The three-member team of the central agency landed here on Monday morning and later met officials of the city police handling the sensitive case, which has triggered a new round of war of words between ruling and opposition parties in Maharashtra, the sources said.

The case, in which human rights activists have been arrested, pertains to caste violence that took place near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district on January 1, 2018, following alleged provocative speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave held the previous day.

The case was transferred by the Centre from the Pune police to the NIA, an agency that handles terror-related matters, on Friday, a move criticised by the three-party ruling coalition in the state.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had on Friday night condemned the Centre's decision to transfer the case to the NIA without consent of the state government. The NCP minister had termed the move as unconstitutional.

The opposition BJP, however, welcomed the move.

The Pune police have claimed speeches delivered at the conclave, held on December 31, 2017, led to the violence at Koregaon Bhima the next day. The police have claimed the conclave was organised by people having Maoist links.

During the probe into the violence, police arrested human rights activists and intellectuals Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

They were booked under relevant sections of the IPC and also UAPA, an anti-terror law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sometimes I think the smartest thing is do nothing. I mean dont rush everywhere; take the time to look at the beautiful things around us and try not to let small worries control our thoughts and actions. Fortunately, I find all of that easy enough to do in Vietnam!

Here in little old Hoi An its quite a lovely quiet time over the Lunar New Year holiday and if the weather is good, its great to just walk around the neighborhood, check out the neighbors ghastly New Years Eve decorations and thank your lucky stars that you didnt decide to go with the same ornamentation style.

Youll also get a good idea how much the neighbors spent on the kids presents by the snazzy clothes and ride-on miniature toy cars roaming the pavements. The part I find fascinating is when you can observe through the open doors a parent or two lying on the sofa channel-surfing.

I dont know what it is with the Vietnamese but they seem incapable of watching an entire show or whole song unless they are working in a mini-mart where everyone is glued to the Korean or Indian soap operas.

If I head out to the beach, its the one time of the year thats easier for meeting up with expats you havent seen for a while. Most expats here have families or projects to work on so I dont see them that much, particularly as I hang out a lot in the local Vietnamese bars and cafes these days.

Around Tet much of the local eateries shut down while families are back in their hometowns, yet there are enough places open that you dont notice the difference. Whats nice is the quietness of a half-deserted bar and the usual manic-paced Vietnamese music is blissfully muted.

Again, depending on the weather, most Vietnamese cafes have good views of rice fields or rivers, which adds to the ambiance of the chill-out experience. I think this is something a lot of tourists miss out on, probably due to the wariness of wandering into these places.

Solitude for me means more time to think, read, draw and dream up ideas for stuff. Whether I actually get around to completing my projects is another matter as Im an expert procrastinator!

Sometimes life gets just a little too easy here and I struggle to get off my butt and do something. I must admit its great just to forget about the world and snuggle up in a warm bed on our central coast coolish winter days. Fortunately, my participation in some charity-related teaching keeps me grounded, especially when I see how tough life can be for the locals.

Ive changed a lot over the years living here. I used to be more tolerant of the noisy Vietnamese chatter in coffee shops and the shouting down the phones. Nowadays I try to hide in quiet places, particularly in the mornings when my head is still waking up. Morning Zombie-ism has become a part of my daily routine And much the same is true of the Tet holiday.

Living quietly over Tet includes catching up on family emails, visits to friends, meeting former students doing the Da Nang hometown thing and bumping into the other expats as we do the Lunar New Years Eve parties and Tet moments. I hope the beach will be great this time around although at the time of writing the central coast is still going through its gloomy, overcast pseudo winter.

Ive still got a ton of reading to get through as well, however as I mostly read in bed, I end asleep well before I reach the end of the chapter Im on. Oddly enough, Im a very fast reader in airports and on planes.

Hopefully Ill also get around to finishing some of my art work and upgrade some art lesson stuff Im putting together for 2020  its the year to paint!

Well, whichever way you choose to spend the Tet holiday  I hope its blissful, quiet, stress-relieving and fun. But please dont jog along the highways, do yoga or head to the gym (if its open)  be like the Vietnamese; hit the sofa and channel-surf all day long.

Happy Tet, everyone!
The founder of a Pakistani civil rights group has been detained and accused of inciting violence against the state. Manzoor Pashteen, leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), was arrested in the early hours of January 27 and ordered to be held in police custody for 14 days by a court in Peshawar. He was accused of sedition, hate speech, incitement against the state, and criminal conspiracy after a rally organized by the PTM attracted thousands of people in the city of Bannu on January 12. He has not been formally charged yet. Pashteen's PTM emerged two years ago with protests demanding the return of missing persons who were allegedly abducted by intelligence agents. The PTM has also led demonstrations calling for compensation for damages suffered by residents of the tribal areas where the government conducted anti-Taliban operations, along with other grievances.
Members of the FAMA (Mali Armed Forces) patrol in the streets of Gao, Mali, on July 24, 2019. (Souleymane Ag Anara/AFP via Getty Images)

About Twenty Soldiers Killed in Mali Attack, Government Says

About 20 soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn attack on an army camp in central Mali on Jan. 26, the government said.

The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear. In a statement, the government said terrorists entered the camp near the village of Sokolo, killed the soldiers and caused significant material damage.

Reinforcements have been dispatched to the scene and an aerial reconnaissance is underway in the area to track down the attackers, it said.

Islamist groups with links to al Qaeda and the ISIS terrorist group operate in arid central and northern Mali and have used the area as a base to attack soldiers and civilians in neighboring Burkina Faso, Niger, and beyond.

Former colonial power France intervened in 2013 to drive back militants who had seized northern Mali in 2012 and the U.N. Security Council deployed a peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA. The militants were pushed back initially but have since regrouped and strengthened. As a sign of their success, MINUSMA has become the U.N.s deadliest mission.

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a tribute ceremony at the Invalides monument for the 13 French soldiers killed in Mali, in Paris, France, on Dec. 2, 2019. (Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images)

Large areas of the Sahel, the band of scrubland south of the Sahara, are no longer controlled by soldiers and police, to the dismay of local governments and their international partners, including the United States, which have struggled to contain the spread of jihadist groups across West Africa.

Soldiers hold the UN and Malian flags during the ceremony of Peacekeepers Day at the operating base of MINUSMA in Bamako, Mali, on May 29, 2018. (Michele Cattani / AFP via Getty Images)

Twenty-four Malian soldiers were killed and 29 wounded when militants attacked a patrol in northern Mali in November. Twenty people were wounded earlier this month in the north, including 18 U.N. peacekeepers from Chad, in a rocket attack on a military base used by U.N., French, and Malian forces.

Frances armed forces minister Florence Parly will travel to Washington this week amid fears that U.S. forces could pull out of the region. France has 4,500 troops in Mali and the wider Sahel, but the United States provides much-needed intelligence, logistical and drone support.

By Tiemoko Diallo; Additional reporting by Paul Lorgerie in Bamako
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020

In line with its inclusive policy and moderate Islam approach, the Yogyakarta branch of Fatayat Nahdlatul Ulama, the women's wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), has expressed a willingness to provide female preachers to Al Fatah transgender Islamic boarding school.

We dont have a different view of transgenders, the branchs chairwoman, Khotimatul Husna, said on Wednesday.

The group signed a memorandum of understanding on the plan with the boarding schools head, Shintar Ratri.

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A BJP functionary was hacked to death by a four-member gang near here on Monday following previous enmity, police sources said.

Vijaya Raghu, 40, a zonal secretary of the party at Palakarai, was working in the market area when the assailants surrounded and attacked him, they said.

Police said though he was rushed to a hospital, he died.

Raghu had developed enmity with Babu who the police were searching in connection with a theft case and hence the suspicion that he was behind the killing, the sources said.

However, police were investigating from various angles.

Some BJP volunteers blocked vehicular traffic demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

A BJPfunctionary claimed Raghu had organised pro-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and had been warned by some outfits,



On hearing about Raghu's death, party leaders including C P Radhakrishnan, Pon Radhakrishnan and other senior leaders visited the deceased worker's house and expressed condolences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Greg Elliot is joining RFP response software company Loopio as its Vice President of Customer Experience. Now, with Greg at the helm, we look forward to delivering even more value to Loopio customers.

Greg Elliott has joined Loopio, the leading provider of Request For Proposal (RFP) response software, as its Vice President (VP) of Customer Experience. In this role, Elliott will take the lead on maximizing customer happiness, retention, and loyalty.

Elliott has over a decade of experience, having held various customer success leadership positions in the software industry. Most recently, Elliott acted as VP of Customer Success at PatSnap, a leading provider of R&D analytics. Before PatSnap, he served as Senior Director of Customer Success at Influitive and VP of Customer Success at Vision Critical. Elliott will be integral to helping Loopio enhance its customer success strategy and grow the Customer Experience team.

We're very excited to welcome Greg to Loopio and our Senior Leadership team, says Zak Hemraj, CEO and Co-Founder of Loopio. Weve always focused on providing industry-leading service to our customersand have been recognized by G2 and the Stevie Awards for our outstanding customer support. Now, with Greg at the helm, we look forward to delivering even more value to our customers and building out a world-class Customer Experience team.

Elliott looks forward to joining the company and working to enhance the post-sale customer experience.

To create success for your customers, you need to focus on two things: the end-to-end customer experience, and creating an amazing experience for the teams supporting your users, says Elliott. Loopio is known for having a great employee culture and a strong focus on customer experience. I plan to build on these foundations, and create an environment where innovation in our customer journey is continually at the forefront of everything we do.

Elliott is also passionate about Loopios mission of improving the response process for RFPs and other types of sales questionnaires. In previous Customer Success leadership roles, I've spent countless hours supporting RFPs, and I understand the challenges organizations face. I wish I had a tool like Loopio to help me in the past. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to be an advocate for this company and our customers.

About Loopio

Loopio is a Toronto-based technology company that helps enterprises supercharge their responses to RFPs, DDQs, and Security Questionnaires. With Loopio, companies can empower their teams to respond faster, improve response quality, and win more business. Loopio is one of Canada's fastest-growing tech startups. It was ranked as the 13th fastest growing company on the 2019 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list and selected twice as one of LinkedIn's Top Startups in Canada.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday hit out at European Union (EU) lawmakers for moving resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying India did not need "advice or guidance" and there was "no scope" for "outside" interference in India's internal matters.

Addressing a gathering after releasing the book 'TRG -- An Enigma' here, Naidu said, "Such efforts are totally uncalled for and unwarranted and I hope that they would refrain from making such statements in future."



ALSO READ: India bristles as European Parliament decides to debate anti-CAA resolutions

The Vice President said that as a mature republic and democratic polity, "India is capable of addressing the concerns of its citizens and needs no advice or guidance in such matters from others".

"As a republic with 70 years of experience, we have successfully withstood various challenges. We are now more united than ever before and no one should have any concerns in this regard," Naidu said.



ALSO READ: West Bengal Assembly passes anti-CAA resolution, fourth state to do so

The Vice President also complimented the people for India's successful 71-year long journey as a republic and said that we as a nation will always be committed to justice, liberty and equality for all our citizens.

Asserting that our democracy provided enough space for expressing differences and dissent whenever warranted, the Vice President said: "Whenever basic and fundamental rights of citizens came under threat, they rose in unison and defended them, as was seen during Emergency. As a result, we have emerged as the most vibrant democracy in the world."

His remarks came when the European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a motion tabled by a large chunk of its members against India's new citizenship law, which it alleges marks a "dangerous shift" in the country's citizenship regime.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday insisted the UK can have technological progress while preserving national security, as he prepared to approve a role for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in developing its 5G network despite strong US opposition.

Johnson spoke after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday tweeted: "The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G."



The United States has banned Huawei from the rollout of its next generation 5G mobile networks because of concerns -- strongly denied -- that the firm could be under the control of Beijing.

With Washington heaping pressure on Johnson to sideline Huawei totally, the Financial Times reported that Britain was Tuesday "expected to approve a restricted role" for the group.

It comes after a senior UK official last week strongly hinted at a green light for Huawei.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Johnson said: "There's no reason why we shouldn't have technological progress here in the UK, allow consumers, businesses in the UK to have access to fantastic technology, fantastic communications, but also protect our security interests and protect our key partnerships with other security powers around the world."



The Financial Times said that amid US opposition, UK ministers were looking to impose a cap on Huawei's market share in the project.

There has meanwhile been widespread speculation that Britain would allow Huawei into "non-core" elements of 5G networks, such as antennae and base stations attached to masts and roofs.

Washington has threatened to limit intelligence sharing with London should the UK proceed.

There are suggestions also that a possible harming of relations between the two allies over Huawei could affect Britain's chances of securing a favourable US trade deal following Brexit.

Britain, which departs the European Union on Friday, has for some time moved to downplay US security fears.

The UK official pointed out that unlike the United States, Britain has been using Huawei technology in its systems for the past 15 years.

UK security agencies believe they have managed the risk so far and will be able to do so with the 5G network.

The 5G technology offers almost instantaneous data transfer and is seen as key for technologies such as self-driving cars and remotely operated factory robots.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Yesterday afternoon the New York Post published Ebony Bowden storys FBI reviewing claims Ilhan Omar married her brother. The Daily Mail quickly followed up with Lauren Fruens FBI is looking into claims Ilhan Omar married her brother and will share their findings with ICE.'

Both of these stories are based on David Steinbergs Blaze article Finally. The Feds  including ICE  appear to be investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar. I noted Davids article upon its publication last week in the post David Steinberg reports: The Omar investigations.

Bowdens New York Post article was highlighted by Xerta Shekh on Facebook for XSs many Somali readers. Omar must be feeling the heat. Beginning at 5:18 a.m. yesterday, Omars enforcer unleashed a wave of threatening posts on Facebook. These posts are public, they are vulgar (This fucker thought that I am playing games with him[, b]ut surely he will pay, for example) and they are, in my opinion, criminal insofar as they are meant to terrorize their specific target and others who have seen them.

I originally introduced Omars enforcer to Power Line readers here this past March. I posted his Ohio mug shot here this past September.

Every aspect of this story remains a secret from readers who get their news from the Star Tribune and the rest of the Minnesota media. When it comes to Omar, readers are better served by the UKs Daily Mail and the New York Post.

Yesterday evening I was contacted by Somali friends and entrusted with information in case anything happens. They are of course afraid, as they are meant to be, but Omar should be afraid of them. They will not be intimidated into silence.

More to come
WASHINGTON  Bill Taylor was driving home from work in New Hampshire last January when a chunk of ice the size of a shoebox broke off the top of a storage container hauled by a truck ahead of him, crashed through his windshield and hit him squarely in the forehead.

A good Samaritan stopped and called 911. An ambulance took Taylor to the emergency room. He had a 3-inch gash on his forehead and broken glass embedded in his hands and face. He received about a dozen stitches.

It could have been worse, said Taylor, 42, a road and bridge construction inspector for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. I could have died if it had hit me in the neck and throat.

Taylor was the victim of an ice missile incident, in which sheets or blocks of snow and ice fly off roofs or windshields of cars and trucks, endangering those in vehicles behind them. Ice missiles can distract drivers and cause them to swerve into other cars. And they can crack windshields, and sometimes cause injuries  even deaths.

They dont call them missiles for nothing. They create significant hazards, said Maureen Vogel, spokeswoman for the National Safety Council, an Itasca, Illinois-based organization focused on eliminating preventable deaths. Even if they dont result in an injury, its terrifying, especially if youre going down the highway at 65 miles an hour and you see something flying toward your windshield.

Police and safety officials encourage drivers to keep their vehicles roofs and windshields clear of snow and ice, but not everyone takes heed. A year ago, for example, state troopers in Connecticut warned of an alarmingly high number of missiles flying off vehicles after a late January snow and ice storm.

In many states, its not illegal to leave the snow there, though some legislators are trying to change that. Many in the trucking industry oppose the efforts, worrying about the dangers of requiring operators to remove snow and ice from the tops of large rigs.

Its very difficult to get on top of the trailer and remove that snow and ice, said Abigail Potter, a safety policy manager at the American Trucking Associations, a trade group. It can result in workplace injuries.

At least four states  Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont  have bills pending that would require drivers to clear off excessive ice and snow and would impose fines for violators, said Samantha Bloch, a policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Some states allow police to ticket motorists if their vehicle is considered a danger or the driver cant see through an icy or snowy windshield, Bloch said. But only a handful have laws specific to ice missiles.

Connecticut motorists can be fined $120 if they dont remove accumulated snow or ice. If a missile causes personal injury or property damage, the penalty is $200 to $1,000 for non-commercial drivers and $500 to $1,250 for commercial drivers.

Last year, Connecticut State Police issued 372 citations to non-commercial drivers and nearly 150 to commercial drivers, according to spokesman Trooper Josue Dorelus.

Its a huge concern for us, Dorelus said. We know that whenever chunks of ice or snow go flying from vehicles traveling at 55, 65 or even 75 miles an hour, it becomes a hazard for our motorists.

New Jersey has a similar statute. Pennsylvanias ice missile law applies only if snow or ice strikes another car or person and causes serious injury or death.

New Hampshires law refers to negligent driving and doesnt mention snow or ice, but legislators intended for police to use it to cite drivers who dont remove built-up ice or snow from their vehicles. Its called Jessicas law, named after a woman killed in 1999 when ice from a tractor-trailer hit a truck that ended up colliding with her car.

Federal officials dont keep data on crashes, injuries or deaths caused by ice missiles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But police and transportation safety advocates say the incidents are not uncommon in northern states and those that get heavy snow and sleet.

Among such incidents:

Four people were injured in Massachusetts earlier this month when ice dislodged from a truck and smashed through the windshield of a pickup.

A Minnesota woman suffered facial and head injuries after a huge piece of ice flew off a pickup truck and trailer last month and shattered her windshield.

A man in Pennsylvania was severely injured last January when a car in which he was a passenger was struck by an ice chunk that flew off a tractor trailer and smashed into the windshield.

In the past few years, several states, including Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia, have considered bills requiring motorists to clear off ice and snow and allowing police to ticket those who dont. None has passed.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic state Sen. Lisa Boscola has spent years trying to expand the current law to require drivers to clear accumulated ice and snow, and establish fines for violators  even when no one gets injured. Those efforts havent succeeded. The Senate passed a bill in 2018 that died in the House Transportation Committee.

Boscola keeps trying. In October, the Senate passed a new measure, which is in the House committee.

Its been very frustrating. The trucking industry keeps pushing back, Boscola said. Im constantly on the Senate floor talking about snow and ice and the importance of removing it from vehicles.

Boscola started her crusade after a flying chunk of ice killed a woman in her district in 2005. Boscola sponsored the original bill that became law but wants to make it more preventive.

Kevin Stewart, president of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, said his group opposed Boscolas bill in 2018. Among its concerns was that the legislation would put truckers at risk because theyd have to climb 13 feet, 6 inches to remove ice and snow.

You fix one safety issue and create another one, Stewart said.

Stewart said his group does not oppose Boscolas current bill because she has put in more safeguards to protect truckers and companies, such as an exemption if complying with the law would be a threat to the drivers health and safety or violate workplace safety regulations.

In New York, Democratic Assemblyman Michael DenDekker, who sponsored a bill last February that hasnt been taken up by the Transportation Committee, said he, too, has gotten pushback from the trucking industry, as well as labor unions and groups representing seniors and disabled people.

The advocacy groups have been very vocal here in the state of New York, he said, and probably have convinced some of my colleagues not to support it as it is written.

DenDekker, a retired New York City Department of Sanitation worker and union member, said he understands the apprehension shared by labor unions and truckers, who prefer that employers be responsible for clearing ice and snow because they dont want their drivers to get hurt.

Im a Teamster, he said. I get it.

Despite the opposition, DenDekker said hes moving ahead to try to solve the missile crisis.

I care very deeply about this, he said. Ive plowed the streets when there were blizzards and Ive seen snow accumulate on top of vehicles and big blocks fall off. When its below freezing, it is not a good thing.

Ice and snow removal also can be dangerous and expensive for truckers.

Potter, of the trucking trade group, said about 97% of the industry has fewer than 20 trucks and cant afford costly fixed snow-removal systems, which can run tens of thousands of dollars.

Some larger companies do have devices at their terminals that truckers can drive through that push off ice and snow, she said. And truck owner-operators can use brushes or scrapers designed to clear off their trailer roofs, but theyre not always effective, she added. Do-it-yourself brushes typically cost less than $200.

Youre not always going to clear off everything with one of those brushes because there probably is not enough leverage, Potter said. Ice may be much more difficult.

The trucking industry thinks the federal government should address the snow-removal issue.

Nearly a decade ago, a national council of trucking association executives and dozens of state associations wrote to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expressing concern about truck driver safety in clearing vehicles and other challenges. It urged them to determine the scope of the problem and develop practical, effective, and economically viable approaches to address it.

The federal agencies have yet to respond, according to Sean McNally, the trucking trade groups spokesman.

Potter said her group would like to see the federal government and states invest in fixed snow-removal equipment that could be placed at rest areas, truck stops and weigh stations.

But Boscola, the Pennsylvania state senator, said theres lots of new technology the trucking industry can use instead to fix the problem.

Theres everything from roof heating systems to ice scraper systems. I dont buy the excuses anymore that theyd have to climb on top of the rig, she said. We have to act now to protect the safety of drivers on the road.

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Cronkite News

WASHINGTON  They came from across the country but the thousands who turned out for Fridays 47th March for Life had the same goal  reversing Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that recognized a womans right to an abortion.

For marchers like Katie Forbes of Tempe, the magnitude and the scale of the national march are important just for encouragement of anti-abortion forces, who say they have seen the tide turning in their favor in recent years.

To be able to just see that youre not alone, there are other people who stand for the same things you stand for and that are in this with you, said Forbes, who was at the rally with her infant son.

Much of the event was familiar  signs, songs, prayers and chants at a stage on the National Mall before a march down Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court for a rally. But this years march included a first, when President Donald Trump took the short drive from White House to address the crowd in person, the first president to do so.

President Donald Trump drew repeated applause from the March for Life crowd as he touted his administrations opposition to abortion and judicial appointments. Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian / The White House

Trump drew applause repeatedly during a 13-minute speech in which he touted his administrations support for restricting the use of federal Title X health care funds , limiting funding of abortion services overseas and pledging to veto abortion-rights legislation.

Trump also touted his appointment of 187 federal judges including Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, conservatives who are expected to play pivotal roles in abortion cases before the court , including one from Louisiana set for argument March 4.

They are coming after me because I am fighting for you and we are fighting for those who have no voice, said Trump, sparking cheers of four more years as he battles impeachment in the Senate. And we will win because we all know how to win.

Critics called Trumps appearance an act of desperation by a president facing impeachment.

He takes refuge in his ability to whip up a radical anti-choice base, spewing falsehoods when he feels threatened, NARAL President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement released Thursday by the abortion-rights group, which said 77% of Americans support legal abortion. The majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade; a majority of Americans reject Trumps extremism.

The 47th annual March for Life brought thousands of anti-abortion protesters to Washington to march down Constitution Avenue toward the Supreme Court. Photo by Christopher Scragg / Cronkite News

But none of those Americans were in the crowd Friday. A cold, intermittent drizzle did not seem to deter the marchers, an orderly, upbeat throng of thousands who faced a noticeable paucity of counter-protesters Thursday as they made their way to the Supreme Court.

There was originally five of us, until we all got crisscrossed, and now I am here all alone, said Arizona Life Coalition Executive Director Garrett Riley with a laugh, as he headed up Capitol Hill toward the end of the march.

Riley held a sign that featured a panda bear saying Save the Baby Humans. It was one of a sea of signs that ranged from pictures of fetuses to quotes from the likes of Mother Teresa and President Ronald Reagan, from Trump 2020 signs to hand-drawn posters with characters like Baby Yoda.

Forbes said she was anti-abortion before she became unexpectedly pregnant last year. She met her fiance at an anti-abortion event and said her unplanned pregnancy, while shocking to her, was also a blessing.

She said she skipped the Arizona March for Life last week to attend the national march because she feels it is important to make her voice heard.

The point is to show our leaders of this country and to show the country as a whole that we really are here and there are people that feel the way that we do, Forbes said.

I dont want to be back here five years from now, 10 years from now, she said Friday. I would like to see a time where we dont have to march for the unborn.

March for Life - Washington DC - Cronkite News

While the aims of the March for Life are political, the event itself had a strong religious element as in previous years. Photo by Christopher Scragg / Cronkite News

The March for Life moved along the National Mall toward the Supreme Court carrying flags and banging drums. Photo by Joshua Gerard Gargiulo / Cronkite News

While there were some abortion-rights supporters in the crowd at the March for Life, their numbers were small and no confrontations were reported. Photo by Christopher Scragg / Cronkite News

Support for President Donald Trump, who became the first president to address the March for life in its 47-year history, was evident. Photo by Joshua Gerard Gargiulo / Cronkite News

Signs at the March for Life ranged from quotes from Mother Teresa and President Ronald Reagan to homemade signs featuring Baby Yoda. Photo by Christopher Scragg / Cronkite News

As in recent years, organizers of the March for Life featured younger marchers prominently throughout the event in Washington. Photo by Christopher Scragg / Cronkite News

This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University

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Pakistans Navy Chief to visit Sri Lanka View(s):

Pakistans Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi NI (M), will visit Sri Lanka from January 25-29, 2020 at the invitation of Sri Lanka Navy commander, Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva.

During his stay, Admiral Abbasi will meet commanders of the Navy, Army and the Air force and the Defence Secretary. He will also call on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Admiral Abbasi joined Pakistan Navy on January 13 ,1979 and undertook initial training at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, UK. He got commission in Operations Branch in June 1981 and won the coveted Sword of Honour.

The Admiral holds Masters degree in War Studies from National Defence University, Islamabad. He has also done Command & Staff Course from Royal Australian Navy Staff College.

In recognition of his meritorious services, the Admiral has been awarded Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Military) by Government of Pakistan.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Wuhan on Monday, the first such trip by a top leader to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, to boost the morale of millions of beleaguered people and medical staff, amid the rapid spread of the disease that has killed 81 people, infected over 2,700 and prompted two high ranking officials to offer their resignation.

Li, the second ranking leader of the ruling Communist Party of China who headed a high-powered working group to fight the virus control efforts, arrived in Wuhan to inspect the epidemic control and prevention work.

Wearing a mask, which now has become a mandatory in Wuhan and most part of China to avoid contracting the deadly virus, Li attired in special medical coat inspected some of the hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

He spoke to doctors with a walkie-talkie and told them to prioritise the safety and health of the people and called for strict implementation of containment measures.

He also inspected the construction of the two makeshift 2,300 bed hospitals being built in about two weeks and told them to just list their requirements which will be immediately provided by the government.

The virus killed 81 people and infected 2,744 across China till Sunday. The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition. As many as 51 people have recovered while there were currently 5,794 suspected cases, the National Health Commission said.

Overseas, confirmed cases were reported in Thailand (7), Japan (3), South Korea (3), the United States (3), Vietnam (2), Singapore (4), Malaysia (3), Nepal (1), France (3) and Australia (4).

Amid rising public anger over the unprecedented health crisis, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang said that he and the city's Party secretary are willing resign "if it helps to contain" virus which originated from the city.

Zhou admitted that the lockdown of Wuhan, a city with a population of more than 11 million, was a tough decision and a first in human history.

On Sunday, he said five million people from Wuhan left the city before it was locked down on January 23.

"Maybe Wuhan officials will be nailed by history with a bad reputation for doing so and locking up the virus inside the city but as long as it helps contain the coronavirus, we are willing to take whatever responsibility including the resignation of Wuhan Party Secretary Ma Guoqiang and myself," Zhou told the state-run CCTV.

He also admitted that information was not disclosed in a timely manner at the preliminary stage of the virus outbreak.

From January 23, Wuhan and 17 other cities with a population over 40 million have been virtually shut with suspension of all public transport to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of the country.

There is also strong criticism from the netizens about Zhou and other officials who addressed the media without even properly wearing masks.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Beijing to review the measures to contain the virus.

WHO has so far withheld announcement of the global public emergency over coronnavirus as it spread to several countries.

"We are working 24/7 to support China and its people during this difficult time and remain in close contact with affected countries, with our regional and country offices deeply involved," Tedros tweeted.

WHO is updating all countries on the situation and providing specific guidance on what to do to respond, he said.

The Chinese government is also facing the heat over thousands of foreigners, including a few hundred Indians, mostly students, who are stuck in Wuhan city which is under lockdown.

With the Chinese government permitting US to airlift its Wuhan-based diplomats and Americans citizens, citizens of other countries also have been asking Beijing to allow them to leave. France, UK and South Korea too are trying to airlift their citizens stuck in Wuhan. A silver lining in the whole crisis is that no foreigner other than Chinese have been infected with the virus so far in China.

Indian Embassy in Beijing has opened three hotlines to address the concerns of the Indians in Hubei province. The Indian officials on Monday met the Chinese Foreign Ministry officials apparently to discuss the arrangements to evacuate Indian citizens stuck in Wuhan.

A decision on the issue was expected to take place shortly, though officials have not mentioned any timeline.

The Foreign Ministry officials on Monday held meetings with diplomats of several countries. Over 2,000 Pakistani students in a video message made a request to their government to help them to leave the city.

Meanwhile, the number of virus cases in Beijing has raised sharply to 72. The train and bus services between Beijing and neighbouring Tianjin have been suspended.

China has also extended the New Year Festival holidays till February 2 to prevent reverse migration of millions of migrants works to return to their work from holidays.

Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice, the government said.

The government is focussing efforts to prevent mass gatherings and mass travel to ensure the virus is not spread fast.

Beijing has also launched temperature detection at 55 subway stations, including stops at railway stations and Beijing airport. Passengers with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[January 27, 2020] Two Teachers in Georgia Chosen for Curriculum Associates' Inaugural Class of Extraordinary Educators

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Curriculum Associates has selected two teachers in Georgia for the inaugural class of its Extraordinary Educators program, which establishes a tradition of celebrating and connecting exemplary teachers from schools nationwide. Rebecca Ray of Elbert County Elementary School in Elberton County and Olivia Ruggirello of Johnston Elementary School in Cherokee County are among the 31 selected teachers who exhibit best-in-class use of i-Ready and/or Ready in their classroom, illustrate growth and achievement via formal assessments, demonstrate classroom innovation and engagement practices for students, are evangelists for high standards and student achievement, and have been teaching for at least two years. Today, Curriculum Associates' programs are used by teachers in nearly 80 percent of Georgia's school districts. "As a company founded by passionate educators, we have deep respect for the powerful ways in which talented teachers impact the lives of their students," said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. "We are proud to recognize Rebecca and Olivia as Extraordinary Educators. We look forward to sharing their innovative practices that drive student achievement and continuing our rich history of serving Georgia schools."



"I am excited and honored to be named an Extraordinary Educator by Curriculum Associates," said Ruggirello. "I know that being part of the Extraordinary Educators will allow me to grow even further as an educator through collaboration with the curriculum and other Extraordinary Educators. There is nothing better than seeing my students excited about learning, and I cannot wait to use what I learn to help their love of learning increase even more!" All Extraordinary Educators will have access to a network of peers from around the country to collaborate, connect, and learn from throughout the year, as well as receive unique professional development opportunities from Curriculum Associates. They will also be invited to attend and present at the two-day Extraordinary Educators Leadership Summit in July 2020, as well as other professional learning events throughout the year.

"I am honored and excited to be named an Extraordinary Educator," said Ray. "It is through this curriculum that I am able to see my students' continued growth and successes on a daily basis. I am looking forward to collaborating with other colleagues on new ideas for implementing i-Ready in the classroom with my students." To learn more about the 2020 Extraordinary Educators, please visit CurriculumAssociates.com/ExtraordinaryEducators. About Curriculum Associates

Founded in 1969, Curriculum Associates, LLC designs research-based print and online instructional materials, screens and assessments, and data management tools. The company's products and outstanding customer service provide teachers and administrators with the resources necessary for teaching diverse student populations and fostering learning for all students. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/two-teachers-in-georgia-chosen-for-curriculum-associates-inaugural-class-of-extraordinary-educators-300992960.html SOURCE Curriculum Associates

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Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
By Ayhan Uyanik

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Of the hundreds of testimonies he heard from survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, retired German prosecutor Gerhard Wiese says the one that touched him most was of a Jewish father who had tried but failed to save his twins from the gas chamber.

The father had offered his children to Josef Mengele, the Nazi officer known as the Angel of Death for his inhumane genetic experiments focused on twins, hoping they stood a better chance of survival.

But Mengele waved them away to the gas chamber, said Wiese, the last surviving prosecutor of the Auschwitz trials which took place in Frankfurt in the 1960s of hundreds of ex-members of Adolf Hitler's feared SS group for their roles in the Holocaust.

"After this witness statement there was absolute silence in the room," said 91-year-old Wiese, as Germany and the world mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "One wave of the hand - that's all it took for a fate to be sealed."

More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished at Auschwitz, the death camp set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940 to carry out Hitler's "Final Solution" to exterminate European Jews.

World leaders were due to join Holocaust survivors at Auschwitz later on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops.

Wiese is alarmed by a rising trend among Germans to distance themselves from Nazi crimes.

"Even if some people don't like it, you have to keep reminding them: 'you were born in this country and you have to live with its history: the good and the bad parts'," he said.

The German government is alarmed by rising anti-Semitism and hate crime. Last year, an anti-Semitic gunman killed two people near a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle and a far-right sympathizer was arrested on suspicion of killing a pro-immigration politician.

"CULT OF GUILT"

Story continues

Mainstream parties accuse the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of contributing to an atmosphere of hate that encourages political violence. AfD leaders have also been accused of downplaying Nazi crimes.

On Monday, an AfD lawmaker was condemned for saying that Germany should put an end to its "cult of guilt" over the Holocaust.

Stefan Raepple, an AfD lawmaker in the southern state of Baden Wuerttemberg, took issue with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's decision to deliver a speech at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem last week in English, not in German, to avoid using the "language of the perpetrator".

(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Gareth Jones)
[January 27, 2020] First Ever AI Art Hackathon Held in Riyadh to Explore the Creative Potential of Humans Empowered by Artificial Intelligence

AI Artathon, a Global AI Summit initiative, brings together local and global competitors to create AI Art in Saudi Arabia RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The first ever AI Art Hackathon reached the finale of its first round in Riyadh on Saturday 25th January, after a weekend of intense competition. The AI Artathon, an initiative of the Global AI Summit, challenged local and international teams of artists, designers, data scientists and AI experts to create new artistic work using artificial intelligence tools and techniques. The competition is organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, as part of the Global AI Summit. Taking place in Riyadh in March 2020, the Global AI Summit will connect key decision makers from government, academia, business and technology, to discuss the most important issues around AI and how it can be used for the benefit of humanity. Over 2,000 people from over 50 countries applied to participate in Artathon, with 300 people selected for the hackathon in Riyadh. Teams worked around the clock to develop concept AI Art projects, with support from expert mentors and AI professionals, includig Luba Elliott, a curator, artist and researcher, specializing in artificial intelligence in the creative industries; Gene Kogan, an artist and programmer with an interest in autonomous systems, collective intelligence, generative art, and computer science; and Celia Bugniot, a multidisciplinary project manager, designer and artist.



Twenty teams have now been selected for the next stage of the competition, which will see them take part in a two-month program to turn concepts into AI works of art. The top ten artworks will be displayed in an exhibition which will be held at the Global AI Summit on 30-31st March, and the top three teams will split a prize of SAR500,000 (US$133,000).

His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi, President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Global AI Summit, said that the AI Artathon is intended to highlight the creative potential of AI and its positive benefits to humanity, a key theme of the Global AI Summit. "It was very positive to see all of these competitors, coming together from Saudi Arabia and around the world, to collaborate and create using Artificial Intelligence," said HE Dr. Abdullah. "The Global AI Summit aims to bring together government and business leaders, AI experts, academics and investors from around the world, so that Saudi Arabia can lead the discussions on how we can all shape the future of AI, together." About the Global AI Summit Taking place in Riyadh in March 2020, the Global AI Summit connects key decision makers from government and public sector, academia, industry and enterprise, technology companies, investors, entrepreneurs and startups, to initiate discussions and collaboration on artificial intelligence, including its applications, impact on social and economic development, and the global challenges and opportunities that are created by AI. The Global AI Summit will be held at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center and Ritz Carlton Hotel on 30-31st March 2020. For more information contact: [email protected] Or: Mark Sutton, Senior Consultant

Hill + Knowlton Strategies

M: +971 58 836 7348

[email protected] Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082108/Winners_of_the_first_round_of_the_AI_Artathon.jpg

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A former Sarpanch of a village was among 12 persons booked by the police for allegedly forging documents to grab land registered in the name of a dead person in Murbad taluka in Thane district of Maharashtra, police said on Monday.

The accused, including five women, tampered with the land title documents in the year 2013 to remove the name of the original owner Govrubai Kembari, a resident of Nadai, and instead showed another woman as the owner, a police official said.

The role of the then Sarpanch was to certify the forged documents, he said.

Subsequently, Konkan divisional commissioner disqualified the village head.

A case has been registered against various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but no arrest is made so far, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After discovering she had a depleted egg reserve, and would not be able to conceive naturally, Orla Galvin (40) and her husband embarked on fertility treatment, eventually welcoming their son Rory, now two. Right from the outset, Orla knew she needed to find others who had been through the same thing.

She started an anonymous blog, posting on Facebook. "It was a way of unloading. Writing it down was therapy. The fact that it was anonymous meant I really could be open." Very quickly, the Wexford woman had a huge response from women also going through in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She felt that all these women should have access to a communal conversation. "So that if I was asleep, or working or away, if you were having a bad day, there was somebody that you could talk to."

So Orla set up a secret Facebook group. (To join, you must contact Orla through her blog, ivfnme.com, and she will then invite you.)

As well as a sense of solidarity in what can be a deeply isolating experience, the group has, Orla reflects, proven to be a good space to think through decisions when a third voice is needed by a couple. "There's a wealth of information shared there," Orla explains. Not everyone in the group is a talker, she adds, some people just read, and that is fine.

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As well as sharing with the group, Orla began to be more open with her family and friends about what was going on. Rory was conceived through IVF and after the egg transfer, she recalls the difficulty of keeping things to herself. "I just felt like a ticking time bomb. Like I could not hold it in any longer. It was so much, and so stressful, and so upsetting, I just felt I can't cope containing this information. I need to talk and I need support."

She started telling the people around her what she and her husband were going through. "And every person that you told, you felt there's another person putting their arm around me that's going to make this whole thing easier. I just felt 'you know what, just open up. Say it to employers, say it to friends, say it family. And this whole thing will be 10 times easier'. And it absolutely was. It took a huge stress off us."

In the aftermath of her son's birth, Orla still suffered with anxiety that had been with her throughout her pregnancy, and again the group proved helpful. "That anxiety never goes away with an IVF pregnancy. I definitely suffered with it throughout the whole pregnancy. And I think afterwards; there's almost like a post-traumatic stress. That fear, 'OK you're telling me I'm pregnant, I'm 12 weeks, six months, but this could all be taken away from me tomorrow'. And even when they're in your arms, I remember being obsessed with checking Rory's breathing. Most of the girls on the group said they felt the same way. It apparently is quite a normal reaction."

Amanda Knott (29)

Amanda and her husband Dave have been trying to have a baby for four years now. They knew within a year that there were complications; Amada has an issue with her left tube and there are motility issues with Dave's sperm.

They were referred to a fertility clinic in Galway which recommended IVF. It wasn't a huge surprise; the couple had already come to this conclusion themselves. "But when it was finally confirmed it was heartbreaking in the sense that this was our only option," Amanda recalls. "I remember saying to a friend afterwards, 'the hardest part is you never have the experience of getting pregnant naturally, and seeing that positive pregnancy test, without having doctors and science and clinics involved. You're basically in their control'. You kind of lose a sense of yourself in it all."

There's also the crippling financial aspect of IVF, Amanda says, pointing out the lack of state aid. "It's very expensive, which you don't mind, if it was a case that you were guaranteed it was going to work."

Once the couple started IVF last September, Amanda began looking for support groups. "It's something that is not really spoken about. We're open, we tell people, that's the way we are. When we started telling family and friends, it transpired some of them had gone through it."

The Facebook group has provided a much needed source of support for Amanda. "We had an idea of what was involved in IVF. But until we had gone through it, and it failed, we didn't realise the extent of how hard it is. It can be lonely at times, if you don't have anyone. Joining this group, you see other people's perspective, and you realise you're not on your own with this."

Until you go through it, Amanda points out, there is so much about IVF people don't take into account. She describes going in for appointments and trying to make it back in time for work. "Your life is fully on hold," she points out. "You're trying to plan your life around IVF. And then everything is timed around injections."

When it came to their first round, of their four eggs, three were suitable for ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection, where sperm is injected into the egg). "I remember at the time I was feeling so disappointed about that," Amanda says. "So many other people have had a lot more, and you think 'oh god, I feel like a failure, I could have done better, had more eggs'.

"It's such a tense few days, because you're waiting for that phone call first thing in the morning, and you can't really sleep at night," she says of the days before the transfer. Two eggs fertilised, which meant two embryos for transfer. "We were delighted to have got to that stage," Amanda adds. "You come out of the transfer and you're afraid to stand up, or to do something wrong. We were so excited. They say you're pregnant until proven otherwise. So for us we were like 'yes, we've finally gotten here'. We didn't expect it to go as wrong as it did."

Amanda started bleeding on the Sunday, after Tuesday's transfer. "It's horrendous," she recalls now. "I remember feeling 'that's our only hope, all this gone'. And thinking 'what did I do wrong? What went wrong?' My husband was so upset too. The two of us were trying to console each other."

Because she was bleeding so heavily, Amanda was brought for scans in an ante-natal clinic. "All you're surrounded by is pregnant women," she recalls now. "I remember just sitting there going 'this is just torture, it's so unfair'."

Knowing that other people were going through the same thing on the group was hugely helpful at this point, even more so because she could read the eventual success stories. "It gives you that positive vibe to go through it again. That it could work. I felt completely hopeless, but when you're reading other people's stories of success, it gives you that spur just to keep going."

The well-meant but ill-judged comments of those not going through IVF can be particularly painful. "I remember someone turned around and said 'well what's your plan B?' Well at the moment it's like, we don't have a plan B. Of course we've talked about it. We looked at adopting, but it seems to be impossible to adopt in Ireland. Our only option would be to move to England to adopt. That's the thing with people, they don't really realise that if this doesn't work, that might be what you're facing."

The couple point out how much more isolating IVF can be for men, given their natural disinclination to talk about such things. Dave admits he doesn't know any other men going through IVF.

"It was just a very clinical process. And most men out there, we wouldn't come out of the room and not feel a bit ashamed or embarrassed," he says of the initial parts of the IVF process. "You wouldn't go into a group of lads and talk about it. In a way you're on your own, because you think 'if I do talk about this, I'll be ridiculed'."

Sinead Considine (40)

Sinead is 19 weeks pregnant. After two rounds of IVF, she conceived naturally in September. "That was the silver lining in the clouds," she says now. She and her partner started trying for a baby in 2017. She knew very quickly something wasn't right, and in January 2018 began looking for medical help.

It transpired that she had endometriosis, a diagnosis she received after requesting the tests herself. "I used to have what I now know were abnormal periods; I thought it was normal. You always hear of people going through period pain," she recalls now. She had visited a gynaecologist when she was 18, but had been just given pain relief and anti-inflammatories, which she then used to manage the condition for the next 20 years. "I'm so sorry I didn't push it further, but I just didn't know," she says.

Sinead and her partner decided to try IVF in November 2018. Getting started was something of a relief. "I'm a very practical person," Sinead says now. "I don't mind if there's a problem, but I like to be doing something about it."

The couple didn't tell those around them what they were going through. "I just felt like a failure," Sinead explains now. "It was new to me, I just wanted to get on with it privately. I told family when we went for the second round, but you could say to them 'don't be coming to me every second day asking how I am'."

IVF can be hugely isolating, and Sinead explains how she found the Facebook group tremendously helpful. "I found it fantastic. Because you kind of feel like you're in the middle of the sea drowning. I didn't know of anybody else who had been going through IVF. The group is brilliant at pointing you in the right direction. You feel like you're not the only one."

Sinead was a full-time physio for the HSE. Before the couple began trying for a baby, she had also taken on extra private work, two evenings teaching Pilates, so they could build a house. "It was pretty full on, so bit by bit, over the course of the whole journey, I began cutting back on work, eventually dropping the extra work and going down to three days in the HSE."

As there was no identifiable problem bar the endometriosis, she had begun to wonder if it was stress. "Cutting back on work was kind of a last thing to try. I had been to nutritional therapists, I had done reflexology, acupuncture. I just didn't want to give up work. So it was kind of the last thing to take a hit."

On their first round, only one embryo was transferred, as she was deemed at risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. That did not implant and they began looking at options in clinics abroad, opting eventually for a clinic in Eastern Europe, and beginning consultations in January 2019. Sinead began prepping last April for another cycle of IVF. They retrieved 21 eggs. The ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) method was used, where a single sperm is injected into each egg: 19 were fertilised, and they were left with 11 at day five.

At this point Sinead ran into trouble, with her doctors concerned she was in danger of developing a blood clot, and so were unable to perform the transfer. Her consultant in the clinic suggested they come back (at the end of May) and do a transfer on a natural cycle. Two embryos were transferred, with Sinead just on steroids and blood thinners, no hormones.

Two weeks later, back home, they got a positive test. "It was amazing," Sinead recalls now. "We were delighted. We more or less went over and told both sets of parents straight away. And then eight weeks later it was all over. I had a missed miscarriage. The baby had stopped at six weeks, and I didn't find out until eight weeks. There was no heartbeat at the scan. I found that very strange of my body, to be holding onto something that wasn't alive."

She was sent home, it was a Friday, and on the Monday the miscarriage did end naturally at home.

Stopping was never a consideration. They had two frozen embryos in Ireland, nine in the Eastern European clinic. "I knew I didn't have to do a fresh cycle of IVF and egg retrieval." Sinead then suffered from depression for a period and the couple's relationship broke down for a time.

She worked with the A&E crisis team, then later a clinical psychologist, services she says now were hugely beneficial. "I had parked a lot; I did a lot of work. I think it took the miscarriage and hitting that point, but in five weeks, I felt the best I had in years; I felt really, really good in myself." They got their relationship back on track, and in September, they conceived naturally.

Sinead was admitted to hospital in November with a threatened miscarriage, "but this baby so far is making it," she smiles. She is currently studying for a Certificate in Interpersonal Communications, led by clinical psychologist Tony Humphreys, recommended to her by a friend who had had eight miscarriages before getting pregnant. "I find it fantastic in terms of managing stress."

"I don't regret it for one second," she says of the couple's IVF attempts now, adding they will go again after this baby; she doesn't have a cut-off point in her head. "I've heard of women who are 47, 48 having babies. I'll go for as long as my body allows me really."
NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP)  A shooting at a Hudson Valley home on Sunday left three people dead, including a child, and another child in the hospital with gunshot wounds, authorities said.

Police in the Town of Newburgh, about 70 miles north of New York City, said officers responded the home on Route 300 after receiving a call of shots fired around 8 a.m. Sunday.

They found two adults and two children inside, all of whom had been shot.

Police said the adults and one of the children were pronounced dead at the scene.

Newburgh Supervisor Gil Piaquadio told The Times Herald-Record that the shooting appeared targeted, that the shooter wanted to be at that house and it was not just a pick a house at random."
Iran tries to fill Gen. Soleimanis boots By Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira and Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall

In an official ceremony marking the beginning of Esmail Qaanis term as Commander of the IRGC-QF on January 20, 2020, the Commander of the Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami appointed Sayyed Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi to the post of IRGC-QF Deputy Commander.

Gen. Esmail Qaani, Commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard (center left),

congratulates Gen. Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi, the new Deputy Commander. In the front of them on the right

is a picture of the former commander, Gen. Qasem Soleimani A Rich Past Serving the Revolutionary Guard Hejazi (63), a native of Isfahan, joined the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from its beginning in 1979 and fought on various fronts during the Iraq-Iran War. He served in senior posts in the Revolutionary Guard: as Basij Commander  the volunteer arm of the Revolutionary Guard (1997-2008); Chairman of the Joint Staff of IRGC; in 2008, he was appointed as Deputy IRGC Commander. It was probably in this capacity that he also served as Commander of the Sarallah Base of IRGC in Greater Tehran, where he was responsible for the implementation of the security program in Tehran, including putting down popular protests. Serving in that position, Hejazi was involved in suppressing the Green Movement after the elections in 2009 (see below). On October 2007, the U.S. Government designated IRGC and the IRGC-Quds Force officials, including Mohammad Hejazi, as targets for its ongoing effort to counter Irans bid for nuclear capabilities and support for terrorism by providing material support to the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. Hejazi is also sanctioned by the European Union (April 20, 2007) for links to Irans military and missile programs, including entities connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC). On March 25, 2012, he was also sanctioned by the EU for human rights violations against Iranians. He was described as Deputy Chief of the Supreme Leaders Office and Head of Security and part of the Supreme Leaders inner circle, responsible for planning the suppression of protests which has been implemented since 2009. From 2009  2014, Hejazi served as Deputy Chief of General Staff for Armed Forces Logistics and Industrial Research (Project AMAD). In his post, he expressed great pride in the Iranian weapons industry, including in Irans air defense system (Iran developed a more advanced system than the [Russian] S-300). Hejazi received a doctorate from the Supreme National Defense University in strategic administration and a Masters in public administration from the University of Tehran. He is also a senior lecturer at the Imam Hossein University of the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran. Until 2014, Hejazi often expressed his opinions on various regional and international issues, including attacks on Israel, boasting that Irans armed forces had the ability to destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv. Hejazi even estimated that Israel was heading for collapse after its failed campaigns against the Palestinians, Hizbullah, Gaza, and Lebanon. The Move to Lebanon and the Precision Missile Project Since 2014, Hejazis media presence underwent a sharp decline, probably due to his move to Lebanon, where he served as the Quds Forces Lebanese Corps Commander. He brought all the experience he had gained during his previous duties with him to Lebanon and began to work vigorously to build up Hizbullahs military strength, with an emphasis on missile and rockets, in general, and the precision missile project, in particular. According to the Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC, Hejazi was responsible for the Guards Lebanon portfolio (and not just for the Quds Force). After repeated Israeli attacks damaged Lebanon-bound convoys of missiles and other project-related equipment, parts of the precision missile project were transferred to Syria, but they eventually returned to the production line in Beirut, where Hejazi attempted to promote his flagship precision missile project. After Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed to the United Nations (September 27, 2018) the workshops where advancements in the precision missile and rocket project were being made, near the airport and Shiite neighborhoods in Beirut, Hejazis project was transferred to the Baalbek area in Lebanon. Hejazi continued to advance the precision missile project until he was appointed to be the Deputy Commander of the Quds Force. Extensive Experience in the Lebanese Arena The decision to appoint Hejazi as Qaanis deputy appears to stem from his extensive organizational experience gained during his years in the army and the Revolutionary Guard, and especially during his time in Lebanon where he worked closely with Hizbullahs military arm to advance the precision missiles project. Qaani lacks the depth of knowledge of the small details of the Iranian operation in Lebanon, as well as the close ties with Hizbullah operatives such as Fuad Shukr, who was involved in the precision missile project. Shukr is wanted by the United States for his involvement in the 1983 attack on the Marines headquarters in Beirut, in which 241 U.S. soldiers and military personnel were killed. The appointment also indicates the great importance that Iran sees in continuing operations in Syria and Lebanon to build up Hizbullahs military power, especially with regard to its precision missiles and rockets. Hizbullah will continue to be strengthened and will remain as the operational and organizational model  in accordance to Qasem Soleimanis legacy  for the members of the Axis of Resistance the Houthis in Yemen, the Palestinian organizations in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria (Hamas and Islamic Jihad), Shiite militias in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and specifically, in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It should be emphasized that Hizbullah instructors operate in most of these areas to guide local militias and officials in the operation of missiles and rockets, as well as providing military training of various types. On the home front, Hejazi had years of experience as Commander of the Basij and Commander of the Sarallah Base of the IRGC in Tehran. The Leader and the Revolutionary Guard are signaling that the Force or parts of it may also be involved in internal affairs, such as suppressing the current protests and restoring law and order to Iran, even if it involves a high cost of human life. Involved in Suppressing Protests in Iran In this context, according to the BBC in Persian, Mohammad Hejazi, while commander of the Basij forces, played a major part in boosting Mahmoud Ahmadinejads candidacy in 2003-2004 for his first presidential term. A month after Ahmadinejads victory (after the eight-year presidency of the reformist Mohammad Khatami, which most Revolutionary Guard commanders including Hossein Salami and Qasem Soleimani strongly opposed), Mohammad Hejazi said in a speech, This narrowed the gap between the people and the government, and this is welcome change and gives us hope that we can counteract enemy plots. Hejazi played a key role in the suppression and killing of protesters who protested for eight months the fabrication of Ahmadinejads electoral victory for his second term in 2009. Hejazi even issued, according to the same BBC report, a top secret order to Iranian hospitals instructing them to act harshly towards the wounded demonstrators, who had been admitted to the hospitals. Mohammad Hejazis name has been on the EU and UN sanctions list for about ten years because of his role in the killings of demonstrators and his part in the repression of the 2009 Green Revolution protests. Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He served as Military Secretary to the Prime Minister and as chief of staff to the Foreign Minister. He edited the Jerusalem Center eBook Iran: From Regional Challenge to Global Threat. He is the author of Hizbullah: Between Iran and Lebanon, Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, 2000, four editions. IDF Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael (Mickey) Segall, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and at Acumen Risk Advisors. Home
An onslaught of spending and national attention has led to unprecedented voter turnout for a special runoff election in Fort Bend County where both parties are vying for a win that could forecast whether Texas is ripe for a shift in political power.

Cameos from busy presidential hopefuls and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of political ads have flooded the north Fort Bend County district in an effort to prop up Democrat Elizabeth Eliz Markowitz, an educator, in the longtime Republican district for the Texas House. Gary Gates, a Republican and founder of a property management company, is fighting back against the onslaught with the backing of Gov. Greg Abbott and other high-ranking Republicans along with $1.5 million of his own money added to his campaign.

The attention on the otherwise small legislative race has led to high turnout ahead of Tuesdays special election. Nearly 18,000 voters cast ballots early and by mail during the four-day early voting period last week. The turnout eclipses the number of people who voted early over a 12-day stretch last fall when voters whittled down the original field from seven candidates to two in November.

At stake is a national effort to flip the Republican-led Texas House to Democratic control, shifting key political power ahead of the 2021 legislative session when lawmakers will redraw congressional and state legislative districts that could reshape politics for the state and nation for the next decade.

If Democrats pull off a victory, it would signal to donors across the country that they could win the nine seats needed to take control of the Texas House, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. That could open the spigot of political donations in dozens of targeted races, including 11 in the Houston area and others in north and central Texas.

They really have set it up as a test case of, Do Democrats have a chance of flipping the Texas House in 2020? Jones said.

Voter registration is up across Texas, especially in Fort Bend County where 452,000 people are registered to vote, a 30 percent increase since 2014. That is faster than the population growth, which ballooned by 24 percent during the same time period.

For subscribers: Texas tops 16 million voters as registration deadline looms

Texas is politically in play in a way it has not been in years. Although Republicans control all statewide elected positions and both seats in the U.S. Senate, voter support for the GOP slipped in 2018. Democrats flipped a dozen Republican state House districts that year, and Democrat Beto ORourke won over a slew of counties that long favored Republicans in his failed bid for U.S. Senate.

Republicans have won House District 28 handily in past elections, including 2018 when former Richmond Rep. John Zerwas defeated Democrat Meghan Scoggins by about 8 percentage points. He retired last fall, leaving the seat vacant.

Despite Zerwas final electoral win, Democrats suggest Republicans are losing their grip in the district. ORourke lost by 3 percentage points there to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, closing a 10 percentage-point gap from the 2016 election when then-candidate Donald Trump carried the district over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Democrat Markowitz earned her seat in the runoff with 39 percent of the vote, followed by Gates at 28 percent, prompting a runoff. Collectively, the six Republican candidates made up 61 percent of the vote.

Regardless of the outcome of Tuesdays election, the seat is up for election again in November.

The surge in early voting comes after months of political celebrities dropping in Fort Bend to campaign and block walk for Markowitz, including Democratic presidential hopefuls Michael Bloomberg, Julian Castro and ORourke. Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren also have endorsed Markowitz.

A teacher trainer, Markowitz has reported a significant fundraising haul, in part due to the outsize attention from the presidential candidates. She has raised about $583,000 throughout her campaign, with a large chunk coming from outside Texas; she received an additional $144,000 worth of in-kind support from organizations that have provided campaign staff and other services.

Those totals do not account for the scores of out-of-state Democratic groups that have contributed or spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid Markowitzs campaign, including two groups that have invested six figures each.

People are paying attention to Texas. This is the biggest battleground state in the country. There are 38 electoral votes on the table. The state Legislature is in play for the first time since 2001, said Odus Evbagharu, campaign manager for Markowitz. For a long time, weve said Texas is on the cusp. People are starting to believe it, and youre seeing it right now reflected in House District 28.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which supports Democratic candidates nationwide, spent nearly $200,000 on campaign ads supporting Markowitz, while a super PAC called Forward Majority put $200,000 into polling, direct mail and TV ads, including one earlier this month re-upping 20-year-old allegations Gates abused his children. Gates, who adopted 11 children, was accused of child abuse after punishing one of the children by sending him to school with a bag of fig bar wrappers pinned to his shirt. Although his children were taken away for several days amid further allegations of unconventional punishments, the case eventually was dropped. The Texas Democratic Party seized on the episode this month, calling on Abbott to rescind his endorsement of Gates.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Democrats attack Fort Bend state House candidate over 2000 child abuse case

Gates, who has self-funded much of his campaign, is endorsed by the governor and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who argue the extensive attention on the Texas race by outside influences reflects an effort by Democrats to bring socialism to the Legislature.

This is an important special election for a House Seat the Republicans need to hold, Patrick said in a statement Friday. Gary Gates will be a strong conservative voice for that district and I ask all Republicans in House District 28 to get out and vote. Dont let Beto and the socialist Democrats steal this seat.

Republicans have responded with other attacks, including a digital ad run by Abbotts political action committee that links Markowitz to ORourke and his support for a mandatory assault weapon buyback program. The Gates campaigns tracking polls indicate the gun buyback issue has been particularly effective in mobilizing voters, said Craig Murphy, Gates political consultant.

Abbott also has marshaled campaign workers to canvass the district for Gates, and Republicans are busing in block walkers from around the state, according to Quorum Report, a Texas political newsletter.

Democrats have cast the voter enthusiasm as proof the traditionally red-leaning district is in play. They argue the involvement of Abbott and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, both of whom have endorsed Gates, signals GOP concern about holding the seat.

Murphy, Gates political consultant, said a breakdown of early voters primary voting history indicates far more Republicans than Democrats have turned out so far.

Its super, super clear whats happening in this election, Murphy said. Their path to victory seems nonexistent here. Gary Gates is winning just about every category there is except Democrats  independents, Republicans, women, various age groups. So I cant help but be confident.

Rebecca Deen, chair of the department of political science at the University of Texas at Arlington, is skeptical Democrats will win enough seats to take control of the Texas House.

This might be the year, she said. Its hard to tell when the year will be. All things being equal and all turnout being the turnout of previous turnout, Texas is not as purple as Democrats hope it is.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

andrea.zelinski@chron.com
Gov. Noem lauds state economy, but big legislative fights are coming

Noems speech flowed between business and economic development, lifestyle issues and social issues that were united by their conservative themes.
Delhi Police has joined forces with their Bihar and Aligarh counterparts to nab former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam on charges of sedition.

A police team, on January 27, raided his home in Bihar, but couldnt find the youth, The Times of India reported.

A senior Crime Branch officer told the newspaper: A case under IPC sections 124 (offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against government), 153 (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) has been registered against Imam. He is currently absconding and efforts are being made to nab him.

The cops are in hot pursuit of Imam, who had allegedly delivered an inflammatory speech while addressing a protest against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC).

A case has been booked against him under sections 124, 153, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code for promoting hatred and enmity between different religious communities and causing disaffection against the government.

Imam came under the scanner after a video of him allegedly making a seditious speech went viral on social media recently. A police officer investigating the case has alleged that a similar such inflammatory speech was delivered by the youth inside Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) on December 13, 2019, days after Delhi Police had stormed into the campus and assaulted students.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) that registered the case against Imam is also probing the violence that occurred inside the Jamia campus on December 15, 2019.
The dangers posed by African swine fever to UK pig farming were highlighted in the Conservative Agriculture spokesman's last European Parliament speech.

Anthea McIntyre used her last speech before the UK leaves the EU in the parliaments Agriculture Committee to raise concerns over the spread of the disease.

She highlighted how disastrous it would be to the British pig population if it spread to the UK.

The MEP for the West Midlands explained the huge concern of pig farmers on the edge of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, which is home to a large population of wild boar.

She said: Britain was scarred forever by the devastating outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 when over 6 million cows and sheep were killed.

Farmers in my area are very aware of the potential dangers of an outbreak of ASF.

She went on to describe the circumstances for a local farmer who breeds Middle White pigs.

These pigs are a very rare breed. In fact, they are more rare than the giant panda. An outbreak of ASF could completely wipe out the Middle White breed.

ASF can be brought in to a country through contaminated meat products, such as in a sandwich, and it is then spread by wild boar.

But Ms McIntyre believes that the authorities are not doing enough to control the wild boar population in the Forest of Dean.

The importance of biosecurity is well recognised, but it is just not possible for every farmer to protect their farms from the encroachment of wild boar.

The practicality of keeping wild boar out, as I know for myself, is just about impossible, she said.

The Committee was told that ASF only affects wild boar and domestic pigs and that it kills one hundred percent of infected animals.
[January 27, 2020] Strong growth in mobile broadband predicted for Turkmenistan but investment is needed.

Sydney, Jan. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, the 25th edition of Paul Budde Communications annual report on Turkmenistan outlines the major developments and key aspects in the mobile, broadband and fixed line telecoms markets. Comprehensive data is provided on regulatory developments, spectrum assignments and licensing, subscriber statistics, penetration rates and the key market players.

Read the executive summary of the report here Turkmenistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Strong growth in mobile broadband predicted for Turkmenistan but investment is needed. Turkmenistans mobile market experienced extraordinarily strong growth over the 2007 to 2012 period and since 2017 it has increased over 20%. It is expected though as it reaches saturation there will be an inevitable slowing in the growth rate. Also, TM-Cells monopoly since Russia-based Mobile TeleSystemss (MTS) licence was revoked in 2017, does not create an optimal situation for strong growth. The market will be constrained from higher growth due to a further maturing market and the potential lack of investment and competition. In 2019, TS is said to have begun the process of dismantling its equipment in Turkmenistan with a view to fully withdrawing from the country. So Turkmenistan only has one public mobile operator left in the country and no private national or international operator.



Turkmenistan has seen a strong increase in mobile broadband penetration over the past four years however the mobile broadband market is still at an early stage of development and penetration remains relatively low compared to other Asian nations. Strong growth is predicted over the next five years to 2024 but to encourage this growth the government will need to make additional investments in the telecom sector. Mobile Broadband Subscribers 2014  2019

Turkmenistan is ranked 32nd within Asia for telecoms maturity according to BuddeComms Telecoms Maturity Index. Compared to other Asian nations it has it has very low fixed-broadband penetration and very low mobile broadband penetration. Read the executive summary of the report here Turkmenistan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Table of Contents Key statistics

Country overview Background Economy

Telecommunications market Market Overview and Analysis Regional Asian Market Comparison Historical Overview

Regulatory environment Regulatory authority Government policies

Fixed network operators Turkmen Telecom

Telecommunications infrastructure Overview of the national telecom network Fibre Networks Satellites

Fixed-line broadband market Background Broadband statistics and Forecast

Mobile market Background Mobile Statistics and Forecast Mobile Broadband Statistics and Forecast Major mobile operators

Digital Economy Overview e-payments Social Media

Related reports Nicolas Bombourg Within Australia (02) 8076 7665 Outside Australia +44 207 097 1241

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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday targeted the Central Government for not fulfilling its promise of creating jobs stating that there were more than three crore people have become unemployed in major sectors of the country.

"This is the reality of all the big promises of giving jobs. Around 3.5 crore people have become unemployed in seven major sectors of the country.

The result of the big advertisement is the unemployment of 3 crores 64 lakh people. This is the reason why the government is shying away from talking about jobs." she tweeted in Hindi.

Last week, Vadra had slammed the government over the prices of onions imported from other countries.

"First, onion was ordered from outside countries for Rs 43,000/ton. Now the same onions they are trying to sell to Bangladesh for Rs 39,000 /ton. Now you must have understood the reason for the downslide of the economy," the Congress leader tweeted citing a news report.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
File image

Sujata Anandan

Three against one was always going to be a tall order for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). That was only reinforced by results of elections to the local self-government bodies last fortnight. Perhaps that is why no one in the party fought to retain its grip over these bodies, in the first round of elections held recently in Maharashtra after the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress party combine formed the government in November 2019. But it is more than just three against one, the mismanagement by the BJP and particularly former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis must be held equally accountable.

The Congress and the NCP have excelled at zila parishad polls, and the Shiv Sena has managed reasonably well. Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) posted a clear victory in the Akola Zilla Parishad. From all these it is clear that most of the votes were won by Left-of-centre parties, indicating a shift in the mood of the people at the grassroots.

However, even though Fadnavis tried to spin the odd victory over the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), particularly in a couple of North Maharashtra districts, when it came to the people continuing to repose their faith in the BJP, the party was at a loss for words.

Perhaps the most shocking defeat for the BJP was in the Nagpur Zilla Parishad where the Congress effortlessly posted a majority on its own. Of the total 58 seats in Nagpur, the Congress won 31, the BJP won 15 and the NCP won 10. Nagpur is not just the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) but also the home turf of Fadnavis and former BJP President and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. The BJP lost in most of the constituencies from which its past ministers represented, including Dhapewada, Gadkaris ancestral village, which the BJP held for three terms.

What explains the shift in the fortunes of the parties? While most regions have welcomed the MVA government and seem to have voted without fear of repercussions  this was not always the case during the BJP regime  the isolation of the state party leadership could also have been a major factor which contributed to the defeat.

Fadnavis  after he had denied many local leaders tickets to contest in the recent assembly polls  had to struggle during the local self-government elections without the support of these leaders. It is said that Fadnavis denied local leaders tickets in order to cut his competitors within the party down to size.

On the other side, the Congress and the NCP leaderships left the show to the local leaders who ensured that they retained their home turfs. This helped in better co-ordination between the parties and minimal clashes between different leaders. Newly-minted ministers in the MVA government such as NCPs Anil Deshmukh and Congress Sunil Kedar dug in their heels and did not move out of their constituencies until the last was cast to maximise their chances of wresting these local bodies from the BJP.

Apart from Nagpur, the BJP was shocked in Palghar, where it was locked in a bitter contest of one-upmanship with the Shiv Sena even before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Palghar, which is a reserved tribal seat, saw a keen battle after candidates shifted loyalty to rival parties. Following the death of sitting MP Chintaman Wanga in January 2018, the BJP chose former Congressman Rajendra Gavit over Shrinivas Wanga, Chintamans son. Gavit had lost to Chintaman in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Gavit won the bypolls against Shrinivas who was fielded by the Shiv Sena. This is why Shiv Senas victory in the zilla parishad polls over the BJP is significant.

The BJP can draw comfort for wresting Dhule in north Maharashtra from the Congress-NCP combine. The Congress-NCP was rightly ousted because they mismanaged its administration. However, the BJPs continued its bad run in Beed. After losing her Parli assembly seat to her estranged cousin Dhananjay Munde of the NCP, Pankaja Munde, had to see her presidential and vice-presidential candidates lose to the NCP candidates.

The Congress and the NCP have done well despite the previous loss of a substantial voter base among the Dalits and the Muslims, indicating that NCP President Sharad Pawar's efforts to woo them back might be working. The BJP might have to worry about how the Shiv Sena has managed to hold its own despite the alienation of the saffron vote, which had been a force multiplier in combination with the Sena's regional vote-bank.

Union minister and former BJP Maharashtra President, Raosaheb Danve, bitterly stated that the MVA won because it was a government of Amar, Akbar and Anthony. It was meant as an insult, but it might actually be a compliment to the three parties now together representing all sections of society. The BJP is isolated in more ways than one.
Modern policing calls for swift and unified action that does not brook either delayed operations or a divided command. Coming out of the limiting Senior Superintendent of Police system as per Section 4 of the Police Act, 1861 that curtails the authority of the police, Gautam Budh Nagar district finally got the commissionerate system, with the police getting magisterial powers, on January 14, 2020. The system gives more manpower and budget to the police department and also lets them take key decisions in tackling complex law and order situations. The top cop who has been assigned the job of seeing the transition of the district police force into the commissionerate system is 1995 batch IPS officer Alok Singh. He has previously commanded the police force in 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Singh, who turned 53 Friday, was awarded the Presidents Medal for Gallantry in 2002, for busting the naxalite network in Sonbhadra district. In an exclusive interview to HT, the first police commissioner of Gautam Budh Nagar spoke to Sanjeev K Jha and Vinod Rajput on his priorities and plans of action to make Noida free of crime and get rid of traffic blues.

Many people are apprehensive to approach the police in case of emergencies. The common notion, especially in Noida, that caters to thousands of entrepreneurs from India and abroad, is why to involve the police? How do you plan to tackle and bridge this trust deficit?

Alok Singh: Interpersonal skills develop over a period of time. To expect that a sub-inspector or a station house officer will suddenly be completely adept at interpersonal skills is not fair. For that, they need training, both in-house and interactive. We have decided to conduct a continual series of soft skill programmes for our personnel to make them one of the most ambidextrous police officers in the nation. The biggest advantage of the commissionerate system is that it makes policing more people-centric and the people get better responses from officers at police stations. Noida police will soon be among the best police commissionerates in India. I am not going to tolerate any violence against women, traffic chaos or cyber fraud in the district at any cost. Even for police personnel, my message is crystal clear: perform or perish.

Traffic congestion is a daily ordeal for motorists on Noida and Greater Noida roads. How would you address the issue of traffic under the new system?

The deputy commissioner of police will dedicatedly look into traffic-related issues and find solutions with discipline and technology-based mechanism. The UP government has recently added 400 traffic constables to improve traffic management in order to offer a smooth ride to motorists. Apart from this, we held a meeting with Noida authoritys chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari, wherein we discussed many issues, including traffic. The integrated traffic management system is successfully operational on Noida Expressway. Now, there is a plan to put Noida under electronic surveillance in the next few months to further improve traffic management. There is also a plan to put at least 203 square kilometres under real-time surveillance. Same is true for Greater Noida. As of now, we are focusing on the Delhi-Noida Link road and the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) flyway to improve traffic conditions on these roads. Also, there is limited scope to create new stretches or roads in this district. Besides, Noida also needs a lot of discipline as far as driving is concerned. Some CCTV cameras have been installed at some major junctions to lookout for those violating traffic. We will be adding another 1,000 cameras at public places and roads in the coming three months. I am sure that for the modernisation of the police here, there will be no crunch of funds.

The most common issue locals face is cybercrime. Does the police force have adequate and technical staff to nab cyber fraudsters?

Internet crime or financial offences by use of the internet in various modes, be it online or offline, are increasing. There is lack of awareness and many do not know how to use the internet effectively. This being said, a lot of education is required to be decimated amongst people on how to use the internet safely. Presently, we have one cybercrime station, but soon we will have a significant number of cyber-trained officers. DCP Nitin Tiwari, who is himself a computer science engineer, is already working to make policemen apt in tackling cybercrimes. Also, IIT Kanpur, our knowledge partner, is providing us skills and solutions to tackle these crimes, which will definitely yield better results.

What measures are being adopted by the GB Nagar Police to stop crimes against women and children? Is there a rise in cybercrimes against women in the city?

Our charter is that women feel safe anywhere in the city at any hour, whether they are at home, at the office, on the way to the office, or at any restaurant. We have identified routes which are frequented by ladies or young girls. Special patrolling is being ensured along those routes. Roads and streets which lead to offices where women work, or paying guest accommodations where women from different cities come and live, apart from girls schools and colleges, have been identified and special patrolling around these areas is being ensured.

The conviction rate in crime cases in the district is very low. Do you have any mechanism to improve it?

We are planning to establish an independent review committee that will monitor the cases and the trials, as the police alone cannot be held fully accountable for poor conviction rates. The conviction rates can be improved by correcting the process of investigation and filing charge-sheets. Besides this, cases need to be segregated and the target decided accordingly.

In most cases, witnesses turn hostile in courts. This weakens the case and tilts it in favour of the defence. Refresher sessions for police and prosecutors are already underway to improve conviction. Also, it is up to the public prosecutors and the police to ensure that the cases do not fizzle out due to procedural lapses and lack of coordination between them. A concerted effort has to be made to remove infirmities in cases presented in courts.

We will also derive a mechanism for verifying the authenticity of sureties submitted along with bail applications. Stock sureties will also be checked, insisting that those giving sureties on behalf of the accused should submit statutory proofs of their identity at the time of filing bail applications and be accessible for investigating officers to examine the veracity of their credentials. The police and prosecutors are all interlinked in the criminal justice system and thus they need to be effective in their areas. To avoid delay in conviction, we definitely need to file charge-sheets with solid evidence and the prosecutors should take up the trial with seriousness.

According to an estimate, there are at least four to five cheating or fraud cases reported daily in the realty sector. How would you tackle crime related to real estate? Is there any plan to form an economic offences wing on the lines of Delhi to expedite action in realty crime cases?

There has to be a dedicated team of experts that need to deal with crimes related to the real estate sector. The decision on establishing an economic offences wing to tackle cheating or fraud in real estate in this region will be taken by the Uttar Pradesh government soon as this issue is being deliberated. However, a team which was earlier working on such cases will continue to function.

Work on the Noida International Greenfield airport at Jewar along the Noida Expressway is about to begin and it will throw more challenges to police in terms of better policing. How would you tackle this new challenge?

We will create a separate zone for the airport region on the lines of Delhi. We will be having a dedicated DCP to look after crime in the Jewar area, where the airport is scheduled to be developed. This dedicated zone will start operations as and when work on this project begins. Once work for the airport begins on ground, we will increase police personnel there and a DCP will look after policing in the airport region for better response in need.

Encroachment on government land and flood plains in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway is a big problem. How would you ensure no more land is grabbed and how can encroached-upon land be freed?

We are ready to coordinate with the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities on the issue of encroachment. We will provide police force as and when required to free up government land.
Abe lived his professional life by his oft quoted dictum of pursue excellence and success will follow. He was quick to adopt new technology and innovate in all areas of service provision, offering a progressively wider range of services both within and outside the health care system. Many of these were provided pro bono, in keeping with his core value of giving to the community. For example, apart from providing free pathology services to refugees, Abe never charged those identified by their referring doctors as being of limited financial means, an act that was particularly significant before the introduction of Medicare rebates. The practice also provided pathology services for clinical drug trials, the Australian Olympic Federation and Healesville Sanctuary, with which it collaborated to establish blood test reference ranges for various indigenous Australian mammals that were sent to zoos around the world. Abe ensured that his medical practice had a strong focus on scholarship. He prioritised scarce physical space in the laboratory for the establishment of a medical library employing a full-time librarian to service the needs of staff and referring doctors  unheard of in private practice. He also regularly wrote a Dorevitch Pathology professional newsletter that was distributed to referring doctors and subsequently, due to its widely recognised quality, reprinted in the Australian Family Physician, a journal distributed to all Australian general practitioners. Abe was also a committed and energetic teacher. For more than 25 years he was personally involved in teaching skin histopathology  a sub-specialist interest for which he developed an internationally acclaimed reputation  initially to trainee dermatologists and later to pathology and plastic surgery trainees as well. Such was the quality of his teaching, that Dorevitch Pathology became an accredited training site for pathology registrars  again something totally unheard of outside the public hospital system.

Abe was widely regarded as a modest, humble and self-effacing leader. It gave him immense satisfaction that he was able to provide employment for so many people  the overwhelming majority of whom he knew by name. For example, when one of the smaller satellite centres was forced to close, rather than retrenching the 19 affected staff Abe chose to redeploy them elsewhere in a supernumerary capacity. Of his many academic qualifications, professional memberships and awards, the one he was the proudest of was a small plaque acknowledging Dorevitch Pathology as a compassionate employer. He felt that this was recognition of his philosophy that staff welfare, happiness and job security were the key measures of organisational success rather than profit, customer or shareholder satisfaction. He always maintained that if the focus was primarily on the staff, then what flowed on from that in terms of morale, esprit de corps and willingness to work together to achieve practice goals would be assured. Many of his former staff have noted how they treasured their working days at Dorevitch Pathology not just because of Abes intellectual rigour and pursuit of professional excellence in servicing the needs of his patients and doctors, or his desire to support teaching and research activities, but because he was widely seen as a man of moral integrity, kindness, decency and humanity who treated all of his staff accordingly, regardless of their roles within the organisation. It is notable that when the practice ultimately became too large for him to manage, Abe sold it to the third-highest bidder because he felt that they would be most likely to maintain his business philosophy and work standards.
Hundreds of workers are toiling around the clock at the site of a field hospital that China is racing to build within days to treat a rapidly growing number of patients stricken by a deadly virus.

The outline of a floor began to take shape and electrical switchboards were already up on Monday when AFP reporters visited the site of the facility, dubbed "Fire God Mountain", being built in Wuhan, the central city where the coronavirus first emerged.

It is one of two makeshift hospitals that Chinese authorities are rushing to build within a fortnight in the city of 11 million people to relieve medical facilities swamped with patients waiting for hours to see doctors.

Work to build Fire God Mountain started Friday and is due to be ready to receive patients on February 3, according to state media. The second one, named "Thunder God Mountain", will be ready for use on February 5.

The construction workers all wore masks as mandated by the authorities for the entire population of the city, which has been under lockdown since Thursday.

They are checked for fevers when they arrived by bus and again during their breaks.

They worked around a forest of excavators and trucks bringing in prefab material at the site on the southwestern side of the city. "We have to work fast to combat the epidemic," a worker in his 30s, who refused to give his name, told AFP.

He said he worked nine hours per day, "sometimes less, sometimes more. It depends on what they need".

The 25,000-square-metre hospital will have between 700 and 1,000 beds to treat patients of a pneumonia-like virus that has killed 81 people -- mostly in Wuhan -- and infected more than 2,700 across the country.

The second facility will have 1,300 beds.

"We've mobilised all the workers left in Wuhan to work in shifts to ensure round-the-clock construction," Zhang Chongxi, general manager of the road and bridge company of Wuhan Construction, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua agency.

Chen Bingzhong, a former health ministry official, said the facilities are needed because infectious diseases should not be treated in general hospitals.

"Because the infectious power of this virus is too strong, it will infect other patients, including medical staff," Chen told AFP.

China has experience building hospitals in record time in periods of crisis.

In 2003, it built a facility in Beijing within a week to treat patients during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
T he US Embassy in the Baghdad Green Zone has come under attack from rocket fire, injuring at least one person.

Reports suggest that a rocket struck the compounds cafeteria, while two others landed nearby.

There were conflicting reports of how many were injured, but staffers at the embassy said at least one was injured.

It was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were or the nationality of the person injured. AFP reported that three people were wounded.

US Joint Operations Command released a statement saying that five Katyusha missiles crashed into the riverbank near the building.

An Iraqi security official told the Associated Press that one of the rockets landed inside the embassy walls.

General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike / AP

The perpetrators have not been identified.

It comes after Iran launched a series of missile strikes against bases housing US troops in Iraq earlier this month, in response to the killing of Irainian General Qasem Soleimani.

This strike injured 34 troops, although 17 have returned to their duties.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi condemned the rocket attack that targeted the US Embassy. In a statement, he asserted Iraq's commitment to "protecting all diplomatic missions."

While the rockets rained down on the Green Zone in Iraq on Sunday evening, protesters were taking to the streets across the country in opposition to the regime.

Demonstrations have been brutally suppressed in recent months.

Protests in Iraq have been brutally surpressed in recent months / AFP via Getty Images

Security forces fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse the crowds from Baghdads Khilani Square, medical and security officials said.

One protester was killed and six wounded after security forces fired live rounds in nearby Wathba Square later in the evening.

At least 28 demonstrators were reported wounded by Iraqi security forces in the first hours of Sunday's street rallies.

The mass protests started in October over widespread government corruption and a lack of public services and jobs.

They quickly grew into calls for sweeping changes to Iraq's political system that was imposed after the 2003 US invasion.

Iraqi security forces have responded harshly, with at least 500 protesters killed since the unrest began.

Iraq also has been roiled by US-Iran tensions that threatened a regional war after an American drone strike this month killed top Iranian General Soleimani near Baghdad.
Were still in January, and 2020 already has its first publishing controversy.

The prepublication hype for Jeanine Cummins American Dirt hailed it a literary marvel, the Grapes of Wrath for our times.

The novel follows a middle-class Mexican woman and her son who must try to escape to the U.S. after a drug cartel murders her investigative-journalist husband.

Oprah Winfrey, whose thumbs up is a guarantor of bestseller status, heralded the book. And the publisher, Flatiron Books, sent copies off to a clutch of other celebrities in the hopes theyd promote it.

But a backlash quickly followed.

Critics have called American Dirt third-rate and sleazy and accused the author, who says shes a white person  [and] also Puerto Rican, of cultural appropriation. The actor Salma Hayek, who promoted the book on Instagram, quickly retracted her endorsement, admitting she had not read it and was not aware of any kind of controversy.

Early commentary about the book on Amazon became so politicized that the online-retail behemoth has put restrictions on reader reviews of it.

David Bowles, a writer and translator, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the telenovela plot is a pastiche of stereotypes and melodramatic tropes of the sort one might expect from an author who did not grow up within Mexican culture.

The Times, in fact, has been especially tough on the book.

I found myself flinching as I read, not from the perils the characters face, but from the mauling the English language receives, Parhul Sehgal wrote in a review for the newspaper. The critic added:

The real failures of the book  have little to do with the writers identity and everything to do with her abilities as a novelist.

Sehgals opinion is far from universal. Theres a reason American Dirt was anointed as one of the handful of books that will get the mega-publicity treatment this year.

The Guardian called it a devastating and timely novel  What Cummins does so skillfully in the novel is to subvert popular preconceptions about migrants.

The novelist Ann Patchett, pointing out that Cummins received a seven-figure advance for the novel, said the criticism the books received might have more to do with sexism than concerns about the author stepping into a culture and identity she doesnt understand.

I read the book and I loved it, Patchett said in the Los Angeles Times.  Theres a level of viciousness that comes from a woman getting a big advance and a lot of attention, she added. If it had been a small advance with a small review in the back of the book section, I dont think wed be seeing the same level of outrage.

American Dirt, which began to hit bookstore shelves last week, is about to indicate whether all publicity really is good publicity.

The author, for her part, is trying not to get drawn into the negativity. Cummins said on NPR:

Not everyone needs to love my book.

Jeanine Cummins will talk about American Dirt at Powells City of Books on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

-- Douglas Perry

@douglasmperry

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Mumbai: Filmmaker Jagan Shakti, who directed Vidya Balan-Akshay Kumar- starrer "Mission Mangal", was hospitalised on Sunday and is recovering, a source close to the director said.

As per multiple reports, the filmmaker collapsed while he was with his friends and was rushed to a city hospital.

"Jagan is now well and is recovering," the source told PTI, adding that the filmmaker has a clot in his brain.

"Mission Mangal" was based on real-life scientists, who contributed to India's first interplanetary expedition, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched by Indian Research Space Organisation (ISRO) in 2013.
We have just celebrated Republic Day, and now we are shortly going to commemorate Martyrs Day, when the Mahatma laid down his life. This is a moment of introspection, especially at a time when our democracy is grappling with difficult questions. Are social divisions deepening? Is the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) really against a particular section? Will it really put Indias federal polity at risk?

Be it Delhis Shaheen Bagh, or any dharna site in Lucknow or Mumbai, at every demonstration, there is a common vocabulary. Among those invoked are Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar; the text hailed is the Constitution of India; the terms used are peace, non-violence and brotherhood.

After the violence in Uttar Pradesh and Mangalore, the agitators have now adopted a new tactic. They are putting young people and women at the forefront of the demonstrations, as they know that it is not easy to remove them forcibly. In the current age of rapid information flows, coercion cannot be hidden. It can, instead, be counter-productive for those who deploy force. The objective of protesters is clear  continue the movement as long as possible in a peaceful manner.

The Tricolour, revolutionary poems, Gandhi and Ambedkars photographs have been used successfully so far to animate the atmosphere at these protest sites. But the incidents in Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are worrisome. In Lohardaga, Jharkhand, violence spread when stones were pelted on a procession in support of the new citizenship law, leading to curfew being imposed. Similarly, stones were pelted in Beniya Bagh of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, when the police tried to disperse the protesters. In Maharashtra, workers of the Vanchit Aghadi were accused of violence during the bandh. Needless to say, social harmony will be threatened if this is repeated in other places as well.

Before getting into the nuances of the current situation, I would like to draw your attention to the members of the Constituent Assembly (CA). They set the foundations to guide Indias diverse society in the right direction.

In this Assembly, there were Gandhians such as Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Maulana Azad; there were socialists and leftists such as JB Kripalani and Somnath Lahiri; there were leaders such as Shyama Prasad Mookherji, who went on to establish the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Begum Aizaz Rasool of Muslim League too was a member of this Constituent Assembly. While MG Ranga was the leader of the farmers, Baldev Singh represented the Sikhs. The CA represented every section of India in the true sense of the word and that is why it was able to frame a Constitution which transcends religion or creed. Needless to say, that this Assembly had Mahatma Gandhis approval and blessings.

Even today, representatives of every section are there both in Parliament and in assemblies, but the chasm of mistrust among them is widening. They know that the solution to the problems we face lies in mutual discussion and dialogue.

But the governments obdurate attitude, and needless posturing by the Opposition, are blocking positive solutions. The government says that the Opposition parties are spreading confusion over the CAA. The top leaders of the ruling party are challenging the Opposition for a public debate over the issue. In response to this, Opposition parties argue that the government is doing this to divert attention from its economic mismanagement. They allege that democracy in India is in danger. Indias drop in rankings in the Democracy Index, brought out by the Economist Intelligence Unit, lends credence to this criticism.

Amid all this, another dangerous trend seems to be emerging. Many states have refused to implement the new law. Those who govern these states, well aware of the division of power within the constitutional framework, are aware this is not legally tenable. Once a law has been passed by the Parliament on the issue of citizenship, which falls squarely within the Union list, it has to be implemented in the whole country. Isnt this posing a threat to the countrys federal structure? In some states, governors and chief ministers are already engaged in a bitter battle, hurting the dignity of constitutional offices.

The Centre has been challenged in the past too, particularly in Kashmir and some states of the Northeast. But these voices were scattered, and, so, it was easy to deal with them. This time, however, the dissent from federal units is more widespread. From Chandigarh to Thiruvananthapuram, this fire is spreading.

Take it all together. The breakdown of political dialogue; the street protests and subsequent violence; the trust deficit between a section of the citizens and the State; the discord between the Centre and the states. And it is clear that India needs to be worried.

It also shows the helplessness of the gana (people) before the tantra (system). As we celebrate the Constitution at 70, and as we look back at the Mahatmas life 72 years after he was assassinated, it is time to ask whether our founders envisaged this India.

It is time to ask whether Bapu laid down his life for this.

Shashi Shekhar is the editor-in-chief, Hindustan

The views expressed are personal
Sacramento, CA  Letters between President John F. Kennedy and members of his administration to former California Governor Pat Brown are going up on the auction block.

The auction house Sothebys is estimating the value of the collection to be between $20,000-$30,000. Former Governor Jerry Brown was not informed or consulted about the sale and is questioning how the anonymous seller received the items.

He tells the Associated Press, Id sure like to know why the seller is claiming anonymity and why these documents arent at the UC Berkeley archives with the rest of my fathers papers.

There is speculation that the letters may have been taken and saved by someone in Pat Browns administration.

Pat Brown served as Governor from 1959-67 and passed away in 1996. The items include a letter from President Kennedy days before his assassination regarding a tax reform proposal, a letter from Lyndon Johnson shortly after the assassination, and a letter of thanks from Jacqueline Kennedy, two years after the death.

The auction begins today.
The proposed sale has sparked outrage from many people at prominent internet nonprofits, including the Wikimedia Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and rightly so. One worry is that Ethos, in an attempt to make the .org top-level domain as profitable as possible, will rapidly raise prices for its customers. For years, a 2013 contract capped the cost of an .org domain at $8.25 with an allowed increase of no more than 10 percent a year  a restriction that kept .org domains affordable. Today, a .org domain costs $9.93 a year.

But in June 2019, ICANN approved a new contract with the Public Interest Registry eliminating the price cap, even though thousands of people voiced opposition to that decision during a period of public comment. Ethos has said it will continue to raise prices for .org domains by no more than 10 percent per year, but its not clear how those promises will be enforced, or by whom, and the timing of the sale  following immediately on the elimination of the price cap  has contributed to some of the skepticism surrounding the deal.

Another fear is that Ethos will cave to pressure from foreign governments about which organizations should and should not be allowed to own .org domains. Currently, .org is an open domain so anyone is allowed to register a .org domain, and there are more than 10 million of them registered worldwide. But the Public Internet Registry has the authority to suspend domain names for illegal activity, and one of the concerns raised in a public letter opposing the sale is the potential for governments to target NGOs by accusing them of illegal activity and pressuring the Public Internet Registry to take down their domains. Just last month, for instance, the Chinese government sanctioned five United States-headquartered NGOs for their involvement in the protests in Hong Kong; all five of those NGOs have .org domains.

There are other reasons to be worried about the sale. The circumstances of the deal between Ethos and the Internet Society seem at odds with the multistakeholder model of cooperative, transparent governance that the internet community has worked so hard to develop. Beyond just threatening the integrity of the .org top-level domain, the sale of the Public Interest Registry without any further community involvement or oversight from ICANN threatens the integrity of that governance model and the publics trust that the organizations responsible for running the internet have their best interests at heart.

ICANN has the ability to block the deal, as well as to question the involved parties about how they would manage the .org domain and protect customers, but in a statement to The Financial Times, ICANN said it does not have authority over the proposed acquisition, a claim that is patently false. ICANN itself, in a blog post last month, acknowledged that PIR must obtain ICANNs prior approval before any transaction that would result in a change of control of the registry operator and pledged to take its responsibility in evaluating this proposed transaction very seriously. But while ICANN says it has asked PIR for more information about the sale, it has told the public very little about those inquiries or the ensuing responses, and it has not solicited any public comments on the transaction.
The Associated Press agency has apologised for cropping a Ugandan climate activist out of a photograph she had posed in alongside four of her Caucasian peers.

Vanessa Nakate was attending a youth climate science event in Davos, Switzerland, when she posed for the photo, alongside Greta Thunberg and three other young women.

However, when the final photograph emerged in a story online, the Ugandan woman found she was nowhere to be seen.

The initial photo of the climate activists at a press conference in Davos Switzerland. A published version showed Vanessa Nakate (far left) cropped out of the frame of the final published image

Vanessa posted the image of the cropped photo alongside the image of her in the photo. Supporters on Twitter were outraged and drove the conversation which has been shared, and re-shared, thousands of times

Ms Nakate, 23, said the final image the Associated Press published that showed only her Caucasian peers, Greta Thunberg, Isabelle Axelsson, Luisa Neubauer and Loukina Tille, was emblematic of racism.

'This is the first time in my life that I understood the definition of the word racism,' she said, as she called the press agency out on Twitter.

'Why did you remove me from the photo?' she questioned. 'I was part of the group!'

'You didn't just erase a photo. You erased a continent. But I am stronger than ever,' Nakate said later on Twitter.

She said in a subsequent tweet, she would not be silenced, and was prepared to speak out so that the stories of all African activists would be listened to.

'Now is the time to rise up higher than before.'

In a statement released on Friday, AP executive editor Sally Buzbee apologised for how the photo had been cropped.

'We regret publishing a photo this morning that cropped out Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, the only person of color in the photo. As a news organization, we care deeply about accurately representing the world that we cover,' Buzbee said.

'We train our journalists to be sensitive to issues of inclusion and omission. We have spoken internally with our journalists and we will learn from this error in judgment,' she added.

Ms Buzbee also reached out to the activist on Twitter to apologise.

However, while Ms Nakate initially accepted the apology, she has asked for further clarification on how the issue happened in the first place.

'Everyone would like to know how such a mistake was made especially when you had more photos?' she asked.

The agency has since amended the article online to include this image of the Ugandan activist (centre) and her peers

The AP article Nakate referred to now contains an image showing her and the other climate activists during a news conference, as well as another image of her surrounded by her Caucasian peers at one of the summit events.

The incident sparked outrage on Twitter, with some calling for the person who cropped the image to be seriously disciplined.

Nakate later wrote: 'Everyone saying that I should position myself in the middle is wrong! Does an African activist have to stand in the middle just because of fear of being cropped out?'
Further toxicology reports are needed to determine how the three children found at in their home in Dublin on Friday evening died, but it is thought they may have been suffocated.

Another line of inquiry being followed by gardai is that the three children, Conor McGinley, 9, Darragh, 7, and Carla, 3, were sedated prior to their deaths, and could have died due to overdose.

The two brothers and their sister were found at their home in Parsons Court in the village of Newcastle in Dublin at approximately 7pm on Friday. It is understood that there were no obvious physical injuries to the children when they were first discovered.

Paramedics were alerted to the scene when a woman, believed to be the childrens mother, was found in a distressed state.

She was taken to Tallaght University Hospital, where she continues to receive medical treatment.

Gardai are anxious to talk to the mother about the circumstances of the tragedy and will speak to her once doctors have decided she is able to talk to them.

It is understood that a note reading Call 999, dont go upstairs was discovered at the scene.

The childrens father, Andrew McGinley, is believed to have discovered the three bodies in the house after he returned home from work. He stayed with them until the emergency services arrived.

A family liaison officer has been appointed to Mr McGinley, and they are in contact with him and the childrens extended family, a Garda spokesman said.

It is understood that the children attended school on Friday, with the oldest sibling Conor collected a little earlier than usual by his mother.

Prayers were said for the family at a packed Mass in the nearby parish church of St Finians yesterday.

Neighbours and locals left flowers, notes and tributes at the house over the weekend. Prayers were also said for the family at a community gathering on Saturday.

Co-parish priest Fr Kevin Doherty said a darkness has descended on the close-knit community.

The darkness, its so dark, its unspeakable. Grief, heartbreak, loss, and it affects and touches everybody in this community, he told RTE.

Out of the darkness, somehow we have to find the light. In the kindness of people, there is light.

Councillor for the area Emer Higgins described the events as an unimaginable tragedy.

My thoughts are with everybody impacted, said the Fine Gael representative.

This is a really tight-knit community, its a small area, its a quiet area and its just unthinkable that something like this could be happening on our doorstep.

Its so tragic. Its unbelievable that three young peoples lives could be cut short like that, in what seems to be a particularly tragic case.

Assistant State pathologist Margot Bolster completed autopsies on the children on Saturday at the Dublin City Morgue.

However, interim results are not being published for operational reasons, according to the gardai.

Further toxicology reports are still awaited.

The scene where two boys and a girl were found in a house at Parsons Court in Newcastle Village,northwest of Rathcoole last night.. Pic Stephen Colllins/Collins Photos.

Tailored supports are to be put in place for local families and children struggling to come to terms with the deaths of the three children.

An Garda Siochana says it is working closely with South Dublin Children and Young Peoples Service Committee to ensure the appropriate supports are available to the community through schools, counselling and family support services and local groups.

A Garda incident room has been set up in Clondalkin Garda Station and gardai have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

Door to door inquiries in the area are expected to continue over the coming days to determine the exact movements of the family leading up to the heartbreaking events.

No arrests have been made and An Garda Siochana continue to investigate all the circumstances of these unexplained deaths, a Garda spokesman said.

samaritans.org; call 116 123; 3ts.ie
RICHMOND, Va. - One Republican delegate warns that Virginia is splitting in two. Another would support returning liberal Arlington and Alexandria to the District of Columbia. Lawmakers in West Virginia have offered to annex rural Frederick County, outside Winchester, to liberate it from its rapidly urbanizing home.

The change that Democrats promised in last fall's election campaigns is hitting Richmond with full force, casting new light on political and cultural divisions that have simmered for years. As leaders work quickly to advance gun control, women's rights and LGBTQ protections, many Republicans charge that they're trampling on the interests of a new minority: rural conservatives who long held sway in the Capitol.

"We don't need one part of Virginia pitted against another just because of a political agenda," House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, a Republican from Shenandoah, said last week.

Last week's massive gun-rights rally was the rawest reaction yet to the demographic shifts turning Virginia from red to blue. While the state's electorate has been tilting toward Democrats for more than a decade, this year's General Assembly session finally shows what consolidated power looks like, with blue majorities in the legislature joining forces with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.

The abrupt change is playing out in ways large and small. Democrats grabbed national attention for approving the Equal Rights Amendment, but also quietly changed the pronouns in official House rules from "he/him" to "she/her." The weekly "Speaker's Bible study" has become an "interfaith devotional" that kicked off with a rabbi. The word "Militia" is gone from the name of the House Public Safety Committee.

Democrats say the changes are meant to be more inclusive. "We're telling people, 'Yes, you belong here, you have someone you can relate to here,' " said Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, the first openly transgender person to serve in Virginia's legislature.

Women and minorities have vaulted into historic positions of power. Beyond the first female Speaker and House majority leader, African Americans chair seven of the 14 standing House committees, including the powerful Appropriations Committee that controls state purse strings.

Regionally, the shift is equally striking. In both the House and Senate, Democrats from northern Virginia's D.C. suburbs control the majority of committee chairmanships; under Republicans, the powerful jobs were distributed to lawmakers from all over the state, with a tilt toward rural areas.

The upshot is that white men from red parts of Virginia hold less power this year than any time since Reconstruction.

In a sense, the change addresses old imbalances - and not just racial ones. Northern Virginia has never had positions of influence equal to its proportion of the state's population and wealth, particularly in the House of Delegates. And Republicans over the past quarter-century have used their majorities to pass measures that Democrats found extreme, such as requiring ultrasounds before abortions or undoing any hint of restrictions on guns.

Northam's predecessor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, vetoed more bills than any governor in state history as what he called a "brick wall" against the political excesses of a Republican-controlled legislature.

The Senate, which has flipped control more often than the House, has made the transition fairly smoothly - though Republicans complained that no members from the mountainous Southwest are part of the powerful Finance Committee.

In the House, which was under GOP control for 24 years, the shift has been painful. Former House Speaker Kirk Cox of Colonial Heights opted not to take over as minority leader and sits quietly during floor sessions, grimacing and whispering with colleagues.

Del. Robert D. Orrock, R-Caroline, the GOP's master of parliamentary rules, routinely bounces to his feet to challenge Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, on what he says are procedural errors. Gilbert, the minority leader, lectured the new leadership in an extraordinary speech on Jan. 17.

"I realize this is a jubilant time for Democrats," Gilbert said, while warning of "growing concern about how we are functioning as an institution." The pace of taking up bills was too slow, he said, pointing out that the session would be 14 days old before the first measures were likely to pass out of the House.

Committees have canceled meetings, he noted, and legislative aides complained of low morale. The session "seems slow, it seems awkward and it doesn't seem like it is getting any better," he said.

Filler-Corn responded with a frosty promise that work would be done on time. Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, the House majority leader, noted that Gilbert had "hit my chair and caused a fuss" when the chamber was debating the ERA. And Del. Luke E. Torian, D-Prince William, the first African American to chair the Appropriations Committee, angrily instructed Gilbert not to "single us out as though we are lazy."

Privately, many Democrats said they bristled at the optics of Gilbert, a white man, seeming to question the competence of female and black leaders.

But some Republicans say Democrats are abusing their new power.

"When you feel like one side dictates all the terms, I do think it exacerbates . . . differences in ways that are unhealthy," said Del. Nicholas Freitas, R-Culpeper.

"I really think it's going to just build in the weeks ahead as we see pretty dramatic policy shifts in areas that relate to business, taxation . . . abortion [and] other things," said Del. David A. LaRock, R-Loudoun.

Earlier this month, with one eye on history and the other on the gun-rights movement sweeping across Virginia, Republicans in the West Virginia legislature advanced a resolution inviting neighboring Frederick County to cross the border and join the mountain state. Such an offer had technically been on the table since the Civil War, when West Virginia broke away from Richmond rather than secede.

"West Virginia has a very strong tradition of being jealous and guarding individual liberties, including those that are protected by the Second Amendment," West Virginia state Sen. Charles S. Trump IV, who sponsored the resolution, said in an interview.

While no one in Richmond seems keen on the idea, the proposal got LaRock thinking about how Alexandria and Arlington were originally included in the District of Columbia, until changing laws on slavery caused them to leave in the 1840s.

Maybe, he told a local newspaper, they should go back.

There are "dramatically different values" in Arlington and Alexandria than other parts of Virginia, LaRock said in an interview with The Washington Post. While the idea initially was just to illustrate "general dissatisfaction" with changes in Richmond, LaRock said he's half-serious about it.

"If I saw a proposal that was widely accepted by many, many others and was the most peaceful way to reconcile some of the situations now that are kind of beginning to build, I would entertain that possibility," he said.

But the problem for Republicans is that the values LaRock sees in Arlington and Alexandria have spread throughout the state. In last fall's elections, it was suburban districts in places like Prince William County, Chesterfield County outside Richmond and parts of Hampton Roads that gave Democrats their majorities in the legislature.

"This is them realizing and being disappointed that they didn't get more votes than they did," Del. Jerrauld C. "Jay" Jones, D-Norfolk, said. "We are executing the will of the people of Virginia who came out to the ballot box."

Northam, who has become the focus of rage from pro-gun activists for his promise of gun control, said through a spokeswoman that his agenda is more in step with the values of people across the state.

"Virginians have long supported things like universal background checks, ending the attacks on women's rights, and ensuring workers can support themselves and their families," the governor said in a written statement. "The difference is now, our legislature is finally listening."

It's ironic that Northam - who hails from the Eastern Shore and used to vote for Republicans - has become the bane of conservatives. When he ran for governor in 2017, some Democrats worried his rural roots and country accent would alienate suburban voters.

The day after the Richmond gun rally, Northam appeared in Franklin County in far southwest Virginia - a place that has declared itself a Second Amendment sanctuary - to tout a business that was expanding. The next day, he announced a series of grants to expand rural broadband.

But his agenda for the coming weeks of the session is unabashedly blue. Even before Democrats have finished approving gun control bills, they will move on to measures that expand voter access and ban discrimination against LGBTQ people. Democrats in the legislature also hope to raise the minimum wage, decriminalize marijuana, eliminate cash bail and more.

Roem, who in only her second term is now the first openly transgender person to chair a subcommittee, said Republicans need to get over it.

"Keep in mind that those of us from northern Virginia had to very much live with a state that was run in large part by people from places outside of northern Virginia for a long time," she said.

Now that the state's most populous and wealthy region is in charge, she said, the message isn't separation; it's inclusion.

"We're just reflective of where we are as a commonwealth," Roem said. "That doesn't change the fact that we have different parties, different regions, different values. . . . Everyone just needs to learn how to coexist."
A Saratoga County sheriff's deputy was charged with multiple felonies after investigators said he sexually assaulted two children under the age of 13.

Deputies said they received a complaint on Saturday about Steven Willetts, 40, of Malta. Willetts allegedly assaulted two girls, one several years ago and one more recently, according to deputies.

He was charged with criminal sexual act and course of sexual conduct against a child. Deputies said Willetts engaged in oral sexual conduct with a girl under the age of 11 and engaged in at least two acts of sexual conduct with a girl under the age of 13 over several months.

Willetts was arraigned in Malta town court and sent to Saratoga County jail without bail. He was suspended from the sheriff's department without pay. His 2019 salary was $72,923. Deputies said the crimes took place when Willetts was off-duty.

Willetts could not be reached. It was unclear if he was represented by a lawyer.

On Monday, Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said he would say nothing further about Willetts' arrest.

It's the second time one of Zurlo's deputies have been prosecuted in the past year.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In March 2019, Peter Farnum, a 42-year-old who worked as a sergeant until his arrest, was sent to prison for possessing more than 1,000 images of child pornography on his family computer.

Farnum, received 7 years and 3 months in federal prison, which will be followed by 20 years of supervised release.

Farnum, the midnight shift patrol supervisor in Milton before he was arrested, was convicted the year before after a two-week trial prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wayne Myers and then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Giovannetti.

Court papers show the FBI began investigating Farnum after learning he might have possessed child pornography images on a computer hard drive in Montana. That's where his estranged wife, Courtney Seymour, sent them to be examined. The examiner discovered the images and contacted the FBI.
At least 436 people, who returned to Kerala from China in recent days, are under observation for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus (nCoV), health officials said on Monday.

Five people are still under observation in isolation wards at various hospitals across the state, officials said, adding, all results of blood samples sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune have been found to be negative for the virus.

While three people are in hospitals at Ernakulam, one each are in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, officials said.

Two people, admitted earlier to hospitals in Pathanamthitta and Malappuram, have been discharged.

Health minister K K Shylaja said necessary steps were being taken by coordinating with district medical officers.

"We have also opened isolation wards even though we have not received any positive cases in the state," she told the media.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting stranded Indians from coronavirus affected Wuhan province in China, including those from the Southern state.

Sharing the concern of Kerala, Vijayan, in a letter to Modi, said the ground situation in the province has worsened and the state had information from relatives of students from Kerala studying at various Universities there that the situation there was "grave."



There were also reports that Yichang area has also been affected, he said.

"It may be appropriate to consider operating a special flight to Wuhan/a nearby functional airport and airlift the Indian nationals stranded there and bring them back to India," Vijayan said, days after he shot off two letters to External Affairs minister S Jaishankar.

Vijayan also offered the assistance of medical professionals from Kerala in case the Indians being evacuated from Wuhan needed medical attention.

He also wanted necessary instructions to be given to the Indian Embassy in China to "act proactively" and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including Keralites stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

A team of doctors deputed by the Union Health Ministry visited the Cochin International Airport and Kalamassery Medical college hospital and expressed satisfaction at the preparedness.

At the CIAL airport, the doctors examined the passenger manifests and details of 178 passengers who were screened by airport health officers, a statement from the airport said.

The central team also visited the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital where an isolation ward has been set up to observe patients.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A cease-fire in the Libyan civil war has collapsed and foreign shipments to the combatants have resumed, shredding the work of a conference of world leaders who convened in Berlin just eight days ago.

Battles are raging on all front lines, Ahmed Mismari, a spokesman for the military forces based in eastern Libya, told reporters over the weekend, according to Reuters.

The United Nations had already warned on Friday of continued blatant violations of the arms embargo by unnamed foreign powers who had pledged just days earlier to stop supplying weapons to Libyan clients.

In a statement, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said, Over the last 10 days, numerous cargo and other flights have been observed landing at Libyan airports in the western and eastern parts of the country providing the parties with advanced weapons, armored vehicles, advisers and fighters.
Tenn. governor signs law: Faith-based adoption agencies won't be forced to work with same-sex couples

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has signed a bill into law that would allow private adoption agencies to refuse to place children with a family that conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Lee signed the bill last Friday. It states that no private licensed child-placing agency shall be required to  participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the agency's written religious or moral convictions or policies.

This bill prohibits [the government] from denying to a private licensed child-placing agency any grant, contract, or participation in a government program because of the agency's objection to participating in a placement that violates the agency's moral convictions, notes the legislation.

The department of children's services shall not deny an application for an initial license or renewal of a license or revoke the license of a private child-placing agency because of the agency's objection to performing, assisting, counseling, recommending, consenting to, referring, or participating in a placement that violates the agency's written religious or moral convictions or policies.

The legislation also prohibits any civil actions being taken against faith-based adoption agencies that refuse on religious grounds to place children in homes they morally disagree with, notably same-sex couples.

The bill passed the House last April with a vote of 67 ayes to 22 nays. The Senate did not take it up until this year, eventually voting 20 to 6 in favor of the proposed legislation.

Critics of the legislation included the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which labeled the bill discriminatory against LGBT individuals.

Families who want to foster or adopt should be judged by their ability to provide loving and stable homes, not because they tick all the boxes of a taxpayer-funded agencys religious or moral conviction checklist, stated ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg last year.

Turning away good families because they dont satisfy one agencys religious preferences would deny thousands of children in Tennessees foster care system access to the families they desperately need.

Others, including Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, saw the legislation as a common-sense measure designed to ensure that the issue of child welfare continues to be a priority in Tennessee.

Protecting the rights of faith-based organizations in Tennessee to operate according to their religious convictions and sincerely held beliefs is good for everyone, wrote Moore in a column for The Tennessean earlier this month.

Curtailing or, as we have seen in some states, shutting faith-based organizations out of adoption and foster care would only place an even greater strain on a child-welfare system that is already carrying far too heavy a load.
Civil Guard colonel Diego Perez de los Cobos greets a police officer on arrival at the High Court in Madrid today. KIKE PARA

Monday saw the start of the second week of a trial of four figures connected to the Catalan police force, the Mossos dEsquadra, for their actions in the 2017 independence drive in the northeastern Spanish region. They are accused of having played a key role in the secessionist movement and are facing charges of rebellion and sedition.

Today saw an appearance as a witness by Diego Perez de los Cobos, a Civil Guard colonel who was in charge of the law-enforcement agencys units on the ground in Catalonia on October 1, 2017, the day that the illegal referendum on independence was held in Catalonia. A unilateral declaration of independence was passed by the regional parliament later that same month.

I didnt see any desire to cooperate on his part

Diego Perez de los Cobos, Civil Guard colonel

The key defendant in this new case is Josep Lluis Trapero, the then-chief of the Mossos dEsquadra. He was sacked from his position in 2017, after four years in charge of the regional force, in the wake of the central government taking over the regional powers in Catalonia under Article 155 of the Constitution, a measure that was implemented after the unilateral declaration of independence was passed. Trapero is being accused of not having done enough to prevent the referendum from taking place.

The sixth day of the court case saw De los Cobos fiercely criticize the actions of Trapero. If I had been in charge of the Mossos, my first decision would have been to remove Trapero from his role, as he was constantly putting spokes in the wheels, the Civil Guard chief told the court.

When questioned by the public prosecutor, De los Cobos went even further in his criticism of Trapero. I didnt see any desire to cooperate on his part, he said. I told Trapero that with the [planned Mossos police presence] the referendum could not be stopped, Perez de los Cobos added. That rather, it was geared toward covering legal elections.

Josep Lluis Trapero in court on January 20. Pool

This claim is in line with the arguments of the public prosecutor, who has stated that the Mossos displayed an intentionally passive attitude during the 2017 pro-independence drive, in line with the secessionist politicians, in order to facilitate the holding of the vote.

De los Cobos also told the court that at no time did the regional police call for help from the state forces on hand: the Civil Guard and the National Police. This was expected if the authorities were to comply with the court ruling that ordered them to stop the illegal referendum from taking place.

Their attitude was that the Mossos resources were sufficient, the colonel told the court on Monday. This account of events is in contrast to that of Trapero, who said during his questioning last week in the High Court that he could not halt the illegal referendum because, among other reasons, he did not have enough personnel or resources.

De los Cobos also stated in court that the former Mossos chief said nothing about stopping the referendum from happening during a meeting that they attended with the then-regional premier Carles Puigdemont days before the October 1 vote, and that during that meeting, the witness added, Trapero was aligned with the organizers.

Other defendants

Also on trial in this case are Pere Soler, who at the time of the independence drive was the general director of the Mossos, which is a political appointment; Cesar Puig, the former secretary general of the regional interior department (also a political appointment); and Teresa Laplana, a Mossos officer in charge of the security detail at the Catalan Economic Affairs Department in Barcelona during a Civil Guard search there on September 20.

Trapero was aligned with the organizers of the referendum, said De los Cobos

In a trial that will run until March, the four defendants are accused of working in line with the then-regional governments road map aimed at achieving the secession of Catalonia from the rest of Spain.

During his questioning in court last week, Trapero sought to distance himself from the political leaders of the secessionist drive, saying that he felt uncomfortable with some of the decisions that the regional government took in the fall of 2017, as well as certain motions passed by the Catalan parliament, which he classed as an outrage.

The public prosecutor is calling for up to 11 years in jail for Trapero, Soler and Puig for the charge of rebellion, while Laplana is facing a four-year prison sentence for sedition.

Last year saw the Supreme Court trial of the pro-independence leaders involved in the 2017 secessionist drive in Catalonia. That case concluded with nine politicians and civic association leaders given lengthy prison sentences for offenses including sedition and misuse of funds.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the coronavirus hit Wuhan city on Monday, the first such trip by a top leader as the death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

Li arrived in Wuhan to inspect the epidemic control and prevention work, state-run China Daily reported.

He heads the high-powered group of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) officials empowered to deal with the rapidly spreading virus on war footing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Little Britain stars have denied claims the show has been dropped by the BBC and will never return to screens, sources have said.

Today, there was speculation the comedy would not return to screens because the BBC deemed the characters too offensive.

But, sources close to David Walliams and Matt Lucas said the rumours are untrue and the show is set to be resurrected for the first time since Christmas 2005.

The iconic duo brought the show back for a special 'Little Brexit' episode for Radio 4 in October.

Little Britain is coming back to the small screen after 12 years - but there are fears it may fall foul of some viewers

The BBC comedy, starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas (pictured as Lou and Andy), is set for a full TV return for the first time since Christmas 2005

However fans of the programme's unabashed humour may be disappointed, as Walliams and Lucas both said they would have to make a different show to match the times.

Walliams, 48, told the Sun: 'You'd definitely do it differently because it's a different time. There's all kinds of tolerances that change.'

Lucas has also said: 'We made a more cruel comedy than I'd do now.'

Despite this Walliams added 'there will definitely' be some more Little Britain coming.

'I can't say when exactly but at the right time and place, he said. 'It was fun coming back for radio because that's where we started.'

Little Britain was first introduced to the public on Radio 4 in 2000, before it was adapted for the screen two years later.

It ran for three series and several specials and was watched by more than nine million viewers at its peak.

The sketch mocked different areas of British society and took its inspiration from the phrase Little Englander.

Fans of the programme's unabashed humour may be disappointed, as Walliams and Lucas (pictured as Bubbles and Desiree) both said they would have to make a different show to match the times

The sketch mocked different areas of British society and took its inspiration from the phrase Little Englander. Pictured: As Emily and Florence

Characters including wheelchair-user Andy, Dudley and Ting Tong, Bubbles and Desiree, Emily and Florence and Daffyd (left) may fall foul of today's PC police. Right Carol Beer, who may be an acceptable character for 'woke' viewers

Characters including wheelchair-user Andy, Dudley and Ting Tong, Bubbles and Desiree, Emily and Florence and Daffyd may fall foul of today's PC police.

Williams was adamant it did not mock minorities, adding 'comedy for me is celebrating things'.

The actor and children's author said he and Lucas have faced calls to appear in more shows together.

Williams (pictured with Lucas as Dudley and Ting Tong) was adamant it did not mock minorities, adding 'comedy for me is celebrating things'

The former comedy duo were not seen together for seven years until May 2018, when they both attended Dale Winton's funeral.

In his autobiography, Lucas revealed how tensions boiled between the pair in 2005 during their Little Britain Live tour, leading to a spectacular backstage fight.

The pair first met in The National Youth Theatre, and broke onto the comedy scene with Little Britain.

In September, Walliams and Lucas reunited when they appeared in a photo together which was posted on Twitter.


New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Urging the Kerala government to take action against 'love jihad', National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Monday alleged that women are forcefully converted and taken to different countries.



"I conducted a detailed enquiry into the forceful conversion and love jihad and women leaving the country. Marrying a person from a different religion is not a problem but forcefully converting them is a problem. It is happening in Kerala," Sharma told ANI.

"Women are forcefully taken to different countries in the name of love jihad and are used as a sex object. The Kerala government and the Chief Minister should solve the issue. It is not a problem of some communities but of a country," she added. (ANI)


* Nickel slides to 6-1/2 month low* Copper on course for ninth consecutive session of falls (Updates with official prices) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Copper was on track for its ninth consecutive session of falls on Monday, the longest losing streak in six years, as investors worried that a spreading Chinese coronavirus would hit demand in the world's biggest metals consumer. Copper tumbled to the weakest in three months and other industrial metals also slid as investors fled.

The death toll from the virus outbreak in China rose to 81 on Monday, as the government extended the Lunar New Year holiday and more big businesses shut down or told staff to work from home in an effort to curb the spread. Copper, regarded as a bellwether of the global economy, has given up all of its gains since early December when a rally pushed prices up nearly 10% to eight-month highs as investors welcomed the first phase of a U.S.-China trade deal and hoped for a rebound in economic growth.

"Chinese demand accounts for about 50% of the majority of base metals and looking at the latest data regarding the coronavirus, it's now spread quite widely," said analyst Timothy Wood-Dow at BMO Capital in London. "On Friday, we didn't know this, it seemed quite contained. Now this wider geographical spread is very concerning, so that's feeding through to the market." It was possible that Chinese economic growth could still hit 6% this year if the virus is contained since the government was determined to bolster the economy, he added. "Probably infrastructure investment will just be pushed back later in the year."

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) hit its lowest since Oct. 18 at $5,775 a tonne. It failed to trade in official open-outcry activity and was bid down 2% at $5,808 a tonne. Last week, LME copper posted its steepest weekly loss in five years, falling 5.5%, as the virus spread. "Fingers crossed we will get good earning reports this week from U.S. companies or else the panic selling will be even worse," a base metals trader, who asked not to be named, said.

FUNDAMENTALS

* NICKEL: LME nickel prices shed 1.8% in official rings to trade at $12,745 a tonne, the lowest since July 10. The net speculative short position on the LME had risen to 2.9% of open interest as of last Thursday, according to Marex Spectron. "Whilst modest in size, this is a level not seen in nickel since January 2019," the broker's Alastair Munro said in a note.

* LEAD STOCKS: On-warrant LME lead inventories - material that is not earmarked for delivery - fell to 50,025 tonnes, the lowest since July 26 last year, daily LME data showed. The premium of cash LME lead over the three-month contract rose to $12 a tonne, the highest since Oct. 31 last year, indicating tighter supplies. It has moved from a discount of $21.25 two weeks ago.

LME three-month lead slipped 3% to $1,881 a tonne in official trading.

* PRICES: LME aluminium was bid down 1% to a near six-week low of $1,764 a tonne, zinc was bid down 2.7% to $2,277 and tin was bid down 1.6% to $16,575 a tonne. Both zinc and tin hit three-week lows.

* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or (Additonal reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi and Zandi Shabalala in London; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do

Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there...
What seems beyond debate, now, is that the Guantanamo Bay episode has gone on for too long and at too high a cost to the United States, both in damage to our international reputation and to our actual goals in the war against terrorism. There are 40 detainees left at the prison, of an original total of 780. Of these, only two have been convicted by military commissions; seven others have been charged and face trial; three have been recommended for trial; and the rest have not been charged but have been deemed impossible to transfer out for security or other reasons. And so dozens of men still live in limbo; unresolved, too, is the final accountability of Mr. Mohammed, who deserves judgment and punishment but whose case instead languishes in military commission purgatory.
The Motorola Razr foldable smartphone is now available for pre-order from Verizon Wireless. The phone boasts a Snapdragon 710 and Android 9.0 Pie, both of which seem outdated considering the phone's $1500 price tag. However, buyers will primarily be paying for the foldable form factor in addition to some nostalgic bragging rights.

Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here

Do you want to relive a modernized version of the glory days of early aughts cell phones? Do you have US $1500 burning a hole in your pocket? Then you can pre-order the Motorola Razr foldable smartphone starting today.

The Motorola Razr dominated the news cycle when it was announced back in November. Early first impressions noted how well-made the foldable display seemed, thanks in part to a sophisticated hinge mechanism that moves the screen just a bit when the phone is opened. This motion, according to Motorola, should heavily reduce strain on the screen and removes the need for any type of gap between the display and the chassis when the phone is closed.

Powering the Motorola Razr is Qualcomms Snapdragon 710, a decent mid-range chip that powered a handful of mid-market Chinese smartphones (as well as the Nokia 8.1). The SoC is well over a year old at this point, which is curious considering Motorolas focus on how cutting-edge the new Razr is. Its also curious considering the phones $1500 price tag.

The Snapdragon 710 isnt the only carryover from a time gone by. The Razr will ship with Android 9.0 Pie. Add to that a small 2510 mAh battery, and its obvious the Razrs price isnt based on the specs. Rather, Motorola seems to be relying on the Razrs nostalgia factor and unique (if gimmicky) foldable form factor.

The foldable is currently only available through Verizon. Pre-orders started today with an expected shipping date of February 14th. You can either spend $1500 upfront or pay $62.49 over 24 months ($1499.76 total).

Will you be pre-ordering the Motorola Razr? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments. Users can learn more about the Verizon Fios service here.
Go and sit with protesters if you have guts, Amit Shah asks Kejriwal.

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, accused by the BJP of supporting the ongoing anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh, hit back on Monday by indicating that the saffronites want the protests to continue to polarise voters for electoral gains.

People are being inconvenienced due to the road blocked at Shaheen Bagh. BJP doesnt want the road to be opened, Mr Kejriwal tweeted on Monday, accusing the BJP of practising dirty politics. He suggested that the BJP leaders should immediately go to Shaheen Bagh and talk to the protesters and get the road reopened.

During his election campaign, Mr Kejriwal told reporters: I can give you this in writing  the BJP does not want to open the route in Shaheen Bagh. This route will remain closed till February 8 (election day) and will open on February 9.

BJP leaders ranging from party chief J.P. Nadda to Union ministers Amit Shah and Ravi Shankar Prasad had been claiming that Mr Kejriwal and others were supporting those who want to break India.

Mr Shah dared the Aam Aadmi Party chief to visit Shaheen Bagh so that people of Delhi can decide whom to vote for in the assembly election. He said the Delhi Police has booked Sharjeel Imam, a JNU student, on sedition charge for his comment of trying to cut the chickens neck and break the Northeast from the rest of the country.

I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi, Mr Shah said while addressing an election rally at Rithala in northwest Delhi on Monday. Mr Imam was one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest. You (the AAP leaders) people say that you are with Shaheen Bagh. If you have the guts then go and sit with them. And let Delhi decide, he added.

In reply, Mr Kejriwal took to Twitter to ask what was stopping Mr Shah from arresting Mr Imam and accused the home minister of practising bad politics. He tweeted: Sharjeel spoke of separating Assam from the country. It is very serious. You are the home minister of the country. This statement of yours is bad politics. Its your duty to arrest him immediately. What is your helplessness? Or do you have to do more dirty politics now?

Mr Prasad claimed that Shaheen Bagh protests were emerging as a textbook case of a few hundred people seeking to suppress the peaceful majority. He said: This is the true face of Shaheen Bagh and uncovering it in front of the country is very important. (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal are both silent on this issue.
All employees of the airline will go with the new management and the new company will have to retain the Air India brand.

The minister said the contingent liabilities due to retired employees will be clarified at the request for proposal (RFP) stage. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Making a second attempt to sell off debt-laden Air India, the government on Monday approved the release of the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from bidders for the strategic disinvestment of the airline.

While making the announcement, minister of state for civil aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said unlike 2018, when the government had proposed to offload 76 per cent of its equity capital, the government has now decided to sell 100 per cent of its stake in Air India and set March 17 as the deadline for expressions of interest. All employees of the airline will go with the new management and the new company will have to retain the Air India brand.

The entire disinvestment process is being looked after by the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), headed by Union home minister Amit Shah, with the ministers for commerce and industry, finance and corporate affairs and civil aviation as its members.

While noting that Air India flies to 98 destinations, with 56 domestic and 42 international routes, and a passenger load of roughly 26 million in 2018-19, Mr Puri said even after the infusion of about Rs 30,500 crores since 2012, Air India has been running into losses year after year.

Due to its accumulated debt of about Rs 60,000 crores, its financial position is in a very fragile condition and Air India is currently under a debt trap. Any private investor can turn it around and make Air India profitable by bringing operational as well as financial efficiencies, the minister said.

He said the government has limited financial resources, but the private investor can bring in the required capital for its turnaround.

After drawing a complete blank in its first attempt to sell Air India in 2018, the minister said lessons were learnt and critical areas analysed to make the disinvestment bid now more attractive. Among the key decisive parameters in this PIM are the decision to transfer management control and sale of 100 per cent shares of Air India along with Air Indias 100 per cent stake in its subsidiary, Air India Express Ltd, and 50 per cent stake in AISATS, a joint venture.

A decision has also been taken on the freezing of debt in Air India at Rs 23,286.50 crores, which is approximately equivalent to the written down value (WDV) of the joint assets of Air India and Air India Express. The liabilities to be retained in Air India will be equal to certain current and non-current assets. Considering the combined figures as on March 31, 2019, the liabilities retained would be Rs 8771.50 crores. The remaining debt and liabilities of Air India and Air India Express will be allocated to SPV (Air India Assets Holding Ltd) and the contingent liabilities related to statutory dues and government dues will be indemnified by the government.

The minister said the contingent liabilities due to retired employees will be clarified at the request for proposal (RFP) stage. The corporate guarantees given by Air India on behalf of Alliance Air will not be passed to the new investor. All the land and building assets, including the paintings, art works and artefacts, will not be part of the transaction. However, certain land and buildings in New Delhi and Mumbai airports and the corporate office that are core assets to run the airline, will be given to the new investor on a right to use basis for a limited period.

The bidding structure on forming the consortium has been eased, compared to the last round of bidding, and the financial capability of prospective investors has also been made more attractive such as lowering of net worth criteria to Rs 3,500 crores, and net worth qualification of the investor based on the strength of its affiliate, the minister said.

It has been decided the individual member must have at least 10 per cent share in the consortium, roughly amounting to Rs 350 crores. Air India, under the new investor, will continue using the Air India brand.

The minister said the government had committed to pay certain employees dues before closing the transaction. Employees dues of about Rs 1,383.70 crores due to the Justice Dharmadhikari Commissions recommendations on past arrears will be paid by Air India Assets Holdings Ltd before closing of the proposed transaction.

Provision for Rs 207.63 crores towards wage arrears accruable to employees working on narrow body fleet has been made in the books of accounts of Air India. The treatment of this liability may be provided at the RFP stage, the minister said, adding that three per cent of the equity shares of Air India will be offered to permanent employees of Air India as ESOPs.

The total employee strength of the two companies is 17,984, out of which 9,617 are permanent employees and about 36 per cent of permanent employee will be retiring in the next five years. AISATS has 11,958 contractual staff, and 399 employees are deployed from Air India and other subsidiaries.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) speaks during a joint veterans town hall on Aug. 26, 2019 in Fairfax, Va., a few days after dropping out of the 2020 race. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Former 2020 Candidate Moulton Endorses Biden for President

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a former Democratic presidential contender, has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for the partys 2020 nomination.

Theres no better preparation for the White House than the decades Joe Biden has spent serving the country, especially his eight years as vice president, Moulton said in a statement on Jan. 27.

In this complicated time at home and around the world, Joe Biden has the experience and judgment not just to win in November, but to lead our nation after he doesby fighting for opportunity, equality, and security like hes done his whole career.

Moulton said he received support from Biden after launching a bid for Congress in 2015.

.@JoeBiden is a proven and effective leader who has what it takes to beat Donald Trump and unify our country. Im proud to endorse him. pic.twitter.com/fqoLlueHYt  Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) January 27, 2020

Vice President Biden was the first person to hold a rally for me, and hes been a friend and mentor ever since, Moulton said.

His record is one of turning progressive ideas into laws, like an assault rifle ban, the Violence Against Women Act, and health care reform that made the country safer and stronger.

Moulton, 41, said he thinks Biden will beat President Donald Trump.

Biden, 77, hasnt yet responded to Moultons endorsement.

Considered one of the Democratic front runners in the primary race, Biden has garnered the most endorsements from members of Congress in the crowded primary field.

Biden now has endorsements from 36 House Democrats. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has 12, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has seven, and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has six.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden returns a supporters phone after talking to her relative during a campaign event at the Central Iowa Fairgrounds in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Jan. 26, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Biden has also garnered endorsements from five Senate Democrats, while Warren, Sanders, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have one each. Biden has the endorsement of three governors, compared to one for Klobuchar and none for the other candidates.

Biden has received support elsewhere, including from Sacramento, California, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Democratic National Committee member Sandy Opstvedt.

The Moulton endorsement came after The New York Times editorial board endorsed both Warren and Klobuchar, and the Des Moines, Iowa, Register endorsed Warren.

Warren also received an endorsement from Julian Castro, another former 2020 contender, earlier this month.

Elizabeth and I share a vision of America where everyone counts. An America where peoplenot the wealthy or well-connectedare put first. Im proud to join her in the fight for big, structural change, Castro said in a statement.
After decades of decline, Buffalo touts a 'Refugee Renaissance.' Can it last?
Specialised forensic labs to handle crimes registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, social audits of key cases of crimes against women and children, a digital hotline for better coordination between states and the Centre, and, offering professional help to child survivors of sexual crimes while recording statements under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, are some of the key suggestions the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) is considering, following a day-long discussion of review of women and child-related laws and legislation.

The meeting was prompted by rising cases of sexual violence, especially the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

WCD minister Smriti Irani on Monday headed a discussion with stakeholders from the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and health ministries as well as the NITI Aayog, with agency bodies NCW and NCPCR, as well as police officials, NALSA office bearers, and NGOs to have a relook at the laws, schemes and agencies that concern women and children.

A ministry official told HT that the meeting was to understand and explore the role of institutions looking at issues of women and children and understand the factors that have led to rising crimes despite legislations.

According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently, the number of cases of crimes against women in 2018 stood at 3.78 lakh, an increase from 3.59 lakh in the previous year.

During the discussion, stakeholders said POCSO investigations were delayed since India did not have specialised forensic labs, and that children recording statements were often seen suffering from trauma. The minister, attendees said, promised to implement necessary changes.

Citing the example of the Odisha governments effective management of child and women-related institutions, the WCD ministry also suggested that the Centre replicate the TrackChild, a digital hotline tracing missing children. According to a ministry official, Irani also said that the Centre will issue protocols for analysis of women and child legislations of each state.

After a discussion on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, the ministry also said that a panel of education institutions with specialised sociology departments should be enlisted for social audits of crimes. The ministry also suggested that the Uttar Pradesh governments 1,090 women-powerline should be implemented by the Centre to aid women in distress.
Afghan Airlines passenger plane crashed in Afghanistans Ghazni province.



The province governor spokesman said that the plane crashed in Deh Yak district, Ariana News TV channel reports.



According to latest reports, 110 people were onboard. The plane reportedly headed from Herat to Kabul. Other reports suggest the plane was headed from Herat to Indias New Delhi.



The alleged plane crash site is under Taliban movement control (banned in Russia), the reports say.
This year promises to offer ample opportunities on the electoral turf to the SP, BSP and Congress to get their act together and play the semi-final of sorts before the final match two years later, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.

At the height of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Uttar Pradesh last month, with incidents of violence and arson resulting in the deaths of more than 20 people, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati, while expressing solidarity with the protesters, advised her party cadres to refrain from hitting the road.

Instead, she urged them, as members of the disciplined party, they should peacefully hand over their memorandum to the district administration rather than indulge in violent demonstrations as other outfits were doing.

This was in contrast to the response of other opposition parties in UP, such as the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, whose top leaders openly supported the protesters and even went to meet the families of the deceased, while blaming the Yogi Adityanath government and UP Police for killing peaceful and innocent protesters.

While the state government is due to complete three years in office in March, the Opposition is still fragmented and yet to find common ground to corner the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which is started working on its Mission 2022 UP elections.

This year promises to offer ample opportunities on the electoral turf to the three main opposition parties to get their act together and play the semi-final of sorts before the final match two years later.

This year, UP will witness three electoral contests in the form of state panchayat polls, apart from elections to the vacant Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Parishad (legislative council) seats.

Panchayat elections

The three-tier panchayat elections will be held towards the end of the year. The election process involves 75 district panchayats, 821 kshetra panchayats, and more than 58,550 gram panchayats.

According to the tentative calendar, the panchayat polls have to be completed and the vacant seats in these panchayati raj institutions filled before December 25 this year.

All the major political outfits, especially the BJP, Congress and SP, are expected to field their candidates in these elections and consolidate their positions in the hinterland before the assembly polls.

Rajya Sabha polls

There will be election to about 10 Rajya Sabha seats, which are scheduled to fall vacant around November. Of the 31 Upper House seats in the state, the BJP, SP, BSP and Congress currently have 15, 9, 4 and 2 members, respectively, with an Independent, former SP stalwart Amar Singh, accounting for one.

The prominent leaders whose Rajya Sabha term will be over this year include BJP member and Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, and Congressman P L Punia.

Going by the current strength of the parties in the UP assembly, the BJP is likely to win nine of the 10 seats, while the SP is in a position to win one.

Meanwhile, ticket hopefuls in the BJP have started lobbying for Rajya Sabha nomination.

Vidhan Parishad polls

The Upper House of the state legislature will witness election to nearly 11 seats, comprising teachers and graduates constituencies, in April.

Since the ruling BJP lacks a majority in the Vidhan Parishad, the party is eager to increase its strength in the body so that it becomes smoother for the Adityanath government to push through various bills because the current dominant SP makes every effort to impede legislation.

The panchayat polls, to be conducted by the state election commission, will be most keenly watched because there will be direct voting by the electorate.

Our party has firm belief in democracy and treats all the elections as democratic fests and participates with full fervour. The people of the state have continued to repose faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the trust factor will only become stronger, state BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan said.

On the issue of anti-CAA protests, he said the sentiment of the public was in favour of the BJP and the party was confident that the people would once again deliver a positive verdict for the Adityanath dispensation.

While the SP and the Congress have actively backed protests against the citizenship Act, the BSPs support has been largely vocal; the party has asked its workers not to hit the streets
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 01:14:09|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH/GAZA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian officials said on Monday that they will take steps in response to the upcoming U.S. Mideast peace plan, known as "the Deal of the Century."

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye called on the international community to reject the new U.S. peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Reyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority (PA) minister of foreign affairs, told the official "Voice of Palestine" Radio that Arab foreign ministers will be invited to hold an emergency meeting to discuss rejecting and toppling the U.S. plan.

Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Saeb Erekat told reporters that the PLO will address the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and the International Criminal Court.

"The Palestinian leadership will address all these international organizations to bear responsibility and act against those who plan to ruin the international laws and resolutions," said Erekat.

In Gaza, a joint committee that includes several Palestinian factions said in a statement that "Trump's deal is one of the series of the American conspiracy against the Palestinian people and their cause."

U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet later on Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz to present his peace plan.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (left) and New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal confer after a news conference in Camden at which they announced that 36 guns were recovered and five people charged as part of a major gun-trafficking case called Operation Zombie. They were joined by a dozen local, state, and federal law enforcement partners. Read more

Clarification: An earlier version of this article reported that authorities said the rifle used in Nikolette Riveras shooting was an AK-47. The story has been updated to reflect what authorities later said  that it was an SKS.

An SKS assault rifle used in the shooting that killed 2-year-old Nikolette Rivera in her Kensington home last year has been recovered in Camden, law enforcement officials from Pennsylvania and New Jersey announced Monday.

The weapon was among 36 guns recovered, according to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, police, and federal authorities, who spoke at a news conference at the Camden County Police Administration Building in Camden.

Authorities, who dubbed the case Operation Zombie, said five people involved in a major Philadelphia-based ring that illegally trafficked numerous guns and methamphetamine into Camden have been charged.

The weapon that killed Nikolette was sold by the ring in December in Camden, officials said, adding that authorities at the time did not know it had been used in that shooting.

Also recovered were 20 handguns, five AR-type rifles, a .22 military-style rifle, a 9 mm Uzi mini-carbine, five shotguns, a sawed-off shotgun, and two AK-47 rifles.

One of the recovered guns sold by the ring, a 9 mm handgun, has been linked to a September 2019 Philadelphia shooting in which no one was hit, authorities said.

More than 20 ounces of methamphetamine, equaling as many as 14,000 individual doses, were also recovered, officials said.

Arrested and charged last week were: Robert Zombie Crosley III, 32, accused of managing the gun-trafficking conspiracy; Matthew Zoba, 38, who allegedly managed the drug trafficking conspiracy; and Victoria Zipf, 33, Zobas girlfriend, accused of acting as a straw purchaser and assisting in gun and drug sales. Arrested Monday was Michael Snyder, 44, who allegedly acted as a straw purchaser and assisted in gun and drug sales.

Crosley and Zoba are each charged with first-degree promoting organized street crime, first-degree distribution of methamphetamine, and second-degree possession of a gun by a convicted felon.

In addition, authorities said one man was charged but had not been arrested as of 5 p.m. Monday: Yuri Lyubinskiy, 39, who allegedly assisted in gun and drug sales.

All five are from Philadelphia, and are all charged with conspiracy in connection with the gun trafficking, transporting firearms into the state for illegal sale or transfer, and related offenses, authorities said.

An attorney listed as representing Crosley could not be immediately reached for comment. It was not known if the other four defendants had attorneys.

Shapiro and Grewal also announced a new law enforcement initiative between their states called the PA/NJ Gun Trafficking Initiative. It is intended to promote intelligence-sharing to enable law enforcement in both states to identify and investigate interstate gun trafficking and criminal conduct on both sides of the Delaware River.

Operation Zombie was a joint investigation by the offices of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania attorneys general; the New Jersey State Police; the U.S. Attorneys Office in Philadelphia; the FBI; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Philadelphia Police Department.

Nikolette was shot once in the head while in her mothers arms about 3:30 p.m. Oct. 20, when a gunman fired into the familys home on the 3300 block of North Water Street. The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene. Wounded in the shooting were a carpet cleaner, Arik Enatayev, 33, who was hit in the stomach, and Nikolettes mother, Joan Ortiz, who was shot in an arm.

The alleged gunman, Tayvon Thomas, 25, of North Philadelphia, and an accomplice, Freddie Perez, 30, of Kensington, intended to shoot at the girls father, Nikolai Rivera, in an effort to seize control of a Kensington drug corner, authorities have said. But the father was not home. Thomas and Perez, who are in custody, face trial on murder and related charges.

Philadelphia police have said that another man, Francisco Ortiz, is believed to have supplied the rifle that Thomas allegedly used in the shooting. They declined in October to specify whether Francisco Ortiz gave or sold the rifle to Thomas, and authorities on Monday declined to say how the weapon allegedly got from him to Thomas.

Ortiz, 29, of North Philadelphia, is in custody and faces trial on attempted murder and related offenses in a separate Oct. 19 shooting, in which he allegedly fired a gun into a car in Hunting Park that critically wounded 11-month-old Yazeem Jenkins.
Ukraine's territorial integrity must be restored within the borders prior to 2014.

For us, Poland, the situation is unequivocal: we demand the observance of international law and, in this context, the restoration of the full territorial integrity of Ukraine. This is our firm position, Ukraine can always rely on us in this matter, President of Poland Andrzej Duda said at a joint briefing with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Oswiecim, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Duda welcomed the ongoing exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia, which is "very important for Ukrainian society."

On January 26-27, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky makes a working visit to the Republic of Poland to attend the commemorative events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

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President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate came under fresh pressure on January 27 to allow witnesses and new documents in his impeachment trial after a news report that a former top aide, John Bolton, has a written a book manuscript that undercuts Trump's versions of events in the Ukraine affair.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a sometime critic of Trump, said there was a growing likelihood that at least four Republican senators would vote to call for Bolton to testify in the trial, which would give Democrats the votes necessary to summon the former national security adviser.

Senate Republicans thus far have refused to allow any witnesses or new evidence in the trial that will determine whether Trump is removed from office. The president's legal team is set to resume its defense of Trump on Monday afternoon.

The New York Times cited the manuscript of an unpublished book by Bolton as saying that Trump told him he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until Kiev helped with politically beneficial investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

If confirmed, the report would add weight to Democrats' accusations that Trump used the $391 million in aid - approved by the U.S. Congress to help Ukraine combat Russia-backed separatists - as leverage to get a foreign country to help him dig up dirt on a domestic political rival.

Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Trump on Monday denied telling Bolton that he sought to use the aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens on unsubstantiated corruption allegations. Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was U.S. vice president.

Bolton left his post in September. Trump said he fired him. Bolton said he quit.

"I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton," Romney told reporters. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, added that "Bolton's relevance ... is becoming increasingly clear."

Another moderate Republican senator, Susan Collins, said the reports regarding Bolton's book "strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues."

The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on charges of abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress, setting up the trial in the Republican-led Senate.

Trump is expected to be acquitted in the 100-seat Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats and a two-thirds vote is required to convict and remove a president from office. No Republican senator has voiced support for his ouster.

Trump denied telling Bolton he was seeking something in return for unfreezing the Ukrainian aid, which eventually was provided in September after the controversy became public.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens ... If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Trump wrote on Twitter.

'ANOTHER HOLE'

Democrats demanded that the Senate call Bolton as a witness.

"It completely blasts another hole in the president's defense," said Representative Adam Schiff, the head of the House Democratic team of "managers" who are presenting the prosecution case against Trump.

"For every senator, Democrat and Republican, I don't know how you can explain that you wanted a search for the truth in this trial and say you don't want to hear from a witness who had a direction conversation about the central allegation in the articles of impeachment," Schiff told CNN.

The issue of whether to call new witnesses - including Bolton - might be resolved in a Senate vote later this week. Many Republicans, however, want a speedy trial of Trump without witnesses or any evidence beyond the material amassed in the House impeachment inquiry. The White House directed current and former administration officials not to provide testimony or documents in the House inquiry.

In only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, Democrats argued last week that Trump should be removed for encouraging Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election.

Trump's defense tried to turn that election interference line against the Democrats in its opening argument on Saturday by warning against removing a president less than 10 months before Americans vote on whether to give him a second term.

According to the Times, Trump was pressed for weeks by senior aides including Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to release the aid.

But in an August 2019 discussion with Bolton, Trump said he preferred sending no aid to Ukraine until officials there turned over all materials they had about the investigation that involved Biden, as well as Hillary Clinton backers in Ukraine.

If senators do not allow new witnesses and evidence, the Senate could vote as soon as the end of this week on whether to remove Trump. In that case, the trial could be over before the first of the state-by-state U.S. presidential party nominating contests takes place in Iowa on Feb. 3 and before Trump is scheduled to deliver the annual State of the Union address to Congress on February 4.
The woman who is the second apparent case of Wuhan coronavirus in Canada is well and in self-isolation at home while a majority of 19 persons under investigation for the bug are in hospital awaiting conclusive test results, Ontario health officials say.

All 19 have a recent travel history from affected areas in Wuhan in central China, and are either at home trying to avoid contact with others or in isolation rooms in hospitals as a precaution.

Quite a few are in Toronto, Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer, said Monday, declining to name other locations.

I would guess were going to see some more cases reported in other parts of Ontario, perhaps.

The second case is the wife of the first confirmed coronavirus patient in Canada, a man in his 50s who is in Sunnybrook hospital in stable condition.

Officials moved to reassure the public that no one else lives with the unidentified couple.

Given the fact that she has been in self-isolation, the risk to Ontarians remains low, Williams said.

His federal counterpart, Dr. Theresa Tam, told a conference call later Monday the goal is to keep anyone who carries the virus to Canada from spreading it to anyone here through person-to-person contact, as is widespread in Wuhan. The incubation period is up to 14 days.

Were in containment response, Tam said. Were trying to keep this virus in a box and trying to put it back in this box. Its a massive global effort.

Tam added its difficult to get the virus through casual contact, such as walking through an airport.

The couple returned from China last week and have tested positive for the virus at Ontarios public health laboratory. The husbands symptoms became severe enough to require medical care. Both were wearing face masks on their flight home to Toronto after travelling in the affected area, officials say.

The wife remains at home because she is well and currently asymptomatic, said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Torontos chief medical officer, whose staff are checking with the woman regularly by phone to monitor her condition.

Not all people ... experience severe symptoms, Williams noted.

From what we know, Wuhan novel coronavirus transmits through close contact  and theres no closer contact than a husband and wife, Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Monday morning.

The couple arrived at Pearson last Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. aboard China Southern Airlines flight CZ311 from Guangzhou. Tam confirmed they were screened by a Canada Border Services agent.

At the time of arrival, the husband had only a mild cough, she revealed on the conference call. He was not visibly ill.

The couple was given information on what to do if they should get sick. The next day, the husband had deteriorated and an ambulance was called to take him to Sunnybrook hospital. Paramedics had been tipped to the need to wear personal protective equipment.

Williams said the man is continuing to recover.

To better keep tabs on potential cases, more public health officers are being assigned to airports in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal to assist border services officers screening passengers arriving from China, Tam said.

Yaffe noted people are self-identifying if they feel they may have been exposed aboard the China Southern airplane, with another 15 cases already ruled out as other viruses such as the flu.

Enhanced screening has now been implemented, with 911 operators instructed to ask callers for their travel histories so first responders are ready.

If the call is linked to respiratory issues, operators ask if the caller has been in the Wuhan area; if so, paramedics are dispatched in appropriate garb, said Yaffe.

Williams acknowledged officials have no idea how long infected droplets from a coronavirus cough or sneeze can last on surfaces such as doorknobs, but said it appears the bug is not quite as communicable as standard flu viruses.

Toronto public health staff have been reaching out to about 30 passengers aboard the China Southern Airlines flight who sat within two metres of the couple, with extra resources in place to speed the task. De Villa would not say how many of the travellers have been reached.

Other passengers on that plane, some of whom have contacted health officials, are advised to continue about their regular business, but to be aware of any symptoms that develop and contact their local public health department if they feel ill, said de Villa.

News of Canadas first patient came Saturday as authorities around the world grappled with the new strain of coronavirus that has now spread to the U.S., France and Asian countries.

China on Tuesday reported more than 2,700 cases and 106 deaths, but it remains to be seen whether the virus is as dangerous as the common flu, which kills thousands every year in Canada alone. Globally, there are 2,799 cases with no fatalities so far, and all cases outside China are travel related, said Yaffe.

Canadian doctors are urging concerned citizens to take the same sorts of precautions they would to avoid common illnesses, such as frequent handwashing and coughing into the arm or sleeve rather than the hand.

The Peel District School Board took the step Monday of issuing a bulletin telling parents please do not send your child to school wearing a mask, saying they spread unnecessary panic and are often used incorrectly by people who are not medical professionals.

The coronavirus is reminiscent of the SARS outbreak that originated in China and infected more than 8,000 people, killing 800, including 44 Canadians.

With files from Tom Yun and The Canadian Press
Lagos, like other cities across Africa seems to be bedeviled by rascally gridlock. To the exclusion of a public holiday, Lagos cant boast of a traffic-free day. In the words of Ukpata and Etika, traffic congestion is a common sight in most urban cities. Efforts at arresting the Lagos-traffic appear to be inconsequential and ineffectual. Poor driving habits, poor road network, inadequate road capacity, and lack of parking facilities constitute the greatest causes of traffic congestion in Lagos, by extension, Nigeria. I hope we are not mad, says a concerned and perpetually worried commuter. He got to the BRT stand at twenty minutes to five, only to have met a headachy and interminable queue. He concluded, I am sure, you, people did not sleep at home. In our Lagos, by four Oclock, in the early part of the morning, you are already behind schedule, if you intend to avoid the ferocious traffic, which has no respect for anyone except, the political Lords, whose road matrix seems perfect any time. The era of Mr. Tibubu is not significantly and markedly different from those of his successors, as it stands, traffic has defiled many remedies.

Like Anthony Joshua, who reclaimed his world heavyweight champion title, Sanwo-Olu Lagos, doubled the emolument of the LASTMA officers. This incentive was to serve as a catalyst towards taming the recalcitrant city bastard called traffic. if results and observations matter, then, we know LASTMA is way far from emerging victorious, though, always on its toes. The BRT is the blue bus. It owes its operation to Primero Transport Services Limited and regulated by LAMATA. BRT, since, its inception, has served as a transport option which relies on the use of dedicated  interference free roads. As conceived by the Lagos Management as a strategy for congestion flow, the BRT could not be said not to have eased the movements and travellings of Lagosians on a daily basis, covering kilometers far above 35.5. BRT has pounced on its advantages of segregated road and affordable fares.

In Lagos, both time and climate affect the price of commuting. In the rush hours, fares skyrocket. No single driver is concerned about the feelings of the fatigued commuters. You simply cant have a stable budget for transportation. The molue era reminds one of a callous past. Once darkness colours the sky, it is a signal that fares will jump or triple. With BRT, these anomalies were quick on their demise. The users of BRT harbour no worry about the fares. Come what may, from Onipan to I korodu, will still go for #200. BRT guarantees safety, while on board, there can be no panic of one chance, I hope, it will be given acceptance into the Oxford Dictionary, soonest, like other Nigerian derivatives such as fufu, agbada, buka among others. Some questionable persons, take advantage of the high supply of commuters by getting unsuspecting travelers on board, for ritual purposes. In some scenarios, to rob them of their valuables. With BRT, safety and security appear to be back. By the same token, casualties, occasioned by Okada have declined, since, the say-no-to-traffic commuters, now enjoy the Primero ride.

As a daily user of the BRT bus, I know, it is not without its drawbacks and limitations. The legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti, in his life time, would satirize the society. There is one that appears apt, suffer suffer for world, na your fault be that, in the BRT buses, the 49 sitting and 99 standing epochal phrase cannot be dismissed. It is usually a bumper-to-bumper standing. No woman dare raise a voice that her behind commuter is trespassing the bound limits. Everyone feels calm. If something touch something, na BRT. In addition to this ugly side of the blue bus, you are never sure of leaving the terminal in another 45 minutes. The BRT cant be your savior, when trying to keep an appointment. The traffic time is observed on the boring queue. The worst of these tragedies is the violation of learner driver law. Learner drivers are restricted to a number of occupants, in the case of the BRT bus, learner drivers are allowed to drive the bus, even, when it is teeming with commuters. Lets kite with lives, I guess! Even with BRT, suffering continues and lives may not be safe.

Ogunnaike, Samuel, wrote from Lagos
Floods and landslides devastate southeastern Brazil following the highest rainfall totals in 110 years.

The death toll caused by record rainfall in southeastern Brazil jumped to at least on 44 on Sunday as officials expressed alarm about continuing storms.

At least 44 people had died in the state of state of Minas Gerais. There were also reports that nine others died in neighbouring Espirito Santo. More than a dozen people remained missing, authorities said.

Some 20,000 people had been evacuated due to the threat of floods and landslides.

The capital of Minas Gerais state, Belo Horizonte, recorded 171mm (6.7 inches) in a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday  the highest rainfall in 110 years.

State Governor Gustavo Zema declared a state of emergency in 99 cities, a measure meant to facilitate federal disaster aid.

View of damage after a landslide in Vila Bernadete, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, Brazil [Douglas Magno/AFP]

He also decreed three days of official mourning for those killed in the floods and landslides.

Authorities in Espirito Santo said they were on maximum alert due to a forecast for more rain.

In the city of Alegre, officials warned that a dam was in danger of breaking and urged people living below to evacuate.

Another 2,000 people were evacuated in the Rio de Janeiro state city of Itaperuna.

From India, where he is on an official trip, President Jair Bolsonaro said the government was doing everything possible, while adding that in such a large area it is difficult to serve everyone.
MEA asked to prepare for possible evacuation of Indians in Wuhan, initiate screening at India-Nepal border.

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet secretary on Monday reviewed the situation arising out of novel coronavirus outbreak in China during which the ministry of external affairs (MEA) was asked to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. The MEA was asked to make a request to Chinese government in this regard.

Besides, the home ministry was asked to ensure that integrated checkposts along the India-Nepal border initiate screening of visitors and the civil aviation ministry was told to issue instructions to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

Senior officials of civil aviation said that a flight and crew has been kept on a standby in Mumbai and will be pressed into operations following clearance from the MEA. However, the larger concern remains about quarantining of so many people who will be flown in from China, officials said. During Mondays meeting with the Cabinet secretary, civil aviation and health ministries were told to make arrangements for quarantine facilities of the Indians coming back from China.

The Indian embassy in Beijing tweeted on Monday asking Indian nationals not in possession of their passports to inform them immediately.

We have learnt that some of the Indian nationals are currently not in possession of their passports, which have been submitted to Chinese authorities for visa extension/ work permit/ other reasons. All those presently in Hubei province and not in personal possession of their passports are requested to intimate us with the following details: Name; Passport number; To whom (which Chinese authority) has the passport been submitted to; and Date on which the passport was submitted. These details may please be furnished urgently to Mr. Sondhi, who is an official with @EOIBeijing, Indian embassy said.

The embassy also asked Indian nationals in Wuhan/Hubei province to inform them if they encounter shortage of food, water and other essential supplies and provide with the exact location so that the Indian diplomats can work with the Chinese authorities to ensure that essential supplies reaches them.

Secretary, ministry of civil aviation, Mr Pradeep Singh Kharola, said that the government has intensified scanning of passengers coming from China both directly and indirectly for the coronavirus and a total of 12 airports are being monitored closely.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Hotel Alliance ("GHA"), the world's largest alliance of independent hotel brands and operator of the award-winning, multi-brand loyalty program, DISCOVERY, today announced that Aimbridge Hospitality ("Aimbridge"), the world's leading third-party hotel management company, will become a strategic partner through their independent, lifestyle division, Evolution Hospitality. Aimbridge is the only third-party management company to have access to DISCOVERY.

Independent and lifestyle hotels under Aimbridge's management will now have unique access to the DISCOVERY loyalty platform, the world's largest loyalty program for independent hotels. Through Aimbridge, hotel owners will be able to offer their guests an award-winning loyalty solution while exposing their properties to DISCOVERY's 16 million global loyalty members under an owner-friendly fee model normally reserved for independent brands.

Chris Hartley, GHA's CEO, is "thrilled to be providing Aimbridge with a new platform for their owners which gives the power and distribution of a global loyalty program without the encumbrance of a full brand franchise agreement."

Mike Deitemeyer, Aimbridge's Global President, commented: "DISCOVERY helps further differentiate our management of independent, lifestyle hotels. We have the unique opportunity to tap into a database of 16 million members, of which 7 million are in the US, to boost results for our independent owner. We are proud to be the only third-party manager with the DISCOVERY partnership."

Aimbridge is working with current and new independent owners to realize the opportunity of the unique partnership and is expected to launch during the second quarter of 2020.

Originally created in 2010, with the goal of helping independent, upscale and luxury hotel brands to compete with the global majors while retaining their individuality, DISCOVERY celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

About Global Hotel Alliance

Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is the world's largest alliance of independent hotel brands, bringing together more than 35 brands with over 570 hotels in 78 countries. GHA uses a shared technology platform to drive incremental revenues and create cost savings for its member brands. GHA's award-winning loyalty program, DISCOVERY, provides 16 million members exclusive opportunities to immerse themselves in local culture wherever they travel. GHA's hotel brands currently include Anantara, Atura, Avani, Capella, Corinthia, Discovery Destinations, Divani, Doyle, Elewana, Fauchon, GLO, JA Resorts, Kempinski, Leela, Lungarno, Marco Polo, Meritage, Mysk, Niccolo, Nikki Beach, NUO, Oaks, Omni, Outrigger, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL, QT, The Residence by Cenizaro, Rydges, Shaza, Sukhothai, Thon, Tivoli, Ultratravel Collection and Viceroy. For more information, visit globalhotelalliance.com

About Aimbridge Hospitality

Aimbridge Hospitality is the leading, global, third-party hotel management company operating branded full service, select service, luxury hotels, destination resorts, convention centers and lifestyle hotels. Aimbridge merged with Interstate Hotels & Resorts in 2019, and now represents a premium portfolio of more than 1,400 branded and independent properties in 49 states and 20 countries. Aimbridge is based in Plano, Texas and has additional corporate offices in Atlanta, Calgary, Chicago, Fargo, Puerto Rico, San Clemente, Scottsdale, Toronto and Washington D.C. Aimbridge's International Division, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, has supporting offices spread across Europe in Amsterdam, Birmingham, Glasgow and Moscow.

For more information on Aimbridge Hospitality, please visit www.aimbridgehospitality.com and connect with Aimbridge on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Aimbridge Hospitality

Related Links

https://www.aimbridgehospitality.com/


SEOUL: While a North Korean deadline for the United States to soften its stand on denuclearisation talks passed uneventfully over the New Year, state media and propaganda efforts have been focussing on the prospect of a long confrontation with the United States. Optimism that two years of contacts between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump would usher in a new age, and related hopes for economic improvement after decades of deprivation, appear to have faded.

Instead, the government has been hard at work in recent weeks using state media, propaganda posters, and performances to warn the public of a bumpy road ahead under the US and international pressure. The propaganda effort has included calls for North Koreans to "breakthrough barriers" and strengthen the country.

Live TV

The weekend`s Lunar New Year celebrations included a concert for Kim and other dignitaries with tributes to the country`s leaders for overcoming adversity. It is a familiar message for North Koreans, but one that now underscores that the leadership does not foresee a breakthrough in diplomacy any time soon.

"The message will be that because of the U.S. hostile policy and sanctions, that things will be more difficult for the foreseeable future," said Andray Abrahamian, a visiting scholar with George Mason University Korea. Behind the scenes, North Korean officials still say they are seeking badly needed sanctions relief, said one European scholar who regularly attends informal meetings with North Korean representatives.

Publicly, North Korea has said it is no longer bound by commitments to halt nuclear and missile testing, blaming the United States for failing to meet the year-end deadline for it to show more flexibility in the nuclear talks and its "brutal and inhumane" sanctions.

Since Kim came to power in 2011, many North Koreans have steadily seen living conditions improve compared with deprivation and even famines of the 1990s.

In 2018, Kim doubled down by declaring the "completion" of the nuclear weapons programme would allow the government to focus on economic development.

`WORRYING TIME`

But the failure to win sanctions relief is putting Kim in a sensitive spot. "In 2012, Kim promised that there would be no more belt-tightening, so for him to call on the country to prepare for exactly that sends a very clear message," Abrahamian said. "Most North Koreans have seen their economic prospects improve under Kim Jong Un so Im sure this is a worrying time for them."

The propaganda push is designed to support a line Kim set out in a speech at the end of last year calling for North Koreans to brace for an arduous and prolonged struggle and to foster a self-reliant economy because of a delay in the anticipated lifting of sanctions, analysts said. Kim used that speech to acknowledge North Korea may need to "tighten our belts" for the time being. But state media and propaganda have not yet widely pushed that line widely, likely in part because of Kim`s past promises, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with NK News, a website that monitors North Korea.

"It is a controversial term and North Korea will likely roll it out very subtly and carefully," she said. The final months of 2019 saw senior officials warning the United States not to ignore its threat of a "new way" if it did not offer more concessions in talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.

Beyond a warning from Kim that the world would soon see a "new strategic weapon", however, the deadline passed uneventfully. Since then, the North`s state media has been ominously quiet on the issue of talks with the United States. "I have a feeling they`re biding their time to roll out some changes to their foreign policy, including US policy, and North Korea may make its intentions clearer as it gets closer to the showcasing of its `new strategic weapon`," Lee said.
Iraq protesters rebuild torched camps as rocket attack sparks fears



Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



Anti-government demonstrators rebuilt torched protest camps across Iraq on Monday, seeking to keep up their movement's momentum after a rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad threatened an escalation.

The attack, which wounded one person, marked a dangerous shift after volleys of rockets in recent months targeted Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed.

No faction has claimed responsibility but the US has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions for previous incidents.

The latest attack sparked renewed fears that Baghdad could be dragged into a conflict between Tehran and Washington, weeks after tensions spiked following the US killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq.

Anti-government activists fear that such a conflict would derail their movement, the largest grassroots campaign Iraq has seen in decades.

Rallies erupted on October 1 in Baghdad and across Iraq's Shiite-majority south over corruption, joblessness and poor services.

Protesters are now specifically demanding snap elections, an independent premier and the prosecution of those implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

The demonstrators started ramping up pressure a week ago, sealing streets with burning tyres and metal barricades, but riot police responded with live rounds and tear gas.

Early on Monday, unidentified gunmen stormed a protest camp in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah, torching tents and leaving nothing but metal frames and charred shreds of fabric, an AFP correspondent there said.

The attackers also fired on activists who had been sleeping there, killing one and wounding four others, a medical source said.

But hours later, determined protesters had erected new tents and even brought cement blocks to build a one-room installation, signalling their determination to stay.

They shut two main bridges, and government authorities in the city announced their offices would be closed Monday.



- Students rally, streets closed -



In the oil-rich but impoverished southern port city of Basra, student protesters re-erected their tent city after it was dismantled by authorities over the weekend, AFP's reporter said.

The main protest camp in the Shiite holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen, but protesters jumped into action Monday morning, blocking roads with burning tyres, AFP's correspondent there said.

The uptick in violence this week has killed 21 protesters and wounded hundreds.

That brings the toll from the last four months of rallies and related violence close to 480 dead, the majority protesters, according to an AFP tally compiled from medics and security sources.

Demonstrators have feared that their movement may be eclipsed by tensions between neighbouring Iran and the US, which spiralled after the killing early this month of a senior Iranian commander in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

Iraq has slammed the strike as a violation of its sovereignty and parliament voted to oust the 5,200 US troops on American soil.

Capitalising on the anger, populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr organised an anti-US march in Baghdad, attended by thousands.

Sadr is a notoriously fickle politician: he backed the anti-government protests early on even though he controls parliament's largest bloc and top ministerial positions.

After his march, he said he would not longer support the separate reform campaign, stoking fears among young activists that security forces now had a green light to crush their movement.

- PM warns of broader war -



Sadr's march on Friday was endorsed by leading figures from the Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of Shiite-majority armed factions formed to fight Islamic State group jihadists and since incorporated into the Iraqi state.

Most Hashed factions have close ties to Iran and are seen by the US as a dangerous extension of Tehran's influence.

Washington, which has seen its own sway in Baghdad diminish at the expense of Iran's, has blamed hardline Hashed factions for recent rocket attacks on the US embassy and American troops in recent months.

On Sunday evening, three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq's capital, wounding one person, according to a senior Iraqi official and a US diplomatic sources.

No details were immediately available on whether the casualty was a US national or an Iraqi member of staff at the mission.

The US embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while the US State Department called on Iraq to "fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities".

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the incident, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war.
Jasmine Yarbrough has named a shoe from her latest Mara & Mine collection after her 14-year-old stepdaughter, Ava Willow Stefanovic.

The 35-year-old former model, who is expecting her first child with Today show host Karl Stefanovic, has designed a boot for her 2020 range and named it 'Willow'.

The knee-high black leather boot, which features a geometric heel, retails for $625.

Stepmum's the word! Jasmine Yarbrough (pictured) has named a shoe from her latest Mara & Mine collection after her 14-year-old stepdaughter, Ava Willow Stefanovic

It's believed Ava now goes by her middle name, which strongly suggests Jasmine named the boot with Karl's daughter in mind.

She launched her shoe brand, Mara & Mine, in 2012 with her friend and business partner, Tamara Ingham.

In December 2017, Jasmine told Broadsheet that sales had skyrocketed after Cara Delevingne stepped out in one of their slippers.

New range: It's believed Ava now goes by her middle name, Willow, which strongly suggests Jasmine named the boot (pictured on Mara & Mine's website) with her stepdaughter in mind

Meanwhile, Jasmine's relationship with Ava seems to be stronger than ever.

The pair spent quality time together at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Jasmine, who is due to give birth in April, looked glowing as she showed off her baby bump in a blue dress while cheering alongside Ava.

Courting attention: Jasmine's relationship with Ava (centre) seems to be stronger than ever. They even spent time together at the Australian Open on Wednesday. Left: Karl Stefanovic

Karl, 45, shares his daughter - as well as his sons, Jackson, 20, and River, 13 - with his first wife, Cassandra Thorburn, whom he split from in 2016 after 21 years of marriage.

The Today show host met Jasmine at a boat party in Sydney just months after his separation and they married at the five-star One&Only Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, in December 2018.

On December 30, Karl hilariously confirmed his wife's pregnancy by posting a photo to Instagram of himself looking portly at the beach.

Exes: Karl shares his daughter - as well as his sons, Jackson, 20, and River, 13 - with his first wife, Cassandra Thorburn (left), whom he split from in 2016 after 21 years of marriage

'After a great deal of speculation... the rumours are true,' he wrote in the caption.

The post not only confirmed Jasmine's pregnancy, but also showed that Karl wasn't afraid of poking fun at his recent weight gain.

The couple had conceived their child after Karl reportedly underwent two vasectomy reversals last year.
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Linkedin Vivek Lath and Greg Peacocke (The Jakarta Post) Singapore/Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 13:21 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206118d60 3 Opinion digital-innovation,mining-industry,mining,technology,workers-protection,safety Free

For mining companies, small improvements in yield, productivity, and utilization can have an extraordinary impact  amplified in a country like Indonesia, where mining contributes close to 5 percent of gross domestic product and 15 percent of exports.

The benefits of digitizing are abundant: Innovators with intelligent mining operations can raise margins by up to 20 percent. Technology advances can create more standardized processes  with consistently higher production levels  and improve worker safety.

But though successful case studies make the digital journey seem easy, companies attempting transformation face several common challenges. For sustainable benefits, changes need to go well beyond the technology: new skills and change management are equally crucial.

Industry 4.0  such as advanced analytics, the internet of things, automation, machine learning, and robotics  has delivered significant savings in mining. Increased quantities of data, cheaper computing, and the spread of connected devices all make its benefits more available to businesses. Although Indonesias mining companies recognize Industry 4.0s potential, most have moved toward it slowly.

A recent McKinsey study of Southeast Asian operators found that 80 percent had heard about the new technologies but almost 85 percent had not gone beyond pilots. Numerous large Indonesian companies are moving toward Industry 4.0, but many of them face difficulties in capturing the business impact and scaling up use cases. Low internet connectivity at mine sites, limited awareness of digital ecosystems, relatively few local reference cases, and a lack of digital skills also challenge success rates in Indonesias mining industry.

Some companies have transformed themselves by using digital technologies to integrate mining operations. Successful transformations have several common elements:

 Having a value-backed road map and commitment from the top. Top executives must understand, buy into, and model the digital vision. None of them can remain on the sidelines, and each C-suite leader is as important as the CEO and the chief digital officer in a digital transformations success. Executives must learn from experience and constantly  and rapidly  refine business cases and resource allocations.

 Creating the right foundations of scalable data. Getting better data is key to eliminating the unknowns of a digital transformation. Using data effectively at scale requires having the right data architecture built in a modular fashion and on a foundation of business requirements. Leading institutions build data-governance systems with data dictionaries and full lists of metadata into their architecture.

 Building new skills and talent. A digital transformation requires new skills, such as those of developers, data scientists, data engineers, and user-experience specialists. The competition to hire employees with such expertise is tough, and mining companies havent historically been their first choice, so the career path and value proposition must be clear for employees and outside experts alike.

 Collaboration between the business and technology teams. Although a digital transformation requires close collaboration between the business and technology teams, the latter often designs and leads the effort, with suboptimal involvement from the business team. This frequently leads to low levels of business acceptance at the implementation stage, or insufficient solutions to business problems. Tight collaboration and leadership across both teams are critical for successful digital transformation.

Companies that drive successful digital transformation reap several advantages.

First come the vast performance improvements, especially for line workers and supervisors in tough mining conditions. Digital technology can improve employee safety, provide operating transparency, and enable quicker decisions.

It also attracts a more diverse and talented workforce. Group leaders and supervisors can exchange realtime information about production, adjusted work plans, and emerging safety hazards to improve overall performance. Fatigue-monitoring devices can alert operators and supervisors when drivers need rest  before accidents occur. For one global mining company, these technologies raised shift productivity by more than 10 percent.

The second advantage is better handoff through increased transparency across the full value chain. Mining supply chains comprise interdependent systems from pit to port to market, so realtime transparency can enable better decision making and maximized margins. Technology and a single source of data truth across an entire company can help it rapidly tweak its plans and schedules to balance inventory needs, improve blending, and reduce demurrage costs.

Finally, data-driven insights from technology implementations can help leaders better understand their businesses. Mining companies generate a significant amount of data, but most use less than five percent of that data to capture real value. Leading companies are proving the value of harnessing existing data. For instance, several use advanced analytics to increase component lifetime, reduce inventory, and forecast bottlenecks. To improve recovery while reducing costs, companies apply similar analytics to key processing steps.

Mining has always involved dealing with uncertainty and variability. Today, these problems can be alleviated  and, in some cases, eliminated. By embracing technology-enabled operations, Indonesias mining industry can significantly improve its productivity, costs and the well-being of its workers. Mining companies that successfully navigate this shift today will win tomorrow.

_________

Vivek Lath is a partner in McKinseys Singapore office, and Greg Peacocke is a partner in the Jakarta office.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
A paedophile dubbed "the Beast of Bangor" is facing jail after he admitted abusing a little girl.

Gary McNeill, who previously had UDA links, will be sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Friday after he pleaded guilty to a single charge of sexual assault.

The attack happened while the youngster was in the pervert's company last August. She later complained to a family member of feeling sore when using the toilet.

This alarmed her relative who immediately contacted the PSNI. Medical examinations of the little girl found she had been the victim of sexual abuse.

McNeill, who was living at a flat on Rathgill Avenue in Bangor at the time, was arrested and charged. He initially denied any wrongdoing following a court appearance in Newtownards.

But the predator has since pleaded guilty to sexual assault, sparing his victim's family the torment of having to endure a trial.

A relative of the little girl told Sunday Life that as soon as the allegations against McNeill became known, he was shunned by everyone in Bangor.

He said: "The girl was only in that scumbag's company for a short time. What kind of monster is he to do that on a little girl?

"The people of Northern Ireland should take a good look at Gary McNeill's face and remember it for when he gets out of prison because he is a danger to children."

McNeill is currently on remand at Maghaberry Prison having been told that he is under threat from loyalist paramilitaries. He has also been warned of a risk from other inmates in the jail.

The paedophile did have links to the UDA but these ties were severed by the terror gang when it became aware that he had been charged with child sex offences.

A UDA source told this newspaper: "At one point McNeill was well thought of by the organisation, but that's obviously not the case now.

"He will never be able to come back to Bangor or the surrounding area after this, his name is mud in the town. People are calling him the Beast of Bangor, which is a fitting title after what he did."

The sexual assault of the very young girl is not the first offence that McNeill has committed - he also has a lengthy criminal record which includes entries for violence.

The sex offender has previously blamed his appalling behaviour on issues with drugs and alcohol. However, sources are adamant that cannot explain the abuse of a child.

"There will be a lot of people in the public gallery to see McNeill sentenced on Friday," added another North Down loyalist.

"If there is any justice in this world, he will go to prison for a very long time."
Following the vision of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy 2020, Smart Dubai has delivered on its promise of building a thriving Blockchain ecosystem in the city and establishing Dubai as the world capital of Blockchain development.

The ongoing implementation of 24 use cases across eight industry sectors, launch of the Dubai Blockchain Platform, and the Dubai Blockchain Policy are all testament to this fact.

We, at the Smart Dubai Department, have worked with our government and private sector partners on developing a series of Blockchain use cases across multiple sectors, in line with our mission to embrace advanced technologies and make Dubai the happiest and smartest city in the world, said Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General, Smart Dubai Department.

We look forward to multiplying our smart city transformation efforts this year, powering forward with more dedication as we mark the Year of Preparation for the UAEs 50th Anniversary 2020: Towards the Next 50, announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai.

In a detailed presentation, the Smart Dubai Department team explained that the Dubai Blockchain Strategy relies on three main pillars: Government Efficiency, Industry Creation, and International Leadership.

Under Government Efficiency, the Strategy led to the launch of numerous use cases, a joint Blockchain Platform, and the Dubai Blockchain Policy. Government and the private sector entities are working on 24 Blockchain use cases. The use cases span eight sectors, namely, finance, education, real estate, tourism, commerce, health, transportation, and security.

Furthermore, the shared Dubai Blockchain Platform was launched in partnership with IBM to allow government entities to develop use cases without investing in individual infrastructure.

Additionally, the Dubai Future Council for Blockchain, which is also chaired by Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, launched the Dubai Blockchain Policy at the internationally renowned Smart City Expo and World Congress in Barcelona in November 2019.

The Dubai Blockchain Policy is a Blockchain implementation manual detailing all of Smart Dubais cumulative Blockchain learnings, and is freely available on the Smart Dubai website as part of the entitys knowledge sharing efforts with the globe.

Dubai is now home to over 100 Blockchain businesses, the Industry Creation portion of the presentation revealed. Dubais Blockchain market grew by 24 per cent in 2018, surpassing the global average of 19 per cent.

Furthermore, the team looked back at the third annual Global Blockchain Challenge, which Smart Dubai concluded in April of 2019. The 2019 competition received over 700 applications from 79 countries around the world  a ten-fold growth compared to the 100 application submissions received in the first edition in 2017.

The Challenge is part of the Future Blockchain Summit, organised by Smart Dubai to host internationally acclaimed experts, scientists, and decision makers to investigate an array of Blockchain topics, from investments and regulations, to start-ups and disruption.

The 2019 Summit welcomed approximately 10,000 participants  the largest-ever audience at a Blockchain event anywhere in the world.

In the last segment of the presentation  International Leadership  the team looked back at major Blockchain successes that placed Dubai firmly in the global spotlight, from winning the First Smart City on the Blockchain award in the Barcelona Smart City Expo and dominating international headlines as the World Capital of Blockchain, to publishing reports in collaboration with global organisations including the United Nations and the World Economic Forum.

Smart Dubai also revealed that the Dubai Blockchain Strategy has played a key role in encouraging international Blockchain and Fintech firms, such as Atlas Capital, to host the Blockexpo and World Blockchain Summit 2020 in Dubai during the Expo 2020 Dubai. Atlas Capital has also committed to establishing a Blockchain Campus as part of the District 2020 site.-- Tradearabia News Service
BERLIN - Holocaust survivors gathered at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Monday to mark 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp - and perhaps the last major anniversary for which many of them will be alive to share their stories.

The commemoration at the site of the camp in Poland was also attended by dignitaries and officials from more than 50 countries, although some world leaders attended a ceremony in Jerusalem last week instead, and enduring political disputes threatened to overshadow both events.

Speaking next to the preserved railway tracks that brought cattle-cars of victims to Auschwitz, Bat-Sheva Dagan, 94, described having her head shaved and arm tattooed upon her arrival and how she was forced to sort the belongings of those sent to their deaths.

"Where was everybody?" she asked. "Where was the world, who could see that, hear that, and yet did nothing to save all those thousands?"

More than 1 million people were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the vast majority of whom were Jews. In total, the Nazi campaign to eradicate Jews from Europe claimed more than 6 million Jewish lives, while others such as Poles, Roma and Sinti were also put to death in concentration camps.

Although the Soviet army is credited with liberating Auschwitz, Russian President Vladimir Putin boycotted Monday's event, and Polish President Andrzej Duda skipped last week's ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, as they dispute the role of each other's country in collaborating with the Nazis.

The rift underscores concerns about the growing politicization of the history of the war, as the pool of those who can remember its horrors shrinks and anti-Semitism resurges in Europe and the United States.

"World War II history is being weaponized today, and not for the first time," said David Harris, head of the American Jewish Committee. He described Russia's attempt to play down Joseph Stalin's 1939 pact with Adolf Hitler and blame Poland for the war's outbreak as "preposterous." He characterized the decision not to invite Duda to speak alongside other world leaders in Israel as "disappointing."

"Power politics cannot be allowed to distort the truth," he said. "Or we will all pay a heavy price."

In recent years and months, spats about who collaborated with the Nazis before and during the war have mounted. Poland and Israel have rowed over attempts by Warsaw's right-wing government to make it a crime to accuse the country of complicity in war crimes.

Meanwhile, Putin elevated tensions over history late last year with a distorted historical narrative that accused the Polish state of collaborating with the Nazis and painted the Russians as untainted war heroes. Warsaw accuses Russia of playing down its role in invading Poland and its own collaboration with the Nazis.

"Distorting the history of the Second World War and denying the crimes of genocide and the Holocaust," Duda said Monday, "is tantamount to desecration of the memories of the victims whose remains are scattered here."

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He made pointed remarks about Poland being the "first target of Nazi Germany's aggression" and stressed that its troops fought from the "first day to the last."

Survivor Marian Turski, 93, said he would probably not live to mark another major anniversary at Auschwitz. "So please forgive me that there will be some emotions in what I'm going to say," he said, addressing the younger generations. He said that even though just 25 years had elapsed since World War I when the second broke out, it felt distant, and that he understands that young people today feel detached from the horrors of the Holocaust.

"Auschwitz did not fall from the skies," he said, recalling the growing anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1930s. "It was approaching until what happened here, behind me, did happen."

He urged younger generations to be vigilant: "Do not be indifferent when you hear lies, historical lies. Do not be indifferent when you see the past is stretched to fit the current political needs. Do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated against."
Highlights Google has revealed the dates of I/O 2020

I/O 2020 will be held between May 12 and May 14

At the event, Google is expected to announce the Pixel 4a

Dates for one of the most anticipated events of the tech calendar, I/O 2020 have finally been revealed. The company has announced via its events page that it's set to host the annual conference from May 12 to May 14, 2020 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View near Google's HQ.

The information was also shared by the company's CEO, Sundar Pichhai, who took to Twitter to reveal this information.

Interestingly, this is the same event where Google announced the affordable Pixel 3a phones last year, and now, if rumours are to be believed, the search giant could end up launching its successor, the Pixel 4 and the Pixel 4 XL, as well as the new Android 11 OS release.

Cosmos aligned. We'll be back at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View for this year's #GoogleIO on May 12-14! pic.twitter.com/3bZqriaoi1 Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) January 24, 2020

Talking about the Pixel 4a phones, over the past few weeks, we've been treated with a few leaks and rumours about the upcoming mid-range Pixel offerings from Google. The company could soon launch as many as three Pixel range of mid-range smartphones in the coming months.

The information had emerged courtesy of XDADevelopers which found clues to this buried within the open-source code for Android. XDA's Mishaal Rahman found codenames for possibly three new Pixel devices: sunfish, redfin, and bramble.

The report suggests that Sunfish will be the regular Pixel 4a and could come using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 730 chipset, which can connect to 4G networks. The second in the list, Redfin, has been revealed to feature the slightly more powerful, Qualcomm Snapdragon 765. Apart from just affording the phone more power, it will also make the device 5G ready as the chipset comes with a built-in 5G modem.

The last phone in the list is bramble which again is said to feature the Snapdragon 765. However, it isn't entirely clear as to how it would differ from Sunfish in other ways.

Previously, renders of the Pixel 4a have also appeared on the web showing a device with a flat display with the presence of no curves. The leak claimed that the display could be around 5.7 or 5.8-inches diagonally thereby not being a major upgrade in size over its predecessor. However, the renders also showed that phone's display could be surrounded by much thinner bezels as compared to the 3a launched a year ago.
Reading about President Trump's announcement that he will be unveiling his Peace Plan to both Netanyahu and Gantz and about the Palestinian response, which is to riot at the mere thought of a plan, one cannot help but think of Abba Eban's famous 1973 statement: "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

Here's what we know as of now: on Monday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Trump at the White House to discuss the grand resolution President Trump (with help from Jared Kushner) has envisioned for the Israel/Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu is optimistic about the meeting because he trusts Trump:

"I am going to Washington to face an American president that is bringing forward a plan that I believe will advance our most vital interests," Netanyahu said. "During the last three years I spoke countless times with Trump  who is a great friend of Israel  and his team," Netanyahu said.

President Trump also plans to meet later with Netanyahu's chief political rival, Benny Gantz of the Blue and White Party. This is smart politics because a real plan can work only if the major political players in Israel are on board. This is just one more sign that, unlike with past presidents who learned how to negotiate deals once they were in the White House, negotiating deals has been Trump's lifeblood for his entire career.

And here's what we don't know: the contents of the proposed peace plan.

We know that it won't concern Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital, because President Trump already confirmed that when he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, sparking other countries to do the same. And it won't be about the Golan Heights, because President Trump has already recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And it won't be about Israel settlements in the historically Jewish West Bank, because Trump has already held that the settlements are not illegal.

Nevertheless, despite a complete absence of substantive information, leftist media outlets such as Reuters are declaring the plan a bad idea:

As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to host Israeli leaders in Washington to reveal details of his long-delayed Middle East peace plan, Palestinians warned on Friday that no deal could work without them on board. The Palestinians, of course, have already decided they don't need no stinkin' plan: Palestinian factions on Sunday called for a "day of rage" for the day US President Donald Trump releases his long-awaited plan for Mideast peace. Parts of the plan are expected to be publicized during separate meetings in Washington this week between Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz. Palestinians often mark "days of rage" by initiating clashes with IDF soldiers in the West Bank and Israeli policemen in east Jerusalem.

As the Hamas charter reveals, it's never been about peace. It's always been about expelling Jews from the region, by blood, brute force, or international politics.

What the Palestinians fail to realize is that they are already on board with the peace plan, whether they like it or not. First, Israeli has been forging peace plans all over the region with other Arab nations worried about Iran. On Sunday, Israel announced for the first time that Israeli citizens may visit Saudi Arabia for business or, if they're Muslim citizens, for religious reasons. It's long had decent relations with Egypt and is now selling Egypt its bounty of natural gas. And in 2018, Netanyahu made a historic visit to Oman.

Second, Trump's decisions about the U.S. embassy, the Golan Heights, and the settlements have taken those issues off the table. Under Trump's aegis, the trend for the Palestinians over the last three years is to have fewer and fewer cards to play. This indicates that one of Trump's chief negotiating tools will be to say to the Palestinians, "Play nicely or we'll take even more of your toys away." That's the stick. The carrot is something Kushner hinted at in Bahrain last year when he spoke about plans to turn Gaza and the West Bank into sparkling diamonds of commerce, luxury, and sight-seeing on the beautiful Mediterranean coast.

Just as Afghanistan proved to be the graveyard of empires, the intractable problem of Palestinian hatred toward Israel has been the graveyard of peace plans. However, Trump's out-of-the-box thinking, his clamping down on past Palestinian demands, and his skills as a negotiator, combined with Israel repositioning itself as a major natural gas exporter and a partner with a variety of Arab countries worried about Iran, may finally shut that graveyard down and bring about a workable peace plan.

Correction made substituting Trump for Obama
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 00:22:05|Editor: zyl

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Photo taken on Jan. 27, 2020 shows the wreckage of the crashed plane in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban claimed Monday that its fighters shot down a U.S. forces' aircraft in eastern Ghazni province. The U.S. military said on Monday that it is monitoring the situation following reports of a U.S. aircraft crash in Afghanistan. (Photo by Saifullah/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military said on Monday that it is monitoring the situation following reports of a U.S. aircraft crash in Afghanistan.

"U.S. Central Command is aware of the reports of a U.S. aircraft crash in Afghanistan. We are currently monitoring the situation and will provide additional information when possible," Beth Riordan, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson, said in a statement.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid reportedly claimed that a U.S. Air Force plane crashed in the Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan on Monday.
IF YOU shook hands with people at land auctions over the past decade you would have grasped hard, work-swollen lamha.

But it isnt just farmers in attendance anymore. Soft-palmed businessmen are back in the ring. As GVM group property director, Tom Crosse reflects on 2019 he said, interestingly, the business community is back buying land.

They were out of the market previously with the economic downturn - they backed off investing. We are noticing a return to the market among the business community.

They are buying attractive holdings maybe as a property play or hobby farming or they might have children involved in equestrian sport. Money isnt much good in the banks at the minute. People are putting it to work, said Mr Crosse.

Between himself and colleagues John OConnell and Richard Ryan, GVM sold 12m worth of land in 2019.

Values were down very slightly but nothing significant. The early part of the year was very strong with really good headlines prices achieved.

The three-ball in Adare was the highlight with 38,000, 23,500 and 14,000 an acre - all headline sales.

All our auctions were successful either at the auction or immediately afterwards. We are seeing good land holding between 9,000 and 10,000 an acre. Obviously there are exceptions in strong locations like Adare, said Mr Crosse.

Middling land is making between 7,000 and 7,500 an acre and then forestry is putting a floor on land. It is going for 5,000 an acre. That is doing well, said Mr Crosse. Previously it would have been 3,000 to 4,000 an acre.

However, the Irish psyche of you must buy land is changing said Mr Crosse, chair of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers (IPAV) agricultural committee.

A common thread across the country is the move towards long-term leasing. Prices of up to 300 per acre were achieved. The big incentive for young farmers is not having to finance the purchase of land.

Land owners are saying to themselves, I can hang on to my asset, I can lease my land, get my rent in tax-free, get single farm payment tax-free with the land lease. They hold their asset and they still have their land.

The young farmer says to him or herself, I will develop my facilities and whats wrong with leasing land. I have no big commitment, it is costing me 10 grand an acre to buy. I can lease it for 250 an acre with no big capital outlay, no big borrowings and no big commitment.

It is a win-win for both the land owner and the tenant. I think we are going to see more of that. Ive seen cows being leased, partnerships being formed to share land, labour and facilities. One farmer milks the cows in the morning and the other in the evenings. Trends are changing. Traditionally every farmer paddled his own canoe and managed their own farm but farming is becoming much more modern, said Mr Crosse.

In general terms, he said 2019 was an uncertain year driven by Brexit. While milk prices held up reasonably OK, beef farmers were in the red.

It perhaps nudged potential vendors to hold off selling land, resulting in a reduction in land sales in 2019 over and above other years. The latter half in particular. Land owners felt sentiments weren't right to get good prices, said Mr Crosse.

Not much has changed in 2020 thus far but at least Brexit will happen once and for all and Mr Crosse says he has some nice pieces of land coming to market.

He attended the launch of IPAVs latest farm report in Portlaoise. Pat Davitt, IPAVs chief executive, said the increase in stamp duty in Octobers Budget by 1.5% bringing it to 7.5% will encourage more farmers to lease rather than buy land.

This is not the way to a sustainable farming sector. Regardless of how long the lease lasts, it will run out in the end, giving the landowner an opportunity to take back the land. This could leave the young farmer struggling to find an alternative, said Mr Davitt.
Srinagar, Jan 27 : A Hizbul Mujahideen militant was killed on Monday during an exchange of fire between the security forces and militants at Arwani village in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, officials said.

According to reports, the security forces tried but were unsuccessful in making the local militant surrender.

An Army personnel has reportedly sustained injuries in the firing exchange, which ended with the killing of the militant. The body was retrieved from the site and the killed militant has been identified as Shahid Khar of Kulgam.

Informed sources said that on a specific input about the presence of militants in the area, a joint team of the police and army launched an operation, but were fired upon by the hiding militant, and retaliated.

As per police records, Khar was affiliated to proscribed terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen and was wanted by the law for his involvement in terror crimes, including attacks on security establishments.

Cases were registered against him including FIR No. 72/2018 and FIR No. 01/2020 at Quimoh police station.

Arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter and have been seized for further investigation and to probe his complicity in other terror crimes, officials said.

People are requested to cooperate with the police till the area is completely sanitised and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any, they added.

With the killing of Khar, 16 militants, including Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Qari Yasir, have been killed in six encounters in the last 28 days. During the sameperiod, nine militants, including Hizbul divisional commander Naveed Mushtaq, have been arrested in Kashmir in the first month of Vijay Kumar taking over as the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir.

Yasir and two of his associates -- Burhan and Musa -- were killed at Hari Pari Gam in Pulwama on Saturday.

The Army said that with the killing of Yasir, the Jaish leadership has been wiped out from the Valley. Yasir was an IED expert and played a supervisory role in the February 14 Pulwama attack last year in which 40 CRPF men were killed.
A 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday the Centre's plea seeking Rs 7,844 crore as additional fund from successor firms of US-based Union Carbide Corporation, now owned by Dow Chemicals, for giving compensation to victims of 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.

The bench, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M R Shah and S Ravindra Bhat, will hear the curative petition filed by the Centre for enhanced compensation for the victims.

The Centre is seeking a direction to Union Carbide and other firms for Rs 7,844 crore additional amount over and above the earlier settlement amount of USD 470 million for paying compensation to the gas tragedy victims.

Over 3,000 people had died in the tragedy due to release of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas.

The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) gave a compensation of USD 470 million (Rs 715 crore) after the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 killed over 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh more.

The survivors of the 1984 tragedy have been fighting for long for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused by the toxic leak.

The Centre had filed the curative petition in the apex court in December 2010 for enhanced compensation.

On June 7, 2010, a Bhopal court had convicted seven executives of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) to two years' imprisonment in connection with the incident.

Then UCC chairman, Warren Anderson was the prime accused in the case but did not appear for the trial. On February 1, 1992, the Bhopal CJM court had declared him an absconder.

The courts in Bhopal had issued non-bailable warrants against Anderson twice -- in 1992 and 2009.

Anderson died in September, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Her twin Jess is still taking part in the winter edition of Love Island.

But Eve Gale was keeping busy without her sister, leaving the I Saw It First HQ in Manchester laden down with bags ahead of Tuesday's National Television Awards.

The blonde beauty, 20, highlighted her curves in a white halterneck top and a pair of skin-tight PVC trousers.

Getting ready: Eve Gale was keeping busy without her twin sister, leaving the I Saw It First HQ in Manchester on Monday, laden down with bags ahead of Tuesday's National Television Awards

Eve sported a full face of make-up and topped off her look with an Adidas cap.

She completed her casual look with a pair of patent black boots, putting her best foot forward as she strutted along the street.

The TV star's outing comes after she insisted Tyga did 'slide into her DMs' and is adamant she has proof to back up the claims.

Glamorous girl: Eve sported a full face of make-up and topped off her look with an Adidas cap

Eve widely mocked on social media, including by the American rapper, 30, himself, when she said during her stint on the ITV2 show that Kylie Jenner's ex had attempted to contact her via social media.

Despite Tyga seemingly hitting back at the claims, the reality star maintained her previous statement during an interview on Capital Radio with Roman Kemp on Tuesday morning.

But Eve - the first contestant to leave this series of Love Island earlier this month - told Roman that she has proof the liaison happened.

Axed: Eve was seen heading to a Capital radio interview last week to chat with Roman Kemp

'I was at an event where he was performing so I tagged him in an Instagram story and he liked it and replied WYA?, like, where you at? I've got it on my phone!'

She went on: 'I was just like "erm, London" but he was going back to LA and he was like "so sorry about that" and then we spoke again when he was in Ibiza and I was in Ibiza at the same time. But he was leaving Ibiza and Id just got to Ibiza.'

Roman added: 'Passing ships in the night! One day it will happen!'

The proof is in the pudding: During her interview, the topic of American rap star Tyga sliding into her DMs reared its head - after Eve insisted he had messaged her after an event, with him seemingly poking fun at this suggestion afterwards on Twitter

Denied: Rapper Tyga, 30, ridiculed the twin, 20, after being tagged in a fleet of tweets when Eve revealed the news they had messaged each other during the Spill The Tea challenge in an earlier episode of Love Island

Eve told Roman that she has proof that it happened: 'I was at an event where he was performing so I tagged him in an Instagram story and he liked it and replied WYA?, like, where you at? Ive got it on my phone!'

Rapper Tyga, 30, ridiculed the twin, 20, after being tagged in a fleet of tweets when Eve revealed the news they had messaged each other during the Spill The Tea challenge in an earlier episode of Love Island.

Fans had poked fun at her revelation, with one sharing a photo of Tyga alongside a guy who looked like him, with the caption: 'Sorry she was talking about the guy on the right?'

Tyga replied to the meme with a series of cry laughing faces.

Eve looked casual-yet-glam for the outing on Tuesday, in a busty black top and a jacket, adding skin-tight ripped jeans and suede ankle boots.

The blonde reality personality showed off her South African tan in the low-cut top, showcasing her usual fully made-up complexion.

Funny: Tyga replied to the meme with a series of cry laughing faces

Bombshell: She looked casual-yet-glam for the outing, in a busty black top and a jacket, adding skin-tight ripped jeans and suede ankle boots

Eve went on to comment on the show's currently strongest couple, Mike and Leanne, with Roman saying to her: 'I am not sold on Mike. When he first came into the villa I was like "this guy has got to win, what a legend" but now Im seeing a couple of traits, I dont know if hes as invested in Leeanne as hes making out. What do you think?'

She replied: 'I think  to be honest I think Mike and Leeanne, I think this isnt them, like, set now. I think they are going to have are rocky time, I feel like someones going to come in, theyre going to really like Mike and I feel like someone is going to really go for him.

'Like with Jess, she went for him but she was quick to give up, do you know what I mean? I think he is going to like hes just quite a flirty person naturally, hes complimentary, hes like "wow".

Glam: The blonde reality personality showed off her South African tan in the low-cut top, showcasing her usual fully made-up complexion

Eve weighed in on Mike and Leanne, saying: 'This isnt them, like, set now. I think they are going to have are rocky time, I feel like someones going to come in, theyre going to really like Mike and I feel like someone is going to really go for him'

Snake in the grass? She also went on to claim Connor is the most likely to cheat and that he is playing the biggest game

'I think theyre going to have a rocky bit maybe but I think theyre definitely going to say strong. I feel like theyre solid, they will be at the end, they will be.'

Eve - who entered Love Island with her identical twin sister Jess - reflected on what it was like being separated from her in the most recent recoupling.

'Its really sad. Its just little things all the time, like making food I feel like I should make one for Jess.'

She also went on to claim Connor is the most likely to cheat and that he is playing the biggest game.
In the third week of a four-part series looking at the finalists for the Cork Company of the Year Awards, Munster Business Hub editor Alan Healy casts an eye over the contenders in the Large company category.

Rowa supplying medicines around the world for 60 years

Based in Bantry, Rowa Pharmaceuticals Ltd has expanded its reach over the past six decades to supply medicines across the globe.

Rowa provides high-quality prescription and non-prescription medicine at a competitive price.

Their mission statement is to provide products and services that consistently meet technical standards, regulatory requirements and customer expectations, delivered on time and at competitive costs.

The company has been a pillar of the community for over 60 years providing jobs to the people of Bantry and West Cork.

Their two key products; Rowachol and Rowatinex were developed in the late 1950s and provide relief from kidney stones and gallstones without surgical intervention.

Their unique selling points are the services they offer to the healthcare profession including a wide range of promotional material including window display material, posters, leaflets, booklets and counter display units.

They have expanded to have a presence in 80 countries worldwide. Some of the leading markets for their products are Russia, Egypt, Afghanistan, Libya, Hungary and Korea, all supplied from their Bantry base.

The company is owned by Brigitte Wagner-Halswick, who has been managing director since 1979 following the death of her husband Roland Wagner.

In 1979, Bantry had just experienced the largest maritime disaster in Irish history, Ireland was going an economic crisis and political turmoil, unemployment was high and Mrs Wagner was a young businesswoman in a male-dominated landscape.

This was a difficult time to maintain a business but she made the decision to remain in Bantry and make Rowa a success.

Travelling the world and promoting Rowa products establishing the company as a leading pharmaceutical supplier.

The business has also remained in Bantry despite multiple offers and opportunities to move the business, especially during the recession.

The company continues to grow, launching new products and registering these products in new markets such as Syria, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

This year, in conjunction with the IDA, Rowa introduced the LEAN programme in their laboratory with the overall goal of improving processes and becoming more efficient in their procedures.

Joe Keane, head of operations for Rowa Pharmaceuticals, said:

Were very honoured to be a finalist in the Cork Company of the Year Awards 2020. This has been an absolutely incredible year for Rowa.

Most notably, in September, we celebrated 60 years in business in West Cork, a monumental milestone that few companies achieve.

Id also like to say a special word about Mrs Wagner-Halswick, who has been our managing director since 1979 and today, is still the driving force of the company.

Crest supporting the worlds top pharma and med device firms

The important work of pharmaceutical and medical device multinationals in Ireland, Europe and the US is supported by Cork firm Crest Solutions, who have provided them with engineering services and solutions for more than 20 years.

The company was founded in 1998 and is now amongst Northern Europes leading engineering services partners to life sciences companies.

Frank Madden

Since their inception in Cork, they have worked with a variety of companies including Allergan, Gilead, Teva, J&J, Baxter Healthcare, MSD-Merck, and Abbott.

The company has experienced exponential growth with employment growing from 20 people in 2011 to over 175 today.

They are on track to hire an additional 120 engineers, project managers, software developers and technicians by the end of this year.

Crest invested in a joint venture with Vistalink NV in 2012 and has grown this operation to service the Benelux and Scandinavian regions, successfully internationalising the companys European operations and reach.

Through strategic partnerships in the US, the company now delivers and supports systems in multiple sites globally for life sciences clients.

Construction is ongoing at the companys headquarters in Little Island, doubling the buildings footprint to accommodate the increased workforce.

Many of the companys engineers work on customer sites domestically and abroad managing, delivering and supporting projects.

This has led to projects being delivered in multiple countries and sites for global leaders.

CEO Frank Madden said their plan is to grow group revenue exponentially over a five-year period.

As multinationals build global teams to assess and implement emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, they are contracting Crest Solutions to partner with them to build scalable solutions for their sites internationally.

These include innovations in digital work instructions, virtualisation, virtual reality, augmented reality and cobot applications, all backed by the excellence of the project support we provide through our resourcing solutions and managed services teams.

We are delighted and honoured to have been selected as a finalist by Cork Chamber for Large Company of the Year.

We are immensely proud of our domestic and international growth from our base in Cork, increasing turnover almost ten-fold in the last five years.

Cork continues to be an excellent place from which to grow an internationally-focused business.

Our ability to hire so many talented people in Cork, in addition to having so many multi-national manufacturing customers with a presence here, have been key enablers in the success being recognised by Cork Chamber, Mr Madden said.

Hotel group promotes city nationally and internationally

Operating three top locations in Cork, Trigon Hotels have strong ambitions for the future.

Their 4-star group of hotels include the Cork International Hotel, Cork Airport Hotel and the Metropole Hotel.

Across the group, they operate 334 bedrooms, four restaurants, three bars, 33 conference and meeting rooms and multiple leisure facilities

Aaron Mansworth

Founded in May 2017, Trigon Hotels are dedicated to the promotion of Cork as a premium business and leisure destination nationally and internationally to ensure Cork, its people and its businesses benefit.

All their three hotels are ranked in the top 10 on TripAdvisor, securing spots three, five, and 10 out of 33 properties.

They provide 270 jobs in Cork and this is set to grow in the next three years. This figure does not include the additional teams, part-time employment and seasonal staff they hire for large events, conferences and busy periods such as the jazz festival.

Their ambitious sales growth projections are 5% year-on-year for the next three. The Metropole has seen year-on-year growth of 18% on 2018 and for the past five years, Cork International Hotel and Cork Airport Hotel have had double-digit growth.

Trigons festivals and events also continue to grow in scale, having recently received Failte Ireland funding.

Awards/accreditations this year have included, Irish Hospitality Institute Food & Beverage Manager of the Year, Chambers Ireland CSR Award Nomination for their charity initiative from working with BUMBLEance, Gold Medal Awards shortlisted finalist for Best Business and Conference Hotel and Best Breakfast for the Cork International Hotel.

The Metropole Hotel Cork won Cork Hotel of the Year for 2018 at the Cork Business Association annual business awards. The Met Bar was shortlisted for Hotel Bar of the year at the national Bar of the Year awards.

They have just won a Cork Chamber Digital Marketing Award for Best use of Twitter. The Metropole Hotel also won 3-star hotel of the year at the national Irish Hotel Awards prior to becoming a 4-star hotel last March.

Managing director Aaron Mansworth said they are honoured to be shortlisted for this prestigious award. This nomination recognises the hard work and dedication of our team to the hospitality, tourism and business community in Cork and indeed Ireland.

It acknowledges our vast investment in Cork and our plans to grow and scale sustainably over the coming years, providing even more jobs to Cork people and driving impact on the local economy.

We are committed to redefining the customer experience not only within our hotels and events, but also within Cork.

We look forward to continuing relationships with Cork Chamber, its growing membership base and we will continue to innovate to further positively impact the industry and our city.
Protesters set fire to close a street during clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters near Baghdad's Khilani square, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. AP



Three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq's capital on Sunday in the first direct hit reported after months of close calls, as thousands of protesters kept up anti-government sit-ins across the country.



The attack marked a dangerous escalation in the spree of rocket attacks in recent months that have targeted the embassy or Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed.



None of the attacks has been claimed but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq.



On Sunday, one rocket hit an embassy cafeteria at dinner time while two others landed nearby, a security source told AFP.



A senior Iraqi official told AFP at least one person was wounded, but it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were and whether the person was an American national or an Iraqi staff member working at the mission.



The US embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.



The US State Department called on Iraq late Sunday to "fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities".



The attack took place earlier in the day than usual, with AFP reporters hearing the booms on the western bank of the river Tigris at precisely 7:30 pm (1630 GMT).



Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the incident, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war.



Iraq has already been dragged into a worrying tit-for-tat between the United States and Iran over the last month.



A similar attack on a northern Iraqi base killed an American contractor, and the US retaliated with a strike on an Iran-backed faction known as Kataeb Hezbollah.



Less than a week later, a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani outside the Baghdad airport  prompting Iran to fire ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base where US troops are stationed.





Iraqi protesters chant slogans and carry the Iraqi national flag during ongoing anti-government protests at the Al Tahrir square in central Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 26, 2020. Reports state that at least five protesters were killed and dozens others were wounded in clashes with anti-riot police forces in Nasriyah and Baghdad, when Iraqi security forces stormed the main protests sites in Baghdad, Nasriyah, Basra, and firing live rounds and tear gas at anti-government protesters, while thousands of Iraqi university students participated in a strike, as part of the wave of protests across the country against the Iraqi government corruption, in response to the call of Iraqi activists. EPA
Alison O'Connor joined Simon Coveney as he canvassed at Douglas Court shopping centre in Cork over the weekend.

Simon Coveney has a good laugh when asked if he might now legitimately be viewed as an emotional support Tanaiste to the self-confessed poor expresser of emotions that is his boss the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

That question followed a query as to how it feels on a human level to find himself promoted to almost equal billing in the campaign as the Taoiseach, not least because of his high approval ratings on Brexit handling, and probably because of him being a half decent expresser of feelings. All of this after he lost the Fine Gael crown to the same Leo. At the time many party colleagues said they were voting for Leo rather than Simon because he would be a huge asset in the next general election. Surely last thing at night, after a hard day on the campaign trail, Simon must be struck by the irony of his now hugely elevated position.

Thats a bit of a leading question, he answers, laughing again. He doesnt really bite on it, saying it doesnt upset him; that he asked for the Foreign Affairs brief and concentrates on that. For me politics is less about personalities and more about outcome and delivery.

Still though hes interesting on Leos lack of ability on the empathy front and his more diagnostic rather than emotionally intelligent approach to politics.

Tom Doyle and his sons Cormac and Ronan from Ballincollig 49th scouts speaking to Simon Coveney

It is true. Leo is not good at expressing empathy. He accepts that. We have spoken about it many times. I think he tries to do more in that space, to reach out to people on an emotional level. But you know hes an incredibly intelligent man. Hes a doctor. His approach to politics is that he diagnoses the problem and he tries to construct a solution. That is what he has tried to do on Brexit and what he has tried to do in terms of the economic model that he is looking to implement. I think that means he does not connect emotionally with people in the way other politicians do. But Id rather be working with somebody like that than somebody who is trying to be empathetic every week but not actually delivering any solutions or outcomes.

Its Saturday afternoon in Cork city. On Friday at the Fine Gael manifesto launch Simon said he knew his Cork South Central constituency colleague, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin better than most and he is not the person to lead Ireland into the next phase of the Brexit challenge. Ouch. Any concerns since that he came across as a bit of an arrogant Blueshirt git? He looks taken aback at this interpretation. I dont think so at all. I havent insulted Micheal Martin. This begs the response as to what exactly would constitute a Simon Coveney insult.

Simon Coveney canvassing as he chats with David and Grainne Bennett and 5 month old Jack at Douglas Court

What Ive said is right, I know Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar well. Ive worked with both of them. I want Leo Varadkar to lead the Brexit negotiations because I think he will do a better job and he has shown the capacity to do that. What I am trying to do is to get to the heart of the issue  who do you want as Taoiseach of this country when we have huge challenges to overcome in these negotiations over the next 8 to 12 months. In my view Leo has shown a calmness and steeliness and a firmness around Brexit that we need for the next half of this race. Im passionate about that and that is why I said it bluntly. I know Micheal Martin well and I have no personal animosity against him.

Back to the general election campaign. Leo Varadkar will have to be very strong in the last ten days. Id say he needs to be, quite honestly, because it has been an election that didnt start well for us. Its important to be honest about that. What it comes down to is who do you trust in terms of political party and in terms of Taoiseach. Who do you trust to take Ireland forward.

Simon Coveney chatting with Sean Murphy, MS Ireland

The poor start is something he talks about later to shoppers that he meets outside Dunne Stores in the Douglas Court shopping centre. Simon tells them it was difficult for the Government having to answer tough questions around homelessness and crime. It is a spiky enough canvas out there and thats because people have had bad experiences in hospitals particularly, and people expect more from government. They want solutions quickly. I think people have made a lot of sacrifices particularly middle income earners, business owners. Theyve worked with government policies, because they know it was needed and now they want something back.

He speculates that voters havent been wanting to listen to data because there is a lot of emotion involved, but clearly Fine Gael is hoping some of their facts will start to sink in for the remainder of the campaign. A fact that he has also stresses to shoppers  and at one point there is a queue of people waiting to talk to him - is how other parties are talking about ways to spend money that Fine Gael has created.

Shoppers queueing up to talk with An Tanaiste

His canvas team includes his older brother Patrick and his daughter eighteen-year-old Tara, both down from Dublin. Tara is canvassing for the first time ever but has clearly been bitten by the bug as she is in her first year of studying politics. The issues of health, housing and, of course, pensions are raised. One shopper raised the National Childrens Hospital, another the Dara Murphy controversy. It is almost exclusively middle class.

He listens and sometimes takes notes and respectfully but firmly argues the Fine Gael position.

At one point a woman he is talking to points towards Patrick Coveney, standing a little bit away, and asks: Is that your son?

My son? asks a clearly taken aback candidate and younger sibling. Thats my older brother Patrick.

Simon Coveney canvassing as he chats with Keith Martin

Patrick brings over Keith Martin for a chat. Keith recently moved to Cork from Zimbabwe, being able to do so through ancestry. It will be the first time in his adult life voting in a free and fair election so hes devoting considerable time to his decision. Simon once visited Zimbabwe on a rugby tour and they both chat about how tragic it is what happened to the country under the late Robert Mugabe. Keith had a funeral home there, with a state contract. He said he buried all of Mugabes supporters and relatives, including his first wife. But it was snatched by a Government minister and taken. Keith said it was difficult to get somewhere to live in Cork and his partner had a bad experience in hospital.

Rachel Quigley is a GP in Blackrock and clearly frustrated at the situation in primary care. She tells the Tanaiste of a GP friend in the city who has pneumonia and despite needing five antibiotics does not have the cover to take any time off. Another GP friend is pregnant and cant get a locum for her maternity leave. I wouldnt be a typical Fine Gael voter but last time I voted Fine Gael. However things are so difficult on the ground for GPs. Were very demoralised. I come home after talking to 30 people all day and I cant speak for two hours after the stress.

Dr. Rachel Quigley, Blackrock, with Simon Coveney.

The hot topic of pensions and retirement is raised by a woman who is due to retire next November. She is really annoyed at the prospect of having to sign on. Simon tells her this will not be the case, that Fine Gael did listen to what people had to say. He explains the partys changed proposals which he said will cost 150 million a year. The woman mentions that she wouldnt ever think of voting Sinn Fein but Mary Lou has said she would keep it at 65.

Mary Lou is planning to spend the divil and all, responded Simon.

I am so upset by all of this, the woman tells him. Ive worked for 41 years. Youre better off in this country not working at all. The humiliation of having to go and sign on alongside people who have done nothing all their lives. I worked since I was 15 years of age."

Another woman waits patiently to say she is not a supporter of any party but wanted to acknowledge all the work and effort you put in and the media dont usually write about it. Interestingly in an earlier chat about the media  brought about by a question on how the Tanaiste can often seems not to be overly keen on journalists he has a lot to say.

Following the general election he believes there is an acute need for an honest and blunt discussion on this subject. The media today is a changing place. I think it is a very tough place for journalists because you are competing with anonymous opinion formers on social media who dont have any cost base, who dont have any regulation, who dont have any fact checkers, who cant be taken to court.

He wants the discussion to centre around how media is funded, how it is regulated, how it interacts with the court and court actions. We dont want to be muzzling the media, threatening them financially with legal cases, but at the same time how do we deal with a largely unregulated online conversation? From my perspective as a senior politician there is a need for an honest and blunt discussion between policy makers and media leaders around how do we have a vibrant, viable media in Ireland that can do its job in a democracy, but at the same time ensuring we do not have the demonisation of politics, of all parties. This has been happening and has been a driving politics in a dangerous direction, moving people to the extremes, moving people to populism. Politicians actually take on the media to try to undermine their credibility in order to be able to win votes.
In this series, we explore some of the darker and sometimes forgotten aspects of Luxembourg. Think sinister chapters of history, eerie folk tales, conspiracy theories, infamous criminals and contemporary issues. This week we go back in time and have a closer look at wolf attacks in the Grand Duchy.

Luxembourg's last wolf was officially killed by the examining magistrate Edouard Wolff (oh the irony) near Olingen on 24 April 1893. After the recent wolf sightings on Belgium not far from the Luxembourg border, most residents were happy to hear that wolves might return to roam the Grand Duchy's forests once more. Fair to say this would not have been the case a couple of centuries ago...

When wolves acquired "a taste of human flesh"

In an early book on Luxembourg's religious history, Jesuit Jean Bertholet (1688-1755) offers a rather colourful account of a wolf plague that allegedly took place in the Grand Duchy in 1045: "The men who died in the countryside and remained without burial, were eaten by wolves; these carnivorous beasts acquiring a taste for human flesh. [The wolves] later also threw themselves upon the living, and killed a great number of them." Bertholet also came up with an explanation for the attacks: in his view, they represented "Heaven's anger."

While it's somewhat difficult to prove or disprove Bertholet's account of this early wolf plague, there were countless other reports of wolf attacks in Luxembourg. Towards the end of the 18th century, France for example officially called Luxembourg the "Departement des loups because of the high number of wolves roaming the country. In 1801, a forester called Romainville alerted the mayor of Luxembourg City to a ravenous pack of wolves in Bambesch forest. The wolves, he anxiously reported, had already devoured pigs owned by the municipality of Strassen. Other foresters were instructed to hunt down the wolves - unfortunately there are no historical sources detailing the outcome of the hunt.

A battle between wolves and farmers in Dudelange

Another quite spectacular confrontation between humans and wolves took place in 1709, which was the year that brought the Great Frost to Europe. Temperatures reportedly dropped to under -30 C, plunging the Grand Duchy and its neighbouring countries into famine and misery.

To make matters worse, the extreme cold and lack of food also played a key role in triggering a veritable wolf plague in Dudelange. A pack of 30 wolves came into the village from Rotenberg a day after they had already torn an 8-year-old boy to pieces. According to various sources, the farmers took up axes, pitchforks and other makeshift weapons and had a gory battle with the voracious animals. 22 wolves were killed and some farmers badly injured.

Rabies and fatal wolf attacks on humans

Deadly wolf attacks on humans are relatively rare and the majority of them have involved rabies, which was first recorded in wolves in the 13th century. On 8 October 1872, two men from Strassen fell prey to a rabid wolf. The two men were on their way to Mondercange when a wolf appeared out of nowhere and slowly trotted towards them. They were not worried first because they mistook the wild animal for a mere dog.

Things took a dramatic turn from there: the wolf attacked one of the two men and jumped against his chest. Thunderstruck, the victim tried his best to keep the enraged animal from biting his neck but was badly scratched. His companion, the 40-year old J.B. Majerus, lashed the wolf in a desperate attempt to scare it away. The wolf then took on Majerus and bit him in the face before finally taking off.

The two men received medical treatment after the incident. Majerus, however, started to display first symptoms of rabies on 27 October and passed away on 3 November in Ettelbruck. There were several other recorded attacks by rabid wolves on humans in the following decades.

Wolf plague in Doncols

The most famous series of wolf attacks in Luxembourg took place in Doncols in 1847. Around 100 wolves reportedly struck terror into the hearts of northern Luxembourgers. 58 wolves were killed - which was quite a lucrative enterprise for hunters. Already in 1795, officials passed a decree that would pay a substantial sum to anyone who could prove that they had killed a wolf (usually by presenting the wolf's head).

Wolf plague in Doncols.

____

Sources:
A man has been arrested by the Anti-Extortion Cell of Mumbai police in connection with an extortion case filed against gangster Ejaz Lakdawala, an official said on Monday.

Lakdawala (50), once a close aid of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and wanted in 25 cases in the metropolis, was held on January 8 from Patna in Bihar.

A Byculla-based builder had given an application to police last year claiming that Lakdawala was demanding extortion money, an official said.

"After Lakdawala was arrested, we verified this complaint and filed an FIR on January 20," said an official.

"In this January 20 case, we have arrested Salim Penwala alias Salim Dadi alias Salim Maharaj. Further probe is underway," Anti Extortion Cell senior inspector Ajay Sawant told PTI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
VIJAYAWADA: The Telugu Desams struggle to hold its flock together in the Legislative Council against the onslaught of the YSRC received a setback on Sunday as six of its MLCs skipped the meeting convened by party president N. Chandrababu Naidu. The TD had directed all its MLCs to attend the meeting to discuss the future course of action on the three capitals legislation and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddys threat to abolish the Legislative Council.

According to sources, the YSRC is planning to lure TD MLCs to its fold to weaken the party which enjoys majority in the Council. Ever since the TD-dominated Council rejected the three capitals Bills, Mr Reddy has been contemplating abolition of the Upper House or gaining majority by poaching Opposition members.

On Sunday, TD MLCs K.E. Prabhakar, G. Saraswathi, Tippe Swa-my, A.S. Ramakrishna and S. Vijayarama Raju stayed away from the meeting.

Sources said all is not hunky dory in the TD over its opposition to the three capitals idea with legislators and leaders of Rayalaseema, Coastal Andhra and North Andhra regions resenting Mr Naidus stand.

While TD MLCs Pothula Sunita and Shivanath Reddy revolted against the party by violating its whip, another member, Mr Dokka Manikyavara-prasada Rao, resigned from the party as well as the Council.

Sundays development left the remaining Council members worried about their future. The TD leadership is also equally worried with Mr Reddy announcing his decision to hold an Assembly session in three days to start the process of abolition of the Council and ruling party leaders launching concerted efforts to engineer defection of Opposition members. The Telugu Desam is desperately trying to keep its members together.
Burma Sixty Myanmar Students to Be Evacuated From China as Coronavirus Spreads

A security officer wearing a protective mask checks the temperature of a passenger following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, at an expressway toll station on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in Xianning, a city bordering Wuhan in Chinas Hubei province on Jan. 24, 2020. / REUTERS
After teasing fans with a teaser of 'Gabru' song, Ayushmann Khurrana on Monday dropped the recreated version of the Punjabi hit by Honey Singh from his film 'Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan'.

The 35-year-old actor hopped on to Twitter and shared the song along with a caption that reads, "Pyaar ki ladai, ab thodi ZYADA crazy! #Gabru out now!"

The two-minute-eleven second song starts with a dialogue by the lead actor Ayushmann who asking the setup of a wedding band to plan a pumped up entry for him.

He is seen shaking a leg on the dance floor along with Jitendra Kumar, who is playing his love interest in the comedy-drama. The peppy dance number shows the unconventional comedy between Ayushmann and Jitendra followed by a shocking kiss between the two. Sung by Romy, the peppy song's music has been recreated by Tanishk Bagchi.

The dance number has been shot in the setup of a wedding pandal, and is sure to top the party song charts.

'Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan' is a light-hearted comedy that can be seen as a progressive attempt towards the acceptance of same-sex couples, an issue that continues to remain a taboo in India even after a year of its decriminalisation by the Supreme Court.

Featuring Ayushmann Khurana and Jitendra Kumar in the lead roles, this movie also has Neena Gupta, Manurishi Chadda, and Gajraj Rao in pivotal roles.

Helmed by Hitesh Kewalya and produced by Bhushan Kumar, the film is the second installment of the much-acclaimed 'Shubh Mangal Saavdhan' film, which was released in 2017.

The romantic comedy flick with a powerful message is set to hit the big theatres on February 21.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
- Young people in the country have resorted to now smoking dried fecal matter and drinking soaked sanitary pads to drink for vitality

- The youth reportedly mix both used and unused sanitary pads with water and boil for some minutes after which they sieve the concoction for drinking

- The human excreta, according to the abusers, improve the flavor of the illicit drug

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Information reaching YEN.com.gh indicates that some young people in the country have resorted to now smoking dried fecal matter and drinking soak sanitary pads to drink for vitality.

In the Upper West Region, the youth reportedly mix both used and unused sanitary pads with water and boil for some minutes after which they sieve the concoction for drinking.

According to a report by Myjoyonline.com, those who smoke also mix dried human feces with Indian hemp popularly known as wee, roll it up in papers like cigarette sticks and smoke.

The human excreta, according to the abusers, improves the flavor of the illicit drug.

This revelation was made by the Upper West regional commander of Narcotics Control Board Ishak Bakuri when Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery visited the regional NACOB office as part of his three-day tour of the region.

READ ALSO: New Coronavirus: First person in West Africa tested for deadly virus after showing symptoms

He said there was no law in the country yet to control this new craze among the youth.

 People are now smoking poopoo'. They mix the dry shit with marijuana and smoke. They said it improves the flavor and there are others who smoke only the dry poopoo they pick. They roll it and smoke.

Now the youth go to buy the pad. They boil the pad, sieve it and drink it, and others who are unable to buy new pads, they look around in the back yard, [and] when the ladies remove it and throw it away, they take it to go and boil it, sieve it and drink Mr Bakuri said.

According to the NACOB commander, the office is yet to conduct a laboratory test to establish the chemical compositions of the latest discovery that the youth are hooked onto it.

We are still trying to discover the chemical composition that is in the pad, he said.

READ ALSO: Outbreak of deadly virus; Ghana to screen passengers from China over new virus

The Ministry of Health has announced that all persons coming in from China to Ghana would undergo enhanced health screening and surveillance to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus.

Health Authorities in China have confirmed the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus in December 2019 after a series of reported cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.

A press release signed by the sector Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu and reported by Citi News, assured that Ghana has in-country capacity to diagnose the infection at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

READ ALSO: Kumawood star Kyeiwaa marries in America (Video)

Rick Ross' full performance at Detty Rave3 in Ghana | #Yencomgh

Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accused by the BJP of supporting the ongoing anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh, hit back on Monday by indicating that the saffronites want the protests to continue to polarise voters for electoral gains.

People are being inconvenienced due to the road blocked at Shaheen Bagh. BJP doesnt want the road to be opened, Kejriwal tweeted on Monday, accusing the BJP of practising dirty politics.

He suggested that the BJP leaders should immediately go to Shaheen Bagh and talk to the protesters and get the road reopened.

During his election campaign, Kejriwal told reporters: I can give you this in writing  the BJP does not want to open the route in Shaheen Bagh. This route will remain closed till February 8 (election day) and will open on February 9.

BJP leaders ranging from party chief J.P. Nadda to Union ministers Amit Shah and Ravi Shankar Prasad had been claiming that Kejriwal and others were supporting those who want to break India.

Shah dared the Aam Aadmi Party chief to visit Shaheen Bagh so that people of Delhi can decide whom to vote for in the assembly election. He said the Delhi Police has booked Sharjeel Imam, a JNU student, on sedition charge for his comment of trying to cut the chickens neck and break the Northeast from the rest of the country.

I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi, Shah said while addressing an election rally at Rithala in northwest Delhi on Monday.

Imam was one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest.

You (the AAP leaders) people say that you are with Shaheen Bagh. If you have the guts then go and sit with them. And let Delhi decide, he added.

In reply, Kejriwal took to Twitter to ask what was stopping Shah from arresting Imam and accused the home minister of practising bad politics.
Dublin, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Burundi Diesel Genset Market (2019-2025): Market Report By KVA Rating, By Verticals, By Regions and Competitive Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



This report thoroughly covers the market by kVA rating, verticals and regions. Burundi diesel genset market outlook report provides an unbiased and detailed analysis of the on-going Burundi diesel genset market trends, opportunities/high growth areas and market drivers which would help the stakeholders to devise and align their market strategies according to the current and future market dynamics.



According to this research, Burundi Diesel Genset Market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% during 2019-2025.



The economy of Burundi is recovering slowly after two consecutive years of recession in 2015 (-3.9%) and 2016 (-0.6%). The diesel genset market of Burundi witnessed sluggish growth during the last few years owing to political instability and fuel shortages in 2017 due to lack of hard currency which brought many businesses to a standstill.

During the forecast period, the diesel genset market in the country is anticipated to witness moderate growth owing to increasing reports of power failure and rising demand for diesel generators across all verticals as a source of backup power. Moreover, the diesel genset market of Burundi is primarily import driven due to lack of OEM manufacturers of diesel gensets in the country



In Burundi, diesel gensets with 75.1 - 375 kVA rating, accounted for the majority of the revenue share in the overall market in 2018, due to increasing demand for diesel gensets across various sectors such as banking, power utilities and construction. Additionally, increasing utilization of lower rating gensets across domains, such as telecom infrastructure, unreliable and off-grid areas, and other commercial sectors, would help the 5 - 75 kVA diesel genset segment to register higher growth during the forecast period.



By applications, the industrial and commercial sector accounted for the highest revenue share in the overall Burundi diesel genset market share in 2018 owing to increasing usage of diesel genset in power utilities segment, rising number of commercial offices and sudden boost of mineral exports to the USA due to China-USA trade war. Moreover, increasing number of telecom towers running on diesel genset in the country is one of the key drivers in the growth of diesel gensets during the forecast period.



Story continues

Key Highlights of the Report

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Overview

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Outlook

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Forecast

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Size

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Forecast of revenues until 2025

Historical Data of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues and Volume for the Period 2015-2018

Market Size & Forecast of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues and Volume until 2025

Historical Data of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, by kVA Rating for the Period 2015-2018

Market Size & Forecast of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, by kVA Rating until 2025

Historical Data of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues, by Applications for the Period 2015-2018

Market Size & Forecast of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues, by Applications until 2025

Historical Data of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues, by Regions for the Period 2015-2018

Market Size & Forecast of Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues, by Regions until 2025

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Price Trends

Burundi Diesel Gensets Market Drivers and Restraints

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Trends

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Share, By Companies

Burundi Diesel Genset Market Overview on Competitive Benchmarking

Company Profiles

Strategic Recommendations

Key Topics Covered



1 Executive Summary



2 Introduction

2.1 Report Description

2.2 Key Highlights

2.3 Market Scope & Segmentation

2.4 Research Methodology

2.5 Assumptions



3 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Overview

3.1 Burundi Country Indicators

3.2 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, 2015-2025F

3.3 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenue & Volume Share, By kVA Rating, 2018 & 2025F

3.4 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenue Share, By Verticals, 2018 & 2025F

3.5 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenue Share, By Regions, 2018 & 2025F

3.6 Burundi Diesel Genset Market - Industry Life Cycle, 2018

3.7 Burundi Diesel Genset Market - Porter's Five Forces, 2018



4 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Dynamics

4.1 Impact Analysis

4.2 Market Drivers

4.3 Market Restraints



5 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Trends



6 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Overview, By kVA Rating

6.1 Burundi 5 kVA-75 kVA Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, 2015-2025F

6.2 Burundi 75.1 kVA-375 kVA Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, 2015-2025F

6.3 Burundi 375.1 kVA-750 kVA Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, 2015-2025F

6.4 Burundi Above 750 kVA Diesel Genset Market Revenues & Volume, 2015-2025F



7 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Overview, By Verticals

7.1 Burundi Commercial Vertical Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F

7.2 Burundi Industrial Vertical Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F

7.3 Burundi Residential Vertical Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F

7.4 Burundi Transportation & Infrastructure Vertical Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F



8 Burundi Diesel Genset Regional Market Overview

8.1 Northern Burundi Region Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F

8.2 Eastern Burundi Region Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F

8.3 Western Burundi Region Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F

8.4 Southern Burundi Region Diesel Genset Market Revenues, 2015-2025F



9 Burundi Diesel Genset Market - Key Performance Indicators

9.1 Burundi Government Spending Outlook

9.2 Burundi Power Sector Outlook

9.3 Burundi Vision 2025



10 Burundi Diesel Genset Market - Import Statistics



11 Burundi Diesel Genset Market - Opportunity Assessment

11.1 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Opportunity Assessment, By kVA Rating, 2025F

11.2 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Opportunity Assessment, By Verticals, 2025F

11.3 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Opportunity Assessment, By Regions, 2025F



12 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Competitive Landscape

12.1 Burundi Diesel Genset Market Revenue Share Ranking, By Brands



13 Company Profiles

13.1 Caterpillar Inc.

13.2 Cummins Inc.

13.3 FG Wilson

13.4 Perkins Engines Co. Ltd.

13.5 SDMO-Kohler

13.6 Yanmar Holdings Co. Ltd.

13.7 Deutz AG

13.8 Teksan Generator



14 Strategic Recommendations



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/r6mk14

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.



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Mumbai, Jan 27 : After a howl of protests from the ruling Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Monday ordered his partymen not to refer to him as the 'Hindu Hridaysamrat' (Emperor of Hindu Hearts).

"There are some social media posts with banners mentioning Raj Thackeray as the 'Hindu Hridaysamrat'. He has instructed us not to refer to him by that title since the late Balasaheb Thackeray is the only 'Hindu Hridaysamrat'," a sombre party senior leader Bala Nandgaonkar later told mediapersons here.

Thackeray had come briefly at a party meeting to finalise details for the proposed February 9 procession and rally in support of CAA-NRC-NPR on Monday, which he had announced last week.

The development came four days after the MNS's first-ever mega-convention in Mumbai wherein several party leaders took the occasion to proclaim him as the new 'Hindu Hridaysamrat', besides the formal political launch of his 27-year old son Amit Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena founder-patriarch, the late Bala Thackeray was usually referred to by this title within and outside the party.

Thane MNS President Avinash Jadhav and others referred to Raj as the 'new Hindu Hridaysamrat' which was greeted with thunderous applause at the convention on January 23, the 94th birth anniversary of the late Bal Thackeray.

However, a host of top Sena leaders slammed the MNS for seeking to usurp the title of 'Hindu Hridaysamrat' and questioned Raj Thackeray's credentials for deserving the designation in the first place.

On Monday, Raj Thackeray also urged his partymen to accord respect and dignity to the MNS' newly introduced flag which bears the Royal Seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as its symbol, though the new flag will not be used for election purposes.

Nandgaonkar said while the rally will be held at Azad Maidan in south-Mumbai, the MNS was awaiting police clearances for the route to be taken by the procession for the venue of the public meeting.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
I am overwhelmed, at Auschwitz, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, where I join somberly with fellow Israeli leaders to remember and to learn lessons for the future. The infamous arched sign over the gates to the concentration camp still commands: Arbeit Macht Frei. This was no mere motto. It was the final element of the Final Solution, an elusive promise that having endured the roundups and ghetto liquidations, the hunger and the forced train journey, here at last was the hint of humanity.

Just obey the rules, my people were told, and somehow it would all turn out all right. Lesson number one: Reject the lies told to us, especially the ones that fly in the face of reality and aim to annihilate rather than rescue us. This sign must be remembered each and every time our delegation enters the negotiating room to be solicitously asked for still more concessions, more prisoner and land retreats. It must be remembered when stern words that under no circumstances will Iran ever be permitted to acquire a nuclear bomb are predicated on the lessening of pressure and freeing up of sanctions against the terrorist regime in Tehran. Once again the world tells us work with us, be good guys, and everything will sort itself out.

We continue to the train tracks known around the world where hundreds of thousands of broken Jews were herded past impromptu selection teams who decided who should live and who should die, which mothers to separate from how many of their children. Lesson number two: Those tracks could readily have been wrecked in but one fleeting, focused air attack by Allied forces. Leaders of the caliber of Churchill and FDR were privy to those begged requests, yet no such bombing run ever occurred, not once. The genocide was not stopped for one day, not for one hour.

And the lesson is clear, we cannot live without self-reliance. I do not blame the Allies for their failure to save countless lives by bombing the rail tracks. I blame the Nazi death machine, of course, but I also cannot help but castigate Jewish weakness. Undoubtedly, Jewish strength and influence, much less sovereignty, would have forever eradicated this picture of apathy and inaction. We were too low on the priority pole to compel those who had the power and the resources to act. They were admirably engaged in saving the West from Nazi bestiality, but saving the Jews was lost in the shuffle of competing demands.

Finally, as I gaze around, I see Members of Knesset from all parties. I see our government leaders. I see staunch Christian friends and allies from the United States and Europe. But I also see killing fields and crematoria filled with millions of the murdered. I cannot begin to image their horror or their sense of abandonment. Lesson number three is: We dare not forget. We must also remember the precious lives wantonly, cruelly ended in this place and others like it through the unholy trio of Nazi madness, Western indifference, and Jewish weakness.

We must remember every day, every place we set foot, what happened at Auschwitz. And the memory must be totally pro-active, not passive. We must continuously ask ourselves, How should I react to this situation TODAY, in light of the tragic lessons of the Holocaust? How must we as a people, bring peace through negotiations, stop the Iranian threat, quash extremist Muslim terrorism based on the lessons learned from the Holocaust? I am in Auschwitz and I realize we must continue to picture the black smoke of the crematoria, consuming a generation of Jews. Then picture a different sky in which Israeli jet fighters streak across the horizon in pride and strength.The sky is empty at this moment, yet the two visions co-exist. We must keep both pictures firmly engraved in our minds. And then, as we are wisely instructed, We must choose life. I leave Auschwitz with a huge life lesson engraved in my mind: We must be strong, and we can rely ultimately only on ourselves. If we remember that, we will not merely survive, but we will thrive.

Danny Danon is Deputy Defense Minister of the State of Israel and the author of Israel: The Will to Prevail.
The prevailing opinion in our universities is that Western Civilization was essentially a wartime propaganda effort, invented during World War I. Stanley Kurtzs excellent new report, The Lost History of Western Civilization, proves this notion is nonsense on stilts.

The credentialed radicals who run higher education wanted to erase Americas memory of its past. So they set out to delegitimize the standard Western Civilization survey course that was offered at many of our nations colleges at the time. Their effort was based on tendentious research by scholars such as Gilbert Allardyce and Lawrence Levine, who argued that before World War I Americans thought the United States was exceptional and distinct from Europe and never studied Europe and America as a civilizational unity. Allardyce and Levine argued that the Western Civ course was invented during World War I as a form of war propaganda, manufacturing a cultural connection, so our gallant doughboys would willingly sail to France to fight the Boche.

Therefore  and the therefore was always the point  who cares if you get rid of the Western Civilization course? "Hey, hey, ho, ho," Jesse Jackson and his cadre of activists chanted in 1987, "Western Cultures got to go!" And why not? Hadnt it been created in living memory? A professor of 70 was older than the Western Civ course! Why shouldnt the universities dispense with it?

So Western Civ did go. Stanford got rid of the course in 1988. In 1964 the Western Civ course had been required in virtually every American university, but the requirement had almost vanished by 2010. Some universities kept the course for students to take voluntarily  but increasing numbers replaced it entirely with a World Civilization course. Three times as many students take the College Boards World History Advanced Placement examination as take European History. Our students never have the chance to learn about the sequence linking Athens and Jerusalem to America, the continuous history from Plato to NATO.

Of course, Western Civilization exists. Its not just that we read the Bible and Homer, that Rome bequeathed us its republican government and its law, that our jury system is Anglo-Saxon, our common law medieval, and our greatest playwright one William Shakespeare. Its that every generation from Rome to the present has continuously added to the same culture  the copyist monks in the ruins of the Roman Empire, the Renaissance gentlemen who transformed the rediscovered classics into a new humanism, the Bacons and Galileos and Harveys who built a new scientific method and body of knowledge upon Aristotle, Euclid, and Ptolemy. In America, our Founding Fathers built a new republic upon foundations two thousand years deep.

All thats true of course, but Kurtz also provides chapter and verse to prove that American colleges taught a version of the Western Civ course long before World War One. Christendom, Europe, Western Civilization  whatever the name, the idea of a historically coherent European civilization was present at least from the Enlightenment writings of Scots historian William Robertson, and eighteenth-century American college students read their Robertson. The sophisticated nineteenth-century histories of Francois Guizot and his peers served as textbooks for Western Civilizations long narrative  textbooks that swiftly formed the backbone of the American college curriculum. The Western Civ course of the 1920s owes more to Harvards History I of the 1890s than to Columbias War and Peace Issues of 1919.

Eighteenth and nineteenth century Americans surely thought they were exceptional  and with good reason. But they took America to be exceptional as the culminating perfection of the European tradition, not as its antithesis. George Berkeley, bishop and philosopher, phrased the notion neatly as early as 1726: "Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first Acts already past, A fifth shall close the Drama with the day; Times noblest offspring is the last."

The destruction of the Western Civ course was not trivial. It was the erasure of a body of knowledge that constituted the American identity. To remove Western Civ was a body-blow against Americas civilizational memory  brain damage deliberately inflicted. It would be easier to subject America to revolutionary transformation if Americans forgot who they were.

Consider the Pledge of Allegiance: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You need the Western Civ course to understand the three-thousand-year history of the words allegiance, republic, nation, God, liberty, and justice. You need the Western Civ course to understand why we pledge ourselves to them, and what we lose when they are taken away from us. The Pledge means nothing if we forget our history.

Alas, the academic radicals have proved all too successful. The nations brain damage has increased for generations. Ever fewer Americans remember the sacred and humane letters that formed our moral consciousness, that provided the ethical arguments for liberty, that told why and how we must preserve free institutions. This brain damage makes it possible for Americans to be molded by woke tyrannys euphemisms of social justice, multiculturalism, and global citizenship.

Higher educations radical establishment wont care about Kurtzs report. Theyve already moved on to new rationales to explain why the Western Civ course must be destroyed. The Western Civ course can only be reinstated by the tenacious efforts of alumni and taxpayers, citizens and state legislators  the Americans who foot the bill for higher education. They, at least, can read The Lost History of Western Civilization and learn that we must reinstate the Western Civ course, and now. It isnt just a matter of academic politics, but of the survival of our exceptional Republic. America lobotomized will die.

We know practical ways to restore Americas memory. States such as California and Texas already require public universities to teach courses in American history and civics; new laws should add requirements to teach Western Civ courses. State legislatures should also dedicate money to autonomous schools dedicated to passing on knowledge of Western Civilization, such as Arizona State Universitys School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. States such as Arizona and Wyoming require teachers to acquire minimum knowledge about the federal and state Constitutions; teaching licensure requirements should be reformed to include a Western Civ course. Parents everywhere should send their children to colleges with required Western Civ courses  or, at the very least, with Western Civ courses instead of World Civ.

The history of Western Civilization indeed has been lost. But it can be found. Stanley Kurtz has told us what we possessed, and what we must strive to possess again.
MEDINA, Ohio -- With the Iowa caucuses coming up on Feb. 3, it was fitting for the Medina Democratic Club to host the Mock Democratic Caucus Saturday (Jan. 25) at the Medina County University Center, 6300 Technology Drive.

Eighty-five people attended, looking for a chance to learn about the current potential Democratic presidential candidates and to experience how Iowa voters choose their candidate.

Representatives for each of the eight candidates were assigned a portion of a room and a large table to display their campaign information, buttons and food to lure voters. In round one, each candidate needed 15 percent of the vote -- in this case, 12 voters -- to advance to the second round.

Each candidate had an enthusiastic representative who was able to answer questions about the candidate and urge voters to sign a list as a supporter. Each candidates representative handed out a fact sheet that included the same general information: the candidates experience and his or her agenda in four policy areas -- usually healthcare, climate, economic proposals and security.

Pamela Miller, center, and Jessica Hazeltine stand by a life-size cutout of their candidate, Pete Buttigieg, at the Medina Democratic Club's mock presidential caucus on Jan. 25. (Mary Jane Brewer, special to cleveland.com)

Each candidate also listed a slogan:

 Pete Buttigieg  Its time for a new generation of American Leadership

 Andrew Yang  Parent. Patriot. Not a Politician

 Tom Steyer  We can take our democracy back, together

 Joe Biden  Our best days still lie ahead

 Bernie Sanders  Not me. Us.

 Michael Bloomberg  Strong Leadership, Big Results

 Elizabeth Warren  Together, we will dream big and fight hard

 Amy Klobuchar  Leading from the Heartland

Before the first vote, the representatives were allowed a two-minute speech to try to convince voters to assemble at their candidates table. Voters then dispersed to sign a list at their favorites table. That signature constituted a vote.

After the signatures were officially counted, it was announced that the surviving candidates were: third place, Bloomberg; tied for second, Sanders and Biden; and first, Klobuchar and Buttigieg.

The voters present were then sent back to support their candidate or, if they had first voted for a candidate no longer in the race, to change to a candidate that they could support.

After the final votes were counted, the results were as follows: fifth place, Bloomberg; fourth place, Sanders; second place, a tie between Buttigieg and Biden; and first place, Amy Klobuchar.

Klobuchar also received 100 percent of the under-18 vote -- the one young person present chose Klobuchar!

The attendees left with a greater understanding of the caucus process and with more information about the potential candidates.

Read more from the Medina Sun.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: JNU Chief Proctor has directed Sharjeel Imam, a PhD student at Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, to meet Proctorial Committee not later than February 3 to explain his position in connection with FIRs lodged against him by the police in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other states.

FIRs were registered against Imam for his alleged controversial speech delivered during the students' protest at the Aligarh Muslim University on January 16 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

A series of videos went viral on social media in which Imam was heard saying: "If we all come together, then we can separate the Northeast from India. If we cannot do it permanently, then at least for one to two months, we can do this."

"It is our responsibility to cut Assam from India. When this happens, only then the government will listen to us," he said.
A deadly virus that has prompted travel restrictions in China is sending shockwaves through Asia's tourism industry, which has become increasingly reliant on growing numbers of Chinese visitors.

At least 81 people have died since the new strain of coronavirus emerged in China's Wuhan, and millions are now under an effective quarantine, with all flights in and out of the city grounded and a ban on Chinese tour groups domestically and abroad.

The measures come amid a boom in Chinese foreign travel, with the number of tourists from the country increasing nearly tenfold since 2003, according to a report by research firm Capital Economics.

But businesses in destinations that rely on the huge numbers of Chinese tourists are already feeling the heat, with complaints of "deserted" beaches and shops, and concerns about the future.

The outbreak carries echoes of the SARS crisis, which paralysed regional travel and battered local economies from late 2002. Chinese tourist numbers then fell by around a third.

"If they fell by a similar amount again, it would knock around 1.5-2.0 percentage points from (gross domestic product) in the most vulnerable countries," Capital Economics said.

In Japan, the fall in Chinese visitors was already being felt in Asakusa, a popular tourist destination near the Sensoji temple.

"We've definitely been seeing less people this year," said Yoshie Yoneyama, 31, manager of a shop selling traditional Japanese sweets and a rice-based drink called amazake.

"I think there are less than half the numbers of last year or the year before," she told AFP.

The number of Chinese holidaying in Japan has exploded from around 450,000 in 2003 to 8.4 million in 2018, accounting for 27 percent of all inbound tourists as Tokyo works to expand the sector.

But it will now be "very difficult" for Japan to achieve its target of 40 million tourists in 2020, Yuki Takashima, an economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP.

And the effects will be felt beyond hotels, restaurants and tourist sites, because many Chinese tourists visit Japan specifically to shop.

Electronic appliances and beauty products usually top of their lists, Takashima said, so retail outlets will see their bottom lines affected.

The crisis has already sent Japan's key Nikkei index plunging, with stock in Shiseido -- a cosmetics brand popular with Chinese tourists -- plunging more than five percent on Monday.

"We can expect those stocks to continue to fall like dominoes," said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp.

But he said Japan would be better placed to weather the storm than another top destination for Chinese tourists: Thailand.

Tourism accounts for 18 percent of the nation's GDP, with Chinese holidaymakers making up more than a quarter of total arrivals.

The country's tourism minister has already warned a crisis on the scale of SARS could cost an estimated USD 1.6 billion, and the effects are already clear in Phuket.

"For two days, the streets, the shops and the beaches have been deserted," said Claude de Crissey, who owns a 40-room hotel and a restaurant on the island. "Phuket has focused almost exclusively on Chinese tourism... if the situation continues, we will all be impacted," he told AFP.

Australia too, already reeling from the effects of the bushfire crisis, is likely to feel the impact.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Michigan judge sentenced Rev. Brian Stanley, 57, to 60 days in jail for attempted false imprisonment involving a teenage boy

A Michigan priest accused of wrapping a teenager in bubble wrap and holding him hostage was sentenced Monday to 60 days in jail for attempted false imprisonment.

The Rev. Brian Stanley, 57, appeared in Allegan County court, two months after pleading guilty in a deal with the attorney general's office. He was initially charged with false imprisonment.

In addition to his jail term, Stanley was given five years' probation and will be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years.

Stanley was accused of wrapping a boy, then 17, in bubble wrap and tape in 2013 in a janitor's room at St. Margaret Church in Ostego, Michigan.

The boy's eyes and mouth were also covered while he was left alone for an hour, according to the attorney general's office.

Stanley was supposed to be counseling the boy at his relatives' request.

'Mr. Stanley took advantage of a vulnerable victim and today he is being held accountable,' Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

The priest did not speak in court but has expressed regret about his actions, defense attorney Michael Hills told The Associated Press.

'After this incident in 2013, he was in treatment,' Hills said. 'After treatment, I think he realized perhaps he was projecting trauma that he had suffered in his life onto others.'

Stanley's conduct was 'sexually motivated,' the attorney general's office claimed, explaining why he will be placed on a public sex offender registry for 15 years.

Stanley (pictured) was accused of wrapping a boy, then 17, in bubble wrap and tape in 2013. Stanley was supposed to have been counseling the boy at his relatives' request

'There's a big dispute about that,' Hills said. 'There is no evidence about it. I objected to Father Stanley being placed on the registry, although under the statute it's required regardless of whether criminal sexual conduct is alleged.'

Hills said during the sentencing that because Stanley is being placed on the sex offender registry, he will be forced to moved from home as it is located near a school, MLive.com reported.

The case against Stanley began when investigators looked at documents held by the Catholic Diocese in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The diocese has said it twice reported allegations about Stanley to police departments - once in 2013 and again in 2017 - but no charges were filed.

The diocese said that after it was notified about the 2013 incident, shortly after it took place, Stanley was placed on administrative leave, according to MLive.com.

When no charges were filed, Stanley was reinstated.

After wrapping up the boy, Stanley (pictured) left the boy alone for an hour in a janitor's room at St. Margaret Church in Ostego, Michigan

The incident occurred at St. Margaret Church (pictured). The Kalamazoo Diocese said that it twice reported allegations about Stanley to police departments, but no charges were filed

After the 2017 allegations were made against Stanley, the diocese said that it reported the incidents to police and placed the priest on administrative leave again.

This time, when charges weren't filed, the church did not reinstate him.

Authorities said that the Kalamazoo Diocesan records indicated that Stanley had been performing this type of binding, using the same materials, on people for decades.

When arguing for Stanley's sentence to exceed guidelines, Michigan State Assistant Attorney General Alison Furtaw said that three other alleged victims had come forward.

One of the victims was 13 when he said the alleged abuse at Stanley's hands occurred.

Furtaw said that although Stanley claimed that there was 'no sexual reason for doing this to the victims, they thought he was masturbating but it was hard for them to tell because their eyes were taped shut.'

Furtaw said charges could not be filed based on the other alleged victims' claims because the statute of limitations had passed.

'We continue to review information seized from all seven Michigan dioceses in 2018, and we will thoroughly evaluate accusations and complaints brought forth by victims,' Nessel said.
A rally was taken out by the Dogra Front in Jammu on Monday against the protesters at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi.

The group claimed that "pro-Pakistan" elements were behind the Shaheen Bagh protest and demanded action against those who had allegedly made "anti-India" remarks during the agitation.

They also demanded the protesters be removed from Shaheen Bagh and the route cleared in the national capital.

Led by its president Ashok Gupta, over 500 Dogra Front activists carrying the tricolour and pictures of Muslim Padma award winners raised slogans against the Shaheen Bagh protesters.

The activists questioned why the protesters at Shaheen Bagh were silent on government conferring Padma awards on Muslims.

"People at Shaheen Bagh are saying there is discrimination against Muslims. But many Muslims were named for Padma awards on Republic Day. Is this discrimination? " Gupta told reporters here.

The Dogra Front president said people like Sharjeel Imam, a former JNU student who allegedly made seditious comments in the wake of the new citizenship law,"should not be allowed to live in India and sent to Pakistan".

Gupta said Shaheen Bagh protest originated from an ideology which seeks "to divide India".

"It is an attempt to spread this pro-Pakistan ideology to other parts of India," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
We finally got a taste Sunday night of what former national security adviser John Bolton might tell President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial -- if he's called to testify, that is.

What we learned reinforced the potential peril for Republicans if they refuse to let him do so.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton makes a series of very big Ukraine-related claims in an unpublished manuscript of his upcoming book, which is now slated to be released in March.

Chief among them:

- Bolton writes that he heard Trump say explicitly that the withholding of military aid would continue until Ukraine announced an investigation involving the Bidens - implicating Trump directly in a quid pro quo for the first time and contradicting the Trump team's defense.

- He writes that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said privately that there was nothing to the Trump team's claims that then-ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was corrupt - suggesting this was indeed a smear campaign and that Pompeo recognized it as such, even as he didn't defend Yovanovitch publicly.

- He writes that he raised concerns about Rudy Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine with Attorney General William Barr after Trump's July call with Ukraine's president - despite the Justice Department saying Barr learned about the call in mid-August.

- He writes that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was present for one of Trump's calls with Giuliani about Yovanovitch, even though Mulvaney has told associates that he stayed out of those conversations to protect Trump's and Giuliani's attorney-client privilege.

In other words: Bolton is naming names - lots of names - and directly contradicting what top administration officials are saying.

And Trump has made no secret that he's not particularly happy about the new revelations. After treating Bolton gently in the months since his White House exit, Trump lashed out. On Sunday night, he disputed Bolton's account.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump then proceeded to retweet other allies who derided Bolton, including Lou Dobbs calling him a "rejected Neocon." Trump also added as an addendum on Monday morning, after weeks of suggesting he'd actually like to see Bolton testify, that the Senate shouldn't let him because it was the House's job. He tweeted:

"The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate!"

(Trump falsely claims the House didn't ask Bolton to testify; it did, but when he refused, it declined to subpoena him.)

But while that's clearly Trump's calculation, the GOP senators who might vote on Bolton testifying in the Senate trial have their own to make. And the new Bolton disclosures severely complicate it.

In recent days, it has appeared less likely that Democrats would get the four GOP votes they needed to force Bolton's testimony, which he has said he's prepared to give. The new evidence, though, reinforces just how much insight he could provide - as well as the pitfalls of not allowing him to tell his story now.

The nightmare scenario for the GOP is that they give Trump the quick and witness-free acquittal that he apparently desires, but then information like Bolton's keeps coming out. Bolton now suggests Trump was indeed telling people privately that the withheld military aid was part of a quid pro quo - a quid pro quo which Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified that he communicated to the Ukrainians. This is something Trump's team has strenuously denied, including at the impeachment trial. What if Bolton isn't the only person Trump told this to who might suddenly contradict them? However closely this has already been tied to Trump, it can always be tied more closely. Bolton's upcoming book - which is now slated for March 17 - is a great example of how the hastily assembled walls the Trump team have built around its defense can quickly crumble and in some cases already have.

The evidence, after all, is pretty compelling that Trump wasn't truly concerned about corruption in Ukraine. Giuliani actually said publicly that these investigations weren't about foreign policy but were instead about helping "my client." There are also several confirmations that these were quid pro quos - including both military aid and a White House meeting - and that the quid pro quos were communicated to the Ukrainians, even if previous witnesses couldn't say whether Trump explicitly signed off on them. Indeed, both Bolton and Mulvaney - two very high-ranking White House aides - have now offered confirmation of the quid pro quos, even though Mulvaney recanted his.

The danger in this for the GOP is that this all keeps coming out, as it has been, in a steady stream of drips as we get closer and closer to the 2020 election. In just the last couple weeks, we've seen indicted Ukrainian American business executive Lev Parnas supplying high-profile claims about all this - with documentation and audio to back some of the big ones up - and now we've got Bolton finally stepping forward and connecting this to Trump.

Imagine if Republicans vote against entertaining Parnas's evidence or putting Bolton on the stand, and then the information comes out anyway. If it proves damning, it will look like they engaged in the coverup that Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., accused them of last week.

And at the least, if Trump is saying Bolton is lying, what better way to hold him accountable than to make him say all of this under oath? He's indicated he's willing. Now it's in the Senate GOP's hands, and you can bet it's a tougher call now.
Since Candy Hartzogs letter last Sunday was originally published Dec. 30, 2019 in the Washington Times, which is owned by Sun Myung Moons Unification Church, I wondered if Lev Parnas could be correct in saying that Donald Trump operates more like a cult than like the Mafia.

Here are a few characteristics of cults:

1) Unquestioning commitment to a leader who is not accountable to any authorities and who is the groups source of power.

2) Thought reform employed to manipulate and exploit group members to accept leaders words and practices as truth.

3) Members do things not in their own best interest, but in the interest of the leader.

4) Group considers itself special and has an end justifies the means and a polarized us vs. them mentality.

5) Doubt, dissent and critical questioning are discouraged.

6) No meaningful financial disclosure.

7) Unreasonable fear about conspiracies and persecution.

8) Group members fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave or consider leaving.

Hmm. I think if I were a Trump supporter, Id take a pass on the punch.

Carolyn Stonecipher, Beaumont

Dems should banish Bernie

Bernie Sanders has no realistic chance of being elected president. If you actually want to see Medicare for All implemented, vote for Elizabeth Warren. Sen. Warren can win, whereas Sanders is a sure loser.

Until these myopic, naive Bernie Bros can satisfactorily explain how Sanders would be able to successfully defend his anti-American political activities during the first half of his life (which would certainly be highlighted and scrutinized by the GOP in a general election), non-Democrat Sanders should end his doomed presidential candidacy now.

For instance, Sanders is on the record repeatedly having unreservedly and uncritically lauded lavish public praise on anti-American communist dictators like Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro. (Have you ever watched Bernies infamous videotaped interviews on these subjects from Aug. 8, 1985 and from June 13, 1988? You should.)

Then of course there was Sanders still inadequately explained 1988 marital honeymoon in the Soviet Union, where upon returning to Vermont the Marxist socialist Sanders predictably and pathetically voiced his unabashed praise for the Soviet system.

Less well known is the fact that in 1963 Sanders lived and worked for several months on a Stalinist commune near Haifa in Northern Israel that explicitly saw the Soviet Union as its political role model.

And then theres that bizarre, incredibly disturbing rape fantasy article that Sanders wrote which was published in 1972 when Sanders was a 30-year-old far-Left Marxist gubernatorial candidate in Vermont.

Get a clue, Bernie Bros. Sen. Sanders is a sure loser in a general election, which is why (in addition to the 78-year-olds recent heart attack) Sanders should drop out of the presidential race immediately.

Losing in 2020 is not an option. Democrats must nominate a candidate who can actually win.

Jake Pickering, Arcata, Calif.
Teachers Cristina Gutierrez, left, and Teresa Kelley Rugerio, right, join fellow teachers in protesting outside their school, Lewis Elkin Elementary in Philadelphia on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. The teachers were refusing to enter the building because of asbestos issues. Some parents also declined to send their children to school. Read more

Teachers and staff at an elementary school in Philadelphias Kensington neighborhood refused to enter their school building Monday amid fear that damaged asbestos has not been properly contained.

Dozens of them stood outside Lewis Elkin Elementary School, bundled up in jackets and hats against the cold, holding signs and occasionally chanting. They said they would remain outside until Philadelphia School District officials presented evidence that the building was safe.

Some parents left their children at home and stood with the teachers in solidarity. Others dropped their children off at the school at D Street and Allegheny Avenue, where administrators and some central office staff were present.

 READ MORE: Were struggling: McClure Elementary parents cope with the practical fallout from Phillys asbestos crisis

Its unfortunate that they would even want children to be put in there, into a place thats not safe, said Gerry Schmidt, a veteran Elkin teacher. And if its safe, show us the proof, open the doors, and well get to work.

Staff at the K-to-4 school that serves about 650 students have been concerned about conditions in the building for months, said Schmidt  sometimes the heat doesnt work, and some classrooms are sweltering. Vents are in poor condition. There are missing tiles in places where children walk and sit, with no word about whether the areas contain asbestos.

 READ MORE: How race, class, and privilege shape the asbestos crisis at two Philly high schools

After students left on Friday, staff were notified that there was a leak in a tank in the schools boiler room, near the cafeteria, gym and schoolyard, and that the tank was wrapped in asbestos insulation. To fix the problem, the asbestos would have to be removed over the weekend.

Alarmed, teachers began to organize, asking for testing of the air quality when the work was complete. Parents were notified at 6 p.m. Friday after pressure from teachers, the staff said.

District officials promised the testing would be done, but as of Monday, the staff had received no information, and as a body, they decided they would not enter the building until they had proof.

 READ MORE: Asbestos in Philly schools demands action from district  plus the city and state | Editorial

Were not going anywhere, Elie Gottlieb, a fourth-grade teacher, said at midmorning.

Monica Lewis, a district spokesperson, was not sure when testing would be complete, but said that the districts focus was on the students, and that the children who did come to school were receiving instruction.

 READ MORE: Missed asbestos, dangerous dust: How Philadelphias Ben Franklin H.S. project went wrong

If the school were not able to be occupied, we wouldnt have children in the building, Lewis said. We are confident that there is no immediate hazard, no immediate danger.

Lewis said Elkin staff are expected to be at school Tuesday. She said she could not discuss possible disciplinary consequences for staff who failed to come to work.

Cristina Garay, mother of a fourth grader, said she would stand with the teachers.

As a mother, my worry is for my child, Garay said in Spanish through a translator. Were only asking that the district provides a safe space for the education of our children.

The district has been beset by an asbestos crisis all year. To date, six schools and an early childhood center have been closed, at least temporarily, because of significant asbestos problems. The environmental woes came after a career Philadelphia teacher was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

The union has been full-throated in its criticism of the districts handling of asbestos jobs in some schools.

But Jerry Jordan, the longtime Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president, suggested in a statement that Elkins teachers could have gone to work Monday.

The scope and design of this work is appropriate, and we have no information at this time to suggest otherwise. Generally, work of this nature would not require building closure, Jordan said, acknowledging the districts track record of botching asbestos jobs makes staff wary.

Jordan faces a challenge to his PFT leadership from the Caucus of Working Educators, a group of union members concerned with social-justice issues that identifies with progressive groups that have seized leadership of the Los Angeles and Chicago teachers unions.

Some WE Caucus-aligned Elkin teachers said they were frustrated by the PFTs response to the environmental concerns at their school, which several teachers said they found slow and inadequate.
The Trump administration is expected to release its long-awaited Middle East peace plan on Tuesday, sources familiar with the plan tell me.

Between the lines: The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan has been the most secretive effort inside an extraordinarily leaky administration. Not a single detail has leaked for three years about how the Trump administration will propose to divide territory between Israel and the Palestinians.

The details have been closely held among Jared Kushner and his small team  Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, special representative for international negotiations Avi Berkowitz, and senior State Department official Brian Hook. Trumps former negotiator Jason Greenblatt also played a key role in crafting the plan.

The Palestinian leadership, which cut off contact with the Trump administration after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, are totally out of the loop and have preemptively rejected Kushner's effort.

And some key allies who have been asked to provide statements of support have yet to see details of the plan.

What to watch: Israel's internal politics are extremely fraught with an election on March 2. So it's significant that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponent Benny Gantz will be visiting Washington this week.

Gantz toyed with rejecting the invitation to Washington, but he announced yesterday he would come on Monday to meet one-on-one with Trump, Axios contributor Barak Ravid reported.

Gantz had previously said that if Trump released his peace plan before March 2, it would be "a harsh interference in the electoral process in Israel." But Gantz couldn't afford to be seen to be snubbing Trump, who is very popular in Israel.

Berkowitz met with Gantz when he traveled to Israel earlier this month.

It's expected that Trump and Kushner will privately brief both Gantz and Netanyahu on the plan on Monday and then publicly reveal the details on Tuesday.

Behind the scenes: The White House has reached out to the Jordanians, Egyptians, Emiratis, Saudis and a number of European countries to encourage them to issue supportive statements when the plan is finally released. It's unclear how much they have told them about the plan, but it's not believed to be much detail, per sources familiar with the outreach.
Former Union telecom minister on Monday told the that the CBI's appeal against his and others' acquittal in the 2G spectrum scam case has become infructuous with the coming of the new anti-corruption law.

Senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi, appearing for Raja, told the court that the graft charges levelled against him and others in the case have been omitted in the new of 2018 and therefore, prosecution in the instant matter cannot go on.

Apart from Raja, his then private secretary R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura have also raised the issue in separate applications filed by them.

During the brief hearing before Justice Brijesh Sethi, the CBI contended that the applications were not sustainable as this specific issue had been raised in the replies filed in response to the agency's appeal.

However, the CBI's stand was opposed by Singhvi who said this specific issue, of what happens to older cases in light of the new law, has been referred to the high court by a trial court dealing with a corruption matter and is still pending here.

Besides that, the changes in the new PC Act have also been challenged in the Supreme Court where it is still pending, he said, adding that in the present circumstances, the high court may have to refer the issue to the apex court.

Justice Sethi, after hearing the brief arguments, listed the matter for further hearing on January 31.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have challenged the acquittal of all the individuals and companies in the 2G scam corruption and money laundering cases by the trial court.

The CBI had also filed an appeal challenging the acquittal of Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and six others in a separate case arising out of the 2G scam probe.

A special court on December 21, 2017 had acquitted Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in CBI and ED cases related to the scam. It had acquitted 17 others, including DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, film producer Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, director of Kalaignar TV in the ED case.

On the same day, the trial court had also acquitted Behura, Chandolia, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- in the CBI's 2G case.

Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal were also acquitted in the CBI case.

On March 19, 2018, the ED had approached the high court challenging the special court's order acquitting all the accused.

A day later, the CBI too had challenged in the high court the acquittal of the accused in the case.

The ED, in its charge sheet, had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by STPL promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.

The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the top court on February 2, 2012.

Special Judge O P Saini (now retired), however, held that the prosecution had "miserably failed" to prove the charges. The special court, which was set up on March 14, 2011 for hearing 2G cases exclusively, had also acquitted Ruias and others in a separate case arising out of the 2G scam probe.

In the CBI case, Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others were tried under provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2013 dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.
Global Insurance Brokers has been accredited as a broker of Lloyd's, the world's leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace which protects assets, promotes growth and shares risks.

The certificate of accreditation was handed over to Global Insurance Brokers Chairman Prabodh Thakker by Lloyd's of London Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown during his recent India visit.

As of now, Lloyd's participation in the Indian market is at 275 million dollars. However, this development is likely to increase its participation to 400 million dollars in two years' time, according to a statement issued by Global Insurance Brokers.

"Our clients will have now in the revised and rising insurance market. Access to many insurers in the market is vital in terms of both product and pricing," said Thakker.

Global Insurance Brokers is a composite broker licensed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). It empowers businesses and communities through responsible, judicious and futuristic risk solutions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
GREENFIELD  A former Greenfield police sergeant who in 2017 plowed into a car on High Street and killed the driver while responding to an emergency call, has been found guilty of vehicular homicide in Franklin Superior Court.

A jury on Monday morning returned the guilty verdict against James B. Rode on a charge of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation. The jury began deliberating Friday afternoon before being dismissed for the weekend. It resumed deliberations Monday morning.

In all, it took 2 hours to reach a guilty verdict.

Rode could face 2 years in prison and a loss of his drivers license for 15 years.

The date for sentencing has not yet been set, said Mary Carey, communications director for Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan.

Rode, 50, had been a 16-year veteran of the police department prior to the crash. He was out on injury leave following the Oct. 1, 2017, crash, but has since been terminated by the department.

The crash killed James Arcellana, 29, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and critically injured a passenger in the car.

Arcellana had stopped for a stop sign at Sanderson Street and then pulled out onto High Street when Rodes police cruiser, traveling South on High Street, slammed into the car.

The crash occurred by the entrance to Baystate Franklin Medical Center.

A state police crash investigator determined that Rode was driving at 83 mph through a 30 mph zone as he responded to a call of an erratic driver on Routes 5 & 10 near the Deerfield line.

Police determined he was traveling 121 feet per second, and when Arcellana pulled out onto High Street from Sanderson, Rodes cruiser was 550 feet away and had not yet entered his line of sight.

The state police incident report faulted Rode for failing to exercise proper caution or show due regard for the safety of other persons and property.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Mon, January 27, 2020 10:18 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20610fd75 2 World #trump,trump,impeachment,#impeachment,Ukraine,#Ukraine Free

Former national security advisor John Bolton alleges in a book draft that President Donald Trump wanted to freeze Ukrainian military aid until Kiev investigated his political rivals, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Democrats quickly seized on the report to press demands that Bolton and other key people in the Trump administration be called testify in Trump's impeachment trial.

Citing Bolton's unpublished manuscript, The Times wrote that Trump told Bolton he wanted to keep frozen US$391 million in aid to Ukraine, until Kiev officials helped with a probe into his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Trump was impeached last month for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. House of Representatives prosecutors have spent the three days laying out a detailed case that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart to open an investigation into political rival Joe Biden and the former vice president's son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

A key point of Trump's impeachment defense has been that there was no quid-pro-quo. Trump's team has maintained that the holdup in aid was separate from his requests for an investigation into the Bidens. Bolton's reported assertion in the manuscript would undercut this.

The Democrats want key Trump administration officials to testify, including Bolton and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in the belief that they know a lot about Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Bolton has said he is willing to testify if subpoenaed.

In response to The Times' report, the lead House manager in the trial, Adam Schiff tweeted that Trump had "blocked our request for Bolton's testimony".

"Now we see why: Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the President's defense," Schiff wrote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Senate Republicans' refusal to hear Bolton or other witnesses and documents is "now even more indefensible".

"The choice is clear: our Constitution, or a cover-up," she said.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer urged Senate Republicans to call for witness testimony during the impeachment trial.

But Republicans, who hold a 53-47 edge, have shown little inclination to break ranks with a president who has a history of lashing out ferociously at his perceived enemies.

Sixty-seven senators, a two-thirds majority, are needed to remove Trump from office.
Enforcement Directorate has stated that the Popular Front of India (PFI) mobilised Rs 120 crore to fund anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in India. The ED has sent a note to the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding its findings. The ED stated that 27 bank accounts were opened in the name of PFI. An organisation associated with PFI called Rehab India Foundation held nine of these 27 bank accounts, it stated. ED said in the report that the foundation opened 37 bank accounts in the name of 17 different people and organisations.

The Enforcement Directorate said that about Rs 120 crore were deposited in 73 accounts to dodge the investigations. However the accounts were emptied leaving a nominal amount in the accounts.

It said that Rs 1.04 crore were deposited in 15 bank accounts of PFI (10) and Rehab India Foundation (5) from December 4, which is when the CAA was presented at the Parliament till January 6, 2020. The ED said that the amounts deposited were in the form of cash and IMPS. The amounts varied from Rs 5,000 to Rs 49,000. The ED said that the amount was kept below Rs 50,000 so that the identity of the depositor is not disclosed.

ED stated that Rs 1.34 crore was withdrawn from these 15 accounts through cash and NEFT, IMPS using mobile phones during the same period of December 4-January 6. "It is evident from the nature of withdrawal that member of PFI have used swift mode of transferring the money," stated the agency.

Also read: Anti- CAA protests: UP court grants bail to activist couple, 56 others

It said that small amounts varying from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 were transferred to several individuals. It said that on certain days like December 21 and December 12 more than 80 to 90 withdrawals were made from a single account.

The ED stated that the "withdrawal of money from the bank accounts of PFI and its related entities has direct correlation with a violent demonstration against the CAA". "The transaction dates in the 15 bank accounts of the PFI also match the dates of violence. This draws a clear connection between the violent protests and PFI," said the agency.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Law enforcement agencies are doing their job, I need not make any comment. But if there is suspicious nature of transaction on a particular day then obviously it raises serious apprehension and protests that are organised don't look voluntary."

The report comes amid the government's suspicions that PFI had a role to play in the recent violent protests against the CAA in Uttar Pradesh. PFI has also come under the scanner for its alleged role in the violent protests in Karnataka and West Bengal. The government had accused PFI of masterminding and instigating violence during the CAA and NRC protests.

Also read: Anti-CAA stir, economic slowdown drag down tourism sector

PFI had denied all the allegations. The federation's general secretary M Muhammed Ali Jinnah said that the allegations were absurd and were a face-saving act by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The PFI has been under the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for a long time. The federation was formed in 2006 as a successor to National Democratic Front (NDF). Intelligence agencies have said that the federation is an offshoot of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) that was designated a terrorist organisation.

Around 25 people linked to PFI were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh government for their alleged role in the anti-CAA protests.

Also read: Anti-CAA stir: In a first, Kerala passes resolution against Citizenship Amendment Act

Also read: Anti CAA protests: Railway suffered losses of Rs 84 crore in West Bengal
Thousands of students flooded Iraqi streets Sunday to keep up their anti-government movement despite a crackdown, while rockets landed near the US embassy in Baghdad.

One protester was killed in the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah, with demonstrators defying gunshots and tear gas fired by riot police seeking to shut protest camps.

Activists have long worried that their months-long movement demanding a complete overhaul of Iraq's political establishment could be snuffed out.

Stoking those concerns, firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr dropped his support for the protest movement on Friday, after holding an anti-US rally attended by thousands in Baghdad.

On Sunday, two days after Sadr supporters demanded the departure of some 5,200 American troops from Iraq, a volley of rockets landed near the US embassy in Baghad's Green Zone, two security sources told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest this month to target the high-security zone, which is also home to the Iraqi parliament.

The rocket fire came as thousands of students rallied across the country on Sunday, waving Iraqi flags and holding up two fingers in a victory sign in defiance of security forces who fired live rounds in a bid to clear them.

"Only for you, Iraq!" read a sign held by a young protester in the shrine city of Karbala, hinting at the movement's insistence on not being affiliated with any political party or outside backer.

Violence has resurged in Baghdad Iraq's Shiite-majority south this week, with more than 15 people killed as anti-government activists stepped up road closures and sit-ins.

On Saturday, four demonstrators were shot dead as riot police stormed protest camps across the country, according to medics, stoking fears of a broader crackdown.

In Basra, hundreds of students gathered to condemn the riot police's dismantling of their main protest camp the previous day, according to an AFP correspondent.

In Baghdad, university students marched from a campus in the city centre to the main rally area of Tahrir Square.

Riot police fired live rounds and tear gas at clusters of young protesters in the nearby Khallani and Wathba squares, but protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails to keep them back.

At least 17 protesters were wounded, a police source said.

Security forces have stopped short of entering Tahrir Square, where some protesters stood their ground even after many tents were dismantled.

In the southern city of Nasiriyah, security forces Sunday also fired live rounds to disperse protesters who were angered by authorities pushing them out of roads around their main protest camp in Habbubi Square.

One protester died after being shot by security forces and dozens more were impacted by tear gas in the brief skirmishes, a medical source told AFP.

At least 75 protesters suffered bullet wounds and around 100 were impacted by tear gas in brief skirmishes, a medical source told AFP.

The youth-led protests erupted on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption before spiralling into calls for a government overhaul after they were met with violence.

Protesters are now specifically demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

Their voices have been heard by top UN envoy in Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert who has said: "Unaccountability and indecisiveness are unworthy of Iraqi hopes, courageously expressed for four months now."

"While death and injury tolls continue to rise, steps taken so far will remain hollow if not completed," she said Saturday.

More than 470 people have died, a vast majority of them demonstrators, in protest-related violence since the rallies erupted on October 1.

The defiant demonstrations on Sunday came despite Sadr's withdrawal of support for the anti-government movement.

The notoriously fickle militia leader-turned-politician initially backed the protests and called for the government's resignation although he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts.

On Friday, thousands attended a rally he organised in Baghdad demanding the departure of some 5,200 US troops based in Iraq.

After the mass gathering Sadr said he no longer wanted to be involved in the youth-led protest movement.

Analysts said Sadr was striving to both maintain his street credibility and win favour with Iraq's powerful neighbour Iran.

Iran holds tremendous political and military sway in Iraq and will likely have a major say in who will replace Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi who submitted his resignation in December.

Meanwhile anger at the United States has swelled since an American drone attack near Baghdad airport on January 3 killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and leading Iraqi military official Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

On Sunday a volley of rockets hit near the US embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone without causing casualties, security sources said.

One source said three Katyusha rockets were fired while the Iraqi security forces said five rockets struck the Green Zone.
Anthony Stokes is returning to Iran to join Persian Gulf Pro League leaders Persepolis.

It's the 31-year-old former Ireland international's fifth club in two years, having most recently had his contract cancelled by Turkish team Adana Demirspor.

Since being released by Hibernian in 2018 over disciplinary issues, Stokes has also played for Greece's Apollon Smyrni and Iranian-side Tractor, where he enjoyed some success before falling out with the club.

Regardless, the memory of Stokes' 13 goals in 24 games for Tractor has led Persepolis to give him a six-month contract. He will be playing home games at the 78,000-capacity Azadi Stadium.

Former League of Ireland striker Eamon Zayed became a cult hero in Iran in 2012, after scoring a hat-trick as a substitute to help Persepolis win the Tehran derby 3-2. He became known as 'Mr Hat-trick' among fans after notching three trebles that season.

There have been growing tensions in the country since US President Donald Trump pulled America out of a nuclear deal with Iran.

The US has since reimposed tough sanctions that have crippled Irans economy and earlier this month, an American drone strike killed a top Iranian general.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday said the Legislative Council obstructs the Assembly business and should be discontinued.

"The question ahead is not merely about the abolition of the Legislative Council but to keep democracy alive. There are only six States having a council. Some states like Assam, West Bengal, etc., have done away with the councils. There is no answer why the Council that obstacles the assembly business should be continued," said Reddy during a discussion on the resolution to abolish the Legislative Council of the state.

"The present Legislative Council is hampering all the Bills sent by the Assembly. In 1983, NT Ramarao, founder of TDP, had decided to abolish the Legislative Council. Pro-TDP media had supported that move. If we continue with the Council, we can get the majority in a year or so. But we want to abolish the Legislative Council only in the public interest," he added.

He further said that there is no need of a Legislative Council in the present day when the literacy level of the society has reached high levels.

"When literates were less in the country, intellectuals had less chance to get elected to the house. Then the Council was introduced. Now there is no such situation. There are PhDs, post-graduates, engineers, teachers in today's AP Assembly," he said.

Speaking on the three-capital plan for the state, Reddy said: "We are not removing Amaravati capital region. We will continue Amaravati as the legislative capital. We are going to make Visakhapatnam as executive capital. Respecting Sribagh pact, we are going to make Kurnool as the judicial capital."

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed the state government's resolution to dissolve the Legislative Council.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nigeria Police Force, Akwa Ibom Command, said it had arrested 79 suspects, who were allegedly involved in election related offences during Saturdays re-run election at Essien Udim Local Government Area.

Police Public Relations Officer, Nnudam Fredrick, a chief superintendent of police, disclosed this in a statement issued in Uyo on Monday on the re-run election.

Mr Fredrick added that 25 corps members and 21 security personnel were abducted during the re-run exercise held on January 25 in the area.

He said the election was generally peaceful, but for the few skirmishes at ward 10 unit 6, where some ad hoc staff were abducted and electoral materials diverted into a politicians home at Ukana Ikot Ntuen in Essien Udim.

Acting on a distress call that INEC Supervisors and ad hoc staff, security agents attached to Ward 10, Unit 6 were abducted and electoral materials seized and diverted to a premises at Ukana Ikot Ntuen in Essien Udim LGA.

Later identified as the residence of one Ibanga Akpabio, the DCP in-charge of Operations, Akwa Ibom State Police Command, DCP Auwal Musa Muhammed swung into action and rescued 25 corps members and 21 security personnel.

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All the electoral materials were recovered and 79 suspects arrested at the aforementioned residence.

Investigation is in progress and further development will be communicated promptly, Mr Fredrick said.

The police spokesman said the investigation was ongoing, promising to keep the public informed on the situation.

He commended Akwa Ibom people for conducting themselves peacefully during the re-run and thanked other security agencies and stakeholders for their efforts in making the exercise successful.

(NAN)
Mumbai:

Force Motors, the market leader in inter-city commuter vans, has lined up Rs 600 crore in fresh investment to develop two new models over the next two years. The proposed new models in the shared mobility space will come out from its soon-to-be-launched premium platform, code-named T1N, an export-focused premium van developed with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore and is getting ready for commercial production by the end of the year. "We have lined up Rs 600 crore in fresh capital investment to develop two new models for the next two years. These new vehicles will come out from our next generation monocoque platform coming up at our Pithampur, Indore, works for T1N," Prasan Firodia, managing director, Force Motors, told PTI.

Last week, the company, the largest van maker in the country with a market share of over 68 per cent, unveiled the van 'T1N', which will be mostly exported. The BSVI-compliant vehicle will also be available in electric and CNG versions and has been developed over the past four years at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

The company is building an entirely new bodyshop with robotic and laser-welding facilities with an installed capacity of 35,000 units for T1N, which will be an 18-seater van that boasts of 25 industry-first features. The new premium van will be export-focused and the Firodias, who were the pioneers of autorickshaws in the 1950s, will begin shipping the van to the Gulf markets first followed by North Africa, South Africa, the Asean, South America and the Saarc regions, Firodia said.

On the rationale for launching a premium commuter van, Firodia said they want to use this van to be the springboard to become a global automotive company. The Pune-based company, which sells two commuter vans Trax and Traveller, nets almost 50 per cent of its income from its engine supply business with Mercedes and BMW now. It is also entering into an agreement with Rolls Royce to supply engines.

In the quarter to September, Force had reported an 84 per cent plunge in net income to Rs 4.2 crore on a revenue of Rs 818 crore, which was down 5.6 per cent. Its association with Mercedes dates back to 1997, when Daimler AG decided to manufacture Mercs in the country. To date, it has supplied over 1,15,000 engines to Mercedes Benz India from its state-of-the-art dedicated facility at Chakan near Pune.

Similarly, in 2015, BMW assigned Force to produce and test the engines for all cars and SUVs to be made in the country. Accordingly, it has built a dedicated factory closer to the BMW plant in Chennai and has supplied over 45,000 engines to the German luxury car maker. In March 2018, Force Motors entered into a joint venture (JV) with Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG to manufacture and supply worldwide, the 10- and 12-cylinder, series 1,600 engines for power generation and under-floor rail applications. The JV is slated to take off from April.
Sir - In recent years, much has been written about crime in rural Ireland and theft from vulnerable farmers. However, there is theft going on, and it's almost unnoticed.

In fact, what is going on is grand larceny and is proposed by the State. The present Government proposes to rob the farmers of Ireland of their carbon credit rights and use them to massage the figures for other sectors like industry, aviation, transport, data centres and so on.

This is how it works;

Farmers produce food. In turn, this creates CO2. As Prof Fitzgerald (of the Climate Change Advisory Council), and Prof Frank Mitloehner (of Davis University, California) argued last week, this CO2 is cyclical. Farmers have lots of grassland, trees, scrub, hedges and forestry. These sequester CO2 created by food production. You deduct one from the other and you get a net carbon footprint. At least that's what you would expect. The reality is quite different.

I've just got off the phone to a highly placed agricultural official. I was asking if, and when, I could put up a sign at my entrance stating that we are a carbon neutral farm (because we have so much grassland, trees and forestry on the farm, we sequester more CO2 than we produce).

I was told that the present Government proposes to pick a year (possibly 2015) and any sequestration capacity in place before that date belongs to the nation. Farmers will only get credit for anything they do after that date.

So we will be classified as carbon criminals - even though we are carbon neutral.

It's time for farmers to wake up and put a stop to this larceny. In the coming years, farmers will be putting more sequestration capacity in place - but the capacity that is already in place also belongs to them and could be their most valuable asset. The political party that acknowledges farmers' right of ownership of their sequestration capacity will get my vote.

John Hourigan,

Murroe, Co Limerick
Do you wish you could see the evidence that prayer changes lives? Are you tired of playing it safe with your faith? In Dangerous Prayers, New York Times bestselling author Craig Groeschel helps you unlock your greatest potential and tackle your greatest fears by praying stronger, more passionate prayers that lead you into a deeper faith. The book will be released on February 4th via Zondervan Books.

Prayer moves the heart of God-but some prayers move Him more than others. He wants more for us than a tepid faith and half-hearted routines at the dinner table. He's called you to a life of courage, not comfort.

This book will show you how to pray the prayers that search your soul, break your habits, and send you to pursue the calling God has for you. But be warned: if you're fine with settling for what's easy, or you're OK with staying on the sidelines, this book isn't for you. You'll be challenged. You'll be tested. You'll be moved to take a long, hard look at your heart.

But you'll be inspired, too.

You'll be inspired to pray boldly. To pray powerfully. To pray with fire. You'll see how you can trade ineffective prayers and lukewarm faith for raw, daring prayers that will push you to new levels of passion and fulfillment. You'll discover the secret to overcome fears of loss, rejection, failure, and the unknown and welcome the blessings God has for you on the other side.

You'll gain the courage it takes to pray dangerous prayers.

New York Times bestselling author Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of Life.Church, an innovative church meeting in multiple locations around the United States and one of the largest churches in the world. He is the author of several books and hosts the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. He is the Summit Champion for the Global Leadership Network, which reaches hundreds of thousands of leaders around the world annually. Craig and his wife, Amy, live in Oklahoma. Visit www.craiggroeschel.com to connect with Craig.

Tags : craig groeschel Craig Groeschel new book Craig Groeschel news Craig Groeschel dangerous prayers
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldHotels today introduced a new collection of hotels and resorts that brings to life the uncommon vision of independent hoteliers: WorldHotels Crafted Collection. Announced today at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), WorldHotels Crafted Collection will be a curated collection of independent hotels that offer cutting-edge design, immersive guest experiences and expert service.

Set to launch in 2020, WorldHotels Crafted Collection offers independent hoteliers an opportunity to tap into their local communities with fearless and edgy style, while also gaining access to industry-leading systems and support. With minimal branding requirements and customized storytelling for each property, every hotel's authenticity will be celebrated. WorldHotels Crafted Collection properties will also benefit from WorldHotels' commitment to driving superior revenue to its hoteliers, expanding customer base with sophisticated sales programs and delivering unprecedented marketing support.

The inclusive collection will feature properties that capture the spirit of the destinations they serve. These hotels reflect and amplify all that is unique about their own location, and with no two properties alike, each and every one is coveted. Offering today's refined traveller a stunningly unique experience in the upscale, upper-upscale and luxury segments, WorldHotels Crafted Collection is inclusive of primary or destination markets. Each hotel will maintain a TripAdvisor rating of 4.5 or above and will appeal to those guests and hoteliers who each crave creativity, immersive experiences, ingenuity and a seamless, humble and expert service.

"The announcement of this new collection perfectly showcases the tremendous future that lies ahead for WorldHotels and our family of creative, innovative and independent hoteliers," said Kristin Intress, Chief Executive Officer, WorldHotels. "WorldHotels Crafted Collection will be a selection of wonderfully unique design properties. With bold style and strategically designed social spaces, travellers will be pulled from their rooms to experience something more than the status quo. These hotels will deliver a truly immersive experience where guests can create lasting memories."

Owners and operators of WorldHotels Crafted Collection hotels will enjoy the perfect balance of creative freedom and a trusted alliance and partnership. Every hotel will be provided with access to unparalleled systems and support through WorldHotels and its parent organization, BWH Hotel GroupSM. Hotels joining WorldHotels Crafted Collection will be on boarded in a rapid ramp-up with near immediate access to BWH Hotel Group's award-winning rewards programs, robust digital presence, premier partnerships and industry-leading global sales team.

This announcement comes on the heels of a number of successes for WorldHotels. Since joining forces with BWH Hotel Group, WorldHotels has grown and expanded its senior leadership team welcoming veteran luxury and hospitality experts in Europe, Asia and North America, including the appointment of Kristin Intress as Chief Executive Officer in November 2019. WorldHotels also kicked off 2020 with the launch of its WorldLuxury Affinity Program. This exclusive, invitation-only support program offers luxury properties powerful support in core areas such as marketing, public relations and sales, including a premium partnership with Forbes Travel Guide.

"I am thrilled to see WorldHotels flourish under the BWH Hotel Group umbrella," adds David Kong, Global President and Chief Executive Officer, BWH Hotel Group. "The WorldHotels Crafted Collection is set to become one of the most authentic, daring and brave collections of independent hotels around the globe. The sophisticated infrastructure of BWH Hotel Group, together with the creativity and rich experience of the WorldHotels team, will undoubtedly make WorldHotels Crafted Collection a remarkable success."

With the launch of WorldHotels Crafted Collection, the BWH Hotel Group portfolio now includes 18 distinctive offerings across every market segment. Under BWH Hotel Group, WorldHotels will continue its focus on driving superior revenue to its hoteliers, expanding its portfolio of offerings in premier global destinations and providing exceptional travel experiences to its guests.

About WorldHotels Collection

Newly relaunched, the WorldHotels Collection delivers proven soft brand solutions for a curated global offering of over 300 of the finest independent hotels and resorts. Founded by hoteliers dedicated to the art of hospitality, only WorldHotels curates the best independent properties around the globe, each reflective of the locale by offering intuitive service, and a refined sense of character. WorldHotels' proprietary 'Start With Why' philosophy helps each hotel identify their unique set of assets that distinguish and elevate their guest experience and revenue generation performance from the competition. Geared to both business and leisure travellers, the WorldHotels Collection is classified into four tiers allowing guests to select the offering that meets their needs: WorldHotels Luxury, WorldHotels Elite, WorldHotels Distinctive and WorldHotels Crafted Collection.

For reservations or information, visit WorldHotels.com.

Media Contact:

Katie Ray

Senior PR Manager

602.957.5526

[email protected]

SOURCE WorldHotels
Married At First Sight's Elizabeth Sobinoff isn't letting the haters get her down after she was accused of being 'too skinny'.

Despite her Instagram followers expressing fears for her well-being, Elizabeth hit the dance floor in a revealing ensemble over the weekend.

The 27-year-old showed off her tiny waist in a white crop top and black skirt while partying at the Marquee nightclub with friends.

No worries! MAFS' Elizabeth Sobinoff isn't letting the haters get her down after she was accused of being 'too skinny'. Pictured at the Marquee nightclub in Sydney on Sunday night

Elizabeth has been inundated by comments about her size in recent months, after losing 10kg following her first appearance on MAFS last year.

But she seemingly didn't have a care in the world when she went out for a 'ladies' night' with her girlfriends on Sunday.

'Stunning vibes, hot as hell music, just good vibes all around,' Elizabeth wrote on Instagram alongside a gallery of party snaps.

'Just good vibes all around': Despite her Instagram followers expressing fears for her well-being, Elizabeth hit the dance floor in a revealing ensemble over the weekend

Letting her hair down: The 27-year-old showed off her tiny waist in a white crop top and black skirt while partying at the Marquee nightclub with friends on Sunday

'Not trying to be mean, just worried': Last week, several fans said they were 'worried' about Elizabeth, who has been looking increasingly gaunt in recent photos

Last week, several fans said they were 'worried' about Elizabeth, who has been looking increasingly gaunt in recent photos

'Beautiful woman you are Lizzie, but you look a bit pale in this pic. Are you OK?' one Instagram user asked.

'You look too skinny - not trying to be mean, just worried,' another added.

A third person wrote: 'This may come as a hate post, but I honestly don't mean it this way. You're a beautiful person and I absolutely love you. However, you look sick.'

Vile: Elizabeth was fat shamed by her ex-'husband', Sam Ball, on the 2019 season of MAFS

So different! After filming ended, Elizabeth told NW magazine she'd dropped 10kg. However, she appears to have since lost even more weight. Pictured before and after her weight loss

Elizabeth was fat shamed by her ex-'husband', Sam Ball, on the 2019 season of MAFS.

On their wedding day, the muscular tradesman said he 'didn't usually date girls her size' and joked about 'getting her running in the mornings'.

After filming ended, she told NW magazine she had dropped 10kg. However, she appears to have since lost even more weight.

Elizabeth is returning for the new season of MAFS, which premieres next week. She is paired with retired footy player Seb Guilhaus in the social experiment.

Married At First Sight 2020 premieres on Monday, February 3 on Channel Nine
WISER Systems, a provider of ultra-wideband (UWB) asset tracking systems, has announced that the company will showcase new system features as part of its participation in IoT Evolution Expo 2020: The Thinking IoT Arrives! next month.

In addition to the system demonstration, the company has been invited to participate in the Industrial IoT Conference panel, Smart Manufacturing Beyond Downtime. WISER Solutions Engineer Logan Maxwell will address how technologies like the WISER Locator help drive value in manufacturing industries today.

WISER helps manufacturers lower downtime and eliminate inefficiencies through automation of manual processes like scanning and data entry. We also provide quantification of movement of tagged assets, Maxwell says. Instead of scanning in a tote delivery to the line, for instance, a WISER tag on the asset can send location data to an existing asset management system. This automates the scan and eliminates missed reads. When a tag is applied to a moving asset, we can quantify pathing and dwell time, which allows greater efficiency in all kinds of plants.

WISER will also be a sponsor at TagoIO Connect 2020 on February 11. TagoIO Connect is a one-day co-located event focused on how to quickly and efficiently build powerful and custom IoT applications. As an event sponsor, WISER will address and demonstrate how technologies like the WISER Locator pair with other IoT tools like the TagoIO Platform, showing a live demo of the WISER Locator in conjunction with this platform.

As part of the #TechSuperShow, the IoT Evolution Expo is also collocated with the Intelligent Edge Expo, the Smart City Event, and the Industrial IoT Conference. IoT Evolution Expo 2020 will feature new and unique experiences dedicated to arming the enterprise with IoT solutions and actionable intelligence for business success. It is the industrys longest running event and will gather several thousand attendees from across the globe.

Although we work in various business verticals, were able to offer an especially competitive edge in heavy industry, said Dr. Elaine Rideout, CEO, WISER. Were delighted to be showcasing our tech live at an event like thisand for the opportunity to demonstrate the WISER Locator with a partners IoT dashboard like well do during TagoIO Connect.

The IoT Evolution Expo will take place February 11  14, at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward Country Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. WISER will exhibit in booth 629.

Edited by Ken Briodagh
Passengers who arrived on one of the last flights from the Chinese city of Wuhan walk through a health screening station at Narita airport in Chiba prefecture, outside Tokyo, Japan. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP)

In a statement, the ministry said the man in his 40s was a resident of the Chinese city where the outbreak began and arrived in Japan on Jan 19.

He reported having had a fever for several days before his arrival but said that his condition had stabilised by the time of his arrival in Japan.

On Jan 22, he reported a fever and he is now in a Tokyo hospital receiving treatment, the ministry said.

The statement added that the man denied having visited the market in Wuhan identified as the source of the outbreak, and said he had worn a medical mask while travelling.

The case was confirmed just over a week after Japanese authorities reported the country's first incidence of the new virus that has killed 18 and infected hundreds of others.

The outbreak has prompted China to effectively quarantine some 20 million people, but the World Health Organization said on Thursday that the disease did not yet constitute a global health emergency.
Danish English





FirstFarms A/S and the owners of AIC A/S has signed a Letter of Intent regarding FirstFarms A/S purchase of AIC A/S.

AIC A/S is a holding company, whose main asset is the Romanian company AISM srl., which owns 2,430 hectares of cultivated leased agricultural land in Romania, a modern silo plant with 6,000 tons storage capacity, feed mill and storage- and office facilities. The transaction structure is not yet final determined.

It has been agreed, that the owners of AIC A/S will be paid with shares in FirstFarms A/S. In this connection, it is intended, that the owners of AIC A/S will receive 1,198,500 new shares in FirstFarms A/S, and also a conditional receivable corresponding to the value of 50,000 shares at the time where the receivable is to be settled.

The 1,198,500 new shares are planned to be issued by a capital increase at minimum market price in accordance to the authorisation to the Board of Directors in FirstFarms A/S Articles of Association.

The receivable must be settled on delivery of the shares or cash 15 months after closing, to the extent that no guarantee claims have been made beforehand.

If the transaction is carried out according to the above, the owners of AIC A/S will hold 16.5 percent of the shares in FirstFarms A/S, as a result of the transaction.

A timetable has been agreed for the implementation of due diligence and the further process with negotiations and conclusion of agreement.

The transaction is expected to be completed at the latest in second quarter of 2020, and is the transaction carried out according to the signed Letter of Intent, the purchase is expected to contribute with a positive result in the current financial year.

The expected purchase of the share capital in AIC A/S, is partly to support FirstFarms overall strategy and positive development, and partly as a part in the development of the companys activities in Romania.

This is primarily an investment in land and storage capacity. The land prices in Eastern Europe are increasing, and with this purchase we invest in land and stock of very good quality with a range of potential applications. The purchase provides opportunity to scale and optimise the operation and to make better use of our competences in Romania. In addition, with the seller's entry into the shareholder circle, we gain access to important knowledge and experience, which we will understand to utilise for increased value creation in our entire business, says CEO of FirstFarms, Anders H. Nrgaard.

Chairman of the Board in AIC A/S, Bendt Wedell, gives reason for the expected sale to FirstFarms as follows: FirstFarms has fully demonstrated that they are capable of operating and developing agriculture in Eastern Europe. The foundation is good, the economy is good, and there is an ambitious plan for the future. As a larger shareholder, we want to contribute actively to the continued positive development  both in a broad sense and on specific areas.

Best regards,

FirstFarms A/S

For further information:

Please visit our website www.firstfarms.com or contact CEO Anders H. Nrgaard on telephone +45 75 86 87 87.





About FirstFarms A/S:

FirstFarms is a Danish stock exchange listed company, which purchases and operates agriculture in Eastern Europe. We develop the individual farms to modern businesses that deliver milk, meat and grains of the highest quality to the consumers dinner tables. FirstFarms contributes to, and approves, the development towards a more sustainable agriculture.

About AIC A/S:

Since 2005, AIC A/S has made investments in Romanian agricultural land and built up a crop centre. The company rents out the owned land and trades with crops, with base from Satu Mara in Romania. AIC A/S is owned by Bendt Wedell, Anders Kirk Johansen and Ulrik Theophil Jrgensen.

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What is a Proxy?

Every time you surf the internet, your internet service provider tracks all the moves you make. They can also estimate your location thanks to the IP address they gave you. Here is where proxies would come in handy. The proxy would act as a substitute address that would allow you to go online anonymously.

In essence, a proxy is an intermediate server that provides different levels of privacy, functionality, and security, depending on your personal needs or company policy.

Introducing the Concept of Limited Item Copping

If you could purchase your favorite brand of popular sneakers as easily as you buy things off general online stores, you'd probably do it as often as you can. Sure, you can choose to line up at the physical store on the release date, but there is a high possibility that by the time it's your turn, the shoes are sold out! So why not cop your favorite brand from home? In this article, we shall go through some tips and tricks on how to cop that sneaker you wanted.

Proxies and Copping

The secret to copping a pair of sneakers (or any other item for that matter) is to get a different proxy for each task you run on your computer. Let's use the example of a sneaker brand called Y. For starters, you would have to purchase a branch of Y proxies each week. This shouldn't be a cause for alarm as there are great proxy providers out there!

Next, ensure that you use only one proxy per task. The proxies will make it appear as if you are in the nearest or most convenient location and will, therefore, provide you with the best specs needed to cop Brand Y.

Data center vs. Residential Proxies

While you might already know what proxies are, we will talk about the main differences between the two most commonly known kinds of proxy - residential and data center.

Residential Proxy

A residential proxy is the IP address provided to a home by an internet service provider. The address is genuine in that it is attached to a physical location. This means that in the event you move houses, the internet service provider will have to give you a new IP address.

Pros of a Residential Proxy

 Anonymity - one of the main reasons why people opt to get this proxy is due to the guaranteed anonymity.

 Security - residential proxies rely on P2P (person to person networks), and this ensures that all your data is protected from third parties.

 Free passage - there are almost no chances of a residential proxy getting blocked, especially if the service provider is of good quality.

Cons of a Residential Proxy

 Price - residential proxies are costly compared to data center proxies.

 Speed - the speed is lower compared to data center proxies.

 Choice -there are fewer companies that sell residential proxies as compared to those selling data center proxies.

Data Center Proxy

Data center proxy differs from a residential proxy in that an internet service provider does not own it. These proxies are provided by third-party corporations and are not as legitimate as residential ones, but it doesn't mean that they don't have their advantages!

Pros of a Data Center proxy

 Price - data center proxies are very affordable.

 Speed - you can easily acquire a data center proxy with internet speeds ten times faster than your local provider.

 Availability - data center proxies are more common than residential proxies. This feature makes them available regardless of your location.

 Geo-restricted content - data center proxies allow you to access content that is restricted in your geographical area.

Cons of Data Center Proxy

Blacklisting - users of data center proxies are more likely to get blacklisted from websites compared to those of residential proxies. Of course, this only depends on whether the proxy is discovered, which is very rare.

So Which Proxy is the Best for Copping Limited Edition Sneakers?

From the features discussed above, it is clear that data center proxies are the best choice for copping. They have an incredible speed that is up to ten times faster than residential proxies. This would come in handy when purchasing limited edition sneakers as the commands you input in the browser will be executed promptly.

Takeaway: How Do I Pick the Right Proxy Provider?

Most legitimate proxy providers grant you either a free trial to try out their product or money-back guarantee. Take advantage of this free trial to test the proxies on various websites before submitting your payment. Other than the free trial, there are other tips to help you pick the right proxy provider. Such include:

 Reviews - read the reviews of previous buyers to check the general reception of the product. Lots of mid/positive reviews (never trust too many good reviews) should prompt you to purchase the product.

We found proxy services reviews on Proxyway.com. You can read found information about these providers:

o Geosurf;

o Smartproxy;

o Oxylabs;

o Luminati;

o And others.

 Big pool of proxies - if your project requires you to get proxies from specific locations, your best choice would be to go for a provider with an extensive list of locations.

 Customer support - ensure that the proxy provider you settle on has available customer service that is convenient for you.
Protests erupt against President Adama Barrow, who pledged in 2016 to step down after three years.

In The Gambia, police used tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to disperse thousands of protesters calling for President Adama Barrow to step down.

When Barrow came to power in a deal with the opposition coalition, he had promised to step down after three years. But now he wants to stay on to complete the five-year presidential term.

Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque reports.
(Newser)  After a flurry of confusing reports about a downed plane in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the US military has confirmed it was a US Air Force plane that crashed. The rep for US forces in Afghanistan says the Bombardier E-11A crashed in the Ghazni province, the AP reports. US officials say there is no evidence suggesting enemy fire took down the plane; an investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.

story continues below

A US military official tells Fox News there were "less than five onboard" the electronic surveillance plane. It's not clear if anyone survived the crash, but a local journalist says he saw two bodies and claims that two others may have survived. NPR, whose source says two people were on board and both died, reports that "a swarm of conflicting reports" cropped up within hours of the crash. In addition to the Taliban's claim it had shot down the plane, local Afghan officials had also initially said it was a passenger plane from Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines that crashed, but Ariana refuted that account. (Read more Afghanistan stories.)
Perez Hilton was sent packing on Monday night's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

And the American gossip guru, real name Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., rubbed viewers up the wrong way with his final farewell.

Wasting no time in exiting the South African jungle, the 41-year-old said to his campmates: 'Adios. It was a pleasure meeting most of you. Bye-bye!'

Scroll down for video

'So rude!' Viewers SLAMMED I'm A Celebrity's Perez Hilton, 41, (pictured) on Monday night, after he said it was a pleasure meeting 'most' of his campmates after being eliminated

Viewers branded Perez 'rude' and 'disrespectful' in a series of Tweets soon after.

'Jeez. What a poor sport, good riddance Perez,' one wrote.

'So bloody ungrateful and disrespectful,' was another comment, as well as 'that was plain rude'.

Ouch! Wasting no time in exiting the South African jungle, the American gossip guru said to his campmates: 'Adios. It was a pleasure meeting most of you. Bye-bye!'

Online: Viewers branded Perez 'rude' and 'disrespectful' in a series of Tweets soon after

One even went so far as to label Perez 'a sore loser' with 'anger management issues'.

During his exit interview with hosts Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris, Perez urged Australia to crown Miguel Maestre King of The Jungle.

'He can do everything, not just cook, but he can do everything,' he said. 'He can make fire appear, he is an inspiring business person.

'He is a great father and he was home to me. He reminded me so much of my family, and he is the winner. Please, Australia. I beg of you, do not get it wrong.'

'He reminded me so much of my family': During his exit interview with hosts Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris, Perez urged Australia to crown Miguel King of The Jungle

Meanwhile, on Sunday night's episode, Perez certainly ruffled a few feathers among the camp.

The father-of-three got into a screaming match over how to divide up sliced banana.

Perez accused Ryan Gallagher and Charlotte Crosby of 'disrespecting' and 'attacking' Miguel, who took it upon himself to cut up the fruit.

It all began when Ryan suggested Charlotte should get one whole banana as she doesn't eat oats.

Drama ensued when others deemed it unfair for one person to get extra servings.

Bizarre meltdown: On Sunday night's episode, Perez got into a screaming match with his campmates over how to divide up sliced banana

Watching it unfold, Perez stormed over and demanded Ryan and Charlotte respect the Spanish chef.

'You're being so disrespectful to him. The way you were talking to him was not caring.'

After Ryan suggested Perez was creating drama just for headlines, he continued: 'I'm not going to do a blog. I reacted the way I did because this man has done so much for you.

Speaking to Myf Warhurst, Charlotte accused Perez of 'jumping in' and 'screaming like a banshee'.
Rep. Sheryl Delozier, who has built a reputation for championing crime victims rights and criminal justice reforms, announced on Monday that she will seek the Republican nomination in the April 28 primary to continue to represent a portion of Cumberland County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

In seeking a seventh two-year term of office representing the 88th state House district, Delozier, 52, of Lower Allen Township, said, It is my promise to you that I will continue to stand up for the issues that matter the most to us and I would be honored to have your vote.

Earlier, Democrat Tara Shakespeare, also of Lower Allen Township, announced her intention to seek the Democratic nomination for this House seat.

Delozier has proven herself to be able to work across the aisle on issues to gain passage of the Clean Slate law that allows eligible Pennsylvanians who have some low-level crimes in their past to publicly sealed from public view. She also gained bi-partisan support for the passage of Marsys Law, a crime victims rights constitutional amendment that voters approved but now is the subject of a lawsuit. She also has been a leading voice for probation reform, another initiative that members of both parties support.

She recently was named Government Leader of the Year by the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC for her work on criminal justice reform as well as was awarded Allegheny Colleges Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania.

Along with her service in the state House, Deloizer remains active in the community, serving as a member of various business and civic organizations. She has advocated for rape and domestic violence victims for over a quarter of a century and has been a longtime volunteer with Area M Special Olympics. She also teaches Junior Achievement to second graders at St. Stephens Cathedral School.

The 88th state House district includes Lower Allen and Upper Allen townships as well as Lemoyne, Mechanicsburg, New Cumberland, Shiremanstown, and Wormleysburg.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 16:36:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Security forces have killed 10 armed insurgents and recaptured 17 villages in Shirzad district of the eastern Nangarhar province, said an army statement here Monday.

The cleanup operations, launched a couple of days ago in parts of the restive district, will continue until the militants there are wiped out and security returns to the district and adjoining areas, the statement said.

It didn't say if the armed insurgents killed in the operations were Taliban members or the Islamic State group loyalists.

No security personnel were injured in the operations, the statement added.

Neither Taliban outfit nor the Islamic State group which are operational in parts of Nangarhar province with Jalalabad as its capital 120 km east of Kabul has made comments.
A TV production assistant sobbed as she told Harvey Weinsteins rape trial that she tried to fight off the disgraced movie mogul and told him no, no, no while he sexually assaulted her

As one of two women whose assault claims led to Weinstein being charged, Mimi Haleyi detailed her allegation that he forcibly performed oral sex on her at his New York City apartment in 2006.

I did reject him, but he insisted. Every time I tried to get off the bed, he would push me back and hold me down, she said, adding that she told him she had her period in an attempt to deter him.

She said she thought Im being raped, and considered different options. If I scream rape, will someone hear me? she said.

Mimi Haleyi told jurors she tried to fight off Harvey Weinstein / REUTERS

I checked out and decided to endure it, she said. That was the safest thing I could do.

Ms Haleyi, 42, also described a second encounter in a Manhattan hotel room where she said she went numb as he took her hand, pulled her towards the bed and had intercourse with her.

She said she just felt like an idiot for letting him convince her to meet again, but thought seeing him could help her regain power as she tried to make sense of the alleged assault.

Asked if she wanted to have sex with Weinstein that night, she said, No.

Harvey Weinstein as arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court / AFP via Getty Images

Ms Haleyi said she did not call the police because she was working in the US on a tourist visa and was scared of Weinsteins power, telling jurors: Obviously, Mr Weinstein has a lot more power and resources and connections and so forth. I didnt think Id stand a chance.

Last week, Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra told the court that Weinstein overpowered and raped her after barging into her apartment in the mid-1990s.

While outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges, her allegations could be a factor as prosecutors look to prove Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behaviour.

Ms Haleyi went public with her allegations at an October 2017 news conference, appearing in front of cameras alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents Ms Sciorra and other Weinstein accusers.

Annabella Sciorra alleges she was raped by Weinstein / REUTERS

Born in Helsinki and raised in Sweden, she said she met Weinstein while in her 20s at the 2004 London premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio film The Aviator.

They crossed paths again at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and, when she expressed interest in working on one of his productions, he invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage, she said.

She told the court she declined, saying she was extremely humiliated.

I felt stupid because I was so excited to go see him and he treated me that way, she said.

More meetings followed, and Weinstein secured her a job helping on the set of Project Runway, the reality show he produced.

She told the trial that before the alleged assault, Weinstein showed up at her apartment and begged her to join him a trip to Paris for a fashion show.

At one point, because I just didnt know how to shut it down, so to speak I said, You know you have a terrible reputation with women, Ive heard.

She said the then-revered Hollywood mogul got offended, adding: He stepped back and said, What have you heard?

Asked by prosecutor Meghan Hast if she had any romantic or sexual interest in Weinstein, Ms Haleyi firmly answered: Not at all, no.

On cross-examination, defence lawyer Damon Cheronis seized on Ms Haleyis continued interactions with Weinstein, displaying on a large screen a friendly email she sent him after they ran into each other in Cannes in 2008.

Ms Haleyi conceded she had been in contact with him occasionally and that she sent the 2008 email after a newspaper article reminded her of a conversation they had weeks before the alleged assault.
The remarkable impact of the life, writings and death on hunger strike of Lord Mayor of Cork Terence McSwiney on the birth of the Indian nation was recalled at a special event in Cork to mark Indian independence.

The Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Sandeep Kumar, paid tribute to MacSwiney in City Hall as his embassy staged a showcase of his countrys food, dance and culture to mark Indias Republic Day - the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on January 26, 1950. It was the first time the embassy has staged the Irish event outside Dublin.

Apart from the special connection between Cork and India through the 1985 Air India memorial in Ahakista, Mr Kumar said hundreds of Indians now work, study or do business in Cork.

"India's relationship with Cork is rooted in our freedom struggle - shared history, shared pain, shared peace," he said.

"We all know the direct principles of the Indian constitution are drawn from the Irish constitution.

"Even the colours of our flags are the same and in the context of Cork, we have your martyred Lord Mayor who influenced some of the Indian freedom struggle leaders who embraced the philosophy of non violence and peace."

City librarian, Liam Roynayne, recalled the international influence that MacSwiney had on Indian nationalists, including the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi.

Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Sandeep Kumar, Picture: Jim Coughlan

MacSwiney was elected as an MP for mid-Cork in the general election of December 1918, and like his Sinn Fein comrades, he refused to take his seat in Westminster and pledged allegiance to Dail Eireann.

In January 1920 he was elected to Cork Corporation. His friend and Sinn Fein colleague Tomas MacCurtain was elected the first Republican Lord Mayor, 1

Read More:

When MacCurtain was murdered in March 1920, MacSwiney was elected his successor. He was arrested in August and embarked on hunger strike, dying in Brixton Prison 74 days later on October 25, 1920.

Mr Ronayne pointed out that at that time, Ireland and India were both part of the British Empire - Ireland its oldest colony and India its largest - and that this networks of empire allowed what happened in one to influence what happened in another.

Many young Indians had come to London to study and there they learned what was happening in Ireland, and there were also young Indians studying in Ireland, he said.

A collection of MacSwineys writings, Principles of Freedom, was published posthumously in 1921.

"MacSwiney's life and work had a particular impact in India.

In Ireland as in India, there were two strands of nationalist agitation: those who pursued their goal though non-violence and those who took a different approach.

No-one is more associated globally with the non-violent approach than Mahatma Gandhi, but there were Indian nationalists who looked to the Irish struggle and believed that armed struggle would be necessary and indeed inevitable.

Mahatma Gandhi counted MacSwiney among his influences along with Arthur Griffith, but it is perhaps true to say that it was Nehru who took most inspiration from MacSwineys example and writings.

Principles of Freedom was translated into various Indian languages including Telugu.

"The revolutionary Bhagat Singh was an admirer of MacSwiney and wrote about him in his memoirs.

When Singhs father petitioned the British Government in India to pardon his son, Bhagat Singh quoted MacSwineys words: I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release."

Singh told his father to withdraw the petition. He was later executed by the British.

Others influenced by the Irish experience included Subhas Chadra Bose, Surja Sen, and Jatin Das," Mr Ronayne said.

Todays celebration included an Irish ballet/Indian Bollywood fusion dance performance by students of the Joan Denise Moriarty Dance School, an Indian medley dance by the Cork Indian Dance Troupe, and a buffet of Indian food.
Charlotte Crosby's mother, Letitia, has watched her famous daughter fall in love on reality TV before.

But she's hoping things are different this time round, as the ex-Geordie Shore star, 29, grows closer to Ryan Gallagher on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Australia.

Letitia spoke to NW magazine on Monday about Charlotte and Ryan's jungle romance, saying that the couple have the potential to go the distance.

Seal of approval: Charlotte Crosby's mother, Letitia (right), has revealed her daughter's jungle romance with Ryan Gallagher has the potential to go the distance

'From what I've seen, Ryan seems so nice and he has a lot of qualities Charlotte likes,' Letitia said.

She added that her husband, Gary, has already given Ryan the tick of approval and finds him to be a 'genuine guy'.

Letitia also doesn't mind if her daughter ends up moving across the world to live with Ryan in Australia if things become serious.

'Distance will not stop her': Letitia told NW magazine she doesn't mind if her daughter ends up moving across the world to live with Ryan (right) in Australia if things become serious

'It's a huge step, but if she really wanted to go.... Charlotte already travels to Australia a few times a year and I'm sure if she has true feelings for him, the distance will not stop her,' she said.

While it's still early days for Ryan and Charlotte, Letitia is already thinking about grandchildren.

'I do not wish to be away from any future grandchildren,' she said, making it clear that she wants her daughter to move back to the UK if she starts a family with Ryan.

Blossoming romance: Since their arrival in the jungle earlier this month, viewers have been captivated Charlotte and Ryan's flirty encounters

Since their arrival in the jungle earlier this month, viewers have been captivated Charlotte and Ryan's flirty encounters.

They have kissed, cuddled and even shared a bed overnight.

But one scene of the pair spooning in bed outraged viewers, who complained on I'm a Celebrity's official Instagram account.

A rumble in the jungle! They have kissed, cuddled and even shared a bed overnight

'This is supposed to be a family friendly show. Not a mix between Married At First Sight and Big Brother,' one fan wrote.

Charlotte broke up with her most recent boyfriend, Joshua Ritchie, in November.

Ryan was previously linked to New Zealand model Ayla Browne, but they split in November 2018 after a three-month romance.

He famously appeared on Married At First Sight's fifth season, which saw him paired with adulterous bride Davina Rankin.
They said the DHFL chief has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe.

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested the CMD of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), Kapil Wadhawan, in connection with its money laundering probe against dead gangster Iqbal Mirchi and others, officials said on Monday.

They said Wadhawan has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe.

The case relates to Mirchi's Mumbai properties, which have been called as proceeds of crime by the ED. Three such properties were sold to Sunblink, the company linked to Wadhawan brothers Kapil and Dheeraj.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi, his family members and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai.

Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right-hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.
Slovenia PM Sarec resigns unexpectedly 'Govt unable to implement reforms, hold elections'

(ANSAmed) - LJUBLJANA, JANUARY 27 - Slovenian prime minister Marjan Sarec announced Monday unexpectedly that he was resigning and called for early elections. In a press conference, Sarec said that ''the government has not been able to implement radical or structural reforms with these partners'', and that for this reason it would best to hold early elections. In the afternoon, the outgoing prime minister was expected to appear in parliament to speak. Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj had recently also resigned, citing personal reasons.



About ten days ago Sarec, in responding to attacks from the opposition, had said that he believed that there was no reason for the government to fall.



In an interview with the newspaper Delo, the prime minister did not deny that there were differences within his minority government and spoke about a realistic position held by his government in its reform efforts. ''If we all work for the same goal, we will be able to solve the problems,'' he said. In recent days the situation grew worse. ''With this coalition and with this situation in parliament, I cannot do what citizens expect. I will be able to do it after the elections,'' Sarec said Monday in announcing his resignation. (ANSAmed).




The head of the Royal Australian College of GPs is calling on the federal government to urgently open the nation's emergency medical mask stockpile as GP clinics around the country prepare for a possible surge of coronavirus infections.

The masks are needed to stop patients with the virus spreading the disease.

But Australias summer of bushfires means they are sold out across the country.

That shortage has sparked a warning from a leading biosecurity expert that Australia is not prepared for the coming threat.
Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabhbhai Patel on Monday urged Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Qatar, to supply gas to the state at reasonable rates on long-term basis, a press release from the state government said. A bilateral meeting between Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan and Al Kaabi was held which was attended by Patel.

During the discussion with Qatar's Minister, Patel apprised him that the state government and the private sector owned 2500 MW and 1500 MW gas-based power plants respectively.

"Thus total 4000 MW gas-based power plants are in Gujarat. If 70 per cent plants run, 3.5 million tons gas per annum will be required by Gujarat," the release said.

Patel stated that Gujarat provides gas through pipeline to around 18 lakh households and the target has been fixed to reach 22 to 24 lakh households. India has total gas-based power generation capacity of over 24,000 MW and Gujarat's share is 21 per cent of the same. It was discussed in the meeting that Gujarat should get gas from Qatar at a reasonable rate. The Qatar Minister has assured Patel that he will look into the matter and do the needful, the release said.
Conservative radio host Ben Shapiro hawks a tumbler that lets fans drink liberal tears. Liberal presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren offers supporters a coffee cup to hold billionaire tears.

Where can I buy a mug to catch white male tears?

In politics, being a white male is the golden ticket. When a white male runs for president, he might encounter doubts about whether he is the right person for the job  just like anyone else. But it is highly unlikely that these doubts will have to do with his race or gender. After all, we recognize his profile. Throughout U.S. history, there have been 44 white males who have served as president  with Barack Obama as the only exception.

As we are constantly reminded, female candidates dont have it so easy. They are often held to different standards than men. And if they falter, the story is never about how an individual failed but rather how women arent ready to lead the country.

In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic nominee for vice president, was grilled by the media because of her husbands business dealings. When was the last time a man running for president was asked about his wifes finances?

In 2008, Sarah Palin, the GOP nominee for vice president, was asked how she would balance the demands of the job with raising five children. Mitt Romney also has five children. I dont remember anyone asking the 2012 Republican presidential nominee that question.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, was criticized for  among other things  yelling and unlikability. Bernie Sanders is known for both those things, but you dont hear many pundits questioning whether this makes him unqualified to be president.

Clinton has a lot to say about Sanders. In a new documentary, she basically accuses the Vermont senator  who competed against her for the Democratic nomination  of being a sexist. She believes Sanders tolerates, even promotes, attacks on women who dare to run against him.

Its the culture around him, Clinton said. Its his leadership team. Its his prominent supporters. Its his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women.

The former secretary of state also thought the recent he said, she said flap between Sanders and Warren had a familiar ring. During this months Iowa debate, Sanders denied that he told Warren that a woman couldnt be elected president. Warren claims otherwise, and, after the debate, she was heard on an open mic taking Sanders to task for calling her a liar on national TV.

Clinton believes Warrens version of events.

Its part of a pattern, Clinton said in the documentary. If it were a one-off, you might say, OK, fine. But he said I was unqualified. I had a lot more experience than he did and got a lot more done than he had, but that was his attack on me.

The word unqualified is a tell. So is the fact that while insisting a woman can be elected president, Sanders notes that Clinton got more votes than Donald Trump in the general election. Yet Sanders ego wont let him add that she also got more votes than him in the Democratic primary.

This is something that Clinton has not forgotten. She reminded the interviewer that she got more votes both in the primary, by about 4 million, and in the general election, by about 3 million.

Clinton also warned that voters in the current Democratic primary should not reward the kind of insulting, attacking, demeaning, degrading behavior that weve seen from this current administration.

The 2016 nominee obviously thinks Democrats should focus on defeating Trump, not producing their own version.

Born in 1941, Sanders didnt grow up seeing women accomplish much outside the home. For most of his life, prejudice and discrimination kept many women out of many professions. In the 1970s, when he was in his 30s, the womens rights movement started to change things. Affirmative action programs helped bring white women to the table, and white men had to make room  often reluctantly. And were supposed to believe that, from all this life experience, Sanders somehow emerged as a feminist ally? Not likely.

Perhaps Sanders does support women  as long as theyre not vying for something he wants, like the presidency. From the looks of it, Sanders is no ally for women. Rather, the 78-year-old is a relic of an earlier time that we should not be so eager to revisit.

Thats what Clinton and Warren are trying to tell us. We ought to listen.

ruben@rubennavarrette.com
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As adopted children of God, we have an elevated identity in Christ and should be like Christ  an incredible goal to aspire to in 2020. But what does like Christ mean? When we make mistakes and sin every day, its easy to become discouraged and to give up even trying to be like Christ. Yet 1 John 3:3 teaches everyone with their identity in Christ purifies themselves as Christ is pure. What does this mean? First, if youre a believer, we can live in daily confidence. Were forgiven. The penalty of our sins has been paid!

Second, we can live in victory. While our flesh is weak, the Spirit is empowering. When we lean on Gods strength, we can live out Gods will  Gods way. Understanding our identity in Christ, living empowered by His strength and being grateful to God our loving Father is what enables us to be like Christ and impact the world for Him.

The entire chapter of 1 John 3 offers valuable insights into our identity as Gods children. Understanding our position in Christ will strengthen our faith and witness. If we know Jesus Christ as Savior, God made us part of His adopted family. Hes promised an inheritance, an eternal home in heaven and joint-heir relationship with Jesus Christ Himself. Not employees, contractors or slaves, were beloved sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. And as only God our Father can do, He loves unconditionally. We can do nothing to make Him love us more or to love us less. May this understanding of our identity in Christ prompt us to love others unconditionally, express gratefulness to God, and model for a world in need of His love and the only hope that truly satisfies.

What if we lived our lives fully grasping the power of our identity in Christ as His children and accessed the power of His Spirit in our lives? Its been said a person can live 30 days without food, three days without water but only three seconds without hope. Hope is the internal drive that leads us to believe theres something better in the future. As children of God we have an exalted identity in Christ. Were empowered by the Greatest Power through Christ. Were also driven by the greatest hope, knowing we have eternity with God our Father the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

Lets not permit ourselves to become discouraged, distracted or deceived into believing there is no hope. 1 John 3:3 reminds us our hope is in the Lord. Our strength may fade, but His strength remains. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us and the Source of Hope seen in us.

Once theyve established a true identity in Christ, experienced purity through Christ and possess hope in Christ, true believers are then known by their purpose in Christ. Winston Churchill once said, Its not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. One of our deepest longings in life is to have purpose. Many seek temporal meaning pursuing work, money or relationships, but Gods purpose for us has eternal meaning accompanied by physical evidence.

1 John 3:10 presents Gods purpose for us: live biblically and obediently and love our brothers and sisters in Christ. The greatest purpose in life is fulfilling our purpose in Christ, which arises from our identity in Christ. When our purpose is to live righteously and be like Christ, to love the family of God and others like God has loved us, the world will be changed. Is your purpose in life aligned with Gods purpose for us in life?

For all true believers, the greatest decision in life is believing in Jesus Christ and gaining a new identity as a child of God. Having assurance that this exalted relationship in Christ and hope of an eternal home with God our Father will not change is essential for impactful Christian living.

The Apostle John in 1 John 3:19 anticipated this need for assurance so he said that we can know were a child of God, be assured that Gods our Father and our Hopes secure if we obey Gods Word, our walk matches our talk, and our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is sincere and evident.

If these things are true, John said, you can be confident in your identity and powerfully live a Godly witness before the world. Some will reject, but others will see and desire the same assurance and purpose.
ALLENTOWN, Pa., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of National School Choice Week, more than a thousand school choice supporters will gather for an indoor rally, which will feature parent and student speakers and student performances from a wide variety of schools.

WHAT:

- Indoor rally celebrating National School Choice Week

WHO:

- 1,000+ parents, students, teachers, and community leaders

- Frank Brogan, assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education

WHEN:

- 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28

WHERE:

- Executive Education Academy Charter School | 555 Union Blvd.

This event is organized by the Pennsylvania School Choice Coalition, including Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, REACH, ExcelinEd, Excellent Schools PA, Commonwealth Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity.

As a nonpartisan, nonpolitical public awareness effort, National School Choice Week shines a positive spotlight on effective education options for students, families, and communities around the country. From January 26 through February 1, 2020, more than 50,000 independently-planned events will be held in celebration of the Week. For more information, visit www.schoolchoiceweek.com.

SOURCE National School Choice Week

Related Links

www.schoolchoiceweek.com


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Red tape could slow down the testing process for 110 possible American cases of the deadly coronavirus across 26 states and dozens of others in the future.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the number of US cases had not increased but that they expect to test a growing number of potential patients in the coming days and weeks.

Five cases have been confirmed in the US so far. However, because the CDC's laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, is the only place in the country currently equipped with a blood test that accurately diagnoses the virus, the true number of infected people could be higher.

The federal health lab's test is fast - taking just four to six hours - but it's prioritizing only the sickest-seeming patients.

So far, there have been 32 patients confirmed negative, but the testing process could be bottlenecked until the CDC and FDA can work around the bureaucracy that prevents the test from being distributed throughout the country.

To that end, last week, the CDC requested emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for the tests to be sent to the states.

'Part of the delay is the sample getting to CDC, and entirely one of the reasons we are focusing on the possibility of getting those tests out closer to the patients so the results can become available more quickly,' Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said in a call to reporters last week.

It comes on the heels of news that two New Hampshire travelers who just returned from Wuhan - the epicenter oft the outbreak - are in isolation after developing respiratory problems.

Officials said if tests come back positive, they will share that information with the public.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS

As of Monday, there are five confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US and 110 patients are being tested across the country

Nearly, 3,000 people have been infected globally with the virus traced to a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife

'The risk to our communities in New Hampshire is low, but we want to identify people who may be infected with this new coronavirus in order to prevent spread,' Dr Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist, said in a statement.

'We have recommended that health care providers conduct travel screenings and implement isolation practices for patients with a fever or respiratory illness who report travel to this affected region of China. This is a rapidly changing situation, and we remain committed to providing timely updates to residents of New Hampshire and our health care providers.'

But travelers continue to trickle in from Wuhan to the US due to 'extended itineraries,' Dr Messonnier said on Monday.

They've all been redirected through the five US airports with screening set up, but sick passengers who haven't developed symptoms are unlikely to be detected, and it may take a long time to diagnose mild cases, like the illnesses of the two New Hampshire residents currently in isolation after returning from Wuhan.

'These people have more mild illness, but both sought healthcare for their illnesses and are recovering, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said.

'They remain isolated until test results are available.'

As of Monday, the five confirmed cases were in Maricopa County, Arizona; Orange County and Los Angeles County, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Snohomish County, Washington. A sixth case, in a Chinese exchange student in Philadelphia who began to feel ill this week, is suspected, but has not been confirmed by local or CDC officials.

The CDC said that it will continue to test the close contacts of confirmed patients but, so far, there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the US, suggesting that close contacts have not tested positive.

There are currently 2,895 confirmed cases of coronavirus in at least 13 countries and 82 people - all of them in China - have died.

The CDC expanded its travel warning to the Hubei province - not just the city of Wuhan - saying travel is 'unnecessary' and warns all who do to exercise enhanced precaution. Travel to China has not yet been advised against, but officials warned that it could come.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risk to the American public is 'low' but the World Health Organization says the global risk is 'high'. Pictured: Members of a military medical team head for Wuhan Jinyintan on Sunday

There are nearly 2,900 confirmed cases of the virus in 13 countries around the world and 82 dead - all in China. Pictured: Medical staff wearing protective clothing to protect against a previously unknown coronavirus arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital

China's health minister warned on Sunday that infected people can spread the virus before showing symptoms. Pictured: Paramilitary officers wearing face masks at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on Monday

On Monday, the World Health Organization said in previous reports it had incorrectly identified the global risk of coronavirus as 'moderate' instead of 'high'. Pictured: Medical staff in Wuhan wear protective clothing and escort a patient (second from left) to a hospital

Travelers are screened on a thermographic monitor at the Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Aceh Besar Regency in Indonesia for coronavirus on Monday

But travelers continue to trickle in from Wuhan to the US due to 'extended itineraries,' Dr Messonnier said on Monday. They've all been redirected through the five US airports with screening set up, but sick passengers who haven't developed symptoms are unlikely to be detected, and it may take a long time to diagnose mild cases.

The CDC says it is currently prioritizing cases that are the most severe, meaning there may be early-stage cases that have fallen to 'back of the line' and patients that may be contagious and spread the virus before getting an official diagnosis.

It comes as Zhou Xianwang, the mayor of Wuhan, offered to resign amid criticism that response of his Communist administration to the outbreak moved too slowly.

In an interview with state media CCTV, Mayor Zhou Xianwang, said that he and Ma Guoqiang, the city's Communist Party secretary, would resign to 'appease public indignation' and offered to take responsibility for the growing number of cases around the world.

'Our names will live in infamy, but as long as it is conducive to the control of the disease and to the people's lives and safety, Comrade Ma Guoqiang and I will bear any responsibility,' he told CCTV, according to The New York Times.

Zhou Xianwang (pictured), the mayor of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has offered to resign and said he and other top Communist Party officials would 'bear any responsibility' for the growing crisis

Chinese citizens and healthcare workers in the country and abroad have criticised the government, saying that officials covered up the extent of the crisis for too long and that too many people were allowed to leave Wuhan before a ban on travel was enacted.

But Zhou defended the ban, which suspended all planes and buses leaving the city, calling it 'unprecedented in human history.'

Meanwhile, a sixth unconfirmed American case of coronavirus is suspected in Pennsylvania. A Chinese exchange student at William Penn Charter School in East Falls reported feeling unwell at the end of last week.

According to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, an 18-student exchange group, escorted by three chaperones, travelled via plane from a local airport to Wuhan - the city where the virus originated - on January 16.

From there, the group took a direct flight to John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

The school says the student's symptoms have not worsened and that he or she is now feeling better.

'Health officials have informed the school that the exposure time in Wuhan was limited and it is important to know that many other common respiratory viruses are circulating in China and here in the United States at this time, so the student's illness is more likely to be caused by one of those viruses,' the school told CBS 3 Philly in a statement.

First reported in China in December 2019, the strain, known as 2019-nCov, is believed to have emerged from illegally traded wildlife at a seafood market in Wuhan, a city 700 miles south of the capital of Beijing.

Aside from China and the US, cases have been confirmed in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Our names will live in infamy, but as long as it is conducive to the control of the disease and to the people's lives and safety, Comrade Ma Guoqiang and I will bear any responsibility Zhou Xianwang, mayor Wuhan

Cases are also suspected in Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines and the UK.

On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) admitted that it made an error in its assessment of the global risk of coronavirus and that it is 'high', not 'moderate.'

The agency said it had published reports on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that the global risk was 'moderate'.

But spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said that there had been 'an error in the wording' and that its wording was 'incorrect'.

In a situation report published on Sunday, the WHO said the risk was 'very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level.'

On Monday, Mongolia announced it was closing its border with China, while Hong Kong and Malaysia announced they would bar entry to visitors from the Chinese province of Hubei, which is at the center of the outbreak.

Members of the medical team communicate with a coronavirus patient at Hankou Hospital in Wuhan on Monday

Police patrol a neighborhood in Wuhan, China s the virus continues to spread around the globe

View of an empty Sanlitun area after the Chinese government discouraged public gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak, in Beijing, China on Monday

Experts say the difficulty of containing the coronavirus is that so many patients have mild, cold-like symptoms and don't realize they have the infection

US STOCKS TUMBLE AND DOW FALLS MORE THAN 400 POINTS AMID CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

US stocks tumbled following China announcing a sharp rise in cases of a deadly new virus that threatens to crimp global economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DOW) and S&P 500 each fell more than one percent, giving up a significant portion of their gains for January.

Airlines, resorts and other companies that rely on travel and tourism suffered steep losses. Gold prices rose as did bonds as investors headed for safer holdings. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.61 percent, its lowest level since October.

Investors are in a 'sell first, ask questions later situation,' said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell.

Most markets in Asia were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, but Japans Nikkei fell 2.03 percent, its biggest decline in five months. European markets also slumped. Germanys DAX dove 2.6 percent.

Global health authorities are increasingly on alert for any new coronavirus cases. Besides the threat to people's lives and health, investors are worried about how much damage the virus will do to profits for companies around the world.

'Markets hate uncertainty, and the coronavirus is the ultimate uncertainty in that no one knows how badly it will impact the global economy,' Young said.

Resort operators are reeling as the lockdowns in China directly threaten their businesses. Wynn Resorts fell 6.3 percent and Las Vegas Sands shed 6.6 percent.

Those companies get the majority of their revenue from the Chinese gambling haven of Macao, where five cases have been confirmed. MGM Resorts fell 3.8 percent.

American Airlines fell 6.7 percent and Delta slipped 3.9 percent as part of a broad slide for airlines because of concerns international travel will decline amid the spread of the virus

Booking companies and cruise-line operators are also getting hurt. Expedia Group fell 3.5 percent and Carnival fell 3.7 percent.

News of the evacuation came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide jumped to 1,396 on Saturday morning, including 42 fatalities. Patients are seen undergoing treatment at Wuhan Central Hospital

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday (pictured) as US stocks tumbled following China announcing a sharp rise in cases of a deadly new virus th

US GOVERNMENT WARNS IT CANNOT EVACUATE ALL CITIZENS FROM WUHAN

News of the increased number of North American cases came as the US government warned it won't have enough seats on a rescue plane to evacuate all US citizens from Wuhan.

The US consulate is reaching out to all Americans registered as living in Wuhan to offer them a seat on a charter flight scheduled for Tuesday.

A source familiar with the chartered evacuation flight told CNN that roughly 1,000 Americans live in the city, and those who choose to leave will be forced to pay for their spot on the Boeing 767 jet, which carries around 230 people.

The State Department released a statement late on Saturday which read: 'The Department of State is making arrangements to relocate its personnel stationed at the US Consulate General in Wuhan to the United States.

'We anticipate that there will be limited capacity to transport private US citizens on a reimbursable basis on a single flight leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on January 28, 2020 and proceeding directly to San Francisco.'

Since space is limited, the government says that 'priority will be given to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus'.

The State Department announced (pictured) that it is evacuating US citizens from Wuhan on Tuesday

The US evacuation was first reported by the The Wall Street Journal, citing an official source.

However, another source who spoke to CNN disputed the Journal's claim that any available seats may be offered to non-US citizens and diplomats from other countries, saying that non-US citizens would only be allowed onboard if they are related or married to Americans.

It is understood medical personnel will be on the flight to care for anyone who may have been infected by the virus and prevent it from spreading.

The CDC has said it is involved in the efforts to help Americans leave Wuhan.

'Department of State has the lead for the safe and expedient ordered departure of all US citizens from Wuhan, China,' CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund told CNN. 'CDC is aware and coordinating in the planning.'

Horrifying videos posted to social media show chaos at hospitals and doctors collapsing on the floor in Wuhan as Chinese authorities struggle to gain control of the epidemic.

Washington was given approval for the operation from China's Foreign Ministry and other government agencies following negotiations in recent days.

The US also plans to temporarily shut its Wuhan consulate, it said.

Meanwhile, closer to home, a Canadian hospital has confirmed the country's first case of the deadly Chinese coronavirus, as officials in the United States said they had identified two confirmed cases and are monitoring dozens of other potential diagnoses.

People wear masks at the arrival hall at the international terminal of Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Saturday

More passengers are seen wearing masks after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport from Asian, China, on Friday

HEALTH OFFICIALS INVESTIGATE 110 CASES IN THE US

It appears that all of the US patients currently awaiting test results showed symptoms consistent with the virus - such as fever, cough and runny nose - had either visited Wuhan recently or were in contact with someone who visited the city.

CONFIRMED US CORONAVIRUS CASES 1. Man in Washington state The first US coronavirus case was confirmed on Tuesday, January 21. The patient - a Washington man in his 30s who lives in Snohomish County - has been quarantined at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, outside of Seattle. The man had traveled by himself from Wuhan but did not visit any of the markets at the epicenter of the outbreak. He reportedly had no symptoms upon arrival in the US on January 15, but after reading about the outbreak online and developing symptoms, he contacted his doctor. The patient allegedly sought treatment on January 16 and was tested the following day. He is said to be in stable condition. He is being treated in a bio-containment room by a few staff members and a robot to limit the spread of the virus. The robot has a stethoscope attached to take the man's vitals and a large screen so doctors can communicate with him, Dr George Diaz, chief of the infectious disease division at the Providence Regional Medical Center, told CNN. 'The nursing staff in the room move the robot around so we can see the patient in the screen, talk to him,' Dr Diaz told the network. Officials have also been monitoring more than a dozen people the man reportedly came into contact with in the five days between when he arrived back in the US and when he was diagnosed. 2. Woman in Chicago The CDC confirmed the second US case on Friday - a 60-year-old woman in Chicago, Illinois, who had traveled to Wuhan in late December. The woman, who has not been named, arrived at O'Hare International Airport on January 13 but did not begin experiencing symptoms until several days later. Health officials say the woman appears to be 'well' and in stable condition. The unidentified patient is currently in isolation at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. 3. Patient in California Orange County Health Care Agency announced that a patient in California had tested positive for novel coronavirus. The agency said the patient had traveled from Wuhan and reached out to the health care agency prior to being diagnosed. They were given guidance to avoiding exposing the public to the virus while waiting for test results. 'The individual has now been transported to a local hospital and is in isolation in good condition,' added the agency who did not identify the patient. 'In consultation with the CDC and the California Department of Public Health, the HCA is following up directly with all individuals who have had close contact with the case and are at risk of infection.' 4. Los Angeles County Case Health officials say that the Los Angeles County patient, had recently returned from the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said that the infected person presented themselves for testing after feeling unwell, and are 'currently receiving medical treatment'. 5. Arizona Case Officials confirmed a fifth case in Maricopa County, Arizona. No other information was immediately reported about the patient. Advertisement

Those patients are believed to have all been isolated either in hospitals or in their homes to reduce the risk of exposing others.

US health officials warned on Friday that the flu or other respiratory illnesses could complicate efforts to identify additional cases.

'We're really working to understand the full spectrum of the illness with this coronavirus,' Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Messonnier, said at a briefing.

'The problem with this time of year is it's cold and flu season and there are lots of cold and respiratory infections circulating.'

The CDC recommended that anyone with symptoms contact a health-care provider before seeking treatment so the appropriate precautionary measures can be put in place.

The agency is trying to expedite screenings by providing up tests to state health officials.

It currently takes the CDC about four to six hours to make a diagnosis once a sample arrives at its lab.

Two people from Minnesota and three people from Michigan are currently being tested.

The patients from Michigan have reportedly agreed to remain in isolation until their tests results return, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Also being monitored are two college students, one from Texas A&M University and another from Tennessee Tech University.

The Tennessee Department of Health said it decided to test the TTU student because he or she had 'very mild symptoms' and had a recent concerning travel history that met the criteria for testing.

No results have been confirmed and the student is being kept in isolation.

For the Texas student, Brazos County Health District officials said the male had 'mild' symptoms that resembled the coronavirus and had traveled to Wuhan recently.

Results of tests will be announced to the public if the patient tests positive for coronavirus.

Officials said the patient is currently being kept isolated at home and that it is safe for student to attend classes.

'This patient did travel to the area of concern in China within the last 14 days and thankfully had mild upper respiratory symptoms, and he was improving,' said Dr Eric Wilke with the Brazos County Health Department.

'I believe the time the patient presented at the emergency department, it was more out of concern,' said Dr Eric Wilke with the Brazos County Health Department.

Medical supply stores around the Brazos Valley, where Texas A&M is located, are reportedly experiencing a medical mask shortage after the possible case was reported.

Genese Smith, who works at MediCare Equipment in Bryan, just a few miles off campus, told KBTX that an influx of customers came to the store looking for masks on Thursday.

'Within about 30 minutes of word getting out, we started getting phone calls asking if we have the masks, what kind of masks did we have, and how many we had available,' Smith said. 'Quite a few people started coming in, asking, and purchasing.'

Smith said the store typically stocks about 50 masks but has already ordered more.

Other stores in the area, including Texas A&M's Health Services Department, are also awaiting new shipments of masks after their current stocks ran out, per KBTX.

In California, Los Angeles International Airport has been on high alert after a passenger who arrived on Wednesday was sent to hospital after he or she appeared to be ill.

The unnamed passenger arrived on an American Airlines flight from Mexico City around 7pm, CBS Los Angeles reported.

However, it remains unclear if the passenger is from Mexico City, or if they originated from another city.

Several people in the state, particularly in Alameda County and the Bay Area, are also being examined to see if they have the virus that resembles SARS.

On Friday, North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services also reported that it is investigating a case.

The suspected patient arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on January 23 after having traveled to Wuhan but not to the seafood market to which many early cases have been linked, according to a news release.

Four other potential cases are also under investigation in New York state.

In Colorado, a patient with respiratory symptoms was placed in isolation at Lakewood's Centura - St Anthony Hospital after they were found to have recently traveled to Wuhan.

In Washington state, where the first US case was confirmed, the Northwest Chinese school in Bellevue called off weekend classes for preschoolers through adults amid concerns about the virus.

'We take the health of our students and families very seriously and think that this is the best course of action,' officials wrote in an email announcing the cancelled classes.

On the University of Washington's Seattle campus, a Chinese student association has been distributing face masks and asking students to contribute to efforts to send supplies such as face masks and protective suits to China.

Public health entry screenings are currently taking place Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and San Francisco International Airport.

So far, 2,400 people have been screened from Hubei province and the CDC is continuing to track airline passengers who took connecting flights now that direct flights are no longer available.

The screening begins with a survey to determine whether a traveler shows possible coronavirus symptoms and whether they visited the meat or seafood markets in Wuhan that have been tied to the outbreak.

If they appear to have any symptoms associated with coronavirus, travelers are taken to on-site triage for further examination and a temperature check.

On Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city will be activating its emergency operations center in case any coronavirus patients are confirmed to be in the Bay Area, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

Screenings are also in place at Los Angeles International Airport. A staff member is seen wearing a face mask at LAX on Frida

BEIJING REPORTS FIRST DEATH FROM CORONAVIRUS

Authorities in Beijing reported the capital's first death from coronavirus on Monday.

The patient was a 50-year-old man who had visited Wuhan on January 8. He developed a fever after he returned to Beijing a week later, according to the Beijing Municipal Health Commission.

He was hospitalized on January 21 and officially diagnosed the next day. The man's condition continued to worsen and he died on Monday of respiratory failure.

Of the more than 2,700 cases reported in China, 80 have been reported in Beijing.

Dramatic video showed people collapsing on sidewalks in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated

Preliminary research suggests the virus was passed to humans from snakes or bats. But Chinese health officials report that cases have been caused by human-to-human transmission. Pictured, left and right: The coronavirus strain
In the last week and half, we have all been subjected to the lecturing of consultants and experts leading the charge for the ECs wasteful push to toss millions of dollars of barely used laptops and handheld devices in order to pave the way for the EC to spend $150 million (contingency inclusive) on a brand new system.

As many as two thousand of these special laptops are stated in the ECs own budget documents as having been purchased as late as 2018.

One particular gentleman, Dr. Yaw Ofori-Adjei, has been very vocal in pushing the agenda to throw away all these equipment and buy new ones.

We need to get one thing straight: everything the so-called IT experts engaged by the EC say must be discounted *completely and without reservation* because they are not coming from unbiased experts proferring objective technical advice solely in the interest of Ghana or even the EC.

Dr. Ofori-Adjei is a co-owner of Fairgreen Limited, an Accra based commercial equipment vendor, who has already benefitted from EC contracts as a result of the removal of the ECs previous consultants, STL.

Fairgreen had sent proposals to the EC to provide technical support and maintenance in place of STL and accordingly been paid significant amounts of money to step in when the EC threw out STL.

No one is a champion of STL. But STL was merely a contractor and partial integrator. Upon their removal, the EC had every opportunity to work directly with the original equipment and software makers, especially HSB and Genkey, to obtain all the requisite technical support and system replenishments.

Of course, this would have made Dr. Ofori-Adjei redundant and threatened the considerable amounts of money his company stood to gain from technical services and support contracts to the EC, especially ahead of the June 2019 electoral exercises. He, understandably, cannot support anything that can put his livelihood and his companys profits at risk.

Dr. Ofori-Adjei and Fairgreens continued push for a complete replacement (note, replacement, not even overhaul) of the existing system can easily thus be seen as entirely self-serving and motivated by commercial interest.

Should the continuous upgrading and maintenance model be used and the middlemen, including STL, removed, in favour of dealing directly with the existing systems developers or other 360 degree providers, Fairgreens self-serving advice, which is going to see Ghana pay almost twice what countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria are paying for the same systems we are procuring, would have been rendered useless.

Dr. Ofori-Adjeis zeal for a new system ought thus to be interpreted in this light. It is in their interest to undermine the existing system so that they can be relevant in the procurement of millions of dollars worth of new equipment and continue to justify their juicy fees.

Such IT experts have already taken $350,000 merely for priming the existing system for electoral activities in the last year, according to the ECs own public statements. Far more money is at stake now.

Let us not be side-tracked by self-serving vendors. Let us, instead, focus on the essentials of the matter, and these are:

1. The biometric voter system we have in place now has, roughly speaking, seven main components, each with a different lifecycle and requiring a different type, schedule and scale of periodic maintenance:

A. The databases with biometric data (fingerprints and photographs).

B. The core software that checks and authenticate the biometric data to block multiple registrations and duplicates. A.k.a (ABIS).

C. The laptops, cameras and scanners used to collect the biometric data. A.k.a BVRs.

D. The handheld devices that authenticate voters during voting and exhibition. A.k.a BVDs.

E. The administrative software that manages all of these processes. They are accessed as the administrative interface of the entire system from the ECs various offices. A.k.a VMS.

F. The central datacenter in which the data and software are installed. I.e. the server farm.

G. The communications and transmissions infrastructure that the EC uses to move data around. Especially the ground satellites (VSATs).

2. To consider uprooting this whole system at once and replace everything in one go is the nearest thing to madness many of us have seen in the long history of wasteful conduct in the public sector.

The best way to think of this biometric voter system is to think of a banks branchless banking platform. Different companies make different parts and you will always be replacing different parts at a different pace. Rain can knock down one satellite. Someone can spill tea on a laptop.

A BVD can go missing. A software driver can be corrupted. etc. *It is madness to argue that such a complex system can be managed in any other way apart from continuous upgrading and periodic overhauls.*

3. The EC biometric system as a whole was audited in 2016 and equipment that was not at peak performance replaced. Over $40 million has been spent since then to keep it in top notch shape. Whenever we add new districts we implement a fresh VMS and buy satellites etc to bring those EC district offices onboard the system.

It is these improvements based on growing understanding as our capacity to manage the system matured that made the 2016 biometric elections so much more superior to the 2012 elections, where biometric system failures led to, for the first and only time, premature termination of the vote and postponement to a new day.

4. Repeat: we have spent over $40 million since 2016 based on the recommendations of an objectice system audit to get the existing system into top shape and the quality of the elections we have had since then can testify to that.

All the CODEO and EU reports tell us that the 2016 elections and biometric operations were smoother than the 2012 version and that the 2019 district level elections and biometric operations were smoother than the 2016 version. For instance, reports indicate that 33% of polling stations recorded a failure of BVDs in 2012. This dropped to less than 7% in 2016, and went even lower to less than 5% in the December 2019 elections.

This is the context in which a false rejection rate of just 0.64% was recorded in the 2019 District elections. You may compare this rate to the 3% false rejections figure recorded in a study of Indonesia eKTP, one of the worlds largest and most sophisticated biometric systems. Indias famed and acclaimed Aadhar system has a reported average false rejection rate as high as 5% (see: https://scroll.in/article/822764/chhattisgarhs-way-of-dealing-with-aadhaar-when-fingerprints-fail-take-photos). So how can a system that can be shown to be objectively getting better and has proven just a month ago to be more accurate than some of the worlds best, be described as obsolete?

More worrisome than even the plain disingenuity is the recklessness. Freshly implemented biometric systems tend to have more teething problems. In many countries this pattern of brand new biometric installations facing challenges that only get fully resolved with time and maturity has been consistent.

In 2011-2012 in Nigeria, the new biometric system became an embarrassing spectacle when it rejected former President Obasanjo and thousands of Nigerians in the initial phase of rollout. The recent situation in Afghanistan where the vendor, Dermalog, had to be flown in last minute to fix major glitches, with announcement of results taking more than 6 weeks, is a very cautious tale for Ghanaians.

5. We have comparable biometric systems in Ghana that have also relied on infrastructure built over a period of time, undergoing periodic upgrades when necessary to maintain peak performance. The biometric passport system is an example. It dates from 2010. At this point in 2020 a person can have a new passport issued without having their biometrics taken all over again simply because new vendors have been building on top of the existing system, upgrading and overhauling different parts of it at different times.

Only a vendor with their own interest to serve will counsel throwing away $60 million worth of systems (accounting for depreciation) to start from scratch. Systems that are used so infrequently that we still have thousands of BVDs that have been used only once, and in some cases never at all.

Consider the case of the 2018 BVRs that have only been used for a few weeks in 2019 during the limited registration, for example. The idea that all Ghanaians of voting age should go and queue under the hot sun at the cost of $70 million to supply their data all over again is sheer wickedness.

Even more preposterous is the argument that registering only the 1.2 million voters who have recently come of age or who couldnt register in June 2019 will cost more than registering all 17 million voters afresh. How possible? We know that the EC intends to spend as much as $70 million on a fresh registration.

We know that the top-up or limited registrations (as opposed to full registration) of 2014 and 2016 cost about $10.6 million and $20 million respectively. So where from the argument that a limited registration would cost more than a full one?

6. All the savings numbers the EC has been throwing at the public are unreliable because they come from self-interested vendors, as already explained. We have checked what other countries have been paying for similar systems and found that all the numbers given by the EC are heavily inflated.

If the EC does a proper competitive tender to just replace the components that need replacing they will end up spending just $15 million this year to refresh the system. And not the nearly $150m it will cost them to replace all the physical infrastructure and to register all eligible voters all over again.

For instance, whilst the EC is proposing to spend $3000 per BVR, Zimbabwe has been able to procure virtually identical systems at $1300 just last year. In fact, as far back as 2011, Nigeria was spending $1440 per device and in 2005, the DRC was paying $2500. The story of electronics is that prices tend to fall over time.

7. Let us not forget that it is the same EC IT folks being blamed for the mess Dr. Ofori-Adjei claim the existing system is currently in that are now being positioned to procure and oversee a totally new system. We are entrusting our fate into the hands of people Dr. Ofori-Adjei claims couldnt even arrange basic warranties and hoping that they can implement a brand new, superior, system, including the negotiation of new legal agreements and the fresh calibration of devices between now and April 2020.

If they have bungled the management and maintenance of the existing system so badly, why do we have confidence in them to use just 3 months to replace it and do a better job on a completely different platform?

As they say in Nigeria, Ghanaians must shine their eyes.

Source: IMANI
Press Release

January 26, 2020 Dispatch from Crame No. 708:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Duterte's Irrational Threat to Scrap the VFA 1/26/20 Decisions on matters of national interest should not be based on one man's pursuit of personal grudge, his bruised ego, or his attempts to look tough when, in truth, he has failed to fulfill his campaign promises and has been, for the last three years making up excuses and crises to cover up his failures. The issue about my continued persecution is a matter of fact. Not just the US, but also the United Nations, has looked into my case and has found it so. This is not a matter of naivete on their part, but of utter failure on Duterte's part. He and his cohorts have failed to address why I have been severely slut-shammed, persecuted and detained for the last 1,066 days despite the obvious lack of credible evidence against me. And yet, here he is again. Instead of responding like a rational and well-meaning "leader of the Republic," who takes the time to explain why he should not be banned from entering the US for being an enemy of democracy, rule of law and human rights - he is proving himself to be exactly that: a tyrant who will misuse his powers in order to cover up the abuses he has committed, and continues to commit to this day. This threat reminds me of how the Chinese government acted in the early days of the Wuhan outbreak. Instead of addressing the growing problem, it punished the health workers and journalists who were attempting to warn the public about the spreading disease. That irrational move not only failed to solve the problem, it made it so, so much worse. A clear example of how irrational tyranny poses a danger to everyone around them. Duterte, instead of addressing the issues of human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, weaponization of the rule of law, and the surrender of Philippine sovereignty to his foreign overlords, is wasting precious time and resources by lashing out against innocent people: myself, members of the US Congress, the ICC and, again, the Filipino people. To be clear: canceling the VFA is not the best move for the Filipino people and Philippine interests. It can only be good for certain foreign interests. This precisely why our Constitution veered away from granting too much power in one man. That is why it strengthened the checks and balances in our system of government, having learned hard lessons from the Marcos regime. Those mechanisms are supposed to ensure that the President serves the Filipino people's best interests and no one else's. Not his own; and certainly not adverse foreign interests. Sadly, those checks and balances have been pissed away. With Congress and the Judiciary abdicating their powerful roles in keeping the President in check. This is precisely our point in our (the Senate Minority) Petition assailing the constitutionality of unilateral withdrawals from treaties, like the withdrawal from the Rome Statute. The latter Petition remains unacted upon almost one year since the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments. We cannot assume that a President or all the Presidents do only the right things. Eh, paano yan, kung makasarili ang isang Pangulo? Worse, paano kung iba ang pinagsisilbihan at tinatratong amo ng Pangulo? In any case, this President clearly acts on the basis of personal and selfish interests rather than the national interest. Not when he killed thousands of helpless Filipinos in his failed War on Drugs, while he allowed big time drug lords like Peter Lim to escape justice. It makes you wonder: sino ang magtatanggol sa Pilipino kung mismong Pangulo nila ang nagpapahamak sa kanila? ### (Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 708, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_from_crame_no._708)
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Getting work on a major City project can help small contractors take their business to the next level. I know, because five years ago my engineering firm doubled in size as a result of securing two major public works contracts.

I also know the hurdles small minority contractors face when bidding for large, complex capital projects. As Chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, I regularly hear stories about the lack of trust between minority subcontractors and the general contractors who would hire them. Issues like tough payment terms, poor contract opportunities, and the major effort it takes for a small business to get certified on the Citys minority business registry have persisted among small diverse contractors for decades. These barriers prevent minority businesses from feeling like it is worth their time to pursue City projects.

As the prime contractor on the Rebuild projects at the Heitzman Recreation Center and McPherson Square Library, I see firsthand how the City of Philadelphia is taking steps to provide more access to minority- and women-owned businesses that want to be part of City capital projects.

First, Rebuild is prioritizing diversity in prime contractors. With an ambitious target to award at least a quarter of professional services contracts and a third of construction contracts to minority- and women-owned firms, Rebuild has put an emphasis on hiring minorities and women  both of whom are often underrepresented on City-funded projects. As a prime contractor, my minority-owned, Philadelphia-based firm brings a network of diverse business partners onto the Rebuild projects I lead.

So far, Rebuild is actively engaging small, diverse businesses. Through regular networking events that introduce project leads to diverse local firms, Rebuild is giving minority businesses a new avenue to pursue work on large commercial projects. Rebuilds call for interest form gives small, diverse businesses another way to promote themselves. As a prime contractor, I have a ready-to-use database of interested minority businesses to source subcontractors and find partners to assist with Rebuild projects.

A key goal of these partnerships is to help small and diverse firms secure bonding, prepare successful bids for public projects, and build the back office functions required to secure bigger projects. This month, the Rebuild Ready program will begin its third training cycle, offering 20 diverse Philadelphia businesses free professional development. Since launching last year, 43 businesses have completed the program and are now better positioned to bid for and win work on Rebuild projects.

When recruiting businesses to meet diversity goals, the City asks minority-owned businesses to provide proof of ownership. But this certification process can be complicated and time-consuming for small contractors to pursue, if they lack back office staff to process paperwork. Rebuilds Emerging Vendors Program is helping small, local minority- or woman- owned design and construction businesses get the certification they need to count toward the Citys diversity goals.These businesses can be counted toward diversity goals for Rebuild contracts, while they work toward permanent minority- or woman-owned certification for all City contracts.

Only time will tell if the Rebuild model is a long-term success, both in project completion and participation of diverse businesses. But a year into the programs implementation, Rebuild is on track to meet or exceed its goals for minority contracts on both professional services and construction work. The new practices offer a promising model to other City departments and capital projects. Efforts to diversify the construction industry require hard work on all sides. I believe those efforts will yield results that make our city better for all.

An inclusive design and construction industry is critical to making sure the construction boom we are experiencing is sustainable and creates opportunities that help more Philadelphians find financial security.

These are big goals that will not happen overnight. But through Rebuild, our city has an opportunity to test practical changes on how construction contracts are awarded. Im experiencing it firsthand. If effective, I believe the results could offer a blueprint for widespread improvement in building sites across the city.

Lou Rodriguez is president of Rodriguez Consulting LLC and chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
A mechanic at the small American team Haas has hit back at FIA president Jean Todt.

Last week, amid concerns about future calendars that could be as long as 25 races, Todt said most people involved in Formula 1 are "privileged".

"If you have a beloved family, they will understand. And you don't do it for all your life," the FIA president added.

But Robert Dob, a mechanic at Haas, suggested to the Russian edition of motorsport.com that Todt's comments show that he is out of touch.

"According to him, we should be glad that we do not see our children," Brazil's UOL Esporte quoted him as saying.

"This is outrageous," he added. "This is the opinion of a person who comes to the race on Friday and leaves on Sunday.

"He does not spend as much time at the track as we do. Many of us have been doing this for years, and finding another job is not easy."

(GMM)
Recently, Sonakshi Sinha met her fan Ashvita from New Zealand through Arjun Kapoors sister Anshula Kapoors cause-oriented NGO Fankind and she spent the day with her fan at a games arcade and made her day.

It is amazing. It is such a fantastic initiative that Anshula has started Fankind, which gives the opportunity for fans to meet their favourite celebrities, but only after contributing to a very special and good cause. They also have their wish and their day is made and a cause is served. Ashvita is such a big fan of mine from New Zealand who has come here. I have spent such a fun day here at the arcade and played so many games with her, so it has been a wonderful experience for me.

For those who did not know, Anshula was a friend of Sonakshi from her school days and Sonakshi too was keen to do something like a fan interaction for a long time.

Anshula and I know each other from school days and she had once mentioned to me about such an event that she was planning and I was excited. So, it was a dream come true for me to spend a day with a fan. I had met her for the first time during my Dabangg Bangkok tour and she was crying buckets when she met me and it was a pleasure to spend a day with her, says Sonakshi.

Well, what Sonakshi did not mention was that she was once allegedly dating Anshulas elder brother Arjun Kapoor who was her hero in the film Tevar and well, as long as Sonakshi could make someones day and at the same time help an important cause, we think Sonakshi deserves a pat on the back!
Moroccos agricultural exports rose by 97% to 57.7 billion dirhams (over 3 million tons) between 2010 and 2019, Moroccos export agency Foodex said.

Agricultural exports represented 21% of overall Moroccan exports in 2018, it said.

Separately, head of the government Saad Eddine El Othmani said Morocco is lowering the vulnerability of its economy to rainfall, which often affects output.

Morocco, where agriculture makes up 14% of GDP and employs 80% of the rural work force, is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts leaving smallholder farmers at risk.

Agriculture output grew by 60% since the launch of the Green Morocco plan, jumping from 79 billion dirhams in 2008 to 125 billion in 2018.
While Sharjeel was not found at his house, few of his relatives were detained for questioning and released later.

Patna: A joint team of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar conducted raids on the ancestral house of JNU research scholar Sharjeel Imam at Kako in Jehanabad district late Saturday night.

While Sharjeel was not found at his house, few of his relatives were detained for questioning and released later. His relatives house was also raided in Patnas Sabzibagh locality on Monday.

The RJD and Congress have urged the Centre as well as the state government to initiate strict action against activist and JNU student Sharjeel Imam for giving provocative speeches against the CAA and NRC.

Talking to reporters, Congress leader Rajesh Rathod said, All those who are provoking people through their inflammatory speeches, including Sharjeel Imam, should be severely punished. We will not allow anyone to take even an inch of our countrys land.
Central banks worldwide are looking into the possibility of issuing digital money to prevent the loss of state control over money.

Villeroy said the proposals were not a reaction to Facebooks plan, responding instead to fast-evolving technology and some banks need for digital currency.

Digital currency could be useful as cash transactions dwindle in some countries but central banks should be in charge of issuing it, not private companies, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Saturday.

Spurred by the rise of cryptocurrencies and Facebooks plans to launch its Libra currency, central banks worldwide are looking into the possibility of issuing digital money to prevent the loss of state control over money.

Villeroy said the proposals were not a reaction to Facebooks plan, responding instead to fast-evolving technology and some banks need for digital currency. He added that private citizens could also start wanting an alternative to cash.

In some northern European countries, notably Sweden and the Netherlands, the use of bank notes is falling extremely quickly and they are wondering whether we need to give citizens the right to digital money that is no longer a physical bank note but which has the same quality, notably the security of a central bank, he told France Inter radio.

Asked whether such digital money could be issued by private companies, Villeroy said currency cannot be private, money is a public good of sovereignty.

He added that central banks were planning experiments with digital money and that the issue would be studied by the Eurosystem euro zone central banks.
[January 27, 2020] Rapid increase in LTE base stations across Argentina assists in 5G trials

Sydney, Jan. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, the 18th edition of Paul Budde Communications annual report on Argentina outlines the major developments and key aspects in the mobile, broadband and fixed line telecoms markets. Comprehensive data is provided on regulatory developments, spectrum assignments and licensing, subscriber statistics, penetration rates and the key market players.

Read the executive summary of the report here - Argentina - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Rapid increase in LTE base stations across Argentina assists in 5G trials Argentina has one of the highest broadband penetration rates in Latin America, supported by investment among operators as well as a number of government programs aimed at extending the reach of services. The Government funded Federal Fibre-Optic Network is aiming to connect 2,600 localities across the country accounting for approximately 90% of the population. Although the countrys economic and political difficulties during the last decade have impacted on sector investments there have been steady improvements in recent quarters, with a considerable proportion of investment being earmarked for expanding fibre networks beyond areas of the principal cities. Between 2017 and 2019 LTE the number of LTE base in service has increased over 45%. Increse in the number of LTE base stations in service  2015  2019



Argentina has one of the most dynamic mobile markets in Latin America and is the third largest in the region after Brazil and Mexico.

Mobile penetration has fallen in recent years in line with a reduction in the number of subscribers this is partly due to pricing competition among operators which has reduced the incentive for multiple-SIM card ownership. The regulator has encouraged the market entry of additional MVNOs to increase competition. Argentina ranks in the top 5 Latin American countries for telecoms maturity according to BuddeComms Telecoms Maturity Index. Compared to other Latin American nations, it has advanced telecoms infrastructure and high fixed line teledensity compared to the regional average Read the executive summary of the report here - Argentina - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Table Of Contents  Key statistics  Telecommunications market Historical overview

Market analysis

Country overview

Regional Latin America Market Comparison  Regulatory environment Regulatory authority

Argentina Digital Act

Number Portability (NP)

Single licence  Fixed network operators Overview of operators

Telefonica de Argentina (Movistar)

Telecom Argentina

Telecom cooperatives

Telmex Argentina

IPLAN  Telecommunications infrastructure Overview of the national telecom network

International infrastructure

Wholesale  Broadband market Introduction and statistical overview

Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks

Other fixed broadband services  Digital economy E-government

E-education

E-commerce

Online banking  Mobile communications Market analysis

Mobile statistics

Regulatory issues

Mobile infrastructure

Major mobile operators  Appendix  Historic data Nicolas Bombourg [email protected] Within Australia (02) 8076 7665 Outside Australia +44 207 097 1241

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: presenting favorable circumstances; likely to result in or show signs of success

_________

The word propitious has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 14 in Mexicos Congress Votes to Expand Domestic Workers Labor Rights by Paulina Villegas:

The legislation comes after decades of activism by major figures like Marcelina Bautista, a domestic worker turned advocate who founded the countrys first-ever union of domestic workers in 2015.

We can only hope it will improve the lives of so many women not only on paper but in reality, said Ms. Bautista, who has been pressing for better working conditions for more than 30 years.

Recently, she found an unlikely ally in the film Roma and in its director, Alfonso Cuaron. The film chronicles the life of an indigenous live-in maid in an affluent household in Mexico City, and won three Academy Awards this year.

In Mexico, it prompted wide debate about the long taboo subjects of class, race and inequality.

 And while the film helped create a cultural moment that was propitious for the bills passage, activists argue that the battle against discrimination and the abuse of domestic workers in Mexico is far from over.
Sunridge is a great church that is a real asset to the Temecula Valley. Its our hope that, because of this promotional campaign, more people in the area were able to find out about Sunridge and join in what theyre doing in the Valley and around the world.

Modmacro, Inc., an award-winning Southern California web design and digital marketing firm, announced recently that they had completed the rollout of a promotional campaign for Sunridge Community Churchs 30th anniversary. The Temecula, California church had tasked Modmacro with promoting their anniversary not only to their own congregation, but also with the community at large.

To launch the 30th anniversary campaign, Modmacro designed a 30th anniversary logo that would be used on all subsequent promotional materials, such as posters, t-shirts, and online. The 30th anniversary logo has elements that are consistent with the churchs standard logo, and is used throughout the 30th anniversary celebration.

Modmacro also wrote and released a press release and conducted a targeted Facebook campaign to let the community at large know about the churchs anniversary. Members of the community understand the significance of a local church celebrating 30 years, given that the city of Temecula itself was only incorporated in 1989.

In addition, Modmacro conducted a series of interviews of key staff members at Sunridge and had them published on Compendent.com. Interviewees included the churchs lead pastor, Britt Sipe, as well as its two Executive Pastors, Jedley Manimtim and Bob Santy. The churchs Facebook page promoted each interview so followers could see the interviews and get to know more about the staff that leads Sunridge.

Modmacro CEO Matthew Smith said, Sunridge is a long-time client of ours. When they came to us for help with getting the word out about their 30th anniversary we were happy to help. Sunridge is a great church that is a real asset to the Temecula Valley. Its our hope that, because of this promotional campaign, more people in the area were able to find out about Sunridge and join in what theyre doing in the Valley and around the world. We also wanted people to get a better understanding of the history of Sunridge in the Temecula Valley. The church is a staple in the community, having been established even before the city itself, which lends a lot of credibility.

The church held a 30th anniversary event in September, which was well attended by current and former members of the congregation.

About Modmacro, Inc.

An award-winning web design and digital marketing firm, Modmacro partners with select small businesses and nonprofits to strategically grow their companies. Their integrated marketing approach is based on a healthy mix of original creativity (design), visual appeal (branding), authentic story sharing (PR), driving targeted traffic (SEO), original content creation, user experience design considerations (UX), and practical data insights (analytics).

Now in its tenth year, the company delivers tailor-made marketing solutions whose results illustrate clear value to profit-minded decision makers. Through a simple, proven process, Modmacros approach often challenges established thinking and reboots the status quo. The team invests in educating clients, as well as themselves, with the goal of developing lasting, partnership-level relationships. For more information about Modmacro, and to see recent projects, visit their website at https://www.modmacro.com/work/.

About Sunridge Community Church

Sunridge Community Church is an independent, non-denominational Christian church in Temecula whose mission is to help people find and follow Jesus. The church has been serving the Temecula Valley community and supporting missionary work around the world for 30 years. Sunday morning services are at 9:00 and 10:30 am, with several Bible studies and support groups meeting throughout the week. The church also includes Sunday morning classes for kids and youth from infancy through high school. Learn more about Sunridge at http://sunridgechurch.org/.
Mike Pompeo

Hats off to Jersey Senator Bob Menendez for firing off a curt letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after he went bonkers after an interview with respected NPR journalist Mary Louise Kelly.

The All Things Considered co-host questioned the Secretary and former Kansas Congressman for his failure to support then-Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump wanted taken out.

Americas top diplomat besmirched his office by shouting and swearing at Kelly. Making a bad situation worse, Pompeo undermined the dignity of the State Dept. website by posting a whiny statement about how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt President Trump and this Administration.

Suck it up, Mike. Youre not in Kansas anymore.

In his letter, Menendez expressed serious concerns about Pompeos official State Dept. statement.

At a time when journalists around the world are being jailed for their reportingand as in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, killedyour insulting and contemptuous comments are beneath the office of the Secretary of State.

"The importance of a free press is enshrined in our Constitution precisely because the Founders recognized how vital a free press is for the public to hold their government accountable.

"Instead of calling journalists liars and insulting their intelligence when they ask you hard questions, you would rather not answer, your oath of office places on you a duty and obligation to engage respectfully and transparently.

Menendez is the ranking member of the Senate foreign relations committee. Democratic Senators Tim Kaine (VA), Cory Booker (NJ), Ed Markey (MA) and Jeff Merkley (OR) co-signed the letter.

As for Pompeo, he privately dismissed allegations that Yovanovitch was corrupt as he carried out orders to recall her last May, according to the New York Times.

That may explain part of the reason why Pompeo went berserk with Kelly. Her questions cut close to Pompeo's bone and outed him as another Cabinet member kiss-up to Trump.
CHESTER  Students at Widener Partnership Charter School got a two-fold lesson in American history and supply chain management Friday morning when UPS employees visited for a Martin Luther King Day of Service event. Employees gave kindergarteners and second-graders a look at a UPS truck before reading King-themed books to students.

After pulling back the curtain on the workings of a UPS truck, the volunteers visited classrooms to read books on King to students. The books included My Uncle Martins Big Heart, recounting the personal memories of Kings niece and current Spelman College professor Angela Farris Watkins, PhD., from her childhood.

The event, in its second-year overall, marked the first time it was coordinated with Wideners Universitys Office for Civic Engagement and capped off a series of MLK Day events at the school.

Tying into the (Office of) Civic Engagement, we did a community service project on Monday where we hung up college banners in our middle school and our students learned about MLK. Some of the classes wrote what they have dreams about, said Principal/CEO Kareem Goodwin. Students were also reminded of the years King spent a half-mile west of their school at Crozer Theological Seminar in Upland and preaching in the city of Chester. On his birthday (Jan. 15) we made an announcement about MLK living in Chester during seminary school  we (told students) Dr. Martin Luther King has a strong connection to Chester, Goodwin said.

Recently appointed to his post, Goodwin hopes to expand the schools programing with the university civic engagement office through new events, including a college and career day in the spring. We posted all of our teachers colleges and inspiration quotes  we created this University Way and were going to tie this in with college and career day. Thats where we make the connection (with the Office of Civic Engagement).

The pennants display includes a HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Boulevard with a hand-drawn Morehouse College mortarboard, Kings alma mater.

Were trying to develop more of a presence of UPS in Chester through events like these, said Jessica Feoli, a student community outreach coordinator in Wideners civic engagement office and liaison between both parties. On Earth Day well be planting trees  working with different organizations in Chester, establishing a presence on both ends.

UPS Communications Supervisor Davia Dally estimated the companys Chesapeake District participates in at least one community volunteerism per week, as part of a summer 2014 pledge to hit 20 million volunteer hours nationwide by this year.
Jindal Defence on Monday said it has partnered with Brazil-based Taurus Armas to foray into small arms manufacturing in India.

Both the companies have signed agreement to set up a joint venture firm at Hisar in Haryana. While Jindal Defence will hold 51 per cent equity stake, Taurus Armas would have the rest 49 per cent, the company said in a statement.

"The JV company will manufacture small arms in India based on the transfer of technology from Taurus to achieve localization of production in accordance with the defence procurement procedures," the OP Jindal Group firm said.

This partnership aims to maximise existing domestic opportunities in the small arms manufacturing sector and provide significant support to the ongoing and future modernisation plans of the armed forces, particularly the Indian Army, para-military, and state police forces, the company said.

"To further strengthen the make in India vision, our collaboration with Taurus Armas will support self-reliance in strategic small arms manufacturing. The JV envisages creation of world-class infrastructure along with adoption of best manufacturing practices to achieve perfection in design and engineering, and achieve high quality standards," Jindal Defence Promoter Abhyuday Jindal said.

He further said that the move is in sync with the government's vision of greater private sector participation in defence hardware manufacturing.

The joint venture agreement was signed on Monday at the first BrazilIndia Defence industry dialogue of the India-Brazil Business Forum (IBBF), organised by the Ministry of External Affairs in association with CII, Assocham, and Ficci.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Burma Rakhine Court Releases Civilians Held for 11 Months for Ties to AA

Civilians arrested for having ties to the Arakan Army (AA) on Feb. 4, 2019 were released on Jan. 24, 2020 after the court ruled they were wrongfully charged. / The Irrawaddy

SITTWE, Rakhine StateA court in Rakhine States Sittwe Township released 13 civilians on Friday who had been detained since last February for alleged ties to the Arakan Army (AA).

The court ruled that they were wrongfully charged, said defense lawyer U Tun Hla.

A total of 24 residents from Shin Let Wa Village in Chin States Paletwa Township fled their homes last January after the Myanmar military and the AA clashed nearby. They took shelter at the house of a couple in Rakhines Kyauktaw Township.

Police arrested the 24 civilians and their hosts on Feb. 4, 2019 on suspicion of having ties to the AA, though the couple informed the ward administrator, the townships police force and the local General Administration Department about their guests.

Police released 13 of the Paletwa residents the next week, having found no evidence against them, but a major from the Kyauktaw-based Battalion No. 375 opened cases against the remaining 11 Paletwa residents and the couple who sheltered them under the Unlawful Association Act.

We just want to live a peaceful life back in our village. But it seems that it will not be safe for us to return home and we dare not go back. For the time being, we are just planning to move and find livelihoods in the urban areas [of Paletwa], said U Maung Saw Hlaing, a Shin Let Wa resident who was released on Friday.

As fighting between the Arakan Army and the military has intensified since last January, around 200 residents of Rakhine State, primarily from Mrauk-U, have been arrested on allegations of affiliation with the AA and charged under the Counterterrorism Law.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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At the time Coburn and Fiordirosa addressed the council in December, aldermen were asked to weigh all information presented to them and decide which company was the lowest responsive bidder. Seventh Ward Ald. Marty Joyce questioned why this was being brought to the council in this manner.
Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur has expressed confidence that with concerted efforts of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), India would further improve its position in ranking for Ease of Doing Business. While addressing at Investiture Ceremony & International Customs Day 2020 today, Thakur said that India has risen in the Ease of Doing Business Rankings by being transparent, accountable and logical. This rise in rankings is due to the efforts of the officers of CBIC as Trading Across Borders is one of the key parameter of the rankings and it is credit to the efforts of CBIC that this key parameter has performed.

While stressing on harnessing technology for faster resolution, the Minister said that technology plays an important role by ensuring efficiency, transparency and accountability. Thakur appreciated the response of Custom officials to dynamics of changing ecosystem worldwide. Customs are doing well because they work as a team besides adapting and evolving, especially in a large and diverse country like India.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has described the recent outbreak of Lassa fever across the country as a reflection of the abysmally low level of preparedness in handling infectious diseases, especially viral hemorrhagic fever, at all levels of healthcare delivery.

The frequency of the outbreaks also underscores the deplorable state of healthcare delivery in Nigeria, the doctors association said in a statement Monday.

The statement came a few hours after a Lassa fever expert, Oyewale Tomori, criticised Nigerias response to the deadly viral disease, saying the government has not done enough to check its recurrence.

Nigeria is currently battling an outbreak of Lassa fever, with 195 confirmed cases and 29 deaths in 11 states, between January 1 and 24.

Although the National Agency for Disease Control has activated a National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to coordinate the response activities, figures are gradually on the rise as new states in the last few days have been reporting suspected and confirmed cases of the disease.

The disease has become an all-year-round occurrence in the country, with cases peaking from November to May.

This has become a major concern for health experts as there has been no solution to contain the disease. Mr Tomori, a professor of virology and one of the foremost Lassa fever researchers, said the government is yet to make any progress in finding the root causes of the outbreak.

At the beginning of every year, as Lassa Fever rages, we are told not to panic, and that the situation is under control. You remember, how our Police Force always have everything under control. So it is with the Lassa Fever situation, he said.

The NMA in the statement signed by its President, Francis Faduyile, appealed to health authorities at all levels to prioritise capacity-building of healthcare professionals on standard infection prevention and control measures.

The association said the speedy and full implementation of the National Health Act 2014 and increase of budgetary allocation to the health sector to 15 per cent will give the health sector the much-needed capacity to be proactive in addressing outbreaks and finding its root causes.

All must also be committed to the revamping of the primary healthcare system.

The doctors called on corporate organisations, NGOs and religious organisations to work with government and the Nigerian Medical Association in intensifying ongoing public enlightenment campaign to ensure that all Nigerians are educated especially those at the rural communities on preventive strategies and prompt care-seeking.

The NMA commiserated with families of people who lost their lives to the deadly disease, especially the two Nigerian doctors who died in the line of duty at the Amino Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano.

At least 29 people have died, including two doctors and a pregnant woman across 15 states hit by Lassa fever.

READ ALSO:

Abia, Bauchi, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Ogun Ondo, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba states have been affected in the most recent scourge.

Ondo State has recorded the highest number of casualties with 16 deaths.

Lassa Fever is a Viral Hemorrhagic Disease caused by the Lassa fever Virus which is endemic in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. This acute viral illness, discovered in Nigeria in 1969, has caused immense devastation to families including healthcare professionals whose deaths are most times the pointer to the beginning of an outbreak.

Rodents are the natural reservoir of the Lassa fever virus and transmission primarily occurs through contact with its excreta and blood and consumption of contaminated food items. Spread is through direct or indirect contact with the body fluid of infected individuals.

The symptoms include fever, headache, general body weakness, malaise, muscle pain, redness of the eyes, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough, chest pain, unexplained bleeding (from the mouth, nose, anus, other routes and into the skin), convulsion etc.

Nigerians are advised to go to the nearest health facility in case of any of these symptoms and others requiring medical attention.
Omicron Outbreak: Night curfew in Kerala from Dec 30, no New Year celebration post 10 pm

Kerala cop kicks, beats up passenger for travelling without ticket on train, video goes viral

Complete lockdown in Kerala? Here's what Health Minister has to say

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620 km human chain formed demanding withdrawal of new citizenship law

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: A 620 km long human chain from the northern part of Kerala to the south was formed on Sunday, Republic day, by the ruling CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front, demanding the withdrawal of the new citizenship law.

The LDF organised the human chain from Kasaragod in north Kerala to Kaliyakkavilai in the southernmost part of the state.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI leader Kanam Rajendran joined the protest in Thiruvananthapuram.

The LDF claimed that around 60 to 70 lakh people participated in the human chain.

The human chain was formed at 4 PM, following which the preamble of the Constitution was readout.

Republic Day: No exchange of sweets with Pakistan at LoC, IB

Later, an oath was taken to protect the Constitution from the "attempts of the Central government" to destroy it.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

Senior CPI(M) leader S Ramachandran Pillai was the first link of the 620-km-long human chain at Kasaragod, while M A Baby was the last link at Kaliyakkavilai.

Many prominent personalities from all walks of life participated in the human chain.
The 29th annual Winnipeg New Music Festival served notice Saturday its latest incarnation will be powered by the exhilarating highs and plummeting depths of the human condition.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 29th annual Winnipeg New Music Festival served notice Saturday its latest incarnation will be powered by the exhilarating highs and plummeting depths of the human condition.

The first concert of the festivals seven nightly programs that run until Friday, Fire and Blood, led by festival music director and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra maestro Daniel Raiskin, featured four emotionally intense works. Two of them showcased this years distinguished guest composers (in attendance all week, with each appearing onstage to introduce their respective works), Michael Daugherty and Sarah Kirkland Snider, as well as another by festival co-curator and WSO composer-in-residence, Harry Stafylakis.

But first, the evening stormed out of the gate with what is believed to be the oldest "new music" performed on the festival stage in its 29-year history, Russian composer Alexander Mosolovs The Iron Foundry. Composed an astonishing 93 years ago in 1927, it bristles with the same visceral energy of a piece with its ink still wet.

Raiskin drove the players hard throughout the hulking, heaving "machine-music" piece fuelled by motoric, repetitive riffs that paved the way for later "minimalism," with only a short "trio" reprieve sandwiched between its two outer sections. Notably also played by legendary thrash metal band Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony last September, the nearly four-minute pieces final accelerando ensured this take-no-prisoners WSO premiere enthralled the senses, while equally chilling the soul as a harbinger of things to come.

Daughertys Fire and Blood will surely become an overall festival highlight  as did last years performance of his timpani concerto, Raise the Roof, delivered with all mallets blazing by principal Mike Kemp. And his 2017 violin concerto  inspired by the Detroit Industry Murals by famed Mexican painter Diego Rivera, and his wife Frida Kahlos paintings created in "Motor City"  could be in no better hands than Juno award-winning, Canadian violinist Alexandre Da Costa, whose fierce conviction and commitment to the spark-flying work borne of nearly 100 performances became immediately apparent.

WSO conductor Daniel Raiskin and solo violinist Alexandre De Costa perform Micheal Daugherty's three-part composition Fire and Blood. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

The three-movement work teems with passion, further heightened by projected images of Riveras murals and Kahlos paintings and sketches. Daughertys brilliant score becomes a roiling cauldron of competing forces between steely American industrialism and the folkloric beauty of Mexico  best encapsulated during its searing central movement River Rouge, with Da Costas opening rhapsodic solo against principal harpist Richard Turners glissandi yearning for distant horizons. Evocative touches of a mariachi band, performed by offstage brass, underscore its nostalgic ethos.

Another effective touch became Da Costas extended cadenza during the opening movement Volcano, in counterpoint with marimba and shaken maracas that hissed like a rattlesnake. The finale, Assembly Line, further showed off his dazzling bravura, including rapid-fire figuration and multiple stops tossed off like a man possessed. As expected, the crowd of 1,015 leapt to its feet at the end, leading to an encore that included Hallelujah by the immortal Leonard Cohen, accompanied by a string quartet comprised of WSO principal players.

The (mostly) solemn evening was filled with American references  we visited North Carolina, Michigan, Florida and New York throughout the offerings  had a side of the Soviet Union, Mexico was thrown in for good measure and there was a passing nod to la belle province. It featured the Canadian premiere of Kirkland Sniders Hiraeth, (2015), a Welsh word loosely translated as "homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed" with the composer originally seeking to reflect memories of her childhood growing up in small-town North Carolina.

Composer Michael Daugherty introduces Fire and Blood to the audience Saturday. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

However, the 28-minute work morphed into a deeply moving elegy for her beloved father who died tragically during its composition. It was brought to the fore by Mark DeChiazzas exquisite film in which fleeting images of Sniders own family members  including her fathers identical twin brother whose exit at the films end truly gripped the heart  evoke the wonder of the past, infused with longing for those who have left others behind.

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The piece ebbs and flows like a river of memory, with Sniders expansive writing highly textural at times; while also often punctuated by jagged syncopated rhythms. Many in the audience said later they were touched by the piece.

The bill rounded out with the Manitoba premiere of Stafylakiss Sun Exhaling Light, based on Richard Blancos poem One Pulse  One Poem, written in response to the epidemic of mass shootings in the US, including the Orlando, Fla., Pulse nightclub massacre in June 2016.

Composer Harry Stafylakis gets a hug from WSO conductor Daniel Raiskin after introducing his piece Sun Exhaling Light to the audience during Winnipeg New Music Festival Saturday night. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

The composer is no stranger to gritty subjects, including his earlier Holocene Extinction (2017) and last years Into Oblivion, which was given its world premiere by the WSO. In this latest work, he tackles the topic as an eloquent cry for change, with an early highlight becoming Caitlin Broms-Jacobss plaintive oboe solo, which floated over lugubrious lower sonic depths that bled into sweeps of strings and later, a compelling brass chorale.

At times, too many musical ideas risked weakening the cohesion of the piece, despite Stafylakiss masterful orchestration including his calling card of extreme contrasts of range, timbre, and texture. Still, its final crescendo, which climaxes with a staccato spray of three tones like gunshot, further proved his ability to infuse his music with heart-stopping drama. This 2017 orchestral work resonated as an authentic and imaginative response to the unimaginable.

The festival runs nightly until Friday, including Sundays performance of Sarah Kirkland Sniders Penelope, and Mondays emerging composer showcase, Orchestral Voices of the Future.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca

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Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.
The West Bengal government on Monday tabled a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the Assembly.

The resolution appeals to the Union government to repeal the amended citizenship law and revoke plans to implement NRC and update NPR.

As per reports, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee introduced the resolution in the House around 2 pm.

Three states - Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab - have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation. PTI PNT Incidentally, Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab have passed resolutions against the new citizenship law. The new citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A young Chinese visitor wears a protective mask as she tours the nearly empty grounds of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Pretty Confident Coronavirus Vaccine Can Be Created: Johnson & Johnson CSO

Johnson & Johnsons chief scientific officer said he is pretty confident that his company can create a vaccine for the new coronavirus, which is spreading to a growing number of countries from China.

No vaccine or cure currently exists for the coronavirus, which has been deadly for some people.

We have dozens of scientists working on this, so were pretty confident we can get something made that will work and stay active for the longer term, Dr. Paul Stoffels said during an appearance on CNBCs Squawk Box on Jan. 27.

Stoffels said that scientists at the company created an Ebola vaccine in six months, but for the coronavirus, it would be similar to an approach taken in the case of the Zika virus, where they had to start from scratch.

He said it could be up to a year before the vaccine is ready for market.

We are going to take an approach with at least five different constructs and different partners and collaborations all over the world in order to see which part of the virus we can use to make an effective vaccine, Stoffels said.

Medical staff wearing protective clothing to protect against a previously unknown coronavirus arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 25, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

We are pretty confident that we can get something made which will work and stay active for the longer term, he said. Well see in the next few weeks how this goes.

Scientists around the world are racing to come up with a vaccine as case numbers soar in China and more countries report confirmed cases.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which was launched at Davos in 2017, said last week that it was giving three companies a total of $12.5 million to develop vaccines for the virus.

The aim is to advance nCoV-2019 vaccine candidates into clinical testing as quickly as possible, the nonprofit said in a statement.

Chinese authorities posted a sequence of the virus in a public database on Jan. 10, Science magazine reported. Representatives with Moderna and Inovioboth based in the United States and both of which received money from the coalitiontold the magazine that they could have vaccines ready to start animal testing by Feb. 27.

A group of women wear protective masks while exercising in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Getty Images)

Were starting at the exact same time, and this is a great opportunity for us to go mano a mano with Moderna, said Joseph Kim, Inovios CEO. I like our chances.

The University of Queensland in Australia is the third group to get money from the coalition. A vaccine could be available in as little as six months, according to Paul Young, head of the universitys School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences.

The team hopes to develop a vaccine over the next six months, which may be used to help contain this outbreak, he said. The vaccine would be distributed to first responders, helping to contain the virus from spreading around the world.

Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told USA Today that the agency is also working on developing a vaccine from the sequence.

Barring any bureaucratic or regulatory holdups, which I dont think will happen, we can almost certainly get into phase one in three months, he said, adding that scientists still need samples of the virus from China to begin testing.
(L-R) Curtis Blaydes punches Junior Dos Santos in their heavyweight fight during UFC Fight Night at PNC Arena on Jan. 25, 2020 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Saturday nights main event in Raleigh, North Carolina, gave fans a treat with Curtis Blaydes finishing former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos by second-round knockout. Blaydes stunned many experts as the wrestler took out dos Santos on the feet.

There was no question what each fighters game plan was entering the fight. Blaydes looked to take dos Santos down and utilize ground and pound to break the will of his opponent. Dos Santos has been in this position before and has been wildly successful in his takedown defense. His first fight with current champion Stipe Miocic in 2014 was the last time he was taken down.

Dos Santos was seemingly successful early on, stuffing all six of Blaydes takedown attempts. Blaydes was able to adapt and used his takedown attempts as a decoy and landed a monster punch as dos Santos let his guard down, expecting Blaydes to continue to use his wrestling. The former champ backed into the cage and covered-up as Blaydes rained down a series of damaging punches and knees until the ref correctly stopped the fight with dos Santos still standing.

Blaydes, 13-2, has won his last three bouts. In his post-fight interview with former champion Daniel Cormier, Blaydes called for a title fight against Stipe Miocic. While his win streak is nothing to bat an eye at, he is in a tricky situation as the heavyweight division gets crowded at the top of the rankings.

Cormier respectfully kept quiet as Blaydes called his shot, but DC is undoubtedly pushing for a rematch to regain his throne as champion. Also, Francis Ngannou, the only man to defeat Blaydes, is currently riding his own three fight win streak and is scheduled to face Jairzinho Rozenstruik in March. A win there would seemingly put Ngannou in a position to fight for the belt.

Story continues

Its unclear how the UFC matchmakers will handle this situation, but there will inevitably be some exciting heavyweight fights in the future.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 16:08 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206129716 1 National submarine,submarine-contract,PT-PAL-Indonesia,Jokowi,East-Java Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo departed for East Java on Monday to inspect the countrys first domestically assembled submarine, KRI Alugoro 405.

Jokowi and his entourage departed on the presidential aircraft from Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in East Jakarta on Monday at 8:15 a.m., according to a statement.

Upon arrival at Juanda International Airport in Sidoarjo regency, Jokowi visited state-owned ship maker PT PAL Indonesia, where he inspected the brand new submarine.

KRI Alugoro 405, which was assembled and completed in the country in June last year, is the third product to have been realized in the first batch of the ongoing US$1.1 billion partnership between PAL Indonesia and South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME).

"I think this is good collaboration because there is a transfer of technology in the assembly of our Alugoro submarine," Jokowi said during the visit, adding that he hoped the nation could soon fully develop and assemble its own submarines.

The 61.3-meter-long KRI Alugoro 405 is able to hold 40 crew members and cruise for up to 50 days. With a speed of 11 knots when surfaced and 21.5 knots when under water, the submarine can roam for 18,520 kilometers. The lifespan of the 1,460-ton vessel is projected to be 30 years, according to PT PAL.

The two other submarines, KRI Nagapasa 403 and KRI Ardadedali 404, were built and completed in South Korea in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

"The success of assembling the Alugoro submarine has made Indonesia the only country in Southeast Asia to build a submarine," the State Palace said in the statement.

KRI Alugoro 405 underwent a nominal diving depth (NDD) test in North Bali waters on Jan. 21, which is part of the mandatory sea acceptance evaluation. According to the information on PT PAL's website, the NDD went according to plan, as the sub was able to go 250 meters under the surface.

PAL Indonesia submarine division head Satriyo Bintoro said in a statement that the NDD phase was crucial to determining that 90 percent of the construction project had been completed.

After the inspection, Jokowi took a look at the ongoing overhaul of the submarine KRI Cakra 401 at PAL Indonesia. He also held a private meeting with his ministers and aides regarding the primary weapons defense systems development policy. (rfa)
Vatican Urges Visiting Iraqi President to Protect Christians

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican on Saturday urged Iraqi President Barham Saleh to guarantee the safety of Christians and ensure they have a future place in the war-battered country.

Saleh met with Pope Francis, the Vatican secretary of state and foreign minister during back-to-back audiences on his second visit to the Vatican.

Saleh's office said he and the pope discussed a papal visit to Iraq, but said only that it was "scheduled to be paid at a later date."

Francis had expressed hope of visiting Iraq this year, but no trip was ever confirmed and it's unclear if it will be given the turmoil unleashed by the U.S. drone strike on Iraqi soil that killed a top Iranian general.

The attack provoked the ire of Iraqi officials and led to the passing of a non-binding resolution by Iraqi lawmakers to oust U.S. troops.

The Holy See said the meetings focused on promoting peace and security in Iraq, especially for Christian minorities, many of whom have fled communities that date from the time of Christ to escape persecution by Islamic State militants.

In a statement, the Vatican said the meetings covered the "importance of preserving the historical presence of Christians in the country, of which they are an integral part, and the significant contribution they bring to the reconstruction of the social fabric, highlighting the need to guarantee their security and a place in the future of Iraq."

Saleh's office said peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians was the only way to eradicate extremism.

The Vatican hinted at the rising tensions stemming from the U.S. drone attack, saying the discussions underlined the need for the international community to "re-establish trust and peaceful co-existence."

During the meeting, Saleh gave Francis a replica of the Code of Hammurabi, the ancient set of Babylonian laws, calling it a "symbol of peace."

Francis, for his part, gave Saleh a medallion and a set of his major teaching documents, including one on Christian-Muslim fraternity. He told Saleh he wanted an Iraqi identity card identifying him as a descendant of Abraham, a figure common to Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team arrived in the city on Monday and began the process of taking over probe into the Koregaon-Bhima-Elgar Parishad case, police officials said here.

The three-member team of the central agency landed on Monday morning and later met officials of the city police handling the sensitive case, which has triggered a new round of war of words between ruling and opposition parties in Maharashtra, the sources said.

A top official said the NIA team, led by a Superintendent of Police-rank officer, met senior police officials, including the investigation officer, and handed them a letter, informing that the case has been entrusted to the central agency and they will take over it.

He said relevant authorities in the state government have been informed about the move.

The NIA team also took a review of the case from officials concerned.

Another official associated with the probe said they have already informed the DGP office in Mumbai about the developments related to the NIA starting the process to formally take charge of the case.

The case, in which human rights activists have been arrested, pertains to caste violence that took place near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district on January 1, 2018, following alleged provocative speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave held the previous day.

The case was transferred by the Centre from the Pune police to the NIA, an agency that handles terror-related matters, on Friday, a move criticised by the three-party ruling coalition in the state.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had on Friday night condemned the Centre's decision to transfer the case to the NIA without consent of the state government. The NCP minister had termed the move as unconstitutional.

The opposition BJP, however, welcomed the move.

The Pune police have claimed speeches delivered at the conclave, held on December 31, 2017, led to the violence at Koregaon Bhima the next day. The police have claimed the conclave was organised by people having Maoist links.

During the probe into the violence, police arrested human rights activists and intellectuals Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

They were booked under relevant sections of the IPC and also UAPA, an anti-terror law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trumps improved standing in the latest survey is due in part to political independents. Trump receives between 47 percent and 52 percent support among voters in this group depending on his Democratic opponent, an improvement from October, when he got between 39 percent and 42 percent support. Self-identified independents make up 39 percent of the overall sample in the survey, almost identical to last Octobers poll. Most independents, though, lean toward either one party or the other, and in this months poll, the mix of independents leaned less Democratic than in October.
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Armed Forces Medical College here will organise the 68th Annual Armed Forces Medical Conference-2020 and the 58th Armed Forces Medical Research Committee (AFMRC) meeting from February 5 to 7, 2020, Defence PRO informed on Monday.



This conference is the largest gathering of Armed Forces medical and nursing personnel from the Army, Navy and Air Force and is the only multi-speciality conference of its kind in the country.

In its 58th consecutive year, the Armed Forces Medical Research Conference has steadily grown in scope and stature over the years. Medical professionals of the Armed Forces are now collaborating with the leading medical research organisations of the country and undertaking cutting edge medical research which is of relevance not only within the Armed Forces but also to the society at large.

The three-day conference, being organised at AFMC, Pune, under the overall supervision of Lieutenant General Nardeep Naithani, Director and Commandant, will discuss a wide spectrum of issues concerning the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS).

The conference will commence with awards for excellence in academics in postgraduate and in-service training courses. Awards for best research paper & reviewer for Medical Journal Armed Forces of India (MJAFI) and best AFMRC completed research projects will be presented during the conference.

At the core of the deliberations will be the 58th Annual Meeting of Armed Forces Medical Research Committee (AFMRC). The AFMRC provides a platform to the AFMS researchers posted all over the country to meaningfully contribute and be a valuable part of this enormous research and learning process.

The highlight of the conference will be a special session on innovations and creativity in health care practice and delivery. The need to innovate has always existed; its importance in Armed Forces is amplified with personnel deployed in varied operational platforms and diverse terrains.

The first AFMRC was organised in 1953. Over the years, the conference has gradually expanded in scope to become a forum for planning, evaluation and implementation not only of research but also innovations in health care.

While the principal focus of research is related to the requirements of the Armed Forces, the results achieved are made available to all health care professionals. This year for the first time video conferencing of AFMRC sessions is being conducted with other major service hospitals to foster a spirit of research and innovation amongst Armed Forces doctors and Nurses. (ANI)


A plane which US officials described as a small US military aircraft crashed in a Taliban-controlled area of central Afghanistan on Monday, and the insurgent group claimed to have brought it down. The US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there were no indications so far that the plane had been brought down by enemy activity. One of the officials said there were believed to be fewer than 10 people on board. Pictures and a video on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft. Senior Afghan officials told ...
A panel session on the closing day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. (Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has launched a global initiative that aims to retrain and educate 1 billion people by 2030.

Launched at the WEFs annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland last week, the Reskilling Revolution is a platform to connect and coordinate initiatives occurring across various countries, industries, organisations and schools in a bid to prepare workers for the skills they will need in the future.

The OECD has also estimated that 1.1 billion jobs are at risk of becoming radically transformed by technology in the next 10 years.

In late 2018, the WEF warned that some skills  such as manual labour and management of financial or material resources  would become obsolete. Meanwhile, skills such as creativity, analytical thinking and problem-solving will be in greater demand by 2021.

The Reskilling Revolution platform has been designed to prepare the global workforce with the skills needed to future-proof their careers against the expected displacement of millions of jobs and skills instability as a result of technological change, the Forum said in a statement.

It is also designed to provide businesses and economies with the skilled labour needed to fulfil the millions of new roles that will be created by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shifts in the global economy and industrial transitions towards sustainability.

WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab said the way to create a more cohesive and inclusive society was to provide people with a better job and income.

Here in Davos, we are creating a public-private platform to give one billion people the skills they need in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, he said. The scale and urgency of this transformation calls for nothing short of a reskilling revolution.

Story continues

Who is part of the Reskilling Revolution?

A number of countries and corporations alike have already signed up to the Reskilling Revolution.

The countries of India, Pakistan, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman will run the Closing the Skills Gap National Accelerators which aims for collaborative action across public and private sectors to address skills gaps and reshapes education and training.

Denmark and Singapore are also learning network champions, while the US has pledged to retrain and upskill its workforce, with over 415 companies pledging 14.5 million career-enhancing opportunities over the next five years.

France has launched the Mon Compte Formation, which provides individuals with an app that will provide lifelong learning and training.

The Adecco Group will help 5 million workers upskill and reskill by 2030, and Coursera is a data partner and founding member of the online training platforms hosted by the WEF Reskilling Revolution.

Infosys is expanding computer science education to students and will also provide online training to the Reskilling Revolution, while LinkedIn will be a data partner.

ManpowerGroup will provide accelerated upskilling and on-the-job training to hundreds of thousands of people, and PwC has a program to support public-private collaborations, and will upskill all of its 276,000 workers.

Salesforce will train 1 million people through its free learning platform Trailhead in the next five years.

A number of international and civil society organisations will also be involved, such as UNICEF, Generation Unlimited, Education Commission, and iamtheCODE.

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Shares slid on Monday as investors shunned equities on growing concerns over the scope of a China virus outbreak, with safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes in greater demand.

US S&P 500 mini futures shed 1.2 per cent in early Asian trade. The Nikkei futures traded in Chicago suggested Japanese shares are on course for a steep 2 per cent decline. The ASX is closed for the Australia Day public holiday but futures are pointing to a drop of 31 points or 0.4 per cent, when trading resumes on Tuesday.

Futures are pointing to steep falls on Japan's Nikkei on Monday. Credit:AP

Concerns over the spread of the coronavirus in China, and the potential economic impact, continue to generate financial market headlines.

"Media wins - all you see is headlines about the coronavirus, giving investors a reason to sell the markets," said Takeo Kamai, head of executions services at CLSA in Tokyo.
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio -- In keeping with its tradition, Chagrin Valley Restaurant Week -- Feb 3-9 -- offers something for every taste and every pocketbook. Each of the 25 participating eateries is offering a discounted deal to lure you out of your winter doldrums and tempt your palate.

If you have never dined at a gas station, prepare to be amazed in a good way. The Market Xpress at the Bell Station at the corner of Chillicothe Road and Bell Station in South Russell has a full commercial kitchen and diner-type seating. Known for its pepperoni rolls, pizza, wings, salads and everything burgers, you will fill up more than just your car.

Store Manager Brad Furdal draws upon family recipes to prepare each order using fresh ingredients. Opened two years ago, Market Xpress is quickly becoming a favorite place to stop in for a bite or take-out.

During restaurant week, you can receive a 30 percent discount after 4 p.m. on all pizzas, including veggie, chicken and bacon, Hawaiian or traditional build your own. The store is open until 10 p.m. weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends. Contact 440-557-5110 or mymarketxpress.com.

For dessert, be very tempted at Sugar Me Desserterie on River Street in Chagrin Falls, just past the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre or accessible from West Orange Street. The mother-and-daughter team of Teresa Csizma and Brittany Eidam create fun and fanciful cakes, cookies, cupcakes and confections almost too pretty to eat -- but you will.

Their offer for restaurant week is buy one, get one or buy one, share one on cupcakes or cookies. Yes, you can mix and match your selections. The bakery has been open for seven years. Contact sugarmedesserterie.com or 440-247-7228.

For an elegant evening out, you can turn up the heat for your date at the sultry Texas de Brazil steakhouse on Chagrin Boulevard in Woodmere. The fixed-price dining experience is $35 for Restaurant Week, including chef Andres Gallardos choice of garlic picanha, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, and marinated pork chop served on a sword, with a huge variety of salads and hot side dishes and cheesecake for dessert.

Dinner can begin at 5 p.m., but arrive up to an hour earlier for happy hour prices on cocktails, including caipirnha, a Brazilian spirit made from sugar cane. Contact 440-777-1413 or texasdebrazil.com.

Head carver Mike Mannarino is ready to serve you at Texas de Brazil in Woodmere, with tastes of South America. (Joan Rusek, special to cleveland.com)

If jetting to Aspen is not in the cards, bring your appetite to the Brown Barn Tavern in Munson Township. Located on a scenic hillside adjacent to the Alpine Valley ski area, you can soak up the apres ski atmosphere without getting cold toes, and enjoy crafted drinks along with chef Jim Jankes inspired take on comfort food with subtle, yet surprising spices and flavorings.

Just opened in July, managing partners Marco Stanton and Jackie Sas literally took a 90-year-old converted barn and created a bustling, fun tavern with a splash of chic. Stanton was formerly a force with Burntwood Tavern.

nFor $27 per person during Restaurant Week, you can warm up with either a French onion soup or New England clam chowder and choose from three popular entrees: buttermilk fried chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and apple jalapeno slaw; grilled mahi mahi fish tacos with cowboy caviar and cilantro lime rice; or tender beef tips with garlic mushrooms and caramelized onions in a burgundy wine sauce.

Save room for the included dessert: Jankes wife, Emily, keeps the surprising tastes coming with a white chocolate-cherry bread pudding made from brioche and an ultra-creamy cheesecake with a hint of lemon. Contact 440-279-4747.

Speaking of upscale tavern food, visit the flagship Burntwood Tavern on East Washington Street in Chagrin Falls. General manager Bill Detweiler and chef Alex Lenk have cooked up an amazing Restaurant Week deal of $19 per person for a three-course meal. Choose either soup of the day or a house or Caesar salad for starters. Next, choose from three signature entrees: hunters chicken with a tasty mushroom sauce over a bed of fettuccine alfredo; an uncomplicated fire-roasted salmon on a cedar plank with seasonal vegetables; and the popular but complicated burger, stacked on a smashed tater tot, with American cheese, the usual condiment layers and an over-easy egg topped by a bun. For dessert, choose from several cakes-in-a mug, including lemon, chocolate, carrot and tiramisu. Contact burntwoodtavern.com.

In all, 25 area restaurants are participating in Restaurant Week, each with their own special offer and discounted meals. They also include Blazin Bills, Bull and Bird, Cowboy Food and Drink, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Hungry Bee, Hyde Park in Woodmere, Jekylls Kitchen, M Italian, Master Pizza in Chagrin Falls, Mazzulos, ML Tavern, Muvel, Pannis Bar and Grill in Chagrin Falls, Paris Room, Sapphire Creek Winery, Saras Place,The Buckeye Chocolate Company, The Capital Grille, Welshfield Inn and Yours Truly in Chagrin Falls.

Whet your appetite and make your reservations now. Contact chagrinvalleyrestaurantweek.com for the full list of menus, offers and sponsors.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.
- The ODM party leader disclosed leaders who have been attending BBI rallies were not paid any money

- Raila said the money that has been spent was so little and only for paying for public address system

- So far the BBI rallies have been held in Kakamega, Kisii and Mombasa counties

- More campaigns have been scheduled for Garisa, Meru, Nakuru and Nyeri counties

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga has dismissed reports that the government has been spending millions of money to drum up support for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.

The Africa Union (AU) envoy disclosed that the government has not spent even a single coin in the rallies despite criticism over misuse of public resources in the unnecessary campaigns.

READ ALSO: ICC yakanusha madai ya DP Ruto ya kuwepo njama ya kufufua kesi yake

Raila Odinga dancing on the podium with Jubilee party members during BBI campaign in Mombasa. Photo: The ODM party

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Double tragedy: Woman dies after jumping off moving ambulance shortly after son's death

Speaking to NTV on the night of Sunday, January 26, the long-serving politician said all leaders who have been attending BBI forums have been using their money.

"This notion that BBI campaigns are spending billions is all a creation of the media. We have not spent even a single coin on BBI rallies, those who attend them come at their own will, we don't ferry people to attend the forums," said Raila.

He further disclosed that the only money that they have been spending were basically on the public address systems and for the podium.

READ ALSO: Comedian Njugush discloses wife Wakavinye paid his bills while they were dating

Raila's sentiments came amid concern from the public over the manner in which the campaigns have been run with Deputy President William Ruto saying they were a wastage of public money given nobody is opposed to the proposals.

Since the campaigns begun in Kisii on January 10, two more others have been held in Kakamega and Mombasa counties. More campaigns are scheduled to take place in Meru, Nyeri, Garissa and Nakuru.

In April 2019, during State of the Nation Address President Uhuru Kenyatta set aside KSh 10 billion to support the initiative which he said was very crucial in healing wounds of historical grievances and uniting the nation.

According to Deputy President William Ruto, the campaigns are unnecessary given nobody is opposed to BBI. Photo: William Ruto

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Esther Passaris jets back home 4 weeks after treatment in India

Recently, Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen claimed politicians who attended the Kakamega rally were each paid KSh 100,000.

During launch of the report which was held at Bomas of Kenya, it was reported that over KSh 5,000 was spent to pay each delegate who attended the function.

The launch brought together over 47,000 delegates with each county being represented by at least 100 representatives.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Imperial Valley News Center

Russian National Pleads Guilty to Running Online Criminal Marketplace

Arlington, Virginia - A Russian national pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to his operation of two websites devoted to the facilitation of payment card fraud, computer hacking and other crimes.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Matthew S. Miller of the U.S. Secret Services Washington Field Office made the announcement.

Aleksei Burkov, 29, pleaded guilty before Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to access device fraud and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, identity theft, wire and access device fraud and money laundering. Sentencing is scheduled for May 8, 2020.

According to court documents, Burkov ran a website called Cardplanet that sold payment card numbers (e.g., debit and credit cards) that had been stolen primarily through computer intrusions. Many of the cards offered for sale belonged to U.S. citizens. The stolen credit card data sold on Burkovs site has resulted in over $20 million in fraudulent purchases made on U.S. credit cards.

Additionally, Burkov ran another website that served as an invite-only club where elite cybercriminals could advertise stolen goods, such as personal identifying information and malicious software, and criminal services, such as money laundering and hacking services. To obtain membership in Burkovs cybercrime forum, prospective members needed three existing members to vouch for their good reputation among cybercriminals and to provide a sum of money, normally $5,000, as insurance. These measures were designed to keep law enforcement from accessing Burkovs cybercrime forum and to ensure that members of the forum honored any deals made while conducting business on the forum.

Burkov was arrested at Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv in December 2015. An Israeli district court approved his extradition in 2017. He was extradited to the United States from Israel on Nov. 11, 2019, after appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court and the Israeli High Court of Justice were denied.

Trial Attorney Laura Fong of the Criminal Divisions Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer and Alexander P. Berrang of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

The Office of International Affairs of the Justice Departments Criminal Division provided significant assistance in securing the defendants extradition from Israel.
OJAI, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ojai Studio Artists (OSA  https://www.ojaistudioartists.org/) recently announced it was proud to welcome eight new members into its ranks. Representing diverse talents, the new members range from sculptors, painters, photographers and printmakers. Their work will be publicly displayed during the upcoming Second Saturday tours, beginning February 8 and continuing through July. OSA represents some the best artistic talent in the nation, with exclusively juried artists who help propel the organization's overall goal of enriching art, while also paving the way for future artists.

Tedd Gall's Studio Lindsay Thomson: Milky Way Over Radio Tower, photography

OSA: The New Artists

Leslie Clark : A native Ojai resident, Leslie's work is largely based on travel; she paints various peoples in their natural environments.

: A native resident, Leslie's work is largely based on travel; she paints various peoples in their natural environments. Uta Culemann-Ritke : A graphic designer and painter, Uta is an abstract expressionist who works with the concepts of connection and disconnection.

: A graphic designer and painter, Uta is an abstract expressionist who works with the concepts of connection and disconnection. Eric Dubnicka : A sculpture artist, Eric utilizes a wide variety of materials and forms to celebrate humanity's spiritual and moral Ascension process.

A sculpture artist, Eric utilizes a wide variety of materials and forms to celebrate humanity's spiritual and moral Ascension process. Bruce Grabin : An oil painter, Bruce often takes his inspiration from the beautiful landscapes of Ojai , as well as contemporary rural scenes.

: An oil painter, Bruce often takes his inspiration from the beautiful landscapes of , as well as contemporary rural scenes. Leslie Plimpton : A printmaker, Leslie explores how fashion reflects the values of humanity, within both time and geographical location.

: A printmaker, Leslie explores how fashion reflects the values of humanity, within both time and geographical location. Sparkle Taylor : A painter, Sparkle paints en plein air, and alla prima landscapes, incorporating light and shape of her rich surroundings directly into her work.

: A painter, Sparkle paints en plein air, and alla prima landscapes, incorporating light and shape of her rich surroundings directly into her work. Lindsay Thomson : Lindsay's photography specializes in a variety of landscape images. She also enjoys night photography, specifically the Milky Way and star trails combined with unique foreground elements.

: Lindsay's photography specializes in a variety of landscape images. She also enjoys night photography, specifically the Milky Way and star trails combined with unique foreground elements. Lucinda Yates : A seasoned art veteran, Lucinda's work currently focuses on her love of people, and explorations of identity that are cleverly rendered on canvas.

For more in-depth biographies of the new artists, please visit HERE.

About Ojai Studio Artists (OSA)

Beginning as a collaboration between artists Bert Collins, Marta Nelson and Gayel Childress, the Ojai Studio Artists are a collection of exclusive artistic talent bound together with a common purpose. For over three decades now, the nationally renowned artists and studios of Ojai, California have collaborated to open their studios and share their art with the world. The OSA is a recognized nonprofit corporation that has grown into a major art supporter, routinely giving back to the community, with over $200,000 in art scholarships gifted so far. During the OSA's annual event in October, thousands journey to visit the exclusive artists within their natural habitat: the studio. Learn more about OSA, open-studio events, and the individual artists at: www.OjaiStudioArtists.org.

Media Contact:

Christine Beirne

805.890.4570

[email protected]

SOURCE Ojai Studio Artists

Related Links

http://www.OjaiStudioArtists.org


KYODO NEWS - Jan 27, 2020 - 22:02 | All, Japan, World, Coronavirus

China's ban imposed Monday on all outbound group travel to stop the spread of a deadly coronavirus has come as a blow to Japan's retail and tourism sectors, which had been looking forward to robust spending by Chinese visitors during the Lunar New Year holidays.

Analysts say the ban imposed on Chinese travelers is likely to hit some businesses in Japan, where there were expectations that increasing tourists from China and elsewhere during the Lunar holidays and the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics this summer would help offset risks posed by the consumption tax hike last year.

Travel agency JTB Corp. has canceled all tours in Japan that it has been requested to organize by a Chinese company during the holidays, while rival H.I.S Co. and Hato Bus Co., an operator of tour buses in the Tokyo area, are also seeing cancellations.

Japan Airlines Co. and All Nippon Airways Co. said some reservations on flights connecting to and from China have been called off. ANA has said last week it will suspend all flights between Wuhan and Narita for the rest of this month due to the virus outbreak.

"Recent sales of our duty-free products have been robust, but there will certainly be an impact going forward," said an official of Matsuya Co.'s department store in Tokyo's shopping district of Ginza.

(Chinese tourists pack a large number of masks into their suitcases after buying them in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district on Jan. 26, 2020.)

According to another department store operator, Takashimaya Co., almost 10 percent of total sales at its stores are made to foreign visitors, with Chinese tourists accounting for 80 percent of that.

"There's nothing that we can do (about an expected sales fall) so we'll see how the situation develops for now," a Takashimaya official said.

Sales at department stores in Japan already slumped in 2019, falling 1.4 percent from the previous year on a same-store basis for the second straight year, with the drop blamed on poor summer weather and a warm winter.

Hotel chains including Keio Plaza Hotel Co. and Prince Hotels Inc. are also seeing cancellations.

Related coverage:

Cambodia reports 1st case of new coronavirus infection

Japan to repatriate citizens from virus-hit Wuhan in chartered plane

China extends holiday by 3 days in bid to battle virus

Foreign tourists to Japan hit record high in 2019, but see limited growth

In the Tokyo stock market, the retail and tourism sectors were hit hard Monday, reflecting concern over the impact on earnings of a possible sharp fall in Chinese visitors.

H.I.S. ended the day down 6.8 percent at 2,548 yen, while cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. dropped 5.5 percent to 7,060 yen, as its products are popular among travelers from the world's second-largest economy.

The decrease in Chinese visitors comes as a setback for the Japanese government's goal of attracting 40 million visitors from overseas this year.

The number of Chinese travelers jumped to 9.59 million last year, a 20-fold increase from 2003, buoyed by the gradual easing of visa requirements.

Chinese at present account for 30 percent of the total number of foreign visitors to Japan and have been the largest group since 2015.

Round-trip flights connecting China and Japan reached 1,400 per week in the current wintertime flight schedule from October to March, up 19 percent from the summertime schedule from April to September.

A senior official of the Japan Tourism Agency said, "We still can't be sure of the impact of the group travel ban, but there's no doubt that the number of customers from China will drop."

Economists said consumer spending may slow if people in Japan stay home out of fear of infection, which would dent production as well.

Nomura Research Institute estimates the outbreak would reduce the country's nominal gross domestic product by 0.45 percentage point this year.

The new virus has come "at the worst time" for the world's third-largest economy as tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday were expected to spark private consumption, which has slowed since the consumption tax hike last year, said Toshihiro Nagahama, executive chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

Analysts pointed to the potential impact on the operations of Japanese manufacturers in China if their supply chains are disrupted. Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the new coronavirus originated, is home to manufacturing plants belonging to Japanese automakers Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., as well as France's Renault SA.
27 Jan 2020, 12:28 PM

Budget 2020: Scope of personal tax cut grows slim as govt stares at tax shortfall of Rs 2 lakh crore

Tax collections in the current fiscal may fall short of targets by as much as Rs 2 lakh crore on faltering economy, leaving very little room for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for offering any meaningful reduction in personal income tax rates. Sources with direct knowledge of the development said income and corporate tax collections are likely to miss FY2020 targets by as much as Rs 1.5 lakh crore while indirect taxes may fall short by about Rs 50,000 crore on drop in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in a sluggish economy.

Air India doubles flights on Tel Aviv-New Delhi route to tackle increase in passenger rush

In view of the increase in passenger traffic on the Tel Aviv-New Delhi sector, India's official carrier Air India will double the number of flights on the route to six per week from April. Air India started with 3 flights a week and within a span of two years has gradually increased it to six, starting from April 1 this year.

India needs a better opposition: Abhijit Banerjee

India needs a better opposition which is the heart of any democracy and the ruling party should embrace that to keep it under check, noted economist and Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has said. Speaking at a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), the 58-year-old India-born American economist said there was no co-relation between the authoritarianism and the economic success.

FPIs pump in Rs 1,624 crore in Indian markets in January

Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have infused a net sum of Rs 1,624 crore into the Indian capital markets in January so far, buoyed by the signing of the first phase of the US-China trade deal. As per latest depositories data, FPIs invested a net Rs 13,304 crore in equities and withdrew a net Rs 11,680 crore from the debt segment between January 1-24. This translates into a total net inflow of Rs 1,624 crore.

Republic Day 2020: India Brazil to have a bilateral trade of $15 billion by 2022

Hit by economic slowdown, India and Brazil on Saturday drew up an ambitious plan to boost their stuttering economies by significantly expanding cooperation in key sectors like oil, gas and mining, while setting a target of USD 15 billion in bilateral trade by 2022. The decisions were taken during wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro.

'Monetary policy has limits; structural reforms, fiscal measures required,' says Shaktikanta Das

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday that monetary policy has its limitations and called for structural reforms and fiscal measures to boost growth. "Monetary policy has its own limits. Structural reforms and fiscal measures may have to be continued and further activated to provide a durable push to demand and boost growth," Das said at an event at his alma mater St Stephen's College in Delhi. The governor identified few avenues including food processing industries, tourism, e-commerce, and start-ups that could push growth at the event held.
Medtronic plc today announced three-month results from a large, multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) showing statistically significant (p=0.0009) and superior back pain relief with Differential Target Multiplexed (DTM) Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) compared to conventional SCS. Both arms used the Medtronic Intellis platform. Three-month results showed 80% of patients with chronic back pain treated with DTM reported at least 50% pain relief, compared with 51% of patients treated with conventional SCS, as measured by the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), a widely used and accepted measure for pain intensity. Fifty-percent pain relief, as measured by VAS, is a recognized industry standard to define minimum therapy success.

The RCT demonstrated profound pain relief and significant reductions in back and leg pain with DTM. Sixty-three percent patients with back pain treated with DTM reported profound pain relief of 80% or greater compared to 26% treated with conventional SCS. In aggregate, patients treated with DTM reported an average of 74% reduction in back pain compared to 46% with conventional SCS at three months. Similarly, improvements were observed with DTM for leg pain with a mean reduction of 72% compared to 59% with conventional SCS.

The RCT results reported are from 94 implanted SCS patients who were randomized to either the treatment or control arm and followed over the course of three months. With these results the study met its primary endpoint of noninferiority compared with conventional SCS, and a pre-specified secondary statistical test for superiority showing the difference between DTM and conventional SCS as highly significant. The study will continue to follow patients through 12 months post implant.

Medtronic acquired DTM therapy as part of its acquisition of Stimgenics announced in early January. DTM therapy, which was proven through the RCT only on the Medtronic Intellis platform, is a new and unique programming option available to treat patients with chronic pain that is based on years of preclinical research.

DTM therapy is the first tailored SCS approach intentionally developed from a novel scientific concept and demonstrated in an RCT. The study demonstrates that DTM therapy provides superior efficacy for patients with chronic back pain compared to conventional stimulation. Combined with Intellis, patients can access superior outcomes as demonstrated in the RCT on an unrivaled stimulation platform. Matt Thomas, vice president and general manager of the Stim and Early Interventions business, which is part of the Restorative Therapies Group at Medtronic

The DTM waveform may engage a novel mechanism that modulates both neurons and glial cells, expanding the understanding of SCS mechanisms of action. Glial cells outnumber neurons in the spinal cord by 12:1 and their role in pain have been explored in research for more than 20 years.

DTM has been studied in animal models, showing statistically significant reversal of pain behaviors compared to either low frequency or high frequency alone. In addition, preclinical studies investigating the genome of nerve-injured animals suggests that the DTM waveform has a greater impact in the neural-glial interaction than other frequencies. Basic science research is further expanding our understanding of SCS mechanisms of action. Glial cells are no longer thought to be only glue in the brain and spinal cord but active contributors to neural processing and various disease states including chronic pain.

Results from the RCT are being presented at the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) annual meeting Jan. 23-26, 2020 in Las Vegas and can also be found on the Medtronic website.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

Liner Hangers Market

A liner hanger is a system/tool that is used to hang a liner in a production well. The demand for liner hangers is directly related to the number of wells drilled and completed. The increasing investments in exploration, production, and drilling activities and number of upstream projects, across the world, by the oil producers like the United States and OPEC is expected to drive the liner hangers market. Increase in rig count by 6.5%, from 2017 to May 2018, is a good indicator of liner hanger's demand. North America has the largest share of the market, followed by Asia-Pacific and Middle East. Together, these three regions account for more than 50% of global liner hanger market. The global energy consumption is expected to increase by 28% between 2015 and 2040, with oil & gas accounting for approximately half the demand.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05778117/?utm_source=PRN

Demand for Long Lateral Services Driving the Liner Hangers Market



The shift from vertical drilling to horizontal/lateral drilling methods, in the recent years, has resulted in an increase in the total drilled footage per well. As a result, the demand for liner hangers has increased. Hydraulic fractured wells have accounted for most of all the new wells drilled and completed, since late 2014. As of 2016, about 670,000 of the 977,000 producing wells were hydraulically fractured and horizontally drilled. Additionally, in 2016, the total drilled footage reached nearly 13 million feet, approximately 10.7 million of which were hydraulically fractured and horizontally drilled, which, in turn, is expected to increase the demand for liner hanger market in the forecast period. Over the past decade, the lateral lengths of the unconventional wells drilled in the United States have increased from 2,500 feet to nearly 7,000 feet. As China and Argentina have also started to invest in their unconventional fields, following the United States, the demand for liner hangers is expected to increase during the forecast period.



North America is one of the Largest Markets



The evolution of abundant tight oil and unconventional natural gas resources has created an opportunity to enhance economic growth throughout North America, and improve its competitiveness in the global oil & gas industry. The market for unconventional fuels and drilling is expanding in this region, owing to the consumption growth in oil and oil products. The average active rig count in North America, as of May 2018, has almost doubled its number from 2016, which is expected to drive the liner hangers market during the forecast period. This trend for the liner hangers market is expected to continue in this region, over the forecast period, as the United States is planning to become an oil exporter, by 2022.



United States  A Huge Market Potential



The global oil production's growth, over the forecast period, is expected to come from the United States. As per the EIA, the US average crude oil production in 2017 is expected to increase by 25% in 2019. US tight oil production increased in 2017, accounting for 54% of the total US crude oil production, in part, because of the increasing productivity of new wells. Effective drilling techniques, including the growing use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, have helped in increasing these initial production rates. The horizontal rig count in the United States increased by 19.5% from 2017 to June 2018, which is expected to have a great impact on the liner hangers market during the forecast period. Tight oil production in West Texas and New Mexico is the primary driver of the rising US market. The oil and gas production is expected to continue its growth, along with renewables, which, in turn, increases the drilling activities and liner hangers market in the United States. The above factors are expected to drive the liner hangers market, during the forecast period.



Liner Hangers Market Major Players



Halliburton.

Schlumberger Limited.

Weatherford.

Baker Hughes Incorporated.

National Oilwell Varco.

NCS Multistage, LLC.

Well Innovation AS.

Innovex Downhole Solutions.

Allomon Tool Company Inc.

Sonovex Technology.



Key Developments in the Liner Hangers Market:

- August 2107: TIW's XPak Expandable Liner Hanger System was used to successfully hang an 18-5/8-in. OD liner in 24-in. OD, electric-resistance weld (ERW) seamed casing. The system design eliminated a two-stage cement job in unstable formations and provided greater well control.

- January 2017: Packers Plus Energy Services Inc. has announced the launch of its PrimeSET Liner Hanger system. Its innovative anti-preset feature ensures reliability and performance, resulting in time and cost savings for operators.



Reasons to Purchase Liner Hangers Market Report:

- Current and future liner hangers market outlook in the developed and emerging markets

- Analyzing various perspectives of the market with the help of Porter's five forces analysis

- The segment that is expected to dominate the market

- Regions that are expected to witness fastest growth during the forecast period

- Identify the latest developments, market share, and strategies employed by the major market players.

- 3-month analyst support, along with the Market Estimate sheet (in Excel)



Customize Liner Hangers Market Report:

- This report can be customized to meet your requirements. Please connect with our representative, who will ensure that you to get a report that suits your needs.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05778117/?utm_source=PRN



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Nurse Hu Jing (L) embraces a colleague before leaving for Wuhan of Hubei Province in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team pose for a group photo before leaving for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team head to Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team prepare to leave for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team prepare to leave for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Workers check medical supplies to be shipped with a medical team at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team prepare to leave for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team pose for a group photo before leaving for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team prepare to leave for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]

Members of a medical team pose for a group photo before leaving for Wuhan of Hubei Province at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 26, 2020. A 121-member medical team, organized by the National Health Commission, left Beijing for Wuhan Sunday afternoon to aid the coronavirus control efforts there. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei]
Brandons Central United Church is facing some difficult times, and the congregation is meeting in March to discuss how, or even if, it can continue as a viable entity.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Brandons Central United Church is facing some difficult times, and the congregation is meeting in March to discuss how, or even if, it can continue as a viable entity.

In an undated letter sent out to church members and adherents, a copy of which was obtained by The Brandon Sun, the churchs leadership team said the church is seeing a shrinking congregation, with an average of 75 to 100 people out of a possible 300 members attending Sunday worship, and fewer and fewer volunteers stepping up to handle increased workloads.

As well, Sunday school has been disbanded and there is no longer any young adults attending, the letter said.

The Eighth Street church is also facing financial difficulties, with yearly givings in decline.

"For the past few years, we have had to largely deplete most of the money from our CIBC savings accounts to meet expenses," the letter reads, adding increased revenue from Cities Church and other rentals have helped cover expenses during the past year, and all of the churches groups and committees have tried to keep budget requirements to a minimum.

"However, ministers and staff have to be paid, and an aging building has to be maintained and serviced. Costs continue to increase."

The letter notes the Enduring Gift Investment fund is intact and has been paying an average of $12,000 a year into the church account.

"If we find it necessary to access that fund to pay salaries and expenses that interest revenue will continue to decrease. With no change in funding, it will be increasingly difficult to remain viable."

The lack of volunteers is of even greater concern, the letter reads.

"Some members who have been serving faithfully in many positions for many years have faced increased responsibilities requiring large commitments of time and energy. They are tired. Few others have been willing to take up these positions, which are essential to the running of the church."

It goes on to state, "Unless we are able to recruit a number of vibrant and committed volunteers, we will not be able to continue as a congregation past the end of 2020."

It said the alternative is to turn the work over to a costly paid management and financial team to keep the building open.

Reached at home on Saturday, Rev. Doug Craig refused to comment on the letter or the difficulties faced by the church.

"I dont want to talk about it," he said.

Past chairman Richard Schraeder also declined to comment on Central Uniteds current woes, not wanting to jeopardize the survey that he and other members of the church are currently distributing to the congregation.

"Were just canvasing the congregants to make sure that were still doing the proper things, being that times are changing," he said on Sunday. "So until the surveys done Id rather not have any comment on it."

The church opened in 1988.

An article in the Sun from March 2019 noted a building fund campaign was launched to raise $20,000 needed to expand the stage in the 850-seat sanctuary, which hosts many community events, including performances by large groups such as the Brandon Community Orchestra and Westman Youth Choir.

In an interview with the Sun at the time, church chairman Bryan Schettler said the congregation was asked what things they would like to see happen in the church. The stage expansion was fourth on the list.

The churchs annual meeting will be held March 22, and the congregation will be asked for their input. In the meantime, the members are asked to send their suggestions and ideas to the leadership team secretary.

 brobertson@brandonsun.com, with files from Kyle Darbyson
The diamond sector is ready to embrace a new decade and overcome some of its historical challenges. Ethical sourcing has proven to be undoubtedly one of the main aspects that industry professionals need to address.

Antonio Cecere, President of Geneva Diamond Exchange and Founder of Monaco Diamond Exchange, is one of the foremost contributors to the efforts made in the past decade to a conflict-free diamond trade.

Here, Rough & Polished spoke to Antonio Cecere to understand more about the signs of progress made; his vision for the future and the importance of the incorporation of Diamonds Standard Organization (DSO).

Some excerpts:

Since Rough&Polished featured you in April 2019, Geneva Diamond Exchange and Monaco Diamond Exchange are now registered NGOs of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. What does this mean for you?

This is without a doubt a fundamental recognition for the progress we have made with both the Swiss and the Monegasque market regulators and it rewards our efforts in promoting a conflict-free diamond trade. Our objective remains that to control the afflux of conflict diamonds in mainstream markets and to this purpose, we now fully endorse Diamonds Standards Organization (DSO) so to extend our efforts to polished diamonds.

Consumers have increasingly become aware of ethical sourcing and conflict-free diamonds. Can you explain how Diamonds Standards Organization is going to contribute to eradicating this problem, and how will this impact the diamond sector?

I believe that Diamonds Standards Organization, a non-profit Swiss entity, will have a profound effect on the global trade and its certification system will reassure consumers and protect professionals. Recent market research showed how customers do not feel confident about the provenance of the gemstones when they purchase jewelry. Millennials purchasing power is now increasing and their level of awareness about sustainability and ethical sourcing has no precedent compared to the previous generations.

Therefore, informing customers has become a priority and a necessity for retailers and dealers alike. Historically, there is a fracture between rough and polished diamonds' ethical certification. Consequently, DSO realized that it had to link polished diamonds to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme by connecting every layer of the supply chain to reach consumers.

How does the DSO Certification process work?

Similarly to KPCS, the solution starts by certifying the professionals that deal with conflict-free diamonds. The DSO certification is designed to inform end-customers; the retailers and the jewelry manufacturers that are DSO members need to ensure that they purchase their stock from dealers that are DSO certified or that source their stock exclusively from cutters that are KPC compliant/DSO certified. Kimberley certification, although voluntary, is already incorporated in the international trade regulations of over 80 countries. Therefore, the most difficult aspect of control and regulation is already accomplished. DSO educates end-customers to complete purchases that conform to the ethical standards set by Kimberley.

To achieve this, industry-wide support is essential and in return, the benefit is immense for the whole sector because customers confidence can be finally reinstated and the purchasing barrier is overcome.

Is DSO certification limited to the professionals or can it be extended to the gemstones as well?

The idea behind DSO is similar to ISO (International Standards Organization) which sets the standards on general products and processes. DSO certified professionals can issue DSO certificates to their stock. DSO diamonds certificates also inform customers on their purchase in regards to whether the gemstone is natural or synthetic/lab-grown; although laboratory certified diamonds already inform customers on this aspect, the jewels are often set with smaller uncertified diamonds and DSO certification will surely help customers to understand this difference.

Is DSO certification conceived to replace laboratory certifications?

No, on the contrary, it is an extension of certification like GIA and it focuses on the ethical aspect of a diamond. At the same time, GIA produces testing machinery to help professionals to independently assess and differentiate synthetic and natural diamonds set on a jewel. Therefore, the use of a DSO certificate to reassure a customer on the results of such tests plays an essential role. I met with Steven Morisseau, GIA director of corporate communication, who showed me the ID100 Tester and its application to identify non-natural diamonds that are already set on a jewel. Now, a DSO certified professional can issue a certificate after a successful test.

Wrapping up, do you see the global diamond industry returning to its erstwhile confident status going forward, despite the LBDs threat?

Consumer behavior and buying patterns changed, but some fundamentals remain valid and a luxury purchase is completed for three reasons: gifting, status and self-reward. Therefore, for as long as the customers have the choice and the financial ability, they will still choose to purchase a natural diamond over a synthetic diamond.

The problem exists with small diamonds set on jewelry that are not laboratory certified and are sold as natural gemstones; however, times have changed and so have customers, especially millennials who ask for greater reassurance when they complete a purchase. If a retailer (or its supplier) has tested the product and issued a DSO certificate, then in my view we overcame the obstacle and we re-established confidence in customers. The cost of a natural-diamond testing machine is very affordable and it can be operated by any shop manager in seconds.

With regards to larger lab-grown diamonds, both De Beers and Swarovski produce synthetic diamonds and they will invest in branding; this will create a new market of branded diamonds that will win some market share from other gemstones and crystals in that price range rather than from natural diamonds. What I mean by this is that if a customer has enough money to buy an aquamarine, he or she can now buy a synthetic diamond, but he or she was never a natural diamond customer.

I am confident that the industry will return to its former glory, it is simply a matter of adjusting to a new era and embracing change rather than fearing it.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
Searing heat and thunderstorms are set to sweep the state later this week, with warnings of a return to temperatures above 40 degrees putting fire-ravaged areas of Victoria back on high alert.

Most of East Gippsland is forecast to hit temperatures in the high 30s on Friday, while Albury is set to experience two days over 40 degrees on Friday and Saturday. Melbourne won't escape the sweltering heat, with 37 degrees forecast for Thursday and a humid top of 41 expected on Friday.

Bushfire damage is seen near Tambo Crossing beside the Great Alpine road in the Victorian high country. The route was reopened on Monday. Credit:AAP

"Unstable" storms and a cool change on Saturday will bring thunder, lightning and stronger south-westerly winds, according the Bureau of Meteorology.

Victoria's fire authorities are now working to reinforce containment lines, with 10 fires still burning across the state, eight of those in East Gippsland.
Apple has come up with a way to control objects in augmented and virtual reality, according to a recently approved patent.

The system involves a touch sensor mounted on a users finger and can also be used to remotely control devices like iPhones and HomePod speakers  or potential AR or VR devices that may come in the future.

Apple filed the Computer Systems with Finger Devices application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last year but it was only just approved last week.

There is no indication of whether the tech giant plans to develop it. Apple typically does not comment on rumours or unreleased products.

The patent filing describes how finger input from a user may be used to manipulate virtual objects in a mixed reality or virtual reality environment while a haptic output device in a finger device provides associate haptic output.

Apples patent describes a device that can manipulate virtual objects in a mixed reality or virtual reality environment (USPTO)

The patent also describes how a variety of sensors could be used to understand a users intent, including force sensors, ultrasonic sensors and optical sensors.

A user may interact with real-world objects while computer-generated content is overlaid over some or all of the objects, the patent explains.

Object rotations and other movements may be converted into input for mixed reality or virtual reality systems.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. 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The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently described augmented reality as the next big thing in consumer technology, and will pervade our entire lives within five or 10 years.

Speaking in Dublin last week, Mr Cook said AR could be used in everything from video games, to overlaying instruction guides into a persons field of vision.

He also hinted that AR technology may have more practical use cases than virtual reality, which completely takes people away from the real world.

I think its something that doesnt isolate people, he said. We can use it to enhance our discussion, not substitute it for human connection, which Ive always deeply worried about in some of the other technologies.

Though currently only the iPhone and iPad are able to show AR experiences, Apple is rumoured to have been working on its own augmented reality glasses.
A 12-year-old girl horrifically injured by a drink driver in the same crash that killed her mother today begged the Government to ban motorists from consuming any alcohol before getting behind the wheel.

Fraya Cunningham - who broke almost every bone in her body during the head-on smash caused by a serial offender - said there should be a zero tolerance approach to boozing before driving.

Now she has bravely released heart-breaking pictures of her two-month stay in hospital, where she spent 10 days in a coma, in a bid to show the public 'what a drink driver has done to me'.

Fraya Cunningham - who broke almost every bone in her body during the head-on smash caused by a serial offender - asked for photos of her in hospital to be released

'I want to show pictures of me now and before the crash, to show what drink drivers can do to people,' she said.

'I want the world to see what kind of damage drink drivers cause. No-one should drink and drive.'

Adam White - who was twice the legal limit - careered headfirst into the Cunninghams car while speeding past a truck.

White had six previous convictions for 17 offences - three of which were for drink driving - yet he still wasnt banned from the roads.

Fraya's mother Katy, 46, was killed as her car flipped over on impact - and Fraya and brother Zackeri, then eight, were admitted into intensive care.

Fraya beat the odds to survive after suffering heart failure and spending 10 days in a coma, but had to use a wheelchair for months and will be scarred for life. Zackeri broke his neck and spine.

Fraya now wants the world to see her injuries, and has begged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to introduce a zero alcohol limit for drivers.

England and Wales has one of the laxest drink drive limits in the world.

The crash killed her mother, Katy, 46, and injured her brother, Zackeri (pictured with their father, Kris)

Yet in 2017 - the latest figures available - deaths due to drunk driving hit an eight-year high.

Around 250 people were killed in accidents that year when at least one person was over the alcohol limit.

Just a month ago, road safety charity Brake urged the Government to introduce a zero tolerance alcohol limit for drivers.

Joshua Harris, director of campaigns, said: 'Our current drink-drive limit gives a false impression that it is acceptable to mix alcohol and driving - which couldn't be further from the truth.

'Decisive action is needed to end this blight on our roads and prevent the needless loss of life.

'A zero-tolerance drink drive limit is a proven effective solution, making clear to drivers that not a drop of alcohol is safe.'

It is hoped that this would put off dangerous motorists like White - who told police he was doing Dry January so couldn't be drunk.

White was jailed nine years at Peterborough Crown Court last week.

Serial offender Adam White admitted to drinking a pint of cider before getting behind the wheel

After telling police hed stopped drinking alcohol as a New Year's resolution he later admitted he'd drunk a pint of cider before the crash which killed Mrs Cunningham.

The serial offender - who was caught drink driving again just five months after the death crash - could be out in just four-and-a-half years.

And this has left devastated Fraya and Zak's father Kris Cunningham who says there is no justice for the death of his wife and life-changing injuries to his children.

He wants MPs to urgently pass a new law which bans motorists from drinking any booze at all.

'If the pictures of Fraya and Zackeri's injuries in hospital save just two people then that's a positive,' Mr Cunningham, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, said.

'To see your daughter lying there with more parts of her body broken than fixed is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

'Her stomach was left open for eight days, her arteries had ripped. I look at her now and I still can't believe she's here.

'She wanted to see these pictures of herself, while she was recovering to fight harder.

'I'm a firm believer in no alcohol for drivers - these laws must change. Alcohol affects everybody differently. We are now paying the price for the rest of our lives.'

Fraya was so horrifically injured that Mr Cunningham was forced to take photos of his daughter to prepare relatives for seeing her in hospital.

He was told she had died several times in the ambulance before reaching intensive care.

'The first thought in my mind was about how I would tell my little boy that not only his mother's dead, but his sister's dead,' the 37-year-old, originally from Cupar, in Scotland, remembered.

'It was like an out of body experience - I was watching myself thinking.'

Zackeri, nine, Kris, Katy and Fraya (left to right) in a family photo taken before the tragic incident

When Fraya arrived at hospital, she was immediately surrounded by 40 doctors and nurses.

'I was told she had a 10 per cent chance of survival,' Mr Cunningham said. 'We were taking it hour by hour, as we thought we would lose her.

'So every hour she was here was a bonus.'

Fraya was covered in bruises, had two black eyes, her arms were in plaster and she had tubes all over her body.

Her father explained: 'You can't describe what it feels like to look at your daughter there, with plasters on her eyes to stop her eyes drying up.

'There was nothing there. They had to drill into her head to release pressure on her brain.'

When Zackeri came out of intensive care, he wanted to see his sister.

Mr Cunningham had shown him a photo of Fraya - who was unrecognisable - to prepare him for the horror.

'Until Fraya started showing signs of coming out of her coma he hardly said a word at all,' he said.

'He's suffered a lot with guilt, seeing Fraya with all these broken bones and plaster casts.'

Doctors initially said Fraya had a 10 percent chance of survival, but she defied the odds to leave hospital before using a wheelchair

Fraya spent two months in Addenbroke's Hospital, Cambridge, where her father said the care was incredible.

White was twice the legal limit when he tried to speed past a lorry at 73mph along a single lane road, near Crowland, Lincolnshire, on January 23 last year.

He forced a car to veer off the road, and in the resulting melee his van careered into Mrs Cunningham's car.

The impact blasted the family's Peugeot up in the air, and it crashed down upside down.

Mrs Cunningham died at the scene and if the car had rolled just millimetres more Zackeri and Fraya would have also been killed.

They were found by paramedics covered in blood.

Mr Cunningham was only five cars in front of his wife and children - yet only found out hours later of the tragedy that had unfolded behind.

'He's destroyed everybody who knew Katy,' he said. 'She was the most loving person going, and the best mother I could ever hope for.

'She longed for it for so long, and she deserved more than that.'

Despite being well over the limit, it took police almost a year to arrest White in December 2019.

Just five months after the fatal crash, the serial drink driver was actually caught driving under the influence.

Mrs Cunningham died at the scene and if the car had rolled just millimetres more Zackeri and Fraya (pictured together in hospital) would have also been killed

What is the drink-drive limit in England and Wales and how does it compare to other countries? England, Wales and Northern Ireland's drink-drive limit is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. This cannot be exactly measured into units or drinks, as it depends on a number of factors including gender, weight and how quickly someone absorbs alcohol. But it is likely that two pints of regular-strength lager or two small glasses of wine would put you over the limit. It takes around two hours for a pint to leave your system and four hours for a large glass of wine. England, Wales and Northern Ireland have the highest alcohol limit in the EU, and one of the highest in the world. In Scotland, the limit was reduced to 50 milligrams per 100ml of blood in 2014, so just one drink would put you over. This is the same as the majority of Europe, with Spain, Italy and France all having the 50 mg threshold. South Africa, Thailand and Argentina all also have lower drink-drive limits than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Several countries allow motorists to consume the same amount of alcohol as England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and these include the USA, Canada and New Zealand. A recent European Transport Safety Council report estimated thousands of lives could be saved by a zero tolerance limit. Advertisement

It wasn't until after he was convicted of that crime that police eventually charged the father-of-six with Mrs Cunningham's death.

'Ultimately this delay could have cost another life,' Mr Cunningham said. 'I think everybody is very, very lucky that it didn't.'

White, 38, of Spalding, Lincolnshire, admitted to causing death by dangerous driving and three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Peterborough Crown Court.

His string of previous convictions, between 2008 and 2019, were read out in court.

The vast majority were motoring offences, including four times driving under the influence of alcohol.

He was also convicted three times of driving while disqualified and uninsured.

The serial offender also previously admitted failing to stop at an accident, failing to provide a specimen and aggravated vehicle taking.

Mr Cunningham called the sentence 'pathetic', adding: 'You can't move on from it because there's no closure there.'

Fraya spent two months in Addenbroke's Hospital, Cambridge, where her father said the care was incredible

Judge Matthew Lowe blasted White - who cried in the dock - for his crocodile tears.

He initially handed down a 13-year sentence, but had to take four years off for his guilty plea.

The maximum jail term for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years.

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced he wanted to extend this to life imprisonment.
The first phase of polling for panchayat bodies in Chhattisgarh will be held on Tuesday amid tight security.

The voting will cover some areas falling in Naxal- affected districts.

"Preparations have been made for the first phase of polling for posts of 36,473 ward panch, 4,620 sarpanch, 1,144 janpad panchayat member and 167 posts of zila panchayat members," State Election Commissioner Thakur Ram Singh said at a press conference here on Monday.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for peaceful conduct of the polling, he said.

In the first phase, a total of 61,74,224 voters - 30,85,320 males, 30,88,835 females and 69 of the third gender - spread across 847 gram panchayats in 57 development blocks will be eligible to exercise their franchise, he said.

For this leg, 12,572 polling booths have been set up and polling parties have started reaching their respective destinations, he added.

The first round of the three-phase three-tier Panchayati Raj elections would decide the fate of 1,16,776 candidates, he said.

The polling time in the insurgency-hit Dantewada, Sukma, Narayanpur and Bijapur districts and Jagdalpur, Lohandiguda, Bastanar and Darbha blocks of Bastar district, Antagarh, Kayalibeda, Bhanupratappur and Durgukondal blocks of Kanker district will be from 6.45 AM to 2 PM because of Naxal threat. Elsewhere, voting will be held from 7 AM to 3 PM.

According to police, Naxals in remote villages of Bastar had recently put up posters calling for a boycott of the panchayat polls.

In view of this, additional security arrangements have been made at polling booths in sensitive locations, while patrolling has been intensified in the forests of Bastar division, they said.

The second and third phase of polling is scheduled for January 31 and February 3, respectively. Paper ballots are being used in these elections.

Counting will be held in respective polling booths soon after polling is over in each phase, Singh said.

However, if it is deemed necessary to carry out counting at block headquarters in case of any issue then such enumeration of votes will be held at block headquarters on January 29, February 1 and February 4, for first, second and third phases respectively, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Could TraWell Co S.p.A. (BIT:TWL) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. If you are hoping to live on your dividends, it's important to be more stringent with your investments than the average punter. Regular readers know we like to apply the same approach to each dividend stock, and we hope you'll find our analysis useful.

TraWell Co yields a solid 5.3%, although it has only been paying for two years. A high yield probably looks enticing, but investors are likely wondering about the short payment history. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on TraWell Co!

BIT:TWL Historical Dividend Yield, January 27th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. In the last year, TraWell Co paid out 95% of its profit as dividends. This is quite a high payout ratio that suggests the dividend is not well covered by earnings.

We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. TraWell Co's cash payout ratio last year was 19%, which is quite low and suggests that the dividend was thoroughly covered by cash flow. It's good to see that while TraWell Co's dividends were not well covered by profits, at least they are affordable from a free cash flow perspective. Even so, if the company were to continue paying out almost all of its profits, we'd be concerned about whether the dividend is sustainable in a downturn.

We update our data on TraWell Co every 24 hours, so you can always get our latest analysis of its financial health, here.

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Dividend Volatility

Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. The company has been paying a stable dividend for a few years now, but we'd like to see more evidence of consistency over a longer period. During the past two-year period, the first annual payment was 1.95 in 2018, compared to 2.05 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 2.5% a year over that time.

It's good to see at least some dividend growth. Yet with a relatively short dividend paying history, we wouldn't want to depend on this dividend too heavily.

Dividend Growth Potential

Dividend payments have been consistent over the past few years, but we should always check if earnings per share (EPS) are growing, as this will help maintain the purchasing power of the dividend. It's good to see TraWell Co has been growing its earnings per share at 55% a year over the past five years. The company has been growing its EPS at a very rapid rate, while paying out virtually all of its income as dividends. While EPS could grow fast enough to make the dividend sustainable, in this type of situation, we'd want to pay extra attention to any fragilities in the company's balance sheet.

We'd also point out that TraWell Co issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Trying to grow the dividend when issuing new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill. Companies that consistently issue new shares are often suboptimal from a dividend perspective.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. We're a bit uncomfortable with its high payout ratio, although at least the dividend was covered by free cash flow. Next, earnings growth has been good, but unfortunately the company has not been paying dividends as long as we'd like. Ultimately, TraWell Co comes up short on our dividend analysis. It's not that we think it is a bad company - just that there are likely more appealing dividend prospects out there on this analysis.

See if management have their own wealth at stake, by checking insider shareholdings in TraWell Co stock.

Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Motorola made a stylish comeback last year with its unique and interesting range of Motorola One devices, ending the year with a bang with its new Razr folding phone. Motorola has said that it was only the start as the brand looks to regain its position in the smartphone space this year with more premium and flagship-grade phones. Leaks have already suggested a Motorola Edge Plus coming this year and now, there's another phone that will get a stylus.

Yes, a Motorola device with a stylus, similar to the one from Samsung's Galaxy Note series devices. Tipster Evan Blass has shared an image of a new Motorola smartphone that flaunts a stylus. The image is an official render and that suggests the device could be unveiled at the upcoming MWC 2020. Blass rules out this device being the Edge Plus flagship, which raises a high possibility of this being a new midrange device for 2020.

The image shared by Blass shows the Motorola phone from the front with its stylus placed against the display. Unlike the stylus on the Samsung phones, this one only appears to have a rubber tip and hence, you can expect this phone not feature the same smart features as the Samsung Note devices. The phone itself looks quite similar to the One Vision from last year, with a single punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera and narrow bezels all around. Even the chin is slightly thick.

However, Motorola seems to be using an AMOLED display as the cutout for the front camera is smaller while the bezels are slimmer than the older models. The phone is shown running on the stock Android interface that looks familiar to the ROMs seen on its G series phones.

Source: Evan Blass

None of the specifications has been revealed yet but it seems that Motorola might put this phone in the same segment as the Motorola One Hyper and One Zoom. The phone could most possibly be restricted to a few markets and positioned as a premium Motorola device.

The stylus equipped Motorola phone may find its name in MWC 2020 but Motorola is currently busy staging a launch of the Razr for most of its global markets. In India, Motorola has put the Razr up for pre-orders but definite launch date has been revealed for this handset yet.
Greenwich Land Trust is hosting its annual Maple Sugar Day Saturday, Feb. 22, featuring hands-on demonstrations, candy crafting, arts & crafts and more.

Attendees will be able to take a walk through Greenwich Land Trusts scenic Mueller Preserve and watch how to tap a maple tree and make their own syrup. Theyll also learn about the biology of these trees, how syrup factored into the history of American independence.

The tradition of tapping maple trees for sap has been around for hundreds of years and is an important part of the local regions history, dating back to the indigenous people of the Northeast and adopted by incoming European colonists, according to a news release.

Wood fired pizza from Dough Girls food truck will be available, as well as maple candy and other treats.
Inclusion awards

Three ACEC Washington firms have taken home the associations Excellence in Inclusion Award. The award honors ACEC member firms that are champions in advancing diversity and fostering a culture of inclusion within their workforce, their teams and the clients they serve.

Applicants were judged on corporate commitment, workforce diversity and business diversity.

MIDSIZE FIRMS

KBA

KBA actively practices a culture of inclusion and looks for opportunities to reach out and engage small and disadvantaged firms. The companys engagement practices include keeping an active roster of S/DBE subs and their services, attending industry events aimed at S/DBE inclusion, soliciting S/DBE subs on its website, and actively seeking out formal mentorship roles.

KBA seeks to include women and minorities into its recruiting, training and promotional practices. Both women and minorities are represented in firm leadership positions.

Another way KBA helps promote inclusion is by offering internships to college students and recent graduates. KBA had three such paid positions in 2019, two of which were filled by women/minorities.

In 2018, KBA utilized 18 S/DBE firms for a total of more than $1.2 million, representing 8.5% of the companys gross revenue.

KBA has a standard policy of offering one-on-one business leadership mentoring to the leadership of all its subconsultants. KBA makes this commitment in all teaming agreements and highlights it in its proposals.

Coughlin Porter Lundeen

This past year, Coughlin Porter Lundeen developed a program around bystander intervention. Learning objectives include promoting a culture of shared responsibility for the well-being of the workplace, increasing awareness of questionable or unacceptable workplace behavior, and increasing knowledge and skills for employees to effectively intervene when they recognize behavior, language or interactions that are questionable or problematic.

The company encourages both formal and informal mentoring, and recently launched a program that supports this by introducing company-funded coffee cards that staff can use to invite their mentor or project manager to coffee. This provides staff a way to engage and take more ownership of their career progression through spontaneous conversation.

Nearly half of Coughlin Porter Lundeens engineers with less than 10 years of experience are women. The company-endorsed Womens Leadership Group determines priorities, gathers feedback, and works to understand how to create a better workplace environment for this large group.

Coughlin Porter Lundeen offers an enhanced intern program that reaches far beyond errands and filing. The firms goal is to give interns a realistic and comprehensive understanding of the architecture/engineering/construction industry while allowing them to explore the areas of engineering that interest them the most.

LARGE FIRM

HNTB (Bellevue office)

HNTB promotes diversity through its work with several partner organizations.

Once a month, a group of HNTB engineers from the Bellevue office shares their career experiences and presents on different topics to students from Franklin High School in Seattle and Sammamish High School in Bellevue. This group recently sponsored a WTS field trip that highlighted some of the firms major projects to high school girls interested in pursuing this field as a career.

HNTB is active in other groups that advocate for employment diversity, including the Washington chapter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, Tabor 100, and the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship organization.

HNTB is committed to diverse representation at all levels of its office in Washington state and throughout the firm. As part of this commitment, HNTB Bellevue has established a senior-level task force dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion.

HNTB offers flexible work arrangements and creative benefits. For instance, several leaders within HNTB allow employees to work flexible or part-time hours with prorated benefits, including health insurance and the accrual of paid time off for vacation.





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Washington, Jan 27 : The body of a female Indian-American student, who was reported missing since January 21, was found in a lake in the state of Indiana, it was reported.

The 21-year-old victim, Annrose Jerry, a student of the University of Notre Dame, reports The American Bazaar.

The body was fished out from the St. Mary's Lake on Friday and an external examination of showed no signs of trauma, according to a coroner.

A source close to Jerry's family told the American Bazaar that when the body was recovered, her phone and earbuds were intact, adding that most likely she might have accidentally fallen into the lake, while taking a walk or jogging.

A senior, Jerry was set to graduate from Notre Dame this year. She was a science-business major and had hopes of going to dental school.

In a statement, the University of Notre Dame offered condolences to Jerry's family.

Jerry was born in Ernakulum, Kerala, India, and immigrated to the US in the early 2000s, along with her family.

Her father Jerry James is an information technology professional and mother Reny Jerry is a dentist.
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The former national security adviser John Bolton proved over the weekend why he's President Donald Trump's worst nightmare as Trump battles a snowballing Senate impeachment trial.

Citing an unpublished manuscript of Bolton's upcoming book, The New York Times reported on Sunday that Bolton claimed Trump personally told him last year that he would withhold military aid from Ukraine until it launched a politically motivated investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.

The revelation shatters Trump's biggest defense in the impeachment inquiry: that there are no firsthand witnesses who can directly confirm that he engaged in a quid pro quo regarding Ukraine.

It also boxes in Republican senators who have been against calling new witnesses in Trump's trial.

Trump disputed Bolton's reported claim, tweeting that he had no such conversation with the former national security adviser. But Bolton is said to be a meticulous note-taker, significantly bolstering his credibility as a firsthand witness.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the months since Congress launched its impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, there has been widespread speculation that the former national security adviser John Bolton could be Trump's worst nightmare if he decided to testify in the House's impeachment hearings or the Senate's trial.

This weekend, Bolton proved why.

The New York Times on Sunday published a bombshell report that in an unpublished manuscript for his upcoming book, Bolton claimed that Trump personally told him last year that he would withhold military aid to Ukraine until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acceded to his demands for politically motivated investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Specifically, Trump demanded that Zelensky investigate unfounded allegations of corruption against Biden, a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and his son Hunter, related to the younger Biden's employment on the board of the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings. The president also wanted Zelensky to investigate a discredited conspiracy theory suggesting Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election.

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The president and his allies have repeatedly claimed that his decision to freeze Ukraine's aid had nothing to do with his demands for investigations. Instead, they said, Trump was concerned about European burden-sharing and corruption in Ukraine.

"This is a firsthand account of a conversation with Trump himself, from a highly respected public servant in the conservative foreign policy community," Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and an expert in criminal law, told Insider. "It is devastating to Trump's legal defense."

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Justice Department, echoed that view.

Bolton's revelation "directly contradicts Trump's absurd defense on the facts," he said. "The Senate can hear the story as part of their responsibilities, or they can hear it on Bolton's book tour."

So far, the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to vote on whether to call new witnesses, like Bolton, in the president's impeachment trial. But his revelation that the president, in a face-to-face conversation, confirmed a quid pro quo  security assistance in exchange for a personal, political favor  makes it nearly impossible for the GOP to ignore.

"There is no excuse for not seeking Bolton's testimony," Cramer said. He added that Trump could invoke executive privilege to bar his former national security adviser from appearing before the Senate, in which case it would go to the courts.

Any president can reasonably expect that they can have candid conversations with advisers without the substance of those conversations being publicly revealed. However, Cramer said, executive privilege doesn't extend to potential abuse of power  one of the articles of impeachment against Trump  and when the evidence is stacked against the president.

Indeed, more than a dozen current and former US officials have testified to Congress, under oath, about Trump's months-long effort to pressure Ukraine to cave to his demands while withholding military aid and dangling a White House meeting Zelensky desperately sought.

In the White House's summary of the July 25 phone call at the center of the impeachment inquiry, Trump repeatedly asked his Ukrainian counterpart to deliver the investigations he wanted. He made the demands immediately after Zelensky indicated Ukraine was ready for more US military aid.

"It would be easier if Trump simply asked for an envelope full of cash," Cramer said. "He didn't need the cash. He needed the announcement of an investigation."

Bolton's reported claim about his conversation with Trump, which he said took place last August, also shatters the key defense the president's lawyers have put forward in his impeachment trial: There are no firsthand witnesses who can testify that Trump himself confirmed a quid pro quo with Ukraine.

"Not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting or anything else," the deputy White House counsel Michael Purpura told the Senate on Saturday.

Bolton's reported claim also adds a significant data point to what Democrats have said is an "overwhelming" body of evidence against the president.

Trump, for his part, denied he ever told Bolton he would withhold Ukraine's aid until Zelensky gave in to his demands.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," the president tweeted. "In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."

But it may not be so easy for Trump to write Bolton off.

The former national security adviser was not only a high-profile figure in Trump's inner circle, but a meticulous note-taker. Bolton is said to have created detailed documents of significant meetings and interactions  known as contemporaneous memos  and such notes are considered admissible evidence in a court of law.

It's unclear whether enough Republicans will budge on whether to call witnesses in Trump's trial in light of The Times' reporting. But it is clear that at the very least, this throws the Senate's proceedings into uncharted territory.

"The odds of deposition for new witnesses is certainly rising dramatically," one senior GOP official told The Washington Post after The Times' story broke.

"At this point, I think Democrats are going to focus on the need for Bolton's testimony and will not let go," Ohlin said. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah "will likely vote in favor of calling Bolton as a witness," he added, and "all eyes will shift" to Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Lamar Alexander, "all of whom will now be under immense pressure to vote for calling witnesses."

George Conway, a high-profile conservative lawyer married to the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, wrote in a Post op-ed article that while it was already clear that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukraine  confirmed in testimony from Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the European Union  Bolton's testimony on the matter "would make that devastating conclusion inescapable, even to Republican senators who have striven mightily to blind themselves to the obvious."

"From Trump on down, they all know how damning Bolton's testimony would be to Trump's defense," said Conway, who has frequently been critical of the president, adding: "If Bolton testifies to what's in his manuscript, these arguments, weak as they are, will collapse. The words will come from Trump's mouth, because Bolton will have put them there. The direct witness whose absence Trump's lawyers trumpeted will have appeared."

Read the original article on Business Insider
The governor of Ebonyi state, Chief David Umahi at the weekend revealed that Chinese Mandarin, Hindi and Climate Change will be compulso...

The governor of Ebonyi state, Chief David Umahi at the weekend revealed that Chinese Mandarin, Hindi and Climate Change will be compulsory subjects for students studying in Ebonyi colleges.





Umahi noted that the implementation of the said subjects will take effect from 28th January, 2020 as the academic activities resumes, but added that it is compulsory for students studying Entrepreneurship/ Business Development and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).





The governor who spoke through the Special Assistant on Vocational Education and Chief Executive Officer, Ebonyi State Vocational College, Princess Adaeze Nwaji Esq, made this known to newsmen in Abakaliki shortly after a courtesy call by a Chinese and Indian delegates.





He noted that the reasons for introducing Chinese languages as compulsory subjects is to boost business partnership between Ebonyi state and the Chinese government.





Umahi is the first governor in the south east geopolitical zone to introduce the Chinese languages as a compulsory subject in vocational colleges.





Available research has it that language is a veritable tool that enhances intercontinental communication and trades.





The above is the reason, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi deemed it necessary to include the study of Chinese Manderin, Hindi and Climate Change into the Curriculum of Ebonyi State Vocational College Abakaliki.





Recall that the governor had earlier declared that the Indian and Chinese partnerships would be occupying sixty percent(60%) of the ongoing shopping mall in the state upon its completion.





According to the governor, the space that would be occupied by Indian and Chinese people would be solely dedicated to production and display of most of the goods Nigerians import from China and India, thereby giving Ebonyians opportunity to learn the production processes of those goods.





 Entrepreneurs would be trained and empowered to do importation. And thats why the governor is introducing the study of Chinese manderin, Hindi and Climate change as compulsory in college, so as to make it easier for them to carry out their businesses without any form of language barrier .





She further said that: Those subjects are not just included, but are compulsory for students who apply to study Entrepreneurship/Business Development and Information and Communication Technology,ICT, she noted.




Cuba Sends Message of Solidarity to Australian People and Government

A message expressing deep sorrow in the wake of devastating fires in Australia was sent Wednesday by Esteban Lazo Hernandez, President of Cubas National Assembly and Council of State, to Tony Smith, Speaker of the countrys House of Representatives.

Australias forest fires have killed millions of animals and destroyed ecosystems. (Image: EFE)

On behalf of the National Assembly of Peoples Power, our people and myself, I wish to express our most sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, to the Australian Parliament and people given the damage caused by the incident, reads the letter published on the National Assemblys website.

Lazo lamented the loss of human life, harm to the nations ecosystem, the deaths of millions of animals and the severe economic damage caused by this major disaster.

Once again we witness with concern the harmful effects of climate change on our planet, causing great droughts, enormous fires with the destruction of millions of hectares of forests, melting ice and other phenomena that seriously threaten life, Lazo wrote.

His message joins that of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, who in a 7th January tweet reiterated Cubas solidarity with Australia, where fires have destroyed some six million hectares of forest and caused the deaths of at least twenty persons, noting the disaster as a consequence of climate change.

Cuba mourns and expresses our solidarity with Australias population who, on the smallest continent in the world, are suffering the consequences of climate change: six million hectares of forests burned and the death of twenty-five people and some 500 million animals, he wrote.

In another message Diaz-Canel stated: While all living species are fleeing in horror from the hell of Australias forests, the empire is fanning a terrible fire, putting the world on the brink of war. Fidel Castro asked, more than 40 years ago: What is the United Nations for? Today an answer is urgently needed.

Granma
Those filling out their tax returns ahead of the January self-assessment deadline this Friday and are looking to take advantage of their partner's unused allowance have reported surprise tax bills, but the taxman has told them to file their return anyway.

One reader, who wanted to remain anonymous, has taken advantage of his wife's annual marriage allowance since 2016, but this year was told when filling out a self-assessment form that he owed a surprise 238.

He told This is Money that the right level of tax had been rightly applied every year since then and an extra allowance from his wife successfully transferred, but this year this hadn't been the case.

One reader told This is Money someone at HMRC had said a number of people had reported issues with the marriage allowance

He said: 'While completing the online self-assessment I was asked if I had agreed a transfer of my allowance to my wife, but not if my wife had agreed a transfer to me.

'Once the assessment data has been input the system computes my tax liability. It has recognised my personal allowance, but not the agreed extra tax free allowance.

'It has therefore incorrectly calculated a higher tax charge that they insist is paid by 31 January.

'This was not an issue in prior years.'

He claims an HMRC staff member told him on the phone that others had been contacting the taxman about the problem, suggesting it could be causing problems.

The marriage allowance allows someone to transfer up to 1,250 of their Personal Allowance to their husband, wife or civil partner to reduce how much they have to pay in tax, if they earn more than the person making the transfer.

Once the transfer has been made the person in receipt of the allowance will see their tax code change to 'M'.

Someone who has transferred their personal allowance and is in employment will see their tax code change to 'N'.

Our reader told us their tax coding for the previous 2018-19 tax year had confirmed his wife had transferred part of her allowance to him, but when he tried completing his self-assessment return last week nowhere was he asked to confirm this arrangement and he was told he needed to pay an additional tax charge of 238.

According to a freedom of information request by insurer Royal London, around 460,000 people were overcharged on income tax in the 2018-19 tax year.

When This is Money contacted HMRC about our reader's issue, it said the taxman would cross-check with his wife once he had completed his own self-assessment that she had confirmed the transfer, and retrospectively apply relief.

However, it is unclear why this hadn't been the case in previous years, with our reader not previously experiencing problems.

An HMRC spokesperson said: 'The tax reduction that a recipient of Marriage Allowance receives is not taken into account until the self-assessment tax return is processed.

'When a return is processed by HMRC, the tax reduction will take effect in the calculation.'
On Sunday evening, The New York Times revealed that former national security adviser John Bolton, in the manuscript of his upcoming book, wrote that President Donald Trump had frozen $391 million in military aid to Ukraine specifically to pressure the countrys officials to announce investigations into the Biden family and a conspiracy theory about a Democratic Party email server. This was precisely what the presidents lawyers had begun arguing the day before, in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial, that Trump did not do.

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Where Bolton had been a potential impeachment witness who might hypothetically have something relevant to say about the presidents behavior, he is now a potential witness who almost certainly would have something to say. This is a problem for the Republican caucus, which has voted repeatedly to put off the question of whether to call witnesses till later in the proceedings. If the scheduled six days of opening statements were boring enough, and the Democratic impeachment managers were rude enough, it seemed likely the Republicans could wait it out, declare that theyd already seen enough, and agree to move on to acquittal.

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But now Bolton has made impeachment indisputably interesting. According to ABC, White House sources described the presidents legal team as gearing up for an aggressive, drawn out legal fight to block testimony of potential witnesses.

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Will Republicans have to fight anyone from their own party to keep this impeachment trial witness-free? On Monday, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, said it was increasingly likely that more GOP senators will open up to hearing Boltons testimony.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who is always almost ready to consider turning against Trump in any major controversy, put out a statement: The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues. She was, the statement said, likely to vote to call witnessespreserving, as usual, the option to vote the other way.

Collins tag-team partner in making gestures at moderation, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), tweeted that she had stated before that I was curious as to what John Bolton might have to say, and that the appropriate time for us to evaluate whether we need additional information was almost here.

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And the Washington Post reported Monday that Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick Toomey was sounding out colleagues about a one-for-one deal involving possibly summoning just two witnesses to President Trumps impeachment trial, with one called by Republicans and one by Democrats.

The bulk of the Republicans, though, have failed to back away from the original plan to keep witnesses entirely off the table.

Some appeared to be stalling. Indiana Sen. Mike Braun told MSNBC he doesnt question Boltons integrity, but also doesnt believe the case has been made against the president: Now a snippet of what is probably going to be in the book has been released and well all have to size that up and see what we thinkhow it impacts our own decision and what we do with more information.

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.@SenatorBraun reacts to breaking news from the New York Times on an unpublished manuscript from John Bolton, in which he claims the president tied Ukraine aid to investigations he sought:@Kasie: Do you question John Bolton's integrity?@SenatorBraun: No, but... pic.twitter.com/J5RoZ8Ul1m  Kasie DC (@KasieDC) January 27, 2020

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South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham insisted that he needs to know more about Boltons manuscript itself before he can make a decision on whether the author should testify.

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.@LindseyGrahamSC suggests he wants the WH to give the Senate the BOLTON manuscript so he can decide if Bolton needs to testify: I want to see the manuscript... or have somebody tell us whats in the manuscript... apparently the White House has it. You can ask for it.  Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) January 27, 2020

Others went on the offensive. Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler accused Romney of bowing to Democrats:

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After 2 weeks, its clear that Democrats have no case for impeachment. Sadly, my colleague @SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is over. Its time to move on! #gapol  Senator Kelly Loeffler (@SenatorLoeffler) January 27, 2020

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We learned nothing new, nothing new, said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, per Politico. What weve now seen is a selective leak from a book. This is like Kavanaugh all over again.

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Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said he is still of the view that the Houses job is to put the case together and they didnt do that, while Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy encouraged everyone to pop a Zoloft and cited the ongoing circular problem that because the presidents associates are so unsavory, its impossible to trust what they say about the president.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy says were halfway through the trial so we should pop a Zoloft and take our meds.



He said he isnt sure whether he believes Parnas and Bolton. Allegations, he said, would be more believable if they were coming from someone else.  Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 27, 2020

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South Dakota Sen. John Thune said he doesnt think Boltons testimony changes the facts.

Thune on Bolton revelations: I dont think it changes the facts. ... I dont personally see it as a game changer.  Erica Werner (@ericawerner) January 27, 2020

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Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley questioned whether Bolton, who claims to have had a conversation with the President about Ukraine, was even a firsthand witness.

Why wouldnt the Senate want to hear from a firsthand witness?



Sen. Josh Hawley: Well, I dont know. Is he a firsthand witness? Im not sure.  Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) January 27, 2020

If the presidents defenders have expanded their ever-growing definition of hearsay to include someone describing a direct conversation with the president, it seems that the only witness who could possibly shed light on the impeachment would be Donald Trump himself.
As the Long Beach Unified School District commits to keeping classes in-person, the city a new testing site opens for LBUSD employees and students only. The city is also ramping up its own testing efforts with a new 3,000-person per day testing site.
Two incidents of accidental cash-burning were reported, while thieves tried to break open ATMs in Pimpri and Wakad on Sunday night, according to police.

In the first incident, unidentified thieves attempted to break open an ATM with a glasscutter, at Ujjwala complex, Ganeshnagar, Thergaon, on Sunday night which caught fire. Cash worth Rs7.99 lakh was burnt, according to police.

The incident came to light at 8 am on Monday after which the bank lodged a complaint with the police.

In the second incident, unidentified thieves attempted to break open an ATM at Dange chowk in Wakad on Sunday night. According to police while trying to open break the ATM it caught fire after which the thieves fled the scene.

Wakad police station incharge Shankar Babar said, The cash was burnt after which the thieves fled the scene. The police are yet to receive an estimate of the amount of cash burnt.
Vehicle maker Renault could name a new chief executive officer ahead of a crucial meeting in Japan on Thursday aimed at showing that the deeply troubled alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi is moving past the Carlos Ghosn era.

The French carmaker's board gave the green light for Luca de Meo to become the new CEO, the 'Le Parisien' newspaper reported yesterday.

A spokesman for Renault declined to comment. The Italian, who rose through the ranks at Volkswagen to run its Spanish brand SEAT, has been the front-runner for months. The executive, who recently stepped down as chairman of SEAT, is "probably in talks with Renault," Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said last week in Davos. Without confirming his name, Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard has said an announcement could come within days. The stakes are high for Renault and its partnership with the two Japanese carmakers, amid turmoil that threatened to split their alliance. (Bloomberg).
The Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government will construct a grand temple for Sita in Sri Lanka and Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Monday asked officials to prepare a plan and allot funds. He also directed that Sri Lankan government officials and members of the Mahabodhi Society be included in the committee that will be formed to monitor the progress of construction and adherence to deadlines, said an MP public relations department official on Monday.

Nath asked officials to finalise the design of the temple and arrange for funds in the current fiscal itself, the official informed. The decision was made after Nath a chaired a meeting with a delegation led by state Public Relations Minister PC Sharma, in which office-bearers of the Mahabodhi Society were also present, he said.

Nath also directed officials to allot land in Sanchi for the construction of a Buddha museum, research and training centre of international standard. The CM also informed that Mahabodhi society president, Japan and companies of other countries have offered financial assistance for the development of Sanchi.

On the occasion Sharma informed about his recent visit to Sri Lanka and the discussions held with officials there on the Sita temple construction. Sharma said Buddhists from Sri Lanka and other countries would arrive in large numbers in Sanchi if better air services are provided, and people from here would also be able to go to the island nation to pray at the Sita temple.

The construction of a Sita temple in Sri Lanka was first mooted by then chief minister and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2012 when then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had visited Sanchi to lay the foundation stone of an international Buddha university.
Tributes have been paid to the generations of volunteers and fundraisers who have supported the Marymount Hospice in Cork as it embarked on its 150th anniversary celebrations today.

Marymount CEO Dr Sarah McCloskey said without the 3.5m raised by the public annually, they could not continue their work.

I am so thankful to everyone who has supported us in any way and who continues to do so," she said.

Fundraising is part of the lifeblood of Marymount  from donations of money and services to get the original building opened in 1870 to the remarkable 26m fundraised by the Friends of Marymount to ensure this building in Curraheen opened in 2011.

Each year we need to raise 3.5m to deliver our current level of services and to enable us to continue to grow. The number of people accessing our services has doubled in the last decade and we will continue to strive to reach more families and to develop our education and research institute."

Sr Angela Kelly, of the Sisters of Charity which along with Dr Patrick Murphy and donations from the public funded the original hospital building off Wellington Rd, said the hospital's journey since the 1870s has at times been fraught with difficulty and pain, and the costs of healthcare have escalated.

"If it wasn't for the volunteers, we wouldnt be in the position we are. We must continue to take risks," she said.

They made their comments before a sculpture to mark Marymount's 150th year was unveiled close to the building's entrance.

Artist Helen Sinclair's piece, On Lifes Journey, centres on an individuals life cycle and is designed to be a symbol of hope and light. It was funded entirely under the government's Per Cent for Art scheme.

Later, the River Lee Hotel group hosted afternoon tea for patients and staff on site.

Dr McCloskey said Marymount has been an important part of so many peoples lives across many generations and will be part of their future too.

"A lot has changed since our initial services opened but what remains is the ethos and vision of Marymount  we continue to strive to provide exceptional care to the dependent older person and for those with life-limiting illness," she said.

"And we continue to work with each person, each family with dignity compassion and respect. These essential elements have remained a constant throughout our 150 years."

A full schedule of Marymount 150 events, including an international palliative care conference on October 8 and 9, is available on www.marymount.ie.
Parliament meets to approve the state budget. Lebanese forces announce boycott, but deputies reach quorum. From an initial 0.6%, deficit now at 7%. Maronite Patriarch: the executive must "regain lost trust" and "turn the page" by archiving a "black chapter" in Lebanese history.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - There were fresh clashes this morning outside Parliament between anti-government protesters and security forces, while inside the deputies had gathered for the approval of the state budget, one of the reasons that fueled the protests of these months. The demonstrators threw stones and metal barriers at police in riot gear, who blocked access to the area in a context of growing tension.

The Lebanese forces have announced the boycott of the parliamentary session dedicated to the budget. The leaders of the bloc contest the absence of a confidence vote for the new government, announced last week but yet to receive the go-ahead from the Assembly.

However, the latest information shows that teh deputies have reached the necessary quorum and Parliament has been able to start the two-day work, which should then end with the final vote on the state budget. A fundamental step for a nation marked by a very serious financial crisis, exacerbated by widespread corruption within the ruling class.

The Maronite patriarch Card. Beshara Rai again spooke out in his Sunday homily about the critical situation stating that the executive must face a "tough test" while the "peaceful revolt" of young people continues on the streets. The new government, said the cardinal, "has undertaken a difficult task" having to respond to the requests of a people "who have lost confidence" in their leadership.

"Nonetheless - continues Card Rai - the government must be judged and held responsible for the consequences of its actions [...] This does not mean the end of the protests" but rather "take a position of control and demand". The cardinal's words come in a context of renewed violence for a people exasperated by months of serious political and economic crisis, which has resulted in hundreds of layoffs, wage cuts and the banking system collapsing.

The government must "regain lost trust" of a population that wants to "turn the page" and archive a "black" chapter of "our national life and write a new story".

Exacerbated by economic hardships, anti-government protests escalated in mid-December, when it became clear that, largely because of cross-vetoes, no one was going to be able to form a government to replace the one that resigned on 29 October. On several occasions, top Church leaders have reminded politicians about their responsibility and the urgency to stir the ship of state in a country that is dangerously close to a cliff.

The birth of a new executive did not appease the widespread feeling of discontent among the population, which continues to accuse its leaders of "ignoring" their demands, including "fight against corruption and an independent government". MPs must vote on the budget, the first draft of which dates back to the past few months and the previous government led by then-Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. Since then, changes have been made, however deemed insufficient by protesters. House president Ibrahim Kanaan spoke of a budget with a deficit set at 7%, far higher than the 0.6% expected at first.
The Centre on Monday signed a tripartite agreement with all factions of banned insurgent organisation National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), including All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the national capital. The accord will provide political and economic benefits to the Bodos.

The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at 1.30 pm.

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Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma added that the Assam government has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to visit Kokrajhar on February 7. However, it is yet to be confirmed.

The home minister said due to the violence perpetrated by the Bodo militants, over 4,000 people lost their lives in the past few decades. Shah said no stone would be left unturned for the development of Assam and the Northeastern region.

After signing the agreement, Shah said, "Today Centre, Assam Govt and Bodo representatives have signed an important agreement. This agreement will ensure a golden future for Assam and for the Bodo people. 1550 cadres along with 130 weapons will surrender on January 30. As the Home Minister, I want to assure all representatives that all promises will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner."

"The Narendra Modi government has worked, abiding the policy of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas', in bringing out the region from unrest. Nine institutions have signed the accord jointly. Assam will move forward by remaining unbroken and safeguarding the rights of the people," he added.

"It is a historical accord," Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said and asserted that the pact will bring a comprehensive solution to the Bodo issue.

Sarma said that all stakeholders of the Bodo society have signed this agreement, reaffirming the territorial integrity of Assam.

The ABSU has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state since 1972.
The final resolution on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to be taken up by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on January 29 is expected to be critical, a spokesperson for the European Parliament said on Monday even as the Indian government pushed back against the move.

Six separate resolutions have been tabled by the largest groups of the MEPs, which are very critical of Indias amended citizenship law, and efforts are underway to frame a joint version that will be debated and voted on by the European Parliament on January 30.

Neil Corlett, head of the press unit at the European Parliament, told a regular news briefing in Brussels the issue of Indias citizenship law will come up for a debate and a vote on Thursday, and there would also be a statement by Josep Borrell, the European Unions (EU) high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

The resolution is likely to be critical of Indias new controversial citizenship law, which offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants but risks discriminating against the Muslim minority, Corlett said.

The European Peoples Party Group, a center-right group that is the largest with 182 MEPs, and the Socialists and Democrats Group, the second-largest group with 154 MEPs in the 751-member parliament, have been very critical of the CAA, saying it has negative consequences for Indias internal stability and the potential for creating the largest statelessness crisis in the world.

In New Delhi, the government dismissed the move by the MEPs as interference in the countrys internal matters. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters the CAA and the security lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir, which figure in the various resolutions, were internal matters and external affairs minister S Jaishankar will soon speak to the MEPs to explain Indias position.

The government has already explained this is an internal matter...even the prime minister has [said this], Prasad said. Let me ask a counter-question...have my esteemed friends in the EU Parliament sought to raise questions over the victimisation of Hindu girls and Sikh granthis in Pakistan? It is time they were objective.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu, too, reacted sharply with the former writing a letter to David Sassoli, president of the European Parliament. In his letter, Birla pointed out that the CAA was passed after debate and voting in both Houses of Indian Parliament before it became a law. He also added that passage of the law is considered as a symbol of independence of democracy and such a resolution is highly inappropriate and it will set a bad precedent for the future.

Naidu also slammed the move and said, Recently, some efforts are being made outside India to comment on some laws made by the Parliament and to raise some issues based on inadequate knowledge and insufficient understanding of the issues sought to be addressed by our lawmakers. Such efforts are totally uncalled for and unwarranted.

As a mature Republic and democratic polity, we are capable of addressing the concerns... our citizens and we need no advice or guidance in such matters from others, he said.

There was also support for New Delhi from some of its allies in the EU, with French officials saying the CAA is Indias internal political matter. They noted France is a founding member of the EU and had stated its position on the CAA on several occasions.

The European Parliament is an institution independent of member states and the European Commission, an official said.

Even if the resolution is passed by the European Parliament, it will not be binding on the European Commission. However, it can increase pressure on the Indian government at a time when it is grappling with strong criticism from Western powers, including key EU members such as Germany, of its handling of the situation in Kashmir, the CAA and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam.
Egypt's Ministry of Health denied on Monday media reports that it will launch campaigns to inspect Chinese restaurants in seven governorates to counter Wuhan Novel Coronavirus that originated in China.

In statements to the media, health ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed denied the media reports, saying that the ministry's food supervision directorate conducts periodic campaigns to inspect food establishments nationwide to make sure they meet the required health conditions and terms in accordance with the law.

On Sunday, several Egyptian news websites reported that the ministry is going to launch campaigns to inspect Chinese restaurants in seven governorates

Megahed added that the Ministry of Health declared a state of emergency in all the quarantines in Egypt's airports, ports and borders as a precaution against the outbreak of the new strain of Coronavirus.

The spokesperson stated that no case or suspected case of Coronavirus was recorded in Egypt.

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Last year, an investigator hired by Jeff Bezos accused Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of hacking Bezos' iPhone. Last week, two UN experts released a statement after reviewing the investigator's report. They said they found it credible and called for an official investigation. Whatever happens next, there's an important lesson here for anyone who ever uses a smartphone.

In 2018, Jeff Bezos had his iPhone hacked. He was still married at the time, and the hackers obtained some sexy photos and texts he sent to his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. That event led directly to a joint announcement from Bezos and his wife Mackenzie that they were ending their marriage, as well as some memorably salacious National Enquirer headlines.?

Bezos hired a security firm to investigate the hack, apparently believing that the Enquirer had done it. Instead, the security firm came to a stranger-than-fiction conclusion: The hack had come from a phone belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Last week, the United Nations issued a statement from two independent investigators and human rights experts who reviewed the security report, found it credible, and called for an official investigation.

Why would the Saudi crown prince want to hack Jeff Bezos' phone? Bezos owns The Washington Post. Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who had fled Saudi Arabia, was a columnist for the Post, and frequently wrote columns criticizing the crown prince. Right up until Saudi officials murdered and dismembered him in Istanbul, giving a chillingly literal meaning to the Post slogan "Democracy dies in darkness." The Post immediately launched an investigation into the death of its slain columnist.

Bezos' phone was hacked in May 2018, five months before Khashoggi's murder on October 2. The UN statement says:

According to the forensic analysis, following the hacking of Mr. Bezos' phone, the Crown Prince sent WhatsApp messages to Mr. Bezos, in November 2018 and February 2019, in which he allegedly revealed private and confidential information about Mr. Bezos' personal life that was not available from public sources. During the same period, Mr. Bezos was widely targeted in Saudi social media as an alleged adversary of the Kingdom. This was part of a massive, clandestine online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon, apparently targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post.

For its part, the Saudi Arabian Embassy has flatly denied that the crown prince was responsible for the hack, tweeting:

Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos' phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out.

May I have your phone number?

It will be fascinating to see how the Bezos vs. crown prince narrative plays out, but in the meantime there are some important lessons for anyone who uses a smartphone. The private investigators found that in April 2018, during a dinner in Los Angeles, Bezos gave his mobile phone number to the crown prince.

Over the next couple of weeks, the crown prince (or someone using his phone) initiated several WhatsApp conversations with Bezos, before sending a short video on May 1, the investigators found. They did not say whether Bezos actually clicked on the video to watch it -- apparently some forms of malware can install themselves on a phone without the user opening an infected file. They do say that within hours of receiving the video, Bezos' phone began sending out large amounts of data, about 30 times as much as normal. Which is, of course, what you would expect to see happen if someone was stealing his data.

In other words, it may be that Bezos got hacked simply because he gave someone his phone number. That basic piece of information that most of us print on business cards and hand out to anyone who asks can be a huge security flaw.

Admittedly, Bezos is a very special individual, and whoever hacked him used a sophisticated piece of malware to do it. If you're not a billionaire or a high-profile journalist you may not need to worry about that kind of targeted attack. But there's a much easier and more widespread type of attack that can come from anyone who has your mobile number: SIM swapping. SIM swapping consists of convincing your mobile carrier that you've got a new phone or new SIM card and you need to switch over your mobile number. It's a little labor-intensive, but requires no special technical skills. Wired reports that SIM swappers have made off with thousands and thousands of dollars, using imposter phones to drain people's bank accounts. In one case, they were able to steal more than $23 million worth of bitcoin.

To avoid SIM swapping, security experts recommend asking your mobile carrier to attach a PIN to your number so that only someone who knows the PIN will be able to make changes to your account. You might want to set up an additional number to use for two-factor authentication on particularly important accounts, such as your bank account.
We have previously discussed the denials of former Vice President Joe Biden that his son did anything wrong in Ukraine.

As I have written, not only did Hunter Biden clearly enter into a corrupt (but arguably lawful) contract but Joe Biden did not do enough to confirm that his son was not engaging in influence peddling. Nevertheless, this week, Joe Biden continued this indefensible position and declared bizarrely that no one has suggested my son did anything wrong.

According to the Washington Post, Joe Biden declared on the campaign trail that"

Theres nobody thats indicated theres a single solitary thing that he did that was inappropriate, wrong... or anything other than the appearance. It looked bad that he was there.

He then curiously added:

He acknowledges that he in fact made a mistake going on the board.

So, in other words, he did nothing wrong but he apologized for it.

Joe Biden continues to maintain that no one has accused his son of wrongdoing when there is a chorus of such allegations. He seems to be drawing a distinction between what is criminal and what is not - as if the criminal code is the only measure of wrongdoing or unethical conduct.

Hunter Biden not only clearly engaged in influence peddling but he is clearly a relevant witness.

Ukraine was a virtual gold rush for Washingtons elite and Hunter Biden was one of the first in line to cash in. Bidens quest for a Ukrainian windfall took him to one of Ukraines most controversial and corrupt associates, Mykola Zlochevsky, who leveraged his post as minister of ecology and natural resources to build a fortune. Before fleeing Ukraine, Zlochevsky paid Hunter Biden and several other Americans to be directors of his energy company, Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden had no experience in the field  but he did have a notable connection to the vice president, who publicly has bragged about making clear to the Ukrainians that he alone controlled U.S. aid to the country.

A stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry also was asked to serve as a director but reportedly declined and warned Hunter Biden not to do it; Biden didnt listen. He later told The New Yorker that the decisions that I made were the right decisions for my family and for me. His decisions certainly were profitable, but they were not right as an ethical matter for himself or his father.

The use of spouses or children in influence peddling schemes is a tried and true technique in Washington. You find some kid of a powerful politician and give them a windfall salary or contract. There is no direct bribe or criminal violation, just influence with the politician. Joe Biden seems to believe that, so long as it does not violation the criminal code, it makes it right or curiously somehow not wrong.
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Former national-security adviser John Bolton has made claims in an unpublished book that U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to freeze aid to Ukraine unless it investigated his political rivals, The New York Times reports.



The January 26 report said Bolton writes in the book that Trump had told him he wanted to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid to Ukraine until it helped him with investigations, including into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.



Trump's legal team has repeatedly insisted that the president never tied Ukraine aid to investigations.

After the report went online, Democrats renewed their demand for Bolton to be called to testify in Trumps impeachment trial in the Senate. The president faces one charge of abuse of power and another on obstruction of Congress over his alleged efforts to prod Ukraine to investigate his political rivals while withholding $391 million in military assistance to Kyiv.

The trial will resume in the Senate later on January 27.



Trump denied the claim in a series of tweets early on January 27, saying: I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens."

In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, he added.

The document has been sent to the White House for prepublication review, a standard practice for some current and former administration officials who write books.



Bolton left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the aid to Kyiv on September 11 and has told lawmakers he is willing to testify, despite the presidents order barring aides from cooperating in the proceedings.



A July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is at the center of the trial. A rough transcript of the conversation revealed that the U.S. president had urged his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden, who is seen as a potential opponent in this year's presidential election in November. His son Hunter Biden was a paid board member of a Ukrainian energy firm when he served as vice president.



Critics say the crucial military aid to Kyiv was withheld as leverage.



John Bolton has the evidence, tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York). Its up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, [acting White House chief of staff] Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of Trumps actions testify in the Senate trial.



The Democrats need at least four Republicans to vote with them to seek witness testimony in the trial. However, the legislative chamber is controlled by Trumps fellow Republicans.



RFE/RL has not confirmed the contents of the draft of Boltons book.

He left his post after disagreements with the president. Trump said he fired him. Bolton said he resigned.



Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have charged Trump with abuse of office and obstruction of Congress. A trial is under way in the Senate to decide whether to convict and remove the president from office. The chambers 100 senators are the jurors in the trial.



Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the impeachment proceedings a witch hunt.



Day seven of the impeachment trial begins on January 27 with Trumps defense team expected to continue presenting opening arguments. Other legislative work is possible as well.

With reporting by The New York Times, AP, C-SPAN, The Hill, and Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned of the "grave situation" in the country posed by the lethal coronavirus outbreak, adding to worries on the scope of a health crisis that claimed at least 42 lives and triggered emergency health measures in cities across China.

According to reported news summaries, Xi convened a special meeting during the Lunar New Year holiday and spoke along with the Chinese leaders in some of his first comments warning of the massive outbreak.

The New York Times reported that Xi urged the leaders to step up the centralized and united leadership under the Communist Party leadership as China is confronted with an "accelerating spread" of the coronavirus.

The president then mentioned country-wide measures to confront the spread of the outbreak - including ramping up a remedy for sufferers and distributing specialists to affected areas.

ALSO READ: 'Curb the Spread': China Steps Up Effort to Contain Wuhan Virus

The Times said that authorities would set up a task force to cope with the disaster that, among other measures, engages nearby and army medical assets and make sure that extended monitoring of passengers and site visitors at railway stations, airports, and seaports.

"We're sure to win in this battle to overcome the epidemic through prevention and control," Xi said. The Chinese president also "the importance of notifying the public to protect social stability."

The president's remarks come after he became silent about the spreading virus as frustrations grew over authorities in the Chinese province recognized for the outbreak's epicenter.

Local officers in Wuhan, a town of roughly 11 million inside the famous China Hubei province, were the front liners in responding to increasing reports of a mysterious virus.

The town has been quarantined since Thursday. Inbound and outbound travels in Wuhan were canceled. Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang, however, admitted that initial "warnings had been now not sufficient." Zhou, according to South China Morning Post, claimed that just an aspect of public health response was mostly botched.

Trending posts on Chinese social media platforms expressed frustration to Sina Weibo for not dealing with the disaster as citizens bristled beneath measures like the government-ordered quarantine of 35 million humans across 12 cities.

Multiple reviews recalled the Chinese authorities' reaction to the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic that originated in China prior that sickened 8,000 and killed 744. Officials mostly attempted to cover up the deadly spread until a whistleblower revealed the genuine scale of the disease.

Government authorities took an entirely different method since the outbreak started weeks ago. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Beijing had been very cooperative and transparent in consolidating efforts to deal with the virus.

However, discontent started to foster on social media as Wuhan faces shortages of hospital supplies and protective gear, plus overcrowding at medical facilities.

According to The Guardian, footages have circulated online - showing staff experiencing a break down and long lines of residents waiting for assessment. The report added that the people had been refused by hospitals and had failed to get a test to discover if they had the virus.
For American companies making such products, it came as a relief.

Southwire, a company in Carrollton, Ga., that makes power cable, and one of the largest manufacturers calling for the new tariffs, said the measures were necessary to ensure fair competition in the market for aluminum wire.

We continue to believe that when there is a level playing field, the strength of our manufacturing comes forth, said Burt Fealing, Southwires general counsel.

For economists and trade experts, however, the development was an I told you so moment.

Economists have long argued that by raising the price of steel and aluminum, Mr. Trumps tariffs would make it more expensive to produce things like nails or cars in the United States  and would encourage companies to import more of those items, rather than making them in the United States.

Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, called this an example of cascading protectionism that he said was entirely predictable.

Trumps steel and aluminum tariffs have raised the cost of key inputs, making American companies that rely on those metals less competitive worldwide, Mr. Bown said. Now Trump is expanding his tariffs to shield their products from competition as well. Where will it end?
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Pacific Mining Corp (CSE: USGD / FWB: 1QC / OTCPK: USGDF) (APM or the Company) is pleased to announce the company has signed a Letter of Intent with Broadway Gold Mining whereby it was granted the exclusive right to negotiate a definitive agreement with Broadway and certain of its subsidiaries to acquire Broadways interest in the Madison Copper Gold Project in Montana, USA.



The project is currently subject to an Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture Agreement (the Earn-in Agreement) with Kennecott Exploration Company, part of the Rio Tinto Group (ASX, LON: RIO) , as announced by Broadway on April 30, 2019 (a link to the press release can be found here http://tiny.cc/dz2siz ). Kennecott Exploration Company is not a party to the Letter of Intent or the proposed transaction between APM and Broadway.

The CEO of American Pacific, Warwick Smith, commented: The opportunity to acquire the fully-permitted, past-producing Madison Copper Gold Project will strengthen the portfolio with a porphyry/skarn project that has already been evaluated and transacted upon by a major.

There is no guarantee that the parties will be able to finalize a definitive agreement. It is expected that any such definitive agreement would be subject to a number of conditions, including the receipt of all required regulatory, corporate and stock exchange approvals, the completion of the Arrangement and any required shareholder approvals. The exclusivity obligations described above automatically terminate if Broadways previously announced plan of arrangement with Mind Medicine, Inc. does not close. Even if a definitive agreement is executed there can be no assurances that the parties will be able to complete such a transaction.

About the Madison Copper Gold Project:

The Madison Copper Gold Project is located in the heart of Montanas prolific copper-gold belt only 38km southeast of the world-renowned Butte Mining District. The project, a high-grade Cadia-like skarn over porphyry system, encompasses 2,514 acres consisting of six patented lode claims and 108 unpatented mineral claims. Targets outlined in 2017 cover a two-mile-long by one-mile-wide zone of geophysical, geological and geochemical indicators. The project is permitted for mining, surface and underground exploration, and it encompasses two past-producing underground mines called the Broadway and Madison mines.

Story continues

The Broadway mine produced 144,000 ounces of gold from 1880-1950. The Madison mine was developed between 2005-2011 and generated 7,570 ounces of gold and 3,020,000 pounds of copper from bulk samples of 19,803 tons (average 0.52 ounce/ton Au and 25% Cu). Broadway Gold Mining Ltd. refurbished parts of the Madison Mine in 2017. Approximately 3,000 total feet of underground workings go to a depth of 215 feet underground at Madison. Broadway rehabilitated the underground workings in order to access certain stopes and underground mineralization, allowing for a successful exploration drill program to take place as well. Currently, known skarn mineralization and massive sulphide gold mineralization is proposed to be linked to a deeper porphyry system.

According to Broadway, approximately $20 million has been invested in the exploration, development and bulk sampling of the Madison mine since 2005. Link to view the Vulcan Model of Madison: Vulcan 3-D Modelling Defines Significant Zones at Madison, Underground Phase II & III Drilling Planned

Drill Highlights from Madison

A current drill program was recently completed at the Project including 14 drill holes targeting an area displaying multielement soil and rock chip geochemical anomalies, historic prospects, strong induced polarization anomalies and porphyry drill intercepts.

Previous drilling at Madison conducted by Broadway has delivered extremely high-grade gold and copper intersections. Underground drilling in 2017 at Madison intersected bonanza gold grades. The underground drill program was designed to test the down dip extension of the auriferous massive sulfide zone below the 600 level. A small program of 307 meters tested the zone with considerable success. Results included:

U17-05: 0.9m intercepts ranging from 0.074 to 178.5 g/t Au within a 30.2m interval averaging 24.5 g/t Au and 0.391% Cu (from 8.2m)

U17-04: 1.098% Cu and 1.651 g/t Au over 25.3m (from 9.1m)

U17-06: 41.6 g/t Au over 11m (from 8.2m)

Surface drilling included 19 holes over 3,984 meters, resulting in the discovery of a larger jasper zone with abundant native copper and gold. Results included:

C17-16: 1.725% Cu and 0.097 g/t Au over 49.4m (from 177.1m), including 2.571% Cu and 0.151 g/t Au over 30.2 meters (from 195.4m)

C17-17: 1.020% Cu and 0.159 g/t Au over 31.1 meters (from 187.1m)

C17-20: 1.247% Cu and 1.843 g/t Au over 23.8 meters (from 130.8m), drilled into a massive-sulfide zone that remains open at depth.

The complete assay results for the intervals, drilling plan and sections can be found at http://www.broadwaymining.com/current-exploration/ .

Broadways QAQC

Sample Preparation and Quality Control

Supervision, organization and splitting of drilling core samples were undertaken by company personnel. Samples were collected at three-foot intervals from half core samples. Samples were catalogued by Broadway geologists and stored in a secure location. Certified reference standards were placed in the sample stream of each drill hole at random intervals. Blank material was also inserted at random intervals. Samples were packed into rice bags, zap strapped and securely stored until they were turned over to the local trucking company for transport to the ALS Minerals Laboratory in North Vancouver, B.C.

Laboratory Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Quality control samples from the lab include numerous control blanks, duplicates and standards. Reference standards used include OREAS-904, OREAS-45b, OGGeo08 and PGMS25. No issues were noted with analytical accuracy or precision.

Assay Techniques

Three different assay procedures were designed by ALS Minerals for the samples, based on the presence of copper sulfides or oxides, and native copper. The standard assay procedure of Au-ICP21 and Cu-ICP61 was applied to most of the samples. Au-ICP21 is a 30 gram fire assay with an ICP-AES finish. ICP61 is a 4 acid digestion of a 1 gram sample with an ICP finish. Samples with visible copper mineralization received a Cu-OG62 copper analysis, a four acid digestion of a 0.5 grams sample with ICP-AES finish. OG62 has a copper range from 0.001 to 40%, while the ICP61 analysis has a copper maximum range of 10,000 ppm. Samples with visible native copper received a duplicate Cu-ICP61 analysis followed by a duplicate Cu-OG62 analysis that included a WSH-22 procedure where the pulverizers are cleaned with barren material after every sample. Over-limit copper values from the ICP61 analyses received an OG62 procedure to determine the final Cu grade.

Qualified Person

Technical aspects of this press release have been reviewed and approved by Eric Saderholm, P.Geo., the designated Qualified Person (QP) under National Instrument 43-101.

About American Pacific Mining Corp.

American Pacific Mining Corp. is a gold explorer focused on precious metal opportunities in the Western United States. The Gooseberry Gold/Silver Project and the Tuscarora Gold Project are two high-grade, precious metal projects located in key mining districts of Nevada USA. The companys mission is to grow by the drill bit and by acquisition. American Pacific is Eyeing a Gold Discovery amidst golds next bull market.

On Behalf of the Board of American Pacific Mining Corp.

"Warwick Smith"

CEO & Director

Corporate Office: Suite 910  510 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 3A8, Canada

Contact MarketSmart: 1.877.261.4466, info@marketsmart.ca

Forward-looking Information

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, statements as to planned exploration activities and the expected timing of the receipt of results. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the mineral resource industry as well as the performance of services by third parties.

Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/22f4ef76-bc60-4421-9bd9-8b5c050bdef9

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/957c3fa0-d558-4faa-82b0-a8351e0dd002

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c75eb2fc-b779-43c8-a94a-565bcdfb748a
A man was tasered by cops after he shone a laser at aircraft landing at a Florida airport - leaving one pilot temporarily blind.

Footage shows Charlie James Chapman Jr, 41, aiming a powerful green laser at a police helicopter and hurling rocks at the aircraft before his arrest.

Cops say he 'grabbed a hammer and swung it at officers' as they surrounded him at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

Officers said he had already aimed the device at a plane coming into land, dazzling a pilot.

Video footage released by Manatee County Sheriff's Office shows a man on the ground pointing a powerful green laser at a police helicopter.

One pilot was temporarily blinded by the laser as he came into land at the airport

Charlie James Chapman Jr, 41, is accused of resisting arrest by swinging a hammer at officers as they surrounded him at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

The suspect can be seen hurling rocks towards the aircraft before cops on the ground surround him.

A statement from the force says the helicopter spotted Chapman on a forklift and requested officers on the ground to surround the location.

Officers tasered Chapman when he 'grabbed a hammer and made a striking motion' towards them, the statement adds, and a laser pointer was found in his right pants pocket after he was arrested last Wednesday.

Video footage shows the suspect pointing the powerful laser beam towards a helicopter

The suspect was arrested by police who surrounded him and tasered him at the airport

The police statement says: 'Chapman shot his laser pointer on a fixed wing plane four times and one time at the MCSO helicopter.'

One of the pilots says the laser caused him to go temporarily blind when it was shone directly into his eyes and he is still suffering from blurred vision.

Chapman is facing charges of aggravated assault on an officer, pointing a laser at a pilot with injury, pointing a laser at a pilot without injury and resisting without violence, the release says.

Chapman is being held in the Manatee County Jail.

Police said Chapman resisted arrest and had to be tasered when he swung a hammer at them
The Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Alhaji Aliyu Datti Yako has been declared the winner of the Saturday rerun of Kiru/ Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State.

Yako defeated the former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumini Jibrin Kofa, of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Jibrin polled 13,507 votes against the 48,601 votes polled by Aliyu Yako of the main opposition party.

Already Jibrin had raised the alarm, over what he claimed was irregularities, during the polls, perpetrated by those, he described, as anti-democratic forces  in his constituency.



Speaking on twitter this afternoon, precisely an hour ago, he says he has congratulated his opponent and has moved on. He however started that though he has moved on, his mandate was stolen. His exact words below

Yesterday I released an official statement in respect of the re run election in my constituency. The full statement is attached to this tweet. Let me conclude with an emphasis that WE DID NOT LOSE THAT ELECTION BUT OUR MANDATE WAS STOLEN through the use of brutal force

However i have congratulated my opponent and will not file petition in court. I will make no further comment on this matter. I urge the media to please respect my decision. This is the end of another beginning. I have moved on!

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday attended the installation of a new Presiding Bishop of the Africa Inland Church (AIC).

The President who was joined by Deputy President William Ruto attended the ceremony at the AIC Milimani Church in Nairobi County where Bishop Abraham Mulwa was installed as the new Presiding Bishop.

Bishop Mulwa takes over from Bishop Silas Yego who served in the position for 18 years. Bishop Paul Kirui was installed as Deputy Presiding Bishop.

Speaking to the congregation, President Kenyatta thanked Bishop Yego for his steadfast leadership of the church over the years during which AIC, founded in 1895, significantly grew its footprint in the country and the region.

You are handing over a much larger church and a more grounded church, and I am sure the new Presiding Bishop will take it to greater heights, the President told Bishop Yego as he assured the church in Kenya that the government will continue working with religious institutions in efforts to create unity and prosperity.

I appreciate the role churches play in supporting government in healthcare, education, counselling and many more areas. We shall continue working together in seeking peace and unity, the President assured.

President Kenyatta urged Kenyans to remain united and called on leaders to always remember that leadership is a call to serve the public.

Other leaders who attended the service included former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen, Baringo Senator Gideon Moi and Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja among others.
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GREENWICH  New Lebanon School hosted its first Zumba Night on Thursday, bringing the community together for fun-filled high energy workout for adults and kids.

Participants danced the night away with Latin dances salsa, mambo, merengue and samba.
Elester Shelton spent 20 years off and on in the streets of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley  sometimes housed, always poor even though he often worked as a roofer, always hoping for help. It wasnt until he landed at a homeless aid center in Oakland a year ago that things began to turn for him.

The Bay Area Community Services case managers he found there searched the databases of their nonprofits offerings throughout the region to find out where hed been and what might best fit him, and they came up with subsidized housing and counselors that were just right. He stayed in transitional housing until this winter when, at age 63, he moved into his own place for the first time in many years.

Ive been through a lot of programs that didnt do much for me, and I would have been off the streets quicker if theyd been able to talk to each other, Shelton said. Face it, we cant figure this stuff out by ourselves. We need all these places that try to help us to get together somehow and work things out.

Thats exactly what a new nonprofit has in mind.

All Home, which officially opens its doors at the end of January in San Francisco, has the ambitious goal of persuading city and county governments throughout the Bay Area to reach across their borders to keep people like Shelton from tumbling into homelessness  and to help them out of the street once they do.

Despite billions of dollars spent on the crisis, three newly homeless people are estimated to hit the streets in the Bay Area every time one is pulled into shelter or housing. All Home argues that without fixing that dynamic, officials wont be able to make a dent in the crisis. The new nonprofit argues that the region may be on the verge of seeing a tsunami of unsheltered people because the more than 740,000 extremely poor people here are increasingly losing their fingernail-thin hold on stability as housing costs rise and wages stagnate.

The nonprofits argument is that a lot of new homelessness can be prevented if different jurisdictions mutually track who uses poverty services to prevent wasteful duplication (tracking systems are mostly kept just local now), and if they cooperate to build more ultra-affordable housing and job opportunities for the very poor. It has compiled statistics to outline the challenge and set the ambitious goal of raising $50 million a year by 2023 for prevention efforts including rental aid and preservation of housing units for those on the lowest economic rung.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

The nonprofit has examined five counties  San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara  and intends to expand to the rest of the nine-county region.

Among the numbers All Home compiled: 41% of those 740,000 extremely poor people hold jobs, but virtually none of them can afford typical rent.

Factors contributing to homelessness Two-bedroom rent as a percentage of extremely low-income household incomes by county: San Francisco: 162% San Mateo: 112% Contra Costa: 92% Alameda: 105% Santa Clara: 98% Homeless people in San Francisco's Point in Time counts who cited inability to afford rent as their main reason for being unhoused: 63% in 2019 56% in 2017 48% in 2015 Source: All Home, S.F. Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing See More Collapse

The gap between the median rent for two-bedroom units and the monthly income for poor households grew from $100 a month to $400 a month in the past decade, according to research by the Boston Consulting Group for All Home. In San Francisco, that translates to a poor household needing to spend 162% of its income on rent. In Alameda County its 105%.

The 740,000 population number is extrapolated from the 265,000 households in five counties listed as extremely low income, according to U.S. census figures. Extremely low income is 30% or less of the median household income, which comes to $34,000 or less.

Living that close to the edge exponentially increases a persons chances of becoming homeless, according to studies last year by the California Policy Lab at UCLA and the Bay Area Council. Both urged regional efforts to prevent homelessness, and All Home intends to delineate specific tactics for that in the coming years.

People talk regionally, but they act very locally when it comes to homelessness, said All Homes founder, Tomiquia Moss, who until September ran Hamilton Families, the leading family shelter provider in San Francisco. But this feels like the moment to actually do this. We can do this.

She said the effort will address how to more quickly create area shelters; loosen zoning and funding for extremely low-income housing; provide rental help; and conceive other strategies that bridge borderlines around the Bay Area. She plans to convene regional conferences and has assembled a Bay Area-wide advisory board that includes Destination Home CEO Jennifer Loving in the South Bay and Amie Fishman, head of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California.

Regional cooperation has been suggested for decades by mayors and nonprofit leaders, but All Home is the first organization to profess that as its single goal. And with Gov. Gavin Newsom pushing regionalism as an imperative for addressing homelessness, it may have some momentum.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

All Home is already advising Newsoms statewide homeless task force. Moss and Gail Gilman, two of the most prominent homeless service providers in San Francisco of the past decade, lead the organization, giving it credibility.

Look, you dont need a passport to go from San Francisco to San Mateo, but we treat all of our social welfare, all of our safety net, all of our homeless services as if we do, said Gilman, who until July was head of Community Housing Partnership, one of the Bay Areas leading supportive housing agencies. But the fact is we are an integrated community, so we have to have a regional approach if we are ever going to make real headway.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

If not, and if we dont help (extremely low-income) earners stay housed, we are very concerned that they will become a new wave of homelessness.

The total number of homeless people in the nine-county Bay Area surged 24% from 28,200 in 2017 to 35,005 in 2019. Until this past year, homeless directors throughout the region said two new people hit the streets for every one who got housed  but with the acceleration of homelessness, they now say its three.

Frank Mecca, a member of Newsoms homeless task force, said All Homes input is in sync with what his panel is trying to promote throughout the state.

Regionalism is hard. One size does not fit all for addressing homelessness, and doing this is going to be uncomfortable for cities, counties and the state, said Mecca, executive director of the statewide County Welfare Directors Association. But the cities, counties and state are already uncomfortable.

And unless we all link arms and push ourselves beyond our comfort zones and do everything possible, this will not get solved.

All Home is being funded by donations from foundations and organizations including Tipping Point Community, Salesforce and the Tides Foundation. It has raised $3 million.

The nonprofits numbers and goals have impressed the directors of UCSFs homeless research arm enough for them to agree to help out with advice and research.

I dont think regionalism is impossible at all, said Dr. Josh Bamberger, associate director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. He said hed like to promote more aggressive use of surplus government land  such as turning the states vacant, 800-acre Sonoma Developmental Center into an area-wide workforce development hub  and chances are better now for cooperation on projects like that than they would have been years ago.

The data is stronger now to support regional efforts, said Bamberger, who has worked with chronically homeless people for decades. When it was just San Francisco, Oakland and a little of Santa Clara County coming up with numbers, that was one thing. But now that every county is tracking programs and people, and recognizing the economic failures that have created this problem, theres more motivation.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron
Republican senator Mitt Romney says it is "increasingly likely" that four of his colleagues will support the calling of ex-Trump adviser John Bolton to testify in the president's impeachment trial  after a manuscript of his new book about his time in the White House was leaked.

"I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton," the Utah politician told reporters on Monday when asked if there are four GOP senators prepared to vote with the chamber's 47 Democrats later this week on an expected measure on calling the former White House national security adviser to testify.

"It's relevant. And, therefore, I'd like to hear it," Romney said. "What impact that might have would be dependent on all the facts associated with it."

The former GOP presidential nominee would not predict how Mr Bolton's testimony might affect the final outcome of the trial.

Mr Romney's comment does not mean Democrats have the 51 votes they need just yet. But other GOP moderates who are vulnerable back home  Maine's Susan Collins, Colorado's Cory Gardner and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski  could join Mr Romney. Then there is retiring Tennessee GOP Sen Lamar Alexander, who is considered an institutionalist, and has not yet announced how he might vote on bringing in Bolton and other potential witnesses.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

Ms Collins issued a statement noting she has said she likely would support calling witnesses in a vote expected this week. But she did not confirm there are two other GOP senators who have privately said they intend to do the same, saying: "The reports about John Bolton's book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues."

There were signs on Monday morning that GOP senators were scrambling to react to a Sunday evening New York Times report that Mr Bolton's coming book will include his claim that Donald Trump once told him he wanted to continue holding up a $391m military aid package meant for Ukraine until that country's new government announced investigations of top US Democrats, including the Bidens.

For instance, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cancelled a planned press conference.

More on Republicans' response to the Bolton bombshell could come soon. GOP senators are scheduled to huddle later on Monday, before the chamber resumes the impeachment trial. Mr Trump's legal team will continue laying our their case in defence of the president.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Bolton's revelations "stunning", but said he still sees an "uphill fight" to get the four GOP senators he needs because of "the pressure from the White House" on the entire Republican caucus.

"It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president. Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offences charged in the first article of impeachment," the New York Democrat told reporters during a late-morning press conference, referring to the House-passed abuse of power impeachment article.

Mr Bolton said recently he would testify if called by the Senate, but Mr Trump told reporters last week that would create a "national security problem". Should enough GOP senators join Democrats in supporting Mr Bolton's appearance during the trial, the White House has threatened invoking executive privilege, meaning a court fight could bog down the trial's pace.

Mr Schumer called the former Trump aide "ready and willing to testify", pressuring those across the aisle by saying: "How can Senate Republicans not vote to call that witness, and request his documents? Anyone who says the House case lacks eye witnesses, but then votes to block eye witnesses, is talking out of both sides of their mouth."

The Senate Democratic leader accused top White House leaders of orchestrating a "giant cover up" because some officials at the executive mansion had a copy of Mr Bolton's manuscript months ago as part of a standard security review of its contents.

"It is so clear what's going on here. ... If Senate Republicans are not going to vote to call Mr Bolton and Mr Mulvaney and the other witnesses now, if they're not going to ask for notes and emails, they're going to be part of the cover up, too, because we have this out in the open," Mr Schumer said, referring to Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who current and former administration officials told House investigators was heavily involved in the Ukraine affair, which Mr Bolton once dubbed "a drug deal".

The minority leader seemed eager for a court fight, calling any possible coming subpoena for Mr Bolton "bipartisan by definition" because at least four Republicans would vote for anything that might eventually pass. He also noted it would be signed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the Senate trial. Along with those things, Mr Schumer noted the Constitution gives the Senate the authority to run an impeachment trial. Collectively, he predicted, the courts would waive any executive privilege claim  a dare to the White House that just might be met with a court battle.

Connecticut senator Chris Murphy said he thinks it might now be "impossible" for Republican senators to continue blocking witnesses during the trial. During its opening hours, no GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats on several measures aimed at forcing the testimony of current and former Trump administration officials, as well as Democrats' attempts to obtain new documents related to the White House's Ukraine policies.

GOP senator Mike Braun followed Mr Schumer in the same studio, flanked by GOP senator John Barrasso. The latter called the NewYork Times report a "so-called blockbuster" article, and sought to discredit Mr Bolton's account by saying it adds no new information to the trial. Notably, however, the Wyoming Republican did not repeat Mr Trump's denial that he ever said he wanted to keep the military aid package frozen until Ukraine announced the investigations of the Bidens and other Democrats.

"I would say, at this point, take a breath, listen to what we hear from the president's defence team, listen to the questions [from senators] this week," Mr Barrasso said after noting the Iowa Caucuses are on Monday. "And let the American people decide who should be their president."

Mr Braun said he has talked with several Republican senators who have "grappled" with whether to support calling new witnesses, and believes Mr Bolton's account of the military aid will change the "dynamic" and "decibel level" around "how we talk about witnesses, which will be on Friday". Calling Mr Bolton would, "with certainty", mean the Republican side also would call its own witnesses, he said.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, urged caution on Monday against "gloomy expectations" regarding the possible impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the global economy and oil demand.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 with more than 2,700 infected, while health authorities around the world stepped up screening of passengers from China.

Crude prices fell about 3% on the day as the rising number of cases and China's city lockdowns and extension of its Lunar New Year holiday deepened concerns over oil demand.

But Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the impact being seen on oil and other markets was aprimarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite its very limited impact on global oil demand.

"Such extreme pessimism occurred back in 2003 during the SARS outbreak, though it did not cause a significant reduction in oil demand," the minister said in a statement.

Fellow Gulf OPEC oil producer United Arab Emirates echoed the Saudi minister's comments.

"It is important that we do not exaggerate projections related to future decreases in oil demand due to events in China," UAE Minister of Energy Suhail al-Mazrouei said.

"OPEC and OPEC+ member countries will discuss market conditions (in March) and, if required, all options to ensure continued market balance," he said.

GLOBAL IMPACT

The Saudi minister also said OPEC and its allies could respond to any impact on the oil market, adding he was confident China and international authorities could contain the virus.

Algeria's Energy Minister and current President of OPEC Mohamed Arkab, also referring to the outbreak, said that "the impact on the outlook for global oil demand would ... be small".

Brent crude futures were down around 2.8% at $59.01 by 1402 GMT having earlier dropped to $58.50. U.S. crude was down by 2.6% at $52.77, having earlier eased to $52.13. Both hit their lowest levels since October.

Prince Abdulaziz said he was confident the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, a group known as OPEC+, "have the capability and flexibility needed to respond to any developments."

Oman's oil minister told Reuters on Monday he fully supported Saudi Arabia's readiness to react to any impact the virus has on the market.

OPEC+, which includes Russia, has been reducing oil supply to support prices and has agreed to hold back 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of output until the end of March.

Prince Abdulaziz said all options were open when OPEC+ meets in Vienna in March.

An OPEC source said there were preliminary discussions within OPEC+ for an extension of current oil supply cuts beyond March, and a possible deeper cut was also an option if there was a need, and if the China virus spread impacted oil demand.
The AMU on Monday cancelled an exam after more protests over the amended citizenship law, the university said.

Students had blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad highway overnight over the continuing detention of a student following the heckling of Aligarh University Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor a day earlier.

The student was released on bail Monday afternoon.

On Monday, a group of students blocked the entrance to Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology, prompting the authorities to cancel the examination.

AMU spokesman Shafey Kidwai said the exam was cancelled after a group of protesters blocked the entrance in response to a boycott call given by the AMU Students' Coordination Committee.

Over 600 students were scheduled to appear for the examination.

Kidwai, however, expressed hope that the Tuesday examination won't be disturbed.

He said efforts are on to persuade students not to disturb it.

Hundreds of AMU students overnight blocked traffic on the main Aligarh-Moradabad highway demanding the release of Mujtaba Faraz, a former student leader.

He was released on bail on Monday afternoon.

Three others, identified as Tahir Azmi, Rafiuddin and Sudhir Gulati, were released late on Sunday.

The blockade, which started on Sunday evening, continued till 2 am.

AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor was on Sunday allegedly heckled by the students during his Republic Day speech here soon after he termed as "unfortunate" the recent happenings on the campus and said peaceful protests will be allowed on any issue within the ambit of law.

AMU Proctor Prof Afifullah Khan had said that three students were released whereas Faraz was sent to jail.

As the spread, huge crowds of protesters started collecting near the Purani Chungi gate of the university and blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad highway.

The AMU campus has been witnessing protests against the amended Citizenship Amendment Act.

Over 1,200 students, including those not identified, have been booked in about a dozen odd cases connected to different protests.

The students are also demanding the resignation of top university officials for "failing" to secure justice for those students who were allegedly the victim of police excesses during anti-CAA protests.

Security arrangements in and around the AMU campus have been further beefed up.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Former battalion commander with the 72nd separate mechanized brigade, chief of staff of the 28th Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksandr Vdovichenko (callsign "Slavian") sat down with UNIAN to tell about his troops forcing militants in Donbas to retreat, repelling the attacks of the "elite" DPR troops, preventing an offensive on Avdiyivka with the help of journalists and photos of tanks, surviving and following his "don't die" order.

Many battles in the Donbas warzone can be called a symbol of resilience and courage of Ukrainian military, who have been fighting to death for every piece of Ukrainian land.

Avdiyivka, a town just 10 km from Donetsk, was liberated in July 2014, but hostilities nearby and enemy shelling in its residential quarters never subsided. After such shelling in January 2015, local residents were left without heat, electricity, and water supplies for weeks.

At the beginning of 2016, battles for the industrial zone near Avdiyivka have intensified. Control over this "gray zone" allowed ensuring safety to the locals and gaining control of the Donetsk-Luhansk and Debaltseve-Horlivka motorways. Confrontation climaxed in the fall of that year and lasted until the spring of 2017. The enemy heavily engaged Ukrainian troops with weapons proscribed by the Minsk agreements. Several times the militants stormed the industrial zone, but their offensive efforts were repulsed, while Ukrainian forces advanced and gained better positions.

In those battles, the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade played a really important role, holding ground in Avdiyivka for 375 days and nights. Six fighters were awarded Bohdan Khmelnytsky orders (including one posthumously). The order of courage was awarded to 20 fighters (seven posthumously). Lieutenant Vasyl Tarasiuk and Captain Andriy Kizilo (posthumously) were awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

Oleksandr Vdovichenko (call sign "Slavian"), a former battalion commander and now chief of staff with the 28th Brigade, told UNIAN how his fighters forced the militant grouping led by an infamous warlord Givi (who was later assassinated in Donetsk) to retreat, repelled the attacks of the "elite" DPR troops, and prevented an attack using photos of their tanks as a decoy, survived, and complied with their commander's order: "Don't die!"

Tell us about the first days at Avdiyivka's industrial zone.

We deployed in the Avdiyivka industrial zone in October 2016, and on the very first day, we came under enemy fire. Before that, we had not been involved in the ATO for six months, working with NATO instructors at a training ground, then we were held in reserve, based in the rear of Donetsk region. And my first thought in Avdiyivka was: "I guess I'm going to die here."

It was really scary. First, we came under mortar fire. Everyone rushed into the basement and just waited. As we were moving along our positions, we came under machine gunfire. We ducked and lay there with our chief of recon, and after a few minutes I said to him: "Actually, it's not scary anymore." And he went: it's alright, you'll get used to it."

At that time, shelling never stopped. While artillery could be silent during daytime, automatic "chatter" did not subside, it was constant. When the first frost hit, the leaves fell from the trees and we were at the enemy's plain sight. There were no trenches at all. There were perhaps just two of them throughout the industrial zone. So we began to dig in order to survive.

I will say that we were pretty well supplied at that time already. What we lacked was camouflage nets, thermal imagers, and generators ... But volunteers would bring this, too.

When did the militants go for an offensive?

Three days later, we changed positions and the airborne assault unit came in, and that's when I took command of the area and that very evening we got intercepted enemy communications. "Sparrow", the commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the Somali battalion, wrote to Givi: "Man, we are in position, ready for the assault." The response was: "Wait, let the artillery work a bit more." We could not understand where exactly they would strike ... But time passed, and from the forefront, our Romeo and Dragon report: the enemy is around them. The enemy started to try and penetrate so we repelled their offensive with grenades.

Then we had three of our men wounded. The enemy also suffered losses, but they were ready for this and did not retreat. In intercepted comms we heard Givi commands: "Take them alive."

I sent in a reserve group, but their artillery worked so hard that we could not approach those positions, we could not even get out of our command post. I just didn't know what to do. And then for the first time I gave the command to open fire at the enemy, practically next to our positions.There were basements, I drove everyone there and wrote to the commander of our mortar battery: "Eugene, please, dont hit our men "And he dropped about forty mines on those bastards.

Thank God, we suffered no losses, while they had seven or eight KIAs. But Givi was only pumped up by those losses. He deployed the reserve and began to prepare for a new assault. And only after our artillery hit his command post and he was injured, he ordered to retreat.

We asked the JCCC (Joint Center for Monitoring and Coordinating Ceasefire and Stabilization of the Contact Line) to evacuate the wounded but they didnt hear us...

And how did further battles unfold?

The next day we reviewed the defense system and strengthened it. We planted more MON-50s (anti-personnel mines), stocked up on grenades and all we had at disposal. We realized that there is only one way out: it's either we or they. It became clear that if we didn't open fire, we would be dead. So we hit them with everything we had  mortars, tanks, IFVs... The order to open fire was: "Death to Novorossiya."

Day after day, the industrial zone was practically bleeding, but we managed to stabilize the frontline in an incredible effort. At first we were in a semi-encirclement, but gradually we advanced along the flanks and deployed a horseshoe towards the enemy. Givi realized that he was finished so he retreated to be replaced by the "Vostok Battalion".

We survived. And we had no losses for a long time... But in three weeks we had one of our men killed.

I tell everyone that I was in command of the best people. They could do everything. All of the DPR and the Russian Federation were against us. In February 2017, battles were ongoing from morning to night hours. Artillery fire never stopped. We once had no sleep in five days. It was freezing, but there was no trace of snow  everything was black at our positions. Some say: "The shell will not hit the same spot twice." Not true. It does, two, three, and four times. Everything was plowed. Everything was drenched in blood. And no one was originally going to fight like that for this piece of land. But after our guys were killed, it became a matter of principle.

It was like in those movies about Stalingrad. We would bring 16 men to the positions in the morning only to take them back out during the day. Volunteers also went to the positions: cooks, artillerymen, tankers. There was a doctor in the second company, callsign "Seagull", a nice, positive guy. Shelling began at the Almaz position, and at some point, he took over command and managed things no worse than some officer. The whole team was fighting for this piece of land, the position later renamed in honor of my late deputy Andriy Kizilo callsign "Eagle".

But the militants weren't giving up. They shelled Avdiyivka with "Grad" missiles and used heavy artillery. There was a time when the evacuation began, our forces were getting ready to retreat from the city ... But we put two tanks at the "nines" (nine-story buildings on the outskirts of the city), where journalists could take pictures of them. And so came news reports: "Ukraine Army is ready for an offensive. There is no ceasefire deal." And the enemy abandoned their offensive plans. That's how we tricked them. We survived.

What was the hardest moment for you back then?

Once I was called to the headquarters to get awards for my men. I took several dozen orders in Kyiv to take to the battalion. I called my chief of staff: "Tomorrow Im going to greet my men, so tell me who's where." I come to him next morning and several boxes with rewards are still on his table. I exploded: "What the hell? Why didnt you complete the task?" He said, "There is nobody to reward ... " It turned out that some of them was killed and the rest were injured. At that moment I wish I were dead...

Then a tough truce began. In the spring, three of our men were killed in mortar shelling. Then a direct hit to a dugout  and another two KIAs. I almost lost it. I gave the order: "Don't die" and told them to make sure everyone heard that order...

You know what was my biggest reward? At the Eagle position we once came under mortar fire. A soldier was injured when he covered me from a fragment hit with his body. I yelled at him: "What are you doing?" He said, "If you're killed, then we're all finished." Two times my soldiers covered me. I think there can be no better reward. All who participated in those fierce battles are heroes. Legends were born there that are now defending the country. I had the honor of commanding the best people.

Did you talk with POWs then? And what did the militants say about you?

They [militants] loathed and feared us.

We were so bad we could launch 40 mines in response to a single gun burst in our direction. They were just waiting for us to go for a rotation. And when we were leaving, they didn't fire a single shot at us.

I talked with prisoners in 2014-2017, and every year their faith in victory was becoming stronger and stronger. This is not the case with us. The war divided our country into two parts. The ATO or JFO is interesting to those who are in the ATO and to a small part of the country. The rest are weary. And in the news we hear all the time: "A veteran killed someone", "A veteran is a suspect", " A grenade was found", crap like that... And no one cares where you fought, how you fought, and if you have a PTSD Nobody tells anyone how we fought and how we survived. Right now we have a truce, but day after day there are new losses. It seems as if there are no battles but another sniper shot and there goes another "200" (KIA, killed in action).

I wrote a book about how we fought, to let people know about the heroes I don't want to talk about what is happening now in the Army, I am an officer with the Armed Forces, my task is to defend the country and follow orders. But who is Lieutenant Colonel Vdovichenko now? One of the hundreds of lieutenant colonels. But who was battalion commander, lieutenant colonel Vdovichenko back then? A man followed by hundreds of best fighters, without hesitation, into fiercest battles. Something like this...

Many times in Avdiyivka I wanted to die, I was looking for that death, but it never came by... But I reconsidered my life. A year ago, my wife gave me a son, my little Sasha! Now I want to live as long as possible. I have drawn conclusions. There are things that we can't change, we can only change our attitude towards them. I learned to let go of situations and people. Whoever's with me I'm glad to have them around, and whoever's not  I'm not trying to change anyone and I dont want to understand anyone. In one film, I heard: "Everything always ends well. If it ends badly, that's not the end yet."

Vlad Abramov
No power can now stop Kashmiri Pandits from going back to Kashmir, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday, forcefully defending the NDA government's decision to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir and abrogating its special status under Article 370.

In an address at a rally here, the Defence minister also sent a strong message to Pakistan and said India will not let anyone live in peace if it is harmed.

"We will not touch anyone, but if someone bothers us, then we are not going to let them live in peace," he said.

Referring to the exodus of a large number of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the late 1990s at the height of militancy, Singh said no power now can stop them from returning to their homes.

On the Citizenship Amendment Act, the minister said it is not a law to hurt the sentiments of any religion but to give relief to victims of religious persecution.

Mahatma Gandhi had told Nehru to give citizenship to minorities like Hindus and Sikhs if they come to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled that vision by bringing in the law, Singh said.

On several non-BJP states refusing to implement the CAA, the defence minister said it it is a central law and everyone should follow it.

Accusing the Congress of misleading people on the issue, he said the party should not forget its duty towards the nation just because it is in opposition.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

Shooting for the period action drama starring Yash, is currently going on in Mysuru, and the team will then move to Hyderabad for undertaking a big schedule. Post KGF Chapter 1, expectations are high with the Yash-starrer film. The magnum opus directed by Prashanth Neel, and made under the banner of Hombale Films, is now entering the last leg of shooting. The crew has finished almost eighty per cent of the shooting, and work is going on at a brisk pace to finish it.

The team is currently shooting some talkie portions in Mysuru, where Yash and Srinidhi Shetty, along with a few other actors, are participating in the shoot. They will later film a major schedule in Hyderabad. It has also been set in Bengaluru and Kolar Gold Fields. Besides the Rocking Star, who is now also popular as Rocky Bhai after KGF, has Bollywood actor Sanjay Dut playing the antagonist, Adheera. Another Bollywood actor, Raveena Tandon, is also confirmed to be a part of the project, and will join the crew when they begin to shoot her portions. The ensemble cast of KGF Chapter 2 will also feature Anant Nag, Malavika Avinash and Vasista Simha in pivotal roles.

The film is produced by Vijay Kirgandur, and has Bhuvan Gowdas cinematography and Ravi Basrurs music, while Shivakumar is handling the art department. The makers are simultaneously starting the post-production work, and there is a lot of buzz going around regarding the release date. However, an announcement will be made by the production house only after the shooting is completed. One of the most anticipated films of 2020, the Kannada movie will have a pan-India release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam as well.
A 72-year-old CPI (M) activist succumbed to the burn injuries on the January 26 evening which he had suffered after setting himself ablaze two days earlier here in Madhya Pradesh, police said on Monday.

Though police had not given out the motive behind Rameshchandra Prajapat taking his own life, a CPI (M) leader claimed that he seemed "highly disappointed" because of the "stubborn attitude" of the Central government on the overall CAA-NPR-NRC issue.

Police had found pamphlets denouncing Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the proposed National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from Prajapat's bag at Geeta Bhavan square, the spot of the incident.

"Rameshchandra Prajapat had set himself on fire last Friday (January 24) by spraying some inflammable substance on himself. He died on Sunday evening during treatment at the MY Hospital," said Tukoganj police station in-charge Nirmal Kumar Shrivas.

When asked about the possible motive behind Prajapat's act, the police officer said they are investigating.

"Prajapat had suffered nearly 100 per cent burns, and because of his critical condition, police could not record his statement. We are investigating," he said.

When asked about recovery of pamphlets from Prajapat's bag, the police officer said no conclusion should be drawn merely on that basis.

Meanwhile, a CPI (M) leader has said that Prajapat was regularly taking part in the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protests in various parts of the country.

"It appears that Prajapat was highly disappointed because of the stubborn attitude of the Central government on the issue of the CAA, the NPR and the NRC," said Kailash Limbodia, Member, Rajya Sachiv Mandal, CPI (M).

He, however, added that the party would never support such extreme steps.

Limbodia claimed that Prajapat himself had prepared the pamphlets mentioning the Centre's "stubborn attitude" towards the CAA-NPR-NRC regime despite nationwide protests.

He appealed to the Centre to hold a dialogue with protesters and resolve the protests.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
27.01.2020 LISTEN

The Receiver of the 347 Micro-finance Companies and the 23 Savings & Loans and Finance Houses whose licenses were revoked by the Bank of Ghana on 31 May 2019 and 16 August 2019 respectively, has informed the general public and affected depositors about efforts being made to expedite action on their claims and speed up payments.

It would be recalled that in an interview towards the end of last year, the Receiver expressed his commitment to seeing to it that creditors claims were dealt with in a timely fashion.

In a press release signed by Spokesperson Philomena Kuzoe, the Receiver unveiled a new location where Validation Teams are to be relocated.

The Release announced that the Teams will be stationed at the former head office of UNICREDIT Savings and Loans, No. 3 North Ridge Lane, North Ridge, Accra, (near Accra High School) effective Monday, 27 January 2020.

The Press Release, further explains that members of the validation team are to expeditiously attend to depositors regarding validation and payment of their claims.

The Public have also been reminded that they may visit maintained branches of the closed Companies for loan repayments and any other inquiries relating to the receivership.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing budget troubles, and he wants cities like Saratoga Springs to share the pain.

Mr. Cuomo proposes to stop sending video lottery terminal aid  funds given to municipalities that host electronic gambling machines for the state  to every host city except for Yonkers. The VLT aid is meant to help with costs associated with hosting a state-operated racino, such as increased police and fire services and road maintenance. Revenue from the gaming machines goes to public schools and capital improvements at New York Racing Association facilities, among other things.

Losing this aid would blow a $2.3 million hole in Saratoga Springs' budget. However, Mr. Cuomo says the payouts aren't needed any longer because the "revenue benefits of hosting a facility outweigh any associated costs."

Really? We'd like to see the numbers on that, especially since Saratoga Casino Hotel's business took a hit from the upstate casino expansion, which included the opening of Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady.

This isn't the first time the state has looked to save money by clawing back VLT aid. Under Gov. David Paterson, the state yanked Saratoga's funds; they were partially restored in 2011.

It fits another pattern, too: Too often the state has promised the moon to get stakeholders on board with its gambling expansion plans, then later peeled back those expectations and promises, one by one.

A sudden reassignment

Well, that was ... odd.

Albany County Court Judge William Carter was abruptly pulled off criminal cases earlier this month. Not all criminal matters  though that's what state court officials said at first. They clarified that Judge Carter was removed just from criminal cases involving Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Judge Carter's reassignment to other matters is not considered a suspension. He won't say why it happened, and neither will court officials.

Judge Carter and Mr. Soares have clashed before, notably over the DA's determination not to prosecute Occupy Albany activists. More recently, they've clashed over implementation of the new bail laws.

The silence from the Office of Court Administration is unsettling, and does no good for either Judge Carter or a public left to think the worst. The voters who elected Judge Carter deserve to know why he isn't doing the job they chose him to do.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Funds for broadband expansion

New York's representatives in Washington are pushing back on plans to cut the state out of a $20 billion federal program to help rural areas get high-speed internet service.

The Federal Communications Commission says that because New York is already getting federal money for its New NY Broadband Program, the state should sit this one out.

Launched in 2015, the New NY Broadband Program uses state and federal funds to help offset the costs of adding broadband in underserved areas of the state. It's a model the FCC would like to see other states emulate.

If that's the case, then penalizing New York for taking the initiative on this important economic issue sends the wrong message. This new FCC program comes from a different funding stream; New York should have an equal shot at the subsidies. Why should we be penalized for being ahead of the curve?
Representative image

A volley of rockets landed near the US embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad January 26, two security sources told AFP, in the latest unclaimed attack on American installations in the country.

AFP reporters heard loud thuds emanating from the western bank of the Tigris, where most foreign embassies are located.

One security source said three Katyusha rockets hit near the high-security compound while another said as many as five struck the area.

There was no immediate word on casualties.
By Jessie Pang and Felix Tam HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong authorities on Sunday barred residents of China's Hubei province, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, from entering the city, in response to mounting pressure to enact preventative measures to contain the spreading epidemic. The ban includes those who have been in the province in the past 14 days but excludes Hong Kong citizens

By Jessie Pang and Felix Tam

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong authorities on Sunday barred residents of China's Hubei province, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, from entering the city, in response to mounting pressure to enact preventative measures to contain the spreading epidemic.

The ban includes those who have been in the province in the past 14 days but excludes Hong Kong citizens.

Earlier a group of protesters set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building in Hong Kong that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility for the coronavirus outbreak.

A Reuters witness saw several masked protesters, clad in black, rush into the public housing block in the Fanling district near to the border with China, and set alight a Molotov cocktail. Black smoke could be seen pouring out of the building to the sound of fire alarms. Windows were smashed.

Firefighters managed to extinguish the fire and the damage appeared to be confined to the lobby area. Hundreds of riot police also moved in, arresting at least one person.

As fears about the virus outbreak intensify, calls have grown for Hong Kong's government to close the financial hub's border with mainland China to minimise the risk of infection.

Earlier, hundreds of Hong Kong citizens had blocked roads leading to the building with bricks and other debris, to protest plans to convert the building into a quarantine zone as the number of confirmed cases in the city climbed to six.

"We are dissatisfied with the government selecting this housing estate as a (quarantine) separation village as it's very close to a residential area and a primary school," said a 28-year-old resident surnamed Tsang.

Hong Kong authorities had said they would convert "Fai Ming Estate, an unoccupied public estate in Fanling, into temporary flats for quarantine and observation of close contact persons without symptoms if needed."

Following the protest, the government said it would "cease the related preparation work in Fai Ming Estate."

Hong Kong has been convulsed with demonstrations over the last seven months centred on Hong Kong's relationship with mainland China: with some protesters railing against what they see as growing interference from Beijing. Beijing denies meddling and blames the West for stirring trouble in the former British colony.

Hong Kong authorities have so far refused to categorically block the flow of visitors from mainland China across several land border crossings. Direct train and flight connections to and from Wuhan have been suspended.

Health authorities in the afternoon said 107 people were under quarantine, and there were 77 suspected cases.

The ability of the new coronavirus to spread is strengthening and infections could continue to rise, China's National Health Commission said on Sunday, with nearly 2,000 people in China infected and 56 killed by the disease.

(Additional reporting Tyrone Siu and Aleksander Solum in Hong Kong, Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Writing by James Pomfret; Editing by Toby Chopra and Louise Heavens)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Paul Hogan has said that Australians need to understand that global warming is not a 'hoax' and urged the country to prepare for future bushfires.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the G'Day USA event in Los Angeles on Saturday, the 80-year-old said Australia was never 'properly prepared for the fires', which has so far killed 33 people and more than a billion animals.

'The big difference with the fires in California [is] you've got the greatest technical equipment and up to date and professional firefighters and so the fires were savage here but they got on top of them in days,' he explained.

'We've never been properly prepared': Paul Hogan (pictured) claimed Australia needs to 'stop pretending global warming is a Chinese hoax' and urged the country to prepare for future bushfires on Saturday

Paul went on to say Australians need to start preparing for future bushfires as global warming is not a 'hoax'.

He continued: 'Starting now, get prepared. Stop pretending that global warming is a Chinese hoax because it aint.'

The Crocodile Dundee star also said at the event there's a special kinship between Australia and the USA.

Fires: He explained that the Californian fires in 2018 were 'savage here but they got on top of them in days but in Australia it's been months because they're mostly volunteers'

'There's a hundred and fifty highly skilled firefighters from the U.S. down there right now,' he said.

'People here are generous and they're willing to help out those who haven't done so well down there,' he said.

At the event, Paul looked smart in a crisp dress shirt along with a black velvet jacket and trousers.

'It's a celebration': The Crocodile Dundee star also said that the G'Day USA event was a great way to celebrate the kinship between Australia and the USA

He accessorised his ensemble with a pair of black shoes and was all smiles as he posed on the red carpet.

Other noted celebrities in attendance on the night included Olivia Newton-John, Naomi Watts, John Travolta, Delta Goodrem and Liev Schreiber.

Streaming service Stan is a proud sponsor of G'Day USA.
Rockets crash near Baghdad's Green Zone: Five katyusha rockets crashed into a riverbank near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone but caused no injuries, the U.S. Joint Operations Command said. It is the third such attack this month, and the perpetrators were not known. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters flooded the streets of Iraq's capital and southern provinces in a show of support for an anti-government movement that began in October.
Abir Sultan/Reuters

JERUSALEMBefore he even headed to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp liberated 75 years ago on an equally icy January 27, Israeli President Reuven Rivlins first task on landing in Warsaw was to make peace with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Kate Middletons Secret Photos of Holocaust Survivors Unveiled

Duda was of one the few conspicuous absentees from the commemoration Rivlin hosted last week in Jerusalem, when Israels national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, observed the event in the presence of some 50 world leaders, including Vice President Mike Pence and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In fact, Putin was the reason Duda stayed away.

The Russian president has advanced a revisionist account of World War II in which Moscows notorious non-aggression pact with the Nazi regime is erased, and Poland, which was invaded by both Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin in September 1939, is cast as the guilty party collaborating with the Nazis.

In 1941, when Hitler tore up the nonaggression pact and launched his invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin became an ally of the United States and Great Britain. But he had already murdered, in his own right, millions of his own subjects. In 1940 his troops massacred systematically some 22,000 of Polands military officers and members of the intelligentsia.

When Polish President Duda heard that Putin would give a keynote address in Jerusalem, he demanded equal time. But Yad Vashem, a public institution, refused, so Duda stayed conspicuously away.

But there is more to it than this dispute over Putins reimagined Russian history. Behind the controversy lies a web of rivalries and power struggles pitting independent nations once under Soviet dominion against Putins broader effort to recover what he sees as the gloryand at least some of the territoryof the Soviet empire.

In a parallel channel, the controversy is fed by a feud between two Jewish billionaires leveraging the Auschwitz commemorations to vie for international influence.

Story continues

On one side, is former U.S. Ambassador Ronald Lauder, scion of the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and president of the World Jewish Congress, based in New York, who has long sponsored the annual memorial celebrations at the gates of Auschwitz in Poland.

On the other is the oligarch Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, a Moscow-born fertilizer magnate who is close to Putin. Kantor heads the European Jewish Congress and its subsidiary, the World Holocaust Forum Foundation.

Rivlin is Israels titular head of state. When he dreamed of Israel hosting an event to mark the Nazi defeat, he did not imagine that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of government, would still be running for office more than a year after dissolving the parliament, or that Netanyahu would be managing a campaign while facing criminal indictments.

Netanyahus Big Win Means His Party Is in Real Trouble

As the event approached, and Netanyahu encroached, hoping the moment would bolster his candidacy as Israels face to the world, Israels low-budget presidency found itself in want of a sponsor.

Enter Kantor, for whom the commemoration became a platform to prove his international usefulness to Putin.

It wasnt Yad Vashems event, nor Rivlins, nor even the ministry of foreign affairs, said Ofer Aderet, history correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, who has followed Israels increasingly fraught relations with the eastern European nations in which much of the Holocaust took place. It was a one man show run by Moshe Kantor, a guy whose name is not known to Israelis, who understood this to be an Israeli event, something official.

Rivlins office estimated that the event cost about $5.7 million, but acknowledged paying only several hundred thousand shekelsa sum ranging anywhere from $60,000 to $260,000for Wednesday nights formal dinner for heads of state.

Jonathan Cummings, Rivlins spokesman, said it was accurate to report that Kantor had, in effect, footed the entire billan undisclosed sumfor a three-day event Israel billed as one of the most important diplomatic showcases in its entire history.

The question of why Israel would outsource a major diplomatic achievement to a Russian oligarch remains officially unanswered. But it was vigorously debated in Israeli cafes in recent days, especially by Israelis of Russian origin, many of whom, having left post-Soviet Russia for Israel, are no great fans of Putin or of the loose cast of ultra-rich men who surround him.

Its all about propaganda, says tour guide Igor Schwartz. Now 46 years old, Schwartz has lived in Israel for 21 years, but was born in Putins hometown of St. Petersburg, which was still called Leningrad in those days.

He was unmoved by the 25-foot tall sculpture Putin and Netanyahu unveiled in Sacker Park, Jerusalems largest green space, to honor about 1 million Russians who died during the Nazi siege of his old hometown.

Here and in all the world, Schwartz said, Putin is the enemy. Hes been the leader of Russia in one way or another for about 20 years, and what has happened during that time? Russia has gone only down.

In a message to followers, an exultant Netanyahu summed up the diplomatic whirlwind in Jerusalem as the morning with Vladimir Putin, midday with world leaders at Yad Vashem, and the evening with Vice President of the United States.

But the result was clear: It was a huge victory for Putin, Aderet said, a triumphant prance around the jewel of Jerusalem, in which he publicly cemented his role as the new face of power in the Middle East.

In a Jerusalem speech that left many stunned, and made no mention of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Putin said that worse than the Nazis, were their accomplices often crueler than their masters. Death factories and concentration camps were served not only by the Nazis, but also by their accomplices in many European countries.

He won, Aderet said. He succeeded in creating a situation in which he was transformed into the supreme hero, a revered king to whom everyone here pays obeisance, as if he himself opened the gates of Auschwitz.

Greeting Putin at Ben Gurion airport, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, the son of Polish-Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, said, Israel is appreciative of the great sacrifices the Russian people made in World War II and the overwhelmingly important contributions of the Red Army in defeating the German Nazis and liberating the concentration camps, among them Auschwitz.

We know exactly who did the liberating. We know the historical truth, Katz said.

The Soviet Army did liberate Auschwitzbut in fact, Russian troops did not. The Red Armys First Ukrainian Front opened the gates of hell, commanded by Ukrainian officers then subordinate to the Soviet command.

In an elegant gesture, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ceded his delegations seats at the Jerusalem event to Holocaust survivors, few of whom secured invitations. Space was so tight at Yad Vashem, and so many personalities had to be accommodated, that only 30 out of the 780 seats at the ceremony were reserved for those who had endured the horrors of the death camps.

Israel comes off as a miserable failure, Aderet lamented, prepared to bend history for any immediate domestic interest.

He noted that in recent years, Polands right-wing populist government has indulged in its own revisionism, even passing a law criminalizing any comment implying Polish collaboration with the Nazi final solution, such as the term Polish death camp instead of a Nazi death camp in occupied Poland.

Putins tactic is to suggest that he and those he supports, especially separatists in Ukraine, are still fighting the old fight against modern fascists and Nazis. And on Monday, Putin boycotted the ceremony at Auschwitz, where Lauder and Duda are the hosts.

Rivlins first act upon landing there was to lay a wreath at a memorial to Witold Pilecki, a Polish hero who, as a leader of the anti-Nazi underground, volunteered to be imprisoned at Auschwitz and gather intelligence, which he transmitted to the west.

Then, expressing sorrow that Polish-Israeli ties have been harmed in the past by political intervention in questions of history, Rivlin attempted to repair some of the wounds opened by the weeks jamboree of remembrances.

We remember that Poland and the Polish people are victims of the Second World War, he said, in formal remarks.

Israel, he said, remembers that over one million Jews were exterminated at Auschwitz, and that Nazi Germany initiated, planned and implemented the genocide of the Jewish people in Poland and takes full responsibility for its actions.

We remember that during the war the Polish people fought with courage and strength against Nazi Germany. But we also remember that many Poles stood by and even assisted in the murder of Jews.

The diplomatic statement, acknowledging both Polands truth and the truth of Europes Jews, is typical of Rivlin, a fellow member of Netanyahus nationalist Likud party who has spent a significant part of his presidency mitigating damage caused by the prime ministers headstrong determination to hold onto power.

On Monday, Netanyahu was in Washington, D.C., with his great political ally President Donald Trump, who has promised to settle the long, painful Israeli-Palestinian dispute by unveiling the deal of the century, which most analysts believe will die aborning.

At the very moment that Netanyahu tweeted on Monday that he was At the White House. Making History. Keeping Israel safe, Rivlin made his way along rows of about 200 Holocaust survivors who attended the commemoration at Auschwitz, slowly shaking hands, exchanging words with each of them, and finally marching with other world leaders on the dark path the Nazis forced on the Jews.

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T he death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 80, Chinas National Health Commission has said.

There were 769 new cases confirmed on Sunday, bringing the total number of infected to 2,744.

The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong and two in Macau.

Other cases have also been found in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the US, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Canada and Australia.

Crisis: A worker in a protective suit speaks with staff members at the Wangfujing subway station / REUTERS

The current risk to the public remains low, the department said, adding that the Government is continuing to monitor the situation closely.

Englands chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said there was a fair chance cases would emerge in Britain.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called the outbreak a grave situation and said the government was stepping up efforts to restrict travel and public gatherings while rushing medical staff and supplies to the city at the centre of the crisis, Wuhan, which remains on lockdown.

While warning the virus seemed to be spreading more easily, Chinas health minister Ma Xiaowei said travel restrictions and other strict measures should bring results at the lowest cost and fastest speed.

The US Consulate in Wuhan plans to evacuate its personnel and some other Americans aboard a charter flight, while France and Japan are weighing up similar decisions.

Britons trapped in the Chinese province at the centre of the outbreak have been urged to leave the area if they are able to do so.

The Foreign Office updated its guidance to advise against all travel to Hubei province, which has been on lockdown for several days as China seeks to contain the illness.

But the guidance also added: If you are in this area and able to leave, you should do so. This is due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak.

The epidemic has revived memories of the SARS outbreak that originated in China and killed nearly 800 as it spread around the world in 2002 and 2003.

Its spread has come amid Chinas busiest travel period of the year, when millions crisscross the country or head abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Chinese travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, and concern is growing over the potential impact of millions of people travelling back to the cities after the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Thursday.

The health commission said anyone travelling from Wuhan is now required to register with community health stations and quarantine themselves at home for 14 days  the virus maximum incubation period.

Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP

Beijing has decided to delay the start of classes after the Lunar New Year holiday ends, the official Beijing Daily reported on its website.

In the heart of the outbreak  where 11 million residents are already on lockdown  Wuhan banned most vehicle use, including private cars, in inner city areas.

China cut off trains, planes and other links to the city on January 22 and has steadily expanded the lockdown to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50 million.

Wuhan is building two makeshift hospitals with about 1,000 beds each to handle patients.

The city has said the first is expected to be completed on February 3.

Medical workers in Wuhan have been among those infected and local media reported a doctor died on Saturday morning.

The 62-year-old physician was hospitalised on January 18 and died a week later.

Xinhua said medical supplies are being rushed to the city, including 14,000 protective suits, 110,000 pairs of gloves and masks and goggles.
Ex-aide John Bolton says in unpublished book Trump wanted to freeze aid until Kyiv helped investigations, report says.

US President Donald Trump told a then-top aide in August he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Trumps statement was described in an unpublished manuscript by former NSA John Bolton, the Times said in a report that could raise pressure on Republicans to call Bolton as a witness in Trumps Senate impeachment trial.

The report, which did not quote the manuscript but cited multiple people describing Boltons account, may undercut a key element of Trumps defence: that there was no quid pro quo when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden in a July phone call.

Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to oppose Trump in the November 3 presidential election. His son worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while Biden was vice president.

In a statement, a lawyer for Bolton suggested that the Times account was accurate and said he had submitted Boltons book manuscript to the National Security Council on December 30, a standard security review for classified information.

It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript, the lawyer, Charles Cooper, said.

Democrats want Bolton called as witness

The report drew Democratic demands that the Republican-led Senate, which is conducting a trial on whether to remove Trump from office after his December 18 impeachment by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, call Bolton as a witness.

Democrats have said they are eager to hear testimony by Bolton, who was involved, as his lawyer previously said, in many relevant meetings and conversations involving issues at the heart of Trumps impeachment.

Democrats need to win over at least four Senate Republicans to approve the calling of witnesses. Bolton said this month he was willing to testify in the trial if a Senate subpoena was issued.

Lawyers for Trump are scheduled on Monday to resume their defence in the impeachment trial stemming from his dealings with Ukraine. A showdown vote on calling witnesses could loom later in the week.

Trump denied the claims in a series of tweets early on Monday.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens, Trump said in a tweet.

In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.

Trump said people could look at transcripts of his call, and statements by Ukraine President Zelenskyy that there was no pressure for such investigations to get the aid.

Peter Mathews, a political science professor at Cypress College, said Trumps attempt to frame the issue as a matter of national security and prevent Boltons testimony was not a new strategy.

So many presidents have used the national security camouflage to hide the truth, Mathews told Al Jazeera.

If what Bolton is saying is true, it needs to be exposed so we can actually clean up our democracy and abide by the rule of law.


By Hyon O'Brien





I recently discovered "Grey's Anatomy," a long-running (now in its 16th season!) American medical drama that started in 2005 while we were living in Korea. After binge watching the series we have become familiar with most of the characters and our affection for them has grown.



The creator of the show, Shonda Rhimes, is also responsible for several other remarkably successful TV series, and that piqued my curiosity. To my delight I found her autobiography, "Year of Yes," an account of her amazing success as a black woman in the television world.



I am greatly attracted to the idea of saying yes. Over the years I have come to realize that, if at all possible, I should say yes to the opportunities and inspirations that present themselves. This requires a spirit of spontaneity, pushing aside a rigid preoccupation with the tasks at hand.



For instance, the other day a friend called and told me about the annual book sale at the main Miami library and asked me to join her. I agreed, even though I urgently needed to write up the minutes for my Rotary Club before our next weekly meeting.



My saying yes led to the purchase of a copy of "The Birds of America" by John James Audubon (1785-1851). Audubon's detailed documentation and illustrations depicting birds in their natural habitats is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. I was inspired to try a watercolor copy of his famous pelican, and I painted it as realistically as I could from his book.



Saying yes last year to take the current presidency of Bal Harbour Rotary Club has been a challenging one. The role has stretched me beyond my imagination and I am still learning about Rotary International and how 1.2 million Rotarians in 200 countries are working together to promote peace, fight disease, support health and education and local businesses while connecting with friends through weekly meetings and annual international conventions. It has been a truly life-expanding experience.



I could list hundreds of examples of brave souls who said yes even in the face of death. I shall mention only a handful of my heroes.



Galileo Galilee (1564-1642) played a leading role in the scientific revolution. His findings encouraged him to speak out for the Copernican view that the earth revolved around the sun. His views were considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church and he was placed under the house arrest. Outwardly he had to recant his theory but to his dying day he held to his belief in the truth of his theory.



William Wilberforce (1759-1833) became an evangelical Christian under the influence of John Newton, a leading Anglican clergyman of the day and author of the hymn "Amazing Grace," who urged him to stay in politics to oppose slavery. He dedicated 20 years of his political life as a member of parliament in the fight against slavery in Great Britain.



In 1807, the British slave trade ended by the passage of the Slave Trade Act. This campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire. Wilberforce saying yes to John Newton made a big difference to countless persons.



Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist, devoted himself to nonviolent resistance in leading the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He said yes to his inner call to do something about his people and country influenced the destiny of India forever. He showed the world the key importance of nonviolence in using social protest to achieve change.



Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) also dedicated his life for social justice, employing Gandhi's nonviolent way of protest to bring about social change to right the wrongs inflicted on the African Americans that began from the time of slavery. It cost him his life, but society has been improving ever since because of his big yes that helped to bend the arc of the universe ever closer toward the justice he strived for.



Mother Teresa (1910-1997), a Catholic nun and missionary from Macedonia, showed the world how to love our neighbors in need by her example living in poverty and simplicity. She devoted her life to the cause of the sick and dying people in Calcutta. She obeyed the inner call to walk away from the comfort and ease of her teaching job.



On a more personal note, saying yes to my American husband's proposal on Nov. 24, 1968, to marry him was one of the most daring decisions I've ever made in my life. On Jan. 31 we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I am deeply grateful that I had the courage to say yes. But I know it is by the grace of God that we've come thus far.



So, my beloved readers, are you in the habit of saying no? Can you try to examine that pattern and try to say more yeses this year? That will be our collective challenge, not only for our own benefit but also for those around us.





Hyon O'Brien (hyonobrien@gmail.com) is a former reference librarian now living in the United States.


On the occasion of Armenian Army Day, President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian signed a decree on awarding a group of servicemen and freedom fighters. The decree is posted on the official website of the President of Armenia (PHOTOS).

Accepting as a basis the petition of the Prime Minister, in accordance with Article 136 of the Constitution, as well as part 1 of Article 5.3 of the Law On state awards and honorary titles of the Republic of Armenia:

A group of servicemen of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia and freedom fighters shall be awarded on the occasion of Army Day and for their contributions to homeland defense and for their courage and dedication shown during military service.
Safety First illustration

The outbreak of the coronavirus in China is starting to have an impact on global markets.

The disease, which is from the same family as SARS, has now made it to several countries. At the time of writing, there are more than 2,000 known cases worldwide.

Most cases remain in China, where the disease was first detected in the Wuhan region, but confirmations have now occurred in at least 10 other countries, including the U.S., France, South Korea, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, and Singapore.

Canada also has its first suspected case.

In the first few weeks the disease was identified, global financial markets effectively ignored the potential threat. Now that the case numbers are rising, traders are beginning to build defence into their portfolios, as the risk of a global economic slowdown becomes more of a concern.

Bond yields fell January 24, indicating investors are moving funds to government debt. The price of oil fell more than 7% in the past four trading days, marking the worst week for the commodity since July.

How to protect your portfolio

Gold picked up a tailwind in recent trading, hitting a two-week high on January 24.

This isnt a surprise, as gold is often viewed as a safe-haven asset when there is a perceived or real risk of financial turmoil. Gold buying could pick up steam in the coming days, especially if the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise, which is expected, and more travel restrictions are put in place for China.

Heavy media coverage and the fear of not acting quickly enough could drive a new wave of funds into gold and government bonds, as traders start to worry that consumer spending and business investment will drop.

As a result, gold and gold stocks might be attractive picks for investors today.

Gold price target

There is a risk that panic could creep into the financial markets in the near term and that could send the price of gold soaring back above US$1,600 per ounce. The yellow metal hit that level earlier in January after the U.S. killed one of Irans top generals.

Story continues

The coronavirus outbreak is just one more factor added to an already sensitive global financial market. Middle East tensions, Brexit, and the U.S.-China trade war have already helped move gold from US$1,300 to the recent highs. In the event things get out of hand and global investors overreact, gold could potentially retest the 2011 highs above US$1,900 per ounce.

Gold stocks still appear cheap, even if the price of gold remains near current levels. Barrick Gold trades at $24.60 compared to more than $26.50 in August when gold first topped US$1,560. In 2011, Barrick Gold traded above $54 per share, so there is decent upside potential.

The gold miners have cleaned up their balance sheets in recent years and made their operations more efficient. Barrick Gold produced 5.5 million ounces in 2019. If production in 2020 comes in at five million ounces, a sustained US$300 increase in the price of gold would translate in to an extra US$1.5 billion in cash flow, assuming all cost structures remain steady.

That would potentially turn Barrick Gold into a free cash flow machine and lead to higher dividends and a rising stock price.

Should you buy gold stocks now?

Hopefully, the coronavirus we be contained quickly and that driver of the gold market will peter out. Investors should thus evaluate the gold opportunity based on the other supporting factors.

Falling bond yields, geopolitical threats, and ongoing trade disputes should all remain positive for gold in 2020. With this in mind, it would make sense to add gold stocks to your holdings right now.

In the event the coronavirus outbreak gets worse, having gold exposure in your portfolio should provide an additional hedge against potential weakness in other industry sectors.

More reading

Fool contributor Andrew Walker owns shares of Barrick Gold.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
The deadline was extended to 1982, but only 35 of the 38 required states had approved it by then. After opponents declared the effort a failure, legislatures in Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota rescinded their ratifications. ERA supporters say there is no provision for rescissions in the Constitution and that therefore they do not count. No federal court has conclusively ruled on that question.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex are leaving behind their royal duties for a life out of the spotlight and royal fans are divided about it. Many are applauding the couple for the move after the constant public and media scrutiny they endured, while others think its an insult to the royal family.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Karwai Tang/WireImage

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their step back

Following their extended break from royal duties, the Sussexes returned refreshed after the holidays and then dropped a bombshell. In an Instagram post, the couple shared their intentions, noting: After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.

Queen Elizabeth called a special meeting to discuss the next steps and the details were finalized, with the queen issuing a statement of support and Buckingham Palace sharing how things would shake out, including the couple no longer using their HRH titles.

Was the Sussexes exit hurtful and insulting?

Among the many experts who have weighed in on the exit drama is Ulrika Jonsson, who dated Prince Edward in the eighties. Jonsson shared her personal rollercoaster of emotions over the Sussexes plan to leave the royal family in a piece for The Sun.

While she admits feeling enthusiastic and emotional when Prince Harry and Meghan got married, Jonsson writes, Now, 18 months down the line, I cannot deny I feel hoodwinked  and can well imagine that is how much of the population feels.

In short, Jonsson feels like Prince Harry and Meghan turned their backs on the UK, noting, it feels like a kick in the teeth.

Jonsson continues: What really stings is that it does not feel like it was a long-term plan, but it simply came about when Meghan re-read the membership rules, months after signing on the dotted line, and decided it cramped her style.

Jonsson further shares that Meghan enjoyed the exposure of being a royal, which gave her a platform for her humanitarian work but also fame on a level she would have been unlikely to have otherwise ever achieved.

Meghan discovered she could not run her own show

Meghan had to sacrifice control in the process, however, something the writer could relate to after dating Prince Edward, sharing, I really got a good insight into the restrictive life he led, along with his lack of access to any kind of normality.

At the time, she said the thought of being shackled to his life was enough to make me want to run for the hills  regardless of the universal fame that might have been waiting, something she believes Meghan, being fiercely independent, would also struggle with.

Jonsson notes that Meghans initial sense of goodwill and charitable ambition appears to have been overtaken by her refusal to accept any opinion or critique. I am afraid I know to great personal cost that the limelight can be blinding. But it is a deal you make with yourself and, in her case, it was a deal she made with the British public  to serve.

The Sussexes have been married a short time, Jonsson notes, and finds fault with Meghan not giving the situation more time, writing: This self-defeating move away reeks of impatience, petulance and bitterness. Put simply, her new life became burdensome and an inconvenience when she discovered she could not run her own show.

Jonsson asserts that, by trying to carve out a more contented, niche life for themselves, the Sussexes have made survival considerably more complicated with absolute exposure guaranteed and a lifetimes guarantee of judgment and critique.

In addition to feeling painfully disappointed and cheated, Jonsson wonders what will happen if the Sussexes want back in. She writes: If Harry and Meghan thought exiting was challenging, when this all ends in tears  as I fear it will  coming back to the fold will be utterly inconceivable.
Malaysia's government has announced it will ban travellers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan and other parts of surrounding Hubei province beginning immediately.

A statement issued Monday by the Prime Minister's Department said Malaysia would stop issuing visas for Chinese travellers from those areas.

The statement said the decision was made after consultations with experts and following advice of the World Health Organisation.

Normal visa procedures will resume once the situation returns to normal.

The government also warned people not to spread any false information that might alarm the public.

Mongolia's official agency says the country's Cabinet on Monday closed border crossings with China and suspended university classes to prevent the spread of a new viral disease.

There are no confirmed cases in Mongolia of the coronavirus cases that first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and have now spread to at least a dozen countries.

But the Montsame agency said the Cabinet cited the high risk of the disease spreading across the country's southern border.

The Cabinet also ordered public tours, children's playgrounds and other public activities in the sprawling, sparsely populated North Asian nation to close.

The report said border crossings with China were closed to vehicles and pedestrians.

Universities and other higher education institutions were ordered closed until March 2.

That followed an earlier order for public schools and kindergartens to close effective Monday through March 2.

Chinese health authorities said the new coronavirus had infected 2,744 people and killed 80 as of midnight Sunday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: New Delhi on Sunday sharply criticised the European Parliaments decision to debate resolutions against Indias Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying it should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures.

In all, six draft resolutions have been tabled by groups within the European Union (EU).

While they have a similar theme, some of the resolutions sought to include the hollowing out of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

They are set to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday and voted on the day after.

India hit back saying the CAA was an internal matter and emphasised that the law was adopted through the democratic process after a full debate in both houses of Parliament.

It also underlined that the new Act is meant to provide citizenship rights, not to deny them to any individual.

The EU Parliament should also not take any action questioning the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures, government sources said on Sunday, ahead of a debate on a batch of resolutions against India's new citizenship law by the powerful bloc of 28 nations.

India also hoped that the "sponsors and supporters" of the resolutions will engage with the government to get a full and accurate assessment of facts before they proceed further, the sources said.

The beneficiaries of the new legislation are the oppressed minorities of three neighbouring countries.

The draft resolutions urge India to engage constructively with the anti-CAA protestors and consider their demands to repeal it.

India has been witnessing massive protests against the new law with opposition parties, civil rights groups and activists saying granting citizenship based on religion is against the foundational principle of the Constitution.

Reiterating New Delhi's stated position, the sources said the CAA was an entirely internal matter of India and that the legislation was adopted through democratic means after a debate in both houses of Parliament.

"Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination. In fact, European societies have followed the same approach," a government source said, explaining why India is opposed to the resolutions at the EU parliament.

Those who tabled them are the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European Peoples Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew), and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.

The resolutions have a similar theme with a number of them, such as the one tabled by the GUE/NGL Group, also making a reference to the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

They are set to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday and voted the day after.

The resolutions urge the Indian authorities to "engage constructively" with those protesting against the law and consider their demands to repeal the "discriminatory CAA".

"The CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering," according to the GUE/NGL resolution.

"Instead of addressing the concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters," it stated.

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law does not deny any citizenship rights, but has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.

The draft resolutions against the CAA make a reference to the Charter of the United Nations, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the India-EU Strategic Partnership Joint Action Plan signed in November 2005, and to the EU-India Thematic Dialogue on Human Rights as it urges the Indian authorities to "engage constructively" with those protesting against the Act and consider their demands to repeal the "discriminatory CAA".

"The CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering," notes the GUE/NGL draft.

"Instead of addressing the concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters," the resolution alleges.

As background, the resolution sets out that since the May 2019 election, the government of India has "reinforced its nationalistic orientation" as it also makes a reference to the revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

The draft resolution, which falls under the category of "Resolutions on topical subjects", alleges that India has "created the legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship" and that the CAA could be used, along with the National Register of Citizens, to "render many Muslim citizens stateless".

It seeks to remind the Indian government of its obligations under the 1992 UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which establishes the obligation of countries to protect the existence and identity of religious minorities within their territories and to adopt appropriate measures to ensure that this is achieved.

Such a motion, which has been characterised under the "Relations with Asian countries" section by the economic bloc, are used as a basis for engagement of EU member countries with specific nations.

If it is passed next week, it will be formally sent to the Indian government and Parliament as well as to the European Commission chiefs.

(With PTI Inputs)
AVON, Ohio

Traffic crash, OVI: Interstate 90

A driver was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while impaired following a traffic crash at 9:39 p.m. Jan. 19.

According to reports, the arrestee was parked on the shoulder of Interstate 90 with her hazard lights on. A second driver pulled over, parking in front of the suspected disabled car. The first driver then accelerated quickly, striking the other car in the rear.

A passenger in the second car was taken to a nearby hospital. Medical staff said he may have suffered a compound fracture in his back.

Drunken driver: Colorado Avenue

A woman was arrested at 10:46 p.m. Jan. 7 after police responded to a traffic complaint at Mulligans Pub. The caller said the woman had tried to drive out of the parking lot and crashed her car on a curb.

The woman was pulled over at the Interstate 90 overpass and taken back to the Mulligans parking lot by police. Her car was resting up on the curb, and it had knocked over the Mulligans mailbox and telephone junction box, reports said.

The woman was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while impaired and failure to control. She was booked and later released to a sober person.

Drug possession: Interstate 90

A driver was stopped for speeding at 8:21 p.m. Jan. 13. He was found to have a suspended license and had marijuana in his possession.

Theft: Detroit Road

Police responded to a Kohls store at 4:20 p.m. Jan. 9 for theft. The unknown suspect fled before officers arrived, although the store security guard was able to get the stolen merchandise from the suspect before they left.

Trespassing: Chester Road

A man was arrested for criminal trespassing at Menards at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20. There was no further information available at the time of the report.

Read more news from the Sun Sentinel.
Thousands of Iraqis yesterday faced live gunfire as they poured into the streets of Baghdad in defiance of calls by powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to stay at home.

Many wore balaclavas or gas masks as they hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at government forces, often retreating as live fire came from police positions.

Having initially supported the anti-government demonstrations, the cleric had pulled his support after they insulted a separate rally organised by Sadr. That protest called for the removal of US troops from Iraq. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

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Altus Group Limited (TSE:AIF), which is in the real estate business, and is based in Canada, led the TSX gainers with a relatively large price hike in the past couple of weeks. As a stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the companys outlook is already priced into the stock. However, what if the stock is still a bargain? Lets examine Altus Groups valuation and outlook in more detail to determine if theres still a bargain opportunity.

Check out our latest analysis for Altus Group

Is Altus Group still cheap?

According to my valuation model, the stock is currently overvalued by about 34%, trading at CA$43.53 compared to my intrinsic value of CA$32.39. Not the best news for investors looking to buy! Furthermore, Altus Groups share price also seems relatively stable compared to the rest of the market, as indicated by its low beta. If you believe the share price should eventually reach its true value, a low beta could suggest it is unlikely to rapidly do so anytime soon, and once its there, it may be hard to fall back down into an attractive buying range.

What does the future of Altus Group look like?

TSX:AIF Past and Future Earnings, January 27th 2020

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. Altus Groups earnings over the next few years are expected to double, indicating a very optimistic future ahead. This should lead to stronger cash flows, feeding into a higher share value.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? AIFs optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading above its fair value. At this current price, shareholders may be asking a different question  should I sell? If you believe AIF should trade below its current price, selling high and buying it back up again when its price falls towards its real value can be profitable. But before you make this decision, take a look at whether its fundamentals have changed.

Story continues

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on AIF for some time, now may not be the best time to enter into the stock. The price has surpassed its true value, which means theres no upside from mispricing. However, the optimistic prospect is encouraging for AIF, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on Altus Group. You can find everything you need to know about Altus Group in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Altus Group, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The Prosecutor General's Office filed to Bulgaria the materials on the extradition to Ukraine of Oleksiy Levin (Moskalenko), the suspect in the organization of the attack on activist Kateryna Handziuk, as Ukrainian News reported.

The relevant documents were filed to the law enforcement bodies of Bulgaria, the message said; it is noted that the Bulgarian side has not responded yet.

Besides, the issue of the extradition arrest of Levin should be decided.

On January 24, the law enforcers detained Oleksiy Levin in Bulgaria. Levin was arrested in absentia. The investigators consider him to be the organizer of the crime. Levin was detained in Europe in August 2019, questioned on the polygraph and released. The Security Service of Ukraine could file the request on his extradition but did not do it.

As we reported, the law enforcers detained Ihor Pavlovsky, the former assistant of lawmaker of previous convocations. He is the defendant in the case of Kateryna Handziuk on suspicion in the leading criminal organization.

Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced the possible involvement of police in the departure of Oleksiy Levin - organizer of the attack on Ukrainian activist Kateryna Handziuk.

On November 4, 2018, it became known that Kateryna Handziuk died at the age of 34. She was doused with sulphuric acid in July this year. According to preliminary information, her death was caused by blood clot's detachment.

Besides, the doctors specified the cause of death; it was due to multiple organ failure and chemical burns.

All the accused in the case of Handziuk murder pleaded guilty. Later Pokrovsky district court in the Dnipropetrovsk region has approved the agreements with the investigation team. Serhiy Torbin, Mykyta Hrabchuk, Viktor Horbunov, Vyacheslav Vyshnevsky, and Volodymyr Vasyanovych got their sentences. All were sentenced under the three articles of Criminal Code, namely 'deliberate grave bodily injury, planned and caused by the group of persons.'
The Police in Imo State have confirmed the arrest of Sydney Ogudoro, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) official, who allegedly killed the Action Alliance (AA) chieftain, Ndubuisi Emenike.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Ogudoro allegedly shot Mr Emenike at the residence of Mariam Onuoha, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate on Sunday.

The incident occurred during celebration of Mrs Onuohas victory at Saturdays rerun election for Imo North federal constituency.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Orlando Ikeokwu, a superintendent, confirmed the arrest to newsmen in Owerri on Monday.

Mr Ikeokwu, who spoke on behalf of the Commissioner of Police in the state, Fafowora Olaniyi, said that the killer corps was arrested after credible information confirmed that Mr Ogudoro fired gunshot at Mr Emenike on Sunday.

He said the NSCDC in Imo had been informed of the arrest and detention of Mr Ogudoro, an officer with the Imo command of the Corps, adding that joint investigation by the police and NSCDC was ongoing.

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He added that the alleged culprit, an orderly attached to the candidate would be prosecuted if the police found that to be necessary after investigation.

He however, appealed to youths of Ehime Mbano Local Government where the deceased hailed from, to remain calm and be law abiding as the police were on top of the situation.

The command hereby confirms the arrest and detention of Sydney Ogudoro, a two-star officer of the NSCDC, who allegedly shot and killed the AA senatorial candidate for Imo north in the 2019 elections, Chief Ndubuisi Emenike.

We are currently carrying out a joint investigation alongside the NSCDC in some areas of operation and prosecution will follow if necessary.

We also appeal to the good people of Isiala Mbano to remain law abiding and trust the police to fully carry out its constitutional responsibility of bringing culprits to book and toeing the path of justice and fairness. We will leave no stone unturned, he said.

(NAN)
The work on the wing as well as part of the rudder is the largest commercial work order the St. Louis site has ever received from Boeing. The company committed more than $300 million to a new 424,000-square-foot facility in Berkeley, where 777X parts and systems are fabricated. It includes a three-acre, temperature- and humidity-controlled clean room, an automated paint system and offices and working space for up to 300 employees, the company said.

FAA cooperation

While eyeing hundreds of sales this decade, Boeings new 406-seater must overcome hurdles from regulators and buyers.

The 777X will be the first major aircraft to be certified since the role of software flaws in two fatal 737 MAX crashes prompted accusations of cozy relations between Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration and heralded tougher scrutiny.

The FAA has pledged to ensure the 777X review is conducted rigorously, while launch customer airline Emirates wants the plane to be put through hell on Earth during testing to ensure it is safe and meets performance expectations.

Boeings chief test pilot, who co-piloted Saturdays flight, said it would work closely with regulators.
[January 27, 2020] Santhera Reports Net Revenues 2019 and Highlights Pipeline Progress

Pratteln, Switzerland, January 27, 2020  Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) generated net revenues of CHF 27.9 million in 2019 from sales of Raxone for the treatment of Lebers hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), which was out-licensed to Chiesi Group from August 2019. The Company made strong progress in advancing its lead neuromuscular compounds Puldysa (idebenone) and vamorolone towards market entry and regulatory submission, respectively. We are pleased about Santheras strong progress in 2019 and are excited about the prospects 2020 holds, said Dario Eklund, CEO of Santhera. Our late-stage neuromuscular assets targeting the high value Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) market are nearing key inflection points. With Puldysa (idebenone), we anticipate offering the first drug for the treatment of respiratory dysfunction for non-ambulant DMD patients who are not taking glucocorticoids. Vamorolone, a first-in-class anti-inflammatory drug candidate shown in studies to improve muscle and motor function with a favorable clinical safety profile, is being developed to replace glucocorticoids as standard of care in ambulant DMD patients. We will continue working with clinical experts, patient advocacy groups and regulators in order to bring these promising treatments to patients with currently few alternative treatment options as soon as possible. 2019 Turnover Net revenues CHF 27.9 million

Gross income of CHF 49.3 million from Raxone out-licensing agreement

Freely available liquid funds of CHF 31.4 million (December 31, 2019)

2019 full-year net revenues slightly above guidance

In 2019, Santhera reported net revenues of CHF 27.9 million (2018: CHF 31.7 million), slightly surpassing the Companys full-year guidance. This includes sales of Raxone in the approved indication Lebers hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) in the first seven months of 2019. From August 2019, after the closing of the licensing transaction and the transfer of the Raxone-business to Chiesi Group, Santhera is commercializing Raxone for LHON in France in a transitional phase. Upfront payment from Chiesi Group following closing of licensing agreement

In August 2019, Santhera recognized an initial gross income of CHF 49.3 million (EUR 44 million) from the licensing agreement with Chiesi Group. As previously announced per the agreement, Chiesi Group has in-licensed Raxone for LHON and all other ophthalmologic indications for all territories worldwide except the US and Canada for a total consideration of up to EUR 93 million. As of December 31, 2019, freely available liquid funds (cash and cash equivalents) amounted to CHF 31.4 million (August 31, 2019: CHF 43.7 million). In addition, the Company held CHF 1.5 million of restricted cash designated for the interest payments related to the convertible bonds issued in 2017. Pipeline and Regulatory Update Anticipated near-term inflection points towards approval for both DMD pipeline candidates Puldysa (idebenone) and vamorolone are: Q2-2020: CHMP opinion on marketing authoriation application for Puldysa in DMD in Europe

Q4-2020: Launch of Puldysa in first European markets

Q4-2020: Read-out of topline data of pivotal trial for vamorolone in DMD

Q1-2021: Filing a New Drug Application for vamorolone in DMD in the US





Puldysa first launch in Europe in 2020 subject to positive opinion and approval from CHMP/EMA

The review of Santheras application for conditional marketing authorization (CMA) for Puldysa in the treatment of respiratory dysfunction in patients with DMD who are not using glucocorticoids is ongoing and the Company expects an opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) around mid-2020. Subject to a positive opinion and subsequent EU approval, Santhera expects to launch Puldysa in the first European markets in late 2020. SIDEROS DMD trial enrollment with idebenone nearing completion

Patient enrollment in Santheras randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 SIDEROS trial is expected to complete in Q2-2020 (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02814019). With a study duration of 18 months, the last patients last visit is scheduled for Q4-2021. If positive, the study data will allow for regulatory submissions supporting the use of Puldysa in all DMD patients experiencing respiratory decline, irrespective of their glucocorticoid use, in Europe and the US.

Vamorolone pivotal VISION-DMD study progressing as cornerstone for US/European regulatory filings

ReveraGen BioPharma is currently enrolling the Phase 2b VISION-DMD study with vamorolone, designed as a pivotal efficacy and safety trial (VBP15-004; clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03439670). Read-out of topline 6-month data from the randomized placebo-controlled treatment period is expected by Q4-2020 followed by an NDA submission in the US by Q1-2021. Under the agreements between the parties and upon exercising its option, Santhera would receive the sub-license to ReveraGens vamorolone from Idorsia Ltd (SIX: IDIA) for all indications and all countries worldwide except Japan and South Korea. The marketing authorization application in Europe will require inclusion of 12-month data expected for Q2-2021. Neuromuscular franchise a top priority for 2020

Santheras strategic priorities for 2020 are its neuromuscular franchise: Puldysa and vamorolone in DMD. For Puldysa, the focus is on the preparation for European market entry in DMD later in the year and the completion of enrollment into the SIDEROS trial to support planned regulatory submissions, particularly in the US. For vamorolone, the key milestone will be the VISION-DMD topline data readout, which if positive would allow for preparation of the NDA filing and pave the way for Santheras option exercise. In parallel, the Company is advancing its clinical stage candidate POL6014 for cystic fibrosis and is evaluating further diversification of its platform type pipeline products, including development of additional indications in collaboration with partners. Corporate Calendar March 24, 2020  Publication of the Annual Report 2019 (07h00 CET)

April 22, 2020  Annual Shareholders Meeting About Santhera

Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera is building a Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) product portfolio to treat patients irrespective of causative mutations, disease stage or age. A marketing authorization application for Puldysa (idebenone) is currently under review by the European Medicines Agency. Santhera has an option to license vamorolone, a first-in-class anti-inflammatory drug candidate with novel mode of action, currently investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD to replace standard corticosteroids. The clinical stage pipeline also includes POL6014 to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases, as well as omigapil and an exploratory gene therapy approach targeting congenital muscular dystrophies. Santhera out-licensed ex-North American rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com . Raxone and Puldysa are trademarks of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. For further information please contact:

[email protected] or

Eva Kalias, Head External Communications

Phone: +41 79 875 27 80

[email protected] Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements

This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

# # # Attachment 2020 01 27_TopLine2019_e_final

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The Russians will be able to work in the assembly until the solution of the issue but without the right to vote for the confirmation of their authorities

PACE Open source

The lawmakers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) stopped the automatic confirmation of the authorities of the Russian delegation, as European Truth reported.

Member of Lithuanian delegation Emanuelis Zingeris stood against the confirmation of the authorities of the Russian delegation due to substantial grounds - for violation of the commitments by Russia, including the actions of Russia in Ukraine and Georgia.

According to the PACE regulation, over 30 lawmakers supported this initiative. It means that the issue should be considered on merits soon.

Simultaneously, Latvian parliamentarian Marija Golubeva stood against the confirmation of the authorities of the Russians on the procedural grounds due to the fact that the citizens of occupied Crimea voted for the Russian lawmakers elected in the multi-mandate district.

This appeal was also confirmed by a few dozens of the parliamentarians.

The Russians will be able to work in the assembly until the solution of the issue but without the right to vote for the confirmation of their authorities.

The issue on the authorities of Russians will be filed to the committees for the elaboration of the draft decision. The final decision on the appeal or confirmation of the Russian authorities should be made during the first two days of the work of the session, according to MP, member of Ukraines delegation Oleksiy Honcharenko.

As we reported, the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe started on Monday, January 27.

Earlier, Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE Yelyzaveta Yasko stated that Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation adopted a resolution on the participation of the Ukrainian delegation in the January session in PACE.

As we reported, the Ukrainian delegation officially refused from participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe autumn session due to Russias return.
Reactionary populism in its most dangerous form will tear at the very fabric of our society if we do not address the challenge of economic inequality. We see the scourge of authoritarian populist movements across the globe and believe there is a moral and economic imperative to reduce this widening gap.

Our backgrounds could not be more different, but we are motivated by our faiths to tackle this growing problem. One of us is a Republican Catholic representing a very conservative district in Florida and was the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See from 2005-2008. The other is a Democratic Hindu, representing a very progressive district in California and had a grandfather who spent time in jail as a freedom fighter in Gandhis independence movement.

Both of our faiths teach us to care for the poor. Jesus taught us to be radical in our service. Gandhi drew inspiration from Jesus Sermon on the Mount and said his goal was to unify the teaching of the [Bhagavad] Gita and the Sermon on the Mount. He believed Jesus was one of the worlds greatest teachers.

St. Peters recent successors call on us to focus on decreasing economic inequality. John Paul IIs encyclical, "Centesimus Annus" declared that the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs, but there are many human needs which find no place on the market. In his 2013 New Year message, Pope Benedict XVI said he was alarmed to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor and called for a new approach to the economy.

Free enterprise that rewards work and innovation has nurtured a standard of living for our people and level of innovation that all other nations aspire to reach. So why has capitalism come under attack in the last few years? Certainly, the financial and housing crisis of 2007-2014 led to a decline of confidence in free markets and suspicion among young people just entering the job market. But the crisis is deeper. The dramatic rise in income inequality over the last 30 years is alarming, and the transition in the United States from a manufacturing economy to services has replaced high wage and benefit jobs with lower wage ones.

Advances in global trade and automation has also had an impact, as has the increase in service industry jobs for entry level workers. Too many have been left out and the gains have not been realized equally.

In response, CEOs of 192 of our nations major corporations recently stated, Many Americans are struggling. Too often hard work is not rewarded. Even with historically low unemployment, wages remain stagnant, CEO pay has increased, and income inequality has grown. We must fix our system to make capitalism work for everyone if we are to prevent the ascendancy of authoritarian populism plaguing so many parts of the world.

Americas wealth/wage gap hasnt been as high as it is today since before the Great Depression. By 1970, average CEO pay was 24 times higher than their average employees salary. Today, that disparity is 312 times. This rise has been driven by incentive compensation  shares of stock, restricted stock units and stock options granted as part of CEO compensation. Performance is largely motivated by the achievement of financial goals but are often short-term targets which may come at the expense of long-term corporate success.

Congress has an important role in reducing income inequality. There are some actions that are bipartisan. We should create more career and technical training (CTE) opportunities, invest in rural broadband, expand small business loans to rural entrepreneurs and fund infrastructure improvements.

Specifically, the government should target areas suffering bankruptcies and economic distress where it would help facilitate job creation, entrepreneurial opportunities and increased community involvement. Because corporations are often creatures of their markets and competitive pressures, they will respond to external influences including legislative or regulatory changes promoting CTE, the minimum wage and improved working conditions.

Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is another important step Congress can take to address inequality. The EITC is a refundable tax credit for low to moderate-income workers and families created under the Nixon administration. President Ronald Reagan championed a major expansion of it in the 1986 Tax Reform Act. Since then, the EITC has successfully helped millions of low-wage workers and their families escape poverty. A further expansion today would give working families a long-overdue wage boost.

Preserving our free enterprise system with its potential to produce so much prosperity for so many must be addressed in a way that gives everyone an opportunity to participate and benefit from this system. We cannot let a new generation entering the workforce be left out of the new economy. We may have to experiment with many policy solutions to fix our income inequality crisis, but one thing is certain  our faiths teach us that we must act now.

Congressman Ro Khanna (@reprokhanna) represents Californias 17th Congressional District, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and is serving in his second term. Congressman Francis Rooney (@RepRooney) represents Floridas 19th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See under President George W. Bush from 2005-2008.
The trailer for Anubhav Sinha's next project titled 'Thappad' starring Tapsee Pannu will drop on January 31.

Film critic and analyst Taran Adarsh took to his Twitter and broke the news on Monday.

Earlier today, the director had also shared a throwback picture of the 'Thappad' team on his Instagram handle to which Taapsee Pannu, the leading lady of the movie, commented: "Again I am not there."

Sinha's last release 'Article 15' which featured Ayushmann Khurrana was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of last year. It brought forth the topic of caste discrimination, which is considered one of the most common social evils in India.

Apart from the names of the cast members, neither the makers or the actors have disclosed much about the film and its content. The movie cast ensemble actors Taapsee Pannu, Ratna Pathak Shah, Manav Kaul, Dia Mirza, Tanvi Azmi, and Ram Kapoor.

'Thappad' -- produced by Anubhav Sinha and Bhushan Kumar -- is scheduled to hit the screens on February 28.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: A team of officials from central intelligence agencies with local police conducted a massive search cum raid on the ancestral house of activist Sharjeel Imam at Kako village on Sunday till late evening Jehanabad district, Bihar.

Though Sharjeel Imam wasn't found at his ancestral home, some of his close relatives were grilled and three of them were reportedly detained by police.

Sharejeel Imam is in the centre of controversy after a video of his speech went viral in which he is heard giving a call to split the northeast region from India.

Following this viral video, the Delhi police have booked him with charges of sedition and instigating the people for anti-national activities by giving an inflammatory speech against the CAA and the NRC.

Besides Delhi, cases against him have been lodged in UP and Assam.

Jehanabad SP Manish Kumar confirmed the raids on Imam's ancestral house to the media but denied to speak over details as the case was being handled by Delhi police and intelligence wings.

Meanwhile, sources said three detained relatives of Imam were asked only about the last visit of Imam at his home and some other things related to his temperament, association with the types of people at native village and other relevant information.
Shoppers could use their smartphones to scan the familiar, boxy label known as a QR code.

Want to find a legal marijuana shop in California? Grab your smartphone.

In another step to curb the states flourishing illegal pot market, California regulators proposed rules Thursday that would require legal shops to post a unique black-and-white code in storefront windows to help consumers identify licensed businesses.

Shoppers could use their smartphones to scan the familiar, boxy label known as a QR code  similar to a bar code  to determine if a business is selling legal, tested cannabis products.

The codes also would be required when transporting or delivering cannabis.

The proposed regulations will help consumers avoid purchasing cannabis goods from unlicensed businesses, said Lori Ajax, who heads the states Bureau of Cannabis Control. These requirements will also assist law enforcement in distinguishing between legal and illegal transportation of cannabis goods.

California  the worlds largest legal pot market  kicked off broad, legal sales in January 2018. But the illicit market has continued to thrive, with consumers spending roughly $3 in the states underground pot economy for every $1 in the legal one, a report from industry advisers Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics estimated last year.

Hefty tax rates have been blamed for steering consumers into the illicit market, where shops are often indistinguishable from legal ones and operate in plain sight.

Last year, the state mounted a publicity campaign  Get #weedwise  to encourage consumers to verify that their purchases are tested and legal. Ads were posted on social media and billboards promoting a state website where shoppers can quickly check if a shop is licensed.

The advertising campaign makes a simple argument: You dont know what youre getting if you buy illegal products.

The state also has sought to increase enforcement to shut down illegal shops and cultivation sites.
The Pentagon has denied the Taliban shot down a US military plane over Afghanistan killing everyone on board, despite the terror group claiming responsibility.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militant group, said that high-ranking American officers were among the dead after the aircraft was brought down in Dih Yak district around 1.10pm local time.

US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there were no indications so far that the plane had been brought down by enemy activity.

One of the officials said there were believed to be fewer than 10 people on board the small military plane.

It comes after footage was posted online by a Taliban-affiliated journalist showed wreckage of the plane with a US Air Force symbol on the side.

Footage taken by journalist Tariq Ghazniwal shows the burning remains of a jet lying in the snow as several people stand around filming.

The US military has said it is investigating a plane crash in the Dih Yak region of Afghanistan after video emerged online showing the wreckage with a US Air Force symbol on it

The Taliban said it was responsible for shooting down the aircraft, which appears to be a Bombardier E-11A which is used by the US Air Force to carry out surveillance missions

US officials confirmed a surveillance aircraft with fewer than 10 people on board had crashed, and added there was no indication it was shot down

Whilst most of the jet is a charred wreck, a USAF symbol is clearly visible on an engine attached to the tail fin of the plane.

The plane could be a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the US military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

The highly-specialised aircraft work alongside drones to provide 24/7 support for US forces by linking incompatible communications systems together, which is especially vital when carrying out airstrikes.

The US Defense Department confirmed that a military jet crashed in Ghazni province in Afghanistan, but rejected Taliban suggestions that it was shot down.

Afghanistan US Forces spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett confirmed in a statement that the aircraft was a US Bombardier E-11A, a type of jet used as an airborne communications node in the region.

'While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire,' Leggett said.

He gave no information on casualties in the crash.

In 2015 a commando-style Taliban unit began gaining attention for a series spectacular, deadly attacks on Afghan security forces.

Known as 'Sara Kheta' or Red Unit, photos of the group were published by the Taliban on social media.

The images reportedly showed a training camp where recruits were being drilled on heavy machine gun use and anti-aircraft guns.

Images from the scene showed what appeared to be burned paperwork from inside the aircraft, along with the crest of Air Combat Command

The alleged shoot-down comes just 11 days after the Taliban offered to stand down its troops for 10 days in order to restart peace talks with the US

The jet appeared to be one of four modified civilian Bombardier aircraft used by the USAF to link together communication equipment in order to support troops on the ground (file)

US Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash.

Afghan officials initially said the plane was a Boeing passenger aircraft belonging to state-owned Ariana Airlines, though the airline subsequently denied these reports.

Arif Noori, a spokesperson for the province's governor, said he estimated there were around 100 bodies on the ground and officials were looking for others.

The damage was so extensive it was difficult to identify the bodies, he added.

'The only thing we can say is 385 is written in the wreckage and we don't know which country or company it belongs to,' he said.

'There has been an airline crash but it does not belong to Ariana because the two flights managed by Ariana today from Herat to Kabul and Herat to Delhi are safe,' CEO Mirwais Mirzakwal said earlier in the day.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the crash just 11 days after offering to stand down fighters in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks with the US.

The militants and US officials had been in talks about a possible deal to put an end to America's longest-running war, but they were abruptly called off by Donald Trump last year.

The US president then signalled that he would be willing to restart talks during a visit to a base in Afghanistan over Thanksgiving.

Militant leaders said the following day that they would be willing to restart talks, but the process stalled over the issue of a ceasefire.

Afghan National Army forces have also been deployed towards the scene of the crash, which is in Taliban-controlled territory

The plane came down in the Dih Yak region, around 80 miles south of Kabul, which is controlled by the Taliban

Just 11 days ago, Taliban leaders had said they were willing to stand down their fighters for 10 days in order to get talks moving.

The US said it was evaluating the offer.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

The crash comes amid sky-high tensions in the Middle East following the US drone strike which killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani earlier this month.

Iran launched a dozen missiles at a US base in Iraq as 'slap in the face' for the killing, but warned of a wider revenge by kicking American forces out of the region.

The crash also comes after Iran admitted accidentally shooting down Ukraine Airlines Flight 752 over Tehran after mistaking it for an American flight, killing all 179 people on board.

The majority of the passengers - 82 - were Iranian, while 63 Canadians were also on board. Other nationalities included Ukrainians, Swedes, Afghans and Britons.

Monday's crash also comes after three missiles were said to have scored a direct hit on the US embassy in Baghdad.

The embassy was targeted by Iranian militias in Iraq in the lead-up to Soleimani's killing, and is thought to have motivated the strike on him.

Rockets have been fired into the Green Zone where the embassy sits several times in the past weeks, though have failed to score a hit.

There were no casualties reported as a result of Sunday night's blast.
Star team receives award for Lineage Logistics - Refrigeration Project of the Year To be recognised amongst other key players in this industry is a real privilege, and these three wins are a testament to the hard work and dedication of each and every person who contributes to the companys success

Its been a wonderful start to Star Refrigerations 50th anniversary year as the company celebrated winning three awards and a high commendation at the National ACR and Heat Pump Awards held at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on Thursday, 23rd January.

Stars installation for Lineage Logistics was named Refrigeration Project of the Year at the ceremony following measured reductions in energy usage equating to one-third of that of UKs Best Practice guidelines. The project supported Lineages plans for expansion by creating 15,000 pallet spaces of frozen warehouse capacity at its new site in Great Haddon. Star offered Lineage an affordable, robust industrial refrigeration solution that delivers high efficiency and meets the needs of customers while exceeding expectations with regards to improved live cycle costs and energy consumption.

One of the reasons Star was able to deliver the Lineage Logistics project so successfully was its Azanefreezer 2.0  which was awarded Refrigeration Product of the Year. The Lineage Logistics Azanefreezer is a modular, air cooled, low charge packaged ammonia freezer and its unique design allows for a reduction of the systems ammonia refrigerant charge of up to 96% when compared to traditional pumped recirculation ammonia systems.

Celebrating its third win of the evening, Star was also awarded Chiller Product of the Year for its pioneering Azanechiller 2.0  which set a new benchmark in chiller performance, with efficiency figures up to 146% higher than the European EcoDesign Directive for low temperature cooling, up to 100% higher for comfort cooling chillers, and up to 74% higher for high temperature chiller applications.

The ultra-efficient, low charge ammonia chiller has delivered incredible energy savings and reduced carbon emissions for the countrys top food producers, temperature controlled storage, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and ice and leisure companies such as Snozone. The ice rink operator reported a 56% saving on energy usage in the first four months of the Azanechiller 2.0 in operation and also a reduction in carbon emissions of 700 tonnes of CO2.

Star was Highly Commended in its fourth and final nominated category of ACR Contractor of the Year  having been recognised for its significant product development, breadth of work over the past year  including a range of innovative range of CO2 and low charge ammonia refrigeration solutions and heat pumps which will also support the UK in reaching its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050  and its commitment to developing young people to become the next generation of leaders.

Everyone at Star is immensely proud of what weve achieved tonight, said Dr Rob Lamb, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Star Refrigeration. To be recognised amongst other key players in this industry is a real privilege, and these three wins are a testament to the hard work and dedication of each and every person who contributes to the companys success.

To find out more about Star Refrigeration visit https://www.star-ref.co.uk
A Tibetan womam dance in Doilungdeqen District of Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Jan. 25, 2020. On the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, Tibetan people gathered to celebrate the festival. (Xinhua/Chogo)
Another year, another record-breaking 12 months of cyberattacks. According to Norton, 2019 saw more than four billion records breached, impacting organizations of all sizes across all sectors -- not to mention consumers. As the number of data breaches continues to grow, so too must the vigilance of all businesses and consumers to fight the ongoing threats.

As we enter 2020, one thing remains certain: cybersecurity, at its core, is inherently connected to the human element. Humans and technology will become even more intertwined as they work to address scams of various forms, as they partner with technology such as AI, and address growing threats from around the world.

To successfully navigate the cybersecurity landscape in 2020 and beyond, individuals within the government as well as corporations must remain vigilant, constantly examining their approach to these threats, to stay one step ahead of those wishing to inflict chaos. Below are a few ways humans and technology will work together in 2020 to combat threats faced in the new year and beyond.

Scammers gonna scam

Scam artists have been around as long as their unsuspecting targets, and even though the technology used to trick these naive victims has evolved, scammers will undoubtedly continue to wreak havoc in 2020. The problem is that our nature as humans is to be trusting -- but that is also the core of the cybersecurity industry; people protecting people from threats in every aspect of their lives.

Con artists have always preyed on this trust. As the internet and digital world has progressed, their methods have become almost scientific -- playing to fears to incite a quick response. Now, technology is expanding so rapidly that people and businesses might not be able to adapt to new threats, or even adapt to the pace of change that we will see in the next decade and beyond. The gap between technology and our ability to prepare for those threats will leave opportunities for con artists to exploit.

While scams like the mysterious Nigerian prince attempting to give away his fortune do not seem to be going anywhere, a more insidious scam took hold in 2016 that shook up the industry -- the spread of disinformation across social media platforms that ultimately shaped the presidential election that year. These fraudulent ideas are tested on platforms like 4Chan in countries that are unstable with lax laws and are disseminated across social circles until it finally reaches mainstream audiences on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Businesses, government officials and everyday citizens must remain vigilant against potential scams in 2020, no matter how appealing or view-affirming they may be. The adage holds true: If it appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.

Using AI with caution

Artificial intelligence adoption has been widespread across many industries and lines of business in the last five years and cybersecurity is no exception. But businesses should be cautious about implementing the technology too quickly, before algorithms can be tested sufficiently against inherent biases. Business leaders are poised to learn a lot of new lessons from the usage of AI in cybersecurity this coming year and how these algorithms work (or do not in some cases).

Recently, Apple came under fire for an algorithm it relied on to determine credit limits for their new Apple Card. Because of one decision tree within the algorithm, the end result was that men and women were being offered different credit limits, with no discernable difference in their application other than gender. This underscores the slippery slope of relying solely on an algorithm to determine outcomes, despite their usefulness at building scale and curating an image of evenhandedness.

[ Security ebook: Guide to top security certification ]

In the coming years, businesses should absolutely implement AI into their workstreams, as it can provide a lot of benefits to companies, but leaders must remain skeptical of the algorithms and not be afraid to test them for unintended human bias. Extensive testing, not only for what the algorithm is intended to be used for, but also what it wasnt designed to do, is the only way to remove these biases and prevent errors like the one Apple experienced.

Governments role in addressing cybersecurity risks

Despite an anticipated spike in the number of organizations that are able to defend themselves against cyberattacks, companies large and small will continue to be the target of malicious actors, some of which will be successful. Where will these cyberattacks be coming from? Even a crystal ball would have trouble channeling that tidbit, but in 2020, China will likely keep moving into a role more like a "big brother" when it comes to companies operating in China, requiring government access, permissions and controls beyond specified encryption tools that will impact companies' security.

We have already seen some government initiatives to address the growing need for structured guidelines for cybersecurity standards and best practices through policies like CMMC (Cyber Maturity Model Certification). This policy will drive enforcement of requirements that have been contractual for some time, including requiring a verification component to contracts and allowing for third party organizations to audit companies to determine risks for cyber threats.

In 2020, it is possible that we will start seeing organizations miss out on government contracts because companies can't or haven't demonstrated a level of maturity in addressing cybersecurity threats. CMMC is going to improve some of the foundational security work that companies should have been doing all along. Its also going to take some time.

People are going to start auditing and getting audited against the CMMC, and that is going to improve foundational security functions and processes -- a great first step in protecting businesses from the growing threats coming in from bad actors around the world.

2020 will likely bring more of the same as past years: cyber threats, scams and efforts from government and businesses to stay ahead of these threats. The question of 2020 will not be will there be a cybersecurity threat? but rather how prepared are we to address that attack when it does come? And that answer will depend on the groundwork that businesses, governments, and individuals lay today.

With all the new technologies and strategies that are being employed by both security pros and threat actors, one thing remains on the front line of those attacks: vigilant individuals who have made it their careers to protect their fellow citizens.
Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the FCC, discusses the ongoing competition between the U.S. and China over the advent of 5G. Additionally, Deepak Puri, chief investment officer of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, explains why his firm is bullish on the U.S. energy sector, as well as industrials, healthcare and financials, in 2020.
HOUSTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AIDS Foundation Houston Inc. (AFH), a nonprofit dedicated to ending the HIV epidemic and supporting those affected by HIV, announces a new partnership with MISTR to provide convenient access to PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis medication.

MISTR is an online telemedicine service that aims to connect persons not living with HIV with PrEP, a once-daily pill regimen that is up to 99 percent effective at preventing HIV transfer. The site allows users to consult securely with a licensed physician, complete required lab work in the privacy of their homes, and have PrEP delivered at no cost each month. AFH is the third community partner on the MISTR platform, following its initial launch in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

"At AFH, we are passionate about using every available resource to make PrEP more affordable, accessible and convenient for the people who want it. Our partnership with MISTR will enable us to reach more people than ever before, and it integrates seamlessly with our existing HIV/STD community outreach, counseling, testing, referral and linkage services," said John Huckaby, CEO of AFH.

Formally launching this month, the partnership between AFH and MISTR addresses barriers that many individuals face when starting and continuing PrEP treatment, including privacy concerns, the time and expense of doctor visits, and insurance coverage. For clients who are uninsured or under-insured, MISTR helps grant access to medication through patient assistance programs with little or no out-of-pocket costs.

"We eliminated the doctor's office visit by providing users a platform free of judgement and shaming, where they can speak more freely about their sexual activity than they may with their primary doctor," said Tristan Schukraft, President and CEO of MISTR.

This partnership is the latest announcement in AFH's 2020 mission to better meet clients' needs. By widening its reach and offerings with new leadership positions and a shift in strategic direction, AFH advances its mission to end the HIV epidemic in Houston.

For more information about AFH and its services, please visit www.aidshelp.org. For more information about AFH's partnership with MISTR, please visit www.heymistr.com/afh.

About AIDS Foundation Houston

AIDS Foundation Houston, Inc. (AFH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation founded in 1982 as Texas' first organization dedicated to HIV prevention education and services. AFH has steadily evolved from a grass-roots community agency to a professionally managed human services organization that provides a variety of servicesincluding benefits and resources counseling, case management, housing, food and nutrition assistance, HIV testing, Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and prevention educationwith a focus on serving low-income persons living with HIV. For more information, please visit www.AIDSHelp.org.

About MISTR

MISTR is a telemedicine (telePrEP) platform offering easy online access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in 44 states across the United States. Gay owned and operated, MISTR has brought together a network of the best doctors, pharmacists and problem-solvers to make PrEP available to all who need it. No doctor's office, no needles, no paperwork and free delivery. Get started today at www.heymistr.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Lauren Brown, CKP

832-930-4065 x 119

[email protected]

SOURCE AIDS Foundation Houston

Related Links

https://www.aidshelp.org


Three days after the Centre handed the Elgar Parishad probe to National Investigation Agency (NIA), a team of federal agents landed in Pune on Monday, but were denied access to any case documents.

According to senior Pune Police officials, a three-member team led by an officer of the rank of superintendent, handed over a letter to Pune Commissioner of Police K Venkatesham. The contents of the letter are not verifiable, but police sources believe, it requested handover of the case.

Pune police informed the NIA team that documents related to case, along with letters written by activists, being presented as evidence in court, will be handed over pending the official order from the Director General of Police, Maharashtra, top police sources, requesting anonymity said.

Yes, the NIA team came to meet us and handed over a letter, said a senior Pune police official.

Pune police have so far arrested nine activists and have filed two chargesheets, along with draft charges.

The Pune Police have accused the activists of delivering speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave on December 31, 2017 , that aggravated violence at Koregaon Bhima the next day. The police claim that the conclave was organised by people with links to the banner Maoist organisation.

Those arrested include, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao. All are accused of alleged Maoist links.

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the IPC and also Uapa, the anti-terror law.

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Tim Cullinan has taken over as the 16th President of the Irish Farmers Association at its AGM in Dublin today.

Brexit, climate change and investment are some of the main issues being highlighted at the association's 65th annual general meeting.
[Spoiler alert: The Bachelor Season 24.] From Champagne Gate to the appearance of The Bachelorettes Hannah Brown, Peter Webers season of The Bachelor is certainly one for the books  and it doesnt look like things are slowing down anytime soon. A lot of drama goes down in the trailer for The Bachelor Season 24 Episode 4, including the return of Alayah Benavidez, who was eliminated in the previous episode. So why does Alayah come back to Webers season? It appears the teaser already spilled the beans on the former Miss Texas reasoning.

Why was Alayah eliminated on The Bachelor Week 3?

Throughout The Bachelor episode on Jan. 20, Sydney Hightower makes her distaste for Alayah known. In a confessional, Sydney calls Alayah fake, explaining the pageant queen acts differently in front of the cameras.

Eventually, Sydney confronts Alayah. She asks the former Miss Texas USA 2019 about her job, and Alayah tells her she has three. But Sydney wants to know more about Alayahs pageant past and whether the lifestyle has affected her life. Unphased, Alayah explains the pageant world has taught her how to speak with people without offending them. She also learned how to answer without answering a question she doesnt want to respond to.

Later, Sydney gets some time with Weber and warns him about women who turn into different people once the cameras are on. Weber is shocked and he lets his concerns known to everyone at the group date. And then Weber puts Sydney on the spot to rat out exactly who she was talking about in front of everyone. She names Alayah and for the rest of the episode, Alayah tries to defend her character to Weber.

Meanwhile, after the group date, Weber speaks to the other women. A few of them also call Alayah out for her fake persona. But Weber seems to trust Alayah until he hears from Victoria Paul, the former Miss Louisiana. According to Victoria P., she knew Alayah before the show. But Alayah told her not to tell producers about their past.

Once again, Weber speaks with Alayah, who owns up to the accusation. She claims she was worried about being disqualified. But Weber says her actions arent genuine.

Then at the rose ceremony, Weber panics and has to stop when reaching the final two roses. He exits the room and speaks with Chris Harrison. But when Weber steps out, Harrison removes one rose. And ultimately, he eliminates Alayah. That said, Weber isnt 100 percent confident in his decision.

 I dont feel good right now, Weber tells a producer. I feel like Im going to regret this like crazy.

Alayah returns to The Bachelor

In the preview for the Jan. 27 episode, Alayah returns to The Bachelor. Midway through the teaser, Alayah walks up the stairs at what appears to be a group date cocktail party. She waves at the women, blows a kiss, and walks off. Then in a confessional, Tammy Ly says, Drama has risen from the dead.

The trailer flashes to a shot between Alayah and Weber. Im here to freaking set the record straight about what was said about me, Alayah says. Weber looks at her in the eyes and replies, Im obviously being lied to by someone.

Later, it seems the women are unhappy with Weber. Shes manipulating you the same way she manipulated me, Victoria P. says. Meanwhile, Deandra Kanu tells someone, Its like the biggest slap in the face. I couldnt even look at you.

Now, Victoria P. was clearly speaking with Weber. Its possible theyre discussing the Alayah situation, given her remarks in the third episode. However, the preview cant confirm who Deandra is upset with. Regardless, its clear Alayah is back on The Bachelor to ensure Weber knows her side of the story. But does this mean Weber will bring Alayah back on the show? Fans will have to wait and see.

Will Alayah come back to The Bachelor after being eliminated?

Alayah and Mykenna from The Bachelor | Eric McCandless via Getty Images

[Spoiler alert: The Bachelor Season 24 Episode 4.]

According to Bachelor Nation blogger Reality Steve, the fourth week of Webers season will have plenty of drama surrounding Alayah. As we saw in the preview, Alayah returns during a group date and tells Weber she is there for him. But in the end, he gives her the group date rose.

Naturally, the women on the group date were not happy with Webers decision. Then to make matters worse, Alayah heard about Chase Rice and Victoria Fullers past relationship and told the other women. Thus causing a rift between Victoria F. and Alayah.

Nevertheless, Reality Steve revealed Alayah leaves at the cocktail party ahead of the fourth rose ceremony because she felt no one in the house was on her side. But the blogger isnt sure whether the ABC reality series will portray it like Alayah wanted to leave after she felt she was attacked in the house or because Peter changed his mind and told her she should leave because him giving her the group date rose when she came back caused too many problems.

Read more: Will Peter Weber Get Engaged? The Bachelor and Chris Harrison Say the Finale Will Break Tradition
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

Some 7.8 million foreign tourists visited Iran within 10 months (from March 21 through January 20) of this Iranian year (beginning on March 21, 2019), Iranian Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Vali Teymuri said.

Teymuri made the remark at the press-conference in Iran, Trend reports referring to Mehr.

Some 7.8 million foreign tourists visited Iran last Iranian year (from March 21, 2018 through March 21, 2019), the deputy minister said. There was a 52-percent increase in the number of tourists compared to the previous year (from March 21, 2017 through March 21, 2018).

The deputy minister said that a decision was made to insure tourist guides this Iranian year.

The value added tax was abolished for the agencies operating in connection with the arrival of foreign tourists, the deputy minister said.

As for some recent incidents, the deputy minister said that Iran is neither the first nor the last country in this sphere.

For example, coronavirus in China affects tourism sector, Teymuri added.

Over the past month, clashes between Iran and the US, as well as the accidental shooting of a Ukrainian passenger aircraft by Iran have greatly reduced the number of incoming tourists in Iran.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian signed a decree on awarding a group of servicemen and war volunteers on the occasion of the Army Day, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The President signed the respective decree based on the prime ministers petition.

The servicemen and war volunteers were awarded with medals and orders for their contribution to the defense of the homeland and for the bravery and dedication shown during the military service.

The Republic of Armenia and Armenians around the world will celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Armenian Armed Forces establishment on January 28.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
A student who travelled from Wuhan to Waterford in the Republic of Ireland is in self-isolation as a precautionary measure.

The student, from China, left Wuhan a number of days ago before the city was closed and arrived in Waterford on Sunday.

Waterford Institute of Technology confirmed that the student is not ill or showing any symptoms, but is staying in isolation in his accommodation in the city area as a precaution.

It said officials had been in touch with the Republic's health authority, the HSE, about the precautionary measure.

If the student does not develop symptoms within 14 days of arrival in Ireland, he is clear of the virus.

It comes after a health scare over a possible case of the virus in Belfast.

A tourist had tests at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital on Friday and was given the all clear.

The infection outbreak began in the Wuhan province and has so far killed 56 people. Chinese authorities have confirmed almost 30,000 cases. None of those suspected of having the condition were found to have the virus while three cases were found in France.

The Northern Ireland Department of Health said the risk to the public remains low and officials were monitoring developments closely.

The virus causes pneumonia, with those who have fallen ill reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties.

Students and staff at Northern Ireland's two main universities were advised to mention to health services any travel to the Chinese province.

The Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland has advised anyone who has been to Wuhan within the past 14 days and developed respiratory symptoms to call their GP.

Symptoms include a cough, a sneeze, shortness of breath, or a fever.

The agency advises that people should maintain good hand, respiratory and personal hygiene. And anyone with symptoms and who recently visited China urged to seek advice.

Government officials are working on contacting those who recently returned from China.
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While there are still plenty of unanswered questions surrounding Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their decision to step back as senior members of the British royal family, we know one thing about their future; Meghan and Harry will no longer be required to get dressed up as much. And reports say the Duchess of Sussex is happy to be back in more casual clothing.

When they were still senior members of the British royal family, Harry and Meghan had to adhere to the familys dress code and all the rules that go along with it.

The Duchess of Sussex broke the dress code with regularity. She wore dark nail polish to an event (a no-no for royal women), attended official royal engagements sans pantyhose (another move thats frowned upon by Queen Elizabeth II), and exposed her shoulders  gasp!  at Trooping the Colour in 2018.

Meghan Markle on Jan. 7, 2020, at Canada House | DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS  WPA Pool/Getty Images

Meghan Markle is a fashion icon

Despite her affinity for breaking royal protocol when it comes to clothing, Meghan has become a fashion icon. Markle Sparkle is a common phrase attributed to her as is the Meghan Effect, similar to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and the Kate Effect. The moment Meghan stepped out wearing an item, it guaranteed a major bump in sales for the brand and typically lead to said item selling out within hours of the Duchess of Sussex being seen in it.

Then there are the trends Meghan has made popular. Her Givenchy wedding gown inspired many brides to copy the style with the boatneck neckline. She continued wearing the neckline in her royal life and we dont think shell stop. She also brought back the popularity of trench coat dresses and has worn them on numerous occasions.

Shes reportedly tired of dressing up

While Meghan certainly dressed the part as a high-ranking member of the British royal family and rocked fascinators with the best of em, shes reportedly over having a super polished and put together vibe to her outfits all the time.

Meghan Markle on July 10, 2018, attending events to mark centenary of RAF | Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

An unconfirmed report from InTouch says Meghan disliked having to get dressed up so frequently. She hated always having to be dressed to the nines as a royal and the old-fashioned rules and regulations  like wearing dresses below the knee, a source told the outlet. While we dont know whether or not this report is true, we can totally relate.

The source added that since Meghan, Harry, and their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, have been living on Vancouver Island in Canada, where the dress code is decidedly less formal, the Duchess of Sussex has been rocking casual clothes. Now that shes moved to Canada, she spends most of the day in sweats or yoga pants, they said.

Again, this is an unconfirmed report but if we had spent the last few years getting glammed up for events on a regular basis, itd be nice to have the option to wear comfy clothes.

Meghan Markle attends the Your Commonwealth Youth Challenge reception on July 5, 2018 | Yui Mok  WPA Pool/Getty Images

The Duchess of Sussex is dusting off her old clothes

Meghan reportedly got some of her old clothes out of storage  presumably the ones she didnt need  and had them sent to her on Vancouver Island. In fact, Meghan stopped by a local Vancouver charity in the days following her and Harrys announcement wearing a sweater shed previously worn on Suits along with jeans and boots.

Whether or not reports are true Meghan didnt like getting dressing to the nines all the time or has been living in sweats on Vancouver Island, its an unexpected perk of stepping down as a senior royal.
Sunnybrook Hospital is shown in Toronto on Sunday Jan. 26, 2020. Public health officials in Ontario say the wife of a man who is the province's first case of the new coronavirus has tested positive for the virus. They say the woman has been in self-isolation since arriving in Toronto with her husband. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives
America's businesses are facing an unprecedented labor shortage, a drag on economic growth that risks derailing the expansion. Yet we also have a pool of millions of willing workers who are unemployed or substantially underemployed -- those with a criminal record. Bringing these prospective employers and employees together in a profitable and sustainable way is an economic imperative.

Our work focuses on the models developed by pioneering business owners who opened their doors to workers in need of a second chance: those with a history of incarceration, addiction or other mistakes of the past. The most effective models incorporate processes for determining which candidates are truly ready for employment and then providing accommodations to help maintain employment. Their experience, and the handful of formal studies, all point in the same direction; "second chance" hires are highly dedicated workers who appreciate the opportunity they've been given and are extraordinarily loyal to their employer. The resulting combination of low turnover and high engagement delivers cost savings and productivity improvements.

"Ban the box," a policy that prohibits employers from asking upfront about criminal records, is often proffered as a remedy. However, this policy has had mixed results, unintended negative consequences and has not been tested through a full business cycle.

For businesses that want to explore a pathway to successful, sustainable and profitable hiring of people in need of a second chance, there are a series of steps that we call, "bridging the box."

* Low risk hires: Don't immediately discard a resume because of a criminal record. Would you consider someone who made a mistake at age 18, has been gainfully employed and a contributing member of society for over five years? Many employers would, but miss the opportunity to see candidates like this if they exclude everyone with a criminal record.

ADVERTISEMENT

* Know your felony: One of the reasons we have 19 million people with felony convictions is that we have criminalized so many activities and incentivized overcharging. A felony record may not be the grievous offense that you imagine.

* Connect with nonprofit partners: Every region of the country has nonprofits that work with people in need of a second chance. Local workforce boards or national organizations such as Goodwill are good places to start. Many smaller but equally effective nonprofits reside within our neighborhoods and in faith-based communities. Explore what services they offer to employers and how you might be able to partner effectively.

* Connect with second chance pioneers: Many areas have employers who embrace second chance hiring. Typically, they are happy to share their process. In some cases, they would even refer employers who have outgrown the available roles.

* Review and eliminate vendor restrictions: Some employers have regulatory barriers to second chance hiring, or simply aren't yet ready to do this type of employment. These companies can still help simply by scrutinizing and loosening restrictions that may force their vendors to exclude people with records. Why should a company's internal restrictions apply to the vendor that provides landscaping, equipment maintenance or food service?

*Offer amnesty: Some of the most distressing conversations I've had are with successful longtime employees who have criminal records of which their employer is unaware. They live in fear that decades-old records will come to light, triggering termination under guidelines that had been imposed years later or though the initial employer's acquisition by a new firm with different rules. Offering longtime employees an amnesty is one more step toward a truly inclusive workplace.

Most business leaders I've met believe that all Americans should have the chance to succeed. "Bridging the box" offers a path to participating in the realization of this goal.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged the opposition CPI(M) and the Congress to put aside narrow political differences and fight together against the "fascist BJP government" at the Centre.

Contending that NPR, NRC and CAA were correlated, Banerjee, who is also the TMC supremo, said the new citizenship law was "anti-people".

The chief minister, while speaking on the anti-CAA resolution tabled in the Assembly, demanded that the contentious law be immediately repealed.

"The CAA is anti-people, anti-constitutional... We want this law to be repealed immediately," she said.

Insisting that the Congress and the Left Front should stop spreading canards against her government, she said, "Time has come to forget our narrow differences and fight together to save the country."



Referring to the criticisms made by the Congress and the CPI(M) over her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to the state, Banerjee said the slogan 'Didi- Modi are both sides of same coin' will boomerang for the opposition parties.

"Our state government had the guts to skip the NPR meeting (in Delhi); if the BJP wants it can dismiss my government," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A doctor has been struck off the medical register by the High Court after he was found guilty of misconduct by repeatedly ignoring requirements to keep up to date with his professional competency.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly said Dr Syed Munir, a senior house officer in the anaesthesiology department of Blanchardstown Hospital, Dublin, had been "given every opportunity to put things right".

However, he had ignored the Medical Council and acted in breach of conditions previously imposed on him in an effort to get him to comply with professional competence requirements, the judge said.

The judge agreed with the Council that his striking off was essential for public safety.

JP McDowell, solicitor for the Council, said this was the third disciplinary process against Dr Munir since 2015 but despite hundreds of letters and emails to him, he had a history of non-engagement with the Council's professional and disciplinary requirements.

He sent an email last Friday saying he would be unable to attend court on Monday as he was unwell.

Professional competency audit

Mr McDowell said Dr Munir, who qualified in Pakistan in 1991 and lives in Clonee, Dublin 15, had been the subject some years ago of a professional competency audit. He did not participate in that audit and as a result in 2015, a Council Fitness to Practice Committee (FtPC) imposed conditions on his registration including that he comply with ongoing competency obligations.

He failed to carry them out and there was a further inquiry in 2017 which resulted in the Council recommending his suspension from practice for six months. When those six months expired, he was still required to engage with professional competency schemes.

He again failed to do so and after another inquiry found him guilty again of misconduct with the result that last November, the Council recommended his striking off.

"...extraordinarily stupid answers..."

Apart from failing to comply with professional competency requirements, he was also found guilty of submitting paperwork to the Council in which he answered yes to questions about taking part in competency schemes and saying no to a question of whether he had ever been the subject of sanctions.

Mr Justice Kelly said these seemed "extraordinarily stupid answers" when they were being provided to the authority (the Council) which was responsible for them in the first place.

The judge noted the president of the Council took a more severe view of what he did, saying it was dishonesty.

He also said the FtPC, in recommending the cancellation of his registration, described him as a "serial offender" who represents a risk to the public.

The court did not see any good reason for not striking him off and confirmed the decision of the Council.

He also directed the relevant authority in Pakistan be informed of the decision.
How the bridge from Donaghadee in Co Down to Scotland could look

A DUP MP has vowed to keep up the pressure on the UK Government over plans for a bridge between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

South Antrim MP Paul Girvan made the commitment after it was learned that no feasibility study into the cross-channel link idea has yet been commissioned by the Government.

Responding to a question in Parliament, Transport Minister George Freeman confirmed no work on the 'Boris bridge' idea was yet under way, noting the Government regularly commissions work to assess the feasibility of potential projects.

Mr Girvan had asked whether the Transport Minister had "plans to conduct a feasibility study on a bridge or tunnel connecting the islands of Ireland and Great Britain".

In reply to the written parliamentary question, Mr Freeman said: "A feasibility study has not currently been commissioned.

"However, as you would expect, Government regularly commissions work to examine the feasibility of potential projects, so that position is subject to regular review."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs to "watch this space" when asked about his support for the bridge idea just days after last month's general election.

Mr Girvan, who is the DUP's Westminster transport spokesman, said he and his colleagues would keep up the pressure for progress on the proposal.

"The corridor between NI and GB is one of the shortest yet one of the most expensive sea crossings anywhere in the British Isles," he said.

"It's a key shipping route yet regular travellers across the Irish Sea are frustrated with the price of the journey.

"In 2015 we asked the then Prime Minister David Cameron to explore a bridge or a tunnel.

"With much greater bridges already built or being built across the world, we certainly would like to see a detailed feasibility study conducted."

Mr Girvan reiterated the DUP's commitment to a physical link across the North Channel.

"We will continue to raise this matter with the Government," he pledged.

"Whilst I want to see proper funding for roads in NI, I also want to build infrastructure for the next generation which will help sustain Northern Ireland's economy long after we are gone."

The Prime Minister has previously supported the idea, and last month told DUP MP Ian Paisley the project "has not fallen on deaf ears" when it was raised in the Commons.

Mr Paisley had urged Mr Johnson to "make good on his commitment for a golden age of all of the United Kingdom" by honouring infrastructure pledges, noting this should include building the "Boris bridge".

East Antrim DUP MP Sammy Wilson also told the same Commons session: "He said watch this space - we'll be watching this space. We expect the space between Scotland and Northern Ireland to be filled - at some stage in the future - with a physical link."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is on record as saying that the construction of a bridge from Northern Ireland to Great Britain is an idea that should be "taken seriously".

"I do think at the very least a high-level engineering assessment should be done as to whether it is a viable proposal," he said.

Earlier this month the British Tunnelling Society backed the idea, although its report preferred a tunnel to a bridge.

One option included the building of a tunnel from England to the Isle of Man, with a second tunnel linking the Isle of Man to Co Down. Tunnelling expert engineer Bill Grose, the report's lead author, told reporters: "A tunnel starting north of Liverpool that surfaced in the Isle of Man and then went back under to reach Belfast would solve all the problems."
The government on Monday announced the sale of 100% stake in the debt-laden Air India as it issued the PIM for the strategic disinvestment and has set 17 March, as the deadline for submitting EoI.

Even as the government has initiated the stake sale of Air India for the second time, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the national carrier along with its budget airline Air India Express is a "great asset".

The minister also said that the entire dues and arrears of the ailing airline's employees would be paid before the proposed disinvestment of the airline is completed.

He said that the successful bidder would continue to use Air India brand.

The government on Monday announced the sale of 100 percent stake in the debt-laden Air India as it issued the preliminary bid document (PIM) for the strategic disinvestment and has set 17 March, as the deadline for submitting the expression of interest (EoI).

As part of the strategic disinvestment, Air India would also sell 100 percent stake in low-cost airline Air India Express and 50 percent shareholding in joint venture AISATS, as per bid document issued on Monday.

Management control of the airline would also be transferred to the successful bidder.

Puri further said the lessons have been learnt from 2018 with regard to Air India stake sale.

On the dues of the staff, he said, "The employees' dues with arrears will be paid by Air India assets holding company before the closing of the proposed transaction."

Last week, the minister had told Air India to set up an internal mechanism committee with members both from the management and the unions to sort out the employees' issues related to privatisation.

On 2 January, the civil aviation minister had met representatives of various employees unions of Air India and addressed their concerns regarding the privatisation of the national carrier.

The government has said that privatisation of debt-ridden airline had become a compulsion as fear grows about its shutdown.

"I had said earlier also, for us, it is not an option. Air India has to be privatised," Puri had told the representatives.

The minister had also said that debt over Air India has made it "unsustainable" and the national carrier needs to go in private hands to keep it running.

On Monday, Puri reiterated: "Due to its accumulated debt of around Rs 60,000 crore, the financial position could be described as very fragile and Air India can only be described as being under a debt trap.

In 2018, the government proposed to offload 76 percent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players. However, there were no bidders.

 With inputs from agencies
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Today: A Times investigation reveals a firsthand account from John Bolton directly linking President Trump to the quid pro quo at the center of the impeachment. Maggie Haberman and Mike Schmidt on what that could mean for the final phase of the Senate trial. Its Tuesday, January 28. Mike, Maggie, remind us when the discussion of John Bolton as a possible witness in the impeachment process starts.

michael schmidt

So John Bolton left the White House in early September. Trump said he was fired. Bolton said he resigned. A week later, we learn about the whistleblowers complaint, and at that point, questions start to percolate. Why did Bolton resign, and what does he know? And in the coming weeks, as the House impeachment investigators summon White House officials to answer questions, we start to get different slivers 

archived recording Boltons former aide, thats Fiona Hill, testified yesterday before House impeachment investigators.

michael schmidt

 of Boltons concerns 

archived recording Bolton reportedly called Giuliani, President Trumps personal attorney this  a hand grenade.

michael schmidt

 and preoccupations with what was going on inside the White House.

archived recording This is something that Fiona Hill said when she was talking about John Bolton, the former national security adviser.

michael schmidt

We dont have a full picture, but were hearing things, like Bolton saying 

archived recording Basically he said, you go and tell Eisenberg that I am not part of any drug deal that Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and Mick Mulvaney are cooking up.

michael schmidt

 I didnt want to participate in this drug deal that these administration officials were doing.

archived recording The term drug deal here refers to the Ukraine probe that they were trying to initiate.

michael barbaro

Right, and that was his way of referring to this pressure campaign against Ukraine to start investigations into Democratic rivals.

michael schmidt

Correct. So were learning these different things, but were not hearing from Bolton.

archived recording Let me read it one more time. Ambassador Taylor recalls that Mr. Morrison told Ambassador Taylor that I told Mr. Morrison that I conveyed this message to Mr. Yermak on September 1, 2019, in connection with Vice President 

michael schmidt

And one of the problems with the impeachment investigation 

archived recording Weve got six people having four conversations in one sentence, and you just told me this is where you got your clear understanding.

michael schmidt

 was that the House was only really talking to people who were sort of outside the presidents inner ring.

archived recording Ambassador, you werent on the call, were you? You didnt listen in on President Trumps call and President Zelenskys call? archived recording (william b. taylor jr.) I did not. archived recording Youve never talked with Chief of Staff Mulvaney? archived recording (william b. taylor jr.) I never did. archived recording You never met the president? archived recording (william b. taylor jr.) Thats correct. archived recording This is what I cant believe, and youre their star witness. Youre their first witness.

michael schmidt

A few of the witnesses dealt with the president directly, but many of them were simply relaying what was going on inside the White House.

michael barbaro

So Bolton becomes an even more tantalizing figure. Hes in the center of juicy tidbits coming out of the inquiry. He may be on poor terms with the president. It all seems to make him a perfect witness.

michael schmidt

Hes someone who Republicans trust. He has a long history in the Republican Party, and we were hearing then that he had these concerns. So what was it that he saw? What was it that he could add? He was in the room with the president. What did the president tell him?

michael barbaro

So Maggie, what efforts are made by House impeachment investigators to get Bolton to testify, to get him to just spill the beans?

maggie haberman

They asked him, back in I believe it was October, to come testify voluntarily. He said no, and he had been ordered by the White House not to take part, but the House decided not to submit a subpoena to try to force him to testify, because 

michael barbaro

Why not?

maggie haberman

Because they were concerned that it was going to be a protracted legal battle. They were very consumed with trying to wrap this all up quickly. In hindsight, a lot of Democrats say, at least privately, they think that that was a mistake. They think that they should have actually tried to get him to come there.

michael barbaro

Right. So he does not end up testifying before the House.

maggie haberman

No. Bolton never spoke before the House and didnt indicate that he really wanted to at the time. He just said that he would not cooperate with this request for testimony. So they sent over the articles of impeachment without having a witness like Bolton, somebody who had a direct conversation with the president, where the withheld military aid for Ukraine was tied to the presidents desires for investigations. There were just people who were speculating on motives or had heard things secondhand, but there was no one with a firsthand interaction with the president.

michael barbaro

O.K. So that brings us to November.

maggie haberman

Right, and so we get to November, and John Bolton is starting to make noises, like he has something to say and hes willing to share it. And we learn on November 10, that one place he might be planning to share it is in a book that hes planning to write about his time in the White House.

michael schmidt

So it was a pretty odd situation. You had House investigators that wanted Bolton to talk. Bolton sort of signaling that he has something to say. And then the news that hes writing a book that you presume is going to have some Ukraine details in it. So whos going to get to that information?

michael barbaro

Right. So in this situation, what do you two do as reporters to try to figure out what he knows and maybe what hes put in this book?

maggie haberman

So the House inquiry is over, but theres all this secrecy around this book. We knew it was coming. We had heard Simon & Schuster would be putting it out. They wouldnt even confirm that. We were scratching around with people who might know. And as we were trying to do this, Bolton then says, on January 6  after not complying with the House efforts to get him to testify  he says that he would be willing to testify in the Senate, if there is a subpoena. It seemed like he was trying to do a dance, where he was trying not to make Senate Republicans angry at him, when hes worked with them for years. And he needs them to back him, as hes embarking on this post-White House life and trying to sell a book. But also trying to look like he was doing the right thing and not just making it about the book. And it was really hard to decipher what his motives were.

michael schmidt

As reporters, there is nothing that galvanizes us like a high-profile public figure in a major story saying, I have important information, but Im not going to tell. And hes essentially out there doing that  putting the bait for reporters to try and get to the bottom of whats in the book.

maggie haberman

So we did what we normally do when we are handed some kind of bait, which is we continued to try to figure out what was there and what was in it. And whether it would include some damaging information about the president. Or whether it would include some exculpatory information and would be something that the presidents folks could even point to and say it would help him. We just, we didnt know, but we kept scratching.

michael barbaro

Right. If the one great unanswered question was what Bolton knew, then the most obvious thing is to find out what is inside the book.

maggie haberman

Thats right, and we kept scratching and looking, and then we found out what was in the book, and it was quite damaging to the president.

[music]

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

archived recording 1 Brand new reaction this morning from a bombshell New York Times report on John Boltons upcoming book. archived recording 2 A trial that seemed to be on a steady and speedy path to certain acquittal has been hit by a seismic shock. archived recording 3 Startling new report could upend the impeachment trial. According to The New York Times, former 

michael barbaro

So what did you learn was actually in this book?

maggie haberman

The biggest thing that is in there is that Bolton writes about a conversation that he claims to have had with President Trump in August of 2019, where he pushed the issue of this withheld military aid with the president. And the president suggested he didnt want to end the aid freeze until Ukraine turned over materials that he wanted in connection with investigations into Democrats, who he thought had harmed him in 2016.

michael barbaro

So Bolton is having a conversation  he recounts in this book  with President Trump in which Bolton says, hey, Mr. President, I want to talk about this financial freeze on military aid to Ukraine, presumably in the context of Bolton wanting to end it.

maggie haberman

Bolton pushed this conversation with the president, because he, along with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, had been trying to get the president for weeks to end the freeze and turn the aid over, arguing that it was necessary for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia. And so Bolton raised this issue to test where the president was, and the president met him back by saying he didnt want to end this freeze until materials that he wanted were turned over in relation to investigations into Democrats he thought had damaged him.

michael barbaro

Wow. Democrats, including Joe Biden.

maggie haberman

Democrats, including Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

michael barbaro

So Bolton is confirming in this account that President Trump articulated  correct me if Im wrong  a clear quid pro quo that explained why he was holding up the security aid to Ukraine. That it was in return for Ukraine investigating his Democratic rivals, like Joe Biden, and that of course is the central claim of the articles of impeachment. And what Bolton seems to be saying here is that that central claim is accurate, and theres now a firsthand account of it from the mouth of the president himself.

michael schmidt

But you say confirms. This is the first time that were hearing anyone say this. This is the first time that someone who was in the room, who spoke directly to the president, says, yeah, the president didnt want to release the money until he got the fruits of the investigations. This is new ground, and its significant, because the presidents lawyers have time and time again argued on the Senate floor 

archived recording (michael purpura)  that there was no connection between security assistance and investigations.

michael schmidt

 that the aid and the investigations were not linked.

archived recording (michael purpura)  the pause on security assistance was distinct and unrelated to investigations.

michael barbaro

So this directly contradicts the way the presidents own lawyers talk about the impeachment.

maggie haberman

Correct, or at least it undercuts their main argument, which is that there was not a connection between what the president wanted and releasing this aid.

michael barbaro

Am I right, Mike and Maggie, that this is as close to a smoking gun as it gets in a case like this?

michael schmidt

Maybe, but throughout the Trump presidency, weve learned similarly explosive disclosures, and the president has been able to weather them politically. So yeah, in a normal time, would the news of the presidents most recent national security adviser directly implicating him in a question that is at the center of an impeachment hearing be a smoking gun? Sure, but Trump has shown an ability to endure things like this that gives me reticence to say, yeah, thats a smoking gun. Because when you say smoking gun, built into that is an assumption that the end would be near.

maggie haberman

Im with Mike on that. I think that we are a ways away from knowing what this means. And as our colleague Peter Baker wrote today, it could end up being like when the Access Hollywood tape came out in 2016 in the campaign. And the big prediction was that this was going to be the end of Donald Trump, this was going to be the end of his campaign, and it obviously did not go that way. So we just dont know yet.

michael barbaro

Well, what has been the reaction to this reporting, especially in the Senate, where the trial is well underway and where the question of calling witnesses is very much still alive?

michael schmidt

So were coming into the home stretch of the trial. And the question of whether Bolton will testify has still not been resolved.

michael barbaro

Right.

michael schmidt

The story comes out, and theres increased pressure on Senate Republicans, those moderate ones who may be willing to go along with the Democrats. How much does this story move them?

michael barbaro

And Maggie, whats the answer?

maggie haberman

So far, we are seeing the same moderates who have said they want witnesses before still say they want to hear from Bolton. So thats Mitt Romney.

archived recording Four of you need to say yes. Do you think there are four votes? archived recording (mitt romney) I think its increasingly likely that the other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton. And whether there are other witnesses and documents, well, thats another matter. But I think John Boltons relevance to our decision has become increasingly clear.

maggie haberman

Susan Collins of Maine is another person who has said this is another factor that points to why there should be witnesses. But two other possible votes for witnesses, one is Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Andother is Lamar Alexander, who the White House is watching very closely to see what hell do. They have been more circumspect about whether they think our story changes anything. And so far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to tell everybody to stay cool and just see how this plays out.

michael barbaro

I mean, there will be people hearing this  hearing that the national security adviser to the president observed him saying something that directly implicates him in this impeachment case  and will ask, why would any deliberative body sworn in as jurors not want to hear from that person? What would be the justification for not hearing from Bolton in this moment?

maggie haberman

So one thing that has come up from the senators in the last several hours is theyre saying, if this was so important to hear from Bolton, why didnt the House subpoena him?

archived recording (john barrasso) Theres nothing new here that John Bolton didnt know before the House managers rested their case and stopped calling witnesses, and they never chose to call John Bolton.

maggie haberman

And youre going to hear that, I think increasingly, if you dont see a move toward witnesses. Thats going to be an argument that senators are going to point to.

michael barbaro

You missed your chance.

maggie haberman

Why are we doing your work for you? That part was in the House.

michael schmidt

And at another level, the reason why these senators are not going along with calling Bolton is that Trump doesnt want that to happen. And they have been in lockstep with Trump for most of this.

michael barbaro

So the justification is keep the president happy.

maggie haberman

I think the justification is you have a lot of senators who are facing elections in their own states, and the base likes Trump. And in some states, like Lamar Alexanders state, they want him to be loyal to Trump. And so those are the concerns that theyre measuring,  is do they let themselves be looked back on in history as turning away from evidence, which some people will say they did. Or do they say, voters dont really want me casting that vote, and they decide to stick with the presidents desires.

michael barbaro

So how has all of this actually landed inside the White House?

maggie haberman

Well, the White House as a whole wasnt happy about hearing about this. But for at least some of them, it wasnt a surprise, because the White House had been given a draft of this manuscript about 3.5 weeks ago from John Bolton for a standard review process to look at classified information and whether there is any in the book.

michael schmidt

So that means at least some folks in the White House have had a sense of what Bolton would testify to in the impeachment investigation.

michael barbaro

If he testified.

maggie haberman

Correct.

michael barbaro

Wait. So does that mean that the presidents lawyers, including those who are currently defending him in the Senate trial, that they knew what John Bolton had written and knew what John Bolton had experienced, and then continued to make a case to the public that is quite contradictory to what Bolton is saying happened in this book?

michael schmidt

We dont know the extent to which the manuscript, or the details about it, were circulated. But what we do know is that in the past several weeks, there has been a concerted effort by the president to stop Bolton from testifying. Hes made public statements about this.

archived recording (donald trump) The problem with John is that its a national security problem. You cant have somebody whos at national security. And if you think about it, John, he knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and its not very positive, and then I have to deal on behalf of the country? Its going to be very hard. Its going to make the job very hard. He knows other things, and I dont know if we left on the best of terms. I would say, probably not. And so you dont like people testifying when they didnt leave on good terms. And that was due to me, not due to him. And so well see what happens.

michael schmidt

And he has said it privately to aides.

michael barbaro

So my final question is, if John Bolton has something to say  and it feels like he does  and the world wants to hear it, senators want to hear it, House impeachment managers want to hear it, we all want to hear it. And it feels like he has an obligation to the Democratic process to say it, why doesnt he just find a way to say it? Go on Fox. Go on CNN. Have a news conference. Why hasnt he taken any of those opportunities?

maggie haberman

Its a great question, and theres nothing preventing him from doing so. If he wanted to issue some kind of a statement or say something publicly that didnt violate executive privilege with the president, he could do that. He has yet to do any of that, and its not really clear why.

michael schmidt

But you know what, if John Bolton went on television right now and said everything he would testify to, unless he was subpoenaed to appear at that trial or if the comments from him were put into evidence, then it couldnt be considered by the lawmakers. This is a trial, where evidence is brought forward. And if there is not enough votes to bring that evidence in, then it doesnt matter whether he stands out on the highest point in town and says everything he knows. It only matters whether its entered into the record in the Senate.

[music]

michael barbaro

Maggie and Mike, thank you.

maggie haberman

Thank you.

michael schmidt

Thanks for having us.

michael barbaro

On Monday, a lawyer for the White House, Patrick Philbin, tried to tamp down talk of calling Bolton as a witness, saying that calling such a witness would be an effort to, quote, redo the House impeachment inquiry and would set a dangerous precedent for future impeachment trials. The record that the House Democrats collected during that process, Philbin said, shows that the president did nothing wrong. In a tweet, the president denied Boltons account of their conversation about Ukraine, writing, quote, If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro
A lack of consular officials in the Chinese city at the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak appears to be hampering the Morrison government's efforts to evacuate more than 100 young Australians trapped there.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said her department was still working to identify Australian citizens unable to leave Wuhan since the Chinese government locked down the city of 11 million people in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne is working to get Australian citizens out of Wuhan. Credit:AAP

"Australia does not have a consular presence on the ground in Wuhan," Senator Payne told reporters in Sydney on Monday afternoon. "It is, I think, very important to appreciate that there are limitations to what we can do."

The government's response is based on the belief that the coronavirus is not contagious during the incubation period, which lasts up to 14 days.
Charles Ezekwem, Imo state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has resigned. This is coming about two weeks after the ...





Charles Ezekwem, Imo state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has resigned.





This is coming about two weeks after the supreme court sacked Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP as governor of the state and affirmed Hope Uzodinma, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the 2019 governorship election.





In a letter dated January 25 to the partys national chairman, Ezekwem said his decision to quit is based on the prevailing circumstances in the state chapter of the party.





He added that he has also resigned as a member of the party in his ward at Okigwe local government area.

In view of the prevailing circumstances within my party vis-a-vis my present standing as the State Chairman of the PDP Imo State and after due consultation with my family, and with the approval of my supporters, I hereby tender my resignation as PDP Chairman Imo State; also as a member of the party in the ward of Okigwe LGA which has been duly communicated to the Ward Chairman, the letter read.





I thank the teaming population of PDP Imo State who thoughtfully elected me as their State Chairman, i sincerely regret all the inconveniences the party faced. I thank the party for the support they gave me and the opportunity to serve in that capacity.





A week after the supreme court judgment, nine members of the state house of assembly defected to the APC .
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/27/2020 -- This intelligence report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Global Student Information Systems Market. This includes Investigation of past progress, ongoing market scenarios, and future prospects. Data True to market on the products, strategies and market share of leading companies of this particular market are mentioned. It's a 360-degree overview of the global market's competitive landscape. The report further predicts the size and valuation of the global market during the forecast period.



What is Student Information Systems?

Student information system (SIS), a fully computerized information management system, used by educational institutions to store, organize and analyze the various types of student data such as assessment scores, attendance, class performance, and others personal information. It becomes a vital tool for both educational institutions and parents & students as well. On the other hand, rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in SIS and surging need for enhanced user experience would influence the student information system market positively



Some of the key players profiled in the study are:

Campus Management (United States),Eduware (Lebanon),Ellucian Company (United States),PowerSchool (United States),Open Solutions for Education, Inc (United States),PCR Educator (United States),Rediker Software (United States),Focus School Software (United States),Autodesk Inc. (United States),Foradian Technologies (India),Illuminate Education (United States),Jenzabar (United States),Oracle (United States),Workday (United States),Skyward (United States),Unit4 (Netherlands),EdBoard (United States),SchoolBrains (United States),Gradelink (United States),Rediker Software (United States),Tech Learning (United Kingdom),Blackbaud (United States)



Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/64806-global-student-information-systems-market-1



Market Trends:

Surging Adoption of Educational Hardware Including Projectors, Tablets, Interactive Whiteboards, etc.

The Growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Student Information System



Market Challenges:

Increasing Cases Cyber threats and Data Breaches



Market Drivers:

Growth in Number of Schools and Universities Across the Globe

Increasing Digitalization in Both Developed and Developing Economies

Increase in Replacement Activities



Market Restraints:

Dearth of Trained Users

Lack of Awareness in Underdeveloped Nations



Market Opportunities:

Growing Adoption of Education Technology Solutions in Emerging Economies

The Growth of Cloud-Based Hosting of SIS Software



Each segment and sub-segment is analyzed in the research report. The competitive landscape of the market has been elaborated by studying a number of factors such as the best manufacturers, prices and revenues. Global Student Information Systems Market is accessible to readers in a logical, wise format. Driving and restraining factors are listed in this study report to help you understand the positive and negative aspects in front of your business.



This study mainly helps understand which market segments or Region or Country they should focus in coming years to channelize their efforts and investments to maximize growth and profitability. The report presents the market competitive landscape and a consistent in depth analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market.



Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2013-2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period**  2019 to 2025 [** unless otherwise stated]



**Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.



Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/64806-global-student-information-systems-market-1



The Global Student Information Systems Market segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below:

by Type (Cloud Based Student Information Systems, Web-based Student Information Systems, On-Premises Student Information Systems), Application (Schools, Education Institutions, Others), User Type (Kindergarten, K-12, Higher Education)

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, and Middle East & Africa

Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc.



Highlights of the report:

- A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market

- Important changes in market dynamics

- Market segmentation up to the second or third level

- Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume

- Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments

- Market shares and strategies of key players

- Emerging niche segments and regional markets

- An objective assessment of the trajectory of the market

- Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market



Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/64806-global-student-information-systems-market-1



Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global Student Information Systems Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Student Information Systems market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary  the basic information of the Student Information Systems Market.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Student Information Systems

Chapter 4: Presenting the Student Information Systems Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2018

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Student Information Systems market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8& 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source



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Key questions answered

- Who are the Leading key players and what are their Key Business plans in the Global Student Information Systems market?

- What are the key concerns of the five forces analysis of the Global Student Information Systems market?

- What are different prospects and threats faced by the dealers in the Global Student Information Systems market?

- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?



Customization Service of the Report:-

AMA Research provides customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.
PORTLAND, Maine  There is nothing obviously wrong with Maines biggest city. Its shops buzz in the summer with well-heeled tourists. Zillow rates the real estate market very hot. David Geffens yacht docks at port from time to time. The food scene is great. In November, the unemployment rate was barely 2.2 percent.

Something is troubling Portland, however. Productivity growth is low. Business formation is anemic. And there is a sense that in an era of technology-driven economic winners, Portlands 66,000 residents are being left behind.

It looks like were doing fine, said Jon Jennings, Portlands city manager. But just underneath the real estate development, there is that insecurity as to what will actually drive the economy in the future. Lobstering and tourism will not suffice.

Hoping to draw itself into the high-tech orbit, Portland is about to become a test case. On Monday, officials including Gov. Janet Mills and Mayor Kate Snyder will gather on Portlands waterfront for the unveiling of a research institute meant to propel the local economy.
Bodo agreement: Amit Shah signs accord with dreaded Bodo militant group NDFB

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Guwahati, Jan 27: Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday signed an accord with banned Assam-based rebel group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) to fulfil its key political and economic demands, including safeguarding the Bodo language and culture.

The tripartite agreement was signed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in New Delhi on Monday.

The tripartite agreement to be signed by the top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, All Bodo Student Union (ABSU), Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna.

The NDFB factions, which signed the pact, are led by Ranjan Daimari, Govinda Basumatary, Dhiren Boro and B Saoraigra. Saoraigra took over the NDFB faction in 2015 after removing chief IK Songbijit, who had allegedly ordered the killing of nearly 70 tribals in December 2014.

Bodo accord: Non-Bodo outfits observe 12-hour bandh in Assam

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the Centre has assured the state government that the areas under the BTAD will not be declared a Union Territory and no new areas will be added to it and that the state's territorial integrity will be maintained.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also left for New Delhi on Sunday evening to participate in the talks.

It will be the third Bodo accord to be signed in the last 27 years since the violent movement for a separate Bodoland state began. It has claimed thousands of lives and caused the destruction of public and private properties.
When Adam Mesnick, the owner of Deli Board on Folsom Street, saw a courier enter his restaurant and bypass the line of already waiting customers, he was perplexed.

Grubhub bag in hand, the delivery driver said he was expecting to pick up an order for Allison C. The problem was, Mesnick said, the order had never been received.

One of his employees eventually refunded the order, but the same thing happened three times on Saturday afternoon. A courier for Grubhub would walk in, looking confused and expecting an order that hadnt been prepared. One delivery driver in particular was upset: he had driven 15 miles out of his way only to find his order wasnt there.

That day, Mesnick did a little research. He discovered Deli Board was among a growing number of restaurants that had been added to Grubhubs website without prior consent. Not only that, but menu items were also outdated  there was some kind of soup I did two years ago, said Mesnick, along with a sandwich called the Dollar Sign they no longer serve  and the pricing was inaccurate.

Ive made hundreds of sandwiches. I make specials every single day. Im constantly recreating and changing menus, Mesnick told SFGATE over the phone Sunday. Sometimes I have extra turkey, sometimes I dont. We have unexpected changes, but this wasnt my current menu at all.

Stranger yet, his restaurant hadnt willingly partnered with any sort of delivery service since 2010. That was Postmates, and he said he stopped working with them when Deli Board, at the time a catering company, moved into their brick-and-mortar location a year later.

On Sunday afternoon, he confirmed at least seven of the sandwiches listed on Grubhubs menu for Deli Board were not currently available.

Could it have been the ultimate blunder of food delivery? he wondered aloud, adding he planned on calling Grubhub to have his restaurant removed from the app. He also put a sign up in the front window letting Grubhub drivers know his restaurant was not affiliated with the service. Its time-wasting, and its someones job. It really creates so much confusion for the workers.

Mesnicks restaurant wasnt the only one caught in the midst of the confusion. Greg Lutes, chef and co-owner of 3rd Cousin in Bernal Heights, told SFGATE he also found his restaurant listed on Grubhub for delivery only with an outdated menu from 2018.

We dont offer delivery at all. Well occasionally do takeout, Lutes said.

While Lutes hasnt seen any Grubhub orders come through, he said a Postmates courier stopped by his restaurant a month ago for one such takeout order after receiving several robocalls from the company asking if 3rd Cousin was open. Its almost like counterfeiting. It was like they hacked our restaurant, he said.

Both Mesnick and Lutes said they never would have looked up their restaurants on the app had they not seen a tweet from fellow chef and restaurateur Pim Techamuanvivit.

In a thread that has since gone viral, she said she was working at her Michelin star restaurant, Kin Khao, on Saturday night, when she received a request for delivery over the phone. Puzzled, she told him her restaurant didnt offer delivery or even takeout.

What were you doing on Seamless then? he reportedly asked. The food delivery app is also owned by Grubhub.

In the thread, Techamuanvivit said she had googled Kin Khao delivery, and sure enough, the restaurant was listed on Grubhub and Seamless as well as Yelp, accompanied by dishes that werent actually on the menu.

"We just became aware of this practice, and have taken immediate steps to ensure it does not extend to restaurants Yelp pages," a Yelp representative said in a statement.

One of Techamuanvivit's other restaurants, Nari, was also on Doordash.

Theyre so hungry to get your money, they dont care who makes the food theyre delivering to your home. It can be some rando dirty warehouse somewhere. Because they sure are not picking up the food from @KinKhao, she wrote.

Techamuanvivit did not respond to SFGATEs request for an interview, but a Grubhub spokesperson confirmed the menu they had listed for Kin Khao on their app was incorrect and the restaurant had since been removed from their marketplace.

But why was it there in the first place?

A couple of months ago, the spokesperson explained, Grubhub began adding "high demand" restaurants to their website for those restaurants to receive more orders and revenue from deliveries completed by Grubhubs drivers. Menu information and restaurant hours  although proven inaccurate, in many cases  were based on information found online.

According to the Grubhub spokesperson, their team orders ahead or in person from the restaurant, after which one of their drivers picks up, pays for and delivers the order.

Out of the 140,000 restaurants we partner with, diners increasingly want delivery. If a restaurant doesnt want those orders, were happy to remove them, the spokesperson told SFGATE over the phone.

When asked why Grubhub didnt reach out to restaurants in advance to avoid confusion or misinformation, the spokesperson said, We want to give our diners as many options as possible and as quickly as we can, adding their goal was to provide restaurants with a surge in revenue; ultimately encouraging them to want to stay on the platform. Grubhub reportedly provided more than $5 billion in gross food sales to local takeout restaurants in 2018, processing an average of more than 400,000 orders a day.

The vast majority of our orders are and will continue to be from these restaurants we partner with, the spokesperson said. Its our aim to bring the best delivery experience possible while balancing the interests of our diners, restaurants and drivers, and complying with all local laws and regulations in connection with our business.

Grubhub is asking restaurants that prefer not to be on their website to reach out to them via email at restaurants@grubhub.com.

Well work as quickly as possible to make necessary updates or remove them, the spokesperson said.

Next time you order delivery through a third party app, though, it might be worth calling ahead to ensure the restaurant will actually fulfill the request.

Im reassured that its not just us, said Mesnick. Im reassured that Im in a boat with other people who have loud voices and are speaking up.

Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elchin Mehtiyev  Trend:

More than 3.1 million of foreigners and stateless persons from 193 countries visited Azerbaijan in 2019, which shows an increase by 11.3 percent compared to 2018, Trend reports referring to the State Tourism Agency on Jan. 27.

Most of them (29.4%) were citizens of Russia, 22.9 percent - of Georgia, 10 percent - of Turkey, 8.1 percent - of Iran, 3.4 percent - of Saudi Arabia, 2.2 percent - of the UAE, 2.1 percent - of India, 1.9 percent - of Ukraine, 1.6 percent - of Turkmenistan and Iraq for each, 1.5 percent - of Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Israel for each, 1.2 percent - of the UK, 11 percent - citizens of other countries, and 0.1 percent - people without citizenship.

Among the arriving persons, 66.6 percent were men, 33.4 percent were women.

Major annual increase of visits was observed from Turkmenistan  84.2 percent, India  66.8 percent, China - 62.4 percent, Egypt - 55.6 percent, Malaysia - 54.9 percent, Saudi Arabia  46.3 percent, Hungary  33.6 percent, Poland  31.1 percent, Uzbekistan  28.4 percent, Kazakhstan 25.7 percent, Great Britain - 25.5 percent, Philippines - 24, 6 percent, Spain  24.2 percent, South Korea  19.9 percent, Germany  19.2 percent, and Georgia - 18.8 percent.

The number of arrivals from the EU increased by 21.3%, amounting to 136,500 people, from the countries of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - by 9.3% (more than 1.1 million people), while the number of visitors from the Persian Gulf countries decreased by 0.9%, amounting to 549,000 people.

Most of the foreigners and stateless persons (58.7 percent) used rail and road transport. The remaining 40.5% and 0.8% used air and water transport respectively.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 13:18 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206117fe9 1 Business coronavirus,wuhan,Wuhan-coronavirus,Transportation,Budi-Karya-Sumadi,travel-warning Free

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has said the government will discuss on Monday the issuance of a travel warning from Indonesia to China as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the East Asian country rapidly increases.

The minister said he would invite the health minister, foreign minister, tourism and creative industry minister, the immigration director general and the customs and excise director general along with ports and airport operators to the meeting scheduled for Monday afternoon.

We will talk about issuing a travel warning and imposing temporary restrictions on incoming aircraft or vessels and other necessary steps amid this situation, he told the press.

Budi went on to say that he had ordered all airports and port operators to heighten inspection of all flights and ships going to or coming from China, as per the President and Home Ministrys instruction.

We also instructed all international port and airport officials to wear masks, he said. We expect them to keep coordinating with us.

Wuhan city has been on lockdown since Jan. 23. Following the lockdown, Indonesia announced the temporary suspension of all flights operated by Indonesian airlines to and from Wuhan. Authorities activated thermal scanners at entrance points in Indonesia to detect any symptoms of the virus, such as fever.

As of Monday morning, the viral epidemic has caused 80 deaths in China, with hundreds of new infections despite the local governments quarantine efforts. (eyc)
Tammy Hembrow has revealed her nightmare experience with a nanny she paid to look after her two children, son Wolf, four, and daughter Saskia, three.

The 25-year-old Instagram star had 'one of the worst days of [her] life' when she mistakenly hired a 'fan' who lacked proper qualifications.

The ordeal took place last year in Los Angeles, where Tammy was visiting for a work trip, and it soon became clear the nanny wasn't exactly a professional.

Never again: Tammy Hembrow has revealed her nightmare experience with a nanny she paid to look after her two children, Wolf, four, and Saskia, three (all pictured)

Tammy explained that she had never hired a nanny before but decided to because she was 'going over to LA for three weeks' and had a busy schedule ahead.

'I was like, "Oh, well, that's good, I can bring her and I'll have someone to help me,"' she said on her podcast, Hanging with the Hembrows.

But after arriving in LA, the nanny started 'doing [her] head in' and Tammy quickly discovered that she had lied to get the job.

Stressful situation: The 25-year-old Instagram star had 'one of the worst days of [her] life' when she mistakenly hired a 'fan' who lacked proper qualifications

'For instance, she came inside one day and she reeked of cigarette smoke! And she had told me she wasn't a smoker, because I don't want that around my kids,' Tammy said.

'I was like, "You smell like smoke," and she was like, "Oh, I quit for this job." And I was like, "Well, obviously you didn't quit, because you smell like smoke!"'

The nanny also claimed she was unable to lift the children because of a back injury, leaving Tammy confused as to why she had taken the job in the first place.

Bad times: The ordeal took place last year in Los Angeles, where Tammy was visiting for a work trip, and it soon became clear the nanny wasn't exactly a professional

'All of a sudden when we got over there [to America], she was like, "Oh, I can't lift anything because of a back injury,"' Tammy said.

'I was like, "Well, you know I have two little babies who need to be picked up sometimes! Like, what? I wouldn't have hired you, you know!"

'I was getting so frustrated.'

Help! Soon after arriving in LA, Tammy quickly discovered the nanny had lied to get the job

The situation got worse when they returned to LAX for their flight back to Australia.

Tammy asked the nanny to keep an eye on the kids while she got their passports out, but was soon alerted by another passenger that her son had injured himself.

'I look over, and Wolf just has blood pouring out of his head,' she said.

Big little lies: Tammy was shocked to discover the nanny was a smoker and had a back injury that prevented her from carrying the children

'I was just looking around to see where the nanny was, and she and Saskia were out of sight.'

The nanny eventually came back with Saskia, claiming the little girl had run off.

'I was in a bit of a panic at that point. I was frustrated, because I just saw all this blood, and I was freaked out a little bit. I was already a bit agitated, so I was getting a bit angry at her,' she added.

Crisis: The situation got worse when they returned to LAX for their flight back to Australia

To Tammy's astonishment, the nanny then burst into tears and complained she was going to miss her flight.

'I had to take Wolf to the emergency room, so I wasn't going to be able to go on the flight, and I expected her to be coming with us to help with the kids,' she said.

'I had six giant suitcases and two little babies, and all of a sudden, she starts crying, "I'm not missing this flight!"'

'Wolf had blood pouring out of his head': Tammy asked the nanny to keep an eye on the kids while she got their passports out, but was soon alerted by another passenger that her son had injured himself

Tammy had previously booked the nanny a business class plane ticket and, after a tense confrontation, she ordered her to 'just go'.

'And then it was just me, crying. I was trying to hold it together, but I could not,' she said.

'I was just bawling my eyes out, crying, and I was holding Wolf's head, the blood... Saskia was crying, and I have, like, six giant suitcases!'

Hysterical: To Tammy's astonishment, the nanny then burst into tears and complained she was going to miss her flight

Tammy managed to get Wolf to the hospital, where he had 'his head glued back together' and made a full recovery.

She revealed on her podcast that it was her sister Amy who had interviewed and hired the nanny for the trip to Los Angeles.

'I swear, all she wanted to do was hang out with me! She was a fan!' she added.

Emergency: Tammy managed to get Wolf to the hospital, where he had 'his head glued back together' and made a full recovery

'She would get annoyed with me whenever I went to do something. I'd be gone the whole afternoon, and she'd be like, "Oh, I just wanted to talk to you and hang out with you."'

Tammy concluded by saying she now prefers to leave her children with her mother or sisters, who are more reliable.

'I literally do not want [a nanny] ever again! It was the worst experience ever,' she said.
British novelist Sir Philip Pullman has called for a boycott of the Brexit 50p coin because it does not include an Oxford comma.

The coin, which enters circulation on Friday, bears the slogan Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations.

Sajid Javid, chancellor of the exchequer, said he hopes the coin will mark the beginning of this new chapter as Britain prepares to leave the EU.

But Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, is far more concerned with the coins punctuation than its purpose, tweeting: The Brexit 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma, and should be boycotted by all literate people.

And he is not the only person to take issue with the coins missing comma. Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement concurred, tweeting: The lack of a comma after prosperity is killing me.

Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Show all 76 1 /76 Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Crowds march through central London Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters gather in Parliament Square Led By Donkeys Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joins protesters PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters fill Parliament Square in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A demonstrator marches EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters push a float depicting Dominic Cummings using Boris Johnson as a puppet during the Final Say Brexit march in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters react after the result of the vote on the deal delay was announced at the House of Commons REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A demonstrator carries his dog draped in EU flag AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Thousands of people taking part in a People's Vote march AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters use their flags to shelter from the rain Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards Parliament Square Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit demonstrators carry placards and EU flags AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Sir Oliver Letwin MP in Parliament Square, London, during an an anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard rally, after it was announced that the Letwin amendment, which seeks to avoid a no-deal Brexit on October 31, has been accepted PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Thousands of people taking part in a People's Vote march UK BROADCASTERS POOL/AFP via Get Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A protester with "Bollocks to Brexit" stickers on his head Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Demonstrators march EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Britain's main opposition Labour Party shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU Keir Starmer, shadow Home Secretary Dianne Abbott, shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell, shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry speaks on stage in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit supporters cheer outside parliament AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A EU supporter waves flags REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit supporters AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters shout and chant demanding a final say Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Police look towards protesters Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Pro-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People taking part in an Anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard march head to Parliament Square in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People taking part in an Anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard march in Trafalgar Square PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit supporters cheer outside parliament AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People taking part in an Anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard march past Trafalgar Square PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters shout and chant Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Cory (7) sits on his father's shoulders as protesters march towards Parliament Square Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People attend the 'Together for the Final Say' march EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards Parliament Square Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks on stage PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A woman in EU costume EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters fill Parliament Square in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters hold an Independent banner Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters hold an anti-Brexit placard by The Independent stall during the Final Say Brexit march in London Tom Richell Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters in Parliament Square, London, PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Demonstrators hold placards and EU flags AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit protester joins in the Final Say Brexit march on 19 October AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters march in London REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Sir Patrick Stewart and Paul McGann join in the Final Say Brexit march in London on 19 October PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters march Reuters Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A demonstrator shouts into a megaphone as she marches AFP via Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A dog dressed in an anti-Brexit placard is walked in the Final Say Brexit march in London EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters march REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A morris dancer takes part in the Final Say Brexit march in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Whippets are dressed in EU flag clothing during the Final Say Brexit march in London AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards parliament in the Final Say Brexit march in London on 19 October 2019 PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit demonstrator takes part in the Final Say Brexit march in London AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters call on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal Reuters Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit protester Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate in London during the Final Say Brexit march on 19 October AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters push a float depicting Dominic Cummings using Boris Johnson as a puppet during the Final Say Brexit march in London AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards parliament from Park Lane in the Final Say Brexit march in London on 19 October 2019 PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Marchers visit The Independent stall during the Final Say March in London Tom Richell Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit protester holds a sign calling for a Final Say during a march in London EPA

The Oxford comma can be included before the final and in a list, and while it is generally considered optional, some writers swear by it.

Hence why Pullman and Abells tweets have polarised the internet, with Twitter users fervently arguing both in favour and against the use of an Oxford comma.

A comma in this case would not make any difference to the meaning, one person tweeted.

Another added: The Oxford comma is regarded as stylistic so it is equally valid to use, include, and enjoy or to ignore, exclude and disregard.

Some users argued that Pullmans views on the coin could be more about Brexit itself than the punctuation, with one person writing: Just say you dont like it because what it represents not because of the comma!

And another bemoaned: When will your anger over Brexit end?

Recommended Lizzo takes a break from Twitter because of trolls

In light of the commentary, Abell later teased that he should have never opened the door to Oxford Comma Twitter because it is a passionate and contentious place.

The debate surrounding the new coin comes after one million 50p coins had to be shredded and melted down last year after the government missed the first Brexit deadline, which was on 31 October.
Me Agbor Nkongho M L Simo

Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Anyior aka Agbor Balla, President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA, has in a rare outing rubbished measures so far taken by government to resolve the crisis in Cameroons North West and South West Regions.

From Switzerland where he is currently attending a workshop, the President of the banned Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) took to Facebook and Twitter Monday, January 27, 2020 to insist that only a two-state federation can resolve the Anglophone crisis.

Agbor Balla describes decentralisation and/or special status as stop-gap measures, advising that stakeholders should return to the drawing board to address the fundamental issues.

Hear him: A two state federation is the Solution to the crisis. Any other solution be it decentralization, 10 state federation or a special status are only stop-gap measures. We shall have to go back to the drawing board to address the fundamental issues.

In October last year, Agbor Balla who was among the key players at the onset of the civil protests made a final plea for Cameroon to become a federal state after the Major National Dialogue as the only panacea to the deepening Anglophone Crisis.

Speaking Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at the Yaounde Conference Center, Agbor Nkongho said the people who have taken up arms to make of Cameroons North West and South West Regions an independent state they call Ambazonia may only be pacified if the form of the state is touched to accommodate federalism.

Apparently taking the Decentralisation and Local Development Commission headed by ex-Forestry and Wildlife Minister Ngole Philip Ngwese by storm, Agbor Nkongho regretted that another dialogue may be ordered by President Paul Biya not too long after the Major National Dialogue if the form of state was not discussed back then.

A video clip of the Human Rights Lawyers clarion call filtered out of the in-camera session and made rounds on social media at the time. In the video, Agbor Nkongho calls on Senator Mbella Moki Charles to bear him witness.

Hear Agbor Nkongho: I dont want us to waste taxpayers money today and next year the President calls us for another dialogue. We need to find a lasting solution. And like Dr. Munzu said yesterday, I am not prescribing any particular form of the state. But we cannot leave here without looking at the form of the state. As I sit here, if I show you my messages from some of the separatist leaders abroad asking if they have at least started talking even about the form of the state.

Some of us have put our reputation and our image on the line to be here. If you follow social media, they attack some of us just for coming here. But we believe in the oneness and the unity of this country. We believe that Cameroon should be one and indivisible. But we equally believe that decentralisation will not solve the problem. We have to get to a federation. That is the minimum the people who have taken up arms will accept.

Shortly after Agbor Ballas submissions back then, the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development took to its Facebook page to expound on the concept of decentralisation.

Decentralization is the transfer of power and authority from the central institution to the lower local levels of a government system. It guarantees peace, stability, unity and progress in Cameroon, the post read.

Article 2 of the countrys constitution reads that: The Republic of Cameroon shall be a decentralized unitary State. It shall be one and indivisible, secular, democratic and dedicated to social service. It shall recognize and protect traditional values that conform to democratic principles, human rights and the law. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law.

But since 1996, decentralisation is said to have failed to take off as planned and many are those in the North West and South West Regions who think federalism could be the magic wand.
"Anyone who breathes air, drinks water, eats food, has or expects to have children, will be vitally interested in this program," said award-winning videographer Peter Sinclair.

Sinclair presents Climate Challenges and Solutions 2020 at 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 29, in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. The event, sponsored by Michigan Technological University's Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC), is free and open to the public.

"I've put together a fast-moving multimedia program with lots of video," said Sinclair. "Over the last dozen years I have interviewed, learned from and traveled with hundreds of the world's best scientists and put their words and ideas out front," he added. "I stay in the background, because I believe the science should be front and center  but presented in a way that is interesting, exciting and, I hope, moving."

"I don't just drop a big problem in people's lap and walk away," he said. "It's critical to show the way forward, and the decisions humans make are still the biggest factor in what kind of future our children will have."

Sinclair's work puts science front and center. He hopes to connect with Michigan Tech researchers while he's here  and he's no stranger to Keweenaw. (Images courtesy Peter Sinclair)

Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture What does a sustainable human-technological-natural world future look like? Michigan Tech's Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC) dives into its first 2020 project, Designing the Anthropocene, with a presentation by Sinclair, a Michigan-based videographer who travels the world with climate scientists to document global climate challenges and potential solutions.

I don't just drop a big problem in people's lap and walk away," he said. "It's critical to show the way forward, and the decisions humans make are still the biggest factor in what kind of future our children will have."

Community-wide Climate and Energy Convos

During his visit, Sinclair is looking forward to connecting with Michigan Tech researchers and revisiting the Copper Country.

"Michigan Tech is one of the country's great engineering and science institutions, and I am working to communicate not only climate change, but the solutions that are emerging and being deployed," he said. "I hope to be talking to experts on topics of wind and solar energy, energy storage, microgrids, as well as climate impacts on the Great Lakes."

Sinclair said promoting renewable energy climate solutions is a very important part of his work. "Michigan is becoming a hotbed for wind and solar energy, and of course the fossil fuel industry has been pushing back with misinformation."

While he's here, Sinclair plans to revisit some places he's never seen in the winter. "Keweenaw is one of my favorite places on the planet, a place I have come back to many, many times in years past," he said.

Then, on to other adventures.

What's Next for the Climate Impact Communicator

"I continue to do fieldwork with scientists, working on and around the Greenland Ice Sheet. I hope to be heading north again later this spring, to another location. Still working on plans," he said.

Sinclair's internationally recognized work includes hundreds of educational videos to correct climate science misinformation, including his independent "Climate Denial Crock of the Week" series and the monthly "This is Not Cool" series for Yale Climate Connections, which has run since 2012.

"I don't want to spoil anything for those who come," Sinclair said, but offers a short video based on an interview with a leading ice scientist in 2017. "I think it's a good example of how I try to do science storytelling."

Sinclair is media director of Dark Snow Project, a crowd-funded, international climate communications effort focused on the Greenland Ice Sheet and sea level rise. Recognized in 2017 as a National Center for Science Education "Friend of the Planet," Sinclair traces the commitment to his work back to childhood. "I was more or less brought up in a family where awareness of environment and energy was primary," he said.

Audiences of all ages are welcome to Wednesday's presentation.

Anthropocene Defined

Anthropocene is a relatively new term for an epoch that acknowledges human impact as the dominant factor on Earth's climate and environment.

"Our planet has undergone drastic upheavals over billions of years. Life on Earth has proved remarkably resilient." With those words, IPEC member Sarah Green, a professor of chemistry, set the stage for both the screening of the independent film Anthropocene at Michigan Tech's 41 North Film Festival last fall, and IPEC's project this spring, Designing the Anthropocene.

About the Researcher Sarah Green sgreen@mtu.edu

906-487-2048 Research Interests Climate change communication

Science-policy interface

Youth engagement in climate policy

Response of aquatic systems to climate change

Great Lakes

Fluorescence-based analytical methods

Aerosol chemistry

Origin and fate of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in terrestrial, lake, and marine environments

Methods for detection of free radicals, photochemical transformations of natural and anthropogenic organic compounds in the environment

Integration of biological, geological, physical, and chemical data for understanding global cycles. Researcher Profile



"After each of these global upheavals, life had to adapt to a new world, almost as spacefarers on a new planet. Each time, it did, and it will again," Green said. "As humans who have only been on the scene for some two million years, timescales of two billion or 250 million years are far beyond our ken," she said. "Yet we are living during another major geological transition, to the Anthropocene, now dated as starting in the mid-20th century. This change is different from those in the deep geological past because we are here to see it, and we know the cause: us."

And, Green said, it's occurring so blindingly fast that we are witnessing it in real time.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
The leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia has sacked the regional government just four months after it had been formed.

"I have made a decision to dismiss Ingushetias government," Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov wrote on an Instagram post on January 27.

Kalimatov did not explain the reasons for his decision.

Kalimatov took over the volatile, mainly Muslim-populated region on September 8 after he was elected by lawmakers.



Days later, a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Konstantin Surikov was formed.



Just last week, on January 22, Kalimatov appointed Vladimir Slastyonin as first deputy prime minister and Liana Pliyeva as acting economy minister.
BAGHDAD, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Iraqi populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for demonstrations against the U.S. embassy on Sunday in Baghdad and other cities, a statement from his office said.

The demonstrations are to also decry "those who have offended the symbol of the nation, Sayed Moqtada al-Sadr," the statement said. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Nadine Awadalla, Editing by William Maclean)
As her campaign team hit the streets of Ballydehob, West Cork, Holly Cairns could lay reasonable claim to having the countrys youngest canvasser on the job.

Baby Elodie, all of nine months, had a Holly badge on her woolly hat as she was wheeled around by her dad, Rob, mid-afternoon, just one more volunteer as they criss-cross the massive constituency of Cork South-West.

Cairns, who pulled one of the biggest surprises of last years local elections bysecuring the last seat on Cork County Council for the Social Democrats by a single vote, certainly appeals to young people, but is hopeful that she can create another shock on February 8.

Dishing out badges bearing the words More Mna and Give it Holly, she describes the first week on the campaign trail as super and is particularly delighted that her Gofundme donations have soared, since she doesnt have a huge party machine behind her.

Another boost was the 60 additional volunteers who have signed up to assist her, with her campaign manager, Clare OReilly, outlining how it is more of an air campaign rather than a ground campaign, with the hope that the relative lack of boots on the ground will be compensated for by savvy use of social media.

Since pipping Finbarr Harrington to the last council seat, Cairns has been appointed Social Democrat spokeswoman for agriculture, drawing on her background as a farmer and her masters degree in horticulture.

She has also come in with what she describes as fresh eyes on council business and procedures, often outlined in her regular Inside The Chamber podcasts.

Francis and Margaret Duggan chat with Social Democrats candidate Holly Cairns at Duggans Restaurant, Ballydehob, Co Cork.

As recently as this month, she again called for changes in the way the council provides documentation to councillors ahead of votes, railing against a practice where vital information is only provided hours or minutes beforehand.

A formidable presence since her election, she has been unafraid to speak her mind and then outline her reasoning to those who got her into County Hall in the first place.

In a hotly contested three-seater and amid a crowded field, repeating her 2019 success will be difficult, but the warm reception affordedto her on the doorsteps in Ballydehob illustrate her transfer-friendly appeal.

She polled 1,274 first preferences in the local elections, ultimately taking the last seat, to almost everyones surprise. Seeing her engage with people in Ballydehob, its easy to imagine her being in with a chance again, even if it means multiples of her vote last time out in what could be a contrary constituency.

Its nice to see those gorgeous eyes in person, says Cathy OSullivan, a local woman heading into the Whole Food Cafe. Ill bevoting for you anyway.

Ms OSullivan, like many others encountered in Ballydehob, seem prepared to give first or high preference votes to Cairns and outgoing Independent TD Michael Collins, with the main party candidates going largelyunmentioned.

Ms OSullivan says theenvironment and mental health are two of the mainissues for her, and says her daughter is a big Holly fan.

Its a similar story up the road, where Lorraine Swanton in Martin Swanton Properties pledges her support. She jokes of her dog, Buster: Hell keep Fianna Fail and Fine Gael away.

Ms Swanton also mentions Collins, alongside Cairns, as having an appeal that other candidates dont, describing the main parties as a waste of time.

Their grassroots are all of an age that they are not ever open to change,she says. A lot of them have inherited their seats, whereas Independents and the likes of Holly are passionate about it.

One of Cairnss assertions is that lots of people are Social Democrat voters, they just dont know it yet.

Social Democrat Holly Cairns canvasses Ted OLeary and Caitriona OConnell in Budds Restaurant.

In Ballydehob, she is keen to stress that the partyalready has some achievements to its name, such as its work on the parental leave bill and its support for Slaintecare, and party co-leader Roisin Shortalls role in developing it.

For change to happen, it has to start somewhere, she says. We are a young party.

She believes the short campaign isnt a help for parties with smaller networks, and she admits the late entry into the Cork South-West field of Bernie Connolly for the Green Party may spread that vote, given her own strong green credentials  although she adds she is glad to have someone she can give her own second preference to.

I think there is a general knowledge that we are not leaving it to the next generation, she says of the impact of climate change and efforts to tackle it, but adds: When things like the health services are so distracting, its difficult. We need to get politicians who say what we need to hear, not what we want to hear.

While she is complimentary to many of her colleagues, she did take issue with Michael Collinss insulting comments from last year on looking after our own when it came to the housing crisis, while she summed up Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as two identical parties with a different civil war hero.

It is undeniably a curiosity that she is in a relationship with Fianna Fail candidate Christopher OSullivan, and she bristles at any perception that this non-political relationship could have any impact on her day job.

I am surprised I am in a relationship with someone I wouldnt vote for, she says.

Holly Cairns is Social Democrat agriculture spokeswoman.

Cairns previously joked that she felt like she was in a bad romcom and doesnt feel the situation should or would have any impact on transfers.

Its a little frustrating, comments like shes just Fianna Fail, she says. If I was Fianna Fail, I would just join them. I have had to work for every single vote I have ever gotten.

Clearly wanting to avoid any distractions, she says once OSullivan was put on the Fianna Fail ticket, another councillor joked that she would want to get used to the housewife role.

That idea was given short shrift and she says: I came into politics from a different place.

Her campaign team certainly believes her broad political appeal is resonating on the doorsteps and as she strolls from shop to garage to cafe she meets one of her biggest fans  her dad, Clem.

Data courtesy of The Irish Times

With three Holly badges on his jumper like buttons on a coat, he says the demographic has changed in the constituency and that anyone who knows her is positive about her chances.

Holly has an extraordinary effect on people on an individual level, he says in Budds cafe, where staff have already pledged their support. Holly can get a high vote.

February 8 will reveal just how high.
A woman was rushed to the emergency surgery to remove a miniature vibrator that lodged inside her bladder and continued to buzz as baffled doctors searched for the sex toy.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said the incident happened earlier this month after going to dinner with her boyfriend in Mesa, Arizona.

'Every time it went off it was like my entire abdomen was vibrating,' she told AZ Family

She revealed she was wearing her new Vesper Vibrator Necklace by the company Crave, which sells for $69 on the company's website, during the couple's date and used it with her boyfriend later that night.

The small vibrator, which is 3.8 inches tall and .05 inches wide with a 26 inch necklace chain, can also be worn as jewelry.

She was only using it on the outside of her body as the product intends, but she suddenly felt a sharp pain and could not find the vibrator.

An Arizona woman was was rushed into surgery after a small vibrator got stuck in her bladder after using it with her boyfriend earlier this month

'I moved and out of nowhere I just felt a really sharp pain,' she said, adding that she asked her boyfriend what happened to the sex toy.

A moment passed before they both realized something undeniably went wrong.

She said: 'First reaction was panic because I had just lost something inside of me that was still going off...still vibrating.'

Crave is selling the Vesper Vibrator Necklace (pictured), that can be worn as jewelry or be used as a sex toy with a detachable chain

The woman went to the emergency room where several doctors would perform pelvic exams to little success, according to OBGYN Dr. Greg Marchand.

'The emergency room staff wasnt able to find it in the vagina,' said Marchand.

ER staff asked Marchand to take a look, and what he found after conducting an x-ray shocked him.

OBGYN Dr. Greg Marchand (pictured) discovered the vibrator lodged inside the woman's urethra after an x-ray was conducted

Pictured: medical staff removing the Vesper Vibrator Necklace from the woman's urethra after it turned sideways

'I was really surprised when Im looking in the abdomen and realizing this device is actually in the bladder,' he said.

'Ive never seen a case like this in my entire career,' he added.

Medical staff discovered that the Vesper Vibrator Necklace had entered her body through the urethra and traveled into the bladder, where it turned sideways.

The woman said she will file a lawsuit against Crave because the label does not warn users that an incident like this could happen during normal use

A surgery was performed to remove the vibrator and the woman is now recovering from the unusual ordeal.

She plans on filing a lawsuit against Crave for inadequate warning on the label that this could happen during normal use.

The small and narrow design is dangerous, she says, especially since the chain is detachable.

The woman revealed that she's done using sex toys.
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Recently, I read this great article from Dr. Chethan Sathya, a male surgeon who commented on how women surgeons in this day and age are still treated as second class surgeons. There has been much good commentary and discussion on the topic, particularly on Twitter. But almost as if on cue, a different male surgeon chimed in with the following comment:

Im 100% sure u will prefer a male surgeon for ur own surgery. As we all know women are weak in dealing with stress and strain of difficult situations, giving them a big bleeder will make them run away, its inbuilt in them.

Thank goodness I just completed a course in meditation, as this type of misogynistic vitriol is sure to get blood boiling, but instead for me, my first instinct was to burst out laughing. Its probably better for my blood pressure. However, it got me thinking  and writing.

We can easily argue how his points are grossly inaccurate, if not just plain offensive. It was such an inflammatory comment that people wondered if the poster was even real, or just a troll looking for followers on Twitter. Sometimes, words can be so ugly, that most normal people have a hard time believing it could come from a real human because it seems so  inhumane.

Only briefly, lets talk about whats so wrong with this. Im not going to generalize and say that women are better surgeons, but the fact that there are a few studies attesting to it, Id argue that we are equal. Were not weak. And stress and strain? Bring it on.

Some of the more hilarious comments about women not being able to handle big bleeders involve possessing (its inbuilt, by the way) a uterus, and as such, having to see and deal with more blood on a personal basis than any man would! But in all seriousness, one time in the OR, I found myself forearm deep in someones shoulder, pinching the undetected axillary artery tear in a 97 year old with a proximal humerus fracture (yes, I called vascular, yes we did pre-op studies  and yes, this tear was undetected as it was tamponaded off), while the vascular/cardiothoracic surgeon operating next door was trying to get off bypass so he could come over to repair or graft it. If I panicked, if I so much as let go  this man would be dead faster than you can say misogynistic tweet from orthopedic surgeon in Pakistan. So, no, I didnt run away, and I know many, many women colleagues who handle these and more stressful situations with grace and collected calm.

And what are the broader implications of these attitudes, coming from a surgeon? Is a female patient in the eyes of this surgeon, going to be truly cared for as an equal to her male counterparts? Doubtful.

Sure, in orthopedic surgery, the concept of women as surgeons was once considered radical, but it is much much less so now. Despite that, we are still only 6 percent female at this time. Comments like this have the potential to harden women  to turn women into man-haters, but I challenge those teetering there to reconsider.

Following the sharing of that comment above, I was lifted by the words of both my male and female colleagues who spoke out against this narrative. #HeForShe is a thing (a good one), and its vital to forward progress in my field  or any, for that matter. It brings to mind the idea of tempered radicalism, as discussed by Debra Meyerson in her book of the same name, and by Adam Grant in Originals.

How do we as women surgeons walk the tightrope of being a part of the dominant culture, while working to change the system and simultaneously not alienating those who are part of the majority? We cant generalize anger toward the majority from which the misogynistic commenter comes. #MenAsAllies is so crucial here, because if this was a comment made in your group practice or hospital or academic department, and its happening, say, in the mens locker room, it doesnt matter how strong or vocal women are, our strength is lost without the men who are willing to stand up and speak in those situations.

Nancy Yen Shipley is an orthopedic surgeon and can be reached at her self-titled site, NancyMD, and on Twitter @_nancymd and Instagram @_nancymd.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said the state assembly may pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)like some other states did recently.

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said the state Assembly may pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) like some other states did recently. Rao said he has already spoken to many of his counterparts in other states and he may convene a conclave of regional parties and chief ministers to oppose the CAA since it concerns the country's future.

The TRS is secular by its policy and nature and it had opposed the CAA, he told reporters. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi had voted against the amendment to citizenship law in Parliament last month.

"I have already spoken to many Chief Ministers on this. I spoke to leaders of other parties also. Probably, maybe, in the next one month, I may arrange a conclave of regional parties and chief ministers in Hyderabad to oppose this....100 percent. Because this concerns the future of the country. This is not good for India, where 130 crore (people) live," Rao said.

After Kerala and Punjab, Rajasthan became the third state to pass a resolution against the CAA on Saturday. Rao said that the Centre had taken a wrong decision to implement CAA as the Constitution provides fundamental rights to all people, irrespective of religions, castes and creed.

As such, keeping Muslims outside the purview of the Act itself pained him, he said. Rao said he had made it clear to Home Minister Amit Shah that his party would not support (the CAA) when the latter had called him up.

However, his party had supported the government on Article 370 as Kashmir was an issue concerning national integrity. Citing a newspaper report which said India is being converted into a Hindu state under the leadership of Modi", he said the country should not be of a one religion state and that such a "branding" was not good for the country.

"...will definitely discuss the matter in the budget session and pass a resolution in the Assembly against it He suggested that the NDA government do a rethink on the CAA in view of the nationwide protests against it.

"I appeal to the Prime Minister to rethink on the CAA. It is not at all good for the country. There are so many doubts over it and ministers are making self-contradictory statements. These are not good for the nation, Rao said.

He referred to a report reportedly submitted by the Home Affairs Ministry to Parliament which stated that the National Population Register was the first step towards the creation of

the National Register of Citizens (NRC). But the Home Minister had said NPR has nothing to do with NRC, he said.

Rao said the Supreme Court should by itself take cognizance of the CAA and strike it down. On his plan to convene a meeting of regional parties and CMs against the CAA, he said he may organize a massive public meeting, if necessary, to oppose the law.

TRS would continue its secular policies, he asserted. Deprecating seeking votes on the basis of religion, he said votes should be sought on welfare measures. Rao also flayed the BJP for concentrating on the Ram temple at a time when many pressing problems and issues needed to be addressed and pointed out it had lost the Jharkhand Assembly polls.

"Is there no subject other than this? How many problems are there in the country! How many issues... What about the economy?. It is getting destroyed because of the policies followed by you. You have kept it aside and started this..." he said.

Rao said that if the need arose, he would take the lead in opposing CAA and other national causes and be ready to work with anybody, he said.

The TRS, he said, would also fight for the release of dues to the state from the Centre.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The number of Turkish citizens looking for job in Russia dropped in 2019 by 33 percent, compared to 2018, Trend reports referring to the Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR) on Jan. 27.

In particular, 2,181 Turkish citizens visited Russia through the ISKUR in 2019.

In general, 19,991 Turkish citizens went abroad via ISKUR in 2019, which is 20.3 percent less compared to 2018.

In 2019, over 1.4 million citizens were provided with jobs through this agency in Turkey, which is 19.5 percent more compared to 2018.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The Central Social Institution in Prague was home to the worlds largest vertical file cabinet. It consists of 3,000 drawers, 10 feet high, reaching from floor to ceiling and covering approximately 4,000 square feet. The drawers are all equipped with roller bearings.Special desks were built for those working at the files. They are, in essence, electrically operated elevators, controlled by a touch of a button, which rise or descend, move to the right or left and stop before the desired drawer.The drawers themselves are electrically opened and shut. With this installation it is now possible for 20 workers to do what formerly required the services of 400.There are many jobs in which distribution of the work only results in confusion. In this case, eliminating help expedites progress.These amazing photographs below show men working in mobile work stations used to access the card catalog drawers in the Central Social Institution, Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in 1937.
3 church properties attacked again in Sudan, burned down by radical jihadists

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Suspected jihadists burned down makeshift buildings of three churches that were razed weeks earlier in the southeastern Blue Nile state of Sudan, a Christian persecution watchdog reported.

The three churches, belonging to Sudan Interior Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, all in the Bout area of Tadamon District, were set ablaze on Jan. 16, according to World Watch Monitor.

The congregations of these churches had constructed temporary structures as worship places after the original buildings were completely burned down on Dec. 28 by suspected Islamists, according to Morning Star News, quoting a source in South Sudan close to the border area.

Some local Muslim residents were not happy that the churches existed in that area, the source said.

Members of the churches filled a case against anonymous people, but local authorities had not started investigating the attacks or provided any protection to the churches, Sudan Tribune reported.

A local group, Human Rights and Development Organization, has called on the government to immediately take action and hold Bout police to account for their failure to prevent the attacks.

HUDO is very concerned about the rights of worship and calls upon Sudan government to take urgent action in safeguarding the constitutional rights of the affected citizens, the group said in a statement.

However, Sudanese Minister of Religious Affairs Nasredin Mufreh claimed that police had arrested and questioned a suspect but he had to be released due to lack of evidence. He also claimed in a statement that only one church building was burned.

Mufreh added that Sudan was committed to religious freedom and protecting houses of worship.

After South Sudan seceded in 2011 following a long war and a referendum, Omar al-Bashir, who was then the president of Sudan, said he would adopt a stricter version of sharia and promote only Islamic culture and the Arabic language. However, after al-Bashir was ousted last year, the U.S. State Department removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom, and instead put it on a watch list.

In his speech on Christmas, Mufreh offered an apology to Christians for the unjust and clumsy policies affecting them during the Al-Bashir regime. He also apologized for the oppression of Christians and harm inflicted on your bodies, the destruction of your temples, the theft of your property, and the unjust arrest and prosecution of your servants and confiscation of church buildings.

Dec. 25 was declared a public holiday in Sudan, and Christians marched through the streets to mark Christmas.

Sudan ranked 7th on Open Doors 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
The WHO's initial decision last week surprised many global health experts, particularly after the urgency and severity of China's internal response. A lockdown of the city of Wuhan has become an unprecedented quarantine of 48 million people in central China. And the WHO announcement raises critical questions about how the organisation makes its decisions - and, in particular, the role of politics in that process.

Washington: On Thursday, after delaying for an extra day of deliberation, the World Health Organisation decided not to declare the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus to be a PHEIC - a public health emergency of international concern.

A PHEIC is a technical term for a "serious, unusual or unexpected" health crisis "that poses a public health risk to other countries through international spread" and potentially requires an immediate, coordinated international response. Declaring a PHEIC expands the WHO's authority to coordinate that response in various ways, including by issuing recommendations on whether countries should impose trade and travel restrictions.

This is not the first time in recent history the WHO failed to declare a PHEIC even though the situation meets the legal criteria for one. In 2019, the WHO repeatedly decided not to declare the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a PHEIC before ultimately doing so. Then and now, the decision-making required an uneasy balancing act between science and politics.

The WHO tries to separate politics and science

In theory, the WHO is supposed to be a non-political body. In a 2014 Chatham House report, global health expert Charles Clift acknowledges that "politics cannot realistically be wholly separated from WHO's technical work." But he nevertheless recommends that the agency separate politics from science, lest "excessive intrusion of political considerations in its technical work ... damage its authority and credibility as a standard-bearer for health."
It is important for Government to monitor large movement of its populace in and out of the country as this has crucial implications on skills, labour and the economy. I however dont think that this is information that this Government has. They just dont care about what is happening to their people, said the analyst. Masvingo Mirror
Aligarh, Jan 27 : Trouble is brewing again in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) following the arrest of a student who heckled the Vice Chancellor.

Hundreds of students blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad Highway all through Sunday night demanding the release of the student who reportedly disrupted the Republic Day speech of Vice Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor, on Sunday.

Sources said that the blockade, which started on Sunday evening, continued till 11 a.m on Monday and ended after the assurance of the police that the student Mujtaba Faraz would be released soon.

The AMU Vice Chancellor was heckled by a group of students during his Republic Day speech when he said that recent happenings on the campus were "unfortunate". He was referring to the anti-CAA protests and said that only peaceful protests would be allowed as per law.

A group of students raised slogans, demanding his removal and a minor tussle ensued between two groups of students in the audience before the security staff stepped in.

Four students -- Tahir Azmi, Rafiuddin, Sudhir Gulati and Faraz -- were whisked away by the security staff and taken to the Proctor's office. They were then handed over to police by the university authorities.

In the afternoon, a group of protesters gathered at AMU Proctor's office demanding their release. Three students were later freed by the police.

AMU Proctor, Prof Afifullah Khan, told reporters that three students were released whereas Faraz was sent to jail.

As the news spread , students in large numbers gathered at Purani Chungi gate of the University and blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad Highway.

The AMU administration had to cancel exams of the AMU Engineering College, slated for Monday.

Meanwhile, a group of teachers and top university officials met senior district officials to facilitate the release of Faraz.

The protests on AMU campus against the Citizenship Amendment Bill have been continuing since December 15 when students in Delhi's Jamia Milia Islamia were allegedly attacked.

Even after a prolonged winter vacation, protests have been continuing on the AMU campus and over 1,200 students have been booked in about a dozen-odd cases connected to different protests.

The students are demanding the resignation of top University officials including the Registrar and the VC for failing to secure justice for those students who face police action during anti-CAA stir.

Meanwhile, security in and around the AMU campus has been further beefed up.
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Botswana Power Corporation is currently operating without three most senior executive managers on a full time basis thereby exposing the state owned power utility to possible lapses with respect to timely and efficient decision making process.



The current scenario is the least wanted especially given that BPC has been bleeding millions of Pula annually at the expense of the taxpayer who has had to bail it out so as to keep the lights on. As things stand, the power company does not have a substantive Chief Executive Officer after the controversial resignation of former Chief Executive, Stefan Schwartzfischer about a year ago. Cross Kgosidiile, is currently the acting Chief Executive Officer, but holds the position of Chief Finance Officer. This effectively means Kgosidiile spends most time at the CEOs office on an interim basis, leaving the CFO position almost neglected.

It is not known who has now been appointed acting CFO. Interestingly, it has since been reported that Kgosidiile is joining a government-owned company, although it has not been officially confirmed. In addition BPC is also operating without a Chief Operations Officer (COO) following the sacking of Jonathan Housseini last year. The latter has since successfully challenged the matter in a court of law, in the process stopping BPC from appointing a replacement for the same position. In the meantime, Botswana Guardian understands that, the former BPC top executive has since joined Botswana Post, another government parastatal on the same position. At press time Housseini had scored a decisive victory against the state owned power utility which is currently carrying out massive infrastructure and maintenance for projects such as North West power transmission, which costs P2, 4billion and the maintenance of Morupule A power station.

Its troubled Morupule B is currently under remedial work after defects were found in the plant which was constructed by a Chinese company. As a strategic parastatal, responsible for the countrys generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, can BPC afford to operate without three substantive top officials? BPC Marketing and Communications Manager Dineo Seleke declined to respond to detailed questions regarding the companys leadership vacuum. She told Botswana Guardian last week that the Corporation is constrained to comment on any leadership changes since nothing has been announced.

She was trying to respond to a question relating to the reported exit of Kgosidiile to join another parastatal. The BPC spokesperson said they are currently concentrating efforts in executing the Masa 2020 strategy. Masa 2020 envisages the BPC as a profitable entity free from reliance on government, operating efficiently and serving its customers. The strategy became necessary as the BPC continued bleeding billions of Pula in annual losses, while operational inefficiencies piled up and services standards plummeted. The Permanent Secretary in the ministry of minerals, energy and green technology Mmetla Masire told this publication he cannot talk because he was out of the country on Wednesday while his political boss, minister Lefoko Moagis cellphone rang unanswered, as he also appeared to be outside the country.

The Botswana Guardian wanted to know if the ministry is not concerned about the leadership vacuum at BPC. In recent years BPC has been bailed by government while at the same time posting losses on the backdrop of the troubled Morupule B power station which has never produced power totaling 600mw which is the capacity of the P11 billion power plant. According to the BPC annual report total revenue increased by 9 percent to P3.010 billion in 2018, compared to P2.769 billion as at March 2017. The increase in revenue was mainly attributable to the average 12 percent tariff adjustment awarded for the year under review.

Other Operating Income, which incorporates mainly profit on sale of material to Distribution Works Contractors, Consumer Financed Projects recoveries and export of electricity through Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) stood at P157.826 million registering an increase of 14 percent from P138.604 million in the prior year. Last week, Moodys Investors Service (Moodys) assigned a Baa2 long-term issuer rating to BPC. This was the first time Moodys has assigned a rating to BPC. The ratings agency said BPCs Baa2 issuer rating is underpinned by the expectation that the Government of Botswana will continue to provide timely financial support to the company, as necessary, given the critical role of BPC to the country and its mission to ensure that Botswana has access to electricity, and (2) an assumption that substantially all of BPCs commercial borrowings will continue to be covered by government guarantees.

Meanwhile, Moodys said a downgrade of Botswanas sovereign rating could lead to a downgrade of BPCs issuer rating. A downward rating pressure could also occur if there was any uncertainty about the government continuing to provide timely financial support to BPC; the companys financial profile were to deteriorate; there was a material change in the companys capital structure (for example, if BPC were to raise unguaranteed debt); or Moodys assessment of very high support for the company were revised downwards. In addition, severe delays or uncertainty around the remediation programme of Morupule B plant could also put downward pressure on the rating, said Moodys.
Moons, a Mexico City-based startup that's angling to be the Invisalign for the Latin American market, has joined the ranks of Y Combinator as part of the accelerator's latest cohort.

The company already has $5 million in financing in the bank from an international group of investors, including Jaguar Ventures, Foundation Capital and Tuesday Capital, along with a whole host of strategic individual investors from Latin America's dental community.

"We provide dental services throughout Mexico, Colombia and soon throughout Latin America," says Moon co-founder and chief executive officer, Tommaso Tomba.

Like Invisalign, Moons conducts free initial conversations with potential patients and does a free scan of their teeth. "We have a team of orthodontists that take a look at the patient and determines whether the patient is a good candidate," says Tomba.

If there's a good fit, then the company creates a treatment plan and consultation schedule with a patient and fits them out with a pair of 3D-printed aligners -- all for around $1,200.

That's far lower than the treatment costs using established vendors, says Tomba. Already the company has 18 locations in Mexico and another two in Colombia -- where Tomba expects operations to expand at a rapid clip. "We're turning more cases than Invisalign in Mexico because we've brought the price right down," says Tomba.

A graduate of Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Tomba and his founding team chose Latin America to launch their dental business after months of market analysis. Latin America is host to three of the most active destinations for cosmetic surgeries in the world.

Tomba market-tested by creating a website advertising the launch of his new business and taking pre-orders for the service in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. He settled on Mexico in part because of the demand he saw and in part because he'd had experience in the market previously as an early employee of Linio -- a Rocket Internet-backed competitor to Amazon on the continent.

Story continues

During his time at Linio, Tomba met his co-founder Leonardo Miron, a serial entrepreneur whose previous business was a mobile phone repair service called Rescata. Alex Clapp, a university friend of Tomba's with experience in investment banking and healthcare-focused private equity in London and New York, rounded out the founding team.

The team chose to apply to Y Combinator because of the firm's access to capital and ability to open doors in the U.S., Tomba said. "In LatAm, access to capital to build long-lasting companies is still relatively limited compared to the U.S., so we think it makes sense to YC so that they help us with investors and attracting talent going forward," he said.

And Moons has bigger dreams than just the dental market. "We plan to go into other healthcare verticals," says Tomba. "Always with the core tenet of providing high-quality healthcare and making it accessible."
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Concerts, tours, meetings, new works: Armenian renowned composer Tigran Mansurians creative life is full of events.

Today, on January 27, Maestro Mansurian is celebrating his 81st birthday, but his age doesnt hinder the composer to continue actively working. From early morning Mansurian receives congratulations and birthday wishes. He says he will spend his day with family members and friends, but before that he gave a press conference today in ARMENPRESS to present his upcoming programs. He has just returned from abroad, this time his works were performed at a concert in the Czech Republic.

My Requiem was performed for two days at the city of Brno. An amazing orchestra and choir were participating. Requiem has been performed in many countries of the world. But these two concerts received a particular welcome by the audience. I received a warm welcome by Armenian Ambassador Ashot Hovakimyan, Mansurian said, adding that he also met with the Armenian community representatives and the Czech reporters.

Tigran Mansurian continues creating and performing his works in different stages of the world. As he describes, today he is engaged in a very heavy work which will be performed in Italy in autumn.

Its a great work for the orchestra, choir and soloist. This year the worlds cultural reality is celebrating the jubilee of Dante Alighieri. Proposals were made to three composers so that each of them will write one part of an overall work. The work consists of three parts  hell, purgatory and heaven. Purgatory part was proposed to me, and I agreed. I must complete my work by the end of March, he said, adding that this work will be performed in three Italian citizens.

The composer informed that he also has other proposals, but still is thinking about them. Mansurian is going to pay much more place to the Armenian poetry in his works.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Dubai Chamber, a non-profit public organisation, announced that a total of 18,260 new member companies joined the organisation in 2019, marking a year-over-year increase of 28 per cent.



The total membership rose 9 per cent over the same period to 245,000, a statement said.



Dubai Chamber also revealed during its annual media briefing held earlier today (January 27) that it achieved 96 per cent smart transformation of its core services in 2019 as it processed nearly 1 million transactions electronically during the year.



As a result of its smart transformation push, the chamber recorded an 81 per cent drop in visits to its branches last year.



Between 2016 and 2019, Dubai Chamber implemented 90 per cent of its Dubai Paperless Strategy plans and saved 23 million papers, resulting in Dh50 million ($13.61 million) in cost savings. Following the introduction of smart attestation services in the first quarter of 2020, the chamber expects its smart transformation rate to increase further to 98 per cent.



Over 778,000 Certificates of Origin were issued by Dubai Chamber in 2019. The number of attestations increased slightly to 18,832 last year. A total of 5,784 ATA Carnets were issued and received in 2019, while the value of goods covered by these documents surged 78 per cent to reach Dh5.7 billion ($1.551 billion) in 2019. In addition, the value of Dubai Chamber member exports reached Dh226 billion ($61.53 billion).



The number of international delegations received by Dubai Chamber increased 33 per cent year-over-year in 2019 to 2,456 and 37 countries were represented by visiting delegations. The chamber held meetings with over 4,596 visiting delegates in 2019, up 31 per cent from 2018.



Meanwhile, 111 trade missions and outbound delegations were organised by Dubai Chamber and its 11 representative offices. Delegations led by Dubai Chamber participated in 109 international events in 2019, and visited 34 countries and 69 cities during the year. The Chamber international offices held 2,096 meetings with investors and companies during the same year.



International expansion was a top priority for Dubai Chamber in 2019 as it opened new representative offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Shenzhen, China in 2019. Currently, the chamber operates 11 offices across Africa, Eurasia and Latin America, and plans were announced last year open a new office in Mexico in the near future.



Dubai Chamber organised and supported 58 business forums and events in 2019, which were attended by 7,721 participants (up from 54 business events and 6,217 attendees in 2018). A total of 1,077 bilateral business meetings were held in 2019, marking an increase of 49 per cent from 724 meetings in 2018.



Among the most high-profile events were the 3rd Global Business Forum Latin America 2019 in Panama, the 5th Global Business Forum Africa 2019 in Dubai, 2nd Dubai Association Conference, MRM Business Awards, World Chambers Congress 2019 and The Retail Summit 2019.



Hamad Buamim, president and CEO of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, described 2019 as a pivotal year for the Chamber marked by membership growth, international expansion, new initiatives, achievements and milestones which accelerated Dubais smart transformation and enhanced its proactive approach to keeping pace with the evolving needs of Dubais maturing business community.



Dubais position as a global business hub has strengthened over the last year, Buamim explained, as reflected in the higher number of international delegations received by the Chamber, which he said reflects a growing interest among foreign investors and companies who are keen to explore business opportunities in the emirate.



Buamim highlighted the active role played by Dubai Chamber in developing and implementing initiatives to support the Dubai stimulus plans, enhance economic competitiveness and improve ease of doing business in Dubai. In 2019, Dubai Chamber stepped up its business advocacy efforts with the launch of the International Advisory Council, a council joined by Fortune 500 companies in Dubai, which supports the Chamber as it works with the newly formed Dubai Council to boost business activity in Dubai.



On a national level, Dubai Chamber participated in meetings where it provided members of business groups and business councils a platform to share their feedback and views on market conditions. As a result of these meetings, the Chamber reviewed several government service fees and made recommendations to reduce some existing fees that apply to businesses in the UAE.



The Dubai Chamber Business Advocacy Committee reviewed 42 drafts throughout its 45 meetings and 24 meetings held by its sub-committee in 2019. The committees recommendations and findings are sent to the Supreme Legislation Committee in the Emirate of Dubai.



As an Official Expo 2020 Dubai Partner, Dubai Chamber will leverage the Expo platform to expand Dubais trade links with other countries around the world and build new bridges of cooperation between different business communities. The chamber will host 33 business forums and events during Expo 2020 Dubai that are expected to attract over 20,000 government and business leaders from around the world.



Among these events are 30 country focus briefings exploring investment opportunities in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia, Rwanda, Benin, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Africa, South Sudan, Ghana, Mozambique, New Zealand, Fiji, Vietnam, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Albania, Cyprus, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and Paraguay,



The largest events to be organised by Dubai Chamber at Expo 2020 Dubai are the inaugural Global Business Forum ASEAN (2020), the next editions of GBF Africa and GBF Latin America (2021) and the World Chambers Congress 2021, while the Chamber will also host an on-site Business Connect Centre networking facility.



Dubai Startup Hub, an initiative of Dubai Chamber, supported over 7,000 startups through its initiatives, programmes and events. The Co-Founder Dubai programme and a revamped Market Access programme were launched in 2019  giving startups access to development and growth opportunities, while the Dubai Smartpreneur Competition received 256 submissions in its fourth cycle in 2019, attracting business ideas in the areas of blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and digital transformation.



To promote Dubai as a startup destination, Dubai Startup Hub engaged with startup communities through several roadshows. More than 25 startup ecosystems, including Moscow and India, were covered in 2019. In addition, 16 Dubai Startup Hub members were given an opportunity to exhibit at GITEX Future Stars 2019 where they met with potential investors and business partners.



Dubai Chambers legal services department received 430 cases in 2019, of which 121 cases were settled. The value of settled mediation cases reached approximately Dh23.1 million ($6.29 million) and the value of handled mediation cases reached over Dh62 million ($16.88 million).



The legal services department hosted workshops and events at the chamber which raised awareness on a wide range of legal topics and issues impacting the business community such as Practical Approaches to Successful Franchising, the UAE's Bankruptcy Law to Documentary Credits Operations, the UAE Labour Law and the UAE VAT Law.



The Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), an initiative of Dubai Chamber providing impartial and efficient administration to commercial disputes, received 207 cases in 2019. DIACs new board of trustees was formed by a decree of HH Sheikh Mohammed. Board of trustees joined by legal experts and business leaders. The board outlined new plans and efforts to boost Dubais position as a global centre for commercial arbitration.



Dubai Association Centre (DAC) granted five new licenses to associations setting up in Dubai in 2019, bring the total number of DAC-licensed associations to 65. The Centre hosted the 2nd Dubai Association Conference and opened its new offices in Dubai.



Dubai Chambers Centre for Responsible Business organised a total of 30 events in 2019 attended by 4,442 participants representing 637 companies. Over 1,200 employee volunteers participated in Dubai Chambers Give & Gain Week 2019, dedicating 4,700 hours and benefitting 1,200 individuals in the process.



The University of Dubai, an initiative of Dubai Chamber, reached another milestone as it became the first LEED certified net-zero energy building in region and achieved LEED Platinum Certification under the Existing Building Operation and Maintenance category.



Around Dh5.4 million ($1.47 million) was invested by Dubai Chamber into a solar project to secure the certifications  an investment that is expected to save the university Dh1.2 million during the first year of the projects operation.  TradeArabia News Service
Here is how many people would greet Donald Trump in India

Explained: Can a second wife claim pension of deceased husband

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: Coming to the rescue of the second wife of a deceased doctor, the Madras High Court has directed the Director of Local Fund Audits to sanction family pension with effect from the date of her husband's death.

C Sarojini Devi had challenged the order of the Director of Local fund Audits, Chennai, refusing to grant family pension on the ground that the marriage between the petitioner and doctor, a deceased government employee, was not valid and she cannot be considered to be the legal representative.

Citing a Supreme Court judgment, Justice Anand Venkatesh allowed her petition and said, "... this court has to necessarily lean towards the presumption of marriage rather than branding the petitioner as a concubine."

Explained: How the chief guest for Republic Day parade is picked?

"This will be the most appropriate way to deal with the facts of the present case if justice has to be done to the petitioner," the judge said, quashing the order.

The doctor, A Chinnasamy married Sarojini Devi in 1975 during the subsistence of his first marriage and had three children through her.

After the first wife died in 1997, he nominated the petitioner on May 11, 1999, to receive the family pension after his death.

It was submitted that the petitioner lived with Chinnasamy for nearly 12 years even after the death of the first wife.

The special government pleader said the petitioner cannot be considered to be the deceased government employee's legal heir.

Citing an apex court judgment, the judge said the supreme court has held that "the law presumes in favour of marriage and against concubinage when a man and woman have cohabitated continuously for a long time."

Explained: Why J&K dropped Sher-e-Kashmir from name of police medals

It was very easy to brand the petitioner as a concubine and deprive her of her livelihood. However, the fact remains that she lived with the deceased from 1975 up to his death in 2009, Justice Venkatesh said.

This means that the petitioner lived with him for nearly 34 years, the judge said, adding she also gave birth to three children.

If the petitioner had made this claim when the first wife was alive, then obviously she will not be entitled to the pension since her relationship is not recognized by law, the court said.

After the first wife died, the petitioner lived with Chinnasamy till his death.

"During this period, it can always be construed that the petitioner and the deceased Dr A Chinnasamy were living as husband and wife and their long co-habitation itself raises that presumption of marriage."

Besides Chinnasamy had also nominated the petitioner to receive the family pension, the court said.

Quashing the order, the judge directed officials to sanction family pension with effect from the date of Chinnasamy's death on January 20, 2009.

Officials should disburse the pension arrears within 12 weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order, the judge said, adding the petitioner shall be continued to be paid the family pension till her lifetime.
New Delhi:

Karnataka TET 2020 Application Process has started. All eligible and interested candidates need to visit the official website of School Education, Karnataka, i.e. schooleducation.kar.nic.in to apply online for the Karnataka TET 2020 Exam. The last date to apply for the Karnataka TET 2020 Exam is February 25, 2020. Candidates must make sure to go through the official notification and eligibility criteria carefully before applying for the Karnataka Teachers Eligibility Test 2020.

Karnataka TET Application Process 2020

It is to note that the Karnataka TET 2020 Exam is a teaching eligibility test and doesnt claim any recruitment. Further, candidates must note that the Karnataka TET Exam 2020 admit card is going to be released on arch 7, 2020 and the TET 2020 Exam is going to be held on March 15, 2020.

Candidates need to go through the Karnataka official notification to check the eligibility criteria and other important details for Karnataka TET 2020 Exam. The TET exam will have 2 papers. Paper 1 and Paper 2 will be conducted in Morning and Afternoon sessions. A total of 150 MCQs will be asked in the exam wherein every question will carry 1 mark. The medium of the paper will be in Kannada, English and other authorized languages. Apart from this, the Karnataka TET 2020 Application fee is Rs 1000 for general category candidates and Rs 500 for reserved category candidates. Candidates can click on the below mentioned direct link to check the Karnataka TET Official Notification.

Karnataka TET 2020 Official Notification Direct Link
Celebrated actor-comedian Jim Carrey says he is would like to return to one of his most iconic characters -- Stanley Ipkiss aka The Mask -- if a "crazy visionary" director is on board the project.

The 58-year-old actor played the titular role in the first film based on the character which released in 1994. A sequel, 'Son of the Mask', was released in 2005 but did not feature Carrey.

When asked about one of his films that deserves a sequel, Carrey told Comicbook.com, '''The Mask', I think, for myself, it would depend on the filmmaker really. I don't want to do it just to do it. But I would only do it if it was some crazy visionary filmmaker. Sure.''



Mike Richardson, the founder of Dark Horse Comics, who created the character, has previously expressed his desire to reboot the franchise with a female lead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed that 11 patients are under investigation for suspected novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the Philippines.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the 11 patients under investigation have a history of travel to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus.

Based on the DOH, two of the 11 patients are in Metro Manila, one in MIMAROPA, three in Western Visayas, one in Eastern Visayas, three in Central Visayas and one in Northern Mindanao.

Duque said all the patients under investigation are being closely monitored. He also reiterated that there are still zero confirmed nCoV cases in the Philippines.

There shouldnt be any cause for alarm. Just because we flashed the areas where the PUIs come from, it doesnt mean those areas are infected with the novel coronavirus, because theres none. We keep harping the fact that there is nonestill zero as of today, he said.

DOH Epidemiology Bureau officer-in-charge Chito Avelino said the five-year-old patient in Cebu has already been discharged, while the others are already in the process of being released.

The DOH also reminds the public to practice good hygiene to prevent the risk of infection from any virus.AAC (with reports from Rosalie Coz)

The post DOH: 11 patients under investigation for suspected novel coronavirus appeared first on UNTV News.
In response to Jeff Hanleys opinion piece in the Patriot News on January 10, 2020, regarding Senate Bills 548 and 880, I would like to take exception to the accusation that Responsibility.org is not considered a reliable source of accurate public health data.

As the former national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the current public policy liaison with Responsibilty.org, and a mother whose son was killed by a drunk and drugged driver, I was asked to testify before the Law and Justice Committee by its chairman, Sen. Patrick Stefano.

The statistics used that day, and every time I have testified around the country for years, are from reliable and current studies from organizations such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the U.S Department of Transportation, the Pennsylvania DUI Association and a host of other reputable sources. My goal is always to present the facts because the facts speak for themselves. Drunk and drugged driving is a 100 percent preventable crime that takes the lives of more than 10,000 people every year in the United States.

The Commonwealth Prevention Alliance and Responsibility.org are working towards the same goal. Ive reached out to Mr. Hanley directly to find ways to work together and to help keep the children of Pennsylvania safe and alcohol-free.

Colleen Sheehey-Church, Public Policy liaison, Responsibility.org; Arlington, Virginia
The world's tallest dam is located in southern China, in Sichuan Province, and reaches a height of 305 m. Completed in 2015, the Jinping-I dam is a few meters higher than the Nurek dam (300m), located in Tajikistan, and the Xiaowan dam (292m), also located in the People's Republic of China. The Rogun Dam, also in Tajikistan, is still under construction and with its 335m it will be the future highest dam in the world.

If instead of height we consider the volume of the basin, then the largest dam in the world is located on the Zambezi River, between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was built as far back as 1959.
[January 27, 2020] Nintex Study Finds Gen Z Workforce Drives Tech Purchasing Decisions in Workplaces

Global Gen Z research reveals how organisations can make the most of the tech skills and experience of digital natives LONDON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gen Z, the newest generation to enter the workforce, is already having an impact on employers' technology problem-solving and purchasing decisions, according to new research from Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation. Nintex's Gen Z study findings are contained in a series of reports titled "The Gen Z Effect" that examine the career drivers and values of Gen Z employees in four geographic regions including: Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. Each report sheds light on factors organisations must consider to recruit and retain the newest and most tech-savvy generation of workers. A key finding is that Gen Z, also known as Zoomers, are the first digitally-native generation in the workforce and frequently considered the office's resident tech expert. In fact, 70 percent of Gen Z employees report they have been approached by a senior team member to fix a technology problem. "Gen Z grew up with technology in hand, and as they begin their careers, they aspire to do meaningful work," said Nintex CEO Eric Johnson. "It's becoming increasingly important for organisations to leverage technologies that help all employees to perform at their best. One of the best ways to do that is with a process management and automation platform like Nintex, which makes it fast and easy to manage, automate and optimise any business process, simple or sophisticated, across the entire enterprise." According to three Nintex reports, titled: "The Gen Z Effect on the US Workplace," "The Gen Z Effect on Workplaces in the UK," and "The Gen Z Effect in Australia and New Zealand," 80 percent of decision-makers across Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK have selected a technology tool suggested by a Gen Z employee.



Other findings show that the Zoomer, as an employee, is thoughtful and driven with 63 percent of Gen Z selecting a university major due to "personal interest" rather than career longevity. Interestingly, half of Gen Z also expect a promotion within their first year on the job. This generation is not one to accept the first job offer they receive; before deciding, they will consider their opportunities for growth and the impact that they will have. The research also highlights how Gen Z attitudes differ by region as to salary, company culture, career advancement and automation. US respondents rank "salary and company culture" as the biggest factors in making a job decision, while UK Zoomers value "work flexibility ahead of salary and work-life balance." In New Zealand and Australia, "salary and company values" top the list.

While Gen Z shares high digital know-how and comfort with technology across all four geographies, their concerns about workplace automation vary widely from region to region. Fifty-seven percent of Gen Z in the US are concerned that AI and automation will cost them their jobs, compared to 30 percent in the UK and 43 percent in New Zealand and Australia. In regard to Gen Z's commitment to an employer, 31 percent of Gen Z in the UK and US, and 29 percent in New Zealand and Australia, plan to leave a job after just one year. "Business and HR leaders and front-line managers need to keep this generation's career advancement goals in mind if they want to retain Gen Z workers long-term," Johnson said. To review the full findings from Nintex's "The Gen Z Effect" study, downloadable ebooks are available on Nintex.com for the United States , the United Kingdom and Australia and New Zealand. Media Contact

Kristin Treat

Nintex

[email protected]

cell: +1 (215) 317-9091 About Nintex

Nintex is the global standard for process management and automation. Today more than 8,000 public and private sector clients across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Platform to accelerate progress on their digital transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing, automating and optimising business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA). Survey Methodology

The studies by Nintex were conducted by Lucid Research. 1,375 current and future Gen Z employees in the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand and Australia were surveyed. All Gen Z respondents were between the ages of 18 and 23. Those that qualified for current Gen Z employees were graduates of a four-year university degree program who now have a job where they use a computer for 5+ hours a day. Future Gen Z employees were current enrollees in four-year university degree programs who will actively seek full-time employment upon graduation, or graduates of a four-year university degree program who are actively seeking full-time employment. Next Nintex surveyed 980 enterprise decision-makers in the United Kingdom, the United States and in New Zealand. To qualify, respondents had to work at a company with 250+ employees, be at a management, VP/Director or C-Suite level, and were directly involved in choosing or helping their organisation to implement new technology, including buying/selecting new tools. The studies were initiated in March 2019. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/700078/Nintex_Logo.jpg

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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland: AP

Greta Thunbergs ability to cause otherwise powerful men to lose control of their tempers is legendary, with both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin being among those unable to contain their animosity for the teenage climate activist.

But in a new twist, after Ms Thunbergs tireless environmental work caused yet another hot-headed senior US politician to publicly attack her, it appears the mans wife stepped in to defend her.

The politician in question is investment banker Steven Mnuchin, US secretary of the treasury.

When asked at the World Economic Forum in Davos, whether public and private divestment from fossil fuel companies would threaten US growth, Mr Mnuchin took aim at the 17-year-old, who has called for such measures.

He said: Is she the chief economist? Who is she, Im confused.

After she goes and studies economics in college she can come back and explain that to us, Mr Mnuchin added.

Ms Thunberg responded by tweeting a graph based on UN figures illustrating the worlds rapidly diminishing carbon budget which is on course to be used up by 2027 unless emissions are drastically curbed.

My gap year ends in August, but it doesnt take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1.5 carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments dont add up, she said.

The exchange revealed the huge gulf in concern about the environment between the White House and those worried about the future of the planet, but would likely have ended at this point were it not for Mr Mnuchins wife, Scottish actor Louise Linton, who apparently took it upon herself to publicly take Ms Thunbergs side over the view espoused by her spouse.

Louise Linton comes out against her own husband, Steve Mnuchin, to side with Greta Thunberg



Earlier this week, Mnuchin said Thunberg could explain climate change, after she goes and studies economics in college. pic.twitter.com/DgEMi8qKXR  Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) January 25, 2020

Writing on Instagram, she said: I stand with Greta on this issue. (I dont have a degree in economics either). We need to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels. Keep up the fight @gretathunberg.

Story continues

However, Ms Lintons public support was short lived, as her post was deleted without explanation about 30 minutes after it appeared, according to US journalist Olivia Nuzzi.

Mr Trump and his allies have repeatedly lashed out at the teenage activist.

In December, when Ms Thunberg was announced as Time magazines person of the year, the US president responded, saying: So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!

His team then photoshopped the presidents face onto the front cover of the magazine.
'New Delhi's rulers should be alert to lighting a dangerous tinderbox,' warns Sunil Sethi.

IMAGE: JNU Students Union President Aishe Ghosh speaks to the media in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo

The ill wind of rampant violence against students and faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru University by masked hoodlums on January 5 took place in some of the most miserable weather the capital has known, with temperatures plummeting to the coldest in decades.

If that was a barometer of national politics, then a bitter winter of discontent augurs a dangerous spring for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah ruling establishment and their Hindutva-fuelled followers.

From the blur of images of Bloody Sunday -- Students Union President Aishe Ghosh's bandaged head from wounds inflicted, Deepika Padukone's flying visit, hundreds of protesting students gathered at the gates -- some stark facts stand out.

They suggest the complicity of forces on high behind the orchestrated attacks.

A large police force turned a blind eye to several hours of mayhem in the students's hostels, the street lights conveniently went off, and the vice-chancellor -- a government appointee -- fiddled, like Nero, as his realm burned.

To this day he has not been held accountable for his failure to restore order.

Moreover, the assailants have not been tracked.

And, bizarrely, FIRs were filed against Ms Ghosh as the agent provocateur rather than the sinister untraceable attackers.

As a centrally-funded institution, JNU has been very much in the government's line of fire for some time, from February 2016 in fact, when Kanhaiya Kumar, its former students union president, was arrested for sedition and criminal conspiracy for allegedly voicing anti-national slogans, a charge he denied.

Like his successor, Ms Ghosh, Mr Kumar belongs to the Leftist union and has long been denounced by the prime minister, home minister and the BJP's students' union as the 'tukde tukde gang' -- by now a rather jaded phrase that started out to describe a bunch of 'anti-national' students hell-bent on shredding the country but is now applied to anyone politically opposing government policy or ruling party ideology.

Like that other shop-soiled appellation 'Khan Market gang', the label can be embarrassingly ironic.

Two pillars of the Modi government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishanker, are former JNU students, and have had to issue cringe-worthy assurances that in their student days there was no 'tukde tukde gang' and they were engaged in blameless intellectual capacity-building rather than involvement in the university's established Left-liberal leanings. (The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, indeed they often go together in places of higher learning.)

Judging by the spillover of students's protests nationwide in expressions of solidarity for the JNU violence, infiltrating campuses and tampering with the aspirations of a restive youth population desperate for degrees and hungry for jobs can have unforeseen consequences.

It is not the same kind of control enforced by military might in the lockdown in Kashmir or the passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act through parliamentary legislation.

Opposition to both has been swiftly and peremptorily dealt with.

Mr Modi's authoritarian streak is sometimes compared to Indira Gandhi's rise to absolute power.

If so, the triggering of a students's agitation carries a fateful echo from the non-so-distant past.

In 1971, fresh from victory in the Bangladesh war and a triumphant election, Mrs Gandhi was at the very zenith of her power.

Her international prestige was high and her command of the party and state governments untrammelled.

Yet it was precisely her tightening grip on controlling levers that made things go wrong -- the lightning rod being the students's unrest in Bihar and Gujarat.

In her incisive political biography Indira Gandhi: Tryst with Power, the writer Nayantara Sahgal gives a detailed account.

It was small things (such as JNU students recently protesting a hike in hostel fees) that set off the conflagration.

In January 1974, a student revolt against food prices in engineering college hostels in Ahmedabad and Morvi erupted into a citizens' movement against scarcity and misrule.

That same year, students of Patna colleges held protests demanding educational reform.

In both cities, there were police beatings at barricades, arrests, and bloodletting.

Thence forward the story of Jayaprakash Narayan's emergence as a galvanising force, Emergency rule and Mrs Gandhi's fall in 1975 is well-known.

'In her grasp of the nuts and bolts of the machinery of power,' observes Ms Sahgal, 'Indira Gandhi installed a strategy of command that depended entirely on personal loyalty.'

The student uprisings of 1974 were not abetted by WhatsApp wars, Twittermania, or a body of outspoken supporters from the film world.

The smashings and thrashings at JNU are right in our face; they force the most passive observer to take sides.

As a pan-Indian (to use that overused but indefinable phrase) community, university students everywhere are the same.

Everyone either knows a college-goer, or was one, or, in the basic human desire for self-improvement, hopes to become one.

An ill-educated driver I once had, a runaway from rural Bihar, used to regretfully intone: "Sir, vidya se badi koi sampati nahin hai (<em<Sir, there is no greater wealth than education)."

New Delhi's rulers should be alert to lighting a dangerous tinderbox.
MANCHESTER, N.H. - New Hampshire isnt used to being neglected.

The most prominent candidates in the 2020 presidential race spent months last year making their case to New Hampshire voters, but many of the White House hopefuls have been largely absent from the state in January amid the Senate impeachment trial and the upcoming Iowa caucuses.

Iowa may come first, but if the contest delivers a muddled result, or multiple candidates claim victory, New Hampshire could serve either as a crucial case maker or a critical blow to the remaining candidates presidential hopes.

The New Hampshire primary comes Feb. 11, eight days after Iowas first-in-the-nation caucuses, allowing for what is expected to be a packed week of frenzied last-minute campaigning in the state.

Heading into that week, however, New Hampshire has been less of a focus after a 2019 filled with candidate appearances that evolved from intimate house parties to larger rallies. In recent days, voters have been more likely to see a surrogate for some of the top-tier candidates stumping in New Hampshire than the candidates themselves.

It just seems like they havent been around, said JoAnn Fenton, a Democratic activist in Keene who is leaning toward supporting Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Other than former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, most of the candidates in the top tier have had five or fewer events in New Hampshire since the start of the year.

Joe Biden has held only two formal campaign events for voters in New Hampshire this month but has had more than 20 in-person events in Iowa, according to his campaign. At his two New Hampshire events, the former vice-president skipped taking questions from the crowd in the town hall format New Hampshire voters are fond of in favour of extensive time on the rope line visiting with admirers. He also stopped by a Manchester campaign office during last weeks trip.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren held four events in New Hampshire this month, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders held five over a two-day visit. A Sanders campaign spokesperson said hes done 21 Iowa events this month, while a Warren staffer referred to The Des Moines Register candidate tracker showing the senator attending 15 January events in Iowa.

And Klobuchar, who has had 25 events in Iowa this month, has visited New Hampshire only once in January for a college convention appearance.

Thats left the candidates campaigns, and an army of surrogates, to fill in. Last week alone saw prominent figures like Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy III visit the state in support of Warren, while Ben & Jerrys ice cream co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield campaigned for Sanders.

(Sen. Warrens) been here an awful lot ... not just over the course of the past several weeks, but over the course of years, said Kennedy, a close Warren ally. People know her here.

Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and businessman Andrew Yang have been among the most prolific campaigners in New Hampshire since the start of the year along with fellow long shots Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Of the senators remaining in the race, Bennet has spent the most time in New Hampshire in January after placing his slim presidential odds on the state.

On Sunday, he was the only senator in New Hampshire as Klobuchar, Warren and Sanders had already bolted to Iowa to focus their energy there while away from the impeachment trial.

Asked if he thought the top tier was ignoring New Hampshire, Bennet said, I think they have, and its one of the reasons Im here.

I think New Hampshire wants to meet candidates and see candidates and have conversations. And I really think they want to have the chance to ask questions and have those questions answered, Bennet said.

While New Hampshire has a history of humbling front-runners and producing historic upsets or comebacks, even voters who have been attending recent candidate events have indicated theyre leaning toward a particular candidate but are not yet fully committed.

Some in New Hampshire, like Molly Forgaard, have noticed a drop in attention. At this point, the 25-year-old independent voter supports Buttigieg but is open to having my mind changed by something unexpected.

Selfishly, as a New Hampshire resident, I like being able to see all the politicians in person, and I am a little bummed that I havent gotten to see as many as I would like because theyve been over in Iowa, Forgaard said. But I do also think that Iowa and New Hampshires outsized influence in the election is kind of unfair.

Even one of the most veteran Democrats in the state found it was hard to say how important the contest will be this year, saying it depends on the outcome.

If its a draw, if everyone is within one or two points of each other, I think theres no winner, so it could be that, said Bill Shaheen, a Democratic National Committee member from New Hampshire who recently endorsed Biden. New Hampshire has the potential of being important, but it also has the potential of being, hey, people havent made up their mind yet.

___

Associated Press writer Sara Burnett in Davenport, Iowa, contributed to this report.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.
Mangolpuri Delhi Assembly Constituency Election Results 2020 Live Updates - Read Mangolpuri constituency vidhan sabha chunav latest news, party, constituency, candidate name wise winner, loser, leading, trailing live updates online at Firstpost.com.

Mangolpuri Assembly Elections 2020: Rakhi Birla of the Aam Aadmi Party won the election from Mangolpuri against the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karam Singh Karma with a margin of 30,116 votes.

A reserved constituency, Mangolpuri saw a straight contest between the AAP's Rakhi Birla and the BJP's Karam Singh Karma.

Birla, a social worker-turned-politician, became known as a giant killer after she defeated former Congress minister Raj Kumar Chauhan in the constituency. A former journalist, in 2013, she was the youngest minister in the Kejriwal cabinet. Birla has a Master's Degree in journalism from the National Broadcasting Academy in Delhi's Sarojini Nagar.

Interestingly, Chauhan, who had joined the BJP in 2019, rejoined the Congress just days before the first list came out.

Karma, a prominent Valmiki leader, defected from the AAP in 2019.

Ahead of the polling on 8 February, here is a look at the constituency:

Constituency Name: Mangolpuri

Constituency Number: 12

District Name: West Delhi

Total Electors: 1,78,940

Female Electors: 82,818

Male Electors: 96,113

Third Gender: 9

Reserved: For SC

Results in previous elections: Former minister Raj Kumar Chauhan was the MLA until 2014. In the 1998, 2003 and 2008 elections, Chauhan won his seat by securing over 50 percent of the votes polled in the constituency. However, in 2013 and 2015 polls, he was defeated by AAPs Birla.

Demographics: Railway crossing across the densely-populated area is a major issue. People living in unauthorised colonies and Jhuggi Jhopdis (JJs) form a significant chunk of the electorate. The constituency covers the areas of Rohini and Mangolpuri.

Crime is a huge problem in Mangolpuri. If Delhi is known as the 'crime capital' of India, Mangolpuri must shoulder a lot of the blame, as per a report in Hindustan Times. In 2018, Mangolpuri recorded over 800 criminal cases  till October that year  compared to south Delhi's Defence Colony registering 125 cases and Tughlaq Road recording fewer than 90 courses during the same period.
BJP increased the decibel levels of its 'nationalism' pitch in the Delhi Assembly elections with party chief J P Nadda on Monday targeting the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government for not giving sanction to prosecute former student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, a CPI leader, for raising "seditious" slogans.

In the ongoing election campaign, the BJP has been accusing the AAP and Congress of supporting the anti-CAA protesters in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, pitching it as "anti-national".

On Monday morning, Nadda tweeted, "Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in Jawaharlal Nehru University. They were threatening to violate Indias sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in January 2019 were ready to file chargesheet."

"They sought Kejriwals permission to prosecute this 'tukde-tukde' gang but one year later, till yesterday (Sunday), no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank?" he added.

Kumar, Khalid and others were accused of raising 'azadi' slogans during a protest in JNU. Police had sought sanction from the Delhi government to prosecute Kumar and others in the case in which he was accused of leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised in on 9 February, 2016.

While the AAP is keeping itself out of controversial issues by sticking its campaign to the work it has done in the past five years, the BJP is targeting the AAP as well as the Congress of supporting protesters whom they accuse of acting against the interests of the country.

On Shaheen Bagh protests, the BJP is seeking to pitch it as something that will help the narrative of Pakistan. From Nadda to Home Minister Amit Shah to other leaders, they have been raising the issue in all their public interactions.

While one of its candidates Kapil Mishra described the elections as an "India versus Pakistan" contest, for which the Election Commission banned him from campaigning for 48 hours till Monday evening, Shah said that there was a need to free Delhi from Shaheen Bagh protests. Mishra had also alleged that AAP and Congress were making Delhi a "mini-Pakistan".

BJP leaders Vijay Goel and Sambit Patra had described Shaheen Bagh as "Shame Bagh" while senior Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, BJP's election in-charge in the capital, too had waded into the issue during his press interactions.

AAP has been claiming that the BJP does not have an agenda for the people and that is why they were raising these issues. Kejriwal had taken on Shah, countering the latter for questioning the work done by the Delhi government.
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday granted bail to a former Nigerian senator, Shehu Sani, in the sum of N10 million with one surety in like sum.

Mr Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the last Senate, was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, on a two-count charge bordering on alleged bribery.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Count One of the charges reads: That you, Shehu Sani on or about the 20th of November 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of Fifteen Thousand United States of America Dollars (USD 15.000.00) cash from Alhajj Sani Dauda (ASD) under the false pretence that the money was meant to bribe four (4) Judges and a Prosecutor, pursuant to your discussion with the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), during which he informed you that he has directed the four Judges not to hear any case between Alhaji Sani Dauda (ASD) and Abubakar Musa, which representation you knew to be false, contrary to and punishable under section 1(1) and (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, No. 14 of 2006.

The former lawmaker was arrested in December, for allegedly collecting $25,000 in the name of the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu.

Bail Application ruling

Moving Mr Sanis bail application, his lawyer, Abdul Ibrahim, asked the court to grant his client bail.

Mr Ibrahim added that Mr Sani would not interfere with the witnesses that would be called in the case.

The lawyer also asked the court to consider that Mr Sani would need to take care of his family, businesses and prepare adequately for trial.

READ ALSO:

The EFCCs lawyer, Abba Mohammed, on his part, while opposing, said there is a high probability that the former senator will interfere with witnesses in the case.

Mr Mohammed urged the court to refuse Mr Sanis bail request.

Ruling on the bail application on Monday, Justice Ekwo held that the prosecution did not show good reasons why the defendant should not be admitted to bail.

Granting the former senator the N10m bail bond, the judge ordered Mr Sani to produce a responsible surety who has a landed property that is worth the bail sum.

The register of the court is to verify the authenticity of the landed property.

He ordered the defendant to submit his international passport to the court.

According to the judge, Mr Sani must not travel outside Nigeria without obtaining permission from the court.

N10 million with one surety, the surety should be an owner of a landed property within the jurisdiction of this court.

Registry of this court should verify the property.

The defendant should deposit his valid international passport.

The defendant should remain in EFCC custody pending the fulfilment of his bail.

The matter has been adjourned to February 24, for the commencement of trial.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 10:43:24|Editor: Liu

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NEW YORK, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-China Music Institute presented its first annual Chinese New Year Concert featuring Bard College's The Orchestra Now, performing a lively collection of Chinese symphonic works in New York on Sunday.

The concert, the Sound of Spring, held at 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, was co-presented by the Central Conservatory of Music in China, with the participation of China Institute in New York City.

It was co-conducted by Cai Jindong, director of the U.S.-China Music Institute and Chen Bing, associated professor from the Central Conservatory of Music.

"Music plays an important role in ringing in the new year with joyful sounds. In China, an exceptionally long history of musical traditions have been supplemented in recent decades by blending Chinese instruments with Western symphony orchestras," said Cai.

"Today's concert showcases this combination, with compositions that highlight the distinctive characters of each instrument and the colorful musical styles from different regions in China," he said.

The U.S.-China Music Institute was founded in 2018 by Cai and Robert Martin, founding director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, with a mission to promote the study, performance, and appreciation of music from contemporary China and to support musical exchanges between the United States and China.

In partnership with the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the institute has embarked on several groundbreaking programs including the first degree-granting one in Chinese instrument performance in a U.S. conservatory.
Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) on Monday reported nearly four-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 8,372.49 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2019, driven by a value gain of Rs 9,019.81 crore from the merger of Gruh Finance, an associate, with Bandhan Bank.

The mortgage lender had posted a net profit of Rs 2,113.80 crore in December quarter of 2018 and Rs 3,961.53 crore in September quarter of this fiscal. On a consolidated basis, the net profit attributable to owners stood at Rs 3,835.38 crore.

HDFC has sold 9.90 per cent stake in its subsidiary Gruh Finance Ltd (Gruh), under the RBI directive to bring down holding in subsidiary firm, for merger with Bandhan Bank. Gruh Finance merged with Bandhan Bank on October 17, 2019.

"On de-recognition of investment in Gruh, the corporation has recognised a fair value gain of Rs 9,019.81 crore," HDFC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The total revenue from operations surged by 92 per cent to Rs 20,285.47 crore in Q3FY20 from Rs 10,575 crore in Q3FY19, the mortgage lender said in a regulatory filing.

Also Read: ICICI Bank share price gains over 2% after lender reports two-fold rise in Q3 net profit

During the quarter under review, net interest income (NII) of the housing finance company rose 13.56 per cent to Rs 2,957.83 crore as against Rs 2,604.57 crore in the same quarter last year. Net interest margin stood at at 3.3 per cent.

In October-December quarter, HDFC made provisions of Rs 2,995 crore compared to Rs 116 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 754 crore in the preceding quarter of this fiscal.

As of 31 December, 2019, the loan book grew by 13 per cent to Rs 4.41 lakh crore compared to Rs 3.89 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Also Read: IndiGo Q3 profit zooms two-fold to Rs 496 crore, revenue spikes 25%

On the asset front, the gross non-performing loans (GNPAs) were at Rs 5,950 crore, equivalent to 1.36 per cent of the loan portfolio, as on December 31, 2019.

During the quarter under review, HDFC acquired 51.16 per cent of the equity share capital of HDFC ERGO Health Insurance Company (formerly Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company).

The company also informed the exchange that its board has approved issuance of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDS) aggregating Rs 45,000 crore, in various tranches, on a private placement basis.

Ahead of Q3 results, shares of HDFC closed Monday's trade at Rs 2,395.80 crore, down 2.25 per cent, on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

By Chitranjan Kumar
The rate of interest on the Government of India Floating Rate Bonds, 2035 (GOI FRB 2035) applicable for the period January 25, 2020 to January 24, 2025 shall be 6.58% per annum, noted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a latest update. The GOI FRB 2035 were issued on January 25, 2005 by the Government of India to the Reserve Bank of India on private placement basis against the transfer of subordinated debt of IDFC.

The rate of interest of the bonds shall be reset by the Bank every five years at the prevailing 5-year yield on Government of India securities as on the last working day prior to commencement of each period of five years. Accordingly, the coupon of the GOI FRB 2035 has been fixed on the basis of secondary market transactions in Government of India securities as on January 24, 2020.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prince Andrew The Duke of York arrives at the Headquarters of CrossRail in Canary Wharf on March 7, 2011 in London, England.

Britain's embattled Prince Andrew has given "zero cooperation" to federal authorities with their ongoing investigation of people who enabled the crimes of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his former friend, a top prosecutor said Monday.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said that Andrew, a son of Queen Elizabeth II, has not followed through on a public offer he made in November to help investigators with probes of the wealthy Epstein.

Berman spoke to reporters outside of Epstein's luxurious townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the site of many of his alleged misdeeds.

Berman previously has said that his office is investigating possible co-conspirators of Epstein, who killed himself in August in jail while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.

"To date Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation," Berman said.

"Jeffrey Epstein couldn't have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward," he said.
John Bolton is weighing his options on his forth coming memoir of his work in the White House, including publishing it early and doing a television interview to discuss its bombshell leak about Donald Trump.

The former National Security Adviser to President Trump is 'assessing his options,' a source close to him told CNN, after details from his book were leaked to The New York Times.

'Bolton submitted to the White House out of an abundance of caution and tried to follow the process,' the person said, adding the process 'has been breached.'

Bolton has said he would testify if subpoenaed by the Senate. Democrats want to hear from him but need four Republican senators to join them to make that happen.

He is also weighing speaking out via Twitter and hasn't ruled out doing a television interview.

John Bolton is weighing his options on his forth coming memoir

President Trump said he hasn't seen the manuscript of Bolton's book

'The Room Where it Happened,' Bolton's memoir of his time in Trump's White House, is scheduled to be published March 17 but that time frame may be moved up, at least in digital form, CNN reported.

Trump's impeachment trial was upended Sunday night when The New York Times reported on a leaked copy of an unpublished manuscript for the new book Bolton is writing.

In it, Bolton wrote that the president told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the Eastern European nation helped with political investigations into his political rivals.

Trump said those claims were 'false.'

'False,' the president said with a cringe when asked about it at the White House. He repeated: 'False.'

Bolton has struck a deal worth an estimated $2 million for his book.

Some Republicans have questioned the timing of the release of details from the tome.

'Truly there's nothing new here. It does seem to be an effort to sell books. I think there's going to be a new revelation every day. Today's just one more day,' said Republican Sen. John Barrasso on Capitol Hill Monday.

But Democrats deny there was any coordination with Bolton or his team.

'We had no communication with Mr. Bolton or Mr. Bolton's lawyers,' a senior Democratic congressional staffer working on impeachment said.

The president said Monday while greeting Netanyahu on the South Lawn that he hasn't read the manuscript of Bolton's upcoming bombshell memoir, which was handed over to the White House weeks ago.

'Well I haven't seen the manuscript. But I can tell you, nothing was ever said to John Bolton,' Trump told the press while greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Monday morning.

'But I have not seen a manuscript. I guess he's writing a book. I have not seen it,' he insisted.

An adviser to Bolton said a copy of the unpublished book, which is set for release in mid-March, was sent out for review by the National Security Council weeks ago.

That is required when former government employees with security clearances are writing about their time in government service in order to assure classified information is not compromised.

'The ambassador's manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period,' Sarah Tinsley, an advisor to the former Trump aide, said.

But leaks from the book could be a game changer as Republican senators said Monday it's more likely witnesses will be called in Trump's trial.

Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins - two crucial votes in the Democrats' quest to bring more witnesses in the trial - said it's important to hear from the former national security adviser.

They also both said they have spoken with their colleagues about the topic, which could be seen as a warning to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that support is there for such a move.

Mitt Romney and Susan Collins said it's increasingly likely witnesses will be called in Donald Trump's impeachment trial

JOHN BOLTON'S KEY REVELATIONS John Bolton makes a series of bombshell claims in his book, according to the part of the manuscript seen by the New York Times. They are: Trump told Bolton in August 2019 that he would not release military aid to the Ukraine until they investigated the Bidens and claims of trying to intervene in 2016 in favor of Hillary Clinton

Mike Pompeo privately admitted that Rudy Giuliani's claims Marie Yovanovitch were corrupt were baseless - and that he suspected they were being made to help other Giuliani clients

Bolton warned White House lawyers that he feared Giuliani was using his work with the president to help his private clients

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, was present at least once when Trump and Giuliani discussed Yovanovitch. Mulvaney has told 'associates' he stepped away from such conversations

Pompeo told Bill Barr that he was mentioned in the July call with Zelensky. The Justice Department claims Barr did not know until mid-August

Trump railed about Ukraine trying to 'damage' him in May 2019 when he met Ron Johnson, a Republican senator who was going to Zelensky's inauguration. And Trump also mentioned the conspiracy theory that Ukraine had a hacked Democratic server

Bill Barr expressed concerns about Trump doing personal favors for autocrats including China's Xi and Turkey's Erdogan when Bolton raised the issue with him Advertisement

'It's increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton,' Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday.

'I of course will make a final decision on witnesses after we hear not only from the prosecution but from the defense,' he said. 'I think at this stage it's fair to say John Bolton has a relevant testimony.'

He added that he expected other Republicans to join the call for Bolton to testify.

'I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,' he said. 'I have spoken with others who have opined upon this.'

Collins also said she was leaning toward voting for witnesses.

'From the beginning, I've said that in fairness to both parties the decision on whether or not to call witnesses should be made after both the House managers and the president's attorneys have had the opportunity to present their cases. I've always said that I was likely to vote to call witnesses just as I did in the 1999 Clinton trial,' she said in a statement Monday.

'The reports about John Bolton's book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,' she added.

Other Republican senators have weighed in as lawmakers return to Washington for day two of President Trump's defense team.

'We don't know what's in there other than what's being leaked. My guess is John Bolton tells the truth,' said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Bolton and Johnson had spoken in August - when Bolton still worked in the White House - about aid to Ukraine. Bolton urged Johnson to call President Trump directly on the matter, which the senator did.

McConnell has said the Senate will vote on calling witnesses after opening arguments are made. That would set up a vote sometime this week.

Bolton's revelations challenge the defense offered up by Trump and his attorneys in the trial.

Bolton, who acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on September 11, famously compared the work of shadow Trump advisers in the Ukraine to a 'drug deal.'

Republicans and the president's defense team have warned that if new witnesses are permitted, they may call former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), the biggest German truck and bus brand in India, unveiled a range of Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) commercial vehicles after having invested Rs 500 crore on upgradation.

Sold under brand BharatBenz, the company unveiled over a dozen medium and heavy duty trucks and buses, which is now available for pre-bookings. While exact prices of these vehicles will be revealed at the time of their launch, the management is expecting a 10-15 percent increase.

The trucks will be delivered to customers only after the availability of BS-VI fuel, which the government has committed to from April 1. These diesel-powered BS-VI trucks cannot run on BS-IV fuel.

Satyakam Arya, MD and CEO, DICV, said, "Last year, we launched 52 new variants. This year, we have lined up 42 such launches in India and overseas. Going forward, we will move away from tonnage and focus on customised solutions for different applications."

These trucks and buses will be powered by the OM926 engine and 4D34i. The key differentiator in technology will be the after treatment system used. These trucks will come with a standard warranty of up to six years and an extended warranty of eight years.

The trucks come with up to 20 percent longer service intervals, which will reduce maintenance cost by up to six percent. DICV also promises a 10 percent increase in fuel efficiency.

The company conducted over 5.2 million km of BS-VI testing in India.

The management said it will be expanding its touchpoints to 300 by December-end from 237 at present.

Ashok Leyland became one of the first companies to deliver BS-VI trucks for customers in Delhi-NCR earlier in January. Rival and India's biggest truck and bus maker Tata Motors is yet to deliver any BS-VI powered commercial vehicles.

Due to implementation of new axle load norms, which led to creation of excess capacity in the market, and tighter lending norms by banks and NBFCs, the commercial vehicle industry suffered its worst breakdown in years.

The medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment recorded a 34 percent year-on-year fall to 249,000 in 2019. There are expectations that the segment will end the year with sales of 220,000 units.

"We are expecting a 10 percent contraction in sales in 2020 due to BS-VI implementation. As per our discussions with fleet owners, there is 25 percent excess capacity in the market. There will be a some advanced buying in Q1 (January-March) CY20 to avoid the BS-VI hike. Its only in Q3 and Q4 that we expect some recovery and a full recovery in 2021," Arya added.
(Natural News) In case you missed it, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, recently sat down with the producers of the new Vaxxed2: The Peoples Truth vaccine documentary to talk about the epidemic of vaccine injuries thats sweeping our nation. And after watching or listening to what they have to say, you might ask yourself, Whos worse for society, LGBTQP lunatics who want to turn all of our children trans, or vaccine industry propagandists who want to force chemical syringes on our precious little ones essentially at gunpoint?

As the official narrative goes, vaccines are the most awesome public health invention pretty much ever, which somehow means that everyone must be forced by the government to get them because theyre simply wonderful. The science is settled, were all repeatedly told, so theres no room for my body, my choice when it comes to vaccination programs that aim for total societal compliance.

But the truth of the matter is that vaccines are risky, to say the least. Not only that, but they dont actually work, in many cases, and cause more harm than good. Vaccines are also responsible for causing many of the recent outbreaks of measles and whooping cough (pertussis) that weve been hearing about in the news, further demonstrating that vaccines are not the miracle medicine that the pharmaceutical lobby claims them to be.

This is why Vaxxed2 was created, by the way: To tell those with ears to hear the ugly truth about vaccines that health authorities refuse to disclose. Vaccines are not safe and effective, nor are they miraculous at accomplishing anything other than furthering the eugenics agenda of harming and destroying the next generation of youth.

I have never seen so much death, says Polly Tommey, the executive producer of Vaxxed2, about the tragedies shes encountered while touring America as part of the films production.

At every single stop we had at least one dead baby, a Gardasil death, paralysis from the waist downwards, untold damage. Vaccines are killing of America, that is what the people of America will tell you that vaccinated themselves or their children, she adds.

When you look into the eyes of parents whose children are brain-damaged like mine, or dead from a vaccine, their soul is broken, its ripped from them, it is the most painful  you can feel it as they come towards you  the pain. But when an unvaccinated family with beautiful, healthy children come towards you, you see joy and light and love, everything is great in their eyes.

Be sure to watch the interview at Brighteon.com below:

Vaccinating your child is really no different than giving him or her cross-sex hormones to become trans  theyre both a form of irreversible chemical mutilation!

One thing to keep in mind when it comes to vaccination is the fact that vaccines are untested chemical cocktails that, if you read the fine print in vaccine inserts, are really no different than the cross-sex and gender-bender hormone drugs routinely administered to todays LGBTQP-confused youth.

If you look across the whole range, youve got 72 shots given to a child up until the age of 18  youve got multiple shots going in at their well-baby clinic visit, so youve got multiple shots, none of which have had a safety study on this whole group going into a child at the same child at the same time, not one single safety study, warns Jonathan Tommey, another of Vaxxed2s creators.

So, this 1986 Act (National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act) that was passed by (Ronald) Reagan in government giving no liability to the manufacturer of vaccines is a criminal offense to the American public, he adds.

To find a local screening of Vaxxed2 in your area, visit Vaxxed2.com.

You can also learn more about the dangers and ineffectiveness of vaccines at Vaccines.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
A Left student outfit member, who has been booked in connection with the violence during an anti-CAA protest near Jamia Millia Islamia last month, on Monday moved a Delhi court seeking a court-monitored investigation into it alleging that the investigating agency was shielding policemen who "wreaked havoc" on the varsity premises.

Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur will hear on Tuesday the plea filed by All India Students' Association (AISA) Secretary Chandan Kumar, who was named as an accused in the FIR.

The court, meanwhile, extended till January 30 the judicial custody of Furkan, arrested in connection with the violent protest near Jamia Millia Islamia against the newly amended law on December 15 last year.

The police said the accused was arrested on the basis of a CCTV footage which showed him carrying a container.

Kumar's plea, filed through advocates Adit Pujari and Kriti Awasthi, sought monitoring of the investigation "as the investigating agency, while shielding its own policemen who wreaked havoc in the premises of Jamia Millia Islamia University, has proceeded to name the applicant (Kumar), who is a peace-loving citizen/student leader".

It also sought directions to the police to return Kumar's mobile phone, which was seized by the investigating agency during his questioning.

The plea claimed that Kumar had to unlock his mobile phone due to pressure from the members of the investigating agency.

"The continued possession of the mobile phone with the investigating agency is a direct and immediate violation of the right to privacy of the applicant," it said.

It further alleged that Kumar's lawyer was not allowed to meet him during his interrogation by the police.

The plea also sought directions to the police to ensure that a fair investigation be conducted, and appropriate material be made available before any decision to take coercive action is undertaken.

On December 15, protests in the area against the amended citizenship Act turned violent. Four DTC buses, 100 private vehicles and 10 police bikes were damaged. Police had even entered the university campus and allegedly attacked students.

The police had earlier arrested 10 people in connection with the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
L abour leadership candidate Sir Keir Starmer has hit out at the party for labelling the public as either "elitist" or "downtrodden" and making policies without regard for those in society who want to get on.

In what will be seen as a criticism of the partys direction under outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn, the shadow Brexit secretary said the opposition party had failed to offer opportunity to voters in recent years.

The party suffered its worst election defeat since 1935 during the December poll, losing 59 seats overall.

Sir Keir, speaking in east London, said the party had labelled those in society either the elite or the downtrodden and had not done enough to appeal to those in between who want to get on.

Who will replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader? 1 /4 Who will replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader? Rebecca Long-Bailey Getty Images Lisa Nandy REUTERS Keir Starmer PA

Monday marked Sir Keirs first day back to campaigning since cancelling events on Thursday after his mother-in-law was admitted to intensive care following an accident last week.

Answering a question at Stratfords Old Town Hall about how Labour could win over Tory voters, Sir Keir said Labour needed to offer a more inspiring vision for future generations.

The Holborn and St Pancras MP said: Weve depicted the public as either elitist at the top or downtrodden, without regard for the middle where there are lots of people who want opportunity and we need to be making the case for solidarity and opportunity.

Im not sure we have been making both those cases powerfully enough. And I think if we do, we have the chance to bring over votes that we dont have at the moment.

Labour leadership candidate Keir Starmer has his photo taken by supporters / PA

The 57-year-old said his own toolmaker father and nurse mother had been driven by the Labour dream that their children would have better opportunities than theirs.

Sir Keir also said he would lead from the front on tackling anti-Semitism if he is elected Mr Corbyns successor on April 4.

The party is currently being investigated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission over the blight of anti-Semitism in the party, a probe that Sir Keir said Labour must give full access to.

Speaking on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he said: This is not complicated  if youre anti-Semitic, you shouldnt be in the Labour Party.

Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey / Getty Images

If I was leader of the Labour Party, I would take personal responsibility for this. I would need to know every week what is going on.

It is only when the person who is leading the party takes that kind of direct involvement that things get done and things change.

Rival Rebecca Long-Bailey also held a campaign event with members in Oxford on Monday as she looks to secure the final support she needs to make it to the final stage.

The shadow business secretary secured the nomination from Unite on Friday to add to her Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union backing, meaning she requires only one more nomination from a socialist group or trade union to ensure her name is on the ballot.

The Community union, which declared in favour of Sir Keir on Monday, came out in favour of shadow education secretary Angela Rayner for deputy leader.

It also urged members in constituency Labour parties (CLPs) to help ensure that Labours only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, makes the final ballot for the deputy post.

Candidates are required to have won the nomination of three Labour affiliates, including at least two unions, which amount to at least 5% of affiliate members.

The only other route on to the ballot is by receiving nominations from at least 5% of CLPs.
Ashley McBryde walked down the red carpet in a moody black gown adorned with violet flowers, showing off her gorgeous eagle tattoo at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Image: AP)
The guest speaker at the 10th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Luncheon in Rio Rancho compared Pontius Pilate from the gospel to President Donald Trump.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of New Mexico hosted this luncheon at the Grace Outreach Event Center on Monday.

The guest speaker, Juan Thomas, is a Baptist preacher, politician, attorney and former president of the National Bar Association. He began his speech by reading from the Bible in John, chapter 18, verse 28.

In this part of the Bible, John the apostle wrote about Jesus being questioned by Roman governor Pilate.

Thomas said he reads from the Bible whenever he struggles to understand difficult times in his life.

What I discovered about this text, is what I want you to know (about) what is going on in this country, and what is about to happen tomorrow (Trumps impeachment trial); I want you to know the relationship between truth and power, Thomas said.

He said this text taught him three things about truth and power.

The first thing this text says is the people in power will dismiss the truth. Pontius Pilate is in front of Jesus and just casually says to him, I dont believe the intelligence report. I dont believe what the general has been telling me,' he said.

He said the second enlightenment was that people in power will also deny the truth.

Jesus told (Pilate) I am the truth. Pontius Pilate said, What is the truth? Jesus told him what the truth was. He is questioning what he already had been told. He denied what he knew; he denied that Obama was born in America; he denied the truth about global reform; he denied about the war in Iraq; he denied about JFKs assassination; he denied about groping women. They will deny the truth, he said.

He said the third takeaway from this text was that people in power will distract from the truth.

They will distract you from the truth. What does Pilate do after he goes and talks to Jesus? He goes to the crowd; he goes to a pep rally, he said.

Thomas said Pilate used Barabbas, a prisoner of the Roman government, as a distraction from the truth.

Dont worry about the food regulations disbanded; dont worry about how I have defunded HUD (Housing and Urban Development) in the civil rights department in Washington, Ill give you Barabbas. And we will make Rome great again he said.

Thomas said he chose this example from the Bible to place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s life into context.

Dr. Kings life is in context to Jesus life. Jesus was a truth-fighter and a truth-seeker. See, what we do in this country is we commercialize and water-down King, he said.

Thomas said too many people only focus on the celebration of Kings I Have a Dream speech. At the time of Kings death, he was the most hated man alive, Thomas said.

Why is that? It was because, on April 4, 1967, King stood in the bullpen of Riverside Baptist Church and came out against the Vietnam War. He challenged Johnson; he challenged the status quo, Thomas said.

He reiterated President Lyndon Johnsons response to Kings challenge.

And the president said, I gave the N-words civil rights; I gave this N-word voting rights; and this N-word is now doing this to me,' Thomas said. Those in power will treat you like youre supposed to be a good N-word because they give you something.

So let me just say something to the politicians in the room: Dont think that coming to a King celebration means you can now check off what you have done for black folk. We are not that cheap, Thomas said. Dont think because you meet a part of our agenda that we will be satisfied and fall in line and be good N-words. Those days are over.

Thomas said his community has the power to vote in new leadership.

And the struggle in our community is that too many of us want to be liked by them. We want to be the chosen N-word, he said.

Thomas said he believes in creating relationships with anyone who supports his communitys interests, but it is a collaboration.

You will not pimp my people. You will not just give me a job and think I will not criticize and critique your policy agenda that impacts the majority of my people. I do not want a contract and then you think I am just going to fall in line and do what you want me to do, he said.

Thomas said like Jesus, King was not concerned with governmental powers: He had a bigger agenda, a larger purpose, and I just come by to say this, beloved, dont let this trial tomorrow distract you from what is really important.
In a case described as both chilling and heartbreaking, Yolo County, state and FBI officials on Monday announced the arrest of a man suspected of killing five of his infant children in a series of murders between 1992 and 2001.

Paul Allen Perez, 57, an inmate at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, was arrested on suspicion of five separate murders, including a baby boy whose body was found in a slough near Woodland in 2007, said Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez. Officials confirmed the boys identity in October.

Investigators from a cold-case task force used DNA to identify the baby, find the infants father and link him to four more infant deaths  all of his own children  in 1992 through 2001, Lopez said.

This case has haunted my agency for years, he said. What began as a single homicide has become much more.

Perez is being held in the Yolo County Jail in Woodland and will be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Yolo County Superior Court on five charges of premeditated murder, officials said. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death or to life in prison. District Attorney Jeff Reisig said he has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.

The arrest stemmed from a 2007 case in a which a fisherman found the body of an infant and a small metal container in a marshy area east of Woodland. The container was filled with stones and had apparently been used to hold down the body.

DNA testing helped identify the boy a dozen years later as Nikko Lee Perez, who was born in 1996 in Fresno. Tests determined that the infant had four siblings, all believed to have been killed by their father before they turned 6 months old.

Kato Allen Perez was born in Merced in 1992 and is known to be deceased, the sheriff said. The other suspected victims are: Mika Alena Perez, born in Merced in 1995; a second child named Nikko Lee Perez, born in Fresno in 1997; and Kato Krow Perez, born in Fresno in 2001. The bodies of the last three victims have not been located, officials said.

The babies are believed to have been tortured before being killed.

Yolo County officials worked with the state Department of Justice and the FBI on the case. DNA testing was done at the states laboratory in Richmond. Perez was arrested while being held at the state prison in Delano just days before he was due to be released from a sentence for an unrelated crime.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The fact that he was not allowed to walk out of prison a free man cannot be overlooked, Lopez said.

Information about other family members, including the childrens mother or mothers, was not released because the case is still under investigation, Lopez said.

Anyone with information related to this case can call the Yolo County Sheriffs Office at 530-668-5280 or 530-666-8282. Anonymous tips can be reported at 530-668-5248.

The FBI also assisted with the case. Jonathan Snow, special agent in charge, said the death of one child was already sobering but the deaths of five was both chilling and heartbreaking.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Anna Bauman contributed to this story.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Imperial Valley News Center

Justice Department Requires ZF and WABCO to Divest WABCO's Steering Components Business to Proceed With Merger

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is requiring ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF) and WABCO Holdings Inc. (WABCO) to divest WABCOs North American steering components business, R.H. Sheppard Co. Inc., as well as other related WABCO assets, in order for ZF to proceed with its proposed acquisition of WABCO. Without the divestiture, the proposed acquisition would eliminate competition between the only two suppliers of steering gears used on large commercial vehicles in North America, the departments lawsuit alleges.

The Justice Departments Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed merger. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the lawsuit.

The merger, as originally structured, would have given ZF a monopoly over an essential steering systems component used in trucks and buses that move products and people across the United States, said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Departments Antitrust Division. Todays settlement, which requires the divestiture of WABCOs entire U.S. steering systems business, will ensure that commercial vehicle manufacturers continue to benefit from competition as they design and build the trucks and buses of today and tomorrow.

According to the Justice Departments complaint, ZF and WABCO are the only North American suppliers of the steering gears that are an essential steering system component used in large commercial vehicles. These steering gears direct the front wheels of trucks and buses, and are also a key component of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) steering features. ADAS steering features, such as lane-keeping assist, are already being implemented today, and are expected to be an area of continued importance as companies develop autonomous vehicle operations. The departments complaint alleges that competition between ZF and WABCO has resulted in lower prices, higher quality, better service, and more favorable contractual terms, and has fostered innovation that has led to the development of features that are integral to the current and future development of ADAS technologies. According to the complaint, the combination of ZF and WABCO would leave manufacturers of large commercial vehicles in North America without a sufficient competitive alternative for this critical input and likely result in higher prices, less favorable contract terms, and reduced research and development efforts.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, ZF and WABCO must divest the entirety of WABCOs R.H. Sheppard steering systems subsidiary, including its manufacturing facilities in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and Wytheville, Virginia, as well as other WABCO assets related to steering gears.

ZF is a German company headquartered in Friedrichshafen, Germany. It has 149,000 employees in 40 countries, and had annual sales of $36.9 billion in 2018, $9.6 billion of which were in the United States.

WABCO is a Delaware corporation with a North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and a global headquarters in Bern, Switzerland. It has 16,000 employees in 40 countries, and had annual sales in 2018 of $3.8 billion, $850 million of which were in the United States.

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60-day comment period to John Read, Acting Chief, Defense, Industrials, and Aerospace Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 8700, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
Members of the ninth assembly are expected to resume legislative activities on Tuesday, after a five-week-long break. And as they gear up to resume work, there are expectations from Nigerians.

The lawmakers had on December 19 embarked on a recess to observe the Christmas holidays  right after they attended to a few urgent legislative matters.

Some notable actions taken by the Senate prior to the holiday include the passage of the 2020 budget, the Finance Bill, the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract as well as Public Procurement Act.

As the lawmakers resume legislative activities for the new year, here are a few things to expect:

1. Consideration and passage of crucial bills

Just like the Senate displayed prompt attention to some crucial bills in 2019, the same speedy consideration and passage of bills is expected in 2020.

This could be justified by comments from the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who has, on several occasions, said the ninth Senate and the National Assembly in general is in a hurry to work for Nigerians.

Already, over 200 bills have been presented in the Senate and a few of them have scaled second reading.

Nigerians are also looking forward to the Senates action on some controversial bills like the Social Media Bill.

Although it has passed the second reading, Nigerians have condemned the bill and many still hope it will be killed at the public hearing. See details of the bill here.

There is also the Hate Speech Bill  another controversial bill which many have described as a means to clamp down on the masses.

The bill has been read for the first time but many look forward to the debate, second reading as well as public hearing of the bill.

Another controversial bill is the Peace Corps Bill which was reintroduced to the Senate shortly before they went on recess. Although it has previously been rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians want to know the outcome of the bill now.

2. Reports from committees

Many legislations have been made in the past year  most of which were referred to the appropriate committees for further legislative actions.

Some expectations will be to see those committees present their reports, as well as know the final decision of the Senate on the said reports.

One of such is the report of the committee set up to investigate Adamawa senator, Elisha Aboo, for assaulting a woman in sex toy shop in Abuja. The report has since been submitted but is yet to be considered by the Senate.

In its defence, the Senate has said the report has not been considered because the case is in court, but, Nigerians still want to know the resolutions of the committee and the Senate as well.

Another report is the request for foreign loan of about $30 billion by the president.

The Senate had given prompt attention to this request and it was referred to its committee on Local and Foreign Debts on December 17 to report back after two weeks. The report is one of those to be considered upon resumption.

This is even as the Senate President has said the loan will be approved.

3. Open NASS

Nigerians are hoping that the Senate will release details of the National Assemblys budget in 2020  as they promised last year.

The Senate had, in the legislative agenda, listed transparency and openness of its budget to the public, among other things.

The chairman of the Senate committee on legislative agenda, Adamu Aliero, had said by throwing open the budget of the National Assembly, Nigerians will know that the lawmakers have nothing to hide.

Despite this promise, the lawmakers are yet to release details of their budget.

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In the 2020 budget, Nigerians only know that N128 billion has been allocated to the National Assembly. Details and releases of line items remain unknown, weeks after the budget has been passed and signed.

3. Debate on critical issues

Part of the duties of the senators is to deliberate on critical or controversial issues making rounds across the country and these debates are some of the things many look forward to.

Some of the trending issues that the Senate is expected to deliberate upon include, the likely Visa ban, the security formation in the South West  Amotekun and the increasing cases of Lassa fever across the country.

Others are the recent corruption perception index by Transparency International which has ranked Nigeria worse than last year and the high rate of insecurity across the country  which includes the execution of Nigerian pastor, a student of the University of Maiduguri, among others.

In cases like these, senators present motions, points of order and even bills, after which they debate the issue and make resolutions that will better the said issue. These and more are expected from the Upper Chamber upon resumption.

4. Executive checks, balances

While the Senate enjoys the cordial relationship with the executive, it is hoped that the lawmakers will be able to check some actions of the executive  with particular attention to impunity.

Many have criticised the National Assembly for not properly cautioning the executive when things go wrong. Many even believe that this ninth Senate and the entire National Assembly is rubber stamp.

Although, the Senate is filled with loyalists of the President, it is hoped that they will be able to properly check the excesses of the executive.
Preterm birth occurs before 37 weeks of gestation and has been tied to many complications in the infant. In Canada, the rate of survival of very preterm infants born between 28 to 32 weeks, improved by 25 percent, thanks to the national Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ) program in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across the country.

Image Credit: Mircea Moira

In a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), the researchers have shown that after the implementation of the EPIQ program, which was introduced in 2003 by the Canadian Neonatal Network in 25 neonatal units in the country, the survival of very preterm babies without major adverse health effects increased from 56.6 percent to 70.9 percent (25 percent). For severely preterm infants, born between 23 weeks and 25 weeks, the survival rate increased by 5 percent.

The researchers from Sinai Health in Toronto conducted the study among more than 50,000 infants born prematurely from 2004 to 2017.

Prematurity heightens the risk of infants developing chronic health issues. With the implementation of the quality improvement program, the incidence of many adverse outcomes lessened. The program helped reduce the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, which is a chronic lung illness linked to being born prematurely, by 15 percent, and late-onset sepsis by 44 percent.

Within the Canadian neonatal community, we have developed a system of continuously learning from each center about how evidence-based strategies are implemented and what are the barriers and facilitators for improving quality. This learning, combined with a regular flow of data to guide our practices, has significantly improved outcomes for most vulnerable newborns, Dr. Prakesh Shah, Paediatrician-in-Chief at Sinai Health and Director of the Canadian Neonatal Network, said. "Our study shows that if we apply what we know in a systematic way, we can improve quality of care and outcomes over the longer term for preterm babies," Dr. Shah added.

The Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ) is a quality improvement (QI) method for neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that modifies evidence-based practice change to each NICU. The program aims to provide good health care, implementing practice change based on evidence and data.

Dr. Shoo K. Lee, from the University of Toronto, initiated the program in 2002, since preterm babies at a higher risk of death and disabilities. Dr. Lee started the program to reduce the rising rates of nosocomial or hospital-acquired infections and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) among preterm infants.

At present, 30 NICUs across Canada are implementing EPIQ, along with other countries who adapted the program. These include 38 NICUs in Malaysia and six Latin American countries. China has started a pilot study of the implementation of EPIQ in the country.

Prematurity complications

Being born preterm is tied to several chronic health issues. The short-term complications include respiratory problems, due to the lungs lack of surfactant, a substance needed for lung expansion, brain problems, increased risk of bleeding, brain and heart problems, and problems with metabolism, temperature control, and anemia. Preterm babies are also at a high risk of contracting infections due to the immune systems immaturity.

Preterm babies are also at a heightened risk of long-term health conditions such as vision problems, impaired learning, cerebral palsy, hearing issues, behavioral problems, and chronic health issues, including asthma, feeding problems, and infections. They are also at an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

One of the major complications linked to prematurity is bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic lung disease affecting newborns, mostly premature infants. BPD results from damage to the lungs caused by using mechanical ventilators and long-term oxygen use. Though most infants recover from the lung condition, they may experience long-term breathing problems.

BPD can also develop as a result of other adverse conditions that a premature infants lungs have problems coping with, including pneumonia, congenital malformations of the lung, and other infections.
Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rejected bilateral talk with the United States Sunday and said the only channel for negotiations is the multilateral 5+1 framework of the 2015 nuclear agreement signatories.

In a tweet Zarif said, .@realDonaldTrump is still dreaming about a bilateral meetingto satisfy HIS lust for a "Trump deal". Its wishful thinking.

Irans top diplomat added that the only path to talks is return to the pre-2017 conditions and AND compensating Iran for damages.

The United States pulled out of the nuclear deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump has since said that he is ready for talks without preconditions, but Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has rejected negotiations accusing Washington of duplicity.

Earlier in the day Zarif had tweeted that his interview with Der Spiegel where he had said Iran is ready for talks was misunderstood by Trump. He insisted that the JCPOA framework is what he meant. This was in reaction to Trump saying that Zarif had expressed willingness for talks in exchange for lifting the sanctions and added, No. Thanks.

The U.S. is demanding a new comprehensive agreement that would permanently block Iran's path to nuclear weapons, curtail Iran's ballistic missile program and change Iran's regional behavior.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 16:01:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 school children were injured Monday after a bus carrying them skidded off a road and rolled down in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, officials said.

The accident took place at Poonjuthi in Madurai, about 450 km southwest of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu.

"This morning a school bus carrying students skidded off the road and rolled down, injuring 20 students inside it," a health official at Rajaji government hospital in Madurai said, adding that the injured were immediately taken to the nearest health facility and out of danger.

According to the health official, the bus was heading toward the school when the accident happened.

Police have registered a case and ordered an investigation.
The RSS will start its first army school from April in Uttar Pradeshs Bulandshahr district to help students become good citizens, who can contribute to the nations development, its functionaries said on Monday.

Named after Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sanghs former chief Rajju Bhaiyya, Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir (RBSVM) will begin from Class 6 onwards and will be a completely residential institution.

Former Indian Army Colonel Shiv Pratap Singh will head the school where students will be helped to prepare for the entrance examinations and physical tests of the National Defence Academy, Indian Naval Academy and others such institutions.

Senior RSS leaders said all infrastructure, including the school building, is ready and applications have been invited for the first batch of 160 students.

Registrations will remain open till February 23 and the entrance examination will be held on March 1.

The school will run on the pattern of Vidya Bharti institutions run by the RSS. The only objective of this institution is to prepare good citizens who can contribute to the nations development, senior RSS and VHP functionary in Uttar Pradesh Bholendra, who uses one name, said.

Preparing students for the army will not be the only focus, he added.

The school has also started the process of appointing teachers, officials said.

It will have a dress code for both teachers and students. Students will have to wear dark-blue trousers and light-blue shirts and for teachers, there will be grey trousers and a white shirt.

The school will also reserve eight seats for the children of army personnel and other defence forces killed in the line of duty.

Apart from this, there will be no reservation of any kind in the school, which follow a curriculum of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

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Swains Island DXpedition

The following is from the Swains Island DXpedition Web page:



50 days to go....

The preparations are part of the fun too. An amazing load of work is done by all team members. Antennas, hardware, software, the camp set up, medical well being, transportation, satellite connections, inter camp communication, operating schedules, vaccinations to name just a few....

Yesterday we had a video conference call between all international team members to discuss the final loose ends. All lights are green.

The European members will depart from Amsterdam and Frankfurt on Saturday, March 7th. Flying through Singapore, New Zealand and Samoa to their neigh- boring islands American Samoa.

Our American members will depart the same weekend to meet up in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

The vessel Manu Atele will bring us to the Swains atoll. This will be a 24 hour journey.

Landing on the island will be done by smaller boats at high tide to minimize reef issues. A serious challenge. Think of all the radio equipment, antenna materials, tents, generators, fuel and food for two weeks.

The ship will leave after landing. Hopefully picking the team up again after 14 days.



For more details and updates, see: https://swains2020.lldxt.eu
If you recently received an email about renewing your Netflix subscription, you might be part of the latest phishing scam.

Edgartown police posted to Instagram warning residents of the scam. The email looks official and is signed by The Netflix Team" but dont be fooled, the police department said.

Dont be fooled by this phishing scam! If you do receive a similar email please... -DO NOT open any attached links, the post said.

The police suggest moving the email to your spam folder. They also added that you can double check your subscription by calling a verified Netflix phone number.

Last week FedEx and Amazon warned customers about a text message scam.

FedEx says it does not send text messages or emails to customers that ask for money or personal information.

FedEx warns that scams usually involve unexpected requests for money, links to slightly misspelled websites or claims that you have won a lot of money.

You can report any suspicious text messages or emails to abuse@fedex.com.

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The government on January 27 decided to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals from Wuhan city in Coronavirus-hit Chinese province of Hubei.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba which carried out a detailed review of the situation arising out of outbreak of Coronavirus in China.

Officials said the External Affairs Ministry will request to Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indians from Wuhan.

China is reeling under the coronavirus epidemic which has claimed 80 lives so far.

The officials also said the Shipping Ministry will initiate screening of people at international ports having traffic from China.
A t least eight people have been killed in an explosive fire that burned dozens of boats docked at a marina in northern Alabama.

Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus said the number of fatalities could rise because it is still not known how many people were on the boats that sank.

The fire began just after midnight local time (6am GMT) at Jackson County Park Marinaon the Tennessee river and quickly spread as people were sleeping.

The wooden dock of at least 35 vessels went up in flames and an aluminium roof that covered many of the boats melted and collapsed, cutting off escape routes and raining debris over the area as boaters leapt into the river.

A row of boats are engulfed in flames after catching fire at the marina in Scottsboro, Alabama / SOUTHERN TORCH via REUTERS

Julie Jackson, who lives with her husband and son in a houseboat on another dock at the marina witnessed the fire.

"It was scary. The worst thing for me is you could hear people screaming for help, and there was nothing we could do. Nobody could do anything to get to them.

Mandy Durham, who was with her boyfriend in a nearby boat said: "We woke up hearing screams and popping noises.

"When we woke up, we could see red through the window."

People on boats patrol near the charred remains of the dock / AP

"Within 15 to 20 minutes, the whole dock was in flames," she added. "All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and that's a lot of fire."

At least seven people were sent to hospitals suffering from exposure to the flames or the frigid water.

Ms Durham said people were jumping onto a boat at the end of the dock because fire had consumed the middle portion and that was their only escape.

But, she said once the flames spread to that boat, the water was their only way out.

At least eight people died in the blaze / AP

"Water was the only place they had to go," she added, "It's just extremely sad. It's horrible."

Ms Durham said most of the boats that were destroyed had people living on them permanently, but some mainly spent weekends on them.

"Everybody is just hoping to find the ones they knew on that dock. There were families there. It's devastating, she said.

Mr Necklaus said some of the burning boats sank at the dock and others floated away before going under.

The remains of a boat following the devastating blaze / AP

He added that divers need to locate each one and search them individually before they can be sure there were no other victims.

Jackson County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Rocky Harnen said: "There were numerous people rescued from the water who had escaped by going into the water.

"We're trying to get divers down here to search for possible victims."

Georgia resident Michael Watson said his aunt lived with her husband and five children on one of the boats that burned.

The remains of a dock where at least 35 vessels, many of them houseboats, were destroyed by fire / AP

He said his aunt was confirmed among the dead and authorities are still looking for the other six family members.

Officials have not released the names of any of those killed or missing.
Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), the UAE Federal Credit Insurance Company, continues to provide support to UAE steel manufacturers to expand their export business and Conares is the latest company to benefit from this.



Conares is a regional major private manufacturer in the UAE, annually producing one million tonnes of steel products including steel pipes, rebars and pre-painted coils. ECI will be protecting Conares export volume by offering them international trade credit coverage solutions and ease the steel manufacturer to open new markets, said a statement.



The business in scope under this agreement includes exports of manufacturing and trading of steel rebar and steel pipes. This will help Conares to strategically identify potential customers in the international markets.



Conares has signed up with ECI for a multi-buyer trade credit solution, which will minimise the risks connected to the exports of their products to international markets. This agreement will also provide access to ECIs comprehensive information database platform of 360 million corporates in both domestic and international markets.



Conares has a worldwide network and this coverage will help the company to strengthen its expansion plans and enhance its export capabilities.



Massimo Falcioni, CEO of ECI, said: It is ECIs mandate to strengthen UAE businesses export capabilities by providing a broad suite of tailored trade credit solutions that helps UAE manufacturers to achieve their goals and expand their business in the international and domestic markets.



Conares has established its position in the steel industry and reinforced the regions infrastructure development by providing industry-leading steel products through long-standing partnerships. It is this vision that has encouraged them to access high-growth markets and widen their exporting potential across borders, he said.



Also to fulfil their vision, ECI listened to the needs of Conares and created a bespoke trade credit solution that provides risk coverage to their businesses while accessing cross-border markets, he added.



Bharat Bhatia, CEO of Conares, said: We are pleased to sign the deal with ECI as it will help us expand our business in new international markets by increasing volume of production and achieve one million tons of production in the next few years.



This initiative will open our markets especially in some regions where we hesitated to give open credits earlier. We are targeting 50 to 75 per cent maximisation of our annual production capacity to meet the increased demand with this deal. With the maximised utilisation of facility, our desired turnover is Dh2 billion, which currently is Dh1 billion, Bhatia said.



We have received tremendous support from the UAEs federal and local government agencies, helping our products gain market wide acceptance and cater to numerous prestigious projects in the country and beyond. We have a strong presence in the international market as well. We are also in the process of developing new markets for our products, he added.



Conares, being the Made-in-UAE steel manufacturer, will have its starting sale of $150 million worth products covered by this partnership with ECI; and more than 10 banks has come forward with investment support. For the first time in the UAEs steel manufacturing sector, the risk of exports to the US and the EU are covered. With this initiative, ECI will support more largescale industries in future by protecting their trade related risks.  TradeArabia News Service
PR-Inside.com: 2020-01-27 12:00:40

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LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Crown Equity Holdings, Inc. ("the Company") (OTC PINK:CRWE), today announced that it has completed the agreement to reacquire from American Video Teleconferencing Corp., (AVOT) the online business known as iB2BGlobal.com . American Video Teleconference Corp., will return iB2BGlobal.com to Crown Equity Holdings, Inc., and retain Shares owed to the Company from the original all-stock transaction agreement between American Video Teleconferencing and Crown Equity Holdings."We are excited to re-engage the management team to grow the iB2BGlobal.com business and expand its presence in the global market," said Mike Zaman, President/CEO of Crown Equity Holdings.About Crown Equity Holdings Inc.Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (OTC PINK:CRWE) is a vertically integrated, global media and financial services company which provides powerful solutions to enhance worldwide visibility and universal relevance, enabling companies to achieve accelerated growth and rapid results that spans all the stages of a company's life cycles. Additionally, Crown Equity Holdings' is developing its CRWE WORLD ( www.crweworld.com) and related digital properties into a global online community which will launch, manage and own select businesses and projects. For more information regarding Crown Equity Holdings Inc., please visit: http://www.crownequityholdings.com Forward-Looking StatementThis news release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs and results of new business opportunities. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new business opportunities and development stage companies. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Contact:Mike Zaman President/CEO702-683-8946info@ crownequityholdings.com SOURCE: Crown Equity Holdings Inc.
A special flight will take the last Wuhan visitors in a group of tourists landing in Da Nang last week to their hometown later on Monday, despite Vietnam's blanket flight ban and Chinas lockdown of the new coronavirus-hit city.

A spokesperson of the travel company that brought 218 tourists from Wuhan to Da Nang on January 22 said that 166 of them would return home on a flight on Monday night.

The first batch of 52 visitors had been sent back to their hometown via different routes, as Vietnam has since January 23 suspended flights to and from Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus has killed at least 80 people and infected more than 2,700 others while spreading to many places around the world, including Vietnam.

The special flight will take off from Da Nang International Airport at 7:30 pm.

The plane carrying them will be disinfected in line with standards on blocking the novel coronavirus transmission before flying empty back to Da Nang.

The Wuhan visitors will return home as scheduled, as they bought a five-day-four-night tour to the central Vietnamese city.

Da Nang health officials have maintained that the visitors had showed no unusual health signs.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has allowed some flights to take Chinese tourists back to Wuhan even though it had ceased all flights to and from there.

In particular, Vietjet operated four direct flights to Wuhan on January 24 and 27, with two departing from Da Nang and the others from Cam Ranh, located in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa.

Passengers on board the flights were in normal health, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said.

China had requested the flights, Vietnamese authorities said, although the Chinese government already locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million and the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic that first broke out in December 2019.

Vietnam has confirmed two positive cases since the outbreak.

The patients are being treated at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, one of whom is recovering well.

Thirty-nine patients are being isolated and under observation for the new coronavirus, including 13 in the northern region, two in the southern region, and 24 in the central region.

There is currently no Vietnamese citizen infected with the virus, health officials said.

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House impeachment manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 23, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Rep. Nadler to Miss Part of Impeachment Trial to be With Cancer-Stricken Wife

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he would miss part of the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump to spend time with his wife, who has cancer.

In December, following the House Judiciary Committee markup of the Articles of Impeachment against President Donald J. Trump, my wife was admitted to the hospital where she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She has undergone surgery and is taking further steps to address the spread of the cancer, Nadler said in a statement on Sunday.

Nadler said he would be in New York on Monday to meet with his wifes doctors, determine a path forward, and begin her treatment.

I am sorry to miss some of the Senate impeachment trial, which is of critical importance to our democracy, he said in the statement, adding that he plans to be back in Washington late Monday.

Read my statement on missing part of the Senate Impeachment Trial on Monday because of a family health matter: pic.twitter.com/fis3vkZrid  (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) January 26, 2020

Nadler thanked his colleagues and staff for their support.

Nadler, 72, is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He was involved with the House impeachment inquiry against Trump and was named as one of the House impeachment managers, who are trying to convince the Senate to convict the president and remove him from office.

Nadler missed one day of the inquiry last month for a family emergency.

According to a bio page for Nadlers wife, Joyce Miller, shes currently on the boards of directors of the New York State Mortgage Authority, the New York State Housing Finance Agency, and the Empire State Development Corporation.

House manager Jerrold Nadler (C) leaves after speaking to reporters on the fourth day of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in Washington on Jan. 24, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Miller, whose age isnt listed, has advised public officials, government agencies, and unions on public private partnerships to finance infrastructure and pension fund investment in infrastructure, the bio stated. She has also advised start-ups and companies in the energy and alternative energy sectors seeking venture and private equity capital and federal government financing.

Miller and Nadler were married in 1976. Miller was a student at Columbia University and Nadler was a recently elected state assemblyman, according to the wedding announcement.

Miller has been the head of her husbands political campaigns since 1992. The couple have one child.
 Close Stephen Barclay dodges Andrew Marr's coronavirus airlift question 4 times

Japan and the US have airlifted hundreds of their citizens from the virus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose again to 132.

Some 201 US citizens were airlifted to southern California where they will remain under medical observation.

However the UK government has said it will not be launching an evacuation of its citizens anytime soon. It is understood China has not granted the necessary permissions to allow for the removal of British nationals on Thursday.

Confirmed cases of the virus also rose sharply to more than 6,000 on Wednesday, overtaking the 5,327 confirmed cases of SARS during the same time period in the 2002-2003 outbreak which killed more than 750 people in 17 countries worldwide.

Meanwhile the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it would reconvene officials to decide whether the outbreak constituted an emergency of international concern.

Here are the days events as they happened...
A police officer checks the temperature of a driver at a highway in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province, on Jan 24, 2020. (Photo: AFP)

The 15 new deaths all took place in Wuhan, the city of 11 million where the deadly respiratory contagion first emerged, the Hubei Health Commission said.

At least 444 new cases of the virus have been found, raising the total number to 1,287, the National Health Commission said in a separate statement.

The disease has spread to 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

Wuhan and 13 other cities in Hubei have been locked down in an unprecedented quarantine effort aimed at containing the deadly respiratory contagion, which has spread to several other countries.

The Hubei Health Commission also reported 180 new cases overall in the province, 77 of them in Wuhan but the bulk of the rest spread out across the locked-down smaller cities. There are now 729 cases in Hubei alone.

Chinese state media also announced the death of a doctor who worked at the front line of the outbreak at a hospital in Hubei.

Several of those cities were reporting their first cases of the pathogen - 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) - the commission said.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because there are still many unknowns surrounding it such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

Symptoms include fever, difficulty breathing and coughing. Most of the fatalities have been in elderly patients, many with pre-existing conditions, the WHO said.

It has caused global concern because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

China on Friday imposed transport bans in an area covering a staggering 41 million people, as the United States confirmed its second case of the SARS-like virus that has reached almost a dozen countries.

The World Health Organization said China faced a national emergency but stopped short of declaring a global health emergency, which would have prompted greater global cooperation.

The outbreak emerged in late December in Wuhan, an industrial and transport hub of 11 million people in China's centre, spreading to several other countries.

China is in the midst of its Chinese New Year holiday, a typically joyous time of family gatherings and public festivities.

But on Friday Wuhan was a ghost town, its streets deserted and stores shuttered.

As Wuhan slides into isolation, pharmacies have begun to run out of supplies and hospitals have been flooded with nervous residents. The city is rushing to build a 1,000-bed hospital by Monday, state media said.

"It must be confusing and infuriating that on the weekend the government reassured citizens that the virus did not spread between humans and was under control, and then, only four days later, to initiate an unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and other cities," said Mary Gallagher, director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, though some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of such screenings and of the lockdown.
Five years ago, Chloe Donovan was at work when she fainted, falling backwards onto concrete.

Later that day in the hospital, after receiving stitches to the back of her head, she was offered a toasted cheese sandwich. She took one bite and put it back down, uninterested. She did not yet know her olfactory nerve had been damaged when she fell.

Chloe Donovan is among the 1 in 20 who live with anosmia, meaning they have lost their sense of smell. Credit:Steven Siewert

It was during the next two days that she noticed she could no longer smell the soap in the shower or the deodorant that she sprayed. I thought something is not right here, says the 31-year-old Sydneysider.

As smell plays a dominant role in taste, Donovan also quickly discovered her lack of interest in the cheese sandwich now extended to all food.
Beijing: Wuhan's mayor offered to resign on Monday after admitting that the city's response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has now killed more than 80 people and infected some 2900, was too slow.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (left) speaks with people at a supermarket in Wuhan, Hubei province. Credit:AP

Zhou Xianwang, Wuhan's top government official, conceded in a candid interview with a state broadcaster that the initial management of the epidemic and the speed at which information was shared with the public was "not good enough".

"We locked down the city to cut the spread of virus, but it's likely we'll leave a bad reputation in history," Zhou told China Central Television, while wearing a blue surgical face mask.

"As long as it helps contain the spread of virus, I'm willing to resign as a form of apology," he added.
The scum of blue-green algae was so thick and invasive in Florida two years ago that it suffocated fish by the thousands. Birds dropped dead. And people stayed out of the water.

Offshore, a toxic swarm of rust-colored flecks known as red tide killed manatees, dolphins, sea turtles and other aquatic animals, their carcasses washing ashore on beaches.

It was a one-two punch that startled environmentalists and underscored the urgency now propelling efforts in Floridas Capitol to act against algal blooms in lakes and coastal waters.

In Tallahassee, a package of proposals is wending its way through legislative committees that attempts to better control pollutant-laden runoff that nourish the blue-green algae, risking environmental havoc on ponds, lakes and the states prized Everglades.

For the last eight years, weve done nothing, said Sen. Debbie Mayfield. Mayfield is sponsoring a bill that would enact recommendations from a blue-green algae task force impaneled by Gov. Ron DeSantis after he took office last year. An appropriations subcommittee she chairs unanimously advanced her legislation on Wednesday.

Over the next few weeks, lawmakers will be considering a slate of bills  many of them technical and wonky  that would give the state Department of Environmental Protection new laws to add to its arsenal of rules to reduce pollutants flowing into waterways. That includes stricter rules on septic tanks, storm drains and fertilizer runoff from farms and residential lawns.

At the same time, lawmakers are considering putting teeth into fines and penalties to better act as deterrents on those who would violate laws.

DeSantis has said he wants a bill on his desk this legislative session that would increase fines across the board by 50 percent and allow the states chief environmental enforcement agency to assess daily fines on environmental violators.

Environmentalists hailed the legislative proposals as welcome first steps.

The issues were facing today are years in the making, said Julie Wraithmell, the executive director of Audubon Florida. This problem wasnt caused overnight; it wasnt caused by one thing. And theres no single smoking gun, and theres no one single bullet.

The same fertilizers that turn lawns green also nourish the algae that has fouled lakes, ponds and other waterways. Rising global temperatures because of climate change are also adding to the intensity of the algal blooms.

Were excited that the Legislature is finally acting, said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director for the Center for Biological Diversity. But were getting impatient.

As it stands, Florida does not have water quality standards on blue-green algae, the microscopic organisms also known as cyanobacteria. She said such standards could be used to sound the alarm and automatically close beaches and lakes to protect public health.

Were making progress every day to protect the environment, said Noah Valenstein, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

We love the passion for the environment, and we welcome the challenge, he said. Weve got nonprofit, environmental stakeholders, business stakeholders  all of whom are passionate about the resources here in Florida and who are impatient. Our own staff is impatiently passionate about doing more for protecting the environment.

Over the past year, the Department of Environmental Protection has added 60 new inspectors to help with enforcement, Valenstein said.

Floridas governor has made the environment a key part of his agenda, pledging $2.5 billion over his four-year term on a package of projects to address rising sea levels, restore the Everglades and combat algal blooms such as blue-green algae and red tides.

Topics Legislation Florida Pollution
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The export of citrus fruits from Turkey to Turkmenistan increased by 30 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, a source in the Turkish Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Exporters Association told Trend on Jan. 21.

"Turkey exported 7,358 tons of citrus fruits to Turkmenistan in 2019," the source said. "Turkeys income obtained from the export of citrus fruits to Turkmenistan increased by 40 percent in 2019."

Turkey's income obtained from the export of citrus fruits amounted to $5.3 million in 2019, which is one percent of Turkey's total income obtained from the export of citrus fruits in 2019.

The export of Turkish fruits and vegetables decreased by 11 percent and reached over 4 million tons in 2019 compared to 2018.

Turkey's income obtained from export of fruits and vegetables decreased by three percent and reached $2.2 billion in 2019 compared to 2018.

In 2019, 1.1 million tons of fruits were exported from Turkey, which is five percent less compared to 2018. At the same time, Turkey's income obtained from the export of fruits grew by two percent in 2019 and amounted to $846 million compared to 2018.

Export of vegetables from Turkey decreased by two percent and reached 1.2 million tons in 2019 compared to 2018.

Vegetables worth $645 million were exported from Turkey in 2019. Turkey exported 1.6 million tons of citrus fruits in 2019, which is 20 percent less compared to 2018.

Citrus fruits worth $756 million were exported from Turkey in 2019.

--

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Senior Congress leader and a minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, Ashok Chavan, admitted that party president Sonia Gandhi was against the party joining ranks with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

Chavan, a former chief minister, further added that the state party leadership had to impress upon the party president to agree to join the government in Maharashtra after the BJP and Sena could not reconcile their differences.

Detailing how the alliance came about, Chavan, who is the PWD minister, said that the party president asked the state Congress leaders to get a written assurance from the Sena that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance will work in line with the constitutional scheme.

ALSO WATCH | Rahul Gandhi visits temples: Sena invites allies for Uddhavs Ayodhya trip

Chavan, while speaking at an event to launch MVAs ambitious project Rs 10 thali for the poor on Republic Day in Nanded, said that the three parties came together to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power.

Our party leadership in Delhi was not very keen on joining hands with the Shiv Sena and was sceptical about the different ideologies the parties follow. The leadership raised questions about potential differences which could arise while running the three-party government. Party president Sonia Gandhi even asked us to take it in writing from the Sena that it would work within the constitutional framework, he said.

Chavan also underlined that the minute the alliance violates the constitutional framework, the Congress will walk out of the government. Chavan said that chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has assured the party that it will follow the principle of secular governance.

Chavan also said that the Congress joined the government just to keep the BJP out and on the insistence of the Muslim community. He said that the party would not support Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

According to party leaders, the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), prepared by three parties  Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress  has the agreement of the parties to work within the confines of the constitutional framework.

Congress leaders say that the CMP was an agreement to live up to the secular ideals of government and there was no separate agreement between the Congress and the Shiv Sena.

The CMP, however, has not not prevented the two parties from differing with the other publically over the past two months.

The Shiv Sena had initially supported the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha which was opposed by the Congress. After the Congress expressed its concerns, the Sena leadership changed its stand and abstained from voting in the Rajya Sabha. The Sena has been strongly backing the Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar, while the Congress stand on Savarkar not to Senas liking.

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An 85-year-old Royal Navy veteran has won 1million on the National Lottery with his wife of 61 years who only checked their ticket to cheer herself up while battling a rotten cough and cold.

Ron and Joan Brumhill from Waterlooville in Hampshire scooped the life-changing prize after matching five main numbers and the bonus ball in the Lotto draw on Saturday December 21 last year.

On the day they found out, Mrs Brumhill had been drinking a cup of tea and feeling under the weather when she decided to check their ticket.

She then burst into tears of joy when she realised it was a big win because it finally means 'no more rainy days' for the couple, who say they have always had to be careful with money.

Mr and Mrs Brumhill said today they may buy new car - but will certainly spoil their three children and three grandchildren.

Royal Navy veteran Ron Brumhill, 85, and his wife of 61 years Joan who cried tears of joy because after so many years of getting by 'no more rainy days' for the couple and their family

For Mrs Brumhill and her husband, the key to the lottery each week has always been teamwork and is carried out with typical naval efficiency.

Mr Brumhill, 85, who was a Royal Navy officer for 41 years, would always buy the lottery tickets while Mrs Brumhill, 81, was in charge of checking.

Mrs Brumhill said: 'I had a bit of a cough so had stayed at home while Ron popped out to deliver a Christmas card to a neighbour. Sitting down for a cup of tea, and feeling pretty lousy, I decided to check our lottery ticket on my phone.

'Usually it's nothing, sometimes a little something, so when I saw we'd matched five numbers and a bonus ball, and we'd won 1million, I couldn't believe it and just burst into tears of joy.'

With her husband known for his 'just popping out' turning into rather lengthy visits, she had to be patient and wait at home for Mr Brumhill to return, with the ticket clutched firmly in her hand, so he could confirm they really had just become millionaires.

Mr Brumhill said: 'I walked into the house and Joan was hurrying me in saying "hurry up, quickly we've won something big on the lottery".

'Not for a second when your wife says that do you dream it would be 1 million. But when I checked it online, I saw that Joan was right and we were officially millionaires.'

Ron gives a thumbs up as their win was revealed today. Mr Brumhill always buys the ticket for the Saturday draw - Joan always checks it and got quite a shock when their big win emerged

Two of their children arrived soon after so it was not long before they were able to share their amazing news.

With their win confirmed and the money in the bank, the pair are making a few plans for the future.

Mrs Brumhill said: 'We were brought up to save for anything we wanted, whether a new car or simply a rainy day. This win will mean there's no need for any rainy days but we will still be very careful.

'Top of our list is helping out our family and that is just the most amazing feeling. They are a wonderful, fun-filled bunch who have already given us so much joy and will continue to do so.'

The winning ticket was purchased from McColl's, Hambledon Parade, in Waterlooville.

The Lotto winning numbers were 12, 27, 33, 36, 42, 45 and the bonus ball was 26.

Across the last 25 years, the National Lottery has raised 40 billion for good causes, with 565,000 grants made across arts, sport, heritage and community.

This equates to 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district. Players have banked 73 billion in prizes and 5,500 millionaires have been made.
The Allahabad High Court on Monday asked the state government to submit a report on allegations of police atrocities against anti-CAA protesters by February 17, the next date of hearing.

A two-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Siddhartha Verma passed the order hearing a number of public interest litigations.

The court asked the state government to mention how many people died during anti-CAA protests and complaints registered against police.

The court also asked whether truthfulness of media reports in this regard has been examined or not.

About 20 people were killed during the anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh on December 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Almost four years later, a reward is being offered as San Antonio police still search for the identity of the person responsible for a deadly road rage incident.

Police are looking for the shooter who killed 25-year-old Gilbert Aaron Rocha on Nov. 26, 2016.

Rocha was in the back passenger seat of a Ford Explorer, traveling on Huebner near NW Military Drive around 2:30 a.m. Police said there was a road rage incident between the Explorer and a second vehicle that led to someone from the second vehicle firing off multiple shots at the vehicle Rocha was in. Both Rocha and the driver were hit.

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Rocha was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police believe there were at least two people in the suspected vehicle.

Crime Stoppers is also offering up to $5,000 for any information that leads to an arrest of those responsible for the murder. To be eligible for the reward, all tips and calls must be anonymous and made directly to Crime Stoppers.

To submit a tip, click here.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, MySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
SOUTHFIELD, MI  A Michigan hospital system informed more than 1,000 people that their personal data had been accessed without authorization by an employee who has since been fired.

Beaumont Health said it has informed 1,182 people about the unauthorized access of their information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, insurance information, reasons for medical care and Social Security numbers, the Associated Press reports.

The information was shared with someone affiliated with a personal injury lawyer.

Beaumont officials said the breach didnt affect all of its patients, but they did not detail where those patients had received treatment.

The Southfield-based system, which has eight hospitals and 145 outpatient locations, said it discovered last month that the data breach occurred between February 2017 and last October. The responsible worker was fired and officials said that in addition to launching an internal investigation, they will work with law enforcement if prosecution is pursued.
Myanmar is invited to act on the final report of the Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICoE) set up by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in 2018. The EU stands ready to support the Government of Myanmar in any efforts to address the root causes of the multi-faceted conflict in Rakhine state.

Naypyidaw (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The European Union on Monday called on the Myanmar government to prosecute the people responsible for war crimes and grave human rights abuses committed in Rakhine State between 2016 and 2017.

In a statement today, the EU urges Myanmar authorities to act on the report released last week by the Independent Commission of Inquiry (ICoE) set up by Myanmar in August 2018 to shed light on the violence perpetrated against the countrys Rohingya Muslim minority.

The EU wants the Myanmar government to conduct adequate follow-up investigations, in line with international standards of the abuses in Rakhine reported by the ICoE.

Credible action must be taken to bring to justice those responsible for these serious violations, especially by Myanmars security forces, whilst the recommendations for institutional reforms within Myanmar's defence forces to prevent the recurrence of human rights violations must be followed up, the statement read.

The commission, which included two Myanmar and two international experts, began its work on 15 August 2018, two weeks after it was established. Its chair, Filipino career diplomat Rosario Malano, said at the time that they would be impartial and not blame or finger-point at anyone but seek to cooperate for peace in the region.

The 461-page report released on 20 January found that between 25 August and 5 September 2017, the Myanmar military carried out a massive offensive against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) during which war crimes were committed, including the mass murder of nearly 900 people in three Rohingya villages.

In view of this, the EU wants the Myanmar government to comply with the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 23 January indicating provisional measures with regard to Rakhine State, including preventing all acts of genocide against the Muslim minority and report to the Court on the progress in its efforts.

We expect the government of Myanmar to fully comply with the ICJ order in the interest of justice, said the EU Ambassador and EU Member States' Ambassadors and Heads of Mission resident in Myanmar in a press release.

To this end, The EU stands ready to support the Government of Myanmar in any efforts to address the root causes of the multi-faceted conflict in Rakhine state.

For her part, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi last Thursday penned a piece in the Financial Times saying that her country needs more time to bring to justice those who committed war crimes in Rakhine, insisting on the need for them to be prosecuted in Myanmar courts.

War crimes that may have been committed by members of the Defence Services will be prosecuted through our military justice system, she wrote.

We need to respect the integrity of these proceedings and to refrain from unreasonable demands that Myanmars criminal justice system complete investigations in a third of the time routinely granted to international processes.
In efforts to make Air India disinvestment more attractive, the government has relaxed the bidding norms wherein networth for potential bidders has been fixed at Rs 3,500 crore and minimum stake for an individual consortium partner has been lowered to 10 per cent.

In 2018 when the government sought to offload 76 per cent stake in Air India, the networth amount and minimum consortium partner limit were set at Rs 5,000 crore and 26 per cent, respectively.

The government on Monday came out with the preliminary information memorandum (PIM) for 100 per cent disinvestment of debt-laden Air India as well as sale of Air India Express and 50 per cent shareholding in equal joint venture AISATS.

A person in the know of the PIM details said, an entity can put in bid for Air India on the "strength of its parent", which was not there before.

A consortium can participate in the disinvestment process, provided each partner has at least 10 per cent stake as well as 10 per cent of the Rs 3,500 crore networth requirement, according to the bid document.

The lead member of a consortium should have at least 26 per cent stake.

Individuals are allowed to bid as part of consortium.

Also, a domestic carrier without networth can have up to 51 per cent stake while the partner should be able to comply with the Rs 3,500 crore networth criteria.

In 2018, the government had proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players.

While, the government would retain 24 per cent stake in the national carrier, the winning bidder would be required to stay invested in the airline for at least three years.

As per the 2018 preliminary information memorandum document, the transaction involved Air India, its low cost arm Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd. The latter is an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Trumps lawyers on Monday are expected to launch a rollicking attack on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, thrusting the spotlight on U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcias attempt last week to preempt the case against the former vice president.

Garcia, a Houston Democrat whose district includes the East End, South Houston and parts of Pasadena, landed a spot earlier this month as one of seven impeachment managers tasked with making the case that Trump should be removed from office.

On Thursday, the day before Democrats concluded their opening arguments, Garcia drew attention when she sought to quash the key Republican argument that Biden pressed for the ouster of Ukraines top prosecutor to halt an investigation into Burisma Holdings, an oil and gas company that employed Hunter Biden.

Devoting almost an hour to the topic, Garcia contended the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was widely perceived as corrupt by European allies, international organizations and Republican senators who signed a letter urging the Ukrainian president to press ahead with urgent reforms to Shokins office. Those were the true reasons he was fired, Garcia argued.

The investigation into Burisma went dormant under Shokin, Garcia further argued, and no witnesses in the Houses impeachment inquiry found any factual basis for this allegation. Rounding out her argument, Garcia added that Trump didnt care about any of this until 2019, when Biden emerged as the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Every witness with knowledge of this issue testified that Vice President Biden was carrying out official U.S. policy in calling for Shokins removal, Garcia said. There is simply no evidence, nothing, nada in the record to support this baseless allegation.

Garcias arguments are set to come into play Monday, when Trumps impeachment trial resumes with a continued presentation from the presidents legal team. Asked Friday how Biden would play into the defense, Jay Sekulow, Trumps longtime lawyer, told reporters, Believe me, youll hear about that issue.

Democrats case against Trump hinges on the charge that he abused the powers of his office by pressuring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political enemies, including Joe and Hunter Biden, by freezing $391 million in congressionally approved security aid. Trump has said his move to suspend the aid was unrelated to the push for an investigation into the Bidens.

Central to the impeachment trial is former national security adviser John Bolton, who witnessed key moments surrounding the July call when Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, but reportedly did not listen in on the call.

Democrats have pushed for the Senate to call witnesses, including Bolton, and subpoena documents for the trial, while Republicans have argued that Democrats did not present a compelling enough case to justify extending the trial.

Some Democrats have floated the idea of calling Hunter Biden to testify if Republicans would also allow testimony from Bolton. But on Sunday, the New York Times reported that an unpublished manuscript for Boltons book says Trump tied the Ukrainian military aid to his desired inquiries into the Bidens, roiling discussion of a potential Bolton-for-Hunter Biden swap.

Democrats, casting the Times report as explosive, renewed their calls for Bolton to testify.

Garcia, on a call with reporters Sunday afternoon before the Bolton news broke, argued against the swap and likened it to a sports team trade. Even if the Democrats were to consider it, Garcia said the deal would be unfair, contending that Boltons testimony is far more germane to the trial than Hunter Bidens.

Bolton has been there, he's heard the conversations, he's dealt with the president, he directly knows what's going on, versus Hunter Biden, who wasn't on the call, doesn't know anything about it, Garcia said. I mean, he's totally not relevant and could probably offer zero to the facts of the case. So, I don't think it's appropriate that we even consider having that kind of trade discussion.

Meanwhile, Republican senators bristled Friday when U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and the Houses lead impeachment manager, read an anonymously-sourced quote warning Republicans in the upper chamber their head will be on a pike if they vote against the president.

The negative reaction to Schiffs comments from Republican senators, including those whose votes are key to subpoenaing witnesses and documents, prompted speculation that Democrats now face longer odds in their efforts to extend the trial.

Garcia defended Schiff Sunday, arguing that he was justified in citing the news reports. She said Republicans should instead focus their ire on Trumps treatment of witnesses in the impeachment inquiry.

If you look at this president and his behavior, he has done some very outlandish things, Garcia said. So it kind of surprises me that Mr. Schiff referencing a news report would be so offensive to them.

Though Republican senators have given little indication House Democrats persuaded them to render a guilty verdict, Garcia insisted Sunday that their efforts have not been futile.

This is about presenting the case to the American people about the abuse of power, the betrayal of our country, the corruption of our elections by this president, Garcia said. We win just by presenting all of the facts and all of the evidence that we have been able to gather despite the president blocking this at every turn.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
Rome, Jan 28 : Italy is eager to maintain its "historic and profound" ties with Iran and views the landmark 2015 nuclear accord it signed with major powers a "pillar of security" for the entire Middle East, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Monday.

During a "cordial" telephone conversation, Di Maio and Zarif said they shared "worry for the situation in the Gulf where the negative developments of the past weeks pose a great risk to international security," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

The two ministers agreed it essential that all sides refrain from "further acts that can increase tensions," the statement said.

"To this end, all actors must commit to constructive engagement through dialogue and political negotiation.

"The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action remains a pillar of security for the whole area, for which reason the European Union continues to ask for its complete implementation," it added.

The statement was referring to the agreement announced between Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
For Gilad Katz, the Holocaust is personal.

At least a dozen members of his mothers family were among the six million Jews systematically slaughtered by the Nazis.

As a result, Katz, the Israel consul general in Houston, calls himself a third-generation survivor. Seventy-five years after the end of World War II, he said that Jews can and should be a normal people  but we should never forget our history.

In an interview, he also spotlighted how 1.5 million children were killed only because they were kids.

On Monday night, Katz joined in a panel discussion on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Holocaust Museum Houston. Katz was joined by Japans Consul General Hideo Fukushima, the Federal Republic of Germanys Consul General Thomas Meister and Randy Czarlinsky, regional director of the American Jewish Committee.

Mayor Sylvester Turner kicked off the event, noting that millions of non-Jews also died at the hands of the Nazis. We dont want to forgetWe dont want history to repeat itself, the mayor told a crowd of more than 80.

Earlier in the day, as part of the observance, Birney Chick Harvey Jr., a former U.S. soldier, and Holocaust survivor Charles Kurt talked to students about their experiences.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum defines the Holocaust as the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. They believed Jews were part of an inferior race.

As the Soviet Army swept west in January 1945, the Germans began to empty Auschwitz and other camps of Jewish prisoners, rounded up for forced marches to avoid capture by the Allies. Auschwitz was the largest of the camps.

Individuals who survived these death marches resembled walking corpses. With little clothing, they trekked, often barefoot, through rough, snowy terrain. Many were shot and killed along their aimless paths. Survivors suffered from typhus, starvation and beatings.

Meister cited a recent talk Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Yad Vashem, Israels official memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

The perpetrators were human beings, Steinmeier said of the Holocaust. They were Germans. Those who murdered, those who planned and helped in the murdering, the many who silently toed the line: They were Germans.

The industrial mass murder of 6 million Jews, the worst crime in the history of humanity, it was committed by my countrymen. The terrible war, which cost far more than 50 million lives, it originated from my country. Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, I stand before you all as president of Germany  I stand here laden with the heavy, historical burden of guilt.

That burden was underscored by Katz. In 1922, he said, before the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, the worldwide Jewish population was 14.5 million. In an an interview before Mondays event, he said the worldwide population is now about the same or back to square one, even as the worldwide population has mushroomed.

We still feel the impact, he said of the the number of Jews wiped out by the Nazis.

The stain of anti-Semitism continues to shadow Jews, he said. Its up to everyone of American society to expel the haters.

mark.gladstone@chron.com
The United States wants Europeans to drop a ban on chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef imports if they want a swift trade deal, Washington said on Monday.

The suggestion will ring alarm bells in Europe, where fears of US food safety standards being pushed on consumers triggered mass protests in 2015, most notably in Germany, Austria and France.

The request follows last week's threat by US President Donald Trump to hit Europe with crippling import duties on cars unless the EU budged in trade talks that have stalled on agriculture.

Trump "is very fond of his farmers," US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters after meeting EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan in Brussels.

The old row involves the method of making chicken fit for human consumption, with Europeans barring imports of poultry products treated with chlorine dioxide.

Perdue said giving ground on this issue was one example of how Europe could redress a US deficit on farming goods that he said is between USD 10 and USD 12 billion.

Lamenting the "denigration" of US poultry production, Perdue insisted that fixing the problem was "certainly" a way to shrink the trade deficit and meet the targets of the EU-US trade deal.

Perdue also insisted that US chickens were not in fact cleaned with chlorine, calling this a "fallacy".

"You know what it is? It's vinegar, essentially, and to say that that's unsafe or not to be used, we don't think can found to be the basis of sound science," he said.

The White House cabinet member also raised Europe's attitude to hormone-treated beef as a possible item for review in a transatlantic trade deal, insisting that food safety dangers were unproven by science.

Perdue said he understood the "difficulties" for EU leaders to overcome domestic opposition to US food production methods.

"There is a challenge...They need to communicate that we need to make decisions based on sound science and food safety, as well as affordability," he said.

Reached by AFP, the EU had no immediate comment on the specific demands on chicken and beef.

EU spokesman Daniel Rosario earlier said the renewed talks were an "ongoing process" with hopes of a meeting soon between Trump and European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen in Washington.

The US and EU first agreed to pursue a minimal trade deal in July 2017 as a tentative truce after Trump had declared a war on America's yawning trade deficits with the likes of China and Europe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday indicated that the alliance with the BJP was in place in Punjab, days after its ally decided to contest the Delhi elections alone.

Asked whether the SAD and BJP would fight the 2022 assembly elections separately, Badal told reporters in Amritsar that these (such reports) are just in the media and he has been hearing such reports for the last 20 years.

Hitting out at the Congress-led state government for not sticking to its election promise of giving free smartphones on January 26, he said, "I want to tell you that they (Cong-led govt) will not give anything (to people). They are just giving dates. People of Punjab will send them packing after two years".

Education minister Vijay Inder Singla had said on Sunday in Patiala that he was expecting that the free smartphones would be given to the youth before March 31.

Badal alleged that drug and sand mining mafias were proliferating under the alleged patronage of Congress ministers in Punjab.

The DGP has no control over Punjab Police while lower rank officers-- DSP and SHOs were working at the behest of Congress leaders. I can give you details of many cases in which Congress leader got drug suppliers released, alleged Badal.

Lashing out at the state government, SAD chief said the Congress led government was hiding its failures under the excuse of empty coffers.

We ran government under the leadership of (Parkash Singh) Badal sahib and never gave a statement of empty coffers, said Badal, adding the state saw "unprecedented" development under their regime.

But Captain sahib is not accessible, he said slamming Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

On the issue of CAA, Badal said his party was in favour of the amended Citizenship Act which was why it voted in favour of it.

But at the same time his party wanted the Muslim community be included in the CAA.

The SAD follows principles of Guru Sahib who always preached 'Sarbat Da Bhala' (welfare of all) and no discrimination. This nation is a united country and it belongs to people of all religions, he said.

The SAD had earlier announced in Delhi that it would not contest the Delhi polls next month after it was asked by ally Bharatiya Janata Party to change its stand on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

On Punjab CM opposing the CAA, Badal asked Amarinder Singh whether he did not want thousands of persecuted Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and others in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan get relief under the amended Citizenship Act.

Badal accused Singh of following orders of the Gandhi family to save his chair.

Badal also slammed rebel Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and other splinter groups like SAD (Taksali), accusing them of trying to weaken the SAD.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Today, we'll introduce the concept of the P/E ratio for those who are learning about investing. We'll show how you can use Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen AG's (ETR:DGR) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. What is Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen's P/E ratio? Well, based on the last twelve months it is 15.92. That corresponds to an earnings yield of approximately 6.3%.

View our latest analysis for Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen

How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen:

P/E of 15.92 = EUR15.10  EUR0.95 (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)

Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?

A higher P/E ratio implies that investors pay a higher price for the earning power of the business. That isn't necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future.

Does Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?

We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. As you can see below, Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen has a higher P/E than the average company (13.6) in the real estate industry.

XTRA:DGR Price Estimation Relative to Market, January 27th 2020

Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn't guaranteed. So investors should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers.

Story continues

Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen shrunk earnings per share by 1.4% last year. But it has grown its earnings per share by 27% per year over the last five years.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

The 'Price' in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth.

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen's Balance Sheet

Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen has net cash of 3.3m. This is fairly high at 14% of its market capitalization. That might mean balance sheet strength is important to the business, but should also help push the P/E a bit higher than it would otherwise be.

The Bottom Line On Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen's P/E Ratio

Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen has a P/E of 15.9. That's below the average in the DE market, which is 20.8. The recent drop in earnings per share would make investors cautious, the relatively strong balance sheet will allow the company time to invest in growth. If it achieves that, then there's real potential that the low P/E could eventually indicate undervaluation.

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.

Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Deutsche Grundstucksauktionen. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Palestinians have rejected the long-delayed plan, saying it is a bid to finish off the Palestinian cause.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the White House would release his long-delayed Middle East peace plan at noon (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

Trump made the remark to reporters as he greeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Palestinians have rejected the forthcoming plan, dubbed the deal of the century by Trump, saying it was a bid to finish off the Palestinian cause.

They fear it will dash their hopes for an independent state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Authoritys foreign ministry called for a clear international declaration rejecting the deal of the century', saying it would endanger regional stability.

Distraction for domestic woes?

Trump will meet separately with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz in Washington, DC, over his proposals, which have been kept secret. Palestinian leaders say they were not invited to Washington, DC, and that no plan can work without them.

The plans release comes as both Trump and Netanyahu face troubles at home.

Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives last month and is on trial in the Senate on abuse of power charges. Netanyahu faces corruption charges and an national election on March 2, his third in less than a year. Both men deny wrongdoing.

This plan is to protect Trump against being impeached and to protect Netanyahu from going to jail, and it is not a peace plan, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday at a cabinet meeting in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

We reject it, and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights, he added. It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.

Trump on Monday said his administration is going to release the plan and see whether or not it catches hold.

If it does that would be great, and if it doesnt we can live with that, too, Trump told reporters.

Trump said Israel has a very strange system noting that he has been waiting for their third election in a year to conclude.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Netanyahu said he looks forward to making history.

Honest broker?

Trumps initiative, whose principal author is his son-in-law Jared Kushner, follows a long line of efforts to resolve one of the worlds most intractable issues. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

Palestinians have refused to engage the Trump administration and denounced its first stage  a $50bn economic revival plan announced last June.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Washington can no longer be regarded as an honest mediator, accusing it of pro-Israel bias.

Since coming to office, the Trump administration has recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

The Trump administration in November reversed decades of US policy when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer regarded Israeli settlements on occupied West Bank land as inconsistent with international law.

Palestinian and Arab sources who were briefed on the draft of Trumps plan fear it seeks to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation, in what could be a prelude to Israel annexing about half of the West Bank including most of the Jordan Valley, the strategic and fertile easternmost strip of the territory, Reuters News Agency reported.
A Hindu girl was kidnapped from the venue of her marriage ceremony by assailants in Matiari District of Sindh province in Pakistan. The 24-year-old girl was later converted to Islam and married off to a Muslim man.

Abduction and conversion of Hindu women have been a major issue in the Sindh province where the majority of Pakistani Hindus live. The incident took place in Hala city in the district, about 215 km away from Karachi, where the girl was kidnapped under the supervision of local police authorities.

Live TV

Bharti Bai was to be married to a Hindu boy in Hala city but unknown assailants stormed the venue and kidnapped her. Her father, Kishore Das, said that his daughters marriage ceremony was going on when the kidnapper named Shahrukh Gul came with several men along with the police authorities and took his daughter away in broad daylight.

This is the second such incident within a fortnight. A 15-year-old Hindu girl was allegedly abducted from Jacobabad district on January 15 and was forcibly converted to Islam, according to news agency PTI. She was then married to a Muslim man, Ali Raza Solangi, in Pakistan's Sindh province.

Her father Vijay Kumar had filed an FIR, claiming that Solangi had abducted and married her forcibly. He also said that her daughter was 15-year-old when she was abducted.

Kumari and Solangi were produced before a court on January 21 from where she was sent to the women police protection centre, PTI reported quoting court officials. The court had also directed the Chandka Medical College Hospital to submit a report about her age by February 3.
The United Nations mission to Libya has slammed ongoing violations of a UN Security Council arms embargo, despite commitments made a week ago at an international summit in Berlin.

In a statement published overnight into Sunday, UNSMIL it said it deeply regrets the continued blatant violations of the arms embargo in Libya.

World leaders last weekend committed to ending all foreign meddling in Libya and to upholding the 2011 weapons embargo as part of a broader plan to end the countrys conflict.

They also agreed to a permanent ceasefire and steps to dismantle numerous militias and armed groups, as well as a political process under the auspices of the UN.-

UNSMIL said a January 12 truce agreed by the Government of National Accord (GNA) and forces led by eastern commander Khalifa Haftar had provided much-needed respite for civilians in the capital, Tripoli.

However, this fragile truce is now threatened by the ongoing transfer of foreign fighters, weapons, ammunition and advanced systems to the parties by member states, including several who participated in the Berlin Conference, it said.

It said numerous flights had landed in Libyan airports over the last 10 days, providing both sides with advanced weapons, armoured vehicles, advisers and fighters.

The mission condemns these ongoing violations, which risk plunging the country into a renewed and intensified round of fighting, the UN mission said.

Military strongman Haftar, who controls Libyas east and large swathes of the south, began an offensive in April last year to seize Tripoli from the UN-recognised GNA.

Turkey has backed the Tripoli-based GNA, while Haftar, who backs a rival administration in the countrys east, has had support from Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

On Saturday, clashes around Tripoli killed at least one civilian  a Moroccan national  and wounded seven, GNA health ministry spokesperson Amin al-Hashemi told AFP Sunday.

UN experts in December published a near-400-page report accusing an array of firms and external powers of violating a 2011 embargo by delivering arms or fighters to the North African country.

They concluded that the arms embargo was ineffective, and resulted in regular maritime and air transfers to Libya of military material.

Libya has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

SOURCE: AFP | PHOTO: AFP
The night before Halloween, Stephanie Parze was out with family and friends. Then, she vanished. The police investigating the 25-year-old womans sudden disappearance from her home in New Jersey quickly zeroed in on her ex-boyfriend.

The man, John Ozbilgen, 29, and Ms. Parze had an on-and-off relationship, officials said. The month before Ms. Parzes disappearance, he had been arrested and accused of assaulting her. The day before she was last seen alive, Mr. Ozbilgen sent Ms. Parze angry and profane text messages that went unanswered.

By mid-November, after an exhaustive search for Ms. Parze, the authorities had all but concluded that Mr. Ozbilgen was responsible for her disappearance, the Monmouth County prosecutor said on Monday.

Their suspicions were confirmed after Mr. Ozbilgen was found dead by suicide at his home on Nov. 22, where he left a note admitting his involvement in the killing of Ms. Parze, said the prosecutor, Christopher J. Gramiccioni, at a news conference.
US officials are investigating the cause of a crash in Afghanistan after a US Air Force plane went down in Taliban-controlled territory, according to reports.

A Taliban spokesman said the plane crashed in the Ghazni province and killed "lots" of US service members, which has not been verified.

Images and video circulating on social media from Taliban-affiliated journalist Tariq Ghazniwal show the burning remains of a Bombardier E-11A, used for electronic surveillance and radio communication. US Central Command and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper say they are "aware" of reports of the crash.

According to a spokesman for the provincial governor, the plane crashed at 1.10 pm roughly 80 miles southwest of Kabul. Taliban statements claim fighters have recovered the bodies and identification cards of service members onboard the aircraft.

Initial reports said that a passenger plane had crashed, though Afghanistan's transportation officials confirmed that all civilian aircraft were accounted for.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The crash follows more than a dozen attacks from Afghan forces on Sunday, killing more than 50 Taliban fighters in several operations as peace efforts appear to stall and the Taliban has renewed threats to security forces amid calls for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, the US has not reached an agreement to begin withdrawing US troops from the region, where roughly 13,000 US troops remain.

Donald Trump has had a complicated relationship with the Taliban as he seeks to live up to his 2016 campaign promise to remove all US military troops from Afghanistan.

Last year, the president was ready to spend ample political capital with a gamble that a peace deal with the Taliban was close. He roiled Republicans and Democrats alike by inviting Taliban officials to Camp David for a summit he later cancelled as pressure mounted.

The E-11A's Battlefield Airborne Communications Node  known as a "Wi-Fi in the sky"  works to "ensure a consistent and effective form of communication in nearly any location or environment, significantly reducing the possibility of communication failure and increasing the rate of mission success", particularly in the difficult mountainous terrain where it's deployed in Afghanistan, according to the Air Force.

US forces house four E-11 aircraft at Kandahar Airfield.
Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp have marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation - returning to the place where they lost entire families.

About 200 people who witnessed the atrocities of the Holocaust attended the commemoration in southern Poland - many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who travelled from Israel, the US, Australia, Peru, Russia and elsewhere.

Together, they prayed and wept - and warned about the ominous growth of antisemitism and hatred in the world.

Jeanette Spiegel, now 96, was 20 years old when she was brought to Auschwitz.

Fighting back tears, she said: "Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful.

"I think they pick on the Jews because we are such a small minority and it is easy to pick on us."

Yvonne Engelman, 92, escaped death at Auschwitz because the gas chamber did not work on the day she was due to be executed.

"We could hear children coughing, crying, choking from the gas and also the smell of human flesh and the great fear we experienced that maybe you will be the next victim," she said.

David Marks, 91, lost 35 relatives in Auschwitz. His voice cracked as he said: "We would like that the next generation know what we went through, and it should never happen again.

"A dictator doesn't come up from one day to the other. If we don't watch it, one day you wake up and it's too late."

Renee Salt, now 90, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz as young teenager and believed she was going to die there.

She told Sky News that she worries the truth about the Holocaust, and the lessons that need to be learned, will be forgotten with the passing of the survivors, who are now all well into old age.

She said: "This is probably the last time I will be here but I have come to tell people what happened and hopefully to avoid another Holocaust from becoming. I am worried that people will eventually forget about it."

Story continues

Talking about a rise in antisemitism, she said: "It happens all over Europe now, and it worries me a lot. Not that it reminds me because I never forget what happened here, but I come here because I want to show other people what happened, to explain what happened here."

In a poignant moment, the survivors laid wreaths at a wall where thousands were lined up and shot at the camp in German-occupied Poland.

Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders also attended the commemoration, along with presidents and prime ministers.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said: "We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes.

"The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying, but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it."

Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, told the crowd about a survivor who was separated from his family - a man who watched his young daughter, in a red coat, walk to her death.

He said: "Do not ever let this happen again to any people.

"[When] the world finally saw pictures of gas chambers, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with the Nazis.

"But now I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, the open and brazen spread of anti-Jewish hatred."

The survivors gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that had transported victims to Birkenau, where they were killed in gas chambers and cremated.

Auschwitz was established in 1940 to carry out Adolf Hitler's "final solution" to exterminate European Jews, and was liberated by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by the Nazi German forces at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned and killed there.

Poland's president spoke of the chilling efficiency of the Nazis' genocidal plan, adding: "For years the factory of death operated at full capacity. Smoke was rising from the chimneys, the transports were rolling. People walked and walked in their thousands. To meet their death."

Mr Duda also warned: "Distorting the history of World War Two, denying the crimes of genocide and negating the Holocaust as well as an instrumental use of the Auschwitz for whatever purposes is tantamount to desecration of the memory of the victims."

In 2019, a survey suggested that approximately one in four Europeans harbours a "pernicious and pervasive" attitude towards Jews, compared with one in five Americans.

According to the Anti-Defamation League's research, two in five Germans also agree with the statement that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust".
This is the shocking moment a home was swept off its foundation by flood waters in southeastern Brazil as record rainfall has killed at least 53 people since Thursday.

The storm has left at least 44 people dead in the state of Minas Gerais and nine more in neighboring Espirito Santo, according to local disaster officials.

At least 19 people have been reported missing and more than 20,000 people have been evacuated due to the threat of floods and landslides.

Thiago dos Santos was standing across from his two-story house when it suddenly collapsed Saturday in Raul Soares, a city in the state of Minas Gerais.

The 31-year-old told Brazilian newspaper O Tempo that a bridge had broken apart near his home, located on the banks of the Matipo River.

Record rainfall in the southeastern region of Brazil destroyed a home in the city of Raul Soares on Saturday

Thiago dos Santos said that his family was evacuated from his two-story home (left and right) in Minais Gerais, Brazil, on Saturday before his house, which sits on the banks of the Matipo River, was destroyed and swept away by rushing flood waters

The homeowner said it was normal for the Matipo River's water levels to rise during storms but not this much

Dos Santos, who recorded the video of the moment he lost his home, said it was normal for 'the river level rises, it reaches the house, but I never like that.'

He said that he along with his wife, five-year-old son and his in-laws were evacuated Saturday but remained in the area hoping that the conditions would improve.

The water rose to the second floor of the home before it slowly tumbled down and flowed down the river.

The capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, recorded 7.7 inches in one 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday, the highest rainfall in 110 years. The Dal Velhas River (pictured) overflowed following heavy rains Saturday

A truck rides along a flooded street after the overflowing of Das Velhas River on Sunday in Sabara, a town in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais

'There is a dam that holds water when it comes this way, so we never expected it to happen, because flooding like this happened only in 1985,' dos Santos said.

The capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, recorded 7.7 inches in one 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday, the highest rainfall in 110 years.

Governor Gustavo Zema declared a state of emergency in 99 cities, a measure meant to facilitate federal disaster aid.

A view of flooded houses (pictured Friday) caused by heavy rains in Sabara, a municipality in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais state. At least 53 people have been reported dead due to the record rainfall in the region since last Thursday

Firefighters search for victims near houses destroyed Saturday by a landslide in Barreiro, Minas Gerais state

Locals worked Saturday to clean up mud and debris around houses destroyed by a landslide after heavy rains in Vila Ideal, a neighborhood in Ibirite, Minas Gerais state

He also decreed three days of official mourning for those killed in the floods and landslides.

Authorities in Espirito Santo said they were on maximum alert'= due to the forecast of more rain for Sunday.

In the city of Alegre, officials warned that a dam was in danger of breaking and urged people living below to evacuate.

Another 2,000 people were evacuated in the Rio de Janeiro state city of Itaperuna.
Eva Umlauf was two when Auschwitz was liberated (Matthias Schrader/AP)

A woman who was one of the youngest prisoners to be freed from Auschwitz has spoken about how her early childhood in the Nazi death camp was to cast a dark shadow over her entire life.

Eva Umlauf was two years old when Auschwitz was freed by the Soviet Red Army, and although she has no conscious memories stretching so far back, she said Auschwitz is deeply burned inside my body and soul.

A petite woman with a pageboy haircut and eyes as blue as the camp tattoo on her arm, the 77-year-old doctor reminisced about her post-war childhood.

There was an emptiness growing up after Auschwitz, so many of our family members were gone, she said on a January day almost 75 years after Auschwitz was liberated.

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Whatsapp Eva Umlauf now lives in Munich, Germany (Matthias Schrader/AP)

It was just my mum, my sister and me who survived, Ms Umlauf added in a calm, measured voice, sitting in her elegant apartment on the outskirts of Munich.

We saw my father for the last time at the ramp at Auschwitz when we were taken off the train.

It is a miracle that Ms Umlauf survived the death camp.

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered there by the Nazis and their henchmen.

In all, about six million European Jews died during the Holocaust.

When families from across Europe reached Auschwitz in cramped windowless cattle trains, the Nazis selected those whom they could still use as forced labourers.

The others, old people, many women and especially children and babies, were gassed to death soon after arrival.

But the gassing stopped two or three days before little Eva, her pregnant mother and father arrived in November 1944 from the labour camp Novaky in Slovakia.

Germany was losing the Second World War and the Red Army was drawing ever closer to the camp.

Our transport was the first one that didnt go straight to the gas, Ms Umlauf said.

She was still tattooed on arrival  and promptly fainted. The blue number on the inside of her lower left arm remains visible today: A-26959.

The trained paediatrician and psychotherapist still works in her own practice a few times per week.

While many other remaining Auschwitz survivors are frail and ailing, Ms Umlauf is energetic and active even though she has also suffered several severe illnesses  likely effects of her months in Auschwitz.

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When Auschwitz was liberated on January 27 1945, Ms Umlauf was very sick.

A fellow prisoner and paediatrician who looked after her at the hospital ward, told Ms Umlaufs mother Agnes Hecht: Forget your child, she wont survive.

But Ms Hecht, who had lost her entire family in the Holocaust, was unwilling to give up on her daughter.

She stayed on at Auschwitz for several weeks after liberation because Eva was too weak to even walk.

She also gave birth to Evas younger sister Leonore there, and finally, one summer day in 1945 when Eva was a bit healthier, she took the two little girls back to her home in Trencin, western Slovakia.

We lived a seemingly normal life, Ms Umlauf remembered as she looked through old black-and-white family photos that are the only tangible reminders of those missing.

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My mum barely talked about the Holocaust and I never asked questions, Ms Umlauf said.

Nevertheless, the loss was unmistakable.

When other children went to visit their grandparents during summer vacations, Eva and her sister stayed at home with their mother as they did not have any grandparents.

When a young Christian mother in Trencin died in childbirth, Ms Umlaufs mother stood on the curb watching the funeral procession and muttered: They should also know what its like when you lose somebody, Im glad they also get to experience what thats like.

And once the mother told her daughters: Id give an entire closet if only one of my relatives would come back.

Agnes Hecht had been born into an affluent Jewish-Slovakian family, but their fortune was lost in the war and she was very poor.

For her, a closet was her most precious possession.

Despite growing up in poverty and often falling ill, Ms Umlauf did well at school and was able to study medicine at university in Bratislava.

In 1967, she moved to Germany to join her husband, a Polish Holocaust survivor who had settled in Munich.

At that time, the memories of Auschwitz were mostly subdued by daily routine  building a home, raising her children and working in the hospital.

But off and on the horror would force its way to the surface.

When Ms Umlauf was pregnant with her third child, she had nightmares of babies being thrown into fire alive and gas chambers full of dead babies.

Still, it was only after her three boys had grown up and she had semi-retired that she finally turned her full attention to the silenced past.

The number on your lower arm is as blue as your eyesFrom a survivor's poem

Ms Umlauf travelled to archives across Europe and Israel to seek glimpses of the fates of the family members she was never able to meet.

In the end, she wrote her autobiography, which includes stories about relatives who perished in the Shoah.

It was published in 2016 in Germany under the title The Number On Your Lower Arm Is As Blue As Your Eyes  a line from a poem a fellow survivor and friend wrote about her.

There are a lot of dead I have to live with, she said. It made me fall terribly ill when I was writing.

However, the project also brought closure.

The book was healing, not just for me but for my entire family, she said.

As Holocaust survivors from around the world prepare to travel back to Auschwitz for Mondays commemorations of the camps liberation, Ms Umlauf has decided to also return for one last visit, together with her three adult sons.

You can feel the emptiness there, she said.

You feel the dead. You feel the burned earth. You feel that something atrocious has happened there.


Members of a military medical team prepare a ward at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, on Jan. 26, 2020. Three teams of military staff totaling 450, who flew to Wuhan on Friday night, immediately started work in three designated hospitals in Wuhan. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)





WUHAN, Jan.27 -- A train loaded with the first batch of emergency medical supplies allocated by the Chinese military from Shenyang of Liaoning Province and Heze of Shandong Province arrived at the Hankou railway station in Wuhan, Hubei Province on Sunday morning. These emergency medical supplies included 10000 sets of class-C protective clothing and 3760 bottles of ethyl alcohol.

With the coordination of the PLAs forward commanding and coordinating group, the handover of the medical supplies was successfully conducted between the military and civil sides and all the supplies have been sent to the frontline hospitals.

Since the outbreak of pneumonia epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus infection in Wuhan, Hubei province, the Central Military Commission has paid high attention to the situation and held in the first time a teleconference to make overall deployment of military's epidemic prevention and control work. The military joint prevention and control working system of responding to public health emergencies jointly form by the CMC organs, the Joint Logistics Support Force, the Armed Police Force and the Academy of Military Sciences has also been established in the first place.

All military hospitals have made preparedness in various aspects including medical workers, beds, medicines, equipments and protective articles so as to undertake tasks of medical rescue and prevention and control support at any time.

The General Hospital of the PLAs Central Theater Command located in Wuhan has changed its internal medicine inpatient department into the inpatient ward with more than 500 beds for receiving and treating patients contracting new coronavirus pneumonia, which will be a great help to relieve the pressure of civil hospitals in Wuhan.

Approved by the CMC, three medical teams formed by military medics respectively from the military medical universities of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force left for Wuhan on Jan. 24 by taking air force transport planes and went to the Jinyintan Hospital, the Hankou Hospital and the Wuchang Hospital to support the epidemic prevention and control and patient rescue in the three designated hospitals.

As of Monday morning, all the 450 medics in the three military medical teams had been assigned to different posts in the frontline of rescuing lives of patients.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 22:20:46|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 4,500 people in six villages in Kilwa district in Tanzania's southern region of Lindi have been made homeless after their houses were demolished by ongoing torrential rains, an official said on Monday.

"At least 4,500 people from the six villages have been accommodated in schools and churches after their houses were swept away by flash floods caused by ongoing heavy rains this week," said Christopher Ngubiagai, Kilwa district commissioner.

Apart from the washing away of the houses, the rains have also damaged road infrastructure, farms, and killed a good number of livestock, said Ngubiagai.

He said a rescue team has been dispatched to villages affected by the rains to assess the damage, appealing to individuals and organizations to help donate relief supplies for the victims.

On Sunday, The Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) issued its latest weather outlook warning of looming heavy rains in more than 10 regions, including the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez has asked all her ministers to resign a little more than three months before a general election. The news Sunday came just hours after communication minister Roxana Lizarraga resigned in protest at Anez's decision to stand as a presidential candidate in the May 3 election. Anez assumed the presidency on November 12, two days after Evo Morales resigned following three weeks of sometimes violent protests against his controversial re-election in a poll the Organization of American States said was rigged. Anez, a little-known senator at the time, had said she had no intention of standing for the full-time job. But that changed on Friday when she announced her candidacy. Anez "has decided to ask for the resignation of all ministers to approach this new stage in the management of the democratic transition," the presidency said in a statement. The statement added that it was "usual" in an electoral cycle to have "adjustments in the working team of the Executive." Anez said she would name a new cabinet of 20 ministers "as soon as possible." Hours earlier, Lizarraga, who was appointed by Anez on November 13, criticized the interim president for having "lost sight of her objectives." Lizarraga said Anez had "started to fall into the same evils" as the party of her predecessor Morales. "This is not the path the citizenry has signaled to us," said Lizarraga. - 'Making a big mistake' - Anez was criticized for going back on her initial commitment not to run for president. "I respect President Anez, but I think she's making a big mistake" because "she has not been appointed to propose herself as a candidate for the presidency," former president Carlos Mesa, 66, said. Former presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina voiced his opposition and ex-president Morales, in exile in Argentina, reminded his successor that "she promised not to be a candidate," although he said "it is her right." There is also still doubt about the legality of Anez contesting the election. Lawmaker Luis Felipe Dorado said he would consult the Constitutional Court. Anez came only fourth on 12 percent in an opinion poll published on Sunday that was led by Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) candidate with 26 percent. MAS headed the survey by Mercados y Muestras and published in the Pagina Siete newspaper, which was conducted before the party had announced the name of its candidate, former economy minister Luis Arce. "In all the polls we are first," Morales tweeted in reaction, adding: "We are ready to beat the coup and regain the homeland." Parties have until February 3 to register their candidates. Bolivia's interim president Jeanine Anez (pictured November 2019) originally said she had no intention of running for president but has since changed her mind
The 'net' is closing in on more viable biological control agents to fight the scourge of the fall armyworm (FAW) pest which is already wreaking havoc in most African countries as well as more than a dozen Asian countries including China and India

The 'net' is closing in on more viable biological control agents to fight the scourge of the fall armyworm (FAW) pest which is already wreaking havoc in most African countries as well as more than a dozen Asian countries including China and India.

CABI scientists teamed up with colleagues from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) in Ghana to conduct new research which is another step closer to finding more biological control options to fight the FAW menace.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) states that, based on 2018 estimates from 12 African countries, up to 17.7 million tonnes of maize could be lost annually to FAW on the continent - enough to feed tens of millions of people. The most direct impact of these losses falls on smallholder maize farmers, most of whom rely on the crop to stave off hunger and poverty.

Lead authors Dr Lakpo Koku Agboyi, Dr Georg Goergen and Dr Marc Kenis led new research which focused on exploring the parasitoid complex of the FAW in Ghana and Benin where 10 species were found to have parasitized the pest. These included two egg parasitoids, one egg-larval, five larval and two larval-pupal parasitoids. In similar surveys carried out in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, seven parasitoid species were collected.

Outlining their findings in the journal Insects, the authors showed that the three most abundant parasitoids in both countries were two Braconidae: the egg?larval parasitoid Chelonus bifoveolatus and the larval parasitoid Coccygidum luteum, as well as the egg parasitoid Telenomus remus.

Dr Agboyi, who is based at CABI's centre in Ghana, said, "We determined the larval parasitism rates in three Ghanaian regions and averages varied from 5% to 38% between regions, with up to 75% parasitism found at single locations. This data provides an important baseline for the development of various biological control options for fall armyworm."

Back in April 2019 Dr Kenis was lead author on another paper in Insects which confirmed the first report of Telenomus remus in Africa and positioned the species as a 'great opportunity for the rapid deployment of a biological control agent' for fall armyworm on the continent.

The latest research adds weight to the scientists' suggestion that Chelonus bifoveolatus, Coccygidum luteum and Telenomus remus could all be used to fight the fall armyworm as part of an Integrated Pest Management plan, either as augmentative biological control agents through regular releases or in conservation biological control strategies in which cultural practices enhance the action of the main natural enemies.

Dr Kenis said, "In Latin America, field releases of Telenomus remus in maize can result in 80-100 percent parasitism, providing full control of fall armyworm. However, a challenge of using a larval parasitoid of fall armyworm in augmentative biological control will be to find alternate rearing hosts for mass production. Fall armyworm is not suitable for the mass production of larval parasitoids due to the cannibalistic behaviour of the larvae".

"Another consideration for a wider utilisation is to provide a product that is financially affordable for African farmers. Mass production on its natural hosts is costly but we believe rearing systems on factitious hosts can be developed."

"Understanding the parasitoid complex of the fall armyworm in Africa is also necessary before any development of classical biological control involving the introduction of parasitoids from the Americas. However, since FAW remains a huge problem for African farmers despite substantial parasitism by native parasitoids, the introduction of American parasitoids should not be ruled out since their successful establishment may lower pest population levels permanently, at no cost for the farmers."

Dr Agboyi adds that the use of broad-spectrum insecticides is not only unsustainable in the long-run, but also increases production costs, has biodiversity and environmental impacts, and poses health risks to the growers and consumers.

Biological control, on the other hand they say, can offer an economically and environmentally safer alternative to synthetic insecticides that are currently being used for management of the fall armyworm and a range of other crop pests.

###

Additional information

Full paper reference

Agboyi, L.K.; Goergen, G.; Beseh, P.; Mensah, S.A.; Clottey, V.A.; Glikpo, R.; Buddie, A.; Cafa, G.; Offord, L.; Day, R.; Rwomushana, I.; Kenis, M. Parasitoid Complex of Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, in Ghana and Benin. Insects 2020, 11, 68.

DOI: 10.3390/insects11020068

This paper is available as an open access document https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/2/68

Funding

The research in Ghana was financially supported by the Department for International Development (DFID), UK, and the Directorate?General for International Cooperation (DGIS), Netherlands, through CABI's Action on Invasives programme. CABI is an international intergovernmental organisation, and we gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (DFID), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (DGIS), and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). See http://www.cabi.org/about?cabi/who?we?work?with/key?donors/ for full details.

Research activities carried out in the framework of this study at IITA-Benin were financially supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ/GIZ).

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Andrew Polaszek, Nigel Wyatt and Gavin Broad from the Natural History Museum of London for their support in the identification of some parasitoids.
Redundancy blows massive holes in pension pots as middle aged workers who lose jobs fall way behind those with no career setbacks, new research reveals.

People aged 39-54 who have suffered compulsory redundancy have average pensions savings of 120,634 - some 40 per cent less than those who avoided being laid off who have 202,017.

Those affected by voluntary redundancy do better, with average pension pots of 138,834 versus 178,329 for those who haven't experienced it, according to the survey by financial technology firm Dunstan Thomas.

Laid off: Redundancy blows massive holes in pension pots, a survey of middle-aged people reveals

The figures were all drawn from a survey of 2,000 people, but more had avoided voluntary redundancy than compulsory redundancy, and this is why the average pot size differs.

They highlight the significant detrimental effect of losing a job on workers' ability to save for old age.

Compulsory redundancy has the second biggest impact on savings levels after size of earnings, says the Dunstan Thomas study.

The firm found 42 per cent of 39 to 54-year-old workers have been forced out of a job at least once, and 4 per cent have experienced this four or more times in their careers.

Some 21 per cent have taken voluntary redundancy at least once, and 3 per cent four or more times.

People worried that they have not saved enough for retirement, due to redundancy or for any other reason, can take action to catch up - find out how below.

Dunstan Thomas says the recession that struck the global economy after the 2008 financial crisis hit people who are in midlife now harder than any other generation, because of their age and career stage at the time.

'Generation X were 28 to 43 during the Great Recession  so they had established their careers but because they were early to mid-stage into them, they were exponentially affected by this recession's disruptive impact on job stability, earnings and savings levels,' says the firm.

'Men experienced larger negative impact on pension savings during 2008-13 than women.

'Over a quarter of men (26 per cent) experienced a moderate or major negative impact on pension savings during 2008-2013 period.'

The survey found one in 10 people aged 51-54 now put their pension savings on hold for nearly all or the whole of those five years.

They were aged 40-43 when the financial crisis started in 2008, and 45-48 when a proper recovery began in 2013.

Across all 39 to 54-year-olds, workers in London were most likely to put pension saving on hold, followed by those in Wales.

'It's important to look at this now, because it's not too late for most Gen Xers to make good the retirement savings shortfall so they can afford at least a moderate retirement lifestyle a few years from today,' says Dunstan Thomas director of retirement strategy Adrian Boulding.

The firm also made the following findings about middle-aged pension savers.

- Their average pot size is 159,837, but there is a big gender gap with women having put away just under two thirds as much as men, or 117,854 versus 186,611.

- Men aged 39-54 put 253 on average per month into their pension, and women set aside 139 - these sums are then topped up with free employer and Government cash.

- But some 29 per cent have never paid more than the minimum 'default' contribution, which is 4 per cent of salary while employers add a further 3 per cent and the Government another 1 per cent in tax relief. Read more here.

- Workers in London have the highest average sum saved so far at 223,790, well over twice the average 103,746 saved by people in the West Midlands.

- Some 42 per cent think they will receive an inheritance before they retire, and 9 per cent say they will not be able to stop work until they do.

- Nearly a third have a child over the age of 18, and this cohort are giving 142 a month on average to their adult offspring, rising to 300 a month among Londoners.

- About one in ten have elderly parents living with them whom they support financially, and a further 6 per cent support parents financially although they live elsewhere.

When asked how they plan to improve their retirement finances, 36 per cent will continue working, 31 per cent are prepared to be poorer, 26 per cent plan to save more and 6 per cent intend to emigrate to cut their living costs.
London, 27 January 2020 (SPS) - In a session of the British Parliament on International Trade, the two members of the British Labor Party, Mr. Barry Gardiner, Shadow Minister of International Trade, and Ms. Valerie Vaz, Shadow leader of the House of Commons, asked the International Trade Minister about the agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and Morocco and the issue of its inclusion of Western Sahara, which constitutes a violation of international and European law, as well as the British law itself, which previously ruled that there are no sovereign ties between Morocco and Western Sahara.



In his question, Mr. Gardiner said: " In its decision issued in March 2019, the High Court of England and Wales confirmed that the territory of Western Sahara is separate from Morocco under international law. It ruled that the UK Government were acting unlawfully by failing to distinguish between the territory of Morocco and the occupied territory of Western Sahara. Yet the trade agreement between the UK and the Kingdom of Morocco purports to apply to the territory of Western Sahara, despite the total lack of consent from the Sahrawi people. Will the Secretary of State explain why that is the case? Given that the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 process to ratify the agreement is now under way, is it her intention to hold a debate to discuss why the Government are proceeding to ratify a treaty that the High Court has ruled illegal? Is there an intention to organize a debate at parliament level that justifies the intention to ratify an agreement that the British Superior Court has been decided to be illegal? "



For her part, Ms. Valerie Vaz confirmed her colleague's question in the party, stressing that the remaining time to vote on the agreement is very short and that the government should find time to open a parliamentary debate on the agreement that will be ratified, which would illegally include the occupied territories of Western Sahara.



It should be remembered that the British government intends to put the association agreement with Morocco in hands of Parliament to ratify it in the coming weeks, however to date it has not announced that it would conduct a debate or a revision of it within the parliament. (SPS)



062/SPS
A prison officer has been accused of starving an 'vulnerable' Aboriginal inmate.

The prisoner allegedly had food withheld from him for a 'prolonged period' at Ravenhall Correctional Centre in Melbourne's west.

He was being held in an observational cell since he was classified as a vulnerable inmate.

The accused officer was stood down immediately after management received the allegations on Monday, the Herald Sun reported.

Medium-security Ravenshall, which opened in 2017, is Victoria's largest prison. The complex holds 1,300 prisoners and boasts it uses 'new approaches to reduce the risk of reoffending'.

A prison officer has been accused of starving an Aboriginal inmate at Ravenhall Correctional Centre (pictured) in the western suburbs of Melbourne

Investigations are continuing to establish why the guard withheld the prisoner's food.

Ravenhall staff are employed by GEO Australia under a contract with the Victorian state government.

A Government spokesperson said: 'We expect all correctional staff to act to the highest standards at all times and that any allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated.'

The spokesperson declined to comment any further as the allegations are currently being internally investigated by GEO Australia.

Considered vulnerable, the inmate was being held in an observation cell, where he could access water but completely depended on staff to bring him meals (stock image)

GEO Australia confirmed the company was investigating the alleged mistreatment.

'A staff member from Ravenhall Correctional Centre has been suspended from duty pending an outcome of a GEO investigation into a possible breach of the GEO code of conduct,' a company spokesman said.

According to the company's website, Ravenhall Correctional Centre is a 'positive model for rehabilitation and reintegration'.

A GEO Australia spokesperson said: 'A staff member from Ravenhall Correctional Centre has been suspended from duty pending an outcome of a GEO investigation into a possible breach of the GEO code of conduct.'

The prison also focuses on Indigenous inmates and has a 'holistic model of care for prisoners with a mental illness', according to the Corrections Victoria website.
The government of Kerala was quick to realise two facts. First, that their state draws travellers not just from within the country but from across the globe because of its allure as a sightseeing destination. Second, a booming section of the travel market is reserved for travellers with disabilities and also the elderly, estimated to be worth an astounding $19.2 billion.

And Kerala built on just that.

Image credit: Reuters.

By renovating its most popular tourist destinations to become disabled- and elderly people-friendly, Kerala's Barrier-Free Tourism Project won global recognition, as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) made a special mention as an Emerging Global Destination in the Accessible Destination Awards 2019.



Below, we have put together a list of all the incredible efforts the government of Kerala has undertaken in order to make its tourist destinations accessible to all.

1. Alleppey is the country's first disabled-friendly beach.

Image credit: Reuters.

Achieving this status on December 3, 2019, the state government spent Rs 58 lakhs to make its famous Alleppey Beach disabled-friendly. The beach boasts a 50-metre ramp on each side of the entry points for easy wheelchair access. There are signages in braille in order to aid even blind tourists. The beach also provides audio-visual aids in order to provide an immersive experience for all.

Ajith Kumar Kripalayam, President of the All Kerala Wheelchair Users Association, said, It was always our dream to see the sea up close. When the state government built the ramp with the help of the tourism department and (Alappuzha) sub-collector Kiran Teja, it was as if God heard our prayers.



2. Fort Kochi is the first disabled-friendly heritage site!

The historic town of Fort Kochi, located in the Ernakulam district, is all set to transform as the first-ever disabled-friendly heritage destination in the state of Kerala. Amenities that are slated to be introduced include a special toilet facility for the disabled, seating and lamp posts made out of cast iron, sliding doors and grab bars, eating areas every 30 meters of the walkway, and spill-out spaces that can be accessed through the ramps. The state government has built specially designed ramps that will facilitate movement for the disabled and elderly.

3. All tourist destinations will have personnel who will be trained in sign language.

Image credit: Kerala Tourism.

Another interesting provision under Kerala's state government's Barrier-Free Tourism Project is how all the personnel that will be employed at tourist destinations will have to undergo compulsory training in sign language. This is an extremely well thought out move as there will now be dedicated staff to welcome disabled tourists and make their experience worthwhile.

4. Kerala is the first state in the country to implement the United Nations World Tourism Organisations (UNWTO) call for Tourism for All.

Image credit: Reuters.

Kerala's state government proudly reported that a solid 100 tourism centers have been equipped with amenities to support the differently-abled. Common facilities to support the disabled range from wheelchairs, ramps, and toilets.

5. The Thrissur District received the coveted status as a listed supplier of PANTOU (Promoting Accessible Tourism Around the World) network based in Europe in 2018.

Image credit: Reuters.

The Thrissur district in Kerala features tactile paths for the visually challenged at Azhikkode and Snehatheeram, while a wheelchair-accessible sunset viewpoint is the highlight of Vilangankunnu. There is ramp access for the boating area in Poomala. As part of the project, the Thumboormoozhi hanging bridge and viewpoints will soon be made accessible to the differently-abled. All of these developments made Thrissur district a part of the coveted PANTOU network.

6. Travel centres solely dedicated to the elderly and disabled will be set up.

Image credits: Reuters.

Travel assistance centers will have crutches, walking sticks, and electric wheelchairs to take care of the needs of the disabled. For the elderly, there will be support staff that will take them on guided tours all the while taking care of their safety.



7. How the state is promoting responsible tourism.

Image credit: Pexels.

Kerala was the first Indian state to begin Responsible Tourism that is aimed at promoting people-friendly, local community-friendly and environment-friendly initiatives. These initiatives aim at boosting rural development, local employment opportunities and the empowerment of women. Another important feature of Kerala's responsible tourism has been to redesign tourist spots in a way that accessibility for the disabled and the elderly is heightened.
A female student from the University of New South Wales has become the fourth person in the state to test positive for coronavirus, while five other people are under investigation suspected of having the virus.

The 21-year-old woman arrived in Sydney from the Chinese city of Wuhan - where the outbreak began - on China Eastern flight MU749 on January 23.

In a press conference on Monday, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said the woman had no symptoms when she arrived on the flight, which was met by health officials who handed out information sheets.

The woman developed symptoms about 24 hours later and isolated herself as the symptoms worsened, before presenting to a hospital emergency department. When the virus was confirmed, she was transported to Westmead Hospital and placed in isolation.
He said the desire to start his own business has been with him for a while, and his interactions in the working world have always been geared toward getting advice whenever he could.

I was working retail at HomeGoods, and a lot of real estate people and home stagers would come in to purchase things, he said. As I was checking them out, Id ask them for tips on what they thought was important to be a success. And Id ask the same when Id go to a business networking session.

So what would spell success for Branham?

I think that will come when Ive got enough to rely just on my own business, maybe finding a partner and few people to hire a staff, he said.

In the more distant future, he thinks about maybe getting into real estate or money management, if thats something that still appeals to him. He also looks forward to having the luxury of time, which hed use partly to get back into the camping he so loved in the Boy Scouts.

Right now, Im tired all the time from getting things going, because Im not turning down any work now, large or small, he said. But Im enjoying every minute of it.

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Asking for morals from TMZ? It's just not realistic.

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I was walking back from getting my coffee today and I just started crying. I'm in a low mood anyway, but I'm not even a basketball fan. I always feel dumb when I start crying about someone I didn't know, but this one really hurts and is just so tragic.





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I didnt sleep well last night. Children dying upsets me so much. When broadway star Ruthie Ann Miles was hit by the car abd her daughter died, I felt the same way. Kobe dying is a tragedy too but kids going is just so fucked up.

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God every time I think about how that poor woman lost not only her small child but her unborn one...



Shit like that is so frustrating and unfair. What did she do to deserve that? What did her friend do to deserve that too?

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Oh god, you brought up Ruthie and her daughter. Now I'm crying again. Just so awful.

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I feel the same way, I think the reason this is hitting me harder than other celebrity deaths is because his daughter also died and I just can't imagine what the family is going through right now, to lose a father and daughter so suddenly.

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It's the knowing he was with his kid and some family friends that makes me so sad. Taking a short routine kind of trip. Who would have ever even thought? They must have been so scared in those moments. I keep seeing that clip of him and his daughter talking basketball and it just breaks my heart.

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Death by car accidents and plane crashes like this rock me the most. Because you are literally just taking a journey; in good health, and you just dont make it.  manda (@Comanda_x) January 26, 2020





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as far as first reactions go, celebrity deaths always seem to hit me way harder. I think it's because there's this deep rooted opinion of celebs being untouchable to me that then makes the world feel so much smaller and scarier when someone of such wealth and power still loses it all.

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I'm horrified for Vanessa, losing both a husband and child. and the remaining Altobelli children, who just lost both parents and their sister.



Edited at 2020-01-27 05:30 pm (UTC)

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TMZ is bad but maybe crack down on the organizations too? that's highly unethical and shows a lack of care or safety for the community

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I'm horrified to think Vanessa may have heard about her child and husband's death from TMZ. That must have been a terrifying, confusing moment when your phone is blowing up from friends and family who heard the news and you're just like... "what's going on?" My dad passed away last year and that was hard enough, I can't imagine the gut punch to find out as a fucking news alert on your phone and just... the disbelief of seeing that. Really tho, monstrous thing to do to someone who's about to have the worst day of their lives.

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If Vanessa didn't find out directly from TMZ then she found out from everyone and their mother - friends, family, press - asking for comment because of TMZ. The cruelty to the Bryants and the other families... no words.

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It's really appalling.



In the rush of news out on social media, I saw a tweet saying his eldest had to be hospitalized after reading about the crash on social media and I am hoping it's not true.

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Worse is that when they said Kobe died, she knew Gianna was with him. Same with the other families. They knew once it was stated his copter went down.

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i did this once accidentally. one of my closest friends died and i was in a panic and also didnt realize how quickly i found out and i messaged her cousin because we all grew up together and she was like " ??? what happened to allison?" and i wanted to throw my laptop out my window. she was with friends when she died so we all found out essentially right away and i dont think anyone realized how quickly it spread before her whole family could find out

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It's just horrible to imagine her and the other affected families finding out in such a callous way.



When I looked at my friends' IG posts after I found out about it and saw that the initial post from TMZ was something like "Kobe Bryant dead in helicopter crash...everyone else dead too" it made me so angry, especially when I realized that was what might have been sent to people's families during the initial confusion of the early reports.

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It was alleged that her other older daughter learned of the passing online and had a massive asthma/anxiety attack & was rushed to the hospital. I can't even imagine having to try and comfort one child while grieving for another & your husband while ALSO having to corral 2 toddlers

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From experience (social media rather than a news org), its like being sucker punched with a battering ram. It was doubly worse when some news outlets picked it up since she was a community figure, and from them I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the how of it. I shudder to think of how it must be for the Bryant family when its at a global scale like this

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My friend passed away suddenly in October and we had to make sure we got to as many people as possible before some asshat put it on social media. It was gut wrenching to have to make those calls. And even still, my friend's distant cousin posted RIP on her facebook. I'll never forgive that bitch. Some people had to read about it there and it just sucks.

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Sadly, this won't change anything.

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u know it's bad when the police are horrified by ur insensitivity

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Lack of moral decency. I guess it doesnt count anymore nowadays when you gotta be the first to break a breaking news

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These the same people who got made by taking and releasing the death photo of Michael Jackson, they dont care

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This is gonna be Michael Jackson 2.0, with 5 years of "It's too soon to talk about the rape accusations!...Oops, 6+ years now ? Can't talk about it because he isn't here to defend himself!"

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Someone at the Washington post was suspended for posting about the rape trial and then tweeting about the hundreds of death and rape threats she got because she posted the names of the people threatening to rape and kill her. And she's a rape survivor.

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It truly is a mans world.

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wapo should be ashamed of themselves. i am glad to see most journalists calling them out for this disgusting decision. she did nothing wrong and reported facts. people who don't give a fuck about survivors always love to say "there's a time and a place."

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Devastating 

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I wish I could be surprised

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This bothers me. Most people already erased the rape case when he retired, and now it will be even worse, they'll completely forget about it. I just feel bad for his loved ones and especially for his daughter, who died so young. And it's a tragedy for all the people around them.

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we didn't talk about them much when he was alive. if you did you were attacking a legend and a family man. i doubt anything will change.

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i also think its important to think about his growth from that incident. yes, he did something that is inexcusable, horrific, and no one should get a pass. but he seemingly grew from that abuse, he made the choice to be a better man from that action. you can see it in how he was an amazing father to his daughters, his advocating for the WNBA, equality, pushing the needle forward, being an example of softness for a culture that doesnt often celebrate that.



i dont think its fair to not acknowledge his growth. his want to be a better man. you dont often see that from men who act horribly.

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I didn't actually know about the rape accusation until I read Kobe's death post on ONTD. I'm not American and I don't follow basketball, but Kobe's huge name recognition meant I knew he was a legendary player. But I knew zero about his personal life.



Both the BBC and the Guardian's reports about his death mentioned the rape allegations, so it isn't being completely ignored. But yes, the majority of comments online (on other platforms) are so whitewashed.

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I saw a tweet yesterday comparing the two and saying it was wrong to always bring up MJ's "flaws." FLAWS??????

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He was a remarkable athlete but I admit, the first thing I thought of when the news broke was the rape and how this could potentially be affecting the victim with further trauma (I am a victim of sexual assault/rape myself).

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And David Bowie

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I mean shouldnt the police also find way to crack down on these kind of leaks because TMZ gets so many of their tips from law enforcement (as well as emergency services and court clerks).



Anyways TMZ is the worst and Harvey Levin is a ghoul

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Yup, but that requires cops to hold "standards" amongst their own.

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I wish sooo many bad things on Levin its not even funny.

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NOW they are scolding? why now

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Cause they're just looking for someone to be angry at, I'm sure a lot of those cops are Lakers fans. If anything, his widow should be angry, not the cops

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That's why I still believe lil Wayne was on his death bed

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I think about that from time to time, thank g*d he pulled through.

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same. i mean...it tracks. his health is awful because of the drugs

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What happened?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil_Wayne#Health_issues TMZ said he died

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Leave the family alone They need to make a case out of it cause i saw reports that made me so uncomfortable, but this one is fucking nutsLeave the family alone

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Oh fuck off. We dont need to know this about a 17 year old who just lost her father and little sister.

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I did that. I have asthma and thanks to grief had a crying break down and threw myself into an attack where I couldnt catch my breath. It was terrifying.

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I wish that they would try to have more compassion in these situations. It must be horrible hearing your loved one passed away from a news outlet like that.



Though I guess that kinda happened to me when my best friend died in a car wreck. I was off that day and asleep and someone from my work heard it on the news and called my house and told my mom. Obviously the situation is different though. My friend's death wasn't spread like wildfire before his family could be alerted.

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i remember reading a book written by harris wittels' sister and she said the same thing, that she learned of his death because tmz (or a tmz-like gossip site) was reporting it and people were messaging her like "is it true??"

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The same happened with Heath Ledger. Reporters were fucking blindsiding people on a red carpet about his death. His friends and coworkers. It was really gross.

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I remember watching and award show and reading it on E! It was truly shocking.

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Naomi Watts found out on the red carpet and you could see her shock.



I remember they told Lindsay Lohan as she was getting in a car and she just starts sobbing

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ugh :(

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Jane Fonda find out her mom died from a classmate's gossip magazine.

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another new organization would've done it then- they're just a symptom of the 24/7 news cycle.



also a ton of news organizations were mis-reporting names and 'facts' of the crash constantly, whereas TMZ's story never changed - they only kept adding to it as more information came in.

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I think they originally reported there were 5 people in the helicopter though, so they weren't completely accurate.



According to a New Yorker article about TMZ, Levin claims to have a code that prevents him from 'targeting minors'. I wondered if this was the reason they didn't report on Gianna initially, even though they must have known or at least suspected she was in the helicopter?

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The tmz comment section was disgusting!!! They were stating in the comments about the daughter before it even hit the news.

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Bizongo, one of the largest business-to-business online marketplaces for packaging needs in India, has raised $30 million in fresh funding as it looks to widen its footprint in the nation and expand to more categories.

The new financing round, a Series C, was led by Switzerland-based hedge fund Schroder Adveq, which manages assets worth $10 billion. Existing investors B Capital, Accel, Chiratae Ventures and IFC also participated in the round, the startup said.

Mumbai-based Bizongo has raised about $56 million to date. It was valued at about $96 million in its Series B financing round in 2018, according to an analysis of its regulatory filings.

The five-year-old startup serves as a marketplace for businesses to identify, buy and sell material packing solutions across industries. It also offers in-house packing design, development and procurement solutions.

Sachin Agarwal, chief operating officer and co-founder of Bizongo, said the startup offers a unique value proposition of promising a 100% availability of packaging material and no-stock-outs at very low inventory.

This helps clients to reduce their packaging material procurement cost by 2-5% and at the same time ensures better production planning for our supply partners. This creates a strong value proposition for all stakeholders across the value chain, he said in a statement.

Bizongo did not reveal how many customers it has, but said they span some of the nations leading e-commerce, retail and FMCD industries. On its website, it mentions that it works with more than 750 manufacturers in India, and has delivered 290 million packaging units to date. It also claims to have served over 350 brands.

In a statement, Aniket Deb, chief executive and co-founder of Bizongo, said the startup has witnessed a significant improvement in operating metrics since the last round of financing and the current round will further help us grow the business in a sustainable way.

The fresh fund will be deployed to ramp up technology infrastructure and to expand to newer sectors such as pharma packaging. Deb said the startup also plans to work on expanding its presence in the country.

We believe in the vision of the founders who are transforming and digitising the highly fragmented B2B packaging marketplace by leveraging technology and a unique supply chain efficiency solution. Bizongo has demonstrated strong momentum by continuing to add marquee clients and we have been impressed with the companys rapid growth trajectory over the past year, said Kabir Narang, general partner at B Capital Group, in a statement.
Alf McCreary talks to David McClay, who was consecrated today in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast as the new Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore.

Q. Tell us something about your background.

A. I was born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, on June 5, 1959. I'm the eldest of four children and my parents, Roland and Kathleen McClay, still live on the home farm where I grew up.

I was widowed as a young man, aged 33. My daughter Cherith was four years old when her mother Irene died.

Some years later I met and married Hilary. We have three children; Cherith married to Ciaran, Ruth married to Matthew, our son Jordan and one grandchild Annie.

I was brought up in a loving home and from my earliest years was a regular worshipper in the local Church of Ireland parish church in the village of Ballintra. I was a pupil in the local Church of Ireland Robertson National School, then at the Royal & Prior in Raphoe, before embracing a career in industry with Magee & Co in Donegal town.

I was ordained deacon in the Church of Ireland in 1987 and priest/presbyter in 1988. I served a curacy in Magheralin with the rector Dean Roland Hutchinson. In 1990 I was appointed rector of Kilkeel, then of Willowfield in 2001.

I became a canon of St Anne's Cathedral in 2004, Archdeacon of Down in 2013 and now the Bishop of Down and Dromore following my election in November 2019.

I also lead New Wine Ireland, a movement of churches working together to see mission and growth throughout the island of Ireland.

Q. How and when did you come to faith?

A. It was in my late teenage years that I came to a personal living faith in Jesus Christ. This came about as I realised my need of forgiveness and that we all need to make inherited faith our own.

Q. Does this faith play a real part in your daily life or is it just for Sundays?

A. Faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for me very real. I believe every Christian is called to live under the authority of God's Word and the Holy Spirit lives in us enabling us, giving us the strength to love and follow Christ.

The discipline of Bible reading and prayer is part of how I order my daily life. Being a Christian for me is about living a blended life in which I try to follow Christ in all aspects of living. It is actually unhelpful and even dangerous to try to do some aspects of life and living without reference to God and obeying His word and commandments.

Q. Have you ever had a crisis of faith or a gnawing doubt about your faith?

A. Through all the ups and downs of life including grief, bereavement and disappointment I never doubted God's goodness and God's love. The cross challenges me to count living for Christ in every and any circumstances a privilege. I have, however, often been disappointed in myself and my own apathy as a follower of Jesus.

Q. Have you ever been angry with God and if so why?

A. I can honestly say that I have never been angry with God. I have been frustrated that my prayers were not always answered, or things have not always worked out as I had planned.

I have been disappointed at times by people, but I believe that God is holy as well as good and kind. He is to be feared as a holy God as well as someone we know closely and are constantly cared for, loved and protected by. These don't contradict each other.

Q. Do you ever get criticised for your faith and are you able to live with that criticism?

A. I'm not unfamiliar with criticism, but I'm fairly resilient. One of my heroes of faith is a woman called Jackie Pullinger who, in her book Chasing the Dragon, talks about those in Christian leadership needing to have a soft heart but hard feet, able to walk through tough places.

Q. Are you ever ashamed of your own Church or denomination?

A. I'm sometimes disappointed at aspects of our denomination's life and witness. We have as a Church incredible potential to serve Christ in Ireland and to serve the people in Ireland for Christ. I do believe we could be much more intentional in making Christ known in word and in practical acts of kindness than we are. But I am also aware of my own shortcomings in this regard.

Q. Are you afraid to die or can you look beyond death?

A. I'm not afraid to die. With St Paul I want to say, 'For me to live is Christ and to die is gain'. However, I don't think that anyone looks forward to sickness or weakness that can so often be our experience before death.

Q. Are you worried about hell-fire and if you believe in a resurrection what will it be like?

A. I believe in heaven and I believe in hell. I am thankful for the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that because he died and rose again those who die believing in him will share heaven and eternal life with him. Heaven will be being with Jesus where there is no sickness, sorrow or pain, a new heaven and a new earth where the old order as we now know it will have passed away.

Hell will be that place of eternal separation from God and all his blessings.

Q. Would you be comfortable in stepping out from your own faith and trying to learn something from other people?

A. I am always wanting to learn from others. One of the joys of following Jesus has been to work with, worship with and witness alongside followers of Jesus from other denominations and Christian traditions.

I admire some of the qualities and traits that are found in people of other religions and none, and long that they will come to know Jesus. The words of a hymn by Charles Wesley capture this for me: 'O that the world might taste and see the riches of his grace! The arms of love that compass me would all the world embrace.'

Q. Do you think that the churches here are fulfilling their mission?

A. Churches vary a lot; some do well at fulfilling Christ's commission to make disciples; some don't do so well, and some do poorly, but all of us could do better. It is the Holy Spirit at work in us that enables us to do the work of God.

Q. Why are many people turning their back on organised religion?

A. People aren't so much turning their back on organised religion as not being given opportunities to meet with Christ. When people encounter Christ, when they encounter his presence, when they meet people whose lives He has changed, when His word is proclaimed lovingly and in the power of the Holy Spirit then lives are changed by Christ forever.

Q. Has religion helped or hindered the people of Northern Ireland?

A. Religion without Jesus is ineffective at best, harmful at worst, while Jesus without dead religiosity changes communities as well as individual lives.

Q. What is your favourite film, book and music?

A. My favourite film is any John Wayne western. My favourite book apart from the Bible is Billy Graham's biography because he finished well and that's my prayer, that I would finish well. Don't hold it against me but my favourite music is anything of Abba's (that gives away my era!).

Q. Place where you feel closest to God?

A. I feel closest to God on my own, on my face before the Lord with an open Bible. The physical space doesn't matter much (but it helps if it's warm and the floor is carpeted).

Q. Inscription on your gravestone?

A. Please put as an inscription on my gravestone if you must put anything: David McClay, a servant of Jesus Christ.

Q. Finally, any major regrets?

A. I would have liked to have spent more time with people, with friends, with family and less time trying to solve unsolvable issues. However, I don't have major regrets other than I could have loved Christ and served him more effectively.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hit out at senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya's "poha" remark and demanded to know if the BJP leaders "ate air while growing up".

Indirectly referring to Vijayvargiya, Mamata asked, "Did you eat air while growing up? Will you (BJP) decide who will eat what or which religion they will follow? Will you decide who will eat 'chire' or 'poha'?"

She was addressing a youth workshop of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) at Netaji Indoor stadium here.

She added, "I have never heard that a person can be recognised with their dresses and food habits. This can't be tolerated."

Mamata, further said, "We have to explain to people who are being misguided by the BJP that we are not bonded labours, but citizens of this country."

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has sparked a controversy after he said the eating habits of some construction workers at his house made him suspicious of their nationality.

The BJp leader had said that he noticed some of the workers eating poha (flattened rice) only, which made him suspect that they could be Bangladeshis.

"There was some construction work going on at my house so I noticed that some workers were eating only 'poha' (flattened rice). After speaking to them I realised they could not speak Hindi. I was later told that they are Bengali and when I asked them from which districts they belong to, they could not answer me," Vijayvargiya said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The New York Times

Facing an increasing number of requests for its users information, Google began charging law enforcement and other government agencies this month for legal demands seeking data such as emails, location-tracking information and search queries.

Googles fees range from $45 for a subpoena and $60 for a wiretap to $245 for a search warrant, according to a notice sent to law enforcement officials and reviewed by The New York Times. The notice also included fees for other legal requests.

A spokesman for Google said the fees were intended in part to help offset the costs of complying with warrants and subpoenas.

Federal law allows companies to charge the government reimbursement fees of this type, but Googles decision is a major change in how it deals with legal requests.

Some Silicon Valley companies have for years forgone such charges, which can be difficult to enforce at a large scale and could give the impression that a company aims to profit from legal searches. But privacy experts support such fees as a deterrent to overbroad surveillance.

Google has tremendous amounts of information on billions of users, and law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world routinely submit legal requests seeking that data. In the first half of 2019, the company received more than 75,000 requests for data on nearly 165,000 accounts worldwide; 1 in 3 of those requests came from the United States.

Google has previously charged for legal requests. A record from 2008 showed that the company sought reimbursement for a legal request for user data. But a spokesman said that for many years now, the tech firm had not systematically charged for standard legal processes.

The money brought in from the new fees would be inconsequential for Google. Just last week, the valuation of its parent company, Alphabet, topped $1 trillion for the first time. Alphabet is scheduled to report its latest financial results on 3 Feb.

The new fees could help recover some of the costs required to fill such a large volume of legal requests, said Al Gidari, a lawyer who for years represented Google and other technology and telecommunications companies. The requests have also grown more complicated as tech companies have acquired more data and law enforcement has become more technologically sophisticated.

None of the services were designed with exfiltrating data for law enforcement in mind, said Gidari, who is now the consulting privacy director at Stanfords Center for Internet and Society.

Gidari also said it was good that the fees might result in fewer legal requests to the company. The actual costs of doing wiretaps and responding to search warrants is high, and when you pass those costs on to the government, it deters from excessive surveillance, he said.

In April, the Times reported that Google had been inundated with a new type of search warrant request, known as geofence searches. Drawing on an enormous Google database called Sensorvault, they provide law enforcement with the opportunity to find suspects and witnesses using location data gleaned from user devices. Those warrants often result in information on dozens or hundreds of devices and require more extensive legal review than other requests.

A Google spokesman said that there was no specific reason the fees were announced this month and that they had been under consideration for some time. Reports put out by the company show a rise of more than 50 percent in the number of search warrants received in the first half of 2019 compared with a year earlier. The volume of subpoenas has increased by about 15 percent. From last January through June, the company received nearly 13,000 subpoenas and more than 10,000 search warrants from US law enforcement.

Google will not ask for reimbursement in some cases, including child safety investigations and life-threatening emergencies, the spokesman said.

Law enforcement officials said it was too early to know the impact of the fees, which Googles notice said would go into effect mid-January.

Gary Ernsdorff, a senior prosecutor in Washington state, said he was concerned that the charges for search warrants would set a precedent that led more companies to charge for similar requests. That could hamper smaller law enforcement agencies, he said.

Officers would have to make decisions when to issue warrants based on their budgets, he said.

Ernsdorff said there was a potential silver lining, noting that the time it takes for Google to respond to warrants has significantly increased in the past year. Other law enforcement officers also said the time they had to wait for Google to fulfill legal requests had grown.

If they are getting revenue from it, maybe this will improve their performance, Ernsdorff said.

Other law enforcement officials said the effects of the reimbursement fees would be minimal.

I dont see it impacting us too much, said Mark Bruley, a deputy police chief in Minnesota. We are only using these warrants on major crimes, and their fees seem reasonable.

Telecommunication companies such as Cox and Verizon have charged fees for similar services for years. At least one of Googles biggest peers, Facebook, does not charge for such requests. Microsoft and Twitter said they were legally allowed to request reimbursement for costs but declined to explicitly address whether they charged law enforcement for such requests.

Gabriel JX Dance and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries c.2020 The New York Times Company
Susan Murray steps in for Dave Thompson and brings some of the best international comedy talent to The Studios.

Compare: Susan Murray

Its a rare honour to take over Daves comedy chair for the night but Susan Murray is up for the job. One of the top UK comedy hosts Susan builds quick and quirky connections between herself, the audience and 21st Century life.



StandOut:

Budapest-based StandOut claims to be the world's best vertically challenged stand-up comedian. He has performed his stand-up comedy routine for comedy clubs across Europe, organizations such as General Electric & UNHCR as well as Sziget Festival.



He is also a professional dishwasher who knows the ins and outs of many immigration offices. 25 years and thousands of dishes washed later he still struggles to prove that he is normal. His hobbies are collecting tissue boxes and watching traffic lights.



Ian Stone:

Ranked amongst the top ten stand-ups in Britain by The Independent, Ian Stone is one of the most talented topical acts and comperes in the country. Edgy and provocative, with an easy-going manner and self-depreciating style, Ian is at great ease bantering with an audience.



He's a member of the Comedy Store's critically acclaimed 'Cutting Edge' team and also received a nomination in 2012 for the BEST SHOW at the Leicester Comedy Festival Awards.



He has performed all over the world including Comedy Festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Holland, France, Ireland and Germany and was the first British stand-up to perform in Moscow.



Tickets:

Online - 4.000 HUF

On the spot - 5.000 HUF

Student - 3.000 HUF



Date and time:

Wednesday, 5 February, 6 pm



Venue:

The Studios

1064 Budapest, Vorosmarty u. 38.



Photo courtesy of the organisers
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Terming sale-bound Air India and two of its subsidiaries as great assets, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said that the buyer of the airline would be using the iconic brands.

The Minister said that due to its accumulated debt of about Rs 60,000 crore, Air India's financial position could be described as very fragile but a private company can turn it around and make profitable.

After failing to attract a single bid in 2018, the government has this time sweetened the offer. It has proposed to take off a major chunk of the airline's debt and liabilities, besides being ready to divest its entire stake in Air India, and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express.

The ground-handling joint venture AISATS in which the flag carrier holds 50 per cent stake is also on the block.

The liabilities to be retained in Air India would be equal to certain current and non-current assets. Considering the combined figures as on March 31, 2019, the liabilities retained would be around Rs 8,771.5 crore.

The remaining debt and liabilities of Air India and Air India Express will be allotted to special purpose vehicle Air India Assets Holdings Ltd (AIAHL).

The contingent liabilities related to statutory and government dues will be indemnified by the government.

The Aviation Minister said that debt on the books of Air India at the time of transaction would be frozen at Rs 23,286.5 crore which is equivalent to the written-down value of the combined assets of Air India and Air India Express.

All land and building assets including paintings, arts and artefacts are not part of the transaction. However, certain land and buildings at Delhi, Mumbai airports and corporate offices which are core assets for running the airline will be given to the new investors on right-to-use basis for a limited period, the Minister said.

The government has also committed to pay certain employee-related dues.

The bidding structure on forming the consortium has been eased compared to last time. The financial capability of prospective investors has also been made more attractive by lowering the networth criteria to Rs 3,500 crore and networth qualification of investor based on the strength of its affiliates.

Puri said that government had learnt valuable lessons after its first bid to sell Air India failed.

"We analysed the critical areas to make the current disinvestment bid more attractive to the prospective interested bidders," he said.

The Modi government's move to sell Air India and its subsidiaries had failed in 2018 as not a single private party evinced interest. While it had earlier offered 76 per cent stake in the airline along with management control, the government has offered to sell its entire stake in the airline this time.

As the government proposed to hold 24 per cent stake in the company and corresponding rights, many prospective buyers had apprehensions about interference and hence, stayed away from the bid process. High amount of debt and adverse macro environment such as high fuel prices were cited as major reasons for the no-show.

Global consultancy EY is the transaction advisor for the strategic disinvestment of Air India.

As per preliminary information memorandum (PIM) inviting the EoI, Air India is one of the most extensive flight service providers in India with network coverage of 98 destinations (56 domestic destinations with around 2,712 departures per week and 42 international destinations with around 450 departures per week).

The airline offers 75 additional destinations through its secondary network of code share operations covered under 25 code share agreements with foreign carriers.

The government on Monday invited expression of interest (EoI) from prospective buyers of Air India and two of its subsidiaries.
The Khanh Hoa Hospital of Tropical Diseases has quarantined four Vietnamese and four Chinese nationals with high fever pending coronavirus test results.

Hospital director Dr. Nguyen Dong said Sunday the Chinese patients were sent to the hospital Saturday and Sunday after body temperature screening at the Cam Ranh International Airport. The Vietnamese patients are from Cam Lam District in the central province of Khanh Hoa.

"The hospital has quarantined, placed them under observation and sent their blood samples to the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute to determine whether their fever was caused by coronavirus," he said.

Many people with signs of fever and worry about the nCoV virus have come to the hospital for examination, Dong added.

Khanh Hoa, home to Nha Trang Bay - one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam, has not recorded any case of pneumonia caused by the nCoV virus thus far.

As part of measures to stop the spreading of the virus, flights from China's Wuhan City, where the virus originated, to Cam Ranh International Airport have been suspended since January 24.

Over the past three days, flights departing from Cam Ranh International Airport have mainly taken Chinese tourists from Khanh Hoa back to Wuhan.

Nguyen Hoa Hoi, director of Khanh Hoa's International Health Quarantine Center, said that the local health authorities were coordinating with competent agencies to prevent pneumonia caused by nCoV from spreading in the region.

The airport has been equipped with five screening devices at entry and exit areas to measure the body temperatures of passengers. Eight health workers are on duty 24 hours to detect signs of fever and hospitalize those found with above normal temperatures.

Acute pneumonia caused by nCoV virus has spread rapidly in 30 provinces of mainland China. The disease has also spread to Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, France, Australia, Canada and Vietnam.

As of January 27 morning, there were more than 2,510 cases of nCoV infection recorded worldwide. China declared it has had 80 deaths caused by the virus.

No Vietnamese have been confirmed infected with the nCoV virus yet. A Chinese father and son confirmed to be infected remain quarantined at the Cho Ray Hospital in Saigon. After three days of treatment, the son no longer has a fever, while the father is still on oxygen support, due to a lung injury.
A senior Iraqi officer investigating the attack said that using coordinates for the flight path, he and his team had located the launchers. The use of mortars and the area from which they were fired, he said, led him to think that the attack could have been carried out by the Islamic State.

Still, the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to journalists, said the weapons were common enough that he could not rule out a Shiite militia faction close to Iran as being responsible.

During the height of Iraqs civil strife, between roughly 2005 and 2009, both Al Qaeda in Iraq and anti-American Shiite armed groups lobbed mortars at the Green Zone in an effort to hit the American Embassy.

The prime ministers statement, released within hours of the mortars landing in the embassy compound, appeared aimed at reassuring the Americans that the Iraqis were taking the attack seriously and would mount a vigorous response. The comments stand in stark contrast to the response both to the attack on a military base in Kirkuk, Iraq, at the end of December, which resulted in the death of an American contractor, and to the siege of the United States Embassy on Jan. 1.

In those cases the government said relatively little, especially after the Kirkuk attack.

By contrast, Mr. Abdul Mahdi used his statement on the mortar attack as a way to remind the public, which is divided about whether to have United States troops stay in the country, that using force now against the Americans would risk dangerous consequences that could damage Iraqi interests and drag Iraq into a war.

The strikes come less than a month after the attack in Kirkuk, which set off a series of retaliatory responses that pushed the United States and Iran to the brink of war. The Americans accused Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia with close links to Iran, of responsibility in the Kirkuk attack.
Marriott International has signed an agreement to open a St Regis hotel in the New Administrative Capital of Egypt, just outside of Cairo.



In the second quarter of this year, The St Regis Almasa is expected to occupy an existing luxury hotel at the entrance of the up-and-coming city that is slated to become the administrative and financial hub of Egypt. The owner of Almasa Royal Palace plans an extensive and phased renovation of the existing building.



We are delighted to be working with the National Authority for Management & Investment on this exceptional conversion opportunity to bring St Regis to Egypts New Administrative Capital, said Jerome Briet, chief development officer, Middle East and Africa, Marriott International. This signing further enhances the St Regis brand portfolio in Middle East and Africa and underscores the tremendous momentum that our luxury brands have in the region.



Speaking on the occasion, Colonel Waleed Samy Salama, CEO, National Authority for Management & Investment, commented: The National Authority for Management and Investment is pleased to start a relationship with Marriott International. The St Regis Almasa will be positioned as the luxury hospitality hub in the New Administrative Capital and with the largest state-of-the-art convention center in Egypt, the hotel will be the ideal host to the countrys largest events, conferences and summits. We are confident that this deal signing will play a vital role in the development of tourism in Egypt.



Also present during the signing ceremony were General Mohamed Amin Ibrahim Naser, advisor to the president of Egypt for Financial Affairs, and Liam Brown, group president Europe, Middle East and Africa, Marriott International.



With the population of greater Cairo expected to double in the next few decades, the government in Egypt announced plans to build the New Administrative Capital. Almasa Royal Palace, which the owner has operated for the past year, is located adjacent to a 42,000-sq-ft convention centre that hosts official government conventions and events, as well as official foreign presidents visits.



The hotel consists of 270 rooms, 90 suites, 60 apartments and 14 villas. Other facilities include outdoor and indoor swimming pools, a gym, spa, club house and 20 food and beverage outlets.



When it opens, The St Regis Almasa is expected to encompass the hallmarks of the brand such as its rich traditions and rituals, and signature St Regis Butler Service. Through a phased approach, areas across the hotel will undergo renovations to deliver an on-brand experience in New Cairo whilst remaining open to guests. - TradeArabia News Service
The Canada-based owner of a fire-fighting plane that crashed while fighting wildfires in Australia last week, killing three American crew, said Monday the incident was "devastating."

Coulson Aviation chief executive Wayne Coulson described walking the fire-scorched crash site on Sunday where wreckage of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules is strewn in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales state.

He told reporters in Sydney on Monday that there's still no explanation for the tragedy.

He said the company's focus now is on providing support to the victims' families.

Ian McBeth of Great Falls, Montana, Paul Clyde Hudson of Buckeye, Arizona, and Rick A. DeMorgan of Navarre, Florida, died when their C-130 Hercules tanker crashed last Thursday after dumping fire retardant on a blaze northeast of the town of Cooma in southern New South Wales.

Coulson Aviation grounded its aircraft in New South Wales and neighboring Victoria after the crash.

Coulson said the crews had since returned to the skies, despite the lack of any explanation for the tragedy.

New South Wales state Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is leading the investigation and a preliminary report is planned to be released within 30 days.
The High Court here deferred the hearing on a state government plea challenging the acquittal of Bollywood actors in a blackbuck poaching case to March 30.

Actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabbu, Neelam and a local, Dushyant Singh, had sought time to argue the case.

A lower court had convicted actor Salman Khan in the case on March 5 last year, sentencing him to five years in jail.

The actor was sent to prison for shooting and killing blackbucks in Kankani village near Jodhpur on the night of October 1, 1998, during the shooting of the film, "Hum Saath Saath Hain".

The five co-accused were acquitted, giving them the benefit of doubt.

"The hearing on the leave to appeal was scheduled for Monday but the defence counsel sought time to argue the case," said prosecution counsel Mahipal Bishnoi.

Granting the plea of defence counsel K K Vyas, Justice Manoj Kumar Garg deferred the hearing till March 30.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

The monetary value of Iran's exports via its Isfahan province in the current Iranian year (began March 21, 2019) has exceeded $2.2 billion, Director General of Isfahan Customs Administration Rasul Kohestani Pajouh said, Trend reports citing IRIB.

The total weight of the exported goods was just over six million tons, the director said.

Compared to the same period of the preceding Iranian year, the exports of goods increased by 48 percent in terms of weight, and by 11 percent in monetary terms, Rasul Kohestani Pajouh said.

The customs official noted that 50 percent of the exports were iron and steel products, 20 percent - oil products, and the rest was mainly comprised of dairy products and rubber.

During the reported period, 138 kilograms of gold worth over $5.2 million was exported via Isfahan, the director said noting that the gold exports increased by 109 percent in terms of weight, and by 169 percent in monetary terms.

Meanwhile, Iran imported 93,000 tons of goods worth $368 million from Italy, Germany, South Korea, India, France, the UAE, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Turkey and China, the customs official said.

According to him, the imports increased by 42 percent in terms of weight and by 19 percent in terms of value.

Main imports during the reported period included electrical and mechanical equipment, raw materials, rubber and metals, the director noted.

The customs official said that the revenues of Isfahan Customs Administration increased by 33 percent and amounted to three trillion rials (roughly $714 million).
Snohomish County

King County

On a soaking wet Thursday morning, volunteers had nearly come to the end of their Everett, Wash., route for Snohomish Countys annual homeless point-in-time-count when they spotted a woman surrounded by luggage, sitting beneath pink and gray umbrellas on the sidewalk.Holly Shelton, a volunteer and county social-services worker, crouched down to introduce herself, explaining the count was a way to understand the scope of the regions homeless crisis. Shelton asked her if shed be willing to take a survey, a brief series of questions about homelessness and other things such as mental health, substance use and HIV/AIDS status.The woman underneath the umbrellas looked up from her crossword, smiled and shook hands with Shelton. She was homeless, she explained, but would rather not participate.And so, Shelton couldnt count her.In all, though Shelton encountered seven people who identified as homeless that day, she only counted three  a reflection of the varied ways local governments conduct counts they rely on to show funders how many people are experiencing homelessness on any given night.Homeless point-in-time counts like these were conducted across the United States this week, because they are the main way cities and counties are able to solicit federal dollars to address homelessness. As rough as these counts can be, they are required for federal investment.But across the state, methods for counting people vary widely. Snohomish County uses an in-person and service-based count in which only people surveyed contribute to the overall total.In contrast, Seattle and King County use an observation-based count in which people seen in shelters, tents, RVs and other structures are counted, but the surveys are done separately and extrapolated upon in order to determine overall population numbers.Snohomish Countys point-in-time count got Project Homeless attention last year as one of the Washington counties with the largest overall increases in homelessness from the previous year, increasing by more than 250 people  a 30% jump. Most of the increase was driven by unsheltered homelessness.A change in methodology also contributed to the increase. In 2019, in addition to the countys usual process of conducting more interviews at food banks, meals and inside shelters over several days, homelessness-services staffers used their caseload databases to call people and interview them for the point-in-time count. This process yielded an additional 120 surveys.Despite its lack of precision, the point-in-time count helps inform communities about how homelessness originates and what it looks like.What weve found over the years is most people homeless in Snohomish County are from Snohomish County, said Snohomish County Human Services grant and program specialist Robin Hood. We are finding people dont move a lot. They dont have the means to move very much, and theyre kind of comfortable where they are.The count is happening as Snohomish County is undergoing a significant political shift. Residents recently voted out incumbent Sheriff Ty Trenary, who instituted a series of reforms aimed at cutting down jail deaths and reducing the jail population of people who are homeless, mentally ill or addicted to opioids. He was ousted by Sheriff Adam Fortney, a former sergeant in the department, who ran a tough-on-crime campaign that criticized Trenarys approach.At 2:30 a.m. Friday, recently-elected King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay was in Tukwila, getting ready to count homeless people in southwest King County, though thats not his district.This is where they needed us [volunteers], he said, starting up the red Camry that he borrowed from his sister for the count. Zahilay takes transit most places. A King County councilmember should think about all of King County, not just their district.Volunteers like Zahilay are critical to the one-night count, held in King County in the early morning hours, when many homeless people are in shelters. Zahilays job was to count the ones that arent.That wasnt easy. He spotted a few people obviously sleeping outside, under boxes, storefront awnings or the gazebo in White Center Heights Park, but Zahilay and the volunteers with him were also tasked with trying to count how many people were sleeping in vehicles.Thats much harder. This suburban segment of King County, from Vashon Island to Auburn, held over a fifth of King Countys unsheltered homeless population by last years count  the most behind Seattle  but that number has fluctuated by hundreds each year since 2017.Most of the dozens of cars Zahilay and his fellow volunteers counted and entered into a smartphone app  a new method King County is trying out this year  were informed guesses. They looked for condensation on the windows, tarps or blankets hanging and expired registration.Zahilay was uncomfortable getting so close to the cars, afraid that peering in the windows might startle someone inside. He and his family spent some time in a shelter when he was in third grade, and he remembers what it was like when visitors would come through.It feels like a violation, Zahilay said. Like if someone just walked into your living room.In King County, volunteers are told not to speak to the homeless people they see. Those kinds of conversations will happen in the two weeks after the count, when surveys will be distributed to homeless people throughout the area, collecting a clearer picture of why people here are homeless.Zahilay and his group did end up interacting with one person that night: A man sleeping under a gazebo in White Center Heights Park. They gave him a bottle of water.Zahilay kept thinking of him the rest of the night.I understand its important to gather data, Zahilay said as he neared the end of the route. I dont think a statistic on homelessness can show me what its like to be alone in the dark, in a park, asking for water.
President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed that talks about 2023 polls has been gaining momentum even though it was barely a year ago that he got re-elected for a second term.

President Buhari who disclosed this in a chat, also spoke on the perceived sour relationship with his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo as a well as on comments by former Minister of Defence, T.Y Danjuma.

Speaking on 2023 election, President Buhari said Elections, as necessary as they are in a democracy, must not consume our entire lives, times and resources. We must give space for the development of our country.

It is often said that while statesmen think of governance, and how they can make things better for their country, politicians think of the next election. I am hundred percent concentrating on how we can move the country forward economically; how we can bring about peace and security to our country, he said.

On the rule of law, governments human rights record, the extended detention of Sambo Dasuki and Omoyele Sowore, Buhari replied: The two examples you cited are still before the courts, so the less said on this matter, the better, lest we be in contempt of court.

Asked to comment on PUNCH decision to call him Major General (rtd) instead of President in protest of governments disobedience of court orders, Buhari said: Am I not a retired Major General of the Nigerian Army? I didnt just pick the rank in the streets, I earned it.

President Muhammadu Buhari also opened up on relationship with his Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, describing it as perfect.

He also spoke on comments by former Minister of Defence, T.Y. Danjuma, about the general election in Nigeria and the speculation that a cabal exists in his government

The president said: I addressed this matter before. I was the one who went round the country on campaigns, and I was the one voted into office as President twice. No one else did, and no one else took the oath of office, and can exercise the powers of a President.

On Danjumas declaration that if he revealed some secrets, Nigerians wont be able to sleep, Buhari responded: And what is the vote of confidence of Nigerians in me, as expressed in the polls last year? That is what matters more, not the opinion of one man.

On the EAC and how the body has been silent, Buhari said: They dont have to play to the gallery in doing their work. They dont have to do it on the pages of newspapers, but rest assured that they are working quietly and efficiently. Results are what matter, and you will see their influence on our economic policies in due course.

PV: 0
MOT's due to take place on Tuesday have been cancelled (John Stillwell/PA).

All MoT tests for cars and light vehicles have been suspended with immediate effect, the Department for Infrastructure announced last night.

The shock move comes after issues were raised with vehicle lifts at test centres.

Paul Duffy, chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA), said in a statement last night that following further inspections of lift faults at MoT centres, the contractor had not provided sufficient assurances on the effectiveness of the ongoing repairs.

Tests on heavy good vehicles and buses will continue.

Anyone scheduled for a car or light vehicle MoT today has been told not to attend.

Mr Duffy said the precautionary measure had been taken to ensure the health and safety of staff and customers.

Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon held an urgent meeting with officials this evening in relation to the matter.

The DVA has said that all customers, except customers with four-year-old vehicles and taxis, will be automatically issued an MoT exemption certificate and therefore can continue to drive.

The exemption will be recorded in the DVA system and a hard copy will arrive by post in the coming days.

Mr Duffy said: For customers with four-year-old vehicles and taxis, we are working to urgently find a solution to get these vehicles through MOT and will contact customers directly.

The DVA will issue a further statement as a matter of urgency to advise these customers and those who have MoTs booked for later this week. We want to advise customers that more cancellations are very likely.

The DVA recognises the considerable inconvenience and disruption this will cause for many people and sincerely apologises that it has been unable to rectify this situation more quickly.

Given the urgency of this situation, we are asking the public to follow media, social media channels and nidirect for updates. Staff will also be kept fully informed by their centre managers.

Earlier, Ms Mallon had refused to say if compensation will be provided to those affected by cancelled MoT tests to pay for hire cars.

She was also unable to give a timeframe as to when the situation will be resolved, but said she was taking steps to ensure it would not happen again.

Around 5,000 tests have already been cancelled after signs of cracking were uncovered in 48 of 55 vehicle lifts at MoT centres across Northern Ireland.

Inspections and repairs are currently being carried out, with Ms Mallon issuing temporary four-month exemptions to affected drivers.

Those who had an appointment cancelled will also be refunded half of the test fee and given a free test.

Asked if compensation will be paid out to drivers who have to hire a car due to their MoT certificate expiring as a result of a cancelled test, the minister said she was restricted in what she could do.

I have to operate within the legislation and I absolutely understand the disruption thats been caused to people. You mentioned people that are working class and are struggling to make ends meet  thats why I got into politics, she told BBC Radio Ulsters Nolan Show.

In term of compensation, I have to operate within the legislation, this is public money.

I have considered compensation, but what are the parameters? What are the thresholds? What are the criteria? We get into a very difficult area.

Ms Mallon said she first became aware of the problem last Tuesday when she was told of one faulty vehicle lift.

On Wednesday she was told 48 lifts had been taken out of operation.

She moved to issue exemptions within 48 hours.

The exemption, however, does not apply to four-year-old cars, as they have never been issued with an MoT certificate, although they will be prioritised, alongside taxis.

Im restricted in what I can do for taxi drivers, as they are subject to a PSV licence, she added.
France will fly home citizens who wish to leave Wuhan, eastern China, the city at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak that has sickened thousands and killed 82, the government announced. Their repatriation via a direct flight to France could take place in the middle of this week, with Chinese permission, under the supervision of medical experts, Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said late Sunday after an emergency cabinet meeting called by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. The number could "range from a few dozen to a few hundred," Buzyn said, adding that consular authorities in Wuhan were doing a headcount. Junior foreign minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told France Info radio Monday that "other Europeans are turning to France," and added: "We are also working to assist the return of a certain number of European nationals" on what could turn out to be several planes. France and Britain are the only two European countries with consulates in Wuhan. About 500 French citizens have registered with the consulate but Lemoyne estimated the total number there to be probably around 1,000, including staff and family of automaker PSA and students. The Chinese government has sealed off Wuhan and neighbouring cities, effectively trapping tens of millions of people -- including thousands of foreigners -- to contain the coronavirus. The United States has also said it would arrange a flight to evacuate personnel and citizens trapped at the epicentre of the virus outbreak. Buzyn said that on their return, repatriated French citizens would "stay in a holding area for 14 days", which is the estimated virus incubation period. PSA said Saturday that it would repatriate expat staff and their families -- 38 people in total -- from Wuhan. With coronavirus diagnosed in three people who had recently been to China, France is the first European country with confirmed imported cases. Six suspected cases are being analysed, Buzyn said. On Sunday, Paris cancelled a parade for the Lunar New Year, celebrated by the city's large Chinese community, as a "precaution", according to Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Celebrations planned for Bordeaux were also cancelled. France has deployed a large medical team to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to take charge of arrivals who showed symptoms of the contagious virus. burs-mlr/wai/boc
Genetic discoveries over the past 25 years have substantially advanced understanding of both rare and common diseases, furthering the development of treatment and prevention for ailments ranging from inflammatory bowel diseases to diabetes, according to a study published in Nature Research in January.

The paper, titled "A brief history of human disease genetics," reviews breakthroughs in the association of specific genes with particular disorders, progress mostly driven by advances in technology and analytical approaches. The study also provides a framework for medical innovation to improve clinical care in the field.

"The future of medicine will increasingly focus on delivering care that is tailored to an individual's genetic makeup and patterns," says Judy H. Cho, MD, Dean of Translational Genetics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director of The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, and a co-author of the report. "Applying this knowledge will help us to enhance personalized health and medicine for patients at The Mount Sinai Hospital now and for years to come."

The study tracks advances in genomics over the past two decades through better technology, expanded access to vast and diverse data, and the development of other foundational resources and tools. The researchers also note the evolution of how diseases were discovered and identified.

Another major advancement is the increasing availability of large prospective population-based cohorts, known as biobanks. These biobanks often include tissue samples from individuals of many ethnic backgrounds and provide access to a wide range of demographic, clinical, and lifestyle data. The study finds that systematic approaches to data sharing, such as global collaborative networks, are critical in characterizing new disorders.

Today, genetic testing for individuals with symptoms and for at-risk relatives occurs routinely; it ranges from cancer screenings to noninvasive prenatal tests. But challenges remain, including the absence of evidence-based guidelines to support health care recommendations, disparities in testing across society, and the lack of experience in genomics by some health care professionals.

The researchers say the biggest task in the coming decade will be to optimize and broadly implement strategies that use human genetics to enhance understanding of health and disease, and maximize the benefits of treatment. This will require joint efforts by the industry and academia to establish:

comprehensive inventories of genotype-phenotype relationships across populations and environments;

proactive measures to address entrenched disparities in scientific capacity and clinical opportunities that benefit individuals and societies across the world;

a systematic assessment of variant and gene-level function across cell types, states, and exposures;

improved strategies for turning basic knowledge from assessments into fully developed molecular, cellular, and physiological models of disease development; and

application of these biological insights to drive new treatment and preventive options.

###

The report was co-authored by Eimear Kenny, PhD, Director of the Institute for Genomic Health and Associate Professor of Medicine, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Neurology/Neurosurgery, and Orthopedics in the 2019-2020 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 12th nationally for Ophthalmology, Mount Sinai St. Luke's and Mount Sinai West are ranked 23rd nationally for Nephrology and 25th for Diabetes/Endocrinology, and Mount Sinai South Nassau is ranked 35th nationally for Urology. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and Mount Sinai South Nassau are ranked regionally.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
24/01/20 09:56

Art Shipyard has exceeded the targets

Art Shipyard as an investment of Besiktas Group started its activities in April 2019 on Tuzla bay Turkey, in the fields of ship repair maintenance and docking. In a very short time, Art has been able to attract many leading owners with its docking and repair services, especially with the ballast water treatment system (BWTS) retrofits undertaken
By Joanna Plucinska and Maayan Lubell

OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) - The presidents of Israel and Poland called on Monday for greater efforts to combat anti-Semitism as the world marked 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp amid concerns over a resurgence of anti-Jewish prejudice.

More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished in the camp's gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease.

"Our duty is to fight anti-Semitism, racism and fascist nostalgia, those sick evils that ... threaten to eat away at the foundations of our democracies," Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said at a venue near the former camp, which is now a museum.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, who did not attend Israel's national Holocaust Memorial last Thursday because he was not allowed to speak, thanked Rivlin for his presence at Auschwitz.

"This presence is a sign of remembrance, it is a visible sign of opposition to inhuman treatment, hatred, against all forms of hate, especially racist hate," Duda said.

Set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940, at first to house Polish political prisoners, Auschwitz became the largest of the extermination centers where Adolf Hitler's plan to kill all Jews - the "Final Solution" - was put into practice.

It was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945.

Returning to the site where her relatives were murdered, 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman, who now lives in Australia, recalled the horrors of the camp.

"We could hear children coughing, crying, choking from the gas and also the smell of human flesh and the great fear we experienced that maybe you will be the next victim," she said.

During a somber ceremony at the gate to the camp, Duda spoke of the chilling efficiency of the Nazis' genocidal plan, which included vast crematoria to burn the bodies of victims.

"For years the factory of death operated at full capacity. Smoke was rising from the chimneys, the transports were rolling. People walked and walked in their thousands. To meet their death," he told a gathering that included several dozen ageing survivors, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

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"PERNICIOUS" ATTITUDES

Studies show that anti-Semitic sentiment persists, especially in Europe, despite the scale of the Nazi atrocities, the powerful testimony of survivors and the number of films, books and exhibitions chronicling the Holocaust.

A 2019 survey by the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League showed that about one in four Europeans harbor "pernicious and pervasive" attitudes towards Jews, compared with 19% of North Americans.

In Germany, 42% agreed that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust", it said. Two people were killed in a shooting near a synagogue in eastern Germany in October, in what officials called an anti-Semitic attack.

Despite the joint message on anti-Semitism, Monday's event highlighted tensions between Poland and Israel over Holocaust remembrance.

Rivlin called on Poland not to politicize the history of the Holocaust, a reference to the insistence of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government that Poles had behaved entirely honorably during World War Two.

As part of a broader policy of historical revisionism, PiS seeks to highlight Poland's own suffering in the war, when some six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed and Warsaw was razed to the ground.

While celebrating the thousands of Poles who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust, PiS ignores others who helped the Germans and killed Jews.

"We shall forever hold sacred and cherish the courage of the ... thousands of Poles," Rivlin said. "We remember that during the war the Polish nation fought with great courage but we remember too that there were not a few in the Polish nation who stood by and even contributed to the murder of Jews."

In addition to Jews, more than 70,000 Poles were deported to Auschwitz, as well as 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and several thousand other people.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the State Department would contribute an additional $2 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

Two years ago its director, Piotr Cywinski, appealed to donor countries for more support. Germany was until now the only country to respond, although the United States and Poland had previously been big donors.

(Additional reporting by Alicja Ptak, Pawel Florkiewicz, Marcin Goclowski, Wojciech Zurawski and Malgorzata Wojtunik; Writing by Justyna Pawlak and Alan Charlish; Editing by Gareth Jones and Giles Elgood)
Washington: Momentum is growing to call witnesses to Donald Trump's impeachment trial after it was revealed his former national security adviser has written a book manuscript saying Trump directly tied military aid to Ukraine to politically motivated investigations.

The revelations about John Bolton's forthcoming book have shaken up the Senate impeachment trial, which had appeared to be moving towards a speedy acquittal for Trump as early as the end of the week.

Trump's lawyers have argued there was no connection between the delivery of US$391 million ($A575 million) in US military aid and investigations into Trump's potential election rival Joe Biden.

Two key Republican senators on Monday (Tuesday Australian time) said they were increasingly likely to join Democrats and vote to subpoena Bolton to appear at the trial. The Democrats need four Republican votes to call witnesses and produce documents related to the case.
We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in MCS Services Limited (ASX:MSG).

What Is Insider Buying?

Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.

We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.

View our latest analysis for MCS Services

MCS Services Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when insider Gabriel Hewitt bought AU$114k worth of shares at a price of AU$0.015 per share. Even though the purchase was made at a significantly lower price than the recent price (AU$0.023), we still think insider buying is a positive. Because it occurred at a lower valuation, it doesn't tell us much about whether insiders might find today's price attractive.

In the last twelve months MCS Services insiders were buying shares, but not selling. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

ASX:MSG Recent Insider Trading, January 27th 2020

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Story continues

Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It appears that MCS Services insiders own 36% of the company, worth about AU$1.6m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About MCS Services Insiders?

The fact that there have been no MCS Services insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. Insiders own shares in MCS Services and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. To put this in context, take a look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Armenias National Assembly has passed a law aiming to fight organized crime groups and their leaders, known in the region as thieves in law. Debate over the measure briefly turned the parliament chamber into an atmosphere where the thieves in law might have felt at home, with scuffles, screaming and swearing.

Eurasianet reports in its article Armenia takes on thieves in law that the bill was passed January 22 on a party-line vote: the ruling My Step faction voted for it, while MPs the Prosperous Armenia party voted against it and those from Bright Armenia abstained.

Russia passed a similar law in 2019. Georgia introduced a similar law in 2004, and it was strengthened in 2018.

The law is modeled on similar efforts in the post-Soviet space. Now, creating or leading a criminal subculture group in Armenia is a crime punishable by five to 10 years in prison and confiscation of assets. The definition of the group is broad, and allows members to be arrested even if they have not committed an actual crime.

As elsewhere in the region, Armenia saw an explosion of organized crime in the chaotic 1990s. And while the situation has settled somewhat, organized crime leaders are still known and feared figures in Armenia. The murder of Andranik Harutyunyan, who went by the name of "Massivtsi Andik (referring to his Yerevan neighborhood), was one of 2019s most widely discussed crimes.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has spoken of the need to rein in the criminal groups. At a press conference last July he complained that thieves in law are popularly thought of as honorable people, but that people who order murders and thefts shouldnt be respected. This subculture has to be taken down, a lot of problems, including political phenomena, result from this, he said. In August, after the government approved a draft of the law, he expanded on his thoughts: People who belong to this subculture think of prison as their home, this law will send them home, he said. This is a serious issue and I have to admit that our law enforcement doesnt have the capacity to solve it.

In November, the newspaper Past reported that a group of thieves in law were organizing a meeting in the mountain resort town of Tsakhkadzor and that one of the agenda items was going to be Pashinyans campaign against their culture.

They had some political support, as well: one MP from Prosperous Armenia, Vardan Ghukasyan, said in November that he respected thieves in law and that they shouldnt be interfered with.

When the law came up for discussion in parliament on January 21, Prosperous Armenia again opposed it. MP Gevorg Petrosyan complained that belonging to a group shouldnt be a crime and that the authorities should instead focus on fighting a three-letter word, an apparent reference to a vulgar word for sex worker.

Another MP, independent Arman Babajanyan, objected and said that the party should apologize for the remark. That led to a verbal spat, which in turn led to some pushing between Prosperous Armenia and other MPs. Speaker of parliament Ararat Mirzoyan reproached the Prosperous Armenia MPs, asking them do you want a razborka? using a Russian word meaning something like a showdown, a gangster means of settling a dispute. He suspended parliamentary privileges for the day for four Prosperous Armenia members.

The other opposition party in parliament, Bright Armenia, argued that the approach wouldnt work. This law is not capable of combating criminal subcultures because its going to cause legal problems in its application, said Edmon Marukyan, the partys leader, during the January 21 debate. Criminal subcultures should be fought by strengthening law enforcement.
Photo: sean hobson/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in Denver? Read on for everything you need to know.

Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets hold moment of silence for Kobe Bryant

The Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets paused for a moment of silence ahead of their Sunday afternoon game to honor Kobe Bryant.

Read the full story on KHOU 11 News.

Two people found dead in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado

Two people were found dead in Colorados Rocky Mountain National Park by rangers searching for a person reported to be suicidal, NBC News reports. The park, which is about 70 miles northwest of downtown Denver, received a report Friday afternoon that a person who was suicidal might be in the park, according to a park press release.

Read the full story on NBC10 Boston.

Students post notes of kindness in bathroom

Students at a Denver-area high school are expressing love and kindness in an unlikely location.

Read the full story on KRON 4 News.

The 10 healthiest cities to live in the US in 2020

Miami was ranked the healthiest city in the US, and Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, and Austin rounded out the top five.

Read the full story on Business Insider.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
A suspected case of coronavirus has been reported in Rajasthan, following which the patient has been kept in isolation, state Health Minister Raghu Sharma

Jaipur: A suspected case of coronavirus has been reported in Rajasthan, following which the patient has been kept in isolation, state Health Minister Raghu Sharma said on Sunday.

He said a doctor, who returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China, was kept in isolation at the SMS Hospital on the suspicion of being affected by coronavirus. Directions were given to conduct a screening of all the family members of the patient, he added.

In an official statement, the minister said a blood sample of the patient was sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune.

He added that a total of 18 people from four districts of the state had returned to the country from China and the respective district chiefs and medical officers were directed to keep them under surveillance for 28 days.

Sharma also urged the Union health minister to make the screening facility available at the international terminals of various airports in the country.
US President Donald Trumps impeachment trial enters a pivotal week as his defence team resumes its case and senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal. The articles of impeachment charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Those decisions on witnesses may be complicated by reports that Trump said he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals. That is from former NSA John Bolton in a draft of his forthcoming book. The report by The New York Times was later confirmed by The Associated Press news agency. The revelation challenges the defence offered up by Trump and his lawyers in his impeachment trial.

The Capitol Hill manoeuvring will be complemented by high-stakes efforts on both sides of the aisle to claim political advantage from the proceedings as the presidential nominating season kicks off in Iowa on February 3.

Here is what to watch for as the Senate impeachment trial resumes on Monday at 1pm local time (18:00 GMT):

Defence resumes arguments

After a two-hour opening argument on Saturday, Trumps defence team will lay out its case in depth beginning Monday. White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Trumps lawyers do not expect to take the full 24 hours allotted to them, but there will be arguments from some familiar faces.

Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, former independent counsel Ken Starr and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will speak on specific topics.

Dershowitz said on Sunday he would argue that the charges against Trump are too minor to warrant the Republican presidents removal from office under the constitution. Even if true, they did not allege impeachable offences, Dershowitz told Fox News on Sunday.

The Trump team has also teased the notion that it would draw attention to Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company Burisma, while the elder Biden was vice president. An extended focus on Joe Biden, one of the leading Democratic presidential contenders, could mean blowback from even some of the GOP members of the Senate.

Question time

Once Trumps team concludes, senators will have 16 hours to ask questions of the House impeachment prosecutors and the presidents legal team. Their questions must be in writing.

Chief Justice John Roberts will read the questions aloud. He is expected to alternate between both sides of the aisle. Many senators have been taking copious notes throughout the trial in preparation for the question-and-answer time.

Senator John Barrasso told reporters on Saturday that Republicans expected to get together on Monday to start formulating a list of questions. We will meet as a conference and decide what questions we want to pose, what the order may be of those of those questions, he said.

Witnesses

Under the Senate rules passed last week, senators will get another chance to vote whether to consider new witnesses and evidence after the question and answer time is elapsed. Four Republicans would have to break ranks to join Democrats in the GOP-controlled Senate to extend the trial for an undetermined amount of time.

If that happens, expect a bitter fight over which witnesses might be called and which documents might be subpoenaed. Democrats have called for testimony from Bolton, and Trumps acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney. An attempt to call either probably would lead to a showdown with the White House, which claims both men have absolute immunity from being called to testify before the Senate, even in an impeachment trial. Still, Bolton has said he would appear if issued a subpoena by the Senate.

Trump speaks as then-NSA Bolton listens during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in [File: Oliver Contreras/EPA]

While Republicans have hoped for a speedy trial, Trump has called for the testimony of the Bidens and the intelligence community whistle-blower whose complaint about Trumps July telephone call with Ukraines leader instigated the impeachment inquiry.

But some Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham, have expressed resistance to calling those witnesses.

If the vote fails, the Senate could move swiftly to its vote on whether to remove or acquit Trump, giving the president the result he has been looking for as soon as the end of the week.

Senate rules also call for four hours of deliberations before voting. Since senators are required to sit silently during the trial, expect a closed session where they can deliberate in private.

A new tape

Trumps lawyers argued on Saturday that no one knows what his motives were on holding up military assistance to Ukraine. A recording obtained by the AP hours later suggests the president well understood that assistance was a point of leverage over Ukraine.

The recording is of 2018 meeting at the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC, that Trump had with donors, including two now-indicted associates of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The audio portion includes Trump inquiring about Ukraine, How long would they last in a fight with Russia? He later calls for the firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

The recording contradicts the presidents statements that he did not know the Giuliani associations, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. They are key figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges.

If new evidence and witnesses are allowed, the recording could take centre stage in the Senate proceedings.

Election

The trial is resuming with one week to go until the Iowa caucuses, and is again keeping four Democratic contenders  Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet and Amy Klobuchar  in Washington, DC, instead of campaigning at a critical point in the race.

While they are trapped in Washington, DC, Trump will venture outside the capital as he seeks both to exert political retribution on Democrats who impeached him and reward a party-switching legislator who backed him in the House.

President Trump reacts after speaking during a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio [File: Tony Dejak/AP Photo]

Trump will hold a rally on Tuesday in New Jersey to repay the favour to Representative Jeff Van Drew, who became a Republican last month after voting against the articles of impeachment as a Democrat. He is also set to appear in Iowa on Thursday, days before the caucuses.

Meanwhile, Trump is already looking ahead to his likely acquittal, whenever it may come, promising that Democrats will face consequences for trying to remove him from office. Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man, Trump tweeted on Sunday. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!

Schiff is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and lead impeachment manager. Asked on NBCs Meet the Press programme whether he viewed the tweet as a threat, Schiff replied, I think its intended to be.
Matteo Salvini's latest attempt to grab power in Italy ended in humiliation, as his right-wing populist party lost a crucial regional election, breathing new life into the ruling coalition. Italian bonds surged.

The center-left Democratic Party saw off a challenge from Salvini's League in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, a leftist stronghold for decades.

The PD, a partner in Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's ruling coalition, won 51% of the vote against 44% for the center-right, Interior Ministry figures showed.

The result was a blow to populists both in the opposition and within the government. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the biggest partner in Conte's coalition, scored just 5%. That will likely prompt the Democrats to demand more say over a new government program Conte will draw up in the aftermath of the vote.

Salvini's failure could also stabilize Conte's fragile alliance, reducing the possibility of early general elections. But skirmishes are likely to continue to plague the administration, with Five Star embroiled in a leadership crisis after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio resigned as political leader last week.

Italy's benchmark yield fell the most since August, as markets signaled relief over reduced prospects of early elections. Ten-year yields dropped 16 basis points to 1.08%, on the fading risk of a new government led by the League, whose euroskeptic lawmakers regularly make comments that rile markets.

"Salvini: The First Defeat," daily la Repubblica trumpeted on its front page. "Five Star Craters," said La Stampa. PD leader Nicola Zingaretti tweeted "a thank you" to the Sardines, the youth-led anti-Salvini movement that rallied scores of protesters to squeeze into the country's historic squares and turn out to vote over the weekend.

There was some compensation for Salvini: a rightist coalition led by the League defeated the Democrats in Calabria. Polls had shown the League leader's forces comfortably ahead in the southern region.

Salvini had pledged to deliver an eviction notice to Conte after a victory in the regional vote. But his loss means he will have to wait for a chance to capitalize on his lead in national opinion polls. Salvini already tried and failed to trigger an election when he quit Conte's first coalition last summer.

The focus will now shift to what Conte calls his Agenda 2023, the program he hopes will see the government through to the end of the parliamentary term. Conte wants tax cuts, a boost for private and state investment and a faster judicial system.

The Five Star collapse in Emilia-Romagna may also bode well for investors, giving the insurgent movement less clout in a tussle over whether to strip the country's main toll-road operator Autostrade per l'Italia of its licenses after a deadly bridge disaster.
Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, a dwindling number of elderly Holocaust survivors gathered at the former German Nazi death camp on Monday to honour its more than 1.1 million mostly Jewish victims and to share their alarm over rising anti-semitism.

More than 200 survivors came from across the globe to the camp the Nazis built at Oswiecim in then-occupied Poland, to share their testimony as a stark warning amid a recent surge of anti-semitic attacks on both sides of the Atlantic, some of them deadly.

Survivors dressed in blue and white striped caps and scarves symbolic of the uniforms prisoners wore at the camp, passed through its chilling "Arbeit macht Frei" (German for "Work makes you free") black wrought-iron gate.

Accompanied by Polish President Andrzej Duda, they laid floral wreaths by the Death Wall in Auschwitz where the Nazis shot dead thousands of prisoners.

"We want the next generation to know what we went through and that it should never happen again," Auschwitz survivor David Marks, 93, said earlier at the former death camp, his voice breaking with emotion.

Thirty-five members of his immediate and extended family of Romanian Jews were killed in Auschwitz, the largest of Nazi Germany's camps that has come to symbolise the six million European Jews who died in the Holocaust.

From mid-1942 the Nazis systematically deported Jews from all over Europe to six camps -- Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Organisers insist that Monday's memorial ceremony must focus above all on what survivors have to say rather than the bitter political feuds that have tainted the run-up to the anniversary.

"This is about survivors, it's not about politics," Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress, told AFP in the Auschwitz camp, now a memorial and state museum run by Poland.

"We see anti-semitism rising now and we don't want their (survivors) past to be their children's future, or their grand children's future," he added.

Royals, presidents and prime ministers from nearly 60 countries will attend the ceremony, but no top world leaders, some of whom opted instead to attend a high-profile Holocaust forum in Israel last week seen as rivalling the ceremonies in Poland.

Poland's President Duda boycotted the Jerusalem forum after he was denied the opportunity to speak there while Russian President Vladimir Putin was given the floor, despite having earlier falsely accused Poland of colluding with German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and contributing to the outbreak of World War II.

Duda was to make an address at the Monday ceremony in Auschwitz alongside survivors.

While the world only learned the full extent of its horrors after the Soviet Red Army entered the camp on January 27, 1945, the Allies had detailed information about Nazi Germany's genocide against Jews much earlier.

In December 1942, Poland's then London-based government-in-exile forwarded a document, titled "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", to the Allies.

The document included detailed accounts of the unfolding Holocaust as witnessed by members of the Polish resistance, but drew disbelief and only muted reactions from the international community.

To inform the Allies, Polish resistance fighters Jan Karski and Witold Pilecki famously risked their lives in separate operations to infiltrate and then escape from Nazi death camps and ghettos in occupied Poland, including Auschwitz.

Regarded as exaggeration and Polish war propaganda, "a lot of these reports were simply not believed", renowned Oxford historian Professor Norman Davies told AFP.

Despite "strong demands" by the Polish and Jewish resistance for the Allies to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz and other death camps, "the military's attitude was 'we've got to concentrate on military targets, not on civilian things'", said Davies.

"One of the targets that the (British) military did bomb was a synthetic fuel factory near Auschwitz" in 1943-44, he added.

Although Allied warplanes flew over the death camp itself, no orders were given to bomb it.

"It was one of the biggest crimes committed by those that were indifferent, because they (the Allies) knew what was happening here, they could have done something about it and they deliberately didn't," Auschwitz survivor David Lenga, 93, told AFP, standing next to a barbed wire fence inside the former camp.

"People of this world need to be educated about the consequences when they become indifferent to evil; if you let evil raise its ugly head, this (the Holocaust) is exactly what is going to happen," said Lenga, a Polish Jew who now lives in California.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of all Nazi death and concentration camps and the one where most people were killed, primarily European Jews, but also Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and Poles.

Operated by the Nazis from 1940 until 1945, Auschwitz was part of a vast network of camps across Europe set up for Hitler's "Final Solution" of genocide against the estimated 10 million Jews in Europe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The disease began in Wuhan, China, and has now killed 80 people in that country

Chinese students will be kept away from their classmates at schools across Australia in a bid to prevent an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

The extreme measures come as pupils look set to return to classrooms this week.

Fears of the virus spreading through schools are high after it was introduced to Australia this month from China, where it was first detected in Wuhan.

A Brisbane boarding school has told parents its 10 Chinese students will be contained to a separate living area for two weeks before they are allowed to return to their classes.

Newington College and The Scots College for boys and Kambala school for girls have told parents that students whose families had been to China would require a doctor's certificate to commence term one. Kambala, at Rose Bay, is pictured

The New South Wales Department of Education is also encouraging all school principals to 'monitor children and staff closely for any strange illnesses.' Pictured is Newington College

They will also have to undergo daily medical checks, The Australian reported.

A number of prestigious schools in Sydney have also put measures in place in the hopes of containing the outbreak as three of the four cases of the disease confirmed in Australia are in NSW.

Sydney's Newington College and The Scots College for boys and Kambala school for girls have told parents that students whose families had been to China would require a doctor's certificate to commence term one.

The Scots College told parents in an email it had received received 'several enquiries' about coronavirus, according to the ABC.

'If your family has recently visited China, we ask that you refrain from sending your son/s to school until they have received a medical clearance from a doctor,' the email reads.

Pupils who had visited China would have to 'visit the College Clinic immediately for a preliminary check-up' before they could start classes.

Pymble Ladies College parents have also been asked to comply with strict guidelines to protect pupils and staff from the spread of the virus.

Three men in NSW aged 43, 53 and 35 and one Victorian man aged in his 50s were confirmed to have caught the disease. Pictured are passengers arriving at Sydney Airport from Wuhan

Parents were asked to keep girls home for at least 14 days from their return to Australia if they had visited China over the Christmas holidays.

Pymble girls should also not attend school within 14 days of their last contact with someone who had visited a virus-affected area, Nine.com.au has reported.

The Scots College is among schools which have issued warnings about coronavirus

Melbourne private schools Firbank Grammar School and Scotch College have asked parents to keep their children home for 14 days if they have travelled to parts of China affected by coronavirus, according to 3AW.

Nine.com.au also reports Sydney private schools including Ravenswood School for Girls, Knox Grammar School and St Aloysius' College have issued similar guidelines.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said any child who had been in contact with a person confirmed as having coronavirus must not attend school or childcare for 14 days after the last contact with the infected person.

'Fourteen days represents the internationally recognised incubation period for the disease,' Dr Chant said.

'After this time the child is considered to be not be at risk of infection.'

Students who had been to Wuhan and Hubei during the school holidays could return to school but should be carefully monitored for symptoms of coronavirus infection.

'The most common symptom is a fever,' Dr Chant said. 'Other symptoms include cough, sore throat and shortness of breath.'

Anyone who exhibits these symptoms should be isolated immediately from other people and seek medical attention as soon as possible.

A 21-year-old Chinese student is likely to become the fifth person in Australia to be infected by coronavirus, health authorities have said.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus at the end of December, Chinese authorities have placed 56 million people in lockdown. Pictured is a Chinese health worker taking a patient's temperature

Private schools with students whose families have recently travelled to China are banning those pupils from returning to classes.Pictured are medical workers moving a coronavirus patient from the intensive care unit of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University

The nation's chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy confirmed the woman was in isolation and had tested positive to the virus in preliminary examinations.

'She is in isolation until the final confirmation,' Professor Murphy said.

'But NSW Health feel she's likely to be the fifth case in the country.'

Health authorities are working to track down people the 21-year-old woman came into contact with and potentially infected.

The news comes after three men in NSW aged 43, 53 and 35 and one Victorian man aged in his 50s were confirmed to have caught the disease.

The virus, which experts fear will 'highly likely' continue to spread in Australia, has so far killed 80 people in China and infected more than 2,000 worldwide.

Since the outbreak at the end of December, Chinese authorities have placed 56 million people in lockdown - including more than 100 Australian children aged between six months and 16 years old.
Seven years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories.

Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts.

Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters.

To help remedy this, every week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented.

         

Construction Industry Training Board  Board Trustee



CITB is the statutory skills body for the construction industry in Great Britain and its purpose is to make better provision for the training and maintenance of skills in the industry. CITB raises around 200m annually via a training levy, and works closely with employers and the Government to ensure national construction skills needs are met. CITB seeks to create the culture and conditions that will deliver new ways of working, embracing new technologies, creating a demand in construction for more skills, new skills and higher level skills. CITB aspires to be at the forefront of effective commissioning and grant practice and is undertaking a high-profile transformational reform programme in order to achieve this.

Time: Around 16 hours per month.

Remuneration: Expenses.

Closes: 28 January

         

Homes England  Chair

The Chair will be responsible for the proper running of the Homes England Board. They will guide and influence the Agency at a strategic level providing confident, clear and consistent leadership. They will also lead the Agencys relationship with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, who they will meet on a regular basis. The Chair will act as an ambassador for the Board and for Homes England, helping to build and develop collaborative strategic partnerships that support and promote Homes Englands core mission. The successful candidate will influence and network with key decision makers and stakeholders and explain how the organisation is transforming

Time: Up to two days per week.

Remuneration: 95,000 per annum.

Closes: 31 January

         

Northern Ireland Office  Lead Non-Executive Director



The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) is seeking to appoint a Lead Non-Executive Director to its Management Board. In addition to his/her responsibilities as a Board Member, the role of the Lead Non-Executive Director is to chair the Departments Audit and Risk Committee. The successful candidate will be expected to take up the position in May 2020. Non-Executive Directors provide a key role in the strategic and operational leadership of the Northern Ireland Office. They complement the balance of skills and experience of Government Ministers and officials by bringing independent advice, support, constructive challenge and a fresh external perspective to help shape a departments work.

Time: Approx. 20 days per annum.

Remuneration: 12,500 per annum plus expenses.

Closes: 03 February

         

Solent Local Enterprise Partnership  Chair



The Solent LEP is seeking to recruit a Chair who is an influential local leader and who can bring energy and passion to act as a champion for the areas economic success. The Chair requires sufficient standing to be able to convene the local business community and public sector stakeholders, while having the insight to oversee the development of an economic strategy and the relationship skills to work effectively with government. We want you to have a voice, make a difference and give something back to the region. The Chair must come from the private sector (Individuals can only be classed as private sector if their organisations do not appear on the Public Sector Classifications guide which can be viewed on the Office for National Statistics website).

Time: Minimum one day per week on average.

Remuneration: Reasonable expenses.

Closes: 29 February

         

Migration Advisory Committee  Chair



The Chair of the MAC is appointed by the Home Secretary to oversee the operation of the Committee. The Chair has overall accountability for the MACs work and is responsible for overseeing the operation and output of the Committee, in collaboration with the Home Office Secretariat. To date, the MAC has operated hands-on in its analysis and interaction with the Secretariat. The Chair is responsible for establishing effective working relationships within the Committee, across the Secretariat and with government departments.

Time: Two days per week.

Remuneration: 40,000 per annum.

Closes: 17 February

         

Environment Agency  Board Member



The Secretary of State, working closely with the Chair of the Environment Agency, is seeking to appoint four new members to the Board of the Environment Agency to boost resilience and replace outgoing members. The Secretary of State wants to attract high-calibre and forward-thinking applicants from diverse backgrounds. Applicants will need to demonstrate they are able to carry out a full range of non-executive responsibilities and have relevant skills, knowledge and expertise. Board members have the opportunity to shape the strategic vision of the Environment Agency and think in different ways putting net zero, climate adaptation and innovative finance at the heart of its ambitions.

Time: Four days per month.

Remuneration: 350 per diem, reasonable expenses.

Closes: 25 February

         

Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership  Chair



The Tees Valley Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) are looking to recruit a new LEP Chair and new LEP members from the private sector to deliver our ambitious economic plans. The Combined Authority and LEP strive to ensure an equal and diverse membership, and through this latest round of appointments, have committed to achieve 50% female representation on the LEP board in 2020. Due to the current LEP Chair coming to the end of his term, we are looking to appoint a new LEP Chair who has a strong private sector background, experience of building effective organisations and has the motivation to fully commit to and represent the LEP on a local and national scale.

Time: 6-8 days per month.

Remuneration: Travel and subsistence expenses.

Closes: 29 February

         

School Teachers Review Body  Chair



As Chair of the STRB, you will be responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction to the STRB in fulfilling its functions as a public body; and for delivering high quality recommendations in response to the matters that have been referred to the STRB by the Secretary of State. You will do this by leading the work of the STRB in a way that deals comprehensively with the matters that have been referred to it; where necessary challenging existing assumptions; making effective use of the skills and expertise of the other members of the STRB; and providing effective challenge to the evidence and representations that are submitted to the STRB by the wide range of consultees

Time: Approx. 30 days per annum.

Remuneration: 350 per diem.

Closes: 01 March
Hilleman Laboratories, a joint venture between pharma company MSD and Wellcome Trust, on Monday said Raman Rao will assume the role of its chief executive officer on February 1, 2020.

He will replace Davinder Gill who will leave as CEO of the company on January 31, 2020, Hilleman Laboratories said in a statement.

Rao has more than 22 years' experience in research and development, manufacturing and commercialisation of vaccines for infectious diseases, and is joining from Takeda Vaccines where he was Vice President of Global Product Operations, it added.

Established in 2009, Hilleman Laboratories is a research and development joint venture with a not-for-profit mission to develop affordable vaccines for diseases that commonly affect low-income countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Monday moved the National Human Rights Commission demanding action against alleged police atrocities on anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters in Uttar Pradesh, claiming that victims have been made the accused in case-related FIRs and no police officer has been named.

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday moved the National Human Rights Commission demanding action against alleged police atrocities on anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters in Uttar Pradesh, claiming that victims have been made the accused in case-related FIRs and no police officer has been named.

The delegation, led by senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, met top NHRC officials and made a detailed 31-page representation which included videos and photographs as "evidence" of alleged atrocities and human rights violations in the state.

After the meeting, Rahul alleged the Uttar Pradesh government has "gone to war against its own people" and urged the NHRC to act decisively to protect the "constitutional rights of our citizens".

"A delegation of Congress leaders presented the NHRC with evidence of the atrocities against the citizens of Uttar Pradesh by the state government, which has gone to war against its own people. The NHRC must act decisively to protect the idea of India and the Constitutional rights of our citizens," he said in a tweet.

A delegation of Congress leaders presented the NHRC with evidence of the atrocities against the citizens of UP by the State Govt., which has gone to war against its own people. The NHRC must act decisively to protect the idea of India & the Constitutional rights of our citizens. pic.twitter.com/lR6wcOYjFv  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 27, 2020

The party also submitted a memorandum to the NHRC in which it has alleged that the BJP government in the state "treats its own citizens like criminals".

"Given the role of a reckless state government that views the law and Constitution as mere inconveniences, treats its own citizens like criminals, and wears its hostility towards ordinary citizens as a badge of pride, the duty of institutions such as the NHRC to act as checks and balances and to embody and protect the values enshrined in the Constitution of India becomes paramount," the Congress memorandum said.

It further said the NHRC has a "glorious history" of addressing injustices when all other institutions have fallen short. "We hope and expect that this instance will not be an exception to that legacy."

After the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi told reporters, "In Uttar Pradesh, there has been gross human rights violations. We have submitted videos and photos to the NHRC."

"It has been found that there has been a failure to lodge FIRs. Not a single police officer (has been) named as accused. There have been numerous FIRs against protestors in which victims have become accused," he alleged. Singhvi said the Congress has given detailed facts including on "deaths of 23 people" and also details on how they were killed "as some were shot in the chest".

"We showed videos of BJP and RSS people recruited as police mitras who were unleashed on people. Notices were given to people by administration threatening them against joining protests," he alleged.

The memorandum submitted by the Congress said photos and videos uploaded by witnesses, ground reports and other "unbiased" media reports show police firing and mercilessly beating of the protesters, in some cases even minors.

"They are also seen destroying public and private property. The fact that such actions were neither punished nor even taken cognizance of by the state government points towards one of only two possibilities  either the police and state government were working in connivance with each other or such actions were ignored by the state government in order to curb the protests," the memorandum said.

"Both conclusions are disturbing and directly offensive of the Rule of Law and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution," it added.

The leaders who met the NHRC officials included Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khurshid, P L Punia, Jitin Prasada, Rajiv Shukla and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.

The Congress leaders demanded a thorough probe into the deaths that took place in the state during violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has written to European Parliament President over resolutions against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying that passing the same will set an "unhealthy precedent".

Arguing against the resolutions, Birla pressed to "respect sovereign processes of fellow legislatures".

The letter further read, "It is inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgement on another, a practice that can be misused by vested interests. I would urge you to consider the proposed Resolution in this light, confident that none of us want to set an unhealthy precedent." While it is unclear who Birla was referring to as "vested interests", but he is perceived to be hinting at those opposed to the new citizenship law.

Birla wrote the letter to European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli.

Out of 751 members of the EU Parliament, 626 have moved six resolutions on two issues -- CAA and reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir. The diplomatic offensive by the EU against India comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Brussels for the India-EU summit in March.

This is seen as EU Parliament's tactics to pressurise New Delhi, particularly after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's relentless global campaign against India over both the issues.

Now with Birla shooting off a letter warning the EU Parliament of setting an "unhealthy precedent", the ball is now in the court of EU.
When units of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army liberated the concentration death camp at Auschwitz 75 years ago today, they confronted evidence of the most horrific crimes in human history. Human beings, or rather skeletons, were lying in the cots with only a covering of skin and distant stares, recalled a Red Army soldier. Around 8,000 prisoners, on the verge of death, were all that remained from the far more than 1 million people killed at Auschwitz in less than five years.

The entrance to Auschwitz

Over the preceding days, the SS had evacuated the camp, forcing 60,000 prisoners into death marches westward, or immediately executing them. They left behind 837,000 women's dresses, 370,000 suits, 44,000 pairs of shoes and seven tons of hair, which came from an estimated 140,000 people and contained traces of the poison gas Zyclon B.

Auschwitz was at the heart of the machinery of industrialised mass murder that spanned the entire continent. Jews, Sinti, political opponents of the Nazi regime and others were deported to the death camp from every part of occupied Europe. Many had been previously interned in other concentration camps, often several, of which there were 11 within the borders of modern-day Germany alone. In addition, there were numerous concentration camps in the Baltic states, Poland, the Netherlands, France and Austria. A total of 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

In most camps, inmates were exterminated through forced labour, undernourishment and severe abuse. The concentration camp system was closely tied to big business. Dozens of companies established factories around the Auschwitz camp to exploit forced labourers. They included companies such as Krupp and Siemens-Stuckert. The huge corporation IG Farben, which was a conglomeration of major companies, like Bayer, BASF and Hochst, even ran its own concentration camp, Auschwitz III, where some 11,000 people were interned.

Centuries-old latent prejudice and aggression against the Jewish people combined with Hitler's hatred of the organised workers' movement and socialism to mobilise and politicise the crazed anti-Semitism upon which Auschwitz was based. As the social democrat Konrad Heiden wrote in his Hitler biography, published in 1936, The workers movement did not repulse Hitler because it was led by Jews, but rather the Jews repulsed Hitler because they led the workers' movement. Hitler was brought to power by the ruling class to destroy the entire workers' movement. Anti-Semitism was a weapon to achieve this end.

The destruction of the Social Democrats, the Communist Party and the trade unions was the precondition for launching the Second World War and putting the persecution of the Jews into practice. The downfall of the German socialist movement cleared the way for the destruction of European Jewry, insisted David North in his book The Unfinished Twentieth Century.

However, it was only with the outbreak of the Second World War that the murder of Europe's Jews could be realised. The extermination of the Jews merged with the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, which claimed the lives of 27 million people and was, from the outset, aimed at physically eliminating the entire political and intellectual elite, Jewish Bolshevism in Hitler's words, and securing German hegemony for centuries to come.

The barbaric character of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, found its most finished expression in this military campaign of annihilation, wrote the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) in its Historical Foundations document.

The images of this horrendous crime of capitalism are deeply burned into popular consciousness and will be remembered as long as humans live on this planet. Fascism, never again! is the deeply felt slogan of the vast majority of the population in the face of the resurgence of the extreme right.

Even German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier felt compelled, in his speech at the Shoah Memorial in Yad Vashem, to warn of the return of anti-Semitic, volkish-nationalist and authoritarian conceptions. We cannot say that we Germans have learned from history when only a heavy wooden door prevented a right-wing extremist from carrying out a bloodbath in a synagogue on Yom Kippur in Halle, the president declared.

The danger posed by fascism is undoubtedly greater today than at any time since the unconditional capitulation of the Third Reich. With the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing extremist party is represented in Germanys federal parliament for the first time, with over 90 seats. Right-wing terrorist networks threaten and murder political opponents, and neo-Nazi gangs carry out rampages against refugees.

However, warnings about the threat of fascism from Steinmeier and other representatives of the ruling elite ring hollow. In recent years, they have increasingly embraced the agitation and policies of the AfD, thereby creating the ideological climate and political conditions that have facilitated its rise. Germany's head of state has played a key role in this process. Shortly after the AfD's electoral success in the 2017 federal election, he stated that one must remove the walls of irreconcilability around the far-right party and develop German patriotism.

Shortly thereafter, Steinmeier met with AfD parliamentary group leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel to consult on the formation of a new government. The Grand Coalition was then sworn into office in March 2018, elevating the AfD as the official opposition. The other parties left open the chairmanships of several important parliamentary committees for the AfD to occupy, and have closely cooperated with the right-wing extremists ever since.

Facebook post with Steinmeier, Weidel, and Gaulland

The trivialisation of the crimes of the Nazis and the struggle against anti-fascism are being carried out by the entire ruling elite. In his speech on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Steinmeier uttered not a single word about the extermination of the Jews. This was a clear concession and a signal to the AfD, which describes the Nazis as so much bird shit in over a thousand years of glorious German history. When students protested last October against AfD founder Berndt Lucke being allowed to return to his teaching post as a professor, Steinmeier accused them of aggressively prohibiting debate, which was not acceptable.

A key role in relativising the worst crimes in human history is being played by the right-wing extremist Professor Jorg Baberowski, who is backed by the German government and defended against any criticism by a large portion of the media. The professor of Eastern European history at Berlin's Humboldt University told Der Spiegel in February 2014 that he supported the rehabilitation of the since deceased Ernst Nolte, an anti-Semite and Nazi apologist. Nolte was done an injustice. Historically speaking, he was right, said Baberowski, before adding by way of explanation, Hitler was not a psychopath, he was not vicious. He did not want to talk about the extermination of the Jews at his table.

There was not a single voice raised in protest from the professoriat or media against this breathtaking whitewash of the Nazis' crimes in the most widely read German news magazine. On the contrary, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and the Socialist Equality Party (Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei) were denounced by the media because they critiqued Baberowski at public meetings and in leaflets. The administration at Humboldt University insists to this day that Baberowski is not a right-wing extremist and that attacks in the media on him are unacceptable.

Baberowski in the Daily Stormer

Emboldened by the backing from the political establishment that he has received, Baberowski has gone even further. He told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung a few days ago that Hitler did not want to know anything about the greatest crime in human history. Stalin revelled in cruelty, while Hitler did not do so. He didn't want to hear anything about Auschwitz, which makes the matter even worse, wrote the newspaper in a paraphrase of Baberowski's remarks.

The claim that Hitler didn't want to know anything about Auschwitz is a well known ploy by right-wing extremists to deny that "the murder of European Jewry was the outcome of a systematically pursued policy, and that this policy was pursued by the highest authority of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, according to Hitler biographer Peter Longerich, in reference to his report against the British Holocaust denier David Irving.

Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, such right-wing filth is being printed in one of Germany's largest circulation newspapers. And not only that. The Foundation of Memorials in Saxony has invited Baberowski to deliver the keynote address at its main commemoration event for the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, along with German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

According to the foundation, the event will not only commemorate the victims of World War II, but also the victims of the dictatorships in Eastern Europe, which were accompanied by suffering and persecution once again. The plan is for eye witness accounts to be read from prisoners of the Soviet special internment camp in Torgau, where thousands of Nazis and war criminals were imprisoned after the war.

The purpose of this historical revisionism at the highest levels of government and by large parts of the media is to make right-wing extremist positions socially and politically acceptable once again. Under conditions of the deepest capitalist crisis since the 1930s, the ruling elite is returning to a policy of vicious attacks on the working class at home and militarism abroad.

Neither the destruction of thousands of jobs in the auto industry, nor the neocolonial occupation of Africa, nor the drive to rearm for a third world war can be imposed through democratic means. As it did 90 years ago, the ruling elite is turning to authoritarian and fascist forms of rule. Baberowski himself declared in 2014 that the war on terror could be won only if one were prepared to take hostages, burn villages, hang people and spread fear and terror. This is the language of the Nazis and their wars of annihilation.

This development is by no means confined to Germany. It applies to the ruling elites of all countries. French President Emmanuel Macron praises the fascist dictator Philippe Petain and deploys the army against Yellow Vest protesters. In his xenophobic and nationalist policies, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson relies on support from members of the far-right Britain First party, while in the US, Trump seeks openly to mobilise a fascist base to enforce a vast programme of rearmament and criminal preparations for war.

These policies have no support among a large majority of the population. On the contrary, bitter working class struggles are erupting around the world as workers and young people protest against social inequality, militarism and dictatorship. However, without a revolutionary leadership and a clear programme, these movements cannot be successful, giving the bourgeoisie the opportunity to impose its policies of fascism and war yet again. To prevent a relapse into capitalist barbarism, the decisive task is the building of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution.
A mom allegedly on the run and wanted for questioning in the disappearance of her two kids in Idaho last fall has five days to produce them after she and her new husband were tracked to Hawaii.

Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, who abruptly vacated their Rexburg, Idaho, home last November as local police carried out search warrants related to the disappearance of the children, were located Saturday in Kauai, Hawaii, according to police on the Hawaiian island.

Kauai police said the couple had been staying on the island for an unconfirmed period of time.

In a separate statement to PEOPLE, Rexburg police said Vallows children were not with the couple when they were stopped on Saturday, and there is no evidence the kids were ever in Hawaii.

An order obtained by the Madison County, Idaho, Prosecutors Office and handed to Vallow on Saturday requires her to physically produce the children  7-year-old Joshua J.J. Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan  to the state Department of Health and Welfare or to Rexburg police officers within five days, or risk civil or criminal contempt of court.

RELATED: Mom of 2 Missing Idaho Kids  Who Refuses to Cooperate  Allegedly Believes Shes God Reincarnated

Lori Vallow | Rexburg Police Department

Vallows children were last seen in September, according to Rexburg police, who also are investigating what they term suspicious circumstances surrounding the October death of Daybells then-wife, Tammy.

Investigators discovered that Daybell and Vallow had married within a couple of weeks after Tammy Vallow died. Chad Daybell is a religious author who writes about prophecy and the end of the world, and Vallow allegedly believes she is a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christs second coming in July 2020, according to a court filing by the childrens father, Charles Vallow, who cited her beliefs as a factor in the couples divorce.

Story continues

Charles Vallow was shot and killed in a confrontation with Lori Vallows brother in July at Lori Vallows home in Chandler, Arizona, reports AZFamily.com. The brother, Alex Cox, told authorities the shooting was in self-defense and he was not arrested; Cox himself died in December.

Before moving to Arizona, the Vallows previously had lived on Kauai, reports AZFamily. After Charles Vallows shooting, Lori Vallow moved to Idaho, where she married Daybell.

Chad Daybell | Rexburg Police Department

The case of the missing kids began after police conducted a welfare check on November 26 after receiving calls from concerned relatives. According to a police press release, Vallow and Daybell told authorities that Joshua was with a family friend back in Arizona. But police later learned the boy, who is adopted and has special needs, was not staying with the friend.

RELATED: Brother of Missing Idaho Kids Begs Mom to Help Investigators Find Them

Police later issued another statement, alleging the mother has refused to work with law enforcement to help us resolve this matter.

We know that the children are not with Lori and Chad Daybell and we also have information indicating that Lori knows either the location of the children or what has happened to them, said the statement. It is astonishing that rather than work with law enforcement to help us locate her own children, Lori Vallow has chosen instead to leave the state with her new husband, the release added. We strongly believe that Joshua and Tylees lives are in danger.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLEs free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

After being served Saturday with the order to present her children to authorities, Vallow and Daybell were stopped again Sunday but not arrested by authorities who used a warrant to search them and their rental vehicle, Rexburg police Capt. Greg Hagen tells PEOPLE.

There are no pending criminal charges or related warrants for their arrest, say police on Kauai.

KPDs desire is to continue to assist the Rexburg police in whatever way we can with their efforts to locate the missing children, said Kauai Police Chief Todd G. Raybuck in a statement posted to his agencys Facebook page. Its our sincere hope that the children have a safe return.

Anyone with information about either missing child is asked to call Rexburg police 208-359-3000 or 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678).
Enterprise Georgia 2019 report and future projects

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava got acquainted with the LEPL Agency's Enterprise Georgia's report for 2019 and heard about future projects in 2020. The agency implements the Entrepreneurship Incentive Program Produce in Georgia. Deputy Minister Irakli Nadareishvili also attended the meeting.According to the Agency's Director Mikheil Khidureli, 359 enterprises launched in 2014-2019 with the support of Enterprise Georgia, 85 of which were funded in 2019. In addition, more than 13,000 new jobs were created during the reporting period. As part of the hotel component of the program, 136 hotels were funded in the regions of Georgia in 20162019, adding 3850 new hotel rooms to the country's tourism sector and creating more than 3,000 new jobs. As for the development component of the film industry, 31 projects were implemented in 2016-2019 and 17400 temporary jobs were created.After the events of June 20, 2019, the stoppage of regular flights from Russia has greatly affected small and family hotels in Georgia. To support them, a co-financing mechanism has been set up to support the small and family industries. According to Khidureli, the program funded 177 applications during September - December 2019.According to the agency director, in 2020 the program structure has changed and it has become more focused on the needs of small and medium-sized businesses in the regions as new sectors are added, including the development of balneological resorts, fishing, ceramic manufacturing, tourism services and more.Khidureli emphasized another priority field- export and its promotion. In 2019, with the help of the Agency, 120 Georgian companies participated in 16 international exhibitions. In addition, the agency systematically organizes training for export managers. About 263 export managers used this service in 20142019. By 2020, the agency plans to develop the trading platform: www.tradewithgeorgia.com.The presentation also focused on the Agency's strategy for attracting investment in 2020-21 and ways to implement it. As a result of this strategy, 3500 new jobs will be created in the next 2 years, along with many other benefits, in the highest paid, prospective sectors. The document was prepared using the methodology of IFC (International Finance Corporation) and the international experts were involved as well. It reflects the stage of Georgia's development when it is possible to attract more high-tech, knowledge-based and strategically important investments in the country.Changes have been made to the program since 2020 and new priority areas have been identified. Its vector will be focused on supporting economic development and business projects in the regions. Following the change, the program will be more tailored to the contemporary demands and challenges facing our country today, noted Turnava.According to the Economy Minister, Enterprise Georgia is one of the most successful programs to stimulate entrepreneurship and within the program, several hundred enterprises have been operational since 2014 and thousands of new jobs have been created.
Phillip Blackwell, 55, is accused of a catalogue of sex offences involving five alleged victims

A former X Factor contestant who failed to impress the judges with his version of Spandau Ballet's 'Gold' has appeared in court charged with rape and sexual assault.

Phillip Blackwell, 55, is accused of a series of sex offences involving five alleged victims - including rape, attempted rape and indecent assault.

The former supply teacher appeared before Warwickshire Magistrates' Court today to face the charges and spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and nationality in a 20-minute hearing.

No application for bail was made and Blackwell was remanded in custody until his next appearance at Coventry Crown Court on February 24.

Blackwell achieved momentary fame on the ITV talent show in 2008 when his version of Spandau Ballet's 'Gold' failed to impress judges Cheryl, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell.

He later went on to tour the country and perform alongside other stars at the X Factor Live events in 2009, which featured Alexandra Burke and JLS.

The offences are alleged to have taken place in Nuneaton, Warwickshire and Birmingham in the late 1990s - before his time on the show.

Blackwell was arrested on Wednesday and charged on Sunday with four counts of rape, an attempted rape and an indecent assault.

Blackwell achieved momentary fame on the X Factor in 2008 (pictured) when his version of Spandau Ballet's 'Gold' failed to impress the judges

He was arrested on Wednesday and charged on Sunday with four counts of rape, an attempted rape and an indecent assault (Pictured: Blackwell on the X Factor)

Baldiv Atwal, prosecuting, said: 'The nature of the offences are serious in their own right.

'Mr Blackwell has no previous convictions and is a gentleman of good character.'

District Judge Lesley Mottram said: 'You will be remanded in custody. I send you to the crown court in Coventry where your next appearance will be on February 24.'

Blackwell, of Launceston, Cornwall, was charged following a joint investigation between Warwickshire and West Midlands Police.

He is accused of raping two women in the Yardley and Selly Oak areas of Birmingham on February 9, 1997 and November 22, 1997.

Blackwell is also charged with indecent assault of a woman in Bournville, Birmingham, on December 21, 1997.

He also faces an attempted rape charge of a woman in Frankley, Birmingham on February 3, 1998.

The former supply teacher appeared before Warwickshire Magistrates Court today to face the charges and spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and nationality

The final two rape charges relate to the alleged rape of a woman in Weddington, Nuneaton, on May 30, 1998.

During his TV appearance 12 years ago, the X Factor flop told Cheryl how he hoped to achieve 'multi platinum-selling albums, all over the world'.

He also boasted that he believed there was nobody better in the UK charts than him at the time.

He then left Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh in stitches with his comical rendition of Gold in which he held the final note of the song for almost 30 seconds.

Described as a 43-year-old supply teacher at the time, he told the judges: 'I think if you get me in the studio, I'll be able to get albums out there. Its a different act.'

He later said: 'Louis loved me but Simon didn't so it was left to Cheryl. I knew she wouldn't have the guts to go against Simon. She's gutless.'
Hierarchies of Care is Krista Van Vleet's third book. Her first, Performing Kinship: Narrative, Gender, and the Intimacies of Power in the Bolivian Andes, examines how day-to-day interactions and more unusual events in the lives of indigenous women affect their social bonds and relationships. Her second book, Making Families through Adoption, provides a comprehensive look at adoption practices in the United States and in other cultures, offering insight into the practices and ideology of kinship and family.

Palomitay, in the highland city of Cusco, does not function like the sort of orphanage we tend to imaginewhere children without parents are raised. Rather, Palomitay accepts unmarried young mothers girls as young as twelve and no older than eighteenwho have no relatives willing or able to care for them or their babies. The Peruvian state places these young women in the residence after declaring them morally and materially abandoned.

Importantly, Palomitay is one of only a handful of orphanages that attends to the specific needs of young mothers. Only those girls who commit to raising their children may remain in Palomitay.

Van Vleet, who has also done extensive research on kinship and gender in Bolivia, became curious about how girls in those situations came to see themselvesor notas mothers, and how they developed and made decisions for themselves and their babies in search of a "good life." Her research led to her latest book, Hierarchies of Power: Girls, Motherhood, and Inequality in Peru, published by the University of Illinois Press.

Praising the book as "accessibly written and analytically sophisticated," reviewers note that Van Vleet pays particular attention to the moral entanglements that emerge for the girls amid the inequalities and insecurities of today's Peru.

"Van Vleet centers the stories and experiences of very young mothers who navigate violences and injustices large and small," writes Brown University anthropologist Jessaca Leinaweaver. "Here, an international humanitarian non-governmental organization cares for young mothers and their children by teaching the mothers how to care. It's a tremendously layered lesson: an education in care smuggles with it understandings of racial and social hierarchy in Peru, hinting at the inadequacy of indigenous domesticity."
Ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Monday targeted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by invoking the 2016 incident involving Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid.

Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like Bharat tere tukde honge in JNU. They were threatening to violate Indias sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet, Nadda said on Twitter.

Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like Bharat tere tukde honge in JNU. They were threatening to violate Indias sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet.  Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) January 27, 2020

They sought Kejriwals permission to prosecute this tukde tukde gang but one year later, till yday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank? he further said in his second tweet.

Kanhaiya Kumar, former students union president of JNU, and fellow university student Umar Khalid, were arrested and booked under sedition charges after anti-national slogans were allegedly chanted in February 2016 on the university campus. Kumar, Khalid and eight others were named in the Delhi Police chargesheet filed in January last year.

But since then, says the BJP, the Kejriwal government has not given sanction to prosecute the students. In December last year, BJP leader and former MLA Nand Kishore Garg approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Delhi government to give sanction to prosecute these students, but it was dimissed.

The BJP leader had accused the state government of obstruction of justice by withholding sanction.

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), investigating agencies have to take the approval or sanction of the state government while filing chargesheets in sedition cases. The court had earlier pulled up Delhi Police for filing the chargesheet without obtaining requisite sanction. Delhi government officials said the police had sent a copy of the chargesheet to the home department just two hours before they submitted it in court.

Assembly elections in Delhi will take place on February 8 and votes will be counted on February 11. In 2015, Aam Aadmi Party got a landslide victory by winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats in the national capital.

In its campaign for the assembly elections, the BJP has often raised the issue of the AAP government so far not grating the Delhi Police its nod to prosecute the accused in the case of raising seditious slogans in the JNU.
Photo credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory/Harvey Klehr/New York Times

From Popular Mechanics

Historians have unmasked a fourth Soviet spy who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory during nuclear bomb development in the 1940s.

Los Alamos is still one of the foremost nuclear research facilities in the world.

The fourth spy was much more involved in high-level explosives research than historians could extrapolate before.

The New York Times reports that historians have unearthed a new, fourth Soviet spy who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory during development of nuclear bombs in the late 1940s. During that time, the Soviets developed their own nuclear bomb prototype by 1949, indicating someone working from the inside of U.S. nuclear research. Codenamed Godsend, this spy worked closely with the development of explosive triggers for nuclear bombs.

The spy was named Oscar Seborer, and although he was originally uncovered by 1956 at the latest, those papers were only declassified late last year. In the meantime, historians had used other evidence to put together a case that there was a fourth spy, codenamed Godsend, who was working at Los Alamos. They published their findings in a CIA journal called Studies in Intelligence.

When a reporter sent the academic paper to Los Alamos and asked if the laboratory had any supplementary information to share about Seborer, suddenly there were 10 pages of newly declassified documents from 1956. Historians had been circumspect, saying in their paper that from their evidence, we only know that Soberer [sic] provided something. The truth, from the declassified CIA papers, turns out to be much deeper.

Seborer and his family moved to the U.S.S.R. in 1951, and the earliest concrete record of his employment is in 1945. Six years may not sound like much, but in nuclear research, thats a lifetime. The New York Times explains that all three previously unmasked spies were known to share information about a specific technology called an implosion device.

The first atomic bombs, including the one the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, used a cruder, less efficient explosive technology called a gun device, where uranium is shot into more uranium to cause a reaction. By contrast, the implosion device harnessed a sophisticated chain of small explosives that pushed into a core of plutonium and triggered a nuclear reaction. It required far less of the astronomically costly fuels.

Story continues

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were roughly equal in destructivenessbut fuel for the Nagasaki bomb weighed just 14 poundsone-tenth the weight of the fuel for the Hiroshima bomb, the Times explains . The secret of implosion thus represented the future of atomic weaponry.

Plutonium makes a faster, more efficient nuclear reaction , but it simply couldnt be used in the gun type of detonator. Uranium was too hard to produce and finicky to use, which had created a bottleneck in research and development of new weapons technology. To say that Seborer was involved in detonators is like saying Robert Oppenheimer was a physicist: an understatement to the point of near falsehood.

Seborer was in the front row to the development of the single piece of technology that made nuclear bombs feasible. By the time the U.S. dropped the second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki later in 1945, that bomb contained a tried and tested implosion device. The Soviets tested an implosion device of their own just four years later. Diagrams found in their declassified archives show drawings and schematics of implosion circuitry, with labels in both English and Russian, that experts believe came from spying at Los Alamos.

When Seborer and his family moved to Moscow in 1951, they adopted the name Smith. Oscar lived until 2015, which means that although he dedicated his life to communism, he long outlived the Soviet Union. In their paper , the historians say they believe his brother Stuart Smith is still alive and well in Moscowor, at least he was in 2018.

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PLANTATION, Fla., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BabySparks was announced as one of the Elite 200 companies who will compete in the GSV Cup and will now present at the 2020 ASU GSV Summit. The ASU GSV Summit gathers leaders in government, education, and work advancing social and economic mobility by bending the arc of human potential through innovation. Three companies will be chosen as finalists during the Summit.

GSV Elite 200

With over 4 million downloads in 180 countries, BabySparks develops technology-enabled tools to help parents and caregivers, in multiple languages, support the early development of their young children. Using a proprietary smart adaptive technology, BabySparks' platform learns each child's development profile, identifies specific needs, and then provides parents and caregivers with a customized program to support those needs.

"We are very excited to be selected among GSV's Elite 200," said Gustavo Rodriguez, co-founder and CEO. "Unlocking the full potential of every child in the world is our very mission and we can't think of a more appropriate honor."

The GSV Cup is a unique cross-sector competition -- spanning "pre-K to gray" sectors, including technologies in corporate learning and talent management, workforce analytics, early childhood, K-12, HireED and postsecondary education. The Elite 200 represent 21 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, North America, and South America.

The 2020 ASU GSV Summit will be held from March 30 to April 1 in San Diego. The 2019 Summit drew 5,000 attendees from over 45 countries, including more than 300 investors representing $7+ trillion of capital.

To learn more about GSV, visit: https://www.asugsvsummit.com/companies. For more information about BabySparks, please visit www.babysparks.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter @babysparksco.

Contact:

Jose Bernal

6467074355

[email protected]

SOURCE BabySparks, Inc
Known to be superstitious, politicians are currently worried when told that the planetary changes which took place last week bear a remarkable similarity to those witnessed 30 years ago. This has become a source of considerable concern for the ruling BJP as the country was in the throes of an economic crisis three decades ago. At the same time, students had hit streets to protest against the implementation of the Mandal Commission report while senior BJP leader L.K. Advani embarked on a rath yatra to revive the Ram temple issue. This led to political instability with the country seeing a change of several Prime Ministers. This may well be mumbo-jumbo and the ruling partys fears are possibly exaggerated but it has not stopped its members from consulting their astrologers and keeping a sharp eye on planetary configurations.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi sent a special condolence message on the recent death of Ashwini Kumar Chopra Minna, senior journalist and former BJP MP from Karnal. While she spoke about Minnas distinguished innings as an editor and social worker, Ms Gandhi also mentioned that his friendship cut across political boundaries. The Congress chief had a reason for referring to his friendly ties with political leaders of all hues. It has been known for some years now that as neighbours in Lodhi Estate, Minna and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had developed a warm friendship. Minna constantly mentioned this fact in the course of a conversation, making it a point to underline that this friendship had remained intact even after he joined the BJP. In fact, Ms Vadra is said to have put in a word with the Manmohan Singh government when Minnas security cover was to be scaled down. The move was promptly vetoed on the ground that there was a threat to Minnas life as his father and well-known Punjab editor Lala Jagat Narian was gunned down by militants.

After a prolonged run of bad luck, finally, there is some hope for former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently named him chairman of a committee to oversee the implementation of the party election manifesto in Madhya Pradesh. To outsiders, this may not appear to be a significant development but for those familiar with the Congress ecosystem, this appointment signals Mr Chavans rehabilitation.

When Arun Jaitley vacated the sprawling ministerial bungalow on Krishna Menon Marg last June and shifted to his own place in Kailash Colony, he was told he would be allocated a new bungalow in his capacity as a Rajya Sabha member and a former minister. The urban development ministry zeroed in on 22, Akbar Road, a bungalow which is on every ministers wish list because of its extensive lawns. Former steel minister, Birender Singh, who was occupying the bungalow, moved out when told that the place had been earmarked for Arun Jaitley, who wanted an official residence primarily because he wished to use it for his son Rohans wedding. Jaitley passed away last August but his sons wedding reception will be held at the Akbar Road bungalow on February 15 as decided earlier.

There appears to be no end to the ongoing battle between the BJP and its alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal. Already miffed with the BJP at being ignored, the Akalis are upset that the BJP wanted their candidates to contest next months Delhi Assembly election on the BJPs lotus symbol on the plea that this would give them a better chance in the field. This suggestion was not liked by the Akalis, who felt it was an insult to their partys identity. As a result, they have decided not to participate in the Delhi election. An Akali leader admitted that their party had given in to a similar proposal from the BJP in the last Delhi election but they were persuaded to do so by the amiable Arun Jaitley, who, he said, had a way of handling tricky situations. On the other hand, the current BJP dispensation only believes in pushing its allies to accept its decisions, he maintained. Its a proverbial case of my way or the highway.
Hundreds of Chinese students set to return to Australia when universities resume are stranded in Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus.

The Australia-China Youth Association is providing advice to at least 100 students who are anxious to return to Australia before the first semester of university starts in February.

Universities are yet to finalise their advice for students, but more than 10 Victorian schools are urging parents to keep at-risk children away from school.

More than 200,000 Chinese students study at Australian universities, making up about 10 per cent of the student population. Credit:Louie Douvis

With the new school year starting from Wednesday, multiple private schools have sent letters strongly recommending at-risk students delay their return to school by two weeks.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (January 27, 2020) - In recognition of exemplary efforts and steadfast service, Robert L. Kormos, MD, and Robert A. Wynbrandt, JD, each have been presented with The Society of Thoracic Surgeons 2020 Distinguished Service Award at the Society's 56th Annual Meeting this evening.

"Over the past several decades, the cardiothoracic surgery specialty has faced many opportunities and challenges," said 2019-2020 STS President Robert S.D. Higgins, MD, MSHA. "We have navigated these times because of the strong, visionary leadership of our organization. We honor two leaders, Dr. Robert Kormos and Rob Wynbrandt, who each in their own right have contributed in extraordinary ways to the growth, development, and success of not only The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, but also to the well-being and success of our patients and surgeon members. We congratulate and thank them with this recognition for decades of selfless dedication and leadership at STS."

Robert L. Kormos, MD

Austin, TX

An STS member since 1989, Dr. Kormos most recently served as chair of the STS Intermacs Database Task Force and as a member of the Society's Workforce on National Databases. He previously chaired the STS Workforce on Clinical Education, the Workforce on Surgical Treatment of End-Stage Cardiopulmonary Disease, and the Committee on Circulatory Support and Thoracic Transplantation. In addition, he previously was a member of the Workforce on New Technology and the Workforce on Adult Cardiac and Vascular Surgery.

Internationally recognized for his clinical and research work in mechanical circulatory support, Dr. Kormos specializes in organ transplantation and end-stage heart disease. With this expertise, he played a critical role in integrating the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (Intermacs) into the portfolio of STS National Database programs.

Throughout his more than 40-year career in cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Kormos has provided considerable professional and scientific service. In addition to being a member of 18 professional societies, he has authored more than 340 articles, 330 proceedings papers, 40 book chapters, and a textbook, as well as presented approximately 400 regional, national, and international invited lectures. Dr. Kormos also has been an integral part of educating numerous residents and fellows.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Kormos remained there to study medicine. He completed residencies in general and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Toronto, as well as research and transplant surgery fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Kormos currently is the division vice president of global medical affairs, heart failure, at Abbott Laboratories in Austin, Texas, and professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, where he previously was deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Brack G. Hattler Chair of Cardiothoracic Transplantation.

"Dr. Kormos is a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon with an exceptional record of patient care, delivering superior outcomes and successfully translating mechanical circulatory technologies into clinical and commercial applications," said Dr. Higgins. "He has magnificently demonstrated expertise in building teams and collaborating with clinicians and industry to develop innovations. Few of our volunteer surgeon members have given so much of their time, energy, sweat, and tears to support the STS mission."

Robert A. Wynbrandt, JD

Chicago, IL

Deeply respected by colleagues for his dedication and sharp intellect, Rob Wynbrandt was a positive force within The Society of Thoracic Surgeons for more than 32 years. As the chief administrative officer of the Society, he impressively championed growth, communicated powerfully, and influenced with impact before retiring in early 2019 after 17 years as executive director and general counsel for STS. Prior to that, Wynbrandt was the outside legal counsel for the Society, forming a profound knowledge of the organization and establishing a reputation as a thoughtful, detail-oriented colleague.

With impeccable credentials--a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctorate degree with honors from the University of Michigan Law School--Wynbrandt made innumerable and enormous contributions during his tenure, helping to distinguish the Society as the largest organization in the world serving cardiothoracic surgeons and their patients. As general counsel, he generously shared his sharp legal mind and expertly steered the organization through the challenges of the rapidly changing health care environment. Wynbrandt was involved in the planning and execution of every major initiative that the Society undertook, including the creation of CTSNet, STS-PAC, and the charitable organization now known as The Thoracic Surgery Foundation.

Wynbrandt also largely was responsible for the growth in the Society's staff, membership, and financial stability. The original staff of nine people increased to more than 65 by 2019, while membership grew from 4,400 in 2002 to 7,500 in 2019. In addition, under Wynbrandt's careful stewardship, the Society ventured into many business arrangements, provided management services to six associated organizations, and also developed important collaborations with other prominent medical societies.

Also worth noting are his contributions to the STS National Database, which was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. Wynbrandt was incredibly influential in helping the Database evolve from a major investment by the Society to a premier clinical outcomes registry that is trusted by surgeons, hospitals, researchers, payers, patients, and others. His input, direction, and oversight helped build a Database that is highly respected for its quality, accuracy, transparency, and value. Wynbrandt also helped foster a collaboration between STS and the American College of Cardiology (ACC), which resulted in the STS/ACC TVT Registry, the main repository for clinical data related to transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

"Rob Wynbrandt ushered in an era of self-management, modern offices, and a new governance structure," said Dr. Higgins. "Few people, including our presidents and executive officers, have had the impact that Rob has had. This award recognizes those who have made significant and far-reaching contributions to STS and is primarily reserved for surgeon members, but it's clear that Rob is a very special and deserving recipient of this recognition for his service to the Society."

###

The Distinguished Service Award, established in 1969, recognizes individuals who have made significant and far-reaching contributions to STS and the specialty.

For more information, contact Jennifer Bagley at 312-202-5865 or jbagley@sts.org.

Founded in 1964, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 7,500 cardiothoracic surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The Society's mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.
25th Anniversary Logo "In the quarter century that WBCS has been in operation, we have experienced major growth for ourselves and for all women business owners. We now boast a membership of over 1,200 women business owners and over 80 corporate members." - Debbie Hurst, WBCS President and CEO

The Womens Business Council  Southwest (WBCS) is celebrating its 25th year helping women-owned business grow in the north Texas area and beyond. Founded in 1995 by a handful of women business owners and corporations, WBCS has been committed to providing the vital resources and connections for women entrepreneurs.

In the quarter century that WBCS has been in operation, we have experienced major growth for ourselves and for all women business owners, said WBCS President and CEO, Debbie Hurst. Our organization started with only 16 corporate members and a handful of women business owners, now we boast a membership of over 1,200 women business owners and over 80 corporate members.

The Council provides support to women business owners through their ongoing educational programming and networking events. As women often receive less access to capital for their businesses than male counterparts, it is vital that they know about the resources available.

I know that women still face major challenges to starting, funding, and growing a business compared to majority male-owned companies. Our job here at WBCS is to remain strongly committed to addressing those challenges in new and evolving ways, explains Hurst. In this new decade, I fully expect that we will make great strides in the number of women in the boardrooms and executive suites of our major corporations, as well as in the supply chain which will have exponential impact on the number and opportunities for all women owned businesses. Just last year, our corporate members reported spending 10.3 billion dollars with women-owned companies.

WBCS will kick-off its year-long anniversary celebration at the Parade of Stars Awards Gala on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at the Omni Dallas. Several awards will be given out during the evening including the most coveted Womens Business Enterprise of the Year and Corporation of the Year. In addition to the awards presentations, the event features a bling box purchase with jewelry from JCPenney, gift card grab, cocktail reception, seated dinner, and an after party with dancing.

The Councils work happens through generous support of corporations headquartered in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex. For the 25th Anniversary, Signature Sponsors are Toyota and CFJ Manufacturing, a women-owned manufacturing company in Fort Worth, Texas. Learn more about the 25th Anniversary celebrations at http://www.wbcsouthwest.org/WBCS25.

Event Details

Tuesday, February 4th 2020, 6pm

Omni Dallas  555 S. Lamar St, Dallas, TX 75202

Online registration for WBCS members is $125 and $150 for non-members. To register by Tuesday, January 28, 2020, click here. On-site registration is available at an increased rate. For more information, please call Elizabeth Garner at 817-405-2265.

Main Sponsors

This event is graciously sponsored by DFW International Airport, Software Professionals, Inc., JCPenney, Texas Instruments, Oncor, Vistra Energy, Personalized Payroll Services, Toyota, Parkland, and Prestige Maintenance USA.

Additional Sponsors

American Airlines, Ampcus, Argent Associates, BNSF Railway Company, CAET Project Management Consultants, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Fluor, MUTTS Franchise, Nokia, PepsiCo, Raytheon, Real Time Resolutions, Southwest Airlines Co., University of North Texas System, and Womens Enterprise Texas

About WBCS

Celebrating 25 years, the Womens Business Council  Southwest (WBCS) is dedicated to increasing mutually beneficial procurement opportunities between certified women-owned businesses, corporations, businesses, government entities, institutions, and other organizations. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, WBCS has more than 1,200 Womens Business Enterprise (WBE) Members and 80 Sustaining (Corporate) Members, WBCS is in its 25th year of providing national certification to women-owned businesses. WBCS administers the national certification on behalf of the Womens Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) for north and central Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico. To find out more about WBCS, please visit http://www.wbcsouthwest.org.
Bubs Australia Limited's (ASX:BUB): Bubs Australia Limited produces and sells various infant nutrition products in Australia, China, and internationally. On 30 June 2019, the AU$546m market-cap posted a loss of -AU$35.5m for its most recent financial year. Many investors are wondering the rate at which BUB will turn a profit, with the big question being when will the company breakeven? Ive put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for BUB, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

Check out our latest analysis for Bubs Australia

According to the 3 industry analysts covering BUB, the consensus is breakeven is near. They expect the company to post a final loss in 2020, before turning a profit of AU$5.8m in 2021. BUB is therefore projected to breakeven around a few months from now. In order to meet this breakeven date, I calculated the rate at which BUB must grow year-on-year. It turns out an average annual growth rate of 62% is expected, which signals high confidence from analysts. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, BUB may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

ASX:BUB Past and Future Earnings, January 27th 2020

Im not going to go through company-specific developments for BUB given that this is a high-level summary, however, bear in mind that generally a high forecast growth rate is not unusual for a company that is currently undergoing an investment period.

One thing Id like to point out is that BUB has managed its capital prudently, with debt making up 1.9% of equity. This means that BUB has predominantly funded its operations from equity capital,and its low debt obligation reduces the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are key fundamentals of BUB which are not covered in this article, but I must stress again that this is merely a basic overview. For a more comprehensive look at BUB, take a look at BUBs company page on Simply Wall St. Ive also put together a list of pertinent factors you should further examine:

Valuation: What is BUB worth today? Has the future growth potential already been factored into the price? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether BUB is currently mispriced by the market. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business  take a look at who sits on Bubs Australias board and the CEOs back ground. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The Duchess of Cambridge arrived with her husband The Duke of Cambridge to attend a commemorative ceremony in central London to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday afternoon.

Kate cut an elegant figure in a belted grey coat dress with black velvet collar from Catherine Walker, one of her favourite designers.

She paired the look with sheer black tights, black suede court shoes and a sleek black vinyl box clutch.

Kate kept the look appropriately formal and refined with her hair pulled back off her face in a semi up-do and some pretty flower-shaped pearl earrings from Cassandra Goad.

The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at Central Hall in Westminster, London, to attend the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony / PA

She last wore the Cavolfiore Pearl Studs for Prince Louis' christening. The earrings are available to order from 4,360. They are constructed of 18ct yellow gold and set with seven pearls set with diamonds (0.3cts).

The royals met Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as well as survivor and trust honorary president Sir Ben Helfgott at Central Hall on Monday afternoon ahead of the service which this year marks 75 years since the liberation of notorious concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge reacts as she arrives to attend the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony at Methodist Central Hall in London on January 27, 2020 / AFP via Getty Images

The outing comes as powerful portraits of two 'life-affirming' Holocaust survivors taken by Kate were released to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Central Hall in Westminster, London, to attend the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony. / PA
SANTA FE  Jimmie Barber spoke Spanish at home before arriving at El Camino Real Academy in Santa Fe. The third grader now jokes with friends in English and Spanish.

Thats because the schools dual-language immersion curriculum teaches math, reading and other subjects in both languages.

The landmark Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico lawsuit ordered the state to direct more resources to public schools. Part of that mandate calls for culturally relevant curriculum and more support for students learning English as a second language.

Teachers and administrators at El Camino Real say the schools dual-language curriculum accomplishes both.

I believe learning in both languages helps engage every student in the classroom in a way sticking to one language does not, said Marquita Montano, a dual-language reading interventionist at El Camino Real who works with students who are new to the United States.

At El Camino Real, 80% of kindergarten, 70% of first grade and 60% of second grade are taught in Spanish, while instruction in third through eighth grade is split evenly between the languages.

The school had the highest rate of English language learners in Santa Fe Public Schools last year at 54%. And with more than 800 students, its the largest non-high school in the district. Every El Camino Real student qualifies for free or reduced-priced lunch, which is determined by federal poverty levels.

Principal Jack Lain said the hardest part of operating the school, which opened in 2014, is hiring teachers. He has turned to Spain and Mexico to fill vacancies.

This isnt a maintenance program set up for Spanish speakers to transition to English. Were a dual-language school striving to create bilaterally, Lain said. And even though you hear larger schools dont have community, I think that the dual-language program creates community because were actively knocking down the language barrier that can be a barrier to community.

The New Mexico Public Education Department defines four models for bilingual multicultural education programs: dual-language immersion like at El Camino Real; enrichment, which is designed to further develop the home language of fully English proficient students; heritage language, designed to revitalize a students native language; and maintenance, designed to develop literacy in a primary or home language while also developing a students English skills.

According to the Public Education Department, six of New Mexicos 89 school districts offer bilingual multicultural education programs in a Native American language  either Keres, Navajo or Tewa. All those programs follow the enrichment or heritage model, and four districts have a bilingual Native language program at more than one school.

Pauletta White, assistant superintendent for student support services in Gallup-McKinley County Schools, said the district has at least one Navajo language teacher at every elementary school except for Ramah Elementary, which offers Zuni.

From kindergarten through second grade, parents have the option to enroll their child in the Native language class. Native American language programs require approval from tribal councils or from other appropriate tribal entities.

Some schools have more than one teacher and can offer Native language classes to more grades.

But White said teachers, who must be certified by both the Public Education Department and the Navajo Nation, are hard to find.
Amid uproar over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Register of Citizens (NRC) in the country, Yoga Guru Ramdev on Monday said that no responsible citizen or party should resort to violence.

"Spreading violence, talking of dividing the country, is a traitorous act against the country. No responsible citizen or party should do so," Yoga Guru told reporters.

Earlier on Sunday, he had said that disruptive powers from outside the country would never want India to be economically, socially, politically and religiously stable.

"The protest and demonstration that are taking place in the whole country, with the intention to impede the harmony of the nation by anti- forces," he added.

Protests have taken place in different parts of the country, including the capital, over the CAA which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ours nation is divided. Our motto, e pluribus unum, usually conjures up images of the blending of cultures that has been a hallmark of the United States, and people associate the motto with immigration and assimilation. In that and many other ways American unity is on the endangered list.

First our political divide. The first time I recall hearing the term derangement syndrome was in reference to President George W. Bush. He usually remained above the fray and seldom pursued verbal sparring matches, yet he was called a cowboy, the most dangerous politician on the planet, and we began hearing about the Bush derangement syndrome. Bushs biggest sin seemed to be his post-9/11 popularity and that Democrats couldnt agree with him on anything.

Then came Barack Obama, our faux post racial president, who started off with a series of messianic proclamations that encouraged some of the partisan divisions of today. One example of Obama supporters influencing his arrogance came from Bush bashing Newsweek editor Evan Thomas: In a way Obamas standing above the country  above the world, hes sort of God.

That encouraged Obama to make numerous transformational comments including: we can tell our children that this is the moment  when the rise of the oceans began to slow.

Division was furthered when Obama characterized voters opposing his programs by concluding Americans are hardwired not to always think clearly when were scared. And Michelle Obama laid out her disdain for America when she stated Baracks election was the first time shed ever been proud of our country.

Finally, Obama officially alienated much of the country when it became apparent his idea of fairness doesnt spring from opportunity and individual freedom, but rather from government power, regulations, programs, and (using his own word) redistribution.

Look at racial and cultural divisions. About the time I was starting to shave, Martin Luther King was leading a civil rights movement in which he asked us all to judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. He asked us to get out of the way in terms of segregation and minority opportunity.

But then came identity politics with its emphasis on differences. The progressive/liberal emphasis in recent years has been to proclaim that continued diversity and separateness of cultures is what makes America great. Thats a change which totally discounts the importance of assimilation, and indeed, argues against it.

As a result, contrary to Kings ideals, differences and separateness have been emphasized. This is most obvious on many college campuses with living quarters separated by race and culture, and some courses segregated at the insistence of minority students. De-facto segregation has somehow become politically correct. I believe King would be disappointed with this surge in identity politics and the enmity it engenders.

Eventually Donald Trump came on the scene. He can be very polarizing, but I think of him as a populist reaction to all that has happened the last few decades. His outrageous, hyperbolic style somehow appealed to those conservatives who felt abused by the hostility and even hatred leftists held for them. His rudeness and bullying werent enough to turn these Americans in the direction of extreme leftist policies that have surfaced, such as preaching the evils of capitalism, encouraging support for full term abortions, etc.

There are bitter disagreements about America and everything our country represents. Americans have polarized into extremes of gratitude for our country vs. grievance for all our imperfections. For example, Eric Holder recently cynically challenged conservatives by asking, Exactly, when did you think America was great. In contrast, others reflect the feelings of former slave Frederick Douglass who wrote: I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic.  They were brave men.  With them, nothing was settled that was not right.  With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final, not slavery and oppression.

Many Americans are proud and resolute in their loyalty to America, while recognizing all of its shortcomings. If you try to deny them those feelings, many will turn away from whatever you are promoting. Bitterness rots the soul, while pride and striving to be better feeds the ultimate success of humanity and of our country.

Steve Bakke is a Courier subscriber living in Fort Myers, Fla. He is a retired CPA and commercial finance executive.

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The Crown: Part Six By Michael Moriarty

Communist Africa. Ghana. President Kwamie Nkrumah. A Communist. That is where this episode begins. Yet, it is entitled Mrs. Kennedy . Hmmm Some connection will be made I hope. Our Queen feels threatened by the coming arrival of The J. F. Kennedys and, in particular, Jackie! The Queen is hunting for a wardrobe that might help not be outshined by this extraordinarily magnetic superstar within world leadership, Americas First Lady, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. The Queens insecurities, for myself at least, are so irresistibly human and, yes, breathtaking! The creators of The Crown, particularly with her Highnesss love affair with Christ, helped immeasurably by her attraction to the Reverend Billy Graham?! Genius! Pure literary genius!! Not to mention the thrillingly alive sexuality brought to the Royal Family by the Cupid of photographers, Tony Armstrong-Jones. His arrow, striking so many women and, apparently, at least one man, found a way to own, perhaps temporarily, the Queen of Englands sister. The scene where the Queens husband, now his Royal Highness, plots, finagles and bullies his way to own the dinner table seat next to The First Lady?! Does he succeed? We shall see. Meanwhile, his increasing, yes, passion for the First Lady of America?! My God, what The First Lady of the British Empire must endure from her First Man! Now a male dog in heat! And our poor, beloved Queen?! The look on her face at the dinner table, gazing at her husband making a fool of himself over The First Lady of America?! The exquisite actress, Clair Foy?! Her expressions while gazing at the face of Jackie Kennedy?!?! I laugh and cry at the plight our divine and, by now, following the visit of Billy Graham, our sacred heroine finds herself in. Rarely has any character, of either history or dramatic literature, had such an effect on me! None in fact! At the highest levels of earthly power, William Shakespeares virtual backyard, the true profundity, yes, the deepest levels of great dramatic literature come pouring down on me in the lost and pain-filled eyes of Queen Elizabeth. Yet our bravest of heroines chooses to show Jacqueline Kennedy around Buckingham Palace. In their privacy together we grow increasingly more in love with both of them! Finally, when they arrive to meet the three, undeniably spoiled pets of the Royal Couple?! Quite spell-binding truths begin to erupt from Mrs. Kennedy. She was as shy as Queen Elizabeth herself but chose a strong and handsome lover of crowds and power to feel safe. Then she realizes it has brought her to becoming the center of attention at all major events! In short, two Queens of breathtaking power meet to share their common discomfort at being two of the most talked about women in the world. Sugar, Whiskey and Sherry, the three Royal dogs, greet the two, virtual empresses of world attention, wherein the two women both agree they are more comfortable in the company of animals than human beings. Then, and perhaps most startling, Jackie confesses that her sister might have made the better first lady. Our Queen, and perhaps most of our viewing audience, might agree to their own suspicions that sister Margaret might have been much happier in the role of Queen than her sister, Elizabeth. Two, inevitable soul sisters, Elizabeth II and Jacqueline Kennedy, both find some solace in realizing theyre not alone! Well, theres at least one other human being on the earth suffering almost exactly the same problems! Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home
CPA call on Aborigines Welfare (1957)

Statement by Political Committee, CPA

The Communist Party joins with all progressive-minded Australians in demanding immediate remedial action to advance the welfare of Australian Aborigines.

Publicity given by the Tribune to the Parliamentary Committees report on shocking conditions of Aborigines in central Western Australia broke through the conspiracy of silence maintained by the authorities and capitalist press for over a month and unleashed a storm of public indignation.

The storm should not be allowed to subside until Commonwealth and State Governments jointly are compelled to take complete and adequate measures to improve conditions for all Aborigines.

In this campaign, the organised labour movement should play the leading part. Communists, in particular, should be to the forefront in defence of aboriginal rights, as called for in the Partys Program.

First step should be immediate and full implementation of the WA Parliamentary Select Committees proposals for remedying the position in the Warburton Ranges area. The Commonwealth Government must be pressed to make available the necessary finances.

However, matters cannot be allowed to rest there. Implementation of necessary reforms in Western Australia must be the starting point for comprehensive action to rectify the whole position with regard to our countrys Aboriginal people. Such action should be directed towards:

Abolition of all restrictions on and all forms of discrimination against Aborigines.

Extension of general laws protecting labour and wages to Aborigines working in the pastoral and other industries.

Guaranteed inviolability of tribal territories.

Assistance in development of food and water resources in tribal territories.

Adequate dental, medical and educational facilities, including facilities for technical education.

The overall goal should be to establish equality for the Aborigines, including their right to fully participate in deciding their own affairs and future. The Political Committee calls on all Communist Party organisations and members to increase their activity around this program.

* This article originally appeared in Tribune January 30, 1957
Two absconding men allegedly involved in more than a dozen cases including murder, attempt to murder and under MCOCA have been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, officials said on Monday.

The accused have been identified as Amit alias Dabangg (25) and Ravi alias Muniya (33), police said, adding, their names figured amongst Delhi's top most wanted criminals.

Amit, alleged to be a sharpshooter of Tillu Tajpuria gang, was absconding in a case of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for over two years while Ravi, wanted in murder cases in Delhi and Haryana, belongs to the Sunil Rathi and Neeraj Bawania syndicate, police said.

A reward of Rs two lakh was declared on the arrest of Amit while a cumulative reward of Rs one lakh was declared for the arrest of Ravi, they said.

"On Saturday, police received inputs about movements of Amit and Ravi and the two were arrested from different locations in Delhi," said Manishi Chandra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

Amit started working with Tillu Tajpuria in 2012 and had rivalry with Jitender Gogi gang. In 2014, he opened fire upon Gogi near the Rohini court though he escaped with minor injuries.

Ravi, associated with the Sunil Rathi and Neeraj Bawana gang, later joined hands with Amit and indulged in criminal activities, the officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hungary fell six places in Transparency Internationals (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index compared to the last edition of the report, putting the country in joint-70th place alongside Romania and South Africa.

Hungary achieved a total of 44 points out of 100 (a lower score represents higher perceived corruption). In the EU, only Bulgaria scored lower (43 points).



"Most post-communist EU member states are struggling to address corruption effectively," the report by TI says regarding the low scores by countries in the CEE region. "Several countries, including Hungary, Poland, and Romania, have taken steps to undermine judicial independence, which weakens their ability to prosecute cases of high-level corruption."



Hungary has demonstrated favorable economic growth rates during the past seven years, however, long-term prospects are gloomy and competitiveness remains among the lowest in the region," Jozsef Peter Martin, executive director of TI Hungary argues.



"This is mostly caused by the significant influence of state institutions over part of the economy, as well as the non- transparent and unaccountable functioning of these institutions.



The system of public procurements is heavily distorted, and concentration is apparent in government-friendly oligarchs winning ever more procurements, and the proportion of single-bid procedures being one of the highest in Europe," he adds.



In the previous version of the Corruption Perceptions Index, Hungary received 47 points, enough for 64th place.
A flash fire that erupted inside a taco truck late Sunday night near Spring sent three workers to the hospital.

The workers were prepping food around 10 p.m. Sunday inside La Rota Del Sabor Catracho when the flash fire broke out, according to Rachel Moreno, spokesperson for the Harris County Fire Marshals Office. The truck was parked along Kuykendahl Road near Bammelwood, just south of FM 1960.


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Railways minister Piyush Goyal stated on Monday that the Railways is expected to switch completely to electricity by 2024 as diesel locomotives are steadily being shunted out of service. Speaking at the India-Brazil business forum, Goyal said, "By the year 2024, we expect the entire Indian railway to be run on 100 per cent electricity. It will be the first railway network in the world to be run on 100 per cent electricity. By 2030, we plan to make the entire railway network a net-zero emission network".

This forum was organized during Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's official India visit from January 26 to 27. Apart from Goyal, this event was addressed by Bolsonaro and several other Indian ministers. The central government minister also went onto say that India is planning to make the entire Indian railways a "net-zero emission network" by 2030.

He also stressed on the fact that India wants to be a trade partner with Brazil and said, "India would also love to work together with Brazil on infrastructure development."

Furthermore, the minister said that India has a market that is looking forward to grow into a $5 trillion economy, full of young workforce, vibrant and free society with the rule of law, strong judiciary and media, stable government policies and business-friendly environment.

Also read: Air India sale: Subramanian Swamy threatens to drag Modi govt to court; calls the move 'anti-national'

Also read: Banking sector is biggest stress point, govt in no position to bail it out, says Abhijit Banerjee
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has condemned the violence and election banditry that rocked the rerun elections held in Essien Udim LGA Akwa Ibom State over the weekend.

PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday reported how the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) won the rerun elections for the Senate, state and federal constituencies in the state.

For the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District election, Chris Ekpenyong scored 134,717 votes to beat a former senator, Godswill Akpabio (APC), who had 83,820 votes.

For the Essien Udim State Constituency, the PDP candidate, Esse Umoh, scored 18,999 votes, while the APC candidate, Nse Ntuen scored 7,108 votes.

Mr Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, is from the ward. Mr Akpabio challenged Mr Ekpenyong, who was eventually declared the winner.

Mr Akpabio had earlier announced his withdrawal from the election but INEC rejected it saying he remained the candidate of the APC.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported INEC officials in the state being held hostage inside a public secondary school in Essien Udim, Akwa Ibom.

The Akwa Ibom State Police Command also confirmed the arrest of some persons in connection with electoral violence.

Concerned INEC

Meanwhile, the Commission said the poll was accomplished despite the harrasment, intimidation and abduction of electoral officials.

A statement, signed by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner REC, Mike Igini, on Monday, announced that disruptions took place in Ukana West (Ward 11), Units 5, 8, and 9 as well as Ikpe Annang (Ward 5), Unit 12 in Essien Udim LGAs

He commended the police and other electoral stakeholders for the satisfactory and professional act in securing the collation processes and centres.

The Commission once again, notes with concern and disappointment the various acts of violence and electoral banditry on full display in 2019 election which were again repeated by key actors in Essien Udim in the early hours of the rerun elections.

This was clearly exemplified by the disruptions that took place in Ukana West (Ward 11), Units 5, 8, and 9 as well as Ikpe Annang (Ward 5), Unit 12 in Essien Udim Local Government Area as documented by the Commission and the Nigeria Police, the official said.

Read full press statement:

AKWA IBOM RE-RUN ELECTIONS CONCLUDED

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, in Akwa Ibom State, hereby announces the conclusion of the court- ordered Senatorial/Federal and State constituencies rerun elections scheduled for Saturday 25th January 2020.

The elections were scheduled by the Commission as part of the nationwide rerun elections that arose from post-election disputes emanating from the last general elections in 2019.

The successful conduct of these elections marks the conclusion of the 2019 elections in Akwa lbom State, following a hitch-free collation of results at all stages of the process and final Returns declared by the Returning Officers for the three elections.

This was accomplished despite the extremely difficult situation and untold harrasment, intimidation and abduction of poll officials by hired political thugs, many of whom were arrested and are in custody of the Nigeria Police in Uyo.

The Commission once again, notes with concern and disappointment the various acts of violence and electoral banditry on full display in 2019 election which were again repeated by key actors in Essien Udim in the early hours of the rerun elections.

This was clearly exemplified by the disruptions that took place in Ukana West (Ward 11), Units 5, 8, and 9 as well as Ikpe Annang (Ward 5), Unit 12 in Essien Udim Local Government Area as documented by the Commission and the Nigeria Police.

The security agencies, despite the initial challenges did a commendable job with satisfactory professionalism, particularly in the full implementation of the designed model for securing the collation processes and centres.

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This ensured that polling unit results were not compromised or swapped with pre-written results to supplant the will of the people. These commendable efforts were led by the Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal with all members of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).

Above all, the Commission wishes to thank all stakeholders, particularly the people of Essien Udim, who were undeterred by these occasional disruptions and came out to vote in the rerun elections.

The State Office commends all staff of the Commission as well as Youth Corps members deployed for these elections for their exemplary conduct and integrity in adhering to and implementing fully, fairly and impartially, laid down rules and regulations for the conduct of elections.

Mike Igini, Esq

Resident Electoral Commissioner
More women need to be encouraged to become pilots to help ease a shortage of crews in the industry, according to John Slattery, the chief executive of the commercial aviation division of Brazilian jet maker Embraer.

Last year, Boeing estimated that as many as 800,000 extra pilots will be needed over the next 20 years to cope with the rising number of people using air transport.

A shortage of pilots was a key reason why Ryanair was forced to cancel thousands of flights in 2017. It had seen pilots leave to join carriers such as Norwegian.

But the axing by under-pressure Norwegian of its transatlantic services from Ireland to North America, and the collapse of airlines including Thomas Cook, Wow, Germania and Monarch improved pilot supply for other carriers.

Encouragement

"There's a couple of different percentages going around, but the percentage of global commercial pilots that are female is somewhere between 3pc and 4.5pc," Mr Slattery told the 'Airfinance Journal' conference in Dublin last week.

"But 50pc of the population is female. So, we're trying to fly aircraft, but we're only fishing for pilots in 50pc of the gene pool. That's partly what we need to improve. We need to get more females trained [and] encourage them to come into the industry.

"We need to be going after female kids and encouraging the Stem [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects in primary school, and not in secondary school and third level.

"We need to outreach to the parents and say being a pilot is a good progression for your daughter, not just for your son."

Mr Slattery, a native of Ennis, Co Clare, said that Embraer is also trying to hire more female engineers.

"We want more and more engineers to be female across the organisation," said the aviation boss.

Last week, Mr Slattery said a $4.2bn deal that will see Boeing take an 80pc stake in a joint venture with Embraer's commercial aircraft wing is "mission-critical" for the Brazilian group if it's to withstand pressure from Airbus.
A German p rivacy watchdog is investigating into clothing retailer H&M because it was allegedly spying on its customer service representatives in Germany.

Hamburgs data protection commissioner has launched an investigation into Swedish clothing retailer H&M ( Hennes & Mauritz) amid evidence that the company was spying on its customer service representatives in Germany.

According to the German privacy watchdog, a hard drive containing about 60 gigabytes of data revealed that superiors at the site in Nuremberg kept detailed and systematic records about employees private and sensitive data.

Hamburgs data p rotection commissioner said in a statement Monday that a hard drive containing about 60 gigabytes of data revealed that superiors at the site in N uremberg kept detailed and systematic records about employees health, from bladder weakness to cancer, and about their p rivate lives, such as family disputes or holiday experiences. reads a p ost p ublished by the Associated Press.

Johannes Caspar, the state data protection officer in Hamburg, said the records demonstrate a massive surveillance activity on employees. The records were accessible to all company managers.

In fact, there was a massive spying out of the employees at the location in Nuremberg, said Caspar of the German Press Agency. This has resulted in a significant evaluation of the reports available to us.

The situation is very severe for H&M that in response said in a statement that it takes the case very seriously and expressed its honest regret to the affected staff.

The qualitative and quantitative extent of the employee data accessible to the entire management level of the company shows a comprehensive research of the employees, which has not been comparable in the past few years, added Caspar. It is also health data of those affected, from bladder weakness to cancer, as well as data from people in their social environment, such as family disputes, deaths or holiday experiences.

The company said that it is offering full cooperation with data p rotection officials, it also added that its managers had already taken urgent measures in response to the incident.

In the coming weeks, the data protection officer would decide the fines for this case. Lets remind that according to EU GDPR law, H&M could face a fine of four percent of global annual sales.

Pierluigi Paganini
Condemning the transfer of the Bhima-Koregaon case from Pune police to NIA, the CPI on Monday alleged that the purpose of the move was to "cover up" the "falsehoods and wrongdoings" of the previous BJP government.

The case was being probed by the Pune police and the Centre's decision to hand over the Koregaon-Bhima probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday came under severe criticism from both the Congress and the NCP.

"The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India takes a serious note of the decision taken by the government of India to transfer Bhima-Koregaon case from Pune police to NIA. This is to cover up the falsehood and wrongdoings of the previous BJP government. At that time the then NIA had given clean chit to Pune police and allowed it to carry on with the investigation," said a statement from the Left party.

The party also demanded that the order of the central government must be withdrawn immediately and appealed to the state government to reopen the probe into the matter to ensure justice.

"The Party condemns the use of NIA for political gains by the central government," it said.

Violence had broken out near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district on January 1, 2018.

Dalits visit the memorial in large numbers as it commemorates the victory of British forces, which included Dalit soldiers, over the army of the Brahmin Peshwa rulers of Pune in 1818.

The police had claimed that provocative speeches at Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, led to the violence and Maoists were behind the conclave.

They later arrested several Left-leaning activists including Telugu poet Varavara Rao and activist Sudha Bharadwaj for alleged links to Maoists.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Noscendo GmbH and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) today announced the successful signing of a cooperative agreement with the Institute for Hygiene and Public Health (IHPH) at the UKB, working towards expansion of the proprietary and CE-certified diagnostic platform DISQVER in the field of microbial resistances. Through the partnership, Noscendo GmbH will fully molecularly characterize up to 8000 antibiotic-resistant pathogens from over 35 species using the latest sequencing technology. The institutes strain bank, which has been running for 20 years and is continually growing, and the environmental databank are fed from various national and international projects and their structure addresses significant resistance problems of todays inpatient treatments.

The ability to identify the infectious agent primarily responsible for an infection directly from patient material gives doctors an advantage when it comes to treatment. This applies above all to bacteria which are resistant to multiple antibiotics, the amount of which has risen sharply in recent years, not only in healthcare facilities but also in the environment, says Dr. Ricarda Schmithausen, head of the One Health Working Group at the UKB. The researcher and her team are investigating the consequences of the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs through, among other things, wastewater or liquid manure. If we can identify the pathogen and its resistances quickly, we can initiate targeted hygiene measures and antibiotic treatments.

Following the successful development and CE certification of the DISQVER platform, a pilot study in eight maximum-care hospitals in Germany confirmed the value of the Noscendo platform with regards to identification of the primary pathogen beyond several pathogen classes. The University Hospital Bonn is one of these hospitals and is doing the groundwork for Noscendo GmbH regarding the expansion to include direct differentiation of pathogens antibiotic resistances.

We are very pleased about this partnership. The IHPHs expertise is a significant help for us to continue further development with regards to the detection of resistances within our DISQVER platform, in order to define a new gold standard for the identification of pathogens. After our recent successful CE certification, this is the second significant milestone we have reached since October 2018. Dr. Philip Stevens, director of Noscendo GmbH

The cooperation between the Institute for Hygiene and Public Health at the UKB and companies with bioinformatics skills such as Noscendo GmbH can help to master the development and spread of resistance in a cooperative and synergetic manner, adds Dr. Schmithausen. "Therefore, we are happy to be involved in the further development of an innovative software for future microbiological-hygienic infection diagnostics".

Since the beginning of the partnership with Noscendo, several clinically relevant resistant microorganisms have been analyzed down to the smallest detail and characterized using the DISQVER diagnostic platform. As a consequence, it was already possible to attribute various outbreak events and incidents to specific bacterial culprits. It was also possible to meticulously retrace previously unexplained cases, where the hitherto unidentified bacterial strains involved had been stored in the IHPHs strain bank.
TVN's romantic Korean drama, Crash landing on You, has heated up and a lot of people are hooked. Crash Landing On You depicts the story of a wealthy South Korean woman named Yoon Se Ri who is played by Son Ye Jin. She owns a big skin care and clothing company called Se Ri's Choice.

While paragliding to test one of her clothing pieces, a strong tornado appeared blowing her away and forced her to do an emergency landing in North Korea. Stuck on a tree, she meets Ri Jung Hyuk who is played by Hyun Bin, an elite North Korean officer in the military.

Because of the unquestionable chemistry of Yoon Se Ri and Ri Jung Hyuk and the amazing story line of the drama, a lot of viewers are hooked and are in love with the drama. Below are the three most unforgettable romantic scenes from the drama.

1. Ri Jung Hyuk always saving Yoon Se Ri

Several times in the drama, Ri Jung Hyuk always saves Yoon Se Ri. One is when Yoon Se Ri is set to go to the airport so that she could return to South Korea when a truck convoy suddenly came and headed towards the vehicle where she is in. Ri Jung Hyuk who secretly protecting her from a far, came in to save her. Unfortunately, Ri Jung Hyuk injured his shoulder after she covered Se Ri to protect her from the gun shot. Ri Jung Huk riding the motorcycle was not the only reason why viewers were so captivated by the episode but was also because of the romance between Yoon se Ri and Ri Jung Hyuk. He was willing to get hurt just to protect her and Se Ri was willing to stay in North Korea because of Ri Jung Hyuk's critical condition.

2. They are fated to be with each other

As the scene came up where Ri Jung Hyuk was playing a piano piece he wrote for his late brother in Switzerland, little did he know that Se Ri was also around in Switzerland because she was suffering a difficult time in her life. She was listening to what he playing in the Piano and it was one of the reasons that saved her and gave her hope. After she heard it, she kept the melody of the song with in her heart asking people the title of the piano piece that she heard. So when she heard Ri Jung Hyuk, playing the melody, she was surprised to discover that they had been connected in a fateful moment in the past.

3. The Farewell Kiss

Despite Ri Jung Hyuk and Yoon Se Ri don't want to leave each other, they know that they have to part ways as Se Ri is set to return to South Korea through the demilitarized zone. Because Ri Jung Hyuk wants to spend a little more time with her, he purposely gets them lost but eventually found the demilitarized zone. As they both arrive at their destination, Ri Jung Hyuk says he cannot take on foot past from where he was. However as Yoon Se Ri walks away while crying, he suddenly stepped into the demilitarized zone saying that one step should be okay and gave her a farewell kiss.

On the 25th of January, Crash Landing on You will not air a new episode but will give out a broadcast special episode and a behind-the-scenes content because of the Lunar new Year.
Oil prices fell close to a three-month low on Friday, dragged down further by fears of weak demand.

The proximate driver is the coronavirus in China, which is raising concerns about a hit to the economy and slower oil demand growth. One should be prepared for negative surprises when it comes to Chinese demand given that the government has now widened the coronavirus quarantine to ten cities in Hubei province with a total population of 30 million people, Commerzbank said in a note. The impact of this is all the greater because the restrictions are being imposed during the busiest travel season for the Chinese.

The coronavirus could cut into demand by around 260,000 bpd and reduce oil prices by about $3 per barrel, according to a report from Goldman Sachs. However, in the days following the publication of that estimate, oil prices fell by even more than $3.

The muted domestic demand, coupled with a marked rise in refinery capacities, is likely to cause Chinese exports of oil products to increase significantly further, Commerzbank added. Gasoline exports already grew by 27% year-on-year to 16.37 million tons in 2019, while diesel exports increased by 15% to 22 million tons.

The investment bank added that oil demand was also subdued elsewhere in Asia, including in Japan and India. For instance, Japans average imports in 2019 fell below 3 million barrels per day (mb/d) for the first time since the 1980s. Related: Hydrogen Costs Could Be Set To Plunge By 50%

The oil market is entering another slump, dashing the short-lived rally following the Phase 1 trade deal between the U.S. and China. The sour sentiment is all the more remarkable because Libya lost around 800,000 barrels per day in the last week, a huge slice of supply that went offline virtually overnight. And yet, crude prices continue to fall. Such is the bearish pressure that a raft of ongoing crude supply outages are not gaining much traction, JBC Energy wrote in a report. Iraq, Nigeria and Kazakhstan also saw some output go offline.

JBC went on to note that concerns about demand are not just limited to China. Indeed we have mentioned a couple of times in recent reports the lack of price upside to diesel in Europe - the global middle distillate price setter - despite what appears to have been months of low domestic supply, JBC said. Global inventories are on the rise, a reflection of ample supply. Weekly stocks data at the global level has also started to show a pickup in both light and middle distillate stocks, with US inventories looking now at a much more ample seasonal level than over much of Q4.

The renewed slide in prices once again puts pressure on OPEC+, restarting a familiar storyline. Saudi Arabias energy minister suggested that all options are on the table for the March meeting of OPEC+, seemingly opening the door to deeper production cuts. Other press reports suggested that OPEC+ may extend the cuts through the end of the year. Related: The Twin Threats Facing Big Oil

The chronic surplus is dragging the energy sector down into the dumps. The share prices for an array of shale companies declined sharply hard last week. Mark Papas Centennial Resource Development lost more than 20 percent on the week; SM Energy was down by 18 percent; Whiting Petroleum declined by 17 percent; and EOG Resources was off by 9 percent, just to name a few.

But it was the Appalachian shale drillers that really went through the wringer. Range Resources and Antero Resources each plunged by roughly 26 percent, while EQT  the largest shale gas producer in the country  lost more than 23 percent. All in a single week.

The slump could be temporary, especially since some of the downbeat sentiment can be attributed to the panic in China. Once there is evidence that the outbreak is contained and thus economic disruption subsiding, sentiment on oil should improve, bringing prices back up, Raymond James wrote in a note. For now, the oil market seems to be assuming that the situation will get worse before it gets better.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev approved the intergovernmental agreement between Uzbekistan and Belarus on the mutual recognition of documents on education and training,Trend reports via Uzbek media.

The document was signed by the parties during the official visit of Mirziyoyev to Minsk in August 2019. The sides back then inked a solid package of documents on several mutually beneficial spheres including production, IT, science and others.

Since 2018, the joint faculties of the Belarusian State Pedagogical University and the Tashkent State Pedagogical University, as well as the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics and the Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi have been successfully operating in Uzbekistan.

It is expected that other Belarusian universities will also soon start implementing joint educational programs with educational institutions of Uzbekistan.
STATEN ISLAND -- Freshman Rep. Max Rose took a jab at Mayor Bill de Blasios deer vasectomy program, urging the administration to consider a controlled cull, which he said he would personally take part in if approved.

I fear we are waiting for  a massive accident. Why does it take someone getting hurt or God forbid dying, for us to say what were doing isnt working when it comes to the deer population, said Rose during an editorial board meeting with the Advance on Thursday. I dont get it, we should be leaving every option on the table to address this, what theyre doing right now is not working.

They should also be thinking about a cull, why are we not seriously considering this is ridiculous to me, he continued.

The city has been performing vasectomies on the Islands bucks since 2016, a program the de Blasio administration insists has resulted in at least a 15% drop in the boroughs herd.

Though the administration says the $6.6 million program is working, deer vehicle collisions remain an ongoing problem and the number of Lyme Disease cases have jumped since the deer population began to explode on the Island.

Borough President James Oddo and the state Department of Environmental Conservation have been working on bringing a controlled cull to state-owned property only.

DEC has not yet made a decision on whether to approve a cull on the Island and is still assessing the potential impact on the Islands deer on state lands.

ROSE SAYS HELL BE THE FIRST ONE OUT THERE

If a cull is ultimately approved, Rose said he would be the first one out there joining in.

Ill build a little hide for myself, Ill go back to my glory days and Ill start taking down some of these deer, said the Purple Heart veteran.

The freshman congressman doubled down on his criticism of the left when asked about the possibility of animal rights groups going after him for supporting a cull.

It speaks to everything thats wrong with the left. Everything, he said. You complain about climate change, and then you fly to some different destination every other week. You complain about trying to cull deer so we can deal with this enormous problem that we have, and then you go out and you have no problem feasting on meat that was killed in god knows how many different ways, inhumane and otherwise, Im so tired of their hypocrisy, so tired of it.

Year four of the controversial vasectomy program resumed in early December and will continue on through the rest of January.

After the first phase of the $4.1 million three-year program ended, the city decided to award White Buffalo another $2.5 million contract for five more years of vasectomies.

When the vasectomy program launched three years ago, White Buffalos initial contract was not supposed to exceed $3.3 million over the three-year research study.

But the contract ballooned to nearly $1 million more because the contractor said it kept finding more deer than expected on the Island each year of the program.

PARKS DEPARTMENT SAYS IT WONT CONSIDER LETAL OPTIONS ON ISLAND DEER

But the Parks Department said last week it will not pursue any lethal measures on the Islands deer despite the mayor saying in December that he would consider other alternatives over the vasectomy program if he believed his administrations current approach is no longer working.

The sterilization study is only one component of our integrated deer impact management plan: we focus on education, protecting wild areas, and robust data collection. We are encouraged by the results of our sterilization work and are not pursuing lethal management, said Parks spokeswoman Lalor.

We will continue our ongoing dialogue with local officials and the State DEC as we pursue innovative ways to reduce the impact of deer in Staten Island, Lalor continued.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

The WSJ ran an exclusive today, suggesting that state attorneys general may begin to cooperate more closely with the feds to take on Google, according to State Attorneys General to Meet With Justice Officials to Coordinate on Google Probe:

State attorneys general will meet with U.S. Justice Department attorneys next week to share information on their respective probes of Alphabet Inc.s Google unit, a step that could eventually lead to both groups joining forces, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting is seen as the start of a periodic dialogue that could expand into more formal cooperation as the probes continue, the people said. To date, federal and state authorities involved in the probe havent shared investigative materials about their concurrent probes of Google, some of the people said.

At least seven state attorneys general who are part of the investigation have been invited to the meeting, one of the people said. The groupcomprising the executive committee of the states investigation into Googleis led by Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general.

Recall, as does the Journal, that state AGs have in the past teamed up with the Department of Justice (DoJ) when the parties are serious about antitrust enforcement  something the feds have been loath to do for quite some time. But during the Clinton administration, the DoJ did undertake enforcement actions, such as its suit against Microsoft, which was brought with the cooperation of several state GAs. According to the WSJ:

State antitrust enforcers often team up with their federal counterparts, including when the Justice Department and a group of 21 attorneys general worked together when they sued Microsoft in the late 1990s.

Silicon Angle reports in DOJ and state attorneys general could join forces in Google antitrust probe that the state probe of Google began last year:

Attorneys general from 48 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico launched a formal antitrust investigation into Google last year, headed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. At least seven of those attorneys general are expected to attend this weeks meeting.

Attorney General William Barr commented on the significance of the size of the coalition of state AGS. Per the WSJ:

The size of the coalition reflects the importance of these issues to Americans across the country, regardless of location or political persuasion, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said last month in a speech to the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington.

Now, what, pray tell, are these state AGs and the DoF looking to investigate? The Journal reports:

The state and federal investigations have given considerable focus to Googles powerful position in the lucrative market for online advertising. The companys dominant position in online search and possible anticompetitive behavior by Google in its Android mobile operating system have also drawn scrutiny, according to the people familiar with the matter.

To clarify that latter statement, Bloomberg takes a bow in State AGs, U.S. Justice Lawyers to Discuss Google Probe: WSJ:

A coalition of 48 states opened an antitrust investigation that will dig into Googles operations in search and mobile software, going beyond an initial focus on the companys advertising business, Bloomberg News said in November, citing two people familiar with the probe. The state officials met privately in Denver in November to help prepare for an investigation that will likely present challenging competition issues, one of the people said at the time. The states were also planning to map out a strategy for dividing the workload of the investigation, said two of the people.

Now, I should note here, that no less an authority than Bill Black has noted that the 48-state investigation may actually not be all its cracked up to be; see 48 States to Investigate Google: Anti-Trust or Politicking? One thing Black zeroed in on  and which leapt out at me also, is that the Texas AG, Ken Paxton, is taking a lead role in the state probe. But Republicans, and particularly conservative ones, are inherently hostile to the notion of aggressive anitrust enforcement. The wrinkle here is that Paxton appears to have targeted the tech companies for ideological reasons  because theyre liberal  rather than for any antitrust principle. How this plays out in the realm of antitrust enforcement is anybodys guess.

Another point that Black highlights is the dependence of state AGs on campaign contributions  a reason that California didnt sign on to take on Google, a major source of funds.Will the state AGs follow through on a tough antitrust agenda, with all that implies for circumscribing their ability to raise raising campaign funds? Again, the answer is unclear. I think.

What that means is that we must watch very carefully to see whether this state investigation of Google is intended to draw blood, or whether it will remain just some elaborate form of kabuki.

That all being said, and despite the basic Republican hostility, going back at least to the Reagan years, for aggressive antirust enforcement, the WSJ quotes US AG Barr as expressing support for a broad focus, according to the WSJ:

Mr. Barr hinted that a broad approach might be best. Many online platforms are not only big, but also offer a wide breadth of products and services, he said. Antitrust enforcers therefore must take an equally broad view of these platforms offerings, and the relationships between different markets, products and business practices. Both the Justice Department and the states have been beefing up their legal teams. Some state attorneys general have said publicly they need close cooperation with the Justice Department in order to take on Google successfully.

But I should note that such talk is cheap.

The attention of American regulators has not been limited to alleged anti-competitive behavior by Google alone. As the WSJ notes:

In addition to probes by the states and Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission is examining certain practices at Facebook Inc., including whether it acquired potential rivals such as Instagram and WhatsApp to head off competition. The House Judiciary Committee is looking at Facebook, Google, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. for possible anticompetitive practices.

There are signs of a partisan divide emerging as to how to pursue the Google probes, with the WSJ noting:

It is possible partisan divisions could re-emerge in the Google investigation. When it comes to large tech companies, some Democrats are privately skeptical that a Republican-led administration will take what Democrats view as sufficient action to curb perceived abuses of market power. Fueling that sentiment is the outcome of two recent federal investigations of Facebook and Googles YouTube. Officials on the Federal Trade Commission split along party lines about whether settlements with the firms were tough enough, with Republicans casting the settlements as historic victories and Democrats calling them weak.

Where is the Google investigation going? Im not sure. But I point out that while the Journal notes some Democrats are privately skeptical that a Republican-led administration will take what Democrats view as sufficient action to curb perceived abuses of market power  we didnt see the DoJ, when led by either by AG Eric Holder or AG Loretta Lynch taking an aggressive stance regarding antitrust enforcement against any of these Big Tech firms, either.

The reality is, both parties have colluded in letting the situation get as far out of control as it has  so that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have been able to achieve such overwhelming market dominance, so that each can squelch inconvenient competition.

Indias Competition Probe

On a related note, I would like to reiterate that when we look aboard, we do find regulators taking a more critical stance towards the possible anti-competitive practices of local subsidiaries of American technology behemoths. Take India as an example. Earlier this month, Jeff Bezos visited India.

Things did not go well, And despite a request, he was unable to meet with prime minister Narendra Modi, or any of his ministers. And that was not the only problem. As I wrote in Jeff Bezos Not So Excellent Indian Adventure: Modi Government Disses Inept Amazon.

The day before he arrived, the Competition Commission of India initiated an investigation into Amazon, for alleged violations of competition law, as reported by livemint in Amazon, Flipkart to be probed for abuse of competition law The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday ordered a probe into alleged competition law violations by Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart over allegations that the e-commerce majors promoted and gave discounts to preferred sellers, entered into exclusive partnerships with smartphone brands and abused their dominant position. CCI noted four alleged practices on both the marketplacesexclusive launch of mobile phones, preferred sellers on the platforms, deep discounting and preferential promotion of private labels. The antitrust body said such exclusive arrangements between smartphone or mobile phone brands and e-commerce platforms or select companies selling exclusively on either of the platforms merit an investigation. It needs to be investigated whether the alleged exclusive arrangements, deep-discounting and preferential listing by the OPs (opposite parties) are being used as an exclusionary tactic to foreclose competition and are resulting in an appreciable adverse effect on competition contravening the provisions of Section 3 (1) read with Section 3(4) of the Act, the CCI order stated.

The Bottom Line

Whether the Trump DoJ can be bothered to enforce US antirust laws vigorously remains to be seen. If it chooses to cooperate more closely with state probes that are not going anywhere, thats not exactly news, either. Its been quite some time before the US was truly serious about antitrust enforcement. Thats a bipartisan failing, and not just something that can be pinned on Republicans.
Whitiangas Summer Concert wrapped up this years Summer Concert Tour when 16,000 concert goers added to Saturdays Taupo and last weekends Queenstown sold out shows, taking in the warm and sunny conditions in the beautiful Coromandel.

An incredible 49,000 fans have experienced one of the three shows over the past two weekends, making the 10th anniversary celebrations of promoters Greenstone Entertainment a huge success.

As concert goers settled themselves in for an awesome summers afternoon of music, local Coromandel act, Crimson Coast got the day underway and in preparation for the five international artists that were to follow.

With a warm Coromandel breeze, Smash Mouth took to the stage at midday, who got the crowd warmed up with their 90s ska pop hits including All Star, Walkin On The Sun and Then The Morning Comes.

Smash Mouth. Image: Chris Traill.

Next up, and for the final time in New Zealand, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, had concert goers singing and dancing along to their hits of the 60s and 70s, including Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary.

Finishing up her first New Zealand tour, Anastacia, along with her band and stage performers, has wowed audience across the country with her smash hits from the early 2000s Im Outta Love, Sick and Tired and Left Outside Alone, as well as a great rendition of Guns n Roses Sweet Child Of Mine from her Its A Mans World.

Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Image: Chris Traill.

True to form, George Thorogood & The Destroyers were hit with his band to rock out his hits of the last 45 years the likes of Bad To The Bone, Who Do You Love, and One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.

Ending the day and no doubt creating memories for the tens of thousands of concert goers who have seen him on this tour, BILLY IDOL has been a fitting finish to the Summer Concert Tour when he played a collection of his smash hits including Rebel Yell, Eyes Without A Face and Dancing With Myself to name but a few.

Smash Mouth. Image: Chris Traill.

Amanda Calvert, CEO of Greenstone Entertainment says, The Greenstone Entertainment team and the artists have had an amazing time throughout this years Summer Concert Tour. Were proud to have been able to showcase this beautiful country to our international guests. We want to say a huge thank you to the 49,000 fans that came along to one of the shows. Its a pleasure to see all the families, couples and groups of all ages having such a great time, and we look to bringing everyone more news on the 2021 tour in coming months.

Anastacia. Image: Chris Traill.

George Thorogood & The Destroyers. Image: Chris Traill.
The incident happened on the Luas Red Line on January 11

A gang of teenage thugs set fire to a woman's hair during a night of chaos on the Luas Red Line.

Many residents in Dublin's south-central district are said to be afraid to use public transport following almost "daily occurrences" of anti-social behaviour and attacks.

A serious incident was reported on the line on the night of January 11 by the tram's driver while en route to Tallaght.

Luas operator Transdev has apologised for its security's "unsatisfactory" response time after the passenger was attacked.

In another report, the driver said the teenagers responsible were smoking and making racist comments, which prompted him to again call for security.

Uproar

He said the other passengers on the Luas were "in uproar" during the incident, which took place as the tram travelled from the city centre to Kylemore.

"Passengers were shocked that no security ever responded to this incident on the tram," he said in a complaint logged to the operator.

"Some passengers that were on the tram from The Point to Tallaght never saw a security guard and many advised me they were going to social media about this.

"Passengers heard both my calls to security and the response as they were up against the glass calling for help and couldn't believe what they were hearing."

The driver is now calling for Transdev to employ permanent security for its trams.

"I am embarrassed to work for the company after this lack of support, for myself and the passengers," he added.

"Luas put 'help fight racism' posters up at their platforms, and in 2020 a woman is set alight on a tram and for a 40-minute journey not one security guard was to be seen.

"This needs to change. A Saturday night on public transport and zero security - a shambles.

"Please, can we sort this out so another encounter like this can't happen, or at the very least always have security on the line."

In response, a spokesperson for Transdev acknowledged Luas security was slow in responding to the incident.

"Security was deployed elsewhere on the lines at this particular time and did not board the tram on which the incident occurred quickly enough," the spokesperson said.

"This was not satisfactory and we apologise to Luas customers and those affected.

"Security arrangements are continuously under review and have been recently reassessed, particularly in light of recently publicised incidents of anti-social behaviour involving groups of teens in local communities along the Grand Canal close to Luas stops."

The company said it will continue to review its security and work with local community gardai "with whom we have an excellent working relationship".

One week later, gardai confirmed a youth was arrested for damaging the inside of a Luas Red Line tram in a separate incident.

"Gardai responded to a public order incident on Saturday, January 18, at approximately 5.40pm at the Drimnagh Luas stop on Davitt Road," a spokesperson said.

"Gardai encountered a large group of youths causing a disturbance.

"One juvenile who was in the group was in possession of a metal pole which was being used to damage seating on the Luas tram.

"The juvenile was then arrested."

Ballyfermot and Drimnagh councillor Daithi Doolan told the Herald attacks on and around the Luas happened almost every day.

"I use the Luas here all the time with my kids and am very aware of these serious incidents," he said.

"There's almost a reign of terror that's particularly targeted at foreign nationals.

"I've heard numerous stories about these gangs verbally and physically attacking people on the Luas at Drimnagh and also around the canal.

"If we want to ensure that people can travel safely on public transport, gardai have to be there to protect them and respond accordingly when they are called."

Mr Doolan will be raising the issue today at a council meeting at City Hall.
UW Communications, Marketing Staff Members Honored for Excellence

University of Wyoming Institutional Communications and Marketing specialists received awards during the Jan. 23-25 Wyoming Press Association (WPA) Associates group annual contest.

Winners were announced at the WPAs annual winter meeting in Casper. The convention attracts Wyomings newspaper professionals and the WPAs Associate members for two days of workshops, seminars and speakers.

About 175 WPA and Associate members throughout Wyoming attended the convention, which culminated with the awards banquet where the top newspapers in three divisions (daily, Casper Star-Tribune; large weekly, Jackson Hole News and Guide; and small weekly, Glenrock Independent) were named. Individual award winners also were announced in several categories.

UW communications and marketing specialists received the most awards -- 17 -- among the states public relations specialists. This years contest drew a high number of entries from communications specialists from around the state. UW personnel competed against media representatives such as those from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Wyoming Department of Transportation, Wyoming Military Department, Secretary of States Office, Wyoming Business Council, Wyoming Rural Electric Association and area public relations firms.

In the Associates contest, Chad Baldwin, UW associate vice president for communications and marketing, won a first- and second-place award; and Institutional Communications Specialists Milton Ontiveroz and Ron Podell won a first-place award and an honorable mention, respectively.

UW Institutional Marketing staff members Ted Brummond, Michelle Eberle, Emily Edgar, Ali Grossman, Jason Harper, Mary Jung, Micaela Myers and Kyle Spradley all combined to win 13 first-, second- and third-place awards.

Our staff members work hard to tell UWs story across Wyoming and beyond, and it is great seeing them recognized for their quality work, Baldwin says. We appreciate the cooperation of the campus community in spreading the good word about the university.

Ontiveroz again was selected as the Associate members liaison, representing the Associates on the WPA board. He is only the second person to hold that position in the associations 27-year history.

WPA Associate members, including those from UW, attended four workshops last Friday; participated in a roundtable discussion on media relations strategies; and held their annual Associates meeting.

Listed are the UW staff members with their individual awards; contest categories in which they won; titles of their entries; and what the judges had to say about their work (where provided):

UW Institutional Communications:

-- Baldwin, first place, Three News Releases on One Topic, Research About Wyoming Wildlife, judges comment, Nice work on 3 different releases. Clear and concise.

-- Baldwin, second place, One News Release, UW Economist Finds Mixed Values of Thoughts and Prayers, judges comment, Well-written summation of provocative new research findings. I wanted to know more.

-- Ontiveroz, first place, Three Features on One Topic, UW Rodeo Teams Compete at CNFR.

-- Podell, honorable mention, One News Release, UW Receives $15.8 Million NSF Grant for Instrumentation for New King Air Research Aircraft.

UW Institutional Marketing:

-- Eberle, second place, Page Layout and Design, Adventurous and Courageous.

-- Edgar and Brummond, first place, Page Layout and Design, Creating Connections.

-- Edgar and Brummond, third place, Photo Page or Story, The Big Picture.

-- Grossman, first place, Single Video -- Feature, UW Iron Pour, judges comment, High production quality and strong use of imagery.

-- Grossman, first place, Single Video -- Full Feature, The World Needs More Cowboys and So Does Wyoming, judges comments, The video had a great story that was easy to follow. I loved the music you paired with it. The interview with Aura Newlin was great, and the audio was clean. The B-roll fit great to the story line. I think you nailed the video highlighting an alumni member and sharing her past and how that has helped her give back within our community here in Wyoming.

-- Grossman, first place, Single Video -- Public Service Announcement, Instructional or Educational, Cowboy Commitment.

-- Grossman, second place, Single Video -- Public Service Announcement, Instructional or Educational (Full Feature), Discovering New Questions Through Chasing Chipmunks, judges comments, Excellent use of B-Roll though, if possible, get a camera that can do smoother slow motion for future projects. The topic was well covered, concise and did a good job of conveying the subjects enthusiasm.

-- Harper, second place, Feature Photo, Education@UWYO Magazine, judges comment, Good composition here. Possibly, if the students project board would have been more visible, there would be more context.

-- Harper, second place, Magazine Article, Supporting Educators: Implementing the New State Science Standards Part 1, judges comment, Great connection to core mission of magazine. Well written and interesting, too.

-- Harper, second place, Single Video -- Feature, Mursion Simulation with Agriculture Education Students at UW, judges comment, Good use of call-outs to explain the technology.

-- Jung, third place, Single Video -- Full Feature, University of Wyoming Rodeo Life: Nicole Sederstrom, judges comment, A fantastic student interview that not only showcased Nicole Sederstroms story and why she is at UW, but also gives praise to the dedication and strength of the program and college. The video ticks a lot of boxes for marketing and recruitment material, all while telling a great story. Technically speaking, the video was well put together. I like seeing a mix of ambient audio with music and the interview. B-roll was great and fit the story perfectly. Well done.

-- Jung, Grossman and Spradley, second place, Three Video Features on Same Topic or Campaign -- Full Feature, UWyo Student Features, judges comments, Very well-done profiles of several students at the university to showcase the possibilities of enrollment. They are enticing and clearly achieve their goal of tying in to the larger project.

-- Myers, UWyo Magazine editor, and staff members Baldwin, Eberle and Brummond, second place, Publication, judges comments, Always love reading UWyo Magazine. A top-notch job and a real attention to detail.
It was only months ago he split from wife of 20 years Teresa Giudice.

But Joe Giudice appeared to have bounced back from heartbreak over the weekend, with the 47-year-old seen partying with several bikini-clad ladies in Mexico, in video obtained by DailyMail.com.

At one point the Real Housewives of New Jersey star danced poolside with three gorgeous women at a resort in Isla Mujeres.

What separation? Joe Giudice appeared to have bounced back from heartbreak over the weekend, with the 47-year-old seen partying with several bikini-clad ladies in Mexico

Joe showed off his newly slimmed-down physique in board shorts as one thong-clad blonde draped an arm across his shoulders.

She then shook her peachy posterior as she danced energetically with the father-of-four.

Two other bikini-clad babes danced nearby.

Getting on down: At one point the Real Housewives of New Jersey star danced poolside with three gorgeous women at a resort in Isla Mujeres

Teresa who? Joe showed off his newly slimmed-down physique in board shorts as one thong-clad blonde draped an arm across his shoulders

Later, the Italy-born reality TV star chatted with two of the women as they lay down in a beach cabana.

He draped his arm across one lady's bare legs in a flirtatious manner while they spoke.

On Saturday, Giudice posted a video of himself struggling to reel in a fish while fishing in the open sea.

Joe's outing comes after he and Teresa confirmed their split in December.

Chilling out: Later, the Italy-born reality TV star chatted with two of the women as they lay down in a beach cabana

Garcon, another: At one point Joe appeared to give his drinks order to a waiter as the women chatted

'Teresa and Joe have separated, but have no plans to divorce yet, a source told Us Weekly at the time.

'Teresa and Joe talked about their future when she and the girls were in Italy and decided it was best for them to separate.'

Joe has spent much of the past few years behind bars in connection to his 2014 guilty plea to mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud charges.

Teresa spent most of 2015 in custody in her 11-month sentence in her related conviction, while Joe in March of 2016 started serving his 41-month sentence.

Making up for lost time: Joe has spent much of the past few years behind bars in connection to his 2014 guilty plea to mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud charges

World citizen: Because Joe was not a U.S. citizen - the reality star was born in Saronno, Italy and brought to the United States when he was a year old - federal authorities deported him

Happier times: Joe's outing comes after he and Teresa confirmed their split in December. The couple seen here in 2013

Throwback: Earlier in January, Joe shared a pic from when he and Teresa first coupled up in the 90s

Because Joe was not a U.S. citizen - the reality star was born in Saronno, Italy and brought to the United States when he was a year old, never applying for citizenship - federal authorities ordered him deported due to legal statutes related to 'a crime of moral turpitude' or 'aggravated felony.'

Joe concluded his sentence at Fort Dix, New Jersey's Federal Correctional Institution this past March, and was held in ICE custody until he was deported to Italy October 11 amid an appeal in the case.

The couple share four daughters: Gia, 19, Gabriella, 16, Milania, 15, and Audriana, 11.

Ships ahoy: Later Joe climbed aboard a boat for some open sea adventure

Difficulties: On Saturday, Giudice posted a video of himself struggling to reel in a fish while fishing in the open sea
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Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") acquires right to earn up to 50% interest in the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project for project level investment of CDN$20,000,000

After earn-in and completion of feasibility study, JOGMEC provided right to acquire additional 1% interest in the Project for CDN$5,000,000 and to elect to exclusively fund development of the Project subject to Namibia Critical Metal's right to maintain a 26% carried interest in the Project

Namibia Critical Metals to act as operator during earn-in period through to completion of Feasibility Study

HALIFAX, NS / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Namibia Critical Metals Inc. ("Namibia Critical Metals" or the "Company" or "NMI") (TSXV:NMI) today announced that it has signed an agreement with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") to jointly explore, develop, exploit, refine and/or distribute mineral products from the Company's 100% owned Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project ("Project") in northwestern Namibia. The agreement provides JOGMEC with the right to earn a 50% interest in the Project by funding $20,000,000 in exploration and development expenditures. Once JOGMEC has completed and exercised its 50% earn-in and a feasibility study has been completed on the Project, JOGMEC has the right to purchase an additional 1% interest in the Project from the Company for $5,000,000 and thereafter to exclusively provide funding to develop the Project subject to the Company's interest in the Project not being diluted below 26%. All amounts are in Canadian dollars.

Pine van Wyk, Chief Executive Officer of Namibia Critical Metals stated "This partnership with JOGMEC brings strong technical and financial capacities to move the Lofdal project forward. It provides alignment with, and access to significant industrial groups in Japan looking to secure long-term supplies of dysprosium, terbium and other heavy rare earths. It should also be noted that this agreement is structured such that no equity will be issued and is totally non-dilutive to NMI shareholders. JOGMEC is mandated to seek a stable supply of natural resources for Japan and we are delighted that they have recognized the potential of Lofdal.

Agreement Details

The agreement with JOGMEC contemplates that the Company's Lofdal rare earth project will be held in a subsidiary of the Company ("ProjectCo") and JOGMEC will have the right to earn up to a 50% interest in ProjectCo by contributing a total of $20,000,000 to exploration and development expenditures on the Project in three phases. JOGMEC has the right to accelerate funding at any point during the earn-in period.

During the first term of the earn-in, JOGMEC will contribute $3,000,000 to ProjectCo to fund exploration expenditures on the Project during the period commencing on the effective date of the agreement and ending March 31, 2021. The first term funding amount is a firm non-refundable commitment by JOGMEC and JOGMEC earns no interest in ProjectCo for completing the first term expenditures.

Upon completion of the first term expenditures, JOGMEC is entitled to elect to contribute $7,000,000 to ProjectCo to fund exploration expenditures on the Project during the second term period commencing on April 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2024.

Upon completion of the second term expenditures, JOGMEC is entitled to receive 40% of the shares of ProjectCo and to elect to contribute $10,000,000 to ProjectCo to fund exploration expenditures on the Project during the third term period commencing on April 1, 2024 and ending March 31, 2028. If JOGMEC elects not to provide the third term funding, the Company has the right to acquire JOGMEC's 40% interest in ProjectCo for $7,000,000. Upon completion of the third term funding, JOGMEC is entitled to receive an additional 10% of the shares of ProjectCo.

After completion of the earn in expenditures and a feasibility study on the Project, JOGMEC is entitled to increase its ownership in ProjectCo to 51% by acquiring an additional 1% of ProjectCo from the Company for $5,000,000. JOGMEC is also entitled to elect to exclusively fund development of the Project provided that the Company's interest will not be diluted below 26%. If JOGMEC has acquired the additional 1%, the Company will pay JOGMEC $5,000,000 for the dilution protection.

Exploration programs and budgets will be approved by a management committee established by the parties and Namibia Critical Metals will undertake the exploration programs as operator for ProjectCo.

Overview of the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project

The Lofdal Heavy Rare Earths Project is the most advanced project in the Company and comprises Exclusive Prospecting Licence ("EPL") 3400, located 450 kilometers northwest of the capital city of Windhoek, and approximately 25 kilometers northwest of the town of Khorixas in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia (Figure 1). EPL 3400 covers a total of 314 square kilometers centered on the Lofdal carbonatite complex which hosts a number of rare earth occurrences, including the Area 4 deposit.



Figure 1 - Company project areas in Namibia highlighting location of the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project near Khorixas

Mineral Resources and Significance of Xenotime Mineralization

Current mineral resources at the Area 4 deposit are estimated to be 2.88 Mt of Indicated mineral resources at a grade of 0.32% TREO1 yielding 9,230 t of REO, of which 7,050 t are estimated to be Heavy Rare Earth oxides ("HREO") and 3.28 Mt of Inferred mineral resources at a grade of 0.27% TREO yielding 8,970 t of REO, of which 6,700 t are estimated to be HREO1.

1 "TREO" refers to total rare earth oxides; "HREO" refers to heavy rare earth oxides; "heavy rare earths" as used in all Company presentations comprise europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu) and yttrium (Y). Light rare earths comprise lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd) and samarium (Sm). "Heavy rare earth enrichment" is the ratio of HREO:TREO, expressed as a percentage

Mineralization at Area 4 is unique in that the rare earth mineralogy is dominated by the heavy rare earth mineral xenotime. Xenotime was the world's historic source of heavy rare earths, primarily derived from heavy mineral sands deposits and separated using classical solvent extraction processing technology. Global sources of heavy rare earths are now derived from surficial ionic clay deposits in southern China. The only other primary xenotime deposit in the world is Browns Range in Australia, which is operated by Northern Minerals Ltd. and is currently in the pilot plant production phase targeting a production rate of 49 tonnes per annum dysprosium oxide. Northern Minerals has recently entered into off-take agreements with Thyssenkrupp Materials Trading Gmbh for 100% of the pilot plant phase production.

Significance of Dysprosium Supply to Japan

Japan is the most important consumer of dysprosium outside of China. Adamas Intelligence estimates that from 2013 through 2017 China produced 98% of the global supply of dysprosium and was responsible for approximately 90% of global dysprosium oxide (or oxide equivalent) consumption each year. Japan was responsible for 9% of global consumption and other nations (including the United States) for 1%. With 2017 dysprosium production estimated at 1,500 tonnes, Japanese consumption is therefore estimated at 135 tonnes per annum.

About Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)

JOGMEC is a Japanese government independent administrative agency which among other things seeks to secure stable resource supply for Japan. JOGMEC has a strong reputation as a long term, strategic partner in mineral projects globally. The mandated areas of responsibilities within JOGMEC relate to oil and natural gas, metals, coal and geothermal energy. JOGMEC facilitates opportunities with Japanese private companies to secure supply of natural resources for the benefit of the country's economic development.

Rare earths are of critical importance to Japanese industrial interests and JOGMEC has extensive experience with all aspects of the sector. JOGMEC provided Lynas with US$250,000,000 in loans and equity in 2011 to ensure supplies of these crucial metals to Japanese industry.

About Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Namibia Critical Metals Inc. holds a diversified portfolio of exploration and advanced stage projects in the country of Namibia (Figure 1) focused on the development of sustainable and ethical sources of metals for the battery, electric vehicle and associated industries. The Company also has significant land positions in areas favourable for gold mineralization.

At the Erongo Project, stratigraphic equivalents to the sediments hosting the recent Osino gold discovery at Twin Hills have been identified but not yet sampled. Detailed soil surveys are planned over this highly prospective area.

In addition to Lofdal, the Epembe Tantalum-Niobium Project is also at an advanced stage with a well-defined, 10 km long carbonatite dyke that has been delineated by detailed mapping with over 11,000 meters of drilling. Preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical studies including sorting tests (XRT), indicate the potential for significant physical upgrading. Further work will be undertaken to advance the project to a preliminary economic assessment stage.

The Kunene Cobalt-Copper Project comprises a very large area of favorable stratigraphy ("the DOF") along strike to the west of the Opuwo Co-Cu-Zn deposit. Secondary copper mineralization over a wide area points to preliminary evidence of a regional-scale hydrothermal system. Exploration targets on EPLs held in the Kunene project comprise direct extensions of the DOF style mineralization to the west, sediment-hosted cobalt and copper, orogenic copper, and stratabound Mn and Zn-Pb mineralization.

Earlier stage projects include the Grootfontein Project which has potential for magmatic Cu-Ni mineralization, Mississippi Valley-type Zn-Pb-V mineralization and Otjikoto-style gold mineralization.

The common shares of Namibia Critical Metals Inc. trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NMI".

Board Change

The Company also announced today that Janice Stairs has resigned as a director of the Company and Don Burton, President of the Company, has been appointed a director effective immediately.

Donald M. Burton, P.Geo. and President of Namibia Critical Metals Inc., is the Company's Qualified Person and has reviewed and approved this press release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information please contact -

Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Don Burton, President

Tel: +01 (902) 835-8760

Fax: +01 (902) 835-8761

Email: Info@NamibiaCMI.com

Web site: www.NamibiaCriticalMetals.com

The foregoing information may contain forward-looking information relating to the future performance of Namibia Rare Earths Inc. Forward-looking information, specifically, that concerning future performance, is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the appropriate securities commissions.

-30-

SOURCE: Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/574171/Namibia-Critical-Metals-and-JOGMEC-Conclude-Agreement-to-Develop-the-Lofdal-Heavy-Rare-Earth-Project
The following items were taken from Barrington and South Barrington police department reports and releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

BARRINGTON

DUI

Cortilius K. Fisher, 20, of the 1300 block of North Lockwood Avenue, Chicago, was charged Jan. 18 with driving under the influence, battery, consumption of alcohol by a minor, resisting arrest by use of force, having no valid drivers license and improper lane usage at 119 Raymond Avenue. Fisher is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 20.

Domestic charges

Bianca Y. Andrade, 20, of the 400 block of Drury Lane, was charged Jan. 11 with domestic battery in the 400 block of Drury Lane.

Domestic trouble in the 300 block of North Cook Street was reported Jan. 13.

Domestic battery in the 10 block of Raymond Avenue was reported Jan. 17.

Theft

A theft over $500 in the 100 block of West Main Street was reported Jan. 14.

A theft of mislaid property in the 100 block of West Main Street was reported Jan. 16.

Unwanted subject

An unwanted subject at 217 Eastern Avenue  Arnett C. Lines Elementary School  was reported Jan. 15.

SOUTH BARRINGTON

Domestic battery

Robert Dick, 68, of the first block of Ambrose Lane, was charged Jan. 15 with domestic battery and interfering with emergency communication in the first block of Ambrose Lane. Dick is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 10.

Speeding

Chuikai Liu, 24, of the 3800 block of South Spaulding Avenue, Chicago, was charged Jan. 19 with speeding more than 26 mph over the limit at Route 62 and Penny Road. Liu is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 24.

Michael Manaois, 48, of the 400 block of Buckingham Drive, Crystal Lake, was charged Jan. 22 with speeding more than 26 mph over the limit at Route 62 and Penny Road. Manaois is scheduled to appear in court March 11.

License suspended

Brittny Q. Watson, 33, of the 100 block of West Donovan Avenue, Woodstock, was charged Jan. 20 with driving while license suspended and operating an uninsured motor vehicle at Route 62 and Lexington Road. Watson is scheduled to appear in court March 11.

Maria D. Calderon Silva, 42, of the 200 block of Fairway Lane, Carpentersville, was charged Jan. 20 with driving while license suspended at Bartlett Road and Higgins Road. Calderon Silva is scheduled to appear in court March 11.

Travis Mayfield, 34, of the 60 block of Constitution Drive, Poplar Grove, was charged Jan. 24 with a Cook County Sheriffs warrant for driving while license suspended at Studio Drive and Barrington Road. Mayfield is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 18.

kedquist@chicagotribune.com

Twitter: @kaitlinedquist
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 04:19:48|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister of Oman, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, arrived in Iran's capital Tehran on Sunday and held talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

On Jan. 21, bin Alawi visited Iran for talks on bilateral ties and promotion of Gulf security, according to Iranian presidential office.

On Sunday, Zarif and bin Alawi discussed regional issues, especially Iran-Oman cooperation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement by Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The Iranian and Omani governments are determined to continue cooperation and consultations in line with guaranteeing the safety of navigation and energy supply, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Omani foreign minister arrived in Tehran on Sunday directly from Davos, where world leaders gathered to discuss global, regional and industry agendas.

Over the past years, Oman has played a crucial role in soothing tensions between Tehran and Washington.
W hile youve been reading this, youve likely had a few emails, seen dozens of tweets fly by, and missed more than one status update. Social channels, 24-hour news, websites and podcasts provide more platforms than ever to get our voices heard. Largely, its something we celebrate, especially when seeking to raise awareness of Holocaust remembrance. This Holocaust Memorial Day is the 75th anniversary of Auschwitzs liberation, and millions will mark it today, both on and offline.

We shouldnt underestimate the value of channels for communication. At the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, I often look at the letters, diaries and testimony of victims of the Nazis and of other genocides, including Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. For many the ability to communicate was a lifeline or at least a way to ensure their experiences were heard and lives remembered. Civilians and resistance fighters understood the power of recording what was happening.

But the corollary of having so many ways to share information is divisive language can spread instantly. Hateful speech flies across continents quicker than we can stamp it out. Online platforms can be a cesspit of racism, prejudice and intolerance. The saying about sticks and stones doesnt hold; words have consequences. Prejudice may not always lead to genocide, but every genocide has started with prejudice.

Certainly, in the UK weve seen increasing division. Reported hate crimes have more than doubled since 2013. About three quarters were race-hate crimes; other identity-based prejudice is sadly directed at minorities, disabled people, or those who are somehow different. Theres no doubt that the anonymity and ease of social media is a factor.

Isam, a survivor of the Darfur genocide, was at Paddington just before Christmas when a woman approached him, telling him to leave the country as we dont have enough money for you. He and other genocide survivors have signed an open letter warning of dangerous divisions which are fuelled by extreme and polarising language by those in positions of power. They highlight that what starts as name-calling becomes licence to maim and murder.

There are many issues here, including the duties of online platforms. But we all shape our world. Holocaust Memorial Day is a chance to ensure we unite against division by sharing information. Our project #StandTogether gives you the name of someone murdered by the Nazis, and information about them. It seeks to restore their dignity and humanity by sharing their names on social media.

Today, Im remembering Anna Maria Settela Steinbach, killed for being a Sinti Romani. But Im also remembering millions more. Weve never had more opportunities to speak up, so lets use our voices to #StandTogether and challenge divisive voices.
Some private schools in Sydney have told students who recently travelled to China not to return to school for at least a fortnight, after a University of NSW student became the fifth person to test positive for the coronavirus in Australia.

Scots College principal Ian Lambert has written to parents ahead of schools reopening on Tuesday to ask that they "refrain from sending your son/s to school until they have received a medical clearance from a doctor" if they have recently been to China.

People arriving at Sydney Airport wearing masks. Credit:Renee Nowytarger

"[For] any students having visited China during these summer school holidays, once a medical clearance has been obtained, please visit the college clinic immediately for a preliminary checkup before commencement of school and making contact with other students or staff," the letter states.

However, a spokesman for the NSW Department of Education said that exclusion from public schools only applies to anyone who has a confirmed case of the virus or has had close contact with a person with a confirmed case.
The Grammys red carpet has a long history of self-expression. Bold, beautiful and simply outrageous looks collide on musics biggest night.

On Sunday, celebrities followed the tradition in a big way -- from Old Hollywood glamour to punk western wear.

Ariana Grande brought her pop-princess cuteness, arriving in a dusty-blue Giambattista Valli tulle gown that spanned 20 feet in diameter, Christian Louboutins, matching gloves and her signature ponytail. The petite-pop star was up for five awards, including album of the year.

Also, looking glamorous was Houston native Lizzo in a white, strapless Versace Atelier gown with sweetheart neckline, a feather stole and $2 million of Lorraine Schwartz diamonds. She could have been channeling her musical hero, Diana Ross.

Billie Eilish, who was nominated for six Grammys, captured attention in a custom silky green and black Gucci pantsuit and todays latest fashion accessory, a face mask. Her dark hair was accented with neon-green roots. She wore black gem-studded fingerless gloves with bright emerald nails traced with Guccis double G print in chartreuse.

Speaking of green, its been 20 years since Jennifere Lopezs green Versace Grammy dress with a plunging cleavage went viral.

Other celebrities arrived hoping to give Lopezs dress a run for the money with the plunging cleavage look. Priyanka Chopra wore an ivory, bell-sleeved Ralph & Russo gown that dipped dramatically low, showing her cleavage and belly ring. Chopra wore Kobe Bryants jersey number, 24, on one of her nails, while husband Nick Jonas wore a purple ribbon on the lapel of his suit to honor the NBA legend who was killed in a helicopter crash with his 13-year-old daughter.

Versace is a brand well-suited for the Grammys. Prime example: Lil Nas Xs hot pink, cowboy-inspired bondage-look was from Versace. Diplo and Orville Peck in Dior were also sowing their western oats.

FKA Twigs showed shes not afraid of taking chances. She arrived in a hooded black and pink Baroque gown designed by a friend. H.E.R. rocked pastel-colored eyewear with her colorful hippy kimono.

Maggie Rogers took a tamer approach than her peers in a vintage Chanel.

Camila Cabello played up her glam style in a black strapless gown with an enormous petticoat. Social media was abuzz over the fact that she and beau Shawn Mendes, wearing a cranberry Louis Vuitton suit and boots, did not walk the red carpet together.

John Legend looked cool as a cucumber in an Alexander McQueen suit with a half-short, half-long jacket. His wife, Chrissy Teigen wore a bright orange, plunging gown by Yanina Couture.

Esperanza Spalding was among the best dressed in a green, yellow and pink floral jumpsuit emblazoned with the words Life Force. It was just another of the looks that brought the Grammys red carpet to life.
Siamak Momeni, who is not yet 18, was arrested in Parand during the anti-regime protests that sprung up in the wake of the overnight tripling of gas prices.

Momeni attempted suicide after the Revolutionary Court of Tehran announced his sentence for association and collusion and propaganda against the state, insulting the leader, and insulting the president. He was taken to the hospital, but there is no news on his condition.

Momeni lost his father several years ago and became the familys breadwinner by doing deliveries with his motorbike. The fuel price hike deprived him of making enough money to support his family.

He told his inmates: When I learned that fuel had become 3,000 tomans a liter, I couldnt work anymore. How could I run my familys life with this price? So, I went to the street and picked up a placard to protest. Then I got arrested.

Initially, Momeni was placed in the detention center of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Sarallah Garrison, before being moved to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary after he was interrogated.

Parand is a small town outside of Tehran, which mainly houses low-income families

According to Karaj MP Mohammad Javad Kolivand, the November uprising reached 719 locations on the first day of the protests alone, which was November 15.

While the representative for the parliamentary Committee on Security and Foreign Policy, Seyed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, has admitted that 7,000 people were arrested during the protests. (Although, the Resistance makes this number 12,000, due to the secrecy of the regime.)

Those arrested have been subjected to torture, including rape and other sexual abuse, genital torture, beatings, and more, in order to force televised confessions.

The regime launched a violent crackdown on the uprising, killing at least 1,500 and injuring 4,000. Many of those injured have since been arrested by agents while seeking medical attention for bullet wounds.

The Iranian Resistance has released the names of 20 more martyrs of the uprising, bring the total number of those identified to 724.

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has once again urged the United Nations Secretary-General to dispatch a fact-finding mission to investigate the status of those killed and wounded and visit Irans prisons and those arrested.
India's 71st Republic Day was celebrated in South Africa with a host of cultural, patriotic events organised by the country's missions attended by hundreds of Indian expatriates.

The Consul General of India, Johannesburg, Anju Ranjan unfurled the Indian tricolour and read the president's message.

The Republic Day programme in the Indian Consulate's Parktown suburb in Johannesburg was attended by more than 500 people, including Indian expatriates and local people.

The celebrations in Johannesburg started on January 25 itself when Ranjan hosted a dinner for a select group of guests from the business, cultural and diplomatic sectors on the eve of Republic Day.

Speaking at the dinner, Ranjan detailed plans for community interaction in the coming year, promising closer links with the communities of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo provinces.

Ranjan promised unprecedented number of cultural programes -- dance, music, language -- and yoga classes by the consulate and the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre.

She assured the business sector of concerted efforts to grow mutual trade.

The High Commission of India in Pretoria also held the celebrations on Sunday with unfurling of the national flag, reading out the presidents message by High Commissioner Jaideep Sarkar. Indians and friends of India took part in the celebrations.

High Commissioner Sarkar also echoed Ranjan's views, adding that the history and journey of the two countries -- India and South Africa -- were intertwined.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A mom in Georgia has sparked a wave of outrage after a bad experience at Chik-fil-A left her "shocked' and "surprised."

Samantha McIntosh was eating at a Chik-fil-A with her 9-year-old niece and her 7-month-old daughter when the incident occurred last week. The mom was breastfeeding her daughter inside the fast food restaurant when a manager allegedly approached her, handed her a jacket and asked her to stop.

McIntosh, who said she was wearing a nursing top and a long sleeve sweatshirt, was angered by the request, as she was showing "absolutely no skin." The manager, citing another customer's complaint and the fact that there were young children inside the restaurant, insisted that she cover up more  psuhing the mom to take to Facebook with her frustrations.

"Why would someone ask me to cover up? Why would a baby eating in any way offend someone to the point where it takes a manager approaching me about the situation?! So I got mad," McIntosh said in a Facebook post in which she described the ordeal.

The mom's post, which has drawn more than 5,000 comments and 1,500 shares, goes on to explain that she ultimately decided to stop breastfeeding. However, she added that another mother sitting nearby became angry as well, calling the manager over on McIntosh's behalf and asking about Chick-fil-A's policies regarding breastfeeding.

That reportedly led to another confrontation with the manager, who asserted that the staff had every right to ask McIntosh to stop breastfeeding. The mom left the restaurant immediately after that argument.

"Needless to say I am extremely disappointed in the way Chick-fil-a management handled the situation," she wrote on Facebook.

But the controversy didn't end there. McIntosh's viral post ultimately gained so much attention that several moms decided to join her for a "nurse-in" at the Chick-fil-A a few days later, according to the Augusta Chronicle. At the event, several moms began breastfeeding at the restaurant in order to protest the issue.

Story continues

"We need to normalize breastfeeding and make sure that people are as comfortable as possible with moms feeding their kids however they decide," Jessica Gaugush, who helped organize the event, told the Augusta Chronicle.

Not everyone seemed to agree with McIntosh though. The mom's Facebook post featured plenty of supportive responses, but also some from users who saw her behavior as inappropriate.

"No matter what you believe its not something to be doing where others eat," one user wrote on McIntosh's Facebook post. "Yall are so quick to 'stand up for breastfeeding' right? But dont give a s*** if it offends or grosses people out. Its quite simple."

McIntosh, for her part, told the Augusta Chronicle that the manager of the Chick-fil-A where the incident occurred had called her to apologize. However, Gaugush said the problem goes beyond one single restaurant.

"This wasnt just a problem with Chick-fil-A ... If you read the story, truly I believe that the people around that had reported it in the first place are also part of the problem, she told the Augusta Chronicle.
The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday (January 27) passed a statutory resolution seeking to abolish the Legislative Council of the state. The move to abolish the Legislative Council comes days after Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy-led government in the state failed to get two bills on its plans to have three capitals passed by the Upper House, which is dominated by main opposition Telugu Desam Party of N Chandrababu Naidu.

It is learnt that 133 MLAs in the 175-member House voted in favour of the resolution which was adopted under Article 169 (1) of the Constitution. Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Tammineni Seetaram informed the legislators that the resolution was adopted by a majority as stipulated under Article 169 (1) related to abolition or creation of Legislative Councils in states. The TDP, however, staged a walkout before the voting in protest against the governments decision to abolish the council.

Notably, the TDP enjoys the absolute majority in the 58-member legislative council and it had been delaying two bills dealing with the decentralization of the Andhra Pradesh's capital. According to reports, the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), miffed with the constant roadblock created by TDP in the council, wants to abolish the Council to end the hurdle once and for all.

Live TV

On the other hand, the YSRCP has a majority in the legislative assembly, 151 of 175 members, in the 58-member upper house, it has only nine seats. TDP with 26 seats has a full-fledged majority and controls the major part of the council.

The Andhra Pradesh upper house was first abolished in 1885 when the TDP had come to power and the Congress was in the majority in the council. The council was later restored in 2007 by Jaganmohan Reddy's father and then Chief Minister, late YS Rajasekhar Reddy.
The Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed a petition filed by Eneyi Zidougha of Green Party (GP), challenging the victory of David Lyon of the All Progressive Congress (APC), in the governorship poll.

The petitioner had through his counsel applied to the tribunal for the withdrawal of the petition challenging the outcome of the November16, 2019 election.

Justice Muhammad Sirajo, Chairman of the three-man panel, informed parties that the tribunal received the application dated January 14 notifying it of the petitioners intention to withdraw his petition.

Mr Sirajo said the absence of the petitioner and his counsel from proceedings was indicative of the petitioners willingness to withdraw his petition.

The application for withdrawal of the petition would have been taken formally but for the absence of the petitioner and his counsel.

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The tribunal is therefore compelled by the provision of Paragraph 11, subsection 18 of the Electoral Act, to dismiss the petition, the judge said.

Mr Sirajo further awarded N50,000 each to the second and third respondents as costs respectively.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the respondents in the suit were Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Lyon, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo and APC.

The respondents had in their various briefs urged that tribunal to dismiss the petition for lack of merit and with substantial cost.

NAN reports that with the dismissal of Zidoughas petition, the tribunal is left with four governorship petitions and one State House of Assembly.

(NAN)
Modi cruel steps in IHK shows its real face before world: Shah Mahmood

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday that Narendra Modi governments cruel steps in the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) had exposed its real face before the world.



The international community should come forward to save 8 million innocent Kashmiris from atrocities of India, he said while addressing workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in different areas of constituency NA-156 here. The human rights violation by the Indian government in the Valley must be stopped as early as possible. Qureshi vowed that Pakistan would continue to raise voice for protecting rights of innocent Kashmiris at every international forum.



The foreign minister said the world should play its role in ending curfew in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and for peaceful resolution of the issue. Jammu and Kashmir is no more a regional issue but it has become an international problem, said Qureshi, adding Pakistan successfully raised the Kashmir issue at the United Nations Security Council after 56 years. Qureshi said he visited Saudi Arabia, Iran and America, following instructions for Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said his visit to these countries remained successful. Pakistan played a role to reduce tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he added.



Pakistan wished that there should be no confrontation in the region, he said, adding that the region could not afford another war. Saudi Arabia was one of reliable friends of Pakistan. Similarly, Iran was also our friend and a neighbour, said the foreign minister, adding that Pakistan wanted that the issues should be resolved through dialogue process.
The Charger Blog

After almost three decades in the corporate world, Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA, one of the most distinguished graduates of the University's MBA program, has launched a new career and found her calling recruiting prospective students in her home country of India. By Jackie Hennessey, contributing writer

Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA

Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA travels from Mumbai, India to Chennai, 800 miles away, to large cities and smaller towns across the world's second most populous country, attending college fairs or holding an event at the U.S. Consulate organized by the U.S. India Educational Foundation (USIEF), to talk with prospective students and their families about the University of New Haven.

At the end of her talks, she distributes literature about the University and hands out her business card, should they have questions

And within minutes, or hours, she typically has 15 or 20 texts, another 15 WhatsApp messages, emails, and phone messages from students who want to know more about the experience of studying and living 7,800 miles from home at the University of New Haven.

Maitra wouldn't want it any other way. As the University's Country Head in India, she oversees recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students in India and is helping to build the University's brand, which is one of her core objectives.

"I get back to them right away. My job is to get them the information they need as quickly as possible, and being an alum also helps considerably." Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA

"The students have questions, and, often, their parents have questions," she explains. "I get back to them right away. My job is to get them the information they need as quickly as possible, and being an alum also helps considerably."

What Maitra shares goes well beyond information and can be better described as a palpable and electric passion for the University of New Haven, where she pursued her MBA with a concentration in marketing, graduating in 1991.

She says that she owes a great deal of her success  as an international senior executive with three decades of experience, working in two large global corporations in the healthcare and life sciences industries  to her time at the University.

'Everyone was so supportive'

Maitra vividly recalls the day she arrived in 1989.

She grew up in Rourkela, Odisha, in India and her father, an engineer who earned multiple degrees in the field, and her mother, who received a master's degree in English at Delhi University, encouraged her and her sister to pursue their education and their dreams. Maitra went on to earn her bachelor's degree in political science at DAV College in Rourkela and decided she wanted to pursue an MBA in the United States.

"In those days, it was not very common for girls to go abroad for studying, but I was lucky to have very progressive parents who ensured that both of us would achieve our dreams, and I am ever grateful for that," she says.

She spent months researching colleges in the U.S. and received guidance from the United States-India Educational Foundation, Kolkata, and chose the University of New Haven because of its excellent hospitality program, eventually deciding instead to pursue an MBA with a concentration in marketing.

"I don't think I would have had the career I had if I had not studied at the University of New Haven." Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA

She chose the University sight unseen, staying the night before at the former Yankee Motel in West Haven where the front desk clerk, sensing her nervousness, made sure she got a ride to the University the following morning. That same warmth and hospitality greeted her at Maxcy Hall, where she met two Indian students in the admissions office who "helped me get a place to stay, open a bank account, shop, and get settled."

Soon she was living off campus with roommates from Nicaragua, Panama, and China, the start of global experience that, she says, helped shape and influence her career. "I don't think I would have had the career I had if I had not studied at the University of New Haven," she says.

"I learned about American culture and about cultures of students from around the world, and everyone was so supportive," she says. "The professors were so caring. You could go to them with a question or issue and they were more than happy to help."

'I'm very passionate about the University of New Haven'

In her second year as an MBA candidate, she was hired as a research assistant by former professor Michael Kublin. "I was told I would not last two days with him, but we got along like a house on fire," she says. "He was a tough teacher and demanded perfection. I learned so much from him."

She also had the chance to experience the Connecticut shoreline, the New Haven cultural scene, the Yale University campus, and to discover the beauty of "very cold" New England winters.

"I'm very passionate about the University of New Haven." Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA

What she found, she says, was a home, one she feels as much affection for today, 30 years later. When she returned to the University about eight years ago, she was bowled over by its growth and by the "amazing facilities."

She was struck that, while so much had changed, the essence of the University as a place she made lifelong connections with fellow students and faculty members  had remained constant. Of course, memories rushed back.

"The library, Maxcy Hall, the walk from the University to my apartment, everything held memories and stories, and history and lessons learned," she says. "I'm very passionate about the University of New Haven."

'This is my calling'

She always knew that she would return to India after graduating to be close to her parents and to build her career there. Before graduating, she had an interview in New York City with F.C. Kohli, known as the father of the Indian software industry, who hired her on the spot to work for Tata Consultancy Services, the second largest Indian company by market capitalization. She worked there for 11 years, taking on a variety of roles, and started specializing in healthcare.

She later moved on to Wipro Ltd, , where she was responsible for setting up business units and global centers of delivery excellence around the world for healthcare and life sciences industries and turning around acquired businesses, and she also served as the chief operating officer of Wipro Healthcare IT.

Most recently, she was the global head of life sciences for the business process services for Wipro Ltd. She had major Fortune 500 companies as clients and oversaw 12 delivery centers globally. Wipro Ltd is a global leader in consulting, technology, and business-process services with more than 170,000 employees.

"I feel that my life has come full circle." Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA

Last fall, after working for three decades in the corporate sector, she took a sabbatical "to reinvent myself and do something radically different," she says. An active alumnus, she was talking with President Steven Kaplan about how the University was working to expand its global reach and impact when he asked her if she would be interested in the position of country head in India.

There was, she says, not a moment of hesitation. "It was as if all the pieces came together," she says. "I said `this is my calling, and I want to do it.' I feel that my life has come full circle.'"

She finds that sharing her experience of returning to India after earning her MBA and having a successful career is reassuring to many prospective students and their parents. "It gives them a lot of hope, that you can stay in America, but you don't have to, and you aren't a failure if you don't do that. It eases a lot of pressure for students and their parents."

'Be your own hero'

At one recent talk she told prospective students: "Be your own hero. I never let my gender be my guiding principle, I always did what I wanted to. And, going to the U.S alone, 30 years ago to pursue an MBA  not a common thing back then  made me my own little superhero. What I am today is a result of my unwavering faith in myself. But, like every superhero, I also had a rock-solid back-end support system  my parents and my husband  who encouraged me to live and explore my dreams in every possible way."

This month, she is back in West Haven helping the University's students from India settle in, and then she will return to India to continue recruiting and setting up partnerships with schools and organizations such as the United States India Educational Foundation.

"What I am today is a result of my unwavering faith in myself." Ranjana Maitra '91 MBA

The best moments in her new position happen when a prospective student "sends an email or calls her saying they have applied to the University of New Haven based on my recommendation and that they are looking forward to studying at the University.

"That's a special moment for me," she says.
Where are the prosecutions for Fast and Furious? By Rachel Alexander

It's been about 10 years since the public discovered Fast and Furious, the gun walking operation conducted by the ATF under the Obama administration. The ATF arranged for straw buyers to purchase guns from American gun stores and transfer them to arms traffickers who would give them to drug cartels in Mexico. Ostensibly, the ATF would then track down the cartels. But they lost track of the guns, and some were used to kill Americans. Yet where are the prosecutions of the Obama officials who ran it? The victims and their families have never received justice. But they're looking into it and speaking up. The corrupt program initially received a lot of attention in 2010 after Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered by a drug cartel. Guns transferred to Mexico from Fast and Furious were used to kill him. But the government has refused to provide the Terry family with full details of what happened, including Terry's last emails. According to his brother Paul Terry, the family has a lawsuit against the government which has been ongoing for years. Dawn Hobson's son William Neil Anderson showed up dead shortly afterwards. Anderson worked with Terry, and had gone to Terrys family after he died and let them know that what the government told them about his death wasnt true. Hobson had a hard time time finding out how her son had died until she saw the death certificate, which said fentanyl poisoning. But that made no sense, since her son was very opposed to drug use. She had a medical examiner and some law enforcement agents examine the body and they said he was murdered. There was evidence of evidence of strangulation and asphyxiation. They think he was murdered by someone he worked with. Unfortunately, they are too terrified to go public about it.



Other victims include gun shop owners who were badly mistreated by the ATF, as the ATF tried to cover its tracks. Wesley Felix helped his uncle and brother run a gun shop in Las Vegas. The ATF sent in a confidential informant, Julianne Shields, to try and take over the shop. She bought guns under the shop's Federal Firearms License  even though it had expired. Shields and the ATF stole over 2,000 guns from the shop, totaling $3.5 million. The ATF placed a tracking device under his uncle's truck. They detained him for 28 months, even though he hadn't been convicted of anything, claiming he had been carrying a gun concealed without a permit (which was ridiculous considering he had a FFL). Felix's brother reported the theft of the guns to law enforcement. But little was done, and the ATF closed the investigation. However, some of the ATF agents logged into their Yahoo email accounts from the shop's computers, and forgot to log out, so Felix has documentation of much of their activity. Ian Garland, another gun shop owner, says Fast and Furious ruined his life. Officials from Mexico came to his shop to buy guns. He notified various law enforcement agencies. They did not respond with any concerns. At one point, a customer tried to buy a gun without a background check. He told the ATF. It turned out it was a confidential informant trying to entrap him. Another guy from the U.S. Marshals tried to buy a gun with a fake ID. Suddenly, the ATF started spying on him. Finally, he was accused of selling machine guns, arrested and locked up for over 400 days in solitary confinement. He lost his house, his possessions and all of his animals died. Mike Detty also owned a gun shop and ran into problems with the ATF. He tried to work with the ATF, thinking they had good intentions. He wore a wire so they could listen to his transactions with suspicious customers, believing the ATF was going to follow up and trace the guns to the cartels. But instead they hacked into his computers and deleted files and emails that had been exchanged between him and the agents. They leaked his identity as an informant, putting his life in danger. He said the ATF lied to him about getting cooperation from the Mexican government. As a result, prosecutions will be difficult. Jeffrey Peterson founded a technology company involved in the internet and the Spanish language in Arizona. Due to the nature of his company, he found his way into Janet Napolitano's inner circle back when she was governor of Arizona, serving on the governor's Arizona-Mexico Commission. He says her inner circle became known as the Arizona mafia, and was involved in Fast and Furious. One man in her inner circle was Dennis Burke. He became the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix. He was forced to resign over Fast and Furious. Peterson met with him one day when Burke was visibly chilled. He told Peterson that he thought he was going to prison and we're guilty as sin. But nothing ever happened. Victor Avila served as a special agent for ICE along with Jaime Zapata. The two were ordered to go down a dangerous road where they were attacked by a drug cartel. Zapata lost his life. Avila lived to tell what had happened, but only after being shot three times. Two of the weapons were linked to a gun walking operation out of Texas. The ATF identified the arms traffickers and had opportunities to arrest and prosecute them. But instead there was a coverup by the ATF. The cartel members weren't arrested until Zapatas death became well known. Those investigating have been stonewalled; their FOIA requests are denied or heavily redacted.



It's not a partisan effort that is trying to bring this corrupt operation to justice. Many of the people coming forward now about Fast and Furious are Democrats, because they served in the Obama administration and became upset with what they were seeing. Many of the officials involved have been promoted or transferred. The DOJ needs to conduct an internal investigation and determine which officials were responsible for this horrible operation, then prosecute them. It's reported that the DOJ under William Barr is finally looking into it. President Trump told the mother of Brian Terry that he will look into what happened, but admitted that Fast and Furious was bigger than people thought. The victims are having a hard time proceeding with lawsuits since Obama marked much of the documentation as classified so unreleasable. For more information, check out the work of investigative journalist Ann Vandersteel, including a press conference that was held last year addressing this. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications.mericano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications. Home
Sukhoi-30MKI fighters will be based in Thanjavur.

Tejas Mark 1 aircraft will be based in Sulur.

The Rafale squadron will be based in Ambala.

Ajai Shukla reports.

IMAGE: Sukhoi-30MKI fighter aircraft squadron prepares to take off from the Indian Air Force's Thanjavur airbase, January 20, 2020. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo

There is finally light at the end of the tunnel for the Indian Air Force, which is at its lowest point since the 1970s with just 28 fighter squadrons operational as against the authorised 42.

A senior IAF planner says the squadron strength would not fall any lower. Starting from 2020, numbers will gradually rise.

Three squadrons will be inducted this year while only two squadrons will be withdrawn from operational service.

One new squadron, raised in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, will be equipped with new Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, built by Hindustan Aeronautics in Nashik. These fighters will mount the air-launched version of the BrahMos cruise missile, and will be earmarked to carry out maritime strikes against enemy warships in the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean.

In addition, the second squadron of Tejas Mark 1 light combat aircraft will be raised in April. The first squadron of Tejas Mark 1 -- Number 45 Squadron, called the Winged Daggers -- is already operational in Sulur, Tamil Nadu. Now the second will begin receiving its fighters from HAL.

The third squadron to be raised this year will be equipped with the Rafale.

Slated to be based in Ambala, Number 17 squadron will received its first batch of fighters in India by May and is likely to achieve full strength by March 2021.

Meanwhile, on the negative side, the IAF's last MiG-27 squadron was phased out of service in December; and another MiG-21 squadron is currently being retired.

With HAL Nashik likely to complete the delivery of all 222 Sukhoi-30MKI contracted by the IAF in the coming year, the IAF is processing an order for 12 more fighters, to replace the fighters lost over the years in accidents.

In addition, a significant number of Sukhoi-30MKIs have begun coming up for overhaul each year, in HAL Nashik. The additional fighters now being ordered will function as 'replacement fighters' for the ones being overhauled.

IMAGE: The IAF's Tejas aircraft at the induction ceremony of the first Sukhoi-30MKI fighter aircraft squadron at the Thanjavur airbase, January 20, 2020. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo

Also in the pipeline is a squadron of MiG-29 fighters that Russia has offered India.

The IAF is going ahead with the procurement, but officials say the fighters would first have to be fitted out with new avionics and weaponry. This is likely to take two to three years.

There is also a global procurement under way for 114 medium fighters.

However, this is at a preliminary stage and, given the budgetary constraints, the IAF is not banking on these aircraft joining the fleet any time soon.

In the medium term, the IAF is looking to the Tejas Mark 1A to stabilise, and then raise its squadron numbers. A contract for 83 Tejas Mark 1A will be signed by April which will add up to four squadrons.

The senior official says the IAF has stressed to HAL that it must reach its planned production level of 16 fighters per year. An investment of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) has been made to expand HAL's production capacity.

At present, the IAF's fleet includes 12 Sukhoi-30MKI squadrons, three MiG-29UPG squadrons, six Jaguar squadrons, three Mirage 2000 squadrons, one Tejas squadron, and the last three MiG-21 squadrons.
If a president, any president, were to have done what the Times reported about the context of the Bolton manuscript, that would not constitute an impeachable offense, Dershowitz said. Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense. That is clear from history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like quid pro quo and personal benefit. 
Syracuse, N.Y.  A post-plastic bag world has arrived at Wegmans.

The chain announced earlier this month it would stop giving out single-use plastic bags at checkout on Jan. 27. Thats today.

Wegmans will also start charging 5 cents for paper bags starting today. The proceeds from paper bag sales will go to charity.

Wegmans made the moves ahead of New Yorks statewide plastic bag ban, which goes into effect everywhere March 1.

Price Chopper and Tops have said they plan to make the switch that day. The two chains also plan to charge 5 cents a bag for paper.

The ban affects any business required to collect state sales taxes, including small businesses and other retailers.

Target has said it will eliminate plastic bags at checkout in New York on March 1. Plastic will disappear from all Gap brand stores, including Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta, by or before that day, the company said.

Gap stores will also charge 5 cents for paper bags.

The companies have all been encouraging customers to switch to reusable bags.

The state's bag ban includes a provision allowing cities and counties to charge a mandatory 5-cent fee for paper bags, but few have moved to do so. Syracuse has not and neither has Onondaga County.

Plastic bags are not disappearing completely. The ban includes a number of exemptions for things like produce, raw meat, fish and bulk items.

Price Chopper, Tops and Wegmans all said they would continue to have those bags available in their stores.

The state Legislature passed the bag ban as part of the budget last year. Activists have been pushing for a ban for years to help cut down on the environmental harm plastic bags cause.

Some groups criticized the move as just one more unnecessary added cost for businesses.

Environmentalists were also disappointed the ban did not include a mandatory statewide fee for paper bags. As a result, consumers will likely just switch to paper bags and the litter, waste and problems will remain, activists said.

More on New Yorks plastic bag ban

Dog poop, tiny trash cans, more: Questions answered on NYs plastic bag ban

Youll soon pay for paper bags at Tops, Wegmans, Old Navy, more as NY plastic bag ban nears

NY plastic bag ban nears: How to clean your reusable bags so they dont get gross

New York plastic bag ban start date, whos affected, bags you can still get

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi had sought a written undertaking from the Shiv Sena that the new government in Maharashtra would work within the ambit of the Constitution, former chief minister Ashok Chavan has said.

Sonia Gandhi had given clear guidelines that the state government must work within the frame of Constitution, the state PWD minister said at a meeting in Nanded on Sunday.

"She told us that first we should get this in writing (from Sena) that the government should work within the ambit of the Constitution and shouldn't violate the Constitution preamble. We were told to convey this to Uddhav Thackeray," Chavan said.

Thackeray was sworn in CM in November last year, heading an alliance government with the Congress and NCP, after results of the October 21 Assembly elections failed to throw up a clear winner.

Chavan said Gandhi had also told state Congress leaders that if the government doesn't function as expected, the party should quit it. "We conveyed the same to Thackeray. He agreed and we went to form the government," Chavan said.

Responding to Chavan's remarks, former CM Devendra Fadnavis said Shiv Sena should clarify about the 'deals' done before the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was formed.

"If alliance parties don't have faith (in Sena) why is the Sena in government," Fadnavis told media.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Guebert: Keep moving, nothing to see here
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says he will campaign against the Commonwealth if it tries to take control of Murray Darling management planning and "put in plans [that] communities don't want".

Mr Barilaro, who has been at odds with the Morrison government over water sharing in the Murray Darling Basin and repeatedly threatened to walk away from the deal, said it was "toxic" and "political suicide" if the Commonwealth decided to complete river management plans unilaterally.

At loggerheads: NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and federal Water Resources Minister David Littleproud. Credit:AAP, Alex Ellinghausen

The Herald revealed on Monday that federal Water Resources Minister David Littleproud had told the Berejiklian government that he would withhold millions of dollars in funding for regional water projects because documents, known as water resource plans (WRP), were now overdue.

He indicated in the letter sent to NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey that the Commonwealth intended to step in and complete water resource plans that had not been completed by his new deadline of April 30 this year. The original deadline of last July was extended to December 31.
Albany

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will join leaders from around the world at a ceremony in Poland on Monday commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops.

The Democrat departed for Poland on Sunday following a press briefing where he was joined by several Holocaust survivors and Alan Moskin, a U.S. Army veteran who talks to school children about his experiences liberating a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

Cuomo said he will leave a rock at Auschwitz engraved with the words "New York state remembers," as well as mementos and tokens from Auschwitz survivors, state elected officials and Jewish community leaders.

"This state will never forget the Nazi atrocities that were perpetrated against the Jews, and as we confront a growing cancer of hate and intolerance against the Jewish community, this trip will serve as a reminder of our shared New York values against intolerance and division," Cuomo said, noting that the anniversary comes amid a rash of anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York and across the country.

"It is tragic that 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is growing," said Samuel Hersley, an Auschwitz survivor who lost his parents, brother and over 70 other relatives in the Holocaust. "Please never forget my story and all of those who cannot tell their story, it should not be forgotten."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

As part of his 2020 State of the State address and budget plan, Cuomo proposed that New York schools add a curriculum that teaches civic values and the state's history of diversity and religious freedom.

He also advanced legislation requiring that every student visit a museum that covers topics related to the Holocaust.
Seeking to corner the AAP over its assertions on revolutionising in Delhi, all the seven BJP MPs from the national capital visited government schools in the city on Monday and claimed a lack of basic amenities there.

North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, who is also the president of the Delhi BJP, visited a government school in Khajoori Khas, and Chandni Chowk MP Harsh Vardhan, who is also a Union minister, visited a school in the Prem Nagar area of his constituency, a statement issued by the Delhi BJP said.

Other Delhi BJP MPs -- Ramesh Bidhuri, Meenakshi Lekhi, Gautam Gambhir, Parvesh Verma and Hans Raj Hans -- also visited schools in their constituencies.

"The schools had broken benches, the toilets were disgusting, in some schools, the students were studying under trees due to a lack of classrooms and the filth at the drinking water facilities. The visits proved that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has only lied to people through advertisements," the statement said.

No immediate reaction was available from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the national capital.

The AAP credits it with revolutionising the and health sectors in Delhi. Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had challenged BJP leaders in the past to compare the condition of the schools in the states run by the saffron party with those run by the Delhi government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Passengers travelling from China to Georgia are being examined for a new strain of the coronavirus that originates in the Chinese city of Wuhan.



Georgian doctors are examining passengers as well as providing them with information on the symptoms of the virus upon arrival, Agenda.ge reported.



Head of the Georgian National Disease Control Centre Amiran Gamkrelidze said earlier this week that there is a "low chance" that the new virus might reach Georgia.



However, health officials are following the World Health Organisations preventive measures.
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PowerInbox, the trusted audience engagement and digital monetization partner for publishers, today announced the results of a new consumer survey that shows online media consumers overwhelming prefer ad-supported content from publishers over subscription paywalls. The revelation proves that consumers understand "free" content comes at a cost, and they're willing to pay it with their eyeballs and data if it means getting a more personalized experience.

According to a survey soon to be released by PowerInbox, 82% of consumers say they'd rather see ads in exchange for content instead of paying for a subscription, but with a caveat: nearly half say they want those ads to be personalized to their interests and online behavior. That means publishers must prioritize advertiser relevancy in order to deliver content that entices online subscribers to click: Two-thirds say relevancy and trust in the publisher are key drivers of advertising click-through.

But, that can be difficult in an environment where consumers are growing increasingly skeptical of how companies collect and use their data. That puts the onus on publishers to find new ways to connect with audiences over channels they trust and have already used to build an existing relationship, like email.

PowerInbox CEO Jeff Kupietzky says publishers can leverage that one-to-one relationship with email subscribers across other channels to reinforce engagement. He says that by adopting a multi-channel messaging strategy that enables publishers to optimize, personalize and automate subscriber messaging, publishers can deliver the highly targeted, relevant content subscribers expect to drive revenue with minimal effort.

"Publishers are in trouble: they're losing revenue and traffic to the likes of Facebook and Google, and they need solutions that can help them regain control of their audience relationships and generate new revenue," Kupietzky said. "Our data shows that publishers have a tremendous opportunity to leverage a multi-channel strategy over channels that consumers already trust to drive engagement and monetization, putting the power back into the hands of publishers."

To help publishers begin assembling this multi-channel messaging strategy, PowerInbox VP of Marketing Renee Chemel will participate in a Drop In Clinic at Affiliate Summit West at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29th in the Exhibit Hall, Paris Ballroom. Chemel will be available to answer questions and provide consumer survey insights to help publishers optimize their customer strategy.

Several members of the PowerInbox team will also be available at Table 1913 during the Meet Market on Monday, Jan. 27 and throughout the event at Booth #317. Stop by the booth on Tuesday, Jan. 28th for a customized airbrush t-shirt, and guests who schedule a meeting with the PowerInbox team will receive a VIP personalization.

For more information, visit www.powerinbox.com or https://www.affiliatesummit.com/west/affiliate-summit-west-agenda.

About PowerInbox

PowerInbox provides comprehensive, multichannel digital monetization solutions that help publishers and marketers drive new revenue with personalized subscriber engagement. Venture backed and profitable, PowerInbox supports 150 million unique users a month from more than 650 leading publishers including The Atlantic, Bonnier, Salem Web Network, Crains, HarperCollins, New York Magazine, Palm Beach Gazette and Seattle Times. For more information about PowerInbox, visit www.powerinbox.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

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Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27 : The "spare the rod and spoil the child" policy being practiced in the Congress party in Kerala is going to be a thing of the past, with the newly-named office bearers of the state unit deciding to constitute a disciplinary committee at its first meeting here on Monday.

The decision also provoked some disgruntled reactions.

Speaking to the media, state Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran said that the disciplinary committee would be in place very soon.

"From now on, irrespective of the status and position of the leaders in the party, under no circumstances would anyone be allowed to breach discipline. It will have to be strictly adhered to and strong action would be taken if the line of discipline is breached," said Ramachandran.

It was only of Friday, following numerous rounds of talks at various levels in Kerala and in Delhi, that the Congress high command released its first list of 47 office bearers of the Kerala unit of the party.

The first list includes 12 vice-presidents, 34 general secretaries and a treasurer.

Over the years, the bane of the Congress party in Kerala has been the way in which leaders at all levels have embarassed the party by their statements to the media, and have been able to get away without facing disciplinary action.

Former state party chief and current Lok Sabha member K. Muraleedharan, the son of former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, appeared upset over the developments and criticised Ramachandran for the way the list of party office bearers had been prepared.

"Instead of attacking me, this aggression should be there against (Prime Minister) Modi and (Chief Minister) Pinarayi Vijayan also," Muraleedharan said.

Responding to the outburst, Ramachandran said he sympathised with Muraleedharan.

"I am quite happy with the new team and we did our best to limit the size of the team and to a large extent, it has been possible. We will make sure that we will make up with more representation to women, youth and to those from the weaker sections of society, when the second list of office bearers (secretaries and executive) is announced," Ramachandran said.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Close on the heels of Delhi Assembly polls, newly elected national president of BJP, JP Nadda said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is supporting those elements in JNU who want to break India for his vote-bank politics.



"Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. They were threatening to violate India's sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet," tweeted Nadda.

"They sought Kejriwal's permission to prosecute this tukde tukde gang but one year later, till y'day, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank?" read his subsequent tweet.

Assembly elections in Delhi will take place on February 8 and votes will be counted on February 11.

In 2015, Aam Aadmi Party got a landslide victory by winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats in the national capital. (ANI)
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is advancing Canada's plan for the safe, long-term management of used nuclear fuel.

The NWMO signed agreements with landowners in South Bruce, Ont., that will allow sufficient access to land for studies at a potential deep geological repository location. The community is one of two potential host areas that remain in the site selection process for the project; the NWMO announced in November 2019 that studies are also continuing in the area of Ignace, Ont.

The Township of Huron-Kinloss, Ont., will no longer be considered a potential host for the project; however, as a neighbour to South Bruce, the community will continue to play a strong role as activities continue.

"We are heartened by the strong interest shown by local landowners in each municipality," said Dr. Mahrez Ben Belfadhel, Vice-President of Site Selection at the NWMO. "With agreements in place and access to land in South Bruce, we expect to begin studies such as borehole drilling and baseline environmental monitoring in the coming months to assess the suitability of the area."

"I was born and raised in this community, and my family and I are proud to call South Bruce home," said local farmer and landowner Darren Ireland, who entered into an agreement with the NWMO. "We understand that this project has the potential to bring long-term benefits to the area, and we want to be part of building a sustainable, prosperous community for everyone now and in the future."

The land access process was initiated in May 2019. Since then, the NWMO worked with local landowners, including Mr. Ireland, to aggregate nearly 1,300 acres (526 hectares) of land northwest of Teeswater, Ont. The agreements include a combination of option and purchase arrangements that allow the NWMO to conduct studies and landowners to continue using the land, in some cases through leaseback arrangements. If the site is selected to host the repository, the NWMO would purchase the optioned land.

"The identification of a potential repository site in South Bruce is an important milestone for Canada's plan, providing confidence that the organization can proceed with technical site evaluations and social studies in this area. This is the result of months of hard work and effort on behalf of the municipalities, local landowners and the NWMO," said Dr. Ben Belfadhel. "Canada's plan has been made stronger through the thoughtful and constructive contributions of the people and leaders in the area."

The NWMO will continue discussions with landowners in the vicinity of the potential site over the coming months and years to further aggregate additional land in this area to form a site of approximately 1,500 acres (607 hectares). Canada's plan calls for the NWMO to identify a single, preferred site to host the project, in an area with informed and willing hosts, by 2023.

While the NWMO continues to engage with Saugeen Ojibway Nation, other Indigenous communities, and local municipalities, the aggregation of land in South Bruce does not suggest it has provided its support for the siting of the repository in this area.
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Uber is operating self-driving cars in autonomous mode with safety drivers behind the wheel.

Uber has taken a more cautious approach to testing since one of its self-driving vehicles killed a pedestrian in March 2018.

Uber will put self-driving vehicles on Washington, DC roads Friday with human drivers in control, the ride share company said on Thursday, as it seeks to collect data for future deployment of fully self-driving vehicles.

Uber is collecting similar road data to support development of self-driving in Dallas, San Francisco and Toronto with human drivers in control. The goal is for computers to operate the vehicles eventually.

The company said it hopes this first round of manually driven data collection will lay the foundation for testing our vehicles in self-driving mode in Washington, DC.

Uber is operating self-driving cars in autonomous mode in Pittsburgh with safety drivers behind the wheel but only during daylight hours.

Uber has taken a more cautious approach to testing since one of its self-driving vehicles killed a pedestrian in March 2018 in Tempe, Arizona, the first death involving an autonomous vehicle.

In the aftermath of the crash, Uber suspended all testing of self-driving vehicles. It resumed testing in December 2018 in Pittsburgh with revised software and significant new restrictions and safeguards.

During manual driving in Washington, Uber said it will use a fleet of three vehicles collecting sensor data using a top-mounted sensor wing with cameras and LiDAR, a detection technology that uses pulsed laser light instead of the radio waves used by radar.

In Washington and other cities with self-driving Uber cars, a second employee will be in the passenger seat.

The National Transportation Safety Board in November faulted Uber for inadequate attention to safety and decisions in the autonomous vehicle involved in the Arizona fatality, as well as the vehicles distracted back-up driver.

The crash in March 2018 killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she was walking a bicycle across a street at night in Tempe, Arizona. The crash prompted significant safety concerns about the nascent self-driving car industry.

The NTSB criticized Ubers ineffective safety culture at the time, when only one employee was in the front seat.

Separately, Ford Motor Co is testing self-driving vehicles without passengers in six cities including Washington with tech startup Argo AI, a company it invested in. Since mid-2019, Ford has been testing vehicles in self-driving mode in Washington with two safety drivers, and has roughly a dozen self-driving vehicles in the nations capital.

Argo AI noted Washington has some of the worst traffic congestion in America, and a very complex street layout.
The deadline for payment was January 25.

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Banks in Slovakia have paid the first quarter of the bank levy to the state. The deadline for doing so expired on January 25.

Five of the biggest financial houses on the Slovak market have confirmed to the Hospodarske Noviny daily that they paid the sum.

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However, they consider the recent changes to the levy, which was doubled and prolonged for an indefinite period, unconstitutional and are ready to claim the money back by using legal tools.

Adopted despite objections

The banks are complaining that the levy violates the financial stability of the Slovak economy and will eventually create obstacles for people and companies to access loans, the Index magazine reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 21:13:37|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A 100-strong team of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) workers have been dispatched to Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, the hardest-hit city by a pneumonia outbreak caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), to help in the treatment of patients.

Organized by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the team consisted of 40 TCM workers from Beijing and 60 others from southern China's Guangdong Province, who all departed Monday for Wuhan.

Upon arrival, they will work at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese & Western Medicine, according to the administration.

This is the second medical team dispatched by the administration to Wuhan, with the first consisting of 25 members sent on Saturday.
With the PercuVision Telehealth Hub and the clinicians staffed by LocumTenens.com who have a wealth of telehealth expertise, urology services will be available to many more patients in greatly expanded service areas. -Dr.Errol Singh

PercuVision LLC, developer of the leading integrated telemedicine platform, the DirectVision DVS-III Telehealth Hub, announced today it has partnered with LocumTenens.com, a prominent physician and advanced practitioner staffing agency, in a pilot program to provide clinical and emergency tele-urology services across the United States. The partnership is expected to improve access to care by extending urology services to urban and rural areas where there are few or no urologists.

According to an American Urology Association survey, the shortage of urology specialists is particularly acute compared with other specialties, with 62 percent of counties in the United States having no practicing urologists. The partnership addresses this pressing need by expanding the geographic practice areas of urologists, allowing clinics and primary care facilities to offer a range of urologic services via telehealth.

As a practicing urologist, PercuVision founder Errol Singh, M.D., F.A.C.S. understands that many patients are unable to access a urologist, but this gap in care can be bridged with virtual medical solutions, such as PercuVisions DirectVision product line when paired with LocumTenens.coms expertise in providing telemedicine. The DirectVision products were created to improve patient outcomes by advancing the standard of care through the application of vision technology. Vision should be the first resort, especially for patients at risk for difficult urinary catheterizations, not the last, said Singh. With the PercuVision Telehealth Hub and the clinicians staffed by LocumTenens.com, who have a wealth of telehealth expertise, urology services will be available to many more patients in greatly expanded service areas.

LocumTenens.coms clinicians help deliver care to more than seven million patients in over 2,400 healthcare facilities nationwide. The staffing agency has a dedicated telehealth division, led by Director Pamela Ograbisz, DNP, FNP-BC, that creates custom-built workflows and optimizes providers tele-urology requirements. Non-urologic providers guided by LocumTenens.com urologists using the PercuVision DirectVision Telehealth Hub can manage urology patients with image-guided instruments for a number of urologic examinations and services, including video interventions and catheter placement.

PercuVisions Telehealth Hub connects patients with specialists through a built-in video conferencing platform, combined with its DirectVision line of accessories, to support a broad range of medical examinations including:

Live video interventions



Urinary catheterization

Consultation

Endoscopy

ENT

Dermatology

Dentistry

Patient Monitoring



Digital stethoscope

Blood pressure

Pulse oximetry

Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming are targeted for the pilot study due to the populations and distribution of people who are often many miles from full-service medical centers. The states also provide telehealth parity for reimbursement through their Medicaid programs, or reimbursement at the same rates as in-clinic care. In addition, the states allow out-of-state physicians who have applied for telemedicine permits to practice in their states.

Access to specialized medical care, particularly within certain regions of the U.S., continues to be a critical issue, said Chris Franklin, president of LocumTenens.com. The partnership between PercuVision and LocumTenens.com brings together innovative medical technology, telehealth and specialized staffing solutions in a way that can truly impact peoples lives.

About PercuVision

PercuVision LLC's mission is to improve patient care and safety by applying microfiber-optic bundle technology to common global medical procedures. The DirectVision line of products use patented micro-endoscope technologies to bring vision to blind medical devices. More information on the company can be found by visiting http://www.PercuVision.com.

About LocumTenens.com

LocumTenens.com is a full-service healthcare staffing agency, specializing in the temporary placement of physicians, CRNAs, physician assistants and nurse practitioners at healthcare facilities across the United States. As the industrys most-visited job board, LocumTenens.com helps healthcare organizations connect with the professionals they need to ensure patients have access to quality care. Founded in 1995, LocumTenens.com is part of the Jackson Healthcare family of companies. Learn more at http://www.locumtenens.com/about.

For LocumTenens.com media inquiries, please contact Brittany Erskine at berskine@gscommuncations.com.

For PercuVision, media inquiries, please contact Carolina Montes at carolina@medtechmomentum.com.
Mitiska REIM has today announced the completion of one of the largest ever retail park transactions in Portugal with the acquisition of a portfolio of four Portuguese retail parks previously owned by Blackstone and managed by Multi Portugal. Located in the central and northern regions of the country, the four

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Identity and access management in 2022 - what will the future look like?

As we enter into 2022, there is still a level of uncertainty in place. Its unclear what the future holds, as companies around the world still contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has been encouraged by most organisations and the move to a hybrid working system has become business as usual, for the majority of businesses. Some have reduced their office space or done away with their locations altogether. Following best security practices With all this change in place, there are problems to deal with. According to research, 32.7% of IT admins say they are concerned about employees using unsecured networks to carry out that work. Alongside this, 74% of IT admins thought that remote work makes it harder for employees to follow best security practices. This need to manage security around remote work is no longer temporary. Instead, companies have to build permanent strategies around remote work and security. The coming year will also create a different landscape for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Here are some key predictions for next year and what to start preparing for in 2022: The reality of SMB spending around security will hit home SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working, especially in comparison to their size. They had to undertake significant digital transformation projects that made it possible to deliver services remotely, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weve seen a shift in mindset for these companies, which are now more tech-focused in their approach to problem solving. According to our research, 45% of SMBs plan to increase their spending towards IT services in 2022. Around half of all organisations think their IT budgets are adequate for their needs, while 14.5% of those surveyed believe they will need more, to cover all that needs to be done. Identity management spending to support remote work For others, the COVID-19 pandemic led to over-spending, just to get ahead of things and they will spend in 2022, looking at what they should keep and what they can reduce their spending on. Areas like identity management will stay in place, as companies struggle to support remote work and security, without this in place. However, on-premise IT spending will be reduced or cut, as those solutions are not relevant for the new work model. Services that rely on on-premise IT will be cut or replaced. The device will lead the way for security We rely on our phones to work and to communicate. In 2022, they will become central to how we manage access, to all our assets and locations, IT and physical. When employees can use company devices and their own phones for work, security is more difficult. IT teams have to ensure that theyre prepared for this, by making sure that these devices can be trusted. Wide use of digital certificates and strong MFA factors Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication There are multiple ways that companies can achieve this, for example - By using digital certificates to identify company devices as trusted, an agent, or strong MFA factors, like a FIDO security key or mobile push authentication. Whichever approach you choose, this can prevent unauthorised access to IT assets and applications, and these same devices can be used for authentication into physical locations too. Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication. Understanding human behaviour Alongside this, it is important to understand human behaviour. Anything that introduces an extra step for authentication can lead to employees taking workarounds. To stop this, it is important to put an employee education process in place, in order to emphasize on the importance of security. The next step is to think about adopting passwordless security, to further reduce friction and increase adoption. Lastly, as devices become the starting point for security and trust, remote device management will be needed too. More companies will need to manage devices remotely, from wiping an asset remotely if it gets lost or stolen, through to de-provisioning users easily and removing their access rights, when they leave the company. Identity will be a layer cake Zero Trust approaches to security Identity management relies on being able to trust that someone is who they say they are. Zero Trust approaches to security can support this effectively, particularly when aligned with least privilege access models. In order to turn theory into practical easy-to-deploy steps, companies need to use contextual access, as part of their identity management strategy. This involves looking at the context that employees will work in and putting together the right management approach for those circumstances. For typical employee behaviour, using two factor authentication might be enough to help them work, without security getting in the way. How enterprises manage, access and store identity data There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time For areas where security is more important, additional security policies can be put over the top, to ensure that only the right people have access. A step-up in authentication can be added, based on the sensitivity of resources or risk-based adaptive authentication policies might be needed. There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time, so that it aligns more closely with those use cases. Identity management critical to secure assets in 2022 There are bigger conversations taking place around digital identity for citizenship, as more services move online as well. Any moves that take place in this arena will affect how businesses think about their identity management processes too, encouraging them to look at their requirements in more detail. Overall, 2022 will be the year when identity will be critical to how companies keep their assets secure and their employees productive. With employees working remotely and businesses becoming decentralised, identity strategies will have to take the same approach. This will put the emphasis on strong identity management as the starting point for all security planning.
I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure. I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives, he said.
A 39-year-old British man has died while in ICE custody at a facility in Florida.

A preliminary investigation found the cause of death for the unidentified man was asphyxiation due to hanging, a source told Buzzfeed News.

The man died Saturday and has become the fifth person to die in ICE custody since October.

DailyMail.com has reached out to ICE for comment.

A 39-year-old British man has died while in ICE custody at a facility in Florida (file image)

Back in December, Nigerian man Anthony Oluseye Akinyemi, 56, died in federal immigration custody, just days after he was convicted of a sex offense and assault in Maryland.

He was found unresponsive in his cell at the Worcester County Jail in Snow Hill, Maryland, according to a news release from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The official cause of death was not immediately determined, but authorities believe Akinyemi took his own life by strangling himself.

Akinyemi had been charged with sexual abuse of a minor and was convicted in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

Anthony Akinyemi, 56, strangled himself in his cell at the Worcester County Jail in Maryland (pictured) in December, less than 24 hours after entering ICE following his conviction

Officials said he entered the US lawfully on a non-immigrant visa in 2017 but did not comply with the terms of his admission, leading to an immigration detainer being lodged against him in July following his arrest on the sex abuse charge.

At the time of his death, Akinyemi was in removal proceedings and was facing deportation back to Nigeria.

Under President Donald Trump, a number of people have been detained at record levels and, as of January, was detaining nearly 41,000 immigrants.

In August, nearly 55,000 people were in custody in private prisons and local jails across the U.S.

Despite Congress criticizing ICE's health services, the agency says they spend more than $269million annually on those services alone.

In December 2019, House Oversight and Reform Committee revealed it opened an investigation into the health services of detained immigrants and demanded a series of documents.
Their typically fiery on-air arguments have made them household names across the nation.

And Good Morning Britain's Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid have shed light on their love/hate relationship ahead of their upcoming trip to Los Angeles for the Oscars.

The acid-tongued host, 54, and his fellow presenter, 49, compared their dynamic to Coronation Street's Jack (Bill Tarmey) and Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn) due to their 'constant bickering with underpinning of affection'.

Fiery duo: GMB's Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid have shed light on their love/hate relationship ahead of their upcoming trip to Los Angeles for the Oscars (pictured last week)

The duo serve as the ITV breakfast programme's main anchors, with Susanna joining the team in 2014, and Piers leading the series a year later.

On their heated bond, the pair admit they see themselves as Corrie's famous couple Jack and Vera, who were famed for their rocky marriage, but confessed they 'trust each other completely.

Former BGT judge Piers said in this week's OK! magazine: 'One critic had it right when he said we're the modern day Jack and Vera from Corrie. That constant bickering, with an underpinning of affection. Both of us find each other vaguely irritating most of the time and barely agree.'

Tumultuous: The acid-tongued host, 54, and his fellow presenter, 49, compared their dynamic to Coronation Street's Jack (Bill Tarmey) and Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn) (pictured in 2005)

Long-term friends: The brunette beauty said her pal winds her up more as time as gone on, with the TV stars sometimes taking their rows off-air (pictured earlier in the month)

Jack actor Bill passed away in November 2012 at 72, while his on-screen wife died aged 77 in September 2017.

The brunette beauty said her pal winds her up more as time as gone on, with the TV stars sometimes taking their rows off-air.

In a rare display of affection, Piers enthused of Susanna: 'We have moments where she genuinely wants to kill me. And she is one of the kindest, most caring people you'll ever meet. We are very honest with each other.'

Love life: Last April, the former BBC star split from Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish, after the pair confirmed their romance in 2018 (pictured in April 2019)

'No man can live up to me': As Susanna shut down any future hopes of marriage, Piers joked he's her 'only husband', before insisting he doesn't 'pry' into her personal life (pictured in December)

Last April, the former BBC star split from Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish, after the pair confirmed their romance in 2018.

She was previously in a relationship with Dominic Cotton, the father of her three children, from 1998 until 2014.

As the media personality shut down any future hopes of marriage, Piers joked he's her 'only husband', before insisting he doesn't 'pry' into Susanna's personal life.

He explained: '[I'm] her TV husband. And no man can live up to me, so why would you get married for real? I could both finish each other in five minutes, but we choose not to.'
On the day of the launch of the Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), deputy of the Prosperous Armenia faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Naira Zohrabyan spoke about the Baku pogroms and called on the international community to give a legal evaluation of the genocidal acts that Azerbaijan committed 30 years ago, reports the press service of Prosperous Armenia Party.

In her speech, Zohrabyan particularly said the following:

Dear colleagues,

These very days 30 years ago, the ethnic Armenians of Baku were murdered and massacred in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku for seven consecutive days. The Baku pogroms were actions that were specifically planned and organized by the Azerbaijani authorities, and the sole purpose was to kill and annihilate ethnic Armenians.

They killed them just because they were Armenian since Armenophobia is a state policy in Azerbaijan.

To this day, the international community has not given a political and, most importantly, a legal evaluation of the genocidal acts that were committed against the Armenians in Azerbaijan. There is no right to leave these crimes  committed on the ethnic ground three decades ago  as pages of the past that have been turned over. I assure you that the factual data regarding the massacres of Armenians in Baku, Sumgait, Maraga and other Armenian settlements in Azerbaijan and the documents of the memoirs of those who survived the abyss are not less than the crimes committed by the Nazis during WWII, and I assure you that the Fascism of the Azerbaijanis is no different from the Fascism of Hitler in terms of cruelty. One of the witnesses of the abyss in Baku said during those days of black January, bonfires were lit on several streets of Baku, people would be thrown into the bonfires alive, tortured to death and killed just because they were Armenian.

Dear colleagues, once, the Council of Europes European Commission against Racism and Intolerance released a report stating that political leaders, educational institutions and media in Azerbaijan have continued using hate speech against Armenians; an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric. Unfortunately, besides this, there has not been a legal evaluation of Azerbaijans genocidal acts, and the gap of impunity has led and will lead to new crimes, to the birth of people like Ramil Safarov, to violent acts with the spirit of DAESH, just like during the first days of April 2016. Armenophobia in Azerbaijan has reached a point that it has become one of the main threats to stability and security in the region. Silence has always favored criminals. It is time to start Bakus Nuremberg.
Los Angeles, Jan 27 : Hundreds of members of the Indian-American community took to the streets in California to mark India's Republic Day and protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the National Population Register (NRC).

The protest rally took place on Sunday in the city of Artesia, about 19 miles from Los Angeles, reports Indica News.

Rajashik Tarafder, a research scholar at Caltech who participated in the rally, said: "Even if the Supreme Court sides with the government, I encourage all the people in India and abroad to do what is right and resist. Legal or not, the CAA and NRC must be repealed to preserve the spirit of the Constitution." The rally in Artesia was one of several organized across the US, from Decatur, Illinois to Waltham, Massachusetts, as part of a National Day of Action.

Prerna Chawla, one of the organizers of Sunday's rally who also helped to put together a December protest in front of the LA City Hall, said: "We came together as a group organically in December after being distraught about what was happening in our motherland... After our first protest at LA City Hall, we wanted to go on fighting against the CAA and NRC and decided to take our protest to Artesia.

"We stood in solidarity with all the protestors across India who are still standing tall after being threatened and tortured for what they believe in." After the CAA was passed in India in December 2019, there have been protests in country and abroad to oppose the Act that gives citizenship rights to non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who sought refuge in India before 2015, Indica News added in the report.

Ali Muzaffar, who came all the way from Atlanta to participate in the rally, said that they would be going to San Francisco over the coming weekend "to continue our drive and raise our voices again".

Meanwhile, Bilal Hussain, LGBTQ+ activist and also an organizer, said that "although the current state of affairs in India is perilous, seeing people from various identities come together to stand in solidarity gives me hope".

"This is just the first of many actions that will hold our community accountable." A group of volunteers also walked from door to door the city's Pioneer Boulevard, speaking to shop-owners about the CAA and the releated protests in India.

The rally ended with the participants singing the Indian National Anthem.
Three rockets hit US embassy in protest-hit Iraqi capital



Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



Three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq's capital on Sunday in the first direct hit reported after months of close calls, as thousands of protesters kept up anti-government sit-ins across the country.

The attack marked a dangerous escalation in the spree of rocket attacks in recent months that have targeted the embassy or Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed.

None of the attacks has been claimed but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq.

On Sunday, one rocket hit an embassy cafeteria at dinner time while two others landed nearby, a security source told AFP.

A senior Iraqi official told AFP at least one person was wounded, but it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were and whether the person was an American national or an Iraqi staff member working at the mission.

The US embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The US State Department called on Iraq late Sunday to "fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities".

The attack took place earlier in the day than usual, with AFP reporters hearing the booms on the western bank of the river Tigris at precisely 7:30 pm (1630 GMT).

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the incident, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war.

Iraq has already been dragged into a worrying tit-for-tat between the United States and Iran over the last month.

A similar attack on a northern Iraqi base killed an American contractor, and the US retaliated with a strike on an Iran-backed faction known as Kataeb Hezbollah.

Less than a week later, a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani outside the Baghdad airport -- prompting Iran to fire ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base where US troops are stationed.



- 'Only for you, Iraq!' -



Some 5,200 Americans are stationed in Iraq to lead the global coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group, but the US strike on Baghdad has rallied top Iraqi figures around a joint call to order them out.

Vehemently anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr organised a mass rally in Baghdad on Friday, where thousands of his supporters called for American troops to leave.

Sadr had previously backed separate anti-regime protests sweeping Iraq's capital and south, even though he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts.

Bolstered by his own protest on Friday, Sadr announced he was dropping support for the youth-dominated reform campaign rocking the country since October.

His followers, widely regarded as the best-organised and well-stocked of the anti-government demonstrators, immediately began dismantling their tents and heading home.

Activists feared that without his political cover, authorities would move to crush their movement -- and indeed, within hours, riot police tried to storm protest camps.

Those efforts continued into Sunday, with security forces using live rounds and tear gas to try to flush protesters out of squares and streets they had occupied for months.

One protester was shot dead in Baghdad and another in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah, medical sources said, and dozens more were wounded across the country.

In the capital, riot police have tried to clear streets around the main protest camp of Tahrir Square but have yet to enter the symbolic area, where many protesters stood their ground even after tents there were dismantled.

Just after midnight in Nasiriyah, unknown assailants stormed the main protest camp in Habbubi Square and set the tents on fire, the flames lighting up the night sky, an AFP correspondent there said.



- UN hails 'Iraqi hopes' -



Despite the renewed violence, thousands of students flooded the streets in the capital and across the south in a bid to keep national attention focused on their demands.

"Only for you, Iraq!" read a sign held by a young protester in the shrine city of Karbala, hinting at the movement's insistence on not being affiliated with any political party or outside backer.

In Basra, hundreds of students gathered to condemn the riot police's dismantling of their main protest camp the previous day, according to an AFP correspondent.

The youth-led protests erupted on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption before spiralling into calls for a government overhaul after they were met with violence.

More than 470 people have died, a vast majority of them demonstrators, since the rallies began.

Protesters are now demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.
Of the investment in projects, the central government has sanctioned 26 per cent funds, but released only 10 per cent.

As for financial assistance to the scheme, of the Rs 6.16 lakh crore investment in PMAY(U) projects, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 1.63 lakh crore, but has released only Rs 64,000 crore.

Chennai: Six years since its launch, the governments flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), a programme to provide "Housing for All" by the year 2022, has met with limited success with only 31 per cent of the sanctioned houses getting completed and 27 per cent occupied. Of the investment in projects, the central government has sanctioned 26 per cent funds, but released only 10 per cent.

Under the PMAY(U), the central government has sanctioned 1.03 crore houses since 2014. Of this, 60.51 lakh houses, or 58.7 per cent, of the sanctioned houses, have been grounded for construction, as per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs data. Of these sanctioned houses, construction of a meagre 31 per cent, or 32.07 lakh houses, have been completed. Of this, only 28.61 lakh houses have been occupied. This also included incomplete houses of the earlier Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

As for financial assistance to the scheme, of the Rs 6.16 lakh crore investment in PMAY(U) projects, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 1.63 lakh crore, but has released only Rs 64,000 crore.

House completion velocity under PMAY-U has been slower than initially envisaged, finds Icra. Low budgetary allocations and high reliance on non-budgetary funding sources have been some of the reasons behind the slower implementation of PMAY-U.

Moreover, given that a considerable part of the affordable housing being developed in the urban segment is under public-private partnership models, in which the construction of the associated project phases and common infrastructure typically takes around two-three years, the recording of house completions has remained low during the initial years of such projects, according to Icra.

For successful and timely implementation of the mission, the overall ecosystem for project execution, particularly in terms of land availability and project approvals, needs to be strengthened and access to credit facilities eased, said Shubham Jain, group head and senior vice president, corporate ratings, Icra.

The mission also has witnessed varying levels of progress from state-to-state, with the states of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal achieving significantly higher house completions than other states.

Experts find that further impetus will be required to achieve PMAYs overall mission goals in a time-bound manner. These would mainly relate to release of idle government land to address the issue of land availability, especially near urban centers, development of social infrastructure and connectivity for peripheral land parcels, expedited clearance and approval process to further encourage private sector participation and eased availability of funding for project finance.
The City Council will next take up a proposed zoning overlay that would accommodate new uses such as live/work spaces on Tyler Street.

Pittsfield Panel Recommends New Tyler Street Zoning

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The Community Development Board has recommended the Tyler Street zoning amendment back to City Council.

The board was again presented last Tuesday with the proposed overlay amendment that would modernize zoning in the area that stretches from First Street to Woodlawn Avenue.

"This is the same presentation that you saw last month there is nothing new," City Planner CJ Hoss said. "Nothing has changed."

The board acted as petitioner and last year recommended the overlay to City Council, which volleyed it back to the board.

The amendment would accommodate modern uses such as shared work spaces, live/work spaces, and other mixed uses. Also the southeast area would be rezoned from Commercial, Warehouse and Storage to General Business aligning with the current use that is mostly residential at the moment.

The amendment also sets up the framework for the development of three-family dwellings and aligns parking standards with the rest of the downtown, making it easier for businesses to move in.

The board heard from an attorney Michael MacDonald, representing the owners of Patriot Car Wash on Tyler Street who want to slightly extend the General Business zoning so it covers their entire property.

Currently the business is a pre-existing nonconfomring use and this would continue with the new zoning. A portion of the property currently zoned Multifamily and Commercial/Warehouse would be rezoned Multifamily.

Multifamily does not allow car washes.

The board then heard from attorney Bill Martin, representing the owner of the land on which Patriot Car Wash is located. He requested that the board not make any last-minute changes to the zoning because his client just became aware of the proposed change.

He said although he saw the logic behind the General Business extension, his client wanted time to study the change to see if it will affect the lease agreement.

The board tended to agree with Martin and did not want to alter plans with the two parties not in consensus.

Hoss said there are a number of businesses on Tyler Street that are or now will be split zoned. He said the original drafts of the overlay tried to accommodate all of these businesses but it became too cumbersome.

"We decided it was too complicated and there were issues just working that out with the individual property owners," he said. "We reverted back to where the district lines stand now."

Hoss added that the amendment will go to City Council, then to Ordinance & Rules, and then back to council so there is still about a month left in the process, giving the two time to work out the changes.

The board members agreed and noted although they were in favor of eliminating split zones where possible, they were OK leaving the overlay as is.

"I don't have any specific comments I just want to say this project has been a long time coming and I think it will bring some great opportunities to Tyler Street," board member Gary Levante said. "I want to thank everybody involved."

Hoss said if the zoning amendment passes without changes, Patriot Car wash can still petition the City Council to make this zoning change so there is always a path forward.

In other business, the board voted to eliminate an order that Proprietor's Lodge hire a uniformed police officer to monitor parking for events with more than 150 attendees.

"I think that the owners have done a great job at addressing the concerns and it seems to be successful," board member Elizabeth Herland said. "I think there were a lot of growing pains. This was new, and I think you worked through a lot of the issues."

Neighbors of Proprietor's Lodge, the former Itam Lodge, vocalized their concerns about the now active establishment. Most notably neighbors complained about noise and patrons parking on along the neighborhood's narrow streets.

Mandates were attached to the lodge's special permit and the board modified their parking management plan for a probationary period, giving them time to work out the kinks in their new business.

Owner Eric Taylor said now that they have quite a few events "under their belt" they are more savvy to parking issues. He said it really is dependent on how many people drive individually to events.

Herland still urged Taylor to consider hiring a uniformed officer for large events that could create a noisy chaotic parking lot.

Taylor also asked that the board remove a second order that forced Proprietor's Lodge to close the restaurant except to those with reservations if they had an event with more than 200 attendees. He wanted this number to return 250.

The board agreed to his terms and although hesitant, Herland said if an issue arises they will be called back.

"I am a little reluctant but on the other hand if they don't manage it well, then you are going to get complaints from the neighbors," she said. "So it is their best interest to manage it well and I don't know if we need to micromanage at that level."

The board will still monitor Proprietor's Lodge and reserve the right to alter the Parking Management Plan.
Indian market likely to snap its 2-day winning streak on January 27 tracking muted trend seen in other Asian markets.

Asian stocks tumbled as investors grew increasingly anxious about the economic impact of Chinas spreading virus, with demand spiking for safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes, said a Reuters report.

China announced it will extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to February 2 and schools will return from their break later than usual.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India, with a 99 points, or 0.81 percent, loss. The Nifty futures were trading around 12,173-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

The S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty50 fell 0.8 percent respectively for the week ended January 24 while the S&P BSE Midcap index was up 0.73 percent, and the S&P BSE Smallcap index rose 0.93 percent in the same period.

There are as many as 28 stocks in the S&P BSE Smallcap index that rose 10-30 percent which include Gujarat State Fertiliser, Power Mech, IIFL Finance, Jaypee Infratech, Alok Industries, Can Fin Homes, Unitech and Axiscades Engineering Technologies.

In the S&P BSE 500 index, there were as many as 13 stocks that rose 10-30 percent that include names like Bharti Infratel, Max India, Varun Beverages, Westlife Development, AU Small Finance Bank, and Vodafone Idea.

The Nifty Midcap 100/Nifty Smallcap 100 rose 0.9%/0.8% respectively. Market sentiments were also supported by the huge buying seen from foreign investors. FIIs pumped in nearly Rs 2000 cr in the last two trading sessions of the week, provisional data showed.

On the macro front, the country's foreign exchange reserves rose $943 million to touch a life-time high of $462.16 billion in the week ended January 17, according to the latest data from the RBI.

The rupee depreciated by 7 paise to close at 71.33 against the US dollar on Friday due to dollar demand from importers amid a correction in crude oil prices following outbreak of coronavirus in China.

On the provisional front, FPIs were net buyers in Indian markets to the tune of Rs 659 cr while the DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 417 cr, provisional data showed.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have infused a net sum of Rs 1,624 crore into the Indian capital markets in January so far, buoyed by the signing of the first phase of the US-China trade deal.

Big News:

As many as 28 companies will report their results for December quarter which include names like HCL Infosystems, HDFC Ltd, Music Broadcast, United Spirits, and Wockhardt.

HDFC Ltd: PAT likely to rise by more than 10% YoY

United Spirits: PAT likely to grow by 13% YoY

Music Broadcast: PAT likely to fall by 18% YoY

(All estimates are from Motilal Oswal)

ICICI Bank on January 25 registered a healthy 158.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in Q3FY20 profit, driven by lower provisions and recoveries from non-performing loans (NPLs).

Force Motors, the market leader in inter-city commuter vans, has lined up Rs 600 crore in fresh investment to develop two new models over the next two years.

Drug firm Strides Pharma Science on Friday said the US health regulator has completed inspection of its Alathur facility in Tamil Nadu with zero observations. "

Technical View:

Nifty formed a Bearish Engulfing pattern on weekly charts

Nifty made a pullback attempt but failed to close in positive. It still managed to close above 12200 levels which is a positive sign for the bulls ahead of the Budget

Traders can look to book partial profits on rallies towards 12300 levels

Technically, speaking weakness in near term shall resume on a close below 12100 kinds of levels

But, pre-budget rally could take the indices higher, suggest experts.

The underlying trend of Nifty is positive, one may expect pre-budget upside rally in the next week. There is a possibility of a new all-time high formation above 12430 levels in the next week, they say.

Three levels: 12149, 12272, 12400

Technical Recommendations:

We spoke to Angel Broking and heres what they have to recommend:

Puravankara | Buy | LTP: Rs 68.30 | Target price: Rs 73.50 | Stop loss: Rs 64.80 | Upside: 8%

Equitas Holdings | Buy | LTP: Rs 110.35 | Target price: Rs 126 | Stop loss: Rs 101.40 | Upside: 14%

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
The court rejected all appeals against the January 2016 ruling by an administrative court upholding a ban on the university's staff from wearing the niqab

Egypt's High Administrative Court upheld a ban on Cairo University's academic staff from wearing the face veil, or niqab, during classes, putting an end to a case that started in 2015.

The court rejected all appeals against the January 2016 ruling by an administrative court that upheld a decision by then Cairo University President Gaber Nassar to ban the university's staff from wearing the face veil.

Monday's verdict is final and cannot be appealed.

According to 2016's ruling reasoning, the freedom to choice of clothing falls under personal freedoms guaranteed by the constitution; however, such a freedom is not absolute and should be practiced with respect to public decency.

The court added that while the Regulation of Universities Law does not include articles that require academic staff to wear specific uniforms, Article 96 stipulates that they must adhere into university traditions.

It added that direct communication is not achieved with students and others if members of the academic staff are wearing the niqab.

This is not the first time the university has been involved in controversy regarding the banning of the niqab. In November 2009, the university banned students and teaching staff from wearing the niqab on campus or in the universitys dorms.

However, the ban was overturned by a Cairo court in January 2010 following a lawsuit filed by a female professor.

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Responding to the allegations of funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the PFI has unequivocally rejected the accusations as 'baseless.' The PFI, a federation that was formed in 2006 as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF), also recently came under the scanner of the Union Home Ministry for allegedly instigating demonstrators to clash with the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Responding to the allegations made by Enforcement Directorate sources that a "financial link" had been found between the Popular Front of India and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, the outfit rejected the claim as baseless and issued a statement offering a point-by-point rebuttal.

The PFI, a federation that was formed in 2006 as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF), recently came under the scanner of the Union Home Ministry for allegedly instigating demonstrators to clash with the Uttar Pradesh Police.

On Monday, reports quoted Enforcement Directorate "sources" saying that recent violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Uttar Pradesh had "financial links" with the Kerala-based outfit. The agency, which is probing PFI under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has found that at least Rs 120 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the Act was passed by Parliament late last year, PTI reported.

A note written by the ED to the Ministry of Home Affairs was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying that PFI could also be linked to protests in other parts of the country. According to the report, the note indicates payments and withdrawals in "various areas around the time of the protests in December last year and January".

"The money trail has proved beyond doubt that PFI has mobilised the money to finance the cost of demonstration/gherao against CAA Bill till 06.01.2020. Further investigation to trace money trail from other bank accounts is continuing," the report quoted an anonymous official as saying.

The PFI, in its statement, challenged "those making the allegations" to offer proof. "Firstly, the news channels have attributed the report to Enforcement Directorate through some "unnamed sources" but the ED has not contacted our organisation, nor the ED has issued any such official statement regarding these allegations," the statement said.

The organisation also clarified the accusation of having funded various projects. Referring to the relief funds given by it to victims of the 2014 flood in Kashmir, the statement said, "Popular Front carried out extensive flood relief work in Kashmir in 2014 and built more that 100 houses for the flood victims which was also openly declared by the organization in 2014 itself through official publications. Assigning the 2014 flood relief as 2019 anti-CAA protest funding makes it clear that there is a planned vilification campaign going on against Popular Front to stop our growth."

Regarding the ED's allegation that the organisation also paid senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal and senior advocates Indira Jaising and Dushyant Dave, among others, the statement said that the money transfer to the lawyers in 2017 was in form of fees for the Hadiya case. The statement added that the transfer was "openly declared" by the organisation in public meetings.

"(The ED's) statement exposes the intention of the vested interested who are keen to blame Popular Front for everything that is happening in India [sic]," the organisation said.

PFI statement by Natasha T. on Scribd

Slamming the Uttar Pradesh and Assam governments for arresting the organisation's state leaders, PFI said that it "will not be bowed down by such cheap campaign by the forces backed by the fascist who want to stop us. We will continue our struggle against the fascist forces who try to suppress the voices of dissent [sic]."

With inputs from agencies
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 13:58 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20611a0f4 1 SE Asia kidnapping,#kidnapping,hostage,#hostage,Abu-Sayyaf,#AbuSayyafKidnapping,sulu-waters,#SuluSea,Sabah,Malaysia,#Malaysia Free

Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu has reiterated the countrys commitment to increasing security in the Sulu Sea region following recurring kidnappings of Indonesian fishermen by southern Philippines militant group Abu Sayyaf, inviting all trilateral counterparts -- Indonesia and the Philippines -- to join the effort.

In a visit to Jakarta on Saturday, the Malaysian politician -- better known as Mat Sabu -- said Malaysia would increase its efforts and role in the existing trilateral maritime patrols around Sulu and Sabah region, calling on relevant parties to follow suit.

The three countries, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia need to increase security. This was something agreed to by Prabowo [Indonesian defense minister] and [us] yesterday, Mat Sabu told journalists in Jakarta.

He suggested that one of the many factors of the frequent kidnappings was the fact that Mindanao had remained an unstable region in the Philippines. As long as the turmoil continues there, there will still be a lot of kidnappings.

Regarding the upheaval in Mindanao, Mat Sabu said it needed to be resolved to reduce the impact it had on the region -- and eventually prevent similar hostage cases in the future.

Despite the frequent kidnappings, the Malaysian minister said he believed that the trend had shown a decline.

However, due to the characteristics of the group and its long-time activity in the region, he called on consistent reviews of the trilateral security cooperation from time to time.

On Jan. 15, Indonesian fisherman M. Farhan was rescued by the Philippine military from Abu Sayyaf, which held him hostage in the Philippine's southern island of Jolo.

He was, at that time, the last remaining Indonesian hostage after two fellow fishermen in his group -- all three were kidnapped in waters off Tambisan in Malaysia's Sabah in September -- were rescued in December.

The rescue of Farhan came less than 24 hours before another group of five Indonesian fishermen were abducted in the same location.

It has prompted three countries around the Sulu and Sabah waters to react, with Indonesian officials having criticized the "ineffective coordination" of Malaysian authorities in securing their waters.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has urged Malaysia to review the security of its territory, underscoring that all three countries had joined the trilateral patrols and that Indonesia was committed to carrying out patrols in its own territory.

The Philippines Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command, meanwhile, has set a new deadline of March 31 to dismantle the Abu Sayyaf group, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. (asp)
Is Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. Yet sometimes, investors buy a popular dividend stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations.

Investors might not know much about Dolby Laboratories's dividend prospects, even though it has been paying dividends for the last five years and offers a 1.3% yield. A 1.3% yield is not inspiring, but the longer payment history has some appeal. The company also bought back stock equivalent to around 4.4% of market capitalisation this year. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable.

Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis

NYSE:DLB Historical Dividend Yield, January 27th 2020

Payout ratios

Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Looking at the data, we can see that 31% of Dolby Laboratories's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. This is a middling range that strikes a nice balance between paying dividends to shareholders, and retaining enough earnings to invest in future growth. One of the risks is that management reinvests the retained capital poorly instead of paying a higher dividend.

In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. Of the free cash flow it generated last year, Dolby Laboratories paid out 36% as dividends, suggesting the dividend is affordable. It's positive to see that Dolby Laboratories's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

Story continues

While the above analysis focuses on dividends relative to a company's earnings, we do note Dolby Laboratories's strong net cash position, which will let it pay larger dividends for a time, should it choose.

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Dolby Laboratories's latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health.

Dividend Volatility

One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the data, we can see that Dolby Laboratories has been paying a dividend for the past five years. During the past five-year period, the first annual payment was US$0.40 in 2015, compared to US$0.88 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 17% a year over that time.

The dividend has been growing pretty quickly, which could be enough to get us interested even though the dividend history is relatively short. Further research may be warranted.

Dividend Growth Potential

Dividend payments have been consistent over the past few years, but we should always check if earnings per share (EPS) are growing, as this will help maintain the purchasing power of the dividend. Earnings have grown at around 4.5% a year for the past five years, which is better than seeing them shrink! Dolby Laboratories is paying out less than half of its earnings, which we like. However, earnings per share are unfortunately not growing much. Might this suggest that the company should pay a higher dividend instead?

Conclusion

To summarise, shareholders should always check that Dolby Laboratories's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. It's great to see that Dolby Laboratories is paying out a low percentage of its earnings and cash flow. Unfortunately, earnings growth has also been mediocre, and we think it has not been paying dividends long enough to demonstrate resilience across economic cycles. Overall we think Dolby Laboratories is an interesting dividend stock, although it could be better.

Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 5 Dolby Laboratories analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with our free report on analyst estimates for the company.

We have also put together a list of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
(Photo : Flickr)

Personal injury claims cover a vast range of cases. It can be as familiar as car accidents or something like dog attacks. Individuals might try to tackle the situation on their own and end up with much less money than they are entitled to. If you are the victim of any injury that was caused due to someone else's negligence or ill intentions, it might be time to contact a lawyer. Here are a few cases that attorneys handle.

Car Accidents

Car accidents have, unfortunately, become increasingly common nowadays. Many people experience severe and long-term injuries, which can lead to permanent disabilities. However, people have to file a lawsuit against the at-fault party. The victims can be compensated for any vehicular repairs, medical bills, and lost salaries. They can also get more money for their pain and suffering. Insurance companies start to conduct investigations and try their best to give as little as possible. That is why it is recommended to hire a reputable personal injury lawyer to increase the chances of a better settlement.

Slip And Fall

Managers, or owners, of many enterprises like restaurants, shopping malls, and stores, among other places, are required to keep areas clean and dry for their visitors. If a person falls due to their negligence and disregard for safety, the victim can receive compensation by taking them to court. Some of the causes could be:

Insufficient lighting

Slippery floors

Irregular sidewalks, or pavement

Broken Handrails

These cases are challenging to prove. The victim needs evidence that their injury was caused by an unsafe condition in a building, which the owner or manager was aware of. An experienced personal injury attorney would be the best option.

Workplace Injuries

In most cases, people don't need to hire an attorney for an injury caused at work. The owners or their insurance companies usually provide Workman's Compensation. However, some of the cases aren't simple. Among many other reasons, the victims will need to get a lawyer if:

The workers' compensation is denied.

The injury is not being acknowledged because it is at the same place as a previous one.

They are unable to carry on their work duties.

They are getting government benefits.

Physical Assaults And Battery

Physical assault and battery can be the basis of a civil lawsuit. They are only considered when one or more persons intentionally attack an individual or a group of people. They are very common, and the victims can walk away with a significant settlement if they have an experienced lawyer. Serious assault cases can also come under criminal lawsuits, where the attacker(s) are tried and get jail time. People can also sue someone who they feel threatened by, but the danger should be reasonable.

Fatal Injuries

No amount of money can comfort the families of a person who died, but they can file a wrongful death case, if the deceased passed away from any fatal injuries that were due to someone else's negligence. It is possible to get monetary compensation, like medical and funeral expenses, as well as other things, like loss of companionship and emotional suffering.

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Mr. Xiao, who was eventually hospitalized on Sunday  about a week after his initial attempt  still hasnt been tested for the pneumonialike virus.

As it struggles to combat a coronavirus outbreak that has sickened more than 4,500 people and killed 106, the Chinese government is relying on a medical system that is overburdened and overwhelmed even in normal times. While other parts of everyday life in China have significantly improved in the past decade, the quality of health care has stagnated.

In major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, many people have to stand in line in the wee hours of the morning to secure appointments with doctors. When they do get an appointment, patients get only a couple of minutes with a doctor. During flu season, residents set up camp overnight with blankets in hospital corridors.

China does not have a functioning primary care system, so most people flock to hospitals. On an ordinary day, doctors are frustrated and exhausted as they see as many as 200 patients.

Those weaknesses are most pronounced in the poorer areas of China  like Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus. Panicked residents of the city are heading to the hospitals if they have any sign of a cold or cough. Videos circulating on Chinese social media show doctors straining to handle the enormous workload and hospital corridors loaded with patients, some of whom appear to be dead.
Some seven million people in Ethiopia are in need of humanitarian aid, including emergency food assistance, according to the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC).

About 2.4 million people, or 39 percent of the total population, in Ethiopias Somali region are also expected to require humanitarian assistance in the course of 2020, followed by the Amhara region, with 1.0 million people.

NDRMCs spokesperson Debebe Zewede was quoted by state-owned news agency ENA as saying that initial assessment indicates that the country is in need of over $1bn in humanitarian aid.

Ethiopia has been facing a recurrent drought, which is affecting the countrys economy and the lives of the people.

Debebe Zewede added that six million people are receiving food aid this year compared to eight million last year, though it is not clear if they are part of the seven million in need of food aid.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has noted that the majority of people in need of relief assistance in 2020 remain the ones impacted by climate shocks.

A donor conference in Rome next week will be asked to pledge $70 million to tackle a plague of desert locusts critically threatening rural livelihoods in the East African region where tens of millions of people already face extreme hunger.

Swarms of the insects are sweeping across eastern Ethiopia, neighboring areas of Somalia, and are pouring into Kenya, destroying crops, pasture, and forest cover throughout the region on an unprecedented scale.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 20:24:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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WINDHOEK, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Namibia had set up new and stricter laws pertaining to wildlife crimes, to curb the influx of these crimes, the Namibian Police said on Monday.

Namibian Police deputy commissioner Kauna Shikwambi said the illegal hunting of rhinos and elephants, upon conviction may face a fine up to 25 million Namibian dollars (previously 200,000 Namibian dollars, or about 13, 800 U.S. dollars) or imprisonment not exceeding 25 years (preciously 20 years), or both.

"The possession of rhino horns, elephant tusks (ivory) or pangolin skin, upon conviction, a convict can be sentenced to a fine not exceeding 15 million Namibian dollars (previously 20,000 Namibian dollars) or to imprisonment not exceeding 15 years (previously 5 years) or to both such fine and imprisonment," she said.

The deputy commissioner said this should serve as a clear warning to would-be offenders that they would be dealt with the full force of the law if they contravene the said wildlife laws.

"We call on the public to patriotically report such illegal activities relating to wildlife crimes to law enforcement agencies. No one in Namibia is allowed to posses any of the specially protected species or their products without a valid permit issued in terms of the wildlife legislations, by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism," Shikwambi said.
Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) councillors at Serowe Administrative Authority (SAA) have taken a decision to boycott all sub-committees of the council with immediate effect. This comes after the councillors were not elected to any chairmanship of the sub-committees but were rather made additional members.

The subcommittees include among others Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA), Finance, Health and Liquor and Trading. BPF has eleven (11) voted councillors at SAA while Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has seven (7) councillors. Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Eric Molale then approved nomination of six (6) BDP councillors to shoot up the BDP representation to thirteen (13). The SAA consists of 24 councillors -18 duly elected and six nominated. Nominated Councillor Lesedi Phuthego who lost during the 2019 general election chairs the council.

The query by BPF councillors is that failure to have them chairing any of the sub-committees has disadvantaged them because they would not be represented at the Performance Monitoring Committee (PMC) which is the main committee of the council. The PMC is made up of Chairpersons of the sub-committees. In an interview with Botswana Guardian Councillor Nametso Senku of Patikwane Ward in the Serowe North Constituency said they find no use in participating in the sub-committees while they would not have any input in the PMC.

PMC is the final decision-making committee. Whatever issue is discussed at sub-committes is taken to the PMC which consolidates all the issues after deliberating on them and takes them to the Full Council at Central District Council. We have the specially elected councillors running the SAA but these are the people who do not have mandate from the electorates. They have been rejected at the polls and now the BDP government has rewarded them so that they could safeguard the interest of the BDP.

Nomination of the six BDP members by Molale was aimed at diluting the majority of the opposition BPF so that they could control the council. They have won in that regard but we had thought that there would be cross-sectional representation. So, since that did not happen we would not participate in those committees which are currently sitting, said Senku on behalf of the BPF councillors.

He said they would be addressing their constituents in their respective wards about this development. He said the situation is worrisome at the council. According Senku they had requested that specially elected councillors should not have voting powers but the motion was defeated by the majority BDP councillors. BPF, a breakaway party from the BDP, has won all three Serowe constituencies at Parliamentary level.

Chairperson of SAA is a special nominee rejected at the general election. He is heading the same people that rejected him. SAA has about five committees and four (4) of these committees are chaired by Specially-elected councillors. Only one (1) out of the 18 councillors with wards chairs one (1) committee. The Standing Orders of CDC dictate in Section 9.5 that there be cross-sectional representation in all the committees. Clause 9.6 recognised councillors with trained skills to also make representation in the committees, said Senku who argued that this decision goes against the promise by minister Molale that nomination of councillors will not distort the 2019 election outcome.
Week-old cheetah cubs have been spotted taking their first steps out into the world at the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

The adorable cubs, which will eventually grow to become the fastest animals on land, could be seen peering curiously across to the camera lens.

Speed was not yet on their agenda, as the fluffy creatures sauntered out slowly across a rock armed with a seemingly fearless attitude.

Wildlife photographer, Paul Mahagi, 39, said it was worth every hour he spent in the national park to see the cheetahs take their first strides out into the wild.

These adorable fluffy cubs were only born a week ago. Despite their small size the tiny felines did not appear at all fearful as they took their first steps out into the world

This week old cheetah opens its mouth wide as it saunters across the rock on its first excursion into the open world since being born

Mahagi said he had across six days, spent hours in the sweltering heat hiding in a bush, waiting for his moment.

'I'm very happy with how these turned out. I never knew I would get such a great expression. It looks like he is saying hello to the world.

'The cheetahs are very cute.'

The cubs will grow to become the fastest animals on land, reaching top speeds of 70 miles an hour - more than 30 miles an hour faster than a giraffe.

But they only start out as little fluffy cubs that weigh around five to ten ounces, the equivalent of a tin of soda.

Paul Mahagi said he spent six days waiting for his moment to catch a snap of the newly born cheetahs
Photo: Lorenzo Tlacaelel/Flickr

Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in San Jose.

Killer calls San Jose police do to 'welfare check' of victim, police say

When officers arrived at the residence in the 2000 block of Mondigo Avenue near Overfelt High School, they found the woman with multiple stab wounds and pronounced her dead.

Read the full story on The Mercury News.

2 suspects in rash of Goleta auto burglaries arrested in Carpinteria

A man and woman in a vehicle stolen from San Jose were taken into custody after a collision on southbound Highway 101.

Read the full story on Noozhawk.

Thornton, Marleau say theyre not thinking about possibility of being traded, playing elsewhere

With San Jose Sharks postseason hopes looking dim, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau both said they havent thought about potentially playing for a contending team.

Read the full story on The Mercury News.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh reforms opened the gates to the creation of new wealth.

Asked if he prayed for Americas senators, a chaplain to the United States Senate once replied: No, I look at the senators and pray for the country. That might well be said of Indias legislatures as our republic steps into its 71st year. Seven decades is of course only a blip in the countless millennia of Indian nationhood. But these 70 years, especially the last 30 since the reforms initiated by P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh laid the foundations of the modern state, could be crucial in defining the future.

Although its fashionable to call India a rich country of poor people, a more accurate description would be a poor country of ultra-rich people. They have always been with us. Its forgotten amidst the excitement of an upsurge of billionaires  63 tycoons who own more money than the 2018-19 Union Budget of `24,47,200 crores, according to Oxfams latest report Time to Care  that for many years Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad, was reckoned to be the richest man in the world with an estimated wealth of $230 billion. Its also forgotten that Ratan Tatas forays with Tetley Tea and Jaguar Land Rover are not Indias first ventures in international commerce. Until 1952 the Maharaja of Baroda owned a controlling share of the equity in Fortnum & Mason, the chic food shop in Piccadilly that a footman of Queen Annes started in 1707 and which is still grocer to Queen Elizabeth II.

The Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh reforms opened the gates to the creation of new wealth. As in post-Soviet Russia, the subsequent capitalism blurred the distinction between the government and tycoons so that it is often not clear whose is the upper hand, who orders and who obeys. That interaction is one factor shaping the future. Another is the calibre of politicians. Criminal charges hang over the heads of 233 Lok Sabha members  a 44 per cent increase since 2009  who are not at all coy about their alleged misdemeanours. They themselves set down the information regarding murder, attempted murder, crimes against women including rape and kidnapping, culpable homicide, house trespass, robbery and criminal intimidation in their sworn affidavits, even to listing the 204 criminal cases that didnt prevent a Kerala politician being elected to Parliament.

There are several explanations for what outsiders might regard as self-indicting candour. Some would say that the candidates had to come clean because they would have been found out otherwise, which might have been worse. Others argue that litigation is so commonplace as to be meaningless, and cite the old story of the villager who had four annas left in his pocket after visiting the weekly fair and couldnt think of a better way of spending it than making a police diary against his neighbour. False allegations occasion neither surprise nor shame. Nor do police stations and law courts baulk at accepting obviously fabricated charges. However impeccable the high courts and the Supreme Court might be, Indias lower judiciary must be the worst in the world. Deploring the imposition of British jurisprudence, Penderel Moon of the Indian Civil Service cited instances of witnesses who were for sale and their concocted evidence leading to innocent people being executed.

Some hardened criminal-politicians are actually proud of their record. Others who have been weaned on the myths and legends of the supposedly golden age of Hindu ascendancy to which India is being dragged back innocently believe that the Mahabharat and Ramayan sanction and even glorify cleverness on the shady side. If stem-cell therapy was common then like plastic surgery and artificial insemination, and if Ram piloted his own aircraft while Arjun felled his foes with nuclear darts, there is no reason why the credulous should disbelieve pretty but not especially moral tales like the legend of Ashwathama or the ocean being churned for its nectar. Being astute practitioners of the art of the possible, politicians have their finger on the public pulse, and know it has been dinned into generations of orthodox Hindus that it was smart to call an elephant after a great warrior and kill it in order to trick and vanquish the warriors otherwise invincible father. The epics bestow respectability on legends in which the simple place implicit faith.

No wonder Indian courts do not admit the common law doctrine of Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, false in one thing, false in everything, meaning witnesses who testify falsely about one matter cant be believed when testifying on any matter. Our lawyers argue that falsehood is often necessary to establish the truth.

Not that flirting with falsehood is a serious impediment to development. But the Oxfam report should give food for thought to a government that ostentatiously proclaims its commitment to the poor and whose flamboyantly-attired head boasts of starting out as a lowly chaiwallah. Credibility matters. The colourful Republic Day floats concealed many of the basic weaknesses of our situation  the infrastructure is worn, foreign investment is shrinking, agricultural production is far from robust, Make in India hasnt taken off, banking is in a mess, unemployment is rising, corruption is rampant.

Victorian England bristled with social contrasts and conflicts but it was also the age of scientific inquiry, technological innovation, social experimentation and imperial expansion, with no constraints on thinking and scholarship. The fear here is that our universities and other academic institutions are being brought under official control, with the democratic consensus behind the government faltering as independent thinking yields to empty bombast. Not only does the economy seem to be stagnating back to the so-called Hindu rate of growth, but Indias poor performance is dragging down global progress.

If the Senate chaplain looked at our governance, he would probably pray not just for the country but for the world.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

Some 1,374 registered MP candidates continue to struggle to participate in parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan scheduled for February 9, Trend reports with reference to Central Election Commission (CEC) on Jan. 27.

As reported, 263 people withdrew their candidacy.

In total, 2,431 people applied for participation in the parliamentary elections, some of whom withdrew their candidacy at certain stages of the election process.

According to CEC, 248 candidates are members of 19 political parties.

Some 11 people are applying for one seat in the parliament, said the commission.
Girls are more than twice as likely to take a foreign language GCSE and get a good grade than boys, a report shows.

It says being male, from a poor background or having special educational needs makes a pupil less likely to gain at least a grade 4 in languages  equivalent to a C in the old grading system.

The British Council, which commissioned the research, said action was needed to challenge the view that foreign languages are courses that only bright or well-off children should take.

Being male, from a poor background or having special educational needs makes a pupil less likely to gain at least a grade 4 in languages - equivalent to a C (stock image)

The researchers used official data for England to examine trends in the entry rates and attainment of boys.

They concluded that a girl is 2.17 times more likely than a boy to achieve a grade 4 or above in a modern foreign languages GCSE, when disadvantage and previous achievement are factored in.

Vicky Gough, schools adviser to the British Council, said: By learning a foreign language, pupils develop skills to work with other cultures and people. These skills are essential for the UKs future in an increasingly interconnected world. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn a language and we are determined to break down the image of foreign languages being something only bright or well-off pupils should take.

Geoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: Despite the best efforts of schools to dispel gender stereotypes, the fact remains that more girls choose creative arts and language GCSEs, more boys choose computing and technology subjects, and the attainment of boys lags behind girls in general.

Schools are doing their utmost to address these issues and we welcome the research findings in this report in respect of languages.

British Council carried out the research using official data for England. (Stock image)

Overall, the number of teenagers taking languages GCSEs has declined in recent years, particularly in German.

A Department for Education spokesman said: We are committed to ensuring more pupils are studying languages, which is why it is now compulsory in the national curriculum between years 3 and 9. The proportion of boys taking modern foreign languages at GCSE level has remained broadly stable.
Attorneys general from nine states urged a federal judge to toss out Googles $13 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit blaming its Street View mapping technology for a massive violation of consumer privacy.

The proposed accord in a debacle that became known as Wi-Spy doesnt offer compensation for millions of people whose confidential data was captured off their Wi-Fi networks by Street View vehicles. Instead, the deal divvies up funds among a handful of privacy rights organizations, a small number of individual consumers who led the case and their lawyers, the state officials said in a court filing.

The lawsuit, filed a decade ago, was once called the biggest U.S. wiretap case ever and threatened the internet giant with billions of dollars in damages. The settlement was reached in July and won preliminary approval in October from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, who found it to be likely fair, reasonable, and adequate.

Without receiving any of the $13 million cash fund or any meaningful injunctive relief, class members receive no direct benefit from the settlement, the attorneys general said.

An attorney for the consumers and Googles press office didnt immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Arizona State Attorney General Mark Brnovich submitted the filing, joined by Alabama, Alaska, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana and Louisiana. The states plan to urge Breyer to reject the deal at a Feb. 28 final approval hearing in San Francisco.

Google agreed in the settlement to delete all collected data and educate people on how to set up encrypted wireless networks. But the company had already made those promises in a 2013 agreement with 39 attorneys general, according to Mark Brnovichs filing.

Any injunctive relief is illusory, the attorneys general said.

The Street View suit is a rare instance in privacy litigation where consumers gained the upper hand, notably when the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco in 2013 rejected Googles argument that it was legal to intercept open Wi-Fi networks because they were akin to AM/FM radio transmissions. The courts conclusion that the federal Wiretap Act applied meant that if Google went to trial to fight the allegations and lost, it could be hit with $10,000 in damages for every violation.

But in July, the plaintiffs lawyers said the settlement was justified, in part, because there was a risk that they could still lose the case  and end up with nothing. They also argued that the accord would deter privacy violations and that the funds designated for privacy-oriented groups will help teach future information technology workers to to become safeguards of internet privacy rather than exploiters of personal information communicated over the internet.

The case is In re: Google Inc. Street View Electronic Communications, 3:10-md-02184, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Raids are being conducted in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi to arrest research scholar Sharjeel Imam who has been booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged "inflammatory" speeches made during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, police said on Monday.

Five teams of the Crime Branch have been deployed to locate Imam, a resident of Bihar, they said.

Imam, a PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies, has also been summoned by the JNU chief proctor. He has asked Imam to appear before the Proctorial Committee by February 3 and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches.

A case against Imam, who was one of the initial organisers of Shaheen Bagh protests, under IPC sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) was registered by the Delhi Police on Sunday.

Also, a case of sedition was lodged against him on Saturday for a speech he delivered on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus on January 16. The Assam Police has also filed an FIR under the anti-terror law UAPA against Imam for his speech.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Photo: James Willamor/Flickr

Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Raleigh.

Flags lowered for NC soldier from Knightdale unit killed in Syria

Gov. Roy Cooper has ordered that all U.S. and North Carolina flags at state facilities be lowered to half-staff in honor of a 22-year-old soldier who died in Syria.

Read the full story on WNCN.

Raleigh man says life savings gone after duo breaks into home, steals safe

A Raleigh man says he lost his life savings after thieves broke into his Southeast Raleigh home and stole his safe.

Read the full story on Ed Crump.

Woman who flew into RDU tests negative for coronavirus

Officials announced Saturday night that a woman who flew into Raleigh-Durham International Airport this week and was suspected of having the coronavirus tested negative.

Read the full story on WNCN.

Man wounded in shooting in southeast

A man was injured in a shooting in a southeast Raleigh neighborhood Saturday night in the 3600 block of Marshlane Way, police said.

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Attorney General joins federal lawsuit to prevent release of 3D-printed gun blueprints

North Carolinas Attorney General joined a federal lawsuit that aims to prevent 3D-printed firearm blueprints from being released online.

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This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
MIAMI - An ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has hired a Washington lobbyist whose business has boomed under the Trump administration as part of a $12.5 million effort to ease sanctions and reset bilateral relations as the U.S.-backed campaign to oust the socialist leader stalls.

The Maduro governments top lawyer, Inspector General Reinaldo Munoz, hired lobbyist Robert Stryks Sonoran Policy Group as part of a larger contract he signed with Foley & Lardner, a law firm with offices in Washington.

Both the law firm and Stryks Sonoran Policy Group registered as agents of Munoz in separate filings with the Justice Department that were published Monday on the agencys website.

Their work includes developing a strategy to approach the U.S. Government in support of delisting the Foreign Principal or other parties subject to U.S. economic sanctions due to their connections to the Republic, according to the filing by Foley, which in turn is paying $2 million to hire Stryk as a consultant.

The outreach comes as U.S. support for opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom it recognizes as Venezuelas rightful president, has come under fire.

A year into the U.S.-backed campaign to oust Maduro, the socialist leader has successfully beaten back a coup attempt, mass protests and punishing U.S. sanctions that have cut off his governments access to western banks.

Emboldened by Guaidos difficulties, Maduro is looking to reassert himself and repair his tarnished image in Washington, where hes been roundly rejected as a dictator.

This month, he told the Washington Post that he wants to engage directly with the Trump administration to end a stalemate that has worsened living conditions in the OPEC nation of 30 million people. He also invited the United Nations and European Union to send observers for legislative elections slated to take place later this year.

Stryk, a winemaker and former Republican aide who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Yountville, California, is one of the top lobbyists in Trumps Washington.

A former unpaid Trump campaign adviser on the West Coast, his firm, Sonoran Policy Group, had no reported lobbying from 2013 to 2016 but has billed more than $10.5 million to foreign clients since the start of 2017.

Like Venezuela, many of the clients have bruised reputations in Washington or are under U.S. sanctions, such as the governments of Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Saudi Arabias Ministry of Interior, which signed a a $5.4 million contract in May 2017.

He also represents the scandal-plagued Isabel dos Santos, Africas richest woman, who is fighting allegations that she accumulated vast wealth through state loans brokered by her father, Angolas former president.

Munozs contract with Foley, for a flat fee of $12.5 million, extends until May 10. Stryks share of the deal, as a consultant, is $2 million.

Foley said in its filing that it received slightly more than $3 million in initial payments on behalf of Munoz from what appear to be two Hong Kong-registered companies. Its work will also include discussions with officials at the U.S. Treasury Department and other U.S. agencies regarding sanctions against the Maduro government.

In December, Stryks firm also filed paperwork with Congress saying it represents Greylock Capital Management, a Wall Street hedge fund, to assist it with the collection of millions in unpaid debt owed to American bondholders by Venezuela. A spokesman for Greylock said Stryk was never hired.

This month, Stryks name showed up in handwritten notes released by the House Intelligence Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry into Trump.

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudolph Giuliani in Ukraine who has now turned against Trumps personal attorney, wrote a note to himself on stationery from the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Vienna saying hire Robert Stryk lobbiest (sic), the documents show.

Its unclear why Parnas scribbled Stryks name. But one of Guilianis clients, Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, hosted Trumps personal attorney and Parnas at his castle outside Madrid last summer, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the meeting.

Stryk did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment.

Foley and Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez both declined to comment.

The U.S. was the first of nearly 60 nations to recognize Guaido as Venezuelas rightful leader after he used his position as the head of congress to proclaim himself interim president following Maduros widely rejected 2018 reelection.

The U.S. has long insisted that any negotiations with Maduro would be focused on the terms of his exit and last year rejected talks sponsored by Norway with the opposition as a waste of time that would only strengthen Maduros hand.

But this month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seemed less hostile to the idea of talks, saying that a negotiated settlement was the best way forward.

Munoz is one of only a handful of top Maduro aides who so far hasnt been sanctioned by the Trump administration for human rights abuses and corruption.

Guaido left Venezuela a little over a week ago for only the second time since being elected the head of congress to embark on a support-building tour of Europe and Canada. It started with a meeting with Pompeo in Bogota, the Colombian capital. He missed Trump by a day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, fueling speculation that the U.S. president wasnt interested in a meeting with the 36-year-old lawmaker.

If Trump does not meet with him in Washington, it will be a clear indication that the U.S. government has lost faith in the idea that maximum pressure will lead to a transition, said David Smilde of the Washington Office on Latin America think-tank . Even if they do meet, it seems clear that the Trump administration is open to alternatives
When the actor playing Lady Macduff injured her knee a few minutes into a performance at the Watermill Theatre in England, the production stopped  until a woman who toured nationally as Lady Macduff last year, and who happened to be in the audience, stepped in. Emma Barclay will continue in the role for the next few performances as well, the theatre announced.  The Stage (UK)
We made a choice to select this project. We wanted to help someone get an education, Flores said. A lot of people in Guatemala and in some places in Mexico do not get an education like we do.
India's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan speaks at a road show organised by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon in Mumbai

By Nidhi Verma

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India is seeking to renegotiate the long-term contract price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) it buys from Qatar, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday in New Delhi.

"We need to re-examine the pricing mechanism" of the long-term natural gas deal with Qatar, Pradhan said at a gathering of industry officials that included Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi and Indian state-owned oil company officials.

India imports 8.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually under long-term supply deals with Qatar.

Kaabi is in New Delhi to meet his counterpart.

"We are looking how we can increase our cooperation," Kaabi responded when asked if he was willing to renegotiate the deals because spot prices have declined.

Kaabi, who is also the chief executive of Qatar Petroleum, was accompanied by the chief executive of Qatar Gas, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Delivered spot prices to Indian ports are about half of those under the long-term LNG deals, reducing the appeal of the Qatar supply contracts for price sensitive Indian consumers.

In 2015, India managed to renegotiate the contract price of LNG imported from Qatar to half of what it was paying earlier.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India needs to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030 from 6.5% now.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Tom Hogue)
We anticipate 2020 to be an even busier year as we evolve to meet the demands of our real estate entrepreneur and investor base.

New Silver (https://newsilver.com/), the data-driven hard money lender for the real estate economy, is commemorating a momentous 2019 and first year of business marked by new achievements and exciting developments. New Silver is an established lender providing tech-focused financial solutions to real estate investors located on the East Coast of the United States.

This year was one of growth for New Silver, both financially and in the innovative offerings we built for real estate entrepreneurs, stated Chief Product Officer Kirill Bensonoff. New Silver reached a goal of originating over $25 million in loans in our first (partial) year of operations. We anticipate 2020 to be an even busier year as we evolve to meet the demands of our real estate entrepreneur and investor base. We are looking to further expand geographic footprint and roll out technical innovations to enable more of our borrowers to get approved online instantly, and close loans even faster, while driving down costs.

During the course of 2019, New Silver expanded the availability of its loan products across six states; Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and Florida. This expansion brought about the additions of a new Ground-Up construction product and the development of the highly-anticipated New Silver automated underwriting software. 2019 also marked the companys first foray into the small-balance commercial space with the successful funding of a $2.6 million refinance of a 50 unit commercial apartment complex in New Britain, CT.

Catering to both single and multi-family residential as well as small balance commercial properties, New Silver offers instant online approval and fast closing. In 2020, the company aims to be at the forefront of real estate funding innovation and continue to pursue the development of new technology and ways to diversify within the industry.

New Silver has a demonstrated track record of working with clients like Vanessa M., who shared this testimonial:

Alex was a pleasure to work with. Very prompt in communication and made the process quick and easy. Would use them for future lending without question.

In 2020, New Silver will roll out new products and services as it continuously gathers insights from customers on what their needs are to more efficiently achieve real estate deals and secure properties. The firm offers expert insights and tips for real estate entrepreneurs on their blog, The Lender (https://newsilver.com/the-lender/). Kirill Bensonoff also offers those new to real estate investing an instructional guide in his recently published book Achieving Wealth Through Real Estate: A Definitive Guide To Controlling Your Own Financial Destiny Through a Successful Real Estate Business, now available on Amazon by visiting https://amzn.to/3aIIDgM.

About New Silver

New Silver is a tech-first non-bank loan originator, with a vision of making the private lending process easy for the borrower. New Silvers technology allows borrowers to get approved for a loan online, in under 10 minutes, and close within 7 days. Technology and strong customer relationships give New Silver an edge in addressing the $70 billion per year "fix and flip" real estate-backed lending space, with a focus on single-family residential and small balance commercial investment properties located on the East Coast of the United States. More info at https://newsilver.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.27

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Italys Eni company has discovered gas and condensate in the Mahani exploration prospect located onshore in the Area B Concession of Sharjah (UAE), Trend reports citing Eni.

The Mahani-1 was drilled to a total of 14,597 feet measured depth. The well was tested with flow rates up to 50 Mscf/d (million cubic feet per day) of lean gas and associated condensate, reads a message from Eni.

The company said the size of the discovery will be further assessed with additional appraisal drilling.

Eni holds a 50 percent stake in the Concession Area B with SNOC, the National Oil Company of Sharjah, holding the remaining 50 percent and acting as Operator. The JV has already started the studies to fast track the exploitation of these new resources leveraging on the synergies with the existing facilities and infrastructures, while finalizing the evaluation of the discovery.

The current exploration acreage in the UAE alone amounts to more than 12,000 square kilometers gross, comprising the onshore of Sharjah and offshore areas of Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah.

Eni has been present in Abu Dhabi since 2018 and today holds three offshore development and production concessions and two offshore exploration concessions. Enis current equity production in Abu Dhabi is around 50,000 bbl/day. Eni is also a shareholder with a 20 percent equity interest in ADNOC Refining. Eni in the Middle East is also present in Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon and Iraq with both exploration and development activities.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. We'll use ROE to examine Ashtead Group plc (LON:AHT), by way of a worked example.

Our data shows Ashtead Group has a return on equity of 29% for the last year. That means that for every 1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated 0.29 in profit.

View our latest analysis for Ashtead Group

How Do I Calculate ROE?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

Or for Ashtead Group:

29% = UK829m  UK2.9b (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2019.)

Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets.

What Does Return On Equity Mean?

ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, as a general rule, a high ROE is a good thing. Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies.

Does Ashtead Group Have A Good ROE?

One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Ashtead Group has a superior ROE than the average (14%) company in the Trade Distributors industry.

LSE:AHT Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

That's clearly a positive. In my book, a high ROE almost always warrants a closer look. One data point to check is if insiders have bought shares recently.

Story continues

Why You Should Consider Debt When Looking At ROE

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same.

Combining Ashtead Group's Debt And Its 29% Return On Equity

Ashtead Group clearly uses a significant amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 1.47. There's no doubt its ROE is impressive, but the company appears to use its debt to boost that metric. Investors should think carefully about how a company might perform if it was unable to borrow so easily, because credit markets do change over time.

In Summary

Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.

Of course Ashtead Group may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. announced today the launch of its redesigned website, http://www.bressler.com.

The firm's website announcement is in conjunction with a full rebrand.

Visitors will find the fully-responsive website showcasing a new look with easy-to-navigate design for quick access to information about legal services, pro bono work, community and philanthropic involvement, and corporate "people first" culture. The rebrand comes as the firm continues growing and diversifying.

"Our redesigned brand identity is innovative, modern, engaging and professional  words we use to describe our firm and employees and solutions we provide clients," said Bressler Managing Principal Frank Cuccio. "We have always been a firm of exceptionally skilled lawyers, who are friendly, trustworthy and genuine people who care about clients and their business as partners and friends."

The website offers fresh visual features like vibrant portrait photography that depicts attorneys authentically and engages viewers with a memorable first impression.

"Our rebrand objectives expanded beyond aesthetics to include highlighting our geographic footprint, national, full-service capabilities, and the importance of building lifelong personal relationships with clients to offer a top-tier experience," said Shanon Lazarus, Bressler's Director of Marketing and Business Development.

With a home page tagline "Raising the Bar: Every Day, in Every Relationship, in Every Matter," the site emphasizes a commitment to first-class representation and going above and beyond. It represents Bressler's belief that a law firm should raise the bar and celebrates its commitment to outstanding expertise combined with approachable "people first" lawyers. The tagline also honors the initials of firm founding principals Bernard Bressler, Brian Amery and Lawrence Ross, who aspired to build a firm that was different than the status quo.

About Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C.

Bressler, Amery & Ross is a leading full-service law firm that represents Fortune 500 corporations, midsize and small privately held companies, investment advisers, brokerage firms, banks, franchises, insurers and non-profits. The firm also represents emerging companies and high-net-worth individuals and families. Main practices include financial institutions and securities, insurance litigation, labor and employment law, environmental, corporate and commercial transactions, real estate, and business, commercial and general litigation. Bressler has 150 attorneys across offices in Florham Park, N.J., New York City, Birmingham, AL, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, FL, and Washington, DC.

Contact:

Andrew Blum

AJB Communications

917-783-1680, [email protected]

SOURCE Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C.
PACIFICA (BCN)

A 22-year-old Tracy man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after allegedly crashing into a wall near North Coast County Water District offices in Pacifica early Saturday morning, police said.

Juan Luis Molina-Santiago was arrested after officers responded around 5:15 a.m. Saturday to a crash in the area of Francisco Boulevard and Brighton Road.

They arrived to find a vehicle had struck a small retaining wall outside of the water district offices and was immovable. In the car, police found a passenger who later went to a hospital for treatment.

Shortly afterward, officers learned that the vehicle's driver, Molina-Santiago, was sitting and acting erratically in front of a nearby apartment building in the 2000 block of Francisco Boulevard, police said.

Officers determined he had been driving while under the influence of controlled substances and he was taken into custody, according to police.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
BYE ASHY

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Finally! Some great news!

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Justice served.

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But also, it feels like this trial was a while ago. Why did it take so long to sentence?

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His legal team probably used delaying tactics. R Kellys team was able to delay his trial for a good 5 or 6 years by filing various motions, all which needed to be heard by judges, got appealed, etc.

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you love to see it

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This is great news! I hope he rots.

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I'm happy about the verdict and how all of Nicki's money were wasted on this asshole.

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hopefully he's next!!

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Great news. And yet she'll keep supporting more/other rapists.

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Nasty asshole. Hope he gets his ass beat every day in jail.

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oh I bet he will. child abusers, especially those with famous names attached, do not do well in prison.

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Nice. Here in Germany he probably would have to pay 2,000 and 3 years on probation or some shit

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Legit surprised that isn't his sentence here in the US.

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Same. Its probably because shes so young. But even so, I didnt know they did life sentences for sex crimes that dont involve murder or additional violent charges.

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If he was white, it would have been.

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good

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Fantastic news! Finally 2020 got something right.

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A total of 1,047 North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea last year, the lowest number in 18 years, according to data from the unification ministry on Monday.







The total includes 202 males and 845 females. By quarter, 229 arrived in the first three months of the year, 320 in the second quarter, 226 in the third and the remaining 272 in the fourth, according to the data.







The number of defectors arriving in the South rose after 2000 before peaking in 2009 at 2,914 people. Since current leader Kim Jong-un took power following the death of his father in late 2001, between 1,100 and 1,500 defectors have arrived in the South annually. (Yonhap)


Poverty and divisions among people on the basis of caste and religion were caused due to lack of education, 'Super 30' fame mathematician Anand Kumar said, emphasising that technology must be harnessed to ensure reaches every home in India.

Kumar was the Chief Guest at a special event 'Dance Pe Chance' organised by the Federation of Indian Associations- NY NJ CT (FIA), the largest non-profit diaspora organisation in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, on the eve of India's Republic Day celebrations in New Jersey.

"My hope is that people should come together and do something for the field of in India. That's most important. We divide ourselves on the basis on caste and religion, we fight due to small and petty things, poverty - all this is caused due to the lack of If there is education, then all this will change, things will improve," Kumar told PTI here.

Kumar said that the strong Indian-American community should join forces to contribute to the field of education in India. He said a majority of the Indians who came to the US to pursue their dreams were from humble backgrounds and had to struggle a lot.

But through their handwork and dedication they have now made a name for themselves and are doing extremely well. "They know that education is the only way that can help people get out of poverty, open up new worlds, create new opportunities," he said.

During his visit to the US, Kumar said he saw that several people have expressed their readiness to contribute in the education sector in India and help Kumar in his laudable efforts to educate youngsters from the underprivileged section of society.

Kumar said he is focussing on harassing the power of technology to take education to homes across India in multiple languages. He said several Indians who are working in the technology field in America have expressed their keenness and willingness to support him and 'Super 30' take science and maths education to every home in India.

"Indians, who have set up technology firms or are working in some of the world's top tech companies, have said they are ready to support me in every way. They say that through online and digital technology, mathematics and science should be taken to every home across India in Hindi, Magahi, Tamil or in any other language," he said.

In India, as most people have access to mobile phones and data, this can be accomplished easily.

"In the future, this is what I will focus on. While 30 students study in Super 30, we are taking a break of one year to expand it further. But through online and digital technology we are able to reach all homes, this will be our endeavour and focus," Kumar said.

Kumar's struggles and efforts to impart education and training to 30 deserving and economically-backward students for the IIT-JEE entrance exams every year was the inspiration for the Hrithik Roshan-starrer 2019 movie 'Super 30'.

He said after watching the movie, more and more people, including in the US, want that people's condition should improve and they know that education is key for that.

Kumar noted that he is also keen to see how digital education platforms such as Ed EX created by Harvard and MIT can be used to take knowledge and education to more and more children.

Former FIA president Alok Kumar said Kumar's "simplicity and message" has touched the hearts of the Indian-American community.

"By imparting knowledge to one student, he is ensuring that in future the lives of at least 10 more families is improved. For this, education is the key point. Education can change lives," he said.

FIA Chairman Ramesh Patel and Trustee Ankur Vaidya also applauded Kumar for his dedication and for being an inspiration to many.

Patel and Vaidya also expressed their keenness to host Kumar at the India Day Parade in August when the diaspora organisation will also celebrate its 50 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
bccl

Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor attacked the Centre over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). Read more

Here are other top news stories of the day:

Meet Padma Shri Awardee Dr Arunoday Mondal Who's Been Treating Patients For Free For 2 Decades

twitter

A medical practitioner from West Bengal, who has been selected for the Padma Shri award for treating patients free-of-cost for over two decades in the remote Sundarbans, said that despite the recognition he will continue serving people without any government aid. Read more

Breaking Barriers: Tribal Girl Appointed As Priest For Saraswati Puja In West Bengal

Rohila Hembram has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the puja at her school (Dalla Chandramohan High School), which has maintained the tradition of breaking archaic rules for quite a while now. Read more

Coronavirus Outbreak: Death Toll In China Touches 80 With 2,800 Confirmed Cases, 2 Reported In India

reuters

The Coronavirus epidemic that has gripped China has left the death toll in the country touching 80 with its National Health Commission reporting close to 2,800* confirmed cases to date. Read more

Hindu Woman In Pakistan Allegedly Abducted From Wedding, Forced To Convert To Islam Then Married Off

Representational Image

The 24-year-old woman, in this case, was allegedly kidnapped by assailants under the supervision of local police authorities from her wedding venue in Hala, a city located in Matiari district in Sindh province, about 215 km away from the provincial capital Karachi, reports India Today. Read more

From Manual Scavenger To Padma Shri Awardee, Heres The Inspiring Journey Of Usha Chaumar

Twitter

Usha Chaumars journey is no less than a wonder. She is a sanitation activist and Dalit social worker from Alwar, Rajasthan who has been conferred with a Padma Shri Award, the fourth highest civilian honour. Read more
News that Toronto has its first suspected case of coronavirus may come as a shock to Canadians, but health officials have been preparing for this exact scenario for weeks.

"We knew that there was going to be a case in Canada. We knew that there was probably going to be a case in Toronto," Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious diseases specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, told CBC News.

"It was just a question of time."

The unidentified patient is a man in his 50s who was taken to Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with symptoms after travelling from the Chinese city of Wuhan to Guangzhou and then to Toronto on Wednesday.

Officials said he had limited external contact with people in Toronto when he arrived at his residence, before being taken by paramedics to hospital in stable condition.

"No one would be surprised if this is a positive case," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease physician at Toronto General Hospital.

"It appears that this may have arrived on our doorstep and we're ready."

How concerned should the general public be?

McGeer, who contracted SARS in 2003 while working as a physician on the front lines of the epidemic, says she believes the risk to the public with this case is low.

"I'm not concerned about transmission from this case at all in Toronto," she said, adding that Toronto Public Health officials have already begun the process of contacting people who may have come in contact with the patient.

"There are mechanisms for making sure that we can get in touch with all of those people and as long as they're followed up, the rest of us who live in the city are not at any risk at all."

McGeer said there's still no indication that this coronavirus can be transmitted to anyone but people who have come in close contact with infected individuals, but officials will take precautions.

There are two types of transmission with a coronavirus like this: limited and sustained.

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Limited human-to-human transmission occurs when there is close contact between those who have the virus and those who don't, particularly with family members, but is usually contained to a small number of people before running its course.

The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

Sustained transmission is characterized by the World Health Organization as an illness that can transmit easily from one person to others in the population.

"It is now clear from the latest information that there is at least some human-to-human transmission," the World Health Organization in China said in a statement Monday.

"In addition, information about newly reported infections suggests there may now be sustained human-to-human transmission. However, we still need more analysis of the epidemiological data to understand the full extent of human-to-human transmission."

Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said at a news conference Saturday that officials would be looking to identify passengers on the flight the patient took to Toronto who were within three rows for potential risk.

Bogoch said that while the suspected case is not unexpected, by no means does it indicate that there is a wider outbreak in Toronto.

"I think that people should just go about their lives as they normally do," he said. "But also be aware of the news and follow the situation closely as things change."

How are health officials handling the situation?

Canada has already ruled out several suspected cases of the coronavirus in Quebec and Bogoch said that is an indication that the systems in place are working.

"Thankfully, those weren't cases, but at least it demonstrated that people knew what to do and where to go if they had symptoms suggestive of infection with this coronavirus," he said. "It almost was a bit of a test of the system."

Dr. Jerome Leis, medical director for infection prevention control at Sunnybrook Hospital, said the patient was immediately isolated for further investigation, placed in a negative pressure room with protective equipment and was in stable condition.

Watch: How officials are dealing with public fear over coronavirus

Bogoch said the work is not just being done inside the hospital, but preventing further transmission in the community and beyond.

"This is one case, this is still an evolving situation and of course we might get additional cases as well," he said.

"But we are prepared and the system appears to be working."

How does this compare to SARS?

We still don't know how dangerous the new virus is or how it compares to SARS, which had a case fatality rate around 10 per cent, or MERS, with an estimated fatality rate as high as 30 per cent.

"We are in a very, very different place than when we were responding to SARS," said Dr. Peter Donnelly, president of Public Health Ontario.

"One of the things that is very different is that we know what the virus is. We have a fast, reliable test and that really is a game changer."

More than 400 Canadians were diagnosed with SARS and 44 died as a result of the epidemic that killed almost 800 people worldwide in 2003.

Compared with the 2003 SARS outbreak, the flow of information worldwide and speed at which diagnostic tests have been developed has improved dramatically.

"The speed with which people identified SARS was amazing for 17 years ago, but it still took weeks," McGeer said. "Here, the problem was recognized the last week of December, tests were available around the world 10 days later."

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Information was hard to come by in the early days of the SARS epidemic, too, and health officials in Canada were caught off guard when the virus was confirmed to have landed in Toronto in March 2003.

McGeer said health-care workers were "unprepared to take precautions" during the SARS epidemic due to a lack of diagnostic tests and experience with outbreaks.

"If you had told people before SARS that a new disease would emerge in China and cause outbreaks in Toronto, they would have laughed you out of the room," she said.

"And the situation now is very different. We know what these risks are. We know how they're going to come at us and what you've seen is the perfect example of that working."

McGeer said the patient clearly received information that he needed to contact authorities when he had symptoms arise, which he did, and the sample was identified by officials within a day.

"Everybody took the right precautions," she said. "It's a world of difference."
Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) said Monday that John Boltons confirmation that President Trump tied the provision of military aid to Ukraine to the opening of politically beneficial investigations strengthens the case for witnesses in the ongoing impeachment trial.

Collins  a key target of Democrats efforts to get Republicans to call witnesses  added that the leak from Boltons upcoming book has prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues about how the impeachment trial should proceed.

My statement on Bolton developments. pic.twitter.com/3M59J7suts  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 27, 2020

Collinss statement comes after Senator Mitt Romney said earlier Monday that it was increasingly likely that Republicans would vote to hear testimony from Bolton.

I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton, Romney told reporters. I have spoken with others who have opined upon this.

According to a manuscript of Boltons impending book obtained by the New York Times, the former national security adviser directly witnessed Trump saying in August that some $400 million in congressionally appropriated military aid would only be provided if Ukrainian officials announced investigations into Trumps political opponents.

In the buildup to the trial, Collins was on the forefront of Republican efforts to allow for the calling of witnesses, after Trump and other allies suggested that Republicans should immediately vote to acquit.

We should be completely open to calling witnesses, Collins said on January 10. I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the presidents counsel if they choose to do so.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been particularly privy to Collinss requests, in an effort to keep the Republican 53-47 majority unified. The Kentucky Republican submitted a last-minute change to the rules of the trial last week, after Collins expressed disproval at the proposed length of opening arguments.

Senate Republican aides had said last week  prior to the Bolton news  that it was increasingly unlikely that more than three Republicans would vote for witnesses.

More from National Review


By Yi Woo-won





The alarm by my ear went off harshly, hastening me to get up. I was in a bit of a hurry to take the 8:04 a.m. train to go to Daegu. I had a bimonthly medical appointment at the Veterans Hospital.







I had to replenish my stock of medication for another two months to maintain at least the status quo of my physical condition and to stay alive. For breakfast, I quickly fixed myself a bowl of vegetable and rice gruel with a fried egg on top.







For those two furry animals out in the yard, a dog and a cat, I left enough food and water in their bowls to make sure they won't be hungry while I was gone. The cat, a female, came from Seoul after my eldest daughter had found it as a stray around her apartment building.







She was so tiny and could barely walk, but so cute. The dog, a male Jindo puppy, was brought home a few months later from a beautiful Buddhist Temple secluded in the deep mountains in Hwaso-myeon, Sangju-gun in North Gyeongsang Province, the remotest back country in the province.







Unlike many other Buddhist temples in Korea, this temple was inhabited only by celibate nuns. My family knew the chief priestess of the temple.







The two animals became quite compatible with the passage of time and have lived with us for nearly 20 years. Considering the average lifespan of a dog and a cat, from 10 to 15 years, they both seem to have outlived their life expectancy.







Our veterinarian advised me recently that my two animals might not live long because they were about 80 years old by human age and that the dog was half blind and almost deaf. I was startled and disheartened by the shocking sad news.







Since then, I have paid more attention to them and tried to make them happy with treats. In fact, they were a great comfort to me after my partner passed away. Although they couldn't speak their mind to me, their occasional barking and meowing told me that I was not all alone at home, making me less lonely.







When I left the house, I still had plenty of time until the arrival of the train. Therefore, I didn't have to take a shortcut, crossing the pedestrian overpass with high stairs across the railroad tracks.







Thus, I could avoid suffering the stress on my aching knees as I climbed up and down those stairs. At the ticket window of the train station, I produced my welfare card (a disability card for my hearing loss) and got a 50 percent discount on my ticket fare, enjoying a small privilege.







When I got off in Daegu, I took a subway to go to Sangin-dong where the Veterans Hospital is located. I had a free pass on the subway. In Korea, senior citizens aged 65 or older are all eligible for a free subway ride across the country. But I personally thought that people in their 60s and 70s were now too young for this benefit, unless they were handicapped.







The shuttle bus runs between Sangin and the hospital every 15 minutes from 7:50 a.m. to 5:10 p.m. It takes us right to the front entrance of the hospital in about 15 minutes. When they got off the bus, they all rushed into the building to pick up the order number slips from the machine.







I always fell behind them but I didn't care. The hospital was clean and comfortably warm with extra electric heaters in corners. They all sat in chairs and waited until their numbers were called from the speaker and also seen on the screen.







There were eight receptionists behind the counter, each bearing a number from 1 to 8. When your number is called, you walk up to the relevant receptionist and have your appointment paperwork processed swiftly within five minutes. This is possible with the simplified processing system and advanced office machines in recent years.







After consultation with the doctor, you follow the same procedures for your prescription and the next appointment. I had four departments to stop by this time, internal, neurological (for my shaky hand), urological and dental.







There are quite a few female patients in the hospital. I learned later that they were the dependents of wounded veterans in the Korean War or the Vietnam War. They are eligible for a 60 percent reduction on their medical services including medicines. We, the veteran soldiers are now given a generous 90 percent off from the previous 60 percent, usually costing me less than 10,000 won ($8.6) in total expense.







I perceived recently that the majority of the patients in the hospital were Vietnam War veterans and there were not many oldies like me from the Korean War. I could tell the difference from their physical appearances.







The Korean War veterans now looked more aged, frail, stooped and sluggish in their motions, and usually with a cane. When I realized that the number of Korean War veterans, who should be in their late 80s to early 90s now, were decreasing rapidly each year, suddenly, I was a little sad and wistful, thinking that those fellow veterans would be all gone within the next decade, leaving no one to remember or talk about the ghastly, devastating tragedy of the Korean War.







I have a social gathering of high school alumni in Daegu and we meet twice a month. The number of members has dwindled to only six from some 20 when it started about two decades ago. The current 6 members are all Korean War veterans.







We joined the Army when we were seniors in high school, never finishing the remaining terms. Two of the six of us are wounded veterans. One was wounded in the explosion of a mine, losing two fingers on his right hand.







The other is still suffering from a disease associated with exposure to the deadly defoliant chemical (also known as Agent Orange), used to clear trees and plants in the jungles during the Vietnam War. He had served in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War, retiring as a major. He is a decorated veteran.







Years ago, I attended the funerals of two veterans who died in this hospital. One had served in the Korean War and the other in the Vietnam War. They both lived in Waegwan after the war and used to be close friends of mine. The Vietnam War veteran was also a retired major and he died of prostate cancer related to Agent Orange exposure during the war.







It was reported that among some 320,000 Korean veterans who participated in the Vietnam War, nearly 160,000 were still suffering from disease directly related to Agent Orange exposure. The American casualties were even heavier.







Out of 7.4 million U.S. military personnel who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971, roughly 2.8 million were known to have been exposed to Agent Orange. Today, 45 years after the war ended, in Vietnam where the poisonous defoliant chemical was stored and sprayed over the country, 3 million people are said to be suffering from some diseases linked to the deadly toxin and babies are born with defects.







The Vietnam War was a long, hellish and deathly war. It was an unprecedented disastrous war of attrition. Also, it was a heinous crime against humanity and the ecosystem.







), living in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province, he used to teach English at Gyeongju University.



The writer ( yiwoowon1988@gmail.com
2 women shot to death in home: Authorities on Sunday identified two women who were killed at their Little Rock home during a shooting that also injured a 2-year-old boy. Little Rock police said I'Quira Tate, 21, and Brittany Tate, 24, were killed after a man entered their home and started shooting about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. The boy was shot in the upper body. He was taken to a hospital and was later released. Police said no suspect has been identified. A teenager who was in the home was a witness and was not injured, police said.
Juraj Tkac did not have a passion for music before he became a full-time chimemaker.

Juraj Tkac next to one of his creations. (Source: Facebook)

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There are many uncertainties within our universe, but the power of music is not one of them, at least not to chimemaker Juraj Tkac.

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Read also: Slovakia has another UNESCO entry - tinkery Read more

A native of the northern Slovak region of Kysuce, Tkacs livelihood depends on the power of music. His niche is constructing wind chimes, specially tuned to evoke different emotions and improve the listeners health.

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He was taught the craft by German chimemaker Wolfgang Deinert, whose son lost his hearing at the age of four months due to meningitis. On his website, Deinert notes how his sons hearing impairment taught him the difference between hearing and listening, a vital lesson that has clearly influenced Tkacs work.
SCOTTSBORO, Ala.  At least eight people died Monday in an explosive fire that consumed dozens of vessels docked at a marina along the Tennessee River in northern Alabama.

Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus said eight people who were known to be missing have been confirmed dead, and that number could go up, because we dont know how many were on boats that sank.

The fire began just after midnight at Jackson County Park Marina and quickly consumed the dock as people were sleeping. The wooden dock and at least 35 vessels went up in flames and an aluminum roof that covered many of the boats melted and collapsed, cutting off escape routes and raining debris over the area as boaters leaped into the river.

It was scary. The worst thing for me is you could hear people screaming for help, and there was nothing we could do. Nobody could do anything to get to them, said Julie Jackson, who lives with her husband and son in a houseboat on another dock that did not burn at the marina.

At least seven people were sent to hospitals suffering from exposure to the flames or the cold water.

Necklaus said some of the burning boats sank at the dock and others floated away before going under. He said divers need to locate each one and search them individually before they can be sure there were no other victims.

We woke up hearing screams and popping noises, said Mandy Durham, who was with her boyfriend in a nearby boat. When we woke up, we could see red through the window.

Within 15 to 20 minutes, the whole dock was in flames, she added. All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and thats a lot of fire.

The blaze destroyed the B dock, about 50 yards from the A dock where the boat of Durhams boyfriend was moored.

There were numerous people rescued from the water who had escaped by going into the water, said Chief Sheriffs Deputy Rocky Harnen. Were trying to get divers down here to search for possible victims.

People were jumping onto a boat at the end of the dock because fire had consumed the middle portion and that was their only escape. But then the flames spread to that boat, leaving water as their only way out, Durham said.

Reaching the victims proved challenging for rescue crews.

The damage from the dock has fallen on top of the boats, and some of the boats have drifted off, Harnen said.

Hours after sunrise, smoke was still rising from the remains of the dock, and pieces of metal that once formed the roof were partially submerged. Police and fire boats were positioned near the charred remains, and a floating boom was deployed around the marina to contain spilled fuel.

Jay Reeves is an Associated Press writer.
The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But in our experience, buying the right stocks can give your wealth a significant boost. For example, the Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE) share price is 69% higher than it was five years ago, which is more than the market average. It's also good to see a healthy gain of 31% in the last year.

Check out our latest analysis for Alexandria Real Estate Equities

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

During the last half decade, Alexandria Real Estate Equities became profitable. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd expect the share price to be up.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

NYSE:ARE Past and Future Earnings, January 27th 2020

It is of course excellent to see how Alexandria Real Estate Equities has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Alexandria Real Estate Equities the TSR over the last 5 years was 97%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Alexandria Real Estate Equities shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 35% over one year. That's including the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 14%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Alexandria Real Estate Equities that you should be aware of before investing here.

Story continues

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The amount of confirmed new coronavirus cases in the United States has risen to five, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Sunday.

Two cases have been confirmed in California, and one case has been confirmed in three other states  Arizona, Illinois and Washington. All of the confirmed patients, who are currently being isolated in hospitals, recently traveled to Wuhan, China, where the virus was first detected, the CDC said.

The virus, called 2019-nCoV, has caused severe illness and dozens of deaths, according to the CDC. Symptoms of the respiratory illness caused by the virus include include fever, cough and trouble breathing.

The CDC said that Chinese health officials have reported more than one thousand infections in the country. The New York Times reported the death total has risen to at least 80 in China.

The CDC said that over 100 domestic patients are under investigation from 26 states because they traveled to Wuhan or had contact with individuals who had the virus and had relevant symptoms. Twenty-five of those people have tested negative for the virus, according to the CDC.

Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the total confirmed cases of novel coronavirus is expected to rise in the United States.

Messonnier said that while the threat of coronavirus is serious, the risk to the general public is considered low at this point.

So far, no cases have been reported in New York; however, Staten Island hospital physicians are on heightened alert, health officials on the borough told the Advance.

We are on very, very high alert for coronavirus now, said Dr. Harry Kopolovich, chairman of the emergency department at Richmond University Medical Center. "Our local health services are fully aware and prepared to deal with a pandemic if one does in effect occur.

At all three Staten Island hospital sites, physicians are keenly on the lookout for patients exhibiting flu symptoms who have recently traveled in China. Precautions in play at both RUMC and Staten Island University Hospitals Ocean Breeze and Princes Bay sites include more robust triage screenings for patients, the wearing of surgical masks by staff and patients, and the use of isolation rooms when appropriate.

The CDC encourages anyone who traveled to Wuhan, China within the past two weeks and who has symptoms of the coronavirus  fever, cough or difficulty breathing  to seek medical care.

Coronaviruses are typically common in many different species of animals, according to the CDC, though it is rare for animal coronaviruses to infect people and then spread.

Initially, the CDC said that many patients in the outbreak had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting an animal-to-person spread; however, an increasingly significant number of patients have reportedly not had exposure to the animal markets, indicating to officials that a person-to-person spread is now occurring.

At this stage of the CDCs investigation, it is not currently clear how easily or sustainably the virus is spreading between people. Person-to-person spread has not yet beed detected in the United States, though the CDC said it is likely to occur to some extent," citing what occurred during two outbreaks  MERS and SARS  that occurred in 2012 and 2002, respectively.

The current person-to-person cases reported are thought to have spread through coughs or sneezes, the CDC said, adding that MERS and SARS cases generally occurred when individuals experienced close contact.

The CDC, in an effort to reduce the number of people looking for treatment for symptoms that could be mistaken for the new coronavirus, recommends that individuals get vaccinated and take everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs, along with taking flu antivirals if prescribed.
For most groups of mates, a friendly game of footy followed by a few beers is the perfect weekend plan.

But not for four mates from Bondi, who smashed a record in the world's toughest rowing race, powering 4,800km across the Atlantic in just 34 days.

The team - Martin Fletcher, Ryan Grace, Cameron Mostyn and Nicholas Sargent - completed the mega rowing race in 34 days, 10 hours and 46 minutes, clinching second place in the Atlantic Challenge.

Despite admitting to being 'beaten and exhausted', the team arrived into English Harbour Antigua after despite suffering capsizes and battling 12 metre waves.

The record-breaking Australian team Ryan Grace, Martin Fletcher, Cameron Mostyn and Nick Sargent (pictured left to right)

The team (pictured) completed the 4,800km Atlantic crossing in 34 days 10 hours and 46 minutes

The exhausted and elated men said that while it was 'the hardest thing they had ever done' they would 'remember this feeling for the rest of their lives'.

While it was anything but an easy crossing, the four men set a world record for the fastest Atlantic row crossing by any Australian team in history.

This was an incredible 18 days faster than any previous crew.

The brave rowers, who raced from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean, experienced some extreme weather conditions and multiple capsizes.

The Bondi team were only narrowly beaten by British team Fortitude IV.

Speaking in Antigua after the race, Ryan said: 'Those final few days were so tough, we were so beaten and exhausted, and we saw every part of the ocean, but Im glad we had that experience because it makes this moment so much sweeter.

The team (pictured) witnessed incredible wildlife, as well as extreme challenges including a dramatic capsize, broken oars, sores, seasickness and 12 metre waves

The team (pictured) rowed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean - experiencing some extreme weather conditions

'We are going to relish this feeling for the rest of our lives. [] There was one time when we were about to change shifts and I saw the wave hit Fletch and the whole boat flipped upside down.

'I was on the ceiling of the cabin just holding the handle because I couldnt close it  if I had let go the cabin would have flooded and that would have been it.

'None of us are equipped to handle this, but you have no choice. You just have to keep going.'

Challenges presented themselves even before the start line, with the team's boat only getting clearance to compete on the morning of the race after a technical fault.

It was one of the men's fathers who eventually came to the rescue  managing to source the replacement part from a neighbouring Canary Island and clearing the boat for launch.

The four friends from Bondi Beach (pictured) hugged as they finally made it to Antigua in the Caribbean after rowing across the Atlantic

After two years of preparation, the Australian team (pictured) almost wasn't able to start the race due to a technical fault with their boat

Speaking in Antigua after the race the four friends (pictured) said it was 'the hardest thing we have ever done' but 'we will remember this feeling for the rest of our lives'.

This years weather conditions for the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge were some of the toughest on record.

Competitors experienced some of the strongest winds in the history of the race - causing waves up to 12 metres in height, broken oars, seats, capsizing as well as sores and bruises.

But alongside extreme weather conditions, the participants have also experienced incredible wildlife sightings during their voyage  witnessing both highs and lows of mother nature during the adventure.

The four friends from Bondi Beach (pictured) claim second place in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

Whales, orca and repeat sightings of flying fish jumping over their boat - and even hit the rowers heads.

One one day, a Marlin fish even collided with their boat, almost knocking them off course.

Atlantic Blue Marlins can weigh an astonishing 700kg.

Elsewhere in the fleet, there are still boats battling the Atlantic - with some of the solo boats predicted to spend up to eight more weeks at sea.

Talisker Whisky has sponsored the Atlantic Challenge for six years.

The team (pictured) suffered a dramatic capsize, broken oars, sores, seasickness and 12 metre waves
A group of activists, holding a tambourine, shouted slogans against the new citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath during a session at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2020.

Five people were detained for raising slogans against the amended citizenship law during a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) in Jaipur, police said.

They were released following a warning to not repeat such act in future, the police said.

A group of activists, holding a tambourine, shouted slogans against the new citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath during a session at the fest.

In a video, purportedly of the protest, which circulated on social media, the activists are seen shouting slogans like 'Modi-Shah ko ek jawab, Inquilab Zindabad', 'CAA down-down', 'Amit Shah ho Barbad, Modi-Yogi Murdabad' and 'Hum Lekar Rahege Azadi'.

Police teams at the spot took the activists outside the JLF premises where they continued shouting slogans.

Five of the activists were detained and taken to the Ashok Nagar police station for interrogation, DCP (South) Yogesh Dadich said.

Later, the organisers put out a message saying they do not intend "to silence protest" but just want to ensure that everyone present in the festival can "imbibe the vast spectrum of knowledge" that the JLF has been known for all these years. The message reads:

"Teamwork Arts and the Jaipur Literature Festival are fully committed to ensuring the safety of every guest at the festival and have a responsibility and duty to the Diggi Palace family to maintain peace and calm at all times.

Yesterday, while the venue was at full capacity a few protesters who were not our speakers or invitees had to be asked to leave after they started sloganeering that was impairing the literary sessions and for which we received complaints from our partners.

It is not our wish to silence protest, but to ensure our visitors  students, older people and international guests  can take in the diverse content and knowledge for which the festival is known. We appeal to all our visitors to use the opportunity that the festival provides to imbibe the vast spectrum of knowledge and views expressed on our platform."

(With inputs from the Press Trust of India)
Polish President Andrzej Duda has invited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to jointly mark this August the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, when the troops of Jozef Pilsudski and Symon Petliura defeated the Bolsheviks.

He said this at a joint briefing in Auschwitz, where events are being held to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I proposed to Mr. President that we jointly commemorate Polish and Ukrainian soldiers who fought the Bolshevik invasion together in the 1920s," Duda said.

He also said he was satisfied with the fact that many historical problems that hindered normal relations with Ukraine have now been resolved. In particular, search and exhumation work in Ukraine has resumed, and the remains of Polish soldiers in Lviv and other places will be buried shortly, Duda said.

op
Between 2000 and 2017, the suicide rate in the U.S. increased by 40%, with blue-collar workers in industries such as mining, oil and gas extraction, construction, agriculture, transportation, and warehousing most at risk, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study used data from 32 states  including Pennsylvania and New Jersey  that participated in the 2016 National Violent Death Reporting System, which combined data from death certificates, coroner and medical examiner reports, and law enforcement reports. Researchers looked at the suicide rates by profession for 20,975 people, ages 16 to 64. They found that both male and female workers in construction, mining, oil, and gas had the highest suicide rates.

In 2018, Pennsylvania produced 6.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, mostly from the Marcellus Shale, making it the nations second-largest natural gas producer behind Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It also produced 49.9 million short tons of coal, ranking third in the country for coal production. And nearly 305,000 people currently work in the transportation and warehousing industry, representing 5.2% of the states workforce, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Previous research indicated that suicide risk is associated with low-skilled work, lower education, and socioeconomic status, work-related access to lethal means, and job stress, which includes such factors as low job support and job insecurity.

This is some of the first data that has taken such a systematic look at occupations, said Gregory Brown, director of the Penn Center for the Prevention of Suicide. A lot of these professions most at risk are male-dominated, like hunting, fishing, or steel. With those types of professions, you tend to have job instability, which can often lead to a lot of stress.

Brown also said that within those industries, theres no easy access to resources that might make a difference in addressing mental health. He said that when people work in a building, its much more likely that theres a place where they can go when they need help.

The other thing I suspect is that within these industries, theres a macho culture, Brown said. Reaching out for help is often seen as a weakness. Men just dont like to ask for help.

Brown cited the military as an industry that has made changes in its culture surrounding mental health. A study showed that over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of mental-health services increased and stigma decreased. Brown said that because mental health is commonly discussed in the military now and health-care workers are aware of what to look for when helping members of the military, the situation has improved.

The CDC recommended that state and local health departments, employers, and professional associations in the industries most at risk focus resources on prevention. In May 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf announced a statewide suicide task force  which includes staff from multiple state agencies, General Assembly members, and Prevent Suicide PA  to develop a long-term strategy to reduce suicide in Pennsylvania. Since 1999, the state has seen a 34% increase in suicide rates.

In employment settings like the ones in this study, that has yet to happen, Brown said. We dont have a lot of data on what to do, or how to support people. We have almost no data on how to construct effective messages, and so men in their middle years, who have dramatically increased risk for suicide, dont come in for mental-health care.

If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
The mayors of Alabamas 10 largest cities met with state legislators this week to discuss issues including guidelines for handling police body camera footage, 5G phone technology, internet sales tax and denying bail for violent offenders.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, Auburn Mayor Ron Anders, Madison Mayor Paul Finley and Dothan Mayor Mark Saliba were present at a press conference about their legislative agenda Monday morning. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox was not able to be at the press conference, but was part of discussions this weekend.

These 10 mayors represent 70 percent of the population base in state of Alabama, Brocato said. This is not 10 mayors that are just strictly interested in their 10 cities, but the entire state of Alabama.

Here are the issues:

Internet sales tax

The mayors feel the way the states internet sales tax is distributed is unfair. The tax is distributed based on city and county population, with the most populous cities and counties getting the largest share of internet sales tax revenue.

The distribution is unfair to cities, hospitals and schools, Brocato said.

Alabama began collecting internet sales tax on Oct. 1, 2018.

Brocato said the mayors would like to see the legislature structure its internet sales tax revenue similar to the way Texas does it.

Battle said he wants to ensure cities are able to collect actual tax revenue on internet sales, instead of that revenue going to the state to be redistributed.

5G expansion concerns

As 5G service expands in Alabama, mayors want to be able to ensure they retain some control over rights-of-way companies will be using to lay lines for 5G technology. Many 5G bills require cities to give control of their rights-of-way to these companies for installation and maintenance.

Battle said some of that work to expand 5G may involve companies digging trenches for lines through residents yards.

As soon as theyre digging a trench in someones yard, theyre going to be calling city hall, he said.

Battle said he wants 5G legislation to allow cities to set some requirements for how rights of way can be repaired in the event any digging or other work is done during 5G installation. He wants to ensure residents their property wont be left in disrepair after the installation of 5G technology.

Denying bail for violent offenders

Alabama mayors are supporting a bill that will give judges more leeway to deny bail for people accused of serious violent crimes.

We lost an officer to someone who never should have been out of jail from another state, Battle said, referencing the death of Huntsville police officer Billy Clardy III. Clardy died on Dec. 6 after he was shot during a drug task force operation.

Rep. Chip Brown, R-Mobile, is sponsoring a constitutional amendment to give judges more leeway to deny bail. The bill will be similar to the one he proposed last year that did not pass.

Section 16 of the Alabama Constitution affirms the right to bail except for those charged with capital offenses.

Browns amendment would expand the exception to cover Class A felonies involving danger to the victim, such as first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, murder charges that are not capital offenses, and others.

Releasing body camera footage

The mayors are also seeking guidance on another important public safety issue: police body camera footage.

The mayors want the legislature to provide some guidelines on when to release police body cam footage to the public and the press, Stimpson said.

Some body camera footage is used as evidence in court or as evidence in lawsuits. Stimson said the mayors want guidance on how to handle such images or videos, since they are both public information, but also information that could be used in court or in a lawsuit.

"Theres some media that would like to put it [police body camera footage] out there for the sensationalism, and that is detrimental to the legal process, said Stimpson. Were looking for guidelines to help us make sure that across the state were threading that needle of something being public information thats also detrimental to our legal process.

The legislative session starts Feb. 4.
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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram  Tue, January 28 2020

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is opposing the administration's plan to construct a cable car facility around Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island.

NTB Governor Zulkieflimansyah has reiterated on several occasions that the plan was in place, saying that the cable car would be located at the climbers entrance gate in Aik Berik village, Central Lombok. The project, scheduled to begin in May, is expected to finish before the first MotoGP race on the island in 2021.

The cable car is for visitors who want to enjoy the beauty of Mt. Rinjani, so people who come to Lombok will be able to see the mountains scenery aside from watching the MotoGP race, said NTB Environment and Forestry Agency head Madani Mukarom.

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Many retailers in Ireland are facing significant challenges in sustaining their businesses despite the economic recovery, Retail Excellence has said in its election manifesto.

The business support organisation said there continues to be a two-speed economy, with retailers outside the main urban areas of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway struggling despite unemployment figures at an all-time low and economic growth remaining strong.

They said the next Government needs to address a range of issues impacting the countrys 45,000 retail businesses including addressing the VAT differential between Ireland and the UK, insurance and general business costs, competitiveness, talent acquisition and retention, housing availability, non-tax compliant cheap imports, and the growth of online spending.

Separately, business group Ibec is the third organisation to demand improved infrastructure development for the Cork region.

Ibec Cork regional president Sean Moran said they are hearing a consistent message from businesses across Cork who see investment in public infrastructure and services as key to remaining competitive as well as for easing the problems evident in housing, education, transport, and health.

Cork is growing at pace and needs critical infrastructure to support that growth and enhance regional connectivity and competitiveness, which are vital to a thriving regional economy, he said.

The lack of quality infrastructure is having a direct effect on expansion plans, business productivity, the quality of life of employees and the ability of companies to attract and retain talent.

Ibec said it wants an overhaul of the regime for planning consents and appeals, saying it is essential to ensure fewer projects get bogged down in lengthy delays.

Ambitious growth targets were identified for Cork in Project Ireland 2040. However, unless we deliver the infrastructure, the region will continue to develop at a slower pace, Mr Moran said.
A woman has died during an eating contest to celebrate Australia Day.

The 60-year-old woman was taking part in all-you-can-eat lamington contest when she had what was thought to be a seizure at around 2pm on Sunday.

The Queensland Ambulance Service told Yahoo News the 60-year-old woman was rushed to the local hospital as paramedics performed CPR on her for 30 minutes but they were unable to save her.

The event was held at the Beach House Hotel in Hervey Bay, Queensland, on Sunday as part of the Australia Day celebrations, which also included a meat pie eating contest.

The hotel said in a Facebook post on Monday that it offered its deepest condolences to the friends and family of one of our patrons.

A lamington is a sponge cake coated in an outer layer of chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut.

The woman was rushed to hospital from the Beach House hotel after 'inhaling coconut' from a lamington eating contest. Source: Facebook

A woman who was reportedly at the pub at the time posted about the incident on social media, describing it as a very sad day.

Australia Day in Hervey Bay... sadly a lady died during the lamington eating competition, the woman wrote on her Facebook page.

Participants were required to eat as many lamingtons as possible within a short time frame, which led to contestants shovelling the cake into their mouths.

As part of the Australia Day celebrations at the Beach House Hotel in Hervey Bay, contestants were encouraged to eat as many lamingtons as possible. Source: Beach House Hotel

This lady shovelled the lamington into her mouth with no restraint... inhaled the coconut and arrested, she wrote.

According the the witness, the staff at the pub responded quickly and called emergency services.

Yahoo News Australia contacted the Beach House Hotel for comment, no managers were available to comment on the incident at the time of publication.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  A Maine native is donating $100 million to Northeastern University to establish a graduate school and research center in Portland in hopes of transforming the city into a technology hub and sparking economic growth, officials said Monday.

The Roux Institute, which will open in the spring, bears the name of donor David Roux, who grew up in Lewiston, Maine, and built a fortune as a technology entrepreneur and Silicon Valley investor. The goal is to give a jolt to the largest city in a rural state that lags behind the region in wages and has an aging population.

There's no reason we shouldn't be to Boston what San Jose is to San Francisco, Roux told a crowd of business and government leaders near Portland's waterfront Monday. We live today in an innovation economy.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, file photo, shows the waterfront in Portland, Maine. Northeastern University announced on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, they are planning a graduate school and research center in Portland in hopes of transforming the city into a technology hub and sparking economic growth. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)AP

Ten companies, including retailer L.L. Bean, disability insurer Unum, pet diagnostics company Idexx and the Jackson Laboratory, have signed on as founding partners, which will enable the center to help people adapt to the evolving economy.

Roux's efforts began a few years ago with a review of university options. His team eventually settled on Northeastern, which is known for providing its students with work and internship opportunities as part of degree programs.

The institute doesn't have a location yet, but it's expected to be situated in downtown Portland, Roux said. The graduate programs are expected to focus on digital technology and advanced life sciences.

The facility will add Portland to a network that includes its main campus in Boston and satellites in several other cities in the U.S. and Canada. The project's leaders are hoping to start fast, Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern's president, said classes in the graduate programs are expected to start this summer.

David Roux, a Maine native and tech entrepreneur, speaks at a news conference to announce his investment in Northeastern University to establish a graduate school and research center, in Portland, Maine, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)AP

The impact of the Roux Institute will reverberate across the region for generations to come. It will serve as a national model for expanding growth and innovation, and reducing inequality, Aoun said.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Portland Mayor Kate Snyder both characterized the project as transformative for Maine and the Portland metropolitan area. Snyder called it a game changer for our city and economic future" that would become a talent recruitment program for the region and state in the future.

Maine is more than lobsters and lighthouses, although those things are important, too, Snyder said.

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Actor Kwak Do-won, Lee Sung-min, Lee Byung-hun, Lee Hee-jun, and Woo In-ho pose at the VIP premiere of "The Man Standing Next" held at the COEX Megabox in Seoul last week.

"The Man Standing Next" is based on the story of the 40 days before the assassination of the president of the Republic of Korea in 1979. It deals with the most dramatic moments of Korea's modern and contemporary history.
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SoftServe, a leading digital authority and consulting company, has achieved the Data Analytics Specialization in the Google Cloud Premier Partner Program. This Partner Specialization affirms that SoftServe has demonstrated success turning large amounts of data into insights using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) technology. The company also recently surpassed a milestone 400 GCP certifications.

"SoftServe has the proficiency and expertise with GCP technology that allow us to turn huge amounts of unstructured data into actionable insights that empower our customers to succeed with greater speed and as they build their competitive edge in the cloud," said Todd Lenox, VP, digital services and partnerships at SoftServe. "This specialization highlights our commitment to leveraging the power of data to overcome the business challenges our clients face in a digital economy."

The Google Cloud Partner Specialization Program is designed to provide Google Cloud customers with qualified and highly trained partners that demonstrate technical proficiency and proven success in specialized solutions and services areas. Partners that achieve the Data Analytics Specialization put client's data to work with integrated GCP big data products.

SoftServe joined the Google Cloud Partner Program in April 2017 and became a Google Cloud Premier Partner in August 2018. It holds the Machine Learning Specialization, Infrastructure Specialization, Internet of Things (IoT) Specialization, and Cloud Migration Specialization.

About SoftServe

SoftServe is a digital authority that advises and provides at the cutting-edge of technology. We reveal, transform, accelerate, and optimize the way enterprises and software companies do business. With expertise across healthcare, retail, energy, financial services, software, and more, we implement end-to-end solutions to deliver the innovation, quality, and speed that our clients' users expect.

SoftServe delivers open innovationfrom generating compelling new ideas, to developing and implementing transformational products and services.

Our work and client experience is built on a foundation of empathetic, human-focused experience design that ensures continuity from concept to release.

We empower enterprises and software companies to (re)identify differentiation, accelerate solution development, and vigorously compete in today's digital economy. No matter where you are in your journey.

Visit our website, blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

SoftServe Media Contact

Tyler Mahan

Public Relations Manager

[email protected]

830-832-8898

SOURCE SoftServe

Related Links

http://www.softserveinc.com


When SARS caused a worldwide health panic 17 years ago, Richmond Hills Mackenzie Health became a global hot spot.

This time around, with concern growing around the spread of coronavirus 2019-nCoV, the local hospital isnt taking any chances.

With an abundance of caution, Dr. Danny Chen, physician lead in infection prevention and control, says Mackenzie has implemented new protections against the spread of the mysterious illness that originated in Wuhan, China.

SARS left its mark on York Region, with 86 residents infected making it North Americas second-largest centre, after Toronto, for the outbreak.

The disease quickly spread through the GTA, via an infected woman returning to Toronto from Hong Kong, to Scarborough Grace hospital and then to Mackenzie Health.

The Richmond Hill hospital was closed for 20 days.

Lessons were learned from that first pandemic panic, and community hospitals say theyre making prevention a top priority.

Earlier this month, Chen said, Mackenzie Health let staff know a new threat was brewing; two weeks ago, the hospital began implementing additional screening.

Today, patients arriving at emergency department are automatically screened for contagious symptoms  coughing, shortness of breath, diarrhea, rash  and they are asked about their travel history.

Outpatients, too, are screened at automated kiosks that ask about respiratory health. If symptoms are present, they are prompted to wear masks available at the kiosk and to notify their health-care providers.

Patients exhibiting symptoms are advised to don masks or face shields if they are to be among other patients; and if they are in a room to be assessed by health-care workers, staff wear gloves, gowns, masks and face shields.

Patients are also asked about where they have travelled in the last 14 days. China is a red flag, and nurse and physicians then do a deeper dive into where they were in China and with whom they were in contact, Chen said.

Travel to the Arabian Peninsula is also a red flag because of the risk of ongoing transmission of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

Those deemed high risk with fever and respiratory symptoms are put in an airborne isolation room, a separate part of the hospital that is ventilated to the outside.

Unlike during the SARS outbreak, Mackenzies health screening is easier today, Chen says, thanks to an electronic medical records system with automated screening prompts.

Physicians, hospitals and other health-care facilities are expected to report any suspected or confirmed cases of novel coronavirus to York Region Public Health in order to prevent and control further transmission.

Heres what York Regions other two local hospitals are doing to protect you:

Markham-Stouffville Hospital:

The hospital routinely screens patients for respiratory symptoms and recent travel and, since Jan. 3, has added screening for travel from Wuhan. It has developed a streamlined process to care for patients whose screening may deem them to be high risk, the hospital said in a statement.

Southlake Regional Health Care

All patients are screened for travel history and signs or symptoms of communicable illness.

Patients with travel history to Wuhan, China, would trigger additional screening at admissions and anyone with signs/symptoms of acute respiratory illness will be placed on respiratory/contact precautions, the hospital said in a statement.

STAY SAFE:

If you need to visit the hospital, heres what you need to know:

You may notice increased signage advising you to be attentive to hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette (cough into sleeve or elbow, not hands).

When you arrive, if you have a cough, use a face mask.

If you are a visitor and not feeling well and dont need to go to the hospital, stay home.

For more information on the signs and symptoms of coronavirus and what to do, visit the government of Canadas website.
The implementation of the initiative will take three years, she said, adding that one year is not enough to achieve environmental awareness among all citizens

Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad has said that a new initiative aimed at spreading environmental awareness, dubbed 'Live Green,' sends a strong message that environment-related issues are of national priority for the political leadership.

In an interview with the state-run MENA news agency, Fouad said the initiative was launched after studies on an environmental communications strategy conducted over a year ago.

The strategy was launched at the beginning of the parliaments session at the energy and environment committee's meeting to discuss obstacles to raising awareness about environmental issues and their importance.

The implementation of the initiative will take three years, she said, adding that one year is not enough to achieve environmental awareness among all citizens.

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WASHINGTON  The mother of Austin Tice, a missing American freelance journalist and Marine Corps veteran, said the Trump administration has been working to bring her son home after seven years, but she believes someone is standing in the way.

"Apparently, somewhere in the chain, there is a senior U.S. government official who is hesitating or stalling," Debra Tice told reporters Monday. "There is no possible way for me to understand why anyone would defy the president's will and choose to leave our beloved son, who put his life on the line serving this country three tours as a Marine Corps officer, waiting in captivity instead of taking the necessary steps to get this critical discussion underway."

When addressing reporters, Debra Tice said she believes that President Donald Trump and his administration are working to bring her son home from Syria, but she blames the delay on an unknown individual involved in the process.

"Whoever you are, stand down or stand up for Austin," she said, declining to discuss what led her to conclude that a specific official is delaying the process.

In 2014, the Syrian government said they were willing to meet with U.S. government officials, Debra Tice said. However, she said the meeting never took place.

"Almost six years ago, the Syrian government opened the door for a discussion," she said. "We believe this is quite possibly the simplest request that could be made in Austin's situation." She said she believes that conversation could still happen.

"Recovering American hostages is a top priority for this administration and President Trump continues to successfully secure the release of American hostages," a senior administration official said Monday by email. "We work tirelessly on each and every case of an American being held hostage abroad and we will continue to do so in the case of Austin Tice until he is back home with his family and loved ones."

Tice, now 38, is a former Marine captain who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was about to enter his final year at Georgetown Law School in 2012 when he went to Syria to work as a freelance journalist for CBS News, McClatchy and the Washington Post. He was reporting in Damascus when he was abducted, and he's believed to be held by the Syrian government or allied forces.

There was no immediate contact from his captors, but a 47-second video surfaced five weeks later showing Austin Tice bound and blindfolded while surrounded by armed men. U.S. government officials have said they have reason to believe Tice is still alive.

The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information "leading directly to the safe location, recovery and return" of Tice. On Monday, plans were announced for the second Night Out for Austin Tice national fundraiser, to be held April 29.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released its annual ranking of state charter school laws, Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws, Eleventh Edition in conjunction with National School Choice Week. For more than a decade, this report has analyzed how well each state aligns its charter school law to the "gold standard" model law, A Model Law for Supporting the Growth of High-Quality Charter Schools: Second Edition. States are ranked by their composite score, which is based on 21 critical benchmarks like accountability, authorization, flexibility, performance-based contracts, and funding equity.

"Charter schools are not a one-size-fits all value proposition and state laws governing their creation have a huge impact on their quality and ability to innovate," said National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nina Rees. "This report is a tool that blue and red state policymakers and advocates can use to bolster their state's charter school laws and improve the quality of the sector by requiring best practices and guaranteeing charter school freedoms to innovate."

For the fifth consecutive year, Indiana has the nation's strongest charter school law in the country, ranking No. 1 (out of 45). Indiana's law does not cap charter school growth, includes multiple authorizers, and provides a fair amount of autonomy and accountability. Indiana has made significant strides in recent years to provide more equitable funding to charter schools, although more work remains to be done.

Key findings from the report include:

Idaho and Tennessee made the biggest jump in this year's rankings, both moving up four spots. Idaho went from No. 21 to No. 17 because of policy changes to better support charter school facility needs. Tennessee moved from No. 28 to No. 24 because it created a new statewide appellate body and strengthened authorizer accountability.

The Top 10 includes a mixture of states with more mature movements ( Indiana at No. 1, Colorado at No. 2, Minnesota at No. 4, Florida at No. 7, Louisiana at No. 8, and D.C. at No. 10) and states with newer movements ( Washington at No. 3, Alabama at No. 5, Mississippi at No. 6, and Maine at No. 9). The makeup of the top 10 shows that many existing states continue to strengthen their laws based on what's working (and what's not working) and that many new states rely heavily on those lessons learned so they don't repeat the mistakes of the states that came before them.

California and Illinois experienced notable drops in this year's rankings. California fell from No. 18 to No. 20 because it weakened the state's appellate process and eliminated teacher certification flexibility for charter schools. Illinois dropped from No. 35 to No. 37 because it also weakened the state's appellate process.

States that are enacting laws for the first time and states that are overhauling their laws are bypassing states that were previously ranked higher, such as Massachusetts , Arizona , and New York . This means more states have better charter school laws across the country.

In 2019, West Virginia became the 45th state to enact a charter school law. While West Virginia's law provides sufficient autonomy and accountability, it also includes a cap that only provides for limited charter school growth, only allows district authorizers, and does not provide any facilities support. Its inaugural ranking is No. 34.

Maryland has the nation's weakest charter school law, ranking No. 45 (out of 45). While Maryland's law does not cap charter school growth, it only allows district authorizers and provides little autonomy, insufficient accountability, and inequitable funding to charter schools. Rounding out the bottom five states are Iowa (No. 41), Wyoming (No. 42), Alaska (No. 43), and Kansas (No. 44).

Click here to read the full report: Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws, Eleventh Edition.

For a more in-depth discussion on the report with the author, register for the 2020 National Charter Schools Conference hosted by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Orlando, Florida from June 21  June 24.

SOURCE National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Related Links

http://www.publiccharters.org/


A new social media app named Byte officially launched over the weekend but you might be familiar with it already without realising.

Byte, which lets users shoot and upload six-second videos, is from Dom Hoffman, the co-founder of Vine, the beloved short video platform which was axed by Twitter in 2017.

Hoffman has been working on Byte for a while, firstly as V2, before announcing the new name for the social platform back in 2018. Despite expectations that the app would land in 2019, its taken a little longer but now the app is officially available to download on iOS and Android.

The app looks similar to other social platforms in that there is a rolling feed showing what the accounts youre following are up to, an explore page and profiles. There is also going to be a section in the explore page which will allow you to view posts handpicked by Bytes editors.

One way Byte appears to make itself stand out from the other social apps such as TikTok and Instagram is by offering a partner programme to creators from the start which will allow people to start monetising their Byte videos and profiles. Hoffman told TechCrunch that the platform will offer revenue sharing with creators, the same way YouTube allows accounts to make money from ads. More details on this will be coming soon, he added.

Its very early days for Byte so there will be issues that need to be straightened out. Hoffman took to the platforms community forum to addresses problems around comment spam that occurred over the weekend. He said the team was dealing with the problems and will continue to make other changes such as the ability to like comments as well as block, filter and limit commenting.

And whilst Byte is sure to have its work cut out for it facing down the behemoth that is TikTok, with over one billion users and counting, Byte does benefit from the fact it doesnt have as many hang-ups as the Chinese-owned social network. Last year, its parent company ByteDance had to pay a $5.7 million fine to the US Federal Trade Commission after it was accused of violating child-privacy laws  the app now requires users to verify their age. TikTok has also come under fire for censoring content criticising the Chinese government for its treatment of Uighur Muslims as well as censoring videos that mention Tiananmen Square and Tibetan independence. The US military has banned soldiers from using the app on government phones, calling it a cyber threat.
Yia Yia Mary's. | Photo: R R./Yelp

Spending time in Greater Uptown? Get to know this Houston neighborhood by browsing its most popular local businesses, from a Greek restaurant to a brunch spot.

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top places to visit in Greater Uptown, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of neighborhood businesses. Read on for the results.

1. Yia Yia Mary's

Photo: yia yia Mary's/Yelp

Topping the list is bar, Greek and Mediterranean spot Yia Yia Mary's. Located at 4747 San Felipe, it's the highest-rated business in the neighborhood, boasting four stars out of 705 reviews on Yelp.

The menu features Mediterranean small plates like artichokes tiganites, spanakopita and fried calamari. Larger entree options include Mediterranean seafood flown in daily, souvlaki and specialties like moussaka. (Explore the entire menu here.)

2. Dish Society

Photo: aaron l./Yelp

Next up is breakfast and brunch, New American and Southern spot Dish Society, situated at 5740 San Felipe St., Suite 100. With 4.5 stars out of 2,243 reviews on Yelp, it's proven to be a local favorite.

This local chain has four other Houston-area locations. On the breakfast menu, look for house favorites like the chicken & biscuits and pork belly hash. Other morning options include avocado toast, pancakes and breakfast tacos. (Explore the rest of the menu here.)

3. Masraff's

Photo: kayla n./Yelp



New American spot Masraff's, which offers seafood and more, is another top choice. Yelpers give the business, located at 1753 Post Oak Blvd., 4.5 stars out of 871 reviews.

On the menu, look for a wide selection of cold and hot appetizers, along with entrees like Morel-crusted sea bass, bacon-wrapped bison ribeye and herb-roasted Australian rack of lamb. (Find the rest of the menu here.)

4. Roostar Vietnamese Grill

Photo: Victoria n./Yelp

Roostar Vietnamese Grill, a Vietnamese spot that offers sandwiches and more, is another much-loved neighborhood go-to, with 4.5 stars out of 706 Yelp reviews. Head over to 5551 Richmond Ave. to see for yourself.

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This chain has one other location across town. The spot offers Vietnamese street food, specializing in the banh mi sandwich in flavors like grilled pork, the grilled chicken and the chopped ribeye. (Find the full menu here.)

5. Adair Kitchen

Photo: michelle s./Yelp

Check out Adair Kitchen, which has earned four stars out of 838 reviews on Yelp. You can find the New American and breakfast and brunch spot at 5161 San Felipe St., Suite 390.

According to the business' website, Adair Kitchen "strives to make simple favorite recipes accessible to Houstonians morning, noon and night."

Breakfast favorites include the daily scramble, the crispy chicken and waffles, house waffles and pancakes. (Check out the rest of the menu here.)

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on January 27 launched the 'Kejriwal aapke dwaar' campaign to directly connect with the people of Delhi through pre-recorded messages. The name of the website launched under the campaign is: www.welcomekejriwal.in

Kejriwal said with the help of technology he would be able to directly reach out to the people of the city.

"We made a website through which I would be able to talk directly to the people of Delhi on different issues" he said.

The website has pre-recorded messages of the chief minister talking on different issues, such as health, education and unauthorised colonies among others.

"People would also be able to register their complaints which I will address after elections," he added.
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Memoirs published by Trump administration alumni vary in importance, but a forthcoming book from former national security adviser John Bolton could have a significant effect on the White House as President Trumps legal team plays the numbers game in the Senate impeachment trial. According to the New York Times, Boltons unpublished manuscript for The Room Where It Happened states that Trump wanted to freeze military assistance to Ukraine until an investigation into the Bidens was announced  a claim that undermines claims by the presidents defense team that the aid was not linked to calls to solicit foreign interference in an election.

In recent weeks, Bolton has reportedly distributed drafts to his associates and to the White House, as is standard procedure in post-administration publishing. According to the Times, Boltons account of the Ukraine scandal includes new information on fellow cabinet members attempts to stay above the turbulence, or how their presentation of the timeline might not line up with reality:

For example, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged privately that there was no basis to claims by the presidents lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani that the ambassador to Ukraine was corrupt and believed Mr. Giuliani may have been acting on behalf of other clients, Mr. Bolton wrote.

Mr. Bolton also said that after the presidents July phone call with the president of Ukraine, he raised with Attorney General William P. Barr his concerns about Mr. Giuliani, who was pursuing a shadow Ukraine policy encouraged by the president, and told Mr. Barr that the president had mentioned him on the call. A spokeswoman for Mr. Barr denied that he learned of the call from Mr. Bolton; the Justice Department has said he learned about it only in mid-August.

And the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was present for at least one phone call where the president and Mr. Giuliani discussed the ambassador, Mr. Bolton wrote. Mr. Mulvaney has told associates he would always step away when the president spoke with his lawyer to protect their attorney-client privilege.



For Democrats, the draft reinforces claims that Boltons testimony is necessary to see the full picture of Trumps impeachable behavior; for Republicans, it further proves the efficacy of limiting testimony, so that a major player in the scandal does not undermine the Trump legal teams spurious defense. There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the Presidents defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump, the House impeachment managers said in response to the Times report.

But as the trial crawls into its second week, its looking more and more likely that Democrats will not be able to get the 51 votes needed to call for witnesses. Bolton, however, is onboard, believing that he has information that is relevant to the record. According to the Times, he has a more opportunistic reason as well, expressing concern to associates that if his depiction of the Ukraine scandal is made public post-trial, he will be accused of suppressing the information in order to boost his book sales. Its an anxiety that might not be all that heartfelt, considering that Boltons publisher released the books title and release date in March hours after the Times report.
RENO  One Biggest Little City strip mall may not be big enough for two presidential campaigns.

Until last week, staffers for 2020 Democratic contender Pete Buttigieg and Republican President Donald Trump seemed able to peaceably coexist just a few doors down from one another in a quiet, two-story shopping center at Keystone Avenue and West Fourth Street.

Then, on Friday, a Buttigieg volunteer found an unsigned note printed on Trump campaign letterhead tacked to her cars windshield.

We noticed that you decided to park right in front of our office, potentially taking spaces away from those (who) would like a convenient space to visit the Trump office, the note read. I saw the Buttigeig (sic) sticker and sign on the back of your car, so we kindly ask that you park in a space that is not right in front of our office.

I would assume that the Buttigeig (sic) office has more convenient spaces around the corner closer to your entrance upstairs.

The anonymous letter-writer also provided the Buttigieg volunteer with a Trump 2020 bumper sticker, explaining she could continue to use the contested parking space, but only if she put the sticker on her car.

If not, and this happens again, I will have to contact the property manager and have them get in touch with you, the letter concludes.

A photo of a Trump campaign letter, and bumper sticker, left on a Buttigieg campaign volunteer's windshield on Thursday night.

The Reno Gazette Journal could find no signage designating assigned parking spaces in or around either campaign office.

A spokesman for Trumps Nevada campaign team did not directly answer questions about whether all office visitors were required to display a pro-Trump sticker on their car.

Paul Selberg, Buttigiegs Nevada campaign director, accused Team Trump of trying to intimidate those who support a potential future election foe.

Pete is the best candidate to go up against Donald Trump and win, Selberg wrote in a statement. Clearly, the Trump campaign knows that, and is trying to intimidate our volunteers. But just like Pete is not intimidated by Trump, we wont be either, and well continue to spread Petes vision across the state to turn the page on the old ways of Washington and lead this state and our country forward.

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Keith Schipper, a spokesman for Trumps Nevada re-election campaign, took a lighter approach to the topic.

We are glad there is still an opportunity for fun and harmless banter between opposing campaigns, he wrote in a text message to the RGJ.

Trump 2020's Reno field office pictured Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg maintains a field office one floor above the GOP's space.

Trumps campaign has expressed optimism about the presidents chances of winning the Silver State in November, even after Republicans suffered a shellacking at the polls in 2018's midterms.

Buttigieg, who was previously mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is considered a top contender in Nevadas upcoming presidential caucus. Polls suggest hes the fourth-most popular candidate among likely Democratic caucusgoers.

Nevadas third-in-the-nation nominating contest is scheduled for Feb. 22.

James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Trump, Buttigieg Nevada campaigns feud over Reno parking spots
A mother and her three children survived 34 days in the Colombian jungle by living off of wild fruits and berries after they got lost while on holiday.

The 40-year-old mother and her three children, aged 14, 12 and 10, were first reported as missing on 19 December.

Local media reported the family spent most of the 34 days wandering the jungle barefoot, surviving on berries, before they were rescued by the Colombian navy.

Commander of the Naval Force of Southern Colombia, General Sergio Alfredo Serrano, told reporters: 'They were on holiday in the region when they went to meet the children's father and became lost, remaining 34 days as missing.'

The family of four are pictured being extracted from the Colombian jungle before they were transferred to hospital on Sunday

One of the youngsters can be seen laying on a stretcher while being reunited with her father (left of image), after Colombian sailors rescued her family from the jungle on Sunday

The father of the family, who wasn't with the others in the Colombian jungle, is reunited with the mother after the ordeal finally ended on Sunday

The family members were found near the village of La Esperanza in the northern Peruvian sector of Yubineto which borders with Colombia, Serrano said.

They were following the Putumayo River when they unknowingly crossed into Peru, according to reports.

Local media said the missing group was found by members of the indigenous Secoya community who contacted Peruvian authorities.

The mother and father weep as they're reunited in Colombia on Sunday

One of the young girls can be seen looking emaciated after her 34-day ordeal in the Colombian jungle. General Sergio Alfredo Serrano, who was part of the rescue mission, said 'we hope there will not be any complications', after the tourists were transferred to hospital

The father is pictured hugging his starving son after his 34-day ordeal in the Colombian jungle

After being rescued, the unnamed mother told local media: 'We lasted half an hour without drinking water and then we fainted. We had to drink water all the time and the girls were unable to walk.'

The tourists were taken to the ESE Hospital Maria Angelines in the southern Colombian town of Puerto Leguizamo with symptoms of malnourishment and minor injuries.

Serrano said: 'The mother confirmed that they ate wild fruits and whatever else they could find for the 34 days they were missing.

Paramedics can be seen attending to the family members after they were rescued from the Colombian jungle on Sunday

The father is pictured hugging his starving son after his 34-day ordeal in the Colombian jungle

Colombian sailors load the family on to a boat so they can be transferred to a hospital on Sunday

'We hope there will not be any complications and we will keep you informed about the family's health situation.'

The four family members were reunited with the father when they arrived at hospital, according to reports.

Local media did not mention which country the tourists came from.

In November 2017, the police found a 17-year-old boy with learning difficulties who had escaped from a centre and spent 28 days in the Amazonian jungle.

The teenager, named Martin Camilo Carihuasari, was found near a river in the southern Colombian jungle region of Pichuna.
Donald Trump asserted Monday that John Bolton's claim is 'false' after the former national security adviser wrote in an upcoming book that they had a conversation where the president directly made a connection between the Ukraine military aid freeze and a public probe into former Vice President.

'What about the allegations from Mr. Bolton?' a reporter shouted at Trump before leaving the Oval Office following a bilateral meeting between the president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

'False,' Trump said with a cringe, and repeated: 'False.'

Trump issued the fresh denial after the New York Times revealed that Bolton's draft of his book details how the president explicitly linked releasing Ukraine's military aid to the country investigating the Bidens.

Bolton has struck a deal worth an estimated $2 million for his book, The Room Where It Happened  with the leak plunging Trump's defense against impeachment into crisis.

Donald Trump said Monday that the allegations former National Security Advisor John Bolton included in an upcoming book are 'false'

He issued the fresh denial while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House Monday morning

Trump also insisted that he has not read the manuscript of Bolton's unpublished book  even though an advisor to the former national security adviser said a copy of the memoir was sent to the White House weeks ago

'Well I haven't seen the manuscript. But I can tell you, nothing was ever said to John Bolton,' Trump insisted to reporters gathered at the White House Monday morning as he greeted Netanyahu ahead of their bilateral meeting

The president said Monday while greeting Netanyahu on the South Lawn that he hasn't read the manuscript of Bolton's upcoming bombshell memoir, which was handed over to the White House weeks ago.

'Well I haven't seen the manuscript. But I can tell you, nothing was ever said to John Bolton,' Trump told the press while greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Monday morning.

'But I have not seen a manuscript. I guess he's writing a book. I have not seen it,' he insisted.

An adviser to Bolton said a copy of the unpublished book, which is set for release in mid-March, was sent out for review by the National Security Council weeks ago.

'The ambassador's manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period,' Sarah Tinsley, an advisor to the former Trump aide, said.

Trump continued his attack against his former national security adviser earlier Monday, saying the House should have called John Bolton to testify during their investigation instead of pressuring the Senate to allow new witnesses.

'The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate!' he asserted on Twitter.

Trump was speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of a series of meetings where the two will discuss a Middle East peace deal

The times released a report Sunday of a review it conducted of a leaked manuscript of Bolton's upcoming book, which Democrats argue could be even more reason to call the former Trump adviser to testify in the impeachment trial

JOHN BOLTON'S KEY REVELATIONS John Bolton makes a series of bombshell claims in his book, according to the part of the manuscript seen by the New York Times. They are: Trump told Bolton in August 2019 that he would not release military aid to the Ukraine until they investigated the Bidens and claims of trying to intervene in 2016 in favor of Hillary Clinton

Mike Pompeo privately admitted that Rudy Giuliani's claims Marie Yovanovitch were corrupt were baseless - and that he suspected they were being made to help other Giuliani clients

Bolton warned White House lawyers that he feared Giuliani was using his work with the president to help his private clients

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, was present at least once when Trump and Giuliani discussed Yovanovitch. Mulvaney has told 'associates' he stepped away from such conversations

Pompeo told Bill Barr that he was mentioned in the July call with Zelensky. The Justice Department claims Barr did not know until mid-August

Trump railed about Ukraine trying to 'damage' him in May 2019 when he met Ron Johnson, a Republican senator who was going to Zelensky's inauguration. And Trump also mentioned the conspiracy theory that Ukraine had a hacked Democratic server

Bill Barr expressed concerns about Trump doing personal favors for autocrats including China's Xi and Turkey's Erdogan when Bolton raised the issue with him Advertisement

Democrats are pushing for the Senate to vote to allow them to call witnesses and subpoena documents in the impeachment trial, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the chamber will hold a vote after opening arguments conclude this week.

They have expressed a desire to call Bolton, who was Trump's national security adviser until he was ousted in mid-September  and he has said he would comply if he were called to testify.

Trump's comments come as the Senate is about to convene for the sixth day of opening arguments.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, who is leading the team of impeachment managers prosecuting the president in the Senate, pushed back on the president's claim.

'I think the president's false tweets this morning are just a further false exculpatory,' Schiff said of Trump's early morning post. 'He said we didn't try to get his testimony in the House, when we did. He said that that we claimed that they had no meeting at the United Nations when we showed video footage of them having a meeting at the United Nations. He claimed that he gave them the aid earlier than expected, or something along the line  just patently false.'

'When you have essentially the defendant making false statements, it's just further evidence of guilt,' Schiff continued.

The president tweet also followed a load of attacks he waged Sunday night after a report emerged that Bolton wrote in his upcoming book that the president told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the Eastern European nation helped with political investigations into his political rivals.

The New York Times received a leaked copy of an unpublished manuscript for a new book Bolton is writing, and revealed in a Sunday report that the former Trump adviser details a first-hand account of the ties between the aid and investigations.

Trump insisted in a Monday morning tweet that if Democrats wanted to hear testimony from former National Security Advisor John Bolton, they should have subpoenaed him in the House impeachment investigation. 'It is up to them, not up to the Senate!' he asserted

Bolton's unpublished manuscript gives a first-hand account of the links between a military aide freeze to Ukraine and investigations into Trump's political rivals. Bolton has said he is 'prepared to testify' if subpoenaed and his book is set to be released in mid-March

This claims challenge Trump's defense, but the president pushed back against the report Sunday night, claiming his former aide just wants to sell books

In a series of late-night tweets Sunday, the president denied any such arrangements were made between the U.S. and Ukraine.

'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,' the president tweeted.

'With that being said, the transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems,' he continued.

'Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations.....(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration,' the President wrote in a series of tweets.

Bolton's revelations challenge the defense offered up by Trump and his attorneys in his Senate impeachment trial and raises the stakes as the chamber decided this week whether to seek sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses.

Bolton, who acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on September 11, has already told lawmakers that he is willing to testify, despite the president's order barring aides from cooperating in the probe.

It is unclear, however, if the prosecution, led by impeachment manager Adam Schiff, will get the chance to call witnesses to provide new testimony in the case.

Democrats have also expressed interest in calling acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and his senior advisor Robert Blair, who was present during Trump's call with his Ukrainian counterpart this summer.

Republicans and the defense team warn, however, that if new witnesses are permitted, they may call individuals Democrats don't want to testify, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Trump has even pushed for the still-anonymous whistle-blower, whose second-hand report of the call led to the launch of the impeachment inquiry, to be subpoenaed.

President Trump sent out a triple set of tweets in the early morning hours of Monday responding to allegations made by Bolton claiming the president wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his rivals

Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has played a prominent role in the Ukraine affair, replied to a request for comment with a text: 'I used to like and respect John and tell people they were wrong about how irresponsible he was. I was wrong.'

Democrats need at least four Republicans to vote with them to seek witness testimony. Those prospects looked unlikely in recent days and it's unclear if the new revelations about Bolton's book will sway any GOP senators.

Democrats quickly sought to ramp up the pressure on their Republican counterparts.

'John Bolton has the evidence,' tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. 'Its up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trumps actions testify in the Senate trial.'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no immediate comment, according to his office.

The Associated Press has not confirmed the content of Bolton's draft book. A person familiar with the matter told the AP the book had been submitted to the White House for pre-publication review, which is standard for the work of former officials with security clearances. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject.

The book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, declined to comment.

Democrats accuse Trump of abuse of power in withholding the military assistance to Ukraine to push that country to mount investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden (right) and his son Hunter (left)

Trump has said he wants the Bidens to be called to testify in the Senate trial, which Democrats claim would be 'irrelevant'

President Trump's defense team, including personal attorney Jay Sekulow (left) and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone (right), began their case for his acquittal on Saturday

An adviser to Bolton, said the 'manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC.'

Bolton attorney Charles J. Cooper said in a statement that the pre-publication review process had been 'corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript.'

Democrats accuse Trump of abuse of power in withholding the military assistance to Ukraine to push that country to mount investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company, Burisma, while his father was in office.

On Saturday, the president's attorneys said during their opening day of defense arguments that there was no evidence that Trump made the military aid contingent on the country announcing an investigation into Biden.

The Times also reported that Bolton says he told Attorney General William Barr that he was mentioned by Trump on his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Bolton acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on Sept. 11

Adam Schiff leads the House impeachment managers to the Senate to hear Trump's defense team

A Justice Department official on Sunday disputed Bolton's account that he had told Barr about the president's call with Zelensky but did say that Bolton had called Barr to raise concerns about Giuliani's shadow diplomacy efforts.

Trump on Wednesday told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, that he didn't want Bolton to testify before the Senate.

'The problem with John is it's a national security problem,' Trump said. 'He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it's not very positive and then I have to deal on behalf of the country?'

He added: 'It's going to be very hard. It's going to make the job very hard.'
Up to seven new individuals are expected to be added to the sanctions list,

The EU ambassadors in Brussels on Monday supported the proposal to extend a package of sanctions related to the annexation of Crimea by Russia, an EU diplomat says.

EU ministers in Brussels are yet to formally endorse the decision on Tuesday, PAP news agency reports.

The sanctions are related to local elections conducted by Russia in Crimea, the EU diplomat told PAP.

Another seven individuals are expected to be added to the sanctions list, which means they will be banned from entering the EU, while their assets will be frozen.

Read alsoRussian delegation's credentials appealed at PACE

Until lately, it was Cyrpus which had been blocking the introduction of new sanctions against Russia in a hope that the EU would draft tougher measures targeting Turkey amid a sea drilling dispute.

"On Monday, Cyprus withdrew its reservations," the source told PAP.

RFE/RL's own correspondent in Brussels, Rikard Jozwiak, echoed the report: "The EU will tomorrow add another 7 ppl on its sanctions list over individuals undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine. the 7 facilitated and participated in the Russian regional elections in September in Crimea."

The EU will tomorrow add another 7 ppl on its sanctions list over individuals undermining the territorial integrity of #Ukraine. the 7 facilitated and participated in the Russian regional elections in September in #Crimea. #Russia  Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) January 27, 2020

In September 2019, the EU extended for six months Russia sanctions against 170 individuals and 44 entities over their actions undermining territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.
QUEBEC - The Quebec City mosque shooter entered a Muslim prayer space Jan. 29, 2017, armed with two guns, and murdered six men  but there was no evidence he was motivated by deep-seated racism, the man's lawyer argued Monday at the Court of Appeal.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alexandre Bissonnette arrives at the court house in Quebec City on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. Quebec's highest court will hear arguments today on the length of the sentence handed down to convicted Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette. The accused won't be present today as Crown and defence make their arguments at the Quebec City courthouse. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mathieu Belanger - POOL

QUEBEC - The Quebec City mosque shooter entered a Muslim prayer space Jan. 29, 2017, armed with two guns, and murdered six men  but there was no evidence he was motivated by deep-seated racism, the man's lawyer argued Monday at the Court of Appeal.

Defence lawyer Charles-Olivier Gosselin said the misinterpretation of Alexandre Bissonnette's motive was just one of several errors trial judge Francois Huot of the Superior Court made before sentencing his client last February to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 40 years.

Those mistakes led Huot to make an unreasonable decision, Gosselin said, adding the killer should instead be eligible for parole after 25 years in prison.

Bissonnette's sentence was also appealed by the Crown, who argued Monday the 30-year-old gunman shouldn't be eligible for release from prison before serving 50 years. Prosecutor Thomas Jacques told the court Bissonnette, who was not at the hearing, committed possibly the worst hate crime in Canadian history.

During sentencing last February, Huot said the killer had acted out of "hatred" and "racism" and had destroyed the lives of many people. Intolerance and racism, Huot said, "rots the social fabric," and it was the duty of the courts to "repress them firmly when they materialize in criminal acts."

But Gosselin said hatred and racism did not motivate his client and there was "no evidence" presented at trial that could prove it.

Instead, Bissonnette was mentally ill and wanted to kill himself, Gosselin explained. Bissonnette just needed a reason to justify taking his own life, so he decided to murder men in a mosque, even if that logic was "twisted," Gosselin told the court.

Gosselin also took issue with Huot's contention that Bissonnette's actions were premeditated. Bissonnette had been developing certain ideas in his head, the lawyer said, but only solidified them in the "days and hours" prior to the murders.

The third error made by the trial judge, Gosselin argued, was when Huot claimed there were minors inside the mosque at the time of the shooting. Gosselin said that Bissonnette had never targeted children.

But the appellate judges interrupted the lawyer's arguments  just as they did throughout his presentation  to ask him why Bissonnette pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of children.

Bissonnette pleaded guilty in March 2018 to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder. His victims were Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Azzeddine Soufiane, 57; and Ibrahima Barry, 39.

Jacques, the prosecutor, said Bissonnette deliberately chose his victims according to his prejudices and had made "exceptional plans" to carry out the murders. The hatred that was on display that January night was a frontal attack on the values of Canadian society, said Jacques.

A sentence of life with no possibility of parole before 40 years didn't reflect the gravity of the crimes that were committed, Jacques said. Fifty years was more reasonable, said the prosecutor. At the trial, the Crown had argued Bissonnette should have to serve 150 years before the possibility of parole.

Also at issue in the appeal is a section of the Criminal Code that applies in cases of multiple murders. The section allows a judge discretion to deliver consecutive life sentences in blocks of 25 years. In his ruling, Huot had rewritten the 2011 consecutive sentencing law, deciding that Bissonnette would serve at least 40 years in prison.

Huot had said a sentence of 50 years or more would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Jacques asked the Appeal Court to put in place a legal framework to guide judges in sentences involving multiple murders.

The Appeal Court judges reserved their decision.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2020.
TORONTO, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Panhellenic Association of Table Olives Processors, Packers and Exporters (PEMETE) and their OLIVE YOU European Table Olives campaign, will showcase European table olives from Greece at a press event organized in Toronto, Canada, on February 20th, 2020.



OLIVE YOU will highlight the modern profile of European table olives, inform the guests about the health benefits, quality and flavor of the Olives, of the most popular varieties of olive types such as; Halkidiki, Kalamata, Konservolia.

We invite all members of the press, influencers, bloggers, and health professionals to taste the delicious flavor of Olives through Olive inspired dishes.

When : FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Where : DUNCAN HOUSE

125 MOATFEILD DR

TORONTO, ONTARIO, M3B3L6

Time : 7PM-10PM MAIN DINING ROOM

RSVP: Kostas Koveos

schinoussa@hotmail.com

+1 416-888-7925

PEMETEs MISSION

The 3-year EU co-financed campaign aims to generate awareness and demand for European table olives from Greece in 13 countries around the globe (Germany, Austria, France, UK, Poland, Sweden, USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, Norway, Saudi Arabia and UAE). The campaign launched in 2017 will run until February 2020 through a wide variety of actions  advertising, events, master-classes, in store tastings, trade shows, press relations etc. - informing consumers and professionals about the unique quality and flavor of the most popular olive varie.es, thus increasing table olives exports.

ABOUT PEMETE:

PEMETE (Panhellenic Association of Table Olive Processors, Packers and Exporters) is a professional association, founded in 1970, that promotes the interests of table olive exporters. The members of PEMETE are Greek exporting table olive processing, packaging and exporting companies. All of them process their end products in accordance with the existing Food Safety Regulation 852/2004.

The 53 member-companies of PEMETE represent more than 90% of Greeces exports of table olives to more than 100 countries. These companies export some outstanding and unique Greek table olive varieties, such as: Konservolia farmed in Central Greece, Chalkidiki in Northern Greece, and Kalamata, mainly but not exclusively - farmed in the regions of Etoloakarnania, Laconia and Phtiotida. The greatest advantage of Greek table olives is that the olives ripen naturally on the olive trees.

www.oliveyou-eu.eu / info@oliveyou-eu.eu / info@pemete.gr
Editors Note: The following is the first installment of a three-part series adapted from David L. Bahnsens new book, Elizabeth Warren: How Her Presidency Would Destroy the Middle Class and the American Dream.

On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And I will ban frackingeverywhere.  Elizabeth Warren

The modern, post-Obama Democratic party has little that defines it more clearly and unambiguously than its environmental agenda. Gun control may run a close second, but no other issue seems to be more uniformly agreed upon by Democratic leadership and the base than environmentalism. Within health-care policy there are broad differences between leading presidential candidates, with some such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders passionately advocating for the elimination of private insurance and consumer choice, and others arguing for expanding coverage through a so-called public option but maintaining a private market for those who want it. Some high-profile Democrats find the idea of a wealth tax insane, whereas two leading Democrats are championing the idea.

Disagreement within the Democratic leadership is harder to find, though, on the issue of environmental stewardship. A strong consensus exists among Democrats that global warming is real, global warming is man-created, and global warming must be addressed through the immediate reduction of carbon emissions by any means necessary.

The controversial congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines in 2019 with the introduction of what she called the Green New Deal, advocating for extreme measures intended to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The plan called for the end of air travel, a federal guarantee to all people of a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security, zero greenhouse-gas emissions within ten years, meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through zero-emission energy sources, and perhaps most outlandishly, upgrading all existing buildings in the United States to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.

Story continues

The plan was so radical, many earnest environmentalists and advocates of improved environmental stewardship ran away from it, shocked by its delusional ambitions. David Brooks said it would be the greatest centralization of power in the hands of the Washington elite in our history. House speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed it as the green dream, or whatever they call it. President Obamas own secretary of energy, Ernest Moniz, said, I just cannot see how we could possibly go to zero carbon in the 10-year time frame; it is just impractical. The Economist called it deeply unserious. The Washington Post, in an op-ed lambasting President Trump for inadequate attention to climate change, called the Green New Deal a fantasy that hurts the cause of practically addressing the issue, adding, the world needs rational U.S. leadership.

And yet, the response of the Democratic presidential primary field was not to run as far away from this toxic $70 trillion policy proposal as possible, but rather to trip over one another trying to be first in line to support it. One can chalk up the hasty endorsement of this extremist proposal by Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Kamala Harris to the political opportunism we have come to expect from them, but Senator Warren has built her campaign around having a plan for that!and the Green New Deal is no kind of serious plan at all.

Senator Warren boasted, I am an original cosponsor of the Green New Deal resolution, which commits the United States to meet 100 percent of our power demand through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources. She has since done much to fill out her climate-policy portfolio. Her plans on this front, I will argue, represent not only the most dangerous component of her platform, but also the area of her agenda in which she is most politically vulnerable.

Her advocacy of standard fare, such as returning to the Paris Climate Accord, is bad policy to this author, but it is certainly the conventional Democratic-party position. While a few candidates and former candidates (Cory Booker, Andrew Yang, Michael Bennet) reinforced their anti-carbon bona fides by endorsing greater use of nuclear power, Warren missed the opportunity to show contrarian wisdom and courage by doing so. As she said in CNNs Climate Town Hall:

So you rightly point out about nuclear energy, its not carbon-based, but the problem is its got a lot of risks associated with it, particularly the risks associated with the spent fuel rods that nobody can figure out how were going to store these things for the next bazillion years. In my administration, were not going to build any new nuclear power plants, and we are going to start weaning ourselves off nuclear energy and replacing it with renewable fuels over  were going to get it all done by 2035, but I hope were getting it done faster than that. Thats the plan.

Vehement opposition to the use of carbon-based fuels combined with a demand for a rapid reduction in their use would seem to cry out for embracing nuclear energy, not shunning it. Yet Warren has opted to stick to her contradictory policy, seemingly unaware of how problematic it is to hold these two positions simultaneously. As we shall see, though, her rejection of nuclear power hardly represents the most troublesome part of her climate agenda.

Despite her claim to be running a campaign for middle-class America, Warren has advocated taxing carbon emissions, including through a cap-and-trade marketplace, a policy that disproportionately hurts those in the most challenging economic circumstances. Households in the bottom income brackets spend the highest portion of their income on energy, making a carbon tax among the most regressive of taxes. Some proposals call for redistributionist mechanisms to offset this regressive unfairness, but of course Warrens broad policy platform has already made a claim on every revenue source you can think of for every spending category you can imagine  meaning there is no empty space on the shelf available to simply trade out a carbon tax for a lower payroll tax, and so forth. And in addition to the regressively unfair nature of this tax, it also serves as a huge subsidy to what Senator Warren loves to call big oil. The great beneficiaries of complexity and of regulatory cost are the big players, not the smaller companies!

As we delve deeper into Warrens climate agenda, we get into the real disasters for the American economy, and indeed, for Americas national security. One of the great economic and geopolitical stories of the last generation has been Americas becoming a net exporter of energy to the world, reversing decades of foreign oil dependency.

The economic implications of this reality are immense. But the geopolitical consequences are profound as well, as American policy in the Middle East for over 50 years had been conditioned by intense reliance on OPEC oil imports. We are literally living through the first decade in our lifetimes that America can be said to have leverage over Middle Eastern countries, not vice versa, as the marginal producer of crude oil. This not only allows America not to rely on OPEC imports continuing at past levels to meet our energy needs, but also allows us to have the economic opportunity to serve global markets with our newfound production capacity.

Warrens having none of it, though, economic benefits and national security be damned: I support re-imposing limits on crude oil exports and I opposed lifting the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil, Warren boasted to the liberal CNN Climate Town Hall audience in September. She opposes construction of new liquefied-natural-gas terminals and has consistently opposed exporting oil and gas in any form. That America is a cleaner producer of these needed fossil fuels than the other producers global customers will inevitably buy from otherwise seems not to matter to Warren.

And Warrens opposition to extracting that oil and gas is no more intense than when the drilling is on public land, which will be discussed in Part II tomorrow.

More from National Review
India's 71st Republic day celebrations in the United States on Sunday were marred by protests and marches, albeit peaceful ones, against recent changes in the citizenship law by large number of Indian Americans in various cities of the country.

IMAGE: Protesters rally against India's new citizenship law during a demonstration in Houston, Texas, US. Photograph: Go Nakamura/Reuters

Among Indian Americans, the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, however, also had a fair share of its supporters who sought to counter protesters by asserting that India cares for Neighbouring Minorities and CAA Won't Impact Indian Citizens.

The supporters, however, appeared to be outnumbered by protesters, who held peaceful rallies and marches in various US cities, carrying anti-CAA banners and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanding CAA's repeal and revocation of the proposed National Register for Citizens.

They raised the demand ruing that India's secular fabric is under threat.

In some of the cities, particularly New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and San Francisco having Indian consulates, and at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, the protesters shouted slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Hindu, Muslim Sikh, Isai: Aapas Mein Saab Bhai Bhai.

The largest gathering of anti-CAA protestors was reported from Chicago where Indian Americans gathered in large numbers and formed several mile-long human chain.

In the American capital of Washington DC, more than 500 Indian Americans marched from a park near the White House to the Gandhi Statue in front of the Indian Embassy.

IMAGE: The protesters shouted slogans like 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Hindu, Muslim Sikh, Isai: Aapas Mein Saab Bhai Bhai'. Photograph: Go Nakamura/Reuters

The anti-CAA protests in at least 30 US cities were organised by recently formed Coalition to Stop Genocide, comprising several organisations like Indian American Muslim Council, Equality Labs, Black Lives Matter, Jewish Voice for Peace and Hindus for Human Rights.

The brutal crackdown by government in India on anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests has created a situation in which women in large numbers have come out on streets to challenge the divisive-communal-fascist agenda of the government," Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey said, addressing a gathering in Washington DC.

It gives hope that democracy and the Constitution can ultimately be saved by the common people from a government which is bent upon destroying them," he said.

IAMC president Ahsan Khan said from the Bay Area in California, the rally of Indian Americans represents an extension of the massive unrest in India against the ruling BJP government for its relentless attacks against the secular Constitution.

"Indian Americans and people of conscience in the US are seeking accountability from the Hindu nationalist regime that wants to turn Indian Muslims into foreigners and render them stateless, said Khan after the rally in San Francisco.

"Protests happening not only in India but around the world represent a global consensus against the draconian policies of the Modi-Shah government," said Dr Shaik Ubaid from New York.

All Indians are equal citizens and that is the foundational social contract between the Indian nation and its citizens," said Minhaj Khan from New Jersey.

"Breaking this contract has grave implications for the future of India as a country, he added.
The death toll of Mississippi prisons has risen to eleven already since the beginning of the year following a spate of violence at the end of December and beginning of this month when three men were killed and dozens wounded in a week of rioting at the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm.

Since December 29, eleven inmates have died in Mississippi prisons, many of them in one week during what prison official have claimed is a gang war among inmates, but prisoners have insisted was instigated by the prison guards who are themselves gang members.

Two inmates died this week at Parchman from injuries sustained by hanging, in what Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) officials declared to be an apparent suicide in the case of the prisoner found dead on Wednesday and cause yet to be determined pending an autopsy for the man who died Saturday morning. As of this writing, neither man has been identified.

In both cases, the men were being held in cells in the crumbling Unit 29 at Parchman Farm. Unit 29 was deemed unsafe this month by MDOC, with no power and no running water in many cells and black mold taking over the facility. While 375 inmates have been moved out of the decrepit unit, some 625 have been left to rot, while others have been moved to a section known as Unit 32, which was previously condemned in 2010 over the same conditions.

Parchman is Mississippis only maximum-security prison for men, and Unit 29, which opened in 1980, has been used to house the states death row inmates.

Prior to the two suicides last week, two prisoners were killed by blunt force beatings on January 20, according to official statements. MDOC has identified the victims as 35-year-old Timothy Hudspeth and 36-year-old James Talley; both were serving nearly ten-year sentences for felony possession of a firearm. The men were pronounced dead at the facility following an altercation with other inmates, according to prison officials.

This month alone, Parchman has had seven inmate deaths, including three killed by other prisoners, one of natural causes and three apparent suicides. The most recent deaths have been called isolated incidents and are not, according to officials, related to gang reprisals or targeted assassinations. Republican Governor Tate Reeves tweeted in response to the most recent killings, We have been working around the clock with MDOC and DPS to respond immediately and prevent this going forward.

Prisoners who had contraband cell phones were able to send photos and videos of the bloodstained walls and squalid conditions of the prison during the chaos that reigned in the first few days of the year. Benny Ivey, a prisoner advocate and former Mississippi prison inmate, told the New York Times, This was gang violenceits the fact of the matter, he added. But also the fact of the matter, if you aint treated like animals, you wont act like an animal. Theyre people, man. Theyre our loved ones. They are our brothers, our uncles, our daddies, our grandfathers.

While a lockdown that affected prisons across the state has mostly been lifted, the inmates at Parchman continue to be subjected to extra security.

Gang violence and interpersonal conflicts among prisoners cannot be solely blamed for the spate of deaths and injuries that have plagued the Mississippi state prison systems in recent years. Budget cuts combined with brutal management have created a degraded environment of violence and desperation.

Mississippi has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country while its prisons are notorious for their abuses and unsafe conditions. Unfortunately, this is another chapter in what is a history of mismanagement and neglect that have infected the Mississippi prison system for decades, said Eric Balaban, of the ACLUs National Prison Project.

In June of last year, a Mississippi State Department of Health inspection report revealed poor conditions throughout Parchman penitentiary. Many cells were reported as having no power or no pillows or mattresses, often lacking in all three basic necessities. Showers contained black mold and across the prison there was a lack of hot and cold water. Dead flies and bird nests were found in prison cells and living spaces and food preparations were in dire and unsanitary condition. The report was released within days of the violence that led to three deaths at that very facility.

Parchman, a storied and infamous prison, has been known for decades for its brutal and racist treatment of prisoners. The prison, with its historic use of chain gangs and other dehumanizing punishments, has been the subject of many blues songs as well as references in cinema and historic fiction since it began operating in the early 20th century. Indeed, for much of its history Parchman functioned as a working farm employing prisoners as essentially slave laborers.

The ACLU has been pursuing cases against Parchman for decades, including notable cases in 2002 and 2003 against the conditions of the prisons death row, where temperatures reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the sweltering summer heat. Leaky roofs and poorly maintained infrastructure combined with easily accessed contraband and drugs have led to multiple deaths in recent decades from drug overdoses and illnesses.

Prison reform activists have been protesting for nearly a year against the Mississippi correctional system, Parchman penitentiary in particular, for prisoner mistreatment and chronic understaffing across the entire state. In the last two years, dozens of inmates have died in Mississippis prisons and in 2018 the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center brought a lawsuit against the state for abuses and mismanagement at the Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility.

More recently, hip-hop artists Jay-Z and Yo Gotti filed a lawsuit on behalf of prison inmates against Mississippi prison officials. The lawsuit alleges that the spate of deaths in the first week of this year are a direct result of Mississippi's utter disregard for the people it has incarcerated and their constitutional rights," and that the prisons are criminally underfunded and understaffed, creating an environment prone to violence.
The Greater Generation was a conscious retort to decades of boomer bashing. Hating boomers, Steinhorn recalls, had become the last acceptable prejudice. When I was writing that book, everyone was blaming boomers for every ill that was going on in society. NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, who famously lionized the Greatest Generation that fought World War II, had written in Newsweek that boomers seem to have forgotten the example of their parents who made extraordinary sacrifices and never whined or whimpered. First deemed too selfish to have kids, then too involved in their kids lives, overly relativistic in their morals, then moralizing in their political correctness, boomers have been a pinata for cultural critics, Steinhorn says. He wanted to publish a corrective to these narratives.
It has never been safer to fly on commercial airlines, according to a new study by an MIT professor that tracks the continued decrease in passenger fatalities around the globe.

The study finds that between 2008 and 2017, airline passenger fatalities fell significantly compared to the previous decade, as measured per individual passenger boardings  essentially the aggregate number of passengers. Globally, that rate is now one death per 7.9 million passenger boardings, compared to one death per 2.7 million boardings during the period 1998-2007, and one death per 1.3 million boardings during 1988-1997.

Going back further, the commercial airline fatality risk was one death per 750,000 boardings during 1978-1987, and one death per 350,000 boardings during 1968-1977.

The worldwide risk of being killed had been dropping by a factor of two every decade, says Arnold Barnett, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scholar who has published a new paper summarizing the studys results. Not only has that continued in the last decade, the [latest] improvement is closer to a factor of three. The pace of improvement has not slackened at all even as flying has gotten ever safer and further gains become harder to achieve. That is really quite impressive and is important for people to bear in mind.

The paper, Aviation Safety: A Whole New World? was published online this month in Transportation Science. Barnett is the sole author.

The new research also reveals that there is discernible regional variation in airline safety around the world. The study finds that the nations housing the lowest-risk airlines are the U.S., the members of the European Union, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. The aggregate fatality risk among those nations was one death per 33.1 million passenger boardings during 2008-2017.

For airlines in a second set of countries, which Barnett terms the advancing set with an intermediate risk level, the rate is one death per 7.4 million boardings during 2008-2017. This group  comprising countries that are generally rapidly industrializing and have recently achieved high overall life expectancy and GDP per capita  includes many countries in Asia as well as some countries in South America and the Middle East.

For a third and higher-risk set of developing countries, including some in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the death risk during 2008-2017 was one per 1.2 million passenger boardings  an improvement from one death per 400,000 passenger boardings during 1998-2007.

The two most conspicuous changes compared to previous decades were sharp improvements in China and in Eastern Europe, says Barnett, who is the George Eastman Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In those places, he notes, had safety achievements in the last decade that were strong even within the lowest-risk group of countries.

Overall, Barnett suggests, the rate of fatalities has declined far faster than public fears about flying.

Flying has gotten safer and safer, Barnett says. Its a factor of 10 safer than it was 40 years ago, although I bet anxiety levels have not gone down that much. I think its good to have the facts.

About the Study

Barnett is an expert in the field of aviation safety and risk, whose work has helped contextualize accident and safety statistics. Whatever the absolute numbers of air crashes and fatalities may be  and they fluctuate from year to year  Barnett has sought to measure those numbers against the growth of air travel.

To conduct the current study, Barnett used data from a number of sources, including the Flight Safety Foundations Aviation Safety Network Accident Database. He mostly used data from the World Bank, based on information from the International Civil Aviation Organization, to measure the number of passengers carried, which is now roughly 4 billion per year.

In the paper, Barnett discusses the pros and cons of some alternative metrics that could be used to evaluate commercial air safety, including deaths per flight and deaths per passenger miles traveled. He prefers to use deaths per boarding because, as he writes in the paper, it literally reflects the fraction of passengers who perished during air journeys.

The new paper also includes historical data showing that even in todays higher-risk areas for commercial aviation, the fatality rate is better, on aggregate, than it was in the leading air-travel countries just a few decades in the past.

The risk now in the higher-risk countries is basically the risk we used to have 40-50 years ago in the safest air-travel countries, Barnett notes.

Barnett readily acknowledges that the paper is evaluating the overall numbers, and not providing a causal account of the air-safety trend; he says he welcomes further research attempting to explain the reasons for the continued gains in air safety.

In the paper, Barnett also notes that year-to-year air fatality numbers have notable variation. In 2017, for instance, just 12 people died in the process of air travel, compared to 473 in 2018.

Even if the overall trendline is [steady], the numbers will bounce up and down, Barnett says. For that reason, he thinks looking at trends a decade at a time is a better way of grasping the full trajectory of commercial airline safety.

On a personal level, Barnett says he understands the kinds of concerns people have about airline travel. He began studying the subject partly because of his own worries about flying, and quips that he was trying to sublimate my fears in a way that might be publishable.

Those kinds of instinctive fears may well be natural, but Barnett says he hopes that his work can at least build public knowledge about the facts and put them into perspective for people who are afraid of airplane accidents. The risk is so low that being afraid to fly is a little like being afraid to go into the supermarket because the ceiling might collapse, Barnett says.

Topics Trends Commercial Lines Business Insurance Pricing Trends Aviation
Chinese health officials say the new strain of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) transmits from wild animals to humans. More than 2,000 people had been infected globally with a deadly coronavirus, with health government around the area scrambling to save you a pandemic.

Authorities in China have placed at least 20 towns on lockdown as they battle to contain the spread. Travel restrictions were imposed in towns throughout Hubei province, where the outbreak originated. Wholesale closure of transportation infrastructure has taken place throughout the region, affecting the movement of at least 36 million people.

Where did it start?

The outbreak is targeted in the town of Wuhan - a city of 11 million and the capital of Hubei province in China. Infections were showed in every China's territory, apart from the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Tianjin.

Efforts have begun to construct a 1,000-bed hospital in a matter of days to relieve pressure on current Wuhan medical facilities overwhelmed with patients. There have additionally been reports of empty supermarket cabinets and barricades going up.

The latest official figures placed the wide variety of cases in China at 2,051, and 56 human beings have died. According to the South China Morning Post, five human beings have additionally been identified with the virus in Hong Kong.

Cases spread to France, Australia, Canada and the US

France identified three cases. Authorities say two of the three infected humans belong to the same family. One of the sufferers, a 48-yr-old man, passed through Wuhan. He was in contact with approximately ten people before he was taken into care.

Australia recorded three sufferers in New South Wales and one in Victoria have been identified with the virus.

Canada stated it located its first case - a person is his 50s who these days flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou and then directly to Toronto.

Other Asian countries also affected by the virus

Malaysia announced its first four cases. The first three patients were all are Chinese nationals on holiday from Wuhan who arrived in the country from Singapore days earlier. The fourth patient arrived in Johor Baru through a bus trip from Singapore on Jan 22.

Japan's health government in Japan - a destination for many lunar new year holidaymakers - confirms at least three cases as of Friday.

Singapore has tallied at least four cases: A 66-year-old man and his 37-year-old son, who arrived in Singapore on Monday from Wuhan, a 52-yr-old Wuhan woman, who came in the country- on Tuesday, and a 36-yr-old man from Wuhan who sought remedy on 24 January and is currently isolated.

South Korea's authorities confirmed its third case. Two instances were confirmed in Vietnam. Thailand's public health ministry has confirmed five cases. Taiwan has reported three cases and Macao two.

How extensively did Sars unfold in 2003?

Comparisons have drawn 2019-nCoV with the Sars outbreak in 2003, which was similarly as a result of a coronavirus. The Wuhan coronavirus, like Sars and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-cove), spreads through the respiratory tract. China was criticized for how it managed Sars as it "played down" their first cases. The virus spread to 37 countries, causing worldwide panic, infecting nearly 8,500 human beings and killing almost 1,000.
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Francois Bozize, a former president of the Central African Republic who is under UN sanctions over the countrys long-running conflict, said Monday he could contest presidential elections in December.

In his first interaction with journalists after returning from exile in Uganda in mid-December, Bozize did not spell out if he would be a candidate but stressed that he could not be barred from the top job.

Nothing prevents me from being a candidate according to official texts. That depends on my party. Its the party congress which designates candidates, he said.

Bozize, a Christian, took power following a 2003 coup before being overthrown 10 years later by Michel Djotodia, head of the mainly Muslim Seleka rebellion in the predominantly Christian country.

Vicious sectarian violence ensued between the Seleka and vigilante militias dominated by Christians and animists known as the anti-Balaka, forcing nearly a fourth of the countrys 4.7 million population out of their homes.

The United Nations imposed sanctions against Bozize and CAR issued an international arrest warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity for allegedly stoking the violence.

The events concerning the anti-Balaka happened during my absence and everyone knows that, Bozize said, adding that he would ask the UN to review the sanctions against him.

Now the situation has evolved considerably and it doesnt seem to me to be fair that I should be subjected to these sanctions forever.

More than two-thirds of the former French colony is still under the control of armed rebel groups fighting over its rich mineral resources.

Bozize said he had returned in a spirit of apeasement and asked for forgiveness . for all the mistakes committed by me.

On January 14, Bozize met with current President Faustin Archange Touadera, who may seek re-election.

Djotodia, the man who ousted Bozize, has also recently returned to CAR, setting the stage for high-stakes political chess ahead of the December elections.

Djotodia remains the political head of the CARs main armed rebel group, the Popular Front for the Rebirth of the Central African Republic (FPRC).

The group maintains control over the northeast of the country with violence including killings, looting and rapes, according to Lewis Mudge, Human Rights Watchs CAR director.

The run-up to the elections is thus potentially explosive in a country still embroiled in a conflict despite a relative calm since a peace accord was signed in Khartoum last February.
Probe opened into man giving up sons at Moscow airport

 flickr.com/alx_grv

15:47 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  A criminal case has been opened against a resident of Russias Khabarovsk Krai who had given two his sons up at Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport, the Investigative Committees press service reports.

Two boys born 2011 and 2014 were found in the airports building on Sunday. Their documents and fathers letter asking to temporarily place the children in an orphanage because of his financial problems were found in the minors bags.

According to investigators, the boys father departed for the city of Rostov. The case is opened against him over child endangerment.

Investigation is ongoing. The minors have been placed in a hospital.
As the sun began to set at Jackson County Park on Monday evening, emergency workers  dozens of them  were still searching the debris left behind by a fire that killed eight people.

It could take several days to confirm the identities of the victims, determine what caused the fire and clean up the debris, said Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus.

This is absolutely devastating, Necklaus said. "In my experience, (its) one of the most devastating things Ive ever seen.

Fire fighters were called around 12:40 a.m. Monday to the marina in Scottsboro, about 45 miles east of Huntsville.

Seven people were rescued from the water and taken to a hospital for treatment. Necklaus said they werent seriously injured. Most were suffering symptoms of hypothermia because of the cold water conditions.

This is a look at the dock that caught fire. About 35 boats were destroyed, Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus told me. pic.twitter.com/bcGZq9S7Y5  Ashley Remkus (@aremkus1) January 27, 2020

The survivors recalled the harrowing sounds of people screaming and wood crackling.

Georgia resident Michael Watson said his aunt lived with her husband and five children on one of the boats that burned. He said his aunt was confirmed among the dead. Officials have not released the names of any of those killed.

The brother of another fatality victim told AL.com that he appreciated the prayers and support their family has received. The man, who survived of the fire that killed his brother, said he wasnt ready for a formal interview because of the trauma he experienced.

Light rain fell at the scene Monday morning as Phillip Pace Jr., who was also rescued from the water, recalled what happened. Pace, of Trussville, was staying on a boat for a duck hunting trip with friends. He said he heard cracking sounds before seeing the blaze on the dock.

You could hear people screaming, he said in an interview with AL.com.

After trying to move others to safety, Pace said, he and his friends got onto a boat and moved away from the blazing dock. But their boat caught fire when it collided with a blazing pontoon, he said Thats when, Pace said, he jumped into the water and swam an estimated 60-100 yards before a rescue boat pulled him back to shore.

Tommy Jones, a Jackson County Park marina resident, said he watched helplessly as a small boat containing a woman and her children was engulfed in flames, the Associated Press reported. There was nothing we could do, he said.

Mandy Durham, who was with her boyfriend in a nearby boat, told the Associated Press that they awoke to the sound of screaming and popping noises.

When we woke up, we could see red through the window, Durham said. Within 15 to 20 minutes, the whole dock was in flames. All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and thats a lot of fire.

There were families there, Durham added. Its devastating.

Authorities believe 35 boats were destroyed. Multiple boats sunk, and crews were still working to pull them from the water. As of Monday afternoon, there werent any people listed as missing or unaccounted for, officials said, but as crews remove debris from the water in the coming days, they will check for additional victims.

Julie Jackson, who lives with her husband and son in a houseboat on another dock that did not burn at the marina, said the fire scene was scary.

The worst thing for me is you could hear people screaming for help, and there was nothing we could do," she told the Associated Press. Nobody could do anything to get to them.

It was a challenge for rescuers to reach the victims early Monday, Rocky Harnen, the Jackson County sheriffs chief deputy, told The Associated Press: The damage from the dock has fallen on top of the boats, and some of the boats have drifted off, he said.

The aluminum roof and wood structure of the dock were destroyed along with about three dozen boats. Crews also were using booms in an attempt to contain fuel in the water, he said.

Due to ongoing firefighting/rescue operations, please avoid the areas around Jackson County Park, both land and water, until further notified.  Jackson County Ala. Emergency Management Agency (@JacksonCoAL_EMA) January 27, 2020

Necklaus asked for prayers for the families of the victims and for the community and emergency crews. He said hundreds of people came to the scene to help or support the families and first responders. At least 20 agencies from the local, state and regional level have helped with the case.

The names of the victims werent yet being released, and the cause of the fire remained unknown as of Monday afternoon. Necklaus said his department and local police will work with the State Fire Marshals Office to determine the cause of the fire.

The Associated Press and AL.com reporter Ivana Hrynkiw contributed to this report.
The Minister of Environment, Mohammad Abubakar, has advised Nigerians to stop eating rats for now as 29 deaths cases have been recorded due to Lassa Fever outbreak in the country.

Mr Abubakar gave the advice, while briefing journalists on the ongoing Lassa Fever outbreak in the country on Monday in Abuja.

He said Lassa Fever is transmitted to humans through contact with food or household items contaminated with rodents (rat) urine or faeces.

Nigeria is currently experiencing Lassa fever outbreak in several parts of the country with reported cases of fatalities.

Latest report from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) released on January 25 has it that 195 confirmed cases and 29 deaths have been recorded in 11 states of Nigeria.

Edo, Ondo, Ebonyi, Delta, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, Ogun, Abia, Kano and Enugu.

Out of the confirmed cases, 89 per cent are from Ondo, Edo and Ebonyi states.

It is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness. It can also be transmitted from person to person through contact with blood, urine, faeces and other body fluids of an infected person, he said.

He said it was against this background that the ministry organised the press briefing to respond to the increasing number of Lassa cases across the country and to sensitise the general public on it preventive and control measures.

The ministry is making efforts in collaboration with NCDC and other stakeholders in tackling the Lassa fever scourge.

Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria and often associated with poor sanitary hygiene practices with cases being recorded all year round.

It virus is transmitted by rodents (rats) which can be found in our environment including homes, motor parks, offices and places of worship.

This contributes largely to the risk of spread that occurs in Nigeria and other countries with similar ecological factors.

He said early symptoms are fever, headache, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, sore throat among others.

It is in very severe cases that the patient bleeds from body openings; maturity period of Lassa fever ranges from six to 21 days.

The minister said before the recent outbreak, the ministry had taken proactive measures to improve the overall general sanitation and hygiene situation in the country.

He said the ministry in 2019 established Sanitation Desks in all the 36 states of the country.

Mr Abubakar said these sanitation desk officers were to coordinate sanitation and related activities within their states, liaise with their respective Local Government Environment Departments and report back to the Federal Ministry of Environment.

They are also expected to monitor and report Lassa fever cases and other environmental determinants of diseases to the Federal Ministry of Environment headquarters. The sanitation desks are to be replicated in all 774 LGAs in the country.

The minister said in 2019, the ministry with the support of WHO and in collaboration with NCDC carried out environmental sanitation response activities to Lassa fever outbreak in Edo and Ondo states.

Activities undertaken include rodents control, `deratisation, sensitisation, education of community members on Lassa fever prevention/control measures, premises inspection, distribution of fumigation equipment and chemicals, waste bins and rodent traps.

Mr Abubakar said he had directed all environmental health professionals in the federal, state and local government to immediately re-embark on

massive awareness campaign on the need to keep the environment clean.

They should conduct surveillance of premises to identify rodents, harbourage, destroy/eradicate rodents in homes, commercial and industrial premises.

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Effective pest and vector control services in residential and commercial premises, notably, deratisation of market places and homes among others.

He advised citizens to imbibe good sanitation and hygiene practices and take preventive and control measures that include keeping the environment clean to avoid contact with rodents.

Keeping food away from rodents, storing grains and other food stuff in rodent proof containers, disposing wastes regularly, far away from homes and cooking all foods thoroughly.

Blocking rat hideouts to avoid/stop eating rats as much as possible, washing hands regularly with soap and running water.

(NAN)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Jan 28 (ANI): The Postal department here on Monday released a postal cover to mark the 55 years of the famed Brahmins' Coffee Bar.



Radhakrishna Adiga, the owner of Brahmins' Coffee Bar, said that he feels proud that their service has been recognised.

"In 1965, my late father and mother came here and started this hotel in a garage to run the family. We feel proud that our service has been recognised," Adiga said.

One of the city's best known joints for south Indian snacks, Brahmins' Coffee Bar is especially famous for its chutney, besides their iconic coffee. (ANI)


The National Health Department says while there is no cause for panic with the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus in China, it has beefed up surveillance at the countrys ports of entry.

South Africans are assured that measures are in place to detect, manage and contain any cases of Novel Coronavirus should it come to our shores.

So far, there are no suspected cases reported. However, due to the current risk of importation of inadvertent cases of 2019-nCoV from Wuhan City  China, Port Health authorities have enhanced surveillance of all travellers from Asia, especially China, said Health spokesperson Popo Maja.

Fortunately, OR Tambo and Cape Town International Airports are the only Ports of entry with direct flights from Asia.

On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) China office reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China.

The cause was confirmed as a Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Symptoms include fever and a cough with a few patients presenting with difficulty in breathing and bilateral infiltrates on chest X-rays.

As of the 21 January 2020, 270 cases were confirmed including at least four deaths in Wuhan City in China.

In a bid to keep the virus at bay, South Africa has developed and distributed clinical guidelines and case definitions to doctors and nurses in both the public and the private sectors. These include information on how to diagnosis and respond to a possible 2019-nCoV case.

Provinces have activated outbreak response teams and are on high alert to detect and manage inadvertent cases that may arrive in the country, said Maja.

No restrictions on travel to China

Based on currently available information, the World Health Organisation has not recommended any restriction of travel or trade.

However, the department advises travellers to Wuhan should avoid contact with animals and are encouraged to practice good hand hygiene and cough etiquette in order to reduce the risk of infection with respiratory viruses, said Maja.

The Health Department also urged the following precautionary measures:

Avoiding close contact with people suffering from acute respiratory infections.

Practice frequent hand-washing, especially after direct contact with ill people or their environment.

Avoid visiting markets where live animals are sold.

Travelers with symptoms of acute respiratory infection should practice cough etiquette (maintain distance, cover coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues or clothing and wash hands).

Health practitioners should provide travellers with information to reduce the general risk of acute respiratory infections, via travel health clinics, travel agencies, conveyance operators and at points of entry.

In case of symptoms suggestive of respiratory illness before, during or after travel, the department advised travellers to seek medical attention and share travel history with their healthcare provider.

SA News

Now read: South African stocks hit hard by coronavirus
Brisbane woman Visaya Hoffie lost both her legs in a horrific accident in New York's subway.

A young Brisbane artist has lost both her legs in a horrific freak accident on the New York subway, with her bright pink top contributing to her survival.

Artist Visaya Hoffie is in intensive care  with her mother, Professor Pat Hoffie, by her side  after tripping onto subway tracks earlier this month and being run over by the train's seven carriages.

Ms Hoffie suffered head injuries, fractured vertebrae, and a "sheared" vertebral artery. Both her lower legs were amputated.

Her mother posted an update to social media on January 17 saying Ms Hoffie had undergone multiple operations but no longer required breathing support and was eating and talking.
A school named after a former Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief will prepare students to take entrance examinations and physical tests of the National Defence Academy, Naval Academy and other examinations for entry into the Indian Armed Forces, besides training them to be good citizens who can contribute to the nations development.

Named after RSS former chief Rajendra Singh aka Rajju Bhaiyya, who headed the Sangh from 1994-2000, Rajju Bhaiyya Sainik Vidya Mandir will start functioning from April in western Uttar Pradeshs Bulandshahr district.

The school will run on the pattern of Vidya Bharti institutions run by the RSS. The only objective of this institution is to prepare good citizens who can contribute to the nations development, said Bholendra (who uses one name), a senior RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad functionary in Uttar Pradesh.

Initially, the school will enrol students for Class 6 only but it will later be upgraded up to Class 12. The school will be a completely residential institution. Work on the school is near completion at Khandwaya village in Bulandshahr, the home district of Rajju Bhaiyya who belonged to the neighbouring Banail village.

The school will be run by a trust  Rajpal Singh Jan Kalyan Seva Samiti  named after an ex-soldier who has donated 32 bighas of land for the institution. A former Indian Army officer, Colonel Shiv Pratap Singh, will head the school.

Senior RSS leaders said all infrastructure, including the school building, was ready and applications had been invited for the first batch of 160 students, who will be divided in four sections. Registrations will remain open till February 23 and the entrance examination will be held on March 1.

Preparing students for the army will not be the only focus, Bholendra said. It will have a dress code for both teachers and students. Students will have to wear dark-blue trousers and light-blue shirts.

For teachers, there will be grey trousers and white shirts. The school will reserve eight seats for the children of army personnel and other defence forces killed in the line of duty.

Apart from this, there will be no reservation of any kind in the school, which will follow the curriculum of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Applications will be invited from students for admission. Forms will also be available online for the convenience of parents. For entrance test, two centres, one each in New Delhi and Agra, will be set up, said Shiv Kumar Saini, the school chairman.

Mahendra Pratap Singh, an RSS functionary who is caretaker of the school, said locals wanted a school in the name of the late RSS chief.

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Kolkata/IBNS: Maintaining her firm stand against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying no one was the ruling party's "bonded labour".

Addressing the leaders of her party Trinamool Congress (TMC)'s students' wing Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), Banerjee also urged the students to hit the streets to make people understand why the CAA and NRC are not favourable in a much similar manner in which the BJP is functioning in the state.

"If you go to the streets or tea stalls or restaurants, you will have to make people understand (why CAA, NRC are not favourable). We are not bonded labours. We are the people of India," said the TMC supremo at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here.

Also Banerjee asked the students to hold a door-to-door campaign against the CAA and NRC at a time the BJP is undertaking a similar campaign in favour of the new contentious citizenship law which aims to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain but not Muslim refugees who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015.

Agreeing to the demands of West Bengal's opposition parties, Congress and Left, the TMC government on Monday will pass an anti-CAA resolution in the state assembly making West Bengal the fourth state to take such a step.

Left-ruled Kerala, Congress-ruled Punjab and Rajasthan have already passed resolutions against the CAA in their respective state assemblies.

Image Credit: IBNS File
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The coronavirus death toll has skyrocketed to eighty, with 24 new fatalities reported at the outbreak's epicentre in Wuhan in China and nearly 400 new cases - as experts warn it can spread before symptoms show.

Speaking at a press conference this morning, health minister Ma Xiaowei said 'it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger' and that it can be passed from person-to-person during its 14-day incubation period.

Total confirmed cases of the virus nationwide rose sharply to 2,744, and while there were no new deaths confirmed outside of Hubei, the national tally of verified infections rose by 769, around half of them in Hubei, the National Health Commission said.

It said 461 of those infected were in serious condition. China has locked down Hubei in the country's centre, an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people and intended to slow transmission of the respiratory virus.

The previously unknown contagion has caused global concern because of its similarity to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pathogen, which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

Drastic travel restrictions have been imposed outside the epicentre, with Shandong province and four cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Tianjin - announcing bans on long-distance buses entering or leaving.

The move will affect millions of people travelling over the Lunar New Year holiday, which authorities said would be extended while the government works to contain the virus.

Medical staff wearing clothing to protect against the coronavirus walk outside a hospital in Wuhan, which was where the infection broke out

Members of the media have their temperature checked before attending a news conference by the State Council Information Office about the outbreak of the new coronavirus in Beijing

A woman wearing a protective facemask returns from a market in Wuhan which is on lock-down following the spread of cornnavirus

This map shows all the areas where coronavirus has been identified so far, including Canada

The announcement before a packed briefing hall of face-masked reporters sparked concern in Britain, where cases of the disease are likely.

More than 2,000 people have now been infected worldwide and 80 have been killed in China, as top scientists from British universities provided snap reaction to the news coronavirus is contagious during incubation.

Professor Paul Hunter, at The Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia said: 'If person to person spread from people without symptoms became common then this would be extremely worrying. It would also be very surprising.

'The consensus from the SARS outbreak was that only patients with symptoms spread the infection.

The populous southern province of Guangdong, Jiangxi in central China, and three cities made it mandatory for residents to wear face masks in public.

Originating in Hubei's capital of Wuhan, the virus has spread throughout China and across the world - with cases confirmed in around a dozen countries including as far away as the United States.

'Patients with influenza can transmit the infection before becoming ill but only for a day at most before symptoms develop.

'The primary way that coronaviruses are spread is by aerosols generated by coughs and sneezes.'

'By definition once a patient is coughing and sneezing they have already developed symptoms.

'A description of the early cases suggest that on the current outbreak affected patients are less likely report upper respiratory symptoms such as sore throats and runny noses which may even reduce the risk of person to person spread early in the illness.'

And Professor Sheila Bird, Honorary Professorship at Edinburgh University's College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine said: 'If transmission does occur pre-symptoms or is suspected to do so, at some point soon-ish it may be instructive and important for the Chinese health authorities to try to measure within-household transmission, taking account of household size and ages of members of the household.

'Little has been said as yet about the estimated fatality-rate for patients whose clinical course is completed (ie recovered alive, or deceased) but I'm sure that public health official know how important it is to do so  even if only for hospitalized cases in the first instance.'

It comes as the mayor of the disease-plagued city Zhou Xianwan said officials are stepping up construction of specialised hospitals to deal with infection victims.

An ambulance driver, wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly SARS-like virus which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan

Top health official Gao Fu (pictured) said the coronavirus was 'not as powerful' as the SARS outbreak which rocked China in 2003

Medical team members heading to Wuhan to reinforce hospitals fighting the coronavirus outbreak prepare to board the train at Nanjing South Railway Station in Nanjing City

Tourists from an Air China flight from Beijing wear protective masks as they arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France, which has confirmed three cases

Beijing's health minister assured face-masked reporters that authorities have cranked up efforts to stop the spread of disease after conceding their knowledge of how it mutates is limited.

Ma Xiaowei said 'it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger' and added that the administration will continue to curb transport links and scrap planned public gatherings.

More than 2,000 people have now been infected worldwide and 80 have been killed in China, sparking President Xi Jinping to yesterday issue an unprecedented warning of a 'grave situation'.

Yet top health official Gao Fu said the coronavirus was 'not as powerful' as the SARS outbreak which rocked China in 2003, although it is becoming more contagious.

While SARS-infected people were only contagious when their symptoms were showing, coronavirus victims can infect others during their incubation period which can be up to 14 days.

Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Gao Fu speaks during a State Council Information Office press conference

Professor Paul Hunter, The Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia said: 'If person to person spread from people without symptoms became common then this would be extremely worrying. It would also be very surprising'

Professor Sheila Bird, Honorary Professorship at Edinburgh University's College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and formerly Programme Leader at MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge

Medical staff wearing clothing to protect against the coronavirus walk outside a hospital in Wuhan, which was where the infection broke out

Members of the media have their temperature checked before attending a news conference by the State Council Information Office about the outbreak of the new coronavirus in Beijing

Casting a large shadow over this morning's press conference was a video of nurse battling the outbreak who claimed the government is playing down the volume of the infections and said the true figure is 90,000.

But regime authorities batted back accusations of a cover-up and insisted it had 'followed the principles of openness and transparency' since the coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, Hubei province, last week.

And in a move to further project transparency, they announced daily press briefings on the threat posed by the virus starting tomorrow.

Can tourists still travel to China? Flights to and from the China are still available, but tourists will be hamstrung in their ability to travel. The UK Foreign Office has advised against all travel to the Hubei province where the coronavirus spawned. The eastern city of Wuhan is under lock-down and the government has enforced an effective travel ban. Four cities - including Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern province of Shandong - announced bans on long-distance buses from entering or leaving their borders. Cruise operators including Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Costa Cruises said they had cancelled a combined 12 cruises that had been scheduled to embark from Chinese ports before Feb 2. Many cinemas across China were closed with major film premieres postponed. Shanghai Disneyland, which expected 100,000 visitors daily through the holiday period, has already closed. Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of these efforts. Advertisement

Ma said he has 'maintained close communication with the World Health Organisation' and invited inspectors to examine the country's response.

He also revealed Beijing is sharing information with other nations after the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France and Canada all confirmed cases.

As governments in China, Britain and around the world double down efforts fend off the virus:

Home Secretary Priti Patel did not deny UK plans to airlift stranded British nationals in quarantined Wuhan;

Shanghai became the latest Chinese city to halt long-distance bus services over contagion fears;

The Chinese government ordered a temporary ban on the trade in wild animals fearing the virus spawned in a food market;

Health authorities in China said it was suffering a protective suit shortage and was importing stock from other countries;

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was working with Chinese authorities to arrange a charter flight for any Japanese nationals who wish to return from Wuhan;

Hong Kong closed Disney land over fears it could spread the virus;

Paris-based Chinese associations have cancelled a Lunar New Year parade following the coronavirus epidemic, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Sunday;

A patient in California's Orange County was Saturday confirmed as the third person on US soil infected with the new deadly virus.

Ma's insistence of transparency came after the unnamed woman's warning from the heart of the outbreak.

Top scientists from British universities provided snap reaction to the news coronavirus is contagious during incubation. Professor Paul Hunter, at The Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia He said: 'If person to person spread from people without symptoms became common then this would be extremely worrying. It would also be very surprising. 'The consensus from the SARS outbreak was that only patients with symptoms spread the infection. 'Patients with influenza can transmit the infection before becoming ill but only for a day at most before symptoms develop. 'The primary way that coronaviruses are spread is by aerosols generated by coughs and sneezes.' 'By definition once a patient is coughing and sneezing they have already developed symptoms. 'A description of the early cases suggest that on the current outbreak affected patients are less likely report upper respiratory symptoms such as sore throats and runny noses which may even reduce the risk of person to person spread early in the illness.' Professor Sheila Bird, Honorary Professorship at Edinburgh University's College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine She said: 'If transmission does occur pre-symptoms or is suspected to do so, at some point soon-ish it may be instructive and important for the Chinese health authorities to try to measure within-household transmission, taking account of household size and ages of members of the household. Professor Wendy Barclay, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London 'Many of the respiratory viruses that spread amongst humans do transmit even in the absence of symptoms, including influenza and other cold viruses. 'They are carried into the air during normal breathing and talking by the infected person. 'It would not be too surprising if the new coronavirus also does this. If this does prove to be the case then controlling the spread does become more of a challenge, and measures like airport screening are unlikely to stem the virus effectively.' 'Little has been said as yet about the estimated fatality-rate for patients whose clinical course is completed (ie recovered alive, or deceased) but I'm sure that public health official know how important it is to do so  even if only for hospitalized cases in the first instance.' Michael Head , Senior Research Fellow in Global Health,Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton 'If 'symptomless spreading' is confirmed, it would not be too surprising. Other respiratory infections such as measles and influenza can both be spread, without the infected person showing symptoms. 'A key factor would be the extent of the person-to-person transmission. If transmission between people is not too extensive, then the impact of symptomless spreading would not be too great. 'If there is significant levels of person to person transmission, this would make containment of the outbreak harder.' Nathalie MacDermott, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, King's College London 'While the suggestion that the (coronavirus) may be contagious during the incubation period, as reported by a doctor in Zhejiang province in relation to a cluster of cases linked to an individual who had yet to show any symptoms, is concerning it is not surprising. 'It is known that several other coronaviruses and respiratory viruses from other virus families can be spread during the incubation period, the period during which a person is infected but has not yet developed symptoms. 'This was taken account of in some of the modelling exercises undertaken by colleagues recently, and was likely given the degree of spread of the outbreak within China. 'There is often the question of whether individuals who may be infected with the virus but never show any symptoms (asymptomatic or subclinical cases) may also be contagious to others.' Advertisement

Speaking in video footage seen online, the unnamed woman says: 'I'm in the area where the coronavirus started. I'm here to tell the truth. At this moment, Hubei province, including Wuhan area, even China, 90,000 people have been infected by coronavirus.'

Despite China being initially praised for its transparency in managing the situation, critics have now claimed that officials are scrubbing the internet of videos that reveal the true situation.

However, the nurse's report has been viewed almost two million times on YouTube. In the footage, she warns people not to go outside and to refrain from celebrating the Chinese New YearShe said: 'I would like to say that everyone who is currently watching this video should not go outside. Don't party. Do not eat out. Once a year, we celebrate Chinese New Year. If you are safe now, you will be able to meet your family again healthy next year.'

Making a desperate plea for supplies, she said: 'We don't care what the government says. I will tell you through social media. Everyone, please donate masks, glasses and clothes to Wuhan.

'Please help us. Please donate disposable goggles, disposable masks and disposable clothing. Currently our resources are not enough.'

Today, the health ministry admitted it needed 100,000 protective suits, but currently only had 13,000 in Wuhan.

It said stock was being reallocated to the crisis-hit region from the country's central reserve, as well as buying suits from other countries.

Horrifying clips have been posted online by shocked citizens only to be deleted shortly after. In one, the sick are seen sitting between drips and oxygen tanks next to three dead bodies covered in white sheets. The footage was deleted from social media channel Weibo.

Last week, in rare public dissent, a senior journalist at a Hubei provincial newspaper run by the ruling Communist Party called for an 'immediate' change of leadership in Wuhan on Weibo. The post was later removed.

The People's Daily, a state-owned newspaper, posted a video of an apparently cured patient flashing the peace sign alongside four medics.

But the Global Times revealed that vital resources, including masks and goggles, were urgently needed.

Critics have also claimed that many health experts who would have been able to warn the government at an early stage of the dangers of coronavirus have been detained or had their research stopped because they were not working within the Chinese state.

The accusations of a cover-up echo the furore surrounding the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in 2002 when the government concealed the existence of the illness not just from the outside world but from its own people.

But Chinese officials told reporters that the new disease was less powerful than SARS - though it was becoming more contagious.

'From what we see now, this disease is indeed...not as powerful as SARS,' said Gao Fu, head of China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, at a press briefing in Beijing.

Taiwan's vice president-elect on Sunday offered help to rival China to fight the new coronavirus outbreak, as authorities in the island further tightened restrictions on visitors from China to prevent its spread.

Taiwan has close economic and cultural links with China and has so far reported four cases of the virus, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province and where most of the 80 deaths to date have been.

But political relations are tense. China has stepped up pressure on Taiwan, which it considers its own territory to be taken by force if needed, including holding military drills near the democratic island.

This month, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide re-election after campaigning on a platform to stand up to China and defend Taiwan's freedoms.

Writing on his Facebook page, however, Tsai's Vice President-elect William Lai said both Taiwan and China had common enemies, including infectious diseases and disasters.

Lai said the spread of the coronavirus in China was an opportunity for cooperation, calling on Beijing to have an 'open attitude' towards accepting international help.

'It is incumbent upon Taiwan to take part, and help China to solve this serious epidemic, so as not to allow it to continue to spread, and that the sick can get appropriate treatment to return to help,' he added, without elaborating on what help Taiwan may be willing to help.
Twelve people including a 15-year-old have been arrested after a drunken Australia Day brawl at a Queensland beach.

Alcohol is being blamed for the violence at Moffat Beach on the Sunshine Coast, with reports suggesting bottles were thrown at police.

Police were called to Eleanor Shipley Park multiple times on Sunday afternoon following reports of anti-social behaviour by a group of teens and adults.

After several hours of disturbances, 12 people were arrested and 26 charges were laid, police said.
ST. LOUIS  A stem cell transplant  also called a bone marrow transplant  is a common treatment for blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Such treatment can cure blood cancers but also can lead to life-threatening complications, including heart problems and graft-versus-host disease, in which new immune cells from the donor attack a patients healthy tissues.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that extremely rare, harmful genetic mutations present in healthy donors stem cells  though not causing health problems in the donors  may be passed on to cancer patients receiving stem cell transplants. The intense chemo and radiation therapy prior to transplant and the immunosuppression given after, allow cells with these rare mutations the opportunity to quickly replicate, potentially creating health problems for the patients who receive them, suggests the research, published Jan. 15 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Among the concerns are heart damage, graft-versus-host disease and possible new leukemias.

The study, involving samples from patients with AML and their stem cell donors, suggests such rare, harmful mutations are present in surprisingly young donors and can cause problems for recipients even if the mutations are so rare as to be undetectable in the donor by typical genome sequencing techniques. The research opens the door to a larger study that will investigate these rare mutations in many more healthy donors, potentially leading to ways to prevent or mitigate the health effects of such genetic errors in patients receiving stem cell transplants.

There have been suspicions that genetic errors in donor stem cells may be causing problems in cancer patients, but until now we didnt have a way to identify them because they are so rare, said senior author Dr. Todd E. Druley, an associate professor of pediatrics.

This study raises concerns that even young, healthy donors blood stem cells may have harmful mutations and provides strong evidence that we need to explore the potential effects of these mutations further.

Transplant physicians tend to seek younger donors because we assume this will lead to fewer complications, said co-author Dr. Sima T. Bhatt, an assistant professor of pediatrics who treats pediatric patients with blood cancers at Siteman Kids at St. Louis Childrens Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. But we now see evidence that even young and healthy donors can have mutations that will have consequences for our patients. We need to understand what those consequences are if we are to find ways to modify them.

The study analyzed bone marrow from 25 adult patients with AML whose samples had been stored in a repository at Washington University. Samples from their healthy matched donors, who were unrelated to the patients, also were sequenced. The donors samples were provided by the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The 25 AML patients were chosen because they each had had samples banked at four separate times: before the transplant, at 30 days post-transplant, at 100 days post-transplant, and one year post-transplant.

Druley co-invented a technique called error-corrected sequencing, to identify extremely rare DNA mutations that would be missed by conventional genome sequencing. Typical next-generation sequencing techniques can correctly identify a mutation that is present in one in 100 cells. The new method, which can distinguish between true mutations and mistakes introduced by the sequencing machine, allows the researchers to find true mutations that are extremely rare  those present in as few as one in 10,000 cells.

The healthy donors ranged in age from 20 to 58, with an average age of 26. The researchers sequenced 80 genes known to be associated with AML, and they identified at least one harmful genetic mutation in 11 of the 25 donors, or 44%. They further showed that 84% of all the various mutations identified in the donors samples were potentially harmful, and that 100% of the harmful mutations present in the donors later were found in the recipients. These harmful mutations also persisted over time, and many increased in frequency. Such data suggest the harmful mutations from the donor confer a survival advantage to the cells that harbor them.

We didnt expect this many young, healthy donors to have these types of mutations, Druley said. We also didnt expect 100% of the harmful mutations to be engrafted into the recipients. That was striking.

According to the researchers, the study raises questions about the origins of some of the well-known side effects of stem cell transplantation.

We see a trend between mutations from the donor that persist over time and the development of chronic graft-versus-host disease, said first author Wing Hing Wong, a doctoral student in Druleys lab. We plan to examine this more closely in a larger study.

Though the study was not large enough to establish a causal link, the researchers found that 75% of the patients who received at least one harmful mutation in the 80 genes that persisted over time developed chronic graft-versus-host disease. Among patients who did not receive mutations in the 80 genes, about 50% developed the condition. Because the study was small, this difference was not statistically significant, but it is evidence that the association should be studied more closely. In general, about one half of all patients who receive a stem cell transplant go on to develop some form of graft-versus-host disease.

The most common mutation seen in the donors and the cancer patients studied is in a gene associated with heart disease. Healthy people with mutations in this gene are at higher risk of heart attack due to plaque buildup in the arteries.

We know that cardiac dysfunction is a major complication after a bone marrow transplant, but its always been attributed to toxicity from radiation or chemotherapy, Druley said. Its never been linked to mutations in the blood-forming cells. We cant make this claim definitively, but we have data to suggest we should study that in much more detail.

Now that weve also linked these mutations to graft-versus-host disease and cardiovascular problems, said Bhatt, we have a larger study planned that we hope will answer some of the questions posed by this one.

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Hyundai Quantum Award; Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award; Eli Seth Matthews Leukemia Foundation; and, Kellsies Hope Foundation.

The Washington University Office of Technology Management has filed a patent application for Ultra-rare Variant Detection from Next-generation Sequencing, which has been licensed by Canopy Biosciences as RareSeq. Druley is a co-inventor on this patent. Canopy Biosciences was not involved in the generation of the data presented.
Aviation Sector Reform

Project Manager (Cat. 2)

1. Objective(s) and linkages to Reforms

A Reform Support Team (RST) at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (MoI) is a group of Ukrainian professionals (non-civil servants) funded on a temporary basis by the donors that provides targeted technical support and assists in the design and implementation of priority reforms. The RST will assist in filling the capacity gaps in the design and implementation of priority reform strategies and programs, while strengthening links and partnerships between the Ministrys priorities and relevant donor support.

RST is funded by the EBRD managed Ukraine Stabilization and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account (MDA). The contributors are: Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The Aviation Transport Reform is focused on:

- Creating attractive aviation market conditions to stimulate new Ukrainian airlines establishment and foreign airlines to enter Ukrainian market

- Regional airports development

- Deregulation and liberalization in the aviation transport sector.

A Senior Project Manager on Aviation Transport is vitally needed to support the Government of Ukraine and in particular MoI in the fulfillment of the reforms.

2. Duration and proposed time frame:

Total duration of current assignment is till 31 March 2020 (with the possibility of the extension to December 2021 subjected to availability of the donor funding), two-month probation period should apply to the successful candidate.

3. Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Developing the aviation transport reform agenda and work planning:

- Assistance in development of Action Plan to the Ukrainian Aviation Transport Strategy until 2030

- Assistance in development and supporting the implementation of infrastructure projects (incl. PPP), including airports concession projects

- Analysis of management system in regional airports and preparing suggestions regarding their efficient administration, e.g. by means of corporatization and/or supervisory boards establishment;

- Contributing to deregulation and liberalization in the aviation transport sector;

- Review of the status, structure and legal aspect of the aviation transport sector organization and management

- Other responsibilities as assigned by the Director

4. Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

4.1 Qualifications and skills:

- Bachelors degree in finance, economics, law, business administration, engineering

- Strong organizational management, communication and presentation skills

- PC literacy (PowerPoint, Project, Excel, Word; Visio is an asset)

- Excellent command of English and Ukrainian, both written and spoken

4.2 General professional experience:

- Preferably more than 10 years of professional experience (minimum 5 years) in project management, public or business administration, business consulting

- Preferably 5 (minimum 3) years of experience in aviation industry

- Experience in the transport sector related entities is an asset

4.3 Specific professional experience:

- Experience in project management, public or business administration, business consulting is an advantage

- Experience with the reform implementation in Ukraine, especially as related to aviation sector and infrastructure is a plus

- Experience with government entities and their mandate and processes is an asset

- Experience in leading multidisciplinary teams is an asset

5. Assignment Value

The estimated monthly value of this consultancy position is in the region of EUR 1,100  1,400. The exact rate will be made by the Recruitment Committee. Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.

6. Submissions

Submissions must be prepared in English only and delivered electronically by 14 February 2020, 11:59 p.m. to the following address: hr.rst.miu@gmail.com

All submissions must include filled Application Form (please find HERE), applicants CV and Reference Letter from a recent supervisor (original in English, or Ukrainian with English translation) together with the contact details for two further referees who, if contacted, can attest to the professional and/or educational background of the candidate.

Only complete submissions, containing the above, can be considered. Selected applicants will be invited to the interview.

7. Selection Procedure

Following the evaluation of all applications received, selected candidates will be invited to a brief written test in Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (Peremohy ave, 14) covering both general and technical questions in both English and Ukrainian. Short-listed candidates will be invited to the interview.
Kelowna International Airport is celebrating the success of its third annual Accessibility Tour for individuals with autism and their families.

More than 70 individuals from 22 families attended the tour, hosted in partnership with the Canucks Autism Network on Sunday, Jan. 26.

The tour offered families the opportunity to walk through the entire pre-flight process, from check-in to boarding, giving more families the freedom to fly.

YLW airport director Sam Samaddar says the best part of the day was watching the reactions of the parents.

"Weve seen families come with their children with a lot of apprehension. and at the end of the process as they go through the check-in process, they go through security, board an airplane... to see those smiling faces for both parents as well as children as they come off the airplane and say "we can do this" - thats really a huge reward for all of us here at the airport.

"At the end of it the goal is that theyll actually book a flight somewhere and theyll be able to travel to Disneyland or see family elsewhere in the country. Thats really what this is all about."

YLW has worked with Vancouver International Airport since 2014, where the program was initially developed.

Local resident and father Brandon says his four-year-old son Alaric had never flown before or been in an airport.

The most exciting aspect of the day was getting Alaric with other kids, says Brandon, and going through the process of entering a confined space on an airplane, or going through security which can be "kind of invasive to a lot of kids that don't normally have to go through that."

"I do fly quite a bit for work so he does see me go in the airplane, so its nice for them to get to see what I do and what I go through."

Families also received resource packs including tools like an activity storybook, a step-by-step checklist, and airport map.

The packs are available for departing travellers any time at the YLW information kiosk.

For more information about YLWs autism accessibility resources, visit ylw.kelowna.ca/autism.
As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv later this week, he has reportedly asked, Do Americans care about Ukraine?

Heres why the answer should be yes: Ukraine is defending itself and the West against Russian attack. If Ukraine succeeds, we succeed. The relationship between the United States and Ukraine is key to our national security, and Americans should care about Ukraine.

Russia is fighting a hybrid war against Ukraine, Europe and the United States. This war has many components: armed military aggression, energy supply, cyber attacks, disinformation and election interference. On each of these battlegrounds, Ukraine is the front line.

For the last seven months, I represented the United States in Ukraine and regularly visited the front line of the military conflict. After its occupation of Crimea, Russia sent its army, security forces, undercover agents, weapons, funding and political instruction into Ukraines southeastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, a region known as the Donbas. The 280-mile line of contact between Russian-led forces and Ukrainian forces has stabilized but has not gone quiet.

To the contrary, the front line in the Donbas region marks the only shooting war in Europe. Every week Russian-led forces kill Ukrainian soldiers  and take casualties in return. During the 12 hours of my last visit, in November, a Ukrainian soldier was killed and another wounded. Since the Russians invaded in 2014, 14,000 Ukrainians have died in this war.

The United States and our allies support Ukraine in this war by providing the Ukrainian armed forces with weapons, training and support. American security assistance to Ukraine regularly receives broad, bipartisan support in Congress; the importance of that assistance to Ukraine  and to U.S. national security  is not at issue.

On the energy battlefield, the Kremlin is trying to bypass Ukraine and increase German and European dependence on Russia by spending billions on an unnecessary underwater natural gas pipeline, a political project without economic justification. In another show of bipartisan political support for Ukraine, Congress late last year passed sanctions on companies attempting to complete the pipeline, forcing a significant delay in the project.

Russias hybrid war is also an information war. Starting at home, Russian media is dominated by the state, leading its citizens to believe they are under threat from a hostile West and convincing them that President Vladimir Putin protects them from corrupt enemies. Russias trolls and internet hackers target Ukrainian, European and American political and social fault lines, exaggerating differences and fomenting dissension. They seek to weaken Western alliances, undermine confidence in democratic institutions, and turn citizens against citizens. We and other NATO allies are working with Ukraine to counter this malign influence.

The Russians interfered in our elections in 2016  but not before interfering in Ukraines elections in 2014, and Britains Brexit referendum earlier in 2016. Because Ukraine is the front line, we assisted the Ukrainian central election commission in its preparations for their 2019 elections to defend against further Russian interference. Their efforts, with our assistance, successfully frustrated Russian attacks.

But the Russian challenge is even broader than hybrid warfare. The Kremlin is attacking the rules that have guided relations among nations since World War II, rules that kept the peace among major European powers for 70 years. With their invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Mr. Putin trashed those rules, spurned international consensus, violated the treaties and principles that even previous Russian and Soviet leaders had respected  even in the breach.

Mr. Putin seems to want to return to the law of the jungle that characterized relations among nations for centuries before 1945, where powerful nations dominated and invaded less powerful nations, where nations established spheres of influence that oppressed neighbors, leading to war and suffering. That was how the Russian Empire and Soviet Union conducted international relations  dominate, control and absorb neighboring lands. A return to jungle rules threatens not just Ukraine and the United States, but global stability itself.

Until Russia withdraws from Ukraine  both Donbas and Crimea  and recognizes that Ukraine is an independent, sovereign nation, other nations cannot be secure. Until Russia recommits to a rules-based international order, Western nations are in jeopardy. Ukraine is the front line.

In an even broader sense, Russias attack on Ukraine and the West is an attack on democracy. The question of how nations govern themselves  democracy versus autocracy  is being fought out among and within nations. Russia, China, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, the Philippines, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria  all are autocracies, all are unfree. In the contest between democracies and autocracies, the contest between freedom and unfreedom, Ukraine is the front line.

To support Ukraine means to support a young democracy, fighting to regain sovereignty over its internationally recognized borders. It is to support a nation that has broken from its troubled past to embrace European and Western values and that seeks to join European and North Atlantic institutions, to defeat post-Soviet corruption, and to give its citizens the chance to prosper in a normal country.

To support Ukraine is to support a rules-based international order that enabled major powers in Europe to avoid war for seven decades. It is to support democracy over autocracy. It is to support freedom over unfreedom. Most Americans do.

Read the original text at The New York Times.
Ministers are due to decide if Chinese tech firm Huawei should be allowed a role in the UKs 5G network (Martyn Landi/PA)

Ministers are due to decide on Tuesday if Chinese tech firm Huawei should be allowed a place in the UKs 5G network infrastructure.

However, the decision is controversial, with the United States pressuring the UK to block Huawei over security fears.

Here is a closer look at the questions around Huawei and its place in Britains 5G networks.

 What is Huawei?

Chinese technology giant Huawei is the worlds second-biggest smartphone manufacturer and one of the worlds biggest suppliers of telecommunications equipment.

It says it is a private company wholly owned by its employees, but questions have been raised about the mechanics of its ownership structure.

It was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, who, before his career in industry, worked in the engineering branch of the Peoples Liberation Army.

Expand Close Ren Zhengfei (right), president of Huawei Technologies, shows Chinese President Xi Jinping around the companys offices in London during his state visit in 2015 (Matthew Lloyd/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ren Zhengfei (right), president of Huawei Technologies, shows Chinese President Xi Jinping around the companys offices in London during his state visit in 2015 (Matthew Lloyd/PA)

 Why is the company controversial?

Huawei has come under scrutiny over allegations of close ties to the Chinese state.

Founder Mr Zhengfeis past links to the military have been cited as a concern, as has Chinas history of state sponsorship and surveillance.

Chinese law can also compel firms to co-operate with Chinese national intelligence work, which some critics have suggested could see Beijing require Huawei to spy on people through so-called back doors in its telecoms equipment.

Huawei has vehemently denied the allegations of any ties with the Chinese state and says it abides by the laws of every country in which it operates.

 Why is Huawei so important to 5G?

Huawei has invested billions of pounds into research and development around 5G network infrastructure and, as a result, is now considered the industry leader in 5G technology.

It is also already part of the existing network infrastructure in a number of countries, including in the UK.

As a result, using one of Huaweis rivals, and most likely alternatives  Ericsson or Nokia  for the building of 5G networks, is likely to cause a delay and add cost to the introduction of widespread 5G in the UK.

In contrast, none of the four largest mobile carriers in the United States use Huawei equipment in their networks.

Expand Close Huaweis UK HQ in Reading, Berkshire (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Huaweis UK HQ in Reading, Berkshire (Steve Parsons/PA)

 How have the UKs allies approached the issue?

The UK is a part of the Five Eyes intelligence network, which also includes the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The US has previously banned Huawei from its government networks, and last year imposed restrictions which limit Huaweis ability to trade with US companies.

The US has publicly urged its Five Eyes allies to do the same, and Australia has also blocked Huawei from its 5G networks.

 What does Huawei say?

Huawei has always denied having ties to the Chinese government, with the companys founder denying that Beijing has ever asked his company to help spy on its clients.

Mr Zhengfei, in an interview last year, said: I love my country. I support the Communist Party. But I will not do anything to harm the world.

He said Huawei had never been asked to share improper information about its partners by the government.

I personally would never harm the interest of my customers, and me and my company would not answer to such requests.

No law in China requires any company to install mandatory back doors.

 What decision is expected from the UK?

Reports suggest the UK will allow Huawei to have a restricted role in 5G, with ministers looking to impose a cap on its market share to prevent over-reliance on its equipment.

An announcement is expected on Tuesday following a meeting of the National Security Council.
The U.S. may expand travel screening at its borders and is closely monitoring 110 people to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus that's killed at least 80 in China and is appearing around the globe from Singapore to Paris.

As of Monday morning, there have been no new U.S. cases after the first five patients were identified in the past week, health officials said on a call with reporters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is spearheading the American response, said it's developed plans for a test that it will share with states in order to more quickly diagnose new cases.

"At this time in the U.S., this virus is not spreading in the community," said Nancy Messonnier, the CDC's director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Officials have been on close watch for cases of so-called secondary transmission, in which original patients who came from China could infect others in the community.

Anxiety is growing amid evidence that the disease has an incubation period of as long as two weeks before those infected start to show symptoms. That raises the possibility that people could travel and eventually infect others before realizing they have the illness. But Messonnier said that so far there has been no clear evidence that the virus can spread during the incubation period before patients have symptoms.

The new coronavirus appears to be less contagious than highly infectious viruses like the measles, she said. Coronaviruses like this one, so named because of their crown-like shape, are generally transmitted by respiratory droplets, she said.

A decision on expanded traveler screening should come within a day, Messonnier said.

Public health officials in China and around the globe have mounted an aggressive attempt to stop the spread of the virus, which can cause a potentially deadly pneumonia-like illness in the most severe cases. While cases in other countries has been limited, Chinese officials said the virus isn't yet under control despite aggressive steps to limit movement for millions of people who live in cities near Wuhan, the center of the outbreak.

The U.S. has five cases, with three confirmed over the weekend: two in Southern California and one in Maricopa County, Arizona. All the patients had recently been in Wuhan and are hospitalized. Their close contacts are being monitored for signs that they may be developing the disease, the CDC said Sunday. Washington state and Chicago earlier had confirmed infections.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Stocks slumped around the globe on fears over the virus, with the S&P 500 Index sliding the most in almost four months. Bonds and gold rallied.

Deaths in China climbed to 80, the National Health Commission said Monday. That's up from only two just over a week ago. There are at least 2,744 confirmed cases on China's mainland, and more than 30,000 people who are under observation.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Wuhan, and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he's heading to Beijing to meet with the government and assess the response.

Last week the WHO declined to label the coronavirus an international emergency, a designation that would have allowed the United Nations agency to begin coordinating government responses.
China on Monday briefed a group of foreign diplomats including Indian officials in Beijing about the containment measures being taken to stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus and the situation of foreigners in the central Chinese province of Hubei and the provincial capital of Wuhan, which is at the epicentre of the outbreak.

In a message circulated among Indian residents who remain in Wuhan, the embassy said that the Chinese authorities had briefed them on the steps taken by them to contain the spread of the virus.

Various options for evacuating foreign nationals from Wuhan and Hubei province were also discussed, the statement added.

ALSO WATCH | Bihar woman who returned from China suspected to have coronavirus

The message circulated in the WeChat social media group for Indians in Hubei said: The Embassy had a meeting with officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China today afternoon. In the meeting, Chinese authorities briefed on the steps taken by them to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, it said.

Various options for evacuating foreign nationals from Wuhan/Hubei province were also discussed. We continue to engage with the Chinese authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian nationals in Hubei province. We will update you when we have more information from the Chinese authorities, the message said.

At present more than 200 Indian students and working individuals are said to be in Wuhan, which is under an unprecedented lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of China and abroad.

Following the sudden lockdown last Thursday, the Indian embassy in Beijing has had to field hundreds of phone calls from worried citizens, asking for clarifications about the situation.

Many complaints were about being stuck in the lockdown city without access to essentials.

Many of the remaining students remain stuck in their university dormitories.

The embassy message said Chinese authorities were ready to help in case of any shortage.

In order to handle any issues regarding food, water and other essential supplies, the Hubei Foreign Affairs Office has also provided two helplines (027-87122256 and 87811173) on which the provincial authorities can be contacted round the clock. You may approach them on issues that you may face there.

However, please also let us know about your concern with specific details so that we are also able to take it up with the authorities in Hubei, the embassy message said.

The Chinese officials, it is learnt, told the foreign diplomats that the essential needs for foreign nationals in Hubei and Wuhan were being looked after.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to queries about the meeting.

More than 90 percent of the virulent Coronavirus cases have been traced to a now-closed seafood and fish market in Wuhan, which also traded in wildlife.

Besides Indians, a large number of Pakistani and Bangladeshi students also study in Wuhan

The US and South Korean governments, which have consulates in Wuhan, have decided to evacuate their nationals from the city by chartered flights.

The South Korean government is expected to fly out the first batch of their citizens from Wuhan on Tuesday.

The Chinese foreign ministry has so far only indirectly confirmed the US plan to evacuate its citizens.

In accordance with international practice and in accordance with relevant Chinese epidemic prevention regulations, China has made corresponding arrangements to provide necessary assistance, the statement said about reports of the US plan.

The evacuation of foreign nationals including Indians from Hubei and Wuhan remain mired in logistical issues especially about not allowing the virus to spread through those being evacuated.

It has been complicated by the fact that an infected person can pass on the virus to another even during the one-day-to-14-day incubation period.

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C130 aircraft on standby for Wuhan evacuation

THAILAND: Up to four C130 planes with medic teams have been put on standby in case Thailand decides to airlift its citizens from Wuhan as the coronavirus outbreak worsened in China.

healthChinesedeathtransportSafetyCoronavirusCOVID-19

By Bangkok Post

Monday 27 January 2020, 10:38AM

A man wearing a protective facemask rides a motorcycle on a street in Wuhan yesterday (Jan 26). Photo: AFP

Air force chief Maanat Wongwat said yesterday (Jan 26) the transport aircraft and medic teams were ready to take off to the Chinese city as soon as the government gives the green light to the evacuation plan.

The air force is ready, ACM Maanat said.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said yesterday the government was considering a plan to help Thai citizens in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

A total of 64 Thais, 54 students and 10 masseuses, are in the capital of Hubei province, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The evacuation was floated after some countries, including the United States, France and Japan, are arranging flights to move their citizens from Wuhan, the first city on lockdown as Chinese authorities tried to contain the outbreak.

Thailands evacuation plan will be clearer when the Rapid Response Centre comprising officials from several agencies holds talks today (Jan 27) at the Foreign Ministry.

The setup of the centre reflects a growing concern after more people in Thailand were suspected of having been infected.

At eight, Thailand has the highest number of infected people after China.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks yesterday made clear that the evacuation plan had not been finalised. All measures to help the Thais in Wuhan will be tabled in the meeting of the centre today, she added.

The death toll of the virus has climbed to 80 and more than 2,700 people have been infected so far with 30,000 reputedly under observation in China.

Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai has ordered Thai diplomats based in China to closely monitor the situation, she added.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  The Des Moines Register just threw Elizabeth Warren a lifeline.

Polls released heading into the final week before the Iowa caucuses almost unanimously show Warren fading into fourth place  both here and in New Hampshire. Finishing behind Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg in both states could effectively end her once-promising candidacy in an eight-day period.

But Warren's allies are hopeful the endorsement from Iowa's largest newspaper will provide a jolt in the Hawkeye State while she's stuck in Washington for most of this week. She and her fellow senators in the presidential field will be confined to the Senate floor rather than campaigning here in the run-up to next Mondays first-in-the-nation tallying of presidential votes.

While the campaign brandished the endorsement in ads across Facebook and Instagram, Warren herself didnt mention it during either of her policy-heavy town halls in Eastern Iowa on Sunday. She was clearly excited about the news, busting a move when staff told her Saturday night.

And there was an uptick of energy at her events, including the final town hall of the weekend at a food-and-craft market in a developing part of this city. She was joined there by Jonathan Van Ness, one of the hosts of Netflix's Queer Eye.

Jonathan Van Ness embraces Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a campaign event, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

This moment in history is our time to choose courage over fear, Warren told a standing-room-only crowd of around 900 people, according to an unverified estimate from her campaign. This moment in history is our time to dream big and fight hard. This moment in history is our time to win!

This weekends roughly 36-hour push by Warren  as much as the Senate schedule would permit  allowed her to fine-tune her closing argument, centered around her electability, gender, and an ideology-crossing focus on ridding Washington of corruption.

In recent weeks, Warren and her campaign have more explicitly tried to tackle the electability question as polls have showed Democrats are less convinced she can beat President Donald Trump in November. Surrogates have pitched her as the candidate who can best unite the party going into the general election because of her appeal to both Biden and Sanders voters.

Story continues

Iowa voters are seeing another pitch on TV. He fears Elizabeth Warren the most, a recently deployed Iowa ad says of Trump, using an audio clip from MSNBCs Lawrence ODonnell. Im Elizabeth Warren, and I approve this message because Im going to beat him.

The backdrop behind her at the Cedar Rapids event spelled it out in plain English: Win With Warren.

Asked at a town hall here why uncommitted Democrats should caucus for her next week instead of Sanders or the other top candidates, she made a case for herself but declined to explicitly criticize the other candidates.

Let me tell you why I think you should caucus for me: I know how to fight, and I know how to win, Warren said. In fact, Im the only person in this race who has beaten an incumbent Republican anytime in the last 30 years.

Electability questions have dogged Warren in part because some voters fear that a woman cant beat Trump after Hillary Clintons 2016 loss. Warren is attempting to defuse that anxiety by focusing on her own electoral track record and the success of female candidates in the 2018 midterms.

I just want to be clear: Women win, Warren said. I think that one of the questions for everyone is, Ok, I hear it. But how can a woman beat Donald Trump? And the answer lies in what Ive already talked to you about: This is the most corrupt administration in history. Were going to beat Donald Trump by drawing that distinction.

Asked by a reporter after Sundays event here why she is talking about gender and electability more, Warren said: People ask the question. She added: Its important to get it out there. This cant be a hidden question people mask in different ways.

The Des Moines Registers endorsement, along with late support from local elected officials and activists here, are critical backing in a state where she has concentrated her efforts.

Warren has invested more time in Iowa than any other state: 55 days, compared to 32 in New Hampshire, 17 in South Carolina, and 12 in Nevada, according to the campaigns own tally.

They also hired early and often, embedding organizers in Iowa communities months before rival campaigns. There's no doubt about it  we're running the strongest organizing operation in the state, and our ground game is how we're going to win Iowa, the campaign told supporters in a recent email.

As Warren has plateaued or slumped in the polls in recent weeks, however, the campaign has begun playing down expectations for an Iowa knockout victory and preparing supporters for a protracted fight for delegates through March and April.

We expect this to be a long nomination fight and have built our campaign to sustain well past Super Tuesday and stay resilient no matter what breathless media narratives come when voting begins, campaign manager Roger Lau wrote in a memo last week, pointing to the campaign hiring up robust field teams in later contests over the last several months. At over 1,000 full-time staffers, the campaign likely has the largest operation besides billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who is self-funding his campaign.

Historically, candidates whove earned the Registers endorsement have seen a polling bounce in Iowa, according to the data journalism outlet FiveThirtyEight . But the Register bump hasnt usually resulted in victory: From 1988 through 2012, the Register-endorsed candidate never went on to finish first in the caucuses, a streak that was broken by Hillary Clintons razor-thin victory in 2016.

Alex Thompson reported from Washington.
A KFC branch plagued by violence has taken drastic action by serving customers through a chicken wire fence to protect staff.

The fast food giants restaurant in Chelmsley, Birmingham, has been blighted by violent incidents, with fights regularly breaking out and a woman even vaulting the counter to assault an employee.

The fast-food giant has taken the drastic measure at one of their Birmingham branches after being plagued by a series of worrying incidents in the last 12 months. (SWNS)

Bosses have now opted to install vertical metal bars along the serving counter, with five strips of chicken wire style fencing running between customers and staff.

Management made the move following a series of serious incidents in the KFC branch over the past year.

On a separate occasion, a 16-year-old boy was badly assaulted in the store when he tried to intervene in an argument involving a girl in October.

The notorious Chelmsley Wood restaurant has seen staff members assaulted by intruders who have jumped over the counter as well as several fights breaking out. (SWNS)

The KFC is said to be one of the roughest in Birmingham, with many customers afraid to visit the after dark due to antisocial behaviour.

One customer visiting the store on Sunday, who did not wish to be named, said: "I'm not surprised they've resorted to this. It's moody as anything.

"I'll only come in the daytime as it is all gangs of teenagers come the evenings, its like they have nothing better to do. Its always kicking off around here.

"It looks like chicken wire, which is ironic. It's unsightly too, it has an airport security feel about it."

The KFC is known in the city as one of "Brum's roughest" with many customers afraid to visit the restaurant after dark due to antisocial behaviour. (SWNS)

The wiring - secured by metal bars running from the counter to the roof - was introduced after a female thug assaulted a staff member. (SWNS)

Another customer, Joanne Marshall, 19, a college student, said: "I don't feel unsafe here as there's security staff here but its a bit unnerving to see security barriers at a KFC.

"It's a sign of the times I suppose."

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When asked about the security measures at the branch, one staff member said: "We've had a few problems with fights so its for our safety.

"One of our girls was attacked, people have jumped over the counter before. It's fine most of the time but we've had a few issues, shall we say."

Story continues

Other residents reacted on social media with Graham Bassett saying: "We are now living in a violent society where there is no respect for anything and anybody."

Debbie Riley put on Facebook: "Don't blame them I saw a really nasty safety situation for the staff."

Dan Moore said: "It's the roughest KFC in and around Brum without doubt. Seen loads of trouble in there."

A KFC spokesperson told Yahoo News UK: Were sorry for any issues caused by the barriers, but these have been put up for the safety of our team members.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo
Iraq protesters keep up anti-government rallies despite violence



Baghdad, Jan 26 (AFP) Jan 26, 2020



Thousands of students flooded Iraqi streets Sunday to keep up their anti-government movement despite a crackdown, while rockets landed near the US embassy in Baghdad.

Medical sources told AFP one protester was killed by live fire in the capital Sunday, while another was killed in the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah, as demonstrators defied gunshots and tear gas fired by riot police seeking to shut protest camps.

Activists have worried in recent weeks that their months-long movement demanding a complete overhaul of Iraq's political establishment could be snuffed out.

Stoking those concerns, firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr dropped his support for the protest movement on Friday, after holding an anti-US rally attended by thousands in Baghdad.

But on Sunday, two days after Sadr supporters demanded the departure of some 5,200 American troops from Iraq, a volley of rockets landed near the US embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone, two security sources told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack -- the latest this month to target the high-security zone that is also home to the Iraqi parliament.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi swiftly condemned the attack in a statement, calling it an "aggression" that could "drag Iraq into becoming a war zone".

The statement added that security forces were working to identify the perpetrators and prevent further attacks.

The rocket fire came as thousands of students rallied across the country on Sunday, waving Iraqi flags and holding up two fingers in a victory sign in defiance of security forces who fired live rounds in a bid to clear them.

"Only for you, Iraq!" read a sign held by a young protester in the shrine city of Karbala, hinting at the movement's insistence on not being affiliated with any political party or outside backer.

Violence has resurged in Baghdad and Iraq's Shiite-majority south this week, with more than 15 people killed as anti-government activists stepped up road closures and sit-ins.



- Protesters defiant -



On Saturday, four demonstrators were shot dead as riot police stormed protest camps across the country, according to medics, stoking fears of a broader crackdown.

In Basra, hundreds of students gathered to condemn the riot police's dismantling of their main protest camp the previous day, according to an AFP correspondent.

In Baghdad, university students marched from a campus in the city centre to the main rally area of Tahrir Square.

Riot police fired live rounds and tear gas at clusters of young protesters in the nearby Khallani and Wathba squares, but protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails to keep them back.

At least 17 protesters were wounded, a police source said.

Security forces have stopped short of entering Tahrir Square, where some protesters stood their ground even after many tents were dismantled.

In Nasiriyah, security forces fired live rounds to disperse demonstrators angered by authorities pushing them out of roads around their main protest camp in Habbubi Square.

One protester was killed and least 75 others suffered bullet wounds, while around 100 were impacted by tear gas in brief skirmishes, a medical source said.

The youth-led protests erupted on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption before spiralling into calls for a government overhaul after they were met with violence.

Protesters are now demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

Their voices have been heard by top UN envoy in Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert who has said: "Unaccountability and indecisiveness are unworthy of Iraqi hopes, courageously expressed for four months now."

"While death and injury tolls continue to rise, steps taken so far will remain hollow if not completed," she said Saturday.

More than 470 people have died, a vast majority of them demonstrators, in protest-related violence since the rallies erupted.



- Sadr drops support -



The defiant demonstrations on Sunday came despite Sadr's withdrawal of support for the movement.

The notoriously fickle militia leader-turned-politician initially backed the protests and called for the government's resignation, even though he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts.

On Friday, thousands attended the rally he organised in Baghdad demanding US troops withdraw.

After the mass gathering, Sadr said he no longer wanted to be involved in the protest movement.

Analysts said Sadr was striving to both maintain his street credibility and win favour with Iraq's powerful neighbour Iran.

Iran holds tremendous political and military sway in Iraq and will likely have a major say in who will replace Mahdi.

The premier submitted his resignation in December, but has stayed on in a caretaker capacity.

Meanwhile anger at the United States has swelled since an American drone attack near Baghdad airport on January 3 killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and leading Iraqi military official Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
A lawyer for White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney pushed back against reports that he was involved in discussions about holding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations.

John Bolton never informed Mick Mulvaney of any concerns surrounding Boltons purported August conversation with the president, his lawyer, Bob Driscoll, said in a statement (pdf) on Monday. Nor did Mr. Mulvaney ever have a conversation with the president or anyone else indicating that Ukrainian military aid was withheld in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation of Burisma, the Bidens, or the 2016 election.

The statement remarked that the latest story from the New York Times, coordinated with a book launch, has more to do with publicity than the truth.

Furthermore, Mr. Mulvaney has no recollection of any conversation with Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani resembling that reportedly described in Mr. Boltons manuscript, as it was Mr. Mulvaneys practice to excuse himself from conversations between the President and his personal counsel to preserve any attorney-client privilege, according to his statement.

The New York Times reported on a leaked excerpt from Boltons upcoming book, where it claimed Mulvaney was present when Trump spoke with Giuliani, the presidents personal lawyer, about former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was fired last year. The NY Times did not include any excerpts from the book, which was apparently leaked to the press.

But the news report has increased pressure on senators to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of Trump, as Bolton has indicated that he would be willing to testify. On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) again called on Bolton, Mulvaney, and other White House officials to testify.

Trump, on Twitter, wrote that he did not speak to Bolton about withholding aid to Ukraine and suggested the timing of the NY Times report was suspicious.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, wrote Trump. He added: Transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems.

Several Republican senators, meanwhile, have told media outlets that they are willing to vote to compel testimony following the NY Times report on Boltons book.

From The Epoch Times
During the nations 2008-2009 financial crisis, the company sought to restructure. In April 2009, it sold its wholesale business and the Papyrus brand and related trademarks to American Greetings. In return, it acquired American Greetings retail business, which included more than 500 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 22:19:46|Editor: huaxia

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WUHAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday said the government will send 2,500 more medical workers including nurses within two days to Wuhan to help the city battle the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of a leading group of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak, made the remarks during an inspection tour to Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

The premier said 20,000 pairs of protective goggles will arrive in the city on Monday afternoon.

Relevant departments will take multiple measures to ensure the supply of protective gowns, he added.
UK, Bangladesh can lead global climate change efforts: envoy

January 28,2020 | Source: The Daily Star

The United Kingdom wants to build a strong partnership with Bangladesh to lead global efforts to tackle climate change, British High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson said at a discussion at his residence yesterday evening.



The discussion was held to convey the UKs plans for this years UN Climate Change Conference 26 (COP26), to be held in November this year. The UK will host the conference in partnership with Italy.



With the combined expertise and leadership of the two countries, the UK and Bangladesh can raise the worlds ambition [regarding climate change] before and during COP26, seeking global commitment on adapting to climate impacts and building resilience for the future, Chatterton said.



More than 30,000 people are expected to attend COP26, including heads of state and government, experts, and activists. Delegates will focus on efforts to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees of warming.



Asked how the UK can play a strong role after leaving the European Union, DFID country head for Bangladesh Judith Herbertson said Brexit doesnt mean UK will come out of all policies it maintained as part of EU.



Actionaid Country Director Farah Kabir said though Bangladesh is not a big remitter of CO2, it should not continue using fuel sources that contribute to climate change, and that it is time for the country to find alternative energy sources.



Economic Relations Division Additional Secretary Sultana Afroz said it is important for development partners to keep in mind that climate finance should be kept separate from regular development assistance as Bangladesh is a climate vulnerable country.



While the UK is gearing up for the presidency of COP26, Bangladesh is advancing its preparation to lead the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Locally-Led Adaptation Action Track of the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA).



Since 2008, the two countries have jointly helped over 27 million people gain access to disaster warning systems, and provided emergency assistance and recovery support to more than 900,000 people.

 2020 / thedailystar.net

Theme(s): Others.
It might not be enough to blunt the momentum swinging nationally to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. But for Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, high turnout in the Iowa caucuses may be their only chance.

One week from today in Iowa, Warren and Buttigieg will flex their organizational advantages for the first time, and Klobuchar will test the extent of her appeal to rural Democrats. Their prospects are pinned to uncertain turnout models in which Sanders does not dramatically expand his base  and Biden does not consolidate moderate support.

The national conversation seems to be moving past Pete, past Elizabeth, to Bernie and Biden. Thats where I think everythings heading, or returning, said Doug Herman, who was a lead mail strategist for Barack Obamas 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Its kind of a reset back to the beginning of the race.

But if there is high turnout in Iowa, he said, It may help the other candidates: It may be what they need to stay viable.

The Iowa Democratic Party has been preparing for record-breaking turnout for more than a year, driven both by Democrats angst about President Donald Trump and by an unusually large field of candidates  many of them with their own significant, independent turnout operations. The state party chairman, Troy Price, said the party is anticipating more caucus-goers than in 2008, which set a record when 239,000 Democratic voters participated, lifting Obama to victory.

The winner is always whos bringing a bunch of new [voters], said Sue Dvorsky, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman who backed Sen. Kamala Harris before she dropped out of the race.

The difficulty this year, she said, is that new voters could go to any number of different candidates. There literally is no historical analogy here, she said.

Every candidate could see potential advantages in a high-turnout caucus. And the weekend saw each of them working furiously to swell their lanes of support.

Story continues

Sanders, whose effort to mobilize young voters in 2016 helped him nearly upset Hillary Clinton in Iowa, exhorted an overflow crowd in Ames, Iowa on Saturday to bring your friends and your co-workers and your fellow students and your moms and your dads and everybody else out.

Because I will tell you this without a shadow of a doubt, Sanders said. If there is a large voter turnout  if working people and young people come out in large numbers  we will win and win big.

A poll by the The New York Times/Siena College on Saturday put Sanders ahead of the field in Iowa with 25 percent support, followed by Buttigieg at 18 percent, Biden at 17 percent and Warren at 15 percent.

That same day, Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and filmmaker Michael Moore spoke to more than 1,400 people in Ames, according to his campaign. Mentions of Sanders on Twitter from Iowa were up 62 percent in the past two weeks, with a total outpacing every other candidate, according to an analysis conducted for POLITICO by the media intelligence company Meltwater.

If there's a huge voter turnout, you can turn off your TV  Bernie won, Sanders spokesman Mike Casca said in an email.

But Biden still leads Sanders in national polling, and he is running about even with him in Iowa, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average. Large turnout could benefit Biden if Klobuchar, a lower-polling centrist, fails to meet the 15 percent threshold necessary to win delegates in Iowa precincts. Many of her supporters are expected to shift allegiance to Biden if she does not hit that threshold.

If the surge is younger, you have to think it helps Bernie and maybe Warren, said Jeff Link, a Democratic strategist in Iowa. If older Democrats and independents decide its worth participating this time, it probably helps Biden and maybe Buttigieg.

Campaigning with Biden in Iowa on Sunday, Rep. Abby Finkenauer asked every voter she met if they were planning to caucus. For those with children, she queried whether they would bring them along as observers or volunteers.

I cant predict what its going to look like that night, Finkenauer said. Who knows if the weather will have something to do with it. Ive been joking with people [saying], We need to get snow mobiles. I dont know. But things feel really good on the ground here. Folks are engaged and excited.

A senior adviser on Bidens campaign pointed to rural areas of the state, saying a bigger draw there could potentially benefit the former vice president. The person noted that the campaign has targeted Republicans, independents and those who dont identify with any party to participate in the caucus.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden greets supporters as he arrives for a campaign event, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, at the Mary A. Fisk Elementary School in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Because registration is allowed on caucus day, the caucuses could draw independent voters and even some Republicans who are turned off by Trump. Moderate Democrats are actively working to turn out those potential voters.

"Weve been proactive engaging Republicans to participate in the caucus," the adviser said.

Buttigieg is also courting Republicans and independents, while sounding alarms about Sanders. His campaign issued a fundraising email on Saturday with a not-so-subtle subject line: Bernie Sanders could be the nominee.

I think that the higher the turnout, the more people that are participating, its going to be better for us, said a senior adviser with Buttigiegs campaign. We want new people, we want Republicans, we want independents. We encounter a lot of Trump voters and a lot of Republicans, who want to be involved. I think were going to have real crossover appeal.

Buttigiegs appeal to potential swing voters, the campaign argues, is evidenced by the geographic areas of the state where he has held events and drawn large crowds.

Still, another Buttigieg adviser acknowledged that the spoils of high turnout could be split fairly evenly among the current top tier of candidates.

Its not like 2016, where you have the most establishment running against the most anti-establishment candidate, the adviser said.

The caucuses will be an enormous test for Warren and Buttigiegs field operations, which have impressed Democratic activists in the state for months.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democrats, said Buttigiegs campaign recently drew about 300 people to a training for precinct caucus captains, enough for multiple precinct captains at some caucus sites next week. Warren has assembled such a vast army that her campaign is helping Bagniewski fill caucus chair positions at its caucus sites, he said.

The fact that they have bandwidth to be helping the county party means theyre pretty damn organized, he said.

A lower turnout election is still possible, and the lack of a spike in Democratic voter registrations has caused some observers to temper expectations.

But two strategists familiar with campaigns in Iowa said multiple campaigns were urging supporters in at least some areas of the state not to register until the day of the caucuses  a ploy to prevent other campaigns from targeting them ahead of caucus day.

Chris Adcock, chairwoman of Democratic Party in Page County in southwest Iowa, said that if turnout is low, I think [the beneficiaries] would be Sanders and Biden, because they are known quantities.

But Adcock, like most activists in Iowa, expects turnout to be high. She has added caucus sites in her county, and she said Klobuchar and Warrens campaigns could be rewarded next week for months of working really hard.

Organizers of a caucus site in Ankeny, just north of Des Moines, said they are expecting 100 to 150 more people to caucus Monday than did in 2016. And further west in tiny Audubon County, Sarah Christensen, a caucus chair, said of high turnout projections, Thats what they say.

The Iowa Democratic Party sent me 200 caucus cards, and we've requested more, she said. I don't know if we'll need them, but I get the sense that we might.

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
Commercial air travel has become safer than ever, according to a study that tracked the continued decrease in passenger fatalities around the world.

The study, published in the journal Transportation Science, found that between 2008 and 2017, airline passenger fatalities fell significantly compared to the previous decade.

Globally, that rate is now one death per 7.9 million passenger boardings, compared to a death per 2.7 million boardings during the period 1998-2007, according to the researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

They noted that the commercial airline fatality risk was one death per 750,000 boardings during 1978-1987.

"The worldwide risk of being killed had been dropping by a factor of two every decade. Not only has that continued in the last decade, the improvement is closer to a factor of three," said Arnold Barnett, an MIT scholar.

"The pace of improvement has not slackened at all even as flying has gotten ever safer and further gains become harder to achieve. That is really quite impressive and is important for people to bear in mind," Barnett said.

The study also reveals that there is discernible regional variation in airline safety around the world.

It found that the nations housing the lowest-risk airlines are the US, the members of the European Union, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel.

The aggregate fatality risk among those nations was one death per 33.1 million passenger boardings during 2008-2017, the researchers said.

For airlines in a second set of countries, with an intermediate risk level, the rate is one death per 7.4 million boardings during 2008-2017, they said.

This group includes many countries in Asia as well as some countries in South America and the Middle East, according to the researchers.

For a third and higher-risk set of developing countries, including some in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the death risk during 2008-2017 was one per 1.2 million passenger boardings, they noted.

This was an improvement from one death per 400,000 passenger boardings during 1998-2007, the researchers found.

"The two most conspicuous changes compared to previous decades were sharp improvements in China and in Eastern Europe," said Barnett.

Overall, Barnett suggests, the rate of fatalities has declined far faster than public fears about flying.

"Flying has gotten safer and safer. It's a factor of 10 safer than it was 40 years ago, although I bet anxiety levels have not gone down that much. I think it's good to have the facts," Barnett said.

He used data from the World Bank to measure the number of passengers carried, which is now roughly four billion per year.

The research also includes historical data showing that even in today's higher-risk areas for commerical aviation, the fatality rate is better than it was in the leading air-travel countries just a few decades in the past.

"The risk now in the higher-risk countries is basically the risk we used to have 40-50 years ago" in the safest air-travel countries, Barnett noted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Richmond VA May 27 2020 To help get our neighbors and communities back to work, Armour College, a public safety and professional career school, has announced today that the tuition for the regulatory training and certification courses is being reduced by 30% for the rest on the year. These programs include medical training, security officer, private investigator and bondsman certifications, retail and loss prevention courses and certifications, the hospitality and rental industries, 
It was the 1990s, though, when the final assault on moderate Republicans, already endangered, began in earnest. That decade saw the rise of the label RINO, Republican in Name Only, applied to any Republican who deviated from the conservative line. Party members were increasingly expected to vote together, and as the party moved further right that put pressure on moderates to either fall in line or leave the party.

It took some time for the old moderates to die off, get voted out, or switch parties, but they mostly did over the next few decades. The demand to hew to the right even started taking out conservative office-holders like Eric Cantor, who was defeated by a primary challenger who held anti-immigration positions.

In the new Republican Party of the 21st century, there was no room for moderate Republicans. Yet the idea persists, because it was such a core part of US politics for so long. Senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, with a few key votes, have been able to cultivate an image of moderation, even as their voting records show them to be solidly conservative and, especially in the case of investigations into President Trump, unwilling to set aside party loyalty for civic duty.

Indeed, that's already clear from the first few days of the Senate trial. When Democrats asked to include more evidence and witnesses  news has broken since the House impeachment vote, and the White House refused to allow administration officials to testify in those hearings  every single Republican senator voted no.

Given that track record, senators like Romney, Murkowski and Collins should be getting very little attention. Not just because they are not as moderate as they seem, but because to focus on their ostensibly open minds is to misconstrue what is actually happening in the Senate. Donald Trump is not on trial, because the Republican majority has already decided to acquit him  and many senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said as much on the record.
KAMPALA  Ugandas most influential Member of Parliament representing Kyadondo East, Robert Kyagulanyi well known as Bobi Wine has scoffed at the governments offer to give him security saying that Ugandans will protect him.

This was shortly after Obiga Kania, the minister of state for Internal Affairs told the Parliamentary Committee of Defence and Internal Affairs that Bobi Wine is an asset and, therefore, he must be protected.

It is the duty of security right now to see where Bobi Wine is. Whether they do it overtly or covertly, they must do it because Bobi Wine is an asset in this country. when he reaches the point of nomination that is when the IGP will come in and say now you must be surrounded with this security, you cannot sleep in such and such a place, Kania earlier said.

However, while meeting his supporters at his home in Magere on Saturday, January 25, the legislator said that probably the government intends to offer him security like the one they offered his driver Yasin Kawuma, who was shot in Arua in August 2018.

I saw them saying that Bobi Wine will be given security by force, whether he wants it or not. You want to give me the security you gave Abiriga? You want to give me the same security that you gave the late Kirumira? Joan Kagezi? Did you give me the said security and it started with Yasin Kawuma? Bobi Wine said.

He added that You have a minister who can even call the President but she is also crying that they want to kill her. I have not heard them talking about giving her security.

Bobi Wine also warned the government if it is planning to attack him, saying that Ugandans would rise to protect him.

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE: CLR) ("Continental" or the "Company") today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share on the Company's outstanding common stock, payable on February 21, 2020 to stockholders of record on February 7, 2020.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/95419/continental_resources_logo.jpg

Cautionary Statement for the Purpose of the "Safe Harbor" Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements included in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements, information, forecasts or expectations regarding the Company's business and future plans, including those relating to its share repurchase program, payment of dividends, debt reduction goals, free cash flow generation and liquidity expectations, and its expectations regarding the achievement of ROCE goals. When used in this press release, the words "could," "may," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project," "budget," "target," "plan," "continue," "potential," "guidance," "strategy," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words.

Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations and assumptions about future events and currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Although the Company believes these assumptions and expectations are reasonable, they are inherently subject to numerous business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control. No assurance can be given that such expectations will be correct or achieved or that the assumptions are accurate. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, commodity price volatility; the geographic concentration of our operations; financial market and economic volatility; the inability to access needed capital; the risks and potential liabilities inherent in crude oil and natural gas drilling and production and the availability of insurance to cover any losses resulting therefrom; difficulties in estimating proved reserves and other reserves-based measures; declines in the values of our crude oil and natural gas properties resulting in impairment charges; our ability to replace proved reserves and sustain production; the availability or cost of equipment and oilfield services; leasehold terms expiring on undeveloped acreage before production can be established; our ability to project future production, achieve targeted results in drilling and well operations and predict the amount and timing of development expenditures; the availability and cost of transportation, processing and refining facilities; legislative and regulatory changes adversely affecting our industry and our business, including initiatives related to hydraulic fracturing; increased market and industry competition, including from alternative fuels and other energy sources; and the other risks described under Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, registration statements and other reports filed from time to time with the SEC, and other announcements the Company makes from time to time.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which such statement is made. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties described in this press release occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, the Company's actual results and plans could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this report, or otherwise.

About Continental Resources

Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) is a top 10 independent oil producer in the U.S. Lower 48 and a leader in America's energy renaissance. Based in Oklahoma City, Continental is the largest leaseholder and the largest producer in the nation's premier oil field, the Bakken play of North Dakota and Montana. The Company also has significant positions in Oklahoma, including its SCOOP Woodford and SCOOP Springer discoveries and the STACK plays. With a focus on the exploration and production of oil, Continental has unlocked the technology and resources vital to American energy independence and our nation's leadership in the new world oil market. In 2020, the Company will celebrate 53 years of operations. For more information, please visit www.CLR.com.

Investor Contact: Media Contact: Rory Sabino

Vice President, Investor Relations

405-234-9620

[email protected] Kristin Thomas

Senior Vice President, Public Relations

405-234-9480

[email protected]



Lucy Guttenberger Investor Relations Analyst 405-774-5878 [email protected]



SOURCE Continental Resources

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Chick-fil-A owner apologizes after protest over breast-feeding mom being asked to cover up

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The owner of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Georgia that became the target of a protest this week after a breast-feeding mother complained about being asked to cover up while she dined there Monday has formally apologized.

Anger over the incident at the Mullins Crossing Chick-fil-A in Evans erupted after Samantha McIntosh posted her experience on Facebook stemming from her decision to breast-feed her 7-month-old daughter in the restaurants dining area. McIntosh insists she was appropriately covered for the feeding but complaints from some customers triggered a warning from the restaurants manager which subsequently led to her leaving in a huff.

Ive never made a huge deal about it but I feel as though I have a right to feed my baby however I want just as ANY OTHER MOTHER has that right (as long as its not harmful in any way *duh*)! So imagine my shock and surprise when I am sitting at Chick-fil-a yesterday with my 9 year old niece and my daughter (breast-feeding) and the manager walks up out of nowhere and tries to hand me her jacket saying someone has complained and would prefer if I cover up because of the other children in the restaurant, McIntosh wrote.

please keep in mind that I am wearing a nursing tank top under a large long sleeve shirt. My shirt was pulled up and resting on my daughters cheek and my tank top was pulled down just enough for my daughter to latch so I happen to know that absolutely no skin was showing and we sat in a booth in the back of the restaurant, she explained.

McIntosh said she stopped breast-feeding after the request was made by the manager but got angry when her young niece began asking questions such as why would a baby eating offend someone to the point where they would get a manager involved.

The breastfeeding moms story went viral after she posted it on Facebook Tuesday and about three dozen mothers joined her in a protest at the restaurant later that day, according to The Augusta Chronicle.

On Wednesday, the restaurants owner operator, Jason Adams, noted in a statement to the publication that the mother had been offered a formal apology.

I am truly sorry for the experience Ms. McIntosh had in our restaurant, Adams said. I have reached out to her to personally apologize. My goal is to provide a warm and welcoming environment for all of our guests.

Georgia law currently states a mother may breast-feed her baby in any location, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, provided the mother acts in a discreet and modest way. However, local advocates like Genevieve Cavanaugh told The Augusta Chronicle that mothers should not have to worry about being modest.

If youre supporting breast-feeding moms, stand up for that mother, Cavanaugh said. Cause if I was here and I saw that [incident], I would breastfeed my daughter right in front of that manager, and Im loud and proud. I dont cover up, cause she [her daughter] doesnt like it.
26.01.2020 LISTEN

Nana Takyi III, Chief of Gomoa Odumasi in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region has urged Traditional Leaders to empower the youth so that they can contribute their quota towards National Development.

"If we want our youth of today to support national development, then we must empower them economically in every sector.

This will ginger them to support programmes and policies that would be put in place by policymakers aimed at improving the lives of the people"

Nana Takyi III, stated these at a durbar organized by the Chiefs and People of Gomoa Odumasi to mark their annual Akwambo Festival recently.

The festival under the Theme; Youth Employment, the tool for Community Development, Nana Takyi III observed with concern the rate at which today's Youth have been left to their fate.

"There could not be any perfect theme than this, Youth Empowerment is the only way we can encourage young people to bring out their potentials and skills so that they can contribute their quota towards national development

We must ensure that our Youth are fully supported to be self-sufficient in their own fields, be it in education, health, agriculture, artisanship or entrepreneurship which would generate income to feed themselves and their families.

As we all know, Youth unemployment contribute significantly to poverty and economic crisis in the country.

That is why Nananom, opinion Leaders and all stakeholders ought to support Government in its quest for Youth employment for people in particular"

Nana Takyi III noted that when the youth were well resourced, they would be well prepared to take up the mantle of leadership positions in the near future.

He therefore called on all and sundry to support this Worthy course

" Gomoa Odumasi is a farming community, we have to apply modernization in our farming activities by applying mechanization to boost food and cash crops production thus enhancing economic growth and to eradicate poverty.

Those in educational institutions ought to be encouraged to attain a height on the educational ladder because of education as we all know in the key to development. This will also reduce teenage pregnancy and school drop-out drastically

Others who are into petty trading and artisanship should be supported to achieve their dreams"

Nana Takyi III therefore appealed to the Central Government through the Gomoa East District Assembly as well as the Member of Parliament for Gomoa East Constituency, Hon. Kojo Asemanyi to make loan facilities available for farmers and others to expand their farms and businesses.

"Let me conclude by appealing to authorities to reshape and possibly tarry our road linking Agona Kwanyarko to Gomoa Dominase to facilitate smooth transportation of goods and services.

Transaction in this part of the country has become headache. We are compelled to use motorcycle popularly know as ' Okada' as our main source of transportation. One can imagine the risk involved

Our community lacks public toilet facilities. This is creating unhealthiness in the environment"

The Queen Mother of Gomoa Odumasi, Nana Ekua Munkuwaa advised the youth against unhealthy lifestyle that would ruin their future.

She also advised parents to take advantage of the Free SHS to encourage their children to attain formal education
Ireland Schedules Election For February 8

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

27 January 2020

A general election will take place in Ireland on February 8, with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar saying that this date provides a window to ensure a new government is in place ahead of the next European Council meeting in March.

In a speech announcing the dissolution, Varadkar said that the next step in the Brexit process will be to negotiate a free trade agreement between the EU and the UK "that protects our jobs, our businesses, our rural communities, and our economy."

According to Varadkar, "the capacity to everything else that needs to be done"  including tax reform  "depends on achieving this outcome." Varadkar added that Fine Gael has "a plan for fairer taxes."

Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said that "the future relationship with the UK must be negotiated, and negotiated at speed."

Coveney said that Fine Gael would "work for the closest, deepest, and broadest possible future relationship with the UK" and wants "an ambitious, zero tariff, zero quotas free trade agreement, with a level playing field in terms of standards, state aid, and workers' rights."
Over the weekend, the Oregon Ducks hosted one of the biggest remaining targets on their board.

Literally.

Alabama defensive tackle pledge Jayson Jones, who tips the scales at 6-foot-6 1/2, 340 pounds, took an official visit to Eugene and came away impressed.

Man, the people are amazing and the facilities are top-class, he said. They have a specific tutor building just for student-athletes. (The) trip was great. (I) had a lot of fun.

So much fun, in fact, that the hulking interior defensive lineman no longer appears certain of his college destination.

I feel like I have a very tough decision  so much stress and thought, Jones said.

Oregon currently has the No. 1 recruiting class in the Pac-12 Conference and a top-10 class nationally.

That group is highlighted by elite talents on the defensive side of the ball  five-star linebackers Justin Flowe and Noah Sewell, five-star cornerback Dontae Manning and Under Armour All-American cornerback Luke Hill.

But so far, the defensive line group doesnt have a headliner.

Fast-rising Hawaii defensive lineman Maceal Afaese has added a much-deserved fourth star on Rivals and three-star defensive ends Bradyn Swinson and Jake Shipley show promise.

Jones would give the Ducks an unquestioned headliner, as he holds offers from Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan and many others.

He said he has a final commitment date in mind, as he plans to sign with his school of choice on February 5, the first day of the late signing period.

Nemecs analysis

Oregon is trending in the right direction for Jones, and it seems the Ducks have done enough to pluck him away from Alabama.

Leaving the home-state Crimson Tide is always tough for a local kid, but Mario Cristobal has put on a full-court press and the visit was a slam dunk.

I think Oregon pulls off the late flip on traditional Signing Day next week.

-- Andrew Nemec | anemec@oregonian.com | @AndrewNemec
Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but...
Jan. 17

At 11:35 p.m. officers checked by with Bellaire P.D. officers in the 6700 W Loop S in regards to a suspect evading from a burglary in progress. The suspect was taken into custody. Approximately 2 hours later a resident notified the West U PD of an individual seen on their surveillance camera looking into their backyard. The suspect left the area of the West U resident without taking anything. It was determined that the suspect that was seen on the surveillance camera was the same suspect (Arthur Dwayne Douglas) apprehended by Bellaire P.D.

At 8:51 a.m. an officer was dispatched to the 3800 block of Browning in regards to a theft that already occurred. Upon arrival and through investigation, it was discovered an unknown suspect took a tailgate from a vehicle without consent. The incident occurred between 1/16/2020 at 4:00pm and 1/17/19 at 8:50 a.m.

At 12:46 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the 6500 block of Mercer in regards to a burglary of a motor vehicle that just occurred. Upon arrival and through investigation, it was discovered an unknown suspect took items from an unsecured vehicle without consent.

At 1:50 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the 5400 block of Kirby in reference to a robbery that had already occurred. The Officer arrived and met with the complainant who said that an unknown person had exited from a vehicle while in the parking lot of a restaurant and forcefully took a bag containing money. The complainant said that the subject jumped back into the vehicle heading east on Albans.

At 2:30 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the West University Police Department in reference to a minor accident that occurred on 11/8/19. The victim said an unknown person(s) in a red SUV struck her parked vehicle at 3816 Bellaire Blvd and left without leaving any information.

Jan. 18

At 1:01 a.m. officers were dispatched to the 4100 block of Rice in reference to an assault that had just occurred. After further investigation, a known suspect assaulted the victim, causing bodily injury, and was found to have interfered with the victims request for emergency assistance. An offense report was generated and a to-be warrant will be filed.

Jan. 19

At 2 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the PD lobby to meet with a resident concerning fraudulent bank account. The Officer met with the couple obtaining required information.

At 5:37 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the 3800 block of Northwestern in reference to a white male possibly intoxicated attempting to gain access into a residence. The reportee said the individual was at their residence drinking and became aggressive. The suspect (Philip Bryant) was taken into custody for public intoxication.

Jan. 20

At 12:08 p.m. an officer was dispatched to meet an officer with Pearland Police Department at 610 and Fannin to obtain custody of a suspect who has outstanding warrants with the City of West University Place. The suspect (Christopher Troy Robinson) was taken into custody and transported to the City of West University Place jail for booking.

At 10:01 p.m. an officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6600 block Rutgers when it failed to stop at the designated stopping point at a stop sign in the intersection of the 6700 block of Rutgers and the 3300 block Cason. A traffic stop was conducted in the 6700 block of Rutgers. After further investigation, the officer discovered the driver to be in possession of marijuana. The driver chose to participate in the Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program and was cited for Failure to Maintain Finical Responsibility. The driver was released from the scene without incident.

Jan. 21

At 8:14 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the 700 block of Woodridge in reference to a male subject with outstanding warrants with the West University Place Police Department. The subject (Derien Dontrell Palmer) was taken into custody without incident.

Jan. 22

At 10:30 a.m. an officer was dispatched to the 2600 block of Robinhood for a report of Identity Theft. The victim said that unknown suspects used her identity to control a credit card account.

At 3:34 p.m. officers were dispatched to the 5400 block of Kirby in reference to a suspicious vehicle. Officers arrived and began searching the area for the vehicle. The vehicle was eventually located and a traffic stop was initiated. The vehicle described by the caller matched a vehicle recently involved in several burglary of motor vehicles in the area. All subjects in the vehicle were detained and transported to the West University Place jail. After further investigation the suspects were found in possession of stolen property taken in two different burglary motor vehicle incidents that had just occurred along Bissonnet St. Both suspects (Maurice Cachman Tolbert and Felton Patrick Dorsey) were charged with two counts each of Burglary Motor Vehicle.

Jan. 23

At 2:20 a.m. an officer with the West University Place Police Department observed a vehicle fail to maintain a single lane while traveling southbound in the 6100 block of Buffalo Speedway. The vehicle failed to maintain a single lane multiple times and a traffic stop was conducted. After further investigation, the driver (Isaias P Merino Rosas) was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated 3rd.

At 11:10 a.m. an officer was dispatched to the 6300 block of Community Dr. in regards to a burglary of a motor vehicle that just occurred. Upon arrival and through investigation, it was discovered an unknown suspect entered an unsecured vehicle and took items without consent.

At 5:35 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the West University Place Police Department in reference to a case of theft. The reportee said she dropped her work phone in the 3800 block of Milton, went back to the parking area, and it was gone. A report of lost property generated.

Jan. 24

At 2:26 a.m. an officer observed a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed while southbound in the 6500 block of Buffalo Speedway. The vehicle then failed to stop at the designated point at traffic light in the 6700 block of Buffalo Speedway and W. Holcombe. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver (Peter Thomas Mitchell) was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.
The Taliban said it had shot down a U.S. military plane in the central Afghan province of Ghazni on Monday, killing all personnel on board.

The plane, which was on an intelligence mission, was brought down in Sado Khel area of Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said in a statement, adding that everyone on board, including high ranking officers, had been killed.

A senior defence official investigating the crash said no senior U.S. official was killed and added that they were still investigating the cause of the crash. No one from the U.S. military was immediately available for comment.

Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common in Afghanistan where inclement weather and creaky aircraft are often pressed to their limits in the war-torn country  and where insurgents have been known to target helicopters.

The last civilian flight to crash was in May 2010, when an ageing Pamir Airways plane went down in bad weather during a scheduled flight to Kabul from the northern province of Kunduz.

It was carrying six crew and 38 passengers when it crashed into a mountainside 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Kabul.

SOURCE: AGENCIES, PHOTO: REUTERS
A deadly virus that has prompted travel restrictions in China is sending shockwaves through Asia's tourism industry, which has become increasingly reliant on growing numbers of Chinese visitors.

At least 81 people have died since the new strain of coronavirus emerged in China's Wuhan, and millions are now under an effective quarantine, with all flights in and out of the city grounded and a ban on Chinese tour groups domestically and abroad.

The measures come amid a boom in Chinese foreign travel, with the number of tourists from the country increasing nearly tenfold since 2003, according to a report by research firm Capital Economics.

But businesses in destinations that rely on the huge numbers of Chinese tourists are already feeling the heat, with complaints of "deserted" beaches and shops, and concerns about the future.

The outbreak carries echoes of the SARS crisis, which paralysed regional travel and battered local economies from late 2002. Chinese tourist numbers then fell by around a third.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"If they fell by a similar amount again, it would knock around 1.5-2.0 percentage points from (gross domestic product) in the most vulnerable countries," Capital Economics said.

In Japan, the fall in Chinese visitors was already being felt in Asakusa, a popular tourist destination near the Sensoji temple.

"We've definitely been seeing less people this year," said Yoshie Yoneyama, 31, manager of a shop selling traditional Japanese sweets and a rice-based drink called amazake.

"I think there are less than half the numbers of last year or the year before," she told AFP.

The number of Chinese holidaying in Japan has exploded from around 450,000 in 2003 to 8.4 million in 2018, accounting for 27 percent of all inbound tourists as Tokyo works to expand the sector.

But it will now be "very difficult" for Japan to achieve its target of 40 million tourists in 2020, Yuki Takashima, an economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP.

And the effects will be felt beyond hotels, restaurants and tourist sites, because many Chinese tourists visit Japan specifically to shop.

Electronic appliances and beauty products usually top of their lists, Takashima said, so retail outlets will see their bottom lines affected.

The crisis has already sent Japan's key Nikkei index plunging, with stock in Shiseido -- a cosmetics brand popular with Chinese tourists -- plunging more than five percent on Monday.

"We can expect those stocks to continue to fall like dominoes," said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp.

But he said Japan would be better placed to weather the storm than another top destination for Chinese tourists: Thailand.

Tourism accounts for 18 percent of the nation's GDP, with Chinese holidaymakers making up more than a quarter of total arrivals.

The country's tourism minister has already warned a crisis on the scale of SARS could cost an estimated USD 1.6 billion, and the effects are already clear in Phuket.

"For two days, the streets, the shops and the beaches have been deserted," said Claude de Crissey, who owns a 40-room hotel and a restaurant on the island. "Phuket has focused almost exclusively on Chinese tourism... if the situation continues, we will all be impacted," he told AFP.

Australia too, already reeling from the effects of the bushfire crisis, is likely to feel the impact.
Meanwhile, with the coronavirus outbreak in China, two Bengaluru residents who returned from China ten days ago have been kept under medical observation at a government hospital, said sources from the Karnataka health department.

Kolkata: A Thai national died at a private hospital in Kolkata on Monday amidst suspicion of the cause of death being coronavirus. Surin Naktoy (32), the female patient, was suffering from severe respiratory distress.

Meanwhile, a young Chinese national, suspected to be suffering from the virus, has been admitted to a state-run hospital in the city, prompting senior state health department officials to rush there for an inspection on Monday morning.

The patient, Hu Mai (28), has been undergoing treatment at an isolation ward in the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beliaghata, also the nodal centre in the state. Embarking on a global tour six months ago from China, she travelled various countries, including Namibia, Madagascar and Mauritius, before reaching the city on January 24.

She took admission to a private hospital off EM Bypass with fever, cough and headache for medical tests on her own.

Meanwhile, with the coronavirus outbreak in China, two Bengaluru residents who returned from China ten days ago have been kept under medical observation at a government hospital, said sources from the Karnataka health department.

The two residents, who returned from China on January 18, came to the hospital on Sunday night after developing a cold. Their samples will be sent to a laboratory in Pune for tests, officials said without divulging the names and locality that they live in. They are under observation at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest diseases.

Another man, who was admitted for medical supervision three days ago, was discharged after he tested negative for the deadly virus. The blood samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune. The virus has claimed over 80 lives with 2,744 confirmed cases in China so far, the department sources said.

Besides these cases, six passengers  four Chinese and two Indians  are under 28-day house quarantine and they are asymptomatic, a statement from the department said.

The Airport Health Organisation, which is on the alert ever since the outbreak of the virus in China, said on Monday that none of the passengers who came from that country in the last 14 days were found to have contracted the disease.

No passengers are reported positive with thermal scanning and having history of visit to Wuhan city in the last 14 days, the KIA unit of the APHO, said.
Photos from the Bulls' 98-81 loss to the Kings on Friday night, Jan. 24, 2020 at the United Center.
Toronto police say they're looking for a man accused of tampering with food in a west-end convenience store.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Toronto police say they're looking for a man accused of tampering with food in a west-end convenience store.

The alleged incident happened shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Police allege the man entered the store and put an unknown substance inside a ketchup bottle as well as several bottles of Coca Cola.

They say he then allegedly put the items back on the shelf for sale and left the store.

Police say the bottles were seized for testing before being sold, but are still urging local residents to be careful if they purchase products with broken safety seals.

Officers are asking with information on the case to come forward.

This report by the Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2020.
Dallas, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/27/2020 -- Reigning participants in powder coating equipment market are investing intrinsically towards offering highly improved and diversified powder coating equipment with superlative performance, minimal and affordable pricing as well as robust and extremely low maintenance.



Get Research Insights @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/861



Besides innovations in production, the players are specifically concentrating on offering customer aligned products based on customization. Additionally. Several industry behemoths are also focusing on geographical expansion to address unmet demands, thus ensuring a rewarding geographical expanse. These intensive details on market highlights are in line with Adroit Market Research's recent report offering titled, 'Global Powder Coating Equipment Market by Product, Application, and Region', included in its growing online data archive.'



Aligning with improved consumer expectations for improved powder coating solutions with superlative user convenience, leading players are diversifying their product portfolios with optimum precisions. To cite an instance, US based powder coating equipment manufacturer Nordson has recently unveiled its advanced powder coating equipment under the brand, Encore, designed to offer maximum control during powder coating to ensure maximum user convenience.



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The latest addition is integrated with a large touchscreen display equipped with interactive graphics and symbolic navigation to attain high end precision. Yet another characteristic feature is its multi-linguistic operating system to eliminate errors and discrepancies. The development is a recent one and is likely to steer million dollar growth opportunities in global powder coating equipment market in the coming years.



Market participants are also specifically focusing on property improvisation with large scale property developments comprising scratch resistance, robust built as well as glossy outlook to align with versatile consumer preferences. High end products find multi industry applications comprising automotive, ship building, smart device and the like.



M&A Strategies Continue to Remain Bankable Staples amongst Lead Players



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Besides new product innovations and geographical expansions, frontline players are also investing in M&A strategies to diversify their expertise. In this line, leading powder coating equipment player Carlisle Fluid Tech has undersigned an acquisition deal of Ecco Finishing which is best known for providing advanced products catering to pressure painting equipment and sealant applicators, catering to multiple end-users such as plastics, leather, ceramics, and wood amongst others. With this deal in place, Carlisle envisions to improve its product offerings with several flagship Ecco products and technologies.



Powder coatings are used extensively to offer a coating and protection to substances and substrates. Powder coating equipment system need to complement with liquid coating to enable smooth and even coating.



Additionally, manufacturers are also developing unique powder coating equipment systems ideal for all surfaces, with convenient operational ease and high efficiency. Powder coatings are witnessing multiple adoption across end -use industries as a means to attain corrosion resistance. As powder coatings are integral to lend an aesthetic appeal to all consumer, commercial, and industrial products, besides improving durability, powder coatings are likely to witness rampant adoption thus pushing substantial growth in global powder coatings equipment market.



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The global powder coating equipment industry is highly fragmented in nature as large number of unorganized manufacturers are operating in India, China, and Brazil. Some prominent manufacturers operating in this industry are Nordson Corporation, Carlisle, WAGNER, Hangzhou Color Powder Coating Equipment Co., SATA GmbH & Co. KG, IHI Ionbond Ag, GEMA AG, Anest Iwata, Valco Melton and Plasma Powders & Systems Inc.



Key segments of the global powder coating equipment market



Product Overview, 2015-2025 (USD million)





- Ovens & Booths



- Powder Coat Guns



- Others





Application Overview, 2015-2025 (USD million)





- Consumer Goods



- Architectural



- Automotive



- General Industries



- Furniture



- Others





Regional Overview, 2015-2025 (USD million)





- North America





- S.









- Europe





- K.



- Germany









- Asia Pacific





- India



- China









- Central & South America





- Brazil









- Middle East & Africa







About Adroit Market Research:

Adroit Market Research provide quantified B2B research on numerous opportunistic markets, and offer customized research reports, consulting services, and syndicate research reports. We assist our clients to strategize business decisions and attain sustainable growth in their respective domain. Additionally, we support them with their revenue planning, marketing strategies, and assist them to make decisions before the competition so that they remain ahead of the curve.
Three judges of the Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear death row convict Mukesh Singhs petition challenging the presidential order rejecting his mercy plea filed this month. The hearing will begin at 12.30 pm.

Mukesh Singhs lawyer had mentioned his petition filed last week before a bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde earlier in the day. Chief Justice Bobde promptly told the lawyer to mention it before the top court official mandated for this purpose, underscoring that the court would take it up on top priority.

If somebody is going to be hanged, then nothing can be more urgent than this, Chief Justice Bobde said.

In the list of cases put out by the top court later in the day, Mukesh Singhs petition was listed to be taken up by a bench comprising justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna at 12.30 pm.

Mukesh Singh is one of the four men ordered to be executed on February 1 for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic on a cold December night in 2012. The paramedic and her friend were thrown out of the bus. The barbarity of the rape - she was left half naked, severely bleeding and shivering in the winter chill - brought thousands of people onto the streets in protest against authorities failure to ensure womens safety. The government responded by amending the law to plug loopholes in rape laws and amendment to the juvenile law.

A fifth accused in this case had gotten away with a three-year term because he was a minor when the crime was committed. The sixth person, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail.

The four men were convicted and sentenced to death within a year or so. But the appeals process in the high court and Supreme Court has taken years to reach some finality, upsetting the womans parents who have doggedly track the case.

After a judge finally issued orders to execute the four men earlier this month, Mukesh Singh had filed a petition for mercy to President Ram Nath Kovind. The petition was rejected within four days. The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government and Home Minister Amit Shah were on the same page on Mukesh Singhs request for mercy.

The mercy petition had led to postponement of their execution, the judge shifted their hanging from 22 January to 1 February.

But officials believe that it is unlikely that the four would be executed on 1 February, because AP Singh, one of the lawyers for the convicts, has made it clear that he would file mercy petitions and curative petitions on behalf of his clients.
THE real estate industry is on a wait and see mode on the possible impact on property sales of any entry ban on Chinese tourists in the country.

This develops amid the escalating fears on the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which originated in China.

The Chinese are growing as among the strong buyers of properties in the Philippines. They are also now the countrys second largest source of foreign arrivals.

A ban on Chinese visitors might affect sales of condominium units and other properties.

From what we hear on the ground, when the Chinese tourists visit the Philippines or go to Cebu and then they enjoy the lifestyle, they will decide to buy condominiums, said Joey Bondoc, senior research manager at Colliers International Philippines.

However, Bondoc didnt see an immediate impact of a ban on Cebu, particularly as only those tourists from Wuhan, Chinathe epicenter of the virus outbreakare restricted by the Bureau of Immigration.

While Cebu is connected via air to several mainland Chinese cities, there is no direct flight from the province to Wuhan.

For the Chinese who are already established or staying here, there will still be stable demand from them. But the additional and new tourists that will be a potential market will really be affected, he said.

The 2019-nCoV has already killed more than 80 people in China and infected thousands in that country. The deadly virus has since spread to several countries in Asia and other regions, raising concerns on its eventual economic impact.

Bondoc feared a significant impact if China will eventually rule a total restriction to its citizens to travel outside the country.

Once the travel ban is widened or expanded, thats when we will see an impact on the hotels and properties in Cebu, he told SunStar Cebu.

In 2019, China was the second top foreign source market in Central Visayas with 621,993 tourists, up 44.28 percent from 2017s 429,306 visitors, data from the Department of Tourism showed. Last year, Chinese tourist count in region reached over 700,000, according to the Chinese Consulate in Cebu.

So the demand from the Chinese will still continue but the additional demand that comes from tourists will definitely be affected because it also depends on the Chinese government if they will now bar all Chinese from traveling outside, he said.

Based on data from Colliers, Metro Cebus condominium stock reached 38,800 units in 2018, 16 percent higher compared to 33,325 units in 2017 as it continues to enjoy a growing landscape of developments.
A respiratory virus that has sickened hundreds and killed at least 17 people in China saw its first confirmed cases in the United States last week  one of them in an Illinois woman  but a health official in Springfield says the risk of transmission in central Illinois remains low.

This is an ever-changing virus, and were learning more and more about it every day, said Gina Carnduff, director of infection prevention for Memorial Health System, which has hospitals in Jacksonville and four other cities in Illinois. At this time, however, the risk is very low that someone from central Illinois would be infected with this virus.

Youre at greater risk of getting the flu, which has caused between 6,600 and 17,000 deaths in the U.S. so far this season, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We are seeing widespread flu activity across the region, Carnduff said. Flu viruses can travel up to 6 feet when someone coughs or sneezes. With the high flu activity currently occurring, you have a high possibility of being exposed to the flu virus. Its not too late to get your flu shot and protect yourself.

Regarding the new coronavirus, most of the people who have contracted it were in the city of Wuhan in a province in central China. The virus has since spread to other cities in China and the nations of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the U.S.

To catch the virus at this point, a person would have to have been in Wuhan or in contact with someone with a confirmed case, Carnduff said.

While the risk of catching the coronavirus remains low, Carnduff said people can still follow the same common-sense precautions to prevent the spread of illnesses such as the flu: Cover your mouth when you cough. Wash your hands frequently. And maintain your distance if you see someone actively coughing or sneezing.

The incubation period for the coronavirus is about 14 days, according to media reports. Many of the fatalities to date have been elderly people with other pre-existing conditions.

Chicagos OHare International Airport was added as another major airport where federal officials will screen passengers arriving from Wuhan for the infection. The other airports are in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Carnduff said central Illinois residents who regularly fly into OHare dont need to fear when they arrive. Any screened passengers suspected of carrying the virus will be quarantined, she said.

As part of the ever-changing nature of the virus, officials initially thought it was transmitted by animal-to-human contact. However, Carnduff said, we just learned that there are cases of human-to-human transmission.

The first confirmed case was reported Dec. 31.

Were still learning about this virus, Carnduff said. At this stage, we have more questions than answers.
The head of Coulson Aviation, which owned the water bomber that crashed on Thursday and killed three American men, said the scene was "indescribable".

Wayne Coulson, who visited the site on Sunday, spoke of the loss of the three US nationals, who were highly skilled and "valued members of our firefighters' family".

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons and CEO Wayne Coulson of Coulson Aviation. Credit:Renee Nowytarger

"To see our aircraft on the ground, knowing we've had such loss of life was devastating.

"Its just a difficult time for everyone."
Amaravati, Jan 27 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, has approved the draft Bill to abolish the upper house of the state legislature. The decision, to abolish the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council, was taken in the cabinet meeting held here on Monday.

The move comes in the wake of the Legislative Council, dominated by members of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), blocking the ruling YSRC Party's move to create three state capitals instead of a single capital city in Amaravati.

The cabinet resolved to abolish the legislative council in the wake of alleged misuse by the opposition TDP's majority to halt the bills that had been cleared in the legislative assembly. Earlier instances include delaying and rejecting the separate commissions for SC and ST. The council had also rejected the bill to introduce English medium education in government schools.

The draft bill will now be presented in the assembly where the ruling YSRCP has a majority, and can therefore easily clear the Bill. Thereafter it will be sent to the Union Home Ministry for approval in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Bill will have to be cleared by both Houses of Parliament before it can be sent to the President of India.

pvn/skp/
Authorities in China have reportedly issued an order to extend public holidays in an attempt to curb the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed the lives of 80 people and infected almost 2,700 people in different parts of the world. According to reports, a group headed by Premier Li Keqiang to tackle the epidemic took the decision on January 26 to extend the Spring Festival Holiday that was to end on January 30.

China is at a crucial stage in controlling the outbreak

According to reports, the meeting headed by Keqiang stressed on the fact that China is at a very crucial stage in terms of preventing and controlling the viral outbreak. The meeting urged party committees and governments at all levels that to take structured and necessary steps to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Originating in the city of Wuhan, the virus spread across China and the world, with cases confirmed in several countries such as Japan, United States, Vietnam etc.

Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, suspended visa and passport services for Chinese citizens until January 30 in order to strengthen control over the virus outbreak, the citys exit-entry bureau said in a statement on January 27. Chinese President Xi Jinping on January 26 has called the outbreak a grave situation after officials across China failed to contain the deadly viral infection. Though the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet classified the virus as an international emergency considering the low number of overseas cases, however, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called it 'an emergency in China'.

Read: China Extends Lunar New Year Holiday By 3 Days To Next Sunday In Effort To Contain Virus Spread

Read: Construction Of China Virus Hospitals Gathers Pace

Coronavirus causes concern

According to reports, the coronavirus originated from seafood and animal market located in Wuhan. The viral outbreak has caused concern because of its similarity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which claimed the lives of almost 650 people across China and Hong Kong in the year 2002-2003.

The novel coronavirus is a new strain in the large family of coronaviruses (CoV) which was previously not identified in humans. CoV causes illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

Read: As Of Now, No Indian In China Affected By Coronavirus Outbreak: MEA

Read: China's Unregulated Wild Animal Trade May Lead To More Future Pandemics: Scientists
Delhi to ease restrictions, if Covid cases come down in next 2-3 days: Health Minister

Lata Mangeshkar health update: Doctor says,'She in ICU with Covid-19 and pneumonia, will be under observation'

Explained: Will Wuhan virus or 2019-nCoV impact Indian economy

India

oi-Mousumi Dash

New Delhi, Jan 27: The outbreak of the Coronavirus has so far killed 81 people in China and country's National Health Commission reporting 2,744 confirmed cases. While, the Indian Health ministry has confirmed that over 29,700 passengers from 137 flights were screened till Sunday for novel coronavirus infection at seven major airports in the country but no positive case was detected.

However, the situation is expected to get worse with numbers rising before it gets better.

The latest reports suggested, the coronavirus, which is from the same family as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), has spread its wings worldwide. With Canada became the 16th country to have reported cases, the other countries which have been affected so far include Australia, France, Japan, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Vietnam, China, and Hong Kong.

Coronavirus epidemic: Death toll climbs to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases

According to the study, the novel Chinese coronavirus is likely resided in snakes before being transmitted to humans.

As per a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 8,098 people in 32 countries were affected by SARS with 775 fatalities.

Meanwhile, China has locked down more than 10 cities affected by the virus stopping all forms of public transportation in and out of cities with a high occurrence of the outbreak.

China has also banned domestic group tours and followed that up a day later by stopping international tourist groups from departing from Monday, January 27.

It is now to see how the world's second-largest economy will have a knock-on effect on the global economy, especially the Indian economy.

The first and the foremost, the tourism sector will be affected. The tourism sector in Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong are the most vulnerable.

Coronavirus outbreak: India 'requests' China to permit students stuck in Wuhan to return

According to the Indian Ministry of Tourism, China is India's 8th largest source of foreign visitors. The Chinese tourists contribute about $ 760 million to the Indian economy.

Secondly, the consumer confidence could also be affected. A DBS Group research report suggested that the 2002 SARS outbreak caused a sharp decline in travel, tourism, and commerce in China and other countries like- Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Indian exports to China have been growing in recent years. Based on the Indian Department of Commerce statistics, China is among the top three countries India exports to.

However, the outbreak of the virus, forced people to stay at home for a prolonged period in affected cities in China, and experts believes that this may lead to decline the retail consumption and demand for raw material for manufacturing.

SARS, which earlier had killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong between 2002 and 2003. The virus of atypical pneumonia, better known as SARS, had severely disrupted the economies of Asian countries then.

SARS had caused a large demand shock in East Asia, particularly to the consumption of services, especially travel.

In 2003, the China witnessed fall of foreign tourism revenue as much as 60 per cent. Economists have also estimated that SARS was responsible for a 1-2 per cent dent in China's economic growth, and 0.5 per cent across Southeast Asia in 2013.

Now, it is to see that how fast normality can be restored, and how the world would reacts to curb the outbreak of the deadly disease.
The European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a resolution tabled by some of its members against India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which it says marks a dangerous shift in the country's citizenship regime.

The European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a resolution tabled by some of its members against India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which it says marks a dangerous shift in the country's citizenship regime. The resolution was tabled together by six groupings comprising of 559 members in the 751-member European Parliament.

The resolution, tabled by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the Parliament earlier this week, is set to be debated on 29 January, with a vote on 30 January.

A total of six resolutions have been tabled by groups within the EU, including the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew) and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.

A separate grouping, which represents 66 Members of European Parliament (MEPs), has moved a sixth resolution that supports the Act but calls for an impartial probe into excessive use of force by security forces against anti-CAA protesters, reports The Indian Express.

The government bracing for six scathing resolutions on CAA and also includes Jammu and Kashmir reports The Hindu.

The resolutions have a similar theme with a number of them, such as the one tabled by the GUE/NGL Group, also making a reference to the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. They are set to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday and voted the day after.

The resolutions urge the Indian authorities to "engage constructively" with those protesting against the law and consider their demands to repeal the "discriminatory CAA". "The CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering," according to the GUE/NGL resolution.

But who are these groups?

European People's Party (EPP)

The European People's Party (EPP) is the biggest European political party with conservative and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties, not individuals.

It was primarily founded by Christian Democratic parties in 1976 and has since broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives.

The party is currently lead by its president, the former Prime Minister of Poland and President of the European Council, Donald Tusk. It currently has 182 Members of the European Parliament and its chairman is the German MEP Manfred Weber.

In every election for the European Parliament candidates elected on lists of member parties of the EPP are obliged to join the EPP Group in the European Parliament. The EPP Group holds five of the fourteen vice-presidencies of the European Parliament

The EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and in the European Council since 2002. It is also the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is from the EPP. Many of the founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that later formed the EPP.

Outside the EU the party also controls a majority in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

According to its official website, the party currently includes 84 parties and partners from 43 countries, the President of the European Commission, 10 EU and 3 non-EU heads of state and government, 10 members of the European Commission.

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)

The S&D is a Centre-Left group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the second-largest group. It was officially founded as a Socialist Group on 29 June, 1953, making it the second oldest political group in the European Parliament after the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE). It adopted its present name on 23 June, 2009. The group mostly comprises of social-democratic parties and is affiliated with the Progressive Alliance.

Until the 1999 European Parliament elections, it was the largest group in the Parliament, but since then it has always been the second-largest group. During the 8th EU Parliament Assembly, the S&D was the only Parliament group with representation from all 28 EU member states.

In the European Council, 8 out of 28 Heads of State and Government belong to the S&D Group and in the European Commission, 8 out of 28 Commissioners come from PES parties. The S&D Group is represented by 154 Members of European Parliament (MEPs) across 26 EU countries, who work in all parliamentary committees and interparliamentary delegations.

This group is currently lead by Iratxe Garcia Perez since 2019.

Renew Europe Group (Renew)

The liberal-centrist Renew Europe was created as the successor to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). The group holds 108 seats in Parliament, making it the third-largest group. Its members represent 22 EU countries.

Dacian Ciolos, a former Romanian prime minister, was elected president of the group in June 2019. This is his first term as an MEP. The group also has eight vice-presidents. This pro-EU group says it is strongly focused on addressing people's needs and finding EU solutions to European problems. One of its main focuses is to deliver on the promises set by the Paris climate agreement of 2015.

Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA)

The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) is the political group of the European Parliament composed primarily of green and regionalist political parties. The group was formed in July 1999, when two progressive European political families agreed to join forces in the Parliament. The group has generally limited its membership to progressive parties.

At present, the group consists of three distinct European political parties, namely the larger European Green Party (EGP) and the European Free Alliance (EFA) and the smaller European Pirate Party. The EFA Group currently includes representatives from Scotland, Catalonia, Corsica, Wales and Latvia.

The Greens/EFA group increased its share of the vote during the last European elections and now has 74 seats, making it the fourth-largest political group in the European Parliament. Its members represent 16 EU countries.

The group has two co-presidents: Ska Keller, a German MEP first elected in 2009 and co-president since 2016, and Philippe Lamberts, a Belgian MEP who also entered the Parliament in 2009 and has been co-president since 2014.

The Green group strives to make Europe the global leader in terms of environmental protection, peace and social justice, globalisation, and guarantee human rights and equality for all. The groups main focus is environmental as well as social justice. They want to tackle climate change through a green energy revolution.

European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)

The conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group was founded in 2009. It holds 62 seats in the European Parliament, giving it sixth place in terms of size among the seven political groups in the current legislature. Its members come from 15 EU countries.

The group has two co-chairs: Polish MEP, Ryszard Legutko, who has been on the co-chair since 2017 and was elected for a third term in 2019, and Italys Raffaele Fitto, who was elected co-chair in June. He served as an MEP in 1999-2000 and again since 2014. The group has six vice-chairs.

This ECR group believes that Europe is in need of decentralisation and less bureaucracy. They also want to promote fair and free trade, economic recovery, growth and competitiveness as well as a reform of the EU's migration system.

European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

The European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group was established in 1995 and is an alliance with left-wing, socialist and communist parties. The group has 41 members, which makes it the smallest group in the current European Parliament. Its members represent 14 EU countries.

GUE/NGL has two new co-presidents: Frances Manon Aubry, a first-time MEP, and Martin Schirdewan from Germany, who has been an MEP since 2017. The group also has four vice-presidents.

According to its 1994 constituent declaration, the group is opposed to the present European Union political structure, but it is committed to its integration. The group focuses on climate fairness, tax justice, workers rights and the enforcement of human rights.

The resolution moved by these six bodies makes a reference to the Charter of the United Nations, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the India-EU Strategic Partnership Joint Action Plan signed in November 2005, and to the EU-India Thematic Dialogue on Human Rights as it urges the Indian authorities to "engage constructively" with those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and consider their demands to repeal the "discriminatory CAA".

"The CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering," it notes.

"Instead of addressing the concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters," the resolution states.

This move comes less than two months before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to Brussels for the India-EU summit on 13 March and can impact the way EU member-nations engage with India.

Though there has been no official reaction from the government so far, sources from the external affairs ministry have reiterated the CAA is an entirely internal matter and that the law was adopted by due process and through democratic means in Parliament.

With inputs from PTI
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Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 16:58 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20612c269 1 Business Trade,China,Indonesia,imports,Trade-Ministry,health-ministry,Agriculture-Ministry,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus Free

The Trade Ministry is coordinating with the Health Ministry on whether to impose import restrictions on goods from China, Indonesias largest trading partner, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus responsible for a rising death toll in China into Indonesia.

"We will observe and evaluate it given that the occurrence is new and it's developing quickly. We need to anticipate matters," Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto told reporters in Jakarta on Monday.

Any possible import restrictions could stymie local importers as China is Indonesia's top import source. However, a lack of preemptive measures could risk the virus spreading to Indonesia. The Health Ministry is still studying the impact on imported products, added Agus.

Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said his ministry had strengthened oversight at gates for imported products by tightening check-up procedures.

Every product that comes in, be it food, fruit or anything else, for the time being imports of those products can be limited. Therefore, excessive fears are not necessary, although tighter biosecurity measures must be imposed at our entrance gates, Syahrul said in Jakarta on Monday.

Indonesia imported US$44.5 billion of non-oil and gas products from China throughout 2019, representing almost 30 percent of overall such imports into Indonesia.

According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), fruit imports from China more than doubled to $134.42 million in November 2019 alone from $64.17 million in the same period last year. From January to November last year, fruit imports totaled $1.24 billion, up 9.61 percent from $1.13 billion in the same period last year, with China, Japan and Thailand dominating as the countries of origin.

Overall, however, Agus said the coronavirus spread would not influence Indonesia's trade with China or other affected countries.

Agus said exports were still running "according to procedures" of the destination country. He also denied claims that exports to China would decrease following the outbreak.

"I don't think that such a situation [export decrease] will happen as [China] continues to be our customer. And China is an enormous country with around 1.7 billion people, so the potential is immense," Agus said.

Indonesia exported $25.8 billion worth of non-oil and gas products to China in 2019, an increase of 5.9 percent from the previous year, representing 17 percent of total exports.

Having similarities to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the coronavirus had killed 80 people as of Monday morning in China, with hundreds of new infections being reported despite the local governments quarantine efforts.

Starting in Wuhan, the viral epidemic has now spread around the world, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as confirmed infections surged to nearly 2,000 people, various sources have reported.

Aside from potential trade restrictions, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has said the government will discuss on Monday the issuance of a travel warning from Indonesia to China as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the East Asian country rapidly increases.
Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba does not regard Hungary as a country that blocks Ukraine's achievement of EU membership prospects.

Hungary has never denied the European prospect of Ukraine. It is true that Hungary started to block the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting following a certain dispute between us. However, inside the EU, Hungary supports sanctions against Russia which were imposed in response to aggression against our country. And it basically blocks nothing. And we have our bilateral track where we try to solve problems. But I do not see and I have never heard Hungary denying the European prospects of Ukraine, Kuleba said in an interview for Radio Liberty.

Some EU member states are more skeptical and some are more optimistic about Ukraine's EU membership, he acknowledged.

The EUs position is being shaped by balancing their interests. But I do not know any EU country that would oppose Ukraines rapprochement with the EU and becoming an integral part of the wide European space, Kuleba added.

As reported, relations between Ukraine and Hungary became more complicated after the Verkhovna Rada voted in favor of the law on education. The law, approved at second reading and as a whole on September 5, 2017, came into force on September 28. According to the document, the use of the state language in school education was expanded. Hungary expressed concern about the future of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Since then, Budapest has been blocking NATO-Ukraine Commission meetings and stressed its readiness to oppose Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration until the law is amended.

On January 16, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba stated that Ukraine was optimistic about the future of relations with Hungary and hoped to reach compromises in order to settle the situation taking into account the interests of both countries.

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Fine Gael's decision to expel the founding member of its first Northern Ireland branch for promoting his father's election campaign has been described as "silly" by a Cabinet minister.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said she wanted to know who was responsible for the decision to expel Jude Perry, who founded a Fine Gael branch in Queen's University Belfast last year.

Mr Perry (21) was informed via text last week that his membership had ceased after it was discovered he paid less than 100 for a handful of Facebook ads to promote his father, former Fine Gael minister John Perry, in his Dail bid.

Mr Perry is running as an Independent candidate in Sligo-Leitrim.

"I think it's a terrible pity. Jude is a wonderful young man," Ms Doherty told Newstalk's 'On The Record'.

"I don't know where that decision came from but it's a silly decision and Jude is very welcome back into our party."

Her comments came a day after Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe suggested Mr Perry could be allowed to rejoin Fine Gael after the election.

Mr Perry said he wanted an apology from Fine Gael and an explanation as to why he was expelled without due process or a hearing. "I would like to know how this decision was made," he said.

However, it also emerged yesterday that Fine Gael has issued General Election media briefing notes to members instructing them to defend the party's decision and note that under party rules no member may campaign or assist candidates other than those ratified by Fine Gael.

"If any member of the party is involved in political activity in supporting somebody who is not a candidate for Fine Gael, then they forfeit their membership," the briefing states.

Mr Perry said Fine Gael was "defending the indefensible".

After the Irish Independent revealed details of his expulsion, Mr Perry was backed by a number of high-profile figures over the weekend, including former Fine Gael justice minister Alan Shatter who said the party had "no decency, no moral compass".

Fine Gael did not respond to a request for comment.
Tipton Health is now offering an on-site, customized Deep Dive Magnet Document Workshop to help hospital nursing teams clearly define the stories, data and evidence needed for a successful Magnet application submission.

The Deep Dive Workshop enables CNOs, Magnet Program Directors (MPDs) and writing teams to explore stories in depth for each source of evidence (SOE), said Jason Long, Tiptons Manager of Hospital Certifications. We can tailor this workshop to meet the needs of each organization. The goal is to identify specific stories for each SOE and talk through them one by one.

Tipton partners with the hospital MPD to identify top-priority source documents and set the workshop agenda. Tiptons consultants then travel on-site to meet with Magnet writing teams. Together they evaluate the requirements of each document, find stories that work for each one and identify the best EO (Empirical Outcome) resources to help highlight the hospitals biggest accomplishments.

Participants will come away from this intensive one-day workshop with a list of ideal stories for each document and a deep understanding of the necessities for Magnet documentation writing. Tiptons consultants also host a Q&A at the end of the day to ensure participants feel confident and prepared to embark on their Magnet journey.

Deep Dive complements Tiptons other on-site offerings: the Applying Magnet to Your Service Line Workshop (for organizations driving a culture of nursing excellence), the Process Improvement Project Workshop and the popular Writers Workshop for members of a hospitals Magnet writing team.

We specialize in delivering on-demand, high-value nursing excellence consulting services that are customized to each organization, said Tipton Health President Dan Tipton.

Organizations can schedule an onsite workshop by contacting our consultants at info@tiptonhealth.com or 302-454-7901.

About Tipton Health

Tipton Health is a leading provider of nursing excellence, Magnet, Pathway to Excellence and Practice Transition Accreditation Program consulting support to the nations hospital and healthcare systems. In addition, Tipton Health supports clients nationwide with award-winning communications services, including employee communications, human resources communications, public relations, marketing communications, intranet and Internet design, graphic design, and strategic communications. For more information, please visit http://www.tiptonhealth.com.

Tipton Health Communications products and services are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the ANCC. ANCC Magnet Recognition, ANCC National Magnet Conference, Institute for Credentialing Innovation, Magnet, Magnet Recognition Program, The Magnet Prize and Pathway to Excellence Program are registered trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Journey to Magnet Excellence and Pathway to Excellence in Long Term Care are trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Todays internet industry ranks as one of the highest-grossing businesses for global players. China is on the mainstream of digital technology as the country is at the forefront of the tech players around the world.

Getting ahead of the industry requires business people to stay on top of their game by maximizing their professional value. Being an expert at one thing is no longer needed, and most industries need people with multiple areas of proficiency.

An online master of Finance degree, for example, has catapulted workers to the top of the executive ladder by helping refocus their financial leadership to a greater extent. It provides the basic and advanced concepts of corporate finance management, investment theories, and risk management awareness.

All these facets keep aspiring managers up-to-date with the latest financial trends needed to manage a tech-related business. Nonetheless, Chinas economy has been dramatically influenced by tech advancements, making them one of the top tech hubs in the world.

Triggering a financial turnaround with tech-related businesses in China

China is not only known for its prime manufacturing industry, supplying cheaper products to the global market. The country is also an emerging technology center with continuous advancements shaping the internet industry.

Experts believe that the country will be the most advanced nation in 10 to 20 years from now. They have made crucial contributions to the global field, including steel manufacturing, sophisticated weapon designs, and will potentially target many of the worlds industries.

Among the most prominent public tech companies sweeping the global market are the Alibaba Group, Tencent, Xiaomi, and Baidu. Ecommerce multinational giant, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Is Chinas highest-ranked internet company worth over $352 billion.

Next in line is Tencent Holdings with a net value of $500 billion, and Baidu Inc., with a market value of $136 billion. Combining the internet business around China, the industry has accounted for over 2.75 trillion yuan in previous years. This is listed as 8.8% of the entire digital economy of the country.

China has not been seen as a global player in previous decades. The country has always had a reputation for sweatshop conditions. China only embraced the internet industry when the country was presented with the opportunity because of the financial turmoil experienced by the United States in the early 2000s.

The future of China and its internet industry

The technological future of China is far brighter than that of most Asian countries. The country is only rivaled by Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The past couple of years, China has been a strong contender in the global tech war, slowly catapulting itself behind the United States and other European countries.

The country is also increasing its visibility in the robot manufacturing industry, tech mobility, and internet businesses. Chinese mobile maker, Huawei, is fighting back despite restrictions from the American market, putting out the first 5G technology in the world.

Looking at the previous global performance of China and where the country is headed, it is clear where the country is heading. In the next couple of years, we will see the country dominating most of the tech industries, surpassing other global tech giants like the US and Japan.

The Chinese government spent $70.8 billion on government-driven tech expenditure in 2016 and there is an expectation that the funding will continue to increase. This figure is more than any country has devoted to tech advancement in the world.
It's easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. For example, the Tianjin Tianbao Energy Co., Ltd. (HKG:1671) share price is down 22% in the last year. That's well bellow the market return of 3.2%. We wouldn't rush to judgement on Tianjin Tianbao Energy because we don't have a long term history to look at. It's down 2.6% in the last seven days.

Check out our latest analysis for Tianjin Tianbao Energy

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Unfortunately Tianjin Tianbao Energy reported an EPS drop of 59% for the last year. The share price fall of 22% isn't as bad as the reduction in earnings per share. It may have been that the weak EPS was not as bad as some had feared.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

SEHK:1671 Past and Future Earnings, January 27th 2020

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Tianjin Tianbao Energy's TSR for the last year was -18%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

Story continues

A Different Perspective

Given that the market gained 3.2% in the last year, Tianjin Tianbao Energy shareholders might be miffed that they lost 18% (even including dividends) . However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. The share price decline has continued throughout the most recent three months, down 9.8%, suggesting an absence of enthusiasm from investors. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 5 warning signs with Tianjin Tianbao Energy (at least 1 which is a bit unpleasant) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 00:01:02|Editor: yan

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KABUL, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan Taliban claimed Monday that its fighters shot down a U.S. forces' aircraft in eastern Ghazni province.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, wrote on Twitter that the militants shot down an intelligence aircraft of U.S. forces in Sadokhil area, Deh Yak district of Ghazni at midday Monday.

"The crash resulting in all crew and high-ranking CIA members killed. The wreckage and dead bodies laying at crash site," he said.

Earlier in the day, provincial Afghan officials in Ghazni confirmed a plane crash incident in Deh Yak district but they did not provide any details about the possible casualties, saying the incident occurred in Taliban-controlled area.

The NATO-led coalition forces did not release any official statement. However, they said that they are investigating the incident.
Amid the Coronavirus outbreak, Nepalese officials reportedly said that two more people were suspected to have been infected with the virus. Mahendra Prasad Shrestha, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, while speaking to the Nepalese local media said that both the patients have been kept in isolation at Teku Hospital and their health conditions is stable for now. He further also added that both people are also under observation and the doctors are still trying to ascertain if they have been infected with the virus.

According to reports, the man is said to be in his late 20s and had returned from Shanghai on January 19. He visited the Dhapasi-based Grande International hospital on January 21 for a respiratory problem.

He is now admitted in Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Teku. Similarly, the woman has also been brought to the Teku Hospital and preparations are underway to send their specimens like throat swabs and blood samples to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Hong Kong to confirm if they have been infected with the SARS-like virus.

READ: Hong Kong Health Experts Warns Of Thousands More Carriers Of Novel Coronavirus

The deadly Coronavirus virus has already killed 80 people in China and infected nearly 2,500 people since its outbreak. In order to strengthen control over the virus outbreak, Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak, has suspended visa and passport services for Chinese citizens until January 30.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not yet classified the virus as an international emergency considering the low number of overseas cases. However, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called it 'an emergency in China'.

READ: Malaysia Temporarily Bans Chinese Visitors From Hubei To Curb Coronavirus Spread

Precautions taken by India

After the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Nepal, the Ministry of Health on January 27 also strengthened vigil at Panitanki (West Bengal) which is the entry point of India. The Ministry of Health in its statement said, "We are on high vigil in districts bordering Nepal. We have strengthened vigil at Panitanki (West Bengal) entry point from Nepal.

Central government hospitals in the national capital including AIIMS and RML Hospital, have also set up isolation wards and kept beds ready to provide treatment to any suspected case of the novel Coronavirus infection if the need arises.

READ: Coronavirus: British Man Narrates Quarantine Experience, Says 'I Felt Like An Exhibit'

READ: Macau To Ban Entry To Visitors From Hubei Province Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

(With inputs from Agencies)
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Following the announcement of the government's second attempt to divest Air India, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told ANI, on January 27, that the dues of all employees of Air India, including arrears, will be cleared by Air India Assets Holding before the closure of the sale transaction.

The expression of interest (EoI) document, released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on January 27, mentioned that employees' dues, which are mostly in the nature of past arrears, are pegged at around Rs 1,383.7 crore.

"The employees dues of Rs 13,837 million on account of Justice Dharamadhikari Commission Report (included in Other Financial Liabilities shown in FY 2018-19 B/S of AI as part of Current Liabilities) is in the nature of past arrears and AI/Air India Asset Holding Ltd. will commit to pay the same at the appropriate stage before/on closing of the Proposed Transaction," the document read.

It also noted that "Additionally, a provision of Rs 2,076.3 million (included in Other Financial Liabilities shown in FY 2018-19 B/S of AI as part of Current Liabilities) towards wage arrears accruable to employees working on Narrow body fleet, has been made in the books of accounts of AI."

Also Read | Air India sale: Government trims debt to Rs 23,286 crore, reduces net-worth criteria of bidders

In addition to this, the government said that the final buyer shall ensure that 3 percent of the equity shares of Air India are offered to its permanent employees under the employee stock options (ESOP).

"The Confirmed Selected Bidder shall ensure that 3 percent of the equity shares of the Company acquired by the Confirmed Selected Bidder (or the special purpose vehicle in case investment in AI is made through a special purpose vehicle) are offered to the permanent employees of AI as per terms of an ESOP. The detailed terms and conditions of ESOP would be provided at

the RFP stage," the bid document noted.

The government, on January 27, announced its decision to completely exit Air India, including Air India Express (AIXL) and Air India SATS (AISATS). This is seen as a major step to ensure success in its second attempt at divesting the national carrier.

Read More | Air India sale: EoI out, govt to completely exit airline

The airline, with about 14,000 employees, has a ratio of 133 employees per aircraft. This is much higher than that of private airline IndiGo which has a ratio of 108. The Air India EoI document, however, pointed out that "around 36.05 percent of the permanent employees of AI will be retiring in the next five years."
There hasnt been much public polling in the Democratic primary race, and it hasnt offered too many surprises even on the few occasions when it has materialized. Until Thursday night.

In what might be the most surprising results of the cycle, Fox News released polls in South Carolina and Nevada showing Tom Steyer in a strong position: second place with 15 percent of the vote in the South Carolina primary, and tied for third with 12 percent of the vote in Nevada.

Its enough to qualify him for next weeks Democratic debate, and it at least raises the question of whether hes poised to play a more meaningful role in the race.

The results are unexpected enough that you could be forgiven for questioning the validity of the polling. That would be a mistake.
[January 27, 2020] Maple Rock Capital Partners Requisitions Special Meeting of Optiva Inc. Shareholders to Establish Accountable, Independent Board and Governance

Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc., owning approximately 22.1% of the subordinate voting shares of Optiva Inc. (TSX:OPT) ("Optiva" or the "Company"), announces it, as investment manager of Maple Rock Master Fund LP, has requisitioned (the "Requisition") Optiva's Board of Directors (the "Board") to call a special meeting of shareholders ("Meeting") for the purpose of, among other things, replacing two non-preferred ESW Capital, LLC (or "ESW")-affiliated directors with two wholly independent directors. Maple Rock has been Optiva's second largest shareholder since September 2017 and continues to believe in Optiva's long-term value creation prospects. However, Maple Rock is concerned the Company will be unable to reach its full potential with an ESW-controlled Board and ESW-affiliated CEO who are intent on running the Company as though it were a private entity to the benefit of ESW and without appropriate checks and balances. Maple Rock is disappointed, but not surprised, that following its open letter to the Board of January 21, 2020, expressing concerns about the Company and indicating a continued willingness to engage, the Board has not reached out to Maple Rock. The fact the Board has continued to ignore its second-largest shareholder in an era where director-shareholder engagement is the norm, is not only an affront to the basic standards of good governance, but further indication of the Board's willingness to run Optiva as though it is a private company and their entrenchment. Maple Rock's decision to requisition a meeting was not its first choice nor one it relishes taking. It is, however, needed to establish the basic tenets of good governance at Optiva. Over the past several months, Maple Rock has sought to work constructively with Optiva to implement a small number of modest, straightforward, commonsense recommendations that would strengthen the Company's governance practices and build value for shareholders. In fact, Maple Rock is so confident about the prospects for the Company that it has twice offered additional capital, contingent upon minority nomination rights and basic governance improvements. The first offer was in the form of a CDN$15 million loan and then in the form of a CDN$50 million equity investment at a price per subordinate voting share of C$60. Rather than accept the additional capital and basic governance improvements that came with it, the ESW-controlled Board rejected the offers and instead announced a USD$100 million financing. Having rejected Maple Rock's previous offers, it is clear this financing is not driven by the need for additional capital, but rather is an entrenchment tactic to dilute shareholders. It's especially odd that a company would announce its intention to raise a significant amount of money with no indications on the sources of capital or its per share value. The lack of clarity around the announcement rattled the market with Optiva losing over 21% of its market value as of the close on January 24, 2020. It is now apparent that, with this recent action, the only way to ensure good governance at the Company is to requisition a meeting of shareholders. Maple Rock is requesting shareholders remove ESW-related directors Christy Jones and Farhan Thawar and replace them with Ryan J. Morris and Andrew Day (the "Nominees")-two highly-qualified independent and experienced nominees. Given the current accountability imbalance at the Board level and potential for the ESW-controlled Board to take certain actions counter to the interests of other shareholders in an effort to further entrench and benefit themselves, Maple Rock requests the special meeting be held promptly, by no later than March 16, 2020. Maple Rock is also reminding the Board, particularly the two deemed independent non-preferred directors in question, of their fiduciary duty to all shareholders, beyond ESW. If the ESW-controlled Board is considering a behind-closed-doors process to replace Ms. Jones and Mr. Thawar with two other ESW-selected directors in an attempt to create the appearance of change and independence, Maple Rock warns this will not result in real change. The new independent directors should be selected by all shareholders. Governance Imbalance in Favour of ESW Optiva's Board is presently made up of seven directors, four of whom are entitled to be selected by ESW as the sole preferred shareholder, while the other three non-preferred directors are intended to be voted on by subordinate voting shares, of which ESW owns approximately 27.8%. Since ESW gained its controlling position on the Board via a private placement on January 26, 2017, Optiva has lost over 40% of its market value and underperformed its industry peers and the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The problem is that the check and balance required on this structure, namely three truly independent directors, is not in place. Currently, two of the three non-preferred directors-namely Ms. Jones and Mr. Thawar (technically deemed to be 'independent directors')-are closely associated with ESW. ESW nominated both as independent directors who are tasked with overseeing related-party matters and ensuring minority shareholders are treated fairly, yet both have deep ties to ESW. Ms. Jones and Mr. Thawar have numerous historical relationships with ESW. True independence is incredibly important, especially given the three independent directors have a critical role in overseeing transactions that involve and potentially benefit ESW, and in ensuring shareholders have the ability to consider accretive change of control opportunities that may not be of interest to ESW. Notably, Optiva's subscription agreement contains a drag-along right that, among other provisions, requires ESW to support any proposed transaction that is at least 120% of the exercise price of the warrants then in effect and is supported by the majority of independent non-preferred directors. Just because a director is deemed to be independent, it does not mean they are sufficiently objective to represent the interests of all shareholders. Directors who have personal and/or previous professional relationships with parties who have interests that may be at odds with the interests of other shareholders may be less likely to engage in a proactive, thorough, and dispassionate review and debate of matters brought before them. Maple Rock believes shareholders should have the benefit of full disclosure regarding Board members' conflicting relationships and actions that raise questions about possible breach of certain directors' fiduciary duties. Optiva's Board Skirting Governance Best Practices Governance best practices dictate that compensation committees be composed solely of independent directors. Optiva's compensation committee consists of three Board members-Ms. Jones, and non-independent directors Scott Brighton and Andrew Price-all of whom have close ties to ESW. Given the makeup of this committee, Maple Rock is concerned about its effectiveness in providing oversight and ensuring the appropriateness and competitiveness of executive pay. For example, the compensation package for CEO Danielle Royston appears to be significantly off-market relative to her male peers, is devoid of any peer group benchmarking, and lacks any performance-based incentives to deliver returns for Optiva shareholders. It also raises serious questions about the degree of influence the ESW-controlled compensation committee has on the Company's management. The Company's decisions on CEO compensation, coupled with its recently-released analyst presentation, raise questions about ESW's objectives. We wonder why the Board would object to retaining a globally-recognized compensation consulting agency to review the CEO's compensation in order to incentivize shareholder returns and address off-market levels relative to male peers; and why it would choose to rely on non-standard financial definitions and accounting practices in a presentation which confusingly attempts to make the company look weaker than it is. We also wonder why Optiva, a publicly-traded company on the TSX, would go an entire year without a full-time CFO, and to what degree the Company, without such a CFO, is able to make accurate forecasts with regard to financial matters, including its fundraising needs. Independent, Accountable and Highly-Qualified Director Nominees Maple Rock's Nominees are wholly independent, accountable and have significant experience in the capital markets, telecommunications and software industries. In contrast, current "independent" directors Ms. Jones and Mr. Thawar are closely associated with ESW. The Nominees include: Ryan Morris Entrepreneur and investor who served as Chairman of three publicly-traded companies

Founder and President of investment firm Meson Capital Partners, LLC

Co-Founder and CEO of software company VideoNote, LLC Andrew Day Over 25 years of management experience in telecommunications, technology innovation, sales and marketing leadership

Currently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Internap Corp.

Former Senior Vice President, Head of Consumer Sales / Channels at Rogers Communications (News - Alert), and CEO of Primus Telecommunications Group Inc. Advisors Kingsdale Advisors ("Kingsdale") is acting as strategic shareholder and communications advisor and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP is acting as legal advisor to Maple Rock. Information Concerning the Concerned Shareholder Nominees As set out in the Requisition, Maple Rock, as investment manager of Maple Rock Master Fund LP, (together, the "Concerned Shareholder") has nominated Ryan Morris and Andrew Day (the "Concerned Shareholder Nominees") to serve as new independent directors of Optiva Inc. ("Optiva") until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until their successors are elected or appointed in accordance with applicable law. The table below sets out, in respect of each Concerned Shareholder Nominee, his name, province or state and country of residence, his principal occupation, business or employment within the five preceding years, and the number of subordinate voting shares (the "Shares") of Optiva beneficially owned, or controlled or directed, directly or indirectly, by such Concerned Shareholder Nominee.







Name, Province

or State and

Country of

Residence Present Principal Occupation, Business or Employment and

Principal Occupation, Business or Employment During the

Preceding Five Years Number of Shares

Beneficially Owned or

Controlled or Directed

(Directly or Indirectly) Ryan Morris

California,

United States President of Meson Capital Partners LLC from 2009 to present;

Executive Chairman of Software Motor Company from 2017 to

present. 12,488 Andrew Day Ontario, Canada Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Internap (News - Alert)

Corporation from 2019 to present; Senior Vice President and

General Manager of Internap Corporation from 2016 to 2019;

Senior Vice President - Head of Consumer Sales / Channels of

Rogers Communications Inc. from 2013 to 2015. Nil

Other Boards of Reporting Issuers As at the date of this Requisition, neither of the Concerned Shareholder Nominees serve as directors of any reporting issuers (or the equivalent) in Canada or otherwise. Other Information Concerning the Concerned Shareholder Nominees To the knowledge of the Concerned Shareholder, no Concerned Shareholder Nominee is, at the date hereof, or has been, within ten (10) years before the date hereof: (a) a director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer of any company that (i) was subject to a cease trade order, an order similar to a cease trade order or an order that denied the relevant company access to any exemption under securities legislation that was in effect for a period of more than thirty (30) consecutive days (each, an "order"), in each case that was issued while the Concerned Shareholder Nominee was acting in the capacity as director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer, or (ii) was subject to an order that was issued after the Concerned Shareholder Nominee ceased to be a director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer and which resulted from an event that occurred while that person was acting in the capacity as director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer; (b) a director or executive officer of any company that, while such Concerned Shareholder Nominee was acting in that capacity, or within one (1) year of such Concerned Shareholder Nominee ceasing to act in that capacity, became bankrupt, made a proposal under any legislation relating to bankruptcy or insolvency or was subject to or instituted any proceedings, arrangement or compromise with creditors or had a receiver, receiver manager or trustee appointed to hold its assets; or (c) someone who became bankrupt, made a proposal under any legislation relating to bankruptcy or insolvency, or became subject to or instituted any proceedings, arrangement or compromise with creditors, or had a receiver, receiver manager or trustee appointed to hold the assets of such Concerned Shareholder Nominee. To the knowledge of the Concerned Shareholder, as at the date hereof, no Concerned Shareholder Nominee has been subject to: (a) any penalties or sanctions imposed by a court relating to securities legislation, or by a securities regulatory authority, or has entered into a settlement agreement with a securities regulatory authority; or (b) any other penalties or sanctions imposed by a court or regulatory body that would likely be considered important to a reasonable securityholder in deciding whether to vote for a Concerned Shareholder Nominee. To the knowledge of the Concerned Shareholder, none of the Concerned Shareholder or directors or officers of the Concerned Shareholder, or any associates or affiliates of the foregoing, or any of the Concerned Shareholder Nominees or their respective associates or affiliates, has: (a) any material interest, direct or indirect, in any transaction since the commencement of the Corporation's most recently completed financial year or in any proposed transaction which has materially affected or will materially affect the Corporation or any of its subsidiaries; or (b) any material interest, direct or indirect, by way of beneficial ownership of securities or otherwise, in any matter proposed to be acted on at the Meeting, other than the election of directors. Additional Information The information contained in this press release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Although the Concerned Shareholder has requisitioned a meeting of shareholders, there is currently no record or meeting date and shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute a proxy in favour of the Concerned Shareholder Nominees or any other resolutions set forth in the Requisition. In connection with the Meeting, the Concerned Shareholder may file a dissident information circular (the "Information Circular") in due course in compliance with applicable securities laws. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Concerned Shareholder is voluntarily providing the disclosure required under section 9.2(4) of National Instrument 51-102 - Continuous Disclosure Obligations in accordance with securities laws applicable to public broadcast solicitations. This news release and any solicitation made by the Concerned Shareholder in advance of the Meeting is, or will be, as applicable, made by the Concerned Shareholder, and not by or on behalf of the management of Optiva. All costs incurred for any solicitation will be borne by the Concerned Shareholder, provided that, subject to applicable law, the Concerned Shareholder may seek reimbursement from Optiva of the Concerned Shareholder's out-of-pocket expenses, including proxy solicitation expenses and legal fees, incurred in connection with a successful reconstitution of the Board. The Concerned Shareholder is not soliciting proxies in connection with the Meeting at this time, and shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute proxies in favour of the Concerned Shareholder Nominees (in respect of the Meeting) or any other resolution set forth in the Requisition. Proxies may be solicited by the Concerned Shareholder pursuant to an Information Circular sent to Shareholders after which solicitations may be made by or on behalf of the Concerned Shareholder, by mail, telephone, fax, email or other electronic means as well as by newspaper or other media advertising, and in person by directors, officers and employees of the Concerned Shareholder, who will not be specifically remunerated therefor. The Concerned Shareholder may also solicit proxies in reliance upon the public broadcast exemption to the solicitation requirements under applicable Canadian corporate and securities laws, conveyed by way of public broadcast, including through press releases, speeches or publications, and by any other manner permitted under applicable Canadian laws. The Concerned Shareholder may engage the services of one or more agents and authorize other persons to assist in soliciting proxies on behalf of the Concerned Shareholder. The Concerned Shareholder may retain Kingsdale to assist the Concerned Shareholder in soliciting shareholders should the Concerned Shareholder commence a formal solicitation of proxies. If Kingsdale is retained in such capacity, its responsibilities may include advising the Concerned Shareholder on governance best practices, where applicable, liaising with proxy advisory firms, developing and implementing shareholder communication and engagement strategies, and advising with respect to meeting and proxy protocol for a fee to be agreed upon at the time of such engagement. The Concerned Shareholder is not requesting that Optiva shareholders submit a proxy at this time. Once the Concerned Shareholder has commenced a formal solicitation of proxies in connection with the Meeting, proxies may be revoked by instrument in writing by the shareholder giving the proxy or by its duly authorized officer or attorney, or in any other manner permitted by law or the articles of incorporation or by-laws of Optiva. Optiva's principal office address is 2233 Argentia Rd, East Tower, Suite 302, Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2X7. A copy of this news release may be obtained on Optiva's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005324/en/

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* The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology downgraded on Sunday the alert level for Taal Volcano from alert level four to alert level three in response to reduced activity 15 days after the island volcano erupted on January 12. But the institute warned that the lowering of the alert level does not mean that the threat of a hazardous eruption has disappeared.

* India and Brazil on Saturday (January 25) inked 15 agreements for boosting mutual cooperation on a wide range of areas, including cyber security, oil and natural gas, and health and medicine. The agreements were signed in the presence of visiting Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

* US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation that will raise tariffs on derivative steel and aluminum imports to cover nails, staples and other downstream products, while studies show that tariffs have hurt the American manufacturing sector and the overall economy.

* Pakistan's Ministry of Interior in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched a US$25-million program to strengthen the criminal justice system in Pakistan and prevent and fight terrorism.

* Official data released Saturday shows that Mongolia raked in a total of US$607.2 million from tourism in 2019, up 10.2 percent from the previous year. The Mongolian Environment and Tourism Ministry said the Asian country attracted around 577,300 foreign tourists last year, up 9.1 percent compared to 2018.

* Bulgaria's expulsion of a diplomat from the Russian Embassy and an employee from Russia's Trade Mission is an "openly unfriendly and provocative" step, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

* Mexican authorities are investigating a shooting at a restaurant in the central state of Guanajuato that left nine people dead and one wounded, local public prosecutor's office reported on Saturday.

* US President Donald Trump's legal team started Saturday to make opening arguments in defense of the president in the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate, after House managers, a group of seven House Democrats acting as prosecutors, argued for the president's conviction and removal from office over the last three days.

* The Syrian army seems determined to capture rebel-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces in northern Syria, with two official statements released Saturday regarding such intention.

* The death toll from a gas tanker explosion in the Peruvian capital has risen to 13, health authorities said on Saturday.

* The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Saturday expressed regret over continued violations of the arms embargo in Libya, as the armed conflict between the eastern-based army and the UN-backed government continues.

* At least 16 militants have been confirmed killed as fighting planes struck Taliban hideouts in Balkh district of the northern Balkh province on Saturday, army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said Sunday.
He joins from Hub International, where he served as chief sales officer and property/casualty market leader. In that role, Hamilton led the company to unprecedented growth in the Pacific Northwest region.

Hamilton is a former insurance producer and agency principal with expertise in wholesale real estate and retail placements. Newfront Insurance said in a release that it hopes to utilize Hamiltons experience as a broker to help inspire its team of brokers to be top performers.

We were struck by Garths track record, leadership, and vision. Having been a producer himself, he knows how to build a book of business and what it means to take care of clients, Newfront Insurance co-founder and CEO Spike Lipkin said.

Newfront is creating an industry-leading program for maximizing broker performance, commented Hamilton on his appointment. People want to work here because they know they can win.

Read more: Newfront Insurance names new chief operating officer

Last October, Newfront Insurance appointed Michael Brown to serve as the companys newest chief operating officer. Brown joined Newfront from Uber, where he oversaw the transportation networking companys business in Southeast Asia and Australia.
The PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has been urged to act quickly to prevent an escalation in an IRA feud following a gun attack on a prominent republican in Belfast on Saturday night

The PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has been urged to act quickly to prevent an escalation in an IRA feud following a gun attack on a prominent republican in Belfast on Saturday night.

The man in his late 50s - named by security sources as Patrick Fitzpatrick - was shot in the back in the Short Strand area of the city centre.

The victim, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, is being treated in hospital for his injuries, which are not life-threatening, after undergoing surgery on Saturday night.

UUP MLA Doug Beattie said "decisive action" was necessary.

"There is talk that this is an extension of the feud involving the 2015 murders of Jock Davison and Kevin McGuigan. There's always a worry that the feud is rumbling on," he said. Whether or not this is linked to the feud is speculation. What is absolutely clear, however, is that somebody brought a weapon on to the streets and that's a big concern.

"If it's linked to terrorism, dissidents or an internal Provisional IRA feud then there is real concern. The Chief Constable needs to take action very quickly.

"These things can quickly spiral out of control unless decisive action is taken very quickly.

"There are lots of questions for the police. They'll get a lot of information when they do the ballistics tests.

"I imagine the round that was fired has been recovered. That will be able to tell them whether or not it is from a weapon that has been previously used in other terrorist activity or is associated with criminality.

"The police need to get on and do their job and do it with vigour."

Sinn Fein policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said those responsible for the attack "must be taken off the streets".

"Thankfully the man has not been seriously hurt but it appears this was an attempt to kill or injure him," said Mr Kelly.

"There is no place for guns in our society and those responsible must be taken off the streets and should face due process in the courts.

"I appeal to anyone with information to bring it forward to the police and assist the police investigation in any way possible."

Mr Fitzpatrick is originally from the Short Strand area but has lived for many years in the west of the city.

He is a prominent Sinn Fein supporter who has appeared at events alongside leading party members.

In a statement, PSNI Detective Sergeant Duffield said guns have no place in the community.

"We are fortunate that we are not dealing with a fatality following this disgraceful attack in which a firearm was discharged in a residential area in the early evening.

"At approximately 7.45pm as a male was walking in the area he was shot. He attended hospital for injuries that are not life-threatening.

"The people undertaking these attacks do not represent our communities and I appeal to anyone who was in the Short Strand area last night and noticed any suspicious activity or vehicles being driven in a suspicious manner to contact detectives at Musgrave on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1711 25/01/20."

Justice Minister Naomi Long called the shooting "disgusting and reckless" and Alliance East Belfast MLA Chris Lyttle said: "It is long past the time that guns were taken off our streets.

"Whoever was behind this despicable attack must be condemned in the strongest possible terms."
Nigeria Immigration Service

The Operatives of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Command in Lagos, have apprehended seven girls allegedly being trafficked.

The Service Public Relations Officer, Mr Sunday James made the disclosure in a statement to NAN on Sunday.

James said the girls were on their way to Cairo, Dubai and Oman on Emirates and Egypt airlines. According to him, three of the girls were on Emirates airline to Dubai, while four were aboard Egypt airline to Cairo and Oman.

He commended the NIS Comptroller in charge of the Airport command, Mr Usman Abdullahi and his officers for doing a good job.

He urged the NIS officials not to relent as the activities of human traffickers and smugglers must be discouraged and halted through aggressive intelligence gathering.

This would also be done through proactive operations and surveillance mounted to dissuade the organised crime from flourishing, he added.

The Comptroller General, NIS, Mr Muhammad Babandede assured Nigerians that the service would not relent in its efforts in keeping a safe border to ensure a safe Nation in the pursuit of it statutory mandate.

NIS has upgraded facilities to checkmate irregular human mobility and will do everything to justify the support and commitment of the Federal Government to making the service a world class service.

This would however help us to compete with others in the exhibition of best global practices even as the e- solutions are deployed, the MIDAS , Risk analysis cell, i- 24/7 INTERPOL facilities, E- pars, passport and visual control, among others,  he said.

DAILY POST had reported that the NIS operatives had apprehended nine girls on Jan. 25, who were on their way to Lebanon, Cairo, Dubai and India on Ethiopian, Peace, Egypt and East Airlines.


The U.S. military conducted record-setting airstrikes in Afghanistan last year, surpassing the previous year's total and making 2019 the most kinetic year for airstrikes against extremist targets in the country in at least a decade.

According to statistics recently published by Air Forces Central Command, fighter, attack and unmanned aircraft dropped 7,423 bombs last year. By comparison, aircraft released 7,362 weapons in 2018.

The next-highest airstrike year on record was 2011, when U.S. assets dropped 5,411 weapons, according to available figures dating back to 2009. In 2010, U.S. aircraft dropped 5,101 munitions, as reported by database company Statista.

Based on the latest data, the number of sorties flown by manned aircraft in 2019 that included at least one weapons release was 2,434 -- more than double the 966 recorded the previous year. (AFCENT erred in a previous total, saying only 500 sorties with at least one drop were flown in 2018.)

Related: Army's 10th Mountain Division Headed to Afghanistan as US Talks Withdrawal

Despite a high operations tempo from U.S. and coalition aircraft, the Trump administration has indicated it is open to downsizing in the region to bring more U.S. personnel home from the conflict, now in its 18th year.

Taliban and U.S. officials met several times last year in an effort to negotiate a potential peace deal and troop withdrawal.

In September, the White House abruptly called off talks following a suicide bombing attack that killed a U.S. soldier in Kabul.

"They thought they could use the attack to show strength, but actually what they showed is weakness," President Donald Trump said during the 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon. "The last four days, we have hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before, and that will continue."

But the U.S. resumed peace talks with the Taliban in December following the president's trip to the region on Thanksgiving Day.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. has been weighing a possible drawdown of about 4,000 of the estimated 13,000 troops in Afghanistan "with or without" a political agreement with the Taliban.

"I would like to go down to a lower number because I want to either bring those troops home so they can refit and retrain for other missions, or be redeployed to the Indo-Pacific to face off our greatest challenge in terms of the great power competition -- that's vis-a-vis China," Esper told reporters traveling with him Dec. 16.

Planned troop rotations continue.

Last week, the Army announced that the headquarters unit of the 10th Mountain Division will head to Afghanistan in the spring as part of a regular deployment in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel.

The unit of about 250 soldiers will follow on the arrival of about 3,500 troops from the 10th Mountain's 1st Brigade Combat Team. That unit is expected to move into place in late winter.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

-- Richard Sisk contributed to this report.

Read more: Air Force E-11A Networking Plane Has Crashed in Afghanistan, Top General Confirms
Oleksandr Merezhko, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, has been elected as the PACE Vice President.

"Member of the Ukrainian delegation, representative of the Servant of the People party Oleksandr Merezhko has been elected as the Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe," deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, deputy member of the Permanent Delegation to PACE Yevhenia Kravchuk posted on Facebook.

According to her, twenty vice presidents from the PACE member states are elected annually at the beginning of the session and remain in office until the beginning of the next session.

"The position of Vice President is extremely responsible, as this person may replace the President and chair the Assembly session or debates (if he or she does not participate as a rapporteur). Also, the Vice President automatically becomes a member of the Bureau, which runs the Assembly's work by preparing the agenda for sessions and identifying issues that deserve to be covered in the reports," the MP stressed.

She specified that Merezhko is a doctor of law, scientist, international law expert. He chairs the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation. Merezhko has experience in teaching in the US, Poland, India, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

ol
VOORHEES, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Comar, a premier plastic packaging, dispensing, and medical device provider serving the Medical, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Healthcare, Personal and Home Care, Food and Beverage, and other niche market segments is thrilled to announce the acquisition of iMARK Molding ("iMARK"), a custom contract manufacturer focused on serving the medical device industry. The combined company will offer additional best-in-class engineering and custom plastic molding and assembly services to Comar's medical device, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical customers. The acquisition will support Comar's growth objectives in the medical and pharmaceutical segments.

Based in Woodville, Wisconsin, less than a one-hour drive from Minneapolis, Minnesota, iMARK specializes in complex scientific injection molding, automated and manual assembly, and cleanroom operations. iMARK operates out of a state-of-the-art ISO13485-certified 130,000 square foot facility with 30+ injection molding presses and 15,000 square feet of certified ISO Class 7 cleanroom. iMARK is a market leading provider of custom injection molded diagnostic and surgical medical devices with the following awards:

Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year, Special Award for Enterprise Precision

Wisconsin Fast Forward grant for employer-led worker training projects

St. Croix EDC Business of the Year

IQMS Manufacturing Success Award for using software to enhance all business services

RJG Training Excellence Award for their commitment to the RJG Master Molder Certification program

The acquisition enhances Comar's ability to serve medical device customers by bringing best-in-industry employees, additional cleanroom scientific injection molding capacity, engineering talent, and quality precision measurement capabilities. Located centrally in the Midwest United States, iMARK will be able to serve Comar's customers across geographies flexibly. There will be no plant closures or employee layoffs for Comar or iMARK as part of this acquisition. Comar and iMARK fully expect to continue to deliver to their customers with zero interruptions or quality issues.

Founded in 1949, Comar is a market leading designer and manufacturer of rigid plastic solutions. Comar has a longstanding reputation for developing creative, industry-compliant packaging and dispensing solutions for customers who count on them for quality-driven engineering and manufacturing. Comar is now better positioned with this acquisition and other recent investments to address the unmet needs of OEMs in Class 1 and 2 medical and healthcare consumables, which is experiencing favorable tailwinds from the adoption of disposables, an aging population, and increased outsourcing.

Mark Sturtevant, President of iMARK, said, "We have been proud to serve our customers the last 20 years and look forward to continuing to serve them. We believe Comar's culture is well-aligned with ours, which is focused on 'Always the Hard Right  Never the Easy Wrong' and providing a quality product to the same types of customers as ours. Comar brings a unique set of capabilities that will better serve our customers  full service, in-house design, development, and prototyping with IDworks, scale in procurement, deeper engineering bench with broad set of specializations, and multiple plants with capacity across the US." Mark Sturtevant will continue to manage day-to-day operations of the iMARK facility and will be fully involved in efforts to serve current and future iMARK and Comar customers.

Mike Ruggieri, CEO of Comar, commented, "We are so excited to be welcoming Mark and Linda Sturtevant and their outstanding team to the Comar organization. Over the last 20 years, Mark and Linda have built a high performance, customer-centric team with the best scientific injection molding capabilities we have seen across the industry. They truly know how to serve their customers with parts right the first time and repeat that reliably. We look forward to partnering with them to better serve our current and prospective customers with new capacity and capabilities. And we look forward to continuing to acquire strategic and complementary businesses like iMARK."

Comar, headquartered in Voorhees, New Jersey, has nine strategic manufacturing and distribution locations across the United States and employs a host of rigid plastic packaging technologies including injection molding, injection blow molding, injection stretch blow molding, and extrusion blow molding which are complemented by a full suite of value-added service offerings. Comar's principal owners are investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.

Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, is a leading middle-market private equity firm that has invested capital in a broad spectrum of industries for over two decades, focused primarily on investing in North American-based companies. They seek to create value by directly investing and partnering with middle-market, founder/family-managed companies to accelerate their growth initiatives.

SOURCE Comar

Related Links

https://www.comar.com


Ariana Grande and Lana Del Rey fans get "Scammys" trending after the Grammys snubs https://t.co/Mfkd4aXfnx  Newsweek (@Newsweek) January 27, 2020

this is one of the most precious interactions. weird when even the artists at your awards show know something is up isnt it? #scammys pic.twitter.com/OSIl8CAcQj   (@fallinglana) January 27, 2020

LANA DEL REY DID NOT SPEND THIS ENTIRE DECADE. BASICALLY FORMING THE ALTERNATIVE GENRE FOR GIRLS LIKE BILLIE EILISH TO GET 5 GRAMMYS AND FOR BILLIE TO SAY ARIANA GRANDE DESERVED AOTY. THE AMOUNT OF DISRESPECT LANA FACED TODAY. pic.twitter.com/4kt3RDRTmO  Bog (@TKensa) January 27, 2020

lana del rey has lost her deserved grammy for album of the year with "NFR!" and this album truly marked her shift in music and her personal direction as well. she took a more independent stance through her lyrics and melodies. it's sad that the academy ignored this. #Grammys2020 pic.twitter.com/mHGjP7Onb7  Jack ! (@lanaschurch) January 27, 2020

im sorry but who was the first solo artist since the beatles to have the top 3 spots on the billboard 100 at the same time... #scammys #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/TdYzppWcW9  alexa (@gwsbea) January 27, 2020

Ariana Grande had the biggest era of her career yet, outdid herself, literally owned 2019 .. #GRAMMYs just used her name for attention and let the woman sit there nervous the whole night. No words, she deserves better  Pop Crave (@popcreave) January 27, 2020

Shortly after last night's Grammys, the hashtag ' #Scammys " began trending for hours as Ariana Grande and Lana Del Rey fans took to Twitter to express their anger over the "snubs" at the award show.Billie Eilish, who won five awards last night and the 2nd or 3rd artist ever to win the big 4 Grammys in one night, beat out Ariana and Lana in a number of categories.Fans ran to express their frustration on Twitter, dubbing the awards show the "Scammys."Eilish even gave Ariana a shout-out in her speech for Album of the Year, "Can I just say that I think Ariana deserves this, Thank U, Next got me through some shit, and I think it deserves more than anything in the world, I love you so much."Another Twitter user believes Del Rey deserved Billie's shout-out over Ariana "Lana Del Rey did not spend this entire decade basically forming the alternative genre for girls like Billie Eilish to get 5 Grammys and for Billie to say Ariana Grande deserved Album of the Year. The amount of disrespect Lana faced today."Other fans pointed out the success of Grande's album, which broke multiple records, "I'm sorry but who was the first solo artist since The Beatles to have the top 3 spots on the billboard 100 at the same time... #scammys #GRAMMYs ."Ariana Grande broke the record when her songs "7 Rings", "Break Up With Your Girlfriend" and "Thank U, Next" took the top three spots on the Billboard charts, a feat which had not been achieved by an artist since The Beatles in 1964.Pop culture fan account @popcreave highlighted that Ariana performed at the Grammys, but didn't win an award and tweeted: "Ariana Grande had the biggest era of her career yet, outdid herself, literally owned 2019 ... #GRAMMYs just used her name for attention and let the woman sit there nervous the whole night. No words, she deserves better."Despite not taking home an award, Grande tweeted: "I had a great mf time tonight :) thank u for everything" to a video of her smiling. Source: 1
Budget deficit in 2019 up to $3.17 bln

23:50, 27.01.20 1535

The consolidated budget saw a deficit of UAH 84 billion ($3.41 billion), the report says.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday lauded the European Union (EU) Parliament's decision to debate and vote on a motion against India's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The motion was tabled by a large chunk of the EU members alleging that the CAA marks a 'dangerous shift' in the country's citizenship regime.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Mufti tweeted, "Discriminatory CAB & repressive measures in Kashmir are Indias internal matter only when EU parliamentarians/ international community condemn such actions. Had they spoken about it in glowing terms it would be lapped up by the same establishment."

Live TV

She added, "Relieved to see EU parliament pass resolutions against communal CAB & brutal lockdown in Kashmir. Hope its followed up with sanctions. GOIs actions are frittering away all of Indias assiduously earned soft power."

A total of six resolutions have been tabled by groups within the EU, including the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew) and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.

The resolutions have a similar theme with a number of them, such as the GUE/NGL Group, also making a reference to the revocation of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. They are set to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday and voted on the day after.

Official sources in New Delhi on Sunday said the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a matter entirely internal to India and the law was adopted through democratic means after a public debate in both houses of Parliament, they said.

The Indian government has stressed that the new Act does not deny any citizenship rights but has been brought in to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and provide them with citizenship.
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): The government of India is all set to sign an agreement with all factions of banned insurgent organisation National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) on Monday.



The accord will give political and economic benefits to the Bodos.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to do a press briefing in this regard, where Home Minister Amit Shah along with representatives of the NDFB and the Assam government will sign the accord. Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal will be present for the signing.

It is expected that the central government will provide a massive political as well and economic package for the community.

The government has also made it clear that the Centre would not make the state Bodoland territorial district into a Union Territory.

Home Minister Amit Shah and representatives of Bru refugees had on January 16 signed an agreement to end the long-pending crisis of Bru refugees and for their settlement in Tripura in presence of Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi all the issues of Northeast are getting solved. This is one such step. Approximately 30,000 Bru refugees will be settled in Tripura. Rs 600 crores rupees package has been given for this," Amit Shah had said after signing the agreement.

Centre also said that Bru refugees, who will be settled in Tripura, will get a 40 by 30 feet plot along with Rs four lakh Fixed Deposit, cash assistance of Rs 5000 per month for two years and free ration will be given to Bru Refugees. (ANI)


Iffath Fathima By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Three police stations in the city are now a little less scary for children who accompany their parents when they have to deal with cops.

In the past four months, Madiwala, HSR Layout and Koramangala police stations have installed play areas for children thanks to Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Isha Pant who initiated the project in her jurisdiction to bridge the gap between children and the police.

Pant aims to have play areas established at all 13 police stations under her jurisdiction.

She told The New Indian Express that when parents go to police stations to file complaints, the children with them look worried. If there is a play area, the children will be entertained until the complaints are lodged.

There are cases of children going missing. When we find them, we bring them to police stations. They get scared. We can send them to the play area to calm them down, she added. The move also benefits police personnel who work at those stations.

Women constables who sometimes bring their children to police stations need not worry about their children being kept occupied.

Many residents and business owners have come forward to contribute to the play areas, Pant said. Making children comfortable while they are at a police station is one aspect of what Pant has in mind.

The senior IPS officer is also working towards a larger goal of building a rapport with children.

The idea is to have child-friendly police stations. Many a time, children are put to sleep with Soja jaldi varna police aakar lejayega (Sleep or else the police will take you away). I want to remove this fear in children. And that is why we have come up with play areas. Once they visit play areas, they will develop a rapport with the police."

It seems to be working. Rekha T, a resident of HSR layout, said her four-year-old son often plays at the local police stations play area.

He has even made friends with the cops. While we come back from school, he greets them with a handshake, she said.
The temple authorities took up the matter with the police officers and representatives of the Muslim Organisations which had planned the protest.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Muslim organisations make way for the passage of a Hindu temple religious procession amid their anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest in Thrissur in central Kerala.

Various Muslim organisations had organised a mass protest against Citizenship Amendment Act in Thrissur the other day. There was also symbolic protection wall for saving Indian Constitution.

Around the same time a religious procession in connection with the annual festival of a local temple was to pass through the same route.

The temple authorities took up the matter with the police officers and representatives of the Muslim Organisations which had planned the protest.

The Muslim organizations assured to extend all support to the temple authorities.

The workers who came for the protest took up the role of volunteers to ensure the smooth passage of the procession. More than 1000 persons formed a human chain on either side of the procession which also included caparisoned elephant.

The entire procession passed off peacefully sending out a priceless message that people are bigger than any religion.
January 27 : Actor and director Anurag Kashyap has been quite vocal against the government in the recent past, be it with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the attack on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students.

This time, Kashyap took to Twitter to criticise Home Minister Amit Shah, following his election rally in the national capital on Sunday.

Anurag wrote, "Our Home Minister is a coward. He controls the police, he controls the goons, amps-up his own security and has unarmed protestors attacked. Amit Shah's behaviour is cheap and low. History will spit on an animal like him."

Anurag's tweet comes after reports of protesters being beaten up at Amit Shah's rally surfaced online. Shah was in Delhi campaigning for BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections of February 8.

A small group of protester, who gathered there, were heard raising anti-CAA slogans at Sunday's rally, demanding its rollback. Other supporters soon caught hold of one these protesters and beat him up.

Earlier this month, Kashyap had also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government. He said the Citizenship Act is not going to be taken back as it will be a defeat for the BJP government.

Meanwhile on the work front, Anurag Kashyap is busy with Gulab Jamun, Womaniya, Ghoomketu and Bamfaad.
An urgent warning has been issued after a child travelled from Singapore to Brisbane with measles.

The girl and her parents were unaware she had the highly contagious virus when they arrived in Australia on Qantas flight 52 early on January 17.

Public health experts said people who were at Brisbane International Airport from 6am to 8am on that day should be alert to measles symptoms.

An urgent warning has been issued after a child travelled from Singapore to Brisbane with measles (stock image pictured)

Early measles symptoms include a fever, sore red eyes, a runny nose and coughing.

Those who may have been exposed by being in the same place at the same time are at risk of developing measles until February 3 as it can take up to 18 days for symptoms to develop.

The case is the second in Queensland this year.

It comes after last years 74 people were diagnosed with measles in the state, the worst year since 1997.

All people born since 1966 need two measles vaccinations. Those unsure whether they've been vaccinated in the past can safely have another dose.
The Palestinian leadership has called on world leaders to stand against Donald Trumps long-awaited peace deal as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival Benny Gantz flew to the US to discuss the agreement.

Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Palestinians have rejected the so-called deal of the century as it is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.

In Washington, despite the backlash, Mr Trump pressed ahead with back-to-back meetings with the two Israeli leaders a day before details are expected to be made public.

Alleged leaks published in Israeli media appear very favourable to Israel.

They include Israel being given complete control over the whole of the contested city of Jerusalem as well as the right to annex nearly all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

Mr Shtayyeh said the plan was intended only to shield Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu from political and legal challenges they are currently facing.

This plan is to protect Trump against being impeached and to protect Netanyahu from going to jail, and it is not a peace plan, he said.

We reject it, and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights, he added.

It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.

He said that he would arrange meetings to discuss their official response with president Mahmoud Abbas, who had apparently rejected overtures from mediators in recent weeks to arrange a phone call with Trump.

 Mike Pence says Netanyahu and Gantz will join White House meeting on 'peace'

The comments come after Palestinian officials threatened to discard key provisions of the Oslo Accords, agreements signed in the 1990s which define arrangements with Israel and were supposed to be the foundation of a permanent peace deal.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP on Sunday that they reserved the right to withdraw from the interim agreement of the Oslo pact if Trump unveils his plan.

There were also calls for a day of rage protests against the agreement by different Palestinians factions.

The Palestinians cut contact with the US two years ago after Washington announced it would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognising the contested city as Israels capital.

They also roundly denounced a $50-billion economic revival plan laid out by Mr Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner last July which steered clear of confirming Palestinian right to statehood.

There were also voices of concern in the region.

Neighbouring Jordan, which along with Egypt is one of two Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel signed in the 1990s, said on Thursday that annexation of the occupied Jordan Valley  as Mr Netanyahu has pledged to do  will blow up the peace process.

Rights groups including Oxfam have also warned it may dim prospects for peace and called the deal a roadmap to permanent occupation.

The Israelis have however lauded Trumps initiatives and plans which particularly appeal to Mr Netanyahus right-wing pro-settler support base.

Ahead of his flight to Washington Sunday night, the Israeli prime minister said he hoped to make history during the visit.

We are in the midst of very dramatic political events, but the peak is still ahead, he said. I am going to Washington with a great sense of purpose, great responsibility and great chance, and I am hopeful we can make history.

He invited several settler leaders to join him in Washington for the rollout of the plan.

Mr Gantz, whose centrist Blue and White alliance has been neck-to-neck with Mr Netanyahus Likud party in the last two elections, also landed in the US to meet Mr Trump on Monday afternoon.

It marked the first time an Israeli politician who does not hold a government position to participate in a private meeting with a US president during election season.

A source told Reuters last week that bringing both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz in on the details was aimed at defusing any suggestion Mr Trump might be favouring one candidate over the other ahead of Israels general election which is expected to be very close.

After landing in Washington, Mr Gantz said he hoped to achieve good relations, and explanation, and understanding between the president and myself.

I am looking forward to meeting the president  a president of utmost friendliness to the state of Israel  on a matter that is very important for the state of Israel, with national, strategic and security ramifications, Gantz said.

The White House has hoped was that if Mr Trump could get the support of both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz for the plan, it would help provide some momentum.

A US official told Associated Press Mr Trump wants to know both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz are on board with the plan before announcing it.

Mr Trumps message to both: You have six weeks to get this (plan) going, if you want it, the official said.

Analysts believe that timing of the announcement is political.

Benny Gantz arrives in Washington for talks with Trump about the peace deal (Elad Malka/Blue and White) (Elad Malka / Blue and White)

President Trump is heading for US elections under the cloud of an impeachment trial in the Senate and is looking to solidify his position as international statesman.

Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, is fighting for political survival as he battles to be re-elected after being charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three graft cases.

Mr Gantzs centrist Blue and White party has refused to sit with Mr Netanyahu in government because of the charges but will find that an increasingly difficult position to take if the deal goes through.

Neither Mr Gantz nor Mr Netanyahu have been able to secure the required parliamentary majority to form a government after the last two elections, unless they join forces.

Mr Trump has delivered political favours to Mr Netanyahu during the previous two races including recognising Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan.

However, none of these moves have successfully helped the Israeli leader be re-elected.
The 37-year-old was charged with six offences on Sunday and was refused bail

A mother-of-four who swerved onto the wrong side of the road and killed a female passenger has been charged with driving under the influence of ice.

Amanda Haley, 37, was disqualified from driving and allegedly high on ice when she crashed her Mitsubishi Outlander head-on into a Toyota Hilux at Forresters Beach on the Central Coast on Saturday afternoon.

Driving the ute was a 65-year-old man who was taken to hospital in a stable condition with chest and spinal injuries.

Paramedics treated his 67-year-old female partner at the scene, but she later died of her injuries in hospital, Nine News reported.

Witness Michael Higgins was first on the scene and said he noticed smoke coming out of both vehicles.

'The cars were on fire so a friend of mine and I got some water and were trying to douse the cars and stop the fire,' he said.

Driving the ute was a 65-year-old man who was taken to hospital in a stable condition with chest and spinal injuries

Police told Wyong Local Court on Sunday when they arrived to the scene they found an open bottle of sparkling wine in Ms Haley's car.

They also allege she had taken ice shortly before the fatal crash.

Ms Haley was taken to Gosford Hospital in a stable condition and was later arrested.

The 37-year-old was charged with six offences on Sunday including dangerous driving occasioning death - driving dangerously and dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm - driving dangerously.

She was also charged with negligent driving occasioning death, negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, driving a motor vehicle during disqualification period, and not keeping left of a dividing line.

Ms Haley was refused bail on Sunday with a prosecutor saying the 37-year-old is a repeat offender.

She was charged with driving under the influence of drugs in 2018 and driving while disqualified last year.

The mother-of-four is set to appear in court again on Tuesday.
A third year engineering student allegedly committed suicide by hanging at his room in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district, police said on Monday.

Rideesh Diwedi, a native of Allahabad, allegedly took the extreme step after being informed by his college authorities that he will not be permitted to appear in examinations due to low attendance, they said.

The engineering student was living with his two friends at Mahagun Puram society in Kavi Nagar, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Atish Kumar told PTI.

On Sunday night, Diwedi's friends found the body in his room and immediately informed the police, the DSP said.

A police team reached the spot and sent the body for post-mortem, he said.

Diwedi's colleagues told police that he was depressed after the college authorities informed him that he will not be allowed to appear for the examinations, the DSP said, adding that an investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a decree on the export of uranium worth over $1.14 billion to Japan in the period of 2023-2030, Uzbek media has reported.

Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine (NGMK) will oversee the export of the uranium to Japan.

The head of the Department of Foreign Economic Relations and Sales of the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine, Khasan Safarov , said that NGMK is the only producer of natural uranium in the country and accounts for the bulk of the plants exports (over 90 percent). In particular, NGMK will supply uranium to Itochu in the amount of $510.1 million and Marubeni - $636.4 million.

Uranium is one of the export-oriented products in Uzbekistan.

The geography of uranium exports includes Japan, the U.S., India, China and South Korea. Today, Japanese companies such as Itochu and Marubeni are the main buyers of uranium mined by the plant.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Bihar on Monday reported its first suspected case of rapidly spreading novel coronavirus as it isolated a 29-year-old research scholar, who came home from Chinas Tianjin last week, health officials said.

The woman, who was reluctant to be admitted to the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in the states capital on Monday morning, has been kept under observation for suspected Coronavirus, which has killed at least 80 people in China and infected thousands across the globe.

Arrangements had been made to send her blood serum sample to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for tests, said state health officials.

The daughter of a government high school principal in Chapra, a PhD student of neuroscience at Tianjin, had flown into Kolkata from China on January 22 and reached home in Chapra a day after.

Watch: Bihar woman who returned from China suspected to have coronavirus

A couple of days later, she reported mild fever with cold and cough. Her sister in Pune, who got to know about the womans condition, alerted the ministry of health and family welfare through its helpline number.

She was initially admitted at the Saran Sadar Hospital on Sunday evening and subsequently referred to the PMCH on Monday morning, officials said.

The woman was kept in the isolation ward of the Saran Sadar Hospital last evening before being referred to the PMCH this morning. The patient and her family members were very reluctant to go, but we decided not to take any chances, said Saran civil surgeon Dr Madhveshwar Jha.

The woman claimed, while speaking to reporters, that she was fine and had a body temperature of 97-98 degree Fahrenheit. She also accused officials of forcibly getting her to the hospital.

PMCH superintendent Dr Bimal Karak said the woman has been kept on conservative treatment.

We are administering her normal saline and analgesic for pain, if any, which may develop with fever, Dr Karak said.

Our emergency has been put on high alert and the patient has been kept in an isolation ward on the first floor of our emergency after she was brought to our hospital around 10am today, he added.

Bihar does not have the facility to conduct a test for coronavirus.

We will send the patients blood serum sample to NIV-Pune for tests today. All viruses cannot be tested at our laboratories. Till such time we get the test report, the patient has been admitted to the isolation ward created at the PMCH and kept under observation, Bihars principal secretary for health, Sanjay Kumar, said.

Kumar added that directions were given to conduct a screening of all the family members of the patient. He also said the state health machinery had been geared up for detection and subsequent containment of the disease.

Patna civil surgeon Dr Raj Kishore Choudhary said there was nothing to panic as it was very common for one to develop cold and cough in winter.

China on Monday announced an unprecedented extension of the Lunar New Year holidays in the latest attempt to contain the spread the of rapidly spreading coronavirus that has killed at least 80 and infected nearly 2800 in the country.

As many as 43 cases have been reported from other countries with the US confirming the fifth case on Sunday. The highest number of cases, eight, have been reported from Thailand.

Majority of the cases both in China and abroad have a connection to Wuhan, where the virus is said to have emerged from the seafood and fish market that also traded in wildlife.

China has banned wildlife trade across the country, prohibiting the shipping and sale of wild animals and quarantining breeding sites, with the government warning against the consumption of wild animals.

Officials told reporters on Sunday that information on the new virus is limited even though the pathogen was identified relatively quickly, and its transmission is increasing.

Coronavirus has spread to Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam and across continents to the US, Canada, France and Australia.

In India, at least 11 people in four cities have been kept under observation after they returned from China.

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Aims to create a $30,000,000 reward pool to be awarded to a person or an institution that creates a vaccine for the virus

GENEVA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 23, The Geneva based Anti-Coronavirus Foundation announced that it will raise funds among crypto enthusiasts for the further financing of a vaccine against coronavirus.

The outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has killed at least 17 people and infected more than 400, and the foundation feels there might be a risk of the virus spreading to several other countries. The foundation fears the new virus may resemble or even outpass damage brought on by the SARS virus, which affected thousands of people around the world and killed nearly 800 during the 2003 outbreak.

There is currently very little known about the virus, the way it spreads, its incubation period (which is believed to be about two weeks) and who is most at risk. For now, the coronavirus is as the pathogen behind a mysterious illness that had affected 59 people in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China

Yury Myshinskiy, co-founder and CEO of CryptOcean, will chair the new foundation. The Anti-Coronavirus Foundation intends to finance the first company or group of individuals to develop a working vaccine, available for mass production and use. The first task set by the creators of the foundation is to create a $30,000,000 reward pool to be given to a person or institution which creates a vaccine for the coronavirus.

The foundation feels that it is important that all resources are mobilized to start financing of the laboratory work and clinical studies in as many medical and scientific institutions around the globe as possible to deliver the solution of the problem to be able to help the affected.

To ensure the transparency of its functioning, all transactions are to be handled in CRON blockchain, run by the firm CryptOcean under the supervision of the founding advisory board, which will be comprised of trusted and publicly recognized individuals. The foundation is registered in Switzerland, a country with high level of transparency and legislation for non-profit organizations

The blockchain platform will allow anyone to send funds to finance future research. Initially, developers are considering cryptocurrency donations, but, a Coinstelegram report referring to the official website of the project, suggests support for fiat donations will appear in the near future.

On the official website of the Anti-Coronavirus Foundation, the founders turn to pharmacological corporations, urging them to make every effort to solve the problem. The published message also urges prominent entrepreneurs, philanthropists and humanitarian organizations to help mobilize support for the affected.



For more information about the Anticoronavirus Foundation, click here

Media Contact

 2020 Anti-Coronavirus Foundation,

Rue du Pre de la Bichette 1,

Geneva, CH 1202, Switzerland

Tel: +41-225-087-789

E-mail: join@vaccine.run
Investors' 2020 vision is in focus. As exchange-traded fund industry leaders gather for Inside ETFs, the world's largest ETF conference that kicked off in Hollywood, Florida, on Monday, several trends will be front and center for the space's top brass. Among them are the discount brokers' fee wars, the advent of nontransparent and semi-transparent ETFs, thematic funds and ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing. Here's what two industry pros  Todd Rosenbluth, senior director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA, and Chris Hempstead, director of institutional business development at IndexIQ  see ahead for those four trends in 2020, based on their Wednesday interview with CNBC's "ETF Edge."

The fee wars

This year, the online brokerages' "race to zero" commissions  which has seen Interactive Brokers, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade and others cut their stock and ETF trading fees to zero  is set to continue among ETF issuers. With State Street planning to switch the benchmark for its SPDR Russell 1000 ETF (SPLG) to the S&P 500 index later this month, enabling the issuer to charge just 3 basis points for an S&P-mirroring fund (like Vanguard's counterpart), that competition for assets will also shed light on ETF quality, Rosenbluth said. "IShares has a 4 basis point ETF, IVV, Vanguard has a 3 basis point [ETF], VOO, but you're really going to get to see that there's a major difference in ETFs beyond the fees," he said. Hempstead, an avid proponent of investors doing their homework before they buy, wholeheartedly agreed. "We've said this time and time again: look under the hood and do your homework," he said. "The fee is just one part of a multipart equation. Fee net of performance is what really matters. If you want to get an ETF that has the strongest performance, sometimes that's going to come with a higher fee. Not everything is just a broad-based S&P index fund." The next leg of this battle could get granular, Rosenbluth predicted. "What we are going to see is the fees are going to come down for everything else that's not the market-cap-weighted strategies," he said. "We've seen it in smart beta, in thematic [investing]. We're going to continue to see it in 2020."

Nontransparent ETFs

Hempstead and Rosenbluth will be watching for whether the newly SEC-approved nontransparent fund structure will be able to attract assets. The big question at hand: Will active managers, who have seen their assets contract in the mutual fund space for over a decade, perform any better in an ETF structure? If you ask Hempstead, "the performance has to be there. The manager has to perform," he said. "With 2020 being the launch year, or what many of us anticipate will be the launch year, for nontransparent or semi-transparent, the question is, will the assets come in? Will we see retail and institutional demand? That is yet to be seen," Hempstead said. "We do expect a lot of these funds to come to market with a significant asset base. Now, the breadth of ownership is what we're going to be looking for. Is everybody buying it or just one or two people?" Rosenbluth will have his eye on the "heavy hitters" taking advantage of the new strategy, which include T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, American Century Investments and Legg Mason. "T. Rowe Price, which does not exist in the ETF world, has $170 billion of actively managed mutual fund strategies where there will be an ETF version ... coming in 2020," Rosenbluth said. "There's a whole lot of firms that have strong brand names that have a record of outperformance and modest fees for active management that are coming out."

Thematic ETFs

ETFs built around themes like robotics, cloud computing, video gaming and cannabis are likely to see modest gains in 2020 as they continue to steadily climb, Rosenbluth and Hempstead said. "When the S&P was up over 30%, investors were not looking to find that shiny object, the strategies that are more narrow and focused," Rosenbluth said of 2019. "But the ones that did outperform, I think, are likely to see assets continue to climb." Rosenbluth flagged the VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports ETF (ESPO), which ran 42% higher in 2019, and the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ), which ended last year up nearly 31%. "I think things that worked investors are going to gravitate towards as they're looking for more narrowly focused strategies," he said. Hempstead issued a small warning for investors looking to buy into a theme. "The asset growth in these kind[s] of thematic funds, you have to take it with a grain of salt. People aren't going to put 100% of their portfolio into a thematic idea in most cases," he said. "They're going to take a smaller percentage of their portfolio, take a little bit of risk there, and that's why you won't see hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into a thematic fund."

The ESG explosion
Germany's Alexander Zverev ended the hot streak of his close friend Andrey Rublev of Russia to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time on Monday.

The seventh seed broke once in each set for a clinical 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win in just 1hr 37mins to go into a match-up with Stan Wawrinka, the powerful Swiss who beat Russia's Daniil Medvedev.

Zverev retains his 100 percent record over Rublev, who came into the match on a 15-match winning run including titles in Doha and Adelaide earlier this month.

After a long embrace at the net, Zverev, 22, said: "I've known him since we were 10 years old. I just reminded him how far we got together.

"A lot of young kids would dream about playing the fourth round of a Grand Slam against one of his closest friends. I just told him we're going to play a lot of great matches."



It was a one-sided win for Zverev, who faced no break points as he reached his first quarter-final in five visits to Melbourne -- equalling his best Grand Slam result, achieved last year at Roland Garros.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Klaus Iohannis supports a project released by the Ministry of Health that allows privately operated hospitals in Romania access to national healthcare programmes.

"The government has to provide all healthcare services, but in Romania there is also a private system that operates up to good parameters. Because we have this private system that operates within good parameters, I think it is right for the private system to co-operate with the public system and together to provide healthcare services to the benefit of the population. I have seen the approach of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). I find it strange, to say the least, since we have very good doctors in the public sector and very good doctors in the private sector private, I think we must have the wisdom to pave the way for some and others to the patient, to the benefit of the patient," Iohannis said at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace on Monday.PSD is opposing a project launched by the National Liberal Party (PNL) to privatise healthcare programmes, arguing that health is a constitutional right for all citizens, not just for those on a high income."PSD is categorically opposing the project launched by PNL on the privatisation of healthcare programmes. Health is a constitutional right guaranteed for all citizens, not just for those on a high income, as PNL wants. So that everybody understands: privatising public healthcare programmes means the budget for more expensive or emergency treatments will be shared with privately operated hospitals. So, obviously, less money will be left at public hospitals," according to a post on PSD's Facebook page.
A Nagpur policeman sent a letter to his superiors on Sunday seeking permission to commit self- immolation as he was pained after being transferred along with almost 40 others for inability to solve a series of thefts in the city's Zone IV police area, an official said.

However, head constable Sandip Sharad Gundalwar (52) of Hudkeshwar police station has been told that his grievances would be looked into and has been persuaded against taking any drastic step, said DCP Nirmala Devi.

He was transferred on January 25 for failure to crack a case of January 23 in which a woman was stabbed while on a morning walk and looted, an official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Democratic Representative from New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said in an interview with New York Magazine that she and former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, would be in different political parties in any other country.

The comment came in response to a question about what role Ocasio-Cortez might play as a member of Congress should Biden win. She said in response, In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sworn in on the opening day of the 116th Congress flanked by Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., left, and Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., right, (Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite)

Ocasio-Cortez added that the Democrats could be too big of a tent and criticized the Congressional Progressive Caucuss standard for lawmakers. They let anybody who the cat dragged in call themselves a progressive, she stated, adding, theres no standard.

The comments prompted a wide range of responses in the media. There were dozens of headlines touting (or lamenting) Ocasio-Cortezs radical left agenda, with many agreeing that the two prominent Democrats should not, in fact, be in the same party.

Jacobin, the unofficial media voice of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), ran an article with the headline: AOC Is Right: She and Joe Biden Should Not be in the Same Party, which outlined the supposed gulf between the politics of Biden and those of Ocasio-Cortez on numerous issues. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the DSA, and Jacobin and the DSA regularly celebrate the congresswoman as the way forward for the socialist movement in the US.

Jacobin concludes: She and Biden dont belong in the same party. No party is big enough for the both of them.

The Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America

The obvious question is why, if Ocasio-Cortezs political opinions are indeed so radically different from Bidens, are they in the same party? Jacobin responds by attributing this to the particularly anti-democratic form of the American two-party system, with its restrictive ballot access laws and the absence of proportional representation.

In reality, Ocasio-Cortez, like Bernie Sanders, is playing a critical role that has long been assumed, in different forms, by supposedly left organizations and individuals within the Democratic Party: namely, to channel social tensions and opposition behind the oldest capitalist party in America.

There is the experience of the Peoples Party and the presidential campaigns of William Jennings Bryan in the late 1890s, through which the populist movement was appropriated and smothered by the Democratic Party; the Farmer-Labor Party campaigns in the 1920s and 1930s in the upper-Midwest, which were absorbed by the Democrats; the Jesse Jackson campaigns in the 1980s; and most recently the campaigns of figures like Dennis Kucinich and Sandersall of whom served in one form or another to confine social opposition to the framework of the Democratic Party and the capitalist two-party system.

The DSA itself, from its inception, has existed as an auxiliary arm of the Democratic Party, with no serious pretense to independence. The predecessor organization of the DSA, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), emerged out of a split within the Socialist Party of America in 1972.

The founder of the DSOC and later, in 1982, the DSA, Michael Harrington, was a student and later a co-thinker of Max Shachtman, who split from the Trotskyist movement, the Socialist Workers Party, in 1940, on the basis of an adaptation to American imperialism. By 1950, Shachtmans group was defending the Korean War and in 1961 it publicly supported the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

While Harrington ostensibly broke with Shachtman over the latters support for the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, he had spent years collaborating with Shachtman to provide a left cover for US imperialism. His disagreement with Shachtman was based not on any principled opposition to imperialism, but rather on his conclusion that the US war in Vietnam was counterproductive and would ultimately serve communist interests.

The first issue of Democratic Left, the flagship publication of DSOC, laid out its orientation: to build a progressive majority for the Democratic Party in 1974 and 1976. In a prominent editorial in the same edition, Harrington explained the function of the newly founded group: We believe that the left wing of realism is today found in the Democratic Party. It is there that the mass forces for social change are assembled; it is there that the possibility exists for creating a new first party in America.

The time when Harrington was drawing the conclusion that the Democratic Party was the way forward for socialists is of particular note. American capitalism was entering a period of protracted economic decline. The Vietnam War spelled the end of the Great Society and the War on Poverty. By the late 1960s, the post-war boom had begun to unravel, and the policies of the Democratic Party underwent a shift to the right. The ruling class was preparing to launch a social counterrevolution, beginning the process of tearing up all the gains workers had won in an earlier period.

Later on in the same commentary, Harrington added: We do not want to purge the New Politics from the Democratic Party; we choose, rather, to help bring out its best potential. The New Politics to which Harrington referred was again a reflection of the Democratic Partys strategy at the time to absorb middle class elements emerging from the movement against the Vietnam War. It was part of the same process engaged in by none other than President Richard Nixon after 1968, with his embrace of black capitalism, a program that included policies such as affirmative action and racial quotas, which served to promote a layer of black businessmen and politicians to preside over an immense increase in social inequality.

Harrington represented a layer of the upper-middle class that came out of the anti-war movement and made its peace with US imperialism. This layer did not want to be burdened by any principles, socialist or otherwise, that stood in the way of collaboration with the Democratic Party.

The role of Ocasio-Cortez

The four decades since the founding of the DSA have seen a continuing movement to the right on the part of the ruling class as a whole and the Democratic Party in particular. The Democrats long ago rejected any association with social reform. Under the Obama administration (2009-2017), the Democrats oversaw the biggest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the rich in US history.

There is mass popular opposition to inequality and war, which has erupted in the form of demonstrations and strikes throughout the world, along with a growing political radicalization of young people. More and more, young people are identifying themselves as socialists.

The emergence of Ocasio-Cortez is completely in line with the traditional role of the Democratic Party as an instrument of the ruling class to capture and strangle popular opposition to capitalism. She herself is not the head of a mass movement, which the Democratic Party is working to co-opt. She is rather the product of maneuvers by the DSA, operating inside the Democratic Party, to preempt the popular support for socialism that was revealed in 2016 in the 13 million votes for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primaries.

Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, is a long-time functionary for the Democratic Party. He ran as the supposed opponent of the billionaire class and champion of a political revolution, which turned out to be a campaign to hustle votes for Hillary Clinton, the candidate of Wall Street and the political establishment.

Ocasio-Cortezs marching orders are to keep the growing opposition in the working class within the safe confines of the two-party system. Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Sanders have anything to do with a genuine movement for socialism, which must be based in the working class and guided by program to mobilize workers on an international basis against world capitalism. In her brief tenure in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has already demonstrated that her politics are entirely compatible with those of the Democratic Party establishment.

She has fully accepted the Democrats anti-Russia campaign and the right-wing, pro-war basis of their impeachment proceedings against Trump. She has dropped her demand to abolish ICE, which is spearheading Trumps war on immigrants, and cultivated a close relationship with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

She has been silent on the persecution of Julian Assange and the associated attack on free speech, as well as the illegal military violence, mass spying and record level of deportations carried out by the Obama administration.

She, along with Sanders, joined in the disgusting chorus of praise for arch-warmonger John McCain following the Arizona senators death, tweeting: John McCains legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency. (See: Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders praise McCain: An object lesson in the politics of the pseudo-left).

Her signature legislation, the Green New Deal, was put forward as a non-binding resolution. It features left-sounding rhetoric but has zero significance in terms of resolving the global warming crisis. It promotes the fiction that it is possible to avert an environmental catastrophe within the framework of capitalism and the Democratic Party.

At the end of the day, Biden and Ocasio-Cortez agree on all of the fundamental points that define the Democratic Party: support for imperialist war, which requires attacks on democratic rights and social programs; American nationalism and defense of the nation-state framework, which means attacks on immigrants and a build-up of police state repression; and the defense of capitalist ownership of the means of production, the source of the social evils that Biden and Ocasio-Cortez claim to oppose.

Ocasio-Cortez has moved steadily away from any association with the term socialism. In a particularly revealing interview with NBC News Chuck Todd last year, she was asked if one could be a socialist and capitalist at the same time. Ocasio-Cortez replied that she thought it was possible.

The working class has been repeatedly sold the same bill of goods about reforming the Democratic Party for more than a century. Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA are hoping they can pull off this swindle one more time.

As the new decade opens, the working class is facing enormous political dangers: the threat of a third world war, the rise of fascism, economic and ecological catastrophe, and the further destruction of jobs and social services. At the same time, strikes and protests against social inequality and attacks on democratic rights are taking place on virtually every continent. The growing international movement against capitalism shows the potential for a revolutionary socialist alternative.

The critical question is the building of a revolutionary leadership, which requires the rejection and defeat of all those who seek to trap working people within the confines of capitalist politics.
In the Trump impeachment trial, the House Democrats have built a very strong factual case for removing the president, based on an exhaustive review of his scheme to extract a promise from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide dirt on prospective political rival Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign.

The case had been laid out by the lead prosecution manager, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Hakeem Jeffries of New York and others. They relied on a host of witness testimonies and documents establishing that Donald Trump sought to bribe Zelensky into making a public announcement of a fake criminal investigation into Biden and his son Hunter, formerly on the board of the giant Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

The former vice president was the Obama administration point man seeking to root out corruption in that allied country at the time, and the implied allegation was that the father acted to benefit his son, which both Bidens have flatly denied.

The prosecutor's presentation reported how Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, along with associates who were subsequently indicted, went to Ukraine in quest of incriminating information on Biden that could be used against him and for Trump in the 2020 election.
Bloodlines bind them to people on opposite sides of a violent divide. One is the mother of a jailed jihadist, the other the mother of a victim wounded in a bloody 2016 attack in Brussels. But these two Belgian women shared tears, and compassion, and finally an idea to write a book together to tell the world what unites them beyond the differences. Fatima Ezzarhouni, a 48-year-old born in Morocco and raised since the age of four in the city of Antwerp where she works as a care assistant, said she "just clicked" with Sophie Pirson, a 61-year-old employee in a contemporary arts museum who lives in Brussels. "We connected immediately," confirmed Pirson. They met in 2018 in a therapy group started by clinical sociologists that brought together mothers of jihadists and of the victims of a wave of attacks that rocked Europe two years earlier. The deadliest in Belgium occurred in the capital on March 22, 2016, when double attacks claimed by the Islamic State group killed 32 people and wounded 340 others. Pirson's younger daughter Leonor, then aged 30, was travelling in a Brussels metro train that day when a suicide bomber in her carriage set off his bomb. More than a dozen people were killed. Leonor, mutilated and made deaf, ended up being treated for a long time in hospital. - Living a 'nightmare' - Sitting by her daughter's bed in intensive care, Pirson said her thoughts turned "to the mothers of the bombers" that day. "I said to myself, it must be horrible for them to to have their son killed and nobody being able to understand the pain those mothers were going through," she told AFP. Ezzarhouni's son Abdellah Nouamane wasn't involved in those Belgian attacks. But he was an IS jihadist. Recruited online aged 18 while in Antwerp, he left without word for Syria in 2013 to join the so-called "caliphate". Ezzarhouni said that since then she has lived "a nightmare" over the fate of her eldest child. In 2018, a telephone caller said Nouamane had been killed in Syria. But a year later a Belgian TV crew tracked him down to a Kurdish-run prison where he was held with other IS fighters. Nouamane told them he "regretted" his decision to become a jihadist and wanted to return to Belgium, where he has been convicted in absentia on terrorism charges. He remains locked up in northeast Syria with little chance of repatriation. Ezzarhouni said the bits of information she gets about her son are rare and sometimes contradictory -- especially about "the two children he had with a Dutch woman. I have no idea where they are." Today, she also spends part of her time speaking in schools about her experience as the mother of a radicalised Islamist. - Friendship from tragedy - After meeting at the therapy session, the two women discovered, beyond their anguish, shared values that have forged a new bond. They have built their common esteem for being welcoming and open, and of their status as grandmothers into a friendship -- a relationship that could serve as a platform to pass on something positive from the tragedies they have lived. "If we have been able to come together to write this book, with our differences, with what has happened to each of us, I hope that it will make people think about what we can do together today to fight barbarism," Pirson said. "For me, it's to pass on a message," added Ezzarhouni, who said she gave more of herself than she ever had before to write the book, confiding to her friend painful secrets she had long kept hidden. Their book is a collection of joint interviews between the two women. They hope to have it published in March, in time for the fourth anniversary of the Brussels attacks. Fatima Ezzarhouni (L) and Sophie Pirson (R) 'connected immediately' as they shared their anguish Ezzarhouni's son is jailed in a Kurdish-run prison in Syria, along with other captured IS fighters Despite their differences, the two women have grown to be friends, confiding in each other to write their book
The leader of opposition in Parliament and Gulu Woman Member of Parliament, Betty Aol Ocan, has urged fellow legislators not to approve the funds meant for recapitalization of the Bank of Uganda (BoU), arguing that the local banking industry regulator will continue with financial indiscipline if bailed out in the budget for the financial year 2020/2021.

The LoP made the remarks as she responded to the 2020/2021 National Budget Framework Paper prepared by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED) where BoU has asked for Shs480 billion for recapitalisation come the new financial year.

But Ocan said that since BoU supervises the commercial banks, it needs to lead by example by exercising fiscal discipline as it spends the taxpayers money.

Stories Continues after ad

She said if BoU is granted its wish, its budget will be more than that of other crucial sectors such as tourism which brought in $1.6 billion, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the ministry of Trade and Industry.

The bank should consider utilisation of savings on government accounts, a drawdown of general reserve funds and deposit auctions as well as repurchase agreements, she wrote.

She said Bank of Uganda should explore all other avenues before seeking any recapitalisation.

Meanwhile, the Auditor Generals report released December 2019, has names BoU as the most loss-making government entity, making losses of about Shs855.585 billion.

Further, a probe carried out by parliaments committee on Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) from later 2018 to early 2019, faults BoU of failing to account for a big portion of Shs478 billion it claimed it injected in Crane Bank in Receivership, with some sources saying the money could have been swindled by senior officials as they failed to present all documents related to the expenditure of the money.
Born to a farming family in the Mekong Deltas Tien Giang Province, a young scientist was determined to pursue his passion for aquaculture.

Tuan in his office where he wrote dozens of scientific articles published internationally.  Photo vietnamnet

Tran Ngoc Tuan won the 2019 Golden Globe Awards for his research on fishery biotech.



The awards, which are given out annually by the Viet Nam Youth Union and Ministry of Science and Technology, aim to discover new talent and stimulate a passion for technology and science research among young people.



Tuan was one of 10 young talents with outstanding research projects or solutions in the five areas of information technology and communications, medical-pharmaceutical technology, biological technology, environmental technology and new materials.



So far, Tuan has authored 53 scientific articles published in international journals.



He graduated from high school in 1994 when intensive aquaculture was expanding in Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region.



I decided to study fishery pathology at Can Tho University because I thought I could easily find a job after graduating, the 36-year-old scientist told online newspaper vietnamnet.vn.



But the more I studied, the more I found the subject very interesting and suitable to my strengths, said Tuan.



After graduating, with his knowledge in aquaculture, Tuan and some friends opened a shrimp farm in his hometown.



But a few years later, he quit the farm to continue his studies in aquaculture.



During his masters degree, Tuan met a Chinese professor in aquaculture studies who then became his tutor for a PhD at Chinas Huazhong Agriculture University.



At present, Tuan is doing a post-doctorate degree at Shantou University in Guangdong, China.



His current field of research is investigating the diversity of intestinal microbiology systems and interactions with immune systems of fish and other aquatic animals.



The intestine is one of main gateways for pathogens to enter the body.



Tuans research has proved valuable in producing medicines for fish and aquatic animals.



I had to read thousands of documents and articles relating to my field to find my own ideas, Tuan said.



Once an idea came, I got started immediately. Because if you were late, someone else might be doing the same and post articles first, he said.



He was always conscious of working hard.



He actively participated in scientific conferences and seminars to meet researchers in the same field and learn of new trends.



Scientific researchers are like mountain climbers who always move forward, Tuan said.



Actually, I was satisfied with my current scientific achievement. But I really wanted the following research to be better than previous ones, he said.



According to Tuan, a scientist needs enthusiasm, creativity, co-operation and honesty.



I always remember my professor saying that if you decide, you should follow the goals to the end. His words became the guidelines for my scientific pursuits, he said.



Tuan said that he was born in a farming family, so the concept of scientific research was strange for him when he was young.



I just started to learn about scientific research. There were lecturers who inspired me to pursue the path, Tuan said.



If I wasnt a scientific researcher, I would have been a farmer, he added. VNS
This AARP survey explored the opinions of 500 Idaho small business owners or decision makers about employee benefits. Most small business owners expressed concern as taxpayers that some Idaho residents have not saved enough money for retirement. Most think that more should be done to encourage Idaho residents to save for retirement. Almost half expressed concern about their employees not having enough money to cover health care or living expenses when they retire.

About two-thirds of small business owners in Idaho said that they do not offer a retirement savings plan. Half said they do not offer one because it's too costly, while three in ten cited concerns about how complicated such plans are to operate.

Seven in ten Idaho small business owners support a privately managed, ready-to-go retirement savings option that would help small businesses offer employees a way to save for retirement. Most agreed that being able to offer a voluntary, portable, retirement savings option helps local small businesses attract and retain quality employees and stay competitive.



Interviews were conducted July 830, 2019. The sample, including owner names and companies, came from a Dun & Bradstreet business list and was weighted to reflect the Dun & Bradstreet universe of businesses in Idaho with 0100 additional employees.



For more information about this survey, please contact Lona Choi-Allum at lallum@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact media@aarp.org.

Suggested Citation:

Choi-Allum, Lona. Idaho Retirement Savings Program: Opinions of Small Business Owners. Washington, DC: AARP Research, January 2020. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00325.001.
Major overhaul in security cover to VIPs: Here is the full list whose security has been downgraded

PMO twitter account to be handed over to new dispensation: PMO

India is doing everything to secure release of Kulbhushan Jadhav

Anti drone weapons used for the first time during Republic Day parade

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: For the first time anti-drone weapons were used to secure the VIPs at the Republic Day parade.

The anti-drone weapons including the ones indigenously manufactured by the DRDO were used at Janpath on January 26. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah authorised the use of these systems following an Intelligence Bureau warning.

IB officials tell OneIndia that they had intelligence that terror groups from Pakistan are likely to launch drone strikes.

The Intelligence Bureau has emphasised on using high tech equipment as the warning this time is specific to drone attacks.

Viral video shows man holding Odisha minister's shoes during R-Day celebration

These drones are a potential threat and the government is looking for a solution to counter this problem. In this regard, the agencies conducted a data estimation and learnt that there are over 6 lakh rogue or unregulated drones of various sizes and capacities.

These drones are a potential threat and the government is looking for a solution to counter this problem. In this regard the agencies conducted a data estimation and learnt that there are over 6 lakh rogue or unregulated drones of various sizes and capacities.

A recent paper titled 'Drones: A new frontier for Police' published in the Indian Police Journal (IPJ) by IPS officer and Additional Director General in Rajasthan Police, Pankaj Kumar Singh, has talked about these new techniques.

A drone gun is capable of jamming the radio, global positioning system (GPS) and mobile signal between the drone and the pilot and forces the drone to ground in good time before it could wreak any damage. This Australia designed weapon has an effective range of 2 km, the paper said.

Another solution to block a lethal drone is the sky fence system that uses a range of signal disruptors to jam the flight path and prevent them from entering their target, a sensitive installation or event venue, it said.

Republic Day: No exchange of sweets with Pakistan at LoC, IB

Officials said prototypes of these counter-drone weapons were displayed for the first time at an open field in a BSF camp in Bhondsi, Haryana last week as part of a national conference organised by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) on anti-drone technology.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

The Centre now wants to impart training to police officers of all states to check this menace. The Bureau of Police Research and Development is currently in talks with the police chiefs of all states so that training can be imparted to counter new terror threats that have been emerging.
NATO is an intergovernmental organisation that is funded by its member countries. NATO is therefore accountable to its member governments and their taxpayers for the financial resources provided to make the Organization function.

Publication of NATO budgets

In the spirit of transparency, each year NATO publishes the civilian and military budget totals, as well as the NATO Security Investment Programme (NSIP) budget. It also publishes an annual compendium of financial, personnel and economic data for all member countries. Since 1963, the latter has formed a consistent basis of comparison of the defence effort of Alliance members based on a common definition of defence expenditure.

NATOs civilian budget (running costs for NATO Headquarters), military budget (costs of the integrated Command Structure) and NSIP (military capabilities) are commonly funded, i.e., they cover requirements which are not the responsibility of any single member, such as NATO-wide air defence or the command structure. All 30 members contribute according to an agreed cost-share formula, based on Gross National Income, which represents a small percentage of each countrys defence budget. This cost-share formula is published every year. Projects can also be jointly funded, which means that the participating countries can identify the requirements, the priorities and the funding arrangements, but NATO provides political and financial oversight.

Auditing of NATO accounts

Another measure of transparency was the establishment, in 1953, of the independent International Board of Auditors for NATO (IBAN), just four years after the creation of NATO. IBAN is responsible for auditing the accounts of the different NATO bodies. Its main task is to provide the North Atlantic Council - NATOs principal political decision-making body - and member governments with the assurance that joint and common funds are used properly. The Board, composed of officials normally drawn from the national audit bodies of member countries, not only performs financial audits but also performance audits which review management practices in general.

Ongoing reforms

In September 2014 at the Wales Summit, NATO leaders agreed to task further work in the areas of delivery of common funded capabilities, reform governance and transparency and accountability, especially in the management of NATOs financial resources. With this renewed drive for transparency and accountability, a number of key reference documents are being made public:

the NATO Financial Regulations, which govern financial administration;

the Guidelines on Corporate Governance, which establish the principles to be followed to strengthen transparency and accountability; and

the NATO Accounting Framework, which provides the minimum requirements for financial reporting in NATO.

This initiative builds on measures taken by Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (2009-2014), who introduced a NATO-wide reform process not only reflecting austerity measures taken in member countries, but seeking to make the Alliance more modern, efficient and effective. Each and every one of NATOs political and military structures was streamlined and the acquisition of critical capabilities reassessed to ensure the Allies can provide greater security with more value for money. There ensued a reform of the military command structure, NATO agencies and committees, and of the working practices of staff at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, including financial procedures.

Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen reported, inter alia, on this NATO-wide reform in an Annual Report published every year of his tenure. He was the first secretary general to make this report public. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has continued the practice. Although the obligation to report to the North Atlantic Council is inherent to the Secretary Generals mandate (C9-D/4(Final) 1952), the report itself was always classified until its drafting was discontinued in 1984. However, in the same vein as Mr Fogh Rasmussen and Mr Stoltenberg, NATOs first Secretary General, Lord Ismay (1952-1957), decided to make public a running account of the progress made by the Alliance during its first five years of existence (with only a cover note of confidential nature for the Council). NATO - The first five years, 1949-1954 was released in booklet form in 1957.

Internal reform efforts continue to help improve governance, transparency and accountability. In 2016, NATO leaders at the Warsaw Summit made a pledge to develop a stronger and more consistent approach to prioritisation. The aim was to improve the link between political and military priorities and resource requirements. More recent initiatives therefore include, for instance, measures to accelerate the delivery of commonly funded capabilities across NATO and to reinforce the Organizations risk assessment measures.
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday urged international powers to boycott US President Donald Trump's "peace plan" which they see as biased towards Israel.

"This a plan to protect Trump from impeachment and protect (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu from prison. It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting.

"This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory," he said.

Trump is expected to unveil his "peace plan" for the Middle East after hosting Monday in Washington Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz.

It comes as Trump is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate while Netanyahu, who is facing indictment over corruption allegations, will contest an election next month which Gantz is hoping to win.

"We call on the international community to not be partners in this because it contravenes international law," Shtayyeh told the Palestinian cabinet.

"The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale."

The Palestinians have not been invited to Washington, having cut all ties with the Trump administration over its pro-Israel stance.

The plan is widely expected to be the most favourable towards Israel ever proposed by the United States, with alleged leaks -- denied by Trump -- suggesting it could declare settlements in the occupied West Bank legal.

The US proposal could also pull back from the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital after Trump in 2018 recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

While the US and Israel are likely to be supportive of the plan, the reaction of international powers could be key.

Two European diplomats told AFP the European Union was working on a statement reaffirming its support for the two-state solution along the traditional lines.

Shtayyeh said president Mahmud Abbas would call a meeting of the Palestinian leadership to discuss the best ways to respond to the plan.

In Gaza on Monday a few hundred Palestinians protested against the Trump plan, which Palestinians ironically call the "Deal of the Century".
Jeffrey M. Verdon

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of estate and trust industry icon and asset protection pioneer for affluent families and business owners, Jeffrey Matsen. Jeff was a partner, friend and mentor to many professionals. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather and leaves an undeniable legacy for his family and the legal profession. Jeff will be sorely missed but not forgotten.

It is impossible to replace Jeff Matsen. However, we are pleased to announce our firms new association with one of Jeffs colleagues and friends, and one of Orange Countys leading estate planning and asset protection lawyers, Jeffrey M. Verdon, Esq. Mr. Verdon will be joining our firms Private Client Services Group as an Of-Counsel attorney.

Jeff Verdon brings over 35 years of experience working with high net worth families and business owners designing and implementing advanced estate planning with asset protection strategies geared toward protecting the legacies of his clients and their families. Known as an early adopter of combining comprehensive estate planning with risk mitigation strategies, Mr. Verdon is broadly recognized as one of the top attorneys in his field.

A sought-out author and speaker, Jeffrey Verdon is managing partner of the Newport Beach and Redwood City law firm, the Jeffrey M. Verdon Law Group, LLP. He is the publisher of the firms popular blog, Client Alert, and an ongoing contributor to Kiplingers online Wealth Creation Column, and the Orange County Business Journal. Jeffs insights on asset protection planning are often sought by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He presents at numerous national and international conferences, including providing lectures on luxury cruise ships.

With a new lawsuit filed in the United States every 15-minutes, Mr. Verdon brings the wisdom, knowledge and experience to clients to protect their legacies from creditors and predators. Jeffrey Verdon and his team regularly employ effective planning strategies such his HYCET Trust, foreign asset protection trusts, the Private Retirement Plan, IRA Rescue Plans, and much more to help protect his clients legacies from unforeseen financially ruinous lawsuits.

Jeffrey Verdon earned both a J.D. (Juris Doctorate) in 1978, being one the youngest to pass the CA bar exam, and an L.L.M. (Taxation) from Boston University in 1979. This extensive education provided him a strong competitive advantage over many in his field. All of this is why in 2008, he was named on Goldline Researchs list of the Top 10 Most Dependable Lawyers in California.

Jeffrey will split his time between the Verdon and Bohm Wildish & Matsen law firm meeting with clients and working with the firms team of lawyers and paralegals. We are honored to have Jeffrey join our team as a dependable and widely qualified expert in his given field.

Jeffrey commented, I knew Jeff for over 25 years and admired his intellect and marketing talent, often borrowing some of his early marketing ideas during our regular study group sessions. Jeff was a proud man and loved his family. He was an innovator and one of the most creative tax planners I have known. I am not seeking to replace Jeff Matsen, but rather to help carry on his legacy of the many contributions he brought to our profession. I am honored to have been asked to work with such a capable group of legal and paralegal professionals.
ATLANTA - Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, an ardent ally of President Donald Trump and vocal opponent of his impeachment, is expected to announce he will challenge fellow Republican and newly appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler for her seat this year, a Republican official said Monday.

The decision by the four-term lawmaker could complicate the GOPs chances of holding onto the seat as Republicans battle to retain their Senate majority in this Novembers elections.

Loeffler, 49, was appointed this month to the seat by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to replace the retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who left office due to deteriorating health. Shes a businesswoman and a newcomer to politics.

The conservative Collins, top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, was Trumps preferred choice for the appointment. Trump supporters had criticized Loeffler as too moderate.

But Kemp picked the wealthy Loeffler, who has said she will spend $20 million to retain the seat, in what was viewed as a bid to woo suburban and female voters. Since Kemp chose her, Loeffler has emphasized a pro-Trump message on issues like gun rights and building a wall along the border.

Besides Loefflers considerable piggy bank, Collins will also face opposition from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The Senate GOPs campaign arm traditionally supports incumbent Republican senators against primary challenges and is supporting Loeffler.

Loeffler will also be supported by the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Scott Reed, the organizations senior political strategist. He called her exactly the type of pro-business and pro-growth candidate we support.

The GOP official who described Collins expected plans spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal private conversations. Collins move was reported Monday night by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Politico.

Another complication in the race arose Monday when a Georgia legislative panel approved a bill that could change the states party primary system.

Under current Georgia law, Loeffler and any other candidates, regardless of party, would run together in a November special election. If no one wins a majority of the vote, a runoff would be held in January  with control of the Senate potentially in the balance.

But the new bill, opposed by Kemp, would establish May primaries. The measure was approved Monday by a subcommittee of Georgias House Governmental Affairs Committee.

Kemp promptly issued a veto threat.

You dont change the rules at half-time to benefit one team over another, spokeswoman Candice Broce said in a statement.

So far, two Democrats have announced plans to challenge Loeffler. Matt Lieberman is an Atlanta educator and the son of former vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman. Ed Tarver of Augusta served as U.S. attorney for Georgias Southern District during President Barack Obamas two terms.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, who pastors the Atlanta church once led by Martin Luther King Jr. and his father, is considering a bid and could announce soon. Hes widely seen as the favourite of party leaders, and a primary could allow the winner to consolidate party support.

___

AP writer Russ Bynum contributed from Savannah, Georgia. Fram contributed from Washington.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy
Prashant Kishor (left) with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

Responding to Home Minister Amit Shahs 'press the EVM button with anger' during a campaign for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Admi Party (AAP) poll strategist Prashant Kishor urged people to 'vote with love'.



8     EVM                       

Justice, Liberty, Equality & Fraternity  Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) January 27, 2020

The AAP strategist, who is a top leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party ally Janata Dal-United (JDU), made the statement after the BJP leader called on Delhiites on January 26 to make sure that the ripples of their votes send a message to the Shaheen Bagh protestors.

Kishor, who had crafted BJPs general election campaign in 2014, urged Delhi's voters to vote on February 8 to promote brotherhood and harmony and uphold the ideals of the Constitution.

Demonstrators at Delhis Shaheen Bagh are protesting the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), since it made religion the test of citizenship in India for the first time. Protesters across the country believe that the new law, coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), will systematically target the Muslim community in India. Kishor has been routinely criticizing the two as well.

However, constant protests against the Union government have irked authorities, who have pointed out traffic snarls and public inconvenience caused by the women of Shaheen Bagh. In view of that, Shah had said: When you press the button on February 8, do so with anger so that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh.

Addressing voters at a campaign rally in Delhi, Shah said: Your vote to the BJP candidate will make Delhi and the country safe and prevent thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh.
Hyderabad: Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy on Sunday challenged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to point out anything in the amended Citizenship Act that would affect anyone in the country.

Speaking to the reporters after hoisting the National Flag to mark Republic Day in his constituency Secunderabad, Mr Reddy reacted to Mr Raos statement that the Assembly may pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) like some other states have done recently.

Taking exception to the Chief Minister's criticism of the NDA government at the Centre over the CAA, he said, I condemn KCR ji for announcing that he will not implement CAA in Telangana state. I challenge the Chief Minister to show if there is anything in the Act that affects any of the 130 crore people (in the country).

He said that neither Mr Rao nor the TRS had the moral right to criticise the BJP on the matter.

State BJP president K. Laxman claimed that Mr Rao had joined the Congress in opposing the CAA with unfounded doubts and ill- motives.

The BJP has been stating that the Congress and the TRS were similar and it is becoming evident now, he alleged. Coming out strongly against the law, Mr Rao had on Saturday said that he may convene a meeting of regional parties and Chief Ministers to oppose the amended citizenship law.

Asserting that the TRS was secular by nature and policy, Mr Rao had said that passing the CAA was a wrong decision by the Centre as the Constitution provides fundamental rights to all people of the country irrespective of religion, caste and creed. As such, keeping Muslims outside the ambit of the CAA pained him, Mr Rao had said on Saturday.
Deep state players in the Obama administration wove an elaborate tapestry of collusion, subterfuge, and electoral chicanery. While better suited for a Robert Ludlum novel, it played out in real time over the past four years.

Stars of the drama include familiar names such as James Comey, James Clapper, John Brennan, and Andrew McCabe. Supporting actors played an unwitting role, namely Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. The victim was then candidate Donald Trump. Heroes of the saga include Attorney General William Barr, U.S. Attorney John Durham, and a mysterious group simply called Q.

The plot was simple. The Obama administration, in 2016 and before, wanted to preordain the 2016 electoral outcome. What better way to do this than to spy on the rival presidential campaign? Since spying is illegal, a pretense was needed.

Thats where the Steele Dossier came in. The DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and top Obama administration officials colluded with multiple foreign governments to fabricate opposition research on the Trump campaign alleging treasonous activities. This allowed the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, and likely others as well.

The Obama administration colluded with foreign governments to influence an election. How ironic that this is exactly what President Trump was impeached for, and why he is a dictator and an existential threat to democracy. Can you say projection?

Image credit: YouTube screen grab

The FISA court granted a Title 1 FISA warrant against Page, reserved for those accused of being an agent of a foreign power, one who is knowingly engaging in clandestine intelligence activities. Yet Page was never arrested or indicted for his activities. The reality is that he was a CIA asset engaged in clandestine intelligence activities not for Russia, but for America, and this minor bit of information was deliberately omitted from his FISA warrant application and three renewals.

The Barr DOJ has been pulling hard enough on this thread that after four years of FBI deceit and abuse of power, the Trump Russia collusion tapestry is unraveling before our very eyes. Like a game of Jenga, where blocks are slowly pulled out without collapsing the entire structure, the latest DOJ revelation is the keystone which held the entire charade together.

As the Daily Wire reported last week, DOJ Rules Comeys FBI Had Insufficient Predication To Establish Probable Cause In FISA Scandal.

The Department of Justice says that the FBI under disgraced former Director James Comey should have discontinued its secret surveillance on a member of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election because it had insufficient predication to establish probable cause.

As Reuters reporter Brad Heath tweeted:

This is a big deal. The Justice Department is conceding that two of the four FISA applications it used to conduct surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page were not lawful, and its not defending the legality of its other two applications.

What if the other two of four applications were equally bogus? As the FISA warrant applications were based on the fabricated Steele Dossier, and as the Inspector General discovered 17 specific inaccuracies and omissions in the warrant applications, its highly probable that the entire effort to spy on Carter Page, and through the two-hop rule, everyone in President Trumps orbit, was a gross and deliberate abuse of power.

Aside from the illegality of deceiving the FISA court, and the seditious efforts to remove a duly elected American president, it blows up all downstream Democrat, media, and deep state efforts to overturn the 2016 election.

There is a legal doctrine called the fruit of the poisonous tree. To summarize:

A doctrine that extends the exclusionary rule to make evidence inadmissible in court if it was derived from evidence that was illegally obtained. As the metaphor suggests, if the evidential "tree" is tainted, so is its "fruit."

What fruit did this poisonous tree bear? Read through dossier and see some familiar names and convictions. As World Net Daily reported:

Axios noted the convictions include former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, Richard Pineda, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan, former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.

They all face legal jeopardy or prison due to the Weissman and Mueller cabal, all fruit of the poisonous tree.

No dossier, no special counsel, no Mueller, no witchhunt, and no years of fallout and indictments. Time and money wasted. The accused losing their savings, reputations, and freedom over poisonous accusations. A presidency carrying an albatross of suspected treason.

The entire tree from which Democrats, the media, and NeverTrumpers having been harvesting fruit turns out to be a poisonous tree. The fruit is poisonous and those who ate the fruit are now ill. Is it any wonder President Trump, in interviews and at rallies, repeats the phrase, These people are sick? Are they sick as in deranged or sick from eating from the poisonous tree?

Lastly is the issue of intent. As the tapestry unravels, expect to see the guilty plead ignorance, that they were duped, and point their fingers at their coconspirators. What is more likely is that they had full knowledge of what they were doing.

This includes Congressional Democrats and the media, all knowingly perpetuating a falsehood, conspiring to undermine and overthrow a duly elected president.

A few months ago, the enigmatic Q brought up the term knowingly. Did those involved know their tree was poisonous, yielding poisonous fruit? As the tapestry unravels, this may be the next big reveal.

What does 18 U.S. Code  2385. Advocating overthrow of Government say about knowingly?

Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States. Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government. Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence. Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction. If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

This is gross and deliberate abuse of power, a coup to undermine and remove a duly elected president. All done with intent, knowingly. The fallout is far and wide and all as bogus as the predication of this entire hoax.

Yet the media and their Democrat allies are upset over Trump doing his job investigating corruption, and exercising his prerogative to remove ambassadors, just as Obama did before he even assumed office.

This is what Barr and Durham are investigating, pulling on the thread, unraveling the elaborately constructed tapestry, revealing a group of hateful partisans engaged in a seditious conspiracy to overturn a legitimate government. Hopefully their reckoning awaits. Along with well-deserved pain.

Brian C. Joondeph, MD, is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum
We are really excited about this new collaboration knowing it will bring more technology and staff support to the relationships we have built over the last 20-plus years.

Aptus Court Reporting announces its acquisition of The Best Evidence, Inc., a full-service court reporting agency owned and operated by sisters Tammi Lee and Terri Chicoine, both Certified Shorthand Reporters. This continues to solidify Aptus commitment to expansion and building on a brand of quality reporting and innovative solutions.

Tammi Lee and Terri Chicoine state: "We are really excited about this new collaboration knowing it will bring more technology and staff support to the relationships we have built over the last 20-plus years. We trust they are in good hands with Aptus, who will continue to handle these relationships in a very personal and professional manner, just as we have been able to do."

With over 20 years working with prestigious law firms in Southern California, The Best Evidence is a great addition to Aptus. We are very much looking forward to working with Tammi and Terri, and will continue to support their clients with the expansion of additional Aptus services, says Aptus Chief Operating Officer Sandy Waite.

Derek Berg, President of Aptus Court Reporting expressed the teams excitement about the merger. We have known Tammi and Terri for years and have always had the utmost respect for the way they conduct business. Orange County is a key market for the future of Aptus and with Best Evidence joining our team, will help catapult us to the forefront of Orange County Court Reporting providers.

ABOUT APTUS COURT REPORTING:

Aptus Court Reporting is a full-service court reporting firm headquartered in San Diego, CA. The company provides decades of combined experience in the court reporting industry and offers videography, transcription, and trial support among its list of services. The company focus is connecting testimony and technology for clients nationwide. For more information about Aptus Court Reporting, please visit http://aptuscr.com.

ABOUT THE BEST EVIDENCE: The Best Evidence, Inc., was founded in 2010 and has enjoyed a consistent and prominent reputation in the Southern California legal community providing quality court reporting services.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath said on Sunday a law would be enacted soon to ensure all permissions needed for setting up industries in the state are given within a week, a government spokesperson said.

Kamal Nath made the announcement in Indore while addressing a gathering after hoisting the national flag on Republic Day.

All such permissions will be given in a maximum of seven days. If the permission is not given within seven days, it will be considered as permitted. This will help increase the economic activities that generate employment, Nath said.

He said, As many as 70% of employment in new industries has been made mandatory for the youth of the state. In view of the employment potential in the real estate sector, the number of 27 permissions required for it has been reduced to five.

The chief ministers announcement comes a day after his return from the Swiss city of Davos, where he attended the annual World Economic Forum and met several industrialists on the sidelines asking them to invest in Madhya Pradesh.

He said that the central government has abolished the practice of making the Scheduled Tribe plan.

This has made the task of estimating the amount of money needed for the development of these areas difficult. Now, efforts will be made to implement it again after holding a discussion in this connection with the government of India, he said.

Referring to the welfare of tribes in the state, he said that the final decision on cases related to their forest rights will be taken in the next one month.

The Aashthan scheme has been implemented for the preservation of the religious places of the tribal community. This year is being celebrated as Gondi Art Year. Rani Durgavati, Badal Bhoi, Tantya Bhil and Jangansingh Shyam Smriti Awards have been instituted, he added.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the Congress government has not done anything towards fulfilling its poll promises.

Its more than a year since Congress came to power in Madhya Pradesh but there is nothing for the public so far except announcements, the spokesperson of the partys state unit, Dr Hitesh Bajpai, said.

The farmers loans are yet to be waived. Shelters for cows are yet to come and educated unemployed youths are yet to get employment or employment allowances, he said.
Centre, states need to think about reducing taxes on petrol, diesel: Thakur

Kerala govt slammed for registering case against ED official

Mirabai Chanu created history, entire nation is proud of her: Sports Minister Anurag Thakur

'Goli Maaro Saalon Ko: Union minister Anurag Thakur stokes controversy

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 27: A video showing Union Minister Anurag Thakur leading a crowd with the slogan "Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko," a chant inciting listeners to shoot "traitors to the country", went viral on Monday.

Addressing an election rally in Delhi, the union minister reportedly chanted "Desh ke gaddaron ko..." while clapping his hands over his head, to which the crowd replied with "Goli maaron saalon ko" chants (taken together, the chants translate to "shoot the traitors of the nation").

The slogan used by Thakur is frequently raised by right-wing organisations. Earlier this month, BJP leader Kapil Mishra, now also a candidate in the Delhi Assembly elections scheduled for February 8, was caught on camera shouting the slogan.

ED finds 'financial links between PFI and anti-CAA protests in UP

The Delhi unit chief, Manoj Tiwari, had reportedly said neither he nor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supports such remarks.

The video gains importance amid recent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The citizenship law offers Indian Citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Buddhists, but excludes Muslims-a decision that BJP's critics have objected to.

The critics argue that CAA along with the contentious National Citizen Registry could be used to target the country's Muslim population.
Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday unanimously resolved that the State Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh be abolished.

All the 133 members present in the House  132 belonging to the ruling YSR Congress and one from Jana Sena voted for the resolution while Telugu Desam members boycotted the days proceedings. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who moved the resolution, pressed for division.

As many as 18 ruling party members, including whip Ch Bhaskar Redddy, did not take part in the voting reflecting the poor floor management. While 21 TD members boycotted the Assembly proceedings, two TD legislators, who have since switched over their loyalties to YSRC, abstained from the voting apparently to avoid anti-defection proceedings.

There was confusion for some time with the Speaker initially announcing that the resolution was adopted with 121 members supporting it.

Municipal administration minister Botsa Satyanarayana, however, brought to the Chairs notice that the head count was incorrect.

Centre to tackle Council issue now

The Assembly staff once again took the headcount following which the Speaker announced that 133 members were present and they had supported the resolution.

As the resolution warrants support of two-third of the members present and voted, Speaker Tammineni Sitaram announced that the resolution seeking abolition of the Council was adopted unanimously before adjourning the House sine die.

As per the procedure, the resolution would be sent to the Centre for approval of the Parliament and Presidential assent.

Winding up the debate on the resolution, the Chief Minister said a decision to abolish the Council was taken in the larger interest of people and to ensure that their welfare and states development are not hampered.

The Council is used as a tool in a larger conspiracy hatched by the Opposition to deprive people of development.

"It (Council) is totally useless and a burden on exchequer," he said.

Responding to allegations that the three-day recess to Assembly was to indulge in horse-trading, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy said had he approved horse-trading, TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu would have lost the status of Leader of Opposition long back.

"We are here to herald a change in politics," he said adding that he had clearly announced on Thursday that the House would be convened on Monday to recommend abolition of the Council.

While the Telugu Desam had earlier abolished the Council in 1983 to avoid the summoning of a media baron by the Upper House, the YSRC is proud of itself for seeking abolition for people's welfare though the party is poised to gain majority in another one year.

The Chief Minister reiterated that his three capitals would result in creating large-scale employment without any injustice to any particular section of the society or region.

Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy said the framers of the Constitution too were against the second chamber and left it to the States to decide on it.

Only six states have a Council and several dispensed with it earlier. The spirit behind the Council is to obtain informed advices from the educated in the Council, the Chief Minister said. He pointed out that the present Assembly is represented by 38 post graduates, 13 medical doctors, 14 engineers and 68 graduates besides civil servants, teachers and farmers.

He concluded his speech quoting Martin Luther King Jr's popular saying "The time is always right to do what is right," and invoked divine blessings to dispense with the Council at the earliest.
Country has imposed drastic travel restrictions and extended holiday season to try and curb spread of the virus.

China said on Monday that the death toll from a deadly coronavirus outbreak jumped to 81 as the hard-hit province of Hubei announced 24 new fatalities and expanded measures to keep people at home during what is usually the countrys biggest holiday season.

The total number of confirmed cases nationwide rose sharply to 2,744, officials said as state media reported the first death in Hainan province; an 80-year-old woman.

A national tally of verified infections rose by 769, about half of them in Hubei, the National Health Commission said. It said 461 of those infected were in a serious condition.

China has sealed off Hubei in the countrys centre, an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people which is intended to slow the transmission of the respiratory virus.

The end of the Lunar New Year holiday, Chinas busiest travel season, was pushed back to Sunday from Friday to effectively reduce mass gatherings and block the spread of the epidemic, a cabinet statement said. Schools will also postpone reopening until further notice, it added.

Cases have been confirmed in the semi-autonomous territories of Macau and Hong Kong, where the government is turning holiday camps into quarantine centres.

South Korea confirmed its fourth case on Monday.

Scattered cases have also been confirmed in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Nepal, France, Canada and Australia. The US has confirmed cases in Washington state, Chicago, southern California and Arizona.





The previously unknown contagion has caused global concern because of its similarity to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pathogen, which originated in China in 2002 and went on to kill hundreds of people not only in mainland China but also in Hong Kong and further afield.

Al Jazeeras Adrian Brown, who reported on the SARS virus, said that while it did appear that China was now being more open in some ways not much had changed.

We know the virus in Wuhan began to appear at the end of November but it was not until the end of December that officials notified the WHO, and it was only after Xi Jinping said he wanted full transparency that all this data began to be released, Brown said from Hong Kong.

Censorship had fed deep scepticism about the information being released, he added.

Drastic travel restrictions have been imposed beyond the epicentre, with Shandong province and four cities  Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Tianjin  announcing bans on long-distance buses entering or leaving.

The densely populated southern province of Guangdong, Jiangxi in central China and three cities made it mandatory for residents to wear face masks in public.

The virus is thought to have originated in a seafood market that also sold wild animals in Hubeis capital of Wuhan towards the end of last year.

The government said in a statement on Monday that Premier Li Keqiang had visited the city to inspect the ongoing efforts to contain the epidemic and spoke with patients and medical staff.
In early December 2019 the LNA (Libyan National Army) predicted that they would take control of Tripoli by the end of the year and then hold national elections in mid-2020. That did not happen, mainly because Turkey had openly pledged to protect Tripoli, Turkey also realized that an LNA victory would be an embarrassing defeat. More than that it would eliminate another recent agreement with the GNA (the weaker UN backed Government of National Accord) , which granted Turkey the right to explore for natural gas in Libyan offshore waters. Most nations in the region consider this agreement illegal and a blatant attempt to block Greek and Israeli access to key portions of the eastern Mediterranean.

In response to the LNA prediction, Turkey has increased its material and personnel support for the GNA, which is in direct violation of the UN embargo on weapons shipments. Egypt and the UAE are also flying in military equipment, and Egypt can ship it overland across their border with Libya. The Turkish intervention has saved the GNA, which otherwise probably would have been out of business by the end of 2019. The ten month battle for Tripoli has not produced massive casualties. So far about 2,500 people have died, nearly 20 percent of them civilians caught in the crossfire. Nearly 200,000 civilians have been displaced by the fighting, although many of those return to their homes after the fighting moves on.

Foreign Assistance

Currently, the Turkish contribution has been over 2,000 Syrian mercenaries and a few hundred Turkish troops serving in non-combat jobs. Turkey has also provided dozens of missile-armed UAVs that provide air support for the GNA forces. The LNA has access to missile-armed Chinese UAVs supplied by the UAE (United Arab Republic). The LNA has long been supported by the UAE. Russia and a few other Arab nations. The UAE has put troops on the ground, mainly to operate airbases the UAVs operate from. The UAVs have largely replaced manned warplanes as they are cheaper, have longer endurance and you dont need pilots. Training UAV controllers is a lot easier than aircraft pilots. The UAVs are not used a lot, averaging 4-5 sorties a day total (for both sides) during eight months of fighting. Some days are only one or two UAV sorties and then there are days where there are over a dozen, carrying out major attacks on base areas or in efforts to turn the tide in a battle.

France has had some special operations troops with the LNA forces, mainly to monitor the situation. The U.S. also actively intervenes with air power against Islamic terrorist targets. Turkey does not consider that direct support for the LNA.

The foreign military support for the UN backed GNA and the eastern (HoR or House of representatives) forces does not get much publicity from the participants. Thats because UN sanctions prohibit such outside support but the UN backed GNA is being kept alive by the Turkish forces and the weapons the Turks bring in. Overall there are as many as 5,000 foreign personnel providing this vital support for both sides.

There are hundreds of Russian combat advisors and trainers in Libya and most of them have been there since 2018. These troops are civilian contractors working for the Wagner Group, which also has several hundred Russian technical advisors in Libya to keep LNA heavy weapons operational. Earlier in 2019 Russia revealed that it had increased its logistic and maintenance support for LNA forces. This support had been going on since late 2018 and has returned hundreds of Cold War era Russian armored vehicles and artillery to working order. This work was done with the battle for the Libyan capital Tripoli in mind. The LNA expected to begin this campaign in early 2019.

While Russia has been backing the LNA since 2016, the Turks only recently (mid-2019) came to the rescue of the GNA, which is trying to defend the city of Tripoli, its last stronghold. The Turks favor he GNA because the GNA is largely a collection of militias, several of them described as Islamic although not Islamic terrorist. Turkey is apparently also receiving financial backing from Qatar for this Libyan effort.

The Turkish intervention is part of a larger conflict. Turkey is allied with Iran and Qatar against the rest of the Moslem world, especially Egypt and the Gulf Arab oil states. That is a major incentive for the Turks to get involved in Libya. One reason for Russia not publicizing their Libyan efforts is because Russia and Turkey are allies in Syria. Turks dont have any military or contractor personnel at the front lines but some have been killed or wounded by LNA airstrikes.

The Russians are seen as reliable allies of Libya, even though it was Russia which supplied Libya with most of its weapons throughout the Kaddafi era (1960s to 2011) and is now delivering fewer, but more modern ones, like ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) and portable anti-aircraft missiles to bring down UAVs. The Turks are seen as a former imperial overlord trying to make a comeback. The Turks also ignore the fact that most Libyans oppose the Islamic conservative militias that the Turks support and see the Turks as more of a threat than the Russians or Arabs who are backing the LNA.

Turkey is threatening war with its neighbor Greece because of overlapping claims to offshore waters that might contain lucrative natural gas deposits. Turkey is also at odds with the United States in Syria. All these foreign adventures are an effort to distract Turkish voters from the current economic recession they are suffering from as well as their government continuing suppression of internal criticism of the government.

Despite the increasing (since May) Turkish military aid for the GNA forces, the LNA still dominates the battlefield. The LNA forces are larger, better trained, equipped and led than the collection of militias the GNA depends on. The LNA has been fighting since April to take the main GNA stronghold, the national capital Tripoli (in the west, near the Tunisia border). Turkish intervention interrupted that plan but did not stop it. The LNA forces continue to advance, but more slowly. The relentless advance, even if it is slow, demoralizes the opposing militias and the LNA continues to allow militias to switch sides. This is a tactic the LNA has been using for years. One reason the LNA is so popular is that its commanders do not act recklessly and take better care of their troops. Turkish efforts to train militia fighters have had little success and it is difficult for most militia leaders to take advice from the Turks. So the LNA forces continue to advance and at this rate, Tripoli will fall in a few months, if not sooner. The LNA now believes the city will fall eventually but cannot determine exactly when because of Turkish interference and whether it will keep escalating.

The Turkish involvement stalled the LNA advance on Tripoli. The LNA adapted to the Turkish presence and resumed pushing back the militia defenders. As a result Turkey has come out in favor of a negotiated peace between the GNA and the HoR government in Tobruk. The HoR was the last elected government and helped organize the LNA. The UN organized the GNA by making deals with the militias that dominate Tripoli and Misrata to the east. Many of those militias want or will accept, a religious (Islamic) government for Libya. Currently, most of these militias are out for themselves and are basically a network of independent warlords whose only common interest is preventing the LNA from establishing a national government. The LNA has been, since it was founded in 2014, against Islamic terrorists and radicals as well as independent militias.

For all the imported weapons and more than 20,000 armed men confronting each other since April, the casualties have been low, averaging 10-20 dead and wounded a day since April. Most of the casualties are armed but because the fighting is largely in urban areas there are usually civilians present so 10-20 percent of the casualties have been civilians.

The GNA is backed by the UN bureaucracy and some European governments. The UN wants a ceasefire and enforcement of sanctions. Most Libyans see those goals as counterproductive. A ceasefire means the Tripoli militias can go back to fighting each other. As long as there are two governments there are constant disputes over how the oil income is spent. The LNA controls most of the oil production and shipping facilities but the GNA has more, but not absolute, control over the national oil company and the Central Bank. The LNA already controls most of the country and has an impeccable record of suppressing Islamic terrorism. The GNA presides over a lot of independent-minded militias in Tripoli and Misrata to the east. Many former supporters of the GNA switched sides when they realized the GNA was unable to deal with the militias it depended on to defend its last two strongholds (Tripoli and Misrata). The UN is determined to see its creation eventually rule over a united Libya, despite the fact that most Libyans, and their neighbors, disagree with that assessment.

January 26, 2020: The only airport in Tripoli came under rocket fire that wounded two civilians and damaged a building. The airport had recently resumed operations after a closure caused by LNA threats to shoot down airliners.

The recent ceasefire was broken when LNA forces advancing towards Misrata, the second largest city in Libya, encountered armed resistance 120 kilometers from the city. The LNA was advancing on Misrata in part to force Misrata militias, which form the backbone of forces available to the GNA, to withdraw from Tripoli to defend their city. The Misrata militias have always been the most Islamic and the most effective. The local militias in Tripoli are a diverse lot and many have evolved into criminal gangs that are more concerned with self-preservation than protecting the GNA.

January 25, 2020: The UN reports that at least seven nations are violating the Libyan arms embargo and supplying weapons and other military aid to either side. Currently, Russia and Turkey are the biggest offenders, along with the UAE and Egypt.

January 22, 2020: The LNA claimed to have shot down a Turkish air transport as it took off from the Tripoli airport. The next day the GNA announced that the airport was closed until further notice.

January 19, 2020: In Germany, an international conference assembled to deal with the stalemate in Libya. Those invited included the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Italy, the EU, UN, AU (African Union), Arab League, Republic of Congo, Algeria, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. GNA and HoR representatives also showed up but would not meet with each other. GNA and HoR representatives attended and agreed to discuss a peace deal, which is supposed to include the dissolution of the militias in Tripoli and Misrata that are the remaining obstacle to peace in the country. The LNA has suppressed Islamic terrorists and tribal rebels in most of the country and has been trying to take Tripoli since April.

January 18, 2020: LNA forces shut down production at most (about 79 percent) oil facilities. That means production went from most of the oil fields that cannot be exported. The National Oil Company informed foreign customers and calculated that the closure would cost Libya $55 million a day in lost revenues. In 2019 Libya generated $22.5 billion in oil revenues, which was 8.5 percent less than 2018.

Total Libya oil production was 1.25 million BPD (barrels per day). Since 2018 the LNA has controlled most of the oil production and export facilities. The oil income generated goes to the national oil company and the Central Bank which is allowed by the GNA and HoR to purchase essential imports and handle financial matters associated with the oil industry and distribution of imports. The two rival governments generally honor this agreement because either government could disrupt the system and cause widespread economic hardship throughout the country. But now the HoR believes the GNA, on the advice of Turkey, is violating this arrangement.

January 16, 2020: Turkey announced that it was sending more troops and military aid to Tripoli.

January 12, 2020: Russia and Turkey got both the GNA and HoR to agree to and implement a ceasefire. General Hiftar went to Russia to discuss the matter with his largest foreign supplier of military assistance. Hiftar agreed to the ceasefire but refused to sign the agreement. Turkey and Russia are allies, sort of, in Syria but Turkey, like the GNA, is tolerant of Islamic militias. Actually Turkey regularly supports cooperative Islamic terrorist groups but has not sent any of those to Libya to reinforce the defense of Tripoli. Instead, Turkey has sent about 2,000 trusted members of its FSA (Free Syrian Army) mercenary force. The FSA has been doing most of the fighting for the Turks in Syria, in return for good pay and eventual Turkish citizenship. Some of these Turkish mercenaries in Libya already received their citizenship, plus about $2,000 a month for serving in Libya plus a large payout to next of kin if they are killed.

Russia hopes to do business with Libya after the war but is also dependent on Turkey financially. Turkey has become a major customer for Russian weapons and Russia, under heavy sanctions for invading Ukraine, needs the money. At the same time, Russia recognizes that Hiftar and his LNA are the most effective military force in Libya and also the most effective at dealing with Islamic radical groups.

Senior officials from Egypt and Algeria met once more and affirmed that both nations opposed any foreign intervention in the Libyan civil war. This was directed at Turkey, which was now openly intervening in Libya.

January 7, 2020: Tunisia announced that it had refused Turkish requests to allow Turkish troops and mercenaries to fly into Tunisia and then enter Libya overland. Tunisia, like the other North African nations, is hostile to Turkish intervention in the region.

January 6, 2020: Sirte (a coastal city 500 kilometers east of Tripoli and 560 kilometers west of Benghazi) unexpectedly fell to LNA forces. The LNA has been trying to subdue Sirte for years. The LNA eliminated the Islamic terror groups that had, since 2016, operated south of the city. Until recently most of the Sirte militias are loyal to the GNA, if only because the GNA doesnt try to control what the Sirte militias do. That includes working with people smugglers and living off the local population. Shutting down this sort of thing is why the LNA has been able to take control of most of the country. The LNA had been carrying out airstrikes on the Sirte militias and planning a ground offensive as soon as Tripoli was taken. But LNA leaders had also been negotiating with some of the larger militias in Sirte and finally got a key militia to switch sides. The other militias realized that put them at a serious disadvantage and accepted a peace deal that put the LNA in charge of the city. This was a major, and unexpected, loss for the GNA. Now the UN-backed government only controls two cities (Tripoli and Misrata) and both are under attack. The Turkish military aid is keeping the GNA alive but at the cost of long-term domination by Turkey. This is not popular with most Libyans and most Arabs in general.

The loss of Sirte gives the LNA an airport closer to Misrata and Tripoli and makes it more difficult for GNA forces to threaten LNA supply lines that come from the east. The loss of Sirte is also a psychological blow because it had come to represent a large portion of GNA's popular support.

January 2, 2020: Turkey agreed to send troops to Libya to defend the pro-Islamic government. Egypt supports a rival government that now controls most of Libya including nearly all the oil facilities. Egypt is seeking allies to hale prevent Turkish troops and allied Syrian Islamic terrorists from operating in Libya.

December 21, 2019: In Libya, the Turkey-backed GNA is accusing the rival Russian-backed HoR (House of Representatives) government of using Russian mercenaries to lead the attack on the GNA (and Libyan) capital Tripoli. This city, and nearby Misrata, are the last two strongholds of the UN created GNA. But the HoR is the last elected government in Libya and controls most of the country. The GNA failed because it is dominated by Islamic militias in Tripoli and Misrata and was never able to create an effective military force. The HoR has the LNA (Libyan National Army) led by Khalifa Hiftar, an elderly former Kaddafi officer who fled Libya in the 1980s because he opposed Kaddafi. Hiftar has made one official and several unofficial visits to Russia in the last few years, where he met with diplomats and the Ministry of Defense officials to discuss the situation in Libya and arrange for illegal (because of the arms embargo) shipments of Russian weapons to the LNA. Hiftar has the support of most Libyans along with Russia, most Arab states, especially Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and now the United States as well. The UN opposes Hiftar, as does ISIL, the Moslem Brotherhood and pro-brotherhood nations like Turkey, Qatar and Iran. The main argument against Hiftar is that he could turn into another dictator like Kaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011. Hiftar had been an early supporter of Kaddafi and was a colonel in the Libyan army when, in the late 1980s, he and Kaddafi became enemies and Hiftar was declared a traitor. Hiftar got support from the CIA to form an opposition force (the first LNA) but no African nations were willing to host it for long and by 1990 Hiftar was living in the U.S. and seeking citizenship. Hiftar became a U.S. citizen and spent 20 years living in the West before returning to Libya after Kaddafi was overthrown. By 2014 he realized that Islamic terror groups and independent militias were preventing the formation of a new government. His solution was to form the LNA in the east (Benghazi) and take on all the warring factions, especially the Islamic terror groups. Five years later the LNA, the only organized military force in Libya, is closing in on the last concentrations of militias in Tripoli and Misrata. At that point, the GNA found Turkey was willing to provide military aid and now the GNA and Turkey have a military alliance which includes the possibility of Turkey sending troops to prevent the LNA from taking Tripoli and ending GNA operations in Libya.

President Vladimir Putin already has nearly a thousand Russian PMCs (Private Military Company) into Libya. The PMC force is supplied by the Russian Wagner Group which has, since 2014, become Putins private army in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere in Africa. Ukrainians identified Russian Special Operations colonel Dmytro Utkin as the founder of Wagner. The name Wager was originally the radio call sign for Utkin. The Ukrainians have a lot of experience with the Wagner Group, which was used to restore discipline in rebel-controlled areas of Donbas by kidnapping or assassinating rebel leaders who were not following orders from Russia. Wagner is believed to have over 5,000 highly skilled (and paid) personnel on the payroll. Ukraine and foreign analysts documented that the Wagner firm is a major Russian military contractor with thousands of personnel overseas. What little is known about Wagner is collected from Internet posts (usually in social media) about the death of Wagner employees in Libya, Ukraine or Syria. There is so much data like that freely available that it is possible to get a good idea about the size and activities of Warner and other military contractors Russia uses.

Turkey says it might send troops to Libya but has not done so yet. The Wagner Group personnel are former Russian military, often experienced special operations or airborne veterans led by equally experienced former officers. The Turks could send some of their own special operations troops, but these are needed for current operations in Syria and against separatist PKK Kurds in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Moreover, Turkish and Russian forces fighting each other in Libya would be embarrassing because Russia and Turkey are supposed to be allies, especially in Syria.

December 14, 2019: The Libyan embassy in Egypt announced that it was closing indefinitely. The official reason was security problems. The reality was that most of the embassy staff had turned against the UN backed GNA Libyan government and now backed the rival HoR. Egypt has long backed the HoR because the LNA had taken control of the Egyptian border and helped keep Islamic terrorists out of Egypt. By 2018 Egypt was certain that the LNA had pacified eastern Libya up to and including the Egyptian border. That was always the main Egyptian concern. Egypt worked with the UAE to support the LNA and while Egypt is less active the UAE is still a major supporter of the LNA as is Russia.
Dr. Jennifer Winward signing up high school students for Winward Academy at Redwood High School in Marin County, CA "Technology is a tool for teaching but should never be the teacher. Students need to feel connected to what theyre learning, why its important, and who is teaching them."- Jennifer Winward, Ph.D., Winward Academy Founder and CEO

The Education Technology (Ed-Tech) industry is one with great promise of solutions for teachers and students but also one that faces great challenges. Historically, ed-tech offerings have not provided personalized learning experiences for students, nor have they offered measurable outcomes to monitor success. Those issues have been addressed with the development of Winward Academy, an ed-tech solution created by a University of California, San Diego instructor, Dr. Jennifer Winward.

Winward, founder and CEO of Winward Academy, shares, ed-tech solutions should be the application of technology to education, not vice versa. The best online education is student-centric - it recreates an in-person learning experience by honoring over 40 years of education and cognitive psychology research that identifies techniques to promote effective learning.

Using technology that incorporates effective learning techniques into a self-paced, personalized, on-demand platform marries the best of education with the best of technology. Innovations provided by Winward Academys learning platform that honor this education research include the following:



Mistake Bank  missed questions are automatically saved in students personal Mistake Banks, making it easy for them to review prior mistakes and promoting a growth mindset.

Give Yourself a Hint  students paraphrase what they learn into problem-solving hints that can be turned into customized study guides.

Supportive Feedback  students receive specific, clear feedback on every answer and access step-by-step explanations for every question.

Before-and-After Assessments  with data on pre-lesson and post-lesson accuracy, students receive immediate feedback, track their progress, and maximize their learning.

Winward shared her thoughts on effective ways to deliver transformational strategies that result in documented success for students in the countrys charter schools, private and public high schools. Technology is a tool for teaching but should never be the teacher. Students need to feel connected to what theyre learning, why its important, and who is teaching them.

Most notable is the impact of the platform on underserved students Winward Academy reaches through its philanthropic mission. According to the 2017 ACT annual report, only 9% of underserved high school students are college ready as measured by attainment of benchmark scores. After using Winward Academy, underserved students are 3.5x more likely to be college ready in English, 4.0x more likely in Math, 3.6x more likely in Reading, and 4.0x more likely in Science.

Barbara Ybarra, CEO of Barrio Logan College Institute, which supports high school students who will be the first in their families to attend college, states, Im thrilled to see a CEO committed to serving all students, making resources typically limited to those who can afford private tutors available to all youth.

Technology offered in the Winward Academy platform ensures reliability and consistency of lessons with a resource thats always accessible and accurate. Winward Academy harnesses technology to not only improve test scores but also promote passion for life-long learning and encourage long-term retention of foundational skills and habits that also contribute to collegiate and career success.

About Winward Academy

Test success, college success, and life success  they all begin at Winward Academy, a research-based, student-centered learning platform for the ACT, SAT, math class, and college applications. Winward Academy applies a scientific approach to customize learning for each student, enabling growth for students of all levels and learning styles. Winward Academy is a team of passionate adolescent learning researchers committed to thoughtfully developing curriculum that improves learning, retention, and test performance  building confidence for life. Winward Academy curriculum is used by students at home, by teachers in the classroom, and by charities in after-school and summer programs. For more information on Winward Academy, see winwardacademy.com or follow the company on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
A grouper fish in Quang Ninh has attracted lots of attention for liking teeth brushing, stroking and talking with strangers.





Brushing teeth for a grouper

The fish belongs to farmer Nguyen Van Binh. His fish farm is at Ong Cu Island, about 4 km away from Bai Tu Long Bay, Cam Pha City.



"Everyone is surprised and doesn't understand how a grouper fish can be so friendly. It resurfaced whenever it heard people talking. It likes playing and doesn't like eating, like a child," Binh said.



According to Binh, he and his family noticed that this grouper fish was different from others about 8 years ago. One of his employees realised that this particular fish was especially friendly when he was feeding. When being touched, the fish often swam around merrily.







The fish farm of Nguyen Van Binh

"Grouper fish are not friendly fish. Big fish can bite your hands if you are not careful. But this fish likes being stroked by other people and when we tried to clean its teeth, its mouth opened willingly," Binh said.



Grouper fish have high commercial values. Vietnam has about 30 different types of grouper fish which are often sold at restaurants.



Binh also warned that they have to brush the teeth lightly like they are giving the fish a massage. During such time, the fish was very obedient and they could even be lifted out of the water for a photo. Binh said he had raised the friendly grouper for 17 years and no other fish was as friendly as this one. Many people have offered to buy the friendly grouper for hundreds of millions of VND but Binh refused.







The friendly grouper

"I wont sell it, even for a billion VND. Its our lucky fish. We'll raise it until it grows old and dies," he said. "It eats when it wants to, otherwise, it just wants to be stroked and have its teeth brushed."



The toothbrush-loving fish doesn't like eating like other fish. While other fish already weigh 20 kg, the friendly grouper only weighs 8 kg. Binh has over 200 fish cages including black grouper and giant grouper. A giant grouper that weighs 25-40 kg is sold for VND1m a kilo.



Ong Cu Island has nearly 80 households with fish farms, raising fish with high economic value like grouper or cobia. Dtinews
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump stated falsely Monday that House Democrats never called his former national security adviser to testify in their impeachment inquiry. Actually they did.

Trumps tweet about John Bolton came as the Senate entered the second week of the impeachment trial, where his defense team stretched the facts on Trumps effort to get Ukraine to investigate Democrats.

Senators were grappling with a fresh disclosure that Bolton claims to have been told directly by the president that aid to Ukraine should be held up until the country agreed to cooperate in an investigation of Trumps political rivals. Trumps lawyers portrayed the delay in aid as a routine matter despite the findings of a nonpartisan federal agency that the freeze was illegal.

Heres a look at some recent statements where truth came up short:

TRUMP: The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate!  tweet.

THE FACTS: Thats false in its entirety. House Democrats did ask Bolton to testify, and he declined. He did not show up for his deposition. Trump is also incorrect in suggesting impeachment witnesses are the sole province of the House.

House Democrats decided not to pursue a subpoena compelling Bolton to testify in the House proceedings because he threatened to sue, which could have meant an extended court fight. Afterward, however, Bolton signaled his willingness to testify at the Senate trial if hes subpoenaed.

The Senate trial has yet to resolve if any witnesses will be called, much less who. It is empowered to do so if it chooses, contrary to Trumps suggestion that it is up to the House only.

Boltons behind-the-scenes account is in the manuscript of his coming book. It intensified calls from Democrats to make him a witness because it contradicts key assertions by Trump and his defense teams argument that there is no evidence the president conditioned aid to Ukraine on an investigation of his political rivals.

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TRUMP LAWYER JAY SEKULOW, referring to Trumps July 25 phone call with Ukraines leader: Asking a foreign leader to get to the bottom of issues of corruption is not a violation of an oath.  Mondays trial argument.

THE FACTS: Trump made no such request in the phone call. And beyond the phone call, theres scant if any evidence that Trump cared about Ukraines history of systemic corruption unless it might involve Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company when his father was vice president.

In the call, according to the rough transcript released by the White House, Trump repeatedly pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens and a groundless conspiracy theory that Ukrainians tried to help Democrats win the 2016 election. He didnt mention Ukrainian corruption.

Trump delayed military aid to Ukraine despite a Pentagon review that found the country had made sufficient progress in cleaning up its legacy of corruption to merit the aid that Congress had approved.

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SEKULOW: It was President Zelenskiy who said no pressure.  Mondays trial argument.

THE FACTS: True, but the statement skirts important context.

In and around the July 25 phone call, Zelenskiy was deferential to Trump as his country, menaced by Russia, tried to keep U.S. military aid flowing. Even so, Ukrainian officials felt pressure for months to do Trumps bidding, and Zelenskiy himself eventually complained about Trumps dealings with him.

The Associated Press reported that in May, even before taking office, Zelenskiy knew that vital military support might depend on whether he agreed to investigate Democrats as Trump was demanding.

After the July 25 call, Zelenskiy said he had no problem with Trumps comments on the call. But by then, Ukrainian officials were wondering why the aid was being held up. And in October, while insisting there was no pressure or blackmail from the U.S., he criticized Trump for blocking the aid and for casting his country as corrupt.

If youre our strategic partner, then you cant go blocking anything for us, he told Time. I think thats just about fairness.

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TRUMP LAWYER MIKE PURPURA, dismissing the idea that military aid was released because Trumps pressure campaign on Ukraine had been exposed: On Sept. 11, based on the information collected and presented to President Trump, the president lifted the pause on the security assistance.  Our process gave the president the confidence he needed to approve the release of the security sector assistance.  The presidents concerns were addressed in the ordinary course; the president wasnt caught as the House managers allege.

THE FACTS: The pause in Ukraines military aid was hardly routine, according to testimony heard by House investigators. Moreover, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found the aid freeze to be illegal.

House investigators heard about confusion and frustration among senior State Department and Pentagon officials when they learned the congressionally approved aid was being held.

I was embarrassed that I could not give (Ukraine) any explanation for why it was withheld, said William Taylor, who was the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.

The Defense Departments Laura Cooper said she and other national security aides unsuccessfully tried to get an explanation for the hold and expressed concern about the White Houses legal authority. The Pentagon had already certified to congressional committees in May that Ukraine had made enough progress on reducing corruption to receive the military assistance.

Catherine Croft, special adviser for Ukraine at the State Department, said national security agencies were unified in support of the aid, and she had never before encountered a time when the White House budget office had injected itself into such a matter.

Top advisers scrambled to get Trump to release the aid through August. Ultimately, on Sept. 11, the funds were suddenly released, after Trump learned of the whistleblowers complaint and a few days after Democrats opened a congressional investigation of the episode. The Government Accountability Office later found that the White House budget office withheld the funds for an unauthorized reason in violation of the law that requires the executive branch to spend money that is appropriated by Congress.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

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EDITORS NOTE  A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck
Samaritans of Newry & Dundalk is recruiting new volunteers to join their team and help make a difference to people in need.

Are you looking for a new challenge? Can you offer a listening ear to people in emotional distress? If so, the Samaritans of Newry & Dundalk want to hear from you.

Samaritans are looking for men and women, of all ages and walks of life, to join our current volunteers in dedicating around three or four hours a week to those most in need.

We will be holding an Information Evening on Thursday 27th February at 7.30pm in our branch 19 St Colmans Park, Newry BT34 2BX. There is no obligation or pressure with attending this information evening so come along and see if volunteering might be for you.

Even if you cant join us for the Information Evening, you can find out more about becoming a volunteer with Samaritans by emailing us on volunteering@samaritans.org or by calling our volunteer team on 03705 627282 from the UK (1890 200 091 from the Republic of Ireland). You can also check out our website for more information on http://www.samaritans.org/ volunteer.

Samaritans are best known for the vital support given to callers on its 24-hour telephone service and volunteers can also offer support by SMS, email and face-to-face in communities, festivals and outreach events.

Eileen Campbell, the Director of Samaritans in Newry & Dundalk said: We are asking people across the South Down, South Armagh and Dundalk areas to consider making a difference to someones life by volunteering with us.

It takes a huge number of volunteers to keep our service operational and with so many people in need, we want to be there for them all. You can have a look at http://www.samaritans.org/ volunteer to find out if you have what it takes to be a Samaritan.

Full training is provided and no previous experience is necessary, just the willingness to listen.

One of our Newry volunteers, Padraig, has spoken about the benefits of volunteering with us: Every 6 seconds, somebody contacts the Samaritans by phone, email or face-to-face in the 201 branches across the UK and Ireland.

With 5.7 million contacts each year, we are always looking for people who can offer a few hours a week to be there for people in distress.

Its a real privilege to be a Samaritan volunteer. Sometimes, you might be the only person somebody confides in or the only voice somebody has talked to in weeks.

Knowing that you might make a positive difference in a strangers life can be really satisfying and Id encourage anyone to come along to our Information Evening on Thursday 27th February at 7.30pm.

Established in Ireland in 1962, Samaritans is based in 21 towns across the island of Ireland, with over 1,800 active volunteers on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
MT. LAUREL, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today TD Bank announced several key changes to its Consumer Product leadership team. Matt Boss, previously Head of Credit Cards and Unsecured Lending (CCUL) at TD, has been named Head of Consumer Products, overseeing the Bank's Consumer Product portfolios. This includes Credit Cards and Unsecured Lending, Checking, Deposit, and Payment Products, Residential Lending and the Bank's CRA efforts. In this role, Boss will prioritize enriching the customer experience, incorporating new technology, and driving growth across each of the consumer product portfolios.

"Customers are the core of our business  and Matt is tenacious when it comes to delivering on the customer experience," said Greg Braca, President and CEO, TD Bank. "His expertise in deepening the value of our products, improving capabilities and modernizing operations makes him incredibly well-suited for this role. We're eager to put Matt's talent to good use as we continue to evolve and grow our consumer businesses."

Boss's promotion follows marked success leading the Bank's credit and unsecured lending businesses, where he oversaw operations, refined the strategic direction, and increased performance across the CCUL businesses. Boss joined TD Bank in 2017. Prior to TD, he served as managing director of products and marketing for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), based in Australia.

Following Boss's promotion, Jason Thacker, previously Head of Consumer Deposit and Payment Products (CDPP) at TD, will succeed Boss as head of CCUL. In this role, Thacker will oversee TD's Bankcard, Retail Card Services, U.S. Partnerships and Unsecured Lending businesses. He brings deep industry knowledge to this role, having held a variety of leadership positions across TD since he joined the Bank in 2007.

With this change, Lindsay Sacknoff will replace Thacker as Head of CDPP. She most recently served as Head of U.S Contact Centers and has spent nearly ten years with TD Bank. During her tenure leading U.S. Contact Centers, Sacknoff focused on enhancing the customer and employee experience, and refining operations, with great success across both initiatives.

"These are critical, customer-focused roles and both Jason and Lindsay are leaders characterized by their commitment to deepening relationships with our customers," said Boss. "We have a great opportunity to evolve, build, and grow, and I'm excited about the leaders we have at the helm across our consumer product teams."

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 9 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,200 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.td.com/us. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.

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PARIS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Paris-based Chinese associations have cancelled a Lunar New Year parade following the coronavirus epidemic, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Sunday.

"I have met with the Chinese community in Paris. They are very emotional and concerned and they have decided to cancel the parade that was scheduled for this afternoon at Place de la Republique," Hidalgo said on Europe 1 radio.

"They are really not in a mood to party now," she added.

The city of Bordeaux in southwest France on Saturday also cancelled planned Chinese New Year festivities in order to limit infection risk and as a gesture of support to the victims in China, its mayor said.

On Sunday, China said the death toll from the virus has risen to 56 and that 1,975 people have been infected. In France, three people have been infected, all Chinese nationals. Two are in hospital in Paris, one in Bordeaux. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Authorities in Ivory Coast are battling with a suspected case of coronavirus, the countrys health ministry has announced.

The development has raised fears that the deadly virus which has killed dozens in China, may have reached Africa.

The patient, a student returned from Beijing last Saturday and is undergoing further tests according to local media.

The student was quarantined after showing flu-like symptoms, which are common signs of Coronavirus.

If confirmed, it will be the first case of the deadly virus in Africa.

This strain of coronavirus is new to experts and first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

It has spread to over 2,000 people and killed at least 56.

The 34-year-old woman is currently in isolation, officials said.

The traveller has lived in China for the past five years, according to the statement released by Ivory Coasts health ministry, and had shown flu-like symptoms before boarding the plane to Abidjan.

Her general state is satisfactory, the ministry said. There are, at this stage, suspicions of a case of pneumonia tied to the coronavirus.

Since the outbreak began in Wuhan, several African countries including Ghana have introduced extra screening on flights arriving from China.

---citinewsroom
White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks in favor of of Senate Resolution 483, the organizing resolution for the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 21, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Trump Lawyers to Resume Arguments in Senate Impeachment Trial

President Donald Trumps defense team was set to resume arguments arguing against his removal from office on Jan. 27, after opening the arguments on Saturday.

Jay Sekulow, Trumps personal lawyer; Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel; and other attorneys started laying out their case over the weekend, ending after a few hours.

The trial will resume at 1 p.m. EST with arguments expected from Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who will make arguments against impeaching Trump based on constitutional law; former Independent Counsel Ken Starr, who probed the last president to be impeached by the House, Bill Clinton; and Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general.

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Dershowitz said: The Constitution requires treasontheres no treason. Bribery, theres no allegation of bribery. Other high crimes and misdemeanors, which means other high crimes and misdemeanors that are akin to treason and bribery.

Pam Bondi, a White House adviser and member of the legal team, departs the Senate following opening arguments by the Republicans in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 25, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

They completely failed to meet that high constitutional standard, and therefore it would be unconstitutional to remove a president based on the allegations that were made against him in the articles of impeachment, he added.

Even if the factual allegations are true, the House did not allege impeachable offenses, he said.

Dershowitz said Trumps defense team would show that allegations by Democratsthat Trump used the power of his office to try to pressure Ukraine into probing corruption allegations surrounding Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential contenderwere not true.

Trumps team said during the Saturday presentation that voters should be allowed to decide whether Trump stays in office and accused Democrats of attempting to interfere in Novembers election.

Alan Dershowitz in New York City in a file photograph. (John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu)

Theyre asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election, but theyre asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election thats occurring in approximately nine months, Pat Cipollone told senators. Theyre asking you to tear up all of the ballots across this country, on your own initiative, take that decision away from the American people.

Another lawyer, Mike Purpura, highlighted how Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, said they werent pressured by Trump.

And Sekulow drew attention to U.S. officials who expressed concern about possible corruption in Ukraine, attempting to bolster the case for the legitimacy of Trump pausing congressionally approved military aid to the country.

The arguments by Trump lawyers followed three days of arguments by House Democrats as they tried to convince a supermajority of the Republican-held Senate to vote to convict Trump, or remove the president from office. A simple majority is enough to acquit the president, which is widely expected to happen.

After Trumps team is done, both sides will answer written questions submitted by senators. A vote on witnesses will take place. Democrats have been pushing to subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton and three others they argue have facts relevant to the impeachment efforts. They reiterated their calls after a report on Sunday quoted Boltons upcoming book.

House impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) speaks during impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 22, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images)

Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press Sunday, lead House impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said his reaction to the opening arguments by Trumps team was that theyre deathly afraid of what witnesses will have to say.

And so their whole strategy has been deprive the public of a fair trial. They dont frame it that way, but thats in essence it. They have a very heavy burden though with that because the American people understand what a fair trial is. A fair trial requires witnesses. A fair trial does not consist of the person who is charged agreeing with the judges to deprive the prosecution from being able to make a case, Schiff said.

So its hard to argue, We dont want to hear the evidence, particularly when they say, We should hear from more direct witnesses who talked to the president, but were not going to allow them to be called.'

Since the GOP holds a 53-47 majority, at least four Republicans would need to side with Democratsif every Democrat votes for witnessesin order for any witnesses to be called. Some GOP members have floated different possible witnesses from those Democrats want to call, including Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.
Ruth Jones and James Corden attend the Channel 4 Comedy Gala, in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, at the O2 Arena, London. (Photo by Ian Nicholson/PA Images via Getty Images)

James Corden and Ruth Jones have said they hope to make more Gavin and Stacey following the release of figures showing the huge success the Christmas Special.

Recently released viewing figures reveal the festive episode was watched by 18.5million people, making it the broadcasters most viewed television programme since records began in 2002, excluding national and sporting events.

In a joint statement released addressing the success, Corden and Jones were open about their hopes to make more of the popular series in the future.

Read more: Gavin and Stacey Christmas special named the UK's most-watched scripted show of the decade

The statement read: Its mind blowing that so many people watched our show - we still cant get our heads round it, what a massive compliment.

We are indebted to the BBC for their incredible support but most importantly to those 18.5 million viewers for watching.

We just hope one day we can let them know what Smithy said next...

The Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special ended with Jones Nessa telling Cordens Smithy she loved him and presenting him with a ring.

But much to the frustration of over 18million people, the episode ended before Smithy gave a response, leaving another loose end untied - along with the infamous Fishing Trip incident between Uncle Bryn and Jason.

Director of BBC Content Charlotte Moore said in a statement: These incredible viewing figures demonstrate the power of British comedy and the love for Gavin and Stacey.

I want to thank James and Ruth for this gem and like everyone Im longing to find out what happens next!

Read more: Ruth Jones reveals her extreme bid to keep Gavin and Stacey reunion plot a secret

BBCs Controller Comedy Commissioning Shane Allen also said: Im delighted for Ruth and James that their terrific comic creation is more adored than ever.

Ruth Jones, Alison Steadman, Joanna Page, Mathew Horne, Rob Brydon, and James Corden pose with the award for Comedy for Gavin & Stacey during the South Bank Show Awards 2008 at The Dorchester on January 29, 2008 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

BBC One really does bring the nation together, and these figures are testament to iPlayers role in bringing our hit shows to new generations of fans.

Heres hoping the BBC give in, so we can see if Nessa and Smithy end up together...and perhaps what happened on that fishing trip.
A teacher who is living with his pregnant wife and child in a city that is at the epicentre of Chinas coronavirus outbreak is hoping to get his family out safely.

Tom Williams is a British expat who has been living and working for about five years in Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province in China.

His wife Lauren, who is from Langley, B.C., is about 35 weeks pregnant, he said in a telephone interview from Wuhan. He also has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, James, who was born in White Rock, B.C.

We are quarantined in the city, he said.

While he said things are pretty calm and under control he noted the road closures have added a little bit of worry for when they will have to get his wife to the maternity hospital. She is due in the middle of February, he said.

Were due to give birth in Wuhan. Thats becoming a little bit more risky as time goes on, Williams said. Its a changing picture. Its changing everyday. New stuff and new guidelines going on.

He contacted the emergency hotline for the Canadian embassy over the weekend, he said.

Staff there put him through to Ottawa and he said he was told that he and his family should stay put.

Theres no imminent plans to evacuate Canadians from the city, Williams said, adding that he would like to get out of Wuhan as soon as possible, but was prepared for the alternative.

If I have to stay behind, so be it. As long as my wife is guaranteed a safe birth.

Other countries need to follow the lead of the United States, which has had a flight approved while working with the Chinese authorities, he said.

Particularly for people who are at higher risk.

China has now reported more than 2,700 cases of the new virus with at least 80 deaths, and officials say the rate at which its spreading is accelerating.

Global Affairs Canada says 69 Canadians in the Hubei Province have registered with the voluntary Registration of Canadians Abroad service.

Williams said local shops are still open and well-stocked, however, some of the roads are allowing only approved vehicles.

If you are more central in the city or closer to the epicentre of the virus then there are only approved vehicles allowed on those.

People have to wear masks according to guidelines and local authorities are checking peoples temperatures, he said.

Williams and his family are not in the central part of the city, so cars are still allowed but theres very little traffic, he said.

Although the situation is sad and upsetting, Williams said hes quite peaceful about it.

It is what it is. You cant control these things sometimes, he said. Were trying to have hope instead of fear.

Read more about:
Ben Harper has been named head of Corporate Sustainability for Zurich North America.

In this new position, Harper will be responsible for coalescing Zurichs people and capabilities to advance the companys sustainability priorities of workforce in transition, climate resilience and confidence in a digital society. He will work with Zurichs business units, functions, customers, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, industry groups and trading partners on the companys sustainability activities.

Harper has 31 years of sustainability and insurance experience and has been with Zurich for 18 years. Most recently, he served as the global environmental subject matter expert in technical underwriting and as head of the pollution team responsible for technical, policy, strategy and underwriting guidance in support of environmental coverages. He has also been active in Zurichs climate, environmental, social and governance initiatives through product development, actuarial modeling, green investment advising and internal evaluations. He served as part of Zurich Groups Climate Office from 2009 to 2013.

Harper will be based in Schaumburg, Illinois, and report to Chief Human Resources Officer Laura Rock.

Topics Pollution
Ryan Gallagher's jungle romance with Charlotte Crosby on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Australia has been making headlines over the past three weeks.

And Ryan's mother, Vickie, revealed on Monday that the ex-Geordie Shore star, 29, isn't her son's usual type but she does support their blossoming relationship.

Vickie, 66, told Woman's Day: 'I definitely would have preferred their friendship to have lasted a bit longer but having said that they're spending a lot of time together.'

I'm a Celebrity: Ryan Gallagher's mother, Vickie (right), supports his jungle romance with Charlotte Crosby - but admits she isn't her son's 'usual type'

She went on to say that she approves of the relationship because it 'makes Ryan happy' and that's all that matters.

Since their arrival in the jungle earlier this month, viewers have been captivated Charlotte and Ryan's flirty encounters.

They have kissed, cuddled and even shared a bed overnight.

Blossoming romance: Since their arrival in the jungle earlier this month, viewers have been captivated Charlotte and Ryan's flirty encounters

But one scene of the pair spooning in bed outraged viewers, who complained on I'm a Celebrity's official Instagram account.

'This is supposed to be a family friendly show. Not a mix between Married At First Sight and Big Brother,' one fan wrote.

Channel 10 has denied Ryan and Charlotte have engaged in sexual activity while in the jungle.

A rumble in the jungle! They have kissed, cuddled and even shared a bed overnight

Charlotte broke up with her most recent boyfriend, Joshua Ritchie, in November.

Ryan was previously linked to New Zealand model Ayla Browne, but they split in November 2018 after a three-month romance.

He famously appeared on Married At First Sight's fifth season, which saw him paired with adulterous bride Davina Rankin.
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In the world of smartwatches, Apple Watch has become a baseline product for most companies to copy the design for their own wearables in an attempt to undercut Apple. But some companies go beyond that and borrow the features of Apple Watch. Chinese tech company Oppo is now said to be adding the support for electrocardiograph (ECG) on its smartwatch that is in the works. ECG debuted as a feature for consumer wearable on the Apple Watch Series 4 that was launched in 2018.

Following the announcement at the 'Inno Day 2019' conference by Oppo last month, more details on the smartwatch have begun to crop up. As per the claim by a tipster on Weibo, Oppo's unnamed smartwatch will be equipped with a technology to measure ECG, much like Apple Watch 4 and higher. The specifics on how the technology will work and its correspondence with mobile phones are not available.

The technology to measure ECG of the human body is reaching more and more smartwatches now. Over the past few months, manufacturers such as Samsung and Huami have integrated the ECG measurement technology into their respective smartwatches. Oppo seems to join the slowly growing list, according to the claim. But before it comes to fruition, Oppo will have to get the ECG feature approved from various regulatory bodies across the globe. Readers are advised to take this chunk of information with a grain of salt.

The same tip also suggests the smartwatch will have a square-ish dial, another borrowing from the Apple Watch. Earlier, Oppo vice president Brian Shen had hinted at a rectangular design for the smartwatch, saying that it will provide a better room to interact and view content than the circular dial. The design that Oppo is going forward with is reminiscent of that of Apple Watch models which is also subject to a wide range of criticism for its antiquity. However, the same design made spotting an Apple Watch easy from afar.

Recently, Xiaomi was heavily criticised for having copied the design of Apple Watch for its Mi Watch. Oppo's Shen was among them who took potshots at Xiaomi. But, Oppo is not only copying the design, but it is also borrowing one of the important features on Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5.




(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2020) A Russian delegation consisting of foreign and defense ministry officials discussed during talks with President Bashar Assad on Monday the situation in Syria, including the political settlement and humanitarian issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The delegation included Russia's special envoy for Syria Aleksander Lavrentyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.

"During the talks, a detailed discussion was held on the situation in and around Syria, the tasks of ensuring long-term stabilization during the elimination of the remaining hotbeds of terrorism, as well as measures to provide comprehensive humanitarian assistance to all those in need throughout the country, which will facilitate the voluntary, safe and dignified return of refugees and internally displaced persons," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the participants of the meeting also discussed "the issues of the political settlement process in Syria, led and implemented by the Syrians themselves with the support of the UN, including the continuation of the work of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva."
3 1 of 3 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3





TORRINGTON  Charlotte Hungerford Hospital will host Know How to Go, a free seminar on transportation options in Northwest Connecticut, from noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 10. The program will be held in the Hungerford Center Conference Room, 780 Litchfield St., Torrington.

Topics will include information about access to public, paratransit and ancillary transportation as well as programs and other resources for seniors and people with disabilities. Presenter will be April Chaplin, Northwest CT regional mobility manager/ombudswoman for the Kennedy Center Inc., WCAAA. Hartford HealthCare Center for Healthy Aging is sponsoring. Light refreshments will be served.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Global temperatures in 2019 were the second warmest on record since 1880, according to independent analyses from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Earths global surface temperatures last year were the second warmest -- second only to 2016 temperatures. According to NASA, 2019s warm temperatures continue the planets long-term warming trend -- the last five years have been the warmest of the last 140 years.

In 2019, temperatures were 1.8 degrees warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to scientists at NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studios (GISS) in New York. NOAAs analysis found that 2019 global temperatures were 1.7 degrees above the 20th century average.

The decade that just ended is clearly the warmest decade on record, said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. Every decade since the 1960s clearly has been warmer than the one before.

Since the 1880s, the average global surface temperature has risen, and the average temperature is now more than 2 degrees above that of the late 19th century. Using climate models and statistical analysis of global temperature data, scientists concluded this increase mostly has been driven by increased emissions into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by human activities.

We crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming territory in 2015, and we are unlikely to go back," said Schmidt. This shows that whats happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some weather phenomenon: we know that the long-term trends are being driven by the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Not every region on Earth experienced similar amounts of warming. NOAA found the 2019 annual mean temperature for the contiguous 48 United States was the 34th warmest on record. The Arctic region has warmed slightly more than three times faster than the rest of the world since 1970.

Rising temperatures in the atmosphere and ocean are contributing to the continued mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica and to increases in some extreme events, like heat waves, wildfires and intense precipitation, according to NASA.

In July 2019, New Yorkers experienced a heat wave as temperatures approached the triple digits. Staten Islanders took to city beaches and park sprinklers during the weekend as an excessive heat warning was in place. The high temperature reached 97 degrees, but it really felt like 105 degrees.

MORE NASA STORIES:

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Former mayor of Georgias Batumi Giorgi Ermakov has been sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of authority and misspending of more than $1million of state funds while in office.



Another former official of Batumi City Hall, Archil Vanadze detained last year has been found innocent, while one more detainee Egraslan Lomadze has been sentenced to one year and six months, Agenda.ge reported.



In May 2019 the Adjara Prosecutors Office detained seven acting and former top officials of Adjara region for misuse of official authority and misspending of state money, including Ermakov.



The detention concerned the construction of residential buildings in Batumi and an electronic tender opened for state-offered project Cheap House.
Acclaimed philanthropist and renowned entrepreneur from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, Dr PC Rayulu, has been conferred with prestigious "Champions of Change" Award 2019 by Interactive Forum on Indian Economy (IFIE), a non-profit organisation recognized by government of India, for his exemplary social welfare initiatives and philanthropic work.

The award was presented to Dr PC Rayulu by Former President, Dr Pranab Mukherjee, in a special ceremony conducted at his residence in New Delhi.

"Hard work and good intentions always get rewarded. Receiving this award from the hands of a man of Dr Pranab Mukherjee's stature means a lot. Spurred by this award, I intend to expand my social initiatives and philanthropic work further and make a positive contribution to our society. I sincerely thank IFIE for this great honour," said Dr PC Rayulu.

This award marks a watershed moment in Rayulu's life and career and it comes close on the heels of the Government of India recognising his merit and bestowing "Pride of the Nation" accolade, presented by Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence, Government of India.

Dr PC Rayulu is the Founder-Chairman of the PCR Group of companies with its headquarters in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Hailing from a humble agricultural background and modest formal education, he is a self-made person and a successful entrepreneur. He is also the Chairman and Managing Trustee of Kasturba Gandhi Trust.

Kasturba Gandhi Trust (sponsored by Gandhi Smruti, Delhi), Tirupati was founded by Dr Rayulu in the year 2004. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon the nation to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in the most eminent manner.

In reverence to the message by the Prime Minister, Dr Rayulu, sponsored and organised a Guinness World Record and Unique World Record fetching largest drawing of the Father of the Nation, measuring an incredible 4416 square feet (70 feet X 65 feet), climaxing a fortnight long celebration of the memorable event on October 2, 2019.

This world/unique record is a historic honour to the town of Tirupati, the state of Andhra Pradesh and India as a country.

Rayulu started on a very nebulous note in the then tiny Tirupati town in Andhra Pradesh in the early 1980s, handling a few truckloads of bagged cargo. From that modest dawn, he nurtured his meticulously and galvanised it into a dazzling ISO certified expansive logistics group and evolved to lead it as a well-deserved CEO.

Today PCR Group is a conglomerate of eight companies handling a robust three million tonnes turnover of cement, fertilisers, food grains etc. across seven states from 25 branch locations operating out of five lakh square feet warehouse space and catering to over a dozen major corporate houses in private and public sectors.

The catalogue of services offered covers the entire gamut of field logistics operations - C & F, container and wagon rake handling, warehousing and inventory management, bulk and bagged cargo movement from production units as well as marketing buffer centres, secondary transportation to retail points and other allied services.

The group has embraced change and adopted modern integrated software application technology and tools to span customer supply chains to the last mile most diligently.

That most of the principals/customers of the group have continued to seek the group's services is ample testimony to the quality and customised services it offers. Rayulu duly acknowledges the magnanimous support and encouragement he has received from late K K Birla and late Aditya Birla and their families in the enduring progress of his enterprise

In recognition of his exemplary administrative and organisational skills, he has been nominated for several central government assignments. He served as Chairman, Food Processing Industries, South Zone for two terms.

He has been on the committees of Food Corporation of India. Rural Development, Steel, Coal, Railways and Ministry of External Affairs (ICCR). He has also been the Chairman of Balaji Urban Coop Bank in Tirupati for five years and held the position of President at the Tirupati Chamber of Commerce for 10 years.

Several other luminaries from different walks of life also received the "Champions of Change" Award, which included prominent names like Hemant Soren (CM, Jharkhand); Anurag Thakur (MoS Finance & Corporate Affairs); Manish Sisodia (Dy CM, Delhi); Acharya Balakrishnan; Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Raj Kundra; Shri Suresh Oberoi; Allu Arvind, to name a few.

The Jury for Champions of Change Award was headed by Justice KG Balakrishnan (Former CJI and Former Chairman NHRC). It also included Justice Gyan Sudha Misra (Former Judge, Supreme Court of India), Pahlaj Nihalani (Former Chairman, Central Board of film certification India), and Subhash Ghai (Veteran Indian Film Director).

The 2019 ceremony was the second Champions of Change Award commemoration. In the first edition in 2018 winners included an incumbent Chief Minister, Union Ministers, Members of Parliament, District Magistrates, Superintendents of Police, and various social workers.

Dr PC Rayulu featured as a winner of Champions of Change Award in the 2018 edition as well and received his award from Hon'ble Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
TEHRAN, Iran, Jan.27

Trend:

Iran set up health center at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) to check the passengers arriving from China, spokesman of the Civil Aviation Organization Reza Jafarzadeh told Trend.

"Considering the outbreak of dangerous Corona disease in various countries, all Iranians and foreign citizens arriving from China are being checked," the official said.

"In cooperation with the Health Ministry, doctors have been deployed in the airport to examine passengers that are suspicious of having Corona virus," Jafarzadeh added.

"Preventing the spread of Corona disease is a national concern, so the necessary cooperation has been established between Imam Khomeini Airport and the Health Ministry to diagnose the patients," the spokesman said. "So far, no suspicious cases have been reported."

The official has indicated suspicious passengers will be accommodated in quarantine in the specific center for contagious diseases that is set up in the Imam Khomeini Airport.

"Passengers from Bangkok, China and South East Asia will be examined before arriving to Imam Khomeini's main hall," Jafarzadeh said.

"There are four direct flights from Chinese cities; however, the connecting flights from China will be monitored as well," he noted.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been repeatedly attacked by top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders over the continuing protests over the amended citizenship law at the citys Shaheen Bagh, sought to lob the ball back at the BJP. In a tweet minutes after law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad mounted another attack at the Aam Aadmi Party boss, Kejriwal blamed the BJP for the continuing protests that had blocked an entry point into Delhi.

People are being inconvenienced due to the road blocked at Shaheen Bagh. BJP doesnt want the road to be opened, Kejriwal tweeted on Monday, accusing the BJP of practising dirty politics.

Kejriwal also came up with a suggestion for the BJP.

BJP leaders should immediately go to Shaheen Bagh and talk to them (protesters) and get the road reopened, Kejriwal said, tweeting his response soon after Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned his silence.

ALSO WATCH | Vote for BJP so current hits Shaheen Bagh: Amit Shah poll pitch in Delhi

Aam Aadmi Party leaders have over the last few days underlined that it was the job of the traffic police to get blocked roads in Delhi reopened. The police in Delhi does not report to the elected government but to the BJP-led central government via its nominee Lt Governor Anil Baijal.

AAP leaders have alleged that the police, under directions from the BJP government at the Centre, had not even tried to engage the protesters to end the protests because there was an effort to build a narrative on communal lines. Shaheen Bagh is at the centre of this effort, a senior AAP leader said.

Protests at Shaheen Bagh started last month shortly after Parliament enacted the law to expedite citizenship request from undocumented migrants of six religions from three Muslim-majority neighbouring countries.

It has led to closure of Road No 13A which connects Delhi to Noida that has inconvenienced people travelling to the national capital. Delhi Police has tweeted appeals to the protesters to disperse but they have not budged, insisting that they would stay put till the government withdraws the contentious provision in the citizenship law.
The Indian stock market taking cues from its global peers traded lower in January 27 dragged down by metals stocks, as fears about the economic impact of Chinas spreading virus outbreak curbed risk appetite.

Sensex is down 152.50 points or 0.37 percent at 41460.69, and the Nifty shed 48.80 points at 12199.50.

We may see Nifty going back to 12300  12390 ahead of the Budget and a positive outcome would enable it crossing this sturdy wall of 12400 convincingly. On the flipside, 12200 followed by 12150 would be seen as a sacrosanct support zone, said Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking.

The metal index dragged the most, down over 2 percent dented by nervous sentiments following outbreak of deadly Coronavirus.

The top losers included Jindal Steel and Power which tanked 5 percent followed by JSW Steel, Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel, Vedanta, SAIL and NMDC.

The Pharma index added half a percent led by Dr Reddy's Labs which jumped over 2 percent despite the company posting Rs 569.7 crore loss in Q3 on impairment of generic Nuvaring drug. Revenue grew 14 percent at Rs 4,384 crore against Rs 3,850 crore YoY.

The other gainers included Aurobindo Pharma, Piramal Enterprises, Cipla and Divis Labs.

From the auto space, the top gainers included Mahindra & Mahindra which added over 2 percent followed by Maruti Suzuki, TVS Motor Company and Eicher Motors among others.

India VIX spiked 6.62 percent and is trading at 16.59 level.

The top gainers from the Nifty were Dr Reddy's Labs, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement and Axis Bank while the top losers included JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Hindalco Industries and GAIL India.

The most active stocks were ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Indiabulls Housing Finance and State Bank of India.

73 stocks have hit new 52-week high on NSE including Godrej Agrovet, Alembic Pharma, Adani Enterprises, Apollo Hospitals, JK Cement, Indraprastha Gas, Torrent Power, Varun Beverages, Inox Leisure, Jubilant Food and Bata India.

About 1048 shares have advanced, 1053 shares declined, and 119 shares are unchanged.

: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
According to a recent study in Canada, the rate of survival of preterm babies in Canada has increased by 25 per cent after the introduction of national program - Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across the country.

The new research was published in the journal CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

The EPIQ program was introduced in 2003 by the Canadian Neonatal Network in 25 neonatal units to improve outcomes for premature babies.

The study, originating from Sinai in Toronto, analyzed the effect of changes in care practices on outcomes for 50 831 infants born prematurely between 2004 and 2017.

Researchers found that survival without major adverse effects increased from 56.6 percent to 70.9 percent (25 percent) for very preterm babies and from 70.8 percent to 74.5 percent (5 percent) for babies born between 23 and 25 weeks' gestation, over the course of the 14-year program.

Preterm babies often have chronic issues due to early premature birth, and this quality improvement program resulted in a significant reduction in several adverse outcomes for such babies.

For example, the researchers also found that participation in the program was associated with a 15 per cent decrease in bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease associated with prematurity, and a 44 per cent decrease in late-onset sepsis and other adverse conditions.

"Within the Canadian neonatal community, we have developed a system of continuously learning from each centre about how evidence-based strategies are implemented and what are the barriers and facilitators for improving quality," says Dr. Prakesh Shah, Paediatrician-in-Chief at Sinai Health and Director of the Canadian Neonatal Network.

"This learning, combined with a regular flow of data to guide our practices, has significantly improved outcomes for most vulnerable newborns."

An international study of 10 high-income countries found that neonatal outcomes improved the most in Canada, perhaps because of the EPIQ program, which is now standard practice in Canadian NICUs. It has also been adapted to other countries.

"Our study shows that if we apply what we know in a systematic way, we can improve quality of care and outcomes over the long term for preterm babies," says Dr. Shah.

In a related commentary, Dr. Mary Brindle, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, writes "EPIQ demonstrates a rare sustained achievement...which clearly illustrates the importance of commitment to ongoing improvement in national quality-improvement programs." She contrasts EPIQ with several other initiatives that have struggled to sustain change on a large scale.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Photo: iStock

Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in Stockton.

Crash on I-5 in Stockton leaves one dead, one with major injuries

One person is dead and another suffered major injuries after a crash on the freeway in Stockton on Sunday.

Read the full story on CBS13 CBS Sacramento.

Man escapes injury after bullet gets lodged in clothing in Stockton bar shooting

A 42-year-old man escaped injury after gunshots fired into a Stockton bar on Friday night resulted in a bullet being lodged in his clothing.

Read the full story on CBS13 CBS Sacramento.

Police searching for three suspects connected to a Stockton carjacking

Authorities are searching for three suspects accused of carjacking a victim in Stockton on Friday night.

Read the full story on CBS13 CBS Sacramento.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Dont build your fortress on quicksand.

Thats been my unsolicited advice for President Trump and his legal team. You always want the foundation of your defense to be something that is true, that you are sure you can prove, and that will not change.

Instead, the president and his team decided to make a stand on ground that could not be defended, on facts that were unfolding and bound to change. Last night, that ground predictably shifted. In a soon-to-be-published memoir, former White House national-security adviser John Bolton asserts that the president withheld $391 million in defense aid in order to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trumps potential 2020 election opponent, former vice president Joe Biden.

For months, Ive been arguing that the presidents team should stop claiming there was no quid pro quo conditioning the defense aid Congress had authorized for Ukraine on Kyivs conducting of investigations the president wanted. Trials and impeachment itself are unpredictable. You dont know what previously undisclosed facts might emerge during the trial that could turn the momentum against you. So you want to mount your best defense, the one that can withstand any damaging new revelations.

Here, the presidents best defense has always been that Ukraine got its security aid, and President Volodymyr Zelensky got his coveted high-profile audience with the president of the United States (albeit at the U.N., rather than at the White House). Kyiv barely knew defense aid was being withheld, the very temporary delay had no impact whatsoever on Ukraines capacity to counter Russian aggression, and Zelensky was required neither to order nor to announce any investigation of the Bidens.

However objectionable the calculations that led to the delay may have been, nothing of consequence happened. Therefore, there was no impeachable offense. Case closed.

Except its not case closed, because President Trump and his advocates would not content themselves with a strong defense built on what was true. The president wants total vindication, which is not necessary in order to avoid removal from office. So he has mounted his defense on the impossible propositions that his interaction with Zelensky was perfect and that there was no quid pro quo.

Story continues

Trump defenders implausibly claim that there is no evidence that he directed a pressure campaign in which the defense aid and the White House visit were made contingent on the announcement of investigations of (a) possible Biden corruption and (b) a discredited theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for hacking Democratic email accounts in 2016. To the contrary, Trumps ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, testified that the White House visit for Zelensky was undoubtedly withheld to coerce the investigations. Further, he says he came to realize, based on overwhelming circumstantial evidence, that the withheld defense aid was part of the pressure campaign.

It has always been possible, if not likely, that Sondland was understating his knowledge regarding the defense aid. The presidents team knew that. They have chosen to bowdlerize his testimony about a conversation in which he says the president told him there was no quid pro quo.

But Sondland added that Trump said, in the next breath, that he wanted Zelensky to do the right thing  under circumstances where the right thing obviously meant announce the investigations. Sondland later told NSC official Tim Morrison that, although the president said he was not asking for a quid pro quo while the aid was being delayed, Trump did want Zelensky to announce publicly that the investigations would take place  believing that such an announcement would put Zelensky in a public box that would force him to follow through. More significantly, after speaking with President Trump, Sondland had a conversation with President Zelensky, which he reported to Bill Taylor, the U.S. charge daffaires in Kyiv. Although the Ukrainians shouldnt think of it as a quid pro quo, Sondland warned that if Zelensky failed to clear things up regarding the investigations, there would be a stalemate. Based on this, Zelensky agreed to announce the investigations  through that ended up not happening because the request was withdrawn.

Prosecutors do not need someone to admit, there is a quid pro quo in order to prove one. And when someone says, there is no quid pro quo, but then acts as if there is one (under different names, such as stalemate and do the right thing), that can actually improve the prosecutors case.

That aside, though, Sondland and other witnesses knew that Bolton was angry over Sondlands conflating of the presidents desire for investigations with what Bolton understood to be the presidents foreign-policy objectives in Ukraine. Bolton called it a drug deal. He instructed his subordinate, Fiona Hill, to tell the White House counsel about it. He advised Taylor to complain to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about it.

Thus, if you were President Trump, or lawyers representing him, you have to figure that Bolton would say not only that there was a quid pro quo but that he contributed to the creation of multiple paper trails about it. You have to build your defense around those highly foreseeable possibilities. Plus, as the Senate impeachment trial unfolded with House managers demanding that Bolton be subpoenaed, his version of events was bound to become public.

And so it has.

If the Trump defense had taken the position that we should assume for arguments sake that the president put pressure on Ukraine but, in the end, he folded, the Bolton revelation would be a big nothing. The presidents team could have said it is just more of what we already knew.

They could have stayed on the ground where they are strongest: Nothing happened. All foreign policy involves pressure and quid pro quo. There is a good-faith basis to suspect the Bidens were involved in corrupt self-dealing. It is ridiculous to suggest that Ukraines defense, let alone American national security, was in any way compromised. President Trump has done much more to protect Ukraine from Russia than President Obama and the Democrats did  indeed, some of the Democratic House impeachment managers voted against the very aid to Ukraine, the brief, inconsequential withholding of which they now feign outrage about.

The presidents team could also have focused their energy on another key point that has gotten no attention: The claim that a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens would have materially hurt Bidens presidential campaign is specious.

Ukraine is a pervasively corrupt country. One minute Paul Manafort is a top political consultant to the regime, the next minute they have him under investigation. That is how it goes in Kyiv, where the party in power routinely persecutes political adversaries and attempts to curry favor with its Western supporters. Ukrainian investigations have no credibility. Americans might care deeply if Bidens son is shown to have been cashing in on his fathers political influence  which such investigative journalists as Peter Schweizer have been illustrating. But Americans would put no stock in any Ukrainian investigation. As best we can tell, even if they announced they were investigating Biden today, theyd be erecting a statue of him by next month if his polls improve. Who cares?

On Monday, the presidents defense team is supposed to be arguing their main defense in the Senate impeachment trial. It should be focused on these ultimate issues. They should be in a strong position to contend that all the witnesses and documents Democrats want to subpoena cannot alter the stubborn fact that nothing of consequence happened in Ukraine  certainly nothing worthy of impeaching and removing a duly elected president nine months before Election Day.

But they decided to contest the underlying facts, where the presidents case is weakest. They decided to fight on quid pro quo . . . so now they will have to deal with John Boltons account and the rising demands that he be called as a witness.

More from National Review
OTTAWA  As MPs return to Parliament today for the spring session, new data show how the three main parties won seats in Winnipeg.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/1/2020 (717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  As MPs return to Parliament today for the spring session, new data show how the three main parties won seats in Winnipeg.

Elections Canada provided the Free Press with poll-by-poll results from last Octobers election, which the agency will officially release this spring.

The data give a block-by-block analysis of how residents voted, and where in Manitoba the parties pushed the hardest.

The data suggest the parties focused their ground game on specific ridings, sweeping most polling stations in some ridings, while hardly marking their presence in others.

"We did see a snapping back to the more historic patterns of Winnipeg in the most recent election," said Christopher Adams, a longtime University of Manitoba political scientist.

NDP MP Daniel Blaikie kept his seat by getting votes from across virtually all of Elmwood-Transcona, despite running against a Conservative who had been MP in the previous term. Lawrence Toet won 24 of the 162 polling stations, not including special ballots such as postal votes.

The Liberals didnt win a single polling location in that riding.

Similarly, new Tory MP Raquel Dancho took three-quarters of all polling districts in Kildonan-St. Paul, with the rest splitting between the NDP and Liberals.

How Manitoba voted in the 2019 federal election Poll-by-poll winning party results Conservative Green Party Liberal NDP Grey lines indicate poll boundaries White lines indicate electoral district boundaries Winnipeg Free Press Source: Elections Canada How Manitoba voted in the 2019 federal election Poll-by-poll winning party results Conservative Green Party Liberal NDP Grey lines indicate poll boundaries White lines indicate electoral district boundaries Winnipeg Free Press Source: Elections Canada

Meanwhile, Peoples Party candidate Steven Fletcher hardly made a dent in the Conservative party's quest to take the riding that straddles the citys west and Headingley.

The Liberals won 55 of 158 polling stations, all within the city, and just 10 of which came from a vote split with the Tory winner, Marty Morantz.

MPs are elected based on overall votes in their riding, not on the proportion of which polling stations they win. However, the data show which neighbourhoods parties lean on for support.

On a provincewide basis, Adams said the results match a longstanding pattern of northern Manitobas unionized mining towns siding with the NDP, while the Conservatives hold sway over southern farmers, Mennonite towns and small business owners.

Many First Nations reserves sided with the Liberals, though some supported the NDP.

The red dots that represent places such as Sandy Bay and Swan Lake in a sea of blue suggest the Liberals still rank high among First Nations, despite controversies over pipelines and the ouster of former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.

The Liberals barely have a presence in rural Manitoba. Adams says it's because previous governments brought in the metric system, bilingualism and firearms registries, and were not viewed as being farm-friendly.

In Winnipeg, the Liberals swept areas with a high proportion of immigrants, and those in line with the city's median income.

Former cabinet minister Jim Carr easily won his riding, which tends to vote conservative provincially. River Heights sided with the Tories, while Tuxedo and Fort Rouge kept with the Liberals.

Adams chalked this up to Carrs connections with the citys business community, while the city tends to re-elect its cabinet ministers.

The Liberals held on to Winnipeg North and St. Boniface-St. Vital by targetting those ridings' most densely populated neighbourhoods.

Another riding the Liberals held, Winnipeg South, is marbled with polls that voted red and blue. Adams says this reflection the areas heterogenous nature, with neighbourhoods that lean toward one party based on its demographics. Those areas have a mix of incomes, a strong immigrant presence, francophones near St. Norbert and a mix of ages because of the presence of retirement homes and the University of Manitoba.

The other large parties kept with what they know.

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"The NDP held onto its historic areas () blue-collar, working-class neighbourhoods and low-income individuals, especially in areas in the core part of the city," Adams said, pointing to downtown, the North End and Elmwood.

Adams says doughnuts provide a visual illustration of how conservative parties across Canada and the United State court voters.

"In the doughnut phenomenon (conservatives take) the outer rings of cities, in which we are looking at middle-class suburban folks," Adams said, for whom low taxes and property crime rank high in their voting decisions.

The Green party won a single polling district, with 44 per cent of the South Indian Lake reserve, where the candidate had relatives.

 With files from Michael Pereira

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The announcement that Sigmar Gabriel was heading to the bank ended months of speculation about his post-political career. Photo: Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images

Sigmar Gabriel, Angela Merkels vice-chancellor during Germanys previous coalition government has defended his decision to join the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank.

I think it is bad that when one takes an economy job after the end of his political career, there is a widespread suspicion that he has sold his soul, the former chairman of the Social Democratic Party told German newspaper Bild on Sunday. He said he would not be or act any differently than he has in the past.

Deutsche Bank, as one of the most important financial institutions in Europe, has the opportunity and the responsibility to help shape the future of the German and European economy, Gabriel said in a statement last week. I want to play a part in this.

Gabriel, 60, was vice chancellor of Germany from 2013-2018 and has also served as foreign minister and economics minister. Deutsche Bank shareholders will vote on his nomination at their meeting in May.

READ MORE: Our survival hinges on achieving Paris climate goals, Merkel tells Davos leaders

Politicians from the right and left of the spectrum accused Gabriel of sending the wrong signal by joining the scandal-battered German lender, which is in the midst of a massive restructuring, which includes cutting about 18,000 jobs.

In his interview with Bild, Gabriel posed the question of what jobs former politicians were actually allowed to do after they quit politics: They shouldn't be getting early pensions, they shouldn't be lobbyists, and they shouldn't be going into business. What then?

The announcement that Gabriel was heading to the bank ended months of speculation about his post-political career. He had been widely tipped to become the new boss of the German Automobile Association.

Gabriel is not the first high-ranking politician to attract criticism for his next career move after leaving the government in Berlin. Former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a close friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and provoked an outcry when he was appointed as chairman of the board of Rosneft, Russias state-controlled oil company, in 2017.
01/27/2020

Cases of a potentially deadly outbreak of coronavirus are continuing to spread around the world and across the U.S.

Over the weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement confirming five cases in four different U.S. states -- Arizona, California, Illinois, and Washington. All five instances involved travelers who had visited the Wuhan area of China and returned home.

The CDC says that over 1,000 infections related to the outbreak have been reported in China alone. Chinese television network CGTN linked 56 deaths to the virus as of Sunday, but that number had inflated to 80, according to reports on Monday morning.

There are ongoing investigations to learn more. This is a rapidly evolving situation and information will be updated as it becomes available, the CDC said.

Take precautions

Health officials are continuing to urge consumers to avoid any unnecessary travel to the Wuhan area of China. It also says consumers should take sensible precautions to avoid the spread of germs, including the frequent washing of hands.

Any person who believes they have been infected by the virus is reminded to avoid contact with other people and immediately get in touch with their health care provider.

For more information about coronavirus and the latest updates on the current outbreak, visit the CDCs site here.
An Ivorian unnamed student, who returned to Cote dIvoire coming from Beijing on Saturday, is undergoing further tests after showing flu-like symptoms.

The 34-year-old woman is currently in isolation, the health ministry said. If confirmed, it will be the first case of the deadly virus in Africa.

The virus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has spread to over 2,000 people and killed over 80.

The traveller has lived in China for the past five years, according to the statement released by the Ivorian health ministry, and had shown flu-like symptoms before boarding the plane to Abidjan.

Authorities believe it is a case of pneumonia and not coronavirus, but the final diagnosis will be made after tests results, the ministry said.

Her general state is satisfactory, the ministry said. There are, at this stage, suspicions of a case of pneumonia tied to the coronavirus.

In recent years, West Africa has suffered a deadly epidemic of Ebola that claimed the lives of thousands. In 2014-2015, Ebola caused global alarm when the worlds worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing 11,323 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and to a lesser extent in Nigeria.
Xiaomi has big plans for the Mi lineup of products in India but its bread and butter earning series - Redmi series, will still come up with products that will cater to the masses. The new Redmi Note series phones are expected to break cover in India before Q1 2020 ends but it seems that Redmi is looking to go into more segments this year apart from phones. Rumours suggest laptops and other product categories but the first one to come out could be the Redmi fitness tracker.

Yes, Xiaomi is coming up with a Redmi band in India soon and traces of its existence have been discovered across many platforms. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has recently certified a smartwatch device from Redmi and that suggests it can launch by February in India. On the other hand, another tipster has stumbled upon a new Redmi branded fitness tracker in China via the Mi Fit app. Chances are that it is this Redmi Band that's coming to the Indian market soon.

The leak reveals that the Redmi Band could be a more affordable variant of the Mi Band 4 in India. An image of the band has been shared on the web and it reveals a traditional fitness band design with a small display that's accompanied by a capacitive touch button under it. The display has thick bezels around it and the presence of a touch button means that it won't support touch inputs on the screen.

Some of the features of the Redmi Band have also been revealed. The tracker will come with changeable watch faces similar to the Mi Band 4. It is said that the display shows the weather information. Users will also get an alarm function, a heart rate sensor, support for payment (via NFC), and music playback controls. On the whole, it seems like a watered-down version of the Mi Band 4 that launched in India last year.

With the Redmi Band, Xiaomi seems to distinguish highly between its Mi and Redmi brands this year. The Redmi brand will bring its own version of the Mi branded products this year and that hints at a Redmi TV or even a RedmiBook laptop.

As for the fitness trackers, the Mi Band 4 currently sells for Rs 2,299. With the Redmi band, Xiaomi could look to offer the same features for possibly a much lower price. Maybe the Redmi Band could replace the ageing the Mi Band 3 at a price of Rs 1,600. Sadly, no information about the new Mi Watch models is known so far.
Moving forward with Air India stake sale process for the second time in less than two years, the government on Monday issued the preliminary bid document for 100 per cent stake in the debt-laden airline along with fixing the debt amount for prospective bidders and easing the bidding norms.

As part of the ambitious strategic disinvestment, Air India would sell its cent per cent stake in profit-making budget carrier Air India Express as well as 50 per cent shareholding in equal joint venture Air India SATS Airport Services (AISATS). All the three entities would be sold together and management control of the national carrier would be transferred to the new investor.

In a significant move, the successful bidder would have to take only a debt of Rs 23,286.5 crore while the liabilities would be decided depending on current assets at the time of closing of the transaction, according to the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) issued on Monday.

The rest of the amount of the total Rs 60,074 crore debt as on March 31, 2019, would be transferred to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL), the special purpose vehicle.

Staff dues of about Rs 1,383.70 crore on account of Justice Dharmadhikari Commission's recommendation on past arrears would be paid by the government.

The new investor would continue to use the 'Air India' brand. The deadline for submitting the bids is March 17.

The government has relaxed the bidding norms wherein networth for potential bidders fixed at Rs 3,500 crore and minimum stake for an individual consortium partner lowered to 10 per cent. The networth criteria was Rs 5,000 crore in the 2018 bid document.

Another key change is that an entity can put in a bid on the "strength of its parent", which means that an entity floated by a big corporate could participate in the disinvestment process, the person in the know of the PIM details said.

Further, a domestic carrier with zero or negative networth can own up to 51 per cent stake provided the networth requirement is fulfilled by the consortium partner.

Briefing reporters, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said the reason for privatisation of Air India is that the government has resources which are scarce.

According to the civil aviation ministry, there are a total of 17,984 employees at Air India and Air India Express. These include 9,617 permanent employees. The count also takes into account those on deputation at the airline.

Excluding those on deputation, the total count would a little over 16,000, the per son said.

There was no immediate comments from Air India unions on the bid document.

The minister made it clear that all land and building assets, including painting, arts and artefacts would not be part of the transaction.

However, certain land and buildings at Delhi, Mumbai airports and corporate offices which are core assets for running the airline will be given to the new investor on a right to use basis for a limited period, he noted.

"Contingent liabilities related to statutory dues and government dues will be indeminified by the government. Contingent liabilities due for retired employees will be clarified at the RFP (Request for Proposal) stage... corporate guarantees given by Air India on behalf of Alliance Air will not be passed on the new investor," Puri said.

This is at least the third time that the government is attempting disinvestment of Air India, which has been in the red since merger with Air India Express in 2007. The first attempt for stake sale, when Air India and Indian Airlines were separate entities, was done in 2001-2002 period when the NDA government was in power.

Permanent staff would be offered around three per cent or 98 crore shares of the airline under the Employee Stock Option Programme (ESOP).

EY is the transaction adviser for Air India disinvestment process.

In 2018, the government proposed to offload 76 per cent stake as well as transfer the management control but there were no bidders.

DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said that in terms of structuring, the disinvestment plan is on "very sound principles".

"We will have net current liabilities to be nil, which means that only that much liabilities as much as current assets will be passed on," he said.

A total amount of Rs 36,760 crore would be transferred to AIAHL as well as excess liabilities that are not matched by the current assets.

"About Rs 56,334 crore of liabilities and debt are coming to AIAHL along with Rs 17,000 crore of assets," he said, adding that net liabilities for AIAHL would be around Rs 40,000 crore.

Queries regarding the PIM and SPA can be submitted till February 11 while the last date for submission of EoI is March 17. The qualified bidders would be intimated on March 31.

Puri said bridging finance required would be available to Air India during the process time.

Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani said the airline does not have "excess staff" and the retiring employees' medical benefits issue is being sorted out.

On BJP's Subramanian Swamy and Yashwant Sinha being critical about Air India stake sale, Puri said the "views of the two gentlemen, I am afraid, does not reflect views of the government".

"This deal is wholly anti national and I will forced to go to court. We cannot sell our family silver," Swamy tweeted on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Photograph: Courtesy Sharjeel Imam/Facebook

Raids are being conducted in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi to arrest research scholar Sharjeel Imam who has been booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged 'inflammatory' speeches made during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, police said on Monday.

Five teams of the Crime Branch have been deployed to locate Imam, a resident of Bihar, they said.

Imam, a PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies, has also been summoned by the JNU chief proctor.

He has asked Imam to appear before the Proctorial Committee by February 3 and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches.

A case against Imam, who was one of the initial organisers of Shaheen Bagh protests, under Indian Penal Code sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) was registered by the Delhi Police on Sunday.

Also, a case of sedition was lodged against him on Saturday for a speech he delivered on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus on January 16.

The Assam Police has also filed an FIR under the anti-terror law UAPA against Imam for his speech.
Horse Racing Ireland today released the Irish horse racing and breeding industry statistics for 2019 and there were key areas of growth, not least in attendances, on-course bookmaker turnover and, perhaps

most significantly, in revenues received from off-course betting duty.

Attendances at Irish race meetings were recorded at 1.315 million, which was 3.2% up on the previous year, while the number of horses returned in training in this country, which is a key driver of employment, was up for the third time in four years when also showing a 3% increase.

New owner registrations were also up, with over 850 new racehorse owners registered with HRI, the bulk of these new registrations (600) were sole owners and partners, as well as 216 new syndicates.

Demand for Irish horses was strong with sales and exports increasing in both value and volume terms.

Commercial race sponsorship and contributions to prize money by racecourses continued to rise strongly, growing by another 17.3% in 2019.

The Tote continues to struggle, with figures down by 13.2% to now just a shade over 60m, though down less than 1% in terms of on-course business. The bookmakers ring saw an increase of 6.6%, to 58.4m, but on-course shops were down 1%, to 9.9m.

HRI reported that, following a series of changes in betting tax arrangements, off-course betting duty receipts collected by the government in 2019 amounted to 95m, and now comfortably exceeded the exchequer funding provided for horse racing of 67.2m.

HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh said: Horse racing generates a very significant return to the rural economy in Ireland and a positive international profile for our country. None of this success could be achieved without the support provided by the government.

Twenty-nineteen was a good year for Irish racing. However, the industry requires long-term certainty of funding to be able to plan strategically, not least in the context of the challenges provided by Brexit.

The increased revenue from betting tax provides the basis for such a long-term funding mechanism and Horse Racing Ireland will engage actively with the incoming Government in the coming month to achieve this objective.
If the FATF lets Pakistan off the hook, which is to be expected, it would signify a big boost to Pakistan's standing in the fight against terrorism.

Delhi, on the other hand, loses the propaganda advantage, states Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

IMAGE: US President Donald J Trump with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 21, 2020. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Media reports (external link) that in the Indian estimation there is 'a 75 per cent chance' of Pakistan exiting the Financial Action Task Force 'grey list' at the FATF plenary on February 16 in Paris is a significant upgrade of the earlier expectation in Delhi that Islamabad was hanging on the abyss, perilously close to being 'black-listed' for money laundering and terror financing.

Quite obviously, it can no longer be kept from public view that the ground beneath the feet of Indian diplomacy has been shifting in recent months, largely due to the US-Pakistan rapprochement.

Delhi is grudgingly making adjustments to the compelling reality.

True to form, the Indian media would prefer to attribute to China all good things that may happen to Pakistan -- and, of course, to the US all good things that happen to India.

Thus, Delhi says the vast improvement in Pakistan's FATF standing is due to 'heavy lobbying by China and with the help of a private consultant who is an FATF veteran'.

There is a mental block in acknowledging that Pakistan might indeed have made efforts to improve its FATF standing.

The FATF is a technical body and comprises countries that have a mind of their own.

Greater realism is needed on the part of Delhi to admit that Pakistan's standing has been steadily improving in the 39-member grouping since the FATF's 2015 statement which identified it as having made significant progress in improving its regime and had noted that Islamabad had established the legal and regulatory framework to meet its commitments in its action plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF had previously identified.

The 2015 report decided to exempt Pakistan from the FATF's monitoring process.

According to Pakistani media reports, in February 2018, the FATF had found serious deficiencies in the country's anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism regimes and gave Pakistan a 27-point action plan to exit the grey list.

And in October last year, Pakistan was given another warning to show full compliance by the forthcoming plenary meeting in Paris in February.

The Pakistani reports claim that the sticking points have significantly narrowed down to two areas, namely, cash couriers and convictions in terror financing cases where Pakistan could still be deemed non-compliant, necessitating its continuance in the so-called 'grey list' for yet another 3-6 months.

Significantly, Prime Minister Imran Khan personally took up the matter with US President Donald J Trump at their meeting in Davos.

This cautious optimism was also reflected in the meeting in Islamabad (external link)between Interior Minister Ijaz Shah and the visiting US delegation led by Alice Wells, acting assistant secretary of state where the latter 'applauded the progress' made by Pakistan 'despite the scarcity of resources'.

The sea change in the situation around Pakistan has policy implications for India.

If the FATF lets Pakistan off the hook, which is to be expected, it would signify a big boost to Pakistan's standing in the fight against terrorism.

Delhi, on the other hand, loses the propaganda advantage.

The mellowing in the US attitude has already removed the cutting edge of the FATF pressure on Pakistan.

Indian officials had thought that the FATF was like a Damocles's sword hanging on Pakistan's neck.

But now it dawns on them that chopping off the Pakistani head was not on the American mind.

It may or may not be a coincidence that the softening of the US posture is taking place against the backdrop of the successful Afghan peace negotiations where Pakistani help was of critical importance.

Clearly, a full-fledged resumption of US aid and investment in the Pakistani economy in the period ahead cannot be held hostage by the FATF affair.

A clearing of the deck is becoming necessary.

In President Trump's evaluation (external link), the US has never been as close to Pakistan as it is today.

All this once again highlights that India and the US have never really been on the same page in regard of terrorism.

The US stance is pragmatic while the Indian stance is dogmatic.

The US is realistic in making assessments regarding Pakistan's record on terrorism while India focuses on coercive diplomacy.

India's position on dialogue with Pakistan is becoming increasingly untenable.

Pakistan's FATF moment highlights the Indian predicament.

Delhi is rejecting third-party mediation in Kashmir, but in the same breath also vows not to bilaterally engage with Pakistan to resolve differences peacefully through dialogue.

At this rate, India's gripe about terrorism will be seen by the international community increasingly as a matter of irritable bowel syndrome on account of its own body ailments.

However, the present government is perfectly pleased with the perpetuation of the enemy image of Pakistan which helps it to derive advantages in domestic politics especially during election time.

Pakistan is the favourite whipping boy of the ruling elite.

Equally, to borrow the famous line from President Trump, the 'swamp' won't allow a policy rethink either -- the swamp in Indraprastha is a protected wetland; the Deep State breeds in it, spawns in it.

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar served the Indian Foreign Service officer for more than 29 years. He has served as India's ambassador to Turkey and Uzbekistan and has been a contributor to Rediff.com for well over a decade.
John Bolton Denies Coordination After New York Times Leaks Book Details

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton denied Monday that he, his publisher, or his agent coordinated with the New York Times to release a portion of his book in a report on Sunday night.

The NY Times report alleged that Bolton said he was told by President Donald Trump that a freeze on military aid to Ukraine was linked to investigations. The NY Times report does not include any quotes or excerpts from the forthcoming book, In The Room Where It Happened. The Ukraine-investigations allegation is a focal point of Trumps Senate impeachment trial, where Democrats have alleged the president abused his power and obstructed Congress.

Ambassador John Bolton, Simon & Schuster, and Javelin Literary categorically state that there was absolutely no coordination with the New York Times or anyone else regarding the appearance of information about his book, THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, at online booksellers. Any assertion to the contrary is unfounded speculation, a spokesperson for Bolton told Axios and the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

Some Republican members of Congress suggested that the timing of the NY Times report was suspectas Trumps legal team was scheduled to mount their defense of the president on Monday in the Senate impeachment trial.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, Trump wrote on Twitter. He also noted that Ukrainian President Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko both went on record and denied there was no quid pro quo.

I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations  and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigationsand far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration, Trump wrote.

The new allegations restarted calls by Democrats for Bolton to testify in the trial.

If there was ever even a shred of logic left to not hear witnesses and review the documents, Mr. Boltons book just erased it, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Monday morning. House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters that the Senate cannot have a meaningful trial if Bolton doesnt testify.

Some moderate Republicans have also expressed interest in witnesses following the report.

I think with the story that came out yesterday, its increasingly apparent it would be important to hear from John Bolton, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters. I, of course, will make a final decision on witnesses after weve heard from not only the prosecution but also the defense. But I think at this stage its pretty fair to say that John Bolton has a relevant testimony to provide to those of us who are sitting in impartial justice.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) likewise said in a statement: The reports about Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues.
It is obvious that Bolton could only strengthen the Democrats case and make it tougher for Republicans to explain why Trump should remain in office, not just for the next 11 months but possibly four more years. If Bolton had anything supportive to say about Trump, Republicans would haul him in without any prodding by the Democrats.
While coffee is the perfect stress buster for most of the people, brewing a perfect cup of Cappuccino, Latte or Mocha may not be an easy task. The formula to make a perfect shot of espresso has been decoded by a group of experts from different scientific fields, such as maths, physics, and material science. In the study, experts from different fields joined hands to figure out the formula for a perfect shot of espresso.

The scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Switzerland reached the conclusion that contrary to the common practice, fewer coffee beans which are ground more coarsely are the key to a drink that is cheaper to make, more consistent from shot to shot, and just as strong. The study was published in the journal Matter.

Most people in the coffee industry are using fine-grind settings and lots of coffee beans to get a mix of bitterness and sour acidity that is unpredictable and irreproducible, says co-senior author Christopher Hendon a computational chemist at the University of Oregon.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but experiments and modelling suggest that efficient, reproducible shots can be accessed by simply using less coffee and grinding it more coarsely.

Though lots of factors are involved, the norm for brewing an espresso shot is to grind a relatively large amount of coffee beans (~20 grams) almost as finely as possible. The fine grind, common sense goes, means more surface area exposed to the brewing liquid, which ought to boost extraction yield.

But when the researchers put together a mathematical model to explain the extraction yield based on the factors under a baristas control--options such as the masses of water and dry coffee, the fineness or coarseness of the grounds, and the water pressure--and compared its predictions to brewing experiments, it became clear that the real relationship was more complicated.

via GIPHY

Grinding the beans finely--as according to the industry standards--clogged the coffee bed, reduced extraction yield, led to wastage of raw material and introduced variation in taste.

Much number crunching and thousands of shots later, the team reached a recipe to simultaneously maximise extraction and produce espresso that would taste similar from one cup to the next. One way to optimise extraction and achieve reproducibility is to grind coarser and use a little less water, while another is to simply reduce the mass of coffee, Hendon says.

Developing a model representative of espresso brewing was not a straightforward task. At a basic level, extraction yield depends on how water flows under pressure through a mass of coffee grounds. But that mass is made up of millions of individual grains of different shapes and sizes, jammed irregularly into a single filter bed.

You would need more computing power than Google has to accurately solve the physics and transport equations of brewing on geometry as intricate as a coffee bed, says co-senior author Jamie M. Foster, a mathematician at the University of Portsmouth (UK).

To get past this hurdle, the researchers drew on an unlikely source--electrochemistry--likening how caffeine and other molecules dissolve out of coffee grounds to how lithium ions move through the electrodes of a battery.

Borrowing modeling methodologies from battery work led to a rigorous coffee extraction model capable of making powerful and testable predictions.

Boosting the extraction yield through one or more of the routes illustrated by the model could also lead to economic gains for cafes and to sustainability benefits for the coffee industry as a whole.

The researchers stress, however, that their results do not purport to reduce all of espresso-making down to a single set of brewing conditions or to a lone flavour profile.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Iron Stone Real Estate Partners has agreed to purchase the real estate used by St. Christopers Hospital for Children, according to sources. The hospitals real estate was not part of last years bankruptcy. Read more

Iron Stone Real Estate Partners, a Philadelphia developer known for acquiring financially distressed health-care properties, has agreed to pay $65 million for the buildings and other property occupied by St. Christophers Hospital for Children, according to people with direct knowledge of the pending deal.

The sale of St. Christophers real estate, expected to close next month, will remove the North Philadelphia safety-net hospital from the legal chaos surrounding the bankruptcies last summer of St. Christophers and the now-closed Hahnemann University Hospital in Center City.

Tower Health, which in a joint venture with Drexel University purchased the St. Christophers operations for $50 million, disclosed the agreement of sale in a bond document Friday. Iron Stone officials had no comment. The company that owned St. Christophers real estate was not part of the bankruptcies that led to the sale of St. Christophers business operations.

Although the property is being sold, it is to continue being used by St. Christophers. Information about the property sale came from people who were not authorized to speak publicly before the sale closes.

St. Christophers has 188 beds and in 2018 its revenue was $362 million, Tower said in its bond offering statement, based in information provided to in the sales process. Because St. Christophers plays such a vital role in the care of North Philadelphia children, many of them from impoverished households, some of the citys health-care giants worked behind the scenes to make sure it stayed open.

The Inquirer previously reported that Independence Health Group and the University of Pennsylvania Health System were supporting Iron Stones effort to acquire the real estate, which includes the main hospital, an outpatient building, and a parking garage. That backing, effectively a credit-enhancement, is expected to be short-term.

Separately, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia has offered unspecified help as Tower and Drexel adjust to running a childrens hospital. The partners completed their purchase on Dec. 15.

Independence has gone a step further, providing financial help.

We, along with others, have been proud to support the Drexel/Tower coalition to acquire St. Christophers," said Daniel J. Hilferty, president and chief executive of Independence. "Working with the Philadelphia Foundation, Independence has provided some limited financial support to be used by St. Christophers for its working capital needs during its transition out of bankruptcy.

The St. Christophers real estate was part of a complicated web of ownership and lending entered into by Joel Freedman, the California businessman who borrowed heavily to buy St. Christophers and Hahnemann University Hospital for $170 million two years ago from Tenet Healthcare Corp.

At St. Christophers, Freedman owns the main hospital building and the outpatient center, known as the Center for the Urban Child.

Harrison Street Real Estate owns the parking garage at St. Christophers. In addition to buying some of the real estate at St. Christophers and at Hahnemann, the Chicago real estate firm also lent Freedman $51 million toward the purchase.

Neither Freedman nor Harrison Street could be reached for comment.

Tenet lent Freedman an additional $17.5 million, which is secured by Freedmans real estate. Tenet also claims it is owed many millions more for information technology and other services it provided since Freedman bought the hospitals.

The sales agreement calls for the Tower-Drexel joint venture to lease the properties from the buyer for 29 years and 11 months, according to the bond documents. Under the lease, Tower and Drexel are responsible for the costs of maintaining the property.

In the health-care arena, Iron Stone is well-known for redeveloping the former Medical College of Pennsylvania in the East Falls section of Philadelphia into a hub of business activity after it closed in 2004. The company paid $11 million for that property. St. Christophers does not offer the same redevelopment opportunity.

In 2017, Iron Stone bought Girard Medical Centers real estate out of the North Philadelphia Health System bankruptcy for $8.45 million. NPHS still operates behavioral health and addiction-treatment services at the 801 W. Girard Ave. location.

Iron Stone agreed in 2018 to pay $10 million for the historic Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. property in West Philadelphia, which had been slated to become the citys new Police Department headquarters. When that agreement was announced the plan was for Iron Stone in partnership with Public Health Management Corp. to develop the 13-acre property into a public health and community service center.

In public records, the city is still listed as the owner of the Provident building at 46th and Market Streets, but the sale is expected to close soon.
The UK has perhaps the widest range of economic, political, cultural and historical ties with Sub-Saharan Africa of any non-African state. Yet successive British governments have to some extent taken these relationships for granted. While France sought to cultivate its ties with Francophone Africa and China has rapidly increased its influence on the continent, London has taken a more laid back attitude.

However, the prospect of Brexit triggered a re-evaluation of the UKs African connections under first Prime Minister Teresa May and now Boris Johnson. With the countrys exit from the European Union seemingly done and dusted, the new Johnson government needs to tie up trade agreements with nations across the world, prompting it to take a more pro-active view of sub-Saharan Africa in the process.

In order to promote economic ties, prime minister Johnson is backing the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London on 20 January. The Summit is designed to strengthen Anglo-African economic ties by mobilising new and substantial investment to create jobs and boost mutual prosperity.

Many big British businesses are already very active in Africa, including banks HSBS, Barclays and Standard Chartered; oil companies BP, Shell and Tullow; British Airways, Unilever, Vodafone, Diageo and GlaxoSmithKline. However, the government hopes to encourage more small and medium sized enterprises to take advantage of the opportunities on offer.

London has identified technology, finance, renewables and agriculture as particularly attractive sectors for UK investment. In early January, International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said: I want the UK to be the investment partner of choice for African nations, by creating new and lasting partnerships that benefit businesses and people in Africa and the UK alike. UK businesses are already leading the way in investing in Africa. He cited Diageos new hi-tech, environmentally friendly brewery in Kenya, which supports tens of thousands of jobs; and solar power company Azuri Technologies pay-as-you go solar energy systems, which are being installed in thousands of off-grid homes, particularly in East Africa.

Africas growing economic relevance is certainly part of the attraction. Although the continent has not achieved the same levels of growth as Asia over the past couple of decades, average annual growth of 4.6 percent since the turn of the millennium has made it a more attractive destination for investment. Eight of the 15 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. There is the potential for quicker growth over the next 20 years, with fewer conflicts than ever on the continent, technology offering the potential to revolutionise many sectors and international companies eager to secure alternative centres for manufacturing outsourcing as wage rates soar in China. Above all else, a quarter of the worlds population is expected to be in Africa by 2050.

In August 2018, Theresa May led a delegation of investors to Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, making her the first British prime minister to visit Sub-Saharan Africa since 2013. It was on this trip that the trade deal between the UK and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) plus Mozambique was announced. Trade between the UK and the six countries stood at 9.7bn ($12.6bn) last year. The global director of government affairs at Diageo, Wilson Del Socorro, said: Diageo warmly welcomes the news of a UK-Southern African Customs Union and Mozambique agreement in principle. International trade is vital to Diageo as it gives us the opportunity to reach more consumers and markets around the world. Africa is an important growth region for Diageo, including export markets like South Africa for Scotch whisky.

Some African governments, including the Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, have already agreed to give the UK the same trade arrangements as it had as a member of the EU. However, it is possible that Brexit could enable African states to negotiate better trade deals with both the EU and the UK. The EU is due to negotiate a new aid and trade deal with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and so Brussels and London may compete to offer the best agreements. The UKs Trade Commissioner for Africa, Emma Wade Smith, has highlighted the benefits of British businesses investing, including generating profits to benefit their shareholders and the UKs finances through taxes.

The average productivity of UK companies that invest abroad and receive overseas investment is about 88,000 per worker per year, in comparison with just 44,000 for those that do neither. She added: Evidence shows that UK companies that invest overseas become more competitive and productive. They pick up new technologies and local business know-how, which are then brought back to the UK.

There are also huge benefits to Africa and Africans, as the UK joins other large economies in competing for influence on the continent, promoting trade and helping to finance infrastructure in the process. The bigger the pool of interested parties, the better the deals on offer for African economies. There could be more opportunities to export goods to the UK post-Brexit, including agricultural produce and textiles. African leaders seem positive about stronger economic ties. Following Johnsons December election victory, Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo said: We have an opportunity, together, to renew and strengthen the relations between our two countries, focusing on enhancing trade and investment, and scaling up prosperity for our peoples.

Africa Business Magazine
Separatist General Chacha of Bui neutralized Sunday Facebook

Otherwise referred to as the Field Marshall of Bui Division, Separatist General Chacha was killed in the wee hours of Sunday, January 26, 2020 following a surgical operation on the separatist hideout performed by Cameroons defence forces.

The separatist who led an armed group in Bui fighting for the independence of the state of Ambazonia, a geographically allusion to Cameroons North West and South West Regions, is said to have died in a shootout with the military in Kumbo when their hideout in the locality of Kikaikom on the outskirts of Kumbo, Bui Division, North West Region came under attack.

In a shootout that followed the militarys encircling of the area, Chacha was reportedly captured, tied to a vehicle and dragged along the road before he gave up the ghost. It is believed that other fighters fled with bullet wounds even as the casualty figures remain shrouded in doubts.

The auto-proclaimed headstrong armed separatist Generals demise came one week after he reportedly planned the capture and execution of some 23 fighters of the Ambazonia Defence Forces, ADF, in Kumbo.

On January 21, the Commander of the 5th joint military region, Brigadier General Nka Valere, had warned separatist Generals to drop their arms and return to living normal lives or be crushed.

In that media outing, General Nka mentioned the name of General Chacha, General Tiger and Field Marshal as those whose hideouts have been known. The military commander had promised that those so-called Generals will be crushed within days if they fail to disarm.

When over 23 separatist fighters were killed in clashes among Amba fighters last week in Kumbo, Diaspora separatist activists slipped into quarrels. One of them, Cho Ayaba Lucas, had declared that: They want me to start a civil war to fulfil the aim of Cameroun. I wasnt born evil; I have never been nurtured to be evil. I will never in my entire life be evil and these people will not push me to be evil because the reasons for which we are fighting are to undo the evil...

Clashes between rival separatist factions have soared in the last few weeks and pundits posit that it may be even bloodier ahead of the February 9, 2020 local elections.
The Central Elections Committee is a hybrid creature of politics and law. Its head is a veteran Supreme Court justice, and so is his substitute, but his deputies are Knesset members from the large parties, and the members of the committee reflect the party makeup of the Knesset. This is a very important committee that meets not just on the eve of an election, but also functions between elections when new elections are declared, and is entrusted with ensuring proper elections  making sure there are enough voting slips at each polling site, setting the hours the polls open and close, guaranteeing an accurate count of votes, preventing fraud, publicizing election results and ensuring fairness in campaign advertising and publicity.

The most striking decision by a chairman of the committee was made in January 2003, when Supreme Court Justice Mishael Hashin ordered a halt to the television broadcast of Prime Minister Ariel Sharons speech, midway through, because his remarks, in Hashin's opinion, constituted prohibited election propaganda.

The committee is presented with various issues, including the lawfulness of the placement of cameras at polling sites  ostensibly to prevent vote fraud  as well as topics that arise from technological change.

One of the functions of the committee is to endorse and discuss requests to disqualify electoral lists and candidates that do not adhere, allegedly, to the requirements of candidacy. This issue usually ends up in the headlines because it becomes part of the wrangling whereby the right seeks to disqualify elements of the left, and vice versa. If the committee decides to disqualify a candidate or a list from the Knesset, this decision must be authorized by the high court, which usually rejects the disqualification, especially by means of procedural rulings.

This process of submitting candidacy, disqualification by the Central Elections Committee and rejection of the disqualification by the high court has become a sort of ritual in Israel, which attracts attention even if the end is predictable.

In recent days public attention has focused on Knesset member Heba Yazbak of Balad, which is part of the Arab Joint List. As the Sept. 17 election for the 22nd Knesset approached, an appeal was submitted to the high court contesting the elections committees approval of the candidacy of the Joint List, but it was rejected in August. The high court, when debating the appeal, sharply reproved Yazbak for her statements about Lebanese Druze terrorist Samir Kuntar but did not disqualify her candidacy, because it wasnt asked to discuss the matter.

Now, with the March 2 elections for the 23rd Knesset just weeks away, the right has raised the demand that she be disqualified, thus causing Blue and White and Labor-Gesher to follow suit and prove its patriotism, while Meretz, which is in a united list with Labor-Gesher, opposes the disqualification and intends to vote against it. While the final decision isnt in the hands of the committee but up to the high court, the media is highlighting the praise the young Knesset member has expressed on social media for various shahids, or martyrs, and for one of the most brutal among them, Kuntar, who was a member of the Palestine Liberation Front. She also expressed longing for Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970.

Most Jews in Israel, when they hear Yazbaks remarks, are shaken. But the world isnt divided between those who like her remarks and those who dont like them, but between those who can take them and try to understand where they come from, and those who prefer to boycott the speaker and bar her from the Knesset.

Yazbaks background would seem like an Israeli success story of the effective integration of an Arab-Palestinian generation in Israeli society. Her father, Mahmoud Yazbak, is a well-known and esteemed professor at the University of Haifa who headed the Department on Middle East History and served as chairman of the Adalah legal center and president of the Israeli Association of Middle East Studies and Islam. She herself was born and raised in Nazareth and studied at Haifa University and Tel Aviv University, where she received a doctorate in sociology. Before she was elected to the Knesset, she was a lecturer at the Open University.

If you like, this could be seen as a familys success story, a family for whom the state opened its doors and enabled to reach the most senior positions in the academy and in politics.

In fact, this is a much more complicated picture. This is the story of a modern young woman whose accumulated knowledge has entrenched her opinions and apparently led her to reach harsh conclusions about the Jewish state.

Balad is a party whose roots are in boycotting state institutions and refraining from electoral participation. The Sons of the Village movement, which was the main affiliation of its founders, saw integration in the state as turning their backs on Arab nationalism. As opposed to the Palestinian communists who supported the 1947 UN partition plan, and the southern branch of the Palestinian Islamic Movement that accepted the existence of the state and sees itself as part of it, the Sons of the Village saw themselves as Arabs who live in Israel under a kind of occupation. The 1979 peace with Egypt was seen in their eyes as an Israeli effort to damage Arab unity and the 1993 Oslo Accord was rejected as an Israeli conspiracy against the Palestinians that enabled the continuation of the occupation under the guise of an agreement.

Support for resistance, in various meanings, is part of the basic world view of this party, and expression of admiration for martyrs is a natural part of this. Its no coincidence that it was three Balad members who withdrew from the Joint Lists decision to recommend that the president charge Benny Gantz, leader of Blue and White, with the task of forming the government after the election to the 22nd Knesset. With this decision the first crack at forming a government passed to Netanyahu, who failed, just as Gantz later did.

Balad finds it hard to distinguish between doves and hawks, those who seek to reach a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians and the Arab world and those who oppose the division of the land, and thus, peace. The fact that Yazbak joined this party should be seen as a failure for anyone who believes that education is a key to willingness to listen to the other. It also is a failure of the idea that whoever listens to the Jewish Israeli narrative could not cling to positions that ascribe an ongoing conspiracy to the Israeli side and would be open to the narrative even if she doesnt accept it.

Still, Israeli democracy is strong enough to include people such as Yazbak and their statements. Barring her from the Knesset would only radicalize the positions of other young Arab intellectuals who believe they have no chance of viewing Israel as their real home. Whoever gives up on Yazbak gives up on the chance of dialogue with people who will lead Arab Palestinians in Israel in the coming years, and this dialogue has no substitute.

As for the Central Elections Committee, its best that it leave the question of meeting the conditions for Knesset candidacy to the high court, and to give up on the stage where its members votes are entirely political, whereas the high courts decisions at the next stage are professional and careful.
BEIJING (AP)  A new viral illness being watched with a wary eye around the globe accelerated its spread in China with 80 deaths so far, while the U.S. Consulate in the city at the epicenter announced it will evacuate its personnel and some other Americans aboard a charter flight.

China's health minister said the country was entering a crucial stage" as it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger."

Ma Xiaowei declined to estimate how long it would take to bring the situation under control, but said travel restrictions and other strict measures should bring results at the lowest cost and fastest speed.

President Xi Jinping has called the outbreak a grave situation and said the government was stepping up efforts to restrict travel and public gatherings while rushing medical staff and supplies to the city at the center of the crisis, Wuhan, which remains on lockdown with no flights, trains or buses in or out.

The epidemic has revived memories of the SARS outbreak that originated in China and killed nearly 800 as it spread around the world in 2002 and 2003. Its spread has come amid China's busiest travel period of the year, when millions crisscross the country or head abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The government said early Monday the death toll had risen to 80, with 2,744 confirmed cases.

The National Health Commission said 769 new cases were confirmed in the 24 hours through midnight Sunday.

The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong and two in Macao. Small numbers of cases have been found in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Australia.

The U.S. has confirmed cases in Washington state, Chicago, Southern California and Arizona. Canada said it discovered its first case, a man in his 50s who was in Wuhan before flying to Toronto. Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea each reported one new case Sunday, while Thailand reported three new cases.

Story continues

A notice from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said there would be limited capacity to transport U.S. citizens on a Tuesday flight from Wuhan that will proceed directly to San Francisco. It said that in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus."

The French Consulate also was considering an evacuation of its nationals from the city. It said it's working on arranging a bus service to help French citizens leave Wuhan.

French automaker PSA Group said it will evacuate its employees from Wuhan, quarantine them and then bring them to France.

Japan was also making preparations to fly its nationals out of Wuhan.

Chinese travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, and concern is growing over the potential impact of millions of people traveling back to the cities after the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Thursday.

China's National Health Commission said anyone traveling from Wuhan is now required to register with community health stations and quarantine themselves at home for 14 days  the virus' maximum incubation period.

Beijing has decided to delay the start of classes after the Lunar New Year holiday ends, the official Beijing Daily reported on its website. That will extend to all schools in the capital from kindergartens to universities.

Hong Kong announced similar measures on Saturday and on Sunday two of that territory's biggest attractions, Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park, announced they were closing for the time being.

A proposal to possibly quarantine suspected cases and others at a still-unoccupied public housing complex in the Hong Kong suburb of Fanling sparked a protest by area residents. Though largely peaceful, they were joined by black-clad protesters like those who have clashed with police during months of anti-government protests and those protesters set a fire in the lobby of one of the buildings.

The fire was extinguished without appearing to cause major damage. Police later moved in n to disperse the group, using pepper spray on occasion.

In the heart of the outbreak where 11 million residents are already on lockdown, Wuhan banned most vehicle use, including private cars, in downtown areas starting Sunday. The city will assign 6,000 taxis to neighborhoods to help people get around if they need to.

China cut off trains, planes and other links to the city Jan. 22, and has steadily expanded the lockdown to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50 million  greater than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined.

Wuhan is building two makeshift hospitals with about 1,000 beds each to handle the growing number of patients. The city has said the first is expected to be completed Feb. 3.

Medical workers in Wuhan have been among those infected and local media reported a doctor died on Saturday morning. The 62-year-old physician was hospitalized on Jan. 18 and died a week later.

Xinhua also said medical supplies are being rushed to the city, including 14,000 protective suits, 110,000 pairs of gloves and masks and goggles.

Videos have circulated online showing throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations and there have been complaints that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.

The National Health Commission said it is bringing in medical teams to help handle the outbreak and the Chinese military dispatched 450 medical staff, some with experience in past outbreaks, including SARS and Ebola, Xinhua reported.

The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal.

First detected last month, the virus is believed to have originated in a type of wild animal sold at a Wuhan market to be consumed as food.

Chinese authorities announced a temporary ban on the trade of wild animals Sunday, saying they will severely investigate and punish violators. They also called on the public to refrain from eating wild animal meat.

Investigators are closely observing whether the virus was mutating, but thus far found no obvious signs," that it is doing so, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, told reporters.

That could make it easier to develop vaccines against the virus, something the center is already working on. Xinhua quoted center official Xu Wenbo as saying the they had isolated the virus and were identifying seed strain.

The rapid increase in reported deaths and illnesses does not necessarily mean the crisis is getting worse but could reflect better monitoring and reporting of the virus. Those killed by the virus have mostly been middle-aged or elderly people, sometimes suffering from other conditions that weaken their ability to fight back.

It is not clear how lethal the new coronavirus is or even whether it is as dangerous as the ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone.

___

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto, researcher Henry Hou and video journalist Dake Kang in Beijing and Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.
New Delhi, 27 Jan : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the 3rd Global Potato Conclave at Gandhinagar, Gujarat through video conferencing on Tuesday. The three-day mega conference begins on January 28 and ends on January 30.

During the event, the Prime Minister is expected to take stock of the achievements and opportunities in the area of potato research, trade and industry, and value chain management and set a roadmap for the decade.

The Conclave provides a meeting ground for all stakeholders to facilitate future planning by involving everyone related to the potato sector. This will be a unique event to expose different stakeholders of the country to the frontiers of knowledge and innovations in potato research.

The three major components of the conclave include - the potato conference, the agri expo and potato field day. It will have 10 themes out of which 8 themes are based on basic and applied research. The remaining two themes will have special emphasis on potato trade, value chain management and policy issues.

The Conclave is being organized by Indian Potato Association (IPA) in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, and ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla and International Potato Centre (CIP), Lima, Peru.

The Gandhinagar conclave is in the third of the series and held every ten years to review the achievements in potato sector and set a roadmap for the next decade.

The last two decades have witnessed two Global Potato Conferences organized in 1999 and 2008.
Imperial Valley News Center

Members of $11 Million International Telemarketing Scheme Sentenced to Prison

Charlotte, North Carolina - Three individuals were sentenced to prison for their roles in an $11 million telemarketing scheme that defrauded primarily elderly victims in the United States from call centers in Costa Rica.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray of the Western District of North Carolina, Inspector in Charge David M. McGinnis of the U.S. Postal Inspection Services Charlotte Division, Special Agent in Charge Bryant Jackson of IRS Criminal Investigations (CI) Cincinnati Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of IRS-CIs Charlotte Field Office and Special Agent in Charge John Strong of the FBIs Charlotte Field Office made the announcement.

Donald Dodt, 76, originally of Cleveland, Ohio, Thomas Sniffen, 58, originally of Peekskill, New York, and Michael Saxon, 50, originally of Ontario, Canada, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina to 90 months, 114 months and 75 months in prison, respectively. Judge Cogburn also ordered restitution in the amount of $7 million for Dodt, $11,236,857.65 for Sniffen and $2,593,574.02 for Saxon to be paid jointly and severally with their co-conspirators.

Following a five-day trial in May 2019, Dodt was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, two counts of mail fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering and 10 counts of international money laundering. In April 2019, Sniffen pleaded guilty to all charges in the 31-count indictment charging conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, substantive counts of mail fraud and wire fraud, international money laundering and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. In May 2019, Saxon pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering.

According to the evidence presented at both Dodts trial and the sentencing hearings, and the factual bases in support of Sniffens and Saxons guilty pleas, Dodt, Sniffen and Saxon conspired together to commit the fraud and worked in a call center in Costa Rica. While falsely posing as federal judges, representatives of the District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs and other federal agencies, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, they contacted victims in the United States  primarily senior citizens  to tell them that that they had supposedly won a substantial sweepstakes prize. After convincing victims that they stood to receive a significant financial reward, the members of the conspiracy told victims that they needed to make a series of up-front cash payments before collecting, purportedly for items like insurance fees, taxes and import fees. The co-conspirators used a variety of means to conceal their identity, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services provided by Dodt that made it appear as if they were calling from Washington, D.C., and other places in the United States.

At sentencing, it was determined that Dodt, Sniffen, Saxon and their co-conspirators collectively stole more than $11 million in total from victims.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS-CI and the FBI with assistance from the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Jennifer Farer and Philip Trout of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section. Former Fraud Section Trial Attorney William Bowne previously prosecuted the case. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina provided substantial assistance with this matter.
North African nation may be heading for new parliamentary elections over its inability to form a government.

Tunisias Islamist Ennahdha party has rejected a new government proposal that excludes other parties, and is open to contest another election.

The biggest party in Parliament in a statement on Monday threatened to upend a second attempt to form a coalition government since elections in October, which fragmented the political establishment.

We reject the government coalition being confined to some parties, a senior official of Ennahdha, Abd Karim Harouni, said.

Harouni said all parties needed to be in the government to make it strong enough to deal with major challenges and carry out necessary reforms.

The Parliament rejected on January 10 a government proposed by Ennahdhas candidate and Prime Minister-designate Habib Jemli after months of negotiations between political parties to fill positions.

The decision handed President Kais Saied an opportunity to nominate his choice for premier, the former finance and tourism minister Elyes Fakhfakh.





Last week, Fakhfakh said he would not seek to replicate recent unity coalitions, but would instead build a cabinet only from those, including Ennahdha, that were aligned with the values of the revolution.

The countrys second-largest party, Heart of Tunisia, whose leader was defeated by Saied in the presidential election, but which is also an opponent of Ennahdha, was one of those Fakhfakh ruled out of joining the government.

Tussle for influence

Ennahdhas rejection of the proposal means Fakhfakh could struggle to assemble majority support in Parliament, risking a new parliamentary election.

Analysts said the decision points to a tussle for influence between Ennahdha and Saied over the shape of the next government.

Ennahdha emerged as the most powerful party after winning the most seats in the countrys October parliamentary election. But the self-described Muslim Democratic partys 52 of a total 217 seats available for grabs meant it still needed to win the backing of other parties.

Saied won the second-round runoff vote of a separate presidential election in a landslide, but as an independent, he lacks a parliamentary base of his own.

Tunisias prime minister and government are primarily answerable to the Parliament, but the president also has a veto over new legislation they introduce.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:47:00|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday stressed the international cooperation in public health in a phone conversation with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian amid global efforts to tackle a novel coronavirus outbreak.

Le Drian, on behalf of the French government, expressed sympathy for damages caused by the recent outbreak in China, wishing all patients an early recovery.

France highly appreciates the active and strong response by the Chinese government to the outbreak and spread of the novel coronavirus, and admires China's resolve and courage in tackling the disease, Le Drian said, adding that France stands ready to offer all necessary assistance to China.

Noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly given important instructions in tackling the disease, Wang said that the Chinese government has ordered administrations at all levels to make joint prevention and control of the outbreak a top priority.

Under the strong leadership of the Communist Party and Chinese government, the country is accelerating the establishment of a prevention and control system covering the whole nation in a scientific and orderly manner, Wang said.

Wang said, the epidemic in general is preventable, controllable and curable. He added that the Chinese government has taken a series of decisive measures to prevent the spread of the disease and put everything back on track as soon as possible.

The Chinese government and people will unite as one, and they have confidence, capability and resources to win the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak as soon as possible, Wang said.

The novel coronavirus outbreak reminded us once again that the destinies of all nations are closely linked as they share weal and woe in the era of globalization, Wang said.

Strengthening international cooperation in public health should be one of the important agendas of global governance, he said.

From fighting against epidemics in China -- the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus -- to combatting other outbreaks around the world like Ebola in Africa and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), China has assumed its international obligations as a responsible nation, which always cooperates with the international community in the spirit of openness, transparency, science and collaboration, Wang said.

China is willing to work with other countries, including France, to jointly safeguard the life and health of people in China and around the world, he added.

The Chinese side always puts the life and health of the Chinese citizens and foreigners in Wuhan in the central province of Hubei above everything else, and will continue to take effective and timely measures to address their legitimate concerns, Wang said.
(Newser)  Excerpts from a new book by former national security adviser John Bolton have been leakedand they may undercut President Trump's defense in his impeachment trial. In The Room Where It Happened, Bolton says Trump told him in August that he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until it assisted investigations of the Bidens and other Democrats, the New York Times reports. Trump has denied that the delay in sending $391 million in security assistance was connected to the request for investigations. In the book, which was submitted to the White House for pre-publication review, Bolton also describes conversations about Ukraine with officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Bolton, whose book is due to come out on March 17, has said he will testify if subpoenaed. He left the administration in September.

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The seven House impeachment managers issued a statement Sunday night describing the claims in Bolton's book as "explosive" and renewing their calls for the Senate to call Bolton to testify, the Washington Post reports. "The Senate trial must seek the full truth and Mr. Bolton has vital information to provide," the managers said. "There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published, when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision senators must now makewhether to convict the president of impeachable offenses." Bolton's lawyer blamed the White House for the leak, saying the "pre-publication review process has been corrupted." In a tweet Sunday, Trump said he "NEVER" told Bolton that aid was connected to the investigations. "If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Trump said. (Read more John Bolton stories.)
A 15-centimeter-tall statue rested on the left hand of 70-year-old Liem Djie. With Liems right hand, he carefully rubbed a wet towel over the statue, cleaning dust off of it.

About 500 years ago, our ancestors sailed from mainland China and arrived here in Kediri. They brought along this rupang (statue) of Makco Thian Siang Sing Boo, the Sea Goddess. In Kediri, they built a temple and placed this rupang inside, said Liem, head of Tjoe Hwi Kiong Temple on Jl. Yos Sudarso in Kediri, East Java, on Jan. 18. It stands alongside the Brantas River, one of the largest rivers in Java.

As dozens of Confucians and adherents of traditional Chinese beliefs gathered to help clean the statues of their gods, Liem and several religious figures began chanting "Song Sen", a special prayer to cleanse the heart and to ask for permission for the cleaning ceremony.

That Saturday was the only day in a year when Confucians got to clean their altars of worship. They believe that seven days before the lunar calendar marks the new year, the gods in the statues fly to the sky and return to the house of God.

Liem took longer to clean the statue of Makco Thian Siang Sing Boo statue, a goddess that is heavily worshipped in East Java. Makco Thian Siang Sing Boo was our ancestors savior when they sailed the seas from China to Kediri, said Hermin, a participant of the ceremony.

Historians Zao Ru Kuo and Chau Ju Kua noted that interactions between China and Java began in the 10th century, during the reign of the Kediri kingdom. A large migration to Java, with some settling down in Kediri, was estimated to occur in the 16th century, driven by revolts that led to a transition of power from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.

For hundreds of years, those of Chinese descent lived and mingled with the Javanese. Cultures from both countries blended and seeped into daily life. But their existence in Java began to ruffle some feathers in the Dutch colonial era.

In Soehartos New Order regime, which reigned for over 30 years, Confucianism was excluded from the list of recognized religions in Indonesia. Confucians and adherents of traditional Chinese beliefs could only perform their rituals in secrecy.

Read also: In Surakarta, Chinese-Indonesians heal old wounds for sake of harmony

The temple was mostly closed, even during the day. Praying at the temple felt like a violation [of the law], Hermin said.

Things started to change with Soehartos resignation in May 1998, when former president Abdurrahman Wahid lifted the 34-year ban on Confucianism in 2000.

But the 30-year repression left its mark on Confucianism in Indonesia, apparent by how the cleaning ceremony was practiced mostly by middle-aged people. Growing up without a clear sense of the religion, the younger generation found themselves distant and unfamiliar with Confucianism.

Hermin said that his children and grandchildren were Catholics, and he appreciated that there were times when they prayed to their ancestors the way he did.

My children and grandchildren are free to embrace other religions as the most important thing for me is that they are still willing to respect their ancestors beliefs, he said.

By the time the sun almost set, the cleaning ceremony was completed. The statues were returned to their original positions at the altar. With that, people began to leave the temple.

Tjoe Hwie Kiong Temple would hold more rituals on the following days, including on Chinese New Year and on the fourth day of the new year. The Cie Shen prayer would be recited with hopes for fortune throughout the year. It is the day when the gods are believed to descend back to earth and return to the statues.

The new years rituals and celebrations will end with a prayer for happiness and togetherness among fellow human beings, followed by Cap Go Meh celebrations on Feb. 8, featuring a barongsai (lion dance) and lontong (rice cake) eating ceremony. (vel/wng)
World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden speaks at the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016 in Washington, DC.

Hunter Biden, the son of leading Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden, has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of monthly child support to an Arkansas woman who bore him a baby out of wedlock, avoiding a hearing Wednesday that put him at risk of being held in contempt of court.

The support is retroactive to November 2018, three months after the child was born to Lunden Alexis Roberts, according to a judge's order filed Monday in Independence County Court, Arkansas.

And Biden must pay Roberts, 28, an undisclosed amount for her attorneys' fees and costs, according to the order.

The amount of child support that Biden must pay could increase  or decrease  in the future, Judge Holly Meyer noted in her order.

Meyer wrote that she currently lacks sufficient information about Biden's income to determine a permanent amount of support.

The order came two days before the 49-year-old Biden was due to appear in court for a hearing on whether he should be found in contempt for failing to disclose financial information to Roberts as ordered by a judge.

Meyer, in her order Monday, postponed that hearing until March 13.

But if Biden produces the required financial information by March 1, then the motion for contempt filed by Roberts will be dismissed.

Biden, who is a lawyer, originally denied having sex with Roberts.

But a DNA showed that the child was almost certainly his, and he stopped contesting paternity in the case.

Clint Lancaster, an attorney for Roberts, declined CNBC's request for additional comment on the court filing.

Biden's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 18:08 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206132f4d 1 Business Indonesia,Amdal-document,omnibus-law,investment,protests,PWYP,mining,rehabilitation Free

The governments plan to scrap the environmental impact assessment (Amdal) requirement imposed on investors intending to set up a business has been met with strong opposition from local environmental advisory groups.

"The Amdal is an obligation under the law. The requirement should be met before investors set up their business," said Maryati Abdullah, the national coordinator of environmental advocacy group Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, on the sidelines of a discussion forum on public policy for the sustainable management of natural resources on Jan. 23.

The government plans to allow businesses to start developing their projects without having to fulfill the Amdal requirement, because such a requirement has hampered investment activities, according to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD.

Mahfud said that even if the investors were exempt from the Amdal requirement, they should abide by all the regulations related to environmental protection. "Issue the business permit first. If a business fails to comply with the regulation on environmental protection, we can revoke their permits," said Mahfud at an event held by law firm Dentons HPRP in Jakarta at the same event.

According to the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), investment rose to Rp 800 trillion (US$58.6 billion) in 2019 from Rp 721 trillion in 2018, exceeding the government's target of Rp 790 trillion.

The government plans to relax the Amdal requirements through the issuance of an omnibus law on job creation, which is currently being drafted. If passed, the law will amend thousands of articles in more than 80 existing laws deemed to have a deterrent effect on investment.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has also voiced opposition to the plan, and called for sustainable investment.

"Every project is different," Maryati told The Jakarta Post. She said that some established businesses in the mining industry, for example, were found to have violated the Amdal requirements, causing harm to the environment and people.

In April last year, a 14-year-old child was found dead in a tailings pond in a concession owned by mining company PT Mandala Usaha Tambang Utama. The child was the 33rd person since 2011 to die in a tailings pond in East Kalimantan, according to environmental group Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam).

The case drew public attention to the government's policy requiring companies to reclaim their mining areas when production is finished.

"If a project turns out to inflict damage on its surroundings, the investment is wasted," Padjajaran University economist Martin Siyaranamual said, adding that he also opposed the government's plan to bring in investment at the expense of the Amdal requirement.

"I will be even more worried if the impact is irreversible," he said. "The environment is prone to excessive exploitation, such as of groundwater in Jakarta," he said.

Jakarta, the fastest-sinking city in the world, with an annual rate of up to 15 centimeters, suffers land subsidence as a result of excessive use of groundwater, according to a study by the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). The study estimated that 90 percent of North Jakarta will be submerged in the future.

However, the city's land subsidence has slowed recently. In Muara Baru, Pluit and Mutiara Beach in North Jakarta, for example, the rate slowed by 50 percent from around 20-26 cm to 10-12 cm.

The rate has declined as companies move their factories outside North Jakarta. The number of factories in North Jakarta declined by 42 percent to 3,089 from 5,313 between 2016 and 2018, according to data from the Jakarta Industry and Energy Agency.

The excessive exploitation of the environment is a result of a lack of a "sense of crisis" among the government, businesses and public, said Gadjah Mada University economist Rimawan Pradiptyo. "We should preserve our common resources." (dfr)
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on January 27 demanded withdrawal of cases lodged by the Uttar Pradesh government against women protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

Women have been staging protests in different parts of Uttar Pradesh, including at the historic Clock Tower here, demanding scrapping of CAA and NRC.

In a tweet, BSP supremo Mayawati said, "Wrong cases filed against women and others protesting against CAA/NRC by the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government should be immediately withdrawn, and those who lost their lives during this time should also be extended proper help, this is the demand of BSP."

Around 100 women protesters have been booked for violating prohibitory orders at the clock tower here. "A case has been registered against 10 women and 100 unidentified women for violating Section 144 of CrPC, while protesting at Ghantaghar. Apart from this, eight persons have been arrested," Station House Officer of Thakurganj Police Station Pramod Mishra had said on Saturday.

The dharna at Lucknow's Clock Tower is on the lines of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protest against CAA and NRC.

Women protestors have said their stir will continue until the Centre scraps the CAA and the NRC.

Nearly 20 people have been killed in the state after violence erupted during anti-CAA protests last month.
New Delhi:

UPSC has released the Civil Services (Main) e-Summon Interview Letter for Personality Test. Candidates who have cleared the UPSC Civil Services Main exam need to visit the official website of UPSC, i.e. upsconline.nic.in to download the e-Summon Letter for Personality Test. In addition, the Indian Forest Service Examination, 2019 e-Summon Letter for Personality Test is released by the commission. The direct links of the e-Summon letters for IFS and Civil Services Main exam are also mentioned below.

UPSC Civil Services Interview Letter For Personality Test

It is to note that candidates will be able to download the e-Summon Letters for IFS and Civil Services Main exam from the official website of the commission till February 14, 2020 and April 3, 2020 respectively. Earlier, the UPSC Civil Services Main Exam 2019 was held from September 20 to September 29. Candidates who cleared the Civil Services Main exam now need to appear for the Personality Test. Candidates will be able to download the e-Summon Letters for Civil Services Personality Test by providing their roll number and date of birth details. According to the commission, candidates need to carry all the academic and age-related documents at the time of the test.

In order to download the e-Summon Letter for UPSC Civil Services Personality Test, candidates need to follow the below mentioned steps:

First, visit the official website of UPSC, i.e. upsconline.nic.in

Then, click on the e-Summon Letters for various examinations of UPSC

A new page will open with download links for e-Summon Letters

Click on the download link, enter the details and download the e-Summon letter for UPSC Civil Services Personality Test.

Alternatively, candidates can click on the below mentioned direct links to download the e-Summon Letter for Personality Test.

UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2019 e-Summon Letter for Personality Test Direct Link

UPSC Indian Forest Service Examination 2019 e-Summon Letter for Personality Test Direct Link
Washington County Public Schools asking public for input on funding

Washington County Public Schools is asking the public for input on how they should spend the American Rescue Plan money from the federal government.
Kangana Says Karan Johar Deserves Padma Shri Honour

The Queen star told India Today, "I heartily congratulate him. I think he totally deserves this award. As a producer, the kind of films he backs, whether it is Kesari or Good Newwz, are commendable, as is the position he has worked to achieve. Even though his father gave him a head start, he has risen to the top because of his own efforts and merits."

The Actress Is Proud To Be In The Same League As Him

She further added, "I started my journey from a small village in Himachal Pradesh, and for me to be in the same league as these bigwigs we have grown up watching, whether it is Karan's films or Ekta Kapoor's serials... We knew these people, growing up. And who has not heard Adnan Sami ji's songs? For a girl like me, to get a Padma Shri alongside them is a matter of pride."

Kangana Ranaut's Reaction On Winning Padma Shri

In an official statement, the actress said, "I have always been honoured as an artiste but this time, I have also been recognized as a citizen and for my awareness towards the country. This is special for me because you know that the industry always points fingers at me (laughs). This is also special for my family, because they feel that I am always targeted in the film industry, slapped with legal cases and involved in fights. My family is extremely happy."

Meanwhile, Karan Was Overjoyed On His Padma Shri Honour

The filmmaker took to his social media page and wrote, "It's not very often that I'm at a loss for words, but this is one such occasion. The Padma Shri... such an honour to receive one of the highest civilian awards in the country. Overwhelmed by so many emotions right now. Humbled, elated and also thankful for the opportunity to live my dream every day, to create and to entertain. I know my father would be proud and I wish he was here to share this moment with me."
Epidemic has so far claimed lives of more than 80 people and infected 3,000

The deadly Chinese coronavirus outbreak began at a wholesale animal market in Wuhan city, experts have confirmed.

Scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said tests proved humans caught it from animals at the Huanan Seafood Wholesales Market.

It is not clear which animal was carrying the pneumonia-like illness but the market was home to stalls trading dozens of different species, including rats and wolf cubs.

Last week experts suggested the disease may have originated in snakes, which are known carriers of coronaviruses.

The Huanan market was a hotspot with locals, who could choose to buy their meat 'warm' meaning it had been slaughtered just moment prior.

The deadly Chinese coronavirus outbreak began at the Huanan Seafood Wholesales Market in Wuhan (pictured), tests confirm

Scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said tests proved humans caught it from animals at the market where customers chose from live animals that were slaughtered in front of them (picture purportedly shows skinned chicks at the market)

Last week experts suggested the disease may have originated in snakes, which are known carriers of coronaviruses (multiple reptiles at the market)

Image shows what appears to be a beaver and a small deer caged at Huanan

A police officer stands guard outside of Huanan Seafood Wholesale market in Wuhan

A list of prices for one of the businesses operating at the market showed 'live tree bears' which is the Chinese for 'koala' (circled above)

'Thirty-one of the 33 positive samples were collected from the western zone of the market, where booths of wildlife trading concentrated,' the CDC said, according to China's state-owned Xinhua news agency.

'The result suggests that the novel coronavirus outbreak is highly relevant to the trading of wild animals.'

The epidemic has so far claimed the lives of more than 80 people and infected nearly 3,000 in a month - but experts predict that number to be closer to 100,000.

Chinese authorities temporarily barred the trading of wild animals on Sunday. The Government said those who ignored the ban would be 'severely investigated and punished'.

The Huanan Seafood Market in the central city of Wuhan came under scrutiny after Chinese officials said the coronavirus may have originated in a wild animal sold at the food emporium.

The market has since been closed and has been labelled 'ground zero' by local authorities.

The highly-contagious virus has killed 17 people and infected hundreds in China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and the US.

A list of prices for one of the businesses operating at the market showed a menagerie of animals available for sale including live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines, koalas and game meats, according to the South China Morning Post.

The food menu shows a price of 70 RMB for koala meat.

Even Chinese social media users were surprised at at the wildlife being sold at the market

'Just took a closer look at the viral wild animal menu - they even eat Koalas', one wrote on Chinese language site, Weibo.

'There's nothing Chinese people won't eat'.

There are 112 live animals and animal products on the list.

Public health experts had previously warned that China's live animal markets were the perfect breeding ground for emerging infectious diseases.

A total of 15 countries or territories outside of China have now confirmed cases, with Sri Lanka and Cambodia the latest to announce and a second case diagnosed in Canada today, in the wife of the Toronto man who was the first patient.

The coronavirus outbreak has now killed 82 people and struck down more than 2,800. Cambodia today became the latest country to confirm the virus has spread there. The government confirmed a Chinese national who travelled to the city of Sihanoukville was infected

Medical staff in Wuhan, the crisis-hit city at the centre of the outbreak, help a patient off the back of an ambulance on Sunday

Thermal scanning at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Indonesia shows people's temperatures beside their heads  those who have high temperatures will be checked to see if they have a fever

The rapid-build hospital in Wuhan started to take shape today, January 27, as hundreds of people work tirelessly to build the pre-fabricated structure in a matter of days

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR What is this virus? The virus has been identified as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of pathogens, most of which cause mild respiratory infections such as the common cold. But coronaviruses can also be deadly. SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is caused by a coronavirus and killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in the early 2000s. Can it kill? Yes. Eighty-one people have so far died after testing positive for the virus. What are the symptoms? Its symptoms are typically a fever, cough and trouble breathing, but some patients have developed pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the small air sacs in the lungs. People carrying the novel coronavirus may only have mild symptoms, such as a sore throat. They may assume they have a common cold and not seek medical attention, experts fear. How is it detected? The virus's genetic sequencing was released by scientists in China to the rest of the world to enable other countries to quickly diagnose potential new cases. This helps other countries respond quickly to disease outbreaks. To contain the virus, airports are detecting infected people with temperature checks. But as with every virus, it has an incubation period, meaning detection is not always possible because symptoms have not appeared yet. How did it start and spread? The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. Cases have since been identified elsewhere which could have been spread through human-to-human transmission. What are countries doing to prevent the spread? Countries in Asia have stepped up airport surveillance. They include Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Australia and the US are also screening patients for a high temperature, and the UK announced it will screen passengers returning from Wuhan. Is it similar to anything we've ever seen before? Experts have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The epidemic started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in mainland China, Hong Kong and elsewhere Advertisement

Beijing also today saw the Wuhan coronavirus claim its 82nd death when a 50-year-old man died in hospital in the nation's capital at around 8pm local time (12pm GMT).

China has extended its New Year holiday by three days to February 2 to fight the outbreak as people have now been diagnosed with it in every corner of China, except for Tibet.

A team of scientists in the UK believe more than 100,000 people have been infected already but many of them without knowing, and expect the case and death tolls both to continue rising as the outbreak goes on.

The damage has spread to the stock markets, too, as investors fear travel cancellations and business closures, as well as growing panic outside of China, are damaging the world economy.

Researchers in Hong Kong have warned the outbreak could become a 'global epidemic' if the Chinese government doesn't start 'draconian' travel restrictions on its citizens.

Beijing insists it is continuing drastic efforts to contain the outbreak.

New cases today include the first to be diagnosed in Cambodia, in a Chinese national, and a second in Toronto, Canada, where the wife of the first Canadian patient is now being treated for coronavirus.

The disease's spread has seemed all but unstoppable over the last week, and scientists at Hong Kong University say more drastic action needs to be taken.

There is a risk the virus could trigger a global epidemic  when the illness spreads uncontrollably around the world  if the Chinese government doesn't clamp down on the movement of people, the researchers said.

'We have to be prepared that this particular epidemic may be about to become a global epidemic,' said Dr Gabriel Leung.

'Substantial, draconian measures limiting population mobility should be taken sooner, rather than later.'

Concerns about the virus have been growing as scientists say people may be passing on the virus before they even realise they are ill, and the number of predicted cases has soared dramatically.

China's health minister Ma Xiaowei said yesterday 'it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger' and that it can be passed from person-to-person even before symptoms appear.

And researchers at Imperial College London have estimated that more than 100,000 people may be infected around the world already. The same team had previously thought the number was around 4,000, up to 10,000.

Professor Mark Harris, from the University of Leeds, said: 'Its true that the numbers... look scary.

'One positive spin is that if we are only aware of five per cent of the total cases, the implication is that 95 per cent of cases have only resulted in either mild symptoms such that the infected people did not consider it serious enough to seek medical help, or indeed the virus may be causing an inapparent infection.

'This would significantly reduce the apparent [death] rates.'

The mayor of Wuhan, where the outbreak started, has admitted he and the ruling Chinese Communist Party did not react quickly enough to the coronavirus danger.
They are counting down the days until they welcome their third child.

And Nicole Trunfio proudly showed off her bump alongside her husband, Gary Clark Jr., at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

The couple looked glamorous while posing on the red carpet in what could be their last public appearance before the baby arrives.

Just the three of us! Nicole Trunfio proudly showed off her baby bump alongside her husband, Gary Clark Jr., at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night

Nicole, 33, stunned in a black mini dress with a low neckline and oversized bow across the neck.

The frock was cinched just above her tummy and featured a see-through lace skirt that offered a glimpse of her toned legs.

She accessorised with a statement gold handbag and bejewelled hoop earrings.

Coming soon! The couple looked glamorous while posing on the red carpet in what could be their last public appearance before the baby arrives

Wow! Nicole wore a black mini dress with a low neckline and oversized bow across the neck

Daddy cool! At one stage, the blues musician proudly placed a hand over his wife's baby bump

Nicole, who hails from Perth but now lives in the U.S., already shares two children with Gary, son Zion, five, and daughter Gia, one.

She announced she was expecting her third child in the October 2019 issue of Elle Australia and is due to give birth any day now.

Meanwhile, it was a successful night for Gary, who won Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance and Best Contemporary Blues Album at the Grammys.

Taking to the stage: Gary later performed during the ceremony, rocking out on his Gibson Flying V guitar

Winners are grinners! He won three Grammys for Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance and Best Contemporary Blues Album

In 2017, Nicole sold her property in Dubbo, NSW, and purchased a ranch in Texas with her husband, where their family now lives.

The two-storey home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, as well as a study, formal dining room and games area.

They divide their time between the ranch and another property in Los Angeles.

Beautiful family: Nicole, who hails from Perth but now lives in the U.S., already shares two children with Gary, son Zion, five, and daughter Gia, one (all pictured)
UN calls for justice for migrant victims of Libya air strikes



Tripoli, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



The UN called Monday for justice for dozens of migrants killed in air strikes last July on a detention centre in a suburb of the Libyan capital.

In a joint report, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN human rights office in Geneva called for those responsible to be held to account.

They urged Libyan authorities to "conduct independent, impartial and thorough investigations... with a view to ensuring swift prosecution" of those behind the July 2 raids that left 53 people dead and 130 wounded.

"As I have said previously, the Tajoura (suburb) attack, depending on the precise circumstances, may amount to a war crime," said Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A hangar used to detain migrants took a direct hit in the night-time strikes along with a workshop operated by an armed group.

It was one of the deadliest incidents since the forces of eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive in April against the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.

The UN report did not name the party responsible for the strikes, which the GNA has blamed on Haftar's fighters, despite the latter's denials.

But the report said it was likely carried out by a foreign backer of Haftar.

"While it appears the airstrikes... were conducted by aircraft belonging to a foreign State, it remains unclear whether these air assets were under the command" of Haftar "or operated under the command of that foreign State in support" of the general, it said.
Police have launched a murder investigation after a man was stabbed to death in front of horrified commuters at a London railway station this afternoon.

Emergency services, including the London Ambulance Service and London Air Ambulance, scrambled to East Croydon station at 4.45pm.

Despite the best efforts of paramedics, a young man, thought to be 18, was pronounced dead at the scene.

A witness claimed they saw a man with a machete at the busy south London commuter station and then saw a person 'slumped near the ticket office' with 'blood everywhere'.

British Transport Police has confirmed a murder investigation is underway, and a cordon will remain in place this evening.

The scene at East Croydon railway station where man has been stabbed to death. Forensics officers collect evidence on Monday evening

A heavy police presence is at East Croydon station this evening after a person was stabbed

One witness told MyLondon they saw a man with a machete and then a man slumped on the floor near the ticket office

A witness told MyLondon: 'I was passed by someone with a machete when walking up to East Croydon station, as I reached the top of the stairs there was blood everywhere and a lad slumped in the ticket office by the barriers.

'It didn't look great, staff and security were on hand.'

Detective Superintendent Gareth Williams from BTP said: 'Clearly this was a deeply shocking incident, outside a very busy transport hub in Croydon.

'Tragically, a young man has lost his life tonight and I know this will be heart-breaking news for his family.

'We have now launched a murder enquiry and I am urgently appealing for any witnesses to get in touch. We believe the assault happened near the back entrance to East Croydon station near Ruskin Square, shortly after 4.30pm.

Police have launched a murder investigation after man is stabbed to death at East Croydon station.

A forensics officer at the scene at East Croydon station on Monday evening after a young man was stabbed to death

London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted this evening saying he is 'deeply saddened to learn a young man has lost his life'

'If you were in the area and witnessed any altercation, please contact us as soon as possible.

'Alongside the Met, throughout the evening, we'll be increasing our patrols in the East Croydon area and we have authorised additional Section 60 Stop and Search powers.'

Rail services and Tramlink into East Croydon were not disrupted by the incident and continue to run as normal.

Anyone with information is asked to contact BTP by sending a text to 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 395 of 27/01/2020. Or you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Around 5,000 companies have come under the scanner of tax authorities due to alleged discrepancies between their Goods and Services Tax (GST) filings and Income Tax (I-T) returns, Business Standard reported.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has ordered search-and-survey operations against these mid-and-small sized companies, including owners of business houses.

The information, based on GST Network (GSTN) data, has been shared with states so that they can take appropriate action immediately.

The companies allegedly inflated GST claims and under-reported income in their I-T filings, the report added.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.

Around 2,000 cases of mismatches have been found in Mumbai alone, followed by Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, a source told the newspaper.

Scrutiny notices were sent to some companies for utilising input tax credit to clear the bulk of the GST liabilities, the report added.

The discrepancies were found after comparing other data as well, such as gross total income, turnover ratio and sales returns provided by GSTN and other sources.

The companies claimed GST returns on transactions that were not reflected in their filings, the article quotes a source as saying.

The companies are said to have claimed input tax credit through dummy companies. In their GST filings, they showed transactions between companies that were either unrelated or had no business history.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A 19-year-old Eagle River man is in state custody after a theft northwest of Wasilla in which a shot was fired, Alaska State Troopers said.

Everett McCormick was held on suspicion of robbery, assault, criminal trespass, theft and probation violation, troopers said. Online court documents do not list his attorney.

Troopers shortly before 3 a.m. Monday took a report of theft at a Wasilla home. The resident reported three people were trespassing and had stolen a wallet and a gun from a vehicle.

The resident confronted the suspects, troopers said, and one of them fired a gun toward the resident and a second person. No one was injured.

The suspects fled in a vehicle but crashed. They took off on foot, troopers said, and a Wasilla Police Department dog tracked McCormick, who was arrested. McCormick was on probation for a burglary count, troopers said.
As filmmaker Ekta Kapoor celebrated her son Ravies first birthday in Mumbai on Sunday, Union minister Smriti Irani posted a loving note for the little one. Sharing photos of Ekta and Ravie, Smriti wrote, Your Mom and I sat in silence a year ago waiting for you to come home (for a chatter box she was quiet and composed ). Your Masa freaks out that you are around 2 strong headed women and hopes we dont make a rabble rousing feminist out of you, before anyone at Balaji Telefilms or ALTbalaji could hand you a script or an edit tool I made sure you got a doctors set to play with.

Your Nana Nani Mama & brother adore you. I refuse to respond to the name Ravioli ( he is a dish for sure but no way will someone make Ravioli his call sign) you are loved Ravie Kapoor, happy birthday god bless @ektaravikapoor, she wrote on Instagram.

While pictures from Ravies birthday party were online in no time, a new video shows Ravie in his grandfather Jeetendras arms as Ekta cuts his birthday cake with cousin Lakkshya.

In the video, shared by Tusshar Kapoor, Ravie, perhaps overwhelmed by the din and bustle clings on to his grandfather. His mother Ekta then asks Tusshars son Laksshya to join her. The boy, standing on a chair close by, is a jolly mood and isnt quite listening to his aunt. Then, Bigg Boss 11 contestant Vikas Gupta, going over and then carrying Laksshya to where the cake is kept. Then, the three of them, cut the cake.

Also read: Akshay Kumar debuts Bachchan Pandeys striking new look, postpones film for Aamir Khans Laal Singh Chaddha

The event saw many television and film stars land up with their kids. Esha Deol came with daughter Radhya, Abhishek Kapoor and wife Pragya Yadav came with their two boys, Riteish Deshmukh, wife Genelia and their two sons, Aayush Sharma with his son, Ahil, Mahie Gill with her daughter, Divya Khosla with her son, Panga director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Surveen Chawla. The event had a Mickey Mouse theme.

Aayush Sharma, Pragya Kapoor, wife of director Abhishek Kapoors wife and Mahie Gill with her daughter.

Divya Khosla and Tusshar Kapoor with their boys and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari.

Surveen Chawla, Esha Deol and Abhishek Kapoor with their kids.

Vikas Gupta, Karan Patel with wife Ankita Bhargava and Krystle Dsouza at the function.

Ekta Kapoor was in the news after she was named as one of the recipients of Padma Shri on Saturday. She wrote a thank you note on Twitter, Overwhlemed and emotional. My foray into the industry started when I was just 17. I constantly heard I was too young, too raw and it was too soon to make things happen. Through the years, I have realised it is never too soon to live out your dreams and being too young is probably the best thing. Today, as I am conferred with the 4th highest civilian honour, Padmshri, Im humbled.

Though a bulk of Ektas work is in the field of television, she has successfully forayed into film and web production as well. In the past, her film production banner, Balaji Motion Pictures, has been associated with hits such as Veere Di Wedding, Dream Girl, Ragini MMS and Ek Villain.

(All pictures by Varinder Chawla)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: In a unique creation for this years Republic Day, school children displayed the tricolour made out of around 5,000 postcards they wrote to soldiers.

One side of the postcards had messages written to soldiers in Siachen thanking them for their service to the country while the other side was painted with colours of the national flag. The project was the brainchild of city-based NGO Aorta Foundation whose staff spoke to children of government schools in the past year about soldiers.

"Many students were thrilled to learn more about soldiers. After knowing what they do, students started writing postcards. Those which were written very early were stored with us and used on Republic day. The idea is to create a record for the largest national flag collage made with postcards," said Vishakh Venkat, founder of Aorta Foundation. The postcards will be sent to Siachen in a week.

WHAT THE CHILDREN HAD TO SAY
Voting for the BJP in Delhi polls will prevent "thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh", Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on January 26.

Shah attacked the opposition leaders including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on various issues and asserted that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can ensure safety and security of the country.

Campaigning for the BJP candidate in Babarpur constituency, Shah said, "Your vote to BJP candidate will make Delhi and the country safe and prevent thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh."

A large number of women have been holding a sit-in against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh in south east Delhi since mid-December.

The protest, supported by people from different fields including politicians, Bollywood actors and academicians, has emerged as a symbol of anti-CAA agitation in the country.

"When you press the button (of EVM) on February 8, do so with such anger that its current (poll result) is felt at Shaheen Bagh," the BJP leader said.

The BJP, seeking to come into power in Delhi after two decades, has brought the CAA at the centre stage of its campaigning for February 8 polls, with Shah and other BJP leaders hitting out at Kejriwal and Gandhi over the issue in meetings after meetings. Kejriwal has said the BJP wants to give citizenship to Pakistanis, the Home Minister claimed and asked the people "shouldn't Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists who witnessed their women being raped, lost their properties in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and who came to India over the past 70 years be given citizenship of this country."

Targeting the AAP and the Congress over issues like abrogation of Article 370, JNU, Ram temple and anti CAA protests, Shah alleged that the parties opposed to the BJP and Modi fear a backlash from their votebank.

Addressing another election meeting earlier in Rohtas Nagar constituency, he asked the people, "Are you their votebank? Why do Rahul Baba and Kejriwal want to save Tukde Tukde gang that raised slogans for fragmentation of the country? They do this because of fear of their vote bank."

The former BJP president also slammed Kejriwal government alleging the ruling AAP failed in fulfilling "all" its promises including construction of new schools and colleges, free Wi-Fi, installing of CCTV cameras, supplying clean water, reducing pollution, building roads and cleaning the Yamuna.

"If there was a survey of lying and making false promises, Kejriwal government would top it," he said.

Shah promised that if voted to power in Delhi, the BJP will ensure two-room houses to city's slum dwellers in five years.

The national capital will head for polling on February 8. Counting of votes will happen on February 11.
Bergenfield is looking for PR support to to help the New Jersey borough maximize its press coverage.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. His Holiness Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, received today President of the Supreme Judicial Council Ruben Vardazaryan at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the SJC told Armenpress.

His Holiness Garegin II wished that God supports the SJC President and Council members in fulfilling the key mission to establish justice. The Supreme Patriarch said at all times the humanity has strived for fair and true justice, and in this context the Supreme Judicial Council has a key role to play.

In his turn Ruben Vardazaryan thanked for the reception and introduced His Holiness Garegin II on the ongoing actions and the goals set by the Council.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudins decision to withdraw criminal charges last week against a man who was shot by police after allegedly attacking officers with a bottle has inflamed a simmering conflict between the citys new progressive prosecutor and the law enforcement groups that opposed his election.

The citys police union accused Boudin  a former public defender  of giving a green light to criminals to attack police, and on Monday called on the federal government to prosecute Jamaica Hampton, the 24-year-old man accused in the Dec. 7 attack in the Mission District. Hampton remains hospitalized and recently had his leg amputated after being shot three times, officials said.

The district attorneys office, though, said there is nothing conclusive about its decision Friday to pull back the charges without prejudice,meaning they can be refiled anytime in the next three years. The office said it suspended the charges as part of a new policy aimed at avoiding conflicts between officer-involved shooting investigations and parallel criminal probes.

The case has quickly become the latest public struggle between San Franciscos new district attorney, who was sworn in Jan. 8 after campaigning on a platform to be tougher on cops in cases of excessive force, and the Police Departments rank-and-file. The police union opposed Boudins candidacy over fears he would not support law enforcement and be too lenient on criminals.

The Hampton case is unique because there are multiple victims who are seeking, and who deserve, justice, district attorney spokeswoman Paula Lehman-Ewing wrote in a statement Monday. No conclusions about the prosecutorial viability of Hamptons case should be drawn here.

Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, called Boudins decision a morale buster and said the new district attorney is treating the police like criminals rather than the person who caused the shooting to happen.

Mr. Boudin has made it clear to criminals everywhere that you can violently attack a police officer and hell look the other way, said Montoya, whos in a tight race for re-election and has been criticized by the unions former brash leaders as being too soft.

He spoke Monday morning while flanked by members of the San Jose and Los Angeles police unions. Montoya also announced a new website called BoudinBlunders.com, where he said people can submit tips whenever the new district attorney is protecting criminals and suspects over crime victims.

Video of the encounter showed Hampton dodging two San Francisco police officers he had allegedly attacked with a bottle near the intersection of 23rd and Mission streets.

During the foot chase, Hampton appeared to run toward Officer Sterling Hayes, while still carrying the bottle, moments before the officer opened fire. Hampton attempted to get up when Officer Christopher Flores fired one shot.

Police said Hampton matched the description of an intruder who had broken into a womans home that morning.

Flores attorney, Nicole Pifari, sent a sharply worded letter to Boudin on Monday urging him to reconsider. Despite the vast spectrum of political beliefs represented in San Francisco, we should hopefully be able to agree that no one is safe in a city where uniformed police officers are attacked and beaten without consequence, she wrote.

Boudins office said his decision to pull back the charges is not unique to Hamptons case, but rather, is part of a deconfliction policy to sort out cases where there is potential for competing criminal liability.

Hampton was originally booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assault upon a police officer and threats to an officer. The case was charged by interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus but never proceeded to arraignment while Hampton remained hospitalized.

It would be unfair to ask the officers to testify as witnesses in a criminal prosecution while they are still under investigation for their use of force in the same incident, Lehman-Ewing wrote. A better approach is to conclude all investigations and proceed with clarity for all involved, witnesses, victims and suspects.

Robert Weisberg, director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, noted the parallel investigations in the case, but said, Its not clear that one charge on one side implicates the other.

You have two potential criminal cases here and in theory they both could be innocent and they both could be guilty, Weisberg said. Assuming it was a tactical decision by Boudin, for whatever reason, you have to balance that against the difficulties he started with in terms of his relationship with the police.

Ed Obayashi, a former special prosecutor and public defender who is a Plumas County sheriffs deputy and instructor on use-of-force investigations, called Boudins decision irresponsible.

Theres going to have to be a lot of explanation from the D.A. if something happens out there, he said.

Randy Knox, a San Francisco defense attorney and former prosecutor, disagreed, saying The easy thing for Boudin to do would be to prosecute Hampton.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

I think the more thoughtful and deliberated thing to do is to gather as much information as possible before deciding how to proceed, he said.

The new policy is only the latest move by the new district attorney drawing condemnation from the citys rank-and-file, who work closely beside prosecutors in criminal matters.

Boudin last week made good on his campaign promise to not seek cash bail against any criminal defendants. Previously, he announced a diversion program for parents accused of crimes, pledged to stop charging gang enhancements and fired seven senior attorneys as he restructured his office less than a week after taking office.

Just because hes a left-wing, touchy-feely guy, to think he wont use hard-nosed corporate management, thats ridiculous, said Dan Horowitz, a Lafayette defense attorney who supported Boudins election campaign. Now hes drawing another line in the sand.

Whether or not the decision was part of a new policy, it still has not sat well with many in the department. Mayor London Breed and Chief Bill Scott each sent letters to every police officer in the department pledging their support for the officers.

I have no doubt that this decision has created a great deal of confusion, frustration, and anger within the department, Breed wrote in a message Monday obtained by The Chronicle. I have spoken with the District Attorney and he made it clear that the investigation into all the circumstances and facts surrounding the incident must be resolved before any decision to file charges can occur to avoid any conflict of interest.

The chief on Friday wrote to officers that This unprovoked attack was a violent, criminal act. I want you to know that we remain committed to working with the DA to see that justice is done in this case for our officers.

Montoya blasted the chiefs statement, saying Scott didnt adequately stand up for the members. He was more happy with San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcias reaction. He called Boudins decision shocking and despicable in a tweet Sunday, and added I feel terrible for the courageous men and women of the SFPD.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Carolyn Said contributed to this report.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
Their statement in full was:

After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.

We intend to step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.

It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.

We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages.

This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.

We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and all relevant parties.

Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.

TODO: define component type apester

Buckingham Palace's response

Discussions with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are at an early stage.
Oprahs beloved Ezells Famous Chicken will open its Portland-area location on Tuesday, Feb. 4, marking the first Oregon location for the Seattle-based chain.

Ezells currently operates 13 Seattle-area locations, plus a 14th in Spokane. The Oregon restaurant in Tigard will be the chains first outside of Washington state, save for a short-lived location in Dubai, co-founder Lewis Rudd told The Oregonian/OregonLive last month.

The chain first opened in Seattles Central District in 1984, backed by Rudd, high school friend Ezell Stephens and sister Faye Rudd (Faye and Ezell were married at the time), who modeled the restaurant after a Louisiana-style fried chicken joint theyd worked at growing up in East Texas. (Stephens parted ways with the chain that bares his name about a decade ago, but continues to serve fried chicken at his two Heaven Sent locations. Debating which restaurant serves the better fried chicken remains a popular Seattle pastime.)

To learn more about Ezells and its most famous fan, read our original story here:

Get your first taste of Ezells Famous Chicken when it opens its first Portland-area location on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 10218 S.W. Washington Square Road, Tigard, near the Washington Square mall.

-- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The West Bengal Assembly, on January 27, passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that demanded that the contentious citizenship law be repealed forthwith, and the NPR and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) be withdrawn.

Speaking on the resolution, which was brought by the state government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Citizenship Amendment Act is "against the Constitution and humanity".

"We want this law to be repealed immediately. We want NPR to be also repealed," Banerjee said.

The resolution was supported by both the opposition parties Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

The BJP legislature party opposed the resolution, and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the CAA to help refugees get their citizenship of the country.

Fourth state to pass anti-CAA resolution

West Bengal became the fourth state to pass such a resolution. Before West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab have also passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

Rajasthan passed its resolution against the controversial act on January 25, while Punjab had passed one on January 17. Kerala was the first state to pass a resolution against the contentious law on December 31.

The amended citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the West Bengal, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

The state assembly had earlier passed a resolution against NRC in September 2019. The BJP had naturally not supported it.
Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Fruit and vegetable traders of Navin Mandi (New Vegetable Market) on Monday resorted to indefinite hunger strike against poor sanitation in the market area and shortage of shops.



"We are paying taxes. The government should also do something for us. We demand new shops and hygiene in the area," they said.

Claiming that no officer from the market administration has visited them till now, they said: "If our demands are not met, then we will continue this hunger strike."

"Our shops were built 30-35 years ago. They are on the verge of collapse. We have built tin-roofed shops. Now we are told to remove them. From where we will work," they asked.

Stating that some illegal markets are running in the town, they said that 408 licences are issued to the people, but only 158 shops are there in the market. (ANI)


As part of preventive steps in the backdrop of coronavirus outbreak in China, two city residents who returned from the neighbouring country about ten days ago have been kept under medical supervision at a hospital, the Karnataka Health Department said on Monday.

Another person who was admitted for medical supervision three days ago had been discharged after he tested negative for the deadly virus, which has claimed 80 lives with 2,744 confirmed cases in China so far, the department added.

The two locals, who returned from China on January 18, came to the hospital on Sunday night after developing cold and their samples would be sent to a laboratory in Pune for tests, officials said without divulging any further information about them.

Besides these cases, six passengers -- four Chinese and two Indians -- are under 28-day house quarantine and they are asymptomatic, a statement from the department said.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has urged passengers who have a travel history to China since January 1 this year to report to their nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms such as fever, cough and respiratory distress.

The Airport Health Organisation, which is on the alert ever since the outbreak of the virus in China, said on Monday that none of the passengers who came from that country in the last 14 days were found to have contracted the disease.

No passengers are reported positive with thermal scanning and having history of visit to Wuhan city in the last 14 days, the KIA unit of the APHO, a central government organisation, said in a separate statement.

According to APHO, in the last six days as many as 2,572 people, including 392 in the past one day, were screened using thermal scanning.

The Corona virus has created quite a scare across the globe after it hit people in Wuhan in China.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Diageo plc (LON:DGE).

Diageo has a ROE of 33%, based on the last twelve months. That means that for every 1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated 0.33 in profit.

Check out our latest analysis for Diageo

How Do You Calculate ROE?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

Or for Diageo:

33% = UK3.3b  UK10b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)

Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets.

What Does ROE Signify?

ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. A higher profit will lead to a higher ROE. So, all else equal, investors should like a high ROE. Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies.

Does Diageo Have A Good Return On Equity?

One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, Diageo has a better ROE than the average (17%) in the Beverage industry.

LSE:DGE Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

That is a good sign. In my book, a high ROE almost always warrants a closer look. For example, I often check if insiders have been buying shares.

Story continues

How Does Debt Impact Return On Equity?

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.

Combining Diageo's Debt And Its 33% Return On Equity

Diageo clearly uses a significant amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 1.24. There's no doubt its ROE is impressive, but the company appears to use its debt to boost that metric. Debt does bring extra risk, so it's only really worthwhile when a company generates some decent returns from it.

But It's Just One Metric

Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.

But note: Diageo may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Ukraine's Cabinet to launch loan program at low rates for businesses

15:20, 27.01.20 1593

The government has identified a mechanism for using budget funds within the Entrepreneurship Development Fund.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday will sign an agreement with all factions of banned insurgent organisation National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and All Bodo Students Union (ABSU). The accord will give political and economic benefits to the Bodos.

The signing of the agreement with the Bodo organisations will take place in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Assam government at 1.30 pm. Earlier, the time for signing the agreement was scheduled for 3 pm. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will be present for the signing.

Live TV

It is expected that the central government will provide a massive political as well and economic package for the community. The government has also made it clear that the Centre would not make the state Bodoland territorial district into a Union Territory.

Shah and representatives of the Bru refugees had on January 16 signed an agreement to end the long-pending crisis of Bru refugees and for their settlement in Tripura in presence of Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all the issues of Northeast are getting solved. This is one such step. Approximately 30,000 Bru refugees will be settled in Tripura and Rs 600 crores rupees package has been given for this," Amit Shah had said after signing the agreement.

The Centre had also said that Bru refugees, who will be settled in Tripura, will get a 40 by 30 feet plot along with Rs four lakh Fixed Deposit, cash assistance of Rs 5,000 per month for two years and free ration.
Updated Jan. 28, 2020:

WASHINGTON  President Trump will release a long-awaited Middle East peace plan on Tuesday that is expected to include a proposal for new Israeli borders and provide for Israeli sovereignty over much of the Jordan Valley, a strategic area on the eastern frontier of the West Bank abutting Jordan.

Mr. Trump will be joined at the White House for the announcement by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister.

Palestinian leaders, who no longer speak to Trump officials, are likely to oppose each of those elements, even if they are combined with the economic rewards of $50 billion or more that the Trump administration says it can deliver.

That is why many analysts say the plan, developed under the supervision of Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law, is relevant mainly for its potential effect on Israels March 2 election, which is likely to decide the fate of the embattled Mr. Netanyahu, and as a distraction from the Senates impeachment trial of Mr. Trump.
Visa Inc. credit and debit cards are arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 22, 2019. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Financial technology start-up Currencycloud, which powers cross-border payments for a number of popular finance apps, has raised $80 million in a funding round backed by Visa. Based in the U.K., Currencycloud sells payment software for banks and fintech firms to process their international transactions. Though not as well-known as consumer-focused peers like Monzo and Revolut, the company provides some of the crucial "plumbing" in the background for such apps to operate. "We call the segment embedded finance," Currencycloud CEO Mike Laven told CNBC in an interview, explaining the firm embeds its product into platforms from big banks and fintechs. "We're probably the most important business that you've never heard of. But that's conscientious on our part. We do not have a strategy where we compete with our customers." The firm's latest series of funding was co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Visa, and also attracted backing from Google, the investment arm of the World Bank, French lender BNP Paribas and Japanese bank SBI. Visa's treasurer, Colleen Ostrowski, will join Currencycloud's board following the deal.

Currencycloud counts Visa as a strategic investor, Laven said, and has partnered with the payments network to provide its clients access to Currencycloud's technology. The firm also works with a number of so-called challenger banks in the U.K.  including Revolut, Monzo and Starling  which have racked up millions of users who bank with them using only an app and debit card. "Their end-user customers, for the most part, will never see that we're there," Laven said. "We're a piece of embedded finance in the tech stack. It's not as sexy, but it's an incredibly good business." One of the company's products, Spark, lets clients collect, store, convert and pay in 35 currencies.

Asia expansion

Currencycloud's chief explained the market for business-to-business fintech  a sector that includes competing payment processors like Stripe, Adyen and Checkout.com  is "much larger than the consumer business" and "more profitable," albeit "harder." Though his business is not yet in the black, Laven said "we could get there with the current round if we decided to," but that it had more room to grow before becoming profitable. "Our emphasis right now is not on profitability, our emphasis is on the strength of our offering and an expansion into other markets," he said.

Currencycloud CEO Mike Laven. Currencycloud
Craving a fine New American meal?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the most exceptional high-end New American restaurants around Denver, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best places to splurge for your next celebration.

1. Rioja

Photo: Melissa M./Yelp

Topping the list is Rioja. Located at 1431 Larimer St. in LoDo, the New American and Spanish dining establishment is the most popular destination for upscale New American cuisine in Denver, boasting 4.5 stars out of 2,154 reviews on Yelp.

According to its Yelp bio in the section about specialties, Rioja features a "Seasonal menu while focusing on sustainable and local products."

Noteworthy dishes to try here include the lamb burger, artichoke tortellini, beet salad, pork belly and beef short ribs.

2. Vesta

Photo: Gloria P./Yelp

Next up is LoDo's Vesta, situated at 1822 Blake St. With 4.5 stars out of 955 reviews on Yelp, the wine bar and New American restaurant, serving desserts and more, has proven to be a local favorite for those looking to indulge.

"Since 1997, Vesta's design has remained a timeless example of how vital the ambiance is to the overall guest experience," writes the history section of the business' Yelp profile.

Furthermore, the business is known for "Providing amazing experiences," as noted on Yelp in the section pertaining to specialties. "We don't just serve food, we provide sustenance for the soul. From food, to wine, to cocktails, to service, to music, to interactions, it all plays into what we call the Vesta Vibe."

3. Fruition Restaurant

Photo: Tiffany P./Yelp

Southeast Denver's Fruition Restaurant, settled at 1313 E. Sixth Ave., is another primo choice, with Yelpers giving the ritzy bar and New American eatery 4.5 stars out of 828 reviews.

"Chef Alex Seidel specializes in upscale American comfort food, prepared seasonally with a changing menu," explains its Yelp bio in the section highlighting specialties.

4. The Plimoth

Story continues

Photo: LJ H./Yelp

Over in the Skyland, check out The Plimoth, which has earned 4.5 stars out of 299 reviews on Yelp. Treat yourself at the Italian, French and New American outlet by heading over to 2335 E. 28th Ave.

Yelper Eric L., who reviewed The Plimoth on July 20 wrote, "This was one of the best meals I have ever had while living in Denver! A cute, quaint location  this dining experience on the patio was epic. The food was remarkable, and the service first-class. ... The perfect restaurant to make any date feel beyond special."

David P. added, "The food/wine pairings and flavors are amazing, and the staff is equally talented. Just like you would pay more for a Mercedes, you will pay more than eating at Chilis, but you will walk away knowing you just had a very special dinner."

5. TAG Restaurant

Photo: AmyRae D./Yelp

Finally, there's TAG Restaurant, a LoDo favorite with four stars out of 929 reviews. Stop by 1441 Larimer St. to hit up the deluxe New American and Asian fusion bistro with event space next time you're looking to go big.

In the words of its Yelp profile, TAG Restaurant specializes in "Continental Social Food," and features "an innovative menu offering a harmonious marriage of local ingredients and internationally inspired dishes."

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said that the Indian Railways is expected to switch entirely to electricity by 2024, as it is already shunting diesel locomotives gradually out of service.



"By the year 2024, we expect the entire Indian Railways to be run 100 per cent on electricity. It will be the first railway network in the world to be run fully on electricity. We are very conscious of our responsibility to the environment. We are embarking on rapid electrification of our rail network," said Goyal at India-Brazil Business Forum.

The forum was organised during Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's official visit to India from January 26 to 27. Bolsonaro and other ministers addressed the Indian and Brazilian business leaders at the event.

The Union Minister further said that India is also planning to make the entire railways network a "net-zero emission network" by 2030.

"By 2030, we plan to make the entire railways network a net-zero emission network. We will have no emission from the railways, it will run on clean energy and clean power," he said.

Stressing that India would love to partner with Brazil, he said: "India would also love to work together with Brazil on infrastructure development."

"India offers a market which is looking to grow to a USD 5 trillion economy, full of young working people, vibrant and free society with the rule of law, strong judiciary and media, stable government policies and business-friendly environment," the minister said. (ANI)
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene after parents of students studying in Wuhan, the Chinese city in the grip of novel coronavirus, sought help from the BJP government here for their safe return.

In a release issued , the Gujarat government said as many as 100 students from the state are stuck in China, and informed that Rupani has spoken to Jaishankar on the phone and asked him to intervene to ensure their safe return home. Coronavirus (officially described as 2019-nCoV) cases were first reported from Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province.

READ: China: Companies Instruct Staff To Work From Home Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

A few cases have been found in other countries including South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the United States. The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. It is a member of the coronavirus family that's a close cousin to the deadly SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past. Rupani's move came after Vadodara resident Shashi Jaiman on Monday tweeted to him informing that his 18-year-old daughter, studying medicine in Wuhan, was stuck there, and sought help from the state government.

"My daughter Shreya Jaiman is studying in Hubei University for MBBS, in Wuhan city of China. There are nearly about 300 students of India in which 100 Gujarati who are stuck there due to coronavirus. Please take necessary steps to take them back to India. Vadodara (Guj)," he tweeted.

Speaking to reporters here, Jaiman said, "My daughter told us she is not getting food and water since the last two days as markets and establishments have been shutdown following the virus outbreak. She is in deep trouble and we have appealed to the government to intervene."

He claimed 20 students from Gujarat were studying in the university there and all were in a bad state due to the lockdown caused by the virus. The death toll due to the virus rose to 56 on Sunday with confirmed cases of the disease reaching 1,975 and 324 of them being critical, Chinese health authorities said in an official statement on Monday.
A sign on the Wildwood causeway welcomes President Donald Trump to the Shore town. The photo shows him with U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who switched parties to embrace Trump as a Republican. Read more

 READ MORE: Follow along for live updates from Trump's rally and the scene in Wildwood

In anticipation of President Donald Trumps rally in Wildwood on Tuesday, heres everything you need to know to about the event.

Where is the rally?

It will be held at Wildwoods Convention Center, 4501 Boardwalk. The venue is in South Jerseys Second Congressional District, represented by Jeff Van Drew, who in December switched political parties to become a Republican and will accompany Trump at the rally.

When will it begin and end?

Doors to the event will open at 3 p.m., and although the rally officially will begin at 5 p.m., Trump isnt scheduled to go on stage until 7 p.m. It will likely finish at about 9 p.m.

How can I get a ticket?

Go to donaldjtrump.com and click on the banner on the top of the site, or the Events tab. There is a two-ticket-a-person limit and tickets are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Does a ticket guarantee admission?

Unfortunately, no. Admission is first-come, first-serve, so eager viewers need to get to the venue early. The venue has a 10,000-person occupancy limit, and with staging equipment, its capacity will likely go down.

Will there be any road closures? And where can I park?

The roads surrounding the venue will close starting at noon, according to Wildwood police. Free street parking will be available throughout the area.

Because high traffic volume is expected, Wildwood Crests traffic lights will be activated and operating in full cycles from Monday morning through Wednesday morning.

What is not allowed inside the rally?

Wildwood Police say people should not bring any excess baggage to the event, including backpacks larger than 12 inches by 14 inches by 5 inches, chairs, or pets. Balloons, balls, coolers, alcoholic beverages, selfie sticks, containers, and umbrellas are also not allowed, among other miscellaneous items.

What if I still need lodging?

Almost all motels within walking distance of the venue have sold out, some nearly immediately after the rally was announced. Chris Falcone, manager of the Days Inn & Suites directly across from the arena, said earlier this month that all 50 rooms were gone within 24 hours of the events announcement. Rooms at the Days Inn went for an average of $110 a night, about $20 higher than what they would normally be for this time of year, Falcone said. Airbnb rentals are ranging from $150 to $990 a night.

Are schools affected?

Wildwood city schools will be closed on Jan. 28.

Are protests expected?

Cape May County Indivisible, a liberal community group, is co-hosting a protest with more than two dozen grassroots organizations. The groups Facebook event shows more than 1,000 people interested in attending.
Industry Update

Appointment

27 January 2020

Shannon Dilworth

Promoted Director of Revenue Management

At Cooper Hotels in Memphis - TN, USA

Revenue management specialist Shannon Dilworth has been promoted to Cooper Hotels director of revenue management. Since joining the company in 2001, she has held positions in sales administration, sales management and revenue management.

Cooper Hotels Cooper Hotels is a privately owned hotel development and management company based in Memphis, Tennessee. Its portfolio includes 20 hotels in five states. The company operates primarily Hilton and InterContinental Hotels Group brand properties. more information

Recent Appointments at Cooper Hotels Andy Laubscher - Corporate Director of Operations 27 January 2020  Cooper Hotels Corporate Director of Food and Beverage Andy Laubscher was promoted to corporate director of operations. Laubscher began his career with Cooper Hotels in 1997. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Lausanne, Switzerland. read more

Geoff Thompson - Vice President of Operations 23 January 2020  Geoff Thompson has been promoted to vice president of operations. He most recently served as both general manager of the Embassy Suites Detroit Metro Airport and regional director of development and operations. read more
An Iowa man was killed in a two-vehicle accident on U.S. 84 in Conecuh County Saturday morning.

The crash occurred at 11:55 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25 at the 88.9 mile marker, six miles east of Repton. According to state troopers, a 2013 Hyundai Sonata collided with a 2017 Mack tractor-trailer.

The driver of the Hyundai Sonata has been identified as Terry E. Landers, 43 of Des Moines, Iowa. Landers was pronounced dead at the scene

The driver of the 2017 Mack tractor-trailer was Michael Thomas, 31 of Pinehill. Thomas was injured in the collision, and was airlifted to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida.

Nothing further is available as ALEA Troopers continue to investigate.
British Gas has unveiled a new green tariff which it claims is 'one of the greenest in the market'.

The Big Six supplier introduced its Green Future Plus July 2022 fixed tariff for dual fuel last week with each customer that takes it out supporting the growth of trees in Britain, according to the firm.

Aside from 10 per cent of the gas on the tariff being created from renewable sources, British Gas has also partnered with Climate Care, a company known for its role providing carbon offset services.

British Gas has introduced its Green Future Plus July 2022 fixed tariff for dual fuel customers

However, the tariff may not be as green as others, especially those that are 100 per cent sourced from renewable energy generators.

This is Money takes a look at how the new tariff compares to other green deals  and whether it is actually worth the extra spend.

What green credentials does the tariff have?

All electricity used by customers on this tariff will be matched by buying electricity from renewable sources through Guarantees of Origin certificates, Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin certificates or both.

This means it is not as green as something that is sourced 100 per cent from renewable energy generators as only some of the electricity comes direct from renewable sources and there is a hefty reliance on buying REGO certificates.

British Gas has also said that ten per cent of gas on this tariff will be from renewable sources by buying REGO certificates from the Green Gas Certification Scheme.

What is a REGO certificate? For every megawatt-hour (MWh) of renewable electricity produced, Ofgem issues one REGO to the generator. These certificates certify that the energy is green. The Ofgem website states: 'The purpose of the certificate is to prove to the final customer that a given share of energy was produced from renewable sources.'

Whilst this is commendable as not many green tariffs offer renewable gas, this method will still burn gas and create greenhouse gas emissions, whether it comes from biomass or deep under the North Sea.

British Gas is also partnering with ClimateCare which means that 90 per cent of the gas customers use on this tariff is carbon offset through carbon reduction projects in developing countries.

Another partnership is with the Ecomapua Project, where each customer is helping to protect a hectare of rainforest in the Amazon each year.

Supporting the reforestation projects certainly puts it higher up the planet-friendly table than the cheapest green deals which all rely on buying REGO certificates to account for all of the electricity used.

Dual-fuel customers will also support the growth of up to 10 trees in the UK per household for each year of the tariff.

British Gas has introduced a new green tariff - but it is much pricier than other deals on offer

Dave Kirwan, managing director of UK home at Centrica said: 'Customers who choose this tariff will have peace of mind that they are making a positive contribution towards tackling climate change.

'We want to offer our customers different types of tariffs that suit their individual needs and for some that means knowing their energy is from environmentally friendly sources.

'As well as providing ways for people to consume greener energy, we've led the way in electric vehicle charging, distributed energy solutions and we are committed to helping our customers reduce their emissions.'

How much will it cost?

The new tariff comes in at average of 1,237 which is at the very top end of energy prices and well over the current price cap limit of 1,179.

British Gas claims there is a 'slight premium' to account for the costs of providing green energy, however, there are multiple other green tariffs that are much cheaper.

One reason British Gas are likely to say the high price is to account for the 'premium' of being a green tariff is because they don't know what wholesale prices will be in two years' time, which is why lost long term fixes are generally more expensive.

Who is it available for?

This tariff is available for both new and existing British Gas customers who are paying by direct debit, cash, cheque or card.

Is it actually greener than other deals?

Whilst the tariff promises to be one of the greenest available, experts say it is not the most environmentally friendly around.

Rik Smith, energy expert at uSwitch, said: 'This deal ranks somewhere around mid-table in terms of environmental credentials, combining a small amount of gas from renewable sources with electricity which comes from both renewable and traditional generation.

'Like many tariffs marketed as green, it also uses certificates to match any electricity that has come from gas, coal, or nuclear.

'What sets it slightly apart from other tariffs using this mix, though, is that it also supports tree planting and protecting the Amazon rainforest.

'Long term fixed plans tend to be more expensive however, and there are similar deals available for around 200 less.

'For anyone looking to help the environment by switching their energy deal, it's best to shop around first to see what's on offer.'

What are other companies offering?

The cheapest green tariff currently on the market comes from People's Energy, which was recently named as one of the best suppliers by Which?.

The People's Energy 2 Months Upfront Winter 20 fixed tariff comes in at an average of 828 a year - 409 cheaper than British Gas' newest offering.

However, it does come with a 60 exit fee for those looking to leave before the years term is up.

Outfox the Market is the next cheapest coming just below at 829 a year on their Fix'D 20 2.0 tariff.

Npower is the only Big Six supplier that features on the list with their npower Select uSwitch Exclusive v36 tariff, costing 879 a year.

Customers looking for a better deal can use price comparison websites to see if switching to another supplier or tariff could save them money.

This is Money has its own comparison service which can help our readers save hundreds of pounds on their bills.

You can also visit each energy supplier website from the table below to establish how green each tariff mentioned is.

TOP TEN GREEN TARIFFS CURRENTLY ON THE MARKET Supplier Plan name Tariff type End date Exit fee? () Average price () People's Energy People's Energy 2 Months Upfront Winter 20 Tariff fixed 12m 60 828 Outfox the Market Fix'D 20 2.0 fixed 12m 0 829 Gulf Gas and Power Gulf Home Renewable 12 February 21 v1 fixed 28/02/2021 60 831 Yorkshire Energy Green Swaledale - Fixed until 28th February 2021 fixed 28/02/2021 60 854 Green Oak variable 0 867 npower Select npower Select uSwitch Exclusive v36 fixed 12m 60 879 Tonik Energy Go Green Exclusive v3 fixed 12m 0 880 So Energy So Alder - Green fixed 12m 10 882 Octopus Energy uSwitch Octopus 12M Fixed fixed 12m 0 884 GOTO.Energy In Control Green Jan 2021 V6 fixed 12m 70 884 Source: uSwitch (prices correct as of 24 January 2020)
EXPANSION of Providenciales International Airport, a new port office in North Caicos and public beach access were all discussed at the latest meeting of the Cabinet.





Governor Nigel Dakin chaired the first meeting of the year on Wednesday, January 15, at the Office of the Premier, Durhams Building in Grand Turk. All ministers were in attendance.





At this meeting Cabinet:

-Approved procurement options for TCI Airport Authority to take forward preparatory work for the future expansion and redevelopment of Providenciales Airport and discussed, in brief, additional measures to be considered in light of an anticipated increase in visitors to TCI.





-Approved the reallocation of FY 2019-2020 funds within the Ports Authority capital budget for the construction of a port office at Belle Field Landing, North Caicos.





-Approved urgent dredging of the entrance channel leading into Turtle Cove Marina and steps that need to be put in place to ensure prompt responses to such situations in the future.





-Were updated on progress in implementing of the Education Sector Plan.





-Were informed on progress in Implementing Child Safeguarding National Action Plan.





-Approved for Crown land parcel 60905/204 to go out to tender for the enhancement of public beach access.





-Discussed the need, enforcement and policing of temporary structures at access points along beaches allowing legitimate businesses to offer services and products for tourists in particular and a refresh of current policy.





-Approved the extension of Dr Terese Maitland as interim CEO of the National Health Insurance Board for a period of three months from January 3.





-Noted the recommendations of the Procurement Board on the award of the following contracts:

1) PN 005496, police building repairs for all stations (TR 19/13)

2) PN 005499, furniture and equipment for schools (TR 19/07)

3) PN 005508, rehabilitation of Regatta Village, South Caicos (TR19/39)

4) PN 005514, repairs of water tanks, Salt Cay (TR 19/19)

5) TCIPA 11/19, Port Security Enhancement Project, supply and instillation of Port Management System and Training (TR 19/37)

6) TCIPA 12/2019, Port Safety Enhancement Project, supply of PPE, Safety Equipment and Training (TR 19/34)

7) TCIAA-0002, proposed new offices at Providenciales International Airport (TR 19/05)





-Approved the statutory bodies second quarter Special Purpose Financial Report for FY 2019-2020.





-Approved a new development agreement restating the terms of the current development agreement between Toscana GP and Vista Development and TCIG, to reflect a conditionality date of June 30, allowing adequate time of the processing of the application and the completion of the processes.





-Approved an application for academic and professional conservation research to be conducted by the TC Reef Fund, School for Field Studies, SWA Environmental and Marine Environmental Services for a period of ten months to test the use of antibiotic treatments for Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) on affected coral in the TCI.





-Approved the use of funds from the National Forfeiture Fund for an anti-money laundering training workshop for legal professionals on January 18.





-Discussed processes within individual ministries and engagement with their respective ministers to strengthen delivery of government policy.





-Were updated on the publication of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Forces mutual evaluation report on the measure in place in the TCI to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which will be published later this month.





-Were reminded of actions ministries need to undertake before the end of the financial year.





-Approved amendments to the Immigration Ordinance 2018 removing visa free travel for Venezuelan nationals with effect from February 15.





-Discussed benefits and requirements for weekly meetings chaired by Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson and the governor aimed at tackling long term and/or complex issues involving multiple stakeholders.





-Were informed of high level and experts visits across ministries over the next few weeks.




Only recently has Air India moved to the sale and leaseback model with their Boeing 787 purchases, and Air Indias newest A320neo aircraft, all 27 of them are on a lease.

In 2018, the government, for the first time, had made an unsuccessful bid to sell Air India to prospective buyers and had to eventually close the process without a sale. Reason? Too much debt, too little in terms of assets, and too much task in terms of control. The government wanted to retain a 24 percent stake in the national carrier, to be sold later after a turnaround was established for the airline. This time its different.

On Monday, the government released a 220-page preliminary information memorandum (PIM), kicking off the sale process of Air India for a second time around. Learning from the last time, many things have been changed. The prospective buyers are being offered 100 percent of Air India, along with Rs 23,286-crore debt. What comes along is the following:

1) Air India's 100 percent stake along with all its aircraft, slots, employees but keeping aside 4 Boeing 747 aircraft used for VIP operations

2) Air India Express' 100 percent which is the no-frills airline started by Air India to serve the Middle East and South East Asia routes

3) AISATS' 100 percent share, the airport ground operations and cargo handling joint venture with Singapore Airlines.

What is being kept aside is all the Air India artefacts, paintings, key buildings such as the Air India Building at Nariman Point in Mumbai and the headquarters building in central Delhi. Apart from that, the hotels owned by Air India under the Centaur brand, 100 percent stake in Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL)Air Indias 100 percent owned ground handling company and Alliance Air, which is the regional airline under Air India, will be carved out of the Air India Limited before the sale.

The attempt this time around, then, is to hand out as much of an airline operation with a robust international and domestic network to the prospective buyers, instead of a whole aviation company with their hands in the other parts of the business as well. What is confusing then, is why is the sale of the 50 percent stake in Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS) being lumped with this sale process.

From the last time around, Air India has cut down the amount of debt to be taken over by the prospective buyers. The combined debt of Air India and Air India Express is Rs 60,074 crore. The last time around it was expected that Rs 33,392 crore would be taken over by Air Indias prospective buyers. This time, the amount to be taken over is less by a third. Accordingly, Rs 23,286 crore is the amount that Air India asks to be taken over.

Ernst & Young, which is the transaction adviser and wrote the PIM, claims that this debt would be backed by the aircraft on the books of Air India.

A look into the PIM gives out the details of the entire fleet of Air India. Air India has 121 aircraft in its fleet as of 1 November 2019 out of which it owns (or will own) 65 aircraft. Air India Express has 25 aircraft in its fleet out of which 17 are owned by the airline, or will be owned by them. Will be owned indicates that the aircraft is on a financial lease right now, and once the entire amount is repaid to the bank, the title transfers to Air India. Air India mentions in the PIM that they own 56 percent of the fleet and other airlines dont own as many aircraft as they do.

Unfortunately, their transaction adviser seeks to play it as a compliment to the airline, while not realising that the market moved from owning aircraft to leasing them many years ago. Owning these aircraft has largely been one reason Air India has many old aircraft in its fleet, not being able to replace them for newer aircraft which are fuel-efficient and faster. Only recently has Air India moved to the sale and leaseback model with their Boeing 787 purchases, and Air Indias newest A320neo aircraft, all 27 of them are on a lease.

Unfortunately, 16 aircraft owned by Air India are grounded as of 1 November 2019, which is 13 percent of the fleet. A quick look at the aircraft which are being offered by Air India which are on their own books, and one realises the trouble with the Air India thinking:

4 A320CEO aircraft configured with 150 seats and an average age of 9.64 years

19 A319CEO aircraft configured with 122 seats and an average age of 11.4 years

20 A321CEO aircraft configured with 182 seats and an average age of 10.94 years

3 Boeing 777LR aircraft configured with 238 seats and an average age of 10.26 years

13 Boeing 777ER aircraft configured with 342 seats and an average age of 9.95 years

6 Boeing 787-8 aircraft configured with 256 seats and an average age of 5.17 years.

Now, I am not trying to talk down the valuation of the owned fleet of Air India, but here is the trouble a prospective buyer would face with this fleet. It is not efficient in terms of seating or fuel-efficiency. Airbus newer version of the A320, called the A320neo all offer about 15 percent savings on the fuel bill as compared to the older A320CEO aircraft. Not just that, the configuration of the A321CEO aircraft matches an A320neo of IndiGo from the current era (exessive business class seats on the A321 aircraft of Air India).

There are far better and fuel-efficient aircraft in the market now to operate 120 seater routes, but in India, one would rather fly an A320neo than an A319CEO to get about 60 more seats per flight on the same route with the same pilot and adding one more flight attendant to each flight. Coming to the 777s, Air India literally sold its family silver on a platter, giving away 5 Boeing 777LR aircraft to Etihad in 2014 for $336 million approximately, aircraft it could have profitably deployed to the West Coast of the US after the wild success of its non-stop between Delhi and San Francisco.

The valuation these (owned) aircraft may have displayed in the books of Air India then maybe overenthusiastic as compared to what the current price they may really fetch in the market at present. The aircraft are built for 25 years or more of operation, but the trouble is they are almost on the back of older technology. If anyone would buy the airline, would ideally want to get rid of the older aircraft and swap them in for denser seat configuration on the same aircraft. This means the buyer would have to double down on getting new aircraft, or risk paying up to 15 percent more per flight operation in terms of fuel as compared to current generation aircraft. Air Indias cost per available seat kilometre of Rs 4.8 for FY2019, compared with IndiGos Rs 3.85 (September 19 quarter) should drive the point home about efficiency in terms of costs shaving off a lot of money.

There are other holes in Air Indias business plan as well. For instance, the bad numbers of their frequent flyer programme. Jet Airways-owned JetPrivilege was the most successful frequent flyer programme in India, and now branded InterMiles, it has about 10 million members. Air Indias frequent flyer programme claims to be the first in India, but only managed to garner about 2.64 million members in over 25 years? As a comparison, Club Vistara had over 1.6 million members as of November 2019, and with new partnerships, reaching about 2 million members anytime now. Airline loyalty programmes are run worldwide as profit centres, unlike the cost centre approach, followed in Air India.

There are many things the preliminary information document touch upon but not go into details of or give guarantees on. For instance, currently, the government officials are only supposed to fly Air India, and the government is a major buyer from the airline. Once the sale happens, this condition will be waived and that is a chunk of business guaranteed to come to Air India going away.

Not just that, the slot utilisation is not the best for Air India, a company that really needs every bit of business it can get. Air India got the largest chunk of rights on Mumbai/Delhi to London Heathrow market when Jet Airways shut down, and they can fly another 21 flights per week between this sector which always has high demand, but they havent capitalised on this opportunity, giving it away to British Airways and Virgin to take the market.

Coming to the part about who can own the airline and the limitations imposed on buyers, the restrictions are lesser this time around. The net worth of the bidder or consortium is reduced to Rs 3,500 crore instead of the Rs 5,000 crore from earlier. Each member of the consortium should have at least 10 percent of the net worth of the consortium total. If an Indian airline is bidding as a part of the consortium, the net worth requirement is ignored for them, which opens up the room for SpiceJet and Vistara to bid, where it would have only been IndiGo clearing the bar earlier. The new owner necessarily needs to use the Air India brand for the years ahead, but can merge their existing operation with the Air India operation.

Then given the entire situation what is a prospective owner bidding for? The seller would like to make you believe, a huge share of the Indian domestic and international market with slots and a global network and membership of Star Alliance amongst other stuff. In reality, Air India offers you a lot of debt, old aircraft, slots and bilateral which are not guaranteed beyond six months, a frequent flyer programme which is under-utilised, membership to Star Alliance which is no more than a bragging right and lots of extra employees that a well-run operation may not need. Here is hoping the prospective buyers have deep pockets to not just buy the airline but fix it to return it to its former glory. They will need to spend a lot of money on a turn-around of the airline as well.

(The writer is Mumbai-based business travel and aviation journalist and the founder of the Indian frequent-traveller website Live From A Loungewww.livefromalounge.com. He tweets at @LiveFromALounge)
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Chinas health minister has warned that the outbreak of coronavirus which has already killed 56 people worldwide appears to be getting stronger.

Ma Xiaowei said that the viruss ability to spread was increasing and warned that officials were not clear about the risks of the virus mutating.

Health minister Ma Xiaowei speaks at a press conference on Sunday. (Getty)

He added that it was likely the number of cases would continue to rise and confirmed that there have been 2,057 cases of coronavirus globally.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also warned the spread of a deadly new virus is accelerating.

During a special government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday he told officials China is facing a grave situation.

Medical staff treat a patient in the Chinese city of Wuhan. (Getty)

It comes as the British government warned its nationals to leave he Chinese province at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Foreign Office updated its guidance to advise against all travel to Hubei province, which has been on lockdown for several days as China seeks to contain the illness.

But the guidance also added: If you are in this area and able to leave, you should do so. This is due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak.

It came as the number of people tested for coronavirus in the UK passed 30  although there are still no confirmed cases.

READ MORE FROM YAHOO NEWS UK:

As of Saturday afternoon, 31 people across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had been tested for the deadly flu-like virus, but all tests have come back negative, according to the Department of Health (DoH).

There are also no confirmed diagnoses in UK citizens abroad, and the risk to the public is still classed as low.

Meanwhile, health officials are continuing to track down around 2,000 people who have recently flown into the UK from Wuhan, the area of China worst affected by the outbreak.

Story continues

The DoH confirmed it is trying to find as many passengers as we can who arrived from the region in the past two weeks to check on their wellbeing.

Englands Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said there was a fair chance cases would emerge in Britain as the overall number reported around the world climbed to around 2,000 including 56 deaths, which have all occurred in China.

The professor spoke following a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergency committee in Whitehall on Friday, chaired by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

He said: I am working closely with the other UK chief medical officers.

We all agree that the risk to the UK public remains low, but there may well be cases in the UK at some stage.

He added: The UK has access to some of the best infectious disease and public health experts in the world.

A public health hub will be set up in Heathrow from today. This consists of clinicians and other public health officials, in addition to existing port health measures.
Over 50 people were booked on Monday for rioting and assaulting policemen and a sub-divisional magistrate during a land acquisition drive in Greater Noida for the upcoming Jewar airport, police said.

A team of the district administration had gone to Dayanatpur village to acquire land for the project when a clash broke out between them and the villagers, the police said.

"SDM Jewar, Gunja Singh, and three policemen suffered minor injuries in the clash, while windows of four government vehicles were damaged during stone pelting," a police official said.

An FIR has been registered at the Jewar police station following a complaint by the sub-divisional magistrate, the official said.

"Thirty-four people have been named in the FIR, while another 20-25 unidentified people have been booked," he added.
Jo Brand says she 'wouldn't consider' replacing Sandi Toksvig as presenter of The Great British Bake Off. (Venla Shalin/Redferns)

Jo Brand has said she has no desire to replace departing Sandi Toksvig as presenter of The Great British Bake Off.

Brand, 62, host of Bake Offs sister show An Extra Slice, has declared she "wouldn't consider" stepping into Toksvig's shoes on the show following the Danish-born star's announcement that she would be leaving the competition after three series.

"I actually really love doing Extra Slice," Brand told Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2. "I think there's a lot more freedom to muck about, there's so many different elements to the show. There's a lovely team of people, I love working with Tom Allen."

Read more: Prue Leith says Bake Off is easy money

"So Tom, if you're listening, you better not get that job!" she went on to jest.

Jo Brand and Sandi Toksvig attend the Women of the Year Awards 2015 in London.

Toksvig, 61, had been one-half of the show's presenting duo alongside Noel Fielding since its move from BBC One to Channel 4 in 2017.

Announcing her departure on Thursday 16 January, the comedian said she wanted to spend more time with [her] other work.

Fielding paid tribute to his colleague on social media, telling his Twitter followers he felt "like Tom without Jerry".

I feel like Tom without Jerry ! Mick without a Keef :( gonna miss yooooooooooooooooo and the wonderful times we got to play together in the tent ! Double acts are rare and magical beast and working with you was a pleasure x x x all my love Mr Noel x pic.twitter.com/nkbuLpvQMs  noel fielding (@noelfielding11) January 16, 2020

He also posted a picture of the original cartoon cat and mouse Tom and Jerry to Instagram, writing: Good double acts are a rare and magical beast! Im gonna miss Sandi comically and personally but i also know we were lucky to have her for 3 amazing years!

Wish you all the best in your next adventures x x love Noel x.

Other names tipped to replace Toksvig include former GBBO winner Nadiya Hussain and presenter Emma Willis, but there has been no official word on who it will be.
Motorolas all-new Razr is already up for pre-order through Verizon with the official launch coming on February 6. The new Razr will be the first foldable clamshell smartphone on the market and has naturally gathered a lot of attention in the past months. Now, Motorola released a series of new ads that detail the phones features while also reminding you that foldable screen phones require more caution.

Starting off with the caring for Razr video, Motorola is stressing the importance of keeping the phones 6.2-inch foldable panel out of potential harms like sharp objects and liquids. The ad also reminds you that the Razr is water repellent and while bumps and lumps may appear on the screen they are okay as it's meant to bend.

Well just have to see how the screen and its plastic overlay hold up over time. While were on the topic of the display, Motorola explicitly reminds everyone that screen protectors are a no-go probably due to the adhesives on the protectors which could ruin the screen. Another self-evident bit of info provided by Motorola is to fold the phone in its closed position before putting it in your pocket or bag.

Moving on we have a short demo of the signature Moto experiences (aka Moto Actions) which include the well-known chop motion for toggling the flashlight, three-finger screenshot gesture and the twist to turn on the camera. The outside display also gets a sneak peek and respond by voice option which seems very convenient.

Theres also an ad that details the Razrs camera features which include a portrait mode with stage lighting effects, night vision for low light shots and the clever camera cartoons which are projected on the outside display to keep kids attention. Another interesting feature is the cinemagraph mode which allows for creative edits combining still photos with moving objects.

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Anne Hathaway and Ben Affleck go head-to-head in the high-stakes, historical fiction drama, The Last Thing He Wanted.

But Hathway's co-star was missing from the real life action, as the actress made her way to Park City, Utah on Monday to promote their Netflix Original film during the Sundance Film Festival.

The 37-year-old actress was joined by the film's other stars Edi Gathegi and Rosie Perez, as well as director Dee Rees, for a morning hang out at the WarnerMedia Lodge.

Leading lady: Anne Hathaway stopped by the WarnerMedia Lodge on Monday, as she promoted her Netflix Original film, The Last Thing He Wanted, during the Sundance Film Festival

Leopard: Anne Hathaway rocked a leopard duster coat to the day's event

The film, which is available to stream on February 21st, places Hathaway in the lead protagonist role, while it forces Affleck to take on a more sinister persona.

The official trailer for the nearly two-hour feature film was released on Thursday and the film, itself, will premiere at Sundance on Monday evening.

Before the premiere festivities, Hathaway and her cast of characters stopped by the Lodge to discuss the film during the Elevating Storylines sit down with AT&T.

Hathaway stunned in a leopard trench coat paired with a ruffled high-neck blouse, and black boot-cut trousers.

Co-star Ben Affleck was not in attendance at the event, but Hathaway was joined by the film's other stars,(L-R) Edi Gathegi, Dee Rees, and Rosie Perez

Shady: Upon entering the WarnerMedia Lodge, the stunning actress sported some large, black shades as the Utah sun crept out from behind the clouds

She accessorized her look with some chunky cat-eye sunnies, as well as a Panama hat with an iridescent gold brim - under which could be seen a pair of Foundrae earrings.

On her feet were a flaming red pair of leather booties that gave the ensemble a necessary - and fun - pop of color.

She kept a firm grasp on her grey Roger Vivier handbag while braving a slew of fans and photographers outside the WarnerMedia Lodge.

Accesorize: Hathaway rocked a pair of statement making red booties, as well as a Roger Vivier handbag

It's coming: The film starring (L-R) Edi Gathegi, Rosie Perez, Dee Rees, and Anne Hathway will premiere at Sundance on Monday evening, but will be made available to the public on February 21st only on Netfllix

Affleck meanwhile explained his absence on Instagram on Monday in a video clip wearing a blue hoodie under a blue coat.

'Hey what's up Sundance? I'm so sorry I couldn't be there. I'm in the middle of work right now, but I love this movie and I want to send all my love and support to Dee and Anne and the whole cast and crew,' he said in the video filmed outdoors next to a set trailer.

'I'm really excited. I love the movie. I think you're going to love it, too. Enjoy. Thanks,' Affleck added in the video for his roughly four million followers.

Instagram video: Affleck took to Instagram on Monday to explain his absence from the premiere

At work: The actor explained that he was working and could not make the premiere at Sundance with his co-stars

Awesome project: Affleck in a caption said the Netflix film was an 'awesome project'

In the film, Hathaway plays veteran D.C. journalist, Elena McMahon, who 'loses the thread of her own narrative' after accidentally acquiescing her way into what would become the Iran-Contra Scandal.

Director Dee Rees, who co-wrote the film's script with Marco Villalobos, based the film off the 1996 Joan Didion novel of the same name.

Hathaway's character is torn from the 1984 campaign trail when her ailing father, played by Willem DaFoe, calls on her for help dealing with some precious - and bullet clad - cargo.

Smirk: The starlet flashes a polite smirk before heading inside the star-studded event

The Last Thing He Wanted: Hathaway plays the role of veteran D.C. journalist Elena McMahon in the Netflix crime drama

Her guilt driven involvement in her father's illegal activity 'thrusts her from byline to unwitting subject in the very story she's trying to break.'

Knowing that there is no turning back. McMahon uses her accidental involvement to her advantage, in the hopes of exposing the entire operation.

Unbeknownst to Hathaway's character, she attracts the U.S. government's attention, which puts top official Treat Morrison, played by Affleck, on her trail.

In a race against time, McMahon must expose the truth, before Morrison can shut her up for good.
Himmlers orders served several purposes, according to research by the United States Holocaust Museum. First, he wanted to eliminate evidence of German crimes and witnesses who could testify to those crimes. He also hoped to use inmates as slave labor to keep the German war going. And rather irrationally, he believed that the prisoners could be used as bargaining chips in any peace negotiations.

While death might not have been the goal of the marches, that was indeed the fate of many, as the scattered gravestones that remain along these roads today attest.

Zofia Posmysz still remembers her inmate number: 7566. Sitting in her neatly kept apartment in Warsaw, the 96-year-old survivor remembered the biting cold on the night the guards gathered thousands of women outside the gates of Birkenau, a death camp that was part of the Auschwitz complex.

We didnt know what it meant that we would leave the camp, she said. We didnt know if we would have to undergo some sort of selection.

We heard that those who could not walk would get to stay in the hospital, but we werent sure if they would be kept alive. We knew nothing and worried.

But how could it be worse than the hell she had endured for three years? One memory came rushing back to her.
A forty person taskforce will lead the UKs trade negotiations with the EU after the Brexit Department is abolished on January 31, the Government has confirmed.

The Taskforce Europe Team within Number Ten, headed by David Frost, will report directly to Boris Johnson, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said.

An announcement is expected shortly on the future position of Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, the PA news agency understands.

Downing Street insisted the UK would hold firm on fishing rights in talks with the EU after the UK exits the bloc at the end of the month.

The PMs spokesman said: We are going to be taking control of our fishing waters.

The EU should be in no doubt about our determination on that issue.

The remarks came after Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted the EU would be the stronger team in trade talks.

After meeting with EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Dublin, Mr Varadkar said both sides could work together to strike a mutually beneficial deal.

The comments came as it was announced top scientists, researchers and mathematicians will be given fast-tracked entry to the UK from next month.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to send a message that Britain is open to the most talented minds in the world as the country leaves the European Union.

The Global Talent visa route  to be opened on February 20  will not be capped. It will replace the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route.

Mr Johnson said: The UK has a proud history of scientific discovery, but to lead the field and face the challenges of the future we need to continue to invest in talent and cutting-edge research.

That is why, as we leave the EU, I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world, and stands ready to support them to turn their ideas into reality.

To keep the UK at the forefront of innovation, we are taking decisive action to maximise the number of individuals using the Global Talent route including world-class scientists and top researchers who can benefit from fast-tracked entry into the UKHome Secretary Priti Patel

The scheme, managed by the UK Research and Innovation organisation which will endorse applicants, will enable UK-based research projects that have received recognised prestigious grants and awards to recruit global talent.

Applicants will not need a job offer before arriving in the UK under the visa and it will provide an accelerated path to settlement for all scientists and researchers who are endorsed on the route.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: The UK is a world leader in science, with research and innovation that changes lives being undertaken every day in this country.

To keep the UK at the forefront of innovation, we are taking decisive action to maximise the number of individuals using the Global Talent route including world-class scientists and top researchers who can benefit from fast-tracked entry into the UK.

The Government has also announced a 300 million investment to fund experimental and imaginative mathematical sciences research over the next five years.

It will double funding for new PhDs and boost the number of maths fellowships and research projects.

By attracting more leading international scientists and providing major investment in mathematics, we can make the UK a global science superpower and level up our countryBusiness Secretary Andrea Leadsom

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said: Leaving the EU gives us new freedom to strengthen research and build the foundations for the new industries of tomorrow.

By attracting more leading international scientists and providing major investment in mathematics, we can make the UK a global science superpower and level up our country.

UK Research and Innovation chief executive Professor Sir Mark Walport added: Todays announcements further underline the importance of research and innovation to the future success of the UK and the Governments continued commitment and investment.

Working with the Government, UK Research and Innovation is ensuring that the UK remains a globally leading environment for research and innovation.

Our ambition is clear, to create a stronger research and innovation environment that is focused on supporting talented people and realising the full potential of their work.

The announcement was welcomed by the Royal Society, whose president Venki Ramakrishnan said it sends out a positive message that the UK is committed to remaining open to overseas science talent.

And Professor Julia Buckingham, president of Universities UK, said the visa is a positive step towards making the UK a magnet for global science and research talent.

She added: The visa route will help to ensure that universities can attract the brightest scientists and researchers to the UK with minimal barriers.

However, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman Christine Jardine said the announcement was nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

Boris Johnson is showing that he fundamentally doesnt understand what makes our science sector so successful. Changing the name of a visa and removing a cap thats never been hit is not a serious plan, she said.
Chief Secretary of Puducherry appeared before the Privileges Committee on Monday following a petition from a ruling Congress member against him over the appointment of a State Election Commissioner (SEC).

On January 9, T Jayamoorthy had presented a petition to the Speaker V P Sivakolunthu raising an issue of breach of privilege of the House against Ashwani Kumar and a few other officials for their move to appoint the SEC by violating the decision of the Assembly.

The Local Administration Department had released an advertisement on January 7 in the newspapers calling for applications to the post of SEC, even though a retired official T M Balakrishnan had already been appointed as per the decision of the Assembly and the cabinet.

Jayamoorthy sought action through his petition against the Chief Secretary, secretary to the local administration department and its under-secretary and director for the move to post the SEC even as an official appointed as per the decision of the cabinet and the territorial Assembly was holding the post since July last year.

Already, the secretary to the local administration department, its director and under-secretary have appeared before the committee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Polands President Andrzej Duda walks along with survivors through the gates of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp gathered for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet armys liberation of the camp, using the testimony of survivors to warn about the signs of rising anti-Semitism and hatred in the world today.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp prayed and wept as they marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation, returning to the place where they lost entire families and warning about the growth of anti-Semitism around the world.

We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes, Polish President Andrzej Duda told those at the commemoration, which included the German president as well as Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.

The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying, but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it, Mr Duda said.

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About 200 camp survivors attended, many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who had travelled from Israel, the US, Australia, Peru, Russia, Slovenia and elsewhere.

Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps during the Second World War, but were joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

They gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that transported people to Birkenau, the part of the vast complex where most of the murdered Jews were killed in gas chambers and then cremated. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27 1945.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, brought the crowd to tears with the story of a survivor who was separated from his family. The man watched watched his young daughter, in a red coat, walk to her death, turning into a small red dot in the distance before disappearing forever.

Do not ever let this happen again to any people, Mr Lauder said, warning about rising anti-Semitism.

After the war, when the world finally saw pictures of gas chambers, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with the Nazis, he recalled. But now I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime: the open and brazen spread of anti-Jewish hatred.

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People stood in silence as a Jewish survivor recited Hebrew prayers for the dead, bowing their heads or wiping away tears. Clergymen of other faiths also prayed.

Then, with the famous gate and barbed wire illuminated in the dark, cold evening, guests marched in a procession to place candles at a memorial to the victims set amid the remains of the gas chambers.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by Nazi forces at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned and killed there.

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem last week to mark the anniversary in what many saw as a competing observance. Among them were Russian President Vladimir Putin, US vice president Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and the Prince of Wales.

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Politics intruded on that event, with Mr Duda boycotting it in protest after Mr Putin claimed Poland played a role in triggering the Second World War. The Polish leader had wanted a chance to speak before or after Mr Putin to defend his nations record, but he was not given a speaking slot in Jerusalem.

Those claims comes as many eastern European countries in recent years have been mythologising their own peoples behaviour during the war and suppressing knowledge of wrongdoing, something Polands government has been criticised for.

Among others attending the observances at Auschwitz, which is in the part of southern Poland that was occupied by Germany during the war, were German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

The US was represented by Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Lima, Jan 27 : Elections left a divided parliament in Peru with at least seven parties in congress and a majority of centre-right forces, according to exit polls.

The centrist Popular Action party, led by former President Fernando Belaunde Terry, won the most votes cast on Sunday, with 11.8 per cent of the ballots, reports Efe news.

Keiko Fujimori, who led the opposition Popular Force and held a majority in the previous congress President Martin Vizcarra dissolved last September, came fifth, with only 7.1 per cent of the votes.

Right-wing Alliance For Progress - one of the most voted parties in the country's north - came second with 8.8 per cent of the votes, led by businessman Cesar Acuna.

The liberal Purple Party - with 8.1 per cent of the votes - entered congress for the first time led by Julio Guzman, one of the new faces of Peruvian politics, which together with Popular Action look to be the government's main support.

Podemos Peru, led by entrepreneur Jose Luna, won 7.4 per cent of the vote and will also enter Parliament for the first time, with former army general and Interior Minister Daniel Urresti among its notable members.

The return to congress of the Popular Agricultural Front after 38 years was one of the major surprises. The evangelical party, founded by Ezequiel Ataucusi, won 7 per cent of the vote, according to polls.

The Peruvian left, which comprises four parties, will continue to be represented in congress by the Broad Front with 6.2 per cent of the vote, while Together for Peru could also enter Parliament if it is confirmed that it won 5 percent of the votes.

The far right fared poorly after the National Solidarity party, with former congressman Rosa Bartra as its great asset, obtained only 1.4 per cent of the votes.

The Peruvian Aprista Party of former President Alan Garcia, missed out on congress with 2.8 percent of votes, far from the necessary 5 per cent needed to enter parliament.

The same happened to the With You party of former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who went from winning the last presidential elections to obtaining 0.9 per cent of the votes.

The exit poll was conducted on 32,000 voters in 405 polling stations countrywide with a 2 per cent error margin for America Television by market research company Ipsos.
WASHINGTONThe Davos economic summit last week turned into a climate-change conference, as both political and business leaders felt real pressure to take the crisis seriously at this years gathering in the Alpine village.

However, the annual meeting ended with little consensus over the scale and urgency of the climate threat. Differences in opinions on how to save the planet without disrupting the economy grew even wider among the global business and political elites.

On the first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, President Donald Trump launched a thinly veiled attack against climate activists, calling them prophets of doom.

He also mentioned the United States virtually unlimited energy reserves from fossil fuels, liquefied natural gas, clean coal, nuclear power, and gas hydrate technologies.

While many European countries struggle with crippling energy costs, the American energy revolution is saving American families $2,500 every year, he said, adding that the United States no longer depended on imported energy from hostile nations.

During his speech, Trump criticized climate alarmists without directly naming any of the notable activists in Davos, including Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

A 17-year-old activist, Thunberg, who has risen to fame recently, was one of the highest-profile attendees at this years summit.

She beat me out on Time Magazine, Trump said, referring to the publications naming Thunberg as Person of the Year in 2019. He also said he would have loved to see her speak.

When asked at a press conference if he still thought climate change was a hoax, Trump said, No, not all.

But he doubted the scale of the crisis.

I think aspects of it are. I think that some people arethey put it at a level that is, you know, unrealistic, to a point you cant live your lives.

We have to do something about other continents, he said. You have another continent where the fumes are rising at levels that you cant believeI mean, I think Greta ought to focus on those places.

Businesses Push Back on Climate

In Davos, some bankers resisted the idea that Wall Street should take the lead in the climate fight.

I dont want to be the sharp end of the spear, Michael Corbat, chief executive of Citigroup, told a panel in Davos. We dont want to find ourselves being the person that dictates winners and losers.

Speaking on a separate panel, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said his firm wouldnt stop raising money for a fossil fuel company but would try to allocate capital to businesses that help the transition to a more carbon-neutral world.

Some other executives also said the demands by climate activists ignored the importance of economic growth and the need for continued investment in fossil fuel, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the worlds largest asset manager, however, said in Davos that his company put sustainability at the center of its investment strategy.

Speaking at a panel session on Jan. 23, former U.S. vice president and longtime climate activist Al Gore compared the scale of the crisis to famous battles in history, noting that the crisis is way worse than many people realize.

Thunberg and other young climate activists attending the forum called on leaders to stop investing in traditional fuels. They have demanded all companies, banks, institutions, and governments to immediately end ongoing investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction. They have also called for ending subsidies and completely divesting from fossil fuels.

On the last day of the summit, Thunberg rebuked the Davos crowd for not taking the climate crisis seriously.

Before we came here, we had a few demands for this WEF and of course, those demands have been completely ignored. We expected nothing less, she told reporters on Jan. 24, before marching through the streets of Davos with dozens of young activists.

Mnuchin Criticizes Young Activist

While Trump took an indirect approach to climate challenge in Davos, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin launched a direct attack on the young activist for her comments about ceasing all use of fossil fuels.

After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us, he said Jan 23 during a press briefing in Davos.

In response to Mnuchin, Thunberg said on Twitter, It doesnt take a college degree in economics to understand that ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments and the remaining carbon budget dont add up.

The transition to a 100 percent renewable U.S. power grid will cost up to $4.5 trillion over the next 10 to 20 years, according to a report by the energy consultancy and research firm Wood Mackenzie. The company estimates that about 1,600 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity would be needed to replace all fossil fuel generation in the United States.

While climate change topped the agenda at this years forum, no one has come up with plans to offset the costs of decarbonization on those it will hurt most, said Philip Stephens, chief political commentator at the Financial Times.

These are the voters to whom Mr. Trump was speaking in Davos, he wrote on Jan. 24 in his column.

A large swath of voters look at green policies through the same prism as Mr. Trumpsomething that wealthy globalists inflict on the poor when they are not hopping from continent to continent on their private jets.

From The Epoch Times
The governors office says the law allows him to do it by himself, but Charlie Bakers secretary of energy and environmental affairs is still canvassing the state to convince residents its worth it.

At issue is Bakers Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI), an aggressive plan to regionalize transportation strategies with the goal of reducing emissions. The governor has set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, making Massachusetts one of only four states (with Hawaii, New York and California) and four other countries to go that far.

"It takes guts (by Baker) to do this. The governor is taking a stand. (He believes) you cant get to where we want without being bold,'' Secretary Kathleen Theoharides told the Republican editorial board Monday.

Baker wants Massachusetts to be a national leader in climate change policy, Theoharides said. Under the TCI, large corporations that transport gasoline and diesel across state lines will have to buy allowances to emit certain amounts of carbon dioxide.

The plan is designed to generate revenue that Theoharides termed considerable, and which would be used to provide funding for bus services, commuter trains, and even broadband access for underserved communities. That would notably include the rural sections of Western Massachusetts, where 20 percent of residents in Franklin County alone are without reliant Internet connection.

Under the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act, Baker has the authority to enter into a regional cap-and-trade agreement unilaterally. But even if he can do it without legislative approval, some lawmakers from Bakers own Republican Party say doing so would be wrong.

"Any tax increase should come from the legislative body,'' Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) said.

The TCI involves 12 states, including Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia in the most expansive regional approach to date on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The governor contends that the TCI is not a tax per se, but would be an investment, and therefore much more appealing than a straight gas tax to pay for transportation and climate change advancements.

There seems no question the TCI would create a cost increase at the pump, one Theoharides estimated would probably range from 5 to 17 cents per gallon.

A fact sheet from her office said it was impossible to pinpoint such future costs, since gas prices are affected by policy and market forces that cannot be easily forecast. The fact sheet said the increase could be as little as 5 cents per gallon by 2022.

Theoharides said the investment factor would hopefully minimize cost to the consumer. She also said that if Massachusetts is to be serious about cleaning up the environment, investment is a must - and this, the administration maintains, is the most creative and least burdensome approach yet.

Massachusetts officials are hoping for regional cooperation, and there is widespread support or at least interest from neighboring states in the Northeast. One exception is New Hampshire, where Governor Chris Sununu has expressed opposition.

Theoharides said the TCI could go into effect without complete approval from neighboring states, which she said could choose to join later. Those who stayed out would not gain its benefits, she said. The program is scheduled to begin in January of 2022.

Bakers State of the Commonwealth address last week made clear that hes pushing forward with climate change action.

"Its a key point of his Term 2 (priorities), in a bipartisan way,'' Theoharides said. While some Republican lawmakers have balked or remained skeptical, there is also support in the Legislature for Bakers plan, with House Speaker Robert DeLeo among those favorable to it.

Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation have been on the rise for decades and now represent 40% of this states total emissions. Unless we take on transportation, we wont meet our objectives,'' Baker said in his address.

"I get that this is going to be hard. But together, we have a real opportunity and a responsibility to achieve a significant reduction in transportation emissions.

According to Baker, the TCI would deliver millions of dollars for investment in transportation infrastructure, which all political sides agree is badly needed statewide. How to pay for it, and in what time frame, has been the sticking point.

And, while opponents of the TCI include the states chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business and the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, other business, political and industry groups - including the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and many mayors and town administrators - have been lining up in support.

If Bakers administration can enact this plan without approval, based on the 2008 global warming legislation approved on Beacon Hill, why is Theoharides crossing the state to drum up support?

She said it was partly because she acknowledged the plan is complex and easily misunderstood. But she also said it was too good an opportunity for the state to undertake halfheartedly - or worse, not at all.

"Plain and simple, this will mean more money for transportation needs. But the governor also wants to make Massachusetts a model for such initiatives,'' she said. He wants this state to be a leader in addressing climate change.
No case of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has been registered in Ukraine as of January 27, the Public Health Center of the Ukrainian Health Ministry has reported on Facebook.

"The data spread by Kyiv City Laboratory Center of the Ukrainian Health Ministry has been specified. The diagnosed coronavirus is not of the 2019-nCoV type. Therefore, no case of a novel coronavirus has been reported in Ukraine so far," the report reads.

The Public Health Center contacted media outlets that spread unspecified information with the request to supplement it with new data.

In addition, the center said that if the novel coronavirus is detected, the public would be informed by the Health Ministry and the Public Health Center.

Earlier, Kyiv City Laboratory Center of the Ukrainian Health Ministry published statistics on the incidence of influenza and acute respiratory infections in Kyiv, as well as the findings of studies of samples, including human coronavirus HKU1.

Cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (nCoV) have been reported in China since December 2019. It was determined that the source of the virus may be animals. Cases of the disease have already been confirmed in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, France, Australia, and Cambodia.

According to the latest data, 80 people have already died of the disease, and the number of infected patients has grown to 2,744.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The major symptoms of the coronavirus are fever and dyspnoea.

op
A Chinese national on tourist visa in the city has been kept in an isolation ward, after she complained of high fever and rashes, raising suspicion that the woman could have contracted the deadly novel coronavirus, officials said.

She was taken to the isolation ward at the Beleghata ID Hospital on Sunday, they said. "The woman has no symptoms of Novel Coronavirus. However, we have sent her tests results to the ICMR National Institute of Virology in Pune," Principal Secretary of Health Department Vivek Kumar told PTI.

READ: China: Companies Instruct Staff To Work From Home Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

He said the foreign national has mild fever and stomach ache, symptoms that do not necessarily suggest presence of the novel coronavirus, which has claimed at least 81 lives in China and put millions under quarantine. According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the virus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

"She has been travelling for quite sometime and came to India from Madagascar a few months ago... As a part of precautionary measure, we have isolated the woman till her reports arrive," he said. The West Bengal Health Department has stepped up vigil in all the districts and in Kolkata, after the Union Health Ministry issued guidelines to prevent spread of the virus.

"Any person arriving in the city from abroad is being screened at the airport," another official of the department said. The Union Health Ministry on Monday said health teams have been deployed in areas along the border with Nepal at Panitanki in West Bengal and Jhulaghat and Jauljibi in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh.
The leader of the Aontu party Peadar Toibin is to seek a High Court injunction preventing tonight's planned political party leaders debate due to broadcast on RTE's Claire Byrne Live from going ahead.

The matter was briefly mentioned before Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds at the High Court this morning.

Louis Masterson Bl, instructed by solicitor Cormac O'Ceallaigh, told the court that he hoped to be in a position to formally apply for the injunction against RTE later today.

Counsel said that the legal documents required to bring an injunction application are currently being prepared.

Counsel said that the action has been brought arising out of Deputy Toibin's "exclusion from the debate" by the national broadcaster.

When asked by the Judge about the exact nature of the application, counsel replied that his client intends to seek an order preventing the planned debate, which the leaders of seven political parties are expected to participate, from being broadcast.

Mr Masterson also said that RTE had not been formally put on notice of the intended application to seek an injunction.

The Judge expressed her surprise at that, given the proposed injunction had been "well touted" in the media over the last number of days.

The judge said that at this stage there was no effective application before the court but the matter could be mentioned before her during the course of the day.
Trenton recently launched the What I Need (WIN) app that will give homeless youth in the city access to resources, from food to legal services.

According to the 2019 Point-in-Time Count, there were over 1,000 families who were homeless in New Jersey in 2019.

The WIN app was designed by Our Children LA, a California based non-profit, to assist homeless youth with 24/7 support. Available services include a hotline, shelters, food, crisis, health, drop-in, education, jobs, government benefits, and legal services provided from city council and state level resources and non-profits.

This new tool will allow our city to provide resources and eliminate stigma by connecting our youth with mobile directories with 24/7 emergency support, said Vernett Sherrill, grant administrator for Trentons Division of Community Relations and Social Services. When our youth are in physical danger or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, we want them to know where they can go.

After connecting with Denise McCain-Thornstrom, president of Our Children LA, Sherrill introduced the idea to the city and expressed interest in adopting the app for use in Trenton.

- WIN application provides information for homeless youth in Trenton. Connor IlchertConnor Ilchert

Youth without cellphone access can still access these services. All these resources are also in written form in one place or another and they can certainly get those resources at the city library," Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said. This is the most comprehensive of Social Services availability in one place right at someones fingertips.

India Duke can be reached at iduke@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Inja_NJ.

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[January 27, 2020] Despegar to Acquire 100% of Best Day, a Leading Travel Agency in Mexico

Despegar.com, Corp. (NYSE: DESP) ("Despegar"), the leading online travel company in Latin America, today announced it has agreed to acquire Best Day Travel Group ("Best Day") one of the leading travel agencies in Mexico, for a total consideration of approximately US$136 million, subject to the occurrence of certain closing and business conditions. A portion of the purchase price is payable on a deferred basis and includes a variable component of up to circa +/- 10% of the total consideration, based on future performance. According to Best Day, during 2019 the company recorded estimated unaudited pro forma revenues and EBITDA of approximately US$140 million and US$8 million, respectively, with online sales accounting for approximately 70% of total sales. Approximately 75% of its revenue is generated in Mexico, further strengthening Despegar's footprint in this country. The remaining revenue is generated mainly in Brazil, Argentina, U.S. and Canada, among others. Packages, Hotels and Other Travel Products account for approximately 95% of its revenues. Best Day operates a cross-platform business model. In addition to its Business to Consumer business operated through its online platform, call centers and more than 200 kiosks, the company offers ground transportation, tours and activities across Mexico main destinations. On the B2B front, Best Day provides online wholesale travel products to agencies worldwide through its subsidiary HotelDO as well as white label services for major travel vendors, including exclusive partnerships with the largest Mexican airlines operating their packages platforms. Despegar expects to maintain the Best Day brands and network of kiosks as well as key executives. Mr. Damian Scokin, CEO of Despegar, noted: "We are very pleased to have entered into this agreement with Best Day, which is aligned with the strategic priorities discussed at Despegar's recent Investor Day. This is a significant milestone in our consolidation strategy that started with the acquisition of Viajes Falabella. Additionally, this acquisition is a significant landmark given our goal to continue expanding our operations in Mexico, Latin America's most important tourism market and the seventh most important destination worldwide. Together, Despegar's unique competitive levers combined withBest Day's expertise in wholesale hotel offerings and destination services, will further enhance our value proposition. Best Day also has strong partnerships with leading travel vendors. We are acquiring a company with a solid strategic position and a successful track record that provides significant opportunities to strengthen Despegar's presence in Mexico and to grow its Business to Customer value proposition."



Mr. Julian Balbuena, President of the Board of Best Day, commented: "At Best Day Travel Group we are very proud of this transaction. We have been operating in the market for over 35 years, and the fact that a company like Despegar, the leader in the Latin American travel market, sees in us an opportunity to strengthen their value proposition in the Mexican market, speaks clearly about the capabilities we have built. For the Best Day team, it is an opportunity to enhance those capabilities to continue offering customers unique experiences with the travel company that has innovated like no other in the region over the last 20 years."

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions for transactions of this type, including approval of the relevant antitrust authorities. Closing of the transaction is expected to take place during the first half of 2020. (1) Based on publicly available information A conference call to discuss the transaction is scheduled to take place today, Monday, January 27, 2020 at 5:00 pm ET, followed by a question and answer session for the investment community. Executives Mr. Alberto Lopez-Gaffney, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Marcelo Grether, VP Corporate Development and M&A; Mr. Carlos Fernandez, Merger & Acquisitions Manager; and Ms. Natalia Nirenberg, Investor Relations To participate, please dial

1-844-750-4865 (U.S. domestic)

1-412-317-5275 (International) Webcast: click here About Despegar.com Despegar is the leading online travel company in Latin America. With over two decades of business experience and operating in 20 countries in the region, Despegar accompanies Latin American travelers from the moment they dream of taking a trip until they share their memories of that trip. Thanks to the strong commitment to technological development and customer service, Despegar offers a customized experience to more than 18 million customers. Despegar's websites and leading mobile apps, offer products from over 270 airlines, more than 512,000 accommodation options, as well as approximately 1,190 car rental agencies and approximately 326 destination services suppliers with more than 5,690 activities throughout Latin America. The Company owns and operates two well-recognized brands, Despegar, its global brand, and Decolar, its Brazilian brand. Despegar is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DESP). For more information, please visit www.despegar.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on our current beliefs, expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting our business and our market. Many important factors could cause our actual results to differ substantially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly or to revise any forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005572/en/

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Why Driverless Robotaxi Pods Could Be More Unattractive Than A Smelly Crime-Ridden Subway

SEE ALSO: "They All Look Alike To Me" - Milton Snide, Snide's Remarks

SEE ALSO: Robotic Taxi's Cost Twice Per Mile As Today's Human Driver Taxi's MIT Study Shows

SEE ALSO: Autonomous Vehicle News Archive

SEE ALSO: Big Brother-Like "Birth to Grave" Autonomous Driving Will Take Our Freedom And Kill The Automobile Industry

SEE ALSO: Autonomous Autos Give Bad Guys The Power To End Our Freedom To Go Where We Want When We Want To

By Anton Wahlman

Seeking Alpha

Jan. 24, 2020; General Motors, just like many other automakers and technology companies, is investing in Level 5 driverless vehicles, aka Robotaxis..

On January 21, 2020, GM showed its concept of what their first deployment will look like: A driverless pod that fits four people.

The problem with this idea, regardless of the automaker, is that it is essentially a subway car on wheels, and there is a reason most people severely dislike subways.

These Level 5 driverless vehicles may be filled with homeless people, urine, feces, puke, drug needles, and become favorite venues for rapes, robberies, and murders.

Automotive executives have completely lost their minds if they invest in this dystopian future. People dont want to travel in confined spaces filled with crime and nasty bodily fluids.

NOTE: A version of this article was first published on or about Jan. 22, 2019, on my Seeking Alpha Marketplace site.

On January 21, 2020, General Motors (GM) showed its concept of a driverless vehicle. It has no steering wheel or pedals, and its basically a pod in which two people are supposed to sit facing two others, in a little room and be transported in some direction -- hopefully to their destination of choice as opposed to a venue the government has in mind for their future: GM's Cruise unveils driverless shuttle

All the analysis to date seems to focus on whether -- and if so, when -- it will be possible to deploy such a Level 5 (driverless) vehicle from a traffic-capable perspective: GM hopes Cruise pays off in the long term Basically, will the car be able to drive from A to B safely.

Just a couple of short years ago, such Level 5 driverless robotaxi capability was predicted to have happened already. Now, outside of Teslas (TSLA) one million robotaxis promised just last April (2019), other automakers are predicting it for anywhere between 2021 and never.

Indeed, that discussion of when Level 5 (driverless) autonomy will happen is a very interesting one in its own right. I have addressed it in numerous articles over the last half-decade. My position remains that if an attractive Level 5 (driverless) product can ever be made to work, it will be banned shortly thereafter for national security purposes. You just cant have 5,000 lbs foreign objects floating around on US soil, potentially being programmed by the most evil elements under the Sun. We dont allow flying drones anywhere near places where they can do the most damage either. So its basically a big waste of effort to think that Level 5 driverless cars will be allowed on U.S. soil in the long run, even if they are ever made to work in any decent way from a traffic management standpoint.

However, thats not the focus of this article. Rather, I want to explore another dimension of why a driverless vehicle such as the one that GM showed on January 21, 2020, is likely to be a total failure in the marketplace for unrelated reasons.

Specifically, will the robotaxi product be so horrendously unattractive, even if it is able to perform the basic Point A to Point B driving function, that nobody will want to use it? I believe there are good reasons to believe that this will become an extremely unattractive product, that almost every single person in society will shun like the plague.

If you are anything like me, you severely dislike any form of collective and public transport -- except airplanes. When visiting a major city such as New York, you never take the subway or the bus. You always take a taxi, in whichever organizational form -- including Lyft (LYFT) and Uber (UBER).

Why? Because collective public transport such as buses and trains/subways are, frankly, disgusting and dangerous. They smell, they lack privacy for conference calls, and you could be sitting next to a major violent criminal -- or someone else that you dont want to expose to your children.

That brings us back to GMs vision of a driverless pod which it showed on January 21, 2020, and which it is apparently on the verge of detailing further: GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant will build Cruise Origin self-driving shuttle

Who is going to police what happens inside this robotaxi pod, and when people get in and out of it? One key to understanding the futility of this kind of product, is to realize that we are not talking about first deploying it in Monaco or Tokyo. Rather, we are talking about deploying it in todays U.S. cities, many of whom are getting increasingly filled with bums, drugs and crime. Any unprotected public or semi-public space is being occupied by people who use it as a bathroom, drug-nest, or sleeping area.

Just imagine deploying it in a city such as San Francisco, which is where GM showed this product and where its Level 5 driverless pod business is based. If deployed in that city, several things could immediately happen, given the nature of these pods and the people who would be around the robotaxis, and force themselves into the pods:

The homeless population may be urinating, defecating, puking and shooting up drugs from needles in these driverless vehicles. They do it everywhere else in San Francisco, so obviously these pods would become favorite venues of these activities, just like public bathrooms. By stepping into one of these pods, you may be practically bathing in a pool of filth and bacteria. Others would be shooting up drugs and make their needles dangerous for everyone else. The new District Attorney in San Francisco, who assumed office earlier this month, said that he will not prosecute these quality of life crimes, which would make the Robotaxi operator helpless in stopping those who violate their property: : Boudin Will Not Prosecute Prostitution, Public Camping, And Other 'Quality-Of-Life Crimes' Once Sworn In

Criminals and bums may try to rob people who are getting in and out of these vehicles. There would be no driver to help police the situation. I envision that these vehicles would be very visible magnets for robbers and rapists, following them around in search for soon-to-be victims.

People may be raped, robbed and/or murdered in these Level 5 driverless pods. In other words, they would become rape-rooms and slaughter-houses on wheels. A pure dystopian madness.

Some would argue that these pods will be under camera and microphone supervision. Lets put aside for a moment the privacy implications of that: Someone looking at you, and recording you, as you talk on the phone and/or work on your phone and/or laptop. Its like a storyline from a dystopian dictatorship, or George Orwells 1984.

Rather, you can be sure that people will simply do what they usually do with their laptops camera: Place a piece of tape over it. Now, of course, that will also be a most welcome help to the criminals who will seek to exploit the helpless victim inside this confined space. Not that the District Attorney in San Francisco would prosecute the perp anyway, however: Parents guilty of murder and raised by radicals, Chesa Boudin is San Francisco's next DA

It is also important to understand that the risk factor inside these multiple-rider robotaxis may be far worse than a generic subway in a notoriously crime-ridden city (such as San Francisco). One reason for this is that at least in a subway car, there may be more people to help against a robbery, rape or stabbing. The sheer probability of there being an actual armed police officer on a regular subway is also higher -- even if the pro-crime city government such as San Francisco vests next-to-zero powers in this police officer.

It is harder for a criminal to get away with an act of evil, in a subway car consisting of 50-75 people, than it is in a tiny pod where there are only 2-4 people. Another scenario inside this dystopian driverless pod is 3 criminals working together, against one victim -- or two criminals against one adult victim and her child.

Todays manned Uber and Lyft also have one additional advantage over a driverless pod: Their ability to rate the passenger. You know who you are -- maintaining a steady 4.9, or suffering from a poor 4.3 rating because of your boorish personality or tendency to leave gum wraps in the rear seating area. Well, one of these driverless pods, such as GMs, will lack these ratings because there wont be any human policing. That also means no cleaning-up between almost every other passenger getting in and out.

To the extent that many people these days are at least modest germaphobes, stepping into a tiny pod filled with urine, feces, puke, blood and drug-infested needles, will also not be an attractive transportation option.

Basically, these driverless pods would have all the negative traits that cause most normal people to avoid public collective transport to begin with -- and amplify them further. Lets put it this way: I dont think the CEOs and board members of the companies who are spending billions of dollars of shareholder dollars developing these smelly and dangerous subway car on wheels will be riding in them.

No, they will do what normal Americans will continue to do: Drive their own cars. Actually, make that SUVs -- the larger the better.

Nobody wants to sit in a puke, urine and feces-filled Level 5 (driverless) pod alongside three homeless drug addicts who are trying to rob you, rape you, and stab you. This product would be a 100% guaranteed failure, even in San Francisco.

Would you even want to touch any part of these pods -- inside or out -- with your hands? Would you allow your clothes or even your shoes to touch them? Take a walk around San Francisco, and you are ready for a shower after the first block. You wouldnt want to sit down on a park bench, even if clothed in a Hazmat suit. Imagine getting into a confined robotaxi space with these biohazards and crime practically crawling up your orifices. Robotaxi is a non-starter in todays filthiest American cities.

The automotive executives who are spending shareholder monies trying to invent this madness, have completely lost their minds. They should go back to developing regular, reliable vehicles instead. Give me a Chevy Suburban, Traverse or Silverado -- some of my favorite vehicles of all time -- not a smelly and dangerous collectivist subway car on wheels.

Whether General Motors (GM) or any other company involved in developing these driverless pods, I think it will have a very negative impact on the return on investment, and by extension, the stock price. Pull the plug on this already!

Disclosure: I am/we are short TSLA.

Additional disclosure: At the time of submitting this article for publication, the author was short TSLA. However, positions can change at any time. The author regularly attends press conferences, new vehicle launches and equivalent, hosted by most major automakers.
By Olivia Rose

THE TCI Government has joined the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) as an associate member in order to kick-start the development of credit unions in the territory.





This makes the TCI the 19th Caribbean island jurisdiction to join the international association, a news release on the councils website said on Tuesday (January 14).





The WOCCU is the global trade association and development platform for credit unions around the world.





It promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services.





The council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organisations, and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation.





Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson said fostering a relationship with the council is in the best interests of the TCI public.





"We believe that a relationship with WOCCU will afford the Government an opportunity to achieve, as WOCCU describes it, the self-sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperativesto empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services within our country.





The TCI Governments move to join the council follows the passage of legislation in 2019 that permitted the licensing of credit unions in the TCI for the first time.





The Ministry of Finance was then approved for membership of the council, which will allow it to access its best practices in credit union development and networking.





WOCCU president and CEO Brian Branch said: "The world council believes all people should have access to affordable, reliable and sustainable financial services.





"We have been developing credit unions across the globe for nearly 50 years and we welcome the opportunity to help Turks and Caicos establish financial cooperatives that work for everyone.





The Credit Union Ordinance was approved in the House of Assembly on July 26, 2016.





However, the ordinance was not brought into effect due to a requirement to have Regulations and Prudential Standards (subsidiary legislation) in place.





It later became law on August 1, 2019.





In the House of Assembly on August 8, 2019, Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson said there still exists in the TCI, elements of society that are either "unbanked and under-banked.





"With financial inclusion as a priority of my Government, the coming into force of the credit union legislation will fill a gap by availing another regulated financial option to the public





"We are firm believers that access to finance is a key enabler to reducing poverty and increasing prosperity.





"Therefore, my Government will continue to explore ways of augmenting the current financial offerings in the TCI market; which, to date, have not adequately met the needs of all, she stated.





She added that credit unions are known to have contributed to the development of entire communities and can help drive economic growth.





In many countries around the world credit unions play an important community role, they encourage members to save regularly, provide loans at low rates, and help members in need of financial advice and assistance.




By Stephen Farrell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - More than two years after he first proposed a plan to revive the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal is finally set to be announced.

It must address intractable issues that stymied peacemakers for generations, including the status of Jerusalem, a city claimed by both sides as their capital.

There is also deep-seated suspicion between the two sides, and no longer mutual acceptance that the United States is the natural broker of any solution.

While Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are the closest of political allies, U.S. relations with the Palestinians are at a nadir. Palestinian leaders refuse even to meet with the Trump administration, accusing it of pro-Israeli bias.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES?

* The status of Jerusalem, including historical sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

* Establishing mutually agreed borders.

* Finding security arrangements to satisfy Israels fears of attacks by Palestinians and hostile neighbours.

* The Palestinian demand for statehood in territory - the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem - captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.

* Finding a solution to the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees.

* Arrangements to share natural resources, such as water.

* Palestinian demands that Israel remove its settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. More than 400,000 Israelis now live among about 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, with another 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem.

WHY REVIVE THE PEACE PLAN NOW?

Both Trump and Netanyahu face domestic troubles. Trump faces an impeachment trial and Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges in November. Both deny wrongdoing.

They also both face re-election campaigns  Netanyahu in March and Trump in November. Netanyahu twice tried and failed to secure a majority in the Israeli parliament last year.

Trump has repeatedly delayed the launch of his plan to avoid causing election problems for Netanyahu because of the possibility it will require some concessions from Israel.

Story continues

He faces his own political clock and could ill-afford to wait for months for Israel to decide its next prime minister, according to a source familiar with the peace team's thinking.

WHAT'S IN THE TRUMP PLAN?

The proposal is dozens of pages long but little has been revealed about its contents.

Palestinian and Arab sources who were briefed on the draft fear it seeks to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation, in what could be a prelude to Israel annexing about half of the West Bank including most of the Jordan Valley, the strategic and fertile easternmost strip of the territory.

Palestinians say the Jordan Valley, nearly 30 per cent of the West Bank, would be a vital part of their future state, as the breadbasket of the West Bank and its border with Jordan.

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the plan's principal author, launched the first stage in Bahrain in June. It called for a $50 billion investment fund to boost the Palestinian and neighbouring Arab state economies.

WHAT ARE ITS CHANCES?

The last Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

Continuing obstacles include the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied land and generations of mutual distrust.The last two decades have also seen the rise to power in Gaza of the armed Islamist movement Hamas, which is formally committed to Israel's destruction and is in the midst of a decades-long power struggle with the western-backed Palestinian Authority, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The elephant in the room is the two-state solution - the long-standing international formula to bring about peace by creating an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel.

The United Nations and most nations around the world back this blueprint, the foundation of every peace plan for decades.

The Trump administration has refrained from endorsing it. In November it reversed decades of U.S. policy when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer regarded Israeli settlements on West Bank land as a breach of international law.

Palestinians and most of the international community view the settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

CAN THE U.S. BE AN HONEST BROKER?

Netanyahu "gladly" accepted Trump's invitation to Washington "I think that the president is seeking to give Israel the peace and security that it deserves," he said.

But Palestinian Prime Minister President Mohammad Shtayyeh said the U.S. plan was "nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause. We reject it."

The Palestinian leadership said Washington can no longer be regarded as a mediator after a series of Trump decisions that delighted Israel but infuriated Palestinians.

These included recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

The cuts were widely seen as a means of pressuring the Palestinian leadership to come back to the negotiating table. So far, that has failed.

(Writing by Stephen Farrell. Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Miami, Samia Nakhoul in Beirut; Maayan Lubell, Jeffrey Heller, Dan Williams and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Editing by Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan)
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Firhad Hakim has alleged "deep-rooted conspiracy" behind the posting of a distorted map of India, sans Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin, on the civic body's Facebook page on Republic Day.

The West Bengal BJP has demanded Hakim's resignation from the mayor post and a statement from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the incident.

Alleging that the civic body's profile was "hacked by people with vested interests to malign the KMC", Hakim said a probe will be initiated into the incident.

The KMC landed in an embarrassing situation after the map of India, without PoK and Aksai Chin, was seen on its page on Republic Day.

Along with the distorted map, the mayor's Republic Day message was on display.

As the image went viral, the mayor was trolled, following which the KMC deleted the map.

The BJP lashed out at Hakim over the incident.

"We demand the immediate resignation of Hakim as the KMC mayor. Isn't the civic body endorsing Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's claims on Kashmir?" state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said on Monday.

Basu also demanded a statement from Banerjee on the incident as Hakim also holds important ministerial portfolios and is a senior TMC leader.

"We also want to know whether the Bengal CM also believes that PoK is not part of India," Basu said.

A KMC official said a complaint has been lodged with the cyber cell of the Kolkata Police and New Market police station on January 26 over the incident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: The logos of car manufacturers Renault and Nissan are seen in front of dealerships of the companies in Reims

By Gilles Guillaume

PARIS (Reuters) - Renault's <RENA.PA> engineering boss will meet his counterpart at Nissan <7201.T> in Japan this week, two sources close to Renault said, as the carmakers seek to revive projects crucial to an alliance left reeling by the Carlos Ghosn affair.

The Franco-Japanese alliance is wrestling with the fallout of the ouster and arrest of Ghosn, the architect of the partnership who now says it is at risk of collapse.

Analysts say that in order to turn investor sentiment around, the firms need to make good on cost-saving joint engineering projects that have slowed since Ghosn's departure.

According to the two sources, Gilles Le Borgne, who was hired on Jan. 6 from rival automaker PSA <PEUP.PA>, will meet Nissan's Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, the Nissan executive in charge of delivering the joint engineering projects.

Renault did not respond to a request for comment on Le Borgne's meetings.

Renault-Nissan's cost-saving alliance is vital to both companies as the car industry battles a slowdown and huge investments in cleaner vehicles and automated driving.

"The alliance has taken a hit, but the alliance engineering team is still there," said a third source, who is close to the alliance. "You cannot, from one day to the next, stop something that's been embedded so deeply."

Japanese prosecutors arrested Ghosn -- who was at the time the head of the carmakers' alliance -- in November 2018 and accused him of financial misconduct.

Ghosn slipped out of Japan and fled at the end of December to Lebanon. He says the charges were fabricated to force him out of an alliance in which the Japanese side no longer trusted its French partners.

FOCUS ON JOINT PROJECTS

Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard has said both sides are determined to make the partnership succeed, with the joint projects a major focus.

Those projects will be on the agenda when the board of the alliance, which also includes Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi <7211.T>, holds a regular meeting in Japan on Jan. 30.

One area of focus will be hybrid power systems, a field where, analysts say, the alliance has not effectively pooled its research and development efforts. Each of the three members of the alliance has developed their own systems.

Story continues

"That's been among the sources of the friction," said the third source close to the alliance. "But now the three systems are there, we'll need to use them in the most efficient way possible."

Nissan will use the E-Tech hybrid system developed by Renault on its Juke small SUV, while Renault will use the Nissan-developed e-Power system on its Kadjar model, particularly in Asia, according to the same sources.

Mitsubishi is still using its own hybrid system on its best-selling Outlander.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Helen Popper)
Authorities say one man was killed and another was wounded in a shooting at a Southwest Albuquerque apartment complex Sunday night.

It was the second fatal shooting in the city within 24 hours and the seventh slaying so far this year.

Sgt. Tanner Tixier, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said in an emailed statement that the latest shooting occurred at the Sandia Valley apartment complex at 8200 Bridge SW.

Upon officers arriving on scene, they discovered a male subject who had been shot, Tixier said. The victim was pronounced deceased on scene

Police subsequently discovered that a second man had also been shot at the apartment complex. He fled prior to officers arriving and was located at University of New Mexico Hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to the police spokesman.

He was treated and released, Tixier said. His identity is not being released at this time.

Homicide detectives and criminalistics personnel worked into the night processing the scene. The victims body was lying in a parking lot next to a dark sedan as law enforcement photographed the scene.

The motive in the shooting is unclear, and Tixier said police had no suspect information to release.

APD was also investigating a Downtown Albuquerque homicide. In that case, a man was shot at 12:45 a.m. on Sunday at Fifth and Central, near the KiMo Theatre. The victim in that case died a short while later at UNMH.

Police have not yet released the names or ages of either of the men killed.
Why are we such a pessimistic species? I thought the prevailing anxiety about the end of the world would leave us after the turn of the millennium. Then we had the prophecies of Nostradamus to tell us that the human race would run out of road about 1998.

The evangelical Christians were anticipating the fulfilment of the Book of Revelations, the coming together of Gog and Magog at Armageddon.

Most religions presented human life as a burden relieved only by death and the promise of eternity.

And, lately, we have been well equipped to destroy ourselves as we had not been when Revelations was written.

It seems we can't quite get it out of our minds that this life on this planet is a temporary arrangement.

Who'd bet on the human race lasting another thousand years? Our place in the history of the Earth planet would then have been just a blip and no one would write it. The dinosaurs lasted 170 million years. We've had two million so far, not that you'd have much to say to an early human coming down from a tree.

It used to be that the dread of destruction was a religious idea but the fear of something like that overtaking us is much more resilient than religious belief has proven to be, for even among the secular atheists there is a gnawing worry that the human race has limited time.

I would like to posit against that a reminder that we are a hugely successful species. We have taken over this planet in just a few thousand years.

The planet itself is incredibly stable in its spin, wobble and revolution.

Photographs that have come back from neighbouring planets and moons show them to be pockmarked with meteor strikes. This planet is a pristine jewel. Most meteors just bounce off our atmosphere if Jupiter's hoovering gravity lets them anywhere near us.

Yet discussions about how little time we are likely to have left proliferate throughout the internet and inform much of our sci-fi.

There is a website called Quora through which people address questions to the wider world and it is remarkable how many of these questioners worry about our cosmic vulnerability.

What if Sirius explodes? We'll be caught in the blast.

What if the Yellowstone volcano erupts? The north American continent will become uninhabitable?

True, the mechanisms by which we might be eradicated, even without our collusion, are well-known.

And then there are the daft things we do to ourselves, building nuclear arsenals and lining the upper atmosphere with greenhouse gases.

We breed cattle on a scale that produces so much flatulence that it traps heat in the air and warms the ground.

That our future was threatened by bovine digestion is one of the doomsday scenarios that was explored in no science fiction that I ever read, but there you are.

And now we have the coronavirus, apparently nurtured in the body of an undetermined animal in a Chinese market and working its way from human to human around the world.

I have no doubt that this is a dreadful development, but what also bothers me is that we are a little excited by this, as if it confirms that we are entitled to our dread.

People are now marvelling at the Chinese ability to shut down cities that are 20 times the size of Belfast and to build a hospital in a week. That's what you can do in a dictatorship.

Aside from the fact that human life is insecure, which it is, there is also a strange preoccupation with that insecurity.

It probably derives in part from human culture being such a recent development.

Blinkered evangelicals have it that the world was created only 6,000 years ago. Clear nonsense. Yet that is about as long ago as the emergence of agriculture. Six thousand years ago is a fairly decent guess at the date at which the modern human started organising societies and developing writing.

So perhaps we have a sense that it has happened too quickly.

My grandfather was born before the aeroplane was invented. My father died never having seen an iPad.

He was born into a world which had not yet discovered penicillin. Most families in our street when I was 10 years old did not have a car, a television or a fridge. I was in my 30s when I first lived in a house with central heating.

Along with change comes an uneasy sense that the whole thing could fall apart.

And that might be right.

Just as a virus can jump out of a Chinese chicken and hitchhike around the world in a week, there may be some perfectly simple glitch in our technology that will obliterate us.

Some boffin with a test tube will say "Ooops" and that will be the end of the lot of us.

Except that there is another possibility, that we will survive.

I used to read a lot of science fiction. I watched every episode of Doctor Who from Christopher Ecclestone until, with Jodie Whittaker, they changed it into a children's programme.

And the whole drift of our efforts to imagine our future depicts it as either not there - we all die before then - or insufferably bleak.

These stories are the dreams of the human race. If we lay down on a sofa and told them to Dr Freud he would say that we are depressed, that we are living without hope, that we expect to be blasted out of orbit by an asteroid or taken off line by our own robots.

He would ask us why we don't believe in ourselves, don't believe in technological innovation making us healthy and happy. All the evidence is that it can do that. That it already has given us a healthier and more comfortable world than most of us were born into.

And what would we tell him? We'd tell him that the dangers are real.

They always have been. My mother in her 20s nursed soldiers in a war in which 55 million people died.

The coronavirus is scary but so were diphtheria, polio, smallpox and tuberculosis, all of which we defeated as recently as a generation ago.

So perhaps in the midst of the doom-mongering and the realistic urgency to face climate change and artificial intelligence, asteroids and Vladimir Putin we should pause occasionally to remind ourselves that the human race has been doing rather well.

Perhaps we need a humanistic vision that replaces the dread at the heart of most religion with a vision of a happy human future, here on Earth.
I grew up in a small town north of Omaha and am excited to see how my business will benefit property owners in this area, said Wardell.

Monster Tree Service, the nations first and fastest-growing tree service franchise, has expanded into Nebraska. Recently featured by SUCCESS magazine, Thrive Global, and Franchise Times, the Monster Tree Service franchise continues to build on its rapid three-year franchise system growth.

Business entrepreneur Bill Wardell has purchased the rights to the Monster Tree Service Territory of Omaha, covering the Omaha Metro area and surrounding areas. After a 25-year career in project and contract management, Wardell is utilizing his skills and applying his experience to his business.

Josh Skolnick, CEO and Founder of Monster Tree Service, is confident Wardell will be a tremendous asset to the Monster Tree Service franchise.

Bill is a perfect fit for the Monster Tree Service franchise opportunity, says Skolnick. He has a good head for business and a great understanding of the needs of his community. I am confident he will thrive as the newest member of the Monster family. We are glad to have him on our team.

Monster Tree Service is the only franchise tree company capitalizing on the under-served $17 billion tree service industry. Monster Tree Service has achieved consistent year-over-year, 5 percent growth since 2009, resulting in a $10+ million business. Because its a high-upside opportunity, and a recession-proof business, Monster Tree Service expects to achieve $100 million in sales by 2021.

I grew up in a small town north of Omaha and am excited to see how my business will benefit property owners in this area, said Wardell. We are happy to offer our wide array of services, including tree takedowns/removals, tree pruning, and stump grinding.

For more information about Monster Tree Service, please visit http://www.whymonster.com/.

For more information about Monster Tree Service franchise opportunities, please visit http://www.monsterfranchising.com/.

To learn more about CEO Josh Skolnicks vision for Monster Tree Service, please visit https://www.monsterfranchising.com/vision-story.

###

About Monster Tree Service

Founded in 2008 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, by Founder and CEO Josh Skolnick, Monster Tree Service is the nations first and fastest-growing franchise brand serving the $21 billion tree care industry. Over the past decade, Skolnick has aggressively built Monster Tree Service into a thriving national franchise system, working day and night to build the company into a multi-million-dollar business with more than 62 franchise partners and 166 territories sold in 28 states.

With dozens of fantastic franchise partners doing great work in their respective communities, Monster Tree Service expects to exceed $35 million in systemwide revenue in 2019. Each Monster Tree Service franchised outlet offers full-scale tree pruning and removal services, including tree pruning and trimming, tree removal, stump grinding, shrub maintenance, emergency services, plant health care, and various secondary services.

Monster Tree Service franchise owners possess high levels of business acumen and business-building skills that bring a rare level of professionalism to the tree care industry. Fully invested in this industry - both personally and professionally - Monster Tree Service owners provide wonderful opportunities to other professionals who have a shared vision of continuing to legitimize the tree care industry as a skilled trade. These industry professionals will have the tools, training, and respect to excel in providing unparalleled service to their clients and Make the World a More Beautiful Place, One Tree at a Time.

Monster Tree Service is committed to educating all customers on the natural conditions, diseases and infestations that impact the health of their plants/trees and treating all issues with an environmentally friendly, Do Not Harm approach. Its all part of the Monster Tree Service vision to partner with homeowners across the country to make their trees healthy, strong, and vital.

For more information about Monster Tree Service, please visit https://www.whymonster.com/.
So heres the story: Donald Trump has abused the powers of his office to threaten a U.S. ally. His threat is probably illegal; his refusal to produce documents about his decision process is definitely illegal. And his claims about the motivation for his actions dont pass the laugh test.

You probably think that Im talking about Trumps attempt to pressure Ukraine into producing political dirt on Joe Biden by withholding aid and the subsequent cover-up  you know, the stuff for which he has been impeached. But theres another, somewhat similar story: his repeated threats to impose prohibitive tariffs on imports of automobiles from Europe.

Granted, the auto tariff story isnt as vile as the Ukraine story, and it poses less of a direct threat to a fair election. But its recognizably part of the same syndrome: abuse of presidential power, contempt for the rule of law and dishonesty about motivations.

Some background: U.S. tariffs  taxes on imports  are normally set the same way we set other taxes: through legislation that must pass Congress and then be signed by the president. The law does, however, give the president discretion to impose temporary tariffs under certain circumstances, for example to give U.S. industries breathing space in the face of sudden import surges, to counter foreign export subsidies or to protect national security (Section 232).

Until Trump, Section 232 cases were rare. He has, however, used the national security justification for tariffs with abandon and zero regard for plausibility. Canadian aluminum poses a national security risk? Really?

And so it was that in 2018 the Trump administration announced that it was beginning a Section 232 investigation of auto imports, especially from Europe and Japan. Every trade expert I know considered the notion that German or Japanese cars constitute a threat to national security absurd. Nonetheless, in 2019 a report from the Commerce Department concluded that auto imports do, indeed, endanger national security.

What was the basis for this conclusion? Well, we dont actually know  because the Trump administration has refused to release the report.

This stonewalling is clearly illegal. The statute requires that all portions of the Commerce report that dont contain classified or proprietary information be published in the Federal Register, and its hard to believe that any of the report contains such information, let alone the whole thing. Furthermore, Congress inserted a provision in a spending bill last month specifically requiring that the Trump administration turn over the report.

Why wont Trump obey the law and hand over the document? My guess is that his people are afraid to let anyone see the Commerce report because its embarrassingly thin and incompetent. To be honest, I have some doubts about whether the report even exists. Remember, the Commerce Department is run by Wilbur Ross, whom readers of my colleague Gail Collins voted Trumps worst Cabinet member, which is quite a distinction given the competition.

Beyond all that, why does Trump even want to impose tariffs on European cars? Obviously it has nothing to do with national security. But whats it really about?

Part of the answer may be that the self-proclaimed Tariff Man still believes that protectionism will revive U.S. manufacturing, even though the evidence says that his trade war had the opposite effect.

Beyond that, it appears that Trump tried to use the threat of auto tariffs to bludgeon European nations into backing him up in his confrontation with Iran. This is, by the way, a clear violation both of U.S. law, which does not give the president discretion to impose tariffs for reasons unrelated to economics, and of our international agreements, which prohibit this kind of bullying.

And remember, the nations Trump was trying to bully are or were among our most important allies, part of the coalition of democracies we used to call the Free World.

So how should we think about the auto tariff saga? At one level its part of the broader story of Trumps trade war, which has raised prices for American consumers, hurt U.S. businesses and farmers and deterred business investment by creating uncertainty.

But these economic considerations are, Id argue, much less important than the political aspects. Trumps scofflaw behavior with regard to auto tariffs is part of a broader pattern of abuse of power and contempt for the rule of law. On every front, Trump treats U.S. policy as a tool he can deploy as he chooses, in his own interests, without seeking congressional approval or even informing Congress about what hes doing or why.

Basically, the man in the White House operates on the principle that letat, cest Trump. Its a principle nobody who believes in American ideals should accept.

@paulkrugman
Dublin, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Vietnam Cement Industry Report 2020-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Thanks to strong domestic supply and robust export activities, Vietnam cement and clinker sales volume reached record high in 2018, increasing rate 58.71% YoY, which made Vietnam ranked first of cement exporter.



According to this market research, compared to China or other developed countries, low human resources cost is one of advantage of Vietnam cement industry. Besides, Vietnam possesses rich ore resources, which are raw materials of cement. The production cost of cement is mainly influenced by coal price.



Construction of infrastructure and booming property industry contributed to increasing domestic consumption of cement in Vietnam in recent years. Several large infrastructure projects are also underway. However, urbanization rate of Vietnam is still very low, only approximately 38% in 2018, which means the consumption of cement is not currently at the peak.



Although production and exports showed an upward trend, cement industry in Vietnam are still facing some challenges, including low efficiency and financial performance, such as average 16.9% EBITDA margin in 2018.



Cement designed capacity in Vietnam is expected to surge in the next three years thanks to aggressive expansion of local manufacturers including Tan Thang, Vissai, and Xuan Thanh. In conclusion, Vietnam is expected to face with continuous supply surplus before reaching equilibrium. In other words, export volume of cement is estimated to keep rising in the future.



Key Topics Covered



1 Development Environment of Vietnam Cement Industry

1.1 Economic Environment

1.1.1 Vietnam's Economy

1.1.2 Minimum Wage Standard in Vietnam

1.2 Policy Environment

1.2.1 Preferential Policies on Foreign Investment

1.2.2 Policies Related to Cross-Boarder Trade

1.3 Research Methods of the Report

1.3.1 Parameters and Assumptions

1.3.2 Data Sources



2 Analysis on Market Status of Vietnam Cement Industry

2.1 Supply of Vietnam Cement Industry

2.1.1 Output of Vietnam Cement Industry

2.1.2 Capacity of Vietnam Cement Industry

2.2 Production Cost of Vietnam Cement Industry

2.2.1 Raw Material Cost

2.2.2 Electricity Cost

2.2.3 Coal Cost

2.2.4 Human Resources Cost

2.3 Demand on Cement in Vietnam

2.3.1 Consumption of Cement in Vietnam

2.3.2 Infrastructure

2.3.3 Real Estate

Story continues

3 Analysis on Import and Export of Cement

3.1 Overview of Cement Imports and Exports in Vietnam

3.2 Major Export Destinations of Vietnam Cement

4 Major Cement Manufacturers in Vietnam

4.1 Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation

4.2 The Vissai Cement Group

4.3 Xuan Thanh Cement Joint Stock Company

4.4 Nghi Son Cement Corporation (NSCC)

4.5 Luks Group (Vietnam Holdings) Co. Ltd.

4.6 Tan Thang Cement Joint Stock Company

5 Prospect of Cement Industry in Vietnam

5.1 Factors influencing Vietnam Cement Industry

5.1.1 Market Driving Force and Opportunities

5.1.2 Threats and Challenges

5.2 Forecast on Production and Export of Vietnam Cement, 2020-2024

5.2.1 Forecast on Production

5.2.2 Forecast on Demand

5.2.3 Forecast on Export



List of Charts

Chart 1.1 Vietnam's GDP Gross at current prices by economic sector, 2012-2018 (VND billion)

Chart 1.2 Vietnam's GDP per Capita, 2012-2018

Chart 1.3 Minimum Monthly Wage (VND million) in Vietnam, 2013-2020

Chart 2.1 Production of Cement in Vitenam, 2014-Jun. 2019

Chart 2.2 Vietnam Renewable Energy Target 2020-2030

Chart 2.3 Production of Coal in Vietnam, 2014-2018

Chart 2.4 Major Sources of Coal Imports in Vietnam, 2018 - Nov. 2019 (unit in ton)

Chart 2.5 Comparison between Minimum Wages in Vietnam, China and USA, 2019 unit: USD

Chart 2.6 Consumption of Cement in Vietnam, 2017-Jun. 2019 (unit in million tons)

Chart 2.7 Housing Area in Vitenam, 2009-2019

Chart 2.8 Investment on Property in Vietnam, 2014-2018

Chart 3.1 Import Volume of Clinkers in Vietnam2005-2011unit: kilo tons

Chart 3.2 Export Volume and Value of Cement and Clinkers in Vietnam, 2014-Jun. 2019

Chart 3.3 Major Export Destinations of Vietnam Cement, Jan. - Nov. 2019

Chart 4.1 Profile of Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation

Chart 4.2 Profile of the Vissai Cement Group

Chart 4.3 Profile of Xuan Thanh Cement Joint Stock Company

Chart 4.4 Profile of Nghi Son Cement Corporation (NSCC)

Chart 4.5 Profile of Group (Vietnam Holdings) Co. LTD.

Chart 4.6 Profile of Tan Thang Cement Joint Stock Company

Chart 5.1 Forecast on Output Volume of Cement in Vietnam, 2020-2024

Chart 5.2 Forecast on Consumption Volume of Cement in Vietnam, 2020-2024

Chart 5.3 Forecast on Export Volume of Cement from Vietnam, 2020-2024

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lymygf

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.



CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

Iran's banks and financial institutions allocated $51.2 billion of loans to the service sector of the country in the first nine months (from March 21 to Dec. 21, 2019) of the current Iranian year, Trend reports referring to Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

According to the CBI report, loans of $6.4 billion were allocated for the establishment of facilities in the service sector, and $27.3 billion of loans were allocated for the support of working capital in the service sector.

Moreover, $1.57 billion were allocated for repairs in the sector and $5.02 billion for development projects.

CBI noted that $3.6 billion of loans were issued for the purchase of various items (including equipment), while $686 million were allocated for housing purchase.

Over $6.4 billion were issued for other products within the service sector.

During the nine months (from March 21 to Dec. 21, 2019) of this Iranian year, the amount of loans issued to various economic sectors in Iran increased by 29.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

Iranian banks and financial institutions have issued loans worth a total of $149.1 billion to various sectors over the nine months.
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Monday said that party high command will take a decision as far as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) presidentship is concerned.



"The party high command will take a decision as far as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee presidency is concerned. We do not have two groups in our party. We are one. It is just media speculation that there are two groups in the Congress. If you have evidence, give it to me," Siddaramaiah told reporters.

Earlier today, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister K Rahman Khan said leaders like DK Shivakumar should lead the party at the state level.

"Our leadership at the national level should take a decision as soon as possible so far as KPCC presidential post is concerned. Delay is creating more confusion in the party and among the people. It is important for the Congress to give responsibility to a person who can fight for the party in Karnataka," K Rahman Khan had told ANI.

"DK Shivakumar is a controversial man, but he fights for the party. He is dedicated. He can handle pressure and is capable of leadership," he added. (ANI)


DALLAS, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Veneto Holdings, LLC, is a private business; its shareholders are or were private shareholders of Generex Biotechnology, Inc. (" Generex "). Veneto writes to correct the false record Generex, and its CEO, Joe Moscato, have placed in the public domain. Mr. Moscato has made numerous false and defamatory public statements about Veneto and its shareholders, including a series of them in Generex's press releases, including those dated January 15 and January 16, 2020, and on a public investor conference call on January 21, 2020. Veneto cannot comment about any unrelated parties referenced in Generex's press releases nor its public investor call, however, Veneto wishes to provide the following facts about its own dealings with Generex:

1. In October 2018, after months of diligence and negotiation, NuGenerex  a subsidiary of Generex Biotherapeutics, and Veneto entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement (the " APA ") wherein Generex purchased certain "operating assets of eight of Veneto's pharmacies, a wholesale pharmacy purchasing company and an in-network laboratory." Most importantly, Generex purchased Veneto's MSO Platform (see Generex public announcement dated October 9, 2018, pg. 1). Schedule 2.1(c) of the October APA shows that Generex did NOT purchase several Veneto assets, including Veneto itself, as well as "Medoc Health Services, LLC, Total Rx Care, LLC, Messorio Healthcare Services, LLC, Forman Pharmacy Management, LLC, Smile Pharmaceutical, Inc., Luna Pharmacy Management, LLC, Pure Pharmacy, LLC, Growth Pharmacy Management, LLC, Pharmacare Texas, Inc. and any entity which has been formed by the Seller but does not conduct any business operations or own any of the assets at the time of Closing."

2. The original purchase price in the APA was $30,000,000 cash, payable at a closing which was to occur on or before November 1, 2018, (after ownership and control over Veneto's pharmacy assets had already been transferred).

3. On November 1, 2018, Veneto closed on the transaction with Generex. However, NuGenerex converted its cash payment price into a $35,000,000 note payable on or before January 15, 2019, (the " First APA Amendment "). The note was guaranteed by Generex and by Joe Moscato, personally. On November 2, 2018, Generex issued a press release titled "Generex Biotechnology finalizes acquisition of Remaining Veneto Operating Assets." Therein, Mr. Moscato touted the MSO platform in particular and the promise it held for Generex's business.

4. In January 2019, Generex approached the Veneto shareholders with the realization that it would not be able to fund the $35,000,000 note on January 15, 2019. The parties agreed this time to amend the note and the APA (the " Second APA Amendment "), to allow Generex to issue $15,000,000 worth of Generex shares to the Veneto shareholders directly at $2.50 per share, on or before January 21, 2019, and the balance would be paid either in cash, or if Veneto or its shareholders so elected, in Generex shares, on or before April 30, 2019. The Second Amendment also gave Veneto's shareholders shares of Antigen Express (now NGIO) as an inducement. At no time was any duty for Veneto to provide any unpaid consideration ever identified during the negotiations or in the Second APA Amendment.

5. Once the Second APA Amendment was signed, Generex publicly praised Veneto and the assets it had acquired: "I am also pleased to announce that we have been able to restructure our $35 million debt obligation in a timely manner with the Veneto Group partners through an agreement on the payment of $15.75 million in Generex common stock at the up-market price of $2.50 per share, that satisfies a significant portion of the $35 million obligation, plus $20 million in cash or stock to follow within 90 Days[T]he stock transaction demonstrates the Veneto Group's confidence in our strategic growth plan, because the deal is at a significant premium to our current market valuation." However, Generex failed to issue the promised shares to Veneto on January 21, 2019, as it was contractually obligated to do. On a shareholder call on February 26, 2019, Mr. Moscato explained that Veneto and its shareholders were "entitled" to their Generex stock and to the 4-1 dividend Moscato had announced on January 21, 2019. By this time, Generex had been controlling and operating the Veneto assets for five months. It had full knowledge of Veneto's assets' operations and the cash position, and said nothing of any missing consideration.

6. Now in default on the November 1, 2018, Note and on the Second APA Amendment, on March 15, 2019, Generex again renegotiated the transaction. Ostensibly due to Generex's inability to recredential certain Veneto pharmacies, Generex sought a reduction in the purchase priceeven though those assets had been tendered by Veneto, and their successful recredentialing had never been guaranteed in the APA nor in any of its Amendments. Still, Veneto and Generex entered into a restructuring agreement (the " Restructuring Agreement ") on March 29. 2019. The Restructuring Agreement provided that Generex would issue $21,000,000 worth of Generex shares to Veneto's shareholders at $2.50 per share (8,400,000 shares). In exchange, Veneto and its Shareholders would forgive $14,000,000 of the note principal and accrued interest.

7. Indeed, right after this transaction was consummated, Generex's March 28, 2019, press release focused on the fact that Generex had "saved" shareholders $14,000,000, and that the MSO was the primary valuable asset harvested from the Veneto transaction. This admission would be later adopted by the Delaware Chancery Court when the Vice Chancellor ruled against Generex's lawsuit that sought to claw back the Generex shares from Veneto. The Delaware Chancery Court explained that "Moscato proudly touted the [Restructuring] agreement which reflected a $14 million discount from the original transaction price to reflect the 'true value of the acquired business[.]'" As if affirming the Chancery Court's acknowledgement of Generex's prior statements, on a recent investor conference call on January 21, 2019, Mr. Moscato stated that the real asset Generex was after from Veneto was the MSO platform, and that Generex received it.

8. Generex's repeated claim that Veneto received shares it should not have, and that its shareholders' Rule 144 opinion letters were fraudulent because Veneto still owes consideration to Generex is contradicted by the Restructuring Agreement itself. In that agreement, Veneto agreed to take $14,000,000 less in consideration but only if Generex delivered the shares it promised (8,400,000) by April 20, 2019. The March 28, 2019, Restructuring Agreement makes no mention of any further obligation Veneto or its shareholders have to deliver any consideration to Generex (nor had, for that matter, the First or Second APA Amendments). In fact, the face of the Restructuring Agreement reflects the opposite: that no further consideration is owed.

9. Paragraph 29 of the Restructuring Agreement says that "The Generex, Antigen, and LTIP Shares, when delivered to the Veneto Members (and Veneto in the case of the LTIP Shares) in accordance with this Agreement for the consideration expressed herein, will be validly issued, fully paid, and nonassessable with no personal liability attaching to the ownership thereof and will be free and clear of all liens." This paragraph's reference to the fact that (a) the shares were being delivered to Veneto and its members "for the consideration expressed herein"  and that agreement says nothing of any collateral consideration owed to Generex under the original APA or its amendments; and (b) that once delivered, the shares are "fully paid", conclusively rebuts Mr. Moscato's false rationalization that Generex is still "owed" some unspecified "consideration" for those shares. The truth is that Generex contracted away any further consideration in exchange for a reduction of $14,000,000 in the purchase price, and for the release of Mr. Moscato's personal guarantee of the $35,000,000 note. Thus, when Generex claims that the Veneto Members sold all of their shares in violation of SEC Rule 144 because not all consideration was received for the shares, it is simply untrue.

10. Generex failed to issue the shares on April 20, 2019 as promised. Generex was compelled by Veneto and its shareholders' lawyers to issue the Generex and Antigen shares, finally, around May 8, 2019.

11. However, to prevent Veneto or its shareholders from selling any Generex shares, Generex sued Veneto and its shareholders in Delaware Chancery Court in September 2019. Generex at the time did not argue to the Delaware Court that consideration was still owed. In fact, Generex's filings in Delaware are completely silent on that issue. Instead, Generex contended that Veneto had not disclosed material risks related to certain assets. The Chancery Court rejected Generex's entire theory. For one thing, the material risks Generex identified had in fact been disclosed to Generex and were listed in the schedules to the APA. And in any event, the risks Generex cited in its pleadings related to assets that Generex did not even purchasethose assets were among those expressly excluded on Schedule 2.1(c) of the APA. The Chancery Court also found that Generex's stock price actually increased even after some of those risks materialized.

12. Generex is again suing Veneto and its shareholders in an Arbitration in Dallas to claw back the shares claiming that Veneto misrepresented material risks (a theory which the Delaware court already treated as meritless), and that Veneto has not fully tendered consideration for the 8,400,000 shares. Both of these theories are false and Moscato's continued expenditures of valuable shareholder dollars in what appears to be a personal crusade, is tragic.

13. Neither Veneto nor any of its members has had any control over Generex's operations. Therefore, Mr. Moscato's (again, incorrect) assertion that they should have filed any SEC process, or that their Rule 144 restrictions should have lasted 1 year instead of six months, is both legally and factually inaccurate.

14. As per the Restructuring Agreement dated 3/28/19, Veneto and its shareholders sold certain assets to Generex for stock at $2.50 per share and have not had the right to sell since October 2019, at the earliest, meaning Veneto and its shareholders have not enjoyed a public stock price above their purchase price at any time, and Generex's delays have cost Veneto and its shareholders millions of dollars in lost shareholder value.

In summary, Veneto's interests are aligned with all public shareholders' interests. Veneto rejects Mr. Moscato's false and disingenuous recitations of the facts as unproductive and unprofessional. His assertions that the Veneto shareholders were "puking shares" onto the market and that Veneto CEO Kevin Kuykendall misappropriated working capital from Generex are entirely specious. Veneto views these statements as distracting Generex's management from the important business of building Generex's value for all shareholders. Veneto reserves all its legal rights and remedies against Generex and Mr. Moscato.

SOURCE Veneto Holdings
Crude prices extended declines on Monday, dropping below $60 for the first time in nearly three months as the death toll from China's coronavirus rose and more businesses were forced to shut down, stoking expectations of slowing oil demand.

Brent crude fell by $1.79 a barrel, or 2.95%, to $58.90 by 0903 GMT, its lowest since late October. Oil prices last fell below $60 on Nov. 1.

U.S. crude was down by $1.63, or 3%, at $52.55.

Global stock exchanges also fell as investors grew increasingly anxious about the widening crisis. Demand spiked for safe-haven assets, such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes.

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud said on Monday that OPEC and allied global producers led by Russia can help to balance the oil markets in response to any demand changes.

He also said the Kingdom, the de-facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was watching developments in China and that he felt confident the new virus would be contained.

Markets are being "primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite (the virus') very limited impact on global oil demand," the minister said.

Prince Abdulaziz added that the outbreak of the SARS virus in 2002-2003 did not lead to a significant reduction in oil demand.

OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, have been withholding supply to support oil prices for nearly three years and on Jan. 1 increased their agreed output reduction by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.7 million bpd through March.

Prince Abdulaziz said on Friday the aim of OPEC+ was to cut seasonal inventory builds that typically occur in the first half of the year. All options would be open when OPEC+ meets in Vienna in March, he said.

Brent crude oil prices dropped by nearly 14% since a spike in tensions between the United States and Iran took prices to a closing high above $68 a barrel on Jan. 6.

The losses since are in spite of a fall in production from Libya by 75% to less than 300,000 barrels per day because of an ongoing blockade on oilfields.

"Investor fears on oil demand have risen considerably, driven by unfavorable U.S. inventories and ... concerns on impact from the coronavirus outbreak," Goldman Sachs said in a note.
The AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi in the 2015 Assembly polls, and in 2020 is aiming for an even higher target.

New Delhi, Jan 27 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday held roadshows in Narela and Bawana Assembly constituencies and urged people to vote for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in higher numbers so that they can break their own record of 2015.

Addressing the hundreds of people who came for the roadshow, Kejriwal urged them to step out on February 8 to cast their votes.

"I urge you to step out on February 8 and cast your vote. Press the "broom" button (AAP's election symbol) so hard that we will break the record of 2015," Kejriwal said as he thanked people for coming for the roadshow despite cold and drizzle.

Hundreds of volunteers, holding placards, joined Kejriwal as they danced to the tune of the party's campaign song -- "Lage raho Kejriwal".

Kejriwal was accompanied by Sharad Chauhan, party's MLA candidate from Narela during his roadshow in Narela. Bawana MLA candidate Jai Bhagwan Upkar accompanied Kejriwal as he held the roadshow in the constituency.

Later in the evening, Kejriwal will hold another roadshow at Gandhi Nagar.

Delhi is going to the polls on February 8.

nks/dpb
The United States (US) department of treasury has released new rules, governing investment into the US that Indian executives, especially in the technology, infrastructure and data sectors, ought to study carefully. The US is Indias largest trading partner, and over the last decade, Indian businesses have more than doubled their investment into the US, with foreign direct investment approaching $10 billion annually. This increased investment comes with an increased need for businesses to be sensitive to the unique regulations of both countries, especially when those laws reflect a major change in policy.

Such a change will go into effect on February 13. In 2018, in a rare instance of bipartisanship, the Congress granted new powers in the form of expanded authority and increased resources to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). This body is charged with repelling whats seen as unprecedented threats to American technological leadership. For at least a decade, there has been growing evidence that Americas military competitors  most notably China  are directing investments into the US in a manner that could serve political and national security objectives rather than purely commercial ends. Unfortunately, this has brought into suspicion a broad range of transactions, including well-intentioned business deals that could inadvertently provide foreign adversaries tools to compromise US national security.

The new CFIUS regulations are a historic expansion of the authority, intention and capability of the US government to scrutinise foreign investment. It directs regulators to examine transactions that grant influence to foreign entities through board seats, access to non-public sensitive information, and management of technology deemed to be critical to US national security  a very broad set of parameters. For the first time, there is no minimum threshold of investment to define foreign control such that an investment of even less than 10% can trigger government action.

This is due, in large part, to the fact that long gone are the days when Americas cutting-edge technology is produced primarily in government-funded research centres. Today, technology is resident in private hands that are open to transactions that maximise profit. So, CFIUS will now scrutinise such transactions among businesses that produce, design, test, manufacture, fabricate, or develop technologies deemed to be critical; or own, operate, manufacture, supply, or service critical infrastructure; or maintain or collect personal data judged to be sensitive and a threat to national security by the US government.

These new regulations move money in a manner that can have a major financial impact on unprepared businesses. Consider the example of an average $500 million merger or acquisition by a foreign firm of a US health care IT company. Such a transaction would likely include:

 $1.5 million in legal fees (for the merger and acquisition, due diligence, and so on)

 $7 million in investment banking fees

 $2 million in C-suite executive and management time (at least)

 $1 million in miscellaneous expenses (accounting, tax, consultants, etc.)

So thats $11.5 million just to get the deal closed. Now if this deal wasnt structured with CFIUS compliance in mind, a company could face $1-2 million in legal and crisis management/public relations expenses to defend the unwinding and convince the public that there has been no wrongdoing.

Yet, while substantial, this cost would likely pale in comparison to the loss in enterprise value caused by business disruption. Assume the company has $50 million in profit and is valued at 10 times its profit with projected growth of 10%. Now, as a result of the disruption, negative press, and turnover from employee departures, the company loses 10% of its profit and growth slows to 8% causing its valuation to decline to say 9x instead of 10x. The business is now worth $405 million, instead of $500 million. A $100+ million has just vanished.

As more Indian companies look to conclude deals in the US in the technology, infrastructure or sensitive data business, there is good reason for executives from the C-suite down to pay attention to these new policies and structure transactions with CFIUS in mind. For good or ill, its going to be part of the price of doing business in Americas booming economy.

Benjamin Schwartz is senior director at the Chertoff Group. He previously served as the India director in the Office of the US secretary of defence, and at the US-India Business Council

Thew views expressed are personal
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a Lunar New Year performance with family members and high-ranking officials at the Samjiyon Theater in Pyongyang, Saturday, in this footage aired by the state-run Korean Central Television the following day. From left are Kim, his wife Ri Sol-ju, aunt Kim Kyong-hui, sister Kim Yo-jong and Jo Yong-won, a close aide to the leader. Yonhap



By Jung Da-min



Kim Kyong-hui, the aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a once-influential figure in the country's leadership, has made her first public appearance in six years, quashing rumors that she had been killed or sent into exile. She had been out of the public eye since her husband Jang Song-thaek was executed in December 2013.



According to North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency, Sunday, the North Korean leader had attended a Lunar New Year performance the day before at the Samjiyon Theater in Pyongyang with his family members and high-ranking officials including his wife Ri Sol-ju, aunt Kim Kyong-hui, sister Kim Yo-jong, the country's de facto second-in-command Choe Ryong-hae and other top officials Ri Il-hwan, Jo Yong-won and Hyon Song-wol.



The fact that Kim Kyong-hui's name was listed after Choe's, in particular, raised speculations that she might have assumed a new role in the country's leadership, as North Korean state media typically names officials in order of rank.



North Korea watchers say that Kim's appearance with his family members seems to be aimed at solidifying his legitimacy by highlighting blood ties following his announcement of a major policy shift at the four-day Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, in a move to strengthen internal solidarity among political leaders.



Born as the youngest child of North Korea's founding President Kim Il-sung and his second wife Kim Jong-suk, Kim Kyong-hui (born 1946) was their only daughter. The couple had two sons, Kim Jong-il and Kim Pyong-il. After Kim Jong-il succeeded his father as the leader of the country, Kim Kyong-hui held sway over the country's major economic projects together with her husband Jang.



North Korea watchers say Kim Jong-un's appearance with his aunt might also suggest that Kim was trying to ward off criticism for his role in the events that led to the execution of his uncle.




Thanks to the work of one University of Montana power couple, tea drinkers in Missoula and around the world can more easily know if the tea theyre drinking helped keep Asian elephants alive.

Scott and Lisa Mills decade of work developing certification standards for elephant-friendly tea reached a major milestone earlier this month with the first official release of its certification standards, leaving behind the pilot phase that helped stock a small amount of elephant-friendly teas around town.

With 70 percent of Indias Asian elephant habitat overlapping with tea estates, managing the farms that produce the second most popular beverage in the world in a way that protects elephants has the potential to make a huge impact on the endangered species. Only water is more popular than tea.

Lisa Mills manages the UM Broader Impacts Groups wildlife conservation and enterprise program, and has been spending several weeks each year working on the ground with tea growers in India to develop the program.

After joining her husband, Scott, a wildlife biology professor, on a sabbatical in Bhutan in 2010, the couple became interested in working on elephant conservation. Lisa, who has worked in education, began working with local people to develop lesson plans for teaching conservation in schools, but quickly realized that wouldnt be enough.

After watching young people chasing after elephants and throwing rocks, I realized its much more than just preparing lesson plans with teachers, you have to figure out whats going on that would make them do that, she said. So we gave out cameras and taught them how to tell the story of what was going on through photography and GPS units to track what was happening.

Among the things they documented were baby elephants dying in irrigation ditches, electric wires shocking elephants to death, and agrochemicals poisoning the elephants, as well as human-elephant conflicts causing both humans and elephants to be killed.

Scott pointed to employing locals to record the data as not only essential to developing the science-backed standards, but to forming relationships with the farmers that ultimately need to implement changes.

The role Lisas taken is actually pretty unconventional, he said. A lot of conservation efforts come from big organizations that come in and talk to directors, government people, academics, and implementing anything is top-down, pushing down. What shes been doing is gaining trust on the ground. So she built this by talking to tribal people, community growers, everyone from the tea pickers to various people in the villages. She built it from the bottom up, and I think thats the reason for its success.

The couple worked with the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network to develop the labeling standards, and already the elephant-friendly teas are available in Missoula at the Good Food Store, UC Market, Lake Missoula Tea Company, Butterfly Herbs and Rattlesnake Market.

With two large tea estates and two small farms under review, and more in the beginning stages of becoming certified, the teas could soon be much more widely available.

Scott said the backing of UMs host of conservation-minded scientists was essential in developing standards that were forward thinking, rather than just trying to stop tea from being grown in elephant habitat.

Instead of just saying theres a conservation catastrophe, we spend a lot of time at UM thinking about solutions and how do we make it evidence-based to show how it feeds back directly into improving conditions for wild animal populations, he said. Weve often thought about conservation as, to do it, you have to shut down business or you need to build a fence around it, in kind of a simple caricature of conservation. But thinking about how one of the major industries can actually work to save the Asian elephants is transformative.

Please sign up on Missoulian.com to subscribe to Under the M, the weekly email about the University of Montana and higher education news in Montana.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 20:22:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ZAGREB, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia's Prime Minister Marjan Sarec on Monday announced his resignation and called for a snap election in the European country, the official news agency STA reported.

During a press conference in the capital Ljubljana, Sarec said he was resigning as he was unable to achieve his aims within the current form of the minority government.

"With 13 MPs and this coalition, I can not fulfill the expectations of the people at the moment, but I can fulfil them after elections," STA quoted Sarec as saying.

His resignation comes after Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj stepped down earlier on Monday over differences regarding health insurance.

The ruling center-left minority coalition led by Sarec held only 43 of 90 seats in parliament after losing the support of the opposition Left Party in November.
Hashem Abedi, the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, is due to face trial at the Old Bailey

The younger brother of the Manchester Arena bomber is due to go on trial this week accused of mass murder.

Hashem Abedi, now 22, was allegedly involved in planning the suicide attack on May 22, 2017.

His brother Salman Abedi, 22, detonated an explosive vest as music fans left an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people and injuring 260 more.

Before the attack, the defendant, who was raised in Manchester, left Britain and travelled to Libya.

He was arrested in Tripoli and extradited to the UK in July last year to face 22 charges of murder, one count for each victim.

Expand Close The 22 victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack (Greater Manchester Police/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Hashem Abedi also faces a single count of attempted murder representing all the other victims, and conspiring with his brother to cause explosions.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is due to appear at the Old Bailey for the start of his trial on Monday.

The case, being heard by Mr Justice Baker, is expected to be opened by prosecutor Duncan Penny QC later in the week.

Loved ones of the victims will be able to hear the evidence in Court Two of Londons Central Criminal Court or by special video links.

The case is expected to go on for up to eight weeks, ahead of an inquiry to be held in Manchester.
Motorola has been out of the flagship phone scene for a while. That could all change, as one leakster says the Motorola Edge Plus (Edge+), a Verizon exclusive, is coming to market later this year.

Motorola Edge Plus (+) could be a Verizon exclusive flagship

Well-known industry leaker Evan Blass (Twitter handle @evleaks) says that the Motorola Edge Plus could be an exclusive Verizon flagship in the works. The Motorola flagship could head to top US carrier Verizon Wireless. There are no other details available regarding this handset, other than its name, flagship status, and that it could be a Verizon-only phone.

Defining Flagship: How would the Motorola Edge Plus fit the mold?

The Motorola Edge+ could be a flagship. If it is, it would have to meet certain requirements. For one, Motorola would likely have to place a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC in the handset. 5G would be the best cellular connectivity. After all, Verizon is pushing its 5G connectivity. Then, theres the 128GB of minimum internal storage. 6-8GB of RAM and a triple rear camera setup are other flagship qualities these days.

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Alongside these features comes an in-display fingerprint sensor. Since the Motorola Edge+ would be a flagship phone, IP68 water and dust certification would match some other premium phones.

Theres no way to know what the Edge+ will bring to the market. With Motorola releasing its foldable Razr phone soon, the company is back in the flagship business.

Motorola Edge+: New Phone, Nostalgic Name

The new flagship, Motorola Edge+, is a new phone but with a nostalgic name. The name conjures up memories of Samsungs one-hit-wonder flagship, the Galaxy S6 edge+ (with a lowercase e; keep that in mind). The Galaxy S6 edge+ was unveiled in Fall 2015, the same year as the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. The handset was announced alongside the Galaxy Note 5 at Samsungs last Unpacked 2015 event.

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The Galaxy S6 edge+ was nothing more than a wider-screened version of the regular S6 edge sibling. It was called edge+ because it provided a little something more, a larger edge, perhaps.

When it comes to the Motorola Edge+, theres little to go on except to recall that this moniker brings back memories of Samsungs own handset. Samsung is mellowing out its curved display. What an ironic time to see Motorola unveil a curved display (if thats even what the Edge+ is).

Motorolas new foldable Razr: a catalyst for the Motorola Edge+

The Motorola Edge+ could be a unique take on Samsungs edge, though. In that regard, the upcoming Edge+ could be in the same vein as Motorolas new Razr foldable phone. The foldable Razr phone (2019) isnt an entirely new take on the Razr flip phones of bygone days. In theory, making a smartphone that folds in half is not much different than crafting the old flip phone. And yet, its a huge step forward for Motorola.

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One of the former giants of the flip phone era, Motorola may just be prepared to live on the innovative edge and go where no OEM has gone before. The Razr foldable proves that, whatever lies in store, Motorola is definitely back.
BOISE, IdahoPolice say the mother of two missing kids has been found in Hawaii along with her new husband, but theres still no sign of the children in the cross-country investigation that includes several mysterious deaths.

Police in Kauai pulled over Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell near a beachside resort on Saturday, later searching them and their car for any evidence. But authorities in Idaho say theres no sign that 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan ever made it to Hawaii, and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are still searching for the kids who havent been seen since September.

They also served Vallow with a court order from Idaho, directing her to bring her kids to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare by Thursday or face legal action. Still, neither Lori Vallow nor Chad Daybell has been charged or arrested in connection with the matter, Kauai police said Sunday in a prepared statement.

The strange case began last July, after Vallows estranged husband Charles Vallow was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, in an altercation at their home in Phoenix. At the time, Cox said the shooting was in self-defense, but the case remains under investigation. In December, Cox also died of unknown causes, and the police in Gilbert, Arizona, is still waiting for toxicology test results in his death investigation.

Lori Vallow moved to eastern Idaho with the kids about a month after Charles Vallows death. Extended family members grew concerned as their contact with the kids tapered and then stopped completely, and the police in Rexburg, Idaho, said the children were last seen in late September, though Vallow never reported them missing.

Meanwhile, investigators just one county away were also digging into a mystery. Daybells last wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes on Oct. 19. Chad Daybell married Vallow about two weeks later.

In November, responding to concerns from the extended family that they hadnt heard from the children, Rexburg police paid a visit to Vallow to ask her and Daybell about the kids. The couple told officers the kids had gone to live with relatives in Arizona, police saida claim they quickly discovered wasnt true. When investigators returned to Vallows home the next day, the couple was gone.

The Fremont County Sheriffs office began to question the circumstances surrounding Tammy Daybells death. They worked with authorities in Utah, where she was buried, to have her body exhumed for an autopsy and additional testing in December.

Investigators also searched Chad Daybells home earlier this month, removing 43 items, mostly phones, computers and other technological devices, Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries said.

The county is still waiting on forensic tests of Tammy Daybells remains and items seized from the home, Humphries said, calling Chad Daybell a person of interest in the death and in the case of the missing kids.

Of course, for Lori to present the kids, that would solve a lot problems, but were also waiting for test results to happen, Humphries said on Monday.

Madison County Prosecutor Sid Brown was still in Hawaii on Monday and unable to immediately be reached to answer questions about whether Vallow would face civil or criminal contempt of court charges if she failed to produce the children by the deadline.

The Vallow family has ties to Hawaii, and Lori Vallow was previously listed as a registered agent for a business there, according to state records. Vallow and Daybell had been staying on Kauai for an unconfirmed period of time, the Kauai Police Department said.

KPDs desire is to continue to assist the Rexburg police in whatever way we can with their efforts to locate the missing children, Kauai Police Chief Todd Raybuck said in a prepared statement. Its our sincere hope that the children have a safe return.

Rexburg Police Capt. Gary Hagen said he couldnt release any additional details on the case because of the ongoing investigation, which now includes state and local law enforcement agencies in at least four states as well as the FBI.

We can further confirm that Tylee and J.J. were not with Lori and Chad and there is no evidence that Tylee and J.J. were ever in Hawaii, the Rexburg Police Department said in a statement.

Child protection cases are normally sealed, but the Madison County Prosecutors Office was given permission from the court to reveal that a child protective action had been taken in regards to Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, along with the order directing Vallow to produce the kids.

JJ Vallows grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of the children earlier this month. They said they believe Charles Vallow was murdered and also said Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had cult-like beliefs. They also said Charles Vallow was so worried that Lori would kill him during their divorce that he sought out a protection order.

Divorce documents filed by Charles Vallow last February claimed that Lori believed she was a translated being and a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christs second coming in July 2020. Chad Daybell also appears to have somewhat unorthodox beliefs. He has claimed in blog posts and podcasts that he had previously died or had near-death experiences that he said allowed him to receive visions about the future. He also wrote and published several books themed around the apocalypse and at least loosely based on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By Rebecca Boone
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: The stage is set for the AP State Cabinet to approve the abolishing of the AP Legislative Council on Monday.

The Cabinet will meet with the single point agenda of abolishing the Council and formally approve it and later take up discussion in the State Assembly to pass a resolution in this regard and send the same to the Centre.

Even as the ruling YSRC sent out clear signals as to what is going to happen on Monday, the Opposition TD put up a brave face and said the YSRC government could not abolish the Council easily.

The TDP has also decided not to boycott the session on Monday.

ALSO READ| TDP to boycott AP Legislative Assembly as Council gets closer to being junked

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will chair the Cabinet on Monday morning at 9 am and the issue of abolishing the Council, which was mulled by the ruling YSRC after the TDP stalled two crucial bills from passing.

At 11 am, the Assembly will take up a short discussion on consequences arising after Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are rejected by the Council.

The circumstances that are leading to the Councils abolition will be discussed.

A resolution will be passed in the Assembly and the same will be forwarded to the Centre on Monday itself, sources said.

It may be recalled that the crucial Decentralisation Bill and Bill to Repeal AP CRDA were stalled in the Council where the TDP has the numbers in its favour.

Instead of rejecting and sending back the Bills to the Assembly, the Council Chairman MA Shariff referred them to the Select Committee which might take at least three months to study the Bills.

ALSO READ| TDP to abstain from Andhra Pradesh Assembly meet today

After mulling various options and implications of abolishing the Council, the YSRC government decided to go ahead with scrapping the Elders House as the Opposition party will be in majority in the Council till 2021 and the Bills passed in Assembly might be stalled in the Council.

The TDP, on the other hand, alleged that the YSRC tried to poach its members but after failing to do so, it had come up with the idea of scrapping the Council.

The Jagan government will not succeed in its plans to abolish the Council. It is not so easy to do so, TDP MLC Buddha Venkanna said and added that the YSRC should move the resolution in the Assembly only after asking its two Cabinet ministers -- Pilli Subash Chandra Bose and Mopidevi Venkataramana (who are MLCs) -- to resign from the State Cabinet.

The TDP MLC also said that the decisions of the Council (in referring the Bills to the Select Committee) will be in vogue till the time the Council is abolished, which might take even two years.

The TD Legislature Party met on Sunday which at least five MLCs did not attend giving scope to speculations that they might shift loyalties to the ruling YSRC.

However, the TDP leaders maintained that all those who did not attend took permission.

ALSO READ| We dont need to lure TDP MLCs, say Andhra Pradesh ministers on cabinet meet

Meanwhile, Sunday witnessed a couple of interesting developments with Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichandan summoning the Speaker Tammineni Sitaram and Council Chairman M A Shariff to Raj Bhavan and getting first hand information regarding the Assembly and Council proceedings in the past few days.

Send names for panel on Bills: Council chief

Despite the government sending clear indications that it would abolish the Council, Chairman MA Shariff had asked the whips of all political parties to submit the names of their party members to represent the Select Committee which will study the two crucial Bills.
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Amidst Washington, D.C.s impeachment hysteria, the Trump administration has taken aim at the lowest hanging fruit among immigration abuses  birth tourism. Its an underground cottage industry, often criminal, where unscrupulous hotel owners that cater to specific ethnicities advertise abroad to entice women (at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars) to travel to the U.S. to give birth to an American citizen baby.

In a long overdue action, federal authorities recently charged 20 Chinese operators of You Win USA that brought hundreds of women to Irvine, Calif., at costs that ranged from $40,000 to $80,000 to deliver a U.S. citizen. Indictments filed in U.S. District Court charged the perpetrators with immigration fraud, money laundering and identity theft. Lying on a visa application, which the hotel proprietors encouraged, is a crime that makes the petitioner inadmissible. Predictably, many of the indicted fled back to China.

During the last 15 months, President Trump announced hes considering issuing an executive order that would ban awarding citizenship to children whose mothers are in the U.S. illegally or are noncitizens. The U.S. and Canada are the only two advanced nations that grant automatic citizenship to children born on their soil regardless of the parents immigration status.

To discourage birth tourism, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom have modified guidelines by mandating that at least one parent be a citizen of the country or a legal permanent resident who has resided locally for several years. Various bills which Congress introduced in past years with similar requirements went nowhere.

The lax policy in the U.S. is easily abused. Thousands of women, late in their pregnancies, come to the U.S. each year from countries as distant as South Korea or as close as Mexico to give birth. Some arrive legally as temporary visitors, but with the intent of giving birth to an American baby. Others enter illegally. Once the child is born, he or she receives a U.S. birth certificate and qualifies for a passport. The parent and childs futures are linked irreversibly to the U.S.

From this process sprang the term anchor baby, meaning that the childs citizenship status anchors his parents to the U.S.

For decades, controversy has swirled around birthright citizenship. At the ongoing debates core is the U.S. Constitutions 14th Amendment, Section 1 provision: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. Illinois Sen. Lyman Trumbull, one of the 14th Amendments principle authors, said that subject to the jurisdiction of the United States meant subject to its complete jurisdiction, and therefore not owing allegiance to anybody else.

Whether a foreign national either illegally present or present on a temporary, nonimmigrant visa is subject to U.S. jurisdiction is a point worth debating, and one that the Supreme Court may ultimately have to decide. In the meantime, birth tourism is thriving.

No one knows exactly how many American citizen births to tourists or illegally present migrants occur annually. One study found that about 35,000 birth tourism babies are delivered on U.S. soil each year. Additional research showed that each year about 40,000 annual births come from legally present guest workers, students and exchange visitors.

Birthright citizenship serves no legitimate purpose, endangers national security and hurts Americans. The children get Social Security numbers, access to 13 years of free public education, low in-state university tuition and employment privileges. Eventually, they can petition their extended families to enter legally which would significantly accelerate population growth and job competition.

Immigration advocate and former U.S. Immigration and Nationalization Service director Doris Meissner acknowledged birthright citizenships pitfalls. Meissner told The Wall Street Journal, As long as you have birthright citizenship, its true this is something that can be exploited.

President Trump is right to push to end birthright citizenship, and equally correct to criticize birth tourism. U.S. citizenship should be treasured, not handed out like a door prize to disingenuous individuals whove figured out how to exploit the U.S. and its generosity.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

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New Delhi: This weekend is full of surprises for the Bigg Boss contestants and after some intense discussions on Saturday, it is time for some fun. Salman Khan welcomes Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor and the entire team of movie Street Dancer including Raghav Juyal, Salman Yussuf Khan and others. Raghav is extremely happy to his friend Sidharth and greets him with much enthusiasm through MeTV.

Raising the temperature inside and outside the house, Varun gets Sidharth, Paras and Salman Khan to perform the hook step of 'Garmi'. Furthermore, Salman Yusuf Khan advice Rashami dances her worried away while Shehnaz croons the song, Illegal Weapon.

Later, Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor enter the house and greet all contestants. Varun has all praises for Sidharth and shares his experience of working with him. He says he had a great that sharing screen space with Sidharth and that he a very gentle person. He also adds that Sidharth used to be protective of him and Alia while shooting at crowded locations. Varun also expresses that watching fights is interesting but it's getting extreme now, and they should keep things in check.

Up next, Varun and Shraddha give a task to the contestants wherein they have to play musical chairs blindfolded while Varun and Shraddha keep moving around the chairs. Later Remo D'Souza enters the house with a big surprise. Unfolding the mystery, he says that Bigg Boss is giving them another chance to get immunity by reviving the Elite club task.

The contenders for Elite Club will be screened through an interesting task. Clocks with pictures of will the contestants except Asim are placed on a wall and in round two contestants are asked to break the clock of the contestant they don't feel deserves to be in the Elite Club.

After four contenders are elected, they announced that there will be another task to select the winner about which Bigg Boss will inform them at the right time.

Riya Shukla who plays the lead protagonist, Pinky, in COLORS upcoming show Naati Pinky Ki Lambi Love Story, comes on stage and interacts with Salman. He praises Riya for her and enters the house through Me-TV. Talking about the show and her character, Riya and Salma play a quick and fun question-answer segment with the contestants.

And finally, Sidharth Shukla becomes the second contestant to win the Elite club membership. Later, Asim, Rashami and Vishal are seen discussing the upcoming nominations.

Keep reading this space for regular updates on 'Bigg Boss 13'.
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Today we'll look at Total Gabon (EPA:EC) and reflect on its potential as an investment. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires.

Firstly, we'll go over how we calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. Overall, it is a valuable metric that has its flaws. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'.

So, How Do We Calculate ROCE?

The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

Or for Total Gabon:

0.042 = US$170m  (US$4.3b - US$225m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)

Therefore, Total Gabon has an ROCE of 4.2%.

View our latest analysis for Total Gabon

Does Total Gabon Have A Good ROCE?

One way to assess ROCE is to compare similar companies. It appears that Total Gabon's ROCE is fairly close to the Oil and Gas industry average of 5.2%. Setting aside the industry comparison for now, Total Gabon's ROCE is mediocre in absolute terms, considering the risk of investing in stocks versus the safety of a bank account. It is possible that there are more rewarding investments out there.

Total Gabon reported an ROCE of 4.2% -- better than 3 years ago, when the company didn't make a profit. That suggests the business has returned to profitability. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how Total Gabon's past growth compares to other companies.

Story continues

ENXTPA:EC Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is, after all, simply a snap shot of a single year. We note Total Gabon could be considered a cyclical business. You can check if Total Gabon has cyclical profits by looking at this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

How Total Gabon's Current Liabilities Impact Its ROCE

Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets.

Total Gabon has total liabilities of US$225m and total assets of US$4.3b. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 5.3% of its total assets. With low levels of current liabilities, at least Total Gabon's mediocre ROCE is not unduly boosted.

The Bottom Line On Total Gabon's ROCE

If performance improves, then Total Gabon may be an OK investment, especially at the right valuation. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A transgender woman told how she was hit and spit on in a shocking assault while riding the New York subway.

Journalist Serena Daniari posted a heartbreaking video of herself crying after she was reportedly attacked by two people on the C train on Friday as she begged people to 'just leave me alone'.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the 'loathsome, transphobic attack' as police confirm they are looking for two people in connection with a transphobic assault.

I was just attacked by a couple on the train. They spit on me and hit me and called me transphobic slurs. pic.twitter.com/YgPDZncIpo  Serena Daniari (@serenajazmine) January 25, 2020

Transgender journalist Serena Daniari (left) told how she was hit and spit on in a shocking assault while riding the New York subway. Police are looking for two people in connection with the transphobic attack on Ms Daniari (right)

In the clip, with tears streaming down her face, Ms Daniari says: 'I swear I wish people would just leave me alone.

'I don't do anything. I just want to be left alone.'

Ms Daniari was reading a book with her headphones in when a man and a woman approached her.

The man said something but she couldn't hear him, so she asked him if he could say it again.

When the man heard her voice, he spouted anti-trans slurs including: 'You're a guy,' Buzzfeed News reports.

In the clip, with tears streaming down her face, Serena Daniari says: 'I swear I wish people would just leave me alone. I don't do anything. I just want to be left alone.'

Ms Daniari said: 'It only escalated to an aggressive situation after he realized I'm transgender.'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the 'loathsome, transphobic attack'

The man slapped her in the face and spit on her.

The woman knocked Ms Daniari's phone out of her hand when she took a photo of them.

The police are now seeking two people in connection with the attack, and have released the picture Ms Daniari took.

In a tweet on Saturday, Mayor de Blasio apologized to Ms Daniari, a journalist at an online magazine.

He wrote: 'Serena, on behalf of your city Im so sorry this happened.

'Transgender and non-binary New Yorkers deserve to travel in their city without fear.'

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told NBC news: 'On behalf of the New York family, my message to Serena Daniari is simple: We have zero tolerance for what happened to you.

'We are sorry for what happened to you. We stand with you in love and respect, and we will catch your attackers and bring them to justice.'

Ms Daniari yesterday tweeted her thanks for 'the outpouring of kind and supportive words' following the attack.

Police have released a picture of two people who are 'wanted for anti-transgender assault on the C train at 155 St and St. Nicholas on Friday 1/24.' Pictured: A New York C train (stock image)

Around 20 per cent of hate crimes are against LGBTQ people, according to FBI data.

There was a 34 per cent increase in violence against transgender people from 2017 to 2018.

More than 25 transgender or gender-nonconforming people in the US were killed in attacks last year.

Police have released a picture of two people who are 'wanted for anti-transgender assault on the C train at 155 St and St. Nicholas on Friday 1/24.'

This comes after a spate of at of hate-crime attacks on public transport in New York.

Earlier this month, a woman hurled abuse at a Jewish woman and threatened to throw her on the subway tracks.

In a tweet on Saturday, Mayor de Blasio apologized to Ms Daniari, a journalist at an online magazine

The suspect was seen in cellphone image taken by the 41-year-old victim on December 2 as they waited on the northbound platform at the Utica Avenue station about 6.30am.

'You 'f-----g Jew with a wig ... I'm going to throw you on the tracks', the woman is heard saying.

A 15-year-old boy was attacked at knife point on a New York bus.

He was approached by two assailants armed with a knife.

Police said they stole his earbuds and yarmulke before taunting him with anti-Semitic slurs.
Previous studies regarding the damage of the Zika virus on the brain had already pointed out the virus's predilection for a certain neural cell: the astrocyte. However, few studies have proposed to identify the infection effects on these cells, as well as their association with developmental alterations, including brain malformations and microcephaly. Recently published in the Scientific Reports journal, a new article sought to unravel the virus reactions on laboratory-created astrocytes, comparing them to the same cells present in the brain tissue of animals and fetuses infected with Zika.

Marked by their branched-tipped structure and vast abundance in the human brain tissue, astrocytes are named after the Greek word for stars. Entangling our sovereign organ, this neural constellation has a fundamental role on our cognitive functions, since it provides metabolic support for neuron cells, participates in the formation of synapses and also composes the blood-brain barrier, a structure that selects the entrance of substances in the brain, protecting it from harmful toxins. The study carried out by the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and other Brazilian institutions, found that part of the neural complications caused by Zika might be related to its damage on astrocytes, which would also contribute to the appearing of brain malformations.

The corresponding author of the article was the neuroscientist Stevens Rehen, a researcher at UFRJ and IDOR involved in several other studies related to Zika, including the first publication to analyze the effects of the virus on laboratory-developed human mini-brains. In the most recent article, Rehen and his team uncovered the changes that this viral infection causes in developing neural cells, as well as their consequences for brain development.

The scientific literature had already identified Zika's attack on astrocytes, but until now, no study had focused on understanding how it affects its functioning." Karina Karmirian, a member of Rehen's group and one of the first authors of the study

Among the damages that the virus causes to these cells are the overload of its mitochondria, DNA breakage, and oxidative stress, the latter being a common disturbance to premature aging, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Multiple analyzes

To achieve the scope of the research, the scientists created separately 3 cell types that are present in the human fetal brain: astrocytes, neurons, and neural stem cells. When infected with the Zika virus, the most severe damages were proven in astrocytes, whose organelles responsible for cellular respiration -- the mitochondria -- started to excessively produce free radicals, generating oxidative stress and changes in their morphology. In addition to the high percentage of cell death, many surviving astrocytes also revealed reduced and irregular cell nuclei after the infection.

Helena Borges, a professor at UFRJ and one of the researchers in the study, detailed why the damage caused by the Zika virus can be permanent in astrocytes. "To repair double-strand DNA breaks, there are two main types of DNA repair: one that uses an entire copy of DNA as a template - the homologous recombination - and a faster repair mechanism yet potentially subject to mutation, which dispenses the presence of an integrated DNA copy: the non-homologous recombination. Proliferating cells, like neural stem cells, can use both repair mechanisms. However, differentiated cells such as astrocytes have a reduced chance of homologous recombination, increasing the chance of permanent mutations appearing in these cells", explains the expert.

The research also analyzed materials regarding brain tissues of fetuses that didn't survive the infection. Scientists have identified greater signs of inflammation in fetal astrocytes, confirming the relevance of these cells on the virus attack pattern. The same inflammatory profile was identified in animal studies: mice infected with the Zika virus also revealed greater vulnerability in their astrocytes, in comparison to neurons. Microglial cells -- which, like astrocytes, are responsible for supporting neurons -- were also notably infected during the process. "These cells have an immune function in the brain and reached an inflammation level close to that of astrocytes during the experiments. The neurons themselves have a low infection, but they depend on communication between astrocytes and microglia for a healthful performance. This leads us into assuming in which way neurons could also be affected in the long term, due to the action of Zika in these cells that are essential to their functioning", informs Karmirian.

The findings on the Brazilian research lead scientists to conclude that, due to the crucial role of astrocytes in the upgrowth and functioning of the brain, their imbalance during neural development should contribute to serious health implications throughout life. This regards not only brain malformations such as microcephaly, but possibly other neurological disorders that could manifest in the adulthood of those infected in the womb, regardless of apparent malformations. The researchers say that due to the fledgling of long-term studies regarding Zika, further investigations will still be needed to determine the consequences of its infection on both children and adults, as possible neurological problems may occur subsequent to the extended action of the virus on young astrocytes.
Imperial Valley News Center

Sixth and Final Defendant Sentenced to Prison for Sophisticated International Cellphone Fraud Scheme

Miami, Florida - A citizen and resident of the Dominican Republic was sentenced Friday in Miami, Florida, to 65 months in prison for multiple criminal charges in connection with a sophisticated global cellphone fraud scheme that involved compromising cellphone customers accounts in the United States and cloning their phones to make fraudulent international calls.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBIs Miami Field Office made the announcement.

Edgar Estarlin Peralta Lopez, 42, pleaded guilty earlier to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access device fraud, the use, production or possession of modified telecommunications instruments and the use or possession of hardware or software configured to obtain telecommunications services; one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida.

According to the plea agreement, Peralta and his co-conspirators participated in a scheme to steal access to existing cellphone accounts, and fraudulently open new cellphone accounts, using the personal information of individuals around the United States.

Peralta admitted that he played at least two roles in the conspiracy. First, he was a telecommunications trafficker. Specifically, Peralta would contract with telecommunication companies to transmit international calls for them for payment and then route those calls through cellphones reprogrammed with stolen or compromised telecommunications identifying information located at call sites in the United States. Peralta and other co-conspirators transmitted thousands of calls to Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and other countries with high calling rates. The calls were later billed to United States customers compromised accounts. Second, Peralta was a line supplier, providing his co-conspirators with stolen or compromised telecommunications identifying information that they then used to reprogram the cellphones they controlled at call sites.

In addition, Peralta admitted to trafficking in approximately 3,158 combinations of stolen or compromised telecommunications identifying information, which were found in around over 1,390 emails he exchanged with co-conspirators. Verizon Wireless reported that fraudulent use of just three of these combinations resulted in a loss of over $33,000. Peralta admitted to a loss amount of at least $315,800.

Peralta is a citizen of the Dominican Republic. He was arrested in the Dominican Republic at the request of the United States and then, in August 2019, extradited to Miami where he is currently in custody.

Peralta is the sixth and last defendant to be sentenced in the case. Previously, defendants Edwin Fana, Farintong Calderon, Jose Santana, Ramon Batista and Braulio de la Cruz pleaded guilty to similar charges and have already been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 36 months to 75 months.

The FBI Miamis Cyber Task Force investigated the case, dubbed Operation Toll Free, which is part of the FBIs ongoing effort to combat large-scale telecommunications fraud. The Criminal Divisions Office of International Affairs handled the extradition in this matter, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service. Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti of the Criminal Divisions Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section is prosecuting the case.
The Busan Harbor Bridge at night / Gettyimagesbank



Two more five-star hotels are to open in Busan's Haeundae district this year, further escalating competition in the district's already crowded hotel market.



According to municipal and industry officials on Monday, Lotte Hotels & Resorts, a unit of Lotte Group, will introduce its luxury brand Signiel to Haeundae this summer, while Shinsegae Chosun Hotel Inc. also plans to debut a new hotel there around the same time.



Haeundae, well known for Haeundae Beach, is the most popular tourist destination in the southern port city.



The 260-room Signiel Busan, Lotte's second Signiel  the first is in Seoul  will open in the 101-story Haeundae LCT complex in June.



Shinsegae Chosun Hotel is now remodeling the Novotel Ambassador Busan, also located in Haeundae, with the aim of reopening the property as a new five-star hotel in July or August, the officials said.



The company will soon unveil the brand name for its new Haeundae hotel, which will have more than 300 guest rooms.



The upcoming opening of the two five-star establishments and a number of other commercial hotels of various sizes is expected to further intensify accommodation competition around Haeundae Beach, which is already lined with more than 10 large hotels.



As of the end of last year, the Haeundae district was home to 22 tourist hotels, accounting for 30 percent of Busan's hotel rooms. In other words, about 3,600 of the port city's 11,000 hotel guest rooms are located in Haeundae.



"Last year, Busan's hotel industry enjoyed booming business due to a series of international events hosted by the city. But the increasing competition may push the management of many hotels into danger," said a local hotel industry official.



Indeed, Haeundae Grand Hotel decided late last year to cease operations after 23 years in business, citing managerial difficulties.



"The increase in competitors has battered our hotel's management, particularly amid a prolonged business slump," said an official from Haeundae Grand Hotel.



On the other hand, some industry officials welcomed the planned opening of Signiel Busan and Shinsegae Chosun Hotel's entry into Haeundae as a source of fresh momentum to further stimulate the area's tourism sector.



They expect that the growing popularity of the "hocance," a new Korean word referring to the culture of spending one's vacation in a hotel, may further boost demand for hotel rooms in Haeundae.



In 2017, a five-star hotel and a luxury lodging facility opened in Gijang County, near Haeundae, but the area's existing hotels were not impacted much by the new competitors, they noted. (Yonhap)


A party boat captain caused more than 1.6million of damage to a pontoon when he fell asleep at the wheel after his newborn had kept him awake the night before, a court heard.

Daniel Wakefield, 38, from Tilbury, Essex, fell asleep while steering the Jewel of London party boat causing it to collide with the Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit dock also damaging a police vessel on the River Thames near Wapping.

More than 100 passengers had disembarked the Jewel at 11pm, after a private event, and the ship was heading to her overnight mooring spot at Millbank when it ploughed into the pontoon with seven people on board.

Father-of-four Daniel Wakefield from Tilbury, Essex, fell asleep while steering the Jewel of London party boat

The Jewel of London boat which is part of the London Party Boats fleet. More than 100 passengers had disembarked the Jewel at 11pm after a private event

CCTV footage played in court today shows the boat reversing into the police vessel and the pontoon causing crew mates to be hurled through the air on December 13 2018.

Southwark Crown Court heard that the pontoon was used to respond to terror threats and other emergencies along 56 miles of the Thames and would cost up to 1.6million to repair.

It will remain out of service until this summer after the collision broke a Syncrolift, which is used to lift vessels in and out of the water for maintenance.

The boat collided with the Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit dock in Wapping and also damaged a police vessel

The court heard how the father-of-four was exhausted from caring for his newborn baby and believed the warmth from the heater made him sleepy.

Sunyana Sharma, prosecuting for the Maritime Coastguard Agency, said: On 13 December the Jewel was booked to host a private party for 135 pass on River Thames.

On that date the skipper was Wakefield and his mate was Jason Foster and there were also six members of bar staff provided for the four-hour party.

CCTV footage from the pontoon shows the Jewel of London party boat and the Robert Peel police vessel

The boat is seen reversing into the pontoon and the Robert Peel police vessel on December 13 2018

Before 11pm the party had concluded and partygoers were leaving at Canary Wharf.

The ship headed to Millbank where she usually moors up during the night.

At 11.05pm the Jewel hit the Met pontoon. Its bow caused considerable damage.

It then hit a moored up police vessel known as the Robert Peel.

Two police officers were on board at the time of the collision, fortunately they were not injured.

At the point of collision there is a bit of force and you can see people moving around inside.

Persons on board the Jewel were thrown forward by the impact and one is seen running to the wheelhouse.

It was disclosed to police that Wakefield had in fact fallen asleep at the wheel.

Wakefield stated in interview that he fell asleep at the wheel - this was a different account to the one he first gave.

No medical reason has been provided as to why he fell asleep. His blood tests came back clear.

M.V Jewel of London The Jewel of London has a maximum capacity of 240 guests. The cost of the boat for a full day on a weekend is 2,040 for six hours. It features a mezzanine-style upper deck and has a panoramic glass roof. Advertisement

He believed the heat from the heater made him sleepy.

He agreed there should have been a dedicated lookout.

The court heard the company was required to assign a lookout in the wheelhouse to help the captain as the bridge from where the boat was steered lacked all-round visibility.

The prosecutor said: London Party Boats stated they thought that requirement should not have been there although they said they saw it on the certificate back in 2014.

The need for a lookout was not passed on to masters as it was not believed to be necessary. The company failed to take all reasonable steps.

The pontoon suffered damage to the concrete pillars of its hoist and the collision meant the lift is no longer safe to use, the court heard.

The prosecutor added: The pontoon is responsible for 56 miles of water up to Hampton Court. It provides 24/7 response to any maritime incidents.

It has a specific task to maintain a presence in London to ensure every passenger on the waters is safe and that includes managing a terror threat.

The Syncrolift is damaged so its ability to provide the best policing has been significantly reduced.

The unit can no longer lift boats in and out of the river from the yard to the water and vice versa.

The pontoon repairs will amount to between 1.2 and 1.6million. Repairs were due to start in summer 2020 but theres been no update on that.

Mr Wakefield has accepted from the outset that he was responsible for the collision and London Party Boats self-reported the incident.

Both parties have been cooperative throughout the investigation.

Seven people were on board the [London Party Boat] vessel.

Bespectacled Wakefield, sobbed as he court heard he might never again set sail on the Thames.

Emily Lauchlan, defending, said: He has not only suffered a loss of income but the loss of his career.

He trained five years as an apprentice and has been working for over 30 years, it was a lifestyle and he had friends and colleagues on the river,

He accepted full liability for his momentary lapse of concentration. Hes a man of immaculate character.

He is a man of very limited means with a family and works almost every hour of every day.

He wishes me to put forward his remorse he has been affected greatly by this accident he is extremely grateful that nobody was hurt.

He has had to give up that lifelong career and love for doing what he did.

Oliver Powell, defending London Party Boats Ltd, argued that the company had not overworked Wakefield and were not responsible for his exhaustion.

Mr Powell added that the family-run company was previously of good character and were bitterly disappointed about the crash.

Mr Wakefield had not been working during the day so had been given sufficient downtime.

CCTV has now been installed on the boat, the defence barrister said.

Judge Philip Bartle QC, sentencing, ordered Wakefield to pay a total of 1,320 in costs and fines and London Party Boats to pay a total of 20,225.

The judge said: Apart from Mr Wakefield hitting his head on the steering wheel no one was injured, although two police officers were on the police launch and the crew of the Jewel were on board.

Had passengers been on board the Jewel, it is highly likely that some would have been injured, possibly seriously.

An inspection found extensive damage to the Jewels bow area.

It was a specific condition of the Jewels passenger safety certificate that the vessel operates with a dedicated lookout in the wheelhouse capable of maintaining all round visibility.

This condition was necessary because the Jewels master did not have all-round visibility because the bridge is on the same level as the upper saloon.

There was no dedicated lookout in the wheelhouse when the collisions occurred. If there had been, neither collision would have occurred.

Both defendants pleaded guilty on full facts basis.

I am sure Mr Wakefield fell asleep because he was tired as a result of his commitments at home.

He has four children and, at the time of the incident, his youngest was only a few months old.

He had been feeding the baby throughout the night.

I am satisfied he did what he thought was the right thing, taking care of his family, with dire consequences.

Wakefield, of Wellington Road, admitted misconduct as master of a vessel by committing an act which caused loss and destruction and was ordered to pay a 1,120 fine and 1,200 in costs.

London Party Boats Ltd admitted failing to ensure the safe operation of the ship and ordered to pay a 5,000 fine and 15,225 in costs.
NEWTOWN - For years, a relentless Sandy Hook denial campaign waged by a retired Florida man against the grieving parents of slain children largely escaped the headlines.

But that changed on Monday when 73-year-old Wolfgang Halbig - a conspiracy extremist who some have called the mastermind of Sandy Hook denial - was arrested on a felony charge of possessing another persons personal information.

Lenny Pozner, whose son was among the 20 first-graders and six educators murdered at Sandy Hook School in 2012, filed the complaint against Halbig, who was accused of emailing Pozners personal information to law enforcement and the media.

For five years, he has used my comprehensive TransUnion report, which he gained illegally, to incentivize and enable other hoaxers and conspiracy theorists to hunt, abuse, and terrorize myself and my family, said Pozner on Monday. He has posted and shared my address, social security number, and some of the most private details of my life, in order to fund his terror campaign against Sandy Hook victims families.

Halbig, could not be reached on Monday night at his home in Sorrento, Fla., where he is free on $5,000 bail.

Pozner, who said Halbig is like a serial killer who wants to be stopped because he cannot stop himself, founded the Honr Network to combat extremists such as Halbig, who Pozner calls the most heinous of internet trolls.

Halbigs conspiracy theory that the worst crime in Connecticut history was a hoax got national exposure when it was promoted by Texas-based extremist Alex Jones on the internet-based Infowars show.

Jones is being sued by Sandy Hook families in three defamation cases in Texas and Connecticut for calling the Sandy Hook massacre staged, synthetic, manufactured, a giant hoax and completely fake with actors with inside job written all over it. Families charged that Jones just wanted to spike viewership and boost internet sales.

Jones has since distanced himself from Halbig, who is also named in the Connecticut suit. Jones claims he no longer believes the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.

Neil Heslin, who lost a son in the Sandy Hook massacre and is suing Jones for defamation in Texas, has also been the target of Halbigs harassing emails.

Heslin and others have lamented that Halbigs behavior was falling through the cracks, because he sent the emails to so many recipients at a time the messages could be interpreted as protected free speech.

Its good news that they finally went after him, Heslin said.

Halbig, who represents himself in the Connecticut defamation lawsuit, is going through pretrial motions in state Superior Court. Jury selection is scheduled for November, 2020.

He is due in court in Florida on Feb. 24 to answer the felony charge.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
The Road to 270 is a weekly column leading up to the presidential election. Each installment is dedicated to understanding one states political landscape and how that might influence which party will win its electoral votes in 2020. Well do these roughly in order of expected competitiveness, moving toward the most intensely contested battlegrounds as election day nears.

The Road to 270 will be published every Monday. The column is written by Seth Moskowitz, a 270toWin elections and politics contributor. Contact Seth at s.k.moskowitz@gmail.com or on Twitter @skmoskowitz.

South Dakota

South Dakota has produced some of the most influential Democrats of the last half century. Tom Daschle served as the Senate Majority Leader from 2001 to 2003. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern, was a former South Dakota Senator.

The state, however, has voted Republican in nearly every presidential election in its history. Democrats have only won here four times, most recently in 1964. However, the states populist character has allowed downballot Democrats to win favor with rural communities even as it repeatedly voted Republican for president. This populism traces back to 1892, the first presidential election in which South Dakota participated. First, though, well look at the states pre-statehood era.

Before Statehood

South Dakota and North Dakota share much of the same history. The following is from our article on North Dakota:

Congress originally organized the Dakota Territory in 1861. It was primarily composed of land acquired from France in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. During the early and mid 1800s, the U.S. traded with, repressed, and eventually drove out Native Americans in the territory.

Both North and South Dakota entered the United States on November 2, 1889, becoming the 39th and 40th states, respectively. Regional differences, as well as disputes over a future capital, pushed the formation of two independent states.

While North Dakota was mostly settled for its farmland, South Dakota had gold. The metal was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 and settlers flocked. Between 1870 and 1880, the regions population grew over 800%, from under 12,000 to over 98,000.

The population continued to grow as railroad expanded through the region allowing easier travel and transport of goods. Construction on the railroad began in 1872 and spread quickly. The population would continue to grow through the 1920s as miners came for gold and homesteaders settled on open farmland. Population peaked in the 1930 Census with nearly 700,000 people.

As with much of the country's westward expansion, South Dakota's early growth often came at the expense of indigenous people. A particularly infamous example, the Wounded Knee Massacre, took place little more than a year after statehood. It marked the climax of federal efforts to repress Indian tribes of the Great Plains.

Early Politics of South Dakota

From its first election in 1892, South Dakota has leaned Republican. Most South Dakota settlers had come from the Midwest or New England. These northerners were natural Republican constituencies, a relic of the Civil War.

The state also had a populist streak. This was due in part to its agrarian character. In 1892, the Populist and Republican parties rallied around Free Silver, a policy to increase the money supply and help indebted farmers. Democrats wanted to stick to the Gold Standard. The Populist and Republican candidates received a combined 87% of South Dakotas vote. Again in 1896, South Dakota voted for the populist Free Silver candidate, although this year the parties had flipped. The Free Silver candidate was Democrat William Jennings Bryan. He edged out Republican William McKinley by less than 1%.

Outside of these election in which the currency question was paramount, South Dakota has been reliably Republican in presidential elections. It would only vote for three more Democrats after 1896.

In 1912, South Dakota was the only state without the Republican Partys official candidate, William Taft, on the ballot. Progressives controlled the state party and decided not to offer a slate of electors for Taft. They instead decided to put up electors for Theodore Roosevelt who had recently split with the Republican Party and was running as a third-party candidate. South Dakota was the only state in which Roosevelt received a majority of the popular vote.

After 1912, South Dakota voted Republican until 1932. From 1920 through 2016, North Dakota and South Dakota would vote the same way in every presidential election.

New Deal Through the 1970s

Like other agriculture-heavy states, South Dakota suffered during the Great Depression. A farming crisis in the 1920s had already weakened the states economy and the ensuing depression exacerbated the problems. In 1932, South Dakota voted for Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal which promised government assistance. South Dakota ranked 7th among the states for per capita spending by New Deal programs.

In 1940, Midwestern native Wendell Willkie was able to win back rural, small town areas in the Northern U.S. Through these victories, he was able to bring South Dakota back to its Republican roots even as he lost the election to Roosevelt. From that year on, with the exception of 1964, South Dakota would vote Republican in every presidential contest.

While South Dakota did vote Republican consistently, it was not always by large margins. In 1972, 1976, 1988, 1992, and 1996, Republicans only won South Dakota by single digits. The states voters also frequently split their ballots and elected downballot Democrats. In 1962, South Dakota elected George McGovern to the Senate  a seat he held through 1981. The state also elected Democratic Senators James Abourezk, Tom Daschle, and Tim Johnson who held office from 1973 to 1979, 1987 to 2005, and 1997 to 2015. Democrats had similar downballot success in the House.

Even so, South Dakota was still red on the presidential level. The state even voted against its own senator, George McGovern, in 1972. Like North Dakota, South Dakotas agrarian populism allowed Democrats who promised to help struggling rural communities win down-ballot even as Republicans dominated presidential politics.

Recent History

In the 1980s, South Dakota began to change. Drawn by low corporate taxes and less regulation, companies began to build branches in Sioux Falls. The citys first big catch was Citibank in 1981. A financial sector sprung up in the city as other banks including Capital One and Wells Fargo made the same move. Soon other industries with ties to the financial sector  including pharmaceutical and cybersecurity  developed. Amy Sullivan and the National Journal write that the presence of Citibank in Sioux Falls has played a significant role in transforming a once sleepy agriculture-dependent town into a growing regional powerhouse with a number of thriving industries outside the financial sector.

In 1980, Sioux Falls had just over 80,000 residents. Now it has reached nearly 200,000. This influx accounts for much of the states overall growth. The states total population has grown from just under 700,000 to around 900,000 in the same 40-year period. As in other states, people are leaving South Dakotas rural regions to live in the more densely populated urban areas.

Even with the banking boom, agriculture, mining, and manufacturing are still major employers in the state. Perhaps its unsurprising that a state composed of blue collar, rural communities and a city dependent on low regulation and taxes has shifted decisively towards Republicans.

Recent Presidential Elections

The 2000 election was a tipping point for South Dakota. While the Republican margin in 1996 was just 3%, in 2000, Republican George Bush defeated Al Gore by 22%. Al Gores brand of liberalism and environmentalism was not popular in much of the Mountain West, including South Dakota.

From 2000 on, South Dakota was far more Republican than the nation overall. Even in 2008, as Barack Obama won the national popular vote by 7%, McCain carried South Dakota by 8%. In 2012, Mitt Romney expanded that margin to 18%. In 2016 Donald Trump won the state by 30%, the largest margin in the state since 1952.

While Obama had won 16 counties in 2008 and 10 counties in 2012, Clinton won just 5 in 2016. Trump improved upon Romneys margins in every county in the state. The presidents cultural conservatism and economic populism appealed to South Dakotans.

Until recently, Republican victories at the top of the ticket have not prevented Democratic success downballot. As recently as 2008, a Democrat won the states only House seat. As politics has become more nationalized and partisan, this ticket splitting has stopped. No Democrat has won a statewide election since that 2008 House race.

This November, South Dakota will elect a president, senator, and representative. Anything other than a Republican trifecta would be a major surprise. Outside of a complete party collapse, South Dakota is safely Republican.

However, before we get to the general election, we go through the nomination process. This kicks off, as it has since 1972, with the Iowa caucuses next Monday. South Dakota and Nebraska, which both share a border with Iowa, go much later in the calendar. While the geographic difference is small, the gulf in attention from presidential aspirants is huge.

Next Week: Arkansas


(Photo: Unsplash)

San Diego is a port city with bays, marinas, and miles of Pacific ocean as far north and as far south as the eye can see. While some travelers are content to hang out on the beach, drink at local breweries, or otherwise sit on the sidelines, the more adventurous-spirited among us want to cast off the lines and leave the dock. At least for the afternoon.

The English poet Bryan Procter captured the sentiment of someone who craves adventure on the water: "The sea! the sea! the open sea! / The blue, the fresh, the ever free!" On that note, here are five ways you could have an adventure on the water during your next visit to San Diego, with little or no prior experience on the high seas required.

TAKE A WHALE WATCHING TOUR

If it's adventure on the high seas that you seek, you might consider spending an unforgettable few hours whale watching in San Diego. Gray, fin, and humpback whales swim through the area from December through April; blue, minke, fin, and humpback whales can often be found May through December. So there's a decent chance, no matter what time of year, that you might see a whale up close and personal. Otherwise, there are often dolphins and amazing views.

TAKE A SUNSET CRUISE ON A SAILBOAT

You've known since grade school that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It is because the sun sets in the west that a sunset in San Diego is an unforgettable and romantic thing to see. Imagine how much more romantic it will be on a sailboat. Sunset cruises are usually intimate with groups of less than six people, and if you've ever dreamed of sailing, this is a way to get out on the water that you might not want to pass by.

TAKE A HARBOR DINNER CRUISE

Before we get to the more daring suggestions, let's explore something on the mild side. Of all the ways to find yourself on a boat, a slow jaunt around the harbor on a cruise ship is one of the more tame. Not everyone wants the salt spray in their hair, or to spend precious vacation hours without an adult beverage in hand.

One company, Hornblower Cruises & Events, will take you out for a three hour dinner cruise around San Diego Bay. The staff will serve you a glass of champagne or sparkling cider as you board, and the company offers vegetarian, gluten-free, and kids meal options by request. Part of the appeal of the tour is that your view of San Diego from the boat changes with each course of the three-course dinner, and if you've ever had the opportunity to see San Diego from the deck of a boat in San Diego Bay, you know what a glorious spectacle it is.

RENT A KAYAK

A kayak is a small vessel, sure, but one likely to unlock a big adventure. With all its inlets, bays, and harbors, San Diego is a place where no two afternoons on a kayak need be the same. Rent one on Shelter Island and you'll paddle through moored sailboats until you find yourself with a breathtaking view of the downtown skyline. Visit Mission Bay and explore the little beachheads, and let your imagination run away with you. For the more adventurous kayaker, rent a sea kayak in La Jolla and paddle into the open ocean, where you can explore sea life and sea caves.

But maybe you want a water adventure without needing to propel the seacraft yourself. Well, we've got suggestions for that, too.

RENT A POWER BOAT

Not everyone is content to let someone else do the driving. This kind of adventurer wants to be the skipper of their own vessel, and might go for an activity like a power boat rental at SD Adventures. Don't worry if you've never helmed a boat before - the rental company would teach you everything you need to know.

In closing, nothing captures the romantic spirit quite like being out on the water, and there are ways to get out there that suit just about any budget and desired level of adventure. As the American poet Silas Weir Mitchell wrote, "Up anchor! Up anchor! / Set sail and away! / The ventures of dreamland / Are thine for a day."

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
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GIS  27 January, 2020: The Integrated Governmental Clearance Centre will mark a major milestone in the facilitation of trade in Mauritius, by reducing the cost of doing business and improve our ranking for Ease of Doing Business. Mauritius is already a leader in business facilitation in Africa and was ranked at the 13th position in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business Index 2020.

The Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications, Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, made this statement yesterday, during a ceremony to celebrate International Customs Day 2020, in Plaine Magnien.

The event, organised by the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA), was also marked with the laying of the Foundation Stone of the Integrated Governmental Clearance Centre (IGCC) and with the launching of a state-of-the-art mobile container scanner to the tune of Rs 73 million.

In his address, the Prime Minister highlighted that 2020 will mark the start of a new era for Mauritius in terms of development and opening the economy to the world. In this endeavor, he said, trade facilitation is of prime importance, hence the setting up of the IGCC to bring, under one roof, all the related government agencies concerned with the processing of permits and authorisation and the clearance of goods.

He observed that the IGCC will promote a Coordinated Border Management creating a better synergy among governmental agencies and will ultimately result in more effective delivery of service, an optimum use of resources, better connectivity and wider sharing of information and intelligence, amongst others.

The Prime Minister also announced his intention to further develop the airport with the construction of a new passenger terminal to cope more efficiently and effectively with the growing passenger traffic. The coming into operation of the new passenger terminal and the IGCC, he added, will act as engines of economic growth with the swift movement of air cargo, courier and passengers and make Mauritius a regional hub.

Speaking about the theme of International Customs Day 2020, Customs fostering sustainability for people, prosperity, and the planet, Prime Minister Jugnauth underscored the vision of the Government in assuring that the population live in a society where peace, harmony and security prevail. On this note, he underpinned Governments strong determination to fight drug trafficking and recalled that around Rs 4.6 billion of different types of drugs and psychotropic substances were seized since January 2015.

The Prime Minister moreover underlined Governments unflinching support to the MRA in its mission. To this end, he said, the necessary funds have been allocated to the MRA to avail of the latest tools, equipment and technology. In fact, the MRA made the acquisition of the following: two Fast Interceptor Boats in November 2018; three drones at the cost of Rs 1,5 M; five additional sniffer dogs in 2019; and x-ray scanners at the port.

As for the Director-General of the MRA, Mr Sudhamo Lal, he underlined that the MRA is a strategic player in helping the Government achieve its vision 2030 for transforming Mauritius into a high-income economy. The MRA, he added, is contributing to 90% to the national budget through tax revenues collected. He indicated that revenue collected by the MRA has grown steadily over the years, from Rs 49.3 B in 2010 to Rs 89.5 B in 2018/19.

With regards to the IGCC, the Director-General pointed out that such as Centre is recommended by the World Customs Organisation and promotes the innovative concept of Coordinated Border Management that will enable stakeholders to conduct transactions in a single building. According to him, all these measures will facilitate trade, held reduce the cost of doing business and dwell time.

Moreover, Mr Lal dwelt on key initiatives that the MRA has undertaken to promote sustainability for the people and prosperity. He also spoke of the resounding success of the institution for spearheading reforms and modernising itself for better service delivery.

The Integrated Governmental Clearance Centre

The IGCC will have a total surface area of 4,800 sq. M and will cost around Rs 650 million and is expected to be completed by June 2021. It will have a modern architectural design and equipped with all the necessary facilities and amenities, while being eco-friendly.
Nearly 100 lawyers took out a march outside the Bombay High Court on Monday afternoon in support of the "constitutionally valid" Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The lawyers marched from one gate of the HC to another while shouting slogans like "We support CAA", "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram".

The lawyers included senior counsel Ram Apte, advocate Uday Warunjikar, and Subhash Ghadge and Anjali Helekar, members of the Advocates Association of Western India.

"There is a presumption that every law is Constitutionally valid and the CAA is not an exception. Unless any Act is declared as invalid the law continues, and hence we took out a march in support of the CAA," Warunjikar told PTI.

On January 20, a bunch of lawyers gathered outside the high court and read out the Preamble to the Constitution of India in protest against the CAA. Protests have been going on in different parts of the country against the new law, which grants Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jain refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who had entered India on or before December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution.
The number of active patients in New Mexicos medical cannabis program topped 80,000 last month, closing out a year that has seen some loosening of participation requirements to.

According to the most recently available informations released by the New Mexico Department of Health, the state had 80,257 patients as of last month  up nearly 19% from December 2018.

Following a state judges ruling in August that an in-state residency requirement for participation in the program has been eliminated by a recent law change  a ruling the effects of which the Governors Office is trying to curtail through a legislative fix  the number of out-of-state participants has nearly doubled since the end of November and is currently at 421.

Opioid use disorder, Alzheimers disease and autism spectrum disorder were also added as qualifying conditions last year. By December, 154 patients with opioid use disorder were active in the program, as well as 23 Alzheimers patients and 47 autism spectrum disorder patients.

Despite those shifts, the largest increases in terms of qualifying conditions came from patients with post-traumatic stress disorder  44,260 patients in 2019 compared to 33,747 the year before  as well as from patients with severe chronic pain  up to 26,484 patients in 2019 compared to 22,735 the prior year. Patients with those two diagnoses make up more than 80% of all medical cannabis patients in the state.

Meanwhile, the largest number of participants  26,655  still live in Bernalillo County.

Patient transactions themselves have also continued to increase, according to data from the most recently available reports filed by licensed non-profit medical cannabis producers.

In the third quarter of 2019, producers reported 824,924 patient transactions, compared to 621,977 transactions in the fourth quarter from last year. The number of total plants in production  29,929 at the end of the third quarter  is up significantly from the end of 2018, when producers listed only 13,207.

Fourth-quarter statistics from producers in 2019 have yet to be released.
Fender Pays Record $5M Fine For Price Fixing

Fenders European business arm has been fined a record $5 million for price-fixing as part of a broader inquiry into the musical instrument business.

The EUs CMA hit Fender with the fine after Fender admitted to breaking competition law by pursuing a policy aimed at restricting UK retailers from discounting their online prices.

Fender was accused of forcing retailers to sell its guitars at or above a minimum price for a five year period between 2013 to 2018, The practice, known as resale price maintenance, reduces competition because when consumers attempt to price shop for a deal, they find all retailers tend to be selling at a similar price.

According to the CMA, Fender would pressure retailers they discovered offering their products at a discount to raise prices.

Fender came clean under the CMAs leniency and settlement procedures, which allows a company to admit to malfeasance and cooperate in an inquiry in exchange for a reduced fine, the CMA said.

It is absolutely essential that companies do not prevent people from being able to shop around to buy their products at the best possible price. This is especially important for expensive and popular items like guitars, and so Fenders actions could have had a big impact on customers, said CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli.

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British exploration company Europa Oil and Gas is in talks with a number of potential development partners for its offshore Ireland assets despite an unnamed oil major, which was in pole position, walking away from the process.

Europa is largely dependent on its strong Irish asset base, which consists of around five billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, in six offshore licences here and has been searching for development partners since 2018.
Research News

UB chemist awarded $2 million NIH grant for enzyme research

By JACKIE HAUSLER

In the human body, proteins called enzymes help speed up chemical reactions that are vital for life. After you eat, enzymes help your body break down food and obtain energy. Enzymes are also responsible for helping your liver rid your body of toxins, as well as many other imperative functions.

Now, a UB research team is studying the details of how enzymes perform their job. The focus of the project is on understanding the molecular interactions that enable enzymes to accelerate chemical reactions.

The new five-year $2 million Maximizing Investigators Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), titled Studies on enzyme activation and novel modes of inhibition, will allow the researchers to investigate a variety of problems related to the mechanism of enzyme action and inhibition.

The chemicals in living cells are stable until they need to undergo one of the many enzyme-catalyzed reactions that support and propagate life, explains lead scientist John Richard, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. Over the past century, scientists have made steady progress toward understanding the mechanism of action of enzymes, which are required to catalyze essentially every cellular reaction. This understanding has prompted advances on many fronts, including the development of interventions to cure metabolic diseases, the design of enzyme inhibitors with potential applications as drugs and the direct use of enzymes as therapeutic agents.

Richard has received funding from the NIH since 1988 to support research on a variety of topics related to enzyme mechanisms. The results from this research have added to a body of fundamental knowledge, which serves as the underpinning for translational research in the health sciences.

Professor Richard has made seminal contributions in the elucidation of enzymatic reaction mechanisms, notes David F. Watson, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry. His receipt of a MIRA from the NIH is a testament to the impact of his scholarship. The funds will support the training of researchers and will further enhance our departments stature as a home for cutting-edge research in chemical biology.

Collaborators on project include Andrew Gulick, professor of structural biology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who will play the lead role in the determination of X-ray crystal structures for interesting enzyme complexes; Lynn Kamerlin, Distinguished University Professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, who will direct computational studies to model the utilization of substrate binding interactions in enzyme activation; and Hiroaki Suga, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Tokyo, who will develop libraries of cyclic peptides that show high specificity for inhibition of metabolic enzymes from parasitic compared with mammalian organisms.
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Haunting images of prisoners taken as the entered Auschwitz have laid bare the horrifying reality of the Nazi's 'final solution' on the 75th anniversary of the death camp's liberation by Soviet troops.

Among those pictured are Vinzent Daniel, a Roma gypsy who was sent to the camp in April 1942 after being arrested in Prague, then escaped a month later by running through a drained pond and into nearby woods.

Other prisoners recalled how he stripped off his striped jacket and cap as he ran, and was last seen wearing nothing but his underwear as he vanished into the trees. His ultimate fate is still unknown.

Another image shows four-year-old Istvan Reiner smiling and clutching a hole-punch as his photograph is taken on the way to Auschwitz, where he was sent to the gas chambers and killed alongside his grandmother.

In total, 1.3million people - largely Polish Jews but also other minorities and political prisoners - were transported to Auschwitz between 1942 and late 1944, of which 1.1million died. The camp was liberated on January 27, 1945.

Artist Marina Amaral painstakingly colourised some of the portraits for her Faces of Auschwitz series, while fellow artist Tom Marshall also contributed to this collection.

 Slide me  Vinzent Daniel was born on August 15, 1919, in the village of Smrcna in Czechoslovakia. After being arrested in Prague by the criminal police he was deported to Auschwitz on April 29, 1942. In the camp, he received number 33804 and was registered as a Czech, though he was of Roma origin

Starting in December 1942 and lasting until July 1944, around 23,000 Roma and Sinti gypsies were deported to Auschwitz under the orders of Heinrich Himmler. 2,000 of those were killed on arrival without being entered into camp records. Of the remaining 21,000, 19,000 of them died of disease, mistreatment by camp guards, or were killed in the gas chambers

Vinzent Daniel was assigned to a work crew at a chemical plant within Auschwitz, and spent around a month there before staging an escape attempt on May 27, 1942. Witnesses said he ran across a field and through a drain pond into a nearby forest. He stripped off his striped uniform as he ran, and was last seen heading into the trees in his underwear. His fate is unknown

Vinzent Daniel

Vinzent Daniel was born on August 15, 1919, in the village of Smrcna in Czechoslovakia. After being arrested in Prague by the criminal police he was deported to Auschwitz on April 29, 1942. In the camp, he received number 33804 and was registered as a Czech, even though in fact he was of Roma origin.

In 1940, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, a conference was held in Berlin where it was decided that all Roma and Sinti gypsies were to be deported from Germany to occupied Poland where they were held in camps and ghettos intended for Jews.

The Nazis ruled that Roma were to be considered enemies of the Third Reich because they were 'racially alien, inferior and asocial'.

In 1942, Heinrich Himmler issued an order that all Roma should be sent to the concentration camps, with most sent to a specially-designed Roma camp at Auschwitz. In total, 23,000 Roma were transported to Auschwitz - of which 2,000 were murdered without entering the camp, and 19,000 more died of disease or in the gas chambers.

Vinzent Daniel was assigned to a work crew at a chemical plant within the camp. Around a month after his arrival there - on May 27, 1942 - he attempted to escape by sprinting across a field, through a drained pond, and into a nearby forest.

Witnesses said Vinzent stripped off his striped prison suit as he ran, and was last seen in his underwear running into the forest. To this day his fate remains unknown.

Istvan Reiner, aged four, photographed in either 1943 or 1944, shortly before being deported to Auschwitz along with his mother Livia Reiner and his grandmother. Upon arrival at the camp he was separated from his mother and sent with his grandmother to the gas chambers, where he died. Livia was assigned forced labour, but survived the war and later emigrated to the United States

Istvan Reiner

Istvan Reiner was born in Hungary to a Jewish father - Bela Reiner - and his wife Livia in 1940. Hungary allied with Nazi Germany in the early stages of the Second World War, and in an attempt to avoid persecution Bela converted to Protestantism. Istvan was never circumcised and was not a practicing Jew.

Some time between 1943 and 1944, an Austrian officer with the German army was sent to live with the Reiner family in order to decide their fates. After his stay was over it was decided the family would be sent to the Miskolc ghetto.

Bela tried to have Istvan sent to Budapest to live with an aunt, but she refused - despite the boy technically being Christian, she did not want to risk being accused of hiding a Jewish child.

The family avoided the ghetto for a time by offering to work as labourers on a nearby farm, two weeks later they were moved to the ghetto.

From there, Bela and his step-son Janos - from Livia's first marriage - were sent to the to the Jolsva labor camp on the Slovak border. Janos escaped during transport and survived the war by living with relatives. Bela also survived the camp.

Livia, Istvan and the boy's grandmother were all deported to Auschwitz. At some point along his journey, Istvan was given a prison uniform and a hole punch to play with before being photographed.

At Auschwitz, he was separated from his mother who was sent to a forced labour camp. Istvan was placed into the care of his grandmother, and both were sent to the gas chambers.

Livia also survived the war, and was liberated at either Bergen-Belsen or Mannheim. She later emigrated to the US.

 Slide me  'Political prisoner': Czesawa Kwoka, 14, was deported from Zamosc, southeastern Poland in December 1942, along with her mother, to make room for a German colony that the Nazis were building. The photographs, taken by a fellow inmate at Auschwitz show the teenager on the verge of tears, her bottom lip sporting a cut. Shortly before they were taken, she had been beaten up by a female prison guard because she did not understand what the guard was shouting in German. Miss Kwoka died in March 1943, just three months after arriving at Auschwitz, weeks after her mother Katarzyna

Young victim: The teenager was taken along with her mother, and her defiant stare into the camera after being assaulted by a guard is even more haunting in colour

Young life lost: The teenager, seen here looking off camera in her prisoner's uniform with a red 'P' triangle stitched onto the chest, died in the camp within three months

Czesawa Kwoka

Czesawa Kwoka, 14, was deported from her home in Zamosc, southeastern Poland in December 1942, along with her mother, to make room for a German colony, and branded 'political prisoners' - seen on her prisoner's uniform which has a red triangle with a 'P'.

The photographs show her on the verge of tears, her bottom lip sporting a cut, as shortly before the photos were taken, she had been beaten up by a female prison guard for not understanding orders being barked at her in German.

Miss Kwoka died in March 1943, just three months after arriving at Auschwitz, weeks after her mother Katarzyna.

 Slide me  Katarzyna Kwoka was born on 1 April 1896, in Wolka Zlojecka, Poland. She was the mother of Czeslawa Kwoka and they both arrived at Auschwitz on 13 December 1942. Katarzyna was given prisoner number 26946, and died on 18 February 1943 from unknown causes. She was a Catholic Pole.

Roman Catholics were reviled by the Nazis, who believed they could not be both loyal to the Fatherland and the Roman Catholic Church. Jesus's Semitic roots were also a cause of suspicion for the Nazi regime

Katarzyna and her daughter were sent to the camp in 1942 from their home in Zamosc, southeastern Poland, to make way for a German colony. She died after just two months at the camp from unknown causes, three week before her daughter perished

Katarzyna Kwoka

Katarzyna Kwoka, 43, is the mother of Czesawa and was deported from Zamosc, southeastern Poland, at the same time as her in December 1943 and sent to Auschwitz designated 'political prisoners' - as shown by the red triangle on their jackets.

The pair were Roman Catholics, who were persecuted by the Nazis because of the belief that they could not be loyal to both the Fatherland and the Roman Catholic Church.

The both arrived at Auschwitz on December 13, around the time this photograph was taken. Katarzyna died three months later, followed by her daughter who died three weeks after that.

 Slide me  Iwan Rebaka was just 17 years old when he was sent to Auschwitz from his home in Syrowatka, in what was then known as Russland and is modern-day Ukraine. He was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church and was designated a Russian political prisoner by his Nazi captors - one of an estimated 1,500 such prisoners sent to the camp

Iwan was working as a milkman when he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz in August 1942. He died at the camp seven months later, with his cause of death officially listed as perinephric abscess, though this information was false

Iwan was killed by a phenol injection to the heart on March 1, 1943, along with 82 other boys aged between 13 and 17 by SS-Unterscharfuhrer Scherpe. Phenol injection was the favoured method of execution introduced at Auschwitz by 'camp doctor' Josef Klehr, who in 1943 was head of the 'disinfection squad'

Iwan Rebaka

Iwan Rebaka was just 17 years old when he was sent to Auschwitz from his home in Syrowatka, in what was then known as Russland and is modern-day Ukraine.

He was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church and was designated a Russian political prisoner by his Nazi captors - one of an estimated 1,500 such prisoners sent to the camp.

Iwan was working as a milkman when he was arrested, and died at Auschwitz five months later on March 1, 1943.

His cause of death was listed as perinephric abscess - an abscess near the kidney - though this information was false. In fact he was killed via a phenol injection to the heart by SS-Unterscharfuhrer Scherpe, one of 82 boys aged between 13 and 17 who were executed this way at the same time.

 Slide me  Aron Lowi was a Polish Jew who was born in April of 1879 in Dulowa, Poland. At the time of his arrest he was living in Zator where he was married and working as a merchant. Prior to being sent to Auschwitz, he was locked in Tarnow jail

Lowi was aged 62 when these images were taken on his arrival at Auschwitz on March 5, 1942, where he was registered as prisoner number 26406. He appears emaciated in his photo and has a split lip and large facial bruise - possibly gained during his time at Tarnow jail

Lowi's prisoner number was listed among those who had died on March 10, just five days after being interred at Auschwitz. No cause of death was given

Aron Lowi

Aron Lowi was a Polish Jew born in Dulowa in 1879 who was working as a merchant in the town of Zator alongside his wife as the war broke out. He was arrested on an unknown date and locked up in Tarnow jail.

He arrived in Auschwitz on March 5, 1942. By the time he got to the camp, where these photos were taken, he was emaciated, had a split lip and large facial bruise - likely got during mistreatment by guards at Tarnow.

Records show his prisoner number - 26406 - listed among the dead on March 10, just five days after his arrival. No cause of death was given.

 Slide me  Heroine: Janina Nowak, 24, from odz, arrived in Auschwitz on June 12, 1942. Twelve days later, she became the first female prisoner to escape, when she ran away from a work party sent outside the camp walls. SS guards had been sent out to try to track her down, but they failed, and the 24-year-old Pole made it back to her home town where she successfully hid from the Nazis for nine months, until March, 1943, when she was captured and brought back to Auschwitz by authorities. Miss Nowak was soon transferred to Ravensbruck, an all-female concentration camp in northern Germany, 56 miles north of Berlin. She survived her incarceration, and was liberated at the end of April 1945 by the Soviet Red Army

Prisoner: It is not clear why Miss Nowak, a Polish woman from a town 140 miles from the Nazi concentration camp, is sent to Auschwitz, but she is registered as part a group transport which arrived in June, 1942

Brave: The colourisation is carried out after meticulous research by Miss Amaral, which has found the likely colour of Miss Nowak's eyes to have been blue and her hair to have been blonde

Janina Nowak

Janina Nowak, from Bedow near odz, was 24 years old when she arrived at the German Nazi camp on June 12, 1942. Twelve days later, she became the first female prisoner to escape Auschwitz, running away from a work party sent outside the camp, and the guards failed to catch her. She was able to make it all the way to her home town of odz where she successfully hid from the Nazis until March, 1943.

She was captured and brought back to Auschwitz, before being transferred to Ravensbruck, and all-female concentration camp in northern Germany, 56 miles north of Berlin, where she stayed until liberation at the end of April 1945 by the Soviet Red Army.

 Slide me  Murdered Witness: Deliana Rademakers, a 21-year-old Jehovah's Witness from the Netherlands, was arrested while preaching her faith door-to-door, and deported to Auschwitz in November, 1942. In a final letter to her family and congregation she wrote; 'go bravely onwards without fear, Jehovah is with us, what can (mere) people do to us?' According to her death certificate, Deliana died in Auschwitz on 10 December, 1942 - less than three weeks after her arrival.

Lest we forget: The colourised images bring out the details of the haunting images, such as the hacked shaving of her hair

Killed for her faith: Mere weeks after this photograph of the young Dutchwoman was taken, she was dead

Deliana Rademakers

Jehovah's Witness Deliana Rademakers from the Netherlands, was 21 when she was deported to Auschwitz in November, 1942, having been arrested going door to door to preach her faith.

In a final letter to her family and congregation she wrote; 'go bravely onwards without fear, Jehovah is with us, what can (mere) people do to us?' According to her death certificate, Ms Rademakers died in Auschwitz on 10 December, 1942 - less than three weeks after her arrival.

Hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses died in Auschwitz as their faith prevented them from serving in the army, carrying out work supporting the war effort, or praising the Nazi leader with 'Heil Hitler' - crimes punishable by imprisonment or death.

 Slide me  Holocaust victim: Salomon Honig, a Jewish man from Jaso, southeastern Poland was deported to Auschwitz on March 5, 1942, along with a group of 27 Polish Jews some time before the mass exterminations in gas chambers began. Less than two weeks later, on March 18, he died, aged 52, with the Nazis claiming his cause of death was a stroke. This was likely a lie as the SS camp chiefs would usually try to hide the true reasons for the deaths in the concentration camp.

One of millions: The heartbreaking images of the 52-year-old merchant, detained by the Nazis for his faith, is one of several colourised by the Brazilian artist for the Faces of Auschwitz project

Hitler's final solution: Dressed in the striped prisoner's uniform with a white and red Star of David, Mr Honig has less than two weeks to live when this photograph was taken

Salomon Honig

Salomon Honig, a Jewish man from Jaso, southeastern Poland was deported to Auschwitz on March 5, 1942 along with a group of 27 Polish Jews some time before the mass exterminations in gas chambers began.

Less than two weeks later, on March 18, he died, aged 52, with the Nazis claiming his cause of death was a stroke. However, as Ms Amaral notes, this was likely a lie as the SS camp chiefs would usually try to hide the true reasons for the deaths in the concentration camp.

 Slide me  A converted Catholic: While Norbert Gluszecki was born Jewish he chose to convert to Catholicism, along with most of his family. Unfortunately this did little to protect them from the radical persecution of Jews during World War Two

Prisoner 29801: Within weeks of this portrait being taken it is likely Norbert Glluszecki was dead. The official cause of death was an obstruction to his intestine. However, the Nazis often falsified records of death meaning what was recorded may not be the reality

An issue of race: While Norbert was born Jewish, he and his family chose to convert to Catholicism at some stage before they were captured. However, Germans still viewed Jews who converted to Catholicism as Jewish, because the Nazis believed being a Jew was an issue of race, not religion or self-identity. He died in the camp in May 1942

Norbert Gluszecki

Nobert 'Israel' Gluszecki, was born on November 27, 1886 in Podwolocyzka, near Tarnopol, a pre-war Polish city that is today part of Ukraine. He was one of those with a 'non-Jewish' name, who under the Nuremberg Laws, anti-semitic and racial laws in Nazi Germany was required to add Israel (or Sara if a woman) to their given names.

He was taken to Auschwitz, along with his sons in April 1941. There he was given his new identity, number 29801. While he was born Jewish, Gluszecki had converted to Catholicism at some point before he was taken into the concentration camp with his sons.

Unfortunately this did nothing to protect them from being taken to the camp where they later died.

In 1941 a number of Roman Catholic communities were willing to convert Jews as a way of helping them escape victimisation. But, Germans still viewed Jews who coverted as Jewish. For the Nazis being Jewish was not about religion or self-identity, but about race - which a person could not change.

Gluszecki's death certificate listed his cause of death as ileus, a painful obstruction of the ileum in May 1942 - just weeks after he was captured. The Nazis frequently falsified causes of death - so it is unlikely the officially recorded cause of death was actually the truth.

 Slide me  The Polish Actor: August Kowalczy was born in Southern Poland in 1921. At the start of World War II he wanted to join the polish army in France, but was arrested on his way west, while travelling through Slovakia in December 1940

While in Auschwitz the young Pole was forced to work and joined other prisoners who unloaded construction materials, built chemical plants and dismantled the bombed synagogue in Oswiecim

Hiding in plain sight: After two years in captivity August Kowalczyk managed to escape and hid in a nearby forest and a field of grain where some civilian Polish women found him. They disguised him in female clothes and took him to a secure hiding place. He hid in an attic for seven weeks until he obtained fake identification documents and managed to get to Krakow to join the Polish Home Army

August Kowalczyk

August Kowalczyk was a theater, film and television actor born in Southern Poland in 1921 - one of few prisoners who escaped from Auschwitz.

When World War II started, Kowalczyk wanted to join The Polish Army in France formed under the command of General Wadysaw Sikorski. However, he was arrested while traveling West through Slovakia and deported to Auschwitz- Birkenau in December 1940.

His inmate number was 6804. While there he was forced to work alongside other prisoners, unloading construction materials, building plants, dismantling the local synagogue and houses of expelled Poles.

In June 1942, he managed to flee captivity into a nearby forest where he was helped by local Polish women. They dressed him in women's clothing, and took him to a nearby attic where he hid until he managed to get hold of some false identification papers.

He made his theater debut in November 1945 and worked as an actor until 1962 when he became the director of the Adam Mickiewicz Theater in Czestochowa (1962-1966) and the director of the Polish Theater in Warsaw (1968-1981). He retired in 1981.

After retiring he devoted the rest of his life to educating youth about the Holocaust and the concentration camp. He died in July 2012.

 Slide me  Jailed for his sexuality: Walter Degen was born on January, 4, 1909 in Morchingen ( a former German town now located in French territory)  between 1871 and 1918. He was registered as having arrived in Auschwitz in August 1941 - as a homosexual and German political prisoner

The newly coloured portraits clearly depict the pink-coloured triangle that marked someone as an 'asocial parasite' who 'endangered the morality and purity of the German race'

The crime of homosexuality: Prisoners like Walter Degen were arrested under Paragraph 175 which stated that homesexual acts between males were a crime. The Nazis arrested an estimated 100,000 homosexual men, 50,000 of whom were imprisoned in concentration camps. It is unclear what happened to Degen

Walter Degen

Walter Degen, a locksmith by trade was transported to Auschwitz with a group of 20 others from various towns around Europe. Walter Degen was registered both as a homosexual and a German political prisoner on August 29, 1941.

In Auschwitz, prisoners of German nationality designated by a pink triangle were arrested under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code as asocial parasites for endangering the morality and purity of the German race.

The Nazis arrested an estimated 100,000 homosexual men, 50,000 of whom were imprisoned in concentration camps. At least 77 prisoners of Auschwitz were said to have been persecuted for their homosexuality, of which at least 43 died.

Homosexuals were among the most abused groups in the camps.

It is unclear if Degen survived.

 Slide me  Peaceful resistance: Seweryna Szmaglewska worked in one of the hospitals in Piotrkow Trybunalski as a volunteer nurse following the German occupation of Poland. She was engaged in illegal education and in 1940 she joined a student resistance organisation that run an underground library of Polish literature.

Imprisoned for her conviction: Ms Szmaglewska can be seen in this coloured portrait shortly after her arrest with a raggedly shaved head. She was one of 47 women transported from a prison in Radom to Auschwitz in October 1942

A story of survival: Seweryna Szmaglewska escaped from an evacuation transport near Wodzisaw Slaski on January 18, 1945. Immediately after this she began to write her memoirs - one of the first personal tales out of the concentration camps. Her books depict the horrors that went on inside Auschwitz, including the cruelty of the SS, the torture of slave labour and how the human spirit rallied in the face of what appeared to be a very bleak future

Seweryna Szmaglewska

Seweryna Szmaglewska was born on 11 February 1916 in Przygow near Piotrkow Trybunalski in central Poland. Before the war she studied psychology and literature and became a teacher. After the German occupation of Poland she worked in a local hospital as a volunteer nurse, and was engaged in illegal education. In 1940 she joined a student resistence organisation running an underground library of Polish literature.

Her involvement in the resistance movement saw her arrested by the Gestapo and taken to a prison in Radom, before being transported with a group of 46 other women to Auschwitz in 1942.

She escaped from an evacuation transport near Wodzisaw Slaski on January 18, 1945, and after finding freedom began to write her memoirs - one of the first personal books detailing what went on in Auschwitz.

The book exposes not just her personal story, but also the reality of life under the cruelty of the SS, torture of slave labour, constant humiliation, death and how the human spirit rallied even in the face of what appeared to be a very bleak future.

 Slide me  A lone prisoner: Gersz Zysking was born November 17, 1913, in odz, Poland. Little is known about his life outside of the concentration camp, his family or other loved ones. His life inside was brief, the 28-year-old died mere weeks after this photo was taken

Prisoner 39178: Official records show that Gersz Zysking died at the age of 28 just a few weeks after his incarceration in the concentration camp. The photograph shows eyes that had likely seen unimaginable horrors in his relatively short life

A life of hardship and horror: There is little information available on the life of this young man who died inside the Nazi camp, no-one has been able to establish what he did for a living, who he loved, or what dreams he had for his future. All that's left are these sober images that show a man as he faced an unimaginable nightmare at the hands of the Nazis

Gersz Zysking

Gersz Zysking was born November 17, 1913, in odz, Poland and registered as a prisoner in Auschwitz on June 9, 1942.

He was given number 39178.

His time inside was brief - official records showed he died on August 4, 1942a little over a month from the time that he was incarcerated and a few months short of his 29th birthday.

 Slide me  A pianist and a Jew: Maria Schenker was born in was born in Cracow, Poland, on March 20, 1913. Very little else is known about her life barring the fact that she was Jewish and made her living as an office clerk, but was also a pianist

The mark of the yellow star: The Yellow Star of David can be seen vividly in the coloured versions of these portraits taken of Ms Schenker at Auschwitz. Initially imprisoned in Helclow, a women's only facility in Cracow, she was later moved into Auschwitz along with 127 other Polish women - of whom at least 25 were said to be Jewish - in April 1942

Death behind the walls: Prisoner 6842, as she became known, Maria Schenker died after four months of constant fear, forced labour and living on the brink of starvation in August 1942

Maria Schenker was born in Cracow, Poland, on March 20, 1913. Very little else is known about her beyond the fact that she was Jewish and had made her living as an office clerk before the war. She was, records showed, a pianist as well.

The Jewish woman, of Polish descent, was sent to Auschwitz in April 1942, only to die four months later after being subjected to constant fear, forced labour, and living on the brink of starvation in August 1942.

Jews, like Ms Schenker, had lived in Poland for 800 years before the Nazi occupation. On the eve of Germany's conquest of Poland they numbered 3.3 million - 10 per cent of the total population.

 Slide me  A student: Seweryn Guszecki was a student born on June 19, 1925. He was only 17 when he died inside Auschwitz

Selwyn, a teenage student, of whom little else is known, was given the number 29803 when he entered Auschwitz

Born in August 1925, the young student, of whom little else is known, died in Auschwitz one day after turning 17 on June 20, 1942

Seweryn Guszecki

Seweryn Guszecki was a student whow born on 19 June 1925. His records do not indicate where, or to whom. He received number 29803 at Auschwitz, and later died, a day after his 17th birthday on June 20, 1942.

 Slide me  The face of innocence: Jozefa Glazowska was born on March 19, 1930, in the village of Sitaniec, near Zamosc, in Poland. Along with her parents and a group of around 370 people, Jozefa was expelled from her village on December 6th, 1942 to make way for the state-sponsored settlement of the ethnic German Volksdeutsche

A child victim: Jozefa Glazowska was deported to Auschwitz in a transport of 318 women and children who arrived in the camp on December 13, 1942. She was deported along with her mother, who was killed in a gas chamber in February 1943. Her father, who was taken to Auschwitz separately, was also killed leaving the young girl an orphan

Experimented on: While in the camp, the young girl was experimented on by the Nazis who often used prisoners as guinea pigs in an effort to find answers to medical mysteries

Jozefa Glazowka

Jozefa Glazowka was born on March 19, 1930 in the village of Sitaniec, near Zamosc. Along with her parents and a group of around 370 others she was expelled and deported to Auschwitz - one of the hundreds of victims of Aktion Zamosc.

The term referred to what was being carried out as part of a greater plan under the Nazi regime - the forcible removal of the entire Polish populations to make way for the state-sponsored settlement of the ethnic German Volksdeutsche.

Both her parents were killed in the camp - rendering her one of the many war orphans during this period. While in the cam Jozefa herself was experimented on by Nazi scientists and doctors.

Such experimentation was said to have been done by numerous German physicians, in an effort to improve the health of soldiers, postwar populations and to reinforce the bases of racial ideology.

 Slide me  The face of resistance: Witold Pilecki was a reserve officer in the Polish Army born 13 May 1901 in Olonets, Russia. He was arrested on 19 September 1940, after deliberately entering an area of Warsaw where the German Army was conducting a roundup of Polish civilians. His plan was to infiltrate the camp and organise a resistance movement from within

Defiance in the face of the Nazi regime: Wiltold Pilecki was sent to Auschwitz and was registered with number 4859. He had been arrested with false papers and was registered under the fake name Tomasz Serafinski

Fighting from within: Pilecki created a new organization inside of the camp called the Union of Military Organization this merged with another organization operating behind the camps walls. This resistance organisation aimed to help the morale of prisoners by gathering news from the frontline, organising the delivery of needed supplies and devising escape plans

Witold Pilecki

Witold Pilecki was a reserve officer in the Polish Army born 13 May 1901 in Olonets, Russia. he intentionally got captured to infiltrate Auschwitz and establish a resistance movement.

As early as 1941, Pileckis reports informed the Western Allies of the atrocities being committed at the death camp, from where he organised a resistance movement. After almost three years inside, the soldier escaped, eventually making it to Warsaw where he presented an extensively detailed report concerning resistance activities and the disposition of prisoners in Auschwitz.

In August 1944, Pilecki was captured in the wake of the Warsaw Uprisings collapse and was charged in 1948 for a number of espionage charges; and the attempted assassination of Polish officials. he was sentenced to death in May 1948.

It was not till years after his death that the Polish soldier's heroics became more widely known.
Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): The 22nd meeting of the Central Zonal Council (CZC) comprising Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh is scheduled to be held at Naya Raipur on January 28.



Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the meeting. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is the vice-chairman of the CZC and the host of the event.

"Other Chief Ministers from the states in the Zone along with two Ministers each are the members of CZC. Chief Secretaries and senior officers from the State Governments and the Union Government will also attend the meeting," reads a government release.

The last meeting of the Central Zonal Council was last held in Lucknow on September 24, 2018.

The Council takes up issues concerning Centre and States and member-States of the zone. The Zonal Councils are thus an effective platform for the resolution of inter-state disputes as well as irritants between Centre and member-States. (ANI)


File image

The government on January 27 signed an accord with one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam -- the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) -- providing political and economic bonanza.

The All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state was also signatory to the accord.

The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"It is a historical accord," Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said and asserted that the pact will bring comprehensive solution to the Bodo issue.
Great excitement in Hollywood, Los Angeles on Saturday night for the hosting of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) with three Irish men contesting an awards category.

Among them was John Conroy of Naas, who was announced the winner of Motion Picture/Miniseries/Pilot made for Television at the ASC Award for his work in AMCs The Terror: Infamy (Ep - A Sparrow in a Swallows Nest)

After the awards ceremony, the Naas man tweeted: #Unbelievable thank you to @AmericanCine - last night was amazing. Thanks to the cast, crew and creators of @TheTerrorAMC @ScottFreeProd #solucky #jackconroy.

John making his acceptance piece on Saturday night

The Oscars are the ultimate accolade for movie makers and actors, with the Emmys being the top accolade in television, and the ASC awards are the creme de la creme in cinematography.

It was an historic night in the Irish film and television Industry, especially with three Irish cinematographers nominated for last night's ASC awards. Notably, all three nominees had trained under the experienced eye of the late Jack Conroy, John's father.

John was joined by fellow Irish nominees Peter Robertson and PJ Dillon (nephew of John B Keane, Kerry's renowned author).

Saturday's awards were the 34th hosting of the American Society of Cinematographers Oscars, which was held at the Hollywood & Highland Center with MC, Ben Mankiewicz.

Big winners on the night were: Theatrical Release, over all winner Roger Deakins for 1917. Finalists included Phedon Papamichael for Ford v Ferrari; Rodrigo Prieto for The Irishman; Robert Richardson with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Lawrence Sher for Joker.

Documentary winner was Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma for Honeyland with the Spotlight Award going to Jarin Blaschke for The Lighthouse.

Speaking to the Leinster Leader this morning, John's mother Mona, well known on the musical production circuit in Co Kildare, said:

John was absolutely thrilled when I spoke to him yesterday from LA. His partner Yvonne (Connolly) joined him for the awards and they were so excited! John already has won some Emmys and BAFTAS but the ASC awards over there are huge, so this is another great accolade for him.

He has three movies on offer at the moment which he is considering, one in Ireland, one based in Budapest and the third in Italy said Mona, who is currently in rehearsals as Sister Lazarus in Sister Act with Naas Musical Society. The show will run from March 7 for a week at the Moat Theatre, Naas.

John's work to date has included Luther, The Happy Prince, Penny Dreadful, Yardie, Broadchurch and Mr Selfridge.

His late father Jack Conroy was renowned for his work in the film and television industry, having worked with director Jim Sheridan and producer Noel Pearson on renowned movies such as My Left Foot (1989) andThe Field (1990). Other notable works included Two by Forsyth, (1984); The Woman Who Married Clark Gable (1985); The Playboys (1992), The Last Outlaw (1993); The Hunted (1995) and A Bright Shining Lie (1998) and "A Bridge too far" (1977).
Unique images of Auschwitz were sketched by a Soviet Jewish artist who arrived with the Red Army in the hours after the camp was liberated. The images were quickly exhibited across Poland, but the artist, Zinovy Tolkachyov, was accused of "Zionism" by Soviet media and unable to work for 20 years.
A total of 73 people have now been tested for coronavirus in the UK and all tests have come back negative, the Department of Health and Social Care has said. 

The number of people killed in China by the new coronavirus strain rose to 81 on Monday, with almost 3,000 confirmed ill.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted plans are being worked on to help UK citizens in Wuhan and assured we are doing everything to screen people arriving from affected regions.

Wuhan and several other cities in the Hubei province are on lockdown and have imposed travel bans.

There have so far been no deaths outside of China however, there are at least 44 confirmed cases abroad, including in Thailand, the United States and Australia.

So far there is still no case of somebody with coronavirus here in the UK" / PA

In an interview at the Kings College London Mathematics School after launching a post-Brexit visa plan, the PM was asked for detail on how frustrated citizens would be assisted.

We are looking at everything we can to give reassurance to those people in Wuhan and you will be hearing a bit more in due course but I dont want to pre-empt the decisions we are going to make, he replied.

Obviously, we are doing everything we can to ensure that people who do come to this country are properly screened and checked if they have come from an area that is known to have the infection.

So far there is still no case of somebody with coronavirus here in the UK but clearly there are a lot of cases in China and it is spreading.

A further person in Scotland has tested negative for coronavirus, taking the total to seven.

The Scottish Government posted the update on its website on Monday afternoon.

There are currently no confirmed cases in the UK or of UK citizens abroad and the risk to the public is low.

The Government is monitoring the situation closely and will continue to work with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and international community.

Efforts are continuing to trace around 2,000 people who have entered the UK from China on international flights.

Health Protection Scotland has urged travellers returning from Wuhan who become unwell within a fortnight from a sore throat, cough or breathing difficulties to call their GP or NHS 24.

Passengers in the arrivals concourse at Heathrow Terminal 4, London during the coronavirus outbreak in China / PA

The Foreign Office has confirmed it is working on making an option available for British nationals to leave Wuhan in the Hubei province in China.

A spokesperson said: We continue to monitor developments closely and are in close touch with the Chinese authorities.

The safety and security of British nationals is always our primary concern.

The mayor of Wuhan has acknowledged criticism over his handling of the crisis - admitting that information was not released quickly enough.

Zhou Xianwang spoke to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV wearing a face mask and said: "We havent disclosed information in a timely manner and also did not use effective information to improve our work.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is said to have unearthed a link between the Popular Front of India (PFI) and protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act that have been raging on across the country.

An ED investigation, in which details of 73 bank accounts have been probed, reveals that the Islamic outfit has already spent Rs 134 crore on anti-CAA protest, News18 reported.

The probe further revealed that three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are funding the PFI. Among these, one is Rehab India Foundation that is currently being probed by the ED.

Although no official statement has been issued by the investigation agency, the funding is said to have been used to pick and drop protestors, including those who are protesting at Shaheen Bagh, provide them food, accommodation and other facilities during the protests.

As the probe continues, the investigation agency may freeze some bank accounts and arrest some people in connection with the case, the report added.

Reacting to the report, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narendra Taneja said it has been reported for a long time that the PFI is being involved in these protests, especially in Uttar Pradesh.

It was always suspected, and then the Uttar Pradesh people (media) were saying it for sure with evidence. Now, it is coming from a professional organisation. One always wondered how these movements could sustain for such a long period without any funding and now it is clear that it had organisational support, Taneja told the news channel.

He said that if a protest has been funded, it has been done with an objective. In this case, it is basically to destabilise the government and to propagate their ideology and agenda which is extremely unfortunate, he said.

People have the right to protest, but when such funding and objectives are involved then that is no longer within the framework of the Constitution, he added.


STMicroelectronics and Fieldscale Bring Intuitive Touch Controls to STM32-Based Smart Devices

Fieldscale SENSE is the first end-to-end development platform for touch-sensor design and high-accuracy simulation

ST customers can now use SENSE to simulate touch-sensor solutions together with STM32 microcontrollers

Fieldscale SENSE cloud-based platform accelerates time to market and saves development/prototype costs

Geneva, Switzerland and Thessaloniki, Greece, 27 January 2020 - STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, and Fieldscale, an ST Authorized Partner and provider of simulation software, have joined forces to simplify development of touch-enabled user interfaces for smart devices containing STs STM32 microcontrollers (MCUs).

Touch-sensitive controls are convenient and attractive for end users, and can enhance product reliability, ingress protection, and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, development can be challenging. Using a conventional iterative design approach, optimizing to eliminate unwanted effects and ensure consistent responses for touch sensing in all operating conditions can involve building multiple prototypes.

ST and Fieldscale now enable STM32 customers to take a faster and more efficient route to market by introducing support for STs Arm Cortex-based 32-bit MCUs to Fieldscales SENSE development platform.

Fieldscale SENSE is an end-to-end solution for the design, schematic capture, and system-level simulation of capacitive touch sensors. The latest version lets STM32 users quickly design the touch sensor and PCB layout for virtual system simulation purposes.

The cloud-based development platform implements sophisticated electromagnetic algorithms, which drives accurate prediction of the system performance. Users can optimize the design and quickly re-simulate to fine-tune the performance before committing to hardware. With greater assurance that first prototypes will deliver close to the desired performance, users can lower development costs and accelerate time to market.

At Fieldscale, our goal is to offer to all capacitive-touch design engineers a complete software solution supporting them end-to-end, from the early design up to the tuning of the final system. Integrating STM32 support is a major achievement towards this goal and we couldnt be more satisfied, said Yiorgos Bontzios, PhD, Fieldscale CEO and Co-Founder.

Patrice Hamard, Microcontroller Product Marketing Manager, STMicroelectronics, added, Customers using our STM32 microcontrollers can now take full advantage of Fieldscale SENSE to implement simple and intuitive touch-based controls for smart devices and give their products a competitive edge.

Fieldscale SENSE is available now as an online service and comes with a flexible pricing model to meet your requirements/needs. Please contact Fieldscale for further information.

Further technical information:

As a cloud-based development platform accessed via an intuitive web interface, Fieldscale SENSE enables users to online evaluate their touch sensors using powerful proprietary field solvers and algorithms. Unlike conventional PC-based software, there are no installation challenges or system-performance limitations.

Fieldscale SENSE simulation results have been validated against measurements from actual touch-sensor manufacturers, confirming the results are accurate to within 2%.

Before committing to building physical prototypes, with Fieldscale SENSE users can:

Design or import capacitive touch sensor layout as a standard DXF or Gerber file(s).

Easily create the complete 3D model of the sensor by simply clicking their way through material and connections assignment. Fieldscale SENSE applies the appropriate boundary conditions automatically.

Simulate the touch-sensor performance including the effects of using a stylus or wearing gloves.

Add RF conducted noise into the system, to simulate the testing procedure as specified in the IEC61000-4-6 standard, to evaluate the noise immunity of your system

Understand effects such as coupling between traces and electrodes that can interfere with the touch-sensor performance, to identify required modifications.

The use case for STM32 users is available to download now here

You can also read our blogpost at https://blog.st.com/sense-stm32-fieldscale/

STM32 is a registered and/or unregistered trademark of STMicroelectronics International NV or its affiliates in the EU and/or elsewhere. In particular, STM32 is registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office.

About Fieldscale

Fieldscale provides simulation software that helps IC makers and touch sensor manufacturers scale capacity, reduce product development cycles and go-to-market 10X faster. Using Fieldscale SENSE any engineer can make informed design decisions, starting from day one. For more information, go to www.fieldscale.com .

About STMicroelectronics

ST is a global semiconductor leader delivering intelligent and energy-efficient products and solutions that power the electronics at the heart of everyday life. STs products are found everywhere today, and together with our customers, we are enabling smarter driving and smarter factories, cities and homes, along with the next generation of mobile and Internet of Things devices.

By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.

In 2019, the Companys net revenues were $9.56 billion, serving more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Further information can be found at www.st.com .

Media Contacts:

Paschalis Arampatzis

Marketing Manager

Fieldscale

paschalis@fieldscale.com

+30 2310947484

Michael Markowitz

Director Technical Media Relations

STMicroelectronics

michael.markowitz@st.com

+1 7815910354

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The government on Monday signed an accord with one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam -- the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) -- providing political and economic bonanza.

The All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state was also signatory to the accord.

The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"It is a historical accord," Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said and asserted that the pact will bring comprehensive solution to the Bodo issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Less than 48 hours President Muhammadu Buhari told the European Union and the United Nations that his administration has the capacity to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists in northeast Nigeria, amidst claims of technical defeat of the terrorists, the Boko Haram group launched a deadly attack at the weekend to falsify the claims of the president and demystify the warfare capacity of the government under his leadership. Two female suicide bombers had attacked a Mosque in Gwoza, Borno State, killing a 12-year-old boy and injuring 13 others.

Ironically, the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, had on Channels Television programme at the weekend, remarked that Christians should be thankful to President Buhari because bombs have not exploding under his administration. The two female bombers, in their violent enterprise, may have ridiculed the presidential media adviser.

Reports indicated that the female bombers tried to force their way into the Mosque during the early morning prayers before some persons in the neighborhood raised alarm for interventions.

The report further indicated that residents suspected that the suicide bombers might have had access into the town during a wedding at the Palace of the Emir of Gwoza on Saturday.

The Borno State Police Command was said to have cordoned off the scene while soldiers from 192 Battalion have been deployed for vigilance.

PV: 0
Sindh [Pakistan], Jan 27 (ANI): In yet another case of forced conversion in Pakistan, a Hindu girl was abducted during her wedding ceremony and was married off to a Muslim man after being converted to Islam.



The woman--Bharti Bai-- was abducted by a group of people during her marriage ceremony on Saturday in Hala, a city located in Matiari district in Sindh province. She was then married to Shah Rukh Gul.

The authorities have not taken any action against the abductors. According to reports, the police helped the men in forcibly taking away the bride.

Every year, around 1,000 young Sindhi Hindu girls between the age of 12 and 28 are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam, US-based Sindhi Foundation has said.

In Pakistan, many such incidents are regularly reported where girls belonging to the country's minority community, mainly Hindu, Sikh and Christian, are forcibly converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men.

Over the past few months, several incidents have come to fore highlighting the miserable condition of minorities in the country.

In August last year, 19-year-old Jagjit Kaur remained missing for several days. Later, it was learnt that she was forcibly married to a Muslim man by her abductors.

Daughter of Bhagwan Singh, a 'granthi' (priest) of Gurdwara Tambu Sahib, she was converted to Islam at gunpoint.

The incident sparked a furore in India, with several political leaders across parties seeking action against the perpetrators of such crimes. (ANI)


The Mets have signed right-handed pitcher Erasmo Ramirez to a minor league deal, according to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com. Hell get a non-roster invite to big league camp.

Ramirez, 29, spent last year in the Red Sox organization, pitching mostly in Triple-A and making one appearance with the big league team. In 125 1/3 innings with Bostons Triple-A affiliate, Ramirez notched a 4.74 ERA and struck out 95 batters. In his last stint of sustained big league action, he made 10 starts with the 2018 Mariners, working to a 6.50 ERA.

With the Mets rotation mix looking full with the signings of Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello, Ramirez looks mostly like a depth signing who can start in the minor leagues and offer emergency innings in the Majors if necessary.
Jaipur: Fyodor Dostoevsky may have died nearly two centuries ago, but the peerless Russian literary titan's powerful words continue to revitalise and help bring back to life even those having a close shave with death. Supermodel-actor Lisa Ray is a case in point.

The Indian-Canadian actor was diagnosed in 2009 with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, which is considered incurable and fatal. A year later, the 47-year-old actor declared she was free from the deadly disease.

"Books have played a very big role in bringing me out of the darkest period of my life," she said in response to a question on what helped her overcome the disease.

"I read copiously and indiscriminately. I read Russian writers like Dostoevsky. I also read a lot of Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood", Ray told PTI on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday.

She said the 19th-century Russian writers continued to inspire and enlighten generations and remain relevant even today because their work deals with universal themes. Ray said when she was at the height of her desirability and fame in India, she cut herself off from the outside world in order to read.

"I actually disappeared, stopped taking calls, stopped accepting modelling offers and cocooned myself in my house and I read and it's a true story. I spent three to four months locked inside my house with a pile of books," she said.

"For me, books are borderless, transcendental. The best author to me is one who writes about things which we have experienced but may not have expressed," she said. The actor also talked about her book titled "Close to the Bone", which chronicles her fight against cancer.

Ray said she would like to describe her book not as a memoir, but as a travelogue with a soul. Deliberating on her fight against cancer, she said it taught her a lot about the meaning of success.

"There is absolutely no use in money and fame when you are suffering inside and are broken, you are experiencing trauma and not heading towards healing. That was the biggest lesson I learnt," she said.

"I also learnt an interesting word that I never came across, it's called coddiwomple. It essentially means a purposeful travel towards a yet unforeseen and unknown destination. This word describes me, my book and my life. I love it and think I have coddiwompled my entire life," she said.

Ray also said she had signed a three-book deal with her publisher and will write more. "Writing is the most important thing in my life," she said. Earlier, speaking at a session on her book, the actor said she only wanted to be a writer and that is the reason she wrote "Close to the Bone".

"I wanted to tell my story on my own terms. There are certain aspects of my life which are unusual. I owe my literary compulsions and passion to my Bengali bloodline. We can't help it. It's in the blood. My father is a Bengali and my mother is a Polish," she said.
Gaza, Jan 27 : Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the Islamic Hamas movement, has declared his rejection to the US Middle East peace plan, which has been dubbed by American President Donald Trump as the "Deal of The Century", according to a statement by his office.

"We are ready to hold an urgent meeting with the brothers in Fatah party and all factions in Cairo in order to draw our own way and unite in the battle of defending our Jerusalem and our sacred places," Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying on Sunday.

Palestinian factions have slammed the US Middle East peace plan, which will be unveiled by Trump on Tuesday in the White House during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit.

Speaking to reporters on January 23, Trump said that the Palestinians might react negatively to the plan at first, but that "it's actually very positive for them".

Trump has postponed several times the publication of his "Deal of the Century" for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The economic portion of Trump's peace plan was unveiled during a US-led conference in Bahrain last June, a convention boycotted by the Palestinians.

The Trump administration has reversed decades of US policy regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Political ties between Palestine and the US were severed immediately after Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017 and moved the American embassy to the city in 2018.

In November 2019, Washington announced that it would no longer consider Israel's West Bank settlements "inconsistent" with international law, a move which further dimmed the future of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The last round of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians broke down in 2014 amid the former's expansion of the settlements in the West Bank.

Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War and has since controlled or blockaded them despite international criticism.
01/27/2020

Contacts for media: Nancy Cicco: 978-934-4944, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209, Christine_Gillette@uml.edu

This is a notice of upcoming events, photo opportunities and story ideas at UMass Lowell. In case of inclement weather, call UMass Lowells weather hotline at 978-934-2121; if the university is closed, on-campus events are canceled. For more, visit www.uml.edu/pressroom





Sources of the week:

UMass Lowell faculty experts are available to discuss:

The coronavirus outbreak and how to stay healthy, as the Centers for Disease Control confirmed a fifth case of the disease in the U.S. yesterday;

The political fight to call witnesses in President Trumps impeachment trial amid reports about the contents of a new book by former national security adviser John Bolton.

Contact UMass Lowell media relations if you need an expert source on any subject.





Upcoming events:





Lowell Mill Girls Place in History Explored at Free Program





When and where: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 10 a.m. Campus Recreation Center, East Campus, 322 Aiken St., Lowell





What: The cultural contributions and experiences of young women who worked in Lowells textile factories in the mid-1800s will be examined at a free program for the public led by Bridget Marshall, a UMass Lowell associate professor of English who has conducted extensive research on the topic. The program is offered through the universitys Learning in Retirement Association (LIRA). Members of the public who would like more information should email The cultural contributions and experiences of young women who worked in Lowells textile factories in the mid-1800s will be examined at a free program for the public led by Bridget Marshall, a UMass Lowell associate professor of English who has conducted extensive research on the topic. The program is offered through the universitys Learning in Retirement Association (LIRA). Members of the public who would like more information should email lira@uml.edu





Program Brings International Teachers to Local Classrooms





When and where: Thursday, Jan. 30, 4 p.m. United Teen Equality Center (UTEC), 35 Warren St., Lowell





What: More than 20 teachers from around the world who are participating in the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program will be will be welcomed to UMass Lowell at this event. Hosted by the universitys College of Education, the six-week cultural exchange program enables participants to gain field experience alongside teachers at middle and high schools in Andover, Chelmsford, Leominster, Lowell and Westford. The visiting teachers will also attend professional development programs and share best practices with fellow teachers, along with UMass Lowell faculty, staff and students. The program is coordinated through the International Research and Exchanges Board and funded by the U.S. Department of State. Note: This event is not open to the general public but media are invited to cover it.





Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists to Lead Forum on Funding





When and where: Tuesday, Feb. 4, 5:30 p.m. Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2), UMass Lowell Innovation Hub, Fourth Floor, 110 Canal St., Lowell.





What: Medical device and biotechnology entrepreneurs can learn more about venture funding for startups from experts in the field. Speakers are scheduled to include Bill Yelle, a faculty member in UMass Lowells Manning School of Business and entrepreneur-in-residence at Partners Innovation Fund; Nancy Briefs, co-founder and CEO of Altrix Bio; Dr. Maria Berkman, director, Broadview Ventures; and Vinit Nijhawan, interim executive director at the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center. The event is presented by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2), a joint venture of UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School that helps medical-device and biotech startups bridge the gap between idea and market. Admission is $20 per person at the door or $10 in advance via online registration at Medical device and biotechnology entrepreneurs can learn more about venture funding for startups from experts in the field. Speakers are scheduled to include Bill Yelle, a faculty member in UMass Lowells Manning School of Business and entrepreneur-in-residence at Partners Innovation Fund; Nancy Briefs, co-founder and CEO of Altrix Bio; Dr. Maria Berkman, director, Broadview Ventures; and Vinit Nijhawan, interim executive director at the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center. The event is presented by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2), a joint venture of UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School that helps medical-device and biotech startups bridge the gap between idea and market. Admission is $20 per person at the door or $10 in advance via online registration at https://bit.ly/36xRdw3





Photo Exhibit Focuses in on the Azores





When and where: Artists reception, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 5:30 p.m. Exhibit runs through Friday, Feb. 28, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. University Crossing second floor, 220 Pawtucket St., Lowell




(Photo : pixabay)

Being a student is centered around learning. Learning how to manage time, how to build up a financial nest egg, or simply how to acquire new friends. Luckily, today's world has got a great ever-present helper called the Internet. So in this article, we are going to help you choose the tastiest of the web resources for students that you will use to the fullest.

Basically, these links can teach everything, from managing the budget to quick ironing the shirt. Interested? Read on.

Resources about Everything in the World: the Top Links for Daily Usage

If you honestly think about your student life, you will probably remember moments when, as a helpless freshman, you asked Google 'how do I cook soup?'. If not, our congratulations: you are one of those one-in-a-million people who do not need help. However, the majority of students would consider it a treasure to have an easy-to-navigate website at their disposal when solving small problems on a daily basis.

Here is the list of the most user-friendly resources. Enjoy!

1. Customwritings.com.

We all know how much strength it takes to write an authentic essay. For people who find writing tasks difficult there is a brilliant service that will provide unique content for a reasonable price and deliver it just on time.

2. Top Universities.

This resource is for those who like to study. Everything on developing a career, promotions to study abroad, the latest and most important educational events, will come in handy to study-lovers and undergraduates.

3. Lifehacker

The best-rated all-around Lifehacker resource with the corresponding name includes everything a student might need when having nobody to ask.

4. BudgetBytes.

Yep, you may read it as 'bites', because its main concern is organizing snacks that are affordable even on a very tight budget. Useful, isn't it? As a usual student who is often time-deprived, but wants to eat yummy food, it is the 'life and death' type of question.

5. The Penny Hoarder.

This place stores great advice on how to start a business, find an entry-level job, make a wise choice when you face a controversial financial decision. There is no service more convenient than The Penny Hoarder in terms of seeking career opportunities. If you dig deeper, you will also discover articles on home buying and debts, which are quite topical for students.

6. Gumtree.com.

This one has no rival when you aim to swap second-hand goods and used textbooks, seek good services or a part-time job in the United Kingdom. The range of things is really wide, - you can purchase anything, whether it is a used computer or a piece of furniture for a dorm room. Services include tutoring, sewing trade, decor, caring about the lost pets, organizing parties, and much more.

7. WiseBread.com.

Wise Bread is all about giving tips on how to live a high-quality life if you do not grow money on trees. Sections include managing finances, green living, careers, and life hacks for those who just began living an autonomous life.

8. TED.com.

This resource is difficult to overestimate. Known and admired by people of different countries and social circles, it provides 'ideas worth spreading' in fields like science, design, technology, medicine, art, living in society, starting up businesses, etc. There is no doubt, you will find it a great tool to awaken inspiration, become a more active citizen of the planet, and delve into the most topical issues.

9. Futurelearn.com.

Another resource for expanding your knowledge of the most vital subjects on Earth. Unlike other similar sources, it provides not just short courses but also gives a chance to enroll in serious in-depth programs to earn academic accreditation or even get a degree. Supported by leading universities in the UK, Australia, United States, Norway (such as Royal Holloway University of London, Purdue University, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Future Learn will not let you remain indifferent!

10. Grammarly.

This is a total 'must-have'. Created primarily for identifying and correcting the wrong grammatical structures and lexical mistakes, it will make your writing both better and faster. Through it can sometimes be too insisting on reducing the number of adverbs or inserting more articles, you should mind the aim of your text and think critically about Grammarly's advice. As for the rude rule-breaking, this tool rules!

11. Sleepyti.me.

Lastly, we want to give a solution to the sleepless and those having troubled sleep. Students are suffering from this problem all around the world, so, in the end, something should be done about it. A simple tool like this will tell you the exact amount of sleep you will get in case you go to bed right now. That is why we advise you to bookmark this link in your browser (at least, to be aware of how long you sleep and what can be improved about it).

As a wrap up, we want to encourage you to use these little helpers and continue this list with your own favorites that will make your student life brighter, better, and brimming with life!

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Police teams from Bihar and Delhi conducted multiple raids in different parts of the country to nab anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam, who has been booked on sedition and other charges in several states for his alleged "inflammatory" speeches, but he eluded the dragnet, officials said on Monday.

Police in two northeastern states--Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh-- also lodged FIRs against Imam, one of the organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest, over his speech in which he threatened to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country. He had been booked in Assam and Uttar Pradesh earlier.

In Bihar, Jehanabad Superintendent of Police Manish Kumar said police swooped on Imam's ancestral house in Kako police station area on Sunday night after "help was sought by central agencies".

Imam was not to be found but two of his relatives and their driver were detained for interrogation and let off thereafter, the officer said.

The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, which has registered a sedition case against him, has deployed five teams to locate Imam and conducted raids in the national capital, Mumbai and Patna. However, he could not be found.

"Taking cognisance of the objectionable video of Mr Sharjeel Imam, in which he threatened to sever Northeast from the rest of country, the Manipur Police has filed an FIR (No. 16(1)2020 IPS) under sections 121/121-A/124-A/ 120-B /153 IPC," Rajat Sethi, an adviser to the Manipur chief minister tweeted. Singh retweeted it. The case was filed on Saturday.

The crime branch of Arunachal Pradesh police also filed a similar case against Imam on Sunday, Special Investigation Team (SIT) SP Dr Navdeep Singh Brar said.

The SIT has already begun investigating the case.

"This kind of provocation inciting secession of Assam & other NE states from rest of India, creating communal disharmony, hampering sovereignty & territorial integrity of India will not be tolerated," Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu tweeted.

If convicted, he could be imprisoned for life.

A graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies at the JNU.

He was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speeches went viral on social media where he was heard speaking about "cutting off" Assam and the northeast from India.

Earlier, he had been booked on similar charges by Aligarh police in Uttar Pradesh for a speech he delivered on the AMU campus.

The cases were lodged after Imam's purported video emerged where he spoke about cutting off the northeast from India if "five lakh people stand organised".

Assam police has already lodged a case against him under the anti-terror law--the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act.

Following the FIRs, chief proctor of the JNU summoned Imam to appear before him by February 3 and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches made by him.

In his hometown Jehnanabad, Imam's mother Afshan Rahim reacted with anguish to the developments and claimed her son was innocent.

"He is a bright young man and not a thief or a pickpocket. I swear in the name of God that I do not know about his whereabouts," Rahim told reporters.

"But I can guarantee that upon learning about the cases, he will appear before the investigating agencies and fully cooperate in the probe," she said.

She said it has been a long time since she met her son though she had a telephonic conversation with him a few weeks ago.

"He was obviously disturbed by the CAA and fears over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) being implemented across the country which, he said, would affect not just Muslims but all poor people," she said.

Rahim said after 15 days of Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi, he had asked the agitators to withdraw and watch the situation for a month, before deciding on the further course of action.

"But they refused to relent. He was calling for a 'chakkajam' (road blockade). He is just a kid and not capable of instigating people for secession," a distraught Rahim said.

Imam's late father, the late Akbar Imam, was a local JD(U) leader who had unsuccessfully contested an assembly election in his lifetime.

In the video, the activist is heard saying, "If five lakh people are organised, we can cut off the northeast and India permanently. If not, at least for a month or half a month. Throw as much 'mawad' (variously described as pus or rubbish) on rail tracks and roads that it takes the Air Force one month to clear it.

"Cutting off Assam (from India) is our responsibility, only then they (the government) will listen to us. We know the condition of Muslims in Assam....they are being put into detention camps."



Imam's controversial remarks have been cited by the BJP to target anti-CAA protesters and the parties backing them. They sparked a war of words between between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday.

Kejriwal asked Shah why Imam has not been arrested till now.

"Sharjeel talked about separating Assam from the country. It is very serious. You are the country's home minister. This statement of yours depicts petty politics. It is your duty to immediately arrest him. He made the statement two days back, why are you not arresting him? What is the compulsion or do you want to do more dirty politics on the matter," the AAP chief said in a tweet.

Hitting back, Shah said the Delhi Police has booked Imam for sedition.

"I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi," Shah said addressing an election rally in Rithala in northwest Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the quiet of his empty home, it can sometimes feel like Hadi Ahmadi's wife and son are still away on their trip.

It's a short-lived reprieve from the crushing weight of his loss. His wife, Behnaz Ebrahimi, and nine-year-old son, Rahmtin Ahmadi, were ripped away from him when 176 people were killed on Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, which was downed by Iranian forces earlier this month.

Then reality sets in.

"I don't have them anymore," he says, taking a breath. Each time he can grasp it, the pain begins all over again.

Chris Mulligan/CBC

Ahmadi arrived back to his Toronto home Saturday night after a flight to Iran he never dreamed he would have to make: to identify the remains of his loved ones and lay them to rest. On Sunday, hundreds gathered to honour his wife and son at a memorial in Richmond Hill, Ont.

It was one of two memorials held Sunday for two mothers and their children killed in the disaster.

Siamak Jadidi also bid his wife and daughter goodbye on Sunday. Saharnaz Haghjoo, 37, and Elsa Jadidi were also on the plane, their remains identified last weekend and returned to their family in Toronto on Saturday. Some 300 people turned out to the Imam Mahdi Islamic Centre north of Toronto to honour their memory.

"They were full of love, both mother and daughter, and they always wanted to do good," said Zainab Rasool, who grew up with Haghjoo. "Sahar was just a gem, she was a flower, she walked into the room and she would light up the room."

'I wish I would have gone with them'

Ahmadi flew to Tehran as soon as he heard the news. He had to see his wife and son again. But when he arrived, he learned there was almost nothing left of their remains.

"She was a wonderful wife. The best mother, the best friend, kind to everyone ... she always had a smile," he said through tears. The pair met in Tehran and got married there, before moving to Toronto 16 years ago.

Chris Mulligan/CBC

Rahmtin, he said, loved dinosaurs and especially hugs from friends, teachers and just about anyone around him. He had Down Syndome and was in a special class at school, his father said.

Story continues

"Rahmtin had a short life, but I think he had the best life. He was always happy. He had whatever he wanted," Ahmadi said. "I wish I would have gone with them to Iran instead of staying behind to work."

On the morning after the news of the disaster, Ahmadi recalled Rahmtin's school bus driver arriving ready to pick him up.

"I went to see the driver. I told him Rahmtin is not coming home anymore," Ahmadi said, explaining what had happened.

Submitted by Hadi Ahmadi

When he looked out 15 minutes later, the bus was still there, the driver's head resting on the wheel in grief. That afternoon, he got a phone call from the school saying all of Rahmtin's teachers had been crying recalling those special hugs.

At the ceremony for Saharnaz Haghjoo and Elsa Jadidi, Haghjoo's father thanked Canadians for all the support shown to his family and the victims since the disaster.

"My family is now from this city to the ocean, from East to West," he said. "The amount of compassion, sympathy, they're all with me," he said. "Everyone, I really thank you."

'Unbearable'

But amid the gratitude, his pain was palpable.

"I hope nothing like this happens to not even my worst enemy. This is unbearable," he said, his voice breaking.

Haghjoo was a teacher at a campus of the Brampton-based Wali ul Asr Islamic school, while Elsa was a student there. Since Elsa's death, a photo of a drawing she did a few months prior has been a small comfort to students, the school said.

The drawing showed a beaming Elsa holding a large, white poster with the words, in letters the colours of the rainbow, "Life in Heavin."

Submitted by Hadi Ahmadi

She drew three mosques: one of the mosque of the prophet's family, another with the words "Pray Salah" and the third that recognizes the Qur'an. Butterflies flutter near a palm tree with a bounty of coconuts. A creek flows along one edge. And a sun shines brightly on the entire scene.

"It does give people a little bit of comfort that she visualized something so wonderful that will be her reward to be in a good place," said the school's principal, Mina Mozaffarian.

Through the grief, the ways in which Canadians have banded together has been a light, said Daryoush Kari, president of the Imam Mahdi Islamic Centre, which shares a parking lot with the neighbouring synagogue. After the tragedy, he said, the rabbi, a good friend, visited the mosque to deliver prayers.

Myriam Eddahia/CBC

"One of the first slogans I saw when I came to Canada was 'The world needs more Canada.' I didn't get it at that time, but when it comes to this kind of times, I realize it," he said.

For Ahmadi, the silence in his home is almost too much to bear. He's overcome with grief when he opens the door to his son's room for the first time since the tragedy.

"Everywhere I look, I have a memory of them," he said. "It's impossible to forget them, it's impossible to live without them."

"I really don't know how to start my life again, if there's anything left."
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Thomas Markle today promised to give a major interview every month until his daughter Meghan reaches out and urged Prince Harry to 'man up' and meet him for the first time.

The Duchess of Sussex's estranged father spoke to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on ITV 1's Good Morning Britain in his first live TV interview since she left Britain for Canada, calling the decision 'embarrassing' and 'hurtful' to the Queen.

Mr Markle admitted his bombshell media interviews will 'cause problems' with his daughter and her husband - but he believes speaking publicly about their rift is now his best and only hope of a reconciliation.

He said: 'If after this interview, if I dont hear from somebody in 30 days, Ill give 30 days and Im going to try again, because 30 days is enough time to get back to me. I dont want to sit in silence in my living room for the rest of my life, waiting for someone to call me back or get in touch with me'.

The 75-year-old said he has tried to speak to Meghan's mother Doria, his ex-wife, but she has also failed to respond to his letters. He said: 'We have had no conversations, so obviously she [Doria] is avoiding me or has been told to'.

And when asked what he would say to Meghan if she was watching the show this morning he said: 'I would tell her: "I love you, let's sit down and work this out",' and his message for Harry would be: 'Man up and fly down and see me and we will talk'.

It is not yet known if Thomas was paid for the GMB interview, but he is understood to have secured 7,500 to appear on the show in 2018 and is said to have earned five-figures from a bombshell 90-minute documentary on Britain's Channel 5 last week.

Thomas Markle has again reached out to Harry and Meghan and said he wants to see them - and meet Archie for the first time - on British breakfast TV today

The Duchess of Sussex's estranged father has spoken to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid (left) on ITV 1's Good Morning Britain in his first live TV interview since she leave Britain for Canada, calling their decision 'embarrassing'

Thomas Markle: What he said in wide-ranging first interview with GMB since Megxit His message to Harry Man up and fly down and see me and we will talk. I think Harry should have come to me at the beginning, he asked for her hand over the phone. I think a Royal who has a plane whenever he wants it, he could have asked for her hand in person. I feel he can still reach out to me, they are making this a big drama for the world everyday, it's a family problem and should be solved as a family problem. On his regular media interviews After this interview if I don't hear from someone in 30 days then I will try again. I don't want to sit in silence in my living room for the rest of my life waiting for someone to get back to me On alleged racism towards Meghan I'm having trouble buying that, there has never been a problem in terms of race with Meghan at her school or in any place and I haven't noticed it in England at all, I think England is far more liberal than the US when it comes to races, I don't think she is being bullied in anyway, or any shape, because of racism. Criticism of Harry and Meghan's private jets and long-haul flying I think it is just, if you are preaching to do that then you should be also as responsible as to what you are preaching. Take a note from your brother and take public transportation, it makes more sense. On Sussexes quitting as senior royals As far as what they've decided to do is embarrassing. I think when they got married they married into royalty and they knew what they were getting g themselves into. That is Harry's life and Meghan had a similar life and I think they have hurt the Queen and the Royals and it just doesn't work to be going to another country and serving England is never going to work, I'm a little embarrassed for them and feeling sorry for the Queen. On his health and being estranged from Meghan My health is mixed, I suffer a lot of stress because of what's going on, every day there is a new thing happening and the press shows up at my door. I am still very disappointed in what's going on. Of course I love my daughter and grandson and I'm sure I would love Harry if I met him. This decision is very confusing, I don't think anyone understands. I'm still very disappointed as to what happened I think it's a misunderstanding which should be worked out between two families. I'm not sure exactly how to approach this, I'll always hope that we can come together at some point. Right now with what's going on the break from the royals is going to cause far more problems. What I'm saying now will also cause problems. I'm disappointed I haven't seen my grandson and I really miss my daughter. On seeing Meghan again, and meeting Harry and Archie for the first time For me there is no other way to reach them. I will give an interview and wait for 30 days to get an answer back and that's the only shot I have. I've spoken and sent letters to Doria to get to Meghan as well. On watching the Royal wedding This was a few days after my [heart] procedure, I was very saddened that I couldn't be there, I thought it was beautiful. I was honoured that Charles would walker her down the aisle and thankful but I wished it was me. I cried for a bit for that On the pap stunt 'I regret doing that but I was set up It was a dumb thing to do I realised in the process of doing it I made a serious mistake with that but I tried to apologise for it' Advertisement

Mr Markle has denied criticism of his daughter for quitting as a royal is laced with racism as he blasted Meghan and Harry's 'preaching' on the environment.

The Sussexes have received stinging criticism for their bombshell choice to resign as senior royals after just 20 months of marriage - but Mr Markle is sure this is not because his daughter is mixed-race.

Speaking from California he said: 'I'm having trouble buying that. There's never been a problem with Meghan in terms of her race. I think England is far more liberal than the US, I don't think she is being bullied in anyway, or any shape, because of racism'.

He added: 'I think they've hurt the Queen. I think they've hurt the royals - and it just doesn't work to be going to another country and serving England. It's never going to work. I'm a little embarrassed and feeling very sorry for the Queen'.

Piers Morgan then asked if the couple's use of private jets when urging the world to tackle climate change was hypocritical, Mr Markle said: 'I think it is, if you are preaching to do that then you should be responsible. Take a note from your brother [William] and take public transportation'.

In another extraordinary TV interview, Mr Markle revealed:

With the Markle vs Markle court case looming he said: 'If it comes to meeting them in a courtroom that is great, at least I finally get to see them'

He will do a big interview every 30 days in the hope it will push his daughter into contacting him;

Duchess' father has even written to Meghan's mother Doria to try and reach out to his daughter but has received no answer;

Thomas urged Harry to 'man up' and fly down to meet him in Mexico - saying he should have done it two years ago;

If Meghan is listening to him today he'd say: 'I love you, let's sit down and work this out';

On baby Archie : 'Im really disappointed I havent seen my grandson';

Mr Markle has not spoken to his daughter since the eve of her wedding to Harry in May 2018, calling the couple's decision to quit as senior royals the 'dumbest thing'.

He says his health has faltered since they became estranged and although he admits his media interviews will upset Meghan and Harry, he still hopes they will be reunited.

He said: 'I love my daughter, I'd love my grandson and I'm sure I'd love Harry if I met him.

'I will always hope we can come together at some point - but the break from the royals is causing problems and what I'm saying will causing problems but I'm really disappointed at what is going on. I'm disappointed as a grandfather, that I've never met my grandson, and I miss my daughter'.

He added: 'It's silly it's gone on for too long, I would like to make peace with Meghan and Harry. I am at their mercy, if they want to get in touch with me I'm sure it won't be a problem'.

He said he is 'embarrassed' by Harry and Meghan's decision to break ties with Harry's family and flee the UK.

Asked what he would say to people who are critical of him doing TV interviews, Mr Markle told Good Morning Britain: 'I would tell them to try being in my position for a while and see what it's like - have a family member ghost you and not speak to you, and see how you feel.

'It's something that stays with you 24/7 every day, and it never goes away.

'It's always on your mind. You wake up with it. You go to sleep with it. It's very hard to deal with.'

Mr Markle said his message to the Duke of Sussex is: 'Man up and fly down to see me. And we'll talk.'

Asked what he would say to Meghan, he told Good Morning Britain: 'I'd say I love you and let's sit down and work this out. She was the closest thing to me for years and years and years, until she went off to college and even then.

'This is ridiculous. We should get together.'

Asked about the possibility of meeting Meghan and Harry at court as part of her legal action against Associated Newspapers, owner of the Mail on Sunday, Mr Markle said: 'If it comes to meeting them in a courtroom, that's great. At least I'd finally get to see them.'

He went on to say he did not want a 'battle'.

He added: 'The letter was sent to me, it was described in People Magazine by people calling "themselves friends of Meghan" as a loving letter reaching out to me - the word love never came in the letter except at one time when she said her "loving husband", she never once asked about my health how I felt or anything. This letter that was sent to me - she claims it was her letter but if it has a stamp on it in the United States it becomes my letter as well.

'I reached out to the Mail on Sunday, they didnt come to me. I reached out and I said I want to publish part of this letter because I want to make some things straight about what was being said about me in People Magazine'.

Mr Markle said he still feels that Harry could reach out to him now, adding: 'This shouldn't keep going on. I mean they are putting this... making this a big drama for the world every day is kind of ridiculous.

'It's a family problem. It should be solved as a family problem'.

Mr Markle has claimed the duchess sent him only occasional 'modest' financial gifts after landing a role in the hit TV series Suits, even though he was still paying off her college debts.

When Piers said he felt sorry for the way he was treated, he added: 'I appreciate that. Im not looking for pity. I just want, whats most important to me, is getting my family back together and for the truth to be told, thats all'.

Thomas Markle is angry with his daughter who has cut off all contact with her father since he missed the 2018 royal wedding

Mr Markle also called the Sussexes' decision to step back from their duties and move to Canada the 'dumbest thing' and says Harry is 'whipped' and his daughter 'has turned into his mother'

Thomas Markle vows 'everything will come out' if he is forced into High Court witness box by daughter Meghan Thomas Markle has warned that everything will come out if he faces daughter Meghan in court. The Duchess of Sussex is suing the Mail on Sunday  the sister paper of the Daily Mail  for publishing a personal letter she sent to him in August 2018. Mr Markle has already agreed to be a witness and pledged to expose what he said were lies about him. It will be emotional. I dont know how we will both accept it, he said. It would be the worst place to have to meet her and Harry, but it might come down to that because I will certainly testify against the things that have been said about me. The lies. Labelling Prince Harry whipped, he went on to tell the Sun his daughter had turned into [Harrys] mother. However, he did admit it would be very difficult to testify against Meghan, 38, and reiterated he still loved her. Tensions between the pair have been very fraught since he posed for staged photos in the run-up to her wedding. He was then unable to attend the service as he suffered a heart attack at home in Rosarito, Mexico days before the ceremony in May 2018. Meghan sent him the letter in the months after the wedding and allegedly accused him of breaking her heart by colluding with the paparazzi. Mr Markle then leaked part of the letter to the Mail on Sunday. Meghan has accused the newspaper of breaching her privacy, her data protection rights and her copyright when it published extracts. Advertisement

Thomas Markle last night warned that 'everything will come out' if he faces daughter Meghan in court.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing a newspaper for publishing a personal letter she sent to him in August 2018.

Mr Markle has already agreed to be a witness and pledged to expose what he said were 'lies' about him.

'It will be emotional. I don't know how we will both accept it,' he said.

'It would be the worst place to have to meet her and Harry - but it might come down to that because I will certainly testify against the things that have been said about me. The lies.'

Labelling Prince Harry 'whipped', he also told The Sun last night his daughter 'has turned into his mother'.

The two have not spoken since the fall out before the Royal wedding in 2018, with Mr Markle yet to meet Prince Harry or grandson Archie.

He revealed he had gone to the Mail on Sunday - the sister paper of the Daily Mail - about the infamous letter in order to defend himself from attacks from Meghan's friends in People magazine.

Meghan, 38, has accused the newspaper of breaching her privacy, her data protection rights and her copyright when it published extracts.

The 75-year-old has already given lawyers previously unseen text messages that reveal the breakdown of the relationship between father and daughter.

Mr Markle added: 'I'm tired of being lied about and not being defended. This is my fault so I have to stand up for myself. It is a responsibility thing.'

In the letter, Meghan allegedly accused her father of breaking her heart 'into a million pieces' and causing her to 'crumble inside' by colluding with a paparazzi photographer.

Thomas Markle has shared his family album with Channel 5 including this picture of him bonding with Newborn Meghan as she changed her nappy after her birth in August 1981

Thomas holds his daughter, who he described as his pride and joy, saying he couldn't put her down when he was home from work

Meghan sits up on her parents' bed in another a new family photo shown on the Channel 5 documentary last week

Meghan is cuddled by her mother Doria on a sunny Californian day when she is around a year old in a previously unseen photo

Mr Markle, Doria and their daughter as she started her career and within a few years of this photo she would be earning $40,000 per episode of Suits

Queen and Prince Philip are seen for the first time since grandson Harry left for Canada The Queen was pictured driving through the Sandringham Estate - two days after she was forced to cancel a visit to the WI in Norfolk Prince Philip, 98, was seen not wearing a seat belt as he drove through the Sandringham Estate with his daughter Princess Anne The Queen and Prince Philip have been seen for the first time since Harry departed to Canada after Her Majesty was forced to pull out of the annual Women's Institute visit while she recovered from a cold. Prince Harry travelled from London Heathrow to Vancouver on a BA plane to join Meghan and Archie on Monday, as the couple begin their new life since stepping down as senior royals. Her Majesty, 93, was pictured driving through the Sandringham Estate while Prince Philip, 98, who was seen not wearing a seat belt, accompanied his daughter Princess Anne as she drove through the Norfolk estate. The Queen was unable to attend a WI meeting on Thursday, which she goes to every year at West Newton village hall as part of her winter stay at Sandringham, after catching a cold. Advertisement

Mr Markle, however, said the Sussexes had done 'exactly what they told me I shouldn't be doing' by stepping back.

He added: 'They are cashing in on the Sussex name. They've gone commercial. They should be just called Harry and Meghan now. Leaving the Royal Family is the dumbest thing they could have done. I don't think they thought this out. It's almost an abdication.

'The only thing I can say is there are people who say she was reaching out to me and saying she loved me. Well the word 'love' is not there at all, in relation to me.'

Earlier this month half-sister Samantha revealed her father was 'deeply hurt' by the letter, telling the BBC: 'If he is called, he will come.'

However, Mr Markle revealed it won't be easy to testify due to the love he still holds for Meghan, but admitted it was his responsibility.

He said: 'If I saw her, I would say: 'I'm sorry, I wish we could have sat down and worked this out'. I don't like the idea of sides, of being in a battle with my daughter. I don't like not being able to talk to her.

'But in a way I would be thrilled to meet her, wherever she shows up. Although that (a court) is not the ideal place. I love my daughter. I think I have made that clear to everybody.

'It hurts we couldn't find a way to make up. All I want to do is tell the truth.'

Today's GMB interview with Mr Markle comes just a few days after he appeared in a bombshell documentary charting the relationship with his daughter.

The 75-year-old shared extraordinary unseen photos and films of his Duchess daughter for the Channel 5 film where he spoke of their loving and close relationship

He also described his pride after the birth of his daughter in August 1981 as he opened up to Britain's Channel 5 in a film, watched by 1.2million people last week - just days after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex started their new life in Canada.

Mr Markle says Meghan's childhood years were 'the happiest of my life' as he shared dozens of pictures of her key moments including on the day she entered the world and as father and daughter bonded while he changed her nappies in the following days.

There are also a string of happy photos of Meghan with her mother Doria Ragland, including at family Christmas parties and summer picnics near their home in California, before she moved in with Thomas as a teenager after the couple's divorce.

Mr Markle has also shared rare home video footage of Meghan's first school productions where he says a star was born, her high school graduation and leaving for college.

An emotional Mr Markle also said he was 'jealous' and cried as he saw the Prince of Wales walking his daughter down the aisle and justified making the film to defend himself and rebut the 'trashy things' said about him.

Thomas Markle reveals home video of 16-year-old Meghan's 'feisty' stage performance in a leotard at her LA High School - and says she would 'pretty shocked' if she saw it today

Thomas Markle has shared a video of daughter Meghan as a 16-year-old on stage at high school, adding that she would always play 'something glamorous'.

The clip shows the future Duchess of Sussex performing at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, with her father branding her 'feisty Meg'.

Meghan, now 38, is in a black dress and pearls with fur draped over her arm in the footage, where she plays a woman in a dressing room and a woman at a spa.

Proud Mr Markle, 74, said Meghan would be 'pretty shocked' if she saw the performance now.

He added that he would film every performance his daughter was in growing up.

Meghan Markle as a 16-year-old performing in a play at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles

Her father labelled her 'fesity' for the performance, which shows her play the role of a woman in a dressing room and a woman at a spa

Dressed in a white leotard, the future Duchess of Sussex lays down and stretches as she plays the part of a woman at a spa

Mr Markle told the Sun: 'Its three girls acting out being in a dressing room. Meghan would always play something glamorous.'

In the performance, Meghan initially plays the role of one of three women in a dressing room, at one point letting out an anguished scream.

She then comes out later in a white leotard, before lying down and stretching on stage.

Her father said: 'Shes playing a part in a spa. This is funny actually  very dramatic.'
Some of Hollywood's most exciting hidden gems are first screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

And Will Ferrell joined his Downhill co-stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 59, and Kristofer Hivju for the film's premiere, which took place in Park City, Utah, on Sunday.

The actor, 52, kept things casual for the outing as he teamed a grey sweater with a white paisley-print shirt and smart trousers.

Supportive: Will Ferrell kept things casual as he joined chic Downhill co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus at the drama's Sundance Film Festival premiere in Park City, Utah, on Sunday

Julia looked effortlessly chic in a black maxi-dress that she cinched at the waist with a stylish monochrome belt.

Her raven tresses were styled into glamorous waves, while she wore a light palette of make-up to accentuate her pretty features.

Game Of Thrones' Kristofer put on a dapper display for the occasion as he stepped out in a brown suit and an open-collared white shirt.

Making an appearance: Will and Julia were joined by their fellow co-star Kristofer Hivju and his wife Gry

Glamorous: Julia looked effortlessly chic in a black maxi-dress that she cinched at the waist with a stylish monochrome belt

The actor, who was known for playing Tormund Giantsbane in the fantasy epic, was supported by his wife Gry at the premiere.

The director, who has been married to Kristofer since 2015, looked sensational in a red sequinned jumpsuit which she offset with a black clutch bag.

Gry's fiery-locks cascaded over her shoulders in glamorous waves, and she wore a slick of lip gloss to accentuate her plump pout.

Comfy: Will kept things casual for the outing as he teamed a grey sweater with a white paisley-print shirt and smart trousers, and posed with co-star Zach Woods

Enjoying themselves: Gry and Kristofer posed beside film producers Taylor Friedman, David Greenbaum, and Matt Greenfield at the event

Drama: In the film Will and Julia play a couple who escapes an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps before a split decision causes the couple to rethink their relationship

In the film Will and Julia play a couple who escapes an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps before a split decision causes the couple to take a step back and figure out how they feel about one another.

'It was daunting, except to say that we never would have done it if we didn't have Ruben's blessing,' Julia said in an interview with Variety during the Sundance Film Festival.

'We've all had Force Majeure moments in our lives,' said producer Anthony Bregman about the film.

'We're all subject to doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, and that becoming larger than the thing itself. It's the very idea that something like the avalanche could be extrapolated into something much bigger.'

Downhill is released in cinemas across the USA on February 14, while it'll be screened in the UK from February 28.

Stunning: Julia's raven tresses were styled into glamorous waves, while she wore a light palette of make-up (pictured with Searchlight Pictures Chairman Steve Gilula)

Dream team: Will posed with the film's director Jim Rash after their successful premiere
Pro-Iranian militiamen and their supporters set a fire during a sit-in in front of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. Read more

BAGHDAD - A suspected militia attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad wounded one person late Sunday, officials said, underscoring the growing risks to personnel there amid calls for an end to the American military presence.

Late-night rocket or mortar attacks on Baghdad's Green Zone, home to government buildings and embassies, have become commonplace as the Trump administration increases financial and political pressure on Iran, which backs a number of militias in Iraq.

The strike Sunday marked a rare direct hit inside the U.S. Embassy's heavily fortified compound and was the first in years to apparently wound foreign personnel inside the facility. One mortar shell hit the dining area, while two others landed close by, officials said.

The identity of the wounded individual was not made public Monday, but U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the person suffered an injury that was not life-threatening and that a small fire was extinguished.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to Cairo, Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said that the attack injured one person but that the person has since "returned to duty." Initial reports suggested that the person was a U.S. contractor.

The mortar attack also caused a fire that was put out, McKenzie said.

Maj. John Rigsbee, a U.S. military spokesman, said all Defense Department personnel in the compound have been accounted for.

Sunday's attack came almost exactly a month after a similar attack killed an American contractor on a military base in northern Iraq, sparking an intense round of brinkmanship that pushed the United States and Iran to the edge of open conflict.

In late December, after the United States launched retaliatory airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah, its supporters responded with a brief siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Days later, President Trump ordered a drone strike that killed one of Iran's top military commanders as he arrived in Baghdad. Tehran hit back with waves of ballistic missiles on a section of Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base housing U.S. troops. At least 34 U.S. service members have since been treated for traumatic brain injuries.

Although tensions have ebbed, Sunday's attack highlighted the persistent threat to U.S. diplomatic and military facilities in Iraq.

The Iraqi prime minister is under growing pressure to expel foreign troops, and rocket attacks on the Green Zone have become a weekly occurrence. No group has asserted responsibility for the Sunday strike, or any before it. Kataib Hezbollah denied involvement. Militiamen from other groups also publicly condemned the attack.

In a statement, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi described it as a "hostile" act.

"While condemning this illegal act, we instructed our security forces to arrest the attackers and bring them to justice," he said.

Analysts and Western officials believe that Abdul Mahdi has limited control over Iraq's constellation of militia groups, particularly those backed or influenced by Iran.

Several have been involved in a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iraq. Although the prime minister has repeatedly vowed to punish those responsible for the worst violations, no senior figures have been faced any consequences.

The Washington Posts Mustafa Salim in Baghdad, Missy Ryan aboard a military aircraft and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this article.
While addressing a Chinese Lunar New Year reception held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, President Xi Jinping remarked: From now to the middle of this century, the Chinese people will strive to build China into a great modern socialist country.

It will be a great era in which a new splendid chapter of the Chinese civilisation will be written. Every Chinese person must feel proud of living in such a great era, Xi added.

Nepal capitulates

Sadly, Beijings minorities  the Uyghurs, Tibetans or Mongols  do not seem to have been given a decent place in the glorious goal of national rejuvenation. The Tibetans in Nepal suffer most from Beijings new policies. When Xi visited Kathmandu in October 2019, the PM of Nepal, KP Sharma Oli, told Xinhua that he was committed to strengthening bilateral friendship. The two sides signed 18 cooperation documents but not an expected extradition treaty. It did not stop Xi from saying: Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones.

Following apprehensions, it could infringe on its sovereignty a milder pact on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters was signed, the Nepali media reported. It targets Tibetans leaving their country to take refuge in India. The illusion that the former Himalayan Kingdom could control its own destiny did not last long.

If the Tibetans were so happy in China, why would they take the risk of crossing the perilous Himalayan passes to escape the Communist Paradise? (Photo: Reuters)

On January 23, Nepal and China are said to have agreed to hand over citizens illegally crossing their border. Meanwhile, the boundary management system signed during Xis state visit incorporated a provision to hand over individuals. The secret clause is now out in the open: Article 26 (2) of the agreement says: The boundary representatives or competent authorities of both sides shall investigate cases of persons found while crossing the border illegally, ascertain their identities, crossborder facts and reasons as soon as possible and hand them over to the side where they stayed before crossing the border, within seven days from the day they are detained.

According to experts interviewed by My Republica: The provision could immediately target refugees from Tibet who sneak across the border to Nepal to make a safe passage to India. Since the 1980s, Nepal has had a gentlemans agreement to let the refugees proceed to India (mostly to Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama) on humanitarian grounds. The new agreement will supersede this arrangement.

Myanmar enlisted

If the Tibetans were so happy in China, as projected by Beijings propaganda, why would the Dalai Lamas followers take the risk of crossing the perilous Himalayan passes to escape the Communist Paradise? Beijing has a lot to answer on this. The truth is that today China is dictating terms to Nepal. Kathmandu does not have much choice. Nor does Myanmar.

During Xis recent visit to Myanmar, a joint statement said that each side was pleased with the economic and social progress of the other. Later, it was asserted that the Myanmar side reiterates its firm commitment to the One China Policy and supports the efforts of China to resolve the issues of Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, which are inalienable parts of China. It was the first time that such a formula was imposed by China on a country. Myanmar has its reasons for wanting to please Beijing. The latter will now support the country on the Rohingya issue.

Meanwhile, the situation is worsening for Tibetans in Tibet. According to the official Tibet Daily, on January 12, the legislative branch of the Tibetan Autonomous Region voted in favour of new regulations to strengthen ethnic unity in Tibet. In 2016, similar rules were introduced in Xinjiang. These were later used to justify crackdowns on Uyghurs.

A Xinjiang in Lhasa?

Tsewang Gyalpo Arya, the spokesperson of the Central Tibet Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala objected to the new regulations, arguing that the Chinese government wanted to make Tibetans a minority in their own country through systematic state-sponsored migration of a large number of Han Chinese. This forebodes a very difficult and harsh time ahead for Tibetans in China, he said.

Meanwhile, Kunchok Tsundue, the CTAs Chief Planning Officer affirmed that the demographic landscape of the Tibetans in exile has drastically changed, with more than half the population shown by a survey to have moved from India to Western countries. According to a survey conducted in 2009, there were 94,203 Tibetans in India, 13,514 in Nepal, 1,298 in Bhutan, and 18,999 in the rest of the world, scattered in 27 countries, mostly Western countries.

The Tibetans are now moving towards the West, affirmed Tsundue. It is perhaps time for India to wake up and recognise that Tibetan refugees have never created problems for India over the last 60 years. In fact, they have been (and are) an asset for the country. The only ray of hope for Tibet is the immense difficulties faced by Xi Jinping; the coming Rat Year promises to be even more problematic for the Communist Party.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also read: What India stands to lose by abandoning Tibetans for ties with China
Wilkes is the highest ranked institution in Luzerne County and within the top 25 percent of independent institutions in the nation. Wilkes University is once again being recognized for its commitment to social mobility. In
The US has previously warned allies not to allow Huawei to form part of their 5G networks (PA)

Boris Johnson faces pressure from Washington and senior Tories ahead of a crunch decision about the involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in building the UKs 5G infrastructure.

The United States warned that British sovereignty would be put at risk by allowing the firm to play a role in the 5G network.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo described the decision facing the National Security Council as momentous in a last-ditch plea to ministers who are expected to make the call on Tuesday.

The Financial Times reported the meeting is expected to agree the company can play a restricted role, with ministers looking to impose a cap on its market share to prevent over-reliance on its equipment.

The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G. British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign. https://t.co/8lLEUEUxdL  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 26, 2020

The US administration has previously warned allies not to allow Huawei to form part of their 5G networks, claiming it would be a security risk, something the company vehemently denies.

But Mr Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G.

British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign.

He retweeted a comment by Mr Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in the last parliament, in which the MP said: Sovereignty means control of data as much as land.

We need to decide what were willing to invest in and who were willing to share our tech with.

The real costs will come later if we get this wrong and allow Huawei to run 5G.

Mr Tugendhat has been granted permission to ask an urgent question about the situation in the Commons on Monday afternoon.

.@TomTugendhats undeniable point: doing 5G right goes beyond data mitigation - its about national sovereignty. https://t.co/AJXuWHjtrw  Charge d'Affaires Philip T. Reeker (@USAmbUK) January 26, 2020

Washingtons ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, said Mr Tugendhats point was undeniable, adding that doing 5G right goes beyond data mitigation  its about national sovereignty.

Mr Pompeo is due to meet the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on a visit to London this week.

Senior Tories  including former Cabinet ministers  also voiced concerns about the imminent decision.

Former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt said ministers must decide: What are the standards, values and reliability we want from any company our national infrastructure depends upon?

But she acknowledged that the decision must also weigh up what the alternative would be if the UK rejected Huaweis involvement.

1/2 Media reports about #Huawei have focussed on how we can limit it to the non-core. Thats not the only issue Ministers need to focus on. Do we value protection of IP and ideas? Do we care how a company treats its workers?....  Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) January 27, 2020

2/2 ....Do we value democracy & the good stewardship of capital? What are the standards, values and reliability we want from any company our national infrastructure depends upon? Finally, whats the alternative - the detail of what wed need to do, with others, if we said no.  Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) January 27, 2020

On the issue of security, she told the PA news agency: I dont think anyone doubts that there are concerns, what is in question is whether they should be offset against other issues.

And that is about more than the technical ability to limit the scope of their involvement. It is also about values and trust.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis warned the UK was on the cusp of an almost irreversible decision.

He said that although the US had sometimes been heavy handed in their dealings with the Chinese they have a point about Huawei.

He claimed potential vulnerabilities could be exploited by the Chinese later down the line.

He told PA: The problem with this is that it is irreversible. Once you have done it, the technology is not designed to be plug and play  where you can pull out a Huawei unit and put in a Samsung one  its effectively proprietary, a bit like having an Apple plug.

So its quite close to an irreversible mistake, and its also close to a mistake you wouldnt know if youd made it.

Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warned against a dependency on a Chinese company in delivering 5G technology.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I must admit I always wondered whether it was wise to allow ourselves to become technologically dependent on another country, whichever country, for something as critical as 5G technology.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the calculation would be taken in terms of the UKs national interest.

The decision we make will be based upon our own sovereign right to choose. Its Britain that will have to live with the consequences of that, he told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour following Mr Pompeos intervention.

There are risks but we will make an informed decision based on the evidence and we will do so in an autonomous way.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director of defence and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said he did not believe the US would cut off intelligence-sharing if Huawei was given a role in the UKs 5G network.

When the dust settles, I find it very hard to believe that the US would want to cut off its access to UK-generated intelligence as a response to a decision of this nature. I dont take that threat very seriously, he said.

Last year, the US imposed trade restrictions on Huawei over concerns about the companys security and ties to the Chinese government.

Allegations that its telecommunications equipment could be used to spy on people have been repeatedly denied by the firm.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.27

By Tamilla Mammadova  Trend:

Energy Week Georgia 2020 will open in Georgia on January 28, 2020, Trend reports citing Georgian media.

This international investment forum will be opened by Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Natia Turnava.

The Energy Week Georgia 2020 will bring together such energy companies as Total Eren (France), Acciona Energia (Spain), NBT AS (Norway), Calk Enerji (Turkey), Masdar (United Arab Emirates), Scatec Solar (Norway), Grupo Cobra (Spain), GS E&C (South Korea) and others.

The opening ceremony of Georgia Energy Week 2020 to be held at the Sheraton Grand Tbilisi Metechi Palace Hotel will also be attended by Catarina Bjorlin Hansen, Regional Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the Caucasus.

The event is organized by the consulting company Invest in Network, which is headquartered in the UK and is engaged in provision of energy consulting services in emerging markets.

Within the framework of Energy Week, the participants will discuss the challenges in the energy sector of Georgia, decisions made to strengthen the country's energy security, development of renewable energy sources, energy sector reforms and major investment projects.

Issues of strengthening international cooperation in the energy sector will be also on the event agenda.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356
President Donald Trump's defense in his impeachment trial is a walking advertisement for what Trump thinks he can get away with in the future, as well as a call to action for foreign nations seeking to manipulate our elections. That means the impeachment trial isn't just about the balance of power or partisan politics. It's also about preventing national security risks - and how Trump's behavior has made it harder for intelligence professionals to protect us all.

Combating foreign interference in our elections is a whole lot harder when the president is asking for it - let alone when he's bullying countries into doing it. If that kind of request isn't seen as grounds for removal from office, this isn't likely to be the last time such interference happens. Our new normal will be an election determined both by Americans and whichever foreign actors Trump has managed to enlist as campaign surrogates. Any foreign government that wants to attack our elections just has to offer to investigate one of Trump's rivals. Trump would have every reason to feel more comfortable asking foreign governments to do his political bidding because he knows he probably wouldn't be held accountable for it.

But Trump's request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky didn't happen in a vacuum, and neither would future interference attempts. Intelligence and law enforcement officials are constantly working to identify and neutralize foreign election interference. If the Senate acquits Trump and the intelligence community comes across other, similar attempts in the future, it will face a new set of challenges as it weighs how to investigate and hold individuals accountable. After all, if the president is operating with impunity, the intelligence community and the FBI may be forced to treat his associates as if they are, too. If they try to do the nonpartisan job of protecting our elections, they may find themselves caught in a political bind.

We have already seen this play out, with parts of our intelligence community seemingly becoming complicit in Trump's abuses of power. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., indicated last week that the National Security Agency is withholding information on the issue of Ukraine. That means the intelligence community may have information that directly undercuts Trump's defense - including intelligence on whether the Ukrainians felt pressured into announcing an investigation of the Biden family, as Trump had requested. The credibility of the intelligence community rests on its nonpartisanship, yet we now have indications that it isn't providing intelligence that may be key to defending our democracy. This sets a dangerous precedent going forward: Even if intelligence officials have information relevant to oversight of a president's behavior, they may choose to withhold it.

We also know that Trump is inclined to listen to people with serious conflicts of interest rather than experts in the U.S. government. Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, was smeared by a corrupt Ukrainian official, Yuri Lutsenko, based on Lutsenko's personal antipathy toward her. Trump relied on information from his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas to get her recalled, instead of relying on U.S. government personnel to fact-check these claims.

You don't have to have our experience working in counterintelligence and national security to read this for what it is: Trump got played by a foreign smear campaign. He looks like an easy target, and it's difficult, if not impossible, for actual experts to get him to listen to accurate, credible information.

Now every U.S. government official at home and abroad has good reason to believe that if they do their jobs on key issues like anti-corruption - and upset a foreign official who finds their way to Giuliani - they could be fired, threatened or both. This could lead people to reconsider how hard they work on what used to be key U.S. national security goals like rooting out actual corruption.

Trump had trashed the intelligence community well before the impeachment inquiry started. Now, as he and his surrogates repeat their talking points on Ukraine and the 2016 election, they are continuing to deny the findings of intelligence experts. The first day of Trump's defense in the trial largely centered on narratives that intelligence authorities have flagged as Russian propaganda. Combating Russian disinformation is a lot harder when the president knowingly repeats it. This has near-term implications for fighting Russian influence operations within the United States: When Trump amplifies Russia's talking points, they spread like wildfire. But more strategically, this signals that the president and his supporters will disregard clear warnings about advancing Russian interests in pursuit of their own political objectives.

Trump has also diminished the capacity of the FBI to identify and investigate possible attempts to solicit foreign campaign assistance. The FBI has a duty to investigate any violations of federal law, and it will continue to take this responsibility seriously. But under the leadership of Attorney General William P. Barr - who has already concluded that the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in 2016 amounted to "spying" - the agency would find more barriers in its way if an attack happened again. Barr testified to Congress in May 2019 that foreign election interference would require FBI involvement only if it came directly from the intelligence arm of a foreign nation.

His view has been reflected in the actions he has taken in the Ukraine scandal. Under his leadership, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel drafted a legal rationale in an attempt to prevent the whistleblower complaint about Trump's actions from reaching Congress, as required by law, and didn't find Trump's conduct worthy of even a preliminary criminal investigation. Given these signals - and reeling from accusations of political bias in its 2016 investigation - the FBI will be cautious, at best, and could be prohibited, at worst, from digging into the matter further.

Finally, Trump has escalated the risk of speaking out against wrongdoing in this administration. Public servants like the whistleblower, who brought the president's July 25 call with Zelensky to light, followed legally protected processes for reporting alleged wrongdoing, and they've been pilloried by the right. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and State Department officials David Holmes, Yovanovitch and others performed their constitutional duty and testified under oath in front of Congress - and their names have been dragged through the mud. Speaking truth through established, legally protected channels now comes at a great personal cost. This is a disincentive to speak up, silencing a necessary stopgap against government misconduct.

It's now clear, just months before the next election, that there's no cost to getting help from outside powers. The investigation that Trump sought into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter never materialized, but if Trump's impeachment ends in an acquittal, he will still have gotten a significant win: Trump, his defense team and his enablers in Congress have crushed the U.S. government's ability to confront foreign election interference. Trump's defense against impeachment serves as a call to action for foreign interference. Voters' own ability to determine the outcome of our elections has been seriously degraded by the man who should be focused on securing them.

_ _ _

Vinograd served on President Barack Obama's National Security Council from 2009 to 2013 and in the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush. She is a CNN national security analyst and a senior adviser at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. Rangappa is a senior lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University and a former FBI agent. She is a legal and national security analyst for CNN.
Hospitals play pin the price on the donkey By Michael R Shannon

Consumer knowledge is consumer power. That is why hospitals fight toothandtoenail against any efforts to post turnkey prices for medical procedures. Hospitals want to maintain price opacity. If you ask a hospital what it costs to have your appendix removed you get one of three replies: Uproarious, tablepounding laughter. Thinly veiled contempt at such an ignorant question. Or dead silence. In theory health insurance companies should be staunch allies of consumers in this fight for price transparency. Unfortunately, health insurance companies are basically utilities run by bureaucrats who move paper instead of electricity. Theyre content to be wards of the Obamacare state. Fortunately, the Information Iron Curtain has been under assault by at least three local efforts. The Dallas Morning News reports Crystal Roberts was rushed to an emergency room after a car crash. Fortunately, she was home in only three hours. Unfortunately, lacking insurance, she was billed at the This Is Gonna Hurt rate and charged $11,037 for procedures that didnt require hospitalization. This exemplifies the greed and sadism that typifies hospital administrators. They attempt to charge the highest prices to people who have already demonstrated they are either broke or idiots because they dont have health insurance in the first place. Its literally adding insult to injury. Crystal found a personal injury lawyer working on commission and sued the hospital. The state supreme court, bless its heart, ruled if the hospital intends to prove its $11,000 walletectomy is reasonable it must share  details about the discounted rates it had with health insurers. Thats real progress, but the danger is the rats will see their hospital ship is sinking and settle out of court without releasing the prices. The Maryland Health Care Commission is our second example. It published a limited list of turnkey prices for medical procedures. Limited because the prices cover operations on women or the elderly or elderly women. But its a start. The numbers cover 21 different hospitals in the state and along with prices the percentages of medical errors are also posted. Finally, the private sector has done its part. Kaiser Health News covered the North American Specialty Hospital company that offers its business clients a program where employees leave the country for less expensive surgery. Donna Ferguson had a kneereplacement done in Mexico by a surgeon from the Mayo Clinic. Youre no doubt thinking, yeah Mexico this year but itll be Somalia in 2020 if greedy capitalists can save a dime. Our suspicion is misplaced. Donna had the option of staying in Mississippi. What made the difference was the $5,000 check she received from her employer for agreeing to the lowerpriced package. Now the Trump administration has joined the fight. If you doubt the importance of access to pricing information, the response of hospitals to the Trump administrations Hospital Price Transparency Rule makes my point eloquently. They sued to block implementation. Thats because if it were up to hospital administrators, patients wouldnt be able to find out what it cost to park until they tried to exit the parking garage. The New York Times explains, The nations hospital groups sued the Trump administration over a new federal rule that would require them to disclose the discounted prices they give insurers for all sorts of procedures. Including the cash price it will accept from individual patients. Its interesting that while hospitals have no compunction about forcing Crystal to hold bake sales to make the monthly payment on her hospital bill, the effort involved in publishing price information would bring the friendly folks in hospital billing to their knees. The sheer volume of data that the government is proposing health plans disclose is staggering  dollar amounts for every single item or service, for every single provider and facility, for every single individual and employer plan, wrote executives from Americas Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. If thats really the case, how do hospitals calculate the bill? Is it by taking the total overhead and anticipated profit for the month and divide it by the number of procedures? Or does the information already exist and they are simply lying through their lawyers? Hospital price transparency has been one of the few sustained efforts on behalf of normal people from the Trump administration. This fight is too important to leave to lawyers and judges. Consumers need to be heard. Call your congressman and tell him you support the Hospital Price Transparency Rule. And send an email to the Department of Human Services in support, too. If consumers dont make their voice heard you can be sure the vacuum will be filled by the blandishments of hospital lobbyists. Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!). Home
Japan's effort to nudge its more than 100 struggling regional lenders into the digital age is floundering.

More than a year after rules to spur open banking were issued, small lenders are stuck in a back-and-forth with startups over fees for access to client account data, according to a Financial Services Agency official. Fintechs that must reach agreements with individual banks before a May deadline say they don't have the resources to pay hefty charges or crisscross the country convincing hold-outs.

Japanese banks have been slow to move into the digital age. Credit:Bloomberg

The impasse risks embarrassing policymakers keen to lift Japan off the bottom of a ranking on fintech adoption. A successful move into open banking would put the Asian nation in the company of the UK and Australia, which are freeing up data access to spur competition and create innovative financial solutions.

Japan is hoping for voluntary partnerships where startups help overhaul a stodgy industry hammered by years of negative interest rates, deflation and, for rural banks, depopulation. Mired in shrinking profits as the hinterland ages and empties of its young, some lenders are reluctant to ink deals that promise vague future returns but demand immediate investments.
The Florida Supreme Court last week reversed course on a ruling that previously required a unanimous jury in order for a judge to be allowed to impose the death penalty.

Slate said that the latest decision is a decision of extraordinary breadth, while the Associated Press described it as a dramatic legal reversal that could affect dozens of death row cases. The Tampa Bay Times said it is a stunning reversal.

The latest ruling walks back the 2016 decision on Hurst v. Florida by the states supreme court, which resulted in lawmakers repealing Florida law. That 2016 decision followed the US Supreme Courts rejection of Floridas sentencing framework for capital crimes, which until then allowed juries to render advisory sentences in cases involving death sentences.
By Josh Smith

SEOUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The influential aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made her first public appearance in six years, state media reported on Sunday, years after her husband was executed in a purge.

Kim Kyong Hui is the sister of former North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, and took a leading role during the first years of current leader Kim Jong Un's rule.

She had largely disappeared from public view since 2013, after Kim Jong Un ordered the execution of her husband, Jang Song Thaek, seen as the second most powerful man in the North at the time.

On Sunday, state media showed Kim Kyong Hui sitting near Kim Jong Un at a performance celebrating the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang.

"Many North Korea watchers had assumed that Kim Kyong Hui had gone into exile or even killed in the wake of her husbands death, so to see her pop up by the leaders side some six years later is certainly a surprise," said Oliver Hotham, managing editor of NK News, a Seoul-based organisation that monitors North Korea.

Kim Kyong Hui and her husband were once a power couple that formed a kind of regency in the political world of the North behind its young and mercurial leader, who succeeded his father in December 2011.

Kim Kyong Hui's reappearance in a position of prominence suggests she has retained, or at least regained an influential position behind the scenes, Hotham said, noting that state media listed her after North Korea's nominal No. 2, Choe Ryong Hae.

"That shes sitting right next to the leader and is listed second after Choe Ryong Hae suggests she might have been granted a significant new position, potentially advising Kim Jong Un on economic or political issues," he said.

"Its also a reminder of how weird and brutal North Korea is, after all shes sitting next to the man who ordered her husbands execution."

Kim Jong Un is facing a year of sensitive international and domestic politics, as denuclearisation talks with the United States remain stalled and international sanctions restrict North Korea's economy. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Michael Perry)




Amotekun

Ondo State Governor and Chairman of the South West Governors Forum, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has revealed that arrangements have been concluded to start recruitment into the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) Operation Amotekun in the six Southwest States.

TheNation revealed that the Governor said those willing to work in the new security outfit would be trained by certified security experts.

According to Akeredolus Special Adviser on security, Mr Jimoh Dojumo at a Press Conference in Akure, the state capital, the Governors are working on modalities for recruitment into the security outfit and the date it will commence.

The programme was organised by a group,Democratic Peace Movement (DPM) to drum support for the second term of governor Akeredolu in office.

He however said security issue is not what could be revealed in the media.

According to him You keep certain things in order to achieve your desired results. I wont reveal our modalties but I will simply tell you that we are working round the clock for the commencement of Operation Amotekun.

Akeredolu enthused that Amotekun has come to stay, adding that they are not usurping the power of police on the issue of the security outfit,adding that due consultations were made before the launch of the security outfit.

He said the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu was personally and officially carried along in all the processes that led to the launch of the security outfit.

Besides, he hinted that the IGP sent a representative to the South West security summit held in Ibadan, Oyo State where the six Governors of the region agreed to set up the security outfit.

we are assuring the people of the resolve of the six Governors of the South West to fight insecurity in the region.

Operation Amotekun will in no small way pose serious challenge to those playing with the peace of the region.

The governor hinted that his government has expended huge amount of money on the fight against kidnapping and killing by herdsmen in some parts of the state.

The coordinator of the group, Prof Olu Aboluwoye said Akeredolu had performed well in all aspects of life and must be retained in office.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 16:54 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20612c0d4 1 News tourism,travel,destination,coronavirus,health Free

The Bali Kintamani Festival, originally scheduled for Feb. 8, has been postponed in the wake of a deadly outbreak of a new coronavirus in Wuhan, China.

In a statement received by The Jakarta Post on Monday, Bali Tourism Agency head Putu Astawa said a new date for the festival had yet been determined, but the agency would try to hold the event this year or after fears over the virus have calmed.

The Chinese government has already implemented anticipatory steps that include limiting flights from and to the country, which has reportedly affected Chinese tourist arrivals in Bali.

The decrease in tourist visits will surely happen following a new policy from the Chinese government. However, its also high time that we examine our own situation, especially regarding tourism-related issues such as environment, waste, traffic congestion and clean water, Astawa said. Its about time that we do something about [these matters].

He added that efforts should be made to counter negative news regarding Balis tourism image.

Such as news regarding waste; we need to counter that as many tourists, especially from Europe, are very concerned about such issues.

Astawa also urged the Balinese to pray that the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) could be contained and doctors could quickly develop a successful treatment.

We must stay healthy to ensure we dont catch the virus.

While waiting for the outbreak in China to ease, Astawa pointed out that it was time for Bali to target tourists from other countries.

We shouldnt forget about potential markets such as Europe and Australia, which have been greatly contributing to our number of foreign tourist visits every year.

Read also: Coronavirus outbreak: Curbing public panic

Meanwhile, Bali Tourism Board chairman IB Agung Partha Adnyana said in a statement that hotels shouldnt charge travel agencies cancellation fees as this was a case of force majeure.

Tourists who have made down payments through travel agencies should be able to use [the money] for their next visit, he said.

Regarding concerns over the spread of 2019-nCoV, Bali regional secretary Dewa Made Indra said in a statement, also released on Monday, that the virus had not been detected in Bali.

Dont carelessly claim that someone is infected because that requires [a medical diagnosis].

The administration has already prepared several precautionary steps, such as assigning a number of hospitals to treat coronavirus patients, namely RSUP Sanglah, Sanjiwani Gianyar and Tabanan Hospitals.

We have tightened monitoring at entrance gates such as airports and seaports, Dewa said. (kes)

Topics : tourism travel destination coronavirus health
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The family members of the victims who were hoping that the accused, Marri Srinivas Reddy, 27, would get the death penalty left disappointed.

Hyderabad: The verdict in the rape and murder of three minor girls at Hajipur was posted to February 6 by the Nalgonda fast-track court on Monday. The court said that the judgment, which was to be delivered on Monday, was not ready.

The family members of the victims who were hoping that the accused, Marri Srinivas Reddy, 27, would get the death penalty left disappointed.

The fast track court had on January 17 posted the judgment to January 27. The accused was on Monday he was brought from Nalgonda district jail and produced before the court.

Srinivas Reddy and all the victims belong to Hajipur in Yadadri Bhongir district.

He was arrested on April 30 for kidnap, rape and murder of two minor girls and kidnap and murder of another minor girl.

The villagers had vandalised his house and set it ablaze. For the last eight months, his family has abandoned the house.

Speaking to the media, a villager said, None of the family members of Srinivas Reddy have come back to the house. Now the girls in the village feel safer. About 12 cameras have been installed and two buses have been arranged to the village. People like him should face severe punishment.

The elder sister of one of the victims, said, My sister went missing on April 22, and her remains were found in the same month. He (Srinivas Reddy) was arrested long ago but he is not yet hanged. How many girls should suffer like my sister? People like him will do such offences if they are set free, and we demand the death penalty.

The families of victims would get justice only when the accused is hanged to death. People of the village will feel safe only after his death, another villager told media.
Businesses are an important driver for the development of science and technology in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh writes about how the ministry supports local businesses in their quest to boost innovative solutions and technology advancements.

In 2019, with the close attention and guidance of the Party, the National Assembly (NA) and the government, as well as the co-ordination between ministries and central and local agencies, Vietnams science and technology sector gained many encouraging results, contributing to the overall success of the country.

For the first time, Vietnams ranking on the Global Innovation Index by the World Intellectual Property Organization increased by three places compared to 2018, ranking 42th out of 129 countries and economies, first among 26 low-average income countries, and third in the ASEAN, right after Singapore and Malaysia.

Last year, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) implemented many solutions to promote the development of the national and access to the international startup ecosystem.

In addition to the national Techfest, the MoST also organized International Techfests for the first time in the US, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Singapore to promote Vietnam's innovative startup ecosystem to the world.

Besides these events, the MoST implemented a traceability system to transparently publicize products' origin, serving for international integration and efficiency of state management and ensuring the quality and safety of products.

Social sciences and humanities provided the scientific foundations for building socio-economic strategies and national policies.

Meanwhile, natural sciences made practical contributions to strengthen the capacity of forecasting, warning, and preventing natural disasters.

Moreover, scientists have been continuously working on solutions to adapt to climate change and to design, build and launch the MicroDragon earth observation Satellite.

The number of international publications in Vietnam by 2019 increased by 1.3 times.

In agriculture, science and technology have contributed to the success of the National Target Programme on New Rural Development, actively supporting value chains for local products, according to the One Community One Product programme.

As for industry and trade, the MoST has worked closely with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to carry out scientific research tasks and formulate standards and technical regulations for products, as well as to protect intellectual property and prevent commercial frauds.

In healthcare, for the first time, a river of a brain dead patient was successfully divided and transplanted to two patients, marking a breakthrough in Vietnam's organ transplant technique. In addition, the IVACFLU-A vaccine was successfully manufactured. This is the first made-in-Vietnam flu vaccine which can prevent three common strains of the influenza virus.

Regarding construction, Vietnam used modem technologies in the construction of largescale projects. New materials were found such as concrete produced with sea sand and seawater, reducing the impact of corrosion for building houses in seashore regions.

In terms of defense and security, thanks to the research and application of technology, Vietnam has manufactured many kinds of equipment, serving the protection of the country's sovereignty, including radars and rockets.

In localities, businesses are increasingly interested in the application of science and technology in manufacturing and developing products along the value chains, thereby improving the competitiveness of their products.

Promoting business connections

Identifying that enterprises play a key role in technological innovations along With institutes and universities, the MoST has made efforts to facilitate them by developing and submitting legal documents to the NA and the government. Additionally. the ministry has also carried out action programmes to encourage enterprises to improve their productivity, quality, and competitiveness.

Moreover, the MoST will continue supporting enterprises in implementing projects in technological innovation and research and development.

The ministry aims to make optimal use of national science and technology programmes, the National Technology Innovation Fund, thereby supporting businesses to apply technology in design, production, and distribution while improving labour quality and efficiency.

With these executed and planned measures and actions, the science and technology sector has already achieved encouraging results such as the improved growth rate reflected by the increase in labour productivity.

Especially in 2018 and 2019, the economic growth was at a record high for the last 10 years, reaching over 7 per cent with credit growth of less than 14 per cent compared to 17-18 per cent of previous years.

Regarding connecting Vietnamese businesses with foreign counterparts, the MoST has also developed and implemented a number of policies to promote technology transfer, especially for high and advanced technologies in priority industries

Furthermore, the MoST has provided funding for domestic businesses to import the world's most advanced technologies under the National Science and Technology Programme or the National Technology Innovation Fund.

Particularly, from 2011 to 2019, the MoST proactively organized 11 technology matching and demonstration events with the participation of businesses from Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the Czech Republic, and the United States.

During these events, more than 3,000 processes for equipment and products of domestic and international institutes, schools, and enterprises were showcased, and nearly 150 contracts for co-operation and technology transfer were signed with a total value of more than VND2.25 trillion (US$98 million).

Raising number of tech firms

In order to ensure the feasibility of the set goals, the MoST has been promoting activities of perfecting institutions and policies, including building a number of amended laws. All of these amendments and guiding documents aim to supplement regulations on incubation and the establishment and development of science and tech enterprises.

Moreover, the MoST aims to synchronise the system of mechanisms, policies, and legal documents on science and technology, including all relevant laws and documents.

Meanwhile, the country has also enhanced the effective formulation and implementation of programmes to support the development of innovative businesses by co-operating with ministries and sectors.

The science and technology sector win pay special attention to establishing incubation institutions in close co-operation to regional and international ones, thereby meeting the current needs of supporting innovative startups - all with the active and strong support of the MoST. VIR
Representative Image

A suspected case of coronavirus was reported in Rajasthan, following which the patient has been kept in isolation, state Health Minister Raghu Sharma said on January 26.

He said a doctor, who returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China, was kept in isolation at the SMS Hospital here on the suspicion of being affected by coronavirus.

Directions were given to conduct a screening of all the family members of the patient, he added.

In an official statement, the minister said a blood sample of the patient was sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune.

He added that a total of 18 people from four districts of the state had returned to the country from China and the respective district chiefs and medical officers were directed to keep them under surveillance for 28 days.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Sharma also urged the union health minister to make the screening facility available at the international terminals of various airports in the country.

Another suspected case in Bihar

Meanwhile, Bihar reported its first suspected case of novel coronavirus on January 27. A 29-year-old research scholar, who came home from Chinas Tianjin last week, was quickly isolated.

The woman was admitted to the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in Patna on January 27 morning and kept under observation, after being referred from the Saran Sadar hospital, reports suggest.

The woman, a PhD student of neuroscience at Tianjin, had flown to Kolkata from China on January 22. She reached her home in Chapra on January 23. She reported mild fever with cold and cough a few days later.

China continues to reel under deadly coronavirus epidemic with the death toll due to it sharply rising to 80 amid the country's National Health Commission reporting 2,744 confirmed cases of the fatal affliction till date.
A female Delta Air Lines employee was repeatedly shot in a company parking lot in Georgia over the weekend and later died on the way to a hospital.

The attack happened at 10.30pm on Sunday in the restricted employees-only lot off Northwest Drive in College Park near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

College Park police officers responded to the scene and found 30-year-old Alexis Reed suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Delta Air Lines employee Alexis Reed, 30 (left and right), was fatally shot near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday night. She died in the ambulance

Shots were fired in the employee lot off Northwest Drive in College Park, Georgia

The parking lot where the shooting happened is accessible only to Delta Air Lines staff

The airline is investigating in partnership with law enforcement, Delta spokeswoman Chelsea Gorman said in a statement.

'The Delta family is grieving the loss of one of our own this morning,' it said. 'We share our deepest condolences with both family and friends.'

The airline said Reed was employed as a ramp agent, according to WSB-TV.

Police are investigating her death as a homicide, reported CBS46. As of late Monday afternoon, no one has been arrested in Reed's killing.

The parking lot where the shooting happened is said to be accessible only to Delta Air Lines staff.
He stressed the importance of rationalizing the spending on national press institutions, saying that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi personally follows up a plan to develop such institutions

Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stressed on Sunday the State's keenness on providing all possible support for national press institutions as long as they achieve their goals.

The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with board chairmen of national press institutions in the presence of Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, Minister of State for Information Osama Heikal and Head of the National Press Authority Karam Gabr.

Madbouly stressed the importance of rationalizing the spending on national press institutions, saying that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi personally follows up a plan to develop such institutions in order to help them overcome different challenges.

Gabr, for his part, said that the development plan focuses on digitization of the news service at press institutions, as well as implementing financial and administrative reforms to ensure the best use of their assets.

He added that the plan was carried out in cooperation with the ministries of planning, the public business sector, finance, investment and social solidarity.

At the end of their meeting, the attendees agreed not to hire any employee, whether on a permanent or temporary basis, or extend the service of the retired journalists, except for senior writers.

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Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy on Monday hit out at Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi for "breaching conventions and customs" while holding the 'At Home' reception at Raj Nivas on Republic Day, while Bedi said it was not a private event but one of national sanctity.

Talking to reporters here, the Chief Minister said he and his cabinet colleagues, Speaker and Member of Parliament responded to the invitation for the reception as "it is our democratic duty to attend."



He further said, "We, however, walked out of the venue after attending the function for a few minutes as we could not brook the violation of conventions by the Lieutenant Governor in holding the reception."



He said Bedi has no authority to distribute certificates to officers in recognition of their performance in redressing public grievances at the reception without formally informing him and the minister concerned.

Narayanasamy said, "Although we are happy that two persons Manoj Das and V K Munusamy from Puducherry had been selected for Padma awards by the Centre, this should have been informed to the territorial Ministry that the two awardees would be honoured by the Lieutenant Governor at the reception."



A separate function to honour the Padma awardees should have been organised and Bedi should not have clubbed the honouring of the awardees with the tea party at the Raj Nivas, he said, adding: "We were kept in the dark about the decisions of the Lieutenant Governor to distribute certificates to two officers - director of Education Rudra Goud and Collector of Karaikal Vikranth Raja - and to felicitate the Padma awardees.

Also, he questioned holding of cultural programmes presented by teams from Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh at the reception as such "events normally do not take place during a reception of this kind."



Besides, the Chief Minister charged the Lieutenant Governor with "going her own way without keeping the government informed of her programmes."



"Bedi does not know the nuances of administration and also procedures to be adopted for such occasions like 'At Home' reception," he added.

Reacting to the charges, Bedi said in her whatsapp message that the reception was not a private event but an event of national sanctity.

She said, "As was suggested by the President of India, the 'At Home' reception was made more diverse and inclusive with an element of celebration and recognition."



She thanked the Union Art and Culture Ministryfor sending the artistes from Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh to perform cultural programmes here.

"We, however, regret the behaviour of our elected representatives towards ignoring them (visiting teams) and also disrespecting the winners of Padma awards by refusing to appreciate their presence," she said.

When this was brought to his attention by media persons, the Chief Minister said, "It is the Lieutenant Governor who should express regret and apologise to him as she had organised the programmes without giving prior information to him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The European Parliament is the legislative wing of the EU while the European Commission is the EU's executive wing.

New Delhi: The debate in the European Parliament on India's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), scheduled for January 29 followed by a vote the next day, may trigger uncertainty over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the Belgian capital Brussels for the India-European Union (EU) Summit later this year, sources hinted on Monday even as they sought to highlight that individually, European nations like France strongly back the Indian government's stand that the CAA is an internal matter of India.

According to reports, a total of six resolutions have been tabled by six groups comprising 559 members in the 751-member European Parliament. Most of the resolutions are critical of the CAA, while some also criticise the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the security lockdown and detentions in Jammu and Kashmir. The most critical reportedly is the resolution moved by the S&D Group, the second largest group with 154 MEPs, which states the CAA has the potential to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world.

The resolution by the EPP Group, the largest with 182 MEPs, says the law could have negative consequences for Indias international image and internal stability.

French diplomatic sources in Delhi said France  a founding member of the EU  is of the view that the CAA is "India's internal matter" and that the "European Parliament is an institution independent of member states and the European Commission", indicating that there may be a rift within the European Bloc on the matter.

The European Parliament is the legislative wing of the EU while the European Commission is the EU's executive wing.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad indicated on Monday that the ministry of external affairs (MEA) will explain to the members of European Parliament about the CAA but took a jibe at it, asking why its members hadnt raised the issue of victimisation of Hindus in Pakistan.

Though no dates have been announced, it had been speculated that PM Modi may visit Brussels in March this year, but the anti-CAA resolution in the European Parliament may put a spanner in the works.

With reports that the European Parliament is set to debate and vote on the resolutions, some of which state that the CAA marks a dangerous shift in the Indias citizenship regime and has created the legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship, Indian government sources had said on Sunday that the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world.

Hoping that sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further, Indian government sources had further said that every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation, contemplates both a context and criteria (and that) this is not discrimination, further claiming that European societies have followed the same approach.

Government sources had further said that the CAA is a matter is entirely internal to India and that this legislation has been adopted by due process and through democratic means after a public debate in both Houses of Parliament.

According to news agency reports, the resolution tabled by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the Parliament last week, which falls under the category of Resolutions on topical subjects, states, "The CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering Instead of addressing the concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters."
Kabul, Jan 27 : The Taliban on Monday claimed that it had shot down an American military plane in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province in Afghanistan, killing everyone on board, a media report said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that high-ranking officers were among the dead after the aircraft was shot down around 1.10 p.m. (local time), Mail Online reported.

The US military said it is investigating the crash but did not confirm that the aircraft was American or gave an estimate on the deaths.

Mujahid spoke after footage was posted online by a Taliban-affiliated journalist appearing to show plane wreckage with the US Air Force symbol.

Whilst most of the jet was a charred wreck, a USAF symbol was clearly visible on an engine attached to the tail fin of the plane, which could be a Bombardier E-11A aircraft used by the US military for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

Initial reports had said a Boeing jet belonging to state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines had caught fire and crashed in central Ghazni province in Afghanistan on Monday.

The passenger plane had 83 people on board when it crashed due to technical reasons, the Mail Online report had quoted officials, with no information as yet on the casualties.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor's office in Ghazni city, said: "A Boeing plane belonging to the Ariana Afghan Airline crashed in Sado Khel area of Deh Yak district of Ghazni province around 1.10 p.m. (local time)." Ariana Airlines, however, said all its planes were safe.

The crash site was around around 130 km south west of Kabul, and reported to be under Taliban control.
A common belief among conservatives is that Democrats have blundered in their impeachment trial argumentation, that they've shot themselves in the foot. Perhaps so. But we should remember that their goal cannot, logically, be to win over the Senate so President Trump can be ousted from office before November.

It would have to be that they want to win the Senate for Democrats in November.

It's easy believing that the world's Adam Schiffs and Jerrold Nadlers are ill intended Inspector Clouseaus (without his luck), and no great genius should be ascribed to them. But they're surely smart enough to realize that they'll never get the votes of two thirds of the Senate  67 members  which are necessary to convict and remove Trump. Not happening.

So logic dictates that the smarter Democrats are likely making not a legal case to the senators to remove the president from power, but a political case to the people to remove the GOP senators from power.

This may place in perspective New York congressman Nadler's supposed "huge blunder," to quote legal scholar Jonathan Turley. "One of the things you teach law students is that when you make arguments to juries, make sure you don't insult the jury," Turley explained to CBS News. "That is, you don't want to make statements that make them feel stupid or ascribe any bad motivations to them."

Turley was referring to Nadler's claim that the senators could be engaged in a "cover-up." If you actually call the senators "traitors or conspirators in a cover-up," Turley elaborated (video below), "it's more likely they're going to join together than break apart."

Yet what if this is precisely what the Democrats want?

It's entirely possible that some Democrats would love the moral victory, and a different kind of political one, of peeling off some wobbly GOP senators so that perhaps 52 members in total vote to convict. "Look, a majority of the Senate 'knew' the president was guilty and should be removed!" they could say during the coming campaign.

But what's more likely for the Democrats this election: seizing the White House or the Senate? Remember that the economy is good and Trump strong, and, rightly or wrongly, people credit the commander in chief for the economy and often vote their pocketbooks.

Moreover, the current Democrat presidential frontrunners  Jumblin' Joe Biden and Bolshevik Bernie Sanders  aren't exactly inspiring confidence in the liberal establishment. On the other hand, 23 Republican Senate seats and only 12 Democrat ones are being contested. It's simple math.

So smarter Democrats could possibly want Republicans to vote unanimously to acquit Trump. They can then say, "Every single GOP member put party before principle, ambition before Americanism, fealty to a president before faithfulness to the people." This appeal could be particularly effective against vulnerable Republican senators in purplish states. And a way to achieve that unanimity is by alienating perhaps sympathetic Republicans with insults.

This doesn't mean there aren't Democrats  rabid, emotion-driven, hard-left rank-and-filers and even perhaps some Congress-dwelling dullards  imbued with genuine impeachment frenzy. But I'm always amazed how so many commentators, perhaps caught up in the "drama," fail to emphasize that with the 67-vote conviction threshold unattainable, the probability is good that Democratic Party Machiavellians have something else in mind.

I've long believed that this impeachment had become about flipping the Senate. With control of both Houses of Congress, the Democrats could completely stymie the president's agenda  and rendering his office impotent would be the next best thing to driving him from it.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Gab (preferably) or Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com.
The UK government on Monday unveiled what it termed as an "unlimited" fast-track visa offer to attract the world's top scientists, researchers and mathematicians, set to kick in from next month.

The bespoke "Global Talent" route will have no cap on the number of people able to come to the UK from around the world, including India, and will provide an accelerated path to settlement for all scientists and researchers who are endorsed on the route.

The immigration rules to bring the visa changes into effect will be set out this Thursday and come into effect on February 20.

"The UK has a proud history of scientific discovery, but to lead the field and face the challenges of the future we need to continue to invest in talent and cutting edge research," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

"That is why as we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world, and stand ready to support them to turn their ideas into reality," he said.

Indian-origin Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan was among those lobbying for a more flexible and talent-based visa system for scientists in his capacity as President of the UK's Royal Society and he welcomed the changes as a "positive message".

"The government has listened to the research community, and this is an important first step in creating the visa system that we need for attracting global scientific talent one that is welcoming, faster and more flexible, and takes into account the long-term aspirations of scientists and their families," said Sir Venki, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 with America's Thomas A Steitz and Israel's Ada Yonath.

The changes are part of the initial-phase of wider post-Brexit immigration reforms to enable the "brightest and the best" access to the UK, with an end to European freedom of movement rules set to kick in after Britain leaves the European Union (EU) later this week.

"The UK is a world leader in science, with research and innovation that changes lives being undertaken every day in this country. To keep the UK at the forefront of innovation, we are taking decisive action to maximise the number of individuals using the Global Talent route including world-class scientists and top researchers who can benefit from fast-tracked entry into the UK," said UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The new Global Talent route replaces the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route, with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in charge of endorsing applicants from the scientific and research community.

The route will provide for a brand new fast-track scheme, managed by UKRI which will enable UK-based research projects that have received recognised prestigious grants and awards to recruit top global talent, benefiting higher education institutions, research institutes and eligible public sector research establishments.

This will enable an individual to be fast-tracked to the visa application stage, according to the UK Home Office.

It will double the number of eligible fellowships, such as Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, the European Research Council and Human Frontier Science, which also enable individuals to be fast-tracked and will continue to ensure dependents of the applicants have full access to the labour market and able to work in the UK.

It will not require an applicant to hold an offer of employment before arriving or tying them to one specific job and ensure they are not penalised when they apply for settlement based on research-related absences from the country.

The reforms to the Global Talent route coincide with what the UK government says is its ambitious investment of up to 300 million pounds to fund experimental and imaginative mathematical sciences research by the very best global talent over the next five years.

UKRI Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, said: "Working with the government, UK Research and Innovation is ensuring that the UK remains a globally leading environment for research and innovation.

"Our ambition is clear: to create a stronger research and innovation environment that is focused on supporting talented people and realising the full potential of their work.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Internet users across the world are struggling to access Google Docs applications after the service went down.

The word processing app, which also hosts Google's spreadsheet service Sheets and submission host Forms among others, failed to load for users across the world at around 6:30pm GMT with many complaining of error messages saying systems had detected "unusual traffic".

Issues were also been reported with Google Search and Gmail, with users around the world affected by the outage.

Website health tracker Down Detector recorded tens of thousands of complaints relating to Google's flagship services.

Some users attempting to access their online documents were greeted with the error message: Google Docs encountered an error. Please try reloading this page, or coming back to it in a dew minutes".

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

The outage affected both individuals and organisations, with companies across the world relying on the file hosting service to manage much of their most critical work.

The worst affected region was the east coast of the US, though areas of Europe, South America, Africa and Asia were also hit.

Google's Status Dashboard listed issues with Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides and Classroom.

It is not clear what caused the widespread issues, though previous outages did not result in files being lost.

A spokesperson for Google was not immediately available for comment.
When officiating at the graduation ceremony of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) in 2017, the then Botswana Vice President and now President Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi lamented that it was without a doubt that Limkokwing University is transforming the national tertiary education landscape by nurturing talent through creativity and design-focused thinking.

He said since the university established a campus in Gaborone in 2007, it has not just brought 21st century relevant programmes but it has also imbued the students with a unique fusion of African, Asian and European education thus better enabling Botswana to retain its brightest young people. In partnering with Limkokwing University, the government was impressed with its unique and refreshingly different approach to tertiary education, President Masisi said at the time.

Twelve years later since it opened its doors to local students, Limkokwing University has become the most sought-after university in the country as young people who leave secondary school mostly prefer it as their number one tertiary institution of choice and this has been attributed to exactly what President Masisi spoke about; providing relevant programmes for the 21st century and hence contributing immensely to the human capital of Botswana and diversifying the economy with the provision of e-skills. For the Founder and President of Limkokwing University, Tan Sri Limkokwing, this vision has long been embedded in his drive to change the tertiary education landscape of Africa to match the demands of the students in the 21st century.

In one of the interviews he did way back in 2009, Tan Sri opined that todays young generation is a different quality of people. They are growing up in an era of technology that has enhanced connectivity and eased laborious work. Its a digital world where the word instant is moving from hours to minutes to seconds and now it is reducing further to nano-seconds, observed Tan Sri, the man who has been described by many world leaders as having an uncanny ability to stay ahead because he is able to discern the future.

Discern the future indeed because that is exactly how Tan Sri came up with the idea to set up a university in Botswana at a time when private tertiary enterprises were not generally considered by foreign investors. Tan Sri looked into the future and saw the potential that his university can turn Botswana into a rare gem in Africa. In Botswana, we see the opportunity to change Africa, Tan Sri said at the time. The story of how Tan Sri ended up setting campus in Botswana is that of a man who does not put monetary returns at the forefront of his investments. He took a risk that no other person could consider in 2001 when he decided it was time he brought the university to the Botswana students after the government had been spending millions of Pula to send a few students abroad to acquire creative skills.

His bold move paid off as the university has since produced over 30 000 globalised, highly skilled and the most industry sought after graduates since it opened in Botswana in 2007. Described in some quarters as the man who designed the future, Tan Sri holds the belief it is creative people who build economies around the world. Anywhere in the world it is creative people who creat new business, new products, new media, new lifestyles, new trends, new standards, new heroes, Tan Sri stated.

Today Botswana thrives on graduates from Limkokwing University as they can be found in almost all the creative sectors of the economy in the country such as television production, radio, fashion design, graphic design, journalism and the creative arts.

Through the Limkokwing Entrepreneurship Acceleration Platform (LEAP), the university produces students who would be job creators rather than job seekers.

True to his word, Tan Sri did not just set up in Botswana and sit on his laurels. He ensured that the Botswana campus serves as a launching pad for other African countries as was witnessed by the opening of the Lesotho campus in 2008, followed by the Swaziland campus in 2011. The Limkokwing wings have since spread to other countries such as Sierra Leone which opened in 2018 with the Namibia, Rwanda and Uganda campuses scheduled to open next year, 2020.

Tan Sri Limkokwing has been instrumental in changing worldwide perception of Malaysian education and initiated closer collaborations with the Commonwealth and the United Nations where he has paved way for Malaysia to play a significant role. He is Chair of the Advisory Board; United Nations Global Compact, Malaysia. The Asia Pacific CSR Council awarded him the honour of Father of Responsible Innovation & Creative Education. He is a member of The World Federation of UN Friends and was also awarded the Salver of Honour by the World Federation of Friends of the United Nations. His lifelong journey empowering people and nations was paid fitting tribute when he received the Commonwealth Champions Award and is only the eight recipient of this prestigious award in the history of the Commonwealth.

He is truly one of the worlds most highly decorated citizens for excellence in innovation, communications, advertising, education and as an international peacemaker. Thousands of young people from around the world have gained a global tertiary education by virtue of the Universitys pioneering and innovative education philosophy which is creativity oriented.More than 30,000 students study at Limkokwing Universitys 12 campuses in Asia, Africa and Europe. Its main campus in KLs tech-city, Cyberjaya alone holds close to 10,000 students, 80 percent of them from foreign countries and is the nations ground breaking University with unrivalled emphasis upon innovation and creativity. The University has changed the tertiary education landscape not only in Botswana but in every country the University has established itself.

Its inspirational ecosystems and global strategic outlook produces 21st century graduates who are leading social and economic transformational across the globe. For 50years, Tan Sri Limkokwing has passionately involved himself in nation-building and advocated transformation and innovation of human capital for developing nations and organisations  as key to a more equitable and peaceful world into the next decade of the 21st century.



Mercy Rebaone Thebe This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 00267 3180255

Public Relations Department

Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address a 'Yuva Aakrosh' rally at Albert Hall, Ram Niwas Bagh, Jaipur at 2 p.m. on January 28 to highlight the plight of economy and unemployment.

Ahead of the Congress leader's rally, the youth Congress has launched the NRU, National register for unemployment on Monday.

The party is raising the issue of economic distress on all forums, and beginning Monday the party has started a series of press conferences to raise the issue of the state of economy.

The Congress said: "Beginning today January 27, 2020, Congress Party will hold Special Press Conferences to highlight The State of Indian Economy." Rahul Gandhi had also tweeted on the issue of unemployment which he said is rising rapidly and government is unable to provide employment to educated youth of the country.

The party is also against the CAA and the NPR and Rahul Gandhi is expected to raise the issue as the Rajasthan government has already passed a resolution in the assembly.

Digvijaya Singh, senior leader of the party said: "I have a very positive suggestion for our prime minister. Instead of NRC which has led to Social Unrest throughout the Country he should prepare a "National Register of Educated Unemployed Indian Citizens. But he won't as it won't be a Divisive Agenda! It would be a Unifying Agenda!!"
by Elizabeth S. Bernstein

The United States continues to be virtually the only developed country which does not guarantee any paid time off work to new parents. A study recently released by the New America think tank explores the complicated, confusing, and uneven leave landscape for workers, and the behaviors that result. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act entitles workers only to unpaid time off, and many employers and workers do not fall even within that mandate. While some employers, and public insurance programs in some states, do offer paid family leave, such benefits were found less likely to be available to lower-income households and to workers without college degrees.

According to the New America researchers, nearly half of the parents they surveyed reported taking no leave after the birth or adoption of a child. The weight of this finding is underscored by the definition the researchers used for leave  namely, anything more than a day or two off work, paid or unpaid. The mothers and fathers who reported taking no leave had not, in other words, taken even three days off work.

As documented in a previous report from New America, job-protected paid family leaves are associated with improved physical and mental health for both children and parents. This new research could therefore serve as yet another reminder of the deleterious effects of the family leave policies we have had, and continue to have, in the United States.

What a shame then, to see the study treated as if its primary contribution was to have turned up a previously unappreciated form of gender discrimination. The headline in HuffPost was this: Even When Men Take Parental Leave, Theyre Paid More, New Study Finds. Great click-bait, and also completely misleading.

New America did find a higher percentage of men than women reporting that their leaves were fully or partially paid. But the authors also acknowledged that while they did not inquire as to the lengths of leaves taken by parents, other research establishes that men typically tend to take no more than one week of leave following the birth of a child, while the median length of leave for women is eleven weeks. The New America researchers also considered leave to be paid if it was compensated on any basis  for example as vacation days or sick leave. Given that, the reason that fathers were more often paid while on leave is that they were likely to decline to take unpaid leave at all, and likely to keep the length of any leave at (if not below) the number of days they would be paid for.

In other words, the conclusion to be drawn from the New America study is that men position themselves to be paid for a greater proportion of their time on leave by confining themselves to short leaves and declining to take unpaid leave altogether. Nothing in the study indicated that employers were offering men more generous paid leave benefits than women. In fact, the authors reported that it was men who had had to fight discriminatory leave policies, and that fathers were more likely than mothers to report not having access to leave when they needed or wanted it.

The HuffPost piece acknowledges that employers arent purposefully giving men more money to take paternity leave  that what is happening instead is that men arent taking any time off unless its paid for, and take far shorter leaves that can often be covered with vacation and sick days. There is nothing therefore to justify the assertion in the article that men receive more money than women when they take leave, or the characterization of the situation as a gender pay gap in parental leave. If anything, given that men often decline or underutilize even paid leave opportunities which women are far more likely to take advantage of, the amount of money paid to employees on leave is likely higher for women than for men.

Though more measured in its treatment of the New America study, the New York Times nevertheless asserts that the study found men were more likely than women to be in jobs providing paid leave. It did not. The Times too then proceeds to get the causation the wrong way around. Why, wonders Claire Cain Miller in The Upshot, do men not take more leave when they are more likely to be fully paid for it than women? The assumption is that the availability of full pay comes first and should motivate the taking of leave, but that for some reason the cause is not having the expected effect. In actuality the causation is the other way around  it is because men take such limited leave that they are more likely to be fully paid for it.

Aside from objecting to the misleading characterization of the New America data, I question how much the goal of improving support for families across the board is advanced by readiness to see the issues involved in terms of male-versus-female. The focus at the Times is on the problematic differences between the genders: When balancing work and family becomes difficult, women tend to resort to caregiving and men to earning money. Over at Huffpost it is clear which of these options is considered more desirable. Noting how many people in the New America survey said economic factors explain why men dont take caregiving leave, author Amanda Peck observes that Women, of course, dont always have that luxury. The luxury, if I understand it correctly, is the luxury of going to work soon after giving birth. The luxury is the ability to prioritize the traditionally male over the traditionally female.

There is something gained by those who resort to earning money  and there is something lost. There is something gained by those who resort to caregiving  and there is something lost. Some of what is lost by caregivers, whatever their gender, can and should be alleviated by mandatory paid leave. And while there is much to be said for encouraging all parents, fathers and mothers both, to take time off work to be with their children, the reality is that gender convergence hasnt been achieved even in nations which have made substantial efforts in that regard, like the Scandinavian countries where mothers continue to take far longer leaves than fathers. The essential point is not how the behavior of men stacks up against the behavior of women. The essential point is to support families, and here in the United States, we have a long way to go.
Within days, we are told, the Government will 'decide' whether to award the Chinese firm Huawei the contract to develop and maintain this country's vital electronic network of the future  the mobile telephony system known as 5G.

Only, that isn't really true. The decision to do so was actually taken under the previous Prime Minister, Theresa May  it just hadn't been announced, in part because there was still work to be done to persuade Washington that the UK could be considered a reliable intelligence and security partner, even if we awarded such a hyper-sensitive technological and communications facility to the flagship company of a Communist totalitarian state.

Needless to say, Washington has not been persuaded. One of its officials has said it would be 'nothing less than madness to allow Huawei to get into the next generation's telecom networks'.

Huawei's CEO Ren Zhengfei (left) pictured attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday last week. He founded Huawei after being a part of China's People's Liberation Army. Huawei's chairwoman from 1999 to 2018 Sun Yafang (right) reportedly worked for state security before joining the company

The Chair of Australia's Intelligence and Security Committee Andrew Hastie, pictured, said allowing Huawei to build a telecommunications network is a question of 'digital sovereignty'. He is pictured in Parliament House, Canberra, Australia

This view is shared by our partners in the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing partnership (U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia). In Australia (where China is  proportionate to the size of the economy  a more significant foreign investor than in the UK) there is a cross-party consensus on the matter.

Espionage

The chair of Australia's Intelligence and Security Committee, Andrew Hastie, says it is a question of 'digital sovereignty', while his colleague James Paterson points out: 'Successive Australian governments banned Huawei from our broadband and 5G networks with very little controversy. No one in the Australian political system regrets those decisions today.'

To understand why, it is necessary to realise that Huawei is no ordinary company, but the cutting edge of the Chinese state's drive for technological domination.

Its founder and chief executive officer is Ren Zhengfei, whose earlier career included being a part of the People's Liberation Army. Its chairwoman from 1999 to 2018, Sun Yafang, reportedly worked for the Communications Department of the Ministry of State Security before joining Huawei.

This was confirmed by Huawei's global security officer John Suffolk, under fierce questioning from the Commons technology committee last year: he admitted that Sun 'did have a role in that ministry'.

And as recently as May 2019, Ren  according to the South China Morning Post  told Chinese media: 'We sacrificed [the interests of] individuals and families for the sake of an ideal, to stand on top of the world. For this ideal, there will be conflict with the U.S. sooner or later.'

Not that Huawei could be considered independent from the Chinese state, even if its bosses had no previous links with its military and security wings.

In 2017 China passed an Intelligence Law which states: 'All organisations and citizens shall, in accordance with the law, support, cooperate with, and collaborate in national intelligence work.'

In truth, this merely put on a statutory footing an arrangement which already existed, and which is the hallmark of any totalitarian state. This might also help explain a couple of curious incidents in Huawei's operations overseas.

In January 2012, the African Union signed a contract with Huawei and ZTE (which is owned by the Chinese government) for computing and communications for its HQ in Addis Ababa. It was not until 2017 that an employee reportedly discovered that every night, between 12am and 2am, the computer systems were apparently mysteriously springing into life, to transmit vast quantities of data to servers in Shanghai. (The story, reported by the BBC and the FT among others, was denied by the Chinese government, Huawei and the African Union. The full facts have never come to light.)

Given the significance of Africa in China's overseas investment strategy, known as 'Belt and Road', this was . . . interesting.

And last January, Wang Weijing, the head of public sector sales at Huawei Enterprise Poland, was arrested for espionage in Warsaw, together with the former deputy head of IT Security in the Polish internal security services.

Huawei's global security officer admitted that former chairwoman Sun Yafang (pictured) had worked for the Chinese Ministry of Security when he was pressed by the Commons technology committee

Three days later, the Chinese authorities issued the following (leaked) instructions to their own media: 'All websites: on the arrest of a Huawei employee in Poland, report strictly in line with statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Do not comment without authorisation.'

It's hardly surprising that in the days running up to the official announcement of the British Government over its 5G contract, a number of MPs or former officials with security concerns have sounded an almost desperate note of alarm.

Rivals

The former chief of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, has warned that Huawei 'without question' posed a threat to British security. Sir Richard added: 'China wants dominance in its area of influence. It wants to be in control and its reach is getting longer. Where it has an influential role it wants to make sure it is calling the shots.'

And the chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee until the last election, the former Army Officer Tom Tugendhat, wrote in The Mail on Sunday that to rely on Huawei's hardware for 5G  because it is the cheapest, and has a technological lead over its Western rivals Nokia and Ericsson  was short-sighted even on commercial grounds, as we would be locked into one provider.

He wrote: 'Huawei is not like the others. It's incompatible with rivals, meaning that once the hardware is in, you're stuck with it. Such a dependency, combined with allegations about state subsidies, lead many to believe that Huawei's bid is tech dumping  selling its products cheaply to achieve a dominant position.'

On his Twitter account, Tugendhat went further: 'The challenge of the Huawei decision is not just today, but what it says about the values we will defend in years to come. Get it wrong  we've taken back control from Brussels only to hand it to Beijing.'

But it is Tugendhat's former political colleagues (as well as former public officials who should have known better) that have brought us to this point.

The Conservative Party has complacently taken many thousands of pounds in donations to its coffers from Huawei.

The Conservative peer, Baroness Wheatcroft, joined the Huawei 'advisory board'. (She was accompanied in this enterprise by such luminaries as the former senior civil servant Sir Andrew Cahn, the former BP chief executive Lord Browne, and the late former head of the Confederation of British Industry, Dame Helen Alexander.)

Huawei's meticulous ingratiation into the heart of the British Establishment went to the very top: it donated half a million pounds to the Prince's Trust. It was only a year ago that Prince Charles's most treasured public enterprise declared it would 'not be accepting new donations from Huawei' because of 'public concerns'.

Alarm

Perhaps this was because of the Prince of Wales's alarm at what Huawei describes as its role 'in intelligent security innovation . . . guaranteeing Xinjiang's social stability': Xinjiang is the Chinese province in which around a million Muslims have been incarcerated in 're-education camps'.

But it was under David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne that this technological emblem of Red China was given the greenest of green lights.

In October 2013, Osborne visited Beijing, to declare: 'There are some Western governments that have blocked Huawei from making investments. Not Britain. Quite the opposite.' Cameron has continued to pursue this path in his business life after leaving Downing Street in 2016. The following year he announced he was helping to set up a $1 billion 'UK-China Fund', which, according to the Financial Times 'is intended to seek opportunities for co-operation between the two countries in technology'.

The Prince of Wales, pictured last week on a royal visit to Bethlehem. The Prince's Trust said last year it would 'not be accepting new donations from Huawei' because of 'public concerns'

Former Prime Minister David Cameron and George Osborne first gave Huawei the green light for contracts in the UK

In fact, the nexus between Huawei and the UK began as long ago as 2003, when BT began talks with the Chinese company to provide devices aggregating customer lines and connecting them to the main part of the network.

The contract was signed in 2005. Astoundingly, although BT told the Cabinet Office that it was proposing to lock Huawei into UK telecommunications, the civil service 'did not refer the issue to ministers or even inform them until 2006  a year after the contract between BT and Huawei had been signed', according to the damning words of a 2013 Commons Security and Intelligence Committee report.

Perhaps it is in this light that we should view the determination of Sir Mark Sedwill, the current Cabinet Secretary, to brush aside the concerns of Washington (and of our other allies) at the complete integration of our future telecoms network with the aims and aspirations of the Communist rulers of China.

To reverse now would be to admit that successive administrations had been badly advised. And that would never do.
Ex-boyfriend who died by suicide named suspect in Stephanie Parze murder: Prosecutor originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

The ex-boyfriend of a 25-year-old woman who vanished last October, Stephanie Parze, was named Monday as a suspect in her murder. However, he won't be prosecuted as he died by apparent suicide months ago.

Parze, of Freehold Township, New Jersey, was last seen on Oct. 30, sparking a months-long search organized by her grief-stricken parents. Her body was found in a wooded area of nearby Old Bridge on Sunday afternoon, according to officials.

PHOTO: Edward Parze stands next to a large sign Nov. 18, 2019, outside his Freehold home that asks his missing daughter Stephanie to come home. (Thomas P. Costello/ Asbury Park/USA Today Network, FILE)

Parzes ex-boyfriend, John Ozbilgen, who was initially named a person of interest in her disappearance, was arrested on unrelated child pornography charges in November.

Investigators zeroed in on Ozbilgen in early-to-mid November, but were waiting for some "evidence to come though," including de-encrypting cellphones, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christoper Gramiccioni said at a news conference on Monday.

Then, Ozbilgen was found dead on Nov. 22.

MORE: Search continues for Stephanie Parze a month after the 25-year-old New Jersey woman disappeared



Video: Police Search for Stephanie Parze

Investigators did find a suicide note which Gramiccioni said "reaffirmed" Ozbilgen's "responsibility" for her death.

In the note, he wrote "he had had enough and that he could not do life in prison" and that "this was the only choice," Gramiccioni said (it was not clear what "this" was referring to).

Ozbilgen wrote that what his parents would hear in the news was true, except for the child pornography charges, Gramiccioni said.

PHOTO: John Ozbilgen, ex-boyfriend of missing Stephanie Parze, reads a note as he leaves State Superior Court in Freehold, N.J., Nov. 19, 2019. (Asbury Park Press via USA Today Network, FILE)

However, "in that note he never disclosed where he disposed of Stephanies remains," Gramiccioni said.

While the Parze family "was aware of our investigative conclusions," Gramiccioni said, "we held off on notifying the public because we were still working on finding Stephanie."

PHOTO: Volunteers gather, Nov. 21, 2019, to search for Stephanie Parze in a wooded area near her Freehold Township house. (Keith Schubert, Asbury Park Press/USA Today Network)

No one other than Ozbilgen is believed to be involved, Gramiccioni said.

Parze's cause of death has not yet been confirmed by the medical examiner's office, Gramiccioni said.

Story continues

MORE: 25-year-old missing New Jersey woman sent Snapchat before she vanished: Family spokesman

Parze was last seen around 10 p.m. on Oct. 30 when she left her mother's house to drive the few miles home, family spokesman David Mound told ABC News in November.

"She actually sent out a Snapchat when she was on the way home, which is the last communication that we have from her," Mound said.

Prosecutors believe Ozbilgen killed her in the early hours of Oct. 31, Gramiccioni said.

MORE: Stephanie Parze missing: Search underway for New Jersey woman last seen in October

"Our family is devastated," Parzes father, Ed Parze, said at Monday's news conference, overcome with emotion.

Ed Parze said his family plans to launch a foundation to bring "awareness to battered women and missing people," he said, calling it "an epidemic."

"Our lives are never gonna be the same," Ed Parze said, but he added, "Stephanie is home, she is coming home at last."
You have to keep costs in mind, because we are in competition with New York, with Delaware, and surrounding states, Mr. Egenton said.

Like other states that have taken on climate change in the absence of any action from the White House, New Jersey has set a goal of producing 100 percent clean energy by 2050. Many states, including New York and California, have tried to create a bulwark against the dismantling of federal rules to combat climate change, and have joined together to challenge President Trumps rollbacks in court.

The Trump administration, however, has retaliated against efforts by states to impose regulations that supplement or skirt relaxed federal standards. The clearest example of this was the revocation of Californias ability to set state-level standards on climate-warming tailpipe emissions that were stricter than the federal governments.

In New Jersey, Mr. Murphys land-use initiative is in part a recognition that in order to reach its goals for reducing greenhouse gases, the state needed to add a new level of oversight to the building process to complement incentives aimed at changing individual and corporate behavior.

You need the carrot and the stick, said Shawn LaTourette, chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Protection. Weve put out a lot of carrots  incentives. But the regulation needs to be the stick.

It is hard to dispute the impact of climate change on New Jersey and its 130 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline.

A study released in November by Rutgers University found that the sea level in New Jersey was rising more than two times faster than the global average. Since 1911, the sea level rose 1.5 feet, compared with the global mean of 0.6 feet.
The son of a Congress sarpanch was shot dead at Harpura village here on Monday, police said.

The accused, identified as Harjinder Singh, alias Raja, was out on bail in a murder case. He allegedly pumped six bullets into victim Jasbir Singh (33) when the latter was working in his fields at 10.30 am, police said, adding that there was some personal rivalry between the two.

Jasbir was taken to the Batala civil hospital where doctors declared him dead.

Jasbir was son of village head Sukhjinder Kaur.

A case was registered under relevant sections of the IPC and the Arms Act against the accused who is at large, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Even as his council colleagues took a preliminary vote to expel him, and Evans prepared to resign, he privately told others that he was considering running for his seat again. He said the failure of activists to collect enough signatures to force a recall election suggested that voters in his district did not want him out of office.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed over the weekend that Armenian law-enforcement authorities have thwarted a hybrid conspiracy to discredit and overthrow him which he said was hatched by former and current state officials.

We can call it hybrid preparations for a coup, and we can now talk about that because that process is fully and irreversibly defeated and crushed, he told a news conference held in the southeastern town of Kapan.

Pashinian said that the alleged conspiracy involved tens of millions of dollars spent on the spread of false information about him, his family members and associates.

And that was done through the criminal underworld, various forces, corrupt figures, he went on. Why does the word coup match this process? Because this process was joined by serving officials who acted against the government while being inside the government. Former officials and some representatives of the judicial system were also involved in that.

Pashinian did not name anyone or give other details of the alleged plot, saying only that it was neutralized by Armenias National Security Service (NSS) and police several months ago.

Dont ask me to name names because I did name names, he said. Just save me from the displeasure of uttering concrete names and surnames.

In a January 11 article, a newspaper controlled Pashinians family, Haykakan Zhamanak, accused former NSS Director Artur Vanetsian of organizing a smear campaign against the family. It said that the campaign was masterminded by a former senior official linked to Mikael Minasian, former President Serzh Sarkisians son-in-law.

Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government parliamentarian and Pashinians brother-in-law, alleged afterwards that Vanetsian was sacked in September because he was plotting a coup. Commenting on that statement, the NSS said that it is not aware of any coup attempts and will not look into Hakobians claims.

Vanetsian, who has not been charged with any crimes so far, denounced the Haykakan Zhamanak article as slanderous and threatened to file a libel suit against the paper.

The former NSS chief also scoffed at Pashinians latest remarks, tweeting later on Saturday that such emotional outbursts are fraught with very undesirable consequences for Armenia. He went further in another tweet posted on Sunday, saying that the ruling Civil Contract party should consider replacing the prime minister.

Vanetsian was an influential member of Pashinians entourage until he was unexpectedly fired for still unclear reasons.
North Chicago had the highest tax rate of any school district in Lake County at $8.03 per $100 of assessed property value for the 2018 tax year, not including any taxes levied to cover debt payments, according to the Lake County Clerk. Round Lake came in at $7.32 per $100 and Waukegan followed at $6.43 per $100.
Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Monday said that the BJP does not need a certificate of approval from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao or AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi over its policies.

"The BJP does not need a certificate from KCR or Owaisi. We work keeping in mind the welfare of the people of this country," Reddy said.

"Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has said that he will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act in Telangana. He also said that what the BJP-led central government is trying to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra. The chief minister is lecturing BJP after compromising and forming an alliance with Majlis Party (Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) which does over religion," he added.

Reddy was responding to Telangana Chief Minister's remarks that he will oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"I appeal to the Prime Minister of this country to rethink over the CAA. The Population Register is the first step towards NRC and this has been said in Parliament. We have opposed CAA and it was a wrong decision by the Centre," Rao had said on Saturday.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A west Alabama man has been sentenced in the 2017 shooting death of another man in Wilcox County.

Circuit Judge Collins Pettaway sentenced 28-year-old Sylvester Elliott to 60 years in prison, said District Attorney Michael Jackson.

Elliott was convicted in September in killing of Clifford Bonner. The deadly shooting happened about 1 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2017 at McWilliams Kountry Mart Club.

Bonner was working security at the club that morning when authorities say Elliot and a woman went to the back door with pistols and tried to get in. Bonner told the pair they could not come into the club armed.

Elliot then shot Bonner four times. The victim ran toward the end of the building and Elliot fired four more shots at him. Bonner was taken to J Paul Jones Hospital in Camden, where he was pronounced dead.

This is another gunslinger who will spend the rest of his life in prison, Jackson said.
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Inspired by the protesters of Delhis Shaheen Bagh, women in large numbers took to streets in Mumbai on Monday, protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Holding placards and raising slogans like We all are one and Azadi, the women, mostly from Muslim-dominated Madanpura, Jhoola Maidan, Apripada, and Mumbai Central areas, are protesting at the Morland road outside Arabia Hotel in Nagpada area of South Mumbai since late Sunday night.

The women protesters are holding placards with slogans hailing Hindu-Muslim unity and brotherhood along with slogans like They tried to divide us, Respect My Existence or Expect My Resistance written on them.

The protests grew larger as the day advanced despite police trying to convince the protestors to cooperate and withdraw the protests.

The government is not following the law. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was detained while protesting against the act. Women in Uttar Pradesh are not being allowed to protest. This is completely unconstitutional, said Fatima Khan, a law student leading the protests.

We are just following the call to have a Shaheen Bagh in each and every city of the country. We wont budge until the act is withdrawn, she added.

We are reaching out to more people through social media and asking women to join the protest, she said.

Rosina Aslam Ansari, who works as a house help, said she hasnt gone for work so that she could take part in the protest.

What is happening here will affect us as we do not have documents in place. We are left with no option but to join the protest. The person I work for gave me a leave to be a part of the protest, saying she would join me too, said Ansari.

Senior Nagpada police station inspector Shalini Sharma said she had requested the protesters to take prior permission from the police, but the women refused to budge and continued to occupy the road.

The protestors initially occupied a half-constructed road which was closed for traffic. We have now barricaded it from all sides, she added.

The protestors are conducting the protests in a rotational way. Most of the protestors are housewives and are continuing the protests without compromising on their domestic duties, Khan said while reiterating their resolve to continue the protests.
Actor Jay Bhanushali, whose welcomed his daughter Tara Jay Bhanushali last year, is doing everything to be a pro father. He and his wife Mahhi Vij also have two children, whom they had adopted earlier.

First thing is I get up, see my daughters face, be with her for some time, then I go and work out and I make my other two kids study with me. I teach them and help them complete their homework, then we watch a couple of cartoons where they learn phonics. I am getting trained to be a pro father, he quipped.

Without the support of my family, I would have been nowhere. Especially my wife, the way she has transformed me from a boy to a man. I absolutely love spending time with my little ones. Whenever Im not at work, I ensure that I spend most of my time with her. I take care of every little thing about her from feeding her to putting her to sleep and also do my part by helping Mahhi with whatever I can and it is the best feeling in the world, he added.

Also see: Ekta Kapoor kicks off son Ravies birthday bash with Karan Patel-Ankita Bhargava and Erica Fernandes. See pics

He recently took the #AcuvueOneDayChallenge. Jay shared: Eye care is very important. The reason is that, I host reality shows and a few people dont know, but far away from me there is a screen where the script is being shown to me. It keeps rolling and I have to read those lines so if you dont have a clear vision, I wont be able to read the lines.

My tips for healthy eyes would be to eat good food, healthy food. The second thing would be sleeping on time, which is very important and being away from the phone. I also have the right kind of vitamins every day. To take care of your eye health, its really important to eat healthy, reduce screen-time and stay well-rested. I personally take time off from my phone every day at least for an hour to help reduce stress on my eyes, he added.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
It's just sickening that we, one of the most powerful countries in the world, have a man in the office of president who refused to honor Marin Luther King Jr. Day, who would not lower the flag for Sen. John McCain, one of our most honored prisoners of war. He made fun of members of the military, including a widow whose husband was killed in Africa.

There is just so much to list, the degrading things that this man and his cronies have done, to kick dirt in the face of true patriots of this country.

Are we, as taxpaying citizens of the U.S., going to stand by and allow these corrupt thugs to take over what our ancestors fought so hard to preserve? He is threatening to put us in a civil war and inciting the violence of gun-toting hate groups.

The spineless Senate, under Mitch McConnell and sycophant Lindsey Graham, are cheering on the sick behavior of this psychotic, narcissistic supporter of former KGB Russian Putin.

How did it come to this, where we are being walked on and spit on by a foreign adversary with full permission from our leaders?

Kay Gervais,

Corvallis

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McKesson Corp.s board reached a $175 million settlement with investors who claimed directors failed to maintain adequate internal systems for spotting suspicious opioid shipments, as the U.S.s largest drug distributor continues to grapple with claims it helped fuel a public-health crisis tied to the painkillers.

As part of the accord, McKesson executives also agreed to beef up the companys corporate-governance protections by separating the role of the chief executive officer and board chairman and toughening bonus claw-back policies for officials who dont perform properly, according to court filings in California and Delaware. The money from the so-called derivative settlement  coming from directors insurance policies  goes into the companys coffers.

McKesson investors overcame steep odds to obtain a remarkable settlement, the plaintiffs lawyers said last month in a motion seeking preliminary approval for the deal from U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California. A court filing in a similar case in state court in Delaware Thursday also referenced the deal.

David Matthews, a McKesson spokesman, said Thursday that while the company moved to resolve the investors suits, the deal does not include any admission of liability.

The accord comes as McKesson continues to wrestle with thousands of suits filed by states, cities and counties accusing it of contributing to the countrys opioid epidemic by failing to halt questionable shipments of the painkillers to pharmacies.

McKesson is part of a proposed settlement of the governmental suits that has been valued at about $50 billion. The deal hasnt yet garnered enough support from state attorneys general and lawyers for municipalities though. Opponents question whether the $18 billion offer by McKesson, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. is enough.

Other opioid makers, such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. have offered to contribute $23 billion in treatment medications and $250 million to the deal while Johnson & Johnson wants to kick in $4 billion.

Over the past decade, McKesson has twice settled with regulators who claimed it didnt have proper systems in place to catch illegitimate orders of painkillers. McKesson has faced questioning from congressional committees about allegations it flooded small West Virginia towns with opioids.

Two years ago, a committee of McKesson directors cleared board members and senior executives of wrongdoing, saying the company placed great emphasis on compliance and encouraged ethical conduct.

Red Flags

Still, Wilken rebuffed McKessons request to throw out the investors claims, saying they raise legitimate questions about whether directors ignored multiple red flags about opioid shipments even after agreeing to step up compliance oversight as a result of a deal with the government.

The settlement, produced in part by a series of mediation sessions, calls for McKesson to add two new independent directors to its board, to beef up compliance training for directors and improvements in internal systems designed to red-flag suspicious orders, according to court filings.

Plaintiffs lawyers plan to ask Wilken to approve $52 million in legal fees, which amounts to 30% of the insurance proceeds satisfying the cash portion of the deal, according to the filing.

The case is In Re McKesson Corporation Derivative Litigation, 17-cv-01850, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics California
Qatar Minister of Oil Saad Sherida Al Kaabi attends the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) meeting in Kuwait

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India wants Qatar to delink the price of its imported gas from that of oil under long-term deals, India's oil minister said on Monday, to make supplies cheaper for price-sensitive customers after a sharp fall in spot prices of the cleaner fuel.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) sourced from the spot market costs about half of that under the long-term deals.

India in 1999 signed a long-term LNG deal with Qatar for supplies from 2004, with volumes gradually rising to 7.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

The price of gas under the long-duration deal was linked to the price of crude, as oil markets were well developed compared with that of gas.

The deal was, however, renegotiated in 2015 leading to about a 50% cut in prices for India, which agreed to buy an extra 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of the super-cooled gas from Qatar.

"The current formula of benchmarking gas prices with crude oil is not correct," the minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, said after meeting industry officials including Qatar's energy minister, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, and Indian state-owned oil company officials.

"India believes that there should be independent pricing formula for gas ... We have to find a formula between the current practices and other international prices," Pradhan told reporters.

Kaabi said Qatar would not renegotiate pricing under the existing contracts and was ready to supply more gas to meet India's growing demand for gas.

"We are not renegotiating contracts, we stick with contracts - both sides - and we look for additional new contacts and volumes to comply with requirements from India," Kaabi told reporters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India needed to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030 from 6.5% now.

Indian officials at the meeting said the negotiations had only started and could go on for some time.

"There is a plenty of gas supplies in the market and India is a big market, where demand for gas will continue to rise," said one gas firm official.

"Our negotiations continued for about a year before they agreed on changing the formula in 2015."

Story continues

This official said India wanted prices to be brought down to about $5 per million British thermal unit compared with about $8-$8.5 per unit currently sourced under the long-term Qatari deals.

India is a leading buyer of Qatari LNG. Supplies from Qatar under the long-term deals account for about 40% of overall Indian gas imports.

Pradhan said the government and Indian state-owned companies had put forward their views to the visiting Qatar delegation highlighting "availability, accessibility and affordability" of natural gas.

Kaabi, who is also the chief executive of Qatar Petroleum, was accompanied by the chief executive of Qatar Gas, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Qatar is the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and wants to boost its production of LNG to 126 mtpa by 2027.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Tom Hogue)
Kate Middleton revealed she and Prince William have told their children about the Holocaust at the Holocaust Memorial Day service in London on Monday.

The royal mom, 38, was talking to Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich at the reception, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, after the deeply moving ceremony.

We were talking to the children about it earlier today, Kate told Tribich, who inquired about the royals family.

RELATED: Kate Middleton and Prince William Arrive for Poignant Holocaust Memorial Day Service in London

But we have to be, you know, for a 6-year-old the interpretation, the royal added, suggesting she had to choose her words carefully to explain the mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazis to Prince George, the oldest of their three children. The royal couple are also parents to Princess Charlotte, 4, and Prince Louis, 20 months.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte on Dec. 25 | Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty

At the service, William and Kate met 12 survivors of genocide, including those persecuted by the Nazis and others from Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Darfur. The royal couple also joined survivors in the lighting of six candles on stage, which represent the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Kate Middleton | Chris Jackson/Getty

RELATED: Kate Middleton Got Behind the Camera to Take Photos of Holocaust Survivors: See the Striking Images

Among the survivors on stage was Yvonne Bernstein, 82, who was one of those featured in striking portraits recently taken by Kate. After six candles were lit, William and a visibly moved Kate lit their own candle before turning and solemnly leaving the stage to rejoin the congregation floor and to start a chain of candle lighting.

It was so emotional, so many moving stories, Kate told a group of people at the reception, including Tribich, who was one of the people who spoke on stage to recount her survival story at Bergen-Belsen.

Kate Middleton (right) speaking with survivor Mala Tribich | Chris Jackson/Getty

Chris Jackson/Getty

RELATED: Prince Charles Delivers Powerful Speech at Israels Holocaust Memorial: All Humanity Must Learn

Story continues

You were fantastic, the mother of three continued, as she put a hand on Tribichs arm before asking how she recites her story to schoolchildren. Do your experiences resonate with them? Do they feel they can do something for their generation?

The royal added, So many families are totally torn apart by the trauma and how that plays out over the generations.

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Speaking with reporters later, Tribich, 89, explained how her exchange with Kate unfolded.

I said I speak about it in schools and she was asking what impact it has. It brings them closer to the history, Tribich said. I told her I follow her and her lovely children in the news and she said I have told the children. They have made them aware of it (the Holocaust). I suppose she tells it in the measure that its applicable to that age.

Chris Jackson/Getty

When William and Kate arrived at the poignant ceremony, the two were greeted by Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Sir Ben Helfgott, honorary president and a prominent Holocaust survivor. William told them, We were talking this morning about how you carry on this message for future generations. We will do our best.

Williams father, Prince Charles, delivered a powerful speech at Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust Memorial, on Thursday, while Charles wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall represented Queen Elizabeth at the service being held at Auschwitz on Monday.
Stop Tribalism And Tribal Associations Now!

"I am not born for one region. The whole South Sudan is my native Country. I am voting against tribalism, regionalism, corruption and injustice.

By Gisma-Angeth Mou Mou

I have watched with great concern the tribal ethnic hate rhetoric spreading on social media in the last few days that is still ongoing on facebook videos.

My message to you all is very simple: STOP Tribalism and STOP it Now.

How do we understand what exactly tribalism is and why it is bad?

Tribalism is when a person's action of integrating other people from the same country, is based on the ethnic group of the tribe a person belongs to, or is considered to belong to.

Factors such as name, language and appearance are used as a basis for decision of common interest of group and association, rather than information that is not immediately apparent, for example a country or nation-state.

This tribalism is a type of ethnic discrimination, which means that a person is not included in a group or community because he/she has a name, language and appearance that is different from the people who are included.

This is followed by hate speeches that have close ties to tribalism and negative culture of exclusion.

Tribalism is therefore the producer of violence, corruption and civil war.

I therefore call on all South Sudanese, and especially the Diaspora, to close their tribalism associations and go for inclusion of all South Sudanese via a range of South Sudanese Communities.

The Jieng Council of Elders must also change and transform to South Sudan Council of Elders.

I also urge the parliament that Citizenship of today needs to be expanded with anti-tribalist and anti-ethnic discrimination built in.

Encourage citizens interest in the right to express openly their anti-tribalism and anti-ethnic discrimination and anti-war wherever they are.

Good citizens and good leaders of the country have legal rights and obligations to protect their independent country against threats such as tribalism and corruption.

Finally, I want all of us, young and old, women and men to adopt vision in what we do and say, such as:

I am from Bahr el Ghazal, I am from Upper Nile and I am from Equatoria; but I am not born for one region. The whole South Sudan is my native Country. I am voting against tribalism, regionalism, corruption and injustice.



NOTE: Opinions expressed on Gurtong are entirely of the authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions of the website or Gurtong Trust Media.
A resolution seeking "political reservation" for tribals for their empowerment will be brought in during the upcoming session of the Goa Legislative Assembly by the Goa Forward Party (GFP), an NDA ally, the party president Vijai Sardesai has said.

The former deputy chief minister told a gathering in Margao on Sunday that such resolution for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community is the need of the hour.

Tribals in the coastal state have been demanding that a seat be reserved for the community in the 40-member Legislative Assembly.

At present, one seat is reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) community in the House.

"United opposition including the Congress will move this resolution in the budget session beginning February 3. The indigenous population should be given a protection. It is an international phenomenon. Even countries like Canada have drafted separate laws to protect their indigenous population," said Sardesai, who represents Fatorda seat.

He said tribal communities are in "danger".

"We need to keep their natural heritage alive and empower them," he added.

Leaders of either the ruling BJP or the main opposition Congress have not made any statement so far regarding such resolution.

Tribals, who comprise around 12 per cent of Goa's total population, are mostly concentrated in Sanguem and Canacona talukas in South Goa.

The community mostly depends on agriculture for livelihood.

Meanwhile, Sardesai also said that the Constitution is under threat due to the new citizenship law and proposed NPR and NRC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The FCT High Court has adjourned until Thursday the trial of a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, for alleged involvement in the controversial $1.2billion Malabu oil deal.

Mr Adoke was arraigned alongside six others before Justice Idris Kutigi of the Gwagwalada Division of the court last week Monday.

The charges were amended to 42 from the initial 12.

He is also being tried at the Federal High Court on separate charges but related to the soured oil deal.

Background

The EFCC had been pursuing Mr Adoke for his alleged role in the controversial transfer of Nigerias OPL 245 oil field.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how almost half of the $1.1 billion paid by Shell and Eni in the controversial OPL 245 deal brokered by Mr Adoke and some other officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration ended in accounts controlled by Mr Aliyu.

The oil multinationals paid the money through the Nigerian government to Malabu, a company then controlled by Dan Etete, a former petroleum minister who is on the run.

Malabu, which was illegally awarded OPL 245 when Mr Etete was a minister in 1998, then transferred about half of the money into accounts partly controlled by Mr Aliyu.

The EFCC alleges that Mr Aliyu distributed the money to some top officials of Shell and Eni as well as some officials of the Jonathan administration.

The EFCC also said Mr Adoke received N300 million from Mr Aliyu in 2013 as his share of the Malabu windfall.

Shell, Eni, and their officials are already being prosecuted in Italy for the scandal.

Mr Adoke has denied any wrongdoing and said the actions taken in respect of the transfer of the block were based on the instructions of former President Jonathan and in the best interest of Nigeria.

In 2015, the former minister went on a self-imposed exile outside Nigeria.

He eventually travelled to Dubai where he was arrested by Interpol on the prompting of the EFCC.

Upon his return to Nigeria, he was arrested at the Abuja airport and handed over to the EFCC on December 19.

The EFCC secured an initial court order to hold Mr Adoke for 14 days following his arrest in Abuja.

Monday Court Session

Mike Ozekhome, a member of Mr Adokes legal team, presented a six-paragraph affidavit supported by 10 exhibits, stating that because of ill healt and high blood pressure Mr Adoke could not walk properly. He (Mr Adoke) is looking pale like a 75-year-old man, the lawyer said.

He also said part of the exhibits showed that Mr Adoke did not run away from the country, but was on a study programme in the Netherlands.

Mr Ozekhome added that the former AGF was not deported to Nigeria as claimed by the EFCC. He bought his own flight ticket back to the country.

READ ALSO:

He therefore urged the court to grant his bail application based in exercise of its discretionary powers.

Ola Olanipekun, counsel to the second defendant, Mr Abubakar, also said his client was not arrested but voluntarily presented himself to the court. He also urged the court to exercise its discretion in favour of the application.

The lawyer to the third defendant, Paul Okoli, said his client, Mr Rasky, had been under investigation and surveillance by the EFCC and has never failed to show up when invited.

He also prayed the court to grant his bail application.

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When Justice Kutigi asked the prosecution counsel, Bala Sanga, if he was opposing the applications, he said in an 11-paragraph counter affidavit dated January 24 and signed by Ahmed Ibrahim, an EFCC investigator, that the bail applications should not be granted.

Mr Sanga said there was no evidence to show ill health as claimed by the counsel to Mr Adoke.

He also countered claims that Mr Adoke voluntarily returned to Nigeria.

He said, If truly he (Adoke) returned voluntarily to Nigeria, how come he was handed over to the EFCC by interpol?

He urged that sufficient evidence should be put before the court.

Mr Santa also dismissed Mr Olanipekuns claim that his client voluntarily appeared before the court, saying the court clerk can attest that Mr Abubakar was arrested right in front of the court.

Mr Sanga said Mr Abubakar might jump bail because the commission had granted him administrative bail early in January, part of which he allegedly violated.

The lead counsel to Mr Adoke, Kanu Agabi, also urged the court to grant him bail in sum that is affordable

Justice Kutigi adjourned the case till Thursday to deliver ruling on the bail applications.
: Coast Guard ship Annie Besant, which was commissioned recently by the Defence Ministry, was given a grand welcome on its maiden arrival here on Monday.

The ship has been named in honour of theosophist and champion of women's rights during the freedom movement, Annie Besant.

The ship was received with 'pomp' and 'splendour' on her arrival to her base port at Chennai by top officials of the Coast Guard District headquarters, a release said.

The third fast patrol vessel of 'Priyadarshini' class has been indigenously built and was commissioned by Defence Secretary, Ajay Kumar on January 12 in Kolkata.

The 48.9 metre long ship is equipped with state-of-the-art navigational and communication equipment and sensors.

The vessel has an Integrated Bridge Management System and has 40/60 Bofors gun with a 12.7 mm Stabilised Remote Control Gun fitted to enhance its fighting efficiency.

The ship carries one Rigid Inflatable Boat and one Gemini Boat each and can undertake maritime operations.

It is manned by five officers and 34 men and will be commanded by Commandant (JG) Sunny Deo.

The vessel has been placed at Chennai under the administrative and operational control of the Commander, Coast Guard Region (East), the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Last week saw the newest second-quarter earnings release from Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX:S68), an important milestone in the company's journey to build a stronger business. Singapore Exchange reported in line with analyst predictions, delivering revenues of S$231m and statutory earnings per share of S$0.092, suggesting the business is executing well and in line with its plan. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what top analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

See our latest analysis for Singapore Exchange

SGX:S68 Past and Future Earnings, January 26th 2020

Taking into account the latest results, Singapore Exchange's 13 analysts currently expect revenues in 2020 to be S$963.6m, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory per share are forecast to be S$0.39, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Before this earnings report, analysts had been forecasting revenues of S$959.9m and earnings per share (EPS) of S$0.39 in 2020. So it's pretty clear that, although analysts have updated their estimates, there's been no major change in expectations for the business following the latest results.

Analysts reconfirmed their price target of S$8.42, showing that the business is executing well and in line with expectations. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. The most optimistic Singapore Exchange analyst has a price target of S$9.60 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at S$7.28. The narrow spread of estimates could suggest that the business' future is relatively easy to value, or that analysts have a clear view on its prospects.

It can also be useful to step back and take a broader view of how analyst forecasts compare to Singapore Exchange's performance in recent years. We would highlight that Singapore Exchange's revenue growth is expected to slow, with forecast 0.9% increase next year well below the historical 4.0%p.a. growth over the last five years. By way of comparison, other companies in this market with analyst coverage, are forecast to grow their revenue at 8.7% per year. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, analysts still expect the wider market to grow faster than Singapore Exchange.

Story continues

The Bottom Line

The most obvious conclusion from these results is that there's been no major change in the business' prospects in recent times, with analysts holding earnings per share steady, in line with previous estimates. On the plus side, there were no major changes to revenue estimates; although analyst forecasts imply revenues will perform worse than the wider market. The consensus price target held steady at S$8.42, with the latest estimates not enough to have an impact on analysts' estimated valuations.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Singapore Exchange going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here..

We also provide an overview of the Singapore Exchange Board and CEO remuneration and length of tenure at the company, and whether insiders have been buying the stock, here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has asked for the approval of the State House of Assembly to borrow N15billion from Guaranty Trust Bank in the name of the 44 local governments of the state to run his governments free education policy.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Abdulazeez Garba-Gafasa, on Monday read at the plenary a letter from the governor seeking the houses approval for the 44 local governments in the state to access the loan.

According to the letter, the loan will enable the local governments to implement the state governments free and compulsory education policy.

He said if the loan is approved, each of the 44 local governments will receive N340 million to sustain the education policy across the state.

The Speaker while reading the letter explained that the loan would be paid within 30 months at 15 per cent interest.

Mr Garba-Gafasa added that, according to the letter, the loan will be deducted from the local governments monthly Federal allocations.

Shortly after reading the letter, the Speaker forwarded it to the house committee on local governments.

The committee is headed by the deputy majority leader of the house, Kabiru Hassan-Dashi.

The lawmakers gave the committee two days to present its report before the assembly.
Iran accuses Europe of 'racism' over nuclear deal move



Tehran, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



Iran's foreign minister on Monday said Britain, France and Germany had shown "racism" by activating a dispute mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal.

In a televised speech in Tehran, Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the "illusion" that "only the blue-eyed" could benefit from international law.

In the face of "repeated violations by the United States and Europe, Iran does not have the right to use Article 36 (of the deal) despite several written notifications to European officials," Zarif said, without elaborating how Iran had been denied that right.

"We do not accept such racism," he added.

Britain, France and Germany announced on January 14 that they had triggered the dispute mechanism provided under Article 36 of the nuclear agreement, but have said they remained committed to the deal.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is formally known, had given Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

It has already been severely undermined by the United States' 2018 withdrawal and reimposition of sanctions on key sectors of Iran's economy.

Since May 2019, Iran has progressively scaled back some commitments under the JCPOA in response to the US sanctions and Europe's inability to find a mechanism to circumvent them.

It has insisted these moves are reversible if its interests are realised.

The 2015 nuclear deal was struck in Vienna by Iran, the three European powers, the United States, China and Russia.

Its complaints mechanism allows parties to lodge complaints before a joint commission in the case of claimed violations.

If the issue is not resolved by the commission, it can then be referred to foreign ministers, an advisory board and eventually to the UN Security Council, which could reimpose sanctions.
Bushfire victims have accused their council of cashing in on the disaster by refusing to waive fees to rebuild their homes.

Residents in the Wingecarribee Shire Council in New South Wales' Southern Highlands region who lost everything in the fires are being quoted huge council fees as they attempt to rebuild after having their properties destroyed.

A number of other local bodies in the state including Bega Valley, Blue Mountains and Shoalhaven City Council have waived these fees to lighten the load for victims of the disaster.

The Australian bushfire season has destroyed homes and businesses throughout the country. Pictured: a house completely engulfed in flames in Bundanoon, New South Wales

Farmer Farran Terlich sitting outside the burnt remains of a house on his farm in Cobargo in southern New South Wales. Some councils have waived rebuilding fees to lighten the load for for bushfire victims

Sara Haslinger's house in Exeter burned down in January, and she told The Daily Telegraph that the council's response has been disgusting.

'There has been a complete lack of empathy from the council, from these people in management who are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each year,' Ms Haslinger said.

Ms Haslinger was quoted nearly $10,000 in fees to start the rebuilding process of her home, including large costs for a construction certificate, long service levy and development application.

'Like most people here, it has been a struggle since the fires destroyed everything. We want to rebuild our lives here and to have another ridiculous council fee on top of that is disgusting,' she said.

Bushfire victims throughout the country have been devastated by the disaster, with many losing their homes and businesses to the flames. Pictured: Vanessa Williams in front of the remains of her business in Mogo on the New South Wales south coast

There have been 60 homes destroyed and 250 razed by bushfire in the Wingecarribee Shire Council this bushfire season.

Wingecarribee Mayor Duncan Gair said residents couldn't use previous building plans because many of the destroyed homes are more than 50 years old.

'Our response to the bushfires has been exemplary,' Gair said. 'We distributed $30,000 in 24 hours from the mayoral relief fund.'

The mayoral relief fund has received more than $45,000 in public donations on top of the council's $50,000 contribution.

The council has also received a $1million disaster grant, and will meet on Wednesday to vote on how to distribute funds.

Daily Mail Australia have reached out to Wingecarribee Shire Council for comment.
JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi will take steps to close part of a state prison that has been rocked by deadly violence and beset by longstanding problems such as broken toilets and mouldy showers, Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday in his first State of the State address.

At least 12 inmates have died in Mississippi prisons since late December  most of them at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, and many of them in outbursts of violence. Prison problems have dominated much of Republican Reeves time since he was inaugurated as governor Jan. 14.

In his speech at the state capitol, Reeves said he has told the Mississippi Department of Corrections to begin the necessary work to start closing Parchmans most notorious unit  Unit 29.

He said logistical questions about the closing must be answered.

But I have seen enough, Reeves said. We have to turn the page. This is the first step, and I have asked the department to begin the preparations to make it happen safely, justly and quickly.

Governors generally use the State of the State to discuss the economy and to outline goals for the legislative session.

Reeves said in his speech that he wants to improve the foster care system, increase pay for teachers and enhance training for workers. Reeves said the big lie is that all Americans must embark on the same path that includes at least a four-year university degree.

In Mississippi, we know there is pride in a trade. We know that there is money to be made, Reeves said. We can let the East Coast have their ivory towers. We can let the West Coast have a generation of gender studies majors. We will take more jobs and higher pay.

He also said he wants to reduce state regulations.

That means eliminating those unfair regulations that keep people from earning licenses to work, Reeves said.

Reeves and other officials toured part of Parchman last week, and he said Thursday that the state is taking immediate steps to try to improve living conditions that he described as terrible. Multiple health department inspections have shown problems at Parchman, such as broken sinks and toilets, holes in cell walls and widespread mould and mildew in showers.

The interim commissioner of the Department of Corrections, Tommy Taylor, said after Reeves speech Monday that inmates in Unit 29 now have clean water to drink and warm water for showers. He said some inmates had not been allowed to shower for several days while prisons were on lockdown because of the violence. He said those no longer on lockdown have had a chance to shower and have been given new clothes.

Taylor also said toilets have been repaired, and crews are patching holes that allow rain into buildings. He said workers are also repairing problems with electrical systems and heating.

Were preparing to make it more livable as long as theyve got to stay there while were making this transition, Taylor said.

Reeves said last week that the state might reopen a closed prison in another part of the state to house some inmates currently at Parchman.

Unit 29 has about a dozen buildings, and three of them are already closed, Taylor said.

Death row inmates are housed at Unit 29, and Taylor said the condition of their building is OK. State law requires death row to be at Parchman, and Taylor said those inmates will remain where they are unless legislators change the law and direct the Department of Corrections to put death row somewhere else.

____

Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.




Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga will host their Fifth Annual Women Build Jazz Breakfast on Saturday, March 7 from 9-10:30 a.m. at the Chattanoogan Hotel.The annual Women Build Breakfast brings together 200+ women and girls of all ages and walks of life for a fun, interactive event. A fundraiser and friendraiser, the breakfast kicks off Habitats Women Build projects as a call to action to all women to stand in support of affordable housing in Chattanooga.This years event is presented by The Robinson Team of Keller Williams Realty.Women are the heart and foundation of our families, said Jay Robinson. Growing up I was taught lessons by a strong woman and I credit my mom with preparing me for the future. Today, Im surrounded by a team of real estate professionals who are wives, moms, sisters and daughters - all making a difference in our community. Because of this, its a natural fit for our team to celebrate the women in our community who are making a difference for others. Were proud to provide our support to Habitat.Its hard to find affordable housing in our community, said Madison Bradford, development assistant of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga. Women Build brings women together on a deeper level by providing opportunities for hands-on learning and important skills needed to build a home."Not only does Women Build provide skills and hands-on learning, but it also empowers women to help families build strength, stability and independence by coming together to serve their community. In honor of the fifth anniversary, Habitat will celebrate by throwing a jazz breakfast with live music, champagne and sparkling cider.," officials said.Women Build is a lot of fun and a great way to involve friends and family to make a lasting impact, said Ms. Bradford.To purchase tickets or make a gift, visit the Eventbrite page or the Habitat website . Individual tickets are $35 and tables of eight are $350. Parking for the event will be available in the garage for $9 and valet for $11.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 18:28:12|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ULAN BATOR, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Mongolian government on Monday launched a national campaign to promote domestic products ahead of the traditional White Moon festival or the Lunar New Year.

The campaign entitled "Let's give domestic products" aims to stimulate sales of domestic products and reduce the outflow of currencies during the national public holiday, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry said in a statement, urging citizens to buy domestic products as gifts in the Lunar New Year.

During the month-long campaign, the ministry and domestic manufactures will provide people with information on traditional and social media.

The White Moon, the most important holiday in Mongolia, symbolizes the start of spring and the end of winter. The festival falls on Feb. 23 this year.

Mongolians spend an average of 357.3 billion Mongolian tugriks (132 million U.S. dollars) annually to buy imported products as gifts in the Lunar New Year, according to the country's National Statistics Office. (1 U.S. dollar = 2,706.2 Mongolian tugriks)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 19:32:21|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ATHENS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen Syrian refugees were injured in a car crash in northern Greece on Monday, with a suspected smuggler fleeing the site, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

The driver of the vehicle that was carrying the refugees did not stop for a police check on the national highway connecting the cities of Kavala and Thessaloniki, near the land border with Turkey, according to police sources.

He accelerated and the car veered off the road. A police investigation to locate and arrest him is underway, while the refugees were transferred to a local hospital.

Such incidents are not rare in the region in recent months. Last Thursday a car carrying 11 migrants crashed in northern Greece, resulting in one death and four injuries.

In 2019 a total of 14,891 people crossed the land border from Turkey to Greece, according to the UN High Commissioner of Refugees, in addition to 59,457 who landed on the Greek islands via the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coasts.
Courtesy of Live Nation

Aerosmith have announced plans to return to their old home base of Boston on September 18 to play a special concert at Fenway Park in celebration of the band's 50th anniversary. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will be joined by opening act Extreme.

News of the Boston show comes after a whirlwind weekend for Aerosmith that saw the band saluted as MusiCares Person of the Year on Friday, and also hit the Grammy stage Sunday for a performance with hip-hop legends Run-DMC.

Tickets for the Fenway Park concert go on sale to the general public this Friday, January 31, at 10 a.m. ET at LiveNation.com. Pre-sales tickets will be available for members of the group's Aero Force One club and Citi card holders starting Tuesday, January 28, at 10 a.m.; for Red Sox season ticket holders beginning Wednesday, January 29, at 10 a.m.; and at LiveNation.com starting Thursday, January 30, at 10 a.m.

The Boston show is Aerosmith's first U.S. concert of 2020 outside of the Las Vegas residency performances that the band has lined up.

Some drama ensued at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala as Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer awkwardly joined his band mates on the podium for their acceptance speech, although he didn't take part in the group's performance. As recently reported, Kramer sued the other Aerosmith members because he claims they unfairly haven't allowed him to rejoin them at their concerts since he experienced health issues that sidelined him last year.

The MusiCares event featured performances by star-studded list of guest artists and by Aerosmith themselves, albeit with a fill-in drummer.

You can read a recap of the event at Grammy.com and check out a video featuring highlights at the Recording Academy's official YouTube channel.

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
[January 27, 2020] Enrolment of first patient in Phase II trial testing DNV3837 in Clostridioides difficile infections

Enrolment of first patient in Phase II trial

testing DNV3837 in Clostridioides difficile infections The Phase II clinical trial aims to evaluate the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of DNV3837 in patients with Clostridioides difficile gastrointestinal infection (CDI).

The trial will be conducted mainly in 15 centers in the United States, in two successive stages: a cohort of 10 patients with moderate to severe CDI treated with DNV3837, a randomized cohort study testing DNV3837 against standard of care in 30 patients with severe CDI.

The final results of this trial are expected by the end of 2020.

DEINOVE is the only French player to conduct a clinical trial with an antibiotic.

On 17 January, the WHO warned about the extreme lack of new antibiotics and the threat posed by the antibiotic resistance. DEINOVE (Euronext Growth Paris: ALDEI), a French biotech company that uses a disruptive approach to develop innovative antibiotics and bio-based active ingredients for cosmetics, announced the inclusion of the first patient in the Phase II trial testing DNV3837. DNV3837 targets the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI), a disease classified as a priority by the WHO and one of the global leading causes of healthcare-related infections1. DNV3837 is an intravenous antibiotic that, when converted to its active form DNV3681, crosses the gastrointestinal barrier and accumulates in the intestinal lumen, allowing it to precisely target the infection site. DNV3837 has demonstrated a promising efficacy profile and acceptable tolerance in Phase I trials (on healthy volunteers). It has also demonstrated its ability to eliminate Clostridioides bacteria without affecting the gut microbiota. It has been granted Fast Track status and QIDP designation2. The Phase II trial aims to evaluate the efficacy of DNV3837 in pathological conditions (through monitoring of symptoms, stool analysis, etc.), as well as to consolidate the safety and pharmacokinetic data of the antibiotic candidate. This trial is concentrated in the United States. It will take place in two stages: In the first phase, involving 5 centers, a cohort of 10 patients with moderate to severe CDI will be treated with DNV3837. At the end of this phase, the DSMB 3 will review the interim results.

will review the interim results. The second phase will involve 30 patients with severe CDI and will be carried out in 15 investigation centers. This will be an open-label randomized trial testing DNV3837 (in 2/3 of patients) against an approved standard of care4 (1/3 of patients) for comparison purposes. The results of this clinical trial should be available by the end of 2020. "The start of this Phase II clinical trial is a significant step forward for DEINOVE and a great hope for patients. We are very proud to provide a potential solution to this unmet medical need and, to this end, work with the best American specialists in this area. The investigation centers are very committed to conducting this trial which, in the event of positive results, will be an important milestone towards the registration of DNV3837," said Dr Georges Gaudriault, Scientific Director of DEINOVE. This announcement echoes warnings issued by the WHO about the lack of antibiotics renewal.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, declared last January 17  Never has the threat of antimicrobial resistance been more immediate and the need for solutions more urgent .

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/17-01-2020-lack-of-new-antibiotics-threatens-global-efforts-to-contain-drug-resistant-infections





ABOUT CLOSTRIDIOIDES DIFFICILE INFECTIONS

40% of patients suffering a Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) have severe forms, with mortality rates as high as 50%. Over the past 20 years, CDIs tended to increase significantly in incidence and severity, particularly due to the development of new hypervirulent strains and the high risk of recurrence. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently identified CDIs as one of the leading causes of healthcare-associated infections before Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA5) infections. In 2017, in the United States, there were an estimated 223,900 cases in hospitalized patients and 12,800 deaths6. This disease does not affect the United States only, recent studies7 show that the incidence of this type of infection is vastly underestimated in other parts of the world such as Europe and Asia. To date, there are no therapeutic solutions for patients with severe gastrointestinal infections. Since the oral route is compromised, the available treatments, which are mostly oral treatments, struggle to reach the intestine because of the patient's pathological condition (reduced gastrointestinal motility, intubation, intestinal perforation, etc.), and the few antibiotics that could be administered intravenously (IV), do not cross the gastrointestinal barrier and therefore do not reach the site of infection. ABOUT THE DNV3837 ANTIBIOTIC CANDIDATE DNV3837  a prodrug8 of the DNV3681 molecule (also known as MCB3681)  is a narrow-spectrum, hybrid oxazolidinone-quinolone synthetic antibiotic targeting only Gram-positive bacteria. It is developed as a highly active 1st line treatment targeting Clostridioides difficile. It has demonstrated significant efficacy and superiority to reference treatments (fidaxomicin in particular) against isolates of C. difficile, regardless of their virulence (including the hyper virulent BI/NAP1/027 strain). DNV3837 is an intravenous antibiotic that, when converted to its active form DNV3681, crosses the gastrointestinal barrier and accumulates in the intestinal lumen, allowing it to precisely target the infection site. Several Phase I trials (on approx. a hundred healthy volunteers) have shown a high concentration of the antibiotic in stools, a strong marker of its presence in the intestine. It has also demonstrated its ability to eliminate Clostridioides bacteria without affecting the gut microbiota. It has also shown an acceptable tolerance profile. FDA granted the DNV3837 drug with Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designation and Fast Track status.

ABOUT DEINOVE DEINOVE is a French biotechnology company, a leader in disruptive innovation, which aims to help meet the challenges of antibiotic resistance and the transition to a sustainable production model for the cosmetics and nutrition industries. DEINOVE has developed a unique and comprehensive expertise in the field of rare bacteria that it can decipher, culture, and optimize to disclose unsuspected possibilities and induce them to produce biobased molecules with activities of interest on an industrial scale. To do so, DEINOVE has been building and documenting since its creation an unparalleled biodiversity bank that it exploits thanks to a unique technological platform in Europe. DEINOVE is organized around two areas of expertise: ANTIBIOTICS, New-generation anti-infective drugs : A first antibiotic candidate is now in Phase II. The Company is also pursuing the systematic exploration of biodiversity to supply its portfolio with new leads, drawing notably on partnerships with bioMerieux and Naicons (AGIR program supported by Bpifrance).

: A first antibiotic candidate is now in Phase II. The Company is also pursuing the systematic exploration of biodiversity to supply its portfolio with new leads, drawing notably on partnerships with bioMerieux and Naicons (AGIR program supported by Bpifrance). BIOACTIVES, Active ingredients of natural origin with cosmetics as the first market and potential in nutrition and health: DEINOVE is already marketing a first cosmetic active ingredient, a second in partnership with Greentech and plans to launch new assets in 2020. Several other cosmetic actives are in development, including with Oleos (Hallstar Group) and Dow. It also runs a program in animal nutrition with Groupe Avril. Within the Euromedecine science park located in Montpellier, DEINOVE employs 60 employees, mainly researchers, engineers, and technicians, and has filed more than 350 patent applications internationally. The Company has been listed on EURONEXT GROWTH since April 2010. CONTACTS Investors

Coralie Martin

Communication, Marketing and Investor Relations

Ph.: +33 (0)4 48 19 01 60

[email protected]

Media

ALIZE RP

Caroline Carmagnol

Ph.: +33 (0)6 64 18 99 59

[email protected]





1 Source: CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) 2 Fast Track status facilitates the development of the molecule through a faster and more flexible regulatory review of the application. The QIDP designation gives the drug exclusive access to the market for an additional five-year period. These designations are granted by the FDA to drugs under development that meet critical and unmet therapeutic needs. 3 DSMB - Data Safety Monitoring Board: a group of independent experts tasked to review the data generated during the trial and make recommendations on patient safety as well as trial relevance and validity. 4 Standard treatments approved in the United States for the treatment of CDIs include vancomycin, fidaxomicin and metronidazole (all three antibiotics). The choice will be at the discretion of the clinicians. 5 MRSA : meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus 6 https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest-threats.html#cdiff 7 7 Balsells E, Shi T, Leese C, Lyell I, Burrows J, Wiuff C, Campbell H, Kyaw MH, and Nair H (2019) Global burden of Clostridium difficile infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Glob Health 9:010407 8 Prodrug: substance whose transformation in the body results in an active product

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KAMPALA  The Government of Kenya in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday 20 January convened a two-day ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to promote harmonization of regional approaches as well as enhancing coordination of labour migration management.

The Regional Ministerial Forum on Harmonizing Labour Migration Policies in East and Horn of Africa was attended by ministers responsible for labour migration and social affairs from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Burundi and Somalia.

Addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Friday, January 24, Ugandas Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, highlighted that the meeting aimed at discussing a number of priorities including a coordinated strategy on the negotiation of Bilateral Labour Migration Agreements (BLMAs) with the European Union and Gulf Cooperation Countries.

The meeting also aimed at sharing information to foster safe and orderly labour mobility, and enhancing skills of Government stakeholders on the establishment of an effective mechanism of preparing migrant workers for employment abroad.

Promoting regional cooperation in combatting trafficking in persons, protecting the rights of African migrant workers abroad, strengthening regional cooperation on labour mobility and the capacity of labour migration management institutions were also discussed.

In the press statement, Hon. Tumwebaze revealed that East and Horn of Africa countries resolved to revise their laws to facilitate portability of social security benefits to include migrant workers, to strengthen national statistical institutions and data collection mechanisms as well as cooperation on exchange and analysis to inform policies and labour migration governance. Also discussed was the need to regulate private employment agencies.

Members states should establish collaboration on diplomatic and consular assistance for migrants workers in particular countries where some states dont have diplomatic representation, while at the same time promote and support the role of diaspora in assisting migrant workers and protecting their rights in vulnerable situations, said Hon. Tumwebaze.

Erika De Bona Fofana, the acting IOM Uganda Chief of Mission, said that despite efforts made to ensure the protection of migrant workers, millions remain vulnerable as significant risks persist during the migration process. She said it was crucial for countries in the region to come together to discuss and agree on common challenges, exchange expertise and lessons learnt on specific issues and agree on joint approaches that can help overcome national challenges.

She further said that the regional ministerial forum, organized by the Government of Kenya, set a milestone for a process of regional collaboration that would support the whole region in the long term to promote safe, orderly and humane migration.

IOM remains committed to support the Government of Uganda and migrants to ensure that migrations happen in a humane, orderly and safe manner and are beneficial for both the country of origin and destination, Ms Fofana added.

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The National Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has been granted bail.

Sammy Gyamfi was picked up at the premises of UTV at Abeka Junction in Accra earlier today, Monday, January 27, 2020.

He was arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in forgery and attempts to spread false information to cause fear and panic in the country.

Scores of supporters of the NDC besieged the headquarters of the Ghana Police Service over his arrest to show solidarity.

Sammy Gyamfi dishonours CID invitation

Sammy Gyamfi earlier turned down an invitation by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) after he sued to stop the police from examining his phone records and gaining access to his Facebook account.

This was after he filed the lawsuit at the Accra High Court, demanding an injunction on an earlier court warrant by the Kaneshie District Court for the seizure of his electronic gadgets.

He argued in the suit that the police failed to establish any legal basis to have access to the Applicant's phone records when it failed to show any probable cause that the Applicant has or is about to commit the alleged crime to justify the revocation of the Applicant's right to privacy and the protection of same.

He also said the police are yet to provide the document he allegedly forged and any evidence of the said forgery.

The forgery claims are said to have been made by the Jubilee House.

However, Mr. Gyamfi noted that the claims have not been attributed to any particular individual at the Jubilee House.

---citinewsroom
The presidents of Israel and Poland have urged the world to do more to combat rising antisemitism, as they marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Reuven Rivlin travelled to the former Nazi concentration camp in Poland for Holocaust Memorial Day, and told a press conference the world had a duty to stamp out all kinds of hatred.

Today we hear voices which spread hate, on the internet, on the street and in the centres of political power, he said.

Our duty is to fight antisemitism, racism and fascist nostalgia, those sick evils that ... threaten to eat away at the foundations of our democracies.

Andrzej Duda, Polands president, said Mr Rivlins presence for the commemoration was a symbol that the world would not forget what happened at Auschwitz.

This presence is a sign of remembrance, it is a visible sign of opposition to inhuman treatment, hatred, against all forms of hate, especially racist hate.

The politicians were joined by about 200 survivors of the death camp, many of whom were elderly and had travelled from countries as far afield as the United States, Australia and Peru.

Some took time to visit the site of the camp, which is now a permanent museum to the Holocaust.

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The network of camps in Auschwitz held a total of 1.3 million people throughout the Second World War, mostly Jews from across occupied Europe but also hundreds of thousands of Poles, Roma people, Soviet prisoners of war and others persecuted by the Nazis such as the disabled and homosexuals.

Of these, about 1.1 million were murdered there, either by being gassed, overworked or starved to death.

Some of those who survived the camp spoke to reporters about their memories.

We could hear children coughing, crying, choking from the gas and also the smell of the human flesh and the great fear what we experienced is that maybe you will be the next victim, 92-year-old Yvonne Engelman said.

She had come to honour the memory of her parents: I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage to them.

 Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor describes moment she was taken by Nazis

Others warned that lessons from the Holocaust had not been learned and antisemitism was being allowed to grow again.

I think they pick on the Jews because we are such a small minority and it is easy to pick on us, 96-year-old survivor Jeanette Spiegel said, fighting back tears.

Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated.

David Marks, 91, lost 35 members of his family after they were all sent from their village in Romania to Auschwitz.

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We would like that the next generation know what we went through, and it should never happen again, he said.

New dictators do not arise all at once, they come to power through micro steps, he added. If we dont watch it, one day you wake up and its too late.

This was the message of many world leaders too, including Frances president Emmanuel Macron, who spoke at the Holocaust memorial in Paris.

That antisemitism coming back is not the Jewish peoples problem: its all our problem  its the nations problem, he said, noting hate crime had shot up 27 per cent in the past year in France.

Holocaust survivor Miriam Ziegler visits Auschwitz, 75 years after she was liberated from it (AFP via Getty) (AFP via Getty Images)

Germanys president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also joined Mr Rivlin and Mr Duda at the ceremony in Auschwitz. Last year two people were killed in an antisemitic shooting at a synagogue in eastern Germany.

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the British Holocaust Education Trust, said society had to do more to tackle hatred of Jews.

I never thought when I started this work that I would have spent the past three years calling out antisemitism in mainstream politics.

I didnt expect to witness attacks on synagogues in Halle in Germany or in Pittsburgh.

I dont think any of the survivors thought they would witness what they have witnessed in their lifetime and its for their sake that we need to do better.
The death toll has risen to 38 after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook Turkeys eastern province of Elazg on Friday evening. With search and rescue operations continuing, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) is reporting more than 1,600 injured.

Since Friday, over 700 aftershocks have shaken the region. In a statement on Sunday, the AFAD stated that an initial analysis of 1,521 buildings found that only 347 were not damaged. Seventy-six buildings were destroyed and 645 were heavily damaged.

Rescue workers continue to look for people trapped under debris following a strong earthquake that destroyed several buildings on Friday, in Elazig, eastern Turkey. (Photo Credit: AP)

The closest residential area to the earthquakes epicenter is the Sivrice district of Elazg. A magnitude 4.3 earthquake also hit neighboring Malatya province on Sunday morning.

More than 420,000 people live in Elazg, but analysts said that if the earthquake had occurred closer to residential areas there would have been an even greater disaster due to the lack of secure buildings.

Turkey is an earthquake-prone country, sitting atop two major fault lines, and scientists have repeatedly called on the government and local administrations to take due precautions, especially after a horrific earthquake in 1999 killed more than 17,000, according to an official count.

However, there are no serious preparations, either for Istanbul or cities in the rest of the country. The government has no plan outside of calling on people to keep calm. Inevitably, the working class pays the heaviest toll in lives as cheap, vulnerable houses and buildings collapse.

Last Fridays disaster had long been predicted. Among others, Naci Gorur, a well known professor of geology, told CNN Turk last October that an earthquake was likely to hit the Sivrice district of Elazg.

After the earthquake in Elazg, he explained on his Twitter account that he had prepared a project with other scientists against the coming disaster, but it was rejected by official institutions. He asked, In fact, it is well known that earthquakes will happen sooner or later on every fault line. Why are those places not taken care of when there is no earthquake?

An earthquake victim who spoke to the daily Cumhuriyet after the disaster, Hakan Tahsi, said he has been living in a building named Dilek Sitesi, built in 1987 and consisting of 28 apartments. It was destroyed and at least eight residents were killed.

Tahsi said, Our building was already rotten The municipality knew it was vulnerable to earthquakes. However, those living in the building, as with most working people, could not afford to change their residence or find a secure building.

The chairman of the Chamber of Geology Engineers, Huseyin Alan, also blamed officials for the deaths in Elazg and Malatya, saying the damage was a result of unhealthy and illegal construction, rapid and low quality urbanization based on rent, and lack of legal arrangements to eliminate problems.

Many residential areas in Turkey are built on active fault lines, disregarding scientific standards in urban planning. According to Alan, besides Istanbul, 18 city centers, including Aksaray, Bolu, Sakarya, Yalova, Bursa, Balkesir, Manisa, Izmir, Aydn, Denizli, Erzurum, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Hakkari, Mugla, Eskisehir, Kutahya and Bingol, along with more than 80 town centers and 502 villages, are on the lines where active faults with high potential to produce earthquakes pass. In a major earthquake, buildings there would be destroyed, he said.

Though this reality threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people across Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ministers responded only by cracking down on criticisms, especially those raised on social media. On Saturday, Erdogan visited the disaster zone and condemned what he called a smear campaign on social media by those questioning the Turkish governments preparations for earthquakes.

Do not listen to rumors, do not listen to anyones negative, contrary propaganda, and know that we are your servants, Erdogan said. A prosecutor in Ankara subsequently opened an investigation into social media posts about Fridays quake.

As always when social inequality and the governments class character are raised, the opposition parties joined the government to suppress opposition to obvious official negligence. The Kemalist Republican Peoples Party (CHP) leader Kemal Klcdaroglu said, In an environment where we have such a painful day, we have to stay away from such strict political polemics, while the far-right Good Party leader Meral Aksener called for unity and solidarity.

Outrage erupted on social media after the head of the Turkish Red Crescent, Kerem Knk, called on people to make ten-lira donations for people impacted in the region. Thousands of people responded to a hashtag asking, Where did the earthquake tax go? Since 1999 there has been a national tax, widely known as the earthquake tax, supposedly to protect the population from earthquakes. But after every quake, it emerges that no serious measures have been taken.

As a result, an earthquake in the eastern province of Van in 2011 left more than 600 dead and nearly 4,200 injured. After this disaster, then-Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek was asked to account for the 46-48 billion Turkish liras (US$8.1 billion) in earthquake taxes collected since 1999. He said the government spent it on double highways, health care and education instead of preparing for earthquakes.

The pro-government daily Sabah rushed to help the government. Columnist Dilek Gungor claimed that the state housing authority (TOKI) built 80,000 housing units for earthquake victims for 110 billion Turkish lira, and that 35 billion Turkish lira were spent on urban transformation.

The Elazg disaster has again exposed government spending as utterly inadequate. In reality, the government does not grant TOKI housing units to earthquake victims as a gift, but sells them for a profit. Similarly, urban transformation has long been a mechanism, especially in Istanbul, to drive working class residents from the city center and build luxury residences for the affluent. Its purpose is not to protect residents from earthquakes, but to boost profits for construction firms and enrich the top layers of society.

Since the 1999 quake, which according to some unofficial estimates killed over 50,000 people and left more than 250,000 people homeless, there has been no real urban transformation. Instead of rebuilding insecure buildings, especially in densely populated poor districts, the Turkish government and municipalities have abandoned the workers to their fate.

Figures on an anticipated earthquake in Istanbul underscore the scope of the danger. According to Bogazici Universitys Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, a 7 magnitude earthquake in the city of more than 15 million people would heavily damage between 6,000 and 40,000 buildings, while about 150,000 would become unserviceable. More than 500,000 residences are in danger and at least 1.5 million people would have problems finding shelter.

The Elazg earthquake has again exposed the contempt of the ruling elites for safety precautions essential to the survival of working people. In Turkey as around the world, the losses caused by earthquakes and other natural disasters are compounded by the bankruptcy of the capitalist profit system.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Chief Justice S.A. Bobde on Monday said political parties often use the top court as a forum.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Bobde and Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant was hearing an impleadment application filed by BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia in the death of Dulal Kumar, a BJP worker in West Bengal, seeking a CBI investigation into the matter.

Kumar's body was found hanging from a power transmission tower in June 2018. The police claimed he had committed suicide based on the post-mortem report. The BJP alleged Kumar's death was a political murder.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing the West Bengal government contended that the top court must examine if member of a political party should be allowed to file a PIL. Bhatia said he is representing the brother of the deceased.

The Chief Justice replied, "We are conscious that opposition parties are also using forum of this court...it goes to both sides." The observation came from the Chief Justice as Bhatia was questioning the closure report filed by the police, and Sibal termed Bhatia's allegations baseless.

Sibal told the court that a board comprising of five medical doctors had concluded Kumar committed suicide, and the petition in the matter has been filed based on newspapers reports. The police had filed a closure report in the matter terming it a case of suicide and pinned the reason as extramarital affair.

Sibal contended that there was no external injury. Bhatia said the family members dispute this. Sibal replied 73 witnesses have been examined in the matter.

The court noted that the medical team consisted of specialists who examined the cause of death. Bhatia insisted that the ruling political party in the state had applied pressure. The Chief Justice asked Bhatia to refrain from making such statements.

After hearing the contention of both sides the apex court issued notice to West Bengal government on the application seeking CBI investigation. The matter will be listed after four weeks.
WASHINGTON  President Trump on Monday pushed back on a firsthand account from his former national security adviser, John R. Bolton, about tying military aid for a foreign ally to his own personal agenda, as senators consider the presidents future in the Oval Office.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens, Mr. Trump wrote just after midnight, referring to a widely debunked theory that the president had pursued about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter.

In an unpublished manuscript of his upcoming book, Mr. Bolton described the White House decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine until he left the White House in September. As national security adviser, Mr. Bolton would have been involved in many of the high-level discussions about Ukraine.
The police carried out a raid at the ancestral house of anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam, who has been slapped with a sedition case in the national capital for alleged inflammatory speeches he gave at Shaheen Bagh and the Jamia Milia Islamia

Jehanabad: The police carried out a raid at the ancestral house of anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam, who has been slapped with a sedition case in the national capital for alleged inflammatory speeches he gave at Shaheen Bagh and the Jamia Milia Islamia, a senior official said on Monday.

According to Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad, Manish Kumar, Imam's house in Kako police station area was raided late on Sunday night following "help sought by central agencies", which are investigating the cases lodged against the JNU research scholar. Imam was not found at his house but two of his relatives and their driver were detained for interrogation and let off thereafter, the SP said.

A graduate in computer science from IIT Mumbai, Sharjeel Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU. He was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speeches went viral on the social media wherein he was heard speaking about Assam's possible secession from the country in the wake of the Citienship Amendment Act (CAA).

Earlier, he had been booked on similar charges at a police station in Aligarh for a speech he delivered on the AMU campus. Besides, a case under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA has been registered against him at Assam.

Imam's late father Akbar Imam was a local JD(U) leader who had unsuccessfully contested an assembly election in his lifetime.

Reacting to the developments, his distraught mother Afshan Rahim told the media, "My son is innocent. He is a bright young man and not a thief or a pickpocket. I swear in the name of God that I do not know about his whereabouts. But I can guarantee that upon learning about the cases, he will appear before the investigating agencies and fully cooperate in the probe."

She said that it has been a long time since she met her son though she had a telephonic conversation with him a few weeks ago. "He was obviously disturbed by the CAA and fears of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) about being implemented across the country which, he said, would affect not just Muslims but all poor people," she said.

In fact, after 15 days of Shaheen Bagh protest, he had asked the agitators there to withdraw and watch the situation for a month, and then decide on the further course of action, she said. "But they refused to relent. He was calling for a 'chakkajam' (road blockade). He is just a kid and not capable of instigating people for secession," she added.
New Delhi: Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Shaheen Bagh's protests come first in the speeches of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Amit Shah, who came to a road show in north-east Delhi on Sunday, once again insisted on enforcing the citizenship law. At the beginning of the speech he asked the people, "Modi ji has implemented CAA, this law gives citizenship of India to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Parsis who are being tortured in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh. Hey, tell me, shouldn't this law apply? "

Amit Shah's speech nowadays starts at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and ends at Shaheen Bagh. Actually, Shaheen Bagh has become a symbol of opposition to the Nagarkita Act where women have been sitting on dharna for more than a month. Amit Shah said in his speech that there should be no Shaheen Bagh in Delhi. He tells the people, "Button should be pressed from Babarpur, but its current should go to Shaheen Bagh".

There are currently only 3 MLAs of BJP in Delhi. This time the BJP has decided that it will ask for votes in the name of PM Narendra Modi. With this, Home Minister Amit Shah himself is handling the election campaign. Amit Shah is demanding votes from the people of Delhi, promising that if the BJP wins in Delhi, the central government will spend Rs 1.5 lakh crore here. But for Amit Shah, currently the central issue in Delhi is Shaheen Bagh.

Also Read:

Congress angry over giving Padmashri to Adnan Sami, says, 'Karo Chamchagiri, Milega Padmashri...'

Delhi assembly elections: BJP rally ahead of Kejriwal's roadshow

Telangana Assembly may pass resolution against CAA, CM Chandrashekhar gave hints

'Movement cooled by Modi government's understanding' says CM Biplab Deb on CAA Protest




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If you're a regular reader of Autoblog, you know that for a long time we've liked Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system for its bright, clear, responsive touchscreen interface. Now, according to the company, it will be better than ever with Uconnect 5, the latest iteration of the system. It has upgraded hardware and a revamped graphic user interface (the stuff on the screen).

Looking at sample screens shown above, there are characteristics shared with the old system, such as the time, status and shortcuts at the top and the menu icons at the bottom. In the middle, the major change is the addition of home screens that can be customized with favorite menus and readouts that are always available. Each of these home screens can have up to four functions and you can have five pages to flip through. The graphics themselves feature more legible fonts and updated icons. Each car brand will get its own set of icons, colors and textures to help create unique experiences. And while each Fiat Chrysler product will be able to have Uconnect, including Alfa Romeo that has until now lacked Uconnect, each brand has the ability to make small tweaks including the screen orientation. The system will support displays in landscape, portrait or square, so different brands may choose different shapes.

Powering Uconnect 5 is a processor Fiat Chrysler says is six times more powerful than what's in current systems. It features 6 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor also supports screens as large as 12.3 inches with as many as 15 million pixels, or nearly twice that of a 4K resolution TV. The system can display information on up to four screens, too. Uconnect 5's firmware is built on Google's Android operating system, joining a few other automakers in using Android as a base for their infotainment systems.

Uconnect 5 brings with it a number of new features. It brings full Alexa integration, so you can use it just like you do at home, provided you have a data plan for the car. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to be standard, but now they can be used wirelessly. You can also now connect two phones via Bluetooth wirelessly so you can access content from both. Navigation gets real time information and updates from TomTom. Users can create five profiles with unique climate, radio and instrument settings, plus one for a valet. Also, the voice control system has been updated and will respond similarly to how you speak to Alexa, Siri and other voice assistants.

Story continues

Uconnect 5 will be available later this year. Fiat Chrysler hasn't officially said which cars will get the system first, but expect it to become equipment on virtually every product from the company.
Akash Army Launcher systems on display during the parade in New Delhi. (Image: Twitter/@SpokespersonMoD)

Indias armed forces have a lot to cheer about in the new year for three good reasons. One, the indigenously-built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas naval variant successfully carried out its maiden landing and take-off from the flight deck of aircraft carrier Vikramaditya. The lightweight, multi-role, supersonic Tejas Mk 2 is a fourth-generation aircraft designed for tactical strike, air reconnaissance, air defence and maritime roles.

Second, the governments decision to buy 200 aircraft desperately needed for the Indian Air Force (IAF) could not have come sooner. The IAF  operating at its lowest level in decades  is at an important crossroads with aircraft such as the MiG-21s on their way out and with just 33 squadrons, although strategically it should be having at least 10 more squadrons. Much effort and money was spent on buying 36 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), but by the time they enter service, even more fighter jets would have been decommissioned.

The third reason is Army Chief MM Naravanes call for India to fight future wars on its own terms, which is a shot in the arm for the worlds second-largest army in its march towards modernisation. We need to become more efficient, Naravane told media-persons in New Delhi on January 3. We need to synergise the requirements within the three services, pool our resources and make our money work for us better."

This echoes what his predecessor and Indias first chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat recently said about having an indigenous industry to win future wars using Indian systems.

Taken together, these statements from the two senior-most generals of the Indian Army suggests the government has given a carte blanche to the military leadership to remove traditional hurdles such as lack of funds and red-tape in the way of acquiring such capability. The appointment of a CDS itself is seen as an important part of the defence reforms set in motion recently. This gives the services a direct hotline to the highest decision-making body, making it easier to put the armed forces in a future-ready mode. The CDS could, for instance, advise swapping the armys unwieldy infantry divisions with lighter mechanised brigades, or recommend the creation of fewer theatre commands to replace the existing configuration of several separate commands.

Strategic myopia has been the bane of Indias defence industrial base which took years to mature before emerging as the second-biggest industrial sector (after the railways). Today, it comprises scores of ordnance factories and several defence-focused public sector undertakings, along with the high-profile Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) tasked with developing new weapons systems.

However, the DRDOs success stories, which include ballistic missiles such as the Prithvi and Agni, surface-to-air missiles such as the Akash and Trishul, and anti-tank missiles such as the Nag, also carry depressing footnotes with many projects taking unacceptably long gestation periods. It is because of key technologies such as the Arjun main battle tank (MBT) and the LCA remaining interminably on the drawing board that India was forced to remain dependent on foreign arms exporters.

Military science is a closely guarded secret and countries are loathe to share high technology even with their closest allies. Weapons control regimes such as the Missile Technology Control Regime, Australia Group, and Wassenaar Arrangement keep a tight rein on access to modern innovations, lending only limited use to battle platforms available on the market. It is therefore imperative for India to become a designer of indigenous defence systems if the country is to remain at the forefront of technological embrace, as Rawat says. The military no longer operates in a closed system. Our frontlines are open to academia, to research and development organisations to see how the soldier on the ground needs technology to be imbibed for him to operate in a better manner."

India today boasts of many frontier technologies developed indigenously. These include the intercontinental ballistic missile, Agni 6, with a range touching 12,000 km and capable of launching several nuclear warheads, and the Brahmos II hypersonic cruise missile, which, at Mach 7 is the fastest in the world and capable of hitting even targets hidden behind mountain ranges. This gives India a strategic advantage in mountain warfare. Also on the horizon are nuclear attack submarines and super carriers to increase the navys reach and an electronic intelligence (ELINT) ship that can identify hostile missiles fired from very long ranges: a crucial part of Indias ballistic missile defence shield programme.

That said, however, tomorrows warfare is all about non-contact conflict and modern armies tweak their battle philosophies with this important game-changer in mind.

India must prepare a blueprint for a whole new range of battle scenarios involving computers and digital weapons. Many technologies once considered science fiction have already been realised. For instance, United States and Russian defence scientists have created exo-skeletons (that transform soldiers into ruthless killing machines), self-steering bullets, sniper detection devices and indestructible tanks made of composite metal foams.

Such drastic changes in military technologies engender what is known as a revolution in military affairs (RMA), as a country pools its scientific and economic resources to embrace sweeping military reforms and revolutionary martial philosophies. It is not implausible for India to usher in an RMA if it adopts a robust strategic vision in its military procurement and long-term defence planning.
Gurugram: The directorate of urban local bodies (ULB) has served show-cause notices to two engineers of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) for delay in resolving complaints received through the Harpath app, said officials on Monday.

According to the MCG officials, no action has been taken on 160 complaints made on the app for more than one month, while around 50 cases are yet to be acknowledged by the authorities concerned.

Through the app, residents can upload pictures of potholed or broken roads, and register their complaints. Based on the location added by the complainant, the app automatically detects under which authority or body the particular road comes.

As per the Haryana governments directive, a complaint on Harpath app needs to be resolved within 10 days by the department concerned, from the date of acknowledgement.

The MCG officials said that the ULB directorate has served the show-cause notices to a superintendent engineer and an executive engineer on the matter and sought their explanation.

The ULB has served the show-cause notices to the officials concerned and they will have to reply to the state government regarding it. From the MCGs side, the two have been separately directed to expedite the pending complaints and ensure there is 100% redressal, said Raman Sharma, chief engineer, MCG.

As per a report by Haryana Vision Zero (HVZ), the citys total road length is 1,267 kilometres, of which 646 kilometres are arterial and village roads that are mainly looked after by the MCG.

On an average, MCG officials said they receive 150-250 complaints through the app on a monthly basis.

According to a senior MCG official privy to the matter, there is ambiguity in which department has to look after the complaints on the app while there may also be a software issue in the app.

Recently, we were informed that the public works department (PWD) will be solely responsible for looking after all complaints registered on the Harpath app across Haryana. We have sent a letter to the ULB, asking for clarity on this. Meanwhile, we are also checking if there is any software issue in the app due to which complaints are being forwarded to the incorrect department. We will take the next step, once there is clarity, said the official.

The app, launched in September 2017 during the Haryana digital summit, is aimed at keeping roads across the state pothole-free and of high quality by giving residents the power to spot inferior quality roads and get them redressed at a swifter rate. With its launch, residents no longer needed to visit the public offices for reporting about poor condition of roads and could do so from the spot itself.

Sarika Panda Bhatt, programme coordinator with HVZ, said that the high number of complaints on the Harpath app, which are leading to high-pendency in clearance, only reflects the poor state of roads in the city. She said that the civic bodies need to rework their allocation of manpower and resources for better results.

The MCG can allocate their junior engineers the responsibility of looking after 20-30 kilometres of roads in their respective jurisdictions and hold them accountable if a stretch develops potholes or starts breaking down. This way, there will be greater supervision on the quality of road construction and lesser chances of degradation, said Bhatt.

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Independence was an issue in Corks local elections in 1920, but a housing crisis, the cost of living, and widespread poverty also influenced the vote, writes Kieran McCarthy.

IN A wide-ranging interview published on February 3, 1920, in The Cork Examiner, senior councillor of Cork Corporation, 70-year-oldEdward Fitzgerald of the Irish Parliamentary Party, is still hopeful but with a hint of political battle weariness.

Being involved with Cork Corporation since the 1880s, his voice consistently echoes through the corporations minute books raising pertinentquestions about the future of the city and about the citys most acute social problems.

As a builder and contractor in Cork, many of his contributions focus onissues such as the need for affordable and decent housing to replace some of the citys most atrocious slum-ridden areas, the need for affordable rent fair rent, the need to promote Cork inIreland and within the British empire and the need for public spaces such as parks to walk in.

Fitzgerald took an active part in municipal affairs and was also a member of the Cork Harbour Board, the Board of Guardians, and many social and political societies.

He also filled the office of high sheriff in 1880s. At the time of the Parnellite split he threw in his lot with the anti-Parnellites.

He unsuccessfully contested North Cork City in 1910 as an Independent candidate against Mr William OBrien and George Crosbie.

A decade later, once more a Nationalist member, he witnessed the demise of the once powerful Irish Parliamentary Party at the hands of Sinn Fein in the Cork Corporation Local Elections inJanuary 1920. No more did his party have a majority but looked on as Sinn Fein took control over councils up and down the country.

Fitzgerald was elected lord mayor of Cork City in 1901 and held the position for two further years. In 1902, Fitzgerald took a prominent part in organising the Cork International Exhibition, which proved a remarkable success.

As chairman of the ExecutiveCommittee, he travelled throughout Ireland and Scotland collecting funds for the project. The exhibition wonadditional fame through a Royal visit in 1903 from King Edward VII on which occasion the King conferred a baronetcy on Fitzgerald.

So great was the success of the exhibition that it was continued a second year. After the exhibition the grounds were converted into a fine public park, which was given the name of Fitzgerald Park in honour of Sir Edward.

In Fitzgeralds February 1920 interview, he is quick to note the principal issues of living in southern Ireland in his day  a region steeped in age-old land agitation and the ongoing quest for fair tenure and rents, the harnessing of national and industrial resources, the call to build more housing, solve poverty as well the alcohol abuse and mental health problems of the day.

His remarks concluded that those struggling to find accommodation could be given a house to rent with an acre of land, and such land should be bought by government from farmers with large acreage in the area, in particular across Corks Lee Valley.

In essence, he wished for the massexpansion of the model cottage scheme, which was so successful in the Cork Rural District Council.

It is unrecorded what the Westminster government official line was to his suggestion as the IRA attacks on regional RIC barracks consume the news columns of The Cork Examiner by the spring of 1920.

Looking at Fitzgeralds contributions in Cork Corporation give a real insight into life in Cork 100 ago plus a reminder to scholars of the period in the present day  that it was not just one incident or spark that led Sinn Fein to romp home in the local elections of January 1920 but a series of incidents, many of which were interwoven.

Indeed, just entering The CorkExaminer pages in January 1920 andbeginning reading, one misses out on the trains of thoughts running through editorials on societal challenges since 1916.

To understand Cork society in 1920 requires an openness to the multiple conversations to be heard and published especially during the previous four years  a kaleidoscope of ideas, which provided the context andframework for revolution, everydaylife being one  some conversations led Cork citizens to connect with theRepublican mantra at the time and others to just maintain existence,survive and struggle with the bleakness of a national and local economyset against the backdrop of theFirst World War and its aftermath.

Economically, the Cork butter trade was on a slow decline. In 1858, 428,000 firkins of butter were been exported per annum and by 1891, this was reduced to 170,000 firkins.

Competitive European prices out-competed the prices set by the butter market at Cork. In addition, the citys best consumer, the British citizen,favoured neater packaging, smaller more exact weights, improved colour, texture and taste; qualities that Cork butter did not possess.

The quantity of butter exportedgradually decreased. In 1918, further regulations or even controls of themarket were not welcome. Despite the protestations of Irish producers and dealers, a new grading system was put into force, with the grading work being carried out in England.

One of the sparks of hope was carried by the Ford Tractor Factory, its foreign direct investment into Cork and its provision of employment. By July 3, 1919, the first Ford tractor left the assembly line in Corks Marina district.

An obligatory commemorative picture was taken at the time and appeared in the Cork Examiner. In addition, the newspaper carried a notice that from June 30, 1919, hours and pay were posted up in the office of the tractor works.

The work hours were Monday to Friday inclusive, 8am to 4.30pm with a half hour lunch break from 12.30pm to 1pm. Saturdays hours were 8am to 12pm.

The total working hours were therefore 44 per week. The minimum rate per hour paid at the works for men over 18 were 2s 5d with a share of profits per hour set at 3d.

An image of the council chamber at Cork City Hall during the election of the first council.

By the end of 1919, 303 Fordson tractors had been built at the Cork factory. During 1920, which was the first full year of production, 3,626 tractors were produced.

The sum of 327,000 was also spent on a machine shop, foundry expansion, new wharves and equipment.

The sale of the Fordsons wasprimarily in Ireland and Britain. Large numbers were also shipped to Bordeaux, Cadiz, Copenhagen, Romania and the Near East.

However, the subject of housing for Ford workers, workers within many of Corks small businesses and for thegeneral family was never very far away from public discourse.

Frustration over the provision of affordable housing and decent builds is a consistent topic at Cork Corporation meetings, especially across 1917 to 1919 where returning soldiers and sailors from the First World War accelerated the demand for housing.

In the first week of December 1917, Mr DJ Coakley, principal of the Cork School of Commerce, delivered alecture entitled General Principles of Housing and Town Planning, with a specific focus on Cork.

His public lecture was delivered with the Cork Municipal School of Commerce in the lecture theatre of the School of Art.

His lecture was published in The Cork Examiner and inpamphlet form.

In his lecture, DJ Coakley outlined that from the reports or the Medical Superintendent Officer of Health, the Corporation of Cork had, during the previous 30 years, expended 81,200 in clearing unhealthy and dilapidated areas, and provided some 532 houses and 11 houses of 33 flats for thelabouring classes.

Mr Coakley painted a stark picture of housing stock in the city. There was a very large proportion of unsanitary houses, as he described, not quitesuitable for human beings to live in.

Overcrowding was a large challenge. There were several instances of where the father and mother, and sons and daughters over 20 years of age, all sleeping in the same small apartment.

Lack of space rendered it impossible to keep even the smallest stock ofcommodities. Coal, oil, and other fuels were usually stored under the bed.

Mr Coakley spoke about endless drudgery and breeding places of mental deterioration, endless drudgery, such as taking water up four or five flights of stairs uses up all the energy of the mother who has neither time nor strength to give to the care of her children; from these breeding places of mental, moral, and physical deterioration emerge the work-shys andunemployables, born and bred ininsanitary slums, with the gutter for a play-ground.

FAST forward to the last week ofSeptember 1919 and The Cork Examiner put a spotlight on how housing policy construction was progressing through interviewing local architects and builder contractors.

It was also 10 months since the end of the First World War plus a city-wide carpenters strike for better wages across the city had just been resolved.

In an interview with Mr James F McMullen, architect  one of several interviewees  he noted that the best part of the year had been wasted by the strike, and the builders would now, owing to winter weather and short days, be at a great disadvantage.

Some of them had already decided, he added, not to resume certain contracts until the following spring. Daniel A Levie, architect, when asked for his views, argued that house building would remain slow until they could be let at an economic rent.

In pre-war days a house, which cost 600 to build, was let at about 30 per year. A house in 1919 cost 1,200, and hence naturally the owner would require a rent of 60 per year.

The Local Government Board had also issued regulations with regard to new social housing.

Certain specifics had to be provided for under the Act a certain area for each room, a certain height for each floor  so that their cubic capacity would be greater than any artisans dwellings built by private enterprise or by the Corporationof Cork.

Housing and the cost of living was just one frustration of everyday life but certainly was linked to the demand for political change.

Indeed, looking at the home addresses of Sinn Fein candidates in the Cork Corporation local elections of January 1920, many lived in the heart of some of Cork Citys horrific slum conditions.

In looking for change and to break through the status quo of frustration, the people of Cork elected a majority of Sinn Fein councillors in 1920.

But it was not just speeches or political acts that influenced the people of Corks voting decision, but years of political indecisiveness and inaction and a lack ofreal investment and in the Britishempires regional cities such as Cork.

Certainly, everyday life and amixture of peoples voices must be prominent factorsand narratives to look at when approaching the 21stcentury centenary commemoration of the era.

Kieran McCarthy is a geographer, local historian and an independent member of Cork City Council. His historical work can be viewed at www.corkheritage.ie
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  The tedious process to get dishonest public officials out of power stands in the way of Malacanang curbing corruption fast, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Monday.

Panelo was reacting to the results of the latest Corruption Perceptions Index, which showed that corruption worsened in 2019.

Nonprofit Transparency International placed the Philippines at 113th of 180 countries in battling graft and corruption, down 14 notches the previous year. The country scored 34  two points lower than in 2018  in a scale of zero to 100, with zero as highly corrupt and 100 as very clean. The global watchdog pointed out that local authorities "continue to struggle to tackle corruption," along with others in Asia Pacific.

"We are in fact struggling because the President's hands are tied by the due process clause of the Constitution," Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said.

"It will be different if all of these who have been appointed bu the President, he can dismiss all of them outright. You have to file charges against them, you need evidence to back your complaint," he added.

"It would do good for us to sack more corrupt officials, provided of course that there's evidence to show that they are," Panelo added, citing the need for documentary evidence and testimonies to back up such complaints.

Battling corruption has been one of President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign promises, which he has repeatedly stressed during public speeches by threatening crooked souls still in government.

READ: Duterte 'hell-bent' on stopping corruption; bans Cabinet members from seeking elective posts

However, the report said transparency remained an issue for countries like the Philippines, as officials restrict public participation and "silence dissenting voices" in matters of national affairs.

The Philippines' rating is the lowest since 2012. Still, Panelo insisted that the anti-corruption pledge of the Duterte administration is not a failure.

"We've been fighting corruption and the President has been firing top government officials, and erring government officials have been charged in the Ombudsman and in the courts," added Panelo, who is also the President's chief legal counsel.

READ: Government says FDA, LTFRB, LRA need to cut red tape

New Zealand and Denmark topped the corruption index, while Somalia, South Sudan and Syria are the laggards in the crackdown on graft and other malpractices in government.
Princeton Vascular believes CBD has a role in vein health, citing that since cannabinoid is flush with omega-3 fatty acids, it can not only decrease itching, burning and pain from varicose veins, but it offers an option in improving their appearance as well as long as patients are under the care of a board-certified vein specialist. They explain, "The use of hemp oil has been reported to decrease the local itching, burning and pain from spider veins and can be applied to the skin directly. Anecdotally, it has also been reported to improve the appearance of spider veins."
The identity of the wounded individual was not made public Monday, but U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the person suffered an injury that was not life-threatening.
By Aziz El Yaakoubi and Nadine Awadalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces shot at anti-government protesters in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least one person, and unidentified men set fire to sit-in tents in a southern Iraqi city, police and medics said, as months-long civil unrest escalated.

Separately, at least one of five Katyusha rockets fired at Baghdad's fortified Green Zone hit the U.S. embassy, wounding three people, in a rare direct targeting of the compound, security sources said. Reuters could not independently verify the rocket attacks.

Anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad on Oct. 1 and quickly turned violent. Security forces and unidentified gunmen have shot protesters dead. Nearly 500 people have been killed in the unrest.

The protests are an unprecedented leaderless challenge to Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-dominated and largely Iran-backed ruling elite, which emerged after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Demonstrators are demanding that all parties and politicians be removed, free and fair elections be held and corruption rooted out. The government has responded with violence and piecemeal reform. The international community has condemned the violence but not intervened to stop it.

In Baghdad, one protester was killed, police sources and medics said, and more than 100 others hurt across the country after the security forces tried to clear protest camps.

At least 75 of those hurt were in the southern city of Nassariya. A Reuters witness said protesters set fire to two security vehicles and hundreds of other demonstrators controlled key bridges in the city. Later, unidentified men set fire to tents that are part of a months-long sit-in in the city centre.

Protests have flared in the last two days after populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, many of whose supporters had participated, said he would no longer be involved in anti-government demonstrations.

Sadr opposes all foreign interference in Iraq but has aligned himself more closely in recent months with Iran and the Tehran-backed parties that dominate state institutions in Baghdad.

Story continues

Some demonstrators have accused the populist cleric of treachery of their cause.

Sadr has organised separate anti-American demonstrations aimed at pressuring U.S. troops to leave Iraq, moves that critics say aim to eclipse the anti-establishment movement which has taken aim at all politicians including Sadr.

The increase in unrest comes after Washington killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of Iran's control over Iraq, and an Iraqi paramilitary chief in a drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3.

Iran responded with ballistic missile attacks on two Iraqi military bases, but the killing has revived tensions in Iraqi politics and delayed the formation of a new government.

Five Katyusha rockets hit Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, late on Sunday, a military statement said. It did not report casualties.

'INTERNAL STRIFE'

Security sources told Reuters that at least one rocket landed inside the U.S. embassy compound and wounded three people. If confirmed, it would be the first time in years that such attacks on the Green Zone, which are regular, have actually hurt staff there.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack in a statement from his office, and said that the continuation of such acts could "drag Iraq into becoming a battlefield."

Sadr had called for demonstrations against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other cities on Sunday but cancelled them, with his office giving "avoiding internal strife" as the reason.

Sadr's supporters had bolstered anti-government protests before the assassination of Soleimani but have since been directed by their leader to focus their anger against America. They began withdrawing from anti-government sit-in camps on Saturday.

"We protest because we have a cause. I dont think Moqtada Sadr or any other politician will change our mind," said a protester in Baghdad who declined to give his name.

"I dont go to protests often but I came out today because of what they did yesterday. I want to express my solidarity with my brothers in Tahrir," said Hussain Ali, a student, referring to demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the main area of protests in the capital.

In Baghdad, protesters were coughing and washing their faces and eyes to rid themselves of the effects of tear gas while medical workers provided first aid, as the site was inaccessible to ambulances, a Reuters reporter said.

Tuk tuks evacuated wounded protesters in clouds of tear gas and black smoke from burning tyres.

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of university students had gathered in Tahrir Square, the main protest camp, chanting slogans against the United States and Iran.

Protests also continued in the cities of Kerbala, Najaf and Diwaniya, defying attempts by security forces to end their months-long sit-in, police sources and Reuters witnesses said.

(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Iraq staff; Additional reporting by John Davison and Ahmed Rasheed, and Samar Ahmed in Cairo; Writing by Nadine Awadalla, Editing by William Maclean, Toby Chopra and Timothy Heritage)
Veronica Soto is quick to share her why  why shes taken on the task of coordinating housing for San Antonio during a pivotal time in the city.

An El Paso native and Ivy League grad, Soto, 46, grew up in a low-income community abutting the border, with one foot in the U.S. and one in Mexico. The family cycled between living in dilapidated homes in the El Paso neighborhood and across the border in Juarez, where Soto was partially raised and where both of her parents worked.

But after she secured an undergraduate degree at Harvard on scholarship, she went to grad school at Princeton and returned home after a stint working in New York City. Soto held several public-sector jobs in El Paso. Her last post there was the citys director of community and human development.

After working for two decades in El Paso, a disagreement with a higher-up led Soto to look elsewhere. In May 2017, she was named director of the newly formed Neighborhood and Housing Services Department for San Antonio. She started on the job two months later.

She came in just after Ron Nirenbergs first election as mayor, and although she didnt come to San Antonio expecting an upheaval in the citys housing policy, thats what she got.

Nirenberg in August 2017 commissioned the Mayors Housing Policy Task Force, a group that began with just five members seeking to solve San Antonios worsening affordable housing situation.

When Soto stepped into the job, she had a staff of about 40 in her department. Today, over 80 employees work under Soto  a sign of the rapid transformation the department has undergone in the last two and a half years.

Soto, a technical wonk at heart, is now working to implement the citys policy framework to develop affordable housing and reduce homelessness and housing instability.

Soto recently spoke with the San Antonio Express-News in her Southtown office. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: What led you into a career in public service?

A: It took me probably 10 years to tell this why without crying. When I grew up, I was born in El Paso, raised in Juarez. My father was a taxi driver in Juarez all of his life. My mother was a garment worker in the factories, the maquilas. And there would be periodic layoffs, so I grew up going to unemployment.

(While living in Juarez) my brother would drive us (to school in El Paso)  it was always an hour to commute. Hed go to high school, I would go to middle school. There would be days where we would look at each other and say, Is it worth it to go back (to Juarez)? And wed say no, and wed stay in the car. We were the stinky kids. Wed park in front of our old house and the neighbors would let us use their bathroom, and thats what we would do. We would sleep in the car. So I know that experience. And seeing my mom have to go and apply for public housing and be on the waiting list  and we never got public housing, the waiting list was three years. Going and getting government cheese, and getting food stamps and seeing how people treated her when she would get food stamps. All of those experiences, this whole introduction to city government was something that made me want to be in public service.

Q: What was it like going from life on the border to Harvard?

A: I was more excited that it was the first time I had ever been on an airplane than about the fact that I was going to Boston.

Q: When you left El Paso and stepped into your role here in July 2017, what did you think of the citys housing situation and the job in front of you?

A: I was excited that the ($20 million bond-funded Urban Renewal Plan) was San Antonio finding its own way to figure out affordable housing. Its very clear we cant depend on federal largess to address affordable housing issues. To me, one of the things I liked about San Antonio was it was thinking about its own way to address affordable housing  that it was not waiting on someone else to figure out.

The bond was one of the things that was going to be on my plate. When I took the job, my understanding was they were going to group these things together that would focus on delivering housing and address the neighborhood issues. And so I thought I was going to come in, and if things needed tweaking or process improvements, I would do it. But I was really going to focus on the housing bond and implementation of that and figure out the path by which San Antonio would do the housing bond and spend the $20 million. And the hope would be that if we did a good job, we would get another housing bond that would be larger and have a bigger impact.

I started on a Monday. The next week, on Tuesday, Im meeting with (then-City Manager Sheryl Sculley) presenting the department budget. It was still youre going to work on the neighborhoods and implement the bond. And then Nirenberg decides in August to appoint the Mayors Housing Policy Task Force, and that became my life.

Q: The market isnt going to incentivize developers to build $150,000 homes where they can build $300,000 homes. How do you encourage more affordable housing?

A: Affordable housing is made more challenging because were competing with the market, in essence. There are interventions we can put in place, but were not the ones that drive the market forces, so were doing interventions  trying to catch up. And if we put enough money into it, a builder will build all the affordable housing units, but theres that cost-benefit analysis. How do we shift resources to make sure we have the right incentives? You have to be creative about the partnerships you do.

With affordable housing, city government cant do it by itself because were not the ultimate deliverers of the service. Were the ones that help make it happen, but were not the developer. And so, how to partner, how to put in the right incentives is part of our creativity, but were not the ones that build it, were not the ones that run it. The limited set of interventions that we can do is what we have to work with.

Q: The National Low Income Housing Coalition says building more affordable housing is the primary answer to solving the housing gap, as opposed to various policy initiatives or programs. Do you agree with that?

A: Its a combination  its not just more housing. One of the things I really like about the policy framework is it dug deep into renters and homeowners, and it also did it by income levels. So we found that were building a lot of affordable housing, but only for families (earning) 60 percent of the area median income. The need is for families (earning) 50 percent of the area median income, and at 40 percent of the area median income. Those people still cant find something affordable to them. So how do we incentivize someone to build something that they will rent to a family that can afford at that level? I like that were saying, For whom are we building this? It makes us work harder at those incentives, but it also makes us realize, to get that deeper affordability, its going to cost of us a little bit more in terms of the incentive we put in.

Q: Where is San Antonio at today when it comes to affordable housing?

A: We have a lot of things to improve upon from our first year. We did really good work, even great work, but there are ways to improve upon it.

In our pipeline of what is coming, were able to see the places were missing the mark or were not going to (meet our goal), and we have to shift and make a policy tweak here, a funding change there, so that we hit those marks. Even though the policy framework was just done, based on the pipeline, we can recalibrate what we should be producing. Its time to look at the production timetable the policy framework is giving and readjust it so that we still continue to address the need and continue to help people.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
Iraqi protesters scurry to catch a tear gas canister amid clashes with security forces at an anti-regime demonstration in Al-Khillani square in the capital Baghdad, on Jan. 27, 2020. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)

Rockets Strike US Embassy in Baghdad as Protests Continue

A number of rockets struck the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, injuring at least one staffer and causing some material damage as clashes in the region over the weekend left at least five anti-government protesters dead.

The United States has expressed outrage over the latest attack.

Five Katyusha rockets hit the embassy on the evening of Jan. 26, according to the Iraqi military, which reported no casualties. Iraqi security forces were pushing back in an attempt to end months of demonstrations by protesters against the largely Iran-backed ruling elite.

Unnamed sources told Reuters that three people were wounded when at least one of the rockets landed inside the U.S. Embassy compound. One rocket struck a restaurant inside the embassy, sources told The Associated Press. The latest attack marked the third time rockets were fired against the U.S. Embassy this month alone.

Who was behind the rocket attack wasnt immediately known. The U.S. Embassy didnt immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times. An automatic email response from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad noted that as of Jan. 1, 2020, all consular services are suspended.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Jan. 27 expressed his outrage at the continued attacks by Irans armed groups against U.S. facilities in Iraq, including the rocket attacks against the U.S. Embassy, in a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi, according to State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.

The Secretary underlined once again that these attacks demonstrate a wanton disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups Ortagus said in a statement. He appreciated Prime Minister Abd al-Mahdis commitment to strengthen security to protect American personnel and diplomatic facilities.

Pompeo noted that the United States views the rocket attack on the embassy as an attempt to distract Iraqi and international attention away from the brutal suppression of peaceful Iraqi protesters by Iran and its proxies, according to Ortagus.

The Iraqi government moved swiftly to denounce the attack and said it would investigate and arrest those who launched the rockets. In December 2019, the United States urged Iraq to take steps in stopping attacks by Iran-backed groups on bases hosting U.S. forces in Iraq.

We denounce the continuation of these outlawed actions that have the goal of weakening the Iraqi state and violating its sovereignty and the sanctity of diplomatic missions on its soil, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said in a statement released on Jan. 26.

Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the International Security Program at CSIS, told The Epoch Times it appears that Iran is apparently not standing down as many had hoped but is continuing its attacks on the United States using proxies, as it has done often in the past.

Trump has drawn a clear red line on the killing of U.S. citizens, Cancian added, via email. If the Iranian attacks do kill Americans, then there could be another round of escalation.

Authorities began the pushback on Jan. 25 as demonstrators called for the removal of all politicians, free elections, and an end to corruption. Anti-government protests have gripped Iraq since Oct. 1, 2019, when thousands took to the streets in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite south.

In an earlier Jan. 23 alert, the U.S. Embassy warned about anti-American demonstrations taking place in central Baghdad on Jan. 24. The alert also warned U.S. citizens not to approach the embassy.

U.S. citizens may see a heavy security presence and road closures are likely, it stated. Public consular operations in Baghdad remain suspended.

The embassy on Jan. 11 also renewed its travel advisory for Iraq. The Level 4 rating advises travelers not to travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, and armed conflict.

Nearly 500 people have been killed in the unrest, with both security forces and unidentified gunmen shooting people dead. After a lull earlier this month, demonstrations resumed; protesters have controlled three key bridges in Baghdad and maintain camps and roadblocks in several cities in the south.

The government has responded with violence and piecemeal reform. The international community has condemned the violence.

The United States has repeatedly denounced the Iraqi governments attacks against its protesters and the media. At one point of the protests in November 2019, at least 45 anti-government protesters were shot dead by Iraqi security forces after demonstrators set fire to an Iranian consulate.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 22 met with Iraqs President Barham Salih to discuss cooperation on military, defeating ISIS, and more.

In late December 2019, thousands of protesters and members of multiple Iran-backed groups thronged the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in response to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.

U.S. planes had attacked bases belonging to an Iran-backed terror group, killing at least 25 and wounding dozens of others. The attack, on Kataib Hezbollah, was in response to the killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.

Kataib Hezbollah flags could be seen in the mob at the U.S. Embassy. Some among the crowd threw stones, others burned the outside wall surrounding the embassy, and chants of No, no, America!  No, no, Trump! were heard. After breaching the outer wall, they smashed the bullet-proof windows of the U.S. Embassy with blocks of cement.

Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Irans Quds Force, was killed early on Jan. 3 in a U.S. airstrike ordered by Trump, who has said the general was plotting an imminent attack on American citizens. It follows repeated attacks in recent months by Iranian-backed Shiite terror groups against bases hosting U.S. troops in Iraq.

Trump also said previously that the United States had launched the airstrikes because it believed Soleimani was targeting four embassies, with Baghdad being the primary target. Trump described it as an imminent attack.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drews leading opponent in the Republican primary has decided to run instead in a neighboring district, a change he announced Monday, a day before Trump hosts a rally that Van Drew hopes will gin up support from conservatives in his new party.

Having the President fully endorse [Van Drew] and embrace him, it just doesnt make sense for me to continue in this race, Republican David Richter said. I have endorsed Jeff Van Drew and will support his re-election campaign."

Richter stepped aside on the eve of Van Drews appearance with Trump at a rally in Wildwood, and three days after the emergence of a voicemail in which Van Drew told a voter, just weeks before he switched parties, that he will not vote for Trump.

"I havent voted for him, I didnt support him, I will not vote for him, Van Drew said in the Nov. 30 voicemail obtained by The Inquirer.

Since Van Drew defected to the GOP and pledged his undying support to Trump in December, the national Republican Party has thrown its support behind his candidacy, even though the longtime Democrat has voted with Trump only 7% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. Trump endorsed Van Drew, and a pro-Trump political group also provided more than $250,000 in air cover for Van Drew, in the form of online and TV ads.

Richter, who had previously vowed after Van Drews high-profile party switch to remain in the race against him, will join a crowded Republican primary field in New Jerseys Third congressional district, which is currently represented by freshman Democrat Andy Kim. Trump won that district, which spans Burlington and Ocean Counties, by six points in 2016.

The early GOP frontrunner to face Kim, former Burlington County freeholder Kate Gibbs, has already been highlighted by House Republicans Young Guns program, which spotlights and aids promising candidates. John Novak, the mayor of Barnegat Township, and former Hainesport Mayor Anthony Porto are also running in the Republican primary.

Former White House political director Bill Stepien signed on as Richters campaign adviser, in a show of support for Richter from Trumps political orbit that presaged a possible effort to nudge other candidates aside for Richter  much as Richter was nudged aside for Van Drew. Stepien, a New Jersey native, is also advising Trump and Van Drew in their reelection bids.

Anyone who thinks they can push me around doesnt know anything about #SouthJersey women, Gibbs said in a Facebook post. To our party leaders who like to talk about empowering and supporting young Republican women to run and serve, well, here I am. The ball is in your court.

Kim, a former national security aide on Iraq issues under President Barack Obama, narrowly flipped the South Jersey district in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur by fewer than 4,000 votes.

We look forward to seeing who makes it through the large primary field," Kim spokesperson Anthony DeAngelo said. "The voters know that Andy stands with them, not corporate funders and special interests.

Republicans are relishing the chance to unseat Kim, which they see as crucial to taking back the House in 2020.

The Burlington County GOP has already endorsed Gibbs. Ocean Countys nominating convention happens in early March. Support from the county party can increase a candidates chances of getting a favorable ballot position in a primary.

The district spans the pricey New York and Philadelphia media markets. In 2018, it was the most expensive congressional race in New Jersey, with the campaigns combining to spend more than $11 million.

Richter, a millionaire construction executive, had $515,000 in campaign cash to begin the year, most of it from his own pockets. Gibbs had $135,000. Kim had $2.2 million, and no Democratic primary challenger.
(Bloomberg) -- More than 350 Amazon.com Inc. employees contributed public statements focused on the companys climate practices, defying company policy and escalating a feud between management and a coalition of concerned workers.

The employees comments, posted to Medium on Sunday, come a few weeks after it emerged that Amazon had threatened workers who had talked to the Washington Post with disciplinary action or termination if they continued to speak publicly about the company without authorization. The employees are members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an organization that has been campaigning for more than a year to get Amazon to cut ties with fossil fuel companies and commit to limiting its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

Among the newly published contributions, each of them from named Amazon workers, the shared sentiment is summed up by the comment of Amanda Seyfer, a software development engineer: Amazon has the scale to be a bold leader in the move toward clean energy, or a significant contributor to climate change. We know well have to deal with this eventually, so why wait?

Amazon Threatens to Fire Climate Activists, Group Says

Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos in September announced an initiative aimed at making his company a net-zero carbon emitter by 2040 and to court other companies to join a pledge to do the same. The next day, thousands of Amazon employees walked off the job in a show of support for student-led climate marches around the world. Some Amazon employees there took credit for their executives new public commitment to the environment and asked for more.

An Amazon spokesperson, in an emailed statement, said of course we are passionate about these issues.

While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics, we do enforce our external communications policy and will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems, the statement said.

Story continues

To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Day in Seattle at mday63@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Vlad Savov

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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Bob Seely is the MP for the Isle of Wight. He is standing to be Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

A Whitehall revolution is being promised by a Government determined to make the state work for the British people  and not before time!

That shake-up is needed in foreign and overseas policy as much as it is anywhere. We need a foreign policy in tune with the British people.

We need to mix idealism with clear thinking, and to stand up more for the British national interest. That means we need a Foreign Affairs Committee that ensures we do, and holds the Foreign Office to account when we dont.

The world is a more dangerous place than two decades ago. Russia and China are developing new forms of assertive authoritarianism. We, meanwhile, have become complacent. We spend too little on hard power and either too much, or not well enough, on soft power (although both are critical for our future). Too many bits of government deal with the wider world, and they dont talk to each other enough, like satraps running a series of mini-empires scattered across Whitehall.

Therefore, I am delighted that Number 10 is reviewing how the UK does overseas policy.

So what could improve? The Henry Jackson Society and I outlined some ideas in the Global Britain study developed earlier this year. The Prime Minister wrote its foreword.

To remain one of the pre-eminent nations of the world  and despite the self-flagellating whining from the Left, we are one  we need to ensure that our overseas policy is integrated across government departments to maximise our influence. We need to develop a global, long-term strategy, defined in ambitious but achievable goals.

This will have several elements, the first of which is structure. The Government is right to consider merging the Department for International Development (DfID) with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Australia, Canada, Norway and Denmark all have their aid and overseas trade bodies as agencies within their foreign ministries, and we should consider doing the same.

In addition, we need integrated management in embassies as well as integrated cross-departmental work, structured around Joint Effects Teams, so that civil servants and diplomats from aid, trade, FCO, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and other agencies work to common goals, and, where appropriate, on similar salary scales.

Second, the Government should establish a National Strategy Council to provide strategic direction to these efforts, and it in turn should draw up a National Global Strategy. Whilst Number 10 will continue to own strategic personal relationships, the FCO must be freed to think, to lead, and to coordinate our overseas relationships, working with the MoD.

Third, voters across the political divide are rightly cynical that we spend more on overseas aid than policing, and that whilst there are legal guarantees on our aid spend, there are none for the NHS, defence, law enforcement, or education. We need to address this. The priorities of the political classes are not those of the British people beyond Westminster.

If we keep 0.7 percent aid target  nearly double what the most generous nations in the world pay  it needs to be re-adjusted to better reflect our national interests and to show voters that their money is not being frittered away. There is less room for virtue signalling than in the David Cameron years. Shovelling money out the door, as DfID has been accused of, is no longer acceptable.

So how could we improve aid spending? In addition to vital and valuable life-saving DfID work (and in many ways DfID is a model of good practise) we should spend aid money for the following areas.

First, pay for all UK Armed Forces peacekeeping operations, as well as some standing tasks (such as the Royal Navy in the Caribbean or anti-piracy operations, for example), and Defence Attaches in nations where the MoD is part of the wider development operations. That means earmarking 300 to 500 million per year  more if we are to pay a larger role in UN operations, which arguably we should as the worlds leading supporter of multilateralism.

Second, significantly invest in the BBC World Service, both TV and radio, to give it the power to compete with news outlets from the authoritarian world, such as Russia, Chinese and Iran. It is in our core national interest to champion global democratic values.

Third, tie all economic aid to low- or no-carbon development and renewable energy. We need to show global leadership on green issues.

The funds to make this happen can be taken from the DfID budget without hitting fundamental life-saving humanitarian aid, which is popular, important, and reflects the values of the British people. An aid budget that allies that with support for our Armed Forces, with the projection of our values through the BBC World Service, and with championing green development, is one that most people could support.

This Government looks set to combine some laudable characteristics: practical and patriotic, but also idealistic and capable of driving change. This is a great combination. We should use it in overseas policy to maintain and enhance our nations remarkable influence in the world, and to to champion our interests and values.
CHANDLER, Ariz., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chandler Innovations, the city's business incubation and entrepreneurial development program, has partnered with Rachna Nath, a Science teacher with AZ College Prep (Erie Campus), to bring entrepreneurial curriculum to students working on scientific and technological breakthroughs.

The Jr. Track will have content derived from the concepts addressed in the traditional Chandler Innovations curriculum that is tailored to resonate with the Gen Z or Centennial demographic.

"Chandler Innovations Jr. Track is a platform for young creative minds to find resources to advance their innovative inquisitiveness and also delve into the world of entrepreneurship with guided help through some very dedicated mentors." Said Rachna when asked what the program offers her students.

"I am thrilled to provide the curriculum for these bright young students," said Diana White, CEO of Chandler Innovations. "It is a program that I hope will grow to include other Chandler high schools." White will facilitate the Jr. Tracks and provide business counseling to the students. "The concepts students will learn at Chandler Innovations will help them in every aspect of their adult life, whether or not they become entrepreneurs."

Rachna's students are excited to be a part of the Chandler Innovations community. Sohani Sandhu, one of the members of a group of AZ College Prep students working on a heatstroke sensing device, has already gained insight to help her better contribute to the team's goals. "The Jr. Track is an excellent opportunity to help young entrepreneurs achieve their business dreams." said Sandhu.

Christopher Wilkes, project manager with HUB249, part of ASU's Innovation Center in Chandler, encourages Rachna's students to continue their entrepreneurial journey. "Heatstroke is an issue in Arizona," said Wilkes. "It's fantastic to see youth tackling real-world problems."

The young entrepreneurs meet weekly for two hours to review past concepts and learn about new topics. Post-work is provided to help the students apply what they've learned to their projects.

For more information about Chandler Innovations, visit: https://www.innovationsincubator.com/programs.html

About Chandler Innovations: Chandler Innovations is a business incubation program for tech-focused businesses. The program is sponsored by the City of Chandler and powered by Moonshot at NACET. Chandler Innovations offers four track-programs throughout the year for those who work, live or own property in Chandler. It also offers entrepreneurship mentoring and community events.

Contact:

Diana White

CEO, Chandler Innovations

[email protected]

SOURCE Chandler Innovations Incubator

Related Links

https://www.innovationsincubator.com


EUGENE, Ore. -- Proposed tariffs on wine have local businesses begging for relief from the Trump administration, even after national developments appear to have pushed the trade dispute back.

In October 2019, a 25 percent tariff was imposed on imported wine with an alcohol content under 14 percent. While this targets all retailers that sell the product, local business owners are saying it has hit them the hardest.

More recently, a 100 percent tariff on wine was proposed by Donald Trump following subsidies Europe provided to French founded aeronautics company Airbus and proposed European taxes levied against Facebook and Google.

However, it has since been presumably called off after a conversation between Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron, agreeing to address the dispute in 2020.

Boris Wiedenfeld-Needham, owner of Bo's Wine Depot, said that a proposed 100 percent tariff would likely cause many small stores to close their doors or cut jobs.

In a statement released to KEZI, he said, "Most American winemakers we have heard from, say that these tariffs will also very likely significantly hurt their business, so its a lose-lose all around."

He also said you could virtually kiss French, Italian, and Spanish wines goodbye unless you are willing to pay 200 percent its price.

Locally, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden released a statement saying in part: "All across our state I've heard from constituents, small business owners, and winegrowers how harmful tariffs would be to Oregon's economy... It would be to everyone's benefit to resolve these trade disputes with Europe quickly."

The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America predict that a 100 percent tariff on wine would have destroyed 17,000 American jobs
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Beijing, China  Mon, January 27, 2020 17:21 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20612f6c0 2 World China,health,virus,Internet,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-lockdown Free

Chinese officials at the epicenter of a health crisis are coming under fire for incompetence and being ridiculed for not properly wearing protective masks as anger mounts over the handling of a deadly virus.

Many Chinese netizens were incensed by what they perceived as a series of errors at a televised press conference Sunday by three local officials at the heart of the new virus outbreak.

Governor of central Hubei province Wang Xiaodong held the press conference without wearing a mask  in violation of the provincial capital Wuhan's own rules mandating masks in public spaces.

Meanwhile the mayor of Wuhan was wearing his mask incorrectly by having it on inside out, pointed out Chinese users on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.

"If the mayor doesn't even know how to wear a mask, how will everyday people know?" criticized one user.

"Incompetent and irresponsible politicians," wrote another in a scathing comment about the press briefing.

The comments are a rare instance of public anger outpacing the army of online censors in China, where criticism of government figures is usually scrubbed.

By Monday afternoon, a hashtag on the press briefing had more than 680 million views on Weibo.

Online users also zeroed in on Wang's repeated fumble of Hubei's annual mask production  giving three revisions to his answer from 10.8 billion to 1.8 billion, to 1.08 million.

"As the governor of Hubei province, how can you not know how many masks Hubei province produces?" asked one incredulous user.

Central Hubei province is at the heart of China's new virus outbreak, which has killed at least 81 people and infected more than 2,700 people across the country and has spread overseas, including Thailand, the United States, and Australia.

"We also feel very distressed and very guilty, and we also very much blame ourselves," said Wang at Sunday's press briefing.

In Hubei, Chinese authorities have stopped public transport in at least 18 cities in a bid to contain the deadly virus, while putting the capital  a city of 11 million inhabitants  under effective quarantine.

Closing transport out of Wuhan was a "very difficult decision," added Zhou Xianwang, Wuhan's mayor, in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV on Monday.

"We may have blocked the disease, but we will all go down in history with a bad name," he admitted.

The mayor of Wuhan has already faced scrutiny for allowing a massive Lunar New Year banquet  involving 40,000 families  to take place despite the spread of the virus.
An order allowing some electric bicycle use on trails  along with negative public reaction to the rule  has prompted the Billings Field Office of the BLM to take a closer look at some Pryor Mountain trails.

Its commendable the BLM is making a step in the right direction, said Aubrey Bertram of the Montana Wilderness Association. It is pretty powerful to see the effect of public comment  when people take part in these public processes.

Dave Lefevre, Billings Field Office manager, led a tour of one route  the Pygmy Panther Trail along the edge of Bear Canyon  on Tuesday. Recreation, biology and range specialists accompanied him as they hiked the 3-mile route to examine the trail surface, its location and whether it would be suitable for mountain bikes and e-bikes. Other considerations included signage or cairns to mark the route and whether and how much trail work would be necessary to improve the path.

Well make a more specific proposal for trails before we make a decision, he said.

Comments

The field office was caught off-guard in December when the Montana Wilderness Association urged its members to comment on BLMs environmental assessment for the Pryors. The EA included the new U.S. Department of Interior order allowing some electric bicycles on trails where mountain bikers could ride. The BLM had not publicly announced the EA via a news release. Instead, Lefevre said at the time that posting the document on the agencys online planning site was notification enough.

The MWA noticed the document, denounced the agency for its lack of public notification and put out a call to members for their observations. As a result, the 130 comments the BLM received were somewhat one-sided, Lefevre said.

A high percentage had to do with nonmotorized trails, he said.

Most of the comments we got were on social impacts, said Jenny Alexander, BLM outdoor recreation planner.

In the wake of such criticism the BLM decided to extend the comment period on the EA to Jan. 6.

The order

The hubbub revolved around an order given in August by Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt that would allow low-power, pedal-assisted e-bikes on all trails where traditional bikes are allowed on Interior Department lands. The Interior Department oversees the BLM and National Park Service, among other federal agencies.

We were purposely vague about how that order would be implemented, Lefevre said. We still have discretion to look at that.

It would be great for this field office to have a discussion about e-bikes as a form of motorized recreation  and what those impacts would look like, Bertram said, with emphasis on subjects like erosion, effects on wildlife and the transport of weeds.

Many of the trails on BLM land in the Pryor Mountains are old roads that lead to now-abandoned uranium mining claims. Even though they may be 70 years old or older, the roads have not overgrown because they are still used by motorized recreationists. The trails also remain evident because of the Pryors' arid climate, nutrient-deficient clay soils and rocky substrate.

The BLM has been working to sign routes and close others to provide loop rides or connections to roads and trails rather than dead-ends.

It would be nice to make it into a logical trail system, Lefevre said. Right now there are a lot of trails you can go ride on, youre just not sure where youre going to come out.

So BLMs staff has been reviewing the nonmotorized trails in the Pryor Mountains this winter. As part of the review the agency will cooperate with the Beartooth Ranger District to make sure trails that start on BLM land  which runs along the lower elevations of the mountain range  dont dead-end at the Custer Gallatin National Forest boundary.

Low power

Allowing bicycles with motors of less than 750 watts, and only those that add electric power assistance when pedaled (as opposed to a motor that powers the bike without pedaling), has worried some recreationists that the door is being opened to other motorized vehicles in the future, Lefevre said. He added that theres also people concerned that less experienced cyclists on e-bikes may pedal farther, putting themselves at risk.

One of the things were speculating is that there will be more people riding bikes because of these, he added.

Bertram said the Montana Wilderness Association isnt against mountain biking, but sees the e-bikes as a way for recreationists to travel farther faster, and therefore deeper into wildlife habitat. The bikes are also heavier, meaning their wear and tear on trails would be greater than standard pedal bikes and therefore contribute to more erosion.

Questions

The BLM is also considering conflicts between trail users: cyclists and hikers; horseback riders and cyclists; mountain bikers and e-bikers. Is construction necessary to make the trails more visible and durable? Would vegetation need to be cut or trimmed to improve sight lines to avoid crashes between users? Should some trails be one-way to prevent collisions? How much marking of the routes is necessary?

One of the biggest unknowns is: If BLM marks and improves trails, will that increase use and therefore conflicts? If you build it, will they come?

We also have to think about what the future is going to be, Alexander said. Acton (Recreation Area) used to be pretty quiet but has now turned into a popular downhill mountain biking spot north of Billings since trails were built.

Unique

In a discussion among the BLM staff following the Tuesday hike the short Pygmy Panther Trail seemed an unlikely mountain bike route because of its length.

Its not even on a mountain bikers radar at that distance, unless it could link up to something else, said John Reffit, BLM manager of Pompeys Pillar.

Six to 12 miles is closer to the distance that cyclists are looking for, he added. Yet Pygmy Panther ties into the Bear Canyon Road, which climbs up the face of the Pryor Mountains and onto Forest Service land.

The Pryors are unique in that the lower elevation BLM property is a high desert landscape populated by scattered sagebrush, juniper and cactus. The sparse vegetation clings to rocky outcrops and lines the bottom of steep-walled canyons dotted with caves. Yet by driving or hiking uphill a thousand feet the environment gradually changes into an alpine setting with fir trees, lush meadows and high peaks.

Views from the foothills and mountains are expansive, stretching across the valley of the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River to the snow-packed summits of the Beartooth Mountains to the west and south into Wyomings Bighorn Basin and the hazy distant peaks of the Absaroka Range.

Taken altogether its easy to see why the diversity of the Pryor Mountains is so attractive.

People are coming out here for the solitude and to get away from the crowds, Alexander said.

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The followers of poet-saint Guru Ravidas staged a protest outside the office of a pro-Khalistan group in New York on Sunday against the alleged burning of the Indian Constitution and demands for a referendum in Punjab.

Pro-Khalistan organisation Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) tore a copy of the Indian Constitution and burnt it, said Ashok Kumar Mahi, president of Guru Ravidas temple in New York.

The SFJ did not burn the Constitution in public, which they had announced earlier. "However, they sent us a video of burning the Constitution," said Mahi, who had called for the demonstrations outside the SFJ office on Sunday.

The protestors raised slogans against the SFJ and burnt the effigy of its leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannu.

Mahi said the burning of the Constitution had insulted members of the Guru Ravidas Gurdwara, who number around 2,500.

"Our protest is against them burning the sacred Constitution. They provoked us by sending this video," Mahi told PTI.

The SFJ is already banned by India for its activities against the country.

The SFJ along with other like-minded organisations are planning to organise a referendum later this year for a separate Khalistan state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It came amid renewed attention over his friendship with Epstein, and a woman's claim that she had sex with the prince several times starting when she was 17

In the same statement he announced he was withdrawing from his royal duties

Andrew released a public statement in November saying he was 'willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations' into Epstein

He declined to comment when asked if Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell is cooperating with investigators

He declined to comment when asked if Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell is cooperating with investigators

Berman wouldn't discuss the Epstein investigation in detail but said prosecutors are still looking at possible 'conspirators'

The attorney made his remarks about the case during a press event to discuss New York law that makes it easier for people to sue over childhood sex abuse

He said the prince's lawyers have ignored prosecutors' interview requests

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman spoke to reporters outside Epstein's mansion in Manhattan on Monday

Britain's Prince Andrew has not returned federal prosecutors' interview requests despite offering to cooperate with their ongoing investigation of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Prince Andrew has ignored federal prosecutors' interview requests despite publicly offering to cooperate with their ongoing investigation into pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and any potential co-conspirators.

Speaking to reporters outside Epstein's Manhattan mansion on Monday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said that prosecutors have contacted Prince Andrew's attorneys but have not received a response.

'To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,' Berman said - a revelation likely to raise further questions about the disgraced Duke's association with Epstein.

Prince Andrew said in November that he was willing to assist US officials with investigations into Epstein and his associates.

'Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required,' he said in a statement soon after being grilled about his ties to the disgraced financier in a TV interview.

Berman made his latest remarks about the Epstein case during a joint appearance with members of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit victim services agency, to discuss a new New York law that makes it easier for people to sue over childhood sexual abuse.

The attorney wouldn't discuss the investigation in detail, but did confirm that prosecutors are looking at possible 'conspirators' who worked with Epstein.

'Jeffrey Epstein couldn't have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward,' Berman said.

The attorney declined to comment when asked if Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's accused madam, is cooperating with investigators.

Speaking to reporters outside Epstein's Manhattan mansion on Monday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said that prosecutors have contacted Prince Andrew's attorneys but have not received a response

Berman declined comment when asked if Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's accused madam, is cooperating with investigators. Epstein and Maxwell are pictured in 2005

Before responding to a reporter's question about Andrew's involvement in the investigation, Berman acknowledged that his office typically doesn't comment on whether a particular individual is cooperating.

'However, in Prince Andrew's case, he publicly offered, indeed in a press release, offered to cooperate with law enforcement investigating the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,' Berman said.

Buckingham Palace is not commenting on the matter.

A source told DailyMail.com: 'This issue is being dealt with by the Duke of York's legal team.'

After Berman's announcement, a lawyer for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an Epstein accuser who claims she slept with Andrew, issued the following statement to The Daily Mail: 'Prince Andrews continued refusal to cooperate with the authorities after freely acknowledging that he would be prepared to answer enquiries raises even more questions about the role he played in the international sex trafficking ring Jeffrey Epstein and others operated.

'Prince Andrew should take most seriously the deeply held belief in this country that no one is above the law.'

Andrew has categorically denied having any knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing teenage girls.

The prince announced that he was withdrawing from his royal duties late last year amid renewed attention over his friendship with Epstein, and Giuffre's claim that she had several sexual encounters with the prince, starting when she was just 17.

Giuffre says that after meeting her in Florida in 2000, Epstein flew her around the world and pressured her into having sex with numerous older men, including Andrew, two senior US politicians, a noted academic, wealthy financiers and the attorney Alan Dershowitz, who is now part of President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team.

All of those men have denied the allegations.

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew three times at Epstein's request, including once in London in 2001 at the home of Epstein's girlfriend, Maxwell.

Andrew has maintained that he does not recall ever meeting Giuffre - even though there is a photograph apparently showing him with his arm around the then-17-year-old on the night she says she first slept with him.

Prince Andrew is pictured with Epstein in Central Park in New York in February 2011

Virginia Roberts, who claims that Prince Andrew had sex with her after Epstein trafficked her to London, is pictured with the Duke of York in 2001

In the November TV interview with the BBC, Andrew insisted he did not spend time with Giuffre at Tramp Nightclub in London on March 10, 2001, after which she claims the pair first had sex.

The duke denied he slept with her on three separate occasions, saying the encounter in 2001 did not happen as he had taken his daughter Princess Beatrice to Pizza Express in Woking for a party, and they spent the rest of the day together.

Giuffre has previously described their alleged time together in London in vivid detail, claiming that Andrew had been 'sweating' as they danced together in the London nightclub.

Andrew disputed that detail, saying he has a 'peculiar medical condition which is that I don't sweat or I didn't sweat at the time'.

He also said that her story didn't make sense because he didn't know where the bar in Tramp Nightclub is.

'I don't drink, I don't think I've ever bought a drink in Tramps whenever I was there,' he said.

Questioned about the photo of him and Giuffre together, which friends of the Duke have said could have been faked, Andrew said that public displays of affection are 'not something he would do' but refused to reveal whether he thought the image was doctored.

He said: 'Oh its definitely me, I mean that's a picture of me. I don't believe it's a picture of me in London because when I go out in London I wear a suit and a tie.

'That's what I would describe as my travelling clothes if I'm going to go overseas. Theres plenty of photographs of me dressed in that sort of kit but not there.'

In a November TV interview, Andrew maintained that he does not recall meeting Giuffre

US Attorney General William Barr has vowed to aggressively investigate and bring charges against anyone who may have helped Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell last summer while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The case brought renewed scrutiny to Epstein's many high-profile associates, including Andrew, who says he met the financier in 1999.

The pair maintained their friendship even after Epstein served 13 months in a Florida county jail after pleading guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution in 2008.

Andrew came under fire in 2010 after it was revealed that he stayed at Epstein's Manhattan home following his release from jail.

Asked during the November interview whether he regretted continuing his friendship with Epstein, Andrew said: 'Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes.'

The BBC interviewer replied: 'Unbecoming? He was a sex offender.'

Andrew then apologized, saying: 'I'm being polite, I mean in the sense that he was a sex offender.

'But no, was I right in having him as a friend? At the time, bearing in mind this was some years before he was accused of being a sex offender.

'I don't there was anything wrong then, the problem was the fact that once he had been convicted I stayed with him and thats the bit that, as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family and we try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side down, simple as that.'

Andrew was also friends with Maxwell, the British socialite accused in several civil lawsuits of recruiting girls and young women for Epstein to sexually abuse.

Last week, a former police protection officer for Andrew came forward to claim that Maxwell would visit the prince at Buckingham Palace up to four times a day and that the pair would enjoy picnics together on the grounds of the estate in London.

Met Police officer Paul Page, who worked for the Royals from 1998 to 2004, told The Mirror he first became aware of who Maxwell was in 2001 when the privy purse - the office that handles the Queen's private income - called to inform him that a guest was coming to see Andrew but that the name was not to be entered into the book.

'She turned up in a chauffeur-driven Range Rover and we let her in. Half an hour after that me and my colleague walked through the garden to go back to the police lodge and he was having a picnic with her by the summer house, opposite the Queen's bedroom window,' Page said.

'One of my colleagues saw her come in and out the Palace four times in one day.'

Andrew claimed in the BBC interview that he last saw Maxwell in the early spring of last year, months before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein but is believed to be one of the key figures in the US government's probe.

Two guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein the night he was found dead have already been charged with falsifying the jail's log books to indicate they were performing checks on prisoners, when they were actually sleeping or browsing the internet.
A member of a military medical team takes over the work from a medical worker at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province. AP Photo

Wuhan: China on Monday extended its biggest national holiday to buy time in the fight against a viral epidemic and neighbouring Mongolia closed its border, after the death toll spiked to 81 despite unprecedented quarantine measures.

In a sign of the mounting official concern, Premier Li Keqiang visited ground-zero to oversee containment efforts in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where the coronavirus emerged late last month.

The government has sealed off Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province, effectively trapping tens of millions of people, including thousands of foreigners, in a bid to quarantine the virus that struck amid the Lunar New Year holiday.

Twenty-four new deaths were confirmed in Hubei on Monday, and the southern island province of Hainan reported its first fatality, bringing the nationwide toll to 81, as confirmed infections swelled to more than 2,700.

The youngest infected patient was a nine-month-old baby being treated in Beijing.

Thousands more patients with flu-like symptoms were being monitored, suspected of contracting the pathogen.d.
An energy start-up in India, formed out of an Aston University scheme, has won a prestigious United Nations' award for its work

An energy start-up in India, formed out of an Aston University scheme, has won a prestigious United Nations' award for its work

A2P Energy, which harnesses technology and expertise developed through EBRI's Energy Harvest initiative, converts rice straw waste into energy products including pellets, oil, gas and biochar

By establishing a market for rice straw waste, A2P helps to improve air quality by eliminating open field burning

An energy start-up in India, born out of an Aston University scheme aiming to tackle the international challenge of dealing with agricultural waste, has won a prestigious prize.

A2P Energy, formed through the university's European Bioenergy Research Institute's (EBRI) Energy Harvest project, won The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) award, which recognises the work being done in India to combat air pollution.

The company, founded in 2018 by Sukhmeet Singh and Robert Berry, seeks to provide a solution to the challenge existing in Northwest India relating to agricultural waste management. Farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh regularly burn residual rice straw as it is seen as having little value. The burning causes substantial local disruption and health problems; additionally, large amounts of pollution are then blown by prevailing winds to the heavily populated city of Delhi.

In a bid to reduce the resulting health problems, A2P has established a supply chain that collects the paddy straw and produces energy pellets that can be used as a replacement for non-renewable fuels. These pellets can also be transformed through EBRI's expertise in pyrolysis technology into biochar to help improve soil structure and crop yields.

The UNDP award, the latest accolade that A2P has won, will help the start-up to carry out a pilot in one of the UN's selected cities in India.

Sukhmeet Singh, Co-founder and CEO of A2P Energy said: "A2P Energy is proud to be recognised among the UNDP's top three companies in India working on combating air pollution.

"From its birth, the company has managed to save biomass from over 1000 acres from being burned in the open field, and thus helping the planet and the pollution problem in India; as well as generating annual permanent and part-time employment for 55 local people.

"A2P Energy, through this initiative with UNDP, and through the technology support from Aston University, aims to be a frontrunner in providing Green Energy solutions in India and making a real positive impact on the environment and improving farmers' income."

###
New Delhi: Various Air India employee unions will meet here on Monday to discuss proposed privatisation of the debt-laden airline, sources said.

The meeting was scheduled after the government, earlier in the day, announced sale of 100 per cent stake in Air India as it issued the preliminary bid document for the strategic disinvestment.

Representatives of various Air India trade unions will meet here to discuss the government's privatisation plans, sources said. There are around a dozen recognised trade unions at Air India.

As part of the strategic disinvestment, Air India would also sell 100 per cent stake in low-cost airline Air India Express and 50 per cent shareholding in joint venture AISATS, as per bid document issued on Monday.

Management control of the airline would also be transferred to the successful bidder. This is the second time in less than two years that the government has come out with proposal for selling stake in Air India, which has been in the red for long.

The government has set March 17 as the deadline for submitting the expression of interest.
Charlie Lawson at the top of the Europa Hotel

The experience of a Bangor stroke survivor has prompted actor Charlie Lawson to pledge his support to the Stroke Association.

The Corrie star, who had a mini-stroke in 2018, was unable to recount his ordeal without becoming upset for a number of months after he became unwell.

At the time, he was completely unaware of the psychological effects of stroke and was immediately struck by Carla Thompson's account of life after stroke.

The mum-of-three had a stroke at 28 and suffered further heartache after she lost her dad to a stroke three years later.

Carla was with her dad Glenn when he suffered a catastrophic stroke last April and never regained consciousness.

She subsequently took part in a Stroke Association campaign to raise awareness of the psychological impact of stroke, which Charlie happened to come across on social media.

The television personality explained: "I knew nothing about stroke before I had my mini-stroke and I really had no idea what was happening to me afterwards.

"I became very emotional and when I saw Carla tell her story, I just knew I had to meet her so I got in touch with the Stroke Association.

"The charity does a lot of great work and I'm keen to help them in whatever way possible."

Charlie (59) is urging as many people as possible to sign up to the Stroke Association's annual Resolution Run.

The popular fundraiser, which will see runners complete either at five or 10km route, takes place at Queen's Sport in south Belfast on February 23.

Charlie continued: "Strokes, they can come upon you with no warning and can devastate your life.

"They're awful things and they're not spoken about as most people think strokes only happen to older people.

"I now know that they can happen to anyone. I'm absolutely fine now - 100% fit and well, but I was lucky.

"I'm proud to support the Stroke Association's Resolution Run this year and encourage you to visit their website and register to take part or support in whatever way you can.

"Join me, join the resolution and help the Stroke Association support people to rebuild their lives after stroke."

Paul Montgomery, fundraising manager at the Stroke Association, said: "We're really grateful to Charlie for supporting this year's Resolution Run and encouraging people from across Northern Ireland to join in and raise funds for the Stroke Association."

l To find out more visit www.resolutionrun.org.uk
[January 27, 2020] Voip-Pal.com Inc. Provides a Legal Update

BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voip-Pal.com Inc. (Voip-Pal, Company) (OTCQB: VPLM) is very pleased to provide an update on the status of its current patent infringement lawsuits:

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has scheduled oral arguments on March 3, 2020, in Washington D.C. for Voip-Pals appeal of the first Alice 101 Motion to Dismiss in Case Nos. 18-CV-06177-LHK, 18-cv-06217-LHK, C, 18-cv-04523-LHK, 18-cv-06054-LHK, asserting the RBR parent patent and RBR messaging continuation patent. The Company will be represented by its lead attorney, Lewis Hudnell III . The case will be heard by a panel of three appellate court judges. If the Appeals Court reverses the lower court, an opinion could take as long 3-6 months to be released. Howeer, if the judges affirm the District Court, their decision could be released much sooner.

. The case will be heard by a panel of three appellate court judges. If the Appeals Court reverses the lower court, an opinion could take as long 3-6 months to be released. Howeer, if the judges affirm the District Court, their decision could be released much sooner. Voip-Pal will be filing its Appeal brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by February 10, 2020, in the second Alice 101 Motion to Dismiss, granted by the court on November 1, 2019, in Case Nos. 18-CV-06216-LHK, and 18-CV-07020-LHK, asserting four RBR continuation patents.

Additionally, the Company is accessing its options and exploring other avenues for monetization and protection of its patent portfolio. More information on this will be released in due course.



While it is not always an easy task, it is our wholehearted belief that in the end justice will prevail over injustice. We are determined to see these battles through to the end until we achieve a fair outcome for our shareholders. Patience is a virtue. About Voip-Pal.com Inc.

Voip-Pal.Com, Inc. (Voip-Pal) is a publicly traded corporation (OTCQB: VPLM ) headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. The Company owns a portfolio of patents relating to Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology that it is currently looking to monetize.

Corporate Website: www.voip-pal.com IR inquiries: [email protected]

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
China has extended its Lunar New Year holiday by three days in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has now claimed 81 lives.

Millions of people travel home to be with family during the celebrations and Beijing hopes to keep people inside and avoid more infections by extending the festivities to Sunday.

In a statement, Chinas cabinet said it had pushed back the end of the New Year holiday, which each year prompts the countrys busiest travel period, to reduce mass gatherings [and] block the spread of the epidemic.

Schools have also been told to postpone their re-opening and several major firms have shut offices and advised employees to work from home.

The attempts to control the spread of the new virus, which first emerged from a market in the city of Wuhan, have progressively ramped up over the past week.

Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Show all 154 1 /154 Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Paramedics wearing personal protective equipment carry patient on a stretcher on to an ambulance in North Point district in Hong Kong, China Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker wearing protective gear takes a rest as he waits for ambulances carrying patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at an entrance of a hospital in Daegu, South Korea YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker sprays disinfectant on an ambulance after carrying a patient infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Daegu YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People wearing protective face masks shop at a supermarket in Casalpusterlengo, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown due to the new coronavirus outbreak EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A trolley bus is disinfected amid fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus in Pyongyang, North Korea REUTERS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant as a precaution against the COVID-19 coronavirus in a local market in Daegu, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a protective facemask walks outside a nearly empty shopping mall at lunch time in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing protective facemask and gloves puts a drawing made by a girl living in the area asking residents to wear protective gear, next to a quarantine notice for people who have travelled and a notice asking people to register outside a residential compound in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman is taken into an ambulance amid a coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy REUTERS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulances and health workers are seen outside the Padua's hospital, northern Italy EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers in coaches leave MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire after being repatriated to the UK from a cruise ship hit by the coronavirus in Yokohama, Japan and head to Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People rest in a temporary hospital situated in the Tazihu Gymnasium in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Buddhist monks wearing protective face masks pray during a blessing ceremony for the people affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia REUTERS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers wearing protective gears carry a patient infecting with a new coronavirus to a hospital in Chuncheon, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Soldiers in hazmat suits sanitize cargo from a China Airlines plane at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan City, Taiwan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Barricades are seen to block the entrance a the gate of a local mall in a nearly empty area in Beijing, China Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor wearing a protective facemask waits for customers at a shop in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The body temperature of an Iraqi child returning from Iran is measured upon her arrival at the Najaf International Airport AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers hand out free facemasks at a shopping district in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers wearing protective gears carry a patient suspected of contracting the new coronavirus toward an ambulance at Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker disinfects a shop at a market in Shanghai AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A restaurant worker wearing protective clothing as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus passing a bag of food to a customer on the street outside their restaurant in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A recovered patient is discharged from Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built makeshift hospital for novel coronavirus patients, in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers in protective suits disinfect a factory with sanitising equipment in Huzhou, China China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits attend to a patient inside an isolated ward of Wuhan Red Cross Hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A drone operated by the Suwon municipal government flies around Changyong Middle School spraying disinfectant, in Suwon, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers transfer medical waste at Leishenshan Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a protective mask rides a bicycle with his children in Guangzhou, China EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers in protective suits disinfect a railway station as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Changsha, Hunan province, China cnsphoto via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman repatriated from Wuhan carries a child as she walks upon her arrival at the Van Don airport in Vietnam's Quang Ninh province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff checking the body temperature of a patient who has displayed mild symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker in protective suit transports oxygen tanks at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Boys wearing protection masks, gloves and modified water bottles sit on a cart at the airport arrival terminal in Guangzhou EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Employees work on a production line manufacturing protective suits at a clothing factory in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province cnsphoto via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits move a patient at an isolated ward of a hospital in Caidian district following an outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in protective clothing, including face mask and gloves, carries a bucket as he works inside of The County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton, southern England, after it closed for "urgent operational health and safety reasons", following reports a member of staff was infected with the strain of the novel coronavirus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers of the ecology and environment bureau collect samples from the sewage system of a hospital in Xinle, Hebei province China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man in protective clothing cleaning the County Oak Medical Centre GP practice The British government warned the outbreak of novel coronavirus was a "serious and imminent threat" and reported four new cases that brought the total recorded in the country to eight. Two hospitals The Royal Free and Guys and St Thomas', have both been designated as "isolation" facilities, with both currently housing Britons who have returned from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to the newly completed Huoshenshan temporary field Hospital in Wuhan. The global coronavirus death toll rose again with Hong Kong announcing its first death from the outbreak on 4 February EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff wait as coaches carrying Coronavirus evacuees arrive at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, in Milton Keynes, after being repatriated to the UK from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A crew member of the cruise ship Diamond Princess talks to a worker wearing protective gear standing near the vessel, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Doctors scan a patient's lungs at Huoshenshan temporary hospital built for patients diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan Xinhua News Agency/AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People wearing protective suits walk from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with around 3,600 people quarantined onboard due to fears of the new coronavirus, at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Indonesians who arrived from Wuhan are sprayed with antiseptic at Hang Nadim Airport in Batam. People evacuated from the Chinese city at the centre of a deadly virus outbreak, were transported to a quarantine zone on a remote island at the edge of the South China Sea, shortly after landing Indonesian Foreign Ministry via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman wears a protective mask as she shops in a market in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members hugging each other in an isolation ward at a hospital in Zouping in China's easter Shandong province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A portrait of Dr Li Wenliang is left at Li's hospital in Wuhan. He is regarded a whistleblower on the outbreak and died of the coronavirus which triggered wide-spread mourning on Chinese media Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Officers in protective gear enter the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where people tested positive for coronavirus, after the ship arrived at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Firefighters and personnel from the health ministry participate in a drill to prepare for the potential arrival of passengers infected with the coronavirus at the Viru Viru International Airport, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Scientists are at work in the VirPath university laboratory as they try to find an effective treatment against the new Sars-like coronavirus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits attend to patients at the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital to receive patients with mild symptoms caused by the virus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A girl wears a mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus outbreak, in Bangkok, Thailand Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man is transferred from the World Dream cruise ship to an ambulance at the Kai Tak cruise terminal in Hong Kong as health officials conduct inspections AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers from a disinfection service company enter Lotte Department Store in central Seoul, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man who arrived from Hubei province talks with police at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor holds a handheld digital thermometer near health officials preparing a health check for arriving passengers from China at Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A resident walks across an empty track in Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A scientific staff member works in a secure laboratory, researching the coronavirus, at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members preparing equipment to meet passengers of a military plane, which evacuated citizens of Russia and ex-Soviet countries from China's Wuhan province Vsluh.ru via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff wearing protective suits as they prepare to disinfect a Vietnam Airlines plane at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi Vietnam Airlines/AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A South Korean person, who was evacuated from Wuhan, arrives at the National Medical Center after showing suspected symptoms of novel coronavirus, in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Officers in protective gear escort a person (under the blue sheet) who was on board cruise ship Diamond Princess and was tested positive for coronavirus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor being disinfected by his colleague at a quarantine zone in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Buses carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan, arrive at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Indonesian health officials conduct an exercise drill in transporting a patient requiring isolation at the Belawan port in Medan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Pasteur Institute in Dakar, designated by the African Union as one of the two reference centres in Africa for the detection of the new coronavirus that appeared in China, is hosting experts from 15 countries on the continent this weekend to prepare them to deal with the disease AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A government worker disinfects a co-worker after visiting a quarantined woman's home in Qingdao EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An aerial view of the deserted roads and bridges in Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers hold a strike outside the Hospital Authority as they demand for Hong Kong to close its border with China to reduce the coronavirus spreading Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person has their tempriture checked in Qingdao, China EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Malaysian nationals being directed from a bus by health officials in protective suits as they arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, after being evacuated from Wuhan Malaysia's Ministry of Health/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People hoping to buy face masks crowd outside a medical supply shop that was raided by police for allegedly hoarding and overpricing the masks, as public fear over China's Wuhan Coronavirus grow in Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government has been heavily criticized after failing to immediately implement travel restrictions from China, the source of a deadly coronavirus that has now killed hundreds and infected thousands more Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Residents wearing masks and raincoats volunteer to take temperature of passengers following the outbreak of a new coronavirus at a bus stop at Tin Shui Wai, a border town in Hong Kong Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Italian citizens repatriated from Wuhan going though a health control zone after landing at the Mario De Bernardi military airport in Pratica di Mare, south of Rome, prior to be placed in quarantine Italian Defence Ministry/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers arrange beds in a 2,000-bed mobile hospital, set up in an exhibition center, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor checks conditions of occupants in a hotel accommodating isolated people in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city of Wuhan, arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital. The Chinese army deployed medical specialists to the epicentre of the spiralling viral outbreak that has killed and spread around the world AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A baby wearing a protective face mask is pushed by a woman as they arrive from Shenzhen to Hong Kong at Lo Wu MTR station AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A health worker checks the temperature of a woman entering a subway station in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A young child wears a protective mask and is covered in plastic while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance crews arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, as it prepares for a return flight from Wuhan, China. Eighty-three Britons and 27 foreign nationals who were trapped in Wuhan are being flown back to the UK Tom Maddick / SWNS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman carries a baby wearing a protective mask as they exit the arrival hall at Hong Kong High Speed Rail Station Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Camp beds at a Medical Assessment Center set up at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on the eve of the arrival of German citizens evacuated from Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Funeral parlour staff members in protective suits help a colleague with disinfection after they transferred a body at a hospital in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Muslims wearing masks pray for the victims of coronavirus at a mosque in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical officials waiting for people who wants to check the novel coronavirus at Myeongdong shopping district Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children wear plastic bottles as makeshift homemade protection and protective masks while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A patient assisted by medical staff gets off an ambulance in Wuhan AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People line up to buy face masks from a medical supply company in Nanning, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Countries began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by a new virus that has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by SARS Chinatopix via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Millions spent their normally festive Lunar New Year holiday under lockdown Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children with face masks wash their hands before prayer at Erawan shrine in Bangkok. Thailand has detected eight Coronavirus cases so far AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An Indonesian health officer points at the screen of a thermal scanner for passengers China confirmed that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus virus can be transmitted between humans AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Hospital workers wearing protective eyewear and masks examine an Indonesian student who returned from China in quarantine at a hospital in Banda Aceh AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance staff dispose of an outfit at the hospital in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person checks the temperature of a passenger to help stop the spread of a deadly virus as he arrives at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International airport in Palembang AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Nepali students, wearing face masks, attend a class at Matribhumi School in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Two Buddhist monks wear face masks while walking along a street in Yangon AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting a residential area in Ruichang, part of Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020. - China is rushing to build a new hospital in a staggering 10 days to treat patients at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak that has stricken thousands of people, state media reported on January 24. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) HECTOR RETAMAL AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Vapor blurs the goggles of an ambulance driver while they work, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff getting on an ambulance in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor of traditional masks wears a facial mask at his shop in Thamel EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An ambulance driver talking with medical staff in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers produce protective suits at a factory in Nantong AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers scanned by thermal imaging for body temperature as they go through health measures and procedures after they landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Thai royal guard wears a mask while on duty at the Grand Palace in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A shopper wearing goggles with a face mask and gloves uses a self checkout machine at a supermarket in Wuhan AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Italian Red Cross putting on protective gear, getting ready to give health checks to passengers that landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of the Hong Kong government's Civil Aid Service gestures at the entrance to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village which is being used as one of two quarantine centres for people who have been in close proximity with suspected cases of a SARS-type virus. Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan STR/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Malaysia Health official checks passengers going through a thermal scanner upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting Yingtan North Railway Station, China China banned trains and planes from leaving the major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on January 23, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed lives and spread to other countries AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A passenger walks past a quarantine control station at Narita airport, Japan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Patients queue up to seek treatment in Wuhan Tongji Hospital Fever Clinic, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Quarantine workers spray disinfectant at Incheon International Airport, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of staff checks the temperature of a guest entering the casino of the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau, after it reported its first case of the new SARS-like virus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Three Gorges Medical Laboratory offering free masks to the public in Yichang, China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Gabriel Leung, right, chair professor of public health medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, speaks about the extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conducting searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine officer at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, uses an electronic thermometer to check the temperature of passengers arriving by plane from Wuhan The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A screen shows cancelled flights at Tianhe airport in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials hand out information about the current coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A store owner argues with security guards as he attempts to enter the closed Huanan wholesale seafood market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Handan, China's northern Hebei province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff and security personnel stop patients' family members from being too close to the Jinyintan hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus maya-goodfellowAn airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A rescue worker walks past a notice about new coronavirus that has broken out in China Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials wear face masks at an inspection site at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A staff member checks body temperature of a child after a train from Wuhan arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine station measures passenger body temperatures at Narita Airport JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a notice displayed near a quarantine control station at Narita airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a poster alerting on coronavirus screening ahead upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An employee sprays disinfectant on a train, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Kazakh sanitary-epidemiological service worker uses a thermal scanner to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms possibly connected with the previously unknown coronavirus, at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading "face masks are sold out" at her pharmacy in Shanghai AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A notice for passengers from Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wears a mask while riding on mobike past the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market Getty

First Wuhan and now dozens of other cities in the same Hubei province have been effectively locked down, with all bus, train and plane services cancelled leaving tens of millions of residents quarantined inside.

At checkpoints on roads across the province officials are checking drivers temperatures before allowing them through.

Although there have so far been no deaths caused by the virus outside of China, other nations have confirmed cases, with most of these in people who have recently travelled from China.

Seventy-six of those who have died were in Hubei province, the Chinese health authorities have reported. A further 2,744 people have been infected with the coronavirus across the nation.

However, Professor Neil Ferguson, a public health expert at Imperial College in London, said he expected there was in reality 100,000 people infected but as yet undetected.

Sooner or later, one of those people would end up in Britain, he told The Guardian.

The virus causes flu-like symptoms that can progress into pneumonia, although most people recover. Many of those killed have been young, elderly or suffering from underlying health conditions.

However, the spread of the virus is starting to overwhelm hospitals in Wuhan, where authorities are rapidly building two new treatment facilities in just a few days to take the pressure off existing hospitals.

Chinas second most senior politician, Li Keqiang, has been pictured on television visiting hospitals in Wuhan, wearing a hospital gown and face masks.

Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross hospital wearing protective clothing (AFP via Getty Images)

Hundreds of thousands of additional medical staff, including some from the military, have been dispatched to Hubei to bolster the hard-pressed healthcare system.

Chinas finance ministry and national health commission have put aside the equivalent of 6.65bn to contain the coronavirus.

There are fears the extended New Year holiday and quarantining of so many cities could hit Chinas economy.

Any such slowdown would also badly affect other, smaller East Asian nations who rely on China as a source of tourists and customers.

 UK confirms 31 tested for coronavirus - all negative

But some forecasters, including the consultancy Oxford Economics, suggested any such downturn would be short-lived.

Although the World Health Organisation has not yet declared the outbreak a global health emergency, airports across the globe have stepped up screening of passengers.

Hong Kong has barred anyone from Hubei province from entering their territory, while several nations including Australia, Japan, Italy, the United States and France have also said they are working to privately evacuate any of their citizens who have become trapped inside the quarantined cities.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday refuted reports of having received payments from the Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"The Enforcement Directorate has released a statement analysing the bank accounts of the Popular Front of India in which my name has been mentioned as a recipient of Rs 77,00,000. Several news channels are running stories suggesting that PFI is funding the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 agitations. The payments made to me are being connected with the protests against the CAA," he said in a statement.

"The CAA became law only in December 2019. In all matters in which I have appeared in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the CAA, I have not raised, till date, any invoice in any matter," he added.

The Congress leader in his statement said he was paid Rs 77 lakh with respect to "litigation in SLP (Crl) No. 19702 of 2017 titled 'Shafin Jahan (Petitioner) Versus Asokan K.M. & Ors. (Respondents)."

"This is related to Hadiya's marriage to Shafin Jahan, which was challenged right up to the Supreme Court with the NIA and the father of Hadiya being parties. In that litigation, I represented Hadiya, the wife. Ultimately, the marriage was upheld and Hadiya was given the liberty to live with her husband Shafin Jahan."

The Congress leader stated that for his appearances in the Supreme Court for Hadiya, he raised invoices and received payments thereon. He mentioned the details of these payments in his statement.

"I have raised the invoices on my Advocate on Record Harris Beeran for each of the appearances. The cheques, when received in my office, were deposited and encashed by my staff. The first invoice raised was on August 4, 2017, and the last of the seven invoices on March 8, 2018. The CAA was cleared by Parliament only in December 2019," he said.

"I was paid for professional services rendered and for nothing else. Any insinuations made to besmirch my good name and defame me will be taken seriously," he said in the statement.

It was earlier reported that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent a note to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) mentioning that there is a direct link between the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in Uttar Pradesh and the Popular Front of India (PFI).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nick Kyrgios' Australian Open campaign has come to a heartbreaking end after bowing out of the fourth round against world number one Rafael Nadal.

The Australian gave it his all in a spirited performance but went down 6-3 3-6 7-6 7-6 in four sets against the Spaniard in an emotion-charged showdown.

Things began to unravel for the Australian world number three late in the third set when he lost his cool during a heated exchange with the match umpire about the linesman.

Kyrgios forced the third and fourth sets into a tie-break but lost both.

Kyrgios lost his cool at the match umpire to complain about the linesman during an intense third set. Nadal was up 6-5.

Kyrgios smashes his racquet during the tie-break of the third set in his showdown against Rafael Nadal on Monday night

Kyrgios then smashed his racquet during the set tie-break, promoting the the match umpire to award a violation against him.

Ash Barty is now Australia's last remaining hope in the singles draw.

More to come.
The Anheuser-Busch InBev brand is using its sixty-second commercial time to plug a program called "6 for 6-pack," which expands its earlier "Contract for Change" program that offers barley contracts for farmers transitioning their farmland to organic. The company promises that every purchase of a six-pack of Pure Gold will go toward helping farmers transition six square feet of farmland into organic. The agency worked with Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned agency FCB on the campaign.

The Super Bowl spot for Michelob Ultra Pure Gold, the brand's organic beer, tells consumers if they buy a six-pack of the lager a portion of sales will go to farmers transitioning their farmland to organic.

Michelob rolled out Pure Gold in 2018 as an 85-calorie light lager made from organic ingredients. Azania Andrews, vice president of marketing for Michelob Ultra, said Pure Gold has generated $100 million in incremental net revenue since its release, with what she said was 10% of volume coming from people who are new to the beer category.

"This gives consumers the opportunity to join us in helping farmers interested in transitioning to organic," Andrews told CNBC. "For a typical farmer, there's a lot of risk associated. If you're not guaranteeing there's a buyer on the other end, sometimes it's too much of a challenge."

Andrews said the company is contracting with barley farmers guaranteeing it will purchase their organic grains at a premium once they've fully converted in the future. In the interim period, she said it's providing support and training for those farmers. The "6-For-6 Pack" program will run throughout the year.

Anheuser-Busch said it's working with the nonprofit CCOF Foundation to provide assistance to farmers working to steps to grow certified organic crops.

Andrews added that consumers these days are seeking ways to make a difference. "We hope that message feels big and inclusive and strikes a chord," she said.

Pure Gold made its Super Bowl debut last year with an ASMR-themed spot.

Watch the other Super Bowl spots that have been released so far here.



Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech and advertising industry news.
New Orleans-inspired all-day brunch concept, Ruby Sunshine, invites the community to celebrate its opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony and festivities on Tuesday, Feb. 4, from 10 a.m. to noon. The event is open to the public and will feature New Orleans-inspired music, speeches from local community leaders and free samples from Ruby Sunshine partners Natalies Orchid Island Juice Company and French Truck Coffee.

The restaurant will also be giving away free T-shirts while supplies last to guests that dine-in during the grand opening. The restaurant will remain open for business during the ceremony and encourages all diners to enjoy the festivities.

Leading up to the grand opening, Ruby Sunshine hosted a community preview event, which raised close to $3,000 for Siskin Childrens Institute, a nonprofit that works to improve the quality of life for children with special needs and their families. In addition to the preview event donation, a portion of Ruby Sunshines dine-in sales from the grand opening will also go to Siskin Childrens Institute.

Located in Downtown Chattanooga at 405 Market St., Ruby Sunshine is a new concept from Ruby Slipper Restaurant Group, the collective behind the acclaimed New Orleans-based eatery Ruby Slipper Cafe, offering New Orleans-style brunch classics, such as Bananas Foster Pain Perdu, Eggs Cochon Benedict and White Chocolate Bread Pudding Pancakes, as well as cocktails.
Update and Correction: Some minor changes to Eddie Crandell's quotes were made following publication of this story. The changes were made after reviewing the audio recording of his interview. Additionally, two corrections were made: first, to Crandell's full name, and, second, to the year in which the Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians engaged in a mass disenrollment.

The 9-year-old girl couldnt understand.

How could anyone tell her she was no longer Modoc? And if she was no longer Modoc, what was she?

Her mother Syd Colombe struggled to answer her questions.

She tried to convince her daughter to not allow their familys disenrollment from the Modoc Nation to affect her sense of identity.

Youre always Modoc, Colombe told her. Nobody will ever tell you that youre not. Nobody can ever take that from you.

In May, Colombe learned her tribes leadership had removed her and most of her family from the tribes citizenship rolls, adding them to the thousands of Native people to be stripped of their tribal citizenry.

Following a brief hiatus from 2016 to 2018  when many tribal politicians feared the public shame elicited by the removal of tribal citizens  tribal disenrollment is again on the rise, said Gabe Galanda, an attorney and citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes who has written extensively about tribal disenrollment and has represented victims of disenrollment.

It is estimated that 11,000 tribal members have been disenrolled from 80, or 15 percent, of the 573 federally recognized tribal governments since 1934, when tribes began organizing governments based on the Indian Reorganization Act

Prior to spring 2016, tribes conducted numerous mass disenrollments, Galanda said. However, tribes mostly halted the practice until March 2018, when the Omaha Tribe decided to remove 15 citizens from its rolls, Galanda said.

He attributed that brief lull in disenrollment to the Obama administrations efforts to intercede in disenrollment disputes that were undercutting the federal governments stated desire to bolster tribal governments.

It had a stigmatizing effect on (disenrollment), Galanda said.

By comparison, the Trump administration has taken a hands-off approach to disenrollment, which Galanda said has once again catalyzed the disenrollment movement. Within the last two years, five tribes have disenrolled citizens, Galanda said.

'I was born an Omaha and I'm going to die an Omaha': Critics are questioning the Omaha Tribe's decision to remove dually-enrolled citizens from the rolls #StopDisenrollment https://t.co/TItSzZgR4h pic.twitter.com/RWDNqDTt3H  indianz.com (@indianz) November 6, 2018

Among them: the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, which adjusted its historic membership rolls; the Modoc Nation of Oklahoma, which terminated a four-generation family of fifteen; and Californias Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians , which disenrolled at least nine citizens based on a non-Native anthropologists audit of tribal membership rolls.

Galanda also cited the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians , which he said recently jettisoned another 60 tribal citizens.

But efforts to stop disenrollment are underway.

In an effort to shame tribal politicians who disenroll their citizens, prominent Native leaders will launch the Stop Disenrollment visual advocacy event on February 10 for the fifth year. The event involves people publishing photos of themselves on social media posing with outstretched hands emblazoned with words protesting disenrollment.

Galanda said tribes that conduct mass disenrollments often do so in order to increase the amount of financial support they can provide to individual members, whether it be through per capita payments or through social or health care programs.

Efforts to educate tribes about the negative impacts of disenrollment have reduced the number of mass disenrollments in recent years, he said. Public disclosure of mass disenrollments also has helped to shame tribal leaders from removing citizens from their tribal rolls, he said.

But much work remains.

Marisa Cummings, left, was disenrolled from the Omaha Tribe after enrollment officials reduced her late grandfather's blood quantum. She is shown here with her grandmother. Courtesy photo

National Native organizations like the National Congress of American Indians and the National Indian Gaming Association need to start talking about disenrollment in order to make it clear that it is not an acceptable practice in Indian Country, Galanda said.

Beyond public shame, however, tribal citizens have little recourse for fighting disenrollment because tribes are granted almost unfettered jurisdiction in deciding citizenship. The only hope most dis-enrollees have is through political action and removal of tribal leaders who conduct mass disenrollments, he said.

Raelyn Rodriguez, 25, said she still doesnt understand how people she grew up around could decide to remove her from her tribe. In early November, Rodriguez received a letter from the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians enrollment committee that stated she had been removed the tribes rolls.

The letter stated that the committee had conducted its own internal audit, finding that Rodriguezs family had been listed as citizens of another tribe in 1913, making them ineligible for membership in the Rincon tribe.

Rodriguez said she hired a genealogist who discovered the Rincon tribes base roll wasnt established until 1957, meaning the tribe had no citizens until then.

But despite her efforts to get her disenrollment reversed, the tribe has refused her appeals, declining even to elaborate on the reasons for its decision, Rodriguez said.

She said her disenrollment has caused her to question the relationships she has established within her community.

They've known me since I was like little, she said. They've known my grandparents. They've known my family, my great-grandparents."

For these people that I loved and trusted and voted for, for them to just follow through with such an evil process has been very hurtful.

Galanda said the Rincon enrollment committee based much of its research on earlier research done by a non-Native anthropologists audit of membership rolls. That anthropologist originally identified about 200 Rincon citizens who he said shouldnt be eligible for membership. The tribes enrollment committee later reduced that to nine citizens, including seven members of Rodriguezs family.

Within the Rincon tribe, membership is big money.

Tribal citizens receive nearly $7,500 a month, primarily from revenue garnered from the tribes Harrah's Resort Southern California, just north of San Diego.

The tribe also provides scholarship support to the tune of up to $50,000 per year for its citizens.

Rodriguez currently studies integrative psychology at National University in La Jolla, California, and receives a tribal scholarship to attend.

Despite losing these benefits, Rodriguez said the worst aspect of her disenrollment has been its impact on her sense of identity.

She said she hopes to become a youth therapist or trauma counselor, helping children from her tribe.

I know it's going to be harder, obviously, but it's not something that is going to stop me, she said. I feel like I love this field too much.

@nooksack306 Matriarch Sonia Lomeli, lovingly known as Granny Goose, at her home in Nooksack in March of 2013 #StopDisenrollment pic.twitter.com/SQ41SYJaKy  Galanda Broadman for Indigenous Rights (@NDNlawyer) January 24, 2020

One tribe that has endured several rounds of mass disenrollments is the Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians of northern California.

Eddie Crandell Sr., chairman of Robinson Rancheria, said the first mass disenrollment took place around 2008, when the tribes enrollment committee removed a group of citizens who had been added to the tribes rolls after the tribe organized in 1978.

He said a second round of mass disenrollment occurred after a tribal election in which Crandell beat the incumbent chairwoman, who later invalidated the election. Following an October 2008 tribal membership meeting held to discuss the election, the tribe began disenrolling citizens who had publicly supported Crandell at the meeting, he said.

The disenrolled citizens appealed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs , a federal agency, but were denied any support, he said.

Crandell said the worst part about that disenrollment action was that he was allowed to remain a citizen and continued to receive per capita payments. Those who had supported him and were exiled blamed Crandell, he said.

They were even more mad at me because had they just stayed and kept quiet, they could have still been members, he said.

Robinson Rancherie Chairman Eddie Crandell #StopDisenrollment Posted by Stop Disenrollment on Thursday, February 8, 2018

It would take another nine years before Crandell and other opponents of the mass disenrollment were elected to the tribal council and reversed the earlier disenrollment.

But always, the fear of disenrollment lingers among the tribes citizens.

It plays an effect still because it's always thrown out as a fear tactic in the community amongst the membership, Crandell said. This is a weak tool for a weak person because these weak people are the ones that use these tools.

He said disenrollees lose access to many benefits, including per capita payments, housing and medical support, and assistance provided by the California Tribal TANF Partnership , which Robinson Rancheria administers on behalf of 20 tribes.

Disenrollment can be traumatizing, and Crandell said he has seen grown men break down and cry after receiving written notice of disenrollment.

It makes it hard to like your people when they embrace colonial tactics like disenrollment, he said. Everybody is so dysfunctional and toxic.

He said he doesnt plan to seek re-election this year and fears whoever takes his position will again support disenrollment.

Once the wrong person gets elected, there we are again, he said.

Charlie Walker, third from right, was the first chairman of the Omaha Tribe. His great granddaughter, Marisa Cummings, was disenrolled from the tribe in late 2018. The photo shows a visit made by Omaha leaders to the office of President Harry Truman to plead for him to not terminate the federal government's relationship with their tribal nation. Family photo Marisa Cumming's grandmother and children are shown in this photo on a Memorial Day on the Omaha Reservation. Courtesy photo

In March 2018, the Omaha Tribe became the 80th tribe to disenroll several of its citizens who were dually enrolled in other tribes. Later that year, the tribe disenrolled at least two other citizens whose lineage had come into question, including Marisa Cummings.

The 43-year-old University of South Dakota director of Native student services said she first learned about an inexplicable change that had been made to her grandfathers blood quantum after seeking his enrollment information in order to request a headstone for him from the tribe. She discovered her grandfather, who had once been described as being 4/4th Omaha, was now considered 31/32nd Omaha.

At the same time, his siblings  who shared with the same mother and father  were still considered 4/4ths Omaha.

Cummings began researching how the change occurred, eventually discovering a former BIA officer who had conducted genealogy research for the Omahas had gathered information that her grandfather wasnt a full-blood Omaha.

Later in late 2018, the Omaha Tribal Council voted to disenroll Cummings and her sister, or more specifically voted to decline membership to them, despite the fact that they had been enrolled many years before and even had tribal identification numbers.

Cummings said she the timing of her disenrollment was interesting, considering she had served as the tribes chief administrator from March 2015 to September 2016, a position in which she was responsible for improving the tribes accounting procedures in order to allow the tribe to be audited.

Among the changes Cummings made was to require every requisition for tribal assistance come through her office. She discovered numerous improper requests were being made, and approved, including requests for money for such things as clothing and birthday parties.

She discovered some grandparents were receiving tribal assistance to serve as guardians for their grandchildren, despite the fact that their grandchildrens parents lived in the same home. She began denying those improper funding requests.

In doing so, I made a lot of enemies, and people were not happy because their funding had been cut, Cummings said.

She later made more enemies following a federal investigation into illegal payments that the Omaha Tribal Council made to itself from federal funds, an inquest that eventually led to the convictions of eight tribal council members and one tribal employee

The administrative building of the Omaha Tribe in Walthill, Nebraska. Photo: Ali Eminov

As chief tribal administrator, Cummings was required to work with federal investigators and did so, providing required documents to them.

She said she believes her disenrollment was retaliation for her cooperation with federal authorities a few years prior.

They refuse to provide us with any documentation to say that we were disenrolled, she said.

She said she would like to see her tribe take up constitutional reform.

Through the constitutional reform process, we can define ourselves as who we are as Omaha people, who is a citizen and who we want to be in 20 or 50 years or 100 years from now, she said.

She said constitutional reform would allow the tribe to improve checks and balances and transparency within its government and would pave the way for greater economic development. Cummings said a strengthened tribal economy would erode the financial fears many tribal citizens feel that she says often lead to disenrollment efforts.

Theres so much that can happen in that process in terms of building even a cultural renaissance among the Omaha people, so that we dont look at being Omaha as holding a piece of paper, she said. We look at being Omaha as knowing our language, knowing our clanship, knowing our teachings, connection to land, connection to the life force in general that makes us who we are as Omaha.

If we dont have that, were just white people walking around with a piece of paper.

Did you know that the Modoc Nations traditional territory spans over 5,000 square miles of diverse terrain along the border of California and Oregon? Posted by Modoc Nation on Friday, January 24, 2020

Syd Colombe said her familys removal from the Modoc Nation occurred after the tribes enrollment committee found evidence that her grandfather had moved to Oregon in the 1930s, despite a tribal ordinance that had threatened to remove any tribal members who returned to Oregon.

Her grandfather eventually returned to Oklahoma nearly 30 years later.

She said she believes the tribe decided to remove her family from its rolls after one of her aunts spoke publicly against some of the tribal councils business decisions. During one particularly raucous tribal meeting in May 2018, Colombe said she had to try to calm down some members who were berating her aunt.

They treated her horribly, she said.

The next year, Colombes family was disenrolled.

She said being exiled from her tribe hasnt led to the loss of any necessary benefits for her or her children but it has caused her to doubt herself when she tells people that she is Modoc.

When people say, Are you a member of a tribe? I say, Yes, Im Modoc, Colombe said. Because I am Modoc. You can never change who you are. But it causes me to question if Im truthful.

She said tribal officials have informed her that she can try to get enrolled in the Klamath Tribes of Oregon (a tribe that shares lineage with the Modoc) or the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (her fathers tribe).

But she said she grew up Modoc, and knows its customs and history, and people.

My tribal identity isnt like clothing, she said. If one doesnt fit, I dont go put another one on.

I have a deeper sense of who I am and who I always will be.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A missing Syracuse University student accidentally fell into Onondaga Creek a week ago, city police said.

Although police have not yet been able to find Allan Gonzalez, a senior at SU, since he went missing Jan. 19, police say they are still searching for him.

Syracuse police say environmental factors have hampered attempts to find Gonzalez, 22, who fell into Onondaga Creek at Walton Street at 3:08 a.m. Jan. 19.

When asked whether they thought Gonzalez may have died, Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Malinowski said: Were not ready to say that."

But he also added, "It is concerning we havent located him yet.

Syracuse police and firefighters spent nearly two hours in the early morning hours last Sunday searching the chilly waters of Onondaga Creek after someone called to report a male in the creek near 340 W. Washington St., officials said.

Crews continued searching that afternoon and in the days following, Malinowski said, however, they could not find anyone.

Gonzalezs roommate called police Jan. 21 to report him missing, Malinowski said. The roommate told police he thought Gonzalez was in the area of Armory Square the night of Jan. 18.

After news spread of Gonzalezs disappearance, a person called police to say she thought she had a brief interaction with Gonzalez at about midnight on Jan. 18 at Benjamins on Franklin in Armory Square, Malinowski said.

Police found surveillance footage from Benjamins on Franklin that night. After showing it to Gonzalezs family, they confirmed that was Gonzalez in the footage, Malinowski said.

Having now learned what Gonzalez was wearing and one of the bars he visited, police were able to determine that later in the morning, he was walking on Walton Street toward Onondaga Creek, Malinowski said in a news release.

Police said they have found a hat they believe Gonzalez was wearing when he went missing. It was on the bank of Onondaga Creek, Malinowski said.

Later, Syracuse police said they were able to find additional video evidence showing Gonzalez had accidentally fallen into Onondaga Creek shortly after 3 a.m. near where they found the hat, Malinowski said.

Both Syracuse police and Syracuse University police have said they are concerned about Gonzalezs safety. Gonzalez is a senior at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University.

Police have described Gonzalez as 5-feet, 11-inches tall and weighing 175 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He lives off campus.

Environmental factors have hampered attempts to locate Gonzalez," Malinowski said, however, efforts will continue to be made to locate him.

Syracuse police thanked the public for helping with the investigation. They ask anyone else with information about Gonzalez to call investigators at (315) 442-5222.

Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
President Donald Trump early Monday morning denied that he ever told former National Security Adviser John Bolton that military aid to Ukraine was linked to investigations into political rival Joe Biden, disputing the account Bolton reportedly reveals in a forthcoming book central to the impeachment trial that could wrap up this week.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens, tweeted Trump, whom the House of Representatives impeached in December on charges he abused the power of his office. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020

The denial comes as the presidents defense team is set to begin the second day of impeachment trial arguments on Monday afternoon amid increasing pressure from Democrats to hear testimony from top aides, particularly Bolton.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton, in his new book, says Trump directly told him he wanted to keep military aid for Ukraine frozen until the countrys leaders launched investigations into the former vice president and his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Trump and his defense team have argued he wanted to root out corruption in Ukraine, but Democrats say the administration and Trump aides, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, led an illicit pressure campaign to boost Trumps re-election efforts.

A massive White House cover-up is how Sen. Chuck Schumer, whos long pressed for more witnesses and documents to come to light, characterized events in a tweet Sunday. The @NYTimes report suggests multiple top Trump Admin officials knew the facts and deliberately misled Congress and the American people."

After arguments from Trumps defense team and senators questions this week, Democrats will need at least four Republican senators to vote to approve more witnesses.

C-SPAN will live stream the Senate trial Monday starting at 1 p.m.

Trump reiterated Monday that his administration released aid to Ukraine, including more military equipment than the Obama administration had delivered.

...(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020

But Democrats have often countered that Trump only released the aid after the White House was made aware that a whistleblower had filed a complaint detailing concerns from several administration officials that Trump had withheld aid and a White House meeting with the Ukrainian president while pressing for the Biden investigations.
Pastor collapses, tragically dies while preaching in South Africa

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A South African pastor tragically died after he collapsed while delivering a powerful sermon before hundreds of congregants gathered at his church on Sunday morning.

Reverend Bassie Jackals died while preaching at African Methodist Episcopal Church in Kuruman, Northern Cape, on Jan. 19, according to video footage circulated on social media.

The disturbing video shows the pastors sitting down in the middle of his sermon. Members of the church applaud him, thinking it's all part of the sermon. However, Jackals then falls to the ground.

According to local media, Jackals was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The pastors autopsy showed he died as a result of high blood pressure and that he was also diabetic.

"I pray that the family and congregants recover from this. #RIP Reverend Jackals. Indeed you have fought the good fight, a social media user captioned the video.

Just 42 at the time of his death, Jackals is survived by his wife, Puleng Christina Jackals, and four daughters. According to The Zambian Dispatch, the pastor had attended Dr. EP Lekhela Secondary School and graduated from the University of Cape Town and was a candidate for the Master of Divinity degree from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio.

On Facebook, Zambian pastor and author Walter Mwambazi reflected on Jackals life and impact.

He served as a vibrant and dedicated pastor of various congregations of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was later given an added responsibility to become a Presiding Elder in the church, he wrote. Passionate about lifting the souls of people through preaching and praise, he led various organizations till his untimely passing.

Mwambazi said Jackals death should be a wake-up call to other pastors to rest and delegate tasks to others.

The death of this man of God should serve us all as a wake up call - please rest! Take time off, have a break please please please! And find a way to share your responsibility and delegate. Raise lieutenants to help you with His work. It is His work after all, you and I are just vessels, he wrote.

Other instances of pastors dying in the middle of preaching have made headlines in recent years.

In 2015, a New Orleans pastor collapsed suddenly and died in the middle of preaching a sermon at Greater Saint Mary Baptist Church in the Algiers community after declaring to his congregation: "If the Lord called me now, I'm ready."

That same year, a pastor in Texas dropped dead before some 200 people, including his sister, while preaching at the funeral of a church member after warning attendees of the need to be "ready for death."
ALLEGAN, MI  A former Otsego priest was sentenced to jail and probation Monday, Jan. 27, in Allegan County Circuit Court on one count of attempted unlawful imprisonment of a 17-year-old boy.

Brian Stanley, 57, was arrested Aug. 22 and charged with one count of unlawful imprisonment, a 15-year felony. As part of a plea agreement made at his pretrial hearing in November, that charge was dismissed at sentencing.

Stanley admitted at his pretrial hearing to tying up the boy and taping his eyes and mouth shut in September 2013, while secretly confining him for approximately 30 minutes" in the janitors room of St. Margarets Church in Otsego. He will spend 60 days in jail, five years on probation and be required to register as a sex offender for a period of 15 years, according to the sentence issued Monday by Allegan County Circuit Judge Margaret Bakker.

Having to register as a sex offender will also force him to move to a new residence, as his home is located near a school, said Stanleys attorney Michael Hills during the sentencing.

Michigan State Assistant Attorney General Alison Furtaw, while arguing for Stanleys sentence to exceed sentencing guidelines, pointed out that according to the pre-sentence report, Stanley admitted to engaging in similar conduct on multiple occasions over the prior two decades.

Three other alleged victims have come forward, Furtaw said, one of whom was 13 at the time he was allegedly abused.

Although (Stanley) reports there was no sexual reason for doing this to the victims, they thought he was masturbating but it was hard for them to tell because their eyes were taped shut, Furtaw told the court. This was going on for a long time. These victims were not able to receive justice because this was outside of the statute of limitations.

Hill, referencing a letter received and follow-up conversations with the victims family, argued for a lighter sentence for his client, saying the family does not want Stanley incarcerated. After that communication, Hill said, he encouraged his client to withdraw his plea. Stanley did not withdraw his guilty plea.

We can only assume he pleaded because he didnt want (the victim) to have to testify, Hills said, adding that Stanley told him, "'No, what I did was wrong and I am ready to accept responsibility.'

Hes 57 years, old, has zero criminal history, and having to register as a sex offender has serious impacts. All he has done over the course of his adult life as work is be a priest, a professor, all of thats gone, Hills said.

Stanley, according to Furtaw, was living with the victim when the incidents occurred and the victims parents had encouraged the living situation as Stanley was the childs spiritual adviser and the child was in need of help dealing with addiction and other issues.

When offered the opportunity to make a statement or apology to the court prior to his sentencing, Stanley declined.

I believe good people do bad things, Bakker said while issuing Stanleys sentence. Does the fact that they have done good negate the bad? I dont think it does.

The judge, in response to Hills statement the victims family does not wish to see Stanley receive any jail time, said it is not unusual, particularly in cases involving children, to see a change of heart after a report is made.

"Its a very typical response, because typically the person who abuses a child is also a friend to the child, Bakker said. Whether a parent, stepparent, boyfriend of a parent, Cub Scout leader, Girl Scout leader, priest, youth leader, as a prosecutor I think Ive prosecuted all those types of people. They are good people but they do bad things.

The judge said it is also common that those victimized are among the most vulnerable members of society.

This case is very serious, very concerning and very disturbing and I cant believe there isnt going to be a long-term impact on everyone involved, Bakker said. I believe the defendant knew what he was doing was wrong.

The 2013 incident was reported to the Diocese of Kalamazoo shortly after it occurred, prompting Stanley to be placed on administrative leave immediately, according to an August statement from the diocese after Stanleys arrest.

The diocese stated that it reported the allegation to Child Protective Services, who in turn referred the matter to the Otsego Police Department.

We promptly placed Father Brian Stanley on administrative leave pending the outcome of the police investigation. According to the Otsego Police Department, the complaint was not criminal and there would be no charges, the statement from the diocese said.

Stanley was then reinstated, the attorney generals office said, and four years later the diocese learned of additional allegations involving Stanley and reported those incidents to the Coldwater Police Department; however, no charges were filed by law enforcement as the witness refused to testify at that time.

Stanley was again placed on administrative leave upon learning of the new allegations, the diocese said, but this time was not reinstated.

The Diocese of Kalamazoo continues to pray for all survivor-victims as well as all those impacted by this situation, including members of our Catholic faithful whose faith and trust may be shaken," diocese spokeswoman Victoria Cessna said in a statement issued following Mondays sentencing.

Cessna continued by saying that the diocese remains steadfast in its "commitment to promote greater protection and safeguards of all people, particularly for children and vulnerable adults.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement of its own after the charges were filed against Stanley back in August.

The organization called on church officials throughout the state to make announcements from the pulpit, and to use parish bulletins and church websites to share information about the case to encourage victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward and make a report to law enforcement.

We hope this story inspires others who may be suffering in silence to come forward, make a report to the AG, and start healing," said Zach Hiner, executive director for SNAP, in the statement.

The organization, as well as the attorney generals office and the Diocese of Kalamazoo, asks anyone who has suspicions about cases of clergy abuse to call 1-844-324-3374 or to use this confidential, online reporting form.

Stanleys case is one of many that has been, or is being, investigated by Michigan State Attorney General Dana Nessels office following a 2018 raid of the seven Catholic dioceses in the state of Michigan, which helped corroborate first-hand accounts of abuse, Nessel said.

Mr. Stanley took advantage of a vulnerable victim and today he is being held accountable, Nessel said in a statement issued Monday, Jan. 27. We continue to review information seized from all seven Michigan dioceses in 2018, and we will thoroughly evaluate accusations and complaints brought forth by victims. For too long, criminal behavior by members of the clergy has gone unnoticed, and that must stop.

Hundreds of sex-abuse claims were made against Catholic priests, former and current, in the first six months of the investigation, and Nessel said she expected that number to eclipse 1,000 claims in what was anticipated to be a two-year investigation that could last late into 2020.

Also on MLive:

Former priest pleads guilty; admits to tying up teen in confined space

Court records reveal years of alleged sex abuse by priests across Michigan

300 Catholic sex-abuse claims reported since state investigation began, Attorney General Nessel says

Priest abuse case shows why state investigation needed, advocacy group says

Shame and guilt haunt those who say Catholic clergy in Michigan sexually abused them

Michigan priest accused of tying up teenage boy, taping mouth and eyes

5 Michigan priests charged with 21 counts of criminal sexual abuse

Saginaw Catholic priest withdraws sex-crime plea, will head to trial

Saginaw Diocese issues statement after police search offices again
One protester killed in south Iraq as anti-govt tents torched



Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



One protester was killed early Monday in Iraq's flashpoint city of Nasiriyah, a medic told AFP, as gunmen stormed the square where anti-government demonstrators had been camped out for months.

The men arrived in Habbubi Square just after midnight, torching the tents where protesters had been sleeping and leaving nothing but charred shreds of fabric and metal frames, an AFP correspondent there said.

The unidentified gunmen fired on protesters, killing one and wounding four others, a medical source said.

Hours later, determined protesters had rallied again and shut down two main bridges in the city, some 350 kilometres (200 miles) south of the capital Baghdad.

The main protest camp in the holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen, AFP's correspondent there said on Monday.

Mass protests erupted on October 1 in Baghdad and across Iraq's Shiite-majority south in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and corruption.

They spiralled into calls for a total government overhaul and are now specifically demanding snap polls, an independent prime minister and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

Protesters tried to ramp up pressure on the government starting a week ago by sealing streets with burning tyres and metal barricades, but riot police responded with force.

They fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse clusters of young demonstrators, and 21 protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded in the last week.

That brought the toll from the last four months of rallies close to 480 dead, according to an AFP rally.

On Friday, security forces began moving in on the main protest camps across the country after influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said he would drop support for the youth-dominated reform campaign.

Sadr supporters swiftly began dismantling their own tents, prompting fears by the remaining activists that they had lost their political cover and would face a crackdown.

But thousands of students turned out Sunday across Iraqi cities to insist on their movement's resilience and political independence.

Demonstrators have feared that their movement may be eclipsed by tensions between neighbouring Iran and the US, which spiralled after the killing early this month of a senior Iranian commander in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

On Sunday evening, three Katyusha rockets slammed into the US embassy in the Iraqi capital, a security source said.

A senior Iraqi official and US diplomatic sources said one person was wounded, but no details were immediately available on whether it was a US national or an Iraqi member of staff at the mission.
Imperial Valley News Center

Border Patrol Apprehends Two Convicted Sex Offenders

Calexico, California - U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector arrested two previously deported sex offenders Saturday morning.

The first incident occurred at around 4:37 a.m., when agents assigned to the El Centro Station encountered a man suspected of illegally entering the United States approximately 20 miles west of the Calexico West Downtown Port of Entry. Agents arrested the man and transported him to the El Centro Station for immigration and criminal history screening.

Agents conducted records checks, which revealed that the man identified as Julio Cesar Ramirez-Montecitos, a 43-year-old Guatemala national, was convicted on November 28, 2017, for sexual abuse of a minor out of Anchorage, AK. Ramirez-Montecitos served two years confinement, was fined and placed on a five-year probation for his conviction.

An Immigration Judge previously removed Ramirez-Montecitos on July 31, 2019.

Ramirez-Montecitos is being held in federal custody pending further criminal prosecution.

The second incident occurred on at around 11:55 a.m., when agents assigned to the El Centro Station encountered a man suspected of illegally entering the United States approximately three miles west of the Calexico West Downtown Port of Entry. Agents arrested the man and transported him to the El Centro Station for immigration and criminal history screening.

Agents conducted records checks, which revealed that the man identified as Orlando Ramirez-Contreras, a 36-year-old Mexican national, was convicted on Jan. 1, 2006, for sex abuse against a minor out of San Bernardino, CA. Ramirez-Contreras served 365 days confinement and was placed on a 36 month probation for his conviction.

An Immigration Judge previously removed Ramirez-Contreras on June 19, 2006.

Ramirez-Contreras is being held in federal custody pending further criminal prosecution.

In fiscal year 2020, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested and removed 19 individuals either convicted or wanted on sexual assault charges after they entered the United States illegally.
Always watchful and dedicated to safeguarding the citizens of the dynamic city, Mumbai police is second to none.

And to honour the forces, ace photographer Pravin Talan launched the fifth edition of the Mumbai Police calendar. The highly coveted calendar has become a collectors item over the years with its breath-taking visuals and rich emotions. It is widely regarded as a fine blend of art, action and emotions.

The calendar was recently launched by Maharashtras Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray along with legendary star Dharmendra and Commissioner of Police, Mumbai Sanjay Barve at the grand event Umang.

With a smile on their face, the Mumbai police is always there to keep us safe and protected.

Be it land or water, rain or shine, the Mumbai police is there to safeguard the city.

Amid this colossal task, they still manage to keep a smile on their face.

The highly admired sniffer dogs and the K9 unit are here too to protect us!

You can be tender and yet tough and the Mumbai Police shows you how.

The Mumbai cops leave nothing to chance. They use drones for aerial surveillance to ensure our city is safe from one and all.

Maintaining law and order during a protest is a tough task, but the Mumbai Police manage the perfect balancing act.

The Mumbai Police always has so much to offer.

A woman police officer speaks to girls on the streets of Mumbai.

The Mounted Police Unit makes a comeback to the Mumbai force. The ceremonial uniform for the Mounted Police Unit has been designed by celebrated designer Manish Malhotra.

Amid the setting sun, they patrol the sea around Bandra Worli Seak Link.

They are always there to keep guard! While we celebrate festivals with our families, Mumbai police sacrifice their time to keep us safe and sound.

They may have tough days, but the Mumbai Police will always be there for us -- even if its for a chat or a laugh.

That isn't Spiderman, but our Mumbai police.

That's not a poster for an upcoming movie, but the cover of the Mumbai police calendar. Impressive, isn't it?
Qatar's QTerminals wins Ukraine's Olvia port concession tender

13:49, 27.01.20 2077

Some UAH 3.4 billion, or US$139.7 million, will be invested in the port's development within five years.
Slamming the ongoing protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Monday said those who raised slogans of disintegrating India were running this movement.

Talking to reporters at the Swami Vivekanand Airport here, the BJP leader called for strict action against those indulging in violence during anti-CAA protests.

Hundreds of anti-CAA protesters have camped in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area for several weeks now, leading to blockage of the Kalindi Kunj-Shaheen Bagh road, a key link between Noida and Delhi.

Queried on allegations that the Shaheen Bagh protest was being funded by the Popular Front of India (PFI), Rawat said, "These were the reasons an Act like CAA needed to be enacted. There are several agencies in India which want to destabilise the country and have vested interest in it."



"Therefore, if there is funding from outside, it is not a new thing....it is unfortunate. However, the Narendra Modi government has been successful in preventing such funding up to a great extent and now they are in panic," he added.

He said frustration (due to strong government moves) had caused these people to stage protests without any issue.

He said genuine issues can be discussed but added that "it is like you can wake someone from sleep, but not someone who is pretending to be asleep".

Rawat said those who raised slogans of "Bharat tere tukde honge" are orchestrating this (Shaheen Bagh) movement, but they would not be allowed to succeed.

The BJP chief minister said strict action must be taken against those indulging in violence during anti-CAA protests, and claimed stern warning that a law and order issue will not be tolerated in Uttarakhand led to an anti-CAA dharna ending at 10pm in the hill state.

Hitting out at opposition parties, Rawat said they were opposing the CAA but were unable to come up with any objection when asked.

"Those taking part in anti-CAA protests know nothing about what they are doing. There are protesting for the sake of it and it will not stand for long," Rawat said.

Rawat is here to take part in Tuesday's Zonal Council Meeting to be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Keir Starmer thanked well-wishers today as he returned to the Labour leadership campaign trail after his mother-in-law suffered a 'very bad' accident.

The shadow Brexit secretary said his wife's mother was still in an 'awful' condition in hospital following the incident last week.

Sir Keir, who cancelled a series of Labour events last week as he rushed to be with his family, said the NHS had been 'absolutely brilliant' and praised the 'incredible kindness' shown by colleagues.

The comments came ahead of a speech later in which the leadership front runner will urge more power to be devolved from Westminster to help keep the UK together.

The nature of the accident suffered by Sir Keir's mother-in-law has not been disclosed. Asked on Sky News how she was doing, he said: 'She's awful, I'm afraid.

Sir Keir Starmer (pictured on Sky News today) said his mother-in-law was still in an 'awful' condition in hospital following the incident last week

The mother of Sir Keir's wife Victoria (pictured right with her husband in 2017) is in critical condition after an accident

'She's still in intensive care and it's been very very hard for my wife and her family.

'So a very very difficult few days for us. I would just like to say thank you to the very many colleagues who have shown incredible kindness and support and to the NHS who have just been incredible.'

Sir Keir said it had been a 'very bad accident'. Asked what the prognosis is, he replied: 'It's very difficult, very very difficult.

Jeremy Corbyn hints at backing for Rebecca Long-Bailey Jeremy Corbyn has seemingly backed Rebecca Long-Bailey as his successor by hailing her as 'our candidate' at a hard-Left event. The outgoing Labour leader delivered the apparent endorsement at a retirement party for former MP Ronnie Campbell over the weekend. It is more evidence that Ms Long-Bailey is the Left's favoured option to replace Mr Corbyn in the contest, due to finish in April. Unite chief Len McCluskey, a close Corbyn ally, heaped praise on Ms Long-Bailey over the weekend after his union supported her. According to The Times, Mr Corbyn gave a glimpse of his own views at the event on Saturday night. He reportedly said: 'It's an absolute pleasure to be here alongside Becky Long-Bailey, our candidate for leader. 'I've known Becky since she came in to parliament and we've worked very well together. She has done the most to develop our trade union policies.' Mr Corbyn's aides said he had not intended to endorse Ms Long-Bailey and had been speaking in an 'inclusive way'. Advertisement

'The NHS are absolutely brilliant in what they are doing. We want to just thank them for everything they are doing.'

Sir Keir was forced to cancel events when his mother-in-law was admitted to hospital following an accident last week.

He will kick-off a week of campaigning across the UK with a speech in east London tonight arguing for a federal system in which power and resources are devolved.

Sir Keir will call for the end of the status quo - and say power, wealth and opportunity should be put back into the hands of the people.

The Holborn and St Pancras MP will travel to Scotland, England and Wales in the coming days to hear views about how the party can 'put power, wealth and opportunity back into the hands of the people'.

Later in the week, he will set out his plans to reform Labour to reflect the skills, experience and expertise of the movement.

Sir Keir said: 'The status quo is not working. People are crying out for more control, power and say over their own lives and local communities. This can't be delivered by tinkering around the edges or with short-term fixes.

'We need to end the monopoly of power in Westminster and spread it across every town, city, region and nation of the United Kingdom. We have to end the status quo and put power, wealth and opportunity back into the hands of the people.

'We need a new constitutional settlement: a large-scale devolution of power and resources. This will involve building a new long-term political and constitutional consensus. I believe that could best be built on the principle of federalism.

'But this can't just be about handing power from one group of politicians to another. I want to empower people to have a real say in their workplace, in the communities they're part of and over the public services they use.

'We will only repair the shattered trust in politics by letting people take back control of the decisions that affect their lives.'

Over the weekend, Sir Keir thanked people for their 'support and kindness' in what he said had been - and would continue to be - a 'very difficult time'.
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The team at IRONSCALES has worked incredibly hard to deliver on our promise of a new and decentralized approach to email security, one that doesnt rely on outdated SEGs and protocols but rather on the power of information sharing, artificial intelligence, complete automation and real-time response.

IRONSCALES, the pioneer of AI-driven self-learning email security, today announced that it increased its annual recurring revenue by 115% in 2019, driven by a 130% increase in channel partnerships with MSSPs, MDRs, resellers and distributors. From January-December 2019, the majority of IRONSCALES revenue growth came primarily from net new mid-market and enterprise customers within the technology, healthcare and financial services industries located in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico and India, among many other countries across the globe. To support this growth, IRONSCALES hired a total of 21 new employees across four continents in roles spanning, sales, customer success, marketing, and research and development.

High-quality phishing attacks were once again the primary catalyst for the vast majority of cyberattacks in 2019, said Eyal Benishti, IRONSCALES founder and CEO. To reduce the risk from such attacks, the team at IRONSCALES has worked incredibly hard to deliver on our promise of a new and decentralized approach to email security, one that doesnt rely on outdated SEGs and protocols but rather on the power of information sharing, artificial intelligence, complete automation and real-time response. I am very proud of what the team has accomplished this year and look forward to many more amazing milestones in the decade to come.

Additional 2019 IRONSCALES Milestones Include:



Garnered a total of six awards, including in the categories of best anti-phishing security solution, innovation in next generation security and automation in email security.

Launched email securitys first mobile app, allowing SOC and security analysts to access the incident response center while on-the-go, providing unprecedented access to make time-sensitive decisions on phishing mitigation and resolve incidents immediately with one click.

Raised a $15 million Series B led by returning investor K1.

Published research on polymorphic phishing attacks, credential stealing phishing websites and the ineffectiveness of secure email gateways against email spoofing attacks.

Surpassed 1,000 customers worldwide, subsequently enhancing the accuracy of its email phishing threat intelligence sharing capabilities.

Relocated two senior level team members from Tel Aviv to Atlanta to better support company scale.

To help solve the email phishing epidemic, IRONSCALES helps where email security hurts the most, in the inbox with pre and post-message delivery, detection, and remediation. Through a self-learning platform that provides for fast, easy, and seamless collaboration, IRONSCALES puts its customers on offense, empowering them to defend against sophisticated email attack techniques automatically in a proactive and predictive manner. Using a decentralized approach to threat intelligence sharing, IRONSCALES makes anti-phishing effortless and seamless for both security professionals and end-users. Additionally, IRONSCALES is the only email security provider to offer mobile applications for iOS and Android, enabling security analysts to access the platforms incident response center while on the go, providing unprecedented access to make time-sensitive decisions on phishing mitigation and resolve incidents immediately with one click.

The speed at which it [IRONSCALES] identifies and remediates is the core of the product, said Micah Norton, Directory Manager, Dalton State College.

For more information about IRONSCALES AI-driven self-learning email security platform, visit http://www.ironscales.com and follow @ironscales on social media.

About IRONSCALES

IRONSCALES is the future of phishing protection, incubated inside the worlds top venture program for cybersecurity and founded by alumni of the Israel Defense Forces elite Intelligence Technology unit. We offer security professionals and end users an AI-driven, self-learning email security platform that provides a comprehensive solution to stop tomorrows phishing attacks today. Using the worlds most decentralized threat protection network, our platform accelerates the prevention, detection and remediation of phishing attacks already inside your email with threat removal times in seconds, not minutes or hours. We give organizations of all sizes complete anti-phishing protection against any type of phishing attack, right now. Visit http://www.ironscales.com to learn more about The Power of Now.
Jalandhar Gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and his close aide Binny Gujjar, who are lodged in Patiala Central Jail, have been booked for hatching a conspiracy to open fire at the house of an NRI from New Zealand in June 2019.

NRI Gurwinder Singh Bains was visiting his native village, Manak Dheri in Hoshiarpur district, when the attack occurred. The FIR registered at that time didnt have any name and Bhagwanpuria and Gujjars names cropped up during the interrogation of their aides Shahbaz Singh and Paras Sharma, who were arrested recently.

Bhagwanpuria, Gujjar along with their Haryana-based weapon supplier Parminder Singh have been booked under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) in an attempt-to-murder case registered by Bullowal police on June 27, 2019.

Hoshiarpur senior superintendent of Police (SSP) Gaurav Garg said, Binny Gujjar used his aides to attack the house of the NRI. The extent of Bhagwanpurias role in the case is under investigation.

Shahbaz, as per senior police officials, confessed before police that he had fired eight times at Bainss house allegedly after receiving directions from the gangsters on WhatsApp. He stated that he purchased a pistol and cartridges from Parminder Singh for the job.

Two NRI brothers Kamal Singh and Manjot Singh settled in New Zealand were running a Kabaddi club and they were not happy with Bains as he came up with a parallel club. The brothers approached the gangsters to teach Bains a lesson. Kamal and Manjot have close relations with Bhagwanpuria through latters brother Manu, said a senior police officer who is part of the investigation team. Bhagwanpuria also has stakes in Kabaddi tournaments organised on foreign shores.

This is the second back-to-back case in Hoshiarpur district where Gujjars name has cropped up in firing. A few days back, Gujjar was booked by Hoshiarpur police for opening fire at a wine contractors house in the district for refusing to pay 60 lakh.

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Iraq protesters rebuild torched camps as rocket attack sparks fears



Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



Anti-government demonstrators rebuilt torched protest camps across Iraq on Monday as more than a dozen countries condemned the "lethal" reaction by security forces seeking to snuff out the civil campaign.

The renewed pressure on Iraq's government came a day after three rockets hit the US embassy in Baghdad, wounding one person and marking a dangerous escalation after months of close calls against American facilities.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday on Twitter that "the government of #Iraq must take immediate steps to protect our diplomatic facilities as required by international law."

The attack on the embassy sparked renewed fears that Iraq could be dragged into another armed conflict as its capital and Shiite-majority south are rocked by the country's largest and deadliest grassroots movement in decades.

Youth-led rallies erupted on October 1 over corruption, joblessness and poor services but were met with violence that has since left nearly 480 people dead -- most of them protesters.

Security forces and unidentified gunmen this week tried to clamp down on rallies again, and more than 20 protesters have lost their lives.

On Monday, 16 ambassadors based in Iraq issued a joint statement condemning the "excessive and lethal use of force" and demanding the government allow citizens to protest freely in Baghdad and the south.

"Despite assurances by the government, security forces and armed groups continue to use live fire in these locations, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries of civilians, while some protesters face intimidation and abduction," said the statement. It was signed by the US, UK, France, Germany and a dozen other countries.

- 'We will continue' -



Anti-government activists feared a crackdown this week after losing the support of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who backed the rallies when they first erupted then abruptly changed course Friday after holding his own rally.

University students have carried the torch, gathering in the thousands to insist on their political independence.

"When we first came out to protest and hold sit-ins, we didn't commit to the narrative of the Sadrist movement or any other political party," said Zainab Mohammad, a university student in the shrine city of Karbala.

"We came out on our own, and we will continue until our demands our met," she said.

Protesters are demanding snap elections, an independent successor to prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi -- who has resigned but remains in a caretaker role -- and the prosecution of those implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

Early on Monday, unidentified gunmen stormed a protest camp in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah and torched tents, an AFP correspondent there said.

The attackers fired on activists who had been sleeping there, killing one and wounding four others, a medic said.

But hours later, determined protesters had erected new tents and even built a one-room cement installation, signalling their determination to stay put.

In the oil-rich but impoverished port city of Basra, student protesters re-erected tents dismantled by authorities over the weekend, AFP's reporter said.

The main protest camp in the Shiite holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen, but protesters jumped into action Monday morning, blocking roads with burning tyres.

In the early afternoon, a funeral march made its way through the city to mourn the young man killed earlier in the day in Nasiriyah, identified as 14-year-old Ali Zuweir.

Relatives carried the boy's coffin through Najaf, a favoured burial place for Iraqi Shiites, holding up his portrait and weeping loudly.



- PM warns of broader war -



Sadr's march on Friday saw thousands turn out to demand American troops leave the country, after the US used Iraqi airspace to carry out a drone strike on top Iranian and Iraqi officials on January 3.

Outraged, Iraq's parliament voted on January 5 in favour of ousting all foreign forces, including the 5,200 US troops deployed in Iraq.

Pro-Iran factions in Iraq, particularly those tied to the Hashed al-Shaabi military force, had long lobbied for the ouster of American forces.

On Monday, top Hashed commander Qais al-Khazali said any candidate being considered to replace Abdel Mahdi must pledge to execute parliament's vote and oust foreign troops.

Other conditions for the new premier included holding snap parliamentary elections by the end of the year and implementing a landmark development deal with China.

Washington has blamed hardline Hashed factions, including Khazali's Asaib Ahl al-Haq for rocket attacks on the US embassy and American troops in recent months.

On Sunday evening, three rockets slammed into the US embassy, wounding one person, according to a senior Iraqi official and US diplomatic sources.

No details were available on whether the casualty was a US national or an Iraqi member of staff.

Pompeo "expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran's armed groups against US facilities in Iraq", the State Department said in a statement.

The statement said that "these attacks demonstrate a wanton disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups".

Iraq's foreign ministry earlier said the attack would not impact US-Iraqi relations, although Abdel Mahdi and parliament speaker Mohammed Halbusi said it risked dragging their homeland into war.
Mr Amrit Abhijat, Joint Secretary & Mission Director (HFA), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India said that the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) has sanctioned more than one crore houses since inception. Speaking at the 13th Edition Annual Real Estate Summit 2020, organised by FICCI on the theme - Ushering Indian Real Estate to Growth Trajectory, Mr Abhijat said that PMAY(U) is one of the flagship programs of the government and it is aimed at providing 'Housing for All' by 2022, when the nation completes its 75 years of Independence.

"The PMAY(U) mission has achieved a remarkable milestone by sanctioning more than one crore houses in a span of about 4 years," he said. Mr Abhijat gave a snapshot of the real estate sector and affordable housing, and how they contributed to the GDP of the country. He also highlighted key initiatives of the government in the sector to support the private players. He released FICCI-ICRA Report on Affordable Housing during the event.

Mr KK Khandelwal, Chairman, Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Government of Haryana, said that the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) has brought back the confidence of the buyers in the market and this trust will gradually strengthen. Flagging the issue of multiple regulators in real estate sector, Mr Khandelwal said that the industry has to somehow pressurise the government for having a single regulator as multiplicity of forums is creating problems and neither the buyers nor the promoters are happy with the situation.

"There has to be a single regulator or if one complete code cannot be evolved for the sector then at least for one kind of problem there should be only one forum. At times, a case is going on at all three places - RERA, NCDRC and NCLT," he noted. Mr Khandelwal released FICCI-Colliers Report on Emerging Trends in Real Estate - Technology and New Assets Classes during the opening session.

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January 27, 2020





In todays age of internet connectivity and digital marketing, basic traditional services like medical, educational and legal services have incorporated this new technology in their design of doing business. It is not only trendy, but it is also a cost-effective way to get brand recognition and reach new clients. For legal firms, it is common for them to create a website that best describe their proficiency and their background. This way, it is easier for prospective clients to get a better understanding of their services, which is the clients paramount intention - finding the right professional.







Here is a list of some of the best Personal Injury legal services that you can reach online:

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C.

With more than three decades of experience in Personal Injury cases and other related quandaries and their growing pool of talented litigators, that aim to recover the most for their deserving clients, they are the top law firm that you can visit online to choose the right professional for you. Their site salvilaw.com showcases a number of online resources that will help you navigate through to select the best representation for you. In addition to the standard Contact Us page, contact numbers, and addresses of law offices, they also have a 24/7 live chat service thatll assist you as you enter their website.

They also have a dedicated page for every associate that describes the individuals background and accomplishments. This will give the prospective client a preview of the kind of professional that he or she wants to approach. One client cited that: While their results are good, the most important thing to me was the people the personal and professional concept is one way that online resources can deliver to your business because it allows you to showcase the person that is there ready to help you.

Their online capabilities also caters to Hispanic speaking online visitors with their Spanish language option. They also have testimonials from clients that have personally experienced the services they received from the firm. Additionally, they are actively educating people with their blog posts which helps the visitor looking for legal inputs.

Stewart J. Guss

Their legal team of Personal Injury Lawyers was founded by Stewart J. Guss who has over 20 years of experience in such cases. Their mentality of Client First has proven to be a successful model to assist their numerous clients and cases. They have extended this approach to their online resources as they showcase their website several tools to assist browsing potential prospects.

Similar to online resources of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C., they also have a Live Chat to welcome their sites visitors along with the standard Contact Us contents. This will help the client looking to talk to somebody from the firm on the onset. Their dedicated page for every lawyer that shares the individuals professional and personal background. Along with their testimonials, they also have an accident map of Houston their main base of operation. They have this to show their affection and dedication to their community.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

One of the biggest global law firms, they cater to clients all over the world. They have modeled their site to help visitors locate the nearest branch office. They have the standard contact page, along with a directory of their associates. You can specify which specialty or practice, rank or level and location of the lawyer youre looking for and itll give you the names of their lawyers. The lawyers also get a dedicated page where they provide their audience with their background personally and professionally. Since the firm is global their site also supports multiple languages.

Withers Worldwide

This a global company with years of experience. They have a wide scope and their multiple locations are specified on their site. Their directory of lawyers can be filtered by location, practice, role, regional focus, and language. Once you click on one of the search results itll direct you to a dedicated page for that lawyer. The site also supports multiple languages for their global clients.

White & Case

Another global firm that uses the same template as the two previous firms. The searches can be filtered by location, role, practice, and language. This is accessible for global clients in need of their professional services in their respective regions.





Online capabilities are now part of the modern industry. The ability to communicate remotely and conveniently to clients is an invaluable part of businesses that entails exchanging between the provider and the customer. Being able to easily find the right person for the job gives convenience to the client and in turn, increases the clientele of the provider. The client comes in to share their personal grievances with a person and not a faceless entity. Itll be easier for them to confide their lawyers because of the confidence that they are asking the right professionals for help.
Network 10 and Western Sydney University have announced a new scholarship to support a Journalism student at Western Sydney University.

The Network 10 Sandra Sully Journalism Scholarship, valued at $7,500, will provide support for a student enrolled in the Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) degree at Western Sydney University. The student will also have the opportunity to undertake a tailored work placement in the Network 10 newsroom.

It is open to students who are commencing study or currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) degree at Western Sydney University.

The scholarship aligns with 10 News Firsts Sandra Sully celebrating 30 years at 10 tomorrow.

Network 10s head of marketing strategy Jean Jenkins said: Were delighted to be partnering with Western Sydney University and launching this scholarship with them. This is as much an investment in our audience as it is in the future of journalism.

Developing deeper relationships with communities is at the heart of Network 10s marketing strategy and were really pleased to be supporting the Western Sydney community in this way.

Western Sydney University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Barney Glover AO, said, Western Sydney University has been ranked number one in New South Wales for employer satisfaction, recognising the preparedness of our graduates in entering the workforce with the skills that employers are looking for.

The Network 10 Sandra Sully Journalism Scholarship is an example of the University working with a leading organisation to provide an enriching, industry-linked educational experience.

Network 10s director of news content Ross Dagan said: The scholarship is a fitting way to acknowledge Sandra Sullys outstanding contribution to journalism. Having been part of the industry over the past three decades, Sandra is passionate about the future of our profession. Along with Sandra, were proud to provide an opportunity for a talented and hardworking student to engage in a media career.

Sandra Sully said: My career in journalism has brought me so much joy. Im truly honoured to have this scholarship launched in my name to support an aspiring journalist to succeed in the field.

To apply visit at Western Sydney University website.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves only 13.8% of all tested drugs, and these numbers are even lower in "orphan" diseases that affect relatively few people.

Part of the problem lies in the imperfect nature of preclinical drug testing that aims to exclude toxic effects and predetermine concentrations and administration routes before drug candidates can be tested in people. How new drugs move within the human body and are affected by it, and how drugs affect the body itself, cannot be predicted accurately enough in animal and standard in vitro studies.

"To solve this massive preclinical bottleneck problem, we need to become much more effective at setting the stage for drugs that are truly promising and rule out others that for various reasons are likely to fail in people," explains Prof. Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., founding director of Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, co-author of two new studies on the subject published in Nature Biomedical Engineering on January 27, 2020.

Co-led by Dr. Ben Maoz of Tel Aviv University's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Sagol School of Neuroscience and over 50 colleagues, a team of scientists at TAU and Harvard have now devised a functioning comprehensive multi-Organ-on-a-Chip (Organ Chip) platform that enables effective in-vitro-to-in-vivo translation (IVIVT) of human drug pharmacology.

"We hope that this platform will enable us to bridge the gap on current limitations in drug development by providing a practical, reliable, relevant system for testing drugs for human use," says Dr. Maoz, co-first author of both studies and former Technology Development Fellow at the Wyss Institute on the teams of Prof. Ingber and Prof. Kevin Kit Parker, Ph.D., the latter of whom is also a leading author of both studies.

In the first of two studies, the scientists developed the "Interrogator," a robotic liquid transfer device to link individual "Organ Chips" in a way that mimics the flow of blood between organs in the human body.

Organ Chips are microfluidic devices composed of a clear flexible polymer the size of a computer memory stick that contains two parallel running hollow channels separated by a porous membrane and independently perfused with cell type-specific media. While one of the channels, the parenchymal channel, is lined with cells from a specific human organ or functional organ structure, the other one is lined with vascular endothelial cells presenting a blood vessel. The membrane allows the two compartments to communicate with each other and to exchange molecules like cytokines and growth factors, as well as drugs and drug products generated by organ-specific metabolic activities.

The team then applied their Interrogator automated linking platform and a new computational model they developed to three linked organs to test two drugs: nicotine and cisplatin.

"The modularity of our approach and availability of multiple validated Organ Chips for a variety of tissues for other human Body-on-Chip approaches now allows us to develop strategies to make realistic predictions about the pharmacology of drugs much more broadly," says Prof. Ingber. "Its future use could greatly increase the success rates of Phase I clinical trials."

The researchers accurately modeled the oral uptake of nicotine and intravenous uptake of cisplatin, a common chemotherapy medication, and their first passage through relevant organs with highly quantitative predictions of human pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters.

"The resulting calculated maximum nicotine concentrations, the time needed for nicotine to reach the different tissue compartments, and the clearance rates in the Liver Chips in our in vitro-based in silico model mirrored closely what had been measured in patients," concludes Dr. Maoz.

The multidisciplinary research project is the culmination of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project at the Wyss Institute. Several authors on both studies, including Prof. Ingber, are employees and hold equity in Emulate, Inc., a company that was spun out of the Wyss Institute to commercially develop Organ Chip technology.

###

American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world.
The Immortal Awards kicks off global showcase in London

The Immortal Awards recently started its global showcase in London with Viva La Vulva picking up the UK's only Immortal statue at the Ham Yard Hotel.



The UK winners were honoured on the night, with Gemini People's George Greenaway-Poole presenting Essity, AMV BBDO, Somesuch, Soundtree and Trim with an Immortal trophy for Bodyform and Libresse's Viva La Vulva.



Two Commendations were also handed out, with Huawei, FCB Inferno, Aardman Animations, Dog Eat Dog and Mcasso picking up a prize for StorySign. adam&eveDDB, Academy Films, MPC London, Factory and Cinelab collected their prize for John Lewis & Partners' The Boy and The Piano.



The showcase will now go on a global tour, visiting cities including Berlin, LA, New York and Paris in the coming months. Running parallel to the tour will be in-house screenings for brands, agencies, production and post-production companies across the globe.
An Iranian passenger airliner ended up on a highway after reportedly skidding off the runway during a hard landing in southwestern Iran.



None of the 135 passengers on board the Caspian Airlines flight was hurt in the January 27 incident in the southwestern city of Mahshahr, officials say.



The McDonnell Douglas jet was flying from Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh as saying the plane skidded off the runway at 7:50 a.m. local time.

He added that an investigation had been launched.

A state TV reporter traveling on the plane said the aircraft's "back wheel had broken off, as we saw it was left on the runway." He said that the plane had been skidding with no wheels before it ground to a halt on the highway.

The state-run IRNA news agency, citing local aviation officials, said a technical issue delayed the plane's landing, which caused the accident.



Iran has a poor aviation safety record, with U.S. sanctions preventing the country from modernizing its aging fleet.

On January 25, an Iranian passenger plane headed from Tehran to Istanbul was forced to make an emergency landing in Tehran due to a technical problem.

There were no injuries reported.

With reporting by the BBC, Reuters, and AP
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jan. 27, 2020 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 27, 2020 | 12:02 PM | PADUCAH

Two people were injured when a Ballard County ambulance collided with a van early Monday morning.



The accident happened around 12:35 am on Highway 60. Twenty-two-year-old Alexandria Clark of Paducah told Paducah police officers she was driving the ambulance east with its emergency lights activated when she approached a red light at New Holt Road. Clark said she tried to turn on the vehicle's siren, but it was not working.



Clark told officers she conducted a "rolling stop," then proceeded into the intersection, where the ambulance struck broadside a van driven by 24-year-old Octavio Ramos, also of Paducah.



Ramos told police he was northbound on New Holt Road and had a green light, so he proceeded into the intersection. He said he did not see the ambulance until his van was hit.



Clark and a passenger in ambulance, 30-year-old Josh Berry of Greer, South Carolina, were taken to Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital for treatment of their injuries.




Saturday, the defense of President Donald Trump began in his impeachment trial in the Senate. Here's a look at claims and issues raised by the president's lawyers as they lay out their response to the case made by the Democratic House managers prosecuting the articles of impeachment  for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress  against Trump.

Trumps team puts the Bidens on trial over Burisma

Trumps lawyers focused Monday evening on Hunter Biden, the son of his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, during their arguments in the Senate impeachment trial.

Pam Bondi said the defense team would have preferred to avoid Biden and his work on the board at Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company in Ukraine. But the impeachment articles accuse Trump of abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and Burisma.

"We would prefer not to be discussing this, she said. But the House managers have placed this squarely at issue, so we must address it."

Bondi focused on news reports that suggested Hunter Biden was hired solely because he was son of the former vice president. Bondi also highlighted a number of media reports chronicling what could appear to be a conflict-of-interest for the vice president due to him and the Obama administrations pressuring Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who had previously attempted to probe Burisma.

House managers had said that allegations against Burisma had been debunked. Bidens effort to have Shokin fired for corruption was part of the U.S. national policy and was supported by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Former Vice President Joe Biden campaigns for president in Mason City, Iowa, on Jan. 22, 2020.

USA TODAY has reported that Shokin was ousted because he wasnt pursuing corruption by Ukraines politicians. More specifically, Bondis implication Monday that then-Vice President Biden withheld $1 billion in aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the government to remove Shokin because the top prosecutor was investigating Burisma and its oligarch owner -- a move that Trump and his allies say benefited Hunter Biden -- is a suggestion contradicted by foreign diplomatic officials who were following the issue at the time.

Story continues

More: Biden, allies pushed out Ukrainian prosecutor because he didn't pursue corruption cases

And FactCheck.org concluded there is no evidence that Hunter Biden was ever under investigation or that his father pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin on his behalf.

Eric Herschmann, another private lawyer representing Trump who addressed senators after Bondi, questioned why Hunter Biden was hired and paid so much by Burisma without any experience in the natural-gas industry, the energy sector generally or with Ukraine.

What are the House managers afraid of finding out? Herschmann asked.

A former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine during the Clinton administration told USA TODAY it's not unusual for Ukrainian companies to bring on high-profile people from the West in an effort to burnish their image and gain influence.

USA TODAY spent a week in Ukraine and reported the message from two dozen government officials and anti-corruption investigators quickly became clear: The allegations against the Bidens are entirely lacking in evidence.

More: Trump's conspiracy theories thrive in Ukraine, where a young democracy battles corruption and distrust

Hunter Biden told ABC News in October 2019 that he was focused on corporate governance while on Burismas board.

Bottom line is that I know I was completely qualified to be on the board to head up the corporate governance and transparency committee on the board, and thats all that I focused on, Biden said in the video that Herschmann played at the trial.

But during the same interview, Biden refused to disclose how much he was paid. Bondi said public records from an unrelated criminal case suggested that Biden was paid $83,333 per month for 17 months. Herschmann said Democrats circled the wagons in August to protect Joe Biden, but that questions linger.

"They contend that any investigation into the millions of dollars in payments by a corrupt Ukrainian company owned by a corrupt Ukraine oligarch to the son of the second highest officer holder in our land, who was supposed to be in charge of fighting corruption in Ukraine  theyre calling that type of inquiry a sham, debunked, Herschmann said. But there has never been an investigation, so how could it be a sham?"

Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said accusations against Biden and his son had been debunked by fact-checkers at the Washington Post, New York Times and others. "Joe Biden was instrumental to a bipartisan and international anti-corruption victory," Bates said. "It's no surprise that such a thing is anathema to President Trump."

The lead House manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Trumps lawyers spent about two hours trashing the Bidens, but couldnt explain why the president only took an interest in investigating them during 2019. Schiff said it was crystal clear that the pressure for investigations came after Joe Biden had announced his Democratic candidacy to challenge Trump.

At the end of the day, they dont contest that President Trump sought to coerce Ukraine into conducting two political investigations in order to help him cheat in the election, Schiff said.

Bart Jansen, Christal Hayes, and Martina Stewart

Trump falsely claims House of Representatives never asked Bolton to testify

As bombshell reporting surfaced about the contents of a forthcoming book by Trumps former national security adviser, John Bolton, lawmakers grappled Monday with new calls for witnesses to be allowed in the Senate impeachment trial, and Trump falsely claimed Bolton was never asked to testify by House Democrats.

Democrats have called for witnesses like Bolton and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to be subpoenaed in the trial, and Republicans argue that the House missed its chance to hear from those witnesses during the House's impeachment inquiry.

Trump went so far as to tweet Monday morning before the trial resumed, The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate!

The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020

In fact, the House committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry asked Bolton to testify in a letter dated Oct. 30, 2019, and had scheduled a deposition for Nov. 7, at which he did not appear.

More: John Bolton defies House summons for closed-door testimony

Boltons counsel said he would only testify if he was legally compelled to do so by a subpoena, and indicated he would join onto a lawsuit by his deputy Charles Kupperman. Kupperman wanted the courts to decide whether he could be legally compelled to testify by subpoena from the legislative branch when the executive branch, the White House, was directing him not to cooperate with the inquiry.

House investigators withdrew their subpoena of Kupperman, and his case was dismissed by a judge. Democrats also decided not to issue a subpoena to Bolton because it would delay the investigation.

Then-national security adviser John Bolton speaks to media at the White House in Washington, July 31, 2019.

After Trump was impeached by the House, Bolton said in a statement that he would be willing to testify in the Senate if subpoenaed. Reporting on his upcoming book includes that Bolton wrote Trump told him that aid money to Ukraine was directly tied to investigations into the Bidens and election interference.

More: What we know about John Bolton's allegations about Trump and Ukraine

"There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the presidents defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump," the seven Democratic House impeachment managers said.

Jeanine Santucci

Sekulow: It was Trump  not Obama  that provided Ukraine with lethal military aid

As the presidents legal team made its opening arguments Saturday, Jay Sekulow, one of the private attorneys on Trumps team, said that it was Trump -- not his predecessor Barack Obama -- who provided Ukraine with lethal military aid, including anti-tank Javelin missiles.

Indeed, Sekulow said that U.S. policy toward Ukraine policy under Trump got stronger, stronger than it had been under former President Obama.

While Sekulow is correct about the provision of lethal aid, the charge in the impeachment trial against Trump for abuse of power turns on his decision to delay aid to Ukraine that had been appropriated by Congress and his motivations for doing so. House Democrats allege Trump delayed the aid in order to pressure Ukraines newly elected president into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, a top Trump political rival, and into entertaining a debunked theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Obama administration refused to provide lethal weapons in 2014, PolitiFact writes, after Russia invaded Crimea. But the United States under Obama did provide extensive military and security aid but not lethal weapons, PolitiFact adds.

The Obama administration rejected a request from Ukraine for lethal aid in 2014, even after its then-president visited Washington and reportedly said Blankets and night vision goggles are important, but one cannot win a war with a blanket.

U.S. officials were concerned that providing the Javelins to Ukraine would escalate their conflict with Russia, PolitiFact writes, adding key allies, including Germany, were not keen on sending weapons into the conflict zone.

In 2014, the Obama administration approved $53 million in aid that included vehicles, patrol boats, body armor and night-vision goggles, as well as humanitarian assistance, according to PolitiFact. And, between 2014 and 2016, the U.S. committed more than $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine.

While the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act had called for lethal assistance, the equipment ultimately provided during Obamas tenure was non-lethal aid, PolitiFact writes.

"The first lethal deliveries came from Trump," Jim Townsend, deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO Policy during the Obama administration, told PolitiFact. Townsend also explained that the aid provided by Obama was what had been recommended by European command and others who went in to see what [the Ukrainians] needed."

President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks to a bipartisan group of the nation's mayors in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, in Washington.

But Trump has been impeached and is facing trial in the Senate over the delay in congressionally approved aid to the U.S. ally as it fights Russian aggression.

On that issue, a government watchdog agency recently concluded that the Trump administration violated federal law when it withheld the funds intended to help Ukraine.

"Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law," the report by the Government Accountability Office says. "OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted" under the law.

A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget disagreed with the GAOs conclusion.

Watchdog: White House budget office violated federal law by withholding Ukraine security funds

And speaking Saturday, Deputy White House Counsel Mike Purpura told senators the president did absolutely nothing wrong.

He added: The president was at all times acting in our national interest and pursuant to his oath of office.

Martina Stewart

Trumps defense focuses on his concern with burden-sharing in helping Ukraine

In laying out their defense of President Trump, his legal team touched Saturday on his concerns about whether European allies were doing enough to help Ukraine.

The president rightly had real concerns about whether European and other countries were contributing their fair share to ensuring Ukraines security, Deputy White House Counsel Mike Purpura told senators.

Earlier in the week, during an interview with Fox Business Network, the president expressed those concerns again. Theres something else Im always stressing, the president said during the cable TV interview. Why isnt Germany and France and U.K. and all these other countries in Europe that are much more affected than us, why arent they paying something?

They are paying plenty. the Associated Press wrote in assessing Trumps assertion.

While the AP observed that the U.S. is a heavy source of military assistance to Ukraine, it also pointed out that Since 2014, the EU and European financial institutions have mobilized more than $16 billion to help Ukraines economy, counter corruption, build institutions and strengthen its sovereignty against further incursions by Russia after its annexation of Crimea.

FactCheck.org reached a similar conclusion: In fact, the European Union and European financial institutions have contributed more than $16.4 billion in grants and loans to Ukraine since 2014.

And, the U.S. isnt even the majority contributor of total official development assistance to Ukraine, according to FactCheck.org.

One analyst has concluded that on average the EU has given almost twice as much per year to Ukraine since 2014 than the U.S. has averaged.

With regard to just military aid, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine told The Washington Posts Fact Checker that The United States is the largest provider of military aid to Ukraine. This is because of skittishness among many European countries that dont want to provoke Russia, former Ambassador John Herbst said. Furthermore, the Post explained: This is how the aid burden is usually divided between the United States and the Europeans, with the United States providing the muscle and Europe providing the soft power to stabilize troubled nations.

Martina Stewart

More: Fact-checking the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump: Fact-checking arguments
Sharon Stone joins former peace campaigner Betty Williams at the Seamus Mallon condolence book in the City Hall

A book of condolence has been opened in Belfast after the death of former Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon.

Mr Mallon's death on Friday at the age of 83 has led to an outpouring of gratitude for his political career as thousands of people paid tribute to the former SDLP deputy leader.

A book of condolence opened in Belfast City Hall on Saturday, with another at the Guildhall in Londonderry yesterday.

American actress Sharon Stone was among those to sign the book in Belfast alongside her friend, Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams.

Ms Stone called Mr Mallon "a legend, a real warrior of peace" as she signed the book along with hundreds of others, including his SDLP colleagues.

The Hollywood star's message in the book read: "With respect and admiration."

The Basic Instinct actress also signed a peace wall in Belfast "in memory of Seamus Mallon".

Mr Mallon was an architect of the peace process and a key figure in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which largely halted violence here.

Former US senator George Mitchell, who was heavily involved in creating the Good Friday Agreement, also paid tribute to Mr Mallon, who was deputy to First Minister Lord Trimble at Stormont from 1998 to 2001.

"It's a great loss for me personally as it is for the people of Northern Ireland," Mr Mitchell told Q Radio. "Seamus Mallon was a strong and effective political leader for many decades including the period during which the negotiations were held among all of the parties in Northern Ireland that led to the Agreement that brought an end to the violence of the Troubles."

Former United States President Bill Clinton, who was in office at the time of the Good Friday Agreement and championed peace talks in the 1990s, also paid a touching tribute to the former Newry and Armagh MP.

He said: "From his earliest entry into politics, Seamus never wavered from his vision for a shared future where neighbours of all faiths could live in dignity, or from the belief he shared with John Hume and the entire SDLP that non-violence was the only way to reach that goal.

"As his party's chief negotiator in the talks leading to the Good Friday Agreement, he was respected by all parties for his intelligence and integrity, his candour and convictions."

Mr Clinton added: "A teacher in practice and in heart, the lessons of his life and power of his example are as important today as ever."

Mr Mallon was a former teacher who lived in Markethill, Co Armagh.

He is survived by his daughter Orla.
One of Albuquerques largest mixed-use projects is making steady progress, with some elements slated to open this summer.

Last spring, builders broke ground on the first phase of The Highlands, a multibuilding complex on a 12-acre parcel off Central east of Interstate 25 that includes an apartment complex, a Marriott-brand hotel and a central market with a variety of food and drink offerings.

Steve Maestas, chief executive officer of Maestas Development Group, wrote in an email that the project will play a significant role in revitalizing Albuquerques urban core.

A revitalized Route 66 corridor is one that provides options that match peoples lifestyle needs and holistic development solutions like The Highlands are a great step in that direction, Maestas wrote.

The six-story Marriott Springhill Suites, which broke ground in March, will include 118 hotel rooms. According to Maestas, one full floor will house Ronald McDonald House Charities, which will include guest rooms for children being treated at nearby hospitals, along with a library, conference room, industrial kitchen, laundry area and common space. The hotel is expected to open by August.

Maestas wrote that the first multifamily building, Highlands North, will include 92 apartment units. A second apartment building will include 228 units on the eastern edge of the property. Maestas declined to provide a rent range for the units.

Food halls, where multiple local restaurants and markets operate under one roof, are gaining popularity in cities across the country, and Albuquerque is no exception. Maestas wrote The Highlands concept, known as The Highlands Central Market, will include 12 unique local vendors and is expected to open by the end of 2020.

The project will serve as the center of social life for The Highlands and bring many of the states best food vendors to the Route 66 corridor, he wrote.

The project will also include a skybridge, which Maestas described as the first of its kind in Albuquerque, connecting the development to Presbyterian Hospital. Construction on the bridge is scheduled to begin later this spring.

Maestas wrote the massive parcel between Interstate 25 and Nob Hill made sense because of its proximity to anchors like Presbyterian, the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. He added the goal is to create a place where residents and visitors can live, work and play in a single area.

We want to create community-friendly environments where housing, work, commercial and recreational options are available locally, Maestas wrote.

Nexus shutters West Side taproom

A number of breweries and taprooms have opened west of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque in the past several years. Unfortunately, one shut its doors for good as well.

Nexus Brewery and Restaurant closed its Silver Taproom, 2641 Coors NW, late last year.

Owner Ken Carson said he made the choice to close the taproom because of a lack of foot traffic, increased competition and an inability to retain staff there.

Nexus opened its main brewery, on Pan American NE, in 2011 and added the West Side taproom in 2016.

In an area once short on craft beer relative to other parts of the city, local breweries, including La Cumbre and Tractor, have added taprooms west of the Rio Grande in the past several years, and Bosque Brewing Co. is building one as well.

We were sad to have to close it, but at a certain point, it wasnt viable, Carson told the Journal.

Carson said the closure will allow Nexus to focus more on its main brewery location, as well as Nexus Blue Smokehouse, a barbecue restaurant that Nexus opened on Broadway SE last year. Carson said the restaurant, which blends Southern-style barbecue with brewery favorites like chicken and waffles, has an additional 3,000 square feet that could be developed into a stage, which would help the restaurant build on its early success.

Were getting a lot of really good ratings on Yelp and Google, Carson said of the smokehouse.

Paleta Bar opens Los Lunas location

Los Lunas has a new spot to soothe sweet teeth with the opening of a ninth location of The Paleta Bar chain.

Known for its selection of frozen popsicles made from fresh fruits and cream and dipped in chocolate, the New Mexico-based shops also offers agua fresca, a fruit-based drink served on ice.

The new location is at 1651 Main SW.

Since opening back in 2017, The Paleta Bar has expanded across central New Mexico, with one location in San Diego as well.

We are thrilled that The Paleta Bar chose to expand into Los Lunas, Ralph Mims, economic development director for the Village of Los Lunas, wrote in a news release. We are experiencing record growth in Los Lunas, and we know The Paleta Bar will not only excel here, we expect our location to be their highest performing one.

The new store employs 10 people and is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Online ordering is also available.

Odds and ends  Bed Bath & Beyond is shutting 40 locations across the country, including its only store in Rio Rancho, USA Today reported last week. The Rio Rancho store, at Plaza @ Enchanted Hills, is the only closure planned in New Mexico, according to the report.

 Eyemart Express third Albuquerque location has been open for several months but held a grand opening event over the weekend to let Burquenos know theyre there. The Texas-based eyewear companys newest location is in the Holly Plaza Shopping Center, 6500 Holly NE.

Journal reporter Pilar Martinez contributed to this column.
China continued to reel under deadly coronavirus epidemic on January 27 with the death toll due to it sharply rising to 80 amid the country's National Health Commission reporting 2,744 confirmed cases of the fatal affliction till date.

The Commission also termed the condition of the 461 people being treated for the virus, officially known as 2019-nCoV, as "critical". The Commission's said during the past 24 hours, 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths from the disease were reported.

By January 26, the pneumonia situation had resulted in a total of 80 deaths, while 51 people had recovered and 5,794 remained as suspected patients, state run Xinhua news agency quoted the Commission as saying.

A total of 32,799 close contacts have been traced, the commission said, adding 30,453 among them were currently under medical observation while 583 others were discharged on Sunday.

Almost all provinces in China except Tibet have reported the virus cases.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

In addition, 17 confirmed cases were reported in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, besides eight in Hong Kong, five in Macao and four in Taiwan.

Overseas, confirmed cases included seven in Thailand, four each in Australia and Singapore, three each in the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan, France and Malaysia, two in Vietnam and one in Nepal.

The mayor of the Hubei province capital Wuhan, which has emerged as the epicentre of the epidemic outbreak, said he expects another 1,000 new patients in the city, official media reported.

There are signs showing the virus is becoming more transmissible. These walking contagious agents' [hidden carriers] make controlling the outbreak a lot more difficult, he said.

Mayor Zhou Xianwang said "it was possible to add about 1,000 cases" based on the number of patients in hospital being tested or undergoing observation in the city.

A high power committee, formed to fight the coronavirus epidemic under the chairpersonship of Premier Li Keqiang, on January 26 said the virus' ability to spread was getting stronger and announced a slew of measures to combat it.

To curb the epidemic, China has decided to adopt a host of measures including delaying and reducing conferences and major events, extending the current Spring Festival holidays and supporting online work.

To reduce population flows, the meeting decided on measures such as extending the Spring Festival holiday, which is scheduled between January 24 and 30, and delaying the start of the spring semester at colleges and schools.

It called for maximum efforts to reduce the mortality rate of patients and enhance their treatment.

More research will be conducted on cured patients and treatment measures will be further refined, with more training programmes scheduled for medical workers, an official statement said.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on January 26 said researchers have isolated viruses and were selecting a strain, Xu Wenbo, a director of CDC's virus institute said.

Xu told media that researchers had used high-throughput genetic sequencing to identify pathogens one day after the first four samples were sent from Wuhan on January 2.

China's National Health Commission on January 26 said the new coronavirus is contagious even in its incubation period, which lasts up to 14 days, and that the virus' ability to spread is getting stronger.
A 36-year-old resident of Tardeo, who had visited China recently, was quarantined at Mumbais Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Sunday after he developed cold and fever, symptoms of the coronavirus. He is the fourth person in Mumbai to be quarantined in the hospitals isolation ward.

The man had travelled to China on January 3, 2020, and returned on January 11, 2020 through Hong Kong. During his stay, he has visited Shanghai and Guangzhou which is almost 1,000 km away from Wuhan city, which has reported highest number of cases. Though he did not have any symptoms when he returned, he was observed by health workers through the telephone. On Sunday night, when he complained of fever, he was immediately rushed to the isolation ward at the hospital.

The patient has fever for the last five days and on Sunday night, he also developed fever. So, we decided to keep him under observation as a precaution. But he hasnt travelled to affected provinces so, we believe its just a case of viral fever, said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

His medical sample has been sent to National Institute of Virology for analysis. However, the report of the third suspected patient has come negative of the new strain of the coronavirus - nCOV.

A 61-year-old resident of Nalasopara was the third patient to be quarantined at the hospital for observation. He returned from Hong Kong on January 9 and developed cold and fever. Even though, Hong Kong hasnt reported any confirmed case of coronavirus, the health officials kept him under observation as a precautionary measure.

We havent got the report in hand which requires a series formalities but the institute informed us on Sunday that the third report has also being found negative. These reports would also be submitted to the central health department for their observation, said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, BMC.

BMC has kept another three people on observation through telephonic follow up who landed in Mumbai on Sunday after visiting China. But as they didnt exhibite any symptoms like the three suspected quatentined patients, they have been kept on telephonic observation.

Our health officials would follow up with them to check if they develop any symptoms of coronavirus. This is done as a precautionary measures, added Dr Keskar.

One of the two admitted on Thursday is a 31-year-old marketing professional from Nalasopara, who had complained of body ache and cold two days after returning to Mumbai from Foshan, China, on January 21. Although she did not have any symptoms when she landed, she was in touch with public health officials on the telephone. On January 23, when she developed symptoms, she was moved to the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital.

The other patient at the facility was a 36-year-old man from Kalyan, an information technology professional, who had travelled to Guangzhou in China on January 16, when he already had cold and fever. He had been in contact with Indian public health officials over the phone. After taking medicines, his condition improved, but on January 22, when he landed in Mumbai, his body temperature was still high, so he was quarantined as a precaution.

However, as HT reported earlier, the three quatentined patients would be under observation at the hospital until the state health department formulates a discharge policy. We are in talks with the experts from the central government in formulating a discharge policy for the suspected patients suffering from the new strain of coronavirus. Until then they would be kept under observation, said Dr Archana Patil, Dr Archana Patil, additional director of health services, State Family Welfare Bureau.

For those with a weakened immune system, the elderly and the very young, theres a chance the virus could cause a lower, and much more serious, respiratory tract illness like pneumonia or bronchitis. There are currently no vaccines available to protect one against human coronavirus infection or treatments for illnesses caused by it. On January 9, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus in Wuhan city, China.

In the meantime, BMC has formed an expert team consisting of epidemiologists, microbiologists, medicine, chest specialists who would be stationed at Kasturba hospital to deal with emergency or outbreak of coronavirus.
Award Nomination in Connection with a Major Upcoming European Industry Event

Above Image Depicts Tauriga Sciences Inc.s Logo with Embedded UK Flag

NEW YORK, NY, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE  Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a revenue generating company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities and equity investments, today announced that a prestigious United Kingdom (UK) based media company, nominated Tauri-Gum for an award in the category of Best CBD Edibles - - In connection with a major upcoming European industry event. In addition, Tauriga has been invited, by UK based RASB Media, to operate a main floor corporate Exhibitor Booth at the upcoming The CBD Show on May 1-3, 2020 in Olympia, London, UK. Taurigas Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Seth M. Shaw, will be a keynote speaker at The CBD Show (Link: https://rasbmedia.com/team/seth-m-shaw/).

Below Link to The CBD Show (London, UK - - May 1-3, 2020):

Link: https://rasbmedia.com/cbd-show/

The International CBD Show Expo (The CBD Show), held in London, will feature 5,000 B2B, B2C, B2G, aspiring business owners, retailers, e-tail, industry professionals, distributors, wholesalers, online resellers, investors, and pharmacists; will visit the first two days and the third day (May 3, 2020) is dedicated to the public sector for free!

There are many reasons to attend, above all around 100 Suppliers and over 50 high profile speakers, all in one room. For instance, expect to see industries such as beauty care, nutraceuticals, specialty beverage, functional food sector, cultivators, law, packaging firms, accounting, branding experts, private label, white label as well as pharmaceutical therapeutics. This is a professional event for professionals.

Gain insight into the CBD industry through product demonstrations, educational seminars and keynote presentations from companies such as CBD edibles, CBD topicals, CBD lifestyle products, CBD beauty, CBD vape, CBD tincture, CBD Cosmetics, and everything in-between. If youre a B2B or B2C company and interested to find more about packaging, distributors, cultivators, investors, branding, private label, white label, law, accounting and everything in-between our event is the only event to look at. Our event is a 3-day event. Two days for business and one day for public access.

Story continues

ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES, INC.

Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities. One such opportunity on which the Company has acted, involves the Company having entered into the cannabidiol (or CBD) infused chewing gum product business, as more fully described above and in prior press releases. This CBD infused chewing gum product has been branded under the following name: Tauri-Gum. The Company is currently in production of three distinct flavors of Tauri-Gum: MINT, BLOOD ORANGE, and POMEGRANATE. On December 6, 2019, the Company announced that it completed the initial production run (thereby expanding its existing product lines) with the introduction of a 25mg Vegan CBD Isolate Infused vegan gummy (gumdrop), branded under the name: Tauri-Gummies. Further, the Company continues to identify and evaluate additional potential opportunities to generate revenue, as well as shareholder value, and leverage its resources and expertise to build a diversified and sustainable business model. Please visit our corporate website at www.tauriga.com.

The Company has also announced the development of a Cannabigerol (CBG) Isolate infused version of Tauri-Gum. The flavor that has been selected is Starfruit/Peach and each piece of gum will contain 10mg of CBG Isolate / Each blister pack will contain 80mg of CBG Isolate. The Company expects to commence production during its 4th Fiscal Quarter of 2020 (January 1, 2020  March 31, 2020).

In addition, on March 11, 2019, the Company announced the official launch of its E-Commerce site - as part of its Tauri-Gum commercialization strategy. This site can be accessed by visiting the following URL address: www.taurigum.com

The Company has established corporate offices in both New York City (USA) and Barcelona (Spain).

DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Attachment

CONTACT INFORMATION



Tauriga Sciences, Inc.

555 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10022

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Seth M. Shaw

Email: sshaw@tauriga.com

cell # (917) 796 9926

Corp. Website: www.tauriga.com

E-Commerce Website: www.taurigum.com
From left, Ben Raufer, Tommy Victor and Songqi Pu, seniors at Germantown Friends School, plan for the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival. The festival is organized by students and will feature selected films from schools from all over the world on Feb. 22, 2020. Read more

The Philadelphia Youth Film Festival is free and open to any high school student  key to the inclusive mission of the Germantown Friends School students who run the competition.

It also presents some interesting challenges. We get a lot of submissions from Iran, and no one here speaks Persian, said Ben Rosin, a senior at the private Quaker school.

The festival, now in its third year, likely draws global interest because there is no cost to enter, students said. Many other contests charge to enter, and for aspiring young filmmakers, the fees can be prohibitive.

What that means is a lot of submissions  and work for the students preparing for the festival on Feb. 22. In addition to screenings and awards, the event will feature free filmmaking workshops.

Any high school student can attend the sessions, which focus on screenwriting and lighting as well as topics particularly tailored to the audience  like one titled Making a Feature Film as a High Schooler: Its Possible. (That session will be led by a student in the University of Southern Californias film program who previously participated in the festival.)

All of it is managed by about a dozen Germantown Friends students, who get experience not just in film, but everything that goes into making the event happen  from developing a website and publicizing the festival, to writing grant applications and making connections with industry professionals.

This year, the festival will feature Nicole Kassell, a producer for HBOs Watchmen. Last year, the students invited filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan to speak. While he didnt take them up on their offer, his assistant sent a personal reply  a solid step, said Songqi Pu, a senior and co-director of the festival. "We have learned a lot about how to utilize the resources of the school.

 READ MORE: Germantown Friends adds Center City preschool

While professionals judge the submissions  divided into screenplay, narrative, experimental, and documentary categories  students pare down the field.

Of the 450 submissions this year, they determined 191 were eligible, said senior and festival co-director Tommy Victor. To ensure entries are from high schoolers, student IDs must be submitted. Films in other languages must have English subtitles, and students flag submissions that might violate copyright law or contain graphic content.

The films provide a window into the stories other students  in Philadelphia and around the world  are interested in telling.

Victor recalled a submission from a filmmaker in India who interviewed other kids there about using glue to get high. It just really opened my eyes to this thing I had no idea about, he said. Rosin was struck that some students who submitted entries seemed to be using the filmmaking process as therapy to deal with loss, which was kind of a foreign concept to me.

Some entries were just really impressive, said senior Leo Kastenberg, like one that appeared to be inspired by the Academy Award-winning film Birdman, presented as one continuous take. Theres a lot of effort that went in.

 READ MORE: Montgomery County film festival, 11 years on, keeps raising the bar for young filmmakers

Faculty adviser Sarah Kappel described the process as a little bit intimidating, but inspirational for students to see what their peers have produced.

She also sees their pride in putting on the event. Its something real," Kappel said. "Its not school  its not a paper, or a film class.

Some students involved in the festival have made movies or taken film classes at Germantown Friends. But a number said they were just as drawn to branding, event planning, or entrepreneurship.

Its hard in high school to find places to really apply what youve learned, Rosin said. This is one of those outlets.

Attendance at the festival is open to students ages 13 to 20 who are currently enrolled in high school or who graduated in 2019. Admission is free, but students should register at phyff.com.
In yet shocking incident, a Hindu girl in Pakistan was abducted during her wedding ceremony and was married off to a Muslim man after being converted to Islam, as per news agency ANI. The news agency reported that the girl is identified as Bharti Bai. The report claimed that she was abducted by a group of people during her marriage ceremony on Saturday in Hala, a city located in Matiari district in Sindh province. She was then married to Shah Rukh Gul.

Temple vandalised & scriptures desecrated in Pakistan's Sindh, Imran Khan silent: SAD

The report also claimed that authorities have not taken any action against the abductors. It went on to allege that Police helped the men to abduct the girl. Earlier in the day, Akali dal leader Majinder Sirsa questioned the silence of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over another Hindu temple vandalisation. He tweeted the photos of vandalised scriptures and temple.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan attacks India with old B'desh video claiming it's from UP

Forced conversion and Nankana Sahib attacked

On January 3, a video emerged of a mob of 400 people pelting stones in the Nankana Sahib Gurudwara in Pakistan. Meanwhile, the main leader of the mob is the brother of Mohammed Hassan - who was accused of kidnapping and forcibly converting a Sikh girl -Jagjit Kaur. Akali Dal leader Manjinder Sirsa, in August, had shared a video of the grieving family telling how 18-year old Jagjit Kaur was allegedly abducted and converted to Islam in Pakistan.

On September 3, the victim was reunited with her family after Pakistan faced global anger due to inaction. Pakistan had claimed that Punjab's Nankana Sahib police had arrested eight people - including Hassan, in connection with the case. Despite being rescued, reports claim that Jagjit Kaur - now known as Ayesha refused to convert back to Sikhism.

(With ANI inputs)

Pakistan PM Imran Khan forced to delete B'desh video he claimed was from UP

Imran Khan breaks silence on Nankana Sahib attack; drags RSS, preaches 'zero-tolerance'
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - "The New York Times poll has Bernie way ahead in Iowa," said filmmaker Michael Moore. "I mean, way ahead! Way ahead!"

The crowd, a couple of hundred Iowans and a few dozen Wisconsinites who'd come down to canvass, started to cheer. "No end zone dancing on the two-yard line," Moore warned.

Until very recently, supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for president did not mean cheering about public polls. Sanders made his first campaign trips to Iowa six years ago and never quite stopped running for president. He never led in the Des Moines Register's poll of the state until last week, when he led by three points, followed shortly by that New York Times-Siena poll that showed him up by seven points.

The senator from Vermont's supporters were ready for pushback - maybe an anti-Sanders PAC, maybe a "stop Sanders" push from party leaders. Former president Barack Obama warned last year in a speech about the party going too far left, and a rumor that he would intervene against Sanders, published by Fox News but not corroborated by other news outlets, spread instantly on social media. Conversations at Sanders rallies still sometimes turn to whether the Democratic National Committee has a plan to block him.

But Sanders has met surprisingly little resistance in Iowa, campaigning as the well-liked populist with unique appeal to the young and disaffected voters who Democrats worry about losing.

"In terms of electability, which is a fair question, we need a campaign which has energy, which has excitement, which has a strong grass-roots movement, which is able to raise money from working families to campaign, and not just billionaires and Wall Street executives," Sanders said Saturday night in Ames.

A week earlier, 150 or so people had come to see former vice president Joe Biden speak in this college town whose caucus-day population is swelled by Iowa State University. On Saturday, nearly 10 times as many voters came to see Sanders, Moore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Sanders has pushed ahead in Iowa by doing exactly what he talked about for years: raising money through small donors and building the largest campaign organization possible. As do many campaigns, the Sanders organization originally underestimated the appeal of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. But as Warren took fire, no campaign was in a better position to reintroduce itself to Democratic voters. They told pollsters that they broadly agreed with both senators - single-payer health care should replace private insurance, student debt should be broadly forgiven, and trillions of dollars should be spent to build and rebuild responses to climate change.

That helped Sanders to his current position, as one of the best-liked candidates in the race, even as most voters split among rival candidates who have more traditional support inside the party. Even direct criticism from Hillary Clinton went largely unnoticed, with none of Sanders's active rivals echoing her worry that the senator had no allies in the Senate or that he promised policies he couldn't really enact.

"I'm not going there," Warren told CBS News when asked about Clinton's quote.

Democratic state legislators, who see a chance of taking back the state House in Des Moines this year, have tended to support anyone but Sanders. As of Sunday afternoon, 17 of the state's 66 Democratic legislators had endorsed Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; 11 had endorsed Warren; nine had endorsed Joe Biden; and five had endorsed former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Just one state legislator, former Teamster Jeff Kurtz, has endorsed Sanders.

"There are people who endorsed him last time and haven't gotten behind him again," said state Sen. Liz Mathis, who supports Klobuchar and hosted a Saturday meet-and-greet with the senator from Minnesota at her home. "If he's the nominee, I think the risk would be that you wouldn't pick up some of those voters in areas that are more moderate."

Sanders has a different theory of the electorate, which his endorsers lay out at events increasingly focused on how he could win the election. The campaign's "distributed organizing" has always targeted nonvoters, or people who are seen as unlikely to caucus, in a bet that they can rewrite caucus math.

"For too many voters, 'safe' means 'stay away from the election,' " said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., one of the surrogates in Cedar Falls who campaigned while Sanders was returning from Washington. "Honestly, we've done that before and it's led us to failure. We need to heed the lessons of 2016. In the fall of 2016, voters in my state were not inspired enough."

The work to get nonvoters, and less wealthy voters, has built a coalition that does not share the worries of the likeliest Iowa Democratic voters - middle-class liberals who always caucus. All of Sanders's rivals spend time, sometimes after a worried voter asks for it, explaining how they will pay for their plans without busting the budget.

Sanders does not get these questions and spent months at town halls where he asked voters to describe their crises - health-care bills, student debt - so he could explain why only an unfair economy would even allow the problems to exist. In Cedar Falls, Ocasio-Cortez fit into the Sanders role, embracing 41-year-old Amber Hess after she said her wages had been garnished to pay off medical debt.

"It's morally wrong," said Ocasio-Cortez before sharing her own story about the anxiety she had felt when she needed a blood test in 2018 but lacked insurance. "Your wages are being garnished so that there could be a profit margin," she told Hess. There was no hand-wringing about how to replace one system with another; change would come, the congresswoman explained, with a "paradigm shift."

Anti-Sanders Democrats were not naive about the appeal of this message, but they did little to stop the candidate, and they wouldn't make too many converts if they tried. Buttigieg has warned about the "risk" of a Sanders nomination in a fundraising email that most voters wouldn't see. Biden had warned about the downticket damage that he worried Sanders or Warren would do, but he did it in an interview with a South Carolina newspaper.

While Biden and Klobuchar have portrayed Sanders as wanting to upend the Obama legacy - Klobuchar still says he would "blow up the Affordable Care Act" - many voters were unmoved.

"Right after Obama got elected, I got into Occupy Wall Street," said Ryan Vestal, 43, a truck driver who was giving rides to canvassers once they arrived in Iowa. "Looking back on it now, Obama didn't do anything about Wall Street. He didn't want to prosecute the bankers that crashed our economy. He appointed Wall Street bankers and Wall Street executives to his Cabinet. He let the pipeline protest play out for months without making decisions."

Other voters said they saw Sanders as the candidate who could build on Barack Obama. Adoration for the former president runs deep in Iowa, and at his stops this weekend, Michael Moore would sometimes pivot from criticizing the 44th president's mistakes to asking Iowans to remember the joy they felt when he was elected - joy they could feel again if they elected Sanders.

"Remember when Barack Obama was running," Moore asked an audience in Iowa City. "How many people in your family, how many friends, said to you: 'Oh, well, I liked that speech at the convention, but I know this country won't elect him.' How many times did you hear that?"

Obama might disagree with the comparison. But he was staying quiet about the caucuses, as the Sanders team flooded the state with canvassers, knocking on a door every two seconds.
(Newser)  One of the House's seven impeachment managers is going to have to miss parts of President Trump's trial. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says his wife of 43 years, Joyce Miller, has pancreatic cancer and he will spent Monday with her in New York as she meets with doctors to determine "a path forward," reports Politico. "I am sorry to miss some of the Senate Impeachment Trial, which is of critical importance to our democracy," the Democrat said in a statement. "I plan to return to Washington late Monday and appreciate the support of my colleagues and staff as I take this time to be with my wife and begin the long fight against her cancer." Nadler said his wife was hospitalized and diagnosed with cancer in December, after the Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment, reports NBC New York. (Nadler said last week that Trump's conduct "puts even Nixon to shame.")
New Delhi: In order to promote seamless movement of goods across the country the government may consider the announcement of national logistics policy in Union budget 2020-21. The logistics division under the commerce ministry is working in the matter and trying to extract a simple policy for the import-export system of India.

The policy, which also aimed at reducing the high transaction cost of traders, may be proposed setting up of a central portal, which will provide end-to-end logistics solutions to companies.

The portal will be a single-window marketplace to link all stakeholders.

The proposed policy will also focus on increasing the warehousing capacity and identify gaps that could be bridged to bring down the cost of logistics for traders.

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Besides, there is a proposal to create a national logistics e-marketplace as a one-stop marketplace for exporters and importers, set up a separate fund for start-ups in the logistics sector and to double employment in the sector.

High logistics cost impacts the competitiveness of domestic goods in international markets.

The sources said that effective implementation of the policy would help provide an impetus to trade, enhance export competitiveness, and improve India's ranking in the Logistics Performance Index.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will unveil the Budget for 2020-21 on February 1.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to deny green cards to immigrants who are thought to be likely to make even occasional and minor use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the courts conservative justices in the majority. The courts brief order gave no reasons for lifting preliminary injunctions that had blocked the new program. Challenges to the program will continue to move forward in courts around the nation.

The administration announced in August that it would revise the so-called public charge rule, which allows officials to deny permanent legal status, also known as a green card, to immigrants who are likely to need public assistance. In the past, only substantial and sustained monetary help or long-term institutionalization counted, and fewer than 1 percent of applicants were disqualified on public-charge grounds.

The administrations revised rule broadened the criteria to include noncash benefits providing for basic needs such as housing or food used in any 12 months in a 36-month period. Use of two kinds of benefits in a single month counts as two months, and so on.
Police have two suspects in a shooting at a South Carolina bar that killed two people and wounded several others, authorities said.

The suspects were being arrested and warrants served for the shooting around 2 am on Sunday at Mac's Lounge in Hartsville. Their names weren't immediately being released, Hartsville spokeswoman Lauren Baker said in a statement on Monday.

Dicaprio Collins, 21, and Bryan Robinson, 29, were killed, Darlington County Coroner Todd Hardee said. Four others were hurt and taken to hospitals, Baker said.

According to its Facebook page, Mac's Lounge also serves as a music venue. Hartsville is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Charlotte, North Carolina. Investigators have released little information about the shooting.

Democratic state Senator Gerald Malloy called the shooting a "senseless loss of life" on Twitter. He said the club is about two blocks from his law office and he spent hours Sunday at the business.

A witness described a chaotic scene as bar patrons ran for their lives.

Samuel Dupree told WMBF-TV he was dancing when he heard something that at first sounded like a firecracker, but he turned and saw the gunfire. He said people in the bar were rushing toward the exit.

"People were trying to get through that tiny door and they couldn't," he said. "I helped someone up off the ground I saw get trampled. I'm not going to let this person just die from getting run over."



The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the US Marshals Service are assisting Hartsville police with the investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Morrison government has been urged to up its climate goals to protect the country's international reputation and for global humanitarian reasons.

Kylie Porter, the executive director of United Nations affiliate Global Compact Network Australia, said the federal government must set "more aggressive and ambitious" climate targets before the 2020 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November.

Save the Children chief executive Paul Ronalds, who returned from Bangladesh this week, said "thousands and thousands" of climate refugees were pouring into the capital, Dhaka. Credit:AP

"If we don't come up with some pretty strong policy before the next international climate change conference ... it's highly likely that Australia's reputation will get worse," Ms Porter said.

Australia drew international criticism at last year's UN climate talks when it avoided tougher emissions reduction targets by banding together with a small group of nations to oppose a measure that would have stopped it using controversial "carry-over credits" to meet its climate goals.
By PTI

AHMEDABAD: Hundreds of women, accompanied by children, on Sunday took out a "tiranga yatra" against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) here in Gujarat during which they recited the Preamble to the Constitution.

The police had given permission for the protest march on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day on the condition that no man will participate, an organising member claimed.

The protesters started from the Ajit Mill compound in Rakhiyal locality, the venue of the anti-citizenship law demonstrations since the last two weeks, and marched till Vir Abdul Hamid Chowk, a distance of around 2 kms, before returning to the starting point.

"We had sought permission for the women-only tiranga rally to mark the Republic Day celebrations, which was granted by the police on the condition that men will not participate. Police had asked us to not mix the tiranga rally with the anti-CAA protest," activist Kalim Siddiqui said, adding that a few men remained present as volunteers.

While the protesters didn't shout any anti-CAA slogans during the march, they chanted the preamble the Constitution, he claimed.

"Women participants unfurled the tricolour and recited the preamble to the Constitution throughout the rally," he said.

Siddiqui further said that volunteers engaged children with various competitions at the site of the protest who also recited the preamble to the Constitution in Urdu.

Siddiqui said a sit-in to support the Shaheen Bagh gathering in Delhi has been going on at the mill compound where "90 per cent participants are women".

"We will wind up the protest when it is done so in Shaheen Bagh," he said.

Thousands of people, including women and children, have been protesting since December 15 at Shaheen Bagh and nearby Jamia Millia Islamia against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Meanwhile, some activists spoke at the gathering ahead of the Ahmedabad rally.

In a separate event, an all-faith prayer meet was organised in Dariyapur locality of the city where women also read the Holy Quran.

Congress MLA from Dariyapur, Gyasuddin Sheikh, members of his party as well as local people participated in the programme.

A silent protest was also held against the CAA during which placards were displayed.
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Amid the nuclear talks deadlock with the United States, the state media and propaganda efforts of North Korea have now been focusing on the prospect of a long confrontation with the US. According to a North Korean local media outlet, the propaganda effort has included calls for the North Korean citizens to 'breakthrough barriers' and 'strengthen the country'. Kim Jong Un's government has also been working hard in the past weeks with the help of state media, propaganda posters and performances to warn the public of a bumpy road ahead under US and international pressure.

Earlier, North Korea has also reportedly said that it is no longer bound by commitments to halt nuclear and missile testing. They have also blamed US for failing to meet the year-end deadline for it to show more flexibility in the nuclear talks and its 'brutal and inhumane' sanctions. Recently North Korea also appointed a former defence commander as its new foreign minister as he was involved in several negotiations with the United States.

READ: North Korea Names Army Figure As New Foreign Minister

According to media reports, the latest appointment can have a huge impact on the stalled nuclear talks as Ri Son Gwon is known for his confrontational role during negotiations. Though he has held high-level talks with South Korea, he has never dealt with nuclear issues that have caused a strenuous relation with Washington.

Warnings against missile tests

On December 11, US Representative to the United Nations Kelly Craft, while speaking at the Security Council, warned North Korea against further missile and nuclear tests. She had raised concerns about Norths indication of intercontinental ballistic missile tests which will bring the US in its range. Craft said that the US has sought to engage in robust diplomacy with the DPRK, but the signs were deeply troubling.

READ: North Korea Walks Away From Nuclear Talks, Blames US' Failure To Meet A Year-end Deadline

Let me be clear, we have not asked North Korea to do everything, before we do anything. We are prepared to be flexible, but we cannot solve this problem alone, remarked the Ambassador after the Council meeting. Craft suggested North Korea avoid provocations and engage in dialogue. Peace is a better way, and peace can only be achieved by doing this together, she said.

(With inputs from agencies)

READ: North Korea Appoints Military Veteran As Foreign Minister Amid Stalled Nuclear Talks

READ: Australian Student Says He Was Kidnapped By Secret Police In North Korea
(Natural News) Fifth generation wireless technology (5G) will forever alter human evolution, inundating human cells and subtle energy systems of the human body with constant pulses of radio-frequency radiation and electromagnetic fields. 5G is a technological terror and could cause a global catastrophe of human health problems. Here are ten reasons why 5G must be stopped:

Disruption of voltage-gated calcium channels in human cells

5G alters cellular activity by activating the bodys voltage-gated calcium channels. According to EMF scientist Dr. Martin Pall, 5G electromagnetic fields force excess calcium ions to release into cells. This sets off a chain of reactions that increase peroxynitrite formation and free radical activity, damaging DNA and causing premature aging.

Deep EMF penetration and oxidative stress

The studies of Professor Hassig and his colleagues in Switzerland find microwave frequency EMFs to cause oxidative stress deep within the body of animals. Animals that grazed near cell phone towers were born with increased incidence of cataracts.

Multi-generational mitochondrial damage

Exposure to millimeter wave frequency EMF radiation causes damage to the mitochondria of cells and contributes to brain cancer.The DNA damage is cross-generational, mutagenic and can be inherited by offspring.

Neuro-psychiatric effects

The impacts of EMFs on the brain are subtle at first, but with cumulative, repeated exposure, can cause headaches, irritability, sleep disturbances, altered memory and depression.

Pulsed wave EMFs proven more dangerous and cause breaks in cellular DNA

EMF scientists Dr. Pall points to thirteen studies proving why 5Gs pulsed wave EMFs are more active and dangerous than the old continuous wave EMFs. Pulsed wave EMFS can cause single strand and double strand breaks in cellular DNA, while oxidizing cellular bases in cellular DNA. This is one way to cause cancer in the body.

Manipulation of the skin through sweat duct antennae

The frequencies that emanate from 5G can affect sweat ducts across the human body, potentially manipulating how the body regulates temperature. Because sweat ducts work like helical antennaes, they absorb the electromagnetic energy from 5G radiation between 75 and 100 GHz. If the sweat ducts can be manipulated by 5G, then a persons body can be manipulated into stress through this external channel.

Potential to become a direct energy weapons system

5G hardware uses a dielectric lens and can reportedly be operated in the sub-gigahertz range. Because of this, it will ultimately allow autonomous vehicles to communicate with one another. This technology could eventually double as a weapons system, because it is similar to long range radar, phased array radar, and directed energy weapons. In fact, the same technology is already used for crowd dispersal.

Potential to manipulate crowd movement

Because 5G uses short wavelength frequencies in the millimeter range, it could ultimately be used to hurt and manipulate crowds of people. These same short wavelength frequencies are used by the militarys non lethal Active Denial Systems to disperse crowds. When the waves hit a person, the person feels a burning sensation and will move.

Phased array densification

In order for 5G to work, there will need to be significantly more cell towers, stations and bases. Cities and residential neighborhoods will become polluted with new sources of radiation, which will send frequencies into homes, through brick walls and concrete. This influx of 5G infrastructure will include thousands of new small phased array antennas shooting out radiation in all directions, penetrating homes and human bodies.

Re-Radiation inside the body

Radiofrequency researcher Arthur Firstenberg explains that 5G pulses are shorter and must be delivered in multiple bursts. Because of this, the bursts are capable of re-replicating, over and over inside the body. In 2002, Firstenber wrote,  when extremely short electromagnetic pulses enter the body, something else happens: the moving charges themselves become little antennas that re-radiate the electromagnetic field and send it deeper into the body 

5G promises faster internet speeds, but ushering in this new world of hyper-connectivity comes with multiple risks to human health. Some nations are banning 5G, while others are openly embracing it, without any care.

For more, visit Radiation.News.

Sources include:

WakingTimes.com

S3.AmazonAWS.com

NaturalNews.com
Samsung is reportedly working on a new entry-level smartphone called Galaxy A21s with dual cameras.

Samsung appears to be paying special attention to its Galaxy A-series of entry-level and mid-range smartphones in this new year. Last month, it officially announced the Galaxy A51 and Galaxy A71 smartphones globally, both of which are confirmed to go live in the Indian market in the next few days. According to a new report from Sammobile, the Korean electronics manufacturer is now working on an entry-level model called Galaxy A21s with dual cameras. Other models reportedly in the works are the Galaxy A41 and possibly the Galaxy A31.

According to the report, the Galaxy A21s is not preceded by a non-s Galaxy A21, as has been the case with many Galaxy A-series models in the past. Rather, its possible Samsung will market the same phone in the US as the Galaxy A21 and in other markets as the Galaxy A21s. Not much about the Galaxy A21s is known at this point. It is expected to come in two storage variants, namely 32GB and 64GB. It will also come in a number of colour options, namely blue, red, black, and white.

The Samsung Galaxy A21s, whose model number is most likely SM-A217F, is expected to sport a dual camera setup on its back panel even though its an entry-level device. Though the report doesnt shed light on the resolution of the primary sensor, it does confirm the presence of a 2MP macro sensor. A macro sensor (of unknown resolution) is also expected to do duty on the more mysterious Galaxy A41. The information we have on hand so far suggests that Samsung is betting big on macro photography even on entry-level models.

The Samsung Galaxy A51 and Galaxy A71, which were announced globally last month, are expected to become available on Samsungs online store in the next few days. The Galaxy A51 features an Exynos 9611 chip with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The slightly larger Galaxy A71 features the same maximum RAM and storage options but gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chip. The Galaxy A51 is expected to be priced at Rs 22,990, while the Galaxy A71 is expected to be priced at Rs 29,990. You can read more about them here.

Note: Cover image represents outgoing model Samsung Galaxy A20s
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A student is in lockdown in Waterford as a precaution after he travelled to Ireland from the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

The virus, which has so far killed 81 people, is believed to have originated in Wuhan in Chinas Hubei province.

The city was placed into lockdown last week by the Chinese government in a bid to contain the spread of this news strain of coronavirus, which has now been confirmed in more than 2,700 cases.

Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has now confirmed that one of its international students arrived in Waterford on Sunday having left Wuhan before the city was closed.

He is not ill and as a precaution he has agreed not to attend college and stay in his accommodation by himself for the time being, a WIT spokeswoman said.

We have been in touch with the HSE and are being directed by them.

No cases of the outbreak have yet been confirmed in Ireland. However, the HSEs Health Protection Surveillance Centre have described the outbreak as an emerging, rapidly evolving situation.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the outbreak was detected because China has a system that picks up severe lower respiratory infections.

WHO's risk assessment is that the outbreak is a high risk regionally and globally.

More than 70 people tested for coronavirus in the UK have received negative results.

A further seven people tested in Scotland also returned negative results.

The main symptoms of coronavirus are fever, cough and shortness of breath.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms may appear two to 14 days after infection.

In Wuhan, a 1,000-bed hospital has been built in a number of days, specially for treating patients believed to be affected with the virus in a bid to contain the outbreak.
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The strong international orders growth (64 percent y/y) led Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to report a 2 percent y/y order inflows of 42 bn. Revenue was a miss, rising only 6 percent y/y to 362bn due to hydrocarbon (16 percent y/y) and services (63 percent y/y).

The EBITDA margin came flat at 11.4 percent. PAT grew 15 percent y/y to 23.5bn. Working capital was a high 23.5 percent. Management talked of an opportunity pipeline of 3 trillion for Q4 FY20. Considering the strong prospects and robust order backlog of 3 trillion, we maintain a buy, with a revised target of 1,761 (a sum-of-parts valuation, based on FY22e).

While the economic environment is subdued, management talked of prospects of 3 trillion for Q4 FY20.

Internationally, sectors such as power T&D, water, metro rail and hydrocarbons would contribute to growth. This would lead to ~10-12 percent growth in order inflows of ~ Rs 1,900bn-2,000 bn, in line with management guidance. In nine months, order inflows grew 11 percent y/y to Rs 1,286 bn (international 34 percent). The order book has grown 9 percent y/y to 3,063bn.

Despite the lower-than-expected revenue growth in Q3, management retained its 12-15 percent growth guidance as a few large projects from Andhra Pradesh, the Mumbai Coastal Road project and NCR will start contributing to revenue from Q4 FY20. In infra, a pick-up in execution is expected to lead to expanded margins. Further, margins in hydrocarbons and power are expected to improve in the core business due to the strong order backlog.

With a strong book, we believe that sales growth will be healthy and margins are likely to hold or improve. Further, monetisation of non-core assets will help the company release capital and improve return ratios. We maintain a buy.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

Documentary film Black Orchards: Azerbaijan and Armenias Wars produced by TRT World was screened at Azerbaijans Consulate General in Los Angeles on Jan. 23, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijans Consulate General in Los Angeles.

Last week the film received the "Best Short Documentary" award at the Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Hosted and organized by Azerbaijans Consulate General in Los Angeles, the event was attended by the film's senior producer Oubai Shahbandar and the director and producer Atakan Kerkuklu, as well as consuls general and honorary consuls of various countries, faith and community leaders, media representatives, scholars, members of the local Azerbaijani community and leaders of Turkish, Pakistani, Jewish, Iranian, Korean, Latino and other communities.

Opening the event, Azerbaijans Consul General in Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev gave detailed information on the history of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Armenias policy of aggression, military occupation and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan.

Aghayev stated that as a result of the illegal occupation of around 20 percent of Azerbaijans sovereign territory, over 800,000 Azerbaijani civilians were expelled from their ancestral lands in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The consul general also noted that Armenia refuses to fulfill four United Nations Security Council resolutions condemning the occupation and demanding the unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijans occupied areas.

Then the documentary film Black Orchards: Azerbaijan and Armenias Wars was screened. The film was received by the audience with much interest.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
SHANGHAI -- The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 on Monday, as the government extended the Lunar New Year holiday and more big businesses shut down or told staff to work from home in an effort to curb the spread.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, as the government sought to signal it was responding seriously to the crisis.

The total number of confirmed cases in China rose about 30% to 2,744, about half of them in Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan.

As worries grew around the world, Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has had eight confirmed cases, banned entry to people who had visited Hubei in the past 14 days. The ban did not cover Hong Kong residents.

The number of deaths from the flu-like virus in Hubei climbed to 76 from 56, health officials said, with five deaths elsewhere in China, including the southern island province of Hainan, which reported its first fatality on Monday.

While a small number of cases have been confirmed in more than 10 countries, linked to people who traveled from Wuhan, no deaths have been reported elsewhere.

Li is the most senior leader to visit Wuhan since the outbreak began. Clad in a blue protective suit and mask, he inspected efforts to contain the epidemic and spoke to patients and medical staff, the government said.

The government is extending the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 2, in a bid to slow the spread of the virus. The Lunar New Year is usually a time for millions of people to travel, but many have had to cancel their plans because of travel curbs over the virus.

Wuhan is already in virtual lockdown and severe limits on movement are in place in several other Chinese cities.

The city of 11 million clamped down further on Monday, announcing the suspension of visa and passport services until Jan. 30.

Despite the curbs, the mayor of Wuhan said on Sunday that five million people had left the city for holidays and other reasons.

Images from Wuhan showing hospital corridors packed with people seeking treatment have circulated on social media, along with complaints of soaring prices for essentials such as vegetables.

Incubation period 1-14 days

Chinese leaders have called for transparency in the crisis, after public trust was eroded by the cover-up of the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.

Much is not known about the newly identified coronavirus, including how easily it spreads and just how dangerous it is. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

Chinese National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said on Sunday the incubation period could range from one to 14 days, and the virus was infectious during incubation, unlike SARS.

The virus is believed to have originated late last year in a Wuhan market illegally selling wildlife. It has spread to other cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as more than 10 countries including France, Japan and the United States.

Australia confirmed its fifth case on Monday involving a woman on the last flight out of Wuhan to Sydney before Chinas travel ban.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health experts have questioned the effectiveness.

The World Health Organization (WHO) last week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is due to travel to Beijing to meet officials and health experts.

Judgement of the people

Australia, France, Italy, Japan and the United States have all said they are working to evacuate citizens from Wuhan.

Japan is expected to arrange a charter flight as early as Tuesday for citizens who wish to return from Wuhan, Kyodo news agency said. France said it expected to repatriate up to a few hundred of its 800 citizens living in the Wuhan area.

Hubei Governor Wang Xiaodong told a Sunday news conference he felt agonized and responsible for the outbreak, but his comments sparked anger on social media.

He thinks one sentence of apology will be enough to solve the problem? Lets await the judgment of the people, one user said in on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo.

It is rare for Chinese authorities to allow such criticizm of public officials on tightly controlled social media.

The outbreak has upset global markets, with stocks tumbling on Monday, while demand for safe-haven assets spiked and Singapore warned of negative impact on its economy.

Some of Chinas biggest companies have been affected, with hotpot restaurant chain Haidilao International Holding shutting branches nationwide from Sunday to Friday.

Gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd advised staff to work from home until Feb. 7, and e-commerce firm Alibaba removed sales of overpriced face masks from its online Taobao marketplace as prices surged.
Indeed, in October 2018, Michael Sanchez and AMI entered into a nondisclosure agreement concerning certain information, photographs and text messages documenting an affair between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, according to three people who have reviewed the agreement. The existence of the contract was first reported by the New York Times. One of those people also confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that federal prosecutors who are investigating whether the Enquirer tried to extort Bezos have reviewed the text messages that Lauren Sanchez allegedly gave to her brother and that he then provided to the tabloid.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer Watchdog said in a letter today that Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara should reject a proposed 5% auto insurance rate increase by Mercury Insurance Company that discriminates against lower income, less-educated drivers.

The group called on Commissioner Lara to stop approving rate increases with job and education-based premium surcharges, surcharges that a Department of Insurance investigation has found create "wide socioeconomic disparities," until new rules take effect.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 28, the California Department of Insurance will hold a prenotice workshop to discuss proposed regulations addressing these disparities that, if done right, could bar this discriminatory use of occupation and education to set auto insurance premiums.

Read Consumer Watchdog's letter to the Commissioner: https://consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/2020-01-27%20CWD%20Letter%20to%20CDI%20re%20Rate%20Application%20of%20Mercury%20Insurance%20Group%20%2819-4239%29_0.pdf

"Commissioner Lara should stop approving rate increases that he has acknowledged are discriminatory and issue rules to ensure that lower income communities of color no longer pay more to subsidize the rich," said Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog. "California law prohibits drivers from paying more based on how much they earn and where they went to school, instead of how well they drive."

A September 2019 Department of Insurance analysis of industry data confirmed that insurance companies are charging higher premiums to drivers who reside in ZIP codes with lower per capita incomes, reflecting job status; have lower levels of educational attainment; and in which communities of color predominate.

However, despite the Department's findings that insurance companies use occupation and education to overcharge communities of color and blue-collar California drivers, the Department of Insurance appears poised to approve Mercury Insurance Company's pending rate application including those surcharges. Mercury seeks to increase the surcharge on drivers not employed in one of the company's preferred occupations. Currently, drivers in Mercury's "Basic Program" who are not employed in one of Mercury's preferred professional occupation groups pay 12% more than engineersone of the preferred occupations. In Mercury's proposed rate increase, drivers in the "Basic Program" will now pay 16% more than engineers. Under the current rates teachers are surcharged less than half a percentage point more than engineers. If the increase is approved by Commissioner Lara, that disparity will increase and teachers will pay 7.77% more than engineers.

"Despite assurances the Department would address these unjustified and unlawful surcharges, the harm to communities of color and blue-collar California drivers is growing, forcing people who do not qualify for special treatment to subsidize the premiums of those in elite professions like doctors, engineers, and CPAs," said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog and author of insurance reform Proposition 103. "New rules must end these surcharges on lower-income and less-educated drivers that drive up the cost of insurance for people who can least afford it."

Consumer Watchdog and ten other civil rights and public interest organizations petitioned the Commissioner to end job and education-based surcharges in February 2019. Read the petition: https://consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/Job%26EducationPetition.pdf

The organizations petitioned Commissioner Lara to simply ban the use of education and occupation as rating factors. The Commissioner rejected that petition and instead begun a process that has resulted in the draft regulation to be discussed on Tuesday. Consumer Watchdog will testify that the proposed regulation as drafted does not yet ensure that insurers' discriminatory use of education and occupation ends, or that insurance companies are required to comply with the plain text and intent of California voters when they passed Proposition 103.

Voter-approved Proposition 103 requires premiums be based primarily on three mandatory factors  driving safety record, annual mileage, and years driving experience  and prohibits unfairly discriminatory rates. Insurance companies must obtain agency approval for their rates and premiums. The Commissioner can adopt other optional rating factors by regulation that have less impact on premiums than the three mandatory factors, but occupation and education have never been adopted as rating factors.

The workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, January 28 at 10:00 am at the Department of Insurance in downtown Los Angeles: 300 South Spring Street, 1st Floor  Hearing Room (North Tower).

In December, over Consumer Watchdog's objections, the Department approved another rate application with job and education-based surcharges. Farmers Insurance's rate application included a three-tiered rating system under which doctors, engineers, accountants, and scientists are offered the special privilege of the lowest rate. Police officers, firefighters, and nurses  pay up to 7.19% more. All others, like janitors, factory workers, and waiters who do not have one of these preferred occupations pay up to 13.81% more. Overall, more than 60% of Farmers' auto insurance business is subjected to higher base rates based solely on the rated driver's occupation.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog

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Linkedin Karina M. Tehusijarana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, January 28, 2020 10:58 715 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2061358a3 1 World journalist,journalist-detained,visa-violation,Immigration-Office,mahfud-md,immigration-violations,Philip-Jacobson Free

American environmental journalist Philip Jacobson remains under city arrest in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, days after being released from prison, his lawyer has said.

Jacobson, an editor for environmental science and conservation news portal Mongabay, was detained by immigration officers last week on the accusation of abusing his business visa. He was subsequently locked up in the Palangkaraya Penitentiary.

Palangkaraya Legal Aid Foundation head Aryo Nugroho, one of Jacobson's lawyers, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that Jacobson had been released on Friday but remained under city arrest.

Aryo also confirmed that the immigration office was holding Jacobson's passport, which it confiscated on Dec. 17, 2019.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said on Friday, after a meeting with United States Ambassador Joseph Donovan, that he would contact immigration authorities and recommend they deport Jacobson as soon as possible.

Immigration officials did not immediately respond to requests for information on Jacobson's current status.

Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said the charges against the journalist should be dropped.

"We welcome the decision of Indonesian authorities to suspend his detention. However, as a follow up, the charge against him must be dropped," Usman said in a statement on Monday. "The charge against Philip comes at a time of when Indonesia is seeing a rise in violent attacks against and persecution of environmentalists and journalists. We are deeply concerned that the real reason behind the criminal charges for Jacobson is not merely a visa violation but his work for Mongabay.
IRGC Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh 'suspected it was Iran who shot down the plane'

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps lied to President Hassan Rouhani by telling him they had not shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet while they scrambled to cover up the disaster, a new report claims.

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the top commander of the IRGC's aerospace division, suspected that two Iranian anti-aircraft missiles had destroyed a Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet just outside of Tehran almost immediately after it happened.

In a later televised broadcast, Hajizadeh said that on the night of the disaster, he contacted the top brass of the IRGC to tell them what had happened.

He said that he admitted to them 'it's highly possible we hit our own plane,' according to a report from the New York Times published on Sunday.

On January 8, amid rising tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic, the Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian Boeing plane as it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers on-board.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani makes a speech on upcoming parliamentary elections, in Tehran last week. When Rouhani finally found out it was Iranian missiles that downed the Ukrainian passenger jet, he threatened to resign if the IRGC refused to announce the news internationally

Head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division Amir Ali Hajizadeh speaks to media during a press conference in Tehran in September last year. Hajizadeh said that he suspected it was Iranian missiles that had downed the plane soon after he learnt of the catastrophe, according to a report

Due to the complex political and clerical hierarchy in Iran, the elite IRGC reports solely to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not to the country's president.

The IRGC made every effort to hide the truth from Rouhani, with the leaders ensuring the truth was kept among themselves and not learned of by anyone, the report alleges.

They set-up a top-secret committee to investigate the cause of the attack, eventually deciding that the missiles had been launched due to 'human-error'.

In the aftermath of the catastrophe, officials from Rouhani's government adamantly denied any Iranian involvement.

Ali Rabiei, the government spokesman, called international accusations a 'big lie'.

The report, which gives a day-by-day chronology of the events after the crash, alleges that by Thursday, government officials were becoming suspicious of the military's denials.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives his first Friday sermon after eight years in the Imam Khomeini Musalla, in Tehran, Iran on January 17, 2020. The IRGC kept President Hassan Rouhani in the dark for three days. The Revolutionary Guard report directly to Khamenei, not to the president

'Thursday was frantic,' Rabiei said later in a news conference. 'The government made back-to-back phone calls and contacted the armed forces asking what happened, and the answer to all the questions was that no missile had been fired.'

According to the New York Times, Rouhani attempted to contact a number of military commanders who blanked his calls.

It wasn't until Friday - two days later - that the miltary commanders called a meeting to enlighten their president of the truth.

Iran has said it has 'no plans' to send the black boxes from downed Ukrainian passenger plane to Kyiv less than 24 hours after stating they would be sent. (Pictured: Black boxes from flight)

The Revolutionary Guard shot down the Ukrainian airlines passenger plane - killing all 176 people on board - when it took off from Tehran on January 8. (Bodies at the crash scene)

After Rouhani discovered what had happened, he pushed for the news to be broadcast quickly, which was then resisted by IRGC leaders.

It took him threatening his resignation for them to give in, according to the New York Times.

On January 11, three days after the crash, Iran announced that they had 'regrettably' fired missiles at the jet 'due to human error' and killed '176 innocent people.'
Experts critical of plan to install barrier around Rome landmark.

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi has defended the city's plan to install a protective barrier around the Trevi Fountain, saying that it would not impede the view of the Baroque monument or affect the tradition of flinging coins into its waters.

Raggi said the barrier would be similar to structures already in place around certain Roman fountains such as the Turtle Fountain in Piazza Mattei, or the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini in Piazza Navona.

Describing the plan as "common sense", Raggi said the barrier would allow police to concentrate on curbing illegal trading in the surrounding piazza which the city recently rid of souvenir stands.

However several noted experts disagree strongly with the plan, as reported in Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. The most trenchant of these critics is the architect and historian Paolo Portoghesi who finds the proposal "truly foolish", according to La Repubblica.

Portoghesi believes it is sufficient to have officers on duty to tell tourists how to behave, forbidding them from sitting on the edges of the actual fountain, "but installing a barrier seems a frightening offence to the beauty of a masterpiece that gives itself generously to those who observe it."

Urban planner Vezio De Lucia is also against the proposal, comparing it to the ban on sitting at the Spanish Steps, which has resulted in "everyone sitting at the Barcaccia" fountain below.

"The problem of pressure from tourism exists, in Rome as in Venice, as well as in many other art cities" - De Lucia told La Repubblica - "but it cannot be solved with these ideas of false decorum."

The Trevi Fountain was also in the news in recent days after plans were unveiled to open a secret balcony above the 18th-century landmark.

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MIDDLETOWN  The 20-year-old Wesleyan student from Massachusetts involved in a car accident Saturday on Bear Hill Road has died from injuries sustained in the crash, police said.

The victim, identified by the university as Daniel "Dani" Jewell-Tyrcha, of Scituate, Mass., was driving northbound on Maromas Road near the intersection with Bear Hill Road Saturday evening when the vehicle began to veer left, according to a release issued by police Monday. The car struck a tree at the left shoulder of the roadway, the release said.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government will table a copy of the resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 in the State Assembly today.

"We are not bonded laborers. We are citizens of India," said Mamata Banerjee while addressing students at packed Netaji Indoor Stadium here on Monday.

"Our stand is very clear on CAA from the first day. Country cannot be run by one color," she added.

After Kerala, Punjab, and Rajasthan, West Bengal will be the fourth state to pass a resolution against the CAA. The state assembly had on September 6 last year, passed a resolution against Register of Citizens (NRC).

The TMC has been a vocal opponent of the CAA and NRC and has made it clear that it will be not implemented in the state.

For quite some time, Banerjee has been organizing mega rallies against the CAA and the NRC and has launched attacks on the BJP-led Central government over these issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)




NOTE: This review contains spoilers.



Off and on since 1966, episodes of a series bearing the words Star Trek have been on television screens. Thats over 50 years of what many consider the standard-bearer when it comes to quality science fiction storytelling. Thats over 50 years of inspiring young adventurers, scientists, and writers enthralled by the worlds and values created by Gene Roddenberry. When it was announced that a new series, featuring Jean-Luc Picard was coming, I rushed to put my request in to review the show for SpoilerTV. Star Trek and I have a special connection  selling an idea to Star Trek: Next Generation was one of my first professional writer sales. It thrills me to no end to report that Star Trek: Picard, airing on CBSAllAccess is an exceptional production and makes an impressive debut.





Set 14 years after his retirement from Starfleet, this series will follow the latest adventures former Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), one of the most revered officers in Star Trek history. But this is not the same Jean-Luc Picard we remember. This Picard is weary and battle-worn, trying to live a quiet existence at his family vineyard in France, Chateau Picard, with his Romulan housekeepers, Laris and Zhaban (Orla Brady and Jamie McShane). But he just cant quite let go of the past, dreaming of poker games with Data (Brent Spiner) and sharing his afternoon glass of wine and walks with his constant four-legged companion, appropriately named Number One. While living the life of the country gentleman part of him longs for adventure and no amount of wine can shake his boredom. This is a troubled Picard as well. We learn in a contentious interview with a reporter played in a nice appearance from Merrin Dungey, that Picards Starfleet isnt the one we remember either. Hes bitter that his retirement came about from an unforgivable betrayal by the Federation when he was on a mercy mission to rescue Romulans and a world still reeling from a deadly attack by sentient AIs. No one trusts Androids any longer.Picards ennui is shaken by the arrival of a troubled young woman named Dahj the intriguing Isa Briones, who has been compelled to seek him out for help after she was attacked. She doesnt know him or why shes come, but she feels she can trust him. Picard senses something familiar about this young woman but cant put his finger on it. He gets a clue about it in a dream where Data invites him to finish a painting he is working on. Even though Picard gave her sanctuary, Dahj flees sensing she is putting him in danger. His quest to find her takes him back to San Francisco, the former HQ of Star Fleet where he discovers that he does indeed have a unique connection with her. A trip to the Star Fleet archives leads him to one of Datas painting. A painting of Dahj. The name of the painting is. It appears she is Datas daughter. Shes followed him and they are attacked by a mysterious team and she is tragically killed. Hes stunned when during the battle the attackers are revealed to be Romulan!Disturbed by her death, Picard investigates further and finds himself at the Daystrom Institute consulting with scientist Dr. Agnes Jurati, (Allison Pill) who shocks him by revealing that Dahj is likely a clone. That she is probably the result of fractal neuronic cloning from just one portion of Datas positronic brain, in other words, she was an android with an organic body but a positronic brain. Hes even further rocked when Jurati reveals the procedure resulted in twins. Datas other daughter and ultimately the only living part of Data left is alive and out there somewhere. Picard now has a mission; hes determined to find Dahjs twin. Little does he realize that the twin is indeed out there and she is working with Romulans aboard a Borg ship.If ever there was an actor and a role so perfectly matched it is Sir Patrick Stewart and Jean-Luc Picard. Stewart has not played Picard since Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, yet he easily steps back into the demeanor and characteristics of the character. But he also gives us a Picard that has aged well and can still command a room with a look or an arch of his eyebrow. He may be a step slower, but he is still in charge of this series from its opening moments. The production values and special effects are near film quality. The producers and writers are to be commended for giving us everything we love about Star Trek, but also bringing us something new with some perfectly paced story-telling. The delicious twist of having two of Picards most dangerous enemies, the Romulans, and the Borg work together was genius. Theyve brought us classic Star Trek themes, visits with familiar friends and villains, but have done it all with a new and exciting storyline.Future episodes will bring us old friends like Jeri Ryan, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and introduce us to soon to be favorites Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd. As a premiere, it was extremely engaging, and previews of future episodes promise us the adventure is just beginning. But one thing remains the same, we would all follow Jean-Luc Picard and Star Trek: Picard into the stars and beyond. What were your thoughts on the premiere of? Share them in the comments below.
A female worker who had her breasts squeezed by a male colleague after he told her he "would look after" her chest infection has been awarded 25,000 for sexual harassment.

At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Adjudication Officer, Kevin Baneham has ordered the womans employer pay out the 25,000 for the extensive humiliation endured by the woman over a series of sexual harassment incidents.

Mr Baneham stated that the evidence by the woman at the WRC hearing was cogent and clear and found that her allegations of sexual harassment are established as fact.

The service administrator reported the incidents of sexual harassment to her employer, a waste services company.

However, an investigation carried out by the employer did not uphold any of her sex harassment allegations.

In his findings, Mr Baneham stated that the worker was not believed when she should have been.

Mr Baneham stated that the female worker is an employee of good standing who did everything right.

Mr Baneham found that the employer was vicariously liable for the perpetrators actions as it did not take reasonable practicable steps to prevent the actions.

On the company investigation, Mr Baneham found that that the employer did not adequately assess the evidence; gave too little weight to the complainants account and did not press the perpetrator on the gaps in his evidence.

In one incident, the complainant stated that her male colleague came up behind her and placed his hands on her hips, squeezing her and when she asked him to stop, he pulled her into him, hugging her from the side.

In another instant, the woman was at a sink in the kitchenette at work when the alleged perpetrator pushed up against her.

He put his hands over her shoulders and her chest and slammed his porridge bowl into the sink and he proceeded to clean the bowl over her shoulders.

She also stated that the alleged perpetrator also referred to the finance staff as bitches when saying they they were our bitches. She said that this was degrading.

The complainant outlined that the harassment was extremely distressing and had a detrimental effect on her physical and mental health

The complainant also alleged that she was subjected to an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment.

The complainant also stated that her male colleague made continuous comments about a criminal gang.

She explained that she has a familial connection to members of the gang, and while she never mentioned this in work, she was aware that it was a topic of office gossip.

She stated that on one occasion, she was holding a vessel containing the ashes of a pet animal, when the alleged perpetrator said that this was her work for this criminal gang.

The complainant told the WRC that the alleged perpetrator portrayed himself as an over-friendly gay man who said he liked to touch people.

The alleged perpetrator left the business in July 2018 and the complainant did not return to work.

During the course of the investigation, the alleged perpetrator generally denied the incidents outlined by the complainant.

He accepted that the porridge bowl incident occurred although denied that there was any sexual connotation to it.

In his findings on the porridge bowl incident, Mr Baneham found that this was sexual harassment because of the humiliating effect it had on the complainant".

It was an uncomfortable, aggressive physical act where the complainant was engulfed by the perpetrators body.

He found that "the other elements of sexual harassment took place as described by the complainant".

Mr Baneham stated: A great deal of weight was placed in this case on the alleged perpetrators flamboyant nature. He is said to be tactile and loud. There is reference to him being gay and he says he is not monogamous. I have no idea of his sexual orientation; however, this is irrelevant. Discriminatory harassment is about power, not about attraction or unrequited affection."

Mr Baneham earlier stated: It is important to note that sexual harassment is not something that emanates from attraction. It is not a misplaced or unrequited advance. It is something that violates a persons dignity. The subjective intention of the perpetrator does not determine whether an act constitutes harassment; that is judged from the perspective of the victim.
Theres no doubt that celebrity backing helps spirits brands get attention and coverage. Look at George Clooney and the tequila brand Casamigos, or Ryan Reynolds and Aviation Gin. Hell, look at Conor McGregor, whose star power has turned Proper No. 12 Irish Whiskey into a huge hit, despite the fact that its nothing more than a cheap, serviceable blending whiskey. Even if celebrity exposure cant always help an inferior product, it does at the very least get eyes onto the bottle.

And for the most part, I have to admit that I dont really care. Its always next to impossible to really suss out what kind of level of involvement a musician, brand, actor, fighter, etc. had in a products development, especially when youre selling something like sourced whiskey. All I care about is whats in the bottle, and I hope youre of similar mindset.

That said: We can all agree that Bob Dylan is an American music legend, right? Okay, good. And with Dylan being a folk legend, it only makes sense that he has his own whiskey brand. Heavens Door Whiskey is set to open its own distillery in downtown Nashville in 2020, but unsurprisingly to anyone who understands whiskey production, that means you wont actually be TASTING any of his own distilled and aged product for years to come. Instead, everything produced by Heavens Door to date has been sourced, like so many other brands from young distilleries.

Heavens Door got a fair amount of coverage when it first released several of its bourbons last year, including a straight bourbon, a double barrel (finished in a second, toasted barrel) bourbon and a 10-year release, but we never got around to actually sampling them ourselves. A press release for the brands first rye whiskey release, however, caught our eye, with its promise of finishing its sourced rye in French oak, which has become very sought-after for its aromatic qualities. Heres how the distillery describes its first rye release:

Heavens Door Straight Rye Whiskey is aged for seven years in new, charred American oak barrels. Breaking with tradition, the whiskey is then finished for an additional six months in toasted oak cigar barrels, which were harvested and air-dried in the low-lying region of Vosges, France. This unique and proprietary finishingwhich has not been used before in whiskey makingresults in a smoother, more approachable rye that allows notes of citrus and spice to shine.

The reference to cigar barrels has led some spirits reporters to erroneously report that this whiskey was aged in barrels used to age tobacco, but this is not the case. Rather, these unusual barrels are referred to as cigar barrels for their shape, which is longer and more narrow than the traditional 53-gallon American white oak barrel, which leads to more surface contact with the wood.

This rye is, as the description states, 7 years old and bottled at 92 proof, and comes from that famed source of so many other sourced ryes, MGP of Indiana. That presumably means the classic MGP 95% rye recipe was used. MSRP is a rather steep $79.99, which is noticeably more than something like Templeton 6 Year Rye, which also uses the same MGP juice, but doesnt have the cigar barrel finishing process. Still, when the likes of Bulleit 12 Year Rye (also MGP) can often be found on the shelf for less than $50, you come to realize what youre paying extra for here is a combination of pretty bottle, Bob Dylan branding and whatever effect the six months of toasted oak cigar barrel finishing imparts.

So with that said, lets get to tasting.

On the nose, I was utterly struck by just how much this rye embodies the aromatic profile so many other writers have long associated with MGP. Its worth knowing that when I sampled this, I didnt even know it was from MGP, and thus didnt really have any preconception about how it would smell. I should also note that Ive of course tasted many, many other MGP ryes in the past, but never have I tasted one that was so strongly redolent in the one note people always associate with the distillerys rye: Dill pickle.

Holy cow, folks. Its almost a gag or a foregone conclusion at this point that whiskey writers will describe any MGP rye as smelling/tasting like dill, or like pickles, but in the past those notes really never jumped out all that strongly at me. Never in the past did I stick my nose in a glass of rye and immediately think Woah, this smells like a pickle ... until this moment. Because this Heavens Door rye is extremely dill forward on the nose, in a way that is unlike even other MGP ryes Ive reviewed in the past. Some distillers call that a flaw, while other drinkers love that note, but it is really strong here. Beyond the pickle chips, Im getting toasty notes and some caramel, along with mild cinnamon and black pepper, but its really kind of difficult just to get beyond the dill in the first place.

On the palate, however this is a very spicy rye indeed. Intense black pepper and rye brad spiciness are signature flavors here, supported by green apple fruitiness and maybe a bit of lemon zest. The dill herbaceousness raises its head again, but its not as big as it was on the nose. Likewise, I can see how some of the writers may have allowed the savory nature of this rye to convince them that there was indeed tobacco in those cigar barrels, because it has a slight tobacco-like quality as well. Theres a bit of sweetness, but overall this is definitely on the drier sideless baking spice and richness, more classic rye in the sense that its drier, spicier and less rich than youd expect in bourbon.

All in all, its a little bit difficult for me to say what exactly the cigar barrels/French oak might have contributed, as most of the notes here are typical of other MGP ryes on the market, and it lacks the warmer spices I usually associate with French oak-finished whiskeys. Its a pretty archetypal modern, high rye, MGP-style product, but at $79.99 one might be expecting a bit more of a deviation from the profile that the distillery has established. One thing is for sure: If you dont like that dill note, this isnt going to be for you.

Does this mean Bob Dylan loves pickles? That would be an interesting revelation to come across while drinking rye whiskey.

Distillery: Heavens Door Whiskey (MGP of Indiana)

City: Nashville, TN

Style: Straight rye whiskey

ABV: 46% (92 proof)

Availability: 750 ml bottles, $79.99 MSRP

Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident brown liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.
The virus shows no sign of slowing down. Photo: Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

The stock market has been remarkably stable in recent months, but investors seem seriously spooked by the spreading Wuhan coronavirus epidemic. As of 12:45 p.m. Monday, U.S. stocks are down 1.2 percent, having rebounded slightly from deeper lows. European markets fell more than 2 percent today. Why is the reaction so strong in financial markets that are distant from the center of this epidemic?

The history of the SARS epidemic reflects the fact that these novel virus outbreaks can have societal and economic impacts that are outsized, even compared to their death toll. SARS claimed nearly 800 lives globally during its 20022003 outbreak; for comparison, seasonal flu typically kills between 12,000 and 61,000 people annually just in the United States, according to the CDC. But because these disease outbreaks cause immense disruption to travel, business activity, and everyday life, they pose significant economic risks that show up in stock prices, especially for firms in industries exposed to travel or to the Chinese economy.

Within China, Hubei province is under an unprecedented travel lockdown, and throughout the country people are being urged to change their plans, with large gatherings being canceled despite the Lunar New Year holiday. Businesses are also extending their closures for the holiday, at the governments instruction. As the epidemic grows, those disruptions may become more economically costly, canceling more travel and reducing output as people continue to stay away from work and from crowded places.

Those possibilities mean falling stock prices for U.S. firms especially exposed to the Chinese market, and to the travel sector. Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands, U.S.-based casino firms that own major properties in the Chinese territory of Macau, are both down more than 6 percent on Monday. U.S. airline stocks are also hurting  Delta is down 3.8 percent, American is down 5.4 percent  reflecting concerns that the epidemic will encourage people to delay or cancel travel plans. And Disney, whose theme parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai are closed due to the outbreak, is down 2.3 percent today.

Other stock declines may reflect concerns about how the outbreak could affect broader economic performance in China. Caterpillar is down nearly 2.5 percent; the company is often treated as an indicator of the global economic outlook because heavy equipment sales rise and fall with global public and private investment.

Finally, there is uncertainty about the extent to which the epidemic will spread and intensify. Markets react negatively to increases in uncertainty; investors will be waiting for more clarity on how severe, and how disruptive, this outbreak will prove. That rise in uncertainty has investors moving away from risky equities and toward safer investments like bonds.
US President Donald Trumps cover-up and subsequent expression of disdain for the wounds suffered by US troops caught in a missile strike launched by Iran in retaliation for the assassination of Gen. Qassem Suleimani has provoked protest and anger from veterans groups and within US military circles.

In his initial speech from the White House on the day of the January 8 strike, in which 11 missiles were fired into the al-Asad air base west of Baghdad and one into another facility housing US troops near the city of Erbil, Trump stated, The American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed in last nights attack by the Iranian regime... We suffered no casualties; all of our soldiers are safe.

President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

On January 16, it was first reported that 11 US soldiers had been evacuated from Iraq aboard medical flights to Germany and Kuwait to be treated for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and symptoms of concussion caused by their close proximity to the Iranian missile blasts.

Last Friday, the Pentagon revealed that the real number of troops who had suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iraq was 34, three times the number initially reported. Eight of the soldiers had been transferred to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside of Washington for treatment, while nine others were being treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Seventeen others were returned to duty in Iraq.

While attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump was asked about the contradiction between his original statements and the Pentagons admission of medical evacuations, as well as the apparent delay in reporting the injuries suffered by US personnel in the January 8 attack.

I heard they had headaches and a couple of other things... and I can report it is not very serious, Trump responded. Pressed by a reporter, he repeated, No, I dont consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that Ive seen... No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries, no.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), which in the past Trump has used as a backdrop for his campaign-style right-wing rants, issued a statement Friday demanding the US president apologize for his remarks.

Veterans of Foreign Wars cannot stand idle on this matter, William Schmitz, the VFWs national commander, said in a statement. TBI is a serious injury and one that cannot be taken lightly... The VFW expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks. As yet, there has been no response from the White House.

Similarly, Randy Reese, executive director of the million-member Disabled American Veterans, said, It just appears the commander-in-chief is somewhat out of touch regarding the seriousness of this injury. There is no mild TBI that doesn't have consequences.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, tweeted the day after Trumps remarks at the Davos press conference: Dont just be outraged by #PresidentMayhems latest asinine comments. Take action to help vets facing TBIs. He added that Trump really displayed remarkable ignorance about what could be the signature injury of our generation.

According to the Pentagons Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, more than 408,000 US military personnel have suffered traumatic brain injuries since 2000, making it the most common wound inflicted upon troops deployed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While most recover from these injuries, they can and have caused lasting debilitating effects that lead to dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinsons disease and other neurological conditions.

The dismissive attitude taken by Trump toward the wounds suffered by the US troops in Iraq is part of a longstanding pattern. In 2016, while running for president, Trumpwho managed to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War with a medical diagnosis of bone spursvoiced the opinion that strong soldiers could go through combat without suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And in a 2017 condolence call, he dismissively told the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in Niger, that he knew what he signed up for, while unable to remember the slain soldiers name.

All of this only serves to lay bare the indifference of not only Trump, but the entire US ruling establishment, including both Democratic and Republican administrations, toward the lives of the rank and file of the US military. Behind the cynical support our troops rhetoric, they regard them as expendable cannon fodder. This indifference mirrors their attitude toward the working class, in both the United States, from which most of the troops are drawn, and in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, where millions have died as a result of US wars of aggression.

In the assassination of Suleimani, one of the most senior leaders in the Iranian government, who was on an official visit to Iraq for a meeting with the countrys prime minister, the Trump administration carried out both an act of war against Iran and a war crime, punishable under both international and US law. In this reckless act of aggression, Trump was betting, in the first instance, with the lives of some 80,000 US troops deployed in the Persian Gulf region, all of them within range of Iranian ballistic missiles.

The fact that 34 US troops suffered brain injuries, as opposed to scores or hundreds being killed, was due to Irans having provided advance warning of the coming attack and calibrating its missile strikes to avoid casualties. Had it been otherwise, a spiral of retaliation and counterretaliation would have led to thousands of deaths on the first day of a confrontation, while inevitably dragging the entire region into a catastrophic war, posing the threat of a global conflagration.

An article published in the New York Times Sunday, purportedly based upon interviews with Iranian officialsbut more likely sourced within the CIAprovides a glimpse into how close the world came to such a disaster. The Times account is directed at exposing the debate within the Iranian government following the shoot-down of a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 172 aboard, over what to reveal to the public. It reveals, however, how close the world came to a major war.

The article states that the tragic incident had been prepared in part by the Iranian authorities decision not to shut down commercial flights in and out of Tehrans international airport, as missiles were launched at the bases in Iraq. The fear, the Times reported, was that this would create a mass panic that war with the United States was imminent, something that the largely symbolic Iranian retaliation was designed to avoid.

The results of this decision were compounded by an alert issued by Irans central air defense command to anti-aircraft units that US warplanes and cruise missiles were on their way to strike Iran, a false alarm that was subsequently retracted. The commander of the missile defense unit near Tehrans airport, however, received the alert, but not the false alarm notice. Nor was he able to communicate with superiors because Irans communications networks had been jammed by an American cyber-attack. Perceiving the Ukrainian passenger plane as a US warplane attacking Tehran, the Iranian air defense unit fired two missiles that brought the passenger jet down.

The threat of a war in the Middle East escalating into a Third World War has not subsided. The Pentagon prevailed upon Trump not to continue the escalation of aggression following the Suleimani assassination and the largely harmless Iranian counterattack because it was not yet prepared for a full-scale war with Iran. The US military is now making the necessary preparations for just such a catastrophic confrontation.
Most of us often think we need to be in the system to change the system but sometimes change happens regardless of that, through one's own volition and efforts. We have a telecom engineer, Manoj Wadhwa, proving the same when he and his friends decided to fill up a few open potholes around where he lives in Faridabad, Haryana.



Wadhwa decided to do his bit for his locality because he experienced a personal loss due to an open pothole. According to news reports, Wadhwa lost his three-year-old son, about six years ago in a pothole related road accident on the Delhi-Agra highway. To make sure a similar incident is never repeated with anyone else, Wadhwa decided to take matters into his hands and started filling in the potholes which are visible and accessible to him, on a daily basis.

 TOI

He studied the process of filling potholes before he started executing the deed at hand. The news reports suggest that he studied tutorials from two active groups called Pothole Warriors in Mumbai and Pothole Raja in Bengaluru, who demonstrated how to best fill potholes through a video. After thoroughly studying and learning the task, he reached the site with three bags of mixed bitumen and other necessary items. Wadhwa first brushed the site to get rid of all the dust and then he poured a cold-mix over the potholes to cover them.

We chose Sunday (Republic Day) to fill potholes with the hope that this will wake up government agencies. If a few of us can fill potholes, why can't the government agencies and contractors do this small thing despite having all resources at their disposal, the telecom engineer told TOI in an interview.

According to Wadhwa, if there wasn't a pothole on the Delhi-Agra highway, on which he was travelling in September 2014, his son Pavitra would probably be alive today.

He would have been nine years now. Negligence of agencies ruined our happiness forever. I dont want anyone else to go through this pain of losing a family member. Now, it's a mission of life and I dont get disheartened even if I dont get very encouraging support from others, he added.

 AFP

Since the year he lost his son, Wadhwa has been fighting a battle with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and a private construction firm, to fulfil their responsibilities of filling in the open potholes, on the highway and otherwise.

Wadhwa, in the interview, also spoke about his son's accident in detail, mentioning how Pavitra passed away.

Pavitra was sitting between me and my wife. I spotted a pool of water on the highway and applied the brakes. As I lost balance, Pavitra fell on a sharp stone, which hit his chest. A vehicle coming from behind ran over my wifes legs. Pavitra was declared dead as and when we reached the hospital, he said.

While many of us can empathise with Wadhwas loss, we can also bring his efforts out into the open and make his grievances reach the concerned authorities. Wadhwa is doing what he can in his power to avoid another incident that may take someone else's life and the authorities should definitely recognise his efforts and cover open potholes that are a danger to vehicle drivers on the highway.
Many foreigners living in China, whether for work or study, sooner or later may find themselves romantically involved with a local person. Despite the possible cultural barriers and difficulties associated with cross-cultural relationships, this is a very common and natural thing to happen, and may eventually become a long-term and serious relationship.

However, for foreigners, one of the main obstacles is meeting the family, especially during a holiday visit.

During the Spring Festival, foreigners in a serious relationship will know that their partner most probably will want to return to their hometown, or "LaoJia" () to be with the extended family. If the relationship has become a serious one, you will be expected to make a visit as well, and probably spend a couple of nights under the family roof.

Ahead of the Spring Festival last year, I made my decision to visit my partner's hometown. Naturally, I was nervous, and had a million questions and concerns running through my mind about the upcoming experience.

As I would find out, however, this can be one of the most rewarding things that one can do during their time in China; celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year perhaps in some remote part of the rural landscape, where tradition prevails in its true and authentic form.

Like many of the younger generations living and working in the big cities, my partner's roots are in the countryside, where her parents, grandparents, and most other relatives live in an old cozy village atmosphere, within walking distance of one another. So, we made the three-hour drive up to the hometown, passing some mesmerizing scenery on the way, and feeling the crisp fresh and freezing air of the countryside.

This presented a very nice break from the busy, overcrowded cities we are used to; however, it also made clear of what kind of place I was going to be staying in for the next few days.

We arrived at the grandparents' modest village home, where the family had lived for generations, and where my partner spent the early part of her childhood, before moving to the city. In these types of traditional village homes, there are no real beds or dining tables.

The living room, which serves also as a dining room, will often have a "Kang" (); a heated brick platform, which serves as bed, table, or general resting surface. A normal sized Kang can accommodate several people on it, and it is where most of the family will sit and spend time throughout the day.

If there is no separate dining area, during meals a smaller wooden table will be placed in the middle of the Kang, and be used for serving food. It takes some time getting used to it at first, but anyone who has had the chance to have a meal on a nice, warm, crowded Kang will know that there is no better place to be in winter.

As customary during the festival, food was served in excess, and alcohol was a major ingredient. After the first few beers, I gathered the courage to try some horse milk wine  my personal favorite. I knew that drinking was going to be a big part of the celebration, but did not expect to be wobbling my way down from the Kang before 1 p.m.

The festive atmosphere began to set in as early dusk came around, and neighbors and friends from around the village stopped by every few minutes, bearing gifts and blessings. As the sun began to set, and everyone began to liven up, it was time to resume eating.

Even more relatives came, and the small dining room became the scene of a crowded and happy little party in a matter of minutes. As the food was served, CCTV's widely-watched Spring Festival Gala had begun, and we all watched and laughed at the funny skits.

The dinner lasted for many hours, with lots of eating, drinking, and playing Chinese card games. When midnight was just around the corner, I was called outside by some of the cousins to help carry out boxes from the storage unit adjacent to the house. I soon realized that the boxes were crammed with fireworks and firecrackers.

We lined up the boxes along the empty road facing the house, and waited until midnight to light up the starry sky above the village. We joined in with the rest of the village fireworks show, and for a good 20 minutes there was an absolute chaos of noise and lights, a truly magnificent sight.

The night finally started to die down around in the early hours of the morning, and I was surprised at how I was still able to keep awake and coherent throughout this crazy day. However, I crashed onto the Kang, and had one of the deepest sleeps of my life for a good three hours, before being awakened by the call of the rooster outside my window at dawn.

We spent the next three days following a similar trend of unfathomable food and alcohol consumption, and deep talks into the nights. In the span of four days, I was able to drastically boost my Chinese level, and even learn a lot of the unique dialect typical to the region in which we found ourselves.

The return to city life was refreshing, but I also felt incredibly lucky to have experienced this festival in its most authentic way. Undoubtedly, it got overwhelming at times. In the end, however, I knew that it was all worth it. I left with a much broader understanding of true Chinese culture, and with a bag full of amazing stories to tell in the future.

Ma Long is an Israeli freelancer based in Dalian, China.
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday signed a historic peace accord with all four factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a Bodo insurgent organisation that has been leading an armed struggle in Assam, with the aim to bring permanent peace in Bodo-dominated areas of the state.

The pact, described by Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a golden document, also promised to provide a slew of economic activities for the tribals.

All demands of Assams division are over now, Shah said, adding the agreement involved all stakeholders, unlike in the past when three groups were left out.

Shah said the Centre would take a sympathetic view at those who took up arms for a statehood movement.

The Assam government would soon notify Bodo language in the Devanagari script as an associate official language of the state.

Besides the NDFB factions, the other signatories are the All Bodo Students Union, which has been spearheading a movement for a separate Bodoland state since 1972, the United Bodo Peoples Organisation, the Centre and the Assam government.

Mondays agreement is the third Bodo accord to be signed in 27 years.

The first accord was signed with the All Bodo Students Union in 1993, leading to the creation of the Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.

In 2003, the second accord was signed with the militant group, Bodo Liberation Tigers, leading to the formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with four districts of Assam  Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri  called the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Sarma said the agreement reaffirms the territorial integrity of Assam.

Sarma said the existing BTC would be strengthened with more powers and the number of seats would be increased from 40 to 60.

The finance minister said there would be a relook at the areas under the BTAD for which a commission would soon to set up.

BTAD to be revised to cover maximum Bodo villages

The purpose for revising the areas under the BTAD was to cover more villages with substantial Bodo presence and also to exclude villages that had hardly any Bodo footprint.

A major criticism of the 2003 accord was that close to 600 villages had either no tribals or very few tribals.

Another improvement in the latest accord is that a separate body called the Bodo- Kachari Welfare Council would be set up for the development of Bodo villages outside the BTAD.

An Advisory Committee comprising representatives of Government of Assam, BTC and the Bodo-Kachari Welfare Council shall be set up to identify specific developmental needs of Bodo villages outside BTAD, the agreement said.

The state government may also consider enacting a special legislation to provide adequate safeguards to land rights of tribals living outside tribal belts and areas outside the BTAD.

Former Rajya Sabha member U G Brahma, who was also ABSU president and was present at the signing, described the greater rights of tribals over their land as an improvement over the past accord. The executive powers of the council have also been enhanced, he added.

The accord said the state government would give Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of those who lost their lives during the agitation for a separate state, withdrawal of criminal cases with non-heinous charges against NDFB members while heinous cases would be reviewed on a case-to-case basis.

PM expects transformative results

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the accord saying it would usher in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness.

The accord will produce transformative results for the Bodo people, he added
Paris [France], Jan 27 (ANI): After the United States and Japan, France is also planning to evacuate its citizens from the city of Wuhan which has been put under quarantine following deadly coronavirus outbreak.



French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said that the citizens would be repatriated to France during the middle of the week and kept under observation for 14-day, Sputnik reported.

The coronavirus, which so far has claimed the lives of 80 people and sickened more than 2500 people, was originated from the Wuhan city of China.

Following the outbreak, China has imposed lockdown in the city. However, the virus has spread in many parts of the world including France, where three cases have been reported so far.

Many countries are screening travelers at airports from certain parts of China for symptoms of the virus.

Meanwhile, the United States has organised a special flight from Wuhan to San Francisco to relocate citizens and personnel stationed at the consulate in Wuhan.

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japanese authorities were coordinating with China to evacuate its citizens from the Chinese province. (ANI)


"Valentine's Day is so much more than a romantic holiday  it's an opportunity to put a little more care in the world and bring a smile to all the people we care about, whether it's family, friends, or kids," said Steve Farley, president  Hallmark Retail. "At Hallmark Gold Crown stores, we want to help everyone keep the love going at Valentine's Day and show how much they care all year long with fun, thoughtful cards and gifts to tell loved ones just how much they mean. We hope that the free mini card will help people share even more love and show they care by brightening someone's day in a fun, easy way."

With more than 1,500 Valentine's Day cards and gifts available this year, Hallmark Gold Crown stores and Hallmark.com are the best places to find the perfect cards and gifts to show all the love and care in your heart.

Mini Cards for Big Love

Perfectly sized for tucking in a coat pocket, purse, backpack or lunchbox, these cute mini cards are a fun way to share a smile and surprise someone special.

Share Your Love with Your Kids

Let your littlest loves know how much they mean to you this Valentine's Day with fun singing stuffed animals and interactive cards.

I Heart You

Share your heart with someone special with gifts and cards that share a beautiful reminder that "you & me" are in this together.

Celebrate Your Girlfriends

Show your leading ladies how you value their friendship with gifts to celebrate the strong, fun women in your life.

Find these Valentine's Day cards and gifts and many more at Hallmark Gold Crown stores and Hallmark.com. Use the store locator to find your nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store. For creative ideas to express all the love and care in your heart this Valentine's Day, visit Ideas.Hallmark.com. Hallmark partnered with creative agency 180LA to create Gold Crown stores' Valentine's Day TV commercials  Dinner Date and Share A Little Love with Everyone  which are airing on the Hallmark Channel and are now viewable on Hallmark Gold Crown stores' YouTube channel.

About Hallmark

For more than 100 years, family-owned Hallmark Cards, Inc. has been dedicated to creating a more emotionally connected world. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and employing 30,000 worldwide, the approximately $4 billion company operates a diversified portfolio of businesses. Its global Hallmark Greetings business sells greeting cards, gift wrap and related products in more than 30 languages with distribution in more than 100 countries and 100,000 rooftops worldwide. Hallmark Retail operates about 2,000 Hallmark Gold Crown stores in five countries. Crayola offers a wide range of art materials and creative play toys designed to spark children's creativity around the globe. Crown Media Family Networks operates three cable channels  Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama  in addition to Hallmark Publishing, the e-books division of the Hallmark channels, and Hallmark Movies Now, a subscription-based streaming service. Crown Center is a real estate development company that manages the 85-acre hotel, office, entertainment and residential campus surrounding Hallmark's headquarters. For more information, visit Hallmark.com. Connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Related Links

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BRUSSELS -- France has rejected suggestions that the Eastern Partnership could lead to European Union membership for countries included in the program, and insists that half of its future funding goes to environmental investments, according to two documents seen by RFE/RL.



Paris submitted the two so-called discussion papers, dated October 2019 and January 2020, as part of a consultation process initiated by the European Commission ahead of the planned publication in March of a report on the future of the Eastern Partnership.



The countries included in the partnership are the six former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.



The partnership was created in 2009 with the aim of encouraging these countries to undertake reforms, in return for closer relations and economic benefits. It has paved the way for Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, which have repeatedly stated that their aim is to join the European Union, to conclude association agreements and visa-liberalization deals with Brussels.



Moscow has expressed strong misgivings about the program, arguing that closer economic ties between the EU and its main trading partners could harm Russian interests.



The French document from October states that our spirit of responsibility must collectively guard us from fostering illusions or ambiguity among our partners about the purpose of the partnership.



It said the partnership is based on economic and political cooperation, but excludes all prospects or all mechanisms of EU integration or membership.



The objective is to reinforce the resilience of our partners, especially in the fields of rule of law, the fight against corruption, and modernizing the economy, it added.



Paris has been a driving force behind the EUs decision to halt the opening of membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania last year, sparking disappointment and concern in the Western Balkans.



French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that enlargement needed to be preceded by reforming the EU at its current size. He also has called for dialogue with Russia, which is facing EU sanctions over its actions in Ukraine.



A diplomat from an eastern EU member state told RFE/RL under condition of anonymity that France doesnt want to do anything in the neighborhood that would potentially upset Moscow.



The impending Brexit also makes France the biggest foreign-policy player in the bloc, so they will have a big influence from now on, the official added.



Both French papers also insisted on creating a green agenda for the Eastern Partnership to be approved at a summit of EU and Eastern Partnership leaders in Brussels in June.



The proposal comes as the European Commission in December launched a European Green Deal investment plan with the goal of creating a climate-neutral EU by 2050. And on January 20, EU foreign ministers adopted conclusions on climate diplomacy in which they stated that the bloc will place increased emphasis on supporting the efforts of the EU's immediate neighbors to achieve climate neutrality.



In its January paper, Paris noted that our common determination to fight climate change leads us to suggest the EU Green Deal be extended to the Eastern Partnership, striving for climate-neutrality by 2050.



It also suggested that 50% of the European financial assistance to Eastern Partnerscontribute to climate and environment objectives with projects focusing on the fight against pollution, waste management, sustainable development, and renewable energy sources.



There will be a negotiation about the figure the EU will spend on green, but it will probably not go that high, a diplomat from a member state who didnt want to be identified told RFE/RL.



So far up to one-quarter of the Eastern Partnership budget has been spent on climate and energy.
A medical practitioner from West Bengal, who has been selected for the Padma Shri award for treating patients free-of-cost for over two decades in the remote Sundarbans, said that despite the recognition he will continue serving people without any government aid.

67-year-old Dr Arunoday Mondal is a resident of Kolkata's Lake Town. He treats 12,000 patients on an average every year and provides them free medicines at a charitable hospital established by him in Hingalganj area in Sundarbans near the India-Bangladesh border.

Dr Mondal travels to Hingalganj, around 90 km from his Kolkata residence, twice a week to "fill the gaps of treatment at government hospitals".

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"I can understand that expectations of people will rise since I am a Padma Shri awardee now and I might get many more patients. I will continue to serve them to the best of my abilities," Mondal told PTI.

Mondal added that he is not looking for any kind of government aid despite the recognition.





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"I have been serving people single-handedly without any government help for over 20 years. The Padma Shri award will not change anything," he said.

After getting an MBBS degree from the National Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, Mondal did not try for a government job and instead started a private practice which he has been continuing for the past 20 years.
Bloomington-Normal

Galleries, museums

University Galleries of Illinois State University; 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Fri., noon-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun.; Uptown Station, 11 Uptown Circle, Normal; rotating exhibits in three galleries; free; 309-438-5487.

Transpace Student Gallery; noon-4 p.m. Tue.; 8 a.m.-noon, 1-3 p.m. Wed.; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thu.; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fri.; Center for Visual Arts, Room 115, Illinois State University, Normal; rotating student exhibits; free;

IWU Merwin and Wakeley Galleries; school hours, noon-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun., 7-9 p.m. Tue.; 302 E. Graham St., Bloomington; rotating exhibits; free; 309-556-3391.

Jan Brandt Gallery; 1305 Morrissey Drive, Bloomington; Studio and gallery showcasing Brandt's work, also visiting artist exhibitions; 309-287-4700; and JeffBess Art Gallery space.

Eaton Studio Gallery; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat., 5-8 p.m. First Friday; 411 N. Center St., Bloomington; studio and gallery showcasing Eaton's work and guest artist invitationals; 309-828-1575 for showings.

McLean County Arts Center; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tue., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., noon-4 p.m. Sat.; 601 N. East St., Bloomington; rotating exhibits, sales, rentals, art classes and lectures; free; 309-829-0011.

McLean County Museum of History; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. (until 9 p.m. Tue.), 200 N. Main St., Bloomington; permanent and rotating exhibits; adults $5, seniors $4, students, children under 12 and members free; 309-827-0428.

Prairie Aviation Museum; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thu.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun., 2929 E. Empire St., Bloomington; permanent and rotating exhibits and displays with aerial history themes; adults $5, ages 6-11 $3, 5 and under free; 309-663-7632.

Exhibits

Fade Away; Feb. 9 through April 5; Ivonne Bess, Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington; opening reception: 2-5 p.m. Feb. 9; colored pencil portraits of rock n roll icons.

KodaRoamers Camera Club; through February, IAA Credit Union lobby, 808 IAA Drive, Bloomington.

"Growing Time"; through Feb. 14, Brandt Gallery, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington; artist Melissa Oresky.

"Double Vision"; through Feb. 14, Armstrong Gallery, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington; artist Bill O'Donnell.

"A Stitch in Time"; through Feb. 14, Sales Gallery, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington; artist Kathryn Leslie.

"We Should Have Kept Dancing  then & now!"; Feb. 1-22, Eaton Studio Gallery; inks, paintings, drawings, sculpture by Herb Eaton.

"Existential Byproduct" and "Ranch Style House"; through March 4, Merwin and Wakeley Galleries, Ames School of Art, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington; artists Nathan Gorgen and Molly Jo Burke, and Kirsten Valentine; Valentine artist talk, 10 a.m. Jan. 22, Wakeley Gallery.

"Reaction" by Megan Hinds and "Animal Sympathies" by Sarah Smelser; through Feb. 1, Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington; "Reaction" is cut and collaged prints; "Animal" is printmaking with hand-stitching at JeffBess Art Gallery.

"An Infinite and Omnivorous Sky"; through Feb. 19, University Galleries, Normal; group exhibition of poetic, scientific, geopolitical views of the cosmos; artist visit with Kambui Olujimi, Feb. 1, with lecture at University Galleries and work screening at ISU Planetarium.

Central Illinois High School Art Exhibition; Feb. 4-15, Center for the Visual Arts, Room 110, Illinois State University, Normal; closing reception, 1-4 p.m. Feb. 15.

ISU Photography Club Member Exhibition; Feb.4-7, Transpace Student Gallery, Gallery 3; reception, 5-7 p.m. Feb. 4.

Enigma; Feb. 11-14, Transpace Student Gallery, Gallery 3; artists Jessi Simpson, Athena Silot, Ariana Garcia, Spencer Molnar; reception, 5-7 p.m. Feb. 11.

The Back Room; Feb. 11-21, Transpace Student Gallery, Gallery 2; artists Jess Dowell and Tess Murphy.

Exhibition: 2020 Faculty Biennial; Feb. 28-March 22, University Galleries, Uptown Station; reception, 5-7 p.m. Feb. 28; faculty biennial performance: Shoshin Trio, 6:45 p.m. Feb. 28.

"Verdancies"; Central Illinois Regional Airport gallery; ISU student artists Hannah Songer, Emily Minton, Neva Taylor, Guste Saukynaite.

Pedal Power!; through spring 2020, McLean County Museum of History; exhibit of vintage pedal cars from the collection of Bruce Callis.

Muro; through March 6, Joe McCauley Gallery, Heartland Community College; Normal; an installation by David Dow and Jim Neeley; reception, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Feb. 20.

ImagineAir; Children's Discovery Museum, uptown Normal; permanent exhibit shows power of wind, wind energy, aerodynamics, fluid dynamics; $7 for age 2 and older, $3 for Museums for All passholders; free, CDM members.

Challenges, Choices & Change: A Community in Conflict; McLean County Museum of History; examines times of conflict in McLean County history from native peoples to equal rights for women and minorities.

Challenges, Choices & Change: Working for a Living; McLean County Museum of History; highlights more than 80 local workers and their daily on-the-job experiences.

Challenges, Choices & Change: Making a Home; McLean County Museum of History; permanent exhibit exploring experiences of people from around the world who made McLean County their home.

Abraham Lincoln in McLean County; McLean County Museum of History; permanent exhibit on Lincoln's life in Bloomington.

Challenges, Choices and Change: Farming in the Great Corn Belt; McLean County Museum of History; permanent exhibit on McLean County's agricultural history.

Central Illinois

Galleries, museums

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sun., 212 N. Sixth St., Springfield; Lincoln-themed exhibits, historical displays, special events, more; adults $12, seniors and students $9, ages 5-15 $5, under 5 free; 217-558-8844.

Amity Township Museum; 1-3 p.m. first Sunday of month or by appointment, 510 Main St., Cornell; displays and artifacts relating to history of Cornell and Amity Township; free; 815-358-2973.

Contemporary Art Center of Peoria; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., Riverfront Arts Center, 305 S.W. Water St., Peoria; rotating exhibits in two galleries; free; 309-674-6822.

Dickson Mounds Museum; 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, 10956 N. Dickson Mounds Road, Lewistown; displays, special exhibits; free; 309-547-3721.

Eureka College Burgess Hall Art Gallery; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays and by appointment on weekends, third floor of Burgess Hall, Eureka College, Eureka; rotating exhibits; free; 309-467-6866.

Lincoln Heritage Museum; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat., Lincoln Center at Lincoln College, 300 Keokuk St., Lincoln; Lincoln-era items, audiovisual displays, tours, exhibits, more; adults $7, children/tours $4; 217-735-7399.

Museum of the Gilding Arts; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sun., April-Oct., and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sun., Nov.-March, 217 N. Mill St., Pontiac; displays, history and hands-on exhibits dedicated to the art of gilding and gold leafing; free (donations welcome); 815-842-1848.

Peoria Art Guild; 203 Harrison St., Peoria; rotating exhibits open each first Friday; classes, www.peoriaartguild.org, 309-637-2787.

Peoria Riverfront Museum; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Wed. and Sat., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thu.-Fri., noon-5 p.m. Sun., downtown riverfront Peoria; permanent and rotating exhibits, planetarium shows, Giant Screen Theater and events; $9-$11 (free parking in museum garage); 309-686-7000.

Pontiac Community Art Center; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun., 209 W. Madison St., Pontiac; rotating exhibits; 815-419-2472.

Simpkins Military History Museum; 1-5 p.m. Tue., Thu., Sat., or by appointment; 605 E. Cole St., Heyworth; permanent and rotating military history exhibits; free (donations accepted); 309-319-3413.

Time Gallery; Fondulac Bank, 201 Clock Tower Drive, East Peoria; 309-467-2331.

U of I Krannert Art Museum; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., closed Sun., 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign; paintings, porcelain, historical artifacts, traveling art exhibits; $3 donation suggested; 217-333-1861.

Exhibits

"Reflections of Hope"; Feb. 1-27, artist Christine Bennett-Weber, Joe Bailey Gallery, Pontiac Community Art Center; opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Feb. 8.

"Born of Fire"; through Jan. 31, Pontiac Community Art Center, Joe Bailey Gallery, Pontiac; artist: Alex Daniel Smith.

Nine Days in April: The Lincoln Assassination and the Press; Pontiac Museum Complex, 110 W. Howard St., Pontiac, second floor; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

Da Vinci the Genius; Peoria Riverfront Museum; Da Vinci runs through March 22.

"What's Your Hobby? The fun of collecting"; special exhibit, March-Nov. 15; Simpkins Military History Museum, Heyworth; celebrating 61 years of collecting military items and 41 years of an established museum (31 years at present location).
It was touted as a rescue package for NSW's overstretched justice system, but some lawyers warn that the first wave of changes to Legal Aid rates under a $88 million funding boost would "significantly reduce" their fees and push practitioners to "the point of exhaustion".

The Berejiklian government announced in November that the fees paid to private lawyers acting in Legal Aid cases would be increased over the next four years, after a 12-year pay freeze led lawyers to threaten to withdraw from cases.

The NSW Bar Association said a new lump sum payment would "significantly reduce fees" in many cases. Credit:Peter Braig

While Legal Aid NSW's in-house lawyers provide free legal help to the most disadvantaged people in criminal and other disputes, it relies on private lawyers in almost 70 per cent of cases.

Under the $88 million funding package, the base hourly rate of $150 for private solicitors will increase by $10 on July 1 and peak at $195 in 2023-4. Barristers' fees will increase in the same period.
A prominent Pakistani Pashtun minority leader, known for criticising the country's powerful military, was arrested on Monday for alleged sedition, leading to calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

Manzoor Pashteen, chief of the rights-based alliance Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), attended a gathering on January 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dera Ismail Khan city where he had allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights, Dawn newspaper reported.

The 27-year-old activist was arrested along with nine other PTM workers from Peshawar, police said.

He was later sent to Peshawar's Central Jail on a 14-day judicial remand by a magistrate.

The court will hold a hearing on Tuesday to decide whether a transitory remand can be granted in order to move Pashteen to Dera Ismail Khan, where a first information report (FIR) has been registered against him.

The PTM has been critical of the Army's policies in the restive northwestern tribal areas where a massive operation against terrorists was carried out in recent years, leading to large-scale displacement and enforced disappearances, the report said.

It also calls for ending extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions besides holding the practitioners responsible.

The PTM chief has been booked for criminal intimidation, promoting enmity between different groups, criminal conspiracy, sedition and condemning the creation of the country and advocating the abolishment of its sovereignty, the report said.

The FIR said that Pashteen also made derogatory comments about the state.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called for Pashteen's "immediate and unconditional" release.

"Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally," it said on Twitter.

Taking to Twitter, senior PTM leader and National Assembly member Mohsin Dawar said: "This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful and democratic manner. Manzoor's arrest will only strengthen our resolve. We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen".

"We will devise a strategy after consultations. We are up against those who are most troubled by demands for constitutional rights, and we will continue doing that," he said.

Soon after Pashteen's arrest, #ReleaseManzoorPashteen started trending on the micro-blogging site.

In the past, PTM's leaders, including its elected members of Parliament, have been criticised by the Army which alleges it to be running an anti-national agenda and for playing into the hands of the state's enemies.

The Army had launched a military operation 'Khyber-4' under 'Radd-ul-Fasaad', which roughly translates to 'elimination of discord', to eliminate terrorists and consolidate gains of counter-terrorism operations in the country's restive northwest tribal region.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), in a statement, demanded that Pashteen be released immediately and that a dialogue be initiated between the government and the youth of tribal areas.

The statement said that PTM's demands were "legitimate" and "will not be swept aside by arresting Manzoor Pashteen".

The statement, issued by General Secretary of PPP's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter Faisal Kundi, said, "It is most foolish and highly condemnable that the voice of tribal youth is being silenced through brute state force at a time when there is urgent need for a dialogue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The D.C. Board of Elections has scheduled a June 16 special election to fill Evanss seat for the rest of his term, which runs through the end of the year. It will be held two weeks after the Democratic primary election for a four-year term in the Ward 2 seat, which is tantamount to the general election in a deep-blue city.
At least seven people were killed Sunday in a car bomb that hit a rebel-held city in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said.

More than 20 others were wounded in the explosion in Azaz, located in the heart of a Turkish zone of influence in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based monitor said the car bomb targeted a bustling area located near several restaurants, leading to severe material damage.

It was not clear who was behind the attack or if the casualties were all civilians. Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016 and seized more than 2,000 square kilometres of northern Syria including Azaz, clearing the area of Islamic State jihadists while preventing any Kurdish advance in the region.

Ankara keeps Turkish troops and intelligence forces in the area, and still backs Syrian rebels serving as local police officers.

Rebel-held parts of northern Syria are regularly hit by car bombs and explosions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Dr. Tsering Landol (75 years) was one of the first gynecologists providing medical care to women in the difficult terrain through her clinic the Ladakh Heart Foundation, a charitable medical facility. She has dedicated her life to women's health, performing deliveries in freezing temperatures with minimum facilities. Also, she was the first woman doctor to receive the Padma Shri award in 2006.The octogenarian plastic surgeon, is known around the area of Dehradun for providing free treatment to burn patients who cannot afford. The 82-year old KGMU pass out is the go to man in the area as well as afar for burn victims and those attacked by animals. Even the government hospitals in the area are seen referring patients to his center for treatment. He's got the credit of conducting more than 5000 free surgeries.She is the first woman in the history of Indian Air Force to be promoted to the rank of Air Marshal. She had the distinction of being the first woman officer to become an aviation medicine specialist. Being the first Indian woman fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India, she had conducted a scientific research at the North Pole. Dr. Padma Bandopadhyay was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for her meritorious service during the 1971 Indo-Pak conflict, as she and her husband made key contributions at the Halwara airbase in Punjab during the war.Dr. Bandopadya (81 years), an MBBS graduate of RG Kar Medical college, and PG Pathology from Calcutta University, was working in London. In 1960s, he decided to come back to his country and serve the poor. In 1964, the doctor relocated to his village in Bolapur, West Bengal. He has been treating patients for a consultation fee of Rs 1 since then and because of his fees, he's popularly known as "Ek Takar doctor."Dr. Behera is known for his contributions to the field of Chest Medicine and TB Medicine in India. He is a pioneer of lung cancer chemotherapy as well as the chairman of the national task force of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program. He was the former Head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, PGIMER.Dr. BN Gangadhar is a well-known psychiatrist having more than 30 years of extensive experience in the field of mental health, from both clinical and academic perspectives. He is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. Previously, he's been conferred to the prestigious Sir C.V. Raman Award in 1999 and the BC Roy Award in 2010 for his contribution to the field of mental health.Dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the tribal woman in the MP and Chattisgarh area, gynecologist Dr. Joshi has dedicated her life being engaged in tribal dominated areas providing free treatment to women with anemia, pregnancies and other issues. For her immense contribution to the tribals, she was also named in the list of 100 effective women of the country in the list of Department of Women and Child Development.A prominent practicing surgical Oncologist in Chennai, Dr. Kannan moved to the Barak Valley Assam in June 2007, coming in aid to the ailing Cachar Cancer Hospital Society that was struggling with resources and serving the patients and an area where the incidence of cancer is much higher. Under his leadership, the hospital has made a remarkable journey and is providing treatment to over 3000 new and 14000 follow-up patients annually, 80 percent of these patients being daily wage earners. In his journey the doctor has treated over 70,000 cancer patients free of cost in Barak valley including accommodation, food, employment and spreading awareness.Serving in the remote forest areas of Sunderbans, Dr. Arunoday Mondal set up a free medical service center, in 2000, and since then has been providing free treatment to the locals in the remote area. His center "SUJAN" has steering ahead with expansion in multidirectional ushering ventures like education, social service etc. Arunoday Mondal, known as 'Sunderban ke Sujan' itravels six hours every weekend to treat patients in remote Sundarban villages.A gynecologist from Patna, Dr. Shanti Roy is a retired Professor and HOD, Gynecology department, Patna Medical College. Specializing the field of women's health, Dr. Shanti has dedicated her life to not just promoting women's well-being but also matters of encouragement of women in other domains of lifeKushal Knowar Sarma, also known as the Elephant Doctor a veterinarian in Guwahati, has devoted his life to the conservation of Asian elephants. Interestingly, he has not taken a single weekend off in the last 30 years as per media reports. He is acclaimed for treating more than 700 elephants every year. He has pioneered research in elephant anesthetics, especially using remote tranquilizing injection technique.A noted ENT surgeon practicing in Bombay, Dr. Souza was one of the first ENT surgeons in the country to perform artificial ear operations, is credited to have given the gift of hearing to thousands of patients. She was the first woman surgeon to pioneer the Cochlear implant surgery in India and Asia in the year 1987.Source: Medindia
New Delhi:

BJP president JP Nadda on Monday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "supporting those who want to break India", as he raised the issue of AAP government not giving police the permission to prosecute ex-JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case. He also sought to know from the AAP national convener "whether acting against anti-nationals would hurt his vote bank"."Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. They were threatening to violate India's sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet," Nadda tweeted.

"They (police) sought Kejriwal's permission to prosecute this 'tukde tukde' gang but one year later, till yesterday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank," he wrote on the microblogging site.

In its campaign for the February 8 assembly polls in the national capital, the BJP has often raised the issue of the AAP government so far not grating the Delhi Police its nod to prosecute the accused in the case of raising seditious slogans in the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

On January 14, the police had filed a chargesheet in the court against Kanhaiya Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, saying they were leading a procession and supported the seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

A court is Delhi has directed the police to get the requisite nod by February 19.

Earlier, the war of words between top leaders ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections is intensifying with each passing day. On Friday, it was Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals turn to answer the BJPs allegations on development work done during his tenure. A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah levelled charges of corruption and the AAP government of deceiving people, the Chief Minister had a curt clap back. Hitting back at the BJP leadership, Kejriwal took to Twitter on Friday and said that people of Delhi have forced the opponents to seek votes on real issue.

I am glad that you were able to spot a few CCTVs. Sometime back, you had claimed that you couldnt spot a single camera. Take out some time, you would see schools also. I am extremely happy that the people of Delhi have forced the BJP to seek votes on CCTV, schools and kachchi colonies, Kejriwal said in a reply to Delhi BJPs tweet on Amit Shah. In the tweet, Amit Shah had said, the Aam Aadmi Party government had promised to install 15 lakh CCTVs across Delhi. But only a few were installed, the AAP government is making fool out of people.
Auckland, New Zealand -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/27/2020 -- Just SEO has announced that it is now offering free SEO audits for new clients in New Zealand. The new service will help small and medium businesses leverage the experience the company has to see if their SEO strategies are working as perfectly as possible.



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Granting citizenship, maintaining sovereign borders and deciding who can come to a country and under what terms are the inalienable rights of a nation.

Senator Jacqui Lambie supported the repeal of medevac. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Australia is one of the most successful multicultural, multi-faith countries on the planet. We see ourselves as having open and generous views on immigration and we recognise that much of our prosperity as a nation is built on the bedrock of successive waves of migrants bringing their aspirational dreams for a better life for them and their families.

Australians recognise the need for a generous refugee and humanitarian program to provide protection to those seeking safety from political, social and religious persecution. However, public confidence in our migration system becomes strained when governments do not strike the appropriate balance between protecting our borders, maintaining the integrity of our migration system and providing an orderly system for refugee determination.

When the Coalition came to government in 2013 it was clear the system for asylum seekers was not working. Some 50,000 people had arrived on more than 800 boats, 8000 children were placed in detention and, most horrifically, there had been 1200 deaths at sea. The Australian public were rightly outraged that people smugglers were profiteering from the vulnerable and that this was happening just outside Australian waters.
(Photo : What to Do If You Have Been Injured By Someone's Dog)

While most dogs are friendly little furballs that crave human attention, some can snap under certain circumstances. There are a lot of cases where people get bitten by a dog. Injuries caused by dog bites should not be taken lightly, as they can cause severe medical, legal, and financial ramifications. In case of such an accident, it is important for both the dog owner and the victim to know what to do. So, here are a few tips you should keep in mind if you ever go through the unfortunate incident of a dog bite.

Get Medical Care

The very first thing you should do is to seek proper medical attention. Dogs who are not vaccinated can carry rabies, which is a deadly disease. If you have received a puncture wound, be sure to go to the nearest hospital and get proper treatment. If possible, you should take a few pictures before getting treated, as they will be helpful later, if you decide to take legal action against the dog owner.

Exchange Information and Document the Incident

Just as any other accident, if you are bitten by a dog, you should exchange information with the dog owner. The information should contain his name, address, and phone number. The information will not only be helpful to contact him, but you can also verify the dog's vaccination history and get properly treated for potential diseases. Also, be sure to get the contact information of nearby witnesses who saw the whole incident. It will help you build a better case against the dog owner, and you will also get an accurate idea of what actually happened.

Decide Whether to Pursue the Case

If you have been bitten by a dog, the dog owner is totally liable for any injuries or damages. However, pursuing a case is not that easy. You should consider all the pros and cons before making a decision. Court trials are a very daunting experience, and they can take a significant amount of time and money. If you have got a few punctures that were easily treated in the ER, the case might not be worth pursuing. However, if you have suffered significant injuries, filing a lawsuit is probably the best decision you can make and get compensation for your troubles.

Contact an Attorney

Most people don't know this, but dog bite incidents are so common that there are special attorneys who deal with such cases. If you have any questions related to dog bite and its legal process, you can find the answers at Millar Law Firm. Law firms like this one offer experienced lawyers who are well versed in calculating the accurate amount of compensation you should receive in case of a dog bite. These lawyers are also familiar with all the local laws as the success of a case is based on the state's dog bite laws.

On a final note, if you think you have a valid case, you should not wait for a long time. You should contact a lawyer immediately, as there is a certain time after which you can't file for a dog bite case. It differs from state to state, so you should have an idea about the limitations in your area. Most dog bite cases end in settlement, so there is only a small chance that you will actually end up in a courtroom. You should discuss what to do with your lawyer as he will give you the best possible advice on the extent to which you should follow up on a case.

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
EDWARDSVILLE  Edwardsville Cool Cities Committee claims that mosquito spraying kills more mosquito predators than actual mosquitos, among other concerns about the process, during a recent administrative and community service (ACS) meeting.

Dr. Rachel Tompkins, who chairs the cool cities committee, attended the meeting to ask the city to halt its general spraying program.

She and other members claim that the citys current method of spraying kills about .0001 percent of adult mosquitos.

The city sprays from dusk until 10 p.m., three nights a week (unless it rains or is very windy), bi-weekly from late May or early June to the first week of October.

Tompkins also said the process is widely viewed as ineffective by state health officials because it only kills adults that come into contact with the spray and those droplets soon dissipate, kills no mosquito larvae, and ceasing the service would save the city about $33,000 annually.

Ive been a proponent of this since Ive been here, which is 12 years; its just as effective, said City Attorney Jeff Berkbigler.

Street Superintendent Matt Taul, who also attended the meeting Thursday, and Public Works Director Eric Williams confirmed residents of a single house in town only see the spray truck every other week and the spray is only effective while its airborne.

Taul said his department gets calls for and against spraying daily, but the majority of residents express that they want the spray. Taul said the program is less than 10 percent effective, adding there was no way to quantify it.

In addition to the Thursday meeting, Taul presented information at Tuesdays city council meeting.

More Information Tips to reduce mosquitos around your home*  Ensure doors and window screens fit tightly; replace those with rips or tears  Limit your time outside at dawn and dusk  If you must be outside when mosquitos are active, wear shoes, socks, long-sleeved shirts and long pants  Make sure there is no standing water in your yard  Keep gutters and downspouts free-flowing  Fill in low spots in soil to prevent puddles and ponding  Get rid of any standing water in spare tire swings, flowerpots, wading pools and other containers Source: Illinois Department of Public Health website See More Collapse

According to Tauls report, mosquito fogging adversely affects the central nervous system of insects in general. It is not mosquito-specific, and the Environmental Protection Agencys toxicity table labels it as practically non-toxic to birds and mammals.

Nationally, in 2019, there were 917 reported cases of West Nile virus contracted by people. Fifty-one of those people died. Last year, Illinois had 24 reported cases of it but no deaths. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) counted eight human cases of West Nile in Madison County between 2014 and 2019.

And youre looking at one of them right here, interjected Mayor Hal Patton. Locally, last year the county health department tests 1,056 mosquitos and West Nile was detected at two locations within city limits, the only two locations in the county.

As far as stopping the fogging and sinking more revenue into larvacide efforts, Taul said rough estimates pointed to treating areas with larvicide monthly, using five employees over two days for $18,000. While Taul admitted that option would be more cost-effective, the five-person crew needed to do it would mean that other tasks could be delayed.

Tompkins said Samantha Debosik, a program manager for the state health department, told her that repeated sprayings in the same areas over time can make mosquitos more resistant to the spray.

According to a committee handout distributed at ACS, the spray used kills assorted mosquito predators  insects, fish, reptiles and a mammal, bats. Taul said after reading studies, the insect population was the main target.

Tompkins said the pesticides safety data sheet warns users to dispose of clothing after using the spray and do not breathe the mist due to serious respiratory difficulties that can be fatal.

They [private citizens] dont need to be scared into doing it; they need to want to do it or theyre not going to, Taul said.

One of two solutions pitched during the meeting was to use larvacide in public areas, like fountains or small ponds, to prevent larvae from maturing into mosquitos.

The other solution was for residents to drain any standing water on private properties.

It was also suggested that Taul speaks at homeowner association meetings (HOAs) to get residents informed, educated and involved in the effort.

No vote or action was taken at ACS last week or city council on Tuesday.

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Kaju, a 14-year-old kid from Chhapra, Bihar, was diagnosed with lymphoma eye cancer -- type of cancer that can affect the eye, has been successfully treated at a hospital here.

While examination at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals he was diagnosed with Lymphoma. Lymphoma is a cancer that originates in white blood cells called lymphatic cells.

When lymphoma develops in the eye, it is called primary intraocular lymphoma (PIOL), and it is almost always a type of lymphoma called non-Hodgkin's B cell lymphoma, due to this condition he developed a large tumour around his right and was in excruciating pain, the doctors said.

"After PET and BM examination we decided to perform a biopsy. Post biopsy, Kaju was diagnosed of lymphoma in the eye. The line of treatment was chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation and no surgery was conducted," said Amita Mahajan, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Oncology and Haematology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi.

However, Kaju's financial condition was not stable. Thus, the doctors decided to raise funds for his treatment. They also wrote to PM's fund to which we got immediate response.

"And without any further delay, we operated Kaju. He responded well to the treatment and showed timely improvements. Intra and post surgery care was most crucial due to Kaju's condition. He was provided with expert care for the healing of surgical wounds and contracting any kind of infection," Mahajan added.

Treatment of the lymphoma of the eye is highly complicated and need multi-disciplinary team efforts. The treatment is usually prolonged and done in multiple stages.

Basal cell carcinoma, sebaceous cell carcinoma, and malignant melanoma are more common cancers that affect the eyelid and skin around the eye. However, lymphoma is the most common cancer found on the eye itself.
"Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran wants to negotiate with The United States, but wants sanctions removed. @FoxNews @OANN No Thanks!" Trump tweeted in English on January 25 and later in Farsi.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on January 26 by tweeting an excerpt from the interview with Der Spiegel published on January 24, where he said Iran is still open to negotiations with America if sanctions are lifted.

"@realdonaldtrump is better advised to base his foreign policy comments & decisions on facts, rather than @FoxNews headlines or his Farsi translators," Zarif said in the tweet with the interview excerpt.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have reached the highest levels in decades after the US killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, prompting Iran to fire missiles days later at bases in Iraq where US troops are stationed.

Tensions between the two have been increasing steadily since Trump pulled the United States out of Iran's nuclear pact with world powers in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that have driven down Iran's oil exports and hammered its economy.
UP: Elections not won on exit polls basis, results will be surprising: Kamal Nath

Madhya Pradesh govt to build Sita temple in Sri Lanka

India

pti-PTI

Bhopal, Jan 27: The Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government will construct a grand temple for Sita in Sri Lanka and Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Monday asked officials to prepare a plan and allot funds.

He also directed that Sri Lankan government officials and members of the Mahabodhi Society be included in the committee that will be formed to monitor the progress of construction and adherence to deadlines, said an MP public relations department official on Monday.

Nath asked officials to finalise the design of the temple and arrange for funds in the current fiscal itself, the official informed.

On camera, Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders fight at Republic day event

The decision was made after Nath a chaired a meeting with a delegation led by state Public Relations Minister PC Sharma, in which office-bearers of the Mahabodhi Society were also present, he said.

Nath also directed officials to allot land in Sanchi for the construction of a Buddha museum, research and training centre of international standard.

The CM also informed that Mahabodhi society president, Japan and companies of other countries have offered financial assistance for the development of Sanchi.

On the occasion Sharma informed about his recent visit to Sri Lanka and the discussions held with officials there on the Sita temple construction.

Sharma said Buddhists from Sri Lanka and other countries would arrive in large numbers in Sanchi if better air services are provided, and people from here would also be able to go to the island nation to pray at the Sita temple.

The construction of a Sita temple in Sri Lanka was first mooted by then chief minister and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2012 when then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had visited Sanchi to lay the foundation stone of an international Buddha university.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The My Step faction of the Yerevan City Council convened an urgent session regarding its member Henrik Hartenyans recent post of the photo of niece of Constitutional Court President Hrayr Tovmasyan on his social account.

The faction will make a statement after todays session.

On January 26 My Step faction member of the Yerevan City Council Henrik Hartenyan posted the photo of Sara Tovmasyan user on his Facebook story and wrote that this page belongs to the daughter of CC President Hrayr Tovmasyan.

Following this the My Step faction of the City Council issued a statement strongly condemning any manifestation of hate speech and apologizing for the incident.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Algeria, January 23, 2020 (SPS) - The Saharawi ambassador, Mr. Abdelkader Taleb Omar, expressed Tuesday his hope that the next African Summit will take into account the "dangerous practices" adopted by the Morocco against the Saharawi people and their sovereignty, by opening "consulates" in the Occupied Areas of Western Sahara, an act contrary to international law.

The Saharawi diplomat addressed, in a conversation held yesterday with the presence of the president of the Algerian National Committee of Solidarity with the Saharawi people, Said Ayachi, the systematic violations committed by the Moroccan occupier against the defenseless Saharawis in order to consecrate his occupation.

Abdelkader Taleb Omar outlined the mechanisms adopted by the African Union regarding the Saharawi issue, highlighting that they were not active and should play a decisive and effective role.SPS

125/090/TRA
The National Identification Authority (NIA) will from today, January 27, 2020, begin the Ghana Card registration exercise in the Western, Western North and Central Regions.

The 23-day exercise in the three regions would end on February 18, 2020.

Chief Executive of the NIA, Professor Ken Attafah says the NIA will as part of the exercise open 323 centres in the Western Region and 138 in Western North Region.

The NIA which officially started its mass registration exercise on April 29, 2019, has four more regions to complete the exercise on 31st March 2020.

NIA has every data EC might need for voting purposes  Prof. Attafuah

Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah had earlier said the NIA has all the data the Electoral Commission might need for a credible register. 7.2 million Ghanaians registered

Professor Attafuah said the NIA has so far registered 7.2 million people which is more than 50% of the voting population of Ghana adding that the EC which has the constitutional mandate can decide to adopt the NIA's scientific data or even use the Ghana Card as the voting card when it successfully completes its registration by 30th March.

Professor Attafuah who was briefing journalists in Takoradi on the Western, Western-North and Central regions' scheduled Ghana Card registration exercise said it can provide the Electoral Commission with all the data set within five days.

We have registered over 7.2 million people as of 16th January 2020. That is more than 50 percent of the voting population. Secondly, 94 percent of those that we have registered are 18-years-old or will be 18 by voting date. So already we have over 50 percent of the population that will vote captured and we have everything that the Electoral Commission might want to ask of citizens for purposes of voting, except polling station numbers or centres. But that is as easy as ABC technically speaking and NIA has the capacity to give to the EC all the data sets of all the people who are 18 years and above. We can transfer all the millions of that data set in a maximum of five days.

---citinewsroom
In 2008, my family had a chance to visit her and her mother and brother at their house in Paradise Valley, and she was warm, funny and clever, and she was very interested in what happened in Carol Stream, said Carol Stream village trustee Rick Gieser. She was very, very proud of the fact that the town was named after her. She was disappointed that Glenbard North High School (in Carol Stream) was not named for her, and I reminded her that an elementary school also is named after her and she said, I want both.
Theres a deadly virus spreading from state to state. It preys on the most vulnerable, striking the sick and the old without mercy. In just the past few months, it has claimed the lives of at least 39 children.

The virus is influenza, and it poses a far greater threat to Americans than the coronavirus from China that has made headlines around the world.

When we think about the relative danger of this new coronavirus and influenza, theres just no comparison, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Coronavirus will be a blip on the horizon in comparison. The risk is trivial.

To be sure, the coronavirus outbreak, which originated last month in the Chinese city of Wuhan, should be taken seriously. The virus can cause pneumonia and is blamed for more than 800 illnesses and 26 deaths. British researchers estimate the virus has infected 4,000 people.

A second person in the U.S. who visited China has been diagnosed with the Wuhan virus, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Public health workers are monitoring 63 additional patients from 22 states.

Influenza rarely gets this sort of attention, even though it kills more Americans each year than any other virus, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Influenza has already sickened at least 13 million Americans this winter, hospitalizing 120,000 and killing 6,600, according to the CDC. And flu season hasn't even peaked. In a bad year, the flu kills up to 61,000 Americans.

Worldwide, the flu causes up to 5 million cases of severe illness worldwide and kills up to 650,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization.

And yet, Americans aren't particularly concerned.

Less than half of adults got a flu shot last season, according to the CDC. Even among children, who can be especially vulnerable to respiratory illnesses, only 62% received the vaccine.

If Americans aren't afraid of the flu, perhaps that's because they are inured to yearly warnings. For them, the flu is old news. Yet viruses named after foreign places  such as Ebola, Zika and Wuhan  inspire terror.

"Familiarity breeds indifference," Schaffner said. "Because it's new, it's mysterious and comes from an exotic place, the coronavirus creates anxiety."

Some doctors joke that the flu needs to be rebranded.

"We should rename influenza; call it XZ-47 virus, or something scarier," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 5,000 people in the past year  more than twice as many as Ebola. Yet UNICEF officials have noted that the measles, which many Americans no longer fear, has gotten little attention. Nearly all the measles victims were children under 5.

Some people may worry less about the flu because there's a vaccine, whose protection has ranged from 19% to 60% in recent years. Simply having the choice about whether or not to receive a flu shot can give people an illusion of control, Schaffner said.

But people often feel powerless to fight novel viruses. The fact that an airplane passenger spread SARS to other passengers and flight crew made people feel especially vulnerable.

Because the Wuhan virus is new, humans have no antibodies against it. Doctors haven't had time to develop treatments or vaccines.

The big question, so far unknown, is just how easily the virus is transmitted from an infected person to others. The WHO this week opted not to declare the Wuhan outbreak an international health emergency. But officials warn the outbreak hasn't peaked. Each patient with the new coronavirus appears to be infecting about two other people.

By comparison, patients with SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, spread the infection to an average of two to four others. Each patient with measles  one of the most contagious viruses known to science  infects 12 to 18 unvaccinated people.

Health officials worry that the new coronavirus could resemble SARS  which appeared suddenly in China in 2002 and spread to 26 countries, sickening 8,000 people and killing 774, according to the WHO.

The U.S. dodged a bullet with SARS, Schaffner said. Only eight Americans became infected, and none died, according to the CDC. Yet SARS caused a global panic, leading people to shutter hotels, cancel flights and close businesses.

Coronaviruses can be unpredictable, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. While some patients never infect anyone else, people who are "super spreaders" can infect dozens of others.

At Seoul's Samsung Medical Center in 2015, a single emergency room patient infected 82 people  including patients, visitors and staff  with a coronavirus called MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The hospital partly shut down to control the virus.

"This is one of the finest medical centers in the world, on par with the Cleveland Clinic, and they were brought to their knees," Osterholm said.

Yet MERS has never posed much a threat to the U.S.

Only two patients in the U.S.  health care providers who had worked in Saudi Arabia  have ever tested positive for the virus, according to the CDC. Both patients survived.

Hotez, who is working to develop vaccines against neglected diseases, said he worries about unvaccinated children. Most kids who die from the flu haven't been immunized against it, he said. And many were previously healthy.

"If you're worried about your health, get your flu vaccination," Hotez said. "It's not too late."

-- Kaiser Health News

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Related Content:
Elon Musk said concern that a Tesla assembly site in a rural area near Berlin would cause water shortages is exaggerated, pushing back against critics of the plant.

"Sounds like we need to clear up a few things!" the carmaker's chief executive officer tweeted. "Tesla won't use this much net water on a daily basis. It's possibly a rare peak usage case, but not an everyday event."

Environmentalists have some concerns about Tesla's planned new plant in Berlin. Credit:Bloomberg

Tesla still has to jump through local hoops for the proposed plant, located in a water conservation zone in a forest bordering a nature preserve. Company planning documents saying the so-called Gigafactory 4 would need about 98,000 gallons of water per hour set off protests by residents this month.

Over the weekend, Musk cleared a different environmental obstacle: unexploded World War II ordnance, a result of the Berlin area's legacy as an industrial target for Allied bombers.
A32-year-old man was arrested on Monday in connection with the alleged kidnapping and gang- rape of a 14-year-old girl near here in Madhya Pradesh last week, police said.

The man, Rajendra Mehra alias Pradeep (32), is one of the three persons accused of kidnapping and raping the minor girl, Shahpura police station in-charge H Yadav said.

The incident took place on January 20 in Shahpura, around 45km from here, he said, adding the other two accused are still at large and a search is on for them.

The girl was on way to school when Mehra stopped and asked her to sit in his car, promising to drop to her destination, he said.

The victim was acquainted with Mehra as they hailed from the same village, Yadav said.

The girl got into the vehicle, an SUV, in which two more persons were already sitting, the police officer said.

Instead of dropping her to school, the trio took the girl to an isolated place where they raped her, Yadav said.

After the incident, the accused abandon the girl in Gotegaon in neighbouring district of Narsinghpur from where she took help of an old woman to call a relative, he said.

The girl did not reveal anything about the traumatic incident to the relative as the accused had threatened to kill her parents and other family members if she did so, the police officer said.

The girl narrated the ordeal to her parents only after they raised doubts over her character, he said.

Her father subsequently filed a police complaint on January 24.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the trio under relevant sections of the IPC, including 376 (punishment for rape) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MIDDLETOWN  The Centers for Disease Control reported Monday the Wesleyan University student who was being monitored for coronavirus negative over the weekend did not contract the illness.

The student is doing well, according to university spokesperson Lauren Rubenstein.

There are no confirmed cases in Connecticut, Av Harris, director of communication for the state Department of Public Health, said Sunday.

A high school student from China at Yale University in New Haven, who was participating in the Yale Model United Nations conference on campus, tested positive for influenza type A, the state department of health said in a press release. As officials await test results on coronavirus, the person was discharged from the hospital but remains in isolation.

Rubenstein, director of media and public relations at Wesleyan, said Saturday the university student who recently traveled in Asia was suffering from a fever and cough, and was in isolation until test results were returned Monday.

We didnt want to treat this lightly, Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said Monday afternoon.

Dr. Tom McLarney, medical director of the Wesleyan Davison Health Center, send out a campus-wide email Monday morning.

Please take common-sense steps to prevent the spread of illness during this cold and flu season. This includes not sharing drinks; coughing into the crook of ones arm rather than the hand; and frequently using hand sanitizer or washing hands in soap and water for 20 seconds. McLarney said.

If you have a cough and fever, and have recently been to China or have been exposed to a person with known coronavirus, please seek immediate medical attention. We will continue to monitor this global health situation, but there is no need for alarm, he added.

I appreciate theres been concern nationwide, and these kinds of things shake people up when it hits close to home. In this case, Im happy everything happened like it should. The student was right in seeking medical attention, he said. The CDC wanted to do the test out of an abundance of caution.

Florsheim said he hopes the individual gets well soon. I feel bad for the student in the middle of this.

Its not the disease itself that can be dangerous, its the complications from it. Theres no risk of it here, he added.

Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday said the state is continuing to closely monitor the outbreak of coronavirus in China.

Lamont, in a statement, said both persons watched in Connecticut tested positive for influenza type A and the cause of their illness is most likely the flu. At the present time, testing for the new coronavirus strain is only available at the CDC.

The state is closely monitoring reported cases and remaining cautious on behalf of the public, Lamont said. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to provide updated information on these developments to the people of our state. We ask that the public not panic but take possible symptoms seriously and consult a healthcare professional, he said.

I want to assure all residents of Connecticut that we are taking this new virus very seriously and have been closely coordinating our response with local health departments and medical providers throughout the state, DPH Commissioner Renee D. Coleman-Mitchell said.

U.S Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. is asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public health emergency so we can ensure that the Center for Disease Control is able to access the additional funding it may need to expedite the development of a vaccine and to prepare to contain any outbreak in our country, he said in a statement

So far, coronavirus has infected at least 2,800 people in China and killed more than 80, various media outlets have reported, including The Washington Post.

China extended the Lunar New Year holiday in response to the epidemic. Of the nearly 3,000 people who have so far contracted the disease, the vast majority live in China, according to the New York Times.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing illness in people and others that circulate among animals, including camels, cats and bats. It spreads among humans through coughing and sneezing. Laboratory tests are needed to confirm diagnosis. Symptoms can occur as quickly as two days to two weeks.

Harris said symptoms are similar to those ranging from the common cold to the flu. They include headache, coughs, runny nose, sore throat, fever and a general feeling of malaise. There is no vaccine and no approved drugs to fight the disease.\
Auto industry body on Monday urged the government to announce an incentive based ahead of the Budget, while also seeking a reduction in on BS-VI vehicles to 18 per cent.

Society of Indian Manufacturers (SIAM) also suggested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase budget allocation for internal combustion engine (ICE) bus procurement by state transport undertakings.

"As SIAM, we have urged the Finance Ministry to consider announcing an incentive based and also increase Budget allocation for ICE bus procurement by State transport undertakings," President Rajan Wadhera said in a statement.

He further said increased cost of BS-VI vehicles may effect demand.

"Hence, we have also requested government to reduce rates for BS-VI vehicles effective April 1 from 28 per cent to 18 per cent," Wadhera added.

From April 1, India will transition to stricter emission norm BS-VI from the current BS-IV. As per industry estimates, BS-VI vehicles are expected to be at least 10 per cent costlier.

The Indian auto industry has been going through a prolonged slump, recording its worst-ever sales decline in two decades in 2019, with an unprecedented slowdown hampering vehicle offtake across segments.

Overall, wholesale of vehicles during the year across categories, including passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles, saw a decline of 13.77 per cent in 2019 at 2,30,73,438 units as against 2,67,58,787 units in 2018.

Seeking a turnaround in fortune, the auto industry has been seeking government support and reduce the burden of transition to BS-VI with lower rate.
Australians trapped in China amid a deadly coronavirus outbreak can no longer report their location to the government online after the registration feature was scrapped.

Residents who were travelling abroad were previously able to log their itinerary on the Smartraveller website allowing the government to keep track of their location and status in the event of an emergency.

But that option was quietly removed from the website on November 21, weeks before the first few cases of the potentially fatal illness were reported in China.

Passengers wear protective masks on arrival at Sydney International Airport in Sydney last week. Health authorities have been deployed to screen travellers for the Coronavirus

Residents who were travelling abroad were previously able to log their itinerary on the Smartraveller website allowing the government to keep track of their location and status in the event of an emergency

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade rolled out a new version of the website after the registration system apparently became redundant, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

DFAT revealed the most reliable information it received on Australians' whereabouts and welfare in times of crisis over the years had come from relatives and friends, not the registry.

'Very few Australians ever registered their details with us. The data we received was often incomplete or inaccurate. This delayed getting help to those in need,' the website states.

'The new system reflects this reality and allows us to focus on Australians most in need. Ultimately, we need to know who needs help, not who is safe and well.'

An estimated 100 Australians remain stranded in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak, and have been advised to contact the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre.

Emma Wei, from Melbourne, is trapped in Wuhan with her two children amid China's lockdown

An estimated 100 Australians remain stranded in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak, and have been advised to contact the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade rolled out a new version of the website after the registration system apparently became redundant

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the government would look to assist Australians with travel out of China, with several cities in lockdown as authorities try to contain the virus.

'We are seeking advice from the Chinese authorities on these restrictions and whether any options are available to international travellers,' Senator Payne said.

'Our embassy in Beijing and our consulate in Shanghai are also working with international partners and the Chinese government to determine what support can be given to Australians on the ground.'

So far, some 385 people have called an emergency helpline for those who may have family members in the impacted region of China, Senator Payne said on Monday.

As of late Monday, there have been five confirmed cases of the virus in Australia, with several more people being tested after showing symptoms.

The outbreak has so far killed 80 people in China and infected more than 2,750.

Coronavirus has been confirmed in other countries including Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, France, Malaysia and the United States.

Experts are still learning about the virus and Prof Murphy says it's important people arriving from Wuhan, as well as those in close contact with them, look out for symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, vomiting and difficulty breathing.

Australians are being told not to travel to Wuhan or Hubei province.
Two people are dead and at least four are wounded following a shooting at a South Carolina bar on Sunday morning.

The Darlington County Coroner's Office identified Dicaprio Collins, 21 and Bryan Robinson, 29 as the victims of the shooting at Mac's Lounge in Hartsville, South Carolina.

Hartsville Police confirmed in a Monday morning Facebook post that they had two suspects in custody in connection with the shooting.

The statement from the Hartsville Police Department read: "The two suspects involved in the early morning January 26th, 2020 shooting on the 100 block of Camden Avenue are now in custody.

"The Police Department is in the process of serving additional warrants on the two suspects at this time. Names and further information will be released later today."

The conditions of the seven individuals injured in the shooting have not been released.

WMBF, a regional news station, spoke to witnesses who reported hearing the gunshots before watching as the frantic crowd tried to escape the bar through a single door.

Hartsville police have not released information explaining the cause of the shooting.
The Centre has stepped up vigil in areas bordering Nepal in view of a confirmed case of novel coronavirus detected there.

No case of novel coronavirus infection has been detected in the country so far.

The Union Health Ministry on Monday said teams of healthcare professionals have been deployed in West Bengal's Panitanki and Uttarakhand's Jhulaghat and Jauljibi in Pithoragarh district, bordering Nepal.

Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan chaired a video-conference meeting with chief secretaries and police chiefs of the five states bordering Nepal -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim -- to review their preparedness for prevention and management of novel coronavirus.

Principal secretary (Health) of other states/UTs also participated in the meeting.

Sudan informed the states/UTs that Union Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan is closely and regularly monitoring the status of preparedness.

The Union Health Minister has written to chief ministers of States and UTs, requesting them to personally review preparedness measures in the matter.

"Subsequent to confirmed #coronarvirus case in #Nepal, vigil strengthened at Panitanki (West Bengal) entry point from Nepal," the Health Ministry said in a tweet on Monday.

"In response to confirmed case of #nCoV2019 in #Nepal, India has stepped up vigil in districts bordering Nepal. Health Teams deployed at BOP with Nepal at Jhulaghat and Jauljibi, Dist Pithoragarh, #Uttarakhand," it had tweeted on Sunday.

Till Monday, a total 33,552 passengers arriving in India from China in 155 flights have been screened. "4,359 passengers in 18 flights from China screened today (on Monday) for nCoV. No (positive) case has been found in the country so far," a senior health official said.

As per data last received on January 27, total 17 samples have been received by the ICMR-NIV Pune Lab, out of which 14 have been already been tested and found negative, officials said.

Nearly 450 people have been kept under observation in the country, most of them in Kerala, following screening for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Sudan reviewed the preparedness of the bordering states in terms of orientation of health and other agencies; adherence of various prevention and management protocols, awareness regarding prevention of coronavirus among the people being screened and those transiting the border with Nepal; self-reporting by these people, isolation wards, protective gear etc, a health ministry statement stated.

States have informed that they have made all necessary arrangements for screening of people transiting across the border.

They also informed that travel advisories, other guidelines and protocols issued by the Health Ministry have been also widely disseminated. Orientation of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the medical personnel, and health officials has also been conducted, the statement stated.

Awareness drives are being undertaken through public address system, distribution of leaflets and signages at the border check posts.

The ministry has also advised for special gram sabhas to be organised in coordination with the Department of Panchayati Raj over this week for enhancing awareness regarding the coronavirus diseases, its symptoms, preventive measures, reporting etc. in the border villages.

Sudan also advised them to coordinate with the Hotels Association for wider self-reporting by travellers from Nepal visiting religious and other tourist places in these states.

She advised the states to ensure that medical officers are deputed to coordinate with the airport authorities, while tertiary hospitals are also identified for these airports. Sudan also advised the states to ensure that protocols for contact tracing, and timely collection and transportation of samples from suspected cases to NIV, Pune is followed.

States have been advised to depute a nodal officer for coordinating the efforts of the different agencies within the states, and to regularly update progress to the Union Health Ministry.

A 24x7 NCDC call centre (+91-11-23978046) has been made operational to monitor the list of contacts furnished by the Ministry of External Affairs; provide details of district and state surveillance officers to those who seek them; and in case of any clinical query, direct the concerned to the relevant Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) officer.

Thermal screening is being done at seven designated airports -- New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

The Union health minister has urged passengers who have a travel history to China since January 1, 2020, to come forward for self-reporting at the nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms such as fever, cough, respiratory distress, etc., and also inform their doctors.

Novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus that has so far killed 80 people and affected 2,744 in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

It has emerged from a seafood and animal market in China's Wuhan, and is suspected to have spread to as far as the United States. According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday asked counsel of Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh Singh to approach its Registry for urgent listing of his plea against rejection of mercy petition by the President.



President Kovind had on January 17 rejected the convict's petition, which is the last constitutional recourse that a death row convict can exhaust.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "If somebody is going to be executed then nothing can be more urgent than this and it should be the top priority".

The Bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant asked Kumar's counsel to approach the Supreme Court Registry as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

Mukesh's lawyer Vrinda Grover is seeking the commutation of Mukesh's death sentence to life imprisonment from the apex court, as the President of India has rejected his mercy petition.

The Supreme Court's five-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, had on January 15, dismissed the curative petitions of Mukesh and another death row convict, Vinay Kumar Sharma.



A 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped by six men (including a juvenile) in a moving bus in the national capital on a chilly night on December 16, 2012, and was later given the name 'Nirbhaya' which means fearless.



One of the accused, out of five adults, Ram Singh, had committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.



The other three death row convicts, against whom the death warrants have already been issued are Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh. (ANI)


ZUG, Switzerland, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Landis+Gyr (Swiss: LAND.SW) today holds its second Capital Markets Day with Executive Management providing an update on the industry, strategy, operations and financial targets. Highlights include:

Position as the global leader in smart metering

Ability to capitalize on the growing role of grid edge intelligence as a result of the trends of decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization in the utility industry

Growth strategy based on smart metering, grid edge intelligence, and smart infrastructure

Landis+Gyr's installed smart meter base enabling direct CO 2 emission reduction of more than 7 million tons globally in 2018

Confirmation of FY 2019 guidance ranges, with expected results likely to be around the lower end of the ranges primarily due to regulatory delays in the US

Initiate mid-term FY 2022 financial targets

Richard Mora, CEO, said: "Our strategy remains unchanged. We believe that smart metering plays a fundamental and essential role at the heart of the evolving grid, and that our market leadership and proven track-record put us in pole position to deliver on our three growth platforms: smart metering, grid edge intelligence, and smart infrastructure."

Leader in a growing industry

Landis+Gyr is the leader in smart metering worldwide, serving over 3,500 utilities and energy retailers globally, with an installed base of more than 100 million connected intelligent devices deployed to date. Over the next decade many more utilities will deploy smart metering infrastructure, and Landis+Gyr intends to maintain its leadership during this growth phase. Enhanced technology capabilities are driving more utility use case requirements. Often called 'second wave' requirements, the net result is added computing power, distributed intelligence and flexible communications across the grid. All of which allow for distribution management solutions including applications in home energy management that provide improved consumer benefits all enabled by a new set of functionalities driven by edge intelligence applications and a next generation meter architecture.

Sustainability at the core of Landis+Gyr's business

Long driven by positive environmental outcomes, Landis+Gyr's smart metering solutions help reduce electricity consumption of consumers by providing more detailed information on electricity consumption and with that reducing both consumption and CO 2 emissions. Using conservative cost benefit estimates from the jurisdictions with deployments, Landis+Gyr estimates enabling 7 million tons of direct CO 2 emission reduction in 2018 through the installed smart meter base. This equals 7x the annual CO 2 emission of the city of Zurich.

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, Landis+Gyr also signed up to the UN Global Compact supporting its 10 principles which are reflected in the Company's CSR activities.

FY 2019 guidance update

Landis+Gyr confirms the FY 2019 guidance ranges issued at the time of H1 FY 2019 results, however, with the continuation of regulatory delays in the US, the company expects results to likely be around the lower end of all ranges provided.

The FY 2019 guidance range for net revenues growth is approximately 1-4% year over year in constant currency. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between USD 240 million and USD 255 million. Free Cash Flow (excl. M&A) is expected to be between USD 120 million and USD 135 million. The FY 2019 dividend is expected to be at least 75% of Free Cash Flow (excl. M&A).

Mid-term (FY 2022) financial targets unveiled, unchanged from FY 2021 targets

Landis+Gyr's mid-term financial guidance (i.e. for FY 2022) is as follows:

Net revenues, relative to FY 2018, mid-single digit CAGR in constant currency with growth back end loaded towards FY 2022 due to regulatory delays in the US.

Adjusted EBITDA margin between 13.5% and 14.5% of net revenues.

Annual Free Cash Flow (excluding M&A) of above USD 150 million .

. Net debt expected to remain below 1.5x Adjusted EBITDA.

The Company has made a small change to the dividend policy. Landis+Gyr, beginning in FY 2020, will pay a sustainable dividend of approximately 75% of Free Cash Flow (excl. M&A).

Documents

The slides of the Capital Markets Day presentations are available from 07:00 am CET on January 27, 2020 on the Landis+Gyr investor website. A live audio webcast of the event will be available from 08:30am on January 27, 2020. To access the presentation and audio webcast, please visit: www.landisgyr.com/investors/cmd/

Key Dates

Release of Results for Financial Year 2019 May 6, 2020 Publication of Annual Report 2019 and invitation

to AGM 2020 May 28, 2020 Annual General Meeting 2020 June 30, 2020 Release of Half Year Results 2020 October 28, 2020

About Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr is the leading global provider of integrated energy management solutions for the utility sector. Offering one of the broadest portfolios, we deliver innovative and flexible solutions to help utilities solve their complex challenges in Smart Metering, Grid Edge Intelligence and Smart Infrastructure. With sales of USD 1.8 billion, Landis+Gyr employs approximately 6,000 people in over 30 countries across five continents, with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better.

Important notice about forward-looking information

This release contains specific forward-looking statements that include terms like "believe", "assume", "expect", "guidance", "target" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements represent Lands+Gyr's judgments and expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, the financial situation, and/or the development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties, readers should not rely on forward-looking statements. Landis+Gyr Group is not under any obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law or regulation.

Alternative performance measures.

This release contains information regarding alternative performance measures. Definitions of these measures and reconciliations between such measures and their US GAAP counterparts may be found on pages 36 to 40 of the Landis+Gyr Half Year Report 2019 on our website at www.landisgyr.com/investors.

SOURCE Landis+Gyr

Related Links

https://www.landisgyr.com


The parish priest of Newbridge in Co Kildare has been named Bishop of the Diocese of Achonry.

The appointment of Father Paul Dempsey as Bishop was announced today in the Vatican by Pope Francis.

Father Paul told parishoners at a Mass today he is "still not over the shock" of being offered his new role.

"Im sure you can understand how daunting it is to take on the role of bishop in a new diocese," he said.

"Im conscious of my own unworthiness and sinfulness as I take on this role. I ask you to be patient with me as I endeavour to get to know the priests, people, deacons and religious of the diocese in the coming weeks and months."

Archbishop Eamon Martin said Father Paul's will provide a great foundation for his new role.

"Since 2015, Bishop-elect Dempsey has been parish priest of Newbridge - one of the largest and most vibrant parishes in the country," he said.

He is known as a hard-working and caring pastor who will no doubt be missed greatly by the people, clergy and religious of his native diocese.

"The pastoral experience and wisdom he has gained in Kildare & Leighlin will be of huge benefit to him as he takes up the role of shepherd of Gods people in Achonry."

Archbishop Michael Neary also welcomed the news.

"I look forward to working with Father Dempsey, and on behalf of the bishops of the Tuam Province, I warmly welcome him and assure him of our help and support as he assumes his new responsibilities," he said.

Father Paul will be ordained on Sunday, April 19.

"We warmly welcome his appointment and, on behalf of the priests, religious and people of the diocese, I thank him for accepting it," said Father Dermot Meehan, diocesan administrator of the diocese of Achonry.

"It is a reason for rejoicing for us in Achonry that a priest of Father Pauls calibre and extensive experience in pastoral ministry in his native diocese of Kildare and Leighlin comes to us as our new bishop.

I strongly suspect that our gain in Achonry in having Father Paul as our new bishop is a great loss for the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin and we are grateful that you generously give him to us.

Father Paul Dempsey was born in Carlow town in 1971. He is the first native of Carlow town appointed a Bishop in Ireland in 130 years.

His family moved to Athy, Co Kildare in 1978 and he joined the seminary in 1989. During his formation for the priesthood his mother, Berry, died from cancer in February 1994 and his father, Tony, died suddenly twelve days later.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Laurence Ryan in 1997.

Father Pauls first appointment was as curate in Clane and Rathcoffey Parish, Co Kildare. It was during this time that he started a weekly article in the Leinster Leader newspaper.

After seven years he moved to Kildare Town as curate and was also appointed youth director and vocations director for the diocese by Bishop Jim Moriarty. During this time, Father Paul organised two diocesan World Youth Day pilgrimages to Cologne (2005) and Sydney (2008) as well as many other youth initiatives.

Father Paul also presented a weekly religious and social affairs programme on Kildare FM Radio on Sunday mornings.

In 2008, Father Paul completed an Honours Masters Degree in Theology in the area of faith and culture. On completion of his studies, he took up his appointment as curate in parish cluster of Naas, Sallins and Two-Mile-House in 2009.

In August 2014, Bishop Denis Nulty appointed Father Paul to Newbridge Parish and also as Vicar Forane for the Kildare and Leighlin North Deanery consisting of 17 parishes.

Father Paul was appointed parish priest of Newbridge and administrator of Caragh and Prosperous parishes in 2015. The parish has approximately 32,000 parishioners.

"He is a great collaborator with priests and people," said Bishop Denis Nulty.

"Father Pauls going from Kildare anfd Leighlin leaves a deep void since his contribution to the diocese has been immense. We will certainly miss him but we are also very proud of his achievement and appointment this day.
The Khanna police on Sunday recovered 53kg poppy husk from a cattle shed in Afzullapur village of Payal sub-division of Ludhiana and arrested a resident of the village.

The accused has been identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Peeta, 40.

Based on a tip-off, Rauni police post in-charge, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Pavittar Singh raided the shed and seized 53kg poppy husk that was hidden in a bunker under it. While the owner of the shed, Surinder Singh alias Chhind, managed to flee the spot, the police arrested Gurpreet, his accomplice.

A case under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been registered against the accused at the Payal police station. The police have been questioning the accused to know from where the duo procured the poppy husk.

Police said Gurpreet will be produced before a court on Tuesday, and a hunt is on to nab Surinder.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has come up with some sensational findings regarding funds received by Popular Front of India (PFI) which raises some serious questions. Did PFI fuel the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) stir across the nation? Did they fund the protestors? If you simply go by the documents accessed by Republic TV, it does appear that there is a direct correlation  funds withdrawn from PFI bank accounts and violent demonstrations against CAA. It was while probing the Rs 120 crore money trail, that the agency stumbled upon some suspicious transactions in 15 accounts related to PFI. In the last three months, over a dozen ED officials have been burning the midnight oil to trace the source of the funding. What they found only raised some very uncomfortable questions that perhaps the outfit will need to answer.

Anti-CAA protests: ED unearths PFI link in UP; Rs 120 crore money-trail under lens

FUNDING LINKED TO ANTI-CAA PROTESTS

Rs 1.04 crore was deposited in 15 bank accounts of PFI  10 of PFI and 5 of Rehab India Foundation (related entity)  between December 12, 2019 and January 6, 2020. In order to avoid the gaze of investigating agencies, deposit amount was always below Rs 50,000  it would vary from Rs 5,000 to Rs 49,000. This way they avoided disclosing the identity of the depositor.

Rs 1.34 crore was withdrawn from these bank accounts during the same period. The money was either withdrawn from an ATM or through NEFT / IMPS using a mobile phone. Barring a few cheque payments, most transactions would take place either from an ATM or NEFT / IMPS.

Scrutiny of the withdrawals between December 12, 2019, and January 6, 2020, reveals that withdrawals were made by transferring money of small amounts  varying from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000  on multiple occasions during a day to several individuals.

On days like December 21, 2019, and December 12, 2019, more than 80 and 90 withdrawals were made from a single account.

Interestingly, money was withdrawn immediately before the date of protest or during the day of the protest. According to the ED, the withdrawal of money from bank accounts of PFI and its related entities has a direct correlation with a violent demonstration against CAA. The money trail has proved beyond doubt that PFI has mobilized the money to finance the cost of the demonstration against CAA.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan castigates Congress on ED's PFI revelations

DEEP STUDY OF PFI BANK ACCOUNT

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 9086*****5

ACCOUNT HOLDER: Popular Front of India

BANK: Syndicate Bank, Nehru Place

Cash deposits all below Rs 50,000 from western Uttar Pradesh  Bahraich, Bijnor, Hapur, Shamli.

Very few withdrawals took place in the months of September and October 2019.

Withdrawals spiked in the month of December, 2019 and deposits decreased substantially.

The scrutiny of this bank account reveals a new trend of huge and multiple cash deposits in the districts of Western UP which witnessed maximum violence.



Akhilesh Yadav rakes up 'demonetisation' over PFI link in Uttar Pradesh anti-CAA protests

MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATION

The main case was registered by the ED in 2018 after the National Investigation Agency had filed an FIR against the radical outfit. In the investigation, ED studied the transactions that took place in 73 bank accounts related to PFI. The scrutiny of these transactions as recorded in these bank accounts revealed that Rs 120.5 crore was credited in these bank accounts which were withdrawn on the same day or within two to three days leaving a very nominal balance in these accounts, reveals a source in ED.

PFI denies Rs 120 crore 'money trail' between party & anti-CAA protests, demands proof

FOREIGN FUNDING

EDs investigation has revealed that Rs 20 lakhs was received from M/s PMA International LLC, Dubai in the bank account of PFI affiliate Rehab India Foundation. ED sources say the nature of business activities between PMA International and PFI is questionable. This company operates in Dubai, Muscat and Oman.
Imperial Valley News Center

Washington State Couple and Companies Sentenced for Fraud and False Statement in Connection with Renewable Energy Fraud Scheme

Richland, Washington - A Richland, couple and their companies, HTG Trucking LLC and Freedom Fuel Inc., were sentenced Thursday in federal court in Richland, Washington for fraud and false statement charges in connection with a renewable energy fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Justice Departments Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington William D. Hyslop.

Hector Garza Jr., 49, was sentenced to two years in prison to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. Tammy Garza, 38, was sentenced to four months in prison and one year of supervised release. HTG Trucking LLC and Freedom Fuel Inc. were placed on probation for three years. All of the defendants were ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Treasury of $284,546 and a $100,000 fine. The defendants had previously pled guilty on June 6, 2019, before the Honorable Salvador Mendoza Jr.

Hector and Tammy Garza and their companies, HTG Trucking and Freedom Fuel, were participants in a conspiracy involving Gen-X Energy Group Inc. (Gen-X), a renewable energy company formerly located in Pasco and Moses Lake, Washington. Between January 2013 and April 2013, Hector Garza and his co-conspirators falsely claimed the production of hundreds of thousands of marketable renewable energy credits, which they then sold for more than $296,000, and filed false claims with the IRS for $284,546 in excise credit refunds. Throughout this period, much of the renewable fuel claimed to be produced at the Gen-X facilities was either not produced or it was re-processed multiple times.

Hector Garza, HTG Trucking and Freedom Fuel pled guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States with respect to the false claims made to the IRS, through the use of the Garzas companies, which were used to round supposed renewable fuel by driving the same material back and forth between Gen-Xs Moses Lake facility and the Garzas businesses in Othello, Washington. This activity enabled the conspirators to generate fraudulent renewable energy credits and tax credits each time the material was rounded. Tammy Garza pled guilty to a separate offense of aiding and abetting the use of false statements in connection with the renewable energy credits that were claimed and sold as part of the scheme.

Several conspirators have previously pled guilty and been sentenced in connection with their role in the fraud. In June 2017, Scott Johnson, the former CEO of Gen-X, was sentenced to 97 months in prison in connection with his role in the fraud scheme. In December 2017, Donald Holmes, the former vice president of Gen-X, was sentenced to 78 months of imprisonment. In June 2018, Jin Chul Jacob Cha of Tustin, California, was sentenced to 51 months in prison in connection with his role in the fraud.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Fruchter of the Eastern District of Washington; EPA Regional Criminal Enforcement Counsel and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Karla G. Perrin for the Eastern District of Washington and Senior Trial Attorney Jennifer Leigh Blackwell of the Environment and Natural Resources Divisions Environmental Crimes Section. The IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Environmental Protection Agencys Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case.
" " Andrew Jacksons military fame helped him win the 1828 presidential election. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Only one U.S. president has an entire era named after him. And it's not Washington, Kennedy, Roosevelt or Lincoln. The man who holds that distinction is Andrew Jackson, a two-term commander-in-chief who served from 1829 to 1837.

"We call Washington's time the Revolutionary and founding eras, not the Age of Washington. Lincoln belongs in the Civil War era, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in the Progressive era," wrote Daniel Feller, a professor at the University of Tennessee, in an essay for The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. "But the interval roughly from the 1820s through 1840s, between the aftermath of the War of 1812 and the coming of the Civil War, has often been known as the Jacksonian Era, or the Age of Jackson."

While all presidents seem to wax and wane in the public consciousness to some degree, Jackson's name pops up regularly, even more so in recent years. But why would the ghost of a president who died in 1845 still haunt contemporary political discourse?

The answer is, like Jackson, complicated.

For starters, President Donald Trump has a habit of name-dropping Jackson, whom he admires, to such a degree that he hung a portrait of his hero in the Oval Office.

"Inspirational visit, I have to tell you. I'm a fan," Trump said during a 2017 visit to Jackson's Nashville mansion, according to The Washington Post. Both Jackson and Trump won power in part by stoking resentment in working-class people toward the rich and famous, calling themselves champions of society's underdogs, the Post pointed out.

But unlike Trump, who was born rich, Jackson was a self-made man who literally fought his way to the top. He also served with distinction in the military and was elected to multiple vital governmental positions before assuming the presidency.

"The image of Jackson as a quintessential product of American democracy has stuck. Yet always complicating it has been the interplay between the personal and the political. If Jackson is a potent democratic symbol, he is also a conflicted and polarizing one," wrote Feller.

"In his own lifetime he was adulated and despised far beyond any other American. To an amazing degree, historians today still feel visceral personal reactions to him, and praise or damn accordingly."

Sound familiar?

As a man, Jackson was known for his violent temper, iron will and his decisiveness under fire. Others have noted his fairness, self-awareness and political brilliance. He was also a blatant racist, bigot and narcissist.

No matter his personal failings, he overcame incredibly difficult odds on his path to success.

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Born to Fight

Andrew Jackson was born in 1767, just a few years before the Revolutionary War. He signed up to fight at the tender age of 13. Early hardships were tangible  two of his brothers and his mother died during the war, and Jackson placed their deaths squarely on the British.

As an impoverished orphan, he grew up in various foster homes and had little formal education. However, he worked for several attorneys and  vitally  managed to learn enough of the legal system to become a lawyer himself. These skills would serve him well for the rest of his life.

Upon moving to Tennessee, which was then considered part of the untamed West, Jackson slowly climbed in power and wealth, through land dealings and shrewd politicking. In 1796, he was elected as the new state's only U.S. representative. The next year, he was elected as a U.S. senator, where his hatred for political niceties became abundantly clear.

Miserable, he returned to Tennessee and was elected as a judge of the state's Supreme Court. In 1804, he resigned, citing poor health.

Amid these accomplishments, Jackson was also a cotton plantation owner and merchant, who owned perhaps 150 men, women and children as slaves. That's one reason for a recent campaign to have former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman replace him on the U.S. $20 bill, a change that the Trump administration put on hold.

In May 1806, a man named Charles Dickinson accused Jackson of cheating him out of a horse race bet; he also insulted Jackson's wife, Rachel. Jackson challenged Dickinson to a pistol duel. Dickinson shot first and struck Jackson near his heart, but Jackson stood and returned fire, killing his opponent. Contrary to legend, which contends that Jackson engaged in anywhere from five to 100 duels during his lifetime, it was the first and only formal pistol duel that he ever fought.

It was a bigger fight  the War of 1812  where Jackson became famous. At the Battle of New Orleans, he led a ragtag mishmash of men in opposing nearly 10,000 of Britain's best-trained soldiers. When the dust settled, Britain had lost 2,057 men. The U.S.? Just 71. Jackson's leadership there made him a bona fide war hero.

" " This painting of the Battle of New Orleans by Percy Moran shows Andrew Jackson standing in front of an American flag with his sword raised. Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images

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In the Oval Office

Jackson's military fame helped him win the 1828 presidential election. From there, he began exerting his power in ways that he felt would benefit the common man. The kind of person, he reminded voters, whom he had once been.

One of his most notable moves was to kill the Second Bank of the United States, which he felt was corrupt and existed to prop up the interests of the wealthy. In his pronouncement to Congress he said, "It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes."

" " An anti-Jackson satire poster is titled "King Andrew, the First Born to Command," and makes fun of Jackson's authoritarian ways (circa 1820). Kean Collection/Getty Images

Congress strongly opposed Jackson's handling of the situation and later censured him for his part in what they deemed the "Bank War." But Jackson ultimately prevailed.

In 1832, South Carolina presented another crisis  one of secession. In an event that became known as the Nullification Crisis, the state threatened to leave the Union over disputed tariffs. South Carolina prepared its militia in case of federal military action, and suddenly the stage was set for potential war.

Jackson did in fact threaten violence if the South Carolinians refused to stand down. "Disunion by armed force is treason," proclaimed Jackson in a statement to the would-be rebels. But he also allowed room for new tariff negotiations. An agreement was forged, violence was avoided and both sides saved face. It's no wonder that a generation later, in more perilous times, that Abraham Lincoln and others would invoke Jackson as a preserver of the Union.

These days, however, Jackson's legacy has a darker tinge, due to the president's harsh treatment of indigenous Americans.

"I would say that the thing he's now best known for is his Indian removal policy," says Daniel Feller in a phone interview.

For years prior to Jackson's presidency, America's political inertia carried out various actions meant to displace Native Americans. But it was Jackson who signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act. This act forced Native Americans to abandon their lands and led to the infamous Trail of Tears of the late 1830s, in which thousands died as they were forced by U.S. soldiers to move to reservations in the West.

It was a presidential decision that Feller says falls, "somewhere between regrettable and genocidal."

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Jackson's Perpetual Revival

These days, Jackson pops up regularly in media reports and social media, in part because of Trump's embrace of the man nicknamed "Old Hickory" by his troops because his toughness reminded them of a well-planted hickory tree. As for Jackson's current reputation, it depends who you ask.

"He's become a kind of surrogate for what you think about American history," says Feller. "Is American history a triumphalist story? I think the Trump-[Steve] Bannon camp would say 'yes....' Trump's line essentially is 'I'm just like Andrew Jackson, I too am a man of the people, beloved by ordinary Americans, despised and hated by the Washington insiders.'"

Some liberals though, have taken the opposite view of the Jackson/Trump associations. "It's gotten to the point that Jackson's reputation among the anti-Trump people has gotten to be so bad that basically you can accuse him of anything," and no one can convince them otherwise, he notes.

"It's a good example of how everybody's talking about Andrew Jackson, but the Andrew Jackson they're talking about is a kind of free-floating modern construct," says Feller. He agonizes that few reporters do the research to find out what Jackson really did during his lifetime.

"Those of us who respect accuracy and sometimes the complexity of the historical record are just appalled," at the way Jackson's name is wielded as a weapon by both liberals and conservatives, he says.

And yet that is the shifting nature of legacies. One generation's hero is another's villain.

Whether a leader's name is Washington, Lincoln or Kennedy, history's judgment will be long, unforgiving and ever-changing. That goes for Jackson  Old Hickory, judge, warrior, racist, slave owner, self-made man  and Trump, too.

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Andrew Jackson might be one of the most misquoted presidents of all-time. One of his most famous lines was directed at the vice president, "John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation, I will secede your head from the rest of your body." But at best it's an apocryphal story, says Feller, and if Jackson did say it, the circumstances indicate it was a joke. Need another? "We are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission." Not Andrew  but Jesse Jackson  at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
An aging Iranian passenger airliner carrying 144 people crash-landed on a runway and skidded onto a major highway next to an airport Monday, the latest crash in the Islamic Republic as U.S. sanctions bar it from parts or new aircraft.

Authorities said two people suffered injuries in the hard landing of the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 flown by Caspian Airlines in Mahshahr, a city in Iran's oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province.

Passengers, apparently in shock, calmly exited the aircraft with their carry-on baggage out of a door near the cockpit and another over the plane's wing, video from Iran's Civil Aviation Network showed. A flight attendant shouted at passengers to calmly walk away as another crew member joined her on the wing.

We crashed. We crashed but we are unhurt, a male passenger said in Farsi in the video. "My hand is shaking.

Provincial airport director Mohammad Reza Rezanian said all of the passengers had been safely taken off the plane, which had been flying a route from the Iranian capital, Tehran, some 610 kilometers (380 miles) northeast of Mahshahr.

The plane carried 136 passengers and eight crew members, authorities said.

It seems that tragedy was narrowly avoided, however, as images from the scene showed the plane had ground to a halt not far from a populated area. The plane also missed traffic on a major highway linking Mahshahr to Imam Khomeini Port.

Iranian state television said the plane involved in Monday's crash-landing came in harder than usual and lost its landing gear as it hit the tarmac.

No landing gear could be seen in pictures of the plane after the crash, but it was not immediately clear if it failed to deploy or somehow collapsed as the jet hit runway at about 7:35 a.m. local time.

The accident is under investigation, officials said.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-83, a single-aisle workhorse introduced in the mid-1980s, largely has been phased out of commercial air travel in the West. American Airlines retired the last of its MD-80 fleet in September.

The plane involved in Monday's crash-landing in Iran, registered as EP-CPZ, was more than 25 years old. It had flown for airlines in France, Canada, the U.S., Colombia, Burkina Faso and Ukraine before being registered to Caspian Airlines in August 2012.

The incident comes as Iran is still coping with the aftermath of the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner over Tehran. The plane was shot down by the Revolutionary Guard earlier this month amid heightened tensions with the United States, killing all 176 people aboard.

Maintenance information regarding the American-built MD-83 that crashed Monday was not immediately available. However, Iran has struggled to obtain parts for its aging fleet of airliners amid sanctions by the US.

Under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran could purchase new aircraft and had lined up tens of billions of dollars in deals with Airbus and Boeing Co., which owns McDonnell Douglas. However, the manufacturers backed away under increasing pressure by President Donald Trump, who ultimately withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and increased tensions with Tehran.

Iran has suffered a series of major aviation disasters in recent decades as its fleet aged. That includes the 2009 crash of a Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-154M flown by Caspian Airlines that took off from Tehran heading to Armenia. Investigators believe an engine failure in plane's tail caused pilots to lose control and smash into the ground at a high speed, killing all 168 people on board.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least three people have been injured in a missile attack on the U.S. embassy located in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on January 26, Iraqs Alsumaria TV reported citing sources in Iraqi security services.

It is not yet revealed what citizenship does the injured persons hold.

Yesterday evening, five missiles were launched at Baghdads Green Zone - a well-fortified district in the center of the city where government buildings and foreign diplomatic missions are situated. Three missiles directly landed at the US embassy premises, one of them hit the canteen building where dinner was served at that moment, the AFP reported.



After the incident, acting Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi ordered national security forces to take every measure to prevent similar attacks on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. He blasted the strike as an "irresponsible act committed by separate individuals", underlining that this attack "can lead to serious consequences."

Deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association Andrei Baklanov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, expects no reliable information on the organizers of this strike will be available. "There are quite long chains in the preparation of such acts, they are often carried out with provocative goals. I have some serious doubts about who takes responsibility for such attacks or who they point to," he explained.

Moreover, in general, the aggravation of contradictions in Iraq requires the creation of an international settlement format. "We should be prepared for the fact that additional efforts will be required, perhaps in the form of an international forum with regional and non-regional players in order to help improve the situation in Iraq. So far, there is no such format, and the existing institutions are not working effectively on the Iraq issue," Andrei Baklanov emphasized.
Pelosi: House to Vote on Bill to Repeal Trumps Travel Ban

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the House will consider legislation to repeal the Trump administrations travel ban on several countries about two years after the Supreme Court upheld the measure.

The initial travel ban, which was implemented in early 2017, placed restrictions on travel to the United States for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

The latest iteration of the ban applies to travelers from Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemenfour countries that have experienced civil war and rampant terrorist attacks in recent years. In addition, the United States kept its travel restrictions on Iran, which the U.S. State Department has long accused of sponsoring terrorist organizations, while adding two non-Muslim-majority countriesVenezuela and North Koreato the list. Iraq and Sudan have since been removed.

President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview in Switzerland on Jan. 21 that he is looking to add more countries to the list, but he didnt specify which ones.

Some reports have said the White House aims to restrict travel from Belarus, Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania, but the White House hasnt confirmed those details. If true, only two of the new additionsKyrgyzstan and Sudanare Muslim-majority countries, although about a third of Nigerians adhere to Islam.

In her statement on Jan. 27, Pelosi accused the White House of discriminating against Muslims with the ban.

House Democrats continue to stand opposed to President Trumps cruel, un-American travel ban in all of its iterations, she stated.

In the coming weeks, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up and bring to the Floor the NO BAN Act to prohibit religious discrimination in our immigration system and limit the presidents ability.

In his last address as president, Ronald Reagan warned that If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost. House Democrats are working tirelessly to uphold our role as a global leader and a beacon of hope and opportunity for countless people around the world.

In her statement, Pelosi didnt say when Democrats are looking to consider the legislation. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) told The Hill on Jan. 27 that the committee would take up the bill in two weeks.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled 54 to uphold the version of the measure that blocked nationals from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, as well as Yemen, and Venezuela and North Korea to varying degrees.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Jan. 28 in three lawsuits filed by U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have said their relatives havent been able to enter the United States owing to the travel ban, The Associated Press reported.
Senator Romney says its increasingly likely four Republicans will join Democrats in voting to call Bolton as witness.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney has said it is increasingly likely that at least four Republican Senators will join Democrats to give them the majority of votes needed to call former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial of United States President Donald Trump.

The statement comes a day after The New York Times reported that Trump had told Bolton in an August conversation that the president wanted to continue to withhold congressionally approved military aid from Ukraine until officials from the country agreed to help with investigations of his Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Bolton had detailed the exchange in a draft of his new book, which he circulated to a small group of confidants and submitted for standard review to the White House, according to the newspaper. Trump has denied making the statement to Bolton.

I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton, Romney, who represents Utah, told reporters on Monday.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the case for calling witnesses had been strengthened by the Times report.

The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues, Collins said in a statement she posted to Twitter on Monday.

My statement on Bolton developments. pic.twitter.com/3M59J7suts  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 27, 2020

In December, the House of Representatives voted, mostly along party lines, to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. For the first charge, investigators allege Trump used his office to withhold nearly $400m in military aid in exchange for Ukraines commitment to investigate Former Vice President Joe Bidens son Hunters involvement with Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

Joe Biden is a frontrunner in the 2020 presidential Democratic race. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

Trump had repeatedly denied the impeachment allegations, branding the proceedings a hoax.

Bolton, who was the national security adviser when the aid was withheld, has said he would testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed. Bolton was forced out of the White House last year following a number of disagreements with Trump.

The White House has categorically blocked administration personnel from testifying in the inquiry, although several staff members have appeared before House committees after being subpoenaed.

Debate over witnesses

The Senate trial will enter its seventh day on Monday, with Trumps defence team beginning its second of three allocated days of arguments. Defence team members, like the Democratic House managers prosecuting the case last week, will have a total of 24 hours to make their case.





Under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells rules resolution passed at the beginning of the trial, debate and a vote over whether witnesses and other new evidence will be allowed in the trial will come after the defence teams arguments conclude and after Senators are given 16 hours to pose questions to both the prosecution and the defence.

Republicans make up 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate and a simple majority is needed to call new witnesses. The makeup of the chamber has focused attention on just a few Republicans who are considered open to breaking from the party ranks and voting with Democrats. They include Collins, Romney, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, among others.

To date, Romney is the only Republican senator who has publicly said he would vote in favour of hearing Boltons testimony.

Hand grenade

Bolton came up several times during the hours of testimony in the Houses inquiry, with his aide, Fiona Hill, describing several colourful exchanges with her former boss regarding Trumps alleged pressure campaign.

Bolton described Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who allegedly lead shadow efforts in Ukraine on the presidents behalf, as a hand grenade whos going to blow everyone up, according to Hill.

Hill also recounted a meeting in which Bolton stiffened when US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland brought up the Ukrainian investigations sought by Trump.

According to her testimony, Bolton, the top adviser on national security matters in the White House, later told Hill to report the incident to the White House lawyer.

Referencing White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Bolton told Hill to tell the lawyer Im not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up, the former aide testified.
New Delhi: The Defence Ministry on Monday released the list of winners who won in the state tableaux display during the Republic Day parade 2020. Assam bagged the first prize while Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were the runner-ups in the competition. The winners will receive awards from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday.

The Assam tableau showcased Xattriya tradition in the form of Bhortal Nritya discovered by renowned Xattriya artiste Narahari Burha Bhakat and was seen decorated with bamboo and cane crafts. Among the ministries tableaux, the Ministry of Jal Shakti was declared the best with the theme of Jal Jeevan Mission and National Disaster Response Force.

Live TV

A total of 16 tableaux of different states and UTs including Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Assam and 6 central ministries tableaux were displayed during the 71st Republic Day celebration at Rajpath, Delhi.

The Ministry of Defence carries out the selection process of tableaux which sets up an expert committee with renowned people from various fields of arts. The states which get the opportunity to showcase their tableaux in the republic day parade mainly focuses on displaying the cultural richness of their region by decorating the tableaux and performing dance and music.
TITO Lightbourne has said he is "deeply humbled and honoured to take on one of the most senior roles in the civil service.





The veteran public servant has been appointed as the permanent secretary of the new national security secretariat.





The role will specifically focus on developing and enhancing the TCIs national security infrastructure under the remit of the National Security Council (NSC).





He will report equally to Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson and Governor Nigel Dakin.





"This coordinated and meticulous approach to resolving matters of national importance is new to the TCI and will build on some of the existing inter-agency working groups, such as the Joint Law Enforcement Taskforce (JLET) amongst others, Lightbourne explained.





He added that he is very grateful to the Governor's Office, Office of the Premier and the UK for the work that has already been undertaken in this area and the support provided by way of a seconded national security advisor.





In 2005 Lightbourne attained a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Florida International University and in 2006 a Masters of Business Administration degree from Nova South Eastern University.





He then joined the public service in April 2007 as a budget analyst in the Budget Department.

Lightbourne then moved on to the Human Resource Management Directorate as a human resource officer in 2009.





In 2010 he became executive administrator within the Office of the Chief Executive and in 2012 director of democratic services then executive director within the Office of the Deputy Governor.





Lightbournes first appointment to the public service was under the supervision of the then budget director Anya Williams who is now the Deputy Governor of the TCI public service.





In a press release on Wednesday (January 22), Williams said it gave her great pleasure to formally congratulate Lightbourne on his appointment.





"Tito has served as the executive director of my office during my entire tenure as deputy governor and over the past seven years has demonstrated sound professionalism and astute leadership in the carriage of his duties, she said.





"As the executive director and accounting officer for the Office of the Deputy Governor, Tito held direct oversight responsibility for the Office of the Deputy Governor itself, the Contracts and Performance Management Unit, the Human Resource Management Directorate, the Training Unit and the Cabinet secretariat.





"In addition, as the senior executive to the head of the public service, he was responsible for engaging at a senior level with all ministries and departments across Government to follow up ongoing delivery, performance and other initiatives matters across Government, thereby giving him insight into the operations of the entire Government.





She said he has led on policy and programme development as a member of the working group on pay and grading, pensions and gratuities and procurement to name a few.





"Has served as a key member of the Procurement Board, has been the manager of the Civil Service Professional Development Fund since its inception and has been an all-around great team member and leader in his respective field, Williams continued.





"I am grateful to Tito for his service over the years and could not be more proud of his accomplishments. Congratulations on your well-deserved promotion Tito.





"I look forward to working with you in your new capacity as the permanent secretary of the National Security Secretariat where I know you will do extremely well.




UPDATE: Flatiron Books canceled Cummins's appearance at Warwick's in La Jolla, Calif., scheduled for tonight, and at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, scheduled for Tuesday evening. While Warwick's simply posted on its website that the publisher canceled tonight's event "due to safety concerns," Vroman's posted the following statement on its website: "This event has been canceled by the publisher. Months ago when booking the event, we believed we were booking a novel about an important issue of our time and hoped it would spark needed discussions about immigration. The controversy surrounding this book has ended up sparking another important conversation about own voices. In the end the publisher has cancelled the event but not before our staff and our community engaged in critical conversations about immigration, the horrible atrocity happening at the US border by the US government, freedom of speech, and own voices. For these conversations we are grateful and we hope they continue."

As Jeanine Cummins continues her 40-city national tour for her hot-off-the-presses novel American Dirt, the uproar about it and its author shows little signs of abating. In St. Louis, Left Bank Books canceled an offsite author event scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the Ethical Society. Hours before the cancellation, Left Bank had announced on social media that it was adding a group of Latinx members of the St. Louis community to the event with Cummins to engage in a discussion about the book, as well as the humanitarian crisis on the border and local Latinx issues.

According to an open letter posted on its website and on social media, Left Bank stated that it had hoped by scheduling the event with Cummins discussing American Dirt, that it would promote a topical book written by someone who has deep St. Louis connections. The letter continued: We sincerely believed it would be an opportunity to have an overdue public conversation about the deplorable actions of our country towards people at the border.... We sincerely believed that Cummins novel was as good a starting place as any for folks who have not been fully aware of the issues and suffering. That the book could put a human face on the headlines.

But, Left Bank added, some people on social media, including those who identified as Latinx, insisted that the store should not host a white author who has written about the Latinx immigrant experience from a Latinx perspective. Where are the Latinx voices, where are those authors? Left Banks open letter claimed these people asked.

Even after Left Banks announcement that it was adding Latinx speakers to the program, emotions remained high. Some in the community pushed back harder, the open letter stated, Posts on social media, calls to our venue partners and others were made insisting we cancel the event. It felt like the struggle we've been a part of for years [was] aimed back at us. It hurt. And it felt like a challenge to do better.

Co-owner Kris Kleindienst said in a telephone interview on Sunday afternoon that there were not actual threats, as in I am going to hurt you. But the conversation got so ugly so quickly; it went from zero to one thousand in less than a week. We werent sure that we could provide what we had envisioned: a safe, respectful, and meaningful conversation. We were not prepared for what might happen, and I didnt want to put my staff and the Ethical Society staff through that.

Kleindienst said that she and store events coordinator Shane Mullen were both en route from Baltimore and WI15 on Saturday at the height of the social media frenzy, and were both monitoring the situation and maintaining contact with store personnel. The decision was made before the plane landed, she said. And by the time we deplaned, it had been canceled. We wanted it to be thoughtful, but we felt rushed and pushed. We knew we werent going to be able to put on the event we wanted, so why?

Left Bank will ship the book free freight, Kleindienst said, to the 200 people or so who were expected to attend the event. Some of those people paid for copies of American Dirt and, she added, dont want the refund Left Bank is offering them.

During a lively Q&A during WI15 between Chicago bookseller Javier Ramirez of Madison Street Books and Cummins, Kleindienst was one of the audience members who took the microphone to defend American Dirt to her fellow booksellers, describing it as a novel about life and about trauma, about the love of a parent for her child and determination to protect that child from harm. We get a lot of things through this book, besides the immigration story, Kleindienst said from the floor.

As for other bookstores on Cummins tourwhich is making stops on its first leg primarily at indies and at the Savannah Book Festival on Feb. 15Parnassus Bookstore in Nashville, which hosted Cummins Saturday night, reported that the event went well, bringing out a large crowd.

Social media has been brutal, said Sissy Gardner, assistant floor manager, so we were pleasantly surprised: it was really calm and people listened to her. She had a lot to say especially about things she had no control over during the publishing process. She said she wrote the book, she didn't publish the book. It was a really good event.

A few of the indies on the American Dirt tour circuit that PW was able to reach on Sunday reported that they were taking steps to protect Cummins and to prevent disruptions to their event by adding security that one store said had been requested. But Pamela Klinger-Horn of Excelsior Bay Books, which is hosting Cummins and three other authors on Feb. 7 at an offsite venue as part of its Literature Lovers' Night Out series, said that organizers are proceeding as usual. Klinger-Horn added that the police can arrive "in an instant" if need be to the suburban Minneapolis church in which the event will take place.

I am tired of dealing with this mess, Klinger-Horn said. People should read the book or not read the book. It is one of many voices, and in America, we all have the right to speak.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Like a lot of big cities in the developed world, Amsterdam lost population in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s as its inhabitants opted for newer dwellings and more space outside the city. During those same decades, newcomers arrived in large numbers from former and current Dutch territories as well as Turkey and Morocco. But there werent enough of them to make up for the domestic exodus, and their presence led some longtime Amsterdammers to decide the city was no longer for them.

After 1985  again like a lot of big cities in the developed world  Amsterdam stopped shrinking. New arrivals from overseas were still coming, and more and more of them were having kids (one of whom, just to keep American readers engaged here, is the new shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies). Educated young people from elsewhere in the Netherlands began to stream in, too, attracted rather than repelled by the citys increasingly diverse, cosmopolitan feel, and drawn in by a growing assortment of good jobs. Starting in 2005, the city began to experience sustained net inflows of domestic migrants for the first time since at least 1950.

In 2015, that domestic inflow reversed. By 2018, the net outflows were of a scale not seen since the early 1980s.

The inflow from abroad has actually spiked back up recently  albeit from very different places, with U.K. citizens now the biggest group of foreigners in the city and Italians leading the list of new arrivals in 2018. Together with a big birth-death differential (because of earlier migration patterns, and probably also the insanely steep stairs in older apartment buildings, there arent a lot of old people in Amsterdam) this has kept the city growing. Last November its population hit an estimated 873,200, finally surpassing the previous record of 872,428 set in 1959. But the accelerating exodus to elsewhere in the country seems significant, in part because similar things have been happening in Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Sydney and Toronto. The one exception I found in my admittedly less-than-exhaustive search of what are frequently called superstar cities was Tokyo, which is still experiencing big domestic inflows.

Story continues

Berlin, London, Sydney and Toronto have, like Amsterdam, continued to grow despite domestic emigration. New York and Paris have resumed shrinking, though, and my sense is that some of the other superstars may follow in their wake before too long. The great rich-world revival of the big city seems to be fading, or at least entering a new phase.

Population outflows from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have already been getting some attention in the U.S. (some of it from me). Partisan politics often intrude into this discussion, which is one reason it can be helpful to internationalize things. Big cities in other rich countries tend to be run by left-leaning politicians, just as in the U.S., but more-centralized national governments generally mean that taxes and other policies dont vary nearly as much between regions. Other forces must be at work as well.

The focus here is on Amsterdam because (1) I was there last week, (2) I spent the 1982-1983 school year in nearby Haarlem, among classmates who later became part of that late-1980s moving-to-Amsterdam wave, and (3) Statistics Netherlands and the Amsterdam city office of research, information and statistics have more relevant data on offer than their counterparts just about anywhere else. Statistics Netherlands reports, for example, that 27- to 40-year-olds with kids have been driving the recent Amsterdam departure wave. Younger Dutch people are still moving to the city, but the supply of those in their early 20s is shrinking, with even bigger declines to come.

Similar demographic trends are at work in most other rich countries, meaning that the prime domestic candidates for moving to superstar cities are getting to be in shorter supply.

Theyre also finding it harder to afford housing there. Purchase prices for private dwellings in Amsterdam have doubled just since late 2014 (rents are up a less spectacular 16%, still the highest rate of increase in the country).

Such price increases will be familiar to residents (and former residents) of other superstar cities. They are an indication that this isnt the 1960s and 1970s all over again  these cities continue to generate good jobs and possess great appeal. But they are also an indication that the superstar city phenomenon has its limits.

It is notable that the one major exception I found to the trend of domestic emigration from superstar cities is Tokyo, which thanks to the Japanese custom of tearing down housing thats more than 30 years old has seen a lot more new construction than other big cities, and despite average rents that are a little higher than Amsterdams offers great price variation among neighborhoods.

Tearing things down every 30 years isnt really going to fly in Amsterdam, where much of the city center dates to the Dutch golden age of the 1600s. It remains in that form because over the 150 difficult years after 1700 the citys population barely budged, while the price of real estate along the posh Herengracht canal fell 41% in real terms. From todays perspective that long depression seems like kind of a lucky break, and while Im all for cities growing and evolving even I dont think Amsterdam should fill in its canals to make room for high rises.

The resulting world heritage site, though, has proved so charming and lovable that it is to some extent being loved to death. One high school friend complained that the central city is starting to feel like Venice  a place where tourism is the only industry. A couple of years ago, a 33-year-old letter writer to the local newspaper Het Parool offered this sad account:

I arrive in my neighborhood, stick the key in the lock of my little apartment, where my landlord has seen the value go up by 100,000 euros over the past two-and-a-half years. My home, in the neighborhood with the most Airbnb stays in Amsterdam. My home, where Ive just welcomed the third expat couple in a year-and-a-half as neighbors.My neighborhood, where I am now addressed in English at my favorite sidewalk cafe. Where my boyfriend and I feel somewhat out of place. We, highly educated, cosmopolitan world-improvers with good jobs, who have traveled over half the world and speak multiple languages fluently.

Sound familiar? (Well, except for the part about speaking multiple languages fluently  thats kind of a Dutch thing.) One can hear similar complaints from residents of the West Village in New York, Shoreditch in London, Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin and so on. They are easy enough to mock  I gentrified this neighborhood, and now that its being gentrified even more I am outraged. Also, most cities arent superstar cities, and even most neighborhoods in superstar cities arent overflowing with affluent expats and tourists.

Still, this disaffection has become a widespread enough phenomenon that it bears paying attention to. One cause of the superstars rise has been the increasing economic importance of knowledge work, and the tendency of that work to grow in value the more knowledge workers are crammed in the same place. By this logic, the best policy is just to encourage the superstar cities to keep growing. A paper by economists Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti that Ive cited approvingly in the past estimated that local restrictions on new housing construction just in San Francisco, San Jose and New York had cost the average U.S. worker $3,685 in annual wages.

Again, Tokyos example seems to indicate that theres something to this analysis. But in other countries the housing to meet the needs of residents of superstar cities, if its being built at all, is generally being built somewhere else. Those departing Amsterdam usually end up in cities a short train ride away. Most emigrants from London are similarly headed elsewhere in the south of England, those from Berlin to the surrounding state of Brandenburg.

The internet does allow more white-collar workers to do their jobs remotely, though, and in some places they are moving even farther away from superstar cities. The entire Ile de France region around Paris is now shedding residents to the rest of the country, with the Gironde and Loire-Atlantique departements (home of Bordeaux and Nantes, respectively) along the Atlantic coast experiencing the biggest net inflows. And of course lots of New Yorkers are moving to Florida, as theyve been doing for more than a century.

Even at the height of its renaissance a few years back, New York City was experiencing net outflows of residents to elsewhere in the U.S. To some extent thats the natural state of big cities, which are prone to migration deficits because they attract young single people and then often lose them after theyve had kids. But net migration out of the city more than doubled from 2012 to 2018, according to Internal Revenue Service data. Something is going on, and its not just going on in New York.

To contact the author of this story: Justin Fox at justinfox@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stacey Shick at sshick@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business. He was the editorial director of Harvard Business Review and wrote for Time, Fortune and American Banker. He is the author of The Myth of the Rational Market.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Srinagar, Jan 27 : A militant was killed on Monday during an exchange of fire between the security forces and militants at Arwani village in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, officials said.

According to reports, the security forces tried but were unsuccessful in making the militant surrender.

An Army personnel has reportedly sustained injuries in the firing exchange which is now over.

Informed sources said that on a specific input about the presence of militants in the area, a joint team of the police and army launched an operation.

Last Saturday, the security forces killed three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants at Hari Pari Gam in Pulwama, including Jaish chief Qari Yasir and two of his associates -- Burhan and Musa.

The Army said that with the killing of Yasir, the Jaish leadership has been wiped out in Kashmir. Yasir was an IED expert and played a supervisory role in the February 14 Pulwama attack last year in which 40 CRPF men were killed.
Mukesh Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, has sought an urgent hearing in the Supreme Court on his plea against the dismissal of his mercy plea by President Ram Nath Kovind, news agency PTI reported on Monday. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde told his lawyer to move Supreme Court Registry for urgent listing of his plea.

If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this, the CJI said and asked Singhs counsel to approach the mentioning officer today as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

The bench also comprised justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

Singh had approached the top court on Saturday challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by President Kovind. The President had rejected his petition on January 17 within a span of just four days - in the fastest decision ever on a such a plea.

Also Watch l 2012 Delhi gangrape case: Kejriwal denies delaying proceedings, slams BJP

Singh had relied on the guidelines laid down in the judgment by the top court in 2014 in the Shatrughan Chauhan vs Union of India case and assailed the manner in which the mercy plea was rejected.

Singhs unsuccessful attempt to get a presidential pardon had necessitated a fresh death warrant and pushed the execution of the four convicts from January 22 to February 1.

Mukesh Singh is one of the five men and one juvenile who had raped and brutally assaulted a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012, leading to nationwide outrage.

The victim died on December 29 from the injuries in a hospital in Singapore where she was airlifted for treatment.

One of the accused committed suicide in Tihar jail during the trial while the juvenile accused was sent to a reform house and released three years later.

Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court in 2013. The conviction and sentence were confirmed by the Delhi high court in 2014 and the Supreme Court in May 2017.
The .com domain of Iran's Fars News Agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard was blocked due to U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on January 25.

Fars said it had received an email from the server company informing it that the blockage was due to an order by Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

However, an official of a company owned by Iran's Ministry of Telecommunications admitted Saturday that the company has restored the .com domain of Fars News Agency by resorting to DNS spoofing or hacking in simple terms. This is the first time in Iran's Internet history that the regime has admitted DNS spoofing, experts say.

The admission to spoofing, also known as DNS cache poisoning, came on Saturday in a tweet by Sajad Bonabi, a member of the Board of Directors of Telecommunications Infrastructures Company owned by the Telecommunication Ministry.

In his tweet Bonabi said through measures taken [by the company] the problem that Fars News was facing had been resolved. He also advised the websites and companies "that suspect they would be targeted by the cowardly sanctions of the United States" could get in touch with the company to be informed of precautionary measures.

"For the first time in Iran's Internet history, the Iranian regime has confirmed they have done DNS Spoofing. DNS Spoofing is a method used by hackers to redirect the traffic of a particular website to another destination,". London-based digital security expert and hacker-hunter Amin Sabeti told Radio Farda.

The tweet in which the Iranian official admitted to the hack.

In the case of Fars News, it means Iran has started to redirect the traffic of Farsnews.com to Farsnews.ir in the infrastructure level for viewers of the website in Iran. "We can call this, in simple terms, a 'hack'," Sabeti says.

For almost a day Farsnews.com visitors would see a message saying the IP address could not be found. Like most other websites Fars has alternative domain names, such as Farsnews.ir. Currently, anyone inside Iran who tries to access Farsnews.com is automatically redirected to Farsnews.ir, a national domain which cannot be affected by U.S. sanctions.

However, outside Iran, Farsnews.com cannot be reached unless Farsnews.ir was visited before and the IP address still exists in the browsing history of the device used to access the site.

Visitors inside Iran now have access to the website of Fars News Agency but losing the .com domain means the News Agency will lose its visibility in search engines and all the links to its website, at least for visitors from outside the country.

Fars News Agency publishes news in Persian, English, Arabic and Turkish so the loss of the .com domain will deprive it of the audience it has outside Iran.

In an earlier tweet on Friday evening Bonabi had said that his "colleagues" were offering advice to the companies affected by the U.S. sanctioning of .com domains used in Iran. "The infrastructure that exists in the National Information Network (NIN) resolves many such concerns about unfair sanctions," he said in his tweet.

Bonabi also reassured Iranian website owners that the problem only affected .com domains sold by American domain registrars and .com domains could also be purchased from none-American registrars or they could simply use domains names with the national .ir ending.

NIN is an intranet and relies on the Internet to function. It is the tool that the regime is planning to use to censor the Internet because it provides access only to selected content and bars VPNs from being used for accessing the sites that the Iranian authorities have blocked.
 All but a small handful of those deaths were in the central province of Hubei, the center of the outbreak.

 Officials in the capital, Beijing, which has a population of about 21 million, announced the first death in the city from coronavirus on Monday. The patient, a 50-year-old man, had traveled to Wuhan on Jan. 8 and developed a fever after returning to Beijing a week later. He was diagnosed on Jan. 22 and died of respiratory failure, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission announced.

 Across China there have been more than 4,500 confirmed cases. The youngest confirmed case is a 9-month-old girl in Beijing.

 Thailand and Hong Kong have each reported eight cases of infection; the United States, Taiwan, Australia and Macau have five each; Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia each have reported four; France has three; Canada and Vietnam have two; and Nepal, Cambodia and Germany each have one.
Bar Louie, a restaurant and bar chain that was founded in Chicago in 1990, has announced that it has closed its San Antonio location in Stone Oak near U.S. 281 on the far North Side.

The company that owns the business, which is now based in Addison, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has closed several of its properties throughout the country. Saturday was the final day of business in Stone Oak, according to a post made on social media.
Only then, 72 hours after the plane crashed, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, did step in and order the government to acknowledge its fatal mistake.

For three days, Iran's military officials knew they had shot down a Ukrainian airliner while the government issued false statements, denying any responsibility.

When a Revolutionary Guards officer spotted what he thought was an unidentified aircraft near Tehran's international airport, he had seconds to decide whether to pull the trigger, according to The New York Times.

Iran had just fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at American forces, the country was on high alert for an American counterattack, and the Iranian military was warning of incoming cruise missiles.

Read alsoIranian man who shot down Ukrainian plane in prison  Iranian FM

The officer tried to reach the command center for authorization to shoot but couldn't get through. So he fired an antiaircraft missile. Then another.

The plane, which turned out to be a Ukrainian jetliner with 176 people on board, crashed and exploded in a ball of fire.

Within minutes, the top commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards realized what they had done. And at that moment, they began to cover it up.

For days, they refused to tell the truth to even President Hassan Rouhani, whose government was publicly denying that the plane had been shot down. When they finally told him, he gave them an ultimatum: come clean or he would resign.

Only then, 72 hours after the plane crashed, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, did step in and order the government to acknowledge its fatal mistake.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Kyiv-bound UIA flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport in the early hours of January 8. It was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. Two passengers and the crew members were Ukrainians. There were also 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and the United Kingdom each. There were no survivors.

On January 11, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani officially admitted that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by accident as a result of a "human error."
US presidents proposal will dash hopes for an independent state, Palestinians officials say.

Palestinian leaders have decried US President Donald Trumps plan for the Middle East as an effort to finish off the Palestinian cause.

Trump on Monday held separate meetings with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival, Benny Gantz, in Washington, DC over his long-delayed proposal that has been kept secret.





We reject it and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said.

It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.

Palestinians fear the plan will dash their hopes for an independent state in the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, and the besieged Gaza Strip.

Palestinian leaders say they were not invited to Washington and no plan can work without them.

Trump said the White House would release his plan at noon (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) called on ambassadors of Arab and Muslim countries to boycott the event where the plan is expected to be unveiled.

On Monday night, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by Wafa news agency as saying: We call on Arab and Muslim ambassadors who have been invited to the unveiling of the deal of the century  not to attend these ceremonies that we consider a conspiracy aimed at undermining the rights of the Palestinian people.

Abu Rudeineh added that the plan aims to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Distracting tactics

Earlier, Shtayyeh said Trump and Netanyahu were using the proposal as a distraction from their domestic troubles.

Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives last month and is on trial in the Senate on abuse of power charges. Netanyahu faces corruption charges and a national election on March 2  his third in less than a year. Both deny any wrongdoing.

This plan is to protect Trump against being impeached and to protect Netanyahu from going to jail, and it is not a peace plan, Shtayyeh said at a cabinet meeting in Ramallah.

Palestinian and Arab sources briefed on the draft fear it seeks to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation, in what could be a prelude to Israel annexing about half of the West Bank  including most of the Jordan Valley, the strategic and fertile eastern-most strip of the territory.
WASHINGTON  The White House and Senate Republican leaders struggled Monday to salvage their plans to push toward a quick acquittal of President Donald Trump this week in his impeachment trial, after a new account by his former national security adviser corroborated a central piece of the case against him.

The newly disclosed revelations by John Bolton, whose forthcoming book details how Trump conditioned military aid for Ukraine on the countrys willingness to furnish information on his political rivals, angered key Republicans and reinvigorated a bid to call witnesses, which would prolong the trial and pose new dangers for the president.

A handful of Republicans from across the ideological spectrum appeared to be moving closer to joining Democrats in a vote to subpoena Bolton, even as their leaders insisted that doing so would only delay his inevitable acquittal.

I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters. He later told Republican colleagues at a closed-door lunch that calling witnesses would be a wise choice politically and substantively.

As they opened the second day of their defense, Trumps lawyers largely ignored the revelations from Bolton, reported Sunday by The New York Times, that bolstered the case made by the House Democratic prosecutors that the president had repeatedly tied the security assistance to investigations he wanted. The assertion is at the heart of their abuse of power charge accusing Trump of using his position to gain foreign help in his re-election campaign.

Instead, the White House team doubled down with a defense that was directly contradicted by the account in Boltons book, due out in March. Trumps lawyers told senators that no evidence existed tying the presidents decision to withhold security aid from Ukraine to his insistence on the investigations, which they have claimed were requested out of a concern for corruption.

Anyone who spoke with the president said that the president made clear that there was no linkage between security assistance and investigations, said Michael Purpura, the deputy White House counsel.

On their second full day of oral arguments, Trumps legal team sought to turn the Democrats accusations on their head.

They defended and played down the role of Rudy Giuliani, the presidents personal lawyer who was at the center of Trumps Ukraine pressure campaign, calling him a shiny object Democrats were brandishing to distract from a weak case. They sought to raise doubts about former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden, suggesting they were corrupt in an effort to bolster their claim that the president had a legitimate reason to demand that they be investigated.

And they continued to argue that Trumps actions were far from impeachable.

Alan Dershowitz, a celebrity law professor, argued that the Constitution holds that impeachment is for criminal-like behavior, telling senators that the countrys founders would have explicitly rejected such vague terms as abuse of power and obstruction of Congress as among the enumerated and defined criteria for impeaching the president.

The theory has been rejected by most constitutional scholars.

As evening set in, Dershowitz made the legal teams only reference to Bolton, telling senators that the description of Trumps actions in his manuscript would not constitute an impeachable offense.

He added, Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense.

But behind closed doors, Republicans were singularly focused on the former national security advisers account, which stoked turmoil in their ranks and opened new cracks in their so far near monolithic support for the White House strategy of denying witnesses and rushing toward a final verdict, almost certain to be an acquittal.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sought to calm his colleagues at the private lunch, telling them to take a deep breath and not to leap to conclusions about how to proceed.

But according to people familiar with McConnells thinking, he was angry at having been blindsided by the White House about Boltons manuscript, which aides there have had since late December. The leader put out a rare statement saying that he did not have any advance notice of Boltons account.

Inside the gathering near the Senate floor, just before the trial got under way, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa., told colleagues that he might be willing to support calling witnesses as long as the roster would include someone friendlier to Trumps case, like Hunter Biden, according to people familiar with the gathering who were not authorized to discuss it. The idea appeared to be gaining broader currency among Republicans.

At the White House, Trump raged throughout the morning at Bolton, accusing him of lying. Hosting Israeli leaders, the president told reporters that he had not seen the manuscript of the former advisers book but disputed its claims as false.

In a series of early-morning tweets hours before the trial resumed, the president accused Bolton of telling stories only to sell a book and defended his actions toward Ukraine as perfectly appropriate.

But Trump later complained to associates that the presentations from his defense team were boring.

As the session progressed, Trumps lawyers began their promised assault on Biden and his son, asserting that Trump demanded investigations of them because there was significant evidence that they were corrupt.

Michael D. Shear and Nicholas Fandos are New York Times writers.
The company at the center of last weeks explosion at a Spring Branch-area industrial facility is hoping to strike a longer-term agreement with local attorneys regarding attempts to preserve evidence from the blast, the groups lawyers said Monday.

State District Judge Tanya Garrison has ordered Watson Grinding and Manufacturing not to destroy any materials that could be used in several Harris County court cases. She granted three temporary restraining orders Monday: the first and second in the separate wrongful death lawsuits of the two employees killed in the explosion, and the third in a class-action lawsuit over severe home damage.

Garrisons rulings will only hold for about two weeks, at which time Watson Grinding and Manufacturing will have to reappear before the court if company officials cant make a deal with the plaintiffs attorneys on their own. The judge had already granted two other restraining orders on Friday in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, which damaged about 450 structures and killed Frank Flores, 44, and Gerardo Castorena Sr., 45.

Flores family is asking for physical evidence from the scene, especially about the measurements of the crater from the blast, as well as documentation that shows how much propylene was stored at the facility. Houston fire officials spent hours shutting down a leak of the chemical, a highly flammable gas that can react explosively when combined with other materials.

Without preservation of the site, it becomes extremely difficult for the plaintiffs to prove their case, said Muhammad Aziz, the Flores familys attorney.

Castorenas family has specifically requested the company preserve its electronic and off-site data. While the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has control of the scene - as well as some of Watsons computers, according to the company lawyers - the familys attorney said he doesnt foresee any issues with evidence preservation.

The court is very clear in its orders that these companies will have hell to pay if they dont abide, lawyer Byron Alfred said.

The judge conferred with the plaintiffs attorneys and Watson representatives over the course of two emergency hearings Monday. A representative for Watson Grinding and Manufacturing was present, and Garrison spoke to several other representatives for the company via phone.

The companys attorneys said they had not spoken with their clients about the temporary restraining orders, but were concerned about being able to fully comply in the short-term. Federal investigations are keeping them at arms length of the scene, and the lawyers said they believed those activities could have caused some evidence to be disturbed.

We are interested in maintaining the scene as best as we can, company representative Michael Ramirez said on the phone.

He added that he wasnt able to guarantee whats occurring at the facility on Gessner between now and the time the ATF turns the scene back over to Watson.

Garrison said she understood some issues were out of Watsons control, and that the orders wouldnt prevent federal agencies from continuing their investigations.

Nothing in this order will be any kind of restriction on the work that needs to be done, she said.

Watson officials will be due back in court starting Feb. 6.

This story has been updated to reflect the date of the two emergency hearings Monday.
A married couple were jailed today for carrying out genital mutilation on their one-year-old daughter in Ireland's first ever FGM case to be heard in court.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Elma Sheahan, sentenced the 37-year-old man and 27-year-old woman to a combined sentence of over 10 years in prison, for carrying out one act of FGM at a Dublin address in 2016.

The parents, who come from an African country, cannot be named to protect the identity of the baby girl.

An undated file photo shows an Irish Garda (police) car parked in Wexford. Police searched the home of the 37-year-old man who brought his daughter to the hospital with vaginal bleeding. The toy that he'd claimed she fell on to had no traces of blood on it

On the date of the offence, the man had taken his daughter to hospital complaining of blood coming from her vaginal area. He claimed the bleeding had started when the one-year-old fell backwards on to a toy at the Dublin property.

After having inspected the youngster, medical staff assessed that the injuries could not be accidental and the Gardai were called to search the suspect's home.

During the operation they recovered the toy the man said was the culprit and found no traces of blood.

Dr Sinead Harty, who gave evidence at the trial, said the injury was consistent with a surgical severing of the victim's clitoris. She said that the type of injury could not have been an accident.

The defendants had both plead not guilty to the charges and the man, who received a five and a half year sentence, said that he did not agree with FGM during interview.

The mother, who was caged for four years and nine months, said that she had been a victim of the practice herself.

Both were jailed when the jury returned a guilty verdict after three hours this afternoon.

A stock image shows a child holding her hand to the camera. FGM has been an offence in Ireland since legislation was introduced in 2012

Speaking after the sentencing, Superintendent Declan Daly, Garda National Protective Services Bureau told the Irish Independent: 'Todays conviction and sentence represents the first of its kind in Ireland.

'It sends a strong and important message that Female Genital Mutilation, the mutilation of children and young girls, is not and will not be tolerated.

'It is a heinous and barbaric practice which is a criminal offence in Ireland.'

The mutilated youngster is now in the care of her maternal aunt with her two siblings.

FGM has been an offence in Ireland since legislation was introduced in 2012.
Mr. Trump repeatedly set aside their overtures by mentioning assorted grievances he had about Ukraine, some related to efforts by some Ukrainians who backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and others related to conspiracies and unsupported accusations about, among other things, a hacked server at the Democratic National Committee.

Mr. Bolton says he talked to Mr. Barr and Mr. Pompeo about Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. Bolton wrote that Mr. Pompeo privately acknowledged to him last spring that Mr. Giulianis claims about Marie L. Yovanovitch, then the American ambassador to Ukraine, had no basis, including allegations that she was bad-mouthing Mr. Trump. Mr. Pompeo suggested to Mr. Bolton that Mr. Giuliani may have wanted Ms. Yovanovitch out because she might have been targeting his business clients in her anti-corruption efforts. Yet Mr. Pompeo still went through with Mr. Trumps order to recall Ms. Yovanovitch last May.

Mr. Pompeo lashed out at a National Public Radio host on Friday and Saturday after she asked him in an interview about Ms. Yovanovitchs removal.

Mr. Bolton also wrote that he had concerns about Mr. Giuliani. He said he warned White House lawyers last year that Mr. Giuliani might have been using his work representing the president as leverage to help his private clients.

Among other names Mr. Bolton referenced in the manuscript: Attorney General William P. Barr. Mr. Bolton wrote that he raised concerns with Mr. Barr about Mr. Giulianis influence on the president after Mr. Trumps July 25 call with Ukraines president. That call was a critical piece of the whistle-blower complaint that prompted the impeachment inquiry. Mr. Barr on Sunday denied Mr. Boltons account through a spokeswoman.

Mr. Bolton is willing to testify. The White House doesnt want him to.

Mr. Bolton, who released a statement this month saying he would appear at Mr. Trumps trial if he is subpoenaed, is prepared to testify before the Senate, according to his associates. He believes that he has relevant insight to present before senators vote on whether to remove Mr. Trump. He is also concerned, his associates said, that if his account of Mr. Trumps Ukraine dealings comes out after the trial, he will be accused of withholding potentially incriminating material in order to increase his book sales.

Mr. Trump and the White House, however, do not want Mr. Bolton to appear.

The White House had already ordered Mr. Bolton and other key officials not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. The manuscript has intensified concern among advisers that they need to use a restraining order to block Mr. Bolton from testifying, according to two people familiar with their concerns. It was unclear whether they would be successful in doing so.
[January 27, 2020] Boomi Announces Winners in Annual Customer Awards, '2019 Boomi Blue Challenge Awards'

CHESTERBROOK, Pa., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, announced today the winners of its annual Boomi Blue Challenge awards. The awards recognize customers in North America, APJ and Europe, that have showcased how they've used Boomi's data integration platform to unify data, applications, systems, processes and people during the past year and digitally transform their business. "Boomi's more than 10,000 customers are driving innovation across their respective industries to achieve digital modernizations and drive better business outcomes," said Michelle Wideman, Chief Customer Success Officer, Boomi. "The four winners of the 2019 Boomi Blue Challenge, illustrated that a comprehensive, cloud-native integration platform is a valuable strategic asset. The winners are true digital leaders." Boomi Blue Challenge winners effectively manage complex data challenges and lead strategic projects within their organizations, from projects focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) to projects establishing data governance compliance. Each organization has shown significant improvement in productivity, ROI, and more. Across four regions (United States of America, Canada, Europe and APJ), winners were evaluated on judging criteria that includes transformational impact, creativity and innovation, scope and complexity, and social impact. This years' top winners are: Les Schwab Tires - USA

Les Schwab Tires, a tire company defined by award winning customer service, partnered with Boomi to modernize their customer experience and transform the way they manage data. With changing customer demands, including letting customers use mobile apps to make appointments in real time, Les Schwab required integration on a massive scale. The almost 70-year-old company also moved its point-of-sale (POS) systems to the cloud using Boomi's iPaaS capabilities. The success of the customer service integration, coupled with the platform managing Les Schwab's HR data for 7,000 employees, the company soon expanded to other platform capabilities, including EDI management for trading partners, and using Flow and API Management to improve operational efficiency between employees and customers. With Boomi, Les Schwab Tires has achieved a faster digital transformation, aimed at increasing profitability and improving customer convenience via cloud-based application adoption. Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) - EMEA

Jacobs Douwe Egberts' coffee and tea portfolio are available in more than 140 countries. To support the 265-year-old company, JDE selected Boomi's platform to integrate heterogeneous systems, support e-commerce sites customized by country and brand, and failitate constantly changing promotions and customer surveys, while maintaining flexibility and reusability.



With Boomi, JDE has reduced its time to market for new products and promotions by 40 percent, as it gained precise control over onboarding new trading and logistics partners. These gains also enabled JDE to launch a direct-to-consumer website in nine EU countries for its premium coffee brand. Boomi also continues to play an important role in JDE's day-to-day transactions, such as order to cash, quote to cash, supply-chain management, and B2B data exchange. Hydro Ottawa - Canada

As the third largest municipally owned electrical utility in Ontario, Hydro Ottawa maintains the electricity distribution systems in the Canadian province and serves over 335,000 residential and commercial customers. Hydro Ottawa turned to Boomi to help transform its IT infrastructure, enabling them to pursue innovative projects while managing their day-to-day business more efficiently.

The utility had no capability to build integrations that moved data in real time or support a hybrid infrastructure of cloud and on premises applications. With Boomi, Hydro Ottawa is building a highly available central hub to integrate essential systems. Already, Boomi has saved the utility thousands of dollars it originally planned to spend on upgrading infrastructure for its legacy technologies. In addition, Boomi slashed the utility's integration development time in half, allowing it to integrate five systems with only one employee within five months of purchasing the solution  saving at least 50,000 Canadian dollars. GlobalFoundries - APJ

GlobalFoundries, a Singapore-based semiconductor manufacturer, chose to partner with Boomi to address several IT challenges that hampered its ability to compete in the global marketplace. Boomi made it possible for GlobalFoundries to build a robust hybrid infrastructure in public and private clouds allowing the company to seamlessly connect applications across regions. GlobalFoundries also built an enterprise chatbot integrating Google Chat with multiple corporate and cloud applications and uses Boomi to support a mobile portal that connects with G Suite, a group of cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools. Boomi integrations consume auto machine learning (AutoML) APIs for data analytics and reporting Boomi's transformative power connects more than 150 trading partners, supports over 100 transaction types, and manages more than 1,000 composites. The customer considers Boomi to be the foundation of their digital transformation journey. The winners will receive a complimentary pass to Boomi World Tour London 2020. To be considered for next year's Boomi Blue Challenge Awards and learn more about Boomi, please visit www.boomi.com . About Boomi

Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, quickly and easily unites everything in your digital ecosystem so you can achieve better business outcomes, faster. Boomi's intelligent, flexible, scalable platform accelerates your business results by linking your data, systems, applications, processes, and people. Harnessing the power of the cloud to unify everything inside and outside of a business, Boomi gives more than 10,000 organizations globally, the ability to future proof their application strategy. For more information, visit http://www.boomi.com .  2020 Boomi Inc. Dell, Dell Technologies, Boomi, the 'B' logo, Molecule, and Dell Boomi are trademarks of Dell Inc., or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Other names or marks may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Contact:

Emma McCulloch

Boomi

415-420-7194|

[email protected] Special note:

Statements in this material that relate to future results, future hiring, and future events or investment are forward-looking statements and are based on Boomi's current expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "confidence," "may," "plan," "potential," "should," "will" and "would," or similar expressions. Actual results, hiring, customer trends, and events in future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements because of a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the challenge of finding and onboarding new personnel, marketplace trends, ongoing management attention to the market, the uncertainties associated with technology changes and the development and release of new technology. Boomi and Dell Technologies assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boomi-announces-winners-in-annual-customer-awards-2019-boomi-blue-challenge-awards-300992616.html SOURCE Boomi

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Hundreds of Iranian hardliners on Monday afternoon rallied in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran to protest against Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and the remarks he made about the possibility of talks with the United States in an interview with Der Spiegel on January 24.

The protesters chanted slogans against Zarif, the United States, Israel and Britain and called the Foreign Minister an opportunist, a compromiser and demanded that he resign from his post. A cleric who spoke at the rally in Tehran said Zarif's remarks and the U.S. President Donald Trump's response to him were "humiliating" and "undermined Iran's power". The call for the rally had been published in hardliner media on Sunday.

Protesters chanting against the United States in front of Iranian Foreign Ministry at a rally to protest Zarif's recent remarks.

Asked by Der Spiegel whether he rules out the possibility of negotiations with the US  following the killing of Qassem Soleimani, Zarif had replied: No, I never rule out the possibility that people will change their approach and recognize the realities. For us, it doesnt matter who is sitting in the White House. What matters is how they behave. The Trump administration can correct its past, lift the sanctions and come back to the negotiating table. Were still at the negotiating table. Theyre the ones who left. The US. has inflicted great harm on the Iranian people. The day will come when they will have to compensate for that. We have a lot of patience.

In a press conference on Monday morning, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi told reporters that Zarif's remarks in the interview with Der Spiegel had been misunderstood and the opponents of Zarif had based their arguments against Zarif on the Persian-language tweet of Trump. In a tweet on Zarif himself said the U.S. President had misunderstood his remarks and called on him to refer to the English text of his interview with the German newspaper.

In a statement on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said it is committed to defending Iran's dignity "by utilizing its legal and diplomatic abilities" despite the unlawful pressures and efforts of the United States of America".

The statement also called Soleimani "the hero of the fight against terrorism" and said, "it has been proven to the world's public opinion that it is the US government that is at the forefront of terrorism protectors worldwide".
The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump started again on Monday, with Trumps legal counsel offering arguments for why the president should not be impeached. It follows arguments made last week by House managers led by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

The defense continues their opening arguments amid news of allegations from John Bolton, who was Trumps national security adviser until he departed late last year.

Details of Boltons book were leaked to several news outlets on Sunday evening, which contained the claim that Trump allegedly linked hundreds of millions of dollars to investigations in Ukraine. Trump said on Monday that such claims were false.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said at the beginning of the proceedings regarding the allegations, We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information. We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all.

9:10 p.m.  Senate Adjourns, To Resume 1:00 p.m. Tuesday

Pat Cipollone delivered closing remarks after Dershowitz wrapped up his arguments. The Senate is adjourned for the night, and McConnell announced the trial is set to resume at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

The presidents defense team has used 8h and 27 minutes so far, and have 15h and 33 minutes remaining. The team has indicated that they will not use the total 24h available to them for their opening arguments.

8:38 p.m.  Dershowitz on Abuse of Power and Quid Pro Quo

Dershowitz said that presidents in the past were accused of abuse of power, but were not impeached. He names several former presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

He later turns to the term quid pro quo, saying that it is not a basis for abuse of power, and that it is part of the way foreign policy has been operated by presidents since the beginning of time.

The claim that foreign policy decisions can be deemed abuse of power based on subjective opinions about mixed or sole motives that the president was interested in only helping himself demonstrates the dangers of employing the vague, subjective and politically malleable phrase abuse of power as a constitutionally permissible criteria for the removal of the president.

He also said that nothing in the [John Bolton] revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.

That is clear in the language of the Constitutionyou cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like quid pro quo and personal benefit,' he said, adding that the term abuse of power has been weaponized as a tool of impeachment.

7:55 p.m.  Dershowitz Takes the Floor

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz takes the Senate floor and is delivering a Constitutional argument against the impeachment of President Trump.

Earlier, Robert Ray argued that Trumps actions have not risen to a level that would qualify as an impeachable offense.

7:30 p.m.  VP Chief of Staff Releases Statement Regarding Aid to Ukraine

In an apparent reference to John Boltons recent allegations, Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff, Marc Short, released a statement to clarify the situation regarding the military aid to Ukraine.

As a matter of policy we dont typically share or discuss conversations between the President and Vice President, but given the journalistic fury over alleged conversations, the President has given me permission to set the record straight, Short said in his statement.

In every conversation with the President and the Vice President in preparation for our trip to Poland, the President consistently expressed his frustration that the United States was bearing the lions share of responsibility for aide to Ukraine and that European nations werent doing their part.

The President also expressed concerns about corruption in Ukraine. At no time did I hear him tie aid to Ukraine to investigations into the Biden family or Burisma. As White House Counsel presented today, based upon testimony provided by Democrat witnesses in the House hearings, these were Theo only issues that the Vice President with Ukraine officialsbecause thats what the President asked him to raise.

A recent New York Times report contained allegations that claimed Bolton was told by Trump about a link between military aid to Ukraine and investigations into Burisma or the Bidens.

7:00 p.m.  Senate Returns From Dinner

The Senate returned from dinner around 6:55 p.m. Robert Ray, a member of President Trumps defense team, proceeds to deliver his arguments.

6:20 p.m.  Cruz: Hunter Biden is Potentially Most Important Witness

Sen. Ted Cruzwhen asked whether he would be open to a one-for-one witness call for Republicans and Democratstold reporters outside the Senate chamber that he thinks additional witnesses are not necessary.

In my view, additional witnesses are not necessary. The House managers have presented their case, they havent come remotely close to meeting their burden of proof, he said. If the Senate later this week, when we vote on witnesses, decides to go down the road to additional witnesses, I think at a minimum, the most important witness for the Senate to hear from is now Hunter Biden.

Commenting on the trial so far, Cruz said that the Senate had just seen two hours of evidence of corruption presented by Trumps defense team that he believes justifies Trumps call to investigate such corruption.

The legal issue before this Senate is whether a president has the authority to investigate corruption. The House managers built their entire case on the proposition that investigating Burisma corruption, investigating the Bidens for corruption was baseless and a sham, he said. [House managers] said there wasnt a shred of evidence concerning corruption. Weve just seen 2 hours of evidence.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said he believed that last hour closes the deal for anybody needing more information.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters that the Senate will decide on Friday on whether to allow witnesses.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) commented that the House could have called witnesses during the impeachment inquiry.

I would advise the senators not to call for more witnesses. The reason is the House was supposed to call witnesses  they could have subpoenaed John Bolton but they chose not to, she said. Dont put the burden of proof on the Senate for something that the Democrats didnt do in the House.

6:02 p.m.  Senate Takes Dinner Break

The Senate is having a 45-minute break for dinner. The trial is set to resume 6:45 p.m. where President Trumps defense team will continue their opening arguments.

4:50 p.m.  Trump Lawyer Pam Bondi Highlights Ukraine Corruption

Trumps lawyer Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, sought to highlight corruption in Ukraine and questioned why former Vice President Joe Bidens son worked on a gas company that has been investigated for corruption.

She noted that former Vice President Biden led a U.S. delegation into Ukraine in 2014 and was the Obama administrations point man.

She said Hunter Biden, the ex-vice presidents son, worked on the board of Burisma Holdings, whose oligarch owner Mykola Zlochevsky was accused of corruption and fled the country, soon after Biden became the administrations point man on policy in Ukraine.

Hunter was brought on the Burisma board with a business partner, Devon Archer, who was the roommate of former Obama Secretary of State John Kerrys stepson Christopher Heinz, Bondi noted. She said his hiring came one month after the United Kingdom opened a corruption case against Burisma. She noted that Heinz later tried to distance himself from the two.

Hunter Bidens choice to join Burisma raised [red] flags almost immediately, Bondi said, highlighting reports that Hunter and Archer were allegedly paid $3.1 million by Burisma.

In an interview in October, Hunter Biden said that he did nothing wrong but acknowledged that working on Burismas board would create the perception of a conflict of interest.

4:30 p.m.  Giuliani Thanks Trump Lawyer

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani thanked President Trumps lawyer Jane Raskin for her defense of him.

Jane Raskin is doing a masterful job defending me in my role as defense counsel. As she pointed out, I did not dig up dirt on Joe Biden. The information RE his outrageous criminal conduct was handed to me, along with a video tape, 4 witnesses, incriminating documents. It was already a fully-intact bribery/extortion case, he wrote on Twitter.

The reason you dont know about it is because of the cover up by the corrupt Democrats and their establishment media! he added.

Giuliani had served as Trumps personal attorney and has been the subject of allegations by House Democrats in their impeachment push against the president.

incriminating documents. It was already a fully-intact bribery/extortion case. The reason you dont know about it is because of the cover up by the corrupt Democrats and their establishment media!  Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 27, 2020

4 p.m.  Trump lawyer Jane Raskin: Giuliani a Minor Player

Trumps lawyer Jane Raskin told the Senate that Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer, is a small player in the impeachment case.

Raskin said Giuliani was not on a political errand for Trump and was following a lead to defend his client against false allegations.

In this trial, in this moment, Mr. Giuliani is just a minor player, that shiny object designed to distract you, Raskin said. Senators, I urge you most respectfully, do not be distracted.

3:15 p.m.  Trump: Nothing Was Ever Said to John Bolton

Well, I havent seen a manuscript, but I can tell you: Nothing was ever said to John Bolton. But I have not seen a manuscript. I guess hes writing a book. I have not seen it, Trump told reporters before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

The president is referring to allegations contained in a New York Times report that claimed Bolton was told by Trump about a linkage between military aid to Ukraine and investigations.

3 p.m.  Bolton Denies NY Times Collaboration

A spokesperson for former Trump national security adviser John Bolton responded to allegations that he timed his book and released details for publication in the New York Times.

Ambassador John Bolton, Simon & Schuster, and Javelin Literary categorically state that there was absolutely no coordination with the New York Times or anyone else regarding the appearance of information about his book, THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, at online booksellers. Any assertion to the contrary is unfounded speculation, Bolton aide Sarah Tinsley said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

The NY Times reported that Boltons forthcoming book alleges President Trump sought to link U.S. military aid to Ukraine and investigations. The book did not use any direct quotes.

2:20 p.m.  Newest GOP Senator Calls for Quick End

The newest senator, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), said fellow Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is trying to appease Democratic members of Congress with recent statements about witnesses.

After 2 weeks, its clear that Democrats have no case for impeachment. Sadly, my colleague @SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is over. Its time to move on! she wrote on Twitter. Loeffler took over former longtime Sen. Johnny Isakson earlier this month.

Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Romney told news outlets Monday that he would like to hear witnesses following reports about details from a forthcoming book from John Bolton.

1:45 p.m.  Ken Starr Takes the Floor

Trumps lawyer, Ken Starr, a former Clinton impeachment prosecutor, took to the floor and issued a statement.

Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment, including members of this body, full well understand that a presidential impeachment is tantamount to domestic war, but thankfully protected by our beloved First Amendment, a war of words and a war of ideas. But its filled with acrimony and it divides the country like nothing else. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment understand that in a deep and personal way, Starr said.

He said the impeachment against Trump is being weaponized. Let the people decide, Starr, a current Fox News contributor, said.

1:35 p.m.  Mulvaney Responds to Bolton

White House chief of staff and former OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, in a statement (pdf) via a spokesman, disputed a report about former national security adviser John Boltons book, where he alleged Trump told him that he linked military aid to investigations in Ukraine.

The latest story from the New York Times, coordinated with a book launch, has more to do with publicity than the truth. John Bolton never informed Mick Mulvaney of any concerns surrounding Boltons purported August conversation with the President. Nor did Mr. Mulvaney ever have a conversation with the President or anyone else indicating that Ukrainian military aid was withheld in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation of Burisma, the Bidens, or the 2016 election. Furthermore, Mr. Mulvaney has no recollection of any conversation with Mr. Giuliani resembling that reportedly described in Mr. Boltons manuscript, as it was Mr. Mulvaneys practice to excuse himself from conversations between the President and his personal counsel to preserve any attorney-client privilege, the statement reads.

Trump has also denied the claims on Twitter.

Democrats have sought to obtain Senate trial testimony from Mulvaney and Bolton.

1 p.m.  Trial Starts

President Trumps defense has taken the floor, led by counsel Pat Cipollone.

12:15 p.m.  GOP Senators Suggest Witnesses

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) both suggested on Monday that a report about National Security Adviser John Boltons upcoming book should warrant calling witnesses to testify in President Donald Trumps impeachment trial.

The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues, Collins said in a statement.

Details of Boltons book were leaked to several news outlets on Sunday evening. Trump, meanwhile, said on Monday that alleged details offered in the forthcoming book by Bolton, who was Trumps national security adviser until he departed late last year, were falsenamely, the alleged claim that Trump linked hundreds of millions of dollars to investigations in Ukraine.

Collins added that she has always said that she would likely vote to call witnesses in the trial just as I did in the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Ive said that in fairness to both parties, the decision on whether or not to call witnesses should be made after both the House managers and the presidents attorneys have had the opportunity to present their cases, she said.

Romney, considered another possible swing-vote who has been an outspoken critic of Trump within the GOP, told reporters Monday that it is increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton before adding that it is increasingly likely other Republican senators would join in too.

12 p.m.  Schumer Calls for Bolton Testimony

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said reports about former national security adviser John Bolton should prompt the need for witnesses.

This is stunning. It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president, Schumer told reporters. Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offenses charged in the first article of impeachment.

Trump, meanwhile, has denied allegations in the book on Twitter.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, he wrote on Twitter.

From The Epoch Times
Some 85,000 artifacts that tell the story of the Chinese migration to the United States may have been lost in a fire that struck a building in the heart of Manhattans Chinatown, a museum official said Friday.

The president of the Museum of Chinese in America told The New York Times that most of the thousands of historic and artistic items in its collection were probably lost in the fire that started Thursday night and tore through a building where the museums acquisitions were stored.

One hundred percent of the museums collection, other than what is on view, said Nancy Yao Maasbach, the president of the museum. She said that the collection was one of a kind and that she was just distraught after receiving the news.

The fire started in a former school that more recently housed a senior center, the Chen Dance Center and a number of community groups. The museum is nearby and stored its collection in the structure that was hit by fire.

A Fire Department spokesman said the fire was still not under control Friday night, 24 hours after it was first reported.

Videos and photos posted to social media Thursday night showed flames bursting out of windows and flowing heavily from the roof of the building, which Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter was a pillar to the Chinatown community.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said firefighters were forced to battle the blaze from the outside.

The interior became untenable and the units had to be withdrawn, he said. It was too dangerous in the building.

Maasbach said she was told by emergency responders that no one will be able to enter the building to retrieve items for at least three weeks. She said the museums artifacts, which include textiles, restaurant menus and tickets for ships passage, have likely been soaked by water and will be irreparably damaged by then.

About 35,000 items in the collection had been digitized and those files were backed up, she said.

Nine firefighters and a 59-year-old man were injured in the blaze. The man was rescued from the fifth floor of the building and was reported to be in serious but stable condition. The firefighters sustained minor injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The fire comes ahead of the Lunar New Year, which is Saturday.

City Council member Margaret Chin tweeted that the fire was devastating. We will work to make sure vital services arent lost, Chin told WNBC.

I know the neighborhood is in shock, de Blasio tweeted. Were going to help the community get through this.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 17:34:05|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least two passengers were injured as an Iranian passenger plane went off runway while it was landing in the southern Mahshahr city airport on Monday, semi-official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported.

Ali Khodadadi, chief of Red Crescent Society of southwestern Khuzestan province, told ISNA that a man and a woman were hurt on their legs when the accident happened.

A footage by the ISNA showed that the plane blocked the width of Sarbandar-Mahshar highway after it went off the runway and was dragged out of the airport complex.

The passengers were jumping out of the front door of the plane which was stock in the middle of the highway, the footage showed.

The lower part of the plane, the wheels, as well as the front and back parts of it were damaged seriously.

Reza Dolatshahi, police chief of Khuzestan province, said that the Sarbandar-Mahshar highway is closed and the plane will be removed by the afternoon, according to ISNA.

Unconfirmed media reports said that the plane was carrying 135 passengers.

The cause of incident is under investigation, the police chief said.

The passengers are in "good condition," the Civil Aviation chief Reza Jafari told Tasnim news agency.

The flight 6936, en route from Tehran to Mahshahr city, belonged to the Iranian Caspian Airway.

According to the local reports, on Sunday, the engine of Gorgan-Tehran passenger plane caught fire before it took off.

On Saturday, a flight, belonging to Iran Air Tour Airline and was bound from Tehran to Istanbul, made an emergency landing in Tehran International Mehrabad Airport minutes after it take-off. Technical failure was cited as the cause of accident.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi stressed, in a phone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday, the importance of de-escalation in the region, according to a statement from his office.

The PM also condemned attacks that targeted the US embassy in Baghdad and pledged to boost Iraqi protection of it.

Abdul Mahdi also stressed the importance of respecting Iraq's sovereignty by everyone.

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China early on Monday announced an unprecedented extension of the Lunar New Year (LNY) holidays in the latest attempt to contain the spread the of rapidly spreading novel Coronavirus that has killed at least 80 and infected nearly 2800.

Health experts said Sunday that the seven-day holiday window for the LNY  which started on January 25 -- was a critical period to contain the virus as hundreds of millions of Chinese will begin their return journey home at the end of it.

They said the ability of the virus to spread was getting stronger and that it could also infect during the 1 day-to-14 day incubation period.

Also Watch | International SOS explains few coronavirus symptoms, advice on traveling

President Xi Jinping has called the accelerating spread of the virus a grave situation.

Numbers related to the Coronavirus, a previously unknown virus, are indeed surging: There were 24 deaths overnight and the central Chinese Hubei province, at the centre of the outbreak, reported 371 cases.

The government is attempting to spread out the 3 billion trips  by road, air, railways and boats -- expected in connection with the LNY holidays to prevent human-to-human transmission of the highly contagious virus.

China announced Monday that the Lunar New Year holiday will be extended to February 2 as a measure to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, official news agency, Xinhua reported.

The General Office of the State Council (Chinas cabinet) said in an announcement that the measure is taken to effectively reduce mass gatherings, block the spread of the epidemic, and to better safeguard the safety and health of the Chinese people>

The holiday started on Jan. 24 and was originally to end on Jan. 30.

Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice, the government has also instructed.

Tens millions of people in Hubei  along with the locked down capital, Wuhan  are facing transport restrictions, part of the governments effort to isolate the virus in the region.

As many as 43 cases have been reported from other countries with the US confirming the fifth case on Sunday.

The highest number of cases has been reported from Thailand: 8.

Majority of the cases both in China and abroad have a connection to Wuhan where the virus is said to have emerged from seafood and fish market that also traded in wildlife.

Officials told reporters Sunday that information on the new virus is limited even though the pathogen was identified relatively quickly, and its transmission is increasing.

China banned wildlife trade across the country, prohibiting the shipping and sale of wild animals and quarantining breeding sites, with the government warning against the consumption of wild animals.

Chinese authorities on Sunday also said the virus isnt yet under control despite aggressive steps by authorities to limit movement for millions of people who live in cities near the center of the outbreak, the Bloomberg reported.

The report added that the US consulate in Wuhan plans to evacuate some Americans in a charter flight on Tuesday, and other governments and companies have said they are prepared to help their people leave the city thats under lockdown.

France is seeking approval to repatriate its citizens by mid-week, the health minister said Sunday. Japan also plans to evacuate nationals who wish to leave Wuhan, NHK said. More than 700 Japanese are believed to be in the city, it said.
Burma Ex-Myanmar President U Thein Sein to Campaign for USDP Ahead of This Years Election

U Thein Sein in 2015 / The Irrawaddy

YANGONFormer Myanmar President U Thein Sein will campaign for the countrys main opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) ahead of the upcoming general election expected late this year.

Former general U Thein Sein became president in 2011 after contesting the 2010 election under the military proxy USDP ticket. He was the president of the party until 2015.

However, the party only managed to win a humiliating 10 percent of the parliamentary seats in the 2015 poll, with the National League for Democracy winning 77 percent.

Currently, the former president is the chairman of the USDP.

U Nandar Hla Myint, a USDP spokesperson, told the media on Saturday that U Thein Sein would campaign for the party ahead of the upcoming election but didnt disclose details of the activities he would take part in.

As a member and former leader of the party, he feels he is responsible for its electoral success. So, he and other former ministers and vice ministers will join the campaign, he said.

Early this month, U Thein Sein warned that the country is facing growing threats to territory, race and religion and called on citizens to vote for candidates who will protect the country in the upcoming general election.

The ex-president said at an annual event organized in his honor at the USDPs headquarters in Naypyitaw that Myanmar would face both internal and external threats in 2020 because the country is likely to be devoured by outsiders, under excuses of democracy and human rights.

We also have a good opportunity in 2020 A vote can be for the good of the country but it can also have negative impacts. It is important that the person we choose is someone with good morality, good education and goodwill for the country. More than that, the person must be someone who will protect our race and religion and look out for the military, he said.

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Visitors wear protective masks as they tour the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China amid the coronavirus outbreak on Jan. 27, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Coronavirus Updates Jan. 27: German and Sri Lankan Health Authorities Confirm First Case of Novel Coronavirus

These updates are from Jan. 27. For updates on Jan. 28, click here.

German and Sri Lankan Health Authorities Confirm First Case of Novel Coronavirus

Health authorities in Bavaria on Monday evening confirmed Germanys first positive case of 2019-nCoV.

According to the infectious diseases task force of the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, the male patient from the district of Starnberg is clinically in good condition and is being monitored while in isolation.

Those who have been in close contact with him have been informed and infection control measures have been implemented.

The Task Force and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) have said they consider the infection risk to the Bavarian population to be low.

The man was infected by a Chinese colleague who attended a company training in Bavaria a week ago, said Andreas Zapf, the head of Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, in a press conference.

The colleague, a woman from Shanghai, flew back home on Jan. 23, during which she started feeling sick, Zapf said. She previously had not shown any symptoms. After returning to China she tested positive for the disease. The woman lives in Shanghai, but days before her trip to Germany, she had been visited by her parents from Wuhan, the virus epicenter.

Sri Lanka also confirmed its first known case of 2019-nCoV.

A Chinese lady, who is in her 40s, arrived on the 19th as a tourist and fell ill on the 25th and was confirmed as having the coronavirus following a test on Monday, Sudath Samaraweera, the chief epidemiologist with Sri Lankas Ministry of Health, told Reuters.

Flight Evacuating Americans From Wuhan to Stop in Alaska

The flight evacuating American citizens from Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus started, will stop in Anchorage, Alaska.

Around 240 passengers will be on the flight. They and the flight crew will be screened by officials from China and the United States before theyre allowed to depart from Wuhan; anyone who shows symptoms of the virus, including a fever and respiratory issues, wont be allowed onto the plane.

The flight will stop at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to refuel, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services said on Monday.

The plane will refuel at the private North Terminal.

Given Alaskas proximity to Asia, we have been asked to assist our federal partners in this effort to facilitate travel out of China back to the United States to bring these U.S. citizens home, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement. The State of Alaska, in combination with our local, federal and Tribal partners have been working closely to ensure the health and safety of all Alaskans while assisting with this request.

Alaska currently has no confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus.

A person walks down a lane in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei Province on Jan. 27, 2020. (AP Photo)

100,000 Hospital Beds to be Added in Hubei

The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, Chinas Hubei Province, is opening up 100,000 hospital beds in an effort to contain the disease, the provinces vice governor announced on Jan. 27.

At least 17 cities in the province have been placed under a lockdown, stranding tens of millions of people amid the Chinese New Year holiday, the countrys peak migration season.

Thousands have been infected with the deadly virus. The countrys vice premier Li Keqiang arrived in Wuhan on Monday to coordinate efforts to contain the disease.

Read more here.

A Japan Airlines worker (C) wears a face mask while working inside a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Jan. 23, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

US Considering Expanding Screening of Airline Passengers

The United States is considering expanding screening of people arriving in the country from different parts of China, as 110 people are under investigation for suspected coronavirus infection, health officials said on Jan. 27.

Passengers coming from Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus, are being screened at five of the largest airports in the United States: San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta.

That screening could be expanded as soon as this week, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters in a phone call on Monday.

This outbreak is unfolding rapidly and we are rapidly looking at how that impacts our posture at the border. We are certainly considering broadening of that screening and that is something that Ill be prepared to speak about as soon as we can make a decision on it, she said.

Read more here.

US Investigating 110 Cases

The United States has 110 people under investigation, or PUIs, across 26 states, health officials said around noon EST on Monday.

This is a cumulative number and will only increase, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a phone call with reporters.

Thirty-two people have tested negative and five have tested positive.

Some of the patients have been identified through screening at airports while others have reported to their doctors when they develop symptoms. Doctors, noting patient history or contact, notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Suspicious cases feature people with a fever and a respiratory illness who either traveled to Wuhan or had contact with someone with Wuhan.

Once the local or state health department learns of a case, they contact the CDC. If they jointly decide to test the patient, results take somewhere around a day to finalize, depending on the geographic area and other factors.

The CDC is developing testing kits and is working on distributing them to priority areas across the country.

A woman checks her sons forehead in the locked-down city of Wuhan in China on Jan. 27, 2020. (Getty Images)

Johnson & Johnson Working on Vaccine

Johnson & Johnsons chief scientific officer said he is pretty confident that his company can create a vaccine for the new coronavirus, which is spreading to a growing number of countries from China.

No vaccine or cure currently exists for the coronavirus, which has been deadly for some people.

We have dozens of scientists working on this so were pretty confident we can get something made that will work and stay active for the longer term, Dr. Paul Stoffels said during an appearance on CNBCs Squawk Box on Monday.

Stoffels said that scientists at the company created an Ebola vaccine in six months but it would be similar to an approach taken in the case of the Zika virus, where they had to start from scratch.

Read more here.

A young Chinese visitor wears a protective mask as she tours the nearly empty grounds of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China on Jan. 27, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Cambodia Confirms First Case

Cambodian officials on Monday said a patient in the country tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus for the first time.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng said that the patient is a Chinese national who is in Sihanoukville, a city of about 90,000 on the southwest coast, the Bangkok Post reported.

The man traveled to the coastal city from Wuhan in China earlier this month, Bunheng said.

People who return from Wuhan city, Hubei province of the Peoples Republic of China must regularly check their health and if they have fever symptoms, cough, running nose, please hurry to seek medical treatment at public health centers, he said.

The coronavirus has spread to a number of Asian countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.

Mary Grace Baguio hugs a relative after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong at Pearson airport arrivals, shortly after Toronto Public Health received notification of Canadas first presumptive confirmed case of coronavirus, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Jan. 26, 2020. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

Canada Confirms Two Cases

Officials in Canada said that the wife of the man who was the countrys first person infected with the Wuhan coronavirus also tested positive for the virus.

The woman has been in self-imposed isolation since she and her husband arrived in Toronto last week, officials said. The couple flew on a China Southern Airlines flight that department from Guangzhou.

They originally departed from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus.

Dr. David Williams, chief medical officer of health, said that risk to other Canadians remains low at this time.

We are working alongside Toronto Public Health, who has been in regular contact with the individual during their self-isolation period, said Dr. Williams in a statement. Given the fact that she has been in self-isolation, the risk to Ontarians remains low.

People wearing masks shop at a supermarket on the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on Jan. 26, 2020. (cnsphoto via Reuters)

Australia Confirms Fifth Case

Health authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales have confirmed a 21-year-old woman has tested positive to coronavirusmaking her the fifth person being treated in Australia.

A woman who was on the last flight out of Wuhan to arrive in Sydney has tested positive to coronavirus, taking to five the number of people being treated in Australia for the potentially deadly illness.

NSW Health on Monday afternoon confirmed a 21-year-old woman who arrived at Sydney Airport on Thursday subsequently developed symptoms and tested positive.

Chief health officer Dr. Kerry Chant said the woman was met at the airport by health officials and given advice on what to do if she became unwelland she had followed that guidance.

Read more here.

A worker wearing a hazardous materials suit takes the temperature of a passenger at the entrance to a subway station in Beijing on Jan. 26, 2020. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

China Tries to Contain Virus With Travel Restrictions

Chinese authorities are struggling to contain the new coronavirus outbreak as the death toll and number of confirmed cases continue to climb daily.

Authorities are adding travel restrictions throughout Hubei Province and in other areas to try to curb the virus, which has an unknown origin and keeps spreading to additional countries.

Cities like Wuhan have been quarantined while Beijing said it was banning all tour groups that leave from the capital to other Chinese cities and overseas.

Read more here.

Workers from local disease control and prevention department in protective suits disinfect a residential area following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, in Ruichang, Jiangxi province, China on Jan. 25, 2020. (cnsphoto via Reuters)

Virginia Probing Possible Cases

Virginia health officials said three people are under investigation for possibly having 2019 Novel Coronavirus, the new coronavirus from China.

Two people in central Virginia and one person in northern Virginia is under investigation, the state Department of Health said in a statement.

The people meet certain criteria provided by the CDC and are being tested to see if they have the virus.

Lab tests usually only take around five hours, but because of the volume of tests submitted from around the country tests are taking longer to process, officials with the agency said last week in a phone call with reporters. An official with the Virginia Department of Health told WTOP that the test results are expected later this week.

Eva Fu, Cathy He, Zachary Stieber, Frank Fang, Nicole Hao, Reuters, and the AAP contributed to this report.
This is the second time in less than two years that the government has come out with proposal for selling stake in Air India.

New Delhi: The government on Monday announced sale of 100 per cent stake in debt-laden Air India as it issued the preliminary bid document for the strategic disinvestment with the deadline for submitting expression of interest set as March 17.

As part of the strategic disinvestment, Air India would also sell 100 per cent stake in low-cost airline Air India Express and 50 per cent shareholding in joint venture AISATS, as per bid document issued on Monday. Management control of the airline would also be transferred to the successful bidder.

This is the second time in less than two years that the government has come out with proposal for selling stake in Air India, which has been in the red for long.

The government has set March 17 as the deadline for submitting the expression of interest (EoI). AISATS is an equal joint venture between Air India and Singapore Airlines. It offers ground handling services.

Also Read: Air India privatisation: Employee unions to meet in Delhi

Air India also has interests in Air India Engineering Services, Air India Air Transport Services, Airline Allied Services and Hotel Corporation of India. These entities are in the process of being transferred to a separate company -- Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL) -- and would not be a part of the proposed transaction, the document said.

According to the document, debt of Rs 23,286.5 crore would remain with Air India and Air India Express at the time of closing of the disinvestment. The remaining debt would be allocated to AIAHL. EY is the transaction adviser for Air India disinvestment process.

In 2018, the government proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players. However, there were no bidders.
When I heard Elizabeth Warren declare some weeks ago that shed ban all hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for oil and natural gas, my immediate reaction was, Well, there goes Pennsylvania and also any remote chance Democrats might have winning Ohio again. This issue could even make Colorado interesting, at least for the likely Democratic nominee for Senate, John Hickenlooper, who is a rare pro-oil and gas Democrat. Hell have to distance himself from the national ticket.

It seems the New York Times is worried, too. Today the Times reports:

In Crucial Pennsylvania, Democrats Worry a Fracking Ban Could Sink Them [A] pledge to ban all hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, could jeopardize any presidential candidates chances of winning this most critical of battleground states  and thus the presidency itself. So as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren woo young environmental voters with a national fracking ban, these two Democrats are uneasy. In Pennsylvania, youre talking hundreds of thousands of related jobs that would be  they would be unemployed overnight, said Mr. Fetterman [PAs lt. governor], who endorsed Mr. Sanders in 2016 before Donald J. Trump won his state, pop. 12.8 million, by just over 44,000 votes. Pennsylvania is a margin play, he added. And an outright ban on fracking isnt a margin play.

And dont forget that Joe Biden has said hes down with this nonsense, with promises of how there will be so many better green jobs with the energy revolution that Washington can deliver with the mere snap of the fingers. He must believe $50,000-a-month natural gas type jobs grow on trees in Ukraine or something. Of course, Hillary made these same promises to coal miners in 2016, too. But no one who doesnt live in the dream world of a college town believes these kind of political promises any more.

Which is why I hope the Democratic Party runs hard with their anti-energy platform.
Aontu party Peadar Toibin has withdrawn an application to the High Court for an injunction preventing tonight's planned political party leaders debate broadcast on RTE's Claire Byrne Live.

Lawyers acting for the Meath West TD told Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds on Monday afternoon that after some consideration the application was no longer going ahead.

The court was told that the time constraints involved in bringing such an application were among the reasons why the TD and party leader was not proceeding with his action.

Outside court, Mr Toibin said he was "disappointed" with RTE's decision to exclude a representative of his party from participating in the debate.

With the level of preparation of documents involved, there was not enough time to have the action heard in advance of the planed debate, he said.

It was "unfair" that Aontu cannot take part when other political groups with smaller or similar support were, he added.

He said that had been discussions about the debate with Aontu and RTE up until Tuesday of last week, adding that he had hoped those talks would have ended "amicably."

He added that he "radically disagreed" with RTE's criteria for inclusion on the show, and add that other options are being considered, including referring the issue to Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

Earlier on Monday, Louis Masterson Bl, instructed by solicitor Cormac O'Ceallaigh for Mr Toibin, told Ms Justice Reynolds that it was hoped to formally apply for the injunction against RTE during the course of the day.

Counsel said the proposed action was been brought arising out of Deputy Toibin's "exclusion from the debate" by the national broadcaster and the TD was going to look for an order preventing the planned debate, which the leaders of seven political parties are expected to participate, from being broadcast.
Rep. Scott Peters endorsed Mike Bloomberg for president on Monday, citing his plans to fight climate change and spiraling gun deaths and holding him up as having the best chance to defeat President Donald Trump.

Peters, a California Democrat who will serve as national chair for Bloombergs climate, energy and environment council, is the fifth House member to sign on with the former New York mayors presidential campaign in recent days.

I thought about it a lot, and the thing that convinced me Mike Bloomberg is the right candidate is that we dont have to guess who he is: We know hes a successful business executive, a successful mayor and we know through his philanthropy what he cares about  and that matches my values, Peters told POLITICO, in announcing his decision. Whether its guns, or climate or economic injustice, I just have a lot of confidence that this is a person who is up to the task on the big issues that face the country.

In the interview, Peters added that electability  a central pillar of Bloombergs late-starting campaign  also contributed to his decision to endorse a candidate a week before the rest of the Democrats compete in the Iowa caucuses.

Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019. (House Television via AP)

All the polling shows that hes one of the two or three most-likely candidates to beat Donald Trump and the most likely to beat Trump in swing states, Peters said.

Bloomberg is banking on muddled results from the first four contests  where he is either not competing or not on the ballot at all. Boosted by more than $260 million in TV and digital ad spending, he has shot up to double digits in national surveys, leapfrogging Pete Buttigieg and hiring scores of aides as he prepares for his Super Tuesday debut. At the same time, several of his earliest endorsers praised the billionaire for committing to keep hundreds of aides in the field working against Trump even if Bloomberg himself isnt the Democratic nominee.

An environmental lawyer who came up through San Diego politics before flipping a seat for Democrats in 2012, Peters is a vice chair of the pro-business group New Democrats, whose members huddled with Bloomberg on his recent visit to Capitol Hill. Peters, whose longtime chief of staff, MaryAnne Pintar, is a regional political director for Bloomberg in California, has warned Democrats against nominating a progressive like Sens. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, saying their policies would make them more vulnerable to Trump in November.

I do believe we need an alternative to Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren, Peters told POLITICO last week, after the Bloomberg meeting with colleagues in Washington but before he formally decided on an endorsement.

I dont think that those are candidates who will win a general election. And I also disagree with them more on policy.
The Ukrainian leader noted reliable support by Duda and the Polish state for the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine.

Presidents of Ukraine and Poland, Volodymyr Zelensky and Andrzej Duda, met in Poland during the working visit of the Head of State to the Republic of Poland to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp.

The two leaders agreed on the issues of further economic cooperation, the Ukrainian president's press service reports.

Poland is our fourth largest trading partner. I am convinced that Polish investors will properly evaluate the reforms and improvement of the business climate in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky stressed.

Read alsoZelensky on Holocaust Remembrance Day: Duty to future generations to prevent new tragedy (Video)

"Today we have agreed to further develop and strengthen our strategic, friendly partnership," the head of state emphasized.

He thanked Poland for supporting the territorial integrity, sovereignty of Ukraine, and stressed that our country appreciated the reliable support for the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine by Andrzej Duda and the Polish state.

"We enjoy full understanding and trust. We believe that it should always be this way between our countries, between Ukraine and Poland," the Ukrainian president added.
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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Lode-Star Mining Inc. ("Lode-Star" or "Company") (OTCQB:LSMG) is pleased to announce the signing of a Toll Milling Agreement (the "Agreement") between Scorpio Gold Corporation's ("Scorpio Gold") company affiliate, Goldwedge LLC. The Agreement will allow for the processing of ore delivered from Lode-Star's Goldfield Bonanza Project to Scorpio Gold's 400 ton per day Goldwedge milling facility located in Manhattan, Nevada.Under the terms of the Agreement, Lode-Star will advance funds required for the design engineering, permitting and mill modifications. Based on previous metallurgical testing, the Company's ore requires gravity combined with flotation for optimal recoveries of contained precious metals. The Goldwedge milling circuit is currently configured with a gravity recovery circuit. The modifications to the Goldwedge milling facility will include the addition of a flotation circuit, supporting reagent tanks/silos, secondary lining of process containment ponds, leak detection and monitoring wells associated with fluid containments. The Agreement provides for Lode-Star to recoup the advanced funds through a reduction in toll milling rates until all advanced funds have been repaid. Following repayment, the toll charges will revert to standard rates.This Agreement is mutually beneficial for both parties. With the addition of a flotation circuit the Goldwedge milling facility will have the capability of processing carbonaceous/sulfidic ores, expanding its availability for toll milling. Lode-Star benefits from having a long-term processing agreement for their ores at a location operated by an experienced processing team. The mill is in close proximity to the Company's mine, thus minimizing haulage costs, and will have a milling circuit optimized for peak metallurgical recoveries.The Company's President and CEO Mark Walmesley comments, "This Agreement couldn't be more timely. After considerable work between Lode-Star and Scorpio Gold's management both parties agree each company will greatly benefit from this Agreement. The Company has completed its underground infrastructure improvement phase of over 1/2 mile of drift at the 300ft level. The Company's next focus is the execution of a surface drilling program that is recommended in the Company's NI 43-101 filed on January 20, 2020 and the continuation of our disciplined mine-ready underground development. I believe with the Company's steady completion of its milestones Lode-Star is now well positioned to raise capital." About Lode-Star Mining Inc.Lode-Star Mining Inc., traded on the OTC Markets' OTCQB marketplace under the symbol LSMG, is a U.S.-based junior-tier mining company focused on the exploration, development, and production of North American mineral assets.LSMG is the operator of the Goldfield Bonanza property, acquired under an option for development on December 11, 2014 from Lode Star Gold, Inc., a private Nevada corporation. Please visit LSMG's OTC Markets profile page for more information.Contacts for Lode-Star Mining Inc.Mark WalmesleyPresidentLode-Star Mining Inc.phone : (775) 234-5443e-mail : info@ lode-starming.com Forward Looking StatementsThis news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause LSMG's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect LSMG's current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, LSMG assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.SOURCE: Lode-Star Mining Inc
Guide to Virginias Controversial Bills: Gun Control, Abortion, Electoral College

The Democrat-controlled legislature of Virginia has seen a flurry of contentious legislation this season, some of which sparked outrage among Republicans. The bills focus most prominently on curbing the right to possess firearms. Still, many pertain to other areas, such as abortion, voter ID requirements, the Electoral College, and giving felons the right to vote.

There are signs that many of the bills wont make it through the legislature. One of the reasons is that both the House of Delegates and Senate only have until Feb. 11 to act on their legislation. Still, the Democrat majorities in both chambers have already shown a willingness to pick up and pass some of the bills.

More than 60 bills regarding guns, many focused on limiting the right to bear them, were introduced in Virginia this year. The most prominent one was Senate Bill No. 16. It would have banned the possession of most semi-automatic rifles that accept a detachable magazine or hold more than 10 rounds and also some semi-automatic handguns and shotguns. That would have turned a large share of the states estimated 2 million gun owners into criminals, since nearly two-thirds of gun owners own rifles, and the most popular types of rifles are covered by the bill, according to industry estimates.

The bill prompted outrage across the state and beyond. Nearly every county in the state has declared itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary, vowing to boycott enforcement of such a law.

On Jan. 13, SB 16 died in the Senate by a unanimous vote of nine Democrats on the chambers Judiciary Committee.

Another similar bill, HB 961, has sat in the Houses Public Safety Committee since Jan. 7. It covers the same weapons but would allow current owners to keep them under certain circumstances, such as if they keep them on their property or only take them hunting or to a gun range and back.

Some other bills, however, have a better chance. SB 69 limits common handgun purchases to one per month, while SB 35 allows local authorities to ban possession of firearms or ammunition in public spaces used for or adjacent to events that require a permit to be held. Both passed the Senate on Jan. 16 along partisan lines (2119).

On Jan. 22, the Senate Democrats also passed SB 240, which would allow law enforcement to ask state judges for an order and ultimately a search warrant to take guns from anyone who poses a substantial risk of personal injury to himself or others in the near future by such persons possession or acquisition of a firearm.

When determining who poses such a risk, the judges should look any relevant evidence, including recent  threats the targeted person had made that put one in reasonable apprehension of  bodily injury. The level of necessary evidence would be the same as for a search warrantenough for a probable cause.

The person would get a court hearing within 14 days, in which the government would need to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the order should be extended for a maximum of 180 days.

Abortion

At least two bills focus on relaxing abortion rules in the state. SB 733 would remove requirements that a woman must be provided various information shortly before getting an abortion, including ultrasound and the possible detrimental psychological effects of abortion. The bill passed in the Education and Health Committee along partisan lines on Jan. 23.

SB 635 states that a pregnant woman has a fundamental right to  terminate a pregnancy, and the state shall not deny or interfere with such a right. The bill has 19 patrons in the Senate, all Democrats. Its been in the Education and Health Committee since Jan. 7.

The states Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam caused a furor in 2019 when he suggested that a mother should have the option to have her child killed even after birth in cases when the baby has severe fetal abnormalities or is deemed nonviable.

Electoral College

SB 399 would give all Virginias electoral votes to the winner of the national presidential popular vote.

The law can only go into effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have passed such legislation, as part of an agreement called the National Popular Vote Compact.

The compact still needs 74 more electoral votes to go into effect, according to its website. Virginia would add 13.

The bill has been stricken from the docket by the Privileges and Elections Committee in a unanimous Jan. 28 bipartisan vote at the request of the bills own patron.

Voter ID

SB 65 would remove the requirement that Virginians show photo identification to be allowed to vote. Under the new law, a current utility bill would suffice to prove ones name and address.

The bill was passed by the Privileges and Elections Committee along partisan lines on Jan. 28.

Felon Voting Rights

Virginia Constitution bars felony convicts from voting unless their rights are restored by the governor or other appropriate authority. It also bars from voting those adjudicated to be mentally incompetent until their competencies are restored.

SJ 8 would amend the states constitution to remove such requirements, thus restoring voting rights to both groups and de facto allowing felons to vote from prison.

Most states allow felons to vote, but usually after they complete their sentences, including parole or probation. Only two states, Maine and Vermont, allow felons to vote during incarceration, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Virginia had some of the strictest reenfranchisement criteria until 2014, when then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, issued an executive order restoring voting rights to all the states convicted felons who had completed their sentences including parole or probationmore than 200,000 people. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the move, saying the governor has to restore the rights for people individually. McAuliffe did so until he finished his term. The effort continues under his successor Northam.

The legislature seems to have passed on the bill for the time being as the Privileges and Elections Committee unanimously continued it into 2021 on Jan. 21.

Update: The article has been updated with information about SB 399 being stricken from docket and SB 65 being passed by the Privileges and Elections Committee.
The sensitivities around hospital services came into focus as both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail each accused the other of "scaremongering and exaggeration" about Bantry Hospital.

Fine Gael's two election candidates in Cork South-West called on Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to immediately clarify why he promised to extend the opening hours of an emergency department (ED) that does not exist.

The candidates, Senator Tim Lombard and Councillor Karen Coakley, also accused Mr Martin of making "shocking" and "reckless" promises about Bantry General Hospital. The dispute erupted after the Fianna Fail leader wrote to his party's two candidates in three-seat Cork South-West about the hospital. He acknowledged public concerns and assured the pair that his party had no intention of downgrading services there and "remained committed to the emergency department being kept open on a 24/7 basis". "Bantry is used as an excellent urgent care centre and Fine Gael will deliver on a 10m expansion to the hospital which includes a new endoscopy unit, and a new rehabilitation unit," Senator Lombard said. A Fianna Fail official said Fine Gael was making a big deal about differences in language. "The hospital has some 24/7 services which we intend to protect," the official said.
ANN ARBOR, MI  As a child, Marilyn Wanty liked to hop on her tricycle and ride from her house at 1027 E. Huron St. to visit the medical students in the University of Michigans Nu Sigma Nu fraternity just down the street.

There werent any children around the neighborhood, so she was on her own as far as entertaining herself.

Theyd talk to me a little bit, and Id turn around and ride back home, said Wanty, 95, who lived in the house from 1925-35.

Those kinds of memories and many others from that neighborhood have a special place in Wantys heart.

When she heard her former home, the former Nu Sigma Nu house at 1015 E. Huron Street and a home at 1007 E. Huron St. could be demolished to make way for a new UM College of Pharmacy, she was understandably upset.

UM seeks proposals for historic houses that could be demolished

I think it would be a shame to demolish it, said Wanty, who now lives in Chelsea. I feel bad to think that this house has a lot of things in it that were of that time, or even ahead of that time, and they would be lost.

Inside the house, which was built in 1895 for Josephine Murfin, Wanty remembers the vestibule that led to a room with a big fireplace. Above the fireplace hung three deer heads her grandfather, William Seagert, killed hunting up north each November.

The front room adjacent to that room was the parlor, and behind that was where everyone gathered to listen to the radio. Behind that was the dining room and her grandparents bedroom and bathroom. Next was the kitchen, with a refrigerator and buffet-style serving area. As a child, Wanty assumed everyone had a refrigerator, but that wasnt the case, she said.

As I look back on it, the house was nice, well-equipped, she said. Years later, my husband and I visited the Roosevelt summer home in Canada, and it had the exact same fridge.

Wanty specifically remembers a system of bells that connected each room to the kitchen, which had a back stairway and dumbwaiter behind it. On the third floor was a dormitory for UM students.

The arrangement was they had medical students there, Wanty recalled. My grandmother wouldnt rent to them if they werent medical students.

If Wantys former residence  as well as the other two Huron Street houses  are not sold and removed, UM will demolish them for a $120-million, 131,000-square-foot pharmacy college.

It would be too bad because its a vintage house, Wanty said. If anyone has the courage to buy and move it, I would certainly be very happy to not have it torn down.

The stories behind 3 houses that could be demolished for UM College of Pharmacy

The project remains in the approval phase, UM spokewoman Kim Broekhuizen said earlier this month. According to the project overview, the building that currently houses the College of Pharmacy has narrow structural bays and shallow floor-to-floor heights that do not allow for reconfiguration into modern classroom and laboratory spaces.

Proposals for the purchase and removal of the houses are due at 2 p.m. March 3. Questions on the purchase or removal can be directed to Lorri Doneth, whos with Procurement Services, at ldoneth@umich.edu by Feb. 21.

More information can be viewed here.

The current College of Pharmacy, 428 Church St. has 56,000 square feet of space. It was built in 1960 with a major addition in 1992.

More information on the project can be viewed here.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : In its efforts to boost the slowdown-battered automobile sector, the industry has demand an incentive-based vehicle scrappage scheme for removal of old vehicles.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has sent this and other recommendations to the government for the upcoming Budget 2020-21.

Besides, SIAM has called for a reduction in GST rate on vehicles to 18 per cent from the current 28 per cent.

"... we have urged the Finance Ministry to consider announcing a incentive-based scrappage policy and also increase Budget allocation for ICE bus procurement by State transport undertakings," SIAM President Rajan Wadhera said.

"Increased cost of BSVI may effect demand, hence we have also requested the government to reduce GST rates for BSVI vehicles effective 1st April from 28 per cent to 18 per cent." On the introduction of an incentive-based vehicle scrappage scheme for removal of old vehicles from the road, the SIAM recommended that incentive be given in the form of 50 per cent reduction in GST and 50 per cent reduction in road tax and registration charges.

It has also recommended abolishment of customs duty of 5 per cent on Li-Ion Cells to allow battery manufacturing to commence in India.

"Allocate budget for procurement of buses by STUs, over the budget allocation for procurement of electric buses under the FAME II scheme," SIAM said in its recommendations.

"Increase depreciation rate for passenger vehicles and two-wheelers to 25 per cent permanently." According to the industry, these steps can revitalise the sector and place it back on the growth trajectory.

Lately, the auto sector suffers from a consumption slowdown due to high taxation, stagnant wages and a stressed rural sector.

Recent data showed the sector's total domestic sales declined to 14,05,776 units in December from 16,17,398 units sold during the corresponding month of the previous year.

In terms of the calendar year, the 2019 sales decline is the worst ever in the last 20 years.

The off-take of commercial vehicles took a major hit with sales declining 12.32 per cent to 66,622 units, compared to 75,984 units in December 2018.

On the production front, total domestic production last moth stood at 1,816,112 units, lower by 5.22 per cent.
Four Katyusha rockets on Sunday landed near the US embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, capital of Iraq, an Interior Ministry official said.

The attack took place in the evening when the four rockets landed near the US embassy in the Green Zone, which also houses some of the main Iraqi government offices, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.



There was no casualty reported, as the rockets landed in empty area near the embassy, the official said.



The heavily fortified Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10 square km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital.





On Friday, the Iraqi prominent Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr called for a scheduled withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq through peaceful means.



The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq on January 5, two days after a US drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.



Over 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.
A top Egyptian court has ruled in favour of banning female academic staff at Cairo University from wearing the Muslim face veil, known as the niqab, lawyer Ahmed Mahran said Monday.

The decision taken by the Supreme Administrative Court last week rejected appeals against a 2016 lower court verdict banning the niqab on grounds that it impeded interaction between students and teachers.

The ban on the niqab, which covers the entire face except for the eyes, has often sparked fierce debate on religious freedoms.

"The ruling is final and not subject to appeal," said Mahran, who represented 80 women in challenging the 2016 ruling.

Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, or hijab, which covers the hair but not the face. The niqab is largely worn by women of ultra-conservative backgrounds.

The ban was introduced in 2015 by a previous head of Cairo University, two years after the 2013 military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Mahran said the decision was issued for "political reasons" at the time.

"But it never came into effect. I do not expect it to be applied now," he added.

Cairo University is one of Egypt's oldest higher institutions.

Its current head, Mohamed Othman Elkhosht, quoted by local media, said his institution respected decisions taken by the judiciary but did not specify if the ban would be enforced.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Italy's center-left Democratic Party (PD) has faced down a strong challenge from the right-wing Lega party during a widely-watched regional election that firebrand Lega leader Matteo Salvini had hoped could collapse the country's precarious coalition government and precipitate fresh national elections.

Instead, the PD won just over half of the vote in the Emilia-Romagna region, where elections were held Sunday for the governor and regional assembly, with a strong turnout of nearly 68% that dwarfed the comparable figure in 2014.

Lega had campaigned relentlessly in this relatively wealthy portion of north-central Italy, with Salvini and his allies holding several rallies each day, focused on a message of tax-cutting and anti-immigration.

But Lega's gubernatorial candidate Lucia Borgonzoni had failed to match the Democratic Party's high profile governor of the region, Stefano Bonaccini, who proved popular among voters in what has historically been a political heartland for the Italian center-left.

Bonaccini repeatedly criticized Salvini during the campaign for failing to pay attention to local issues, and for his focus on regaining national power.

Salvini stepped down last summer as deputy prime minister and interior minister, when he abruptly collapsed Lega's coalition agreement with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). At the time, his effort to scupper the government was intended to provoke fresh national elections in which his party looked likely to triumph. But a surprising pact that formed between the M5S and center-left Democratic Party obviated the need for fresh polls.

Now, without an obvious path back to national political power, Salvini has expended huge amounts of time and energy on regional elections, analysts say, to show that his party commands sufficient support up and down Italy to argue that the incumbent government no longer represents the Italian voting public.

Last year Umbria, another traditionally PD-supporting region, was indeed swayed by Salvini's campaign arguments and voted in favor of Lega.

And a Democratic Party loss of Emilia-Romagna, which has voted reliably left of center since World War II, might have prompted some national lawmakers to seriously rethink their already tenuous partnership with M5S.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is an "internal political matter" of India, French diplomatic sources said here on Monday, adding that France, being a founding member of the EU, has reiterated its stance over the controversial legislation on several occasions.

"For France, a founding member of the EU, the CAA is India's internal political matter. We have stated this on several occasions. European Parliament is an institution independent of the Member States and the European Commission," the sources told ANI.

On Sunday, sources said that some members of the EU Parliament sponsored a draft resolution on the citizenship law. However, the legislation has been adopted by due process and through democratic means after a public debate in both Houses of Parliament, they added.

Members of the European Parliament should engage with the Indian government to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts with respect to the legislation "before proceeding further", sources said on Sunday.

Calling CAA an internal matter of India, the sources said that the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world.

"Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation, contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination. In fact, European societies have followed the same approach," the sources pointed out.

"We hope sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further. As fellow democracies, the EU Parliament shouldn't take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world," they added.

The amended Citizenship Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SAN DIEGOCulture is like a diamond. It has many facets. Traditional Chinese culture is especially rich in variety and depth, having given rise to martial arts such as kung fu and the highly expressive, technically stunning art form known as classical Chinese dance.

Out of New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts is touring the world, showcasing traditional Chinese cultures many facets. At the San Diego Civic Theater on Jan. 26, 2020, a local kung fu teacher Ryan Dacy took in Shen Yun and said its one of the greatest things Ive ever seen.

Ryan Dacy teaches choy li fut style of kung fu at White Dragon Martial Arts School near San Diego. He praised Shen Yun from the point of view of a martial artist.

Its amazing. Its beautiful. Watching it and I can see the kung fu and martial arts aspects of it. The amount of trainings and stuff that go into it. Its absolutely beautiful. The mixture of the slow and fast. Very kind of tai chi-esque. Its just absolutely amazing. I love the stories behind it, too. Its beautiful. Its one of the greatest things Ive seen, Dacy said.

Dacy felt that the tumbling, flipping, jumping and kicking moves seen in Shen Yun had a connection to his own martial arts practice. Its true that classical Chinese dance developed in parallel to martial arts, just as the word for dance and the word for martial arts in Chinese are homonyms.

Dacy said that the dancers dedication parallels the principles required in his classes. And the motivation to learn these very specific skills. And timing is something that we want to work on when I teach my students, is working on that timing, waiting for that perfect time. To strike with that perfect time, to do that spin rounds that really make the eyes opened. Wow, thats amazing, he said.

A hallmark of authentic Chinese culture is its depth of emotion and long history of profound legends. Dacy felt strong feelings from some of the touching stories on stage that day.

A lot of emotions for different parts, he said. He described one piece in particular, Abetting the Wicked, and the profound sacrifice and redemption that was acted out.

Sorrow and hope, fear and compassion intersect in the piece Dacy referred to, which depicts real scenes from the persecution of innocent spiritual believers in China today.

What I got from it was, you know, that the family and the brotherly love is just more important thanthe rights and freedom is more important than just a job, Dacy said.

Various aspects of the production lent to the emotional impact of the storytelling.

The music is beautiful. I used to be in a band when I was in middle school. So, I like the music. It really makes you feel the emotion behind what they are doing. The show just tells you this story. You dont need the words for the stories to be told, Dacy added.

Dacy spoke more about the performances classical Chinese dance and its patented backdrops.

I love it so much. They did an amazing job, he said.

The backdrop is impressive.  I have not seen an incorporation like that. For the one that, boom, and he has in his hands. Thats [a] fantastic job how they incorporated it. The music and dancinglike perfect on sync for everything. That must have taken years of practicing. Its really impressive.

Shen Yun Performing Arts Global Companys curtain call at the San Diego Civic Theater, on Jan. 26, 2020. (The Epoch Times)

I highly recommend it. I am going to tell some of the other instructors about it because I can see the martial arts aspects of it. And I absolutely recommend it, Dacy added.

With reporting by Jana Li and Brett Featherstone.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

Market Overview

- The North American clinical nutrition market is well-established, owing to multiple factors contributing to the growth. Some of the primary factors include a large geriatric population base, the growing burden of chronic diseases, and increased awareness in the society regarding clinical nutrition.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05778446/?utm_source=PRN

- Recent years have observed high focus by the companies and hospitals, toward health and wellness, aging, and disease prevention. For a number of chronic diseases, such as coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, diabetes, diabetes, and few cancer indications, preventive medical nutrition is effective and steadily being adopted by hospitals and clinics in North America.

- Moreover, healthcare expenditure continues to grow faster than economic growth in most countries. The presence of equitable, responsive, and efficient health systems across North American countries has also contributed to the maximum share of GDP, for healthcare expenditure. Such factors drive the demand for clinical nutrition in North America.



Scope of the Report

The report on North America clinical nutrition market is segmented by route of administration, application, and end user. The route of administration includes oral and enteral, and parenteral. By application, the market report includes nutritional support in malnutrition, metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal diseases, neurological disease, cancers, and other indications. The end users are segmented into pediatric and adult sub-segments.



Clinical nutrition products help to keep the patient healthy and aid to improving the metabolic system of the body by providing adequate supplements, such as minerals, vitamins, and others. Additionally, the high birth rate and a higher number of premature births also demand advanced clinical nutrition.



Key Market Trends

Oral and Enteral Route of Administration is Estimated to Hold the Largest Share in the North America Clinical Nutrition Market



In terms of route of administration of clinical nutrition to the patients, oral and enteral routes are mostly preferred for a large number of diseases for a significant period of disease treatment. As long as the patients can consume food orally, their stomach and intestine functionalities are not affected, the oral route is the preferred route of administration for clinical nutrition. There are several types of formulations for enteral nutrition, which are preferred based on the complexity of diseases by physicians and doctors, such as liquid solution, soluble tablets, dispersible tablets, and capsules, among others. In several cases, patients suffering from the trauma of mouth and throat, and few cancers of the GI tract, like mouth cancer, throat cancer, etc., the preferred route of administration is enteral. However, the initial cost of set-up is high for such facilities, which limit the growth of this segment to some extent. As several well-established companies have good distribution model across the North America region, this offsets the barriers linked to this segment.



Competitive Landscape

There are several international major players, as well as domestic companies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which creates a good competitive scenario for companies in the North American clinical nutrition market. Some of the major companies having a good presence across the North American region include Abbott, Nestle, Baxter B Braun, and Danone Nutricia.



Reasons to Purchase this report:

- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

- Report customization as per the client's requirements

- 3 months of analyst support



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05778446/?utm_source=PRN



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A prominent Dalit group in the United States on Sunday organised a protest against Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a key activist of the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) that was last year banned in India for supporting the cause of Khalistan. The Dalit group, Shri Guru Ravi Dass Sabha of New York, is angry that Pannu went ahead with his much-publicised plan to attempt to burn a copy of the Indian Constitution.

Ashok Mahi, president of Shri Guru Ravi Dass Sabha of New York, told local media that they were offended by Pannus move and had reached out to his organisation also to underscore their strong feelings associated with the Constitution and Dr BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution.

But the Sikhs for Justice went ahead with its attempted burning of the Indian Constitution, which has hurt the feelings of the community, Mahi told website India America Today.

The demand for Khalistan is going on for years but we never opposed or expressed our opinions on that, but now we dont understand what they got by hurting our feelings, Mahi told the news site.

Pannun has been playing a lead role build support for Referendum 2020, which he has been propagating for getting Punjab declared as a separate state of Khalistan.

SFJ, which was formed in 2007, has been active for the last five years. It has also been pushing for Referendum 2020 for the self determination of Sikhs as part of its separatist agenda.

It was declared as an unlawful association under Indias anti-terror law in July last year after intelligence reports that it was in close touch with the militant outfits and activists and is supporting violent form of extremism and militancy in Punjab and elsewhere to carve out Khalistan out of territory of India.

The National Investigation Agency, Punjab Police and Uttrakhand Police have registered as many 12 cases against activists of SFJ in India. Thirty nine people have been arrested in these 12 cases.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 21:16:37|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Legislative Assembly of India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Monday passed a resolution abolishing the state's Upper House -- the Legislative Council.

State Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy moved the resolution in the Legislative Assembly which was subsequently passed amidst protests by opposition lawmakers belonging to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Reddy's ruling political party "YSR Congress" enjoys a comfortable majority in the Legislative Assembly.

The move comes amid stiff opposition by the TDP lawmakers in the Legislative Council to the State Government's move to make three different capitals in the state, one each for Legislature, Judiciary and Administration.

The TDP has a majority in the Legislative Council.

However, the State Assembly's resolution to abolish the Legislative Council will have to go through several stages before it finally comes into effect. First it needs to be okayed by the state's Governor, after which it needs to be passed by both Houses of the Indian Parliament, and finally signed by the President of India.
NEW YORKThree people were shot outside of a courthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Jan. 27 and were transported to hospitals with non-life-threatening wounds, the office of Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim said in a statement.

The mayors office had previously reported that there were four gunshot victims in the shooting that occurred shortly after noon local time outside of the Superior Court of Bridgeport.

Although the scene was still active about an hour after the shooting, Ganims office said there was no immediate threat to the community.

This is not a random act, this is not an active shooter, according to the statement from Ganims spokeswoman, Rowena White. The individuals in this incidents (sic) were intended targets.

A Bridgeport police spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking information, but the Connecticut State Police said it was assisting with the response to the shooting.

By Peter Szekely
By Express News Service

KOCHI: After facing many hurdles in life, Kerala's first openly gay married couple have embarked upon a legal battle to get married.



35-year-old PP Nikesh and 31-yar-old Sonu, residing in Kakkanad, Ernakulam sought to declare that Section of the Special Marriage Act 1954 restricting solemnisation of marriages only between a man and woman is unconstitutional.



Nikesh and Sonu, a businessman and an IT professional respectively, had met each other in May 2018 and fell in love. They decided to marry after being in a relationship for several months. Having faith in God and in Hinduism, they wanted to explore the possibility of a religious marriage ceremony. They took advice from many who discouraged them.



However, they went to Guruvayoor temple and got married in a secret ceremony at the car parking area of the temple on July 5 2018.

According to them, the temple authorities would not solemnise their marriage or issue a certificate. All their efforts to convince people went in vain. Hence, they decided to solemnise their marriage under the special marriage Act. But the authorities are hesitant to accept this request.

The petition stated that they intend to get their marriage solemnised and registered under the Special Marriage Act. 'The provisions in the Act violate the fundamental rights of the petitioners and thus are illegal.' the couple said.



The petitioners pointed out that the transgenders as a third gender is recognised. But, the Supreme Court had held that gender identity is intrinsic to one's personality and the denial of the identity in which one is entitled to self-determine is a violation of dignity.



The Supreme Court had also held that homosexuals are entitled to equal rights and full access to all civil liberties under the Constitution of India. Though homosexuality was decriminalised in 2018, other civil rights and liberties like marriage, adoption and insurance are still not accessible.

The non-recognition of marriage among homosexuals violates the rights guaranteed under Article 15 (1) of the Constitution of India. It stated that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.



The petitioners submitted that the have the right of self-determination of one's own sexual identity, aspire to live with the partner of their choice and for the law to recognise that choice.

The court on Monday issued notice to the centre and the state government and sought their view.
Romanian conductor Cristian Macelaru, whose name is on the list of laureates of the 62nd edition of the Grammy Awards, says that the fact that a Romanian is rewarded with this award proves that there are cultural values to be examples for the younger generation.

"As I am not the only Romanian who has won this award, I am glad that there were other Romanians who received it, which is proof that there are cultural values that we can be proud of and that will be examples for a younger generation that wonders where they will find their place in the global society of the 21st century. And that is why I am glad that a Romanian has won the prize once again," Macelaru told AGERPRES on Monday.He also said that it was a great honour to have been associated with this award, calling a significant thing the fact that the vote that decides the awardees is cast by the members of the recording academy, who are all those who have made records in the past."It is, of course, an award that recognises an effort that we all made to create this record with music by Wynton Marsalis, and together with Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra we had the opportunity to do this a recording that, I think, is a very important work in defining a musical style of the author that is very interesting, a new voice of a purebred American composer, which brings with it jazz and contemporary music," he said.Speaking about future projects, Macelaru showed that they do not necessarily relate to winning this award."I have always been a great 'promoter' of contemporary music, of 21st century music. I continue in the same way with the music of Wynton Marsalis, but also with other composers, but, of course, with my orchestras with which I work in Cologne, as well as in Paris. I have a lot of projects with records that will come out with 'older' music, so to speak. But creating theses ?works of art' in and of themselves that will be left behind as a testament of the beauty we can bring the world into the 21st century is a very important thing," added the conductor.Macelaru added that he will return in spring to Bucharest. "I will have a concert soon," concluded the conductor.On Sunday, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, Romanian conductor Cristian Macelaru and the Philadelphia Orchestra received the 2020 Grammy Award for the Best Classical Instrumental Solo for "Marsalis: Violin Concerto & Fiddle Dance Suite" recorded at Decca House.Macelaru is the second Grammy Award-winning Romanian conductor, after maestro Christian Badea became the first in 1985, when he shared the Best New Classical Composition award with composer Samuel Barber for "Antony and Cleopatra."In November 2019, Macelaru was appointed music director of the National Orchestra of France starting in 2021.He is the current Chief Conductor of the WDR Broadcasting Orchestra in Cologne, Germany.
Italian health authorities in hazmat suits checked passengers arriving at Malpensa Airport in Milan from Hong Kong for symptoms of the coronavirus on January 27.

At least 81 people have died from the coronavirus as of January 27. Over 2,800 people have been infected in more than a dozen countries. Hong Kong has seen eight people become infected with the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China.

Brittany Clennett, who recorded this video, told Storyful that as she left the plane, she received a card warning passengers that if they suffered any respiratory symptoms within the next two weeks, they should contact the Ministry of Health in Italy. Other instructions on the card included wear a surgical mask, use disposable tissues, and regular hand-washing.

Italian health authorities implemented special control measures to prevent transmission of the virus on Thursday, January 23, according to Reuters. Credit: Britt Clennett via Storyful
New Delhi/Beijing, Jan 27 : India is finding it hard to assess the exact number of Indians stranded in central China's Wuhan city which has been placed under a lockdown, following the outbreak of the contagious novel coronavirus.

The death toll in China due to the 2019-nCoV has increased to 80 and around 3,000 people have tested positive for the virus, and some 6,000 were suspected to be infected.

Although more than 500 Indian students are studying in colleges and universities in Wuhan, official sources said that most of them had left the city before the outbreak for the Chinese New Year holidays.

The sources said that the Embassy in Beijing has been in touch with 45 Indian students stuck in Wuhan, but wasn't able to determine the overall figure of Indians living in the city.

"It is difficult to ascertain because usually not all Indians there would register with the Consulate. Nor would they keep the Consulate informed if they were moving out," an official in the Ministry of External Affairs told IANS.

All transport services were suspended in Wuhan and its 11 million inhabitants have been prohibited from venturing out of their homes.

Chinese health authorities on Monday confirmed 2,744 cases, which included 461 in critical condition.

In the last 24 hours, 25 deaths in Hubei and around 800 new cases were confirmed, the National High Commission said.

Sunday saw 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths (all in Hubei province), the Commission revealed.

By the end of Sunday, 51 people had recovered and there were currently a total of 5,794 suspected cases.

At least 32,799 close contacts have been traced, the Commission said, adding that of them, 30,453 were under medical observation while 583 were discharged on Sunday.

The figures also showed that 17 confirmed cases had been reported in Hong Kong (eight), Macao (five) and Taiwan (four).

Outside of China, there are currently eight confirmed cases in Thailand (five of which have been discharged from hospital); five in the US; four each in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, France, South Korea and Japan (one cured); two in Vietnam; and one each in Nepal and Canada.
The ex-officio members can cast their vote at any one civic body of their choice within their constituency. Securing the support of the rebel candidates is also be crucial. (Photo: Representational)

Hyderabad: The final results of the civic body elections for nine municipal corporations and 120 municipalities show the TRS has a clear majority to form Councils in 87 bodies. The Congress had a clear majority in six municipalities, the BJP in 3 and MIM in two. The TRS had absolute majority in two-thirds of the municipalities and corporations. In the rest, it needed the support either the independents or ex-officio votes which are cast by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, MLAs and MLCs. These include Nizamabad, Boduppal, Ramagundam, Meerpet and Badangpet municipal corporations.

The TRS has got equal numbers along with the Congress in some municipalities including Nalgonda (20 each out 48 wards) and Kosgi (7 each out 16 wards), Khanapur (5 each out of 12 wards) and Cherial (5 each out of 12 wards). In Haliya, the Congress won six wards and the TRS five.

The ex-officio members can cast their vote at any one civic body of their choice within their constituency. Securing the support of the rebel candidates is also be crucial.

The TRS has secured the support of rebels in the Meerpet Municipal Corporation (MMC). It won 19 divisions and required four more votes. It succeeded in securing the support of all eight independents, all TRS rebels, who were elected.

The BJP had won 16 divisions and the Congress three at Meerpet. The BJP had hoped to form the council but its plans were upset when all the independents turned in favour of the ruling party.

In the Badangpet Municipal Corporation, the TRS had won 13 divisions out of the 32 and required three more seats to form the council. It secured the support of two independents. For the additional vote, the TRS is depending on an ex-officio vote. In the Manikonda Municipality, the Congress won eight seats and the BJP six. The TRS came third with five out of the total 20 wards. The ruling party requires at least six votes to win the chairperson's post. It is seeking the support from the lone independent candidate use ex-officio votes to secure the municipality.

The TRS succeeded in forming the councils in the Nizamabad and Ramagundam municipal corporations with the support of rebels who had contested on the All India Forward Bloc ticket. In Nizamabad, it secured the support of the MIM which had won 16 seats. Though the BJP had won 28 seats and the Congress two in the 60-division corporation, the chances are bleak for the BJP.

In the Ieeja Municipality the TRS had won six wards out of the 20 and All India Forward Bloc, mainly comprising TRS rebels, won 10.

The Congress securd four seats. The TRS is said to have welcoming Congress candidates to form the council.

TRS continues to sideline Jupally Krishna Rao

Former Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) minister Jupally Krishna Raos efforts towards getting back to limelight within the TRS do not appear to be yielding results, with the leader failing in getting an appointment from TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao.

The aim of Krishna Rao was to inform the party high command that TRS rebel candidates, who have won 11 wards in Kollapur municipality, would like to support TRS in bagging the post of municipal chairperson.

Official TRS nominees won only nine of the total 20 wards in the municipal body.

To win the chairpersons post, TRS would need the support of 12 councillors. Followers of Krishna Rao, who contested as rebels, emerged victorious in 11 of the 20 wards in Kollapur.

However, the party high command does not seem interested in taking support from the 11 rebel candidates. It would like to utilise the ex-officio votes to capture the post of chairperson.

TRS wants to adopt this route not only in Kollapur but also in the Ieeja municipality.
Several non-Bodo organizations have called a 12-hour general strike in Assam on Monday to protest against the likely creation of a Union Territorial Council as part of Centres new peace accord with Bodo rebel outfits.

The Centre is slated to sign a peace accord with all four factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in New Delhi on Monday. All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) will also be a signatory to this deal expected to bring lasting peace to the Bodo-dominated areas in Assam.

Today at 1:30 with blessings of PM Narendra Modi GoI under the leadership of HM Amit Shah will sign a historic Bodo Accord by bringing four groups of NDFB together. All Bodo Students Union will be a key signatory in this accord, senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on Monday morning.

The Bodo Accord shall reaffirm the territorial integrity of Assam and at the same time usher us into a new hope of peace and progress in Bodoland. My best wishes, he added.

The deal accord was signed on Monday afternoon in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Though the details of the accord are not yet clear and there have been assertions that the deal wont lead to creation of a new state or UTC, speculations about it are rife.

While Bodo groups have welcomed the deal, several non-Bodo organizations like All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union, All Bodo Minority Students Union, All Adivasi Students Union, Kalita Janagosthi Students Union etc have opposed creation of a new UTC.

There are speculations that the deal might lead to extension of authority of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) beyond the four districts under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD)Chirang, Baksa, Kokrajhar and Udalguriand include portions of Biswanath, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur districts.

On Monday, protesters opposing the Bodo deal blocked roads at several places in the BTAD districts and some other places since early morning. The strike didnt have much impact in Kokrajhar town where Bodo groups are celebrating the deal.

Mondays deal will be the third Bodo accord signed in the past 27 years since the movement for a separate Bodoland for the states largest tribe started over four decades ago. The violent separatist movement has claimed hundreds of lives, injured many more and affected peace and development in Assam.

The first one signed with ABSU in 1993 led to creation of Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC). Ten years later the second deal was signed with Bodo Liberation Tigers and led to formation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), which included Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri districts (collectively called BTAD).

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On Thursday evening, chief technology correspondent Ina Fried hosted an Expert Voices discussion in Davos, Switzerland. The group was tasked with exploring the changing nature of work  everything from employees' evolving expectations of their institutions, stakeholder capitalism, the rise of AI and technological job displacement.

Changing expectations

Fried asked the group about a work expectation that has gone away or changed substantially during their careers.

Mo Cowan, President of Global Government Affairs and Policy at GE , highlighted the shift from trust and belief in institutions; employees will challenge the institution now. "Our employees have not only found their voice but think up creative ways to amplify that voice."

, highlighted the shift from trust and belief in institutions; employees will challenge the institution now. "Our employees have not only found their voice but think up creative ways to amplify that voice." Thomas Donilon, Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute , shared a changed experience "If you had a job, you thought you can have a decent life. That's not the case for the largest cohort of Americans. When you chose a profession, you had every expectation that it would always exist  that has been upended."

, shared a changed experience "If you had a job, you thought you can have a decent life. That's not the case for the largest cohort of Americans. When you chose a profession, you had every expectation that it would always exist  that has been upended." Yvonne Sonsino, Partner at Mercer, said that retirement is probably a thing of the past, "Now we are looking at how to facilitate a longer, healthier working life."

Mo Cowan of GE and Marne Levine of Facebook chat before the roundtable. Photo: Dani Ammann for Axios

Other attendees touched on flexibility at work and bringing one's full self to their job.

Rajesh Mirchandani, Chief Communications Officer at the United Nations Foundation, shared how technology has made his team more flexible  they understand they need to be responsive at any time.

"Another benefit is that we as managers learn that I don't need you in the office every day if you're getting your work done. And we need to do more of that. People have jobs and they have lives and they need to be able to do both."

Marne Levine, Vice President of Global Partnerships, Business and Corporate Development at Facebook , similarly noted "Work cultures are saying bring your whole self to work and tools are being created to bring out your whole self at work."

, similarly noted "Work cultures are saying bring your whole self to work and tools are being created to bring out your whole self at work." Michael Federle, CEO at Forbes, emphasized that his most effective team members work horizontally across the organization and are aware of the full organization rather than just the vertical they work in. The flattening of organizational hierarchies is allowing the best people to show themselves early on.

Jobs of the future

The discussion then focused on jobs of the future  what these jobs look like, how the workforce gets to that point, and how society is currently doing in providing that pathway after job displacement.

Brian Gallagher of United Way speaks at the Axios roundtable. Photo: Dani Ammann for Axios

Martin Whittaker, CEO of JUST Capital , brought up two important points:

, brought up two important points: "What is the obligation of the disruptor to the disrupted? What is my obligation to those displaced  do I have any or is that just progress?"



"There will be a premium on human creativity. We are just scratching the surface of human creativity  AI will unleash a whole new generation full of solutions and ideas."

Olivia Lopez, Managing Director of Partnerships at The Rockefeller Foundation, highlighted the value of people that do the work that is not valued  teachers, health care and elderly care workers  noting these are the jobs that won't be replaced, the people jobs.

highlighted the value of people that do the work that is not valued  teachers, health care and elderly care workers  noting these are the jobs that won't be replaced, the people jobs. Brian Gallagher, President and CEO of United Way Worldwide, emphasized the fact that new job systems are inaccessible for many people  people don't know where the starting point is to even become part of the new economy. "We've trained ourselves to act like systems leaders, we need to be people leaders."

Thank you Verizon for sponsoring this event.
The survivors have lessons to share and have done so dozens of times at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum & Learning Center in Creve Coeur.

But every few weeks, it seems, yet another survivor dies. Museum officials know the survivors soon no longer will be able to tell the stories themselves.

On Monday, the museum announced an $18 million expansion and endowment that will triple the size of its existing facility, now at the northwest corner of Lindbergh Boulevard and Schuetz Road on the I.E. Millstone Jewish Community Campus.

Im thrilled very much, said Mendel Rosenberg, 91, of Creve Coeur. He attended Mondays announcement at the museum and lit candles during a remembrance ceremony along with five other survivors.

Rosenberg grew up in Lithuania and was in camps with his brother in Stutthof and Dachau. His brother was murdered. He tells his story regularly at the museum to school groups and other visitors. I cant forget the fact that we are survivors, that nobody would believe it if we were not here.

Officials hope to make the museum building more visible and accessible, and expand its reach even deeper into the community to address issues of bias, bigotry and hate.
Central Michigan University Research Corporation Board of Directors has recognized ChargeOver as the 2019 CMURC SmartZone Small Business of the Year, honoring co-founders Keith Palmer and Ryan Bantz for their innovative invoicing solution.

Palmer and Bantz created the reoccurring billing software system called ChargeOver in 2012. This system helps companies save time and pay its customers faster. Palmer and Bantz both have over 15 years of experience in the payment collection technology and integration software business.

"ChargeOver joined the CoWork community to surround themselves with the infrastructure and a support team," said Erin Strang, CMURC president and CEO. "The company was able to focus on the technology and grow the business with a location soon to be opened in Downtown Mt. Pleasant."

This award places Palmer and Bantz among the prestigious group of past recipients. The company was selected based on its technological sophistication, innovative company culture and market potential.

In addition to gaining traction throughout the United States, this year, the company will be adding support for SEPA direct debit. This will enable European-based merchants to accept direct bank transfer payments from customers anywhere in the Euro-zone. ChargeOver will also be adding a U.S. GAAP-compliant revenue recognition and deferred revenue reporting. The ASC 606-compliant revenue recognition reporting helps businesses eliminate accounting complexities.

"By surrounding our company with professionals and like-minded tech entrepreneurs from the CMURC community, we have gained new insights and connections," said Keith Palmer, co-founder of ChargeOver. "We are honored to be selected for this award and to be part of a growing ecosystem in the region."

On May 13, Palmer and Bantz will be recognized at the Michigan Celebrates Small Business awards gala in Lansing.
(Alliance News) - Ormonde Mining PLC on Monday said Chair Michael Donoghue will step down after the company's proposed sale of its 30% interest in a Tungsten mine is completed.

He will be replaced by Non-Executive Director Jonathan Henry who will assume the role of executive chair.

Earlier in January, the firm said it had struck an agreement to sell its 30% stake in a Tungsten mine in Salamanca, northwestern Spain, to American asset manager Oaktree Capital Management for EUR6 million.

The disposal needs the permission of shareholders, which Ormonde will look to secure at a general meeting on February 13.

Like Donoghue, Non-Executive Director John Carroll will also step down, "as soon as practicable following the completion of the proposed disposal".

Ormonde said: "The process to identify and select new non-executive directors to replace these outgoing directors is already well advanced. The board intends to announce any nominated new directors ahead of the extraordinary general meeting."

Earlier this month Ireland-based Ormonde said revenue at the Barruecopardo mine had been "substantially lower" than forecasts from a 2012 feasibility study. The asset is operated by Spanish mining firm Saloro SLU, which Ormonde has a 30% interest in.

Mining costs have also risen, Ormonde said, and the company has previously been forced to pursue debt financing agreements to cope with rising expenses at Barruecopardo.

Chair Donoghue said earlier in January: "While the disposal of Ormonde's interest in the Barruecopardo mine will be a disappointment for many shareholders, the mine has encountered significant setbacks during its ramp-up operations, initially resulting in an additional EUR10 million funding requirement, addressed through an additional loan facility as announced in October 2019, and most recently a further funding requirement estimated by the company to be in the region of EUR12 million to EUR15 million."

Shares in the company closed 9.4% lower at 0.72 pence each in London on Monday.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Plans for a major regeneration of the Smithfield Market area, one of the most neglected parts of the centre of Belfast, have been finalised at City Hall.

During Belfast City Council's latest planning committee meeting, the majority of councillors agreed to a 60m investment on the site of vacant lands at the existing car park bounded by Winetavern Street, Gresham Street and North Street.

Last June the committee made an initial resolution to back the proposal, but matters were delayed for approval from the Department for Infrastructure - which eventually replied to say its approval was not required.

There was further delay because the application was contrary to the views of the Department for Communities Historic Environment Division, a statutory consultee.

The project in what was once a thriving hub of trade was finally given the go-ahead at last Thursday's meeting.

The director of planning and building control will finalise the wording of conditions.

The council report said: "The mix of office, retail and workshops will add to the diversity of the city centre whilst bringing much needed regeneration of this area."

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The plan involves the refurbishment of the listed Butcher's Building, and the erection of four new buildings, heights varying between three and nine storeys."

The report also states that the proposals will comprise basement level car parking, ground floor retail/restaurant/coffee shop/workspace uses, with Grade A and Small and Medium Enterprise offices above.

There will be new pedestrian access from Gresham Street and Winetavern Street.

The new buildings will be called The Mill, Sawtooth Studios, as well as a new Gresham Street building and a major extension to the Butcher's Building.

They will surround a new public square called The Yard.

Around half the space being created will be dedicated to office use, catering for around 1,500 people.

A four-day public event was held last year as part of the consultation process.

Bywater Properties and Ashmour Developments are behind the 260,000 sq ft project, which will create 650 jobs during construction.

Patrick O'Gorman, principal of Bywater Properties, said earlier: "It was imperative that we took on board the feedback and input from the people that know this area best, and we believe this has been a vital factor in our successful planning application.

"Having gone through this process we are hopeful we will receive a similarly positive outcome from the Department for Infrastructure when they review the project."

"The approved scheme will allow for a mix of independent, eclectic businesses at Smithfield, creating a community that will benefit the immediate area and Belfast as a whole," Mr O'Gorman added.

Construction is expected to begin this year.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) has begun printing ballots for the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country scheduled for Feb. 9, Trend reports.

CEC Chairman Mazahir Panahov and CEC members got acquainted with the printing process at the printing office of the Azerbaijani Parliament, as well as with the conditions created in the office, on Jan. 27.

As part of the open event organized for all interested parties including international organizations, observation missions and the media, Mazahir Panahov held a briefing for media representatives. The CEC chairman informed them about recent activities and the steps taken for conducting free and fair elections, and then answered reporters' questions.

Mazahir Panahov noted that the requirements for the text, form, number and procedure for preparing ballots were set on the basis of a decision of CEC, and it is planned to print 5,387,600 ballots.

The CEC will hand over the ballots to district election commissions, and they will redirect the ballots to precinct election commissions.

The process of printing ballots is protected by the Special State Protection Service of Azerbaijan.
New Delhi :

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram has slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his alleged remarks against Shaheen Bagh protesters who are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying only those who despise Mahatma Gandhi would want to get rid of Shaheen Bagh. Coming down hard on the Home Ministers remarks, the Congress leaders said, Home Minister seeks votes to get rid of Shaheen Bagh.

Only those who despise Gandhiji would want to get rid of Shaheen Bagh. Shaheen Bagh represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi, Chidambaram said in a series of tweets. Getting rid of Shaheen Bagh amounts to getting rid of Ahimsa and Satyagraha, he added.

Shah, while asking voters of Delhi to press the BJPs lotus symbol on February 8, had reportedly said that there should be no Shaheen Bagh. Your vote to BJP candidate will make Delhi and the country safe and prevent thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh, Shah was quoted as saying by PTI.

When you press the button (of EVM) on February 8, do so with such anger that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh, he said.

Protesters opposing the amended Citizenship Act and a proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC), are holding a sit-in at Shaheen Bagh for over a month now. The agitators said they will continue their agitation until the government decides to rollback the contentious law and scrap any NRC.

Chidambaram asks PM to debate CAA with 5 critics

Earlier, Chidambaram asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why he or his government did not accept his suggestion of the PM holding an open debate with five critics of the amended Citizenship Act and let people draw their own conclusion.

"I had suggested that the PM should select five of the most articulate critics and hold a Q&A session with them. Why doesn't the PM/Government accept the suggestion?

Let five critics of CAA-NPR debate the PM. Let the event be televised live. And let the people draw their own conclusions," he said on Twitter.

In another tweet, he said, "HM (home minister) has dared the Opposition to debate CAA. Is that not what the Opposition, jurists, academics, writers, artists, students and youth have been doing since Dec 12?"

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
China will mark the Lunar New Year for longer than usual to help stem the rapid spread of the coronavirus that has killed at least 80 people.

Government officials are using the holiday, when many Chinese leave cities to return to their hometowns, to avoid having the more than 3 billion trips contribute to the spread. The extension will be to a proper extent beyond Jan. 30, state media Xinhua News said Sunday, citing a government statement after a meeting led by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The risk-off trading that dominated U.S. markets on Friday continued Monday in Asia. The Australian dollar fell as investors reacted to the spread of the virus and the offshore yuan fell after China extended the holiday.

The decision on the holiday comes as President Xi Jinpings government is under pressure to combat a virus that shows little sign of slowing down. Chinese state TV has reported more than 2,000 confirmed cases on the mainland. Deaths in the country climbed to at least 80 from just two a week ago.

Mainland China accounts for 98% of confirmed global infections, while more than a dozen countries and territories reported the illness within their borders. The World Health Organization said of 29 patients with infections outside China, 26 traveled through Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak.

The U.S. confirmed three cases within 24 hours: two in Southern California and one in Maricopa County, Arizona. All the patients had recently been in Wuhan and are hospitalized. Their close contacts are being monitored for signs that they may be developing the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. Washington state and Chicago earlier had confirmed infections.

The U.S. has faced multiple pandemics before, of varying degrees of severity, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. We need to be preparing as if this is a pandemic, but I continue to hope that it is not.

In all, the CDC tested samples from just over 100 people, a group known as persons of investigation. While five were found to be infected, 25 tested negative. Results are pending for the others, officials said Sunday.

Officials told reporters Sunday that information on the new virus is limited even though the pathogen was identified relatively quickly, and its transmission is increasing. China banned wildlife trade across the country, prohibiting the shipping and sale of wild animals and quarantining breeding sites, with the government warning against the consumption of wild animals.

Chinese authorities on Sunday also said the virus isnt yet under control despite aggressive steps by authorities to limit movement for millions of people who live in cities near the center of the outbreak.

Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang said at briefing on Sunday that the city may see 1,000 more confirmed cases, citing a 45% estimated confirmed ratio for the 2,700 suspected patients under observation. Separately, Hong Kong officials announced the city would bar residents of Hubei Province, where Wuhan is based, from entering the former British colony after midnight local time on Sunday. The ban would also apply to anyone who had traveled to Hubei in the past 14 days. An exception would be made for Hong Kong residents, the statement said.

The U.S. consulate in Wuhan plans to evacuate some Americans in a charter flight on Tuesday, and other governments and companies have said they are prepared to help their people leave the city thats under lockdown. France is seeking approval to repatriate its citizens by mid-week, the health minister said Sunday. Japan also plans to evacuate nationals who wish to leave Wuhan, NHK said. More than 700 Japanese are believed to be in the city.

Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and South Korea also had more confirmed cases on Sunday, while Canada announced its first case on Saturday. Taiwan confirmed a fourth case of a woman who had visited Wuhan during the New Years holiday and then traveled in Europe before being diagnosed on her return on Jan. 25

In Hong Kong, authorities halted plans to establish a possible quarantine center in the northern New Territories district of Fanling after protests by nearby residents and local councilors. In France, the organizers of a Chinese New Year parade in Paris scheduled for Sunday canceled the event due to virus fears.

More than 1,600 people will be sent to Wuhan over the next two days to assist in efforts to contain the spread. The Chinese government is banning all outgoing overseas group tours as of Monday after suspending domestic group tours last week.

See also: Tracking the Virus Outbreaks Impact on Business and Travel

Scientists have been working to understand the virus better, how contagious it is and where it comes from. First detected in Wuhan last month, it has sparked fears that the disease could rival SARS, the pandemic that claimed almost 800 lives 17 years ago.

A clinical trial is underway using anti-HIV drugs ritonavir and lopinavir to treat cases of the new coronavirus, according to an article published in the Lancet medical journal Friday. Beijings municipal health commission said on Sunday the drugs made by AbbVie Inc. are part of the National Health Commissions latest treatment plan, and its hospitals have supplies of the medicine if needed.

The new virus has an incubation period of about two weeks before infected people start to show symptoms, which resemble a cold or flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus is believed to have emerged last month in a seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan, spreading from infected animals to humans, and police have raided wildlife markets across eastern China.

China has made strides in monitoring and detecting infectious diseases since SARS and tightened controls on the sale of exotic animals, considered nourishing in some parts of the country. Yet the markets, which offer conditions that can set off potentially deadly contagions, remain popular and a central part of life in many cities throughout Asia.

--With assistance from Jihye Lee, Baudelaire Mieu and Michelle Fay Cortez.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dong Lyu in Beijing at dlyu3@bloomberg.net;Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net;James Mayger in Beijing at jmayger@bloomberg.net;Benjamin Robertson in London at brobertson29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Jeff Sutherland

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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The banks have a very long charge sheet.

We bailed them out more than a decade ago, and they are not one bit grateful for it.

As a thanks for saving them they charge the second-highest variable mortgage rates in the eurozone.

Over the last few years they have also repaid us by imposing a raft of fees and charges for using our current accounts, they have closed branches and restricted the handling of cash in branches for customers.

Then there is the never-ending reduction in the interest paid on savings, to the point where most of the banks pay virtually nothing on deposits.

Overcharging of customers is a regular occurrence, while there are constant IT problems which mean people often have problems receiving payments into their accounts.

And we haven't even mentioned the grotesque tracker mortgage scandal that will cost them more than 1bn, and has affected at least 40,000 people, causing some to lose their homes.

Now the banks are selling off their ATM networks, in a move that can only be bad for consumers.

There are fears that charges and fees for withdrawing your cash are now on the way.

The largest independent operator of ATMs in this market, US giant Euronet, already charges tourists fees for accessing their money from Euronet machines.

Consumer groups are concerned that a dominant provider of ATMs, other than the banks, will impose fees and charges on bank customers here for accessing their cash.

This would be in addition to the existing charges imposed by banks for withdrawing our own cash from an ATM.

Bank of Ireland charges its customers 25c for cash withdrawals, with AIB charging 35c unless certain conditions are met to avail of fee-free banking.

The banks are selling up because the existing ATM portfolio is old and needs big investment. So old are the machines, with many of them dating from the 1990s, that they cannot accept important software updates. The only solution is to rip them out and replace them with new models.

Banks see the operation of the cash machines as costly, and they argue that the use of cash is decreasing in favour of internet shopping, contactless card use and mobile payments.

ATM robberies are not really a factor in the decision to sell off large chunks of the networks as most of the machines being sold are in shops, rather than on the walls of branches where they are vulnerable to criminals using JCBs to make off with them.

However, the sale of around 1,000 ATMs by the two main banks is also another sign of the depersonalising of banking in this country.

The message to customers from bankers seems to be: do your banking yourself by going online, use your phone more, get out your bank card for contactless purchases and forget using cash. And don't bother us.
T wo former national security advisers today urged Boris Johnson to defy Donald Trump and approve Chinese firm Huawei to help build Britains 5G network.

They spoke out ahead of a key meeting tomorrow of the National Security Council where ministers will discuss giving a restricted role to the tech giant that Washington claims poses a danger of espionage.

However, ex-foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt came out as hawkish on the decision, warning against dependency on the Chinese telecoms company.

Ministers and the heads of intelligence and security agencies will attempt to make a final decision tomorrow when they meet at a secure conference room in Whitehall. The Prime Minister recently indicated he has asked the United States for alternatives but received no suggestions.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant, who was national security adviser when Theresa Mays senior ministers came close to backing Huawei a year ago, said he would be surprised if President Trump got his way and the company was barred.

Jeremy Hunt, pictured with Boris Johnson, has warned against 'dependency' on Huawei / EPA

I think we have to take the advice of the experts, he told the BBCs Today, implying the heads of listening centre GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre would support a role.

If they believe the risk is minimal or can be mitigated, I dont see any reason why the decision last year should not be validated, he said.

Sir Mark said the Chinese firm was at the cutting edge of 5G technology and European rivals like Nokia and Ericsson arent as good or as cheap as Huawei.

Another former national security adviser Peter Ricketts said the risk was being blown out of proportion.

The Chinese firm was described as being at the 'cutting edge' of 5G technology / AFP via Getty Images

We already have lots of Huawei equipment on our 4G network which will stay, there is no US or UK 5G technology, so the only others are Ericsson and Nokia, both of whom are also made of Chinese components.

He added: I personally think we can find a solution which does allow them [Huawei] to have some role and which doesnt send the Americans off the other side of the diving board. Mr Hunt, who is campaigning to become a Commons committee chair, revealed on Today he has always had reservations: I always wondered whether it was wise to allow ourselves to become technologically dependent on another country ... for something as critical as 5G technology.

He said the UK too often gets an America first message when looking to the States for leadership.

I think the issue is what happens if we get to the situation where no Western companies that are really able to compete with Huawei going forward and, like it or not, in a decades time people will look back and say Was this really wise to take this decision in 2020 that has led to this dependency?

America has piled pressure on Britain to bar Huawei, even claiming that intelligence sharing is in danger. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted last night: The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G. He backed Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, a Huawei critic, saying: The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the calculation would be taken in terms of the UKs national interest.
Interagency collaboration identifies recommended improvements to the Draft EIS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Midas Gold Corp. (MAX:TSX / MDRPF:OTCQX, Midas Gold or the Company) today announced, on behalf of its subsidiary Midas Gold Idaho, Inc. (Midas Gold Idaho), the United States Forest Service (USFS) and other regulators working on the Stibnite Gold Project (Project) have, following internal reviews, identified a number of recommended improvements to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) that is being prepared by the USFS as the lead agency. These recommended improvements to the Draft EIS will ultimately support a complete record of decision (ROD) at the conclusion of the permitting process. In order to meet this objective, Midas Gold Idaho has been advised by the USFS that it will be allocating additional expertise and resources from the region and other parts of the USFS to complete the Draft EIS in a timely and comprehensive manner. Midas Gold wants to ensure that the USFS releases the best plan possible for the redevelopment and restoration of the historical Stibnite Mining District and continues to promptly respond to regulators requests, so the USFS can incorporate these improvements into the Draft EIS in a timely and efficient manner. The USFS advised that it will update the release date for the Draft EIS in early February 2020 and will provide the revised project schedule in its quarterly Schedule of Proposed Actions update to be published on April 1, 2020.

We are committed to ensuring that the public has access to the most accurate and complete information and analysis possible, including comprehensive discussion of the mitigation and restoration plans proposed by Midas Gold Idaho for this heavily impacted historic mine site. This will ensure that the public, agency, tribes and other stakeholder reviews and comments are well informed. A robust Draft EIS will allow the balance of the regulatory review to be completed in a timely and efficient manner, said Stephen Quin, President & CEO of Midas Gold Corp. Our team has always been committed to designing the best project possible and that is what needs to be reflected in the Draft EIS when it is released. Midas Gold Idaho expects to see the Draft EIS released by the USFS within two to three months, subject to the USFS, which is preparing the Draft EIS, and concurrence of the cooperating agencies.

Joint Review Process

Seven federal, state and local agencies involved in permitting the Project signed the Stibnite Joint Review Process Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2017, committing to work together to evaluate the Plan of Restoration and Operations (PRO) for the Stibnite Gold Project under NEPA. The MOU was designed so agencies could collaborate in the review and preparation of the EIS, meet the requirements of the public process and follow a mutually agreed upon schedule. Agency cooperation and collaboration remain key to the timeliness and completeness of the process.

Next Steps in the Regulatory Process

Once the Draft EIS is released, there will be a minimum of a 45-day public comment period as required by NEPA. Immediately following the public comment period, the USFS and cooperating agencies will respond to all comments and produce the final EIS and a draft ROD. Upon publication of the final EIS, there would be a period for objections and resolution before a final ROD is published. A positive final decision would allow Midas Gold Idaho to seek the issuance of the final permits that are dependent on the ROD being issued.

Early Actions for Environmental Improvements

The Stibnite Mining District has been heavily impacted by past mining activities over a span of almost 100 years. Most of the legacy impacts at site occurred during World War II, when the site was a critical supplier of strategic metals needed for the war effort, and well before environmental legislation existed. Notwithstanding that it has not operated on the site and is not responsible for the sites legacy impacts, Midas Gold Idahos plan of restoration and operations incorporates a comprehensive view of what it will take to restore and redevelop the site and leave behind a functional ecosystem fully and permanently supportive of enhanced fish populations and cleaner water.

For the past two years, Midas Gold Idaho began working with regulators to develop a framework under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) to address historical legacy impacts at the site. Midas Gold Idaho is proposing some cleanup actions that, upon approval, could take place as early as this year that are designed to immediately improve water quality in a number of areas on the site while longer-term actions are being evaluated through the NEPA process. Such early actions would take place under a voluntary administrative order on consent (AOC) under CERCLA that would afford legal certainty for Midas Gold Idaho in performing any approved actions. Pursuant to a process that was agreed to late last year, drafts of the AOC and work plans for such early actions are currently under review by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ), Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and USFS. An ancillary outcome of the AOC would be the opportunity to request the court for a stay, or to dismiss, the Clean Water Act litigation (see news release dated December 4, 2019). Under CERCLA and case law precedent, a Federal court has no jurisdiction over a pending Clean Water Act case where an AOC addresses both the same site and the same goals of the pending lawsuit.

Midas Gold Idaho continues to believe that the optimum solution for the site is for all stakeholders to work together to implement the comprehensive and permanent reclamation and restoration of the numerous legacy issues around the site, funded through cash flow from the redevelopment of the site as a modern mining operation. These early actions offer a concrete example of what such collaborative discussions can yield.

Stibnite Gold Project Permitting Background

A detailed presentation on the PRO can be found at www.midasgoldcorp.com . Details of previous news releases and technical studies can be found filed under Midas Golds profile on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ) or at www.midasgoldcorp.com .

For further information about Midas Gold Corp., please contact:

Liz Monger -- Manager, Investor Relations (t): 778.724.4704

(e): info@midasgoldcorp.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/midasgoldidaho

Twitter: @MidasIdaho

Website: www.midasgoldcorp.com

About Midas Gold and the Stibnite Gold Project

Midas Gold Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration and, if warranted, site restoration and development of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho that are encompassed by its Stibnite Gold Project.

Forward-Looking Information

Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, next steps and courses of action including actions to be taken by the USFS, EPA, IDEQ, the State of Idaho, tribes and other state, federal and local government agencies and regulatory bodies; the timing and procedure for (i) incorporation of improvements into the Draft EIS, (ii) the joint review process, (iii) the CERCLA AOC and work plans with the EPA; and the actions to be taken with respect to litigation under the Clean Water Act, including its potential dismissal pursuant to a completed AOC. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases or variations of such words and phrases or statements such as "anticipates", "targeted", "complete", "comprehensive", "defensible", "ensure", "potential" and "robust", in relation to certain actions, events or results "could", "may", "will", "would", be achieved. In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, Midas Gold has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, assumptions that the current objectives concerning the Stibnite Gold Project can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected; that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner; that the formal review process under NEPA (including a joint review process involving the USFS, the State of Idaho and other state, federal and local agencies and regulatory bodies) as well as the public comment period, EIS and ROD will proceed in a timely manner and as expected; that agency engagement, cooperation and collaboration as contemplated under the MOU will follow the mutually agreed upon schedule set out therein and proceed as expected and that all requisite information will be available in a timely manner. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Midas Gold to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, changes in laws and regulations and changes in the application of standards pursuant to existing laws and regulations which may result in unforeseen results in the review process under NEPA; uncertainty surrounding input to be received pursuant to the public comment period; risks related to dependence on key personnel; risks related to unforeseen delays in the review process including availability of personnel from the USFS, State of Idaho and other stated, federal and local agencies and regulatory bodies (including, but not limited to, future US government shutdowns); risks related to opposition to the Project including litigation involving the Nez Perce Tribe; risks related to the outcome of litigation and potential for delay of the Project, as well as those factors discussed in Midas Gold's public disclosure record. Although Midas Gold has attempted to identify important factors that could affect Midas Gold and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, Midas Gold does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events..




The city of Harrisburg will never forget its love affair with Stephen Reed. Thats for sure.

He may have left this good earth for good last week, but how could this city on the banks of the Susquehanna ever fail to remember or pay homage to a man who devoted his life to its service?

How could this city fail to remember a man, who by sheer grit, fortitude and vision, reshaped a sleepy, small town to demand respect as the seat of power for the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

How could this city fail to pay homage to a man once dubbed Mayor for Life, a title no one disputed for almost three decades.

Mayor Stephen Reed of Harrisburg, Pa. stands in his cabinet room in the City Hall Government Center in Harrisburg, Pa. Monday, Aug. 7, 1995. AP

People in Harrisburg and beyond will tell you, Reed was more than just the citys political leader. He was more than just a powerful bureaucrat or a shrewd politician. Reed lived and breathed the City of Harrisburg.

In many ways, Mayor Reed was the city of Harrisburg.

What is certain, Mayor Reed was in love with his city, and for almost three decades, his city loved him back.

For 28 years, Mayor Reed practically lived in his office on the second floor of the MLK Government Center. During his tenure, it was a smoky, dusty mini-museum often boasting Native American artifacts, Wild West treasures and faded photos of Harrisburgs bygone eras.

When Linda Thompson defeated Harrisburgs Mayor for Life and he was forced to depart his City Hall home in the cold, new year of 2010, his mark had been indelibly branded into the citys heart -- a mark that new paint, new carpets and a polished new mayoral desk would not erase.

From the long, stained, wooden table in the Mayors Cabinet room, to the shadow on the door that once held his official seal, Mayor Reeds mark on Harrisburgs history could not be erased.

Much already has been written of his legacy  both good and bad -- as has been written of every political figure who has spent decades in public service.

Much has been written of the monuments to Reeds vision -- the Hilton Hotel on Second Street, the Whitaker Center and the world-acclaimed Harrisburg University of Science and Technology on Market Street. These institutions now are anchors of Harrisburgs bustling downtown.

Mark this and mark it well: none of it would exist were it not for the good and bad of Stephen Reed.

And, yes, there was the bad  the misjudgments, misgivings and monumental mistakes that inevitably accompany people of monumental achievement and public service, especially when their power is unchecked. And it must be noted, Harrisburg allowed Mayor Reed to enjoy unchecked power for years.

Out of fear the mayors legacy might be sullied by too much attention to the mistakes and not enough to the successes, good friends have rushed to laud him as a man of vision, of drive, of energy and of commitment to his city. They were right to do so.

Their testimonies will most certainly be recorded in history as a fitting tribute to a devoted mayors legacy.

Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed, speaks during a press conference as PA Gov. Tom Ridge looks on, after the passage of the Education Empowerment Act, Wednesday, May 3, 2000, at the Main Capitol Building in Harrisburg. (GARY DWIGHT MILLER)Harrisburg Patriot-News

Steve put Harrisburg before himself, Gov. Tom Ridge wrote. His actions were motivated by a love for public service and for making his city a better place to live, work and play.

Harrisburg University President Eric Darr told PennLive after learning of the former Mayors death, Steve wasnt afraid to try to change the world . . . the city of Harrisburg wouldnt be what it is without him.

Harrisburg University is honoring former Mayor Stephen R. Reeds contributions to the schools founding with a display in the schools Market Street entryway. Steve Marroni Steve Marroni

Reed was bigger than the city, wrote PennLives Nancy Eshelman. He was the region  and then some.

Attorney Mark Schwartz, former Harrisburg City Council Solicitor, said he was one of the most creative leaders in the country during his heyday.

Reed became adept at leveraging debt, making a profit and then funneling the money back into projects for his beloved city, Schwartz said, a tactic that eventually became his downfall.

Whatever he did  good and bad -- friends and foes alike agree, it was out of love and devotion to the city of Harrisburg and its people.

Former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed's walks into the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Monday, January 23, 2017. Reed pleaded guilty in a Dauphin County courtroom Monday morning to stealing 20 historic artifacts bought by the city. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comHAR

This is most assuredly how Mayor Reed will be remembered in the annals of history. For despite the turmoil, heartbreak and pain of his last years, Mayor Reed remained a true and constant lover, never abandoning a city that was forced to abandon him.

Whatever Harrisburg is today, it has been forever shaped by its tempestuous love affair with Stephen Reed. And the city is unlikely to ever love anyone with such abandon again.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. You deserve the best. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday the plea of Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, against the dismissal of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.

The trial court has issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar -- at 6 am on February 1.

As the last-ditch attempt, Mukesh through his counsel on Tuesday sought an urgent hearing on his plea against dismissal of the mercy plea before the top court.

"If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this," a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said while assuring Mukesh's lawyer that his plea would be given due weightage by the mentioning officer.

"Execution case will be given top priority," said the bench, which also comprised Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

Later in the day, the mentioning officer considered the urgency of Mukesh's plea and ordered its listing before a three-judge bench comprising Justices R Bhanunathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna at 12.30 pm on Tuesday.

Mukesh had moved the mercy plea after the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence. The apex court had also rejected the curative petition of another death row convict Akshay, 31.

The other two convicts, Pawan, 25, and Vinay, are yet to file curative petitions before the Supreme Court.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (the fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

Six people -- Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were named as accused. The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.

The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began.

The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.

He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20 years old.

Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013.

On Saturday, a Delhi court said that no further directions were required on a plea by the lawyer of the death row convicts alleging that prison authorities were not handing over certain documents required to file mercy and curative petitions, and disposed of the petition.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain said the convicts' lawyer can take pictures of the relevant documents, diary and paintings from the Tihar jail authorities.

The court had noted that the jail authorities had already complied with the request made by the convicts by supplying the documents whatever was lying with them.

Delhi court dismisses plea of convict's father

A Delhi court Monday dismissed a plea filed by the father of one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, challenging the court's order rejecting his complaint questioning the credibility of the sole witness in the case.

Judge A K Jain dismissed the appeal filed by Heera Lal Gupta, father of Pawan Kumar Gupta, saying he appear to be 'desperate and mala fide'.

The court however took into account that his son is one step away from the gallows and did not impose any cost on him.

It said: "The complaint was filed before the trial court for initiation of action for perjury, in view of the tweets of newspaper editor, against the eye witness in the case, however trial has already completed. The complaint therefore rightly dismissed by the trial court via order dated January 6, 2020.

"The acts of complainant who is the father of convict Pawan Kumar Gupta appear desperate and mala fide, however when his son is one step away from the gallows, no costs are required to be imposed. The present revision petition has no merits."

During the hearing, the additional public prosecutor, appearing for the police, told the court that

Pawan was trying to stall the proceedings of execution by moving such petitions through his father without any locus.

Advocate Seema Kushwaha, appearing for the rape victim's mother, said: "The victim is running pillar to post for justice and convicts are inventing one or other procedure to delay the execution."

Advocate A P Singh, appearing for Pawan's father, claimed that Pawan was a victim of media trial and proper hearings were not provided to him.

The sole eyewitness, a friend of the 23-year-old victim, was accompanying her in the bus when the gruesome incident took place and he had also sustained injuries.

A magistrate court had on January 6 dismissed Heera Lal's complaint seeking a first information report against the sole witness in the matter for allegedly giving interviews to various news channels after charging money.

Pawan's father had challenged the magistrate's order in the sessions court.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
The group of parents, students and advocates who sued the state last summer alleging unconstitutional disparities in public school funding said they're dropping that lawsuit, describing themselves as "pleased" with the Legislature's education finance overhaul and Gov. Charlie Baker's plan to implement the first year of it.

In June -- months before the Senate or the House took up a bill rewriting the funding formula with a focus on costs associated with special education, teaching low-income students and English learners, and employee health care -- the group from Chelsea, Chicopee, Fall River, Haverhill, Lowell, Orange and Springfield filed a Supreme Judicial Court lawsuit against state education officials.

Since then, both legislative branches unanimously passed and Baker signed a bill that commits the state to $1.5 billion in new K-12 education funding over seven years. Next year's budget will be the first to contain the new money, and the $44.6 billion fiscal 2021 spending plan Baker filed last week includes $355 million associated with the law.

The law, known as the Student Opportunity Act, did not include a revenue source or otherwise specify how to pay for its requirements. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Mussotte v. Peyser, said they plan to "closely monitor" implementation to ensure that lawmakers are allocating appropriate levels of funding.

"If they do not live up to their constitutional obligations, we will be ready to return to court on behalf of the children of Massachusetts," Juan Cofield, president of the New England area conference of the NAACP, said in a statement.

Denise DaPonte Mussotte, a Fall River mother whose children were plaintiffs in the case, said the funding called for in the law will be "transformative" for Massachusetts students, "as long as it reaches the classroom."

"But legislative leaders have already predicted a difficult road ahead in fully funding this promise," she said in a statement. "We will keep a close watch on Beacon Hill over the next seven years to make sure lawmakers fulfill their pledge to provide every student with a high-quality education no matter where they live, their family income, the color of their skin, the language they speak at home or the services they need to succeed."

The lawsuit was developed by the Council for Fair School Finance, which includes Lawyers for Civil Rights, the New England Area Conference of the NAACP, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Citizens for Public Schools and education unions. The council was also involved in the McDuffy v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Education case that resulted in the 1993 ruling that the state had failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide an adequate education to all students.
Overwhelming concern regarding the spread of the deadly outbreak of the coronavirus in China has morphed into a legitimate global concern about the repercussions that go far beyond the health of individuals. Although that obviously is the primary concern, many analysts believe that this deadly outbreak could grow larger and affect not only communities but also economies worldwide. The net result of this hypothesis is causing tremendous selling pressure across the board in global equities.

As reported by MarketWatch, Over the weekend the coronavirus illness that had apparently originated in China has rapidly spread, killing over 80 of its citizens, with nearly 8500 cases not reported in China. Several Chinese cities are under quarantine.

More alarming is the fact that several cases have been recently reported in other parts of the world including the United States. The medical community now believes that the illness is more easily contractable than first thought. The current concern is that this outbreak could become a pandemic. If the disease spreads as quickly as some believe possible the increasing spread of the virus would most certainly affect the worlds economic growth.

This outbreak could not have occurred at a more sensitive time in that this week is Chinas most important holiday, Chinese lunar new year.

As of 3:50 PM EST gold futures are substantially higher currently trading at $1587.50 which is a net gain of $9.30 (+0.595). Todays gains are following in the footsteps of higher pricing which was prevalent last week.

On a technical basis the key level that gold prices surged above was $1565, which was a resistance area based upon last years high. Once this critical price point was breached a combination of short covering and buying the breakout ensued thus taking gold pricing substantially higher to a high today of $1580.40.

As you know we have been speaking about a model that maintains that this current rally is simply a counter wave B in an A, B, C correction. The price action last week made it overwhelmingly clear that it is prudent to a reevaluate our current projections and models based upon some deep and serious fundamental events that have recently surfaced. As such while I believe that we are still in a corrective period, it is likely that this this current corrective trend could unfold as a zigzag A, B, C simply labeled as an irregular zigzag pattern. The distinction between this and a standard zigzag pattern is that in the irregular pattern the B wave trades above the high of the A wave.

It is quite possible that if the fundamental events continue to become more critical we could see this type of zigzag correction emerge. With that in mind we now have a revised upside target of $1612, just shy of this years high. It is for that reason that today we recommended the initiation of long positions in the April contract of gold futures with an upside target of $1612, long positions should be placed as a good till canceled limit order. We also suggested that the stop as well as the upside limit order be coupled together as an (OCO one cancers the other) good till canceled order.

For those who would like more information, simply use this link.

Wishing you as always, good trading,
Jewish leaders have warned Australians must not ignore the return and rise of anti-Semitism at commemorations marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, as the grandson of one of the death camps survivors revealed his own anguish as the target of online abuse.

The grim warning was tempered with tales of hope and survival at a ceremony in Sydney on Monday, where a 99-year-old Auschwitz survivor grinned as he spoke of his ambition to outlive the last of the Nazis.

Olga Horak lighting the candle at the 75th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz in Sydney. Credit:Isabella Porras

Similar events were held all over the world on what is expected to be the last major anniversary of the death camps liberation to be attended en masse by living survivors.

Around 20 elderly holocaust survivors were clapped as they rose to their feet in front of the 300 people who gathered at the Sydney Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Spokeswoman of the foreign ministry of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan issued a comment on the implementation period following Brexit (the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union).

Armenpress presents the MFA spokespersons full comment:

In accordance with the revised Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration agreed at the European Council on 17 October 2019, the UK and the EU concurred that existing international agreements would continue to apply for the duration of the transition period from the entry into force of the Withdrawal Agreement until the end of December 2020.

The Government of the Republic of Armenia fully supports this continuity and is ready to grant reciprocal rights to the UK during the implementation period, having in mind the need to ensure stability and certainty in relations with the UK until the end of 2020.
Bushfires or, The Last Place Govt Allocates Funds

The unprecedented and catastrophic fires across Eastern Australia must be seen as the result of the failure of successive federal and state governments to prioritise the prevention and management of predictable bushfire events. Climate change has contributed to a worsening risk but has not created the risk of the ongoing disaster in Australia. The added and serious issue of climate change should not be allowed to distract us from the failed choices of capitalist governments to prioritise the needs of the people and the environment.

The ongoing catastrophic loss of human life and animal life, the devastation of environments and loss of property and infrastructure, its scale and prolonged length reflects a negative cost-benefit gamble by both LNP and ALP governments across Australia. The cost of preparing for and defending the people, communities, and environments has been judged to be less than the cost caused by bushfires and can be offset by our governments reliance on volunteers and ad hoc bushfire funds managed by charities.

The lack of readiness in a country where natural disasters, including large scale fires, are well known is viewed as collateral damage. Prevention and protection services are underfunded, and as a result, the reliance on volunteers and charity donations is the governments accepted model to avoid responsibility, to actively and adequately prepare and defend Australians and Australia.

The extent of the fires and the prolonged length of the bushfire season has led to a tragic loss of lives, homes, and communities and widespread hazardous levels of air quality. There has been massive devastation of natural and built environments, including wildlife and national forests. The impact on individuals, families, communities will be lifelong. We cannot completely foresee the impact on our unique Australian fauna and flora, though its harsh reality has devastated heritage forests and now threatens species viability into the future.

Yet the battle to fight the fires has been left up to a select group of firefighters and volunteers for weeks and months on end. Amid this national disaster, governments have resisted calls to pay volunteer firefighters, further revealing their anti-people priorities. Public outcry is now leading to some limited action accompanied by self-serving publicity for our politicians facing a huge public outrage.

In defiance of reason and any sense of social responsibility, the federal government failed to call in the defence forces to help fight the fires until recently. In sharp contradiction to this slow response our defence forces were quickly made available to the US in the aggressive intimidation of Iran and the Iranian people. The only conclusion Australians could make is that our defence forces were too busy helping the US overseas fight its economic and political wars. The demand to Fight the Fires, Not Iran encapsulated this stark reality.

The Federal governments late response to the massive public outcry at underfunding of National Park and firefighting services is a cynical attempt to minimise electoral backlash. The people have been left to deal with raging fires on their own with minimal assistance. The capitalist ethic is in full view and once again has been found wanting. It says  look after yourself! Meanwhile, our governments are dancing to the drum of the mining companies and monopolies whose interests they serve in the face of irrefutable evidence that they are on the wrong road.

In mid-January, the Fijian and Papua New Guinea governments added their support for the Australian people affected by the fires. They announced the setting up of donation funds so their people could contribute to the recovery of Australians affected by the catastrophic fires. A generous act of solidarity but why do Australians need to accept the help of developing nations in times of national crisis? Our governments continue to pour billions of tax dollars to subsidise large monopolies who go on to pay little or no tax but cant meet their obligations to the Australian people in their time of need.

The same governments give bipartisan support to US foreign policy which drains our Budgets and drags Australia into rolling wars against the peoples of other nations. The US has made Australia and its other allies spend a minimum two per cent of their GDPs on their defence budgets. This figure will likely be increased in line with similar demands on NATO countries to raise their military spending to between two and three per cent. No Australian government has questioned this enormous drag on our economy or opposed its pro-imperialist political intent. Instead, this insane level of defence spending has the bipartisan support of LNP and ALP and the allocation of these funds continue to be quarantined from annual Federal Budgets.

We cannot ignore the sharp contrast of what could and would happen under socialism faced with a national crisis. Profit-driven exploitation of fossil fuels would not be possible. Full employment would go hand in hand with the planned transition to widespread renewable energy sources. Preparation and allocation of resources to minimise the impact of natural disasters would use up to date science and technology.

Socialism will always put the needs of the people first.
[January 27, 2020] For Second Year, "MRI" and "Root Canal" Top Consumer Website Healthcare Cost Lookup Searches

NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second year in a row, users of the free, award-winning healthcare cost transparency website fairhealthconsumer.org made "MRI" the top searched medical term and "root canal" the top searched dental term when using the site's cost lookup tools. The year-end statistics for 2019, like last year's statistics for 2018, shed light into what types of people are using the site and why. The statistics also show how a healthcare cost transparency site can attract a broad range of users. FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "We are pleased that FAIR Health Consumer continues to be of vital assistance to consumers across the country who are navigating the complexities of the healthcare system. Learning more about the users of our cost lookup tools and educational resources helps us in our ongoing efforts to refine and expand the website." Searching for Cost Information

Attracting hundreds of thousands of users a year, FAIR Health Consumer includes medical and dental cost lookup tools that allow users to search for typical costs of healthcare procedures in their geographic areas. In 2019, the top five medical terms searched with the medical cost lookup tool were: MRI; Knee; Dermatological; Colonoscopy; and Physical therapy. The list was similar to the 2018 list, except that in 2019 "CT scan" dropped from second place out of the top five, while "knee" moved into the top five, into second place, and "dermatological" and "colonoscopy" switched places. In 2018 and 2019, the top five dental terms searched were the same: Root canal; Crown; Implant; Orthodontic; and Cleaning. p>Gender and Age





In both 2018 and 2019, women outnumbered men among FAIR Health Consumer users. In 2019, 57 percent of users were female, 43 percent male. As in 2018, adults across the age spectrum used the website in 2019, with the largest age group in both years being individuals aged 25-34. This was the age breakdown in 2019:

18-24: 6.6 percent;

25-34: 27.8 percent;

35-44: 21.4 percent;

45-54: 16.8 percent;

55-64: 14.7 percent; and

65+: 12.7 percent. Insurance Status

As in 2018, all types of insurance status were represented among FAIR Health Consumer users in 2019, including out of network (31.6 percent), in network (28.5 percent) and uninsured (12.8 percent). Where Are Our Users?

The top 10 states from which visits to FAIR Health Consumer originated in 2019 were: New York ; California ; Texas ; Oregon ; Florida ; New Jersey ; Illinois ; Georgia ; Pennsylvania ; and Virginia . The top eight states were the same as in 2018, but that year Virginia was in 9th place and Ohio in 10th. In both years, all four US census regions (Northeast, South, Midwest and West) were represented. Who Are Our Users?

FAIR Health Consumer users in 2019 showed signs of varied interests. Their number included value shoppers/bargain hunters, cooking enthusiasts, avid news readers, avid investors, health and fitness buffs, travel buffs and mobile enthusiasts/early technology adopters. Most Frequently Visited Resources

In addition to its cost lookup tools, FAIR Health Consumer has educational materials, including articles, videos and a section of resources with helpful links to outside organizations. The most frequently visited resources were those on costs, state resources, locating providers, insurance appeals and dental. For an infographic with these statistics, click here. Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 30 billion claim records contributed by payors and administrators who insure or process claims for private insurance plans covering more than 150 million individuals. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health houses data on Medicare Advantage enrollees in its private claims data repository. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org. Contact:

Dean Sicoli

Chief Communications Officer

FAIR Health

646-664-1645

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/for-second-year-mri-and-root-canal-top-consumer-website-healthcare-cost-lookup-searches-300992414.html SOURCE FAIR Health

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NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Glass Packaging Market 2020-2024

The analyst has been monitoring the global glass packaging market and it is poised to grow by USD 12.25 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period. Our reports on glass packaging market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05842313/?utm_source=PRN



The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by increasing demand for pharmaceutical packaging. In addition, growing investments and focus on expanding production capabilities is anticipated to boost the growth of the glass packaging market as well.



Market Segmentation

The global glass packaging market is segmented as below:

Application

 Food and beverage packaging

 Personal care packaging

 Pharmaceutical packaging

 Others



Geographic segmentation

 North America

 APAC

 Europe

 South America

 MEA



Key Trends for glass packaging market growth

This study identifies growing investments and focus on expanding production capabilities as the prime reasons driving the glass packaging market growth during the next few years.

Prominent vendors in glass packaging market

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the glass packaging market, including some of the vendors such as Amcor Plc, Ardagh Group SA, BA Glass BV, China Glass Holding Ltd., Gerresheimer AG, Nihon Yamamura Glass Co. Ltd., Owens-Illinois Inc., Verallia SAS, Vetropack Holding Ltd. and Vidrala SA.

The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05842313/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

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San Diego podiatrist Dr. John Chisholm recalls the jolt some of his patients felt in 2009 when Medi-Cal, the government-funded health insurance in California for low-income people, eliminated coverage for podiatry care and several other benefits for adults due to a massive budget shortfall engendered by the Great Recession.

Chisholm calls that cut "the Big One," and for some of his low-income patients, the consequences were catastrophic. Many of them had diabetes and could no longer afford the foot care so vital for people with the disease, which can constrict blood flow and cause serious nerve damage in the feet. Those patients stopped coming to see him.

He would see them again only when he was called to the emergency room to perform amputations on those whose disease raged unchecked.

"For so many of the working poor, losing this coverage was absolutely devastating," Chisholm said. "It resulted in people having to choose between the basic necessities of life and going to the doctor. I saw a lot of hurt."

This month, Medi-Cal restored podiatry and several other adult health benefits eliminated more than a decade ago, including eyeglasses and speech therapy, as well as hearing exams, hearing devices and other related services. The state's 2019-20 budget provides $17.4 million to pay for the coverage.

About 13 million Californians  including 7 million adults  are covered by Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid.

"Millions now have access to these types of health care they didn't have before," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Sacramento-based Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group. "And we've seen that services such as podiatry, audiology and speech therapy are clearly medically necessary."

Some health activists wonder why it took the state so long to restore the benefits. "A lot of these recession-related cuts came on the backs of the poor. Yet when the economic recovery came, we didn't see their restoration," said Linda Nguy, a policy advocate at the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "The low-income people who needed the medical services the most were the first to see them cut and the last to have them returned."

Anthony Cava, a spokesperson for California's Department of Health Care Services, said the recently reinstated benefits are just the latest in an incremental restoration of care for the state's low-income adult population. Acupuncture was brought back in 2016, and full dental benefits were restored in 2018, he said.

Raquel Serrano, a 67-year-old Fresno farm laborer, will become one of the many to take advantage of Medi-Cal's resurrected benefits. Serrano learned she had diabetes a decade ago but signed up for Medi-Cal only recently. For years, she drank sugary soda with every meal and hot chocolate with bread at bedtime.

"My parents didn't have the education about diabetes," said Serrano's son, Jose, the eldest of six children. "Soda was something we had on the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We drank soda, not water." Now, he said, his mother will be able to see a podiatrist, get eyeglasses and fix her damaged teeth. "We think this will add years to her life," he said.

Proponents of the restored benefits say the state will save money by providing foot care for people with diabetes, such as Serrano. A 2017 analysis by UCLA researchers estimated that the use of preventive podiatric services saved Medi-Cal up to $97 million in 2014, attributable to avoided hospital admissions and amputations.

Lower-limb amputations increased across California by a staggering 31% from 2010 to 2016, according to state hospital data reported by inewsource, a San Diego-based nonprofit investigative journalism organization.

Chisholm attributes the rise, in part, to the elimination of podiatric benefits for Medi-Cal patients. "We can't say for sure," he said, "but California suffered an avalanche of amputations after these cuts. Those are compelling numbers."

Chisholm, who runs two podiatry offices in the working-class San Diego suburbs of National City and Chula Vista, said one elderly Latina woman who had been coming to him for years was unable to pay out-of-pocket after Medi-Cal stopped covering her treatments in 2009, so he offered to treat her for free.

But for some reason, whether shame or some bureaucratic confusion, she stopped coming anyway, he said. Chisholm lost track of her, until one day he was summoned to the emergency room to perform a below-the-knee amputation. She was the patient.

Though the benefits are now restored, many activists wonder if patients who need to see podiatrists, audiologists or speech therapists will be able to get appointments.

"Many of these providers have not worked with Medi-Cal for years, so it could be a challenge to accommodate all these patients," said Nadereh Pourat, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Chisholm said California has recently reduced the amount of paperwork required by health care providers to be reimbursed for services they offer to Medi-Cal patients. "It used to be a bureaucratic nightmare, including paperwork and documentation, to get the government to reimburse you for even the simplest procedures," he said. "But that has improved, along with the rates for reimbursements."

Many California doctors have long declined to treat patients enrolled in Medi-Cal because of the program's low payment rates, but the state has raised those rates  in some cases quite substantially  in each of the past two years.

But the latest restoration of Medi-Cal benefits is so new that many doctors and patients still don't fully understand it.

Native Spanish speakers face an additional complication, said J. Luis Bautista, who runs two Central Valley clinics that serve primarily Latino patients, many of whom are on Medi-Cal. "What patients hear on the news and read on the internet is different. They're not sure which services are covered and which aren't," Bautista said.

Chisholm said that despite efforts by his office and podiatrist trade groups to spread the word about the reinstated benefits, it has been slow to reach the public  and even some health care workers. Just recently, he overheard a receptionist in one of his offices turn away a Medi-Cal patient who had walked in seeking an appointment.

"I heard her tell the man, 'No, we don't take Medi-Cal,' and I walked out of my office and said, 'Yes, we do,'" Chisholm recalled. "This woman had been to all the meetings, she'd gotten the memos, it just didn't click. But we got the patient in."

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney Genral of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have only until January 27, 2020 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Prudential Financial, Inc. (PRU), if they purchased the Companys securities between February 15, 2019 and August 2, 2019, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of Prudential and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-pru/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action by overseeing lead counsel with the goal of obtaining a fair and just resolution, you must request this position by application to the Court by January 27, 2020 .

About the Lawsuit

Prudential and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) the assumptions used by the Company in establishing reserves failed to account for adversely developing mortality experience in its Individual Life business segment; (ii) the Companys reserves were inadequate to satisfy its future policy benefits liabilities; (iii) the Company had materially understated its liabilities and overstated net income as a result of flawed assumptions in calculating mortality experience; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, the Companys financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Story continues

The case is City of Warren Police And Fire Retirement System v. Prudential Financial, Inc. et al., 19-cv-20839.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nations premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.



Contact:
A grant provided to Dyson has been repaid to the government after the vacuum cleaner manufacturer terminated its plans to build an electric car, it has emerged.

The 7.8million grant was handed to the British manufacturer in 2016 as the prospect of developing and building a plug-in passenger car was expected to bring an engineering and employment boom to the firm's home town of Wiltshire.

However, with the electric vehicle project officially scrapped in October 2019, the grant has been recouped by the government.

Ditched: Dyson confirmed in October 2019 that it had pulled its plans to release an electric passenger car range, despite revealing patents for a crossover vehicle earlier that year

The grant had been allocated to Dyson as part of the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan - a 100 billion investment fund to boost the nation's infrastructure between 2016 and 2021.

The brand had originally been allocated up to 17.5 million, though this was later reduced to 7.8 million.

At the time the funding was allocated, the Government said it hoped Dyson's ambitious bid to enter the automotive market would 'secure 174m of investment in the area, creating over 500 jobs, mostly in engineering'.

Sir James Dyson - a prominent Brexit supporter - sparked controversy in 2018 when he revealed that production of the electric cars, which was part of a 2.5 billion project, would be relocated to Singapore, along with the firm's headquarters.

Dyson's car project received funding from the UK Government as it was believed new R&D headquarters at Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire would boost jobs in the town

However, in October he confirmed the company had scrapped its bold plan to make a Tesla-rivalling electric car as it would not be commercially viable.

The famous British inventor claimed at the time that his engineers had developed a 'fantastic electric car', but that it would not be able to make money.

'Dyson will continue its 2.5 billion investment programme into new technology and grow the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology,' he said in a statement last year.

Following the announcement of the vehicle project being abandoned, Dyson stated the grant provided by the government could still be used to fund R&D and education departments as it looked to develop solid state battery technology.

Sir James Dyson - a prominent advocate for Brexit - said his company had scrapped its bold plan to make a Tesla-rivalling electric car as it would not be commercially viable

This wasn't to be, as - following conversations with the Department for Business - a decision was made to repay the amount in full.

It is believed that Dyson - which has received no other grants for the development of its electric cars - was entitled to keep some of the money under the terms of the grant, but decided to pay it back in its entirety, reports say.

A spokesman for the company told The Telegraph: 'When our automotive project closed, we contacted the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and repaid the money.'
The British teenager who was convicted of making up a story about a brutal gang rape in Cyprus has spoken out about the harrowing assault.

Back in the UK after being given a suspended sentence by a Cypriot court she described her ordeal at the hands of 12 Israelis, aged between 16 and 19, at a hotel in Ayia Napa.

She said the 12 men attacked her like animals as one perpetrator pinned her down on a dirty bed while others lined up to take advantage of her.

The teenager, now 19, said: 'I thought if I don't get out of here now, I'm going to die.

'I don't know how many of the 12 raped me. You don't count, you couldn't count.

'They were lining up, excited, talking and shouting in Hebrew. I was trying to fight them off but I just couldn't.

'They were like a pack of animals  a pack of wolves.'

A 19-year-old woman from Derbyshire at Larnaca Airport before heading back to the UK. She was handed a suspended sentenced at the Famagusta District Court in Cyprus

The woman, from Derbyshire, told the Sun she went to Cyprus to work and holiday but ended up suffering an ordeal.

She says she was forced to sign a confession saying she made up the attack that was dictated to her by a male police officer.

The teenager has now filed an appeal to try and get her conviction overturned.

She said: 'I told the truth. The fight has just begun.'

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was raped after striking up a 'normal holiday romance' with a young Israeli.

They went back to his 'grotty' hotel room in the early hours of the morning.

She recalled: 'I knew he was leaving the next day so we started kissing. About five minutes later, I heard the sound of the room door opening and turned around.

'He grabbed me and threw me on the bed.

'He pinned my shoulders down by kneeling on them  he was well-built, strong  I couldn't move. From under his knees, I turned and saw the light growing from the doorway.'

The 12 other attackers entered the room, she said: 'Some of them grabbed my ankles, some held down my knees and they ripped my bodysuit.

'I was trying to cross my legs all the time and every time I did, Sam would get angry. He grabbed one of my knees himself at one point. Then they took it in turns.'

Shimon Yusufov, 19, has been named as the Israeli who met the British student, also 19, while on holiday in Cyprus last July

For 20 minutes she was assaulted by the men, she said, before she was able to escape and tell police about the rape however they accused her of lying.

She was questioned for eight hours in an empty police station, without a lawyer, before she was pressured into signing a confession.

The woman had issues with the phrasing but the police officer 'just lost it and shouted, 'No! You write what I tell you to write!'

She said: 'I knew straight away I'd done something really, really wrong by signing it.

'I was panicking by now and I told a social worker in the police station what had happened. But she just said, 'There's nothing you can do now'.'

However, the teenager still had faith that a judge would recognise that the statement was written under extreme pressure.

Instead she was put through another six-month ordeal, first being put in prison where she lost two-and-a-half stone in weight, then being under house arrest.

In her prison diary, the victim described her nightmares where she relived the attack and the numbing drugs given to her by doctors.

One passage read: 'At night I lie awake, sleep will not take me.

'I can see their hands grabbing me, touching me. It makes me sick.'

Israeli tourists, accused of raping a 19-year-old British girl in Ayia Napa, arriving at the court premises with their faces covered in the eastern Cypriot resort of Paralimni in July

After five weeks behind bars she was granted bail but her family had to raise 20,000 euros to secure her release.

Her family also had to shell out thousands in living costs to support her while she was unable to leave the country, and the teen paid tribute to the many generous Brits at home to donated to her crowdfunding campaign.

Her dreams of becoming an anti-terror police officer, having got into university to study criminology, have been shattered by the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffers from.

Some days the teenager sleeps up to 20 hours, a symptom of trauma.

Top psychologist Dr Christine Tizzard is treating her but has warned that recovery could take years.

Even though she has been through so much the woman is adjusting to life back home, she said: 'I'm getting to know my friends again. We've been out and I'm thinking about my future.

'I'd like to go back to college maybe but I just need time to breathe.

'The most I can manage is going to the gym with friends and spending time with my collie Kai. I can't think further ahead than that yet.'
The West Bengal assembly on Monday passed and adopted a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that the Trinamoool Congress (TMC) government presented in the house.

Rajasthan, Kerala and Punjab are the other non-BJP ruled states that have passed a resolution against the Citizenship Act.

Loud slogans were raised intermittently against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah during discussions on the resolution in the state assembly. Lawmakers from the non-BJP parties called the CAA anti-people, divisive and discriminatory.

This protest is not only of minorities but of all. I thank my Hindu brothers for leading this protest from the forefront. In Bengal, we wont allow CAA, NPR, and NRC. We will fight peacefully, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the state assembly.

The resolution was opposed by BJP legislator Swadhin Kumar Sarkar, legislator from Baishnabnagar, but his voice got drowned in anti-Centre slogans by the ruling party members.

The Congress and Left parties supported the government and voted for the resolution although leaders from these parties criticised the Trinamool for not allowing them to present a similar resolution earlier.

Banerjee was the last to speak on the resolution. She said her government will never allow citizenship screening.

The amended law act grants Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi, Jain communities who allegedly fled religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
OFX Daily Market News





Posted by OFX



AUD  Australian Dollar

The Australian Dollar has held above the 68c mark vs the Greenback despite some weak numbers coming out of Australias January PMI figures. The manufacturing side saw a print of 49.1 vs an expected 49.2 and the Flash Composite Output Index was down from 49.6 to 48.6. The weakness has been driven by the recent bushfires and fundamental weakness in the Australian economy, associated with consumer constraint in the residential construction downturn and the reluctance of business to invest. Businesses have been disrupted by the bushfires through the supply chains and also through tourism. Its not all doom and gloom and expectations for future businesses are at encouraging levels. Meanwhile, the pair has also been affected by a stronger US dollar on Friday as well as concerns over the coronavirus in China.

The AUD/USD opens this morning at 0.6824 and with Australia observing a Public and Bank holiday moves are likely to be limited. We can expect to see initial support at 0.6800 on the downside. Resistance sits at 0.6880 followed by 0.6920.

Key Movers

The US Dollar Index which measures the strength of the Greenback against a basket of six major currencies rose on Friday as data showed ongoing strength in the U.S. services sector offset a continued slowing in manufacturing to a three-year low. The IHS Markit flash purchasing managers index for manufacturing in fell to a 3-month low in January, while the services PMI strengthened to highest level since last March.

GBP/USD pulled back from two-week tops and dropped to a low of 1.3056 failing to capitalize on upbeat PMI data with speculation of Bank of England cutting rates prompted some selling. Markets are still pricing in a 45% of the BoE cutting rates this week. Meanwhile, EUR/USD hit seven-week lows after data revealed Eurozone growth was left muted at the start of 2020 with Januarys PMI data expanding at the same pace that was seen in December 2019.

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Expected Ranges

AUD/USD: 0.6800  0.6880 

AUD/EUR: 0.6160  0.6240 

GBP/AUD: 1.8900  1.9350 

AUD/NZD: 1.0270  1.0440 

AUD/CAD: 0.8920  0.9040 





Posted by OFX

The post Australian Dollar holds above 68c ahead of Australia Day Holiday appeared first on .
Any integrity left?

What is the correct term for a trial where evidence and witnesses are not allowed, and members of the jury have not only announced in advance how they intend to vote but are actively coordinating with the defense team?

In I, Claudius, by Robert Graves, Claudius asked Caesar if there were any men of integrity left in the Senate. He answered, Not that I know of.

If there are senators with integrity left in Washington, D.C., I think I know which side of the aisle theyre not on.

Wayne Haymes, Leon Valley

Proof  a soft coup

In May, Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said, Im concerned that if we dont impeach this president, he will get re-elected.

That should tell you all you need to know about our liberal friends and their attempt at a soft coup.

I hope the voters will remember these revealing words in November.

Jimmie Jones, New Braunfels

Boohoo for USAA

Re: Workers bonus at USAA dips a bit to 14.5%, Front Page, Wednesday:

I have been crying crocodile tears for those poor USAA employees whose bonus was only 14.5 percent  a worker who earns $50,000 (some of the lowest paid) will only get $7,250. Looks like the food stamp line will get longer. Compare that to the average person on Social Security who will get between $120 and $300 per year from their 1.6 percent increase.

As a member of USAA, my homeowners and car insurance went up 16 percent  their money managers must have miscalculated. My membership has expired, and I will no longer support an organization that arbitrarily raises insurance prices to its members to pay for their losses each time there is an unexpected, catastrophic occurrence.

Walt Banks

On ExpressNews.com: USAAs annual employee bonus dips to 14.5% for 2019
The year 2019 featured significant targets and milestones  both for the five-year Socio-economic Development Plan (2016-2020) and the 10-year Socio-economic Development Strategy (2011-2020).

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh

In order to mark these major milestones, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh brings exposure to the major orientations for industry and trade in 2020, setting the limelight on export-import, administrative reforms, and integration to make headways towards the set goals.

Vietnam's export-import turnover hit a record US$517 billion last year, the fourth consecutive year that Vietnam posted an export surplus. What measures has the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) taken to help set the record?

The $517 billion export-import record last year has put Vietnam among the top 30 nations with the best export performance. If we look at the 13 per cent export growth during the whole period, Vietnam is among the top performers with high and stable development.

Significantly, not only did two-way trade value set a new high, the quality of growth has also improved remarkably. The trade surplus of $10 billion is also quite significant. The export record also attests to the effective implementation of the 13 ongoing free trade agreements (FTAs) Vietnam has signed with the international community.

Vietnamese-made products have made forays into over 200 markets around the world, with the trade value to the markets with which Vietnam has signed FTAs often reaching double-digit growth.

This export-import record is the result of diverse factors, one being the enactment of the prime ministers Decision No.2471/QD-TTg enacted in 2011, approving Vietnams export-import strategy for 2011-2020, with vision towards 2030.

The implementation of major solutions  ranging from strengthening production and export capacity to applying diverse measures for market development and restructuring of state-owned enterprises  has enabled us to follow the roadmap and even outperform the goals.

The noteworthy achievements in 2019 are setting expectations high for 2020. How will the MoIT make good on the 2020 export-import plan?

The National Assembly has approved a resolution on implementing the 2020 Socio-economic Development Plan, setting a 7 per cent growth target in the countrys total export value against 2019, and less than 3 per cent in trade deficit. This year is forecast to be fraught with difficulties for export-import activities due to global uncertainties.

In this context, to maintain the previous years growth momentum and achieve the targets in industry and trade, a raft of measures will be deployed, focusing on availing ourselves of FTA opportunities to find new export markets.

The MoIT will push up brand building in key export markets and those with potential while accelerating administrative reforms. It will also promote online public services related to such reforms to support businesses effectively. A new highlight for the sector is the fight against product origin fraud.

The MoIT will focus on implementing relevant regulations and strengthening state management to combat origin fraud to ensure compliance with the international community for the sustainable development of foreign trade.

After all, it is important to note that it is the business community that conducts export and import activities. Therefore, besides state support, the business community needs to scale up efforts to achieve a breakthrough in development.

Last year, the MoIT was doing a smart job with administrative reforms, significantly easing business. Particularly, it was one of the first to connect with the national public services portal. What are the development milestones in this regard?

Right from the inception, the MoIT has taken drastic measures to implement the prime ministers guidelines on improving the business climate and national competitiveness, as well as increasing support for businesses leveraging administrative reforms and e-government.

With an innovative mindset, over the past years, the MoIT has been constantly recommending the government to curtail business conditions and procedures, sending dispatches urging authorised agencies to hold initiatives to simplify administrative procedures and business conditions, from there easing business operations.

Looking back, in March 2019, the MoIT issued Decision No.485/QD-BCT on forming a compiling board, and an editorial group to amend legal documents on investment business conditions in the fields under MoIT management (like automobiles, power, chemicals, food, minerals, gas, spirits, and tobacco).

The MoIT also proposed the government to enact a decree to amend and supplement related decrees on investment conditions under our management.

Simultaneously, the MoIT has been pushing up the implementation of the e-government model and applying IT to all management activities to boost management efficiency.

We have strengthened co-operation with the Government Office and relevant agencies to ensure the smooth operation of online public services connected with the National Single Window and the ASEAN Single Window.

The MoIT is one of the first government authorities to be technically connected with the National Public Services Portal. As of now, all 292 administrative procedures under our management are being deployed, at least from Level 2 online public services.

We have 44 online public services at Level 4, 122 services at Level 3, 11 services connected to the National Single Window and two service groups connected to the National Public Services Portal.

In fact, curtailed business conditions and simplified administrative procedures have contributed to creating a pro-business environment that benefits all economic sectors in the country.

Notably, the sweeping changes in the mindset and working style of staff members in the sector have had spillover effects across the board while encouraging the engagement of other sectors, ministries, and local authorities. The results got praises from the government, other sectors and branches, domestic and foreign organisations, the business community, and local people.

During implementation, further amendments need to be made to fit the realities. The MoIT is always a progress-minded and considerate listener, wishing to gradually perfect the regulatory framework and striving to bring the utmost benefits to people and businesses.

This year, the MoIT continues its reform efforts, focusing on regulatory and administrative reforms as well as the application of IT. Notably, the satisfaction of people and businesses will become the metric to gauge the success of reforms.

A hallmark in Vietnam's integration efforts in 2019 is the implementation of the landmark Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). How significant are these agreements to Vietnam's economic growth?

The negotiation and implementation of the agreements attest to Vietnams efforts to push up international integration in the current complex and unpredictable geo-political context. New-generation FTAs will help Vietnam integrate more deeply into the global economy with faster tax reductions, helping to diversify trade relations to bring bigger benefits to consumers.

The enforcement of the EVFTA, paired with the implementation of the CPTPP and the signing of several other FTAs in the future such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is expected to bring Vietnam certain advantages, laying a foundation for Vietnams future economic growth.

First, this will help Vietnam diversify economic and trade relations as well as export-import markets, and avoiding over-reliance on particular markets. It will also accelerate exports and contribute to creating more jobs and aid economic restructuring and the renewal of the growth model.

Second, local businesses will have a better chance to boost economic efficiency through upscaling, raising productivity, and lowering production costs to boost competitiveness.

Third, this will help formulate alliances between Vietnamese businesses and their peers in the ASEAN, the EU, and the CPTPP member countries through labour arrangements, the exchange of goods and intermediary services, from there generating more opportunities for Vietnamese businesses.

In the nutshell, successful negotiations and signing FTAs with big trading partners help elevate Vietnams image in the international arena, earning it a new position and status.

What are the tangible benefits associated with Vietnamese-ASEAN economic cooperation, and what policy priorities the two sides will have to promote economic development in 2020 when Vietnam holds ASEAN chairmanship?

During the 24-year journey of engaging the ASEAN and the ASEAN Free Trade Area, Vietnam has gained valuable experience, particularly in implementing its integration commitments. In 1996, the two-way trade value only stood at $5.9 billion, but it jumped more than nine-fold to $56.3 billion in 2018.

Although we incurred some trade surplus towards the ASEAN, it is acceptable due to the current development gap among ASEAN member states. Compared to the initial stage when Vietnam was only beginning its international integration journey, there are huge improvements.

The role of ASEAN chair in 2020 requires us to stage a clear and consistent viewpoint in both external relations and other factors related to Vietnams development targets and strategies, not only in the next five years but also the forthcoming decade and more.

Hence, the theme of ASEAN 2020 Cohesive and Responsive recommended by Vietnam drew praises from other members, particularly the ASEAN Secretariat, as it truly reflects the actual demand of Vietnam and other ASEAN members in todays fast-changing regional and global situation. VIR
January 23 witnessed two events on the occasion of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackerays birth anniversary. One event was organised by the Shiv Sena, where Sena workers felicitated Uddhav Thackeray who became chief minister of Maharashtra about two months ago. The other event was organised by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), where party chief Raj Thackeray indicated that his party would be changing its political agenda by adopting Hindutva.

The irony cannot be missed: One brother is the chief minister of the state whos running a three-party coalition, while his cousin and challenger to Thackerays legacy is now struggling for existence.

The power tussle between the two brothers  son and nephew of the Sena founder  is on since 2003 when Uddhav was appointed as working president of the Sena and as such, the political heir to late Balasaheb Thackeray. Uddhavs elevation came as a surprise to the party cadre who looked at Raj as a natural heir to senior Thackeray.

With his elevation, Uddhav tried to give a moderate look to the Shiv Sena through his Mee Mumbaikar campaign to reach out to non-Marathi voters in the city and state.

It was at the same time that Rajs followers in the party resorted to violent agitation against candidates from north India appearing in the city for Railway Recruitment Board examination. It scuttled the Mee Mumbaikar campaign.

The bitter tussle between the brothers led to Raj walking out of the Shiv Sena in 2006 to form his own party MNS. Raj not only continued with the anti-migrant agenda, in fact intensified it and attracted Senas voters. This was visible in 2009 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections as the Sena- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance suffered defeats. In Assembly elections, Rajs MNS won 13 seats and foiled the Sena-BJP alliances bid to wrest power from the Congress-NCP combine, which had been in power for a decade.

With emergence of Modi factor close to 2014, Raj lost his loyal voters to the BJP and suffered defeats in the Assembly election. Last years Assembly election was no different. Even though he appealed to the voters to make MNS a strong opposition party in the state, his party tally in the Assembly remained one. Struggling for political survival, he is now indicating his shift to Hindutva agenda.

Once again, his shift comes at a time when his cousin Uddhav is in the process of adopting a moderate agenda. He is heading a government propped by parties such as the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who believe in secular agenda.

According to Sena insiders, the party top brass is working on a plan to reach out to farmers and rural population to expand the partys reach across Maharashtra.

Can Raj scuttle Uddhavs plans again by adopting hardline Hindu agenda? Will he be able to attract traditional Sena voters again? Will Raj force Uddhav to drop his plans for a moderate look to his party as well as his plans to reach out to a larger audience across Maharashtra?

And will the three-party Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state face trouble if Uddhav decides to stick to the saffron agenda?

As things stand today, Uddhav has scored over his brother. He ensured that his party remained intact and also grabbed the chance to lead the state. His challenge now will be to run the government successfully and thwart any attempts to force him to change his plans for his party.

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The starting gate is filling up as Canadas Conservatives set about choosing a new leader.

But as the long dash to victory gets underway its clear that leadership contenders are soon going to have to reckon with angry Conservatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And that could tie the party in knots for a long time to come.

Its becoming increasingly clear  after all, 65 per cent of Canadians voted for parties with much stronger climate change platforms than the Conservatives  that if the CPC is ever to retake the reins of government they have to have an appealing and credible plan to significantly reduce carbon emissions  they have to come to grips with the climate crisis.

But the strongest opposition to any significant moves in that direction is going to come from Conservative voters in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And there are lots of them. So many that the Conservative candidates, especially in Alberta, won by astonishing margins of 40,000, even 50,000, votes.

But those voters are also likely to oppose any climate change policies that threaten the standing of the oil and natural gas industry because they still see it as the best option for economic prosperity.

Certainly, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, once a Harper government stalwart, has made it clear that acknowledging climate change as a serious threat that requires serious action is not high on his agenda.

He prefers cheerleading for the oil and natural gas industry as though that will magically bring back the boom times.

Never mind that Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England and soon-to-be UN special envoy for climate change and finance, said during a recent BBC television interview that unless firms wake up to what he termed the climate crisis, many of their assets would become worthless.

If we were to burn all those oil and gas reserves, theres no way we would meet carbon budget. Up to 80 per cent of coal assets will be stranded, and up to half of developed oil reserves.

Two weeks later, Laurence Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the worlds largest asset manager, announced that the company would begin to exit investments that present a high sustainability-related risk  such as thermal coal. Fink also said Blackrock would introduce new funds that would shun fossil fuel-oriented stocks.

  climate change is almost invariably the top issue that clients around the world raise with BlackRock, Fink wrote in a letter to Blackrock money managers.

And yet, a few days later a group called Alberta Proud attracted an audience of 700 to a conference in downtown Calgary during which the keynote speaker, the infamous Conrad Black, received enthusiastic applause when he said the current level of alarm about climate change was not justified.

Its hard to tell who is more deluded, Black, or the people who invited him to be the keynote speaker.

Tom Flanagan, the Calgary-based political scientist who worked alongside Stephen Harper when he was building what became the current Conservative party, has endorsed Peter MacKay for the leadership because he is pro-pipelines and oil and gas development.

The endorsement made no mention of climate change policies. Didnt even come close to suggesting how Conservatives might cross that bridge or at least meet somewhere in the middle.

So far, Marilyn Gladu is the only one of the candidates, and the many prospective candidates who dropped out, who has spoken openly about recognizing the threat of climate change.

MacKay formally announced his candidacy last Saturday without once mentioning climate change, never mind climate crisis.

Are the candidates going to vigorously oppose the Liberals carbon tax as Kenney, Scott Moe in Saskatchewan, and Doug Ford in Ontario have? Or will they suggest we move along to another topic because opposition to carbon taxes is as retrograde as opposition to same sex marriage once was?

Are they prepared to talk about tough federal regulations to reduce carbon emissions? Do they have any bright ideas about how the federal government can help workers in Alberta and Saskatchewan and other parts of the country who will be negatively affected by the decline in fossil fuel investment?

Or are they going to toe the same line as Jason Kenney and his supporters in Alberta.

That may be the key to winning the Conservative leadership. But it will probably doom the Conservatives in the next federal election.

GS Gillian Steward is a Calgary-based writer and freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: is a Calgary-based writer and freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @GillianSteward

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Flights between Belgrade and Pristina are expected to commence this summer season after authorities from Serbia and Kosovo signed a US brokered Belgrade - Pristina Special Air Route (BPSAR) Letter of Intent earlier this week. Details of the new service, which is to be operated by Eurowings, have emerged, and will be implemented with the support of all sides. The main sticking points for the resumption of flights in the past, such as air traffic oversight and taxes, have been addressed in the document. The Letter of Intent states, Agreements on Freedom of Movement and IBM [Integrated Boarder Management] Agreement reached within the Belgrade - Pristina dialogue shall apply to the passengers, mail and cargo carried on this air route. The Civil Aviation Authority in Kosovo and the Airport of Pristina confirm that the operation to/from Belgrade/Pristina and vice versa shall operate without any additional taxes, fees and charges for a service on a BPSAR. In any case, tax, fees and charges shall not be discriminative.





Under the agreement between the two sides, passengers flying point to point from Belgrade to Pristina and vice versa will not use their passport for travel. Instead, they will use their National Identity Cards. Furthermore, Kosovo passport holders will be able to transfer through Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport to onward destinations using their passports. The Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority has confirmed that flightpaths used prior to the 1999 conflict will be utilised again, meaning there will be no need to fly over Macedonian airspace before entering either territory. The Letter of Intent, signed between relevant authorities from both Serbia and Kosovo states, KFOR [Kosovo Force] retains the authority in the airspace over Kosovo pursuant to internationally recognised agreements on NATOs mission in Kosovo. Pursuant to the Agreement and Arrangement, the Civil Aviation Authority in Kosovo and KFOR will harmonise and sign the Coordination Procedures on the execution of BPSAR flight. At all times, the Civil Aviation Authority in Kosovo, the Airport of Pristina, and KFOR will ensure safe flight operation, including landings, of the BPSAR.





Eurowings has been given the freedom to determine fares, select codeshare partners and the equipment it will use for the flights. The filing of codeshares with a carrier with the Lufthansa Group on the respective service shall be granted at any time, provided that all regulatory conditions have been met. Eurowings, or a carrier of the Lufthansa Group, have the right to use services from wetlease partners for the operation of the respective services, with prior consent of the said authorities, the document states. It adds, Eurowings and carriers of the Lufthansa Group shall have full authority to sell tickets, define its passenger fares and cargo, as well as mail rates only for the respective services between Pristina and Belgrade and vice versa.





The two sides are tomorrow expected to commence talks on the resumption of a railway line between Belgrade and Pirstina as well. Eurowings boasts a base in Pristina and handled 343.701 passengers on flights to and from the city last year. On the other hand, the low cost carrier, which currently has no services to Belgrade, will commence three weekly flights from Stuttgart to the Serbian capital on May 21.
Hundreds of Holocaust survivors gathered together in southern Poland on Monday to honor those who died under Nazi control at Auschwitz.

To mark the 75-year anniversary of Auschwitz being liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945, a commemoration was held at the site of the former concentration camp, which was built in March 1942 in the village of Brzezinka and occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II.

An estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed at Auschwitz I and nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau, in gas chambers or from systematic starvation, forced labor, disease, and medical experiments.

On Monday, approximately 200 survivors and their families showed up to the memorial, led by Polands President Andrzej Duda and the head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, NBC News reported.

The survivors  hailing from the United States, Israel, Australia, South America, Russia and Slovenia, among other areas  paid tribute to the victims by laying wreaths at the execution wall, where thousands were shot by Nazis, according to the outlet.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe at the commemoration | WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty

Survivors laying wreaths | JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP via Getty

Photos taken at the scene showed survivors overcome with emotion as they remembered those who lost their lives and reflected on their own inhumane experiences in the execution camp.

Other powerful images showed survivors and their families walking through the very gates that held them hostage for so long. The German phrase, Arbeit Macht Frei, which translates to Work sets you free, can still be seen written above the doors.

Its been three generations since that day, the 27th of January 1945, when a few thousand prisoners, victims of cruelty, exhausted by slave-work, hunger, and diseases, lived to see liberation by the soldiers of the Red Army, Duda told the crowd in a speech, according to NBC News.

A Holocaust survivor at the memorial | JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP via Getty

Survivors walking through the Auschwitz gates | Omar Marques/Getty

Many of the days visitors wore blue and white scarves as a nod to the striped uniforms they were forced to wear as prisoners, the BBC reported.

Story continues

Auschwitz to me is a cemetery, and I am going to honor my people, Sally Jassy of Queens, New York, told NBC News.

RELATED VIDEO: Woman Reunites with Holocaust Survivors She Helped Save

Jassy was born in Lodz, Poland, and survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, though she lost her mother, father, brother, two sisters and dozens of cousins to the former.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall also commemorated the 75th anniversary, attending the solemn service at the infamous death camp. Leading the U.K. delegation for the ceremony alongside Lord Eric Pickles, the U.K. Post-Holocaust Envoy, the duchess joined survivors and 40 officials from across Europe for the service.

The Duchess of Cornwall meets Holocaust survivors Hannah Lewis and Renee Salt following #Auschwitz75 commemorations in Poland today.#HolocaustMemorialDay #HMD2020 pic.twitter.com/rfJ4zKzTT0  Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) January 27, 2020

In addition to the visits at Auschwitz, there were other events held to commemorate the anniversary around the globe, including a meeting in Jerusalem last Tuesday of dozens of world leaders, like Prince Charles.

Prince Charles and Israel's President Reuven Rivlin | Mark Neyman / GPO / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty

The magnitude of the genocide that was visited upon the Jewish people defies comprehension and can make those of us who live in the shadow of those indescribable events feel hopelessly inadequate, Charles said in a powerful speech at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

RELATED: Auschwitz Liberation 75 Years Later: Survivors Reveal How They Cheated Death

Duda did not attend the event in Jerusalem over a disagreement with Russia over Polands role in triggering World War II, NBC News reported.

Lauder, however, argued that the mission was not about politics but about Holocaust survivors, and reportedly called on world leaders to put up a greater fight against anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in Paris, and added 175 names to the Shoah Memorial, a wall of remembrance honoring the tens of thousands of French Jews taken to concentration camps, the BBC reported.

It has to be remembered so that it should never happen again. It never should be forgotten. It is so important, Auschwitz survivor Ruth Scheuer Siegler, 93, recently told PEOPLE. I have three children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. That is my dividend. Hitler didnt succeed.
Key equity benchmarks extended losses and hit fresh intraday low in afternoon trade. At 13:40 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 282.97 points or 0.68% at 41,330.22. The Nifty 50 index lost 76.15 points or 0.62% at 12,172.10.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.08%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.42%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, shares 1,082 rose and 1,270 shares fell. A total of 161 shares were unchanged.

Economy

The divestment of Air India restarted on Monday (27 January) with the government seeking to sell 100% of its equity share capital in the state-owned airline, including Air India's shareholding interest of 100% in AI Express and 50% in Air India SATS Airport Services. The sale will be implemented through the open bidding route, with 17 March being set as the deadline for interested parties to submit their bids. Those interested in bidding for Air India must have a net worth of Rs 3,500 crore. Management control of the airline would also be transferred to the successful bidder.

Q3 Results:

Housing Development Finance Corporation (down 1.35%), IIFL Finance (up 0.44%), Interglobe Aviation (down 0.69%), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (down 0.52%), United Spirits (up 0.05%) and Wockhardt (up 5.85%) are set to announce their Q3 December 2019 earnings today, 27 January 2020.

Top Gainers & Losers:

Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.37%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.39%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.14%), Ultratech Cement (up 1.13%) and Asian Paints (up 0.77%) advanced.

Tata Steel (down 3.20%), Vedanta (down 2.89%), Hindalco Industries (down 2.48%), HDFC Bank (down 2.11%) and IndusInd Bank (down 1.87%) declined.

Buzzing Segment:

Pharmaceutical stocks witnessed a strong buying support. Aurobindo Pharma (up 2.62%), Piramal Enterprises (up 1.91%) and Lupin (up 1.51%) gained.

Biocon was up 0.92%. The US drug regulator issued a Form 483 with five observations for the company's API manufacturing facility.

Dr.Reddy's Laboratories jumped 4.04% after the company recorded consolidated net loss of Rs 569.70 crore in Q3 December 2019 compared with net profit of Rs 485.20 crore in Q3 December 2018. Consolidated revenues rose 14% to 4383.80 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018.

EBITDA rose 24% to Rs 1074 crore year-on-year (YoY). EBITDA margin stood at 24.5% in Q3 December 2019, higher than 22.5% in Q3 December 2018. The result was declared on Monday, 27 January 2020.

The company reported pre-tax loss of Rs 527.40 crore in Q3 December 2019 compared with pre-tax profit of Rs 580.50 crore in Q3 December 2018, primarily on account of impairment of intangible assets. Excluding impairment, profit before tax was at Rs 790 crore.

Cipla rose 1.31% after drug regulator, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted a cGMP inspection at Cipla's API manufacturing facility in Bommasandra, Bangalore from 20 January 2020 to 24 January 2020. The inspection ended with 4 observations which were procedural in nature and none of which were repeat or related to data integrity.

Stocks in Spotlight:

ICICI Bank rose 1.68%. The bank reported 158.36% rise in net profit to Rs 4,146.46 crore on 17.23% rise in total income to Rs 23,638.26 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 43,453.86 crore as on 31 December 2019 as against Rs 45,638.79 crore as on 30 September 2019 and Rs 51,591.47 crore as on 31 December 2018. Net interest margin stood at 3.77% during the quarter. Net non-performing asset (NPA) ratio decreased from 2.58% at 31 December 2018 to 1.49% at 31 December 2019.

JSW Steel declined 3.73%. The steel manufacturing major reported 87% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 211 crore on a 12.1% fall in net sales to Rs 17,416 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. Crude steel production during the quarter stood at 4.02 million tonnes, up by 5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) (Q2 September 2019 production was impacted by severe monsoon, planned shutdown and weak demand). Crude steel production was impacted due to extended monsoon which impacted operations at its both Dolvi (Maharashtra) and Vijaynagar (Karnataka) plants.

Axis Bank gained 0.90%. The bank proposes to raise funds by issuing Senior Unsecured Redeemable non-convertible debentures (Series-5) of Rs 10 lakh each for cash at par aggregating upto Rs 5,000 crore.

Yes Bank (down 0.58%) is banned from trading in NSE's F&O segment for today after the security crossed 95% of market wide position limit.

Foreign Markets:

European shares opened lower. Most Asian markets were shut for the Lunar New Year holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped over 2% after the Chinese authorities warned of Coronavirus spreading further with contagion like threat internally in China.

US stocks skid on Friday on concern the spread of China's coronavirus may disrupt travel & trade and slow global economic growth.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Japanese citizen was detained in December in Vladivostok during an attempt to obtain secret data about Russias military potential, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.



"On December 25, 2019, a Japanese citizen was detained in Vladivostok by the Russian law enforcement during an attempt to obtain secret data about Russias military potential in the Far East," the ministry said.



According to the ministry, he was given 72 hours to leave Russia. "On the next day, the Japanese national, who was in Russia on a journalist visa, left for his homeland," the statement informs.



Moscow has lodged a protest to Japanese diplomats over actions by a citizen of Japan who tried to gather secret data on Russias military potential, the Foreign Ministry said.



"A protest was lodged to Japanese diplomats accredited in Russia over the inadmissibility of these actions. The Foreign Ministry of Russia summoned a counsellor-envoy of the Japanese embassy in Moscow and handed him a note of protest over the unlawful acts by the Japanese citizen," TASS cited the ministry as saying.
Two people familiar with the book, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the project, confirmed that it details Trump tying aid to the desire for Biden probes and details a number of conversations about Ukraine that he had with Trump and key advisers, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. They said Bolton is ready to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.
The Ukrainian jetliner stood ready for takeoff at Iran's main international airport bound for Kyiv, packed with passengers and so many bags on one of the cheapest routes to the West that the ground crew rushed to unload some luggage to make its weight for flight.

Nearly an hour late, Tehran air traffic controllers finally cleared Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 for takeoff, carrying a newlywed couple, Iranian students bound for universities in Canada and others seeking a better life abroad.

The plane would be shot down only minutes later by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Up until the moment soldiers fired missiles at the Boeing 737-800, Iran had faced decisive moments on how to respond to the world around it amid tensions with the U.S.

Those decisions ultimately doomed the flight and all 176 people aboard, and also led to the public being lied to" for days afterward, in the words of the country's foreign minister.

What Iran decided then and later also reflects beyond the immediate tragedy, offering a glimpse inside of the country more than 40 years after its Islamic Revolution.

The downing of the jetliner highlights the limits of the civilian arm of Iran's government against the absolute power held by the nation's Shiite theocracy and the paramilitary forces beneath it. The anger that followed shows the choices Iranians make in the country's sanctions-crushed economy and the unabated rage still lurking on its streets.

How Iran responds as a whole will affect a coming year that appears poised for further tensions. Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers hangs on a single thread, one that permits international inspection of its atomic sites and is already threatened.

President Donald Trump, facing an impeachment trial and an election campaign, promises to impose ever-harsher sanctions. Meanwhile, more economic protests in Iran remain a threat as well.

The regime understands that Iranian society is a powder keg right now and that if it's not careful, it'll lose control of the situation really quickly, said Ariane Tabatabai, an Iran analyst at the U.S.-based RAND Corp. So, it's using every tool at its disposal to avoid losing control.

Even before Trump entered the White House, he campaigned on a promise to tear up Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That agreement saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Reached under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the deal kept Iran's atomic program under constant surveillance by international inspectors and unable to produce enough material for a nuclear bomb if Tehran sought one.

Trump, however, unilaterally withdrew America from the arrangement in May 2018, saying it didn't go far enough in limiting Iran's program, its ballistic missile stockpile and its influence through proxies in the wider Middle East.

Iran waited a year before beginning to break limits of the accord, each move slightly narrowing the estimated year it would need to have enough fissionable material for a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists it doesn't seek an atomic bomb, although the U.N. nuclear watchdog says evidence shows the Islamic Republic once had an organized weapons program that it ultimately abandoned in 2003.

Through the summer, tensions steadily rose with mysterious oil tanker attacks that the U.S. blamed on Iranian mines, as well as drone and missile assaults on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Iran denied involvement in those assaults, although it did acknowledge shooting down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seizing tankers.

Then came the December death of a U.S. contractor in Iraq, following by an American airstrike on Iranian-backed forces allegedly behind the attack. Iranian-backed militias violently protested and attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The crisis reached a fever pitch Jan. 3 as a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who oversaw Iran's proxies in the region. Trump later threatened to bomb 52 sites in Iran, including those important to the Iranian culture" if Tehran retaliated.

Iran vowed revenge, and early on Jan. 8 it launched ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq housing American troops, causing injuries but no fatalities among soldiers there.

Iranian officials informally warned journalists and others that any American retaliation would bring missile strikes on Dubai and Haifa in Israel.

Yet commercial planes kept flying through Iranian airspace. Before the Ukrainian jetliner, nine other flights left Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. The airplane was delayed nearly an hour to remove luggage from the overweight flight, investigators say.

Some have questioned how the flight could even be allowed to take off, as the Guard insists it suggested commercial aircraft be grounded amid the tensions.

But Iran isn't alone, as the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight No. 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 shows. Pakistan remains the sole recent country to close its airspace over the risk of war as it did in 2019 amid tensions with India.

Countries cannot be relied upon to close risky airspace, nor issue damaging guidance on their own territories, wrote Mark Zee, the founder of the air-safety organization OPSGROUP. Governments have more pressing motivations: Trade, tourism, commerce. This will not change. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 took off at 6:12 a.m. Its flaming wreckage would fall from the sky only six minutes later.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The youngest of the Monaco royals showed she knows how to entertain a crowd as the principality celebrate its patron saint today.

Princess Gabriella, five, stole the show when she stepped out on the balcony of Prince's Palace with her twin brother Prince Jacques and their parents, Princess Charlene, 42, and Prince Albert, 61.

The young royal, who was wearing a stylish grey coat and a pair of sunglasses, seemed intent on showing the crowd of royal fans - and her parents - a small doughnut she held tightly in her hand.

Mother Charlene, who cut a stylish figure in a floral skirt and navy stilettos, couldn't hide her amusement at her daughter's antics.

Saint Devote's Day is a national holiday in Monaco and celebrates its patron saint, a Christian martyr who was killed and tortured for her faith in the 4th century.

Princess Gabriella stole the show this morning as the royal family greeted crowds from the Prince's Palace in Monaco, during the national holiday for Saint Devote, Monaco's patron sainte (pictured: Princess Charlene, 42, Princess Gabriella and her twin brother Prince Jacques with their father Prince Albert, 61)

The young royals, both wearing sunglasses, charmed the crowd with their waves during the Saint Devote Ceremony. Prince Jacques had brought toys with him, including a toy snail he put on the balcony (pictured)

Both twins charmed the crowds with their vigorous waves. While Princess Gabriella held on to her tiny doughnut, her brother Jacques was playing with small toys, including a small replica of a snail he casually laid to rest on the balcony itself and a toy blue whale.

Earlier today Princess Charlene and Prince Albert headed to the cathedral of Monaco for the traditional service.

Charlene cultivated her brand of effortless glamour in a navy dress with hues of red and blush pink she wore under a fitted navy coat. She also beautiful graphic scarf in hues of red, blue and white.

The flawless princess sported natural makeup, with a dash of mascara and lip gloss. She kept things simple with a neat bun and pearl earrings.

Princess Gabriella put on a very animated display as her parents tried to keep a straight face during the ceremony

Food and toys. The young royals had a lot to show the crowds during today's official event (pictured)

Prince Albert and Charlene sported bemused expressions as their children enjoyed the day of celebrations

She completed the stylish look with matching navy blue swede gloves and heels.

Her husband Prince Albert coordinated his own outfit with a navy blue suit, crisp white shirt and red tie.

Saint Devote's Day is a national holiday in Monaco in remembrance of their patron saint, a Christian martyr who was killed and tortured for her faith in the 4th century.

They also helped set light to a fishing boat - a tradition that's been going strong since the reign of Prince Louis II in 1942.

Both twins graced the crowd with a warm royal wave while their parents showed perfect decorum

Flawless Charlene wrapped up in a short fitted navy coat and a stylish red, white and blue scarf

Princess Charlene cultivated her brand of effortless glamour in a navy dress with hues of red and blush pink she wore under a fitted navy coat (pictured)

Charlene put on a very stylish display for the day of ceremony with matching swede gloves and heels in navy blue

According to legend, Christians saved Saint Devote's body and cast it off in a boat to Africa in the hope that once there she would receive a Christian burial.

A dove then flew from her mouth and guided the boat to Monaco where it ran aground.

The Saint is believed to have helped the principality in times of peril ever since.

In line with the legend, Prince Albert and Princess Charlene take part every year in an ceremonial ritual remembering the Saint's final journey.

They are given torches which they use to set fire to a fisherman's boat like the one that the Saint's body was carried on. This will take place later in the day.
IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a newly formed joint partnership, the Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC) and the Building Industry Association of San Diego (BIASD) have announced that they will be joining together for the first time to co-host the 2020 Building Industry Show.

As one of the most widely-attended homebuilding industry trade shows on the West Coast, the 2020 Building Industry Show will be held October 6  9 at the renowned Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California.

"We're extremely excited to be partnering with BIASD in co-hosting the 2020 Building Industry Show," said BIASC CEO Jeff Montejano. "By combining the resources of two of the largest homebuilder associations in the nation, this year's Building Industry Show promises to be a can't miss event."

After undergoing an extensive overhaul to its traditional format, the annual Building Industry Show has witnessed remarkable growth with attendance more than doubling over the last two years.

The Building Industry Show has also hosted an unprecedented lineup of distinguished speakers, including former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson.

"We're thrilled to be joining BIASC in co-hosting the 2020 Building Industry Show," commented BIASD President & CEO Borre Winckel. "With emerging technologies and an ever-changing regulatory climate, California's homebuilding industry is evolving at an extraordinary pace. This year's show will provide attendees with the opportunity to hear from and interact with some of the foremost experts, leaders, and decision-makers from both government and private industry."

Additional information regarding the 2020 Building Industry Show will be announced in the coming months.

For more information on the Building Industry Association of Southern California, visit www.biasc.org .

For more information on the Building Industry Association of San Diego, visit www.biasandiego.org .

About BIASC

The Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC) is the voice of the region's building industry, with four chapters offering localized services to building professionals from Ventura to the southern tip of Orange County. Throughout its 90-year history, the association has served its builder and associate members by anticipating, protecting, and promoting their common interests through its many programs, services, councils, and committees. www.biasc.org

About BIASD

The Building Industry Association (BIA) of San Diego exists to represent the many companies that plan, design, and build the many places where San Diegans live, work, and play. Members of the BIA generate thousands of jobs in the greater San Diego region and together are one of the most important driving forces in our local economy. With nearly 800 company members and all of their thousands of employees, the BIA is a major voice supporting the efforts to build all types of residential and commercial projects. www.biasandiego.org

About BIASC New Homes Showcase

New Homes Showcase is the first non-profit sponsored online sales directory in the United States to connect homebuyers to builders. This new marketing model replaces the typical sales middlemen with a reputable non-profit organization empowering better purchase decisions for home buyers while increasing online traffic for builders resulting in increased sales. For more information on the BIASC New Homes Showcase and the Building Industry Association of Southern California, visit https://showcase.biasc.org

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U.S. HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson was a keynote speaker at the 2019 Building Industry Show.

SOURCE Building Industry Association of Southern California, Inc.

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http://www.biasc.org


By Pete Schroeder and Karen Freifeld

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told a then-top aide in August he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Trump's statement was described in an unpublished manuscript by former White House national security adviser John Bolton, the

Times said in a report that could raise pressure on Republicans to call Bolton as a witness in Trump's Senate impeachment trial.

The report, which did not quote the manuscript but cited multiple people describing Bolton's account, may undercut a key element of Trump's defense: that there was no quid pro quo when he asked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden in a July phone call.

Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to oppose Trump in the Nov. 3 election. His son worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while Biden was vice president.

In a statement, an attorney for Bolton suggested that the Times account was accurate and said he had submitted Bolton's book manuscript to the National Security Council on Dec. 30, a standard security review for classified information.

"It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript," the attorney, Charles Cooper, said.

The report drew Democratic demands that the Republican-led Senate, which is conducting a trial on whether to remove Trump from office after his Dec. 18 impeachment by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, call Bolton as a witness.

Democrats need to win over at least four Senate Republicans to approve the calling of witnesses. Bolton said this month he was willing to testify in the trial if a Senate subpoena was issued.

Story continues

Lawyers for Trump are scheduled on Monday to resume their defense in the impeachment trial stemming from his dealings with Ukraine. A showdown vote on calling witnesses could loom later in the week.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and calls the impeachment process a sham.

"I never told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump said in a Twitter post. "In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."

The White House, which with Senate Republican leaders has resisted calling witnesses, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the New York Times report, nor did Jay Sekulow, who is helping lead the Republican president's defense.

'NO DEFENSIBLE REASON TO WAIT'

"There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the Presidents defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump," the seven Democratic House "managers" prosecuting the case against Trump in the Senate said in a statement.

"There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published, when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision Senators must now make  whether to convict the President of impeachable offenses," it added.

Democrats have said they are eager to hear testimony by Bolton, who was involved, as his own lawyer previously said, in "many relevant meetings and conversations" involving issues at the heart of Trumps impeachment.

Bolton left his post in September after disagreements with the president. Trump said he fired him. Bolton said he quit.

Its clearly damaging, Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who was the only witness called by Republicans in the House impeachment proceedings, said of the Times report. It will fuel demands to hear from Bolton and other witnesses.

But he said the timing  just before the first full day of argument by the White House team  fueled suspicion it was part of an organized effort and that the senators may not react as the leakers intended.

While the Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office, he is seeking to limit political damage to his re-election bid.

LONG-STANDING GRIEVANCES

The House impeached Trump on charges of abusing the powers of his office by asking Ukraine to investigate Biden and of obstructing a congressional inquiry into his conduct.

Trump's defense argued neither impeachment charge constituted a crime or impeachable offense, that he was within his rights as president to make decisions about foreign policy and what information to give Congress, and that the House pursued a flawed and one-sided process before impeaching him.

According to the New York Times, Bolton spoke to Trump in August and raised the $391 million in congressionally approved aid to Ukraine for its war in the countrys east against Russian-backed separatists.

Officials had frozen the aid, and a deadline was looming to begin sending it, Bolton noted, according to the newspaper.

Trump had previously rebuffed senior U.S. officials who had called for the aid to be restored, the newspaper said, airing his long-standing grievances about Ukraine, which mixed legitimate efforts by some Ukrainians to back his Democratic 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, with unsupported accusations and outright conspiracy theories about the country.

The newspaper reported that the president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had also spent months stoking the presidents paranoia about the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine at the time, Marie Yovanovitch, alleging that she was openly anti-Trump and should be dismissed.

In his August 2019 discussion with Bolton, the newspaper said Trump appeared focused on the theories Giuliani had shared with him and had replied to Boltons question that he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the investigation that related to Biden and supporters of Clinton in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Pete Schroeder, Arshad Mohammed and Karen Freifeld; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann, Sarah N. Lynch and Subrat Patnaik; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Peter Cooney)
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will "inspect and direct" efforts to control a coronavirus outbreak in the central city of Wuhan and promised reinforcements, as provincial authorities faced accusations from the public of a failure to respond in time.

World shares slipped to their lowest in two weeks as worries grew about the economic impact of the coronavirus after China, the world's second-biggest economy, ramped up travel bans and extended the Lunar New Year holidays.

Li, clad in a blue protective suit and mask, thanked medical workers in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and the epicentre of the outbreak, as the death toll rose to 81.

"Li ... thanked frontline medical workers for their all-out efforts in treating patients and urged them to pay attention to their own protection," Xinhua news agency said.

"He required efforts to guarantee medical resources supply, race against time to treat patients and ensure adequate market supply and stable prices."

He said 2,500 more medical workers would arrive in the next two days.

Li is the most senior leader to visit Wuhan since the outbreak began. He inspected efforts to contain the epidemic and was shown on state television leading medical workers in chants of "Wuhan jiayou!" - an exhortation to keep their strength up.

He also visited the construction site of a new hospital due to be built in days.

On China's heavily censored social media, where dissent is typically suppressed, local officials have borne the brunt of mounting public anger about the handling of the virus.

Some lashed out at the Hubei governor, who had to correct himself twice during a news conference over the number of face masks being produced in the province.

"If he can mess up the data multiple times, no wonder the disease has spread so severely," one Weibo user said.

Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang told state broadcaster CCTV the city's management of the crisis was "not good enough" - rare public self-criticism for a Chinese official - and said he was willing to resign.

The city of 11 million people is in virtual lockdown and much of Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, is under some kind of travel curb.

People from Hubei have come under scrutiny within mainland China as well, with many facing suspicion from officials about their recent travels.

"Hubei people are getting discriminated against," a Wuhan resident complained on the Weibo social media platform.

US President Donald Trump offered China "any help that is necessary" on Monday to control a coronavirus outbreak in the central city of Wuhan.

Shares Tumble

A small number of cases linked to people who travelled from Wuhan have been confirmed in more than 10 countries, including Thailand, France, Japan and the United States, but no deaths have been reported outside China.

Investors are worried about the impact on travel, tourism and broader economic activity. The consensus is that in the short term, economic output will be hit as Chinese authorities impose travel restrictions and extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, when millions traditionally travel by rail, road and plane, by three days to limit the spread of the virus.

Asian and European shares tumbled, with Japan's Nikkei average sliding 2%, its biggest one-day fall in five months. Demand spiked for safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes. European stocks fell more than 2%.

During the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally, air passenger demand in Asia plunged 45%. The travel industry is more reliant on Chinese travellers now than it was then.

The total number of confirmed cases in China rose to 2,835, with about half in the central province of Hubei. But some experts suspect the number of infected people is much higher. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has had eight confirmed cases, banned entry to people who had visited Hubei in the past 14 days.

The number of deaths from the virus in Hubei climbed to 76 from 56, officials said, with five deaths elsewhere in China.

Who Director Arrives In China

The newly identified coronavirus is believed to have originated late last year in a Wuhan market illegally selling wildlife. Much is not known, including how easily it spreads and just how deadly it is.

National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said on Sunday the incubation period could range from one to 14 days, and the virus was infectious during incubation, unlike SARS.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated an incubation period of two to 10 days.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had arrived in China and would meet officials working on the response, his agency said.

Some of China's biggest companies have been affected, with hotpot restaurant chain Haidilao International Holding shutting branches nationwide from Sunday until Friday.

Gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd advised staff to work from home until Feb. 7, and e-commerce firm Alibaba removed vendors' offers of overpriced face masks from its online Taobao marketplace as prices surged.

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Firefighters were dispatched at 12:35 a.m. to the 3000 block of Elm Avenue, and a statement released over the weekend reported that when the first crews arrived, they found heavy fire from multiple windows on the south side of the home. Zion Police assisted by confirming all occupants were safely out of the structure."
Jackson County University of Wisconsin-Extension will host the 2020 Fresh Market Growers educational meeting. The program will be held Thursday, Feb. 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Jackson County Extension Office, 227 S. 11th St., Black River Falls.

The meeting will focus on a number of topics for beginning market growers, specifically farmers markets and roadside stand marketers. Topics will include successful marketing with social media, merchandising for fresh market sales and greenhouse production.

Event speaker Claire Strader, Fair Share Coalition farmers market vendor/farmer and Dane County commercial vegetable agent, will lead a discussion on product mix, market niche, how to display products, customer service and money handling, among other topics.

Julie Dawson, UW-Extension horticulture specialist, will discuss greenhouse production strategies via a livestream webinar with opportunity for questions in live time.

The final speaker will be Kristin Runge, UW-Extension communication research specialist. She will discuss research findings regarding best social media marketing practices for fresh market producers with an opportunity for attendees to share from their own experiences.

The 2020 Fresh Market Growers Program is open to all area fresh market growers and vendors. The cost of $10 includes all materials, lunch and refreshments.

Pre-registration is requested so that organizers can plan for materials and lunch count.

For more information or to register, contact the Jackson County Extension at 715-284-4257 or jamie.pfaff@wisc.edu.

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New Delhi, Jan 27 : Hours after senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said he didn't receive any money from the Popular Front of India (PFI), he made a U-turn and accepted receiving Rs 77 lakh as litigation fee for appearing in the Supreme Court between August 2017 to March 2018 for Hadiya in a case related to her marriage with Shafiya Jahan.

On March 8, 2018, the Supreme Court overruled a Kerala High Court order that had annulled the marriage of 22-year-old Hadiya to Shafin Jahan, on a petition filed by her father. Hadiya, born a Hindu and named Akhila Asokan, had married Shefin, a Muslim man, in 2016.

Sibal's remarks came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), here on Monday, said it had identified the PFI and the Rehab Foundation India (RFI) for providing over Rs 120 crore for the protests over the new citizenship law (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

According to the ED, Rs 77 lakh was paid to Sibal, Rs 4 lakh to senior advocate Indira Jaising, Rs 11 lakh to senior lawyer Dushyant Dave and Rs 3.10 lakh to person named Abdul Samad, who is also named in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) charge-sheet.

Refuting the claims Sibal had said, "The ED has released a statement analysing the PFI's bank accounts in which my name has been mentioned as a recipient for funding the anti-CAA agitations." Sibal said the CAA became law only in December, 2019. "In all matters in which I have appeared in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the CAA, I have not raised, till date, any invoice," he said.

Accepting receiving Rs 77 lakh from the PFI, Sibal said, "The statement that I was paid Rs 77 lakh is with respect to a litigation in the special leave petition titled 'Shafin Jahan versus Asokan K.M. and others. This is related to Hadiya's marriage to Shafin Jahan, which was challenged right up to the Supreme Court with the NIA and the father of Hadiya being parties." In that, Sibal said he represented Hadiya, the wife, and ultimately the marriage was upheld and Hadiya was given the liberty to live with her husband Shafin. "For my appearances, I raised invoices and received payments thereon, through cheques from August 4, 2017 till March 8, 2018 from the PFI's Syndicate Bank account in Kerala's Kozhikode," he said.

Sibal said he had raised the invoices on his advocate on record Haris Beerab for each of the appearances. Seven cheques were received in his office and were deposited in the bank by his staff, he added.

"I was paid for professional services rendered and for nothing else. Any insinuations made to besmirch my name and defame me will be taken seriously," he said.

Earlier in the day, Sibal refuted receiving payments from the PFI. "I have never received any amount from any organisation except for litigation. I don't even remember. Give me the dates of the receipt and I shall find out and let you know," Sibal told IANS. "If I would have received the payment then it must be a cheque payment, as I don't take cash," the senior lawyer said.

"If this amount has come to me through bank transfer then I must have raised a bill. If that amount is paid for legal services then what's wrong?" he said.

Sibal also said he never appeared for any one linked to the CAA protests. "I have not represented any of the PFI cases and also not of the CAA protesters. The PFI has never paid me," he said.

An ED source told IANS, "While keeping a tab on the PFI, we identified 73 bank accounts. Following the money trail, we came to know about the RFI, which provided over Rs 120 crore for the CAA and the NRC protests." Stating that bank accounts with huge transactions were detected in the last two months, the source said, "The ED has been keeping a tab on the PFI's 27 and the RFI's nine bank accounts, and accounts of 37 individuals and entities in 17 different banks." "During the probe it was found the money transferred into these accounts were either cash deposits or made through NEFT/RTGS/IMPS. The amounts were withdrawn either the same day or within two-three days, leaving only minimal money in these accounts," the source said.

From the PFI's Syndicate Bank accounts in Nehru Place (New Delhi) and western UP districts, like Hapur, Shamli, Bahraich, Bijnor and Dasna, branches Rs 41.5 crore was deposited.

According to the source, Rs 27 crore cash was deposited in 27 bank accounts. Rs 1.04 crore was deposited in 15 bank accounts of the PFI in 10 banks and the RFI (five banks) between December 4, 2019 and January 6, 2020.

He said the deposits were in the forms of IMPS using mobile and amounts varied from Rs 5,000 to Rs 49,000. The deposit was kept below Rs 50,000 to prevent disclosure of the depositor's identity.

According to the source, nine offices of the PFI and related organisations have been opened in the Shaheen Bagh area to fund the protests.

Reacting to the ED documents pertaining to payments for the CAA protests, PFI General Secretary Mohammed Ali Jinnah said, "The PFI strongly condemns the news reports broadcast by news channels regarding PFI's financial links to instigate the CAA protest.

"First, the news channels have attributed the report to the ED through some 'unnamed sources', but the ED has not contacted our organisation, nor issued any official statement regarding allegations," he said.

Stating that the PFI fully complied with the law of the land, Jinnah said, "the allegation of Rs 120 crore transferred from its accounts just before the CAA protest is baseless and the people who are levelling these allegations should prove these claims." He said few news channels were also broadcasting that funds transferred from the Kerala state PFI accounts were for advocates, like Sibal, Dave and Jaising.

"It exposes the intention of the vested interests who are keen to blame the PFI for everything that is happening in India. The truth is transfers were made in 2017 as lawyer fees in the Hadiya Case. Attributing a fee transfer in 2017 as a funding for 2019 CAA protest is absurd and exposes the intention to defame the PFI," he said.

"We challenge the so-called unnamed sources to prove that there is any wing of the PFI working in Kashmir," Jinnah said.
[January 27, 2020] Judge Rules Don Lee Farms Likely to Obtain a Judgment. Beyond Meat's CFO and Others Named Individually for Fraud.

A judge has ruled Don Lee Farms proved the probable validity of its claim that Beyond Meat breached its manufacturing agreement with Don Lee Farms. The Court issued a Right to Attach Order. In a separate motion before a different Judge, the Court granted Don Lee Farms' request to name Beyond Meat Chief Financial Officer Mark Nelson, Senior Quality Assurance Manager Jessica Quetsch and Director of Operations Anthony Miller in its fraud claims which allege they intentionally doctored and omitted material information from a food safety consultant's report, and then delivered that doctored report to Don Lee Farms and affirmatively represented that it was the complete opinion of the consultant. The omitted portions discussed significant food safety issues at Beyond Meat's facility. The next day, Beyond Meat announced it hired new lawyers. Donald Goodman, President, Don Lee Farms, said, "We are very proud of our family's history as a leader in the food industry going back to the 1940s. In our opinion, the facts are clearly on our side. Our claims have been shown to several judges and each one has ruled in our favor. We are pleased with where we are today but it is just the beginning. We will prove our claim that Beyond Meat misappropriated our trade secrets to manufacture the Beyond Burger and other products. We will prove the breach of the Exclusive Supply Agreement and fraud claim committed by Mr. Nelson and others." Previously, Beyond Meat lost motions to maintain confidentiality designations on their entire document prodction, trying to designate 147,000 documents confidential or highly confidential in order to try to keep its documents away from the public.



Beyond Meat has also delayed producing documents regarding their co-packer, FPL Foods, by filing a motion for protective order in Georgia. The Court ruled in Don Lee Farms favor. About the Beyond Meat and Don Lee Farms Relationship:

Whole Foods Market, a customer of Don Lee Farms' plant-based and meat proteins since 2012, introduced startup Beyond Meat to Don Lee Farms in 2014 to help Beyond Meat make meat alternatives. Beyond Meat entered into an exclusive supply agreement with Don Lee Farms to produce all of their products (including the development and launch of the Beyond Burger). The Beyond Burger was solely manufactured by Don Lee Farms under the exclusive supply agreement in 2016. After the success of the new burger, the startup walked away from the agreement in 2017 and transferred production and processes developed by Don Lee Farms under the agreement to other food manufacturers. The Beyond Burger, Beyond Meat's flagship product, is around 70% of their total sales according to the startup. Beyond Meat is currently being sued by Don Lee Farms for fraud, negligence and breach of contract. During the agreement, Don Lee Farms shared trade secrets, know-how and technology the family food company developed over 35 years. During the partnership, Don Lee Farms raised significant concerns regarding inadequate food safety protocols for raw materials produced at Beyond Meat's facility, after receiving adulterated product to be used to make consumer items for Beyond Meat. About Don Lee Farms: Established in California in 1982, Don Lee Farms is a family-owned producer of fresh and frozen foods for some of the world's most recognized and successful brands. Don Lee Farms makes plant-based and meat proteins for over 10,000 markets, clubs, foodservice and school foodservice locations in over 15 countries. Consumer products and end items are sold at major retailers nationwide such as Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Markets, Trader Joes, Kroger, Publix, HEB and Albertsons Companies under the Don Lee Farms label, private brands and under brands of their partners. For more information, visit www.DonLeeFarms.com or follow Don Lee Farms on Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter, @DonLeeFarms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005705/en/

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Tom Smyth is an advocate of positive thinking. He's a believer that exercising gratitude is the foundation on which to build a happy, and in his case, successful life. It's a mindset that has served him well.

Tom, a father-of-two, is the man behind private accommodation and serviced apartments firm Dream Apartments.

He's also one part of a development firm that is creating a 2.5m residential scheme on the fringes of the new Tribeca project in Belfast.

Read More

According to Mr Smyth, the Gardiner Square development will help grow city centre living and offer investors guaranteed rental return.

Dream Apartments is just one part of Tom's working life. He set up the business three years ago in Belfast to service the growing leisure and business tourism sector, as well as catering to the longer-staying visitor.

Today Dream Apartments has expanded beyond the Obel building where it began and into other parts of Belfast.

It's also made a move to other UK cities including Liverpool and Newcastle, while partnerships have seen it take up residence in places like Sao Paulo and New York.

It has also branched out into a more economical offering called Dream Pods.

They can be found in Bank Square in the city and provide basic accommodation including bunk beds.

As for his personal philosophy, he says: "I think we could all do with living our lives with gratitude.

"If you look around, you'll soon see how fortunate you are.

"I had to remind my daughter recently about how lucky she was to have an iPhone. I told her when I was 10 I would've had to work 50 weeks to be able to buy that phone, and you could see it sinking in when she heard that."

Tom admits that he doesn't listen to the news and he shuns anything Brexit-related to ensure he remains focused on his own goals.

"I don't give Brexit any energy," he adds. "I think it's a load of nonsense but I would really love to see our MLAs evolve and form to help the growth of Northern Ireland.

"They need to stand back and realise it's for the prosperity of Northern Ireland. Everyone needs to get to work or they're holding the country back from expanding and prospering."

Tom's day begins at 5am when he writes a gratitude list and outlines his goals. That is followed by a trip to the gym, all before the working day begins.

But it isn't just his morning routine that has attributed to the success of his business - it's also an inbuilt "savviness" he's had from his childhood.

Tom grew up in Glengormley with his brother, sister and parents. His mum was care worker and his dad was a postman.

"They didn't have 2d to rub together but I had an amazing childhood and decided from an early age that I wanted more.

"I also knew that if I worked hard that effort would produce rewards."

Tom studied at Glengormley High School and went on to take up a leisure and management course at Castlereagh Tech, which is now part of Belfast Met.

"I always had that savviness. People would say I could sell sand to the Arabs and make money out of nothing. It was just there.

"I grew up with a burning desire to succeed and I think that's either in you or it's not. I was 10 when I began working in a chippy. I stayed there for five years, throughout school," he says.

After tech Tom got involved in the building trade, which is still part of his daily business. He says construction helped him to raise capital, after which the rest of his working life "has been a flash".

"I worked in construction and then got into the property market. I went to work in Dubai before it was a really popular tourist destination, and saw what they were doing there with serviced apartments. That fuelled enthusiasm in me to expand and do other things," he says.

He came back from Dubai and started working with Apple Apartments in Belfast.

In June 2017 he went it alone with the launch of Dream Apartments, a business that he says he is "incredibly proud of".

Dream Apartments have more than 350 apartments across the UK, with many more available globally through partnerships in Barcelona, Sao Paulo, America and Paris.

Recently Tom has also opened up his own serviced apartments which provided the inspiration for the business in Dubai.

The Dubai operation opened at the end of 2019, when 300 luxury serviced apartments flowed onto the accommodation market there.

Located in the Jumeirah Beach Residence Marina, they feature a range of one, two and three-bedroom luxury apartments.

"To launch in the place where the idea for Dream Apartments was born is simply a dream come true," says Tom. "The people of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are to be applauded for their approach to business and the willingness of the local government to welcome foreign investment such as ours. We plan to lead the Dubai market," he adds.

Tom says his client base is 70:30 business/leisure with some of his guests including famous actors to two-time Oscar winning directors who stay for an average of 20 days in some locations.

"I'd say we would sign around 10 non-disclosure agreements a year in Belfast," he reveals.

"The thing about a serviced apartment is that it gives a home from home feeling where you can cook your own breakfast, watch television, have a conference call and then you can fall back into the bedroom.

"It appeals to many visitors because it's better than being in a boxed room.

"We have guests who want to stay with us because they get the privacy they need. Nobody knows who they are and they can slip in and out. They're able to have a daily routine like ride a mountain bike to work.

"They've a living room and a bedroom and it's this type of guest that is moving away from hotels.

"It's also more economical so it's a win-win."

In Belfast Dream Apartments have five separate offerings including the Obel building, the Gallery on the Dublin Road and Titanic Arc.

And Tom isn't finished with expansion plans here.

He's says he's really only getting started.

Next on the agenda, as part of the construction operation he heads, is the new scheme on Gardiner Street. Gardiner Square will sit on the outskirts of the Tribeca regeneration project.

It will be a mixed residential offering featuring two-bedroom apartments, as well as three-bedroom townhouses with associated car parking and amenities.

Tom heads the company behind the scheme with business partner Gary Sinnerton.

He says: "Belfast city centre is definitely underpopulated because of the Troubles. I think the City Council should make hay while the sun shines and expand on city living."

He reveals that his Gardiner Street site is "well ahead of schedule and due to finish ahead of November 2020".

"We want to create a thriving community targeting a range of sectors from young professionals, to property investors to people relocating to the city centre for work.

"Home is so important and we understand that people want and deserve comfort, convenience and community, and in Gardiner Square, we are offering all these things and more.

"The Gardiner Square project is located on the fringes of the hugely exciting Tribeca project which will combine the regions heritage with cutting-edge design to create a dynamic mixed-use space for people to live and work," Tom adds.

"All of this will be within walking distance to the new homes."

Elsewhere Tom is looking to bring Dream Apartments to Derry. And, subject to planning, 44 serviced apartments will launch there in May.

"This project will feature our Dream Pods and it will work well. I love Derry and every time I go there it's full of tourists, by the busload.

"We also have a great corporate market there, so this is a perfect move for us," he says. Other sites due to open this year include one in Middlesbrough.

"If the opportunity comes along we'll open more. We're always looking," says Tom who employs around 115 people across his UK operations.

At the recent World Travel Awards 2019, Dream Apartments Belfast was awarded the title of Northern Ireland's Leading Serviced Apartments for the third consecutive year.

It's an award that Tom hopes to beckon for the sites he's opened elsewhere.

He anticipates demand for his accommodation will grow in line with the changing demands of travellers.

Tom adds: "Our success is in part down to a change in how many business and leisure travellers approach their travel arrangements, preferring the home from home experience to the more formal hotel offering.

"I'm so proud of our city.

"I'm so proud to be doing what I'm doing and I'm proud to represent the corporate market.

"I'm so delighted that our country has come through conflict resolution and we have something to give in terms of tourism and it's definitely great to be part of that," he says.
The co-parish priest at St Finians Church in Newcastle, Co Dublin has spoken of the darkness that came to the community last week with the deaths of siblings Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3) McGinley.

Speaking after mass on Sunday, Fr Doherty told RTE radio that the community could not put into words what had happened.

The darkness, it's so dark, it's unspeakable. Grief, heartbreak, loss. And it affects and touches everybody in this community.

Out of the darkness, somehow we have to find the light. In the kindness of people, there is light.

Fr Doherty explained that many young families attended the mass, along with children preparing for First Holy Communion.

He used a jigsaw of a heart to explain to the children that sometimes we can feel happy, sad, both or heartbroken.

The children took a vote on where their heart should be and lit a candle, he said.

Meanwhile, the creche where three-year old Carla had been attending says she was a "beautiful, happy little girl, who was very loved by her family".

Counselling services are in place at the Happy Feet Early Learning Centre, and also at Scoil Chronain in Rathcoole, where the two boys were pupils.
Lebanon's parliament convened on Monday kicking off a two-day discussion to approve the state's budget amid a crippling financial crisis.

The number of legislators to achieve quorum was reached allowing the session to begin.

During the two-day session, the parliament is scheduled to discuss the 2020 budget that was drafted by the government of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned in late October in response to the nationwide protests.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said his government would not obstruct the 2020 budget that was prepared by the previous government.

Meanwhile in central Beirut thousands of soldiers, including special forces, as well as riot policemen were deployed to seal off the zone leading to parliament to prevent protesters from blocking the lawmakers' path.

The protesters have been demonstrating for more than three months against the ruling elite that has run the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

They have rejected the new 20-member government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, which was announced last week.

The protest movement broke out on October 17 over government plans to impose new taxes.

Protest organisers say the movement will not accept anything less that the resignation of the ruling elite, who they blame for widespread corruption and mismanagement.

Lebanon has one of the world's highest public debts in the world, standing at more than 150% of gross domestic product.

Growth has plummeted and the budget deficit reached 11% of GDP in 2018 as economic activities slowed and remittances from Lebanese living abroad shrank.

(Image: Unsplash)
Arena Animation, the leading animation institution in India recently organized 'Creative Minds Bengaluru 2019-20' - an opportunity for 600 plus students across India to showcase their talent and learn from the industry experts directly.

More than 100 students were awarded for their creativity across nine categories at The Zuri Whitefield Bengaluru for Bengaluru and Kochi.

Creative Minds is Arena's flagship student competition, where students produce and showcase some extraordinary work of art and design. Students conceptualise and produce films under the guidance and mentorship of their faculty. These films and projects are then judged by the industry experts, who then guide and nurture them making their work industry-relevant.

The competition takes place across many cities, in the country, judging the work of the students in various categories such as digital illustration, character design and animation, visual effects scene, 3D architectural visualization to name a few.

This platform aims to provide students an opportunity to learn teamwork and showcase their work within a strict timeframe, thus improving their capability, capacity and efficiency making them industry competent.

Well established Industry veterans representing India's leading studios such as Technicolor India and MPC Film volunteered to conduct interactive and industry-relevant sessions on the use of Visual Effects in films and cinemas at Creative Minds 2019.

These industry experts lent their guidance to the students and also provided them useful career tips, in order to nurture the industry-ready individuals. The students were exposed to the latest industry trends, while at the same time learned to apply these learnings to the work they had presented.

"Creative Minds is an initiative from Arena Animation. Today has blossomed into a multi-dimensional annual platform offering industry-relevant exposure to the participants. The students look forward to receiving quality insights from the experts including picking up the right skills, quick and comprehensive feedback on their showcased work and a networking opportunity," said Pravir Arora, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Aptech Ltd.

He also said he would like to congratulate the winners of Creative Minds Bengaluru 2019-20 for showcasing some truly extraordinary pieces of work.

"The digital content industry is poised to reach new heights as streaming platforms proliferate the globe. Screen age takes on a new dimension. I am convinced that digital arts professionals will participate in the next revolution of the content industry which will demand a high graphic quotient," said Biren Ghose, Country Head Technicolor India and keynote speaker at the event.

Along with the competition, a masterclass was conducted by industry leaders such as:

The Digital Creativity - The Road Ahead by Biren Ghose - Country Head Technicolor India

Animation and VFX Making of TV Commercials by Vaibhav More - Founder-Director Vaibhav More Films

Understanding the Making of Hollywood Blockbuster "The Lion King" with Mr. Matthew & Mr. Sachin from Technicolor Academy

Arena Animation believes that a better future for the Indian animation and VFX industry can only be fueled by skilling the youth and nurturing creative minds and make them industry-ready. Initiatives like Creative Minds by Arena Animation always aim towards creating a strong community of skilled animators.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two men have been arrested for questioning in a cross-Border police investigation into paramilitary style attacks by a dissident republican group

Two men have been arrested for questioning in a cross-Border police investigation into paramilitary style attacks by a dissident republican group.

The victim of one attack was abducted from his home in Derry last November and badly beaten up by a masked gang after being taken across the border into east Donegal.

Members of the PSNIs terrorism investigation unit carried out a number of searches in the Strabane area yesterday morning.

Armed officers arrested a 32-year-old man under the Terrorism Act and he was being held for questioning last night at the Musgrave serious crime suite.

At the same time, gardai from Donegal division carried out an operation in the east of the county and detained a man in his mid 30s under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

He was being held last at Letterkenny garda station and can be detained without charge for up to three days.

Gardai said investigations on both sides of the border were ongoing into the abduction and attack.

Most of those involved in the attack are thought to be from county Derry.

Anti-terrorist officers believe a dissident republican faction was behind the attack and other similar incidents.

Statistics for Northern Ireland show there were around 70 paramilitary-style assaults and shootings in Northern Ireland last year.

There were 14 paramilitary-style shootings, with 12 blamed on republican groups and the others attributed to loyalist gangs.
Burma Charter Amendment Committee Submits Two Bills to Myanmar Parliament Calling for Reduced Role for Military

Military appointed lawmakers arrive at the Lower House of Parliament on Jan. 27, 2020. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAWMore than half of Myanmars lawmakers on Monday jointly proposed a total of 114 amendments to the countrys Constitutionincluding changes that would limit the role of the military and its commander-in-chief in politics. The move, a significant step in the effort to amend Myanmars undemocratic charter, follows a year of discussion and often heated debate in Parliament.

Union Parliament Speaker T Khun Myat announced the submission of two constitutional amendment bills by the National League for Democracy and seven other political parties. The bills were drafted by the Charter Amendment Committee over the past 11 months and signed by a total of 351 lawmakers.

The first bill includes 51 proposed amendments covered by Article 436(a), meaning they require approval by more than 75 percent of lawmakers and over 50 percent support in a national referendum. The second bill includes 63 proposed amendments covered by Article 436(b), requiring the approval of over 75 percent of lawmakers but no referendum.

Both bills were distributed to lawmakers.

Unlike with previous amendment bills submitted by the military and its ally, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the two bills include proposals to amend, add or repeal provisions that grant the military special powers and privilegeschanges the military is not yet willing to accept.

The bills state that the proposals aim to democratize the Constitution, as it contains undemocratic articles and provisions that contradict one another, prevent the establishment of a federal union, and fail to ensure equal rights for citizens.

The first bill includes a proposal that would gradually eliminate unelected military lawmakers from Parliament. It suggests reducing the military bloc, which currently accounts for 25 percent of lawmakers, to 15 percent in the 2020 election, and by a further 5 percentage points at subsequent general elections.

It also proposed removing Article 20(c), which states that, The commander-in-chief is the supreme commander of all armed forces.

The proposed changes also include the repeal of Article 59(f), which effectively bars State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of the current government, from becoming President.

Article 59(f) bars a person whose spouse and children are foreign citizens from becoming president. The NLD suggests removing it, saying that Article 59(b) contains sufficient security protections. It says the president shall be a citizen of Myanmar who was born of both parents who were born in the territory under the jurisdiction of the Union and being Myanmar Nationals.

The bill also includes proposed amendments to Article 436, which grants the military an effective veto over any proposed constitutional changes. It suggests changing the requirement for approving a charter amendment from more than 75 percent of Parliament to two-thirds of elected representatives, in both Article 436(a) and Article 436(b). This would remove the unelected military lawmakers veto on

changes.

The second bill includes a proposal that Chapter 14 of the Constitution, titled Transitory Provisions, be removed in its entirety, among other recommendations.

The submission of the bills on Monday marked the completion of the work of the Charter Amendment Committee. Formed in February 2019, its tasks were to review the entire charter, compile recommended changes from various parties, finalize the recommendations, draft amendment bills and submit them to Parliament.

Repeating the stance it has maintained ever since the committee was formed, military parliamentary appointee Lieutenant Colonel Myo Htet Win told reporters in Parliament on Monday that both bills were drafted to suit the NLDs wishes regarding charter amendment, and the military does not support them.

We have objected to it [the committee] since the very start, he said.

The military and its allied USDP have raised strong objections to the formation of the committee, the approach the NLD and ethnic parties took in pushing for constitutional reform, and all of its procedures as unconstitutional. Instead of working with the committee, it submitted five constitutional amendment bills of its own, all of which seek to protect its interests.

NLD lawmaker Dr. Myat Nyana Soe rejected the military appointed lawmakers claims, saying the bills include proposals agreed by ethnic parties.

The five bills submitted by the military and USDP, and the two bills submitted by the NLD and ethnic parties on Monday, will be scrutinized by Parliaments Joint Bill Committee. After 14 days, the committee will submit its report to Parliament. Following this, all of the bills will be open for parliamentary debate.
Markets regulator Sebi on January 27 rationalised margin framework for the commodity derivatives segment, wherein clearing corporations will have to categorise commodities as per their realised volatility. In addition, clearing corporations have been asked to prescribe floor values of initial margin as well as margin period of risk (MPOR) depending upon their categories, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.

Given the wide variation of liquidity and volatility among different commodity derivatives, the regulator in consultation with other stakeholders has decided to rationalise the margin system.

Under the framework, clearing corporations (CCs) have been asked to categorise their commodities into three categories of volatility -- low, medium and high -- based on the realised volatility for the past three years.

In low volatility category, price variation should be up to 15 per cent, the same will be 15-20 per cent for medium and more than 20 per cent for commodities having high volatility.

Realised volatility will be calculated from series of daily log normal return of main near month future contracts of the respective commodity.

"The series of daily log normal return shall be rolled over to next month contract on start of staggered delivery period if it is applicable. If staggered delivery is not applicable then rollover shall be done on the day after the expiry of near-month contract," Sebi noted.

Clearing corporations of the lead exchange will do the categorisation of the commodities and the same will be intimated to and adopted by all other clearing corporations.

Lead exchange will be the one having the highest average daily turnover across all derivative contracts on the respective commodity based on the past six months' period.

In addition, the regulator has prescribed minimum initial margin and MPOR for agriculture and non-agriculture commodities based on volatility.

Margin, in market parlance, is the minimum fund an investor is required to pay to the broker before executing a trade. This is basically part of the money collected by bourses from traders upfront, before giving exposure for trading in derivatives.

Sebi has prescribed minimum initial margin of 8 per cent for commodities falling under low volatility, 10 per cent for medium volatility and 12 per cent for high volatility.

In case of non-agricultural commodities, minimum initial margin will be 8 per cent, 10 per cent and 12 per cent for low, medium and high volatility categories, respectively.

The capital markets watchdog further said the floor values prescribed for initial margin need not be scaled up by MPOR.

Sebi has fixed a minimum margin period of risk for agri commodities as 3 days each for low- and medium-volatile category and 4 days for high category, while the same for non-agriculture commodities is 2 days each for low- and medium-volatile categories and 3 days for those having high volatility.

The regulator has asked CCs to review the categories of all commodities once in every six months' period based on the past three years' data. The regulator, further, said commodity may be moved from higher volatility category to lower category only if it satisfies criteria of the revised category of volatility for two consecutive reviews.

However, movement from a lower to higher volatility category will be done based upon a single review.

The categorisation will be done on March 1 and September 1 of each year on a rolling basis and in case of any change, it will be applicable from April 1 and October 1 of each year.

In case derivatives are launched on any new underlying commodity for the first time for which no reference futures prices are available, Sebi said it will be initially categorised based upon prices available in the spot markets subject to a minimum of medium category of volatility.

Re-categorisation of such commodity from higher to lower category of volatility can only be done after two consecutive reviews, it added.

With regard to lean period in agri commodities, Sebi noted that during such period (before the arrival of new crop), there is often uncertainty about the arrivals of new crop, which may lead to higher volatility in prices of commodities and, therefore, asked CCs to levy additional lean period margin of 2 per cent on contracts expiring during lean period.

The lead exchange will determine the lean period in consultation with its relevant product advisory committee and disclose the same on its website.

Sebi said initial categorisation of commodities will be done by CCs within 15 days and the revised norms with regard to initial margin, MPOR and lean period margin need to be implemented by CCs in a phased manner and will be fully implemented within a period of three months.
Public sector electronics and telecom gear maker ITI Limited plans around Rs 150 crore investment to scale up its solar panel manufacturing capacity to 90 MW in the next fiscal, a top company official said

Mumbai: Public sector electronics and telecom gear maker ITI Limited plans around Rs 150 crore investment to scale up its solar panel manufacturing capacity to 90 MW in the next fiscal, a top company official said.

The company, which plans to raise Rs 1,600 crore through a follow-on public offer (FPO), has a solar panel capacity of 18 MW currently.

"Given the kind of demand we are witnessing in the solar space, especially in the rooftop segment, from corporates and commercial establishments as well as the state governments, we want to be ready to tap that opportunity," the company's Chairman and Managing Director R M Agarwal told PTI.

He said the company will be investing Rs 150 crore for scaling up the capacity, which it hopes to get from the budget allocated to the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications.

The company is expecting at least Rs 500 crore from the government in the next fiscal for meeting its various capital expenditure (capex) requirements.

The company has a solar panel manufacturing facility at Naini in Uttar Pradesh.

When asked if the company would utilise the funds raised through the FPO for the capacity enhancement in case the funds from the government do not come, he said, "The FPO proceeds will have to be used towards partial repayment of loans, funding our working capital requirements and general purpose. For our capex, we will have to wait for the ministry to release the funds."

Agarwal further said the company is banking on capacities tendered by discoms in various states to supply its panels as well as to set up rooftop projects on a turnkey basis, along with the expected projects under the national solar mission.

The company has executed various turnkey orders for Bharatnet, telecom towers, and Uttar Pradesh police headquarters. ITI has also deployed 15 MW solar power project for the Solar Energy Corporation of India.

According to industry estimates, as of September 2019, cumulative installed solar capacity in India stood at 33.8 GW, of which rooftop solar installations crossed 4 GW.

Apart from solar panels, the company is also focusing on the manufacturing of LED-based products like an LED solar lantern and LED street lights for rural use and LED tube lights and decorative indoor lights for grid-connected applications.
ENGIE has been working with EDP and its subsidiary EDPR for six years on hydroelectric and offshore wind power. In May 2019, the two companies created joint-venture company WindFloat to develop 5 to 7 GW worth of projects based on this new technology.

ENGIE and EDP have been building an increasingly close partnership over the last six years. Energias de Portugal (EDP) is major world company operating in the energy sector - in renewables in particular, which account for two-thirds of its EBITDA Its subsidiary EDP renewables (EDPr) is the world's fourth largest producer of wind power. EDPr has access to cutting-edge operational capacity on the market and has enjoyed exceptional growth over the last few years. It currently operates on 14 international markets (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom and the US).

On January 23rd, ENGIE signed an agreement to create a new joint venture with EDPr which will strengthen this partnership for the coming years.

Projects in the pipeline and a new joint venture for offshore wind power

Through this joint venture, our objective is to build farms and secure projects in the pipeline capable of producing a total of 5 to 7 GW of offshore wind power. This is equivalent to ENGIE's total wind power capacity at the end of 2018. The alliance will mean that problems posed by this new technology can be solved faster and competitively-sized projects can be developed. Our aim is to create the world leader in the sector. The joint venture will primarily target European and US markets, as well as parts of Asia, where most of the growth will be concentrated. Ultimately, the joint venture wants to be financially self-sufficient.

This ambitious alliance is in line with the fruitful cooperation that EDPR has enjoyed with the Dieppe Le Treport and Yeu Noirmoutier stationary wind farms in France and the Moray East and Moray West ones in the UK. In 2019, we joined the Windfloat consortium and commissioned the first floating wind turbine in continental Europe in Portugal.

Six hydroelectric power plants sold to ENGIE in Portugal

In December, ENGIE announced the purchase of a number of hydroelectric power plants owned by EDP. We will own six facilities, including three run-of-the-river power stations and three pumped storage plants with installed capacity of 1.7 GW. This represents 2.2 billion of investment for the Group, with an average concession term of 45 years.
New Delhi: As the government is set to invite preliminary bids from potential investors for selling 100 per cent stake in Air India on Monday, all eyes are on the portion of airline debt to be taken off its books and qualification for suitors.

Prospective buyers would have to respond to the Expression of Interest (EoI) by March 17, 2020. Industry sources said that some of the potential bidders could be Tata Group, Hindujas, IndiGo, SpiceJet and a few private equity firms.

Some of the foreign airlines could tie-up with local players to place their joint bids.

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While the overall economic environment remains subdued, industry analysts said that there would be significant investor interest for Air India given its wide domestic and international network, traffic rights, slots at key foreign airports such as London and Dubai, technical manpower and a large fleet.

"Besides, the government is ready to go the extra mile to sell off the airline. The government has hinted that it will agree to the demands of potential buyers as it is determined to completely exit the airline business," said Rajan Mehra, CEO of Club One Air and former India head of Qatar Airways.

Air India is currently bleeding heavily with average daily loss pegged at Rs 20-25 crore. The Modi government is not keen to give any further financial support to the airline and has announced to shut it down if the second disinvestment bid fails.

As per official data, Air India had operating revenue of Rs 25,509 crore in FY19. As its operating expense during the fiscal was Rs 30,194 crore, the airline had an operating loss of Rs 4,685 crore. On a net basis, its loss was a record high at Rs 8,556 crore (provisional) in the previous financial year.

Air India has a fleet of 125 aircraft and its domestic market share is 11.9 per cent as on December 2019.

The Modi government had invited the EoI in 2018 to sell 76 per cent stake in the airline but it ended up being a no-show with not a single private firm expressing interest.

Learning from its previous experience, the government has decided to sell its entire 100 per cent stake in the airline. It is also learnt to have sweetened the deal by removing a large part of its Rs 60,000 crore debt and clearing other liabilities.

"We expect significant interest as the Government of India (GoI) has structured a very attractive offer," said Kapil Kaul, CEO (South Asia) of Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

While many industry veterans are bullish on investor interest for Air India, some of the sector experts said that it may not be easy given the current business environment globally.

"The global growth forecast has been downgraded. India has seen its GDP growing at the slowest pace in the last over six years. The fuel and foreign exchange situations are not great either," said an expert wishing not to be named.

He, however, added that it is a do-or-die situation for the government as it can no longer infuse money into an airline which is losing Rs 25 crore a day.

An industry insider said that IndiGo is one of the strong contenders for Air India but given the fighting between its co-founders it will be difficult to get shareholders` approval for placing the bid.

"Initial bids can be placed but before signing, binding agreement shareholders` approval would be required," said the insider.
She landed the job of her dreams with a starring role in Coronation Street. But just weeks after having viewers hooked in her final scenes as woman scorned Vicky Jefferies, Kerri Quinn has opened up about the tougher side of acting - and says industry bosses should do more to help.

From not knowing where their next pay cheque is coming from to dealing with rejection and even getting no response on jobs at all, the talented Belfast woman says actors have it harder than people think.

"When you're on a roll this industry is amazing," says Kerri. "Your spirits are high and it's the best feeling ever. But on the flip side when things aren't going so well, it can be a very, very lonely business.

"The acting community has taken some real knocks. We've lost people around the industry and I know there are actors struggling to cope. It's not an easy world to be part of, and some of the stuff that goes on can really hurt your mental health."

One of the toughest parts of the job, says the actress, is getting no feedback on auditions.

"When you're looking at a part, you really invest a lot of energy in it and you put a lot in emotionally," says Kerri.

"But it happens regularly, this real lack of communication. People don't even get a message or an email to say they haven't been successful.

"You don't get anything to say, 'Thanks for the days and days of effort you put in preparing for this, thanks for making your tape and sending it to us, thanks for convincing your friend to give up their time to make your tape with you. We appreciate what you did, we loved your take on it, but it didn't work out'.

"There isn't even the effort of a 30-second email to say thanks for taking the time to audition. Often people will literally find out they didn't get a part when it's announced on social media that someone else did. That isn't great. It's not a good way to treat people, and this job is hard enough without that.

"People are left in limbo land for days and weeks, and it breeds insecurity in an already insecure industry. You're already very vulnerable before you go in for an audition so this really doesn't help.

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"I think it happens pretty much everywhere and it makes people worried and stressed. I think now we're all talking about mental health a bit more, it's time for people doing these jobs to realise that if they just gave a little bit of clarification, just a quick thanks but no, it would make a positive impact.

"We know we're not always going to get a yes. That's what we signed up for, but we didn't sign up to be left in limbo land."

Backing the industry campaign #YesOrNo which launched in 2018 calling for actors to get a definite answer after auditions, Kerri says its message has started to filter through, but the job is far from done.

"A lot of casting directors and companies are getting better at it here in Northern Ireland and across the water, but we're not there yet," she says. "It's not just actors going on about it, it's an industry-wide campaign to get some acknowledgement for what we do and how much work is involved.

"It's just about respect and treating people properly because leaving people hanging doesn't help an actor's headspace."

Kerri, mum to eight-year-old Libby, played vengeful Vicky Jefferies in Coronation Street for more than a year and filmed her final scenes back in the autumn.

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While there have been conversations of a possible way back to the cobbles for Vicky, a return is far from set in stone and since November Kerri has been looking for work.

"When you're on a soap like Corrie the support's fantastic," she says. "Honestly right through it, they were so accommodating and helped me out a lot, especially with the filming schedule and making sure I was able to get home to Belfast as much as I could.

"But when your storyline ends and you're out there looking for work, it's hard. I've been up for a couple of things recently and nothing has worked out so far.

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"There was one big job in particular I didn't get, which was a bit of a sore one. People think, 'Well you've just walked off the biggest soap on TV, you've got it sorted', but it's not like that at all. I'm the same as everyone else in this business and you just have to keep going until something works out."

Kerri's final storyline saw Vicky team up with Kym Marsh's character Michelle Connor in a vengeful plot to frame cheating Robert Preston for her murder. In the end, Robert himself was shot dead by a crazed gunman.

"There was no big goodbye for Vicky," says Kerri. "Her last scene was in the Bistro with Michelle, Carla, Rita, Jenny and Johnny and the baby. I think there was a bit of redemption for her and an acceptance of the baby.

"I did suggest maybe Vicky and Michelle could get together as the Street's newest gay couple to bring baby Sonny up together, but they didn't go for it," jokes Kerri.

"The fact they didn't give Vicky a big official exit means it could be easier to bring her back though, which would be great. I've chatted with producers since I've left and I guess it's a case of watch this space."

And if she did wind up back in Weatherfield, would a longer stint and a move to Manchester be on the cards?

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"It definitely would not," says Kerri. "I loved Manchester, but the commute was actually fine and the contracts on a show like Coronation Street are never long enough to justify uprooting my daughter and taking her out of school.

"I wasn't coming the furthest distance by any stretch. David Neilson, who plays Roy, comes from Barcelona and there are people coming up from London for filming. It was fine."

In the meantime, as she waits for a breakthrough on her next acting job, Kerri is fully occupied with daughter Libby, an aspiring actress herself. "I'm lucky because I've got Libby who keeps me busy, and I have two nieces who I mind for my sister, so I have no problem filling my days," says Kerri.

"Libby has done her first bit of work in a film with James Norton and she's auditioning for other things, too. She's busier than me at the minute. I know it's a tough world for her to go into, but I think she's a natural and she's got me behind her."

And with that in mind, Kerri says with her long commute to Manchester for Corrie filming days over for the moment, she's fully based in Belfast and wants to reach out to other actors locally.

"It can be really tough," says Kerri. "So I think we could all be a bit more supportive of each other. I don't know if that's with a wee gathering, a cup of coffee every couple of weeks to talk through what we're up to, but I think it's helpful as you get older to ditch the negative people, and hang out more with positive people.

"It's always good to hear what other people are going through and to know you're not on your own. Just for stuff like, I haven't worked in six months, I'm a bit rusty or stressed.

"We're a unique wee community, actors, so sometimes that bit of a laugh and a confidence boost from each other would really help. I'm going to try to make it work."
On Wednesday, cool water bubbled along a sandy channel on the eastern portion of the river bed. The stream was several inches deep and seemed tame, but a tree next to the channel showed how volatile the river can be. Northward-flowing water had swept branches, leaves, grass, and other debris around the tree as high as 10 feet off the ground. The force of the water was still evident, making it look as if a strong wind was still blowing the debris against the tree.

Since the contract for the wall across the river was announced in May, CBP has released little information about what the wall will look like or how it could impact the river.

Will the new wall be made of 30-foot tall bollards, as is the case with wall being built in eastern Cochise County, near Yuma and along the border in Organ Pipe and the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge?

Will it be a bridge-like structure, as CBP officials said in response to a lawsuit last year?

Will water flow through gates in the wall that can be lifted when needed, as is the case in washes near Nogales and Lukeville? Will it have gates that swing open when water pressure builds up, as happens in remote washes east of Sasabe?
DES MOINES  Many followers of the Iowa Legislature and the state lawmakers who work in the state capitol may know Matt Windschitl, the new majority leader in the Iowa House, primarily for his advocacy for gun rights legislation.

The Missouri Valley Republican, who represents portions of Harrison, Ida, Monona and Woodbury counties, is an avid gun rights supporter whose family used to own and operate a gun store. Because of his expertise on and passion for the subject, Windschitl regularly has served as the front man for House Republicans on legislation designed to expand gun rights or loosen gun regulations.

But Windschitl is not an overnight leader of the House Republican caucuses. While his public profile may have been largely tied to gun-related issues and debates, Windschitl has spent much of his 13 years in the Iowa Capitol in myriad leadership positions, rising steadily in the House GOP ranks.

First elected in 2006 as a 22-year-old Marine veteran, then the youngest member of the Iowa Legislature, Windschitl has served as an assistant minority leader, assistant majority leader after Republicans took the House majority in the 2010 elections, and most recently as speaker pro tempore.

So while Windschitl may be a relative unknown to casual followers of the Iowa Legislature, he is a known quantity in the House chambers.

I think he got pigeonholed just a tiny bit. Because we all develop expertise on a topic, right? Just as I used to carry almost every health care bill at one time, hes carried pretty much every Second Amendment bill for a long time, said Linda Upmeyer, a Republican legislator from Clear Lake who has served as Majority Leader and House Speaker. So I think we develop areas where people look to us to kind of handle different things. Yet at the same time  hes been elected to leadership positions (all the) away along, and no single-issue individual can accomplish that.

So as you can imagine, when you have a whole caucus full of very different people with very different ideas, I think what often people look for, I know what I look for, is somebody thats a good listener. And somebody that will, if you decide to move forward with an idea or an issue when a caucus does, theyre going to fight with you, theyre going to help you in every way they can. So I think that is why hes been successful as a leader, and I think hell fit this position well because a whole lot of what the majority leader does is listen and understand where people are so that you can get to 51 votes (a majority in the House).

Windschitl pledged to be just that as majority leader: a listener. Whereas in the past he has ardently advocated for issues near to his heart, Windschitl said in his new leadership role he will take in the will of the entire House Republican caucus and be their megaphone, not his own.

The biggest part of it for me from my perspective is listening, Windschitl said during an interview this week in his new office just behind the House chamber. Thats my job. Right? Its not my job to come out and tell the caucus what their agenda is. Its not my job to bring people back here and twist an arm and say, Youre going to vote this way or that way. Thats not how this should work.

My job is to listen to the caucus, and then help take whatever ideas theyre hearing from back home and turn those into the best pieces of public policy we possibly can. And then bring those things out to the floor and make sure that we are successful and make sure Im successful with our successes.

Windschitl said he has watched legislative leaders  although he declined to say which  use the type of strong-arm, vote-wrangling tactics he described. Windschitl said he saw the way lawmakers responded to that kind of leadership, and that its why he does not plan to lead in a similar fashion.

That led to what, in my opinion, would categorize as poor public policy, poor budgeting principles, and ultimately my colleagues and my success in 2010 (elections), Windschitl said.

Those who know Windschitl well expect him to be a welcoming and fair leader.

Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, said despite their divergent political ideologies, he considers Windschitl a friend. Hall said he and Windschitl have built a friendship having both come to the state capitol as young legislators, and having worked together on occasional western Iowa-centric issues.

Hall said he and Windschitl share another common bond: their dark-haired beards. Hall said the two even occasionally get confused with each other. Although that should start happening less often, as Windschitls continues to grow away from his chin.

Hall said he respects Windschitls devotion to the rules and decorum expected of state lawmakers.

Mostly I would say our friendship is rooted in a mutual respect for the institution, Hall said. He and I both, I think, play a role for our caucus where we keep an eye on the rules, the procedures, how debate occurs in the chamber and making sure that there is respectful decorum while also realizing there are going to be some very heated moments in debate.

That respect for the institution, Hall said, is what makes him confident Windschitl will be a fair majority leader, even when working with minority-party Democrats.

What I know about Matt is he has a strong respect for the institution, making sure that the House as a chamber, in the legislature, as a branch of government will stand up for itself and it will represent a view that wont always reflect both caucuses but it will respect that someday, the people who are here debating it will not be here any longer and we will have someone else sitting in our chair, Hall said. And I know that thats where Matt comes from, and I think that is as strong of a place as you can start when youre working across the aisle.

Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford and the new House speaker, said he expects that Windschitls experience having served in the minority also will inform his leadership as majority leader.

We served in the minority together and we serve the majority together. So you not only know the consequences of being in the minority, but you also worked when you werent winning on issues but you had to try to find maybe a place to get an amendment here or there, Grassley said. So weve been through a lot of that. A lot of our caucus hasnt been in the minority and realized how difficult of a position thats in. So we both recognize the consequences of the decisions that we make, trying to avoid being in that situation again.

Windschitl said he is ready for his new role. He said he has learned from leaders who served before him  including Upmeyer and former speaker Kraig Paulsen  and that he is ready to lead the House Republican caucuses by listening to his colleagues.

I want to listen to what the issues are. I want to listen to what the problems are, and I want to help find the pathway that will bring the most success, Windschitl said. Doesnt mean Im always going to have every answer or the right answer. But there is always an opportunity to hear someones issue or problem from an outsiders perspective, and then to take that step back, look at it from a way that they cant see the canvas thats before them, and say, Heres what I would do if I were you. And you sometimes rely on your own experience your own knowledge. But there are always ways to be helpful, and do so in a respectful fashion, even if you disagree.

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By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is on high alert as the novel coronavirus (nCoV) is spreading to various parts of the world.

As per the data released by the state health department, 288 people have reached the state from places where the nCoV outbreak has been notified.

Of this, 281 have been put under house surveillance and seven are admitted to isolation wards of hospitals.

The department clarified that those under surveillance were suspected cases as they had symptoms like fever, breathing problems and others. It also added that no positive case has been in the state till now.

At the same time, a team of doctors deputed by Union Heath Ministry is visiting the Cochin International Airport.

The team, after examining the arrangements made at the airport for screening and quarantine of passengers, also expressed its satisfaction over the arrangement made there.

It is a team comprising of Dr. Pushpendra Kumar Verma, pulmonologist, Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi; Dr. Ramesh Chandra Meena, internal medicine specialist, Safdurjung Hospital, Delhi; Dr. Shoukathali, DD, National Centre for Disease Control, Calicut; Dr. Hamsa Koya and Dr. Raphel Teddy APHOs, which assessed the facilities at the airport. The team is also expected to visit the Government Medical College, Ernakulam by noon.

As per the data, it is at Kozhikode that most numbers of people had returned to the state from the places where the nCoV outbreak has been notified, 72.

In the case of hospitalization of patients with symptoms similar to that of nCoV, Ernakulam reported the most number of cases, three.

The other cases of hospitalization are from Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, and Thrissur.
Shares of JSW Steel on Monday fell by over 4 per cent after the company reported a 88 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the December 2019 quarter.

The scrip tanked 3.35 per cent to close at Rs 262.85 on the BSE. During the day, it dropped 5 per cent to Rs 258.35.

On the NSE, it fell 4.24 per cent to close at Rs 260.35.

In traded volume terms, 4.64 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE and 1.7 crore units exchanged hands on the NSE.

JSW Steel reported a 88 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 187 crore for the December 2019 quarter, mainly due to lower net sales realisation that pulled down the revenues.

The company had reported a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 1,603 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Its consolidated income during the October-December 2019 period was Rs 18,182 crore, registering a fall of 10.6 per cent over the year-ago period.

"2019, especially the July-September quarter, witnessed an adverse impact of global economic slowdown on the steel industry with the production increasing significantly on one hand and prices falling, on the other hand. Similar trend was seen in the second quarter of 2019-20 in India, which was a major setback for domestic steel manufacturers," the company's Joint MD and Group CFO Seshagiri Rao had told reporters in Mumbai.

During the quarter, net sales realisations declined 7 per cent sequentially and 23 per cent year-on-year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five U.S. cases of the coronavirus that has killed 56 people and sickened 2,000 in China have been confirmed by health officials.

An Arizona patient is being treated Sunday night, as well as an individual identified by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for the virus. Three earlier cases were confirmed in Chicago, Seattle and Orange County, California.

This is a rapidly evolving situation and information will be updated as it becomes available, LA County DPH officials said in a statement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is following up with people who have been in close contact with those patients and are at risk of infection.

Experts have stated that the risk of coronavirus coming to Massachusetts is low but warns people to take precautions as they would in the flu season, by washing hands regularly and covering their mouth when sneezing.

The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever and, in more severe case, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal.
The air is crisp. The roads are icy. Snowy mountains stretch to the sky, surrounding the village of Davos like walls. This valley is the eye of a storm known for its annual gathering of elites. Over 50 years, it has hosted leaders in policy, religion and business. It is called one of the most exclusive gatherings in the world, and this year it is also welcoming young activists.

It is 8am and I stand at the bus stop, awaiting the shuttle that takes me to the congress centre. It is the fourth and final day of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum 2020. During the five minutes that I have awaited the rush hour shuttle, four helicopters have passed through the valley, en route to the meeting. I take a deep breath of cold air.

On the agenda of the final day of our schedule in Davos is an exclusive meeting with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. This was the peak of a week crammed with overwhelming impressions and unbelievable meetings. Around my neck rests a single white lanyard. Many say that Davos is all about this item. For better or worse, it is this plastic card that ultimately guarantees access to one of the most exclusive arenas in contemporary human civilisation. I am on safari in a jungle of elites.

Inside the massive congress centre you find walls in beige, white and blue, cloakrooms with smiling personnel, a massive apparatus for support, rooms with enormous TVs for presentations, rooms for panels and rooms for prayers and rooms for diaper changing. Plush carpets are designed to induce soft acoustics but the halls are filled with a cacophony of conversation. Some of those conversations seem urgent, important. Others seem polite, unbothered.

To walk inside the congress center is like walking inside a newspaper. Or Twitter. The density of impressions are hard to grasp and even harder to describe. Seen from anywhere else in the world, I am in a privileged position as one of few with access. But in here, I am anonymous in a cocktail of celebrities and big-shots.

Days start early and end late. Our agendas are jammed with panels, interviews, meetings and workshops. In between sessions we, like the other guests, mingle. And mingle. And mingle. We run on adrenaline. Decision fatigue strikes hard.

At night, I toss and turn in bed, interrogating impressions and trying to soberly distinguish buzzwords from pure intentions, lip service from dedication, and greenwashing from genuine ambitions. It is exhausting.

During the day, I observe influential attendees eye each other in the corridors, in panels and at coffee tables. Some I recognise  directors of institutions, CEOs of capitalist empires, chairpersons, royals. But many attendees are people that I do not recognise. Out of curiosity, I Google the names I catch on name tags and find that Google auto-fills their surname. I am reminded of how little I know. As I wonder how or why they are attending Davos, I remember that they most certainly wonder the same about me. At the time of my invitation I am 25 years old  significantly younger and astronomically poorer than the average attendee.

 Ivanka Trump avoids question in Davos about her father's impeachment

Long story short: everyone is there. Regardless of your interests, youll find the creme de la creme of that crowd in Davos. Whether you care about issues placed on the table of Lagarde, Merkel, Harari, Thunberg, Cook, Benioff or Will.i.am, you'll find these representatives in Davos. So how did I get here?

A decade ago, Professor Klaus Schwab  the founder of the World Economic Forum  scratched his head as the forum discussed global phenomena in a rapidly changing world. A new generation powered by technology, with tools created specifically for instant information access and information-sharing, was crying out for involvement in shaping the world agenda. And so it was decided that the World Economic Forum would provide a platform for 20- to 30-year-olds to self-organise in city-based hubs. This community came to be called Global Shapers. Ten years down the road, the now almost 10,000 Shapers self-organise in hubs from Dhaka, New York, Caracas to the refugee kamp Kakuma in Kenya. Hubs address local issues such as tree-planting, homelessness and sanitation. And each year, the World Economic Forum grants access for 50 Global Shapers to the Annual Meeting in Davos. Thats how I ended up traveling to snowy Switzerland in the middle of January.

What became clear to me throughout the week at Davos was that behind fancy titles are just people. Its a cliche, but you really dont feel it until youre here. The Davosians slip on ice, spill coffee on their outfits, express discomfort, scroll on their phones, stand in line for the restrooms, charge their gadgets and ask whether the juice is provided for free. And, to our surprise, they are genuinely curious about us.

The week inside the congress centre offers a smorgasbord of panels, sessions and workshops. It is an intellectual delight to attend many of them. These conversations are barely ever recorded nor do they make it to the headlines. But they are world class debates that we get to hear in real time. I find myself hypnotised by the content of some discussions and even as a millennial, I forget about the digital distractions available in my pocket. We are here on the front row and we get to ask questions. Most often, we interrogate assumptions relating to inequality, short-termism, representation, mental health, sustainability and climate.

Outside, a dog and its owner passes by on the sidewalk. Around its neck, the dog carries  you guessed it  a lanyard. We attend notorious nightcaps and luxurious lunches. Alongside fellow attendees  whether CEOs or Shapers, whether from Sao Paolo or Johannesburg  we skip paying the wardrobe fee to drop our bags next to the walls. We have many justified worries, but worrying about the possibility of our saggy bags being stolen at Davos is not one of them.

Davos 2020 - in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Davos 2020 - in pictures Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump walks out of the Marine One helicopter as he arrives for the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures Spotters gather on a viewpoint to take pictures of Air Force One (not pictured), carrying US President Donald J. Donald Trump, as it lands at Zurich Airport, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. Trump arrived in Switzerland to attend the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he arrives for the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures A Secret Service agent takes a photo as the Marine One helicopter carrying U.S. President Donald Trump flies nearby en route to the Word Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures US President Donald J. Trump smiles before addressing a plenary session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Ivanka Trump, special adviser to the president and senior advisor Jared Kushner listen as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures Artists from Fete des Vignerons perform a song "Ranz des Vaches" before U.S. President Donald Trump's speech during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures US President Donald J. Trump (R, red tie) walks in the Congress Centre after addressing a plenary session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses a panel session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg (C) listens to a speech by US President Donald J. Trump at a plenary session during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World' from 21 to 24 January 2020 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump speaks dutring a bilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020 REUTERS Davos 2020 - in pictures Demonstration organized by Juso Schweiz (Young Socialist Party) on the sideline of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2020. The meeting brings together enterpreneurs, scientists, chief executive and political leaders in Davos January 21 to 24 EPA Davos 2020 - in pictures Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 202 Reuters Davos 2020 - in pictures U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with the President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga during a bilateral meeting at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland REUTERS

Once we have reach Friday, we are well-acquainted with this bizarre arena. As I observe these corridors populated by conduits of power, I realise that I have rapidly accepted and adapted to this bubble, too. The outside feels absent. I see the congress centre not just as a representation of the world but as the world itself. This is exactly why civil society was invited in the first place, I suspect. Someone realised that the bubble needed penetrating from the outside.

In the aftermath of Davos, I have more questions than answers. Did my opinion matter? Whose opinion matters? Whose action matters? What action matters? Will this years promises be implemented? If they are, what net difference will it make?

As I leave Switzerland by train, my gaze trails along the landscape outside. Indifferent to titles and money, the snowy forest bows only to the hierarchy of nature. With climate change at the top of the agenda for so many young people like myself, we might hope that humanity can begin to do the same.
Press Release

27 January 2020

Cycas signs deal to operate its first Ibis property in late 2020

The deal marks Cycas's second partnership with Accor this year, with the management company bringing the new greet brand to Germany in autumn

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Cycas Hospitality has signed a management agreement with Zeal Hotels and Sandgate Investors to operate its first property in the South West of England and its second with Accor.

The 144-room new-build Ibis Bridgwater will become the largest internationally-branded hotel in the Somerset town when it opens in Q4 2020. Set within the Woodlands Court Business Park, the five-storey Ibis Bridgwater will feature a Keepers bar and restaurant area, parking for 81 cars plus meeting facilities.

With good proximity to J23 of the M5 and easy access to Bristol, Bristol Airport and Taunton, the hotel will be less than half an hour's drive from the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. As the UK's first newly built nuclear power station in over two decades, the project is expected to create over 25,000 job opportunities.

Asli Kutlucan, Chief Development Officer at Cycas Hospitality, said:"As one of Europe's most ambitious construction projects, it's already clear how the Hinkley Point C development is delivering a huge economic boost to the South West and driving increased investment into Bridgwater itself."

"We are delighted to have secured our second Accor property and to welcome the leading economy brand to the Cycas family. With Ibis's forward-looking reputation, we look forward to working with our partners to capitalise on the growing demand for both business and leisure travellers to the area."

Tim Wheeldon, Managing Director at Zeal Hotels, said: "Given the increasing talk around establishing a South West powerhouse, now is a great time to support the long term regional vision for economic growth by bringing an iconic brand to the area.

"With their reputation for creating memorable guest experiences, we are confident that Cycas Hospitality will help ensure we're in the best position to capitalise on the growing demand for quality accommodation in Bridgwater and beyond."

Following the agreement, Cycas's portfolio now includes 12 hotel brands across five global hotel groups, and the Ibis Bridgwater becomes the company's fifth European property due to open in 2020.
By Rachel Hagan

Reforms have brought growth to the Vietnamese capital, attracting investors as well as those seeking the ultimate bowl of pho.

Growing economy

Vietnam was one of the worlds poorest countries in 1990, with a GDP per capita of $98. However, following economic reform and international initiatives such as signing a US free trade agreement in 2000 and joining the World Trade Organization in 2007, there has been steady growth. GDP per capita exceeded $2,550 at the end of 2018 and the World Bank predicts GDP growth of around 6.5 per cent in both 2020 and 2021.

Hanoi, a city of 7.6 million people, drew more than $5.3bn in foreign direct investment in the first half of 2019, funding technology, research and development, manufacturing and tourism. Multinational employers include Viettel and Nissan, while Samsung plans to open a regional research and development centre in Hanoi in 2022, creating 3,000 jobs.

South of Hanoi, at Tam Goc near Ninh Binh, rowers unusually face forwards as they transport people along the Ngo Dong river

Greener horizons

Nguyen Duc Chung, chair of the Hanoi Peoples Committee, the executive body which runs the city, plans to develop its public transport network and charge motorists for driving in certain areas. Such measures aim to cut congestion and pollution: Hanoi has an Air Quality Index level that has exceeded 200; between 50 and 100 is considered moderately healthy.

Traffic in Hanoi often seems chaotic. The city has said it will charge motorists for driving in some areas

Gateway to the great outdoors

Greener surroundings are close by. The Unesco World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay is a two-and-a-half-hour drive east, offering limestone islands flanking emerald water and secret inlets perfect for swimming or kayaking. The verdant rice fields and quintessentially Vietnamese landscapes of Ninh Binh Province are 90 minutes south of Hanoi by car.

Ha Long Bay is a popular destination near Hanoi

High-end homes market

Hanois architecture is beguiling in parts  a mix of traditional Vietnamese and French colonial styles dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the buildings in the French Quarter, which has tree-lined boulevards and villas reminiscent of Haussmanns Parisian neighbourhoods, are used for government work, hotels and schools, though high-end developments aimed at foreign investors are appearing beyond the city centre.

Local demand for prime homes is also growing. Knight Franks Wealth Report predicts that the number of millionaires in Vietnam will increase by 28 per cent between 2018 and 2023 to 15,776, with ultra-high net-worth individuals in the country (those with more than $30m) rising by 31 per cent to 186 over the same period.

Hanoi Opera House was opened in 1911

Fantastic food

Vietnams five municipalities  Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Da Nang and Hai Phong  offer their own speciality dishes. In Hanoi, it is steaming bowls of pho, a noodle soup with meat and fresh herbs, which gets its deep flavour from bones and spices, simmered together for a day or two. It is best enjoyed in unassuming restaurants such as Pho Thin and Pho Gia Truyen.

Another local delicacy is bun cha, grilled fatty pork on a plate of white rice noodles. The late chef Anthony Bourdain took Barack Obama to Bun Cha Huong Lien during the former US presidents visit to the city in 2016. Dining out on the Obama combo of bun cha, fried seafood rolls and a beer costs an unpresidential 85,000 dong ($3.70).

Pho, pronounced fur, is often cooked overnight and is usually made from fresh herbs and beef stock

Looking for a home in Hanoi? Check out the FTs Property Listings.

Photographs: Dreamstime
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) today announced Servco Pacific Inc. (Servco) and TPG Growth have entered into a sale and purchase agreement in which Servco will acquire TPG's shares in the company. The acquisition is targeted to close in February 2020, subject to certain closing conditions.

"Fender has enjoyed nearly a decade of sustained growth under the joint ownership of Servco and TPG Growth. We thank TPG Growth for their contribution on multiple levels, both strategic and tactical, and for their support to expand into digital products and services," said Andy Mooney, Chief Executive Officer of Fender Musical Instruments Corp. "On an operational level, all will remain the same; Fender will continue with the same exceptional management team who all have been instrumental in our recent growth. We look forward to extending FMIC's long term relationship with Servco who share our core mission to support artists and players at every stage in their musical journey."

"We are extremely proud of the work we've done with Fender's management team to strengthen and solidify Fender's status as a leader and innovator in the world of music," said Scott Gilbertson, Partner at TPG Growth. "Since 2012 we've deployed significant resources to reinvigorate this iconic lifestyle brand. In 2015 we supported Fender's transformation with the addition of Andy Mooney as CEO to reinforce the ongoing improvement of Fender's business, from reenergizing channel relationships and deepening Fender's commitment to product quality and innovation, to engaging directly with consumers, launching market-leading digital learning resources, and reaffirming Fender's unwavering dedication to the artist community. We are grateful for Servco's commitment to Fender and wish them continued success."

"Servco is proud of what Fender has accomplished," added Mark Fukunaga, Chairman and CEO of Servco.

Servco has been involved in the musical instruments industry since 1937, and its relationship with Fender began as a dealer of its products in the 1950's. In 1985, Servco was part of the small investor group that backed industry icon, Bill Schultz, in the buyout of Fender from CBS. Over 25 years later, Servco increased its ownership with the purchase of Weston Presidio's stake in Fender. Through this acquisition, Servco sought to optimize the potential of this iconic music brand and selected TPG Growth as an equal partner in this journey. Fukunaga added "Servco has a 100-year track record that includes stewarding iconic brands through committed, long-term partnerships that span multiple generations. We look forward to deepening our relationship with Andy and the Fender team that will prove beneficial to our community of artists around the world."

Over the last years, Fender has achieved several brand milestones including direct to consumer e-commerce, channeled product innovation (showcased in the most recent launches of the American Acoustasonic and American Ultra series), streamlining manufacturing capabilities, digital innovation with the creation of a newly branched arm and digital products including its hero app, Fender Play. In addition, research and deeper analysis brought data to the brand, enhancing Fender's offerings and improving the service it provides to customers.

For the last 73 years, Fender has revolutionized music and culture as one of the world's leading musical instrument manufacturers, marketers and distributors. The legacy brand is dedicated to supporting artists, from beginners to history-making legends, on every step of their musical journey, taking a player-centric approach to crafting the highest-quality instruments and digital experiences across genres. In 2015, Fender introduced its digital arm with Fender Play and most recently launched Fender Songs to continue to unlock the power of musical expression for all players.

Please find all executive bios, headshots and brand logos available here.

Join the conversation on social media by following @Fender.

ABOUT FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION:

Since 1946, Fender has revolutionized music and culture as one of the world's leading musical instrument manufacturers, marketers and distributors. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC)whose portfolio of brands includes Fender, Squier, Gretsch guitars, Jackson, EVH and Charvelfollows a player-centric approach to crafting the highest-quality instruments and digital experiences across genres. Since 2015, Fender's digital arm has introduced a new ecosystem of products and interactive experiences to accompany players at every stage of their musical journey. This includes innovative apps and learning platforms designed to complement Fender guitars, amplifiers, effects pedals, accessories and pro-audio gear, and inspire players through an immersive musical experience. FMIC is dedicated to unlocking the power of musical expression for all players, from beginners to history-making legends.

ABOUT SERVCO PACIFIC INC.:

Celebrating its 100-year anniversary in 2019, Servco Pacific Inc. is Hawaii's largest privately held company with over $1.8 billion in annual revenues and 2,000 team members spanning Australia, Hawaii, and California. Founded in 1919 (as a two-car repair garage), Servco is now a diversified business with operations in automotive distribution and retail, car sharing, appliance distribution and retail, and venture and growth capital. Through our businesses, we help steward world-class brands including Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Fender, Harley-Davidson, Hui and General Electric. Servco is one of the Top 20 largest automotive dealer groups based in the U.S. and has been recognized as one of the "Best Places to Work in Hawaii" for 15 consecutive years. For additional information, visit www.servco.com.

ABOUT TPG GROWTH:

TPG Growth is the middle market and growth equity investment platform of TPG, the global alternative asset firm. With approximately $14.5 billion of assets under management, TPG Growth targets investments in a broad range of industries and geographies. TPG Growth has the deep sector knowledge, operational resources, and global experience to drive value creation, and help companies reach their full potential. The firm is backed by the resources of TPG, which has more than $119 billion of assets under management. For more information, please visit www.tpg.com.

SOURCE Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
Mumbai will see certain establishments such as cafes and eateries in malls remain open through the night, under the current government's pet project, Mumbai 24x7, from today. Image credit: Cididity Hat [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackerays pet project, Mumbai 24x7 will finally become a reality as certain commercial establishments in the city gear up to remain open throughout the night. While food courts and eateries in malls and mills will remain open, the rule concerning bars and pubs, which puts the deadline as 1:30 am, stays.

The Maharashtra Government has introduced the project in a bid to drive tourism, generate jobs and boost the economy. Critics, however, cite security and the additional manpower and cost associated with keeping establishments open 24x7, to be reasons why such a project may not take off.

Ever since coming to power, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Senas leader has announced a few development plans, initiated work on existing ones, and also reviewed or applied breaks on some projects that were launched by the previous BJP government. We take a look:

Smart Villages scheme: The State Rural Development Department will be increasing the cash prize under the Smart Village scheme which aims to reward villages that perform well in areas such as health, education, cleanliness, environment, use of technology and renewable energy sources. The village that tops under the taluka level will get Rs 20 lakhs, while the topper under the district level, will get Rs 50 lakhs. The current prize money is Rs 10 lakhs and Rs 40 lakhs, respectively. The Government also plans to name it after the late NCP leader, RR Patil.

Food trucks: As part of the Mumbai 24x7 project, Mumbai will have also have food trucks in Juhu Chowpatty, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Girgaum Chowpatty, Worli Seaface, Nariman Point and near NCPA, which will cater to Mumbaikars between 10 pm and 6 a.m. As per reports, the food trucks will be equipped with foldable tables and chairs, while food inspectors will keep a check on the trucks to ensure that they follow correct norms in terms of noise decibels, hygiene and waste disposal practices.

Story continues

Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link: Chief Minister Thackeray launched the first girder of the Mumbai -Trans Harbour Link project at Sewri, Mumbai, on January 15. While the project was first conceived around 45 years ago and was finally cleared in 2012, work began only in May 2018. The 6-lane wide road will connect Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, further connecting to JNPT and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Once completed, the Trans Harbour link will be the longest sea bridge in India. The 22-km long link road, which is estimated to cost Rs 18,000 crore, is expected to be completed by 2022.

Sai Baba Janmabhoomi: A move that has been met with controversy, the Maharashtra Government recently announced a Rs 100 crore grant to Pathri in Marathwada to develop the place as Sai Janmasthan, or the birthplace of Sai Baba under the Pathri Pilgrimage Development Plan. While not much is known about the origins of Sai Baba, it is believed that he was born in Pathri and went to Shirdi in 1858, where he lived for the rest of his life. The move has been a bone of contention as the residents of Shirdi state that since there is no confirmation of the local birthplace of the saint, Pathri cannot claim to be the birthplace of Sai Baba.

Projects that are being reviewed

The Government has also put under review a number of projects that were approved under the BJP Government:

Aarey Metro Car shed: The Uddhav Thackeray led Government had ordered a review of the Aarey Metro Car Shed, which had run into huge controversy after Brihanmumbai Metropolitan Corporation (BMC) approved the felling of over 2,000 trees in Aarey forest for the construction of a metro shed for the 33-km long Colaba-Bandra-Seepz metro line. The Government has also transferred Ashwini Bhide, former Managing Director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), the special purpose vehicle for the Metro 3 after she pressed on with the project and also had a very public fallout with Aaditya Thackeray over the cutting of the trees.

Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train: The Maharashtra Government has also put the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, Prime Minister Narendra Modis ambitious project, under review for the time being. While the project has faced stiff opposition from farmers and tribals over land acquisition, the state government has a debt of nearly Rs 5 lakh crores and is firm on giving unconditional loan waiver to farmers, rather than diverting funds to the project. Japan International Cooperation Agency was to bear 81 per cent of the Rs 1.1 lakh crores required for the project, while the Centre was to put in Rs 10,000 crore and the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat jointly were to put in Rs 5,000 crores.

Mumbai-Pune hyperloop: The proposed Mumbai-Pune hyperloop, which would have transported passengers from Mumbai to Pune in under 35 minutes, as opposed to the current journey time of upwards of three hours, has been put on hold by the government. The government felt that undertaking such a first-of-its-kind project could be a risky proposition and that it should be tried somewhere else before being brought to Maharashtra. While the concept of hyperloop was first introduced by Elon Musk, the USD 10 billion Virgin Hyperloop One project was being pushed by Virgin Atlantics Richard Branson. The Devendra Fadnavis government had accorded infrastructure status to the Hyperloop One project.



Raigad refinery: The Maharashtra Government has also put under review the proposed Rs 3 trillion Nanar Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex, which was to be jointly developed with Saudi Arabias Aramco. Announced by the previous BJP government, the project had met with stiff opposition from 14 villages in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg which would have been affected by the project. The current Government has also released dropped cases against 23 protestors who had been taking part in anti-project protests for the past three years.
spacex has been forced to delay today's launch of another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit.

The cluster of satellites was set to be launched at 9:49 ET (14:49 GMT) from Cape Canaveral but SpaceX announced via Twitter it was standing down.

'Strong upper level winds' were cited as the reason for the cancellation and it is now scheduled for launch tomorrow at 9:28 am EST (14:28 GMT).

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, wants to send thousands of satellites into space to beam internet down to all of Earth's inhabitants.

The minor setback will not deter SpaceX as it presses on with its controversial mission to beam down internet for all via an interconnected satellite constellation.

However, astronomers have condemned the project since the first launch in May 2019 over fears it will blot out the night sky and make scientific research more difficult.

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SpaceX announced on twitter that it was forced to 'stand down' following strong upper level winds. it also confirmed it will be launching tomorrow at 9:28 am EST (14:28 GMT)

SpaceX has been forced to delay today's launch of another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. The cluster of satellites was set to be launched at 9:49 ET (14:49 GMT) from Cape Canaveral

'Strong upper level winds' were cited as the reason for the cancellation and it is now scheduled for launch tomorrow at 9:28 am EST (14:28 GMT)

Many stargazers and scientists have reported seeing a train of the satellites over the past few months in what would have been a clear night sky.

University of Alabama astronomer Bill Keel told the AFP that the sighting of the first Starlink satellite train had experts trying to extrapolate what effect artificial constellations of such steady brightness might have as they grow in number.

Fears developed, he said, that 'in 20 years or less, for a good part the night anywhere in the world, the human eye would see more satellites than stars.'

However, SpaceX believes this project will do more good than harm, as 'Starlink will provide fast, reliable internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable,' the company writes in its mission description.

However, astronomers have condemned the project since the first launch in May 2019 over fears it will blot out the night sky and make scientific research more difficult. Many stargazers and scientists have reported seeing a train of the satellites (pictured) over the past few months in what would have been a clear nigh sky.

The satellites are designed to provide broadband coverage across the world's surface.

Today's cancelled launch would have put the third operational batch of satellites into orbit around the Earth, bringing Starlink's budding infrastructure to a total of 180.

Instead, the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket will now launch from Cape Canaveral tomorrow.

Each spacecraft weighs just 575lbs (260kg) and will form part of the larger Starlink constellation.

Satellites will eventually orbit 341 miles above Earth and the main rocket will land on the 'Of Course I Still Love You' droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Approximately 45 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX's two fairing recovery vessels, 'Ms. Tree' and 'Ms. Chief,' will attempt to recover the two nosecone pieces.

According to weather forecasts, there was an approximate 50 per cent chance of today's launch going ahead.

The forecast for tomorrow looks clearer, with around 80 per cent chance of suitable weather conditions.

The minor setback will not deter SpaceX as it presses on with its controversial mission to beam down internet for all via an interconnected satellite constellation. Skygazers have repeatedly bemoaned the shiny spacecraft

Dozens of satellites have already been launched and Musk has received clearance from the relevant authorities to send thousands more into orbit.

The previous launch on January 6 featured one satellite covered in a dark coating designed to appease to appease disgruntled astronomers.

It is hoped the anti-reflective test material will be the first step in a compromise to allow Starlink to thrive while not interfering with views of space from Earth.

Last month, astronomers called plans for the high-speed global internet a 'tragedy' and said they are getting in the way of key scientific observations.

'The night sky is a commons  and what we have here is a tragedy of the commons,' Imperial College London astrophysicist Dave Clements told the BBC.

The proposed constellations, he added, 'present a foreground between what we're observing from the Earth and the rest of the Universe.

'So they get in the way of everything. And you'll miss whatever is behind them, whether that's a nearby potentially hazardous asteroid or the most distant quasar in the Universe.'

The satellites will be a particular menace to large-scale surveys of the sky, like Chile's planned Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

'What we want to do with LSST and other telescopes is to make a real-time motion picture of how the sky is changing,' explained Dr Clements.

'Now we have these satellites that interrupt observations, and it's like someone's walking around firing a flashbulb every now and again.'

SpaceX is looking into the potential to make the satellites less reflective, in a bid to reduce their interference with astronomers on Earth.

One specific craft in tonight's launch is fitted with a less-reflective surface to reduce glare and is being used as a test case to see how it affects its performance.

Laura Forczyk, a space analyst, said the measures' effectiveness was still uncertain.

Researchers fear that SpaceX's artificial constellation of broadband-providing satellites (pictured) could increasingly spoil views of the night sky and hinder astronomy

'SpaceX has not yet eased the minds of astronomers concerned about the reflectivity of their Starlink satellites,' she told AFP.

'The real test will be the days following launch when the smallsats are close together and in a lower altitude before ascending to their final orbit. Astronomers and stargazers will be able to compare the brightness of this current batch of smallsats compared to previous versions.'

Another criticism of more crowded skies is it will result in expensive collisions between satellites, potentially creating thousands of pieces of new space junk.

SpaceX says it has a plan for that, too: its Starlink satellites deploy at an altitude of 290 kilometers (180 miles) and then engage their ion thrusters to reach an orbit of 550 kilometers (340 miles).

At the end of their life-cycles, the satellites will use their propulsion systems to de-orbit over the course of a few months - or if these fail, they will burn up naturally in the atmosphere in under five years, compared to the thousands of years required at higher altitudes.
(CNN)  China's health minister Ma Xiaowei made a startling statement Sunday about the Wuhan coronavirus: He said people can spread it before they become symptomatic.

"This is a game changer," said Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's much harder to contain a virus  to track down a patient's contacts and quarantine them immediately  if the patient was spreading the disease for days or weeks before they even realized they had it.

"It means the infection is much more contagious than we originally thought," said Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "This is worse than we anticipated."

Ma didn't explain why he thinks the virus can be spread before someone has symptoms. If the Chinese health minister is right  and there are those who doubt him  that means the five confirmed cases in the United States might have been infectious while traveling from Wuhan to Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington state, even if they had no symptoms at the time.

On Sunday, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the risk to the American public for contracting this virus continues to be low.

"We at CDC don't have clear evidence that patients are infectious before symptom onset, but we are actively investigating that possibility," Messonnier said.

"We need to be preparing as if this is a pandemic, but I continue to hope that it is not," she added.

The Wuhan coronavirus has killed more than 50 people in China and infected thousands there, and spread as far as the US, France and Canada.

'We're going to have to reevaluate our strategy'

US health officials believe the Wuhan virus has an incubation period of about two weeks, CDC officials said Friday during a media briefing.

"Based on what we know now about this virus, our concern for transmission before symptoms develop is low, so that is reassuring," Dr. Jennifer Layden, an epidemiologist with the Illinois Department of Health, said at the Friday briefing.

The update on Sunday from the Chinese health minister should encourage health officials to change that thinking, some infectious disease experts told CNN.

"Assuming that Ma is correct, we're going to have to re-evaluate our strategy, that's for sure," Schaffner said.

Dr. Paul Offit, another longtime CDC adviser, said given Ma's news, he thinks health officials should alert people on the flights that the three US patients took from Wuhan that they might have traveled with someone who was infectious.

"I think the conservative thing to do would be to cast a wider net," he said.

NIH doctor wants US to inspect Chinese data

The United States' top infectious disease doctor wants a team of CDC disease detectives to go to China and check on these crucial questions about how the Wuhan coronavirus is spreading.

But there's something stopping them: China first has to invite the CDC.

"Up to now, to my knowledge, we have not been invited," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, said Sunday.

NIH and CDC are separate divisions of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The implications of Ma's statement that the coronavirus is transmissible before symptoms are so important "that in my mind it's absolutely critical that we ourselves see the data, because what goes on over there has implications for what happens here," Fauci said.

He added that to his knowledge, the Chinese did not tell US health authorities that the virus could spread before someone is symptomatic, a crucial aspect of any disease investigation. He said he learned about it after reading a CNN reporter's email.

Fauci said that CDC disease detectives would need to see precisely how Chinese health authorities have gathered their data and how they came to their conclusion.

"To my knowledge, we have not seen the precise minute, granular data and how they collected it," he said. "We need to get to the real bottom line of how they collected their data and see if it's valid."

"The Chinese have good people. I don't want to impugn their capabilities," Fauci added. "But when it's something as important as this, our people who are trained epidemiologists need to go over their data and the best way to do that is go there and see how they're collecting it."

CDC's Messonnier said Sunday the CDC has staff in China, but the team is not directly involved in the Wuhan coronavirus response. The agency hopes to have "additional engagement" on the outbreak in China in the coming days, she said.

In a tweet on Sunday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "I am on my way to Beijing, [China] to meet with the Government & health experts supporting the #coronavirus response. My @WHO colleagues & I would like to understand the latest developments & strengthen our partnership with [China] in providing further protection against the outbreak."

Are Chinese officials right?

In a fast-spreading, evolving outbreak like this one, information often changes.

Some experts are skeptical because of the lack of data from China.

"I seriously doubt that the Chinese public officials have any data supporting this statement," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "I know of no evidence in 17 years of working with coronaviruses  SARS and MERS  where anyone has been found to be infectious during their incubation period."

Severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome are both caused by coronaviruses. While each has killed hundreds of people worldwide, together they amounted to only a handful of cases and no deaths in the United States.

Offit, on the other hand, said it wouldn't surprise him if the Chinese health minister is right and the Wuhan coronavirus can be spread while people are asymptomatic. Measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox all spread that way, he said.

Despite that, he said he's optimistic that the US can control the outbreak before it gets out of hand, as it has in China.

That's because the spread of the outbreak doesn't just rely on the time period of contagiousness. It also relies on how easily the virus spreads. Some viruses,such as measles, spread easily even to people on the other side of a room. Other viruses spread only with much closer contact.

"My gut says we're going to be able to contain this real quick  we're going to be able to put a moat around this fire," said Offit, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "I think this is going to be much more like SARS or MERS than the movie 'Contagion.' "

"But then," the Philadelphia-based doctor said, "I'm an Eagles fan, so I tend to be optimistic about things."

This story was first published on CNN.com 'China says coronavirus can spread before symptoms show  calling into question US containment strategy'
Protesters set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building in Hong Kong on Sunday (January 26) that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility for the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier in the afternoon, hundreds of Hong Kong citizens blocked roads leading to the public housing block in the Fanling district as anger increased over government plans to convert it into a quarantine zone. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the city climbed to six on Sunday.

The fire was later put out by firefighters and the damage appeared to be confined to the lobby area. Hundreds of riot police also moved in, arresting at least one person.

As fears about the virus outbreak intensify, calls have grown for Hong Kong's government to block the financial hub's border with mainland China to minimise the risk of infection.

Hong Kong's government said on Sunday it will ban residents of China's Hubei province, where the new coronavirus outbreak was first reported, or people who have visited Hubei in the past 14 days from entering the city from Monday (January 27).
War of Worlds tickets offered

The Butte-Silver Bow Public Library is offering complimentary Check out the Performing Arts'' tickets to the Butte Symphony, Mother Lode series, and Community Concert events.

The offer is co-sponsored by the performing groups.

Coming up at the Mother Lode is the War of the Worlds at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5.

Library cardholders may present their card for one complimentary ticket, one week in advance of a performance. Tickets are presented on a first-come, first-serve basis, and you must have your library card in hand.

Library vouchers must be brought to the ticket office in order to be exchanged for actual tickets. Details: 406-723-3361.

Warm Springs Ponds talk Feb. 5

ANACONDA  A discussion on the Warm Springs Ponds will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, at the Metcalf Senior Center, 115 E. Pennsylvania, Anaconda. Free pizza and drinks will be served.

Panelists include representatives for the Environmental Protection Agency, State of Montana, Citizens Technical Environmental Committee, Atlantic Richfield, and Trout Unlimited.

Topics will include: Whats in the Warm Springs Ponds and why are they located where they are? Who is responsible for operating the ponds and what about Superfund? What does the future hold?

Musician, filmmaker coming to Chateau

The Historic Clark Chateau will host Drew Danburry of Missoula in a free musical performance at 7 p.m. Saturday Feb. 8.

The event is sponsored by The Root and The Bloom Collective nonprofit. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Clark Chateau and its programs. Light refreshments will be provided.

Danburry is a musician and filmmaker and will perform the soundtracks and songs from several of his short films as they are projected in the Chateau.

Danburry has independently toured and released records since 2002. Hes released over 400 songs on over 20 albums. Hes performed at Pop Montreal, Pygmalion Music Festival and the 20th Anniversary Block Party of Kilby Court featuring Death Cab for Cutie. His films have been screened in film festivals both here in the US and internationally.

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Popular Nigerian relationship therapist, Joro Olumofin has shared a piece of advice to ladies who ask men for money.

Olumofin stated that he was not in support of ladies that make requests.

According to him, if a lady must ask, then she should ask the right things and place them in a better position.

READ ALSO  Start Recruiting Backup BF Joro Olumofin Tells Ladies

Olumofin pointed that, instead of asking for an iPhone, wig, shoes and a list of material items, ladies should ask for 500k, lands, employment and more.

See His Post Here:
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is all set to bring a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is all set to bring a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the West Bengal Assembly on Monday, the fourth such state to do so after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan passed resolutions against the contentious law.

The TMC's decision comes amid mounting criticism by the major anti-BJP parties in the state for not passing a resolution opposing CAA.

State parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said the TMC had submitted a resolution under rule 169 to the Assembly Speaker on 20 January, which will come up in the House on 27 January.

Faced by a lot of "rumours and canards" from the fellow Opposition parties over its position regarding CAA and National Population Register, Chatterjee said they "do not need lessons from others on how to continue its fight against CAA-NPR-NRC".

He said they would appeal to all the Opposition parties to extend support to the resolution so that its approved unanimously.

Adoption of the resolution in the House would not be a difficult task considering the fact that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's party on its own enjoys an overwhelming majority in the 295-member Bengal Assembly.

When asked whether the government was also mulling to move to the Supreme Court to challenge the law, Chatterjee said: "The government and the party will fight it out on the streets and then take a call if needed, whether to move a court or not."

After Kerala and Punjab, Rajasthan became the third state to pass a resolution against the CAA last week. Even Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said the state Assembly may pass a resolution against the CAA. Rao said he has already spoken to many of his counterparts in other states and he may convene a conclave of regional parties and chief ministers to oppose the CAA since it concerns the country's future.

The Left Front and the Congress have been criticising the TMC government for not adopting a resolution against the CAA. The West Bengal Assembly has earlier passed an all-party resolution, baring BJP, against NRC in September last year.

In January this year, during a one-day special session, the Congress and Left Front wanted to bring a resolution against CAA. But their demand was turned down by the government, drawing sharp criticism from both the parties which had termed TMC as "B team" of the BJP in Bengal.

Banerjee's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on 11 January had further sharpened the charge of a "political match-fixing between the two parties".

The TMC had trashed the allegations as baseless. Congress and the Left Front have welcomed the TMC's move to bring the resolution as a "positive step".

Praising the initiative, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Abdul Mannan of the Congress said it's better that the TMC realised the necessity for such a resolution.

"When we had said, they had opposed it. But it is better TMC has decided to bring it, at least they have realised the need for such a resolution," Mannan said.

Left Front Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty said: "We want an anti-CAA resolution to be passed but, would not take a call unless and until we have a look at the resolution brought in by the TMC government."

BJP legislature party leader Manoj Tigga said they would oppose the move as it is "unconstitutional" to bring a resolution against a law (CAA) which has been passed in the Parliament.

The new legislation to give citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi, Jan 27 : A Delhi sessions court on Monday dismissed the application challenging recent magisterial order that rejected the plea questioning the credibility of the sole witness in the Nirbhaya gangrape and fatal assault case, claiming he was tutored and his statement was not credible.

Additional Sessions Judge A.K. Jain pronounced the order on the plea filed on Thursday by Heera Lal Gupta, father of Nirbhaya death-row convict Pawan Gupta.

On January 6, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sudhir Kumar Sirohi had dismissed the application of the convict's father questioning the credibility of the sole eyewitness in the case.

The complaint cited some recent media reports that alleged the witness charged money to appear for interviews on news channels, advocate A.P. Singh said.

The eyewitness, a friend of 23-year-old victim, was accompanying her in the bus when the incident took place. He had also sustained injuries.

"This calls for an independent investigation into the perjury that appears to have been committed by him (witness), as being the sole witness his testimony has strongly influenced the outcome of the case leading to death penalty," the complaint said.

While citing the media reports, the advocate said, "On the basis of said facts and circumstances, it's clear his testimony was false and fabricated. This goes to the root of his testimony. If established, it would show that the testimony is false." The victim was gangraped and tortured on December 16, 2012, which led to her death. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused, a minor, appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another committed suicide in Tihar Jail.

Four convicts were sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013. The verdict was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2017, which also dismissed their review petition in July 2018.
Photo: Unsplash

You can leave your umbrella at home for today, but light rainfall is in the forecast for San Antonio starting on Tuesday, according to the seven-day forecast from drone-powered weather service Saildrone. The best chance of rain is predicted on Tuesday at 70 percent, with the possibility of light rainfall of 0.25 inches.

The immediate forecast also has light winds in store for today. Winds are predicted to climb as high as 19 mph on Tuesday, while today will be calmer with a top speed of just 11 mph.

Temperatures will reach their low point for the week on Thursday, falling to 55 degrees, and remain cool through Friday. Skies will be partly cloudy today and clear on Wednesday.

This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
CHICAGO  Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday signed Executive Order 2020-02 to address racial disparities in responding to the opioid crisis by establishing the Governors Opioid Overdose Prevention and Recovery Steering Committee.

Illinois is also dedicating $4.1 million state dollars to expand recovery and prevention services for individuals with opioid use disorder in all corners of the state.

State Sen. Rachelle Crowe, D-Glen Carbon, praised Pritzkers actions. On Jan. 16, she hosted a meeting of the Senate special committee on Opioid Crisis Abatement in Granite City to hear testimony from state and local agencies.

I commend the governors work to fight against opioid abuse, Crowe said. As members of the Senates Opioid Crisis Abatement Committee have studied this crisis, weve been able to identify areas lacking support and ways to improve access to opioid addiction prevention and treatment programs.

Ive been meeting with experts from state and local agencies to draft initiatives addressing the discrepancies in resources and will soon introduce legislation to curb the opioid epidemic, she said. I thank Gov. Pritzker and his administration for prioritizing this burden affecting thousands across our state. I look forward to his partnership.

This year, Illinois saw the first decrease in five years in opioid overdose deaths. Despite the decrease, opioid overdose deaths among white residents in Illinois decreased 7% in 2018 while deaths among African Americans increased 9.1% and deaths among Latinos increased by 4.3%.

Pritzker said the state will coordinate innovative, evidence-based approaches in partnership with harm-reduction organizations, establish local systems of care in disproportionately impacted communities, and create a comprehensive statewide opioid plan.

Illinois has made great strides in responding to the opioid crisis that has swept the nation,but our work wont be done until all our residents have the opportunity to live their most fulfilling lives, he said.

The Governors Office in conjunction with the states Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council will create an Opioid Social Equity Committee to make policy recommendations regarding how to address social and racial disparities in the opioid crisis response. They will also establish local recovery-oriented systems of care councils in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the crisis in order to reach out to and engage individuals in all stages of recovery.

The Executive Order also focuses on harm reduction strategies that promote safer use of opioids to save lives. These strategies will help reduce both the risks of infectious HIV, HCV and Hepatitis A and fatal overdoses. This includes supervised consumption sites, where individuals with opioid use disorder are under the supervision of trained staff with the goal of ensuring the safety of both the individual and the general public.

Last year Pritzker signed the Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Act which focuses on harm reduction and allows for the establishment and operation of a needle and hypodermic syringe access program or syringe services programs to help prevent the spread of infection and disease. An additional $500,000 will be invested in the syringe services programs.

The administration will invest $550,000 to encourage doctors to prescribe medication assisted treatment (MAT) for individuals with opioid use disorder. Another $2.75 million will be invested in overdose prevention. This includes investments in the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to ensure that first responders and treatment providers can respond in real time when there is a spike in overdoses in a community. This response will include overdose prevention training, local public awareness messages, and the purchase of 50,000 doses of naloxone to put directly in the hands of community residents.

To increase transparency and accessibility of resources, the state will also create a comprehensive online repository that streamlines and makes available all opioid use disorder prevention, treatment and recovery resources.
WASHINGTON - Observe Mitch McConnell from the balcony above the Senate gallery on a given night of President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, and it's hard to tell whether the Republican majority leader from Kentucky is listening, reading, praying or deep asleep. The difference between those states approaches zero anyway, as the trial concludes its first week and heads into an interminable second.

"I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted, and I can only imagine how you feel," lead impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff told the senators late Friday, effectively reading the room. His closing arguments for removing Trump from office were greeted with near-constant fidgeting, coughing, throat-clearing, dozing and open-mouth yawns among the audience of 100, who had by then sat through nearly 40 hours of proceedings in four days.

Reporters in the upper galleries speculated on which lawmakers might be coming down with colds. The scribes had been forbidden from sleeping during the trial, and handwritten notes taped to their desks warned: "No leaning - AT ALL TIMES. Thanks!"

A small girl in the public viewing balcony flagrantly violated both rules as Schiff pressed on into the dark hours.

The president "solicited the interference of a foreign government in the 2020 election," he said, and Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, slumped sideways in his chair.

"He is the state!" Schiff cried, as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, rocked back and forth.

"Are the blessings of freedom so meager we cannot endure the fatigue of a fair trial with documents and witnesses?" Schiff implored. In the front row, the limbs of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., splayed out beyond the confines of his desk like a squashed spider.

Earlier in the week, several senators had been caught napping (McConnell was not among them, despite his mantis-like tranquility), and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., handed out fidget spinners to his colleagues. Some suspect that Republican leaders designed the trial to be exhausting and boring - the better to acquit Trump of abuse of power and obstruction at its semiconscious end.

"We're actually used to the long hours," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., explained between sessions. "What we're not used to is sitting in the chairs. I always suspected those chairs would not be particularly comfortable for the long term, and they're not."

Never has it been more apparent that the vaunted Senate chamber is functionally identical to a second-grade classroom: tiny desks, assigned seats, and the occupants forbidden from talking during lectures under "pain of imprisonment."

It's even more grueling outside the chamber, in the labyrinthine hallways and tunnels of the Capitol complex, where aides, pages, cooks, laborers and a small army of police endure the trial's long hours, many of them chairless.

Workers arrive in the frigid morning, hours before the Senate convenes for the day, and assume airport security positions beside the metal detectors. Crotches are wanded, purses are searched. On the fifth morning of the trial, a Capitol police officer guarding the main corridor said "How are you doing today?" to a passerby, then added to herself, "Oh I'm sleepy!"

"The days are sort of running together," said Tona Boyd, the chief counsel for Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. The office has been preparing for the trial since last year, and although the trial has not yet reached the phase where senators are allowed to ask questions, Boyd is subsisting on minimal sleep and her husband's spaghetti during days that can stretch from 7:45 a.m. until 2:30 the next morning.

"I'd be afraid to take a nap; that just would not end," she said. "We're exhausted . . . [but] even though these are really hard and long days, you feel like you're a part of history and that sustains us."

It sustains some. "I am one pooped puppy," Murkowski told The Washington Post's Paul Kane as she left the Capitol late Thursday, declaring her intention to take a bath and drink a glass of wine before returning.

As one of the few Republican senators who might conceivably vote to convict Trump, Murkowski has been unable to traverse the building without a cloud of reporters and microphones accompanying her every step. As this fused organism entered the Capitol on the first day of the Trump defense team's statements on Saturday - yes, Saturday; there is no escape - a reporter at the edge of Murkowski's tornado spilled her coffee. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., sprang forth with a wad of napkins and helped mop it up before Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., ambled past, carrying his own mug of caffeine with a paw print on the side.

Probably no one will be crying for the tired senators, who get to come and go when they want and do as they please for the vast majority of American history - save these rare moments. The first presidential impeachment trial lasted more than two months. The second, Bill Clinton's, went for five weeks. McConnell is trying to wrap up Trump's in less than two weeks, but even one was enough to turn one of the world's most esteemed legislative institutions into a sleepover camp of clumsy, cranky, anxious, dozy captives of history and the Constitution.

Some senators filed through the Capitol basement at the end of Saturday's proceedings, boarding congressional subway cars that whisked them toward their offices and whatever passed for a weekend.

Asked what he planned to do with his day off on Sunday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., appeared momentarily confused. "I'm going back to Connecticut," he said. "I have plans, but . . ."

The train door closed in his face and he vanished down the tunnel. The trial resumes Monday, the only plan that matters.
The second largest Ukrainian mobile communications operator, Vodafone Ukraine, on January 28, 2020 will start holding meetings with investors, after which the operator plans to place debut U.S. dollar-pegged eurobonds, a source in banking circles has told Interfax-Ukraine.

The source said that J.P. Morgan, Raiffeisen Bank International, Dragon Capital, and ICBC Standard Bank will organize the issue of the bonds.

It is planned that the five-year notes will be placed with two-year option. The road show will be held in London, New York and Boston and will end on January 31, the source said.

As reported, NEQSOL Holding through Telco Solutions and Investments LLC, controlled by Bakcell, last year signed an agreement with PJSC MTS to purchase its telecommunications business in Ukraine. The purchase transaction for Vodafone Ukraine was closed at the end of December 2019 with funding raised from J.P. Morgan and RBI, the price was $734 million, including deferred payment of about $84 million.

In April 2019, PrJSC VF-Ukraine issued eurobonds in the amount of EUR 90 million with a coupon yield of 9.2% per annum. The operator planned to use the proceeds from their placement mainly for the acquisition of LTE licenses and partially for the construction of the network.
The rupee declined by 10 paise to settle at 71.43 against the US dollar on Monday, amid heavy selling in domestic equities following increasing concerns over spreading of coronavirus from China to other countries.

Forex traders said the Indian rupee and bonds declined in line with other Asian peers after intensifying coronavirus spread from China to other countries. However, easing crude oil prices supported the domestic unit.

This is the third straight session of loss for the Indian currency during which it has eroded 24 paise.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened on a weak note at 71.51. During the day, the local unit gained some ground and finally settled for the day at 71.43 against the US dollar, down 10 paise over its previous close.

The domestic unit had settled at 71.33 against the American currency on Friday.

"The rupee weakened as the global markets witnessed sell off on back of coronavirus getting spread widely in Central China. Foreign institutional investors pulled out money and rupee witnessed weakness," sad Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst (Commodity & Currency) at LKP Securities.

China continued to reel under deadly coronavirus epidemic on Monday with the death toll due to it sharply rising to 80 amid the country's National Health Commission reporting 2,744 confirmed cases of the fatal affliction till date.

Meanwhile, on the domestic market front, the 30-share BSE index settled 458.07 points, or 1.10 per cent, lower at 41,155.12. Likewise, the broader NSE Nifty closed 129.25 points, or 1.06 per cent, down at 12,119.

Meanwhile, global crude benchmark Brent was trading 3.30 per cent lower at USD 58.69 per barrel, amid expected demand slump over rising Coronavirus cases in China.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bulgaria has moved up to 58th among 73 nations in a yearly survey of the world's best countries commissioned by U.S. News & World Report magazine.



Based on 65 attributes relevant to the success of a nation assessed by more than 20,000 people around the globe, the survey found that Bulgaria scored highest in quality of life and citizenship.

Last year, Bulgaria ranked 67th.

Nearly 17 percent of the rankings weight went toward the extent to which a nation cares about human rights, gender equality, and the environment. Here, Bulgaria earned 36 points.



The Balkan nation performed best in the extent to which a job market is robust and life is affordable and family-friendly, scoring 35 points.



Located in the southeastern corner of the Balkans, Bulgaria sits at the junction of Europe and Asia, the report summarized. Its location has made it susceptible to invasions in the past, but it also has provided a rich culture -- the country is the birthplace of the Cyrillic script.



Other Balkan nations in the ranking include Greece (27), Turkey (35), Croatia (44), Romania (54), and Serbia (72).



Switzerland ranked first, followed by Canada and Japan. Russia ranked 23rd, Azerbaijan 61st, Kazakhstan 66th, Ukraine 68th, and Belarus 70th.

The United states placed seventh, bolstered by the perception that it is the most powerful country in the world. Though it scored highly for its entrepreneurship and cultural influence, the United States suffered from the sharpest drop in global trust since 2016.

In 2016 the country elected Donald Trump president, the report stated. Trump's rhetoric and stances on issues including immigration and foreign trade have raised questions around the world, including from the countrys closest allies, about the nations future course on the global stage.



The model used to score and rank countries was developed by brand strategy consultancy BAV Group and the University of Pennsylvania.



Explaining the report's methodology, the magazine wrote: The 2020 Best Countries report and rankings are based on how global perception define countries in terms of a number of qualitative characteristics, impressions that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment, and directly affect national economies.



Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund said that Bulgaria is on track to adopt the euro currency by 2023.



The countrys plans to adopt the currency by that year are completely foreseeable, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told Radio Bulgaria on January 26.



Bulgaria has been a member of the European Union since 2007. Nineteen of the blocs 28 countries are in the eurozone.



My expectations are that the plans for Bulgarias eurozone entry will happen exactly as made, Georgieva said.

With reporting by Reuters and Radio Bulgaria
Tunisian blogger dies, symbol of Jasmine Revolution Lina Ben Mhenni, 36, was ill

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JANUARY 27 - Lina Ben Mhenni, Tunisian blogger, journalist, free-speech champion and human rights activist, died on Monday at age 36 following a long autoimmune illness in which she was forced to have a kidney transplant. Her blog became famous worldwide during the Jasmine Revolution in 2011 in Tunisia and was often considered "the voice of the Tunisian Revolution".



Mhenni went to Sidi Bouzid, where the activist Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December 2010 to protest against economic conditions in Tunisia.



Bouzid died on January 4, 2011.



Mhenni, on her blog, was the first to tell about what was happening.



In 2011, with the publishing house Indigene, she published the book 'Tunisian Girl, blogueuse pour un printemps arabe', in which she told her story as an independent blogger and protester, before and after the revolution.



In 2011 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and received many other recognitions over the years, including the Rome Prize for Peace and Humanitarian Action, the prize for Best International Reporter of Spanish daily El Pais in 2011, the Sean MacBride Peace Prize, the Minerva Prize for Political Action, and the Ischia International Journalism Prize in 2014.



Mhenni, daughter of well-known Tunisian activist Sadok Ben Mhenni, in the years following the revolution became increasingly interested in people's problems, denouncing violations of human rights and abuses of power, and even ended up living under protection due to death threats she received. Recently she had enthusiastically joined the #EnaZeda movement, the Tunisian version of the worldwide #MeToo movement, in defense of all Tunisian women victims of harassment.



Journalists and civil society in Tunisia are expressing great condolences over Mhenni's death.(ANSAmed).




[January 27, 2020] Small businesses are invited to propose innovative solutions to new challenge

Government of Canada launches new secure software challenge OTTAWA, Jan. 27, 2020 /CNW/ - As the single largest purchaser of goods and services within Canada, the federal government is using procurement to help Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) start up, grow and scale up. Through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Challenge Stream, the Government of Canada invites SMEs to propose innovations that address specific government challenges. Successful applicants may receive up to $150,000 to develop a proof of feasibility. If accepted into Phase 2, SMEs could receive up to $1 million to develop a working prototype. By funding the development of innovations, the Government helps SMEs accelerate their journey to market and create good middle-class jobs across Canada. Today, ISC launched the following challenge led by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE): Secure and confidential rule matching

The CSE is seeking to build a system that would evaluate the pattern matching signatures in insecure environments without revealing the signatures themselves or the portions of the corpus matching those signatures. Innovative Solutions Canada is a key component of the government's Innovation and Skills Plan, a multi-year plan to make Canada a global innovation leader and prepare Canadians to succeed in tomorrow's economy.



Quotes "Our government is using its purchasing power to help small businesses innovate and become more competitive. Through Innovative Solutions Canada, we're accessing quality, innovative products that help solve some of our most pressing challenges, while businesses are growing and creating good jobs."

 The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"This is a small businessfriendly government that is working hard to reduce red tape and make it easier for Canadian small business owners to start up, scale up and access new markets. Innovative Solutions Canada is a fantastic program that uses government procurement to help small businesses develop and then commercialize their innovations. These are worthy new challenges, and I can't wait to see the ideas from Canadian small businesses. When small businesses in communities across the country succeed, our economy grows and middle-class jobs are created."

 The Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade "This challenge aims to develop a solution that would enable CSE to leverage classified cybersecurity knowledge in unclassified government and critical infrastructure networks. This CSE research project is an example of how CSE encourages partnerships in developing innovative cybersecurity solutions for the benefit of all Canadians."

 The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence Quick facts Innovative Solutions Canada helps Canadian innovators by funding R&D and testing prototypes in real-life settings. Its two streams have a combined funding of over $140 million dedicated to Canadian innovators who want to start up, grow, and get to market. Innovators can sign up to receive updates on the Innovative Solutions Canada program.

dedicated to Canadian innovators who want to start up, grow, and get to market. Innovators can sign up to receive updates on the Innovative Solutions Canada program. There are hundreds of programs and services that offer everything from funding to expert advice to help businesses innovate, create jobs and grow Canada's economy. Using a simple, story-based user interface, the Innovation Canada platform can match businesses with the most fitting programs and services in about two minutes. Associated link Innovative Solutions Canada Challenges Stay connected Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ISED_CA SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

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COLUMBIA, Mo., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- FairCom Corporation, one of the world's most trusted database solution providers, announced today that Brent Farr has joined the company as its senior director of sales for North America. Farr brings a dynamic resume of enterprise technology sales leadership and strategic analysis expertise to his new position.

Farr will play a key role in increasing FairCom's presence in the database market by overseeing sales efforts for the FairCom family of products and expanding programs, such as professional services. FairCom's product line includes the c-treeACE unified multimodel database, the c-treeEDGE IoT Database and the c-treeRTG data management solutions for legacy systems.

Prior to joining FairCom, Farr held sales leadership positions at CenturyLink, Microsoft and Novell. He also served in roles of sales/marketing manager and business sales strategy manager for IBM's CEO.

"Brent Farr is a proven winner in technology sales. With his help, FairCom will continue its streak of year-over-year growth and will develop new markets and opportunities," said Alysha Brown, FairCom's Chief Officer of Operations.

Farr, who graduated from Weber State University (Utah), is joining FairCom during the year in which the company is celebrating its 40th anniversary. He will be based in FairCom's Western U.S. office in Salt Lake City.

"Our customers rely on FairCom data management products because of their speed and reliability. It is a priority to enable our customers to be even more successful while using our database products, whether it is in a traditional setting, the rapidly advancing world of the Internet of Things or in mission-critical legacy systems," said Farr.

Currently, more than 40 percent of the Fortune 100 uses FairCom solutions. Among the global organizations utilizing FairCom products are Verizon, UPS, Rockwell Automation, Carl Zeiss, Motorola Solutions, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the European Space Agency and Thomson Reuters.

Detailed information and imagery are available here.

About FairCom

FairCom Corporation is a software industry pioneer and a global database technology leader. Its reputation of innovation began in 1979 and continues today with fast, reliable products that are trusted by organizations in a broad spectrum of industries, ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to enterprise level organizations, including Fortune 100 members. Additional information is available at FairCom.com.

Media Contact

Brad Thomas

FairCom Corporation

1.573.445.6833

[email protected]

SOURCE FairCom Corporation

Related Links

https://www.faircom.com


Help India!

TwoCircles.net

Harvard student community observed the first 24-hour anti-CAA protest in Boston, US on the occasion of Republic Day of India. This protest started at Harvard Square midnight at Eastern Standard Time of Republic Day

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According to the information given in press note issued from the Harvard student community, Students and representatives from the Indian diaspora in the greater Boston area gathered together and staged a 24-hour protest at Harvard Square on Indias Republic Day. The people gathered to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) through songs, poetry, speeches, and the reading of the preamble of the Indian Constitution to remind each other of the secular and democratic principles India was built on.

The mode and form of protest, and link with global protests: The protest in Boston was just one of several protests seen all over India, as well as, the world. New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco were other US cities where various forms of protests were observed today. The protestors in Boston adopted the 24-hour protest on Republic Day as a way to show solidarity with compatriots on constant protest in Shaheen Bagh. Ghantagarh, and other places all over India, in the cold, and through the night, while recalling and upholding the values of the Indian Constitution.



Content of protestors views:

Hindustan ke mukhtar hai hum, kirayedar nahi

Mera haq mera wajood hai, tumhara ehsaan nahi

(An owner of India, not a tenant

My rights stem from my existence, not your favor)

-Jaspal Singh, Boston

Protestors expressed a diversity of views while generously offering chai, samosas, poha etc. to all those who dropped by. Some drafted original compositions, others recited works of Faiz, Tagore, and Rahat Indori. One protestor expressed his anger at the idea that a democratically elected government would ask its own voters to prove their citizenship. Another protestor passionately sang the full version of Indias national anthem, originally composed by Rabindranath Tagore. She spoke about how the Citizenship Amendment Act stood against the spirit of the anthem itself, which held up humanity as its highest ideal, irrespective of religious affiliation.

Several protestors also invoked Ambedkars warnings at the Constituent Assembly, where he said If things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that man was vile. MIT Professor Dwai Banerjee along with other community members, rightfully raised the question of belonging and what it is that the motherland truly strives for.

Dr. Suraj Yengde, a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University, urged the audience to challenge the Hindu-Muslim dichotomy at the heart of Hindutva, pointing out that a monolithic Hindu identity suppresses the identities of Dalits, Adivasis, and many other communities with distinct traditions and histories. He highlighted the tragic death in Bangalore today of a Dalit, Sidappa, who died while manual scavenging, an act illegal in India since 2013. Just as Siddappa died despite preventive laws, a secular Constitution was by itself insufficient  it needed political action to make it a reality.

Members of the Indian diaspora spoke about how although the current ruling party in India enjoyed some support from the diaspora, a significant share of the members stood vehemently against their divisive politics and laws. Such voices from the diaspora can and would make a difference by strengthening the world-wide movement against discrimination. Lastly, Dr. Ruha Shadab, a student at the Harvard Kennedy School, hoped that this form of protest spanning 24 hours, would encourage more such demonstrations in the US.

The cold Boston rain could not dampen the spirits of these young protestors who all heeded the clarion call of a Constitution in need. As all the protestors of this small diaspora would say, the causality of this protest is uncertain but the feeling of hope in our guts is certain.
Photo: Texas De Brazil/Yelp

Looking for a yummy South American meal near you?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the best high-end South American restaurants around Jacksonville, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best spots to venture when cravings strike.

1. Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse

photo: terra gaucha brazilian steakhouse/yelp

Topping the list is Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse. Located at 4483 Southside Blvd. in Windy Hill, the steakhouse, Brazilian and buffet spot is the highest-rated high-end South American restaurant in Jacksonville, boasting 4.5 stars out of 577 reviews on Yelp.

The site can tell you a thing or two more about Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse and the faces behind this business.

"Born in Rio Grande Do Sul, the pioneer place of the Gaucho culture in Brazil, founder Joao Rizzon has spent over two decades working and perfecting the art of grilling meats over an open flame," according to the bio section of the business's Yelp profile. "Mr. Rizzon is one of the pioneers of Brazilian steakhouses in the U.S. He was one of the first Gaucho chefs to bring this unique and exciting concept to America."

2. Fogo De Chao Brazilian Steakhouse

Photo: fago de chao brazilian steakho/Yelp

Next up is Windy Hill's Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steakhouse, situated at 4784 Town Center Parkway. It's an outpost of the well-known chain. With four stars out of 209 reviews on Yelp, the steakhouse and Brazilian spot has proven to be a local favorite for those looking to indulge.

The site has lots more information about Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steakhouse.

"Fogo offers guests a wide variety of simply seasoned meats that are carefully fire-roasted to expose their natural flavors, including the house specialty picanha sirloin, filet mignon, ribeye and lamb chops to name a few. Additionally, Fogo offers a gourmet Market Table and Feijoada Bar, which includes seasonal salads, soup, fresh vegetables, feijoada (traditional black bean stew with rice, fresh orange and yuca flour) and much more," according to the specialties section of its Yelp profile.

Story continues

3. Texas de Brazil

photo: texas de brazil/yelp

Windy Hill's member of the popular chain Texas de Brazil, located at 4634 Town Center Parkway, Suite 100, is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the fancy steakhouse, venues and event space and Brazilian spot four stars out of 88 reviews.

We turned there for an overview of Texas de Brazil.

"Texas de Brazil is a churrascaria, or Brazilian steakhouse, that features several cuts of flame-grilled beef, lamb, pork, chicken and Brazilian sausage as well as an extravagant salad area with a wide array of seasonal chef-crafted items," it notes on Yelp in the section highlighting specialties.

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary owe their first-in-the-nation status partly to circumstance. Decades ago, Iowas caucus was the initial step in a long, complex process that the state used to award delegates, which meant that the voting had to happen early in the year. New Hampshire was mostly trying to save money  by scheduling its primary on the same day as many annual town meetings, which were held before the spring mud season.

But circumstance has not kept Iowa and New Hampshire at the front of the line. An aggressive protection of their own self-interest has. As primaries and caucuses became a bigger part of national politics in the 1970s, officials in Iowa and New Hampshire have fought hard to stay first.

We werent stupid, Cliff Larsen, a former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, once said. New Hampshire passed a law saying its primary always must be the first, and Iowa has been similarly protective. Iowa caucuses are first-in-the-nation mainly because the state insists on remaining first, Kathie Obradovich, a prominent Iowa journalist, has said.

Its all worked out very nicely for the two states. A typical voter in Iowa or New Hampshire has up to 20 times more influence than somebody in later-voting states, one study found. Sometimes, the two states have turned a parochial issue (ethanol) into a national priority. Local hotels, restaurants, pollsters and television and radio stations have received millions of dollars in extra business.
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Capsule coffee machines are the latest kinds of coffee machines for the preparation of perfectly brewed coffee. The manufacturers of capsule coffee machine put the coffee in a sealed plastic or aluminum capsule in advance, then filling it with nitrogen in order to ensure freshness. The process is cheap, simple, cost-effective, with lighter and higher volume compared to the ordinary machines. The global capsule coffee machine market research, as per a report by Market Research Future (MRFR) is touted to register a CAGR of 7.86%, surpassing a valuation of USD 8,261.4 Million during the forecast period (2014-2025).

The capsule coffee machine market is likely to gain huge attention in the foreseeable future and is gaining huge popularity due to the convenience it offers. With the surging demand for coffee across the globe, the sales of capsule coffee machine have increased globally. The surging adoption of innovative products is likely to offer lucrative growth opportunities to the overall market. Constant advancements made in the capsule machine technology upgraded with innovative concepts, latest features, and applications are evolving to offer improved quality and capacity, with low maintenance cost and minimum energy consumption. Thus, advancing technology in capsule coffee machine will encourage the market growth across the globe.

On the contrary, the price constraints of these coffee machines are likely to hinder the market growth in the foreseeable future.

Global Capsule Coffee Machine Market: Segmental Analysis

The capsule coffee machine market has been segmented based on type and application.

By type, the market is segmented into open-sourced system and closed-source system. Of these, the closed-source system is predicted to command the largest share. The supplier or the manufacturer of the machine provides capsules and no other capsules which can be used in the machine. This system is highly favored by brand-loyal customers, preferring a specific brand of coffee.

By application, the market comprises commercial and household. Of these, the household segment acquires a larger share and is estimated to retain its growth owing to the surging consumption of coffee, especially in emerging nations. The increasing number of cafes and restaurants across the globe is contributing the market growth in the commercial segment.

Browse Full Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/capsule-coffee-machine-market-7982

Regional Frontiers

The capsule coffee machine market spans across Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America North America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Considering the global scenario, the capsule coffee machine market in the regions of North America is predicted to garner the largest share, in terms of volume as well as value. The region acquired a share of 34.84% in 2018. In this region, the U.S. is likely to be the major contributor.

The market in the Asia Pacific will register the highest CAGR of 8.55%, mainly due to the rising consumption of coffee, especially in emerging markets like India and China. Also, the rise in per capita income of the regional population will influence the market growth to a large extent. Increased consumer awareness regarding technologically advanced products has further initiated the sales of such capsule machines on a large scale. Rising inclination towards consumption of coffee and surging cultural trends are influencing the market growth in the region.

Europe accounts for a considerable share, mainly due to the high consumption of coffee and evolving preferences in terms of flavors. Nations like the U.K., Germany, Finland, and Switzerland are contributing to the market growth in Europe. Moreover, the increased number of European consumers willing to pay high prices for specialty and premium coffees will encourage the market growth in the coming years.
A passenger plane from Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines has crashed in a Taliban-held area of Ghazni province, local officials said.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1.10pm local time in Deh Yak district, which is held by the Taliban.

Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

However, Ariana Airlines told The Associated Press that none of its planes have crashed in Afghanistan, according to Mirwais Mirzakwal, the company's acting director.

The state-owned airline also released a statement on its website saying all its aircraft were operational and safe.

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled, and the number of people on board and their fate was not immediately known, nor was the cause of the crash.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

The last major commercial air crash in Afghanistan occurred in 2005 when a Kam Air flight from western Herat to the capital Kabul crashed into the mountains as it tried to land in snowy weather.

The war, however, has seen a number of deadly crashes of military aircraft.

In 2013, an American Boeing 747 cargo jet crashed shortly after take-off from Bagram air base north of Kabul en route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

All seven crew member were killed.
YEREVAN.  January 27 is the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. I express my support to the Jewish community in Armenia and wish endurance of the spirit to the heirs of the Holocaust survivors. Armenias Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan issued a statement about this.

"The Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide are one of the most terrible crimes ever committed against humanity," he said, in particular. "Condemning the genocides and giving them a proper assessment is a key issue in preventing such crimes, and as a symbol of respect to the memory of innocent victims."

He added that this photo is that of the Yerevan monument to the Holocaust and Genocide victims, and its two columns symbolize the similarity of the fates of Armenians and Jews.
Imagine being asked by the top brass of an organization to develop and facilitate for its esteemed leadership team a training program focused on change management, only to discover through post-training follow-up that despite giving the program excellent reviews, neither the executive staff nor members of the leadership team incorporated an ounce of the program into their management practices. It is not uncommon that even the heads of organizations who recognize a need for change are often among the most change-averse within an organization. Ironically, research suggests that organizational change is most palatable when leaders are seen as change agents, effectively modifying their own behavior before demanding others do so.

Lee Hecht Harrison(LHH) helps companies around the globe transform their leaders and workforces so they can accelerate performance. Their recent Workforce Transformation study reveals 70% of organizations around the globe identify advances in digital technology as the primary external factor driving change and 59% identify increased use of digital technologies and automation as an internal catalyst for change.

Regardless of the vehicle driving change, if change is inevitable how can it be presented in a way that employees will cotton to it?

It comes down to leadership and the culture established at the top.

Solutions might be found in Behavioral Economics, which according to Investopedia is the study of psychology as it relates to the economic decision-making processes of individuals and institutions. The theory is that understanding rational behavior does not necessarily lead to it because humans are emotional beings, able to be persuaded by shiny objects or well-spun data. The paradigm is one on which advertisers focus to maximize results. It would seem obvious that leaders of organizations, who are typically results-oriented, would be open to change, and many are. The problem is that rarely do they see the need to change themselves. Instead, many think change should happen at the next level down and that all will be well if everyone else simply follows their edicts. Ah, the human factor emerges again.

According to LHHs findings, 85% of employers around the world are concerned that their leaders are not capable of transforming their workforces to meet the needs that will ensure future success. Forbes Councils Member Nadir Hirji reports similar findings. He says getting buy-in from management is among the top three causes of change aversion. Hirji also cites technology as a leading driver of the need for change. He says that because digital transformation has no endpoint, organizations are under constant pressure to adopt new business models and refine their processes.

Having been established under the precept that change is constant could be why some 21stCentury organizations adapt more readily to technological changes compared to organizations that struggle to remain relevant in the digital age. Remaining entrenched in 20thCentury business models is a death knell. Kudos to staples like Colgate, Brooks Brothers, Pfaltzgraff, and dozens of other organizations that have flourished for hundreds of years because of their ability to adapt to new technologies.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day!

According to the LHH study on Workforce Transformation, while primary change drivers are technological, the most important challenges are not. Workplace culture is the key to successful change implementation. The study reveals that resistance to change is a nearly universal challenge to most transformation initiatives. Fifty-four percent of respondents identify cultural inertia and resistance to change as the number one barrier to workforce transformation. Lack of a disciplined approach, mediocre leaders, lack of an overall strategy and vision, and the absence of a strong leadership pipeline round out the top five barriers. This is where strategy meets culture.

Hirji recommends focusing on change enablement rather than change management. Executives with whom he spoke recognize that ongoing success comes down to people and culture. Strategy and culture are mutually influential. To address the challenge of cultural resistance to change, LHH recommends objectively defining current culture, and then creating a vision for the ideal culture. Empower those responsible for championing change and set clear expectations and measurable goals. The idea is to embrace change.

Leaders can make or break culture; therefore, it is imperative to put the right people in the right seats on the busto borrow a chapter from Jim Collins Good to Great.

Focusing on people and culture is a concept that is not missed on job seekers, either. A recent Wall Street Journal report reveals culture ranks nearly as high as salary on a list of prospective employees most important considerations. The need to attract and maintain the best talent is yet another reason for organizations to regularly test their cultural waters and adjust accordingly.

The other Fish Philosophy

While many professionals are familiar with the workplace culture established at Seattles famous Pike Place Fish Market, the more commonly known philosophy associated with sea creatures is the adage, a fish rots from the head down. An organizations tolerance for change comes down to leaders who are ready rather than reactionary.

According to LHHs findings, leadership capability is a major theme differentiating high-performing organizations from low-performers. If a majority of organizations recognize a need for change and a deficiency in the quality of leadership necessary to drive change, where is the weak link? The answer lies in training and development. The study finds that 91% of organizations are not meeting employees development needs, thus impeding innovation and growth.

Take a look at how HR professionals rate their organizations employee development:

90% identify a lack in meeting career development needs

91% identify a lack associated with providing tools and resources necessary to reskill and realign roles to meet organizational needs

13% say they successfully train managers to hold effective career conversations with direct reports

The findings indicate that fewer than half, just 40%, of organizations fill open positions with internal candidates. That means a majority of organizations not only lack the talent pool needed to grow, but they also are failing to leverage existing talent to meet emerging business needs. The solution is to embrace quality training programs. Consultation from an outside organization will ensure objectivity. Sure, there are costs involved but they are minimal compared to the costs associated with employee turnover and low morale.

Just one more thing (cue: Columbo)

Imagine a well-oiled business led by quintessential servant leaders, from the C-suite through middle management and supervisory staff. Growth is steady, employee turnover is remarkably low, and the applicant pipeline is miles long. Strategists prepare for outside influences that will impact internal operations, yet every now and again, some necessary changes are met with resistance by even the most contented employees. If not handled appropriately, implementing change even in a seemingly perfect environment can cause unwanted disruptions in morale and flow. The solution here is to establish consistent communication processes. In conjunction with quality training, communication from the top down is most effective when these 5 Cs are employed: clear, concise, complete, correct, and courteous.

To protect the bottom line and keep it growing, leaders need to demonstrate enthusiasm for change, embrace opportunities associated with workforce transformation, and communicate a vision for success. Authentic buy-in at every level will abet smooth transitions and accelerate growth. The workforce transformation process is strategic, according to LHH, and it involves planning, developing, and redeploying employees to ensure companies have the critical skills and capabilities to help drive business forward. By its very definition, transformation implies many moving parts. In business, successful transformation requires an integrated approach that includes people, processes, systems, and technology.
Six people were displaced and two firefighters were injured following a swift-moving row home blaze Sunday morning in Palmer Township.

The fire broke out shortly before 9 a.m. at a 2725 Tamlynn Lane. The home is located in the center of three adjoined townhomes, said deputy fire chief Jim Alercia.

Alercia said initial reports indicated a clothing dryer was on fire inside the home but once crews arrived, they found flames originated in the dryer vent exhaust hose. Flames had since traveled the entire length of the house, moving through the entire floor plan to the back of the home, Alercia said.

Once the dryer vent hose burned through, the fire continued to spread to a second floor bedroom through the floor and wall space," he said. "Once the crews advanced to the second floor, they encountered the living space of the second floor bedroom already involved with fire.

The blaze took about 30 minutes to get under control. It has since been deemed uninhabitable and the family -- including three adults and three children -- are being assisted by the Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Alercia said.

Alercia said the concern in the early stages of a fire involving a middle row home is containing the fire at its origin to prevent flames from spreading to the adjoining homes, which crews were successfully able to achieve.

Two firefighters were injured in fighting the blaze, both of which suffered second-degree burns. One firefighter was taken to an area hospital for further treatment and has since been released. The second firefighter was treated at the scene, Alercia said.

Sundays blaze was deemed accidental by fire officials following an investigation. The Palmer Fire Department also requested assistance from the Wilson Borough Fire Department and Bethlehem Township Fire Department.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Marine City officials are continuing to mull their options for recreational marijuana businesses in the community.

At its Dec. 9 meeting, the city commission determined the community had the room for recreational marijuana retail businesses, but did not decide if they would be allowed in the city.

On Jan. 16, commissioners further discussed their options going forward.

I was presented with some questions, very well-written questions, and I wanted to just go through a couple of those answers, City Attorney Robert Davis said.

He explained there is an excise tax that is placed on facilities above the 6% normal sales tax in the amount of 10%.

It was raised to try to make up for the loss of the 3% tax that falls off of medical marijuana facilities when the recreational facilities come into effect, he said.

There are a couple of big blocks of money that have to get taken care of, but eventually when facilities are up and running, over time there will be some tax benefit that flows back to the municipalities where the establishments are housed, Davis said.

I think theres about 20-some million dollars that has to go back to the state and then the state has to recoup all of its costs, he said. Then 35% goes to roads, 35% will end up going to schools, 15% to counties and then 15% back to the municipalities of the money that is then available.

He said there is no ability for Marine City to create its own sales tax and no way for the city to create taxes on the transit of materials through the community.

Davis also pointed out that there are now over 30 municipalities in Michigan that have opted back in and are heading toward an ordinance and almost 1,500 who are still out.

I dont raise those figures to say whats good or bad, Im just telling you that a lot of people are still out, he said. Theyre on their way back in, but they are still working and it takes a lot of time.

The communities that are opting back in are in various stages of the process, Davis said. He said the planning commission did some legwork for the commission in finding out if facilities could be established, but there is probably more it could do.

The legalization of marijuana as a recreational aspect was approved, but did each community really vote to have it distributed and managed and sold and packaged and grown in their communities? Davis asked. That was not on the state ballot.

He said some communities have gone on the ballot in their own communities to ask what people think and said the commission should consider doing the same.

Thats always an option and that can be done, he said. Theres already ballot language floating around for those examples, and really get the feel for your own community.

Other communities have scheduled town hall meetings, which Davis believed also could be effective, but was concerned about not getting enough representatives there.

Its a pretty major decision, Davis said. Its tough for you to probably make this decision and go down a road, so I wouldnt be opposed to you thinking about both of those options and getting more public feedback directly on the issue.

Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick asked if a community could choose whether it had recreational or medical facilities. Davis said the city already made the decision not to participate in medical and temporarily opted out of recreational. He did not know if the city could opt back in to medical, but said the commission could take as long as it wanted to opt back into recreational.

Commissioner Jacob Bryson asked if there would be any restrictions on the money the city would get from the facilities or if it would go to the general fund.

Davis replied it would go to the general fund.

And remember, on your annual registration and licensing you can charge up to $5,000 per facility annually to help offset your costs of paperwork and enforcement and increase whatever, he said. You have to kind of justify it, but  if the law says you can go up to $5,000, its pretty much $5,000. So you would have that annual fee coming in per facility, as well.

Mayor Dave Vandenbossche said the city would only get 15% of the 10% in growth sales.

Until 2022 or for at least two years, $20 million from the fund must annually go back to the clinical trials approved by the (Food and Drug Administration) that are researching the efficacy of marijuana in the treatment of U.S. armed service veterans preventing veteran suicide, Davis said. So $20 million has to go there, and then you got to wait a few years, and then eventually therell be this pot of money of which youll get 15% at max.

Commissioner William Klaassen noted that a problem with recreational marijuana is the odor and that there are communities that are looking at odor ordinances. Davis responded that many of the ordinances in development do have odor control provisions, as well as some security and other unique features.

Some people are going with licenses, some people are requiring special use permits for the land, and then a license, some people are limiting the numbers, he said. Some people are limiting, if you have one here, then you cant have one in the immediate adjacent property.

Klaassen also noted that the federal government could also come in any time and shut facilities down.

Yeah, and in fact, in one ordinance I worked on, I put a provision in there that said nothing in this ordinance is meant to create any form of immunity from prosecution under federal law and now a lot of ordinances are adopting that because you dont want the defense to the prosecution to be, Well, the city of Marine City said it was OK,' Davis said.

He said there have been some breakthroughs with banks. Most of them would not handle the revenue coming from the operations because it could be subject to seizure under federal law, but a couple of credit unions are now willing to do it.

One of the local problems you do have is that it is a cash transaction, he said. Big cash transaction. And everybody knows that. And thats what creates a little bit of a patrol issue, when you knowingly have a facility that maintains lots of high-volume cash transactions, its a breeding grounds for potential issues.

City Manager Elaine Leven said when the planning commission looked at the areas where the city could have facilities, it did not take into consideration the neighboring communities zoning.

Davis said there is not a mandatory setback from residential zoning areas but most are adopting setbacks from the residential lines. He did not know if the city boundaries up against any residential zones.

We didnt take that into consideration because it was just one of those things that didnt occur to us, planning commission Chairman Joseph Moran said.

I guess the theory is we cant stop at our boundaries with these setbacks, Davis said. We cant pretend Marine City is in its own box. We do have to look at what surrounds us immediately.

For example, he noted there is a school right on the boundary that Marine City has to make sure its buffering from, even if it is not in the city.

We should probably look at some of those things, he said. I think I would ask you to start thinking about how you might want to check the pulse of your community.

Emily Pauling is a staff writer for The Voice. She can be contacted at 586-273-6200 or epauling@medianewsgroup.com.
A BROADBAND internet service which offers download speeds up to 200 times the national average is now available in Henley.

Zzoomm, which is based at The Hub in Station Road, switched on its network on Tuesday and has signed up its first customers.

It is currently available to about 900 out of more than 7,000 households. These are around Fair Mile, Gravel Hill, Greys Road and Blandy Road.

Contractors began laying underground fibre-optic cables in October and will continue around the southern and eastern outskirts of the town before tackling the centre in the spring.

The company offers a fibre connection between households and the main network rather than copper cable, which reduces the maximum speed of regular broadband.

It hopes to serve the whole town by the autumn and expand to other market towns with the aim of serving a million households within the next five years.

A Zzoomm spokesman said: Were hoping to be able to serve up to 1,600 properties within the next three or four weeks. Wed like to get most of the work done before July.
Michael Bloomberg gave a speech in Florida Sunday on how his Jewish faith has shaped his 2020 bid.

What they're saying: Speaking at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center and Tauber Academy, Bloomberg harshly criticized President Trump over his leadership on the issue, stating: "Anti-Semitism is hardly the exclusive domain of one political party. It can be found on both the right and the left  on town squares and campus quads. But there is one fact that we cannot ignore: Presidential leadership matters."

"When the President calls his supporters 'real Americans,' an echo of the language that nativists, anti-Semites, and the KKK used for many decades, he undermines our fundamental national values," he stated.

Bloomberg also offered his unconditional support to Israel and said he would work to curb Iran's effort to become a nuclear power.

"As president, I will always have Israels back. I will never impose conditions on our military aid, including missile defense  no matter who is prime minister. And I will never walk away from our commitment to guarantee Israels security," Bloomberg said.

"I will work to make the strongest deal possible to constrain the Iranian regimes aggression and territorial ambitions and put an end to their nuclear program, because the world must never allow Iran to threaten Israel and the whole region with a nuclear attack," he added.

Why it matters: Recent attacks targeting Jewish people have showcased the harsh realities of anti-Semitism in America.

A mass shooter killed three people at a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey, in December after posting anti-Semitic remarks online.

An attacker killed one woman at Poway Synagogue in California in April, and a 2018 shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh killed 11.

Go deeper: The political left and the right feed "the new wave of anti-Semitism"
New Delhi :

The West Bengal government on Monday became forth state to move a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) since the law was passed in December. West Bengal parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee tabled the resolution in the state Assembly. The resolution appeals to the Union government to repeal the amended Citizenship Law and revoke plans to implement NRC and update NPR.

Three states - Kerala, Rajasthan, and Punjab - have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the Trinamool Congress opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool controls more than two-thirds of the seats in the 294-member House and hence the resolution moved by the government will be passed in the Assembly.

Will Not Allow Snatching Of People's Rights: Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee has time and again assured the people of the state that she will not allow anyone to snatch their rights. While addressing a public rally in South Bengal, Mamata launched a scathing attack against the Modi government over the Citizenship Act and National Registration Act (NRC) and said that the state government will not allow snatching of people's rights.

Calling herself as Pehredar of people, Mamata Banerjee warned the Centre that they will have to implement the Citizenship Act over her dead body. I am your pehradar (custodian), if anyone comes to take away your rights, they will have to do it over my dead body, Mamata said. We do not live at the mercy of anyone, will not allow snatching of people's rights, she added.

Mamata Banerjee had said that she was all in favour of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, but her party will not resort to the cheap politics of bandhs.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Kansas City Life Insurance Company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.27 per share on January 27, 2020. The dividend will be payable on February 12, 2020 to stockholders of record on February 6, 2020.

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SOURCE Kansas City Life Insurance Company

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A paedophile has been sentenced to chemical castration and 25 years in prison after raping a 12-year-old girl in a school toilet in Kazakhstan.

The schoolgirl, who has not been named to protect her identity, went to use an outside lavatory during classes in the southern city of Taraz in November last year.

When she entered the lavatory located in the school's backyard, she was attacked and sexually assaulted by a 38-year-old man.

According to reports, the sexual predator, who was named as Valiev during court hearings, entered the school's territory one hour before the attack.

The rapist, identified only as Valiev, 38, was captured on CCTV stalking around in the school grounds around an hour before the attack

Valiev (the man in the black winter hat) sits in the dock during his sentencing hearing on Friday. He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and will undergo chemical neutering

The horrific crime scene, the toilet in the school's backyard where the rapist waited for the helpless 12-year-old

During this hour, he 'was wandering and cruising around the educational institution unnoticed by the security guards as he was hunting for a victim', police reports said.

Valiev was caught by numerous CCTV cameras while walking among the schoolchildren but no one approached him and asked to leave.

Rakhia Turmaganbetova, the head of the regional educational authorities said: 'It is outrageous that no one paid any attention to the CCTV cameras when he [Valiev] was walking around children!'

During a police investigation, school authorities told detectives that 'the person who had to monitor the cameras was absent at the moment of the attack'.

Valiev was caught by cops in two hours after the crime. The victim confirmed that he was the man who assaulted her.

Chilling CCTV footage shows the paedophile walking amongst the students but no one approached him and asked to leave

The basic latrine in the Kazakh school's backyard where the 12-year-old girl was raped

Police spokeswoman Gulsara Mukhtarkulova said: 'The victim confirmed Valiev is the man who sexually assaulted her. He was previously convicted for rape.'

On January 24, Valiev was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He also is going to undergo chemical castration according to new Kazakh laws for convicted paedophiles.

The judge Kenzhegali Kenzhebekov said during the trial: 'According to psychiatric examinations Valiev is not only a paedophile but also a drug and alcohol addict.

'The court ruled that Valiev is going to be forcibly treated for alcoholism, drug addiction and is going to undergo a chemical castration in prison.'

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev branded the assault as 'a disgrace' and demanded more surveillance cameras to be installed in schools and nurseries

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev branded the assault as 'a disgrace' and demanded more surveillance cameras to be installed in schools and nurseries.

The president said: 'To prevent further cases of violence against children it is needed to install CCTV cameras in every school and nursery during this year. All educational facilities for children should be equipped with cameras and proper restrooms. What happened in Taraz is a disgrace'.

The school principal was fired following the incident, local media report.
The West Bengal Assembly on Monday passed a resolution against Citizenship (Amendment) Act brought by the state government demanding that the contentious citizenship law be repealed forthwith and National Population Register and the proposed National Register of Citizens be withdrawn.

Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Citizenship Amendment Act is 'against the Constitution and humanity'.

"We want this law to be repealed immediately. We want NPR to be also repealed," Banerjee said.

The resolution was supported by both the opposition parties Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front.

The Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party opposed the resolution and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the CAA to help refugees get their citizenship of the country.

Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab too have passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The amended citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the West Bengal with Trinamool Congress opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail and BJP pressing for its implementation.

The state assembly had earlier passed a resolution against NRC in September 2019. The BJP had naturally not supported it.
WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI - A third potential coronavirus case from Washtenaw County is being investigated, health department officials said Monday.

The new case, announced Jan. 27, joins three others -- two from Washtenaw County and one from Macomb County -- identified by state health officials Thursday, Jan. 23, said Washtenaw County Health Department spokeswoman Susan Ringler-Cerniglia.

Three possible Michigan coronavirus cases being investigated

All four people have been tested for the virus, Ringler-Cerniglia said. The state sent the tests to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which is the only lab in the U.S. that can test for the strand of coronavirus, she said.

There is not a high level of concern" for the statewide spread of coronavirus, Ringer-Cerniglia said, though health officials do not currently know how efficiently the virus travels.

The test results may be available in the next few days, said Lynn Sutfin of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is currently processing hundreds of nationwide samples, she said.

Each person tested for the virus has shown mild symptoms of lower respiratory illness and fever, Ringler-Cerniglia said. Each reported traveling to Wuhan, China, where the deadly outbreak of the virus began, or have had contact with someone who is being investigated for the infection, she said.

All patients are currently isolated at home, she said, and the Washtenaw and Macomb health departments are monitoring them. Nobody in contact with the patients has exhibited coronavirus symptoms at this time, she said.

Coronavirus is a respiratory illness common in animals and humans, but the new strand, called novel coronavirus 2019, had not been previously detected, according to the CDC. Public health screenings for travelers from Wuhan, about 12 hours south of Beijing, are in place at Los Angeles, Orlando, Atlanta, San Francisco and New York airports.

Health officials warn patients to call a health care provider before seeking treatment for potential coronavirus symptoms so the appropriate preventive measures can be taken.

Ringer-Cerniglia also recommends frequently washing hands, covering coughs and taking other precautions similar to flu prevention.

The first case of the virus was reported on Jan. 21 in Washington state.
Wei An has been the CEO of China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited (HKG:2188) since 2011. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.

See our latest analysis for China Titans Energy Technology Group

How Does Wei An's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited is worth HK$412m, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as CN467k for the year to December 2018. Notably, the salary of CN467k is the vast majority of the CEO compensation. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations below CN1.4b, and calculated the median CEO total compensation to be CN1.6m.

Most shareholders would consider it a positive that Wei An takes less total compensation than the CEOs of most similar size companies, leaving more for shareholders. Though positive, it's important we delve into the performance of the actual business.

You can see, below, how CEO compensation at China Titans Energy Technology Group has changed over time.

SEHK:2188 CEO Compensation, January 27th 2020

Is China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited Growing?

Over the last three years China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 1.5% per year (using a line of best fit). It saw its revenue drop 11% over the last year.

I generally like to see a little revenue growth, but it is good to see EPS growth. It's hard to reach a conclusion about business performance right now. This may be one to watch. Although we don't have analyst forecasts shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Story continues

Has China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 64% over three years, some China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited shareholders would surely be feeling negative emotions. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

In Summary...

China Titans Energy Technology Group Co., Limited is currently paying its CEO below what is normal for companies of its size.

Wei An is paid less than CEOs of similar size companies, but growth hasn't been particularly impressive and the total shareholder return over three years would leave many disappointed. Many shareholders would probably like to see improvements, but our analysis does not suggest that CEO compensation is too generous. Shareholders may want to check for free if China Titans Energy Technology Group insiders are buying or selling shares.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
West Bengal on Monday passed a resolution against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) to become the fourth non-BJP state to take the legislative route, prompting the Centre to tell the opposition parties it is a "constitutional blunder" and they should not forget their duty to the nation.

As the opposition-ruled states were on a collision course on the CAA with the NDA government, Defence minister Rajnath Singh asserted every state should implement the Act as it was a central law.

The Assembly in Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal approved the resolution brought by the state government demanding that the CAA be repealed forthwith, as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it is "against the Constitution and humanity". The resolution was backed by both the opposition parties Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front but opposed by the BJP.

Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab in the recent weeks passed resolutions against the new citizenship law that has triggered nationwide protests and a vicious political slugfest.

Unfazed by more and more states adopting a formal resolution against the CAA and refusing to implement it, Defence minister Rajnath Singh said it is not a law to hurt the sentiments of any religion but to give relief to victims of religious persecution in non-secular countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

"The CAA is a central law and everyone(state) should follow it," he told a rally in Mangaluru in Karnataka which recently witnessed violent anti-CAA protests in which two people lost their lives.

Accusing the Congress of misleading people on the issue, he said the party should not forget its "rashtradharma" (national duty) for the sake of its "vipakshdharma" (duties as opposition party).

"Some opposition parties are passing resolutions in assemblies (where they have a majority) that their states will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act. I want to appeal to them not to do such things. This is a constitutional blunder. Please do not do such blunder," he said.

Mahatma Gandhi had told Jawaharlal Nehru to give citizenship to minorities like Hindus and Sikhs if they come to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled that vision by bringing in the law, Singh added.

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha termed the passing of anti-CAA resolutions by non-BJP states a constitutional crisis, saying this can't be ignored.

He stressed there was no need to bring the legislation as it was "anti-democratic" and "divided people on the basis of religion".

"There is a constitutional crisis. You cannot ignore state governments. You have to take them into confidence," Sinha told reporters in Lucknow when asked about resolutions passed by states against the CAA.

In a related development, the Congress moved the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) demanding action against alleged police atrocities on anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh, claiming that victims have been made accused in case-related FIRs and no police officer has been named.

The delegation, led by senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, met top NHRC officials in Delhi and made a detailed 31-page representation which included videos and photographs as "evidence" of alleged atrocities and human rights violations in the state.

After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi alleged the UP government has "gone to war against its own people" and urged the NHRC to act decisively to protect the "Constitutional rights of our citizens".

After the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi told reporters, "In Uttar Pradesh, there has been gross human rights violations. We have submitted videos and photos to the NHRC."



The BSP demanded withdrawal of cases lodged by the UP government against women protesting against the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

Women have been staging protests in different parts of the state including at the historic Clock Tower in Lucknow, demanding scrapping of the CAA and NRC.

In a tweet, BSP supremo Mayawati said, "Wrong cases filed against women and others protesting against CAA/NRC by the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government should be immediately withdrawn, and those who lost their lives during this time should also be extended proper help, this is the demand of BSP. Around 100 women protesters have been booked for violating prohibitory orders at the clock tower.

As anti-CAA protests continued in several parts of the country, Yoga guru Ramdev alleged that certain political parties are acting irresponsibly and spreading fear over the the amended law through rumours and lies. He did not name any party.

"I believe that all Muslims are not involved in it. Crores of Muslims are patriots and they too are unhappy and this is defaming them. All responsible people need to rectify this," he said.

Shaheen Bagh, which has emerged as the epicentre of the protests in Delhi, sparked a fresh political slugfest with senior Congress leader P Chidambaram hitting out at Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, saying "mocking" this protest, which "represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi", amounts to "mocking Ahimsa and Satyagraha".

Prasad had earlier in the day said the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh spearheaded by women is offering a platform to the 'tukde tukde gang' under the garb of opposition to the CAA.

The BJP leader also alleged that the protest was emerging as "a textbook case of a few hundred people trying to suppress the silent majority".

"Now, the Law Minister calls the protesters at Shaheen Bagh as part of the tukde tukde gang. The real tukde tukde gang is the ruling party that is determined to divide India on religious lines," Chidambaram said in a tweet.

The term 'tukde tukde gang' was used to brand JNU students after the 2016 stir but BJP leaders have used it to refer to political opponents. They have used it in their speeches during several rallies to attack the opposition, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The education minister recently hinted Manitoba might undertake extensive curriculum reform as one response to our showing on international standardized tests, and as one aspect of the education review to be released in March.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The education minister recently hinted Manitoba might undertake extensive curriculum reform as one response to our showing on international standardized tests, and as one aspect of the education review to be released in March.

For the sake of our children, lets hope any curriculum renewal, which no doubt is periodically necessary, might avoid common curriculum traps that have thwarted previous curriculum reformers and might employ approaches more likely to produce meaningful change.

The first great curriculum trap is that there is an essence of education called "the basics." The basics assume there exists knowledge which all children must master, which will benefit them in some fundamental way and which will prevent them, if not learned, from living good, productive, ethical lives.

No evidence of the basics exists, let alone their implied positive or negative life effects. What remains, after agreement that not all academic subjects are basic, are literacy and numeracy, a far cry from the 1950s notion that there were, in totality, five to seven forms of knowledge that represented the best the world had to offer.

This is not to say we should abandon the idea of curriculum. We all have our own sense of what is meaningful, worthwhile and excellent in life, and our curricula generally reflect the momentary consensus of what thoughtful, knowledgeable people believe it would be desirable for our children to learn and know.

However, thats all they do and we would do well to recognize and acknowledge this truth. The education minister might be advised to promote a somewhat common curriculum rather than a basic one.

The second trap is that if we have a good curriculum document in place our work is, for all intents and purposes, done. Larry Cuban, a well-known educational historian, puts this myth to bed by suggesting there are at least four curricula at work at all times.

He identifies the official curriculum, which is represented by the government-issued curriculum documents and resources; the taught curriculum, which represents teachers interpretation of the official curriculum, their commitment to it and how they teach it; the learned curriculum, which is what the children learn as a result of how they understand and make meaning of what they are taught, often in light of their previous experiences; and the tested curriculum, which represents what teachers or test-makers set up to determine to what extent the official curriculum has been mastered by their students, either as a result of their teaching or of their own efforts.

Cuban goes on to suggest that they may bear only a passing resemblance to each other. Other scholars have suggested a fifth "hidden" curriculum, not acknowledged or explicit, representing the real (usually ideological) intentions of the curriculum creators and purveyors.

The third trap assumes that we can somehow separate curriculum from teaching and teachers. Attempts to "teacher-proof" curricula usually end in disaster, and for good reasons. Teaching is more than a "best practice" technology and teachers are more than technicians carrying out prescribed tasks. Teachers  who get to know their students and who are knowledgeable and excited about the knowledge they wish to impart  are what makes school bearable for some children and subject matter exciting for others.

They are human beings who care about and for students and acknowledge and respond to their differences. The minister might wish to ensure that teachers are directly involved in any proposed curricular reforms.

Children are different, parents are different, teachers are different, schools are different, and their communities are different, and those differences matter in any notion of education that matters. There must be room for all to put their own take, their own touch and their own meaning to the various curricula they encounter or are confronted with.

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What is common about good curriculum is not so much its sameness but its potential to engage, confront, challenge and inspire human beings to greater knowledge and better understanding, leading to better ways to approach and live our lives.

Curriculum can be a source for enjoyment, inspiration, creativity and further curiosity, and it is more likely to be if we recognize that our values, our desires for our children and our notions of what makes a better world inform our curricula. This requires that curricula are the results of informed collaboration and dialogue, and it might be helpful to sponsor any number of small curriculum projects in some schools to test their currency and viability. We might call this purposeful experimentation.

Some curriculum scholars are now, for example, considering an old idea embedded in some of our current curricula  a common, issue-centred curriculum, with themes such as Indigenous reconciliation and retrieval, environmental reclamation, diversity/newcomer appreciation, child safety and protection, global and local economic disparity, meaningful democratic engagement, competency in developing and employing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and ethical use of social media, and other ethical-political matters important to our world today.

What a worthwhile and meaningful public dialogue it would be to decide what and how we would teach our children and young people how to understand, cope with and respond to these and other contemporary issues. The minister might wish to initiate and lead such an interesting, rich discussion, which would be innovative and engaging for all ages, including our young.

It would be a great Manitoba curriculum debate. I predict that it would not lack for participation, passion or promise.

John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba. A lifelong educator, he has served as a teacher, counsellor, work education co-ordinator, principal, school superintendent and university professor.
A 61-year-old postal worker from the Japanese city of Yokohama was recently arrested for hoarding around 24,000 pieces of mail that he had failed to deliver since back in 2003.

Officials at Japan Post, the government-owned mail service, noticed there was something peculiar about the unnamed postal workers activity last year, and he was let go. However, the cache of hidden mail was discovered later, because it was located in his home, which is beyond the confines of an internal inspection. The 61-year-old admitted to failing to deliver the tens of thousands of letters and parcels, claiming that doing his job was too much bother. But he didnt want his younger colleagues to think he was less capable than them, so he just hid the mail at home.

Photo: Anne-Onyme/Pixabay

Well have talks with the police on the undelivered items and offer apologies to the senders and receivers as we deliver them, a Japan Post spokesperson told reporters.

The unnamed postal worker admitted to the allegations and is now facing up to three years behind bard or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($4,600).

Interestingly, such cases have been reported around the world several times in the last few years. A 47-year-old Argentinian postman named Manuel Guterres served a one year jail sentence in Patagonia after it was discovered that he had kept 19,000 undelivered letters. Two years ago, a 33-year-old Italian postman was arrested when police discovered 400kg of undelivered mail in his home.
A team of Lucknow-based researchers were held hostage by locals in Bihars Darbhanga on Sunday after being mistaken for NRC surveyors. Similar incidents have been reported in West Bengal, Telangana and Karnataka

A team of Lucknow-based researchers were held hostage by locals in Bihars Darbhanga on Sunday after being mistaken for National Register of Citizens (NRC) surveyors. As the 12-member team, which included four women, reached the village and began visiting households to collect information, word spread that they were NRC surveyors.

Furious and panicked villagers took them to the Jamalpur police station, where the situation was diffused and it was later found that they were working with a US-based PhD scholar from the Yale University. Getting information (of the researchers being held hostage), we quickly reached the place and took them out of the village. Had we been late, they would have been attacked by the villagers, Jamalpur police station officer Anwar Ansari told The Hindu.

The NRC final list that was released in Assam on 31 August last year had excluded over 19 lakh people. After the CAA became law in December, the Oppositions chorus that the citizenship law and NRC are "two sides of the same coin" grew.

However, contrasting statements on the matter further fuelled fear and confusion, especially among Muslims instead of bringing any clarity. Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement that there was no plan to execute the NRC was in complete contrast to the what Home Minister Amit Shah had said at an event in Guwahati about not allowing a "single illegal immigrant" in the country.

Similar statements were passed by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, about illegal immigrants being the perpetrators of crimes in Delhi, and Haryana Chief Manohar Lal Khattar, who called for the citizenship lists implementation in his state. Additionally, Aadhaar card, voter ID card and passport not being sufficient to prove citizenship became another cause of worry.

The Darbhanga incident was reportedly the second such incident in the last 10 days. An employee of a Gurgaon-based television company was attacked while conducting a survey in the Karamganj locality of Darbhanga district on 17 January and later handed over to the police.

Similar incidents have been reported from Champaran, Bhagalpur and Begusarai. Even if were not being attacked or held hostages at some places, people get angry and ask us to get lost the moment we begin our questionnaire. At some places they get violent too, Binit Kumar, who conducts such surveys, told The Hindu, even as anti-CAA protests have spread over 12 districts of Bihar.

As protests against NRC, National Population Register (NPR) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) continue all over the country, the sight of researchers and surveyors has triggered panic and has led to the mistaken targeting of many.

Superintendent of Police, Darbhanga, Babu Ram said that such incidents have led the police to begin an awareness campaign in which residents are told to inform the cops or administrative officials if they suspect the presence of surveyors in the area instead of illegally detaining them.

Attacks on surveyors reported in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana

However, similar incidents continue to be reported from other parts of the country, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana. On Saturday, The Times of India reported that a three-member team deputed for administrating polio vaccines had been mistaken as NPR data collectors and thrashed by villagers in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district. Two members of the team managed to escape and complained to the police.

The moment we asked their (parents not willing to get polio drops for children) names, there was a strong protest and within no time, we were surrounded by a mob. We tried to explain to them the purpose of our visit. We even showed them the vaccine box and our IDs, but they didnt listen to us, one of the team members Kabir Ahmed Khan said. According to the report, Lisari Gate station officer Prashant Kapil said that this was not the first time such an incident had occurred in the area.

Accusing health officials of supporting the Centres CAA and NRC plans, residents around Abids, Golconda, Musheerabagh in Telangana heckled immunisation and health department officials and threatened to file police complaints against them.

This affected the tallying process of how many children were actually immunised in the national pulse polio drive as residents refused to provide information, said a report in The New Indian Express. Nagarjuna Rao, immunisation programme officer for Hyderabad, said that the situation got so tense that local leaders had to intervene and placate the residents.

On 22 January, Nazreena Bano, a surveyor from the National Economic Census department collecting data for the National Economics Census 2019-20, was attacked in Kota, Rajasthan. A mob snatched the womans mobile phone and deleted all the data she had collected on an app. The crowd also asked the woman to prove she was Muslim by reciting a verse from the Quran. The woman showed them an Ayat Al-Kursi [The Throne Verse] card from her wallet, following which the crowd was pacified.

In Birbhum district of West Bengal, 20-year-old Chumki Khatun, who was working for Google India and Internet Saathi, which is Tata Trusts digital literacy initiative for rural women, was attacked by villagers in Gourbazar village. A mob set her house ablaze, after which she and her family were forced to take refuge at the local police station. The police have not yet arrested anyone in connection with the attack.

In Uttara Kannadas Sirsi, angry residents tore off the registry of an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) who was on a pulse-polio visit, The Economic Times reported last week. Although instances of people refusing to share personal information with officials visiting household for government programmes have mostly from areas dominated with minorities and in coastal Karnataka, districts like Vijayapura and Mysuru also have witnessed such issues.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his battery of ministers have said during multiple rallies and public meetings that the CAA would expedite grant of citizenship to refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, having fled religious persecution in their countries, without affecting Indians and that there was no move so far to bring in the nationwide NRC. On the other hand, Opposition parties have accused the Centre of misleading the people on the issue and pointed out that a country-wide NRC was mentioned in the BJP's manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader and part of the S&P 500 Index, today announced that Michael Alexander has been appointed President, Wealth Management. In this newly created position, he will be responsible for bringing together Broadridge's Wealth solutions into an integrated, market-leading Wealth Management business that will uniquely address Wealth Management firms' need to transform their technology and business models. Mr. Alexander will report directly to Tom Carey, President of Global Technology and Operations.

"Mike is a recognized leader in the financial services industry and has a passion for creating leading-edge, SaaS-based wealth management solutions," said Mr. Carey. "Mike will drive Broadridge's efforts to enhance the advisor and client experience through a single platform that will be a foundation for the industry."

As President of Broadridge's Wealth Management business, Mr. Alexander will take leadership of the Broadridge Wealth Platform, the next-generation open platform that is creating a modern, best-in-class industry-level wealth management technology solution. This platform, which is at the center of a recently announced sale to UBS, enables wealth managers to drive their business to the next level while mutualizing investments in technology, innovation and security. With the Broadridge Wealth Platform, firms will be able to deploy an integrated front-, middle-, and back-office solution that optimizes Financial Advisor productivity, creates a richer client experience and digitizes enterprise-wide operations. Broadridge Wealth Management also offers market-leading component solutions for Advisor Websites, Data Aggregation, Performance Reporting, Corporate Actions, and back- and middle-office Managed Services, among others.

Since joining Broadridge in 2006, Mr. Alexander has taken on roles of increasing responsibility in both technology platforms and managed services. In these roles, he has led numerous complex client engagements and successful acquisitions.

Prior to joining Broadridge, Mr. Alexander was Senior Vice President of Operations at Charles Schwab. He is a member of the SIFMA Operations and Technology Steering Committee.

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR), a $4 billion global Fintech leader, is a leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and corporate issuers. Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for over 50 percent of public companies and mutual funds globally, and processes on average more than U.S. $7 trillion in fixed income and equity securities trades per day. Broadridge is part of the S&P 500 Index and employs over 11,000 associates in 18 countries.

Media Contacts:

Gregg Rosenberg

Broadridge Financial Solutions

+1 212-918-6966

[email protected]

SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.broadridge.com


Leading European Company Joins Bird Founded by serial entrepreneur and investor, Lukasz Gadowski, Circ is a leading shared e-scooter company in Europe and the Middle East. With operations spanning across 43 cities in 12 countries, Circ has brought world-class city-centric solutions and customer service to millions of riders. Together, Bird and Circ will make it easier for cities to manage micromobility programs while continuing to scale and increase the reliability of its service to the tens of millions of people who have embraced shared e-scooters as a new form of sustainable and efficient transportation. Investors joining Bird's existing investors as part of the combined company include Target Global, Team Europe, Idinvest Partners, and Signals Venture Capital.

"I founded Bird nearly three years ago because we need to change the status quo and take a transformative stance to combat the traffic and pollution that affect our cities and endanger people globally," said Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird. "To further advance our mission, we're excited to acquire Circ which is the clear European leader. We like their laser focus on treating cities as their number 1 customer and their mindset of prioritizing profitability over growth."

"With deep city partnerships and leading technology, we have established ourselves as the micromobility leader in Europe," said Lukasz Gadowski, founder and CEO, Circ. "As a combined company with Bird, we will be able to significantly accelerate our mission throughout Europe to provide safe, available, affordable, convenient, and sustainable rides."

"This is a significant deal for both companies as well as the broader European technology and transportation industries," said Ben Kaminski, Partner at Target Global. "As the first investor in Circ, we were confident their vision and experience would propel them to the leadership position in micromobility throughout Europe. We are thrilled to invest in the global leader in micromobility and look forward to supporting the joint team as it transforms how people move about their cities."

"Bringing together Circ's European roots with the added capabilities of Bird's technology and innovation, will ensure cities throughout Europe, such as Paris, will have world class partners to help them reach their climate action goals," said Nicolas Chaudron, Managing Partner at Idinvest Partners. "As investors dedicated to the growth of European business, we view Bird's acquisition of Circ as a testament to what Lukasz and his team have built as well as the positive impact they've had on the cities we call home."

Bird Increases Series D to Meet Investor Demand

Just three months after announcing an initial $275 million Series D investment led by CDPQ and Sequoia Capital, Bird is increasing the round to $350 million. Due to demand, the series remained open providing investors the opportunity to become part of Bird's global micro-mobility mission. Capital from the investment will be used to make rapid progress on the company's path to profitability, to increase its vehicle development and research initiatives, and to support European expansion plans.

"Investors today are looking for financially disciplined companies with a clear path to profitability," said Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird. "More than 12 months ago we shifted our focus from growth to profitability which put us in a position to deliver the strongest unit economics and longest-lasting custom-designed vehicles of any micro-mobility company today."

SOURCE Bird

Related Links

http://www.bird.co


Former RAC Ontario North Regional Director Doug Leach, VE3XK - SK

Radio Amateurs of Canada has received the sad news that former RAC Ontario North Regional Director Doug Leach, VE3XK, became a Silent Key on January 15, 2020.

Doug served as the RAC First Vice-President in 1997-98 and was the RAC Director for the Ontario North Region from 2001 to 2004. In addition to serving on the RAC Board and Executive, Doug was the author and editor of several RAC publications and reports including: the RAC Operating Manual; the RAC Emergency Coordinators Manual; the RAC Official Observers Guide; the RAC Administration Manual; and the RAC Manual for Directors.

Doug was a member of Radio Amateurs of Canada, the American Radio Relay League, the Quarter Century Wireless Association, the Straight Key Century Club, the PODXS 070 Club, the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club and the West Carleton Amateur Radio Club.

Norm Rashleigh, VE3LC, Secretary of the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) Chapter 70, expressed his condolences on behalf of Chapter 70:

Doug was a most valued member of the QCWA Chapter 70 serving as Web Master since 2007 and Historian Archivist since 2010. He will also be remembered for his many technical presentations at Chapter meetings as well as several of the Ottawa area clubs which he was an active member.

Doug was a very active Radio Amateur until recent years, with experience on most Amateur allocations, 160 metres through to the microwave bands, having achieved multi-mode DXCC on most of the HF bands. His enthusiasm and contribution to Amateur Radio will be sorrowfully missed.

On behalf of Radio Amateurs of Canada, I extend sincere condolences to Dougs wife Beverley and his entire family.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, February 9, from 2 to 4 pm at Robbies Restaurant, 1531 St. Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa. For more information please see the Obituary notice below.

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA

President, Radio Amateurs of Canada

Douglas (Doug) Edmond Leach, VE3XK

Suddenly at home January 15 at the age of 81. Beloved husband of Beverley. Loving father of Karen Kerr, Alison Lakevold and the late Warren Leach, his sister Catherine McColl, niece Pamela and many grandchildren.

He and Bev sailed on the Ottawa River and then a 44-foot trawler based at Clayton, New York cruising the Thousand Islands.

After retirement they cruised into the intracoastal waterway system, spending several winters around the Bahama Islands before returning to Canada.

A celebration of Dougs life will be held on February 9, from 2 to 4 pm at Robbies Restaurant, 1531 St. Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa.

Donations may be made to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.
- Cote d'Ivoire has tested one person for the first case deadly Coronavirus

- An Ivorian student who traveled from Beijing to Abidjan experienced symptoms such as coughing, sneezing and difficulty breathing

- He has however been quarantined and undergoing observation

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Information reaching YEN.com.gh indicates that Cote d'Ivoire has recorded the first African case of the Wuhan coronavirus which was first identified in China.

Cote d'Ivoires Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene said in a statement Sunday, January 26, 2019, said an Ivorian student who traveled from Beijing to Abidjan experienced symptoms such as coughing, sneezing and difficulty breathing.

The student was moved to a safe location on arrival at the airport and is currently under medical observation, the ministry said.

According to Joy News reports, authorities believe it is a case of pneumonia and not coronavirus, but the final diagnosis will be made after the analysis of the tests results, the ministry said.

READ ALSO: Kumawood star Kyeiwaa marries in America (Video)

The ministry however urged residents not to panic, to maintain proper hygiene and to visit the closest health center in case of fever, cough or breathing difficulties.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Ministry of Health announced that all persons coming in from China to Ghana would undergo enhanced health screening and surveillance to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus.

Health Authorities in China have confirmed the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus in December 2019 after a series of reported cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.

A press release signed by the sector Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu and reported by Citi News, assured that Ghana has in-country capacity to diagnose the infection at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

READ ALSO: Outbreak of deadly virus; Ghana to screen passengers from China over new virus

Nine persons have been recorded dead and 440 infected with new coronavirus in China

The virus, known also as 2019-nCoV, is said to be a new strain of coronavirus that has not previously been identified in humans.

Chinese health authorities say the virus can spread from human to the other.

Signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

READ ALSO: Nana Addo cant win election 2020 because he failed to build cathedral for God - Prophet

Burna Boy's full performance at Manifestive 2019 | #Yencomgh

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Sarec stepped down unexpectedly, abandoning his minority government after saying that it lacked sufficient support in parliament.

The collapse puts the Alpine euro-area country on track for its sixth government in 10 years, a period that included a double-dip recession, a banking bailout, the criminal conviction of a former prime minister and repeated political upheaval. The resignation also underscores the difficulty faced by newcomers from Italy to Ukraine who've tapped into popular anger over traditional politics to win power but struggle to rule.

Sarec said he'd submit his resignation to parliament on Monday and talks on a new coalition will begin immediately. But the former television comedian, who unexpectedly stormed to power in a 2018 ballot, said early elections were a better option.

"People are asking me, 'Mr. Prime Minister, please do this, please do that,' " Sarec told a news conference in Ljubljana, the capital. "I agree with all their pleas and suggestions, but with this government I just can't achieve it. That's why I think it is best to have early elections."

Sarec's five-party coalition had teetered on the point of collapse since a leftist party revoked its support in November, including a bruising squabble over the 2020 budget. With the coalition three votes short of a parliamentary majority, it depends on opposition lawmakers for every new law it proposes.

Sarec said he would extend an invitation to team up in an election alliance with the Party of the Modern Center, or SMC. In his briefing to media, he said a fiscal rule that limited spending was too strict and that the country needed to change its approach to healthcare. The leaders of parties in the coalition complained that they had not been told of his resignation before the announcement.

One potential motive for Sarec is that, while Slovenia's political arena remains fractured with no dominant party, an uptick in support for his List of Marjan Sarec movement may give him an edge. Some of the smaller parties have lost support, and could fail to cross the threshold needed to win seats in an election, potentially giving Sarec more sway from redistributed votes.

"Sarec will be going into a new election as a politician who was opposed by the country's right wing to implement programs for more equality," said Tihomir Cipek, political science professor at the University of Zagreb. "The unknown element is that Slovenia has demonstrated in the recent past to be a country prone to sudden political changes, as both Sarec and former Premier Miro Cerar came from parties that didn't even exist weeks before elections that propelled them to victory."

The List of Marjan Sarec leads in popularity, with 15% support, according to a poll for 24 Ur television published Sunday. The opposition Social Democrats were in second with 14% and SMC was below the parliamentary threshold at less than 2%. Six parties would make it into the assembly, down from nine in the 2018 election, the poll showed.

Sarec's announcement followed the surprise resignation of Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj earlier in the day. Bertoncelj had battled with other members of the coalition over spending.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The yield on 10-year Slovenian bonds fell three basis to 0.16%, the lowest since Dec. 12 as investors returned to safe havens due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus and a rally in neighboring Italian debt after the Democratic Party fended off a challenge by the right-wing League to win a regional election.

_ _ _

With assistance from Bloomberg's Jasmina Kuzmanovic and James Hirai.
Gov. Tony Evers initiative to strip politics from redistricting took a step forward on Monday.

Evers signed an executive order creating a nonpartisan redistricting commission to give state residents a greater say in electing their officials.

The commission, which Evers unveiled in last weeks State of the State speech, will consist of members from across the state and present maps to the Legislature for consideration after the completion of the 2020 Census.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes promoted the initiative in Kenosha Monday during a news conference at the Kenosha Municipal Building, 625 52nd St.

The conference gathered a sizeable crowd of elected officials, civil rights leaders, organized labor groups and area residents.

This is about fairness and restoring democracy to our state, Barnes said. We understand the system is broken. This is something we need to fix.

In 2018, Wisconsin voters favored Democratic candidates for the state Assembly by more than 200,000 ballots. Nevertheless, Republicans control 63 seats, compared to 36 for the Democrats.

This is what extreme gerrymandering looks like, state Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, said. We know that from a recent Marquette poll, 72 percent of Wisconsinites support fair maps drawn by a nonpartisan party.

Evers, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and most of the governors Cabinet assembled in the Capitol Monday for the executive order requiring the creation of the Peoples Maps Commission, which will visit each congressional district in Wisconsin to help create the maps.

People should be able to choose their elected officials, not the other way around, Evers said. I believe when it comes to integrity in the process and fairness of the maps, Wisconsin must look to the people, not to politicians to assist in drawing maps that are fairly and accurately representing our state.

Mayor John Antaramian said the current map is flawed and in need of modification.

Its unbelievably important for the public to have access to the government, Antaramian said. I look at whats happening around the country right now  at the national, state and local levels  where everything is so partisan and so extreme. It needs to stop.

The way you stop it is by redistricting. I think it will push for more tolerance among the public and legislators dealing with each other in a much fairer way. I think weve lost that.

Praise and doubts

Advocates have praised the commission, arguing it will provide transparency and give courts a nonpartisan alternative if the process ends up in litigation.

Other experts doubt whether the creation of the commission, which doesnt change state law, will have much of an effect on how the maps are drawn.

Republican leaders have hammered the commission. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, called the commission unconstitutional while Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, vowed the GOP will reject the maps and go about its own redistricting process.

Kaul argues the commission is constitutional in that it does not take away the Legislatures authority under Wisconsin law to ultimately decide on which maps to implement. Wisconsin law also allows Evers to veto those maps, which could lead to a protracted court battle.

2011 redistricting

Evers vowed the commissions map-making process wont involve lobbyists or secrecy agreements, likely a reference to the last redistricting process in 2011 when Republicans controlled the Legislature and governors office.

At that time, the maps were created in a tightly controlled room at the Madison law office of Michael Best & Friedrich, and Democrats were not allowed to take part in the process. Republican lawmakers were required to sign secrecy oaths to view drafts.

Under those maps, Republicans in the Senate and Assembly have for the most part enjoyed healthy majorities, even when receiving fewer votes statewide.

Our ability to choose our leadership is one of the principles this country was founded on, state Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Somers said. Its something that is so important to continue to protect and preserve as we move forward. Ultimately, its the citizens who choose their politicians rather than the other way around.

Importance of Census

One of the most important steps to redistricting stems from the 2020 Census, according to Antaramian. The Census, conducted every 10 years, gives the federal government an accurate count of people living in the United States and a tool for determining how many representatives from each state are sent to Congress.

The Census is the key, in the long run, to what has to happen, Antaramian said. Kenosha has been very active in creating a Census committee and doing the things we have to do so every person who has a right to vote and lives in this community is counted. Everybody needs to be registered for the Census. This is extremely important.

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Aurangabad, Jan 27 : BJP's sulking leader Pankaja Munde on Monday sat on a symbolic hunger strike for what she said was to "draw the state government's attention to the water woes in Maharashtra".

However, the former minister grabbed more attention than the cause she is fighting for as a host of top party leaders visited the protest site outside the Aurangabad Divisional Commissionerate.

Flanked by her sister and MP Pritam Munde, Pankaja was joined by a host of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Union Minister of State Raosaheb Patil-Danve, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis, Leader of Opposition in the Council Pravin Darekar and ex-speaker Haribhau Bagade.

Several other seniors leaders planned to join her during her daylong hunger strike, though it was not clear whether state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil will also be present at the spot in a show of strength.

In her brief address, Pankaja said she was not there to criticise the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, but "draw the government's attention to the serious water crisis plaguing the parched Marathwada region".

She urged Thackeray to immediately take steps to implement the 'Marathwada Water Grid' announced by the previous Fadnavis government to resolve the water problems of the people in Marathwada.

In September 2019, before the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly elections were announced, then Chief Minister Fadnavis had announced a Rs 3,122-crore project to create integrated pipe networks to permanently tackle the water shortage issue in parts of Marathwada for drinking, industrial and agriculture purposes.

The 11 dams in Marathwada districts were proposed to be interlinked to move water from excess to deficient ones, and distribute it through pipelines to the people.

Speaking at the protest venue, Fadnavis said there were fears that the MVA government will discontinue the scheme and deprive the Marathwada people of their rightful share of water. He warned that this would not be tolerated.

In response, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the project is merely under review and an appropriate decision would be taken once the exercise was over.

Taking a swipe at Munde, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said that "if they had worked for five years, the situation would not have warranted the launch of an agitation now".

After suffering a rout in the October 2019 Assembly elections at the hands of her cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde, Pankaja Munde had kept the BJP on tenterhooks by blowing hot and cold at some leaders.

On December 12, while speaking in Beed, she had announced the January 27 agitation during the birth anniversary celebrations of her father and late Union minister Gopinath Munde.
Rights group says minors held at Kigalis Gikondo Transit Centre are regularly beaten and exposed to inhuman conditions.

Street children in Rwandas capital, Kigali, are being arbitrarily detained and abused at a holding centre, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The New York-based rights group said in a report on Monday that vulnerable minors held in the facility, known as the Gikondo Transit Centre, were regularly beaten and exposed to overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.

Johnston Busingye, Rwandas minister of justice, denied the accusations made in the HRW report, describing Gikondo as a rehabilitation centre set up to provide children with skills and protection.

The children come from broken families. The Rwandan government decided to invest a lot of money to get children off the streets. We are trying to create a future for some people, he told Al Jazeera.

Inhuman and degrading conditions

HRW said its 44-page report was based on 30 interviews conducted between January and October 2019 with children aged 11 to 17 who were formerly detained in Gikondo for periods of up to six months.

Twenty-eight of the interviewees said they were beaten, according to HRW. Children were also quoted as saying that they had to share mattresses and blankets, which were often infected with lice, while access to medical care was sporadic.

HRW also said that children were held at Gikondo without judicial oversight or due process, while none of the interviewees were given access to a lawyer, guardian or family member.

Under legislation introduced in 2017, people showing deviant behaviours  such as prostitution, drug use, begging, vagrancy, [or] informal street vending, can be held in transit centres for up to two months, without any other further legal justification or oversight, HRW said.

According to the law, transit centres are premises used for accommodating on a temporary basis people who may then be transferred to a rehabilitation centre, defined as premises used for the conduct of activities dedicated to reforming, educating and providing professional skills and reintegrate any person exhibiting deviant acts or behaviours.

Rwandan authorities claim they are rehabilitating street children, Lewis Mudge, HRWs Central Africa director, said.

But instead, they are locking them up in inhuman and degrading conditions without due process, and exposing them to beatings and abuse.

According to HRW, violations occur as soon as the children are rounded up off the streets.

The police beat me up and tried to force me into the truck. I hurt my wrist, I had to wait three days before seeing a doctor  They just bandaged my arm, a 15-year-old boy living on the streets in Nyagatare District, who was arrested in September 2018, was quoted as saying by HRW.

UN review

In its report, HRW urged the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is due to review Rwandas compliance with the Convention on the Right of the Child, to call for the immediate closure of the centre.

Rwanda ratified the convention in 1991.

The convention has been ratified by 196 countries, which are required to undergo regular reviews by the UN committee that is comprised of 18 independent international experts.

The UN childs rights committee has an opportunity to do what few in Rwanda can do by asking the government tough questions about its human rights record and systematic treaty violations, Mudge said.

It should stand by children facing abuse, who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Following an outbreak of infection by the novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) which causes acute respiratory illness, in China, an emergency committee meeting was held on January 22 and 23, 2020, by the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). The meeting sought to agree on whether this should be declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This is the highest level of health-related emergency that can be called by the WHO. However, the committees consensus was that while this constituted a grave emergency in China, it fell short of a PHEIC.

Chongqing, China-Jan, 23th 2020: Chinese citizens wearing breathing masks to protect from 2019-nCoV disease. Helloabc / Shutterstock

The gravity

The fear is that this epidemic will turn out to be a rerun of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), also caused by a coronavirus, in which 650 people died both in China and in Hong Kong, over 2002-2003. China has already reported over 2,900 cases so far, with 80 deaths so far. Most cases are in frail people, such as the elderly or the sick. About a quarter show signs of more severe illness, but scientists think that many cases are being missed because they are so mild. Infection cases are continuing to rise worldwide, 12 foreign countries confirmed 40 cases. Thailand has confirmed its eighth case, Australia its fifth and Japan and Malaysia have both reported their fourth.

The total number of cases and suspected cases, the number of affected provinces and the mortality rate are all showing an upswing. Social media are showing videos of patients enclosed in what looks like plastic tubes and boxes as they are transferred from ambulance to hospital.

The spread

Meanwhile, China confirms new mutations are appearing in the virus, making it more difficult to contain the epidemic by developing a vaccine. The virus has already made its way out of the country to Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore.

These are coronaviruses (colored transmission electron microscopy image). Image Credit: Photo: Dr. Fred Murphy & Sylvia Whitfield/CDC

The source could be from animals, especially snakes like the Chinese krait and the cobra, which were among the live animals illegally sold in the Wuhan seafood market where the infection is posited to have first risen. However, currently it is also passed between humans by close contact at least. At present, there are fourth-generation cases in the original city and second-generation cases in other locations outside the city.

In contrast, the SARS virus is believed to have passed from the original bat host to other animals like civet cats. The current outbreak is thought to be the third instance of a coronavirus being transmitted from animal to human hosts.

A researcher examines a Pipistrellus hesperidus, or Dusky Pipistrelle bat. Credit: Kirsten Gilardi, UC Davis

Control measures

Strong containment measures have been put in place in Wuhan city, a city of 11 million inhabitants, where the outbreak emerged, and more and more nearby places in the Hubei province. Streets are deserted, with no planes or trains in or out of the city. The country is locking down more cities, including The Forbidden City in Beijing, as there are signs of rapid spread of the infection. About 20 million people are now confined to their cities and villages.

The traditional Lunar New Year crowds will be missing as the government has banned such gatherings.

A global crisis?

The following criteria were identified as signs of a possible worldwide crisis:

Spread from person to person with a preliminary R0 (basic reproduction number) estimate of 1.4 to 2.5  the infected individual can pass the virus on to 2.5 to 4 people.

About 25% of cases are severe.

The source of the outbreak is not known but genome analysis suggests it is zoonotic (spread from animals to humans), and perhaps from snakes.

At least one center shows amplification of the disease.

Though not declaring the situation a PHEIC, the emergency committee has advised the WHO to continue to support the management of the outbreak, along with all its partners and collaborators, by putting a full-fledged plan in place to communicate the risk to all stakeholders, and to permit research and development to deal with this coronavirus.

Moreover, the committee also advised the government to give more detailed information about what measures are being put in place across governments to manage the risk. Surveillance and case finding measures are to be enhanced, with particular reference to the huge risk of transmission that is posed by the large crowds that typically gather to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Earlier, Wuhan city witnessed gatherings of this sort, with town officials seeking to encourage more tourists to visit the area. This has now stopped, hopefully in time to curb further spread.

The precautions

More research is necessary to understand its epidemiology, its development, its reservoir, the potential modes of transmission, and treatment requirements. Exit screening at airports and ports handling international travellers, along with screening at domestic travel hubs, is also encouraged.

An extremely important recommendation is that China must continue to share full information on the data coming to light about the virus, as well as about infections of health workers. In the earlier SARS epidemic, many unnecessary cases as well as deaths both inside and outside China occurred because of the hush-hush approach to disease-related information. This time round, the government has warned health officials not to hide information related to the current outbreak.

Since other countries are known to be involved, containment measures should be prepared for in advance. This includes surveillance, detecting cases early, isolating and managing cases according to the standard of care, and tracing contacts, while preventing the spread of the virus. All countries should keep their information current with the WHO as per the International Health Regulations. Many countries are also screening all passengers arriving from China by temperature.

Globally, this is a concern because of the novel virus, and a history of similar viruses which needed a lot of effort to share information and for research. The international community needs to stand united with China and with each other, to help identify how and where this virus emerged, how it spreads, and how to keep from importing new cases while promoting research on the best modes of treatment.

Some companies have initiated vaccine development. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has formally asked the University of Queensland to come up with a vaccine using its new rapid response technology, centered on its patented molecular clamp platform. This technology is based on knowledge of the viral genome. This vaccine could be in the market within 6 months if all goes well.
Foxx said her office could have done a better job communicating with the public about the case, but that there is a bigger picture she hopes voters will look at: While there may be people that are focused on this one case, we have now led the nation in the vacating of wrongful convictions. Violent crime has gone down because weve put our resources in going after gun crimes in some of our hardest hit neighborhoods. 
Agni Prasad Sapkota on Monday was sworn-in as the Speaker of Nepal's House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament, amid protests by human rights activists against his appointment.

The leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was elected to the post unopposed on Sunday.

The post of the Speaker was lying vacant since October last year after Krishna Bahadur Mahara resigned following allegations of attempted rape.

Sapkota was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Bidya Devi Bhandari at Rastrapati Bhawan. After the swearing-in ceremony, he assumed his office at the Federal Parliament Secretariat in Singhadarbar.

Sapkota has been elected to the Speaker's post despite a murder case pending against him in the Supreme Court.

He is accused of being involved in the abduction and killing of a civilian, Arjun Lama, in 2005 during the height of Nepal's decade-old Maoist conflict. Lama was abducted from a school at Dapche in Kavrepalanchowk district where he was attending a parent-teacher meeting.

Police rounded up 12 human rights activists and some agitators who were protesting outside Rastrapati Bhawan against Sapkota when his swearing-in was in progress.

Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi on Friday filed a PIL against Sapkota's candidacy, stating that an FIR had been filed against him accusing him of killing Lama.

The Supreme Court, however, did not hear the case challenging Sapkota's candidacy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A new draft of a government resolution in Russia mandates that all electronics sold in the country carry pre-installed software from Russian companies that espouses the "formation of the priority of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values." However, these values are not explicitly defined in the resolution. The document is a followup to legislation signed into law last year forcing all smart devices and computers sold in Russia to be pre-installed with Russian-made software.

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How Russian can a smartphone get? Well soon find out after a new government resolution in Russia goes into effect.

The resolution, which was spotted by Reuters, states that software pre-installed on devices sold in Russia must support the formation of the priority of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. This resolution is a followup to legislation signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year that mandates all smartphones, computers, and smart TVs sold in Russian carry pre-installed software from Russian companies.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service of Russia drafted the resolution to answer questions about the actual software that is to be pre-installed on electronic devices. In addition to fostering traditional Russian values, the software must be both popular and secure, according to Reuters.

While this resolution was written to give clarity, the Anti-Monopoly Service did not explicitly clarify what traditional Russian spiritual and moral values actually are. As such, there is still little guidance as to what software should come on devices sold in Russia.

What is known is that software must first be submitted to the Russian government for review. Should the program be approved, it could be pre-installed on smartphones, computers, and other smart devices in March.

The resolution is another step in Vladimir Putins apparent crackdown on personal technology in Russia. In recent years, the Russian government has censored some search engine results and required social networks to share security tools and user data with some official organizations.

What do you think of Russias move to force devices sold within the country to carry software that supports Russian values? Let us know in the comments.
This accord will pave the path for development of both Assam and Bodo region, Amit Shah said. (Photo Credit: Twitter)

New Delhi:

The Government of India on Monday signed a landmark tripartite accord with representatives of all factions of banned organisation National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal were present during the signing ceremony. Today Centre, Assam government and Bodo representatives have signed an important agreement. This agreement will ensure a golden future for Assam and for the Bodo people, Shah said after the peace accord was signed at the Home Ministry office in North Block.1550 cadres along with 130 weapons will surrender on 30th January. As the Home Minister, I want to assure all representatives that all promises will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner, Shah further said.

What Bodo accord says?

This accord will pave the path for development of both Assam and Bodo region, Shah said. According to the peace pact, the Centre will grant Rs 1,500 crore to the region, which will be spread in the three-year period. Special attempts will be made to safeguard language, culture and land rights in the region. Those who will surrender will be rehabilitated accordingly. Families of those killed in Bodo movement will get relief of Rs 5 lakh each. All stakeholders of Bodo society has signed this agreement, reaffirming the territorial integrity of Assam, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The four factions of the NDFB, which signed the pact, were led by Ranjan Daimari, Govinda Basumatary, Dhiren Boro and B Saoraigra.

The accord marks the end of three-decade long movement. Bodos are the single largest tribal community in Assam. It was in 1960s that the demand for separate Bodoland was raised. Two decades later, the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) renewed the demand in 1987.

A look back at peace deal of 1993

The first Bodo accord was signed with the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) in 1993, leading to creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.

In 2003, the second Bodo accord was signed with the militant group Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), leading to formation of a Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with four districts of Assam -- Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri -- called the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).

The BTC has control over 30 subjects like education, forests, horticulture but no jurisdiction on the police, revenue and general administration departments, which are controlled by the Assam government. The BTC was formed under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.

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[January 27, 2020] Vicinity Energy Launches Largest District Energy Provider in North America

Antin Infrastructure Partners, a global infrastructure fund, recently announced the creation of a new brand, Vicinity Energy, following its purchase of Veolia North America's district energy assets in the United States. The newly launched Vicinity Energy is comprised of central energy plants and associated distribution networks that supply steam or hot water, chilled water and electricity, across 13 networks in 10 major cities. It is the largest district energy provider in North America. Headquartered in Boston, Vicinity Energy currently supplies energy and related services to in excess of 200 million square feet of building space with its largest networks located in downtown Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Kansas City. Supplied by over 400 megawatts (MW) of combined heat and power (CHP) production, Vicinity is a greener alternative to conventional heating/cooling/electricity supply and its plants are the most efficient large generators on their respective power grids. With over 50 years in the district energy business, the company's leadership team - and experienced engineers, operators and energy experts - has remained intact as part of the terms of the sale. These 450+ employees will continue to serve their client's mission-critical energy needs.



Sectors such as life science and biomed are embracing district energy technology due to its resiliency and reliability. For medical centers and hospitals, district energy supplied heating, cooling, humidification and equipment sterilization are crucial to patient clinical and surgical care. Commercial property owners can transfer their energy risks while recapturing valuable amenity space such as parking and rooftops. Developers can expect expedited permitting with a low carbon solution that requires no onsite combustion. "With Antin's strong financial backing and planned infrastructure investments, Vicinity has the opportunity to leverage its veteran expertise and apply it to the growth and advancement of district energy systems across the U.S.," said William DiCroce, president and chief executive officer of Vicinity Energy. "Today's energy landscape is evolving rapidly, which is why property owners, developers, and major institutions alike are increasingly gravitating toward this established technology, recognizing it as a green, cost competitive and super-reliable energy option. Cities also recognize the important role we play in reducing the carbon footprint of their environs."

The completion of this deal, which was announced in July and closed on December 30th of last year, represents Antin's first big energy acquisition in North America. The infrastructure investment firm's financial backing, coupled with Vicinity's experienced team, poises the company for accelerated growth of its environmentally friendly products and services. About Vicinity Energy With 13 networks in 10 major cities, Vicinity Energy is North America's largest provider of district energy solutions, offering energy supply, infrastructure investment and management services to municipal, commercial and institutional customers with mission-critical energy needs. Our 450+ skilled engineers, operators and energy experts have a singular dedication to our customers' success and a relentless focus on delivering reliable and efficient energy products and services. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005457/en/

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses at the launch of the website 'www.welcomekejriwal.in' for 'one to one communication' with the voters ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, in New Delhi on Jan 27, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 27 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday questioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah over Sharjeel Imam moving free even two days after he said Assam should be separated from the country.

Sharjeel Imam, one of the organisers of the anti-CAA protest in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, in a video, is seen talking about splitting the northeast from India to block the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Kejriwal's remarks came after Shah asked the Delhi Chief Minister to make his stand clear if he favours the action against Sharjeel Imam or not.

Kejriwal in return accused Shah of indulging in "dirty politics".

"Sharjeel spoke about separating Assam from the country. It is very serious. You are the Home Minister of the country. This statement of yours is bad politics. It is your duty that you arrest him immediately. It has been two days since he said this. Why are you not arresting him? What is your helplessness? Or you want to do more dirty politics," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
A new Task Force Europe, reporting direct to Boris Johnson, is to take over responsibility for negotiations with the EU after Brexit day on Friday, Downing Street has announced.

The 40-strong unit will be led by Mr Johnsons chief negotiator David Frost, with staff drawn from across Whitehall, including deputies from the Treasury and Foreign Office.

The Department for Exiting the EU (Dexeu)  established by Theresa May in 2016 to conduct negotiations on the UKs withdrawal from the EU  will cease to exist at 11pm on Friday, when the UK formally leaves the bloc.

And the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, and his ministers James Duddridge and Lord Callanan will lose their ministerial jobs as the clock strikes 11.

Mr Barclay will be hoping to be restored to the cabinet in a new role when Mr Johnson conducts the reshuffle of his top ministerial team expected in February.

No ministerial changes are understood to be planned over the weekend, but Downing Street sources declined to say whether the reshuffle could come in time for Mr Barclay to attend the first scheduled cabinet meeting after Brexit on Tuesday next week.

Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Show all 76 1 /76 Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Crowds march through central London Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters gather in Parliament Square Led By Donkeys Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joins protesters PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters fill Parliament Square in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A demonstrator marches EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters push a float depicting Dominic Cummings using Boris Johnson as a puppet during the Final Say Brexit march in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters react after the result of the vote on the deal delay was announced at the House of Commons REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A demonstrator carries his dog draped in EU flag AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Thousands of people taking part in a People's Vote march AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters use their flags to shelter from the rain Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards Parliament Square Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit demonstrators carry placards and EU flags AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Sir Oliver Letwin MP in Parliament Square, London, during an an anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard rally, after it was announced that the Letwin amendment, which seeks to avoid a no-deal Brexit on October 31, has been accepted PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Thousands of people taking part in a People's Vote march UK BROADCASTERS POOL/AFP via Get Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A protester with "Bollocks to Brexit" stickers on his head Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Demonstrators march EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Britain's main opposition Labour Party shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU Keir Starmer, shadow Home Secretary Dianne Abbott, shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell, shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry speaks on stage in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit supporters cheer outside parliament AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A EU supporter waves flags REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit supporters AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters shout and chant demanding a final say Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Police look towards protesters Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Pro-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People taking part in an Anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard march head to Parliament Square in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People taking part in an Anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard march in Trafalgar Square PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit supporters cheer outside parliament AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People taking part in an Anti-Brexit, Let Us Be Heard march past Trafalgar Square PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters shout and chant Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Cory (7) sits on his father's shoulders as protesters march towards Parliament Square Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march People attend the 'Together for the Final Say' march EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards Parliament Square Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks on stage PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A woman in EU costume EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters fill Parliament Square in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters hold an Independent banner Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters hold an anti-Brexit placard by The Independent stall during the Final Say Brexit march in London Tom Richell Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters in Parliament Square, London, PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Demonstrators hold placards and EU flags AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit protester joins in the Final Say Brexit march on 19 October AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters march in London REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Sir Patrick Stewart and Paul McGann join in the Final Say Brexit march in London on 19 October PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters march Reuters Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A demonstrator shouts into a megaphone as she marches AFP via Getty Images Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A dog dressed in an anti-Brexit placard is walked in the Final Say Brexit march in London EPA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters march REUTERS Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march A morris dancer takes part in the Final Say Brexit march in London PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Whippets are dressed in EU flag clothing during the Final Say Brexit march in London AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards parliament in the Final Say Brexit march in London on 19 October 2019 PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit demonstrator takes part in the Final Say Brexit march in London AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march EU supporters call on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal Reuters Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit protester Angela Christofilou/The Independent Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate in London during the Final Say Brexit march on 19 October AP Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters push a float depicting Dominic Cummings using Boris Johnson as a puppet during the Final Say Brexit march in London AFP/Getty Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Protesters march towards parliament from Park Lane in the Final Say Brexit march in London on 19 October 2019 PA Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march Marchers visit The Independent stall during the Final Say March in London Tom Richell Best pictures from Final Say Brexit march An anti-Brexit protester holds a sign calling for a Final Say during a march in London EPA

Downing Street said that arrangements had been made for all Dexeu staff who wish to remain within government to move to other departments.

Some will join the new Task Force Europe within No 10, which was characterised by the PMs spokesperson as a small and agile unit, responsible for negotiating the future relationship with the EU and working with departments from across Whitehall.

Responsibility for diplomatic engagement with the EU returns to the Foreign Office, while the implementation of the withdrawal agreement and preparations for the UKs new status will be overseen by Michael Gove in the Cabinet Office.

The UKs Representation to the EU (known as UKRep) will be renamed the UK Mission in Brussels, and permanent representative Sir Tim Barrow will become the UKs ambassador to the EU.

Stephen Barclay (Getty) (Getty Images)

During the 11-month transition period lasting until the end of 2020, the EU will engage with the EU and its member states as it would with any other international partner, said Mr Johnsons spokesperson. At international organisations, Britain will cease to be represented by the EU and will sit as an independent country speaking on its own behalf.

The UK will seek to deepen our relationships across the world with future partners and to do this, you can expect ministers to undertake travel to support this ambition by visiting countries around the world, said the PMs spokesperson.
A baby girl, just 1 month old, has lost both legs in an attack by an unknown gunman in Afghanistan's Faryab Province that also killed six members of the girl's family. Afghan authorities said the Taliban was to blame, but the militant group has denied responsibility. Warning: Disturbing images.
Iraqi security forces shot at anti-government protesters in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least one person, and unidentified men set fire to sit-in tents in a southern Iraqi city, police and medics said, as months-long civil unrest escalated.

Baghdad: Iraqi security forces shot at anti-government protesters in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least one person, and unidentified men set fire to sit-in tents in a southern Iraqi city, police and medics said, as months-long civil unrest escalated.

Separately, at least one of five Katyusha rockets fired at Baghdads fortified Green Zone hit the US embassy, wounding three people, in a rare direct targeting of the compound, security sources said. Reuters could not independently verify the rocket attacks.

Anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad on 1 October and quickly turned violent. Security forces and unidentified gunmen have shot protesters dead. Nearly 500 people have been killed in the unrest.

The protests are an unprecedented leaderless challenge to Iraqs Shiite Muslim-dominated and largely Iran-backed ruling elite, which emerged after a US-led invasion toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Demonstrators are demanding that all parties and politicians be removed, free and fair elections are held and corruption rooted out. The government has responded with violence and piecemeal reform. The international community has condemned the violence but not intervened to stop it.

In Baghdad, one protester was killed, police sources and medics said, and more than 100 others hurt across the country after the security forces tried to clear protest camps.

At least 75 of those hurt were in the southern city of Nassariya. A Reuters witness said protesters set fire to two security vehicles and hundreds of other demonstrators controlled key bridges in the city. Later, unidentified men set fire to tents that are part of a months-long sit-in in the city centre.

Protests have flared in the last two days after populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, many of whose supporters had participated, said he would no longer be involved in anti-government demonstrations.

Sadr opposes all foreign interference in Iraq but has aligned himself more closely in recent months with Iran and the Tehran-backed parties that dominate state institutions in Baghdad.

Some demonstrators have accused the populist cleric of the treachery of their cause.

Sadr has organised separate anti-American demonstrations aimed at pressuring US troops to leave Iraq, moves that critics say aim to eclipse the anti-establishment movement which has taken aim at all politicians including Sadr.

The increase in unrest comes after Washington killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of Irans control over Iraq, and an Iraqi paramilitary chief in a drone strike in Baghdad on 3 January.

Iran responded with ballistic missile attacks on two Iraqi military bases, but the killing has revived tensions in Iraqi politics and delayed the formation of a new government.

Five Katyusha rockets hit Baghdads Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, late on Sunday, a military statement said. It did not report casualties.

Internal Strife

Security sources told Reuters that at least one rocket landed inside the US embassy compound and wounded three people. If confirmed, it would be the first time in years that such attacks on the Green Zone, which are regular, have actually hurt staff there.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack in a statement from his office, and said that the continuation of such acts could drag Iraq into becoming a battlefield.

Sadr had called for demonstrations against the US Embassy in Baghdad and other cities on Sunday but cancelled them, with his office giving avoiding internal strife as the reason.

Sadrs supporters had bolstered anti-government protests before the assassination of Soleimani but have since been directed by their leader to focus their anger against America. They began withdrawing from anti-government sit-in camps on Saturday.

We protest because we have a cause. I dont think Moqtada Sadr or any other politician will change our mind, said a protester in Baghdad who declined to give his name.

I dont go to protests often but I came out today because of what they did yesterday. I want to express my solidarity with my brothers in Tahrir, said Hussain Ali, a student, referring to demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the main area of protests in the capital.

In Baghdad, protesters were coughing and washing their faces and eyes to rid themselves of the effects of tear gas while medical workers provided first aid, as the site was inaccessible to ambulances, a Reuters reporter said.

Tuk-tuks evacuated wounded protesters in clouds of tear gas and black smoke from burning tyres.

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of university students had gathered in Tahrir Square, the main protest camp, chanting slogans against the United States and Iran.

Protests also continued in the cities of Kerbala, Najaf and Diwaniya, defying attempts by security forces to end their months-long sit-in, police sources and Reuters witnesses said.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has warned candidates, schools and parents against engaging in illegal transaction...





The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has warned candidates, schools and parents against engaging in illegal transactions on Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).





JAMB issues the warning while disclosing that 700,000 candidates have so far been registered for the 2020 UTME in two weeks.





The Boards Head, Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday night.





According to him, the exercise has been hitch-free, with impressive turnout from the first day at the various accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide.





I will like to say we have actually found this exercise very interesting as we have already registered a total of 700, 000 prospective candidates for this years Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in just 14 days.





We have 21 days left to go for this registration exercise and we wish to call on all candidates, the UTME and Direct Entry, to seize the opportunity and register, as there will be no extension.





Benjamin noted that the Board had blacklisted 41 centres out of the 692 centres used, over issues such as registration cyber fraud, extortion and technical deficiency.





JAMB which has sanctioned the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), warned schools to stop using its name to defraud Nigerians.





Benjamin said: It has come to the knowledge of the Board that some elite schools are using the name of the Board to extort huge sums of money from parents under the guise that the Board has ordered such payments.





The Board wishes to make it clear that unlike the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and others, the UTME and Direct Entry (DE) registration and examination exercises are not school-based.





As such, schools have no role whatsoever in the Boards operational processes.





This is because these exercises require only the participation and engagement of individual candidates.





Consequently, schools that are using the name of the Board to swindle parents of large sum of money for the purpose of registration or other services, are hereby warned to desist forthwith, he said.





According to him, these affected schools may wish to employ other means to extort gullible parents but certainly such practice should not be at the expense of the Board or its processes.





Benjamin added that the information became necessary following discovery of series of data mutilation, owing to this unwholesome group processing of registration, among others.





Parents are to note that the cost of the UTME forms remains N3,500 for the ePINs and N500 for the reading text and nothing more.





Parents are to ensure that their children do this individually and not as a group. In addition, the CBT centres where the candidates register have been directed not to charge anything above N700 as their service charge, Benjamin said.





On the Boards advice on vending, Benjamin said it was important for vendors and candidates to know that certain measures had been taken by the Board to define the process of vending ePINs.





He said this was to serve as a guide against candidates exposing their personal data to fraudsters.





Benjamin urged candidates to note that any personal data divulged to any third-party, be it a vendor or agent could expose them to the risk of losing their UTME registration, thereby jeopardising their future aspirations.





In view of the above, the Board wishes to reiterate that pin vending should be done directly to individual candidates and should be done online through the pin vending platform and not offline.





There should be no bulk purchase of pins by candidates or secondary schools as is being done by some elite schools. All online vending should be done directly to each candidate on the presentation of his or her profile code.





After vending the pin, the relevant pin should be sent to each candidate through his or her phone, hence there is no need to write the pin by hand, by any vendor or agent.





Any vendor/agent who collects a prepared list with candidates names, profile codes and other vital details for the purpose of vending pins will be sanctioned.





Similarly, any vendor collecting such prepared lists is hereby advised to desist with immediate effect as this action has severe consequences on the candidates whose data are being exposed indiscriminately, he warned.
Growing up, she made some bad choices (we all do), but I always helped where I could and stood behind her. I'm reaching the point where I have to avoid certain subjects because I don't want the criticism. The other night she responded to my defensive mood saying she can have an opposing opinion. But it's the way she goes at it. And sometimes all you want is to vent to a friend. I know there's more to this, it's not just about me, but what do I do?
Around two dozen villagers on Monday pelted stones at district officials and policemen during the acquisition of the final parcel of land for the construction of Jewar airport, officials said.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Gunja Singh was injured during the clash which broke out around 11.30 am, they said.

By transferring the final parcel of land to the Yamuna Expressway Authority, the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration has completed the acquisition process for the first phase of Jewar airport, the officials said.

The administration acquired around 18 hectares of land, 11 from Dayanatpur and seven from Rohi, completing acquisition of 1,334 hectare of land in the region for the first phase of the Greenfield International Airport, billed to be the biggest when fully operational, they added.

However, around two dozen villagers, who have been protesting against the land acquisition for two years now, clashed with the administration officials who were accompanied by more than 40 policemen and allegedly pelted stones at them in which the sub-divisional magistrate got injured, a senior official told PTI.

The district administration has approached the police and an FIR was being registered against some villagers who took to violence, the official said.

"Today, the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration has transferred the last parcel of land acquired for to Yamuna Authority. In total, 1,334 hectares of land has been transferred in the first phase. This chapter is closed. The first parcel was transferred on August 6, 2019. More than Rs 3,000 crore has been transferred to land owners in seven months," District Collector Brajesh Narain Singh said.

He said there has been no complaint during the acquisition so far except for Monday's incident "when some disgruntled elements who are already contesting their case in the high court" and "were not the owners of land to be transferred today resorted to stone pelting".

"An SDM was hurt (in the incident). But then all other villagers reached the spot and land transfer took place peacefully. The locals have backed this project. Law will take its own course in an isolated incident," the district collector added.

According to the officials, the first phase of the airport would cost Rs 4,588 crore and it is expected to be completed by 2023.

The entire project will be spread over 5,000 hectares and is estimated to cost Rs 29,560 crore, they said.

The airport, the third in the capital region after Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport and Ghaziabad's Hindon airport, is touted to have six to eight runways, the most in India, when fully built, the officials said.

Swiss firm Zurich Airport International AG on November 29 had emerged as the highest bidder to develop the on the outskirts of Delhi, outbidding competitors like Adani Enterprises, DIAL and Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holding.
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, was among the first-class emirs who visited Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State on Monday days after the Supreme Court victory that affirmed his mandate.

Mr Sanusi, however, did not come in the company of his colleagues, who visited much earlier.

Mr Sanusi later accompanied the Oba of Benin, Omo NOba NEdo Uku Akpolokpolo Ewuare II, on his visit to Mr Ganduje.

This was confirmed via two statements issued by Mr Gandujes spokesperson, Abba Anwar, on Monday.

The former Central Bank governor has been having a running battle with the governor for many years and was a vocal critic of Mr Gandujes policies.

The governor, in order to curb Mr Sanusis influence, recently crafted out four new emirates which are now headed by first class emirs.

The four new emirs earlier on Monday visited the governor to congratulate him on Monday, Mr Anwar said.

During the visit at the Government House, the four new emirs greeted the governor separately, starting with the Emir of Karaye, Ibrahim Abubakar II, then Emir of Rano, Tafida Abubakar-Ila, then Emir of Gaya, Ibrahim Abdulkadir, who was represented by the Sarkin Yakin Gaya, Wada Aliyu and finally the Emir of Bichi, Aminu Ado-Bayero, the official said.

He said all the four emirs congratulated the governor over the judgement assuring him of their support.

We thank Allah for the victory at the Supreme Court. Your victory, means victory for all of us. It is for the development of the entire state. We are at the same time assuring that, this victory will further strengthen His Excellencys administration, Mr Anwar quoted one of the emirs as saying.

The efforts of the state government in curbing the menace of Lassa fever is highly commendable, with the development on ground, it is just a matter of time, the problem would soon be address, he also quoted emir Bayero.

Governors remarks

Meanwhile, when the monarchs visited, the governor reportedly prayed for the repose of the soul of the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero.

He said, This visit is historic. The very seat you are sitting right now, was the seat our father the late Emir Mr Bayero sat sometime when he came visiting Government House.

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He urged all the emirs to assist the state in its free and compulsory primary and secondary school education policy.

The education of our people rests on all our shoulders. Government cannot do it alone. We need your support and cooperation. So also the support of your people.

He said since the opposition PDP took their petition to election tribunalwe are aware how our newly created Emirates have been praying fervently for our victory. Here we are, as we emerged victorious, ranging from the Tribunal up to the Supreme Court. The victory is not for me alone or the government, it is a victory for all people.

Sanusis visit

A second statement by the governors spokesperson said Mr Sanusi accompanied the Oba of Benin later in the day.

But Mr Sanusi reportedly said the Benin monarch was in Kano to visit him (Emir) as another strategy evolved by the Oba for national integration across the nation states, through traditional institutions.

The Benin monarch also commended Mr Ganduje for his call for unity among politicians in the state, Mr Anwar said.

Oba Ewuare II used the opportunity to commend the governor over his call for unity among people for the development of the state.

In his remarks, Governor Ganduje said Kano is one of the most peaceful states in the country.

We have since abolished the issue of non-indigeneship. Whoever is in Kano, so long as he or she is doing lawful things, he is a citizen of Kano, irrespective of religious differences or ethnic nationality, he said.

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National integration is an integral part of our life, as a state. Traditional institutions have an important role to play, Mr Anwar quoted the governor as saying.
While Libya captures a lot of headlines today, it is hardly the only African country where Turkey is keeping busy these days. While Turkeys recent attempt (with Russian support) to negotiate a cease-fire in Libya has failed to halt that countrys violent civil war, Ankaras moves in other parts of Africa suggest that Turkey will remain tenacious in pursuing its interests in Libya and in the rest of the continent.

When the Turkish Foreign Ministry prepared a document titled Africa Action Plan in 1998, not many noticed. But as Turkeys economic profile grew under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), Ankaras overtures in African countries increased. Efforts ranging from state building to providing security assistance to taking over schools affiliated with the network of Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt, have ramped up. Meanwhile, despite challenges, commerce remains the most successful element of Turkeys African overture.

In the Horn of Africa, Turkey has become something of a big brother to Somalia. Struck by political divisions and factional strife since 1991, Somalia also experienced a massive drought and famine in 2011 that killed more than 260,000 people. Erdogan, then prime minister, visited the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and initiated a high-profile reconstruction mission. When Somalia began struggling with another drought in 2017, a Somalian expert called for other countries to follow Turkeys example by praising the Turkish model [that] combined aid and development in 2011-12.

Currently, Turkey maintains one of its largest overseas bases in Mogadishu, where it continues to train a quarter of the national army. Turkish Airlines flies to the Somali capital on a regular basis. The Turkish foreign aid agency and private companies are active in the territories controlled by Somalias central government.

Meanwhile, off the coast of the Horn, Turkish warships patrol the Gulf of Aden as part of the UNs anti-piracy task forces. In nearby Sudan, Erdogans government leased the port city of Suakin on the Red Sea in 2017. Yet the status of that lease is a mystery since the ouster of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

While Turkeys military and political moves in Africa capture the headlines, commerce is the king. Turkeys total trade volume with Africa reached $20 billion in 2018, though that figure is a small portion of overall Turkish foreign trade (nearly $400 billion in 2018).

Ankara is picking up the pace. Since the mid-2000s, Turkey has concluded free trade agreements with four African countries. In fact, Turkeys trade with Africa proves the maxim that money does not care about creed, politics or skin color.

For example, even as Turkish-Egyptian diplomatic relations stumble from one crisis to another, Egypt remains Turkeys largest trading partner in Africa thanks to their free trade agreement. In 2018, Turkey exported more than $3 billion goods and services to Egypt in 2018 while Egyptian exports to Turkey reached $2.2 billion. New free trade agreements with Sudan and Ghana are awaiting ratification. Ankara also is negotiating free trade agreements with other African governments in a bid to secure unrestricted access to the newly created African Continental Free Trade Area.

The free trade agreement with Morocco offers a cautionary tale of success. Originally meant to take advantage of the northwestern African nations free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union and its potential as a logistics hub, the Turkish-Moroccan free trade agreement turned into a blessing for Ankara on its own merit. Trade between the two countries, which stood at $435 million in 2004, reached $2.6 billion in 2017  with a surplus of $1.27 billion to Turkeys advantage. This trade imbalance and the Turkish customs authorities alleged discrimination against Moroccan imports have upset Moroccos business community. Earlier this month, the Moroccan government added new tariffs on imported Turkish textiles while the Moroccan trade minister threatened to cancel the free trade agreement.

In response, Turkeys Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan traveled to Morocco on Jan. 15 and called on Turkish businessmen to invest in joint projects with their Moroccan counterparts to access third-party markets in Africa  subtly acknowledging Rabats concerns. Pekcan also said Ankara will be knocking on Africas door much more this year.

Despite the problems, Turkeys business community is happy with the AKP governments Africa focus. A senior foreign trade expert in Istanbul agrees that Africa is the wave of the future for Turkeys economic growth.

We opened a dozen new embassies in Africa. Turkish Airlines has opened offices in virtually every African capital and it flies to all major African cities. This made a big difference in our trade with the continent, he told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

The expert also claimed that while Ankara has been putting pressure on many countries around the world to turn over Gulenist schools to bodies affiliated with the Turkish government, on the economic front, Gulenist businessmen are slowly being brought back into the fold.

Allegedly, pro-AKP business circles are cautiously reestablishing partnerships with Gulen-affiliated businesses in Africa. Money has no ideology, the expert said.

The expert also spoke positively of the increasing number of African immigrants in Istanbul, whom he described as qualified labor  many of those who arrive are college educated, and often speak both French and English fluently.

Turkeys recent changes to its immigration and naturalization laws are slated to bring more immigrants from Africa, he added. Currently, foreign nationals could gain Turkish citizenship upon buying properties worth $250,000 or gain permanent residency upon buying a home of lesser value.

But the same expert lamented significant hurdles  in particular, double taxation and high tariffs  undermining Turkish trade with Africa. Lack of effective financial connections between Turkey and many African countries seem to be another source of grievance. Turkish banks will not recognize letters of credit from African banks and vice versa.  Of course, merchants find a way around that problem, so official numbers on Turkeys trade with Africa may be underreported, he said. The expert noted how these problems lead Turkey to fall behind China in Africa. Unlike the Chinese, who sell their goods by the container ship, we can sell our things only piecemeal.

The good news is that Turkey seems to be following in Chinas footsteps. Like China, Turkey does not carry the legacy of a troublesome colonial past in much of Africa. Beijing, despite its controversial economic and commercial policies in many countries, has signed more than 40 bilateral free trade agreements with African governments since 2000. Even before the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Central Kingdom pushed to join the Southern Africa Customs. (Ankara, for its part, has set its sights on South Africa as its next partner for a free trade agreement.)

And perhaps that is the most important lesson for Turkey: To keep pushing. In 2000, Chinese trade with Africa was a mere $10 billion  an afterthought in a space where former European colonists took the lead. Fast forward 20 years, China-Africa trade is slated to reach $220 billion. But even if the gargantuan Chinese competition and legal and financial obstacles were to be negotiated, mindsets need to be changed.
The limits of the Indus Valley civilisation could stretch to Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, if a new excavation project of the Centre yields such findings. The union ministry of culture has approved an excavation project of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to explore archaeological possibilities in the region.

The Poonch excavation, and another in Masol in Chandigarhs Mohali district, are two projects which were given additional permission for excavation and exploration for the 2019-20 field season by the ASIs apex advisory body, the Central Advisory Board of Archaeology (CABA). A list of nine projects were permitted in the first list released in October last year.

In Poonch, an ASI officer with knowledge of the matter said that the excavation body will carry on work to look for monuments or antiquities that could be evidence of historical importance. The area under survey is close to the Akhnoor-Poonch highway. And, in Manda in Akhnoor, we found the northernmost tip of the Indus Valley in the 1970s. So there is a strong probability that we find roots of the Indus Valley civilisation in Poonch, said the official.

In Akhnoor, which is located on the right banks of Chenab River, artefacts unearthed after excavations included pre-Harappan and Harappan red ware such as jars, dishes, goblets as well as copper artefacts, bone arrowheads, terracotta bangles, cakes, chert blade, etc. ASI officials from J&K division said that the region has traces of Kushana and Mauryan Periods as well.

Poonch lies more than 100 kilometres north of Manda, and is at the tip of the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. Historically, the Indus valley civilisation, which existed along the banks of the Indus river between 3300 BC to 1300 BC, spanned Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Its western boundary was in Pakistans Balochistan, and in the east was Indias Uttar Pradesh. Afghanistan was to its north, and Indias Gujarat to the south. Excavations in the last few years have led to findings in Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir in India. In Pakistan, several excavations are in Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan.

Historian Dwijendra Narayan Jha said that it is difficult to say whether Poonch could have a link to the Indus Valley civilisation. Unless a link emerges, one cannot be too sure. But the current dispensation has had a push on the Indus Valley civilisation, and whether Patna or Poonch, a link can be established anywhere, said Jha.

For the other project, in Masol, the ASIs pre-history department will try and prove the finding of an Indo-French team that has indicated that migrations from Africa could be 5,00,000 years before what was earlier believed.

An Indo-French team of the Chandigarh-based Society for Archaeological and Anthropological Research and the Paris-based French National Centre for Scientific Research, in their excavation efforts, found 1,500 fossils and cut marks that date back to 2.6 million years. The fossils are now displayed at Chandigarhs National History Museum.

Manoj Kumar Kurmi of the Nagpur-based Pre-History department of the ASI said that they will now attempt to prove the findings. We are looking for specific site with potential, and will start excavations in February, said Kurmi.

Artefacts from the excavation, he said, will be sent for carbon dating. Some of the findings of the Indo-French team placed the fossils within the Pleistocene and Pliocene epochs, which dates back 2.58 million years.

However, Kurmi added that the ASI will not take up the fossils for carbon dating. We are thankful for the team for indicating such a finding, but our efforts are separate from theirs, said Kurmi.
MIDDLETOWN  A member of the citys firing range building committee claims local police have been dragging their heels for the past year for failing to secure funding from the FBI for the project .

However, Police Chief William McKenna said the delay, which affects the Dingwall-Horan Joint Firearms Training Facility at 260 Meriden Road, is solely caused by the intelligence and security services delay in budgeting a $1.5 million matching payment. McKenna hopes the project will guarantee the mitigation of noise issues stemming from our use of the range.

Areas of concern include Tynan Park, Higby Road and Sisk Street, Pleasant View Drive, Northview Drive and Plumb Road, Country Club Road and North Stantack Road, which are near the complex on the Middlefield/Middletown line.

It is my understanding that the committee was briefed on our engagement with the FBI about securing additional monies and the committee agreed to wait to meet until we had heard back from them, McKenna said.

Capt. John Lozefski, who is on the committee, told McKenna the FBI was moving forward with a plan of introducing steps of conducting a feasibility study on the range in an effort to move forward with the potential funding of the project, the chief said.

Firing Range Building Committee member Jennifer Mahr, who also is head of the Westfield Residents Association , as well as other residents affected by the loud sounds coming from the facility for decades, are also concerned the majority of meetings were canceled in the last year.

The panel, established in 2016, only met last January and May.

The Dingwall-Horan center was opened in 1982 for use by local police. In 2008, the department entered into an agreement allowing the FBI, which can access the facility for at least 52 days of the year, to conduct firearms practice.

I am embarrassed and ashamed the committee has had no results to offer the poor residents who live with this every day, Mahr said.

Her presence on the panel places her in a pivotal role as head of the residents association because shes there in two capacities: in charge of paying attention to whats happening in Westfield  Im at that key juncture. I know what the city is doing, but I also have to keep my ears open, she said.

I feel like theyre not caring or listening. Certainly, theyre trying to pull the wool over our eyes in having no notice or meetings, said longtime Higby Road resident Eleanor Kelsey, who has been a vocal advocate for reducing the noise levels there.

The maximum level  55 decibels  was determined after the study commissioned by the Firing Range Building Committee.

Every time police know training will be taking place, an officer notifies people who have signed up for an email blast, the chief said. Police train only during the spring and fall, McKenna said: from April to June and September to November.

Over the past three decades, Kelsey said shes appealed to many city offices, attended countless meetings, and made numerous phone calls to officials about the ongoing issue. It used to be only handguns, but at some point, the noise escalated to rifles.

Every day that range is used, either by the FBI on Fridays or the Middletown Police Department, they break the noise ordinance, Mahr said. Its like the fox being in charge of policing foxes in the hen house, she added.

McKenna said police are just as anxious for news from the FBI as residents are. The $1.5 million is earmarked for two $750,000 bonds: one for noise abatement, and an additional $750,000 for lead abatement and the installation of a bullet-trap system.

Waiting for the FBI to come up with funds to pay for its use of the facility, the chief said, is prudent when dealing with so much taxpayer dollars.

That is the smartest thing to do to ensure our bonded monies are spent in the most responsible way possible  not to rush with a non-guaranteed project which could potentially be proven to not complete the project properly, he said.

The citizens should appreciate our suggestion of waiting to see if the second source comes through to do the project correctly, instead of rushing on a project and potentially wasting their tax money, McKenna added.

Mahr said she is also concerned new councilors have not been assigned to the committee on an ad hoc basis. McKenna said the reason is officials who sat on it in the past werent re-elected in November.

Some residents agree the sound of gunfire has been quieter lately. They have pulled back in using it, so its not as bad as it used to be, Kelsey said.

Mahr recently contacted Mayor Ben Florsheim about the issue, and urged him to visit the facility for a listening tour. The receptors in red boxes say the level exceeds 55 decibels. Thats what breaks the law.

This is the mayors first test of his campaign promise to listen to the residents and do what is right for the city of Middletown, she said.

Florsheim said he has discussed the issue with both McKenna and Mahr, and is still getting up to speed on what has transpired over the years. He hopes the council will make appointments to the panel at its February meeting.

It doesnt mean immediate action, he said. There are disagreements around this and I know this issue can get tense.

It boils down to the committee has not been meeting because there hasnt been a whole lot to talk about. Members need evidence progress is being made. If we were going to do a sound project, we want to do the best we can, he said.

We are deserving of a peaceful environment relatively just as much as any other citizen of Middletown, said Barbara McAuliffe, a nearby resident and member of the firing range committee. Im not asking them to close the range. Im just asking the noise levels. Its not asking too much just to have a peaceful resolution.

Editors note: This article has been updated to reflect that the Firing Range Building Committee, not police, commissioned the sound study. Also, committee member Barbara McAuliffes first name was inadvertently left out of the story.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 01:26:10|Editor: yan

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KIEV, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda discussed the further development of economic cooperation between the two countries during their meeting in Poland, the Ukrainian president's press service said Monday.

Zelensky noted the importance of Poland as one of Ukraine's leading trading partners and expressed the hope that Polish investors will take advantage of the business climate improvement in Ukraine.

"Poland is our fourth-largest trading partner. I am sure that Polish investors will appreciate the reforms and improving the business climate in Ukraine. Today we agreed to develop and strengthen our strategic, friendly partnership," Zelensky said.

Duda said he also hopes for more fruitful cooperation and thanked the Ukrainian president for participating in the events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 19:12 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206135c2c 1 National coronavirus,Chinese-tourists,west-sumatra,Padang,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,Irwan-Prayitno Free

West Sumatra Governor Irwan Prayitno has drawn criticism from netizens after amateur video recordings of him welcoming Chinese visitors in a ceremonious fashion, with a large crowd, at the Minangkabau International Airport in Padang recently went viral on Twitter, amid concerns over a domestic coronavirus outbreak.

In a video uploaded on Sunday by Twitter user @dedetsaugia that has been viewed over 2.1 million times and retweeted over 6,000 times at the time of writing, Irwan could be seen addressing the Chinese visitors alongside an interpreter at the airport.

Sambutan selamat datang dari pakgub @irwanprayitno kepada wisatawan china pagi ini #VirusCorona

 pic.twitter.com/VkIViXNeGN  Anak Kolong (@dedetsaugia) January 26, 2020

Please spread good news about [the province] when you return home. Wed also like to apologize for our treatment earlier; it was merely a safety measure, the governor said in the short clip.

In another video uploaded by @black_shadow212, the governor could be seen handing out traditional Minang attributes to the foreign visitors in a welcome ceremony set to the regions traditional music.

The videos have since garnered a stream of strong reactions from netizens who have been on edge since the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, in China first made headlines earlier this month. Many have decried the governors behavior, calling it reckless and cavalier.

The new coronavirus has an incubation period of between seven to 14 days. So, if we rely on [thermal scanners] at airports and determine that [foreign visitors] do not have a fever and then we welcome them ceremoniously as if they were presidents, therefore, creating a crowd at the airport, the risk [of infection] is greatly increased, @GiaPratamaMD tweeted in response to one of the videos.

Virus Corona masa inkubasinya 7-14 hari, kalau mengandalkan alat detektor demam di bandara, lalu karena ga demam, malah disambut sperti menyambut presiden, dengan bikin keramaian di bandara, ini ningkatin resiko bangett.



Ada yg bisa menjelaskan maksud dan tujuan penyambutan ini? https://t.co/j6hsRfM2Dj  dr. Gia Pratama - Perikardia (@GiaPratamaMD) January 26, 2020

As reported by kompas.com, Irwan welcomed the foreign visitors after they were declared healthy in a medical examination conducted with thermal scanners installed at the airport.

He responded to the recent deluge of criticism, saying that the arrival of the Chinese tourists  who were revealed to have come from Kunming city, Yunnan province, around 1,712 kilometers away from Wuhan  had been scheduled prior to news of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The arrival of these tourists is expected to increase the number of foreign tourists visiting West Sumatra in the future, Irwan said as quoted by Antara news agency.

We cannot reject foreign arrivals when they have prepared all the required documentation. We have taken anticipatory measures by conducting a detailed check-up.

Minangkabau International Airport spokesperson Fendrick Sondra confirmed that the foreign tourists had been deemed safe following an examination conducted with thermal scanners.

Our standard operating procedure requires every passenger to go through thermal scanners due to the coronavirus outbreak. Based on the result, the tourists are safe, Fendrick said.

The Indonesian public has been on high alert in recent weeks amid fears and panic over a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Indonesia has suspended all flights to and from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, to prevent an outbreak in the country. The new coronavirus, which bears similarities to the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), has killed 81 people and infected hundreds of others, including in Thailand and Singapore. (rfa)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 02:35:15|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in a fire which destroyed a dock containing around 35 boats in the U.S. state of Alabama on Monday rose to eight, with more fatalities feared, local media reported.

All eight people known to be missing were confirmed dead, said Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Mecklaus, adding "that number could go up, because we don't know how many were on boats."

Mecklaus said at least seven people were rescued on the scene and transferred to hospital for treatment of their injuries. About 35 boats were consumed in flames, some of them sinking and others floating away, as a result of the fire in Jackson County Park in Scottsboro, according to Mecklaus.

"The dock is collapsed; we can't get to all the boats right now," said Jackson County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen. "We have a list of residents here and we are trying to confirm (the) whereabouts of everyone."

The blaze was reported shortly after midnight, when people residing in the boats were sleeping. The fire consumed the wooden dock and an aluminum roof covering many of the vessels, cutting off escape routes for people and debris fell into the water.

The Scottsboro Fire Department, Scottsboro Police Department, Jackson County Sheriff's Office, along with other agencies and volunteers, were on the scene responding to the incident.

The cause of the fire was under investigation by the State of Alabama Fire Marshals Office and the Scottsboro Fire Department, according to Harnen.

Information on Jackson County Park's website shows the park has a walking trail, boat ramps, and fishing and swimming docks on the Tennessee River.
As the coronavirus outbreak originating in Wuhan, China accelerates, the impact on Canadian and American corporations is intensifying.

Imax, Air Canada and Ballard Power are among the Canadian companies affected by the coronavirus, with Imax shutting down all of its theatre exhibitions in China, Ballard restricting non-essential travel and Air Canada extending its goodwill policy to waive fees to allow passengers to rebook flights.

Evan Chau, president of the Toronto Chinese Business Association, said he has heard of Canadians cancelling or delaying business trips to China. Facing the prospect of having to voluntarily quarantine themselves when they return, they are teleconferencing or delaying trade activities instead, Chau said Monday at a Lunar New Year celebration at Toronto city hall.

Chau said he has no doubts tourism between the two countries will also take a hit.

China has extended the Lunar New Year holiday to Feb. 2 from the original Jan. 30 date to reduce travel. Authorities have also locked down cities with a combined 40 million people around the epicentre in Wuhan, as they race to contain a pneumonia-like illness that has killed at least 80 in the country with about 2,744 confirmed cases.

Countries including the U.S., Japan, Singapore, South Korea have reported cases of infection with the first case in Canada confirmed as positive by the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, health officials said Monday, while a second case, involving the mans wife, is considered presumptive positive.

Against this backdrop, Air Canada announced that passengers scheduled to travel through affected airports in China during the outbreak can retrieve their flight booking form to change their flight free of charge to another date or another destination, subject to availability in the booking class. A list of affected airports is available online.

Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said the airline is advising employees to practise simple hygiene by covering their coughs and sneezes, and wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water. It is also supplying employees with optional surgical masks even though the airborne hazard is considered low risk and respiratory protection has been deemed unnecessary by governing health authorities.

All of the estimated 70,000 movie theatres in China have been shut down, including about 650 locations where Mississauga-based Imax exhibits, a spokesperson told the Star. He said affected China-based employees are on an extended New Years holiday.

Imax has postponed the release of its Chinese New Year film slate, but said it had every expectation that these films will be released in 2020 and that audience demand for these releases will remain high.

MKM Partners in a note said if the epidemic lasts for a few more weeks, it is not unreasonable to project a shortfall of $200 million for Imax in the first quarter.

Ballard Power Systems, the B.C.-based clean energy fuel cell maker, has suspended all but essential travel, a move affecting about 50 employees who would typically criss-cross from Canada to Ballard operations in China. The company, which does not have a presence in Wuhan, says it is putting greater emphasis on communication by teleconference and other virtual means.

The impact on corporations will likely continue to increase, as Wuhan is an important manufacturing, shipping and business hub. The central Chinese city has more than 500 factories and other facilities, and it is the capital of Hubei province, which has 1,016 facilities.

Japan-based companies have about 54 of the facilities, while U.S. firms account for 44 and Europeans about 40, the data show. Many plants are in the auto and transportation industries, and big names include PepsiCo Inc. and Siemens AG.

Global companies including Honda and Groupe PSA are evacuating workers from areas hardest hit by the deadly viral outbreak, while theme park operators, retailers and restaurant chains suspend or curtail their businesses.

Automaker Honda will evacuate from Wuhan about 30 Japanese workers and family using a government charter aircraft, family members and employees visiting on business trips. A handful of staff needed to maintain local operations will remain in the city.

Groupe PSA, the French carmaker, said it will evacuate its expatriate staff and their families from the Wuhan area. A total of 38 people will leave, the company said in a statement.

Hennes and Mauritz, the clothing retailer better known as H&M, has closed a total of 13 stores in the region, and the Swedish furniture maker Ikea closed its warehouse in Wuhan on Thursday, according to the same report.

McDonalds, which had about 3,000 stores in China at the end of 2018, temporarily closed locations across five cities of the Hubei province due to the virus, including Wuhan. Walt Disney Co., the worlds largest theme park operator, said it would close its Disneyland resort in Shanghai effective Jan. 25.

Starbucks, the Seattle-based chain, with about 4,100 cafes in China, also said its closing some locations, without providing more details.

With files from Bloomberg

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Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was on 26 January detained in Hyderabad while he was on his way to take part in an anti-CAA-NRC event.

Hyderabad: Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was on 26 January detained in Hyderabad while he was on his way to take part in an anti-CAA-NRC event. The Dalit leader was in the city to address a gathering on the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register.

               Chandra Shekhar Aazad (@BhimArmyChief) January 26, 2020

Police said they had not granted permission for the programme to be held.

Azads detention comes days after he was released from Tihar prison in Delhi following his arrest for allegedly inciting people during an anti-CAA protest.
Distressing images show the "malnourished and sick" animals in cages at Al-Qureshi Park in the country's capital city of Khartoum. (Getty)

An online campaign to save a group of starving African lions from a zoo in Sudan has been started amid economic turmoil in the country preventing them from getting enough food.

Distressing images show the "malnourished and sick" animals, so thin that their bones are visibly poking through their fur, in cages at Al-Qureshi Park in the country's capital city of Khartoum.

According to reports, they have barely eaten in weeks, with the zoo's owners struggling to feed them, and some have lost around two-thirds of their body weight.

According to reports, they have barely eaten in weeks, with the zoo's owners struggling to feed them, with some losing around two-thirds of their body weight. (Getty)

Osman Salih, who launched the campaign, shared several harrowing pictures of the emaciated lions as he asked people and institutions concerned to help the animals.

The campaign is now gaining momentum online, with the aim of moving the lions to a better location where they will be fed and looked after.

Mr Salih wrote on Facebook: "I was shaken when I saw these lions at the park... their bones are protruding from the skin. I urge interested people and institutions to help them."

He later updated his page with news that one, a female, had passed away.

He wrote: "I regret to inform you that the sick female lion has died. The other female is getting better and the male is OK."

Osman Salih, who launched the campaign shared several harrowing pictures of the emaciated lions as he asked people and institutions concerned to help the animals. (Getty)

Speaking to the AFP news agency, a manager from Al-Qureshi Park said it is extremely difficult to feed the lions.

The employee told the agency: "Food is not always available, so often we buy it from our own money to feed them."

Moataz Mahmoud, one of the caretakers at the park, added: "They are suffering from severe illnesses. They are sick and appear to be malnourished."

Mr Salih has since said that emergency responders have visited the park to offer medical assistance to the malnourished lions, and work is being done to find another home for them.

Writing on Sunday, he added: "Today was a positive day at Qurashi Park. We had good meetings with the park administration and the wildlife police.

"Lots of fresh meat was brought by several donors as well as two sheep. Supply of regular meat from factories and slaughter houses was also secured."

Story continues

"Managed to buy all required medical supplies for emergency care such as antibiotics, IV drip etc.

"Best news of the day was the willingness of Four Paws International to send an emergency rescue to rehabilitate the animals not only at Qurashi zoo but other parks in Sudan as well as train staff at wildlife authority.

"The wildlife authority has welcomed the idea and we will begin process tomorrow of their invitation and paperwork."
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

Irans National Development Fund has allocated $750 million to increase maritime potential during the next three years, Chairman of the Iranian Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said.

Nobakht made the remark following the meeting of the resistance economy committee, Trend reports referring to the organizations website.

In accordance with the report of the Supreme Council of the Iranian Navy, there is a 62 percent potential for shipbuilding in Iran, the chairman added.

Nobakht added that up to 85 percent of the shipping capacity may be ensured domestically.

As for the issues discussed at the meeting, the chairman said that the growth is observed in the capital and stock markets.

The projects have been successfully implemented by various agencies within the resistance economy, the chairman said.

The positive impact of these projects may be observed in the tax sector, the chairman said. Tax revenues worth 1.7 quadrillion rials ($41.6 billion) are expected to be obtained from March 21, 2020 through March 2021.

"Tax revenues worth more than 1.4 quadrillion rials (about $33.3 billion) this Iranian year (beginning on March 21, 2019)," Nobakht said.
By Rasana Gasimova

The number of beekeeping farms functioning in Azerbaijan doubled in 2019 compared to 2018, increasing from 270,000 to 501,000 farms, head of international cooperation department at Agriculture Ministry Esmira Latifova, said at the 6th International Beekeeping Conference held in Baku on January 25.

The country produced a total of 5,000 tonnes of honey from each bee family in 2019, which is 1.7 percent more than last year, Latifova said.

She also noted that in 2018, up to 18,000 beekeepers were provided with subsidies of 4 million manats ($2.3 million), adding that in 2019 this figure reached 4.8 million manats ($2.8 million) and the number of beekeepers increased from 18,000 to 20,000.

Beekeeping has always been an important area in Azerbaijan, she said, noting that lately interest to it has increased.

As part of the conference, professional beekeepers, scientists and entrepreneurs from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other countries shared their experience with local beekeepers.

More than 20 honey producing companies from Azerbaijan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and other countries presented their products at the event.

Beekeeping occupies an inherent place in the development of the countrys agricultural sector. Over the past two years, significant steps were taken in this area.

Last year, the Agriculture Ministry provided Azerbaijani beekeepers with subsidies in the amount of more than 450,000 manats ($264,784).

According to the decision taken during the regular meeting of the Republican Commission for the payment of subsidies, subsidies were allocated for each beehive, which is kept by individuals and legal entities involved in the sector.

In 2018, the government granted beekeepers with subsidies of 10 manats ($6) for each beehive for five years to stimulate the development of beekeeping in the country, support small businesses and employ individuals and legal entities engaged in beekeeping in rural areas.

There are about 600 species of honey plants in Azerbaijan, of which almost 200, as a source of nectar and pollen, create even greater natural opportunities for the development of beekeeping.

Annual honey production in the country is 3,000 tons, and honey consumption is 5,000 tons. Most of bee families are located in Zagatala, Astara, Gakh, Lerik and Balakan.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
In this year of significant commemorations, Dr Aodh Quinlivan of UCCs Centre for Local and Regional Governance recalls the Cork Corporation elections of January 15, 1920, and the first meeting of the Corporation on January 30, at which the doomed Sinn Fein man became the citys first citizen

Ahead of the local municipal elections for Cork Corporation on January 15, 1920, the Cork Examiner (2 January) noted that interest in the elections was gathering pace but, with so many varied parties involved, it will be difficult to forecast anything like an approximate result, a difficulty that will be greatly increased by the introduction of the P.R. (proportional representation) system.

When nominations closed three days later, 165 candidates were in place to contest for the 56 seats on the Corporation, across seven electoral wards. As election day approached, one very prominent figure in the city was Lord Mayor, Alderman William F OConnor, who was nominated in three separate electoral wards.

Playing the publicity game to perfection, the Lord Mayor, representing the Irish Nationalist Party, hosted a fete for 2,000 boys from disadvantaged backgrounds in City Hall on Wednesday, January 7.

The use of proportional representation by the single transferable vote as the electoral mechanism caused some consternation in the build-up to polling day. The Cork Examiner printed An electors Catechism, supplied by the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland.

With regard to marking preferences down theballot paper, it explained: Under proportional representation a candidate is often able to secure victory at the very last moment.

He may creep up on the fourth, fifth, or later counts and, although very low down on the poll after the early counts, he may find himself victorious before the close.

On the day of the elections, Thursday, January 15, the Cork Examiner referred to the fact that proportional representation had tempted many parties and interests that under old conditions would have little hope of gaining representation on the council, to put forward candidates.

The newspaper expressed the wish that the voters will return 56 public spirited and intelligent men, representing the best in all parties, that will not only not neglect the interests of the city, but will promote and encourage commercial enterprise.

Another article reported that six men had attacked the Lord Mayor,Alderman William F OConnor, on Washington Street the previous night after addressing a meeting of theDischarged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers Federation.

Turnout for the elections was reported as about two-thirds, including many women. Generally, good order prevailed but an exception wasGrattan Street where bodies of Sinn Feiners from the country, and ex-soldiers came into rather fierceconflict.

Tomas MacCurtain

Revolvers and knives were used and three men were treated in the Mercy Hospital in the late afternoon, one with a bullet wound in the arm (Cork Examiner, January 16, 1920).

Counting of votes commenced in City Hall at 9.30am on January 16.

For the next two days, the Cork Examiner covered the count in enormous detail, marvelling in the intricacies of the process, as overseen by Town Clerk, Florence W McCarthy:

The system of election under the Proportional Representation Act brings its most drastic change from the old method. It is a most elaborate procedure. In all areas the votes have to be scrutinised to see if they are in order and correct. Only such papers go into the count, and when the total has been ascertained it is divided by the number of vacancies plus one, and to the quotient is added one. In this way, the quota is arrived at (Cork Examiner, January 17 1920).

Police presence was high in City Hall and only the candidates and their agents were allowed to enter the building.

By early afternoon, large crowds had gathered outside the municipal headquarters and the first result declared by the Town Clerk, in his role as Chief Returning Officer, was for the Shandon Area (North West No. 2).

With six vacancies and a total valid poll of 1,747, the quota was 250.

Sinn Feins Edmond Coughlan and Patrick Higgins, both exceeded the quota on the first count and were deemed elected as Aldermen. At the conclusion of the count, the City Coroner, John J Horgan, delivered a speech in which he praised the work of Town Clerk, Florence W McCarthy, and all of the Corporation staff.

CoronerHorgan said: There have been many gloomy prophecies as to when the results of the election would be available. We were told that we would not be able to do the work at all properly, thatBelfast and similar places would wipe us out.

An image of the council chamber at Cork City Hall during the election of the first council.

It was also said that the count would take weeks  that it would be next Christmas before the results were available.

The work has been completed in two days, and Belfast, which had only five areas to deal with against our seven, and where they had five staffs to our two, took one and-a-half days to complete its work. We in Cork have established the record for all Ireland.

The Town Clerk was then lifted in the air and treated to a rousing rendition of Hes a jolly good fellow. The elections in Cork city were a success for Sinn Fein and the Transport Workers who ran on a combined ticket.

In total, they claimed 30 out of the 56 seats available. The outgoing Lord Mayor, William F OConnor, was elected in three different electoral areas.

While this was a triumph for him, he could only accept a seat inone of the areas, meaning that two by-elections would be needed.

As mentioned, Sinn Fein and the Transport Workers joined forces in the election and their combined 30 seats gave them a working majority in City Hall.

They also boasted 11 of theCorporations 14 new Aldermen (two in each ward), the exceptions being James Daly (Irish Nationalist),Richard Beamish (Commercial)and Sir Edward Fitzgerald (Irish Nationalist).

In a Cork Examiner editorial onJanuary 20, an optimistic tone was struck about the make-up of the new Corporation: In a word, it may be said that the new Corporation, irrespective of party or other classification, will take a broad outlook and serve the citys interests by helping to make the most of their opportunities in contributing to its commercial and industrial upliftment.

It has been said that there is a tide in the affairs of men which, if taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Cork now stands on the edge of opportunities which, if wisely handled, should bring prosperity to the city and provide an abundance of employment for all classes.

Upon her public representatives much depends. If they be wise, tolerant, progressive and broad-minded, the outlook is full of promise.

Attention soon turned to the statutory meeting of the new Corporation at which a Lord Mayor would be elected. This was scheduled for Friday 30 January, a week later than normal.

Half an hour before the start of the meeting, the public galleries were virtually full. By midday, the galleries were completely packed and there was a danger of overcrowding as more and more people tried to make their way into the chamber.

The Cork Examiner noted that there some clergymen present and perhaps for the first time in the history of this meeting, a large number of ladies were present.

When the outgoing Lord Mayor, William F OConnor, took the chair he was greeted by a combination of cheers and hissing from the galleries.

Town Clerk, Florence W McCarthy called the roll and this established that 51 members out of the 56 elected were present(effectively, the total was 54 due to William F OConnor winning seats in three separate wards).

The Sinn Fein councillors answered the roll call in Irish and, when the name of Alderman Frederick Murray was called, his party colleague, Cllr Michael OCuill, answered in Irish to the effect that Murray was in prison, under the lock of the foreigner.

A similar situation occurred when the name of Alderman J.J. Walsh was called  it was explained that he was on the run from the foreigner. Chairman of the meeting, William FOConnor, then called for nominations for the office of Lord Mayor.

Again, it was Cllr Michael OCuill who spoke and, in Irish, he proposed Alderman Tomas MacCurtain, who had topped the poll in Blackpool.

The Lord Mayors Chamber of Terence MacSwiney at Cork City Hall. Picture: Cork City Hall

The proposal was seconded by Cllr Terence MacSwiney. The chairman asked if there were any other candidates, at which point Sir John Scott (Commercial) unexpectedly rose to speak.

With no reference to the mayoralty election, Scott commenced a rambling speech about the necessity of a housing scheme. He was ruled out of the order by the chairman but continued to stand.

This led to Alderman Richard Beamish quipping, He is going to be in order again if you dont be careful. You cant suppress that gentleman.

As the chairman tried to get order, Scott sat down, only to immediately stand up again to propose Beamish as Lord Mayor.

An indignant Beamish retorted that he was not allowing his name to go forward and that Scott had no permission to nominate him.

Labours Cllr Michael Egan interjected and, somewhat threateningly, declared, If Sir John is going to pursue these tactics for the next 12 months, he had better look out forhimself. Keen to get a grip on the meeting, William F OConnor declared that, with no other candidate,Alderman Tomas MacCurtain was the Lord Mayor of Cork for the coming 12 months.

Amidst scenes of great excitement, MacCurtain made his way to the Lord Mayors dais at the top of the council chamber: Most of those in the chamber rose and cheered him, the men waving their hats and caps, and the women handkerchiefs.

The Soldiers Song was called for, and others shouted Up Blackpool and as the newly-elected Lord Mayor signed the declaration accepting the office, The Soldiers Song was sung (CorkExaminer, January 31).

The outgoing Lord Mayor, William . OConnor, congratulated MacCurtain on his election and wished him aprosperous year in office.

He then presented MacCurtain with the mayoral chain, amidst a renewal of lusty cheering. The new Lord Mayor then delivered a short but business-like speech. He thanked William F OConnor for his generous remarks and his fellow councillors for unanimously electing him as Lord Mayor of Cork.

MacCurtain noted with regret that he did not possess the oratory skills of Sir John Scott but he wanted to take the opportunity to thank the people of his ward who voted for him in large numbers.

He declared that his main duty would be to stick to the principles of the Irish Republic and to promote the freedom of the country.

In Cork, there were certain issues in relation to the Corporation in the past that it would be well to forget but there were other things it would be well to emulate.

The new Lord Mayor then challenged his fellow elected members to put the interests of their communities before anything else.

Lord Mayor of Cork Tomas MacCurtain with his wife Eibhlis and their five children in early 1920. On March 20 of that year, he was shot dead by RIC men at his home in Blackpool. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

He said that all of them would have to put forward their best efforts to improve and advance the citizens prosperity, adding, The people do not want speeches. They want the work done and with as little froth as possible.

In doing our work, the people expect from us a sacrifice of time and a sacrifice, perhaps, ofpersonal interest.

The motto for the year ahead would be self-reliance, efficiency and economy. The Lord Mayor concluded his acceptance speech by highlighting an issue that was very dear to his own heart  the Irish language.

He was delighted to hear it used during the meeting and he hoped that future meetings of the Corporation would preserve abi-lingual attitude.

In time, it was his wish that Cork Corporation would completely conduct its business in the language of the country.

The next business of the meeting was to fix the Lord Mayors salary for the year ahead. Cllr Michael Joseph ORiordan proposed a salary of 1,000 and his motion was seconded by Cllr Daniel Gamble. Both councillors were members of the Irish Nationalist Party.

In response, Lord Mayor MacCurtain told the meeting: Personally, I dont think I will take the motion because I dont think we should start off the new era with that salary.

His Sinn Fein colleague, Professor Alfred ORahilly, recommended asalary of 500, remarking, We in Sinn Fein are often charged with beingimpractical idealists, but that does not prevent us from being practical administrators. We consider that 500 is a sufficient salary, considering theconditions and difficulties with which we are confronted.

Lord Mayor MacCurtain called on this recommendation to be agreed and, accordingly, it was unanimously passed that his salary for the year would be 500.

Tomas MacCurtain then took centre stage.

Under Lord Mayors privilege he brought a special motion beforethe elected members, pledging the councils allegiance to Dail Eireann. The Lord Mayor proclaimed that a little over twelve months ago the Irish people, at the general election,declared by an overwhelming majority for an Irish Republic and elected 73 representatives pledged to that declaration. He said:

The people, at the recent elections to local bodies, ratified the decision of the general election. It is now up to those bodies to pledge their allegiance to the government set up by the representatives of the country.

The motion was formally read by Alderman Liam de Roiste and seconded by Cllr Terence MacSwiney.

De Roiste forcefully ended his speech by saying: In our minds and souls we recognise that there is only one lawful authority in the country  Dail Eireann and its Executive. I propose the resolution as the expression of opinion of the overwhelming majority of the people of this ancient city.

In seconding the motion, Terence MacSwiney argued that the machinery of the British government was not being used for peace in Ireland  The police are not doing the duties of officers of peace. They are watching my house and the Lord Mayors house, and the houses of our friends.

They are considering only when the great round up will begin. This is a very serious matter for those claiming to be advocates of law and order.

In a dramatic ending to his contribution, MacSwiney declared, I am quite convinced that the God of Nations will stand by the David of Nations and strike down Goliath. I am satisfied that we will establish our Republic on foundations that will endure forever.

Sir John Scott argued that the motion was not permitted without notice, in accordance with the Corporations bye-laws. This was rejected by MacCurtain who stressed that he wasentitled to bring the motion forward under the privileges afforded to the Lord Mayor.

Professor Alfred ORahilly supported the Lord Mayor, directing his comments to Sir John Scott  In Gods name, where are your brains? There has been five years notice of motion of this.

Alderman Richard Beamish then delivered an impassioned speech, saying that all councillors were animated with love for their country and anxious for the advancement of the city.

Terence MacSwiney

Over the years he had fought to keep the Corporation clear of all political questions and matters: The motion brought forward today is not agreeable to my line of thought, though Isincerely hope for an honourablesolution to this desperate tangle, the Irish question.

Cllr William F OConnor, who had begun the evening as Lord Mayor,contributed to the debate by stating: I would have to consider myself a Sinn Feiner if I subscribed to this motion. I am not prepared to consider myself a Sinn Feiner.

A person in the public gallery shouted out, We dont want you, and when OConnor tried to continue his speech he was drowned out by a chorus of hissing.

After order was restored, OConnor defiantly noted, You gentlemen are out for the freedom of Ireland. I wish you God speed on your venture. I am also sure that the responsible leaders of your party will see to it that the minority here will get freedom of speech. I dont see why, when I open my mouth, why I should be hissed if there is going to be toleration shown. When I was Lord Mayor, I allowed no member of the council be insulted and I am sure Lord Mayor MacCurtain will see to it that no man is denied the freedom of speech here.

At the end of a lengthy debate with contributions by many councillors, the motion, pledging allegiance to Dail Eireann, was put to a vote and passed by the Sinn Fein majority.

The winning margin was 30 votes to 11. At the conclusion of the meeting, Lord Mayor MacCurtain was presented with a Sinn Fein rosette by a member of the Cork Branch of Cumann na mBan. The new Lord Mayor then watched as the Sinn Fein flag was hoisted at high mast over City Hall.

As he celebrated with his family and friends, MacCurtain had no idea what the future would bring. Sacrifice had been a theme of his acceptance speech and, within a few short months, he would make theultimate sacrifice for his beliefs.

The composition of the new Cork Corporation was, however, notcomplete.

With William F OConnor having won seats in three electoral wards, two by-elections were required. OConnor was elected in the North West Electoral Area No. 1, the Central Area and the South Area No. 1. He chose to take his seat for the North West ward, thus creating vacancies in the other two.

A deadline of February 25 was set for nominations for the two by-elections.

For the Central Area, the two nominees were Sinn Feins Barry Michael Egan and the Independent, Jeremiah Lane. Lane had contested the elections on January 15, but did not win a seat.

He was unsuccessful too in the by-election, which took place on March 10 , and the vacant seat in the Central Area went to Barry Egan. There was only one nominee for the South Area No. 1  Donal OCallaghan of 58 Douglas Street. OCallaghan, who had decided not to contest Januarys Corporation elections, was now a member of the council, though he would have to wait until 11 March to be formally ratified.

The Sinn Fein majority in City Hall was strengthened to 32 members and the 28-year-old Donal OCallaghan had taken his first tentative steps into the world of elected office.

A dramatic period of time lay ahead for the young man born in Factory Lane. Within nine months, he would be Lord Mayor of Cork.

Dr Aodh Quinlivans book, Corks Forgotten Lord Mayor  Donal Og OCallaghan will be launched inNovember 2020, marking the 100th anniversary of his election as Lord Mayor. The book is a part of Cork CityCouncils 2020 Commemorations Programme.

RESULTS OF CORK CORPORATION ELECTIONS, JANUARY 15, 1920

North East Electoral Area (10 seats)

Professor William Frederick Stockley,Alderman (Sinn Fein) 186 Lower Glanmire Rd

James Daly, Alderman (Irish Nationalist) 4 St Lukes Place

Anne Sutton (Sinn Fein)  Eagle Lodge,Summerhill

Michael Joseph ORiordan (Irish Nationalist)  21, Wellington Rd

John Scott (Commercial)  Wellington House, Lee Rd

Sean OLeary (Sinn Fein)  3 Ashburton Hill

Sean French (Sinn Fein)  58 Patrick St

Robert Day (Sinn Fein)  9 Nicholas St

Daniel Horgan (Irish Nationalist) 1 Rockgrove Terrace

James Thomas Mulligan (Commercial)  Edenvale, Douglas Rd

North West Electoral Area No 1,Sundays Well (7 seats)

Frederick J Murray, Alderman (Sinn Fein) 8 Sundays Well Rd

Tadhg Barry, Alderman (Sinn Fein) 54 Blarney St

Patrick Murphy (Irish Labour)  49 Sundays Well Rd

William F OConnor (Irish Nationalist) 5 Highfield Avenue

James Allen (Sinn Fein)  5 Mans Lane

Thomas Daly (Sinn Fein)  3 and 4 Kearneys Lane

Michael Joseph OCallaghan (Independent)  10 Cattlemarket St

North West Electoral Area No 2,Shandon (6 seats)

Edmond Coughlan, Alderman (Sinn Fein)  19 Pine St

Patrick Higgins, Alderman (Sinn Fein) 70 Dominick St

John F OSullivan (Irish Nationalist)  45 Popes Quay

Patrick F OSullivan (Irish Nationalist)  12 Dominick St

Simon Daly (Sinn Fein)  25 John St

Timothy ONeill (Ex-Sailors and Soldiers) 3 St Patricks Square

North West Electoral Area No 3, Blackpool (6 seats)

Tomas MacCurtain, Alderman (Sinn Fein) 40 Thomas Davis St

Denis Lucey, Alderman (Sinn Fein) 32 Dublin St

Gerald Byrne (Ex-Sailors and Soldiers) 45 Great William OBrien St

Michael OCuill (Sinn Fein)  5 Red Abbey St

Thomas Patrick Forde (Sinn Fein)  17 StCatherines Place

Michael Egan (Irish Labour) 19 Commons Rd

Central Electoral Area (10 seats)

James Joseph Walsh M.P., Alderman (Sinn Fein)  10 Sullivans Quay

Richard F Beamish, Alderman (Commercial)  Ashbourne, Glounthaune, Co Cork

Daniel Gamble (Irish Nationalist)  29 Grattan St

Terence MacSwiney MP (Sinn Fein) 4 Belgrave Place

Professor Alfred ORahilly (Sinn Fein) University College Cork

Thomas Stack (Irish Nationalist)  Maryville, Mardyke

William Desmond (Commercial)  2Pembroke St

Jeremiah Kelleher (Irish Labour) 10 Gillabbey Terrace

John Fitzpatrick (Sinn Fein)  10 Greenmount Avenue

William F OConnor (Irish Nationalist) 5 Highfield Avenue

South Area No 1 (11 seats)

Charles Coughlan, Alderman (Sinn Fein)  137 Barracks St

Sean OSullivan, Alderman (Sinn Fein) 16 Abbey St

Sean Cronin (Irish Nationalist)  28 StFinbarrs Place

Sean Good (Sinn Fein)  54 Grand Parade

John Horgan (Irish Nationalist) 9 St Nessan St

Jeremiah Kelleher (Sinn Fein)  58 Lough Rd

Simon Mahony (Irish Nationalist)  1 Tower St

William F OConnor (Irish Nationalist) 5 Highfield Avenue

William Russell (Sinn Fein)  68 Grand Parade

John Sheehan (Sinn Fein)  130 Evergreen Rd

Maurice Walsh (Sinn Fein)  1 Frenchs Quay

South Area No. 2 (6 seats)

Liam de Roiste MP Alderman (Sinn Fein) 2 Upper Janemount

Edward Fitzgerald, Alderman (Irish Nationalist)  Geraldine House, Albert Road

Daniel Barry (Sinn Fein)  57 HibernianBuildings

Stephen J ORiordan (Sinn Fein)  16 High St

John Desmond (Irish Nationalist) Ballinlough Rd

William Ellis (Irish Nationalist)  13 Douglas St
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Police were involved in a standoff with a suspect late Sunday night and early this morning on the West Side.

Several roads still were blocked off early Monday morning as the standoff continued at an apartment on the 2600 block of Division Avenue, just west of of West 25th Street and just north of Ohio 2.

Police did not release information on the suspect or on how the standoff was initiated, which was reported at about 11 p.m. Sunday. Police spokesperson Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia did say a juvenile and an adult were released by the suspect, but did not provide further details.

Ciaccia said more information would be released as it became available.

If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.

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Gambias police have arrested 137 people amid protests calling for the president Adama Barrow to step down after three years in power, the government said on Monday.

Also more than two dozen were injured as protests calling for President to honor a pledge to step down turned violent for the first time.

Mr Barrow came to power after the 2016 election, ending 22 years of authoritarian rule by Yahya Jammeh.

But he has reneged on his campaign promise to step down by this month, saying the constitution requires him to serve out a full five-year term.

In response, a movement called Three Years Jotna  which means enough in the local Wolof language  began protesting in December 2019 to demand his departure.

On Sunday, police intervened when protesters deviated from the planned route on the outskirts of the capital Banjul in order to march toward the city centre, the government said.

In a statement late on Sunday, government spokesman Ebrima Sankareh said the protesters had stormed a police barricade and chanted that they planned to unseat Mr Barrow.

The protesters became riotous and violent by obstructing roads and burning tyres and logs on the highway as well as setting up fires in nearby bushes and on government wetland, Sankareh said.

Eighteen police officers and seven civilians were injured, Sankareh said, adding some of those among the 137 arrested were executive members of Three Years Jotna.

The government also decided to ban Three Years Jotna, Sankareh said, calling it a subversive, violent and illegal movement, and suspended two radio stations it accused of inciting violence during demonstrations.

Opposition leaders could not be immediately reached for comment.

After winning plaudits at the beginning of his tenure for committing to respect the rights and establish a truth commission to investigate abuses under Mr Jammeh, Mr Barrow is facing multiple challenges.

Hundreds of Mr Jammehs supporters demonstrated earlier this month to demand the former president be allowed to return to Gambia from exile in Equatorial Guinea.

Mr Jammeh fled there in January 2017 under military pressure from West African countries to respect his election loss to Mr Barrow.

The government has said Mr Jammeh will be arrested if he returns to Gambia for killings, torture and other abuses allegedly committed by his security forces. Mr Jammeh denies those allegations.

Mr Barrow also faces a weak economy, hobbled by massive debts incurred by Jammehs government.

(Reuters/NAN)
Jo Martin and Jodie Whittaker in the latest episode of Doctor Who. (BBC)

This weekends episode of Doctor Who brought several surprising twists  not least the appearance of the shows first black Doctor.

The episode saw Jodie Whittakers Doctor encounter a supposed Gloucester resident named Ruth.

However, Ruth isnt all she seems and is eventually unveiled as a previously unseen regeneration of the Doctor, played by Holby City star Jo Martin, the first time the famous role has been played by a black person.

Read more: Jodie Whittaker hopes a female Doctor will not be headline news again

With Whittaker already confirmed for the next series, it is not certain if Martins Doctor is a one-off appearance, or if she will be a regular character or eventually take over the role.

You would assume there is surely only room for one Doctor at a time, and with the pair seemingly struggling to work together already, its certainly interesting to consider the direction in which show bosses will take the latest twist.

From left: Mandip Gill, Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Jo Martin and Neil Stuke in Doctor Who. (BBC/Ben Blackall)

The role was played only by white male stars until 2017, when Whittaker took over from Peter Capaldi, a casting decision that led to a lot of debate.

Whittaker has previously said she hopes if a female is cast in the role after her, the actress following in her footsteps wont face the same media scrutiny she did.

Jodie Whittaker says she hopes any actress following in her footsteps as the Doctor wont face the same media scrutiny she did. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

She told The Big Issue last year: "The gender question is now going away. Hopefully it won't make the news next time."

Read more: Doctor Whos Jodie Whittaker now an actual doctor

The episode also saw the return of previous show favourite John Barrowman, who reprised his role of Captain Jack Harkness.

Barrowman was something of a groundbreaker himself in the Doctor Who world, as he played the shows first ever openly non-heterosexual character.

Barrowman, currently a judge on Dancing On Ice, has not confirmed if he will return to the role again, though he has said that if asked hed be back at the drop of a hat.

Doctor Who continues on Sunday at 6pm on BBC One.
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Top stories for Monday, Jan. 27

CATLIN GABEL: The potential for dozens  perhaps hundreds  of legal complaints from a sexual abuse scandal could strain the exclusive private schools finances to the breaking point. Jeff Manning, the reporter who broke the story about Catlin Gabel, explains how it came to light in a new episode of the podcast Beat Check with The Oregonian.

HAPPY ENDING: U.S. Bank fired her for a Christmas good deed. Now companies are clamoring to hire her.

TWO OREGONS: Oregon lawmakers increasingly legislate by region. Will the tactic bring urban and rural together  or deepen the divide?

CARBON IMPACT: Ocean acidification is threatening Dungeness crabs, Oregons most-valuable fishery, a new study shows.

HOSPITAL BAILOUT: The Unity Center for Behavioral Health, Portlands emergency and short-term psychiatric hospital, is is asking for a taxpayer bailout. The math suggests it wont fix the problem.

GAS EXPORT TERMINAL: The backers of a controversial liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay withdrew their application for a key state permit rather than face a denial.

UNSEEN JOBS: As most people clock out for the night, Leila Omers day is just beginning. Shes a night custodian at Portland State University, where she roams the halls with perspective and patience.

NOTE TO READERS: Weve launched a Jeremy Christian trial newsletter that will track key events and takeaways in the trial of the man accused in the 2017 MAX stabbings. Sign up for free to get it in your inbox.

Snap of the day

Mark Graves/Staff

SOMETHING THEY SAID? Thousands of fans gathered this weekend at the Wizard World Portland Comic Con, though this little guy was not one of them. See more costumes in our photo gallery.

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Ask Amy: Retired senior wants out of stressful service club position

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Today in history

In 1756: Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.

In 1880: Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

In 1981: On Jan. 27, 1981, President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.
Commerce and Industry Minister on Monday asked the to promote swadeshi by selling and consuming local products, saying it will help in boosting economic growth to double digits.

He exhorted domestic to pay heed to the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote swadeshi products.

"If start using swadeshi (indigenous) goods, sell swadeshi products and promote those items, the economic growth will boom...no one can stop us from growing at 7, 8, and 9 per cent and double digits," Goyal said here while addressing members of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).

Modi in one of his 'Mann Ki Baat' programmes has called upon people to promote indigenous products.

The minister also asked CAIT to prepare a data base of a number of shops and people employed in those establishments in the country as that data will help the government implement demands made by the traders community effectively.

On this, CAIT said it will start the work soon and will prepare the data base in the next six months.

Goyal said data is essential for the government to prepare schemes and programmes for welfare of people but regretted that some people are opposing Population Register.

For exports, he said the ministry is working on a scheme to enhance credit for exporters.

He also emphasised on using quality and standard products.

He said the US has over 800 SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) and TBT (technical barriers to trade) protocols, but India has less than 500.
While emphasizing on the issue of Shaheen Bagh protests holding the city to ransom, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday also mentioned a protest recently staged in Mumbai which was inspired by the Shaheen Bagh protests.

"Those talking about constitutional nationalism should understand the core values of the Constitution. I am proud that our party takes pride in India's inheritance and values. We want these issues should be kept in mind during the Delhi elections. Those people are staging protests causing inconvenience to civilians despite police appealing to them. And now I saw that in Mumbai also a hundred people have come together to protest and to create a Shaheen Bagh like spirit. It's a plot. This should be understood by the nation", said RS Prasad while addressing the media.

READ | Anti-CAA Activist Sharjeel Imam's House Raided In Bihar

About the Mumbai protest

The Shaheen Bagh protests which have been going on from one and a half months have caused massive inconvenience to civilians during their transit. Ambulance services are also affected due to the blockade by Shaheen Bagh protestors. Inspired by the protesters of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, women in large numbers took to streets in Madanpura in Mumbai, protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), and it is to this that the minister was referring.

READ | 'Study CAA': Ramdas Athawale To Naseeruddin Shah After Open Anti-CAA Letter

The protests continued through the wee hours on Monday with women raising slogans like "We all are one" and "Azadi".

"A few women had started this protest, and now we have also joined it. We are holding the protest after getting inspired by the women of Shaheen Bagh", said a law student who participated in the Mumbai protest.

READ | Yashwant Sinha Cites Citizenship To Adnan Sami, Sonia Gandhi To Corner Govt Over CAA

"I want to ask Yogi Adityanath and Amit Shah if we are anti-nationals? They have stated that women protesting at Shaheen Bagh are anti-national. Our rights are being taken away from us," said another protestor despite government's repeated assurances that no Muslim will be ousted due to CAA as the Act is about giving citizenship to religious minorities of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and not about snatching citizenship from Indians.

READ | Hold Dialogue With Anti-CAA Protesters: Digvijay To PM, Shah
The Conversation

The worlds oldest remaining asteroid crater is at a place called Yarrabubba, southeast of the town of Meekatharra in Western Australia.

Our new study puts a precise age on the cataclysmic impact  showing Yarrabubba is the oldest known crater and dating it at the right time to trigger the end of an ancient glacial period and the warming of the entire planet.

What we found at Yarrabubba holds the eroded remnants of a crater 70 kilometres wide that was first described in 2003, based on minerals at the site that showed unique signs of impact. But its true age was not known.

We studied tiny "impact-shocked" crystals found at the site, which show the crater formed 2.229 billion years ago (give or take 5 million years).

This new, precise date establishes Yarrabubba as the oldest recognised impact structure on Earth. It is some 200 million years older than the next oldest, the Vredefort impact in South Africa.

More intriguing, the geological record shows the Earth had glacial ice before the time of the impact  but afterwards, the ice disappeared for hundreds of millions of years. Was the Yarrabubba impact a trigger for global climate change?

How to date an asteroid hit

An asteroid strike is one of the most violent geologic events. In an instant, Earths crust is squeezed to unimaginable pressures, before exploding and ejecting carnage across the landscape. Large impacts leave behind scars the size of a small city.

The basin formed by an impact will partly fill with molten and pulverised rock from the Earth and from the asteroid itself. The edge of the crater forms a ring of mountains; over time erosion gradually erases the story.

Today, Yarrabubba has been worn down into a minor feature on a barren landscape.

To place the Yarrabubba event in a geologic context, we had to find its age. To find the age, we had to look carefully at minerals in the rocks shocked by the impact.

Geologists date events using isotopic clocks in minerals like zircon and monazite. These minerals contain small amounts of uranium, which gradually decays into lead at a known rate.

Asteroid strikes raise the temperature in rocks they hit, causing minerals to lose their accumulated lead, which resets the clock. After impact, the isotopic clocks start ticking again as new lead accumulates.

So by measuring the isotopes of uranium and lead in these minerals, we can calculate how much time has passed since the impact.

At Yarrabubba, we identified tiny crystals of zircon and monazite  each about the width of a human hair  with textures that show they had been heated by a massive impact.

We analysed the amounts of lead and uranium isotopes in these crystals using mass spectrometry and found their clocks had been reset 2.229 billion years ago (give or take five million years). Thats when we realised Yarrabubba coincided with a major change in Earths climate.

A different Earth

The Yarrabubba impact occurred during a period in Earths history called the Proterozoic eon. Long before plants, fish, or dinosaurs, life at this time consisted of simple, multicellular organisms.

These simple bacteria had already begun changing the composition of air. Previously dominated by carbon dioxide and methane, Earths atmosphere gradually became oxygenated by life about 2.4 billion years ago.

As oxygen levels built up, rocks started weathering more, and the atmosphere cooled down. And then ice came, plunging Earth into globally frigid conditions.
Springfield rockers Staind have ended their five-year hiatus and will accompany Disturbed on a 31-date summer tour.

The will play the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA on July 30 and the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford on Aug. 2.

Disturbed is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its seminal album, The Sickness. On this tour, Disturbed will perform songs off the album, as well as tracks from their most recent studio release, Evolution, and their extensive catalog.

Joining Disturbed and Staind are Bad Wolves.

Staind recently played a few dates following a five-year hiatus as members busied themselves with solo projects.

Over the course of their career, Staind has released seven studio albums and eight Top 10 singles, selling more than 15 million albums worldwide.

The Multi-platinum Break The Cycle, released in 2001, featured the smash single, Its Been A While, which spent 20 weeks in the Number 1 slot.

Shop for concert tickets here: StubHub, SeatGeek, Ticketmaster
Trumps defense team ignores the Bolton bombshell.

President Trumps lawyers avoided on Monday any mention of a newly disclosed firsthand account from his former national security adviser, John R. Bolton, that directly undercuts one of the defenses main arguments.

The New York Times first reported details from drafts of Mr. Boltons upcoming book Sunday night, including Mr. Boltons assertion that Mr. Trump said he wanted to continue a freeze on military aid to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Mr. Trumps political rivals.

Calls for witnesses intensified as a result, and three Republican senators  Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine  indicated they might vote with Democrats to allow new witnesses to testify at the trial. Democrats need four Republicans for such a measure to pass.

Mr. Romney told reporters on Monday, I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton.
Producer prices for prime cattle have started 2020 lacking direction as they did in early 2019, according to the latest market analysis.

The legacy of 2019 continues in that current prices continue to trail last years levels, as has been the case for the past twelve months, according to Quality Meat Scotland (QMS).

However, some strengthening of the price through autumn 2019 means that the scale of the current shortfall has reduced to around 4% compared to the 8-12% decline in autumn 2019.

Stuart Ashworth, Director of Economics Services at QMS, said: Slaughter data indicates that across the UK carcase weights continue to rise up 1.5% year on year during December, although not in Scotland.

So while heavier carcase weights will mean that revenue per animal will not have fallen as much as the headline price would suggest for some, this is not the case in Scotland.

Slaughter data also reveals a different supply profile between England and Wales than Scotland.

During December, English and Welsh abattoirs handled 3% more prime cattle than a year earlier but the Scottish kill was unchanged.

Indeed, in the second half of 2019 English and Welsh abattoirs handled 2% more prime cattle than in 2018 while Scottish abattoirs handled 1% less, said Mr Ashworth.

Calf registration data from 2018 suggests that the availability of prime cattle will tighten during 2020 in both England and Wales and Scotland.

Beef sired calf registrations in England and Wales fell 0.5% in 2018 but by more than 2% in Scotland.

Early indications of this tightening supply come from the number of store cattle being traded through auction markets, Mr Ashworth added.

Over the past quarter the number of store cattle passing through price reporting auction markets has begun to tighten, particularly in January where throughputs have been around 5% lower but with significantly higher reduction in male store cattle and older over eighteen-month store cattle.

Throughputs of younger heifers are the only age group to show an increase on last year, he said.

Higher volumes of younger store cattle being sold in autumn 2019 may also have contributed to this reduced number of older store cattle during January.

Despite prime cattle prices remaining below last years levels at the start of January, a lower number of store cattle in the marketplace has created competition and pushed store prices higher at the start of 2020.

Store steers are trading around 3-4% higher than a year ago while heifer prices have strengthened by 6-7%.

Where available prices are quoted in pence per kilo, they show a similar increase to per head price which would suggest the weight and condition of store cattle is similar to last year and the main contributor to this strengthening in price is stock availability.

Store cattle volume in January is, however, some of the lowest in the year and volumes build quickly through February to a seasonal peak in April, said Mr Ashworth.

Despite the level of reduction in the number of store cattle sold in January, the prospect remains one of continued tightness of store cattle in the market this spring.

This shortfall will also occur in the prime stock market, around 6 to 12 months later than in the store ring.

Due to the reduction in Scottish beef sired calf registrations 12 to 24 months ago, the pool of cattle for sale this spring is anticipated to be 2-3% lower than in 2019, he said.
Flipkart Samarth aims at bringing thousands of artisans, weavers and craftsmen from across the country into the fold of e-commerce.

Flipkart, India's homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation (GSHHDC) as a part of its Flipkart Samarth initiative.

The MoU was signed in the presence of state chief minister Vijay Ramniklal Rupani at an event in Rajkot.

Flipkart Samarth aims at bringing thousands of artisans, weavers and craftsmen from across the country into the fold of e-commerce, and helps them set up their business on the Flipkart Marketplace in an efficient, transparent and cost-effective manner.

As part of the MoU, GSHHDC and Walmart-owned Flipkart will work together to enhance business and trade inclusion opportunities for artisans, weavers and craftsmen in Gujarat.

Eligible sellers under GSHHDC will receive training and incubation support from Flipkart in the form of onboarding, business insights, dedicated seller support and warehousing.

Commenting on the MoU, Mahesh Singh, Managing Director, GSHHDC, said, The MoU with Flipkart is the start of a new era for Garvi Gurjari. The handloom and handicraft artisans living in remote areas of Gujarat will now be able to use Flipkarts platform to expand their market reach."

Along with marketing their products, the artisans will also gain valuable knowledge about developments in designs, colour patterns and selling techniques from the platform, Singh said.

We are delighted to partner with the Gujarat government to give the states artisans and weavers the opportunity to fulfil their aspirations and take their businesses pan-India. Flipkart Samarth initiative is designed to help underserved communities and boost local entrepreneurship through a transparent, efficient and cost-effective marketplace model," Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group said.

He further said that with every artisan who becomes a part of Samarth, they take a step further in making e-commerce more inclusive for all Indians and contributing to the economic growth and prosperity in the country.
India: Seeks provisions to test damaging fishing

January 27,2020 | Source: Research Columnist

Greater than 110 international locations together with India have made a powerful pitch to position in position efficient particular provisions for growing international locations to test damaging fishing, mentioning considerations on fish folkss livelihood, meals safety and growing capacities, on the Global Industry Organisation. The rush used to be made within the first of the six clusters of fish subsidy talks held remaining week at WTO, aimed toward securing an international settlement on decreasing damaging fisheries subsidies through June this 12 months, stated officers acquainted with the improvement.



WTO participants are negotiating to finalise disciplines to get rid of subsidies for unlawful, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and to ban positive kinds of fisheries subsidies that give a contribution to overcapacity and overfishing, they stated. The negotiations have made growth with draft texts rising in appreciate of IUU and overfished shares. Alternatively, in overfishing and overcapacity, a number of approaches are being mentioned together with a brand new proposal from Canada.



America and Australia also are pushing for a suggestion of capping of subsidies. WTO participants are grappling to seek out convergence to an agreed method to deal with the problem of subsidies contributing to overfishing and overcapacity, stated an professional conscious about the main points. African, Caribbean and Pacific Team of States (ACP Team), Sri Lanka and a bunch of least advanced international locations (LDCs) are supportive of particular and differential remedy (S&DT), and maximum participants are supportive of S&DT in territorial waters as much as 12 nautical miles.



India reiterated its call for to exclude territorial waters from long run disciplines, specifically as that is the place maximum small scale and artisanal fishing takes position and the correct to offer subsidies for top seas fishing, stated a Geneva-based professional. Alternatively, a number of advanced international locations led through america are antagonistic to horizontal S&DT for fishing in unique financial zones (EEZs) and top seas. EEZ is a boundary of sea zone extending as much as 200 nautical miles from the shore the place coastal international locations have sovereign jurisdiction to discover and keep an eye on marine sources. This may be because of the concern that China being the largest marine catch manufacturer will receive advantages essentially the most from horizontal S&DT, stated the professional quoted first. China stated it used to be open to discussions on S&DT and prepared to shoulder responsibilities commensurate with its capability.
Between its folding Razr redux and a potential competitor to Samsung's Galaxy Note 10, Motorola is coming back in a big way.

According to the latest leaks from Evan Blass, a frequent purveyor of intel on upcoming mobile phones, Motorola me be working on a stylus-equipped phone that could be released sometime this year.

In an image released by Blass, the phone, a sleek looking, nearly full-screen device with a hole-punch style selfie camera fixed to the upper-left corner, a stylus can be seen leaning across the display.

A new image leaked by Blass (pictured) shows a Motorola device that comes with a stylus - potentially the first stylus phone from the company in a decade

As noted by Engadget, who was the first to report on the apparent leaked images, the stylus is significant not just because it would be the first stylus phone in 10 years, but because it makes marks another attempt to encroach on space already dominated by Samsung.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 was unveiled late last year and has a signature stylus called the S-Pen that can be used for several different actions aside from just writing our drawing on the phone.

For example, a button on the S-Pen can tell the phone to begin taking a video or a picture remotely.

Already Motorola is in the midst of challenging Samsung in the foldable phone market with a revamped $1,500 Razr that mixes throwback form factor with modern technology, including a 6.2 inch bendable screen that bends in half to shut in the same way as older 'clamshell' phones.

Motorola's new razr will look to bite off a section of the folding phone market which is currently dominated by Samsung and Chinese phone-maker, Huawei

Samsung was notably among the first companies to introduce a mobile device with a bendable screen in its Galaxy Fold.

Of course, throwing in a stylus with its apparent Note competitor likely won't be enough to challenge Samsung.

Motorola will most likely make its stylus a multi-functional device like the S-Pen, whether through similarly designed motion-controls or other technology.

So far, price and a specific release date are still a mystery, but according to The Verge, the device could make a debut in April or potentially even sooner during a Mobile World Congress even next month in Barcelona.
Vancouver, January 27, 2020 - Plata Latina Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PLA) ("Plata Latina" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that through its wholly-owned subsidiary Plaminco S.A. de C.V., it has entered into an Agreement of Assignment of Mining Concessions (the "Agreement") with Minera Argentita Exploracion, S. de R.L. de C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Electrum Group ("Electrum"), with respect to Plata Latina's three exploration properties in Mexico, which include Vaquerias, Palo Alto and La Joya (the "Three Properties").

Pursuant to the Agreement, Electrum will pay Plata Latina US $100,000 for each property that it exercises the option for, potentially totalling US $300,000. The Company will grant Electrum a period of four months (the "Option Period") the exclusive right to evaluate the Three Properties. The Option Period started on January 20, 2020 and will expire on May 20, 2020. On or before the expiration of the Option Period, Electrum has the right to exercise its option to acquire any or all of the three exploration concessions. Electrum has commenced their due diligence.

In addition, during the Option Period, Electrum has agreed to reimburse the Company the remaining 2019 semi-semester mining duties on the Three Properties up to a maximum amount of US $50,000. Electrum will also pay the mining duties for the first six-month period of 2020 on the Three Properties.

About the Three Properties

The Vaquerias Property is situated in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, northwest of the Guanajuato Mining District and consists of two Federal exploration concessions, totalling 4,411 hectares in area. The mining permits are valid until 2061.

The Palo Alto Property is located in the state of Aguas Calientes, Mexico, also northwest of the Guanajuato Mining District and consists of three Federal exploration concessions, totaling 4,722 hectares and are valid until 2061 to 2062.

The La Joya Property is located in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, southeast of the Guanajuato Mining District and consists of one Federal exploration concession, totalling 924 hectares. The concession is valid until 2060.

About Plata Latina Minerals

Plata Latina Minerals is a Canadian exploration company with a portfolio of four silver-gold properties situated in the prolific Mexican Silver Belt focused on discovering new silver-gold vein districts. Plata Latina's expertise with its ore horizon concept model and extensive experience in Mexico provides a competitive edge for discovery of new districts between old historic deposits. Its highly experienced management team and board are focused on developing its portfolio of high-potential targets and exploring additional value-creation opportunities.

For more information on Plata Latina, please contact:

W. Durand Eppler, President & CEO

Telephone: +1 800 933 9925

Email: info@plminerals.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this release. Except as required by applicable law, Plata Latina disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or belief of the Company based on information currently available and such information is subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including risks related to exploration, uncertainties related to financings, the uncertainties of interpreting exploration results and other risks associated being a mineral exploration company.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/51846
London: Two of Theresa May's national security ministers have warned Boris Johnson against greenlighting Huawei involvement in the country's 5G rollout as the Prime Minister appears poised to do on Tuesday.

On his way to Britain: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Credit:AP

The warnings from former foreign and defence secretaries came as the US Secretary Mike Pompeo warned the British they could not call themselves a sovereign nation if they allowed Huawei in.

Sovereignty was a key rallying cry of the Vote Leave campaign during the EU referendum, which Johnson headed. Pompeo is due to arrive in London on Wednesday, potentially setting up explosive scenes, if the National Security Council (NSC) decides on Tuesday to allow Huawei to supply masts and antennas.

The decision is nearly 12 months overdue because the last time the Conservative government debated the issue, the NSC split on the decision which was sensationally leaked, leading to the sacking of the then Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
One out of the four accused in the trial for the murder of Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak has pleaded guilty. Miroslav Marsek, a 37-year-old military veteran, admitted to fatally shooting Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, in February 2018. By contrast, the alleged mastermind behind the murders, businessman Marian Kocner, has pleaded not guilty, and is currently on trial for contracting the hit.

The murder of the journalist and subsequent trial which began in December has shed light on the close ties between rich businessmen, corrupt politicians, and criminals that have emerged since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the reintroduction of capitalism three decades ago. Following the murder, mass protests broke out against Prime Minister Robert Fico and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak, which forced them to resign. This will have a major impact on the upcoming parliamentary elections in February.

Slovakia is a member of the European Union and used by the major automakers as a cheap production center. Around 80,000 of the countrys 5.5 million people are directly employed in the auto industry.

Kuciak conducted research into ties between the Italian mafia and Slovakian politicians, uncovering the dubious activities of Kocner and his various business operations in the process. Kocner was suspected of ordering Kuciaks murder shortly after the journalists death.

Kocner initially had a successful career as a pro-government journalist in the 1980s with close ties to the Stalinist bureaucracy as well as some right-wing opposition elements. With these relations, his unscrupulousness, and considerable criminal activity, he emerged as one of Slovakias most influential men.

The close ties between all political parties and organised crime were laid bare during the investigation into Kuciaks killing. Kocner was involved in almost every national corruption scandal over recent years. He is even now on the US Treasury Departments sanctions list. He was only able to act with impunity because he enjoyed protection from high places.

It is clear that he conducted all manner of economic crimes over years, said Daniel Lipsic, a lawyer for the Kuciak family and a former justice minister. Tax evasion, fraud, and the like. And nothing happened, as if he had immunity from prosecution.

Vast quantities of audio recordings, videos, and card transactions acquired secretly by Kocner in order to blackmail politicians and representatives of the judiciary were secured during the investigations. Former attorney general Dobroslav Trnka was recently arrestedhe allegedly protected Kocner from prosecution for years.

Furthermore, Kocner had contacts within every political party. He referred to a female state secretary in the Justice Ministry as my little monkey. He was kept up to date with police investigations against him, demanded biographical information about state prosecutors who threatened him, and urged judges to decide cases in his favour, Der Spiegel reported last year.

To date, only a tiny portion of the material found by the criminal investigation has been made public. It includes hundreds of pages we are continuing to review and from which we have released only a small portion, said Matus Kostolny, editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily newspaper Dennik N.

However, the material made public makes clear the scale of the criminal operations. Along with plans to murder state prosecutors, the material also contains evidence of Kocners huge influence on the current political setup. According to the documents, Kocner spoke extensively with former prime minister Robert Fico of the social democratic Smer Party in the Maldives and the leader of the right-wing liberal MostHid Party.

Slovakian political scientist Grigorij Meseznikov told Der Spiegel that Kocner wanted not only to influence the judiciary, but all political developments in Slovakia. In this, Kocner was not alone he noted, We should not be naive and think that these structures no longer exist. People of Kocners type are still there, even though theyve gone underground for the time being.

The criminal ties involving all political parties are no secret to the population. This was shown by the mass protests that erupted after the brutal double murder.

Fico was replaced following his resignation by Peter Pellegrini, who is seen as a front man for Fico. Despite the change in Prime Minister government in Bratislava is still made up of a coalition of Ficos Smer, MostHid, which is essentially a mouthpiece for the small but wealthy upper middle class, and the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS). The government is characterized by a vicious anti-refugee and anti-Roma agenda. At the same time, it has pursued a strict austerity regime and strengthened the apparatus of state repression.

Fico has committed the Smer, which remains a member of the European social democrats, to a hard-right political line. There is much to suggest that he will seek to establish a governing alliance with the neo-fascist KotlebistsPeoples Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) after next months parliamentary election. Current polls project the neo-Nazis, led by Marian Kotleba, in second place.

Kotleba and his party explicitly consider themselves the successors of the Hlinka Party.

The clerical leader Andrej Hlinkaand later Josef Tisoestablished a fascist dictatorship modelled on Germany after Slovakia gained independence as a result of the Munich accord in 1938. They immediately banned the social democratic and communist parties. The military arm of the government, the Hlinka Guard, committed a series of crimes against Jews, Roma, and communists. In 1942, the government deported Slovakias Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Guard was officially integrated into the German SS in 1944. Only the invasion of the Red Army in May 1945 ended the rule of terror.

A LSNS parliamentary deputy, Milan Mazurek, was fined 10,000 after making racist statements about Roma in a 2016 interview, which prompted an intervention by Fico to defend the fascist. In a Facebook video, he stated, Milan Mazurek simply said what virtually the entire nation thinks. In typical racist fashion, he went on, If you execute someone for telling the truth, you transform him into a national hero. Should we not be allowed to say that parts of the Roma population abuse the social welfare system?

A charge of inciting racial hatred was subsequently launched against Fico in December. However, the special state prosecutor has since dropped the charge without providing any explanation. During the trial, the Smer demonstratively backed Fico.

The possible entry of the fascists into the government is not based on any mass support. On the contrary, the countrys political elite is widely despised.

This finds expression in the disintegration of support for all the established parties. According to the latest poll by AKO, Smer would win 17 percent of the vote, the LSNS 11 percent, and the liberal party alliance 9 percent. All other parties have much less support, and many could fail to surpass the 5 percent hurdle for parliamentary representation, including the SNS (5 percent) and Most-Hid (4 percent). Voter turnout could also be just as low as at the European elections last May when turnout was less than 23 percent.

The rise of Kocner and criminal networks in Slovakia is a textbook case of how the reintroduction of capitalism did not bring democracy, freedom, and prosperity, but the opposite. A small privileged layer, which enriched itself shamelessly through legal and illegal means at the expense of the population, is responsible for creating precarious social conditions and paving the way for fascism.
Twelve people were killed and 230 others injured in protests in Iraq over the past three days, the Independent High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq said Sunday, CNN reported.

Nine protesters were killed in the capital Baghdad and three others in the southern city of Nasiriyah, according to the statement.

Dozens of Iraqi security forces used live ammunition and tear gas as they worked to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters in al-Khalani Square, Baghdad, on Saturday, according to activists in the area.

More than 600 people have been killed in anti-government demonstrations that started in October, according to the IHCHR and Amnesty International.
(Alliance News) - Britain's sovereignty is at risk if the country allows Chinese tech giant Huawei to help build its 5G infrastructure, the US Secretary of State has warned.

Mike Pompeo described the decision facing the National Security Council as "momentous" in a last ditch plea to ministers who are expected to make the call on Tuesday.

The US administration has previously warned allies not to allow Huawei to form part of their 5G networks, claiming it would be a security risk, something the company vehemently denies.

But Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: "The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G.

"British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: 'The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign'.

He retweeted a comment by Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in the last parliament, in which the MP said: "Sovereignty means control of data as much as land.

"We need to decide what we're willing to invest in and who were willing to share our tech with.

"The real costs will come later if we get this wrong and allow Huawei to run 5G."

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the calculation would be taken in terms of the UK's national interest.

"The decision we make will be based upon our own sovereign right to choose. It's Britain that will have to live with the consequences of that," he told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour following Pompeo's intervention.

"There are risks but we will make an informed decision based on the evidence and we will do so in an autonomous way."

And the UK's former national security adviser Peter Ricketts, a crossbench peer, said the risk is being blown out of proportion.

"I'm quite sure, knowing the intelligence community well, that they won't be recommending to ministers, the course of action that is likely to mess up our intelligence relationship with the US or prejudice UK security.

"I personally think we can find a solution which does allow them to have some role and which doesn't send the Americans off the other side of the diving board."

Pompeo is due to meet Boris Johnson and the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on a visit to London this week.

Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed reports on Sunday that she is "on the warpath" following claims Johnson has been "bounced" by officials into letting Huawei build non-core parts of the 5G network.

She told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday the report in the Sunday Times was "not accurate", adding: "My role is very much to protect the national security of our country and that also includes intelligence services and communications as well.

"We are having discussions, and rightly so, and those discussions remain at the National Security Council level and within-Cabinet level.

"And of course we will have those discussions. We'll have them privately and I'm not going to comment on speculation in newspapers."

She said the UK's co-operation with the Five Eyes network a an alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US a would "absolutely continue".

On Friday the prime minister discussed the security of telecommunications networks in a phone call with Donald Trump, according to the White House.

"The two leaders discussed important regional and bilateral issues, including working together to ensure the security of our telecommunications networks," a White House statement said.

Last year, the US imposed trade restrictions on Huawei over concerns about the company's security and ties to the Chinese government.

Allegations that their telecommunications equipment could be used to spy on people has been repeatedly denied by the tech giant.

By Harriet Line, PA Deputy Political Editor

source: PA

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Reuters

The death toll from Chinas new coronavirus grew to 80 on Monday as residents of Hubei province, where the disease originated, were banned from entering Hong Kong amid global efforts to halt the rapid spread of the outbreak.

The number of deaths from the flu-like virus in Hubei province climbed from 56 to 76 overnight, health commission officials said, with four deaths elsewhere. The total number of confirmed cases in China had risen about 30 percent to 2,744.

U.S. S&P500 e-mini futures fell more than one percent in Asian trade on Monday on mounting worries the outbreak of the virus could severely disrupt the Chinese economy, an engine of global growth.

Kicking off the Asian trading day, New Zealand shares fell with travel and tourism-related stocks among the worst performers as the speed of the outbreaks spread raised alarm over its future impact on movement.

Chinas cabinet said it would extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to 2 February in a bid to slow the spread of the virus. The Hubei city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, is already under virtual lockdown, with severe restrictions on movement in place in several other Chinese cities.

Beijing has called for transparency in managing the crisis after the public trust was eroded by a cover-up of the spread of SARS, a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because much about it is still unknown, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

The virus, believed to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife, has already spread to cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

HONG KONG BAN, GLOBAL SCREENING

The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday he was on his way to Beijing to meet officials and health experts dealing with the coronavirus.

My @WHO colleagues & I would like to understand the latest developments & strengthen our partnership with China in providing further protection against the outbreak, he said on Twitter.

We are working 24/7 to support  & its people during this difficult time & remain in close contact with affected countries, with our regional & country offices deeply involved. @WHO is updating all countries on the situation & providing specific guidance on what to do to respond  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 26, 2020

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong has six confirmed cases and said it would ban entry from Monday to people who have visited Hubei province in the past 14 days. The ban does not apply to Hong Kong residents.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of these efforts.

France, Italy, Japan and the United States all said they were working to evacuate citizens from Wuhan.

France said it expected to repatriate up to a few hundred of its 800 citizens living in the Wuhan area. Evacuees would have to spend 14 days in quarantine to avoid spreading the virus in France.

Hubeis governor, Wang Xiaodong, said at a news conference on Sunday he felt agonised and responsible for the outbreak. He described the situation as severe and said medical supplies were still tight.

News of the press conference sparked anger on Weibo, Chinas equivalent to Twitter, although social media platforms in China usually delete such sensitive content.

He thinks one sentence of apology will be enough to solve the problem? Lets await the judgment of the people of the country, one user posted.
Eamon Reilly was one of thousands of students to submit a name for the NASA craft. Now his suggestion is one of nine options in a poll to decide the rovers name.

NASAs Name the Rover contest collected submissions from across the country, with over 28,000 entries being considered.

Reilly, a fourth grade student at Sinking Springs Elementary School, went with a name that he felt spoke to scientists and engineers.

First, I looked at the old rover names, Reilly said in a submission form. They all show how scientists act, and I know scientists are perseverant. I decided to look for a fancier word for perseverance which I knew from a motto from my old school. I found tenacity on Thesaurus.com. Scientists have to be tenacious because if they werent, Mars rovers wouldnt exist, and maybe even the whole space program wouldnt exist!

An enthusiastic student of science and math, Reilly said he was fascinated with rockets since preschool, when he would build then out of blocks or pretend to be an astronaut visiting planets hed crafted for a model of the solar system. He studied space in a unit at school, and submitted a name as his class participated in the Name the Rover project.

The Name the Rover poll is open for one more day, and can be reached by following this link. The final name will be announced in March.
In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, a blood sample of a Bihar-based woman, who recently returned from China, has been sent for examination to the Institute of Virology in Pune after she complained of fever.

Briefing about the case, Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary of the Bihar Health Department, told ANI, "A woman has returned from China to Saran district and she is suffering from fever. We have quarantined her and sent her samples to the Institute of Virology in Pune to ascertain if she is infected with the coronavirus or not."

Kumar said that the medical report of the woman is expected to arrive by January 28.

"There is a need to be cautious as many travel around the globe most often these days. As per our information, a positive case was reported from Nepal. So extensive screening is being conducted in the states close to Nepal," he said.

"All the entry points from Nepal are being monitored by medical experts. Isolation wards have also been made in such regions. Besides, we have made screening arrangements at airports as well," the official added.

The development comes as the death toll from the deadly coronavirus rose to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases of the disease reported from the country on Monday.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

A novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

In more severe cases, the infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WE all need a good laugh this time of year and Cappamore GAA has come up with a novel fundraiser.

Eoin O'Malley, PRO of the club which is going from strength to strength, said they are hosting their first ever comedy club in Hayes' of Cappamore.

It's a social night dreamt up by the recently amalgamated Cappamore GAA and Camogie Clubs and hopefully it will be the first of many to come.

The line-up is something more akin to Vicar Street in Dublin. We have local favourite John Caplis as MC and he will be joined by the stars of Father Ted, Joe Rooney and Patrick McDonnell, said Eoin.

It takes place at 8pm on Saturday, February 1. All funds raised will go straight back into Cappamore GAA.

The duo played the iconic roles of Fr Damo and Eoin McLove in episodes of Father Ted that have been watched countless times.

The renowned stand-up comedians have a unique take on Irish society. Between them they have written and appeared in some of the most popular TV comedies of the last ten years - Naked Camera, Killinascully and The Savage Eye.

They have been making online waves recently with their Joe and Pat sketches and have adapted some of these sketches for an exciting new live show.

Attendees can expect improvised audience interaction, musical comedy, sketches, stand up and lots of laughs.

They will be joined by local comedian John Caplis, formerly a secondary school teacher in Doon. John will be as big a draw as Joe and Patrick.

John says a lot of his stories would have been little anecdotes from his day job.

A friend of mine said, why dont you knit all of those stories into a sequence and do a show about teaching? I put together a rough show in the summer time and I ended up with an hour of material, said John.

Eoin said it promises to be a great night in the very comfortable surroundings of Hayes' seated function room. There is a bar available and doors open at 8pm on Saturday, February 1.

Tickets are already online with limited availability. See www.cappamoregaa.ie to secure you ticket at 15 each. There is a free draw on the night for dinner for two in the Eibhle Restaurant, Cappamore.
The Ukrainian man had made efforts to evade facial recognition and was eventually arrested amid a fingerprint match.

One of the suspects in a deadly attack on a Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk, Oleksiy Moskalenko (aka Levin), who had been on wanted list, was taken into custody in Bulgaria's Burgas for a 40-day term after being detained on January 24.

Bulgarian authorities are yet to consider Ukraine's extradition request, Flagman reports.

Ukraine's Slidstvo.info media investigation project revealed some details of the suspect's apprehension. Police say Levin had made efforts to evade facial recognition and was eventually detained amid a fingerprint match.

Law enforcers seized a Bulgarian and a "foreign" passport during the search at his home.

Read alsoUkraine's PGO chief on Handziuk murder: Prosecutors didn't want to probe case

It is noted that the suspect, who had been on the run since 2018, crossed into Bulgaria via Romania in the same year. He entered the country on foot, through a checkpoint in the village of Durankulak. He never registered at any address in Bulgaria, law enforcers say.

Levin faces up to 10 years in prison in Ukraine for complicity in manslaughter.

UNIAN memo. Kherson activist, advisor to the Mayor of Kherson and acting manager of affairs at Kherson City Council's executive committee Kateryna Handziuk, 33, on July 31, 2018, survived an act of acid throwing. She suffered burns to more than 35% of her body and underwent 11 operations in Kyiv.

Handziuk died on November 4, 2018. The immediate cause of her death was a severed blood clot resulting from the acid attack. Police originally qualified the attack as an attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty, then its status was changed to completed murder.

Six suspects were detained, one of whom, Mykola Novikov, was later released from custody as charges against him had been dropped. On May 7, 2019, the Prosecutor General's Office sent an indictment against five defendants in the case of the murder: Mykyta Hrabchuk, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, Serhiy Torbin, and Viktor Horbunov.

On June 6, the court announced their sentences. Torbin, the organizer of the murder, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. Hrabchuk, the actual perpetrator of the crime, was sentenced to six years in prison. Accused of aiding, Vasyanovych and Horbunov were sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively; accomplice Vishnevsky's sentence is four years' imprisonment.

Oleksiy Levin, who has a criminal record, as well as Chairman of Kherson Regional Council Vladyslav Manger and Ihor Pavlovsky, who was an assistant to MP from the Petro Poroshenko's Bloc Mykola Palamarchuk, are also figures in the Handziuk murder case.

Also, public activists believe that former Chairman of Kherson Regional State Administration Andriy Gordeev and former Deputy Chairman of Kherson Regional State Administration Yevhen Ryshchuk were involved in the crime.

On October 3, Ukraine's PGO replaced a group of prosecutors in the Handziuk murder case.

Ihor Pavlovsky was detained January 21 following Kherson raids.
On Wednesday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts took a break between stints holding the gavel at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial to preside over a Supreme Court hearing in a dispute that could blow a hole through America's church-state wall.

If the tenor of the oral argument is an indication, the ruling this spring may hinge on the dangerous fallacy that separation of church and state is hostility toward religion akin to overt racial discrimination.

The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, involves taxpayer-funded scholarships that helped parents pay tuition at primarily Christian schools. In 2018, the Montana Supreme Court found the program incompatible with a provision of its state constitution. Now, Roberts and his eight colleagues will decide whether this application of Montana's no-aid-to-religion rule - a version of which is found in the constitutions of three-quarters of the states - squares with the religious-freedom umbrella in the U.S. Constitution.

Richard Komer, the lawyer for families who would like the scholarships reinstated, brought up the question of race early when he said ending the program was as bad as withholding funds from "African American schools." Conservative justices pressed this point. Would it be constitutional, Justice Samuel Alito asked Montana's lawyer, Adam Unikowsky, to stop providing state money to majority-black schools? Justice Brett Kavanaugh pointed to "grotesque religious bigotry against Catholics" as the impetus for Montana's rule. And Roberts asked Unikowsky how racial discrimination is "different" from unequal treatment based on religion "which is also protected under the First Amendment."

Justice Stephen Breyer commented "race is different from religion" because "there is no Establishment Clause in regard to race." The opening words of the Bill of Rights tell Congress to make no law "respecting an establishment of religion." There is no equivalent rule requiring the government to cease and desist when a policy happens to support one racial group more than another. On the contrary, the amendments passed in the aftermath of the Civil War expressly authorize laws to remediate racial discrimination.

While there is no legitimate reason to discriminate against someone based on race, Justice Elena Kagan said there are multiple justifications for canceling Montana's scholarship program that "have nothing to do with animus toward religion." The state may want to protect taxpayers uneasy with their taxes propping up religious entities, Kagan added, or to prevent "divisiveness and conflict within a society."

In James Madison's words, states may seek to prevent the destruction of "moderation and harmony" among sects pitted against one another in a scramble for the public purse. Or, as Unikowsky explained, people of faith may want to protect "religious schools from political influence" by shielding their curriculums from the scrutiny of state bureaucrats.

These reasons for drawing a line between government and parochial schools are a far cry from the sinister motives several justices found underlying Montana's no-aid rule. But they seemed not to have occurred to some of Kagan's colleagues. When Unikowsky mentioned religious supporters of the provision, Kavanaugh was incredulous: "You think that was the design of the no-aid clause - to help religious institutions?" For Kavanaugh and several of his colleagues, steering government money away from religious institutions is just racism by another name.

But just two years ago, when the Supreme Court heard Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case asking whether a Christian baker could turn away a gay couple seeking a wedding cake, conservatives hummed a different tune. Asked to explain why a baker could shut his door to a gay couple but may not refuse to bake a cake for an interracial wedding, the baker's lawyer said "race is different." And in the same hearing, Noel Francisco, President Trump's solicitor general, told the justices that "race is particularly unique."

Keep track of the logic: Religious scruples justify discriminating against gays and lesbians seeking equal access to goods in a marketplace, but religious parents are victims of discrimination if 37 states erect solid walls between church and state to keep the peace and preserve public education funding.

Historians differ over the extent to which anxiety over Catholic demands for taxpayer dollars for parochial schools fueled the adoption of the "Blaine Amendments" in the late 19th century. But Montana's amendment was ratified in 1972. The rise of the Christian right since the 1980s and the increasingly tight political bond between Catholics and Protestant evangelicals make it impossible to claim religious conservatives are an oppressed or marginalized group in the 21st century.

Regardless, anti-Catholic bias in the United States is nowhere near as pervasive as racial discrimination, the nation's oldest, deepest and still destabilizing fault line.

But while conservative justices still ring alarms about anti-Catholic sentiment, they are just as quick to overlook the continuing effects of racial discrimination. In Shelby County v. Holder, his controversial 2013 opinion striking down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, Roberts wrote that because "our country has changed," protections for racial minorities in states with historically discriminatory voting practices were no longer necessary.

But since that decision, many of the states formerly held accountable under the Voting Rights Act have rushed to pass restrictive voter ID laws and other changes with the aim of suppressing voting rates among minorities.

Before drafting an opinion in Espinoza that shreds amendments in states from Montana to Iowa to Florida, Roberts might consult the principle of equal state sovereignty he wrote into Shelby County. If that commitment to states' rights has currency beyond a single case, it should cast doubt on a move that - based on phantom fears of religious prejudice - takes a bulldozer to dozens of church-state walls.

_ _ _

Mazie is Supreme Court correspondent for The Economist and teaches political science in New York City.
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Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Re-orienting the Republic Day

by Bhartendu Kumar Singh

When the first Republic Day was celebrated in 1950, people just poured out here, there, and everywhere on the Delhi roads to catch a glimpse of their first President as he drove from the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan towards the then Irwin (now National) Stadium, venue of Indias first Republic Day parade. However, as years have passed by, there is an artificial distance between the Republic and its people, best evident in the contemporary Republic Day celebrations.

To begin with, todays Republic Day is more and more about militarised display of pomp and show. The informal atmospherics, visible in the early fifties, is no more there. Instead, the military dominates the celebrations at Rajpath in its entirety. Even in States, the police forces dominate the show. The military overbearing gives an unnecessary militaristic outlook to a hitherto democratic polity. Even the commen-tary at the Rajpath seems to come like a war kind narration. In addition, it denies legitimate space to other aspects of society and polity that need to be equally celebrated. Given the fact that we are living a post-war period where the frequency of wars have actually come down, the rationale of overt display of military prowess is debatable. Unlike other republics like the US, India earned its republican status primarily through non-violent methodology and the political philosophy of Gandhi and other freedom stalwarts. The Republic has flourished due to political communication of our leadership eager to promote democracy as a way of life. And yet, the Republic Day celebrations portrays India like a Garrison state where everything is treated like a war and military becomes everything.

There has also been a visible decline in Republican values in our polity. The enthusiasm, vigour and energy that characterised the Republic Day celebrations amongst our forefathers seems to be fizzling out. There could be many reasons for that. First, our forefathers fought for the freedom; therefore, they valued and cherished the idea of Republic. Subsequent generations has taken it for a ride and treated it like an endowment since we were born into it! We perhaps do not attach same intrinsic value that our forefathers attached to it. Second, our children do not get to learn and imbibe the Republican values through peer experience. The prabhat pheris, which used to be the key aspect of Republic Day celebrations in schools and elsewhere are gone long back! Instead, we have a metropolitan culture where schools are kept closed on Republic Day. Delhi is one such place. Pray, where should the children go if they want to celebrate the Republic Day? Third, there is near absence of Republican values in institutions of higher learning. Universities and colleges that are supposed to be citadels of value system and character building are quite ignorant of their pivotal role. Either they are closed on the Republic Day or the student participation is nearly absent.



There is also a widening gap between the state and the citizen about participation in the Republic Day. The state is getting more and more protective due to security considerations and sometimes rightfully so. The Republic Day celebrations in Delhi and other state capitals are, thus, reduced to a spectacle for a microscopic minority who brave all the odds. Many of these are compulsive participants who are there in official positions. The average citizen who want to be there on a volitional basis find too many security jackets to filter through. At the end of the day, it is an enduring test for many. Many of these citizens, therefore, resort to digital celebrations of Republic Day since the comforts of the drawing room far outweigh the discomforts outside.

There is also a sizeable section of people who are subjected to passive citizenry out of compulsion. For example, when the grand march past goes on at the Rajpath, there would be thousands of small children who would be out begging on Delhi roads to make a living that day. An even more number of people would again fail to manage two meals a day. Countless others would suffer the pangs of malnutrition like previous days. Republic Day or its associated aura is irrelevant and incontexual for them and as hopeless like any other day. Seven decades of Republic and lofty ideals in the Constitution notwithstanding, these hapless citizens cant figure out the meaning of Republic or for that matter the festivities associated with the Republic Day. Are we not suppose to feed these hungry mouths before we splurge money on avoidable pomp and show? Are we going to say at some stage that austerity would be the hallmark of state functions till a just society is established!

If the goal is to consolidate and strengthen participatory democracy and imbibe the values of civic republicanism amongst the citizens, we need to reconsider the ways we celebrate the Republic Day. We need to move away from a militarist state of mind towards an emanci-patory platform where we celebrate all aspects of the Republic and practice Republican values vertically and horizontally. Unless we do it, we will continue to live in a Republic for few where many would not be able to associate with the Republic Day or the Republic Day parade.

The author is in the Indian Defence Accounts Service. The views expressed here are his personal.
If you don't have access to a 401(k) retirement account through your workplace, the next best thing may be an IRA. Standing for individual retirement account, an IRA is a tax-advantaged account that lets you put money aside for the future. But while opening an IRA can be a smart financial decision, selecting the right provider can feel overwhelming.

Here are five IRA providers to consider:

-- Fidelity.

-- Charles Schwab.

-- Principal.

-- Betterment.

-- TD Ameritrade.

Read on for details on who offers IRAs, how to choose a provider and which firms offer the best IRA accounts.

[See: 7 New Taxes Retirees Face.]

Understanding IRA Accounts

While contributions to a traditional IRA are tax-deductible, withdrawals in retirement are subject to income tax. Another option is to open a Roth IRA, which doesn't offer any immediate deduction but does provide tax-free withdrawals in retirement. Up to $6,000 can be contributed to an IRA in 2020, and those age 50 and older can contribute $7,000.

IRAs are offered by numerous institutions, from national banks like Citi and Chase to investment firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab. Plus, a new generation of online investment platforms such as Betterment and Wealthfront cater to those who want a hands-off experience for retirement savings. These new platforms are ideal for do-it-yourself investors who don't feel the need to work one-on-one with a broker. Meanwhile, those who want their account actively managed by a professional may be best served by an IRA set up by a brokerage firm.

IRA money held in a bank deposit account such as a savings account or certificate of deposit is typically insured for up to $250,000 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Meanwhile, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation offers up to $500,000 of protection to customers of member brokerage firms.

Tips for Finding the Best IRA Account Provider

There are three main factors to consider when selecting an IRA provider: cost, service and investment options.

Story continues

Some IRAs charge a percentage of the amount invested while others charge a fee per transaction. Per-transaction fees may range from $4.95 to $9.95 for stocks and up to $49.95 for mutual funds. Many companies offer a number of stocks and ETFs that can be traded for free as well. Meanwhile, percentage fees can be as low as 0.25% of an account balance.

When comparing costs, remember that you typically get what you pay for. Low-cost providers offer less personalized service while one-on-one advice from a planner will come at a premium. That isn't to say a low-cost provider isn't a good choice, but it is one that will be best for people who feel confident in their ability to manage their own retirement account.

If you're paying more for personalized advice, understand what motivates a company's recommendations. "Not all IRA providers are fiduciaries," says Corbin Blackwell, a certified financial planner at Betterment. That means they are not legally required to work in your best interest and could try to steer you into investments that result in larger sales commissions. "Non-fiduciary IRA providers may charge you far more in commissions, account charges and hidden fees than you'd pay if you had hired a fiduciary," Blackwell says.

[See: 11 Ways to Avoid the IRA Early Withdrawal Penalty]

To help people make investment decisions, some IRA providers give customers a variety of tools such as calculators, investment webinars and research reports. However, consumers need to be wise about how they use that information too, says Ken Kamen, author of the upcoming book "Don't Let Technology Crack Your Nest Egg: Rethinking Personal Finance for the Digital Age."

"All those bells and whistles can sometimes take you away from financial success," Kamen says. For instance, they may lead an investor to move money frequently between funds and pay unnecessary fees when it could be better to simply leave money untouched.

In the end, though, no factor is more important to selecting an IRA provider than its investment choices. "More important than where you open (an IRA) is what's inside it," says Michael Foguth, president and founder of retirement planning firm Foguth Financial Group in Brighton, Michigan.

In other words, if an IRA doesn't provide access to high-performing investment funds, a low fee doesn't benefit you. Instead of choosing an IRA provider based on cost alone, consider what funds are available and how they have performed.

Whether you're looking for a higher level of service or lower prices, here's a look at some of the best IRA accounts.

Best IRA Account Providers

Fidelity. Fidelity gets high marks for its broad range of financial products and options and long history of service. Foguth advises, "Look for someone who's been around for a while and knows what they are doing." Fidelity fits the bill there. In addition to IRAs, the company administers 401(k) accounts, brokerage accounts, 529 college savings plans and more. All that has helped Fidelity assemble an impressive collection of financial planning tools that can benefit IRA holders. Plus, Fidelity operates branches across the country for those who want face-to-face service.

There is no minimum balance, opening fee or annual cost to open a traditional or Roth IRA at Fidelity. The company offers access to more than 10,000 mutual funds, including many with no fees. Those that do have fees cost $49.95 to trade online. Customers who use Fidelity's automated phone service for trades are charged $12.95 per trade for stocks and ETFs, and representative assisted trades cost $32.95. U.S. stocks and ETFs can be traded online for free.

Charles Schwab. Charles Schwab also excels at offering customers access to personalized advice. It provides 24/7 professional guidance and a number of online tools and resources. For those who want to meet with an advisor in person, Charles Schwab has a network of storefront locations across the country.

A Schwab IRA can be opened with any amount since there is no minimum balance requirement, and there are no fees to open and maintain the account. Plus, the firm has no-transaction-fee funds that can be traded online or through an automated phone service at no charge. Transaction-fee funds are free to sell and up to $49.95 to buy online or through the phone service. All broker-assisted trades cost an additional $25. Stocks and ETFs can be traded online for no cost or through the automated phone system for $5.

Principal. Principal is another company to consider for IRAs, particularly if you're planning to roll over the balance from a 401(k) account. While it does not have retail locations, it can connect you to a local advisor who can help make the rollover process easy. It also provides access to a team of professionals who help clients draw up an action plan to determine how much money they'll need in retirement and what steps to take to reach that goal.

There are no opening or maintenance fees for accounts with a balance of $10,000 or more. For lower balances, there may be an annual cost of up to $35. Additional fees may be charged for trades within the IRA.

[See: 5 Tax Tips Investors Can Use Now.]

Betterment. If you're comfortable managing your IRA online, try Betterment. The company is a relatively new provider but has quickly made a name for itself as having some of the best IRA accounts for hands-off investors. As a robo advisor, it recommends a portfolio based on financial needs, but doesn't necessarily offer the same level of nuanced guidance you'd receive from a financial planner or full-service investment firm. However, the company is a fiduciary so you can be assured that the recommendations you do receive are made with your best interests in mind.

There is no minimum balance for Betterment's Digital plan, and the plan charges 0.25% of the fund balance as an annual fee. If you have $100,000 to invest, you can open a Premium plan, which charges 0.40% as an annual fee and provides access to certified financial planners. Betterment does not charge trading or transfer fees.

"We typically offer one to 12 months of our service as a free trial, depending on when you sign up, the offer you choose and how much you deposit," Blackwell says. "If you don't like our service, you can always move it to another brokerage or wealth manager at the end of your trial, free of charge."

TD Ameritrade: Foguth often uses TD Ameritrade for his clients' IRAs and says he likes the provider for its strong track record and good customer service. The company also makes it easy to open an IRA online, noting the process can take as little as 15 minutes. For those who want to meet with someone in person to discuss their options, TD Ameritrade maintains more than 275 branch locations.

Stocks and ETFs can be traded online at TD Ameritrade for free. Using the interactive phone system costs $5 per trade, and broker-assisted trades costs $25. The company has hundreds of no-transaction-fee mutual funds available, but no-load options cost $49.99 per transaction.





More From US News & World Report


High time to end the Juan Guaido farce

This months vote by Venezuelas National Assembly to ditch Juan Guaido as its president provided our [British] government and the EU with an opportunity to rethink last years craven decision to recognise the unelected stooge as president of his country.

Venezuela's self-declared interim president leader Juan Guaido (right) faces the media with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab at the Foreign Office in London.

Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab have instead decided to fete this clown in Downing Street, continuing with a foreign policy farce as ineffective as it is unprincipled.

Guaidos self-declaration as president a year ago was (despite the usual mendacious nonsense spouted by politicians and pundits on our TV screens) a total violation of the Venezuelan constitution.

It continued years in which Venezuelas right-wing opposition, which won a parliamentary majority in 2015, has sought to subvert, sabotage or overthrow the government of the countrys directly elected President Nicolas Maduro, initially by demanding an early recall election.

When presidential elections were held in 2018, most opposition forces boycotted them rather than admit they were not likely to win.

Efforts to overthrow the Bolivarian revolution had already included campaigns of extreme violence which in 2014 and 2017 claimed hundreds of lives, an announcement by masked armed men in military fatigues of a revolt in a video publicised by the New York Times, a helicopter gunship attack on the Supreme Court and an armed assault on a military base.

All measures taken by the Venezuelan authorities to counter these acts of violence were denounced as a draconian crackdown on dissent.

A global propaganda campaign spearheaded by the United States worked for years to discredit and delegitimise Venezuelas government before Guaido appointed himself president a year ago, paving the way for Britain, most EU governments and the more right-wing of Latin American regimes to recognise him as such  though he had never even stood in a presidential election and his Popular Will party held just 14 of the 167 National Assembly seats (his presidency of the assembly was assumed by a rotation system).

Tragedy and farce have been dancing partners in the Venezuelan oppositions manoeuvres ever since. When, to his evident surprise, declaring himself president on TV failed to transform his dreams into reality, Guaido sought to mobilise opposition to the government on the streets  only to find that supporters of the legitimate government were mobilising in still larger numbers.

By April he was attempting a military coup, again with no success whatever.

He was linked to Colombian paramilitaries and embroiled in corruption scandals concerning the misappropriation of humanitarian aid.

High-profile stunts such as trying to deliver US aid into Venezuela (absurd given US sanctions are responsible for food and medicine shortages in the first place) failed.

A year on and Guaido has nothing to show for this charade. He has not shaken the authority of Venezuelas government and he has now been voted out by the National Assembly whose presidency was his only actual political post, denounced for corruption and double standards by his own opposition colleagues.

Yet the damage being done to the Venezuelan people by the US and EU recognition of his fictional regime is very real.

It has intensified the economic war being waged against the country, which has seen its assets abroad frozen or seized, including by the Bank of England, and funds belonging to the country by right being redirected to a coterie of US puppets playing at being some kind of government in exile (though he has not been exiled: Venezuelan opposition claims to be subject to harsh persecution often turn out to be exaggerated).

Our government is unconcerned by its lack of any moral right to tell Venezuelans who their president is. But it should be embarrassed by the ridiculousness of according a nobody with no legitimacy or power the status of a foreign national leader.

Pressure must be brought to bear to draw it away from Donald Trumps regime-change project.

Morning Star
Auto industry body SIAM on Monday urged the government to announce an incentive-based scrappage policy ahead of the Budget, while also seeking a reduction in GST on BS-VI vehicles to 18 percent

New Delhi: Auto industry body SIAM on Monday urged the government to announce an incentive-based scrappage policy ahead of the Budget, while also seeking a reduction in GST on BS-VI vehicles to 18 percent.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) also suggested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase budget allocation for internal combustion engine (ICE) bus procurement by state transport undertakings.

"As SIAM, we have urged the Finance Ministry to consider announcing an incentive-based scrappage policy and also increase Budget allocation for ICE bus procurement by State transport undertakings," SIAM President Rajan Wadhera said in a statement.

He further said the increased cost of BS-VI vehicles may affect demand.

"Hence, we have also requested the government to reduce GST rates for BS-VI vehicles effective April 1 from 28 percent to 18 percent," Wadhera added.

From 1 April, India will transition to stricter emission norm BS-VI from the current BS-IV. As per industry estimates, BS-VI vehicles are expected to be at least 10 percent costlier.

The Indian auto industry has been going through a prolonged slump, recording its worst-ever sales decline in two decades in 2019, with an unprecedented slowdown hampering vehicle offtake across segments.

Overall, wholesale of vehicles during the year across categories, including passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles, saw a decline of 13.77 percent in 2019 at 2,30,73,438 units as against 2,67,58,787 units in 2018.

Seeking a turnaround in fortune, the auto industry has been seeking government support and reduce the burden of transition to BS-VI with lower GST rate.

Follow full coverage of Union Budget 2020-21 here
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A man covered his face with a cloth, walked into a Syracuse gas station with a handgun and demanded money Sunday night, city police said.

The robbery attempt quickly turned physical, and the employee working at Mirabito gas station, at 800 Wolf St., was injured, police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Malinowski said.

The worker told police that he and the would-be robber fought; the suspect then ran out of the store without taking any cash or items, Malinowski said.

Someone called the Onondaga County 911 Center at 7:41 p.m. to report the attempted robbery.

When they arrived, police found the victim was injured. American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance crews treated the gas station employee at the scene for cuts.

Syracuse police described the suspect as entering the store with a cloth covering his face. They did not release additional details describing the suspect, however police dispatches described him as about 5-foot 8 or 9 inches, with a slim build, wearing all black clothing and shoes with turquoise on them. The suspect was last seen heading away from the store on Grant Boulevard toward Lemoyne Avenue, according to the police dispatches.

Earlier this weekend, city police announced they had arrested a 20-year-old man accused of robbing three gas stations in two weeks. That man, Keyshawn Adams, remained in jail Sunday night, records show. Adams is accused of robbing Myers Mobil Mart on James Street on Dec. 29 and Jan. 5, and Sunoco gas station Jan. 12 on West Genesee Street.

Syracuse police ask anyone with information about the attempted robbery Sunday at Mirabito gas station on Wolf Street to call them at (315) 442-5222.

Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
A judicial drama that lasted almost three years reached a milestone Monday when Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court found Maryam Sanda guilty of killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.

Ms Sanda stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife with clear intent to kill, Mr Halilu said in the judgment on a two-count homicide charge brought by the Nigerian police against Ms Sanda in November 2017.

The prosecution asked for the death penalty. The judge obliged by sentencing the convict to death by hanging.

He said although the prosecution did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, as there was no other witness of the incident aside the accused and no autopsy or murder weapon tendered, the surrounding circumstances were compelling.

Justice Halilu said he reached his verdict by relying on the compelling circumstantial evidence and testimonies of the six witnesses called by the police, the relatives of the convict who cleaned up the scene of the murder; a post-mortem examination on the deceaseds corpse; and the contradictory statements of the convict.

The judge said he also relied on the Doctrine of the Last Scene, which stipulates that the last person at a crime scene bears full responsibility.

It serves to buttress the finding that the defendant was the last to be seen with the deceased and therefore has full responsibility of what caused his death, Mr Halilu who was appointed a judge at the FCT High Court in 2010 noted.

After the judge found her guilty and was about to deliver sentence, Ms Sanda forced her way out of the dock and burst into tears, screaming Who will take care of my daughter?

She was headed for the balcony before she was restrained by security officials.

Her relatives, in turn, started shouting, causing an uproar.

In the midst of the commotion, the judge called a short break to restore calm before the sentence was delivered.

The Trial

Mondays judgment lasted almost three hours as the judge traced the origin of the trial, the evidence of all the witnesses, as well as the surrounding circumstances that preceded the death of the deceased.

Six prosecution witnesses appeared during the trial, including the deceaseds friends who were with him moments before his death, the laundryman and police officers.

On the other hand, the defence counsel called three witnesses, including the accused and her mother.

In his testimony at the beginning of the trial, Ibrahim Mohammed, a friend of the deceaseds and a key witness, said he was at the Maitama residence of the couple on the night of November 18, 2017, for over eight hours before tragedy struck.

He recalled how an argument had degenerated into fisticuffs. The victim, Bilyaminu, was the son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello.

Mr Mohammed said Ms Sanda issued many threats to her husband, including to chop off his genitals if he declined to grant her divorce.

The witness said the defendant made several attempts to stab the deceased with weapons such as broken bottles and a kitchen knife. Those attempts were repelled initially, he said.

Ms Sanda admitted to having a fight with her husband on the ill-fated night but denied stabbing or using any weapon on him, even though she made such threats.

The convict said her husband died from a wound on the chest by a broken Shisha pot (also known as the galyan, it is a single or multi-stemmed device that is used to either smoke or vaporise flavoured tobacco).

He pushed me and as I was falling down, I mistakenly broke his Shisha bottle and the water inside spilled on the floor, she narrated to the court.

The accused said the deceased fell against the broken Shisha pot in an attempt to hold her down. I saw a broken bottle pricked into his chest which I removed and covered the chest with a scarf.

The young woman said she rushed her husband to Maitama General Hospital where he was confirmed dead.

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Smokescreen  Shishapot Plot

Justice Halilu in his final judgment discredited the Shisha pot story, describing it as a smokescreen hatched to mislead the court and cover the truth.

The judge said the compelling versions of multiple prosecuting witnesses (PW) has proven that the Shisha pot was broken after the death of Bilyaminu.

He said Pw1 and Pw4 admitted that they saw the shisha pot in question unbroken in the morning of the incident before the arrival of the police.

The judge said this piece of evidence remained unshaken as the mother of the accused who was also present that morning never denied that the witnesses were in the house before they all left for the station.

Your almighty Shisha bottle has been discredited by compelling circumstantial evidence, the judge said.

Justice Halilu also said Ms Sandas police statement was inconsistent with her court testimony. In her statement before the court, the defendant failed to mention that he threatened to harm the deceased multiple times with a kitchen knife on the night of the incident.

Maimuna Aliyu, Ms Sandas mother; Aliyu Sanda, her brother, and Sadiya Aminu, her housemaid were initially charged for allegedly tampering with evidence by cleaning the blood and other proofs from the crime scene.

Hamza Abdullahi, the laundry man who helped in conveying the deceased to the Maitama hospital where he was pronounced dead, said, when we got back home, we discovered that the bloodstain we left had already been cleaned

Another witness, Simon Okon, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) said, in the company of the relatives, we visited the incident scene where I saw some broken bottles on the floor but there was no bloodstain. I went to the bedroom still there was no bloodstain

Justice Halilu said Sandas relatives diverted to the house to clean up the crime scene before heading to the station, according to the laundry mans version.

The sentence

Ms Sandas was shaking violently as the judge was reading her sentence. Mr Halilu said surrounding circumstances proved that the defendant fatally injured the deceased by stabbing him in the heart and other body parts with a kitchen knife with intent to kill.

He said the attack was premeditated. Mr Halilu said though the accused is a mother of two, his sentiment will not go far to free her from the long arms of the law.

You, Maryam Sanda is found guilty of the murder of Bilyaminu Bello and are hereby sentenced to death by hanging.

Ms Sanda covered her face with a black veil as prison wardens dragged her out of the courtroom after the judge rose.
A feature of online dating platform Tinder, which allows users to find matches from the same area, just saved the life of a woman who got stranded in the wilderness.

The incident took place a week ago when a woman named Lonia Haeger decided to set out for an adventure trip in Europe. After travelling for days, when she finally reached the North Cape -- the northernmost point of Europe -- she got stranded in a risky, icy road in Norway with no escape in sight.

Narrating her predicament in an Instagram post, the woman wrote: The worst, we stopped in front of a mountain going down; next to the street is just ocean and big rocks and we stopped exactly behind a curve.

At that point, her friend Phil, who was accompanying her and her pet dog in the trip, came up with the idea of joining Tinder to find a match in one of the locals of the area. With no alternative plan in hand and in desperate need for help, Haegar took the plunge and joined the dating platform.

Within five minutes of creating her Tinder profile, the woman matched with a local named Stian Lauluten. Luckily for them, Lauluten turned out to be a good Samaritan and agreed to help them after he was apprised of their ordeal.

He arrived at the spot mentioned by Haegar with a bulldozer to clear the ice and rescue them. When she took to Instagram later to thank Lauluten, he humbly said he was glad he could rescue them and asked them to be wary of Norwegian ice in the future.
Sejals Mother Claims She Wasnt Depressed

According to Amar Ujala's report, Sejal's mother said, "She had got a lead role. I don't know what happened after that she chose to kill herself." Even her co-star Donal had revealed that Sejal had auditioned for a role and was also shortlisted.

Sejals Suicide Note

As per Mumbai Mirror report, in the suicide note, Sejal had mentioned, "I can't take the pressure of this hard life." A police official told the leading daily, "We are calling experts to decipher many words in the letter written cursively. However, from whatever we have been able to understand, she was tired of the struggles in life."

The Actress Apologised To Her Parents

The police also informed that Sejal also apologised to her parents stating that they would have to live with the stigma for her decision (of committing suicide).

Donal Bisht Writes

Sejal's friend Donal Bisht was also disturbed with the actress' death. She had shared a note on her Instagram story that read, "Sejal, Simmi from our show "Dil toh happy hai ji" I don't know u.. I came after leap & u were before... I'm shocked when just I got a call from a journalist to comment on you took ur life... My heart sinked.... I don't know u in person but can recall hav heard ur name when I asked who else were there in he family before leap... "Dil toh happy hai ji" is part of my life & will always be my family.. I can feel the loss... Rest in peace girl... It sinks me even more to know that u were just a kid around 20-21... I wish I just knew u in person & could help ... Any help..." - (sic)

Meera Deosthale Is Shocked

Meera Deosthale shared a picture and wrote, "Sejal, May your soul rest in peace. My friend decided to end her life today and I am Shocked to know that a person who was always smiling and happy was suffering through depression. I wish u would have reached out to anyone and we could have helped u... sending u love and prayers." - (sic)

Ansh Bagri Writes

Ansh Bagri, who played Sejal's elder brother in DTHHJ, shared a picture and captioned it, "To @i_sejalsharmaofficial Life and death are part of this journey, one day we all have to die. but what never dies is true bond.. which we have... you are a beautiful soul sejal. Ek din milenge aur baate karenge bohot saari till then good bye. Rest in paradise. Will always keep you in my prayers." - (sic)
NEW YORK - Britain's Prince Andrew has provided zero co-operation to the American investigators who want to interview him as part of their sex trafficking probe into Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK - Britain's Prince Andrew has provided zero co-operation to the American investigators who want to interview him as part of their sex trafficking probe into Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday.

Speaking at a news conference outside Epstein's New York mansion, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said prosecutors and the FBI had contacted Andrew's lawyers and asked to interview him.

FILE - This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein. The warden in charge when Jeffrey Epstein ended his life in his jail cell is being moved to a leadership position at another federal correctional facility, putting him back in the field with inmates despite an ongoing investigation into the financiers death, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero co-operation, said Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

Andrew announced last year that he was withdrawing from his royal duties amid renewed public attention on a woman's claim that she had several sexual encounters with the prince at Epstein's behest, starting when she was 17.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre says that after meeting Epstein in Florida in 2000, the millionaire flew her around the world and pressured her into having sex with numerous older men, including Andrew, two senior U.S. politicians, a noted academic, wealthy financiers and the attorney Alan Dershowitz, who is now part of President Donald Trump's impeachment defence team.

All of those men have denied the allegations. Epstein killed himself in his jail cell last summer while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Britain's Prince Andrew accompanies Queen Elizabeth II to attend a church service at St Mary the Virgin, in Hillington, England, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020. Buckingham Palace says Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will no longer use the titles "royal highness" or receive public funds for their work under a deal that allows them to step aside as senior royals. (Joe Giddens/PA via AP)

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew three times, including once in London in 2001 at the home of Epstein's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

It isn't clear what legal exposure Andrew might have in the case, if any. The age of consent for sex is 16 in England and 17 in New York. However, Giuffre claims that she was paid by Epstein for her sexual encounters with Andrew. That could constitute a violation of U.S. sex trafficking laws if she was under age 18 or was coerced into unwanted sex acts.

Andrew, who is eight in line for the British throne, and Maxwell have both denied any knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing teenage girls. In a TV interview last fall, Andrew insisted he was out having pizza with his children on the night Giuffre says they were together in London.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has vowed to aggressively investigate and bring charges against anyone who may have helped Epstein.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman speaks at an event held by Safe Horizon, a non-profit victim services agency, in front of Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan residence as they raise awareness for New York State's Child Services Act, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in New York.(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Andrew, in the statement he released in November announcing his intention to step back from public duties, said he regretted his ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein."

Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required, he wrote.

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Berman made his remarks about the case during a joint appearance with members of Safe Horizon, a non-profit victim services agency, to discuss a new New York law that made it easier for people to sue over childhood sexual abuse.

He wouldn't discuss the Epstein investigation in detail but reiterated that the case didn't end with his death.

Jeffrey Epstein couldnt have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward, Berman said.

Numerous women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein as teenagers have claimed in lawsuits and interviews that he got help recruiting young girls from both Maxwell and several assistants.

Giuffre's lawyers have, for months, been calling on Andrew to agree to be interviewed both by investigators and by the lawyers helping the women with those civil lawsuits.

To date, the only people besides Epstein who were charged in connection with the scandal are two jail guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein the night he was found dead. Both have been charged with falsifying the jail's log books to indicate they were performing checks on prisoners, when they were actually sleeping or browsing the internet.
Nitish Kumar had slammed Pavan Varma for publicly questioning the JD(U)as tie-up with the BJP. (Photo Credit: Nitish Kumar)

New Delhi:

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar has called a meeting of party leaders on January 28 in Patna. All JD(U) MPs, MLAs and prominent leaders are likely to be present in the meeting to be held at 1, Anney Marg. However, party vice president Prashant Kishore, who will be in Delhi that time, is likely to skip the meeting.

Bihar: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (in file pic) has called a party meeting at his residence in Patna, tomorrow. All JD(U) MPs, MLAs & prominent leaders of the party will be present.



JD(U) Vice President Prashant Kishor will not attend the meeting as he will be in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/U12I3BrlnL  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2020

According to sources, there was no fixed agenda for the meeting. It is being said that the JD(U) president will give pep talk to party leaders prior to the state assembly elections.

Also Read: JDU Leader Confronts Nitish Kumar On Party's Tie-Up With BJP In Delhi

The meeting is likely to be attended by both external and internal incharges of all the 243 assembly constituencies, 543 block presidents, 51 district presidents, around 100 MLAs/MLCs and 22 MPs, reports TOI.

The decision to call a party meeting comes after Nitish Kumar slammed Pavan Varma for publicly questioning the JD(U)s tie-up with the BJP for Delhi assembly elections, saying he was free to go wherever he likes.

Also Read: 'Children Forced To Stand In Queues': Tejashwi Yadav On Human Chain Formation In Muzaffarpur

Varma, a national general secretary of the party, had shared a letter on social media wherein he had made mention of the chief minister having expressed apprehensions "in private" about the BJP's "divisive" agenda.

Moreover, party vice president Prashant Kishore has also displayed apprehensions regarding the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.

He recently thanked Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for formal and unequivocal rejection of the NRC and reassured the people of Bihar, ruled by his party, that CAA and NRC will not be implemented in the state.
Like Laredo City Council last week, Webb County Commissioners Court on Monday will be approached by the federal government as they attempt to fast-track construction of President Trumps border wall.

A few days ago, Customs and Border Protection officials requested access to miles of river vega land owned by the City of Laredo in order to conduct environmental surveys for the viability of a border wall there. City Council denied their request, and the case will now head to federal court.

From the county, however, CBP is requesting access to a much smaller tract, about 15 acres where Rio Bravo and Laredo meet. The county has owned this land since 1996 for the purpose of a drainage easement, according to the deed.

The Trump administration is requesting irrevocable access to the property for 18 months.

READ MORE: Laredo City Council denies federal government access for border wall surveys

Commissioners Court is set to take up this topic in closed session. And unlike the City Council meeting, Border Patrol will not be presenting information about the wall or this process to the public.

Government officials told the city that Congress recent $1.3 billion appropriation for the border wall has funded 52 miles of barrier in Webb County and 18 miles in Zapata County, which is essentially the span from the Colombia Solidarity Bridge to San Ygnacio.

They have been granted the right of entry by about 40% of the affected landowners they have reached out to in the Laredo area, said Paul Enriquez, the director of the Border Wall Management Program in Washington, D.C.

The day before the City Council meeting, hundreds of peaceful protesters from Laredo and beyond marched in downtown Laredo to protest the development of the border wall here.

TAMIU professor Jerry Thompson encouraged acts of civil disobedience to protest the wall in Laredo.

If several thousand people agree to sit down in front of the surveyors, or bulldozers, or construction workers, there are not enough Border Patrol, Webb County sheriffs deputies or DPS officers south of the Red River to arrest us all, he said.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyepong, has descended heavily on IMANI Boss, Franklin Cudjoe, for allegedly calling MPs drunkards.

The outspoken lawmaker took Franklin Cudjoe to the cleaners as he bombarded him with unprintable words, including describing him as a dishonest person.

Mr. Agyepong explained the reason behind his anger by saying that Franklin Cudjoe, without provocation, openly insulted MPs in the country, whom he described as drunkards.

According to him, Franklin Cudjoe is a dishonest person, who usually 'sells his conscience for money' and, therefore, has no moral right to insult MPs.

The MP said he was privy to several 'dubious' deeds of Franklin Cudjoe. If he dares me, I will expose him in public, he added.

Franklin Cudjoe, I know what you did in 2015 to 2016 and if you dare me, I will expose you, he said on NET2 TV, adding you don't work and you survive on bribes. He walks with his stomach and he has no brains. Franklin Cudjoe's dishonesty has dented the image of IMANI and this is an open secret.

He said IMANI, notably Franklin Cudjoe, is not happy with the NPP government's refusal to pay their budget, asking what work does IMANI do that the state should pay its budget?

According to him, Franklin Cudjoe and his IMANI are hiding behind their so-called think tank group to amass wealth, especially at the expense of political parties and the state.

Highest Bidder

Franklin Cudjoe and his group usually deal with the highest bidder and this dishonest and corrupt person refers to parliamentarians as drunkards, the MP bemoaned.

Without mincing words, he informed Franklin Cudjoe that the NPP government would not give him any money so he should go ahead and do whatever he wanted or pleased him.

The MP reiterated Franklin Cudjoe is a selfish, dishonest and corrupt person, who doesn't have Ghana at heart. He threatened to expose him in public.

----Daily Guide
Betsson Debuts Worlds First Syndicated Jackpot from Scientific Games

Published January 26, 2020 by Mike P

Mega Drop Quest is a brand new series of syndicated jackpot slots developed by Scientific Games and available at Betsson.

The Scientific Games Corporation has completed a world-first with the January 2020 exclusive release of a syndicated jackpot slot series. The Mega Drop Quest slots come from OpenGaming, a brand of Scientific Games (SG), and will be available for a limited period of time at multi-channel gambling operator Betsson.

Nessies Mega Drop Quest

Traditional progressive jackpots have been based on a system whereby players seek to secure their own winnings. And where a syndicated jackpot varies is that Betsson players will be able to team up for the chance to win together on the Mega Drop Quest series, thus fostering more of a community-driven mentality to gameplay.

First up in the series will be Nessies Mega Drop Quest, with the experience now adapted to included a syndicated jackpot feature. A number of other features have been included in the slot, such as additional free spins and wild symbols, not to mention a multiplier bonus wheel and double-reel mechanic that can come into play.

Dylan Slaney of SG addressed the news with the believe that developers must be more open to embracing syndicated jackpots. He also cited the great challenges associated and that the rolling out of the technology is in keeping with a vision of community.

The Evolution of Scientific Games

SG has reached this point of becoming a multi-billion-dollar software provider after being acquired by sports betting company Autotote Group in 2000. Investment has enabled the corporation to acquire key development subsidiaries in the form of Bally Technologies and WMS Industries.

This operational footing has enabled the provider to roll out consistently high levels of video slots and games for the worldwide iGaming industry. From recent years, players have encountered the likes of Zeus 3, Big Vegas, Amazon Queen, Raging Rhino, Medusa, Titanic, Road to Emerald City, Star Trek: Red Alert, Super Monopoly Money, and Spartacus: Call to Arms.
The debate on the compilation of a new voters register rages on. Since the Electoral Commission (EC) made public its decision to compile a new voters' register, no day passes without one hearing reasons for or against its compilation. My septuagenarian friend calls it the voters register wahala.

The loudest shouts came from those vehemently opposed to the ECs decision. The Umbrella-led opposition group, the Inter-Party Resistance Against a New Voters' Register (IPRNA), vowed to do all in its power to ensure the ECs decision would not see the light of day. In other words, they wouldnt mind engaging in both legal and illegal activities to make sure their voices were heard and listened to.

Coming from a group that has a history of shit-bombing media houses to express their dissatisfaction with news reportage against their party, I had no doubt that they meant every word. With the content of the leaked tape from Elder Kidnapper also ringing in my mind, I knew Jean Mensas EC was in for a very bumpy ride. After all, did the tape not reveal that they were prepared and willing to give the EC a bad name so they could have a justification to hang it?

True to their word, they organised two demonstrations in Tamale and Kumasi to protest the move to have a new voters' register. Reports reaching my konkonsaic ears indicate that the Tamale protest was particularly rowdy as the protestors burnt car tyres and tried in vain to lure the security personnel on parade to react.

Many of my compatriots are happy the security personnel had resisted the temptation to react, but Im not. Im not happy because I had wanted them to have a taste of the meal their government dished out to the Let My Vote Count (LMVC) demonstrators, which resulted in the late Justice Adzakumah losing an eye.

Do not get me wrong, Abusuapanin. Im not vindictive. Most of them saw nothing wrong with what the police did to the LMVC demonstrators. So, I was only hoping that a dose of the same medicine would pump some sense into their thick skulls.

Again, the hypocritical nature of the eagle-headed Umbrella was on full display as its Members of Parliament, who had approved the ECs budget in Parliament, were also seen demonstrating against the compilation of a new register. The argument that they are the Minority in the House stands on wobbly legs because they had the option of boycotting the proceedings as they usually did on matters they strongly objected to.

It is, however, refreshing to note that the EC is not worried about the demonstrations and the name-calling. The electoral body has gone ahead to announce April 18, 2020 as the date to start the compilation of a new register. As for the ECs scheduled engagement with the 21-member Eminent Advisory Committee and the political parties on January, 30, 2020, the reason is to inform the stakeholders of its programmes concerning the new voters' register, and solicit views on how best it can be implemented.

I laugh anytime I hear some say the EC should consult and get consensus before implementing new policies. Yes, it is good to consult and get consensus. But one cannot consult or get consensus every time. Indeed, consultation does not mean the EC, a constitutionally-mandated body, should pander to the whims of a bunch of political actors who are hell bent on discrediting its leadership. The EC will consult and seek consensus when it has to, and execute its mandate without consensus when need be. After all, it is the EC that will be blamed if anything goes wrong electorally.

When the Elephant said the 1992 presidential poll was a stolen verdict and decided to boycott the parliamentary elections, did the EC not move on by conducting the parliamentary polls? So what makes those under the Umbrella think the country will explode because they oppose the compilation of a new register?

Elder Kidnapper and his ilk can organise a thousand demonstrations. They can even decide to boycott the exercise when it begins on April 18. But one thing is clear: There is no turning back on the compilation of a new register.

Abusuapanin, in all the brouhaha over the compilation of a new register, I vividly remember President Ogwanfunus State your case and let EC decide  a statement he made as president on 8th October 2015 when he reacted to the demand that the voters' register be compiled afresh. He would have been a statesman if he had repeated same today. Sadly, he is but a dead-goat.

See you next week for another interesting konkonsa, Deo volente!
Nourishing Biologicals' Skin Institute trains spas and aestheticians on the latest non-surgical face lift. Im so thankful for what the Nourishing Biologicals' Skin Institute has offered me. They provided individualized onsite training for all my estheticians. I have been able to increase my client base as a result, said Julia Aroyan, owner of Aesthetix Plus in Ponte Vedra, FL.

Nourishing Biologicals, a Bio-Science company, created by North Florida surgeon, George Sadowski, M.D., to treat the cause, not the symptom, of aging skin with advanced Miracular Cellular Communication announces its commitment to support women entrepreneurship within the skincare industry.

Our goal at Nourishing Biologicals is to help women change their skin, change their lives. When one feels good about how she looks, she naturally radiates confidence. Her outlook becomes more hopeful and positive. She can accomplish just about anything," said Natalia Sadowski, Director of Aesthetics and Education at Nourishing Biologicals.

We decided to take our mission one step further to help women owned businesses succeed. We have committed to support women entrepreneurship within the skincare industry with our Grow Your Business, Increase Your Revenue campaign," continued Sadowski.

Nourishing Biologicals and the NB Skin Institute is training women owned spas and aestheticians on the latest anti-aging non-surgical facelift procedure, Plasma Fibroblast. With this training, these spas and aestheticians are able to better compete in the marketplace.

I had clients asking for the Plasma Fibroblast treatment, but I couldnt take time away from my spa business to travel far for a training. Im so thankful for what the Nourishing Biologicals Skin Institute has offered us. They provided individualized onsite training for all my estheticians. I have been able to increase my client base as a result, said Julia Aroyan, owner of Aesthetix Plus in Ponte Vedra, FL.

Nourishing Biologicals is focused in helping women kickstart successful skincare businesses, providing products, services and training that will help them grow and succeed. They have also helped women kickstart ecommerce companies, as well as beauty salons stand out from the competition.

Jessie Zhou, founder of San Francisco based BeautysTouch.com states, Our goal is to find products from around the world that have better performing, safer and more distinctive combinations of ingredients, so we were excited to find and learn about Nourishing Biologicals. We are thrilled that we can offer our clients a science-based skincare line that uses Nobel Prize-winning technology. Our clients cant seem to get enough of the NB products.

Nourishing Biologicals goes out of their way to empower women business owners - making training easy and affordable, providing marketing support, and ultimately growing their businesses and increasing revenue.

Nourishing Biologicals is helping differentiate my salon from the salon down the street. The products go hand-in-hand with the high-quality hair care services and products our customers are used to. They now can come to Salon Mirror Mirror and take care of a number of their beauty needs," said Dawn Martinez, owner of Salon Mirror Mirror in Solana Beach, California.

To learn more about how to partner with Nourishing Biologicals and the NB Skin Institute please visit http://www.nourishingbiologicals.com.

About Nourishing Biologicals:

Introduced by George E. Sadowski, M.D., Nourishing Biologicals is a leading Bio-Science company bringing together a science-based approach and beauty to treat the signs of aging beneath the surface. We provide the highest quality and most effective products carefully formulated with Nobel Prize winning ingredients and bio-natural proteins that match those of the human body to defend and reverse the signs of skin aging at the cellular level and before skin damage is visible to the naked-eye, Miracular Cellular Communication. Visit Nourishing Biologicals or connect via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn.
The political arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, a group co-founded by Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, plans to spend $60 million this year to defeat President Donald Trump and other politicians who have resisted new gun regulations, the group announced Monday.

The decision to double spending over 2018 levels, as the National Rifle Association is struggling with a governance crisis, is meant to send a statement about the growing power of the gun regulation movement.

"The gun safety movement has never been stronger. We have millions of supporters, and we are going to seize the moment," said Shannon Watts, another co-founder of Everytown who runs its subsidiary grass-roots arm Moms Demand Action. "We are going to compete at every level."

Everytown leaders say the money will be targeted broadly to include organizing, paid advertising and voter registration in a variety of contests, from state legislative races to competitive U.S. House and Senate contests and the presidential campaign.

A memo laying out plans for the spending names North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, both Democrats, as allies whom the group will defend. It names two Republican senators, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Martha McSally of Arizona, as targets for defeat.

The political strategy is being directed by Charlie Kelly, who ran House Majority PAC in 2018, a Democratic super PAC that coordinated independent spending to retake the House. He said the gun issue has continued to grow as a top-tier concern for voters, particularly in suburban communities where Democrats have been making their biggest gains since Trump's election.

"Gun safety is going to be one of the most powerful issues in the election this year," Kelly said. "We are going to work to ensure that high-likelihood voters in the suburbs know where their candidates stand."

The National Rifle Association has not announced its 2020 spending plans, after spending $54.4 million on ads during the 2016 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. Since then, the group has been outspent in smaller contests, including the 2019 state elections in Virginia.

"The NRA will be very active in 2020, as we are in every election cycle," NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter said in a statement. "Unlike Michael Bloomberg, the NRA won't be pouring billions into the radical groups that are conspiring to steal freedom from other Americans. Our activities in 2020 will be smart, strategic, and reflective of the passion of our members, who turn out to vote. Our opponents cannot say the same."

The NRA has been raising alarms online about the growing political prominence of Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who announced his presidential campaign in November.

"Just like NYC and Virginia, he will try to buy the White House," the group warned in a tweet shortly after the announcement. "We must fight back."

Bloomberg has been the top backer of Everytown since it was formed as a successor to his previous group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. But in recent years, the group has become more financially independent, with Bloomberg contributing between a quarter and a third of the budget, Watts said. She would not say what portion of the $60 million would be directly funded by the billionaire this cycle.

Watts said that after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, the group saw its small-dollar donor pool grow from 70,000 to 375,000. Moms Demand Action now has 700 chapters around the country, with hundreds of thousands of "active volunteers," she said.

Giffords, a gun regulation group founded by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, R-Ariz., has also launched a 2020 political program, while her husband, Mark Kelly, mounts a Democratic campaign to take McSally's U.S. Senate seat.

The group spent $750,000 on ads after a recent shooting, calling for the Senate to vote on expanding background checks to include private sales. The group also hosted a forum for presidential candidates and a video series highlighting the positions of the Democratic candidates for president.

"Starting last fall Giffords has been investing in the kinds of initiatives to underscore that gun safety is a kitchen table issue," Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler said. "Our programming this year will reflect that."

In 2018, Everytown endorsed more than 3,000 politicians as "Gun Sense Candidates," a designation meant to assure voters that the candidates will support greater firearm regulations.

Charlie Kelly said the group expected even more candidates to earn the seal of approval this cycle, joining each of the major Democratic presidential hopefuls.
In a recent interview with The Interview, President Muhammadu Buhari debunked claims that he has a cabal running his government.

The president had been accused severally by Nigerians, including his wife, Aisha of not being in control of his government.

Read Also: No Crime In Having A Cabal: Buharis Spokesperson

The Interview asked Buhari if a cabal really exist in your government, or is it just a phantom description based on insufficient information about the extent of influence some close aides or relatives have over you as President? 

Read Also: Nigerians Should Respect Cabals, They Are Not Hungry People: Presidency

His response was; I addressed this matter before. I was the one who went around the country on campaigns, and I was the one voted into office as President twice. No one else did, and no one else took the oath of office, and can exercise the powers of a President.
Iraq protesters rebuild torched camps as rocket attack sparks fears



Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



Anti-government demonstrators rebuilt torched protest camps across Iraq on Monday, seeking to keep up their movement's momentum after a rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad threatened an escalation.

The attack, which wounded one person, marked a dangerous shift after volleys of rockets in recent months targeted Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed.

No faction has claimed responsibility but the US has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions for previous incidents.

The latest attack sparked renewed fears that Baghdad could be dragged into a conflict between Tehran and Washington, weeks after tensions spiked following the US killing in Baghdad of a top Iranian general.

Anti-government activists fear such a conflict would derail their movement, the largest grassroots campaign Iraq has seen in decades.

They also fear a crackdown after losing the support of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who backed the rallies when they first erupted then abruptly changed his mind Friday after holding his own anti-US rally.

University students have carried the torch, gathering in the thousands in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south to insist on their demands and affirm their political independence.

"When we first came out to protest and hold sit-ins, we didn't commit to the narrative of the Sadrist movement or any other political party," said Zainab Mohammad, a university student in the shrine city of Karbala.

"We came out on our own, and we will continue until our demands our met," she said.

- Funeral march in Najaf -



Protesters are demanding snap elections, an independent successor to resigned prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and the prosecution of those implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.

Angered by a lack of progress, they began ramping up pressure a week ago, sealing streets with burning tyres and metal barricades. Riot police have responded with live rounds and tear gas.

Early on Monday, unidentified gunmen stormed a protest camp in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah and torched tents, an AFP correspondent there said.

The attackers fired on activists who had been sleeping there, killing one and wounding four others, a medic said.

But hours later, determined protesters had erected new tents and even built a one-room cement installation, signalling their determination to stay put.

In the oil-rich but impoverished port city of Basra, student protesters re-erected tents dismantled by authorities over the weekend, AFP's reporter said.

The main protest camp in the Shiite holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen, but protesters jumped into action Monday morning, blocking roads with burning tyres.

In the early afternoon, a funeral march made its way through the city to mourn the young man killed earlier in the day in Nasiriyah, identified as 14-year-old Ali Zuweir.

Relatives carried Zuweir's coffin through Najaf, a favoured burial place for Iraqi Shiites, holding up his portrait and weeping loudly.

This week's uptick in violence has killed 21 protesters, bringing the toll since October close to 480 dead, the vast majority demonstrators, according to an AFP tally compiled from medics and security sources.

- PM warns of broader war -



Sadr's march on Friday saw thousands turn out to demand American troops leave the country, after the US used Iraqi airspace to carry out a drone strike on top Iranian and Iraqi officials on January 3.

Outraged, Iraq's parliament voted on January 5 in favour of ousting all foreign forces, including the 5,200 US troops deployed in Iraq.

Pro-Iran factions in Iraq, particularly those tied to the Hashed al-Shaabi military force, had long lobbied for the ouster of American forces.

On Monday, top Hashed commander Qais al-Khazali said any candidate being considered to replace Abdel Mahdi, who has stayed on in a caretaker capacity, must pledge to execute parliament's vote and oust foreign troops.

Other conditions for the new premier included holding snap parliamentary elections by the end of the year and implementing a landmark development deal with China.

Washington has blamed hardline Hashed factions, including Khazali's Asaib Ahl al-Haq for rocket attacks on the US embassy and American troops in recent months.

On Sunday evening, three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq's capital, wounding one person, according to a senior Iraqi official and a US diplomatic source.

No details were available on whether the casualty was a US national or an Iraqi member of staff at the mission.

The US embassy did not respond to requests for comment, while the US State Department called on Iraq to "fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities".

Iraq's foreign ministry said the attack would not impact US-Iraqi relations, although Abdel Mahdi and parliament speaker Mohammed Halbusi said the incident risked dragging their homeland into war.
Baghdad: Rocket strikes near US embassy in Iraq's capital Baghdad. The investigation has revealed that five rockets have been fired near the US Embassy. There is no information about anyone being injured or killed in the attack. However, so far no one has claimed responsibility for this attack. In the past, there have been attacks whose allegations have been leveled against Iran.

According to sources, Apple received information, two rockets were fired a few days ago near the US embassy in Green Zone in Baghdad. The Green Zone is in central Baghdad, where government buildings and diplomatic embassies are located. Let us tell you that since the death of Iranian military commander Qasim Sulemani in the air strike, tensions between Iran and America have increased continuously in the region.

Five rockets hit near US embassy in Iraq capital, reports AFP news agency quoting security source. ANI January 26, 2020





It is also being said that on the other hand, the anger of the people against the Iraqi government in Baghdad is not being named. At the same time, there has been a lot of tension in Iraq due to the manner of functioning of the government and the continuous demonstrations of the US security forces in the country for several weeks.

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A Delhi court Monday dismissed a plea filed by the father of one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, challenging the court's order rejecting his complaint questioning the credibility of the sole witness in the case.

Judge A K Jain dismissed the appeal filed by Heera Lal Gupta, father of Pawan Kumar Gupta, saying he appear to be "desperate and mala fide".

The court however took into account that his son is one step away from the gallows and did not impose any cost on him.

It said: "The complaint was filed before the trial court for initiation of action for perjury, in view of the tweets of newspaper editor, against the eye witness in the case, however trial has already completed. The complaint therefore rightly dismissed by the trial court via order dated January 6, 2020.

"The acts of complainant who is the father of convict Pawan Kumar Gupta appear desperate and mala fide, however when his son is one step away from the gallows, no costs are required to be imposed. The present revision petition has no merits."



During the hearing, the additional public prosecutor, appearing for the police, told the court that Pawan was trying to stall the proceedings of execution by moving such petitions through his father without any locus.

Advocate Seema Kushwaha, appearing for the rape victim's mother, said: "The victim is running pillar to post for justice and convicts are inventing one or other procedure to delay the execution."



Advocate A P Singh, appearing for Pawan's father, claimed that Pawan was a victim of media trial and proper hearings were not provided to him.

The sole eyewitness, a friend of the 23-year-old victim, was accompanying her in the bus when the gruesome incident took place and he had also sustained injuries.

A magistrate court had on January 6 dismissed Heera Lal's complaint seeking an FIR against the sole witness in the matter for allegedly giving interviews to various channels after charging money.

Pawan's father had challenged the magistrate's order in the sessions court.

A Delhi court on January 20 issued death warrants for February 1 against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31), Mukesh Kumar Singh (32) and Pawan (26) -- in the case.

In December last year, Nirbhaya's parents had approached the court to fast-track the procedure to hang all four convicts in the case.

The Supreme Court on December 12, 2018, dismissed a PIL seeking direction to the Centre to execute the death penalty awarded to the four convicts.

Nirbhaya is the given name of the December 2012 victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who was raped and brutalised in a moving bus in South Delhi by six people.

She had boarded the nearly vacant bus in Munirka in South Delhi along with her male friend on her way back home on December 16 that year. After raping and brutalising the woman and beating her friend, the assailants had thrown them out of the bus.

After receiving initial treatment in New Delhi for a few days, she was shifted to the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she succumbed to injuries on December 29, 2012.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 8th annual Toronto Black Film Festival - #TBFF20 - Runs from February 12 -17, 2020

showcasing 75 films from 20 countries and various events

TorontoBlackFilm.com

TORONTO, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - The Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF) presented by TD Bank in collaboration with Global News, is honoured to present Academy Award Winning director and Cannes Film Festival's first Black Jury President, Spike Lee, with the TBFF 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, February 13, 7PM at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. #TBFF20 is thrilled to grant him this prestigious award in recognition of his body of work which revolutionized the role of black talent in Hollywood, tearing away decades of stereotypes and marginalized portrayals to establish a new arena for African American voices to be heard.

The evening will begin with the screening of the restored version of Spike Lee's Bamboozled, followed by an intimate discussion with the famed director on his journey as a filmmaker, writer, actor and producer. He will also share his advice on filmmaking today; how he sees the future of Black films and diversity off/on screen; as well as his view on today's social-economic issues. A privileged moment with the legendary Oscar winning director of Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, BlaKkKlansman.

"Welcoming and paying tribute to the legendary Spike Lee at the 2020 Toronto Black Film Festival is a true privilege for us all and quite a coup for Toronto and the Festival. His commitment to independent cinema, his strength, determination, and activism in achieving social justice really make a difference in in a world that, too often, tends to silence us." Said Fabienne Colas, President and Founder of the TBFF.

For full #TBFF20 programming and events, visit www.TorontoBlackFilm.com

Get Social #TBFF20

Facebook.com/torontoblackfilmfestival | Twitter @TOBlackFilmFest | Instagram @torontoblackfilmfest

About the Toronto Black Film Festival, TBFF

Founded by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, TBFF provides an opportunity for filmmakers from all ethnic backgrounds to shine the spotlight on authentic stories that reflect the realities of black experiences. Along with its sister festivals, the Montreal Black Film Festival and the Halifax Black Film Festival, TBFF showcases new voices in cinema and encourages audiences to see the world in new ways.

SOURCE Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF)

Related Links

https://torontoblackfilm.com/


Banjul, Gambia (PANA)  The Gambia government on Sunday banned a self-styled protest group Three Years Jotna, a local phrase meaning the-three-years is up, calling it a subversive, violent and illegal movement, the presidency has announced
Beijing is running out of the humble surgical mask.

Several shops in my neighbourhood, which is some 7 km east of Tiananmen Square the heart of the city, have been emptied of it in the past 24 to 36 hours over fears of the novel Coronavirus outbreak and a lockdown.

On social media, especially on WeChat groups  and thats true for much of China  worried citizens are now furiously ordering packets of masks online.

Not always with success.

Mask manufacturing factories are working at half or less their capacity because of the ongoing Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays, and it will take a few days before they are able to crank up production.

Worse, it is happening in Wuhan, the ground zero of the novel Coronavirus outbreak. Along with protective suits for medical workers, masks are in short supply in the embattled city.

Here are some numbers on the sale of masks this past week from the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post: Sellers on Alibabas e-commerce platform Taobao sold 80 million masks on January 21 and 22 alone. Alibaba rival JD.com also reportedly sold 126 million masks.

It is ironic that China is running out of masks, the very country where exactly around 110 years ago, ahead of that years LNY, anti-epidemic masks were, by some accounts, used for the first time.

Over the years, masks have become Chinas  actually, much of east Asias  symbol of its ongoing fight against pathogens and pollution.

I was researching online for information on the history of surgical masks in China when I came across a tweet and photos put out by Tong Bingxue, historian and author of the History of Photo Studios in China (1859-1956).

Tong mentioned a certain Dr. Wu Lien-the, a Malayan-Chinese doctor who had urged the then Imperial government in China to shut down railway services out of Harbin in northeastern China before the Spring Festival 1911 preventing the spread of a Pneumonic Plague outbreak and saved hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives, and first introduced anti-plague masks in China.

Dr. Wu was also possibly the pioneer of Chinas lockdown or isolation idea to contain infectious diseases.

Of particular concern was the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday, which in the new era of railroads had started to become a great annual migration of people travelling across the country to see their families, writer Jeremiah Jenne wrote about the doctors idea to prevent people from travelling in the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel.

Had the epidemic gone unchecked, allowing holiday rail passengers to spread the disease to the rest of China could have meant a catastrophic loss of life and possibly precipitated a global health crisis, Jenne wrote.

More than 100 years later, it is uncannily familiar.
Johannesburg:

ArcelorrMittal South Africa (AMSA), the South African subsidiary of global steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, has said it would report a R4 billion (about $2,8m) headline loss for the year ended December 2019, with plans to shed 1,000 jobs finalised as part of its cost-cutting measures. AMSA's huge loss follows on a profit of R1,37b (about $951m) in 2018. AMSA had announced plans for a large-scale reorganisation of its plants across the country six months ago. The company had said in November 2019 that it would close down its loss-making Saldanha Works due to various factors, including a global downturn in the steel market and a reduction of the plant's export edge due to high costs of electricity, rail transport and price regulation.

Despite government pleas to reconsider the huge impact this would have on the South African economy, AMSA has announced that the Saldanha Works closure would be finalised in the first quarter of 2020. AMSA, however, said any closure of significant long-steel production plants was not on the cards in the foreseeable future, including the Newcastle plant which too had been under threat.

Born out of the former state-owned steel manufacturer Iscor in 1989 after Mittal had helped turn around its ailing fortunes, AMSA said in statement here that 2019 had been a very challenging year for the company. AMSA said it would be placing an emphasis on cash preservation as it aimed at long-term preservation.

"A large-scale employee reorganisation, as announced on SENS on July 10 last year, has been largely finalised and resulted in a reduction of over a thousand own employees. Additionally, a significant repricing and rescoping of sub-contractor services will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2020," it said.

ArcelorMittal has reported a net loss of USD 539 million for the July-September quarter of 2019 hit by lower steel shipments and prices, and high material costs. Sales of the company declined to $16,634 million in the July-September quarter from $18,522 million in the year-ago period.

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Indian and Chinese officials on Monday discussed plans to evacuate over 250 Indians from coronavirus-hit Wuhan city and Hubei province.

The death toll in the has climbed to 82 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases, mostly in Wuhan and other Chinese cities.

According to the Indian Embassy here, its diplomats held a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on Monday.

"In the meeting, Chinese authorities briefed on the steps taken by them to contain the spread of outbreak. Various options for evacuating foreign nationals from Wuhan/Hubei province were also discussed," the embassy said in a note circulated on the social media.

"We continue to engage with the Chinese authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian nationals in Hubei province. We will update you when we have more information from the Chinese authorities," it said.

The embassy said for any issues regarding food, water and other essential supplies, the Hubei Foreign Affairs Office has provided two helplines (027-87122256 and 87811173) on which the provincial authorities can be contacted round the clock.

"You may approach them on issues that you may face there. However, please also let us know about your concern with specific details so that we are also able to take it up with the authorities in Hubei," it said.

Wuhan has about 700 Indian students, majority of them studying medicine. There are also a number of Indian students pursuing their doctorate degrees from several universities in Wuhan and its surrounding areas.

While majority of the students have apparently left Wuhan the city a few weeks ago to avail the Chinese New Year holidays, over 250 to 300 Indian students are reportedly stuck in the city, triggering concerns over their well-being.

Wuhan and 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading.

While India has earlier issued travel advisories to its citizens travelling to China in view of the coronavirus, the Indian Embassy here in the last few days has set up two hotlines for the students in Wuhan to extend assistance and took up it up with the local officials about proper supply of food and other necessities for them.

The embassy also tweeted on Monday that in addition to the three hotlines (+8618610952903, +8618612083629, +8618612083617), it has also opened a dedicated email ID, helpdesk.beijing@mea.gov.in, to deal with the ongoing emergency.

The embassy also requested some of the stranded Indians to furnish the details of their passports.

A decision about their evacuation is expected to be made shortly, though officials have not mentioned any timeline.

Over 2,000 Pakistani students too made a request to their government for their evacuation. They made a special video and circulated on media networks, appealing for help. Students from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and several African countries have also been making representations for evacuation.

Expectations for early evacuation increased after Chinese government permitted the US to airlift its Wuhan-based diplomats and Americans citizens. France, UK and South Korea are also trying to airlift their citizens stuck in Wuhan.

No foreigner in China has been infected with the virus so far.
Given the choice between life and death  treating a serious disease versus doing nothing  the answer is obvious, surely.

Yet quality of life is a key concern, and some patients are not willing to undergo perhaps gruelling treatment for the chance of extra time.

For those with cancer, the chemotherapy that can save their lives can also lead to extensive hair loss  and research suggests 8 per cent, one in 12, refuse or delay potentially life-saving treatment due to the psychological distress of losing their hair.

'Hair loss is a source of massive contention and anxiety as it is a constant and public reminder that people are seriously sick,' says Professor Justin Stebbing, a consultant oncologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

People often avoid talking about it, which is one reason a recent episode of Cold Feet, which featured the character played by actress Fay Ripley removing her wig to reveal the thinning hair caused by chemotherapy, won plaudits from fans and cancer charities alike

'I have had patients refuse therapy because of this fear  with devastating consequences. But for some people having quantity of life is no good without quality, and hair loss is central to that.'

'Certainly when I explain side-effects of chemotherapy, it is when I mention hair loss that patients break down,' adds Professor Robert Thomas, a consultant oncologist at Bedford and Addenbrooke's Hospitals. 'Patients I've seen recently who've declined the extra benefits of chemo include a teacher and a policewoman because they couldn't face going to work if they'd lost their hair. It can devastate lives.'

Such is the impact of hair loss that 5 to 10 per cent of patients suffer serious psychological trauma as a result, adds Professor Karol Sikora, a consultant oncologist in London.

He, too, has had patients decline life-saving cancer treatment for this reason: 'I have a patient at the moment who I cannot persuade and yet her chances of surviving are much poorer without it,' he says.

For those with cancer, the chemotherapy that can save their lives can also lead to extensive hair loss  and research suggests 8 per cent, one in 12, refuse or delay potentially life-saving treatment due to the psychological distress of losing their hair (file image)

Around 300,000 patients receive chemotherapy for cancer in England alone each year.

According to research by Professor Diana Harcourt, director of the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England, the 'vast majority' had concerns over losing their hair.

'It is another way that diagnosis and treatment are out of their control,' she says. 'It can make people feel so self-conscious that they stop socialising and their quality of life declines. Some patients told us that they slept in their wigs or got up early so their partners don't see their bald heads.'

People often avoid talking about it, which is one reason a recent episode of Cold Feet, which featured the character played by actress Fay Ripley removing her wig to reveal the thinning hair caused by chemotherapy, won plaudits from fans and cancer charities alike.

ARE DOCTORS DOING ENOUGH?

Yet there can be discord between doctors who focus on killing the cancer and patients 'thinking more about what they'll feel or look like', says Prof Thomas.

Prof Sikora agrees: 'Hair loss can be one of the most depressing features of cancer, but doctors are still learning about the true impact it can have  and adapting their approaches.

'There may be other drugs we can offer that don't cause hair loss, or we can tweak the regimen with lower doses, but these tend to be weaker against the cancer. If I had my way, I would convince patients every time that the benefits of treatment far outweigh the risks; but it is more challenging than that and I'm learning to be better at counselling.'

There can be discord between doctors who focus on killing the cancer and patients 'thinking more about what they'll feel or look like' (file image)

In some cases the side-effect of hair loss may have been downplayed: in the U.S. patients have filed claims against pharmaceutical company Sanofi over the lack of warning of the risk of permanent hair loss with the drug Taxotere (docetaxel).

'This is a common drug we prescribe for breast cancer,' says Prof Sikora. 'The concern here is that around 5 per cent of women experience permanent hair loss after using it, which is disastrous. There has been some question over whether Sanofi knew this was the case and didn't warn patients or doctors.'

NEW WAYS TO STOP HAIR LOSS

Not all types of chemotherapy cause hair loss, although the types commonly used for breast and prostate cancers do. Researchers are trying to understand why hair loss occurs, and how to prevent it.

Chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells  this includes tumour cells but also those in the hair follicle (from which a hair grows), nails, skin and gut (which is why chemo can cause nausea).

How cancer spurred celebrity crimper to help patients Wigs have come a long way and many now look more natural than ever. Yet, because this is not a medical problem, what the NHS can offer is limited. To help bridge this gap celebrity hairdresser Trevor Sorbie has been seeing clients with chemotherapy-induced hair loss for more than a decade, and offers to cut and style their wigs free of charge. 'A penny dropped 12 years ago after my sister-in-law lost her hair to chemotherapy,' he says. 'She had a wig but was distressed that she didn't look like herself, so I cut it to make her feel special. 'Clients tell me that losing hair can be as devastating as being told you have cancer. I've met four women who refused chemo rather than lose their hair.' Trevor was diagnosed with bowel cancer seven months ago and underwent surgery; then a family member was diagnosed with cancer too, which motivated him to help patients. 'Each specialist  surgeons, nurses, oncologists  has a role, but there aren't enough resources for hair loss on the NHS, so hairdressers are filling in,' he says. Trevor set up the charity My New Hair to train hairdressers to cut wigs for cancer patients, and has been involved in lobbying MPs to push for better wig services for the NHS. To find a trained hairdresser visit mynewhair.org Advertisement

For some years patients have been offered cooling caps  lightweight, silicone caps with liquid coolant passing through  to wear during chemotherapy. 'Cold caps work in a combination of ways,' says Dr Nikolaos Georgopoulos, a cancer cell biologist at the University of Huddersfield. 'First, by making the scalp cooler, you are restricting blood flow, meaning less chemotherapy gets to the hair follicles.

'Second, laboratory studies suggest cooling hair cells slows down their metabolism, and takes them out of their normal cell division cycle  so they are less targeted by chemotherapy drugs that work on fast-dividing cells.

'Third, a study we aim to publish soon has demonstrated that cooling inhibits the transport of the drug inside hair follicle cells, where it would have toxic effects.'

Studies into cold caps show they have a 50 per cent success rate for hair retention. Research is now trying to explain why they don't work for everyone  one reason, Dr Georgopoulos, has found is that some patients have 'hot heads', meaning their scalps do not cool sufficiently.

'We monitored head temperature with infrared imaging and cooled heads with cold caps. We found some heads cooled enough to prevent toxicity  reaching 18c  but others wouldn't lower beyond 26c. This could be a reason why cool caps don't work for everyone.'

He is now developing better fitting caps and finding ways to cool the scalp more efficiently. 'For example, we are testing a lotion that contains a natural compound that increases the protective effect of cooling  in five to ten years this could mean the chances of not wearing a wig are closer to 90 per cent; currently they are 50 per cent,' he says.

Cool caps are also not recommended for all patients, says Dr Felicity Paterson, a consultant clinical oncologist at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust. 'Those with diseases of the scalp or brain aren't suitable for cold caps because as it cools hair follicles, it can also make the cells in the area unresponsive to their treatment.

Also, there is a slightly higher risk of developing disease in the brain in some aggressive breast cancers.' Research is ongoing into drug-type approaches to aid hair regrowth. Among the most promising is bimatoprost, originally developed as a glaucoma drug. Doctors noted eyelash growth as a side-effect  and it has been shown to help in eyelash alopecia in a trial of 130 patients, reported The British Journal of Derm- atology in 2015.

Meanwhile, calcitriol, a form of vitamin D, was found to protect rats from chemotherapy-induced alopecia. Research also shows that using the drug minoxidil after chemo can halve the time for hair to regrow. A trial in 22 women who had chemotherapy for breast cancer found that applying minoxidil daily shortened the time it took for hair to grow back, reported the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology in 1994.

The good news is that most new cancer drugs don't cause hair loss, says Professor Stebbing (file image)

COULD EVENING TREATMENT HELP?

The good news is that most new cancer drugs don't cause hair loss, says Professor Stebbing.

'For example, monoclonal antibody drugs  which work by targeting specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells  don't cause hair loss. Neither does immunotherapy, which enables the immune system to recognise and target cancer cells.'

Prof Sikora adds: 'It is feasible that within five to ten years most drugs won't cause hair loss.'

Taxane drugs, such as Taxotere are thought to be linked with permanent hair loss as they damage the stem cells in the follicles that help form hair.

A laboratory study by the University of Manchester found it was possible to coat follicles with another type of cancer drug, making them 'less susceptible' to the effect of taxanes, reported the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Other researchers have looked into the timing of chemotherapy. A 2013 study by the University of Southern California suggested having treatment in the evening could prevent hair loss.

They found mouse hair had a circadian clock  a 24-hour cycle of growth followed by repair  and that mice lost 85 per cent of their hair if they received cancer therapy in the morning, compared to a 17 per cent loss if treated in the evening, reported the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

'While we don't yet know if human hair follows that same clock, [we know] facial hair in men grows during the day, resulting in the proverbial 5 o'clock shadow,' said Professor Satchidananda Panda, the lead researcher and an expert on circadian rhythm.

Cancer cells do not have circadian clocks, because they are dividing all the time, meaning cancer therapy does not have to be timed to be more effective  the timing is about minimising damage to healthy cells such as hair.

NHS WIGS THAT DON'T SHAPE UP

For patients with hair loss, the NHS offers an allowance towards a wig  but this is something of a postcode lottery, says Dr Matthew Harries, a consultant dermatologist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

Many patients go private at a cost of anything from 70, to thousands. As most chemotherapy does not harm the stem cells in a hair follicles, growth normally resumes within weeks of chemotherapy ending.

However, this hair is often different from the original; many patients experience curling or straightening and the hair is softer, like baby hair. 'I have had patients who had gone grey and after chemo their hair grew back black or red,' says Dr Paterson.

It can take around six months to get a full head of hair to return, but patients often receive little advice about how to boost regrowth, suggests Dr Harries.

As well as drugs, including minoxidil, simple measures such as using baby shampoo and not using heat or dyes can protect regrowing hair.
Buck-passing with lives of Aborigines (1960)

SYDNEY: A buck-passing statement from Mr A G Kingsmill, chairman of the Aborigines Welfare Board, issued last week, was speedy confirmation of Tribunes warning that officialdom would not easily depart from the policies which led to the death of four Armidale children recently.

His criticism of local councils for failing to give more assistance to Aborigines is probably justified.

Mr Kingsmill maintained that the State Government, and particularly the Chief Secretary (Mr Kelly), were giving the Board full support.

But the main emphasis in his statement was on the shortcomings of the Aborigines themselves.

The Board would be encouraged, he said, if it could see greater efforts by the Aborigines themselves.

Eye-witnesses have reported that the women imprisoned in the tin shanties with dirt floors in Armidale do everything possible to keep their homes clean.

But lack of cooking, washing and sewerage facilities naturally defeat their best efforts.

Aids Racists

Too often when Aborigines do obtain decent accommodation in a town, racists noisily, and sometimes even violently, dispute their rights to live there.

Mr Kingsmills attack on Aborigines can only encourage such elements. Mr Kellys remarks in Parliament about the difficulties of assimilating Aborigines were in similar vein.

Both, beg the real issue. In NSW, and in fact throughout the greater part of Australia, the Aborigines have been assimilated. That is, their own tribal forms of social organisations have been completely destroyed by capitalism. There are very few full-blooded Aborigines left in NSW, and the overwhelming majority of people referred to under the title are mixed-bloods, who know no other community except that of a capitalist society.

To live they have to sell their labour power just like any other worker.

But they are denied the rights which other workers have won through centuries of struggle.

Cheap Labor

Segregated in sub-standard housing, deprived of citizens rights or trade union protection, the Aborigines are a source of cheap labour for the capitalist class.

(The pastoral industry in the Northern Territory, for example, operates almost entirely on this type of labour. This is the key to its attractiveness to such world cartels as the Vesteys group which has swallowed up millions of acres of pastoral leases, and grown richer on the toil of underpaid Aborigines.)

Federal and State Governments share the responsibility for this tragic state of affairs.

These aborigines should be granted full citizenship rights now.

Because of their long years of double exploitation, the Aborigines do require special assistance in the form of housing, education grants and other facilities.

Primary responsibility in this sphere rests on the Federal Government which alone possesses the necessary financial resources.

As Mr Bryant (Labor Vic) told the House of Representatives last week, state finances were not adequate for the purpose, because the States with the biggest Aborigine populations had the smallest white populations.

MPs Call

Mr Bryant called for an urgent summonsing of a national conference to provide for a grant to the States for the proper housing of Aborigines.

He called for the removal of laws restricting Aborigines freedom. He said that in Queensland the Director of Native Welfare could seize Aborigines property at any time. He was the guardian of their children and could prevent any Aborigines marriage.

Mr Drummond, Liberal member for New England, said he was appalled at the conditions of the Aborigines settlement at Armidale.

* This article originally appeared in the Tribune October 26, 1960.
MUSCATINE, Iowa -The voters, given a rare chance to speak privately to Elizabeth Warren, do not shy away from pointed questions: Can you really beat Donald Trump? Why do you want to kill the private insurance industry?

One voter, an important local official in Iowa, jokingly resurrected a personal grievance, reminding the senator how, as a well-known Harvard law professor, she declined to publish an article in the Iowa Law Review.

Before her town hall meetings, Warren, D-Mass., virtually always holds a private discussion with five to 40 carefully selected voters, from those who are wavering to potential endorsers. At a moment in the presidential campaign when raucous rallies are the order of the day, the sessions provide unusually intimate access for Iowans who have emerged as the high-value targets of this final, desperate sprint to the caucuses - highly active but still undecided Democrats.

These "clutches," as the campaign calls them, are just one part of Warren's obsessively detailed organization in Iowa, one that reflects the candidate's methodical personality and sets her apart from every other contender. As her polls take an ominous dip just days before the Feb. 3 caucuses, Warren's big bet is that her unprecedented organizing machine will rescue her showing in Iowa, essentially saving her candidacy.

"It's been a year of town halls and questions and a lot of selfies - it's been a lot of fun," Warren told Democratic officials Saturday at a gala in Scott County. But, she added, "There's also been a part that's not quite so visible: It's been a year of organizing. It's been a year of people on the ground." And that, she said, "is how we're going to win in 2020."

That "year of organizing" will have its ultimate test in one week.

And it has been almost microscopic. The campaign made a detailed study of almost all of the state's more than 1,600 precincts to determine how to maximize support. It divided Iowa into nine zones and made an early investment deploying numerous operatives in each one, including remote towns and areas unlikely to support Warren.

To decide whom to invite to her intimate clutches, which last 25 to 30 minutes, the campaign mounted an extensive data-gathering effort to uncover not only who supports her, but also who might switch under the right circumstances.

One Warren script, handed out this month to volunteers knocking on doors on her behalf, made that point clearly. "What got you excited about [FIRST CHOICE CANDIDATE] in the first place?" reads the script, which was shared with The Washington Post. "Elizabeth feels strongly about that issue too. . . . After hearing a bit more, is Elizabeth your second choice?"

If the voter says "yes," the volunteer is instructed to label that person a "prospect," and they might get invited to a clutch.

Similarly, Warren's town hall gatherings are now populated with some of the voters her organizers have identified as undecided.

For Warren, the bet on Iowa and organization was made long ago. One of her key early decisions was to bulk up fast in the state, hiring 50 staff members by the spring of 2019, far outpacing all other campaigns. Early in the campaign, Warren's team handed out stickers that read: "It all begins in Iowa."

It has only gotten more elaborate. In recent weeks, some Warren organizers have touted their successes online, with operatives in Sioux City, Washington County, Jefferson County, Cedar Falls and Council Bluffs announcing that they have precinct captains for every single precinct in their jurisdiction. The campaign declined to say how many precinct captains they have identified statewide.

Yet since surging several months ago, Warren is fading somewhat in the polls at an inopportune moment, nationally and in Iowa. The most passionately liberal Democrats appear to be rallying around Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., while those favoring a safer, more centrist choice are gravitating toward former Vice President Joe Biden.

Warren, who argues that she can appeal to both wings of the party, gained a prized endorsement from the Des Moines Register on Saturday, but she trails Sanders in a recent poll by the newspaper. Nationally, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Sanders and Biden gaining strength, while Warren has fallen to 12 percent from 23 percent in October.

Warren officials appear to be lowering expectations for Iowa. Campaign manager Roger Lau issued a memo Friday warning against "breathless media narratives" emerging from the caucuses.

In the same memo, Lau played up Warren's organization, noting that she has more than 1,000 campaign staff members nationwide and has held "over 100,000 one-on-one conversations" during the campaign so far.

It's the campaign's hope that this sort of detail and personalized attention will overcome the passion surrounding Sanders and the goodwill surrounding Biden, two much more improvisational and less organized candidates.

"Whether or not that individual attention will translate on caucus night is anyone's guess," said Elesha Gayman, the Scott County Democratic chair, who has not endorsed a presidential candidate. "But that's her strategy - she's trying to get one-on-one with voters as much as she can."

One example came Saturday afternoon, just after Warren and her team flew from Washington - where she was attending President Trump's impeachment trial - to Iowa for an afternoon town hall event at a school in Muscatine, a town on the banks of the Mississippi River.

As a Warren organizer gave a brief speech to warm up the crowd, Warren was in a classroom, standing in front of a whiteboard and taking questions from a hand-selected group. Then the participants stood for a photo with her, allowing them to skip the longer photo line later.

"It feels good," said Deb Owen, a Warren volunteer who is providing housing to two of her campaign staff members and was invited to the smaller session. "You're in the room with her and you feel like you can have a conversation and you're not just a face in the crowd."

The goal, said one Warren ally familiar with the strategy, is to give voters and volunteers the kind of treatment that campaigns typically reserve for big donors.

"They are the core of the organization," said Kristen Orthman, Warren's communications director, of the volunteers who are invited to the meetings. "They are the people Elizabeth and our team can count on to make the case and win support to our corner on caucus night."

Still, the clutches - plus the long photo lines after every event in which attendees can take their own selfies - mean Warren's town hall meetings take a lot of time. Perhaps as a result, she and Biden have held the fewest individual Iowa events of any of the major candidates.

According to the Des Moines Register's candidate tracker, Warren has held 98 campaign events over the past 58 days, and Biden has held 99 over the past 51 days - although he began a 21-stop bus tour of the state on Sunday. By contrast, Sanders has held 132 events, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has held 181 over roughly the same period.

Meanwhile, the Trump impeachment trial is creating last-minute obstacles for Warren's strategy. In one conservative-leaning rural area, Warren organizers and supporters recently identified several undecided voters and arranged for them to meet the senator. But the trial schedule prevents in-person meetings, so Warren instead has been calling the voters individually, according to a supporter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.

Warren's team has about 150 organizers in Iowa, according to the campaign. Although that is no longer the biggest footprint, Warren's advantage comes from being here early.

In urban areas, her team assigned one organizer to a single county, while in rural regions, each organizer oversaw two or three counties at most. Meanwhile, staff members for other candidates were sometimes assigned as many as a dozen counties, a tough job in rural parts of the state where Democrats are often spread out and meeting them requires long drives.

"I think the Warren campaign smartly decided very early on that turf like that is not how you build relationships," said one Iowa Democrat. "You can't get to know people in a real way if you're driving three or four hours or more every day."

Although Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., is now employing a similar type of one-on-one organizing, Democrats not affiliated with either campaign say Warren's organizers have simply been at it longer. And they've often been deft at how they go about it.

When California Sen. Kamala D. Harris left the presidential race in December, for example, Warren's team hired a group of her former organizers and had them call former Harris supporters to ask them to join Warren's team.

Still, all this attention to detail has not defused the biggest question Warren faces as a candidate. Organizers mounting door-to-door efforts, or reaching out to voters in remote locations, regularly hear questions about whether she could beat Trump.

It's a challenge that has come up in urban, relatively liberal cities such as Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, where voters often sound like pundits when approached by canvassers - asking how gender might play among working-class voters in battleground states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

But it also arises in more rural, conservative areas such as northwest Iowa.

"When I knock [on] doors, they all say, 'Oh, I love Elizabeth. She has the best plans, and I think she'd be the best president. But I don't know if she can win," said Peter Leo, chairman of the Carroll County Democrats, who endorsed Warren last fall. "My hurdle as a volunteer for her has been to convince people to go with that gut feeling that Elizabeth Warren is the president that we need."
WSE Completion of negotiations with the Companys key shareholders regarding business conditions of sale of shares of the Company to the international strategic investor.

Management Board of Work Service S.A. (hereinafter referred to as the "Issuer" or "Company") - with reference to current report No. 1/2020 on the beginning of advanced negotiations with i.a. the Issuer's shareholders regarding the terms of the potential sale of their shares of the Company - informs that today it has received information about reaching a preliminary business agreement between the Company's key shareholders ("Shareholders") holding a total of 36.658.780 shares of the Company representing 55.89% of the total number of votes ("Shares") and an international strategic investor ("Investor") regarding the possible sale of Shares to the Investor at a price of PLN 0.30 (thirty groszy) per share. The Shareholders and Investor will conduct further negotiations regarding the settlement of the final transaction documentation regarding the sale of the Shares on the agreed terms ("Further Negotiations").

The Management Board also informs that a potential transaction with the Company's shareholders under the conditions described above may occur in connection with the investment considered by the Investor, and the completion of Further Negotiations is one of several conditions for the transaction with the Investor. The Company will provide information on meeting further conditions in separate current reports. As a result of the analysis, the Issuer has determined that it is justified to classify the above information as confidential information within the meaning of art. 17 sec. 1 MAR, subject to publication in the form of this report.
Moscow has expelled a Japanese man for attempts to collect "classified information," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on January 27.



According to the ministry, an unidentified Japanese national, who was in Russia on a journalistic visa, was detained on December 25 while trying to collect data linked to Russia's military potential in the Far East.



The ministry said the man was warned about "the inadmissibility of his actions," ordered to leave the country, and left Russia the following day.



The ministry also summoned a Japanese diplomat and handed him a note of protest over the incident.



The ministry's announcement comes a day after Japanese police arrested a former employee of Japanese telecom and energy giant Softbank for allegedly stealing proprietary information from the company and giving it to Russian officials.



Yutaka Araki, 48, is suspected of obtaining "trade secrets from a computer server at a telecommunication-related company on February 18 last year, in violation of Japan's unfair competition prevention law," Tokyo police said in a statement, without disclosing the firm.



Meanwhile, media reports in Japan said it was major mobile carrier SoftBank Corp, a unit of the SoftBank Group.



Police suspect Russian trade officials at Moscow's mission in Tokyo were involved in espionage, media reports said.



The Russian embassy has described the media reports as "regrettable" and "cheap spy allegations."

Based on reporting by AP, TASS, AFP, and Interfax
Its hard to get farther from the coast than Lincoln, Neb., but the citys mayor, Leirion Gaylor Baird, agreed with Kriseman. We dont have time to debate the causes of severe weather or man-made climate change effects that are causing historic floods across the state of Nebraska and impacting the well fields that my city depends on for our water supply, she said. We really need to partner with the federal government to fix our well fields, to address our levies, to build more resilient communities.
Untitled Document

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Senate came under fresh pressure on Monday to allow witnesses and new documents in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial after a news report that a former top aide has a written a book manuscript that undercuts Trump's versions of events in the Ukraine affair.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a sometime critic of Trump, said there was a growing likelihood that at least four Republican senators would vote to call for former national security adviser John Bolton to testify, which would give Democrats the votes necessary to summon him.

The New York Times cited the manuscript of an unpublished book by Bolton as saying that the Republican president told him he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until Kiev helped with investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

If confirmed, the report would add weight to Democrats' accusations that Trump used the $391 million in aid - approved by the U.S. Congress to help Ukraine combat Russia-backed separatists - as leverage to get a foreign country to help him dig up dirt on a domestic political rival. Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Trump on Monday denied telling Bolton that he sought to use the aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens on unsubstantiated corruption allegations. Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was U.S. vice president.

Bolton left his post in September. Trump said he fired him. Bolton said he quit.

"I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton," Romney told reporters.

"I think John Bolton's relevance ... is becoming increasingly clear," Romney added.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on charges of abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress, setting up the trial in the Republican-led Senate.

Trump is expected to be acquitted in the 100-seat Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats and a two-thirds vote is required to convict and remove a president from office. No Republican senator has voiced support for his ouster.

The New York Times report did not quote from the manuscript but cited multiple people describing Bolton's account.

Bolton's lawyer Charles Cooper said on Sunday the book manuscript had been submitted to the White House for a standard pre-publication security review for classified information.

"It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript," Cooper said.

The White House National Security Council has been examining Bolton's manuscript and no White House personnel outside of the council has reviewed it, spokesman John Ullyot said. He did not say whether NSC officials had leaked it to the Times.

Trump denied the allegations in a series of tweets.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens ... If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Trump wrote.

The report drew Democratic demands that the Senate call Bolton as a witness, an issue the chamber is likely to address later in the week.

'CLEARLY DAMAGING'

"It's clearly damaging," said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School who was the only witness called by the Republicans in the House impeachment proceedings. "It will fuel demands to hear from Bolton and other witnesses."

The issue of whether to call new witnesses - including Bolton - is due to resurface this week at the trial as Democrats seek the handful of votes from Republican senators needed to allow further testimony and evidence.

Many Republicans, however, want a speedy trial of Trump without new witnesses. A vote on the matter could come at the end of the week.

In only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, Democrats argued last week that Trump should be removed for encouraging Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election.

Trump's defense tried to turn that election interference line against the Democrats in its opening argument on Saturday by warning against removing a president less than 10 months before Americans vote on whether to give him a second term.

The president's team will continue with his defense on Monday afternoon.

According to the Times, Trump was pressed for weeks by senior aides including Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to release the aid.

But in an August 2019 discussion with Bolton, Trump said he preferred sending no aid to Ukraine until officials there turned over all materials they had about the investigation that involved Biden, as well as Hillary Clinton backers in Ukraine.

If the Senate called witnesses or demanded documents, the trial could be extended.

If not, the Senate could vote as soon as the end of this week on whether to remove Trump from office.

In that case, the trial could be over before the first U.S. presidential voting contest takes place in Iowa on Feb. 3 and before Trump is scheduled to deliver the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 4.
GREENFIELD  Former police Sgt. James Rode was sentenced to two years in jail Monday after a jury found him guilty of a 2017 on-duty crash on High Street that killed a New Hampshire man.

Greenfield District Court Judge Jacklyn Connly sentenced Rode to serve two years in jail, of which he must serve nine months. The remainder of his time will be suspended for two years. He also cannot have a license to drive for 15 years.

A jury on Monday morning returned the guilty verdict against Rode on a charge of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation. The jury began deliberating Friday afternoon before being dismissed for the weekend. It resumed deliberations Monday morning.

In all, it took 2 hours to reach a guilty verdict.

Rodes lawyer, Kevin Reddington, requested that Rode, because of his career with the Greenfield Police Department, be allowed to serve his sentence somewhere other than the Franklin County House of Correction.

Connly said she would make the recommendation to the Franklin County Sheriffs Department, but that the decision to arrange a transfer to another facility is up to the sheriff.

Rode, 50, had been a 16-year veteran of the police department prior to the crash. He was out on injury leave following the Oct. 1, 2017, crash, but has since been terminated by the department.

The crash killed James Arcellana, 29, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and critically injured a passenger in the car.

Arcellana had stopped for a stop sign at Sanderson Street and then pulled out onto High Street when Rodes police cruiser, traveling south on High Street, slammed into the car. The crash occurred by the entrance to Baystate Franklin Medical Center.

A state police crash investigator determined that Rode was driving at 83 mph through a 30 mph zone as he responded to a call for an erratic driver on Routes 5 and 10 near the Deerfield line.

Police determined he was traveling 121 feet per second, and when Arcellana pulled out onto High Street from Sanderson, Rodes cruiser was 550 feet away and had not yet entered his line of sight.

The state police incident report faulted Rode for failing to exercise proper caution or show due regard for the safety of other persons and property.

Rode himself was injured in the crash. His employment with the town was terminated by then-Mayor William Martin. He has appealed the decision with the state Civil Service Commission.

This was a tragic and avoidable crash that changed the lives of many people on all sides of this case, said First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne, who prosecuted the case. We are thankful to the jury for their service, and for carefully considering all of the evidence in this difficult case.
At least five persons, including four Chinese nationals, have been put under observation in Pakistan for suspected coronavirus infection, according to a media report.

The deadly novel virus, which causes pneumonia-like illness, has already killed 80 people and infected more than 2,700 others in China.

Two samples from Multan have been sent to Hong Kong for confirmation as there are no laboratories in Pakistan equipped to diagnose the pathogen, The Express Tribune quoted the health ministry sources as saying.

One of the two patients in Multan is a Pakistani national, the report said.

On Saturday, National Institutes of Health chief Major General Dr Aamer Ikram said a Chinese national has been admitted to a hospital in Multan and kept in the isolation ward after he showed symptoms of the disease including flu, cough and fever.

Test reports are expected to arrive in a couple of days, the report said.

According to sources, the Chinese national travelled from China to Dubai and reached Karachi on January 21. After landing in Karachi, he took a flight to Multan.

Three Chinese nationals were also admitted to a hospital in Lahore and shifted to the isolation ward on Saturday.

According to hospital sources, the suspected patients were residents of the Chinese city of Wuhan and had recently arrived in Lahore.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has confirmed that all Pakistanis in Wuhan, and in other parts of China, are safe.

The coronavirus, officially known as 2019-nCoV, was first reported in Hubei province's capital city Wuhan and has spread throughout China and around the world including the US, Australia and South Korea.

There are 41 incoming flights from China to Pakistan every week, mostly taking away and bringing the Chinese.

Thousands of Chinese nationals who are working on projects in various cities in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor regularly travel between the two countries, raising fears they could spread the disease.

The coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China in 2002-2003.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Government of India on Monday signed a tripartite agreement with representatives of all factions of banned organisation Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) at Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal remained present during the signing of the agreement which was also attended by representatives of all factions of banned organisation Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).

Speaking on the occasion, Home Minister Amit Shah said, "Today Centre, Assam Govt and Bodo representatives have signed an important agreement. This agreement will ensure a golden future for Assam and for the Bodo people".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By rights, it should have been a time when Chloe Delevingne revelled in the joy of new motherhood. Instead, soon after the birth of son Atticus, now five, and daughter Juno, four, the elder sister of model Cara twice found herself battling deadly sepsis.

'In the space of one day, you can go from being totally fine to very ill,' Chloe, 34, said recently of her horrifying experiences.

'I suffered extreme delirium, and when I was lucid I was completely confused as to what was going on.'

It's an increasingly common problem. Recent figures revealed that sepsis  an overreaction by the body to an infection that could be triggered by something as trivial as a scratch  is now responsible for more deaths than cancer worldwide.

Rebecca Beaty, from Newcastle, who developed sepsis and nearly died while pregnant with her third child Fabelle, who is now aged two

Around 245,000 people develop sepsis in the UK each year and 52,000 die, according to the UK Sepsis Trust. During pregnancy and childbirth, women are more prone to infections so are particularly at risk.

The condition is called maternal or postpartum sepsis when it occurs during pregnancy or within six weeks of giving birth  and it can be fatal for both the mother and baby, or cause long-term effects ranging from fatigue to loss of limbs.

Previously known as childbed fever, maternal sepsis affects around 300 pregnant women a year and kills around nine, making it a leading cause of maternal deaths in the UK.

'Pregnant women are 50 per cent more likely to develop sepsis than people of a similar age who are not pregnant,' says Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust. 'This is because pregnant women are more likely to be entering the healthcare environment, having blood tests and physical examinations, each of which carries a risk of infection.'

Between 2015 and 2017, 20 women died of sepsis during or up to six weeks after pregnancy  10 per cent of all maternal deaths, according to the latest figures published by the national audit, Mother And Babies: Reducing Risks Through Audits And Confidential Enquiries, carried out by the University of Oxford.

After two days of feeling exhausted, sick and having a cough and a high temperature, Rebecca Beaty went to hospital. Within minutes, doctors discovered her heart rate was dangerously high, while her oxygen levels were very low  signs her body was fighting a serious infection

And the number of pregnant women affected by the condition appears to be increasing, says Dr Daniels, who is also an NHS intensive care consultant.

'The fact that we are carrying out more tests on women during pregnancy may partly explain why the number of women affected appears to be rising over the past three decades,' he says.

Other factors include increasing levels of obesity, diabetes and the age at which women are now having children.

Each of these points adds to the risk of complications during pregnancy, including infections which could lead to sepsis, says Dr Daghni Rajasingam, a consultant obstetrician and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Sepsis can be triggered by any kind of infection  flu, stomach bugs, wounds or urinary tract infections (UTIs). UTIs are more common in pregnancy because of changes in the immune system.

Symptoms of sepsis include slurred speech or confusion, a cough, extreme shivering or muscle pain, passing no urine in the course of a day, severe breathlessness, mottled or discoloured skin, feeling very unwell and feeling like you are dying  and the condition can progress quickly.

'Sepsis is a storm where the immune system is trying to do a good job but goes into overdrive,' says Dr Daniels.

'Some people go from the first symptoms to being very unwell within a few hours, while for others it will take 48 to 72 hours for the condition to develop.

'If you have these symptoms during pregnancy, childbirth or in the six weeks after giving birth, seek medical help without delay.'

As symptoms such as shivering or a cough are quite general, diagnosing sepsis can be hard when a woman has recently given birth.

'Pregnant or postpartum women can appear well until the point of collapse, which can occur with little warning,' says the 2014 report Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care by the University of Oxford.

By rights, it should have been a time when Chloe Delevingne revelled in the joy of new motherhood. Instead, soon after the birth of son Atticus, now five, and daughter Juno, four, the elder sister of model Cara twice found herself battling deadly sepsis

If sepsis is diagnosed, patients should be admitted to hospital immediately to be treated with intravenous antibiotics.

'If left untreated, in the majority of cases, the condition will be fatal,' says Dr Daniels. 'But with early treatment, the majority of people will make a good recovery.

'We hear several times a year of a young family growing up without their mother because of sepsis, and currently there is no way of predicting exactly who is going to deteriorate rapidly and who is in most urgent need of treatment.'

Marian Knight, a professor of maternal and child population health at the University of Oxford who has researched maternal sepsis, warns that doctors should be aware that prescribing antibiotics does not necessarily prevent severe sepsis.

She says: 'Women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth need to be aware that if they are not getting better after being prescribed antibiotics  for example if they continue to have high fevers, extreme shivering, or pain  they should get further advice from a doctor or midwife urgently.'

SEPSIS: KNOW THE SYMPTOMS In its early stages, sepsis can be mistaken for flu, a chest infection or an upset stomach. The six key signs can be identified by the acronym SEPSIS: SLURRED speech, confusion. EXTREME shivering, muscle pain. PASSING no urine in a day. SEVERE breathlessness. 'I FEEL like I might die.' SKIN that is mottled. Anyone who thinks they have developed these symptoms should seek medical help urgently  and ask their doctor: 'Could this be sepsis?' Advertisement

Once you've had postpartum sepsis, you are also more likely to get it again  as Chloe's experience indicates.

'We know that people who develop sepsis are more likely to suffer infections for a number of years afterwards, because the immune system has been so challenged,' says Dr Daniels.

Chloe says the condition has had long-lasting effects on her health.

'I don't think I have ever experienced a day of feeling 100 per cent [since],' she said.

This has also been the experience of Rebecca Beaty, 29, from Newcastle upon Tyne. She started feeling unwell on her due date of her third pregnancy in December 2017. After two days of feeling exhausted, sick and having a cough and a high temperature, she went to hospital.

Within minutes, doctors discovered her heart rate was dangerously high, while her oxygen levels were very low  signs her body was fighting a serious infection.

Rebecca's condition swiftly deteriorated.

'I had taken one of our children home  I was gone for less than an hour  and when I came back Rebecca was in a coma and the baby had been delivered by Caesarean section,' recalls her partner, Paul, 37, who works in a children's home.

'Rebecca's body had shut the placenta off because she was essentially dying. She had pneumonia in both lungs, her liver, kidneys and heart were starting to fail and she was so weak they didn't think she would make it through the night. It was scary.'

Rebecca spent two days in a coma and three more in hospital, while baby Fabelle was given antibiotics as a precaution. Rebecca was told the sepsis was likely triggered by numerous bugs she'd had, coupled with the strain pregnancy had put on her immune system.

'If Rebecca hadn't been in hospital, we would have lost both of them,' says Paul. 'It's been really hard for all the family.' For the next six months, Rebecca, a care worker, barely left home and her immune system is now 'like that of a pensioner'  she picks up every bug going.

'It was the most horrendous experience of my life,' she says.

Although pregnant women are more likely to develop sepsis, it is less likely to be fatal.

'Women's bodies adapt to prepare for the trauma of childbirth, with changes in the heart, breathing and immune system, meaning the body is better prepared to deal with any stress, including severe infection and sepsis,' says Dr Daniels.

Yet around one in ten women with sepsis will lose their baby through miscarriage, going into labour early or stillbirth.

Good Health has been running the End The Sepsis Scandal campaign to raise awareness of the condition. Pregnant women are now warned of the signs in both mother and child

Dr Daniels adds: 'Pregnant women need to be aware of the symptoms, be prepared to ask health professionals to reassure them that they don't have sepsis, and ensure that they take up flu vaccinations to prevent infections developing.'
In the aftermath of the devastating Tohoku-Oki earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan in March 2011, seismologists were stunned by the unprecedented 50 meters of shallow displacement along the fault, which ruptured all the way to the surface of the seafloor. This extreme slip at shallow depths exacerbated the massive tsunami that, together with the magnitude 9.1 earthquake, caused extensive damage and loss of life in Japan.

In a new study, published January 27 in Nature Communications, researchers used a novel technique to study the faults in the Japan Trench, the subduction zone where the Tohoku-Oki earthquake struck. Their findings reveal a long history of large earthquakes in this fault zone, where they found multiple faults with evidence of more than 10 meters of slip during large earthquakes.

"We found evidence of many large earthquakes that have ruptured to the seafloor and could have generated tsunamis like the one that struck in 2011," said coauthor Pratigya Polissar, associate professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Japanese researchers looking at onshore sediment deposits have found evidence of at least three similar tsunamis having occurred in this region at roughly 1,000-year intervals. The new study suggests there have been even more large earthquakes on this fault zone than those that left behind onshore evidence of big tsunamis, said coauthor Heather Savage, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Savage and Polissar have developed a technique for assessing the history of earthquake slip on a fault by analyzing organic molecules trapped in sedimentary rocks. Originally synthesized by marine algae and other organisms, these "biomarkers" are altered or destroyed by heat, including the frictional heating that occurs when a fault slips during an earthquake. Through extensive laboratory testing over the past decade, Savage and Polissar have developed methods for quantifying the thermal evolution of these biomarkers and using them to reconstruct the temperature history of a fault.

The Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST) drilled into the fault zone in 2012, extracting cores and installing a temperature observatory. UCSC seismologist Emily Brodsky helped organize JFAST, which yielded the first direct measurement of the frictional heat produced by the fault slip during an earthquake (see earlier story). This heat dissipates after the earthquake, however, so the signal is small and transient.

"The biomarkers give us a way to detect permanent changes in the rock that preserve a record of heating on the fault," Savage said.

For the new study, the researchers examined the JFAST cores, which extended through the fault zone into the subducting plate below. "It's a complex fault zone, and there were a lot of faults throughout the core. We were able to say which faults had evidence of large earthquakes in the past," Savage said.

One of their goals was to understand whether some rock types in the fault zone were more prone to large slip in an earthquake than other rocks. The cores passed through layers of mudstones and clays with different frictional strengths. But the biomarker analysis showed evidence of large seismic slip on faults in all the different rock types. The researchers concluded that differences in frictional properties do not necessarily determine the likelihood of large shallow slip or seismic hazard.

Savage and Polissar began working on the biomarker technique as postdoctoral researchers at UC Santa Cruz, publishing their first paper on it with Brodsky in 2011. They continued developing it as researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, before returning to UC Santa Cruz as faculty members in 2019. Hannah Rabinowitz, the first author of the new paper, worked with them as a graduate student at Columbia and is now at the U.S. Department of Energy.

"We've tested this technique in different rocks with different ages and heating histories, and we can now say yes, there was an earthquake on this fault, and we can tell if there was a large one or many small ones," Savage said. "We can now take this technique to other faults to learn more about their histories."

In addition to Rabinowitz, Savage, and Polissar, the coauthors of the paper include Christie Rowe and James Kirkpatrick at McGill University. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation. The JFAST project was sponsored by the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 18:33:13|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The exit and entry department in central China's Hubei Province has suspended the services for the application of ordinary passports and exit-entry permits and endorsements for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to better control the spread of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

No passengers have left the Chinese mainland for the past four days via the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport or the Hankou port, according to a release from the National Immigration Administration (NIA).

The NIA said special channels will be opened for individuals who have to leave the mainland for urgent reasons.

By the end of Sunday, a total of 1,423 cumulative confirmed cases of new pneumonia had been reported in Hubei, with 76 deaths and 221 cases in severe condition. Forty-four patients have been discharged from hospital.

Holders of valid endorsements to Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan who are affected by the epidemic and fail to enter the above places within the validity period can re-apply for certificates of the same type and validity period for free when the outbreak is over, said the NIA.

Parts of the automated self-service channels are being suspended and changed to manual channels, according to the statement.

As some countries and regions have prohibited the entry or departure of people from key areas of the coronavirus outbreak on the mainland, the exit and entry offices at all ports continue to provide convenient services to citizens coming back to China, said the NIA.

The NIA required immigration departments at all levels to work with medical and health care organizations to carry out necessary screening and assist with the management of people for medical observation or isolation.
Rajesh K Thakur and Mukesh Ranjan By

Express News Service

PATNA/ RANCHI: Bihar and Jharkhand both issued alerts over Coronavirus, Sunday, advising its health surveillance units to keep an eye on suspected cases while issuing standard operating procedures to tackle the same.

Bihar shares over 600 km with Nepal-much of the stretch unguarded.

Officials in the state health secretariat said, there is a worry since there is free-flow of tourists into India and Nepal mainly on the Buddhist circuit-many of them from China and South-East Asian countries.

With Kathamandu and Kapilvastu in Nepal and Sarnath in UP being starting points for the pilgrim route, Bihar ordered high alert along with the Bihar-Nepal border districts of East and West Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Supaul, Madhubani, Araria and Kishanganj.

Principal Secretary Health, Bihar, Sanjay Kumar said that preventive measures were being taken after a boy in Nepal was diagnosed with the virus.

A standard operating procedure to be followed has also been notified to doctors, he said.

The state has also issued alert to Patna airport for the screening of foreign guests arriving and created a cell under Dr Ragini Mishra for Coronavirus surveillance.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand notified surveillance units in all districts asking doctors to monitor all suspected cases for at least 28 days, while issuing a reporting format for such cases, to a central facility.

The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme units were instructed by Principal Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni to keep a close eye on all entrants.
The Andhra Pradesh assembly on Monday adopted a statutory resolution for abolishing its Upper House or the legislative council after a six-hour-long discussion.

Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath moved the resolution on behalf of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. It was adopted with 132 members of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in the 175-member assembly voting for it. A lone member of Jana Sena Party, Rapaka Vara Prasad, defied the party whip to support the ruling party. As many as 18 members of the YSRC were absent at the time of voting. The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) abstained from the discussion and voting on the abolition.

A two-thirds majority was required for the adoption of the resolution as per the rules.

Reddy defended his decision to abolish the council. In fact, the Constitution does not say that there should be compulsorily a legislative council in every state. The Cabinet is answerable to the lower House and not to the Upper, he said.

Reddy said the Council has become meaningless and a hurdle for passing laws. He pointed out how the TDP having a majority in the Council stalled two bills seeking to create three capitals and also that on the introduction of English medium in government schools.

Reddy said the government was incurring Rs 60 crore expenditure annually on the Council. He said the poor state cannot afford it anymore.

The resolution would now be sent to the Union home ministry, which will have to introduce a bill in Parliament for the Councils abolition. The exercise may take a year, officials said.

The YSRCP enjoys an overwhelming majority of 151 in the lower House. TDP has 28 members in the 58-member Council and the YSRC just nine.

Andhra Pradesh had its first legislative council from 1958 to 1985 when the then N T Rama Rao government abolished it. Reddys father, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, restored the council in 2007 when he was the chief minister.

The council works like Rajya Sabha. Once in two years, one-third of its members retire and new members are elected by local bodies representatives, assembly members, graduates, and teachers. Some members are also nominated. The YSRC is expected to have a majority in the Council by 2023 based on its numbers in the assembly.

Reddy on Monday showed video clippings of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidus speech in the assembly opposing the revival of the legislative council, saying it served no purpose and was a burden on the state exchequer.

The TDP opposed the resolution. The government has taken the decision only because the TDP had stalled the attempt to create three capitals and sent the decentralisation of administration bills to the select committee, TDP lawmaker Deepak Reddy said.

He said the YSRC took three days to adopt the resolution, hoping they would split the TDP legislators. But none of us succumbed to any pressures, Reddy said.

YSRC spokesman denied the allegations. We have absolutely no need to buy MLCs [members of legislative council] who have no value. When we wanted to abolish the council, why should we lure any MLCs?

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YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian signed decrees on bestowing military titles of Major-General and Lieutenant-General to five servicemen on the occasion of the Army Day, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The President signed the respective decrees based on the prime ministers proposal.

The Republic of Armenia and Armenians around the world will celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Armenian Armed Forces establishment on January 28.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
[January 27, 2020] The Nottingham Company Licenses NYSE AMS ? Non-Transparent ETF Structure

The Nottingham Company, Inc. ("Nottingham"), a leading fund services administrator to the mutual fund and exchange-traded fund ("ETF") industry, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a license agreement with the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") and its new Actively Managed Solution? (AMS (News - Alert)) ETF structure. Through this agreement, sub-advisors managing active portfolio strategies will be able to issue their own branded AMS? ETFs through Nottingham's white-label ETF investment advisor affiliate, OBP Capital LLC. "We are very pleased to enter into this license with the NYSE. We feel strongly that the AMS? ETF structure will achieve Nottingham's goal to appeal to both advisors and the investing public," said Kip Meadows, Founder and CEO of Nottingham. "Our experience working with the NYSE team has always been top-notch and we look forward to this product." NYSE's AMS? ETF structure wraps actively managed portfolio strategies in an ETF that preserves a portion of the portfolio as confidential, thereby combining the benefits of an ETF with enough non-transparency to protect the advisor's intellectual property. The AMS? ETF wrapper allows for a small percentage of the portfolio to be hidden from public view on a current basis, while still providing information that market makers and the APs need for ETF trading and operations. "The NYSE has long supported Nottingham's ETF white label efforts as the firm's Exchangeof choice. We are excited to expand our relationship into the non-transparent space, which offers great growth potential for issuers," said Douglas Yones, Head of Exchange Traded Products at the New York Stock Exchange. "With the NYSE's AMS product, Nottingham can help active manager clients access the unique benefits of the ETF wrapper."



Nottingham is a fund administration firm and white-label ETF issuer headquartered in Rocky Mount, N.C., providing consulting and ongoing accounting and administration for pooled investment vehicles including open end mutual funds, ETFs, closed end interval funds, private investment and hedge funds. The firm also offers unitized accounting and reporting solutions to foundations, endowments, and government investment pools. Nottingham was founded in the late 1980s to help investment advisory and portfolio management firms gain efficiency and access to new markets with pooled investment vehicles. Nottingham's business plan has always been to help investment professionals focus on portfolio management, with Nottingham guiding the establishment and ongoing operations of the pooled vehicles. Currently administers approximately $30 billion in client assets for investment funds all over the U.S. Nottingham remains one of the largest privately held fund administration firms in the U.S.

Nottingham affiliate OBP Capital LLC was established to assist Nottingham clients with ETFs, holding exemptive orders for both active and passive ETF structures. OBP Capital provides the oversight and compliance management necessary to effectively operate as an ETF investment advisor, and does not compete in any way with the subadvisor portfolio managers in Nottingham administered ETFs. About Nottingham The Nottingham Company, Inc. has been serving the fund accounting, administration, organization, and management needs of clients nationwide for over three decades. Based in Eastern North Carolina, Nottingham delivers a full range of turnkey services, handling clients' behind-the-scenes financial and administrative operations so they can focus on managing their portfolios. More information is available at ncfunds.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005361/en/

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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Oak Capital Advisors LLC, a sponsor of commercial real estate-focused alternative investments programs, announced today that the company grew assets under management to approximately $3.2 billion during 2019, its first year of operations. As a result of its rapid growth, the company has expanded its executive management team to include: Brian Ragsdale, executive vice president, transaction management; Jeff Rader, executive vice president, asset management; Michael Potter, senior vice president; and Jason Espiritu, vice president.

As previously announced, during 2019 Pacific Oak was named sponsor and advisor of Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT, Inc. and Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT II, Inc. (formerly known as KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT, Inc. and KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT II, Inc.). The company was also named external manager of Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT, which trades on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limits as "KepPacOakREITUSD," and Pacific Oak Residential Trust, formerly known as Reven Housing REIT, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT in November. Additionally, other affiliates of the company have successfully launched a number of private investment programs that have acquired hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commercial real estate assets throughout the United States.

"Pacific Oak enjoyed tremendous success in 2019, our first year of operations, and remains on an aggressive growth trajectory heading into 2020," said Peter McMillan, co-founder of Pacific Oak. "Fortunately, we have longstanding relationships with some of the most experienced professionals in the commercial real estate world and have been able to seamlessly expand our management team to match the exceptional growth of our assets under management."

Keith Hall, co-founder, added, "Brian, Jeff, Michael and Jason are proven professionals who add tremendous experience and expertise to Pacific Oak. We couldn't be more pleased that they have chosen to continue their professional relationships with us and to help us provide industry-leading service to our clients and investors."

Each of the new executive hires joined Pacific Oak from KBS Capital Advisors, where they previously worked under Mr. Hall and Mr. McMillan.

Pacific Oak and its affiliates facilitate the acquisition, disposition and management of commercial real estate and commercial real estate-related investment products, as well as the distribution of financial products designed to provide individual and institutional investors with the benefits that can accrue from the ownership of commercial real estate. Investment offerings include tax-advantaged Delaware statutory trusts (DSTs) and qualified opportunity zone funds (QOZFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), as well as other value-add alternative investment products.

Biographies of Additions to Pacific Oak Management

Brian Ragsdale, Executive Vice President, Transaction Management

Ragsdale is responsible for all origination and underwriting of loans, both by Pacific Oak Capital Advisors and those purchased from third parties. He has more than 22 years of experience in originating and negotiating commercial real estate mortgage loans and identifying equity acquisition opportunities.

Prior to joining Pacific Oak Capital Advisors, he was vice president of mortgage lending and real estate at AIG Global Investment Corp. where he was responsible for the supervision of the investment management department associated with AIG's $13 billion, 1,500-square-foot loan portfolio. Previously, Ragsdale was senior vice president of client portfolio management for Trammell Crow Company, and he was vice president of asset and portfolio management for PM Realty Advisors. While at PM Realty, he oversaw a 30-asset, $450 million portfolio owned by a state employee retirement fund.

Ragsdale graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree with honors in civil engineering and received his Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is the recipient of the Costa School of Real Estate Certificate at Southern Methodist University.

Jeff Rader, Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Rader is responsible for the acquisition, asset management and disposition of numerous Pacific Oak investments located across the United States for Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT I and Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT II. Previously at KBS, Rader underwrote, originated, purchased and managed debt investments for KBS REIT I, KBS REIT II and KBS REIT III.

Rader completed his Master of Business Administration in real estate and finance from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and holds a bachelor's degree in economics from DePauw University.

Michael Potter, Senior Vice President

Michael Potter has served as a senior vice president of Pacific Oak Capital Advisors since November 2019. As senior vice president for Pacific Oak Capital Advisors, he oversees and directs the origination, underwriting, financing and closing activities for acquisitions and joint venture opportunities. Prior to joining Pacific Oak Capital Advisors, Potter served as vice president for KBS Capital Advisors for more than seven years, where he was responsible for the origination and underwriting of direct acquisitions, joint ventures and loans in KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT I and II.

Potter completed his bachelor's degree at UC Davis and also earned a Master of Business Administration/ Master of Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California.

Jason Espiritu, Vice President

Jason Espiritu has served as a vice president of Pacific Oak Capital Advisors since November 2019. Prior to joining Pacific Oak Capital Advisors, he served as associate vice president for KBS Capital Advisors for five years. At KBS, Espiritu played an integral role in the acquisition of assets totaling more than $400 million and nearly 3 million square feet in Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT and Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT II. In 2017, Espiritu was instrumental in the sale of an $800 million, 3.2 million-square-foot portfolio into Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT, leading the due diligence and closing process on behalf of the KBS asset management team. In 2016, Espiritu spearheaded the due diligence effort in order to raise $250 million in proceeds through an Israeli bond issuance on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Prior to KBS, Espiritu served as an acquisitions analyst for one of the most active and seasoned buyers and operators of multifamily communities in the United States, the Bascom Group, which has completed in excess of $16.2 billion in multifamily and commercial value-added transactions since 1996. Espiritu began his career as a civil engineer, working for AECOM, a Fortune 500, multinational engineering firm and Stantec, a $4.3 billion revenue, Canada-based engineering company.

Espiritu obtained his bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of California, Irvine and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California.

Michael Bender, Chief Financial Officer

As chief financial officer, Mike Bender is responsible for the firm's finance, accounting, treasury and administrative functions. He has more than 30 years' experience in the financial services industry, focused on public companies.

His experience comes from previous leadership roles with several organizations, including Spirit Realty, Kamal Osman Jamjoon LLC (a Dubai-based retailer), Republic Services, American Express and FINOVA. Prior to those roles, Bender was a senior manager with Deloitte. He is a graduate of Arizona State University, with a Bachelor of Science in accounting degree and a Master of Business Administration. He is a certified public accountant (CPA).

Ben Aitkenhead, Managing Director, Pacific Oak Capital Advisors

Ben Aitkenhead is responsible for building and managing Pacific Oak's private placements business. In this role, he is building Pacific Oak's DST business, single-family rental business, and opportunity zone fund.

Prior to joining Pacific Oak, Aitkenhead was a managing director at Credit Suisse and a member of the Global Fixed Income Operating Committee. He held multiple positions in fixed income at Credit Suisse during his 22-year tenure at the firm, including head of Commercial Real Estate Finance, Securitized Products, co-head and national sales manager, head of Mortgage Special Servicing, and head of Real Estate Trading & Capital Markets. In these positions he was responsible for building multiple business platforms, capital raising, capital commitment, risk management, client relationships and strategic business development. Aitkenhead was co-head of the securitized products business throughout the global financial crisis in 2007-09. Credit Suisse did not receive any government bailout as a result of that crisis.

Aitkenhead received his Master of Arts degree in comparative politics from New York University, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. He is an independent director on the board of Blackstone Real Estate Investment Fund.

Jeremy Healey, Managing Director, Pacific Oak Residential Trust

Jeremy Healey is the co-founder of Battery Point Financial and its affiliates. Since 2009, he has focused on moderate and middle-income housing, including investments in both single-family and multifamily properties. He brings more than twenty years of experience in related fields from previous management positions at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, including principal transactions, real estate investments, structured asset investments and structured finance. Healey is a graduate of both Georgetown University (B.A.) and the Wharton School (M.B.A.).

Michael Gough, Managing Director, Pacific Oak Residential Trust

Michael Gough is a co-founder of Battery Point Financial and its affiliates. Michael is primarily responsible for portfolio management. He has more than twenty years of experience in sales and trading, proprietary investing, structured finance, alternative investments, debt capital markets, derivatives, real estate, and investment banking. Michael's experience includes tenures with Soloman Brothers and Credit Suisse. Michael is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

About Pacific Oak Capital Advisors

Pacific Oak Capital Advisors is an alternative investment asset management company that focuses on sponsoring and distributing financial products that provide quality investment opportunities to financial advisors, registered investment advisors, institutional investors and high net-worth clients.

Pacific Oak is driven by its mission to pursue opportunity through a broad range of real estate investments and to develop and manage these investment opportunities for the benefit of our clients, including our investors, joint venture partners, tenants, associates and communities. Our investment professionals are dedicated to matching capital with opportunities that produce above-market results and growth through real estate, private equity, and other alternative investment product offerings. Pacific Oak and its affiliated companies currently manage a portfolio of real estate valued in excess of $3.2 billion.

Contact: Damon Elder Spotlight Marketing Communications (949) 427-1377 [email protected]

SOURCE Pacific Oak Capital Advisors
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday expressed hope that trade between India and Brazil will grow to USD 15 billion by 2022, as the latter is one of our most important partners in the entire LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) region.

"The visit of the Brazilian President Bolsonaro, is a sign of the growing importance of the India-Brazil bilateral partnership," said Goyal, while addressing the inaugural session of the India-Brazil Business Forum held in Delhi. "The 15 MoUs signed during the visit of the President of Brazil shows the power of democracy, demography, leadership, the talent pool available in India, India's market and the aspirations of one billion Indian citizens for a better life," the Union Minister added.

Goyal also noted that this was the most productive visit by a Brazilian Head of State, as the MoUs were signed on investments, trade facilitation, social security, agriculture, defence and double taxation.

READ | PM Modi Hopes To Upgrade Strategic Partnership With Brazil With An 'action Plan'

Growth in the Railway sector

The Union Minister also looks forward to a growth in investments in the sectors of clean energy, startups, railways and creation of value chains between India and Brazil, so that the goods could be semi-assembled in one country and finished in another.

Goyal, who also holds the Railway Ministry, announced that the entire Indian Railways will be fully electrified by 2024, running completely on clean energy, and with zero-emission by 2030.

He further suggested that India-Brazil Business Leader's Forum should be activated and reconstituted to increase its relevance and make it more contemporary to businesses in the two countries.

READ | Deputy Minister Of Economy For Brazil Speaks About Bilateral Trade Relations With India

Growth in the wellness sector

Noting that since Brazil has a strong community of yoga and Ayurveda practitioners, Piyush Goyal said that it could benefit India's services in the wellness sector as well.

Brazil has a non-profit association of Ayurveda (ABRA), with offices in nine states and its members all over the country. The third International Conference on Ayurveda was held from March 12 to 15, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro. More than 4,000 delegation participated in the conference, including India.

India and Brazil share a close relationship at the bilateral level as well as plurilateral panels like BRICS, BASIC, G-20, IBSA, International Solar Alliance (ISA) and also at multilateral bodies like UN, UNESCO and WIPO, Goyal said.

Piyush Goyal concluded saying that the decade-old bilateral strategic partnership is based on a common global goal, shared democratic values and a dedication to promoting economic growth for the welfare of the people of both countries.

READ | India, Brazil Set Target Of USD 15 Billion In Bilateral Trade By 2022

READ | India, Brazil Decide To Deepen Anti-terror Cooperation

(With inputs from ANI)
Photo: Kelly Keirnan/Unsplash

Here's what you need to know about what's happening in Philadelphia.

Kobe, in Philly in March, urged students: 'Do not be afraid to dream'

NBA legend Kobe Bryant surprised middle school students in March 2019 in West Philadelphia.

Read the full story on 6abc Action News.

Dog fights to survive after being shot while protecting owner

A Philadelphia man is hoping for a full recovery for his best friend Billy, a bull terrier that was shot during a robbery last week.

Read the full story on 6abc Action News.

Philly 'city slickers receive millions in federal farm subsidies over 25 years

Ever since the 1930s, government subsidies have been paid to farmers to offset agricultural cost and risk. But money also is funneled to children, first cousins, nieces and other relatives living far from the farms.

Read the full story on Billy Penn.

Woman dies in crash on Kelly Drive

A woman is dead after a car crashed into a wall on Philadelphias Kelly Drive. The crash happened near West Hunting Park Avenue around 2 a.m. Sunday.

Read the full story on CBS Philly.

1 person injured, cat dies in North Philly apartment fire

The fire started around 12:15 a.m. Sunday at the Spencer Arms Apartments on the 900 block of West Spencer Street.

Read the full story on CBS Philly.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Students who were affected by the Taal eruption will have to make up for the weeks-long class suspension by going to school on Saturdays from February to April.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said Monday that they have proposed a modified school calendar so students to have enough time to prepare for their graduation, recognition, or moving up ceremonies by the end of the school year.

"We'll be having classes on Saturdays and Sundays. With due apologies to our learners and our students, but in order to have our children graduate on time, they have to comply with the requirements," Briones said in a media briefing in Malacanang.

With the proposed resumption of classes on February 3, schools affected by the eruption will have to hold six-day classes every week until April 4 and a Sunday class on April 5, Briones said.

Final examination dates for Grades 6 and Grade 12 are targeted for March 20 and 21, and March 27 and 28 for Grades 1 to 5 and Grades 7 to 11.

By April 1 to 6, schools are expected to have already conducted their year-end preparations, graduation, recognition and moving up ceremonies.

Briones, noted, however that it is up to local governments of the affected areas to decide and take action on this recommendation.

Latest data from the DepEd shows a total of 644,841 learners were affected in the Calabarzon region, particularly in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna.

Briones added that 328 schools from the eight divisions in this region are still being used as evacuation centers.

The Education secretary reiterated her appeal to local government units to use schools as evacuation centers only as last resort in order to allow students to push through with classes unhampered.

Student evacuees are encouraged to enroll in nearby schools, while school officials must be lenient with their requirements as transferees.

"Students should be taken in with or without documentation," Briones said.

Briones signed a memorandum on January 15 calling on public schools to accept displaced students from Calabarzon, following Taal's eruption.

READ: 2.4 million students affected by Taal eruption  DepEd

State volcanologists lowered Taal Volcanos alert status to Level 3 on Sunday, two weeks after the volcano's eruption on January 12 that led to a forced evacuation of thousands of families in the surrounding areas.
What's different about this year's budget proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo has nothing to do with the size of the looming $6 billion budget gap. Albany has successfully wrestled with larger gaps often. The problem is that for the first time we're headed for a collision between the two sacred cows of state government. This budget pits health care spending against education spending. It's been a long time coming, and the results will not be pretty.

Health care spending has been increasing at a strong rate. Two dynamics are driving this.

First, we chose to vastly expand services, including long-term care and home care, and to vastly expand the number of New Yorkers eligible for subsidized services, mostly because of Obamacare. As a result, 95 percent of New Yorkers now have access to health care, something to be proud of.

Second, we chose to subsidize rural health care facilities in ways that are socially defensible but very expensive. Small-town hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and networks are operating at high costs. We rightly want care available within a reasonable time and distance. It's effective. It's just not efficient.

Similarly, school spending has increased at a strong rate for two reasons.

First, we de-emphasized the wealth of school districts as a criterion for school aid, largely to help New York City, which is a wealthy district with enormous numbers of at-risk students. We also focused additional aid on other urban districts with similar student populations.

Second, we addressed the social costs of high property taxes. The STAR program in particular used state dollars to mitigate high school tax bills, especially on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley and in other suburban districts across the state.

Now the sacred cows have come home to roost, to mix a metaphor. It will be enormously difficult to continue these policies, both economically and politically.

Both sectors have powerful friends. Hospitals, nurses, health care workers unions, and doctors have organized statewide and locally to defend the expanded health care system. This is a good thing.

School boards, teachers unions, and taxpayer groups have similar statewide and local organizations that have done an excellent job in support of schools and school aid.

The easy solutions are unlikely. Soaking the rich has its limits. Even if you zeroed-out state aid for the 50 wealthiest districts, you would not raise anywhere near enough money to meet the needs of the other districts. A billionaire's tax has similar practical limitations. There will be efforts to move in this direction, and to save elsewhere in the budget, such as the bloated "economic development" giveaways. This makes both political and economic sense; it just won't be enough.

It is unlikely that Albany will abandon its basic choices. And we're incredibly fortunate that revenues remain strong. But this budget is likely to contain long-range course corrections the impact of which will be felt more in coming years than immediately. These include a downsizing of the upstate rural health care system; a smaller state contribution to school property tax mitigation; a narrowing of the scope of long-term and home health care programs; a flattening of the rate of school aid increases; and state intervention in the internal distribution of New York City school funds.

In other words, the problems of both sacred cows will be managed, not confronted. There's a virtue in relative calm and peace in the short term. But the handwriting is on the wall: Structural change is coming in this year's budget.

Richard Brodsky is a former state Assembly member.
TORONTO - Wait times for children and youth mental health services have more than doubled in two years, according to a report from care providers who are urging Premier Doug Ford's government to increase spending to address the delays.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO - Wait times for children and youth mental health services have more than doubled in two years, according to a report from care providers who are urging Premier Doug Ford's government to increase spending to address the delays.

The report from Children's Mental Health Ontario, released Monday by the association representing Ontario's publicly funded child and youth mental health centres, says 28,000 children and youth are currently on wait lists for treatment across the province. The number is up from approximately 12,000 in 2017.

Chief Executive Officer Kimberly Moran said rising rates of depression and anxiety among children and youth and years of under-funding have contributed to the rise in wait times.

"It's frustrating from a service provider's perspective," Moran said. "They understand that when we wait, kids can get more ill and they watch that happen ... and I think families are just outraged that they have to wait this long."

The report shows wait times for service can vary dramatically depending where in the province a child seeks treatment and on the care required. Waits can range from just days for mild issues to nearly two and a half years for more complex behavioural interventions, the report said.

The group calls on the government to live up to its spending commitments on mental health services, asking it to direct $150 million towards hiring front-line clinicians in the spring budget.

If the province spent that money, it could quickly ramp up hiring for over 1,400 workers and that would cut the average wait for care to around 30 days, the report said.

"The government hasn't kept their promise about reducing wait times," Moran said. "We want to hold them to account for that."

Ford has promised to spend $1.9 billion on mental health care over the next decade, a commitment that would include bolstering addictions and housing supports across the province. He has also said the money will help cut wait times for youth who need treatment.

The $1.9 billion pledge will be matched by the federal government, bringing the total commitment to $3.8 billion.

Health Minister Christine Elliott's office did not immediately provide comment on the latest report.

Meanwhile on Friday, Sarah Cannon told a legislative finance committee holding pre-budget consultations in Niagara Falls, Ont., that spending on the mental health services should be needs-based. The mother of two girls who have made multiple suicide attempts after struggling with anxiety and depression said treatment is still not given priority in the health-care system.

"If I took my daughter to the hospital tomorrow and she was diagnosed with cancer, treatment would be immediate," she said. "When I took my daughter to the hospital after she almost died (by suicide) ... they needed us to wait."

Cannon said increased funding would bolster treatment capacity in the system and could have a profound impact on the lives of children and their families.

"We are fighting for our children's lives," she said. "That's what it comes down to."

The executive director of mental health programs at SickKids and the SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health told pre-budget consultations at the legislature last week about increases in demand for that hospital's services.

Christina Bartha said because of the strain on front-line service providers, families from well outside Toronto are seeking care in hospital because they don't know where else to turn.

"Many families drive to SickKids seeking help, and when we try to refer them back to their home community, we see the long wait times that they are facing."

Bhutila Karpoche, NDP critic for Mental Health and Addictions, said Friday that the report offers a snapshot of a youth "mental health crisis" and underscores the urgent need for investment.

Karpoche has tabled a private members' bill that, if passed, would cap wait times for children and youth mental health services at 30 days.

"When I tabled the bill the wait list was up to 12,000 children waiting on average 18 months," she said. "In the year since the government has let the bill languish ... we're now seeing how much worse it's gotten."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version mistakenly said the province could hire more than 14,000 workers with $150 million.
T he coronavirus outbreak has triggered a warning to be wary of xenophobia to be issued across boarding schools in the UK.

The Boarding Schools Association issued new instructions that its members should be watchful for prejudice against Chinese pupils by others, be it online or in person.

Recent figures say that China sends more pupils to UK fee-paying schools than anywhere else in the world, with one sixth of international students hailing from the country.

However the guidance from the BSA adds that pupils who have been to China should be told when they get back to the UK that they may be quarantined, and face other protective measures.

Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP

The coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, Hubei, in central China, has killed at least 81 people and infected thousands of others across 10 countries.

At least 73 people in the UK have been tested for the virus, but all came back negative.

Updated information published on the BSAs website gives its member schools information on the virus and advice on dealing with the situation.

In a section on supporting students, the guidance says it is natural that students, particularly those from China, will be concerned.

The BSA suggests that pupils from affected areas should be suitably and publicly supported.

Students returning from China may be quarantined (Reuters) / REUTERS

They will be worried about themselves but more particularly about their friends and families, the advice says.

And it also counsels schools to, stay alert for any signs of xenophobia by students towards one another, or by any external audiences, either in school or on social media sites.

Such behaviour should not be tolerated and action should be taken against anyone acting in this way, it adds.

On the issue of xenophobia, A BSA spokesperson said: We have not heard of anything happening in our schools, and we dont envisage it happening in our schools, we are trying to make sure we are covering every eventuality.

A separate section on pupils travelling to China advises schools that they should tell students who decide to travel that protective measures could well be in place before they return.

Depending on how the virus spreads in that time, this could include the need for returning pupils to be quarantined, it says.

Schools should work with guardians to develop quarantine processes, the guidance says, adding: This should not be seen as an over-reaction or scare-mongering but is based on experience gained from the progress of previous such diseases.

The BSA also says it understands that some schools have already cancelled visits from prospective parents, agents and pupils from China.

While cancellation may be unnecessary, it is obviously prudent to minimise any unnecessary risk, it says.
NEW DELHI (AP)  Thousands of Indians converged on a ceremonial boulevard in the capital amid tight security to celebrate the Republic Day on Sunday, which marks the 1950 anniversary of the countrys democratic constitution.

During the celebrations, schoolchildren, folk dancers, and police and military battalions marched through New Delhis parade route, followed by a military hardware display.

Beyond the show of military power, the parade also included ornate floats highlighting Indias cultural diversity as men, women and children in colorful dresses performed traditional dances, drawing applause from the spectators.

The 90-minute event, broadcast live, was watched by millions of Indians on their television sets across the country.

Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro was the chief guest for this years celebrations.

He was accorded the ceremonial Guard of Honor by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhawan, the sprawling presidential palace.

Bolsonaro joined the two Indian leaders as the military parade marched through a central avenue near the Presidential Palace.

At the parade, Bolsonaro watched keenly as mechanized columns of Indian tanks, rocket launchers, locally made nuclear-capable missile systems and other hardware rolled down the parade route and air force jets sped by overhead.

Apart from attending the Republic Day celebrations, Bolsonaros visit was also aimed at strengthening trade and investment ties across a range of fields between the two countries.

On Saturday, Modi and Bolsonaro reached an agreement to promote investment in each others country.

Before the parade, Modi paid homage to fallen soldiers at the newly built National War Memorial in New Delhi as the national capital was put under tight security cover.

Smaller parades were also held in the state capitals.

Police said five grenades were lobbed in the eastern Assam state by separatist militants who have routinely boycotted the Republic Day celebrations. No one was injured, police said.

Story continues

Sundays blasts also come at a time when Assam has been witnessing continuous protests against the new citizenship law that have spread to many Indian states.

The law approved in December provides a fast-track to naturalization for persecuted religious minorities from some neighboring Islamic countries, but excludes Muslims.

Nationwide protests have brought tens of thousands of people from different faiths and backgrounds together, in part because the law is seen by critics as part of a larger threat to the secular fabric of Indian society.

___

Associated Press writer Wasbir Hussain contributed to this report.
Actor Aamir Khan thanked actor Akshay Kumar and filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala on Monday for agreeing to shift the release date of their upcoming film, Bachchan Pandey, at his request. This means that Aamirs upcoming film, Laal Singh Chaddha, will be a solo release on Christmas this year.

Taking to Twitter, Aamir wrote: Sometimes all it takes is one conversation. Thank you to my friends @akshaykumar & Sajid Nadiadwala for their warm gesture of moving the release date of their film Bachchan Pandey at my request. I wish them the very best for their film. Looking forward to it. Love. a.

Akshay replied to say: Anytime @aamir_khan, were all friends here Presenting - new look, new release date. Coming on 22nd January, 2021. In and as #BachchanPandey! #SajidNadiadwala @farhad_samji @kritisanon.

Laal Singh Chaddha is the official Hindi remake of Hollywood film Forrest Gump. The film will star Aamir and Kareena Kapoor in lead roles. Towards the end of last year, the actors were stationed in Chandigarh for a long shoot of the film. Pictures of both Aamir and Kareena got leaked, where Aamir can be seen in a plain pant and shirt combination with a lilac pagdi (Sikh headgear) while Kareena is in a simple pink and purple salwar kameez. Some days later, Aamir was spotted in Rajasthans Jaisalmer region shooting for the film, this time in a rather dishevelled look. He was later spotted in Himachal Pradesh as well. Directed by Advait Chandan, famous for his film Secret Superstar, Laal Singh Chaddha has been written by Atul Kulkarni.

Also Watch l Why Akshay Kumar called Kareena Miss Know-It-All at #HTLS2019

Also read | Grammys 2020 red carpet pics: Priyanka Chopras plunging neckline is too hot to handle, Nick Jonas is her perfect date. See best looks

Bachchan Pandey, meanwhile, will be directed by Farhad Samji and will see Akshay romance his Housefull 4 co-star Kirti Sanon. In July last year, the first look of Akshays character was unveiled. He was seen donning a black lungi with a golden border. Moreover, adding to his tough look, the actor put on think chunk of gold chains with a nunchak in his hand and forehead smeared with vibhuti and red tilak. Only in November last year was Kriti confirmed to star in Bachchan Pandey. Announcing the news on Twitter, the official handle of Nadiadwala Grandson welcomed the actor writing, Were extremely happy and elated to announce the charming Kriti Sanon is here to make our Christmas 2020 merrier than ever! Welcome back to the #NGEFamily with #BachchanPandey!

(With agencies inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Paper Mill Workers in Finland Begin Widespread Strikes, Mediation to Continue Tuesday The Paper Workers' Union has estimated that 9,000 of its members will participate in the weeks-long strike that shuts down pulp and paper mills across the country starting at 6am today. (Lauri Heino  Lehtikuva) Jan. 27, 2020 (Helsinki Times) - Widespread strikes began this morning in the pulp and paper industry after an unsuccessful last-minute attempt to mediate a settlement to the labour dispute between Finnish Forest Industries and the Finnish Paper Workers' Union. The Paper Workers' Union has estimated that 9,000 of its members will participate in the weeks-long strike that shuts down pulp and paper mills across the country starting at 6am today. The union announced earlier yesterday it will extend the strike for another week to last until 16 February. Jyrki Hollmen, the director of industrial relations at Finnish Forest Industries, told STT in the early hours of today that the negotiations were promising but failed to produce a settlement to the dispute. Spokespeople for the Paper Workers' Union were unavailable for a comment after the suspension of the talks, but the union stated on its website that the parties remained far apart in their views at 9pm on Sunday. The labour market organisations will re-convene on Tuesday, 28 January, according to the Office of the National Conciliator. Finnish Forest Industries on Sunday announced it will enforce a lockout at a total of 12 pulp, paper and cardboard mills in an attempt to find an agreement in the negotiations that improves the cost competitiveness of forest industry companies by a minimum of 30 per cent, wrote Helsingin Sanomat. The three-day lockout will apply to members of Paper Workers' Union, Trade Union Pro and Finnish Electrical Workers' Union as of 10 February. Go to the complete article at the Helsinki Times: Helsinki Times SOURCE: Helsinki Times
Last Decembers UK general election was really only about one thing: Brexit.

If your political party was on the wrong side of public opinion on Brexit, then you had no chance, as both the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party found to their cost.

The Irish general election is not about Brexit, even though Fine Gael seemed to think so, at the outset. Rather, it is about housing and health and crime and pensions.

The problem remains, however, that these critical issues cant be tackled without a strong economy, and Brexit still poses a real threat to our economy beyond 2020.

While the British may well have decided that they have got Brexit done, the machinations are really only starting.

The Brexit withdrawal agreement preserves the dual mode form of trading existence  part UK, part EU  for the North, as proposed by British prime minister, Boris Johnson, in October.

It also creates breathing space for negotiation of the so-called future arrangements between the UK and the EU.

Mr Johnson has already established a well-publicised deadline for these negotiations: December 31. This seems like a particularly shrewd move and for reasons beyond the conventional wisdom that a deadline always focuses minds.

Under the clauses of the European treaties that deal with the departure of the country from the EU club, most future arrangements before December 31 can be agreed by the EU by qualified majority (generally, most EU member countries representing most of the EU population).

Anything agreed after December 31, 2020, will have to be done by unanimity among the 27 remaining EU member countries, as it falls outside the period of the current withdrawal agreement.

Unanimity within the EU is a very tall order. Remember that the EU/Canada deal almost fell at the final hurdle, some years ago, when the Belgians ran into difficulties getting the deal across the line in their own country.

This is something the EU Council will be particularly attuned to, given that its new president, Charles Michel, was prime minister of Belgium at the time.

The UK can, legitimately, seek to put the more controversial stuff  issues to do with standards, market access, and equivalences  earliest on the negotiating table to avail of an easier pass through the EU approval process.

For the first time since the June 2016 poll, the British can take some control over the direction of the negotiations.

They are already signalling that close alignment with the EU is not a foregone conclusion.

But dont overlook the governing principle for the EU in the negotiations: no other country shall leave.

Writing for Project Syndicate just before Christmas, EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, stated that his goals for 2020 were to maintain the capacity for the EU to co-operate closely with the UK at the global level, to forge a strong security partnership, and to negotiate a new economic agreement.

Data courtesy of The Irish Times

You can add a fourth goal: keeping all the other countries in the EU. If Britain does better by leaving, that goal is undermined.

Irish business, in particular, must not become lulled by the notion that Brexit is getting done, and that  for us  Brexit is not an election issue.

The current government has been successful, up to now, in keeping Irish interests to the fore. The next government will have to do the same.

That means that Irish interests need to be kept to the fore early in the negotiations, rather than postponed in the hope that they can be addressed after December 31.

Because of the extent of our trade with Britain, we may want a more comprehensive trade agreement with the UK than some of our EU counterpart countries.

We may not get it.

Brian Keegan is director of public policy at Chartered Accountants Ireland
The Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, has called on Christians and Muslims to show genuine respect and mutual acceptance towards each others beliefs.

Paul Samasumo  Vatican City

Even though our practice of religion in Nigeria is quite laudable and impressive, we must be careful to check that it is devoid of externalism and fanaticism, whereby we tend to be judgmental of others and try to see the speck in the eyes of others but not the log of wood in our eyes! Let us face it. We have two major religions in Nigeria: Christianity and Islam. We also have minority indigenous or tribal religions devoted to and contented mainly in performing their ancestral rituals and sacrifices. They have no ambition for territorial expansion or conquest or struggle for numerical supremacy. What they dont want as they perform their rituals is for anyone to intrude into their sacred space or to violate their cultural norms and tenets, said Archbishop Kaigama.

Mutual respect is the key

The Archbishop said the problem with religious practice was the failure of genuine acceptance and mutual respect of each other especially by the adherents of Christianity and Islam. Most of the excuses given for hate have nothing to do with the faith but rather the craving for dominance and supremacy. This manifests itself in the misuse of power or economic resources with the view to get things done in favour of ones religious group.

Do not indoctrinate children

Archbishop Kaigama decried the teaching of hate to children.

There is also the case of indoctrination whereby children in families and schools are made to hate others who are of different religious views and practice and to call them derogatory names. Such indoctrination sticks so much that it becomes so difficult to overcome later in (ones) adult life. This, unfortunately happens instead of instilling or propagating healthy ideas that favour the cross fertilisation of religious values. With this, children grow up with incredibly deep-seated religious prejudices against members of the other religion. Is it any wonder that simple matters whether of a social, economic or political nature soon become so complex and evolve into unhealthy religious propaganda with attendant violence and the unfortunate loss of lives? the Abuja prelate wondered.

Interreligious dialogue for peace

Archbishop Kaigama made the remarks in Abuja, Nigeria at a KAICIID and Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace (IDFP) event, late last week.

About 150 participants attended the conference. Also present were the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Dr. Samson Ayokunle; the Sultan of Sokoto, Alh. Muahammad Saad Abubakar; the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II among other dignitaries.

The theme of the conference was, Interreligious Dialogue: Strengthening the Culture of Peace, Justice and Reconciliation."

People of different faiths coming together

Interreligious dialogue, also referred to as interfaith dialogue, is about people of different faiths coming to a mutual understanding and respect that allows them to live and cooperate with each other in spite of their differences.
Armenias ruling bloc forced a member of Yerevans municipal assembly to resign on Monday after he seemingly urged fellow government supporters to attack Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasians daughter on social media.

The 20-year-old member, Henrik Hartenian, posted a link to Sara Tovmasians Facebook page and wrote: Come on, dear guys!

Hartenians Facebook post came amid a renewed war of words between Hrayr Tovmasian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. It was widely construed as an appeal to his followers to make abusive comments, causing outrage among both supporters and critics of the Armenian government.

The pro-government majority in the city council was quick to issue a statement condemning Hartenian. The latter announced his resignation from the council after a three-hour meeting with the other council members representing Pashinians My Step bloc.

We reaffirmed that this does not befit our value system and runs counter to the principles espoused by us, Suren Eiramjian, the leader of the My Step group in the city council, said after the meeting. In keeping with those principles, we asked, urged Mr. Hartenian to resign his seat.

Everyone expressed their view and their discontent while [Hartenian] presented his motives, said Arman Antonian, another My Step councilor. But motives do not matter in this case.

Hartenian, who declined to talk to reporters, is also a member of Pashinians Civil Contract party, the dominant component of the ruling bloc. His social media post was condemned by a Civil Contract commission monitoring actions of party members.

Hate speech and intolerance are extremely condemnable, the commission said in a statement.

Armenias human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, also condemned the young councilor and said all public office holders must show proper conduct. Nobody has the right to target private lives and especially children and steer [political] tension in that direction, he said.

Tovmasian has been under strong government pressure to resign in the last several months. He is also facing criminal charges which he rejects a politically motivated. The Constitutional Court chairman has said that he will not step down.
He had given her a SIM card to talk to him and took her to Medak, where he sexually assaulted her after promising her marriage. (Photo: AFP)

Hyderabad: A centring worker, who was booked on the charges of kidnap and rape of a girl at Sanathnagar police station, was convicted and sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by a court on Monday.

On June 23, 2014, a case of an 18-year-old first year engineering student going missing was registered with the Sanathnagar police. The police traced and rescued the girl.

The girl had told the police that one R. Anil, 24, a centring worker from Hafeezpet, had deceived her on the pretext of love. He had given her a SIM card to talk to him and took her to Medak, where he sexually assaulted her after promising her marriage.

The girl later learned that Anil was already married.

The police then booked Anil on the charges of rape, cheating and kidnap and arrested him.

After investigation, a charge-sheet was filed before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court at LB Nagar.

On conducting a trial, Judge N. Narsing Rao, on Monday convicted Anil.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the open a regional counter-terrorism meeting at the police academy in Bogota, Colombia on January 20, 2020. Photo: Daniel Garzon Herazo/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The United States Secretary of State has publicly warned the UK not to allow Chinese telecoms company Huawei to work on its 5G infrastructure.

Mike Pompeo said in a tweet on Sunday night the UK faced a momentous decision that risked its sovereignty.

Pompeo quoted a tweet from Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who warned that Britain would face a real cost to its sovereignty if Huawei was allowed to work on 5G. Tugendhat, who is seeking re-election as the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said in a separate tweet the UK would hand control to Beijing if Huawei was cleared.

British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign, Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

READ MORE: UK officials formally recommend limited role for Huawei in 5G networks

The public intervention by Pompeo extends a lobbying campaign by the US to prevent the UK working with Huawei. US officials are concerned Huaweis involvement in 5G could allow the Chinese government to spy on sensitive communications.

The UK is part of the so-called five eyes intelligence sharing group, made up of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain. The five countries share sensitive national security and threat information, leading to fears that any compromise within one member state could endanger the security of all parties.

Huawei is thought to have close links to the Chinese state and US officials believe it could be easily compromised. US President Donald Trump described Huawei as a security risk at a NATO summit in December and officials presented a dossier of concerns to British officials earlier this month. The US placed Huawei on a sanctions list last years.

If you look at the role of technology, it is critical that we have infrastructure that is protected, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said during in a speech in London on Saturday.

READ MORE: US-China battle on Huawei could lead to a 'splinternet'

Story continues

Despite the pressure, UK appears poised to approve a limited role for working on the 5G network, with a decision due on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC earlier this month: If people oppose one brand or another, then they have to tell us which is the alternative?

Home Secretary Priti Patel said Sunday during an interview with Sky: We are having discussions, and rightly so, and those discussions remain at the National Security Council level and within-Cabinet level.

Former UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt raised concerns Monday, telling the BBCs Today Programme: I always wondered whether it was wise to allow ourselves to become technologically dependent on another country, whichever country, for something as critical as 5G technology.
In a 90-minute "Ask Me Anything" session, Macmillan CEO John Sargent met with librarians at the ALA Midwinter Meeting to hear feedback and to defend the publisher's controversial eight-week embargo on new release e-books in libraries. And despite palpable tension in the room, there was little news, no real surprises, and the meeting came off pretty much as expected.

Among the few newsworthy moments, Sargent told librarians that it was too early to tell whether the embargo, which took effect on November 1, was serving its function. Its been exactly what we predictedyou have this horrific drop in sales because were not making [new titles] available, he said, adding that it would probably take another "two or three months" to better assess the program.

With no presentation, notes, or slides, Sargent opened the session by briefly recapping the publishers previously stated rationale for pursuing the embargo. In essence, Sargent explained, Macmillan executives are concerned that the rapid growth of library e-book lending is creating an imbalance in the publishing ecosystem, not unlike the growth curve Amazon created when it first launched the Kindle and priced new release e-books at $9.99. That "imbalance" eventually led publishers in 2010 to take control of consumer e-book pricing by switching to the agency model for e-books, he notedand, led to five of the then Big Six publishers, including Macmillan, being sued with Apple for price-fixing.

In his talk, Sargent insisted the embargo wasnt designed to punish libraries, but was an honest effort to correct what he sees as a troubling, emerging imbalance in the digital marketplace. To restore balance, Sargent told librarians, the publisher had basically two levers at its disposal: pricing, and availability. With library e-book prices already high, Sargent said Macmillan executives did some math and concluded that tweaking the availability lever seemed worth a shot.

Librarians and library supporters, of course, have strongly disagreed with that choice. And in the opening minutes of the session, Sargent acknowledged the resistance. "You dont like the availability solution, Sargent said. But, on the other hand you dont like the price solution, either.

Later in the talk, Sargent told librarians that Macmillan would not be reversing the embargo at this stage. "We've gone down this path," he said. "We will gather information and at some point will sit down and will try to make some good decisions." But, Sargent did not rule out changes in the future.

This is a complex ecosystem. What we are trying to do is use the levers we have available to try to figure out an answer, Sargent said. We tried something. Its clear that the library community did not like what we tried. I still think theres value in it. But, is it the right thing to do? I dont know. We might look at having two models. You can buy it from this model, or you can buy it from that model. We are not saying we are going to do this forever. We are trying to find a way to fix an issue that we all have.

What About the Data?

But what, exactly, is the issue? A number of librarians at the session pressed Sargent to more fully detailand sharethe data from which he is drawing his conclusions. For example, Sargents contention in the session that 55% of Macmillans digital reads in the U.S., on any device or platform, are coming from libraries. (Note: in the July 2019 memo announcing the embargo Sargent put this number at 45%).

In a somewhat newsworthy moment, Sargent confirmed for librarians what many have assumed all along: that Amazon data is a key part of the mix. The people who have the largest amount of data in the ecosystem is Amazon. They are the only player that has both sides of the data, Sargent explained, noting that the Kindle is the largest reading platform not only in terms of retail e-books, but libraries as well, through its partnership with OverDrive.

And, Sargent made clear that librarians are not going to see the data backing up his claims. All the data [Amazon] has on our books and all the data they share with us is under extremely strict nondisclosure agreements, Sargent said, adding that all the data Amazon is "willing to share with us is determined only by them. Nondisclosure agreements also prohibit sharing OverDrive data, Sargent said, another key source.

 I would just say, on behalf of the people in this room, its been really hard to listen to you kind of explain to us our work in a way that is not fundamentally correct. 

That answer visibly frustrated many in attendance. "But it's our data," one librarian protested. "They're getting it from us."

Guy Gonzalez, who now directs the OverDrive-funded Panorama project, pointed out that the data being put forth by Macmillan is contested by vendors and librarians, and asked how Macmillan expects to get librarians or other stakeholders on board with without common data points?

This led to one of a few moments of mild drama from the session, as Hillsboro (Oregon) Public Library director Stephanie Chase politely, but firmly, rebuked Sargent for nearly two minutes.

I think some of what is so hard is that there are many people in this room who were part of these conversations with you 15 years ago, 10 years ago. And what I hear is that you still view us as a problem, Chase said. Until you see us as part of your ecosystem, and not a problem in your ecosystem, I think were not going to get anywhere. And thats why it remains so difficult to have these conversations with Macmillan, and why you see so many librarians so willing to say, you know what, hands up. I would just say, on behalf of the people in this room, its been really hard to listen to you kind of explain to us our work in a way that is not fundamentally correct. The room applauded in agreement.

In response, Sargent offered a sincere apology.

I was told that same thing last night, and in no uncertain terms, that my language is sometimes not good, Sargent said. What I see is an ecosystem unbalanced, and it worries me about the future of the book. Thats what worries me. And I think that is a library worry. I think thats a retailer worry. I think thats an author worry. I think its an ecosystem-wide worry. And I apologize if Im giving you the impression that I think this great institution, thats fundamental to the United States, the library, is a problem. I apologize. I dont mean it to be that way.

Free

Another big worry, Sargent explained, is his concern that the "continued marketing" of free, including from libraries, is training consumers to stop paying for books. Sargent acknowledged that libraries pay hefty prices for time-limited e-books. But he expressed concern that, to the end user, the book is still free.

"The shorter the waiting lists get, the more patrons are going to say 'I love this free e-book reading,' and we are already seeing significant numbers of people saying Im going to switch from print to e-books because I can get them all for free," Sargent said, citing new and developing apps and browser extensions that he claims are helping to spike library e-book lends.

So, if libraries are not the problem, one librarian asked, what is?

"The biggest problem we see is actually the incredible increase in circulation, and how and where it comes from," Sargent said. "We see policies put in place where library cards are extremely easy to get and many people can get many library cards. We see policies where libraries are willing to, for $10, to sell library cards around the world. We see apps and technology that is developed extremely quickly, as they always are, with the sole intent of moving people from a purchase to a lend. And that causes this great acceleration."

Sargent said it wasn't the "actual baseline" number of people libraries reach and circulate to in their communities that has him alarmed, but the "explosive" growth curve driven by these various forces.

"If you are in the state of California, you can easily own a library card for every library in the state of California, and when a book comes out that you want, you can put your name on every wait list in every county, and there are apps being developed to make that easier to do, and so that drives up the number of lends for every book in every library and that causes the amount of money per reader reading a book to go down. And that is the change that we worry about."

Librarians were quick to respond. "One of the things we say in libraries is don't make a policy based on the worst case scenario, and that's what that sounds like to me," one librarian said. "Sure, those things happen, but that's not the vast majority of our users."

"It is not," Sargent agreed. "But what we see is a tremendous increase in it."

Equity of Access

The library community's opposition to the embargo, of course, is directly connected to a core library value: equity of access. And throughout the session, librarians questioned whether Sargent understood the burden Macmillan's embargo places on librarians and on public library users.

Sargent insisted he did understand.

"Look, we have windowed stuff forever. It's the hardcover and the paperback," he said. "We could do that, we could take this model that we have and change it entirely. We could say instead were not going to make the books unavailable to you, but were going to make a tough decision for you. Do I want to buy the book here, or do I want to wait just eight weeks and buy it here. We thought the issue for youand we may be wrong, and Id love it if if we were wrongthe issue for you is that your patron would still want that book, and you'd have this big price tag and then he's pounding the table in your library saying 'I need you to buy that book' and then you'd be saying, oh god, what is that going to do to my budget?"

One librarian quickly shot down the comparison of e-books to hardcover vs. paperback (hardcovers and cheaper paperbacks are generally not published simultaneously; e-books are first run publications), adding that not letting libraries license digital copies for books that are available to consumers is unfair to digital readers who will never be able to afford to buy a book, or can't use print, or get to a physical library.

"I agree," Sargent said. "And this is something I've been adamant about, and actually we were talking about the other night. I have always been adamant about, if we can find a way to address that issue, right, the disadvantaged people who cannot afford to pay, if we can find a way to address that..."

"They're called libraries!" a librarian shouted, pointing out that the issue is not finding a way to serve the disadvantagedthe core library value of equitable of access is about serving all. "Public libraries are meant to be the great equalizer in our society. Benjamin Franklin and all of the great founders of our society thought that this was important. And now youre limiting access because you want people to buy it?"

The exchange made clear a theme that persisted throughout the session: Macmillan should have more deeply engaged librarians about the problems they saw, and the models they were considering.

Sargent resisted that contention. "We talked to what we thought was a representative sample of libraries, and the library associations," he said. "We went on a listening tour at [the ALA 2019 Midwinter Meeting in Seattle] and got a ton of feedback." However, Sargent said the librarians Macmillan consulted would continually ask for cheaper e-book prices, and perpetual access. "What we got to was, in the end, I dont know, call it an impasse."

If there was one positive to come out of the session, meanwhile, it is that the lines of communication between the library community and the publisher now appear to be engaged. During the session, Sargent agreed to pull in a wider array of library associations in ongoing discussions, rather a sampling of individual libraries.

"Let us help you come up with a model," one librarian at the session implored. "We have really smart people in this room."

"That's why I'm here," Sargent replied.

What Now?

Another moment of mild drama came at the end of the session. With Sargent still in the room, ALA put out a press release. Today, Mr. Sargent invited conference attendees to ask him anything. He talked, and stakeholders from the library community asked questions and engaged. Unfortunately, he has not been listening to us," the release stated. We see only one acceptable outcome for this situation: Macmillan must lift the embargo." As the session broke up, Sargent clearly did not appreciate the release.

Nevertheless, while "probably unsatisfying to both sides" said Columbus (Ohio) library director Pat Losinski, the session was useful. Not only did librarians get a better sense of what was motivating Macmillan to explore this change, librarians now have a better sense of what's happening in the market. Many librarians PW talked to said they shared the blame for not engaging the e-book issue with publishers more forcefully in the last few years. And librarians now recognize the broader challenge librarians face: Amazon.

And, as Texas State librarian Mark Smith noted at the end of the session, the embargo also presents an opportunity for librarians to think more deeply and creatively about the library's role in the marketplace.

"Why should librarians rush to develop a new model, to work with you, until we know also what the results of your experiment is going to be? Especially since we dont see other publishers joining you at this point," Smith asked Sargent, toward the end of the session. "Theres a world of material in libraries besides Big Five content that is pushed by celebrity influencers. I just think that maybe the library community might take this opportunity to see, one, what influence libraries really have in the marketplace, and two what other options we have to provide reading material to our customers."
Jenkintown Road closed from Monday through May
DARMSTADT, Germany, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At the end of 2019, exocad GmbH announced the worldwide availability of the new software version DentalCAD 2.4 Plovdiv - after Matera in March 2019, the second comprehensive release of the year. One of the highlights is the significantly enhanced FullDenture module, which now also allows the design of removable single jaw dentures in a guided digital workflow. With the new and expanded functionality in the FullDenture module, practically all digital full denture production methods can be mapped. Whether printing or milling, ready-made or individually designed teeth - with the new Plovdiv release, digital full dentures can be implemented more easily than ever before. With this release, exocad provides users of the leading dental CAD software with an innovative tool with great future potential. Dental technicians can now gradually prepare their laboratory for the digital fabrication of complete dentures.

"Plovdiv is the second major release of DentalCAD in the last year. This release contains 64 new features and 45 extended functions that make our software even more attractive for every dental technician. This time, the focus of our innovation is on removable dentures and advanced implant-supported bridges," said Tillmann Steinbrecher, CEO of exocad.

The straightforward user guidance characterizes the entire exocad software portfolio. The exocad wizard, tried and tested for years, also guides dental technicians step by step through the FullDenture module - a great advantage especially for new users. Experts benefit from the unique flexibility of the software, which gives them maximum design freedom via the software's expert mode. The prosthetic tooth library has been expanded to include well-known manufacturers such as Vita, Dentsply Sirona and Ruthinium. With selected libraries it is even possible to scale and modify the existing shapes allowing users to manufacture their own denture teeth in a variety of production methods.

Further new and optimized software functions are available to dental technicians with the DentalCAD 2.4 Plovdiv release, for example:

Improved thimble crown design: optimized workflow for creating implant borne thimble bridges without rescanning the substructure

Model Creator : new parameters are available which allow dynamic adjustment of the offset around the model analogs. Additionally, significantly extended libraries for attachments are now available

: new parameters are available which allow dynamic adjustment of the offset around the model analogs. Additionally, significantly extended libraries for attachments are now available PartialCAD: seamless combination of PartialCAD and DentalCAD with a combined workflow now enables virtual gingiva borne bridges on top of a partial framework design, thus supporting the highly automated production of removables. Mill or print your teeth and gingiva yourself  the designs are free of undercuts and can be placed right on top of the partial framework. Further, the PartialCAD module has been significantly improved for the Plovdiv release. It now features extended control and new options to meet fit preferences, along with usability improvements and additional tools for customized shapes of posts

seamless combination of and with a combined workflow now enables virtual gingiva borne bridges on top of a partial framework design, thus supporting the highly automated production of removables. Mill or print your teeth and gingiva yourself  the designs are free of undercuts and can be placed right on top of the partial framework. Further, the module has been significantly improved for the Plovdiv release. It now features extended control and new options to meet fit preferences, along with usability improvements and additional tools for customized shapes of posts Bars: advanced dedicated workflows to design offset structures on scanned bars are now available, including a new reconstruction type "offset substructure". With a few clicks, get a simple shell design in a set thickness and attach retentions according to your needs

Jaw Motion module: digital facebow support for the virtual articulator. Measurements from Zebris Jaw Motion Analyzer can now be used as a digital facebow

module: digital facebow support for the virtual articulator. Measurements from Zebris Jaw Motion Analyzer can now be used as a digital facebow Virtual Articulator module: the FAG Quickmaster articulator has been integrated and is now available in the virtual library

module: the FAG Quickmaster articulator has been integrated and is now available in the virtual library Vastly extended selection of exocad-approved prosthetic component libraries, now with over 52,000 components

The DentalCAD 2.4 Plovdiv release is now available worldwide and all users with an upgrade contract can download the release immediately. The FullDenture module is available as an add-on module to DentalCAD and as a stand-alone version.

exocad names each release after a European Capital of Culture. The Bulgarian city of Plovdiv is, alongside Matera, the cultural capital of 2019.

Further information at exocad.com.

About exocad GmbH

exocad GmbH is a dynamic and innovative software company committed to expanding the possibilities of digital dentistry and providing OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) with flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use CAD/CAM software for dental labs and dental practices. exocad software has been chosen by leading OEMs worldwide for integration into their dental CAD/CAM offerings, and thousands of exocad DentalCAD licenses are sold each year. For more information and a list of exocad reseller partners, please visit exocad.com.

SOURCE exocad GmbH

Related Links

https://exocad.com


San Franciscos first-in-the-nation ban on e-cigarette sales, scheduled to take effect this week, is weighing heavily on Asad Sharifi, who owns Cheaper Cigarettes in the citys Sunset District.

Sharifi worries he may have to close his business, which sells cigarettes, cigars, pipes and vapes, because its poised to lose 40% of its profits.

I dont know what the hell Im going to do, said Sharifi, who estimates hell lose $12,000 this year from vaping items he wont be able to sell. I doubt Id be able to pay rent out here.

Similar misgivings have been brewing among the 700-plus tobacco retailers in San Francisco  many of them family-owned and immigrant-owned corner stores, smoke shops and vape shops  since city officials passed an ordinance in June prohibiting the sale of many nicotine vaping products, specifically those that have not been cleared by a Food and Drug Administration review required under federal law.

The city ordinance, which does not bar the sale of cannabis vaping products, takes effect Wednesday. The law is meant to prevent minors, who are vaping in record numbers, from obtaining the products. Besides imposing restrictions on shops, it also bars e-cigarettes bought online from being shipped to San Francisco addresses.

Tobacco sellers are taking various tacks to try to adapt. Some have pivoted to selling products containing the cannabis compound CBD only, while others are adding apparel and herbal supplements to their shelves to try to make up for lost revenue. Sharifi, for example, tried adding shirts and jerseys at Cheaper Cigarettes but said they dont sell well. Stores can continue to sell regular cigarettes, but their owners say vapes have been more profitable because they can be bought for less from wholesalers and marked up more.

Customers, meanwhile, are heading to cities in the East Bay and Peninsula that have fewer regulations on vape sales. They are split on the citys new restrictions.

I find it annoying, said Lee Rothschild, an engineer who works in the citys Mission District and has been buying e-juice down the street at Smoke Time for the last seven years, on his way home to the East Bay. Its an annoyance for people who want or need it. Now no one carries anything anymore. They only have CBD or zero nicotine. I end up ordering it elsewhere or go to shops in Walnut Creek.

Rothschild began vaping a few years ago to try to quit cigarettes and now considers himself a hobbyist. He prefers fruity flavors like cantaloupe.

San Franciscos vape ban Takes effect Wednesday. Covers all e-cigarettes that have not completed an FDA review. Applies to in-store and online purchases. For the latter, it bars the delivery of e-cigarettes to San Francisco addresses. Exceptions: E-cigarette devices that are not sold or packaged with nicotine. Zero-nicotine e-juice (flavored liquid that contains no nicotine, which customers manually mix with nicotine before adding the mixture to a vaping device). Philip Mo rris' IQOS device, which has completed the FDA review. See More Collapse

Its not the citys job to prevent kids from getting these things, he said. Theres so much public transit in and out of the city, banning it within the 7-by-7-mile city is a minor inconvenience at best. ... Kids, if they want to get it, they can just take BART.

Michael Villanueva, who works in San Francisco and lives in Daly City, supports the ban, even though he himself vapes, usually using products from market leader Juul, which is headquartered in San Francisco. Vaping helped him quit cigarettes, he said, but he hopes to quit vaping one day, too.

It makes me kind of mad I cant buy it while at work. Thats why I buy it in Daly City, Villanueva said. I know vaping isnt good for you. Thats the main reason I support the ban. Vaping is helping me, but I know its still not good for me. ... Maybe (the ban will) push me not to buy it.

The vast majority of vaping products on the market fall under San Franciscos ban, since almost none have cleared an FDA review, which evaluates whether a product is appropriate for the protection of public health. So far, the Philip Morris electronic smoking device IQOS, which completed the review in 2019, is the only e-cigarette that can be sold in the city after Jan. 29. The main differences between IQOS and vaping is that IQOS heats tobacco, rather than liquid nicotine, to a vapor, and does not come in sweet and fruity flavors.

The San Francisco Office of Small Business estimates the e-cigarette ban will amount to $70 million in lost sales annually, but that does not account for spending on other products that might replace e-cigarettes. San Francisco Chief Economist Ted Egan said he does not anticipate a material impact to the citys economy because any money that would have been spent on vaping products will be spent in the city on other goods. His office, which analyzed the ban legislation before it passed last year, plans to complete an updated economic impact analysis in the next two months, Egan said.

It is unclear how much in tax revenue may be lost a result. Tobacco taxes, including e-cigarette taxes, are collected by the state. In fiscal year 2018, according to the California Department of Tax Free Administration, the state collected $211.4 million in tax revenue from e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff and other tobacco products  which does not include traditional cigarettes. But the state does not break out what portion of that comes from e-cigarettes specifically. By comparison, the state collected nearly $1.9 billion in cigarette tax revenue in fiscal year 2018.

City officials, led by Supervisor Shamann Walton  who co-authored the vaping legislation with City Attorney Dennis Herrera  have convened an economic mitigation working group to help tobacco retailers deal with the new ban and other restrictions on tobacco sales the city has enacted the last five years  including a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco (namely flavored vapes and menthol cigarettes) which passed in 2018 and took a toll on many stores vape sales.

The group is discussing whether the city could increase resources to help tobacco retailers diversify their inventory or expand Healthy Retail SF, which offers incentives to stores to sell healthier alternatives. Smoke shops are also pushing for a reduction in a fee, currently $1 per pack of cigarettes, that tobacco retailers must pay the city each quarter to clean up cigarette litter.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

We are working with small businesses to mitigate impacts, Walton said. I will restate that the health of our children is more important than profits.

Tobacco retailers, who are currently in the process of throwing out their remaining e-cigarette inventory or selling it to shops outside the city, say theyve been hurt by San Franciscos increasingly strict tobacco restrictions the last few years. Still, many previously benefited from a 2008 ordinance that banned the sale of tobacco in pharmacies  which gave smoke shops and corner stores a monopoly on the tobacco market in San Francisco.

A spokesman for Herrera said retailers have had ample time to sell inventory and adjust their business model. He cited support of the policy from San Francisco voters, who decisively rejected an attempt initially backed by Juul to overturn the ban through a ballot measure in last Novembers election.

In San Francisco, just 14% of high school students who vape buy their e-cigarettes in a store. The vast majority, 86%, get them from friends, the Internet or other means, according to statistics cited in the citys vaping legislation. In 2019, 7% of tobacco retailers sold to a minor during decoy operations, according to the citys Department of Public Health, which enforces tobacco laws. It has two senior health inspectors and three health program trainees devoted to enforcing the new ordinance.

Smoke Time, a family-owned smoke shop thats been in the citys Mission District since 2009, estimates that 20% of its annual $500,000 revenue comes from vapes. To help offset the projected losses, the store is expanding its apparel offerings and adding more varieties of the herbal supplement kratom, which is believed to help ease pain and anxiety.

Three years ago, we sold maybe two shirts. Now half the store is clothes, said Ahmad Ibrahim, who works at the store, owned by his father Mohammad.

The Ibrahims are not so much worried about the lost sales, which they believe they can replace by selling other items, as they are frustrated that the city is, in their view, unfairly picking and choosing which products to restrict. If its going to prohibit vapes, it should also ban tobacco and alcohol, they said.

They say flavors are attracting kids, but isnt that the same case with alcohol? Ahmad said. Referencing a type of apple-flavored vodka, he added: Its maybe more harmful than vapes.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
A driver miraculously survived three weeks stranded in the Outback battling extreme weather after his car ran out of petrol.

Phillip Blampied, 61, set off from Waroona, south of Perth, to make the 1,500km trip to the Pilbara in Western Australia's north in late December.

The experienced Outback traveller realised he was in trouble in early January while driving along the vast landscapes of the Canning Stock Route, the longest trail of its kind in the world.

His 1998 Nissan Patrol was running low on fuel and his water supplies were running out, so he stopped at one of the 51 wells scattered along the historic track.

But Mr Blampied arrived at Well 4 on January 13 to find it was bone dry.

Phillip Blampied is pictured at his makeshift camp after his car ran out of petrol in the Western Australian Outback

The experienced Outback traveller realised he was in trouble in early January while driving through the vast landscapes along the Canning Stock Route (pictured)

He turned around to go back to Well 6, where he knew there was water and places he could seek shelter from the volatile weather. But his car ran out of fuel 20km short.

The 61-year-old stayed with the vehicle for a few days before setting off on the 12-hour walk to Well 6, carrying food, water, a tent - and leaving a note for potential rescuers.

'Have gone back to Well 6. Out of fuel!,' he scribbled on the notepad, recording the date and time.

Another setback came about halfway through the 12-hour trek, when torrential rain forced him to set up his tent and sleep the night.

'Have gone back to Well 6. Out of fuel!,' he scribbled on the notepad, recording the date and time

He continued on the next morning and made it to Well 6, where he stayed until his food supplies ran out.

By this time, he had been reported missing and police had launched a massive aerial search.

Mr Blampied returned to his vehicle on January 23, this time without incident, where he wrote a final letter saying he was heading back to Well 6 and had enough supplies to survive seven more days.

He'd only have to wait four. Late on Sunday, a search plane spotted Mr Blampied's abandoned car.

A charter helicopter was dispatched and rescue teams reached Mr Blampied's car - and discovered his note. He was found at Well 6 at 8.30am on Monday

'The area it was found in had received a large amount of rainfall during January due to the cyclone activity,' police said, adding the conditions made it difficult to search the area.

The following morning, a charter helicopter was dispatched and rescue teams reached Mr Blampied's car - and discovered his note.

He was found at Well 6 at 8.30am on Monday.

Police shared images of Mr Blampied's makeshift camp and posed for photos with the relived Outback traveller moments after he was found.

They said the incident served as a 'timely reminder' people travelling in the Outback should always carry a Personal Locator Beacon.
Patna: The RJD and Congress have urged the Centre as well as the state government to initiate strict action against activist and JNU student Sharjeel Imam for giving provocative speeches against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC.

Talking to reporters Congress leader Rajesh Rathod said that, all those who are provoking people through their inflammatory speeches including Sharjeel Imam should be severely punished. We will not allow anyone to take even an inch of our countrys land.

The RJD also reacted in a similar way and said that the police should trace his whereabouts and arrest him immediately for giving inflammatory speeches.

Leaders from both the parties gave the statement after a joint team from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar conducted raids on the ancestral house of Sharjeel Imam at Kako in Jehanabad district late Saturday night.

While Sharjeel was not found at his house, few of his relatives were detained for questioning and released later. His relatives house was also raided in Patnas Sabzibagh locality on Monday.

Sources said that the police had received information that he has been living in Patna but during the raid, they couldnt trace him here. A separate police team from Delhi and UP is also presently camping in Jehanabad area. Sharjeel Imam, a post-graduate in computer science from IIT Mumbai is currently doing research in Modern India history at JNU.

Reports suggest that a sedition case was slapped against him after his alleged speech went viral recently. In the video, he is seen urging protesters to cut off Assam from Indias chicken neck.

He was concerned about CAA and NRC and I dont think he gave the speech to provoke people. Our family believes in the constitution and has full faith in the law of the land. His speeches have been twisted for political gains, Sharjeel Imams uncle told reporters in Jehanabad.

Police in two northeastern states  Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh  also lodged FIRs against Imam.

He had been booked in Assam and Uttar Pradesh earlier.

The Arunachal Pradesh Police has registered a case against Sharjeel Imam for his alleged inflammatory speeches, a senior police officer said here on Monday.

A case against Imam under IPC sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 153 B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) has been registered on Sunday, Special Investigation Team (SIT) SP Dr Navdeep Singh Brar said.

Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu has slammed Imam for his Break India remark. This kind of provocation inciting secession of Assam & other NE states from rest of India, creating communal disharmony, hampering sovereignty will not be tolerated, Khandu tweeted.
A Congress delegation on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission (NHRC) demanding an inquiry into the "unlawful and brutal conduct" of the Uttar Pradesh Police during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"Some states have resorted to repressive, violent, brutal and above all, illegal methods in response to these protests. Curiously the majority of States in which repressive force has been mercilessly utilised to oppress the free expression of public dissent are governed by the ruling BJP dispensation," reads the memorandum.

"One such State is the State of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP government of Uttar Pradesh has indeed outdone all others in the extent of oppressive measures it has taken with impunity against its own people," adds the memorandum.

"We also take this opportunity to impress upon the Commission the sheer necessity and urgency of a timely intervention ... It is imperative that flagrant violations of the human rights of citizens of India be prevented so as to protect them against state-sponsored violence and oppression," reads the memorandum further.

Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu, Congress legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra, and MP PL Punia were among those who constituted the delegation.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Singhvi said that several people died "because of police's indiscriminate firing and arbitrary action."

"Women and minors becoming collateral damage in a very cruel manner; vandalism by the police themselves and in particular by this new cadre of so-called 'Police Mitras' who seem to be really 'Mitras of Police' or the friends of the police and not of the public; indiscriminate action on innocent bystanders by the UP Police," he said.

"Then the threats issued by the UP Police that we will confiscate your property. We will come and arrest your people if you go out on the streets and exercise your fundamental right to protest. Then clearly evidence of the ruling party members, office bearers being roped in to stop democratic protests to conduct strong, arbitrary, cruel, and illegal action, very, very important, failure to lodge FIR," said Singhvi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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At least eight people have died after an explosive fire broke out along the Tennessee River in Alabama and it could take authorities four days to recover all victims, authorities have said.

At least 35 boats docked along the Tennessee River were destroyed by the blaze at Lake Guntersville, Jackson around 12.30am Monday but authorities said divers need to locate each one and search them individually to be sure.

All eight people who were earlier reported missing were confirmed dead, later on Monday morning and a local fire chief said 'that number could go up, because we don't know how many were on boats' that sank.

At least seven people were sent to hospitals suffering from exposure to the frigid water or the flames. The fire quickly consumed the dock as people were sleeping, cutting off their escape routes and raining debris.

'We woke up hearing screams and popping noises,' Mandy Durham told the Associated Press. 'When we woke up, we could see red through the window.

'Within 15 to 20 minutes, the whole dock was in flames. All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and thats a lot of fire.'

At least eight people died and 35 boats were destroyed by the blaze along the Tennessee River Monday. A witness shared: 'When we woke up, we could see red through the window'

At least 35 boats docked along the Tennessee River were destroyed by the blaze at 12.30am. One witness said: 'We woke up hearing screams and popping noises'

A woman on one of the boats said: 'Within 15 to 20 minutes, the whole dock was in flames. All these boats have propane tanks and gas tanks, and thats a lot of fire.' Seven people jumped off the boats and dock at Lake Guntersville, Jackson and they were hospitalized with minor burns

Earlier in the morning, eight people were unaccounted for. The number had crept up from seven earlier in the day

Boaters leaped into the water to escape as the blaze consumed the wooden dock and an aluminum roof that covered many of the vessels.

'Water was the only place they had to go. Its just extremely sad. It's horrible,' Durham said. 'Everybody is just hoping to find the ones they knew on that dock. There were families there. It's devastating.'

It was a challenge for rescuers to reach the victims. One local reporter tweeted that 17 agencies responded to the scene early on Monday while it was still dark.

Jackson County Alabama Emergency Management Agency warned people to avoid the land and water areas around the park until further notified, due to the ongoing firefighting/rescue operations.

Georgia resident, Michael Watson told the Tennessean that his aunt was among one of the dead victims. He said she lived on a boat with her husband and five children. The six of them are still missing.

The park on the Tennessee River includes a boat ramp, a dock and a restaurant, and offers boat rentals.

It's unclear how the fire started at 19 B-Dock near KCs BBQ.

Hours after sunrise, smoke was still rising from the remains of a wooden dock, and pieces of metal that once formed the roof were partially submerged. Police and fire boats with flashing lights were positioned near the charred remains, and a yellow floating boom was being deployed around the marina to contain spilled fuel.

A total of 17 agencies responded to the scene according to one local reporter. It was a challenge for rescuers to reach the victims

Most of the boats that were destroyed had people living on them permanently, but some mainly spent weekends on them, Durham said. The park on the Tennessee River includes a boat ramp, a dock and a restaurant, and offers boat rentals, according to Jackson County's government website.

'The damage from the dock has fallen on top of the boats, and some of the boats have drifted off,' Jackson County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Rocky Harnen told The Associated Press.

An image from WHNT's Jordan Dafnis showed the destroyed dock later in the morning as crews continued to work on finding those who are unaccounted for.

Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Mecklaus initially said seven people were hospitalized in stable condition and seven others who had places on the dock were unaccounted for after the fire destroyed the boats docked in Jackson County Park. The number of missing people later rose to eight.

It was unclear whether they were residents or guests.

The chief said most of the vessels in the 18 slips were houseboats.

'The damage from the dock has fallen on top of the boats, and some of the boats have drifted off,' Jackson County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Rocky Harnen said

'They had slips here,' Harnen. 'That doesn't mean they're in the water and it doesn't mean they're dead. We're making attempts to find them.'

Harnen added that sonar technology was being used to find more people: 'We're trying to get divers down here to search for possible victims in the water.

'We have several people who were taken to the hospital from being in the water, and some had minor burns.'

Agencies has put booms in the water to prevent the spread of fuel.

'What's left of the boats have to be removed from the slips so that the divers can go down and continue their recovery underneath the docks,' Jackson County Emergency Management Director Paul Smith added.

Later on Monday morning, the Jackson County Marina was pictured after the blaze with the aluminum roof and wood structure destroyed.

Harnen added: 'The damage from the dock has fallen on top of the boats, and some of the boats have drifted off.'

About half a dozen floated away according to WHNT.

'This absolutely is devastating. It is certainly the most devastating thing I have ever seen,' Scottsboro Fire & Rescue Chief Gene Necklaus. 'The numbers will change as this is an extremely intense and long operation.'
Mangaluru (Karnataka) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that if talks are held with Pakistan now, they will be only on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).



"People ask what will happen to PoK? Parliament of India has already passed a resolution that it is a part of India. I have said it earlier too, Jammu and Kashmir's work is done. If talks are held with Pakistan now, they will be on PoK only," the Defence Minister said here.

Talking about the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Singh said, "I want to say about NRC...should not a country know how many natives and how many foreigners are in the country. What is the problem even if NRC comes? (NRC par main kehna chahata hoon. Kya kisi desh ko yeh nahi pata hona chahiye ki desh mein kitne swadeshi hain, kitne videshi hain? NRC agar aa bhi jata hai toh kya pareshani hain?)"

The Defence Minister's statement over PoK comes weeks after Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said that if Indian Army gets an order then it will take appropriate action to reclaim PoK.

He had pointed out that a parliamentary resolution states that the entire Jammu and Kashmir region is a part of India.

"There is a parliamentary resolution that the entire Jammu and Kashmir region is a part of India. If Parliament wants it, then that area (PoK) also should belong to us. When we get orders to that effect, we will take appropriate action," the Army chief had said while speaking to the media in Delhi. (ANI)


Welcome to the Resistance? Photo: Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images

John Bolton was once viewed as the most dangerous member of President Trumps team. Now most of the danger he poses is to the president himself. I spoke with political columnists Jonathan Chait and Ed Kilgore about how much harm the mustachioed neoconservative could do to his former boss.

Ben: On Sunday night, the New York Times reported that in his upcoming book, ex-national security adviser John Bolton confirms what we already pretty much knew: President Trump told him directly that he didnt want to release Ukraine aid until the country launched an investigation into Joe Biden. With pressure mounting on Republicans to let Bolton speak, it now seems far more likely that hell appear before the Senate. How damaging do you think his testimony could be?

Ed: In terms of Trump being removed from office? Still aint happening.

Jon: Right. I think, first, merely extending the trial harms Republicans  their highest priority is to shorten it. Second, Bolton seems almost certain to destroy the central defense Trumps lawyers have made (that nobody has testified of a direct quid pro quo order from Trumps mouth to their ears). And third, there is a reasonable chance he could open up new avenues of attack  which could result either in more testimony or simply more media coverage for the scandal.

Ed: I challenge the premise that theyre definitely going to have the votes to call him. Yes, its more likely, but not a cinch just yet.

Ben: Nobody said definite!

Ed: Even if the Senate votes to hear him, there are multiple reasons it might not happen.

Ben: How do you see that (not) going down?

Ed: If hes called, the White House will almost certainly (through its trial lawyers initially) assert executive privilege prohibits it. First, Bolton could then refuse to testify, or limit his testimony based on that assertion. Second, Trumps lawyers could appeal to Roberts to exclude the testimony on grounds of executive privilege. And third, the White House could find a friendly D.C. District Court judge to ban the testimony until theres a hearing on executive privilege. Yes, this last avenue will extend the trial, but the White House might still pursue it depending on its estimate of the damage of Bolton testifying.

Jon: I dont see how theyre going to win that fight, I suppose its possible they delay long enough to make Republican senators give up? I think the decision would be expedited but I dont have a very detailed understanding of the law controlling this.

Ben: Would silencing Bolton be worth the political cost? Is there a political cost, at least for some of the senators up for reelection this year, the Cory Gardners of the world?

Ed: My personal view is that senators in close races will most likely be hurt by damage to Trumps own standing. In an election as apocalyptic as this one, not sure how many swing voters are going to focus on evidentiary motions in an impeachment trial few of them are watching.

Ben: So whats the best-case scenario for Democrats here? Bolton testifies in damning detail, the vote not to convict might be a little tougher for swing Republicans, and  is there anything else?

Jon: Sure, more Trump officials implicated. I flagged this line from the NYT story in my piece: Bolton warned White House lawyers that Mr. Giuliani might have been leveraging his work with the president to help his private clients. Seems potentially criminal. To the extent impeachment converges on the Rudy-Parnas crime story, its bad for Trump. That is a rock he does not want to turn over.

Ed: Let me mention one more aspect of this. If (a) the trial runs a lot longer, or (b) its placed in limbo by litigation over executive privilege, as I read it, the standing rules governing impeachment trials have no provision for any sort of break. The trial remains in session six days a week until a verdict is rendered or the articles are dismissed. That could get weird.

Ben: As Jon said, a longer trial seems bad for Republicans.

Ed: I dunno. Youd have Republicans blaming Democrats for dragging the country through this thing just months before an election. I could see hourly motions by Trumpy senators demanding an immediate end of the trial. This whole Trump defense team talking point that the House should not have impeached the president without completing its case would become central.

Ben: Is it possible, or plausible, that Bolton would testify without Republican getting any of the witnesses they want called up there too?

Jon: Sure. Among other things, Bolton wants to testify, and the witnesses Republicans want do not want to testify.

Ed: Theres that, and the fact that this probably wont come to the floor as a deal, but rather a simple motion to call Bolton. Even pro-Trump Republicans might want to hold the line on witnesses beyond Bolton, since who knows where it would end?

If, on the other hand, Trump goes to the mats and tries to turn the trial into a genuine circus with clowns, anything could happen.

Ben: A more overarching question: Why do you think John Bolton is doing this?

Jon: Thats a great question, and I truly have no idea. My best guess is that he was just outraged by Trumps conduct. I cannot think of an explanation that fits his actions more tightly. Make money? Eh, sure, one time with this book, but then hes a dead man to the right and he has no career left. If I was his agent, I would tell him to stay in the partys good graces.

Ed: Dont forget that Bolton is 71 years old. Dont let the presidential candidates ages blind you to the fact that most people in their 70s perceive that their act is about over. Write the book, get one last dazzling moment in the spotlight, and head to St. Petersburg, or Sun City, or wherever it is people like Bolton go.

Jon: There are lots of old guys riding that right-wing gravy train  soft fellowship gigs, cruises, maybe some talking-head work.

Ed: Yeah, but for all we know Boltons ready to pack it in. Its a possibility.

Jon: Its possible he doesnt even want to show up twice a year and collect a paycheck for a Heritage sinecure, but thats not how Id bet.
ISTANBUL  The death toll from a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit eastern Turkey rose to 41 people on Monday after rescue workers pulled the last two missing victims from the rubble three days after disaster struck, a bitter reminder of the vulnerability of a country straddling active fault lines.

The powerful quake hit the eastern province of Elazig on Friday night, toppling scores of buildings and setting off a race against time to pull trapped women, children and men from the wreckage in freezing temperatures.

Emergency crews saved 45 people as hundreds of aftershocks rocked the area, including two-year-old Yusra Yildiz and her mother Ayse, 35, some 24 hours after they were trapped. Yusras father and brother both died.

Husband and wife Zulkuf and Durdane Aydin were reunited with their savior, Mahmud al-Osman, after a video went viral of her thanking him for digging her out of the rubble with his bare hands. Durdane called Osman, a Syrian refugee studying at Elazigs university, our hero.

More than 1,600 people were hurt and 86 people remain hospitalized. The interior minister said 1,000 families were made homeless and are sheltering in tents, sports halls and mosques, and promised to erect residential facilities within two weeks.

Nearly 4,000 rescue workers and 22 dogs were involved in the search operations, according to the state relief agency AFAD. On Monday, they pierced through rubble to find the last two people reported missing, and officials later announced their dead bodies had been recovered. A rescue team formed a circle to pray for the dead after the search was called off.

The disaster unleashed an outpouring of grief and sympathy from Turks as well as from Turkeys neighbors, including those with whom relations are otherwise tense, like Greece and Armenia.

But it also sparked an angry debate on social media about Turkeys lack of earthquake preparedness. The chief prosecutor in Ankara opened an investigation into 50 people over alleged provocative posts in connection with the disaster.

Opposition parties and opposition-controlled municipalities in other parts of the country raced to provide aid to Elazig and neighboring Malatya province, where four of the victims perished. The People's Democratic Party (HDP), which has faced a clampdown since 2015 over the governments accusations it has links with armed militants, said security forces had blocked its trucks carrying supplies.

The blankets, tents and boxes of dry food our party collected cannot be delivered to victims due to the interior ministers order, the HDP said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Elazig at the weekend to attend the funerals of a mother and son who died in the quake and accused unnamed circles of exploiting the disaster for their own benefit. Our state is not in need of anything. If some people insist on helping, the institutions are obvious  help can be made through AFAD and the Red Crescent, he said.

Opposition politicians also suggested the government has squandered an earthquake tax imposed after a 1999 tremor that killed more than 17,000 people in northwest Turkey, questioning where an estimated $36 billion in tax revenue earmarked for improving safety has gone.

Elazig had suffered a earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale just 10 years ago, when 51 people were killed. Tremors are almost a daily occurrence in a country crisscrossed by fault lines, and when large-scale temblors strike, the death toll is often high because of a lack of enforcement of building codes.

In September, a 5.8-magnitude quake jolted Istanbul, Turkeys largest city with some 16 million inhabitants. Though only one person died from a heart attack, buildings were damaged and nerves heightened that a bigger shock is on its way. The city lies near the North Anatolian Fault, which has seen seven eruptions with magnitudes above 7 since 1939, each time progressively westward.

Seismologists predict there is a 75% chance the section of the fault line running south of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara will rupture with a force measuring more than 7 by 2040. Some 2 million buildings are unsafe should a major quake strike, experts have said.

Critics say little has been done to safeguard against this apparent inevitability, especially during the last decade or so of rapid construction that has fueled economic growth in Europes largest city.

The HDP submitted a parliamentary motion on Monday accusing the government of failing to take action since the September tremor in Istanbul and that the citys schools, hospitals and other public institutions are still awaiting seismic retrofitting.

In Istanbul, parks used for emergency meeting points during earthquakes have been turned into construction sites," the party said in an email announcing the motion. "In 1999, there were 470 designated meeting points. That number has fallen to 77 today.

AFAD denies the claim, saying Istanbul has some 2,300 assembly points. However, experts say the relief agency is counting parks that are not large enough to shelter the citys residents and lack the capacity to stage an emergency response.
BSE-owned India International Exchange (India INX) on Monday said it has listed state-owned Power Finance Corporation Ltd's global notes worth USD 750 million on its debt listing platform.

The maiden issue is part of the company's global medium term note (MTN) programme to raise up to USD 5 billion in overseas borrowings through debt-instrument, the release said.

The notes under the programme have been issued at a coupon rate of 3.95 per cent.

"The growing volumes of listing on India INX further helps Government of India's vision of making IFSC a hub for Indian and global issuers and investors and reiterates our world class listing practice," said MD and CEO of India INX V. Balasubramaniam.

India INX is the country's first debt listing platform that allows raising funds in any currency of choice by both foreign and Indian issuers from investors across the globe.

Since the launch of global securities market, medium-term notes worth USD 46.5 billion and bonds worth USD 20.1 billion have been listed on the platform so far, it added.

India INX is India's first International Exchange set up at Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (GIFT City).

In a separate media release, Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) said it has so far opened over 2 crore demat accounts.

CDSL is currently the largest depository in the country in terms of active demat accounts and currently accounts for 67 per cent of the new accounts added in 2019-20, it added.

"CDSL became the first depository to open its branch in IFSC, GIFT City and continuing with many firsts, CDSL has now become the first Depository to reach the milestone of 2 crore active demat accounts," Nehal Vora, MD and CEO of CDSL said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The economics, politics and science of climate change are converging and catapulting this problem from a joke among critics to a prominent concern.

Driving the news: Shifts across Washington, D.C., among corporate leaders and within financial institutions are creating a foundation that could produce big movement on this problem for the first time since, well, forever.

Why it matters: If the worlds political and business leaders are going to seriously move to cut heat-trapping emissions, they first need to pay attention to the problem. They are starting to now, fueled by unrest from the worlds youth, cheaper renewable energy, more bouts of extreme weather and other evidence of global warming itself.

The big picture: Weve written about these shifts individually here and here and here over the past year or more. Its worth examining them together as a whole because the amount of new attention on climate thats occurred in a matter of weeks is staggering.

Big caveats exist and the prospect of substantive action on the problem remains deeply uncertain, but the arc of change is forming.

In Washington, congressional Republicans and even President Trump are scrambling to acknowledge the problem after years of denying it  and in some cases mocking it outright.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Trump announced the U.S. would support an initiative to plant trees  natural ways to capture carbon dioxide emissions  even as he slammed climate activists as prophets of doom.

For the first time ever, the House GOP leadership is pushing policies to address the problem.

These policies, in and of themselves, aren't nearly enough to sufficiently tackle the problem, but the shift in GOP rhetoric over just the past year has been stark.

Flat-out denialism of humans' role in warming the planet has all but disappeared.

The issue of climate and the environment is rising in priority for the American voter and youre seeing the political dynamic shift where people are really demanding their elected officials to address this problem, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) told me last week.

Among corporate executives and financial leaders, climate change is quickly becoming a concrete worry. In addition to it being the sole official topic of the World Economic Forum last week in Davos for the first time, pronouncements on the matter have come from the following entities in just the last several weeks:

These pronouncements  which, by the way, are mostly just rhetoric for now  arent coming out of the goodness of the hearts of the rich and powerful. They're coming from a messy mix of activist and investor pressure and an increasing awareness that as extreme weather becomes more common, its economic toll could too.

Climate generated the highest degree of public pressure on corporations by activists, policymakers and journalists last year, according to data analyzed by consultancy High Lantern Group.

Skeptics of this newfound attention to climate change among corporate leaders point to a survey released last week in Davos showing that the topic didnt even break the top 10 list of risks company CEOs say theyre facing.

This highlights the inherent mismatch of a risk like climate change that unfolds over decades, if not centuries, and the challenges facing publicly traded companies trying to turn quarterly profits.

Thats why right now were seeing stronger rhetoric from money managers and financial institutions whose missions are more rooted in longer term risks.

But, but, but: All this does not necessitate a path to big global action to curb emissions. It lays the foundation for that, but a lot more would have to happen to make actual change possible.

Goals from corporate and financial entities deserves close and frequent scrutiny for how much is substantive and how much is extra-heavy greenwashing.

Trump continues to roll back climate policies, and the Paris Climate Agreement's goals are in serious doubt.

Another big caveat is that although climate change itself poses huge risks, aggressively acting on it does too  and those risks are realized far more quickly and thus may have swift political consequences hindering more action.

For example, when energy prices rise, especially when it happens quickly, populations have shown to respond angrily. Ive called this the big climate disconnect.

What Im watching: The levers that could incite change  namely, big government policy  from this newfound foundation of attention, including this one:
Actress Pooja Bhatt on Monday said dissent is the greatest form of patriotism and asserted that students protesting against the CAA-NRC are giving the message that it's time to raise our voices.

Bhatt was among a host of noted personalties who spoke at a conference organised in the backdrop of the ongoing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The event in Colaba, south Mumbai, was organised by the Parcham Foundation and We the People of Maharashtra.

Speakers later submitted a memorandum to government representatives, seeking to know the stand of state authorities on the CAA-NRC-NPR within 30 days.

Bhatt said "Our silence will not save us and neither will the government's. The ruling party has actually united us.

"Students (protesting against CAA-NRC) are giving us the message that it's time to raise our voices. We will not stop until we are heard loud and clear. Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism."



The aim of the conference was to discuss the need to preserve and safeguard the values of the Constitution and educate the masses about them, its organisers said.

Student activist Umar Khalid said, "We request the government to accept our memorandum. We are seeing a shift in the stance of the Shiv Sena but if it is a real shift then we need to see that in action.

"We have declared a satyagraha. Now the ball is in the government's court. Will they join us or stay aloof?"



IPS officer Abdur Rahman, who has resigned from service over the CAA-NRC, said "Every movement has heroes and heroes of this one (anti-CAA protests) are women.

"The government has many women representatives but no one has come to meet any of the protesting women. We have the right to protest peacefully and democratically. Police need to learn to defend laws and allow protests to take place."



Rahman said, "It (the CAA) is a coloured legislation. There is no refugee crisis in India. It is being manufactured to divide us."



Businessman-politician Farhan Azmi said, "We will ensure this law is taken back. The more the government hates us, the more we will love them. Such conferences will continue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A BUTCHER in Watlington has been recognised for its contribution to the environment.

Calnan Brothers in High Street has been named a plastic-free champion by Surfers Against Sewage, a marine conservation charity and campaign group.

The business, which is the first in the town to receive the accolade, uses wax-coated paper instead of plastic to wrap meat, paper carrier bags instead of plastic ones and strong cardboard boxes for turkeys.

Owner Tom Calnan said: We are a family business that is evolving all the time.

Everyones a bit more conscious about single-use packaging and we have taken a couple of small steps to improve ours. Its all recyclable and it keeps the product better because plastic makes meat sweat if its kept there a long time so its win, win.

We used to put our turkeys in plastic bags but now put them in a cardboard box.

Mr Calnan, who is chairman of the Watlington Business Association, praised the efforts of other businesses in the town to reduce their impact on the environment by using paper bags and urged residents to shop local.

He said: You go into supermarkets and all the packaging is horrific. Think about a supermarket chicken  its in a plastic tray with a plastic covering.

People will come in here three times a week and will buy what they are going to eat so youre cutting down on food waste.

All our stuff is fresh daily so theres never any wastage.

Local shops have more control over their produce compared with supermarkets.

The bigger message is shop local and without knowing it youll be doing more for the environment. Mr Calnan said that in future he wanted to use biodegradable trays for his shops ready meals and purchase an electric van as his next vehicle.

He also wants to encourage customers to bring in reusable trays for items such as a rib of beef, which is too large to put in a bag.

Mr Calnan said: Its good for society and good for the world.

Nicola Schafer, who co-chairs the Watlington Climate Action Group, said: Im delighted to see Calnans get this award and be the first one to achieve this status in Watlington.

Its really important for businesses to get this recognition because its not always cheap and easy to move away from plastic.

You dont have to go completely plastic-free to make a difference. Its all about making positive changes.

The group, which was formed in April, has a tool kit with useful suggestions for businesses on how to reduce single-use plastic and can support participants in the process.

If you are a business and would like to take part in the project, email plasticfreewatlington@

gmail.com
DGAP-News: Capcora GmbH / Key word(s): Financing



The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Green Genius, a renewable energy company part of Modus Group, has signed a EUR 30 million loan with Eiffel Energy Transition fund. The company plans to use these funds to develop and build green energy projects across Europe. The private placement was accompanied by Capcora, a Germany-based consultancy firm, which acted as financial advisor to Green Genius.



"This transaction is exceptional as the loan was granted not at a single project level but, on a revolving basis, at the level of the European platform owning the portfolio of renewable projects of the group. This evidences the trust of a financial institution such as Eiffel Investment Group in our robustness and our competencies in the development and construction of renewable energy projects," says Ruslanas Sklepovicius, a member of the board of Modus Group responsible for the renewable energy field and the CEO of Green Genius.



Green Genius has set a goal of ranking among the top 25 renewable energy project developers in Europe over the next five years. At present, Green Genius is developing renewable energy projects in 6 European markets: Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Spain and Italy. The company is also actively looking for opportunities for expansion in other Central European countries.



In 2019, Green Genius investments in renewable energy activities more than doubled reaching EUR 115 million comparing to 2018. The company plans to continue growing investments in this area. By 2025, total capacity of implemented renewable energy projects by Green Genius is expected to reach 1.5 GW.



"After considering all available offers, we have chosen a partnership with Eiffel Energy Transition for several reasons. It was important for Green Genius to borrow at optimal conditions, to use the proceeds for projects across European markets, and to have a partner who knows the industry very well and can make fast decisions. We have achieved all these goals in the process," says Rokas Bancevicius, chief financial officer at Green Genius.



"The business of Green Genius is a mixture of developing and selling projects as well as an IPP approach which is not always easy to handle for classical debt providers. However, with a clearly defined strategy for each market and project and a transparent development roadmap for the next few years, we were able attract various interesting offers from a diverse range of international lenders," explains Alexander Kuhn, managing partner at Capcora.



About Green Genius

Green Genius is a renewable energy company part of Modus Group. Modus Group is an international group of companies, mainly focusing on renewable energy (Green Genius), mobility services (CityBee), smart parking solutions (Parkdema) and automotive business. The Group manages a network of renowned automotive brand representative offices, including Porsche, Fiat, Bentley, Maserati, etc. The group operates in 9 European markets: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

www.greengenius.eu



About Capcora

Capcora is a consulting firm, specialized on real assets. Capcora procures equity, mezzanine and debt financing for energy and infrastructure projects, real estate, and medium-sized companies. The focus is especially on mezzanine financing for the recapitalization of tied-up liquidity in operating assets as well as for bridge financing of developments and construction measures in the area of renewable energies (photovoltaics, onshore wind) and real estate through alternative financing sources.

www.capcora.com

27.01.2020 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


The marching contingent of the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been adjudged the first among the marching contingents of the three services, while the Central Industrial Security Force has bagged the first prize among paramilitary forces for the 71st Republic Day Parade, officials told ANI on Monday.

Flight Lieutenant Shrikant Sharma led the contingent of the Indian Air Force comprising of 144 air warriors. The smartly dressed air warriors were in 12 by 12 formation. Flight Lieutenant Mohit Kumar, Flight Lieutenant Reema Rai and Flying Officer Vishnu Prasad H followed the Contingent Commander.

The CISF contingent consisting of 148 personnel was led by Deputy Commandant Prabh Simran Singh.

Lieutenant General Asit Mistry had on Sunday led the parade on the occasion of 71st Republic Day as Parade Commander. Major General Alok Kacker, Chief of Staff Delhi Area, was the second-in-command for the parade.

The parade, which started at 10:00 am with the salute, lasted for around 90 minutes and included a flypast by MI-17 and Rudra armed helicopters, display of latest weapons and equipments and sixteen marching contingents from the Armed Forces, Para-Military Forces, Delhi Police, Cadet Corps (NCC), Service Scheme (NSS) and thirteen Military bands.

Indian Army Captain Tanya Shergill, who became the first woman officer as Parade Adjutant on Army Day Parade earlier this year, led an Army Signal Corps contingent.

As many as 22 tableaus of various states, union territories and government departments moved past India Gate, which were followed by cultural items by school children and motorcycle display by an all-women team of Central Reserve Police Force.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In light of the current breakthrough of the deadly Coronavirus across China and its detection in several countries of the world, the Embassy of the Kingdom in Beijing has requested universities and educational institutions in China, where Bahraini students are enrolled, to extend the students holiday, sources confirmed.

Sources also told that the Embassy has requested these institutions to allow Bahraini students and trainees to return to Bahrain considering their safety. Additionally, Tribune learnt that the students there are on holiday until February 17, 2020, on the occasion of the New Chinese Year. Tribune obtained a copy of the circular sent yesterday by the Cultural Attache Office of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain in Beijing to the Chinese universities and institutes, where Bahraini students are enrolled.

The circular mentioned: Due to the recent event of Coronavirus breakout through the country, we kindly ask you to excuse our Bahraini students from either attending the universities classes or the internship programmes in the meantime and that until further notice from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain in Beijing. Your understanding in this matter is highly appreciated. This came few hours after pleas were made online to facilitate the return of Bahraini students stuck in different parts of China.

Among the pleaders was MP Ammar Qambar, who said in a press statement: The Bahraini Foreign Affairs Ministry should instruct the Ambassador of Bahrain in China to quickly communicate with the relevant health and security authorities in China to urgently return the Bahraini students from there, considering their health and safety. He also said that the number of Bahraini students in China is estimated to be hundreds who are enrolled in different Chinese universities.

Mr Qambar affirmed that he will submit an urgent parliamentary proposal to demand the Government to adopt the swift return and evacuation of Bahraini students from China. According to the latest figures released by Chinas National Health Commission, the never-before-seen virus, which was detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has claimed more than 56 lives and infected almost 2,000 Chinese citizens with a pneumonia-like illness.

The virus was first reported to the World Health Organisation on Dec 31 and has been under investigation since then. Chinese scientists have linked the disease to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses, the same family as the deadly SARS and MERS viruses. Scientists have yet to fully understand how destructive the new virus, known as 2019-nCoV, might be. Researchers and investigators are just beginning to understand where it originated, how its transmitted, how far it has spread and what its symptoms look like. As of Jan 22, case numbers have skyrocketed to over 440 in China and abroad.

Chinese authorities also confirmed health workers have been infected with the virus, suggesting that it has achieved human-to-human transmission. As a result, authorities are taking steps to guard against its spread. On Jan 22, the WHO will convene an emergency committee to explore whether the virus constitutes a public health emergency.

Researchers believe the number of cases may be higher than current reports suggest, and at least three US airports have begun screening incoming passengers for signs of illness, as have busy airports in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia. Coronaviruses belong to a family of viruses known as Coronaviridae and look like spiked rings under an electron microscope. They are so named because of these spikes, which form a halo around their viral envelope.

Coronaviruses contain a strand of RNA within their envelope and cannot reproduce without getting inside living cells and hijacking the machinery found within. The spikes on their viral envelope help them bind to cells, which gives them a way in. Typically, these types of viruses are found in animals ranging from livestock to household pets and wildlife such as bats. When they make the jump to humans, they can cause fever, respiratory illness and inflammation in the lungs.

In immunocompromised individuals, such as the elderly or those with HIV-AIDS, such viruses can cause severe respiratory illness. Extremely pathogenic coronaviruses were behind SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) and were easily transmitted from human to human.

SARS, which showed up in the early 2000s, infected more than 8,000 people and resulted in nearly 800 deaths. MERS, which appeared in the early 2010s, infected almost 2,500 people and led to more than 850 deaths.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called for a meeting of Janata Dal (United) (JDU) leaders at his residence here on Tuesday.

The meeting is slated to be attended by all the JDU MPs, MLAs and other prominent leaders. However, the party's vice president Prashant Kishor will not attend the meeting as he will be in Delhi.

"There is no agenda for the meeting. However, the party workers will be given insights about the ground level works which are to be done in parts of the state. After January 30, I will go to Delhi for the election campaigns," Kumar said.

Voting for the 70 seats in Delhi Legislative Assembly will be held on February 8 and counting of votes will take place on February 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taqueria El Buen Pastor. | Photo: Andrew C./Yelp

Spending time in Cultural Corridor? Get to know this Las Vegas neighborhood by browsing its most popular local businesses, from a Mexican food truck to a a Chinese spot.

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top places to visit in Cultural Corridor, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of neighborhood businesses. Read on for the results.

1. Taqueria El Buen Pastor

Photo: andrew c./Yelp



Topping the list is food truck Taqueria El Buen Pastor. Located at 530 N. Las Vegas Blvd., it's the highest-rated business in the neighborhood, boasting 4.5 stars out of 224 reviews on Yelp.

On the menu, expect traditional Mexican fare, such as tacos, burritos, tortas and quesadillas, as well as lamb birria and alambres dishes. Check out the beef burrito with beans, cheese and sour cream, and the chicken alambres, which comes with grilled chicken, bacon, cheese, bell peppers, onions, avocado and corn tortillas.

2. Los Molcajetes

Photo: pilar j./Yelp



Next up is Mexican spot Los Molcajetes, which offers seafood and more, situated at 1553 N. Eastern Ave. With four stars out of 193 reviews on Yelp, it's proven to be a local favorite.

The restaurant specializes in molcajete bowls, which are stuffed with shredded chicken, pork, beef, shrimp and octopus. You'll also find tacos, empanadas and more. (Click here for the menu.)

3. Taqueria Casa Del Pastor

Photo: angie o./Yelp

Food stand and Mexican spot Taqueria Casa Del Pastor is another top choice. Yelpers give the business, located at 530 N. Las Vegas Blvd., 4.5 stars out of 17 reviews.

Look for carne asada tacos, alambres, birria quesadillas, tortas and more on the menu.

4. Panda Bowl

Photo: luis s./Yelp

Panda Bowl, a Chinese spot, is another neighborhood go-to, with four stars out of 46 Yelp reviews. Head over to 2340 E. Bonanza Road to see for yourself.

At Panda Bowl, consider the orange chicken, chow mein and kung pow chicken platters. There are also seafood, noodle and lo mein plates.

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden attended a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau today in Poland.

The mother-of-two, 42, was joined by powerful European figureheads including Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga and President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda, at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.

Crown Princess Victoria cut a sleek silhouette in head-to-toe black, clashed with a chic white blouse as she paid her respects to the victims of the Holocaust.

Her European counterparts appeared equally solemn, as they stepped out in the dark shade to indicate a time of mourning.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden (pictured) attended a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau today in Poland

The Royal, 42, joined Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga, Diana Nausediene, and her husband President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda (pictured left to right)

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden opted for a toned down look, sweeping her hair into a tight bun along with subtle makeup.

She avoided drawing attention to herself by choosing minimal accessories.

The royal lit a candle at the Monument to the victims at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp.

The biggest German Nazi death camp, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 27 January 1945. The world commemorates its liberation by International Holocaust Remembrance Day annually on 27 January.

Crown Princess Victoria appeared sombre as she lit a candle in respect to the millions of people who lost their lives in the Holocaust

KL Auschwitz-Birkenau which was the largest German Nazi death camp, was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 27 January 1945

An estimated 1.1 million of those deported to Auschwitz, are believed to have died at the camp, according to data from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

More than 200 survivors came from across the globe to the camp the Nazis built in Oswiecim in then-occupied Poland today.

They shared their testimonies as a stark warning amid a recent surge of anti-semitic attacks on both sides of the Atlantic.

Crown Princess Victoria who is next in line to the Swedish throne which is currently reigned by her father King Carl XVI Gustaf, was visibly emotional at the heart-wrenching ceremony.

Over 200 survivors of the tragedy attended the ceremony to share their testimonies and give a warning amid the surge in anti-semitic attacks

Crown Princess Victoria indicated her sense of mourning by opting for head-to-toe black, clashed with a white blouse
 Close Brexit timeline: From 2013 referendum promise to a 2020 exit

Boris Johnson has risked the fury of Donald Trump by giving the go-ahead for Huawei to help build the UKs 5G infrastructure  but only the periphery of the network, and capping the Chinese tech giants market share at 35 per cent.

It comes as the PMs proposal for an Australian-style points-based immigration system for the bulk of migrants has been rejected by a government-commissioned review. It also recommended ministers lower a 30,000 salary threshold.

A new Brexit row with the EU has also emerged, with a leaked document indicating Brussels is set to demand the European Court of Justice (ECJ) enforces trade deal rules. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the UK could not accept such a move.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment trial enters a pivotal week on Monday as his lawyers resume their defense following a fresh report that could intensify pressure on Senate Republicans to call former national security adviser John Bolton to testify.

The New York Times cited an unpublished Bolton manuscript as saying that Trump told him he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until its officials helped with investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.

The elder Biden is a leading Democratic contender to face the Republican president in the Nov. 3 U.S. election. Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was vice president.

The report, which did not quote the manuscript but cited multiple people describing Bolton's account, may undercut a key element of Trump's defense: that there was no quid pro quo when he asked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in a July phone call.

Bolton's lawyer Charles Cooper said in a statement on Sunday that the manuscript had been submitted to the White House for a standard prepublication security review for classified information.

"It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript," Cooper said.

A Bolton aide said he had not given the manuscript to anyone else besides the White House for review.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham cast doubt on the timing of the report, which was published around the time pre-ordering for Bolton's book began.

Trump denied the allegations in a series of tweets early on Monday.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens ... If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Trump wrote.

Trump's team has previously said he was well within his constitutional authority to press Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens as part of what he says was an anti-corruption drive. The Bidens deny wrongdoing.

In only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, Democrats argued last week that Trump should be removed for encouraging Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election by pressuring its leader to dig up dirt on Biden.

Trump's defense tried to turn that election interference line against the Democrats in its opening argument on Saturday by warning against removing a president less than 10 months before Americans vote on whether to give him a second term.

The president's team will continue with his defense on Monday afternoon.

While the Republican-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office, it is important for him to try to blunt the Democratic accusations to limit political damage to his bid for a second term.

The report drew immediate Democratic demands that the Senate call Bolton as a witness, an issue the 100-member chamber is likely to address later in the week. [L1N29V09A]

The impeachment trial rules provide for a two-step process on whether to subpoena witness and documents, with an initial vote on whether to consider doing so and, if approved, subsequent votes to actually call witnesses or demand documents.

Democrats argue this could allow Republicans have it both ways - allowing them to first vote "yes" on whether to proceed and then vote "no" on actually allowing witnesses or documents.

FILE PHOTO: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) waves as he departs after the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump ended for the day in Washington, U.S., January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

As a result, vulnerable Senate Republicans could make the case to moderates that they had voted in favor of witnesses in the first vote while avoiding alienating Trump supporters by refusing to actually call any in later votes.

If the Senate called witnesses or demanded documents, the trial could lengthen. If not, the Senate could vote toward the end of the week on whether to remove Trump from office.

If that were to happen the trial could be over before the first U.S. voting contest takes place in Iowa on Feb. 3 and before Trump is scheduled to deliver the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 4.
HOUSTON  Bernadine Williams raised her hand in the back corner of the room and waited. Despite her frustrations with the president, she wanted to tell her fellow feminists how hopeful she was that Donald Trump would be a good leader after he was elected.

This is what Sundays look like at the Houston Womens Group, a collection of progressive women who have been meeting for four decades. They debate current events such as the latest actions of the president and soak up stories about the experiences of the women around them.

Congenial, yes. Always in agreement? Not so much.

I thought it was possible for him to grow into the role of being a good president, said Williams, 51, a longtime legal medical secretary. The room burst into a cacophony of murmurs and chuckles. One woman openly laughed. Well, I was hopeful he would be able put his past aside. Thats the best you can hope for when someone you dont vote for gets elected, is that they will do whats good for the country.

As a divided nation watches the U.S. Senate trial for Trump, who has been impeached by the House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Hearst Texas Newspapers interviewed more than two dozen women from across the political spectrum to hear what they think of the proceedings, and what it all says about the state of American politics.

One thing that all of them agreed upon: This is a sad time for our country.

Beneath the blistering criticism of Trump in the Houston Womens Group are layers of fear: that the country could find itself in a war, that political divisiveness is worsening and that Americans are finding their own versions of the truth regardless of facts.

As attendees at the womens group talked about watching the trial that Sunday, 200 miles away in San Antonio, Republican Melissa Beckett was planting two signs into her grassy front yard: Thank God for our pro-life president.

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Im angry at the process and I think, Oh my gosh, hes doing such incredible things that are being ignored and I want people driving by to know he has our support, said Beckett, 47, who lives in the affluent community of Stone Oak. As a country, we are so divided we cant think straight Those of us who just want to talk about the truth, to talk about the facts, we're being treated as the crazy ones."

As the Senate began its impeachment trial this week  a process rooted in political division in Washington D.C. and across the country; recent polling found Americans evenly split over whether Trump should be removed from office. Six percent of respondents were unsure, according to a poll by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist.

The gravity of the impeachment captivates Stephanie Lolada, 45, who considers herself an independent conservative. She follows CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets from around the globe. She reads stories about the same events from multiple sources, worried that few others bother to do the research. She sometimes wonders whether Republicans are interested in the truth, but I'm sure that the Democrats are not."

And shes proud that people have a hard time telling from her Facebook page which side shes on.

This moment is rare in American history. Congress has impeached just three presidents, but none has ever been found guilty in a Senate trial and removed from office. Lolada said she could get behind the impeachment trial if there was evidence of wrongdoing, but shes not convinced. Other presidents and people in power have likely done much the same thing that Trump has, she said, and shes OK with that.

For subscribers: Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar will give Democrats response to Trump State of the Union

You shouldnt be giving aid to people who arent doing whats in the best interest of your country, she said. Its actually an important political tactic.

Largely along partisan lines, the Democratic-led House accused Trump of withholding nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine as Trump pressured the leader to investigate Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who held a directorship for a Ukrainian gas company when his father was vice president.

Trump did absolutely nothing wrong, his legal team wrote in a brief this week. Although Trump sought the investigation, the team argues there is no evidence he linked his request for an investigation of Biden to military aid. His actions were constitutional, perfectly legal, completely appropriate and taken in furtherance of our national interest, according to his lawyers. The impeachment is a sham and a charade, they say.

Paying attention to all the voices

Dina Cortez used to be a Democrat. The 48-year-old former commodities trader who was raised in heavily Democratic Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg grew more conservative as an adult. It started with reflecting on her Catholic faith during the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case in the early 2000s. Now, living in Shavano Park in Bexar County, she lets faith drive her politics, particularly on life issues.

Trump wasnt her guy for president in 2016; U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was. She voted for Trump because she couldnt bring herself to vote for a Democrat and thus support that partys platform. She now thinks of Trump as a pragmatist whose business acumen has served him well. She knows people disapprove of his style, and some have told her it makes them consider whether Democrats may have a point.

She cant shake the feeling that Democrats were on a mission from the very beginning to impeach him.

For subscribers: Houston gets hotter in 2020 with up to 11 competitive Texas House races

They were trying to catch him on anything and everything. Their intention was never to be fair. It was to catch him and thats it, she said. After being too busy to watch the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, shes watching the Trump trial to hear the cases they make. More than that, she wants to see how Republicans defend the president.

Trump had a much tougher go if it at the Houston Womens Group, whose members have been waiting three years for someone to put him in check. If anything, the say impeachment is a stamp of approval for their long-simmering outrage.

Christine Cadiz said her feelings about Trump stem from the male-centric culture she grew up with as a child from Trinidad, a small country off the coast of Venezuela. Her father was stern and dominant, her mother submissive. I just saw a lot of patriarchy and how that was affecting my life.

Trump is the epitome of that patriarchy and so damaging and so oppressive of women said Cadiz, who lives in Montrose. Thats why it disappoints her that her brother, a police officer, likes Trump, she said. He wasnt always right wing, she said. Now she said he picks political fights with her, but she no longer takes the bait.

Its not that she wishes the Republican Party didnt exist, but she thinks the party needs a cleansing. She wants intellectual political debates on a balanced stage. Politics in America feels off-kilter, she said, likening Democrats and the president to a college professor debating with a 10-year-old bully. Hes getting lots and lots of attention because the fight is so absurd.

Cadiz has hope people are moving off the sidelines to engage in politics. Thats what theyre doing in the weekly meeting group, she said, and at womens marches. I think we should be really gung-ho at this point and pay attention to all the activism, all the voices. Everybody is doing something and Im excited about that.

Bernadine Williams, who identifies most with the Green Party, said she gave Trump a chance to earn her respect and he failed.

She said shes not patriotic, but wants to make this a better place. She reads and watches and listens to the news, volunteers for Results.org, which works to end poverty, and gives her time to Health Care for All - Texas. She leaves her home in Sunnyside to drive with those groups to Washington D.C. to talk issues with her local congressmen, pushing for change.

But she fears Trump, his macho nonsense and his willful ignorance. Hes a child at the steering wheel, she said. Shes afraid he could take the country to war, and that education, health care and issues affecting women are under assault. Theres war against the poor, she said, against indigenous people, against black people, against the environment, against clean air and drinking water.

There are some arguments where having all the facts on your side still isnt good enough and a lot of Trump supporters are like that, she said.

But she doesnt want to personalize it, she said. She wants to give people the facts.
ROME, N.Y. -- On Friday, Congressman Anthony Brindisi honored a local veteran for his military service.

Rome veteran Hugh Aikens, served in World War II and the Korean War.

Aikens served as a machine gunner for general patton in world war two, served in the army reserves, and was sent to Korea.

Following his service, he returned home but never received his medals.

"Oh, it's fantastic. You heard him on stage," said Terry Aikens, son of Hugh Aikens. "He was tickled pink. Thanks to Mr. Brindisi. My wife Patty contacted him and within a week we got a letter from him stating that he was going to look into the matter, which he did and within two or three weeks he had all of his medals."

Mr. Aikens received the purple heart, bronze and silver star medals, just to name a few.

The New York State School for the Deaf also honored Mr. Aikens with a colorguard presentation, national anthem, and handbell routine.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Investors continue to pour funds into passive investment products that aim to replicate the performance of benchmark indexes. Theyre also increasingly keen that their money gets used to influence corporations to stop damaging the planet and improve social inclusiveness. Unfortunately, many of the products designed to achieve both objectives currently fall short on the goal of responsible investing.

The shift in emphasizing environmental, social and governance issues puts pressure on the index providers to come up with benchmarks that more accurately reflect the concerns investors are attempting to express by allocating capital to ESG investment products. Currently, though, even dedicated ESG indexes have shortcomings that many investors are probably unaware of.

The U.S. Vegan Climate exchange-traded fund, for example, tracks a $124 billion index created by Beyond Investing that excludes companies engaged in a laundry list of potentially harmful activities, including animal exploitation, human rights abuses and fossil fuels extraction. While the $14 million ETFs top five holdings  Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc., Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.  may all meet those criteria, theyre hardly the first names that spring to mind when thinking about the words vegan or climate. And there are many other examples.

BlackRock Inc.s announcement this month that it plans to prioritize sustainability in its investment decisions highlights the issue confronting index trackers. With two-thirds of its $7.4 trillion of assets managed passively, the worlds biggest asset manager acknowledged that the bulk of its cash isnt available to pursue those goals. Harnessing that firepower will become increasingly important if the passive industry is to meet the ESG aspirations of its growing customer base.

Its even likely to radically change the industry, and sooner than people realize. To that point, Hiro Mizuno, the chief investment officer of Japans $1.6 trillion Global Pension Investment Fund, says the days are over when its enough for passive fund managers to compete simply on providing the lowest tracking errors at the lowest cost. Now they have to add value too. The main battlefield among our passive managers is going to be in the stewardship area. he told the Financial Times last month.

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BlackRock is far from alone in shifting to a more moral investing stance. A survey of 300 institutional investors, financial advisers and fund managers that use ETFs published on Monday by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. showed that almost three-quarters of respondents expect to increase the amount allocated to ESG investments in the coming year.

European participants in the BBH survey ranked ESG-themed products as the ETF category they would most like to see more supply of, while Chinese investors ranked the sector as their second most desired area of expansion, along with more funds designed to track core indexes.

Money is flooding into the sector. ESG-designated assets were the fastest-growing category of ETFs listed on Deutsche Boerse AGs Xetra market last year, with investments more than tripling to more than 23 billion euros ($25 billion). Globally, ESG ETFs have enjoyed net inflows for 52 consecutive weeks, taking in $30 billion in the past year and garnering almost $3.4 billion in the week ended Jan. 20, according to data compiled by Bloomberg LP, which competes in selling index data to investors.

There are two main routes whereby ETF providers can meet the implicit demands of clients allocating money to passively managed ESG products. The first is to use their collective muscle to prompt index providers to increase the granularity of the benchmarks used to shape asset allocations. Improving the discrimination of ESG indexes would go a long way to ensuring investors arent being hoodwinked into products that arent as green or socially savvy as they first appear.

The second is trickier. Excluding companies deemed to be damaging the environment or being socially irresponsibly isnt enough to move the needle. Engaging with the boards of those firms and using the clout of a shareholding to force them to change their ways is much more effective.

But that costs money, and the success of the ETF model has been founded in large part on its ability to charge ultra-low fees. If BlackRock and its peers are serious about taking their social responsibilities more seriously, investors will have to pay for the privilege  and the sellers of index trackers will need to be honest about the increased cost of that kind of activism. Lets hope the buyers of the products decide its a price worth paying to do good.

To contact the author of this story: Mark Gilbert at magilbert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mark Gilbert is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering asset management. He previously was the London bureau chief for Bloomberg News. He is also the author of "Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable."

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) B D Mishra Monday emphasized on strengthening the coordination between the border state and the Indian Army to reinforce the sense of security among the people and the territorial integrity of the country.

Mishra, who chaired a coordination meeting of the state government and the Army at the Raj Bhawan here, advised regular meetings between the two sides at various levels, a communiqu informed here.

The general security arrangements on the entire Indo- China border opposite were also reviewed during the meeting.

Lt General Anil Chauhan GoC Eastern Command and Lt General Shantanu Dayal GoC 4 Corps along with Army officials were present in the meeting in which various security and border infrastructure related issues were discussed.

Chauhan apprised the governor of action taken by the Army in coordination with other agencies for maintaining peace and security in the state, the communique said.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Legislative Assembly Speaker P D Sona, Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, DGP R P Upadhyaya and Lok Sabha MP Tapir Gao also attended the meeting, it said.

The Army Commander assured the governor and the chief minister of assistance by the Army whenever required.

Mishra suggested the general officers commanding of the Eastern Command and 4 Corps to enhance the socio-economic activities of the people of the state, it added.

In a separate meeting with Khandu at the Raj Bhawan, the governor discussed the administrative issues and deliberated on removing the hurdles and bottlenecks in the implementation of welfare projects.

Issues related to border area development, farmers, agriculture and allied sectors were also discussed in the meeting, the communique added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Student surprises teacher with his college acceptance news in the sweetest way originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

Since the seventh grade, 17-year-old Max Pacheco has dreamed of attending Georgia Institute of Technology. On Jan. 18, Pacheco checked the schools website and found out his dream was coming true -- he had been accepted.

The South Forsyth High School senior wanted to thank and surprise his favorite teacher, Dr. Gloria Green, an AP Spanish teacher who wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf.

Pacheco delivered the good news to Dr. Green along with a bouquet -- and her response was priceless.

So this past Saturday I was blessed to have been admitted into @GeorgiaTech. Today in school I surprised Dr. Green, one of the best teachers Ive had and the teacher who wrote my recommendation, with the news. This was her reaction, wrote Pacheco.

So this past Saturday I was blessed to have been admitted into @GeorgiaTech . Today in school I surprised Dr. Green, one of the best teachers Ive had and the teacher who wrote my recommendation, with the news. This was her reaction  pic.twitter.com/MuFYkG1SB9  Max Pacheco (@cmaxpacheco) January 21, 2020

The video has since garnered over 20,000 views on Twitter.

I was very, very happy. It felt like it was my own child going to college, Green, who has a son at Georgia Tech, told Good Morning America. [The teachers] are told to invest in the children and to always think of them with intention -- I invested in my children and I got yellow roses in return.

PHOTO: Dr. Gloria Green reacts to the news that her student, senior Max Pacheco, was accepted to Georgia Tech in a video filmed at South Forsyth High School in Cumming, Ga., Jan. 21, 2020. (Courtesy Kate Waller)

MORE: Teacher celebrates becoming US citizen with her students by her side

Green, who has been a teacher for 27 years, said she liked Pachecos ability to work with others, his warm heart and his confidence, and easily connected with him when he was a student in her class. Pacheco, whose first language is Spanish, told GMA that Greens patience, impressive experience and genuine care for her students led him to ask for the recommendation.

Story continues

When I told her I got into [Georgia Tech], she just went nuts, said Pacheco, who plans to study mechanical engineering. She started hugging me, she started dancing, and it really made me tear up because you can really see and feel how much she cared about me. She knew that it was my dream to go to Tech and how hard I worked for it.

According to a press release, out of 22,000 Early Action applicants, more than 4,500 students were admitted to Georgia Tech on Saturday. Steven Norris, the assistant director of social media, was touched when he saw the video and retweeted it on behalf of Georgia Tech.

When I was in high school, I don't know if I would have had the maturity to think I need to go back and thank those teachers who helped me get to this moment, said Norris. This young man, Max, has a maturity beyond his years to remember to have gratitude to the folks who went above and beyond for you.

PHOTO: High school senior, Max Pacheco, poses for a photo with his favorite teacher, Dr. Gloria Green, in an undated handout photo. (Courtesy Max Pacheco)

MORE: National Teacher of the Year shares 6 tips to help parents empower their child in the classroom

Along with Green, Pacheco expressed gratitude toward his best friends and the community hes found within South Forsyth High School.

"Not only does [Dr. Green] teach the class very well, but by connecting with her students, she really knows how to fill the needs of each individual student," Pacheco said.

"In [that] moment, I just felt like her son or something, and it made me feel really special."
JANUARY 27, 2020  Roadrunner Days, a series of events focused on engagement and student success, continue this week to welcome new and returning students for the spring 2020 semester. The newest Roadrunners can learn the campus environment and traditions, and returning students learn strategies for success in the new year.

Monday, Jan. 27

Roadrunner Days activities resume with two mixers. The First-Gen Mixer takes place in the Denman Ballroom (SU 2.01.28) from 1 to 3 p.m. and the Transfer Mixer takes place there from 4 to 6 p.m.

 Explore a lineup of events for Roadrunner Days at UTSA.

Tuesday, Jan. 28

Downtown Campus events continue with Get Involved Downtown, taking place at 11:30 a.m. in the Frio Street Commons and the Downtown First-Gen and Transfer Mixer happening from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Durango Building.

At the Main Campus, students can attend the Union Success Hour from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first floor of the Student Union and Wait Till I Get My Money Right, hosted by College of Business at 5 p.m. in the Retama Auditorium (SU 2.02.02).

Wednesday, Jan. 29

Start the day off with VIA Kick Off in the Bexar Room (HSU 1.102) of the HEB Student Union from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Game Week Wednesday takes place in the Central Plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The COEHD Scavenger Hunt, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Main Building (MB 2.434.01), will give students the chance to learn about services and degree options from the College of Education and Human Development. In the evening Roadrunners are invited to the Denman Ballroom (SU 2.01.28) in the Student Union for the Taste of Social Justice Film Series; a screening of the short film My Name Is Maria de Jesus will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Marcella Ochoa.

Thursday, Jan. 30

Its the final day of the spring 2020 Roadrunner Days. The Get Involved Fair on Main Campus will be taking place in Sombrilla Plaza from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Students will have an opportunity to meet representatives from over 150 organizations, nonprofit partners and various UTSA departments. At 7 p.m. the mens basketball team will be taking on the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Convocation Center.
BBH India today announced the appointment of Nivedita Agashe as Creative Director in its Mumbai Office. She will report into BBH Indias Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner Russell Barrett and will lead a talented team of copy, art and design professionals.

Nivedita comes with 11 years of expansive experience in advertising with expertise in developing clutter-breaking engaging campaigns. In the past, she has worked with DDB Mudra, Taproot India and Sideways Consulting. She has spearheaded creative expression for a diverse set of brands like Volkswagen, Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, Airtel, Stayfree, Borosil Glassworks and The Taj Group.

Over the years she has won a slew of awards at international and local award shows from Abbys to Spikes Asia. She has been a delegate at See It Be It, a program by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to encourage women creatives in advertising.

Apart from advertising, she writes poetry and has also penned lyrics for a Pune based folk-rock band called Jaagar.

Welcoming Nivedita on board, Russell Barrett, CCO & Managing Partner, BBH India said, "Ive been keen to bring Nivedita on board for a few years now and Im really happy to finally have her join our team. Nivedita comes with years of experience and is a brilliant writer as well as a strong ideas person. She is, both a lovely person and really brilliant with her craft and that makes her a perfect Blacksheep. "

Nivedita Agashe, Creative Director, BBH India added BBH has always done work that is not only meticulously crafted but also distinctive and in step with the times. I'm excited to be a part of the team

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Seperu Folk Dance and Associated Practices is Botswanas latest intangible cultural element to be inscribed for urgent safeguarding by UNESCO. National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Expert Bathusi Losolobe told this publication that Botswana now boasts three elements that have been inscribed by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for need of urgent safeguarding.

The first element to be inscribed was the Kgatleng Earthernware Pottery Making Skills in 2012 followed by Mmino wa Dikopelo in 2016 and now Seperu in December 2019.Speaking in an interview at his house in Boseja ward in Mochudi, Losolobe, who also doubles as an IT expert accredited to World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO, explained that these elements can only be inscribed by member states to the 2003 Convention on ICH. Botswana acceded to this Convention in May 2010. Intangible heritage includes elements and practices that are in the human mind which cannot be taught at schools but are learnt through observation and apprenticeship, for example, dance forms and certain skills such as making eathernware pottery. Botswana first nominated Seperu Folk Dance and Associated Practices of the Basubiya tribe in the Chobe District for safeguarding in 2014 but was sent back to improve its proposal.

Losolobe was the lead consultant in the project at the time working with various stakeholders, such as the Ingongis (Master Practitioners) in district as well as the Chobe District ICH Committee. The Disctrict ICH Committee is made up of all the 10 Chiefs of Chobe, the Council and a representative of the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC). Another stakeholder which worked in the process of nomination was the National ICH Committee, which comprises academicians, practitioners and government officials. Losolobe is also a member of this committee by virtue of his position as National ICH Expert, a status he attained since his training by UNESCO in Lesotho in 2010. We worked with these stakeholders to prepapre a request to UNESCO first in 2014 and were sent back in 2015 after which we filed again in 2017, he said with a grin of satisfaction now that the element was inscribed last year December.

Explaining submission of request to UNESCO Losolobe said is open to member states that have interest every year March 31st. The submision entails preparing a Form that has the Text about the Element, Photographs that tell the story in the text and then a 10-minute Video that tells the story of the Element. After 31st March UNESCO Secretariat in Paris, France assesses the Request for compliance. If it is not satisfied they send the Form back to the National ICH Committee for improvement. But if satisfied, the Secretariat forwards the Form to the Evaluation Body, which is chosen by members of the 2003 Convention. Losolobe explained that this Body does the technical selection to ensure that the Element has been properly defined and has a Safeguarding Plan.

After the Evaluation Body has assessed the request it may send it back if not satisfied that it complied with an aspect of the criteria, for example, if consent form was not signed by interviewees, or if they feel the Element does not qualify for safeguarding.

Or they may say out of the five criterions the Element has not passed one, in which case the country applying for nomination would have to lobby members of the Intergovernmental Committee, which truly represents the body of ICH. The Intergovernmental Committee is made up of 24 countries in their specific regions  for example Southern Africa is currently represented by Zambia  and meets every year November and December. At that meeting the 24 countries decide whether the Element should pass for inscription or not. Once the nomination process has been duly satisfied, UNESCO inscribes the Element.

For example last year UNESCO recommended that Botswana Element be the only one that gets inscribed. The other countries were sent back. For Inscription, UNESCO has three lists. The first is the list of ICH in Dire Need of Urgent Safeguarding; the second is Representative list of ICH of Humanity and the last is Best Practices. All of Botswanas three elements  Earthenware pottery making skills, Mmino wa Dikopelo and Seperu - are inscribed under the list of ICH in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.Losolobe said Botswana has not applied for listing under Representative List or Best Pracices not because it does not have any Elements that qualify but because it is relatively easy to get funding from ICH Fund, which is responsible for exclusively financing ICH programmes unlike with other lists.

Representative List is about a culture that a people or country is proud of and wants to be recognised by; for example Seswaa (Pounded Meat) in Botswana transcends all Batswana tribes. Batswana can list this if they want. Another example is the Kobo and Mokorotlo (Blanket and Hat) found in Lesotho. The hat is woven using reed exclusively found in Lesotho and it takes a special skill to weave it hence the hat is not under threat of extinction. Basotho may list it if they like. As for Best Practices Losolobe said it relates to policies and programmes whether they be of government, individuals or independent organisations which are good practices of intangible heritage. He gave the example of Dithubaruba in Botswana. It is a Bakwena culture but is shared with the world at large. During the festival there is research; documenting and sharing of information which consitutes elements of safeguarding an Element.

Documentation forms one of the 12 measures of Safeguarding Measures. Losolobe explained that every member of the 2003 ICH Convention is obliged to make an annual monetary contribution to the ICH Fund. There is also the Voluntary Funds, which can be tapped into. This Fund once had a major outcry when America pulled out of UNESCO in protest over Palestines admission as member of UNESCO and then decided to withdraw all its annual contributions. Over and above the Voluntary Funds there is also Funds in Trust. Botswana first benefitted from ICH in 2010 through the Flanders (a State in Belgium) Funds in Trust. Under Funds in Trust developed economies that have managed to safeguard their cultures contribute monies to UNESCO.

Flanders had decided to help SADC countries at the time. In SADC South Africa is the only country that has not acceded to the 2003 ICH Convention but it has acceeded to the 2005 Convention on Cultural Diversity. Losolobe reiterated the point that the reason Botswana has listed under the list for urgent need of safeguarding is because there is readily available money which can be accessed without asking for any assistance from government. That is how we were funded $68, 000 for the project of promoting eathernware and pottery making skills in Kgatleng, he explained. Asked about the significance and benefits of safeguarding elements for both country and practitioners, Losolobe said the first was recognition and means for communities to earn a living from their culture.

He gave the example of the men who played Kukwane and Segaba in Kgatleng and were only unearthed by the Constituency Arts Competitions.

Further as for Chobe District which is renowned for its rich tourism that promotes the regions flora and fauna, the inclusion of cultural tourism through Seperu cultural performances will help brand the District and elevate the profile of the country in the long run.

Losolobe explained that what now remains for Botswana is to apply for funding from ICH Funds of UNESCO to implement the safeguarding measures that they have proposed for Seperu Dance Form and its Associated Practices. The proposed Safeguarding Plan does not consider only the dance and singing aspects of the culture but also extends to its associated practices. Seperu culture transcends the life of a Musubiyafrom birth; rite of passage or initiation; marriage; death to the coronation of paramount king.

One of the aspects of the culture that was found to be under threat of extinction is the Mushishi (the cultural dress) because it is worn for wrong ocassions.

We are now training master weavers and will start childrens clubs in schools so that they can weave it and safeguard the dress, Losolobe said. The funding proposal will be done by the Chobe Disctrict ICH Committee with the help of the National ICH Committee. They will work closely with the UNESCO office in Botswana. The proposal for funding will then be taken to the Nominations and Reports Subcommittee of National ICH Committee, which Losolobe forms part of. Its other members include Professor Nhlekisane (UB) and Tshepiso Gabonthone of the National Museum. The sub-committee will assess the funding proposal just in the same way that it assessed the request for nomination of the Element. Then it will go to the Nominations Committee which in concert with the District Committee will make its recommendations to the National ICH Committee that the funding proposal be submitted to UNESCO.

We are permitted to ask for over $100, 000 or below $100, 000. The latter is much easier because the proposal does not have to go through the IGC meeting it only goes to Evaluation Body. But anything above $100, 000 goes to Evaluation Body which will refer to the IGC for funding. This is the process that we are going to follow this year, Losolobe explained. Losolobe expressed hope that they will submit a request for funding to implement the safeguarding plan for Mmino wa Dikopelo on the 31st of March this year.
San Francisco, Jan 27 : Tech giant Google has confirmed that all commercial extensions have been temporarily suspended from being published or updated in the Chrome Web Store in the wake of a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions involving paid Chrome extensions that aim to exploit users.

According to the Google security team, the wave of fraudulent transactions began earlier this month. Google engineers described the fraudulent transactions as happening "at scale." The ban on publishing or updating impacts all paid extensions. This includes Chrome extensions that require paying a fee before installing, extensions that work based on monthly subscriptions, or Chrome extensions that use one-time in-app purchases to get access to various features, ZDNet reported on Saturday.

However, existing commercial extensions are still available for download via the official Chrome Web Store. Notably, extension developers can't push new updates.

"This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse," Simeon Vincent, Developer Advocate for Chrome Extensions at Google was quoted as saying in the report.

Extension developers who try to publish a new paid Chrome extension, or push a new update on their commercial extensions, are currently receiving an automated message that reads: "Spam and Placement in the Store."
Zadezhda Zavialova, pictured above, is facing murder charges over the death of her newborn baby

A woman is facing a murder investigation after her newborn baby was found dead in a washing machine.

Hairdresser Nadezhda Zavialova, 31, gave birth to her fourth child prematurely during the night, Russian authorities said in an official report.

Her husband Denis called the ambulance in the morning after seeing his wife covered in blood, inside their home in the Talitsa, Sverdlovsk region.

A police source confirmed the baby had been put into the washing machine, and a murder investigation has been launched.

The mother, who is currently in hospital, said her baby was stillborn.

She is facing charges over the murder of her newborn child which under article 106 of the Russian Criminal Code, could lead to up to five years in jail.

Nadezhda who is well known in her town as a popular hairdresser was described by friends as a 'good mother'.

Zadezhda and her husband Denis, who called the ambulance in the morning after seeing his wife covered in blood

Friends described Nadezhda as a hardworking and caring mother who they could not believe was capable of killing her baby in such a way

She has a son by a previous marriage, and two daughters from her current husband.

Elena Firtseva, a friend of Nadezhda, told to Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper: 'Nadezhda is hardworking and caring mother.

'There was no reason to kill the baby and in such a cruel way. She told me that the child was born prematurely and was stillborn.'

Another friend told local newspaper E1: 'I saw her recently when she was pregnant

'Maybe the family had some quarrels, but this was not visible,' she said. 'I would never think she could do this.'
Police sealed off two scenes in Dublin in the early hours of Monday morning after a distressed woman gave birth on a city street corner.

Passers-by came to the aid of the woman as she went into labour on the corner of Linenhall Street and North King Street near the north quays at around 1am.

But in her distressed state the woman is believed to have carried her baby 1km away to Inns Quay before being picked up by an ambulance at the Four Courts.

The ambulance had been called by concerned members of the public.

One witness said he heard a woman screaming on the street at around 1am.

At first I thought it was horseplay, but she kept screaming so I looked out, said the man.

I saw a lady who was very distressed and people running to her. There were four people who crossed the road to her, and a man in a car stopped too.

They were giving her scarves and clothes. There was a lot of material changing hands and people were pointing down on the street, he explained.

I didn't fully understand what was going on, and then the woman walked away and the people who had helped her were putting their hands to their heads as if they were in panic. I could see someone on a phone, he added.

It is understood that one of the concerned people who had come to the woman's aid followed her while directing emergency services, and she was treated by an ambulance crew at Inns Quay before being taken to hospital.

Expand Close The woman is believed to have carried her baby 1km before being picked up by an ambulance at the Four Court Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook

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The woman and the baby are now in good care and are understood to be well.

The area where the woman gave birth is a cold street corner in a landscape of pavements, walls and railings.

Gardai sealed off the scene, as well as where the woman was met by the ambulance.

While they are not being treated as crime scenes, Gardai were gathering information this morning at both scenes as per protocol to help establish the facts of the matter.
Gastropub chain Bar Louie has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close almost a third of its locations, including its restaurant in Alabama.

The Alabama location at Bridge Street in Huntsville is among almost 40 others to close.

The company does not expect the filing to have meaningful impact on its day-to-day business. In advance of the filing, the company closed underperforming locations to strengthen its operational and financial position, Bar Louie said in a press release.

The Huntsville restaurant made the announcement via Facebook.

To our loyal guests, our last day of business was January 25th, 2020. Please visit us at www.barlouie.com/locations to find the Bar Louie nearest to you, the restaurant said on Facebook. Thanks for the memories.

In a press release, Bar Louie said it had reached an agreement with its lenders to act as a stalking horse purchaser during the bankruptcy process, which is expected to last about 90 days. The company said its remaining ninety locations across the country will remain open.

Bar Louie is a profitable business focused on long-term growth with new investors. The sale through Chapter 11 will help us to focus on our profitable core locations and expand in areas that have a proven track record of success," Tom Fricke, CEO of Bar Louie said. Most importantly, it ensures that we can continue to provide superior service to our guests, implement an exciting range of new customer-facing initiatives, expand our marketing influence, and continue to offer the 5-star experience we are known for.
Tata Hornbill was unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show 2019. It is likely that the automobile manufacturer will launch the Tata Hornbill that will be slotted under the Tata Nexon SUV at the Auto Expo 2020.

According to the Tata Motors official press release, the car is structured on the Alfa platform. It is likely that the entry-level SUV will be launched with a 1.2 litre petrol variant. The decision seems viable as the demand for diesel cars could face a massive drop with the coming of the BS-6 engine.

The headlamps can be distinctly split which makes it similar to the Tata SUV Harrier but its tail lights are expected to be comparatively smaller and rounder. In an attempt to appeal to the customers, the car comes with a sloping roof, squared wheel arches and a higher window line.

This car aka H2X is 3,840 mm long, 1,822 mm wide, 1,635 mm high and has a wheelbase of 2,450 mm. In order to emphasise upon its ruggedness, the car comes with a black cladding all around its body.

Owing to its single engine variant, it is expected to compete with cars such as the Maruti S-Presso and Mahindra KUV100. The Tata H2X is bigger than both its competitors in terms of its dimensions and wheelbase. Despite the bigger dimensions and a broader wheelbase, the Tata Hornbill is in the same segment as the Maruti Suzuki S-Presso and Mahindra KUV100.

Also read: Maruti Suzuki launches BS-6 compliant S-CNG Alto; price starts at Rs 4.32 lakh

Also read: Tata Altroz launch: Automaker's first premium hatchback priced at Rs 5.29-9.29 Rs lakh
New Delhi, Jan 27 : In the wake of a confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Nepal, the Union Health Ministry has subsequently strengthened its vigil in the areas bordering Nepal.

The recent deployment of health team has taken place at Panitanki in West Bengal, entry point from Nepal, said the Health Ministry on Monday.

"Update on #ncov2020 - Subsequent to confirmed #coronarvirus case in #Nepal, vigil strengthened at Panitanki (West Bengal) entry point from Nepal," the ministry tweeted.

Earlier on Sunday the ministry had informed that in response to confirmed case of the new virus in the neighbourhood country Nepal, India stepped up vigil in districts bordering Nepal. The health ministry said that teams of medical experts were also deployed at border outpost with Nepal at Jhulaghat and Jauljibi in Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand.

In continuation of its efforts to stop the virus from entering in India and making the passengers aware, the ministry has also displayed signage advising the passengers for self reporting and other precautions, disseminated through advisories, at the Mumbai airport.

According to the health ministry, a total of 29,707 passengers from 137 flights have been screened. Fortunately, no case of coronavirus has been found till date.

According to the announcement made by Chinese health authorities on Monday, 2,744 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), including 461 in critical condition and a total of 5,794 suspected cases have also been reported. The killer virus has caused 80 deaths in China, as per Chinese authorities.

Many Indian students studying in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak have been stuck there. The health ministry said it is working closely with the Ministry of External Affairs and is in touch with the students.
Travellers wearing face masks as a precautionary measure to protect against the outbreak of coronavirus, at Hong Kong International Airport, on Jan. 23, 2020. (Vivek Prakash/AFP via Getty Images)

State Department Warns Nationals to Reconsider Travel to China Amid Virus Outbreak

The U.S. Department of State urged Americans to consider not traveling to China amid the outbreak of the potentially deadly coronavirus.

The Monday afternoon alert advises Americans to reconsider travel to China due to novel coronavirus and raised its travel advisory to three out of four. A level-four State Department warning calls on people to not travel at all to a countryusually reserved for countries in the midst of war or insecurity, such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Yemen.

An outbreak of a mysterious new strain of coronavirus has been centered around the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province. The agency warned: Do not travel to Hubei province, China or Wuhan.

Chinese authorities have imposed strict travel restrictions in the area around Wuhan. Travelers should be aware that the Chinese government could prevent them from entering or exiting parts of Hubei province. Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice, according to the bulletin.

A woman checks her sons forehead in the locked-down city of Wuhan in China on Jan. 27, 2020. (Getty Images)

The State Department noted that if one travels to China, avoid contact with visibly sick people, avoid alive or dead animals, wash hands often with soap and water, and inform a healthcare provider ahead of time.

It comes after the agency announced it would charter a one-time flight from Wuhan to San Francisco to evacuate diplomats and interested private citizens amid the outbreak.

The Department of State is making arrangements to relocate its personnel stationed at the U.S. Consulate General in Wuhan to the United States, the agencys statement said. We anticipate that there will be limited capacity to transport private U.S. citizens on a reimbursable basis on a single flight leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on Tuesday, Jan. 28, said the statement.

First, the flight will have to make a stop at the international airport in Anchorage, Alaska, according to the governors office.

Given Alaskas proximity to Asia, we have been asked to assist our federal partners in this effort to facilitate travel out of China back to the United States to bring these U.S. citizens home, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement in announcing the move. The State of Alaska, in combination with our local, federal, and Tribal partners, have been working closely to ensure the health and safety of all Alaskans while assisting with this request.

So far, about five coronavirus patients have been confirmed in the United States. The latest ones were confirmed in Maricopa County, Arizona, and two in Southern California. In the Maricopa case, according to a statement released on Sunday by the Arizona Department of Health Services, the patient is a member of the Arizona State University community who does not live in university housing. The three people had recently traveled to Wuhan, officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in news reports Monday that approximately 110 people in the United States have been tested for the virus.
(Alliance News) - Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd said Monday it has acquired a US-based captive insurer from an unnamed investment firm with holdings in industries, real estate, marketable securities and other investments.

Captive insurance firms are wholly-owned subsidiaries that provide risk-mitigation services for a parent company.

R&Q has acquired Montana-based Vigneron Insurance Co Inc for an undisclosed sum, which will then be merged into the company's Vermont captive consolidator insurer, ICDC Ltd, in the first quarter of 2020.

VICI underwrites deductible reimbursement policies to cover the obligations under insurance policies taken out by affiliated entities.

ICDC was originally incorporated in Bermuda and was re-domiciled in Vermont in 2015, re-insuring workers' compensation, commercial general liability, business auto liability, business auto physical damage and property risks of its parent company.

Executive Chair Ken Randell said: "We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of VICI, our first transaction in Montana, and provided VICI's parent company with legal and economic finality for its captive.

"Our legacy pipeline remains strong across the group and we look forward to closing more transactions in the coming weeks."

Shares in Randall & Quilter were up 2.2% in London on Monday at 179.89 pence each.

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has rejected claims that a change in government in Ireland would be a concern to the Brexit process.

Asked about the forthcoming Irish General Election, Barnier insisted a change in government would not have an impact on his working relationship with Ireland.

"Obviously I have been informed of the next election in this country.

"Frankly speaking, as an EU negotiator I always worked with each and every other 27 EU member state with elected governments," he said.

"I will continue to work with the government chosen by the citizens."

Standing alongside Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Government Buildings in Dublin, Barnier was asked what advice he would give to any leader who is struggling to get re-elected.

Barnier said: "Always walking in the middle of the road."

The latest poll shows that opposition party Fianna Fail remains in the lead to be the majority partner in the next government.

The Red C poll, paid for by the Business Post newspaper, shows Micheal Martin's party on 26% (up two), while Varadkar's Fine Gael has gone down seven points to 23% and Sinn Fein up by eight to 19%.

The Greens are polling at 8%, up one, Labour are on 4% and Solidarity-People Before Profit on 2%.

The poll also shows that Independent candidates are feeling the pressure due to Sinn Fein's popularity. Their support is down by two points to 14%.

The Fine Gael leader commented on Monday that while he said he would not offer a "running commentary" on polls, he pointed out that he is ahead when measured against other party leaders.

"If you look at the polls, for what it's worth, in the Ipsos (MRBI opinion) poll, when the party leaders are measured against each other, the polls put me slightly ahead of the other party leaders," he added.

"In the Red C poll at the weekend it showed that the public trusted my party with Brexit ahead of all other parties by quite a distance.

"But one thing I do know is that there's been a huge focus in this election on really important issues like health and housing and childcare, and reducing people's taxes and making sure that more money is in their pockets.

"All of that costs money. It's going to cost a lot of money to deliver those projects.

"We will have to generate revenues of billions of euros over the next couple of years, and that's only possible if we keep the economy strong and to do that we have to have a good trade deal post-Brexit.

"The issues that dominate this election are actually very much interlinked, because only a strong economy and only a favourable Brexit for Ireland will allow us to do all of the things in health care, housing, childcare, that we all know are necessary."

source: PA

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
AUSTIN, Minn., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) invites you to participate in a conference call with Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, and Jim Sheehan, executive vice president and chief financial officer, to discuss the company's first quarter financial results. The company will issue its earnings press release before the markets open on Thursday, February 20, 2020, and will host a conference call at 8:00 a.m. CT (9:00 a.m. ET).

WHEN: Thursday, February 20, 2020





8:00 a.m. CT (9:00 a.m. ET)



WEBCAST: To listen to a live webcast of the conference call, go to the company's website, http://www.hormelfoods.com, click on Investors, and you will find a link to the webcast.







PHONE: Dial toll-free 888-204-4368 at least 10 minutes prior to the call.





From outside the United States, call 720-543-0214. Please note: all dial-in participants should quote the conference ID of 4720526 to access the call.

If you have difficulty accessing the call, please contact:

PGI

Reservations Line

(888) 563-4743







AUDIO REPLAY: To listen to a replay of the conference call, go to the company's website http://www.hormelfoods.com, click on Investors, then click on News & Events and you will find a link to the webcast.

About Hormel Foods  Inspired People. Inspired Food.

Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenues across more than 80 countries worldwide. Its brands include SKIPPY, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Applegate, Justin's, Wholly, Hormel Black Label, Columbus and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named one of "The 100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Corporate Responsibility Magazine for the 11th year in a row, and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts. The company lives by its purpose statement  Inspired People. Inspired Food.  to bring some of the world's most trusted and iconic brands to tables across the globe. For more information, visit www.hormelfoods.com and http://csr.hormelfoods.com/.

Investor Contact Media Contact Nathan Annis Wendy Watkins (507) 437-5248 (507) 434-6352 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Hormel Foods Corporation

Related Links

http://www.hormel.com


VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh cabinet on Monday approved the draft bill to abolish the stattes Legislative Council.

The cabinet meeting Monday felt that the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was misusing its majority in the Legislative Council to halt bills passed by the Legislative Assembly.

The Bill will be debated in the ongoing session of Assembly where the ruling YSR Congress Party has 151 members against the total strength of 175.

The passage of the Bill in the Assembly is a mere formality.

The decision of the Legislative Council to refer the three capitals Bills to a select committee angered the chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy who felt that there was no need to have an Upper House of the legislature whose agenda is to block government initiatives on development and welfare.

The council has previously delayed and rejected a bill to have separate commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It also rejected the bill that made English medium compulsory in government schools.

The Telugu Desam Party is boycotting today's session in protest against the move to abolish the council. The party is also alleging that the ruling party is poaching its MLCs.
He told Canadian Pacific Railway that its method of disclosing emissions got a C grade by the nonprofit Carbon Disclosure Project, and that its plan to boost that to a B would still be "unsatisfactory." TCI, the railroad's No. 1 stockholder, with an 8 per cent stake, said it requires the company to have a "credible, publicly-disclosed plan" to reduce emissions that meets seven objectives, including offsetting emissions from corporate travel and making facilities more energy efficient. Canadian Pacific says it engages in dialogue with stockholders on topics including sustainability, and that it has long reported its emissions to improve its practices. Hohn declined to be interviewed for this story. Hohn launched TCI and an affiliated charity, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, in 2004 after earning a reputation as a gifted stockpicker in the London office of Perry Capital, a New York-based hedge fund. His wife, Jamie Cooper, whom Hohn met at Harvard in the early '90s, ran the foundation, and they became a London power couple as TCI pumped money into the charity. Hohn has shown you can make a big impact on companies with a lot of arm-twisting. Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of money manager GMO Thanks to Hohn, the foundation has $US5.1 billion that it uses to fund programs such as strengthening nutrition for youngsters in deprived communities, protecting adolescents from slavery and human trafficking, and expanding paediatric HIV treatment in Africa. Hohn and Cooper regularly traded notes with Bill and Melinda Gates, and in 2012, David Cameron, then Britain's prime minister, invited Hohn to speak at a summit on malnutrition at No. 10 Downing Street. At TCI, the vibe was decidedly more mercenary. Hohn developed an investment strategy predicated on his own "personal, intellectual, and emotional makeup," as he put it to Justice Jennifer Roberts, who presided over his 2014 divorce, which resulted in a 337 million-pound settlement for Cooper. Hohn's approach meant conducting meticulous analysis and searching for weak management teams that other investors avoid. "Think of it like the damaged goods department of a department store where you can get 80 to 90 per cent off because most people won't buy," Hohn said in a video interview with Institutional Investor magazine in 2013.

When he settles on a target, Hohn takes highly concentrated stakes; a single stock can account for more than 15 per cent of his portfolio. Then he goes to work agitating for changes in the company's strategy. In 2005, he took a sizable stake in Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt to stop what he called a "value-destructive acquisition" of the London Stock Exchange. Rebuffed, he called on shareholders to remove CEO Werner Seifert and kill the deal. The board acquiesced, and after Seifert left the company, he characterized Hohn and other shareholder activists as locusts. Hohn was the catalyst for one of the most disastrous banking deals in memory. In 2007, TCI bought 1 per cent of ABN Amro and started calling for a sale of the Dutch lender. After stockholders supported TCI, ABN Amro was sold to a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group in the biggest European banking merger ever. TCI pocketed $US1 billion, but the global financial crash of 2008 poleaxed the newly combined institution and led to its nationalization by the British government. TCI has also exploited scandals such as the 2011 crisis at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The company's U.K. newspapers had hacked mobile telephones and voice mail accounts of celebrities, royals, and a murdered 13-year-old girl. As the media giant's stock plunged, Hohn purchased almost $US1 billion in shares. After News Corp. settled lawsuits in the affair, Murdoch bought back shares and broke up the company. The stock rallied over the next two years, earning a 57 per cent return for TCI-and, for Hohn, reinforcing his reputation as a gifted money manager. Yet he has suffered defeats that show the limitations of his activism. In 2012, TCI sought to force Coal India, a state-controlled producer, to boost dividends and stop selling super-cheap coal to nearby power plants. But the government had little interest in seeing energy prices rise; in 2014, TCI gave up and bailed out of the stock, which had fallen 19 per cent during the campaign. Four years later, the London Stock Exchange Group Plc spurned Hohn's demands to oust its chairman and renew the CEO's contract. After that effort was rebuffed, TCI sold most of its 5 per cent stake in the company, only to see its shares almost double the following year. Hohn is rolling out his green efforts as the asset management industry struggles to find a way to address climate change while delivering the kind of returns investors demand. Index fund giants have long used an investing style dubbed ESG-based on environmental, social, and governance criteria-but they maintain that investment stewardship is ultimately about maximizing value, not imposing social "values" on companies.

But amid mounting anxiety about record-breaking global temperatures, Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock acknowledged on January 14 that climate change has become a "defining factor" in the long-term prospects of companies worldwide. BlackRock, the world's biggest investment firm, with $US7.4 trillion in assets, will start cashing out of firms with "high sustainability-related risk" and plans to make emissions a fundamental consideration in investments. Tackling global warming will test Hohn's approach as never before. First, he's betting that companies will heed his demands, and then that he won't dampen returns by destabilising companies that reject them. In tying TCI's fortunes to a climate change agenda, Hohn is wagering that the economic risks from the mounting crisis are so great that it would be foolish not to spur companies to get real on emissions. "Green investing and hedge funds are not terms many investors would put in the same sentence," says Marc de Kloe, a partner at Theta Capital Management in Amsterdam and an investor in TCI's fund. "However, we have been proponents of the idea that hedge funds are in some way best suited to implement strong green policies, given their unconstrained nature and ability to deploy activist tactics." Climate change activists say it's about time, given the confusion around ESG, which has become a megatrend in the investing world. More than $US30 trillion was held in assets classified as sustainable or green in 2018, up more than a third from 2016, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, a group that tracks money flows.
The stars have all arrived and are ready to celebrate the best in music at Sunday nights Grammy Awards. Several music stars and their plus ones descended on the red carpet in their glittery, shimmery best at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.

Actor Priyanka Chopra was the perfect date to her nominee husband, Nick Jonas. The two arrived together in complimenting outfits. While Priyanka wowed everyone in her white flowing gown with a risque neckline, Nick kept things more dark and dapper with his olive suit.

ALSO WATCH | Grammys 2020: Priyanka Chopra, Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello slay at red carpet

Also read: Grammy 2020 Awards Live: Billie Eilish wins first Grammy, Lizzo honours Kobe

Check out more pictures of the best dressed celebrities:

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas at the Grammys. (REUTERS)

Priyanka Chopra, left, and Nick Jonas arrive at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner at the awards. (REUTERS)

Kevin Jonas and Danielle Jonas at the awards. (REUTERS)

Lil Nas X at the awards. (REUTERS)

Chrissy Teigen, left, and John Legend arrive at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Lizzo arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on Sunday. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Sean Larkin, left, and Lana Del Rey arrive at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Billie Eilish won her first Grammy. (REUTERS)

Shawn Mendes at the awards show. (REUTERS)

Camila Cabello performed a song for her father at the ceremony. (REUTERS)

Musics marquee night in Los Angeles promises to deliver rollicking performances from the zeitgeist-capturing newbies, as well as tributes to the veteran rockers Aerosmith and the late rapper Nipsey Hussle.

But even as the glamorous show aims to reinvent itself with an injection of youth, while also spotlighting women and promoting diversity within its ranks, controversy is simmering.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Last year, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia practically solved the problem with housing for families of deceased servicemen. This is what Deputy Minister of Defense Gabriel Balayan told reporters today.

We have already taken several measures for further improvement of their social conditions, and this concerns the relevant payments and housing issues. Throughout 2019, we practically improved the housing conditions of the families of deceased servicemen in Yerevan by at least 95%. Now were improving the conditions in the provinces, he said, adding that this year the Ministry of Defense will launch a project to provide 500 beneficiaries with mortgages starting from the second semester and that funding has been secured.
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Marc Leishman couldn't miss whether it was for birdie for par, racing from four shots behind with a 7-under 65 and winning the Farmers Insurance Open when Jon Rahm couldn't match his eagle putt from three years ago.

Leishman ran off five birdies on the front nine to seize control Sunday over a fast-faltering Rahm and Rory McIlroy. He kept a cushion with three big par saves down the tough stretch at Torrey Pines and closed with a 6-foot birdie putt that turned out to be the winner.

Rahm was 4 over through five holes, the biggest mess coming at the par-3 third when he went left into the canyon and took three shots to reach the green for a double bogey. Each time he appeared to be done, the Spaniard charged back.

RELATED: Leaderboard | What's in Leishman's bag?

He made eagle on the par-5 13th and birdie on the next hole. After a bogey on the 15th to fall four shots behind, Rahm stuffed his next two shots for birdies. He needed an eagle on the par-5 18th to force a playoff, and his attempt from just outside 50 feet died off to the left. Rahm closed with a 70.

Rahm won his first PGA TOUR title three years ago at Torrey Pines when he closed with a 65, making a 60-foot eagle putt on the last hole that secured the victory.

This time, it was Leishman's turn.

He matched Rahm's 65 as the lowest closing round by a winner at Torrey Pines since the South Course was beefed up ahead of the 2008 U.S. Open.

Leishman was the second Australian to win on Australian Day, following Lucas Herbert's playoff victory in Dubai on the European Tour earlier Sunday.

McIlroy, needing a victory to return to No. 1 in the world, started three shots behind in the final group and opened with two straight bogeys. He missed a short birdie attempt on the third, and then pulled his tee shot into the hazard and had to scramble for bogey.

Much like Rahm, he stayed in the mix by playing his last five holes on the front nine in 5 under. McIlroy couldn't make up enough ground, shot 69 and tied for third with Brandt Snedeker (68).

Tiger Woods, trying to set the PGA TOUR record with his 83rd career victory, shot 70 and tied for ninth, six shots behind.

Woods and Kobe Bryant began their pro careers the same year. Only after the round did Woods learn Bryant had died in a helicopter crash about 30 minutes north of Los Angeles.

"I didn't understand why they were yelling, 'Do it for Mamba' on the back nine,' " said Woods, who called it "one of the most shocking, tragic days I've ever been part of."

Leishman finished at 15-under 273 to capture his fifth PGA TOUR title.

Ryan Palmer, who started one shot out of the lead, closed with a 77.

The final group of Rahm, McIlroy and Palmer were collectively 9 over through four holes. Leishman was going the other direction and getting there in a hurry. Once he had the lead, no one caught him.

Leishman was helped by par-saving putts from 20 feet on No. 12 and 12 feet on No. 14, and then an 8-footer on the 15th. He didn't drop a shot until the 17th hole, and followed that with a birdie that ultimately gave him the victory.
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

D.R. Horton (DHI)  The homebuilder earned $1.16 per share for its fiscal first quarter, beating the consensus estimate of 92 cents a share. Revenue also topped forecasts. New orders were up 19% on a volume basis and up 22% in value. The company also raised the upper end of its full-year home sales forecast.

Arconic (ARNC)  Arconic missed estimates by a penny a share, with adjusted quarterly earnings of 53 cents per share. Revenue came in shy of Wall Street predictions. The maker of engineered metals products saw a 1% improvement in organic revenue on factors like favorable pricing and raw materials costs, partially offset by some weakness in its automotive and commercial transportation markets. Arconic also said it would complete its planned split of its aerospace components and aluminum rolling businesses into two companies on April 1.

Travel-related stocks  These are likely to be hit once again as coronavirus cases mount  including major airlines like United Airlines (UAL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), American Airlines (AAL), and Southwest (LUV), and cruise line operators like Royal Caribbean (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), and Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL). Casino stocks like Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) are also being hit.

Starbucks (SBUX)  Starbucks has temporarily closed all its shops in China's Hubei province and suspended delivery services, amid health concerns for customers and employees amid the spread of the coronavirus.

Estee Lauder (EL)  Oppenheimer downgraded the cosmetics maker to "perform" from "outperform." The firm cited the stock's premium valuation coupled with concerns about the coronavirus impact on a company that has seen China represent a key driver of recent growth.

Boeing (BA)  Boeing completed a successful maiden voyage of its 777-X jet over the weekend, a respite for the jet maker amid the ongoing grounding of its 737 Max jet.

AbbVie (ABBV)  AbbVie sold a number of assets to Nestle and AstraZeneca (AZN), as it seeks to win regulatory approval for its $63 billion acquisition of drugmaker Allergan (AGN).

Fiat Chrysler (FCAU)  Fiat Chrysler filed court motions Friday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by rival automaker General Motors (GM). Fiat Chrysler said GM does not have sufficient grounds to bring a racketeering case that alleges bribery of union officials.

Kraft Heinz (KHC)  Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio told The Wall Street Journal that he wants to food maker to make fewer but bigger bets on new products, as its older brands suffer a sales decline.

Alphabet (GOOGL)  State attorneys general will meet with Justice Department officials to share investigative material involving Google, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Winnebago Industries (WGO)  The RV maker was rated "overweight" in new coverage at KeyBanc, which sees recreational vehicle shipments stronger than consensus for 2020 and is also optimistic about the increasing benefits of Winnebago's 2016 acquisition of towable vehicle maker Grand Design.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) has considered the appeals of organizations wishing to conduct exit-polls in the early parliamentary elections to be held in the country on Feb. 9, Trend reports.

The appeals of the Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates organization and Azerbaijan's Citizens' Labor Rights Protection League were considered.

CEC Deputy Chairman Rovzat Gasimov noted that these organizations conducted exit-polls at the previous elections in Azerbaijan and this time the organizations will study the opinions of voters in 1,053 polling stations.

Gasimov emphasized that it is planned to involve 2,106 respondents and 47 supervisors in the process.

The appeal was accepted after voting.
M inisters came under growing pressure today to evacuate Britons from the Chinese region shut down by the killer coronavirus.

The Government faced calls to swiftly arrange an airlift after other countries including France, the US and Japan outlined their plans to repatriate their citizens from Hubei province at the centre of the escalating infection crisis.

The Foreign Office this morning appealed to Britons stranded in the city of Wuhan and elsewhere to get in touch as it geared up for a possible airlift.

In a statement, it said: We are working to make available an option for British nationals to leave Hubei province. If you are a British national in Hubei Province and require assistance, please contact our 24/7 number +86 (0) 10 8529 6600 or the FCO (+44) (0)207 008 1500.

The appeal went out as the death toll in China rose to 81 , with the number of confirmed cases jumping about 30 per cent to more than 2,700.

Travelling into Wuhan has been banned in a bid to try and control the outbreak / Getty Images

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, a Labour leadership contender, pointed the finger at the Prime Ministers office: Boris Johnson is now failing in the first duty of any government  he is not doing whatever it takes to protect our citizens from harm. They need to get this evacuation sorted now.

An FCO spokesman said: We are working to make an option available for British nationals to leave Hubei Province due to the heavy travel restrictions and increased difficulty of accessing consular or medical assistance.

The safety and security of British nationals is our number one priority. We continue to monitor developments and are in close touch with the Chinese authorities.

A No 10 source said intense efforts were under way to help Britons. The Foreign Office are in close contact with international partners to investigate possible solutions, the source added.

Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of the high speed train station in Hong Kong. / AP

The British evacuation plan was being stepped up as:

Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, said she believed that coronavirus might have already arrived in the UK.

China lengthened its week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to February 2 in an attempt to contain the virus.

The FTSE 100 and other markets fell amid growing worries about the economic impact of the virus spreading across China and into other countries.

About 300 Britons are believed to be in Hubei province. Whitehall sources played down suggestions that the Chinese authorities were refusing to be co-operative over an airlift.

However, other nations appeared to have more advanced evacuation plans than the UK, although it was not clear whether these had been given the green light by China. The US Embassy in Beijing said the Department of State was making arrangements to repatriate its staff from the US Consulate General in Wuhan. We anticipate that there will be limited capacity to transport private US citizens on a reimbursable basis on a single flight leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on January 28 and proceeding directly to San Francisco, it added.

Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP

In Tokyo, a government official said Japan would dispatch a chartered plane to Wuhan, possibly tomorrow, to bring back citizens who wish to return home.

With 560 Japanese citizens in Hubei, several evacuation flights would take place, pending negotiations with Chinese authorities.

French health minister Agnes Buzyn said French citizens who want to leave Wuhan will be taken on a direct flight to France, possibly in the middle of the week, and then held in quarantine for 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus. Three cases are reported in the country  the first in Europe to be affected.

Priti Patel Says The Government Have Put Measures In Place To Deal With Coronavirus Outbreak

Spains foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said: Were working with our consulate in Beijing and officials in China and the EU to repatriate about 20 Spaniards in Wuhan.

The Chinese authorities cut transportation links to and from Wuhan on January 22 and have since expanded those controls to several nearby cities. Anyone travelling from Wuhan is required to register and quarantine themselves for 14 days.

Asked on Sky News if there could be cases already in Britain, Professor Doyle said: I would expect so ... that is the scenario we have been preparing for.
The West Bengal Assembly Monday passed a resolution against CAA brought by the state government demanding that the contentious citizenship law be repealed forthwith and NPR and the proposed be withdrawn.

Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister said the Citizenship Amendment Act is "against the Constitution and humanity".

"We want this law to be repealed immediately. We want NPR to be also repealed," Banerjee said.

The resolution was supported by both the opposition parties Congress and the CPI(M) led Left Front.

The BJP legislature party opposed the resolution and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the CAA to help refugees get their citizenship of the country.

Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab too have passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The amended citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the West Bengal with TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail and BJP pressing for its implementation.

The state assembly had earlier passed a resolution against in September 2019. The BJP had naturally not supported it.
Taking on opposition parties, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on January 27 asked them not to make the "constitutional blunder" of passing resolutions against the CAA in state assemblies where they have a majority and advised them to not forget "Rasthradharma" for their "vipakshdharma".

Addressing a rally, the senior BJP leader also asserted that no power can now stop Kashmiri Pandits from returning to Kashmir as he strongly defended the Modi government's decision to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir and scrap its special status under Article 370.

He also sent out a strong message to Pakistan, saying India will not touch anyone but if someone bothers it, then it is not going to let them live in peace.

Making a strong defence of the amended Citizenship Act, he said it is not a law to hurt the sentiments of any religion but to give relief to victims of religious persecution in non-secular countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has given the slogan of 'sabka sath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas' will never discriminate on the basis of religion, he said, adding that no harm will come to the citizenship of Indian Muslims.

The Opposition raises the question that if Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians can be given citizenship, then why not Muslims of these three countries, he said.

"Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are not secular states. These are theocratic states. "Islam is the religion of these three states. India's religion is not Hindu. India is a secular country. That is why those who follow Islam can not be persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan," he said.

Amid decision by many states ruled by opposition parties to not implement the CAA, he said it is a central law and has to be followed by everyone.

"Some opposition parties are passing resolutions in assemblies (where they have a majority) that their states will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act. I want to appeal to them not to do such things. This is a constitutional blunder. Please do not do such blunder," he said.

Accusing the Congress of misleading people on the issue, he said the party should not forget its "rashtradharma" (national duty) for the sake of its "vipakshdharma" (duties as opposition party).

Referring to the exodus of a large number of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the late 1990s at the height of militancy, Singh said no power can now stop them from returning to their homes.

Singh noted that Adnan Sami, who has been given Padma Shri award, was given citizenship when he was the home minister in the first Modi government.

On the CAA, he said that the Congress Working Committee in November 1947 had passed a resolution that refugees from Pakistan should be given citizenship. "So, why object now," he asked.

Singh said India now stands among the world's strong nations and added that it will become a 5-trillion dollar economy by 2024.

While Modi has tried to improve relations with other countries, a neighbouring country is not following the duty of a neighbour, he said in an apparent reference to Pakistan

Whatever promises the BJP has made, its government has fulfilled them, he said, be it repeal of the Article 370, construction of Ram temple or removal of the practice of triple talaq.

"We will follow the constitutional methods. No power can stop the construction of Ram Mandir now," he said.

Article 370 was supposed to be a temporary provision, he said.

He said Pakistan cannot dare to raise Kashmir on international forums now after the Article 370's nullification and asserted that if talks happen with Pakistan, then it will be on PoK.
Kolkata, Jan 27 (UNI) After Kerala, Punjab, and Rajasthan, West Bengal on Monday became the fourth state to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The Anti-CAA resolution was passed in the West Bengal Assembly.

The Trinamool Congress, headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, tabled an official resolution in the State Legislative Assembly opposing the Union Government's recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) earlier in the House today.

The anti-CAA resolution was mooted by senior TMC leader and state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee in the specially called session at the state Assembly.

Speaking on the resolution, Ms Banerjee said, " The CAA is against the Constitution and humanity. "

She also demanded the immediate repeal of the law as well as the NPR.

The resolution was supported by both Congress and CPI(M)-led the Left Front.

However, the BJP legislature party opposed the resolution.

Earlier, Ms Banerjee iterated that the CAA and NRC could only be enforced in Bengal over her "dead body".

UNI PC SJC RN
Missed the most recent top news in Dallas? Read on for everything you need to know.

Dallas Mavericks will retire number 24 in honor of Kobe Bryant

After the passing of Kobe Bryant following a helicopter crash in California Sunday morning, the Dallas Mavericks announced that no Maverick will ever wear number 24.

Read the full story on Fox 11 Los Angeles.

22-year-old woman shot in the face in road rage incident, Dallas police say

There was also a 3-year-old boy in the back seat of the Malibu at the time, police said. He was not hurt in the incident.

Read the full story on KHOU 11 News.

Know your 49ers, who are the 'Hot Boyzz,' and why there is a dispute with Dallas Cowboys

The 49ers defense has helped lead the team to the Super Bowl and has been using the nickname 'Hot Boyzz' and is now locked in a dispute with the rival Dallas Cowboys over it.

Read the full story on ABC7 News.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
ESA's Technology Development Element (TDE) has signed a contract on the development of the TRAILER robotic system with COMEX, France.

TRAILER is a two-year project to test a novel architecture of robotic cooperation based on a tandem of two rovers for lunar surface exploration missions.

As ESA works towards building the first permanent human outpost beyond Earth's orbit, astronauts and robots will work together to prepare the coming era of space exploration with missions to the lunar South Pole and other locations.

Robotic explorers are vital for searching for elements that could support a human presence on these extraterrestrial surfaces. These scouts will be operated either from Earth or from a base in lunar orbit and they will need to perform certain tasks in autonomy. The main objective of the TRAILER activity is to develop a rover system consisting of:

- An agile and powerful rover (TRACTOR) equipped with high performance locomotion and navigation, local wireless transceiver, short-term energy storage, sample acquisition system,

- and An active trailer (WAIN) equipped with limited locomotion and navigation, high power generation or storage and local wireless network that could assure lunar-Earth communication and host a scientific laboratory for sample collection and analysis.

The activity is led by COMEX and will be supported by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Robotics Innovation Center (DFKI RIC) and LIQUIFER Systems Group, in Austria.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
>>> PM issues urgent instructions in response to nCoV

Health declaration forms are distributed at all border gates and any visitor showing signs of the virus, such as coughing, shortness of breath or respiratory tract inflammation, will be isolated and subjected to health checks.

And flights between Vietnam and Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak, have all been grounded.

From January 23, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam cancelled all flights between Vietnam and Wuhan, China.

The authority also said it will not grant new flight licences to airlines on this route.

The authority has mobilised staff to collaborate with medical inspectors to follow the passengers health at border gates.

Health officials in Ho Chi Minh City on January 23 revealed two visitors from China were in hospital suspected of suffering from coronavirus.

The pair have been identified as father and son, Li Ding, 66, and 28-year-old Li Zichao.

They were admitted to hospital on January 22 suffering from for pneumonia and later tested positive for corona virus.

According to initial findings, Li Ding, 66, went to Hanoi from Wuhan on January 13, before going to Nha Trang city in central Khanh Hoa province.

His son Li Zichao, 28, who has lived in the Mekong Delta province of Long An near HCM City for the past four months, went to visit him in Nha Trang. Both of them then travelled to HCM City and Long An.

The father got fever on January 17, while the son had similar symptoms January 20.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health said both patients are recovering in Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City.

China has so far confirmed that 41 people have died and 1,287 people infected by the virus across the country.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like virus has spread across Asia and other countries including the US and France.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Up to 50 Filipinos in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the new coronavirus outbreak, want to come home, according to Senate Health Committee chairman Christopher Bong Go.

Go said the desire of some 30 to 50 Filipinos currently living in the city south of Chinas capital Beijing was discussed Monday in a meeting of high-level officials of the Department of Health and Department of Foreign Affairs, which he attended.

Handa naman po ang ating gobyerno magpadala ng eroplano kung sakali, sunduin sila doon sa China. Ang problema kung papayag ang China, he told reporters at the Senate.

[Translation: We are ready to send an airplane if we need to take them home from China. The problem is if China will allow it.]

Go said it is important to make sure that these Filipinos are clear of the Wuhan coronavirus, known to health officials as 2019-nCoV, before they are allowed entry to the Philippines.

The DFA said in a statement that it sought the DOHs guidance on the establishment of protocols on evacuation and repatriation of Filipinos in Wuhan and other affected cities and provinces.

DFA Secretary Teodoro Teddyboy Locsin Jr. has said that they will only take direction regarding their diplomatic response to the coronavirus outbreak from DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III.

The DFA said Sunday that it is in touch with around 150 Filipinos in Wuhan through the Philippine Consulate General in Shanghai.

Wuhan has been on lockdown for four days due to the 2019-nCoV outbreak, with Chinese authorities barring all departures from the citys airport and rail stations.

Despite this, the US, Australia, India and France have made moves to repatriate their citizens from the Chinese city.

More than 80 people have died due to the virus in China, while 2,700 people across the country have been infected with the virus, thought to be related to the coronavirus that causes the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Outside of China, more than 40 confirmed cases have been identified in about a dozen countries. In the Philippines, 11 people have been under investigation since January 12 for a possible infection of 2019-nCoV.

Local health officials have said that the country remains free of the new coronavirus and have warned against disinformation about supposed cases spreading online.

CNN Philippines Joyce Ilas and Xave Gregorio contributed to this report.
Romeo Beckham was seen taking his very first driving lesson in London on Sunday.

The middle son of David and Victoria Beckham, 17, looked relaxed as he headed for his Audi A3 and chatted with his instructor before heading off.

Romeo, who turned 17 in September cut a stylish and comfortable figure as he prepared to learn the ropes of driving, clad in a yellow Drew House hoodie, fuchsia joggers and black trainers.

Milestone: Romeo Beckham was seen taking his very first driving lesson in London on Sunday

Style: Romeo, who turned 17 in September, looked stylish in a yellow Drew House hoodie and fuchsia joggers

The star covered up his sandy blonde tresses with a scarlet Supreme woolen hat.

Despite boasting a number of busy roads in the capital, Romeo's lesson seemed to have run smoothly as he said his goodbyes to his instructor.

The teen was seen climbing out of the driver's seat before tapping away on his phone.

Back in 2016, Romeo's brother Brooklyn, now 20, was seen brimming with confidence as he prepared to take the wheel of a brand new Mercedes A-Class in London on his driving lesson.

Milestone moment: The middle son of David and Victoria Beckham, 17, looked relaxed as he headed for his Audi A3 and chatted with his instructor

First one down: The teen social media sensation was chilled as he headed out the door

Stroll: The star covered up his sandy blonde tresses with a scarlet Supreme woolen hat

Eye-catching: Romeo dressed for comfort for his driving lesson in a colourful tracksuit

While driving such a pricey motor - which can retail at up to 33,530 - may have intimidated some learner drivers, Brooklyn looked completely nonchalant.

Romeo is currently in a relatioship with model Mia Regan, who calls herself Mimi Moocher on social media.

The pair recently returned from a trip to Paris together.

The getaway comes after Romeo showed how special Mia is to him by sharing a very public Instagram post about her in November.

Off we go: Romeo's instructor whipped off the roof top sign and prepared to drive off

Chat: The star looked content as he chatted with his instructor at the end of the lesson

Drive time: Romeo is embarking upon one of the teenage milestones with his first lesson

Chat: The star had some friendly words with his instructor as he headed off

The star wished Storm model Mia a happy birthday and shared two lovely photos of her, calling her 'Mooch' as an affectionate nickname.

Mia and Romeo sparked romance rumours last year when the model joined him at a private family dinner in celebration of his mother Victoria Beckham's fashion show.

She also shared a picture of Romeo on her Instagram on his birthday on September 1, writing: 'Haps smiley bday Romo' alongside a heart emoji.

Several of her pals commented, writing things like: 'you guys are the cutest!!' and 'u2 are so [heart].'

Mia is followed on Instagram by both Cruz, 14, and Romeo and it's not known how long they have known one another.

Off we go: Romeo looked casually cool in his ensemble as he headed off

Go time: The star and his instructor chatted ahead of their next lesson

Prior to this, Romeo was reported to be dating Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown.

Millie first met the Beckhams in December 2016 when she handed an award to David at a charity gala.

Taking to social media after the event, the actress admitted she would 'remember this evening for the rest of her life.'

Speaking on the red carpet she also revealed that she was a fan of Romeo's.

Asked what she hoped would happen with her Stranger Things character Eleven on the show, she quipped: 'I don't know. Something with Romeo Beckham.'

Young love: Romeo is currently in a relatioship with model Mia Regan, who calls herself Mimi Moocher on social media

Beckham brood: Romeo (pictured left) has a close bond with his famous family - sister Harper, eight, brother Cruz, 14, dad David, older brother Brooklyn, 20, and mum Victoria (pictured left to right)




: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed a statutory resolution seeking to abolish the state Legislative Council, days after the YSRC government failed to get two crucial bills on its plans to have three capitals cleared by the opposition TDP-dominated Upper House.

All 133 members present in the 175-member House, when the division vote was taken at 6 pm, voted in favour and the resolution under Article 169 (1) of the Constitution was adopted unanimously.

Speaker Tammineni Seetaram announced that the resolution was adopted by a majority as stipulated under Article 169 (1) related to abolition or creation of Legislative Councils in states.

The Telugu Desam Party boycotted the days proceedings, protesting the governments decision to abolish the council.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australians battling highly aggressive blood cancers could start a groundbreaking treatment within weeks, after the federal government signed a new funding deal for the therapy that uses the bodys own immune system to fight the disease.

Adult patients with three types of blood cancer that are not responding to conventional treatment will now be able to access Kymriah, a type of CAR T-cell therapy that would cost more than $500,000 per patient without government funding, through Australia's public health system.

Greg Hunt will announce the funding deal in Melbourne on Tuesday. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Patients' T cells - a type of immune cell - are extracted from the body, genetically re-engineered and programmed to recognise and destroy cancer cells, and then re-implanted into the body.

The first eligible adult patients with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, Transformed Follicular Lymphoma and Primary Mediastinal B Cell Lymphoma could be treated within weeks, pending final sign-off of the funding arrangement by the states and territories.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 18:28:12|Editor: Liu

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LAGOS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian forces repelled an attacks by Boko Haram militants in the northeast state of Borno, the military has said in a statement.

Aminu Iliyasu, an army spokesperson, said the troops have continued to decimate insurgents in encounters across the restive region.

He said troops in the Gamborou-Ngala area of Borno repelled a Boko Haram attack on the Ngala community on Jan. 18, when insurgents sneaked into the community in five gun trucks, motorcycles, using a farm as cover, with the "intent to unleash one of the most devastating terror attacks in recent times."

"Fortunately for the residents, the vigilant troops responded swiftly, engaging the criminals with overwhelming superior firepower, thereby forcing them to beat a hasty retreat in complete disarray," Iliyasu said.

"During the ensuing pursuit and exploitation embarked upon by the troops, one Boko Haram criminal suicide truck driver strapped with a suicide vest was neutralized," he said.

Items captured during the encounter included one AK-47 Rifle, one FN rifle, one motorcycle and one heavily laden vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), Iliyasu said.

Preliminary investigations showed that the VBIED and the suicide bomber were heading to a displaced people's camp in Gamborou-Ngala, he said.

Five humanitarian workers who took refuge in a bunker during the attack were successfully rescued, Iliyasu said.

Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria, extending its attacks to countries in the Lake Chad basin.

The group has posed enormous security, humanitarian and governance challenges in the Lake Chad basin, including Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Benin, and Niger, according to the United Nations.
New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Monday (January 27) moved the Supreme Court to contest a PIL that challenged practices of 'Nikah Halala' and polygamy among Muslims. The organisation of Muslim Ulemas contended that the law was founded on Holy Koran and Hadith and its validity cannot be tasted on a challenge based on the fundamental rights.

In its application filed in the court, the AIMPLB says that other than the person belonging to the Muslim community, any nomination should not be allowed to question their faith.

BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay had filed a petition in Supreme Court in March 2018 seeking directions declaring polygamy and 'nikah halal' as unconstitutional and illegal.

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While the practice of polygamy is outlawed in the country, the exemption is provided to the Muslim community under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, which paves the way for the implementation of personal law in matters connected with marriage. Similarly, 'nikah halala' is also permitted.

Under polygamy, a Muslim man is allowed to have four wives. 'Nikah halala' is a process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to re-marry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another person and get a divorce from the second after consummating the marriage.

In July 2018, the top court had referred the matter to a Constitution bench, which is seized of similar petitions. The court had tagged Upadhyay`s plea with a petition filed by a petitioner names Farzana.

In a landmark judgement, the top court has in August 2017 banned the age-old practice of instant 'triple talaq' among Sunni Muslims after declaring it 'unconstitutional'. In March 2018, the court referred to the issue of polygamy and 'nikah halala' for consideration to another bench.

(With ANI inputs)
The Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, recently addressed journalists, including PREMIUM TIMES Business Editor, Bassey Udo, on the activities of his office in 2019, particularly the reforms to curb corruption in the system.

He also spoke on why the Transparency Portal launched last year has not taken off as expected.

Excerpts:

PT: Last December, the Federal Government launched the transparency portal as part of the reforms against corruption. Under this arrangement, ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) were directed to submit daily, monthly, quarterly and annual treasury/financial reports. How is the compliance so far?

IDRIS: There is government policy. We have rolled out a portal to actualize the policy. Part of the problem is the sensitization of the public and capacity building for the officials that will handle the system. This is because the transparency portal is completely new and the operators at the MDAs will require to be trained. That is in the pipeline.

We are giving them a maximum of four months to update their skills. Not only that. We will call them and sit with them on the portal for them to ask questions on what should be done and the way they should be handling the reporting from their respective MDAs.

The fact that the president launched the policy does not mean that it is completely available for the public as was conceived.

We ae now trying to upload information to the portal. Some information are historical. They will need to be put in the system. Before that is done, the Financial Officers and those who will be managing the system from the MDAs will need to be trained. The public needs to be sensitized on what they should be expecting. All these are being rolled out now.

PT: Why was the launching of the Transparency Portal not suspended till everything about the operating system has been set up so that the government will not be facing the situation it is currently grappling with?

IDRIS: Well, we came to a point where we were inundated by end of year activities, including closure of accounts of the MDAs. We had to suspend or put on hold a lot of things, because the closure of government accounts must take precedence at a specific time and period of the year.

Most of our staff are now coming back from doing that. We needed to close the accounts for the year as the normal end of year activities. Reports need to be prepared. Some of these activities involved foreign missions. So, certain activities must give way for other pressing ones that must be done within a specific time and season, to take place.

Therefore, the fact that the portal has been launched does not mean that we are 100 per cent available to the public immediately. But, the portal is active. There are some useful information there. Every week one checks the portal, there is always an improvement in terms of what is available and what we were given. That is how we will populate the portal.

Talking about whether all these should not have come before the launching of the portal, what I have to say is that you cannot jump the gun.

In government, you dont begin to implement a policy unless there is an approval. Even the treasury single account (TSA), when we started, that was why the government had problems. There was some resistance. But, eventually, we are now there. Likewise the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS). That is why we are having problems. Some are real problems because of resistance. Some because you cannot jump the gun to implement it. A budget cannot be implemented unless the National Assembly passes it and Mr President signs it into law.

For instance, there was a decision to increase the value-added tax (VAT) rate from January 1, 2020. There was a debate on it by the National Assembly. Members of the public were sensitized and informed. But, nobody could start deducting that 7.5 per cent unless the president signs it into law. On Monday (January 13), that was done. (Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has since clarified that the implementation of the new VAT rate will commence on February 1).

Immediately after that, a payment was brought to me for approval. The approval was last year in December, but the actual payment was not done. When I cross-checked the payment, the VAT rate was 5 per cent. I said no, I cannot approve it. If I am to finalize the payment now that the new VAT rate has been signed into law, it must be 7.5 per cent. The 5 per cent rate has been overtaken by event.

PT: But the payment was approved in December?

IDRIS: Yes, the payment was approved in December. But, the actual payment is made this year. So, a couple of similar payments, which for one reason or the other could not be made last year and moved this year, would suffer 7.5 per cent, because of that is the law as of today.

So, when I stopped it, I asked them to go back and recharge 7.5 per cent. That is that persons luck, or is it bad luck? But, the law has to be obeyed. Nobody can implement any policy unless he has the instrument to do so, whether administrative or legal. Otherwise, I can be queried for not following the law.

The beneficiary of the service pays for VAT, which must be charged at the point of payment. There is no contention about that. All capital payments above N250 million for all agencies are paid. When I want to pay, that is when I see whether the calculation of VAT, withholding tax are correct. If they are correct, I will check whether they are deducted. It is one thing to deduct. Its another thing to deduct the correct rate.

When the guidelines were not launched, nobody knew how it would look like. The draft was submitted to the government, which could have changed a lot of things. So, if we started to implement the policy based on our perception, it would have been done wrongly. That is why it is good to always wait until a policy is approved. Otherwise, you are jumping the gun, and the gun can finish you.

PT: 2019 is gone. You have closed the accounts for the year. Can we have an idea how much of the funds have returned to the government by the MDAs at the end of the year?

IDRIS: Well, I do not have the figures at the top of my head. But, I can refer you to my directors who are responsible for that. We are still in the field. Some are putting their reports together. Its not like switching on or off the switch.

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We have a system called GIFMIS (Government Integrated Financial Management Information System). We can easily see how much the balances of the accounts of all those MDAs on GIFMIS are. Those agencies which are not on GIFMIS, we need to go physically to meet them and make some verifications to ascertain how much they have at the end of the year.

If an MDA issues a mandate of say N500,000 against the balance of say N5 million in their accounts. One might see N5million in the account and assume that to be the end of year balance, one may be mistaken.

So, one must sit down with the MDA to reconcile all payments in transit that has not hit the account yet, and take the net balance. That is fairness.

The role of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation is not only to the Federal Government but also to the entire federation. And the word federation means we have a responsibility that stretches to the states and local governments. The media remains the vehicle of dissemination of information to enlighten the public and propagate the reforms the office is driving on behalf of the government.

The TSA is one of those reforms. The International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) implementation is another. LPPIS is the other. Of recent, there is the transparency portal that the Federal Government asked us to set up, which you asked about earlier.

Policies of government are policies of the government. But, somebody somewhere initiated the process. The idea of the transparency portal came from an individual who sold it to the government. If the government finds it good, it is perfected and implemented by the government. That is when it becomes government policy.

We do all these to achieve transparency and accountability, to assist government key into some of these internationally recognized best practices, like the open the government, which the government has also embraced.

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Nobody can be open without being transparent. One cannot be transparent without being accountable. In all these the principles of stewardship is entrenched to a very large extent on all workers in the government offices, agencies, ministries, parastatals and so on. These are the stewards. The public has a duty and responsibility to be informed and enlightened about what is going on, particularly where the management of resources or public funds are being spent. That is what the government is trying to do with most of these reform initiatives.

The objective is to be transparent, open, accountable, and to ensure the public is aware of what is going on with funds and resources being managed or kept on their behalf, reminding everyone that this is the treasury of the nation. What this means is that resources come in and out for one programme or another.

For the Transparency Portal, there is no better institution to achieve that than the treasury. And the idea of the policy began in the office of the Accountant General. We told the government that if we are to fight corruption, one way to do it is to be open to the public. Let everybody see what is going on. This is the first step. Then the next step is to give people the latitude and environment to ask questions where they do not seem to understand what is going on.

And the government, under the present administration, bought the idea. We got the approval of the Executive Council of the Federation. Here we are with the website: www.opentreasury.gov.ng. We can use our smartphone to access it and see what the different ministries are doing.

It has the guidelines that tell us about the responsibilities of the Accountant Generals office, the Permanent Secretaries as well as Finance and Accounts Directors in the ministries, departments and agencies. It also shows the format of their reporting and what is expected of them monthly, quarterly, weekly and daily.

However, what I can say about the portal is that it has not fully taken off. The government is still uploading data because there is a timeframe from where we want to start. Ministries are expected to play a role in the process.

All these are steps in the right direction. For the government to do this means it means well, because whoever says: Come and see what I am doing, in terms of the revenue and the expenditure, means the government is serious in fighting corruption.

It is not just for (Ibrahim) Magu (the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC), to be arresting people and take them to court. We should also prepare the ground to prevent corruption from happening. That is the first step.

It is not all about jailing people. This is the last thing. That somebody is being prosecuted means an offence was committed. We should not make the ground conducive for somebody to commit corruption and think that is what the government is doing. We are responsible for the Nigerian people. We must be ready to give an account of our stewardship.

PT: Those seem to be the kind of situations captured in the 2017 report of the Auditor General of the Federation. Have you been able to reconcile those records and answer the audit queries over huge sums approved for MDAs, which were not accounted for?

IDRIS: Sometimes I get amazed by some of these allegations in the media. When I asked my colleague (the Auditor General of the Federation) whether some of these reports were truly coming from his office, he says, in some cases, he is also hearing some of these figures for the first time. I have not seen the report. Maybe he submitted it to the National Assembly.

PT: Is the Auditor General denying that the reports, for instance, the latest 2017 Audit Report, is not coming from him or his office?

IDRIS: Well, I am not to say. But, if there is an audit query against an MDA, or even my office to answer, the Auditor General of the Federation is responsible to go these agencies to reconcile them. Of course, most of these reports come from the staff in his office. I am not an Auditor. I am an accountant. He is responsible for audit functions of the government.

If by virtue of his offices responsibility his staff, who are resident in almost all the agencies, issue a query that is not answered properly, and it finally finds its way into the financial statements of the Federal Government, the responsibility to answer that query is on the neck of the accounting officer of the agency. I dont think the law of God or the law of man will allow one committing a sin and the repercussion goes to another person. So, it is the same in audit.

When we see audit queries, being the accountants who prepare the accounts of all the agencies and consolidate them into one general purpose financial statement, we assist the National Assembly before it goes to the Public Accounts eventually.

Our role at that point as the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation is to explain the attempts we made to make the agency to respond to these queries. Unfortunately, up to the financial statements were prepared, the agencies could not respond.

So, our role is simple, like we are involved in a case, and at the same time, we are witnesses, because we prepare the accounts and we know the defects. We also answer our own query specific to the Auditor General of the Federation. So, everybody is responsible for his own query.

I am not saying there are no audit queries. But, some of these audit queries, what we see, particularly on social media, do not have any basis.
In Mali, about 20 soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn attack on an army camp in central Mali on Sunday.

According to the government, the identity of the attackers was not established yet.

Terrorists entered the camp near the village of Sokolo, killed the soldiers and caused significant material damage, the government said in a statement.

Reinforcements have been dispatched to the scene and an aerial reconnaissance is underway in the area to track down the attackers, it said.

Malis army has been struggling in the face of regular flare-ups of violence that have spread from the arid north to its center, an ethnically mixed and volatile region.

Northern Mali came under the control of al-Qaeda-linked fighters after Malis army failed to quash a rebellion there in 2012.

A French-led military campaign was launched against the fighters, pushing them back a year later.

The UN warned that the geographic focus of terrorist attacks has shifted eastwards from Mali to Burkina Faso and is increasingly threatening West African coastal states, with a bloody start in 2020. The number of attacks have increased fivefold in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger since 2016, and more than 4,000 deaths were reported in 2019, UN figures have revealed.

The rise in violence comes amid reports that the US is likely to reduce its military presence in the Sahel, as it refocuses on great power rivals as a more significant threat than terrorism.

The US currently has thousands of troops in the region and recently opened a major $100m air base in Niger.

A 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force is currently stationed in Mali. It is to be joined later this year by a small detachment of British troops.

Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron said more military resources will be sent to Mali this year.

Mali is also member of the G5-Sahel force, comprising troops from Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad. However efforts by the G5 have been hampered by insufficient funding, training and equipment.
BEIJING, Jan. 26 -- China has fortified a nationwide defense against novel coronavirus, as the battle was fought when the Chinese people should have been immersed in the festivity of family union and happy gathering.

Numbers on cases of infection and death tolls are updated daily. Wuhan, a megacity at the epicenter of the epidemic in central China's Hubei province, has suffered the most. As the virus continues to spread throughout the country at an alarming rate, the whole nation is racing against time to counter the effects of the virus on people's lives.

Life is of paramount importance. This has been seen clearly in the work by the Communist Party of China during its seven decades of governance in the new China. Putting people's lives first has always been a priority when working to make Chinese people's lives safer, richer and healthier.

Therefore, the fight against new virus is a battle China must win.

Wuhan, alongside other cities in Hubei, has introduced the most stringent control measures in history. The city has physically sealed itself off from the outside and has banned the use of automobiles to cut off the spread of the virus. People are working around the clock to build two makeshift hospitals in suburban Wuhan, following the model of the Xiaotangshan hospital in Beijing that was built when the country fought the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Medical resources nationwide, civilian and military, are pouring into Wuhan. Doctors, nurses and experts from across the nation have been selected to join the battle, and manufacturers have restarted their plants to produce medical consumables that have been running short in many places. A national research team of experts, headed by renowned respiratory scientist Zhong Nanshan, has been set up to help prevent and control the outbreak

Local governments across the country have adopted restricted measures to curb the spread of the virus as much as possible, and the public has been cooperative. People are staying at home to avoid and many have canceled trips for family get-togethers. This is going to be an unforgettable Spring Festival for the Chinese, as families are separated but united to stand together in the face of the disease.

In any battle, the confidence to win is the cornerstone of victory. It is not an exception in the battle against coronavirus. And the confidence is well-founded.

Wuhan, a city about five times the size of London, boasts state-of-the-art scientific research capacities. It hosts a bio-safety level four (BSL-4) laboratory, or the Wuhan P4 lab. It researches the most dangerous pathogens and follows the maximum safety levels. There are only a handful of such labs in Asia. It puts Wuhan in a good position to handle the disease outbreak in the city.

Though there is a shortage of medical resources in Wuhan, confidence still remains in this megacity that hosts a number of nationally renowned mega-hospitals. It has highly-skilled medical professionals and advanced medical infrastructures. Resource shortages are only temporary, and order will be restored soon.

Rays of hope have emerged. As of Saturday, 49 people infected by the virus had recovered and been released from hospitals.

Chinese scientists are also racing against time to develop vaccines for the novel coronavirus. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has isolated the virus and is currently identifying a seed strain. Researchers are also screening drugs targeting pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

Viruses have no borders, so neither should the fight against them. China has continued to have close communication with the World Health Organization (WHO), releasing information to the WHO as well as relevant countries in a timely manner.

When the United States tabled a proposal to evacuate personnel from its Wuhan consulate, China makes arrangements accordingly and provided assistance and facilitation to the U.S. side in line with international practice and China's relevant provisions on epidemic prevention.

Seventeen years after China fought the SARS epidemic, it has developed better disease combating mechanisms in terms of emergency response and transparency. The public has also become more composed and sober in facing the epidemic. China is not what it was 17 years ago.

The virus will be beaten, just as Spring will come.
Representative image.

The great-grandson of BR Ambedkar and President of the Buddhist Society of India Rajratna Ambedkar called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a terrorist organisation.

Addressing a gathering in Karnataka, he also attacked Bhopal BJP MP Pragya Thakur, also an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts.



#WATCH Rajaratna Ambedkar, Dr BR Ambedkar's great-grandson, in K'taka: ...I'd said RSS is India's terrorist org,get it banned...A sadhvi sits beside PM&says that when Indian Army exhausted its arms&ammunition,RSS provided them that. How did RSS get that arms&ammunition?...(26.01) pic.twitter.com/PMmtLX2afc

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2020

"A sadhvi sits next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and says that when the Indian Army ran out of arms and ammunition, the RSS provided more to them. But where did the RSS get so much ammunition from?" he remarked.

"If ammunition is recovered from a house, won't the residents of that house be called terrorists? Similarly, an organisation that has so much [of] arms and ammunition, isn't it a terrorist organisation?" Ambedkar said.

This isn't the first time someone has so branded the saffron organisation.

Last year, Tamil Nadu Congress chief KS Alagiri had drawn a comparison between the RSS and the Islamic State (IS). He had said back then that just like the IS, the RSS also hates those who disagree with or oppose its thoughts. "RSS in Hinduism is just like Islamic State in Islam," KS Alagiri told India Today.

Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of BR Ambedkar, also reportedly made a similar statement last year. He said that the RSS is a terrorist organisation and its chief Mohan Bhagwat worships arms and ammunition.

Around November 2019, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Pragya Thakur, branding her a "terrorist" on Twitter. He added that he stood by what he wrote on the social media platform and was ready to face any action for his remark.
- The DHL lorry was ferrying beer for distribution to the Western parts of the country

- Drunkards who were within the vicinity took control as they scrambled for the drinks

- Police officers who arrived at the scene were forced to use teargas to disperse the thirsty Kenyans

Drunkards in Westlands area, Nairobi county, were treated to free drinks of beer when a truck carrying bottles of beer overturned.

No sooner had the truck overturned than the scene turned chaotic with a beehive of activities as Kenyans scrambled for the drink to cool their dry throats.

READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta leaves church early to attend urgent family meeting

A drunkard enjoying a bottle of beer after stealing it from the overturned truck. Photo: The Star

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kenyans torn between watching Raila Odinga or Miguna Miguna tonight

Boda boda operators who were standing nearby abandoned their works and jumped into action to "spoil their livers."

A video which was captured at the scene on Sunday, January 26, afternoon showed the drunkards, who majorly were men, stealing from the vehicle and making away with the bottles.

Police officers who arrived at the scene had a rough time chasing the drunkards who were determined to loot the alcohol.

READ ALSO: Kura yangu 2022 huioni ng'o! Gavana Tolgos amwambia DP Ruto

Those who get drunk at the first bottle were heard singing and praising God for the Sunday blessings after a long dry January.

So wild was the loot that it caught attention of the Consumer Federation of Kenya (COFEK) which warned them against consuming the drink citing it was not suitable for human consumption.

READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta leaves church early to attend urgent family meeting

"Be very careful. Never consume bottled drinks from a fallen truck like the one with beer which fell over in Westlands. The drinks are likely to have small broken parts that could be ingested into your system and cause huge health damage in the long run," said COFEK in a Twitter post.

However, it was not the first time for such a case in Kenya given in October 2019 similar scenes were witnessed when a DHL truck ferrying beer overturned at Roysambu roundabout.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly

Source: TUKO.co.ke
For most Americans, conservatism basically means the stuff Republicans are for, and liberalism means whatever Democrats are for. I dont mean this as a criticism, just a statement of fact.

One of the great things about America is that politics  never mind political philosophy  isnt a big part of most peoples lives. Associating a body of ideas with the institutions (political parties) that are directly charged with putting ideas into action is a pragmatic way to cut to the chase. Paying attention to what the eggheads and theorists of the left and right want the parties to do is only worthwhile if youre especially interested in politics.

The challenge for conservatives these days is that the Republican Party really doesnt know what its for, beyond defending President Trump and opposing Democrats and socialism. While the fight over impeachment sucks up all of the oxygen in public, theres a robust battle behind the scenes about what it means to be a conservative.

Some of it has spilled out into public view, usually centering on nationalism  what it means, what it requires in terms of policy, how it differs from traditional conservatism or whether it differs at all. Sens. Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio, for example, have offered thoughtful versions of economic nationalism, pitting it against libertarianism (both real and imagined).

There are many different schools of thought here, but a common theme is the idea that government should be more interventionist in the economy: Policymakers should be more willing to overrule the marketplace on everything from big tech to child care to trade.

Republicans were outraged by the way the Obama administration picked winners and losers in the economy. Some were appalled when Obama bailed out automakers with a massive handout. Trump has now given more aid to farmers than Obama ever gave Detroit, and if an elected Republican has complained about it, I missed it. In fairness, the farmer bailouts were necessitated by the presidents trade wars. But that just demonstrates Republicans willingness to substitute their judgment for the markets.

Theres a cultural version of the nationalist project as well. Some conservative intellectuals  mostly, but not exclusively, Catholic  believe the state has a role in imposing its judgment in the marketplace of ideas.

I have strong views about all of this, but I thought it might be helpful to offer a few humble suggestions about how to think about such things as these debates heat up.

First, the root of conservatism is conservation. The great conservative philosopher Roger Scruton, who died earlier this month, said, Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created. This sentiment is at the heart of traditional conservatism, but its not constrained by ideology or partisanship. Many liberals (and even some socialists) have displayed this temperament.

Second, with the great divide in conservative theory, there are those who are anti-left and those who are anti-state. For a crude illustration, some people are opposed to public schools because they dont think education is a proper task for the state. (Milton Friedman called them government schools.) Others on the right think public schools are fine; they just object to how progressives operate them, filling kids heads with objectionable ideas.

Obviously, most libertarian purists are in the anti-state camp, but for most conservatives its a balancing act. A consistent conservative can be libertarian on nearly all policy questions and still favor heavily regulating or even banning pornography.

Another fault line revolves around the question, Which state are we talking about?

If I may show my cards a bit, outside of foreign policy, Im very libertarian at the national level, mostly libertarian at the state level and pretty communitarian at the local level. Letting people live the way they want to live where they actually live, so long as basic civil rights are respected, has always struck me as the best way to maximize happiness and democratic accountability.

This raises a final question: Can the state actually do what you want it to do?

At the core of the conservative critique of the left has always been a basic skepticism that top-down planning from Washington can work. It used to be that the champions of such planning were mostly on the left. Thats not true any longer. And it remains to be seen whether top-down planning from the right works any better than it does from the left.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.
The Congress parliamentary strategy group will meet on Monday to strategise on the partys response to the governments offerings for the next fiscal year, set to be announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget to be presented on February 1.

Party president Sonia Gandhi, former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, former president Rahul Gandhi, party members Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, party;s Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Kodikunnil Suresh, organisational general secretary KC Venugopal, and MPs Gaurav Gogoi, and Manickam Tagore are expected to be present at the meeting, to be held at Gandhis residence in the evening.

A party leader, a part of the strategy group, said a strategy for the upcoming session is on the agenda for the upcoming meeting.

We need to strategise on our responses to the governments proposed legislations. Among the prominent bills pending is the Data Protection Bill, which is currently with the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the DNA Bill, and the Code on Social Security Bill, he added.

In addition, the prevailing situation in the country is also likely to come up for discussion. The anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, which has now reached all corners of the country, as well as student protests, are some of the issues we hope to raise, he said.

A coordinated Parliament strategy of Opposition parties, too, has been planned, with several parties meeting on January 30, ahead of the Budget on February 1.
Four unidentified persons vandalised a temple in a village in Pakistan's Sindh province following which a case was registered against them, according to a media report on Monday.

The Mata Deval Bhittani temple in a village near Thar's Chhachro town in Sindh province was vandalised by four men on Sunday night, Dawn newspaper reported.

A first information report (FIR) was registered on Monday against the four men, the paper said.

The police were looking for the culprits and had sought help from "local experts" who were examining the footprints of the miscreants to identify them, Chhachro Station House Officer Hussain Bux Rajar said.

The Special Assistant to Sindh chief minister on human rights, Advocate Veerji Kolhi, said that the miscreants had meant to disturb communal peace in the area and urged people of all communities to stay calm.

He promised that those responsible will be brought to justice.

Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan.

According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. However, according to the community, over 90 lakh Hindus are living in the country.

Majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with their Muslim fellows.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A number of protesters gathered outside of Irans Foreign Ministry building to demand the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over an interview with the German publication Der Spiegel in which he discussed negotiations with the United States.

In the interview, Zarif was asked about the possibility of negotiations with the United States following the assassination of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. Zarif repeated Irans stated policy since the United States exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and six world powers in May 2018, saying, The Trump administration can correct its past, lift the sanctions and come back to the negotiation table. Were still at the negotiation table. Theyre the ones who left.

In the heightened tensions between the two countries, the comments took on a life of their own. President Donald Trump responded in tweets in English and then in Persian, Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran wants to negotiate with the United States, but wants sanctions removed. No thanks. Zarif responded with tweets of his own that Trump is better advised to base his foreign policy comments and decisions on facts, rather than Fox News headlines or his Farsi translators. He posted a screenshot of the comments from a transcript of the interview. In another tweet, Zarif claimed that Trump simply wants a Trump deal and reiterated Irans position that the only possible venue for talks is at the P5+1 table.

Despite the exchange of tweets, Zarif still faces domestic turmoil over the initial comment. Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi spoke at a Jan. 25 meeting for the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, where he said that he had spoken to Iraqi officials who were looking into taking legal action against the United States for the assassination of Soleimani along with Popular Mobilization Units commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at a Baghdad airport. Raisi then took a swipe at Zarif, adding, We too will pursue this through international forums. Sooner or later we will meet with the murderers of Soleimani and not for negotiations and talks, but for trial and punishment.

Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari was more direct, asking Zarif in an editorial, With what goal are you pursuing talks with the murderer of martyr Soleimani? Shariatmadari wrote that even if Trump returns to negotiations, his administration has made it clear it wants to negotiate with Iran on its missile program and support for regional groups. He added, If it were not for the missile industry, they would have flattened Iran to dirt in one night.

After the controversy erupted, the foreign minister said in a statement that the country is being polarized between those who support negotiations and those who dont for domestic political purposes ahead of the parliamentary elections. He added that such discourse will have negative consequences on national interests and public trust.
The Cincinnati Reds have been loading up all winter, and with spring training approaching theyve just added another impactful piece by reaching an agreement with the last remaining touted free agent.

Slugging outfielder Nicholas Castellanos agreed to terms on a multi-year deal with the Reds on Monday morning, MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal reported on Hot Stove.

The deal is for $64 million over four years and includes a buyout, MLB Network insider Jon Heyman tweeted.

The Castellanos signing, which is pending a passed physical, comes after the Reds added slugging infielder Mike Moustakas on a four-year, $64-million deal and Japanese center fielder Shogo Akiyama on a three-year, $21-million pact.

The Reds also signed free agent left-hander Wade Miley for two years at $15 million.

The Reds have been spending big this offseason in hopes of ending the franchises six-year playoff drought in 2020. They finished fourth among five National League Central clubs last season with a 75-87 record that was a significant improvement from their 67-95 season in 2018.

Two years ago, we were saying they had no chance in that division, and now theyre not maybe the frontrunners, but they definitely have a chance, Mets TV broadcaster and MLB Network insider Ron Darling said on MLB Now. Castellanos, I when think of him, I think of a doubles machine. Those doubles are home runs (in Cincinnatis smallish Great American Ball Park).

Castellanos, 27, hit .289 with an MLB-high 58 doubles, 27 homers and 73 RBI in 151 games last season with the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs. Following a July trade to Chicago, the right-handed hitter helped the Cubs gain an NL Wild Card playoff berth by raking at a .321 clip over 51 games with 16 homers and 36 RBI.

Castellanos, who is a weak defensive player, is expected to play left field for the Reds after mostly playing right field last season. He was a third baseman early in his career with the Tigers, but after four years of struggles at the hot corner moved to the outfield in 2018.

The Reds projected lineup for 2020 now includes an on-base machine in Akiyama, who likely will lead off, plus sluggers at first base with Joey Votto, second base with Moustakas, third base with Eugenio Suarez and right field with Aristides Aquino.

Miley may be the No. 5 starter in a deep Reds rotation that includes Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Trevor Bauer and Anthony Desclafani.

This is a team now that we can look at now perhaps as if not the NL Central favorite, certainly one to reckoned with, Rosenthal said on air. They are going to be, if nothing else, a fascinating team to watch with these new pieces and what they started (last summer) with the addition of Bauer (in a trade with Cleveland last July) and even the offseason before when they started spending money (by acquiring Gray from the Yankees).

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kenneth Starr, the lawyer whose investigation led to the impeachment of former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1998, told the Senate on Monday that the process was happening all too often in what he called an "age of impeachment" as he spoke in defence of his client, President Donald Trump.

Starr told lawmakers that impeachment has become an all-too-common political weapon as he argued that the Senate should not remove Trump, a Republican, from office, but let voters decide in the November 2020 election.

"The Senate is being called to sit as the high court of impeachment all too frequently. Indeed, we are living in what I think can aptly be described as the age of impeachment," he said.

Democrats accused him of hypocrisy.

"The man who spent all those dollars of taxpayers' money, to come up with, 'oh my God, the president has to be impeached because of sex' ... is probably not the person who should talk" about an "Age of Impeachment," Senator Patrick Leahy told reporters.

Trump was impeached last month by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on charges that he pressured Ukraine to help him smear a Democratic political rival.

Starr noted that presidential impeachment was invoked only once in the 19th century, against President Andrew Johnson, but has occurred three times in recent decades, against Trump, Clinton, and former President Richard Nixon.

No president has ever been convicted by the Senate on impeachment charges.

The House Judiciary Committee in July 1974 adopted articles of impeachment against Nixon, but the Republican president resigned less than a month later, before the full House had a chance to vote on impeachment. Johnson, who was impeached in 1868, was acquitted by the Senate.

Even Trump's supporters seemed a little underwhelmed by Starr's deliberate, lawyerly presentation, which focused on history and the U.S. Constitution.

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"This defense needs a little less Atticus Finch and a little more Miss Universe," Republican Representative Matt Gaetz wrote on Twitter, referring to the fictional lawyer in the Harper Lee novel "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Most senators remained in their seats for Starr's speech, and several Republicans were seen chatting with him during a break.

Starr was appointed as a special counsel in the 1990s to investigate Clinton over a real estate investment. His probe widened to include Clintons sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and led to Clintons impeachment by the House of Representatives. However, the Republican-controlled Senate failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to remove him from office.

"Like war, impeachment is hell," Starr said.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Leslie Adler)
A coalition of two dozen state attorneys general has filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus regulatory powers should be protected.

The coalition, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, filed an amicus brief in Seila Law, LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The case stems from a 2017 investigation by the CFPB into Seila Law, a California law firm, for its debt-relief practices. Seila Law sued to block the investigation entirely, arguing that the CFPBs structure was unconstitutional because its director could only be removed for cause. Seila Law maintained that this for-cause provision violated the Constitutions separation of powers clause.

Both the US District Court for the Central District of California and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected Seila Laws argument, and the firm has now appealed the case to the Supreme Court. The law firm is arguing that Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act  which includes the provisions that created the CFPB  must be struck down as unconstitutional.
Once accused of being a spy to Padma Bhushan; Finally recognition to Nambi Narayanan

Explained: Who is this gynaecologist from Ladakh who was awarded the Padma Bhushan

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

New Delhi, Jan 27: Continuing the tradition of recognizing the unsung heroes of the country on the occasion of Republic Day, this year, the government has conferred 141 Padma awards honouring their contributions to the society.

Among the 13 doctors who have been honoured for their services, Tsering Landol from Ladakh is one of them who has been awarded Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India for her services in medicine.

Tsering Landol is one of the first gynaecologists in the cold desert provides medical care to women in the difficult terrain through her clinic the Ladakh Heart Foundation which is a charitable medical facility.

Padma Awards 2020: Here's full list of winners

The first woman doctor from Ladakh, awarded Padma Shri in 2006, has dedicated her life for the welfare of the women's health in the terrain.

The pioneer of the woman's health caretaker, the 75-year-old doctor Tsering Landol performs deliveries in freezing temperatures with having bare facilities.

About Tsering Landol

Born in Leh, Dr Landol is one of the six siblings in the family where no one had undergone formal education.

After finishing her schooling in Leh, Dr Landol made her way to Government Medical College of Srinagar and studied on specializing in obstetrics and gynaecology.

After few years of service in Srinagar, Dr Landol joined Sonam Norboo Memorial Hospital in Leh becoming the first practising gynaecologist of the region.

Her service

Tsering Landol worked relentlessly towards the betterment of pregnant women, their deliveries in the place where even the average temperature does not exceed 5 degree Celsius and taking care of their health and hygiene.

Dr Landol witnessed stigma about taking care of women's health and even talking about it in her place.

She started treating and communicating with the people to change their minds towards health and treatment of woman.

Dr Landol made people understand not to produce more babies and raised the importance of adolescent healthcare education from school level.

Tsering Landol is featured on the 'Wall of Fame' that features people of excellence and greatness.
Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp gathered on Monday for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of its liberation.

In all, some 200 survivors of the camp were expected, many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who have travelled from Israel, the United States, Australia, Peru, Russia, Slovenia and elsewhere.

Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz or other Nazi death camps, but were being joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

Polish president Andrzej Duda told the dignitaries at the commemoration: We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes.

The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it.

Some visited the site, now a memorial museum, on the eve of the anniversary.

Survivors gathered for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet armys liberation of the camp (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)

When asked by reporters for their reflections, they were eager to share their stories, hopeful that their message will spread.

We would like that the next generation know what we went through, and it should never happen again, said 91-year-old David Marks, his voice cracking.

He lost 35 members of his immediate and extended family after they all arrived in Auschwitz from their village in Romania.

A dictator doesnt come up from one day to the other, Mr Marks said, saying it happens in micro steps.

If we dont watch it, one day you wake up and its too late, he added.

Heads of State and survivors gathered at the ceremony (Markus Schreiber/AP)

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned there.

Some of the Polish survivors walked with Mr Duda through the camps gate wearing striped scarves that recalled the prison garb they wore more than 75 years ago.

Among those attending Mondays observances at Auschwitz were German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli president Reuven Rivlin.

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Mr Rivlin recalled the strong connection that Israel shares with Poland, which welcomed Jews for centuries.

The glorious history of the Jews in Poland, the prosperity of which the Jewish community has enjoyed throughout history, along with the difficult events that have taken place on this earth, connect the Jewish people and the State of Israel, inextricably, with Poland and the Polish people, Mr Rivlin said while standing alongside Mr Duda.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan attended the commemorations (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)

London mayor Sadiq Khan was guided through the camp by museum director Piotr Cywinski and viewed a plaque that includes the name of his city after it recently pledged a contribution of 300,000 for the sites preservation.

Organisers of the event in Poland, the Auschwitz-Birkenau state memorial museum and the World Jewish Congress, have sought to keep the spotlight on survivors.

On the eve of the commemorations, survivors, many leaning on their children and grandchildren for support, walked through the place where they had been brought in on cattle cars and suffered hunger and illness and came close to death.

They said they were there to remember, to share their histories with others, and to make a gesture of defiance toward those who had sought their destruction.

For some, it is also the burial ground for their parents and grandparents, and they will be saying kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage to them, said Yvonne Engelman, a 92-year-old Australian who was joined by three more generations now scattered around the globe.

She recalled being brought in from a ghetto in what was then Czechoslovakia by cattle car, being stripped of her clothes, shaved and put in a gas chamber.

By some miracle, the gas chamber that day did not work, and she later survived slave labour and a death march.

Polands president Andrzej Duda walked along with survivors (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)

A 96-year-old survivor, Jeanette Spiegel, was 20 when she was brought to Auschwitz, where she spent nine months.

Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated, she said.

In Paris, French president Emmanuel Macron paid his respects at the citys Shoah Memorial and warned about rising hate crimes in France, which increased 27% last year.

That anti-Semitism is coming back is not the Jewish peoples problem: Its all our problem its the nations problem, Mr Macron said.
by Jonathan Kujawa

As Ive tried to convey over the years here at 3QD, mathematics is the bees knees. Like most apologias for mathematics, many of my essays tend to fall into one of two categories.

The extrinsic: on maths usefulness in real-world applications like internet searches, GPS technology, compression and recovery of images, encryption, the handling of large data, and the like. This is the reason my relatives (and most of my students) think math is worth learning.

The intrinsic: on maths beauty, universality, timelessness, ability to amaze and inspire awe, its endless depth and richness, and its ability to spark joy and fun. This is what drew me (and some of my students) to study math and still motivates me today to teach and do research.

But there is a third quality of mathematics which Ive never quite been able to articulate. Ive only managed to sneak up on it from time-to-time. This is the humanity of mathematics. For some, humanity may seem more the purview of literature, music, art, psychology, sociology, or philosophy. Not mathematics. They would be wrong, though.

In October, my 3QD essay gestured in this direction. I talked about how what is considered proven and important depends on human judgment [1]. I talked about the fact mathematics should be open to all, but is closed off to many; whether a person is encouraged or discouraged to follow their interest in math is a human and social affair, not a mathematical one.

But that essay, like my other efforts in this direction, wasnt entirely satisfactory. It didnt quite capture the full range of what could and should be said about the humanity of mathematics. Fortunately, Francis Su has managed to square this circle [2]. I just finished his truly exceptional book Mathematics for Human Flourishing. Dr. Su has said more than I could hope to about the deeply human aspects of mathematics.

The book is based on Dr. Sus departing address as the outgoing president of the Mathematical Association of America. You can read the accompanying essay here: Mathematics for Human Flourishing. The book is an expansion of the essay, but this is not to say the book is the essay plus padding! The essay covered five themes, the book, twelve.

By going wider and deeper he is able to go to entirely new places. Dr. Su weaves together events from his own life, stories from his students and historical figures in mathematics and, most poignantly, letters from Christopher Jackson, a man who found his love of mathematics after receiving a thirty-two year prison sentence for crimes he committed as a teenager.

Dr. Sus central thesis is that mathematics helps people flourish. What does he mean? As Dr. Su writes:

Human flourishing refers to a wholeness  of being and doing, of realizing ones potential and helping others do the same, of acting with honor and treating others with dignity, of living with integrity even in challenging circumstances. It is not the same as happiness, and it is not just a state of mind. The well-lived life is a life of human flourishing.

To give a sense of the book, chapter titles include exploration, play, permanence, and truth. But also, meaning, struggle, freedom, community, and love. Dr. Su makes the compelling argument that all these are aspects of human flourishing and math communicates in deep ways with all of them. You might expect to see mathematics play a role in the first list, but it may be harder to imagine it as part of the second. Dr. Su makes the argument better than I could hope to, so Ill let his words speak for themselves.

On Meaning:

Dr Su writes:

Likewise, mathematical ideas, too, are metaphors. Think about the number 7. To say anything interesting about 7, you have to place it in conversation with other things. To say that 7 is prime is talk about its relationship with its factors: those numbers that divide evenly into 7. To say 7 is 111 in binary notation is to have it dialogue with the number 2. To say that 7 is the number of days of the week is to make it converse with the calendar.

The meaning of words grows richer the more you use them  they have nuance, they evoke images  so that synonyms are not really synonyms. Poets find great delight in expressing an idea with just the right word. Mathematical ideas, too, grow richer in meaning the more you play with them.

Meaning is a fundamental human desire. We crave beautifully written poetry because we enjoy the richness of its meaning. why do we settle for less in the way we learn mathematics?

On Power:

In discussing the ways in which mathematical knowledge and experience intertwine with power, Dr. Su reminds us this link may or may not be a force for good. We can use our power to uplift others by encouraging, explaining, and sharing, but we can also use it to do the opposite. Every parent who inadvertently transmits to their children their own anxieties and fear about mathematics is, perhaps unconsciously, using their power to close doors.

Even those of us who choose to tap into the power of mathematics must be mindful. As Dr. Su warns:

So you and I have a responsibility, as we grow in power, to use it for good  to grow in creative power and not coercive power. Creative power isnt solely instrumental. You dont grow in creative power only to accomplish things. You do it to be a better human being, to grow in virtue, to elevate human dignity  your own and those around you  in all mathematical spaces.

On Freedom:

One freedom granted by knowledge, mathematical or otherwise, is the freedom given by knowing the options available to you. On this Dr. Su quotes a letter of Christopher Jackson who drew an analogy from chess:

It is [a sign] of a skilled chess player that he or she can play well out of any position or circumstance on the board. The person who is unaware of his or her options is like a player who is in a bad position. Because even if there are fruitful paths available to you that you are not aware of, they may as well not exist.

Related to this is the freedom granted by understanding. As Dr. Su describes it:

If you go through life pretending to understand, you will always be a slave to the things you dont understand. Math education should promote, rather than inhibit, this freedom, but as learners we must strive for deep understanding even when our education isnt promoting it. This is where the hard work is.

I hope these morsels whet your appetite for Dr. Sus remarkable book. If you read with an open mind and an open heart, it will transform how you look at mathematics and your fellow human beings. A similar book could be written about how poetry, music, or art can raise us up, and many have. But no small part of the thought-provoking power of Mathematics of Human Flourishing is the unexpectedly compelling way mathematics is shown to be just as important to our humanity.

By chance, a month or so ago I watched the documentary College Behind Bars. It speaks to the same themes as the Mathematics of Human Flourishing. It, too, made the compelling argument that every person is capable of greater depth and richness than we commonly give them credit for. People live their lives according to their choices and circumstances, but we shouldnt be so quick to judge their potential.

As Dr. Su wrote:

Believe that you and every person in your life can flourish in mathematics.

[1] With the growing use of computer systems for verifying proofs, mathematical arguments can be mechanized and checked, but meaning and interpretation will depend on humans for the foreseeable future. As will the decision of which initial axioms and assumptions are allowed.

[2] Full disclosure: Ive known Francis Su for years. Ever since he visited the University of Oklahoma to speak in our departmental colloquium and in our Math Day for high school students. Hes a great guy, but Id recommend his book regardless!

[3] The original image is from here. It is a composite photo of a portion of the Milky Way. This one photo contains more than 84 million stars. The original image is zoomable and must be seen to be appreciated. Here at 3QD we saw every shuffled deck of cards is virtually certain to be the first of its kind. Dr. Su made a more cosmic comparison when discussing card shuffling.
Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Starr Warns Senate: We Are Living in The Age of Impeachment

Ken Starr made his impeachment debut on Jan. 27 as a member of President Donald Trumps legal defense team with a warning about the growing use of impeachment.

The Senate is being called to sit as the high court of impeachment all too frequently. Indeed, we are living in what I think can aptly be described as the age of impeachment, Starr told senators.

Starr, who, as an independent counsel, investigated then-President Bill Clinton ahead of his impeachment trial in the late 1990s, argued that no crimes were committed in Trumps case and sought to undermine House Democrats case.

Were crimes alleged in the articles in the common law of presidential impeachment? In Nixon, yes. In Clinton, yes. Here, no, he said.

Impeachment, he argued, should be a last resort to remove a president from office. He urged senators to look to the text of the Constitution to restore the United States history and tradition.

Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Over the past five decades or sowith the investigation into President Richard Nixon and the independent counsel provision of The Ethics in Government Act of 1978impeachment has become increasingly used by the House, which is unprecedented in the history of the United States, Starr said.

But the new chapter was not simply the age of independent counsels. It became, unbeknownst to the American people, the age of impeachment, Starr said.

Starr played a significant role in investigating Clinton, filing a report that led to his impeachment in the House; Clinton was acquitted in the Senate.

Instead of a once-in-a-century phenomenon, which it had been, presidential impeachment has become a weapon to be wielded against ones political opponent, Starr said.

Starr claimed Trump didnt obstruct Congress by not allowing any White House witnesses or documents. He also stated that the House inquiry process that produced the two articles of impeachment was suspect.

It is not an impeachable offense for the president of the United States to defend the asserted legal and constitutional prerogatives of the presidency, Starr said. Due process could have been honored. Basic rights could have been honored  but whats done is done. These two articles come before this court, this high court of impeachment, dripping with fundamental process violations.

Democrats have alleged that Trump withheld millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, a claim that Trump has denied. The House voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December 2019.
Photo: The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images

When President Trumps legal team unveiled its impeachment defense strategy on Saturday, the linchpin of the case was a small gap in the evidence. Not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting or anything else, said Mike Purpura.

This statement, while constructed in the narrowest possible fashion, was literally correct. A wide swath of evidence has established that the Trump administration attempted to trade diplomatic favors with Ukraine for investigations. Several aides testified, or communicated to each other at the time, that they understood this to be the policy. Trump demanded the investigations in public, implicitly dangled them in his phone call with Ukraines president, and his chief of staff Mick Mulvaney publicly confirmed the quid pro quo in a press conference. But every one of these pieces of testimony, in one form or another, fell short of the standard of (1) being sworn testimony (2) by a person who spoke directly to Trump and (3) heard him explicitly condition the meeting and aid for the investigations. It was like a jigsaw puzzle with a single piece missing, the picture completely apparent.

This vulnerability in the defense was already evident at the time. Putting such an emphasis on ambiguities in Sondlands testimony, observed National Review editor Rich Lowry, only makes sense if you are *absolutely certain* Bolton wont testify.

Well, so much for that.

Last nights revelation that John Boltons forthcoming book reports the exact piece of evidence that Trumps legal team insisted did not exist, that Trump specifically told Bolton that he was holding up the military aid in return for investigating the Bidens. Trumps lawyers not only claimed this evidence did not yet exist, but called it one of the facts that have not, and will not, change.

Now it just might change. The odds of deposition for new witnesses is certainly rising dramatically, a senior Republican official confides to the Washington Post. Before the Times report, GOP leaders were confident that they would defeat the vote this week. But now, it is less certain, three GOP sources tell CNN.

Trumps defenders frantically scrambled for a new improvised defense as to why Bolton must never testify. The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate! tweeted the president. The first sentence is false  the House did request Boltons testimony  and even if true, the second sentence would not follow. (Had the House erred by neglecting to summon a key witness, why compound the error rather than correct it?) Trump retweeted faithful defender Mollie Hemingways hope that Bolton was overpromising and underachieving with their bombshell anti-Trump book roll outs. The apparent strategy here is to prevent Bolton from testifying and insisting he wouldnt have had the goods anyway.

Meanwhile, other Trumpists like Sean Davis, Rudy Giuliani, and Lou Dobbs have tried out a new line of attack. Bolton is an embittered neocon who is taking revenge on Trump for refusing to start his desired wars by making up lies about the president, which happen to track closely with the sworn testimony of numerous other officials. This is a kind of omnibus Trump defense that has been applied to any incriminating testimony or leaks on any issue at all. The reasoning is a simple tautology: First, you make a refusal to testify against Trump a test of party loyalty, and then anybody who violates the test by definition is against your team and therefore biased.

If Bolton does testify, he not only refutes the linchpin of Trumps defense, he also potentially implicates a wide array of other officials. According to the New York Times, Boltons book describes conversations with several other nervous Trump officials, including Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo, and William Barr, all of whom could then be asked to testify in turn. It reports that he warned White House lawyers that Mr. Giuliani might have been leveraging his work with the president to help his private clients. Giuliani of course is under criminal investigation, and was being paid by clients pursuing business deals in Ukraine, and who were themselves being paid by a key ally of Vladimir Putin. Even the most innocent interpretation of Giulianis role, combining profit-seeking with diplomacy, is a massive scandal on its face.

It is this potential that might, in the end, persuade Republicans not to allow Bolton to testify. Axios reports that Republican leaders will still try to prevent more testimony because there is a sense in the Senate that if one witness is allowed, the floodgates are open. A Republican aide explains, If [Bolton] says stuff that implicates, say Mick [Mulvaney] or [Mike] Pompeo, then calls for them will intensify.

There is a certain logic to this. Once you stop covering up Trumps misconduct, pretty soon you end up confirming a lot of misconduct. Why, its almost as if they dont actually think Trump is innocent.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, the Salem Democratic congressman who dropped out of the crowded presidential primary last summer, announced Monday that he was backing former Vice President Joe Biden in the hunt for the Democratic nomination.

In a tweet, Moulton announced his support for Biden over Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Gov. Deval Patrick, two other Massachusetts Democrats seeking the White House. Moulton called Biden a proven and effective leader who has what it takes to beat Donald Trump and unify our country.

.@JoeBiden is a proven and effective leader who has what it takes to beat Donald Trump and unify our country. Im proud to endorse him. pic.twitter.com/fqoLlueHYt  Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) January 27, 2020

In this complicated time at home and around the world, Joe Biden has the experience and judgment not just to win in November, but to lead our nation after he does, by fighting for opportunity, equality and security like hes done his whole career, said Moulton, a Marine veteran whos characterized Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as too liberal.

Moulton described Biden, a former Delaware senator, as a friend and mentor with a track record of turning progressive ideas into laws, including the Violence Against Women Act, health care reform and an assault rifle ban.
HOUSTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With 19 franchised dealerships in six U.S. markets, indiGO Auto Group celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 15th. Now wholly owned by Pon Holdings of the Netherlands, indiGO Auto Group, which was founded by current CEO Todd Blue, has created the most inspiring luxury retail automotive destinations in the industry. indiGO's "best brands, best locations, best people" philosophy goes far beyond the traditional dealership model by providing a more immersive and experiential ownership journey. Together with Kelly Wolf, President and COO, Blue created a company and nurtured a team dedicated to a mission that is built around the clients who have a desire to drive their dream each and every day.

"When I started indiGO ten years ago, I vowed to create the luxury car buying experience I was looking for, but could not find," said Todd Blue, Founder and CEO of indiGO Auto Group. "This first decade has brought tremendous growth. We center everything we do around our passion for great luxury brands and those who drive them. We have reimagined the retail experience by focusing on exceeding expectations and enlightening our clients."

Blue credits the indiGO team along with its loyal and passionate clients for contributing to the company's tremendous success. If the first decade in business is any indication, indiGO is destined to continue its trajectory. Further solidified by the fact that indiGO is now part of global mobility powerhouse Pon Holdings, Blue says, "As the auto industry makes the shift toward electrification, personalization and digitalization, indiGO will be able to continue to embrace the exciting changes and have every opportunity to thrive because of Pon's strong financial backing."

With the recent expansion of three more dealerships in Northern California  Porsche Marin, Audi Marin and VW Marin  along with the new McLaren Houston dealership, indiGO continues to connect their unique philosophy and approach to the car buying experience.

About indiGO Auto Group

indiGO offers the world's most sought-after automotive brands in one signature experience  from the exotic and elite to the ultimate in performance and luxury. indiGO's sterling reputation for innovation and care is fueling its growth in key markets nationwide, giving clients additional access, opportunity, and trust in our long-term commitment to them. indiGO stands for a level of expertise beyond traditional dealerships, combining intimate brand knowledge with an authentic automotive passion for enriching every client, every day of their ownership.

indiGO Auto Group represents 19 franchised dealerships in six United States markets, including Houston, Texas, and St. Louis, Missouri plus Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Riverside, and Marin County, California. Dealership destinations include Porsche North Houston, Lamborghini Houston, McLaren Houston, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North Houston, Porsche St. Louis, indiGO Classic Cars, Jaguar Riverside, Porsche Marin, Audi Marin, Volkswagen Marin, BMW of Palm Springs, Porsche Palm Springs, as well as Bentley, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Aston Martin, McLaren, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Land Rover and Audi of Rancho Mirage. For more information, please visit www.indigoautogroup.com

indiGO Auto Group is proud to be part of Netherlands-based Pon Holdings B.V., a global business of mobility products, services, and solutions, including passenger cars, commercial vehicles, automotive parts, earthmoving equipment, marine, power generation, and financial services. Pon's strong nancial backing and global presence complement indiGO's unique strengths, a combination of which ensures further long-term growth.

Media Contact:

Stacey Doss

[email protected]

949-285-2362

SOURCE IndiGO Auto Group

Related Links

http://www.indigoautogroup.com


Bright Now! Dental - Jordan Downs Im excited to be partnering with Smile Brands to open this state-of-the-art facility and serve the community of Los Angeles.

Smile Brands Inc., one of the nations leading providers of business support services to dental groups in the United States, today announced the grand opening of another affiliated Bright Now! Dental office, serving the community of Los Angeles, CA.

Patients will enjoy convenient hours, a comfortable office and full-service care at the new Jordan Downs location. The newest Bright Now! Dental office provides full-service general dentistry, plus specialty care services, such as orthodontics (braces), Invisalign, oral surgery, periodontics, endodontics, and implants. Located at 9851 South Alameda, Unit A, in Los Angeles, the office will be open five days a week, including evenings and Saturdays. Bright Now! Dental accepts most major insurance plans and offers flexible financing options so patients can afford the care they need.

To celebrate the grand opening, the new Jordan Downs dental office will offer a special $29 new patient check-up package, including an exam with an oral cancer screening and digital x-rays, and $100 off dental services over $300. Opening this new location helps Smile Brands and its affiliated dental groups achieve their mission to provide Smiles for Everyone by bringing affordable dental care to local neighborhoods.

Leading the clinical team in the new Bright Now! Dental office is Dr. Jereme Berryhill. Dr. Berryhill has advanced training in General Dentistry and is committed to providing a friendly and knowledgeable approach to patients so they are happy with their smiles.

I enjoy getting to know my patients so they can have a positive experience during their treatment, says Dr. Berryhill. Im excited to be partnering with Smile Brands to open this state-of-the-art facility and serve the community of Los Angeles.

This new office is open on Mondays from 8am  5pm, Tuesdays and Fridays from 9am  6pm, Thursdays from 10am  7pm, and Saturdays from 8am  4pm.

Prospective patients can call the new Jordan Downs Bright Now! Dental office at 323-513-1670 or toll-free at 1-888-BRIGHT-NOW (1-888-274-4486). People can also visit us online to schedule an appointment at the new Jordan Downs location.

About Smile Brands Inc.

Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. The organizations award-winning culture has made it the only dental support organization on Glassdoors Best Places to Work for the past three years. Smile Brands affiliated dentists benefit from industry-leading business support services, so they can spend more time caring for patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. The organization supports over 440 affiliated practices and 60 brands across 18 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit smilebrands.com.
Today Beauty Bridges new CBD cosmetics platform NeoMen announced that TEScosmetics by Dr. Milagros, the first CBD skincare line designed by a medical doctor, is one of the first brands to debut on the new website. TEScosmetics (Total Everyday Skincare) joins just sixteen other brands selected for the NeoMen platform, which carries not only CBD oil products, but supplements, tinctures, topicals, bath and body care lines, as well as products for pets.

With this partnership, Dr. Milagros is expanding her reach from stores in NYC and Miami to include the NeoMen audience: Its so exciting for our brand to be able to partner with this new platform dedicated only to CBD skincare and beauty products, and widen our product reach, Dr. Milagros said of the partnership. I applaud the forward-thinking teams of NeoMen and Beauty Bridge and Im so happy to be partnering with them.

Dr. Milagros journey to entrepreneurship began as she went from doctor to cancer patient and saw the lack of healthy, organic products on the market. After beating cancer, she decided to start her own completely organic skincare line, and was introduced to CBD as she researched the most beneficial ingredients to skin health. CBD is legal in all fifty states, and research has shown only positive effects from the isolate, which is derived from the hemp plant and creates no psychoactive effects. Known for its ability to soothe aching muscles, reduce inflammation, and brighten the skin, CBD is a largely untapped market ripe with possibilities. Research firm Brightfield Group has stated it will soon be a $22 billion industry. Itsset to explode.

The full TEScosmetics line is available on NeoMen and now includes full-size and travel-size everyface scrub, everyface serum, and everyface cream, with plans to roll out more products infused with CBD isolate in the near future. The CBD isolate used by Dr. Milagros line comes from USDA-approved farms in Colorado and Oregon, where growers are USDA-regulated. TEScosmetics skincare products are never tested on animals. The organic hemp-derived CBD isolate is rich with Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins D and E, which have been associated with nourishing and protecting all skin types.

Weve seen incredible interest in our CBD products, and we are happy to welcome Dr. Milagros and her wonderful, high-quality skincare line to our platform, said Aary Pienpuck, VP of Marketing and Merchandising for NeoMen. Other brands selected for the NeoMen platform debut include: 707 Flora, BB lifestyle, Blue Botanicals, Green Sky Cosmetics, HealthNaturally, Hemp Code, Hempful Farms, Leanna Organics, M.A.D.E CBD, Mahi CBD Skincare, Naternal, Ology Essentials, Science of Life Alchemy, Spectra Cosmetics, Terra Vida, and Thriva Luxe.

To learn more, please visit TEScosmetics.com or email info AT TEScosmetics.com.

ABOUT TESCOSMETICS BY DR. MILAGROS:

Founded by Dr. Milagros Hernandez, TEScosmetics is the only line of CBD skincare products designed by a medical doctor. After surviving breast-cancer, Dr. Milagros spent years working on a new, organic skincare regimen to provide a toxin-free alternative to achieving healthy skin. All TEScosmetics products are infused with organic hemp-derived CBD isolate that penetrates into skin pores to deliver vital nutrients that nourish and protect all skin types. The products in the TEScosmetics collection are made from premium organic ingredients, is Leaping Bunny certified / never tested on animals, and do not contain paraben, gluten, or any artificial ingredients or preservatives. TEScosmetics was designed by Dr. Milagros to help others keep their bodies beautiful and healthy - both inside and out.

ABOUT NEOMEN:

NeoMen was founded to serve the ever-growing need for a reliable source of CBD products online. The NeoMen vision is to create the leading platform for the largest selection of CBD products. Since the Farm Bill legalized industrial hemp and hemp-derived products in 2018, the company turned its focus to brining CBD products to a larger audience. In addition to creating a trustworthy way to buy quality CBD products, NeoMen has built an educational and fun website for all levels of interest in the benefits of CBD.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Risk Management Association Foundation will provide scholarships totaling $209,000 to 114 college students for the Spring 2020 semester, the Risk Management Association (RMA) has announced. Since the RMA Scholarship was launched in 2015, students pursuing careers in the financial services industry have received 445 scholarships, totaling $1,076,000, from The RMA Foundation. The most recent awards ranged from $1,500 to $5,000.

Two Githens scholarships, which go to the most distinguished applicants, were awarded. The winners were Brianna Sueda, a senior at California State University San Marcos, and Carlos Franco, a senior at Appalachian State University. The prestigious scholarships are named in honor of RMA's former President and CEO William F. Githens, who retired in 2017 and is an active director of The RMA Foundation.

"It is always exciting to give a boost to talented and hard-working students as they transition into professionals and leaders," said RMA President and CEO Nancy Foster. "While hitting a financial milestone was gratifying, it is even more gratifying to know that, through its Foundation, RMA will continue to help usher the best and brightest into the financial services industry for many years to come."

The Risk Management Association, whose sole mission is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services industry, created the Foundation in 2014 to assist with attracting talent to the banking industry at a time of increasing baby boomer retirements and competition for graduates from tech and other sectors.

RMA Scholars are selected based on:

Academic achievement.

Participation and leadership in community and school activities or related work experience.

Demonstrated interest in the banking industry, including involvement in the local RMA chapter, academic studies, and internships.

A statement of career goals and objectives.

In addition to applying for scholarships, banking-focused students can take advantage of free RMA student memberships. Benefits include an online subscription to The RMA Journal, access to the RMA Xchange online member community, and invitations to attend RMA chapter meetings and workshops. Students are also able to earn, through select colleges and universities, the Credit Essentials Certificate, which demonstrates proficiency in business and financial knowledge, and helps certificate holders stand out to employers.

About RMA

Founded in 1914, The Risk Management Association is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk, and operational risk. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 1,900 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. They are represented in the Association by 18,500 individuals located throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia/Pacific.

SOURCE The Risk Management Association

Related Links

http://www.rmahq.org


The Bodo Peace Accord evoked a mixed response in Assam on Monday, with supporters of the pact expressing jubilation and non-Bodo outfits staging a 12-hour bandh against the agreement even as Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal asserted that no community living in the state have anything to worry about the settlement.

The Centre on Monday signed an accord with all factions of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), the All Bodo Students' Union and the United Bodo People's Organisation (UBPO), providing political and economic bonanza sans a separate state or a Union Territory.

Sonowal said the Bodo Peace Accord will be implemented keeping the territorial integrity of Assam intact.

"All the clauses in the Agreement will be executed with the support of all stakeholders and no community living in the state should be worried about the pact," he said in a statement.

Sonowal said the pact will respect the sentiments of everyone and the Bodo community must proceed towards its implementation by taking everybody along.

The chief minister also hoped that the people of Assam would extend full support towards the process.

"People from all sections of the society have been extending their support to the state government's initiatives to make Assam terrorism-free and this Accord would play a crucial role in the peace-building process," he said.

He also urged the young generation to contribute towards the developmental efforts.

Sonowal appreciated the roles played by Himanta Biswa Sarma, convenor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) -- the equivalent of NDA in the region -- and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohillary in making the agreement a success.

He also congratulated the residents of the Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD) and assured them that the state government will extend full support in implementing the pact in letter and spirit.

BTAD comprises four districts of Assam -- Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri -- that are governed by the BTC.

Meanwhile, Bodo people wearing traditional attire assembled at ABSU offices and welcomed the pact by bursting crackers and distributing sweets, while agitators set vehicles on fire and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at several places in the BTAD.

Business establishments and educational institutes were closed and vehicles remained off the roads during the bandh called by outfits such as All Koch-Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU), All BTC Minority Students' Union (ABMSU), All Assam Adivasi Students' Union (AAASU) and Oboro Suraksha Samiti.

They demanded that all non-Bodo stakeholders residing in the BTAD and the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) be included in the peace talks and made signatories to the accord.

Kokrajhar's Independent MP Naba Sarania led a delegation of 15 non-Bodo organisations to meet Governor Jagdish Mukhi and submit a memorandum, highlighting their concerns over the Accord and urging him to convey them to the Centre.

On the other hand, several prominent persons from the Bodo community expressed happiness over the pact and hoped it will usher in an era of development in the region.

ABSU's Kokrajhar District Education Secretary Khamba Basumatary told PTI,"Today is a historic day. We are very happy. However, we have asked all the Bodo people to remain alert and stay indoors for a few days as some miscreants may try to create disturbances."



Kenny Basumatary, Bollywood actor and a prominent Assamese filmmaker from the Bodo community, said, "I hope that not just a few rich contractors, development of everyone happens. I wish peace and growth continue in the region."



Noted vocalist Jiten Basumatary hoped that creation of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) will bring in development and create jobs.

"It is a really good that medical colleges, universities and other such centres will be set up in the region. These will help students get better education and create jobs. All people living in these areas will be benefited," he said.

However, non-Bodo people, including Sarania, expressed dissatisfaction over the signing of the pact, terming it a "political conspiracy".

He said the pact was signed as the "ruling political dispensation was not confident of winning the upcoming Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) elections", scheduled to be held in April.

"A wave of change has been sweeping across the BTAD and both the Hagrama Mohilary-led Bodo Peoples' Front (BPF) and the BJP, allies in the state government, realised that the going will be tough with allegations of corruption amounting to crores of rupees against the BTC rulers," Sarania told reporters.

He claimed that the NDFB(R), whose chief Ranjan Daimary was granted interim bail in the 2008 Assam blast case that killed 88 people, had expressed an interest for negotiations two years ago but were told then that it was not possible till the serious cases against them are resolved.

"What has happened now? Why did the government delay holding the negotiations? The NIA court last year sentenced Ranjan Daimary to life imprisonment but now suddenly he was released on bail and participated in the talks. Does this not point to a political conspiracy?" Sarania said.

He stated that the cases against Daimary should not be dropped and law should be allowed to take its course.

Sarania urged all the non-Bodo communities not to be disheartened as "the Accord will give an opportunity to work unitedly so that our goals are realised and we are not discriminated against".

"If there is discrimination against the non-Bodos, we will go to the courts, protest democratically and take further the initiative of creating a political alternative," he said.

Sarania said that the "only positive thing about the Accord" is that the state and central governments along with the BTC are claiming that the "decades-old Bodo problem will end and we hope that this happens".

"We do not want disturbances in the area and want to live in peace," he asserted.

He also regretted that no representative of any non- Bodo organisation was part of the discussions that led to the signing of the Accord.

The first Bodo accord was signed with the ABSU in 1993, leading to the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.

In 2003, the second Bodo accord was signed with the militant outfit Bodo Liberation Tigers, leading to the formation of BTC with the four districts, terming them together as BTAD.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ISIS child soldier executes Nigerian Christian student, declares 'we will not stop'

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The Nigerian man who was executed by a child militant in a video released by a Boko Haram offshoot group aligned with the Islamic State days ago has been identified as a 22-year-old Christian college student.

Ropvil Daciya Dalep hailed from the Pankshin Local Government Area of the Plateau state and attended the University of Maiduguri in Borno state. His execution video gained media attention this week.

Dalep was a biology major who was returning to school from Christmas break when he was abducted on Jan. 9 allegedly by the Islamic State West Africa Province, according to the United Kingdom-based NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Dalep was taken along with fellow Plateau state native and 20-year-old zoology major Lilian Daniel Gyang and another person who was later released.

According to Solomon Maren, a federal legislator from the Plateau state, Gyang is still in captivity. In a statement released by his media team, Maren stated that extremists have made it known that they are targeting Plateau people as they also executed two carpenters from the state last year.

The terrorists clearly stated why they are targeting Plateau people when the citizens of Plateau have long resolved their differences and are leaving peacefully together, Maren said. I call on the federal government and security agencies to brace up to their obligation to prevent further [loss] of lives which cannot be tolerated.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the video of Daleps execution shows the kneeling victim being shot in the head by the masked child who speaks in both Arabic and Hausa.

In the video released by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq News Agency, the child reportedly claims that Daleps killing was revenge for the bloodshed committed by Christians.

In particular, this is one among the Christians from Plateau State, the child is reported to have said in the video. We are saying to Christians, we have not forgotten what you have done to our parents and ancestors and we are telling all Christians around the world, we have not forgotten and will not stop. We must avenge the bloodshed that has been done like this one

According to Director Rita Katz of the SITE Intelligence Group, the child militant in the video is approximately 8 years old.

There is NO end to #ISIS' immorality, Katz wrote in a tweet about the video.

Katz sees parallels between the Dalep execution video and the execution videos released in previous years during the Islamic States reign in Iraq and Syria.

The video is not just another piece to #isis honed-in targeting of #Christians of recent years, but also a throwback to its older propaganda from Iraq & Syria of brainwashed children carrying grisly executions. This new vid from ISWAP shows a repeat of the same indoctrination.

Daleps execution came days before the Borno-based Islamic terror group Boko Haram executed pastor Rev. Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigerias chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The Dalep video follows another video released by Amaq in December showing the execution of 11 Christian aid workers in Nigeria allegedly in response to the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ISWAP, which declared its allegiance to the Islamic State in 2016, split from Boko Haram after Baghdadi tried to replace Boko Harams leader with one of his choosing.

The Islamic State has risen to prominence in Africa as it also has active cells in nearby countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mali.

According to a 2018 report from the Combatting Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, estimates suggest there could be as many as 6,000 Islamic State-aligned militants spread over nine different cells in Africa.

In Nigeria alone, thousands upon thousands have reportedly been killed in recent years due to the rise of radical Islamic extremism and the radicalization of Fulani herdsmen.

Activists have criticized the Nigerian governments inability to thwart attacks by Boko Haram, ISWAP and Fulani militants.

Following the death of Andimi, the Christian Association of Nigeria released a statement criticizing the lackadaisical response by President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration to the rise in violence.

It is reprehensible and saddening that each time the government comes out to claim the defeat of the insurgency, more killings of our people are committed, the CAN statement reads.

Maintenance of security is the least responsibility of any government that knows its worth. We are once again calling on President Buhari to purge himself of the allegations of nepotism and religious favoritism by reconstituting the leadership of security outfits.

Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. In December, Nigeria was placed for the first time on the U.S. State Departments Special Watch List for countries in which severe religious freedom violations are tolerated.

The great tragedy of Nigerias ineffectual response to Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen is now parts of Cameroon and those other areas like Burkina Faso are greatly affected, said Open Doors CEO David Curry at a World Watch List launch event last week.
The Coronavirus epidemic that has gripped China has left the death toll in the country touching 80 with its National Health Commission reporting close to 2,800* confirmed cases to date.

Fear of people contacting the virus has risen sharply and countries are working toward lifting their citizens from China at the earliest.

The commission also termed the condition of the 461 people being treated for the virus, officially known as 2019-nCoV, as "critical." It said that during the past 24 hours, 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths from the disease were reported.

By Sunday, the pneumonia-like illness was responsible for a total of 80 deaths, while 51 people had reportedly recovered, and 5,794 remained as suspected patients, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the commission as saying.

A total of 32,799 close contacts have been traced, the commission said, adding 30,453 among them were currently under medical observation while 583 others were discharged on Sunday.

A suspected case of coronavirus has also been reported in Bihar.

According to the Superintendent, Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), a girl hailing from Chapra, who recently returned from China, was admitted to ICU at a hospital in Chapra after she showed symptoms similar to that of Coronavirus.

Another suspected case of coronavirus has been reported from Rajasthan.

reuters

The patient has returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China. The hospital staff will keep the patient in isolation and will also conduct the screening of the family members.

"According to the information received, 18 persons in four districts of the state have returned from China. The Chief Medical and Health Officers of the four districts have been instructed to keep all of them under constant monitoring for 28 days," said State Health Minister Raghu Sharma.

Almost all provinces in China except Tibet have reported the virus cases.





*Some reports suggest that the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases is 2700.
An osprey chick has been spotted in The Gambia after it migrated 4,000 miles from Dorset, England where it had been introduced as part of a conservation programme.

The sighting offers hope that the endangered bird of prey could succeed in recolonising southern England after an absence of around 200 years.

It is hoped that the osprey  which became extinct in large swathes of western Europe in the early 19th century  will re-establish a population in Poole Harbour.

To this end, experts have been gradually reintroducing osprey chicks to the harbour for the past three years and monitoring their progress.

It is hoped that the chick seen in West Africa will return to Poole Harbour next spring to assume a mate and breed, thereby helping to establish a sustainable population.

Scroll down for video

An osprey chick has been spotted in The Gambia after it migrated 4,000 miles from Dorset, England where it had been introduced as part of a conservation programme. Pictured, two of the birds in the conservation programme, LS7 (left) and CJ7 (right) in Poole Harbour

Members of the Birds of Poole Harbour  the charity overseeing the conservation project  could not contain their delight when they were sent pictures of the so-called 'chick 019' by a British birdwatcher who had spotted his tag.

The sighting is encouraging as most ospreys do not survive their first migration  many get caught in adverse weather systems or drown.

It is hoped that the chick will return to Poole Harbour in the spring of 2021 and meet a female partner so that they can eventually breed there.

The conservation programme started in 2017 with eight chicks that were taken from nests in northern Scotland, where there are now sustainable osprey populations.

Since then, another 25 birds have been transported the 500 miles (805 kilometres) south to Poole Harbour.

'The osprey is a very impressive, large bird of prey and they used to be very common across the whole of Western Europe until they were wiped out 200 years ago because of persecution and disease,' said Paul Morton, of the Birds of Poole Harbour.

'A population was re-established in Scotland in the 1950s and now breeding programmes have seen pairs introduced elsewhere in England and Wales, but until now not in southern England.'

'We started the programme to re-introduce them to southern England in 2017 and fingers crossed we will have ospreys once again breeding here.'

The sighting offers hope that the endangered bird of prey could succeed in recolonising southern England after an absence of around 200 years. Pictured, two of the birds in the conservation programme, LS7 (left) and CJ7 (right) in Poole Harbour

It is hoped that the osprey  which became extinct in large swathes of western Europe in the early 19th century  will re-establish a population in Poole Harbour. Pictured, a previous attempt to encourage ospreys to nest in the area made use of a nest with two plastic birds

Experts have been gradually reintroducing osprey chicks to the harbour for the past three years and monitoring their progress

'The first migration is very dangerous because of the threat of being shot, drowning when fishing for food and getting caught in a bad weather system,' Mr Morton explained.

'So when we heard that this chick had made it to Gambia we were delighted.'

'He is not due back until the spring of 2021 but it is encouraging news.'

However, there is no guarantee that chick 19  or any of his peers that similarly made it to West Africa  will return to Poole Harbour, as the lure of their native northern Scotland can prove to be too great.

It is hoped that the chick seen in West Africa will return to Poole Harbour, pictured, next spring to assume a mate and breed, thereby helping to establish a sustainable population

An osprey chick has been spotted in The Gambia after it migrated 4,000 miles from Dorset, England where it had been introduced as part of a conservation programme

It is hoped that the chick will return to Poole Harbour, pictured, in the spring of 2021 and meet a female partner so that they can eventually breed there
US Attorney Geoffrey Berman confirmed Andrew was approached at a meeting of a group that supports battered women: Source

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation approached the United Kingdoms Prince Andrew for an interview in connection with its investigation into the activities and death of American financier Jeffrey Epstein, a US law enforcement source told Reuters News Agency on Monday.

Manhattan-based US Attorney Geoffrey Berman publicly confirmed the approach to Prince Andrew at a meeting of a group that supports battered women, the source said. The source added that to date, prosecutors had received zero cooperation from the prince.

The FBI is investigating British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, and others who facilitated Epsteins allegedly illegal behaviour, law enforcement sources told Reuters in December.

Maxwell has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

A Reuters source added that to date, prosecutors had received zero cooperation from Britains Prince Andrew [File: Chris Radburn/Reuters]

Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US court papers have previously shown that Epstein had socialised with Prince Andrew and other high-profile figures, including US President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.

Epsteins suicide in August, at age 66, came a little over a month after he was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of underage girls from at least 2002 to 2005. Prosecutors said he recruited girls to give him massages, which became sexual.

Epstein had pleaded not guilty.
The total number of confirmed cases in China rose about 30% to 2,744.

The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 on Monday, as the government extended the Lunar New Year holiday and more big businesses shut down or told staff to work from home in an effort to curb the spread.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, as the government sought to signal it was responding seriously to the crisis, Reuters said.

The total number of confirmed cases in China rose about 30% to 2,744, about half of them in Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan.

Read alsoUkraine sets up group to monitor coronavirus-related situation

As worries grew around the world, Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has had eight confirmed cases, banned entry to people who had visited Hubei in the past 14 days. The ban did not cover Hong Kong residents.

The number of deaths from the flu-like virus in Hubei climbed to 76 from 56, health officials said, with five deaths elsewhere in China, including the southern island province of Hainan, which reported its first fatality on Monday.

While a small number of cases have been confirmed in more than 10 countries, linked to people who traveled from Wuhan, no deaths have been reported elsewhere.
NASA is all set to send its newest rover to Mars, to decipher mysteries of the Red planet in July 2020. However, it has been stuck with one of the most difficult challenges there is -- naming the Mars rover.



The previous rover was named Curiosity, however, NASA has done something a lot more interesting for picking the name of its next Mars rover.

NASA

It asked students from across the globe to send essays with the name for the Mars rover, and it received an overwhelming response, with over, 28,000 essays. And from this, NASA has picked 9 names (with essays) from the list -- Vision, Endurance, Promise, Courage, Tenacity, Clarity, Ingenuity, Fortitude and Perseverance.

From these, NASA now is asking the citizens of the internet to vote the best one from the lot and today is the last date for choosing the name from the lot.

As of now, it has received a total of 614,846 votes, out of which the most (unsurprisingly) are from the United States of America, followed by Turkey and Romania at second and third spots. In case you were wondering, India is in the top 10 at 7th position and 10,121 votes.

NASA first revealed the 2020 Mars Rover to the world in December 2019 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, near Los Angeles. The rover is scheduled to blast off from Earth in July 2020, and will be active on Mars for around 687 days.

NASA

The rover is loaded with a plethora of equipment and sensors that will constantly provide data about the red planet. The rover has a total of 23 cameras, two microphones that allow capture of Martian winds. The rover also has lasers onboard -- not to fight with aliens it comes across but to be used for chemical analysis.



The rover is as big as a family car and has six wheels similar to its predecessor Curiosity that will help it to move along the tricky rocky terrain with ease.

In case you were interested to cast a vote, head here to do so.


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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi  Mon, January 27, 2020 13:21 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206118004 1 World nickel-producer,nickel,coronavirus,Morowali,central-sulawesi Free

Nickel Miner PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMPI) in Central Sulawesi has stopped incoming foreign workers from China amid the fast-spreading coronavirus originating from the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

Officially since Jan. 25, PT. IMIP has stopped all Chinese foreign workers from entering Morowali, IMIP spokesperson Dedy Kurniawan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Dedy said the IMIP had not only rejected foreign workers from Wuhan but also from all regions of China.

In the meantime, there are more than 3,000 Chinese workers employed at IMIP. Ten to 50 workers usually come from China every day, although the data has yet to be collected thoroughly, Dedy said.

But we are stopping [the influx] for now, Dedy said, adding that after the news of the new coronavirus outbreak, the company had implemented strict procedures for all Chinese foreign workers, especially those from Wuhan.

All workers must undergo medical check-ups, Dedy said.

The company, which is 75 percent owned by Chinas Shanghai Decent Investment Group and 25 percent owned by local mining firm Bintangdelapan Group, has also screened all foreign workers and set up thermal scanners in its compound as preventive measures to detect the potential spread of the virus.

Quarantine quarters have also been established at the companys port area to vet ships coming from overseas.

The company also coordinated with the central government as well as the Morowali regency administration and Central Sulawesi province administration to anticipate the potential spread of the coronavirus.

Internally, we remind our workers to maintain good cleanliness and healthy habits, Dedy said, adding that IMPI was also monitoring the government's measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, especially at entry points to the country.

The coronavirus, which bears similarities to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), was first detected in Wuhan on Dec. 31, 2019. At least 80 deaths from the virus have been reported in China as of Monday morning, AFP has reported.

The virus have also spread to other countries, including the United States, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, which have all reported confirmed cases of the coronavirus. (ami)
PTI govt to face all challenges coming its way: Imran khan 27 January, 2020



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Ways that Players Used to Take Advantage of Slot Sites LAHORE: The prime minister directed the Punjab government that the political disconnect among elected representatives and civil bureaucracy be eliminated forthwith.



Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday lashed out at an organised mafia spreading negativity and crippling positive administrative changes in the country and asserted that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would not take any pressure and face all challenges coming its way.



Mr Khan asked the Punjab government that a comprehensive and effective mechanism be developed for better liaison among elected representatives and civil bureaucracy.



The prime minister, during his Lahore visit, held a one-on-one meeting with Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar as well as separately met party MNAs and MPAs at chief ministers secretariat.



Dispelling the negative propaganda that CM Buzdar had been weakened and that the chief secretary and provincial police chief were taking guidance from the federal government, Mr Khan said Mr Buzdar would remain a fully-empowered chief minister. The chief secretary and IG Police should work as team members of CM Buzdar, he said.



A source privy to the meeting said PM Khan hinted at knowing those who were hatching conspiracies against the Punjab CM but did not elaborate on it. If the incumbent CM will be replaced, the new chief minister will not be able to go along even for a month, the source said while quoting Mr Khan.



Citing another reason, another source said it would be almost impossible to bring an in-house change, as Mr Buzdar had been elected with one-vote majority even when all PTI MPAs, coalition partners and three independents had overwhelmingly voted for him. Now the situation of party MPAs and coalition partners is not as smooth as it was, the source explained.



PM Imran Khan also directed the Punjab government to get ready and hold village council elections in the first phase. The Punjab government has already given its consent to the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding the plan to hold the local government elections, at least village council elections in the first phase. The PM said: Local government elections will actually help resolve masses problems at grassroots level.



At the meeting, elected representatives shared their concerns with the PM about development works in their respective constituencies and demanded that the government should consult the elected representatives while finalising development programme at divisional level.



After listening to the lawmakers, Mr Khan directed the Punjab government to speed up development works and use the allocated funds in most transparent manner. He said elected representatives must ensure close liaison with the masses in their constituencies and struggle for the resolution of their problems. He also directed the Punjab government to take strict action against the qabza mafia, hoarders and profiteers.



The prime minister directed the provincial ministers to ensure good governance in their respective ministries besides resolving public issues at brisk pace. The Punjab government should not leave any stone unturned while giving relief to the masses, he added.



Mr Khan reiterated that the country was stuck in the quagmire of massive debt and facing phenomenon deficit when the PTI government had taken over. Now the countrys economy has been stabilised and its heading in the right direction, he said, adding that the world at large had started seeing Pakistan as an attractive destination for investment.



Stating that Pakistan was greatly acknowledged at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, the PM said the worlds largest investment companies representatives acknowledged that there were ample opportunities for investment in Pakistan. The year 2019 was a year to support countrys economy, while the year 2020 will be the year of progress, he added.



Later, the prime minister also held a meeting with CM Buzdar and Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and discussed development projects as well as the distribution of health insurance cards, Insaf Health Cards, among people.



It was learnt that PTIs chief whip Malik Mohammad Amir Dogar and MNA Amir Mahmood Kiyani have been appointed as coordinators for better coordination among the elected representatives and the Punjab government. LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday lashed out at an organised mafia spreading negativity and crippling positive administrative changes in the country and asserted that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would not take any pressure and face all challenges coming its way.



The prime minister directed the Punjab government that the political disconnect among elected representatives and civil bureaucracy be eliminated forthwith.



Mr Khan asked the Punjab government that a comprehensive and effective mechanism be developed for better liaison among elected representatives and civil bureaucracy.



The prime minister, during his Lahore visit, held a one-on-one meeting with Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar as well as separately met party MNAs and MPAs at chief ministers secretariat.

Article continues after ad



Dispelling the negative propaganda that CM Buzdar had been weakened and that the chief secretary and provincial police chief were taking guidance from the federal government, Mr Khan said Mr Buzdar would remain a fully-empowered chief minister. The chief secretary and IG Police should work as team members of CM Buzdar, he said.



A source privy to the meeting said PM Khan hinted at knowing those who were hatching conspiracies against the Punjab CM but did not elaborate on it. If the incumbent CM will be replaced, the new chief minister will not be able to go along even for a month, the source said while quoting Mr Khan.



Citing another reason, another source said it would be almost impossible to bring an in-house change, as Mr Buzdar had been elected with one-vote majority even when all PTI MPAs, coalition partners and three independents had overwhelmingly voted for him. Now the situation of party MPAs and coalition partners is not as smooth as it was, the source explained.



PM Imran Khan also directed the Punjab government to get ready and hold village council elections in the first phase. The Punjab government has already given its consent to the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding the plan to hold the local government elections, at least village council elections in the first phase. The PM said: Local government elections will actually help resolve masses problems at grassroots level.



At the meeting, elected representatives shared their concerns with the PM about development works in their respective constituencies and demanded that the government should consult the elected representatives while finalising development programme at divisional level.



After listening to the lawmakers, Mr Khan directed the Punjab government to speed up development works and use the allocated funds in most transparent manner. He said elected representatives must ensure close liaison with the masses in their constituencies and struggle for the resolution of their problems. He also directed the Punjab government to take strict action against the qabza mafia, hoarders and profiteers.



The prime minister directed the provincial ministers to ensure good governance in their respective ministries besides resolving public issues at brisk pace. The Punjab government should not leave any stone unturned while giving relief to the masses, he added.



Mr Khan reiterated that the country was stuck in the quagmire of massive debt and facing phenomenon deficit when the PTI government had taken over. Now the countrys economy has been stabilised and its heading in the right direction, he said, adding that the world at large had started seeing Pakistan as an attractive destination for investment.



Stating that Pakistan was greatly acknowledged at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, the PM said the worlds largest investment companies representatives acknowledged that there were ample opportunities for investment in Pakistan. The year 2019 was a year to support countrys economy, while the year 2020 will be the year of progress, he added.
They must have named it Buffalo Gap for a reason. The few hundred folks who live in this West Texas hamlet just south of Abilene are often ribbed about their namesake. Turns out this is still where the buffalo roam.

According to a report by KTXS 12, last Wednesday, U.S. Highway 83/84 was temporarily shut down while authorities wrangled two runaway bison.
In 2016 Rio Rancho joined the ranks of New Mexico cities enacting an ethics ordinance to put public interest ahead of personal interest in city government.

The citys governing body provided full funding for an independent ethics commission to hear cases and provide advisory opinions upon request. The commission thus far has heard only two cases (including an unsubstantiated one against me), but the capability and resources are there to respond when called upon.

A few months after that, the Sandoval County Commission adopted its own ethics ordinance and formed an ethics commission to investigate complaints.

Finally, in its 2019 legislative session, the State of New Mexico  amid much self-congratulation  became one of 40 U.S. states to adopt an ethics statute and create an independent ethics commission. Unlike Rio Rancho city government, the state legislature is overrun with lobbyists, many of them former legislators or relatives, and the state is arguably more susceptible to corrupting influence than the smaller-stakes halls of local governments.

A recent public opinion poll showed that 63 percent of state voters believe politicians are more responsive to lobbyists than they are to voters (21 percent).

Why is it, then, that the state legislatures 2020-21 budget recommendation for the state ethics commission would seriously under-fund that fledgling body? The legislative proposed budget is approximately $150,000 below the commissions requested $1.14 million, and contains no supplemental funding.

In contrast, the executive (governors) budget recommendation fully funds the ethics commissions request  including a $385,000 supplemental appropriation. The supplemental funding will allow the commission to hire needed staff and contract with investigators, hearing officers and trainers. In short, to do its job.

Fully funded, the ethics commissions budget would represent .0162 percent of the total general fund legislative budget.

Since its effective date of July 1, 2019, seven ethics commissioners have been appointed, and an executive director and two additional staff members have been hired. Rules of procedure have been adopted, office space has been secured on the University of New Mexico campus, and the commissions website (sec.state.nm.us) is fully operational.

But the commissions workload far exceeds current staff capacity. In fact, the commission will have enforcement and advisory responsibility over roughly 50,000 individuals, including public officials and employees, candidates, government contractors, lobbyists and lobbyists employers.

To Rio Rancho and Sandoval County residents who fought for genuine ethics enforcement at the local level: Please focus now at the state level, where millions more tax dollars are up for grabs. Urge your state legislators to fulfill their mission and adopt the executive budget recommendations for an effective state ethics commission.

Find your state legislators names and contact information at nmlegis.gov/members/find_my_legislator.

Other deciders are members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees. A listing of those committee members may be found at:

 Senate: nmlegis.gov/Committee/Standing_Committee?CommitteeCode=SFC

 House: nmlegis.gov/Committee/Standing_Committee?CommitteeCode=HAFC.

Click on an individual members name for contact information.

(Cheryl Everett is a Rio Rancho resident and former city councilor.)

Editors note: Everetts column is appearing a week early to make sure to run, and readers have a chance to respond to it, before the issue in question comes up for a final vote in the legislature.
A look at questions on diversity and incitement to violence in the UK raised in the aftermath of the Manchester bombing.
See the Klan oath and other documents from the Sons of Dixie Knights of the KKK.

Through the sparse cover of barren trees, a cluster of colorful tents adorns a rise alongside the Pearl River Canal.

Cluttered with fishing gear, bags of junk food, discarded cigarette packs and other trash, it seems like an ordinary campsite, the kind any good old boys of the north shore might set up to do some hunting and fishing in that quiet patch of God's country on the fringe of the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge.Six men and three women gathered there last weekend, shielding from the view of passers-by their white-hooded uniforms, initiation manuals, weaponry and strident beliefs in racial purity. They came with plans to rebuild the Ku Klux Klan into a resurgent force in Washington Parish, where a long history of racial violence is well-remembered.

A few days later, the newcomer to the group who had hoped to spread their word in Oklahoma lay dead. The eight locals were jailed in the initiate's slaying, accused either of murder or as accessories.

The crime shed a harsh light on the shadowy activities of the Bogalusa-based Klan group known as the Sons of Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan -- and with it, the realization that, like the campsite set up for its initiation ritual last week, the Klan still hides in plain sight in and around Washington Parish.

The Klan no longer meets in halls in city centers, advertises on storefronts or parades down streets, but it can be discerned in the sentiments of some in the community, in their grappling with or odd embrace of a charged racial past. Others are still striving to put the area's legacy of racial violence and terror behind them.

The mayor of Bogalusa, James "Mack" McGehee, said he "probably hadn't heard the word (KKK) for 20 years."

"It gives your community a black eye, " said McGehee, 48. "My generation has never experienced anything like that, and it goes to show that these types of people can live right next to you and you'd never know it."

'I am ashamed'

Washington Parish Assessor Randy "Country" Seal said the recent display of Klan activity in his parish surprised him, too, and he believes it is the exception rather than the rule.

"I am a product of the '60s, I was born in '51, and I was just hoping that we were past that as a parish . . . and I am ashamed, " he said. "But sometimes a whole class gets kept in because a few people were caught talking. It doesn't mean the whole parish is racist."

Cynthia C. Lynch, a 43-year-old woman from Tulsa, Okla., with a minor criminal history, was drawn to eastern Louisiana after communicating with members of the Sons of Dixie over the Internet. Lynch planned to join the group through a weekend initiation ritual before returning to Oklahoma, where she would recruit other members.

The gathering took place near the community of Sun just south of the Washington Parish line, in rural northeastern St. Tammany Parish.

On Sunday night, Lynch told leader Raymond "Chuck" Foster, 44, and the others in the group that she wanted to go home. An argument ensued, and Foster allegedly shot Lynch with a .40-caliber handgun.

Authorities said Foster quickly worked to cover up the crime, digging the bullet out of her body with a razor blade and ordering his followers to dump the corpse in a patch of woods about a quarter-mile from the campsite and just a few steps from the Sun police station.

Early Monday morning, two Klansmen drove to Bogalusa, where they asked the clerk at a Circle K station how they could get blood out of their clothes. The clerk called authorities, who were able to recover Lynch's body and round up all eight participants in the initiation ritual by the end of the day.

The arrests and the Klan back story were announced Tuesday afternoon.

'I know it's here'

When Bogalusa firefighters reported to work Thursday, it was their first time back together since news of the murder became public. The incident was the talk of the firehouse.

Capt. Adrian Brister, 37, the only African-American firefighter on the biweekly, around-the-clock shift at the city's central fire station, said the fact that he and his fellow firefighters can discuss such racially fraught issues is a good sign.

"We talked about how it must have just been a bunch of idiots, the guys who did it, " he said.

Asked whether he thinks the Klan is alive in Bogalusa, Brister's lips tightened slightly: "I know it's here, just from growing up here, you know that it's around . . . but you don't see it."

A few weeks earlier and a little farther north, Judy Robinson, 58, put up a campaign yard sign for Barack Obama.

Then a day or two later, Robinson, an African-American woman who lives in Angie, stepped outside to find the letters "KKK" spray-painted across her propane tank and alongside her brother's derelict car. She called the Washington Parish Sheriff's Office.

"The officer said, 'I think the problem is the Obama sign. I don't think there are too many KKK out here, ' " she recalled.

But now, with the recent killing, she's on edge.

"Every time I get out and look at it, I really have a problem, because I thought all that had ended 40 years ago, " she said. "It makes me more cautious. It puts the fear in my heart."

She recently put another light on her back porch, "so we can look out."

An infamous history

During the civil rights era, the Klan in Washington Parish was thought to have more members per capita than any other parish or county in America.

And in 1965, when the parish's first black deputies, Oneal Moore and Creed Rogers, were shot, leaving Moore dead and Rogers without an eye, the Klan was suspected. The shootings were never solved.

Lance Hill, a Tulane University law professor who has written extensively on Klan activity, said that 1960s Bogalusa was "Klan Capital, USA."

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"There were killings, bombings, takeovers of local media, intimidation. . . .The Klan simply was a domestic terrorist cell, " he said.

The organization had its own meeting hall near the town center, identified like any modern-day fraternal lodge.

Despite being a flashpoint for racial tensions, Bogalusa's black population has continued to increase. More than 40 percent of Bogalusa's residents are black, compared with about 12 percent of the national population, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The proportion of Washington Parish residents who are black is nearly the same as it is statewide, about 32 percent.

But still today in Washington Parish, there are those who say the Sons of Dixie can't really have been the Klan.

"I knew they was out there, but this isn't the Klan it used be . . . the Klan wouldn't murder no people. They would help people, " said a Bush resident now in his 60s who claimed to be a former Klan member and says he still has his Klan robe in his attic.

Sun Mayor Barbara Gibson said she and other residents of the village of 365 people were stunned by the slaying.

"We were all shocked to hear about it, " said Gibson, who has lived in the village for 27 years. She said Sun and the surrounding area is a tight-knit community, and she's convinced there's no Klan activity.

"We all know each other and would hear about it if there was, " she said. "We don't have any of that here. We all get along."

'They're good folks'

Sun is nestled in the extreme northeastern corner of St. Tammany. In geography and in character, it is far removed from the hustle and bustle of the parish's modern-day suburbs closer to Lake Pontchartrain.

Not too many years ago, St. Tammany was a sparsely populated "country" parish from end to end, with a few small towns dotting the otherwise rural landscape. The past two decades have seen St. Tammany explode as a suburban hotspot, and as the Mandeville, Covington and Slidell areas have boomed, the parish has undergone a cultural shift. With one of the highest per capita incomes in the state, St. Tammany's rural heritage has lost much of its influence.

St. Tammany Parish Councilwoman Rebecca Crawford-Howell, who represents the still-rural northeastern corner of the parish, said Klan activity "existed here, in Louisiana and other states years ago . . . I'm not aware of anything now."

Those who were active in the Klan have died or gone away, said Crawford-Howell, who has lived in the community for 40 years and was a justice of the peace in the rural 6th Ward for 20 years until her election to the council last year.

Several workers at a restaurant in Sun just down the street from where Lynch's body was dumped said they know people in the Klan, though, and that "they're good folks . . . who wouldn't murder nobody."

A female co-worker stated that there is a need for the Klan out there.

"White people don't stand up. We need some folks standing up for us, " she said. "But I don't think those (Sons of Dixie) folks were really KKK, just wannabes, and the media is blowing it out of proportion."

'A part of the secret'

Professor Samuel Hyde Jr., a history professor at Southeastern Louisiana University who studies the Klan, has attempted to understand the attributes that continue to attract new members.

"One of the things that has always seemed to serve as a source of appeal for Klan-type organizations is the 'fraternal syndrome, ' " said Hyde, director of the university's Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies.

"Much like a college sorority or fraternity, members of the Klan are made party to a secret that only their members are supposed to know, " he said. "Being a part of the secret makes them feel special and important."

A former Klan member from Amite told him a few years ago that the secret they were party to "included the notion that they were the descendants of Confederate soldiers protecting the South and the peculiar Southern way of life."

"What I am concerned with is we are seeing only the tip of things, " Hyde said. "As we now see, they are actively recruiting people to serve as recruiters in other areas, and so it is obviously a concerted effort to expand their base, and once they have the numbers they want, heaven forbid."

Records seized by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office show the Sons of Dixie group had fewer than 20 members, and several of those on their rolls had been expelled before last weekend's initiation rite. It appears that Monday's arrests included most of the group's leadership, Sheriff Jack Strain said.

"We not only cut off the snake's head, we took almost its whole body, too, " he said.

Foster, a founding member of the now-disbanded Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Livingston Parish, has a long criminal history from across the state, including being tried on manslaughter charges that a jury determined was committed in self-defense.

The other members of the group previously have been booked only on minor offenses, authorities said.

Though investigators have not yet determined how long the group had been growing in Washington Parish, Strain said it appeared the organization was still in its infancy and could have become stronger and more dangerous as time went on.

"No one can dispute that the foundations, the groundwork, were laid to make this a much larger organization, " Strain said.

'We must talk to kids'

On Chuck Foster's MySpace.com account, he lashed out angrily at the Web site's code enforcers.

"All you twisted yahoos who keep having my account deleted because my views, religious beliefs are in conflict with your beliefs and your trends for this so called 'popular culture' . . . You have and are constantly proving the demise of our U.S. constitution and the Right to be White.

"Today's double standard communist ways do not allow me to show pride in my Southern Heritage, but yet you claim this to be the American way?" he wrote on the social networking site. "It is a real pity that you choose to delete me because I display a little pride in my race, heritage and culture."

Matthew Tate, 68, a former Franklinton High School principal and current Washington Parish School Board member, said that tolerance is needed among the people in Washington Parish, and it starts by educating the area's youths.

"We must talk to kids before they get to the point of doing unacceptable things, " said Tate, who had a cross burned on his lawn in 1986, when he ran for and won a spot as the parish's first African-American police juror.

"We need to put services in place, to give these people help. We need to understand their motive, talk to them, to be able to teach them that what their fathers and grandparents did was not right, " he said. "We ought to be able to teach people to learn to reason."

. . . . . . .

Charlie Chapple contributed to this story.Benjamin Alexander-Bloch can be reached at bbloch@timespicayune.com or 985.898.4827.
Charles Ezekwem, Imo state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has resigned, barely two weeks after the supreme court sacked Emeka Ihedioha as governor of the state.

The apex court judgement sacked Ihedioha of the PDP and declared Hope Uzodinma, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the 2019 governorship election.

Ezekwem, in a letter dated January 25 and addressed to the partys national chairman, revealed that his decision to resign is based on the prevailing circumstances in the state chapter of the party.

Read Also: Kano PDP Chairman Dumps Party, Days After SCourt Upheld Gandujes Election

According to him, he has also resigned as a member of the party in his ward at Okigwe local government area.

In view of the prevailing circumstances within my party vis-a-vis my present standing as the State Chairman of the PDP Imo State and after due consultation with my family, and with the approval of my supporters, I hereby tender my resignation as PDP Chairman Imo State; also as a member of the party in the ward of Okigwe LGA which has been duly communicated to the Ward Chairman, the letter read.

I thank the teaming population of PDP Imo State who thoughtfully elected me as their State Chairman, I sincerely regret all the inconveniences the party faced. I thank the party for the support they gave me and the opportunity to serve in that capacity.
A bill that would dedicate a portion of the states record oil and gas revenues to a permanent fund for habitat restoration and sustainable agriculture projects deserves serious consideration from lawmakers, and its good to see support for it from a broad coalition of agricultural and environmental groups.

Senate Bill 102, the New Mexico Agricultural and Natural Resources Trust Fund Act sponsored by Republican Sen. Steven Neville of Aztec, would appropriate $150 million from the general fund into an Agricultural and Natural Resources Trust Fund in fiscal 2021. Interest from public and private investments in the fund would pay for land and water restoration projects in the state.

Projects could include reducing streambed erosion, improving water quality and restoring fire-impacted watersheds. Potential projects also include preserving open space, purchasing conservation easements, managing invasive plant species, creating healthy soil and other sustainable agriculture projects on private land, and enhancing wildlife habitat in areas impacted by residential, energy, mineral or industrial development.

The fund could also leverage state money as a match for federal conservation grants.

Michael Dax, a New Mexico representative for Defenders of Wildlife, told the Journals Theresa Davis for a Jan. 22 story that the bill would secure long-term funding for habitat preservation projects instead of fighting for scraps every year.

Lesli Allison, executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance, said the trust fund could give New Mexico a different future.

Other organizations in support include Trout Unlimited, Audubon New Mexico, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the Quivira Coalition, the Rio Grande Agricultural Land Trust, New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts and Holistic Management International.

It makes sense for New Mexico to use the windfall from oil and gas proceeds for long-term improvements, not just quick, one-time fixes that require recurring funding after the oil boom busts. The idea of establishing essentially an endowment for land and water restoration projects is a sound proposal that merits legislative attention in the 30-day session underway in Santa Fe.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Riot police stand at the entrance of a residential building as residents protest against plans for an empty local housing estate to become a temporary quarantine camp for patients and frontline medical staff of a SARS-like virus outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in the Fanling district in Hong Kong on Jan. 26, 2020. (PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)

Small Suspected Homemade Bomb Explodes at Hong Kong Hospital, No Injuries

HONG KONGA suspected small-scale homemade bomb exploded at a general hospital in Hong Kong on Monday, causing the temporary evacuation of some patients but no injuries, police said.

The incident came after a group of protesters on Sunday set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building in Hong Kongs suburb of Fanling that authorities had planned to use as a quarantine facility, as fears grow over a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China. Local residents were not notified of the governments plans, sparking street protests.

Riot police detain a mass amount of residents in Fanling district in Hong Kong, China, on Jan. 26, 2020. Protesters clash over a proposal of using newly constructed housing as a quarantine site in a residential area. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

The government has since said it will hold off plans to use Fai Ming Estate as a quarantine facility while it holds discussions at the upcoming North District Council meeting.

The government has said it will cease the related preparation work in Fai Ming Estate as a potential quarantine facility following protests. #hongkong #wuhanvirus #WuhanCoronavirus #coronavirusoutbreak pic.twitter.com/Oa38Z1ZjXA  Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) January 26, 2020

Hong Kong has been convulsed with demonstrations over the past seven months centered on its relationship with mainland China, with anger fueled by what protesters see as growing interference from Beijing.

The device exploded in a toilet cubicle at the Caritas Medical Centre at about 2:30 a.m. local time, police said in a statement.

The explosive ordnance disposal unit found a suspicious bomb inside a toilet, 15 centimeters long, 10 centimeters in diameter, police said.

They took away the pieces of the suspicious bomb for further examination and evacuated around 20 people to a safe place. No one was injured. 

The motive for the hospital explosion was not known.

There have been calls by pro-democracy legislators, activists, and a medical staff union in recent days for Hong Kong to shut the border with the mainland to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

Hong Kong on Sunday barred residents of Chinas Hubei province, the center of the virus outbreak, from entering the city. Chief Executive Carrie Lam last week dismissed a border closure as inappropriate and impractical.

Hong Kong has so far confirmed eight cases of people infected with the virus.

Epoch Times staff contributed to this article.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

The global market for Drone Identification Systems is projected to reach US$45.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05842186/?utm_source=PRN

4 billion by 2025, driven by the growing need for new rules, safety and security protocols as drones begin to swarm the modern skies. The era of small flying objects is close at hand with commercial applications of drones gaining new ground and momentum. Few of the emerging applications for commercial drone include use of drones for generating video tours for customers in real estate; drone based surveillance; drones for environmental monitoring; drones for oil & gas pipeline inspections; agricultural drones for crop spraying; drone based same-day delivery of e-commerce orders; drones for land surveying, search and rescue; drones for emergency response services; and drones for road construction and other infrastructure projects. Few of the factors helping make these applications a commercial reality include developments in drone hardware; rise of drones-as-a-service business models; new innovations in drone camera, vision systems and sensors; drone software platform development, data analytics and data management; and increased venture capital investments in drone technology. With falling costs, commercial and recreation uses of drones will grow further. As the number of drones flying in the sky, dangers and risks also rise in parallel. These include increased risk of collision with other aircraft; drones alias UAVs have a small form factor and low profile electromagnetic signature escapes traditional radar detection; increased use of drones for smuggling drugs across borders and for other illegal activities; development of weaponized drones and rise in drone terrorism and for reconnaissance which is already becoming a reality. Even for legalized uses, drone traffic management, drone flight permissions and monitoring system is paramount to safety.

- To counter all of these risks, drone identification is becoming increasingly importance. Ability to remotely identify drones will ensure drones remain a safe addition to airspace; validate the purpose of drones and mitigate security concerns over anonymous flying; and for drone operators it will allow improved airspace access. Traditional technologies like acoustic sensors and radars are ineffective in detecting the low speed and low electromagnetic signature of small UAVs, and therefore need advanced technologies like infrared, radio frequency (RF) radars, optical surveillance, high power microwave (HPM) devices, and laser sensors fusion for detection and location positioning. Of late, increased frequency of security breaches by drones has pushed up the urgency of effective drone identification. In the year 2015, a drone crashed in front of the White House in Washington causing a security panic; in 2018, Londons Gatwick airport came to a grinding halt after several airplanes were grounded due to unauthorized drones flying over the airfield. Unauthorized landing of drones has also been reported on critical infrastructures all over the world i.e. the Prime Minister of Japans office, the Golden Gate Bridge, nuclear sites in France, and prison facilities, among others. Technologies capable of finding, tracking and alerting will score the highest gains in the coming years. Direct Drone-to-Phone is an interesting area of innovation in remote identification where smartphone users can track of airborne drones with the help of an app and W-Fi connection. The United States and Europe represent large markets worldwide with a combined share of 76% of the market. China ranks as the fastest growing market with a CAGR of 76.1% over the analysis period supported by the countrys cutting edge use of drones for transforming farming and pollution management. As the country cracks down on drone usage with new regulations, drone identification systems will grow in popularity.

- Competitors identified in this market include, among others, Aaronia AG, Advanced Protection Systems Sp. Z O.O., Blighter Surveillance Systems Ltd., Dedrone Inc., Drone Labs LLC, DroneShield Ltd., HENSOLDT UK, Leonardo S.p.A., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company, Rheinmetall AG, Rinicom Ltd., Thales Group.







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05842186/?utm_source=PRN



DRONE IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS MCP11

MARKET ANALYSIS, TRENDS, AND FORECASTS, DECEMBER 2

CONTENTS



I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & REPORT SCOPE







II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY







1. MARKET OVERVIEW



Drone Identification Systems Market: Prelude

A Review of Select Drone Detection, Identification and Counter -UAS Technologies

Global Competitor Market Shares

Drone Identification Systems Competitor Market Share Scenario Worldwide (in %): 2019





2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS



2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS

Advanced Protection Systems Sp. Z O.O. (Poland)

Blighter Surveillance Systems Ltd. (UK)

Dedrone, Inc. (USA)

Drone Labs LLC (USA)

DroneShield Ltd. (Australia)

HENSOLDT UK (UK)

Leonardo S.p.A. (Italy)

Lockheed Martin Corporation (USA)

Raytheon Company (USA)

Rheinmetall AG (Germany)

Rinicom Ltd. (UK)

Thales Group (France)





3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS



Rapid Proliferation of Drones Triggers a Parallel Increase in Investments in the Development of Drone Countermeasure Technologies

Number of Countries Worldwide Using Drones/UAVs by Type for the Years 2010 & 2019

Global Market for Drones (In US$ Billion) for the Years 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2024

Growing Drone Traffic Supported by Increased Commercial/Civil Applications to Step Up Drone Traffic Management Needs: Global UAS Traffic Management (UTM) System Market (In US$ Billion) for the Years 2019, 2022 and 2024

Growing Commercial Applications of Drones: A Review of Existing and Emerging Use Cases in Commercial Space

Rise in Illegal Use of Drones Strengthens the Business Case for Drone Identification Solutions

Increased Frequency of Security Breaches by Drones Drive Demand for Drone Detection Systems

Healthy Military Spending Worldwide Provides a Fertile Environment for the Growth of Drones & Counter Drone Technologies in Defense Applications

Healthy Defense Spending With Especially Expanding Budgets for Drones to Amplify the Need for Drone Identification Capabilities: Projected Defense Budget (In US$ Billion) for the Years 2019, 2021 and 2023

Military Expenditure Worldwide in US$ Billion for the Years 2001 through 2018

Leading Countries Ranked by Defense Budgets in US$ Billion for 2018

Drone Spending in the US: Breakdown of Expenditure (in $ Billion) by Department for FY2018 and FY2019E

Increasing Use of Drones in the Battlefield Pushes Up the Need for Counter-Drone Systems: Global Market for Military Drones (In US$ Billion) for the Years 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024

Increase in Global Terrorism & the Ensuing Growing Security Concerns to Drive Deployment of Drone Identification Technologies

Continued Threat of Terrorism Drives the Focus on Surveillance as Counterterrorism Response: Global Number of Fatalities (in'000) Due to Terrorist Attacks: 2007 - 2017

Global Number of Fatalities from Terrorism: 2017

Imposition for Stricter Regulations for Drone Identification Provides Regulatory Driven Stability to Growth in the Market

Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft Systems - A Notable Development

High Growth Potential in Store for the Remote Drone ID System Market

Drone Surveillance Radar: A Widely Used Drone Identification Technology

Radar Systems for Small or Micro Drones

Drone Detection as a Service (DSaaS) Rises in Popularity Supported by the Benefits Offered by Cloud Based Service Models

Emergence of Network-Based Intrusion Detection & Prohibition Systems: Major Market Opportunity

Market Stands to Gain from Increased Penchant for Sensor-Driven Smart Detection Systems

Developments in Advanced Network-Based Detection Systems to Drive Market Growth

Tamper-Resistant Solution for Drone Identification & Tracking

Co-Locating Additional Systems for Safe Drone Operations

Technology Innovations, the Key to Sustained Growth in the Market

Use of 3D Technology

Counter-UAV Protection System Project for Airport

Fraunhofer Develops Modular Drone Detection and Assistance System (MODEAS)

Other Notable Developments

Promising Startups in Counter Drone Systems Market





4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE



Table 1: Drone Identification Systems Global Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2018-2025

Table 2: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Shift across Key Geographies Worldwide: 2019 VS 2025

Table 3: Drone Mounting (Application) Global Opportunity Assessment in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2018-2025

Table 4: Drone Mounting (Application) Percentage Share Breakdown of Global Sales by Region/Country: 2019 VS 2025

Table 5: Ground Station (Application) Worldwide Sales in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2018-2025

Table 6: Ground Station (Application) Market Share Shift across Key Geographies: 2019 VS 2025

Table 7: Identification & Detection (Technology) Geographic Market Spread Worldwide in US$ Million: 2018 to 2025

Table 8: Identification & Detection (Technology) Market Share Distribution in Percentage by Region/Country: 2019 VS 2025

Table 9: Countermeasures (Technology) World Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region/Country in US$ Million: 2018 to 2025

Table 10: Countermeasures (Technology) Market Share Breakdown by Region/Country: 2019 VS 2025

Table 11: Military (End-Use) Worldwide Latent Demand Forecasts in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2018-2025

Table 12: Military (End-Use) Distribution of Global Sales by Region/Country: 2019 VS 2025

Table 13: Commercial (End-Use) Sales Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Million by Region/Country for the Years 2018 through 2025

Table 14: Commercial (End-Use) Global Market Share Distribution by Region/Country for 2019 and 2025

Table 15: Homeland Security (End-Use) Global Opportunity Assessment in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2018-2025

Table 16: Homeland Security (End-Use) Percentage Share Breakdown of Global Sales by Region/Country: 2019 VS 2025



III. MARKET ANALYSIS



GEOGRAPHIC MARKET ANALYSIS

UNITED STATES

Table 17: United States Drone Identification Systems Latent Demand Forecasts in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 18: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown in the United States by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 19: Drone Identification Systems Market in US$ Million in the United States by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 20: United States Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 21: United States Drone Identification Systems Latent Demand Forecasts in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 22: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown in the United States by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

CANADA

Table 23: Canadian Drone Identification Systems Market Quantitative Demand Analysis in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 24: Canadian Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 25: Drone Identification Systems Market Analysis in Canada in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 26: Canadian Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 27: Canadian Drone Identification Systems Market Quantitative Demand Analysis in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 28: Canadian Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

JAPAN

Table 29: Japanese Demand Estimates and Forecasts for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 30: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Shift in Japan by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 31: Japanese Medium & Long-Term Outlook for Drone Identification Systems Market in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 32: Japanese Drone Identification Systems Market Percentage Share Distribution by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 33: Japanese Demand Estimates and Forecasts for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 34: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Shift in Japan by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

CHINA

Table 35: Chinese Demand for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 36: Chinese Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 37: Drone Identification Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts in China in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 38: Drone Identification Systems Market in China: Percentage Share Analysis by Technology for 2019 and 2025

Table 39: Chinese Demand for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 40: Chinese Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

EUROPE

Table 41: European Drone Identification Systems Market Demand Scenario in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2018-2025

Table 42: European Drone Identification Systems Market Share Shift by Region/Country: 2019 VS 2025

Table 43: European Drone Identification Systems Addressable Market Opportunity in US$ Million by Application: 2018-2025

Table 44: European Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 45: European Drone Identification Systems Market Assessment in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 46: Drone Identification Systems Market in Europe: Percentage Breakdown of Sales by Technology for 2019 and 2025

Table 47: European Drone Identification Systems Addressable Market Opportunity in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018-2025

Table 48: European Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

FRANCE

Table 49: Drone Identification Systems Quantitative Demand Analysis in France in US$ Million by Application: 2018-2025

Table 50: French Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis: A 7-Year Perspective by Application for 2019 and 2025

Table 51: French Drone Identification Systems Market Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 52: French Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 53: Drone Identification Systems Quantitative Demand Analysis in France in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018-2025

Table 54: French Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis: A 7-Year Perspective by End-Use for 2019 and 2025

GERMANY

Table 55: Drone Identification Systems Market in Germany: Annual Sales Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Million by Application for the Period 2018-2025

Table 56: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Distribution in Germany by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 57: German Drone Identification Systems Latent Demand Forecasts in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 58: German Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 59: Drone Identification Systems Market in Germany: Annual Sales Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Million by End-Use for the Period 2018-2025

Table 60: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Distribution in Germany by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

ITALY

Table 61: Italian Demand for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 62: Italian Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 63: Drone Identification Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts in Italy in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 64: Drone Identification Systems Market in Italy: Percentage Share Analysis by Technology for 2019 and 2025

Table 65: Italian Demand for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 66: Italian Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

UNITED KINGDOM

Table 67: United Kingdom Demand Estimates and Forecasts for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 68: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Shift in the United Kingdom by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 69: United Kingdom Medium & Long-Term Outlook for Drone Identification Systems Market in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 70: United Kingdom Drone Identification Systems Market Percentage Share Distribution by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 71: United Kingdom Demand Estimates and Forecasts for Drone Identification Systems in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 72: Drone Identification Systems Market Share Shift in the United Kingdom by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

REST OF EUROPE

Table 73: Rest of Europe Drone Identification Systems Addressable Market Opportunity in US$ Million by Application: 2018-2025

Table 74: Rest of Europe Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 75: Rest of Europe Drone Identification Systems Market Assessment in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 76: Drone Identification Systems Market in Rest of Europe: Percentage Breakdown of Sales by Technology for 2

and 2025

Table 77: Rest of Europe Drone Identification Systems Addressable Market Opportunity in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018-2025

Table 78: Rest of Europe Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025

ASIA-PACIFIC

Table 79: Drone Identification Systems Quantitative Demand Analysis in Asia-Pacific in US$ Million by Application: 2018-2025

Table 80: Asia-Pacific Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis: A 7-Year Perspective by Application for 2

and 2025

Table 81: Asia-Pacific Drone Identification Systems Market Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 82: Asia-Pacific Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 83: Drone Identification Systems Quantitative Demand Analysis in Asia-Pacific in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018-2025

Table 84: Asia-Pacific Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis: A 7-Year Perspective by End-Use for 2019 and 2025

REST OF WORLD

Table 85: Rest of World Drone Identification Systems Market Quantitative Demand Analysis in US$ Million by Application: 2018 to 2025

Table 86: Rest of World Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by Application: 2019 VS 2025

Table 87: Drone Identification Systems Market Analysis in Rest of World in US$ Million by Technology: 2018-2025

Table 88: Rest of World Drone Identification Systems Market Share Breakdown by Technology: 2019 VS 2025

Table 89: Rest of World Drone Identification Systems Market Quantitative Demand Analysis in US$ Million by End-Use: 2018 to 2025

Table 90: Rest of World Drone Identification Systems Market Share Analysis by End-Use: 2019 VS 2025



IV. COMPETITION



Total Companies Profiled : 78 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries - 82)

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New Delhi, Jan 27 : The Haryana government has decided to organise an 'International Saraswati Mahotsav' from Monday to showcase its rich cultural and rural heritage.

The government has sent invitations to envoys of several countries to participate in the event. About a dozen foreign guests have already given their consent for the event.

The annual festival from January 27 to 29 will honour the river Saraswati. A seminar will also be organised on river and water conservation.

Haryana government Additional Chief Secretary Dheera Khandelwal took stock of the preparations ahead of the start of the event.

The event will also showcase Haryana cuisine, a hut and a replica of an ancient well, giving a real feel of the state.

Khandelwal said that there will be no use of plastic at the event and the emphasis is on the use of eco-fiendly products.

The event is being held at Pihowa near Kurukshetra, which has been decorated like the bold town of Surajkund.

The festival will feature a craft fair by various departments of the government.

Apart from painting exibitions, chanting of shlokas, presentation of patriotic songs and cultural programs will also be held at the event.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Other than a shortened impeachment session in the Senate on Saturday, President Donald Trump had a break from the proceedings over the weekend. But that didnt mean the president was able to keep himself out of headlines. Instead, it was a big weekend for the guy. Not too long after the workday ended on Friday, some explosive news dropped. And somehow, it didnt stop. If you missed it, heres what happened over Trumps very bad weekend.

Friday

ABC News published a 2018 recording of Trump telling Rudy Giulianis associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, among others, that he wanted former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch fired. This recording contradicted Trumps assertions that he did not know Parnas and supported Parnas earlier account of the dinner where the conversation occurred.

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In the recording, Parnas is heard telling Trump that Yovanovitch was disloyal to the president. Trump responds: Get her out tomorrow. I dont care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.

UPDATE: Listen to the audio reviewed by @ABC News that appears to capture a conversation between Lev Parnas and President Trump in 2018 about firing the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. @jonkarl has the details and reaction coming in. https://t.co/8S51cey7KP pic.twitter.com/ClTNziGqzH  World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) January 25, 2020

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According to Parnas, who cooperated with the House impeachment inquiry, John DeStefano, who was then Trumps deputy chief of staff, told Trump that they could not fire Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch was removed from her position a year later, after a lengthy effort from Parnas and Giuliani to have her ousted. Parnas and Fruman have both been indicted on federal charges involving false statements and campaign finance violations.

Saturday

Trumps lawyers launched their defense in the impeachment trial in a short session Saturday. They accused Democrats of undermining democracy by using impeachment to undo the 2016 presidential election and undermine the integrity of the next. But the lawyers also asserted that there was no evidence Trump demanded that Ukraine investigate the Bidens in order to release American military aid to the countryan already weak assertion that crumbled under the next days news.

Sunday Morning

Trump tweeted: Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He added: He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!

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Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020

Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview later that Trump was wrathful and vindictive and pointed to the tweet as evidence. When asked if he took the tweet as a threat, Schiff replied: I think its intended to be.

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White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham went on to describe Schiffs interpretation as ridiculous and suggested the congressman was having a little bit of a mental issue.

Sunday Evening

In a bombshell story that left Republicans scrambling to respond, the New York Times reported that John Bolton, Trumps former national security adviser, had made some extremely damaging accusations about the president in an unpublished manuscript of an upcoming book. The biggest news: Bolton wrote that he heard Trump say explicitly that he would continue to withhold millions in military aid to Ukraine until the country announced an investigation into the Bidens.

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His other allegations:

 Boltons manuscript also says that Pompeo had told him that claims about Yovanovitchs supposed corruption were baseless. This would mean that Pompeo knew that claims from Trump advisers about the ambassador amounted to a smear campaign.

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 Bolton also alleged that he had warned Attorney General William Barr about Giulianis role in Ukraine affairs shortly after Trumps July call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, contradicting Barrs claim that he had only learned about the call weeks later.

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 Bolton wrote that Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, listened in on one of Trumps calls to Giuliani when discussing Yovanovitch. Mulvaney has said he was not a part of the conversations and that he was protecting the attorney-client privilege of those calls.

The book, titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, will be released in March.

Soon after the call, House Democrats called on senators to demand Bolton be called as a witness in the impeachment trial. Bolton, who was fired in September, has already signaled his willingness to testify.

Sunday Night

The New York Times, digging into the secretly recorded Parnas tape from Friday, published a reminder of the ways in which Trump has cultivated a culture around his fundraisers that smacks of a pay-to-play operation. The Times noted that deep-pocketed supporters and interest groups willing to write six- and seven-figure checks to his political operation were able to discuss pet policy issues with him at the 2018 dinner, which honored and courted donors for a Trump super PAC. Some of those policies were later introduced in Congress, the Times notes.

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Shortly after midnight, Trump lashed out at Bolton on Twitter, claiming that Bolton had lied about the quid-pro-quo and accusing him of making up material to sell his book.
YPSILANTI, MI  A highly sophisticated marijuana grow operation in an Ypsilanti mans basement was shut down after the homeowner was arrested for allegedly hiding cameras in a restaurant bathroom.

Brad R. Szachta, 33, of Ypsilanti, faces 10 felony charges in connection with a pair of spy cameras found hidden in the unisex bathrooms at Ollie Food and Spirits, 42 E. Cross St., last May and the discovery of the grow operation in his basement, according to an Ypsilanti Police Department report obtained by MLive/The Ann Arbor News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Szachta was identified as a suspect in the hidden camera investigation, and police obtained a search warrant for his home May 24, according to the report.

RELATED: No additional spy cameras found in Ypsilanti restaurant bathrooms, police report says

While talking with police, Szachta admitted to having a grow operation in the basement, but denied owning anything police found, claiming those items belonged to a friend, the report said.

Police seized 38 live plants in various stages of development, 10 five-gallon buckets filled with loose harvested marijuana, a storage tote filled with loose harvested marijuana, several large trash bags filled with marijuana, a locked freezer filled to the brim with 50 vacuum-seal bags of marijuana and notebooks full of handwritten grow records with calculations of yields and expected profits per grow, records show.

Including packaging, police seized 130 pounds of harvested marijuana from Szachtas basement, according to the report.

Based on a rough estimate of how much a pound of marijuana sells for in Michigan, police seized about $260,000 worth of processed marijuana.

The production and sale of recreational marijuana in Michigan was approved by voters in 2018 with recreational shops opening for business in December of 2019. But Szachta does not appear to be a licensed grower, according to a search of the states Licensing and Regulatory Affairs database.

Szachta also is charged with six counts of illegally capturing or distributing images of an unclothed person, each punishable by up to five years in prison; two counts of using a computer to commit a crime, each punishable by four to 10 years; one count of possession between 20 and 200 marijuana plants, punishable by up to seven years and possession of an excess of 45 kilograms -- nearly 100 pounds -- of marijuana or 200-plus marijuana plants, punishable by up to 15 years.

Man accused of hiding cameras in Ypsilanti restaurant bathrooms heads to trial

He waived preliminary examination, Jan. 16, sending his case to trial and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Feb. 24 before Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge David Swartz.

Szachta is free on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.

For more Ypsilanti news, click here.

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"For him to do this in the middle of an Israeli election, without any Palestinian participation and with no intention to follow up with any of the participants, shows this is not a peace plan at all," said Martin Indyk, who served as special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under former president Barack Obama. Loading "It is a farce from start to finish," he said. Indyk's verdict is harsh but not uncommon among diplomats who have worked on past peace efforts. Like other veterans of those fruitless negotiations, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Indyk watched the early days of Trump's diplomacy with fascination and even muted hope  that this most undiplomatic of presidents might achieve a breakthrough where others had failed. That triumph of hope over experience was shared by some in the region. Palestinians and Israelis took to calling it Trump's "deal of the century", outdoing his own description of it as the "ultimate deal".

The President brought a deal-maker's swagger and a property developer's instincts to a problem that, after all, involves disputed territory. His close ties to Netanyahu  something Obama lacked  raised hopes that he might be able to extract real concessions from Israel. In a sign of the importance Trump attached to the effort, he put his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of it. Kushner led a team that included Jason Greenblatt, the Trump Organization's former chief lawyer, and David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer with ties to the Jewish settler movement who became Trump's ambassador to Israel. He would emerge as the most influential adviser to Trump on Israel. For months, Kushner and Greenblatt travelled around the Middle East, meeting with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other nations. Their strategy, known as "outside-in", was designed to build a coalition of Arab support for a peace plan. The Arab leaders, the White House hoped, would pressure the Palestinian Authority to accept whatever Trump offered. The West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Michmash. Annexing the Jordan Valley as well as Jewish settlements across the West Bank could set off renewed Palestinian violence and all but extinguish any hope of a two-state solution. Credit:AP Kushner devoted particular attention to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with whom he had cultivated a friendship of like-minded scions. Salman expressed a willingness to establish relations with Israel, saying the Israelis "have the right to have their own land".

At home, Trump's pro-Israel supporters were growing restive. They worried that he might put too much pressure on Netanyahu. Trump told him that a rapid expansion of settlements was not conducive to an agreement. After meeting Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, in May 2017, Trump said it was an "honour" a post that later vanished from his Twitter feed. Any such worries, however, were laid to rest seven months later when Trump announced he would move the embassy, formally recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The move delighted evangelicals, as well as pro-Israel donors like Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on the plan since the beginning of Trump's presidency. Credit:AP But it drove away the Palestinians, who cut off contact with the White House, and doomed its efforts to build Arab support for its plan. Saudi King Salman was among those who condemned the decision, declaring, "East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian territories". Trump reacted harshly to the Palestinian rejection. He punished them by cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority, as well as funding for the United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees.

The State Department shut down the office of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Washington. It downgraded the US consulate in Jerusalem, which had been a key channel to the Palestinians, by merging it with the embassy under Friedman, who later said Israel had the right to annex parts of the West Bank. Loading Even as the rift with the Palestinians widened, Kushner and Greenblatt laboured on their plan. Working under a veil of secrecy, they compiled a multi-page document, with annexes, that officials said would propose solutions to all the key disputes: borders, security, refugees and the status of Jerusalem. While the plan never leaked  a rarity in the sieve-like world of Middle East diplomacy  its general contours became known. It is not expected to call for a two-state solution nor give East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Nor will it offer Palestinian refugees a right of return or other compensation. Kushner and Greenblatt, who has since left the administration, predicted in March 2018 that the Israelis and the Palestinians would each find things in the plan to embrace and oppose. But it was already clear that it would be tilted heavily in Israel's favour  or more precisely, in favour of their embattled ally, Netanyahu who is facing indictment on multiple corruption charges.
Poll: Political Correctness Has Gone Too Far, Majority of Likely Voters Say

More than four out of five likely voters agree that political correctness has gone too far, a December poll shows.

More than 57 percent strongly agreed and almost 24 percent somewhat agreed with the statement, Political correctness has gone too far. Today everybody is offended by the smallest thing. Only 13.4 percent disagreed, 4.8 percent strongly (pdf).

The poll was conducted online among 1,000 likely voters Dec. 411 by GS Strategy Group, a marketing research company run by former Republican campaign pollster Greg Strimple.

The poll also asked how American businesses should respond to political correctness.

More than 65 percent picked the response, There is no way for American businesses to make everyone happy. They need to run their businesses in a way that appeals to the broadest swath of Americans.

Less than 23 percent picked the response, American businesses should adapt their business models and products to avoid offending certain consumers.

When it comes to issues the American business community needs to address, 43 percent said the most important, of the options given, was Ensuring American workers receive competitive wages and benefits. The next most popular response, at 10.6 percent, was Upskilling the American workforce to have 21st century job skills.

Asked about their impression of the business community, more than 56 percent picked the response that businesses are most interested in Maximizing profits for shareholders. Less than 20 percent picked Providing customers the best quality product for the best price, and only a bit over 9 percent picked Supporting the communities in which they work. Less than 7 percent said Compensating their employees fairly.

More than 40 percent of respondents identified as Democrats and nearly 34 percent as Republicans. Independents made up about 23 percent.

The results show a stronger opposition to political correctness than a 2017 Cato survey (pdf), which showed 70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that being politically correct is a big problem this country has.

Also in that survey, 71 percent agreed that Political correctness silences discussions society needs to have. The results showed a partisan split on the question78 percent of moderates and 87 percent of conservatives agreed, but only 42 percent of liberals and 32 percent of strong liberals did.

At the time, 70 percent of conservatives and 76 percent of strong conservatives agreed that the political climate prevented them from expressing their beliefs. Among moderates, 57 percent seconded that position, but only 45 percent of liberals and 30 percent of strong liberals did.
President Trump is expected to announce an expanded travel ban this week, which would restrict immigration from seven additional countries  Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Tanzania, per multiple reports.

The state of play: The announcement would come on the third anniversary of Trump's original travel ban, which targeted Muslim-majority nations, per Axios' Stef Kight.

Trump administration officials declined to comment when Axios asked about the expected travel ban.

Between the lines: People from the countries covered by the expanded ban will not be barred from entering the U.S. across the board, the Wall Street Journal reports. Varying levels of immigration and travel restrictions will be imposed.

Some countries are expected to be cut out of the diversity visa lottery  a program that randomly allots green cards to nationalities with low levels of immigration to the U.S.

Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, North Korea, Yemen and Somalia have already been affected by the earlier version of the travel ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court last year.

Go deeper: Supreme Court upholds Trump's travel ban
Please know that the Archdiocese of Chicago takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, Cupich said in the letter. Regardless of the outcome of the civil authorities work, engaging in this behavior is a violation of our Code of Conduct and is incompatible with the standards we set for priestly behavior.
Five rockets launched against diplomatic representation in the Green Zone. One hit the canteen, injuring at least one person. At the moment the attack has not been claimed. Security forces intervene to quell street demonstrations, resulting in one victim and over one hundred injured across the country.

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Five rockets have been launched against the US embassy in Iraq, inside the maximum security Green Zone in Baghdad, causing the injury of at least three people. The attack took place yesterday, in a context of growing tensions and violence in the country: yesterday, in fact, security forces intervened to forcefully quash anti-government protests, causing the death of a protester.

Local sources report that at least one of the five Katyusha missiles hit the canteen of the US diplomatic mission in Iraq, while the other four fell short without hitting the building. Analysts and experts point out that this would be the first time in several years that US personnel have been injured in an attack.

At the moment no group or movement has claimed responsibility for the operation. In the past, Washington had accused local Shiite militias supported and financed by Iran for similar operations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack, adding that perpetrating such actions could "drag Iraq into a battlefield." The US Department of State addressed the Iraqi authorities, inviting them to "fulfill their obligations regarding the defense of our diplomatic structures".

The new violence is part of a turbulent context in the country's political and institutional life. On January 24, tens of thousands of people, according to some over a million, took to the streets in response to the appeal of the radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, asking for the expulsion of US troops. A demonstration separate from the anti-government protests that have been going on for months against corruption and bad business. The internal tensions come amid international tensions, in particular the head-on collision between the United States and Iran which is taking place (also) on Iraqi territory.

Also yesterday, Iraqi security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in Baghdad, killing at least one person. In the southern city of Nassyria, some unidentified men allegedly set fire to the tents of the protesters, who responded by setting two police vehicles on fire. At least 75 people were injured in the clashes, out of a total of over a hundred registered across the country.

Since the early morning yesterday, hundreds of university students gathered in Tahrir square, the epicenter of anti-government protests, chanting slogans and songs against the United States and Iran. The demonstrations spread to the cities of Kerbala, Najaf and Diwaniya, in spite of threats from local and central authorities who had threatened to crack down on dissent.
The deadly virus that has prompted travel restrictions in China is sending shockwaves through Asia's tourism industry, which has become increasingly reliant on growing numbers of Chinese visitors.

At least 81 people have died since the new strain of coronavirus emerged in China's Wuhan, and millions are now under an effective quarantine, with all flights in and out of the city grounded and a ban on Chinese tour groups domestically and abroad.

The measures come amid a boom in Chinese foreign travel, with the number of tourists from the country increasing nearly tenfold since 2003, according to a report by research firm Capital Economics.

A couple takes a selfie outside the Sensoji temple in Tokyo. Businesses in destinations that rely on huge numbers of Chinese tourists, such as Japan, are already feeling the effects of travel restrictions in China due to the coronavirus crisis

But businesses in destinations that rely on the huge numbers of Chinese tourists are already feeling the heat, with complaints of 'deserted' beaches and shops, and concerns about the future.

The outbreak carries echoes of the Sars crisis, which paralysed regional travel and battered local economies from late 2002. Chinese tourist numbers then fell by around a third.

'If they fell by a similar amount again, it would knock around 1.5-2.0 percentage points from (gross domestic product) in the most vulnerable countries,' Capital Economics said.

In Japan, the fall in Chinese visitors was already being felt in Asakusa, a popular tourist destination near the Sensoji temple.

'We've definitely been seeing fewer people this year,' said Yoshie Yoneyama, 31, manager of a shop selling traditional Japanese sweets and a rice-based drink called amazake.

'I think there are less than half the numbers of last year or the year before,' she told AFP.

The number of Chinese holidaying in Japan has exploded from around 450,000 in 2003 to 8.4 million in 2018, accounting for 27 per cent of all inbound tourists as Tokyo works to expand the sector.

In Japan, the fall in Chinese visitors was already being felt in Asakusa, pictured, a popular tourist destination near the Sensoji temple in Tokyo

But it will now be 'very difficult' for Japan to achieve its target of 40 million tourists in 2020, Yuki Takashima, an economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP.

And the effects will be felt beyond hotels, restaurants and tourist sites because many Chinese tourists visit Japan specifically to shop.

Electronic appliances and beauty products usually top their lists, Takashima said, so retail outlets will see their bottom lines affected.

The crisis has already sent Japan's key Nikkei index plunging, with stock in Shiseido -- a cosmetics brand popular with Chinese tourists - plunging more than five per cent on Monday.

'We can expect those stocks to continue to fall like dominoes,' said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp.

Japan has put screening measures in place at its airports after so far detecting four cases of the deadly virus

But he said Japan would be better placed to weather the storm than another top destination for Chinese tourists: Thailand.

Tourism accounts for 18 per cent of the nation's GDP, with Chinese holidaymakers making up more than a quarter of total arrivals.

The country's tourism minister has already warned a crisis on the scale of Sars could cost an estimated $1.6 billion (1.2 billion), and the effects are already clear in Phuket.

'For two days, the streets, the shops and the beaches have been deserted,' said Claude de Crissey, who owns a 40-room hotel and a restaurant on the island.

'Phuket has focused almost exclusively on Chinese tourism... if the situation continues, we will all be impacted,' he told AFP.

Australia too, already reeling from the effects of the bushfire crisis, is likely to feel the impact.

The number of Chinese holidaying in Japan has exploded from around 450,000 in 2003 to 8.4 million in 2018. Pictured are customers stocking up on face masks at a drugstore in Tokyo

Chinese visitor numbers doubled in the six years to June 2019, with mainlanders now accounting for 15 per cent of Australia's inbound tourists.

Mario Hardy, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said it was hard to gauge how long the crisis would last.

'I would suspect the impact would be between three to six months, but it will really depend on how the situation evolves in the coming few weeks,' he told AFP.

In Japan, leather goods store owner Hayato Chiba said local businesses in the Ameyoko shopping district of Tokyo's Ueno were hoping for a swift resolution.

'An increasing number of shops in Ameyoko count on foreign customers, so it's getting a bit tough,' said Chiba, 65, who represents around 400 local businesses.

'Something really serious is happening. We're worried about how long it will last.'
Photo: Orange County Archives/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in Santa Ana? Read on for everything you need to know.

Arizona, California cases push US tally of new virus to 5

The U.S. has five confirmed cases of the new virus from China, all among people who traveled to the city at the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday.

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Fireworks accident injures 8 celebrating Lunar New Year in Santa Ana

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Read the full story on Fox 11 Los Angeles.

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The city jail previously agreed to house Josh Waring following safety concerns regarding alleged attacks in a county jail facility.

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This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The Arunachal Pradesh government on Monday granted extension of petroleum mining lease (PML) for Kharsang oilfield in Changlang district to a consortium of companies for 10 years, officials said.

The consortium comprises Oil India Limited, Geopetrol International Inc, JEKPL Private Ltd (formerly Jubilant Energy) and GeoEnpro Petroleum Ltd, they said.

As per previous consensus, GeoEnpro Petroleum Ltd is actual operator of the oilfield that covers an area of 9.94 sq km.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu handed over the PML lease documents to GeoEnpro chief executive officer Ajay Kumar Ray and representatives of other partners in the consortium here Monday.

He assured the petroleum companies to provide all administrative and logistic support for enhancing oil production from the field.

"Please be in touch with the state government in implementing your CSR activities for welfare and benefit of the local people," the chief minister said.

Ray thanked the state government for granting the extension of lease period, which had expired on June 15, 2015.

There are 29 oil producing wells in the field and 27 have been shut down, Ray said, adding that the crude oil production at the moment stands at 105 kls per day.

The oilfield has 10 gas wells and four have already been abandoned, he said.

Ray said oil production will increase in Arunachal Pradesh in coming years, which will help the state government to earn more revenue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp prayed and wept as they marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation, returning to the place where they lost entire families and warning about the growth of anti-Semitism around the world.

More than 200 camp survivors were joined by political leaders from across Europe as they lit candles as part of an emotional procession around the former death camp site in Poland this evening.

It was led by Polish President Andrzej Duda, who told those assembled: 'We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes.

'The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying, but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it.'

Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps during the Second World War, but were joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren to mark the liberation.

The Duchess of Cornwall and London Mayor Sadiq Khan were among the UK delegation and were visibly moved as they placed their remembrance candles to remember the 1.1million victims murdered inside the camp.

Polish President Andrzej Duda arrives for a candle lighting ceremony at the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau during events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation in Oswiecim

The emotional visit saw politicians from across Europe join survivors and their families to light candles at the site to mark 75 years since it was liberated from Nazi rule

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was among the UK delegation, and is pictured with her face half-covered by her black fur hat

Camilla is pictured placing a candle of remembrance on one of the monuments commemorating the victims who died at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War

Camilla was joined by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan who looked equally emotional as he placed his candle of remembrance

Spanish King Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia were pictured with their candles as they paid tribute to victims this evening

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (left) is seen with the country's crown princess Victoria who also joined the commemorations

King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands lay down candles on the Auschwitz monument to commemorate the 75th anniversary

Eerie scenes were captured on camera during the evening candlelit procession at Auschwitz Birkenau today

Pictures show the Auschwitz-Birkenau after night fell in Poland this evening on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp

Railway tracks and a cart during the main commemoration ceremony at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp

WHAT WAS THE AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP? Auschwitz was a concentration and extermination camp used by the Nazis during World War Two. The camp, which is located in Poland, was made up of three main sites. Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a combined concentration/extermination camp and Auschwitz IIIMonowitz, a labour camp, with a further 45 satellite sites. Birkenau became a major part of the Nazis' 'Final Solution', whereby they sought to rid Europe of Jews. An estimated 1.3 million people were sent to the camp, of whom at least 1.1 million died  around 90 percent of which were Jews. Since 1947, it has operated as Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which in 1979 was named a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Advertisement

Earlier today guests gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that transported people to Birkenau, the part of the vast complex where most of the murdered Jews were killed in gas chambers and then cremated. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27 1945.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, brought the crowd to tears with the story of a survivor who was separated from his family. The man watched watched his young daughter, in a red coat, walk to her death, turning into a small red dot in the distance before disappearing forever.

'Do not ever let this happen again to any people,' Mr Lauder said, warning about rising anti-Semitism.

After the war, when 'the world finally saw pictures of gas chambers, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with the Nazis', he recalled. 'But now I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime: the open and brazen spread of anti-Jewish hatred.'

People stood in silence as a Jewish survivor recited Hebrew prayers for the dead, bowing their heads or wiping away tears. Clergymen of other faiths also prayed.

Then, with the famous gate and barbed wire illuminated in the dark, cold evening, guests marched in a procession to place candles at a memorial to the victims set amid the remains of the gas chambers.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by Nazi forces at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned and killed there.

Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz concentration camp, Ruth Webber (left) and Sifra Ziegler during ceremonies to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation in Oswiecim Holocaust Memorial Day, Poland

A survivor reacts during the ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, on the site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2020

Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz concentration camp, Dov Landau (left) and another former prisoner (right) showing their prison numbers tattooed on their arms during the ceremonies

People attend the ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, on the site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, (second from left), as well as King Willem of the Netherlands (left), and Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda attend the official ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp at the Auschwitz-Birkenau site on January 27, 2020 near Oswiecim, Poland

Camilla, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attend the ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp in Poland

A member of a delegation of survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp and their families breaks into tears at the execution wall at the former Auschwitz I site on January 27, 2020 in Oswiecim, Poland

A member of the delegation breaks into tears in front of the extermination wall. Despite it being 75 years since the camp's liberation the memories are still raw for many of the survivors who not only endured the torture of living through years inside, but also lost many of their loved ones

It is an emotional day for many of the elderly survivors for whom memories of being detained, tortured and the loss of loved ones remain raw decades on from being freed

Survivors who gathered at the former Nazi concentration camp shared their harrowing memories of what it was like to be imprisoned during World War II. Many said they returned to the site to keep alive the memories in order that the world would remember and ensure such an atrocity would never happen again

Polish President Andrzej Duda will be one of those leading the official ceremonies to mark the 75th anniversary since the Nazi concentration camp was liberated

The infamous railway arch entrance to the death camp formed the backdrop of the stage this evening as a quartet played music at the memorial service

Auschwitz survivors react as they listen to speakers during the remembrance ceremony for the Holocaust victims

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Jozef Wanger, member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, are pictured ahead of ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp

An Auschwitz survivor applauds during the remembrance service in the former death camp where more than a million Jews, as well as Soviet and Polish prisoners, were killed by the Nazis

Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945.

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem last week to mark the anniversary in what many saw as a competing observance.

Among them were Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Prince Charles.

Many of those who attended the ceremony today were in tears as they remembered their lost loved ones. Some of those who survived the concentration camp lost their entire families at the hand of the Nazis

Survivors gather for the ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Historians estimate more than one million people were killed inside the prison - many of whom were Jews

A member of a delegation of survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp takes a moment to mark the liberation of a camp where more than a million people were killed during WWII

The cold winter's day cast a gloomy fog over the former death camp where thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians were imprisoned by the Nazis

Today's ceremony in Auschwitz follows another one marking the 75th anniversary that took place in Israel last week which was marred by controversy after the Russian President claimed Poland played a role in triggering the war

Politics intruded on that event, with Duda boycotting it in protest after Putin claimed that Poland played a role in triggering World War II.

Duda had wanted a chance to speak before or after Putin to defend his nation's record in face of those false accusations, but was not giving a speaking slot in Jerusalem.

Among those attending Monday's observances at Auschwitz, which is located in southern Poland, a region under German occupation during the war, were German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier,Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Rivlin recalled the strong connection that Israel shares with Poland, which welcomed Jews for centuries. It became home to Europe's largest population of Jews - and later the center of Germany's destruction of that community.

'The glorious history of the Jews in Poland, the prosperity of which the Jewish community has enjoyed throughout history, along with the difficult events that have taken place on this earth, connect the Jewish people and the State of Israel, inextricably, with Poland and the Polish people,' Rivlin said while standing alongside Duda.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was guided through the camp by museum director Piotr Cywinski and viewed a plaque that includes the name of his city after it recently pledged a contribution of 300,000 pounds ($391,000) for the site's preservation.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda, seen at today's commemorations, boycotted the ceremony in Israel last week after he was not given a speaking slot to defend his country

Today the Polish President, Andrezej Duda, and the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, could be seen arriving to lay wreaths in front of the monument at the camp in Oswiecim, Poland

President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin and the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda arrive to lay wreaths in front of the Monument to Rotamaster Witold Pilecki. During World War II, Pilecki volunteered for a Polish resistance operation that involved being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather intelligence

People could be seen bowing their head in contemplation at the execution wall at the former Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Survivors who attended the ceremonies were all aged between 75 and 101 came from all over the world

Hundreds gathered on what is also Holocaust Memorial Day, at the site in Oswiecim, Poland to remember loved ones who were killed at the concentration camp. For some it is the only burial site for their parents, grandparents and siblings who were killed in the holocaust

A survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp hugs a woman after laying wreaths in honor of victims who were killed or died while imprisoned inside its walls

Organizers of the event in Poland, the Auschwitz-Birkenau state memorial museum and the World Jewish Congress, sought to keep the spotlight on survivors.

'This is about survivors. It's not about politics,' Head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder said Sunday, gathering at the death camp with several survivors.

Lauder warned that leaders must do more to fight anti-Semitism, including by passing new laws to fight it.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan can be seen with Holocaust survivor Renee Salt as they arrive to attend the ceremony of unveiling a plaque informing about financial support of London to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation during the ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, in Oswiecim, Poland

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with his wife Elke Buedenbender, lays a wreath at the Death Wall at the Auschwitz death camp

Hundreds of the Nazi run camp survivors could be seen arriving at the site in Poland to mark 75 years since the Soviet Army arrived to liberate and free the thousands of prisoners from inside its walls

A delegation of survivors can be seen carrying wreaths towards the execution wall at the former Auschwitz site where so many of their loved ones were killed in the large gas chambers

A survivor talks to one of the officers at the site as the ceremony gets underway on January 27, 2020

Survivors were supported by each other, and their children and grandchildren, as they lay wreaths at the site where they suffered immense hunger, illness and so often faced death

An elderly survivor cries and wipes his face with the cloth hat, which many of them were wearing to symbolise the garments they wore as prisoners during World War Two

Survivors could be seen leaning on their loved ones as they attended the 75th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz

On the eve of the commemorations, survivors, many leaning on their children and grandchildren for support, walked through the place where they had been brought in on cattle cars and suffered hunger, illness and near death.

They said they were there to remember, to share their histories with others, and to make a gesture of defiance toward those who had sought their destruction.

'We want the next generation to know what we went through and that it should never happen again,' Auschwitz survivor David Marks, 93, said earlier at the former death camp, his voice breaking with emotion.

'A dictator doesn't come up from one day to the other,' Marks said, saying it happens in 'micro steps.'

'If we don't watch it, one day you wake up and it's too late,' he added.

Thirty-five members of his immediate and extended family of Romanian Jews were killed in Auschwitz, the largest of Nazi Germany's camps that has come to symbolise the six million European Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Some 200 survivors of the Nazi camp returned to the place to share their stories with others, to remember those who had gone before and to send a gesture of defiance towards those who had sought their destruction

Many of the survivors said they wanted to come to pay homage to those they had lost during the war, as well as to draw the world's attention to the atrocities as a reminder to not let history repeat itself

A young relative of one of the holocaust survivors can be seen in front of the wreaths and flowers lain in front of a wall at the former Nazi German concentration camp that was also used as one of the main extermination sites by the Nazis during WWII

A man can be seen carrying a wreath during a ceremony that marked 75 years since they were set free from the concentration camp. Auschwitz is the most infamous of all the concentration camps during the war, as it was the biggest of all the Nazi-run camps and was the site of huge gas chambers that were used to kill people

For some, the camp is now the only burial ground for their parents and grandparents, and they will be saying kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

'I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage to them,' said Yvonne Engelman, a 92-year-old who came from Australia, joined by three more generations now scattered around the globe.

She recalled being brought in from a ghetto in Czechoslovakia by cattle car, being stripped of her clothes, shaved and put in a gas chamber.

By some miracle, the gas chamber that day did not work, and she went on to survive slave labor and a death march.

Some 200 survivors traipsed through the site on the cold winter's day, marking the 75 years since the Soviet Army liberated the camp effectively ending the years of torture many of them endured as prisoners during World War Two

These two men were among the 7,000 who survived years of forced labor and torture at the hands of the Nazis inside the camp located in the Polish city of Oswiecim

One of the 7,000 survivors freed from the camp on January 7, 1945 when the Soviet Army liberated it. She looks on 75 years later as officials and fellow survivors mark the anniversary of the day they were finally freed from the continual torture of life inside Auschwitz

Many of the survivors wore striped scarves, which are reminiscent of the uniforms they were made to wear while inside the concentration camps, as they arrived to mark the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation

A 96-year-old survivor, Jeanette Spiegel, was 20 when she was brought to Auschwitz, where she spent nine months.

Today she lives in New York City and is fearful of rising anti-Semitic violence in the United States.

'I think they pick on the Jews because we are such a small minority and it is easy to pick on us,' she said, fighting back tears.

'Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated.'

Survivors hold a large wreath that is to be laid at the execution wall in a camp where an estimated one million people were killed. Those who survived shared their stories of being brought in by cattle car, being stripped of clothes and shaved upon arrival at the camp. Some were even sent to the gas chambers, only to survive by chance as the chamber did not work

Survivor Igor Malicki, in his nineties, arrives to attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the 'death wall' at the camp. Many of the survivors who visited the camp were aged from 75 - an elderly woman who was born in the camp - to 101

Mr Malicki was 89 when he first returned to Auschwitz, five years ago, at what was the then 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation

Holocaust survivors walk below the gate with its inscription 'Work sets you free' after a wreath laying at the death wall at the memorial site of the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz

Polish President Andrzej Duda (C-back) and Director of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau Piotr Cywinski (L-back) can be seen walking with a delegation of survivors and their families as they walk through the former camp that was one of the largest run by the Nazis during the war

London Mayor Sadiq Khan (pictured in Poland) pledged 300,000 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, arguing that the institution plays a vital role in educating Londoners visiting the site on the horrors of the Holocaust

Polish President Andrzej Duda (L) and Israel's President Reuven Rivlin (R) stand next to Zofia Optulowicz (C), daughter of Polish Auschwitz hero Witold Pilecki. During World War II, Pilecki volunteered for a Polish resistance operation that involved being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather intelligence that he sent to the Western Allies

Prince William and Kate Middleton honour the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis as they mark the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation on Holocaust Memorial Day in London

By Rebecca English, Royal Correspondent for The Daily Mail

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met Holocaust survivors in London as they marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Kate and William honoured survivors by attending a commemorative service run by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust at Central Hall in Westminster today.

William read an extract from a letter written by a friend of his great-grandmother Princess Alice - famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust - about her good deeds.

The royal couple also lit candles in memory of those killed during Hitler's reign of terror in Europe, as well as genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, before meeting survivors.

Kate shared a light-hearted exchange with Holocaust survivor Yvonne Bernstein, who was included in her personal portraits of victims of the atrocity, and beamed while shaking hands with another former camp victim Sir Ben Helfgott, who went on to represent Israel in the 1956 Olympics for weightlifting.

Boris Johnson also addressed service and said he felt 'a deep sense of shame' that anti-Semitism continues today and vowed to do everything in his power to stamp out the racism.

The deeply moving ceremony reflected on one of the darkest periods in human history, when 11million victims - including six million Jews - were gassed, shot and starved in Nazi death camps.

The notorious train-track entrance to Auschwitz, through which over a million were taken to their deaths, was stormed by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Kate lights a candle in memory of those killed in genocides and will then meet survivors following the ceremony at Central Hall in Westminster

The Duke of Cambridge lights a candle as Holocaust survivors and their families fail to contain their tears in the background

Kate laughs with Holocaust survivor Yvonne Bernstein, who she photographed as part of her personal portraits of Holocaust survivors, after the service marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Prince William is pictured shaking hands with Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg as Britain marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

The Cambridges appeared emotional as they watched candles shine on stage to represent the 75 years that have passed since Auschwitz was liberated

William joined his wife in lighting one of the candles at the commemorative service to mark the liberation of Auschwitz today

'My generation, the past generation and the future generation are, and will eternally be, grateful to his great-grandmother Princess Alice for the great act of bravery, risking her own life to take in a family in need.'

Last week Prince Charles, her grandson, visited her tomb on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

The actors Martin Shaw and Sir Simon Russell Beale also read the accounts of survivors, before the audience heard from Mala Tribich, who survived Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen  where she contracted typhus  and Ian Forsyth, a wireless operator with the 15th/19th King's Royal Hussars in the Royal Armoured Corps, who was among the first troops to liberate Bergen-Belsen in April 1945.

The former soldier said: 'There were bodies lying everywhere. When you see people, they looked like skeletons with skin on them. What do you do? I don't think anyone that didn't see this would understand what it was like.'

Mala Tribich then appeared on stage to tell of how she was taken to Sweden after liberation, before finally being reunited in the UK with her brother Ben  now Sir Ben Helfgott.

She said: 'I feel like it is my duty to speak for all those whose voices were silenced and tell of those dark days in Europe. By speaking out it is my greatest hope that something positive will be handed down to future generations.'

Kate beamed as she shook hands with Yvonne Bernstein, who she photographed for her series of personal portraits of Holocaust survivors, when the pair met again today at the memorial event

The Duchess of Cambridge looked delighted to be reunited with Yvonne Bernstein, one of the Holocaust survivors she photographed to mark the 75th Auschwitz liberation anniversary

The Cambridges also revealed they have told their children about the Holocaust.

'We were talking to the children about it earlier today,' Kate told Mala, 89, who had asked about her family.

'But we have to be, you know, for a six year old the interpretation,' she added, suggesting that she had explained the genocide in an appropriate way for a child of Prince George's age.

William and Kate met 12 survivors of genocide, including those persecuted by the Nazis and others from Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur after joining them to light the first of 75 candles on stage to represent 75 years since Auschwitz was liberated.

'It was so emotional, so many moving stories,' the Duchess told a group, including Mala, who had spoken on stage of her experience of surviving Bergen-Belsen.

'You were fantastic,' she added, putting a hand on Mala's arm, before asking about how she tells her story to schoolchildren.

'Do your experiences resonate with them?' she asked. 'Do they feel they can do something for their generation?'

'So many families are totally torn apart by the trauma and how that plays out over the generations,' said the Duchess.

Kate looked resplendent in a grey round neck skater dress, cinched in at the waist with a belt, as she walked into Central Hall in Westminster with Prince William holding her umbrella to keep off the rain
Time is running out for anyone wanting to register to vote in South Carolina's Feb. 29 Democratic presidential primary.

Thursday is the final day to sign up.

State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire urged potential voters and existing voters to double-check their voter registration information to help reduce Election Day confusion.

"If you move, or have moved, be sure to update your voter registration," he said. "If everybody did that, it would solve a world of problems in elections."

The Democratic presidential preference primary falls on a Saturday, with polls open statewide from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the upcoming registration deadline, including how to update your voter registration information and how to get registered.

Can I vote in the primary?

Any South Carolina resident who is at least 18 or who will turn 18 on or before the Nov. 3 general election, can vote. Convicted felons cannot. However, they can vote if they have completed their sentence.

According to data from the election commission, 3.3 million people are registered to vote in South Carolina. An estimated 4 million voting-age adults live in the state, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

There is no length of residency requirement in South Carolina to register.

How do I register to vote?

Registration forms can be downloaded at scvotes.org, where residents can also check their voter registration. Voters can also register in person at their county registration offices.

Voters may register by mail, fax, or email. To do that, voters must download a voter registration form, complete it, and return it to their county board of voter registration using one of the three options listed above.

However, voters must be registered at least 30 days before any election to vote in that election.

Can I vote if I'm not a Democrat?

Yes. South Carolina has an open primary system. This means any registered voter may cast a ballot in either party's primary  but not both. Last year, the state Republican Party's executive committee opted to forgo holding a GOP 2020 presidential primary.

South Carolina voters don't have to register by political party.

Can I vote early?

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Sign Up!

While South Carolina does not have early voting or same-day voter registration, voters in the Palmetto State can still cast a ballot ahead of time by voting absentee in person or by mail.

To cast a ballot early in person, visit the county voter registration office in your county of residence, complete an application and cast your ballot. Voters will be able to vote absentee in person until 5 p.m. Feb. 28.

Rules for photo ID required to vote at the polling place apply.

Do I need a REAL ID to vote?

No. A REAL ID is not required to vote in the Democratic presidential preference primary. However, to vote in the election, you will need one of the following forms of photo ID:

S.C. driver's license

U.S. passport

Federal military ID

S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles ID card

S.C. voter registration card with photo

If you do not have proper photo ID but are registered to vote, you can cast a provisional ballot.

Where do I vote?

It depends on where you live. Your voting precinct and polling place are determined by your address. However, don't assume that where you voted in the past is where you will vote in the primary.

During presidential preference primaries, Whitmire said polling sites are often consolidated to save money and resources. That means multiple precincts could be voting at one polling place.

To check your voting location, go to the State Election Commission website at scvotes.org. On the homepage, click on the link that says "Check My Voter Registration."

You can also contact your county voter registration office.

Who is on the ballot?

Twelve Democratic presidential candidates will appear on the Feb. 29 ballot. They are:

Michael Bennet

Joe Biden

Cory Booker

Pete Buttigieg

John Delaney

Tulsi Gabbard

Amy Klobuchar

Deval Patrick

Bernie Sanders

Tom Steyer

Elizabeth Warren

Andrew Yang

Booker suspended his campaign earlier this month, too late to remove him from the lineup.

Whitmire said information will be posted at polling sites to tell voters which candidates are no longer running; additional candidates may end their bids based on performances in Iowa or New Hampshire.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had in June 2019 declared Mehtab Cooperative Housing Society in Kurla, which caught fire on Friday, dilapidated and issued notices to its residents to vacate the building.

Residents, however, said that they had started the revamp procedure, but continued to stay in the building as they were yet to arrange for an alternative accommodation.

A level-3 major fire broke out in the ground-plus-two-storey building on Friday. Although no one was hurt, the fire gutted parts of the building.

According to BMC officials, the internal firefighting mechanism in two of the three wings of the building was dysfunctional. Manish Walunj, assistant municipal commissioner, L-ward, said, After an audit in June 2019 , we had declared Mehtab building a dilapidated structure. Immediately after that, we issued warning notices to all its residents asking them to vacate the building immediately. But even after that the residents preferred to stay there.

Walunj said it is dangerous to reside in buildings which are declared dilapidated.BMC had declared 21 such old buildings dilapidated in Kurla in 2019, of which five are in the same area.

Residents of all three wings of Mehtab building had also decided to redevelop the building themselves and the procedure was going on, because of which they were not ready to vacate the structure.

Nasir Hussain, a resident, said, Yes, we have received notices but we thought that was just a routine procedure of BMC. The process of redevelopment was going on, but before that we had to identify temporary accommodations, without which it was difficult to vacate the building.

Walunj also said that a short-circuit in electrical equipment could have caused the fire on Friday. However, the Mumbai Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is still being investigated. P Rahangdale, chief fire officer, said Investigation is going on and as of now we do not have any concrete conclusion [of the cause of the fire].

Meanwhile, three days after the incident, residents of Mehtab building are still awaiting rehabilitation and they alleged that BMC was not keen on rehabilitating them.

RESIDENTS WOES

The trousseau purchased by a would-be bride was burnt in the fire at Mehtab building on Friday. One of the residents, Rais Ahmed Sheik, had completed shopping for his daughters wedding scheduled in February. All the bridal shopping was gutted in the fire. The wedding is just around the corner and we dont know what to do, said Sheikh, who is also worried about how we will repay the loan he took for the wedding.
Holocaust could be repeated, warns Rome's Jewish community On Remembrance Day, 'signs of hated across EU and Italy

(ANSAMED) - ROME, JANUARY 27 - Antisemitic graffiti in the town of Mondovi ''is a thorn still stuck in society'', said the head of the Jewish community in Rome, Ruth Dureghello, during a ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day.



''It has been 75 years since the opening of the gates of Auschwitz but it is not an eternal liberation. It does not mean that the horror cannot be repeated, possibly in other forms.



Signs of hatred and intolerance can be seen across all of Europe and are arriving in Italy, as well,'' she added. During the initiative with Rome mayor Virginia Raggi and Rome students, she said that ''there are countries in which it is impossible to wear the (Jewish, Ed.) kipper, in which graves are desecrated''. Dureghello added that ''the focus of this Remembrance Day is children. Some 250 left Rome and none of them returned. Let's not forget who turned away and who was an accomplice to this horror. To those asking me whether I have faith in the younger generations, I say yes. I do.'' (ANSAmed).




Once again, the West Bengal brigade of the CPI(M) has floated a plan to send party general secretary Sitaram Yechury to Rajya Sabha.

Some of its leaders, albeit preferring anonymity (as it happens in regimented scheme of things in the crumbling outfit) have told select news organizations that Yehcury should be the candidate in the upcoming biennial polls.

As many as five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will see election in April. The ruling Trinamool is expected to win four of them and if the Congress and the Left comes together, they would be in a position to grab the fifth seat.

The renewed appeal of the Bengal comes when the Lefts crisis in the state is clearly reflected in Parliament. It has no member from the state in either Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. The shortage of strength has coupled with lack of a strong voice of the Left in Parliament when the Opposition is facing an unprecedented challenge from the mighty BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national political theatre.

Last time, Yechurys name was proposed for Rajya Sabha was in 2017 when the Left and Congress had a chance to send their collective nominee and Congress brass, especially Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were open to support Yechury.

But the CPI(M) lived up to its reputation of committing blunders, bigger blunders and historic blunders. The party didnt field Yechury on the ground that he has already enjoyed two terms in the House. Theres a party rule that no member can be given more than two terms in Rajya Sabha.

Just as many of its archaic notions has done no good to the party, this rule too, may find its place in the dustbin of history. When the party is in its historic low tally in Parliament, its footprint reduced to a few patches and its struggling to retain its national party status, its no time to cite rules or settle personal grudges to stop Yechury from going to Parliament one more time.

If Yechury is stopped, the Congress may bag another seat or worse: the Trinamool may get the fifth seat too. So, if the CPIM wants to remain as a political party and not become a political NGO (selflessly helping other parties to prosper) it has little option but to nominate Yechury.

Moreover, Yechury is the general secretary of the party and if he represents Bengal - where the partys vote bank has seen the biggest shift towards the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls, he can possibly be the best voice of the state CPI(M) in Parliament.

It will definitely strengthen the Lefts presence in the House and also boost the Opposition in the House where its unity has been badly fractured.

Of all the national parties, the CPI(M) is the only one as many as nine members of the politburo - partys elite club of decision-makers - dont fight elections. Time has also come for all of them to face the electoral test or make more space for party warhorses who are baptised by the sweat and blood of fighting Indian elections.

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - At least 46 people have died in Brazil and more than 25,000 have been displaced due to widespread flooding following storms and heavy rains that have swept across the south east of the country, authorities said on Sunday. Most of the casualties were in the state of Minas Gerais, including the capital Belo Horizonte, which had its heaviest rainfall over a 24-hour period leading to Friday since records began 110 years ago, O Globo newspaper reported. Local authorities in Minas Gerais said on Sunday that 37 people had died, while more than 17,000 were displaced or evacuated from their homes.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - At least 46 people have died in Brazil and more than 25,000 have been displaced due to widespread flooding following storms and heavy rains that have swept across the south east of the country, authorities said on Sunday.

Most of the casualties were in the state of Minas Gerais, including the capital Belo Horizonte, which had its heaviest rainfall over a 24-hour period leading to Friday since records began 110 years ago, O Globo newspaper reported.

Local authorities in Minas Gerais said on Sunday that 37 people had died, while more than 17,000 were displaced or evacuated from their homes. A further 25 people were missing.

In the coastal state of Espirito Santo, nine people died, more than 8,000 were displaced or evacuated, and three people were missing, authorities said on Sunday.

The lethal flooding comes exactly a year after the rain-triggered collapse of a tailings dam in the town of Brumadinho, also in Minas Gerais state, that killed more than 250 people in one of the world's worst mining disasters.

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The Uttarakhand Health Department on Monday issued an alert against the deadly Novel Coronavirus and sent medical teams to all districts to screen people for the disease, especially those coming from China and Nepal.

Director General (Health) Amita Upreti told reporters that they had sent teams to all districts in the state following an advisory from the Centre to screen people.

"The screening has begun everywhere, especially in districts bordering China and Nepal such as Champawat, Chamoli and Pithoragarh. They have begun screening people coming from the other side of the border for symptoms of nCOV," she said.

A medical team has also been deployed at Dehradun's Jollygrant airport to screen people coming here from the two countries via Delhi or other places so that suspected cases could be quarantined, she said.

Hospitals have been asked to set up isolation wards for people suspecting of contracting the virus, the official said, adding that all hospitals have the required kits and masks.

Authorities have also been asked to make supportive treatment facilities available to all hospitals, especially those located in border areas, the official added.

They have also been asked to keep a separate ambulance equipped with infection control facility ready to transport nCOV suspects, she said.

However,not a single case has been detected anywhere, she said.

Asking people not to panick, Upreti said the health department was prepared to deal with any eventuality.

She asked people to go to the hospital if they had fever, cough and cold, sore throat, pneumonia or difficulty in breathing, which were symptoms that might develop into nCOV.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) speaks during a naturalization ceremony on the Battleship New Jersey in Camden, N.J., on Thursday, July 4, 2019. Forty people from 23 countries were sworn in as U.S. citizens during the ceremony, one of more than a hundred held on the 4th of July holiday. Read more

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) is scheduled to visit South Jersey next month to raise money for Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross of Camden County  and, while shes at it, provide some partisan counter-programming to President Donald Trump, who has made a splash in the region in recent weeks and will be holding a rally in Wildwood on Tuesday.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who represents the Second Congressional District, in Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland Counties, defected to the Republican Party last month after voting against an impeachment inquiry into Trumps dealings with Ukraine.

South Jersey is TRUMP COUNTRY, the president tweeted at the time, and Van Drew pledged his undying support in an Oval Office meeting with Trump. (Though a few weeks earlier, he had said on a voicemail left for a constituent that he would never vote for Trump.)

Pelosi will raise money for Norcross and also plans a public appearance on Feb. 29, a spokesperson for the congressman confirmed. The location and other arrangements are still being worked out, but both events will be in Camden County, the spokesperson said.

Norcross won a special election for the First District seat in the U.S. House in 2014. An ally of Pelosis, Norcross serves in leadership as a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee; he also vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Congressman Norcross is a relentless champion for labor and progressive issues who is fighting to increase Americans paychecks at a time when the wages of our workers are falling further and further behind," Pelosi said in a statement endorsing his reelection.

An electrician, Norcross was a labor leader and served in the New Jersey Senate before he was elected to the U.S. House.
A 25-year-old Albany woman was struck and killed early Sunday morning while walking on the Taconic State Parkway shortly after her car crashed, the Columbia County Sheriffs office said.

Deputies were called to the scene around one mile south of Route 203 near Austerlitz just before 1 a.m. They said a 25-year-old man was driving south in a Jeep Grand Cherokee when he struck Fiona Tobin.
A man is recovering in the hospital after investigators say that his wife struck him with her car, and then pinned him between two vehicles in northwest Harris County.

The incident occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday near the 6600 block of Breen Drive.
JNU Chief Proctor has directed Sharjeel Imam, a PhD student at Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, to meet Proctorial Committee not later than February 3 to explain his position in connection with FIRs lodged against him by the police in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other states.

FIRs were registered against Imam for his alleged controversial speech delivered during the students' protest at the Aligarh Muslim University on January 16 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Register of Citizens (NRC).

A series of videos went viral on social media in which Imam was heard saying: "If we all come together, then we can separate the Northeast from India. If we cannot do it permanently, then at least for one to two months, we can do this."

"It is our responsibility to cut Assam from India. When this happens, only then the government will listen to us," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Terming the agreement with all factions of the banned Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) as 'historic,' Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the pact is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for the progress of the Northeast region.

The Home Minister said the Centre will provide a special development package worth Rs 1,500 crore to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas.

"A historic agreement signed between GOI, Assam Govt and Bodo representatives to end a 50-year-old Bodo crisis. The agreement is in line with PM Shri Narendra Modi's vision for the progress of the North East and empowerment of the people of the region," he tweeted.

"Around 1500 cadres of NDFB(P), NDFB(RD) & NDFB(S) will be rehabilitated by GOI and Assam Govt. A Special Development Package Rs. 1500 Crore will be given by the Union Government to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas," he said in another tweet.

The minister said the NDFB factions will leave the path of violence, surrender their weapons and disband their armed organizations within a month of signing the deal.

"Final & comprehensive solution to their demands has been made while retaining the territorial integrity of Assam. After the agreement, NDFB factions will leave the path of violence, surrender their weapons & disband their armed organizations within a month of signing the deal," he tweeted.

"About 4000 people died in the Bodo movement. This historic agreement will usher in a new dawn of peace, progress and prosperity in the state of Assam. I congratulate CM Sarbanand Sonwal for his pioneering efforts to make North-East the Ashta Lakshmi of PM Modi Ji's vision," the minister said in another tweet.

This is the third Bodo accord which has been signed in the last 27 years since the movement for a separate Bodoland state commenced in Assam.

The first Bodo accord was signed with the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) in 1993, leading to the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.

In 2003, the second Bodo accord was signed with the militant group Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), leading to the formation of a Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with four districts of Assam, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri, called the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).

The BTC was formed under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. The demand for a separate state for the Bodos has been going on in Assam for about five decades.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 27, 2020 | 01:52 PM | LIVINGSTON COUNTY

According to deputies, 62-year-old Gary Cowen was last seen on January 21 on Johnson Road. Cowen is not wanted on any criminal charges.





Cowen is white, six feet tall, and weighs approximately 140 pounds. He has a thin build, blue eyes, and brown hair. Detectives say he may be suffering from some mental health issues, although he is not dangerous.





Anyone with information is asked to contact the Livingston County Sheriff's Office at 270-928-2122, or the Kentucky State Police at 1-800-222-5555.

The Livingston County Sheriff's Office is seeking the public's assistance in locating a missing man.
Those using the new system have been wrongly fined. [Stock pic]

A shake-up in how on-street parking is charged in Northern Ireland has been hit with "teething problems" which has seen people wrongly fined and charged.

In one incident it was reported a driver was wrongly charged 90 for a short parking stay.

Earlier this month the Department for Infrastructure dropped the ParkMobile application for JustPark to allow people to pay for on-street parking in Belfast, Lisburn and Newry on their mobile phones.

The change will see users pay less for transaction charges from 15p to 8p.

It's thought fewer than 25 people have been either wrongly fined for not paying for parking, when they did, or overcharged.

Some claimed they were unable to cancel bookings or received error messages that they had started a parking event and therefore unable to start another one.

JustPark blamed "teething problems" and the Department for Infrastructure apologised.

Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon said the penalty notices issued in error would be cancelled by Monday.

"This is another inconvenience for members of the public," she told the BBC.

"We need to make sure things like this don't happen again.

"If we are encouraging people to go on to apps and online then we need to make sure we have the infrastructure there so those errors don't occur."

The department's three-day notice of the change in provider was criticised when it was announced at the beginning of the month. However, it said ParkMobile users were sent messages and there was a two-week bedding in period before JustPark became the only application in use.

ParkMobile has been used as cashless parking system provider since it was first introduced in 2012.

Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium Aodhan Connolly said it was vital people parking in towns or cities could do so with minimum hassle.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 19:55:25|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the overnight rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in central Baghdad will not affect the flourishing level of strategic relations between Baghdad and Washington.

A statement by the ministry expressed Iraq's keenness on bilateral relations and mutual interests with the United States, and confirmed the ministry's categorical rejection, and its condemnation of the attack that targeted the U.S. embassy with Katyusha rockets.

"The Iraqi security authorities have launched an investigation to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and in order to prevent the recurrence of such violations, which could lead Iraq to be a battleground for external parties," the statement said.

Late on Sunday, the Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued a statement on his official Twitter Page, condemning the rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

The statements of Foreign Ministry and Abdul Mahdi came after an Interior Ministry official told Xinhua late on Sunday night that four Katyusha rockets landed near the U.S. embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Later on, a statement by the media office affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said that five rockets hit the Green Zone, without giving further details.

The heavily fortified Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10-square-km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital.

On Friday, the Iraqi prominent Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr called for a scheduled withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq through peaceful means.

The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq on Jan. 5, two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 09:42:19|Editor: huaxia

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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to share its experience in urbanization and towns construction with other countries while it is working to achieve sustainable development, a Chinese urbanization expert said Sunday.

China has accumulated some good experience during the process of urbanization to address the ailments of cities, or what is better known as "urban diseases," said Chen Yanbing, vice chairman and general-secretary of the International Towns Federation (ITF), in an interview with Xinhua.

With the acceleration of urbanization during its development, China is facing a lot of challenges that other countries have encountered before, including increased population in metropolitan cities, environmental pollution, traffic congestion, creation of jobs, inadequate water supply, and rising housing costs, Chen said.

In order to explore solutions to those problems and support future sustainable development and urbanization of cities and towns around the world, the ITF hosted an international forum in Stanford University earlier this month in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness (SDGC) at Stanford, which drew some prominent international figures such as former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, he said.

The forum was a good opportunity for political leaders, scholars, urbanization experts and industry representatives from various countries to exchange views and experience in building towns and cities, Chen noted.

"In fact, China has really something good to offer for other countries in towns development, including one of its proud achievements characterized by successful poverty relief," he said.

China is the most populous country in the world, but it successfully avoided problems of some Western countries in their early-day process of urbanization, where farmers were plunged into extreme poverty after they lost their land, Chen explained.

Unlike those Western countries, Chinese government ensured that people who left their hometowns in the countryside and moved into urban areas were able to have minimal stable income and sheltering, with access to employment, education and medical insurance in cities, Chen said.

"China's urbanization did not lead to poverty among farmers, which is worth learning by other countries," he said.

In addition, governments at various levels in China have successfully achieved smooth transition of industry by helping farmers expand their source of income from farming to other industries such as tourism and deep processing of farm products, said the Chinese expert.

"This marks integration of the first and second industries with the service industry, which helped farmers support themselves economically, thus promoting development of multi-industries," he said.

Furthermore, in recent years, China has done a good job in protecting environment and water resources during urbanization, he said.

"While we built towns, we prevented ecological deterioration, as well as the loss of lakes and trees," he said.

Despite its huge population, China's forestation rate has grown steadily in the past few years with more trees being planted every year, and "this is one more experience we can share with our colleagues in other countries," Chen said.
The education system will forever remain under siege post poor results every year until government truthfully addresses the pains that afflict it. This is the frank conclusion drawn by Botswana Sectors of Teachers Union (BOSETU) Secretary General Tobokani Rari in response to the results of Junior Certificate (JC) exams.

Botswana Examination Council (BEC), last week Friday released the results of the final Junior Certificate Examination for the year 2019. Of the 41 048 candidates who sat for the final JC examinations last year, only 37. 50 percent, which is 15 393 candidates, were able to attain an overall grade C or better, indicating a decrease of 0.02 percent from the 2018 results.According to Rari Government needs to candidly address issues of the ballooned class sizes, the collapsed in  service structures and function, reduced contact time due to unresolved hours work quagmire, automatic progression policy, administrative crisis of schools. He pointed out that these are, but a few factors that have caused a dent to our education system.

We have noted as well with disappointment that 62.5 percent of the total 41 048 of the 2019 JC candidates obtained overall grades D, E, U or X, effectively meaning that our education has failed to assist a total of 25 655 candidates to grasp basic numeracy, literacy and some lifeskills. This indeed is a disturbingly high number which should be a cause for concern and worry for every Motswana. We have further noted with devastation that 28.71 percent of the total students who sat for the 2019 final JC Examination obtained either grades E, U or X.

In reality, this means that a total of 12 342 candidates have totally failed and would definitely not proceed to senior schools. This is the number that our education system has, without any doubt, ejected out into the street. This number in our view is quite alarming and points to a crumbling education system, said Rari who is also secretary general of BOFEPUSU. According to Rari BOSETU is of a strong opinion that the quality of any final year results in any country is as good or as bad as the education system of that country.

He posited that their longheld view is that the final year results mirror the countrys education system and provides an appropriate platform for truthful and candid introspection.

As a teacher trade union, we take the release of the Junior Certificate (JC) results very seriously, and we obviously take keen interest in the results themselves, and what they depict on the ground on a practical sense. BOSETU takes the final year examinations and the consequent results across all streams, not only as a rite of passage of students to higher levels of education, but also as a yardstick which the quality and effectiveness of this countrys education system should be measured upon.

Last year BOSETU President Wingston Radikolo told the unions annual conference in Palapye that teachers find themselves in harsh working conditions, but said the issues should be reflected upon, and a way forward hatched. The BOSETU President indicated that in the years 2017 to 2019 they recorded 237 cases ranging from stress to depression among teachers. He said the causes were among others, the social environment in the workplace, failure to address grievances on time and opting for quick disciplinary processes.

Stagnation, nepotism and favouritism, inadequate resources in schools and inadequate in-service training, are among the causes.

In-service training has collapsed compromising teaching service delivery. BOSETU in the past two years sponsored 351 teachers to the tune of P3.8 million to pursue courses of their choice, Radikolo told the conference.
Edenderry Chamber of Commerce has said the population of Edenderry is concerned that there is no candidate from the town on the ballot for the upcoming general election on February 8.

The likes of John Foley and Fergus McDonnell decided not to put their hat in the ring leaving Pippa Hackett the closest candidate to the town in Geashill. She was elected to Offaly County Council in the Edenderry Municipal District last May but was subsequently elevated to the Seanad.

In response, the week the chamber has organised a members' and non-members' gathering with the general election candidates in the constituency of Laois-Offaly.

The meeting will take place in Byrnes Lounge on Wednesday, January 29 at 7.15 pm.

The chamber has confirmed the candidates who have confirmed their attendance are Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy, Pippa Hackett and Ken Smollen.

Christine Traynor, chairperson for Edenderry Chamber of Commerce, said: "It's concerning that there is no local candidate, but we must work with the TDs who are willing to support Edenderry."

"The chamber is not a political organisation and will continue to focus on lobbying the council and local representatives to put Edenderry high up on the agenda.

Edenderry, rightly or wrongly, has a sense of being left-behind much more is needed to be done to ensure that the local economy is supported, especially at a time of great distress, where climate change matters and Bord na Mona is undergoing a fundamental restructure, leading to unemployment in the area, Christine added.

Having been severely under-funded over almost two decades the towns roads and infrastructure is at breaking point and this has stifled any real growth.

The chamber is a growing organisation with all the key players being members, with the largest businesses in the north of the county, including Rosderra, one of the largest contributors of commercial rates in the county.

You can see a mile away that there is a lack of investment in amenities, in housing and infrastructure which has not just stifled growth it has outright prevented any progress, there are no houses for rent, and private construction of houses beings unnecessarily delayed and the lack of forward planning in infrastructure such as our wastewater treatment plant, which is at capacity and has not been planned for in the next tranche of investment by Irish Water. All of these things create barriers for businesses, Christine continued.

We see what is great about Edenderry and addressing the disproportionate distribution of funding is key, and Edenderry Chamber of Commerce is calling on all general election candidates to support a more positive and ambitious long-term vision for our Town and County in the overall context of the National Development Plan.

"There is so much that needs to be done in Edenderry, from housing, amenities and infrastructure. The main focus for the chamber is calling on TDs to commit to addressing the unfairness in distributing funding on a county-wide basis.

We are aware of the past issues with budgets and funding in the Council, however, Edenderry businesses contribute a large portion to County Council's revenue through their commercial rates, so we are asking general election candidates to support

the ring-fencing money to Edenderry projects including infrastructural investment, said Christine.

"To support business and the local economy, priority needs to be given to investment in our roads, footpaths, in the wastewater treatment plant, broadband and local amenities. Improvements in these areas will support growing businesses and employment in the area, says the Chamber of Commerce.

"When we call on the council to prioritise investment, we are asking them not for more than we deserve, but for what we are entitled to, says Christine.

The Chamber of Commerce continues to campaign for an integrated action plan for Edenderry, 'Edenderry Vision 2030.'

This plan should include a full transport, movement and access plan for the town. Traffic congestion is a barrier to a growing economy like Edenderry, and the Council should put this issue to the forefront and local councillors should be more ambitious

about advancing solutions as opposed to accepting the status quo, says Christine.

We all need to put our shoulder to the wheel; to support this town means to call out those who do not put Edenderry first," concluded Christine

The Chamber looks forward to welcoming all members of the community to the upcoming meeting when you can hear from your local representatives about their aspirations for the town.

Meeting: Byrnes Lounge on JKL Street, Edenderry at 7.30pm.
Big Guy's Chicken & Rice. | Photo: J H./Yelp

Looking to satisfy your appetite for Middle Eastern fare, but don't want to break the bank?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the most excellent affordable Middle Eastern restaurants around Dallas, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to venture when cravings strike on a budget.

1. Big Guy's Chicken & Rice

Photo: Johnny T./Yelp

Topping the list is Big Guy's Chicken & Rice. Located at 2614 Elm St., Suite 130, in Deep Ellum, the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fast food joint is the highest-rated source for inexpensive Middle Eastern cuisine in Dallas, boasting four stars out of 333 reviews on Yelp.

"It all started with a gyro and a dream," writes the history section of the business' Yelp profile. "Emulating the best of what New York halal street food has to offer, this hidden hole-in-the-wall is the perfect take-out option and guaranteed staple for your late-night munchies."

Specialties include gyros, organic 36-hour marinated chicken, rice bowls and other Mediterranean-inspired bites.

2. Samad Cafe

Photo: Fox E./Yelp

Next up is Love Field Area's Samad Cafe, situated at 2706 Manor Way. With 4.5 stars out of 58 reviews on Yelp, the Persian, Iranian and Middle Eastern cafe has proven to be a local favorite for those looking for a low-cost option.

Yelper Syed R., who reviewed Samad Cafe on June 7, wrote, "The food here is delicious! The lamb shank was really tender. This is definitely the best Persian food in Dallas."

Saeed S. noted, "I tried both chelo kabob and lamb shank, they were both delicious. The price was very reasonable, and I highly recommend this place to those who want to try real Persian food."

3. New York Eats

Photo: Anthony C./Yelp

North Dallas' New York Eats, located at 13531 Montfort Drive, Suite 109, is another superior choice, with Yelpers giving the economical Mediterranean halal eatery four stars out of 168 reviews.

According to the business' Yelp page, New York Eats' specialties include "New York halal street cart food, gyro and chicken rice, wraps, burgers and more."

Story continues

4. Chop House Gyro

Photo: Kausik R./Yelp

At last, Chop House Gyro, a Mediterranean and halal outpost in North Dallas, is another budget-friendly go-to, with four stars out of 66 Yelp reviews. Head over to 5301 Alpha Road, Suite A12, to give it a try for yourself.

"Chop House started with a dream driven by the craving for authentic Mediterranean fast food, a concept that is still new to Texas," states the history section of its Yelp bio. "The idea was to open a restaurant that offers a menu that bursts with flavor in a contemporary setting that everyone can enjoy."

Signature items to try include the New York-style gyro over rice, shawarma roll and healthy salad.

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Specialists are carrying out planned activities around the clock in order to prevent the spread of the disease

France 24

Ukraines National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) has set up a task group to monitor and analyze the situation regarding the spread of coronavirus. NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov assures that the situation is under control, NSDCs press service reports.

An investigation into the epidemic is ongoing. The group is monitoring the situation in Asian and European countries and the Commonwealth of Independent States countries, which Ukraine shares a border with. Ukrainian specialists are carrying out planned activities around the clock in order to prevent the spread of the disease.

As we reported earlier, the number of confirmed deaths from a viral outbreak in China has risen to 54, with authorities in Hubei province reporting 13 more fatalities and 323 new cases, AFP informed.

The latest numbers from Hubei, the epicenter of the contagion, would put the nationwide total of confirmed infections at 1,610, based on figures previously released by the central government.



President Xi Jinping warned that China faced a "grave situation" as authorities raced to contain a respiratory illness that has caused the widespread abandonment of Lunar New Year celebrations nationwide and overwhelmed health facilities in Hubei.
Health professionals started the first screening for the deadly coronavirus with passengers from two flights from China that landed at Auckland Airport this morning.

The two flights are from Guangzhou and Shanghai, both cities have confirmed cases of the virus. The virus is thought to have originated in animals and has killed 56 people since it broke out in Wuhan, Hubei.

Cases have been confirmed in Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, the US, and France.

People from the two flights to land were wearing face masks as they came into the international arrivals hall. One woman, Jennifer, told RNZ people were wearing the masks while on the plane.

Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay says the news that had come in overnight that coronavirus could infect people during incubation had yet to be reviewed.

"That's not something we have been informed about officially. My team are looking at what we have received and exactly what the facts are in terms of what's known about infectivity before symptoms. Yes it makes it much more challenging to contain and manage this virus. But we need to be really clear about what the facts are.

"The nurses are there along with other public health staff to make sure people coming of the planes from China are aware of the symptoms of coronavirus. We expect that anyone off that plane is already well aware because they have come from China."

There is now a facility at the airport for people found to have high temperatures to be directed to.

One of the challenges for screening was that a high temperatures could be a symptom of other infections. At present it was influenza season in the Northern Hemisphere, and people with high temperatures were more likely to have the flu than coronavirus, Caroline says.

"It's a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack."

The only test for coronavirus - a blood test - takes a couple of days for results to be returned, but New Zealand doesn't have the ability to do that test yet. Samples must be sent to Australia.

Caroline says the test would be available here later in the week.

She says the situation was being reviewed daily and the evolving situation was what led to the positioning of staff at the airport on Monday.

Information in Chinese languages and Chinese language speaking staff were on hand to help at the airport and via Healthline.

Up to 1800 people a day arrive in Auckland and Christchurch from China on six flights from Shanghai and Guangzhou. Both cities have dozens of confirmed cases.

Student to self-quarantine

An international student arriving in Auckland this morning planned to wear a face mask for the next 10 days.

The man, who didn't want to be named, arrived on the flight from Guangzhou.

He says while no one asked him to, he would try and quarantine himself.

"I'm pretty afraid, they argue about the people from China which is wearing the mask so I think I should keep it on.

"I'm going to stay at home."

If he did go out in public he will keep the mask on, he says.

The student says the flight was normal except for everyone wearing masks on the plane.

"The only have a temperature test at Guangzhou airport but it's like before boarding, it's not even before the security."

Prime Minister on the government response

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says cabinet will discuss the virus on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. File image/SunLive.

It will go through a process to ensure coronavirus was listed in New Zealand as a notifiable disease.

"That is not getting in the way of the response, it's just a more formal part of the process we need to go through."

She says the government made no apologies for the fact that "even though we do not have a case to date in New Zealand we are really rolling out everything we can including work at the border... We have taken the extra steps of putting health officials at the airport even though we don't have direct flights from (Wuhan)."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade hadn't contacted Ardern about evacuating any New Zealanders from the Wuhan area, she said.

"That's something I'll talk to MFAT about."

MFAT says it was responding to four requests for consular assistance but had no plans for evacuations.

Sixteen New Zealanders are registered in Hubei Province, where Wuhan is the main city.

Asked about the National Party's criticism of the government's response to coronavirus, she says they were "doing what oppositions do".

RNZ.
A British teacher who spent the last decade in Wuhan fears he may be spreading coronavirus throughout the UK after being turned away for tests by NHS 111.

David Marland, 34, lived just five minutes from the seafood market thought to be at the centre of the outbreak and walked through it nearly every day.

At least one person in his apartment block has tested positive for the deadly illness that has killed 81 people in less than a month.

Mr Marland, from Buckinghamshire, called the NHS helpline as soon as he stepped off a plan at Gatwick Airport from Dubai, via Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, last week.

He expected to be hauled in immediately for tests, but was only asked if he had 'the sniffles'. Mr Marland was told to only call back if he began to feel unwell.

Despite the strict guidance to try to contain the virus, one British teacher, David Marland (pictured), who has spent the last decade in Wuhan fears he may be spreading the virus throughout the UK because he claims he was given the wrong advice by an NHS 111 operator

He lived just five minutes from the seafood market thought to be at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak and walked through it nearly every day

Mr Marland claims he called the helpline as soon as he stepped off a plan at Gatwick Airport from Dubai, via Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, last week

That was despite the recent discovery that patients can be infectious without showing any symptoms.

Carriers can spread the disease for up to two weeks before symptoms show, according to Chinese officials.

Mr Marland told the newspaper: 'I'm potentially a risk to other people. I'm still within the two-week period so I could be spreading the disease everywhere without having any symptoms.

'Maybe I should be staying away from people, but no one has told me to. They haven't given me any advice at all.

'I'm just getting on with my life - what else am I supposed to do?' He accused the NHS operator of just 'ticking boxes' and 'leaving the door open' to the killer virus.

He expected to be called in immediately for tests, but was only asked if he had 'the sniffles' and to only call back if he began to feel unwell

NHS sources said the operator had correctly followed advice  which comes from Public Health England and says to ring if you 'develop a fever, difficulty breathing or a cough'

But NHS sources told The Telegraph that the operator had correctly followed advice  which comes from Public Health England and says to ring if you 'develop a fever, difficulty breathing or a cough'.

All of the UK patients who have already been tested for the virus have been found to be negative.

But a Public Health England boss last week warned it was 'highly likely' the never-before-seen virus will eventually come to the UK, as the infection continues to rampage across China.

Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday revealed the Government was 'looking at all options' to help Britons leave Wuhan.

China today extended its New Year holiday to fight the killer coronavirus outbreak which has killed 81 people and struck down more than 2,800 people. Cases have been spotted in Canada, US, France and Australia

Thermal scanning at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Indonesia shows people's temperatures beside their heads  those who have high temperatures will be checked to see if they have a fever

The rapid-build hospital in Wuhan started to take shape today, January 27, as hundreds of people work tirelessly to build the pre-fabricated structure in a matter of days

Foreign Office officials have reportedly prepared a charter flight for around 200 British citizens and diplomats trapped in Wuhan, where 11million are on lock-down. MailOnline has asked for an update.

The Department of Health is set to issue an update later this afternoon on the number of Britons who have been tested for the constantly-mutating virus, which experts have suggested may originally have come from bats or snakes and been passed to humans.

Scientists fear China's status as a major superpower may have influenced the World Health Organisation's decision not to declare the coronavirus outbreak as being an international emergency last week, with the UN-body saying it was 'too early' for such a decision.

Baffled experts warned the decision may have been influenced by China. Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Daily Telegraph: 'The criteria for declaring a public health emergency of international concern have been met.'

But 'not all WHO decisions are made based on the developments in the biological world,' he added.

It came after a top Chinese health official said that the new virus was becoming more contagious than SARS from the same family of coronaviruses which killed nearly 650 people across Beijing and Hong Kong in 2003.
The Centre on Monday decided to take steps for possible evacuation of over 250 Indians from Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, and announced a raft of precautionary measures to deal with suspected cases.

A meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed India's preparedness to deal with the virus amid mounting global concern over increasing number of cases in China and several other countries.

In India, no case has been detected so far though nearly 450 people have been kept under observation in the country, most of them in Kerala, following screening for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus. Some, who have returned from China in recent weeks, have approached medical authorities as a precautionary step.

The meeting in Delhi presided by the Cabinet Secretary decided to take a a series of precautionary measures including screening of people at international ports having traffic from China as well as at the integrated check posts across the border with Nepal.

Officials said Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, stuck in Wuhan city.

"It was decided that steps may be taken to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. Accordingly, Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities," a government statement said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani have urged the Centre to take steps to bring back students from their states who are studying in Wuhan.

Wuhan along 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading. The death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

Over 250 to 300 Indian students are reportedly stuck in Wuhan triggering concerns over their well-being.

The statement said the ministry of civil aviation and ministry of health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively.

The meeting also decided that the civil aviation ministry will issue instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

Officials said the civil aviation ministry will also ask the airlines to make in-flight announcements and distribute "health cards" to all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

The home ministry will ensure that integrated check posts initiate screening of visitors across Nepal border.

"States have been requested to provide health staff for these check posts. SSB/ BSF/Immigration officers manning integrated check posts have been sensitised," the statement said.

Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan spoke to chief secretaries and police chiefs of the five states bordering Nepal -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim to review their preparedness for prevention and management of the coronavirus.

The Principal Secretary (Health) carried out a similar exercise with other states and Union Territories.

Till Sunday, 29,707 passengers arriving in India in 137 flights have been screened for novel coronovirus infection symptoms and no case has so far been detected in India, officials said.

The Union health ministry has also urged passengers who have a travel history to China since January 1 to come forward for self-reporting at the nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms such as fever, cough, respiratory distress etc.

A Chinese national on tourist visa in Kolkata has been kept in an isolation ward at the Beleghata ID Hospital since Sunday after she complained of high fever and rashes, and officials said they are awaiting her test reports.

They said the foreign national has mild fever and stomach ache, symptoms that do not necessarily suggest presence of the novel coronavirus



"She has been travelling for quite sometime and came to India from Madagascar a few months ago... As a part of precautionary measure, we have isolated the woman till her reports arrive," Principal Secretary of Health Department Vivek Kumar told PTI.

According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the virus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Kerala



-------At least 436 people, who returned to Kerala from China in recent days, are under observation for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus (nCoV), according to health officials in Thiruvananthapuram.

Five people are still under observation in isolation wards at various hospitals across the state, officials said, adding, all results of blood samples sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune till now have been found to be negative for the virus.

While three people are in hospitals at Ernakulam, one each are in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, officials said. Two people, admitted earlier to hospitals in Pathanamthitta and Malappuram, have been discharged.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting stranded Indians from Wuhan saying the state had information from relatives of students from Kerala studying at various Universities there that the situation there was "grave."



Maharashtra



-------------



As many as 3,756 passengers arriving from China were screened for the coronavirus at the international airport here since January 18, but no confirmed case of the deadly disease has been found so far in Mumbai, a state health department official said on Monday.

Five people are under observation in Maharashtra, including three who have tested negative. Reports of the others are awaited, the official said.

A high-level meeting was held in chaired by Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, public health department, to review preparations to deal with any situation.

"The government will prepare a list of passengers who have returned to Mumbai from China since January 1 this year and will enquire about their health condition," the official said.

Bihar



------



A woman who returned from China last week was admitted to a Patna hospital on Monday with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus.

The woman who is in her 20s returned home to Chapra, the headquarters of Saran district, from China on January 22 and she was taken to the Chapra Sadar Hospital three days later.

Punjab



-------



Thermal sensors have been installed at Amritsar international airport to screen passengers for deadly novel coronavirus, the Punjab government said, adding it will also set up a screening facility at Mohali international airport on Tuesday.

Thermal screening is already being done at many airports including in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

The state health department also found no symptoms of the virus among four passengers, three at Amritsar airport and one at Mohali airport, who travelled to China recently, state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said, adding people who travelled to China in the last 28 days can report to their nearest district hospital for any assistance.

Gujarat



---------



Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene after parents of students studying in Wuhan sought help for their safe return.

The state government said as many as 100 students from the state are stuck in China, and informed that Rupani has spoken to Jaishankar on phone asking him to ensure their safe return home.

Telangana



----------



Three persons, who had travelled to China but do not have symptoms of the novel Coronavirus, were under observation of medical authorities in Hyderabad.

The three approached the authorities in view of spread of the virus in China and they were admitted to the state-run Institute of Tropical Diseases (Fever hospital) in the city, medical sources said.

However, two of them have since been discharged after being advised to stay put at home, they said.

Karnataka



------------



As part of preventive steps , two residents of Bengaluru who returned from China about ten days ago, have been kept under medical supervision at a hospital, the Karnataka Health Department said.

Another person who was admitted for medical supervision three days ago had been discharged after he tested negative.

Goa



-----



The Goa government has decided to form a special task force to deal with the situation.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has said that people arriving in Goa from the virus-affected regions outside India would be closely monitored.

"I have given instructions to form a special task force to monitor any cases of coronavirus in Goa. All the activities, including people arriving from the virus-affected regions, would be closely monitored and information reported to the state Chief Secretary," Rane said.

The task force will work as per the guidelines laid down by the Union Ministry of Health, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump is expected to disclose details of his long-delayed Middle East peace proposal to Israeli leaders on January 27, as he attempts to generate some momentum towards resolving one of the world's most intractable problems.

Trump will hold separate, back-to-back meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the head of the centrist Blue and White Party, who is Netanyahu's rival in March 2 elections.

On January 28, Trump will deliver joint remarks with Netanyahu at the White House, where the president may reveal details of his peace proposal.

The two days of foreign policy meetings will provide Trump with a contrast from the trial in the Republican-led Senate that is weighing articles of impeachment against him approved by the Democratic-led House of Representatives.

But whether it truly will jump start the long-stalled effort to bring Israelis and Palestinians together is far from certain.

Palestinians have refused to engage the Trump administration on the effort and roundly denounced a $50-billion economic revival plan it set forth last July to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies.

Palestinians fear the plan will dash their hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

The White House hope was that if Trump could get the support of both Netanyahu and Gantz for the plan, it would help provide some momentum. A U.S. official said Trump wants to know both Netanyahu and Gantz are on board with the plan before announcing it.

Trump's message to both: "You have six weeks to get this (plan) going, if you want it," the official said.

Having both leaders present helps take the politics out of the effort, said a U.S. source familiar with internal deliberations.

"The rationale...is it depoliticizes this to the point that, no matter what happens on March 2, the two leaders of the two largest parties can potentially be supportive," the source said.

The Trump plan is the product of three years' effort by senior advisers Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, as well as Jason Greenblatt, who left the government last autumn.

Trump last year had hoped to release his secret proposal aimed at triggering negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, but was forced to delay it as Netanyahu struggled to form a governing coalition.

The proposal, more than 50 pages long, aims to take on some of the most difficult issues separating the two, such as the status of Jerusalem. Palestinians want the city's eastern part as their future capital.

Trump, talking to reporters on Air Force One on Thursday, said he was eager to release his plan.

"They say that's the hardest of all deals. I love doing deals," he said.

Netanyahu, a veteran right-wing leader, faces political and legal troubles at home as he heads for his third election in less than a year, and was indicted on criminal charges in November. He denies any wrongdoing.

Netanyahu's principal domestic political rival, Gantz, a centrist former general, last week lifted his objection to having the peace plan published before Israel's March election. He had previously seen it as interference in the vote.

"I am looking forward to meeting the president - a president of utmost friendliness to the State of Israel - on a matter that is very important for the State of Israel - with national, strategic and security ramifications," Gantz told reporters as he landed in Washington on Sunday.

"We will hold a back-and-forth, get to know one another, and take it from there."

But Trump, preoccupied with November's re-election bid, faces his own political clock, and can ill afford to wait months for Israel to decide its next prime minister, a U.S. official said.
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Linkedin Nasser Abu Bakr (Agence France-Presse) Ramallah  Mon, January 27, 2020 10:45 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206111746 2 World Palestine,#Palestine,Israel,#Israel,US,#US,Trump-peace-plan,#Trump-peace-plan Free

Palestinian leaders threatened Sunday to withdraw from key provisions of the Oslo Accords, which define arrangements with Israel, if US President Donald Trump announces his Middle East peace plan next week.

Trump was scheduled to unveil the plan ahead of his meeting in Washington this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who has called Trump "the greatest friend that Israel has ever had", said he hoped to "make history" in Washington this week.

But the Palestinian leadership was not invited to the talks and has rejected Trump's initiative amid tensions with the US president over his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital.

World powers have long agreed that Jerusalem's fate should be settled through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP that the Palestine Liberation Organization reserved the right "to withdraw from the interim agreement" of the Oslo pact if Trump unveils his plan.

The Trump initiative will turn Israel's "temporary occupation [of Palestinian territory] into a permanent occupation", Erekat said.

The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, signed in Washington in 1995, sought to put into practice the first Oslo peace deal agreed two years earlier.

Sometimes called Oslo II, the interim agreement set out the scope of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.

The interim pact was only supposed to last five years while a permanent agreement was finalized but it has tacitly been rolled over for more than two decades.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya warned Sunday Trump's plan "will not pass" and could lead to renewed Palestinian resistance.

This "new plot aimed against Palestine is bound to fail" and could lead the Palestinians to a "new phase in their struggle" against Israel, the leader of the Gaza Strip's Islamist movement said in a statement.

Haniya also called for talks in Cairo with other Palestinian factions, including Fatah -- led by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas -- in order to form a common response to Trump's plan.

Shortly after the release of Haniya's statement, a rocket was fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip towards Israel, the Israeli army said.

Israel has occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.

More than 600,000 Israelis now live there in settlements considered illegal under international law.

The Trump administration last year announced that it no longer considered Israel's settlement of civilians in the West Bank as "inconsistent with international law", further outraging the Palestinians.

Trump's peace initiative has been in the works since 2017, and its economic component was unveiled in June, calling for US$50 billion in international investment in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries over 10 years.

Despite this apparent economic incentive, Palestinian leaders have made clear that they no longer recognize Washington's historic role as mediator in the conflict, given Trump's repeated backing of Israeli demands.

"The US administration will not find a single Palestinian who supports this project," the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"Trump's plan is the plot of the century to liquidate the Palestinian cause."

Netanyahu's political rival Benny Gantz has also received an invitation to attend the White House talks.

Gantz also showered Trump with praise during a news conference.

"I wish to thank President Trump for his dedication and determination in defending the security interests that both Israel and the US share," Gantz said.

Trump's planned separate meetings with Netanyahu and Gantz come a little more than a month before new Israeli elections, with polls showing Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's centrist Blue and White party running neck-and-neck.

Israeli media speculated that Trump had chosen to unveil his plan in support of Netanyahu's election bid -- the third in a year, but the first since Netanyahu was charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases.

Netanyahu is seeking immunity from Israeli lawmakers through hearings due to start this week.

"Immediately after news of the [peace] plan was reported, it became plainly evident based on the reactions that this wasn't a Trump plan, but a Bibi-Trump plot," analyst Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in Sunday's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"Yet another election ploy that was designed to extricate Netanyahu from the clutches of his immunity hearings."
Free at Last: a compelling story about the disciple named Philip, the Angel of the Lord, and an Ethiopian eunuch. Free at Last is the creation of published author Daisy Mitchell, a songwriter who sang lead vocals in various choirs in her youth. She also sang with her brothers and sisters for a several years. Currently, Daisy is a songwriter for Hill Top Record Company.

Mitchell writes, This book is about how our heavenly Father sent his angels to give direction to Evangelist Phillip, the eunuch, the angel, King Solomon, Queen Candace, and a host of others, of what the Lord required of them.

By them following the directions of the Lord, it spared them of any hardship or suffering in their lives.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Daisy Mitchells new book is a stirring account that gives the readers a fascinating experience allowing them to know more about God and His plans for everyone.

This book begins the story in a place called Samaria where the Bible declared how Philip went about sharing the Holy Gospel.

View a synopsis of Free at Last on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Free at Last at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Free at Last, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Rescuers desperately attempted to find survivors in eastern Turkey on January 26, in the rubble of collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake claimed at least 38 lives.

Nearly 4,000 rescue workers combed through debris in freezing temperatures, helped by mechanical diggers, as hope was fading as the 48th hour approached.

Three bodies were found in the city centre, nearly 40 hours after the 6.8-magnitude quake struck Friday evening.

Hours later, two more bodies were found bringing the death toll to 38 in Elazig province and nearby Malatya, state broadcaster TRT reported.

Rescuers carefully cleared the remains of the collapsed four-storey building where the bodies were found, using buckets to remove broken material as a sniffer dog was brought to the scene.

Workers were searching for two people still under the rubble, Hurriyet daily said. Residents were still waiting to find out what had happened to their relatives. A group of women burst into tears on learning that the body of a relative had been found, while one woman fainted, an AFP photographer said.

But rescue workers have so far saved 45 people, the authorities say. The government's disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD) said 1,607 were injured, 13 of them in intensive care.

The story of Syrian university student Mahmud al Osman, who used only his bare hands to rescue a man and woman from underneath rubble, went viral.

Osman told state news agency Anadolu he heard voices after the quake ended while Durdane and Zulkuf Aydin said they shouted when they saw Osman's telephone light before he and others helped rescue them.

Turkey is home to 3.6 million Syrians in Turkey and although there are limited social problems, tensions have increased following an economic downturn.

There was growing concern for residents amid the bitter cold, said Hasan Duran, a 58-year-old shopkeeper, who lives in Sursuru.

"If it was summer, people could maybe resist a little longer. But with this cold, it's hard to imagine. Even we are freezing at home. May God give them strength."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday "every effort was made to ensure citizens whose homes have collapsed or been damaged will not suffer in this winter period." Environment Minister Murat Kurum vowed a "radical transformation project" for buildings in the region at risk in the event of another quake.

Since the January 24 quake, there have been 714 aftershocks, 20 of them above four in magnitude.

Residents avoided returning to their homes because of aftershock fears. Around a thousand people were spending the night in two trains converted into emergency accommodation in Elazig station.

"There is no risk of being caught in a collapsed building here and it's warmer than a tent," Berivan Arslan, 55, said, who left her home because of cracks in the building's facade.

With her daughter and two granddaughters coping with the boredom by playing with a doll, she had spent two nights sleeping in a six-seat compartment. There are two trains on the platform while a third is scheduled to arrive Sunday evening from Ankara, according to the Turkish National Railway Company (TCDD).

But with not enough emergency accommodation to cover the needs of 350,000 residents in Elazig city, tensions were rising.

In a public park in the city centre, dozens of tents have been erected, most of them accommodating Syrians, which has aroused hostility.

"So, what, this is a refugee camp? I have no tent yet I am a Turk," an elderly lady told an AFAD official, who promised more tents would arrive Monday. The epicentre of the quake was in the small lakeside town of Sivrice in Elazig province, but it also hit neighbouring cities and countries.

With a population of around 4,000, Sivrice is located south of Elazig city on the shores of Hazar lake -- one of the most popular tourist spots in the region. The US Geological Survey said the magnitude was 6.7, slightly lower than AFAD, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian fault in an area that has suffered no documented major incidents since an earthquake in 1875.

The recent quake left many wondering how Istanbul would cope, amid heightened fears of a powerful one, which seismologists say is unavoidable.

In 1999, a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Izmit in western Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people including about 1,000 in the country's most populous city, Istanbul.
The latest made-in-China pandemic reveals Beijing's impressive capacity to learn from its errors and improve its performance in dealing with crises. It also exposes China's fatal flaws.

"I was on the first team into China to try to find the source of the SARS virus in 2003 [as part of the World Health Organisation effort]," says John Mackenzie, the team leader investigating the advent of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:

Mackenzie, then an eminent virologist at the University of Queensland, was confronted with a dysfunctional Chinese health system. "There was very little communication between the provinces and the central government, the lab processes were very slow, the central health authorities had little control over what was done and what was announced in the provinces," he tells me.

China's government was denounced at home and abroad for bungling the whole episode: the three-month delay in notifying the WHO, the attempted cover-ups, the secrecy and denial that ended with 774 people dead in 17 countries.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: There is no scope for outside interference in India's internal matters, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said in remarks that come as the European Parliament gets set to debate and vote on a motion against India's new citizenship law.

Addressing a gathering after a book launch event, he said he was concerned at the trend of foreign bodies interfering in matters that are "completely within the purview of Indian Parliament and government".

Such efforts were totally uncalled for and unwarranted and expressed hope that they would refrain from making such statements in future, he said.

ALSO READ: Ahead of EU debate on CAA, Congress accuses government of internationalising issue

There was no scope for outside interference in India's internal matters, Naidu asserted.

The European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a motion tabled by a large chunk of its members against India's new citizenship law, which it alleges marks a "dangerous shift" in the country's citizenship regime.

A total of six resolutions have been tabled by groups within the European Union (EU), including the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew) and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.

ALSO READ: India bristles as European Parliament decides to debate anti-CAA resolutions

The EU Parliament should not take any action questioning the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures, government sources had said on Sunday, ahead of a debate on a batch of resolutions against India's new citizenship law by the powerful bloc of 28 nations.

They are set to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday and voted on the day after.
A driver who recorded themselves hitting 309km/h on the N1 in Gauteng was recently arrested while attending a funeral in Limpopo.

He was described as a 36-year-old man and is being held at the Midrand police station. He is set to appear in court soon.

Social media comments regarding the video of the speedster were mixed, with many people slating his actions as irresponsible and criminal while others defended the drivers actions.

To find out more about the process of arresting and prosecuting this speedster, MyBroadband spoke to Justice Project South Africa chair Howard Dembovsky about the case.

Ownership vs driving

The starting point will be whether a peace officer at the RTMC obtained a warrant of arrest in terms of Section 43 of the Criminal Procedure Act, No. 51 of 1977 (CPA) from a Magistrate before arresting him, Dembovsky said.

If such a warrant was not obtained, the arrest would automatically be deemed unlawful. This is because Section 40(1)(a) of the CPA only allows a peace officer to arrest a person who commits an offence in his or her presence.

The next step is to prove whether the owner of the car was, in fact, the driver. The National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) removes this obstacle by assuming the two are the same unless evidence is given otherwise.

The RTMC and by extension, the NPA faces several legal challenges or hurdles, but proving that the registered owner of the vehicle was the driver is not one of them, Dembovsky told MyBroadband.

Dembovsky said this is because the NRTA provides that where in any prosecution in terms of the common law relating to the driving of a vehicle on a public road, it is necessary to prove who was the driver of such vehicle, it shall be presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that such vehicle was driven by the owner thereof.

In road traffic law, such evidence may be adduced in an affidavit, but I think the accused person would be pushing his luck pursuing such a route, he added.

Speed trapping and social media

When it comes to proving that the speedster broke the speed limit, only speed measuring equipment that meets SANS 1795 specifications may be used in prosecuting any offence involving exceeding the speed limit, Dembovsky said.

This means that e-toll cameras cannot be used as evidence in speeding cases, as they do not meet these specifications.

As has been admitted by SANRAL and has been proven in the Duduzani Zuma case, the cameras used on SANRALs e-toll gantries do not comply with SANS 1795, and their reliability in proving as simple an element as the time a vehicle passed under them has been trashed in court, Dembovsky said.

This is also the reason that e-toll gantries have not been used for average speed over distance prosecutions and remain unlikely to be in the future, because of the implications of taking them and the equipment to which they are connected to an accredited laboratory for type approval and regular calibration.

The video posted to social media is not necessarily conclusive evidence either, as it is easy to doctor a digital video.

In a world of deepfakes and social media giants struggling to combat the proliferation of fake posts and media, it is difficult to rely on the ostensible truth of a video as irrefutable evidence.

Consequences

Dembovsky said the consequences faced by the N1 speedster would depend on which charges are proven by the state.

If convicted of exceeding the general speed limit applicable to a freeway (S59(4)(b) of the NRTA), he or she faces a fine or imprisonment not exceeding one year, he said.

He or she also faces a suspension of his or her driving licence for a minimum of six months on first conviction (S35(1)(aA) read with S35(i) of the NRTA).

This potential sentence increases if the driver is convicted of exceeding a posted speed limit.

If convicted of exceeding the posted speed limit applicable to a freeway (S59(4)(a) of the NRTA), he or she faces a fine or imprisonment not exceeding three years, but no suspension of his or her driving licence, Dembovsky added.

If convicted of reckless or negligent driving, the driver would face a fine or imprisonment not exceeding six years and a suspension of their driving licence for a minimum of six months.

If the registered owner of the vehicle was not the driver who committed the offence, they will not face any consequences for the misuse of their vehicle by the driver.

Video of speedster

The video below shows the speedster breaking 300km/h.
Slovenia's prime minister announced his resignation on Monday and urged the country to hold an early general election.

Prime Minister Marjan Sarec said he's resigning because of the crumbling support for his minority government in the small European Union nation of 2 million.

Sarec said he will submit his resignation to the country's parliament.

Lawmakers then can try to form a new government, but Sarec said he believed an early election was a better option.

Finance Minister Andrej Bartoncelj also resigned earlier Monday.

Sarec, a former actor and comedian, became the head of Slovenia's government in 2018.

He gathered a liberal coalition sidelining a right-wing party that won most votes at a parliamentary election in June 2018.

However, Sarec's five-party coalition has been shaky after a leftist party recently withdrew parliamentary support for the minority government.

Sarec said he wants to go into an early election and let people decide whether they trust me."

(Image: Twitter)
This years Republic Day parade had many firsts to it. A look at some of the debuts this time.

Wreath-laying at National War Memorial

For the first time on Republic Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid a wreath at the National War Memorial. Until last year, tributes were paid to martyrs at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate. The PM inaugurated the memorial on February 25, 2019. After the PM laid the wreath, the guard commander gave salami shastra (present arms) and shok shastra (reverse arms). This was followed by the buglers sounding the Last Post and a two-minute silence in honour of the martyrs

Attended by the Chief of Defence Staff

General Bipin Rawat attended the parade for the first time as Chief of Defence Staff. He was appointed to the top position on December 31. As CDS, Rawat heads the department of military affairs (DMA) in the defence ministry and is the principal military adviser to the defence minister on all matters related to the tri-services. The DMA is an addition to the four existing verticals in the ministry  the departments of defence, defence production, defence research and development and ex-service welfare

Choppers in tri-service formation

The main fly-past began with three advanced light helicopters from the Army, Navy and the Air Force. It was the first time that a tri-service formation took part in the parade. A defence ministry handout said it depicted jointmanship and synergy among the three services, which is the essence of todays modern day warfare. The formation flew at a speed of 180kmph

Anti-satellite (A-SAT) missile

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) showcased its anti-satellite weapon for the first time. Mission Shakti was conducted last March when the 19-tonne A-SAT missile struck a Microsat-R satellite orbiting 283km above the earth with pinpoint accuracy, propelling India into an elite space club consisting of the US, Russia and China. The missile could have killed a satellite at a height of 1,000km but India intentionally chose to demonstrate the capability in a low earth orbit to avoid the threat of collisions in space due to the debris

New marching contingent

The marching contingent of the Corps of Army Air Defence made its debut. The contingent was led by Captain Vikas Kumar Sahu. The President had awarded colours to the Corps of Army Air Defence last September in recognition of its distinguished service to the country. Its regimental motto is Akashe Shatrun Jahi or Kill the Enemy in the Sky

Apache attack helicopters

The Indian Air Forces American-made AH-64E Apache attack helicopters appeared in the Republic Day fly-past for the first time. Five Apaches were among the 45 aircraft that took part in the display. India inked a deal with the US defence giant Boeing in September 2015 for 22 Apaches to modernise the IAFs assault capabilities to counter ground-based armoured targets and aerial threat. The IAF has already inducted eight Apaches into its fleet at the Pathankot airbase

Chinook heavy-lift helicopters

Three CH-47F (I) Chinook heavy-lift helicopters were part of the fly-past on Sunday as the choppers made their parade debut. India ordered 15 Chinooks from the United States in September 2015. The Chinooks have filled a crucial gap in the air forces heavy-lift capabilities. The choppers can carry 55 troops or 10 tonnes of freight. The Chinooks main roles include transporting troops, artillery and battlefield resupply

Jammu and Kashmir as UT

Jammu and Kashmir took part in the parade for the first time as a Union Territory. Its tableau was based on the theme Back to Village. Last August, the government revoked the special status of the state by scraping Article 370 of the Constitution and also bifurcated J&K into two Union Territories  J&K and Ladakh. The Back to Village initiative seeks to take governance and development to rural and inaccessible areas of the region

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(Newser)  Two people were killed and at least seven people were injured early Sunday in a shooting at a bar and music venue in South Carolina, officials say. The shooting took place at Mac's Lounge in Hartsville, Darlington County Coroner Todd Hardee told reporters. The two victims were identified by the coroner's office as Dicaprio Collins, 21, and Bryan Robinson, 29. There was no immediate information about what led to the shooting. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the US Marshals Service are assisting Hartsville police with the investigation, the AP reports.

story continues below

A witness interviewed by WMBF described a chaotic scene as bar patrons ran for their lives. Samuel Dupree told the station he was dancing when he heard something that at first sounded like a firecracker, but he turned and saw the gunfire. He said people in the bar were rushing toward the exit. "People were trying to get through that tiny door and they couldn't," he said. "I helped someone up off the ground I saw get trampled. Im not going to let this person just died from getting run over." Hartsville is about 25 miles northwest of Florence, SC, and about 40 miles south of the North Carolina state line.

(Read more South Carolina stories.)
A Chinese visitor wears a protective mask as she was touring the grounds of the Temple of Heaven, which remained open during the Chinese New Year holiday in Beijing, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

China Restricts Medical Supply Donations, Despite Dire Need During Virus Outbreak

Beijing has banned private charities and volunteers from entering Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, or sending materials to hospitals directly.

Its unclear why authorities made the decision.

Meanwhile, Chinese netizens complained on social media that officially sanctioned charity organizations were complicated and slow in their processing, delaying shipments to hospitals in Hubei.

The deadly virus first broke out in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei. As the illness spreads, the city has been pushed to the brink of a public health crisis, as hospitals report being overwhelmed with patients, many of them in dire need of medicine and supplies.

Since Jan. 22, the city has been on transportation lockdown to try to contain the virus; meanwhile, 18 of 19 cities in Hubei Province are now under quarantine. Travel restrictions have also delayed shipments of medical supplies.

Official Ban

Chinas Civil Affairs Ministry published a Jan. 26 notice that banned any privately run charities or volunteers from entering Hubei, and added that all future donations should be handled by official, state-run charities instead.

The notice explained that Hubei is currently lacking medical protective suits, surgical masks, protective goggles, disinfectant, and other equipment.

According to the announcement, donated materials cant be delivered directly to hospitals. All official charities must report donations to the Hubei provincial and Wuhan municipal disease control groups, and those agencies will allocate the materials to different hospitals.

Only after receiving instructions from officials can charities can arrange the shipments.

In recent days, Chinese netizens who initiated and organized group donations posted on social media about their experience dealing with Chinas Red Cross, which is operated by local government authorities.

The netizens said they wished to donate large shipments of N95 masksa type of mask that can filter out at least 95 percent of airborne particlesto Wuhan hospitals. But the masks were confiscated by Wuhan Red Cross staff and police officers.

On Jan. 27, the Wuhan Red Cross released a statement in response to the claim, saying that the netizens posts werent true, as the Red Cross only collects the donated materials and then reports them to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, which then arranges for distribution.

In 2008, when Wenchuan City, in Sichuan Province, was rocked by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake, Chinas Red Cross came under fire for mismanaging donation funds.

At the time, Wang Haijing, then-Party secretary general of the Red Cross, also told Chinese state-run media that his organization typically charges less than 6.5 percent of total donations as handling fees, but only charges 2 percent during natural disasters.

Chinas Red Cross and other Chinese state-run charities received more than 65 billion yuan ($9.4 billion) donations in total for earthquake relief efforts. But until now, Chinese charities only publicized the allocations for 15 billion yuan ($2.16 billion) of them.

Dire Need

On Jan. 23, eight hospitals in Wuhan posted on their official social media accounts to ask for donations. They said that they were out of critical medical supplies such as surgical gowns, medical caps, and N95 masks.

The hospitals said that they couldnt receive materials from government authorities in time, while all online stores have sold out of such goods.

Since then, many doctors in Wuhan have pleaded for help on their Weibo accounts.

Dr. Hu Dianbo, who works at the Hubei Aerospace Hospital, was worried that his post might be deleted immediately by censorsor fearing the worst, he could face arrestbut was willing to take the risk to get much-needed supplies.

Doctors in Wuhan urged people to donate directly to hospitals because donations to the citys health commission or Red Cross take time to be processed.

The Epoch Times couldnt reach the doctors because their social media accounts were deleted, and the hospitals where they work refused to confirm any information.
The police here carried out a raid at the ancestral house of anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam, who has been slapped with a sedition case in the national capital for alleged inflammatory speeches he gave at Shaheen Bagh and the Jamia Milia Islamia, a senior official said on Monday.

According to Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad, Manish Kumar, Imams house in Kako police station area was raided late on Sunday night following "help sought by central agencies" which are investigating the cases lodged against the JNU research scholar.

Imam was not found at his house but two of his relatives and their driver were detained for interrogation and let off thereafter, the SP said.

A graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, Sharjeel Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU.

He was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speeches went viral on the social media wherein he was heard speaking about Assams possible secession from the country in the wake of the Citienship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Earlier, he had been booked on similar charges at a police station in Aligarh for a speech he delivered on the AMU campus.

Besides, a case under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA has been registered against him at Assam.

Imams late father Akbar Imam was a local JD(U) leader who had unsuccessfully contested an assembly election in his lifetime.

Reacting to the developments, his distraught mother Afshan Rahim told the media, "My son is innocent. He is a bright young man and not a thief or a pickpocket. I swear in the name of God that I do not know about his whereabouts.

"But I can guarantee that upon learning about the cases, he will appear before the investigating agencies and fully cooperate in the probe."



She said that it has been a long time since she met her son though she had a telephonic conversation with him a few weeks ago.

"He was obviously disturbed by the CAA and fears of the National Register of Citiznes (NRC) about being implemented across the country which, he said, would affect not just Muslims but all poor people," she said.

In fact, after 15 days of Shaheen Bagh protest, he had asked the agitators there to withdraw and watch the situation for a month, and then decide on the further course of action, she said.

"But they refused to relent. He was calling for a 'chakkajam' (road blockade). He is just a kid and not capable of instigating people for secession," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAGHDAD - A suspected militia attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad wounded one person late Sunday, officials said, underscoring the growing risks to personnel there amid calls for an end to the American military presence.

Late-night rocket or mortar attacks on Baghdad's Green Zone, home to government buildings and embassies, have become commonplace as the Trump administration increases financial and political pressure on Iran, which backs a number of militias in Iraq.

The strike Sunday marked a rare direct hit inside the U.S. Embassy's heavily fortified compound and was the first in years to apparently wound foreign personnel inside the facility. One mortar shell hit the dining area, while two others landed close by, officials said.

The identity of the wounded individual was not made public Monday, but U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the person suffered an injury that was not life-threatening and that a small fire was extinguished.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to Cairo, Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said that the attack injured one person but that the person has since "returned to duty." Initial reports suggested that the person was a U.S. contractor.

The mortar attack also caused a fire that was put out, McKenzie said.

Maj. John Rigsbee, a U.S. military spokesman, said all Defense Department personnel in the compound have been accounted for.

Sunday's attack came almost exactly a month after a similar attack killed an American contractor on a military base in northern Iraq, sparking an intense round of brinkmanship that pushed the United States and Iran to the edge of open conflict.

In late December, after the United States launched retaliatory airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah, its supporters responded with a brief siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Days later, President Trump ordered a drone strike that killed one of Iran's top military commanders as he arrived in Baghdad. Tehran hit back with waves of ballistic missiles on a section of Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base housing U.S. troops. At least 34 U.S. service members have since been treated for traumatic brain injuries.

Although tensions have ebbed, Sunday's attack highlighted the persistent threat to U.S. diplomatic and military facilities in Iraq.

The Iraqi prime minister is under growing pressure to expel foreign troops, and rocket attacks on the Green Zone have become a weekly occurrence. No group has asserted responsibility for the Sunday strike, or any before it. Kataib Hezbollah denied involvement. Militiamen from other groups also publicly condemned the attack.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In a statement, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi described it as a "hostile" act.

"While condemning this illegal act, we instructed our security forces to arrest the attackers and bring them to justice," he said.

Analysts and Western officials believe that Abdul Mahdi has limited control over Iraq's constellation of militia groups, particularly those backed or influenced by Iran.

Several have been involved in a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iraq. Although the prime minister has repeatedly vowed to punish those responsible for the worst violations, no senior figures have been faced any consequences.

- - -

The Washington Post's Mustafa Salim in Baghdad, Missy Ryan aboard a military aircraft and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.
During Q3 2019, Indias smartphone shipments reached 49 million units and subsequently during Q4 2019, Xiaomi and Samsung continued to lead the smartphone market in India. Now, according to a report from Counterpoint Research, India has surpassed the US to become the 2nd largest smartphone market in the world after reaching 158 million shipments in 2019.

There has been a 7% YoY growth and the main reason is due to the growth of the mid-tier segment with Chinese OEMs launching many flagship-grade features and capabilities on smartphones, and also to capture demand from users who are upgrading their smartphone.

According to the report, in 2019 Xiaomi grew 5% YoY followed by Samsung which showed a 5% decline YoY. On the other hand, Vivo grew 76% YoY, realme grew a massive 255% YoY, OPPO grew 28% YoY, and other brands showed a 39% decline YoY in 2019.

Similarly, in Q4 2019, Xiaomis smartphone market share was 27%, the same as during Q4 2018, and it is followed by Vivo with 19%, up from 10% during Q4 2018. It is followed by Samsung with 19%, down from 20%, OPPO with 12%, up from 7%, realme with 8%, the same as during Q4 2018. Other brands exhibited a 7% YoY change.

Furthermore, according to the report, Apple was one of the fastest-growing brands in Q4 2019 and Itel, Infinix, and Tecno reached its highest ever market share in Q4 2019. Lastly, major brands are aiming to expand into the fast-growing mid-tier segment this year and it should be an interesting segment to watch.

Source
New Delhi:

The government on Monday decided to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals from Wuhan city in coronavirus-hit Chinese province of Hubei. India's Ministry of External Affairs will request Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indians from Wuhan, officials said on Monday. China is reeling under the coronavirus epidemic which has claimed 80 lives so far.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba which carried out a detailed review of the situation arising out of outbreak of coronavirus in China. It was also decided that shipping ministry will initiate screening of people at international ports having traffic from China. The Shipping Ministry informed that necessary communication has been sent to the national port authorities. They were also directed to follow up with the Inland Waterways Authority of India, and coordinate with the maritime states.

The Centre has stepped up vigil in areas bordering Nepal in view of a confirmed case of novel coronavirus detected there. The Union Health Ministry on Monday said teams of healthcare professionals have been deployed in West Bengal's Panitanki and Uttarakhand's Jhulaghat and Jauljibi in Pithoragarh district, bordering Nepal.

Till Sunday, 29,707 passengers arriving in India in 137 flights have been screened for novel coronovirus infection symptoms and no case has so far been detected in India. Over 100 people have been kept under observation in Kerala and Maharashtra following screening for a possible exposure to the novel coronavirus, which spread in China.

The Prime Minister's Office on Saturday reviewed India's preparedness to deal with any situation amid mounting global concern over rising cases in China.

A 24x7 NCDC call centre (+91-11-23978046) has been made operational to monitor the list of contacts furnished by the Ministry of External Affairs; provide details of district and state surveillance officers to those who seek them; and in case of any clinical query, direct the concerned to the relevant Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) officer.

Thermal screening is being done at seven designated airports -- New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

Novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus that has so far killed 80 people and affected 2,744 in China is a novel strain and not seen before. It has emerged from a seafood and animal market in China's Wuhan, and is suspected to have spread to as far as the United States. According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

(With PTI Inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has called all the floor leaders of the Upper house for a meeting at his residence on January 31, ahead of the Budget session of the Parliament.

The Union budget will be presented on February 1, by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Ahead of printing of documents relating to Union Budget 2020-21, the customary 'Halwa ceremony' was held January 20 at the Ministry of Finance, North Block.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and other government officials were also present at the ceremony.

Congress parliamentary strategy group, chaired by interim President Sonia Gandhi, had also called for a meeting ahead of the Budget session. Further, a meeting of like-minded parties has been called on January 30.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Centre on Monday decided to take steps for possible evacuation of over 250 Indians from Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, and announced a raft of precautionary measures to deal with suspected cases.

IMAGE: A woman wearing a face mask stands in the empty luggage collection hall at the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

A meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed India's preparedness to deal with the virus amid mounting global concern over increasing number of cases in China and several other countries.

In India, no case has been detected so far though nearly 450 people have been kept under observation in the country, most of them in Kerala, following screening for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus. Some, who have returned from China in recent weeks, have approached medical authorities as a precautionary step.

Till Monday, a total 33,552 passengers arriving in India from China in 155 flights have been screened.

"4,359 passengers in 18 flights from China screened today (on Monday) for nCoV. No (positive) case has been found in the country so far," a senior health official said.

The meeting in Delhi presided by the Cabinet Secretary decided to take a a series of precautionary measures including screening of people at international ports having traffic from China as well as at the integrated check posts across the border with Nepal.

Officials said Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, stuck in Wuhan city.

'It was decided that steps may be taken to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. Accordingly, Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities,' a government statement said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani have urged the Centre to take steps to bring back students from their states who are studying in Wuhan.

Wuhan along 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading. The death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

Over 250 to 300 Indian students are reportedly stuck in Wuhan triggering concerns over their well-being.

The statement said the ministry of civil aviation and ministry of health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively.

The meeting also decided that the civil aviation ministry will issue instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

Officials said the civil aviation ministry will also ask the airlines to make in-flight announcements and distribute 'health cards' to all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

The home ministry will ensure that integrated check posts initiate screening of visitors across Nepal border.

'States have been requested to provide health staff for these check posts. SSB/ BSF/Immigration officers manning integrated check posts have been sensitised,' the statement said.

Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan spoke to chief secretaries and police chiefs of the five states bordering Nepal -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim to review their preparedness for prevention and management of the coronavirus.

The Principal Secretary (Health) carried out a similar exercise with other states and Union Territories.

The Union health ministry has also urged passengers who have a travel history to China since January 1 to come forward for self-reporting at the nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms such as fever, cough, respiratory distress etc.

A Chinese national on tourist visa in Kolkata has been kept in an isolation ward at the Beleghata ID Hospital since Sunday after she complained of high fever and rashes, and officials said they are awaiting her test reports.

They said the foreign national has mild fever and stomach ache, symptoms that do not necessarily suggest presence of the novel coronavirus.

"She has been travelling for quite sometime and came to India from Madagascar a few months ago... As a part of precautionary measure, we have isolated the woman till her reports arrive," Principal Secretary of Health Department Vivek Kumar told PTI.

According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the virus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Kerala

At least 436 people, who returned to Kerala from China in recent days, are under observation for possible exposure to coronavirus, according to health officials in Thiruvananthapuram.

Five people are still under observation in isolation wards at various hospitals across the state, officials said, adding, all results of blood samples sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune till now have been found to be negative for the virus.

While three people are in hospitals at Ernakulam, one each are in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, officials said. Two people, admitted earlier to hospitals in Pathanamthitta and Malappuram, have been discharged.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting stranded Indians from Wuhan saying the state had information from relatives of students from Kerala studying at various Universities there that the situation there was 'grave'.

Maharashtra

As many as 3,756 passengers arriving from China were screened for the coronavirus at the international airport here since January 18, but no confirmed case of the deadly disease has been found so far in Mumbai, a state health department official said on Monday.

Five people are under observation in Maharashtra, including three who have tested negative. Reports of the others are awaited, the official said.

A high-level meeting was held in chaired by Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, public health department, to review preparations to deal with any situation.

"The government will prepare a list of passengers who have returned to Mumbai from China since January 1 this year and will enquire about their health condition," the official said.

Bihar

A woman who returned from China last week was admitted to a Patna hospital on Monday with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus.

The woman who is in her 20s returned home to Chapra, the headquarters of Saran district, from China on January 22 and she was taken to the Chapra Sadar Hospital three days later.

Punjab

Thermal sensors have been installed at Amritsar international airport to screen passengers for deadly novel coronavirus, the Punjab government said, adding it will also set up a screening facility at Mohali international airport on Tuesday.

Thermal screening is already being done at many airports including in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

The state health department also found no symptoms of the virus among four passengers, three at Amritsar airport and one at Mohali airport, who travelled to China recently, state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said, adding people who travelled to China in the last 28 days can report to their nearest district hospital for any assistance.

Gujarat

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene after parents of students studying in Wuhan sought help for their safe return.

The state government said as many as 100 students from the state are stuck in China, and informed that Rupani has spoken to Jaishankar on phone asking him to ensure their safe return home.

Telangana

Three persons, who had travelled to China but do not have symptoms of the novel Coronavirus, were under observation of medical authorities in Hyderabad.

The three approached the authorities in view of spread of the virus in China and they were admitted to the state-run Institute of Tropical Diseases (Fever hospital) in the city, medical sources said.

However, two of them have since been discharged after being advised to stay put at home, they said.

Karnataka

As part of preventive steps , two residents of Bengaluru who returned from China about ten days ago, have been kept under medical supervision at a hospital, the Karnataka Health Department said.

Another person who was admitted for medical supervision three days ago had been discharged after he tested negative.

Goa

The Goa government has decided to form a special task force to deal with the situation.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has said that people arriving in Goa from the virus-affected regions outside India would be closely monitored.

"I have given instructions to form a special task force to monitor any cases of coronavirus in Goa. All the activities, including people arriving from the virus-affected regions, would be closely monitored and information reported to the state Chief Secretary," Rane said.

The task force will work as per the guidelines laid down by the Union Ministry of Health, he added.
Millions of dollars earmarked for the rehabilitation of the southern Philippine city of Marawi, destroyed in a battle with Islamic State militants three years ago, have been sent back to the national treasury due to bureaucratic delays, officials said Monday.

The funds  about 406.5 million pesos (U.S. $8 million)  had lapsed due to slow disbursement approval by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund and the presidents office, acting Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said.

The fund releases are contingent on the NDRRMF Councils endorsement and the Office of the Presidents approval, Avisado said.

President Rodrigo Duterte had promised to rebuild Marawi City as soon as possible, with China, Russia, Japan and the United States pledging to help.

IS-linked militants seized Marawi, a city of 200,000, on May 23, 2017, and fought government troops for five months before finally being driven out. The battle included aerial bombings and killed as many as 1,200 people, most of them militants, officials said.

The funds returned to the treasury were part of 5.1 billion pesos ($100 million) earmarked for the Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program under the 2018 national budget. About 4.4 billion pesos ($86.5 million) had been released as of Dec. 31, 2019.

Meanwhile, thousands who fled Marawi remain in evacuation centers or with relatives. They have appealed to the government to speed up rehabilitation efforts and allow them to return home.

Haroun Alrashid Lucman Jr., a former regional vice governor, said the government had failed to deliver on its promises.

We are now seriously planning to bring our people back to their homes with or without government consent, Lucman said.

Government failure leaves us with no other choice. What our people see now is a government depriving them of their basic rights, he said.

Delays questioned

Drieza Lininding, the leader of a group of young professionals, academics and activists called the Moro Consensus Group of Marawi, slammed the funding delays.

This proves that the problem really lies in the bureaucracy of the government. But it is us, the displaced, who continue to pay the price of incompetence by those handling the rehabilitation, Lininding told BenarNews.

He said many displaced residents have expressed anger but can do next to nothing more than two years after the militants were defeated on Oct. 23, 2017.

A lot have been suffering and many cant get assistance from the government. But the saddest part is, theres a lot of money, Lininding said of the returned funds.

Bai Darangen, a Muslim student leader at the Mindanao State University, said those involved in the rehabilitation process should be held accountable for the delays.

If it was handled right, many residents would have benefitted, she said.

Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato City, Philippines contributed to this report.
Donald Trump's legal defense team resumed its efforts to blast the case against him and defend the president's interactions with Ukraine  with Independent Counsel Ken Starr taking making the case that impeachment is invoked 'all too frequently.'

Starr, who led the impeachment case in the same chamber in 1999, bemoaned the arrival of an 'age of impeachment' without sufficient justification.

'Like war, impeachment is hell. Or at least, presidential impeachment is hell,' said Starr.

'Like war, impeachment is hell,' former Independent Counsel Ken Starr told senators as a member of President Donald Trump's impeachment defense

Starr began his remarks hours after bombshell revelations in a new book manuscript claimed the president personally tied millions in military aide to Biden investigations.

He took to the well of the Senate to attack 'a series of deficiencies' in the impeachment articles that passed the House, according to fellow Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow.

'Judge Starr is very familiar with this process,' said Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, alluding to Starr's role leading the charge to remove President Bill Clinton from office during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Starr began his remarks not by pointing to fights over Trump's July 25 call with the president of Ukraine or the murky way a whistleblower came to light  but with a history lesson that referenced the Nixon impeachment, Iran Contra, and other partisan clashes  then went backed to the British parliament of the 19th Century.

'Instead of a once in a century phenomenon, which it had been, presidential impeachment has become a weapon,' he said.

As other Trump lawyers had noted, the trial occurs with an election around the corner. Adam Schiff countered this in his own arguments by arguing Trump was trying to invite interference in the election  which could call it's fairness into doubt.

'There is a huge prudential factor that this trial is occurring in an election year when we the people in a matter of months will go to the polls,' Starr said.

Rather than the impeachment remedy, Starr invoked the 'tradition of oversight,' which he called 'an enormous check on presidential power.'

If there is a dispute over documents and witnesses, 'Then go to court. It really is as simple as that,' said Starr.

Democrats included an 'Obstruction of Congress' article after the administration refused to provide documents or make witnesses available for the impeachment inquiry in the House.

When Starr was done, New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was unimpressed.

'Im not sure who he was talking to but his arguments were exceedingly thin and did not bear out,' she told DailyMail.com. On Starrs remark that impeachment is hell, she said: I thought that it was an absurd argument and quite rich coming from him.

Trump's high-powered legal team took to the well of the Senate Monday to resume a defense they began on Saturday, when the president complained many Americans wouldn't be tuning in due to the timing.

Before the lawyers made their case, Senate Chaplain Barry Black made note of tragic news, referencing the helicopter crash that killed L.A. Lakers great Kobe Bryant.

'We think about life's brevity, uncertainty and legacy,' said Black.

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow sketched out how the day's arguments would go  after Trump once again pressed his own case with Twitter attacks over the weekend.

'We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all,' said Sekulow.

'The president was all times acting under his constitutional authority, under his legal authority, in our national interest pursuant to his oath of office,' Sekulow argued.

Republicans senators are saying it's increasingly likely there will be witnesses called in Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the wake of revelations from John Bolton's forth coming book.

Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins - two crucial votes in the Democrats' quest to bring more witnesses in the trial - said it's important to hear from the former national security adviser.

They also both said they have spoken with their colleagues about the topic, which could be seen as a warning to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that support is there for such a move.

LEGAL SHOWDOWN AT THE CAPITOL: Trump impeachment attorney Kenneth Starr arrives at the U.S. Capitol on the sixth day of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, in Washington, DC, Monday, January 27, 2020

Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr stands before a crowd of reporters and photographers outside the Justice Department and answers questions about his investigation into President Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky, Washington DC, January 22, 1998. Clinton was acquitted in the Senate. Starr on Monday warned against partisan impeachments

Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020

Mitt Romney and Susan Collins said it's increasingly likely witnesses will be called in Donald Trump's impeachment trial

Both senators cited revelations from John Bolton's forthcoming book as reasons they want to hear from him

JOHN BOLTON'S KEY REVELATIONS John Bolton makes a series of bombshell claims in his book, according to the part of the manuscript seen by the New York Times. They are: Trump told Bolton in August 2019 that he would not release military aid to the Ukraine until they investigated the Bidens and claims of trying to intervene in 2016 in favor of Hillary Clinton

Mike Pompeo privately admitted that Rudy Giuliani's claims Marie Yovanovitch were corrupt were baseless - and that he suspected they were being made to help other Giuliani clients

Bolton warned White House lawyers that he feared Giuliani was using his work with the president to help his private clients

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, was present at least once when Trump and Giuliani discussed Yovanovitch. Mulvaney has told 'associates' he stepped away from such conversations

Pompeo told Bill Barr that he was mentioned in the July call with Zelensky. The Justice Department claims Barr did not know until mid-August

Trump railed about Ukraine trying to 'damage' him in May 2019 when he met Ron Johnson, a Republican senator who was going to Zelensky's inauguration. And Trump also mentioned the conspiracy theory that Ukraine had a hacked Democratic server

Bill Barr expressed concerns about Trump doing personal favors for autocrats including China's Xi and Turkey's Erdogan when Bolton raised the issue with him Advertisement

Democrats need four Republican senators to cross to their side and vote to subpoena witnesses.

'It's increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton,' Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday.

'I of course will make a final decision on witnesses after we hear not only from the prosecution but from the defense,' he said. 'I think at this stage its fair to say John Bolton has a relevant testimony.'

He added that he expected other Republicans to join the call for Bolton to testify.

'I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,' he said. 'I have spoken with others who have opined upon this.'

A senior Democratic congressional staffer working on impeachment told DailyMail.com Monday that, 'We had no communication with Mr. Bolton or Mr. Boltons lawyers.

Bolton has said he will testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.

Collins also said she was leaning toward voting for witnesses.

'From the beginning, Ive said that in fairness to both parties the decision on whether or not to call witnesses should be made after both the House managers and the presidents attorneys have had the opportunity to present their cases. Ive always said that I was likely to vote to call witnesses just as I did in the 1999 Clinton trial,' she said in a statement Monday.

'The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,' she added.

Other Republican senators have weighed in as lawmakers return to Washington for day two of President Trump's defense team.

'We dont know whats in there other than whats being leaked. My guess is John Bolton tells the truth,' said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Bolton and Johnson had spoken in August - when Bolton still worked in the White House - about aid to Ukraine. Bolton urged Johnson to call President Trump directly on the matter, which the senator did.

Some of the president's defenders, however, have charged Bolton with trying to sell a book. Bolton was fired from the White House in September of last year

'Truly theres nothing new here. It does seem to be an effort to sell books. I think theres going to be a new revelation every day. Todays just one more day,' said Republican Sen. John Barrasso.

'I dont think it changes any fundamental information of the basic case, that the House has to put the case together,' said Sen. Roy Blunt.

McConnell has said the Senate will vote on calling witnesses after opening arguments are made. That would set up a vote sometime this week.

President Trump denied the charges in Bolton's book

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Monday that Bolton's book puts increased pressure on the Senate to call witnesses.

'The eyes of America are on Republicans in the Senate,' he said.

The impeachment trial was upended Sunday night when The New York Times reported on a leaked copy of an unpublished manuscript for the new book Bolton is writing.

'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' is scheduled to be published March 17.

In it, Bolton wrote that the president told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the Eastern European nation helped with political investigations into his political rivals.

Trump has denied the charge.

'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,' he tweeted in response.

The president also told reporters at the White House on Monday that he has not seen Bolton's manuscript.

Bolton had sent it to the White House for pre-publishing clear, which is required by federal law when former government employees with security clearances are writing about their time in government service in order to assure classified information is not compromised.

Sarah Tinsley, an advisor to Bolton, said in a statement: 'The ambassador's manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period.'




Experts have warned of the attempt by many foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) to dodge the laws to enjoy preferences and make local authorities lose lock, stock and barrel.

The mountainous province of Hoa Binh has attracted nearly 40 foreign invested projects with the total investment capital of over $500 million.

Exploiting the loopholes of the Investment Laws, some investors have been found dodginh the laws to enjoy investment incentives and get benefits. The provincial authorities now have to brainstorm to find solutions to deal with the problem.



Investors die young to enjoy preferences



In 2010, a foreign investor said he wanted to develop a project in Hoa Binh urgently. The provincial authorities then decided to set up a task force in charge of clearing the site to allocate land to the investor.



In the first phase, the provincial authorities cleared 36.3 hectares and the land use right certificate was granted. In the second phase, the provincial authorities cleared 77 hectares of land and released the decision on taking back the land.

Experts have warned of the attempt by many foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) to dodge the laws to enjoy preferences and make local authorities lose lock, stock and barrel.

After the decision was released, the foreign investor disappeared. The province had to pay money for the 144 hectares of cleared land itself. When the project was terminated, the investor sold all the properties built on the land to another investor.



The FDI project was expected to last 50 years and it could enjoy the land rent exemption for 15 years.



However, after operating for 10 years, the project unexpectedly stopped operation.



When foreign investors terminate projects, the provincial authorities have to pay the site clearance money back to investors, a representative of the Hoa Binh Planning and Investment Department explained.



As such, the investor didnt have to pay for site, while he still could earn money from selling properties to new investor."



The new investor, after buying properties built on the land, asked to continue to develop project on the land. Under the current laws, the investor doesnt have to pay land rent. As a result, the local authorities suffered.



This is just one of the cases in which foreign investors have dodged the law to enjoy benefits.



Phan Thi Thu Hang from the Hoa Binh provincial Industrial Zone Management Board said in order to settle the problem, it is necessary to amend the laws about the time period for which investors can enjoy incentives.



When compiling the Investment Law, policy makers assume that that life of a project is 50 years and they design the land rent exemption for 15 years. However, in reality, many projects terminate just after 5-10 years of operation, Hang said.



In this case, provincial authorities cannot get any benefit from investors, she said. The legal loophole has been exploited by foreign investors in many localities to enjoy preferences.

Linh Ha

Real estate retains second position in FDI attraction Real estate remained the second biggest magnet for FDI in 2019, following processing  manufacturing, as it attracted $3.88 billion FDI, equivalent to 10.2 percent of the total registered.
A Florida man has been accused of lying about damage caused by Hurricane Irma, federal prosecutors announced this week.

An indictment was returned charging Deontre Javan Taylor, 26, of Jacksonville, with disaster assistance fraud. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison.

Taylor falsified records concerning his primary residence when submitting an application for assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the indictment.

Hurricane Irma struck Florida in September 2017, causing about $50 billion in damage throughout the state.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida is prosecuting the case. Its part of the United States Attorneys Disaster Fraud Task Force, which was announced shortly after the storm.

A telephone message seeking comment from the Federal Public Defender wasnt immediately returned.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Florida Claims Fraud Hurricane
During his time as president of the United States, Gerald Ford decided to build an outdoor swimming pool at the White House. National Park Service workers examined the ground where the pool would be built. They found Native American artifacts, evidence of the people who lived in Washington, D.C. up to 1,000 years ago.

Very little is known about the earliest Native Americans in Washington, say from 12,000 to 16,000 years ago, said Ruth Trocolli. She is the city archaeologist for the District of Columbia (D.C.). She works to identify and protect the citys archaeological treasures.

Washington sits at the place where two major rivers, the Potomac and the Anacostia, come together. Those waterways date back to Earths Ice Age.

The location was hot, hot, hot for Native Americansbecause there was water available all year round, Trocolli said.

The Native Americans went fishing in the Potomac and the Anacostia. Once a year, when shad swam upriver from the Chesapeake Bay, tribes would come inland to what is today Washington and camp near the water.

They would catch the fish, probably drying it, and while everyone was together, they probably had parties and feasts and weddings and funerals and spiritual ceremonies, Trocolli said.

At the time when Europeans first arrived in the area, three Native groups had come to power: The Piscataway in southern Maryland; the Susquehannock in Pennsylvania; and the Powhatan in Virginia.

The Nacotchtanke

The people of Nacotchtanke were allied with the Piscataway. They were first noted by English Captain John Smith on a 1612 map of the area. Later changed to Anacostia, Nacotchtanke was an Algonquin word for town of traders, wrote the 19th Century Algonquin educator William Wallace Tucker.

Nacotchtanke was made of as many as five villages with a total population of fewer than 400 people, about 80 of them able men, noted Smith. The main village sat on the east side of the Potomac River at the point where it flows into the Anacostia River. It was the perfect place for trading with other tribes and keeping watch for the arrival of their enemies.

Smith did not describe the people of Nacotchtanke, but eyewitness reports from other Algonquin groups give a good idea of what they looked like and how they lived.

The natives are of tallstature, of a skin by nature somewhat tawny, Jesuit clergyman Andrew White wrote of the Yaocomico in 1634.

The men did not have facial hair, he said, but painted the lower half of their faces black. They wore deer skin around their bodies for clothing, and White said they also tied their long hair in a fashionable style to one side.

Their weapons are bows and arrows, wrote White. They direct these with so much skill that at a distance, they can shoot a (small bird) through the middle.

Moving out of Washington

White also wrote that the Yoacomico had a single god but did not worship him in a formal ceremony. However, they did recognize an evil spirit they called Okee, and they tried to keep him happy.

About a thousand years ago, the Native Americans in Washington went from being hunters to being farmers.

Just a few streets from the White House, archaeologists in the 1980s found burial grounds. They held the remains of an adult woman who died at least 1,200 years ago.

A half century after the arrival of European settlers, the population of Nacotchtanke had begun to decrease. Some moved to nearby Analostan Island. Others died from disease or joined the Piscataway.

By the time slaves started building the White House in 1792, the Nacotchtanke people were gone.

I'm Susan Shand.

VOAs Cecily Hilleary reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words In This Story

artifact  n. something discovered at an ancient site

feast  n. a large meal of celebration

wedding  n. a marriage ceremony

stature  n. height

tawny  adj. a brownish yellow color

fashionable  adj. influenced by popular culture

worship  v. to honor or recognize a supernatural being
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi to uphold his country's "sovereignty" in the face of "attacks" from Iran on US facilities in Iraq.

Pompeo "expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran's armed groups against US facilities in Iraq, including yesterday's rocket attacks against our Embassy, which resulted in one injury," the State Department said in a statement on Monday.

The statement said that "these attacks demonstrate a wanton disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups." Pompeo said on Twitter that "the government of #Iraq must take immediate steps to protect our diplomatic facilities as required by international law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) chief proctor has summoned research scholar Sharjeel Imam, who has been booked in sedition cases, to appear before him and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches made by him.

Imam has been asked to appear before the Proctorial Committee by February 3.

He has been booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged "inflammatory" speeches, in which he threatened to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country, made during protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alabama fire officials reported multiple fatalities after a blaze tore through a dock along the Tennesee River early Monday morning.

Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Mecklaus told CBS News the flames consumed 35 boats docked in Jackson County Park.

Mecklaus said seven people were sent to the hospital, and nine people people are missing. Local media described Jackson County Park as a riverboat community, and CBS News reported the fire erupted shortly after midnight when many residents were asleep.

A Jackson County Sherriff's Deputy told the Associated Press that numerous people were able to escape by jumping into the water, but said the county wanted to get divers in the river to look for those who did not survive.
Eight-year-old climate activist Licypriya Kangujam from Manipur, often labelled the 'Indian Greta Thunberg', on Monday rejected the comparison and appealed to the media to recognise her own identity and story. 'If you call me 'Greta of India', you are not covering my story. You are deleting a story,' she tweeted.

Eight-year-old climate activist Licypriya Kangujam from Manipur, often labelled the 'Indian Greta Thunberg', rejected the comparison and appealed to the media to recognise her identity and story. "If you call me 'Greta of India', you are not covering my story. You are deleting a story," she tweeted.

Kangujam received global attention when she addressed the COP25 climate conference in Spain's Madrid in December 2019. The activist, who has already spoken in 21 countries, gave the world a glimpse of her resolve as she urged global leaders to "act now".

It was after the COP25 summit that Spanish newspapers hailed her as the 'Greta of the South', PTI reported.

Dear Media,

Stop calling me Greta of India. I am not doing my activism to looks like Greta Thunberg. Yes, she is one of our Inspiration & great influencer. We have common goal but I have my own identity, story. I began my movement since July 2018 even before Greta was started. pic.twitter.com/3UEqCVWYM8  Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) January 27, 2020

On Monday, Kangujam addressed the label and said, "Stop calling me 'Greta of India'. I am not doing my activism to look like Greta Thunberg. Yes, she is one of our inspirations and is a great influencer. We have a common goal but I have my own identity and story. I began my movement since July 2018 even before Greta had started."

Kangujam further said that she had addressed world leaders at a UN event in Mongolia in July 2018, which is a month before Thunberg's sit-in protest outside the Swedish parliament, demanding action against climate change, had reportedly begun. "Since then I started my movement called 'Child Movement'. In Hindi, we called it 'Bachpan Andolan' to appeal to our world leaders to take immediate climate action."

I first raised my voice to world leaders in Mongolia  in an UN event in July 4, 2018. Since then I started my movement called Child Movement. In Hindi, we called it Bachpan Andolan to call our world leaders to take immediate climate action. pic.twitter.com/79IQzQm2Sn  Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) January 27, 2020

She added that the media first noticed her when she spent a week in front of the Parliament since 21 July, 2019, but that she has opted for the limited publicity because she felt that her work "was more important than the organisation".

"I even dropped out my school since February 2019 (before Grade 1 final exam) when I was just 7 years old due to my weekly protests in front of the Parliament House of India. I sacrificed so much of my life at this tender age not to be called 'Greta of India'.

Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish activist, became the face of the global fight for action against climate change after she protested outside the Swedish parliament for a year since August 2018. In December 2019, the TIME magazine named her as the 'Person of the Year'.

In December, when Kangujam was invited to speak at the COP25 summit, her family had found it difficult to receive funding from the Centre for the trip. According to her father, KK Singh, who accompanied her to Spain, several requests to the government to help her with funding fell on deaf ears, PTI reported.

Singh said the family sent email requests to several ministers for sponsorship but got no reply. He said after trying to crowdfund her trip, a person from Bhubaneshwar booked their tickets to Madrid.

"My mom broke her gold chain and finally booked my hotels," Kangujam said.

However, Singh added that just a day before leaving for Madrid from India on 30 November, they got an email from the Spanish government that they would sponsor their accommodation for the 13-day event.

Kangujam had to drop out of school in February as she could not attend most of her classes. Activism, including participating in a weekly protest outside the Parliament house, took up most of her time.

While her fight against climate change will continue, the activist has not given up on the dream of pursuing her education altogether. According to Singh, Kangujam is the youngest climate activist in the world.

With inputs from agencies
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk will chair the sixth meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, January 28, the liaisons department of the secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers has reported.

"The agenda includes the discussion of the security situation in eastern Ukraine in the context of countering Russian aggression and implementing the Minsk agreements, as well as the situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea. During the meeting of the Association Council, the parties will also analyze the progress made in the implementation of the Association Agreement and discuss the ways of deepening Ukraine's economic and sectoral cooperation with the European Union, cooperation in the field of justice, freedom, and security," the report reads.

It notes that the Ukrainian government's delegation will be headed by Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. The delegation of the European Union will be led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell. The meeting will also be attended by EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Oliver Varhelyi.

The Ukrainian government's delegation also includes Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii, Education and Science Minister Hanna Novosad, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova, Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation in charge of European Integration Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Trade Representative Taras Kachka, Deputy Justice Minister Valeria Kolomiets, and Deputy Minister for Energy and Environmental Protection in charge of European Integration Kostiantyn Chyzhyk.

In addition to attending the plenary session, Honcharuk will also hold bilateral meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, as well as a meeting with Belgian business representatives.

"Following the sixth meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council, a joint press conference by Oleksiy Honcharuk and Josep Borrell will be held at 18:15 local time," the report reads.

op
Italy's populist leader Matteo Salvini appeared to have failed in his bid to win a key regional election and topple the country's fragile coalition government, according to exit polls late January 26.

The far-right League had hoped to score a historic upset and force snap elections in the regional vote in Emilia Romagna, but a high turnout appeared to have favoured the incumbent centre-left candidate.

The Democratic Party's (PD) Stefano Bonaccini had won around 50 percent of the vote against the anti-immigrant League candidate Lucia Borgonzoni's 43 percent, according to projections made at 0100 GMT, after vote counting got under way.

The wealthy centre-north region of Emilia Romagna has been a stronghold of the Italian left for over 70 years, but while left-wing values still hold sway in its cities, the right had rallied serious support in towns and the countryside.

Polls published before the pre-election media blackout showed the League neck-and-neck with the PD, which governs Italy in coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

Turnout in the key region was almost double at around 67 percent compared with 37 percent in 2014, potentially thanks to the support of the anti-populist youth-driven Sardines movement.

Some 3.5 million citizens were eligible to cast ballots to elect the region's president.

"After 70 years there was a match in Emilia Romagna," Salvini told journalists after the first exit polls were published, without conceding defeat.

The candidate of former premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, Jole Santelli, appeared to have won as predicted in the smaller southern region of Calbria, exit polls said.

The League was hoping for a repeat of its historic win in October in Umbria, which had been a left-wing fiefdom for 50 years.

League candidate Borgonzoni, 43, was overshadowed by Salvini, who held daily rallies and inundated social media with snaps of him sampling delicacies in the Parma ham and Parmesan cheese heartland.

Salvini infuriated the left on January 25 when he broke the pre-election silence -- which under Italian law means candidates cannot campaign the day before a vote -- by tweeting about the "eviction notice" he was set to deliver to the government.

PD candidate Bonaccini hoped to win on his track record in the region, which boasts low jobless figures and is home to "Made in Italy" success stories such as Ferrari and Lamborghini.

He also benefitted from the Sardines movement, which was born in the region just a couple of months ago but has fast become a national symbol of protest against the far right.

But analysts said many local family-run, artisanal firms were disgruntled and feeling left behind by the march of globalisation.

The League triumphed in Emilia Romagna at the European Parliament elections in May, becoming the leading party with nearly 34 percent of the votes, topping the PD's 31 percent.

Just five years earlier it had taken home a mere five percent, compared to the PD's 53 percent.

Voter Andrea Setti, a 34-year old bank employee, told AFP he felt it was even more important than usual for him to cast his ballot, as the region's political "colour", or allegiance, was nowhere near as clear cut as it used to be.

"Now you cannot really know which way it's going to go," he said.

Fellow voter Lisa Zanarini, 31, said she hoped people would not be seduced by "easy words and easy promises".

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has dismissed fears of a government crisis if Salvini's party won, saying the election concerned the region alone and had no bearing on national politics.

The coalition's main stabilising factor is a joint fear of snap elections which would likely hand power to Salvini, whose party is well ahead in national polls.

Analysts had warned that a League victory could cause the M5S, which is riven by infighting and has been haemorrhaging members, to collapse.

Contested M5S head Luigi Di Maio resigned Wednesday in a bid to stave off a crisis -- but political watchers cautioned that it may not be enough.
It has been three years since the Jan. 29 Quebec City mosque shooting. As Canadians come together to commemorate the anniversary of this tragic event, this week they will also see the appeal hearing of Alexander Bissonette, the perpetrator of the attack.

In 2018, on the first anniversary of the attack, I travelled to Quebec City to meet the families left behind by the six victims on that devastating day. A few weeks go, I decided to meet with them again to see how they are doing three years later.

One of the women who lost her husband in the attack hosted us. When we entered the home of our gracious host, we were welcomed with open arms and the aroma of a scrumptious meal in the air. As the other five women trickled in, the strength of their bond with each other was immediately obvious.

We got to chatting about everyday things  the weather, politics, food  but it didnt take long before the conversation turned to the attack and what it has been like for them since. Their pain was palpable, their frustrations were justified.

As I listened to what the women had to say, I was reminded that they still have a long road ahead of them, but they remain resilient. And we as Canadians need to be there with them, every step of the way.

There is no shortage of problems in our world that we are trying to solve, and often after the initial shock of a tragic event wears off, we tend to forget the sustainable, long-term support needed by those who are affected. Most importantly, this includes financial support, as many of these families lost their primary breadwinner in the attack, and they have to cope with the rising costs of living while still trying to process their trauma.

Those of us who have had the privilege of growing up under the loving care of our parents can only try to imagine what the past three years have been like for the 17 children of the six men who were killed. They have had to grow up knowing that they lost their fathers to the senseless violence of hate and feeling the absence of their fathers at every birthday party, graduation and countless other moments in life.

As single mothers and now the primary breadwinner of their families, a jarring sense of responsibility has been put on their shoulders to support their families both financially and psychologically.

One of the women told us how she had to close their family business after the attack so she could look after her three children. Another mother told me that the kids at school were telling her daughter that her father was assassinated, leaving her daughter to come home with questions of why and how and if he was in heaven.

Dealing with the psychological trauma of the children has also been one of the biggest concerns for the widows. Many spoke about their children feeling much more vulnerable and scared about life in general, and they had limited access to resources to help them get the psychological help they need.

After the shooting in 2017, the organization I work for, Islamic Relief Canada, launched an appeal that raised over $240,000 in immediate support to the affected families. Three years later, we are launching another campaign asking the Canadian public to support the families through monthly donations.

The goal is to set up a sustainable fund for the children of the Quebec City mosque shooting which will support them financially until they are able to do so on their own. The response to this campaign has been promising. Canadians from coast to coast have once again demonstrated that they have not forgotten those who were most affected by what was essentially a crime against Canada itself.

Despite the struggle of the last three years, these women remain thankful for life and resilient in ensuring that their priority is their children. Some of these women have found comfort in each other. Their stories inspired me to want to do everything I can to not only help them, but to take steps to work together across the country to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

As Jan. 29 approaches, like every year we will see commemorations, vigils, and debates about Islamophobia and legislation such as Bill 21 in Quebec. Too often, these debates take over the conversation in the media and in politics. While these issues are important to discuss, we cant neglect the human side of the tragedy, the real-life consequences of hate, which continue for years after the attack.

These are the stories we need to hear: the stories of the six men killed in the Quebec City mosque shooting and the women and children they left behind, all of whom have had to pay a terrible price simply for practicing their faith.

Reyhana Patel is the head of Communications at Islamic Relief Canada. Shes a former BBC journalist.

Read more about:
The ability of the new coronavirus to spread is strengthening and infections could continue to rise, China's National Health Commission said yesterday, with more than 2,000 people in China infected and 56 killed by the disease.

Health authorities around the world are racing to prevent a pandemic after a handful of cases of infection were reported outside China, including in Thailand, Australia, the United States and France.

The mayor of Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the outbreak, said he expected another 1,000 new patients in the city, which was stepping up construction of special hospitals.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because much about it is still unknown, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people.

It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

China's National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said the incubation period for the virus can range from one to 14 days, during which infection can occur, which was not the case with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).

Sars was a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.

Stronger

"According to recent clinical information, the virus's ability to spread seems to be getting somewhat stronger," Mr Ma told reporters.

The Lunar New Year holiday, traditionally celebrated by hundreds of millions of Chinese travelling around the country and abroad to see family, began on Friday but has been severely disrupted by the outbreak.

Mr Ma said China would intensify its containment efforts, which have so far included transportation and travel curbs.

The country may extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing a meeting hosted by Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

The virus, believed to have originated late last year in a seafood market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife, has spread to cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

Hong Kong has six confirmed cases.

The World Health Organisation this week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.

Chinese President Xi Jinping described the situation as "grave" on Saturday.

China confirmed 2,051 cases of infection as of 7pm (11am GMT) yesterday, while the death toll from the virus remained at 56, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Health officials in Orange County, California, reported that a third case had been registered in the United States in a traveller from Wuhan, who was in isolation.

On Saturday, Canada declared a first "presumptive" confirmed case in a resident who had returned from Wuhan.

Australia, meanwhile, confirmed its first four cases.
Chinese citizens are finding ways on social media to lash out at the government and President Xi Jinping over the deadly coronavirus outbreak spreading across the globe.

The virus, known as 2019-nCoV, was first discovered in the city of Wuhan, home to 11 million people and capital of the Hubei province.

So far, figures show nearly 3,000 people have been afflicted worldwide and 82 people - all in China - have died.

China's government has tight control on the country's media and Internet and often censors any form of criticism.

But citizens have found clever ways to dodge those censors by comparing the coronavirus outbreak to the Chernobyl explosion or by replacing Xi's name in tweets with 'Trump.'

Chinese social media users have been attempting to skirt censors as they critique President Xi over his response to the coronavirus outbreak by referring to him as 'Trump'. Pictured: A woman wearing a face mask uses her cellphone at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Monday

When the outbreak first began in December 2019, authorities led the public to believe it was 'under control' and 'mild' as they had done with the SARS outbreak in 2002.

Within a few weeks, officials soon revealed the fast-spreading nature of the virus, and that it was far from mild - in fact, it was deadly.

However, the government has not stopped trying to control the narrative surrounding the crisis.

Several state-run media operations like China Global Television Network have shared videos, set to dramatic music, commending the bravery of the doctors and nurses caring for sick patients.

In addition, several official social media posts with updates about the outbreak have been quickly deleted.

This has forced Chinese citizens to come up with creative ways to express their dissatisfaction.

Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley and founder of China Digital Times, a bilingual news website that covers China, told The New York Times that Chinese citizens are irritated by the government's lack of transparency.

'Chinese social media are full of anger, not because there was no censorship on this topic, but despite strong censorship,' he said.

'It is still possible that the censorship will suddenly increase again, as part of an effort to control the narrative.'

As the number of those diagnosed rose, President Xi made few to no public remarks or appearances to address the crisis.

Users took to China's Twitter-like platform Weibo and, because Xi's name can trigger sensors, many simply asked: 'Where's that person?'

But even such veiled comments disappeared, so users began replacing Xi's name with that of US President Donald Trump.

In one example, reported by The Times, a user writes:, 'I don't want to go through another minute of this year, my heart is filled with pain, I hope Trump dies.'

In another, people began comparing the outbreak to the Chernobyl disaster, a nuclear accident that took place in 1986 in Ukraine that also saw a cover-up by the then-Soviet government.

'In any era, any country, it's the same. Cover everything up,' a social media user wrote in a 'review' for Chernobyl, the HBO series about the disaster.

The Wuhan coronavirus was recently confirmed to have emerged from illegally traded wildlife at a seafood market, with experts suggesting the virus was passed to humans from snakes or wolf cubs.

Aside from China and the US, cases have been confirmed in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Cases are also suspected in Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines and the UK.

On Sunday, Chinese Health Minister Ma Xiaowei said the virus's ability to spread is getting stronger and that it can be transmitted before people exhibit any symptoms.

There is no cure for the new virus or vaccine to prevent it, and the National Institutes of Health says research to develop a vaccine is in 'very preliminary stages.'
In its latest salvo against California, the Trump administration is threatening to withhold federal funds unless the state rolls back a law requiring health care insurers to provide coverage for abortions.

We want California to come to the table so people wont be forced to choose between having insurance coverage for their families and following their conscience, said Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, during a Friday press call.

Severino said Californias regulation, which dates back to 2014, violates federal law prohibiting discrimination against providers that dont cover abortion.

Californias law is regularly subject to legal challenges  a November ruling, in which the state Supreme Court upheld Californias law in a case brought by a Catholic missionary organization, is a typical example.

But the Obama administration rejected a right of conscience complaint from antiabortion groups in California in 2016. The Obama administration concluded that the states policy did not violate the Weldon Amendment, a provision that protects doctors, nurses, hospitals and other health care providers who object to performing abortions.

Health insurance firms, the Obama administration found, are not covered under the amendments provisions.

The Weldon Amendment is quite specific. It states that no federal funds may go to a state or local government that discriminates against any institutional or individual health care entity ... on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

Californias state law specifically draws a distinction between employers who self-fund their plans (and could arguably be considered individual health care entities) and regulated health insurance providers, which are business entities that provide coverage to pools of people  and act on the request of customers, instead of following an individual conscience.

Yet Severino is basing his threat against California on the Weldon Amendment, saying that the state is the recipient of many kinds of health and human service funding that could be pulled if it doesnt comply within 30 days.

The Trump administration can spin this saber-rattling action as an act of conscience all it wants.

There is simply no good explanation, apart from bullying, for this threat.

Five other states  Illinois, Maine, New York, Oregon and Washington  have laws similar to Californias.

Only California is being singled out.

Furthermore, its hard not to see this as a well-timed publicity stunt for President Trump.

While Severino was threatening the state of California, Trump was giving the first in-person address by a sitting president at the March for Life in Washington.

Trumps presence at the March for Life, which takes place annually on the National Mall as a call to overturn Roe vs. Wade, is proof of how intertwined the issue has become with Republican voter turnout and, Trump hopes, his own re-election.

Unfortunately, Trump may see another skirmish with the state of California  Attorney General Xavier Becerra has already promised that the state will continue to protect our families access to health care, including womens constitutional right to abortion  as another element of his re-election effort.

If so, its a cynical politicization of Californias determination to provide access to health care for its residents. With billions of dollars in federal health care funding at stake, its also a cynical and dangerous game to play with our residents health.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
[January 27, 2020] Business Reporter: Why the Changing Nature of Work Is Worth Celebrating

LONDON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Businesses can greatly benefit from the rapidly shifting world of work, says Guidant Global. We are slowly but surely saying goodbye to the nature of work as we once knew it. Norms are shifting, from somewhat restrictive mainstream office practices to flexible, modern alternatives. Global talent acquisition and managed workforce solution provider Guidant Global has identified the three trends steering change in today's workforce: Globalisation, which enables businesses to hire people from across the world, without having to meet them face-to-face Generational change, which is increasing the demand for flexibility Digital transformation, which is set to drastically change the way work is carried out But, as Simon Blockley, CEO at Guidant Global, says, "Change needn't be scary. It has the potential to create a more equitable, profitable world of work." Which means businesses can significantly benefit from rethinking the way they operate and embracing the modern work revolution. And change is already happening. Today, more than 40 per cent of employees are now considered non-permanent workers. "Flexible work is no longer seen a benefit but an expectation," adds Blockley. "The mindset of employees is shifting. People are championing a work-life balance, which will help bring about more productive work and improve the wellbeing of entire teams." We won't completel abandon working life as it currently is, but major changes are on the horizon. And this is something to be excited about, rather than feared. You know what they say: the best is yet to come.



To learn more about why the changing nature of work is worth celebrating, read the full article here. About Business Reporter

Business Reporter is distributed with The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and City AM, with each publication reaching an average of 1.5 million people. Content is also published through the Business Reporter and teiss websites, which include video debates, online articles and digital magazines, delivering news and analysis on the issues affecting businesses to a global audience. Business Reporter also hosts conferences, breakfast meetings and exclusive summits, events which bring together some of the most influential decision makers and innovators in modern business. These exclusive events for business leaders give Business Reporter direct contact with readers and help to inform the content and direction of its editorial projects. Business Reporter is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and was the first UK member of the UN SDG Media Compact. We have launched a website dedicated to showcasing the work of companies towards these goals at 17globalgoals.com. Business Reporter is committed to providing meaningful analysis to everyone in business. Whether you're running a small business, the head of a local company or an executive in a multinational corporation, there's something for you at Business Reporter. www.business-reporter.co.uk About Guidant Global Guidant Global provide global workforce management solutions (MSP, RPO & SOW) that help companies find the best permanent and contingent talent. We champion #ABetterWay  a forward-thinking way of working; moving away from the embedded staffing industry mentality of 'recruitment by numbers' and taking a wider perspective, by shifting the focus to people  the vibrant force that drives thriving businesses. Guidant Global have unprecedented insight into the world at work. We are active in 80+ countries, managing 200,000+ engagements, for 125+ clients each year. Global talent shortages are rife. Our insight helps businesses buck the trend to get the best talent. For more information please visit: www.guidantglobal.com

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The nuclear energy industry has been struggling to stay afloat in countries that were once nuclear powerhouses. Japan has all but turned its back on nuclear after the Fukushima tragedy in 2011, after which they immediately shut down all of their reactors. Some of Japans nuclear plants have since come back online, but the nuclear industry is nowhere near as strong as before 2011, and the people of Japan are still largely distrusting of this form of power production, and understandably so seeing as the aftermath of Fukushima is still wreaking havoc in Japan, which doesnt know what to do with the vast quantities of radioactive, contaminated water that they have been using to keep the easily-overheated reactors from melting down again over the past nine years. In fact, Japans economy and industry ministry has suggested releasing the radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean or allowing it to evaporate into the air--a contentious proposal as the nation is set to host the Summer Olympics.

In the United States, the worlds biggest nuclear energy producer, the industry has also been faltering. The sector simply cant compete with the shale revolution--the flood of cheap natural gas gushing out of the West Texas Permian Basin. In many states, the nuclear industry has become dependent on government handouts, while it is taxpayers who get stuck with the staggering costs of managing spent nuclear fuel, most of which stays radioactive for tens of thousands of years.

Many experts, however, say that it is too soon to sound the death knell for nuclear, and that there is a simple answer to keeping the emissions-free form of power production economically viable. This answer comes in the form of small nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs). These reactors are a direct solution to a lot of the industrys biggest shortcomings. Historically, nuclear energy has had little-to-no standardization and building a new nuclear energy plant therefore was a hugely time-consuming and costly endeavor requiring whole teams of high-paid experts. Conversely, these small-scale SMRs are not only easily standardized, they can also be built offsite, making them much cheaper, more efficient, and easily scalable. Whats more, for those NIMBYs skeptical of having a nuclear reactor nearby, these smaller reactors are also thought to be safer. Related: U.S. Shale Patch Sees Huge Jump In Bankruptcies

And now its not just a startup industry--there are some big players getting involved in the SMR game. The newest entry to the industry? Rolls-Royce. Last week Popular Mechanics reported that modular reactors are au courant in energy technology, and Rolls-Royce joins startups and governments around the world in trying to shrink the footprint and increase the safety of nuclear energy. The companys mini-reactors will be just one-tenth of the size of a traditional reactor but theyre set to make an outsized splash.

Rolls Royce, also known for its luxury automobile division which is now part of the BMW group, will be dipping its toe into the nuclear waters with two sites in Wales and Northern England as part of a program that the British government pledged to fund back in July of last year. The company says that they will build up to 15 new reactors, with the first on track to go online in nine years.

Rolls-Royce's SMRs will take just four years to construct, cutting the development time of a traditional nuclear reactor in half. While the stations are just a 10th of the size of the traditional model, they pack a punch. Each of these mini-reactors will have the capacity to produce 440 megawatts of electricity, which is only a quarter less energy than full-scale nuclear reactors.

This move marks a turnaround in the UKs approach to nuclear energy. As Futurism reported last week, The UK is currently working to shut down its existing nuclear plants thanks to aging infrastructure and renewed safety concerns, with the goal to close the last one by 2030. But prime minister Boris Johnson stands firmly behind a nuclear future. On Johnsons first day serving in the British House of Commons in July of last year, he said It is time for a nuclear renaissance and I believe passionately that nuclear must be part of our energy mix.

It would make sense for the United States to get behind SMRs as well, as nuclear is one of the most promising solutions to combating climate change with its highly efficient, zero-emission power production. While uranium is not a renewable resource, the United States has plenty of it and could continue to power the country for another 100 years on domestic uranium alone.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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Hotz represents individuals and institutions in complex investigations and enforcement matters by the US Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other regulators, and in related parallel civil litigation. He has extensive experience representing clients in the financial services industry as well as hedge funds and private equity funds in government investigations and enforcement actions. In addition, Hotz has represented senior officials in cross-border investigations of conduct relating to benchmark rates, such as the London Inter-bank Offered Rate and ICE Swap Rate (formerly known as ISDAFIX). Prior to private practice, Hotz served as an Assistant US Attorney and member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Michele Penzer, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in New York, said: "Rob is a phenomenal addition to our very active white collar and trial groups in New York. He will complement our team well, offering impeccable judgment, courtroom tenacity, and stellar negotiation skills."

"We're thrilled to welcome Rob to our top notch white collar team in New York," said Kathryn Ruemmler, Global Chair of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice. "Rob has a well-earned reputation for zealously defending clients in the most sensitive and important matters, and he will be a tremendous addition to the Latham team."

"I'm excited to join Latham's market-leading Litigation & Trial Department, and I have the pleasure of rejoining some of my former colleagues," Hotz said. "I had the privilege of working alongside several on the team while we all served at SDNY, including Chris Clark, Richard Owens, and Ben Naftalis. I have been continually impressed with the fantastic white collar practice they've built at Latham over the years. The firm provides an ideal platform for me to collaborate with colleagues across practices and offices who combine best-in-class lawyering with client service."

Hotz joins Latham from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in New York. He received his undergraduate degree cum laude from Georgetown University and his JD cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center. Following law school, Hotz clerked for Judge James L. Latchum in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

About Latham & Watkins (LW.com)

Latham & Watkins delivers innovative solutions to complex legal and business challenges around the world. From a global platform, our lawyers advise clients on market-shaping transactions, high-stakes litigation and trials, and sophisticated regulatory matters. Latham is one of the world's largest providers of pro bono services, steadfastly supports initiatives designed to advance diversity within the firm and the legal profession, and is committed to exploring and promoting environmental sustainability.

Notes to Editors

1 Latham & Watkins operates worldwide as a limited liability partnership organized under the laws of the State of Delaware (USA) with affiliated limited liability partnerships conducting the practice in France, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, and the United Kingdom and as an affiliated partnership conducting the practice in Japan. Latham & Watkins operates in South Korea as a Foreign Legal Consultant Office. Latham & Watkins works in cooperation with the Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Contacts

Michele Penzer, New York Office Managing Partner, +1.212.906.1245

Kathryn Ruemmler, Global Chair, White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice, +1.202.637.2179

SOURCE Latham & Watkins

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NEW YORK - Singer Billie Eilish, who gave voice to young people struggling with depression on a do-it-yourself album she made at home with her older brother, is atop the music world.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - This June 23, 2019 file photo shows Lizzo playing the flute at the BET Awards in Los Angeles. Billie Eilish and Lizzo, are both nominated for the top four prizes at the Grammy Awards. They will perform at the Grammy Awards on Jan. 26. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK - Singer Billie Eilish, who gave voice to young people struggling with depression on a do-it-yourself album she made at home with her older brother, is atop the music world.

The 18-year-old made history at the Grammy Awards Sunday. Not only did she become the youngest person to win one of Grammy's top awards  record, song and album of the year, and best new artist  Eilish is the first artist to sweep all four since Christopher Cross in 1981.

Her triumph came on a night made sombre by the death of former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. It also ended a tumultuous week for the Recording Academy that included its ousted CEO accusing the Grammys nominations process of being rigged, and Diddy calling out the organization for not giving enough respect to R&B and hip-hop.

An estimated 18.7 million people watched the show, which ran late and packed three of its top awards into the final 15 minutes. That's down from the 19.9 million who watched in 2019 and the 19.8 million viewers in 2018, the Nielsen company said on Monday.

Eilish's When We all Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" also won best pop vocal album. Her brother Finneas O'Connell also won awards for engineering and producing the album.

Billie Eilish arrives at the 2020 Spotify Best New Artist Party at The Lot Studios on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

The music I listened to when I was growing up, maybe 7, 8, 9 or 10, 13, that was the most important music to me forever, Finneas said backstage after the ceremony. Anytime a person that age comes up to either one of us and says (it is their favourite), I know how much that means to them. That's why it means so much to me. I hope they're celebrating. This is all because of them.

He said that they never thought that an album that addresses depression, suicidal thoughts and climate change would be up for a Grammy.

Eilish noted that they made the album in a bedroom of the Los Angeles-area home where they grew up in.

Lauren London, from left, Margaret Boutte, and Samiel Asghedom accept the award for best rap performance for "Racks in the Middle" on behalf of Nipsey Hussle at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

It's like anything is possible, she said.

In accepting her awards, Eilish noted that she had grown up listening to many of the artists at the ceremony in Los Angeles' Staples Center. She also said she thought Ariana Grande deserved album of the year, an onstage moment that recalled Adele saying the same thing about Beyonce the same year Adele triumphed.

The success of a young, white girl came on a night the Recording Academy seemingly went out of its way to highlight diversity. Lizzo offered a powerhouse opening performance, and there were tributes to Prince and the late rapper Nipsey Hussle. Tyler, the Creator offered an incendiary version of Earfquake with Boyz II Men. Lil Nas X sang his omnipresent Old Town Road. H.E.R. sang, as did host Alicia Keys and Gary Clark Jr. with the Roots.

Lizzo arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Tyler, the Creator said later that the rap album Grammy was a backhanded compliment.

While he's grateful to be acknowledged, it also sucks whenever we, I mean guys that look like me, do anything that's genre bending, they always put it in an urban rapper category, he said. I don't like that urban word. It's just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me.

Earlier in the show, Keys sat at a piano to sing a rewrite of Lewis Capaldi's song, Someone You Loved that name-checked many of the nominated artists but also included a few pointed lines about respect.

Nathan Morris, from left, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, of Boyz II Men?, and Alicia Keys, second left, sing a tribute in honor of the late Kobe Bryant at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

I'm gonna be honest with y'all, she said. It's been a helluva week.

Keys also had the delicate task of addressing the shock of Bryant's death in a helicopter crash, while onstage at the same arena where the former Laker won championships.

She sang It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday with Boyz II Men. References to Bryant abounded  a Lakers jersey held up by Run-DMC during their performance of Walk This Way with Aerosmith, and adorning a couch on a set where Lil Nas X began Old Town Road.

Nathan Morris, from left, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, of Boyz II Men?, and Alicia Keys, second left, sing a tribute in honor of the late Kobe Bryant, seen on screen, at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

We're all feeling crazy sadness right now, said Keys, who received praise online for how she handled it.

Alicia, you've been lighting this awards show up, rapper Common said onstage. Thank you.

Besides her big opening, Lizzo took home three Grammys, including best pop solo performance for Truth Hurts and two R&B awards. She also seemed noticeably affected by Bryant's death.

Host Alicia Keys performs at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

We need to continue to reach out, she told her fellow artists. This is the beginning of making music that moves people again.

Clark's pointed This Land also won for best rock song and rock performance, and he won a third for contemporary blues album.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Among the show's more touching moments was Tyler, the Creator bringing his tearful mother onstage with him to accept his Grammy. Singer Demi Lovato made a comeback appearance after her reported overdose, singing a song she said was written in the troubled days before that event. Camila Cabello sang First Man, a song dedicated to her father, and received a bear hug from a sobbing dad when it was done.

Host Alicia Keys speaks during a tribute in honor of the late Kobe Bryant at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

DJ Khaled helped lead the emotional tribute to Hussle, the Los Angeles rapper who was gunned down in March, not long after attending his first Grammy ceremony as a nominee. On Sunday, Hussle won two posthumous Grammys.

Tyler, the Creator, Lizzo and, of course, Eilish were among the acts who won their first-ever Grammys. Other first-time winners included Tanya Tucker, J. Cole, Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, Michelle Obama, Sara Bareilles, Rosalia and 21 Savage.

Gospel legend Kirk Franklin received his 14th and 15th career Grammys.

___

Associated Press writers Mesfin Fekadu and Jonathan Landrum Jr. contributed to this report.
The Air We Breathe is a year-long project that considers the impact of Londons air on our health and asks how we can take action to limit it.

This project is supported financially by the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation, Guys & St Thomas Charity and the Clean Air Fund, who share the projects aims, but our journalism remains editorially independent.

This project is part of our Future London initiative, which looks for solutions to some of the biggest issues facing the capital
A proposal to rewrite Colorados rules for workplace harassment claims is expected to be introduced soon at the state capitol.

It would change things for employers by limiting the use of confidentiality agreements in court, and potentially make businesses liable even if a person doesnt come forward internally before filing a lawsuit.

The bill would also change things for employees by allowing independent contractors, subcontractors and unpaid interns to file harassment claims, Colorado Public Radio reports. All employees would be given two years to file a complaint, up from six months now.

With the gig economy that we have these days, more and more people dont have regular jobs in the traditional sense, said one of the bills main sponsors, Democratic Rep. Susan Lontine of Denver. And so they dont have any way to address when theyve been harmed by harassment.

Lontine and Democratic Sen. Faith Winter of Westminster, the bills other main sponsor, have been at the center of the legislatures own workplace harassment issues in recent years. Both made their own allegations of harassment against sitting lawmakers.

Winter was the first to publicly accuse Democratic Rep. Steve Lebsock of sexual harassment, a move that led to him becoming the second lawmaker in Colorado history to be expelled from the state legislature.

Winters proposed bill was shaped by personal experience and by hearing from constituents and women throughout the community about how common workplace harassment is and the need to really update our laws to make our workplaces harassment free all over Colorado for all workers.

One key provision would change the legal standard for harassment at work. Winter believes the current threshold, which requires harassment to be severe and pervasive, is too high.

Even if an employee was brave enough to come forward and tell their story, actually go to court, `severe and pervasive basically says, well, there is a level of harassment in the workplace thats acceptable, she said.

Instead, Winter wants the new threshold for a hostile work environment to be one that undermines a persons sense of well-being or safety. Some members of the business community, however, say that definition is too broad.

I think you could have a lot of claims made by workers on the job who feel as though their well-being has been undermined, said Loren Furman with the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. So we need to narrow that language to be more specific as to what the proponents are trying to focus on.

Furman takes issue with other elements of the proposed legislation that would make it easier for employees or contractors to bring complaints against a company. She said it could make companies liable for working conditions for contractors they have little control over and leave businesses vulnerable to lawsuits about behaviors theyre unaware of.

We dont advocate for harassment in any way and none of our members do advocate for harassment, Furman said. We want to address this, but we want to do it the right way and we want to make sure that this bill is done correctly and its done so it can be effective and then it doesnt have problems later on when it becomes a law.

Furman also wants penalties added if someone files a frivolous claim and warns that a poorly crafted law could leave companies drowning in bad lawsuits.

According to the National Womens Law Center, since the fall of 2017 when the #MeToo movement took off, 15 states have passed bills to strengthen workplace protections. Some have essentially banned companies from enforcing non-disclosure agreements related to discrimination, retaliation or harassment.

Colorados proposed bill would not allow non-disclosure agreements to keep confidential the identity of the accused in a legal case.

Other states have like Louisiana have said if public funds are used to settle a claim, the victim cannot be prevented from speaking out.

So far, Colorado lawmakers have only addressed the legislatures own policies after complaints against a handful of lawmakers were found credible.

When Winter first came forward in 2017 the capitol didnt have a human resources person on staff. In 2019 the legislature made more changes and agreed to release an annual statistical report on the number of complaints at the capitol and to make some details of credible complaints against lawmakers public, including the harassers name. It also added mandatory harassment training for legislators and staff.

Legislative leaders also no longer oversee complaints. Instead, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers handles the proceedings and hires an outside investigator.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Commercial Lines Business Insurance Colorado
Iran's foreign minister called US President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East "delusional" in a tweet on Monday.

"Instead of a delusional 'Deal of the Century'  which will be D.O.A. self-described 'champions of democracy' would do better to accept Iran's democratic solution proposed by Ayatollah @khamenei_ir: A referendum whereby ALL Palestinians Muslim, Jew or Christian  decide their future," Zarif wrote.

Instead of a delusional Deal of the Centurywhich will be D.O.A.self-described "champions of democracy would do better to accept Iran's democratic solution proposed by Ayatollah @khamenei_ir:



A referendum whereby ALL PalestiniansMuslim, Jew or Christiandecide their future.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 27, 2020

Trump said on Monday that the White House would release his long-delayed Middle East peace plan at noon (1700 GMT) on Tuesday.

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Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun visits Boramae Medical Center in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap



Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Monday called for stepped-up efforts to prevent the spread of the deadly Chinese coronavirus as a fourth case of the pneumonia-like illness was confirmed in South Korea.



"The government takes the current situation very seriously as the new type of coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world," Chung said during a visit to Boramae Medical Center. "What is most important is efforts to prevent the infection from spreading."



Chung also said that the country should deal strongly with the virus in a pre-emptive manner by taking advantage of its experiences of coping with the outbreaks of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).






Authorities in the Siberian region of Tomsk have charged the head of a Chinese company over a fire that claimed 12 lives earlier in January.



The Investigative Committee said on January 27 that Sun An Ni, a woman who heads the company Green Wood and holds Chinese citizenship, was detained two days earlier in the town of Asino.



The committee said she was later charged with unintentional manslaughter  an accusation she rejected.



A January 21 fire at Green Wood's house for migrant workers in the town of Prichulymsky killed 12 people and injured two.



Eleven of those killed were Uzbeks; the other victim was believed to be Russian.

Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS
ANKENY, Iowa  At nearly nine p.m. on Saturday, Samy Amkieh was about to head back to his office after braving 20 degree temperatures to knock on doors for three hours in East Des Moines. But the 20-year-old field organizer knocked on one more door and was rewarded by convincing the resident to be a team leader for Bernie Sanders at a nearby caucus location.

When you think you cant go any more  that house is too far away, it looks really icy down the street  just remember that every single person youve talked to, the odds are they havent been pulled in by us or by anyone, he told a crowd of nearly 100 Sanders volunteers Sunday, aiming to rally them to head out into the cold yet again to knock doors for the Vermont senator.

One week before the Iowa caucuses, Amkieh is one of hundreds of campaign staffers and volunteers fanning out across the state doing the behind-the-scenes work that can lead a candidate to victory. A White House hopefuls ground game is always important, but perhaps never more so than this year when Sanders and three other leading contenders are feverishly working to break free from a clustered top tier in Iowa.

Adding to the urgency is the Senates impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, which will remove several candidates from the trail this week, forcing them to rely more than ever on a passionate group of staffers and volunteers to carry them through to the Feb. 3 caucuses.

Paul Tewes, who was Barack Obamas 2008 Iowa state director, said at this point in the campaign, the organization is everything.

Theres an old saying in campaigns: People come to the campaigns because of the candidate they stay because of the organization, he said.

For Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a sophisticated organization could counter signals from some polls that her late-summer strength in Iowa has waned. She reportedly has 150 staffers on the ground and has been organizing since last spring, with staffers hosting weekly coffee shop get-togethers and movie nights across Iowa to get voters engaged with her campaign. An endorsement this weekend from the states largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, could also provide a boost.

Others have spent much of the past month training their most committed volunteers on how to win over skeptics in the room on caucus night.

Pete Buttigiegs campaign says over 5,000 of its supporters from all of Iowas 99 counties have attended one of their caucus trainings. During one such event in Ottumwa, Travis Brock, Buttigiegs national caucus director and a veteran operative in Iowa and Nevada, walked the volunteers through everything from math to how to approach undecided participants.

To come in too hard, he said, they are going to tense up, they are going to draw away from you and they are going to fall more deeply into whatever position they held and be harder to convince, he said.

The first thing to say is, I hear you,' Brock told his students, several of whom are first-time caucus participants. Because when we begin an interaction with someone, we want to indicate that we actually understand what theyre saying.

In addition to traditional door-knocking and phone-banking, the Sanders campaign is signing up supporters outside pharmacies and other stores, at trailer parks and nursing homes. Misty Rebik, Sanders Iowa state director, said that one of the campaigns organizers was recently kicked out of six nursing homes in a week, but she came back with lots of commit to caucus cards!

That effort, and looking for voters in unorthodox areas, is part of their strategy to try to drive up turnout in the caucuses by getting new caucus-goers involved.

Weve just been as aggressively focused on as much face-to-face contact as we can have, she said. Especially when youre trying to meet low-propensity voters and newer voters, theyve gotta have that human connection to get more committed.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whos hoping to harness a late surge in interest in her campaign, recently held organizing events in every one of Iowas 99 caucuses in a single day, and has sent surrogates to visit satellite caucus sites, the locations set up at nursing homes and other locations meant to make the caucuses more accessible.

Some campaigns are doing more unorthodox events. A volunteer for businessman Andrew Yang held a Chinese New Years party for supporters of the businessman in the small northern Iowa town of Northwood on Saturday night. Jane Podgorniak, the Democratic chair in the county, said she believes his volunteers are even helping him win over Republicans.

Theyre smart and everybody loves em, she said. I even have a friend whos a strong Trump supporter tell me the other day she wants to caucus for Andrew Yang because she liked his volunteers so much.

But its not just door-knocking that makes the difference for campaigns in the final days  its what they do with the troves of data volunteers collect while knocking doors.

Most campaigns use a mobile or web app that allows volunteers to enter data from the voters they encounter while canvassing or working the phones  details like who that voter supports, whether they can be persuaded and if they have a ride to their caucus, among other things.

That all gets fed into a central database that campaigns use in the final weeks to help target supporters. Matt Paul, who was Hillary Clintons Iowa state director in 2016, said that, combined with the typical daily tracking polls the campaigns do in the final weeks before the caucuses, inform their strategy.

Youre looking at that data every night making decisions that impact the operation the next day youre making decisions on digital buys, specific message targeting, where to send surrogates based on the data youre getting. So its critically important, especially in a race this close, he said.

Caucus-goers can also use apps and send texts during the caucuses themselves, Paul noted, so campaigns can use that technology to help their precinct captains figure out the complicated math to get their candidate to viability or gain additional delegates. And the data collected in the weeks leading up to the caucuses can help campaigns make sure theyre getting each and every committed caucusgoer to their precinct location, by organizing shuttles to the caucuses and following up with supporters who they havent seen check in.

But there are signs that other campaigns may be struggling to organize. Though the Biden campaign says it has one of the biggest staff footprints in the state with 28 offices and more than 145 paid staffers in Iowa, some local party officials said his operation was lacking.

Winneshiek County Chair Nathan Thompson compared Bidens organization to that of the partys losing 2018 gubernatorial candidate, who was criticized for ignoring rural parts of the state.

Nothing Ive seen from his campaign indicates to me that hes going to run any more of an effective campaign than (losing 2018 gubernatorial candidate) Fred Hubbell or Hillary Clinton did, he said.

But Tewes argued that on caucus night, in many cases, its about quality over quantity.

The most important thing is going to be inside that room, he said. Do you have a trained precinct captain or leader, and a team whos going to put up signs, whos going to welcome people? Do you have a calculator, do you know all the rules, do you know how the math works?

He pointed out that the caucuses are essentially nearly 1,700 different campaigns going on over a three-hour period, and thats where organizing is going to be essential.

If a campaign is not organized in 80 to 90 percent of those precincts thats problematic, he said.
An outbreak of a new strain of the coronavirus has sparked worries of a global epidemic around what health officials have dubbed the novel coronavirus, also referred to as the Wuhan or new coronavirus.

Coronavirus is a broad family of viruses, ranging from strains that can be treated like the common cold to ones like MERS and SARS which can cause pneumonia, kidney failure and death. A SARS outbreak had also posed a public health crisis for China from 2002 to 2003, claiming the lives of nearly 800 people. The novel coronavirus is the latest strain related to these.

Mild cases of the novel coronavirus can include a fever, cough, shortness of breath and a headache. More severe cases have led to pneumonia and kidney failure. The WHO has declared the outbreak a global health emergency and the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory in which it urged Americans to avoid traveling to China.

A passenger wears mask at the high speed train station, in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. Hong Kong's Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed its first case of the new strain of coronavirus, which has been spreading in China. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

This family of viruses, named after their crown-like shape, are zoonotic, essentially meaning that they can be transmitted between animals and people.

A wild animal market in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, has been widely seen as the epicenter of the current outbreak, and the sale of wild animals has since been banned for the duration of the crisis.

The transmission of the virus between people is similar to how a common cold is spread - through coughing, sneezing and close contact. This means it's more common in fall and winter, where people are indoors and in contact with others, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials in China have said their understanding of the novel coronavirus remains "limited." But, according to The South China Morning Post, Ma Xiaowei, the head of China's National Health Commission, said that the virus, unlike SARS, is contagious even during its incubation period, which can be as long as 14 days.

Story continues

The CDC Director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Dr. Nancy Messonnier said that the CDC has found no evidence that people with the virus are asymptomatic, or have the ability to spread the virus while not experiencing any symptoms themselves.

In response to the outbreak, authorities initially shut down transportation in Wuhan and at least 12 other cities near the epicenter of the virus, affecting some 50 million people during one of the country's prime holidays, which includes one of the largest annual human migrations in the world - the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Coronavirus Passengers arriving from a China Southern Airlines flight from Changsha in China are screened for the new type of coronavirus, whose symptoms are similar to the cold or flu and many other illnesses, upon their arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi)

"Risk depends on exposure," CDC Director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Messonnier told reporters during a press conference on Monday.

The CDC is currently using similar strains of the virus like MERS and SARS to guide their research on how it might behave in terms of transmission in different scenarios and environments.

On Monday, Messonnier addressed concerns about if the virus could be transmitted through contact with items shipped from China.

"In general because of the poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces ... there is likely a very, very, very low, if any, risk of spread from products or packaging that is shipped over a period of days or weeks in ambient temperatures," Messonnier said.

According to the 2010 study "Effects of Air Temperature and Relative Humidity on Coronavirus Survival and Surfaces," by Lisa M. Casanova, et al., air temperature and relative humidity both impact the survival of other coronavirus strains on stainless steel.

The study found that the infectious virus could survive longer at lower temperatures and inactivation, or the point where the virus can no longer affect people, occurred more rapidly around room temperatures or warmer environments. In the lower temperatures, the virus could survive on a stainless steel surface from 5 to 28 days at all humidity levels. It took longer for inactivation to occur with a low relative humidity, or a drier environment. In short, the coronaviruses typically survive longer and stay active longer at lower temperatures in a dry environment.

A handful of neighboring nations such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan Japan, Malaysia and South Korea have all reported a handful of cases. There have also been reported cases in France, Canada and the United States, but there have been no deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus virus outside of China.

Passengers wear masks to prevent an outbreak of a new coronavirus in the high speed train station, in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. The first case of coronavirus in Macao was confirmed on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The infected person, a 52-year-old woman, was a traveller from Wuhan. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

All five cases confirmed in the United States involve someone who had returned to the country from Wuhan, according to the CDC.

Since transmission involves close contact, the CDC has recommended preventive actions as if preventing the flu or the common cold. This includes washing your hands often, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, frequently disinfecting and cleaning frequently touched objects and surfaces and staying at home when you are sick.

Additional reporting by Monica Danielle
By Zoe Fruchter

fruchter@grinnell.edu

NOW AVAILABLE: Click here to listen to Co-Editors-in-Chief Jackson Schulte and Tommy ODonnell interview Dean of Students Ben Newhouse, who stated that SHIC is on pause, rather than closed.



On Friday, Jan 24, Student Affairs announced in an all-campus email that the Grinnell College Sexual Health Information Centers (SHIC) operations would be put on hold indefinitely, citing employees lack of training and supervision, students role as representatives of the College and their funding source. The announcement was met with confusion and anger by students and alumni, with a petition circulating on Facebook for SHICs reinstatement within 24 hours.

SHIC was established by Grinnell College student Rebecca Bernstein 10 in 2010 to give students an on-campus, peer-directed resource for their sexual health. SHIC provides sex supplies such as condoms, lubricants, pregnancy tests and emergency contraception, and runs a peer education program. Like all student organizations, SHIC is funded by SGA through the College-collected student activities fee

According to emails shared with the S&B, former Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Sarah Moschenross and former SGA President Myles Becker informed SHIC leaders on May 17, 2019 that Student Affairs had appointed an advisory board to support and guide their work. This Wednesday, Jan 22, current Dean of Students Ben Newhouse and Associate Director of Student Involvement Ashley Adams informed SHIC administrators Anna Bell Hines 20 and Zamashenge Buthelezi 21 that they were suspending SHICs operations and closing their office in Main Hall until further notice.

According to the all-campus email, the Board determined that the risk and compliance issues (individual, organizational, and institutional) associated with SHICs current operation and practices were such that it required our attention. The Board directed SHIC to cease their distribution of consumer products and providing medical advice or medicine on behalf of the College. 

The SHIC Advisory Board comprises of Adams, Associate Controller Amy Anderson, Director of Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) Deb Shill and Title IX Coordinator Bailey Asberry. SHIC members expressed concerns that the board was made up entirely of white administrators, with no students, professors, queer administrators or administrators of color involved, as SHIC is both run by and specifically caters to students of diverse backgrounds and sexual identities.

The SHIC peer educators met on Sunday evening to discuss the closure, led by Buthelezi and Hines. The first priority of the educators is to provide sexual health services to Grinnell students, despite their official closure.

In terms of the articulated need for training, Hines is in contact with Courtney Joy Beck, an employee of the family planning clinic Primary Healthcare in Marshalltown, to plan official training sessions for educators as soon as possible so that SHIC can recommence their counseling services. Deka Spears, program coordinator for the Stonewall Resource Center, has been allocated funding to supply students with binders, tucking tape and gaffs. Hines and Buthelezi have both made themselves personally available to supply students with contraceptive and menstrual products.

In the all-campus email to the student body, Student Affairs directed students to SHAW for sexual health and contraception. However, SHIC educators raised concerns about the official stopgap measure, citing issues with SHAWs hours of operation and lack of pleasure-oriented resources such as sex toys which the Advisory board deemed part of SHICs medical and legal liabilities.

Educators discussed the scenario of something going wrong on a Friday evening and a student needing to access emergency contraception or other resources. SHAW is not open on weekends, while SHIC was.

It just shows a fundamental misunderstanding, said Hines, referring to the science behind Plan B and the reality of students sexual lives at the College.

To SHIC, the closure process has been characterized by difficulties with administrative oversight.

Educator Danielle Gillis 20 said that the all-campus email sent out by Student Affairs was Misleading and false, defaming SHIC and the services that we provide. She explained in an email to The S&B that while the peer educators are not experts, they have had Title IX training, safety training for gender confirming products and actively educate themselves on all of the products and services they provide .

Have they ever even been here [SHIC]? asked educator Fernando Rodriguez 22.

The closure of SHIC is related to a broader trend of tension between between the policies put forth by the College administration and the lived experiences of Grinnell students, raising structural issues about student life at the College. SHIC educators see themselves as providing vital resources in a void left by the 2016 departure of Central Iowa Family Planning from Grinnell and an understaffed SHAW center.

SHIC is also the latest student-run business to be shut down or operationally limited in recent years, joining Bobs Underground Cafe, Lyles Pub, and the Black Cultural Center. Many of these closures have been attributed to a lack of clarification about student organizations rights, policies and funding.

Additionally, SHIC workers are paid student employees of the College, many of whom rely on their income from this position for part of their rent or food budget. The first concern that Hines addressed at the Sunday night meeting was about payment. The rights of student employees at Grinnell have been heavily contested recently with the legal disputes surrounding the representation of United Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW).

The College is using the same lawyer who argued against UGSDW at last years Labor Board hearing, Frank Harty, as their legal counsel in determining SHICs fate. SHIC educators raised concerns about Hartys bias, given his record of representation in cases dealing with discrimination against LGBTQ people and access to abortion.

This Wednesday, SHIC leaders will meet with Student Affairs to advocate for their short term goal of reopening as soon as possible and long term goals that ultimately include working with the College, though with a greater amount of equity, to improve sexual health resources at Grinnell.

This article has been edited to reflect Sarah Moschenross former title of Associate Vice President for Student Affairs.
Does this mean that the means justify the ends?

To the Editor:

I have generally viewed Rep. John. Katko as a good representative with good judgment, someone who could see all sides of an issue. A decent person, to boot.

So how do I resolve this with his endorsement of President Donald Trump (John Katko will support President Trumps bid for a second term, Jan. 23, 2020)? How does someone like this get to this point? So, some questions for Mr. Katko:

Does this mean that the means justify the ends?

He gets some things done, and that makes the fallout OK?

He does more good than bad, no matter how pronounced bad is?

Does this set the right example for our children?

Civility doesnt matter?

Women are objects not deserving of our respect?

Integrity does not matter? Lies become truths when repeated enough?

Intolerance is OK? Hateful rhetoric has no consequences?

Has power really corrupted a decent person like yourself?

What are the party and re-election pressures driving this decision?

You reference the lack of reasonable options to Trump, so why make this terrible commitment before the challenger is even chosen?

Do you see the historical perspective in supporting Mr. Trump?

Isnt he the key player in the worldwide resurgence of right-wing intolerance?

A narcissistic personality does not make balanced decisions. Is this even debatable?

Do you really support his rambling actions on the international stage that have hurt our standing?

Doesnt a Trump second term empowered by the Senates upcoming impeachment rejection, and not having to face an election, scare you?

Please help us understand. Even better, channel Margaret Chase Smith. She was the Senator who stood up against Joe McCarthy and against her party.

Be courageous.

Pat Burkhart

Fayetteville

You have walked in step with Trumps policies

To the Editor:

An open letter to Rep. John Katko:

While it was not a surprise to see that you will support President Trump for a second term, it was a surprise to see you do it so openly and strongly.

Your reasons leave much to be desired. You cite his achievements. His economic policies such as the 2017 new tax law that leaves us billions in debt and benefits the 1%, not the rest of us? His new trade deal that, despite the bravado with which it was presented, was just a tweaking of the old? His China tariff war that has hurt local businesses and forced consumers and businesses to pay more? Increased security for the U.S.? Assassinating a terrorist on the foreign soil of a country with which we have security agreements without consulting their leaders and killing one of their own, with no thought as to the ramifications of such unilateral actions, is not protecting our country.

Your endorsement supports the actions of a president who has authorized cruel policies that deter immigrants from seeking to escape violent and dangerous conditions in their home countries; endorsed family separations and the caging of children; reneged on campaign promises to protect Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. Your support endorses bullying, misogyny, racism and social injustice. It promotes an insular policy for our country which actually participates in a global venue. And your support endangers our planet, our natural resources, our legacy for our children.

You want voters to judge you on your record as congressman. Well, you have walked in step with his policies. Your voting record is not one of a moderate.

The alternative, having a Democrat in the White House? Well, any of the current candidates would focus on providing health care and retaining preexisting conditions; work to formulate a fair immigration policy; support an equitable tax plan and work to decrease not increase our national debt; protect our fragile environment and project a positive image for the U.S. Each of them would return us to a country where morality counts.

And they would struggle to breach the divisiveness that Trump has encouraged by his brazen attacks on the foundations of our society.

A final question, Congressman. Would you hold up Donald J. Trump as a role model for our children?

Roseann D. Lorefice

Manlius

What about Trumps invitation to interfere in election?

To the Editor:

The Post Standard had a story about Congressman John Katkos hosting of a meeting on cybersecurity at Onondaga Community College (Katko: US cybersecurity team will help NY election officials beef up defenses, Jan. 20, 2020). At the end of the article, he is quoted: Its about re-enforcing the public confidence  They want to know their vote counts.

If Katko is genuinely concerned about safeguarding our election process, why, then, did he vote against the impeachment of President Donald Trump? And to add insult to injury, why is he announcing his enthusiastic endorsement of Trump for re-election?

Trump is the most powerful threat to our fair election process. He has invited the Russians and the Chinese to intervene in our democratic elections.

Is this not hypocrisy on Katkos part?

Richard Zalewski

Syracuse

Not all are feeling better off in Trumps America

To the Editor:

Dear John Katko,

I heard Congressman Katko announce that he will be voting for Trump in 2020 because the country is in a better place than it was four years ago. I guess whether thats true or not depends on the color of your skin, who you choose to love, or what religion you practice. I am quite sure many of our citizens are feeling significantly worse off. Fear and hate crimes in America are on the rise, with an all-time high committed against the Jewish population. Yes, the economy is better, but Congressman, money cannot be the only thing used to measure the well being of our nation.

Ann Bliss Pilcher

Jamesville

Trumps temperament hasnt changed

To the Editor:

Rep. John Katkos remarks about his endorsement of President Donald Trump for re-election are disingenuous, a dramatic shift from his stance that Trump was not temperamentally suited for the office of the president.

He states that the passage of the tax cut and state of the economy is good under Trump. The economy is often cited as evidence of his achievements, and the main indexes are lower tax rates and low unemployment. He praises the current trade wars despite a front-page article in todays paper outlining its negative effects for constituents in his district (Trumps trade war foils CNY companys attempt to bring jobs here, Jan. 20, 2020). During this same period, we have more people taking on two or three jobs, as their primary job does not pay a living wage. Suicide rates, gun violence and opioid addictions continue to increase, which are a measure of despair in society. Infant and maternal mortality have increased despite other improvements in healthcare. For the first time, our children will have a lower life expectancy than their parents. Young adults in their 20s and 30s are drowning in school debt. The presidential landscape needs to own all of these measures, not just the ones that he likes.

Finally, to say that the other side just hates Trump so therefore hates John Katko is such an unfair statement. Trump is dishonest, lacks integrity and exhibits behavior that would get him fired from any other leadership position in this country. This race will be about John Katko and how he represents his constituents.

Melanie Comito

Fayetteville

Also in Opinion: Editorial cartoons for Jan. 26, 2020: Impeachment trial, presidential campaign, Davos
If youve been to any retail establishment in Oregon this year, you might have noticed that the bag situation has dramatically shifted. Stores are no longer giving away paper bags willy-nilly. Instead, paper bags now cost you 5 cents each. And plastic bags? Forget about it. You cant get a plastic bag unless its in a box with a roll of other plastic bags made to line trash cans.

Now that Oregons new bag law is in place, we decided to figure out what kind of reusable bags work best. We found six bags that filled different niches and tried them out. Heres what we found.

Collapsible bag with a reinforced bottom

Collapsible bag with a reinforced bottom (Grant Butler/The Oregonian)

These heavy-duty bags are more like boxes with handles. They arent something you can put through the washing machine because they are made with cardboard. And they arent something you can put in your pocket or your purse.

But they do serve a purpose. They provide structure, something you dont get with most other reusable bag options, and they can hold a lot -- on a recent trip to Trader Joes, we packed nearly $80 worth of frozen lunches into one of these.

The downside to all that size, however, is weight. You can overfill these to the point that you need to use some serious muscle to move it from the shopping cart into the car.

Another smaller issue is the length of the long handles -- if you under 511 they are are just too long and the box almost hits the ground or does, depending on your height.

Good for: Big stuff, grocery shopping if you have a car, cases of beer.

Bad for: Walkers or bus user, people without much upper body strength.

Ripstop grocery bags

Ripstop grocery bags (Grant Butler/The Oregonian)

These all-around Ripstop grocery bags come six to an order, with cute animal-themed designs, for about $19. That means you can stow them in several places -- at your desk at work, in your car, in your bag.

And you will use them. These were the best general grocery-type bag we found, with nice long handles that meant they could be slung over a shoulder, something you could never do with classic paper grocery bags.

These also go through the washing machine no problem and air-dry very quickly.

The one issue with these bags is they lack structure, which means if you fill them with small, roll-y items like cans of beans and apples, then set them down in your trunk, your groceries will roll all over the place.

Good for: Stowing in a purse, general grocery bags, things that leak.

Bad for: Not having everything roll all over your trunk.

BagPodz

BagPodz (Kale Williams/The Oregonian)

BagPodz is kind of ingenious -- it is one bag pod with 10 strong, ripstop nylon bags that are the same size as the plastic bags that grocery stores used to use. These bags are superior to their plastic brothers in every way -- they are tougher, look better and fit easily in any pocket.

Yes, you wont want to use this bag for picking up dog poop or gathering trash from your car, but isnt that the whole point of a reusable bag?

We found these bags worked well to break up a grocery haul because they werent so huge you would over-fill them and then be unable to carry them. They also were good for separating meat from other groceries and went quite easily through the washing machine.

Good for: Plastic bag replacement of any kind.

Bad for: Not much, honestly.

Cotton net bag

Cotton net bag (Eder Campuzano/The Oregonian)

Ahh, the cotton net produce bag. Some of us have been trying to get behind this bag for years because it just looks good, hanging there, in your kitchen, like you care about the Earth and aesthetics.

But, functionally, what is it good for? Maybe a trip to a French marche en plein air, where you intend to buy one baguette and two adorable pieces of fruit and slice of brie to take for a small picnic on a grassy hillside?

Because otherwise, its basically useless.

The handles are too short to throw this bag over your shoulder but the bag is too long, especially when filled, to hold in your hand.

The second you put this bag down, anything circular will certainly roll out.

Basically, its not a useful bag. However, it is very cute.

Good for: Staging your home for Apartment Therapy.

Bad for: Most things you want to use it for.

Mesh produce bags

Mesh produce bags (Eder Campuzano/The Oregonian)

If youre looking for a real, workable replacement to plastic produce bags, this might be your answer.

These mesh bags come in a variety of sizes, which means you can fit almost any fruit or vegetable inside. They close up effectively, with a drawstring and a plastic toggle. And they are mesh so checkers can see through to what is inside.

Mesh has an advantage over plastic beyond the grocery store too -- in the fridge, your produce can stay in the bag and dry out a little bit, instead of getting wetter and gross. Think of the cilantro! The broccoli! The carrots! None of it slimy!

There is a downside: youll need to make sure the checker takes into account the weight on each bag or else you will be paying extra. And sure, right now that takes time and might be obnoxious to employees at grocery stores. But, as more and more people bring reusable bags, they will certainly get used to it.

Good for: Produce of all shapes and sizes.

Bad for: Anyone worried about cross-contamination with meat in the larger grocery bag.

Cotton vegetable bags

Cotton vegetable bags (Eder Campuzano/The Oregonian)

There are certainly use cases for these organic cotton vegetable bags, even if they arent quite as versatile as the mesh version. You cant see through them, which means you either have to put your veggies in after you pay, leave them open or open them at checkout, which isnt a huge bother but is an extra step if you, say, have a baby screaming in your face.

For certain items, however, they are perfect -- a head of lettuce fit quite nicely into one of these bags and was no problem going through the checkout line. The bag didnt get wet on the outside and after a night in the fridge, the lettuce was still crisp and not slimy like it might be after a night in plastic.

Another benefit to these bags is that they are a semi-solid barrier between your produce and outside-the-bag groceries.

Another downside though? These are wash-cold-line-dry bags and since they are cotton, they dont dry as quickly as the ripstop nylon or mesh bags do.

Good for: Produce that is bigger, wetter and priced per item.

Bad for: Rice, beans, small things that will slip out the top.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052 lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker

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A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a Trump administration rule to take effect that will deny green cards to immigrants who partake in public benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps, and housing aid. Some educators have been concerned that the public charge rule will put the health and well-being of millions of immigrant children at risk and impose new burdens on school districts.

The justices ruled 5-4 to lift a preliminary injunction by a federal district judge in New York City that had blocked the implementation of the rule nationwide pending further court proceedings. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said they would have denied the Trump administrations request in Department of Homeland Security v. New York (No. 19A785) .

At issue is a rule promulgated last year by the Department of Homeland Security that expands the definition of an immigrant likely to become a public charge from one who was dependent on a certain cash benefits from the government to include such non-cash benefits as Medicaid, housing vouchers, and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

The rule requires government officials weighing a request for legal permanent residency by an immigrant living in the United States or for immigrants seeking admission at the border to determine whether the immigrant is likely to receive such benefits for more than 12 months in aggregate within any 36-month period.

Two federal appeals court have held that the Homeland Security Department is likely to prevail in challenges brought under the Immigration and Nationality Act. But U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels of New York City blocked the rule from taking effect nationwide in challenges brought by an immigrant-services group and the states of Connecticut, New York, and Vermont, along with New York City.

The supplemental benefits targeted by the rule are a far cry from almshouses, institutional care, or income-maintenance programsprograms that are designed to serve destitute individuals who are extremely unlikely to meet their basic subsistence requirements without relying primarily on the government in the long term, said a Supreme Court brief filed by the three states and New York City. The rules inclusion of these supplemental benefits thus stretches public charge far past the breaking point of reasonable interpretation.

U.S. Solicitor General Noel B. Francisco told the high court in a brief that As a result of the injunctions, the government is precluded from implementing its chosen policy and, indeed, will grant lawful permanent resident status to aliens who are statutorily inadmissible because, in the opinion of the Executive Branch, each is likely to become a public charge.

Concerns for Education

The DHS rule, while adding Medicaid as a factor in the public-charge analysis, specifically states that certain educational benefits would not be factored in. They include services funded by Medicaid under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and school-based services or benefits provided to individuals who are at or below the oldest age eligible for secondary education as determined under state or local law.

Despite those exceptions, some educators and immigrant advocates fear the rule will dissuade immigrants from seeking certain benefits, such as Medicaid and SNAP, and that schools will have to make up for aid that might otherwise be provided for by the federal government.

Recent research has shown that the proposed rule would have a chilling effect that could lead to disenrollment from public programs for a larger group of immigrant families because they do not understand the rules details and would fear their or their childrens enrollment could negatively affect their or their family members immigration status, said a 2018 letter from AASA, the School Superintendents Association, commenting on the proposed rule.

The Alexandria, Va.-based association also argued that the inclusion of SNAP in the public-charge analysis would exacerbate food insecurity of children. And the rules inclusion of public housing aid will lead to increased numbers of children in unstable housing situations as it will deter eligible immigrant families from seeking much-needed housing and homelessness benefits, the association said.

Sasha Pudelski, the advocacy director of AASA, said Monday that the Trump administration rule is bad policy and as superintendents we are taking a stand on a policy that will undermine the health and well-being of children.

The Supreme Court majoritys brief order allows the new rule to go into effect pending the outcome of an appeal of the nationwide injunction pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City. (It appears that a more-limited injunction in a separate case will continue to block the rule in Illinois.)

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, in a short concurrence joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, called for the court to take up the increasingly widespread practice of federal district judges issuing nationwide injunctions.
At the 2020 Grammy Awards, Lil Nas X took his horse to the Old Town Road and brought along some friends.

The Grammy-nominated crossover artist performed his world-dominating hit Old Town Road, beginning the song while lounging on a couch in a living room scene (with a Kobe Bryant jersey hung on a recliner in tribute). As Lil Nas strummed a mandolin, the set revolved to reveal the only superstars in attendance who may have had an even bigger 2019  BTS.
Ambassador of the State of Israel David Saranga said that anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism are part of the society in Europe and each government must fight against them.

"We live in a hard era, we see here and throughout Europe that anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism are part of the society. Each government must fight against the respective phenomena. (...) The European values don't go hand in hand with anti-Semitism or with xenophobia," Saranga said at a ceremony organised by the Capital's Sector 6 hall at the Memorial of the Holocaust to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, which was followed by a symposium at the Palace of Parliament.Saranga brought to mind that 27 January is the day when the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was liberated. "We must think that the Holocaust took place all over Europe. Before WWII, 800,000 Jews lived on Romanian soil. Half of them, 400,000 Jews were killed here, in Romania. There is no future without a past and memory is an important part of the past. (...) The Romanian Government does a lot to keep memory alive," the Ambassador said.He brought to mind that President Klaus Iohannis paid a visit to Israel last week, alongside over 40 heads of state to commemorate the Holocaust Day.In Saranga's opinion, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban's presence in Auschwitz on Monday, together with Israel's President and several other dignitaries, shows Romania has assumed its responsibility and has the obligation to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
New Delhi: Amid reports of the death toll from coronavirus rising to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases of the disease on Monday, one girl from Chhapra district in Bihar has been admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Patna after symptoms similar to Coronavirus infection were found.

The girl, Ekta, who recently returned from China was earlier admitted to Saran hospital but later referred to the PMCH. The district administration was shocked when it came to know that symptoms of coronavirus were found.

Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has on Sunday stated that no case of the novel SARS-like coronavirus has been reported yet in India so far while adding that a total of 4,359 passengers arriving from 22 flights were screened for the illness on Sunday.

The Health Minister has also urged the Central government to conduct a full screening of suspected persons arriving from international airports.

On Sunday night, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) however confirmed that no Indian in China has been affected by the disease so far, adding that the Indian embassy in Beijing is in touch with Indian students studying in Wuhan and Hubei and other Indians living in different parts of China.

Live TV

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is closely monitoring the situation, adding "We are also closely coordinating with Chinese authorities. As of now, we understand that no Indian citizens have been affected by the outbreak and that food and water supplies are available to them."

The MEA informed that three helplines have been made operational at the Indian embassy in Beijing to address the concerns of Indians without any delay.

In another tweet, Raveesh Kumar, "Our embassy in Beijing is in close touch with Indian citizens including students to extend assistance, including on possible travel options out of Hubei province."

Meanwhile, Chinese-state agency Xinhua said that 769 new cases have been reported on Sunday.

China has reportedly imposed quarantine and travel restrictions, affecting the movement of 56 million people in more than a dozen cities, amid fears that the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year.

The virus originated in Wuhan city of China in December and has since then has spread to various cities around the world. Overseas, confirmed cases were reported in Thailand (7), Japan (3), the Republic of Korea (3), the United States (3), Vietnam (2), Singapore (4), Malaysia (3), Nepal (1), France (3) and Australia (4).

Notably, health authorities around the world are taking action to prevent a global pandemic as the virus continues to spread, with cases reported in Australia, France, the United States and seven Asian countries besides China.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also acknowledged that the respiratory illness, which has been traced to the city of Wuhan, is an emergency in China.

(With Agency Inputs)
The two main contenders in Israels March 2 elections  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Blue and White party Benny Gantz  separately meet with President Trump today at the White House to discuss his peace plan, which is expected to be released tomorrow.

Why it matters: Trump made this unusual move of inviting Netanyahu and Gantz, who is considered a party leader but holds no official position, because he wants to make sure both are on board regarding his peace plan, regardless of who wins the elections.

Details: Trump is to meet with Netanyahu first, at 11 a.m., and then with Gantz at 12:30 p.m. VP Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, senior adviser Jared Kushner and other Trump aides are expected to attend both meetings.

The intrigue: As Trump unveils his peace plan on Tuesday, the Israeli Knesset will vote on forming a special committee to strip Netanyahu from his immunity due to his indictments.

Netanyahus hearing at the committee is expected to start on Thursday.

Gantz said he will return to Israel right after meeting with Trump to lead the efforts on stripping Netanyahu from his immunity.

Gantz has a majority in the Knesset to do just that.

Gantz wants the next few weeks of the campaign to focus on Netanyahus fight for keeping his immunity against trial.

What's next: Netanyahu will stay in Washington until Wednesday evening. He'll meet Trump again Tuesday for plan's release.

Netanyahu wants Trump to green light immediate annexation of the West Bank right after the release of the White House peace plan.

Netanyahu hopes this will shift the campaign from his legal situation to an annexation agenda that will mobilize his right wing base and raise the chances of him winning the elections.

Of note: Gantz does not support unilateral annexation steps in the West Bank. He has already announced his support for the Trump peace plan but said it should be implemented only after the March 2 elections and the formation of a new government.

Go deeper:
China virus toll spikes despite massive lockdown, 80 confirmed dead

WORLD: The toll from Chinas viral epidemic spiked today (Jan 27) to 80 dead with hundreds of new infections despite unprecedented quarantines and travel lockdowns, as foreign governments scrambled to help their trapped citizens.

healthChinesedeathtourismCoronavirusCOVID-19

By AFP

Monday 27 January 2020, 09:30AM

A patient is treated for coronavirus in Wuhan Red Cross Hospital yesterday (Jan 26). Sufferers have reportedly collapsed in the street due to the infection. Photo: AFP

The virulence of a contagion causing fear nationwide has prompted authorities to impose transport curbs around China to cut off transmission routes, and extend a national holiday to delay people travelling back to work.

With many thousands of foreigners trapped in the ground-zero city of Wuhan, which is under a virtual lockdown, the United States and France were among several countries formulating plans to evacuate their citizens by plane.

With the coronavirus also expanding globally, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus headed to Beijing to meet with government officials on the crisis.

My WHO colleagues and I would like to understand the latest developments and strengthen our partnership with China in providing further protection against the outbreak, he said on Twitter.

Tedros last week stopped short of declaring the outbreak an international public health emergency, which would have prompted more concerted international action including possible trade or travel restrictions.

Cases have been reported as far afield as France, the United States and Canada, with various countries in Asia also detecting cases. Those infected had previously been in China.

The new additions to Chinas death toll came entirely from the epicentre province of Hubei, which today reported 24 fresh fatalities.

Most fatalities and overall cases have been in Hubei, and the government says the deaths have largely been elderly or people already weakened by pre-existing health conditions.

Thousands of cases

But Chinas National Health Commission said today that in addition to 2,744 confirmed infections nationwide - an increase of 769 - there were nearly 6,000 suspected cases and more than 30,000 people under medical observation.

Hardest-hit has been Hubeis capital Wuhan, where the virus is suspected to have come from animals in a market selling a wide range of exotic wild game.

Wuhan has been under virtual lockdown for days, with transport halted and citizens told to stay at home.

The national government decided it would extend the Lunar New Year holiday and related school closures beyond the original Jan 30 end date to reduce population flows, state media reported.

The holiday was extended to Feb 2.

Several cities responded, with new school terms delayed in Beijing until further notice, and Shanghai postponing until Feb 17.

The city of Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province also ordered companies to extend the end of the holiday until Feb 9.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese travel long distances to gather with family members for the holiday, a key concern for authorities struggling to corral the highly contagious pathogen.

The previously unknown virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

Getting stronger

At a press briefing in Beijing yesterday (Jan 26), the head of Chinas disease control agency, Gao Fu, said it was not as powerful as SARS, but officials warned it could be getting stronger.

Shandong province in the east and four cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Tianjin - have announced bans on long-distance buses entering or leaving, while some provinces and cities made it mandatory to wear face masks in public.

The United States and France were among a host of countries making arrangements to get their citizens out of Wuhan, a major industrial and transport hub of 11 million people.

The crisis has overwhelmed Wuhans hospitals prompting authorities to send hundreds of medical reinforcements including military doctors, and start construction on two field hospitals.

Speaking at a press conference and wearing a face mask, Wuhans mayor Zhou Xianwang said Sunday the citys medical staff were very strained and tired.

Some foreigners in Wuhan pleaded to be evacuated, saying they were short on supplies.

We want to be evacuated as soon as possible, because either the virus, the hunger or the fear will kill us, Mashal Jamalzai, a political science student from Afghanistan studying in Wuhan told AFP.

The Wuhan meat market at the epicentre sold a vast range of unusual dinner fare including rats, snakes and hedgehogs.

The government said yesterday it was banning all trade in wildlife until the emergency is over, but conservationists called for Beijing to make the ban permanent to reduce the possibility of future outbreaks.
Nicola Richards is the Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East.

This week on Holocaust Memorial Day we mark 75 years since the liberation of the concentration and death camps of Europe and the end of the Second World War.

Thats 75 years since the world understood the full scale and horror of what had happened as the Nazis and their collaborators tried to eliminate the Jews of Europe.

I am pleased to see that people in my constituency, as well as across the country, feel a sense of responsibility in ensuring that the memory of six million innocent Jewish men, women, and children carries on to the next generation. Today, we should reflect on how we can use our knowledge and understanding of the past to create a future in which such antisemitism, racism, and hatred is no more.

However, I know that we face a very real challenge. Despite what we know of the Holocaust, antisemitism, racism, and hatred are still a very real problem here in the UK and across the world  and rising year on year.

Two years ago I met an incredible woman: Susan Pollack MBE, a Holocaust survivor. Susan was born in Hungary in 1930. As a young girl, aged about eight years old, she remembers beginning to notice antisemitism in her home town  her brother was denied a place at university because of anti-Jewish laws, and when her uncle was murdered by fascists the attacker was sentenced to just two years imprisonment (and he actually served much less).

The situation deteriorated after the outbreak of the Second World War. Physical attacks became more common, anti-Jewish graffiti appeared on the streets, and radio stations began broadcasting antisemitic propaganda.

In 1944, a letter was issued by the council for all Jewish fathers to attend a meeting. Susans father was among those men who went to the meeting, but when they arrived, they were herded into waiting lorries and taken to a concentration camp. Susan never saw her father again.

That year almost all of the Jews of Hungary were deported (mostly to Auschwitz-Birkenau), and Susan, her brother and her mother were ordered to leave their home. They were sent to a ghetto, and later sent by cattle truck to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival the family were separated. Susan soon learnt that her mother had been sent directly to a gas chamber, where she was murdered simply for being Jewish.

Susan survived camps, slave labour, and a death march. On 15th April she was liberated by the British Army from Bergen-Belsen. She and her brother, Laci, were the only members of her family to survive the Holocaust  over 50 relatives were murdered. Many of those who survived were the sole survivors of their families, towns, and communities.

When I met Susan, we were both standing on Parliament Square. We were at a rally where over 2000 people had gathered to stand up against a growing tide of antisemitism. I couldnt believe that I was stood talking to a Holocaust survivor. I couldnt believe that Susan had lived through so much, had seen antisemitism tear her family and community apart, but felt like she had no choice to protest against the same hatred over 70 years later.

Susan is brave, determined, and exudes such passion and hope for the future. But, I imagine that she found it hard that day  I wondered how she felt standing there, knowing that the age-old hatred that led to the murder of 50 members of her family is still here with us today.

In Europe and across the world antisemitism remains a problem that must be addressed. We owe it to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust to remember.

But we must do more than remember. We must stand together, and we must act  we are all responsible for shaping a world in which people from all backgrounds can live free from fear of persecution. We must share the truth of the past; we must ensure that the eye-witness accounts we have heard live on; and when we see antisemitism, racism, or hatred of any kind we must call it out.
Mr. Trump explicitly linked his holdup of aid to Ukraine to a push for politically beneficial investigations, Mr. Bolton wrote. On Monday, Mr. Romney told reporters that its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton, and Ms. Collins said on Twitter that the reports about Mr. Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues.

What if the Senate splits, 50-50?

In theory, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. could decide  if he wants to be assertive.

When a vote on a motion ends in a tie, the motion fails. But during the first presidential impeachment trial  the unsuccessful effort to remove Andrew Johnson in 1868  Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase twice cast tiebreaking votes on motions as the presiding officer. They both passed. (On a third tie, Mr. Chase abstained, so that motion failed.)

The Senates general rules for impeachment trials are silent about whether the chief justice may cast tiebreaking votes on procedural motions, and the current version of them  last revised in 1986  still does not address that question. A resolution that the Senate approved this month laying out specific procedures for the Trump trial is also silent about ties.

Some senators in 1868 believed that Chief Justice Chase lacked that power under the Constitution and moved to declare his intervention null. But the Senate voted down the objection, creating a precedent that chief justices do have tiebreaking power in impeachment trials, just as vice presidents have tiebreaking power in votes on legislation and nominations.

To be sure, both of the procedural motions that Chief Justice Chase voted on were far less momentous than calling Mr. Bolton as a witness would be: They involved whether the Senate should take a short break and adjourn for the day.
Since the crash, they've only been able to video chat with him because he is still recovering.

While there is still a long road ahead, Julie said Miguel might be able to come home in a few weeks, which will be a transition for him.

"He's always been a strong-willed, independent person," Julie said. "It's gonna be hard for him to adjust to this new (idea of), 'I need help for everything right now.'"

The support Miguel has received from the Northwest Indiana community has helped his recovery, Julie said, adding she has shown him messages from people wishing him well.

"I just hope one day I can meet some of the people and give them a hug in person and say, 'Thank you' from the bottom of our hearts because I didn't know what was going to happen out of this," she said.

"It's been amazing to really know that there are good people in the world," she added.

El Salto is still collecting money at locations across the Region to support the family as Miguel is their sole source of income.

Though the family started off 2020 with a "nightmare," Julie said she's looking toward the future.

"It's going to be a long haul, and it's going to be a really tough year," Julie said. "The best thing about it is that we'll be able to celebrate the end of the year in God's will (with) hopefully him healthy, walking, being able to be independent again."

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Transgender teens have a higher risk of having suicidal ideations, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new study suggests that having access to puberty blockers can significantly reduce the risk of suicide and other mental health issues.

The researchers found that transgender youth were more likely to report substance abuse, suicide risk, and violence victimization. Now, the study, which is first of its kind, shows that those with access to puberty blockers, drugs to prevent the body from going through puberty, were less likely to think about taking their lives.

In the study published in the journal Pediatrics, the researchers analyzed the use of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues (GnRH analogues), also called puberty blockers. The drugs work by suppressing hormones created by the body to help block certain physical changes that can be distressing for transgender children. The drugs effect is reversible once the teen stops taking it.

Image Crediot: MirasWonderland / Shutterstock

The study findings

To land to the findings, the researchers used a cross-sectional survey of more than 20,600 transgender adults who were from 18 to 36 years of age. They examined the self-reported history of pubertal suppression use during adolescence and utilized a multivariable logistic regression to see the connection between access to puberty blocker drugs and adult mental health outcomes, including the risk of suicide.

The researchers found that 16.9 percent they ever waned pubertal suppression as part of their gender-related care, but only 2.5 percent had access to the drugs. Further, the findings of the study show that 45.2 percent of those who want access to the drugs were assigned male at birth.

The team found that those who received treatment with puberty blockers had lower odds of lifetime suicidal ideation or risk, compared to those who wanted access to the drugs but did not receive them.

Transgender youth often experience distress during puberty as their body begins to develop in a way that does not match who they know themselves to be, Dr. Jack Turban of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and study lead author, said in a statement.

Distressing body changes

Some youth may experience distress during puberty, as a result of body changes that may not fit their gender identity. These changes can result from hormonal changes that occur during adolescence.

Puberty-blocking drugs can temporarily help stop the body from producing sex hormones, which are responsible for secondary sex characteristics. For instance, in males, its the testosterone that promotes the growth of body hair or the lowering of the voice. In females, on the other hand, estrogen is responsible for making their breasts full.

In transgender teens, however, these body changes, which are against what they like to look like, can be a form of stress. When they have access to puberty blockers, they may not go through much of these body changes.

Pubertal suppression therapy started in the United States since 1998, and its recommended for transgender youth. The drug is in the form of an injectable that contains a compound that makes the pituitary gland less sensitive to a puberty-stimulating hormone released in the brain. As a result, it effectively stops puberty.

The study comes as many states are now considering creating a law to ban puberty blockers for teens. In South Dakota, a bill, HB 1057, would make it a misdemeanor for doctors to prescribe gender-suppression procedures to children who are 16 years old and younger. Similar legislations are in the works for other states, such as Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky.
Comparing the Canadian and the American Right  updated to 2020 (Part One) By Mark Wegierski

Canada today, despite its great over-all wealth, is a society of contrasts. While the problem of Quebec separatism which was so central in Canadian history since the 1960s may appear to be fading a little, there are many new challenges arising. While Canada is still, to a large extent, a more pleasant place to live than the United States (especially when one compares life in the two countries large cities), there are many issues looming on the horizon which can prove severe challenges to a safe, civil, prosperous life  the permanence of which all too many Canadians today take for granted. There are a number of substantial differences between the Canadian and American societies today, which may indeed have a profound impact on the type of future the countries will have. In the years 2006 to 2015, Canada had a federal Conservative government, while during most of that time, Obama was President of the United States. This was a fairly unusual situation where the U.S. may have had a more left-liberal government than Canada. The comparative fiscal discipline of the Harper Conservatives was breathtaking to contemplate, when viewed against the almost unbelievable fiscal profligacy of the Obama Administration. Now, however, Liberal Justin Trudeau is Prime Minister of Canada (since 2015), whereas Donald Trump is President of the United States. There appear to be very few prospects of a Trump-like figure arising in Canada. It should also be remembered that holding a majority in the federal Parliament (which conjoins executive and legislative authority) is putatively more effective than, for example, just the holding of the U.S. Presidency. However, there are other differences between Canada and the U.S. that point to the fact that the Conservative majority in 2011 to 2015, may not have been as powerful and effective in Canada as might putatively appear to be the case. There was the instance, for example, when the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) had carried out the longest filibuster in Canadian history, to try to block back-to-work legislation in regard to the labour dispute at Canada Post (the Canadian postal corporation). The victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election, has created an enormous amount of volatility and unpredictability in U.S. politics. Nevertheless, it could be argued that one important difference between Canada and the U.S. is the absence of a more organized, coherent, political Right in Canada. While there are many similarities between the left-liberal media, academic, cultural, juridical, and governmental establishments in Canada and the U.S., Canada manifestly lacks a rambunctious right-wing. In the U.S., it could be argued that there has been a wide-ranging and extensive debate among various groupings of the broader (and far more dynamic) right-wing, including paleoconservatives, neoconservatives, right-wing Greens, libertarians, paleolibertarians, classical liberals, social conservatives of the Left (such as Christopher Lasch), and religious conservatives (sometimes called theo-cons). Nevertheless, in more recent years, the debate appears to have slackened, becoming dominated by neoconservatives and shallow Republican Party operatives. Another trend to be noted is the atrophy of paleo elements in most forms of libertarianism. And todays National Review  traditionally the flagship journal of all of American conservatism -- is a terribly weak shadow of the highly robust and intellectually trenchant, early National Review. There are also at least two huge factors that have contributed to a more politically conservative U.S.  the first being that, as the one remaining superpower, the United States had cherished and effectively maintained its military; and secondly, the large presence of Christian religion in the U.S. (including both Protestant fundamentalists and tradition-minded Catholics). It should also be remembered that (for now at least) taxation is low in the U.S., relative to Canada; that U.S. gun-control legislation is minimal, relative to Canada; and that the U.S. medical system has (until recently) been largely driven by free-enterprise, relative to Canada. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home
CONCORD (BCN)

The Concord City Council may have directed both the master developer and a labor consortium poised to begin development of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station property to work out their differences, but letters from both the developer and the unions indicate those talks may not be smooth, at least right away.

The city has received separate letters - both dated Jan. 17 -- from the developer Lennar and from the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council. And the key points of disagreement that led to an impasse being declared in October to reaching labor agreements for the weapons station remake (formally known as the Concord Community Reuse Project) appear to remain.

In its letter to the city, Lennar President Jonathan Jaffe said the extent of union labor called for by the Building Trades Council is unworkable financially.

"The city's own expert conclusively found that the present demands of labor make the project infeasible," Jaffe said in his company's letter. That city analysis, the letter states, shows using the trades council's recommended proportion of union labor "could result in a negative rate of return" for the first phase of the reuse project.

Lennar officials have said that the difference between its own overall labor offer and the Building Trades Council's overall request is about $546 million.

Bill Whitney, CEO of the building trades council, in his Jan. 17 letter reminded the city that it is the council that said the Reuse Project's work should meet specific "Concord First" goals including 40 percent of labor hires being from Concord; an approved apprenticeship program; priority for veterans in hiring and training; and paying at least a "prevailing wage" to hired labor. The project labor agreements, Whitney said, should reflect that.

"There is no secret about our frustration with Lennar's approach to the PLA negotiations thus far," said Whitney, who also said his labor council would welcome the involvement of a mediator familiar with large-scale project labor agreements.

The reuse plan for the 5,000-acre weapons station site - one of the biggest such projects in Northern California - calls for building 13,000 residences, commercial and office space, a college campus and other amenities on 2,300 acres. Most of the development would be near the North Concord-Martinez BART station, just south of state Highway 4 on Concord's northeast edge.

On Jan. 8, Kofi Bonner, co-COO of FivePoint-Lennar and of the reuse project, told the City Council he wasn't sure the city's request for Lennar and the unions to resume talks is a significant way to break the impasse. But beyond that, near the end of the second day of that long hearing, officials from both Lennar and the Building Trades Council agreed to meet soon, at a date to be determined.

He also said at that same hearing that if a suitable group of labor agreements can't be reached, that Lennar would withdraw as master developer of the reuse project.

And in Jaffe's Jan. 17 letter to Concord, he laid out four items he requests the city do by Feb. 11 "to move forward with the project:"

--- Confirm that Lennar has acted in good faith with the city and the unions;

--- Confirm that negotiating with one of more individual unions, rather than the trades council, will satisfy the city's expectations for reaching out to labor;

--- Confirm "prevailing wages" according to the overall agreement; and

--- Approving a six-month extension of the overarching agreement to negotiate these various labor agreements.

In his own letter to the labor council's Whitney, dated Jan. 16, Concord Mayor Tim McGallian implored the building trades council to work on an agreement with Lennar.

"While we appreciate that this may be an effort-intensive process, and that compromise on both sides will be required, we are confident that (Building Trades Council) and Lennar will craft a resolution that enables the (reuse) project to Progress."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
The Czech government on Monday approved a Defense Ministry plan to deploy up to 60 troops as part of France's anti-terror mission in Africa.

The service members will join Operation Barkhane, France's largest overseas military mission.

It has been working to root out Islamic militants roaming the Sahel region. The government said Mali, Niger and Chad approved the Czech deployment. The Czechs will help local troops fight Islamic militants.

The plan to deploy Czech forces in the mission until the end of 2022 still needs parliamentary approval.

The Czechs already have some 120 troops in Mali as a part of an European Union training mission.

(Image: Representative/Unsplash)
Millie Banner is a professional diver who has swum with sharks

Millie Banner, 24, is a professional scuba diver

For most people, coming across a shark in the sea is the stuff of nightmares, but for 24-year-old Millie Banner, it is all part of a day's work.

A diver and sea photographer acknowledges she risks her life to swim with sharks but says she has 'no fear of animals in the water'.

Ms Banner lives in Kingston in southern Tasmania and works as a divemaster at a diving school where she helps run courses and takes experienced scuba divers around the local area.

The environmental science and aquatic biology student has dived with sharks and other apex predators in the open waters of the Tasman Sea.

'Diving is a high-risk activity,' Ms Banner told Daily Mail Australia.

'I have seen sharks larger and wider than me.

'If an animal doesnt rely on poison or camouflage to avoid being eaten, then it is possibly the one eating others, not much different to land.'

But despite the risks associated with swimming in the cold and wild waters off the nation's southern state, Ms Banner said snorkelling is far more dangerous.

'A lot of people find snorkelling scary  and rightly so.

'Youre floating above the water like a potential predator, which is exactly what that sting ray that killed Steve Irwin would have been thinking.'

The young scuba diver cuddles up to a small shark while diving in the southern Tasmania

Ms Banner (pictured bottom) does most of her diving in Tasmania with the diving school she works for

'When you're scuba diving, you're at the same level as the animals and they approach and see you differently. You could compare it to taking a walk in the wilderness versus flying over in a plane - observing versus immersing yourself.'

While she's not concerned about being eaten by any deep sea creatures, Ms Banner said it's the wild weather of Tasmania that scares her the most.

'I understand the ecology and animal behaviour and can predict how an animal might react to me and how I should behave around it myself. I have never had a bad interaction with an animal, its more so the wild weather to watch out for.'

Ferocious winds and cold temperatures often lead to low-visibility waters.

She is an enthusiastic photographer and often takes her camera out with her on dives

One of the photos Millie Banner managed to capture during a dive in the wild waters of the Tasman Sea

She said getting caught in high winds, currents or losing your buddy while diving in low visibility are major concerns.

'We are always taught to dive with at least one other  a buddy. They can assist you with getting into gear, navigating under water, watching out for you, and its much more fun to share the experience with someone else.

'If you learn to dive in Tasmania, you can dive anywhere in the world.'

Ms Banner discovered diving after a fellow student at University of Tasmania emailed her about a diving course.

Ms banner is pictured sitting underwater and taking a look at some of her photographs

She enjoys capturing photos of creatures a lot of people otherwise wouldn't get to see

She immediately fell in love with the sea and joined the Tasmania University Dive Club.

'I was probably Tassies keenest diver for quite a while,' she laughed.

'I was diving multiple times a week discovering local shore dives around the coast, but we would head out on a boat to see the best places  seal colonies, caves, islands, rocky reefs and kelp forests.'

As she honed her diving skills, she began to look for more challenges and discovered underwater photography.

She enjoys capturing photos of creatures a lot of people otherwise wouldn't get to see.

Millie Banner is pictured with some of her diving friends before heading into the sea

Ms Banner (pictured in the snow at Cradle Mountain near Hobart) said she now goes diving to relax and unwind

'For people who may fear the ocean or have no desire to leap in, I find they seem to appreciate my pictures and the view I bring to such different critters in their natural world, as opposed to seeing them in a fish market.'

Ms Banner said she now goes diving to relax and unwind.

'I have reached a level now where diving is innate.

'I go to relax and unwind, seek new photography subjects and sit back after a dive to process and edit my photos.'
Batangas State University is one of the prestigious centers of higher learning in the Philippines. The institution boasts of high intakes each year and thus has a significant number of learners studying in it. Batangas State University portal has made it easy for students as well as the university staff to access essential studying materials conveniently.

Image: facebook.com, @BatStateUOfficial

Source: Facebook

With the ever-growing technology, most centers of higher learning across the globe have integrated their educational systems to ensure that learners, staff, and the institution interact easily. Services such as registration, access to academic material, and grades have been made conveniently accessible through online platforms dubbed portals.

Batangas State University portal

The institution was established in 1903 as a training school. It is located in the province of Batangas in the Philippines. It is one of the oldest centers of higher learning in the country, and it should therefore not be confused with the University of Batangas. The institute has an integrated online platform accessible to both faculty members and learners.

BST portal is made up of three online services namely;

Student portal

Faculty

Supreme Student Council (SSC)

BSU portal faculty

This is an online platform for faculty members. It enables easy access to information, resources, class timetable, uploading lectures, tests, and other relevant documents that need to be distributed to learners.

Before you can log into the online platform, a member has to key in his credentials that is the username and password.

BSU portal student

The platform for these students enables the learners to access learning materials posted by their lecturers, check on their grades as well as fee payment details. All learners within the institution have access to their respective platforms. The use of the platform is such a straightforward exercise. However, it can be confusing to fresh learners.

READ ALSO: Technological University of the Philippines courses, fees, admission

Applications are made through online platforms. Therefore, BSU portal enrollment is compulsory for anyone who wishes to join the university.

BSU portal registration procedure has a particular set of requirements. They include;

SRCODE

Matriculation payments receipt number

A valid email address

BSU portal online registration

The online registration process for both undergraduate and graduate students is simple and straightforward. Potential or aspiring Batangas State University learners are encouraged to visit the admission and registration websites to establish the requirements for the registration exercise.

Image: dione.batstate-u.edu.ph

Source: UGC

After one has established what is required, the following steps will help them in the registration process.

Visit the student website Click on register Provide your SRCODE Set your password an re-enter it Enter your valid email address Enter an official receipt number for matriculation payment

Supreme Student Council (SSC)

The supreme student council of Batangas State University has an online service platform. Those not similar to the ones mentioned above, the login process requires specific credentials. The platform offers room for communication between the student council and the institution as well as the learners.

For BSU portal top students or leaders can access it through the supreme student council website. The login steps require username and password plus checking the CAPTCHA.

READ ALSO: UE portal student, faculty, login, change password

BSU portal login

For all the online services mentioned above, learners and faculty members are required to have login credentials to access the platforms. For one to access the online service, the following procedure applies.

Visit the batstateu portal Click on student portal Enter your SRCODE Enter your password Click on login

For fresh students in the institution, they can access their accounts by entering their respective SRCODEs and their last name in capital letters (DUTERTE) as the password.

The Batangas State University portal is a well-established online platform for learners and workers within the institution. The registration and login steps are elaborated above. For more information or queries, you can always contact the university through the contact details provided on their websites.

READ ALSO: MSEUF portal login, grades, admission, evaluation

Source: KAMI.com.gh
The first Holocaust poems were written 90 years ago, when the full extent of the horror was yet to be known. Starting in the 1930s, those first works foreshadowed the catastrophe that was soon to come. As the second world war erupted and the Nazi killings began, people continued to write poetry that recorded direct experiences of persecution and lamented the murder of loved ones.

While many writers of Holocaust poetry are Jewish, there are those who belong to other groups targeted by the Nazi regime. Including those who were perceived to have disabilities, Roma and Sinti people, political and religious opponents and homosexual men.

Writing poetry of the Holocaust has often been a way to reclaim identity, as writer and translator Lou Sarabadzic puts it:

Victims of the Holocaust are not the Other in these lines, but rather the authors, the ones we listen to, the ones expressing emotions.

As such, they continue to be written today as people continue to reckon with the memories and impact of the Holocaust.

Diverse backgrounds

Published in 2019, Poetry of the Holocaust: An Anthology brings together poems from 19 languages that were previously unavailable in English. The translations in this book are followed by the original texts. These include poems in languages not normally associated with the Holocaust, such as Norwegian and Japanese, and from places like Argentina, Denmark and South Africa.

Author provided

Holocaust poetry in the 1930s and through the war wrestled with the incomprehensible reality its writers were facing. The earliest poems in Europe responded to the foreboding of the fascist regime and its politics of elimination.

In 1932, the German poet Eduard Saenger wrote in reaction to the sinister change of atmosphere that he was witnessing in his country:

A silent wind sends fear through the land / with an edge like the howling of wolves.

Like Saenger, many wrote poems warning of the approaching dark times and also in reaction to specific events, like the book burnings of May 1933 and Kristallnacht in November 1938.

Story continues

During the war, the poems documented life in ghettos, prisons and concentration camps. They spoke of mass shootings and of seeing neighbours deported.

Writing in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) ghetto in the early 1940s, the Czech teenager Dagmar Hilarova expressed the desire to die rather than undergo further humiliation and torture:

Like a bird with wounded wings / To lie down, / And not to wait for morning.

Poems written in concentration camps were memorised or hidden, often later found by others. Sallie Pinkhof wrote a poem in Bergen-Belsen in 1944, in which he mocked the state of his body:

What a hoot / these loose-fitting tendons / and bones in my foot!

Pinkhof did not survive but his poems were preserved by fellow camp inmates. An anonymous poem found in the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Camp) of Auschwitz-Birkenau opens with the wish:

Do not wake me from my dream, / so the world need never know / how they treat a Roma.

Read more: Nazis murdered a quarter of Europe's Roma, but history still overlooks this genocide

After the war

For many the horror of the Holocaust is both lifelong and unspeakable. As the memory and impact of the catastrophe continue to be felt by survivors, their children and people touched by its reverberations, poems continue to be written about the Holocaust to express what is almost beyond words. Dutch poet Chawwa Wijnberg (2001), whose father was executed by the Nazis:

Always present is the unsaid / the unsaid / that rips the wound open

Silence is a recurrent theme. Rita Gabbai-Simantov, a Sephardic-Turkish poet who lives in Greece and writes in Ladino, Judaeo-Spanish, about Thessaloniki  old Saloniki  and its wiped-out Jewish community (1992): As you walk, your companion / will be silence.

After her visit to Auschwitz, the Lithuanian poet Janina Degutyte recorded in 1966 the enduring silence of the people who were deported from her country and murdered:

Lips gasp for air  / The only sound is the rustling of golden leaves, / The rustling flow of time: which was  is  will be .

Later poetry also gave voices to persecuted groups who were previously unrepresented. In 1995, French writer Andre Sarcq was the first to express the fate of gay men who for decades after the war, in France and elsewhere, could not speak about their experience in concentration camps. This was because homosexuality continued to be outlawed and they felt, in Sarcqs words, like "the rag of a pool of souls.

Poetry of the Holocaust continues to be written in our time. A striking example is the poem by Angela Fritzen, a journalist who has Downs syndrome. Written after visiting an exhibition in Bonn, Germany in 2016, the poem is about the fate of people with disabilities during the Nazi era. To have strength is how Fritzen ends her deeply felt poem.

Holocaust poetry is a rich and diverse genre that continues to be added to. Both the older and the contemporary poems need readers, because Holocaust poetry is about communication. The poets felt the need to share their pain and it is vital that readers take the chance to empathise with what they have been through. By way of reflecting on the experience of others we recognise what it means to be human.

The translators of the quoted lines of poetry in this article are: Jean Boase-Beier (Saenger, Fritzen, Sarcq), Anna Crowe (Gabbai-Simantov), Maria Grazina Slavenas (Degutyte), Marian de Vooght (Pinkhof, Sarcq) and Philip Wilson (Hilarova).

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Marian de Vooght does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
US presidential contender Michael Bloomberg on January 26 pledged to "always have Israel's back," while separately joking he was the only Jewish candidate who does not want to turn the United States into a "kibbutz."

The joke, made during a speech on anti-Semitism and foreign policy, referred to collectivist farms in Israel and was an apparent dig at fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

Bloomberg and Sanders, who are both Jewish, are vying for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.

Sanders is a front-runner in the race and proposes left-wing policies like abolishing private health insurance in favor of a government-run Medicare for All program, based on the government program for older Americans.

Sanders spent several months in Israel in the 1960s as a volunteer on a kibbutz, or communal farm, and calls himself a democratic socialist.

Bloomberg has more centrist positions and has largely avoided attacks against individual Democratic candidates. A former mayor of New York whose wealth is estimated at about $60 billion, he has pledged to spend from his fortune to support the eventual Democratic nominee even if he loses the contest.

Bloomberg previously criticized leading Democratic candidates as too liberal to beat Trump. His remarks on Sunday appeared to take aim at Sanders, although he did not mention the senator from Vermont by name.

"I am not the only Jewish candidate running for president. But I am the only one who does not want to turn America into a kibbutz," he told a campaign event at a synagogue in Miami.

Bloomberg's views include a proposal to create a government-run health insurance plan that would exist alongside private plans.

On Sunday, he vowed never to impose any conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel.

Bloomberg added that "as president, I will always have Israel's back."

He said he originally opposed a 2015 international deal aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons because the agreement did not do enough to protect Israel. But he also criticized Trump's decision to exit the deal because doing so could boost Iran's nuclear program. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Bloomberg also said he was shaken by anti-Semitic attacks, including a gunman's killing in 2018 of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue that Bloomberg said his sister used to attend.

A late entrant to the Democratic nominating race, Bloomberg trails Sanders and fellow front-runners Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren in public opinion polls.

But Bloomberg is rising as he floods US airwaves with a television advertising campaign that has cost him more than $225 million, according to estimates by Advertising Analytics.
General Motors (GM), which cut the jobs of 8,000 white-collar workers last year and recently closed an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and transmission plants in Warren, Michigan, and Baltimore, Maryland, is continuing to receive billions in tax cuts and public subsidies.

In a move announced last week, the state of Michigan agreed to extend a decades-long tax credit arrangement with GM, slightly lowering the maximum credit the giant automaker can obtain to $2.28 billion through the end of 2029. The tax credit reduction amounts to $325 million over the next decade, or $32.5 million a year, a pittance for the company that made $7 billion in profits in the first three quarters of 2019 alone.

According to the Michigan Strategic Fund board, GM agreed to invest $3.5 billion in the state over the next 10 years, including at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, where the bulk of the investment is expected to be focused.

The tax credit agreement is part of an amendment to the 2009 Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) agreement, signed by former Michigan Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm in 2009. Through the MEGA agreement, the state of Michigan awarded billions of dollars in tax breaks to the Detroit Big Three auto corporationsformer Chrysler Group (now FCA), Ford Motor Company and GMin order to keep them in the state after the 2008 financial meltdown and the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler.

In May 2019, GM also won up to $50 million in tax credits from the state of Missouri over 10 years, signed by Republican Governor Mike Parson. GM agreed to invest $750 million in its Wentzville, Missouri, plant, which assembles trucks and vans.

Tax credits affect the amount of actual tax owed to the government and can affect the amount of a tax rebate the corporation is eligible for. In 2018, GM recorded $4.32 billion in profits and received a $104 million tax rebate, an effective tax rate of -2.4 percent.

At the same time, the tax deal struck with Michigan frees GM to further cut jobs and reduce labor costs. In return for the modest cutback on tax credits, GM can be more flexible with staffing, according to the Detroit News.

Under the amendment, GM is required to maintain a total Michigan workforce of 34,750 to qualify for 100 percent of the tax credits granted by the agreement. GM currently employs 48,000 in the state, meaning that over 13,000 jobs could be slashed and GM will still qualify for the full credit. Furthermore, if GM employment in Michigan falls below the 34,750 threshold but stays above 27,875, it will qualify for 75 percent of the total tax credits offered.

The amendment also requires GM to pay a minimal weekly wage of $1,300 per week per employee, double the 2009 requirement of $650 per week. However, it is likely that GM is already meeting and exceeding this threshold because the weekly wage includes health care, overtime, pensions and other employee compensation costs.

While CEO Mary Barra pocketed just under $22 million last year and the companys board continued to shower Wall Street investors with lucrative dividends and stock buybacks, the state of Michigan has slashed social spending to finance tax cuts for GM and other corporate giants, which have shut hundreds of plants, leaving economic and environmental disaster behind in Detroit, Flint and other Michigan cities.

In addition to GM, Ford is set to receive a maximum $2.3 billion in tax credits through the end of 2029, while FCA will get $1.7 billion during the remaining life of the MEGA tax credit program.

Meanwhile, the states Democrats and Republicans continue to shift the cost of social spending onto the backs of working class families. Over a billion dollars in public school spending is funded through the lottery, a regressive tax on the poor, and Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer wants a 45-cent tax increase on gasoline to finance the repair of roads, largely destroyed by heavy trucks delivering parts and complete vehicles for the auto industry.

The Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant was slated for closure by GM in November 2018, months before the 2019 contract negotiations began with the United Auto Workers union (UAW). In October, the UAW rammed through another concessions contract after isolating the 40-day strike by 48,000 GM workers and starving them back to work with poverty-level strike benefits. Industry analysts have hailed the deal for maintaining flexibility to reduce staffing levels and allowing the companies to cull their workforces of higher paid workers through so-called voluntary retirements, and replace them with low-paid temporary part-time workers.

As part of the sellout deal, the UAW negotiated to keep the Detroit-Hamtramck plant open with a $3 billion investment to produce a still-unnamed electric pickup truck and van model. These may include an electric Hummer pickup under the GMC brand and an electric Cadillac SUV. It will also most likely produce the self-driving all-electric Cruise Origin shuttle at the plant, a model to be used in a ride-sharing fleet.

In order to gain a competitive advantage in the world auto market since sales have begun to slump, particularly in China where corporations have relied on increased demand, GM and other auto corporations are scrambling to reduce labor costs and enter the electric vehicle market, where demand is growing globally, especially in China. Production of EVs, however, require fewer parts and fewer workers.

Originally, the plant was projected to employ up to 2,225 workers after it reopens some time in 2021, according to reports. Over 800 hourly workers and a small number of salaried employees will be laid off when the plant begins retooling on February 28. Far from opposing the layoffs, the UAW has endorsed company plans to force workers to uproot their families and transfer them to either Fort Wayne Assembly Plant in Indiana or Flint Assembly in Michigan. The transferred workers will bump out part-time workers who were supposedly in line to be rolled over to full-time positions.

According to sources who spoke to MSN News, UAW Local 22 has started preparing for a disruption at the plant, and union leaders have been holding meetings with hourly workers at the ends of shifts beginning last Tuesday and expected to last through Monday.

The anger of workers over the impending layoffs is well-grounded. It is very possible the majority of workers hired on to Detroit-Hamtramck after the retooling will be TPTs, with a fixed wage of around $16 an hour. GM has sold the Lordstown plant to a company that will hire a few hundred workers at lower wages, and plans a joint venture with South Korean firm LG Chem to build electric batteries nearby, also with a lower-paid workforce.

In November, GM filed a lawsuit against competitor FCA, alleging that it gained unfair business advantages through the bribing of UAW officials to push through contracts that allowed FCA to greatly expand its use of temporary and part-time labor. While that is no doubt the case, GM has long profited from the collusion of the UAW, to which it has transferred billions in joint-training funds.

TPT workers are typically paid about half the hourly wage of older legacy workers and have few benefits. Although they pay union dues, they have no rights and can be hired and fired at will. The so-called path to full-time employment proclaimed by the UAW and GM is a giant loophole, and not actually a path to full-time work.

TPTs will be hired in at full-time positions only after three consecutive years of employment, and if they are laid off for 30 days or more and then re-hired, they must start again from the beginning. This bogus pathway has been exposed at two plants in Indiana, Marion Metals Center and Fort Wayne Assembly, where over 280 TPT workers have been laid off since the contracts were passed.
Parts of Australia will be flooded with heavy rain this week, while others will swelter through blistering heat for the end of the first month of the year.

Heavy rain is set to be dumped on parts of Queensland, while NSW is due for temperatures well over 40 degrees and Victoria is in for both heat and rain.

More than 300mm is possible in northwest Queensland, Weatherzone meteorologist Craig McIntosh told Yahoo News Australia, with the heaviest rain likely to fall on Tuesday.

Brisbane is set to be hit by storms this week, while the heaviest rain will fall in the north of Queensland. Source: AAP

It will be very, very wet for the northern half of Queensland. Rainfall totals in the northwest will be well over 200mm but possibly even over 300mm for some areas, Mr McIntosh said.

Southern Queensland would also experience rain, but it would be more patchy than in the north, and heaviest for the remaining part of Monday, the majority of Tuesday and potentially some of Wednesday.

Theres most likely going to be thunderstorms as well. But the remainder of the week will be mostly dry, except in areas close to the coast where there will be showers and onshore winds, he said.

Mr McIntosh said that would encapsulate Brisbane, the Gold Coast and all the way down the coast from just south of Mackay.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a moderate flood warning, as of Monday morning, for the Paroo River in southern Queensland.

Isolated heavy falls have been recorded upstream of Eulo in the last few days in addition to rainfall recorded in the catchment over a week ago, it said.

Showers and storms are possible over the Paroo catchment today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) which may cause further river level rises.

The Paroo River at Eulo may reach the moderate flood level (3.00 m) by mid week.

Meanwhile, moderate flooding is happening in the Upper Flinders catchment in the Richmond area, and minor flooding is possible on the Cloncurry River at Cloncurry.

Story continues

A flood warning is also in place for the Nicholson, Gregory and Leichhardt Rivers as at 3.59pm AEST.

Hot and humid

Conditions will be predominantly dry in NSW, with between 10 and 15mm on the cards for the whole week in northeastern parts, Mr McIntosh said.

Any rain will have eased by Thursday, which is when temperatures are expected to soar towards 40 degrees in western Sydney and not much cooler closer to the city.

It will be a hot Thursday for Western Sydney and it will be very warm and humid for eastern parts of Sydney, he said.

Residents in Melbourne may want to head to the beach when temperatures soar into the high 30s this week. Source: AAP

It will be heating up on Friday and Saturday and Sunday will both be quite hot.

Mr McIntosh said Saturday could see a top of 43 degrees in Western Sydney and in the mid to high 30s for the city and its surrounding areas.

Healthy falls for Melbourne

In Victoria, some light showers are expected for the bushfire-ravaged East Gippsland area for Tuesday, before dry conditions set in for the remainder of the week.

Late on Friday a trough will begin moving across the state, bringing rainfall to some parts.

Friday and Saturday there could be some healthy falls for southwestern Victoria, possibly also Woomera, central, and Melbourne areas, Mr McIntosh said.

The east coast of Australia will be heating up this week, with the hottest temperatures arriving Thursday to Saturday. Source: Sky News Weather

Leading up to the rain, Melbourne will be hot on both Thursday and Friday, and potentially surpass 40 degrees on Friday.

It will start to heat up throughout the week and peak later this week.

South Australia also has some heat forecasted throughout the week, with it also likely to be hit with temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s Thursday and Friday, until some rain on Saturday and Sunday.

Hot weather will predominantly continue throughout the week in Western Australia as Perths coolest maximums in the mid 20s are due for Thursday and Friday, and the rest of the week in the mid to high 30s.

Smoke from fires in eastern #Victoria extended over Gippsland this morning. The smoke has gradually dispersed this afternoon. Stable conditions for the outlook means smoke haze may persist, particularly overnight and during the morning. Check @EPA_Victoria for air quality info. pic.twitter.com/ufOP7jzDe6  Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) January 25, 2020

Temperatures will stay in the mid to high 20s until Thursday in Hobart, Tasmania, before a 33 degree day on Thursday and 38 degrees on Friday.

The weekend will likely see the return of some rain and cooler temperatures in the mid to low 20s.

A hot week is forecasted for the countrys capital city, which will experience temperatures in the high 30s and lows 40s from Monday through to Sunday.

Thunderstorms and a maximum temperature of 33 degrees each day has been forecasted for Darwin in the Northern Territory, wheres its highest rainfall of 15mm is expected to fall on Saturday.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Washington, Jan 27 : Five people in the US, all of whom visited the Chinese city of Wuhan, have been infected with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), said an official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The fifth identified case was reported in Arizona, Xinhua news agendy quoted Nancy Messonier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, as saying on Sunday.

The other four cases were reported earlier in the states of California, Illinois and Washington.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said on Sunday that there was "no immediate threat to the general public", and local people can "continue to engage in their regular activities".

The CDC also said that "the immediate risk to the U.S. general public is low at this time".

As of Monday, China reported 80 deaths with 2,744 confirmed cases including 461 persons in critical conditions.

Most of the deaths were from Hubei province, who's capital city Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak.
Automakers are withdrawing employees from China and weighing whether to suspend manufacturing in the country as the virus that emerged in the city of Wuhan less than a month ago ravages the mainland.

Most major automakers have restricted or banned travel to the country due to the fast-spreading disease, which as of Monday had taken the lives of at least 82 people in China and sickened 2,900 worldwide.

Manufacturing in China was temporarily halted in honor of the Lunar New Year, which kicked off this weekend, but normal operations were due to resume this week. Automakers across the globe with operations in China could keep those plants closed even longer, people familiar with the matter said.

Automakers with notable operations in Wuhan include GM, Honda and Nissan, which currently has a facility under construction with Wuhan-based Dongfeng.

Honda Motor and PSA Group are withdrawing employees working around Wuhan, a city of 11 million people.

A Honda spokesman on Monday confirmed 30 "associates and their families" who work at the plant near Wuhan were being sent home to Japan.

PSA Group said in an email to CNBC that the decision to repatriate its employees working in Wuhan will be done "according the proposition of the French authorities in complete cooperation with Chinese authorities." They are expected to start flying French citizens home from Wuhan by the middle of this week, company spokesman Pierre-Olivier Salmon said.

Nissan also has plans to withdraw a majority of its employees and their family members from the Wuhan area back to Japan, a person familiar with the company's plans told CNBC on Monday.

"We take the health and safety of our employees and their families seriously," a Nissan spokesman said in an emailed statement, declining to comment directly on the withdrawal plans. "We are carefully evaluating the epidemic situation in Wuhan and the country and keep our employees informed and provided with all necessary support and precautionary tools."

Toyota Motor on Monday implemented a travel restriction to China "until further notice," according to company spokesman Eric Booth. He said the automaker "will continue to monitor the situation." Toyota, which does not operate any plants in China, has not had to extract any employees from China as other automakers have done, he said.

Details from other carmakers about the number of U.S., European and other international auto employees expected to be evacuated from China were not immediately available.

In Shanghai, local officials are prohibiting companies in the city from resuming operations before Feb. 9, Reuters reported. Electric-car maker Tesla, which just opened its first factory in China, near Shanghai, didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.

Business in China is essentially shut down through Thursday for the long Chinese New Year holiday, known as the Spring Festival. Chinese authorities extended the shutdown to Feb. 2 to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection.
Libya's Serraj vows to reject talks if Haftar breaks truce 'Blame will be on countries involved in Berlin conference'

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 27 - Libyan prime minister Fayez al-Serraj has threatened that, if the forces under General Khalifa Haftar continue to violate a ceasefire, Tripoli will not send any delegates to any ''dialogue'' called for by an agreement reached in Berlin. He added that he would place the blame on countries - which he called ''godfathers'' - that backed the agreement, according to a statement from the Libyan 'Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord' published on the Facebook page of the government's press office. ''Faced with these repeated violations of the ceasefire, the Presidential Council,'' which Serraj is the head of, ''will be obliged to review its participation in any dialogue and blame the godfathers of the truce for the lack of compliance with the ceasefire itself by the attacker,'' the statement said. The truce had been signed by Tripoli ''out of respect and esteem for them'', the statement added in referring to the countries taking part in the Berlin conference, but ''knowing that these rebels will not respect any commitment''. ''The Presidential Council is calling on the participants of the Berlin conference to take on their responsibility after the repeated violations of the truce and the conference resolution by militias that are attacking,'' the statement said.(ANSAmed).




Since mid-2017, I started experiencing a slight, but steady, decrease in Google Ads performances (both in terms of ROAS and CTR) for pretty much all of my clients. Back then, I had two rational explanations for the phenomenon: GHA cannibalizing GA results, or Google users favoring GMB listings (over paid ads) as their first entry touchpoint. After 12 months of careful monitoring, I found out the latter to be true. According to my analysis, in 2019, averagely 1/2 of the traffic and 1/2 of the revenue generated on my clients' official websites originated from their GMB listings.

Now, the behavior shift towards universal search is nothing new but -especially following the recent Google algorithm updates- this became way more evident in 2019. The bottom line is that, when I presented 2020 advertising budget proposals to my clients, I've cut around 20% of GA investments (and it's the first time, in my career, that I do that). With Google becoming the "Librarian of the Universe," moreover, not only GA performances, but the very notion of official website will be in danger of extinction. I've been stressing this for the last five years and, eventually, data seem to back me up: a future where GMB and a (decent) booking engine will be all your guests need to book, does not seem so far fetched. My suggestion? Reduce GA investments, do not overfocus on fancy, expensive websites, and make sure your GMB listings are up-to-date because, to paraphrase the mighty Buggles, "Universal Search Killed the Google Ads Stars."
The 3 rd Edition of the Africa Human Resources Innovation Awards has been launched by instinct Wave, Africas premium B2B event & media specialist. AHRIA 2020 is scheduled to hold at the enchanting Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, Ghana on Friday, 27th March 2020 at 6pm

The Awards Scheme which was formally Ghana Human Resources Innovation Awards was rebranded to Africa Human Resource Innovation Awards in order to cover the sub-region and bring together great minds in the HR industry across Africa.

Human Resources units play a pivotal and strategic roles in sustaining organizational growth in a highly competitive global environment. The success of every organization lies in its human capital.

AHRIA in its 3rd year will honour leading HR Professionals, organizations with top-notch HR models and practices and executives who have made sterling contributions to the corporate sector over the years. AHRIA will also unveil Top 50 HR Leaders across verticals in the sub-region.

Speaking on the rebranding of the awards scheme, InstinctWave CEO, Mr. Akin Naphtal said that 2020 is indeed shaping up to be a truly generation-defining year across the spectrum  from politics, to science, to the business world and beyond. Indeed the year heralds a new focus for business leaders, As Africas premium B2B event & media specialist, we are expanding some of our award schemes to cover the sub-region as well as catch up with the new wave in the business sector. This is the reason behind the rebranding of the awards scheme to Africa Human Resources Innovation Awards (AHRIA)

We are also glad to have the Fair Wages Commission on Board as a partner and a jury of AHRIA 2020. He added

AHRIA 2020 is in partnership with Ghanas Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, a reputable government institution.

The CEO of Fair Wages Commission, Dr. Edward Kwapong expressed his excitement about partnering Instinct wave, he said that the award scheme will raise the benchmark of excellence in the Industry.

Indeed its a great honour to be part of Instinct waves HR awards, it was great having Fair wages on board during the 2019 edition of the awards, Im optimistic that it will be greater hosting a gathering of leading HR professionals from African countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda. This will be a huge platform not only to reward the hard work of HR Professionals but also meet our counterparts from other countries to interact and learn one or two things to strengthen the socio-economic development of the nation.

The gala night will be a gathering of key players and decision makers in the industry from across the region. The night provides an exceptional opportunity for stakeholders to network, entertain clients, and reinforce relationships with partners and reward staff with exceptional performance.

The awards promises to be a memorable one and the gala night will excite the industry in a fashionable manner.
New Delhi/Beijing, Jan 27 : India is finding it hard to assess the exact number of Indians stranded in the central China's Wuhan city which has been placed under a lockdown, following the outbreak of the contagious novel coronavirus epidemic.

Aarti Tikoo Singh New Delhi/Beijing, Jan 27 (IANS) India is finding it hard to assess the exact number of Indians stranded in the central China's Wuhan city which has been placed under a lockdown, following the outbreak of the contagious novel coronavirus epidemic.

The death toll in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, due to the 2019-nCoV has risen to 80 and around 3,000 people have tested positive for the virus and around 6,000 people are suspected to be infected.

Though over 500 Indian students were studying in colleges and universities in Wuhan, official sources said, most of them had departed for home before the outbreak of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) for Chinese new year holidays.

The Chinese New Year was on January 25, and the holidays had started a week early. The holidays have now been extended following the epidemic.

Official sources said the embassy in Beijing has been in touch with 45 Indian students stuck in Wuhan but wasn't able to determine the overall figure of Indians living in the city.

"It is difficult to ascertain because usually not all Indians there would register with the consulate. Nor would they keep the consulate informed if they were moving out," an official in the ministry of external affairs told IANS.

Wuhan's all transport services have been suspended and its 11 million inhabitants prohibited from venturing out of their homes.

Chinese health authorities on Monday confirmed 2,744 cases of 2019-nCoV infections. 461 patients were critical on Sunday, official media in Beijing reported. In last 24 hours, 25 deaths in Hubei and around 800 new cases were confirmed, the National High Commission said.

As many as 32,799 close contacts have been traced, the commission said, adding that of them, 30,453 were under medical observation while 583 were discharged on Sunday.

A total of 17 confirmed cases have been reported in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in China.

In the rest of the world, 44 cases have been confirmed. Thailand has reported seven cases of infection while Japan, Republic of Korea, the US, France, Malaysia have reported three cases each.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:13:54|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of a leading group of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak, talks with front-line medical workers at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 27, 2020. Entrusted by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Premier Li Keqiang on Monday arrived in Wuhan to inspect and direct the efforts for the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

WUHAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Entrusted by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Premier Li Keqiang on Monday inspected efforts to prevent and control the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of a leading group of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak, extended regards to the medical workers at the frontline on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

He required local authorities to spare no effort in the epidemic prevention and control work, which is of paramount importance, reducing both the incidence rate and mortality rate to safeguard people's lives and health.

"Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, we must fight resolutely to win the battle against the epidemic", Li said.

Upon arriving in Wuhan, Li went to the Jinyintan Hospital which has the largest number of infected and severely ill patients. He talked to medical workers in an ICU via a video call and then chatted with doctors and nurses coming from across the country and the military, urging them to go all out in treating the patients and pay attention to their own protection.

He ordered sending more medical personnel, especially nurses, and medical supplies to Wuhan.

Li called for speeding up the construction of Huoshenshan Hospital, a makeshift hospital for treating patients infected with the novel coronavirus, while visiting the construction site.

Li urged the workers to race against time to finish building the hospital as a "safety island" for the patients.

"We must use every possible means to admit all the patients (into the hospital)," Li said, urging efforts to protect the construction workers against infection.

Li also assured people in a local supermarket that the country, with its ample reserves and measures such as the "green passages," will ensure adequate market supply and stable prices in Wuhan.

Visiting a lab in the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Li urged the researchers to speed up the research on the novel coronavirus.

He then called a meeting to make further arrangements on the epidemic prevention and control work in a more law-based, scientific and targeted manner, saying that progress in Wuhan will give people around the country confidence.

Wuhan will be assisted with additional 2,500 medical workers and 20,000 pairs of protective goggles, Li said, noting that the medical workers, especially nurses, will arrive within two days and the goggles can be expected on Monday afternoon.

Relevant departments will take multiple measures to ensure the supplies of protective gowns, Li said.
Almost half a million UK businesses are in significant financial distress, a report has claimed.

The number of companies struggling to stay afloat has hit a record 494,000, according to closely watched data from insolvency firm Begbies Traynor.

Property, support services, construction and retail businesses were the worst off, and a large number of those in trouble were less than five years old.

Almost half a million UK businesses are in significant financial distress, a report has claimed

Julie Palmer, a partner at Begbies Traynor, said: Businesses and the UK economy as a whole will want to avoid a repeat performance of 2019, where distress increased to record levels on the back of ongoing uncertainty around Brexit.

These figures clearly demonstrate the impact of this indecision, and with political certainty and a clear Brexit path, UK businesses should, at last, be able to plan for 2020 with a greater sense of clarity.
Constitution of India is like modern version of 'The Gita': Lok Sabha Speaker vows for unity

Inappropriate: LS Speaker to European Union Parliament on anti-CAA resolutions

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 27: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday has written to European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli over the resolutions moved against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying it is inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgement on another and the practice can be misused by vested interests.

The speaker's letter to Sassoli comes a day after close to 600 lawmakers in the 751-member European Parliament moved six resolutions against the CAA, saying the enactment of the law marked a dangerous shift in India's citizenship regime.

"I understand that Joint Motion for Resolution has been introduced in the European Parliament on the Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. This act provides for easier citizenship to those who have been subjected to religious persecution in our immediate neighbourhood," Birla said in the letter.

"As members of Inter-Parliamentary Union, we should respect sovereign processes of fellow legislatures, especially in democracies," he said.

It is inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgement on another, a practice that can surely be misused by vested interests, Birla said. "I would urge you to consider the proposed resolution in this light, confident that none of us want to set an unhealthy precedent," he said.
Application testing environments for z/OS can be expensive to create. It takes multiple human and system resources to create just one testing environment in z/OS. Eccox APT (application parallel testing) eliminates this resource burden.

Infotel, a leading global software vendor of data performance and optimization solutions for the Fortune 500 enterprises, today announced a distribution partnership agreement with Brazil-based, mainframe solutions and services provider, Eccox. Under the partnership, Infotel will leverage Eccoxs Application Parallel Testing product to provide better application testing processes, lower system maintenance times, and improved application performance. The Eccox Application Parallel Testing solution automates test infrastructure preparation processes to enable or reprocess specific tests, and also enable the creation and execution of test configurations using DB2, VSAM, and Sequential databases, both in Batch and Online CICS or IMS/DC.

Application testing environments for z/OS can be expensive to create," said Carlos Almeida, Infotel Corp's business analyst. "It takes multiple human and system resources to create just one testing environment in z/OS. Eccox APT (application parallel testing) eliminates this resource burden.

We have made great progress getting our products deployed in large enterprises in Brazil and have been looking for a partner in North America," said Mauricio da Costa e Silva, CEO of Eccox. "Infotel Corp has a good presence in the U.S. and their vision for delivering products that support better software development practices is very much in line with ours. We see great synergy with Eccox APT and Infotel's code quality assurance products in the DB/IQ suite."

About DB/IQ Product

DB/IQ is a SQL-for-Db2 code quality assurance software solution that automatically checks code and optimizes it before the Db2 app reaches the production stage. For apps already in production, the solution can check and optimize the code without having to take the application out of production. DB/IQ is designed with the DBA and developers in mind to save costs and reduce workload, ensuring they have the time to focus on more strategic tasks that impact the numbers of the business.

About Application Parallel Testing Product

Application Parallel Testing (APT) for IBM z/OS centralizes mainframe app development testing in a single mainframe (IBM z/OS) disk partition (LPAR). Based on Agile Development methods, APT dramatically accelerates application production on z/OS by providing multiple instances of databases and application code on a single LPAR so multiple developers can work concurrently on the same iteration of an app or apps in development. The result is the elimination of testing code builds in series and in multiple LPARs  the traditional Waterfall development method  where errors in code could only be found after a previous software build was completed and tested. APT allows for parallel development testing of application code by hundreds of developers concurrently across the entire enterprise, a cornerstone of Agile and DevOps application development methods. The result is faster application development and fewer bugs when an application is put into production. Subsequently, APT dramatically reduces the time need for app testing on z/OS, typically the most expensive phase of application development.

About Eccox

With over 24 years of experience in the global software market, Eccox is a pioneer in developing solutions focused on high availability of services and mission critical environments. With our solutions you can reduce MIPS/MSU consumption and increase the availability of IT resources to improve business application performance by carefully analyzing system usage data. Eccox solutions help longevity of applications, speed of delivery and use less resources. In line with global trends, Eccox effectively seeks continuous process improvement with quality and operational efficiency for its customers. For more information on Eccox, please visit https://eccox.com.

About Infotel

Infotel Corp., based in Tampa, Florida, is a software vendor and IT consulting firm specializing in data performance and optimization solutions for the Fortune 500 enterprise environments. For more than 40 years, Infotel has delivered proven solutions to help clients improve their data management systems. For more information on Infotel Corp., please visit https://infotelcorp.com.
Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan has paid a working visit to ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor at his Airport residence in Accra.

The Princess who is the World Food Programme (WFPs) Special Adviser on Mother and Child Health and Nutrition, is in the country alongside Paul Kiernan, a WFP Executive Board Member and Permanent Representative of Ireland to the three Rome-Based food agencies.

The two are expected to remain in Ghana from 25th  29th January, 2020.

They are in the country to among other things apprise themselves about an innovative nutrition programme in which high-quality specialized nutritious foods produced in Ghana by private sector agro-processing companies, are used to prevent stunting and micronutrient deficiencies.

The Princess and her WFP team paid the courtesy call on Mr. Kufuor on Monday, January 27, 2020.

Mr. Kufuor, a former WFP Global Ambassador against Hunger and lead convenor of the Zero Hunger Strategic Review in Ghana, hosted his guests in the company of staff of his JAK Foundation.

The Princess in a conversation with Mr. Kufuor, tried to find out the challenges faced by the private sector in promoting nutrition and farming in Ghana.

She enquired about the credit arrangements to the private sector by banks in Ghana for farming and other activities in the food value chain.

Mr. Kufuor briefed her on the activities of his Foundation and the contributions it is making towards good nutrition and food security.

He also briefed her about the dynamics of financial support to farmers in Ghana.

The ex-President spoke about how WFP and other bodies can collaborate in an effort to ensure food security and good nutrition for global citizens.

He observed the need for humanity to be fed with the right nutrition.

He deemed the visit by the Princess an honor, saying So I am happy to welcome you; we have heard so much about you and the good work you are doing.

---Daily Guide
The Supreme Court sought the response of two persons on Monday on an appeal filed by the Rajasthan government, challenging their acquittal in a 24-year-old case of a bomb blast in a bus in Dausa district's Samleti in which 14 people were killed.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant took note of the Rajasthan government's appeal against the acquittal of Javed Khan and Abdul Goni in the case and issued notices to them.

The state government was represented by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi.

On July 23 last year, the Rajasthan High Court had acquitted six persons, including Khan and Goni, who were undergoing life imprisonment in the case after being held guilty by the trial court.

The high court, however, had upheld the death sentence of Abdul Hamid and the life term given to Pappu alias Salim in the case.

The six convicts freed by the court included five Jammu and Kashmir natives -- Khan, Goni, Latif Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Bhatt and Mirja Nissa Hussain.

The sixth convict who was acquitted, Rais Beg, is from Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

The high court had upheld the death penalty awarded to Hamid, saying he was the key person behind the planting of the bomb in the bus going to Bikaner from Agra on May 22, 1996.

It had also upheld the life term awarded to Pappu alias Salim, holding him responsible for supplying the explosives.

Prior to this, a trial court at Bandikui in Dausa had awarded death penalty to Hamid and life terms to seven others in the case.

All eight were convicted by the Bandikui sessions court for various offences under the Indian Penal Code, the Explosives Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.

The blast had taken place in a state roadways bus, killing 14 people and inuring 37 others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to celebrate the resolution of the Bodo issue by organising a mega rally, likely to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in Assam's Kokrajhar.

Speaking to ANI, Assam Deputy Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, stated that the state unit would want to thank the central leadership for preserving the territorial integrity of Assam.

"Moreover, the Bodoland community will have the highest level of autonomous model of governance in their jurisdiction. This is a historic day for Assam. We have invited PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to address a rally in Kokrajhar to celebrate this historic decision on February 7," Sarma said.

He pointed out that the accord signed under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah is historic.

"Four factions of NDFB and other civil society organisation of Bodoland community have signed an agreement with the Government of India and Assam reaffirming territorial integrity of Assam. More power to both linguistic and academic, cultural to the Bodoland people," he said.

He also pointed out that Shah had worked on this agreement since his last visit to Assam.

"He created an agenda for himself and recently signed an agreement with Brus ending decade long problem and today Bodo accord. There will be more two-three agreements which will ensure complete peace in the North East region," he said.

Sarma said that no central government had taken initiative in North East. "Only the Modi government had shown extra love for North East region," he said.

Reacting on the controversy over statements made by student leader Sharjeel Imam he said the Assam police would soon arrest him.

"We will arrest him. In the North East region, we will not tolerate Shaheen Bagh. Even Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, it is patronised by fundamental and communal forces. I believe people of India are looking at the design and people will protest Shaheen Bagh kind of protests because you can't allow a particular fundamentalist people to hijack this country," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Attorneys for the widow of a 71-year-old Niobrara man who disappeared and is presumed dead following the Spencer Dam collapse in March will fight next week to keep a judge from dismissing her lawsuit against two state agencies she alleges were to blame.

Kenny Angel's wife, Linda Angel, is seeking more than $5 million from the Nebraska Public Power District and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, according to the lawsuit filed in October in Holt County District Court.

NPPD owned the 92-year-old dam and, along with the Department of Natural Resources, was responsible for its operation and maintenance when it failed on March 14, dramatically sending a torrent of water and ice downstream, sweeping away homes and washing out farmland in its path.

Kenny Angel was at his property downstream when it happened. His body hasn't been found, but in June a judge declared him dead. He is believed to have drowned.

In court filings, the utility company and the state agency responsible for dam safety both asked District Judge Mark D. Kozisek to toss out his estate's wrongful death suit, arguing that, as state agencies, they can't be sued.

A hearing is set for Monday.

In the lawsuit, Omaha attorney Jordan Adam alleges their negligence led to Angel's death and damaged his family's property. Specifically, he said, they failed to prevent the collapse, to mitigate the dangers and to properly operate, manage and control the dam.

Adam alleges they also failed to properly inspect or test the dam and didn't properly warn Angel about its defects and the danger it could fail.

Among the claims, he also contends that they failed to adequately hire and train employees who worked there.

NPPD's attorneys, who are with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, argue the public power district is immune from the lawsuit because it was carrying out emergency management activities.

They are expected to argue extreme weather, brought on by flooding and ice jams, caused the dam's collapse.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Assemblyman Michael Reilly is introducing a legislative package that would address major concerns about New Yorks new criminal justice reform laws.

As a former law enforcement officer, I completely understand that there needed to be changes to our criminal justice system, and I do believe that the intentions of all those who advocated for those reforms were good," said Reilly (R-South Shore), a former law enforcement officer. However, public safety should never take a back seat just to satisfy a political agenda.

What I am proposing aims to restore public safety, but also addresses one of the criminal justice reform movements core goals by ensuring a speedy trial for all those who pass through the system, he added.

The new criminal justice reforms went into effect Jan. 1.

Under the new laws, people accused of non-violent offenses -- like criminally negligent homicide, second-degree burglary and robbery, among other crimes -- could be released without bail. It also requires the district attorneys office to provide the names and contact information for victims and witnesses of crimes to defense attorneys, and allows defense attorneys to file a motion to visit the site of a crime -- even if that site is someones home.

INCREASE IN CRIMES

Last week, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the recent increase in crimes on Staten Island and citywide is connected to the new laws.

In the last 28 days, there have been sharp increases in robberies, sex crimes and stolen cars on Staten Island, according to data.

Recently, Emeka Aduba, 25, of Mariners Harbor was arrested and released three times in less than two weeks for allegedly stealing a credit card he used for a shopping spree, allegedly evading police during a high-speed chase and allegedly smashing an MTA bus window.

There have been other instances across the city.

REILLYS LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE

Reillys proposals would:

Allow judicial discretion by permitting judges to weigh an individuals prior record and court appearances/failures to show, prior offenses, in consideration of pre-trial confinement;

Reinstate pre-trial detention for certain felonies based on judicial discretion, for up to 180 days and certain misdemeanors for up to 90 days, and give prosecutors the ability to request additional time if appropriate;

Amend pre-trial discovery time to 45 days from initial arraignment offense, as well as discovery requirement for desk appearance tickets to 45 days from initial return date for the appearance;

Allow prosecutors the ability to file motions with the court for extensions and limit discovery items that may be a threat to public safety and/or the victim or witness;

Allow judges to immediately issue warrants for individuals who fail to appear for all hate crimes;

Prohibit issuance of desk appearance tickets to individuals who already have a pending case for the same offense within six months or a conviction of an offense in the past two years, as well as anybody with a class E felony in relation to illegal firearms.

REILLY CALLS ON CUOMO TO ISSUE AN EXECUTIVE ORDER

The assemblyman asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo again to issue an executive order that would temporarily suspend the bail reform provision of the criminal justice reforms.

What baffles me is that the governor has taken this sort of action before, Reilly said, referring to when Cuomo issued an executive order that suspended the sunset provision of the states speed camera law.

He believed that without those speed cameras the publics safety would be at risk," he said. "I just have to wonder, does he not believe the publics safety is at risk because of bail reform and the carelessness of some of my colleagues in the legislature?

Cuomos office did not respond to a request for comment.
A before and after look at the effectiveness of mechanical treatments and defensible space. Notice the fire hydrant in both pictures. NPS / RPaterson

January 25, 2020

Contact: Mike Theune, Fire Information Officer, 559-565-3703

SEQUOIA AND KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS, Calif. January 25, 20202  Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are releasing their 2019 fire year summary and 2020 prescribed burn and mechanical treatment plans to the public.

Mechanical fuels treatments, prescribed burns, lightning-caused wildfires managed for multiple objectives, one being full suppression, all play a role in protecting these highly valued resources and assets. The use of a variety of wildland fire management tools makes wildfire management efforts much more safe and cost effective.

In 2019, the parks had fifteen wildfires, ten human-caused, one unknown, and four lightning-caused. Human-caused fires trended about the same on a ten year historic average, however, there was less lightning activity than normal. Lower lightning activity coupled with a very wet winter and spring in the parks in 2019 resulted in lower wildfire acres in the parks, totaling just under 3 acres.

Firefighters and fire personnel additionally responded to mutual-aid fire requests on neighboring lands and supported ninety-seven in-park search-and-rescues. Furthermore, fire staff traveled to forty off-park fires / incidents in 2019, including assignments as far away as Florida, Alaska, and Alberta, Canada.

As a result of light suppression activity state-wide, fire resources were abundantly available and fire managers were able to utilize these resources to complete four significant projects in 2019 totaling over 800 acres of mechanical treatments and prescribed burns. The 489-acre Sherman Prescribed Burn in Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park was the biggest highlight of the year. This multipart project built upon decades of previous work maintaining low-intensity prescribed burning in the most visited sequoia grove in these parks. Over 15,000 visitors to the area during ignitions got to see first-hand how carefully applied prescribed burns can better protect these special places for future generations.

For over fifty years we have successfully reintroduced prescribed burns in this ecosystem, shared John Ziegler, fire management officer for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. By using scientific parameters and research, these projects dont just reduce the risk from unwanted high-severity wildfires, but help to ensure the sustainability of our landscapes for generations to come.

Each year, managers prepare an Annual Fuels Treatment Plan that lists all the approved prescribed burns and mechanical fuel reduction projects that will help the parks accomplish goals. In all, there are eight planned projects totaling over 3,000 acres. Nearly 200 acres will be focused on mechanical thinning treatments to reduce hazardous fuel build up around parks headquarters and Grant Grove areas.

Depending on weather and fuel conditions, the earliest projects planned for this year are the 244-acre Cedar Central Prescribed Burn and the 20-acre Ash Mountain Prescribed Burn. Additionally the parks are planning for the 470-acre Tharps Prescribed Burn, 669-acre Lost Grove Prescribed Burn, 562-acre Park Ridge Prescribed Burn, and the 941-acre Deer Creek Prescribed Burn.

A full list of the planned projects can be seen by visiting http://go.nps.gov/sekifireplans . All projects and dates are subject to change based on weather and fuel conditions.

If you are visiting the parks, be aware that fire and smoke can be present at any time. Since the execution of burns depends on air quality, local fire activity, fuel moisture, and weather, the times and dates listed on the website are estimates only.

-NPS-

About Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Fire Management Program

For over fifty years, our mission has been to use the full range of options and strategies available to manage fire in the parks. This includes protecting park resources, employees, and the public from unwanted fire; building and maintaining fire resilient ecosystems; reducing the threat to local communities from wildfires emanating from the parks or adjacent lands; and recruiting, training, and retaining a professional fire management workforce.
NREL Hosts Technical Exchange to Boost Brazils Power Sector Transformation

Jan. 27, 2020

NREL researchers Josue Campos do Prado (far left) and Jeffrey Logan (second from right) hosted EPE researchers Glaysson Muller, Bruno Crotman and Gabriel Konzen (from left to right). The visit included tours of NREL's South Table Mountain facilities, the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the Flatirons Campus (shown here). Photo by Jeffrey Logan, NREL

When Gabriel Konzen, an analyst from Brazils Energy Research Office, Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica (EPE), met National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researcher Paul Denholm on the first day of his visit to NREL's campus, it was truly a full-circle moment. While studying for his masters degree in 2014, Konzen came across a publication about distributed generation options, authored by Denholm, that captured his interest. Inspired by the report, Konzen went on to create a consumer-adoption model of distributed generation for Brazil that became the topic of his masters thesis. For Konzen, the opportunity to meet Denholm in person felt a little bit like meeting a celebrity.

NRELs 21st Century Power Partnership (21CPP) hosted Konzen, Glaysson de Mello Muller, and Bruno Mauricio Rodrigues Crotman, who are all analysts at EPE, for a week-long technical exchange at NREL's campus during the month of December. The exchange was designed to provide hands-on experience in energy planning, demand-side modeling, and computational tools to support power system transformation in Brazil. This collaboration assists in studies such as the recently published Ten-Year Expansion Plan, PDE 2029 (which is currently only available in Portuguese).

One Week, Immeasurable Results

The trios short visit to NREL was packed with events and opportunities to interface with laboratory staff and visit NREL's best-in-class research facilities. The visitors gave four presentations on energy topics with Brazil's unique considerations in mind, such as data organization and analysis in the Brazilian power system, and an overview of Brazil's energy expansion plan.

Additionally, each analyst came to NREL prepared to investigate and take a deep dive into the topics most relevant to their respective interests and roles at EPE. During the exchange, the group's 21CPP hosts Jeffrey Logan and Josue Campos do Prado connected them with NREL researchers, including Denholm, Elaine Hale, Clayton Barrows, Amy Rose, Ben Sigrin, and many others who could engage in technical discussions on wide-ranging topics including energy storage, demand response, scalable infrastructure modeling, capacity expansion modeling, renewable energy potential data analysis and dissemination, the USAID-NREL Partnership's Greening the Grid platform, and EV charging, among others. The visitors also had hands-on experience with various computational tools and learned how data is organized and analyzed at NREL.

NREL researcher Owen Zinaman met with EPE staff a year ago to share his knowledge and experience in distributed energy deployment and emphasized how this group's expertise is bringing innovation to Brazil's power sector. These researchers are so impressivetheir institution is really firing on all cylinders, and they bring top-notch knowledge to the table every time, noted Zinaman. Its no wonder that Brazils clean energy sector is growing so strongly.

The visit is part of ongoing collaboration between 21CPP and EPE to exchange information and best practices on topics that are important to maintaining clean, affordable, reliable and resilient power systems. Photo by Jeffrey Logan, NREL

Forward-Looking Energy Policy Requires Power System Transformation

This technical exchange, which is part of an on ongoing collaboration between 21CPP and EPE, was designed to enhance EPEs ability to plan and operate state-of-the-art electricity grids in Brazil and to equip the visiting analysts with the knowledge and tools to share with implementers, decision-makers, and stakeholders back home.

Brazil joined 21CPP in 2017 to exchange information on topics that are important to maintaining clean, affordable, reliable, and resilient power systems. NREL and EPE have since developed several webinars that address technical issues related to power system transformation, and NREL teams have participated in several workshops hosted in Rio de Janeiro.

This growing relationship also helped in production of a recent study completed for the U.S. Department of Energy by NRELs Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) on options for power system flexibility in South American countries. Brazil, like many of its neighboring countries, relies heavily on hydropower and has growing shares of variable renewable energy. Recent changes in rainfall activity during so-called El Nino and La Nina years are adding complexity to ensuring reliable and least-cost power supply. The report highlights several options that could contribute to improved power system flexibility for each of the four countries analyzed.

Annual Global Meeting to Springboard Innovation and Collaboration

The NREL-EPE collaboration will continue to address critical issues related to scaling up advanced energy systems such as advanced modeling techniques, renewable energy and natural gas complementarity, and power system flexibility. Photo by Jeffrey Logan, NREL

The 21CPP is an initiative managed by JISEA under the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), an annual gathering of ministers from the worlds largest energy consumers. The goal of the CEM is to share lessons-learned and to promote best practices under the umbrella of clean energy.

Following December's exchange, 21CPP and Brazil plan to co-host a side event at the upcoming preparatory meeting for the 11th annual CEM conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in early February. The President of EPE, Thiago Barral, noted this technical mission serves as the basis for the preparatory meeting in Riyadh in 2020.

Given the plans to accelerate collaboration, this trip won't be the last opportunity for Konzen and the other EPE analysts to interface with NREL's team of researchers.

To find additional resources about power system transformation around the globe, visit the 21st Century Power Partnership website.

To learn more about how JISEAs leading-edge research and analysis informs investment and policy decisions to transform the global energy economy, visit JISEA's website.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has written a letter to European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli over the draft resolutions that have been tabled by some of its members on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying that it is inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgment on another, a practice that can surely be misused by vested interests.

Sources said the Speaker in his letter has noted that the Act provides for granting "easier citizenship to those who have been subjected to religious persecution in our immediate neighbourhood."

It is not aimed at taking away citizenship from anybody, instead, the legislation was passed after "due deliberation by both the Houses of the Indian Parliament," the letter reads.

It added that as members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, "we should respect the sovereign processes of fellow legislatures, especially in democracies."

"It is inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgment on another, a practice that can surely be misused by vested interests. I would urge you to consider the proposed resolution in this light, confident that none of us wants to set an unhealthy precedent," adds the letter.

The European Parliament will discuss the draft resolution on CAA during a plenary session on Wednesday and will vote on January 30.

India adopted the CAA in December last year that grants citizenship rights to the persecuted minorities of neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

The five-page resolution, drafted by 154 members of the European Parliament, describes the CAA as "discriminatory" and "dangerously divisive" and also a "violation of India's international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

It also called the CAA "explicitly discriminatory in nature" as it excludes Muslims from having access to the same provisions as other religious groups.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The deposits of non-government resident customers were up by 3.1 pct in December 2019 compared to the previous month, to almost 367.687 billion RON, and 11.5 pct higher (7.2 pct in real terms) compared to the same month of 2018, informs the National Bank of Romania (BNR) in a press release on Monday.

RON-denominated household deposits increased by 2.5 pct compared to November 2019, to 131.134 billion RON, and by 9 pct (4.7 pct in real terms) compared to December 2018.RON-denominated deposits of other sectors (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) advanced by 5.4 pct (exceeding 110.551 billion RON) as compared to November 2019 and by 10.5 pct compared to December 2018.According to the BNR data, the forex-denominated deposits of residents expressed in RON increased by 1.8 pct compared to November 2019 to 126 billion RON (expressed in EUR, the forex-denominated deposits increased by 1.7 pct, to 26.364 billion EUR). Compared with December 2018, the forex-denominated deposits of residents expressed in RON went up by 15.3 pct (expressed in EUR, the forex-denominated deposits of residents increased by 12.5 pct).Forex deposits of households, expressed in RON, rose by 2 pct (1.6 pct in real terms) compared to the previous month, while expressed in EUR, they increased by 2 pct. Compared to the same period of 2018, the increase in forex deposits of households expressed in RON was 16.5 pct (the increase was 13.6 pct if the indicator is expressed in EUR).Forex deposits of other sectors (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) expressed in RON increased by 1.2 pct (0.7 pct in real terms) compared to November 2019 (expressed in EUR, the increase was 1.1 pct). Compared to December 2018, the forex deposits of residents of other sectors, expressed in RON, went up by 12.3 pct (expressed in EUR, they advanced by 9.5 pct).

AGERPRES
Grace Jones Ragland, 58, of Huntsville, Alabama, passed away on January 24, 2020.

Grace was born and raised in Chattanooga and was a 1979 graduate of Red Bank High. She is the daughter of Barry and Rosemary Jones. Graces DNA was written with one overriding mandateto be outside. Her childhood was soaked in dew and creek water. She adored her parents hand-built cabin on the banks of the Hiwassee where she collected bugs, rocks and skinned knees. The woods around the cabin whispered destiny to her and lay the foundation for the great adventure she would complete just before the end of her days.

Grace lost her way in college as she was confronted with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 18. She was determined to live life to the fullest in spite of this and to never ever fall victim to a woe is me attitude. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in home economics. She got married, settled down and had a child, Wills, whom she loved with all her heart.

Grace was made of different stuff. Her blood ran with the urgency of a wilderness stream, frothing with energy and desire to see what beauty lie just around the next bend. After her divorce, with MS increasingly attacking her body, Grace discovered mountain biking. It became her sword and shield helping her stave off the ravages of MS and give her life direction and purpose. She found that purpose as a racer and instructor. She worked as a spokesperson for a drug company and as a passionate, revered national advocate in the fight against MS. Graces message of tenacity and action has touched thousands of MS sufferers, and her example of unfailing courage has reached beyond the MS community to inspire all who have heard her story.

In the summer of 2018 at the age of 57, Grace embarked on her defining adventure, the 2750 mile Tour Divide bike race which stretched from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide. Grace battled the elements; rain, snow, cold, heat, and altitude, as well as the inner turmoil of MS, infection, isolation, and exhaustion. With her two mottos, I can, I will, I am, and Keep your eye on the prize she persisted.

After 41 grueling days, Grace reached the Mexican border and the end of the race. Shortly after returning home, she was diagnosed with Stage Four Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. With characteristic toughness, she blasted through chemo and achieved remission. She returned to the Rockies and spent one last glorious summer riding her bike among the wildflowers, drinking in wondrous, brief life.

Her story has been chronicled in the acclaimed book, Divide By One, which witnesses a spirit that is tested, yet comes shining through in the end. Hers is the story of each of us, a story of affliction and redemption that is recognizable and available to all. In name and in deed, she was Grace.

Grace was preceded in death by her parents, Barry and Rosemary Jones.

She is survived by her son, Wills Ragland and brother, Andy Barry Jones.

A celebration of life gathering will be held on her birthday, March 7th in Huntsville.
Kolkata, Jan 27 : A woman was arrested here on Monday for allegedly strangulating her two-month-old daughter to death a day after she complained that the girl had been kidnapped, the police said.

The infant's body was recovered from a manhole behind the family's apartment in north east Kolkata's Beliaghata late on Saturday.

The 38-year-old woman -- Sandhya Malo -- had lodged a police complaint that an unidentified youth forcibly entered her second floor flat, made her unconscious and fled with the baby on Sunday. The woman claimed that after she regained consciousness, she could find neither the youth nor her baby.

The police found inconsistencies in the woman's statement and after being subjected to sustained interrogation, she broke down and confessed to have killed the child by strangulating her with leucoplast.

"She claimed she was tired of the baby and hence killed her. Further investigation is on," a senior police officer said.
As big manufacturers have left, Dayton has suffered. Andrew Spear for The New York Times

DAYTON, Ohio  Shawn Hoskins used to vote Democratic down the line. For the son of a lifelong Teamster, it was the way I was raised  it was the way it should be, he said. And after he went to work on the assembly line at General Motors Moraine Assembly plant in suburban Dayton, I had a job and was in the union and liked the way things were going.

But in 2008, G.M. closed the Moraine plant. At 42, with two toddlers, Mr. Hoskins found himself unemployed. As his fortunes soured, his politics changed: In 2012, for the first time, he voted for a Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

In 2016 he voted for Donald J. Trump, helping push Montgomery County, where Dayton sits, into the arms of the G.O.P. for the first time since George Bush took it in 1988. And Ohio  which Mr. Trump took by eight percentage points  fell into step with the political re-sorting that is transforming the Republican Party into the home of white Americans who feel left behind by globalization and technological change.

In the 1990s there was no strong correlation between the economic standing of a place and the partisan preference of its voters: The Republican Party received roughly the same share of the vote in richer and poorer counties. By 2000, however, the electoral map had started to shift.

1992 election 60% 50% Relation of income to party preference 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income 1996 election 60% Relation of income to party preference 50% 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income 2000 election 60% Relation of income to party preference 50% 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income 2004 election 60% Relation of income to party preference 50% 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income 2008 election 60% Relation of income to party preference 50% 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income 2012 election 60% Relation of income to party preference 50% 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income 2016 election 60% Relation of income to party preference 50% 40% Greater share of voting for Republicans 20% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% Lesser share of U.S. income Relation of income to party preference 60% Greater share of voting for Republicans 40 30 20 60 80 100 120 140 160% Lesser share of U.S. income











In 1992s presidential election, those who voted for Republican George Bush (who lost to Bill Clinton) were only slightly poorer in general than those who didnt. The relation between income and voting didn't change much in the next election, in 1996. But by 2000, lagging places had turned sharply toward the Republican Party. Republicans strength in poorer counties increased in 2004. It held steady in 2008. And it held again in 2012. By 2016, the Republican Party won almost twice the share of votes in the nations most destitute counties  home to the poorest 10 percent of Americans  than it won in the richest. By Karl Russell  Data is divided into deciles of personal income per person as a share of the national average compared with the share of votes the Republican candidate received in each presidential election among each decile.  Source: New York Times analysis of data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (income) and David Leips Atlas of U.S. Elections (voting).

Now, the Republican share of the vote has increased across the nations most economically disadvantaged counties, while the most successful counties have moved toward the Democrats.

In the mid-1990s, Montgomery Countys residents  roughly three-quarters of them white, then as now  enjoyed roughly the same living standard as the average American. G.M. was the big employer, but there were others, like Delphi and NCR. When big manufacturers left, Dayton suffered. By 2016, the countys income per person had fallen to under 87 percent of the national average. And Mr. Trump won the county by one percentage point.

Lela Klein, a former union activist who runs Co-op Dayton, a community development group, contrasts Dayton with Columbus, a relatively prosperous college town some 70 miles east. We havent recovered from 2007, and they have, she said. We have become redder, and they have become bluer.

Daytons fate looks familiar in Macomb County, Mich., north of Detroit. Macomb Countys income per person has dropped from 110 percent of the national average to 87 percent in the last two decades. And the G.O.P.s share of the countys presidential vote rose to 54 percent in 2016, from 48 percent.

In Columbus County, N.C., where textile mills and other manufacturers were once solid employers, the Republican share increased to 60 percent from 45 percent over the same period, as income per person fell from 71 percent of the national average to 61 percent.

On the flip side, the Republican share of the vote in Gallatin County, Mont., which includes the college town of Bozeman, declined from 59 percent to 44 percent during that time as the average income of its residents increased to 102 percent of the national average, from 83 percent.

By 2016, the nations political map corresponded neatly to the distribution of prosperity: Mr. Trump won 58 percent of the vote in the counties with the poorest 10 percent of the population. In the richest, his share was 31 percent.

The Republican Party, which long identified itself with unbridled economic prosperity  led by a powerful business constituency that favored free trade and the unfettered capital mobility that fueled the march of globalization  came to be embraced by many parts of America that globalization upended.

And the Democrats, once accused of working to keep the poor poor in order to preserve a captive voting base, have instead come to represent the places that benefited most from the global economy of the late 20th century and early 21st.

Mr. Hoskinss transformation is telling. After losing his job, he collected unemployment benefits for a time, as he waited, unsuccessfully, for an opening at another G.M. plant anywhere. He took a job loading trucks at a supplier for McDonalds, earning less than half the $30 an hour he made in Moraine. It was a job for a younger man, he said. In six months, I lost over 50 pounds.

He eventually got a better job, as a machinist at the Dayton-Phoenix Group, which makes electrical engines for locomotives. But he hasnt recovered the lost ground: Pay tops out at $22 an hour. Life seems somehow more precarious. Last May, when tornadoes coursed through town, taking the roof and walls of the Dayton-Phoenix plant with them, he feared he would be laid off. Luckily, he says, that didnt happen.

Shawn Hoskins, right, having a beer with colleagues after work this month. Andrew Spear for The New York Times

Tornadoes last year pummeled homes and other buildings in Dayton, including the Dayton-Phoenix plant where Mr. Hoskins works, left. The company temporarily relocated production. Andrew Spear for The New York Times

In a way Mr. Hoskins feels betrayed: In the face of economic insecurity, his loyalty to the union and the Democratic Party did not protect him. And the Republicans were an increasingly attractive alternative.

He says he thought Mr. Romney could do a better job than President Barack Obama in reviving the economy after the recession. He says he likes the fact that Mr. Trump is a businessman. He criticizes Democrats for embracing higher taxes and blasts the hefty insurance premiums he was forced to pay under the Affordable Care Act.

But at the end of the day, when it came time for the doors to shut at G.M., the Democrats werent looking out for me, Mr. Hoskins said. Losing my job opened my eyes. I had to pay attention to other things going on in the world.

Dean Lacy, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, traces Americas political rearrangement as far back as the emergence of Reagan Democrats in the 1980s  working-class whites who switched to the Republican Party largely because of social issues like affirmative action and abortion. But he also notes that to the Democrats old working-class base, the Clinton administrations embrace of international trade eventually felt like a sellout.

At the same time, the Democratic Party increasingly presented itself as the vanguard of a knowledge economy premised on the advent of a postindustrial age. That new order held rewards for the well educated, but little future for the manufacturing jobs that had long been a path to economic security.

It is not one cause but a series of events that have moved the Democratic Party to win white college-educated voters that might have voted for the Republican Party 30 years ago, Professor Lacy said.

White blue-collar voters were left without an economic champion. They dont know who is on their side on economic issues, so they look for who is on their side on guns and other cultural issues, he added.

As blue-collar union jobs disappeared, the institutional glue that unions provided, tying the party to the working class, lost its hold.

To white workers like Mr. Hoskins anxious over their loss of economic and social status, and eager to hear fighting words on their behalf, Mr. Trump  an unusual Republican with a populist message  was an ally.

To be sure, there are voters in both thriving and depressed areas, and of all races, whose decisions this year will be shaped by factors other than the economy, including Mr. Trumps divisive governing style and the Democrats ability to articulate a case for change.

Daytons Democratic mayor, Nan Whaley, resists the argument that Ohio has lost its position as a swing state and been driven irrevocably into the G.O.P.s embrace.

I dont think Ohio is solidly red, she said. But she agrees that voters behavior is driven by frustration over their economic plight. They voted for Obama because they wanted to set the house on fire, she said. They voted for Trump because they wanted to set the house on fire.

Still, frustrated workers on the losing side of change no longer seem to trust Democrats to be their champions.

A Trump campaign flag outside a Dayton home this month. Andrew Spear for The New York Times

There were a lot of union votes that did flip, acknowledged Stacey Benson-Taylor, Dayton regional director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Thats kind of hard to explain.

Phil Plummer, the Montgomery County Republican chairman, argues that a lot of union people switched to the Republican Party because they felt the Democrats had left them. Ms. Klein of Co-op Dayton put it this way: Dayton consistently showed up for Democrats, and Democrats didnt show up for Dayton.

Will Minehart, 45, votes Democratic, though his job as a machinist at Dayton-Phoenix pays $4 an hour less than he was making at G.M. in 2000. His party loyalty, however, is not unconditional. I am not a Republican nor a Democrat, he said. Im working class.

Its not just white voters who feel disaffected. Quincy E. Pope Sr., the city manager of the heavily African-American city of Trotwood, which abuts Dayton from the west, argued that though Democratic policies align more with who we are, we are not in love with them. Looser trade barriers with Canada, Mexico and China were just as big a deal for the African-American community as for white workers, he added. They affected our way of life.

Cameron Walker, who is 40 and black, doesnt have it easy making ends meet with freelance work in digital media.

Cameron Walker was long a solid Democrat, but feels there is a political deficit in both parties. Andrew Spear for The New York Times

From her first vote in 2000 for Al Gore for president, she was long a solid Democrat. But in 2016 she flipped, not to the Republican Party but to the Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein. You begin to see there is a political deficit in both parties, she said. Dayton is feeling the impact of economic decisions that are made not in the interests of people here.

And no matter whom the Democrats choose this year, the nominee will have a hard time replicating the excitement that drove so many African-Americans to the polls to vote for Mr. Obama. In 2016, the enthusiasm for Hillary just wasnt there, said the Rev. Perry Henderson, the pastor at First Corinthian Baptist Church, on the predominantly black west side of town. We couldnt convince them of the importance of voting. They just stayed home.

Making things more difficult for Democrats, Mr. Henderson said, is a sense of disillusionment among many African-Americans after President Obamas two terms. They expected so much would be accomplished under Obama, and it wasnt, he said.

Congregants at First Corinthian Baptist Church, whose pastor says it will be hard for Democrats to stir the enthusiasm and turnout that Barack Obama's candidacy produced. Andrew Spear for The New York Times

Dayton is now doing a little better. The average wage in Montgomery County was hovering around $24 an hour in the second quarter of the year, still a long way from the $30 an hour of Mr. Hoskinss G.M. past. Still, there are certainly more jobs. In November, the jobless rate was 3.8 percent, only slightly higher than the national average.

Chris Shaw, a city commissioner, is hopeful that Democrats traditional voters are ready to return to the fold. Folks are going to start to appreciate that theyve been fed a bill of goods, he said.

And yet the forces pulling places like Dayton into the Republican column are persistent, delivering prosperity to a narrow set of superstar cities and bypassing much of the country. Referring to the economic lift provided by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Mr. Minehart said, If it werent for the Air Force base, Dayton would be another Flint.

Mr. Minehart is heavily involved in local voter-turnout efforts by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. He is kind of leaning toward Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is running on the left of the Democratic presidential field. Still, he argues, none of the candidates know what real people go through.

As for Mr. Hoskins, the Democrats have lost him for good. I hope Trump keeps rolling on, he said.
Avast said Thursday that it will wind down its data-collection service, Jumpshot, in response to concerns that it was collecting personal information about users from its free antivirus programs without the full knowledge and consent.

Avast and its subsidiary AVG, caught selling customer data to corporate clients last year, were supplying the information to Jumpshot, which in turn resold the data to corporate clients. Ondrej Vlcek, chief executive of Avast, said Friday that violated Avasts corporate mission.

Avasts core mission is to keep its users safe online and to give users control over their privacy, Vlcek said in a statement. The bottom line is that any practices that jeopardize user trust are unacceptable to Avast. We are vigilant about our users privacy, and we took quick action to begin winding down Jumpshots operations after it became evident that some users questioned the alignment of data provision to Jumpshot with our mission and principles that define us as a company.

Its not clear, however, if this means that Avast will stop collecting personal information. Avasts statement also says that all Avast products core functionality will continue to perform as usual and users will see no change.

The joint report by Vices Motherboard and PCMag had built upon reports by Adblock Plus creator Wladimir Palant, who reported in October, 2019 that the Avast Online Security Extension as well as the AVG Secure Browser spy on users, harvesting their information.

Palant alleged that the informationwhich included a unique user ID, the page you visited, whether youd visited that page before, and other informationcould be provided to third parties, and suggested that Jumpshot could be a possible destination. (Avast acquired Jumpshot in 2013, and a statement on the companys website says that it provides insights into consumers online journeys by measuring every search, click and buy across 1,600 categories from more than 150 sites, including Amazon, Google, Netflix, and Walmart.) At the time, the news caused browser makers like Google to remove both from its web store, though the extensions have since returned.

IDG

In the report, Avast told Motherboard/PCMag earlier this week that data collected by the Avast browser extensions is no longer provided to Jumpshot. But other sources alleged that it is instead collecting that same information from the Avast and AVG free antivirus programs. That data is then passed along to Jumpshot, those sources said, and from there to its corporate clients.

Last week, months after it was spotted using its browser extensions to send data to Jumpshot, Avast began asking its existing free antivirus consumers to opt-in to data collection, according to an internal document, Motherboard wrote.

In a statement, Avast said that it acted quickly to meet browser store standards, and in December completely discontinued the practice of using any data from the browser extensions for any other purpose than improving the core security engine. We ensure that Jumpshot does not acquire personal identification information, including name, email address or contact details, the statement said.

The statement went on to describe the opt-in and opt-out choices available. Users have always had the ability to opt out of sharing data with Jumpshot, it said. As of July 2019, we had already begun implementing an explicit opt-in choice for all new downloads of our AV, and we are now also prompting our existing free users to make an opt-in or opt-out choice, a process which will be completed in February 2020.

Avast Avast supplies a long list of optional modules to install as part of its free security software.

Avasts statement also sought to minimize concerns about its practices. We have a long track record of protecting users devices and data against malware, and we understand and take seriously the responsibility to balance user privacy with the necessary use of data for our core security products, Avast added. The company said that it complies with the European GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act, and referred users to its privacy policy for more information.

The policy allows Avast to enable use of your personal data to create a de-identified data set that is provided to Jumpshot to build trend analytics products and services.

When installing the free Avast antivirus software, users are given the option to uncheck virtually all of the optional modules that the software installs: password storage, disk cleanup, and more. By default, the Avast security browser extension and SafePrice browser extension have a check mark next to them, showing that they will be installed. Those can be unchecked and not installed.

Out of curiosity, PCWorld unchecked every option. The Avast software reported that the installation process completed, and Windows Security reported that the Avast software was installed. However, we werent able to open the Avast software itself, including its dashboard.

Theres an old adage: When youre not paying for the product, youre the product. For now, this seems to be the case with Avasts antivirus software.

This story was updated at 12:25 PM on Jan. 30 with details about how Avast was winding down Jumpstart.
Manzoor Pashteen, the civil rights leader who has criticized military operations in Pakistans northwestern Pashtun regions, has been arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) said Pashteen was arrested along with several colleagues in an overnight raid in Tehkal, a neighborhood of Peshawar.

He was arrested ahead of planned protests by tribes and businessmen to demand compensation for losses suffered during military operations in Waziristan. The large region, divided into North and South Waziristan districts, was the scene of large-scale military operations against Pakistani Taliban groups since 2003.

This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful and democratic manner, lawmaker Mohsin Dawar, a senior PTM leader, wrote on Twitter. Manzoor's arrest will only strengthen our resolve. We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen.

The government has not commented on the arrest, but a copy of a police report circulating online accuses Pashteen of saying he rejects Pakistans supreme law. The report said he also used insulting language about the state during a January 18 meeting.

Pakistani media reports say Pashteen has been moved to a prison in Peshawar while a court in the city will hear his case on February 8.

His supporters, civil society, and global rights watchdogs, however, have rejected the charges against him.

Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Amnesty Internationals South Asia office said in a tweet. He must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Pashteens arrest comes ahead of planned protests in Peshawar and the western city of Tank. Members of the Mehsuds, a Pashtun tribe, have planned a sit-in protest in Tank on January 27 to demand compensation for property damaged during the fighting in South Waziristan. An estimated half-million Mehsuds were displaced for many years following a large-scale military operation in their home region in 2009.

The traders of Miran Shah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, have also announced a sit-in protest to push the authorities to deliver on promises to compensate for losses of properties and businesses in a major military operation in 2014. Operation Zarb-e Azb, as the offensive was called, forced nearly 1 million North Waziristan residents to flee their homeland.

The PTM emerged in a protest in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in 2018. It has attracted thousands to is noisy rallies across Pakistan to demand accountability for military operations in the countrys Pashtun regions, where tens of thousands were killed and millions displaced by militant attacks and Pakistani military operations since 2003.

Pashteen and other PTM leaders have faced arrests, court cases, travel bans, and accusations of treason from the military and pro-military politicians.

The authorities accuse the PTM of working on a foreign agenda by criticizing the army.
At a joint meeting on Monday, the National Bureaus of the Save Romania Union (USR) and Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS) decided to ask the organizations for a mandate to hold a merger convention this July.

The decision will be made by the Political Committee of the USR and in the National Council of PLUS, which will convene in Bucharest on February 8, according to a press statement of the USR PLUS Alliance released on Monday."In February, the USR and PLUS subsidiaries are encouraged to consensually designate the joint candidates of the alliance in the local elections," according to the statement.At Monday's meeting, the executive team of the USR PLUS Alliance was also completed.Thus, the members of the Joint Committee of the alliance are: Dragos Tudorache (PLUS) - coordination; Ionut Mosteanu (USR) - communication; Silviu Dehelean (USR) - legal; Dragos Neacsu (PLUS) - financing; Oana Toiu (PLUS) - public policies; Moise Guran (USR) - campaigns.

AGERPRES
S Guru Srikanth By

Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday declared that he was proud to abolish the States Legislative Council in the larger interest of crores of people in the State, given the hurdles it created  due to political motives  in passing Bills that would benefit the people.

In line with this, the Legislative Assembly, after a nearly five-hour discussion, passed a unanimous resolution to abolish the Upper House. With the principal Opposition TDP boycotting the session, all 133 MLAs present voted in favour of the move.

"Today, we face a question not just about the future of the Legislative Council, but of democracy itself," the Chief Minister said, adding that the Constituent Assembly made the Legislative Council optional under Article 169 as it did not feel it was needed.

ALSO READ| Andhra Pradesh government has no power to abolish Legislative Council: TDP

Out of 28 States in the country, only six have Councils, and earlier, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Naidu and West Bengal had resolved to abolish their Councils, Jagan said.

The State Cabinet, he asserted, is only answerable to the Assembly, which is elected by the people, and not the Council. Bills passed in the Assembly are only referred to the Council, and amendments made by the Council are not binding. Today, when the Council is acting only to delay the Bills passed by the Assembly, which is elected by the people, how is it to be seen? It is only a waste of time and money and of no benefit to the people.

Stating that the present Council lacks any sense of public welfare and spending money on it is a sheer waste, the Chief Minister said it is not even worth spending one rupee of taxpayers money from the treasury on the Council. Is it justified to spend Rs 60 crore on the Council, which is of no use every year? he asked.

ALSO READ| Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan says three capital decision historic

Pointing out how important Bills  such as those on introducing English as the medium of instruction in government schools, separate commissions for SCs and STs, and decentralised development and administration  were stalled by the Opposition in the Council with a political motive, Jagan questioned the need of such a House.

He said that in 1983, the NTR government abolished the Council for just one person, but now, a resolution is being passed to abolish it for the larger good of the people of the State.

CM quotes Martin Luther King, says time is always right to do what is right

Lashing out at the Opposition and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu for indulging in the propaganda of luring MLCs with money, Jagan reiterated his anti-defection stance. "Though our party will get a majority in the Council by 2021, we decided to abolish it, as welfare of the people is more important than increasing our partys strength," he said.

He added that though he announced on Thursday his intention of having the Council abolished, he gave three days for people to debate on the issue and not say the government took a unilateral decision.

ALSO READ| Three capital stir isnt family affair - Narasimha Rao on possibility of centre's intervention

Describing Naidu as a leader who could change his decision anytime to suit his needs, he made a presentation of the TDP chiefs U-turns on Special Category Status, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress, and the Council, evoking laughter in the House.

Targeting Naidu, Jagan asked if it was wrong to form separate commissions for SCs and STs. "Was it wrong to introduce free English Medium to benefit poor children for their bright future? Was it wrong to increase annuity from 10 years to 15 years for farmers in Amaravati, who gave land? And increase pension to landless farmhands from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5000 pm in Amaravati? Was it wrong to strive for the development of all regions in the State instead of indulging in graphical illusions? Was it wrong to honour the 1937 Sri Bagh pact and give Kurnool a High Court?" he asked.

The Chief Minister concluded his reply on the Statutory Resolution by quoting Martin Luther King Junior: Time is always right to do what is right.

Members of the House pointed out at length as to why abolishing the Council is justified. Earlier in the morning, the Cabinet resolved to have the Council abolished, and the same was decided in the Business Advisory Council, which met after the Assembly session began.

Confusion over count

Some confusion prevailed during the voting over the number of the members present. With the Speaker asking the staff to close the doors for division on the Resolution, 18 ruling party MLAs were left outside the house.

At first, the number of members was counted to be 121, but on being objected again headcount was taken and the number of those present was 133. The Speaker announced the resolution to be adopted after the voting, with all voting in favour
[January 27, 2020] Former Trustee Joan B. Johnson Gifts Spelman College $1 Million to Support Future Scientists

ATLANTA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Joan B. Johnson, philanthropist, entrepreneur and co-founder of Johnson Products, bequeathed a $1 million gift to Spelman College in support of future scientists. Johnson, who passed away Friday, Sept. 6, 2019, served as the treasurer of Johnson Products, one of the first haircare brands developed for African Americans and the first Black-owned business traded on the American Stock Exchange. "We celebrate Mrs. Johnson for her shared spirit, commitment and service to the College's mission, embracing Spelman sisters and serving as a model for future servant-leaders," said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman. The gift will be used to support scholarships for students majoring in STEM fields, as well as for renovating instructional spaces on campus. Johnson was appointed to the Spelman College Board of Trustees in 1982 and served during the tenure of two Spelman presidents, Donald M. Stewart, Ph.D., and Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D. Her support for Spelman was demonstrated through generous financial contributions, as well as the donation of a portrait collection named "The Great Beautiful Black Women" to the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Johnson's strong affinity for the College led to the matriculation of two of her beloved granddaughters, Erin Marie Johnson Tolefree, C'2001, and Cara Joan Johnson Hughes, C'2003. Along with her husband, George, Johnson turned a $250 investment into a multimillion-dollar corporation. Credited with bringing the culture of integrity to Johnson Products, she contributed that same business innovation and acumen as a Spelman trustee focused on the well-being of students and providing them with a quality education. About Spelman College Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College's picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Blackwomen who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College's status is confirmed by U.S. News and World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 57 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 22 for undergraduate teaching and No. 6 for both innovation and social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 13th year among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, and partnerships have been established with MIT's Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Outstanding alumnae include Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, Starbucks Group President and COO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman's first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. For more information, visit www.spelman.edu.





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China now world's second biggest weapons producer: researchers



Stockholm, Jan 26 (AFP) Jan 26, 2020



The opaque Chinese arms industry has made the Asian nation the world's second largest producer of munitions, a clear shift from a decade ago when China relied on imports, researchers said in a new report Monday.

The report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) suggests that China's weapons production, which has previously been shrouded in mystery owing to a lack of transparency, has grown as three of the world's top 10 arms companies are Chinese.

"We can with confidence say that China is the second largest arms producer in the world, behind the US and ahead of Russia," Nan Tian, co-author of the report, told AFP.

The report notes however that the lack of transparency remains an "important caveat" when studying the Chinese arms industry.

The vast majority of the estimated $70-$80 billion (63 to 72 billion euros) worth of Chinese munitions sold every year are bought by the different branches of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

This still represents a dramatic shift over the last 10 years as China in the past was a big importer of weapons from Russia and Ukraine.

"They no longer need to rely on other countries for their weapons," Tian said.

Chinese arms companies are also much more specialised than their international counterparts.

Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the country's largest arms company, for instance, mostly produces aircraft and avionics, while most large non-Chinese producers cover a wide range of military products.



- 'Reasonably reliable estimates' -



SIPRI researchers have previously struggled to obtain reliable data on the size of the Chinese arms industry, since the producers are all state-owned entities.

"Everything is locked under the term national security," Tian said.

In the report the researchers have looked into four specific Chinese companies, all of which rank among the world's top 20, and say that with an increase in the available data on these companies "it is now possible to develop reasonably reliable estimates of the scale of the Chinese arms industry."

Though there are no official statistics on Chinese arms exports available, the report notes that the Chinese arms "industry has developed to a point where there is an increased demand for its weapons overseas," and estimates place China as the world's fifth largest weapons exporter, SIPRI said.

In particular Tian said that one of China's success stories as a weapons exporter has been in the area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), commonly known as drones, which have been used in conflicts in both Libya and Yemen.

More arms exports increases the risk of weapons proliferation, but China's entry to the world stage of weaponry sales is of special concern to the researchers since Beijing has not signed on to many of the arms control regulations that exist, including the Arms Trade Treaty approved by the UN General Assembly in 2013.

"There is no binding system that can hold China and these exporters accountable," Tian said.
By Express News Service

Departed political leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, sport stars Mary Kom, P V Sindhu and Bollywood personalities Kangana Ranaut and Karan Johar grabbed the headlines when the Padma awards were announced but the list also contained many who, away from the limelight and media glare, have worked selflessly, tirelessly and religiously for years to care for the underprivileged and the unprotected. Here are their stories.

Yogi Aeron

Doctor, Uttarakhand

New identity for the disfigured

Yogi Aeron, 82, has been treating patients for disfigurement  mostly facial burns  for over 25 years, for free. Thats fine (winning the Padma award) but I have thousands of patients on my waiting list. I hope some help will arrive for them too, said Aeron after getting to know about his Padma Shri win.

Aeron has been at it for 27 years at Malsi, 10km from Dehradun on the Mussoorie Road. His day starts early, lining up patients and then going over their case one by one. Not that he could not enjoy a cushy life.

Born in 1937 in Muzaffarnagar, Aeron graduated from King George Medical College, Lucknow, and then travelled to the US to specialise in plastic surgery.

His four-acre campus, bought in 1983, looks like a science park.

The aim is to convert it into learning space for children and a treatment facility for the underprivileged. Since 2006, Aeron has been running a two-week camp, two times a year supported by around 16 doctors from the US.

The camp treats BPL patients, who cannot afford surgery, to reconstruct their lips, cheeks, nose and other parts of the face.

On an average, nearly 500 surgeries are done by the doctor who virtually enjoys God status. With over 10,000 patients on the waiting list, he does have an enviable job, trying to fund them.

Kush, his son and also a doctor, said, My father has never been able to manage his finances on his own. He does it for his patients, which makes him happy.

Arunoday Mondal

Doctor, West Bengal

God to the poor in Sunderbans

Arunoday Mondal, one of the five Padma awardees from Bengal, is a doctor who travels six hours every weekend to remote parts of Sunderbans to treat the poor for free for the last 20 years. Mondal, Bengals pride and called god by the poor, is a general practitioner in Kolkata.

He provides free treatment and medicines through his charitable organisation Sujan. Defying all odds, he reaches out to the patients in the remotest villages carrying free medical aid that he collects from Kolkata. He treats more than 250 people every weekend for a range of ailments.

I never imagined that my work will be recognised at the highest level. I work in remote pockets inhabited by the poor. I never thought that the news of my work for the poor will reach Delhi and I will be considered for a Padma Shri award, said Mondal.

He also arranges medicines, conducts medical camps and blood donation drives. The doctor set up Sujan Sunderban, a free medical service centre, at his residence in Chandanpur after Bengals devastating floods in 2000.

However, there were many hurdles he faced to reach the poor such as uncooperative and cynical gram panchayats.

I had to struggle hard to reach the poor. Even today, I carry a bagful of medicines, which are given for free by my medical representative friends. Every time, I travel six-hour one way, change transportation five times using various means like local trains, buses, country boats and then trek to reach the remote villages, Mondal said.

Jagdish Lal Ahuja

Social worker, Chandigarh

The Langar Wala Baba

Known as Langar-Wala-Baba, Jagdish Lal Ahuja, 84, who serves free food to nearly 2,500 poor patients and attendants outside PGIMER, Chandigarh and Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) every day, has been conferred the Padma Shri for his selfless service.

Ahuja, who arrived as a refugee from Peshawar in Pakistan at the age of 12, has been serving free langars for the last 38 years.

Ahuja had first settled in Mansa, before shifting to Patiala, selling candies on footpaths before settling down in Chandigarh in 1956 to sell bananas.

He came to be known as the Banana King and a millionaire. Now living in a 250 square yard house in Sector 23 with his wife Nirmal, Ahuja recalled the days when they would go to sleep hungry.

I was a street vendor in Mansa and was able to earn one meal a day and use to sleep hungry. When I came to Chandigarh, I sold bananas and then after years opened my own shop in the grain market and became a commission agent for bananas for Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh and later also opened my cold storage and had a potato business, he said.

He sold his property  including farmhouses and showrooms to fund the langars. Last year, an official told me I had been selected for Padma Shri. I am delighted to get this award. It puts more responsibility on my shoulders now, said Ahuja.

His langar has never stopped feeding people.

I get up at 3 am to prepare roti, rice, dal, chana and karhi, though I am much weaker now and a diabetic, said Jagdish Lal Ahuja.

Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma

Doctor, Assam

Elephant Doctor

Assams elephant doctor has finally got his dues in the form of the Padma Shri. Over the past 15 years, Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma traversed around five lakh kilometres, mostly in the jungles, and skipped his weekend offs to treat and tame nearly 10,000 elephants.

Well known in the wildlife circles of India, Sarma is a professor and head of the department of surgery and radiology of the College of Veterinary Science in Guwahati.

In a state that has a huge jumbo population, there is hardly a day when he is not required to treat or tame a jumbo. However, in doing so, he never neglected his duties at the college.

My primary duty is to teach students and I have never missed a class. At the same time, I am required to go from one jungle to another to extend my service to the animals. My biggest problem has been time management. Sometimes, I am taking a class and I get a call for an emergency, the 59-year-old said.

He said over the past 15 years, he had worked days and nights to treat animals. He has tamed 139 captive rogue jumbos which, he said, is a world record.

On average, he treats or tames around 800 elephants a year. He is a steering committee member of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests Project Elephant. Im happy to have received the Padma Shri but this is not what I worked for. What I enjoy the most is teaching students, said Dr Sarma.

Abdul Jabbar

Social Activist

Madhya Pradesh

Voice of Bhopal gas tragedy

Considered the voice of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy victims and survivors, Abdul Jabbar, who passed away last year in November at the age of 62, was conferred the Padma Shri posthumously.

Jabbar spent three and half decades fighting for the families affected by the worlds worst industrial disaster, through a host of public interest litigations.

He was himself a victim and had lost his parents in it. He was suffering from lung fibrosis and had lost 50% of his vision.

These limitations, however, could never stop him for fighting for the cause of the victims and survivors of the disaster through the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan founded in 1987. He mobilised the women to fight for justice.

Unable to control her tears after the award was announced, Jabbars widow Saira Bano said, Not only my family, but all the families affected by the tragedy dont have words to explain our joy and pride... We thank the state and central governments. Well continue to fight for the cause.

During the tragedy, over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas.

Bimal Kumar Jain,

Activist, Bihar

Organ man gets due recognition

For Bimal Kumar Jain, 65, the Padma Shri award is a recognition of his hard work of over two decades serving the physically challenged and his movement for organ donation, which he has been trying to popularise.

General secretary of the Bharat Vikas Viklang Nyas, which runs a hospital for Divyang Jan, and the Dadhichi Deh Daan Samiti, Bihar, Jain goes by the dictum that service to mankind is true service to God.

Inspired by the late Jayaprakash Narayans call to work for humanity, dignity and equality, Jain chose his calling in 1974 and also served as a member of Bihar Child Rights Protection Commission under the Bihar government.

Credited to have launched an organ donation movement and successfully ensured eye transplants for over 400 visually impaired persons, Jain is also a member of the executive council of the National Institute of Rehabilitation, Training, and Research.

The central government-run institute specialises in manufacturing artificial limbs.

Two visually-challenged girls from Kankerbagh blind school will soon get eye transplants and will be able to see, said a happy Jain, adding that the government is also working to set up eye banks in each district.
UPDATE TUESDAY: Suspected N.J. coronavirus patient tests negative

New Jersey health officials are investigating a possible case of coronavirus, the deadly virus responsible for an outbreak in China that has spread to more than a dozen countries.

The state Department of Health told NJ Advance Media on Monday that testing is being conducted to determine if the unidentified person has the novel coronavirus. Test results are pending from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

No further details on the patient have been released.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker are continuing to demand answers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about its response to the outbreak and the steps the agency is taking to ensure public safety, according to a statement issued Monday.

We write to express concern about the rapidly evolving 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), to urge your continued robust and scientifically driven response to the situation, and to assess whether any additional resources or action by Congress are needed at this time, the senators wrote in joint statement to Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A quick and effective response to the 2019-nCoV requires public health officials around the world to work together to share reliable information about the disease and insight into steps taken to prevent, diagnose and treat it appropriately.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus is intensifying, with the death toll reaching 106 in China  where the outbreak began  and thousands more infected.

There have been five confirmed cases in the U.S.: a man in Washington State; a woman in Chicago; a patient in Los Angeles County, California; a man in Orange County, California; and a patient in Arizona. More than 100 additional people in 26 states are being tested for the disease.

New Jersey health officials had been investigating another suspected case in the state late last week  a woman in her mid-20s who was ultimately cleared by doctors after being taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.

There is also a suspected case in Philadelphia involving an exchange student from China. Test results remain pending in that case.

James Garrow, spokesman for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said in an email that it was notified Friday night that an exchange student being hosted at William Penn Charter School might have coronavirus.

Montgomery County (where the student presented for care) submitted a sample to the State for confirmatory testing," Garrow said. "We (the state, us and Montgomery County) have not received the results yet. We were told that it would take days to get those results back.

Cases have been reported in at least 16 countries, according to the CDC.

In China, cases have been mounting, with more than 4,500 confirmed so far, roughly half of which are clustered in the central Chinese province of Hubei.

Its believed that the new form of the coronavirus spread from a seafood market in Wuhan, where live animals are often sold in close contact with others, like dogs, hares, raccoons and civets. The market was shut down Jan. 1.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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'Authorities warn about dangerous TikTok 'outlet' challenge originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Some people on the popular app TikTok are performing a dangerous challenge that's being uploaded to the video app, authorities said.

Called the "outlet challenge," it involves partially inserting the brick portion of a mobile device charger into a wall outlet and then sliding a penny down onto the brick's exposed metal prongs. The result is a blast of electrical sparks.

PHOTO: File photo of the Tik Tok app displayed on an Apple iPhone. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The challenge has caused significant property damage at the Westford Academy, a high school in Westford, Massachusetts. One student is facing charges of burning a building, property destruction and disorderly conduct, reported ABC News' Boston affiliate, WCVB.

MORE: Lawmakers say Chinese-owned app TikTok could pose 'national security risks'

Two students at Plymouth North High School in Plymouth, Massachusetts, scorched two outlets in a classroom after performing the challenge, WCVB reported.

Massachusetts State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostrosky sent a memo last week to the state's fire districts and schools warning about the dangers of the challenge. The challenge could cause "electrical system damage, and in some cases fire," he stated.

"It's not something to play with. It's dangerous. In the case of this, you can start a fire, you can do electrical damage to your home that costs a lot of money to repair, and you can do serious physical damage to yourself," Todd Long of Huntsville Utilities told ABC News' Huntsville, Alabama, affiliate WAAY.

"No one should ever play with electricity or outlets in a dangerous manner," Frank Dwyer, spokesman for the New York City Fire Department, said in an email to ABC News. "FDNY urges families to talk to their children about fire safety."
An explosive leak from former National Security Advisor John Boltons unpublished book that says President Donald Trump wanted to freeze aid to Ukraine until its government investigated his political rival threatens to scramble the politics of the impeachment trial and bring new pressure on Republicans to call witnesses.

Boltons account in the draft of his book, as described by the New York Times, fortifies the two central arguments made by Democrats in the trial: that Trump used the power of his office for political gain and that the senators urgently need to hear from witnesses the president blocked from testifying during the House inquiry.

The disclosure comes as the presidents lawyers are preparing to deliver the meat of Trumps defense when the trial reconvenes on Monday at 1 p.m. In an opening statement on Saturday, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone argued that House impeachment managers had failed to prove their case, in part, because they had no firsthand evidence in charging Trump with abuse of power. He said the real aim of Democrats was to overturn the 2016 election and interfere in Novembers ballot.

Bolton, who left the administration in September in disputes with Trump over policy, has that direct knowledge. Hes one of four current or former administration officials Democrats want to call as witnesses and has said he would testify if subpoenaed. His lawyer said previously that he has information that hasnt been part of the public record.

No Doubt

There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the presidents defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump, the seven House impeachment managers, led by Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, said in a joint statement Sunday night.

Trump denied the allegations cited in Boltons draft in a tweet early Monday, adding that he released aid to Ukraine without any conditions.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, he wrote.

Boltons account challenges one of the key facts that Trump attorney Michael Purpura outlined on Saturday: that not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting, or anything else.

It wasnt immediately clear how much the Bolton revelations could change the dynamic on the question of trial witnesses. Four Republicans would have to defy Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to join with all Democrats to call witnesses at the trial, and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Friday described getting that outcome as a hard road.

At least four GOP senators have expressed openness to hearing from witnesses, which could extend the trial by weeks, though they havent committed to a vote. Three GOP senators -- Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski -- have said theyre considering voting to hear from new witnesses.

No Republicans have yet said that Trump has committed an impeachable offense. With 67 votes required to convict, the presidents acquittal remains all but assured. Still, the more important audience for Boltons revelations will be the voting public who will decide in November whether Trump should be re-elected.

The New York Times said Bolton has been circulating a draft of the manuscript to associates and it had been described to the Times by several people. Bolton also sent a draft to the White House as part of the standard review process for books by former administration officials.

In the draft, according to the Times, Bolton wrote that in August the president told him he didnt want to send $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until the government there turned over material related to former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his potential Democratic challengers, and supporters of Trumps 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Other Officials

Bolton also wrote that several top cabinet officials had knowledge of Trumps demands, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr, as well as acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, according to the Times.

Boltons lawyer, Charles Cooper, released a statement that doesnt directly address the substance of the Times report. He said the manuscript was submitted to the National Security Councils Records Management Division for standard prepublication security review for classified information on Dec. 30.

Cooper said it was submitted with the firm belief that it contained no information that could reasonably be considered classified and that the contents of Ambassador Boltons manuscript will not be reviewed or otherwise disclosed to any persons not regularly involved in that process.

It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript, he said.

At the heart of the Democrats impeachment case is the allegation that Trump took a sudden interest in Ukrainian corruption only after Biden entered the Democratic nomination race in April. They allege that over the ensuing months, Trump withheld military aid and a White House meeting sought by the recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, while seeking an investigation of Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Presidents Defense

Attacking the foundations of the House arguments, Trumps lawyers said there were good reasons for the president to not trust the assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia was acting alone in interfering in the 2016 election, and for his suspicions regarding corruption in Ukraine.

They also said there was no pressure brought on Ukraine because the aid was released and Zelenskiy got a sought-after meeting with Trump with no investigation announced.

Yet, over the course of their initial presentation, Trumps legal team didnt address several core allegations raised by Democrats as part of their argument that Trump abused his power.

For example, the lawyers didnt discuss Trumps role in freezing aid to Ukraine, who else was involved in the decision and why it was done. The lawyers also didnt address why the aid was finally lifted. And they didnt provide any information or justification as to why Trumps personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was leading an effort outside of normal diplomatic channels to pressure Ukraine to announce the investigations.

The aid was released in early September and a meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy at the United Nations was arranged after an uproar over the revelation of an intelligence community whistle-blowers complaint. The complaint raised alarms about Trumps July phone call with Zelenskiy and a subsequent decision by White House lawyers to put the record of the conversation in a secure server to restrict access.

As he left an event in Marshalltown, Iowa, Biden said he hadnt seen the reports about Boltons book. I dont have any idea whats in the book, he said, but if it in fact contradicts Trump, its not a surprise.
In the first years after the American Revolution, New York City had just one medical school, housed in the newly renamed Columbia College, formerly Kings College. A prior degree wasnt required of medical students. Some were as young as 15.

To acquire cadavers for their anatomy classes, students regularly excavated the paupers graveyard and the Negroes Burying Ground, the site of our modern African Burial Ground National Monument. Because modern embalming techniques were unknown, students started digging as soon as the sun went down after a funeral. The practice was so open and notorious that in February 1788, a group of free blacks submitted a petition to the citys Common Council, complaining that young gentlemen in this city who call themselves students of the physic engaged in the most wanton sallies of graves. They asked the city to adopt such measure as may seem meet to prevent similar abuses in the future.

The council ignored the petition.

Then the students began robbing the whites-only graveyard for people with money, too. What happened next is described in Gotham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of early New York by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. On April 13, 1788, a white boy peered through a hospital window and observed a dissection in progress. The medical student at work waved a severed arm at the boy and told him it belonged to his mother, who had in fact recently died.

The boy and his father went together to the graveyard, where they found the womans grave freshly desecrated. Word spread. A crowd gathered around the hospital building, eventually forcing its way in. An eyewitness  quoted in a 2011 Lancet article  reported that several human bodies were found in various states of mutilation. Each of the bodies had been recently disinterred. The crowd reburied them.

The next day, a larger and more menacing crowd formed. Medical students and instructors took shelter in the city jail. After sundown, the crowd marched on the jail. Burrows and Wallace describe how various prominent men, including the future Chief Justice John Jay, pleaded for restraint, only to be answered with a hail of bricks and stones. Jay, struck in the head, was carried home unconscious.

The mayor called out the militia which opened fire on the crowd with live ammunition. The first volley killed three rioters outright and wounded many others. A Smithsonian Magazine article says the final death toll was as high as 20. The following year, the New York state legislature finally passed a law banning the Odious Practice of grave-robbing.

All of which brings us to Chief Justice John Roberts 2019 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary. The chief gives his own version of what became known as the Doctors Riot: New York newspapers reported accounts that medical students were robbing graves.  In April, the chatter gelled into a rumor that students at New York Hospital were dissecting a schoolboys recently deceased mother.

Jay had begun co-writing the Federalist Papers with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton but couldnt continue after suffering the head injury. Roberts moralizes: It is sadly ironic that John Jays efforts to educate his fellow citizens  fell victim to a rock thrown by a rioter motivated by a rumor.

Rumor, in the chief justices usage, means previously attested facts verified on the spot by the dozens of people who entered the hospital and reburied the disinterred bodies. He omits all mention of the many murdered protesters.

The chief continues: But in the ensuing years, we have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside. He deplores the spread of rumor and false information in our own age, even as he himself spreads misinformation about our past.

But speaking of democracy, which institution of government is it that decreed that the people of the United States cant impose term limits on their own members of Congress? And cant enforce the Voting Rights Act, either, or use the courts to correct anti-democratic gerrymandering, or even convict corrupt politicians of honest services fraud? And cant give their president a line-item veto? And cant control the tidal wave of half-disguised bribes, some from overseas, that corrupt our campaigns?

The answer, of course, is Chief Justice Roberts own court. With each of these decisions, the Supreme Court drew on its constitutional authority to prevent majority rule. But none of these decisions was compelled by the actual text of the Constitution. Each represented a choice. Each time, the justices chose to transfer political power from the people to themselves. Democracy, justices of all political persuasions agree, is too precious to be entrusted to voters.

Joel Jacobsen is an author who recently retired from a 29-year legal career.
Clarksburg Applying for Housing Rehabilitation Grant Funds

CLARKSBURG, Mass.  The town is applying for about $300,000 in federal money that can help some residents fix up their homes.

The Select Board on Wednesday voted to sign on to a Community Development Block Grant application with the towns of Lee and Lenox for housing rehabilitation. The application is due on March 6.

"This is a competitive grant application ... the most amount of money for one town would be $800,000 and for several towns going together, it's up to $1.3 million," explained Patricia Mullins, community and economic development program manager for Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. Administrative and program delivery costs would leave about $900,000  or $300,000 for each town. "By the three towns going in together, the application is stronger because number one, it shows that it's a regional grant and that basically you're sharing and the administrative services that would be provided."

CDBG grants are funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and apportioned by the state's Department of Housing and Community Development for use in economic and community development, housing, social services, preservation and conservation and recreation. Cities are generally entitled to annual grant funding but smaller communities' applications are not guaranteed. BRPC has overseen a number "regional" grants, including for a similar housing rehabilitation grant for Cheshire and New Marlborough

Mullins estimated that the grant would cover seven to 10 homeowners. Homeowners must be income eligible and apply for the projects that would want covered. Applicants must be current on their taxes and have appropriate insurance. The income limit for a household with just one individual is $49,700, for example, and for a family of eight, it's $93,700.

When BRPC applies for a grant, Mullins said the process begins a couple months in advance and will take four to six people to make out the paperwork. The commission will also begin advertising the grant so as to have a list of applicants ready if it is approved.

Applicants will be taken on a first come, first served  the first to get their applications and documents in and be approved. The grants are zero percent, interest free forgivable loans. The homeowner will not have to pay back anything if they hold the property for 15 years; if they do so prior to the 15-year lien, they will have to pay back the balance of what is left on the loan.

"We have a list of prequalified contractors, and we follow 30-day procurement up to a point," Mullins said, because the homeowner's identity is not publicly revealed. "Then we do a pre-bid walkthrough and we have a bid opening and we expect the homeowner to take the lowest bid unless they want to make up the difference."

One caveat, however, is that the home must be up to code and sometimes dealing those issues, such as lead paint, can eat up the grant funds.

"The projects are up to $40,000 per household, DHCD will occasionally grant a single case waiver if that isn't enough," she said. "Any house that was built prior to 1978 has to have a lead paint test. And we may have to do some remediation of lead paint, which is very costly."

The funds can be used to bring properties up to code, for energy efficiency (such as insulation, doors and windows), improve handicapped accessibility, emergency repair such as leaking roofs, and weatherization.

Laura Dorr, BRPC program associate, who attended the meeting with Mullins, said she would be developing a waiting list and would be ensuring that the word got out to residents, such a mailing to every resident and setting up a box at Town Hall or the Senior/Community Center. Interested residents can also contact her at 413-442-1521, Ext. 23.

Chairman Ronald Boucher asked if the town would have any fiscal responsibilities and Mullins assured him it wouldn't. Lenox would be the fiscal agent for the grant and BRPC would be the administrator.

Select Board member Jeffrey Levanos said his only hesitation on signing a memorandum of agreement with BRPC was that fellow member Danielle Luchi was not in attendance. He and Boucher, however, decided that the opportunity was to good to pass on.

"I think it's a great program," said Boucher. "I think there's enough checks and balances along the way that it makes sense."

In other business,

 Boucher was voted as the alternate representative on the BRPC for Clarksburg. The town also needs a permanent representative.

 The date of the presidential primary was set for Tuesday, March 3, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Community Center.

 The board discussed the budget process with Town Administrator Rebecca Stone, who inquired how it is usually been done. The board had been very involved in years past and met with the Finance Committee regularly. Over the past decade, that burden largely has The board discussed the budget process with Town Administrator Rebecca Stone, who inquired how it is usually been done. The board had been very involved in years past and met with the Finance Committee regularly. Over the past decade, that burden largely has been taken up by the Finance Committee , although Levanos requested that the Select Board be looped in.

"I'm not use to having the finalized budget in front of me," he said. "Maybe just an update to keep us apprised."

Stone said she would speak to the Finance Committee about having a joint meeting in February and in March, when there was more to show in the budget's progress.

 Boucher read a proclamation for School Choice Week, which is Jan. 26 through Feb. 1.

 Stone updated the board on several fronts, including that governor's office has informed her that there will not be a visit to Clarksburg School. The town has been trying to get the attention of the governor to release $500,000 in earmarked funds to repair the roof. Stone said she wants the building inspector to give her a professional opinion on the status of the roof.
Google says it will try and fix a change to its search results that has angered many of its users.

In recent weeks, the company has been rolling out a new look that puts large icons next to its search results, changing how the page appears to anyone who searches on Google.

The company said the decision was made to mirror the look on mobile, and to give a more modern look.

But it prompted outcry among some users, who objected to the change for a variety of reasons. While some argued that it was simply ugly or harder to use, others suggested that it made it more difficult to distinguish between organic results and ads.

Now the company says it has "heard your feedback" and will be trying new ways to improve the search results.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

It did not say explicitly that it would roll back the change. But it did say that it will be moving the logos of the pages on search results  known as favicons  in an attempt to make them more palatable to users.

Recommended Google search results get unusual new update

"Last week we updated the look of Search on desktop to mirror whats been on mobile for months," Google said in a post from one of its official search liaison accounts. "Weve heard your feedback about the update. We always want to make Search better, so were going to experiment with new placements for favicons

"Our experimenting will begin today. Over the coming weeks, while we test, some might not see favicons while some might see them in different placements as we look to bring a modern look to desktop."

The change initially arrived on mobile, and the company claimed it had been "well received" by those users on smaller screens, "as it helps people more quickly see where information is coming from and they can see a prominent bolded ad label at the top".

It also said that "early tests" of the new design on desktop had been positive, but that it was "always incorporating feedback from users".

"We are experimenting with a change to the current desktop favicon, and will continue to iterate on the design over time," Google said.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 01/26/2020



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Meka Jones has revealed her timetable for consummating her marriage to Michael Watson after their wedding day.During a Wednesday appearance on : Unfiltered, which is hosted by Season 1 MAFS participant Jamie Otis , Meka watched back a clip of her bridesmaids grilling Michael at the wedding reception about when he planned to sleep with his new wife.Mike insisted he was going to allow Meka to take the lead on that because he was in no rush."It's not a demand or requirement," Michael told the bridesmaids in the clip. "But it's all about her being comfortable and feeling like we're there. I don't have the expectation that something needs to happen."Meka told Jamie on Unfiltered she thought it was "really good" how Michael "answered the question.""Because I think that is something that takes time for people to get comfortable," Meka explained of being physically intimate."Like, we're in a different situation -- we're married as strangers. So the same stuff you would do in a typical marriage sometimes necessarily doesn't apply to us.""So the fact he's allowing me to take the lead," she added, "I think that's really sweet and I think it's the right thing to do."When asked whether she has a specific timetable for when she'd be ready to "do the deed," Meka replied, "I wouldn't say I have a specific timetable.""I think I've been saying from the beginning I'm open to doing it whenever and it's just when we both feel comfortable and when we feel like we're ready," Meka explained.Meka suggested that she'd be ready to have sex with her husband when the time simply felt right."I don't think I want to put a time limit to it," Meka said on Unfiltered. "If we decide today is when we want to consummate our marriage, then that's what we'll do."Jamie then turned over the topic to one of Meka's co-stars, Zach Justice , who wed Mindy Shiben on the Lifetime reality series' tenth season."Should we be expecting some fireworks on your wedding night?" Jamie asked Zach."Umm, no," Zach admitted."I mean, I don't know. It's hard for me to immediately imagine myself in that situation so early on with [my wife] being such a stranger."Jamie seemed skeptical and therefore asked Zach if he ever had a one-night stand before."Not like this, no," Zach responded."No? Not like this, where you actually have to stay married to that person -- and have breakfast with them the next day?" Jamie joked."Correct," Zach said after laughing. "It's different, okay?! It's different!"Zach awkwardly attempted to put the heat on Meka and asked if she took the lead in the bedroom, but then he noted, "Just kidding.."On 's January 1 premiere, Meka got together with her fellow brides to discuss their expectations in this extreme experiment.After Mindy said she didn't want to set hard rules for herself, especially when it comes to consummating her marriage, Meka acknowledged she was on the same page."I agree. I'm kind of go with the flow, like, see the chemistry -- and I'm not shutting down anything," Meka shared with Mindy, Katie Conrad Taylor Dunklin , and Jessica Studer Jessica admitted in that moment sex for her on the first night was a "no" because the man would still be a total stranger."I think Jessica is maybe a lot more close-minded," Meka told the cameras in a confessional. "In general, if you're going to be , you should be open-minded about everything!""Like, I've never had a one-night stand, but I've never been married, so," Meka pointed out.In the latest episode for Season 10 that aired on Wednesday night, however, Meka alleged Michael had attempted to put a time limit on consummating their marriage while flying to their honeymoon in Panama -- and Meka wasn't okay with it."I'm pissed because on the plane, we had a conversation and Michael literally gave me an ultimatum and said if we don't have sex on our honeymoon then he won't want to be in this marriage," Meka told the cameras."The part that is the most concerning for me is that when we get on-camera, he's a totally different person -- he's patient and he wants to wait for sex and it's all on me and whenever I'm ready."Meka went on to say, "But when we get behind closed doors, it's a totally different story."Meka said her honeymoon was therefore starting out pretty badly, and she confronted Michael about their conversation on-camera.Meka told Michael he seemed totally put together and portrayed himself as "Mr. Perfect" on-camera but then he totally changed as a person once cameras shut off.Meka wasn't sure she could be vulnerable and give herself to Michael when she didn't even know if he was being genuine."I wanted to be honest and truthful and have an honest, authentic relationship. And at this moment, I can't say that I know that I got that," Meka told Michael."My worry is that we were matched based on what you portrayed yourself as and not what you actually were. It's running through my mind that maybe if he had talked to the experts the way he talks to me off-camera, maybe we never would have even been matched."Michael stayed silent throughout Meka's rant, and when she finished venting her frustrations and worries, he promised that his words and actions had all been sincere up to that moment.Michael said he was just trying to gauge her expectations of intimacy while laying his out there in a direct manner in order to avoid future confusion or tension.Michael apologized for putting Meka in an uncomfortable situation, saying it was not his intent to put pressure on her and he was just trying to learn how to be a good husband and be clear with her on what he anticipated.Meka asked Michael to confirm on-camera that he had said on the plane he may want out of the marriage if they don't have sex on their honeymoon, but Michael refused."It's not going to work if you can't be honest," Meka said."And this is not going to work if you're trying to make it seem like it's one way and not the other way," Michael noted.Meka couldn't believe Michael was denying what he had allegedly said on their way to Panama, and he decided they should spend the night apart and then talk about things the next day once they've both cooled down.Michael and Meka were then shown sleeping in separate hotel rooms.Interested in more news? 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PHOENIX  A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a 2016 Arizona law that bars anyone but a family member or caregiver from returning early ballots for another person violates the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.

The ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also found that Arizonas policy of discarding ballots if a voter went to the wrong precinct violates the law.

The rulings are a major victory for Democrats who sued to block the 2016 law and the out-of-precinct voting policy.

Appeals Court Judge William A. Fletcher wrote for the divided court that Arizonas practice of discarding ballots cast in the wrong precinct and criminalizing the collection of another persons ballot have a discriminatory impact on American Indian, Hispanic and African American voters in Arizona in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling also said the ban on what Republicans have called ballot harvesting was enacted with discriminatory intent.

Four of 11 judges on the panel dissented, saying the panel struck down duly enacted policies.

The lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and state Democratic Party has been working its way through the courts since shortly after the 2016 law was passed.

The law made it a felony to return someone elses ballot to election officials in most cases. Republicans pushed House Bill 2023 through the Legislature over objections from Democrats, arguing that so-called ballot harvesting can lead to election fraud. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed it, saying it would ensure a chain of custody between the voter and the ballot box.

Attorneys for the state argue the new law ensured the integrity of elections and called it a reasonable step to prevent voting fraud. The state Republican Party joined the defense.

Both parties used ballot collection in Arizona to boost turnout during elections by going door to door and asking voters if they have completed their mail-in ballot. If they had not, they urge them to do so and offer to return it to elections offices. The ballots are inside sealed envelopes, with voters signature on the back.

Democrats used the method aggressively in minority communities and argued their success prompted the new GOP-sponsored law.

The appeals court concluded that a trial judge erred when ruling in favor of the state and Republicans who joined the lawsuit. The ruling by an 11-judge appeals court panel also overturned a decision by a smaller appeals court panel.

Fletcher was clear that he didnt think all Republicans who backed the measure harbored racial hatred or animosity toward any minority group. Instead, Fletcher said, Arizonas long history of race-based voting discrimination and the the false, race-based claims of ballot collection fraud used to convince Arizona legislators to pass the bill and other factors cumulatively and unmistakably reveal that racial discrimination was a motivating factor.

He noted false allegations of fraud by former state Sen. Don Shooter and a racially-tinged video of a Latino man dropping off ballots distributed by A.J. Lafaro, former head of the Maricopa County Republicans.

Writing in dissent, Judge Diarmuid F. OScannlain said that despite the majoritys conclusion that some lawmakers sincerely backed the measure because they thought there had been fraud in ballot collection, a discriminatory purpose may be attributable to all of them as a matter of law because any sincere belief was created by Senator Shooters false allegations and the racially tinged LaFaro video.

Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich said hell appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Its surprising the 9th Circuit took the unusual step of overruling its own decision from 2018, Brnovich said. I have a duty to defend the law.

Arizona Democratic Party Executive Director Herschel Fink called the ruling an important victory.

This takes an undue burden off of working families and people of color, making it easier for them to exercise their right to vote, Fink said. We are pleased that the latest effort to suppress the voices of voters by Republicans has failed.

Democratic state Sen. Martin Quezada, who represents a minority west Phoenix district, said the ballot harvesting law and other changes made by the GOP-controlled Legislature clearly target Democratic voters, although some Republicans also are affected.

All of it has been in an effort to really suppress who is able to vote, he said. And the ones that are impacted the most by those efforts are communities of color.
Roger Montoya, who was recently honored as one of 10 CNN international heroes for 2019, on Monday announced that he is running for the state House of Representatives in District 40, which includes parts of Colfax, Rio Arriba and San Miguel counties.

Montoya, a Democrat, is seeking the seat currently occupied by Joseph Sanchez, who is leaving the statehouse after one term to seek the Democratic nomination in U.S. Congressional District 3.

Co-founder of Moving Arts, an Espanola-based after-school program that works to transform the lives of at-risk students, Montoya was honored as one of CNNs international heroes last month. While he didnt win the top honor as CNN Hero of the Year, he did receive a $10,000 award from the cable network.

I have seen children move from trauma and constriction to trust, he said during his acceptance speech that was televised as part of a CNN special that aired Dec. 8. Please join me in sharing this award with my beloved and resilient community in Espanola, New Mexico.

In the news release announcing his run for the statehouse, Montoya said continuing to serve his community was his motivation for running for office.

Moving into this realm is a new challenge for me, but I am excited about the opportunity to build bridges, foster creative collaboration, provide pathways to healing and success for our children, and uplift our communities.

He added that his inspiration comes from the legacy of his mother, Dorotea Dottie Montoya, whom he described as the mother of school-based wellness in New Mexico.

According to the release, Montoya helped form a coalition that led to the opening of the Pathways Homeless shelter in Espanola, through his work with the United Way of Northern New Mexico.

It describes Montoya as an accomplished painter, dancer, and choreographer, who has dedicated the past 30 years to bringing the healing power of arts to local children  many of whom have suffered heart-breaking trauma and loss.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Indicted Cuyahoga County human resources chief Douglas Dykes resigned Monday, days after it came to light that he quietly repaid the county more than $10,000 he is accused of stealing.

Dykes submitted his resignation Monday to Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budishs Chief of Staff Bill Mason, more than a year after he was indicted on a felony charge of theft-in-office, among other charges. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in April.

Dykes in a letter to Budish and Mason said he must ensure the sanity and health of his family, and that his resignation did not stem from a belief that he had done anything wrong.

County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan declined to say whether Dykes shed any more light on his decision to repay the debt.

Dykes has remained as Budishs $180,000-a-year chief talent officer since his January 2019 indictment. He is accused of illegally switching a $13,500 moving expense for former IT official James Hay into a $15,000 signing bonus after Hay did not move from Cincinnati to Cleveland to take the county job.

Hay agreed to a repayment plan and has been paying off the money in monthly installments after a 2018 audit determined the bonus was illegal.

Members of Budishs administration were set to meet with Dykes Monday morning following revelations last week that Dykes cut the county a $10,362 cashiers check on Jan. 14 that listed Hays name as the remitter. Dykes name did not appear on the check.

Neither Hay, nor Dykes lawyer, Anthony Jordan, knew Dykes was making the payment. A county spokeswoman did not believe Dykes had informed anyone else at the county before he cut the check.

Dykes payment could open the door for prosecutors to argue at trial that he has a guilty conscience.

Dykes will be replaced on an interim basis by Human Resources Director of Benefits and Compensation Holly Woods.

Dykes will receive a $41,700 payout from the county for unused vacation time, according to Madigan.
Police in northern India on Sunday bid goodbye to the historic British-era bolt-action rifles after using them for one last salute during the annual Republic Day parade.

The Lee-Enfield .303 rifle was the main firearm of British colonial military forces and, despite being designated "obsolete" around 25 years ago, it has been the main weapon used by police in Uttar Pradesh state over seven decades.

The rifle -- used by the British during the two World Wars -- fires one shot at a time, after which the barrel needs to be reloaded by pulling the bolt.

"They have been in use since independence (from the British in 1947) and now they'll be replaced by INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) and SLRs (Self-Loading Rifles)," said police superintendent Amit Verma.

As many as 45,000 of the rifles were being used by the state police, Verma said, and the model was a favourite among constables due to accuracy and sturdiness.

"This (.303) rifle is a fantastic weapon and has served us brilliantly in various operations in the past," police additional director general Bijaya Kumar Maurya told AFP.

"But it being a bolt action weapon with low magazine capacity, it was time for a change. Itss production has also discontinued so there was all the more need for an upgrade."

Maurya said the new automatic rifles would "add to the confidence of our officers" and would result in improved policing.

"The criminals will naturally face the heat when they'll face officers armed with automatic weapons."

The rifles will be returned to a gun factory in Ishapore in West Bengal state where they will be converted into anti-riot guns, spokesman Saurabh Singh told AFP.

Saroj Kumar Mishra, a constable with the Uttar Pradesh police since 1982, said he would miss the heavy-duty rifle.

"The weapon is as smooth as butter even after 20 rounds of back-to-back firing," he was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times newspaper.

"This feature is perhaps the most important one which we often miss in the modern day weapons."

India was Sunday celebrating the anniversary of the adoption of its constitution in 1950.
The decision by President Trump to approve the extra-judicial killing of Iranian military chief Qassem Soleimani can either be seen as a successful counter-terrorist surgical strike against a fanatical enemy or, alternatively, as a reckless and unlawful step that risks the outbreak of yet another terrible war in the Middle East.

Doubtless there will be those who applaud this attack on Iran's military capability and justify it as a legitimate use of state force to protect the national interests of the USA.

Leaving aside the methodology of this lethal drone attack, what is the difference between this killing and the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi secret service in their consulate in Istanbul?

Again, what is the difference between the Soleimani killing and Putin's government carrying out an assassination by using polonium 210 on a Russian exile, Alexander Litvinenko, in London?

Of course, there is no substantive difference in any of these extra-judicial killings save that they were carried out by three different governments for their own selfish security reasons.

Each government involved in these outrageous and unlawful actions will attempt to justify them as necessary evils in the real world of constant danger and threat to their respective national interests.

Therefore, no amount of moralising about the legitimacy of Soleimani's killing will reach a satisfactory consensus.

The real question to ask is: is Trump's decision likely to bring about war or peace?

President Trump justified the killing by saying that Soleimani was "plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel".

However, while Soleimani was undoubtedly engaged in such activities over the past 10 years at least, why is it only now that the Americans decided to assassinate him?

It is hard to accept that his killing was an urgent necessity and would have prevented already planned actions by the Iranians or their proxies.

There is a lingering suspicion that this assassination was due less to security considerations and more to distract attention from the current impeachment proceedings brought against President Trump by opposition Democrats in Congress.

Trump can, rightly, present himself to the American public as a decisive commander-in-chief by striking down one of America's most dangerous and successful opponents in the Middle East.

In Iran Soleimani was a very important military and political figure and was admired as the mastermind of Iran's successful military campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

It should be remembered that the defeat of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was largely due to the Iranians under Soleimani's leadership.

Indeed, it should also be kept in mind that Soleimani's proxy forces tacitly co-operated with the Americans at various times during the campaign against Islamic State.

A consequence of his death and the elimination of his military and political influence could well be the weakening of further efforts to completely eliminate Islamic State as a military force altogether in the region.

Soleimani is also credited with steering Iran's political strategy in the Middle East and his absence may create a dangerous vacuum in that country's fractious and unstable political establishment.

That is not good for Iran, but equally it is not good for opponents of Iran - including the United States - to have an unstable political regime in Tehran.

Already Iran has declared that it will no longer comply with the 2015 Iranian nuclear power deal, which President Obama painstakingly negotiated with Iran.

This great achievement by Obama was an important multinational agreement between Iran and other world powers, including the USA, to prevent the Iranians developing nuclear weapons.

As a result a degree of stability was achieved in the Middle East and provided a tentative step towards building peace.

This was, however, undermined by President Trump unilaterally withdrawing from the treaty and his reimposition of punitive economic sanctions on Iran.

This was done with the purpose of causing social unrest in order to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

This impetuous decision by Iran not to comply with the treaty will be welcomed by hardliners in Tehran, but equally by those in the USA, who detest the agreement with Iran.

The Iranian leadership may well yet rue taking such a drastic decision in the immediate aftermath of Soleimani's death.

The Iranians have predictably threatened revenge on America, but whether they are capable of doing so without incurring a dreadful and painful American military reaction is far from certain.

What is also uncertain is whether such responses between the USA and Iran could end up causing the outbreak of a total state of war between the two belligerents.

If that were to happen, it would be at a huge cost to both countries and the Middle East, which has suffered for too long.
The United States has experienced years of record-breaking stock markets and unmatched levels of employment. Yet Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presents her country as a dystopia in equal parts Dickensian and Hobbesian, where the wealthy few ground the poor masses into the dust. Meanwhile, an existential environmental catastrophe leaves decent people wondering, Is it OK to still have children? Most recently, she took her prosperity-as-affliction message to television, asserting that the wealthy somehow caused 40 million Americans to live in destitute [sic].

.@AOC: You would not know that our country is posting record profits because 40 million Americans are living in poverty right now. pic.twitter.com/0hYi1szlsX  Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) January 17, 2020

In a new essay for the Acton Institutes Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, James D. Agresti, president of the indispensable Just Facts, sorts through AOCs claims and finds a common thread: They ignore the way poor Americans actually live.

Poverty statistics make two major errors. First, they ignore government programs, such as food stamps and Section 8 housing vouchers, that supplement poor Americans earnings. Second, poverty statistics track income, not consumption. Measuring the actual quality of life would rank the the poorest fifth of Americans richer than the combined averages of all people in most developed nations of the world, he writes. Agresti continues:

[T]he poorest 20 percent of U.S. households consumed an average of $57,049 of goods and services per household in 2010, while they reported an average of $11,034 in pre-tax money income to the Census Bureau. This means that widely reported federal poverty stats exclude about 80 percent of the material resources of low-income households. Put simply, the poorest fifth of U.S. households consume five times more goods and services than the poverty stats reveal.

Of course, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs errors are not localized to her home country. However, as a rising legislator, she has the ability to affect U.S. policy, for good or ill. Those who profess to walk in the Truth should not support economic policies built on errors.

Read James Agrestis fact-filled article here.

(Photo credit: nrkbeta. CC BY-SA 2.0.)
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Linkedin Andrew Marszal (Agence France-Presse) Los Angeles, United States  Mon, January 27, 2020 16:09 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20612a1fa 2 Entertainment 1917,director,Sam-Mendes,Directors-Guild-of-America Free

Hollywood's directors handed World War I thriller "1917" their top annual prize Saturday, one of the final major award shows that typically spells success at next month's Oscars.

The win makes British auteur Sam Mendes hot favorite for the best director Oscar -- the Directors Guild of America Awards have correctly predicted the victor the past six years running.

The movie, which follows two British soldiers on a perilous mission across no man's land, has already scooped the Golden Globe for best drama, and has 10 Oscar nominations.

Mendes praised the work of fellow nominees Martin Scorsese ("The Irishman"), Quentin Tarantino ("Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"), Bong Joon-ho ("Parasite") and Taika Waititi ("Jojo Rabbit.")

"To those who kick dirt on the grave of the movies -- not so fast," he said, dedicating the win to his grandfather, whose life inspired the film.

"I know it sounds a bit loopy but I did feel he was with us in a couple of occasions when I was struggling," said Mendes.

Victory also boosts the film's frontrunner status for the best picture Academy Award.

The win comes more than two decades after Mendes first received the DGA award for "American Beauty," a victory that led to Oscars wins for that film.

Mendes told AFP his first win had been "frightening to be pitched into this sort of frenzy," adding: "I'm 20 years older and I'm probably a little less scared."

The film's two lead actors paid tribute to Mendes.

"He's a master of so many mediums... he's pretty much done it all," said George MacKay.

"We'll be very excited to see what happens at the Oscars -- I've never been before!" his co-star Dean-Charles Chapman told AFP.

'New voices'

A-list presenters at the glamorous downtown Los Angeles event Saturday included Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio and Alfonso Cuaron, with Judd Apatow returning as host.

Like the Oscars, the DGAs were criticized this year for excluding women from the top prize shortlist.

DGA president Thomas Schlamme said the movie industry "still have a lot of work to do" on boosting diversity but pointed to the recently introduced first-time director category, featuring three women.

Alma Har'el ("Honey Boy") won the prize, praising fellow female nominees Mati Diop ("Atlantics") and Melina Matsoukas ("Queen & Slim") as "the future."

The category means "new voices like us can be included and celebrated," said Har'el, voicing support for a campaign to assist new mothers in the movie industry.

Around 50 Hollywood women including Amy Schumer, Amy Poehler and Greta Gerwig recently co-signed a letter stating women "are penalized for having children in a way that their male counterparts are not."

'Zeitgeist film'

"American Factory," a film about a US Rust Belt factory reopened by a Chinese billionaire, and which was produced by the Obamas, won best documentary.

"When we started (the film), we didn't have President Trump even, let alone trade wars and the conflict with China," director Julia Reichert told AFP. "I think we're kind of a zeitgeist film."

The DGAs also honor television -- Bill Hader won for directing dark hitman comedy "Barry," in which he also stars, while the limited series prize went to "Chernobyl."

Superhero series "Watchmen" won the drama prize, seeing off an all-HBO shortlist including the much-maligned final season of "Game of Thrones."

Although lower key than the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards, the DGAs are longer-running and offer prestigious recognition from 18,000 voters including top directors.

"To be nominated alongside these absolute legends is very surreal for me," Waititi told AFP. "I am amongst the greats right now."

The Oscars will be handed out in Hollywood on February 9.
This is the moment a group of thugs attacked each other with crutches and a 'granny' shopping trolley in a London brawl.

The three young men and one woman were filmed scrapping at Lewisham Market, on Lewisham High Street, on Thursday night.

The shocking clip was shared to social media - but some viewers seemed more disturbed about one brawler's low-slung trousers.

The clip shows the youths gathered on the pavement as one man - wearing a white hoodie - viciously beats the others with his crutch.

A concerned onlooker swiftly moves away as the group continue to grapple.

Two young men attempt to take the makeshift weapon from the man in the white hoodie but he manages to back away from the group.

A young woman, wearing a blue hoodie, at first appears to try to pull the group apart before moving to the back.

A group of thugs attacked each other with crutches (left) and 'granny' shopping trolley (right) in a London brawl on Thursday night

A youth - wearing a black jumper - swiftly lunges for the person with the crutch.

Another thug - whose trousers have fallen down revealing grey boxers - reaches his arm out, punching the thug in the black jumper in the face.

He falls to the ground with a toe-curling thud as the crowd gasps.

Police sirens can be heard in the background as the two other young men rush to pick up their belongings.

A youth - wearing a black jumper (left, centre) - swiftly lunges for the person with the crutch but is punched in the face. He falls to the floor and a group gathers around him

The young woman walks over to the man who fell, appearing to quickly check on him before before picking up a granny-style shopping trolley.

She lunges at the man whose trousers have almost completely fallen down.

The men who are still standing run into a nearby shop with the sirens still sounding as a crowd gathers around the man on the ground.

The video was shared on social media where viewers took to the comments to share their thoughts.

The group of three young and one woman were filmed fighting in Lewisham Market, on Lewisham High Street (left). As sirens are heard, two of the men swiftly escape through a shop. One can be seen holding onto a crutch

Steve Burke said: 'The young chap could do with a belt to keep his trousers up.'

Another added: 'The bigger question for the nation surely is what sort of society thinks going round with your a*** hanging out is an acceptable way to dress?

'That's far more disturbing than the fight itself.'

A police spokesperson said: 'Police were called at 17:20hrs on Thursday, 23 January to reports of a group of males in Lewisham High Street.

'Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and found a male, aged in his late teens, suffering facial injuries.

'He was treated at the scene for non life-threatening injuries. No arrests have been made.'
According to Polozov, the grounds and motives of the adopted procedural decision will be known after the lawyers receive a copy of the decision.

Coordinator of a group of lawyers working for 24 Ukrainian sailors Nikolay Polozov has said Russia suspended the preliminary investigation into the case of Ukrainian military sailors released from captivity in September 2019.

"Today, an investigator of the FSB Investigation Department announced a procedural decision to suspend the preliminary investigation into the case of Ukrainian military sailors," he wrote on Facebook.

Read alsoMFA Ukraine: Russia didn't comply with ITLOS decision even after return of Ukrainian boats (Video)

According to Polozov, the grounds and motives of the adopted procedural decision will be known after the lawyers receive a copy of the decision.

UNIAN memo. On the morning of November 25, 2018, Russia blocked the passage to the Kerch Strait for the Ukrainian tugboat "Yany Kapu" and two armored naval boats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol," which were on a scheduled re-deployment from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the Azov Sea port of Mariupol. All 24 crew members on board were captured and charged with "illegal border crossing" under Part 3 of Article 322 of the Criminal Code of Russia (imprisonment for up to six years). Later the Ukrainian sailors were freed and returned to Ukraine in a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia on September 7, 2019. The ITLOS on May 25 ordered Russia to immediately release the three vessels and transfer them under Ukrainian control.

On November 20, the naval boats arrived at the Ukrainian port of Ochakiv.

Ukrainian Navy Commander, Admiral Ihor Voronchenko said the Russians had dismantled some communications and navigation equipment from the seized ships.
Nadya Suleman, better known as Octomom, posted a photo to Instagram page where her eight youngest children were celebrating their 11th birthday.

The 44-year-old star also wrote a gushing caption about her kids.

'Happy birthday to my beautiful angels. You are some of the kindest, most compassionate, caring human beings Ive ever known,' wrote the TV star.

All together: Nadya Suleman, better known as Octomom, posted a photo to Instagram page where her eight youngest children were celebrating their 11th birthday

Doing her best: The Los Angeles resident first came to fame in 2009 when she welcomed octuplets and was compared to Angelina Jolie. Seen in 2011

She added, 'Words cannot express how grateful I am to be your mother. You all have blessed my life immensely and I thank God daily for trusting me to care for, shape the lives of, and influence all of you.'

She then seemed to reference Kobe Bryant's shock death on Sunday from a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. The athlete was with his daughter Gianna, aged 13.

'Recent tragic events of loved ones lost are a powerful reminder of how fragile, precarious, yet precious life is, as tomorrow is never promised,' said Nadya.

Her loving note: The 44-year-old star also wrote a gushing caption about her kids. 'Happy birthday to my beautiful angels. You are some of the kindest, most compassionate, caring human beings Ive ever known,' wrote the TV star

She fit all the names on the cake! All eight children saw their names on the white cake

'We need to hug our loved ones a little longer and a little harder while they are here.

'You are my miracles, my angels, and I will love you with all my heart, forever. Happy 11th birthday Noah, Maliyah, Nariyah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Josiah, and Makai.'

In her hashtags she said she was 'blessed.'

Earlier this month Suleman shared a rare photo her youngest kids.

The little ones were posing side by side in an outdoor setting for the image that made its way to the star's Instagram page.

Octo-life: In early January she shared a rare photo of eight of her 14 children

The caption read, 'While Aidan was sitting, distracted with sensory exploration in the dirt, I snapped a quick picture of all the little kids together.

'This is a rare occurrence considering how crazy active and energetic they all are!'

The hashtags were for #ActiveLifestyle #FitFamily #KidsBeingKids.

The Los Angeles resident first came to fame in 2009 when she welcomed octuplets after already having six children at home.

In 2001 Suleman gave birth to her first child, a son. In 2002 she gave birth to her first daughter.

Suleman continued IVF treatments which resulted in three further pregnancies (including one set of fraternal twins) for a total of six children (four sons, two daughters).

Another group shot: She said in May: 'Mothers Day can be an emotionally painful day for many. I feel your sadness. Throughout the six years of infertility (including miscarriages) I struggled with nearly 25 years ago, I believed God would never bless me with children'

She brings up all 14 kids in a three-bedroom home in Orange Country, California.

But the reality TV star said she never intended to have that many and was 'misled' by her doctor.

The single mom told The New York Times in December 2018 that her doctor made her think she was only going to have twins. She ended up having eight children.

The star welcomed octuplets in 2009. She said Dr. Michael Kamrava, who has since lost his medical license and moved out of the United States, is the reason she has so many children, she says.

'I was misled by my doctor,' Suleman asserted. She thought she would have only two children.

But Kamrava implanted 12 embryos. 'He told me we lost six embryos, he said they were expelled out of me, and that's why he wanted to implant another six,' Suleman claimed.

It was also claimed that she was already drugged and not completely with it when it all went down.

Kamrava's friend Rabbi David Shofet told the Times: 'He told me he suggested to her not to keep all of them, but she said no.'

The Times said they could not reach Kamrava.

Suleman began IVF treatments in 1997, when she was 21 years old.

Also in the Times interview Nadya said she did not want to keep any secrets from her 14 children: 'We talk about everything,' she said.

And the star's daughter Amerah has nothing but good to say about her mom: 'She's been fighting for our family for 10 years now. No matter what, she's never going to give up and I know that.'

Her son Joshua told The Times that having so many siblings has its pluses.

Her son Joshua said they like having so many siblings. 'Some of my friends don't have any siblings, so they want to know what it's like. It's nice to have someone to play with, but it can be overwhelming at times.'














Speakers:



Ma Xiaowei, minister of the National Health Commission (NHC) and secretary of the CPC NHC Leadership Group

Wang Jiangping, vice minister of industry and information technology

Liu Xiaoming, vice minister of transport

Li Bin, vice minister of the NHC

Chairperson:

Xi Yanchun, spokesperson for the State Council Information Office of China

Date:

Jan. 26, 2020

Xi Yanchun:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, good afternoon. Welcome to the press conference. News media have paid great attention these days to the outbreak of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The safety and health of the people, especially of Wuhan residents, have become a shared concern to all of us. Today, we have invited Mr. Ma Xiaowei, minister of the NHC and secretary of the CPC NHC Leadership Group; Mr. Li Bin, vice minister of the NHC; Mr. Wang Jiangping, vice minister of industry and information technology; and Mr. Liu Xiaoming, vice minister of transport. They will explain the joint efforts to tackle the pneumonia outbreak and answer your questions.



First, I will give the floor to Mr. Ma.

Ma Xiaowei:

Friends from the media, good afternoon. Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus-related pneumonia, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have given earnest consideration to prevention and control work. General Secretary Xi Jinping has concerned himself with the pneumonia situation and the treatment of patients, making important orders and instructions on prevention and control work. Yesterday, which was the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on the work surrounding the pneumonia situation. General Secretary Xi Jinping chaired the meeting and heard reports on the prevention and control of the outbreak. It was decided in the meeting to set up a CPC Central Committee leading group to oversee the work, and also send groups to Hubei province and other hard-hit regions to direct the work on the ground. These decisions have made a great impact to curb the epidemic through synergy and coordinated actions. Premier Li Keqiang presided over a State Council executive meeting, making arrangements for the prevention and control of the outbreak with measures typically used for category-A infectious diseases even though the outbreak has been classified as a category-B infectious disease. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan made multiple studies on the issues related to the pneumonia situation, and visited Wuhan to inspect the work and make necessary arrangements. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the NHC and other departments within the joint prevention and control network acted swiftly to cooperate on implementing preventive and control measures, with an emphasis on localized administration. We have made efforts in the following areas:

First, we investigated the origin of the infections and offered technical guidance. We had experts evaluate the pathogen test results, and preliminarily identified the new coronavirus in just over a week since the outbreak. Then we issued plans for diagnosis and treatment, emergency monitoring, epidemiological investigation and management, as well as sampling and detection. We developed kits that help facilitate diagnosis, and distributed them to medical institutions after evaluating them so as to improve the efficiency of case detection.

Second, we gave guidance to Wuhan on implementing preventive and control measures. Taking the prevention and control work in Wuhan as the top priority, we set up a front-line working group. It urged local authorities to close relevant markets, strengthen regulation on the breeding, sales and consumption of wild animals, crack down on illegal trade, as well as suspend airports and railway stations to outgoing passengers. We coordinated the transfer of protective clothing, masks, gloves and goggles from the central medical reserves to Wuhan. The Finance Ministry also allocated a total of 1 billion yuan to support Hubei province's battle against the outbreak. We mobilized and deployed medical resources across the country. More than 900 medical workers in seven groups have been dispatched to Wuhan, and medical staff for future rotation are ready to leave for the city. 450 medics from the military have arrived in Wuhan, and eight medical teams comprising more than 1,000 people are on standby.

Third, we strengthened prevention and control work across the country. Currently, a total of 30 provinces have launched the level 1 public health emergency response (the highest level of response). We have drafted and implemented prevention and control measures among communities, launched "grid-style administration" and "blanket management," and kept track of the health situations of people from Wuhan, and worked to manage the health situations of people who have traveled to the area. We also promoted the prevention and control experiences of Beijing and Hebei, in order to discover cases as soon as possible. Passengers who have previously booked trips by air, train, roads and waterways can cancel their trips and get a full refund, and travels of tourist groups have been suspended. Large public gatherings are also restricted to reduce crowds. We have also published public prevention guides, which cover six aspects including travel, family, public venues, public transport vehicle, and stay-at-home medical observation. We also strengthened ventilation, sterilization and the checking of body temperatures in key places and tried to curb the spreading of the virus by public movement. Meanwhile, we intensified market control on wild animals.

Fourth, we spared no efforts in the treatment of patients. We have revised diagnosis and treatment plans, and released the lists of designated hospitals above-county-level and fever clinics. We have strengthened medical treatment, and strictly followed the rules of "concentrating patients, experts, medical resources and treatment." We have combined treatment of both traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and practiced case-by-case treatment regarding those in critical condition, in order to reduce the number of deaths as much as possible. We implemented medical assistance policies for patients, to ensure that no one is left untreated due to medical expenses.

Fifth, we accelerated scientific research on the new coronavirus. We have set up a national expert team on related research, and launched emergency projects. We are adhering to the problem-oriented principle, and have carried out scientific research on tracing the source of the virus, screening potential drugs, prevention and control of the disease by using traditional Chinese medicine, treatment of critical cases and research of vaccines.

Sixth, we worked on information disclosure. Every day before 8 a.m., the National Health Commission releases data of the outbreak that is collected the day before, and organizes experts to popularize prevention measures among the general public.

Seventh, we deepened exchanges and cooperation. We have informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of the situation of the outbreak and continue to share technical information in a timely manner. We have also shared with the WHO the whole genetic sequencing of some strains. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the Chinese government for the measures taken in responding to the outbreak. We also invited WHO experts to visit Wuhan, and organized experts from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to make field trips to Wuhan. After assessing the virus-related information, the WHO decided not to declare it as a "public health emergency of international concern."

The prevention and control of the outbreak is currently in a critical stage. Experts believe that the Spring Festival holiday week is the best window for large-scale quarantine and sterilization measures to work out, and it is also the key period for curbing the spread of the virus in regions outside Wuhan. In the next stage, we will work under the CPC Central Committee leading group overseeing the work, put the prevention and control of the disease in the first priority, give different guidance according to different situations, carry out targeted measures and prevent and control the outbreak in a legal and scientific way.

Ma Xiaowei:

First, we are keeping a close eye on the situation in Wuhan. We have urged Hubei province and Wuhan city to maintain the most stringent prevention and control measures in accordance with the laws, supervise strict home quarantine for close contacts , reduce various gatherings by the general public, identify and keep cases and suspected cases in quarantine in a timely way, and take strict and resolute measures to curb the spread of the epidemic.

Second, we are keeping a close eye on the whole country. We have mobilized and arranged resources nationwide, strengthened prevention and control in communities, and managed people traveling elsewhere from Wuhan to other provinces within 15 days. We are motivating various communities to identify the people, record their information for community management, and closely observe their health condition. The patient, once detected, has to be transferred to a qualified hospital for quarantine. We are also stepping up efforts like alerting hospitals in counties and townships as well as strengthening the leadership of township governments to curb the spread of the epidemic in rural areas.

Third, we do our best to treat cases. Severe cases are gathered for treatment in the best local hospitals, or safeguarded by teams of local respiratory experts around-the-clock. We are trying our best to reduce severe cases and fatalities by adopting both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine in treatment. Medical staff in Hubei province, in Wuhan city in particular, have been fighting on the frontline, trying their best to cure patients and control the epidemic through their hard work, showing universal love. We will send an additional 1,600 plus people in 12 teams over the next two days. Relevant government departments are also mounting efforts to ensure a sufficient supply and timely delivery of materials urgently needed for the prevention and control of the epidemic.

The outbreak of the epidemic is like a call for action, and the prevention and control is our responsibility. We will make full use of the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics, apply experience we accumulated in dealing with major public health events over time, rely on the concerted efforts of the medical staff and the general public, and do our best to win the battle against the epidemic. We have the confidence, determination, and the ability to win.

Xi Yanchun:

Thank you, Mr. Ma. Now, let's move on to questions. Please identify which media outlet you work for before asking your questions.
During a live broadcast, he read a couple of excerpts from some document published in a periodical, stating that the document was on the negotiating table during the administration of ex-president Serzh Sargsyan. This is what Russian historian Stanislav Tarasov wrote on regnum.ru as he touched upon the disclosure of a document inherited from the former authorities in regard to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during the press conference that Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan gave in the Armenian city of Kapan on January 25, according to hraparak.am.

To put it shortly, the content was the following: It was as if the Armenian side had to deliver seven regions to Azerbaijan and maintain the corridor linking Armenia to Karabakh.

In addition, there are also talks about a memorandum regarding all the possible options for a decision on the status of Karabakh and the deployment of peacekeepers. Moreover, Pashinyan defines this as the legacy that third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan left for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Pashinyan also stated that he was offered to start the talks from these points when his term of office began, Tarasov wrote.

First of all, the status of leader of Armenia obliges Nikol Pashinyan to not use deaf links when making serious statements, especially for the presses. His statements arent considered President Sargsyans political legacy. They fully comply with the content of the Madrid Principles which the conflicting sides are still using as a basis for the negotiations. Thus, it would be better for the Prime Minister to declare that he refuses to continue the talks on that ground. After all, the views expressed during the joint session of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh in Stepanakert were completely different.

However, in the context proposed by Pashinyan, it turns out that Russia initiated the Four-Day Artsakh War in April 2016 to hinder implementation of certain agreements that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had reached.
January 27 : Actor Chunky Pandey who is known for his comic roles says that he loves comic avatars but his personal favorites are Grey Roles on the sidelines of his recent media interaction.

Chunky Pandey was interacting with media at the red carpet of 26th SOL Lions Gold Awards in Mumbai. The awards are annual accolades given by the Lions Club Mumbai to recognise the talents in the Film and Television Industry.

Talking about his Award win and his personal favorite roles, Chunky Pandey said, I am very excited about this award. This is my first big award after being in this industry for over 33 years, and that to be for Housefull 4. I didnt get this award for pervious Hosuefulls (1,2,3) but I got it for the fourth installment. I am so excited

Watch the video

I love comic roles a lot. I have done a Marathi film, which will release soon and I am doing a comic role in that movie as well. But the grey roles, which I am doing lately, the ones I performed in Begum Jaan and Saaho, those roles are little favorite on a personal level he added.

When asked about never been on Koffee with Karan, the actor stated that he hasnt been invited but happy that Karan launched his daughter.

He said, No, not at all! I am not sad that Karan hasnt invited me to his show. I am very happy that he has taken my daughter in his film.

The 26th SOL Lions Gold Awards saw Shraddha Arya, Elli Avram, Ashnoor Kaur, Shaheer Sheikh, Ankita Lokhande, Ananya Panday, Saiee Manjrekar and Kunal Khemu and other stars from Bollywood industry gracing the red carpet.
The heartbroken parents of a five-year-old girl who is suffering from childhood dementia say their daughter has forgotten how to say 'mummy'.

Penny Mills, from the West Midlands, was diagnosed with Sanfilippo syndrome when she was four, and is unlikely to live beyond her teenage years.

Her rare genetic disease, which affects around one in 70,000 children, causes fatal brain damage and dementia-like symptoms.

Parents, Kelly, 40, and Andrew, 44, say she has lost her ability to talk, with her vocabulary dropping from 150 words to as few as ten within a year.

Penny can no longer do tasks she learnt as a toddler, such as using cutlery, putting on her socks or shoes, or using the toilet.

Mr and Mrs Mills will have to watch Penny deteriorate further; one day she will need to be fed through a tube because Sanfilippo causes an inability to swallow.

But the family have vowed to make 'beautiful memories' with Penny, who still recognises their faces at the moment.

Penny Mills, 5, is suffering from rare 'childhood dementia' and will not live beyond her teens

Her devoted parents, Kelly, 40, and Andrew, 44, have promised to make 'beautiful memories' with their daughter. Pictured above: The family at Disneyland Paris with Penny and their elder son Harry, 12

Penny, from the West Midlands, was diagnosed with Sanfilippo syndrome when she was four

Mrs Mills, also mother to Harry, 12, said: 'She [Penny] used to say "mummy", but I can't remember the last time I heard her say it.

'She still lights up when she sees us, so we don't think she has forgotten us yet, but we are prepared for that to happen. It's one of our worst fears.

'It's like we are grieving for our little girl, as we watch this cruel disease rob her of everything she knows.'

Family life was great until Penny developed a snotty nose at six months old, which numerous courses of antibiotics failed to clear.

The rare genetic disease, which affects around one in 70,000 children, causes fatal brain damage and dementia-like symptoms. Penny's birth had brought such hope because it came after Mrs Mill's daughter Milly was stillborn

Mrs Mills has been taking evening classes in speech therapy and language to help Penny, who was dubbed a 'rainbow baby' because she was born following the stillbirth

Family life  which includes Mr Mill's son Tyler (right), 19, from a previous relationship  was great until Penny developed a snotty nose at six months old, which numerous courses of antibiotics failed to clear

WHAT IS SANFILIPPO SYNDROME? Sanfilippo syndrome is a genetic and terminal disorder that affects around one in 70,000 live births. Victims lack an enzyme that is essential for normal cellular function. The condition eventually causes a buildup of a toxic material - heparin sulfate - resulting in dementia, loss of speech, blindness and eventual death. The disease is referred to as childhood Alzheimer's due to the effects. Sufferers typically die before they are out of their teens. There is no known cure, however clinical trials are being conducted in order to find one. Advertisement

'We weren't too worried as babies do get infections at that age, but it was like a consistent green stream coming from her nose,' Mrs Mills said.

'As she got older, she wasn't saying many words and was a late crawler, but we thought she was just a bit lazy, as we all fussed around her.'

Aged two, Penny was still struggling with potty training.

She did not seem to realise when her bowels were moving and had diarrhoea, which her parents later learned was symptomatic of Sanfilippo.

'With everything, we hoped there was a simple reason, but, deep down, Andrew and I suspected something more was going on,' Mrs Mills said.

'She behaved differently to other children her age. She didn't look like me or Andrew, or the boys either. There were only a few facial similarities.'

It was after a family trip to a holiday camp in Cornwall, when Penny was two and struggled to communicate and play that she was referred to children's services.

Penny was diagnosed with Sanfilippo syndrome when she was sent for genetic testing in September 2018 to try to find out the cause of her slow development

Aged two, Penny was still struggling with potty training and did not seem to realise when her bowels were moving

It was after a family trip to a holiday camp in Cornwall, when Penny was two and struggled to communicate and play that she was referred to children's services

Mrs Mills explained that there are 'three stages' to Penny's disease, the first of which is delayed learning. Pictured above: Mr and Mrs Mills with Penny, Harry and Tyler

Penny will eventually forget how to swallow and so will need a feeding tube

She was assessed for learning disabilities, including autism, which were ruled out.

Because her hearing was also weak, aged three, she was fitted with hearing aids which seemed to help.

But with no diagnosis, she was sent for genetic testing in September 2018 aged four. Tests found she had Sanfilippo syndrome.

'It was a complete shock. They said it was a rare condition and gave me a leaflet about it,' Mrs Mils said said.

'The first thing I saw was "palliative care". We thought it would be life-limiting, but had no idea it was terminal. We were devastated.

'I walked Penny into school that day and broke down in tears.

'The average life expectancy is 15, but there's quite a big range. Some children die much younger and there are some young adults with Sanfilippo.

'We just take each day as it comes. We've learned over the last five or six years that nothing's guaranteed in life.'

Sanfilippo is a mucopolysaccharide (MPS) disease. It means her body does not have enough enzymes to controls the toxic build-up of sugar in the body.

The sugar molecule, called heparan sulphate, results in dementia-like symptoms, loss of speech, blindness and eventual death.

Sanfilippo is a rare genetic condition characterised by a shortage of an enzyme which controls the toxic build-up of sugar in the body

In October last year, the family noticed her vocabulary had started to go, with her forgetting words she had once known like cheese, chocolate and biscuits

Penny has forgotten how to use toys and can no longer put on her shoes or socks

Mrs Mills explained: 'There are three stages to the disease. First comes delayed learning.

'The second stage, which we're in now, is the hyperactivity stage, so she is often awake for three or four hours a night.

'The third stage is when sufferers really start to slow down. It is different for every child, but she will start to lose mobility and will eventually forget how to swallow, so will need a feeding tube.'

The diagnosis has been particularly cruel for Mr and Mrs Mills because Penny's birth brought such hope by coming after her sister Milly was stillborn in March 2013.

Milly died after Mrs Mills suffered a placental abruption  where the placenta separates from the uterus early.

Penny was dubbed a 'rainbow baby' because she was born following the stillbirth.

'That loss was devastating for the whole family,' Mrs Mills said.

'Discovering I was pregnant with Penny nine months later, I felt extremely lucky. Then, finding out she was a little girl, too - we felt so grateful.

'She was a chunky little thing and we all fell in love with her instantly.'

In October last year, the family, including Mr Mill's son Tyler, 19, from a previous relationship, noticed Penny's vocabulary had started to go.

Penny's family are determined to make as many memories as they can with her

Penny still recognises her parents but Mr and Mrs Mills know that the day will come when she can no longer do so

Penny's amazing, she lights up the room with her laughter,' Mrs Mills said. Pictured above: Penny in school uniform with Harry

She had forgotten words she had once known like cheese, chocolate and biscuits, and her brothers' names.

Around the same time she also stopped using a fork and started eating with her hands.

Her vocabulary has now also virtually disappeared. She still says 'dada' and 'dance,' over and over, but out of context.

Mrs Mills said: 'She has forgotten how to use toys, like a piggy bank, and puzzle games where you match things and she can't put her socks and shoes on anymore.

'She just looks confused. We show her how to do it over and over. Sometimes she will get it but we never know if she will be able to do it again tomorrow.

'She doesn't get frustrated, because she doesn't really understand what we are trying to do.'

Luckily, she still recognises her parents, but they know this will not last.

'When she gets to the end stage, I do not want to look back and think all I did was worry about the future. We need to embrace the now,' Mrs Mills said

The family hope to spend as much time as they can with Penny while they are still able. Pictured: Harry and Tyler with Penny as a newborn

The family went to Disneyland Paris before Christmas and are hoping to go to Disneyland in 2021

Mrs Mills said: 'It does take her time to remember people she's met before, so I have made her a book with pictures of the family in it. I sit down and go through it with her every day.

'Her brother's away at university and we Facetime him, so she remembers him.'

Penny's family are determined to make as many memories as they can with her.

'When she gets to the end stage, I do not want to look back and think all I did was worry about the future. We need to embrace the now,' Mrs Mills, who has been taking evening classes in speech therapy and language to help Penny, said.

'We went to Disneyland Paris just before Christmas and want to go to Disneyland Florida in 2021. She's also desperate to meet Mr Tumble from CBeebies.

'Penny's amazing, she lights up the room with her laughter. She's a happy little girl who loves to dance and we need to make the most of her while we can.'

A spokeswoman for the MPS Society, which reached 1,500 families in 2019, said: 'Every eight days, a baby born in the UK is diagnosed with an Mucopolysaccharide (MPS) or a related disease, rare genetic conditions which cause progressive physical disability and, in many cases, severe degenerative neurological deterioration.

'Our vision is for all people affected by our diseases to live the lives they want. Our mission is to transform lives through specialist knowledge, support, advocacy and research.'

To find out more visit: www.mpssociety.org.uk and to donate towards the MPS Society in honour of Penny click here.
Help India!

Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net

An anthology of 30 essays penned by different activist authors and political journalists across India translated into Telugu titled Kashmir Bahiranga Cherasala (Kashmir an open-air prison) was released 24th January 2020 at the Somajiguda Press Club.

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The book contains articles on aftermath of revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir on August 5th 2019 and violation of the rights of the people of Kashmir by A G Noorani, Arundhati Roy, Markandey Katju, Ramachandar Guha, Shahnaz Bashir and Gowhar Geelani among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Gowhar Geelani a writer, journalist and political commentator hailing from Srinagar who was the chief guest for the book release, said he began his career as a journalist in Hyderabad working for ETv. He said he feels safer travelling to the Southern states of India and feels that these are the places where conversations can be had freely. He appreciated the solidarity shown by the people of Hyderabad.

Narrating his experiences about the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, he said he wants to make sense of what is happening in Kashmir so the audience can know what is actually happening there and not what is being shown by the various TV channels and other media whom he referred to as stenographers of the government.

Eighty lakh Kashmiris are without internet from the last 173 days. And this has resulted in loss of academic year to the students who apply online for admissions in universities abroad and in India, has affected the doctors groups on whatsapp who conducted surgeries by consulting each other, research scholars, journalists and others. All this punishment has been meted out to us because we are Kashmiris, he said.

He also said that the voices of the people of Kashmir have been silenced, and their agency has been taken away from them dehumanizing them further. The government has changed the narrative of the entire state by taking over the media and controlling it.

He drew parallels from the reign of Hitler whose minister for propaganda Joseph Goebbels had glorified the Nazis and demonized the Jews to the present day anchors who expertly spread lies and falsehood about Kashmir and Kashmiris.

If the Kashmiris had access to internet they would speak up on the social media about what they are facing there which the Government does not want and hence the shutdown of internet.

He also said that Three former chief Ministers of Kashmir including Dr. Farookh Abdullah whose party National Conference is the oldest have all been selling the idea of India or idea of democracy to the people of Kashmir from the last 7 decades are right now in jail. In short it is democracy that is in jail.

He also shared that the central government wants to instill permanent defeat in the hearts and minds of Kashmiris by demonstrating that they have troops and the media who is their stooge and will never ask questions to them. However, he said the silence of the people of Kashmir is not fright but a form of resistance and civil disobedience and they are biding their time.

Gowhar Geelani, author of Kashmir Rage and Reason ended his talk with a few lines from a poem by Habib Jalib:

Zulm rahe aur aman bhi ho

kya mumkin hain tumhi kaho

hanstee gaati roshan vaadi

tareeki main doob gayi

Apne hoant siye hain tumne

mere zubaan ko mat roko

tum ko agar taufeeq nahin to

mujh ko hi such kehne do.

(Oppression is rampant yet there should be peace

Is it possible, you tell me?

The valley of laughter and songs has been drowned in

Obscurity, you have sealed your lips, but dont stop my tongue;

If you dont have the sense to speak, let me at least tell the truth)

At this the audience raised slogans of Kashmiri saathiyon, ham tumhare saath hai (we are with you Kashmiri friends).

Others present for the occasion were K Balareddy, in-charge of Malupu books, Veekshanam editor N. Venugopal Rao, Managing Editor of Siasat Daily Zaheer Ali Khan, Rama Sundari, writer and others.
 Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!

Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem written to describe the killing of a creature named the Jabberwock and has been found in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alices Adventures in Wonderland. This poem has also since been turned into a novella.

Lewis Carroll, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, born 188 years ago today, is best known for his books on Alice, the girl who finds herself lost in Wonderland and meets several people and animals who define her journey thereon. However, it wasnt just the Alice in Wonderland books that Carroll wrote, he taught Mathematics at Oxford and has even written 10 books on the subject.

A theory and subsequent article by Melanie Bayley of the University of Oxford on Lewis Carrolls works point to the fact that the layers in Alice in Wonderland book series were like a mathematical equation. It was published in the popular science magazine New Scientist titled Alices Adventures in Algebra: Wonderland Solved.

While it is a well-known fact that Carrolls audience was strictly created for children and young adults, the stories continue to resonate with evolved readers even today. Many have even figured out how his writing is a clever technique to poke fun at mathematics as a subject, his time as a professor of the subject and other followers and practitioners. Despite this, Lewis Carroll is not remembered for his mathematics but puzzles, logic games, dry humour and biting satire.

Philosophy and psychoanalysis:

An interesting aspect of Lewis Carrolls work is that the characters etched by him have various shades to them. One might even find the emphasis he lays on the psychoanalytic aspects of his characters.

In a conversation from Alice in Wonderland, he writes, Youre not the same as you were before. You were much more... muchier... youve lost your muchness. While it can be explored in different ways, its easy to see why this can also serve as a part philosophical, part inspirational quote for followers of Carrolls works and avid book readers across the world and age groups. One interpretation can also highlight how one might lose their mojo in the mundaneness of life and how the spark or the fire in the belly is much-needed even during the severe need for JOMO (Joy of Missing Out).

ALSO READ: Interesting facts about the Alice in Wonderland creator

For Kids or Adults

Aside from the Alice books, Carrolls most memorable work is a collection of comic and serious poetry titled Phantasmagoria and Other Poems (1869), which features a long and amusing poem of the same title. Two other books titled Sylvie and Bruno (1889) and its sequel, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893) deal in the genres of fact and fantasy and are popular reads for children.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome

Found to be a common disorder among children, a psychiatrist called John Todd found that patients reported the feeling of opening out like a telescope. This syndrome has been further studied by Grant Liu at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where it was found that this disorder causes its patients to see things upside down or even a strange case of hallucination.

Grammatical nonsense

On nonsense, Dr Seuss has famously said, I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; its a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at lifes realities.

Continuing that thought and paying homage to the beginning of creative nonsense, Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky has also given way to Neuroscientists who now regularly use Jabberwocky sentences during brain scans. Nirvanas Kurt Cobain also used certain grammatical nonsense for the popular song Smells Like Teen Spirit.

On the legendary writers 188th birth anniversary, here are quotes to feed your soul that borders on humour, depth, sprinkled with a dose of philosophy.

As Lewis Carroll writes: So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

* Why, sometimes Ive believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

* Curiouser and curiouser! cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

* I cant go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.

* Who in the world am I? Ah, thats the great puzzle.

* But I dont want to go among mad people, said Alice. Oh, you cant help that, said the cat. Were all mad here. Im mad. Youre mad.

How do you know Im mad? said Alice.

You must be, said the Cat, or you wouldnt have come here.

* Everythings got a moral, if only you can find it.

* She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).

* Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

I dont much care where 

Then it doesnt matter which way you go.

* I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.

* If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.

* Why its simply impassible!

Alice: Why, dont you mean impossible?

Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothings impossible!

* Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the Cat.

I dont much care where - said Alice.

Then it doesnt matter which way you go, said the Cat.

- so long as I get SOMEWHERE, Alice added as an explanation.

Oh, youre sure to do that, said the Cat, if you only walk long enough.

* Im not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.

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Truffles, Champagne, lobster, foie gras and steak are just some of the decadent dishes that Chicago and suburban restaurants are serving on Valentines Day to make your romantic dinner memorable. Whether youre ready to splurge on a tasting menu with wine pairings or are just looking for a fun dinner out with some music, these 26 spots offer a gamut of options. Just dont forget to make a reservation. Tables will be filling up quickly.
FALMOUTH, MASS. (27 January 2020)--A new study using innovative technology to measure carbon emissions caused by forest degradation and disturbance--rather than deforestation alone--suggests that Indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs) in the Amazon are emitting formerly undetected amounts of carbon, yet their net emissions remain low, allowing them to outperform other land categories across the nine-nation region.

In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed the impact of forest conversion as well as degradation and disturbance on four land categories in the Amazon (ITs, PNAs, Other Land, and the overlap between ITs and PNAs), finding that forest growth helped indigenous territories show the lowest net loss of carbon, with 90 percent of net emissions coming from outside protected lands.

Combined, indigenous lands and protected areas cover 52 percent of the Amazon and store 58 percent of the carbon. The new PNAS study suggests they are increasingly at risk from illegal activities and growing weaknesses in the rule of law, endangering their role in protecting vulnerable landscapes. Their findings led the authors to call for strengthening the rights of indigenous peoples whose lands cover 30 percent of the Amazon and hold 34 percent of its carbon.

"Our work shows that forests under the stewardship of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities continue to have better carbon outcomes than lands lacking protection, meaning that their role is critical and must be strengthened if Amazon basin countries are to succeed in maintaining this globally important resource, while also achieving their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement," said Wayne Walker, scientist and lead author, Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Mass.

Scientists, policy experts, and indigenous leaders gathered under a consortium formed by the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indigenas de la Cuenca Amazonica (COICA), Rede Amazonica de Informacao Socioambiental (RAISG), and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), participated in the study.

Almost 90 percent of Amazon indigenous territories have some form of legal recognition, but the authors of the study note that government concessions for mining and petroleum extraction overlap nearly one quarter of all recognized territorial lands, substantially increasing their vulnerability to adverse impacts.

"Our research reveals what indigenous peoples across the Amazon are reporting to their leaders," said Tuntiak Katan, an author and vice- coordinator of the Congress of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). "Governments are weakening environmental protections, violating existing indigenous land rights, and encouraging impunity in the rule of law. The situation is putting at risk the existence of our peoples and our territories, which contain the world's most carbon-dense forests."

The authors looked at losses and gains in carbon over the period 2003-2016, using an update to data originally published by Baccini et al. (2017; Science). Additionally, they disaggregated losses into those attributable to forest conversion (e.g., deforestation) and those due to anthropogenic degradation and natural disturbance.

The new study suggests that, during the 2003-2016 time frame, the Amazon region was a net source of carbon to the atmosphere, releasing about 1,290 million tons of carbon (MtC), when both losses and gains are considered. The trajectories of carbon loss from 2003 to 2016 show increases between 2012 and 2016 for all countries and land categories, especially outside ITs and PNAs.

Of the four Amazon land categories, ITs had the lowest net loss of carbon (-0.1%). Net loss was -0.6% in PNAs and -3.6% on Other Land. The authors suggest that the continued growth of forests on indigenous territories have allowed these lands to compensate for emissions from degradation and disturbance. Still, 47% of the total loss of carbon for the region as a whole was attributed to degradation and disturbance, a concerning finding - said Carmen Josse, coauthor of the PNAS report and scientific director of Fundacion EcoCiencia, in Ecuador - given the importance that tropical forests have in providing globally important ecosystem services, beyond their role of capturing and storing carbon.

"Our study shows that protected indigenous territories have reduced deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon rainforest over the last two decades, and continue to be an effective buffer against the recent spike in deforestation," said Steve Schwartzman, Senior Director of Tropical Forest Policy at Environmental Defense Fund, and one of the study's authors. "To save the Amazon, indigenous territories must remain protected."

Lands outside ITs and PNAs (i.e., "Other Land") accounted for about 70 percent of total carbon losses and nearly 90 percent of the net change--on less than half the total land area. In contrast, ITs and PNAs--on more than half the land area--accounted for just 10 percent of the net change, with 86 percent of losses on those lands offset by gains through forest growth. Thus, there was a nine-fold difference in net carbon loss outside ITs and PNAs (-1,160 MtC) compared with inside (-130 MtC).

The results of this study add weight to previous research, including the conclusions of a high-profile report on land and climate change, released last August, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which cited findings showing that strong land rights play a role in the lower rates of deforestation and forest degradation found on Indigenous territories, while the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) proposed strengthening land rights for Indigenous and other local communities as part of an effective approach for addressing biodiversity loss.

"Our findings suggest that ITs and PNAs were (independently and collectively) more effective than Other Land in maintaining their overall stock of carbon intact," said Josse. "In most countries, ITs and PNAs were either at or near net zero emissions, ranging from a small net source in Brazil to a small net sink in Peru. But with deforestation outside ITs and PNAs growing rapidly, our findings on the impact of degradation and disturbance suggest that significant, sustained support for indigenous people is now an urgent priority."

The PNAS study reports that ITs and PNAs continue to resist the expansion of deforestation taking place beyond their borders. But in assessing the impact of degradation and disturbance on Indigenous territories and protected areas, the authors draw new attention to the plight of indigenous peoples, whose leaders report growing impunity on the part of illegal gold miners, ranchers and loggers, seemingly encouraged by the statements of political leaders and legislative efforts to open territorial lands to new mining concessions.

Paulo Moutinho, an author and senior researcher at IPAM, said the findings suggest a potential threat to the region's economic health, "It's fundamental that the governments of the Amazon countries pay attention to the potential risk to their economies by not preserving their protected areas from illegal deforestation."

###

Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading international nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on EDF Voices, Twitter and Facebook.

Foundation EcoCiencia

EcoCiencia is an Ecuadorian scientific entity, private and non-profit that was founded with the aim of generating quality information for making the best decisions in favor of the conservation of biodiversity and the welfare of the population. This challenge has demanded the inclusion of broader, comprehensive and complex approaches.

IPAM

The Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM) [Amazon Environmental Research Institute] is a scientific, non-governmental, non-partisan and non-profit organization that has worked for the sustainable development of the Amazon since 1995. Our purpose is to consolidate the Amazonian tropical development model by 2035, by producing knowledge, implementing local initiatives and directing public policies, in a way that influences economic development, social equality, and environmental preservation. Our mission is to promote science, education, and innovation for an environmentally sound, economically prosperous, and socially just Amazon.

RAISG

The Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio- Environmental Information (RAISG) is a network of civil society organizations from Amazonian countries. RAISG seeks to build a comprehensive vision of the Amazon which links the collective rights of indigenous peoples with the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, to advance in terms of sustainable use practices of the forest and its resources. This integral vision of the Amazon overcomes fragmentary approaches and promotes regional, national and transnational initiatives by producing and compiling information on relevant topics and from different sources, always using common standards and technical protocols.

The Woods Hole Research Center

The Woods Hole Research Center studies climate change impacts around the world, and works with partners--from national governments to corporations--to identify and implement opportunities to reduce levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. WHRC was founded in 1985 by renowned ecologist George Woodwell to take the insights of science beyond the walls of academia to where they can effect real change. For the last four years, WHRC was named the top climate change think tank in the world by the International Center for Climate Governance. WHRC scientists have contributed to every IPCC Assessment Report, and helped to launch the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 2007, WHRC Senior Scientist Dr. Richard Houghton was part of the IPCC team awarded the Nobel Prize. WHRC researchers continue to work around the world to understand the rapidly changing climate and how we can address it. The Center is currently led by Dr. Philip Duffy, and has about 60 employees, including 46 scientists.
[January 27, 2020] Virtual Labs as a Service Pilot Brings Access and Flexibility to College Students and Faculty

RIVERSIDE, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- An innovative pilot program is underway in the Inland Empire/Desert region to embrace and actuate Strong Workforce Program metrics established by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's office to increase enrollment, facilitate more student completions and expand exposure to career opportunities to underserved communities throughout the region. Stakeholders throughout the region are working together to bring virtual, cloud-based labs to all twelve community colleges. This effort has been driven by Susanne Mata, the regional Director of Employer Engagement for the Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and Digital Media sector, with planning, design, vendor selection and implementation being coordinated by SynED, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting innovation in education. This effort allows students to access labs for a variety of subjects, from Information Technology (IT) and cybersecurity classes to software development and business office technology classes, at any time and from anywhere. It also significantly reduces faculty workload thus allowing faculty to serve more students and increase the number of trained professionals in the workforce to fill the thousands of open jobs positions in the region and across California. Traditionally, students have practiced computer networking and security skills at a centralized physical lab (and equipment) or a limited virtual lab appliance at their educational institution. Physical labs and college-based data centers have high costs associated with the maintenance and repair of the hardware and software. Further, researchers noted that the cost limitations for a physical lab and college-based data center should include personnel, electricity, and other physical environmental costs. An external service providing a turn-key virtualized environment that is identical to the corresponding physical environment will decrease the need for high-cost physical labs yet provide open virtualized environments that let students experience the real-life scenarios that are so critical in educating for technical careers. Virtual lab platforms must serve students with on demand, 24x7x365, access to a virtual lab environment from anywhere there is an internet connection. Virtual labs must also represent the full functinality of a real-world setting.



"Our region is committed to serving local business by preparing the 21st century workforce needed to support economic growth," said Dr. Melody Graveen, Dean of Instruction, Career and Technical Education, Moreno Valley College. "We are excited to participate in regional projects of this type that are designed to support equitable access to high-quality educational pathways and resources for our students. The IE/Desert region desired to implement Labs as a Service (LaaS) with 24x7 support for faculty and students, third-party licensing bundled within the lab course, and a service level agreement (SLA) in place for availability and security thus eliminating much of the campus based overhead.

Practice Labs, the selected vendor stood apart from its competitors because of its proven ability to provide a pool of shared licenses for use by all 12 colleges in the region, integration with Canvas and other learning management systems and 24/7/365 helpdesk for students and faculty. LTI integration allows for seamless and secure communication with Learning Management systems and gives students single sign-on access to all the tools they need in one place. In addition, it substantially saves time for faculty in managing their classes and grading students work. "This project would not have been possible without the dedication of key individuals from our Inland Empire colleges including faculty, administrators and staff." Said Susanne Mata, Regional Director of the ICT sector. "I am so pleased to be able to work with so many fine professionals willing to give of their time, energy and talent for the betterment of our region, students and communities. Throughout this project I have been reminded of something Henry Ford said; Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Initial pilot scope will be limited to three colleges. The pilot project will continue throughout the coming calendar year adding additional colleges as they are ready. As the pilot program gains traction it can be expanded to include other sectors and K-12 schools. Additional Information

For more information on the virtual labs project, contact:

Susanne Mata

Regional Director - Employer Engagement,

Information & Communication Technologies and Digital Media,

Inland Empire/Desert Region

[email protected] About Inland Empire / Desert Region

The Inland Empire/Desert Regional Consortium (IEDRC) serves as a regional framework to communicate, coordinate, collaborate, promote and plan career and technical education and workforce and economic development in the Inland Empire/Desert Region. The region includes nine community college districts comprised of 12 community colleges, two county offices of education, 56 public school districts, four regional occupational centers/programs, and more than 50 charter schools. About Practice Labs

Whether you are providing IT learning solutions for the following vendors - Microsoft, Cisco and VMware or offering CompTIA and Security certifications. Practice Labs provides unified access to all these through a single common interface. No longer do you need to integrate with different vendors to provide an online live lab solution. About SynED

SynED is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting educational excellence by providing higher education professional services to facilitate the development of new models of curriculum, industry alliance, service, and delivery. SynED seeks to facilitate collaboration and communication to find common ground in an increasingly complex and diverse educational ecosystem. Contact: Susanne Mata

Director of Employer Engagement for the

Information & Commination Technologies (ICT)

and Digital Media sector

[email protected]

866-420-4573 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/virtual-labs-as-a-service-pilot-brings-access-and-flexibility-to-college-students-and-faculty-300993108.html SOURCE synED

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It could give the Sheriff and Commonwealths Attorney something to hang their hat on so they do not go to jail for refusing to perform their duty, he wrote to Tazewell Supervisor Charles A. Stacy (D) and other supervisors. Basically a naked sanctuary statement from the Board is unconstitutional and worthless. In fact it probably violates all of our oaths of office. However, a militia resolution simply exercises a local power set forth in the state and federal constitutions.
Reporter: Sir, would you please share how the multi-faced cooperation between Vietnam and Azerbaijan has been effectively implemented in 2019?

Mr. Anar Imanov: As it is well known, the foundation of traditional friendship between Azerbaijan and Vietnam was laid by the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev and the President of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh. The visits of the President of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh to Azerbaijan in 1959 and the national leader of Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev to Vietnam in 1983 laid the foundation for the development of relations between the nations.

Based on this rich historical traditions friendly relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have been developing dynamically over the recent years. It should be noted that 2019 was no exception and between the parties at both bilateral and multilateral levels multi-faceted mutually beneficial cooperation has been carried out.

It should be especially noted that the working visit of H.E.Mrs. Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vice-President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Azerbaijan to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Baku, on October 25th-26th, 2019, as well as official visit of H.E. Mr. Ramiz Hasanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Vietnam on March 10th-13th, 2019, for conducting political consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affaires of both countries, could be considered as the main events of 2019 in the relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam.

At the same time it should be mentioned that during the visit to our country H.E.Mrs. Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh also attended the event to mark the 60th anniversary of the visit of President of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh to Azerbaijan. In her speech at the event, H.E.Mr. Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh highly appreciated the great support of the Azerbaijani people to Vietnam during and after the war, as well as the irreplaceable role of our specialists in the creation of the oil and gas industry of Vietnam.

Also I would like to underline that in 2019 100th anniversary of the diplomatic service of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been celebrated. On this remarkable occasion within the framework of the aforesaid official visit of H.E. Mr.Ramiz Hasanov to Vietnam, on March 12th, 2019, in Hanoi, a conference entitled Azerbaijan and Vietnam Diplomacy: Parallels, Development, Role in State Building was jointly organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

I would also like to emphasize that as a result of fruitful cooperation between our coutries Azerbaijan has supported Vietnam's candidacy for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021 and avail of this opportunity I wish the Government of Vietnam success in its extremely important upcoming activities.

Establishment of direct contacts between the regions of Azerbaijan and Vietnam was one of the main goals of the Embassy since beginning its operation in Vietnam in 2013. As a part of this policy, the event named Meet Azerbaijan-2019 was organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on January 11th, 2019, in Hanoi, at the new office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Representatives from about 20 provinces and largest cities of Vietnam attended this event. During the meeting, discussions were held in various areas, and participants were given the opportunity to hold their presentations. The event was aimed at expanding cooperation in the economic, trade and humanitarian spheres between Azerbaijan and Vietnam in general, and the establishment of direct contacts in the mentioned fields between the regions of both countries in particular.

Undoubtedly, cooperation in the oil and gas sector is one of the main directions of economic and trade relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam. Thus, on November 29th, 2019, in Hanoi, Vietnams state-run Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co (BSR) has inked an agreement with the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to buy crude oil in 2020.

As it could be seen, all the above-mentioned clearly shows that the multi-faceted relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam have developing rapidly in 2019 as well.

Mr. Anar Imanov, Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Vietnam. (Photo: CPV)



Reporter: What are your impressions on Vietnams people and development achievements in your term as Azerbaijan Ambassador to Vietnam?

Mr. Anar Imanov: I have been appointed as Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 2013 and I have definitely enjoyed communication with Vietnamese friends, both officials and ordinary people. I find Vietnamese people as kind, helpful, sincere and extremely hard-working. I do admire the courageous struggle of Vietnamese people for their freedom and independence.

Living and working in Vietnam for the past 7 years, I have witnessed amazing changes in your country. The country is developing at the highest pace, the standard of living of the population is growing, Vietnam is playing an increasingly important role in international affairs and is accepted by international partners as a trusting and reliable partner. Without a doubt, all this became possible thanks to the active and competent work of the Government of Vietnam implementing important measures to develop all sectors of the country's economy. We can say that every screw and bolt of the state machine works for the development of the country. I am convinced that in the near future Vietnam will become one of the most developed countries in the region. I sincerely wish it.

Reporter: Could you please share about what purposes and meanings of establishing the Vietnam  Azerbaijan Friendship Association and the Azerbaijani History and Culture Studies in Hanoi?

Mr. Anar Imanov: It is well known that thousands of Vietnamese graduates of Azerbaijani educational institutions in various levels and fields were actively involved in the post-war reconstruction, as well as nowadays comprehensive development of Vietnam. Thus, in order to maintain the connection of these people with Azerbaijan and facilitate people-to-people contacts between our countries on October 10th, 2015, the Azerbaijan-Vietnam Friendship Association was established in Hanoi.

In this regard I would like especially to point out that by the initiative of H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan the first Azerbaijan-Vietnam Friendship Forum was held on May 7, 2015, at ADA University in Baku. The event was attended by 40 Vietnamese graduates of Azerbaijani educational institutions.

On September 22nd, 2017, the second meeting of the Azerbaijan-Vietnam Friendship Forum was held in Vung Tau. As part of the forum, in accordance with the Order of H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mrs. Nguyen Vu Ha Le, Director General of the International Relations Office of the Presidential Administration of Vietnam and Mr. Nghiem Vu Khai, member of the Vietnam National Assembly, Chairman of the Vietnam-Azerbaijan Friendship Association, have been awarded the Taraggi medal for their contribution to the development of friendly and cooperation relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. At the same time, during this event, Baku State University, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University and Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev were awarded the Friendship Order by the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Also, in my view, it was imperative to take practical steps towards the mutual propoganda of the rich culture and history of both countries in terms of further strengthening of public diplomacy between our close nations. Thus, taking into consideration this factor on September 26th, 2014, the Center for Azerbaijani Culture and History was established at the Institute of Politics, Law and Management of the Association of Science and Technology Associations of Vietnam.

It should be noted that these organizations have made a significant contribution to the rapid development of relations between our countries in recent years.

Reporter: As Ambassador, what do you wish to contribute to promoting bilateral relations between the two countries in the future?

Mr. Anar Imanov: Relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam have been actively developing in recent years. I would especially like to note the political component of this relationship. The state visit of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on May 18th-19th, 2014 opened a new chapter in the history of relations between the countries and gave a powerful impetus to the development of relations in all areas. The official visit of President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam H.E. Mr. Truong Tan Sang to Azerbaijan on May 13th-15th, 2015 was an important event in the history of the Azerbaijan-Vietnam relations and facilitated the expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Since 2013, the Vietnamese-Azerbaijani Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group in the National Assembly (Parliament) of Vietnam, the Azerbaijan-Vietnam Inter-Parliamentary Relations Working Group in the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani-Vietnamese Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technical Cooperation have been established. The Vietnamese-Azerbaijani Friendship Association and the Center for Azerbaijani Culture and History were established in the city of Hanoi during this period. These organizations make a significant contribution to the sustainable development of relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam.

In recent years, mutually beneficial cooperation between Azerbaijan and Vietnam in all spheres, including political, economic, trade and humanitarian areas, has been steadily developing. Many mutual visits have been caried out at all levels. To my opinion in order to further develop our relations the dynamics of active political dialogue should be continued. At the same time I think that more measures should be done to develop economic and trade relations, and that more sustainable work should be made to expand cooperation in all areas.

I would like especially to emphasize that the opening by the Vietnamese side its Embassy in Azerbaijan is very important for the development of relations between our countries. I hope this issue will be resolved positively.

Reporter: Have you ever welcomed Tet (the Lunar New Year) in Vietnam? If yes, could you please share something about it?

Mr. Anar Imanov: Respecting the culture, history and traditions of the Vietnamese people, based on their deep historical past, during all my stay in Vietnam, I watched the process of welcoming Tet with the great interest. During Tet a festive atmosphere is felt everywhere, everyone celebrates this holiday and visits family members. This is a clear indication of the importance that the Vietnamese attach to family values.

Along with this, I would like to note that Tet is very similar to the Novruz holiday in Azerbaijan. Novruz holiday is one of the most important and favorite holidays of the Azerbaijani people. It marks the arrival of spring, renewal of nature, and is celebrated on the vernal equinox, March 20-21the beginning of the astronomical New Year. The origin of Novruz dates back to ancient customs, cult of nature and fertility, as well as beliefs in natures decline and rise.

From my point of view celebration of these holidays is another manifestation that the culture and traditions of Azerbaijani and Vietnamese peoples are very similar.

In the end I would like to wish all readers happiness, strong health and welfare, as well as success in all their endeavors.

Reporter: Thank you very much!
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 04:57:24|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned against the recent resurgence of antisemitic attacks around the world.

At a ceremony marking the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, the UN chief said people's solidarity in the face of hatred is needed today more than ever.

New York saw a 21 percent rise in antisemitic hate crimes in 2019, part of a trend in cities across the United States, he said, adding that the situation for Jews in Europe is worse. France saw a 74 percent increase in antisemitic attacks in 2018. In Britain, they rose by 16 percent to a record high.

There is a global crisis of antisemitic hatred, a constant stream of attacks targeting Jews, their institutions and property, the secretary-general said.

"Almost every day brings new reports of hate crimes. Many of the perpetrators are inspired by previous attacks, glorifying the assailants and creating a self-reinforcing vortex of violence," he added.

Guterres said what when any group of people is defined as a problem, it becomes easier to commit human rights abuses and to normalize discrimination against them.

He added that combating prejudice requires leadership at all levels that fosters social cohesion and addresses the root causes of hatred. He also called for investment in all parts of society, so that all can contribute in a spirit of mutual respect.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a global memorial day on Jan. 27 designated by the United Nations in 2005 to commemorate the genocide that occurred during World War II. 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the ending of the Holocaust.

This year's theme is "75 years after Auschwitz - Holocaust Education and Remembrance for Global Justice."

For his part, President of the General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande called the Holocaust "the most horrific genocide in human history."

Noting the chilling accounts of the survivors, Muhammad-Bande emphasized the need to do more to ensure an "inclusive, peaceful and harmonious global community that encourages unity in diversity."

Pointing out that today's youth will be tomorrow's leaders, he stressed the need to educate the young about this and all heinous crimes to safeguard that the "atrocities of the Holocaust are not repeated."

"We should always remember the victims of the Holocaust and ensure that their experiences serve as a constant reminder of the need to promote peace, harmony, tolerance, cooperation and inclusion in our collective aspirations for a more peaceful and prosperous world," concluded the assembly president.
According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research titled " Global Market Study on Urinary Catheters: Intermittent Catheters Segment to Witness Highest Growth by 2021", the urinary catheters market is expected to be valued at US $ 1,377.5 Mn by the end of 2015 . It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2015 to 2021 , to reach US $ 1,755.0Mn by 2021 .

Presently, the urinary catheter market is mainly driven by factors such as growing aging population, favorable reimbursement policies and increasing demand for advanced urinary catheters.

To Remain 'Ahead' Of Your Competitors, Request for a Sample Here @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3268 However, factors such as growing incidence of urinary tract infections and the threat from substitutes are expected to hamper market growth. The urinary catheter market is segmented on the basis of product type and application.

The global catheter market was valued at around US $ 25,895.6Mn 2014 . The urinary catheter market accounted for 5.1% of global catheter market in 2014 and was valued at US $ 1,326.0 million . Revenue contribution by urinary catheter market to the global catheter market is expected to increase to US $ 1,755.0 by the end of 2021 , expanding at a CAGR of 4.1% between 2015 and 2021 .

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The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and growing ageing population are factors expected to positively affect the growth of the urinary catheter market across the globe.

By region, North America dominated the market with over 30% market share and is expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. The urinary catheter market in Asia and Latin America are expected to expand at a CAGRs of 4.7% and 4.6% respectively during the forecast period.

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- Chad has received a lot of hate for seemingly moving on too fast

- While Chad and Kelly only called it quits late last year, Chad sees no issue with him having already moved on

- Peeps have been calling him a player and Chad completely lost it, so did his new bae

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South African hip-hop record producer, Donovan Chad Mansoor, better known as Chad, has not taken too kindly to the suggestions that he moved on too quickly after leaving Kelly Khumalo.

Kelly and Chad had an on-off relationship which ended late last year. With a post that Chad posted on Instagram of his new girlfriend, we surmise that he has moved on.

Briefly.co.za Learnt that most of the fans were saddened by the post but still stood by the couple. However, the tweet that got Chads back up, was one that claimed Chad had superpower by moving on so quickly and even suggested that he was a player.

READ ALSO: AKA has a feeling Kairo is going to be a musician 'eventually'

Chads response was one of anger, telling the tweeter they knew nothing about him. The user did voice their apology for disrespecting Chad, but he took it with a pinch of salt.

Responding to the apology, Chad made it clear that if the hater was indeed a fan they would have his back which was clearly not the case. He went on to say that tweeter had no idea of the happenings in his life or his past, they were just assuming. He made the suggestion for the tweeter not to assume things. At the end he did accept the apology.

Model Carlla Poggenpoel, Chads new bae, also expressed her feelings to the post telling haters in general to move on, drink water and to mind their own business.

Before the break-up between Chad and Kelly, the couple had fans super excited when they confirmed their engagement in April.

Even though the couple did not officially announce their break-up, they deleted pictures of each other from all their social media accounts.

Even though Chad has been criticised for showing off his new partner, he did tell a follower that he would be by no means lose any sleep over peoples views regarding his love life.

Lions don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.

Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!

Source: Briefly News
Parasite is taking Hollywood by storm this award season. In fact, the South Korean release is gearing up as a Best Picture frontrunner heading into Oscars 2020. Director Bong Joon-hos latest film defies genre to tell a complex story about two interconnected families and, by extension, delivers some crucial social commentary.

With Parasites success, were sure moviegoers will be interested to see some of Bongs previous work. Prior to his Oscar-nominated hit, the director had made six films. Heres a quick breakdown of the features he has directed throughout his career.

Bong Joon-ho and the cast of Parasite at the Screen Actors Guild Awards | John Sciulli/Getty Images for Turner

Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)

In his 2000 directorial debut, Bong already aimed to combine genres in an innovative way. This dark comedy-drama follows an unemployed college professor (Lee Sung-jae) who begins abusing and kidnapping dogs the barking dogs in his apartment building. At the same time, a young woman (Bae Doona) takes note of his activities, launching an investigation into the surge of missing dogs.

Despite its bizarre-sounding premise, Barking Dogs Never Bite gave Bong the chance to try his hand at directing a feature. Prior to this film, the Parasite filmmaker had only directed three short films. However, he previously earned writing credits on 1997s Motel Cactus and 1999s Phantom: The Submarine.

Memories of Murder (2003)

In his 2003 sophomore effort, Bong landed his first collaboration with Song Kang-ho. The actor delivers a critically acclaimed standout performance in Parasite. Song has sustained an ongoing collaboration with Bong over the course of both their careers.

In Memories of Murder, the actor and Kim Sang-kyung play two detectives trying to solve the real-life case of Koreas first serial murders. The investigation continued from 1986 to 1991, and the film  based on a 1996 play  earned strong reviews for its depiction and performances.

The Host (2006)

Memories of Murder gained Bong international acclaim. But The Host solidified him as a commercially successful filmmaker. The film follows a mans (Song) effort to rescue his daughter after she is kidnapped by a giant monster.

At the time of its release, The Host became the highest-grossing South Korean movie of all time. Although mainstream success in the United States eluded Bong, this film was a critical step in establishing his reputation for offbeat, inventive genre projects.

Mother (2009)

No, this one has nothing to do with either the 1996 Albert Brooks film or the 2017 Darren Aronofsky release. Rather, this Mother follows a mothers (Kim Hye-ja) search for the killer responsible for framing her son (Won Bin) for murder.

It might not have received as much attention stateside as some of Bongs other films. However, Mother was still a critical smash in South Korea and beloved by critics. As has become Bongs trademark, the movie expertly combines a number of genres, including family drama, horror, and comedy.

Snowpiercer (2013)

Bong made his English-language directorial debut with this dystopian sci-fi thriller. Led by Chris Evans, the film features an all-star cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Ed Harris, and  of course  Song. Its also the most expensive Korean production in history.

Snowpiercer is set aboard the titular train, which carries the last remnants of the human race. The film tackles key issues such as climate change but does so in a way that never fails to be thrilling. In fact, its success  much like that of Parasite  has inspired a new TV series.

Okja (2017)

This Netflix film might be a lot of moviegoers first exposure to Bong. Part of that comes from its accessibility on the streaming service. Yet, Okja  Bongs second consecutive English-language release  is just as much in line with his distinctive sensibility as his other films.

The movie centers on a genetically modified creature named Okja, its friendship with a young girl (Ahn Seo-hyun), and her efforts to protect it. Okja also features an international cast which combines South Korean performers with stars like Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, and Swinton.
Following the inauguration of the Kigali Logistics Platform last October, DP World has expanded the portfolio of Rwanda's imports and exports for fresh produce and various perishable goods through the opening of the country's first fully fledged cold storage.



The Kigali Logistics Platform serves as a key gateway to the heart of Africa through several road links, connecting Rwanda to neighbouring landlocked countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Uganda.



The platform also enjoys connectivity with the Port of Mombasa in Kenya and Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, securing two key trade gateways to the sea.



The opening of the new facility is expected to pave the way for growth in Rwanda's agricultural sector by benefiting farmers who have been expanding their produce beyond tea and coffee, to export a range of vegetables and fruits to the international market.



DP World's cold supply chain provides end-to-end transport, reducing cost and delivery time, and helping Rwandan importers and exporters.



Jean-Bosco Songa a vegetable exporter using DP World's new facilities, said: We believe that the new cold storage facility will dynamically assist Rwanda in promoting its exports for perishable goods to meet market demand while facilitating the market entry of new customers for our businesses through land and sea, as we were limited to air freight facilities in the past.



The recent opening of the 500-sq m cold storage is part of DP World Kigali's objectives to enable smarter trade and reduce logistics costs in Rwanda, by attracting investment and offering companies new options for their stored imports and exports.



By enabling the safe and efficient storage of perishable goods to meet the global standards of various multi-nationals, the cold storage will play a key role in supporting Rwanda's growing Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector, with the nation gradually transforming into a hub for international and Pan-African events.



The cold storage is also expected to support the growth of Rwanda's hospitality sector with five leading 5-star international hotel chains opening over the last six years.



A representative of the American fast food KFC set to open branches in Kigali in January 2020 said: "DP World Kigali is a great solution for us as it provides end to end solutions in terms of transport from Dar Es Salaam/ Mombasa to Kigali (PTS), Bonded Warehousing, Cold storage and local delivery which eases our logistics by having one contact person for the overall operations as opposed to dealing with several agents. We have gained time and with the new service, our 'cold chain' is guaranteed while we are waiting to open shop in Kigali."



The cold storage could be beneficial for pharmaceutical companies as it would increase their import capabilities.



Sumeet Bhardwaj, CEO of DP World Kigali, said: By providing cold supply chain solutions to meet the increased demand for moving fresh, perishable goods in Rwanda, DP World's new facility will expand the operations of the Kigali Logistics Platform while enabling greater volumes of imports and exports across key sectors, such as FMCG, healthcare and hospitality.



The cold storage represents a notable step towards forming a home-grown end-to-end-logistics eco-system, as we work closely with our Rwandan partners to build the foundations of a unique trade gateway for the Great Lakes region and east Africa that is compelling in scope and cost, he added.



The cold supply chain adheres to stringent global HSE standards and offers customers efficient and tailored options for their various storing needs, he added.



To date, several local and multi-national companies have signed up to utilise the new cold storage and the DP World plans to expand capacity to 1000 sqm in 2021, to cater to larger volumes of cargo in the future, supporting Rwanda's economy.



In October 2019, DP World inaugurated the Kigali Logistics Platform in the presence of president of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and DP World Group chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, where the two parties discussed the future outlook and growth plans for the platform.



The facility, which has been operational since September 2018 in test mode, has an annual capacity of 50,000 TEUs and 19 000 sq m bonded warehousing capacity, making it one of the biggest logistics hub in East Africa. When operating at full capacity, it has the potential to save Rwandan businesses up to $50 million a year in logistics costs.  TradeArabia News Service
A man who hid nearly 1,000 pills plus other drugs up his backside to smuggle them into prison has been jailed for seven months.

Dopey jailbird Liam Clarke (25) was caught with the drugs on his return to prison after being granted compassionate bail to attend a funeral.

The Belfast man was on his way back to Maghaberry Prison when guards "suspected he was trafficking substances inside his person", Craigavon Crown Court was told.

A jail source said staff "knew fine rightly" he had something up his backside as "he couldn't walk properly".

But in court last Tuesday, prosecuting lawyer Joseph Murphy said simply that as a result of their suspicions, Clarke was put into a "dry cell for observation" on his return after Christmas 2017.

It wasn't until 10 days later on January 8, 2018, that staff had anything to observe.

"The cell was searched and staff found a number of items in the bedding including two large clear plastic wraps of yellow tablets and a clear bag of white powder and a brown resin substance," said Mr Murphy.

Later that same day, a further plastic wrapped package of white powder was uncovered "in the chamber pot," the court heard.

Clarke admitted the tablets were Diazepam, the brown resin cannabis and the white powder was pregabalin, also known as Lyrica.

Mr Murphy said that in total, Clarke had managed to hide 900 diazepam tablets, eight grams of cannabis resin and 28 grams of pregabalin powder, revealing that he has some 13 previous convictions for drug offences, and was in breach of a suspended sentence at the time of the seizure.

Although Clarke, from Cherry Walk in Dunmurry, declined to be interviewed by cops, he later pleaded guilty to having class C diazepam with intent to supply, simple possession of class B cannabis and having a medicinal product, namely pregabalin, with intent to supply.

Mr Murphy submitted that although Clarke had admitted the offences, the fact that he "abused the compassion shown to him by the High Court and his relevant record" were aggravating features.

Clarke had previously found himself in the dock alongside his own mother and another man, accused of planning a UK-wide diazepam supply network.

In 2015, Belfast Crown Court heard how cops examined more than 30,000 text messages as part of an investigation into the supply of prescription drugs into Northern Ireland from mainland UK.

Packages containing 30,000 pills were intercepted at a depot in Belfast in August 2014 after being sent from Stoke-on-Trent.

Clarke was handed a two-year sentence while his mum, 49-year-old Kelly Clarke, from Ardoyne Road in Belfast, was given a suspended jail sentence.

Last Tuesday, defence counsel Richard McConkey claimed that when he had been freed to attend the funeral, Clarke "was put under pressure" to smuggle the drugs back into the maximum security prison.

"He was on remand for more serious offences but those never even got to the committal stage," revealed the lawyer.

That "more serious offence" was an attempted murder charge arising from a man in his 20s being "repeatedly stabbed in the head and body" during an incident at Ballynafoy Close, just off the Ravenhill Road, in November 2017.

The victim received 30 stitches for knife wounds inflicted to his temple, shoulders, back and arms but charges against Clarke of attempted murder and having a weapon were later dropped.

Mr McConkey urged the judge not to send Clarke to jail for the smuggling offences, saying: "He needs guidance and support from probation, not just for his own sake but to reduce the likelihood of him coming back to court."

But jailing Clarke, Judge Patrick Lynch QC said it was clear the drugs were "obviously for distribution in the prison itself" and issued a warning that "the integrity of the prison service regarding drugs of any sort cannot be tolerated."
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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020

Indonesian enterprises have recorded Rp 65.9 billion (US$4.7 million) in potential sales at Travel Exchange (Travex), a business-to-business exhibition in Brunei Darussalam, as Indonesia moves to boost the tourism sectors contribution to the economy.

Around 30 Indonesian exhibitorstour operators, travel agents, hotels and resortsbooked potential deals with international buyers from 43 countries at Travex, which runs from Jan. 14 to 16 as part of the 2020 ASEAN Tourism Forum.

At Travex, potential buyers flocked Indonesias booth, which was decorated in Javanese style and offered free Indonesian coffee, traditional food, herbal drinks and traditional massage.

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So she began asking her students, many of whom were Palestinian, about their own family histories, and realized it was the first time many had been asked. And then it became clear to me, she said, that I dont think we can expect young people to be interested or even empathetic about the history or suffering of others if they are not shown any interest in themselves and their own history.
The Palestinians on Monday urged world powers to reject Donald Trump's peace plan, which they said president Mahmud Abbas had refused to discuss with his US counterpart despite several outreaches.

Trump is due to unveil his proposal for Middle East peace this week in Washington, where he is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz.

Palestinian leaders, who have not been invited to the White House, have already rejected the US initiative and insist that Trump's administration has forfeited its role as an honest broker in the conflict due to what they say is the president's pro-Israel bias.

"We call on the international community to not be partners in this (plan) because it contravenes international law," Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told journalists ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting.

The details of Trump's initiative, which has been in the works since 2017, are not yet public.

But his administration has already recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state captured from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and stopped referring to the West Bank as "occupied" territory.

It also no longer considers Israeli settlements there as inconsistent with international law and most analyst expect his proposal to reaffirm his administration's positions.

Trump also broke with decades of international consensus that the fate of Jerusalem should be negotiated between the parties when he recognised the disputed city as Israel's capital in December 2017.

He is releasing the plan as he faces impeachment hearings over abuse of office and while Netanyahu battles serious corruption charges during a neck-and-neck election against Gantz.

"This a plan to protect Trump from impeachment and protect Netanyahu from prison. It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting.

Previously released parts of the Trump initiative purport to offer the Palestinians substantial economic incentives.

"The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale," Shtayyeh said. "This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory."



Trump has repeatedly cast himself as the most "pro-Israeli" American president in history and his plan is expected to be the most favourable for the Jewish state ever proposed by an American leader.

Three Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Monday that Trump had made several attempts to discuss the plan with Abbas in recent weeks, but the Palestinian president had rejected those outreaches.

"There will be no discussion with the Americans until they recognise the two-state solution," one senior official said.

A spokesperson for the American embassy in Jerusalem was not immediately available for comment.

Some have speculated that the US proposal could pull back from supporting the creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem, the common definition of the two-state solution.

The US proposal may also seek to give Israel the green light to annex the Jordan Valley, a key territory that constitutes around 30 percent of the West Bank.

Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri toured the Jordan Valley Monday, saying they were taking steps towards the move -- a central election promise of right winger Netanyahu.

"As interior minister I'd like to tell you, we've started to prepare for an annexation -- we are getting the paper-work ready," Deri said in a statement.

In Gaza on Monday a few hundred Palestinians protested against the Trump plan, which Palestinians ironically call the "Deal of the Century".

Further protests were expected on Wednesday, when the plan is expected to be public.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hours after Centre and the Assam government signed a peace accord with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and two other Bodo groups in New Delhi, non-Bodo groups and opposition parties in Assam said the deal might not bring lasting peace to Bodo-dominated areas, as expected.

The groups called a 12-hour shutdown in protest against the peace deal, affecting normal life in several districts of Assam.

While Bodo groups welcomed the deal by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets, non-Bodo organizations like All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union, All Bodoland Minority Students Union, All Adivasi Students Union, Kalita Janagosthi Students Union and All Assam Nath-Jogi Students Union blocked roads and burnt effigies of central and state ministers in protest.

Since 2003 after signing of the second Bodo peace accord, non-Bodo residents of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) had been seeking its review as it affected their rights. But instead of that, the Centre went ahead and signed another deal, said Naba Kumar Sarania, Independent MP from Kokrajhar.

As per Mondays deal, the name of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), which administers BTAD, would be changed to Bodoland Territorial Region along with a slew of economic and political benefits.

The new accord is undemocratic and unconstitutional. There are just 21% Bodos in BTAD area while the rest are non-Bodos. But none of these groups were consulted prior to going ahead with the deal. This unilateral accord will lead to further isolation of non-Bodos and wont bring lasting peace, said Pranab Narayan Deb, scion of Darrang Koch royal family.

President of All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) Rejaul Karim Sarkar said that while they welcome a permanent solution to the Bodo issue, Mondays accord wont help solve that.

Non-Bodos were kept in dark when Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) was formed in 1993, the same thing happened when BTC was formed in 2003 and today it was repeated again. We appeal to Centre and state government to hold talks with all stakeholders before implementing the pact, he said.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) which been spearheading the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam , welcomed the deal but said it could be attempt to divert attention from the protests against the amended citizenship law.

We welcome the move to address the issues of the Bodos with the accord, but at the same time care should have be taken to ensure that non-Bodos living in BTAD dont feel like second class citizens. The Centre and state government has been making lot of announcements and deals regarding Assam in recent days. They could be an attempt to distract or divert attention from the anti-CAA protests. Thats not going to happen and our agitation will continue till the legislation is revoked, said AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi.

The Opposition Congress also said that a peace deal without taking all players, including non-Bodo organizations on board, might not have the desired impact.

I had requested Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to listen non-Bodo groups before signing the deal so that it is foolproof. Instead of welcoming the deal, many organizations called a shutdown on Monday, which shows people are not satisfied, said leader of opposition in Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia.

The ruling BJP, however, denied the charges and expressed confidence that the deal would be able to bring permanent peace to Bodo-dominated areas and rest of Assam.

We welcome the pact. It will address a long standing demand of Bodo people and since all rebel outfits and All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) are part of it, the accord will bring lasting peace, said BJP spokesperson Rupam Goswami.

The deal wont hurt the interests of non-Bodo people living in BTAD areas. It will be ensured that their rights are protected. Those finding flaws with the accord are doing so because of their political agenda, he added.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also issued a statement welcoming the deal and tried to allay the apprehensions of non-Bodo communities that the accord would hurt their interests.

No community residing in Assam should have any fear or worry about the deal. This deal will respect the rights of all the Bodo leadership and people will have to take people from other communities into confidence while implementing the deal, Sonowal said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail
NEW YORK  Britains Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation to the American investigators who want to interview him as part of their sex trafficking probe into Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday.

Speaking at a news conference outside Epsteins New York mansion, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said prosecutors and the FBI had contacted Andrews lawyers and asked to interview him.

To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation, said Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

Andrew announced last year that he was withdrawing from his royal duties amid renewed public attention on a womans claim that she had several sexual encounters with the prince at Epsteins behest, starting when she was 17.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre says that after meeting Epstein in Florida in 2000, the millionaire flew her around the world and pressured her into having sex with numerous older men, including Andrew, two senior U.S. politicians, a noted academic, wealthy financiers and the attorney Alan Dershowitz, who is now part of President Donald Trumps impeachment defense team.

All of those men have denied the allegations. Epstein killed himself in his jail cell last summer while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew three times, including once in London in 2001 at the home of Epsteins girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

It isnt clear what legal exposure Andrew might have in the case, if any. The age of consent for sex is 16 in England and 17 in New York. However, Giuffre claims that she was paid by Epstein for her sexual encounters with Andrew. That could constitute a violation of U.S. sex trafficking laws if she was under age 18 or was coerced into unwanted sex acts.

Andrew, who is eight in line for the British throne, and Maxwell have both denied any knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing teenage girls. In a TV interview last fall, Andrew insisted he was out having pizza with his children on the night Giuffre says they were together in London.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has vowed to aggressively investigate and bring charges against anyone who may have helped Epstein.

Andrew, in the statement he released in November announcing his intention to step back from public duties, said he regretted his ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein.

Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required, he wrote.

Berman made his remarks about the case during a joint appearance with members of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit victim services agency, to discuss a new New York law that made it easier for people to sue over childhood sexual abuse.

He wouldnt discuss the Epstein investigation in detail but reiterated that the case didnt end with his death.

Jeffrey Epstein couldnt have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward, Berman said.

Numerous women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein as teenagers have claimed in lawsuits and interviews that he got help recruiting young girls from both Maxwell and several assistants.

Giuffres lawyers have, for months, been calling on Andrew to agree to be interviewed both by investigators and by the lawyers helping the women with those civil lawsuits.

To date, the only people besides Epstein who were charged in connection with the scandal are two jail guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein the night he was found dead. Both have been charged with falsifying the jails log books to indicate they were performing checks on prisoners, when they were actually sleeping or browsing the internet.
Bears took charge of Dalal Street again after a two-day break as benchmark indices fell more than a percent each on January 27. The selling pressure across sectors, barring pharma, pulled the indices down.

The BSE Sensex was down 458.07 points, or 1.10 percent, at 41,155.12 and the Nifty50 fell 129.30 points, or 1.06 percent, to 12,119.00, but the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with Nifty Midcap index declining 0.4 percent and Smallcap index flat.

The market breadth was in favour of bears as about three shares declined for every two shares rising on the BSE.

Here are 5 key factors that weighed on the market:

Coronavirus

Fears over global trade have risen after reports suggested that new CoronaVirus in China, the world's second largest economy, has killed 80 people and infected more than 2,700 people with over 450 people in critical condition. The disease was originated in Chinese city, Wuhan.

Reports also said the virus has been detected in other Asian countries and other parts of world including France, United States, Australia etc.

Hence, China extended the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to February 2, saying schools would return from their break later than usual. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong said it would ban entry to people who have visited Hubei province in the past 14 days.

Market participants kept a wary eye on developments around the virus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) last week deemed "an emergency in China," but not, as yet, for the rest of the world.

Correction in Global Markets

Global equity markets traded sharply lower as investors looked worried about the fast-spreading coronavirus on China and other several economies, with Japan's Nikkei dropped 2 percent.

European markets were also under pressure with France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE falling 2 percent each.

Markets in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for trade on account of public holidays.

Metals Under Pressure

Metals stocks witnessed sharp selling pressure with the Nifty Metal index falling more than 3 percent as investors worried about the impact of fast-spreading coronavirus on Chinese economy, the biggest consumer of metals.

Jindal Steel, SAIL, Vedanta, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, NMDC, Hindustan Copper, Hindustan Zinc and Hindalco were down 3-6 percent.

Caution Ahead of Union Budget

The market continued to be cautious from last week, ahead of Union Budget to be presented on February 1 and the volatility also increased significantly.

The Union Budget 2020 is majorly important this time, considering the current economic slowdown that brought down the GDP to 5 percent, more than six year low. Hence, there are lot of expectations that the government could be considering several measures to boost consumption and bring economy back on track, even after measures announced last year including cut in corporate tax rate.

Technical View

The Nifty50 fell from the word-go and extended selling pressure as the day progressed, forming bearish candle on daily charts after bearish engulfing pattern last week.

Hence, experts feel 12,100 could remain crucial level to watch out for and if it breaks, then the index can fall below 12,000 levels.

"Bears dominated the session throughout however, broader markets were not as bad. As earlier mentioned 12,100 zone remains crucial for the bulls to hold as a decisive breach below the support zone would provide fresh momentum on the downside and in that event, index can test 11,800 support zone on the downside. Currently Nifty is in a range between 12,100-12,450 zone," Amit Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Indiabulls Ventures told Moneycontrol.
India's 71st Republic Day celebrations in the US on Sunday were marred by some peaceful protests and marches by a large number of Indian Americans in various cities of the country against the recent changes in the citizenship law

Washington: India's 71st Republic Day celebrations in the US on Sunday were marred by some peaceful protests and marches by a large number of Indian Americans in various cities of the country against the recent changes in the citizenship law.

Among Indian Americans, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, however, also had a fair share of its supporters who sought to counter protesters by asserting that India cares for Neighbouring Minorities and CAA Won't Impact Indian Citizens.

The supporters, however, appeared to be outnumbered by protesters, who held peaceful rallies and marches in various US cities, carrying anti-CAA banners and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanding CAA's repeal and revocation of the proposed National Register for Citizens. They raised the demand ruing that India's secular fabric is under threat.

Protest against CAA, NRC, NPR in Chicago on #RepublicDay pic.twitter.com/JAWom9ntGA  Amrita Johri (@johriamrita) January 27, 2020

In some of the cities, particularly New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and San Francisco having Indian consulates, and at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, the protestors shouted slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Hindu, Muslim Sikh, Isai: Aapas Mein Sab Bhai Bhai. The protesters, however were countered by a number of Indian Americans who supported the enactment and congratulated the Modi Government for taking such a bold step.

The largest gathering of anti-CAA protestors was reported from Chicago where Indian Americans gathered in large numbers and formed several mile-long human chain. In the American capital of Washington DC, more than 500 Indian Americans marched from a park near the White House to the Gandhi Statue in front of the Indian Embassy.

The anti-CAA protests in at least 30 US cities were organized by recently formed Coalition to Stop Genocide, comprising several organizations like Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Equality Labs, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR). The brutal crackdown by government in India on anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests has created a situation in which women in large numbers have come out on streets to challenge the divisive-communal-fascist agenda of the government," Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey said, addressing a gathering in Washington DC.

It gives hope that democracy and Constitution can ultimately be saved by the common people from a government which is bent upon destroying them," he said.

Protestors gather at DuPont Circle, outside the Indian Embassy in Washington DC on Indias Republic Day to protest NRC and CAA pic.twitter.com/0aD4KmkkZF  Aishwarya (@Aishwaryaai1) January 26, 2020

IAMC president Ahsan Khan said from the Bay Area in California, the rally of Indian Americans represents an extension of the massive unrest in India against the ruling BJP government for its relentless attacks against the secular Constitution. "Indian Americans and people of conscience in the US are seeking accountability from the Hindu nationalist regime that wants to turn Indian Muslims into foreigners and render them stateless, said Khan after the rally in San Francisco.

"Protests happening not only in India but around the world represent a global consensus against the draconian policies of the Modi-Shah government," said Dr Shaik Ubaid from New York. All Indians are equal citizens and that is the foundational social contract between the Indian nation and its citizens," said Minhaj Khan from New Jersey. "Breaking this contract has grave implications for the future of India as a country, he added.

At some of the places including Washington DC, pro-Khalistani supporters held separate protests against India.

According to the CAA, people from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come to India till 31 December, 2014, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious persecution there will be given Indian citizenship. The protesters claim that the legislation was "unconstitutional and divisive" as it excludes Muslims. They have expressed apprehensions that the CAA along with NRC will impact the community in the country.

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law does not deny any citizenship rights, but has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.
Fifty six people in China have died from the coronavirus, according to Chinese officials. Nearly 2,000 people in China have been infected by the deadly contagion.

National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said Sunday little is known about the virus that he said has an incubation period that can range from one to 14 days. Ma said the virus is infectious during the incubation period, and is spreading more easily. He say infections are expected to continue to rise.

China said 688 new cases were diagnosed Saturday. And in the United States, authorities confirmed that a traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan has been the third person to test positive for the disease in that country. The patient is in southern California.

President Xi Jinping said China is facing a "grave situation" and experts and other resources would be concentrated at specific hospitals to treat severe cases of the illness.
A FedEx delivery man is drawing praise after he braved the cold to help do a good deed for a Michigan customer by shoveling snow from her stoop.

Kindergarten teacher Jodi Brooks LaFreniere was in her classroom Thursday when she noticed activity outside her homes front door on her Ring camera, she told CNN.

I was wondering who was at my house since my fiance was away in Alaska, teaching, she said. Since we live in a remote area, our driveway is a half-mile long, so for delivery people its quite the drive to get to our house.

She noticed FedEx courier Melvin Marlett, who was dropping off a large package for LaFreniere at her home in Manistique.

What happened next was caught on video she later shared to Facebook: Marlett carried the package to the door through the snow, set it down, picked up a shovel and got to work clearing the stoop.

Jodi Brooks LaFreniere

LaFreniere later uploaded footage of the kind act to Facebook, writing, Shout out to this guy! He shoveled my stoop while I was gone.

Although we see many acts of kindness in the Upper Peninsula, it was still surprising to see that he went the extra step, she told CNN. I shared it with my coworkers immediately because I couldnt believe it. It made my day.

Shed never spoken to Marlett before, but said her fiance Rodney Riesland was often home when he delivered packages, so theyd talked in the past.

RELATED: Package Deliverer Who Did Viral Happy Dance After Seeing Snacks Befriends Kind Homeowner

I would hope its something that anybody would have done. If you take care of your customers, they take care of you, Marlett, a 23-year FedEx veteran, told CNN.

A FedEx spokeswoman confirmed Marletts identity to PEOPLE, and said he went above and beyond in helping out his customer.

There are good people out there who do selfless acts, LaFreniere told CBS affiliate WCTV.
The former boyfriend of a New Jersey nanny who went missing just before Halloween after a seance, confessed to murdering her in his suicide note before he hanged himself.

Stephanie Parze's body was discovered Sunday by two teenagers in the woods in Old Bridge, Middlesex, New Jersey - an area that had previously been searched by volunteers looking to find the missing 25-year-old.

Parze was last seen around 10pm on October 30 after spending a girls' night out with her mother, Sharlene Parze, and her sister to see medium Cindy Kaza's show at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick.

Ex-boyfriend John Ozbilgen (left) revealed that he killed Stephanie Parze (right) in a suicide note he left behind on November 22

Stephanie (pictured) of Middlesex, New Jersey, was last seen after spending a girls' night out with her mother and sister at Stress Factory

Her ex-boyfriend John Ozbilgen, who was named as a person of interest in her disappearance, killed himself less than a month after she went missing.

Ozbilgen was also found to have child porn on his computer during the investigation and was found hanged in his parents' garage on November 22, alongside a suicide note in which he confessed to murdering his ex-girlfriend Parze.

Authorities have not determined a cause of death, but a main theory is that Ozbilgen strangled Stephanie at her home.

'In the note, Ozbilgen stated that he had had enough and he could not do life in prison,' Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said Monday during a press conference.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni (center) revealed that Ozbilgen killed Stephanie in October, but a manner of death has not been determined

'Ozbilgen acknowledged that he had dug himself a deep hole and wrote at the end of his note that this was his only choice. Sadly, however, he had not disclosed in the note where he disposed of Stephanie's remains,' Gramiccioni said.

Gramiccioni added that authorities had suspected Ozbilgen was responsible for killing Stephanie since November, but it was 'only recently confirmed with further analysis of evidence that we have ceased during our investigation.'

The case was being investigated as both a missing person and homicide investigation.

Following the discovery of her body, Stephanie's father shared an image of a candlelight vigil on Facebook.

'It goes without saying our family is devastated,' he said at the press conference.

'Our friends, our community, and our lives are never going to be the same. However, Stephanie's home. She's coming home at last where she belongs and we have God to thank for that.'

Parze was last seen on October 30. Sharlene and her husband, Edward Parze, said that Stephanie drove to her late grandmother's house, where she was staying, after the psychic show.

Edward Parze and Sharlene Parze (both right) revealed the family was 'devastated' by the news of Stephanie's death in a Monday afternoon press conference

A Snapchat video shared by Stephanie showing the drive home was the last thing she shared that evening.

The next morning, Stephanie failed to show up to a 9am babysitting job she was scheduled for, prompting her parents and sisters to contact local authorities.

During the frantic 911 call, Sharlene revealed that she already contacted Stephanie's on-again, off-again boyfriend, 29-year-old Ozbilgen, in an attempt to locate her daughter.

The body was recovered at 2.46pm and formally identified after an autopsy was performed Monday

Mother Sharlene Parze (left) frantically called 911 after Stephanie (right) did not respond to her texts and the 25-year-old did not respond during checkups at her home

The night before Stephanie (right) vanished from her home, Ozbilgen sent her 10 angry messages, including one that called her a 'f***ing c**t'

[Ozbilgen] said that he saw her last night, he stayed there and he was getting ready for work this morning and has not heard from her since all day,' Sharlene can be heard telling the dispatcher in audio obtained by NJ.com.

More than a week later, Ozbilgen would become a 'person of interest' in Stephanie's case.

Sharlene became concerned for her daughter after she stopped responding to texts and although she had stopped by the house twice to check in, Stephanie was no where to be found.

The home's lights had been left on. There was no signs of forced entry and her dog had been left inside alone. Stephanie's white Hyundai Sonata was still in the driveway.

In an odd twist, Sharlene found Stephanie's cell phone stuffed down the side of the couch with text messages indicating she'd missed her job that morning.

'I've been calling and texting her all day,' a frantic Sharlene is heard saying during the call. 'I've reached out to almost every friend that she has.'

'No one has heard from her,' Sharlene tells the operator. 'She started going on the dating page on Facebook and was talking to a couple guys, so I don't know whether  but she'd never meet someone in the morning.'

During the eight-minute phone call, Sharlene casts suspicion onto Ozbilgen, who claimed he saw her the morning she vanished.

'Who's to say he really slept over and saw her this morning? I don't know,' Sharlene is heard saying.

The family (Sharlene pictured left, Edward right) of missing New Jersey woman, Stephanie Parze, said they are holding onto hope that the 25-year-old is still alive despite authorities finding her ex-boyfriend dead last month

At the time, Ozbilgen was already under investigation by authorities after Stephanie filed a domestic violence complaint against him in September.

It was revealed that Ozbilgen had been charged three times for domestic violence, including Stephanie.

She accused the stockbroker of striking her hand and back-handing her across the head.

According to Stephanie's Facebook profile, she was in a relationship with Ozbilgen from August 19 but at the time of her vanishing she was single.

While investigating Stephanie's disappearance, detectives noticed marks around Ozbilgen's neck and began to consider him a 'person of interest.'

Subsequently, authorities visited his home on five separate occasions during the investigation.

In November, Ozbilgen was arrested for child pornography charges after authorities searched his computer and phone as part of the investigation.

He reportedly had nine images of children as young as three being sexually abused.

11 days after he was released from jail, Ozbilgen committed suicide by hanging inside his parents' garage.

It was also discovered that Ozbilgen sent Stephanie 10 profanity-laden texts and Facebook messages the night before she went missing.

He told her that 'she always has to make their relationship suck' and called her a 'f***ing c**t,' Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlin Sidley said.

'Ozbilgen's violence against women is borne out in his history, as well as pornography he seeks out of very young children. There are no conditions that can keep this community safe,' Sidley added.

'We're just trying to keep [Stephanie's] picture out there and let people obviously know we're obviously looking for her. It's a big area, she could be anywhere,' father Edward Parze said

In December, the Parze family said they were hanging onto hope that Stephanie would return home and they would never stop looking for her.

'It's been horrific. It's been a nightmare,' Sharlene told Fox29 'Just waiting to wake up from it and to see our daughter again.'

Her father, Edward, added: 'We're just trying to keep her picture out there and let people obviously know we're obviously looking for her. It's a big area, she could be anywhere.'

Following their interview with Fox, Edward shared a heartbreaking post on Facebook.

New Jersey authorities discovered the body of Stephanie Parze (pictured) in a wooded area in Middlesex County on Sunday

'Today was a hard day. Harder than the rest it seemed. The girls, Shar and I, drove to Philadelphia early this morning to do a news segment on Good Day Philadelphia about Stephanie. Sitting on the set, watching the teleprompter beginning the story was painful.

'All of us fought to hold it together before going live. Then the interview. It lasted only 6 minutes but its felt like an hour. You notice that even the hosts are tearing up just feeling our pain unable to do anything to to comfort us,' Ed wrote.

He explained that the important thing was that the message about their daughter 'gets out, yet again'.

Ed continued: 'As we drive home, our girls fall asleep. Shar and I look back at them and smile to one another, then cry as the back seat lies empty. Its quiet... As I drive, all I can do is look into the what seems like endless wooded areas along the highways.

'All of the bodies of water, abandon structures you never noticed before, now call out to you. She could be anywhere! As the rain and snow fall harder and harder, covering up any clues, any trace as to where she might be out there,' the grieving father wrote.

'You wonder to yourself, is she up in heaven with God and all of people who love her so. Happy and no longer afraid, or is she hear, living in HELL ON EARTH, praying to be found, fighting to stay alive.

'The funny thing about Hope, You reach for it, you embrace it and you fight to hold onto it but, as time goes by it seems like that's all it is, is a word! A thought process. a needle in the haystack getting harder and harder to find each and everyday. Hope is all we have, so the fight continues.

'Stephanie, we love you and we will never stop doing all that we can to find you. Don't be afraid, stay strong, hold on to what ever HOPE you can. PLEASE ...DON'T GIVE UP!'
Gritty's eyes light up from a projector overhead as he makes a special appearance at a panel called "The Brains Behind Gritty" at Philly Tech Week in Center City in May. Read more

Flyers mascot Gritty is under investigation by Philadelphia police over an allegation that he punched a 13-year-old boy in the back  a claim that Saturday Night Lives Colin Jost doesnt buy, exactly.

I just cant picture Gritty doing something like that. I mean, look at him  he wouldnt punch a kid in the back, Jost joked in a segment on SNLs Weekend Update on Saturday. Hes more of a leap out of the shadows and stick you with a syringe kind of guy, you know?

Gritty came under fire last week after news of the mascots alleged assault on 13-year-old Brandon Greenwell, of Newark, Del., spread online. Greenwells father, Chris, 46, filed a complaint with Philadelphia police on Dec. 21, claiming that Gritty punched his son during a November meet-and-greet with the googly-eyed mascot.

As the elder Greenwell told the Inquirer last week, Brandon playfully patted the mascot on the head following a photo op, after which Gritty allegedly took a running start and punched his son in the back.

Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, told Greenwell that there was no video footage of the incident proving Gritty struck the boy, the Inquirer has previously reported. A Flyers spokesperson indicated that the organization took Mr. Greenwells allegations seriously and conducted a thorough investigation into the incident, but found nothing to support this claim.

Greenwell said he was planning on dumping his Flyers season tickets after 22 years. The investigation into the claim is active and on-going, police said last week.

News of the alleged assault came as Democrats pressed their case to the Senate regarding the impeachment of President Donald Trump. However, as Stephen Colbert lamented on The Late Show last week, two other topics topped that news online: The death of Mr. Peanut, and Gritty.

Were doomed, Colbert said.

Jost, meanwhile, was spotted in Philly earlier this month alongside fiancee Scarlett Johansson. The pair attended the wedding of SNL producer Erin Doyle at the Crystal Tea Room, and were later spotted out around town.

 READ MORE: Scarlett Johansson and SNLs Colin Jost brunch in Rittenhouse after officiating wedding in Philly
Self-starters in Charleston will soon have the chance to take a free two-week course to learn how to begin a business, with help from the former CEO of one of Charleston's two publicly traded technology companies.

Shawn Jenkins, founder of software firm Benefitfocus Inc., is sponsoring the entrepreneurial program, which will be held at Citadel Mall from Feb. 17 to Feb. 28.

Enrollment is sponsored by local companies and free to participants. Sponsors include the Medical University of South Carolina, the City of Charleston, Baker Motor Co. and the law firm Shumaker Loop & Kendrick.

Participants will attend workshops and have one-on-one training that can guide them through the steps to beginning a business.

The PopUp Business School promises no strings are attached.

"We will not try and upsell you, we will not ask to take a percentage of your profit," the organization's website states. "All we want is for you to make massive change and build a business around your passion."

The program said it helped create 825 businesses last year. The coursework teaches new and prospective business owners to avoid accumulating debt as they get their companies off the ground. Founded in 2012 in the United Kingdom, most of the organization's events are still across the pond. Jenkins said he attended one of the first workshops in the United States in Houston last year.

Jenkins, who co-founded Benefitfocus in 2000 and shepherded the software company through its initial public offering in 2013, will be leading two sessions at the workshop. Other instructors include the PopUp Business School's founders.

Jenkins said he is aiming to empower other locals to provide for themselves through their own businesses.

"Now, with the help of PopUp Business School, the Charleston community will have access to education and resources to help them follow their passions and start down the path of entrepreneurship," he said in a statement.

Funding cybersecurity

A University of South Carolina campus with fewer than 3,000 students enrolled will be a new hub of cybersecurity research for the S.C. National Guard, if Gov. Henry McMaster's proposed budget remains unchanged.

McMaster included $15 million for the Aiken Readiness Center in his spending plan. The funding would build the DreamPort Cybersecurity Collaborative facility, the planned site of the state Guard's cybersecurity program. The 75,000-square-foot development, owned by the University of South Carolina Aiken, would house secure research and training space.

The idea behind the center's location is to let experts in the private, government and academic sectors work closely together, according to a press release from USC Aiken.

Training in cybersecurity at the site would be available to students ranging from kindergarteners to college seniors.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $31.9 million, with more than half coming from the federal government. But it could be some time before all of the money comes together: In its request for state dollars for the project, the S.C. Office of the Adjutant General projected construction will begin in 2022, with the federal contribution is expected the following year.

The facility would host 12 full-time National Guard employees, as well as 239 soldiers. Researchers from the nearby Savannah River National Laboratory would also partner in the project.

It is not the only center like it planned for South Carolina. Another readiness center is planned for Joint Base Charleston.
Founded in Chicagos Near North neighborhood in 1990, Bar Louie offers a range of beer, liquor and pub food such as burgers and sandwiches. Many of the restaurants are located near shopping malls and business districts. The company, which saw revenue fall 3.7% to $252 million last year, hired an investment banker in September to sell the chain, generating three letters of intent, but no deal.
By Delana Isles

TCI citizens seeking political office may have to renounce any foreign citizenship they hold, if constitutional change proposals are approved by the United Kingdom.





This was among numerous suggested changes to the Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution 2011 which were debated by members of the House of Assembly last week.





The proposals were taken to the House in the form of a parliamentary motion presented by Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson on Thursday, January 18.





The session gave members an opportunity to have their say following public consultations conducted by the Constitution Review Committee late last year.





The committee presented its report to the Leader of the Opposition Washington Misick and the premier who gave an overview to the assembly.





"In terms of the proposal that was made in terms of the rightto trial by a jury of peers should be enshrined in the constitution as a fundamental right, there was general agreement across the Turks and Caicos Islands, there was general support for majority vote in Cabinet and that was to the proposal whether the decisions in Cabinet should be taken by majority vote or by consensus.





She said the majority view is that the deputy governor and the attorney general should be non-voting members.





Another proposal which questions whether the attorney general should be a political appointee saw general support.





Attendees also proposed that the AG should run in the elections as an independent, or be jointly appointed by the premier and the leader of the Opposition.





There were other suggestions from the public that the AG should be appointed, but the director of public prosecutions should run for office.





The premier said there was general support across the Islands for whether the provisions in the 2006 constitution requiring the governor to act on the advice of or in accordance with the advice of another person should be reinstated.





More support was given to the recommendation that the Cabinet secretarys post should be returned to the constitution and strengthened.





In terms of the legislature, she said there was general agreement that qualifications to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly should be revised.





The proposals put forth in this regard are that members should be natural born Turks and Caicos Islanders, registered electors and a resident of the island they are representing for three years ending with the nomination day.





Another issue that saw heated debate in the consultations, the premier said, was whether a person who has been granted TCI citizenship should renounce their other citizenship if they wish to seek political office in the territory.





The proposal to be sent to the UK is that persons should renounce, which saw general support across the territory.





There was also general support that the speaker of the House should not have a casting vote in the assembly.





There was division among those consulted on whether there should be any appointed members in the House of Assembly.





Other proposals looked at whether there should be a fixed date for elections and whether the parliamentary term should be increased from four to five years.





"Every island, except Providenciales agreed for a fixed date, but while divided there was very little appetite to increase the parliamentary term to five years, the premier said.





She said there was no consent to return the electoral boundaries to that of 2016s in South and Middle Caicos, but the other islands showed general agreement to return.





In his presentation on the proposals, Hon. Misick raised questions as to the sampling of people who contributed to the report, noting that the United Kingdom has in the past rejected the territorys recommendations on the grounds that the sampling was inadequate.





He suggested that the report should have stated how many people agreed or disagreed with individual proposals, either percentage or by a division of the number of people who attended the consultation by island.





He noted that this could be crucial in whether the UK gives the Islands a serious hearing on its proposals for constitutional change.





"As far as I am concerned I would hope that we can see our way clear to actually engaging the services of an independent constitutional expert with a good success record because I believe that many of the issues here there will be pushed back and I am coming down on the side of maximising the changes, including those put forward by the PNP, our colleagues on the other side and some of those suggestions made by the general public.





"So, I am appealing for consideration to identify such a person, it could be somebody regional, it could be from somewhere else, but I do believe we need that level of expertise, the leader stated.




NRL rising star Curtis Scott had to be tasered by police after he punched and kicked an officer following a long Australia Day of partying with teammates.

Scott, 22, was arrested on Driver Avenue, outside the Sydney Cricket Ground, about 12.45am on Monday after reports that he was 'behaving erratically'.

When police tried to apprehend him he allegedly lashed out at an officer, assaulting them on a number of occasions with kicks and punches.

Officers had to use Taser guns to subdue the Canberra Raiders star recruit.

Scott spent the night behind bars at Surry Hills Police Station before being charged with six offences and ordered to face the Downing Centre Local Court in February.

NRL star Curtis Scott (right) has been charged with six offences after a wild Australia Day. The 22-year-old had to be tasered by police when he tried to resist arrest at Moore Park, in Sydney, about 12.45am on Sunday

Scott had spent Australia Day with current and former teammates at Ivy nightclub in Sydney's CBD.

In a statement, NSW Police said they located Scott on the grounds of the SCG and now demolished Sydney Football Stadium.

'About 12.45am this morning police were called to Driver Ave at Moore Park following reports a man was acting erratically,' a spokeswoman said.

'Surry Hills Local Area Command located the man and attempted to assist him. The 22-year-old man allegedly became aggressive and kicked and punched one of the officers.

'The man was Tasered and arrested.'

Scott is facing six charges including two counts of assaulting an officer in execution of duty, two counts of behaving in offensive manner, and one count of entering trust lands after being requested to leave.

He was granted conditional bail due to appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, February 20, 2020.

Scott spent Australia Day partying alongside his fellow Canberra Raiders teammates George Williams, John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead, Jack Murchie and Ryan Sutton.

His former Melbourne Storm teammate Josh Addo-Carr was also in attendance.

Videos posted to Instagram by Scott and his friends showed the group partying from early afternoon into the evening.

Scott (left) had spent Australia Day partying with current and former teammates such as Josh Addo-Carr (right) at the Ivy nightclub in Sydney's CBD

Scott (left) spent Australia Day partying alongside his fellow Canberra Raiders teammates George Williams, John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead, Jack Murchie and Ryan Sutton

By nightfall Scott had unbuttoned his short-sleeve shirt, but was still wearing his dark sunglasses.

A night earlier Scott was reportedly searched for drugs at the Clovelly Hotel, but was found to have nothing in his possession, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The NRL young gun recently signed with the Canberra Raiders after four years at the Melbourne Storm.

He was allowed to make the move to the Storm's rival despite having two years left on his contract.

The star centre had been in Sydney over the long weekend to see family and friends.

Scott had two years remaining on his Melbourne Storm contract when he was allowed to move to the Canberra Raiders in the off-season

In a statement, the Canberra Raiders said: (We) have been made aware of an incident involving Curtis Scott.

'The club has informed the NRL integrity unit and will work with them on the investigation.

'The club will be making no further comment.'
Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has described the Senior Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina as a sociopath.

He made this statement while reacting to a statement by the presidential aide that Nigerians should be thankful that bombing has reduced.

Also Read: Femi Adesina Has Sold His Soul To Satan  Fani Kayode

Recall that the former minister expressed that Femi Adesina has sold his soul to the devil.

Now, he has described him as an insensitive clown who is trying to hold onto his job.

See his tweet below:
One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of SSY Group Limited (HKG:2005).

Our data shows SSY Group has a return on equity of 21% for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every HK$1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn HK$0.21.

View our latest analysis for SSY Group

How Do I Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

Or for SSY Group:

21% = HK$1.0b  HK$4.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)

Most readers would understand what net profit is, but its worth explaining the concept of shareholders equity. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company.

What Does Return On Equity Mean?

Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the yearly profit. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else being equal, a high ROE is better than a low one. Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies.

Does SSY Group Have A Good Return On Equity?

Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, SSY Group has a better ROE than the average (13%) in the Pharmaceuticals industry.

SEHK:2005 Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

That's clearly a positive. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For example, I often check if insiders have been buying shares.

Story continues

The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.

Combining SSY Group's Debt And Its 21% Return On Equity

SSY Group has a debt to equity ratio of 0.33, which is far from excessive. The combination of modest debt and a very respectable ROE suggests this is a business worth watching. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality.

The Bottom Line On ROE

Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A woman taking a selfie while visiting a penguin park in South Africa was so focused on getting the perfect shot that she didn't notice the birds behind her in the throes of passion.

Steph Elswood, a UK-based influencer, was visiting the popular attraction of Boulder Beach Penguin Colony in Cape Town, South Africa.

She said she was so focused on trying to get a decent shot with penguins in the background that she was not concentrating on what they were doing.

Steph Elswood, a UK-based influencer, was visiting the popular attraction of Boulder Beach Penguin Colony in Cape Town, South Africa

It was only later when she posted the snaps to her 239k Instagram followers, they pointed out she had captured a rather intimate moment involving the penguin pair.

The young woman can be seen grinning at the camera with the birds on the rock behind her enjoying themselves.

Steph said she spent 10 minutes trying to get a decent picture with the animals.

She wrote alongside her post, which has been liked over 11.5k times, saying: 'I was there for about 10 minutes trying to get a good pic next to my new pals Penny and Guin and THEY WERE HAVING SEX THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!

Steph said she was so focused on trying to get a decent shot with penguins in the background that she was not concentrating on what they were doing

It was only later when Steph posted the snaps to her 239k Instagram followers, they pointed out she had captured a rather intimate moment involving the penguin pair.

'I was being too self-absorbed to notice!!! HAHAHA OOPS.'

The social media star later added an apology after being told that the penguins in the area were finding it difficult to mate because so many people were turning up looking for the perfect Instagram shot.

She wrote: 'PS. I have just been informed that the penguins on Boulders Beach are under a lot of stress due to tourists trying to get too close.

The social media star later added an apology after being told that the penguins in the area were finding it difficult to mate because so many people invading their space for selfies

'I feel guilty that I contributed to that and thought that because they weren't reacting when I got close that they weren't bothered by me.

'If you are considering visiting this spot, then please be mindful and ask guards for appropriate distances because no one told us any of the rules I've been messaged about since posting this.

'I will definitely learn from this for the future and I'm sorry to anyone affected by this post.'
The statement comes after RTL reported that Jeannot Waringo had completed his report on the Palace and submitted it to the Prime Minister.

Grand Duke Henri published a personal statement on Monday morning, expressing his indignation at the allegations made against his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, in an article published by Letzebuerger Land last week. The Grand Duke, who is currently attending his brother-in-law's bedside in a Geneva hospital, asked why his wife was being subjected to attacks on her character without the opportunity to defend herself.

Update: Chamber of Deputies president Etgen answers questions on the Waringo report

He said he had complied with the Prime Minister's desire for transparency and modernity, but accused the media of distorting facts surrounding the Waringo report.

The Grand Duke wrote that he was proud of the Grand Duchess's unending fervour in fighting for the causes she supports, and praised the intelligence and energy she brings to her engagements. He also said he and his wife would continue to serve the Luxembourgish people, and asked for support for the hereditary Grand Ducal couple on their future path as parents.

Last June, former IGF director Jeannot Waringo began compiling his report on the internal management of the Palace following instructions from Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. The report was designed to cover the Palace budget, notably the use of public funds, as well as management and staff.

On Saturday, Luc Frieden said it was important to separate two things in discussions surrounding the report, which is focused on the internal machinations of the Court, not the monarchy. It was also not the function of the report to take a view on the position of the monarchy in society.

Grand Duke Henri's statement also did not take issue with the report itself, but rather the speculation which has been rife within the media surrounding the report.

It is not known what practical or concrete consequences will follow the Waringo report within the Palace. It is thought the report will be discussed within the Chamber and eventually published, but it is not known what format this will take.

The report will potentially influence propositions for the 2021 budget project. 10.6 million euros of funding was secured for the Palace in the 2020 budget.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Monday that its increasingly likely there will be enough Republicans in the Senate to vote in favor of calling former national security adviser John Bolton as a witness in President Donald Trumps impeachment trial.

I think its important for us to hear from John Bolton for us to be able to make an impartial judgment, Romney told reporters. He also said he had spoken to other GOP senators about the subject, but declined to say whom.

In a surprising development Sunday, The New York Times shared drafts from Boltons book outline stating Trump did in fact tie withholding Ukraine aid to the countrys announcement that it would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Trump denied Boltons reported account later that day on Twitter, insisting he never told Bolton the Ukraine aid was tied to investigations into Democrats.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued a statement shortly after Romneys remarks saying she always ... was likely to vote to call witnesses in the impeachment trial.

The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues, she said.

And Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), another key moderate, reiterated Monday she was curious to hear what Bolton had to say. But proponents for calling witnesses remain one vote shy of succeeding in an initial vote expected in the Senate trial later this week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Monday that hes always considered the witness vote to be an uphill fight because of pressure from Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). But he said they hope and pray that at least four Republicans will join Democrats in voting to call witnesses and receive more documents.

We know the pressure theyre under. President Trump does not brook criticism, dissent...

Continue reading on HuffPost
Back in 2018, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren met for an off-the-record conversation. Warren says that during that conversation, Sanders told her a woman could not win the presidency in 2020; according to Sanders, he said it would be difficult, not necessarily impossible. Now that both parties involved are running for president, this exchange has been made public, as have their conflicting memories of what was said. And yet only one of these two people  the woman  has had her social media inundated with images of snakes to underscore her apparent duplicitousness.

As the 2020 presidential race approaches its final throes, Warren and her fellow female candidates are being distilled to the most basic and dehumanizing of stereotypes. Because in our American patriarchy, when accomplished, outspoken women pursue positions of power, they are routinely painted as unreliable and unlikable  snakes in human form.

And so we are, once again, being asked to question whether a woman is "electable," by which we really mean whether all of her qualifications for the job can outweigh the fact that she is a woman. Meanwhile, the man all the Democratic candidates are running to unseat has bragged, on tape, about committing multiple sexual assaults; even the revelation of this shortly before the 2016 election was, apparently, not enough to render him "unelectable."

Regardless of which candidate(s) you support in a crowded-but-dwindling Democratic presidential field, the current flood of headlines is pretty rough for anyone who's not a cisgender white man. Being alive to the news in 2020 means being constantly reminded of our status as lesser-thans, as non-default humans, as objects. And the latest dustup between Sanders and Warren is just another illustration that, in America, the very fact of a woman's ambition is enough to make her motives suspect.

Not long ago, I spent the night at a friend's house with a few other women. After dinner, we all changed into our sweatpants and poured ourselves glasses of wine. It was a familiar scene of feminine bonding: a chance to let down our daily guard, to speak without explaining. The conversation turned  as it so often does, these days  to politics, and the endless drumbeat of disheartening news.

Story continues

We began to talk about all the indignities of the past few years, the headlines that keep popping up to remind us of where we really stand. We talked about the shock of 2016  the realization that even after surviving a bruising campaign and winning the popular vote, a woman would still be shut out of the White House in favor of a dangerously unqualified man (who, it bears repeating, has bragged about sexually assaulting women).

We talked about Brett Kavanaugh, and the gut-punch of his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. About watching Dr. Christine Blasey Ford speaking of humiliations and violations that rang incredibly true to all of us, her words landing on indifferent ears. Watching her throw herself in front of the train, knowing that it would make no difference, that she would be disbelieved and dismissed, that he would be confirmed anyway. Knowing that he now sits on the highest court of the land, for life, making precedent-setting decisions on how and whether women are allowed the rights to our own bodies.

We talked about #MeToo, and the opening of the floodgates. About the surprise of actually seeing some men held accountable for their sexual predation of women, at least for a little while. About how quickly and thoroughly the news coverage of these cases pivoted from long-overdue justice for survivors to "witch hunts" for perpetrators. About how much it hurts to hear about the specter of "ruined" male lives, while so many men accused of misconduct have in fact remained in the public eye, and even begun resuming elements of their former careers, while the women who spoke out are forever defined by having done so.

And yes, we talked about "electability." About how a man like Bernie Sanders can be as prickly and rumpled as he likes in public, relying on the substance of his politics and the strength of his convictions to impress. How a woman like Elizabeth Warren must always follow a moving target, presenting the perfect (impossible) combination of feminine softness and political edge. How we never hear men being called "likable," because for men, being liked is not a prerequisite for being successful.

Over and over, these conversations are bubbling up. So many of my interactions with friends these days have become commiseration sessions. We give each other significant looks, and sigh, and shake our heads. Many of us have been engaging with news media only glancingly; others have been diving in deep, coming up exhausted and enraged. It's so much, we say. I'm so tired.

This is anecdata at best, and it obviously carries disclaimers. My friends and I are politically liberal, living in parts of the country that, for the most part, voted Democratic in 2016. We are primarily (though not exclusively) white or white-passing, and living in relative socioeconomic privilege. Not all of us who feel the gendered weight of the 2020 news cycle identify as women, or were assigned female at birth. And none of this is new or surprising to us; it is just increasingly inescapable.

Regardless of precisely what Sanders said to Warren in 2018, he isn't wrong about the role of misogyny in this election. And that, for me, is the most painful part of all of this. The knowledge that, with all the privilege that women like me now have, we are fighting an uphill battle that we very well may not win. Every time I peek at the news  every time I see another dispatch from the presidential race, another mention of a pending Supreme Court case, another thinkpiece about the lasting effects of #MeToo  I wonder whether absorbing all of these insults will ultimately make any difference. Can we really push back against a machinery that was built to keep women (and so many others) out of the halls of power? Or will we simply have to swallow our emotions, tamp down our exhaustion, and resign ourselves to America's misogyny as an immovable object?

"It piles up," writes columnist Connie Schultz, "this stuff that forces women to explain ourselves over and over again. And it never ends." When women speak about our experiences, the burden of proof is on us; when we fail to adequately convince an audience already disposed to disbelieve us, we are called snakes. And meanwhile, the men who violate our bodies and dismiss our minds are ensconced in positions of power all across the land.

It's not clear whether this will be the year when that paradigm is finally challenged, or the year when it's reinforced. November is a long ways off yet.

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Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST

Bazaar Corporate Radar

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I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton, Romney said Monday. Its important to be able to hear from John Bolton for us to be able to make an impartial judgment.
EU to take on emissions with 'Fit for 55'

Explained: What EU resolution on CAA means for India?

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 27: A group of the European Union has proposed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act and urged the Indian government to consider their demands to repeal it.

A total of 626 of the 751 members of the EU Parliament have denounced not only the CAA but also the issue of Kashmir in its draft resolution.

The resolution is likely to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday and voted on the day after. But what exactly do these resolutions mean for India? Here is a brief explainer.

What the 6 resolutions say?

Six European Union (EU)who have passed resolution include the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists, Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group and Renew Europe Group (Renew).

Entirely internal: India expresses reservation as EU lawmakers move Anti-CAA resolutions

The resolution says the new act makes a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering.

Instead of addressing the concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters, the resolution alleges.

Impact of the resolutions

If passed, the resolution may increase pressure on the Indian government at a time when the government is facing protests across the country and abroad, including key European Union (EU) members such as Germany. The EU is unhappy with the handling of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the citizenship law and the NRC implementation in Assam.

Impact on India-EU relations

The diplomatic backlash by the European lawmakers against India comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Brussels for the India-EU summit in March. The European Union may raise the issue during Modi's visit to the country. The EU has already expressed concern about the situation in Kashmir and it had also cancelled foreign delegates visit the valley.

Reports stated that some EU Ambassadors didn't want to be part of the group of envoys visiting Kashmir as they felt "certain restrictions in the programme were unfounded and mischievous".

Earlier it was reported that certain European envoys were not keen on a "guided tour" of the region and rather wanted to meet the people and interact with them.

India's largest trading partner, EU accounts for 92 billion euros worth of trade in goods in 2018 or 12.9 per cent of total Indian trade. The union is also a key source of inward FDI, which was worth 5 billion euros in 2014.

How has India reacted?

India has said the CAA was an entirely internal matter of India and that the legislation was adopted through democratic means after a debate in both houses of Parliament.

"Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination. In fact, European societies have followed the same approach," a government source said, explaining why India is opposed to the resolutions at the EU parliament.

New Delhi also hoped that the "sponsors and supporters" of the resolutions will engage with the government to get a full and accurate assessment of facts before they proceed further, the sources said.

'May create largest statelessness crisis: Draft resolution on CAA in EU

The beneficiaries of the new legislation are the oppressed minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan.

India is facing a major backlash with opposition parties, civil rights groups and activists saying granting citizenship based on religion is against the foundational principle of the Constitution.
As the European Union is set to debate a batch of resolutions against India's amended citizenship law, the Congress on Monday accused the government of having internationalised the issue.

"The fact that the European Union is debating the CAA, this government has internationalised the issue of citizenship law," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said.

The powerful bloc of 28 nations is set to debate and vote on a motion tabled by a large chunk of its members against India's new citizenship law, which it alleges marks a "dangerous shift" in the country's citizenship regime.

A total of six resolutions have been tabled by groups within the European Union, including the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew) and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.

The European Union Parliament should not take any action questioning the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures, government sources have said ahead of a EU debate on a batch of resolutions against the contentious CAA.

India hopes that the "sponsors and supporters" of the resolutions will engage with the government to get a full and accurate assessment of facts before they proceed further, the sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man has been found after surviving three weeks stranded in the outback where he endured 40-degree days, and several 20-kilometre treks for supplies and shelter.

Western Australia Police were first alerted to missing man Phillip Blampied when they received a recent report after he failed to arrive in the Pilbara, in Western Australias north, when expected. He was a week overdue in returning home.

The 61-year-old had set off from Waroona, in the states Peel Region, late in December to make the 1500km journey to the Pilbara using the Canning Stock Route, a track from Wiluna in the mid-west region to Halls Creek in the Kimberley.

Phillip Blampied and his rescuers pictured at his makeshift campsite. Source: WA Police

A trail of smoke showing the location of the campsite seen from a helicopter. Source: Western Australia Police

He ran into trouble early in January after realising his 1998 Nissan Patrol was running low on fuel, so pulled up at Well 4, one of the 51 wells along the track, to fill up on water.

That particular well was empty, so he turned back to Well 6, where he knew there was both water and shady trees.

On his way there however his car stopped 20 kilometres out from his intended destination after running out of fuel, forcing his survival instincts to kick into gear.

After staying with the vehicle for a few days, he opted to carry some food, water and a tent on a mammoth 12-hour walk to Well 6  leaving behind a note for any potential rescuers on his car.

A note left by Mr Blampied on January 3, saying he had walked to a well, which was about 20 kilometres away from his car. Source: Western Australia Police

Mr Blampied shown taking a large swig of water after being found. Source: Western Australia Police

He stayed at Well 6 until his supplies ran out, then made the trek once again back to his car for some more perishables and began another lengthy journey to his makeshift camp.

Before Mr Blampied arrived back, he was dealt another inconvenient blow in the form of a giant downpour, which made it impossible for him to continue walking, so he set up his tent and slept the night.

In the morning he walked the final leg to Well 6 before once again trekking back to his car for the final time on January 23.

Story continues

He again left a note, saying he was staying at Well 6 and had enough supplies to see him through another week.

Fortunately, he only had another couple of days to wait until help arrived as his car was located by a search plane on Sunday just before 4pm (local time).

Mr Blampied appeared cheerful posing with some of his rescuers. Source: Western Australia Police

On Monday a charter helicopter was dispatched to find Mr Blampied and successfully found him at Well 6 about 8.30am.

Police shared images of Mr Blampieds makeshift camp and him appearing very cheerful to be in the company of his rescuers.

They also showed the letter he initially left on January 3 which said, Have gone back to Well 6. Out of Fuel! and stated that he had stopped in at the car at 1.20pm that day.

An aerial image revealed just how difficult of a task of finding him must have been given the vast and barren landscape of the approximate search area.

Mr Blampied appeared to have ignited a fire which sent a smoke trail into the air, possibly aiding rescue teams in pinpointing his exact location.

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A 12-hour Assam bandh called by various non-Bodo organisations on Monday in protest against the Centre's move to sign a peace accord with different Bodo stakeholders has brought life to a standstill in the four districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

Official sources told PTI that normal life has been affected in Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri districts but the bandh did not have any impact in other areas of the state.

Apart from burning of tyres in some areas in Kokrajhar district, no major incident of violence has been reported so far, police said.

All educational institutions remained closed though some examinations scheduled in the colleges were held.

Vehicles, including long-distance buses, remained off the roads and all shops and business establishments were shut.

Railway services remained unaffected so far with all major trains running on schedule, a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson told PTI.

The bandh has been called by various organisations including the All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU), All Bodo Minority Students' Union (ABMSU), All Adivasi Students' Union, Oboro Suraksha Samiti, Kalita Janagoshti Students' Union among others.

The non-Bodo organisations are demanding that all non-Bodo stakeholders residing in the Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD) and the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) should be included in the peace talks and made signatories to the accord that is likely to be signed on Monday.

The Centre held discussions with the Bodo stakeholders, including four factions of the NDFB, All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) and the People's Joint Action Committee for Boroland.

NDFB(R) chief Ranjan Daimary, sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the Oct 30, 2008 serial bomb blasts, was granted interim bail for four weeks by a specially constituted Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court and taken to New Delhi on Saturday to take part in the peace talks.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the Centre has assured the state government that the areas under the BTAD will not be declared a Union Territory and no new areas will be added to it and that the state's territorial integrity will be maintained.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also left for New Delhi on Sunday evening to participate in the talks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Federal Capital Territory High Court, on Monday, found Maryam Sanda guilty of killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.

Ms Sanda was sentenced to death by hanging by the judge.

The Nigerian police charged Ms Sanda for culpable homicide in November 2017, and sought the death penalty against the accused in a two count charge.

The victim, Mr Bello, was the son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello.

Justice Yusuf Halilu said there was compelling evidence to convict the accused.

The judge dismissed Ms Sandas statement that her husband fell on a broken Shisha pot during a fight on the ill-fated day as a smokescreen to deceive the court.

He said available evidence proved that the accused stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife with intent to  kill.

As the judge pronounced Ms Sanda guilty, the accused attempted to run out of the court room while her relatives started shouting, causing an uproar in an attempt to draw public sympathy and soft landing.

A short break was called by the judge to restore calm before the sentence was delivered.

Earlier, PREMIUM TIMES reported how charges against Maimuna Aliyu, Ms Sandas mother; Aliyu Sanda, her brother, and Sadiya Aminu, her housemaid  for allegedly tampering with evidence by cleaning the blood and other proofs from the crime scene  were later dropped.

The trial has dragged on for almost three years due to delays, multiple adjournments and failure of witnesses to appear in court.

Witness Account

The storm in the marriage between Maryam and late Bilyaminu reached boiling point on the night of November 18, 2017. Multiple court testimonies, including that of the accused, indicated that the tragedy was triggered by a heated argument between the couples that ill-fated night.

Ms Sanda allegedly issued many threats to her husband, including to chop off his sex organ if he declined to grant her divorce, Ibrahim Mohammed, one of the six witnesses called by the prosecution said, according to a PREMIUM TIMES report.

He told the court he was with the deceased for over eight hours that night.

Mr Mohammed, a friend of Bilayamin, said their argument had degenerated into a fight.

Mr Mohammed said he tried disengaging Ms Sandas hand from her husbands neck before she rushed to break a bottle of groundnut on the wall and tried stabbing her husband with it.

I held her hands and Bilyamin went behind her and collected the broken bottle from her.

She said she would not stop until Bilyamin divorced her that night; that either he divorced her or she would cut his private part, the witness said.

Mr Mohammed said Ms Sanda made bold her threat as she launched more violent attacks on the deceased before his eyes.

The witness narrated that the first defendant made another attempt to stab her husband after breaking a bottle of perfume, but her husband collected the bottle.

The first defendant then went to the kitchen and picked a knife with which she attempted again to stab the deceased.

The witness said his late friend sustained several cuts while trying to disarm his wife.

Mr Mohammed said he left the house with another friend who he had called to help separate the fight, thinking that calm had been restored only to receive news of his friends death in the morning.

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MARYAM SANDA TIMELINE

I went to Maitama Hospital in the morning and met Bilyaminu lying on a bed in front of the hospital. There was a hole in his chest near the heart, bite on his stomach. There was a cut on his thigh and there was a sign of stitching on him, he said.

Sandas Account

In her testimony before the court, Ms Sanda admitted that the two-year marriage that produced a baby girl was fraught with quarrels.

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She, however, denied killing her husband or nursing such intentions. The mother-of-one said trouble started after she discovered nude pictures of another woman in her late husbands phone and confronted him.

Ms Sanda said she had asked for a divorce before arguments which continued late into the night snowballed into a fight.

He pushed me and as I was falling down, I mistakenly broke his Shisha bottle and the water inside spilled on the floor. He pinned me to the ground and I heard our daughter crying. I told him to leave me so that I could attend to her and he loosened up a bit and I struggled to my feet, she narrated.

The accused said the deceased fell against the broken Shisha pot in an attempt to hold her down again. I saw a broken bottle pricked into his chest which I removed and covered the chest with a scarf.

The young woman said she rushed her husband to Maitama General Hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Sketchy Evidence

Sandas relatives allegedly assisted her in cleaning up the crime scene and no autopsy was carried out to ascertain the actual cause of Mr Bellos death.

Regina Okotie-Eboh, lawyer to the accused, argued that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations. She said the prosecution did not call nurses or doctors from the hospital where the deceased was taken to as witnesses.

Mrs Okotie-Ebor added that they failed to tender the knife with which the defendant allegedly used to perpetrate the act.

The judge in December fixed January 27 to deliver judgment.

More details shortly
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Company's representative confirms today that its local bank in Jakarta, Indonesia, China Construction Bank, Jakarta will receive a SWIFT transmission of a $30 million, Bank of China, MT-799 within this week currently being scheduled on January 29th, 2020. The MT-799 is a pre-advice transmission alerting KinerjaPay Corp's bank to accept a final transmission of the actual Bank of China MT-760 bank guarantee. The terms of our non-recourse, $25 million credit facility allows the Company to draw down a net $22.5 million evenly over three months. The first drawdown should be within days of the receipt of the MT-760. We expect to receive the final MT-760 within a short period after the banks reopen after the Chinese New Year holiday break. The MT-799 will be sent on behalf of Infinity Venture Capital Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean based corporation owned by Indonesian investors. On January 22, 2020, Infinity executed a $200 million subscription agreement for a series of convertible preferred which converts into equity at $1.80/share with a 7% annual dividend. This convertible preferred has no anti-dilution rights. Upon receipt of the first $22.5 million, the Company will deliver the same value of the convertible preferred series mentioned above. It is Infinity's intention to deliver the remaining $177.5 million in the same manner, as fast as the Company's bank will increase the credit facility to lend on non-recourse basis versus these guarantees.

Mr. Edwin W. Ng, CEO of KinerjaPay Corp. (OTCQB: KPAY) said: "We are excited to finally conclude our negotiation with our Investor to receive the Bank Guarantee that we need to begin the first equity round under the credit line process. We have gone through an extensive education to finally reach our goal of using these bank guarantees to fund our KFUND lending operations, as well as other uses that we have previously disclosed. We are still awaiting Gabriel Capital Ltd.'s right sized bank guarantee. They have been having trouble breaking up their commitment into guarantees smaller than $100 million at a time. We are also in advanced discussions with several other groups to send MT-760 guarantees acceptable to our bank. We are gratified that Infinity believes enough in KPAY's ecommerce and lending platform such that they committed equity at a substantial premium to our currently traded stock price. They agree we have a bright future! With the proceeds of the investment, we intend to pay off our convertible debt, which has been depressing the stock price, as well as advance our previously announced stock buy back program. We believe the Company's year-long attempt to raise substantial equity is nearing its end."

About KinerjaPay

KinerjaPay enables consumers to "Pay, Play and Buy" through its secure web portal and mobile applications. Based in Indonesia, the Company provides an easy and convenient payment solution while shopping online at its marketplace platform. With its current omni-channel platform, users can perform various payment services such as credit card bill payment, utility, phone bill, healthcare insurance and direct transfer to anyone at their convenience. KinerjaPay is also planning to launch other eCommerce verticals such as travel market, delivery services, and online gaming in the near future. The Company's services are available through its mobile applications and on its website at www.kinerjapay.com.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, about KPAY's expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among other things, its product development efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. In addition, from time to time, KPAY or its representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing.

Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "may," "should" or "anticipate" or their negatives or other variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. These forward-looking statements may be included in, but are not limited to, various filings made by KPAY with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of KPAY's authorized executive officers. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause KPAY's actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause KPAY's actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors summarized in KPAY 's filings with the SEC. In addition, KPAY operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. KPAY does not undertake any obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please see the risk factors associated with an investment in our securities which are included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the SEC on April 20, 2018 and most recently in our Registration Statement on Form S-1/A filed with the SEC on December 21, 2018, pursuant to which we are offering 300,000 Shares of 11% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock at $25.00 Per Share.

For more information, please visit our website http://www.kinerjapay.co . There you will find access to all of our past press releases and SEC filings regarding the activities discussed in this release.

Media Contact:

KinerjaPay Corp.

Email: [email protected]

+62-21-2918-1336

SOURCE KinerjaPay Corp.

Related Links

https://www.kinerjapay.com/


: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed a statutory resolution seeking to abolish the state Legislative Council, days after the YSRC government failed to get two crucial bills on its plans to have three capitals cleared by the opposition TDP-dominated Upper House.

By moving for the Councils abolition, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is seeking to undo the action of his late father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who, as the then Chief Minister of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, got the Upper House revived in March 2007.

The Chief Minister, who moved the one-line resolution in the assembly amid a boycott by the Telugu Desam Party and hours after the state Cabinet cleared the measure, said he was feeling proud over the decision to abolish the council and maintained it was taken "purely in public interest".

Telugu Desam Party chief and Leader of the Opposition in the assembly N Chandrababu Naidu flayed the government for the move to abolish the council and said though he had opposed its revival in 2004, he subsequently changed his stance in deference to the "people's wishes".

All 133 members present in the 175-member House, when the division vote was taken at 6 pm, voted in favour and the resolution under Article 169 (1) of the Constitution was adopted unanimously.

Speaker Tammineni Seetaram announced that the resolution was adopted by a majority as stipulated under Article 169 (1).

"The Legislative Assembly of the state of Andhra Pradesh resolves that the Legislative Council of the state be abolished," the resolution read.

As per the Constitution, it is now for the Centre to take a call on the issue.

The bills for creation of executive capital in Visakhapatnam, legislative in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool were passed by the assembly on January 20, amid raging protests by farmers and others.

According to Article 169 (1), Parliament by law provide for abolition of the Legislative Council of state or for the creation of such a Council if th Legislative Assembly of the State passes a resolution to that effect by a marjority of the total membership of the assembly and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.

TDP boycotted the days proceedings in the assembly, protesting the governments decision to abolish the Council, where the key bills on capitals were referred to a select committee for deeper examination on January 22, days after the assembly had cleared them.

The lone member of Jana Sena Party, Rapaka Varaprasada Rao, supported the government resolution.

Of the two TDP MLAs, who virtually defected to the YSRC, one remained in the assembly lobbies while another was away when the division was taken and, thus, could not vote.

Government whip Chevireddi Bhaskar Reddy was notable among the 18 absentees from the government side.

The government played a video clip of Chandrababu Naidu, vehemently opposing the revival of the Council when the then Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government moved a resolution in the assembly in July 2004.

Revival of the Council is only for political rehabilitation of Congress workers. There is no use of it either for the people or the state... It will only delay the enactment of laws and result in wasteful expenditure of public money, Naidu had said on July 8, 2004, opposing the then Congress governments resolution.

Jagan Mohan Reddy, who spoke on the resolution seeking abolition of the Council, lashed out at his predecessors double-speak on the issue.

Referring to history, he pointed out the Constituent Assembly that drafted the country's Constitution did not feel the need for a second House of a state Legislature.Had the Constituent Assembly felt the Council was required, it would not have provided for its abolition.

Only six out of 28 states in the country now had a Legislative Council. Our party will secure majority in the Council next year. But we have decided to abolish it only in view of the peoples needs and governments responsibilities," he asserted.

Quoting Martin Luther King, the Chief Minister said, The time is always right to do what is right."



Earlier in the day, the state Cabinet passed a resolution to set in motion the process for abolishing the 58-member state Legislative Council, where the ruling YSR Congress is in a minority with just nine members and the TDP has 28 MLCs.

The YSRC is enraged after it failed to get the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 and the APCRDA (Repeal) Billpassed by Council last week as they were referred to the select committee at the insistence of the TDP.

The YSRC had on December 17 first threatened to abolish the Council, albeit off-the-record, when it became clear the TDP was bent on blocking the two bills, related to creation of a separate Commission for SCs and conversion of all government schools into English medium.

As the Legislature was adjourned sine die on December 17, no further action was taken but last week the issue cropped up again as the TDP remained firm on its stand on opposing the plan to have three capitals.

Despite the YSRC attracting two TDP members to its side, the government failed to get the three capitals bills passed in the Council, triggering a debate in the assembly on whether or not the Upper House was needed.

What will be the meaning of governance if the House of Elders does not allow good decisions to be taken in the interest of people and block enactment of laws? We, hence, thought there was no need to continue the Council, Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

The AP Legislative Council was revived in March 2007 after it was first abolished in 1985 when the Telugu Desam Party government, headed by its founder N T Rama Rao, was in power.

Though Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and the Congress enjoyed a clear majority in the AP Council then, he obliged NTR.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
VALENCIA, Spain, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Network Intelligence and Automation company Kenmei Technologies announced today that the Spanish Government has invested in the company through the NEOTEC technology fund managed by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).

The CDTI is a public business entity, reporting to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, which fosters the technological development and innovation of Spanish companies. It is the entity that channels the funding and support applications for national and international R&D&i projects of Spanish companies. The CDTI thus seeks to contribute to improving the technological level of the Spanish companies.

The NEOTEC program is a 250,000 equity-free grant for tech companies with a total available sum of 25 million euros to be invested in the most innovative startups or SMEs across Spain.

"Being selected by the Spanish Government for the NEOTEC program, which is one of the most competitive funding initiatives in Spain, is a significant milestone for Kenmei Technologies because not only does it provide funds to develop our products, but it also recognises our company as one of the top technological companies in Spain," said Vicent Soler, Chief Executive Officer of Kenmei Technologies. "The NEOTEC investment will consolidate our business plan by accelerating the development of our Network Intelligence & Automation solution, ADELE," added Vicent.

About Kenmei Technologies

Kenmei Technologies is a Spanish company based in Valencia founded by telecoms and software experts, focused on providing data intelligence through machine-based decision making methods, automating network operations and customer assurance, all designed to help operators deal with increasing network complexities.

For further information, please visit http://www.kenmei.ai.

SOURCE Kenmei Technologies
The Central government on Monday signed a tripartite agreement with the representatives of all factions of the banned organisation -- Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) -- here.

The peace accord was signed in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, which intends to fulfill key political and economic demands of the NDFB.

Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg, Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna and the key leadership of the nine factions of the NDFB signed the agreement.

Home Minister Shah, while addressing media, said the new development will ensure "a golden future for Assam and for the Bodo people."

He also stated that around 1550 of NDFB cadres will surrender on January 30.

"Around 1550 cadres along with 130 weapons will surrender on January 30. As the Home Minister, I want to assure all representatives that all promises will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner," he said.

Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, commenting on the development, said that "all stakeholders of Bodo society have signed the agreement, reaffirming territorial integrity of Assam."

"BTAD will now become the Bodoland Territorial Region," Sarma added.

This is the third Bodo accord which has been signed in the last 27 years since the movement for a separate Bodoland state commenced in Assam.

The first Bodo accord was signed with the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) in 1993, leading to the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.

In 2003, the second Bodo accord was signed with the militant group Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), leading to the formation of a Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with four districts of Assam, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri, called the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).

The BTC was formed under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. The demand for a separate state for the Bodos has been going on in Assam for about five decades.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hang Bac is viewed as the most expensive among Hanois 36 old streets. In the past, people living on this street relied on three major jobs, involving silver ingot and jewellery making, and money exchange.

Foreign visitors at Hang Bac street

Steps to create silver jewellery in Hang Bac street (Photo: Vietnam Pictorial)

Those three jobs originated from three craft villages famous for making gold and silver jewellery in the north of Chau Khe in Hung Yen province, Dong Xam in Thai Binh province and Dinh Cong in Hanoi.

In the 15th century, Minister of Interior Luu Xuan Tin, a native of Chau Khe village of Hung Yen, was assigned by a court of the later Le Dynasty (1428  1789) to set up a workshop making silver ingots in the Thang Long imperial city, which is currently Hanoi.

At that time, silver ingots and gold bars were used as money. Tin brought artisans from Chau Khe to the capital to establish the workshop. After a while, along with making ingots, artisans began making patterns for gold and silver jewellery.

In the early years of the 19th century, under the reign of the Nguyen Dynasty (18021945), the workshop was relocated to the central imperial city of Hue. Most of Chau Khe artisans remained in Thang Long and set up a community at the area which is now Hang Bac street.

From then on, artisans of Dinh Cong and Dong Xam craft villages came to settle down in the street. That marked the birth of Hang Bac street which specialises in crafting gold and silver jewellery in Hanoi.

Along with the manufacturing and trading of silver, shops in the street exchanged silver ingots for chips. Therefore, in the colonial rule of France, the streets name in French was Rue de changeurs (silver-exchange street).

Various sophisticated gold and silver jewellery works were crafted by artisans in Hang Bac street. In technical terms, experts classify their products into two types, including those without patterns such as rings and women and childrens earrings and bracelets, and those with patterns.

Artisans in Hang Bac street usually make typical patterns in their gold and silver jewellery, with four mythical creatures of dragon, kylin, turtle and phoenix being the most popular. The image of dragon is crafted with the nimble hands of the artisans under a number of themes. Different styles such as eight creatures, eight valuables and eight types of fruits, among others, are also meticulously crafted in gold and silver plates and trays.

On gold and silver objects, artisans could also carve the images of human or plants symbolising peoples virtues in the eastern culture of truc (small bamboo), mai (ochna flower), orchid and chrysanthemum.

In all carved jewellery made of gold and silver, there are two prominent characteristics, which are artistic form and meticulous and lifelike patterns.

Foreign tourists show special interest when touring Hang Bac street which house various sophisticated silver stuff (Photo: Vietnam Pictorial)

At present, the street stretches only about 0.5 km, but there are hundreds of ateliers of all sizes established by silversmiths and goldsmiths. Many of those shops are equipped with machines of modern technologies from foreign countries, yet there are still families who maintain the traditional method of manually crafting jewellery.

Not only keeping the job which is passed down to by ancestors, residents in Hang Bac street are also able to maintain the traditional lifestyle of the people in Hanois Old Quarter. Many households are good at doing business and become rich, but they still lead a humble life and value trust, and stand ready to support others in life as well as in doing business./.VNA
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:

S&P Global Ratings, an international rating agency, has affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Azerbaijan at 'BB+/B', Trend reports referring to the rating agency.

The ratings reflect significant foreign assets accumulated in the sovereign wealth fund, the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), as well as still-weak institutional effectiveness, monetary policy flexibility, and strong fiscal and external net asset positions.

We project that Azerbaijan's fiscal and external balances, although materially weaker than 2019, will remain in surplus, and we note the governments strong net asset position, reads the report. We expect that the authorities will continue to focus on macroeconomic stability, including fiscal management.
John Bolton is not a #resistance hero. John Bolton is, in fact, a deranged war-thirsty maniac who looks at countries like Iran and Venezuela with the same frenzied bloodlust that a serial killer in Central Park exhibits at the sight of a lonely midnight jogger. It was a big mistake for Trump to bring him into his administration, and an enormous relief for the peace-loving world when he booted him out again. But the fact is, you dont associate with a vengeful fight-spoiling lunatic like Bolton, screw him over, and expect to get out of the mess unscathed. Trump has the Senate Republicans on a leash, and he commands the party with almost total authority because the rank-and-file voters love him and he can threaten any Senate dissenters with political death. But in Bolton, hes found someone he cant control, and who will do anything to spoil the Republican plan to usher this whole impeachment saga offstage in the quietest way possible.

Hes already tried to gum up the works by saying he would testify if called, a flirtation that went directly against orders from Team Trump, but this latest salvo is an act of brilliant sabotage. Apparently, Bolton has a book manuscript that hes circulated among friends, and he event sent a copy to the White House for review. Now, is this book real? Sure, maybe. But smart money says its alsoand mostlya device with which Bolton can screw Trump, and the latest gambit by the former adviser to elbow his way into testifying before the Senate by hook or by crook. And in that book, as you might guess, theres a thorough documentation of the Trump/Ukraine affair that contradicts everything the president and his team have tried to claim.

Heres the short summary from the New York Times, which pretty much makes this an open-and-shut case:

President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.

As the Times explains, thats a pretty comprehensive refutation of Trumps contention thatno, he didnt. The Trump story, which is that demanding the Biden investigation and withholding military aid were two completely different things, was always laughable, but since there was no direct proof, it allowed the tale to cohere by a frayed thread, and gave Senate Republicans just enough (im)plausible deniability to stick their heads in the sand and pretend Trump was innocent.

Now? That just got a lot harder. Bolton really went all in, roping in everyone from Giuliani to Pompeo to Barr to Mulvaney. They all knew, he claims, and he heard the president say the quiet partout loud and in person:

In his August 2019 discussion with Mr. Bolton, the president appeared focused on the theories Mr. Giuliani had shared with him, replying to Mr. Boltons question that he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation that related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine.

He also claims Giuliani wanted Yovanovitch gone because she threatened his business interests in Ukraine, that Pompeo knew it, that Barr knew these conflicts long before he claimed to know, and that Mulvaney was in the room for the discussions about Yovanovitch between Trump and Giulianiwhich, again, contradicts his own claims that he always left.

This is a brutal development for the White House, and while Senate Republicans will still likely push the trial to a quick end, perhaps as soon as Friday, this makes them look worse than they already did. Boltons new claims wont give them the courage to step out of line and risk being thumped by Mitch McConnell, but its yet another indication that if Trump wants to wriggle his way out of removal, his allies in the Senate have to blithely ignore reality and place both hands over their eyes in plain view of the American people. The White House may even be forced to get an actual restraining order to keep Bolton from speaking.

They may silence him, but they wont do it effectively, and even if the net effect of Boltons book is to fully expose the rank corruption of Trump and the Senate Republicans, hell have done Democrats an enormous favor come November. Strange bedfellows indeed
Novator Partners is reportedly lining up a bid to acquire a controlling stake in Telefonica Colombia.

The London-based firm, which owns Chilean newcomer WOM, recently entered the Colombian market but had an initial stumble after massively overbidding on a block of spectrum and requesting its offer be withdrawn.

Novator appears keen to take Telefonicas position in the market. The Spanish-headquartered group is looking to divest its operations in a number of Latin American markets  including Colombia - and did not bid in the countrys recent spectrum auction. Novator meanwhile obtained concessions in the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands, strengthening its position for a takeover bid.

The same report from Spains El Economista indicates that Novator may also attempt to buy out Avantel, a Colombian LTE service provider in the process of restructuring its significant debts. In 2016, Novator reportedly attempted a similar takeover bid although no agreement was reached at the time.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Slovenia Marjan Sarec announced his resignation on January 27.

Mr. Sarec said he would send his resignation letter to the parliament, Interfax reported.

He said the reason of his resignation is that his government is losing support. He called on holding an early election. Now I am unable to meet peoples expectations, but I will be able to fulfill my promises after elections, he said.

Earlier today Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj also announced his decision to resign.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
MOSCOW -- A high-ranking Russian clergyman known for his outspoken social and political commentary and wavering support for the government has died of unknown causes.



Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, 51, died on January 26 while sitting on a bench at the Church of Theodore the Studite at the Nikitsky Gate in Moscow where he was the rector, the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate told Russian media.



For years, Chaplin was a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administrations policies. Lately, however, Chaplin had made critical statements targeting the countrys leadership. Most notable was his opposition to pension reform last year. In March, he took part in a rally against the governments social and economic policies.



They accuse us of rocking the boat, but this boat is not sailing there, Chaplin said then.



He also called for replacing the cynical and corrupt elites in Russia and advocated for the Orthodox Church to have decision-making power in the country.



In society, he said women with their defiant appearance and manners can provoke men to rape.



He called humanism a satanic ideology, affirmed that the state and shrines are more important than man, and said that the commandment against killing only applied to a narrow circle of the righteous.

Chaplin also once was quoted as saying Russias military operation in Syria was part of a holy war, and called for the need to kill Russias enemies in other countries.



Bestowing lavish gifts on the churchs hierarchy is a manifestation of love, which is completely natural, Chaplin said at a news conference in Stavropol on August 27, 2012.



In the Russian Orthodox Church, he rose to the position of chairman of the Synodal Department for the Interaction of the Church and Society, according to TASS.



On December 24, 2015, Chaplin was relieved of his post. He had criticized the church for the growing influence of the patriarch.



Chaplin was born on March 31, 1968, in Moscow. His father, Anatoly Chaplin, was a Soviet scientist.



In 1990, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and later from the Moscow Theological Academy.



Chaplin was ordained a deacon on April 21, 1991, and the following January was elevated to the priesthood.



He achieved the title of archpriest in 1999.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax
Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/27/2020 -- The Timing Belt Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.21% during the forecast period, to reach a market size of USD 9.22 billion by 2025. With global increase in vehicle production, especially in the passenger car segment, the demand for timing belts has grown globally. Also, owing to multiple benefits offered by timing chains as compared with belt system, several OEMs have started replacing belts with chains in many of their passenger car models.



Stringent emission regulations and fuel efficiency norms have been introduced in many countries such as the US, Japan, and European countries. To meet the reduced emissions targets and increased fuel efficiency limits, OEMs are shifting their focus toward direct injection engines, particularly gasoline direct injection engines. According to International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the direct injection engines can improve a vehicle's fuel efficiency up to 3%. Owing to their compact size, most of the direct injection engines use a timing chain system in passenger cars. Direct injection system is mostly preferred in diesel engines. With the introduction of Euro 6 regulations, the demand for gasoline direct engines is projected to grow in the next five years. Thus, the increase in market demand for direct injection engines is projected to fuel the timing chain system market, primarily for passenger cars.



Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=135305591



Asia Oceania is estimated to be the largest market for timing belt during the forecast period. The market growth in the region can be attributed to factors such as availability of cheap labor and favorable FDI policies. Almost all key OEMs have set up their plants in this region. In addition to OEMs, Tier-I & II suppliers have also invested in this region for better sourcing. Countries such as China, Japan, and India are the leaders in global vehicle production. According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), China alone contributed 29.61% of the global vehicle production in 2016. Japan and India contributed 9.69% and 4.73% of the global vehicle production, respectively in 2016. The passenger car segment, which dominated the overall vehicle production, is the largest market for automotive timing belt system. The vehicle production in these countries is projected to grow further in the future. Hence, the Asia Oceania region is projected to be the revenue pocket for the timing belt suppliers.



The Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) segment is estimated to dominate the timing belt market during the forecast period. The widespread adoption of HEVs is higher as compared to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). Thus, the usage of timing belts and chains is larger in the HEV segment as compared to PHEV. The demand for hybrid vehicles is projected to grow in the near future. EV production is being preferred by OEMs in order to meet the emission limit set by governing bodies. Also, with the new emission regulation limits, OEMs have to achieve fleet level targets. The sales of hybrid vehicles can help OEMs to achieve these targets. Several automotive OEMs in Europe and North America are pushing the sales of electric vehicles to meet the emission regulation limits. The rising sales of HEVs and PHEVs would positively impact the growth of the timing belt market. Hence, the hybrid vehicle segment can be another revenue pocket for the timing belt manufacturers.



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The increasing adoption of direct injection engines by automotive OEMs and rise in global vehicle production shall lead to the growth of the OE market. Also, rising vehicle population and increase in average miles driven per vehicle would lead to higher replacement and growth of the aftermarket. The timing belt market is dominated by key players such as Continental (Germany), iwis motorsysteme (Germany), SKF (Sweden), BorgWarner (US), Tsubakimoto Chain (Japan), and others.



Target Audience



- Automotive organizations/associations

- Automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)

- Raw material suppliers for timing belt kits

- Tensioner pulley and idler pulley manufacturers

- Timing belt and timing chain manufacturers

- Timing belt kit distributors

- Aftermarket suppliers of timing drive kit (OES & independent aftermarket suppliers)



To speak to our analyst for a discussion on the above findings, click Speak to Analyst
The added problem for Trump is that the witness to his impeachable conduct is Bolton and not somebody else. Bolton is idolized by Republican foreign policy hawks such as Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.). They are not likely to believe, or publicly allege, that Bolton is lying. Indeed, Grahams reaction Monday was that if the Senate decides Bolton should testify, then Trumps defense should be able to call witnesses as well. Trump is said to want to call Biden and his son Hunter, though it is unclear whether the presidents lawyers agree.
There are now 2,744 confirmed cases and at least 80 reported deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus, including one physician treating patients61-year-old Dr. Lian Wudong. To date, all but some 44 of the confirmed cases and all the deaths have occurred in mainland China, predominately at the center of the epidemic, Wuhan. Other cases of the infection, formally known as 2019-nCoV, or novel coronavirus, have been found in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Nepal, France and the United States.

Residents in Fanling district of Hong Kong took the streets on Sunday night to oppose the plan to house quarantined patients or medical workers in their neighborhood, that is far from Hong Kong's business center. (Photo Credit: Vincent Yu/AP)

The virus so far remains uncontained, fueling confusion, panic and rising social tensions across China, where the government has partially or fully locked down 13 major population centers, encompassing nearly 60 million people. In Wuhan, citizens are calling for their local leaders to be held accountable. Doctors on the front line of treating victims of the coronavirus infection are leading this call by bluntly declaring, The citys leaders should be removed immediately.

These tensions have begun to spread to Shanghai, one of Chinas major commercial centers and one of its most populous cities, where an 88-year-old man died as a result of the virus, sparking concerns about the complex spread of the disease and its ramifications on an international scale. In response, Chinese President Xi Jinping was forced to state, Confronted with the grave situation of this accelerating spread of pneumonia from infections with the novel coronavirus, we must step up the centralized and united leadership under the party central.

Initial efforts to combat the epidemic include a promised 1,230 medical experts from Chinas National Health Commission to assist with efforts on the ground in Wuhan. The military is also sending additional medical personnel, while the city has promised to build two new hospitals in 15 days to treat patients with coronavirus infections.

The United States, French, Japanese and Russian consulates have ordered the removal of their people and are coordinating with Chinese authorities for their safe and efficient transfer out of the city. US private citizens are being offered seats on planes departing Wuhan.

There are also six confirmed and 100 suspected cases in Hong Kong. The city has taken emergency measures by restricting celebration of the Lunar New Year, limiting the gathering of groups, requiring the use of face masks and shutting schools until at least mid-February. These measures have been met with resistance by demonstrators, who set fire in the lobbies of two buildings designated as quarantine sites for the developing epidemic.

The head of Chinas National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei, told the media, The epidemic has entered a more serious and complex period. The local Chinese medical authorities stated that there are at least an additional 3,000 suspected coronavirus cases, of which at least half are expected to be confirmed. Because the incubation period can last up to two weeks, those without symptoms can be contagious without knowing it, suggesting that the infection will become far more widespread than anticipated earlier.

This is highlighted by the international nature of the crisis: there are three confirmed cases in France, five in the United States, four in Australia and 32 in the rest of Asia. Canadian health officials are observing a man who returned from Wuhan to Toronto on January 22 and is now admitted with a respiratory illness.

In China itself, the emergency is being exacerbated by the lack of supplies. According to local medical personnel and staff, masks are running short and sanitary equipment is being quickly exhausted. Physicians, nurses and aides are on 24-hour standby, even as the travel ban within the affected cities makes commuting to hospitals difficult. This has created the added problem of making routine tasks, such as other forms of medical care and even getting groceries, much more difficult in population centers as large or larger than New York City and Los Angeles. Local hospitals have been forced to appeal on social media for donations of supplies and funds to stock and run their services.

Dr. Xu Wenbo, the director of the Chinese National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention under the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Beijing, announced to reporters on Sunday that researchers had isolated viruses and were selecting strains to use in developing a vaccine against the coronavirus. The US National Institutes of Health has also stated that it can potentially develop a vaccine for human trials in a few months. It remains unclear if these efforts are being jointly coordinated.

Meanwhile, three Beijing hospitalsBeijing Ditan Hospital, Beijing Youan Hospital and No. 5 Medical Center of PLA General Hospitalhave turned to administering the anti-HIV retroviral drugs Lopinavir and Ritonavir to treat patients. This ad-hoc treatment is being used with limited data to support or refute its efficacy. The medical journal Lancet has announced that it has commenced a clinical trial using these agents to treat new cases of coronavirus.

The Lancet also published two small studies on the novel coronavirus last Friday confirming many of the suspicions medical authorities were claiming, including that the virus can transfer from person to person in hospitals, homes and cities, and that people can infect others during the incubation period of the virusin other words, people can spread the contagion before they become symptomatic themselves. The studies also found symptoms including fever, coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, pain, headaches, coughing up blood and diarrhea. Of 41 patients reviewed, six died.

The largely scattered efforts to contain and treat 2019-nCoV reflect the scarcity of resources devoted to medicine. According to the World Economic Forums Global Risks Report 2020, Health systems around the world are at risk of becoming unfit for purpose. New vulnerabilities resulting from changing societal, environmental, demographic and technological patterns threaten to undo the dramatic gains in wellness and prosperity that health systems have supported over the last century.

This state of affairs is not the result of new viruses evolving more quickly or a lack of advances in medical technology, but of the subordination of modern medicine to private profit. In one revealing episode, Chinas vice minister of industry and information technology, Wang Jiangping, told news outlets that Hubei Province is going through more than 100,000 protective suits each day, while their manufacture lags by 30,000 per day. The sheer material needs are overwhelming the capacity to address these demands. Yet Chinese companies manufacture more than 50,000 such suits per day for export.
It has nothing to do with sanctions except to use said sanctions as the reason to block information that the US does not want you to see. Other words, truth is not wanted in the USA

It is, A good lesson for all to avoid using US hosted servers.

It is, A good lesson for all to avoid using US hosted servers.

We fought the battle for many years and the US won. We went from top tier site to bottom tier due to years and years of attacks and being forced to move the domain to a server that the US could not shut down very easy. It was too late after years of such attacks.7 hosting sites to finally find one not able to be easily destroyed

Everyday another information site that does not conform to the western standards of fake news is taken offline

Has Fars News been knocked off the web because it was at the forefront in stipulating US casualties/death counts immediately after the Iranian missile strikes on the two US bases in Iraq? Does that mean Fars News was stating the truth (give or take a few casualties)? the US simply cannot counter opposing narratives to its own propaganda and thus has to resort to silencing all dissenting pointsa sure sign of a weak argument. That in and of itself should tell people who is more or less telling the truth and who is lying by suppressing any counter assertions, rather than rebutting them.

This examples of the damage done  pictures at Dailymail and even a video of the damage so people can seeand this is just then ones they let out.imagine what is covered up. Finally we are starting to hear that many men were hurt and I suspect soon we will hear about deaths. If they can cover it up they will. Obviously they (USA) could not cover up the brain damage men. The reports are talking up to 80 men died? That is not verified yet

So a website just report the truth is knocked offline

Nothing new to me. Been there and experienced that

It is, A good lesson for all to avoid using US hosted servers.

WtR
Family vacations come alive in Belize with Chaa Creek's Learning Adventures Its a chance to have the vacation of a lifetime, and return home richer for the experience

Belizes The Lodge at Chaa Creek is encouraging families to rethink their vacations as Learning Adventures.

Denise Duran, the Belize eco-resorts public relations manager, said its clear that many of todays families are looking to get more from their vacations.

In recent years weve seen a trend towards more meaningful vacations; with travel thats focussed on healthy activities and opportunities to experience and learn new things together, Ms Duran said.

Its a trend that fits in perfectly with Chaa Creeks emphasis on sustainable tourism, she added.

Learning adventures, Ms Duran explained, are simply vacations that offer opportunities to learn about the environment, cultures, art and history of host countries, or to pick up new skills.

And Belize has no shortage of things to discover, she said.

Were fortunate to have such diverse geography, a multicultural society, and a rich, colourful history.

Over a quarter of Belizes land and seas are set aside as protected wilderness. We have the worlds second largest barrier reef, over a hundred small islands and a long Caribbean coast, all offering some of the best swimming, snorkelling, diving, kayaking, sailing and fishing on the planet.

Combine that with huge swaths of pristine rainforests, rivers and waterfalls, the Maya Mountains, Mountain Pine Ridge, the Rio On Pools and much more, and visitors have an incredibly rich natural wonderland to explore and enjoy, Ms Duran said.

Chaa Creek features a 400-acre private nature reserve and a team of highly trained, licenced naturalist guides to introduce visitors to Belizes flora and fauna, and help make activities such as canoeing, horseback riding, nature walks, plant and wildlife identification and birding more interesting, she added.

Birding, for example, has really taken off in recent years, and Belize is one of the best birding destinations in the world. For experienced birders its an avian paradise, and for novices, our specialist birding guides make it easy to get into one of the most popular and fastest growing pastimes in the world.

Belize is also a great place to learn about cultures, Ms Duran said.

Chaa Creeks onsite attractions include The Belize Natural History Museum, a walk-through butterfly breeding enclosure, the Maya Rainforest Medicinal Plant Trail and the traditional Maya Organic Farm that supplies fresh produce for the resorts Mariposa Restaurant and downtown Guava Limb Cafe.

And theres plenty of culture just outside of Chaa Creek, Ms Duran said.

We must be one of the most multicultural societies on the planet. During Chaa Creeks tours to the nearby San Ignacio Saturday market, for instance, youll hear English, Spanish, Mayan, Creole, Garifuna, and Mennonite German all spoken.

And ancient Maya sites like the beautiful pyramid temple of Xunantunich, the royal residence of Cahal Pech and the sprawling archaeological reserve of El Pilar are all close enough for short day trips.

Nothing makes history come alive like walking through the remnants of one of the ancient worlds most highly advanced civilisations, Mr Duran added.

And paddling down the Macal River, just as the Maya did thousands of years ago, when it was part of the river trade routes that connected the highlands of Guatemala to the Caribbean Sea, really brings home what it was like to have lived back then.

Further afield, Chaa Creek also offers a wide selection of cultural tours, village visits, expeditions to ancient Maya temple sites and a comprehensive week long Belize Grand Tour that takes guests from traditional inland villages and a pastoral Mennonite community to the seacoast Garifuna village of Hopkins.

Belizes cultures are even highlighted in a unique approach to cooking classes.

A recent addition to Chaa Creeks onsite attractions, the Open Hearth offers guests a hands-on blend of culture and cuisine in a purpose built, representational village kitchen with daily cooking classes ranging from Mestizo Mondays to Maya Fridays.

Ms Duran emphasised that Learning Adventures also include plenty of fun and relaxation.

Of course, having a great vacation means enjoying lots of relaxation, fun, and delicious meals together.

Swimming and lounging around the infinity pool, enjoying a good book or conversation while swinging in a hammock, dining under the Mariposa restaurants huge thatched roof, relaxing in the Jungle Lounge or having a massage or other professional care at the Hilltop Spa are all part of the Chaa Creek wildly civilised experience.

We want families to balance activities and relaxation, and come away feeling healthier and more in tune with nature and each other.

Thats the value of Learning Adventures - having a great time together while discovering new things and sharing exciting new experiences together, Ms Duran said.

She encouraged families to speak with their travel agents or contact Chaa Creek directly to learn more about how to turn a Belize vacation into a family learning adventure.

Its a chance to have the vacation of a lifetime, and return home richer for the experience, Ms Duran said.

The Lodge at Chaa Creek is a multi-award winning eco resort set within a 400-acre private nature reserve along the banks of the Macal River in Belize. It was recognised by National Geographic with first place honours at the 2017 World Legacy Awards held in Berlin.

ENDS
Today we'll evaluate The Berkeley Group Holdings plc (LON:BKG) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires.

First up, we'll look at what ROCE is and how we calculate it. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. And finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities are impacting its ROCE.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

ROCE measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. In general, businesses with a higher ROCE are usually better quality. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Author Edwin Whiting says to be careful when comparing the ROCE of different businesses, since 'No two businesses are exactly alike.

So, How Do We Calculate ROCE?

The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

Or for Berkeley Group Holdings:

0.18 = UK623m  (UK5.1b - UK1.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2019.)

So, Berkeley Group Holdings has an ROCE of 18%.

View our latest analysis for Berkeley Group Holdings

Is Berkeley Group Holdings's ROCE Good?

One way to assess ROCE is to compare similar companies. Using our data, Berkeley Group Holdings's ROCE appears to be around the 16% average of the Consumer Durables industry. Separate from Berkeley Group Holdings's performance relative to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms looks satisfactory, and it may be worth researching in more depth.

We can see that, Berkeley Group Holdings currently has an ROCE of 18%, less than the 29% it reported 3 years ago. Therefore we wonder if the company is facing new headwinds. You can see in the image below how Berkeley Group Holdings's ROCE compares to its industry. Click to see more on past growth.

Story continues

LSE:BKG Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. ROCE can be deceptive for cyclical businesses, as returns can look incredible in boom times, and terribly low in downturns. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Are Current Liabilities, And How Do They Affect Berkeley Group Holdings's ROCE?

Current liabilities are short term bills and invoices that need to be paid in 12 months or less. Due to the way ROCE is calculated, a high level of current liabilities makes a company look as though it has less capital employed, and thus can (sometimes unfairly) boost the ROCE. To check the impact of this, we calculate if a company has high current liabilities relative to its total assets.

Berkeley Group Holdings has total liabilities of UK1.6b and total assets of UK5.1b. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 32% of its total assets. Berkeley Group Holdings has a middling amount of current liabilities, increasing its ROCE somewhat.

The Bottom Line On Berkeley Group Holdings's ROCE

Berkeley Group Holdings's ROCE does look good, but the level of current liabilities also contribute to that. There might be better investments than Berkeley Group Holdings out there, but you will have to work hard to find them . These promising businesses with rapidly growing earnings might be right up your alley.

I will like Berkeley Group Holdings better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Monday his government would not obstruct the 2020 budget that was prepared by the government of Saad al-Hariri, who quit in October.

Diab was speaking at the start of a parliamentary debate on the 2020 budget. Diab's government was formed last week with backing from the powerful Hezbollah group and its political allies, but has yet to win a vote of confidence in parliament.

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Alexander Shunnarah Personal Injury Attorneys took home a Golden Gavel Award at last weeks National Trial Attorneys conference in Miami, Fla.

The Alabama law firm was honored in the best Public Relations campaign category. The awards, which were presented for the first time this year, recognize the top advertisements of the year for law firms throughout the nation.

The Shunnarah firm was nominated in six of the 12 different award categories: TV-30 Second, Client Testimonial, Public Relations, Digital, Social Media and Outdoor. Submissions for the awards were taken from across the nation, with entries coming from the law firms TV spots, billboards, digital content, public relations outreach and social memes.

The attorney, known for his Call Me Alabama billboards and commercials, said the honor is a testament to our diverse and creative portfolio of marketing, advertising and public relations efforts.

We work diligently every day on our brand and this national recognition further solidifies our place as a legal marketing force, Shunnarah said.
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27 : Soft-pedalling by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the frequent outbursts of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan vis-a-vis the CAA has made the Congress suspect that both have joined hands, a senior state Congress leader said on Monday.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Ramesh Chennithala told the media here that he expected the treasury benches to support his resolution to seek the removal of Khan from the gubernatorial post, once the Kerala Assembly begins its session on Wednesday.

"It is Vijayan, as leader of the Assembly, who should have moved this resolution. Since he has failed to do so, I am duty bound to do it. I have already served a notice to seek withdrawal of Khan.

"The stoic silence of Vijayan is baffling. Khan has been going hammer and tongs against the manner in which the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution to seek withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act last month.

"But the Chief Minister has just spoken once and has been silent since then. So, we genuinely suspect if Khan and Vijayan have joined hands." The Congress leader pointed out that Khan had a constitutional responsibility towards the Assembly on account of his post, but he has been regularly ridiculing the legislature and the passage of the resolution against the CAA.

"On Sunday, we all heard Khan praising Vijayan in his Republic Day address... we suspect their intentions. However, I fully believe and hope that Vijayan and his government will extend full support to my resolution," Chennithala said.

If one looks at what's happening in other non-BJP ruled states, the Chief Ministers there are doing everything to protect the federal principles guiding the country, he added.

"Surprisingly, while Vijayan's Communist Party of India-Marxist has been demanding withdrawal of the Governor, Vijayan is playing hide-and-seek," Chennithala remarked.

Responding to Chennithala's outburst, CPI-M leader and state Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan said the Congress leader is trying to score political brownie points on this issue.

"Who does not know what his (Chennithala) intentions are. He has always been in the forefront of projecting the CPI-M and its leaders in poor light," said Jayarajan.

Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan has said that Chennithala's request to move the resolution is in order.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has blocked numerous Twitter accounts  including ones belonging to Capitol Hill staffers and D.C.-based analysts  after facing online criticism for excluding Taiwan from membership.

Why it matters: Taipei is an international transit hub, and Taiwan's exclusion means it can't take part in information sharing and logistical planning as the coronavirus spreads.

Context: China views Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory, and it has systematically pushed the self-governing island out of most international and intergovernmental organizations, including ICAO, which is led by Fang Liu, a Chinese national.

Taiwan has not participated in ICAO assemblies since 2013.

Exclusion from ICAO means Taiwan faces obstacles in communicating about international standards and practices.

That's particularly problematic during an international crisis, such as an epidemic.

Details: Jessica Drun, a non-resident fellow at the Taiwan-focused Project 2049 Institute criticized ICAO in a Jan. 22 tweet:

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

Drun noticed on Jan. 25 that ICAO had blocked her on Twitter.

Qining Guang, a Chinese national who previously worked for the Civil Aviation Administration of China, is responsible for ICAO's social media accounts, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Guang "has no managerial responsibilities in the ICAO Communications Unit, and undertakes only supervised social media efforts for us relating to the repackaging of pre-vetted English language ICAO content for Chinese language audiences," said Anthony Philbin, communications chief at ICAO.

Numerous other Twitter accounts were blocked around the same time, Axios has learned, including the accounts of several Hill staffers, analysts and an English teacher in Guangzhou. The accounts had posted similar criticisms.

Julian Ku, a professor at Hofstra University, told Axios there is likely no legal recourse for people who ICAO has blocked. "International organizations have immunity from domestic courts and can't be sued. Nor are there any international tribunals that have jurisdiction over this."

Even so, experts told Axios it goes against the spirit of an intergovernmental organization to prevent people from accessing the information it provides.

ICAO's blocking of critics on social media "raises serious questions about the role of intergovernmental organizations and their supposed impartiality and objectivity," said Anthony Arend, a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University, in a message to Axios.

"In keeping with the ICAO's goal to meet the needs of 'peoples of the world,'" said Arend, "it seems logical that the organization should not be able to prevent any person from accessing its official Twitter account ... And such action would be contrary to the concept that staff of personnel of intergovernmental organizations are to be independent and impartial."

Ku told Axios, "It is worth asking international organizations why they are blocking followers, and whether they are following free speech values in how they operate."

What they're saying: Amid the spate of social media blocks, the official ICAO Twitter account posted a link to its social media policy, adding that "Irrelevant, compromising and offensive material will be removed and the publisher precluded. Join us in improving advocacy for sustainable #aviation development through fact-based discourse."

"We have had to block some advocates who were active on our social media accounts in recent days, and who were deemed to be purposefully and publicly misrepresenting our organization in order to draw attention to their own campaign objectives," wrote Philbin. "We felt we were completely warranted in taking the steps we did to defend the integrity of the information and discussions our followers should reasonably expect from our feeds."

This isn't the first time that ICAO has blocked critics.

In March 2019, ICAO attracted criticism after it blocked academics and activists who criticized the organization's environmental policies, including a behavioral scientist who had tweeted a comment from climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The ICAO also tweeted a poem saying it was fighting "fake news" and "abuse."

Editor's note: This story has been updated with more information about the ICAO Twitter account.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday rolled out the Kejriwal aapke dwaar campaign with the launch of a website through which he will connect with the people of Delhi using pre-recorded messages.

Kejriwal said that with the help of technology he would be able to directly reach out to the people of the city.

We made a website through which I will be able to talk directly to the people of Delhi on different issues he said.

The website, http://www.welcomekejriwal.in, has pre-recorded messages of the chief minister on issues such as health, education and unauthorised colonies.

People would also be able to register their complaints which I will address after elections, he added.

The website lists the achievements of the AAP in different fields in the last five years.

A number, 76909-44444, has also been issued on which users need to give a missed call and open the link that they will then receive.

I wanted to visit every household and meet all the family members personally through door-to-door campaigning. I wanted to sit with them and discuss my report card for the last five years, informing them of all the work done in the last five years, and answer their questions, Kejriwal said.

But it is not physically possible to visit each of the 50 lakh households in Delhi. I wanted to have a direct conversation with the people without any mediators in between. When I asked my team about the way this can be made possible, resolutions through technological approaches were devised, he said.

The website has several listed options including education, health, electricity, water, infrastructure, womens security and unauthorized colonies in Delhi. On clicking each option, Kejriwal will list various achievements in each of these departments.

The chief minister said that through the platform, they are trying to reach as many people as possible through various media platforms.
The Associated Press

Spacewalking astronauts plugged a leak in a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station on Saturday, completing a series of complex repairs to give the instrument new life.

The $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer could resume its hunt for elusive antimatter and dark matter by midweek.

Team members around the world expressed relief as NASAs Andrew Morgan and Italys Luca Parmitano wrapped up work on the spectrometer. It was their fourth and final spacewalk since November to revive the instruments crippled cooling system.

Congratulations ... the AMS pump system is now leak-tight, tweeted the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, which helps run the spectrometer.

Mission Control cautioned it was too soon to declare success with the space stations premier science instrument, but noted: It still has a good heartbeat.

Last month, Morgan and Parmitano installed new coolant pumps on the spectrometer. They went back out Saturday to check for any leaks in the plumbing.

Parmitano quickly discovered a leak in one of the eight coolant lines  the first one he tested  and tightened the fitting. Our day just got a little more challenging, Mission Control observed.

The line still leaked after a mandatory one-hour wait, and Parmitano tightened it again. Finally, success  the leak was gone. Let us all take a breath, Mission Control urged. By then, the astronauts were already halfway into their six-hour spacewalk.

Mission Control acknowledged the leak added some unwanted drama to the spacewalk. Everybodys hearts stopped, Mission Control told the astronauts. Parmitano wondered aloud what his heart rate was when the leak erupted. It either flat-lined or spiked, one of the two.

It was hard fought today, really well done. Cool heads prevailed, Mission Control said as the spacewalk drew to a close.

Barring further trouble, the spectrometer  launched to the space station in 2011  will have its coolant lines filled with more carbon dioxide Sunday. One pump will be turned on as early as Monday and the remaining three Tuesday. That could lead to the resumption of science observations by Wednesday.

NASA described the spectrometer spacewalks as the most complicated since the Hubble Space Telescope repair missions a couple decades ago. Unlike Hubble, this spectrometer was never intended for astronaut handling in orbit, and once it started faltering in 2014, it took NASA years to devise a repair plan.

Morgan and Parmitano had to cut into stainless steel pipes to bypass the spectrometers old, degraded coolant pumps on a previous spacewalk. Then they spliced the tubes into the new pumps  no easy job when working in bulky gloves. New tools had to be created for the intricate job.

We did it. We all did it, Morgan said once he was back inside.

Astronaut Jessica Meir noted that the day ended up being more interesting than anyone envisioned. But you guys rolled with all the punches and got the job done.. ... Dinner is waiting, she said.

The massive 7 1/2-ton (6,800-kilogram) spectrometer was launched to the space station on NASAs next-to-last shuttle flight. Until it was shut down late last year for the repair work, it had studied more than 148 billion charged cosmic rays. The project is led by Samuel Ting, a Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The repairs should allow the spectrometer to continue working for the rest of the life of the space station, or another five to 10 years. It was designed to operate for only three years.

NASAs two other astronauts on board, Meir and Christina Koch, performed two spacewalks over the past 1 1/2 weeks to upgrade the space stations solar power system.

Altogether, this station crew went out on nine spacewalks  or 61 hours in total. Thats more than any other station expedition.

Parmitano, Koch and Russian Alexander Skvortsov return to Earth in less than two weeks.
Odd-even: What if we are fined after dropping children to schools? ask parents

Happy Global Parents Day 2021: Wishes, Quotes, Images, WhatsApp Status For Your Parents to Express Your Love

6-month-old girl including her parents injured in explosion triggered by leaking cooking gas

India

oi-PTI

Pune, Jan 27: Three members of a family, including a six-month-old girl, were injured on Monday morning in an explosion triggered by leaking cooking gas in their house here in Maharashtra, a fire brigade official said.

The incident occurred in Sambhaji Nagar in Kharadi locality of the city when Asha Bhawale (26) switched on the gas burner in the morning, he said.

Incidentally, the Bhawale faimly had purchased the new gas connection on Sunday. Asha, her labourer husband Shankar Bhawale (28), and the couple's daughter Swarali suffered burn injuries in the explosion, which shattered the tin roof of the one-room house.

Man dies in cylinder explosion in Greater Noida

"Prima facie, the explosion was caused due to leaking gas which was accumulated in the room," the official said. The trio are undergoing treatment at hospital, he added.

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Story first published: Monday, January 27, 2020, 13:27 [IST]
Ghanaians living abroad will vote in this year's general elections; the first time the franchise is being extended to them.

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE last Saturday, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, a Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of Administration, said this would be in consonance with a High Court ruling that the terms of the Representation of the People's (Amendment) Law (ROPAL) be implemented.

The EC is only waiting for the nod of Parliament so the commission can go ahead with preparations for the polls to be conducted for Ghanaians.

A CI will be sent to the Attorney-General's Department which office will then send it to Parliament for its approval so the terms of the ruling can be implemented, he said.

Per the court ruling, a CI has to be sent to Parliament by the end of the month which timeline, he said, the EC would meet.

Continuing, he said EC will do what it has to do. If Parliament gives its approval then we would conduct the elections for Ghanaians abroad. We have been to the US and Senegal already as part of preparations for the implementation of ROPAL.

ROPAL Committee

Earlier last year, a committee was empanelled with Dr. Eric Bossman Asare as chairman to craft modalities for the rollout of ROPAL, the outcome of which was the identification of three key actions to facilitate the achievement of the objective.

Countrywide public forums to solicit inputs from citizens, engagement with Ghanaians abroad and visits to four countries abroad currently operating external voting were the actions decided upon.

These countries were identified as United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom, Mali and South Africa.

Maiden Meeting

At the committee's maiden meeting, it would be recalled that members agreed to request written submissions from the public towards successful implementation of the law.

Legal Backing

The implementation of ROPAL is mandatory because it is a law. Observers have wondered why after its passage into law since 2006 it has remained a subject of foot-dragging, especially between 2008 and 2011.

A previous committee set up to make recommendations on the way forward for the EC submitted its report in September 2011.

Court Action

With no sign of something being done about rolling out ROPAL, some concerned persons proceeded to court asking that the EC be compelled to implement the law.

Jean Mensa's Committee

For her to have a better picture of the situation and the way forward, the chairperson of the EC constituted a fresh committee as aforementioned.

Report Deadline

The June-ending deadline was a problem for the committee considering the exhaustive terms of reference before it which included among others

local consultations and foreign visits.

High Court Ruling

The High Court ruling included 20-month duration for the implementation failure to meet which the ruling ordered the EC to make a public announcement about a new date because of its inability to abide by the dateline.

Issues And Resolutions

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the maiden meeting of the committee to date. Questions were raised by various stakeholders about the qualification of eligible voters, the status of voters living abroad, some of them being illegal immigrants and jurisdictional matters in case of electoral breaches.

Requirements

A consensus was reached after exhaustive debates by the committee members that eligible voters must have valid Ghanaian passports and Ghana cards.

More Feathers For EC

When ROPAL is eventually implemented, an enigma would have been cracked and the new leadership of the EC attracting the credit for the feat.

Whether the non-implementation was an act of omission or commission only Ghanaians can tell.

As for Ghanaians abroad, they would heave a sigh of relief having complained for so long over their non-inclusion on the electoral roll regardless of their mammoth annual remittances to the country.

---Daily Guide
Death row convict in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case Mukesh Kumar Singh moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking urgent hearing on his plea against dismissal of his mercy petition by the President.

The mercy plea of 32-year-old Singh was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this."



The bench also comprising Justice B R Gavai and Justice Surya Kant said that if someone is to be executed on February 1, then it is a matter of top priority and asked Singh's counsel to approach the mentioning officer as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

"Execution case will be given top priority," the bench said.

The warrant for execution of death sentence for the four convicts in the case has been fixed on February 1 at 6 am.

Singh had moved the mercy plea after the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence. The apex court had also rejected the curative petition of another death row convict Akshay Kumar (31).

The other two convicts, Pawan Gupta (25) and Vinay Kumar Sharma are yet to file curative petitions before the Supreme Court.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as "Nirbhaya", the fearless, was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

Six people -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were named as accused. The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.

The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began.

The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years. He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20 years old.

Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013.

On Saturday, a Delhi court said that no further directions were required on a plea by the lawyer of the death row convicts alleging the prison authorities were not handing over certain documents required to file mercy and curative petitions, and disposed of the petition.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain said the convicts' lawyer can take pictures of the relevant documents, diary and paintings from the Tihar jail authorities.

The court had noted that the jail authorities had already complied with the request made by the convicts by supplying the documents whatever was lying with them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Fox News hosts Gretchen Carlson and Julie Roginsky will visit the Massachusetts Statehouse Monday to speak out against the use of non-disclosure agreements.

Carlson filed suit against then-Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes alleging sexual harassment in 2016. Her claims of sexual harassment sparked a wave of allegations from other women lodged against Ailes, leading to his resignation.

Carlson and Roginsky will speak against the use of mandatory non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality provisions, which they and other critics say prevent workers from publicly discussing negative working conditions.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who frequently represents victims of sexual abuse, and Sen. Diana DiZoglio, of Methuen, are also scheduled to speak.

DiZoglio and Rep. Alyson Sullivan, R-Abington, called for a ban of non-disclosure agreements in settlements involving taxpayer funds last summer.

Any use of nondisclosure agreements, which silence victims of assault, harassment or discrimination while protecting powerful perpetrators who may be elected politicians or staff in this Legislature, simply put, is shameful, DiZoglio said last year.

DiZoglio broke her non-disclosure agreement in speaking of sexual harassment she reported experiencing as a House staffer in 2011.

They also asked state auditor Suzanne Bump to report publicly on how frequently nondisclosure agreements are used in taxpayer-funded settlements.

The Massachusetts Senate voted to ban the use of nondisclosure agreements by the state Senate in 2019. The Massachusetts House uses the agreements. House Speaker Robert DeLeo said last year that there were 33 agreements executed with employees who were terminated from the House, none related to sexual harassment.
Scientists have designed a robotic gripper that uses sound waves to move small and fragile objects, without touching them.

The prototype robot developed by the researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland comprises of two semi-spheres, and resembles a pair of headphones.

The spheres are connected to a circuit board carrying microchips. A small sphere hovers between the two semi-spheres, held up by ultrasound waves.

"This phenomenon is known as acoustic levitation," said Marcel Schuck, a fellow at ETH Zurich.

He is developing a method that makes it possible to lift and manipulate small objects entirely without touching them.

This is particularly relevant in situations where damage to small components costs money, such as in the watchmaking or semiconductor industry, the researchers said.

Conventional robotic grippers are prone to damaging fragile objects. To counter this, soft, rubber-like grippers can be used, they said.

Although these cause no damage, they are easily contaminated, like a well-used rubber eraser.

Additionally, these soft robotic grippers only offer limited positioning accuracy.

The new technology is based on an effect that has been exploited for more than 80 years, and was first used in space exploration, the researchers noted.

Ultrasound waves generate a pressure field that humans cannot see or hear.

Pressure points are created as the acoustic waves overlay each other, and small objects can be trapped within these points.

As a result, they seem to float freely in the air -- in an acoustic trap, the researchers said.

Schuck has fitted numerous small loudspeakers into the two semi-spheres, created using a 3D printer.

The associated software allows the researchers to control the loudspeakers such that the pressure points can be moved around.

The goal is to change their position in real time without the suspended object falling to the ground, Schuck said.

Using the existing technology, the scientists are able to move various small objects through space.

The software adjusts the gripper to the shape of the object to be lifted, and a robot arm then transports the object to the target destination, the researchers explained.

They said the principle of gripping without touching also has an economic benefit.

When working with a conventional robot, a different gripper is required for almost every new shape, the researchers noted.

The acoustic gripper eliminates the need for an extensive set of expensive high-precision grippers, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Trend

Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) suspends the Baku-Beijing-Baku flights every year in February, a source in AZAL told Trend on Jan. 27.

"The reason is the low demand for this destination due to holidays in China, the source said. As in previous years, the Baku-Beijing-Baku flights will be suspended from February and will be resumed from March 8."

Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC is a big air carrier and one of the leaders in the aviation community of the CIS countries. The combined route network of the airline includes about 40 destinations in 25 countries.

The Azerbaijani civil aviation planes fully comply with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

AZAL is a member of the most prestigious civil aviation association - the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

AZAL has one of the newest fleets consisting of 23 aircraft.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Update for Jan. 29 at 10 am ET: SpaceX has successfully launched its new Starlink-3 satellites. Read our full launch story here.

Update for Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m. ET: SpaceX is now targeting no earlier than Wednesday (Jan. 29) at 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT) for this Starlink launch "due to poor weather in the recovery area," the company tweeted Monday night.

Update for Jan. 27 at 9:21 a.m. ET: SpaceX has delayed today's planned Starlink launch due to high upper level winds.

The private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch 60 new Starlink satellites to join its growing broadband internet megaconstellation in orbit today (Jan. 29), and you can watch it live online.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Starlink mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT).

You can watch SpaceX's Starlink launch webcast here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff. You can also watch the launch directly from SpaceX here.

SpaceX has an 80% chance of good launch weather today, according to the 45th Weather Squadron of the U.S. Air Force, with thick clouds and "disturbed weather" as the chief concern.

If SpaceX is unable to launch the Starlink-3 mission today, the company has a backup launch opportunity on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT). That launch day has an 70% chance of good weather.

Video: See SpaceX's 1st Starlink satellites in the night sky

In Photos: SpaceX launches third batch of 60 Starlink satellites to orbit

The goal of SpaceX's Starlink project is to provide constant, high-speed internet access to users around the world through a massive constellation of broadband internet satellites operating in low Earth orbit. Users on the ground would then only need a small terminal that's no bigger than a laptop to gain internet access.

"Starlink will provide fast, reliable internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable," the company wrote in its Starlink mission description.

The majority of SpaceX's missions in 2020 will consist of Starlink launches as the company works to expand its fleet of internet-beaming satellites, including at least one more batch of 60 Starlink satellites scheduled to launch before the end of January. SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has said the company will need at least 400 Starlink satellites in orbit to offer "minor" broadband coverage, and at least 800 to provide "moderate" coverage.

SpaceX plans to operate its initial batch of 1,584 satellites 341 miles (549 kilometers) above Earth, hovering much lower than traditional communications satellites that operate out of geostationary orbit. Those satellites are too far away to provide the kind of lower-cost coverage SpaceX aims to establish, Musk has said.

Related: SpaceX's 1st Starlink megaconstellation launch in photos!

According to the company, Starlink commercial internet services could debut in parts of the U.S. and Canada after about half a dozen more launches, with global coverage after 24 launches. SpaceX's president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell has said that coverage could begin sometime this year, but the company has not yet announced pricing for its new service.

However, not everyone is thrilled about the idea of SpaceX's new megaconstellation. Astronomers have voiced concerns that the satellites could interfere with crucial scientific observations. To help ease their concerns and mitigate the satellites' apparent brightness, SpaceX is experimenting with special coatings that are supposed to make the satellites appear darker in orbit.

Related: Why SpaceX's Starlink satellites caught astronomers off guard

During today's launch, SpaceX aims to recover the Falcon 9's first-stage booster with an offshore landing on its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.

The company will also attempt to catch both halves of the rocket's payload fairing using the giant nets on its recovery boats Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Visit Space.com today for complete coverage of SpaceX's Starlink launch.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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Linkedin Natasha Wahyudihardjo (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 14:45 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20611e01a 3 Destinations travel,destination,Italy,UNESCO-World-Heritage-Site Free

If there is one thing I firmly believe in, it is that the Gods reside right above Tuscany, Italy.

While that statement may seem a little far-fetched to you, I can attest to the regions magnificence. I expected a ten out of ten travel experience, but came home with a 12.

Beginning the journey from Florence and taking the SR2 route (via Francigena), it takes approximately 90 to 120 minutes by car to reach Val Dorcia, a UNESCO world heritage site. The whole area of Val Dorcia consists of rolling hills and cypress trees in an exuberant hue of orange, yellow and green. Many stupendous little villages dot the region.

Explore the area for two days and you are in for the adventure of a lifetime. Some of the most picturesque villages are Asciano, Montalcino, Pienza and Monticchiello.

Asciano, the chillest town youll ever visit

The medieval village of Asciano is located in the heart of the Crete Senesi in Tuscany. (Shutterstock.com/Simona Bottone)

Countless rows of cypress trees will greet you as you set foot in Asciano, the peak point of the region. I think it is safe to say every car stopped every five minutes to capture the beauty of the area.

Every spot offers vistas that come straight out of postcards. It is so grand that standing on top of Asciano will make you feel so small. Stopping by the town center to grab some lunch  a cold cuts platter  prior to the much-awaited wine tasting, you will come to realize how the people of Tuscany are the epitome of slow living.

If it takes your breath away that Florence has no skyscrapers, people in Montalcino, Montapulcino, San Gimignano and Chianti rely on winemaking for a living. What a dream, right? Living in one of the most scenic spots on Earth with one of the most relaxing occupations.

Read also: 5 tips to enjoy Tuscany at its best

Montalcino, where you want to drink wine and save water

Surrounded by humongous vineyards bringing forth some of the most luscious grapes, Montalcino offers a magnificent wine-tasting experience.

The true delicacy of Montalcino is the Brunello  a rich, intense and full-bodied wine that goes well with steak. The wine-tasting started with one glass of white wine and ended with five glasses of red ones, served in the order of body: from light to full-bodied.

The weather in Tuscany is generally sunny with cool, breezy air. Being under the Tuscan sun is one of the most rewarding things you will experience.

Pienza, the culmination of the rolling hills

Pienza is a town in the province of Siena in Tuscany's Val d'Orcia. (Shutterstock.com/Viliam.M)

Before Pienza, looking for the exact photo spot that perfectly captures the beauty of Val Dorcia was quite a challenge. You may have done research beforehand, or even saved the exact coordinates on your phone, but in reality it is hard to find the exact spot.

Luckily, your wanders will come to a close the moment you arrive at Pienza. Pienza is one of the villages located at the top. From there, the whole Val Dorcia lies at your feet like a bed of gold. It was almost 7 p.m., but the sun shone so brightly it blinded the eye. Be prepared to be completely spellbound and bewitched.

So many authentic Italian restaurants are found in Pienza, and you will realize here that every region of Italy has its own native pasta.

Apart from fettuccine or at most tagliatelle, do you know there is a kind of pasta called pici? It is native to Siena. And of course, a scoop or two of gelato wont hurt. The texture is silky-smooth, with the perfect amount of sweet. If you are bored with regular flavors or even the good ol favorite of pistachio, resort to unique ones, such as fig or walnut.

Monticchiello, lively and lush

View on the little town of Monticchiello (Shutterstock.com/hipproductions)

En route to Monticchiello, if you are seeking another great spot to capture the view of cypresses and the rolling hills, La Foce is the place to go. Parking is not an issue, as La Foce provides quite a spacious parking area.

Monticchiello shines at daytime. If Pienza is very much glorified for its orange-ness, Monticchiello is green and lush. If you are lucky, you can get rather cool weather that matches the green color palette of this tranquil village. (kes)

***

Natasha Wahyudihardjo is a 27-year-old language enthusiast working in the field of content and SEO. She has penchants for anagrams, Scrabble and wine. In her leisure time, she casually answers questions on Quora.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and India increased to approximately $1.1 billion in 2019, Deputy Foreign Minister Ramiz Hasanov said during the event in Baku to mark the 71st Republic Day of India, Azernews reported.

"The development of economic relations between our countries should be emphasized. The bilateral intergovernmental commission is operating successfully and the trade turnover between the two countries has increased to approximately 1.1 billion in 2019," Hasanov said.

There are over 230 Indian companies operating in Azerbaijan, which invested $1.2 billion invested in the country's economy.

"Two countries are participating in the North-South International Transport Corridor project through which goods may be supplied to Europe in a shorter period of time and at lower prices than via traditional routes," Hasanov said.

Noting that relations in the energy sector are also developing rapidly, the minister noted that the Indian ONGC Videsh company owns a stake in the project of development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

He further emphasized the importance of tourism in terms of developing relations between the two countries, adding that certain steps have already been taken in this direction.

Touching upon cultural ties, Hasanov stressed that as a result of mutually beneficial cooperation between Azerbaijan and India, today Azerbaijani culture is widely promoted in India.

"There are many opportunities for promotion of Azerbaijani culture in India. Last year, the 650th birth anniversary of the great poet of Azerbaijan and thinker Imadaddin Nasimi was also celebrated in India," Hasanov recalled.

Noting that intercultural dialogue brings nations and civilizations closer together, he also said that Azerbaijan provided active support to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India's freedom movement and peace activist.

Hasanov reiterated that Azerbaijan supports further development of multilateral and comprehensive relations with India.

Speaking about the political relations between the two countries, he underlined that they are successfully developing, high-level visits are held, and mutually beneficial cooperation exist in various international organizations.

Addressing the event, Indian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Bawitlung Vanlalvawna spoke about Indias successes in various fields, as well as the relations with Azerbaijan.

He said India was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan after the country regained its independence.

Vanlalvawna reminded that Indias constitution was established 71 years ago and the country has progressed since then making contribution to universal human values.

He further stressed that India wants to strengthen its friendship and cooperation with Azerbaijan in all areas.

Touching upon the relations between the two countries, Vanlalvawna said that Azerbaijan and India have deep cultural and historical ties.

"Respect for multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue unites us. At the same time, there is extensive cooperation between the two countries in various fields, and it is expanding every year. Azerbaijan and India also cooperate within the North-South International Transport Corridor," he noted.

The reception to mark Indias Independence Day was attended by officials, MPs, ambassadors of foreign states in Azerbaijan and public representatives.

India recognized Azerbaijan's independence in 1991, and diplomatic relations were between the two countries were established on 28 February 1992.

India celebrates Republic Day on January 26 each year. Thats the day when India's constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, completing the country's transition toward becoming an independent republic.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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The Duke of Sussex attends the UK-Africa Investment Summit at the Intercontinental Hotel London (PA)

Thomas Markle has asked the Duke of Sussex to man up and meet him, as he spoke about how much he misses his daughter Meghan.

The Duchess of Sussexs father, who has said he is willing to testify against Meghan as part of her legal action against three newspapers, said people should think about what it feels like to have a family member ghost them before judging him.

Mr Markle described the breakdown of his relationship with Meghan as ridiculous, and called for a reunion.

Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in February 2018 (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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In an interview on ITVs Good Morning Britain, Mr Markle said he is really disappointed he has not seen his grandson Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, adding: And I really miss my daughter.

He said his message to Harry is: Man up and fly down to see me. And well talk.

Asked what he would say to Meghan, he told the programme: Id say: I love you, and: Lets sit down and work this out. She was the closest thing to me for years and years and years, until she went off to college and even then.

This is ridiculous. We should get together.

Mr Markle is the main witness for Associated Newspapers, owner of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, in its response to Meghans legal action over an article featuring parts of a handwritten letter to her father.

It's always on your mind. You wake up with it. You go to sleep with it. It's very hard to deal with.Thomas Markle

The duchesss defence is seeking damages from the publisher for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.

In court documents, the publisher argues an article in US People was sanctioned by the duchess and its effect was to suggest that Mr Markle has made false claims about his dealings with his daughter and that he was entirely at fault in not attending the royal wedding and for the estrangement between himself and the claimant.

Ill see Meghan in court, Mr Markle said to The Sun.

I wish it hadnt come to this, but I will certainly testify against the things that have been said about me.

When me and Meghan end up in a courtroom together, it will be quite stunning for everybody.

Asked about the possibility of meeting Meghan and Harry at court as part of the legal action, Mr Markle told Good Morning Britain: If it comes to meeting them in a courtroom, thats great. At least Id finally get to see them.

He went on to say he did not want a battle.

Legal documents submitted to the High Court shed light on the relationship between Meghan and her father, with Mr Markle claiming he contributed tens of thousands to her education, paying private school fees, university tuition costs and her student loan even after her career as an actress took off.

Asked about how he is trying to contact his daughter, he said: For me, there is no other way to reach them. I pretty much will give an interview and wait for 30 days for some kind of answer back.

If I dont get one back then Ill try another interview.

Asked what he would say to people who are critical of him doing TV interviews, Mr Markle said: I would tell them to try being in my position for a while and see what its like  have a family member ghost you and not speak to you, and see how you feel.

Its something that stays with you 24/7 every day, and it never goes away.

Its always on your mind. You wake up with it. You go to sleep with it. Its very hard to deal with.

Speaking about the couples decision to step back as senior members of the royal family, Mr Markle said it is never going to work, adding: I think theyve hurt the Queen. I think theyve hurt the royals.

He said: Im a little embarrassed for them, and feeling very sorry for the Queen.

Mr Markle said he thinks Harry should have travelled to see him to ask for Meghans hand in marriage.

I actually think Harry should have come to me at the beginning. He asked for her hand over the phone, and I actually think that in hindsight now I think that a royal, who has a plane at any time he wants it, could have come down to Mexico and asked for her hand in person to me, he said.

Mr Markle said he still feels that Harry could reach out to him now, adding: This shouldnt keep going on. I mean they are putting this making this a big drama for the world every day is kind of ridiculous.

Its a family problem. It should be solved as a family problem.

Mr Markle has claimed the duchess sent him only occasional modest financial gifts after landing a role in the hit TV series Suits, even though he was still paying off her college debts.

An extract from a responding letter from Meghan, published by the Mail on Sunday and on MailOnline in February last year, read: Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces  not simply because you have manufactured such unnecessary and unwarranted pain, but by making the choice to not tell the truth as you are puppeteered in this. Something I will never understand.

Her lawyers claim that, had the letter been published in full, it would have undermined the defendants intended negative characterisation of her.

They also say the true sentiment of the letter was Meghans concern about her fathers welfare and his exploitation by tabloid newspapers which he should stop talking to.

The publishers lawyers have accused the duchess of being more worried about the unflattering effect of the publication of letter extracts written to her estranged father than any breach of her data protection rights.

The relationship between Meghan and her father broke down completely in the week of her wedding in May 2018, a few months before the letter  thought to be the last communication between the pair  was sent.

Harry and Meghan are dropping their HRH styles and stepping down from royal duties in search of freedom away from the monarchy, and will raise Archie mostly in Canada.
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to celebrate the resolution of the Bodo issue by organising a mega rally, likely to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in Assam's Kokrajhar.



Speaking to ANI, Assam Deputy Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, stated that the state unit would want to thank the central leadership for preserving the territorial integrity of Assam.

"Moreover, the Bodoland community will have the highest level of autonomous model of governance in their jurisdiction. This is a historic day for Assam. We have invited PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to address a rally in Kokrajhar to celebrate this historic decision on February 7," Sarma said.

He pointed out that the accord signed under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah is historic.

"Four factions of NDFB and other civil society organisation of Bodoland community have signed an agreement with the Government of India and Assam reaffirming territorial integrity of Assam. More power to both linguistic and academic, cultural to the Bodoland people," he said.

He also pointed out that Shah had worked on this agreement since his last visit to Assam.

"He created an agenda for himself and recently signed an agreement with Brus ending decade long problem and today Bodo accord. There will be more two-three agreements which will ensure complete peace in the North East region," he said.

Sarma said that no central government had taken initiative in North East. "Only the Modi government had shown extra love for North East region," he said.

Reacting on the controversy over statements made by student leader Sharjeel Imam he said the Assam police would soon arrest him.

"We will arrest him. In the North East region, we will not tolerate Shaheen Bagh. Even Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, it is patronised by fundamental and communal forces. I believe people of India are looking at the design and people will protest Shaheen Bagh kind of protests because you can't allow a particular fundamentalist people to hijack this country," he said. (ANI)
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Elsevier, a global information analytics business specializing in science and health, has awarded the institutional repository team at Montclair State University's Harry A. Sprague Library with the 2nd annual Karen Hunter Memorial Award. The award was established in 2018 to honor the legacy of Karen Hunter, who led research initiatives and partnered with the library community throughout her distinguished career as a librarian. The awardee is selected by Elsevier's North American Library Advisory Board (NALAB) and recognizes a project, product, publication, program event or testimony that shows desire to encourage collaborations between librarians and publishers, or advance information dissemination through technology.

The Montclair State University library repository committee members consisting of Kathleen Hughes, Denise O'Shea, Mei Ling Chow, Paul Martinez, Darren Sweeper, Karen Ramsden, Judith Lin Hunt and Siobhan McCarthy cultivated a culture of research on the Montclair State campus and helped propel the university to an R2  Doctoral University  High Research Activity classification by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in February 2019.

"Montclair State University was the very first institution to volunteer to support a beta program, which tested a new integration between two Elsevier solutions, Digital Commons and Pure," said Shandon Quinn, VP of Product Management, Elsevier. "During the beta discussions, endorsed by the Library Dean, Judith Lin Hunt, and driven by the coordinator of the institutional repository, Karen Ramsden, Montclair State engaged with Elsevier representatives to share its goals, visions and hopes for how their workflows and needs could be addressed. Their input and feedback was always constructive, reflecting a genuine desire to partner with Elsevier to find every way possible to make progress towards their institutional goals."

The Library aims to be an integral part of the university's goals, especially fostering research and scholarship on campus.

"Our institutional repository provides an essential service that aids in increasing the visibility of our University scholars and encouraging collaboration with other researchers and institutions worldwide," said Willard Gingerich, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Montclair State University.

To that end, the Library contributed to the launch of three new research platforms: Research with New Jersey, Research with Montclair, and Montclair State University Digital Commons.

In just over a year after its public launch, Montclair State University Digital Commons received over 21,000 downloads on over 3,000 faculty and student works posted. Downloads came from over 1,800 institutions from 150 different countries.

The platforms' influence can now be seen across the entire campus as faculty seek to share their research and scholarship with the worlda fundamental part of the mission of the university. Dean Hunt and the library repository team have exemplified the spirit of the Hunter Award with advances in technology for disseminating research and information for their work at Montclair State University.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps scientists and clinicians to find new answers, reshape human knowledge, and tackle the most urgent human crises. For 140 years, we have partnered with the research world to curate and verify scientific knowledge. Today, we're committed to bringing that rigor to a new generation of platforms. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 39,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.elsevier.com

Media contact:

Jonathan Davis, Global Communications

Elsevier

+31-20-485-2719

[email protected]

SOURCE Elsevier
The Supreme Court Monday sought response from the Maharashtra government on a plea by gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli challenging the life term awarded to him in the 2008 murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.

Jamsandekar was shot dead in his house on March 2, 2007 by two persons, allegedly hired by associates of Gawli who was the then sitting MLA.

Gawli's appeal challenging the last month verdict of the Bombay High Court, which had upheld the life term awarded to him by a trial court in the case, came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna.

The bench agreed to hear the appeal and issued notice to the state.

The high court had on December 9, 2019 upheld Gawli's conviction and life term awarded to him by trial court under various provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Besides Gawli, it had also upheld the conviction and sentence imposed on several other accused in the case by the trial court in August 2012.

"The involvement of accused one Arun Gawli in the murder of Kamalakar Jamsandekar has been proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt," the high court had said in its verdict.

According to the prosecution, Jamsandekar was murdered at the behest of Gawli and the charge sheet filed by the police in the trial court had said that Gawli gang was allegedly paid Rs 30 lakh for killing the Sena corporator over a land deal in suburban Mumbai.

Gawli, arrested on May 21, 2008, is currently lodged in jail in Maharashtra.

The prosecution had alleged that several accused in the case were members of organised crime syndicate headed by Gawli and they had hatched a conspiracy to kill Jamsandekar due to political rivalry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Although the highly anticipated Suzuki V-Strom will not be released until March, Suzuki has announced three new accessory packs ahead of the bikes arrival.

Suzuki will release two variants of the V-Strom, the V-Strom 1050 and V-Strom 1050XT. Both variants are equipped with an updated version of Suzukis 1037cc, 4-stroke, liquid cooled DOHC engine, and a wet, multi-plate type clutch. Both bikes also get a three mode traction control system, and three selectable engine power modes.

While it is unclear yet if the V-Strom 1050 and 1050XT will be released in the Philippines, there are currently four other V-Strom models available locally: the V-Strom 1000XT ABS, the V-Strom 650XT ABS, V-Strom 1000 ABS, and the V-Strom 650 ABS.

Going back, the Suzuki V-Strom 1050XT will have an enhanced electronics package, which will have Suzukis Intelligent Ride System (SIRS), which, with a six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) at its core. It also includes lean angle-sensitive ABS with two settings, linked brakes that can detect and adapt to load and inclines, plus hill hold control and cruise control.

Explore Pack

The Explore pack equips the V-Strom 1050XT with a three piece full aluminum luggage, engine bars, LED fog lamps, aluminum bash plates, and heated grips. The Explore package is ideal for drivers who like to take their bikes off road and conquer rougher terrain. The package is priced at 2,499 (Php 166,000), saving the driver about 626 (Php 42,000) if the items were to be bought individually.

Tour Pack

The Tour Pack is perfect for customers who want a hassle-free weekend away. Equipping the bike with a three piece full aluminum luggage will cost the driver about 1,299 (Php 86,500), saving the driver about 316 (Php 21,000) over the cost of the individual items.

Adventure Pack

For customers who want a less flashy storage solution, the Adventure Pack is the way to go. Perfect for city driving, the Adventure pack equips the V-Strom 1050 with a spacious 55 liter top box and a center stand for 549 (Php 36,500), saving about 115 (Php 7,650) with the purchase.

Story continues

We know a lot of owners want to add a personal touch or tailor their V-Strom to their specific needs, and by offering three different accessory packs that is now not only easier but also more affordable, too. The packs can also be fitted at the point of sale, meaning they can be included in any finance deal and benefit from the same three-year warranty we offer across our range, comments Ian Bland, Suzuki GBs national motorcycle marketing manager.

The Explore pack and the Tour pack are available for both the V-Strom 1050 and V-Strom 1050XT models, while the City pack is only offered on the V-Strom 1050.

Also Read:

The post Suzuki Releases Three Packages for the V-Strom appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.
CORUNNA, MI  Details are still coming out about the gruesome slaying that took the life of vibrant hairstylist Kevin Bacon and shook a small town.

Mark Latunski, 50, was charged with open murder and mutilation of a body after 25-year-old Kevin Bacon was found dead in the basement of his Bennington Township home near Morrice on Dec. 28, 2019.

Latunski will undergo competency and forensic evaluations to determine is he can stand trial. The suspects public defender Doug Corwin Jr. submitted an insanity defense.

MLive has been covering the story since Bacons family first declared Kevin Bacon missing and organized search parties to look for him.

Heres the latest on what has happened so far:

Michigan home where man was allegedly killed and eaten could be sold

Police tape surrounds the entrance to the Mark D. Latunski residence on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 in Bennington Township. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May | MLive.com

Will there be a buyer for the home that holds a dark past? An optimistic realtor thinks so.

Security Federal Credit Union published a foreclosure notice for Latunkskis home on Thursday, Jan. 23, in The Argus Press of Owosso, the newspaper reported, setting the stage for a possible sale of 703 Tyrrell Road at a public auction on Feb. 26 in Shiawassee County Circuit Court.

Police say Bacon was stabbed in the back, his body hung from his ankles in the basement of the house. Officials have also accused Latunski of cutting the throat of his victim, cutting pieces off his body and eating them. Theres a buyer for every property. It will 100 percent sell," said Scott Myers, a Realtor based in Genesee County. To an investor, they just care about getting a good deal." The home, situated on a 5-acre parcel, has a market value of nearly $93,000, according to property records.

Property records show that Latunski purchased the home for $80,000 in May 2001 and applied for a permit to build an 8- by 20 foot living space in the basement later that same year.

911 call reveals how former guest fled from house in cannibal, murder case

New York man escapes with butcher knife

The house at 703 W. Tyrrell Road in Shiawassee County's Bennington Township where police say they recovered the body of 25-year-old Kevin Bacon the morning of Dec. 28, 2019. Bacon was last seen alive on Dec. 24.

A New York man in Michigan on business fled Latunkaskis home after he woke up chained in the basement, according to a 911 call obtained by MLive.

The call occurred on Oct. 10, 2019

I dont know if he drugged me, he says. I woke up in the ... basement. Chained in the basement.

The man said he used a butcher knife to cut a leather strap on his ankle which was connected to a metal chain. He said he then fled the house.

He indicated a man was hitting on him at the bus station upon his arrival and going out to grab a drink. The man tells the dispatcher he later woke up in the basement of a home.

Police arrived to the mans location and gave him a ride to a local gas station. The man then contacted Latunski and returned to the home on the same evening, according to police.

Nobody wanted the police there. Nobody wanted to file charges, Michigan State Police Lt. David Kaiser said. A lot of times people have a professional life and personal life. They dont want to intertwine the two. Their personal life is very secret, very protected.

Man flees from home in leather kilt

A similar incident occurred a month later, when a 29-year-old man wearing a leather kilt ran from the home of the suspect, police have said.

The man tells a dispatcher he escaped from a home where he was chained up in the basement. He says he was being chased.

No charges were pressed in connection to the Nov. 25, 2019 incident.

Charges can be filed by the state on behalf of a victim in a domestic situation, but Kaiser said these incidents dont fall under those guidelines.

Judge approves competency test for suspect in Kevin Bacon case

Judge Ward L. Clarkson approves a competency test for Mark D. Latunski on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 in 66th District Court in Corunna. Latunski is charged with open murder and mutilation of a body in connection with the death of Kevin Bacon. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May | MLive.com

On Wednesday, Jan. 8, Shiawassee Chief District Judge Ward L. Clarkson approved a motion for Latunski to undergo competency and forensic evaluations, submitted by public defender Doug Corwin Jr. Corwin also submitted an insanity defense.

Court records filed by Corwin state Latunski is "so fixated on a conspiracy theory including multiple nations/countries and involved in multiple trust accounts."

The records also state Latunski believes he is a noble person from the Thomas Clan of Wales whose real name is Edgar Thomas Hill, a name he provided during the arraignment.

The suspect will now be moved from the Shiawassee County Jail to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry near Saline for the evaluations. The process may take from 60-90 days, if not longer, and further court sessions are on hold until the report is submitted.

Kevin Bacon disappears on Christmas Eve

Kevin Bacon's family released this picture of him to the media. The family says he's been missing since Christmas Eve.

Everything changed for family and friends of Kevin Bacon, a 25-year-old hair stylist from Swartz Creek, when he went missing.

Michelle Myers, Bacons close friend and roommate, told MLive she was the last person to see Bacon that night. Myers said Bacon told her around 5 p.m. he was meeting up with a man hed met on Grindr, a dating app.

At 6:12 p.m., Kevin Bacon texted Myers saying he was going to be out for a while, and he wasnt sure when hed be back, but that he was having fun, Myers told MLive.

Bacon was supposed to meet family at 9 a.m. on Christmas Day for breakfast, Bacons dad, Karl Bacon said.

Later that day, Bacons father, Karl Bacon, met with police in Swartz Creek and later found his sons car in the parking lot of a plaza near a Family Dollar. Inside the car, police found Kevin Bacons phone and wallet, Karl Bacon said. The following day, police found Kevin Bacons clothes in a bag in the backseat of his car, his car keys being the only missing items, according to Karl Bacon.

Family looks for Kevin

On Friday, Dec. 27, Bacons family and friends formed search parties to look for him. At the time, police would not confirm he was missing, but the family alerted multiple media organizations.

That day, the search party eventually wrapped up, due to no results.

Friends and family search for Kevin Bacon who went missing on Christmas Eve.

Body is found

Police found Bacon dead the morning of Saturday, Dec. 28, at a house in Bennington Township in Shiawassee County near Morrice. Police arrested 50-year-old Latunkski on an open murder charge.

Mark Latunskis booking photo provided by the Shiawassee County Sheriffs Office.

Latunski was arraigned with one count of open murder and one count mutilation of a body for allegedly killing Kevin Bacon on Christmas Eve or early Christmas Day. Police say Bacon was stabbed in the back, his body hung from his ankles in the basement of the house.

Records related to Latunski show along history of metal illness.

Latunski was known to stop taking the medication prescribed to treat his mental health illnesses, according to records from the 66th District and 35th Circuit courts.

A motion filed Aug. 22 by former wife Emily Latunski to suspend Mark Latunskis parenting time states he was diagnosed with major depression, paranoid schizophrenia and traits of a personality disorder in 2010 and 2012.

Gruesome details tell how Kevin was killed

Tyrrell Road, the location of Mark D. Latunski's house, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 in Bennington Township. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May | MLive.com

On Monday, Jan. 6, The Flint Journal-MLive obtained court transcripts from the hearing where police officers have to offer information on the case to a judge in order to obtain an arrest warrant.

Bacon was found dead, hanging from the ceiling of Latunskis home, located in the 700 block of W. Tyrrell Road. Officers conducted an interview with Latunski on the morning of Dec. 28. Latunski allowed them to enter and search his home. Latunski admitted to killing Bacon by stabbing him in the back and then slitting his throat.

After, Latunski admitted to tying a rope around Bacons ankles and hanging him from the rafters on the ceiling. He also admitted to using the knife to cut off Bacons testicles and later eat them, the police testimony says.

Family and friends mourn Kevin

Karl and Pam Bacon, Kevin's parents, stand together hand-in-hand during a vigil honoring Kevin Bacon on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020 at Swartz Creek High School in Swartz Creek. Kevin Bacon, 25, is a 2013 Swartz Creek High School graduate. He was found dead Saturday, Dec. 28 inside a home off West Tyrrell Road in Shiawassee Countys Bennington Township, 30 miles west of Flint. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May | MLive.com

Kevin Bacons funeral was held on Friday, Jan. 3, at Sharp Funeral Homes, Miller Road Chapel at 8138 Miller Road in Swartz Creek. A candlelight vigil was held later that night.

Bacons loved ones made banners and brought large and colorful balloons to the vigil. Friends also painted the Flint Rock in his honor.

Bacon had a love for family, friends, his cats Smokey and Fuzzy, his dog Hannah, as well as doing makeup and hair, according to his family.

He was a graduate of Sharps Hair Academy in Grand Blanc and worked as a hairstylist at Uniquely U Salon in Swartz Creek and had also worked at Vintage Hair Salon, JC Penney Hair Salon and Diplomat Pharmacy, per Kevin Bacons obituary. He was also attending the University of Michigan-Flint.

What happens next?

Shiawassee County resident Mark Latunski, 50, was charged with one count of open murder and one count of mutilation of a human body, on Monday, Dec. 30, by Judge Ward L. Clarkson at the 66th District Court in Corunna following the death of Kevin Bacon, 25, who was reported missing on Christmas Day. (Sean Proctor | MLive.com)Sean Proctor | MLive.com

Latunski is scheduled to undergo competency and forensic evaluations to determine his competency to stand trial.

He will now be moved from the Shiawassee County Jail to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry near Saline for the evaluations. The process may take from 60-90 days, if not longer, and further court sessions are on hold until the report is submitted.

Related news:

Judge approves competency test for suspect in Kevin Bacon case

911 caller woke up ... chained in a basement of house in cannibal, murder case

911 call reveals man escaped alleged killers basement with butcher knife

Michigan home where man was allegedly killed and eaten could be sold

What we know so far about the grisly slaying of Kevin Bacon

YouTuber Jeffree Star donates $20k toward funeral expenses for Swartz Creek man
The Oceanography Society proudly announces that Dr. Taro Takahashi (deceased 12/3/19) has been selected as the first recipient of the Wallace S. Broecker Medal. Dr. Takahashi's six-decade research career cemented the understanding of global ocean uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and the biogeochemistry that drives it. He is remembered as an excellent mentor to his colleagues and junior scientists, as well as for his strong conviction that community service is an important part of being a researcher.

Dr. Takahashi's acheivements will be recognized during The Oceanography Society's Honors Ceremony on February 18, 2020, at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego, California.

###

ABOUT THE AWARD

Wallace S. "Wally" Broecker (November 29, 1931-February 18, 2019) was an American Geochemist. Born in Chicago in 1931, Wally first attended Wheaton College, Illinois, and received a PhD in Geology in1959 from Columbia University, New York. He was named Newberry Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. After early work in Pleistocene geochronology, he made major contributions to Chemical Oceanography, developing a kinetic view of chemical distributions in the ocean, their role in tracing ocean circulation and the carbon cycle, and their utility as paleoceanographic tracers to discern large-scale changes in the global ocean and climate systems. He introduced the term "global warming" to the scientific lexicon, and was a leading voice for development of informed solutions to human-caused climate change, including reduction of excess greenhouse gases. He was awarded numerous fellowships and awards, including Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and receipt of the Crafoord Prize in Geosciences, the Alexander Agassiz Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Medal of Science of the United States and many others. He received honorary doctorate degrees from Harvard University, Pennsylvania State University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, and many others.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) was founded in 1988 to advance oceanographic research, technology, and education, and to disseminate knowledge of oceanography and its application through research and education. TOS promotes the broad understanding of oceanography, facilitates consensus building across all the disciplines of the field, and informs the public about ocean research, innovative technology, and educational opportunities throughout the spectrum of oceanographic inquiry. TOS welcomes members from all nations. Any individual, business, or organization interested in ocean sciences is encouraged to join and to participate in the activities and benefits of the society.

As a professional society, TOS is committed to supporting a community that encourages the open expression and exchange of ideas, that is free from all forms of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, and that is welcoming to all members and to those who participate in its activities. In pursuit of that commitment, TOS is dedicated to the philosophy of equality of opportunity and treatment for all participants.

The Oceanography Society is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization incorporated in the District of Columbia.
A life insurance policy is an essential part of an individual's financial planning, especially, if he/she has dependents. However, studies show that an alarmingly large portion of India's population is not covered with an adequate insurance cover. Further, most Indians look at life insurance as a waste of money.

Consequently, term insurance is often avoided for having no investment component. Individuals end up picking endowment policies to cover unexpected death and fail to leave behind enough funds to meet their financial responsibilities.

Why do you need a term insurance plan?

If you have a family that relies on you for financial needs, the importance of term insurance cannot be stressed enough.

In financial planning, it is ideal to look at insurance as a cover against uncertainties and investments as means to create wealth, thus keeping the two separate.

As a thumb rule, you are allowed to purchase an insurance cover of minimum sum assured of Rs 25 lakh, and through a term insurance plan, you can seek a large cover for a small annual premium when compared to endowment policies or other investment linked insurance policies.

A large cover will help your family fund any ongoing loan re-payments, child's education and other financial responsibilities that they will be left with after your demise.

While you cannot save your family from the emotional suffering that comes with unforeseen circumstances, you could lighten their financial burden with a term insurance plan.

What makes Canara HSBC OBC's "iSelect+ Term Plan" a good fit for you?

The Indian insurance market has a plethora of online term insurance policies to choose from. While making a choice, you could consider Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company's highly flexible term plan called the iSelect+ Term Plan that allows you to customize the insurance plan as per your needs and requirements. Besides death, it also covers permanent disability or terminal illness.

Here are some of the features that make "iSelect+" Term Plan favourable:

1. Choose from options on coverage

As per your needs, you can customize your insurance plan to cover life (death and terminal illness), return of premium (if you outlive the policy term) and avail an extended cover for your whole life (till you turn 99 years old).

There are very few online term insurance policies like Aegon Religare's iTerm Plan, HDFC's Click 2 Protect 3D Plus or PNB Met Life's Mera Term Plan, that come with the 'whole of life' option. However, these policies come with less than the minimum sum assured of Rs 25 lakh provided by Canara HSBC OBC.

While HDFC's Click 2 Protect 3D Plus and PNB's Mera Term Plan offer Rs 10 lakh each.

2. Optional built-in covers

Under iselect+ plan, you can augment your term insurance to include additional inbuilt coverage like Accidental Death Benefit, Child Support Benefit, Accidental Total and Permanent Disability Benefit.

Almost every other term policy online comes with critical illness and permanent disability benefits. In fact, Aegon Religare also provides women specific critical illness benefit. However, the "Child Support Benefit" is unique to the Canara HSBC OBC's iSelect+ Plan and cannot seen in any similar term policies currently in the market.

It enables you to secure your child's future goals in case of death or on diagnosis of terminal illness.

3. Option to add spouse

You can add your spouse to the same policy with a discount on the premium rate pertaining to Death / Terminal Illness benefit for the spouse.

The spousal cover is also available in term plans offered by Aditya Birla Sun Life (DigiShield), Bajaj Allianz (iSecure), Edelweiss Tokio (Zindagi Plus) and PNB MetLife (Mera Term Plan) but Canara HSBC OBC's plan provides the option to allow earning spouse to choose sum assured as well.

Under the iSelect+ plan, the spouse also has an option to increase insurance cover in the future.

4. Multiple premium payment options

Under the iSelect+ plan, one can make a single bullet payment for the entire term or pay premium for a limited period (5, 7, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years) or pay only during working years, besides paying throughout the policy term.

Apart from Canara HSBC OBC, such level of flexibility in premium payment on term policies (with similar benefits) is only provided by HDFC Life.

Life Insurer Canara HSBC OBC Aditya Birla Sun Life HDFC Life PNB MetLife Plan Name iSelect+ DigiShield Click 2 Protect 3D Plus Mera Term Plan Premium Payment options Single Premium, Limited Premium for 5/7/10/15/20/25 years and Regular Premium SP, LP 5/7, RP SP, LP 5-39, RP RP

5. Multiple payout options

Benefits can be opted to be received as lump-sum, monthly income or part lump-sum part monthly income. Customers can also choose to receive benefits in fixed, increasing or decreasing level to meet the family's monthly expenditure requirements.

6. Option to increase life cover

With changes in lifestyles, salary and financial needs, iSelect + term plan allows you to augment your term insurance plan to provide larger cover, a provision that cannot be availed in an LIC term plan (eterm).

An individual can increase his/her cover after marriage (by 50% of sum assured), child birth (25% of SA) and purchase of house (25% of SA).

The insurance cover will increase by 5% every policy year, up to an overall increase in the sum assured to 100% of the original sum assured.

7. Discounts

Premium discount is available for higher sum assured, women and existing customers of Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance.

8. Tax benefits

You can seek tax benefit under Income Tax section 80C on premiums paid and benefits received from the term insurance.

Conclusion

A term insurance policy like Canara HSBC OBC's iSelect + Term Plan provides a large cover (minimum sum assured of Rs 25 lakh) for up to 80 years of age (age at maturity of policy) while being customizable to fit your changing lifestyle and needs. It can be purchased online and guarantees a financially secure future for your family, even in your absence.
Nearly 10,000 jobs have been lost in retail since the start of 2020, according to new research.

Debenhams, Mothercare and Asda are among several big brands to have closed stores or announced redundancy plans.

A total of 9,949 positions have gone, an analysis by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) found, with a further 1,200 jobs still under threat following the collapse of department store Beales and toy retailer Hawkins Bazaar in the past week.

Other retailers closing stores or cutting jobs include Game, HMV, Arcadia and Morrisons.

Large-scale store closures have been widely blamed on the huge shift to shopping online.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

But despite changing consumer habits, owners of retail property are putting their faith in 5G wireless technology as a potential high street saviour, a separate report has found.

Around 66 per cent of top British executives see cashier-less retail as one of the top two beneficial innovations to come with the introduction of 5G, according to Altus Groups annual Commercial Real Estate Innovation Report.

A further 77 per cent said they expect the benefits of new innovations in automated stock ordering to also help the struggling sector.

The report surveyed 400 major property owners and investors with more than 200m of assets under management.

Executives hope 5G will allow retailers to use both augmented reality and virtual reality to enhance the customer experience, while improving stock efficiencies and eliminating queues at checkouts.

The report acknowledges one of the short-term impacts of new technology could lead to further job losses, but executives said they believe it could also mean job creation in the longer term.

Scott Morey, executive director at Altus Group, said: 5G presents a great opportunity for retailers to further improve the underlying performance of their physical stores by transforming the customer experience and shifting the role of their store personnel towards higher value tasks.

Shoppers fundamentally rely on stores during various stages of their shopping journey and 5G has the potential to further improve that interaction.

The findings provide a more optimistic outlook than forecasts by the Office for National Statistics, which predict 65 per cent of all retail cashiers and checkout operator jobs will become redundant in future, as will 60 per cent of staff working in stock control.

Boris Johnson is set to decide later this week whether to allow the use of Chinese Huawei technology in Britains new 5G network despite protests from the US government.

Mr Morey added: Whilst 5G will transform the consumer experience, the starting point will be for telecom companies and real estate owners to provide the infrastructure and physical location points so 5G can reach its full potential.

Press Association
By Tessa Vikander

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - The first phase of battle over whether Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou should be extradited to the United States wrapped up on Thursday after four days, with lawyers for Meng challenging prosecution claims that her alleged actions are a crime in Canada.

In a Vancouver courtroom, lawyers for Meng opposed the Canadian prosecutor's arguments saying her alleged actions are not a crime in Canada because the charges of bank fraud are dependent on violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Canada had no sanctions against Iran when the extradition process began.

The judge said she would reserve her decision for a later date. Lawyers connected to the case expect a written judgment before April 27, when Meng is set to call evidence related to her arrest, which she alleges was improperly conducted.

On Thursday, in their final arguments Meng's lawyer, Scott Fenton, told the judge that the U.S. request to extradite Meng is "all and only about sanctions risk."

Fenton said that to side with the prosecution, and allow Meng to be extradited, would be an embarrassment to the Canadian judicial system.

"The court is being embarrassed. There can be no fraud here because all risk to HSBC is based on underlying sanctions risk which cannot exist in Canada," he told the judge.

The United States has charged Meng with bank fraud, and accused her of misleading HSBC Holdings Plc about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's business in Iran.

Court proceedings show the United States issued the arrest warrant, which Canada acted on in December 2018, because it believes Meng covered up attempts by Huawei-linked companies to sell equipment to Iran, breaking U.S. sanctions against the country.

But Meng's legal team argued that "double criminality," is the central issue in this case. Under Canadian extradition laws, a person can only be extradited if the offense they are alleged to have committed in another country is also considered illegal in Canada. This is commonly called "double criminality."

Unlike the United States, Canada did not have sanctions against Iran at the time Canadian officials authorized the start of the extradition process, her lawyers have said.

Story continues

If the judge finds that double criminality has not been met, then Meng would be free. However, the prosecution could immediately appeal the decision. Legal experts have said it could be years before a final decision is reached due to appeals.

'INHERENTLY POLITICAL'

Meng has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition. She entered court wearing a white polka dot dress with a long-sleeved black top and stiletto heels that she has often favored during the trial.

Meng's lawyers acknowledge that between 2011 and 2016, Canada had economic sanctions against Iran, but that at the time the U.S. requested Meng for extradition, Canada had already done away with sanctions against Iran, "along with the rest of the civilized world."

The case is therefore inherently political because it is about whether Canada imports the U.S. sanctions law  a "political law"  and applies it to an extradition request, said Richard Peck, one of Meng's lawyers.

On Wednesday, prosecutors argued that Meng should be extradited on fraud charges, and that contrary to her defense argument, the case is not solely about violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. They argued that the judge's job was to "ensure that Canada doesn't become a safe haven for fraudsters."

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei, remains free on bail in Canada, and has been living in a mansion in Vancouvers exclusive Shaughnessy neighborhood.

Meng's legal team is currently only scheduled to call evidence in the last week of April, and a second phase of the trial, focusing on abuse of process and whether Canadian officials followed the law while arresting Meng, is set to begin in June. Closing arguments are expected in the last week of September and first week of October.

(Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Workers from the state-owned Kahatagaha graphite mine, 133 kilometres north east of Colombo, spoke to WSWS reporters last week after a three-day strike and hunger protest to demand higher wages and improved working conditions.

Striking Kahatagaha graphite mine workers

While security officers prevented the reporting team from entering the mine area, claiming that prior permission from the ministry of industry was required, several workers spoke with the WSWS at the end of their shift outside the main gate. Concerned that they could be victimised, the workers asked that their comments be anonymous.

There is no proper transport to the isolated mine and almost all the workers travel there by motorbikes, including as pillion passengers. Once inside the main gate they have to travel over one kilometre to the mine head.

The strike, which involved the mines 130-strong workforce, began last Tuesday and brought all production to a halt. Strikers demanded wage increases, job permanency and better working conditions. The action also included groups of workers taking turns to participate in a relay hunger strike inside the mine, 600 metres below the surface.

The walkout was organised in defiance of the two union branches at the minethe Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya and the Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, which are affiliated to the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) respectively. Both unions and their mine branch presidents were hostile to the strike and refused to participate. The SLFP union is currently backing President Rajapakses ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led government.

The Sri Lankan ministry of industry immediately dispatched senior officials to negotiate with strikers representatives at the local labour commissioners office in Kurunegala.

Graphite miners occupy the Kahatagaha mine

One of the mine workers told the WSWS that the Minister of Industry and Commerce Wimal Weerawansa personally phoned Kurunegala labour commissioners office during negotiations. The minister told us that our union actions should not cause any inconvenience to the government, the worker explained.

Nervous about the political impact of the strike, which erupted just two months after Gotabhaya Rajapakse was elected Sri Lankan president, Weerawansa promised the mine workers a miniscule 50-rupee ($US3 cents) increase in the daily wage. He claimed that the pay rise was only a temporary measure and that the strikers demands would be granted by February 28.

Rajapakse came to power in November, after falsely pledging to improve living conditions, amidst growing workers strikes and protest. His SLPP minority government will face a general election early this year.

The Kahatagaha graphite mine worker told WSWS reporters that he had supported Rajapakse in the presidential election but then asked: Whats the use of the government if it does not address workers demands?

Im a member of SLFP union but it didnt support the strike. What is the use of it? We took the action independently. In the past no government has addressed our demands, he added.

WSWS reporters described how successive Sri Lankan governments have restructured state-owned corporations and slashed subsidies in line with International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies. They pointed out that the Rajapakse government was committed to the same austerity measures.

The mine worker commented in response: We didnt exactly know these things, as youve explained, but have experienced this situation and havent been able to gain anything from the previous struggles we undertook. We dont have much faith in the promises weve now been given and would take action again.

The discussion continued on the political role of the trade unions and their defence of the capitalist system; workers experience in Sri Lanka and internationally; and the necessity to build workers action committees, independently of the unions, and to fight for socialist policies.

WSWS reporters met another graphite worker at his home in Goluwahena village. His mother answered the door and was at first reluctant to call her son because striking Kahatagaha graphite mine workers were witch-hunted during previous disputes. When reporters explained they were from WSWS, the worker came to the door and enthusiastically explained his experiences.

Im not afraid to fight for our demands. All our rights have been obtained only through a struggle he said, and showed some photographs of previous strikes he had been involved in.

Striking miners hunger strike and sit-down protest

The former privately-owned facility was nationalised in 1972 by an SLFP-led coalition government. It was sold off to a private company in 1991, which retrenched many workers and imposed harsh working conditions. The company shut down the mine in 2002, claiming it was unprofitable.

The worker secured a job at the Kahatagaha graphite mine about a decade ago, after it was reopened under government control in 2006. He and other workers were forced to join the SLFP-controlled union because they were hired during a SLFP-led government. He has been involved in several struggles at the mine since then.

If we take any action the unions threaten us, sometimes by threatening to discontinue their service. These unions are formed according to the needs of the governments of the day.

During a strike at the mine in 2016, Wasantha Samarasinghe, a union official from the Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), visited the facility and attempted to establish a branch of his partys union. While the JVP postures as opponents of Colombo, the organisation and its union affiliates, like their UNP and SLFP counterparts, oppose any independent political mobilisation of workers against employers and the government.

The worker said he was sceptical about the government granting workers demands on February 28 and denounced the minister of industrys 50-rupee daily pay rise. Whats the use of 50-rupee increase when our monthly wage is totally inadequate he declared. Unskilled workers at the mine are only paid 688 rupees ($3.80) per day while skilled and permanent worker get 982 rupees and some additional allowances.

The wages are so low, he said, that mine employees need other jobscarpentry, driving three-wheel taxis or working in agricultureto pay their bills and make ends meet.

One contract employee said he was only paid about 23,000 or 24,000 rupees per month. He explained that he had to buy a bike because public transport is scarce in the area. Local residents have to wait for up to an hour in order to catch transport to nearby cities, such as Matale or Kurunegala. After paying his loan installments, he only had 7,000 rupees to cover his monthly expenses and was dependent on the familys major breadwinner, his father, who is a lorry drivers assistant.

Last weeks strike by Kahatagaha graphite mine workers is both an initial indication of future working-class struggles that will erupt against the government and the rapidly disappearing illusions in the Rajapakses bogus promises to raise workers living standards. In line with the demands of the IMF and the major corporations, the new regime will ruthlessly move to impose the deepening economic crisis of Sri Lankan capitalism onto the backs of the working class.
Custom home designer and builder Riverbend Timber Framing received a 2019 Best in American Living Award (BALA) presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Awards were announced at the NAHB International Builders Show in Las Vegas on January 22, 2018.

BALA presented Riverbend Timber Framing with a Gold Award for International Housing for their Revelstoke Timber Home.

The home was designed by the Riverbend Design Group, the in-house architectural design firm of Riverbend Timber Framing. Riverbend also fabricated and installed the timber materials.

The Revelstoke Timber Home is a 3,726-square-foot home designed to fit with the character of the growing resort town of Revelstoke, British Columbia. Timber framing adds a rustic appeal to the exterior of the home, while the interior of the home is contemporary and open with a direct connection to nature via the warm timbers.

The Best in American Living Awards believe that A great home starts with great design. These awards reflect the talent and dedication of our world class designers, as we continue to exceed our clients expectations with beautiful designs that define Riverbend Timber Framing as a leader in the timber frame industry, said President James Banner.

Now in its 36th year, BALA recognizes outstanding achievement by builders and design professionals in all sectors of the residential housing industry including single-family production, custom, multifamily, affordable, remodeling, community and interiors. BALA is built on the principle that all great homes start with great design, no matter cost or size.

Buying a home is often the most significant purchase people will make in their lifetime, and BALA winners spotlight what building industry professionals need to know to set their project apart and hit the right mark with todays highly educated and discerning home buyers.

Additional information about the BALA program can be found at bestinamericanliving.com. The 2097 Winners Portfolio, featuring design trends and project photographs, is available online as well.

# # #

ABOUT Riverbend Timber Framing: Riverbend is a leader in the design and production of amazing timber frame homes. Using a complete building system that includes structural insulated panels (SIPs) and insulating concrete forms (ICFs), Riverbend provides clients with a highly energy efficient, structural envelope. Riverbend is part of PFB Custom Homes Group, LLC which includes additional brands, PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes, M.T.N Design, TimberScape and Point Zero Homes. Visit http://www.riverbendtf.com to learn more.

ABOUT NAHB: The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 140,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, multifamily construction, property management, subcontracting, design, housing finance, building product manufacturing and other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. NAHB is affiliated with 800 state and local home builders associations around the country. NAHB's builder members will construct about 80 percent of the new housing units projected for this year.
(Adds quotes, background)

By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Simon Robinson

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Activist Greta Thunberg said on Tuesday planting trees was not enough to address climate change, in an apparent rebuke to a pledge in Davos by U.S. President Donald Trump an hour earlier.

Trump dismissed "perennial prophets of doom" on climate change in his keynote address. While he did not directly name Thunberg, she was sitting in the audience for his speech.

Trump announced the United States would join an initiative to plant one trillion trees, but also spoke at length about the economic importance of oil and gas and called climate change activists the "heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers".

"Our house is still on fire," Thunberg said in her speech, repeating her remarks at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum a year ago.

"Your inaction is fuelling the flames," the 17-year-old added, in the latest to-and-fro with the 73-year-old president.

Their debate around climate change appears an attempt by both to frame the argument, with Thunberg calling for an immediate end to fossil fuel investments in front of a packed audience an hour after watching Trump make his keynote address in the Swiss ski resort.

Thunberg responded by referring to "empty words and promises" by world leaders. "You say children shouldn't worry... don't be so pessimistic and then, nothing, silence."

She said: "Planting trees is good of course, but it is nowhere near enough of what is needed, and it cannot replace real mitigation and rewilding nature."

Earlier, Thunberg called on world leaders to listen to young activists, who have followed her to Davos this year.

"I'm not a person that can complain about not being heard," she said, prompting laughter from the audience on the first day of the annual WEF meeting.

"The science and voice of young people is not the centre of the conversation, but it needs to be."

Story continues

Several young activists have travelled to Davos, which has chosen sustainability as its main theme this year.

Thunberg has inspired millions to take action on climate change. A video of her giving Trump what media described as a "death stare" at a U.N. climate summit in New York in September went viral on social media.

(Writing by Leela de Kretser; Editing by Alexander Smith and Janet Lawrence)
A Montana Tech student from Nevada was jailed on a charge of sexual intercourse without consent Monday after police found him with a Nevada female under the age of 16 in his dorm room this weekend.

Police in Elko, Nevada called security at Montana Tech believing the girl was a runaway and might have been with Caden Joseph Constable, 19, who is from Spring Creek, Nevada  about 15 miles southeast of Elko in the northern part of the state. The information was relayed to Butte police.

They went to Constables dorm room at Tech around 2:40 a.m. Saturday, found the girl there and arrested Constable, police said. Prosecutors later charged him for allegedly having sex with the girl.

The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison or up to 100 years. Under Montana law, a person under the age of 16 cannot consent to sexual intercourse.

The offense carries a minimum two-year term but a four-year minimum if the offender is four or more years older than the underage victim. Constable is more than four years older than the girl.

Police believe the girl knew Constable and came to Butte on her own. She was taken into custody because of her runaway status.

Constable made an initial appearance Monday afternoon before Justice of the Peace Jimm Kilmer, who set bond at $50,000 and assigned the case to a public defender at Constables request.

When Kilmer asked him if he had other criminal charges pending against him, Constable said, No, this is my first time.

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Amid the controversy surrounding Sharjeel Imam for his controversial "cut off Assam from India" speech, his mother Ashfa Arshad on Monday claimed that her son was innocent and expressed faith that the court will deliver justice in the matter.

"He has done nothing. He is wrongly being blamed and framed in the case. He asked for blocking the roads, hoping that it would stop the NRC. He does not have the capacity to break off Assam or any part of anything," Arshad told reporters here.

"He is not a criminal or a thug. He is a decent man who fears Allah. I have full faith in Allah and courts that he will come out of all this clean," she added.

Earlier on Sunday, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police booked Sharjeel Imam, co-ordinator of Shaheen Bagh protests, for his controversial "cut off Assam from India" speech that he allegedly made a few days ago at the anti-CAA protest site.

Imam has been slapped with charges of sedition and inciting enmity between communities under Sections 124A, 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"It was noticed that one Sharjeel Imam, permanent resident of Bihar and former student of JNU, has been delivering very inflammatory and instigating speeches in his opposition to CAA and NRC. He had previously delivered one such speech in Jamia on December 13 and thereafter has given one even more inflammatory and instigating speech against the government, which is being widely circulated on social media," the Delhi Police said.

A case has also been registered against Imam by the Uttar Pradesh Police for his alleged controversial speech delivered during the students' protest at the Aligarh Muslim University on January 16 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Assam Police too on Saturday registered an FIR against Imam for allegedly inciting people to "cut off" Assam from the rest of India.

A series of videos have gone viral on social media in which Imam is heard saying: "If we all come together, then we can separate the Northeast from India. If we cannot do it permanently, then at least for 1-2 months we can do this."

"It is our responsibility to cut Assam from India. When this happens, only then the government will listen to us," he is heard saying further in the video.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[January 27, 2020] Public Policy And ICT: Industry Experts To Discuss At BICSI Winter Conference

TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BICSI, the association advancing the information and communications technology (ICT) community, has announced the details of its Opening Keynote session, which will be taking place during the 2020 BICSI Winter Conference & Exhibition, 9-13 February at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, FL. The Keynote will take the form of a Panel Discussion, titled "Public Policy in a Changing WorldHow Will It Impact the ICT Professional?" The year 2019 saw an alarming uptick in proposed legislation to address the changing ICT industry and 2020 is promising to have even more activity. Technology, safety and the human element are often at odds with each other. Rapidly advancing technology continues to change the ways we work and live. The panel will discuss key topics facing ICT professionals, including low-voltage licensing; O*NET industry classifications and code assignments; and public work development initiatives. In addition, a focus will be placed on the landscape and some of the challenges and opportunities, as well as the importance in implementing new strategies and defending competency-based programs for the design, installation and integration of ICT fields. Moderating the panel is Charles Wilson, Executive Director of the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA), a not-for-profit association representing the connected technologies industry. He currently sits on numerous industry boards and councils and often speaks on emerging technologies, innovation, code and standards, and regulatory issues, as well as legislative and industry advocacy concerns. Joining Charles on the panel are:



Joseph Lee | Senior Manager, State and Local Government Affairs | Cisco Systems

Joseph covers the entire country and monitors state legislation that ranges from cloud computing, Power over Ethernet, cybersecurity and procurement. Before Cisco, he was a Manager of State Government Affairs at RELX (LexisNexis and Elsevier). Joseph has worked in state government public policy for 13 years.

Joseph covers the entire country and monitors state legislation that ranges from cloud computing, Power over Ethernet, cybersecurity and procurement. Before Cisco, he was a Manager of State Government Affairs at RELX (LexisNexis and Elsevier). Joseph has worked in state government public policy for 13 years. Pat McMurray , RCDD, DCDC, NTS, OSP, PMP | President | T&R Communications, Inc.

Pat joined T&R Communications, Inc. in 1985 and was made a partner shortly after, managing the technical portion of the business. Today Pat is President of T&R Communications and serves as the BICSI Western Region Director. He is also active with Northern California IBEW-NECA.

Pat joined T&R Communications, Inc. in 1985 and was made a partner shortly after, managing the technical portion of the business. Today Pat is President of T&R Communications and serves as the BICSI Western Region Director. He is also active with Northern California IBEW-NECA. Ron Tellas , BSEE, MSEE, MBA | Technology and Applications Manager, Enterprise Networks | Belden

Ron joined Belden in 2016 to help define the roadmap of technology and applications in the enterprise. He is a subject-matter expert in RF design and Electromagnetic Propagation. He represents Belden in the ISO WG3 committee, TIA TR42 Premises Cabling Standards and IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group. The Opening Keynote will take place on Tuesday, 11 February, from 8:45-9:30 a.m. in the West Hall at the Tampa Convention Center. BICSI's Winter Conference program also includes dozens of technical sessions covering topics such as 5G systems; the Internet of Things (IoT); smart cities and intelligent buildings; data centers; Power over Ethernet (PoE); and more. In addition, the Conference hosts a large exhibition featuring more than 150 companies featuring their latest ICT products and services, as well as the all-new PoE Lighting Pavilion, an impressive area dedicated to exhibitors that thrive on the business of delivering data and power over a single Ethernet cable. More information and registration for the BICSI Winter Conference can be found at bicsi.org/winter.

About BICSI

BICSI is a professional association supporting the advancement of the information and communications technology (ICT) community and currently serves more than 26,000 memberships and credentials. BICSI is the preeminent global resource for ICT credentials, standards, knowledge transfer and career development. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, USA, BICSI membership spans nearly 100 countries. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/public-policy-and-ict-industry-experts-to-discuss-at-bicsi-winter-conference-300993797.html SOURCE BICSI

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My inauspicious arrival on the Isle of Arran seemed to have perturbed Lady Jean Fforde not at all.

Its the smell, dearie, she said, pounding my back like a jackhammer as I retched into the boxwood. Youll be used to it soon enough.

And she was right. Three whiskies later (drunk neat, the Scots never having heard of ice), I was a new man. While I was enjoying this healthful and refreshing beverage, Lady Jean explained the vile smell that had followed her out the door.

It seemed that she had, that morning, come across a lamb that had been abandoned. The nights on Arran are very cold and very damp, and the lamb would surely die if its body temperature couldnt be raised and fast.Standard operating procedure on Arran for dealing with this predicament, believe it or not, is to shove the hapless lamb into the kitchen oven and fire up the heat.

Now, in the first place, if you have ever smelled wet lamb you know that it makes wet dog resemble Chanel No. 5.

In the second place, as Lady Jean put it, The poor creature was pooping and peeing all over the place.

I smiled benignly, three whiskies to the wind on an empty stomach and feeling no pain.

Speaking of stomachs, we entered the dining room for dinner and Lady Jean sat a huge meat pie on the table. I stared at it wide-eyed. Oh! said Lady Jean, laughing like a drunk sailor. Youre wondering if its lamb pie! Not to worry!

* * *

As the unfortunate lamb discovered, it gets very cold on Arran at night and Strabane had no central heating. When I went to bed I observed that someone had thoughtfully placed a hot brick on the bed, which kept me toasty warm. The next morning, still in my bedroom, I tried to pour milk from the pitcher into my tea, but first had to break through the ice.

Later, Charles drove me around the island and briefed me on the emergency. Arran is a fascinating place, so Ill pause here and fill you in.

The Isle of Arran is kidney-shaped, about 20 miles long and 10 miles wide and not quite 5,000 people live there.

Arran is often referred to as Scotland in miniature because, just like on the mainland, the highlands are in the north and the lowlands are in the south. Charles and I started in the north, motoring up the steep grade of Goatfell, the nearly 3,000-foot peak that dominates the north of Arran.

The surrounding hills were rough and irregular, tricking the eye. At one point Charles stopped the car, put the gearshift in neutral, and set the emergency break.

When I release the break, Charles asked, what will happen?

The car was at that point nosing downhill, so I naturally guessed that, when the brake was released, the car would roll forward. Charles released the brake and the car rolled slowly backward, apparently being pulled uphill by some invisible force.

Electric incline, Charles said mysteriously, and off we went.

There are only three roads on Arrantwo roads and a track is more like it. The main road runs around the circumference of the island, and thats the one we took, heading counterclockwise around Arran.

As we drove, Charles talked about the ancient history of Arran, but I was listening with only one ear because, every way I looked, there was something enchanting. Around this turn was a dramatic cliff with the waves of the North Sea crashing into it. Around that turn was a quiet glen, shady and magical. Over the next hill were a series of standing stones and stone circles, placed there by a mysterious people back in the Stone Age, more than 5,000 years ago. There were ruined castles everywhere.

I was thinking that it had been very difficult to get to Arran from Pittsburgh, and undoubtedly it would be very difficult to get back. Why not just stay here forever?

Meanwhile we had turned onto the track, a road that runs across the middle of the island. There are numerous bridges on the track, and most of them are curved. I dont mean they are arched, I mean they are curved.

Whats with the curved bridges? I asked.

Keeps the witches from crossing them, said Charles.

Soon Charles began speaking of his mother, so I paid attention. As a girl, Lady Jean had divided her time between Buchanan Castle on the mainland, seat of the Dukes of Montrose, and Brodick Castle on Arran, seat of the Dukes of Hamilton. Her favorite playmate was young Prince Rainier, who loved Arran and visited almost every year as a boy.

Gradually, the charms of Arran won out and Lady Jean moved permanently to Brodick Castle, which sits at the foot of Goatfell and dominates the small town (pop. @ 600) of Brodick.

When World War II broke out, Lady Jean volunteered for the Wrens, but failed the physical. (She was probably too big for the uniforms.) Annoyed, she prevailed on her father, the 6th Duke of Montrose, to find a way for her to help out with the war effort.

The Duke spoke to Lord Mountbatten and Lady Jean soon found herself at Bletchley Park, the site of Britains codebreaking efforts directed at the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers.

Alan Turing, the animating brain at Bletchley Park and the inventor of computer science and artificial intelligence, was prosecuted after the war because he was gaya crime in Britain at the time. Lady Jean, however, described him to me as a lovely man, very pleasant to work for, but obviously not the marrying kind.

But as for the exciting work of breaking German codes, it left Lady Jean cold. The work, she told me, was boring, the people unpleasant, and the food inedible.

In any event, Lady Jeans fairy tale life was about to come a cropper, as well see next week.
Philadelphia school board president Joyce Wilkerson speaks in favor of changes to Pennsylvania's charter school law at a news conference Monday at Whitehall Elementary School in Norristown. Read more

As school districts send increasingly larger shares of their budgets to charter schools, nearly 30 superintendents from across the Philadelphia area joined Monday to call for changes to Pennsylvanias charter law in a collaboration they described as unprecedented.

District leaders said they hoped Gov. Tom Wolf  who pledged charter change last year  would make the issue a priority in his budget address next week, including by calling for a moratorium on new charters and expansion of existing schools.

"It simply cannot wait any longer, Souderton Area School District Superintendent Frank Gallagher said Monday at the news conference in Norristown. He said "charter school costs are growing faster than our own district costs and hurting public education.

Charter leaders argued that costs are increasing because students are rejecting traditional schools in favor of charters. They accused district leaders of attacking charter schools and families during National School Choice Week.

Its clear to anyone paying attention that their political agenda is to put more money in their coffers, not help students seeking the best educational options available," said Ana Meyers, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools.

School districts are required to fund charter schools based on what each district spends on its own students, with different rates for regular- and special-education students.

 READ MORE: Gov. Tom Wolf pledges to change charter-school policy, says more accountability needed

District officials singled out the special-education funding system as particularly problematic. Districts pay charters the same rate for every special-education student, regardless of the students needs. That creates a perverse incentive for charter schools to enroll students needing lower-cost special-education services, said Samuel Lee, superintendent of the Bensalem School District.

Because of the way special-education funding is calculated, West Chester Area School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon said, the district is sending the same amount of money to charters as it did five years ago  even though the district has recruited students back and has 200 fewer students enrolled in charters.

 READ MORE: West Chester wants to win back charter students with its own cyber program, and its not alone

Charter funding is not just an urban issue. Its an issue for all school districts" in Pennsylvania, Scanlon said.

District leaders also expressed frustration with their lack of oversight over charters that some of their students attend. While districts are tasked with authorizing brick-and-mortar charter schools, cyber charters are approved by the state and draw students from across Pennsylvania.

Districts also pay for students to attend brick-and-mortar charters located in other school districts. In Norristown, for instance, we do not have a single charter school within our boundaries. None. Zero, said Superintendent Christopher Dormer. Yet, the district sends $9.5 million to charter schools for 550 students, whose education the elected school board has zero say over, Dormer said.

Other school districts participating in the news conference included Cheltenham, Haverford Township, Upper Darby, and Philadelphia, where about one-third of public school students attend charters.

While our sheer number of students in charter schools can often make us seem different than our neighbors," said Philadelphia School Board President Joyce Wilkerson, whats become clear over the last several years is that our challenges are no different from school districts across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 20:25 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2061386c8 1 Business Wishnutama,Budi-Karya-Sumadi,Tourism-Ministry,China,Airport,AP-I,AP-II,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus Free

Despite concerns about possible human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus, the government has said that the country is still open to visitors from China and that there are as yet no plans to restrict travel from the entire country.

Tourism Minister Wishnutama Kusbandio said on Monday that there were no plans to bar Chinese tourists from entering Indonesia, with the exception of those coming from Wuhan and the province of Hubei, where the fast-spreading virus was first identified.

No countries have banned [Chinese tourists], so why should we ban them? We [need only] to increase alertness," Wishnutama said, "However, those from Hubei province and the city of Wuhan are banned, so take note of that."

He went on to say that the Foreign Ministry had issued a travel warning for Indonesians visiting China, with yellow status, or alert, for those traveling to cities or regencies in China with the exception of Wuhan or Hubei, which have red status, meaning travel there is prohibited.

Wishnutama continued that the outbreak -- which had affected more than 2,000 people in four continents as of Monday -- had yet to make any impact on Indonesian tourism.

There has been no impact yet. The number [of Chinese tourists] is still normal and compared with last year, this months numbers are even higher," he said, adding that the details of the number of tourists would be provided soon by the ministry.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data shows that from January to November last year, Indonesia welcomed 14.92 million international tourists, of whom 1.92 million, 12.87 percent, were from China.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said that Indonesian airlines had only suspended flights to and from Wuhan, while routes connecting the archipelago to other cities in China were still operating.

Because other countries still welcome them [Chinese tourists], we must welcome and treat them politely too, Budi said.

Direct flights to and from Wuhan to Indonesia, operated by Indonesian airlines Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air from Denpasar, Bali, have been stopped since Friday in response to the coronavirus outbreak and Wuhan lockdown.

The president director of airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, Faik Fahmi, said that the operator had cooperated with local port health offices (KKP) to make sure tourists from China entering Indonesia were healthy.

If any passengers fall sick, we immediately cooperate with the Immigration Office. We make sure that their body temperature remains below 38 degrees and during checkups our officers wear face masks, Faik said.

Meanwhile, PT Angkasa Pura II said that among its 19 airports, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta and Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, had become their main focus.

Angkasa Pura II president director Muhammad Awaluddin said that although Soekarno-Hatta had at least 31 flights to China daily, there were no direct flights to Wuhan.

Awaluddin said that the operators had installed thermal scanners in all 19 airports to monitor passengers.

As of Monday, the coronavirus, which bears similarities to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), had killed 80 in China since it was first identified in Wuhan on Dec. 31, 2019, AFP reported. Indonesia has no confirmed cases so far. (dfr/mfp/ami)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a note to the Union ministry of home affairs stating there is a link between protests against the contentious citizenship act in different parts of the country and the Popular Front of India (PFI), sources said on Monday, charges strongly condemned by the organisation.

According to the sources, the note shows several payments and withdrawals in various areas around the time of the protests in December last year and January.

It has been noticed that Rs 1.04 crores were deposited in 15 bank accounts of PFI (10) and Rehab India Foundation (5) during the period starting from 04.12.2019 till 06.01.2020, a source said quoting from the document.

The money trail has proved beyond doubt that PFI has mobilised the money to finance the cost of demonstration/gherao against CAA Bill till 06.01.2020. Further investigation to trace money trail from other bank accounts is continuing, the note said, according to the source.

They added that the names of some prominent people to whom payments have been made by PFI also been mentioned in the note.

Also Watch l CAA stir: UP govt blames PFI for violence, seeks ban on the Islamic outfit

Charges will never be proved

The PFI issued a point by point rebuttal to EDs note, saying the allegations that it funded the anti-CAA protest were baseless.

The organisation said the Enforcement Directorate has not contacted it nor has issued an official statement regarding these allegations.

We are confident that the fate of these series of allegation will also be like the ones before which could never be proved, it said.

The organisation also responded to another allegation of transfer of funds its Kashmir Wing, saying it does not have any wing or branch in Jammu and Kashmir.

We challenge the so called Unnamed Sources to prove that there is any wing of Popular Front working in Kashmir, it said.

On allegations that it transferred funds to senior advocates, PFI said it had only done so once in 2017 as fees to lawyers engaged to fight the Hadiya case and openly declared it in various public meetings.

This statement exposes the intention of the vested interested who are keen to blame Popular Front for everything that is happening in India... Attributing a fees transfer that happened in 2017 as a funding for 2019 CAA protest is totally absurd and exposes the intention to defame Popular Front.

It also rejected the allegations of the governments in Uttar Pradesh and Assam about the arrests of our state-level leaders in the anti-CAA protest-related violence.

Police in Uttar Pradesh had arrested around 25 PFI functionaries and activists for their alleged role in the violent anti-CAA protests in Meerut, Shamli, Muzzafarnagar and Lucknow on December 19. More than 20 people were killed during these protests.

But their claims proved to be nothing but imaginations when they could not prove anything in the court and our leaders were released on bail, it said.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also said earlier in January PFI may have played a part in the violence surrounding some protests and that the Union home ministry will decide on the action to be taken against the organisation based on evidence.

PFIs top leadership largely comes from Kerala and the organisation allegedly radicalises Muslims towards the ultra-conservative Salafi strain of Islam.

The organisation has rejected these allegations.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 03:14:43|Editor: zh

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KHARTOUM, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's government on Sunday signed a peace agreement with two opposition groups from northern Sudan, according to the Sovereign Council in a statement.

The two groups from North Sudan - Kush Movement and Northern Entity - are parts of Sudan's opposition Revolutionary Front Alliance.

The agreement was signed in Juba, capital of South Sudan, which is patronizing the negotiations between the Sudanese factions.

The agreement addresses a number of issues including lands and development in addition to problems facing people affected by the construction of dams.

The signing of the final agreement on the north negotiating track represents an advanced step towards reaching a comprehensive peace deal, Mohamed Al-Hassan Al-Taishi, a member of Sudan's sovereign council and spokesman for the government negotiating delegation, was quoted in the statement as saying.

The Juba peace talks focus on five tracks: Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile areas, eastern Sudan, northern Sudan and central Sudan.
Introduction

Currently, the brouhaha over the Electoral Commissions decision regarding the compilation of a new voters register for Ghana is ongoing with vehement submissions from various political actors in the country.

Created by article 43 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has several constitutional functions and one of these functions per article 45 (a) of the Constitution is that the EC must compile the register of voters and revise it at such periods as may be determined by law. In some jurisdictions, the electoral register is also called the electoral roll, voters roll or poll book. In consonance with Article 42 of the Constitution, the EC of Ghana must ensure that the register contains the electoral-related demographic information of eighteen (18) or years old citizens of Ghana who are of sound mind and who have the right to vote in public elections and referenda.

The Essence of An Electoral Register

The essence of an electoral register is to streamline voting on Election Day, to aid voter identity verification, to combat electoral fraud and to prevent multiple voting among other reasons. Whereas most jurisdictions maintain permanent electoral registers, some also compile new registers for each election. Ghana has not been known for the latter so the EC compiles and cleans the voters register periodically.

The NPPs Proposal For A New Voter Register In 2015

In 2015 however, the EC objected to numerous calls to compile a new voters register. The call for the new register at the time emanated from the allegations by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the voters register contained the names of foreigners especially names of some citizens of the Republic of Togo. At the time, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was the party in power also rebutted that there were no foreigners on the electoral register and that some personal names in Ghana are equally used in Togo since Togo and Ghana have Ee speaking people. Surprisingly, the register the NPP objected to in 2015 brought the same political party to power in January 2017 after the party won the 2016 general elections in December that year. Paradoxically, the register the NPP alleged was compiled in favour of the NDC rather removed the NDC from power. Does this make the NPP allegation scientific and for that matter logical? Or it was a mere political cynicism?

The Dispute Over Compilation of A New Voters Register

One of the heated debates within the national discourse in Ghana in recent times is the brouhaha over the ECs resolve to compile a new voters register. Whereas the NPP and about thirteen (13) other political parties have supported the ECs intention to compile a new voters register, most of the players in the Ghanaian political scene including the NDC and many civil society organizations (CSOs) have objected to the idea of new register compilation. Both the supporting and opposing parties of the idea of compiling a new a register have been submitting their justifications and convincing the general public to side with them.

This discourse of not accepting a new register, initiated mainly by the NDC has once again demonstrated the lack of nationalistic thinking in Ghana. This is because the discourse so far is not far from the 2015 one initiated by the NPP and the discourse has brought more practical meanings to what the Public Choice Theory says about the behaviour of political elites. The theory postulates that human beings are naturally self-centred and therefore focus on utility maximization or benefits that they get from an activity. By extension therefore, politicians tend to act rationally for cynical reasons rather than achieving public goals altruistically. It is therefore clear that both the NPP and NDC positions on the ECs resolve to compile a new register are vote-winning centred rather than what is sustainably good for Ghana as a nation and for the benefit of posterity. It is about time we put Ghana first rather than the utility maximization for few political elites who occupy high offices only to gain and not to serve the nation truly. Partisan cynicism must give way to synergy and nationalistic thinking under the circumstance. A black object must not be described as near black in colour only for a cynical political gain.

Is The EC Not Impairing Its Neutrality And Constitutional Mandate?

Article 46 of the Constitution, 1992 states, Except as provided in this Constitution or in any other law not inconsistent with this Constitution, in the performance of its functions, the Electoral Commission, shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.

Surprisingly, the EC constituted a 21 member Eminent Advisory Committee (EAC) under the chairmanship of the Former CHRAJ Boss, Justice Emile Short. I think that mindful of the tenets of article 46 of the Constitution cited ut supra, and mindful of the existence of the Peace Council whose Chairman is also a member of the EC formed EAC, the formation of the EAC amounts to duplication of efforts and waste of national resources. We could have directed these fine brains to other activities of national interest. After all, the EAC is an advisory body and in line with article 46, the EC is not bound to comply with every advice of the EAC if the EC thinks that it is being controlled by the EAC.

It is not surprising that the Daily Graphic reported the EC as saying that its decision on the new voters register compilation is final and will not change. It means logically that not even the EAC can convince the EC to change this decision. Setting up the EAC is therefore needless and a deviation from the ECs mandate and also amounts to impairment of mandate.

There is also some inconsistency in the way the EC is conducting affairs. Earlier, we heard from the EC that the register was credible and it was this same register that was used for the referendum in creating the six (6) new regions. This same register was used in conducting the recent district assembly elections and this same register was used in conducting the controversial Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election. And but for the Presidents cancellation of the intended referendum relating to political party participation in local government elections, this same register would have been used for the purpose. Which one does the EC want the general public to believe? That the register is credible or not credible or that the EC just wants to engage in a public purse wasting activity. Readers should remember that both the NPP and NDC still maintain their 2015 views on the credibility of the register. In 2015, NPP believed the register was not credible but it brought the party to power any way. However, the party still believes the register must change. In 2015, the NDC thought, and 2020 it still thinks the register is credible and so a new one must not be compiled.

Even in 2019, the EC itself maintained that the register was credible. So at what point did it become incredible to have warranted a new compilation? The Ghanaian voters must be told. To my mind, a constitutionally neutral body like the EC must not be seen to approbate and reprobate at the same time on an issue of this nature. Doing so amounts to the impairment of the ECs neutrality and public trust in the electoral body. Above all, the EC is working with the political parties so there must be healthy discourse and consensus among all stakeholders regarding the voters register. There must not be an entrenched position at all. We do not want electoral conflicts or civil war in Ghana due to political cynicism or any other thing. Ghanaians are already suffering in the hands of political elites so they need a break to enjoy a bit of peace. Surprisingly, we are not hearing the public voices of both the Peace Council and the EAC over the new register compilation brouhaha. We hope that they are working tirelessly behind the scenes to calm nerves and to prevent any calamitous situation that will take the country back to the 1980s.

Why Are Those Opposing The New Register Compilation Not Proceeding To Court?

On almost a daily basis, we hear the voices of the NDC and many other bodies and individuals in the media space either demonstrating or granting interviews or doing both to drum home the fact that compiling a new voters register is needless and waste of the public purse. Having heard all this over the months from 2019, one keeps wondering why the continuous shouts atop the roofs without proceeding to court.

In 2016 for example, Papa Kwesi Nduom (the Progressive Peoples Partys presidential candidate as he then was) filed for the writs of prohibition and certiorari in the High Court, against both the EC Boss at the time (Mrs. Charlotte Osei) and the EC as body. The fact of the matter was that the erstwhile EC Boss and the EC prevented Papa Kwesi Nduom from correcting errors on the surface of his presidential candidate nomination form and the EC wanted to go ahead to toss for positions on the presidential ballot paper without including Papa Kwesi Nduom just because there were errors in his documents. Papa Kwesi Nduom won the case because the High Court granted him both certiorari and prohibition. The EC or Mrs. Charlotte Osei did not file an appeal but rather complied with the court decision.

Perhaps this is a good lesson for the NDC and the many other opponents of the EC in the current brouhaha to proceed to court and file for prohibition and other prerogative orders necessary to deepen democracy rather than the continuous shout from the rooftops and on the streets. After all, what we want is a neutral electoral system that will guarantee free, fair and peaceful elections all the time.

Even the ECs ouster comment on its decision being final creates room for a judicial review or intervention. Advisedly, article 23 of the Constitution states, Administrative bodies and administrative officials shall act fairly and reasonably and comply with the requirements imposed on them by law and persons aggrieved by the exercise of such acts and decisions shall have the right to seek redress before a court or other tribunal. In addition, article 296 (b) of the Constitution prohibits an arbitrary exercise of discretionary power. On the constitutional bases stated herein, the NDC or even a coalition of Ghanaian voters can proceed to court for a judicial intervention or determination in the matter to bring to an end, this unfortunate brouhaha over whether or not we should compile a new voters register. No cynical zero-sum game should be encouraged. What is a win-win for both the ordinary citizens and the political elites must be encouraged. On this note, I wish the right and the most peaceful thing is done to eschew any conflict situation in this election year. We do not want to contemplate even for a second, that the current situation is a prelude to happenings we should expect on the campaign trail later this year.

~Asante Sana ~

Author: Philip Afeti Korto
The Jammu and Kashmir government has formed a three-member committee to examine and address the grievances of the registered migrants of the Jammu region.

Over 1,054 families (roughly 6,000 people) from various districts of the Jammu region are registered as migrants with the Jammu and Kashmir government and the latter has approved relief and ration for them at par with the migrants settled in Kashmir.

According to an order of the General Administration Department (GAD), the committee consists of the seniormost additional commissioner in the office of the Jammu divisional commissioner as its chairman, the relief and rehabilitation commissioner (migrants), Jammu as the member-secretary and the Director, Finance, Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction as a member.

The terms of reference of the committee include looking into the grievances of the registered migrants in the Jammu region for their timely redressal and taking stock of the delivery of the approved benefits to them, the order said.

According to the order, the panel should ensure that any registered migrant is able to file a representation, either physically or through e-mail or any other mode to the Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction or to the member-secretary of the committee. It should also devise a mechanism to inform the applicants about the disposal of their grievances.

The committee shall be serviced by the Department of Disaster Management, Relief, and Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, the order said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I think he has probably reached the point where he has fewer than four who will vote for the motion for witnesses and believes that he ultimately has all the votes he needs to exonerate this president, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said of McConnell. If thats what these members of the Senate want to carry home from this experience, I think theyre going to be surprised at the reaction.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The New York State Attorney General gave the Syracuse Police Department a pat on the back last week for updating and modernizing an outdated policy on use of force.

SPD released its revamped use of force policy last June. It was one of Chief Kenton Buckners top priorities when he took over the department at the end of 2018.

Just four days after the release of that new policy, an officer shot and killed a 74-year-old man who had pointed a handheld BB gun at the officer. Per state law, that incident was referred to Attorney General Letitia James for review.

Friday, James office issued a 33-page report justifying the officers actions. In a footnote buried in that report was praise for Buckners new use of force policy and a scathing critique of the prior policy.

The new policy, issued approximately one week before this incident, replaced a policy that provided no meaningful guidance or expectations aimed at saving lives," the AG report said. "For instance, unlike the previous policy, SPDs new Use of Force policy provides that officers have a duty to intercede when they observe other officers using unreasonable force as well as a duty to provide swift medical assistance to injured subjects; the new policy also explicitly provides that officers should attempt to de-escalate situations whenever possible. While the majority of the new policy changes are not relevant to the circumstances of this case, we take this opportunity to favorably recognize the updated and greatly improved SPD Use of Force policy.

The comment was an unusual and unnecessary move seemingly intended as kudos to the department for overhauling its use of force policy.

Until last year, the departments use of force policy hadnt been revisited in decades. It offered just two sentences describing when officers should use force. Nowhere did it say when force was prohibited.

The new policy is seven pages long and includes modern language describing when an officer can and cannot use force. Among the highlights:

Officers cannot use a choke-hold unless there is an immediate threat of serious harm or death;

Force cannot be used against someone who is handcuffed or otherwise restrained, unless its necessary to prevent injury;

Force should never be used to torture or punish someone;

Officers are required to intervene if they see a fellow officer using excessive force;

Officers should seek to de-escalate a situation, if possible, before using force.

Officers are not permitted to fire warning shots."

Officers cannot conduct a cavity search without a warrant.

Officers can use deadly force against an animal if the animal is a threat or if its badly injured, diseased or is preventing an officer from accomplishing a lawful objective.

Updating the departments use of force policy was one of Chief Buckners top priorities when he took over the department just more than a year ago. He came into the job just a month after the department lost a police brutality case where lawyers and a former police watchdog ripped into the departments policies.

Buckner said last year he wanted to include more modern language in the policy to reflect current industry standards.

The pillars of our use of force policy were intact. Were a state accredited police agency. But some of the language that I would consider 21st century language -- when you talk about sanctity of life -- you make that a priority, Buckner said in an interview with syracuse.com last year. Many things we were doing in operations were not reflected in our policy language. Or we actually trained on certain things, but it was not reflected in the policy.
WASHINGTON  In another time, in another Washington, this might be the moment that changed the trajectory of the presidency. A former national security adviser confirms that the president, despite his denials, conditioned security aid to a war-torn ally on its cooperation against his domestic rivals, the issue at the heart of his ongoing impeachment trial.

At first glance, John R. Boltons account of President Trumps private remarks sounded like an echo of the so-called smoking gun tape that proved President Richard M. Nixon really had orchestrated the Watergate cover-up and ultimately forced him from office. By the end of Monday, the revelation appeared to make it more likely that the Senate will agree to hear witnesses at the trial.

But this is Mr. Trumps era and Mr. Trumps Washington, and the old rules do not always apply anymore. The reality show star who was elected president even after he was captured on an Access Hollywood tape boasting about sexual assault has gone on to survive one politically charged furor after another during his three years in the White House, proving more durable than any national politician in modern American history.

So will this be a Watergate-style turning point or just one more disclosure that his critics consider validation without changing other minds? Will it be another smoking gun or another Access Hollywood?
T he younger brother of the Manchester Arena bomber has appeared in court accused of 22 murders.

Hashem Abedi, now 22, was allegedly involved in planning the suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert on Mary 22, 2017.

His brother Salman Abedi, 22, detonated an explosive vest as music fans left Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and injuring 260 more.

The defendant, who was raised in Manchester, left Britain and travelled to Libya before the attack.

The scene close to the Manchester Arena after the terror attack / PA

He was arrested in Tripoli and extradited to the UK in July last year, to face 22 charges of murder, one count for each victim.

Hashem Abedi also faces a single count of attempted murder, representing all the other victims, and conspiring with his brother to cause explosions.

On Monday he appeared at the Old Bailey for the start of his trial.

The defendant, wearing a dark blue shirt over a white t-shirt, dark blue jeans and black rimmed glasses, spoke only to confirm his identity.

The scene close to the Manchester Arena after the terror attack / PA

Previously he has denied all the charges against him.

The case, which is due to last eight weeks, was adjourned until Wednesday by Mr Justice Jeremy Baker.

A jury panel has yet to be selected and sworn in to hear the trial, which is due to be opened by prosecutor Duncan Penny QC later in the week.
Director-General of World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference following the second meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee for Pneumonia due to the Novel Coronavirus 2019-nCoV in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020. Reuters



The head of the World Health Organization headed to China on Sunday to discuss how to contain a virus outbreak that has killed 56 people and infected over 2,000 worldwide.



"I am on my way to Beijing, to meet with the government and health experts supporting the #coronavirus response," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.



"My WHO colleagues and I would like to understand the latest developments and strengthen our partnership with China in providing further protection against the outbreak."



The WHO also released its latest data showing a total of 2,014 cases  almost all of them in China.






Delhi's Dwarka assembly constituency will witness an interesting three-cornered contest with sitting MLA Adarsh Shastri switching from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to Congress.

In the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections, Shastri, the grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, quit AAP.

Shastri, who held the posts of national spokesperson and co-convener of overseas affairs cell of the AAP, parted ways with the AAP after it denied him a ticket seeking re-election from the Dwarka constituency. He, later, joined the Congress, which has fielded him from the same seat.

AAP has replaced Shastri with Vinay Mishra, son of Congress leader and former MP Mahabal Mishra. The senior Mishra had contested from the Dwarka seat in the 2015 assembly polls, in which he could garner just 12,532 votes out of 1,34,952 votes polled, losing his security deposit.

The BJP has fielded former area MLA Parduymn Rajput. He had contested on BJP ticket in 2015 and lost to Shastri (with AAP at that time) by 39,366 votes.

As per the data issued by the Election Commission of India, Shastri had received 79,729 votes, while Rajput bagged 40,363 votes in the assembly polls.

With the three big names contesting to rule the Dwarka seat, the battle promises to be a nail biter.

Voting in Delhi will be held on February 8 and results will be announced on February 11.
By Deepak Chopra, MD

The time has come to think about womens power and not just womens rights. When the New York Times editorial board recently split over which Democratic presidential candidate to endorse, the debate was over two women, and eventually both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar were selected. This is a sign of our collective exhaustion with a president who expresses the most extreme and worst aspects of masculine behavior. The best hope for turning the tide is said to be the suburban womens vote, which already showed its power in the 2018 mid-term elections.

But something much deeper is going on. Masculine behavior has run its course as the model for power. The arms race, world wars, civil conflicts, and an insane buildup of atomic bombs symbolize masculine aggression reaching some kind of apex that is also a dead end. The urge to fight and to turn competitors into enemies, nations into armed fortresses, and everyone into winners and losers wont save a planet that needs emergency medicine.

We find ourselves in a drastic state of imbalance because one entire half of the human psyche, the feminine, has been suppressed, violated, or ignored. The human mind isnt a chaotic morass. For at least 30,000 years, dating back to the rapid evolution of the higher brain, Homo sapiens has lived by themes and motifs that guide our actions. The pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung called these concentrated themes archetypes, but there is no need for special jargonat this moment every person taps into the same themes tht permeate civilization back to its roots.

As modern people we see ourselves as beyond mythology, and in fact superior to myths, which feel superstitious and irrational. But if you look at the Greek goddessesAphrodite, Hera, Athena, Demeter, and moreeach symbolizes a divine feminine energy that must be included in a complete human being, no matter of what gender, or even without gender if that is a conscious choice.

The most basic listing of the divine feminine indicates instantly what is missing on the world stage right now. The leading qualities of the feminine are

Mothering, the source of tenderness, affection, nonjudgmental acceptance, and nurturing.

Abundance, the freely given gifts of food and water supplied by the earth.

Beauty in every form.

Sexual charm and attraction.

Inspiration, in the form of intuition, insight, and the muses that inspire art and music.

Peace, the impulse to live as a family in harmony.

If the ancient Greeks, Indians, and Chinese could identify and express all of the qualities, not to mention valuing them as divine attributes, how advanced are we who turn our backs on them? There is a concerted call for more women leaders because the rampant behavior of out-of-control masculine energies cannot be tolerated any longer. But the whole point of calling feminine energies divine is that they apply to everyone.

The most reviled leaders in modern history are Hitler and Stalin, neither of whom had the slightest trace of the feminine and whose pure masculinity doomed tens of millions of people to death and suffering. The most revered leaders were Lincoln and Gandhi, both of them repositories of peace and reconciliation. (They both wore shawls,, a gesture toward womens dress, and Gandhi sat beside a loom, which became the central symbol of Indias flag.)

The choice to express masculine and feminine energies has been unbalanced for a long time. As one psychologist wryly noted, from kindergarten onward boys are trained to be winners who wield power while girls gain their worth by attracting men who are winners and wield power. Daring to break out of the mold of the second sex has carried social disapproval and rejection as a constant threat.

All of this is well known, and the modern womens movement has strived to redress the imbalances that society has tolerated and encouraged. But even when more women assume leadership roles, as they are doing and will continue to, if men dont respect the feminine archetype, they will never allow it to be part of themselves. The painful truth is that the same men who were motived to kill 100,000,000 people in the twentieth century are just as wiling to kill the planet.

The so-called goddess movement has been vital for several decades but still exists on the fringes. Its most basic aim is to give a woman a sense of self-esteem and worth in her own right, not as an adjunct to a man. This message has widely taken hold in developed countries and has seeped, with aching slowness, into the less privileged world. The next step should be simultaneously personal, social, and spiritual. It should be a movement toward wholeness for everyone.

You cannot make yourself whole; you can only realize the wholeness that has always been inside you. We all live right now in separation, not primarily because of political divisions but because we are divided in ourselves. The divided self tries to live as if one half of itself, the masculine, stands for the whole. It doesnt and never will.

Everyone needs to take steps to express the suppressed aspects of wholeness. Right now the suppressed aspects are feminine, which has been true for centuries. But wholeness cant be destroyed, only hidden. You are the agent of peace, nurturing, abundance, beauty, and inspiration. You either express these values or you dont. The choice involves a conscious decision, and when enough people make the decision, the world will change. Everyone needs to look to the divine feminine. This is the dominant challenge that faces every society, and the future of humanity depends upon meeting the challenge as consciously and as soon as possible.

DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. He is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves a senior scientist at Gallup Organization. Chopra is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.
Washington: Five Katyusha rockets were fired at the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad Sunday night, local time, one directly hitting the US Embassy building, Iraq's security forces reported.

US helicopters were seen evacuating injured people, al-Sumaria News reported, citing an anonymous security official.

Protesters set fire to close a street during clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters near Baghdad's Khilani square, Iraq, on Sunday. Credit:AP

The US State Department released a statement that did not comment on any injuries or deaths. But it noted there have been 14 attacks on US personnel in Iraq since September. It also called on Iraq to "fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities."

"The security situation remains tense and Iranian-backed armed groups remain a threat," the statement read. "So we remain vigilant."
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will announce his long-delayed Middle East peace proposal on Tuesday and that he believes Palestinians will eventually go along with it despite their refusal to engage on the subject.

Sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump said his plan "makes a lot of sense for everybody." Of the Palestinians, Trump said, "It's something they should want," but he declined to say how it would be good for them.

Trump will deliver joint remarks with Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday to outline his plan, which U.S. officials intend to generate momentum toward resolving one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

Palestinians fear the plan will dash their hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

"They probably won't want it initially," Trump said. "But I think in the end they will... It's very good for them. In fact it's overly good to them. So we'll see what happens. Now without them, we don't do the deal and that's okay."

Trump added, "We think there's a very good chance that they're going to want this."

After his session with Netanyahu, Trump met separately with Benny Gantz, the head of Israel's centrist Blue and White Party, who is the right-wing prime minister's rival in a March 2 election.

Palestinian leaders say they were not invited to Washington for Trump's presentation of his long secret peace blueprint and that no plan could work without them.

"We reject it, and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday. "It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause."

Palestinians have refused to deal with the Trump administration in protest at its pro-Israeli policies such as moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, whose eastern half Palestinians seek for a future capital.

Distraction

Trump's two days of meetings with the Israelis stand in contrast to a trial in the Republican-led Senate weighing articles of impeachment submitted by the Democratic-led House of Representatives against the Republican president.

But whether it truly will jumpstart the long-stalled effort to bring Israelis and Palestinians together is far from certain.

Palestinians denounced a $50-billion economic revival plan the Trump administration set forth last July to lift the Palestinian and neighbouring Arab state economies because the proposal did nothing to address Israeli occupation.

The White House hope was that support from both Netanyahu and Gantz would provide momentum.

Having both Israeli leaders present removes the domestic Israeli political tensions, said a U.S. source familiar with internal deliberations.

"The rationale...is it depoliticizes this to the point that, no matter what happens on March 2, the two leaders of the two largest parties can potentially be supportive," the source said.

The Trump plan is the product of three years' effort by senior advisers Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, as well as Jason Greenblatt, who left the government last autumn.

The proposal, more than 50 pages long, aims to take on some of the most difficult issues separating the two sides, such as the status of Jerusalem.

Palestinian Thumbs-down

But Palestinians called Trump's proposal dead in the water even before its publication.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Washington can no longer be regarded as an honest mediator. In addition to the actions he took on Jerusalem, Trump slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

Palestinian and Arab sources who were briefed on the draft fear it seeks to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation, in what could be a prelude to Israel annexing about half of the West Bank including most of the Jordan Valley, the strategic and fertile easternmost strip of the territory.

Further obstacles to a peace deal include the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied land and the rise to power in Gaza of the Islamist movement Hamas, which is formally committed to Israel's destruction.

The Trump administration in November reversed decades of U.S. policy when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer regarded Israeli settlements on West Bank land as inconsistent with international law.

Palestinians and most of the international community view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.

Netanyahu, a veteran right-wing leader, faces political and legal troubles at home as he heads for his third election in less than a year, and was indicted on criminal charges in November. He denies any wrongdoing.

Netanyahu's principal domestic political rival, Gantz, a centrist former general, last week lifted his objection to having the peace plan published before Israel's March election. He had previously seen it as interference in the vote.

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by Chris Horner

In May 1919 the remains of a woman were fished from the Landwehr canal in Berlin. The three doctors available must have suspected the identity of the corpse, as they refused to perform a post mortem on it. Identification was in any case made by examination of the clothes on the body. This had been Rosa Luxemburg. She had perished essentially because the leftist uprising in Berlin, initiated by her fellow Sparticist leader Karl Liebknecht without her agreement, had failed. Luxemburg, who had fiercely criticised the Bolshevik approach to revolution as dangerously authoritarian was clubbed and then shot to death by members of the Freikorps, whose repressive violence makes them fitting antecedents to the Nazis.

The great revolutions in The West are often seen as turning points, thresholds, new stages in history, and their very dates have a kind of resonance: 1776, 1789 (or 1794), 1917, and so on. History, of course, may make us change our minds about the degree of success, the meaning, the import of those events, but they remain potent as symbols, whatever posteritys judgment may be. And there is a second sequence, of course, that of the failed revolutions: 1796, 1821, 1848, 1871, 1905, 1918, and 1956. These are the abortive revolutions and uprisings. This second list is the longer one, but like the successful ones, judgment about ultimate meaning, including the meaning of success and failure, remain open to revision and reconsideration.

Of the revolutions that never were, it is the one that began in Germany in 1918 that is most relevant to Hannah Arendt. Arendt, born in 1906, married to Heinrich Blucher (an ex Sparticist) has a biography and a set of concerns defined by the fate of Germany after 1918. Rosa Luxemburgs life and death  including the nature of the regime that connived in her murder  was the subject of an eloquent and moving essay by Arendt and published in Men in Dark Times in 1966. For all her criticism of Rosa Luxemburgs mistakes, it is clear that she stands as a kind of exemplar for Arendt. If it had succeeded, if some kind of Red government has seized and kept hold of power in the 1918-9 period, the effect on Germany, the nascent Soviet State in Russia, and the rest of the world would have been, one assumes, huge. But it failed, and Hitler and Stalin were the successors to that non-event.

Luxemburg remarked that she was more afraid of a deformed revolution than a failed one. 1918 -9 in Germany failed, and when we think of a deformed revolution, one deflected from its original goal, the Russian example comes easily to mind, as does that of France in the 1790s, with the initial promise of the revolution replaced by war and military dictatorship. This is not to deny that certain gains by those revolutions occurred and were permanent, but to point to the obvious fact that so much else was crushed or perverted.

Arendts On Revolution is famously dominated by the French and American revolutions. The usual way of reading it goes like this: The French Revolution was overwhelmed by the demands of the poor: an attempt to solve the social question, mass poverty, dooms the revolution, along with the Jacobin attempt to found a republic of virtue, which goes down in bloody terror. The postscript to this is the Russian revolution: taking its model from this event, rather than the one across the Atlantic, it repeats its story of terror and despotism. In contrast, the American Revolution is the success story: the founders, building on the foundations of prosperity already evident in the colonies, with their prefigurative forms of meetings, autonomy and independent communities were able to aim at, in Jeffersons phrase, public happiness. The resulting institutions proved capable of preserving liberty after the founding fathers were in their graves. So goes the story of two revolutions, one failed and one successful. But this is not, I think, the sole point of Arendts reflections. For Arendt, the American Revolution was also a deformed revolution.

The promise of Jeffersons public happiness, as Arendt understands it, lies in the creation and preservation of a public space of politics. This where judgement and action occur, where actors confront each other and where they reveal who they are through those actions and judgements. This, for her, is certainly an agonistic space, but it is also the only one in which a true civic discourse can be established, one where dissensus can occur in a properly republican sense, upholding the res publica, the public thing, the place of democratic politics. Arendts reference to the lost treasure of the revolution is directed at the USA as, for her, this was the aim of the founders and the eclipse of that space the deformation of the revolution. That lost treasure is public freedom, now conflated with private welfare, with the pursuit of consumption, of private aims and goals and an indifference or even hostility to the idea of political participation. It was lost because public happiness became confounded with the private pursuit of well-being, with happiness identified with prosperity. The distinction between a state that is desirable because it preserves and promotes political freedom, and one that is effective in fulfilling the utilitarian goal of economic prosperity has been obscured. But the promise of 1776 was of something more than prosperity. If political freedom means the right to be a participator in government, then it may be that American citizens in the twenty-first century are not really politically free, despite the ubiquitous talk of freedom. They arent free in this sense if the USA is essentially a polyarchy in which actual governing is the business of a self-replicating elite, and which the aim of government by as well as for the people has been replaced by the goal of managing endless consumption. For Arendt, true power is found in plurality, in citizens deliberating, judging and acting together in their unique ways. The liberty to pursue private ends is no substitute for political freedom. As Jefferson noted, private interests are the great threat to public happiness.

The problem is political, and it transcends the moment of revolution. For Arendt it was the irruption of participative democracy in the revolutions that kept alive the promise of politics, until the day came when the people went home and left self rule to an alienated clique. It was Rosa Luxemburgs intuition that both the democratic centralism of the Bolsheviks and the bureaucratic system of the professional social democrats in Germany ran contrary to the project of genuine autonomy. They substitute managerialism, administration and manipulation for actual politics, and so political parties in a modern polyarchy like the USA respond to mood, not real opinions. The public space of freedom was not preserved by either of the two revolutions mainly discussed in On Revolution, and we should include their failure alongside that of the Bolsheviks when we read Arendts appreciation of the fact that Rosa Luxemburg was far more afraid of a deformed revolution than an unsuccessful one. [1]

The American republic failed to think through the meaning of its own experience. This failure was a contribution to, and symptom of, a fundamental retreat from political action and thought by the bulk of the population, who thereby cease to be citizens and start becoming part of a mass society. The threat to the republic now comes, not from the misuse of public power against private individuals but from the people themselves. In an age of rapid and constant economic growth, that is, of a constantly increasing expansion of the private realmthe conditions of the modern age in which all the power [has] been given to the people in their private capacity, [with] no space established for them in their capacity of being citizens they will hardly follow Jeffersons injunction to Love your neighbour as yourself, and your country more than yourself if the country is not a living presence in the midst of its citizens [2]

The problem of the political versus social/economic schism in Arendt is a real one. It is exhibited in the parts devoted to the American colonists in On Revolution in particular through a remarkable absence  the lack of any extended discussion of slavery. Black slavery appears briefly in the text, and Arendt characterises this primordial crime as part of a tradition prevalent on both sides of the Atlantic, rather than the dominance of self interest. But as Domenico Losurdo argued in his book Liberalism, a Counter-History, pace Arendt, the class interests of the plantation owners certainly played an important role, which did not escape contemporary observers. For Losurdo, Arendt joins the colonists in their repression of the macroscopic fact of slavery by means of their ingenious euphemisms. [3] And when we turn to contemporary society it is evident that prosperity has been very unequally distributed, to put it mildly. So there is force in the criticism that Arendt damages her analysis of the unfreedom of modern liberal-capitalist societies by ruling the economic/social as pre-political. Economic power is surely associated with exploitation and the private realm has a huge effect on the citizens freedom: the private here is political  it is where the injuries and struggles around race, gender and class are also to be found. So there is much that Arendt neglects or underplays. Nonetheless, we can see her emphasis as a kind of necessary exaggeration, given the neglect of the political by other theorists. She has something of importance to say that we would do well to consider.

The ultimate problem of a society in which the pursuit of private interests  economic advancement, personal advantage, consumption  has displaced an orientation towards the public sphere, is that there is a growth of worldlessness. Since for Arendt the public space is where individuals show up for each other, where claims and arguments are tested against others, it is also the primary place where we can distinguish between true and false, since our private fantasies cannot easily survive in the bright light of public examination. It is also the place where we find meaning. This is not to deny that people also find meaning in their private lives, for example in their families, but that the larger sense of a meaningful world can be lost. A kind anomie and nihilism laps around the life of the worker-consumer: what is all this getting and spending for? Judgment and action occur in the space where the human subject shines out as who she is, as a unique one among others in a moment of intersubjective appearance. This cannot be reduced to the community of affect in front of our screens that we get in times of heightened emotion, as in the 9/11 events or (in the UK) the death of Princess Diana. Judgment and action in public reveals and recalls us to the world constituted as meaningful by intersubjectivity. It shows the subjects (the judges) to the subjects. It shines forth, it appears, made visible by the artist, the actor, and the judge. And this is what a revolutionary with moral taste like Rosa Luxemburg does. It is also what anyone who thinks for herself is doing, who judges because she has elected to think for herself even if it means thinking and acting against what everyone else is doing.

[1] Hannah Arendt; Men in Dark Times, Mariner Books 1966, 1970, P. 53. Arendt goes on to remark that Luxemburg had moral taste.

[2] Hannah Arendt: On Revolution, Penguin Classics, 1963, 2006, pp 252-3.

[3] Domenico Losurdo: Liberalism, A Counter-History , Verso, 2011, P 30.
This is disgusting.



I was listening to NPR this morning, and I was surprised and disappointed they made no mention of the charges.





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Up First didn't mention it, but the PCHH wrap-up of the Grammys did, so I was kind of relieved at that? I didn't realize part of the behind-the-scenes Grammys drama also involved assault/harassment. Why is this so fucking common.

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NPR sucks

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Yup. I cannot fucking take another goddam interview in Bumblefuck of Trump supporters. Fuck that.

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i listened to up first this morning and they didn't mention it either. i found it really weird.

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Im just glad people are bringing this up.

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They did on Pop Culture Happy Hour's recap

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CBC did

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Yeah its so weird to me. Especially since a lot of outspoken women who are associated with metoo are writing glorifying posts about him

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yeah, someone i follow on IG who is sort of an anti-racist activist and also posts a lot of stuff about harassment/sexual assault posted something in her story about kobe's ~tragic death~ and then 3 slides later, completely unrelatedly, posted something else about lifting up the voices of assault survivors lol. discordant af

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It's been really triggering for me

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I remember it being such a huge scandal when I was in middle school, and I'm surprised more people aren't bringing it up.

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Yeah, I saw people respond to people bringing it up with everyone makes mistakes or it was a mistake he made early in his career which... rape is never a mistake.

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Same. My rapist is also a professional athlete (nowhere near Kobe's level of fame, and it happened years before he was drafted,) and this is so fucking triggering, watching everyone talk about what a "good man" he was & how he "deserves peace." What about the peace he took from his victim? What about the peace taken from people like me when you turn rapists into martyrs?

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Yup - eight other people died as well and honestly the death of his little daughter is most shocking to me poor angel

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its so weird to think about. i wish the world was filled with more critical thinkers, for people to open up their mind/views and just think "yeah, you can see his positive impact he has had on our culture or myself but he also committed assault and did awful things" like.. you can accept one thing and not downplay the other. both can exist at the same time, the world and humans are not black and white. and i hate hate HATE when its brought up and you get "you cant even let the man rest in peace its too soon for this" its sooo frustrating and disheartening. but its like.. when then? when are we ~allowed~ to shed light on sexual assault?? this is how the cycle continues, we continue to push it back for a ~better time and place~ until its never brought up again because his legacy is untouchable. but we must keep talking about sexual assault and advocate for boundaries and respect for others, we cant keep letting ourselves be stuck in the dark. the more uncomfortable we make people and force them to pay attention, the more we can see change! i feel hard for the victims, and everyone who is being triggered back into those emotions of their experiences. im so sorry <3

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Alternately, they'll rip anyone calling it out a new asshole.



Edited at 2020-01-28 03:03 am (UTC)

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I agree. It reminds of when Michael Jackson died. They've been saying Kobe is a hero. Like what? He used his helicopter in a fog storm with 9 people including his daughter, when the cops told him it was too dangerous to do so. Wtf. He's no hero. He killed 9 people.

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Tracy Grant, managing editor of The Washington Post, told DailyMail.com on Sunday: 'National political reporter Felicia Sonmez was placed on administrative leave while The Post reviews whether tweets about the death of Kobe Bryant violated The Post newsroom's social media policy.



'The tweets displayed poor judgment that undermined the work of her colleagues.'



The fucking audacity to think thats a worthy reason to suspend anyone.

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'The tweets displayed poor judgment that undermined the work of her colleagues.'



Isn't this true of like every conservative columnist at outlets with serious investigative arms like WaPo, NYT, etc?

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lmao right? So rich coming from a publication that pays Mark Thiessen to write opinion pieces.



I'm a subscriber but fuck the Post for this. I would encourage other Post subscribers to write/call and complain

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I think Evan Rachel Wood was the only celebrity (that I saw at least) to actually point out he was charged with rape.

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She also cant talk since she works with Woody.

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Past tense. She said years ago she wouldn't work with him again after the allegations came out.

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She has since said that she was unaware of the accusations at the time, and has since read Dylan's letter and would never work with him again. I'm not excusing her having worked with him and at least she acknowledges it was wrong and supports his victim now.

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u r a troll

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And her replies were predictably awful. Apparently saying "rape is bad" is "pushing an agenda"?? It's not just the bare minimum of human decency? Good to know.

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Roxanne Gay also brought it up.

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She was being raked over the fucking coals for it too. God forbid someone tell the truth.

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Dave Anthony (a comedian) tweeted about it and received blowback. I'm sure he would've received much more had his profile not been set to private at the time.

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Of course



Edited at 2020-01-27 04:10 pm (UTC)

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I watched some supposedly "woke" girl on FB tear apart another girl for pointing out the rape charges in her status update about the crash. Stating that he was proven innocent and the white media just wanted to tear him down and that it was "proven" that the woman was chasing money.

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No one is proven innocent, they're found not guilty due to insufficient evidence etc





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UPDATE: A person who works at the Washington Post says @feliciasonmez was NOT suspended for linking to the Daily Beast story on Twitter. Her suspension was related to a follow up tweet that contained a screen shot of her work email inbox, which revealed full names of emailers.  Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) January 27, 2020



according to this person she wasn't officially fired for the tweets but the breach of privacy which is wonderfully bogus according to this person she wasn't officially fired for the tweets but the breach of privacy which is wonderfully bogus

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Yet the Managing Editor of WaPo, THE boss, said it was because of the article last night.

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What is the truth

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people who were sending her death-threats for being factual.

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i wouldn't trust the person who ended his original suspension tweet with "bye felicia" he seemed particularly gleeful

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This person was also blocking anyone who disagreed with her being put on leave so idk if I totally believe it.

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Matthew Keys is NOT a credible source.



Dude literally went to jail for helping Anonymous hack a news website.

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So many people are being so obtuse about these charges and think that we can't acknowledge what he did while they are mourning but the facts are facts and death doesn't wipe that clean for the people impacted.

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of all the coverage I've seen or heard, not one peep was about this side of him. amazing athlete or not, you can't go ignoring this shit. it's unbelievable somebody got suspended for mentioning this.

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That surprises me - the BBC are mentioning it in every article I've seen.

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Its amazing to see people who scream free speech when white supremacists march and get violent and then face the barest of consequences but when its a male celeb all of a sudden well shes free to say what she wants but she must face the consequences of her actions!

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The insane replies to Roxane's incredibly reasonable tweet have shown me yet again that not only do we downplay rape like crazy, but women just plain aren't ~allowed to question men at all. Like, anything other than straight-up veneration gets scolded. It's actually kind of terrifying.



There are going to be a lot of complicated reactions to Kobe Bryants death but I feel all the sympathy in the world for Vanessa Bryant and their four daughters. 41 is so young. And he had a spectacular professional career.  roxane gay (@rgay) January 26, 2020 WOW, fuck them. It's literally her job to state facts and cover stories as thoroughly as possible.The insane replies to Roxane's incredibly reasonable tweet have shown me yet again that not only do we downplay rape like crazy, but women just plain aren't ~allowed to question men at all. Like, anything other than straight-up veneration gets scolded. It's actually kind of terrifying.

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I just don't get the black and white of it- multiple things can be true at the same time? This tragedy is tragic for many reasons, remembering the assault HE committed does not negate the tragedy of it.

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Most of the replies I've seen are some variance of "Can't even let the man's body stop smoldering before defaming him!!!!" as if mentioning this now vs. mentioning it in a week is any different.

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This is a great tweet. People really let their emotions take over truth. It feels people are pretty incapable of having a reasonable discussion.

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I saw a similar perfectly reasonable tweet from someone else (that many things can be true at once, like feeling sad for the family, Kobe was an icon, and believing survivors, etc.) and her replies were all attacking her too. Like...

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I get what you're saying but we are so ride or die for these assholes (and i get why), it's fucking frustrating.

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Yeah, I don't mind calling out that he was a rapist...but most of it has been white people (also most WP in sunglasses...wonder who they voted for).

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Did you know that black women can be victims of sexual violence or naw? Black people are not a monolith and I'm definitely not mourning a rapist.

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People stop. One of my black female friends called him a rapist on social media and got torn to shreds and called racial slurs

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Do you feel the same about Bill Cosby?

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My feminism isn't race-based. Rapists are rapists and should be called out as such. If you read the court documents, it's clear Kobe was guilty. Her blood was on his shirt, ffs.

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It was weird to see the post here celebrating a rapist's death, and then turn it to the news to hear people talk about how he "overcame" rape accusations.



He was an amazing basketball player, but I hate the way being a great athlete (or artist) somehow makes you a good person.

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I didn't see any comments celebrating his death, just people acknowledging the truth but I also didn't read every comment or every page



It seemed like there were a lot of nuanced comments idk

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I heard this was not why she was suspended. It was a a tweet showing her colleague's emails or something.

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The Managing Editor of the Washington Post, the big boss, went on record and confirmed it was the article. After the blowback from the public, WaPo staffers and their union - they've now "floated" an alternative version.

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I think it's journalistic obligation to report on his rape charges because we know how people are sanitized after death. No matter where you fall on the spectrum of grief for his death to celebrating his death, that doesn't change the facts. People are complicated and the more honest we can be about that the less suffering there will be in the world.

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And she didn't even report on it, she linked to an article from the Daily Beast.

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Was it that one with literally just the details from the case? Even worse.

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An Air Indian Boeing 747 has been kept on standby for the evacuation of Indian citizens from Wuhan city of China, the epicentre of novel coronavirus outbreak

New Delhi: An Air India Boeing 747 has been kept on standby for the evacuation of Indian citizens from Wuhan city of China, the epicentre of novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the official of the national carrier.

The aircraft is waiting for the Centre's decision regarding the evacuation. "Air India Boeing 747 is on standby for the evacuation of Indians from Wuhan (China) due to scare of Coronavirus. Carrier is waiting for the government the decision," an Air Indian official told ANI on Monday.

The infectious virus, due to which 80 people have died so far in China and affected over 2500 people in the country, reportedly originated from Wuhan city, a major transportation hub of China.

Following the outbreak, China has imposed a lockdown in the city. However, the virus has spread to many parts of the world including France, where three cases have been reported so far. Many countries are screening travellers from certain parts of China for symptoms of the virus at airports.

Meanwhile, the United States has organised a special flight on Tuesday from Wuhan to San Francisco to relocate citizens and personnel stationed at the consulate in Wuhan. Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japanese authorities were coordinating with China to evacuate its citizens from the Chinese province.
A four-year-old boy who went missing on a fire-ravaged rural property was reunited with his parents 24 hours after he disappeared.

Jean Patrick Eveleigh was last seen at his family's 35-hectare property in Waterholes, in Victoria's East Gippsland region about 1.30pm Saturday.

The property had been completely ravaged by bushfires around New Year's and the family was given the chance to inspect the damage.

Jean Patrick Eveleigh (pictured with his mother) was last seen at his family's 35-hectare property in Waterholes, in Victoria's East Gippsland region about 1.30pm Saturday

Jean disappeared as they were looking at the property, sparking a major search operation with more than 200 police and emergency service workers looking for him.

Helicopters, thermal drones, the dog squad and the defence force were also called in to to assist in the search, 7NEWS.com.au reported.

But on Sunday the four-year-old was found by two rescuers in bushland almost 2km away from the family home.

One of the rescuers, Troy Soughen, said he was yelling out for Jean when they found him hiding in a bush.

'Walking along yelling out his name ... all of a sudden we hear this little voice back "I'm over here. He popped his head out over the bushes and there he was,' Mr Soughen said.

Mr Soughen said the first thing Jean did was drink a 500ml bottle of water.

'He skulled it within three seconds I think, and proceeded to chat our ear off the whole way back here,' the rescuer said.

The property had been completely ravaged by bushfires around New Year's and the family was given the chance to inspect the damage

An alert for Jean was issued on Saturday after he disappeared off the family's 35ha property

The four-year-old was emotional as he was reunited with his mother after spending the night alone among charred trees and burnt-out bushland.

Victoria Police Acting Inspector Peter Fusinato said Jean was happy to be back with his family.

'When he met his parents that was obviously an emotional moment he hadnt seen them for some time,' he said.

Jean was taken to Bairnsdale Hospital on Sunday where doctors confirmed he was in full health.
(Alliance News) - Amigo Holdings PLC said Monday it has launched a strategic review and formal sale process in a bid to "maximise value for its shareholders".

This may result in a sale of the company. Amigo said controlling shareholder Richmond Group is a "willing seller" of its 60% stake.

Shares in the sub-prime lender were down 35% in London on Monday morning at 44.12 pence each.

Amigo provides loans to consumers, payments for which are guaranteed by a borrower's friend or family member.

The review will be looking into the lender's "strategy, ownership and operating model". Amigo said it is considering the potential sale of the company as a whole, the sale of parts of the group, the sale of the UK business, and a potential de-listing of the company's shares.

Amigo has appointed RBC Capital Markets to handle the sale process.

The announcement follows a board clear-out in early December. James Benamor, founder and previous chief executive of Amigo, returned to the company and was appointed a non-independent non-executive director with immediate effect. Benamor holds his stake in Amigo via Richmond.

At the same time, Chair Stephan Wilcke said he wouldn't seek re-election at the firm's next annual general meeting, while Hamish Paton resigned as chief executive.

Amigo floated in June 2018 with a market capitalisation of GBP1.31 billion, making Benamor among the wealthiest businessmen in the UK at that time. Since then however, the stock has plummeted, reducing the company's value to GBP217 million as of Monday morning.

Turning to the lender's current trading, Amigo confirmed its loan book growth and impairments for the nine months to December 31 were in line with guidance.

Amigo said it continues to face a "challenging operating environment".

The lender continued: "While Amigo remains confident in the robustness of its approach to lending decisions, we are concerned that there may be increased pressure on our business and a continual evolution in the approach of the Financial Ombudsman Service."

In the six months to September 30, Amigo recorded pretax profit of GBP42.3 million, down 13% on the GBP48.4 million reported the year before.

Profit was hurt by a 75% increase in total operating expenses. Amigo, at the time, said the rise in costs was in line with impairments and investment in the business.

"Future lending volumes could be impacted by the strategic review of the business model," Amigo added on Monday.

Amigo's net loan book ended September 30 at GBP730.7 million, 8.8% higher than the GBP671.7 million seen at the same point a year earlier.

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Anxious foreigners in the locked-down city that spawned China's deadly viral epidemic say they are stranded at home, running out of food and desperate to leave, as governments scrambled to draw up evacuation plans. Authorities have barred travel to and from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected before it spread across China and to a dozen other countries -- including the United States, France and Australia. Several other large cities in China have introduced their own travel restrictions in a bid to contain the disease, which has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000 others. "In the past week we've not been able to go out and buy anything to eat," said Mashal Jamalzai, a political science student from Afghanistan at Central China Normal University. He told AFP that he and his classmates had been living on biscuits, and his embassy had not responded to requests for help. "We want to be evacuated as soon as possible, because either the virus, the hunger or the fear will kill us," Jamalzai said. Thousands of foreign students and other international residents live in Wuhan, a normally bustling transport hub in central China home to a huge steel and auto industry. But with schools, hospitals and public offices shut and no transport to and from the city, Hubei University student Siti Mawaddah says the city now "looks like a ghost town". "The situation in Wuhan right now is very intense and worrying," the 25-year-old Indonesian told AFP, adding that the situation had taken a psychological toll on her and her classmates. "If we stay in Wuhan, it's as if we're just waiting for our turn to get infected," she said. Mawaddah said she had heard the United States plans to evacuate consular staff and some American citizens living in the city, and hoped her own government could do the same. - Evacuation plans - The US State Department is sending a flight to collect its consular staff and carry them to San Francisco, but warned that there would only be limited space for the estimated 1,000 Americans living in Wuhan. "If there is insufficient ability to transport everyone who expresses interest, priority will be given to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus," the department said. Diana Adama, an American teacher living in Wuhan, told CNN that she was upset at the lack of information about the virus. But she said she didn't want to leave on the chartered flight if it meant carrying the virus back home. "I'm not going to endanger anybody else. And that's just erring on the side of caution," she told the broadcaster. France is also planning to evacuate its citizens stuck in Hubei province by bus, and French carmaker PSA -- which has a sizable presence in Wuhan -- said was formulating plans to evacuate staff and relatives for quarantine in a neighbouring province. South Korea's consulate general in Wuhan conducted a poll on Sunday to determine the demand for a chartered plane for its citizens who want to return home, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country would fly out any nationals who wanted to leave. Singapore has already repatriated 20 airline staff and passengers who were quarantined in the eastern city of Hangzhou for more than a day after fears one person on the flight was carrying the disease, according to the Straits Times newspaper. And Sri Lanka said Sunday it would fly back 150 students from China in the next two days. With China ramping up travel restrictions in cities across the country -- including Beijing and Shanghai -- foreign countries have told their citizens to avoid Wuhan. Russia has yet to report its first case of the virus but has gone a step further, with tourism officials on Friday asking operators to stop selling tour packages to China and inform customers about the dangers of the outbreak. Tourism company Rus-Tour announced Sunday it was transporting 1,100 of its customers home from Hainan, a resort island popular with Russian travellers around 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) south of Wuhan. The firm was also halting sales of tours to China "until the epidemiological situation in the country is back to normal", it said in a statement. burs-gle/rox/fox
Hyderabad: Slamming the Congress and the BJP for their alliance in Makthal and Manikonda municipalities to form the councils, TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao on Monday said that the people were now aware of which party was the B-team.

Addressing a press conference in Telangana Bhavan, Mr Rama Rao thanked the people for showing huge support to the TRS in the elections to the civic bodies. He thanked the leaders and cadres for working hard for the victory of the ruling party in 112 municipalities out of 120 and the 10 municipal corporations.

He alleged the BJP and the Congress had tied up in the two municipalities in an unholy alliance. TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and BJP state president Dr K. Laxman have to change their party scarves, he said.

He alleged that though the Congress and the BJP claimed they were Delhi-based national parties, they were practicing silly politics in the gullies of the state.

Mr Rama Rao exuded confidence that the TRS would win the Medchal and Nereducharla municipalities were elections were postponed to Tuesday. Asked about winning the Thukkuguda municipality with ex-officio votes though the BJP had a majority, and at Kosgi and Adibatla municipalities and Ramagundam Municipal Corporation, Mr Rama Rao said the system was not introduced by the TRS.

He said that the then TD government had in 1999 given voting rights to the MLAs to vote as ex-officio members in municipalities and corporations. In 2008, the then Congress government had extended the voting rights to MLCs. The TRS only used the existing rules.

He thanked the MIM for supporting the TRS to form the council in the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation.
In 2017 Steve Ashmore was appointed CEO of HSS Hire Group plc (LON:HSS). This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

View our latest analysis for HSS Hire Group

How Does Steve Ashmore's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

According to our data, HSS Hire Group plc has a market capitalization of UK67m, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth UK678k over the year to December 2018. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at UK363k. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below UK153m. The median CEO total compensation in that group is UK250k.

It would therefore appear that HSS Hire Group plc pays Steve Ashmore more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. We can better assess whether the pay is overly generous by looking into the underlying business performance.

The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at HSS Hire Group has changed from year to year.

LSE:HSS CEO Compensation, January 27th 2020

Is HSS Hire Group plc Growing?

On average over the last three years, HSS Hire Group plc has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 3.5% each year (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 10% over the last year.

This revenue growth could really point to a brighter future. And, while modest, the earnings per share growth is noticeable. Although we'll stop short of calling the stock a top performer, we think the company has potential. You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings.

Story continues

Has HSS Hire Group plc Been A Good Investment?

With a three year total loss of 44%, HSS Hire Group plc would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

In Summary...

We compared total CEO remuneration at HSS Hire Group plc with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. Our data suggests that it pays above the median CEO pay within that group.

While we have not been overly impressed by the business performance, the shareholder returns, over three years, have been disappointing. Although we'd stop short of calling it inappropriate, we think the CEO compensation is probably more on the generous side of things. So you may want to check if insiders are buying HSS Hire Group shares with their own money (free access).

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
CEDAR FALLS  With U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders leapfrogging him in the polls, former Vice President Joe Biden kicked off the last week before the Iowa caucuses making the case for a more moderate candidate.

Its going to take someone to win the battleground states, Biden told a crowd of a couple of hundred inside the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Centers Great Hall on Monday.

He said his more progressive opponents, like Sanders, have plans that are too expensive and wont convince fiscally minded independents to come out and vote, giving the presidency back to Donald Trump.

Others propose spending $60 trillion with the explanation theyll tell you how theyre going to pay for it later, Biden said. I dont think you win voters by that. I think it scares the living hell out of people.

He was right to be nervous about Sanders: Biden is currently polling at an average of 22% compared with Sanders 25% among likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers, according to RealClearPolitics. Both are ahead of Pete Buttigieg, at an average of 17%, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 13.5%. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is rising, but still polling at an average of 8.5%.

Were down to the last week of our caucuses  the wonderful first-in-the-nation caucuses  and its time to do everything we can to get the right results, and I think the right result is Joe Biden, said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who introduced Biden Monday. Its so important we win this election, and he is by far the most electable candidate.

At least some voters at Bidens event seemed to be aware of the polling averages.

Im trying to decide between Amy, Mayor Pete and Joe, said John Von Tersch of Cedar Falls, who considers himself a moderate. The way Im probably going to go, Ill caucus for Amy, but I dont think shell get to 15% (viability). My second choice is Pete, and then Ill probably vote Joe in the general election.

Von Tersch said he believed the countrys Founders meant for virtue and integrity to be a big part of leadership, and said he saw those things in Biden on Monday.

I think hes better when he talks about the emotional issues hes previously experienced, Von Tersch said. The broad issues, he had trouble connecting with me.

Jane Harding of Crossville, Tenn., and previously a resident of Osage and Cedar Falls, talked one-on-one with Biden after the event, telling him about losing her 1-year-old grandson last week. She said she spoke because he could relate to her grief.

Hes lived that. Hes lost his family, she said. He continues to grieve and yet still is driven to help people.

That, plus Bidens stances on health care and education, will motivate Harding to vote for him in Tennessees primary March 3, she said.

I think we need a moderate, she said. Hes going to appeal to people that are not so far left, and I dont think theres another candidate who can do it.

That was also the stance of Mike and Pat Sheeley of Waterloo. Pat Sheeley said she even committed to driving a carload of caucusgoers from a senior living facility next week.

Hes very intelligent, very sincere, she said, noting her big issues were health care and the condition of how were perceived in the world today. That bothers me, and its going to get worse.

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All of his benefits will remain the same as those of District 212s other administrators. The board pays his contribution to the Teachers Retirement System and the premium for family medical insurance. The school board also covers the cost of an annual physical, which he is required to have for continued employment. He gets 20 vacation days and 19 sick days, three of which can be used as personal days. The Board also pays for memberships in professional organizations and for attendance at state and national professional conferences.
Photo: Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Here is all I can say about the Friday afternoon Lukas Haas called me: The Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes Natalie Portman doesnt win the Oscar she deserved for Jackie. Sometimes Halsey accidentally calls for another 9/11. Sometimes Lukas Haas  erstwhile child star of Witness, present-day musician-actor-best friend of Leonardo DiCaprio  calls you to talk about his music. That article that you wrote about me was so awesome, he tells me immediately. In that article, I called him the king of the Pussy Posse, and so when it came time to promote his new song, he says, Im like, Lets reach out to Hunter. Shes awesome.

Okay, I say. (No one in recorded history has called me awesome, however I have been called a breathtakingly gorgeous nightmare of a mom.) Anyway, for a brief, shining moment, Widows was my third-favorite film of 2018, and upon its release I wrote about how it was the second Lukas Haas movie in one calendar year  which, if you follow the career of Lukas Haas as closely as I apparently have, you know is an unusually high frequency. Over a year later, though, were not talking about Widows. Were talking about his new music, the benefits of stalking your dates on Instagram, and his current Posse status.

I have to ask you if you agree with my thesis: Are you the Pussy Posses true king?

I appreciate the take on it. I dont know if there is a king. Id have to defer to Leo. Whatever that is, it wouldnt exist without him, obviously.

And that was a New York Magazine story!

Yeah, thats how it all started.

I was reading old profiles of you, and the fact that you were interested in music, or liked to play around with music, came up a lot.

Basically, I kind of have been obsessed with music from a young age. Anyone who knows me knows that I talk about the Beatles way too much. When I was a kid, the first time I noticed a song on the radio, my ears perked up and I was like, What is that? My dad told me, Thats the Beatles. Thats the best band in the world. Im like, Whats a band? He explained everything to me, and from that moment on I was pretty much obsessed. I got a drum set and I played along in the garage. I got my keyboards and started playing the guitar. Ive just been writing songs and playing songs and recording my whole life. Its been just one of those things, kind of like a compulsion, I guess  a mental compulsion that I just cant get away from.

So how did this new song, Shes in My Head, happen?

Basically, I just saw my buddy  he was freaking out over this girl on the phone, and he was just going through Instagram and refreshing his messages. I was trying to talk to him, but he was pretty much just in his phone. I was like, God, thats crazy. Thats where were at. And I totally relate to it. I think anybody sort of can these days, who has a smartphone, anyway. So, Im like, Im gonna write a song about that  that feeling when you first meet someone and then youre checking them out on Instagram, and youre waiting for them to text you back but youre not sure that theyre going to, and its driving you crazy.

You released an EP about ten years ago, right? How did we get from that EP to this?

Basically, that was my first sort of attempt at really doing it. I was never completely happy with it is the truth. I think that my obsession with oldies  the Beatles and Elvis and the Stones  I wasnt even listening to what was going on at the time, so I was sort of stuck in this old-school music thing. I didnt have a concept around it, and I was still learning. It took me a long time to develop what Ive come up with now. I built a little studio seven years ago, and Ive been working ever since then to get this stuff done.

What do you think music fulfills for you creatively that acting doesnt?

With acting, youre kind of like a paint color. Youre like a color for the director, which is a wonderful, freeing place to be. At the same time, youre never expressing yourself in a pure way. Its always someone elses dialogue. You may adjust it and play with it, and you make it your own, but youre never talking about your own life. Youre never expressing yourself in such a direct way. With music, its pure expression. Theres a lot of anxiety involved, but its real and its mine.

Can you tell me more about the video for this?

Somebody sent me a screen-record video to show me something and Im like, What is that? How did you do that? They explained it to me and then a few weeks later, I was going through Instagram and it just occurred to me, Wait, this is the video.

I immediately went to my buddy Ariel Roman  hes a director guy. He and I hashed out the script in one night. Its basically about this guy who bumps into this girl  they bump into each other on the beach, and they meet and he texts her on DM on Instagram and she hits him back, but not really. And then hes obsessing over her. Its all just like an experience that you have on your phone.

I think its sort of striking how Ive been on both sides: both the person obsessed with getting a reaction, and the person whos not really engaging.

Yeah, its totally just a modern thing. I dont think that wouldve happened 15, 20 years ago. You would obsess, but they werent right in your face all the time, right in your pocket.

Do you look up people online before you go out with them?

[Laughs] No, do you?

I dont! I think its weirder to be on a first date and know what that persons last vacation was or something. A lot of my friends say Im weird for not stalking someone on IG before a date.

Really? In fact, to my mind, its sort of a bittersweet thing. Its interesting  its just where our culture is, but Instagram has changed everything so much. Not just Instagram, but our phones and social media and everything is shifting. This is just a comment on that. Im real old school  Im like you. I dont look anybody up. Im pretty out of it when it comes to this stuff, but its more of an observation Im making. Look at it  its everything. The president, you know. Social media has created a whole different way of communicating with each other and how we deal with each other. Its so weird. So no, I dont look anybody up.

Before we finish, Im gonna give you one more chance to correct the record. You are clearly the king of the Pussy Posse.

I appreciate that.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 14:04:42|Editor: zh

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VIENTIANE, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The primary school dropout rates in Laos increased in more than 70 districts, mostly in rural areas, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

Overall, primary school dropout rates decreased from 4 percent in 2018 to 3.8 percent in 2019, regardless of a sharp spike in some rural districts.

Xepon district in Savannakhet province of southern Laos saw a 23 percent increase, while the rates were 16 percent in Xaysathan district, Xayaboury province in northern Laos, and 14 percent in Dakcheung district, Xekong province of the south, the media quoted a report from the Ministry of Education and Sports.

However, school enrolment rates increased in line with education development plans in 2019, said the report, adding that as the government improves the quality of education, enrolment of children aged 5 has increased by 2.3 percent. Total enrolment at primary schools stood at 99.1 percent, while the primary school dropout rate decreased by 0.2 percent overall.

The number of students rose at each level of education, especially in early childhood and vocational institutions.

Enrolment of children aged 5 increased from 77 percent in 2018 to 79 percent in 2019 in Laos; primary school dropout rates among grade 1 children fell by 8.8 percent in 2018 to 8.4 percent in 2019; upper secondary school enrolment rose from 53.3 percent in 2018 to 54.8 percent in 2019.

The number of districts with school enrolment of 95 percent increased from 127 to 134 districts.

More students took courses in vocational education, with the number increasing from 68,605 in 2018 to 75,466 in 2019, an increase of 10 percent.

The Lao government has placed a strong focus on early childhood education in a bid to reduce primary school dropout rates in rural areas and ensure a higher standard of education countrywide, said the report.

According to a report on the education sector development plan, early childhood education is expected to have a national enrolment rate of at least 80 percent among 5-year-olds by the end of 2020.
Once again, the FBI is putting pressure on Apple to help them break into the phone of a mass shooter. And once again, Apple has been largely resistant to the effort. Which is good, because a government having control over a private company that gives them secret backdoor access into people's personal technology devices is an authoritarian wet dream waiting to happen.

It also doesn't matter anyway because  as Reuters pointed out this week  Apple already buckled under FBI pressure a few years and cancelled their plans to add end-to-end encryption to all iPhone backups in iCloud:

The company said it turned over at least some data for 90% of the requests it received [from the FBI]. It turns over data more often in response to secret U.S. intelligence court directives, which sought content from more than 18,000 accounts in the first half of 2019, the most recently reported six-month period.

But what if the FBI wants access to someone's locked iPhone, and they haven't backed it up to iCloud? They still don't need Apple's help, because  as with the San Bernardino shooting  there are plenty of third-party companies that can and will gladly solve the problem in exchange for money.

From OneZero:

Over the past three months, OneZero sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to over 50 major police departments, sheriffs, and prosecutors around the country asking for information about their use of phone-cracking technology. Hundreds of documents from these agencies reveal that law enforcement in at least 11 states spent over $4 million in the last decade on devices and software designed to get around passwords and access information stored on phones. [] The documents range from contracts, requests for proposals (RFPs), invoices for payments by law enforcement, quotes from forensic companies, and emails traded between officials discussing vendor approval. They suggest that most law enforcement agencies bought forensic investigation products from a small group of companies that include Cellebrite, Grayshift, Paraben, BlackBag, and MSAB. In addition to selling the software and hardware needed to unlock phones, these companies also charge thousands of dollars each year to upgrade the software in their products. In addition, their customers spend thousands on training sessions to teach personnel in their offices how to use the tools.

And perhaps that's the most frustrating thing about this whole scenario. The US government is always warning us about the authoritarian overreaches of surveillance states like those in China, but really, they just want to replicate it without feeling guilty. Meanwhile, supposed-innovations of free market enterprise are providing the same opportunities for authoritarian surveillance capitalism, but, ya know, privately-owned, so immune to any legal oversight or transparency, because America. Isn't that supposed to be the dream?

Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained [Joseph Menn / Reuters]

Exclusive: U.S. Cops Have Wide Access to Phone Cracking Software, New Documents Reveal [Michael Hayes / OneZero]

Image via the White House


SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Hundreds of Amazon workers have openly criticized the company's record on climate change by intentionally defying a company-wide ban against speaking out.



More than 350 employees of the e-commerce giant criticized the company's climate change policy in a Medium blog post Sunday, putting their jobs at risk for violating the company's corporate communications policy.



'The science on climate change is clear. It is unconscionable for Amazon to continue helping the oil and gas industry extract fossil fuels while trying to silence employees who speak out,' wrote Amelia Graham-McCann, a senior business analyst at Amazon.



'We have a responsibility to protect our climate and future generations, and this includes looking back critically on our contributions to the Climate Crisis,' said Griffin Ham, an account manager at Amazon.



The employees' comments were published by the Amazon Employees For Climate Justice, an advocacy group founded by Amazon employees to show solidarity with workers who said they were threatened with termination for violating the company's communications policy.



However, Amazon's external communications policy forbids employees from speaking about the company's business without prior approval from management.



Reports quoted an Amazon spokesperson as saying that all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics.



The spokesperson added that Amazon will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of colleagues who are developing 'solutions to these hard problems.'



In September 2019, Amazon unveiled its ambitious plans to combat climate change, with the announcement coming just a day before its employees planned to walk out of the Seattle headquarters to protest its climate policies.



Amazon said it has co-founded the Climate Pledge, a plan to make companies carbon neutral by 2040 and reach the goal of the Paris Accord ten years ahead of schedule. The company is the first signatory to the Climate Pledge and urged other large companies too to sign the agreement.



Amazon has pledged to reach 80 percent renewable energy by 2024 and run the company entirely on renewable energy by 2030.



Among other tech giants, Microsoft recently announced plans to reduce its carbon emissions by more than half, and to be carbon negative by 2030. This means the company will remove more carbon than it emits each year.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 05:24:26|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A study showed that people who develop Parkinson's disease before age 50 may trace its origin before birth. The findings may lend clue to a drug that might help correct these disease processes.

The study published on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine showed that those patients may have been born with disordered brain cells that went undetected for decades.

The research team from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center used special stem cells they generated from adult blood cells. They induced those stem cells from patients into dopamine neurons and then cultured them in a dish.

The researchers identified two abnormalities in those dopamine neurons in the dish. The first one is the accumulation of a protein called alpha-synuclein which occurs in most forms of Parkinson's disease.

The second is the malfunctioning cell structures that act as "trash cans" for the cell to break down and dispose of proteins. This malfunction could cause the protein to build up.

"What we are seeing using this new model are the very first signs of young-onset Parkinson's," said the study's senior author Clive Svendsen with Cedars-Sinai.

"It appears that dopamine neurons in these individuals may continue to mishandle alpha-synuclein over a period of 20 or 30 years, causing Parkinson's symptoms to emerge."

The investigators also used the stem cell model to test a number of drugs that might reverse the abnormalities they had observed.

They found that one drug was already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating precancers of the skin. It could reduce the elevated levels of alpha-synuclein in both the dopamine neurons in the dish and in laboratory mice.

The researchers are planning more research to determine whether the abnormalities the study found in neurons of young-onset Parkinson's patients also exist in other forms of Parkinson's.
A combination of climate change, extreme weather and pressure from local human activity is causing a collapse in global biodiversity and ecosystems across the tropics, new research shows.

The study, published today, mapped over 100 locations where tropical forests and coral reefs have been affected by climate extremes such as hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, droughts and fires. It provides an overview of how these very diverse ecosystems are being threatened by a combination of ongoing climate changes, increasingly extreme weather and damaging local human activities.

The international team of researchers argue that only international action to decrease CO 2 emissions can reverse this trend.

Lead researcher Dr Filipe Franca from the Embrapa Amazonia Oriental in Brazil and Lancaster University said: "Tropical forests and coral reefs are very important for global biodiversity, so it is extremely worrying that they are increasingly affected by both climate disturbances and human activities."

"Many local threats to tropical forests and coral reefs, such as deforestation, overfishing, and pollution, reduce the diversity and functioning of these ecosystems. This in turn can make them less able to withstand or recover from extreme weather. Our research highlights the extent of the damage which is being done to ecosystems and wildlife in the tropics by these interacting threats."

Dr Cassandra E. Benkwitt, a marine ecologist from Lancaster University, said: "Climate change is causing more intense and frequent storms and marine heatwaves. For coral reefs, such extreme events reduce live coral cover and cause long-lasting changes to both coral and fish communities, compounding local threats from poor water quality and overfishing. Although the long-term trajectory for reefs will depend on how extreme events interact with these local stressors, even relatively pristine reefs are vulnerable to both climate change and extreme weather."

Tropical forest species are also being threatened by the increasing frequency of extreme hurricanes.

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Dr Guadalupe Peralta from Canterbury University in New Zealand said: "A range of post-hurricane ecological consequences have been recorded in tropical forests: the destruction of plants by these weather extremes affects the animals, birds and insects that rely on them for food and shelter."

In some regions, such as the Caribbean Islands, extreme weather events have decimated wildlife, reducing numbers by more than half.

"We are starting to see another wave of global extinctions of tropical birds as forest fragmentation reduces populations to critical levels," explained Dr Alexander Lees, from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The combination of higher temperatures with longer and more severe dry seasons has also led to the spread of unprecedented and large-scale wildfires in tropical forests.

Dr Filipe Franca said that at the end of 2015, Santarem in the Brazilian state of Para was one of the epicentres of that year's El Nino impacts. "The region experienced a severe drought and extensive forest fires, and I was very sad to see the serious consequences for forest wildlife."

The drought also affected the forests ability to recover from the fires. Dung beetles play a vital role in forest recovery by spreading seeds. The study provides novel evidence that this seed spreading activity plummeted in those forests most impacted by the dry conditions during the 2015-2016 El Nino.

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Coral reefs were also critically damaged by the same El Nino, explains Professor Nick Graham from Lancaster University.

He said: "The 2015-16 coral bleaching event was the worst ever recorded, with many locations globally losing vast tracts of valuable corals. Worryingly, these global bleaching events are becoming more frequent due to the rise in ocean temperature from global warming."

The last part of the study emphasizes that urgent action and novel conservation strategies are needed to ameliorate the impacts of the multiple threats to tropical forests and coral reefs.

Dr Joice Ferreira from Embrapa Amazonia Oriental said: "To achieve successful climate-mitigation strategies, we need 'action-research' approaches that engage local people and institutions and respect the local needs and diverse socio-ecological conditions in the tropics."

The scientists caution that managing tropical ecosystems locally may not be enough if we do not tackle global climate change issues.

They stress the urgent need for all nations to act together if we really want to conserve tropical forests and coral reefs for future generations.
What just happened? Boeing's new 7779-X airliner has successfully completed its maiden flight, lasting nearly four hours, after a few delays caused by technical difficulties and poor weather conditions. The achievement comes amidst the company's ongoing crisis with its best-selling 737 Max and could help in restoring some of the firm's troubled reputation.

The 777-9X is Boeing's latest widebody commercial airliner that recently took to the skies for its first successful test flight and could prove to be a silver lining of the dark clouds looming over the company since the grounding of the 737 Max last year.

At 251 feet (77.7 m) long, the 777-9 variant of the 777X family is the longest commercial plane yet, with a capacity for carrying 426 passengers in a typical two-class seat layout. A pair of powerful and efficient GE9X engines provide propulsion for a range of up to 7,285 nautical miles (13,500 km), taking it further than its predecessor, the 777-300ER.

The engines are attached to the plane's giant carbon-composite wings, each having a wingspan of over 233 feet (71 m), the largest-ever created by Boeing. These feature folding tips for getting the plane through existing airport gates and taxiways and are lowered when the jet lines up for takeoff.

After its nearly four-hour test flight on Saturday, Van Chaney, Boeing's chief test pilot, said that aircraft "flew beautifully" and thanked the teams responsible. "Our Boeing team has taken the most successful twin-aisle jet of all time and made it even more efficient, more capable and more comfortable for all," said Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The company now plans to conduct a comprehensive series of tests for the 777X to demonstrate its safety and reliability and expects deliveries to begin late next year. The plane will cost about $204 million after applying standard discounts, with buyers including ANA, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.
Police have booked two persons, including an immigration agent, for allegedly sending a man to Ukraine instead of UK. While in Ukraine, the victim, was allegedly held captive and released after receiving a ransom.

The accused have been identified as Randhir Singh of Rohti Mouran village, Nabha and Pardeep Singh of Madiana village, Rajpura.

Police said, Nirmal Singh of Rohti Mouran village had met immigration agent Pardeep through Randhir. Pardeep agreed to send Nirmals son Beant Singh to UK in exchange of 15 lakh.

Upon receiving an advance payment of 3 lakh, Pardeep allegedly got Beant tickets to Baku city in Azerbaijan from where he was to go to Ukraine and spend 15 days there. Pradeep said it was in Ukraine that Beant would receive a work permit that would be valid in England for three years, police said.

Pardeep had assured Nirmal that he would take the remaining payment after Beant reached UK. However, when Beant landed in Baku, Pardeep demanded 6 lakh for obtaining VISA and a work permit for Beant. Upon receiving the payment, Beant was shifted to Ukraine, police said.

Police said, a few days later Nirmal received a phone call from his son saying that he had been held captive and his captors were demanding 5 lakh as ransom.

Nirmal contacted Pardeep who told him that Beant may have been taken in by some criminals and that he should send the money. Nirmal told the police that he paid 3 lakh to Pardeep to pay the ransom and also paid him money for tickets to bring his son back to India.

Randhir said he had taken Nirmal to Pardeep because he himself was applying to send his son abroad through Pardeep. When Pardeep brought tickets for some other place than what was promised, I refused to send my son abroad and advised Nirmal to do the same.However, he was too eager to send his son abroad and accepted the agents offer, Randhir said.

SHO Jai Inder Singh Randhawa said the SSP had marked an inquiry to the economic offences wing and a case has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act.
University News

Alvin Tran, Sc.D., MPH, an assistant professor in the University of New Havens Health Administration and Policy Department, is creating the Health Equity and Advocacy Fellowship to support research efforts around mental health care.

Left to right: State Rep. Anne Hughes, State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, State Rep. Dorinda Borer, State Sen. Saud Anwar, Alvin Tran, Sc.D., MPH, State Rep. Robin Comey.

University of New Haven health administration and policy professor Alvin Tran, Sc.D., MPH, has been awarded a Presidents Discretionary Grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation, an independent and private foundation dedicated to improving health equity in the state  that he will use to launch a new student-centered fellowship training program.

This is the first time the Connecticut Health Foundation has funded a project at the University.

"The fellowship will be a valuable opportunity for students to learn how to become effective changemakers in their community." Alvin Tran, Sc.D., MPH

Tran is the first faculty member at the University to receive grant funding from the foundation. He will use the support to create the Health Equity and Advocacy Fellowship program, which will be operated under the School of Health Sciences and Trans WeEmbody Lab, a research working group he launched last fall. The fellowship will give University of New Haven students the opportunity to engage in important research opportunities and advocacy initiatives around mental health care.

Alvin Tran, Sc.D., MPH speaks at a recent Suicide Prevention Summit held at the University of New Haven.

"Helping to ensure lawmakers have access to  and understand  the latest evidence-based research is essential to creating policies that help reduce gaps in mental health care for racial and ethnic minorities," says Tran.

Throughout the program, students will develop policy briefs and fact sheets using a team-based approach, and formulate a dissemination plan to distribute key information on health issues to decisionmakers to support their policy and legislation development efforts.

Other activities will include health advocacy trainings, a speaker series that will bring experts in health equity from across the country to campus to engage in small group discussions with students, and a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with legislators.

"The fellowship will be a valuable opportunity for students to learn how to become effective changemakers in their community," Tran adds.

During the 2019-2020 grant period, the Health Equity and Advocacy Fellowship program aims to recruit up to eight University of New Haven students. Recruitment for the fellowship will begin early in the spring semester.
(Updates with quote from Kaag, company reaction)

AMSTERDAM, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. tariff on laminated

steel used in packaging will not apply to Tata Steel products

manufactured in the Netherlands, the Dutch foreign trade

minister said on Monday.

Sigrid Kaag told reporters that the U.S. had agreed the

products would be exempt from a 25% tariff announced by the

administration of President Donald Trump in June 2018, saving

consumers and the company up to 100 million euros annually in

tariff costs.

"The import tariffs on laminated steel have been retracted

and that's wonderful news for Tata Steel," Kaag told reporters

in The Hague. "It's good for us, and good for Dutch employees."

Since 2018, U.S. companies wishing to import the type of

steel, which is not produced in the U.S., had been forced to

seek tariff exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

A spokeswoman for Tata Steel, whose Dutch operations are

based in the city of Ijmuiden, said that around 100,000 tons of

the company's 531,000 tons of steel exports to the U.S. were

covered by the exemption.

"This is very good news, we are very happy with the

minister's efforts", Tata spokeswoman Ariane Volz said.

She noted that the exemption will last for a period of one

year, and must then be extended.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Jan Harvey, Kirsten

Donovan)
AnadoluJet has been a trademark of Turkish Airlines since 2008, providing affordable domestic flights to more than 100 million passengers for over 11 years. This year will see its flight network expand internationally, with an additional 26 destinations in 16 countries to be added to its schedule.

Later this year, the airlines network will expand to 108 routes across 67 destinations (including domestic flights) serviced by its fleet of 57 aircraft.

Celal Baykal, Turkish Airlines General Manager in London: AnadoluJet will maintain the example of Turkish Airlines and will open its doors to the world, carrying more passengers with our signature Turkish hospitality.

With a number of international flight routes being added to this years schedule, were excited to offer new options to our new and existing AnadoluJet passengers and help them widen their world.

Nick Sime, head of aviation account management at Stansted Airport Authority said: We are delighted that AnadoluJet is launching flights to Istanbul from London Stansted Airport this spring. Flights between London Stansted and Turkey have always been extremely popular and this will provide our passengers with even more choice. I have no doubt that this new link will be an attractive option for both business and leisure passengers. We look forward to working with them and wish AnadoluJet every success with this new link from Stansted.
We said it once and well say it again  the devil works hard, but The Bachelor producers work harder. After all the drama between Hannah Brown and Caelynn Miller-Keyes on Colton Underwoods season of The Bachelor, the ABC reality series cast five former pageant queens  Kelsey Weier, Alayah Benavidez, Victoria Paul, Hannah Ann Sluss, and Maurissa Gunn  on Peter Webers season.

Given the small community within the pageant world, it was always a possibility for a contestant to have a history with another fellow castmate, pre-Bachelor. And now, with all the drama rising between Victoria P. and Alayah, some fans are comparing the rift with what happened to Brown and Miller-Keyes.

How do Victoria P. and Alayah know each other?

In the Jan. 27 episode of The Bachelor, Alayahs character was called into question after Sydney Hightower warned Weber about Alayahs behavior. Sydney called Alayah fake and alleged the former Miss Texas USA acted differently in front of the cameras.

Throughout the remainder of the episode, Weber asked women about Alayah and a few women expressed their own concerns. However, the bachelor wasnt 100 percent convinced, still giving Alayah the benefit of the doubt, until he spoke with Victoria P., who revealed she knew Alayah because of their pageant past.

I shared with you that I was Miss Louisiana. And so I did know Alayah a little bit before going into this, Victoria P. told Weber. I probably had spent, maybe, like collectively three hours with her, even at Miss USA. And its difficult for me to be in this position. But I do know that she asked that I not tell producers that we knew one another.

She continued: I didnt really understand why because I was like, Lets not. I cant lie, I dont wanna lie. I didnt think of it much then. But looking back now, Im like, Well, she did ask me to lie. And thats not who I am.

Then Victoria P. dropped the bomb. [Alayah] was really open to all the opportunities that come after this, even if you arent her husband, Victoria P. said. So maybe shes not the one for you.

Were Victoria P. and Alayah friends before Peter Webers season of The Bachelor?

Following the conversation, Weber confronted Alayah about asking Victoria P. to lie to producers about their relationship before The Bachelor. And although Victoria P. said she barely knew her Alayah, the former Miss Texas USA explained she was friends with Victoria P.

Victoria and I are friends outside of this. Victoria P. and I know each other very well outside of this environment, Alayah said. Before getting here, my biggest fear is that I would get disqualified and she would get disqualified because we knew the other person was coming. I didnt want that for her, I didnt want that for me. And I was very scared for both of us that was gonna be an issue.

Weber then noted his disappointment, hinting Alayahs actions didnt look genuine from his perspective. From everything Ive seen from Victoria so far, she just seems like shed have no reason to lie, Weber said. And hearing that you were trying to cover it up, that you guys knew each other

Then Alayah interrupted Weber, clarifying she didnt ask Victoria P. to lie about their history beforehand. Rather, Alayah was worried about being disqualified for discussing their Bachelor casting before limo night  which typically remains unknown beforehand.

No, Im not trying to cover up that we know each other, Alayah said. Thats not at all it. I didnt want us to not be able to be here because we knew the other person was doing it.

Fans react to Victoria P. and Alayahs pageant drama on The Bachelor

It appears Alayahs explanation about the Victoria P. wasnt enough to convince Weber  or Bachelor Nation fans. At the end of the episode, Weber eliminated Alayah, sending her home. Many viewers also brought up the feud between Miller-Keyes and Brown in Underwoods season as a reason to discredit Alayahs claims.

Alayah was worried her and Victoria P would get kicked off the show for knowing each other when Coltons season had a whole story line around Hannah B and Caelynn, a fan wrote with a confused GIF of Miss J. Alexander.

Other fans compared Victoria P. and Alayahs situation with Miller-Keyes and Brown  but in a different light. And instead, they put the blame on the producers.

Alayah had a valid concern, one fan wrote on Twitter. It wouldnt be the first time producers tried to stir up drama between two pageant girls, remember Caelynn and Hannah B on Coltons season??

The Bachelor Season 24 cast | ABC/Craig Sjodin

For those of you who may not remember, Miller-Keyes and Brown competed in the Miss USA 2018 pageant. They were friends at one point but had a falling out. The women then appeared on Underwoods season. And as a result, Miller-Keyes and Brown told their bachelor the other party wasnt there for the right reasons.

Now, history is repeating itself with Victoria P. and Alayah  sort of. Miller-Keyes and Brown had negative feelings towards one another coming into Underwoods season. On the other hand, Victoria P. and Alayahs situation appears less personal.

That said, fans are still seeing a lot of she said, she said that ultimately stems from their pageant past and friendship. Regardless, everyone will just have to wait and see how this all plays out, especially with Alayahs return in the Jan. 27 episode. So stay tuned.

Read more: The Bachelor: Hannah Brown Is Bothered By This 1 Thing About the Peter Weber Reunion
The government on Monday signed an accord with one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), providing political and economic bonanza.

New Delhi: The government on Monday signed an accord with one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), providing political and economic bonanza. The All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state was also signatory to the accord.

The tripartite agreement was signed by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"It is a historical accord," Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said and asserted that the pact will bring a comprehensive solution to the Bodo issue.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Bodo Peace Accord will lead to a "full and final" solution to the decades-old Bodo issue."The BodoAccord shall reaffirm the territorial integrity of Assam and at the same time usher us into a new hope of peace and progress in Bodoland," Sarma, also the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor, added.

He also thanked all those who made the "historic" accord possible which, Sarma said, was signed with the "blessings" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and under the "leadership" of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

History is created as all the factions of #NDFB sign a #Bodo Peace Accord with #GoI. Grateful to Hon PM Sri @narendramodi and HM Sri @AmitShah for making this happen which heralds a new dawn of peace & prosperity in #Assam.@sarbanandsonwal @JPNadda @RanjeetkrDass pic.twitter.com/BL9fdRPeQf  Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) January 27, 2020

Meanwhile, a 12-hour Assam bandh called by various non-Bodo organisations on Monday in protest against the Centre's move to sign a peace accord with different Bodo stakeholders has brought life to a standstill in the four districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

Official sources told PTI that normal life has been affected in Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri districts but the bandh did not have any impact in other areas of the state.

Apart from burning of tyres in some areas in Kokrajhar district, no major incident of violence has been reported so far, police said.

All educational institutions remained closed though some examinations scheduled in the colleges were held. Vehicles, including long-distance buses, remained off the roads and all shops and business establishments were shut.

Railway services remained unaffected so far with all major trains running on schedule, a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson told PTI.

The bandh has been called by various organisations including the All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU), All Bodo Minority Students' Union (ABMSU), All Adivasi Students' Union, Oboro Suraksha Samiti, Kalita Janagoshti Students' Union among others.

The non-Bodo organisations are demanding that all non-Bodo stakeholders residing in the Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD) and the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) should be included in the peace talks and made signatories to the accord that is likely to be signed on Monday.

The Centre held discussions with the Bodo stakeholders, including four factions of the NDFB, All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) and the People's Joint Action Committee for Bodoland.

NDFB(R) chief Ranjan Daimary, sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the 30 October 2008 serial bomb blasts, was granted interim bail for four weeks by a specially constituted Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court and taken to New Delhi on Saturday to take part in the peace talks.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the Centre has assured the state government that the areas under the BTAD will not be declared a Union Territory and no new areas will be added to it and that the state's territorial integrity will be maintained. Sonowal also left for New Delhi on Sunday evening to participate in the talks.
She survived an abortion meant to take her life. Here's her story

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Abortion is one of the most contested and debated topics in America, but there's a facet of the discussion that doesn't often get a great deal of attention: abortion survival.

The media tend not to feature abortion survivors like Claire Culwell, a woman whose story has in recent years captivated the pro-life world.

WATCH: See 8 Powerful Pro-Life Movies on PureFlix.com

Culwell, who will soon participate in the inspirational "She Lives Out Loud" online event for women, became a pro-life speaker and advocate after learning 10 years ago that she miraculously survived abortion.

Listen to her tell her harrowing story on The Pure Flix Podcast:

"My sister and I are both adopted," Culwell told The Pure Flix Podcast, explaining that she and her sibling always knew they wanted to meet their birth parents. "After my sister met her birth mother ... I thought, 'Well mine could be just as great. I should reach out to this woman who gave me my life and my family.'"

Culwell said she wanted to thank her birth mom for giving her a wonderful life through adoption, and she soon had the chance.

READ ALSO: 5 Pro-Life Bible Verses That Will Inspire You

Culwell met her birth mom and the two started to build a relationship. About two months after their first encounter, though, Culwell learned the shock of a lifetime.

"In preparation for that second meeting I had a gift for her and it was this ring and necklace with my birthstone on it," she said.

But after she gave her birth mother these thoughtful momentos, something changed.

"There was this pain in her eyes," Culwell said. "And it's really indescribable, this pain that I saw."

Culwell's birth mother started shaking and broke into tears, before revealing the unthinkable.

"She was shaking and crying and she said, 'Claire, I had an abortion when I was pregnant with you. I was 13 years old and my mother told me there was only one choice for me,'" Culwell recounted.

On the surface, this likely seemed confusing considering Culwell very clearly survived and was given up for adoption.

But her mother explained that, at age 13, she underwent a Dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

READ ALSO: The Real History Behind Roe Vs. Wade

After the abortion, something didn't seem quite right, so Culwell's birth mother went back to the clinic and learned that she was actually pregnant with twins.

"They told her, 'Oops you were actually pregnant with twins. We got one of the babies but this baby survived,'" Culwell recounted. "I was born a few weeks later ... at 30 weeks."

Culwell had a dislocated hip and club feet, which she said is her "daily reminder" that she's "an abortion survivor: and a "twinless twin."

After learning about these details, Culwell had to grapple with her newfound reality.

"I survived something that literally was meant to take my life," she said. "One thing that I walked away knowing was that God had a plan for my life. There was a purpose for the pain that we had experienced."

Eventually, Culwell became an advocate and has been publicly sharing her story of abortion survival  a story that has "woken a lot of people up."

It's an uphill battle, as not everyone is aware of what people like Culwell have faced, and many critics dismiss pro-life activists' staunchest arguments.

Culwell is well aware of these roadblocks.

"We're being told that our voice, our choice, our humanity, our experience with abortion doesn't matter," she said. "That the only thing that matters is that women can do what they want."

You can watch Culwell and other female Christian leaders speak out during "She Loves Out Loud," an online event slated to take place on February 15. Find out more about the event and how you can take part here.

And be sure to watch some of the powerful, pro-life movies streaming right now on PureFlix.com.

--

This article was originally published on Pure Flix Insider. Visit Pure Flix for access to thousands of faith and family-friendly movies and TV shows. You can get a free trial here.

Billy Hallowell, author of "The Armageddon Code," has contributed to TheBlaze, the Washington Post, Human Events, the Daily Caller, Mediaite, and the Huffington Post, among other news sites. Through journalism, media, public speaking appearances, and the blogosphere, Hallowell has worked as a journalist and commentator for more than a decade.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday told her party MPs to raise the issues concerning common people aggressively in Parliament during its coming Budget Session. She also stressed the need to listen to people's voice.

Gandhi discussed the party's strategy to corner the BJP government in both the Houses of Parliament at the meeting of Congress Parliamentary Party Strategy Group, which was held here at her residence.

According to sources privy to deliberations which took place in the meeting, Gandhi told party MPs in unequivocal terms they need to be aggressive in raising issues concerning common people in both the Houses of Parliament.

"The Government of India must address every problem of the people. We have to raise the people's voice, issues in Parliament. All parties of the opposition, especially the UPA allies, will have to be taken along," said sources.

"The opposition will be prepared to speak in unison on all issues including unrest across the country over CAA, Population Register (NPR) and Register for Citizens (NRC), unemployment, and sinking economy," they said.

Speaking to ANI, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: "We will fight against Citizenship Amendment Act. We will fight for the Constitution and economy. We will raise all these issues."

Gulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Manish Tiwari Jairam Ramesh, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal, and Manickam Tagore also attended the meeting.

The Budget Session of Parliament is commencing from January 31.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Star graph showing Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty sells the most real estate on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the Fourth Year in a row as reported by the Outer Banks Association of Realtors. Because we are a client focused firm, we provide our agents with marketing tools, training resources and support to allow each agent to better service their clients and provide an exceptional experience in both the home selling and buying process." - Pamela Smith, VP, Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty

Additionally, Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty topped $220 million in sales for 2019 making them the only firm in the market to reach over $200 million in sales for two years in a row.

The Outer Banks residential market saw an 8% increase in both units and sales volume compared to 2018. The average sales price declined slightly to $416,698. The declining inventory helped lower the average days on the market which ended the year at just 117 days. Click here to view the full Outer Banks Market Report.

We saw the market in our area shift from what has been a traditional seasonal market towards a more year-round market in 2019. December is always a strong month but this year, the 4th quarter was our best quarter of the year. Although the investment and second home market continue to dominate, there are now more people moving to the Outer Banks to live year-round. Advances in technology have allowed people to live anywhere and work from home and I believe we are seeing the benefit of this on the OBX. According to the Outer Banks Association of Realtors MLS, the area also had the best quarter of the year in both units and sales volume, explains Pamela Smith, Vice President of Sales at Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty.

Because we are a client focused firm, we provide our agents with marketing tools, training resources and support to allow each agent to better service their clients and provide an exceptional experience in both the home selling and buying process. The positive feedback we get from clients in online reviews and personal referrals throughout the year continually reinforces the success of this approach. We are the best because our agents are the best!

Family owned and operated and celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty offers top-tier real estate services to buyers and sellers across the entire Outer Banks and all of northeastern North Carolina. Over the course of its 30-year existence, Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty has earned a reputation as a premier real estate firm best known for its knowledgeable team, area expertise and commitment to the latest technology. Combined with the Coldwell Banker brand, one of the largest and most influential residential real estate brokerage franchises in the world, its no surprise Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty continues to dominate the highly competitive Outer Banks real estate market.

*As reported by the Outer Banks Association of REALTORS and Albemarle Area Association of REALTORS 1/01/2016  12/31/2019.

###


China's immediate neighbour, Mongolia has closed all universities and educational institutes until March 2 to prevent the spread of deadly coronavirus. Citing a cabinet meeting, Mongolian state media also said that it has closed the border crossings for auto vehicles and pedestrian traffic from January 27 and called for public gatherings to be cancelled. The death toll in China has hiked up to 80 with nearly 2,800 patients confirmed to be infected with the virus. The country has been trying to step-up the emergency measures to contain the global spread of the pathogen.

What has made the control of virus more severe is that according to Chinese health authorities, the virus can be spread before any symptoms appear on the carrier. Across the mainland, 15 cities with a combined population of nearly 57 million people have also been placed under full or partial lockdown.

Read - Coronavirus: Goa Government To Form Special Task Force To Monitor Cases In The State

The Chinese city of Wuhan, which is also the epicentre of the pandemic, has been effectively quarantined. All routes of the city are closed and highly regulated and according to media reports, the government has sent 1,200 health workers along with 135 People's Liberation Army medical personnel to help the city's staff.

Wuhan's Mayor Zhou Xianwang has also said that the number of cases can rise by another thousand. Since the outbreak has been widely spread in China, with nearly 70 confirmed cases in Beijing, the country has also extended the Lunar Year Holiday to February 2.

Read - Coronavirus: Epicenter Wuhan Suspends Passport And Visa Services For Chinese Citizens

Japan plans to evacuate citizens

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on January 26 said that the government is making arrangements to fly Japanese citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan which is the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak. According to international media reports, Abe has said Japanese who wish to be evacated will be flown out on a chartered flight.

Japan and China are currently in talks with the plan of carrying out the evacuation and the Japanese officials are thus working on preparations through the weekend. Japan's PM not only stressed that various options are being considered to help the citizens in China but also said he will let them enter the country.

Read - Coronavirus: Suspected Case In Rajasthan Kept In Isolation Ward, Family To Be Screened

Read - As Of Now, No Indian In China Affected By Coronavirus Outbreak: MEA
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday that the city is activating its emergency operations center to centralize a response to any local cases of the deadly outbreak of coronavirus.

The virus, with its epicenter in Wuhan, China, has so far sickened five people in the United States, including two in Southern California.

San Francisco is ready to respond in order to ensure public safety, said Breed at a midday news conference on the outbreak.

The mayor and city health officials reiterated there have been no confirmed cases in San Francisco, but Dr. Tomas Aragon of the public health department said that the city is actively preparing for confirmed cases. In general, that entails keeping in close contact with nearby hospitals and health providers to ensure medical facilities are at the ready to properly quarantine and care for an infected person.

Aragon added that people in the Bay Area have a low risk of becoming infected unless they recently were in Wuhan or came into contact with a confirmed case. The citys executive director of the Department of Emergency Management, Mary Ellen Carroll, said officials have discussed San Franciscos upcoming Lunar New Year festivities and decided not to make any changes or take special precautions at this point, given the low risk.

Brian Feulner / Special to The Chronicle

San Franciscos emergency operations center was also activated following the dangerous air quality conditions created by smoke drifting off the Camp Fire in Butte County in 2018.

No case has been confirmed in the Bay Area so far, but Alameda County health officials said they were testing fewer than 10 people for the potentially deadly respiratory virus, and that samples had been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Monday afternoon, Alameda County health officials said there was no additional information to report, but added that the health department would announce only confirmed coronavirus cases in the future.

San Francisco health officials are providing information only about confirmed cases in order to not confuse the public, Aragon said, and he would not disclose whether any samples had been sent to the CDC for analysis. State health officials, he said, would release more data on potential cases at some point, he added.

As of Monday, five people in the U.S.  two in Southern California and one each in Arizona, Washington state and Illinois  have been diagnosed with the virus. At least 106 people have died as a result of coronavirus infection, and more than 4,500 have been sickened in China and 40 elsewhere.

Symptoms include mild to severe respiratory illness, including fever, cough and difficulty breathing, according to the CDC. The symptoms, Aragon said, mimic other common illnesses. City health officials said that, given the low risk of infections, no special precautions, such as wearing masks, were necessary, though they said ordinary illness-prevention measures like frequent hand washing remain a good idea.

Chinatopix

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

We will not be able to tell just from the symptoms, Aragon said. That's why the history of where that person has been is the most important factor. So people who have arrived from China  that specific information combined with our symptoms is how we identify who needs to be evaluated further.

The CDC has been screening air travelers arriving from Wuhan at San Francisco International Airport and four other airports across the country: Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

The State Department announced plans Sunday to evacuate staff and some private citizens from Wuhan and bring them to San Francisco on Tuesday  but that plan appears to have changed.

Ivar Satero, director of SFO, provided an update about the flight at Mondays news conference with Breed. Satero said U.S. diplomats and civilians are now expected to go to Anchorage, Alaska, and then to Ontario in San Bernardino County. He also said all flights out of Wuhan to SFO have been canceled, but that CDC staff would remain at the airport to screen anyone whose itinerary may have included a stop in Wuhan.

SFO has 90 flights per week between the airport and China. Three of those were the Wuhan nonstops that have now been canceled.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Remember the Snowden disclosures? It may seem like an eternity ago, but it was in 2013 that Edward Snowden revealed to the public the governments extensive warrantless domestic surveillance program. After he disclosed that the National Security Agency was scooping up millions of phone records showing Americans calling patterns, Congress responded appropriately by ending that bulk collection program through the USA Freedom Act in June 2015.

But Congress never actually finished the job. It replaced the bulk program with one that is narrower, yes, but that continues to allow the government to invade our privacy by collecting massive amounts of phone records. Now, its time for Congress to finish what it started almost five years ago.

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On March 15, 2020, three U.S. surveillance law provisions are set to expire unless Congress reauthorizes them again. One of these is Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which authorizes the U.S. government to collect business records, such as financial or hotel records. The USA Freedom Act added new subsections to Section 215 to permit the collection of call detail records, or CDRs, on an ongoing basis. CDRs, as defined by Section 215, consist of session identifying information. They show which phone numbers (or other identifiers, like an international mobile subscriber identity number) are contacting which other numbers, and the time and duration of these connections. Congress created this Section 215 CDR authority in an attempt to replace the earlier bulk program with a more limited version. CDRs are the same kind of records that the NSA was collecting in bulk under the old program. When CDRs are assembled and analyzed at scale, the calling patterns can be highly revealing of very sensitive information; they can show your regular calls to a cancer clinic or a therapist.

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As Congress debates reauthorization of the expiring Patriot Act provisions, there are many important reforms it should enact, such as explicitly prohibiting targeting on the basis of race, religion, and other protected classes. But ending the Section 215 CDR program is a necessary and critical first step.

As I have explained in more detail elsewhere, the current Section 215 CDR program is significantly narrower than the earlier bulk program, but the replacement authority still allows the government to collect vast quantities of information on Americans. The most notable post-Snowden improvement is that the government can no longer collect all the CDRs generated by any communications provider in bulk. Rather, providers store the phone records, and the NSA can only acquire CDRs associated with particular targeted numbers. In addition, the government must now get approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for each target.

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However, the current program has still enabled the government to collect hundreds of millions of CDRs, and the programs intrusiveness is compounded by permitting the government to collect calling records out to two hops from the person who is actually suspected of being connected to terrorism. The first hop involves collecting all the CDRs on an ongoing basis for a particular terrorism suspect, and the second hop permits collecting records for every person who has been in contact with the terrorism suspects number. These CDRs for the second hop show all of the calls to and from the first hop contacts, even though most of them will not have any actual connection to terrorist acts or planning. Thus, although allowing two hops is much narrower than the earlier, preUSA Freedom Act bulk program that permitted collection out to three hops (since each hop exponentially increases the number of records), that second hop still allows the NSA to acquire calling records for vast numbers of people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

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Perhaps more importantly, the Section 215 CDR program is not effective in producing valuable intelligence. Scholars who have examined the technical features of the Section 215 CDR program have concluded that not only has the program been ineffective since its inception in 2015, but it is unlikely to be effective in the future. In June 2018, the NSA announced that it had discovered technical irregularities in some of the CDRs it had acquired, and that the NSA had received records it was not entitled to collect. As a result, the NSA decided to purge all of the CDRs it had collected since the program began in late 2015. Several months later, the NSA suspended operation of the program altogether. As former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats explained in an August 2019 letter to Congress, the intelligence community made the decision to suspend the program based on balancing the programs relative intelligence value, associated costs, and compliance and data integrity concerns caused by the unique complexities of operating this program. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which concluded in its 2014 report that the earlier bulk collection program had been ineffective, has also reviewed the current Section 215 CDR program and agreed with the intelligence communitys assessment that it should be suspended. In short, this highly complex authority simply isnt worthwhile.

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Its an ineffective, cumbersome system that even some of the nations brightest minds havent been able to legally wield in nearly five years.

Nonetheless, after internal debates that lasted for many months, the Trump administration decided to seek permanent reauthorization of the CDR program in 2019. In hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this past fall, U.S. government witnesses asserted in their joint written testimony to the House that the CDR program may be needed again in the future, should circumstances change, and stated to the Senate that reauthorization would permit the government to retain this potentially valuable tool should it prove useful in the future. When Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asked why Congress should reauthorize a program that the NSA itself had decided to suspend as ineffective, the agency representative responded that in one year from now, two years from now, three years from now  we could find ourselves in a situation where this particular tool in our toolbox, we would want to have the agility to use it should it be valuable moving forward.

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In other words, the government asserts that Congress should let the intelligence agencies maintain the invasive, ineffective program as another tool in the toolbox because you never know when you may want it.

The key problem with the toolbox metaphor is that it leaves the impression that the Section 215 CDR program is something an intelligence analyst could simply grab and use in a hurry when its needed, like a hammer or a screwdriver. But the metaphor doesnt hold. The Section 215 CDR program is a highly complex system that involves collecting electronic dataincluding the records of numerous Americansfrom various communications service providers, analyzing this data, and storing it securely. It is so complex that it took the NSA 2 yearsfrom late 2015 until the spring of 2018to discover that it had been collecting numerous CDRs contaminated by technical irregularities that were not readily apparent to analysts. And, as noted, the unique complexities of operating the program were among the factors that Coats cited to explain the NSAs decision that the program was not worth restarting. The Section 215 CDR program is not something that could simply and safely be whipped out of the toolbox in response to an unknown future threat. Its an ineffective, cumbersome system that even some of the nations brightest minds havent been able to legally wield in nearly five years.

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Even if we did accept the administrations toolbox metaphor, its reasoning is deeply flawed. If you discovered that a tool was more dangerous than helpfulsay an electric saw that was hard to use without cutting off a fingeryou would get rid of it and rely on other, safer alternatives. You wouldnt store it in your toolbox for some hypothetical future use. And if, one day in the future, you learned that you had a project for which you really could use a mechanical saw, you would go out and procure a newer, safer version that met your new needs.

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Finally, as a matter of principle, intelligence agencies should not be given every tool they may want, but only those that they need, and only those that can be implemented in a manner that protects individual rights. Intelligence work is difficult, and foreign intelligence information can come from unexpected sources. But this does not mean that intelligence agencies should be given broad authorities to monitor everyone all the time. If, at some future date, our intelligence agencies conclude that collecting a new type of session identifying information on an ongoing basis would provide needed intelligence on terrorists and other valid targets, they can go back to Congress at that time to seek a new authority tailored to the new need, one that incorporates robust safeguards for privacy and human rights.

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Fortunately, during the House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearings last fall, many members of Congress seemed aware of these issues, and thus skeptical of the governments request for reauthorization of the CDR program. And encouragingly, later in November, Sens. Richard Burr and Mark Warner, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, respectively, introduced S. 2939, the Protecting Against International Terrorism Act, a bill that would terminate the Section 215 CDR program. Sens. Ron Wyden and Steve Daines and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Warren Davidson, and Pramila Jayapal have also introduced the Safeguarding Americans Private Records Act, which would revoke the authority for the CDR program. It is likely that there will soon be additional surveillance reform legislation introduced in the House that would end the CDR program as well. As Congress considers key reforms to U.S. surveillance authorities, it is time to abolish the Section 215 CDR program.

The notion that we can never let a surveillance program expire because we never know when it may be useful may be tempting, but it is also dangerous. From the Church Committees comprehensive investigation of domestic spying in the 1970s to the Snowden revelations of the last decade, Americans have seen too many reminders of how surveillance powers can be abused.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Over the weekend, two Southern California residents were diagnosed with coronavirus, the third and fourth individuals in the United States testing positive for the pneumonia-like virus that originated in China.

What's more, Alameda County Public Health Department said last week it has been investigating less than 10 people from the county who have recently traveled to Wuhan, China for coronavirus. Alameda County Public Health Department spokesperson Neetu Balram said the patients under investigation present a range of cases, and at this point, there are no confirmed cases in Alameda County, nor the Bay Area.

While the risk to Bay Area residents remains extremely low, the recent news developments may have some residents asking questions.

What is coronavirus?

The viral respiratory illness spreading rapidly in China is a new kind of coronavirus that scientists have never observed in humans before. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some of which cause the common cold. Others have evolved into more severe illnesses, such as SARS and MERS, although so far the new virus does not appear to be nearly as deadly or contagious.

How many people are impacted?

The number of confirmed cases has risen to more than 4,500 and the majority of those are in China. At least 106 people have died. For perspective on the speed of the spread, the National Health Commission said 769 new cases were confirmed in the 24 hours through midnight Sunday.

Wuhan, a port city of 11 million in the Hubei province, is at the center of the outbreak, and the Chinese government has quarantined the city. It has also restricted travel to and from several other cities, including Beijing.

Small numbers of cases have been found in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Australia.

There are five cases in the United States: two of them in Southern California, one in Chicago, one in Washington state and another in Arizona.

The first patient in Southern California was diagnosed in Orange County on Jan. 25 and the second was identified in Los Angeles County on Jan. 26. A case was also confirmed in Arizona's Maricopa County on Jan. 26.

The first two U.S. cases were confirmed last week: A Chicago woman in her 60s tested positive on Jan. 24, and a 30-something man in Washington State on Jan. 21.

Am I at risk as a Bay Area resident?

"At this time, residents of the Bay Area are at low risk at becoming infected with the coronavirus unless they have traveled to Wuhan in the last 14 days or come into contact with someone who has traveled there," said Balram.

Commenting on the national risk, the CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonnier said, "CDC believes that the immediate risk to the American public continues to be low at this time, but the situation continues to evolve rapidly."

MORE: World stocks skid as virus fears spook markets, hit tourism

What are the symptoms?

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. The incubation period is thought to be two weeks. But it's also a heavy flu season, and some of the symptoms are similar.

"If you have traveled to Wuhan and are experiencing a fever or lower respiratory illness, such as a cough or trouble breathing, contact your medical provider by phone," advised Balram. "Let them know your symptoms and travel history before going to the ER. You want to make contact first."

How can I stay safe?

It's always smart to practice precautions that protect you from catching a cold. Wash your hands frequently, especially after touching highly used surfaces such as handrails and doorknobs.

What's the United States doing to prevent spread into the country?

The CDC is screening passengers on direct and connecting flights from Wuhan at five major airports in Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

What's the Bay Area doing to prepare for potential local cases?

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday the city has activated the Emergency Operations Center and is working with local, state and federal agencies to be ready to respond if necessary.

ALSO: Are you in danger of catching the coronavirus? 5 questions answered

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Redfin Mortgage has its expansion into New Jersey and South Carolina.

The company announced that its fixed- and adjustable-rate conforming mortgages, as well as jumbo loans, are now available in 17 states, including the District of Columbia.

"We are redesigning the lending process to be fast, easy, and intuitive for our customers, combining technology with personal service to streamline the entire experience from pre-approval to closing," said Jason Bateman, head of Redfin Mortgage.
California teens killed in doorbell prank remembered by church as 'bright lights'

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As investigators have charged a California man for intentionally driving his car into a Toyota Prius full of teenagers, three of whom died, last week, the victims are being remembered as joyful Christians who regularly attended their churchs youth group in Corona.

The Olive Branch family is grieving today for the tragedy that happened  in Temescal Canyon. We, as a Church and School, mourn with all who are mourning. All six boys attended our school (through eighth grade) and were dearly loved by our staff, wrote Olive Branch Community Church and School on its Facebook page.

Last Sunday night, Daniel Hawkins of Corona, Jacob Ivascu of Riverside, Drake Ruiz of Corona and three of their friends pulled a prank during a sleepover for Ivascus birthday. They wanted to ring a friends doorbell and run away.

However, it turned out to be the house of an apparently unknown man, 42-year-old Anurag Chandra, who chased the teens Prius in his Infinity Q50 and rammed it into their car, which spun out of control and hit a tree on the side of the road. The three 16-year-olds  Hawkins, Ivascu and Ruiz  died in the crash. Their friends survived with injuries.

All of the boys involved attended our school and were bright lights that impacted many hearts here on campus, the Christian school said.

Family and church leaders remembered the boys as a tight-knit group of committed Christians, according to USA Today.

In a youth group of about 80 teenagers, their joy was evident, Taylor Mendoza, pastor of student ministries for Northpoint Community Free Church, was quoted as saying.

Mendoza described Hawkins as a kid who can think well  soft and tender toward others and receptive to learning more about Christian teachings.

Every kid does Ding Dong Ditch, but you dont know whos behind that door, said Ruizs mother, Debbie Ruiz, as reported by The Press-Enterprise. From the minute I heard it, I knew God had a plan  I couldnt not think this way, because God is bigger than us.

Remembering her son, Debbie Ruiz said, He was a class clown  Joy and happiness were his main priorities in life. We had a lot of fun together. Especially with their boys. It was my goal that we have fun. And we had a lot of fun.

More than 100 people gathered last Monday at Northpoint Evangelical Free Church to pray for the three boys who were killed and the others who were injured, according to The Mercury News.

We sang songs to God, just crying out to him for comfort and peace that could only come from him, Stefany Nguyen, a friend of one of the families affected by the incident, was quoted as saying.

A candlelight vigil was held Friday to grieve and remember the three teens.

Police arrested Chandra last week on suspicion of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Enterprise, which reported that the charges were later upgraded to three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder.

Our investigation led us to believe Mr. Chandra intentionally rammed the Prius, causing the driver to lose control. The investigation has now changed from a hit-run collision to homicide, California Highway Patrol Lt David Yokley said, according to Washington Examiner.
[January 27, 2020] ASGN Acquires Blackstone Federal

ASGN Incorporated (NYSE: ASGN), one of the foremost providers of IT and professional services in the technology, digital, creative, engineering, and life sciences fields across commercial and government sectors, announced today the completion of its acquisition of the Federal division of Blackstone Technology Group (Blackstone Federal), for $85 million in cash, which is now part of ASGN's ECS government IT solutions and services segment. Blackstone Federal will be immediately integrated into ECS' enterprise solutions group, which focuses on delivering digital solutions to Federal civilian customers. Founded in 2002 in Arlington, Virginia, Blackstone Federal is comprised of roughly 100 technical and creative consultants who together deliver agile application development, cloud modernization and systems architecture, cybersecurity, user experience design, and branding services to government clients. Blackstone Federal has a long-standing relationship with the Federal government, including more than 18 years of experience providing highly technical support to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agencies. Blackstone Federal's enduring success at DHS is attributed to its exclusive commitment to its customers' missions. The Company is a leading player and prime contractor on major, full and open and flexible DHS contract vehicles, including the Architecture, Development, and Platform Technical Services (ADaPTS) Blanket Purchase Agreement. For 2019, Blackstone Federal generated approximately $44 million in revenues and is expected to grow over 10 percent in 2020 and generate EBITDA margins in the mid-teens. Commenting on the acquisition, Ted Hanson, ASGN's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Blackstone Federal's talented team and solution offerings are an excellent addition to our rapidly growing ECS segment, which is focused on large and complex IT solutions across key and attractive Federal government customers. This acquisition fits perfectly with ASGN's hybrid growth and capital allocation strategy, to scale ECS to over $1 billion in revenue through a combination of strong organic growth and complementary acquisitions in strategic technologies, capabilities, customers, and contract areas that together will enable us to even further enhance the solutions we provide to our customers." "ECS welcomes the Blackstone Federal team," said George Wilson, President of ECS. "Both ECS and Blackstone Federal share innovative and solutions-driven cultures focused on the customer, collaboration, and quick decision-making. We've also both worked hard to deliver the most powerful technologies, tools, and strategies to our DHS customers. With our combined technologies and depth of talent, we will accomplish evn more together. On behalf of ASGN, ECS is committed to continuing to attract, develop, and retain the best talent in our industry, and the addition of Blackstone Federal is no exception to this mission."



In connection with the closing of the acquisition, ASGN will be granting restricted stock unit awards to seven Blackstone Federal employees for a total of approximately 31,000 shares. Subject to continued service to ASGN, the grants will vest: (i) one-half on the second anniversary of the grant date and (ii) 25 percent on each of the third and fourth anniversaries of the grant date. The restricted stock unit awards are being granted to the Blackstone Federal employees as employment inducement awards pursuant to New York Stock Exchange rules. ASGN retained Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as legal counsel on the transaction. DC Advisory served as exclusive financial advisor to Blackstone Technology Group, and DLA Piper LLP served as its legal counsel.

About ASGN? ? ASGN Incorporated (NYSE: ASGN) is one of the foremost providers of IT and professional services in the technology, digital, creative, engineering, and life sciences fields across commercial and government sectors. Operating through its Apex (News - Alert), Oxford, and ECS segments, ASGN helps leading corporate enterprises and government organizations develop, implement, and operate critical IT and business solutions through its integrated offering of professional staffing and IT solutions. Our mission is to be the most trusted partner for companies seeking highly skilled human capital and integrated solutions to fulfill their strategic and operational needs. For more information, visit us at?asgn.com. ?? ? About ECS ? ECS, a segment of ASGN, delivers advanced solutions in cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), application and IT modernization, science, and engineering. The company solves critical, complex challenges for customers across the U.S. public sector, defense, and intelligence industries. ECS maintains partnerships with leading cloud, cybersecurity, and AI/ML providers and holds specialized certifications in their technologies. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, ECS has more than 3,000 employees throughout the United States. For more information, visit ECStech.com.? About Blackstone Federal Launched in Arlington, Virginia, in 2002, Blackstone Federal is a premier engineering, transformation, and creative design agency. Rooted in a common culture, Blackstone Federal bridges the gap between the Beltway and Silicon Valley to create service offerings unlike any in D.C. For more information, visit blackstonefederal.com. Safe Harbor Certain statements made in this news release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our anticipated financial and operating performance. All statements in this release, other than those setting forth strictly historical information, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results might differ materially. In particular, we make no assurances that the estimates of revenues and Adjusted EBITDA will be achieved. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include actual demand for the services of ASGN, ECS or Blackstone Federal, the ability to attract, train and retain qualified employees, the ability to remain competitive in obtaining and retaining clients, management of growth, the companies' ability to manage litigation matters, the successful integration of Blackstone Federal, and other risks detailed from time to time in reports filed with the SEC (News - Alert), including ASGN's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, as filed with the SEC on March 1, 2019 and ASGN's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2019, as filed with the SEC on November 8, 2019. We specifically disclaim any intention or duty to update any forward-looking statements contained in this news release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005142/en/

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A new species of carnivorous theropod dinosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains discovered in the 1990s in northeastern Utah and Wyoming, the United States.

The newly-discovered dinosaur belongs to Allosauridae, a group of small to large-bodied, two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Dubbed Allosaurus jimmadseni, the species inhabited the flood plains of western North America during the Jurassic period.

The ancient creature was 8 to 9 m (26-29 feet) long and had a mass of around 1.8 metric tons. It had relatively long legs and tail, and long arms with three sharp claws.

At 155 million years old, Allosaurus jimmadseni is the geologically-oldest species of Allosaurus predating the more well-known Allosaurus fragilis.

The new species is distinguished by a number of unique features, including low crests running from above the eyes to the snout and a relatively narrow back of the skull with a flat surface to the bottom of the upper skull under the eyes.

Its skull was weaker with less of an overlapping field of vision than the younger Allosaurus fragilis.

Previously, paleontologists thought there was only one species of Allosaurus in Jurassic North America, but this study shows there were two species  the newly-described Allosaurus jimmadseni evolved at least 5 million years earlier than its younger cousin, Allosaurus fragilis, said Dr. Mark Loewen, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the University of Utah.

The skull of Allosaurus jimmadseni is more lightly built than its later relative Allosaurus fragilis, suggesting a different feeding behavior between the two.

Dr. Loewen and his colleague, Dr. Daniel Chure, a retired paleontologist at Dinosaur National Monument, described the new species from two well-preserved skeletons and skulls.

The first specimen was found by Dr. George Engelmann from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, on July 15, 1990 during a contracted paleontological inventory of the Morrison Formation of Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah.

The second specimen was found by the commercial fossil collecting company Siber+Siber, Ltd. at the Howe Quarry, the Morrison Formation, Wyoming, in 1991.

Recognizing a new species of dinosaur in rocks that have been intensely investigated for over 150 years is an outstanding experience of discovery, Dr. Chure said.

Allosaurus jimmadseni is a great example of just how much more we have to learn about the world of dinosaurs.

Many more exciting fossils await discovery in the Jurassic rocks of the American West.

The teams paper was published in the journal PeerJ.

_____

D.J. Chure & M.A. Loewen. 2020. Cranial anatomy of Allosaurus jimmadseni, a new species from the lower part of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Western North America. PeerJ 8: e7803; doi: 10.7717/peerj.7803
January 27 : This 2020, Vasant Panchami will fall on Jan 29, 2020. The festival honours Goddess Saraswati so that believers are bestowed with the gifts of the wealth of knowledge. Saraswati Devi is Lord Brahmas consort and therefore  this holy couple can make a substantial difference in the life of a devotee. Further on, you can understand the importance of the Goddess and why has the yellow colour stood to have a prominent place in a devotee's life during the Basant Panchami festival.

Image Source: IANS Amritsar: Students offer prayers to goddess Saraswati

Basant Panchami is traditionally celebrated and denoted by the mustard yellow colour. The yellow colour is often known as the symbol of peace, light, wealth and positive energy.

Image Source: IANS people wear yellow dresses for Vassant Panchami

On this day, people wear yellow dresses and even prepare delicacies that are mostly yellow in colour. Some of the preparations like Boondi, Kesar Halwa, Malpua are made and offered to the Devi on Puja Muhurat

People also ensure that the idol and the prayer room is decked with yellow flowers and apply a paste of turmeric tikka on the idols forehead.

Image Source: IANS the yellow shade of hope and wealth

The yellow colour is often connected to wisdom and hence people pray to Goddess Saraswati, as she is known to be the Goddess of Enlightenment, Learning and Wisdom. Also in temples, mostly all idols are draped with royal yellow clothes to show royalty and wisdom.

It is during this time of the year that mustard plants bloom, and ripen. Therefore, mustard filed will be laden with yellow mustard flowers during the festival of Basant Panchami. This brings in cheer, and hope in the lives of farmers.

Image Source: IANS Mustard Flowers

When the yellow flowers bloom, this marks the end of the harsh winters and the beginning of the rainy season or Vasant Ritu.

Image Source: IANS Community songs and prayers during Basant Panchami

Last. People deck in new clothes that are of yellow colours, as this is considered an auspicious act. They offer prayers to Saraswati Devi and pray that the year of blessed with wealth, health and happiness.
People pass by a poster warming about a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. Korea reported its fourth confirmed Wuhan coronavirus case on Monday. AP



South Korea on Monday reported its fourth confirmed Wuhan coronavirus case amid mounting concerns the pneumonia-like illness is spreading to other parts of the world from China despite concerted quarantine efforts.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), a 55-year-old South Korean man who returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan on Jan. 20 tested positive for the new strain of the virus that has killed 80 people so far.

The person, whose identity was withheld, visited a local clinic a day after returning home when he showed signs of a cold. His condition worsened, and when he complained of muscle cramps and ran a fever doctors started to actively monitor the man before finally placing him in quarantine on Sunday, the health safety agency said.

"Health authorities are in the process of following his movements in the country and the people he may have contacted with the findings to be made public in due course," the KCDC said.

The country reported three confirmed cases of the new coronavirus strain on Jan. 20, Friday and Sunday and is keeping close tabs on those that may have come in contact with the patients.

On the third patient, a 54-year-old Korean man who had shown no signs of illness when he arrived from China last week, the public safety agency said he ran into 74 people, although none have shown symptoms of the coronavirus so far. It said the medical facilities he visited and the hotel he used have all been disinfected.

The KCDC said that not counting the four infected people, it has checked 57 suspected cases so far, with 56 proving negative and one still undergoing detailed tests. The total number of people checked is up from 47 early on Sunday.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday the Centre's plea seeking Rs 7,844 crore as additional funds from the firms succeeding US-based Union Carbide Corporation, currently owned by Dow Chemicals, to disburse as compensation to victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.

A five-judge bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M.R. Shah and S. Ravindra Bhat, will conduct the hearing on the curative petition seeking increased compensation for the victims.

The Centre is seeking a direction to Union Carbide and other firms to pay additional amount of Rs 7,844 crore, which is over and above the earlier settlement amount of $470 million in 1989, as compensation.

Since 1984, the victims have been fighting long and draining battle for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused due to the gas leak. In December 2010, the Centre had filed the curative petition in the apex court.

In June 2010, a Bhopal court had convicted seven executives of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) and sentenced them to two years imprisonment. Warren Anderson, then UCC Chairman, was the key accused, but he never appeared for the trial. In 1992, the court had declared him an absconder and twice issued non-bailable warrants him in 1992 and 2009. Anderson died in September 2014.

The toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 killed over 3,000 people and affecting 1.02 lakh more.
New Delhi:

Even as the world watches in despair the effects of Wuhan virus, two new suspected cases were reported from Jaipur and Patna on Monday. In Rajasthans capital city, a doctor, who returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China, was kept in isolation at the SMS Hospital on the suspicion of being affected by coronavirus. In an official statement, the minister said a blood sample of the patient was sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune. In Patna, a PhD scholar was kept in the isolated ward at Patna Medical College and Hospital over coronavirus scare.

The 29-year-old Neuroscience scholar had returned to her Chhapra home on January 22. When media tried talking to her, the woman hit back and said, Im not infected. PMCH superintendent told News Nation that the womans blood sample will be sent to Pune lab for the confirmation. Earlier, two suspected cases were reported from Mumbai that turned out to be negative. Indian authorities have increased the screening procedures at major international airports. Special focus is being paid to those returning from China.

More suspects

Apart from Jaipur and Patna, one person each from Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Malappuram and three from Ernakulam are in isolation wards of various health centres in Kerala.

MEA keeping close tab

Meanwhile, the External Affairs Ministry said that as of now no Indian in China has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak and the embassy in Beijing is in close touch with all Indians, including university students, in Wuhan and elsewhere in Hubei province. The death toll in the deadly new coronavirus in China rose to 56 on Sunday with confirmed cases of viral affliction reaching 2,008, including 23 from abroad.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is closely monitoring the situation, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. "We are also closely coordinating with Chinese authorities. As of now, we understand that no Indian citizens have been affected by the outbreak and that food and water supplies are available to them," Kumar tweeted.

Ground reality in Wuhan

On Monday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the coronavirus hit Wuhan city, the first such trip by a top leader as the death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases. Li arrived in Wuhan to inspect the epidemic control and prevention work, state-run China Daily reported. He heads the high-powered group of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) officials empowered to deal with the rapidly spreading virus on war footing.

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Update: Planners in Cork City Council have told a UK property firm that they must remove the top floor of their planned six-storey hostel development on Cork's Grand Parade.

Westhill, through an Irish subsidiary Bluescape Limited, has secured permission to redevelop the former tourist office at 40-42 Grand Parade.

The development was to provide 246 hostel bed spaces in 48 rooms over six floors.

The development called Tourist House will also include a ground floor bar and a rooftop terrace.

The decision adds to a significant number of hotels, hostels, and budget accommodation in the city that are already under construction or awaiting approval.

The Dean Hotel by Clarendon and Bam is set to open this year while the Dalata Group opened a new Maldron hotel on the citys South Mall in December 2018.

However, Westhill says Cork still lags behind other cities and regional towns for hotels and budget accommodation.

Cork has significantly fewer hotels than Galway and only three more than Limerick.

In terms of hostel accommodation specifically, the outlook is similar.

The companys application for a hostel in Cork was met with some opposition.

Caseys Furniture store said it welcomed the redevelopment of the site as a hostel but said it had serious concerns about the proposed ground-floor bar.

It said there are nine bars within 200m of the site and if the hostel bar was to proceed, it would result in a serious over-predominance of bars within an area close to the primary retail area of the city.

Another landowner said the height of the planned hostel would obliterate light to neighbouring properties.

However, planners in Cork City Council have granted permission for the development. One of the planning conditions requires them to remove the top floor of the planned development in the interest of visual aesthetics and integration with the existing environment.

Westhill must also install windows facing onto the narrow Rochford Lane running alongside the building where the bar will be located to improve vibrancy and surveillance of the area.

Last year, Westhill secured planning permission from Dublin City Council to build on Ushers Quay developing 27 apartments alongside commercial space.

The site was subsequently put for sale with agent Knight Frank guiding at 2.75m.
Hundreds of medics are being sent to help deal with a rising number of cases of the new coronavirus in Chinas central metropolis of Wuhan, health authorities said on Monday.

Eighty people had died and 2,744 people were confirmed infected across China as of Monday, marking a rise in the death toll of 24 since Sunday morning, according to the National Health Commission.

China sent 959 medical teams from other provinces to Wuhan, in Hubei province, where the virus was first discovered in December.

Wuhans hospitals have been overflowing with patients, with hundreds forced to queue over the past week for medical treatment, according to media reports and videos shared by patients and family members on social media.

Medics from the Peoples Liberation Army had already been dispatched to offer relief, and construction has begun on two new hospitals that are supposed to be finished by February.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Wuhan on Monday and attended a briefing about efforts to contain the disease.

China has tried to curb new infections by cordoning off entire cities in the central Hubei province right in the midst of the Lunar New Year, when millions of people normally travel to take holidays and visit family in other parts of the vast country.

The government on Monday announced that it was extending the Lunar New Year holiday until Sunday in a bid to limit the number of people travelling this week.

The holiday was initially supposed to end on Thursday.

Authorities estimate that well over 5,000 people are carrying the virus, which scientists say is infectious even during its incubation period.

The real number could be much higher. Gabriel Leung, head of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said

He said his teams research indicated that there were likely around 44,000 cases at the incubation stage.

Most of those who died from lung disease after catching the virus were elderly or had pre-existing conditions.

The number of cases outside the Chinese mainland and in the wider region have meanwhile continued to rise.

Eighteen cases have been reported in the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macao and in self-ruled Taiwan.

Mongolia on Monday announced it was shutting down schools and closing border crossings with China for vehicles and pedestrians amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.

Schools, kindergartens and universities across Mongolia are to close from Monday until Sunday, the Montsame news agency said.

The country has not yet reported any cases of the new coronavirus so far.

Cambodia confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on Monday, carried by a 60-year-old Chinese man who had arrived from Wuhan.

Cases of the coronavirus have also been reported in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United States, France and Australia.

Many countries in Europe and Asia are planning to repatriate their citizens from Wuhan. Japan, the United States and France have already begun repatriation operations.

READ ALSO:

Thailand is working to bring back Thai nationals following a widely publicised call for help from a university student in Wuhan.

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The planes are ready but they [the Chinese] wont let us go yet, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told reporters.

Germany was also considering flying home its citizens from China in light of the deadly outbreak, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

Washington was willing to offer any help that is necessary, U.S. President Donald Trump said.

We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in the USA, but strongly on watch, Mr Trump said in a tweet.

(dpa / NAN)
Trudging through the narrow pols of Ahmedabad, one realises that the city is a beautiful amalgamation of 'old and new'. There is a strange narrative found within the historical monuments and the age-old buildings of Ahmedabad. Combining these elements, the historic walled city of Ahmedabad has it all to be the first city in India to be inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage City list of 2017. Here is a list of heritage places in Ahmedabad that you must visit.

ALSO READ: Makar Sankranti: Top Places For Kite Flying In Ahmedabad You Must Check Out

Sabarmati Ashram

Sabarmati Ashram is located on the banks of River Sabarmati and is one of the best places to visit in Ahmedabad. It is also popularly known as as Gandhi Ashram, Harijan Ashram, and Satyagraha Ashram. The ashram was built by Mahatma Gandhi after he returned from South Africa in 1915. A number of Indian and international tourists flock here to have a look at the reminiscences of the Life of Gandhi.

Jama Masjid

Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad was built by Sultan Ahmed Shah I in 1424. It is as spectacular and majestic as its namesake, the Jama Masjid in Delhi. It is one of the striking places to see in Ahmedabad, also known as Jami or Jumma Masjid. Located adjacent to the Bhadra Fort, along the road extending from Teen Darwaza to Manek Chowk, Jama Masjid is counted as the highest watermarked mosque design in western India.

Bhadra Fort

Built by Sultan Bhadra Fort in 1411 during Maratha rule, Bhadra Fort is one of the prime attractions and one of the best places to visit in Ahmedabad. This royal fort comprises a majestic palace, a lush green courtyard and a Bhadra Kali Temple. Popular belief says that Goddess Lakshmi once stepped into the Bhadra Fort and blessed the Sultan that his city was to always remain wealthy and affluent.

ALSO READ: International Kite Festival Ahmedabad 2020; All You Need To Know

Sarkhej Roza

Sarkhej Roza is a tomb and mosque complex located in the Makarba area of Ahmedabad. It is one of the most attractive architectural complexes of the city, depicting the Islamic style of the Mughal period. Sarkhej Roza is also known as Ahmedabads Acropolis as Le Corbusiers compared this mosques design to the Acropolis of Athens.

Sidi Saiyyed Mosque

Popularly known as the Sidi Saiyyed Ni Jaali, this beautiful mosque was built in 1573. The architectural grandeur of this structure has gained this place a lot of attention over the years. The mosque has beautiful stone latticework windows (or Jaalis) along with stone slabs carved to imitate intertwined trees and palm foliage. The mosque is now under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

ALSO READ: Republic Day 2020 In Jammu And Kashmir: Know Details

ALSO READ: Makar Sankranti 2020: Here's All You Need To Know About The Sacred Hindu Festival
Harvey Weinstein got offended when his repeated advances were rebuffed, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi has told the trial of the former movie mogul.

I did reject him, but he insisted, said Ms Haleyi, whose allegations against Weinstein led to his charges and trial.

Every time I tried to get off the bed, he would push me back and hold me down.

Ms Haleyi said she thought Im being raped and considered different options.

If I scream rape, will someone hear me? she said.

I couldnt get away from him at all, let alone get away. I checked out and decided to endure it. That was the safest thing I could do.

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Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on Ms Haleyi in his New York City apartment in 2006 and raping another woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. He insists any sexual encounters were consensual.

Ms Haleyi, 42, whose legal name is Miriam Haley, is the first of the two women whose accusations are at the heart of the charges against Weinstein to give evidence at the closely watched trial.

Last week, Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra told the court that Weinstein overpowered and raped her after barging into her apartment in the mid-1990s.

Ms Haleyi went public with her allegations at an October 2017 news conference, appearing in front of cameras alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents Ms Sciorra and other Weinstein accusers.

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Ms Haleyi, born in England and raised in Sweden, said she met Weinstein while in her 20s at the 2004 London premiere of the film The Aviator.

They crossed paths again at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and, when she expressed interest in working on one of his productions, he invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage.

She said she declined, telling the court: I felt stupid because I was so excited to go see him and he treated me that way.

More meetings followed, and Weinstein secured her a job helping on the set of Project Runway, the reality show he produced.

She told the trial that before the alleged assault, Weinstein showed up at her apartment and begged her to join him a trip to Paris for a fashion show.

At one point, because I just didnt know how to shut it down, so to speak I said, You know you have a terrible reputation with women, Ive heard.

Weinstein got offended, she said. He stepped back and said, What have you heard?

Asked by prosecutor Meghan Hast if she had any romantic or sexual interest in Weinstein, Ms Haleyi firmly answered: Not at all, no.

Ms Haleyi will have to deal with a defence team that said it plans to confront Weinsteins accusers with messages they exchanged with him after the alleged assaults.

The jury of seven men and five women also heard evidence from Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who said most sex assault victims continue to have contact with their attackers, often under threat of retaliation if the victims tell anyone what happened.
He's out of the jungle, and Tom Williams says he can't wait to get home to his family.

Following his elimination from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! last Thursday, the 49-year-old stay-at-home dad said he was looking forward to getting back to normality.

'I am just heading back home to my wife and children, who are about to go to school,' the former TV presenter told Now to Love.

Going home: Following his elimination from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! last Thursday, Tom Williams said he was looking forward to getting back to normality

'So I'll be doing plaits and ponytails and hearing about "Daddy, I don't want my hair like that".'

Tom has two daughters, Storm, five, and Sloane, three, with his wife of eight years, fashion designer Rachel Gilbert, 37.

And after roughing it in the South African jungle for three weeks, he said he couldn't wait to be reunited with his family.

One big happy family: Tom has two daughters, Storm, five, and Sloane, three, with his wife of eight years, fashion designer Rachel Gilbert

'That's the best thing I could ever go home to... making lunchboxes and hanging with the mums at school drop off,' he said

'That's the best thing I could ever go home to... making lunchboxes and hanging with the mums at school drop off,' he added.

Following his elimination, Tom said his experience on the show had made him a 'better' person.

'My heart is full. I'll be a better dad, a better husband and a better mate. More appreciative of what goes on around your life,' he told 10 daily on Friday.

Fight for equality: Tom has been a vocal advocate for equal parental leave, admitting he feels 'so lucky' to have been given the opportunity to spend time at home with his daughters

Tom has been a vocal advocate for equal parental leave, admitting he feels 'so lucky' to have been given the opportunity to spend time at home with his daughters.

'I feel so lucky to have the luxury of spending valuable years with my girls while they were young thanks to the @dailyeditionon7 time scheduling and opportunities of my work life,' he wrote on Instagram in July.

'An awesome job with the freedom to attend to my children, something that has been instrumental in our family life. And I feel the need for Dads to be there in these early years as they are so important.'
LONDON, Jan.26 -- A record number of visits from China to Britain were recorded in the nine months to September 2019, according to new official figures from the British tourist authority.

VisitBritain said there were 321,000 visits from China during the nine-month period, up 8 percent on the same period in 2018. Visitors from China spent 553 million pounds (722.9 million U.S. dollars) during this period, up 11 percent compared with 2018.

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show it was a record October for inbound tourism spending in Britain. Visitors spent 2.3 billion pounds (3 billion dollars) in Britain in October 2019, the highest ever for the month of October.

The statistics also show that it was a record-breaking August-to-October period in 2019 for both overseas visits to Britain and for visitor spending. August 2019 was the highest month ever for both inbound visits and spending and only the third time ever to break the four million mark for inbound visits to Britain in a single month.

According to VisitBritain, tourism is worth 127 billion pounds (166 billion dollars) to the British economy and the number of overseas visits to Britain is forecast to rise in 2020 to 39.7 million, the highest ever.
Its important to acknowledge veterans when they come back to civilian life. One way of accomplishing that is through education." -- Amanda Merz, SAFE Credit Union Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager

SAFE Credit Union has provided a $20,000 grant to help launch a new job training program at the Sierra College Veterans Success Center at the colleges Rocklin campus.

The Valor Career Pathway program will help student veterans assimilate to civilian life while discovering how to adapt their military training to new career paths. The grant will cover costs associated with starting the program.

Veterans are an integral part of our community at Sierra College and, thanks to support from SAFE Credit Union, this vital program will be up and running in Fall 2020, said Sierra Superintendent/President Willy Duncan.

The Veterans Success Center serves more than 800 student veterans and their families as the largest resource center for veterans in Placer County. It was recently recognized by the Military Times as one of the Best for Vets, Colleges 2020. The Veterans Success Center provides a place for veteran students to connect with military benefits, receive educational and personal counseling services, and mingle with other student veterans, said Jarrett "J" Blake, SST/Veteran Services Counseling.

The Valor Career Pathway Program will provide student veterans with the opportunity to participate in an intensive four-month career preparation seminar, said Daniel Avegalio, director of student services at Sierra College.

The program will provide a cohort of first-semester student veterans:



Employment preparation and job shadowing experience

Public speaking opportunities to development communication and soft skills

Peer-mentoring to ensure the participants stay on track, remain engaged, and successfully complete the seminar.

Those who successfully complete the program will receive a new suit to use when they go out to start their careers.

SAFE Credit Union started 80 years ago supporting the Army Air Corps and later the Air Force at McClellan Air Base, so supporting veterans is in our DNA, said SAFE Credit Union Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager Amanda Merz. Its important to acknowledge veterans when they come back to civilian life. One way of accomplishing that is through education. Were very excited to partner with Sierra Colleges Veterans Success Center and the new Valor Career Pathway Program to find ways to continue supporting our veterans.

SAFE Credit Union will provide $400,000 in philanthropic giving in 2020, focusing on health, education, current and former military personnel, and the arts.

About SAFE

SAFE Credit Union has made members an integral part of its vision since 1940. Over the years the credit union has kept the focus on what really matters, putting members first, a formula that has seen SAFE grow into a leading financial institution in Northern California with nearly $3 billion in assets and about 235,000 members. SAFE crafts every cutting-edge product and sterling service with members needs foremost in mind. In addition to banking services conveniently available through online, chat, mobile, or phone options, SAFE offers in-person care for members and small businesses at service centers across the Greater Sacramento region and a mortgage lending office serving Contra Costa and Alameda counties. SAFE is a not-for-profit, state-chartered credit union with membership open to businesses and individuals living or working in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, Sutter, Butte, Nevada, Solano, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Yuba, Amador, and Alameda counties. Insured by NCUA. http://www.safecu.org

About Sierra College

The Sierra College District is rising to the needs of our community. Sierra College serves 3200 square miles of Northern CA with campuses in Roseville, Rocklin, Grass Valley, and Truckee. With approximately 125 degree and certificate programs, Sierra College is ranked first in Northern California (Sacramento north) for transfers to four-year universities, offers career/technical training, and classes for upgrading job skills. Sierra graduates can be found in businesses and industries throughout the region. More information at http://www.sierracollege.edu
Last year, lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania proposed legalizing recreational marijuana in their states. A debate ensued. Some argued that legalizing pot would make crime go up; others claimed that it would make crime go down.
In addition, Farmers Insurance also donated $40,000 to support the Armed Services YMCA San Diego.

Its an honor to be able to help give back to the brave men and women who have given so much to serve our country, said Farmers Insurance CEO Jeff Dailey. Working with the Armed Services YMCA San Diego, as part of our work with the Farmers Insurance Opens Champions for Youth Program, allows Farmers to help make an impact on the local community and San Diegos military families.

Farmers executives, employees, agents, and even district managers also participated in the Armed Services YMCAs monthly Neighborhood Food Exchange to provide food and supplies to local military families.

A release noted that Farmers Insurance was founded by two First World War veterans in 1928, hence its wholehearted support for the military community.
New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Abhishek Manu Singhvi talk to the media after meeting the members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and filing a complaint against the action of Uttar Pradesh police on Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Abhishek Manu Singhvi talk to the media after meeting the members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and filing a complaint against the action of Uttar Pradesh police on Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Abhishek Manu Singhvi talk to the media after meeting the members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and filing a complaint against the action of Uttar Pradesh police on Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 27 : A Congress delegation led by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi on Monday submitted a 538-page memorandum along with "proof" to the NHRC against the Uttar Pradesh Police's "brutality" against CAA protesters and urged a probe into such cases.

Sources said that Rahul Gandhi told the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) officials that "it was not an issue of individual cases but an attack on the very idea of India, wherein police used much brute force against civilians".

A party insider said that an inquiry should be initiated against the officials concerned as their conduct was against the law and the very ethos of policing.

Rahul later tweeted: "A delegation of Congress leaders presented the NHRC with evidence of atrocities against citizens of Uttar Pradesh by the state government, which has gone to war against its own people. The NHRC must act decisively to protect the idea of India and the constitutional rights of our citizens." Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that the commission had been given evidence about police brutality in the form of audio and video clippings on how the victims were shot in the stomach and chest.

"Photographs have also been given; there were 23 deaths but no FIR has been registered against the police," he said.

Priyanka Gandhi had visited many victims and their families in western Uttar Pradesh, which was the worst hit by violence which broke out in December last year.

She visited Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Lucknow to meet those at the receiving end of the violence and sat on a dharna at India Gate here to express solidarity with the protesters. The party also held a symbolic protest at Rajghat.

At least two dozen persons were killed in alleged police firing in Bijnor, Meerut, Kanpur, Firozabad and other places.
SANTA FE  Bills dealing with cannabis are playing a prominent role in the 30-day legislative session that started last week.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is pushing for a state law that would make New Mexico the 12th state to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults and tax its sales.

A legalization bill backed by the governor, Senate Bill 115, is expected to be debated in the Senate Public Affairs Committee, its first assigned hurdle, on Tuesday.

Its high time we stopped holding ourselves and our economy back, the first-term Democratic governor said during her State of the State address.

However, the legalization push is expected to face tough sledding in the Senate, as some moderate Democrats have expressed misgivings with the proposal.

In addition, some Republicans who backed a bill during last years session that called for state-run pot stores have also indicated theyre not on board with the latest version.

But the Governors Office has indicated that Lujan Grisham will keep trying to win over Democrats and Republicans alike.

There are potential votes to pull from the other side (of the aisle) on cannabis, the governors spokesman, Tripp Stelnicki, said during a Friday briefing with reporters.

Meanwhile, several proposals to make changes to New Mexicos medical cannabis program have also been filed at the Legislature.

One bill backed by the governor, Senate Bill 139, would bar out-of-state residents from obtaining New Mexico patient ID cards.

Another measure, House Bill 169, would require current and future cannabis farmers to show that the irrigation water they use to grow plants stems from a valid water right, after two water systems in Sandoval County raised concern about cannabis farms using domestic well water.

The 30-day session ends Feb 20, and bills can be filed through Feb. 5.
This photo provided by Tariq Ghazniwal shows an aircraft that crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Jan. 27, 2020. (Tariq Ghazniwal via AP)

US Military Confirms Its Plane Crashed in Afghanistan

A U.S. military plane crashed on Monday in Taliban-held territory in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan

A U.S. Bombardier E-11A crashed today in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available, wrote Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, in a statement on Monday.

A U.S. Bombardier E-11A crashed today in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.  USFOR-A Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett (@USFOR_A) January 27, 2020

He added that Taliban claims that additional aircraft have crashed are false.

Provincial government spokesman Arif Noori told CBS News on Monday that the plane appeared to have been flying from Kandahar to Kabul, which is about 200 miles to the north.

The only thing we can say is 385 is written in the wreckage and we dont know which country or company it belongs to, Noori said, reported The Associated Press.

The bodies of two pilots were located at the crash site, he said, adding that the plane was totally destroyed.

This photo provided by Tariq Ghazniwal shows an aircraft that crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Jan. 27, 2020. (Tariq Ghazniwal via AP)

Ariana Afghan Airlines, the countrys state-owned airline company, issued a statement and strongly denied earlier reports that one of its planes crashed. All of Ariana Afghan flights are operating normally, the airline said on social media, as reported by CBS.

Mirwais Mirzekwal, the head of Ariana, told Reuters, It does not belong to Ariana because the two flights managed by Ariana today from Herat to Kabul and Herat to Delhi are safe.

And Ghazni provincial governor Wahidullah Kaleemzai told local media, There is no exact information on casualties and name of the airline, Reuters also reported.

U.S. Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, told the Military Times: U.S. Central Command is aware of the reports of a U.S. aircraft crash in Afghanistan. We are currently monitoring the situation and will provide additional information when possible.

U.S. Central Command didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, two U.S. service members were killed and two others injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said in a statement. The Taliban immediately took responsibility for the attack. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, said it occurred in the southern Kandahar province.

More than 2,400 U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Last year was one of the deadliest for the United States, with 23 American troops killed, even as Washington engaged in peace talks with the Taliban.

U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been pressing the extremists to declare a cease-fire or at least reduce violent attacks. That would give a window in which the United States and the Taliban could forge an agreement to withdraw all of Americas troops. That agreement would also set out a road map for direct Afghan-to-Afghan talks, mapping out the countrys post-war future.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
New Delhi:

Afghanistan Plane Crash: United States (US) military is investigating the reports a plane crash in Afghanistan's Ghazni province. The investigation started after reports surfaced of Taliban shooting down an American plane in the region. Earlier, it was reported that an local airline plane had crashed in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province.

The US military said Monday that it is investigating reports of an airplane crash in Taliban-controlled territory in Afghanistan. US Army Major Beth Riordan - a spokeswoman for US Central Command - said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash. Riordan declined to immediately comment further.

However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the US military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

Local Afghan officials had said earlier on Monday that a passenger place from Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines had crashed in the Taliban-held area of the eastern Ghazni province. However, Ariana Airlines said that none of its planes had crashed in Afghanistan.

Large swathes of rural areas in Ghazni province are controlled or under the influence of Taliban militants, making access difficult for officials. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they were investigating the crash claims but were unable to comment further.

Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common in Afghanistan where inclement weather and creaky aircraft are often pressed to their limits in the war-torn country -- and where insurgents have been known to target helicopters.

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Yves here. As progressives, meaning the real thing, not the Vichy Left, are finally developing and flexing atrophied muscles, so their opponents are making it obvious they intend to thwart them. As one seasoned political analyst said via e-mail about the DNCs picks: Amazing porkers.

But can the party brass prevail now that not only are more and more Americans suffering, but they also know the economic deck has been stacked against them? And as Ursula LeGuin pointed out, There are not many of the Shing.

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams

Progressives raised alarm this weekend after Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez released his picks for the 2020 Democratic National Convention committees.

The list of nominees, Sunrise Movement political director Evan Weber saidSunday, looks like a whos-who of people explicitly opposed to the progressive agenda.

Kevin Gosztola, managing editor of Shadowproof, sparked a flurry of responses when he shared Perezs list on social media Saturday afternoon.

Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez issued a list of individuals he nominated for the 2020 Democratic National Convention committees. Let's examine some of the individuals. I'll initially focus on the nominees for the DNC Platform Committee. Thread. pic.twitter.com/fVm41YClJQ  Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) January 25, 2020

Gosztolas Twitter thread delved into the backgrounds of a number of candidates, including Bakari Sellers, whos nominated to sit on the Platform Committee.

Bakari Sellers was Kamala Harris surrogate and surrogate for Hillary Clinton in 2016. He has disingenuously insisted Bernie has long way to go with black voters, despite contrary polling. See how Sellers welcomed Bernie to the DNC primary when he announced his 2020 campaign. pic.twitter.com/NqJqGrJoRK  Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) January 25, 2020

Sellers drafted letter and spearheaded effort in 2016 to ensure the DNC platform did not adopt language Bernie Sanders supported, which wouldve acknowledged responsibility to confront humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza, Gosztola added.

Gosztola wasnt alone in criticizing Sellerss placement on the list.

Seems like a problem that this dude who's spent the last 4 years straight bashing Sanders is one of @TomPerezs nominations to @DNC 2020 governing committee. https://t.co/ta5jH2WyIC  Joe Biden is a Racist (@BethLynch2020) January 26, 2020

Carol Browner was on the list for the Platform Committee as well. Browner, as a Clinton delegate, during the 2016 Platform Drafting Committee meeting, voted against a ban on fracking, Medicare For All, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), keeping fossil fuels in ground, and measure to halt abuse of eminent domain by fossil fuel industry, wrote Gosztola.

Perez also nominated former Congressman Barney Frank to be co-chair of the Rules Committee.

Frank, as Gosztola pointed out, has argued against the Green New Deal and sits on the board of directors of Signature Bank in New York, which a New York Times report showed was a go-to lender for President Donald Trumps family, as well as Jared Kushners family. Frank also penned a 2015 Politico op-ed entitled Why Progressives Shouldnt Support Bernie.

Political analyst Lauren Martinchek, in a Sunday post on Medium, also highlighted concerns with Perezs list. She wrote:

Even more controversial and dangerous than Barney Frank is John Podesta, also on the Rules Committee, who said in the infamous leaked DNC emails that they needed to make sure Bernie is ground to a pulp, and asked where would you stick the knife in? If this process was even remotely designed to be fair, this man would not be allowed anywhere near this convention. Another incredibly questionable choice is Alex Padilla, Vice-chair of the Platform Committee. Padilla gained notoriety for refusing to count 2 million votes in the 2016 California primary, a move that undeniably favored Clinton and handed a massive disadvantage to the Sanders campaign. He was sued for this.

Win Without War executive director Stephen Miles and Sanders foreign policy advisor Matt Duss suggested the list shows that the DNC is out of touch with its base.

This is right. There's a really important grassroots-driven progressive realignment taking place in foreign policy right now, and judging from this list the DNC is, and would like to remain, completely unaware of it. https://t.co/3Nr6wxVmkg  Matt Duss (@mattduss) January 26, 2020

The list of Perezs nominees, Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor of Harpers Magazine, wrote Sunday on Twitter, represents The true, grim, face of the Democratic establishment.
Petoskey High School closed for in-person classes until at least Jan. 17

There was no school for high school students on Wednesday, while virtual classes will take place on Thursday, Jan. 13, and Friday, Jan. 14.
Footage has emerged showing a young family that is believed to be infected with the coronavirus being rushed to the hospital where Australia's fifth case of the deadly illness was confirmed.

The family of two adults and two children were taken to Westmead Hospital in western Sydney on Monday afternoon after showing symptoms of the disease.

Paramedics wearing protective clothing were seen taking one of the adults, who appeared to be holding a child with him, out of an ambulance and into the hospital.

A total of five cases have been confirmed in Australia, including four in NSW and one in Victoria, but another 13 people are being tested across three states, health officials said.

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The family of two adults and two children were taken to Westmead Hospital in western Sydney on Monday afternoon after showing symptoms of the disease

Footage has emerged showing a young family being rushed to hospital with suspected coronavirus outside the same hospital where Australia's fifth case of the deadly illness was confirmed

Paramedics wearing protective clothing were seen taking one of the adults, who appeared to be holding a child with him, out of an ambulance and into the hospital

Meanwhile, a 21-year-old Chinese student who flew into Sydney last week has been positively identified as having the virus after being admitted to the same hospital

Of those 13 suspected cases, five are in NSW, four in Western Australia and four in Queensland.

Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said one case in Perth may prove positive.

'I'm advised that one of the people being tested in Perth may be positive, and the others look like they may be negative, but that's still to be confirmed,' he said in a press conference on Monday.

His state counterpart, Western Australia's chief health officer Andrew Roberston confirmed four individuals were under investigation but said the risk of the infection spreading is low.

'There are no confirmed cases in Western Australia to date. Results for three low risk cases who were previously tested for the illness have all returned negative,' Dr Robertson said.

'Although the risk to Western Australia to WA is considered low, testing will continue to be arranged for persons who meet exposure criteria and have a clinically compatible illness.'

'Due to the rapidly evolving nature of this situation, possible cases could arise at any time and the number of tests underway is expected to be fluid.'

A spokeswoman for Queensland Health also confirmed four new tests were being conducted on Monday.

Health authorities have been hunting for anyone who arrived in Australia from China's Wuhan City across the nation's major airports like Sydney airport (pictured)

Airports around the world have installed fact sheets (pictured) at airports for passengers who travelled to China's Wuhan city

'Through its Forensic and Scientific Services branch, Queensland Health are testing four patients for suspected coronavirus,' she said.

'Biologists are working around the clock with results expected in the coming hours. '

There have been no positive test for coronavirus in Queensland.

The news comes after officials confirmed on Monday a 21-year-old woman who flew into Sydney from Wuhan last week has tested positive for the illness.

The UNSW student arrived at Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 last Thursday and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.

NSW Health said she was being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and only had limited contact with people in Australia - reducing the likelihood that she had spread the virus.

'The student did not attend any classes at the university and stayed on her own in campus accommodation with no close contact before she was admitted to hospital,' a UNSW spokeswoman said in a statement.

Students at the University of New South Wales were informed via email that a student has contracted the potentially deadly virus. The 21-year-old is being treated in isolation in Westmead Hospital in western Sydney

NSW Health is urging parents to consider keeping their children away from school if they have had any contact with infected individuals.

Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said any child who has been in contact with a person confirmed as having novel coronavirus must not attend school or childcare for 14 days after the last contact with the infected person.

'Fourteen days represents the internationally recognised likely incubation period for the disease,' Dr Chant said.

'After this time the child is considered to be not be at risk of infection.'

Three men - aged 35, 43 and 53 - in NSW are already being treated in hospital for coronavirus and are listed as stable.

In Victoria, a man in his 50s is being treated at Monash Medical Centre while four of his family members are being quarantined at home.

A 21-year-old woman has been taken to hospital after fears she may have contracted the deadly coronavirus

The virus, which experts fear will 'highly likely' continue to spread in Australia, has so far killed 56 people in China and infected 2,000 people worldwide.

Since the outbreak at the end of December, Chinese authorities have placed 56 million people in lockdown - including more than 100 Australian children aged between six months and 16 years old, the ABC reported.

Photos taken outside Westmead Hospital on Sunday show a woman wearing a face mask being moved by paramedics with protective gloves, masks and clothing.

Prof Murphy said there would likely be more cases in the country.

'There is no cause for general concern,' Prof Murphy said in Melbourne on Sunday.

'I would not be surprised if there are some more cases... it's highly likely that we may see some more.

'We are incredibly well prepared to isolate and deal with that.'

Emma Wei, from Melbourne, is trapped in Wuhan with her two children amid China's lockdown

Medical staff are seen wearing protective clothing outside a hospital in Wuhan after the coronavirus outbreak

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES: 4 Four people in NSW have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including three men and one woman. January 25 Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.

Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.

They are being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and are in stable condition. January 27 A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.

The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.

She is being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital. VICTORIA: 4 January 25 A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.

The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.

He is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east. January 29 A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.

He became unwell on January 23 - two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. He was assessed as being well enough to stay at home. January 30 A woman in her 40s falls ill with the coronavirus.

She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.

She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital. February 1 A Melbourne woman aged in her 20s is at home recovering. She returned from Wuhan on January 25 and fell ill two days later. She was not infectious on the flight, and has remained in isolation since being tested. QUEENSLAND: 2 January 29 Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national wass diagnosed with the virus.

He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital. January 30 A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition. SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 2 February 1 A Chinese couple were placed in isolation in a public hospital. The man and a woman both aged 60, were from Wuhan and visiting relatives in South Australia. SA Health said the pair isolated themselves at home when they developed symptoms and awaited the results of the coronavirus test. Australia has raised the travel alert level to 'do not travel' for the city of Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - and for the entire Hubei province. Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says unless people have contact with someone who is unwell and has come from that part of China, there is no need for current concern. Advertisement

In the wake of the rapid spread, Chinese-Australian parents are now desperate for their children to get out of Wuhan in China's Hubei province.

Yi Xu is demanding his six-month-old daughter be brought home to Australia.

'The Australian Government needs to follow what the US is doing [and] to charter a plane to evacuate its citizens for emergency,' Mr Xu told the ABC after reports the U.S was using a plane to evacuate Americans from the area.

A father from Melbourne, Nathan Wang, said his 11-month-old daughter is stuck in Wuhan with his wife and other child.

Mr Wang said his family was struggling to access medical resources.

'I can't even fall asleep. As a father, I was very desperate. I am guilty that all of the risks and pressure were put on my wife alone,' he said.

Another Chinese-Australian man said the children who were left stranded in the areas were being cared for by their grandparents.

'They are desperate to get out, because there starts to see a shortage of face masks and other protective supplies,' the man who only wanted to be referred to as John told The Australian.

'Many children are running out of baby formula powders soon,' he said.

The Australian government is now considering options to allow Australians in the infected areas to travel.

A China Eastern Flight from Wuhan arrives at Sydney International Airport on Thursday where health authorities were screening passengers for coronavirus

'The Government acknowledges the concerns of Australians who are in Hubei Province in China and the concerns of their families and friends,' Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Sunday.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THE CORONAVIRUS? Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms. If and when they do, typical signs include: a runny nose

a cough

sore throat

fever (high temperature) The vast majority of patients  at least 97 per cent, based on available data  will recover from these without any issues or medical help. In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people. Advertisement

'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working closely with Chinese authorities and international partners to consider possible assistance with travel for Australians from areas that are affected by Chinese travel restrictions.

'Given the circumstances of the spread of the Coronavirus, Chinese authorities are currently imposing very tight restrictions on all travel from Hubei. We are seeking advice from the Chinese authorities on these restrictions and whether any options are available to international travellers.

'Our Embassy in Beijing and our Consulate in Shanghai are also working with international partners and the Chinese government to determine what support can be given to Australians on the ground.'

Authorities are urging anyone who has travelled to the Wuhan region and experienced flu-like symptoms to contact their GP or local emergency department.

The patient in Victoria is a Chinese national aged in his 50s who flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19 on an A380 plane, which can can carry 500 passengers.

A passenger wearing a protective mask (pictured) is seen at Sydney Airport on Thursday, as a man in Melbourne is confirmed as the first Australian case of coronavirus

He became the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Australia on Saturday morning and is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east.

Earlier on Saturday a baby was rushed from Sydney Airport to hospital for testing and was later discharged cleared of the virus.

A Hobart man has tested negative for coronavirus on Sunday after he was admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital on Saturday with mild respiratory symptoms.

The man in his 30s had travelled to China earlier this month and spent time Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak began.

He contacted a general practitioner with respiratory problems and was admitted into an isolation room in hospital while tests were conducted to rule out the infection.

Public Health services identified the man's contacts since returning to Hobart in case he had been identified as carrying the virus.

The man has been discharged from hospital after his results showed he was not infected.
ALPENA, MI  A Michigan man has been charged in the death of a woman he allegedly delivered drugs to in April of 2018.

James Donald Hayes, 42, of Alpena, is charged with one count delivery of controlled substance causing death, a felony punishable by life or any term of years, and one count tampering with evidence in a criminal case, a felony punishable by more than 10 years.

The charges come after a lengthy investigation by the Michigan State Police Alpena Post into the death of then 42-year-old April Brown of Alpena, who was found unresponsive in a home on Boone Road in Alpena Township on April 13, 2018. She was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Troopers began investigating after it was determined Brown died from a drug overdose. Hayes was identified as a suspect after interviews.

Hayes is lodged in the Alpena County Jail. He was arraigned Monday in the 88th District Court in Alpena. He is being held on a $100,000 cash bond.

His next scheduled court appearance is on Feb. 3 at 2 p.m.
Peru's Keiko Fujimori-led opposition suffered a crushing blow at legislative elections on Sunday, losing dozens of seats in the Congress it had dominated since 2016, according to early results.

According to a rapid count by the Ipsos research firm, Fujimori's Popular Force party's share of the vote has dropped from 36.3 per cent in 2016 to just 6.9 per cent.

Having dominated Congress with 73 of the 130 seats, it is now set to be only the sixth largest party with less than 20 seats, according to projections.

"It's the collapse of Fujimorism, it's a very deep fall, a very hard blow," analyst Luis Benavente, director of the Vox Populi consultancy, told AFP.

"We don't know how many legislators they will have, but the first projections indicate it will be a 10th of their 2016" result, added analyst Fernando Rospigliosi.

It's a big victory for center-right President Martin Vizcarra, who dissolved parliament in September and called snap legislative elections in a bid to end a political crisis between the executive and Congress.

The elections have produced a hung parliament dominated by centrist parties more likely to approve of Vizcarra's anti-corruption reforms previously blocked by Popular Force.

The largest single party is set to be the centrist Popular Action with 10.1 per cent of the vote, according to Ipsos.

After the Christian fundamentalist party Frepap (8.8) come the right-wing Podemos Peru (8.25), center-right Progress Alliance (8.0) and the centrist Partido Morado (7.7).

Vizcarra said he wants to establish with the new Congress "a responsible, mature relationship that seeks a consensus that benefits Peru."



Fujimori's Popular Force looks to have paid for its leader's implication in the sprawling Odebrecht corruption scandal.

Fujimori is accused of accepting USD 1.2 million in illicit party funding from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht for her unsuccessful 2011 presidential election campaign.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying at least USD 29 million to Peruvian officials since 2004, and bribing four former Peruvian presidents.

The scandal decimated the popularity of the 44-year-old daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).

She has already spent 13 months in pre-trial detention before being released in November, and on Tuesday faces a judge's decision on whether to send her back to jail.

It wasn't just Popular Force losing badly, but also its main ally, the social-democratic APRA of former president Alan Garcia, who committed suicide in April as police turned up at his home to arrest him in a corruption case related to the Odebrecht scandal.

APRA is Peru's oldest political party but with only 2.6 percent of the vote, according to Ipsos, it "will lose its party registration and be left out of Congress," Benavente told AFP.

There were more than 2,300 candidates representing 21 parties in Sunday's election.

Voters in Lima queued up to vote long before the doors opened, AFP reporters observed.

The vote -- the first time legislative elections have been held separately from presidential voting here -- came 15 months ahead of the next general election.

It came about after Vizcarra dissolved Congress on September 30, a move that was widely popular amongst Peru's 25 million population.

The opposition accused him of a "coup d'etat" and swore in Vice President Mercedes Araoz as "acting president," but she resigned the following day.

The opposition took its case to the constitutional court, which ruled in Vizcarra's favour.

Demonstrators took to the streets to support Vizcarra and his anti-corruption push.

Polls showed 90 per cent support for the president's daring move.

Vizcarra doesn't have a party himself but before the vote, political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP that the president would "achieve a more bearable relationship with the centrist parties that achieve a majority in Congress" than he had done with Fujimori.

However, Alvarez had expected Popular Force to remain "a relevant force," which no longer appears the case.

The new lawmakers will sit for only 16 months until the April 2021 general election, and a new president is due to take office three months after that.

Neither Vizcarra nor any of the new lawmakers will be eligible for re-election in 2021, so only 16 sought re-election.

The election was observed by the European Union and the Organisation of American States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
David J. Phillip, STF / Associated Press

Growth in Texas' manufacturing sector continued to recover this month, according to a survey of business executives by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

The manufacturing production index, a measure of the state's manufacturing conditions, rebounded to 10.5 in January, the survey found.
The head of ISIS has called on militants to begin conquering Israeli settlements and to start targeting Jews.

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, the leader of the Islamic State, directed the organisation's remaining militants to wage a campaign of terror against Israel and Jews, according to the Israeli public broadcasting corporation.

Al-Quraishi said that combatants, especially those in Sinai and Syria, should turn their focus to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reconquer the land, and turn it into fields for arms experiments.

An undated file photo shows the current leader of ISIS, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, in an unknown location. Al-Quraishi has commanded all remaining militants to turn their attention to the reconquering of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem yesterday. According to a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution, Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank are a 'flagrant violation' of international law

Despite the defeat of the ISIS caliphate in December 2018, the Islamist's are still operational in areas of Sinai, Syria and Iraq.

In his statement, al-Quraishi commanded that Muslims across the globe derail US President Donald Trump's Middle East 'peace plan'.

According to a United Nations Security Council resolution, Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank are a 'flagrant violation' of international law that have 'no legal validity'.

In November last year, however, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US would soften its position on the settlements, causing uproar in Europe and the Muslim world.

Jewish settlers stand at a view point overlooking the West Bank city of Jericho from the Jewish settlement of Mitzpe Yeriho on Sunday

As part of the softening of its position, US President Donald Trump promised a 'peace plan' for the Middle East, which is set to be unveiled by tomorrow.

Trump has spoken positively of the plan - the details of which have been shrouded in secrecy.

Palestinian leaders have been consulted but do not support the US president's scheme.

Four days after the suicide of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when he was cornered by a US tactical operation in October last year, an Islamic State radio message confirmed al-Baghdadi's successor as al-Quraishi.

According to the Guardian, al-Quraishi played a pivotal role in the genocide and enslavement of the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Around 12 hours after being detained by Hyderabad Police, Bhim Army chief Chandrasekhar Azad was finally released and was forced to board a flight to New Delhi in the early hours of Monday.

Azad who was detained on Sunday evening, and whose whereabouts were unknown to his followers until he was dropped off at the airport, boarded Indigo Flight no 6E5012 which was scheduled to depart at 6.55 am.

Soon after his release, Azad took to Twitter to slam Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and also alleged of violence by the police on his followers.

Azad said, "In Telangana dictatorship is at its peak. People's right to protest is being snatched. First our people were lathi-charged, then I was arrested. Now they have brought me to the airport to send me to Delhi. @TelanganaCMO, remember Bahujan society will never forget this insult. Will be back soon"

His lawyer Mahmood Paracha and Bhim Army National Coordinator Kush, who were also detained with Azad, have also been sent back to Delhi by the police.

Paracha said, "Coming back from Hyderabad where @BhimArmyChief was arrested and detained once again without medical aid by @TelanganaCMO & @TelanganaDGP. Forced and escorted up to the aircraft drop buses by police. Why is everyone trying to scuttle his voice?"

Azad is set to be back in Hyderabad in a few days as he has a protest meet planned in Karnataka's Bidar.

The Bhim Army chief was picked up by the city police on Sunday evening from an apartment in Mallepally where he was resting.

Sources said that he was sick and was administered an injection when the police took him away.

Police reasoned that he was taken into preventive custody as the protest meeting that he was supposed to address on Sunday evening at Mehdipatnam had not been accorded permission.


European stocks closed sharply lower on Monday as fears over the economic fallout from the Chinese coronavirus outbreak intensify.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended the session 2.3% lower, with the China-exposed basic resources sector plunging 4.3% to lead losses as all sectors and major bourses traded firmly in negative territory.

Chinese officials have now confirmed more than 2,800 cases of the new strain of coronavirus, which originated in the city of Wuhan, with the death toll rising to 81 and 461 people in critical condition. The virus has now been detected in a host of other countries in Asia and beyond, including the U.S., France, Australia and Canada.

Traditional safe-haven assets such as gold and the Japanese yen surged as investors sought shelter from the potential economic impact, with the specter of the SARS crisis of 2003 hanging over markets.

Stocks on Wall Street took a sharp downward turn on Monday, with the Nasdaq tumbling by almost 2%.

Back in Europe, further downward momentum for equities came as German business sentiment was shown to have deteriorated in January, according to the latest Ifo Institute survey, falling from 96.3 in December to 95.9 and missing the Reuters consensus forecast of 97.0.

The Ifo Institute also projected that Europe's largest economy will likely grow by 0.2% in the first three months of 2020 as demand in the ailing industrial sector slowly returns.

Italy's right-wing Lega party has failed in its bid to oust the center-left Democratic Party (PD) from its northern stronghold of Emilia-Romagna, falling short in a closely-watched regional election on Sunday.

In corporate news, Reuters reported on Monday, citing sources, that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is looking into the role of the Credit Suisse board in the lender's recent spying scandal.
A man from the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri allegedly shot a woman to death and injured her two children on Sunday night before taking his own life.

Nguyen Ngoc Le, 44, residing in Huong Hoa District, was found death at a local coffee farm with a gun and a suicide note next to him, local police told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday morning.

Le was said to be the main suspect who shot his fellow villager Vo Thi H., 45, and her two children a night before.

Witnesses said they heard several bangs from H.s house before rushing to discover H. and her two children collapsed on a pool of blood.

At the scene, authorities seized a number of cartridges.

The suspect was believed to leave the scene on a red motorbike.

The victims were rushed to Huong Hoa Districts medical center but H. could not make it and died.

Medical staff are seen at Huong Hoa District's medical center where Vo Thi H. and her children were hospitalized after being allegedly shot on January 26. Photo: Tuoi Tre/ H.T

H.s two children, aged 18 and 12, have been transferred to the higher-level Quang Tri General Hospital for treatment.

According to the hospital, they were hospitalized with injures in their lungs due to bullets piercing through the body from the back.

One patient was injured in the right lung while the other has injured lungs and broken ribs.

Now both patients are no longer in critical conditions.

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Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Faced with the accelerated degradation of the green belt of Niamey, the Nigerien government has adopted two decrees aimed at safeguarding this fifty-year-old green space
MIDDLETOWN  A Connecticut state trooper charged in DUI crash that injured a mother and her daughter had his court case continued to Feb. 24 after he was expected to enter a plea on Monday in Middletown Superior Court.

John McDonald, a state police sergeant, was also charged with second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, reckless driving and failure to obey a stop sign following the Sept. 25 crash in Southbury.

The 37-year-old, dressed in a pinstripe suit with balding hair, remained silent and motionless during his brief court appearance. He did not say anything when asked by reporters outside the courthouse whether he had any comment.

Robert Britt, his criminal defense attorney who was walking beside McDonald out of the courthouse, said they would not comment while the matter is pending.

According to his arrest warrant, McDonald had about eight drinks at a colleagues retirement party at an Oxfords Black Hog brewery and appeared hammered later that night after crashing into a woman and her daughter.

Witnesses of the crash described McDonald as hammered and swaying back and forth in the middle of the roadway when the first officers arrived at the scene, according to the warrant.

Video from the Black Hog Brewery in Oxford, where the retirement party was held, showed McDonald drinking at least eight alcoholic beverages within about three hours, the warrant said.

After leaving the party, McDonald ran a stop sign at the intersection of Airport Road and Route 188 in Southbury, police said.

State police are also conducting an internal affairs investigation into the party to see if any other troopers there violated department policies.

McDonald serves with the Western District Major Crimes Division out of Troop A in Southbury.

That investigation is still ongoing, according to state police, and McDonald remains suspended. His suspension started Nov. 14.

The T-bone accident sent the family sedan off the road and into the woods. Both women were taken to St. Marys Hospital with injuries  Lisa Conroy, 52, suffered an injury to her eye, and her 19-year-old daughter Madison suffered injuries to her arm and wrist.

McDonald was not given a Breathalyzer test at the scene, because he claimed to be injured and was taken to a Waterbury hospital, police said.

He left the hospital before staff could take blood tests, which might have revealed his blood alcohol content, reports said.

A lawsuit has since been filed on behalf of the two women that alleges McDonald had been drinking at the Black Hog Brewery shortly before the collision.

Earlier this month, the Black Hog Brewery agreed to pay out $225,000 for the settlement, said Garrett Moore, the personal injury lawyer representing Lisa Conroy and her daughter Madison, the two women hurt in the crash.

But Moore said the civil suit is still pending against McDonald and the state of Connecticut.

During his last appearance in court, McDonalds attorney, Robert Britt, cited the need to review of discovery materials. The case was then continued to Jan. 27.

According to the state Judicial Branch pending cases web page, McDonalds case is awaiting plea at Mondays hearing.
Atif Khan and two other ministers of KP removed

ISLAMABAD: Atif Khan and two other ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been removed for bypassing the leadership in an attempt to secure support of power brokers for bringing a no-trust motion against Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.



During a meeting in Lahore with close confidantes late Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan is said to have shared what troubled his relations with Atif Khan, his long-time favorite to whom he wanted to nominate for chief minister slot in 2018 but couldnt after his opponent lobby led by Pervez Khattak prevailed. By then, he had declared Atif as an honest man who is not in politics to make money and that he does politics of principles.



Imran named a retired old man whose relations in powerful quarters made him a darling of many power-seekers, according to an insider, and said Atif met him to gather support for the slot of chief minister-ship.



Will I change CM on thedirections of somebody? PM asked with reference to a powerful man. I will not do this, he asserted. As he shared these thoughts Sunday noon, Atif and two other ministers of his group were de-notified almost three hours later. This decision is being touted as an attempt to quell unrest in Punjab, KP and at federal level as well as to send a message to all concerned that he will not take any dictation, said a participant of the meeting.



KP Governor Shah Farman de-notified Atif Khan, Shahram Tarakai (Atifs cousin and brother-in-law) and Shakeel Ahmed as provincial ministers late Sunday. PM Imran Khan issued these directives to the Governor after CM complained of conspiracies being hatched against him, provincial information minister, Shaukat Yousafzai told media.



Atif was minister of sports, culture and tourism, Shahram held the charge of health whereas Shakeel was minister for revenue and estate department. KP was considered relatively calm politically; however, a war of words started a couple of days ago after Arshad Aziz Malik reported in this newspapers edition of January 23 about the simmering differences.



It was about the five ministers and 20 MPAs having joined the forces against CM Mehmood. They alleged him for poor governance and said corruption had increased in the province under his watch.



They declared Mahmood Khan as Usman Buzdar Plus and accused his principal secretary and that of PM running the whole show in the province. CM Mehmood had denied this. He then told Arshad Aziz that PM Imran Khan had authorized him to remove or induct anybody into the cabinet.
Mens grooming brand Bombay Shaving Company has roped in new-age superstar Kartik Aaryan as its new brand ambassador to further strengthen the brands appeal and induce trials from soft customers. Kartik will be endorsing Bombay Shaving Companys shave and facial grooming range. With this association Bombay Shaving Company- a digital-first FMCG brand aims to connect with the millennial audience who loves to experiment with their look while keeping up with the trend.

The effervescent Kartik made his acting debut in 2011 with Pyaar Ka Punchnama. He subsequently appeared in two more romantic comedies, Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 (2015) and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018), both of which were blockbusters. In 2019 he followed the success graph with Luka Chuppi and the recently released superhit Pati Patni Aur Woh. Kartik has now bagged several big-budget projects including Imtiaz Ali's intense romantic drama Love Aaj Kal, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Dostana 2.

Kartik's boyish good looks have made him a heartthrob of India and have overshadowed many peers of his generation.

Actor Kartik Aaryan on his association with Bombay Shaving Company commented, Bombay Shaving Company is a millennial brand driven by innovation and technology. I love to experiment with my looks and I look forward to working with the team in building a brand that helps men look their best.

On the partnership, Shantanu Deshpande, CEO, and Founder at Bombay Shaving Company said, Ever since we launched, Bombay Shaving Company has grown to be one of the most successful mens skincare and grooming innovations in the country and has played a lead role in the premium segment, offering the consumers a unique and indulgent experience. We wanted a celebrity who not only endorses but believes in the product too. Kartik exudes those vibes quite strongly and brings a relatability quotient to the table. Kartik embodies the spirit of a young, feisty startup - he is self-made in an industry where it is rare, has garnered fanfare based on his talent alone. His appeal among the younger audience is exceptional and we believe he will play a big role in Bombay Shaving Company becoming a salient brand for men.

Launched in 2016, Bombay Shaving Company started as a direct to consumer premium experiential shaving regimen but has quickly expanded into skin, beard and bath categories. Bombay Shaving Company is bullish and will focus on offline expansion with its current footprint of 3,000 stores to 10,000 stores in the coming months. Bombay Shaving Company currently has more than 2.5 lakh customers and aims to become an INR 100 crore brand in the next 12-15 months.
A couple has been accused of driving a dead body 4km away from their house, dumping it and calling an ambulance from a payphone to pick it up.

The man was staying with the couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at their Gold Coast home while on holiday from NSW during December in 2017.

He failed to wake up one morning, so the couple tried to put him in a cold shower and give him CPR, before realising he had died from a drug overdose.

A couple has been accused of driving a dead body 4km away from their house, dumping it and calling an ambulance from a payphone to pick it up (stock image)

In a panic the couple dragged his dead body to their car, drove him 4km away, dumped him against a timber fence and called an ambulance from a payphone with limited details, Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

Earlier this month the couple were charged with interfering with a course after police conducted a thorough investigation into the incident.

Detective Inspector Chris Ahearn said police began an investigation shortly after the body was found, which lead them to making the charges.

'We have got to the point now where we can charge them with that (interfering with a corpse),' Inspector Ahearn said.

Court documents reveal that police believe one of the accused 'improperly offered an indignity to a dead human body'.

The term means police allege they did something to the corpse that 'diminished, degraded, or interfered with the ordinary state of a body'.

He failed to wake up one morning, so the couple tried to put him in a cold shower and give him CPR, before realising he had died from a drug overdose (stock image)

Veteran Gold Coast criminal lawyer Bill Potts said the charge is extremely rare.

He said the only people who 'offer an indignity to a corpse' include those who work in morgues and medical students.

But it was extremely rare for someone close to the deceased to be charged, with the maximum penalty for the offence five years behind bars.

One of the accused is expected to face court in March and remains in custody, while their partner was granted bail and is due to face court in February.


(Photo: Unsplash)

With a single tooth implant in the UK costing over 2,000, is it any wonder many are looking abroad for cheaper dental alternatives? The popularity of dental tourism has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, but just how much can be saved and are there any risks involved?

What is dental tourism?

Dental tourism tends to be individuals from developed or wealthier nations, travelling to developing countries in order to utilise their cheaper dental services.

Popular countries for European citizens include Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey. Whereas those in the US and Canada would usually travel to the likes of Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica.

There are very few dental treatments available in the UK/US which you can't find abroad and some of the most popular treatments range from cosmetic, such as whitening and implants, to health-related treatments such as fillings, extractions and root canals.

How the prices differ

Some estimates claim that going abroad for dental treatment can be 50-70% cheaper.

The reason for the cheaper prices is usually due to the costs of living in each country. Wages and property prices play a big factor in determining other costs for citizens in each country and the UK has one of the highest dentistry costs in the world.

Although it can be cheaper to go abroad, alternative finance could be an option for you such as a short term loan - providing you are financially stable and will not struggle to make the repayments.

What are the risks?

Process, regulations and general standards of care varies from country-to-country. Therefore, there can be a significant number of additional risks associated with having your treatment abroad. These include but are not limited to:

Insurance - Your travel insurance is unlikely to cover cosmetic treatments and will only be valid for emergency dental care. Check with your insurance provider before travelling.

Unreputable clinics - Do your research before you travel to make sure the clinic performing your treatment have a good reputation for successful procedures and positive customer review ratings.

Follow-up care - Does your treatment require you to have any ongoing care after the treatment is completed, either immediately or in the future? You should consider this in any cost evaluations and make sure you are in a position to afford this later down the line.

A companion - You should carefully consider taking a friend or family member with you, not only for the immediate aftercare, but to also help with decision-making, support and to assist if any complications were to arise.

What to consider before arranging dental work

Although the initial cost can seem far cheaper than the UK or US, you should also factor in additional costs which are associated with going abroad including:

Consultations

Flights

Accommodation

Annual leave from work

Insurance

Any UK/US aftercare required

You should also consider the risks outlined above and most importantly, do your research! You should be making an informed, well-thought out decision before opting for any dental treatment and even more so when opting to go abroad.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday launched a website for 'one to one communication' with the voters ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.

The website, www.welcomekejriwal.in, will allow the people to get to know about the works done in various areas, including water.

"I wanted to go to each house but it is not possible that I can visit 50 lakh houses. So I told my team about the wish and they suggested me a solution through technology," Kejriwal said.

The interactive link will allow voters to see Kejriwal's recoded video messages.

People can select from seven options -- unauthorized colonies, infrastructure, education, health, women empowerment, electricity and water.

Kejriwal, on the home page, will ring the bell and people have to click on the welcome button to welcome him.

People can give feedback, "that will reach to me directly. Also, people can give suggestions and complaints to me," Kejriwal said.
WESTPORT  Traffic, schools, and the indirect impact of one local controversy were discussed Sunday afternoon when the joint Rotary Clubs hosted a State of the Town event at the Westport Library.

With budget season unfolding, First Selectman Jim Marpe and Board of Education Chair Candice Savin respectively shared detailed remarks about the town and school system with around 150 attendees, including many members of both the Rotary Club of Westport and the Westport Sunrise Rotary, answering audience questions as well.

There have been some significant challenges, Savin said of this years school system odyssey, which has included a search for a new superintendent and the $32 million renovation of a temporarily closed Coleytown Middle School.

We live in a community with high expectations, she said, explaining that ongoing investments in infrastructure, leadership and human capital remain important.

She outlined a range of successes throughout the district, including student academic achievements and new focuses on social and emotional health, including the new RULER program and the pending discussion of moving the school start time forward.

At the same time, Savin noted the upcoming budget was shaping up to be a unique challenge, with her board striving to balance high-quality education for students with a fiscal responsibility.

With student enrollment declining, she was asked how that played into her work.

Its challenging to manage all of our buildings and our staffing in an environment of declining enrollment, she said, especially in middle school where the board wants to maintain a team-teaching model.

Savin said more answers will likely come with the hiring of a new superintendent, expected to happen in the spring.

Likewise, Marpe touted some of the towns best accomplishments this year, including improved railroad parking, advanced technology initiatives, a strong financial standing, improved beach access for people with disabilities, and environmental sustainability work.

As for challenges, Marpe said he hoped to confront various ongoing ones, including traffic and pedestrian concerns, by beginning a series of district-level meetings with residents.

Well never be able to eliminate the volume of traffic that passes through at rush hour, he said, but suggested there may be specific ways to make changes neighborhood by neighborhood.

Wed like to know what makes sense in a particular neighborhood. ... The more we get on a neighborhood basis, the more that helps as we plan and go for the funding, he said.

Several people wanted to talk about the recent ballyhoo involving the Westport Museum for History and Culture  the former Westport Historical Society  which alienated many long-time supporters this month after announcing it was renaming one of its wings for a new contributor and displacing the name of the original.

With several postings on the issue, Westport News columnist Dan Woogs popular 06880 blog served as a busy forum the past couple of weeks for a barrage of angry reader comments chastising the nonprofit.

While he acknowledged there was a billing issue with the museum thats currently under investigation, in which it asked the town to cover some personnel costs it shouldnt have as part of their joint work on the First Light event, Marpe emphasized it was a private nonprofit.

We recognize as a town that we have to take great care with how we work with private organizations, he said. That doesnt mean we wont be supportive.

They are not affiliated with the town, he said, though Marpe noted he stepped in and tried to exercise some quiet diplomacy to abate the furor.

Marpe said, however, he was mostly troubled by the tone of the comments that were put online and sent to his office.

The tone that a lot of the emails and comments took was not what Westport should be all about, he said, calling it cyberbullying.

Frankly, some of the comments I read were as strong an example of cyberbullying as you could expect, he said, noting the irony that Westport schools try to teach students about the issue of cyberbullying. Some of the things youre saying are impacting peoples lives. Some of these people youre talking about live down the street from you (and) I found some of the commentary to be just wrong.

Ironically, Jeffrey Weiser, a past Rotary president and deputy moderator of the Representative Town Meeting, who moderated the event, noted many of the written questions from audience members involved concerns about bullying and related stressors among Westport students.

Asked about those issues, Savin said, I think we as a community, if we model good behavior, that helps a lot.
?As a high school sophomore in Muskegon, Michigan, Jazmin Wright-Zornes set a goal to do something in medicine.

She brought that goal to the College of Science and Engineering at Central Michigan University, where she felt that its size and academic reputation would give her more opportunities for hands-on experiences and scholarships than other universities.

She was correct.

The smaller classes allowed me to make connections with faculty and have research opportunities that I probably wouldnt have had at larger schools, said Wright-Zornes.

Today, as a senior in biomedical, cellular and molecular biology, she can include in her medical school applications that she was among the student co-authors of a report on biology faculty member Shasta Sabos autism research that recently was highlighted in the Journal of Cell Science and other autism-focused publications.

A sad, wimpy tree

Sabos work has pinpointed a gene mutation that causes abnormal development of brain cells called neurons. Healthy neurons are important because they make arbors (tree-like structures) called dendrites, which receive and integrate information. Malformed dendrites impact the amount and quality of information received and passed to the next neuron in the chain.

Her team found that dendrite arbors dont grow normally when there is a mutation in the gene GRIN2B.

They kind of look like a sad, wimpy tree instead of a big, beautiful tree, Sabo said.

We know that the dendrite structure grows around the time when you start to observe symptoms of autism, so there is the potential that if we could find a treatment that would promote the growth into more normal dendrites, then you could treat autism when you start to see symptoms. Potentially, all you would have to do is encourage that normal growth to proceed.

Sabos lab team now is working to find ways to screen a large number of compounds for their ability to promote normal growth.

The larger challenge in fighting autism is that people experience it in various ways because it affects other genes. That is why it is called autism spectrum disorder, Sabo said.

The interesting thing is the protein that the gene is producing, which we are studying, has links to a large number of the things that go wrong in those other genes. So it may be, for at least a significant number of people with autism, that this might be a common mechanism leading to the disorder.

Finding her lifes purpose

While the autism research was important and exciting to Wright-Zornes, she didnt spend all of her time in the lab. She took advantage of CMUs many extracurricular opportunities that she said made her a more well-rounded person.

She played intramural sports, took Spanish and leadership classes and went to Honduras for a week as part of Centrals Global Medical Brigades, a registered student organization whose participants travel to underserved areas around the globe.

The volunteers have the opportunity to take vitals and patient histories, shadow licensed doctors in medical consultations, and assist in a pharmacy under the direction of licensed practitioners. This March, Centrals team is scheduled to go to Panama.

Wright-Zornes said the time spent working in Honduras was a defining moment for her.

Since high school, Ive dreamed about being a doctor in an area with a high population of Spanish-speaking people she said. Seeing it play out in real life has solidified the future for me.
As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on January 31, the Boris Johnson government has unveiled a new fast-track visa available from February 20 to attract the worlds top scientists, researchers and mathematicians.

Called the Global Talent route, the visa will replace the existing Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route. It will not have a cap on the number of people granted visa; applicants will not need to have a job offer in the UK; and it will allow absences from the UK as part of their work.

There will be some official pageantry to mark Brexit day on January 31, including a countdown clock projected on Downing Street and a special 50 pence coin, but little will change in practice until the end of the transition period on December 31.

Announcing the new visa, Johnson said it will continue to ensure dependents will be able to take up employment in the UK, and preserve the routes flexibility by not requiring an individual to hold an offer of employment before arriving or tying them to one specific job.

It will also provide an accelerated path to settlement, and provide exemption absences for researchers, and their dependants, where they are required overseas for work-related purposes.

The UK Research and Innovation, the semi-government research and funding body, will endorse applicants from the scientific and research community.

Johnson said: The UK has a proud history of scientific discovery, but to lead the field and face the challenges of the future we need to continue to invest in talent and cutting edge research.

That is why as we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world, and stand ready to support them to turn their ideas into reality.

However, Liberal Democrats home affairs spokeswoman Christine Jardine dismissed the announcement replacing the existing Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route as a marketing gimmick.

She said: Boris Johnson is showing that he fundamentally doesnt understand what makes our science sector so successful. Changing the name of a visa and removing a cap thats never been hit is not a serious plan.

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A 24-year-old Lincoln man went to jail Friday on suspicion of illegally transferring a gun to a juvenile.

Jupree Hill, of 737 C St., was arrested in Chester, a town near the Kansas border just off U.S. 81.

The Lancaster County Attorney's Office charged him with the felony in November.

In a probable cause affidavit for Hill's arrest, Lincoln police said on May 2, investigators received information from Scheels about a possible illegal firearm purchase three days earlier. Three juveniles had been in the store looking at handguns.

Officer Cole Jennings said police learned they left the store and returned less than an hour later in the same vehicle with Hill, who came inside the store and tried to buy two handguns.

Staff didn't let him because they believed he wasn't buying them for himself.

Jennings said Hill's name came up again May 2 when another officer ran a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms trace on a gun that had been found in a 16-year-old Lincoln boy's gold Ford Taurus on April 11. Records showed Hill had bought it at DEGuns of Lincoln.
I kept trying to tell him no, dont do that. I said Im on my period. I have a tampon in there, she said. And it was as if he didnt believe me and he said something like, Well, where is it then? And he eventually pulled my tampon out.
The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has denounced illegal activities, prostitution, drug dealing and money laundering in the country, saying they are on the increase and human trafficking appears dramatically "normal".

By Robin Gomes

Caritas PNG and the "Justice and Peace" Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands expressed their concern in a note to the Vaticans Fides news agency.

The local Church said it wants to collaborate with the police forces involved in fighting these crimes. For an adequate response, it said, it is necessary to examine the phenomena through a multidisciplinary approach, in order to understand the problems and their causes, and identify the processes and the people involved.

According to Caritas, human trafficking in Papua New Guinea is a very complex problem given its variety of forms, the situation of the victims and the nature of criminals who perpetrate the abuses.

A recent report, published by the local newspaper, "Post Courier", showed that several foreign multinationals carry out activities not foreseen in their licenses and even contrary to the laws of PNG.

A note from Caritas PNG, sent to Fides, suggested two practical solutions. Firstly, it calls for prompt judicial proceedings against traffickers and those who benefit from them at different levels. Caritas also calls for greater cooperation and awareness on human trafficking and the defence of victims, both at the national and international levels through cooperation among government networks, businesses, religious communities and civil society.

In a related development, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had earlier reported there was no improvement in PNG in 2019, regarding violence, domestic abuse, corruption and foreign debt. Its annual report noted that weak enforcement of the law and a lack of accountability fostered a culture of impunity and lawlessness.

HRWs deputy director for Asia, Phil Robertson, said despite a change of prime minister, progress was still slow and the key findings were dire.

We are talking about a very desperately poor country. One where there is a lot of violence that's committed with impunity ... where women are particularly affected, as well as children.

Forty per cent of the population still lives in poverty, he said, noting PNG is very rich in resources. Twenty-five per cent of the children are not in school, and our estimate is that one in 13 have died of preventable disease.
Investigators carry out an inspection, Sunday, a day after a suspected gas explosion occurred at a lodging facility in Gangwon Province. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



Police, the National Forensic Service and other relevant institutions are speeding up their investigations into a suspected gas explosion at a lodging facility in Gangwon Province that killed six people and injured three others, according to officials Monday.



The accident occurred at 7:46 p.m., Saturday, at the two-story facility located in Donghae, with the fire being extinguished after about 20 minutes, according to firefighters.



Police officials and firefighters in addition to investigators from the National Forensic Service, the Korea Gas Safety Corp. and the Korea Electrical Safety Corp. jointly investigated the scene of the incident, Sunday, to discover the cause of the fire.



They have already found that gas stoves in six rooms out of eight had recently been replaced with electric ranges. Their findings point to improper removal and installation procedures as the likely cause of the explosion.



"During the investigation, we found that there were no proper safety devices to block the intermediate valves of the gas pipes," a police official said. "We are reviewing every possibility to find the cause of the accident."



The official added that police will charge those responsible with accidental homicide if the fire turns out to have been caused by human error.



Investigators, however, did not rule out the possibility that the safety devices could have been separated from the valves due to the shock of the explosion.



They also found a portable gas stove in a room, which was believed to have been used by one of the victims.



The National Forensic Service conducted an autopsy on the bodies, Monday, with results pending.



When the results of the autopsy are released, police will clarify whether the five died from burns or asphyxiation from smoke inhalation or other causes.


Angela Paljor By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: Whether its Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Kashmir, the main prerogative why many join militant groups is to survive and not be harassed and brutalised by the authorities, Anand Gopal said at a session titled No Good Men Among the Living: America and the Taliban  sponsored by The New Indian Express Group  at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday. Gopal, the author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes, said that what the US did in the Afghanistan was to divide the world into terrorists and non-terrorists.

The United States changed the meaning of terrorism. If you are a terrorist, you are someone beyond the peril of reason and logic. You are antisocial. And it is because what this war has done, is that it has bequeathed upon all sort of authoritarian governments around the world a way in which they can label and later justify the killing of their enemies. Parallel to this is the tag anti-national in India, said Gopal, who believes that this language of terrorism is an outcome of the Afghan war.

Incidentally, Gopals book describes the travails of three Afghans caught in the war on terror. Another aspect that Gopal highlights in his book is the voice of Afghan women who he believes are the most affected, especially in terms of curb in their freedom.

The genesis of the authors obsession with Afghanistan can be traced back to the early morning of the deadly 9/11 terror attack on America.

I woke up to a really loud noise around 8 in the morning. When I looked out of my window, I saw the twin towers on fire. I quickly realised that there was an attack. After the attack, I started to excessively read the news. A month later, the United States launched its war against Afghanistan. For me, from afar, it made sense because it was logical for the US to react to an attack that killed so many, Gopal recollected.

He later went to Afghanistan in 2008 and even lived with Taliban units. There, the writer realised that the three categories  ally, enemy and civilian  that were often talked about to validate the war, could not be distinguished and were rather blurred.

I met a person in Kandhar and his family was pro-government, but with a family member who was a Taliban commander. So, you would have Taliban commanders eating lunch with Afghan Army members. For them, it was about survival, added Gopal.

Anti-CAA protest: Five detained, released later

Five people were detained for raising slogans against the amended citizenship law during a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) here, police said. They were released following a warning to not repeat such act in future, the police said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.  A granddaughter of a 74-year-old man shot and killed after brandishing a BB gun at a Syracuse officer issued a full public apology on Facebook to the officer involved.

Taykola Gainey, the granddaughter of DeWayne Watkins, said the familys initial reaction to the fatal shooting was to blame the police because they never knew her grandfather to own a BB gun or have mental health issues.

If he did, we werent aware nor were we given a reason to believe that he was sick or mentally unstable, Gainey wrote. Officer (David) Craw was not given proper notice by the firefighter before he arrived on the scene. Given these circumstances Office David Craw was just doing his job given the fact that he came on the scene not knowing what he was getting himself into, and saw a man with a gun.

Police arrived at the 300 block of Calthrop Avenue on June 18, 2019 in response to firefighters on a medical call asking for police. Watkins had pointed a gun that was later determined to be a broken BB gun at them, according to an Attorney Generals Office review of the shooting released Friday.

Watkins pointed the gun at Craw after the officer pulled up to the scene, the review found.

The AGs office criticized the county 911 centers dispatch rules at problematic at best because Craw had no way to know that Watkins was brandishing a BB gun when he arrived. Instead, the officer reasonably believed he was confronting a man with a handgun when he arrived, the AGs office found.

Gainey wrote on Facebook that she wanted to issue the apology, noting that she has been critical of the officers conduct over a seven-month period that felt dragged out." The AGs office review comes in cases where there is a significant question whether a person killed by police was armed and/or dangerous.

So it just looks like we harped on this officer being wrong. I apologize deeply to officer Craw because even tho we have to deal with the death of our family member, he has to deal with the fact that he had to make a move that killed someone, Janay wrote. I pray he finds a way to get thru it just like I pray we get thru this grieving process.

The AGs office noted that Craw may have responded differently had he arrived at the scene armed with as much information as possible about what hed be confronting. Instead, he pulled up across from the house where Watkins was waving the gun.

Taykola Gainey, 31, and C.J. Lollie, 40, both of Syracuse, sit outside 319 W. Calthrop Ave. near where their 74-year-old grandfather DeWayne Watkins was shot by police. Watkins later died at the hospital. Family and friends held a vigil outside the Watkins home on Sunday. Photos, candles and teddy bears remained there Monday night. In the lower left hand corner is one of the bullet holes from the shots fired. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com

Gaineys full apology is below. She was not immediately available for comment:

So I want to issue a full PUBLIC APOLOGY to the officer involved in the shooting of my grandfather DeWayne Watkins, Officer David Craw. 7 months ago when this incident happened with my grandfather, we were unaware of the circumstances of the incident and we based our reaction on what we KNEW. We KNEW he never owned a gun BB gun fake gun whatever, and we KNEW he didnt have any mental health issues. If he did, we werent aware nor were we given a reason to believe that he was sick or mentally unstable.

Officer Craw was NOT given proper notice by the firefighter before he arrived on the scene. Given these circumstances Office David Craw was JUST DOING HIS JOB given the fact that he came on the scene not knowing what he was getting himself into, and saw a man with a gun. I will never discredit the police in doing their job. That is not in my nature. Of course this incident leaves us asking where my grandfather found the gun, and why he made the choice to make that move, what mental state he was in and why he didnt alert his wife or anyone in the family that he wasnt well.

And to make it worse the case was DRAGGED OUT FOR 7months. So it just looks like we harped on this officer being wrong. I apologize deeply to officer craw because even tho we have to deal with the death of our family member HE has to deal with the fact that he had to make a move that killed someone. I pray he finds a way to get thru it just like I pray we get thru this grieving process. He didnt deserve the negative attention he got during the investigation. And I dont know how he dealt with it all but unlike anyone else, I can take responsibility for my actions and how they reflected his life.

That man was simply doing his job. And for that I apologize. For everyone that shared when we were looking for justice please give that same energy and share this sincere apology.

Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

For more on the police shooting of DeWayne Watkins:

Syracuse police fatal shooting of 74-year-old reveals shortcoming at 911, AG says

Friends remember Syracuse man shot by police as well-liked neighborhood fixture

Family of 74-year-old man fatally shot by Syracuse police officer searches for answers
Amani Haydar was just 26 when her father brutally stabbed her mother

A high-flying young lawyer's life came crashing down when her father stabbed her mother to death in front of her youngest sister - but she has recovered from the tragedy to forge a career as an acclaimed artist.

Amani Haydar was just 26 when her father brutally stabbed her 45-year-old mother Salwa to death at their home in Bexley in Sydney's south on March 30, 2015.

He also inflicted serious hand injuries on his youngest daughter, Ola, as she tried to fend him off during the attack.

On May 19, 2017, Haydar Haydar was sentenced to 22 years' jail for the murder and the injuries inflicted on his daughter.

On May 19, 2017, Haydar Haydar was sentenced to 22 years' jail for the murder and the injuries inflicted on his daughter

Pictured is the knife Haydar Haydar used to stab his wife to death

A blood-stained lounge inside the Haydar family home is pictured in the aftermath of the fatal attack

After struggling to overcome the trauma, Ms Haydar turned to painting and is now an acclaimed artist using her drawings and powerful voice fighting for women's safety.

'I needed to paint and spend time reimagining my life. As I painted I healed, and as I healed inspiration came frothing to the surface,' she told SBS.

Ms Haydar was five months pregnant and was practicing as a lawyer at the time of her mother's heartbreaking death.

In August, she pushed through a 'difficult birth' despite all the trauma she had experienced four months prior.

She began to feel 'despair' through the first steps of motherhood, and decided to turn to painting, which is something she's loved from when she was a child.

Since her mother's murder, Ms Haydar has used art as a way to 'explore the personal and political dimensions of abuse, loss, identity and resilience'.

'I asked my mum to buy me supplies instead of toys for birthdays and she did, on the condition that it would not distract me from my studies,' she said.

Ms Haydar was five months pregnant and was practicing as a lawyer at the time of her mother's heartbreaking death (Pictured: Salwa Haydar)

Ms Haydar used the painting to help push her through her grief and reclaim her story from the media and using 'my own voice and telling it in my own words'

Despite her love for the arts, growing up she was constantly reminded that, 'Art is not a career, don't forget about your homework.'

Since leaving her career as a lawyer, Ms Haydar pursued painting more after sharing images on Instagram and received feedback from people resonating with the art.

The majority of her art represent women with tears streaming down their face - a way Ms Haydar was expressing her inner emotions.

A self-portrait where she's seen holding an image of her late mother, who is also holding an image of her mother who died in an Israeli airstrike in 2016, titled 'Insert Headline Here' was entered in the Archibald Prize in 2018 and was a finalist.

I also saw it as an opportunity to challenge assumptions that women victims of crime are helpless, weak or subservient,' her entry read.

Ms Haydar used the painting to help push her through her grief and reclaim her story from the media and using 'my own voice and telling it in my own words'.

'Because of the trauma I've experienced and being part of a long trial process and a lot of media attention, I did feel at times that I was silenced and my Mum's story wasn't even coming through,' she told ABC.

'For my Mum that was obviously very tragic. She learnt of her mum's death through the television in the evening news.

'I just thought there are so many similarities between what is now my experience and what my Mum must have felt in that time when she lost her mother, also in circumstances that were so beyond her control and so aggressive and so violent.'

A self-portrait where she's seen holding an image of her late mother, who is also holding an image of her mother who died in an Israeli airstrike in 2016, titled 'Insert Headline Here' was entered in the Archibald Prize in 2018 and was a finalist

Ola, (right) and Nour Haydar, the daughters of Salwa Haydar, speak to media as they leave the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney, Friday, May 5, 2017

Another painting 'The Plight of the Victims' was a finalist in the 2018 Law Society of NSW Just Art Prize.

'Art is a powerful tool for self-expression and communicating ideas,' she told Bluethumb.

'It feels natural and free and yet it has allowed me to engage with difficult topics and contribute to important conversations.'

Ms Haydar focuses on creating figures who express 'emotion and femininity in a bold and unrestrained way'.

With the #metoo movement and the strength exerted by women and men all around the world, she wanted to use that in her art.

'There has been an outpouring of stories from women describing exploitation and violence over the past year but there has also been a display of strength and bravery.'

Along with the painting, Ms Haydar also uses her powerful voice to raise awareness of domestic violence around Australia.

Ms Haydar uses her powerful voice to raise awareness of domestic violence around Australia (pictured: Salwa Haydar)
Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power have stepped up a campaign to recapture Idlib province.

A renewed drive by President Bashar al-Assad to recapture rebel-held territory in Syrias northwest sparked a new exodus of tens of thousands of civilians towards Turkeys border on Monday.

Syrian forces backed by Russian air power have stepped up a campaign to take control of Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold where millions took refuge after fleeing other parts of Syria earlier in its nearly nine-year civil war.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces reached the eastern, northern and southern outskirts of Idlibs Maaret al-Nouman city.

The Syrian army encircled and was close to capturing Maarat al-Numan, an urban centre 33km (20 miles) south of Idlib city. This would mark a significant advance for Assads drive to take back all of Syria, and end the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The Syrian Observatory has put the number of displaced since January 15 at 120,000.

The renewed fighting comes despite a January 12 ceasefire between Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in the conflict.

Completely destroyed

A rescue worker who posted a video from Maarat al-Numan said the city had been devastated by an assault of barrel bombs, missiles and shelling in recent days, which had laid waste to scores of homes and vital infrastructure.

Marat al-Numan is completely destroyed and its population has been displaced and is living in uncertainty, said the civil defence force worker, who did not identify himself.

Raed Saleh, head of the rescue team White Helmets, tweeted that thousands of people fled their homes towards the unknown in order to escape the continuing military operation in the countryside of

Idlib.





Moscow and Damascus say they are fighting armed rebels that have stepped up attacks on civilians in Aleppo, but rights groups and rescue workers say air attacks have demolished hospitals, schools, and other civilian areas.

Millions more?

Fouad Sayed Issa, an aid worker with the Violet Organisation in northern Syria, said Assads latest campaign has frightened Syrians in the rebel enclave who fear death or arrest if their towns are recaptured.

Over the past few days we have seen thousands of new internally displaced persons  and we are talking here at the very least about 50,000 over the past four days, Issa said.

A witness said thousands on Monday fled from the Idlib towns of Ariha and Saraqib with trucks and cars seen crawling in gridlocked traffic towards areas, including the town of Azaz, close to the Turkish border.

Turkey, which backs some rebel groups opposed to Assad, already hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees and fears millions more could soon cross the border.
A six-year-old boy was among 48 people who were assassinated in a fresh wave of cartel violence in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato over the weekend.

The child, whose name was not released by authorities, was dining at a sidewalk stand on Saturday night when at least 10 gunmen fired 40 shots, also killing his pregnant mother and father.

Friday, by far, was the state's deadliest day this year, with 22 reported assassinations.

Among the victims were nine people killed by a group of armed men aboard three vehicles at a highway service stop in city of Villagran at 9pm. Two of the victims were female employees.

Cops found six of the dead inside a nearby restaurant. Images of the gang attack showed three others lying dead on the ground outside.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

At least 10 men opened fire on taco stand in Celaya on Saturday night, killing eight people, including a six-year-old boy (pictured wearing the blue sweatshirt)

A police officer (pictured) was among the 48 murder victims this weekend in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. The cop was gunned down Saturday morning in the municipality of Celaya shortly after he had conclude his shift. No arrests were reported

Pictured above three of the eight people who were executed at a street taco stand on Saturday. A six-year-old boy was also among the victims

Saturday night's massacre took place at approximately 9pm local time in the city of Celaya. Gunmen engaged authorities for 15 minutes, leaving eight people dead, including the boy and his family.

The shooting also claimed the life of an elderly person who was walking to a local bodega to purchase bread.

A unit of National Guardsmen were met with fire as they arrived at the scene before the gunmen escaped, according to Mexican news outlet Proceso.

In a separate Saturday shooting, a police officer was killed by an armed group while he was riding his bicycle in Celaya moments after completing his shift.

Investigators secure the perimeter where nine people were executed by a group of armed men aboard three vehicles Friday night at highway service stop in Villagran

Pictured is one of the eight people executed at a taco stand by at least 10 gunmen on Saturday in Celaya, Guanajuato. Authorities registered 48 murders in the state of Guanajuato between Friday and Sunday, one of the deadliest weekends this year

48 people were killed in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato over the weekend. Friday was the deadliest day with 22 assassinations, including nine at a highway rest stop eatery

Responding to a Sunday morning shooting a home in the municipality of Leon, cops found six people shot, including five who died. One of victims, a woman, died while being transported to a local hospital.

Police reports said the massacre took place inside a residence that served as a stash house for local drug dealers in the neighborhood of San Jose de Cementos.

Investigators also confiscated an unspecified amount of marijuana and an AK-47.

Local media outlets reported that the incident was the result of a turf war between two groups.



No arrests have been attributed to any of the weekend killings.

Security forces, however, did apprehend 29 suspects tied to Mexico's most powerful criminal organization, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and its main rival, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, during a series of operations last week.

Warring cartels have played a role in the 301 murders reported during the first 26 days of 2020.

Government data showed a record 3,540 people were murdered in Guanajuato in 2019, making it the deadliest state in the country.
As every investor would know, you don't hit a homerun every time you swing. But it should be a priority to avoid stomach churning catastrophes, wherever possible. So we hope that those who held China First Capital Group Limited (HKG:1269) during the last year don't lose the lesson, in addition to the 94% hit to the value of their shares. A loss like this is a stark reminder that portfolio diversification is important. Even if you look out three years, the returns are still disappointing, with the share price down90% in that time. Furthermore, it's down 89% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson.

View our latest analysis for China First Capital Group

Given that China First Capital Group didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

China First Capital Group's revenue didn't grow at all in the last year. In fact, it fell 25%. That looks pretty grim, at a glance. The share price fall of 94% in a year tells the story. Holders should not lose the lesson: loss making companies should grow revenue. But markets do over-react, so there opportunity for investors who are willing to take the time to dig deeper and understand the business.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

SEHK:1269 Income Statement, January 27th 2020

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of China First Capital Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

China First Capital Group shareholders are down 94% for the year, but the market itself is up 3.2%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 10% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand China First Capital Group better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with China First Capital Group (including 1 which is doesn't sit too well with us) .

We will like China First Capital Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 13:48:40|Editor: zh

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KABUL, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Six Taliban militants have been arrested by Afghan special forces in eastern Wardak province, the country's national intelligence agency confirmed Monday.

"Special Operations Forces of National Directorate of Security (NDS) lunched a raid on Taliban's encampments in Ahmad Khil and Mohammad Noor Khil villages of Wardak on Saturday night," the NDS said in a statement.

Without disclosing the identity of the arrestees, the statement added that deputy to shadow district intelligence chief of Taliban for Jalrez district of Wardak was among the captured militants.

Some military equipment were also recovered following the raid in the province, with Maidan Shar as its capital, 35 km west of Kabul, the statement said.

The Afghan security forces have recently beefed up security operations against the Taliban militants who have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions in the countryside during the winter.

The militant group has not responded to the report so far.
KABUL - An American military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the U.S. military said, adding that there were no indications so far itd been brought down by enemy fire.

The spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Col. Sonny Leggett, said that the military plane, a Bombardier E-11A, crashed in the Ghazni province and an investigation of its causes was ongoing.

Mondays plane crash is not expected to derail U.S.-Taliban peace talks if it turns out to have been an accident.

The Bombardier E-11A is a U.S. Air Force electronic surveillance plane. Video from the crash site circulating on social media appeared to show its charred ruins.

A Taliban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group had earlier said the mystery crash was a U.S. military plane.

Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area, said that he saw the burning aircraft. In an exchange on Twitter, he told The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned. He added that the aircrafts body and tail were hardly damaged. His information could not be independently verified.

Ghazniwal said the crash site was about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from a U.S. military base. Local Taliban have been deployed to protect the crash site, he said, and several other militants were combing the nearby village for two people they suspect may have survived the crash.

The Taliban hold much of Ghazni province and have total control over the local area of the crash.

Ghazniwal said the site was near a village called Sado Khelo, in the Deh Yak district. He also said the crash occurred soon after 1 p.m. local time, but residents in the area did not report a loud crashing noise. He couldnt say whether the aircraft had been shot down but the crash was not loud.

Images on social media purportedly of the crashed plane showed an aircraft bearing U.S. Air Force markings similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft photographed by aviation enthusiasts. Visible registration numbers on the plane also appeared to match those aircraft.

The so-called Battlefield Airborne Communications Node can be carried on unmanned or crewed aircraft like the E-11A. It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone.

Colloquially referred to by the U.S. military as Wi-Fi in the sky, the BACN system is used in areas where communications are otherwise difficult, elevating signals above obstacles like mountains. The system is in regular use in Afghanistan.

The U.S. and Taliban are negotiating a reduction in hostilities or a cease-fire to allow a peace agreement to be signed that could bring home an estimated 13,000 American troops and open the way to a broader post-war deal for Afghans. The Taliban currently control or hold sway over around half the country.

Local Afghan officials had said earlier on Monday that a passenger plane from Afghanistans Ariana Airlines had crashed in the Taliban-held area of the eastern Ghazni province. However, Ariana Airlines told The Associated Press that none of its planes had crashed in Afghanistan.

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1:10 p.m. local time (8:40 a.m. GMT) in Deh Yak district, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul. He said the crash site is in territory controlled by the Taliban. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

But the acting director for Ariana Airlines, Mirwais Mirzakwal, dismissed reports that one the companys aircraft had crashed. The state-owned airline also released a statement on its website saying all its aircraft were operational and safe.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

___

Gannon reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell, Aya Batrawy and David Rising contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Tameem Akhgar from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Robert Burns from Washington.
Bacon isnt just for breakfast anymore. Heres a sampling of restaurants throughout the region where you can dig into some sinfully delicious strips of bacon from breakfast right through to lunch, dinner and even dessert. Lock 29 with Rebel Hill...
At least 20 students were injured on Monday after a school bus met with an accident in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. A case has been registered and an investigation is underway.

The injured students have been taken to Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital.

This is a developing story. More details are awaited.
TRENTON, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A diverse group of 14 public interest and business groups jointly expressed their support for the final New Jersey Energy Master Plan released today by the state Board of Public Utilities. The organizations are:

ATNJ Education Fund

Environmental Defense Fund

ISLES

National Wildlife Federation

Natural Resources Defense Council

New Jersey Audubon

New Jersey Conservation Foundation

NJ League of Conservation Voters

NJ Sustainable Business Council

Pinelands Preservation Alliance

ReThink Energy NJ

The Nature Conservancy, NJ Chapter

The Watershed Institute

Tri-State Transportation Campaign

Key takeaways from the Energy Master Plan (EMP):

New Jersey can achieve Global Warming Response Act emissions reduction targets and 100 percent clean energy by 2050 with existing technologies, the right mix of wind and solar across a broad geographic area, and greater energy efficiency  together with storage and new ways to generate clean electricity when wind and solar are scarce.

can achieve Global Warming Response Act emissions reduction targets and 100 percent clean energy by 2050 with existing technologies, the right mix of wind and solar across a broad geographic area, and greater energy efficiency  together with storage and new ways to generate clean electricity when wind and solar are scarce. Adoption of electric vehicles will reduce gasoline use, and electrification of building heating and cooling will reduce natural gas use, lessening reliance on fossil fuels to meet our climate goals and improve air quality.

According to rigorous analysis, demand for natural gas can be reduced 75 percent across all sectors and fossil gas phased out of electric generation by 2050 while maintaining a reliable electric system.

Costs to meet emissions targets will be small compared to total energy system spending and more than offset by billions in annual net economic clean air benefits, especially in environmental justice communities.

Gov. Murphy also signed an unprecedented executive order directing the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to begin developing a suite of regulations to protect against climate threats, including implementation of the Global Warming Response Act, establishing criteria to reduce CO2 and short-lived climate pollutants, and amending land-use regulations to incorporate climate considerations.

"This is exactly the type of bold leadership needed to address the climate crisis. Gov. Murphy's actions today put New Jersey at the forefront of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a healthier, more prosperous, clean energy future," said Tom Gilbert, Campaign Director, NJ Conservation Foundation and ReThink Energy NJ. "We are encouraged that the final EMP calls for gas capacity planning, as we need new mechanisms to prevent unneeded gas infrastructure expansion. Together, the EMP and executive order will put us on a path to achieve the deep reductions needed in greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, keep electricity affordable and reliable."

"This ambitious plan shows that going all-in on clean energy is a win-win-win proposition for New Jersey," said Eric Miller, NJ Energy Policy Director, Natural Resources Defense Council. "We can provide affordable clean power to our homes and businesses, create thousands of well-paying jobs, and fight climate pollution all at the same time."

"This bold Master Plan is a guide to achieving New Jersey's necessary climate goals, in a realistic way, and it outlines the key strategies and policies that will be needed and make New Jersey the greenest state in America," said Ed Potosnak, Executive Director, New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. "Importantly, it doesn't predict the future, it provides analysis and strategies for New Jersey to create the future in a responsible manner  so we meet our energy needs and keep the planet livable for our children and grandchildren."

"Gov. Murphy's Energy Master Plan is a leap forward for New Jersey, and will be instrumental for the state to meet its environmental goals," said Mary Barber, Director, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs at Environmental Defense Fund. "Electrifying transportation is especially critical to transforming New Jersey's most polluting sector into one that can be an integral part of a sustainable energy system."

"New Jersey is already experiencing the effects of climate change," said Trina Mallik, Climate Change and Clean Energy Policy Manager at The Nature Conservancy, NJ Chapter. "The plan outlines how New Jersey can realistically meet its ambitious, but necessary, climate goals. Based on expert analysis, the plan shows how New Jersey can increasingly electrify its buildings and transportation system with renewable energy and associated technologies while lowering costs, creating jobs, and enhancing public health. We look forward to using the plan as a basis for achieving clean energy in New Jersey."

"As a growing network of businesses who define success by the 'triple bottom line' of people, planet, and profit, we view the EMP as an indispensable roadmap to creating a more vibrant, sustainable, and equitable economy," said Richard Lawton, Executive Director of the NJ Sustainable Business Council, "By including all social, environmental, and economic impacts, this plan is the key to skillfully addressing the growing risk of climate change, and actualizing the upside opportunity of transitioning to a clean energy future."

"When most people hear about plans to change to a more 'green energy' environment, many assume and fear that it comes at the expense of jobs. This is not true," says Uyen "Winn" Khuong, Executive Director, Action Together New Jersey. "We support Gov. Murphy's Energy Master Plan precisely because it lays the foundation and sets goals to reduce emissions and increase the use of clean and efficient energy while creating, across many industries, thousands of long-term sustainable green jobs."

"As recent reports have shown, we have lost billions of birds in the last few decades, insects are dying off at an alarming rate, and we are in the midst of a wildlife crisis, which are all being driven, at least in part, by climate change. Thankfully, Gov. Murphy's administration has decided to take this challenge head-on with his visionary Energy Master Plan, which includes one of the nation's strongest commitments to responsibly developed offshore wind energy," said Eric Stiles, President and CEO of New Jersey Audubon. "The EMP is a bold proposal to tackle a problem that requires immediate action, and we applaud the governor's vision for a clean energy future that fights climate change while protecting our natural resources."

"The climate crisis is one of the most urgent challenges of our time and demands action and leadership from states across the nation," said Curtis Fisher, Northeast Regional Executive Director at the National Wildlife Federation. "We applaud Gov. Murphy for defining the critical role that offshore wind must play in transforming New Jersey from a fossil fuel powered past to a clean, affordable and reliable energy future. We will keep working together with our many partners to protect wildlife every step of the way, while safeguarding communities, creating jobs, and supporting sustainable economic growth."

SOURCE ReThink Energy NJ
The Allahabad High Court has ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a report on police action during protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act

The Allahabad High Court on Monday ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a detailed report on police action during protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, according to several media reports.

"How many complaints have been filed against the police or government officials over the crackdown on protesters?" the high court asked the UP government, while seeking a detailed report on police action, Mehmood Pracha, the lawyer for one of the petitioners told NDTV. The court also asked the government if the autopsy reports of those who died during protests have been given to their relatives.

While hearing seven petitions filed regarding the violence which took place during anti-CAA protests in December and the police crackdown in the state, the court also sought details on the procedure adopted for the imposition of Section 144, reported ANI.

The case will be taken up again on February 17, as per the NDTV report.

The court had on 23 January constituted a special bench to hear the PILs filed against the police brutality on protesters.

The Allahabad HC had on 7 January issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the basis of an email by Mumbai-based lawyer Ajay Kumar, which alleged that the crackdown in the state during anti-citizenship law protests was antithetical to core constitutional values.

The court had also asked for the email to be registered as a public interest litigation (PIL).

Nearly 20 people were killed in the state after violence erupted during anti-CAA protests last month.

With inputs from agencies
Border News

Yuma, Arizona - Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested an admitted Mara Salvatrucha 13, commonly known as MS-13, gang member from El Salvador Monday evening.

At approximately 6:50 p.m., Yuma Station agents apprehended two individuals north of the Andrade Port of Entry. After processing and subsequent interviews by Border Patrol agents assigned to the Yuma Sector Intelligence Units Operation Denied Facilitation Action Team, Raul Ibanez-Lue, a 47-year-old male from El Salvador, admitted to being an MS-13 gang member. Ibanez-Lue and the other individual were both processed for immigration violations.

The Yuma Sector Intelligence Unit is responsible for prioritizing, analyzing and providing intelligence support to CBP through specialized teams and units that counteract terrorism and transnational crime. SIU enhances intelligence data collection processes ensuring U.S. Customs and Border Protection and United States Border Patrol objectives and requirements are achieved.

Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials welcome assistance from the community. Individuals can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. Reporting illicit activity could result in saving someones life.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 16:12:56|Editor: huaxia

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by Jian Ping

CHICAGO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The sound of traditional Chinese musical instruments and Shaoju Opera filled the Symphony Center in downtown Chicago Sunday afternoon, as the Chinese New Year concert entertained an audience of more than 1,000.

In the first half, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra performed classical music with the pipa, suona and zheng, while in the second half, the Zhejiang Shaoju Opera Theatre brought onto stage the repertoire of a traditional Chinese opera.

Yu Bing from the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra performed a touching piece -- "Farewell My Concubine" -- with the pipa, which received a long and thunderous applause.

"It looks like he has become the instrument," said 64-year-old Mary Hoover from Park Ridge, a northwestern suburb of Chicago, of the pipa. "They are just like one."

In addition to the suona and pipa, other Chinese instruments also featured in the first half, including the flute, yuan, erhu and sheng, which were used to play pieces such as "Landscape around the Lake," "Spirit of the Chinese Calligraphy" and "Flying Bees."

"The performance is fantastic," 66-year-old Lucy Elam from Evanston north of Chicago told Xinhua. "I like the suona, an instrument I have never seen before."

The Zhejiang Shaoju Opera took the stage in the second half with "Grand Bustling Chinese New Year." Dragon and lion dances, accompanied by the beat of drums and sound of trumpets, filled the orchestra hall with energy and festivity.

Other performances also featured scenes from the Shaoju opera, including vocal performances, face changings, dances and acrobatics.

"The performance is top-notch," said 70-year-old Meng Jianyun, who lives in Indiana. "I'm from Shanghai. I feel so proud to see high quality Shaoju staged at the Symphony Hall."

Jeff Doebler, director of music education and bands at Valparaiso University in Indiana, echoed Meng.

"I have seen similar performances in China before," Doebler said. "Today's concert in Chicago feels special and delightful. I especially appreciate the authentic performance."

"It's great to see a traditional Chinese music performance in Chicago," said Siva Yam, a local resident. "I'm so happy to see so many people here celebrating the Chinese New Year together."

The concert at the Symphony Center is part of Chicago's two-week calendar of activities and programs to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 25. This is the seventh year in a row for the city to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

"This year's performance stands out with Chinese characteristics," said Chinese Consul General in Chicago Zhao Jian. "It has brought festivity and joy to the Chicago audience."

Jeff Alexander, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, said that "Symphony Center is proud to continue its tradition of bringing some of the finest artists from China to the Orchestra Hall stage."
Police say 320 marijuana plants were seized from a South Bend home where a man was fatally shot over the weekend.

The shooting happened in the 600 block of South Liberty Street just before 1 a.m. Sunday.

When police arrived, they found a man had been shot.

That man, 28-year-old Huey Hudson Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene.

Indiana State Police were on scene conducting a separate investigation at the home. This investigation led to the seizure of 320 marijuana plants and marijuana cultivation equipment found inside the home.

No arrests have been made as of Monday morning, and the investigation is ongoing.

Coming up on 16 News Now at 5 and 6, we'll have the latest on the investigation.
Huawei Botswana has sponsored 20 students in support of governments initiatives promoting innovation and ICT learning. The development comes after the company signed with five universities to become Huawei ICT academies, giving students access to industrially-recognised certification courses.

In order to bridge the ICT skills gap and fostering ICT talent pool required for national socio-economic development, Huawei Botswana has been working with the government and academic partners to up skill the new generation. Top students in the university will be provided with the latest training in technologies sponsored abroad during the Seeds for the Future Program, said Hu Cunhao, Enterprise Account Manager at Huawei Botswana.

Cunhao said with rapid advancement in emerging technologies, industries are poised to grow accordingly, thereby changing the very nature of jobs. The inadequacy of ICT skills is increasingly becoming a bottleneck for embracing opportunities in the digital era, he said. Cunhao said Huawei emphasizes on fostering an open and sustainable ICT talent ecosystem to equip the new generation with employable skills and increased competencies required in the job market. Huawei is thus working closely with universities across the country to achieve this.

On the other hand, the global leading ICT solutions provider is hosting Connection, Glory, Future which aims to provide a platform for global ICT talents to showcase their ability, compete and communicate, while encouraging ICT-related study and drives the growth of a robust ICT talent ecosystem.Students registered for the competition had the opportunity to access learning materials online and the certification portfolio provided by Huawei was free of charge.

Eleven winners have been announced after a national final from over 500 students registered from mainly three universities - University of Botswana (UB), Botho University, Botswana International University of Science & Technology (BIUST) and Botswana Accountancy College (BAC).The students had the opportunity to choose between two tracks, the network and the cloud track. According to Huawei, the network track contains a mix of several technologies such as WLAN, security, routing and switching while the cloud track consists of cloud computing, storage, big data and artificial intelligence.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 25, 2020 | 11:33 PM | HOPKINSVILLE

Christian County Commonwealths Attorney Rick Boling has entered into an agreement with local judges and will not be appearing in Christian Circuit Court because of recent controversy and demands by some that he resign.Circuit Judge John Atkins told WKDZ Friday morning that Boling will not be in the courtroom until further notice. He said the mutual agreement is between himself, Boling, and Judge Andrew Self. For now, all cases in the courtroom are being handled by Assistant Commonwealths Attorneys Stephanie Bolen and Jared Smith.Also on Friday, more than a dozen protesters lined the sidewalk near the Christian County Justice Center calling for Bolings resignation.The controversy came after news media revealed that Boling wrote a letter in support of the pardon or commutation of Dayton Jones sentence for his role in a 2014 sexual assault of a 15-year-old male. Jones admitted his role in the assault in 2016 and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, but Bevin commuted the sentence before he left office in December 2019.WKDZ reported that Boling later said the letter was a monumental mistake, and he was writing it to express the thoughts and feelings of Jones' grandparents, not his own.Boling has been handling the perjury case of former McCracken County Jailer Tonya Ray since McCracken County Judges and prosecutors recused themselves. Her trial is set to begin January 30 in Paducah with Graves County Circuit Judge Tim Stark presiding.

On the Net:
Two years ago, Judge Donovan Foughty raised a question at a North Dakota tribal relations conference.

"I said, I've been sitting on the bench for many, many years, and why is it an Indian child that has some criminal troubles, has some issues with delinquency -- why is it they can't get the same level of services that I can get them through my juvenile court as opposed to the tribal court?" said the longtime state district court judge in Devils Lake.

Some state lawmakers and Gov. Doug Burgum were there and listening, he said. The 2019 Legislature, responding to a push by advocates, passed a bill allowing for tribal juvenile services cooperative agreements under a pilot program. A similar bill had failed in 2017, as some state representatives questioned costs and said such agreements could happen without the Legislature's approval.

In late 2019, the Spirit Lake Nation signed the first agreement with officials of North Dakota's Indian Affairs Commission, Supreme Court and Division of Juvenile Services.

"This is really going to be so helpful for our people," Tribal Chairwoman Peggy Cavanaugh said. "This is one of the key opportunities for us."

'It's too important'

The agreement offers "more hope" for the tribe's children, especially those who have family members with drug addiction, Cavanaugh said.

Spirit Lake Nation Tribal Court services are "very limited," she and Tribal Court Chief Judge Joe Vetsch said. Vetsch attributed the limited services to a lack of funding and resources.

"One of the major issues we have is that our children currently receive very few, if any, services if they end up having to be incarcerated," he said.

Spirit Lake's Tribal Court has mental health, chemical dependency and behavioral health counseling services for juveniles, he said. But the state offers much more.

Probation is the most common disposition for the tribe's juveniles, but incarceration is more common than in the state, he said.

"The lack of other services probably leads to a faster escalation of the underlying problem behavior and at some point, the last resort becomes a reality," Vetsch said.

Lisa Bjergaard, director of the Division of Juvenile Services within North Dakota's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said Native youth are committed to state juvenile corrections custody at about three times the rate of youth who identify as white.

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs runs a juvenile detention center on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

Under Spirit Lake's state agreement, tribal juveniles also could be ordered to the custody of the Division of Juvenile Services, up to and including the Youth Correctional Center in Mandan.

Commitments to custody are rare -- about 3% of all state dispositions for delinquent and unruly youth in 2018, according to that year's juvenile court report.

Most state juveniles are informally adjudicated and never see a courtroom.

State Court Administrator Sally Holewa described the range of state juvenile services, including court service officers' supervision and guidance; cognitive and behavioral change classes, even ones unique for girls; and other services through contracted providers who offer programs such as alcohol awareness.

Vetsch said services the tribe could access include risk assessments, a mentoring program for children who have an incarcerated parent, juvenile drug court, courtesy probation supervision, cultural liaisons and in-home family therapy, among others.

Bjergaard said proponents of the 2019 bill assured the Legislature "we would do nothing that exceeded our current capacity" for services.

Holewa said "it shouldn't matter who pays" for services given the importance of improving children's lives and outcomes.

While the state is bearing the services' costs, Holewa noted the agreement outlines "resources, as available."

The state may limit the number of tribal juveniles it accepts for services. A report also is due to lawmakers before July 1 on the results of the agreement.

"We should be looking at what do these children need and not worrying about whether somebody's paying more or less or where the check is coming from," Holewa said. "It's too important to leave to money being the final decider."

'Trying to keep kids in the community'

Spirit Lake has just started to access state services, Foughty said. State juvenile court and corrections officers will meet on a monthly basis to discuss and develop case plans for delinquent tribal juveniles, he said.

"We're trying to keep kids in the community and out of detention facilities," Foughty said. "That's our effort. We're trying to get services to them that we can deal with in the community."

Vetsch estimated the agreement could benefit four or five Spirit Lake youth a month, or 50 to 60 juveniles the next year.

Bjergaard, North Dakota's top juvenile corrections official, was a leading force behind the 2019 bill. She said it was important to include the Legislature, even as some lawmakers said the agreements could happen regardless.

"We just want everybody to get behind the idea of figuring out a way to make this system have some parity," Bjergaard recalled telling lawmakers.

It's also important to recognize that tribal courts still will be the venue to adjudicate tribal juveniles, she said.

"It's a separate process in terms of the tribes feel very strongly that these are their children and they want to continue to own that," Bjergaard said.

Next steps

It remains to be seen if any other North Dakota tribes will sign agreements like Spirit Lake's. Officials are hopeful.

North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission Executive Director Scott Davis said there are elements of jurisdiction and tribal sovereignty involved, but the pilot "certainly opened some eyes" for tribes about how they can utilize services from the state.

"Benefiting the kids, benefiting the adolescents, benefiting the adjudicated youth -- that's what this is about," he said.

The pilot period ends after July 2021. Bjergaard said the parties involved wanted to build at least one agreement and to "really get a better picture here of what it is we would need to be able to better provide all juvenile justice-involved youth across the state," to further engage state lawmakers.

Davis said the state's Tribal Taxation Issues Committee, chaired by Burgum, could address potential issues before the 2021 Legislature. The committee handles more than just tax issues, he said.

Bjergaard "absolutely" agrees with Spirit Lake's tribal chairwoman that the new agreement offers hope for youth.

"I think we want to say something about all at-risk youth in North Dakota deserving our best efforts to provide them with the care and services they need to thrive and grow, and this is a vehicle for beginning some of that work," Bjergaard said. "And we look forward to rich and robust conversations as we move along this path."

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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[January 27, 2020] Finance & Restructuring Lawyer Kenneth Logsdon Joins Dorsey in Salt Lake City

International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP is pleased to announce that Kenneth (Ken) Logsdon has joined the Firm's Finance & Restructuring Group in Salt Lake City as a Partner. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005630/en/ Ken Logsdon has joined Dorsey's Finance & Restructuring Group in Salt Lake City as a Partner. (Photo: Dorsey & Whitney LLP) Mr. Logsdon has particular expertise in leveraged lending transactions, including senior debt, mezzanine and borrower side transactions. His practice focuses on all aspects of debt capital markets and corporate finance. He also provides counsel to national and regional banks, non-bank lenders, private equity funds, and both privately owned and publicly traded companies. Dorsey's Banking & Financial Institutions Group consists of more than 250 attorneys actively serving the banking industry. Consumer financial products and services, credit card operations, commercial credit transactions, bankruptcy matters, regulatory advice real estate services, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate services are just a few of the areas in which we serve the industry. Our Finance & Restructuring Group is a subset of our Banking & Financial Institutions Group, and consists of nearly 60 attorneys in 10 locations throughout the U.S. Of those attorneys, approximately 40 focus on commercial lending matters, with others focusing on regulatory and special assets matters. Mr. Logsdon joins Finance & Restructuring Partners Peggy Hunt, Annette Jarvis, Nathan Seim, Michael Thomson (News - Alert), and Steve Waterman in the Salt Lake City office.



Dorsey has made a concerted effort to grow strategically in its Salt Lake City office, by adding 32 lawyers over the last three years. With the addition of Mr. Logsdon, Dorsey's ranks will have grown by more than 86 percent in Salt Lake City since May 2017 to a total of 69 lawyers. Mr. Logsdon joins Dorsey from Holland & Hart, where he was a partner in the Salt Lake City office. Prior to joining Holland & Hart in 2014, he was a commercial finance associate with Katten in Chicago. He received a B.S. with honors from Utah Valley University and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law. He has been recognized by Utah Business Magazine Legal Elite for the last three years, 2017-2019, which highlights attorneys for being one of the 'best' in Utah whom peers say they would recommend to others.

"Ken will be a great addition to our strong Firm-wide Finance & Restructuring team and to our rapidly growing Dallas office, which we opened in March 2017," noted Bill Stoeri, Managing Partner of Dorsey & Whitney. "His experience and expertise not only complement our existing strengths across the platform in banking and finance, they also mesh well with our Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets practices." "I am very pleased to be joining Dorsey and its great Firm-wide team of banking, finance and restructuring lawyers," added Mr. Logsdon. "I look forward to serving Dorsey's exceptional client base and to introducing my Dorsey colleagues to the clients I have been serving for years." About Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Clients have relied on Dorsey since 1912 as a valued business partner. With locations across the United States and in Canada, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Dorsey provides an integrated, proactive approach to its clients' legal and business needs. Dorsey represents a number of the world's most successful companies from a wide range of industries, including leaders in banking & financial institutions, development & infrastructure, energy & natural resources, food, beverage & agribusiness, healthcare and technology, as well as major non-profit and government entities. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005630/en/

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Kolkata, Jan 27 : Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee on Monday said that while there is nothing in the macroeconomic data that says India couldn't be in a recession, the final answer was unknown to him in the absence of new, reliable data on the informal sector where the anecdote suggests "the big slowdown is in".

"If you ask me, could we be in a recession? There is nothing in data that says we could not be in a recession," Banerjee said during a session at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.

He said the problem in giving an emphatic answer to the issue of recession lay in the incapability of the statistical apparatus to capture short term changes in the informal sector.

"The problem (is) with not having any new reliable data on the informal sector, which is where the anecdote suggests the big slowdown is in. That's what's driving. If you look at why, it is the two-wheelers which are slowing down the most.

"It's the people who are in the informal sector, who buy the two-wheelers. So it seems like that's where you might be seeing big slowdowns. Our statistical apparatus is essentially incapable of capturing short term changes, meaning one-two-three year changes in the informal sector," said Banerjee, who won the coveted Nobel prize for economics jointly with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.

Banerjee also referred to former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, Arvind Subramanian to drive home his point.

"Look at what Arvind Subramanian is saying. He is saying our statistics look like worse than 1991. That's the claim he made. 1991, that's the one year we had a recession.

"I am careful to not say I know. Given the state of the data, nobody knows. Could we be in recession? It is Arvind's claim that all our macro-statistics, investments, imports, exports look worse than 1991. That was one year when our GDP went down in modern memory.

"So, given that, he is basically saying we could be in a recession. May be, he is not exactly using the word... I don't know, could we be in a recession? That's the problem, we are not measuring the informal sector. We don't know how much it is tagged," he said.

Banerjee said there was really no way of knowing the answer.

"It's not that this question has an answer, and somebody is hiding it. Nobody really knows. We are just picking up the symptoms from different sides. IMF has said they have decided that Arvind is not actually right. And they are also competent people. So I am not taking a (stand), I don't know the answer," he added.
From Galicia in the north to Andalucia in the south - Spain's old coal plants are running out of steam.

The Iberian nation last year cut use of the dirtiest fossil fuel faster than anyone else in western Europe as renewable energy and cleaner natural gas take over. The combustible rock, which has kept the region humming through world wars and economic boom times, is increasingly out of favor with lawmakers and executives under pressure to do more to stop global warming.

"We are in a hurry, we have to move fast, everybody has to move fast,'' Iberdrola Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Galan said on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Spanish utility plans to permanently shut its two remaining coal-fired power stations this year, replacing them with new wind and solar capacity.

Coal's share in the nation's electricity fell to a four-decade low of less than 5% from 14% a year earlier, according to the nation's grid operator Red Electrica. The sharp drop is yet another sign how the unprecedented surge in renewable power output coupled with the lowest seasonal gas prices in a decade have upended traditional energy economics.

Spain was anticipating exiting the fuel by the end of the decade, while the U.K. will shut all its plants by 2025. Germany last week struck a deal with its biggest power producers.

"The fall in coal generation means Spain could phase out the fuel much faster than the government ever imagined," said Dave Jones, an analyst at non-profit group Sandbag in London.

The nation burned as much as 70% less coal in 2019 than a year earlier, while the level in Germany fell 28%, according to data from S&P Global Platts.

The Spanish government made a start by shutting all coal-mining operations last year after striking a deal with unions to invest 250 million euros ($277.7 million) in impacted regions to enable a smoother transition to a green economy. That allowed a tax on burning natural gas at power plants to be abolished. It had been introduced to prop up the ailing mining industry.

Output is poised to fall further this year as both Iberdrola and Naturgy Energy Group plan to retire their plants this year. Energias de Portugal and Viesgo Holdco will shut their units by the middle of the decade. That would leave Endesa, the biggest producer of power from coal, as the only remaining operator after 2025. The company said that from 2022, its last operating plant will run for less than 10% of its theoretical maximum hours in any given year.

If the utilities stick to earlier statements, then Spain could be entirely without coal as early as 2027.

The prevailing market and political forces working against coal mean that Spanish plants faced a projected loss of 992 million euros in 2019, according to a report from Carbon Tracker, a think tank focusing on the energy transition.

The nation's lead in exiting coal is helped by having some of the best renewable resources in Europe, which, coupled with subsidies, has stimulated more power capacity than needed to keep the lights on.

"Spain is the most oversupplied electricity market in Europe," said Jones. "So it has the capacity to shut coal power plants and not wait for new capacity to come online."

Preliminary analysis from the group showed that the fuel's share of Europe's electricity mix fell by 23% in 2019 from a year earlier and is set to decline further in 2020.

Spain's new coalition government plans to pass a climate law, proposed more than a year ago, saying that all electricity needs to come from renewables by 2050. It also includes plan to reach 74% by 2030. Spain generated 38% of its electricity from green sources last year.

For Jahn Olsen, a London-based analyst at BloombergNEF, coal is unlikely to ever bounce back after the jump in carbon emission costs in Europe over the past couple of years.

"The rationale to keep running coal power plants in Spain just isn't there," he said. "These plants are losing money right now, and they will continue to lose money in the coming years."

- - -

Bloomberg's Demetrios Pogkas contributed to this report.
The full bench of Orissa High Court on Monday once again adjourned the hearing of the contempt petition it had initiated against 68 bar associations of Odisha for frequent strikes by lawyers in the state.

The bench has fixed March 9 for the next hearing and directed the Bar Council of Odisha to submit an affidavit to that effect before the next hearing.

Concerned over the frequent strikes by lawyers in Odisha, the high court in October 2019 had instituted the contempt petition against 68 bar associations of the State, including that of Orissa High Court Bar Association, on the basis of a report by its own registry.

The state government, Bar Council of India and the State Bar Council were also made respondents in the case.

In its affidavit on Monday, the State Bar Council informed the Full Bench that barring 10 bar associations, all others have called off their strikes and resumed court works.

The affidavit said some bar associations in the western Odisha are still continuing their indefinite strike.

The full bench had adjourned the hearing the petition on December 16 to January 27.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Asset sale procedure against ex-owner of Russian fieldstone manufacturer prolonged

 RAPSI

10:52 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Regional Commercial Court has prolonged an asset sale procedure against ex-owner of Pavlovskgranit fieldstone manufacturers ex-owner Sergey Poymanov for six months, according to court records.

The court has granted a motion filed by an administrative receiver.

Poymanov was declared bankrupt in July 2016. Pavlovskgranit-Invest managing company was declared bankrupt 4 years earlier.

In June 2018, a court in Voronezh sentenced Poymanov to a 3-year suspended prison term, finding him guilty of abuse of office.

Reportedly, Poymanov stripped share of Pavlovskgranit-Invest managing company in the capital of PNH Limited in 2011. As a result, the managing companys equity stake initially decreased from 100 to 40 percent, and then to 1 percent. His actions allegedly resulted in a 930-million-ruble damage (about $16 million at the current exchange rate) to a managing company.

Later, the businessman allegedly ordered the head of Pavlovskgranit-Invest to sign a contract with Rosgranit company on the sale of 150 railway vehicles worth 257.3 million rubles (about $4.5 million). However, the sum was not paid in full and Pavlovskgranit-Invest therefore lost 170 million rubles ($3 million). General damage caused to the company was estimated at 930 million rubles, according to Kommersant newspaper.

Moreover, Poymanov was involved in a criminal case over resale of a batch plant in the city of Voronezh that led to a damage amounting to 10 million rubles ($170,000).

In September 2018, his sentence was toughened; he was ordered to be placed in prison for 3 years.




She rised up and she said, I dont believe you, what you said. How could one human do it to another one like this? I said, You dont believe me? I take you to the place, so you can find out, you can see for your own eyes. You couldnt convince her. You got people now said the Jews made it up.

And even among those of us who dont deny the Holocaust, there is, isnt there, a sense that here is something aberrant, that what happened in places like Auschwitz bespeaks some deviance unique to the Germans and to that era. We are not Germans, we reason. And anyway, we are much more enlightened now.

In its own way, this conceit of distance is just as dangerous as the conceit of denial.

At a restaurant in Warsaw, a few days after the trip to Auschwitz, Engel raised a toast and admonished us in the name of the dead. Dont you ever forget me, so long you gon live. You tell this story for us, because we not here to tell this story.
President El-Sisi has said that he wishes to see Al-Azhar's international conference be the start of annual chain conferences aimed at developing Islamic thought

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on religious institutions, especially Al-Azhar, to pay special attention to renewing religious discourse, stressing that failing to do so would leave the door open for the youth to get influenced by wrong interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah.

On behalf of President El-Sisi, Egypt's PM Mostafa Madbouly gave a speech on Monday before Al-Azhar's International Conference on the Renewal of Islamic Thought, which is being held in Cairo on Monday and Tuesday.

President El-Sisi has said that he wishes to see Al-Azhar's international conference be the start of annual chain conferences aimed at developing Islamic thought.

The Monday and Tuesday conference focuses on how to renew religious discourse, refuting misconceptions about Islam, discussing women and family issues, as well as the roles of the religious, academic, and international institutions in this regard.

The conference will include representatives from the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), Dar Al-Efta, the highest institution in Egypt tasked with deciding religious questions, as well as Muslim councils from 46 Muslim-majority countries.

The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, said in earlier press statements that the conference will help achieve the institutions message in demonstrating the tolerance of Islam and renouncing extremism.

The Egyptian president has repeatedly stressed in recent years the importance of having balanced religious discourse to confront extremism and radical ideology, blaming outdated religious discourse for holding Egypt back, and often calling on Islamic clerics to reform their religious speech to confront extremist ideology.

The Al-Azhar conference is attended by representatives and heads of religious institutions from 41 countries.

"The renewal that we are seeking doesn't tackle the principles of religion, beliefs or rulings agreed upon by scholars, but targets the renewal in the jurisprudence of human interaction and sciences field," the Egyptian PM said.

"Our beliefs are fixed and that is part of our God's mercy, but we seek change according to the development of fatwas, which changes from country to country, and era to an era, and differs from one person to another," the PM said.

El-Tayyeb announced the establishment of a permanent centre for Al-Azhar's Heritage and Renewal, which is formed of Islamic scholars, professors and experts entitled with promoting renewal from inside and outside Egypt.

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Hard to say what fired and now former national security adviser John Bolton is up to these days now that the Senate impeachment trial is on.

The latest news is here on the front page of the New York Times, reporting an anonymous "leak":

WASHINGTON  President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton. The president's statement as described by Mr. Bolton could undercut a key element of his impeachment defense: that the holdup in aid was separate from Mr. Trump's requests that Ukraine announce investigations into his perceived enemies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, who had worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was in office. Mr. Bolton's explosive account of the matter at the center of Mr. Trump's impeachment trial, the third in American history, was included in drafts of a manuscript he has circulated in recent weeks to close associates.

Bolton says the leak didn't come from him, but the Deep Staters reviewing his book for disclosure of secrets. One of them.

Back in the White House, the Trumpsters are calling bee ess, while Trump himself has tweeted it "NEVER" happened. The White House has noted the curious timing of the leaks, which coincide with the opening of his advance book sales on Amazon.

Others have noticed a timing issue, too:

This came along right about on schedule. https://t.co/cSXZDVKpNB  Brit Hume (@brithume) January 27, 2020

Just like James Comey, John Bolton is trying to get rich off of a lie- and leak-fueled campaign to overturn the 2016 election results. I suspect it will work out as well as all of Boltons other wars. https://t.co/z0fe2aMMFn  Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 27, 2020

I'm not inclined to be negative about Bolton, neocon as he is, because President Trump is not the easiest guy to work for, and getting fired by him is no disgrace, but this has a rather bad look.

Bolton earlier had said he didn't want to play Adam Schiff's game to Get Trump and told the latter he'd testify as a witness for him only with a subpoena.

Now he's practically asking to testify, just as he's got a book out with the very claims Democrats wanted to hear. What changed? He's still opting to play Adam Schiff's game with this.

Book timing? Publication schedule? You decide.

And is his claim true? There might be some base element to it, subject to distortion, given that Fiona Hill testified that this was what Bolton said earlier.

At the time, her claims came off as opportunistic, given that they didn't require her to claim anything firsthand and allowed her to pin all her claims on Bolton. I wrote this at the time:

But I get a funny feeling when I read all the leaks that have come out about her supposedly secret Schiff committee testimony which focuses primarily on all the things NSC chief John Bolton told her. If true, these things are embarrassing to him, which means a political cost to him, not to her. How'd she get in with Trump? And what about those apparent ties with Biden, which might call into question her motives for all her negative testimony on Trump? Was her real reason for saying negative things and embarrassing other Republicans a desire to get a fancy job with a future President Biden?

It makes me wonder if Biden offered Bolton a fancy job in a future Biden administration, too.

Even if some of what's claimed is true, it's hardly an impeachable issue, given that America's fate doesn't rest on aid to Ukraine, which is only going to steal it. Yet the Bolton claim is still suspicious. Why didn't Bolton say anything about this at the time of his firing? And why was he talking to an ex-employee about classified phone calls with foreign leaders, which is what Hill was at the time of the famous phone call to the president of Ukraine and Bolton's talk with her about it later?

Supposedly, his acrimonious exit from the Trump administration was due to his history of leaking to the press and the Trumpsters finding out about it. Combine that allegation with the unauthorized Fiona chat, and the whole thing might point to Bolton as the leaker in this book sale case, too.

It would make sense from a motivational point of view, too. Trump, fairly or not, fired him on negative terms. But the self-interest in wanting to promote book sales through perfect timing of Amazon opening orders is an old swamp power game of selling books, using the New York Times as a marketing agent. James Comey did that earlier.

One wants to think better of Bolton than this, but if things are as they appear, maybe it's time to put him in the #NeverTrump dustbin along with Bill Kristol and Max Boot. The money-grubbing aspect of the whole thing is ample reason all by itself is reason enough not to call witnesses as Adam Schiff slavers, because there's some funny stuff going on right now. Schiff had his chance to call Bolton and he blew it. Let Schiff stew about that.

Image credit: Instagram screen shot.
The Prime Minister and the royal couple were at Central Hall in Westminster for the commemorative service, which marked 75 years since the liberation of the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Mr Johnson addressed the packed hall during the moving event, held in honour of all victims and survivors of Nazi persecution, as well as subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

He said: I feel a deep sense of shame that here in Britain in 2020 we seem to be dealing with a resurgence of the virus of anti-Semitism, and I know that I carry a responsibility as Prime Minister to do everything possible to stamp it out.

Central Hall was filled by those paying their respects, as well as survivors of genocides from across the world / PA

Pledging to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust would never be forgotten, he promised that a national Holocaust memorial and education centre would be built so that future generations can never doubt what happened.

Because that is the only way we can be certain that it will never happen again, he added.

Prince William also spoke at the service, reading a letter written by a friend of his grandmother, Princess Alice who saved a Jewish family from the Nazis in 1943.

The Duke of Cambridge paid tribute to his grandmother Princess Alice during the service / PA

The duke explained how the princess helped the Cohen family, saying: (She) put a small two-room apartment on the third floor at the disposal of Mrs Cohen and her daughter.

 It was thanks to the courageous rescue of Princess Alice that the members of the Cohen family were saved.

The members of the Cohen family left the residence three weeks after liberation, aware that by virtue of the princesss generosity and bravery had spared them from the Nazis.

He and wife Kate were joined by survivors of the Holocaust and other more recent genocides in a candle-lighting ceremony.

Together, they lit 75 flames in the hall, signifying the number of years since Auschwitz-Birkenau was finally liberated.

The Duchess of Cambridge lights a candle during the service / PA

The service was also attended by actors including EastEnders Nina Wadia, Judge John Deeds Martin Shaw and stage star Sir Simon Russell Beale, all of whom gave readings.

Ahead of Mondays service Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said she was pleased the royal couple had been able to attend the ceremony, alongside members of the UKs political, civic and faith leadership.

She said: At a time when we know identity-based hostility is increasing, it is heartening to see so many people stand together, both at the UK ceremony and at more than 10,000 local activities around the country.

Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for us all to learn from genocide, for a better future.

William and Kate speak with Olivia Marks-Woldman before the service / REUTERS

Kate, who took the pictures at Kensington Palace earlier this month, has described the survivors in her portraits as two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet.

Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cornwall joined more than 200 Holocaust survivors who returned to Auschwitz-Birkenau to commemorate the anniversary of its liberation.

The Duchess of Cornwall looks somberly at the Monument to the Victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau / REUTERS

Camilla was among dignitaries from across the world who attended the service in Poland on Monday afternoon.

The ceremony was held in a tent erected around the camps gate house, referred to as the Gate of Death by prisoners.

The duchess led the UK delegation, and was joined by camp survivors Renee Salt, 90, and Hannah Lewis, 82.
Antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis is a common and serious problem globally. In a new article, researchers from Uppsala University describe how tuberculosis bacteria that carries a mutation that in theory should kill them manages to stay alive. The researchers discovered that the same trick that kept the bacteria alive also made them resistant to a very important type of antibiotic.

Tuberculosis (TB) kills at least 1.5 million people annually. A normal treatment requires four different antibiotics taken for several months. If one of the drugs does not work there is a great risk of a treatment failure. Unfortunately, antibiotic-resistant TB is now very common globally. For successful treatment it is important to quickly determine which antibiotics the TB bacteria is susceptible to. This diagnosis used to take several weeks, because TB bacteria grow very slowly. With the revolution in DNA sequencing it is nowadays possible to sequence the bacterial DNA and predict which antibiotics it will be susceptible to, all in a matter of a days.

Recently, scientists at Uppsala University found that many clinical TB bacteria contained 'frameshift mutations' in a gene for making an essential protein (RpoB) that is the target of a very important TB antibiotic, rifampicin. This type of mutation should have killed the bacteria, but they were apparently alive and were recovered from TB patients receiving antibiotic treatment. Intrigued by this finding, scientists in Diarmaid Hughes' group at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology set out to isolate a similar mutant in E. coli, a bacterial species that is less dangerous and easier to work on experimentally. Their aim was to discover how a 'frameshift mutation' was compatible with life.

Three scientists, Douglas L. Huseby, Gerrit Brandis and Lisa Praski Alzrigat, isolated a 'frameshift mutation' in RpoB and worked out how the bacteria could stay alive. They found that the mutation created a special sequence of rare 'slippery' codons in the RpoB gene. When the ribosome (the machine that makes protein by reading the genetic code) reached this sequence it slipped on the sequence and made mistakes at a very high frequency. This slippage in reading the genetic code suppressed the effect of the 'lethal frameshift mutation' and allowed the bacteria to survive. However, that was not all. Because of the 'suppression' the RpoB protein was mutated and this mutation caused the bacteria to became highly resistant to the antibiotic rifampicin.

There are important lessons from this work. One is that apparently lethal mutations are not always lethal because the bacteria may be able to 'suppress' the mutation and stay alive, and as in this case cause resistance to an important antibiotic against TB. Another, perhaps more important lesson, is that a diagnosis that is based on reading a DNA sequence is only as good as our ability to correctly interpret the meaning of the sequence. These types of 'lethal' mutations that should not be possible are in fact surprisingly common in clinical bacterial isolates, not only TB but also other infections, suggesting that many of them may also be suppressed. The message is that we need to become much better at interpreting the meaning of DNA sequences so that we can ensure that patients can get the correct diagnosis and the appropriate antibiotic treatment.

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Recent reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive has been critical of travel expenditures by county commissioners (How a struggling Oregon county spent federal safety net money, Jan. 15). I cannot speak to the specifics of the instances investigated, nor the sources of funds used. However, I do know that travel by elected officials is an easy target for investigative reporting, when the reality can be much more complicated. As a former county commissioner, I found traveling to conferences to be of enormous value to my work and my constituents. In particular, traveling to meet with the federal delegation in Washington, D.C., often helped shape policies in ways that furthered the issues on which I was working.

The same is even more true for rural elected officials. These elected officials almost always have to travel to get their issues heard and understood. As a Klamath County commissioner once remarked to me, Its a six-hour drive from Klamath Falls to Portland, but it seems to be a three-day drive the other way. Its rare that urban policymakers travel to see them, so they have to make the trip. Ive always admired how many of these public servants travel long hours to try to explain the unique issues rural communities face, and to advocate for policies and funding.

Public officials should be wise stewards of public money, and carefully evaluate whether and how travel benefits their constituents. The media should hold them accountable when that isn't the case. But often, the public is getting a good value for that expenditure.

Jules Bailey, Portland
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Ohios controversial voucher expansion will be put on hold for at least two years, under a much-anticipated proposal due to go to vote in the Ohio Senate Tuesday.

The proposal wont halt the growth of vouchers in Ohio, though. It would still increase the number of middle-class families who can use the tax-funded tuition aid to private schools by easing income-eligibility rules already in place.

But the compromise stalls a massive expansion of the main way students become eligible to use vouchers: the state report card grades of their public school. Grades of schools have fallen in recent years, so more public schools have been declared as failing because of tougher state test standards.

As a result, EdChoice voucher eligibility spread from 40 districts in 2018-'19, to 139 districts this ongoing school year, to 400 next fall. Even high-performing districts like Solon, Mayfield and Brecksville-Broadview Heights will have schools considered struggling and part of EdChoice by the fall.

Districts have complained that they will now have to pay millions next school year toward tuition of kids leaving their schools to go to private schools.

And they say schools are being declared as struggling based on minor state report card grades, or outdated ones, even when a school scores well overall.

The proposed amendment to House Bill 9 would put a two-year hold on declaring any more Ohio public schools as struggling and part of EdChoice. The amendment does not change any of the grade rules, which could come later.

The proposal will go before the Senates higher education committee Tuesday morning, then a full Senate vote in the afternoon.

Whether the House will back the plan is still to be determined.

Were continuing to work towards consensus on this issue, but no decisions have been made," House Speaker Larry Householder said through a spokesperson.

State Sen. Matt Dolan, a Chagrin Falls Republican who had proposed a different solution, said he is satisfied this compromise solves a key problem.

That we had so many underperforming schools was unacceptable, Dolan said. The report cards as a whole need changes, he said, along with EdChoice eligibility rules.

This will give us time to fix the report card and fix the methodology so we have an accurate look at whats going on in schools, he added.

Schools whose grades improve can still come off the EdChoice eligibility list under the existing rules. There is no money added for districts who have already seen more schools made part of the program and their voucher costs rise, like Parma and Cleveland Heights-University Heights.

Voucher use will still expand, if the compromise passes, though costs will be paid by the state, not local districts. A second way students can qualify for vouchers, by family income, will make more families eligible.

The proposal would move the eligibility for full vouchers from family income of 200% or below the federal poverty line to 300% or below.

That would allow families of four with an income of $78,600 to be eligible, instead of needing to be below $52,400 today, under just-published federal guidelines, which differ for different family sizes.

Families between 300% and 350% of the poverty line can receive 75% of the voucher amount and families between 350% and 400% can receive 50% of the voucher amount.

Dolan said he thinks that amount is too lenient and had proposed using 250%, but accepts the proposal.

State Sen. Matt Huffman, the Lima Republican who has pushed to make vouchers available to all families in Ohio, said he understands others dont agree.

Others take an incremental approach and this allows that incremental approach to continue, Huffman said. If this proposal goes forward there are going to be a lot of very upset people who were expecting to get vouchers who arent. On the other hand, there are people who are not going to be happy that the income based vouchers are expanding."

Thus far, the compromise is a no-go for some stakeholders.

Barbara Shaner of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials has coordinated some opposition to voucher expansion and strongly disagrees with the proposal because schools with A, B and C overall grades still remain EdChoice schools, the income-based scholarships will expand and there is no money going to districts that have already been hit with added costs.

The Ohio Federation of Teachers opposes the proposed income eligibility expansion, saying the money should instead be used to help districts currently experiencing funding losses due to vouchers.

Theyre bleeding money to these vouchers and the legislature is doing nothing to make up the difference, said Melissa Cropper, the unions president.

The organization also disagrees with how the changes are being made, which Cropper described as an abuse of power. Significant policy changes need to be made in stand-alone bills that go through the legislative process, with hearings and time for the public to vet them and provide input, she said.

Theyre taking advantage of an emergency situation, she said.

For Citizens for Community Values, a Christian policy organization that supports vouchers, the proposed amendment is also unacceptable, especially since open enrollment in EdChoice begins Feb. 1. Parents throughout the state had made plans to send their children to private schools for months.

Dont break your promise three days before its supposed to go into effect, the organizations President Aaron Baer said. Thats just bad public policy.

Cleveland.coms Laura Hancock contributed to this story from Columbus.
The garda armed response unit rushed to the scene of a reported incident in Cork city of a man carrying a bow and arrow, a court heard today.

Sergeant John Kelleher outlined the alleged facts in the case where two men appeared before Cork District Court.

The purpose of the outline was for Judge Olann Kelleher to decide if he would accept jurisdiction to deal with the case at Cork District Court.

In the event the judge did accept jurisdiction.

Sgt Kelleher said gardai received a report of a man carrying a bow and arrow. Members of the armed response unit went to Cattle Market Avenue, off Blarney Street, Cork, at 6.20pm on May 16 last year.

It was alleged that the armed gardai encountered three men getting out of a car and that one of them was carrying what was described as a compound bow and two arrows. It was alleged that this was seized by gardai, as were an extendable baton and a knife.

Morgan Griffin, 19, of 111 Churchfield Avenue, Churchfield, Cork, faces two charges of possession of weapons. It is alleged that he was carrying a knife and the bow.

The same set of allegations were outlined in the case against John ODriscoll, 30, of Cuan Aoibhinn, Lower Killeens, Cork.

He was charged with the single count of carrying an extendable baton during the alleged incident.

Solicitors, Frank Buttimer and Shane Collins-Daly, for Griffin and ODriscoll, respectively, applied for a copy of the prosecution evidence against the two accused.

Judge Olann Kelleher put the cases back for four weeks for that purpose and for the accused to decide if they would be pleading guilty or not guilty to the charges.
In late May 1940, 20-year-old Qapik Attagutsiak voluntarily picked up a burlap bag, put her one-year-old son in her amauti  a traditional caribou parka with a built-in baby pouch  and set off on a grim search.

The new mom went out to the walrus harvesting grounds of her spring hunting camp in Qaipsunik, an island near Igloolik in what is now Nunavut, to fill her sack with animal bones to secretly ship down south.

Qapik, who goes by her first name, and other adult members of the camp collected carcasses of walrus, seals and even dogs. The bones were bloody and some still had meat on them crawling with maggots. Regardless, they filled up approximately three bags per day for a full week. They continued that work throughout the war.

The byproducts were brought to industrial ports, such a Montreal and Halifax, then processed at rendering plants into cordite for ammunition, aircraft glue and fertilizer to help the Allies fight an ocean away.

"They did what was important for the elders when they asked them [young people] that you guys have to be collecting bones," said Kataissee Attagutsiak, her daughter who translates her story from Inuktitut into English. "They did it without thought."

Now, nearly 75 years since her efforts helped in the march toward victory and the end of the Second World War, Qapik's lesson in selflessness is being recognized.

The Inuk elder is being honoured on Monday by Parks Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian War Museum, during a celebration at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., as a representative of the Inuit wartime contributions.

Qapik is the last known living person from the Arctic to have participated in the bone collection drive of the 1940s, according to Parks Canada.

If parachutes appeared, they should 'shoot to kill'

At age 99, Qapik, who now lives in Arctic Bay, can still vividly recall how she and other Inuit felt when they heard from the local Catholic priest about the Second World War.

Story continues

"It was scary for them," said Kataissee, who sits beside her mom in a downtown Ottawa hotel room.

Olivia Stefanovich/CBC

Even though she was far away from the battles in Europe, Qapik said the Inuit were told by missionaries to get ready for a fight of their own.

"They warned them that the parachutes, the big airplanes, might be coming in your area," Kataisee said.

"So if the planes are coming in and there's a parachute coming out, jumping out of the airplane, you have to shoot to kill because they might be killing you."

If watching the sky for enemies wasn't enough to worry about, Qapik said many dogs, who the Inuit relied on for transportation, were dying of unknown causes.

Qapik said the Inuit sprang into action when the federal government launched the National Salvage Campaign to help the war effort.

Raw materials had become scarce during the First World War.

To avoid that happening again, Parliament passed the Department of Munitions and Supply Act in 1939 to centralize and co-ordinate sourcing of resources and industrial production. The Department of National War Services encouraged Canadians to gather rags, rubber, paper, metals, fats and bones, which could be recycled into essential war materials.

Olivia Stefanovich/CBC

It was a tough job, but a necessary one, according to Parks Canada researcher Ray Coutu.

"It was not very pleasant work picking up carcasses that were rancid, very smelly," Coutu said.

"They didn't even think about compensation. Inuit are people who help each other and for them this was normal for them to contribute in their own way."

Story told for first time in 80 years

Coutu is part of a three-person research team that worked with Qapik over the last two years to document her story for the first time.

"This specific story really struck me personally," Coutu said.

"This happened 79, 80 years ago and people haven't heard about it, so we're quite happy that this elder who hadn't even talked about this to her own children has come forward to allow us to help her tell her story for future generations."

Olivia Stefanovich/CBC

Qapik said one of the greatest pieces of news she's ever heard was when the war ended.

"They were so proud," Kataissee said.

"They were so excited when they heard that the war had ended that now they can live until the full end of their lives, so it's not going to be disruptive."

Qapik carried on with her life as a seamstress and midwife, saving several babies and moms.

She is joining a list of more than 140 Canadians who have been recognized by Parks Canada for their endeavours during the First and/or Second World War, as Hometown Heroes.

While Qapik is humbled, she refused to be acknowledged individually. Qapik insisted on representing all of the Nunavut Inuit for their efforts during the Second World War.

As she prepares to turn 100 in June, Qapik is reflecting on the lessons the next generation can take from her Second World War experience.

"The only way you can give peace is to help each other and understand what your responsibilities are," Kataisee said.

"To be giving peace starts from you."
When Lutsenko said he was 30 kilometers outside Kyiv and asked to talk by phone, Parnas replied: I have no choice i really need very important to speak with you very important and Because Rudy really wants to speak with you today with me its really important. Trust me I dont want to go 30 km right now.
Samsung is going big in India this year, with the company already launching the Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite in India. And now, reports suggest it could be all set to add to the list by launching new M series devices in India.

The information comes after the Galaxy M31 has already been leaked a few times, with the device now being announced to be in the production phase. The Galaxy M31 has also seen itself being listed on Geekbench revealing specifications, and the latest leak also reveals crucial details of Galaxy M11.

The two smartphones will feature new specs and bring with them Android 10. On the certification site, Samsung Galaxy M11 has the model number M115F/DS, while the Galaxy M31 has model number SM-M315F/DS.

The devices have also appeared on the database of Bluetooth SIG and Wi-Fi certification authorities, suggesting that the Galaxy M31 may possibly go official in the coming month.

Talking about the M31, the certification reveals that it could come with Android 10 OS and also support dual band Wi-Fi -- 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The Bluetooth SIG certification also claims the device is equipped with support for Bluetooth 5.0.

Samsung Galaxy M31 expected specs

There are very few details of the Galaxy M31 that have been shared as of now. But from the leaks we've seen till now, the smartphone is speculated to arrive in 32 GB and 64 GB storage models and come equipped with a rectangle-shaped camera setup at its back. It will be equipped with as many as four cameras and an LED flash.

Apart from this, the Galaxy M31 has been pegged to be powered by an Exynos 9611 chipset and 6 GB of RAM. Reports suggest the handset could be available in three color variants in India such as blue, black and red.

Other details about the device claim the Samsung M31 could retain the 6,000mAh capacity battery that was first seen on the Galaxy M30s last year. Apart from this very little is known about the device. However, with the phone now being seen on the certification websites, it could be expected to come to the market in about a month's time.

There's little information about the Galaxy M11, however, we could also see it sporting slightly upgraded specs as compared to last year's model when it finally is launched in the market.
Riot police were used to quell protests in Hong Kong overnight as the death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 81.

In the UK, 73 people have been tested for the coronavirus, although all tests have returned negative.

A homemade bomb exploded at a hospital in Hong Kong, where protesters also set fire to a housing block that had been earmarked as a quarantine facility, Reuters reported.

The device exploded in a toilet cubicle at the Caritas Medical Centre and caused the temporary evacuation of some patients but no one was hurt.

Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building that authorities were planning to use as a quarantine facility for coronavirus sufferers. (Reuters)

Protesters set up a barrier to block the road outside of a newly built residential building in Hong Kong that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility. (Reuters)

Protesters threw petrol bombs at the empty housing complex while riot police moved in with tear gas.

Chinese officials said the new coronavirus is infectious in its incubation period before symptoms show, making it more difficult to contain. The countrys health minister admitted the virus is getting stronger.

Chinas National Health Commission said the death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 81  there were 769 new cases confirmed on Sunday, bringing the total number of infected to 2,827.

The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong and two in Macau.

(PA)

Other cases have also been found in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the US, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Canada and Australia.

Read more:

Coronavirus outbreak: What are the symptoms?

What the coronavirus means for the economy

How is the international media reacting to the coronavirus?

The Department of Health and Social Care said 73 people across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been tested for the deadly flu-like virus, but all have returned negative.

UPDATE on #coronavirus testing in the UK:



As of 2PM on Monday 27 January 2020, a total of 73 tests have concluded:



73 were confirmed negative

0 positive



Updated data will be published at 2PM daily until further notice.



For latest information visit

 https://t.co/CZh5JdyN2Q pic.twitter.com/pq39TMIqUY  Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) January 27, 2020

The current risk to the public remains low, the department said, adding that the government is continuing to monitor the situation closely.

Story continues

But England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said there was a "fair chance" cases would emerge in Britain.

Police disperse Hong Kong protestors during unrest at the spread of the coronavirus (Picture: Getty)

One medical expert said it is likely the coronavirus will be confirmed in the UK in the next few weeks.

Britons trapped in the Chinese province at the centre of the outbreak have been urged to leave the area if they are able to do so.

The Foreign Office updated its guidance to "advise against all travel to Hubei province", which has been on lockdown for several days as China seeks to contain the illness.

But the guidance also added: "If you are in this area and able to leave, you should do so. This is due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak."

Chinese president Xi Jinping called the outbreak a grave situation and said the government was stepping up efforts to restrict travel and public gatherings.

A medical official takes the temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. (Reuters)

The spread of the coronavirus has come at China's busiest travel period of the year, when millions crisscross the country or head abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Chinese travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, and concern is growing over the potential impact of millions of people travelling back to the cities after the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Thursday.

The National Health Commission said anyone travelling from Wuhan is now required to register with community health stations and quarantine themselves at home for 14 days  the virus's maximum incubation period.

China cut off trains, planes and other links to the city on 22 January and has steadily expanded the lockdown to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50m.

Wuhan is building two makeshift hospitals with about 1,000 beds each to handle patients.
The Order of Australia recognises Australians who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement. Except when it doesnt.

The decision to appoint Bettina Arndt a member of the Order of Australia for "significant service to the community as a social commentator, and to gender equity through advocacy for men" demeans the awards and degrades the concept of rewarding those who work in the public interest. Worse, it makes clear these awards are not based on merit. The vote to give this recognition to Arndt was both close and hotly debated but there needs be only a majority of one on the committee to bestow the award, according to multiple sources. Usually, the committee tries for consensus.

Sex therapist and men's advocate Bettina Arndt. Credit:Karleen Williams

Arndts support of a convicted paedophile, maths teacher Nicolaas Bester, who sexually assaulted his student Grace Tame when she was 15, should have alarmed every single member of the Council for the Order of Australia.

It certainly has alarmed a few other recipients. Ross Taylor, in 2013 appointed a member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Indonesia-Australia relations, primary industry, transport and his cancer charity work, is horrified. His exact response?
Dear Prudence is online weekly to chat live with readers. Heres an edited transcript of this weeks chat.

Danny Lavery: Hey, everybody! Lets chat.

Q. Im the one with Irish ancestry: My husband recently told me his brothers want to go on a trip with him and his dad. I said, Great, thinking this is a nice bonding experience for everyone and good for his dad since his mother cant travel due to health issues. Later, I asked if there had been any thought about where the trip might be. I felt like I had been punched in the gut to hear Ireland. My husbands family is not Irish, while most of my ancestry is Irish. I have never been to Europe, much less Ireland. I cried for so many reasons: Im jealous that he might go, hurt that he would go to a place that is meaningless to him but so important to me, frustrated that Ive done so little in my lifeIm 36 and had kids young at 21. I dont regret having kids young, but I thought my husband and I would be going on adventures later in life together. I also dont want to be the only wife putting down this trip (both brothers are married) because if it wasnt Ireland, I really wouldnt care in the same way. I asked my husband if he could suggest another location or why it has to be Ireland, and he told me to text his brothers. I told him Im scared to, and even though weve been married over 10 years, I dont know them very well. But now I feel hurt that my husband isnt standing up for my feelings and, worse, that maybe he just doesnt care to.

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He has said he isnt sure if hes going because of work and money, but that bothers me too, for some reason. I really wish I didnt care, but I find myself truly upset over this. Should I reach out to his brothers myself?

A: Please dont ask your brothers-in-law to cancel their vacation just because theyre visiting a country youd like to go to first. Thats a completely inappropriate request, and you have no grounds upon which to make such a demand. All it would do is alienate you from that side of the family. Im truly sorry that you feel frustrated about the state of your life, and I hope you give yourself time to really sift through your feelings about this, to think about what youd like to do for yourself in the future now that your kids are getting older and closer to leaving the house. It also may be that you want to be able to plan a similar trip with your husband, and you have every right to talk to him about your own desire for travel and adventure, and to ask him to join you in saving up for something.

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But you cant ask your in-laws to avoid Ireland just because you yourself havent been yet. There are other ways to address your feelings besides saying You cant visit Dublin until I do. And I hope you realize that, while you may very well feel a special, personal connection to Ireland because of your ancestry, it doesnt therefore entitle you to something that visitors of non-Irish descent shouldnt have.

How to Get Advice From Prudie:

 Send questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.)

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 Join the live chat Mondays at noon. Submit your questions and comments here before or during the discussion.

 Call the voicemail of the Dear Prudence podcast at 401-371-DEAR (3327) to hear your question answered on a future episode of the show.

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Q. Spending on my face: I am happily married to my husband I met over a decade ago, but I am very unhappy with my face, specifically the deep acne scars I have had since high school. A lot of mental energy, time, and money over the years has gone to things like heavy-duty makeup and fancy skin care. It would be a dream for me to feel confident enough to go outside without foundation on. Ive done the research, and now I know that for my level of scarring, I need dermatologist levels of lasers or microneedling to make a real difference. This would cost probably around $2,000. My husband and I share a bank account, and I am a teacher, and his salary is more than double mine. We regularly budget for high-ticket items like vacations but would not clear it with each other to spend, say, $300 on something. We are somewhat at an impasse over the several thousand on my face. He is wildly attracted to me so truly doesnt understand the purpose. I think he doesnt understand how much my face bothers me, like wincing every time I look in a mirror. I think women complaining about their bodies is one of the worst things to listen to, and therefore nobody has heard me complain about how much I dislike mine. If we had separate spending accounts, I would not hesitate to just save up on my own. But 99 percent of the time I think open conversations and trust in each other to share money works really well for us. He hasnt quite vetoed spending this money, but weve always operated on two enthusiastic yeses to spend this much on anything. Where do we go from here?

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A: As someone whos spent (out of pocketinsurance didnt cover it) a few thousand dollars to surgically reconstruct my chest where at least 70 percent of my motivation was to look hot with my shirt off, Im pretty solidly in your corner. And for what its worth, I dont think you have to dismiss your own frustrations with self-deprecating remarks like women complaining about their bodies is the worst, as if that happens in a social vacuum, or that having strong feelings about your skin means youre a shallow zombie. I think striking a balance here is definitely possible! Id start with this: Getting my skin professionally lasered would make a huge difference for me, both in terms of the amount of time Id spend thinking about my appearance and the amount of time Id spend getting ready in the morning. This is something that Ive struggled with since high school, and the idea of not having it at the forefront of my mind every day is thrilling. I get that you dont have strong feelings either way, so I dont want you to feel like we have to go 50-50 on this. But Im going to start budgeting for it, and it would mean a lot if you would be open to contributing something. What do you think? (If he comes back at you with Im attracted to you, and I think you look great, you can take him at his word and tell him you genuinely appreciate the compliment, but that you werent contemplating getting this work done for him.)

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If even after you two have a conversation, he says, If it makes you happy, thats fine with me, but I dont want to contribute, you dont necessarily have to set up a whole separate checking account for a one-time $2,000 payment, so long as you keep track somehow of the money youre saving. But regardless of how involved he wants to be, you can make this happen. Good luck!

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Q. Ghost of friendship gone: From the first grade until my late 20s, I had a best friend, lets call her D. We were inseparable. When I was 29, I ended up in an abusive relationship and had my birth control sabotaged. I ended up pregnant. I got an abortion. Long story short, she demonized me over the abortion (this was someone who had never been religious or anti-choice until she knew someone in the situation), and we had a massive falling-out. It was easily the worst time of my life. She and I stopped speaking years ago.

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Well, I got an email over the weekend from D. She has reached out saying she is pregnant for the fifth time. She had told her husband (didnt even know she got married) she didnt want any more kids after the third, but he doesnt seem to care what she wants. She wants an abortion and said shes reaching out because Im the only person she knows whos had one and she needs help sorting out what to do.

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My knee-jerk reaction is to tell her to fuck off. Surely she remembers calling me pretending to be the voice of the fetus telling me I was a murderer? Or that she abandoned me at the lowest point in my life and our entire friendship over this exact thing? Im half-tempted to send a screenshot of the email to her husband through Facebook. Please talk me down from doing the wrong thing here. I cant help her, but I dont want to let this white-hot rage make me do the wrong thing either.

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A: If youre feeling even slightly tempted to send a screenshot of this email to her husband, please delete it immediately and block her email addressbe sure to permanently empty your trash folder too, so you cant ever access it again. What she did to you was awful, but her husband sounds controlling and sufficiently abusive that her life might be in danger if he learned she was contemplating an abortion. Since youre feeling so volatile about her, I dont recommend replying or giving her any advice; its too risky, and if shes at all rude or brusque to you in subsequent conversations (which I think might be likelyshe sounds like a woman in a lot of pain who doesnt know how to keep from lashing out and hurting others), Im worried youll snap and tell her husband anyway. You have every right to avoid someone who treated you with such cruelty, and there are other people besides you who know how to get an abortionyou are not the only source of information on that front. Delete the email, block her, and look after yourself.

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Q. About to hit puberty: My second oldest child, Sam, just turned 9 about a month ago. Sam was born biologically male but started identifying as half boy/half girl from an early age. My wife and I have been hands-off in terms of forcing Sam to make any decision about labels, thinking when puberty starts it will be a good time to start that conversation.

His (we still use that pronoun until he wants us to use something else) older brother is at an age where hes starting to go through the typical chemical and physical changes of puberty. The other day, his older brother told us that Sam said he was worried about his body changing because he didnt want body hair. He was certain that girls dont get body hair and presumed (we think) that growing body hair would force him into a gender presentation that didnt fit with how he sees himself. You can probably understand our conundrum. While we are happy to start addressing these things now, were kind of unsure how to handle breaking the news to Sam that even girls get hair on their bodies, and what to do about it. Aside from the practical stuff, I have a feeling theres something much deeper going on that Sam is not really able to put into words. How do we start that conversation?

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A: I think the conversation thats called for right now is actually very practical and straightforward, and one you should have with every 9-year-old child, regardless of identitynamely, what puberty generally entails, what kind of body hair tends to develop, what various choices people make about removing/styling their body hair, etc. I think Sam is putting these concerns into words, and you should start this conversation tomorrow by just saying that its time to talk about puberty, and that youre also available to answer any follow-up questions and dispel any myths Sam may have picked up at school. Theres no special way to say Pretty much everyone starts to grow body hair that you need to worry about for Sam. Just talk to your kid about body hair! Starts to grow in around puberty; some people have more than others; boys as a group tend to grow more hair than girls, but thats not always true; you can shave it or pluck it or laser it or let it alone  this is a really basic discussion about the mechanics of puberty. If youre really worried, you can rope in your pediatrician to double-check your facts, but I think youre qualified to talk about body hair for half an hour or so.

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Q. Should I hyphenate? Im a woman in my early 30s, and I have an unresolved problem with my fiance. He wants me to change my last name when we get married. I dont want to. I decided at a fairly early age that the insistence that women change their last names to their husbands is sexist. I also genuinely love my Italian last name. Its indicative of my heritage, and it has a cool meaning in Italian; plus, its a fairly unique name in the flyover state I live in. When I told my fiance all this, his response was Im asking you to hyphenate, at least. I pointed out that no one is asking him to hyphenate, and he said he might do that. I appreciate that, but isnt it enough that Im marrying him? Am I being unreasonable? Please advise.

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A: Wait, he wants you to go by Maidenname-Husbandname and he only might go by Maidenname-Husbandname? Thats a pretty weird compromise; in this scenario, you two might not even share a last name. Whats the at least doing in his request, I wonder: Hey, will you at least pick a last name that  doesnt match mine? If you dont hyphenate, you two will have different last names; if you do hyphenate, you two will  probably still have different last names. So I think it makes more sense not to hyphenate and keep things simple. The fact that he says he only might join you in hyphenating suggests to me that he doesnt take that option very seriously. If it is very important to him that you two share a last name, he can take your cool, unique, Italian one as his own.

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Q. Am I jaded, or is my husband naive? My husband is in a skilled trade. He started a side business before we met. When we were just friends, I offered to collect $1,500 he was owed because he was working full time and I am not worried about offending people. The payment got collected. Fast forward six years, were married, and I started to help with the side business. Theres a blatant pattern of having to go after last payments even though there are written contracts with pay due dates.

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Its gotten to the point where I question what little faith I had in humanity, and he as a person of faith chalks it up to That is just how the industry is. Im at a loss on how to support his business and not get so attached, but when its becoming normal to expect to get screwed out of $2,000 and just whatever, its taking a toll. We both grew up in poverty, and while Im not worried about having to go through hard times, I dont think we should endure them because he doesnt want to ruin a business relationship with an old friend. I go back to I believe your business is only as good as your ethics, but its the friend label that worries me. Am I jaded, or is he naive?

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A: I know that, for example, freelance writers often have to deal with chasing down late payments, but even so its not industry standard to just assume youre going to lose $2,000 payments. Im struggling to think of a single field, skilled trade or otherwise, where thats considered standard operating procedure. This is such a strange nonresponse that Im almost curious if your husband has an unacknowledged thing for findom and might find relief in turning losing money into a sex game between the two of you. But assuming its not a sex thing, yes, your husband is behaving not just in a naive manner (after all, hes hardly new to the industry) but irresponsibly.

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It could very well be connected to his growing-up years, when a fatalistic attitude toward money might have protected him from disappointment, when so much about money would have been outside his control as a poor child. But that attitude is less helpful to him now, and its worth challenging and overcoming. (I agree with you, for what its worth, that if his friends regularly and unceremoniously ignore multithousand-dollar professional bills, theyre not very good friends.) I hope hes willing to have a conversation with you about where all this is coming from and how he might develop an even-only-slightly more serious response to late payments without necessarily dedicating every waking hour to tracking down his money. But if hes totally closed off and you decide you need to back off from hearing about or helping with his side business, I think that would be fine too.

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Q. Re: Spending on my face: It doesnt sound like the letter writer has actually seen a dermatologist yet, and Id encourage her to do that to get a realistic idea of what her options/costs actually are before having this talk with her spouse.

A: That is a great point and one I should have included at the top of my answer! Someone else wrote in to say that they sought out laser surgery and only learned after a professional consultation that the more expensive/aggressive procedures they thought theyd need were not, in fact, the best option for them. You may in fact end up needing less (or more) money to spend, although another reader wrote to say, How much do you think youve had to spend on extra daily foundation over the last 20 years? It may seem more shocking as a one-time expense, but youre already spending money on your face.

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Q. Re: Spending on my face: Get it done! I had deep chickenpox scars on my forehead from childhood until after college. I expended so much emotional energy worrying about them, but after the procedure (mine took actual surgery, as they were so deep) I never had to think about it again. It was very freeing! My husband was with me before and after and I dont think ever really noticed them, but it was a huge emotional burden for me. Save up if you have to, but my guess is your husband doesnt really understand the emotional/mental load it is for you. Good luckI am sure you look great either way!

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A: I think the key here will be trying to find a line between How do I explain my internal experience to my husband so he has a sense of how emotionally significant this is to me? and How can I make sure my husband feels the same way about it as I do? Its fine, I think, if you simply do your best to walk him through how much it affects you on a regular basis and then ask him to trust/respect that youre going to make a thoughtful, informed decision about your own face. He doesnt have to perfectly understand your experience in order to treat you with empathy and respect, so dont go overboard trying to make sure he understands every single detail of the situation.

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Q. UpdateRe: Engagement news: I just wanted to write back and let you know how things went after you answered my question a few months ago. I did end up doing things in perhaps the most explosive fashion. I avoided going to see my family for Christmas by just dodging all of my moms questions about it for months, which I sort of regret. Then on Christmas Eve she called me, sincerely and curiously asking what Id be doing on Christmas Day. I told her Id be spending it with my fiancee at home because the last two Christmases had been so difficult, and thats why I hadnt wanted to come home. I think Mom was a little hurt by itwhich I absolutely understand. I think I could have been better about this, but she didnt really say much about that to me. She just asked a few questions about my fiancee, and then we had a polite, pleasant conversation about other things and moved on.

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Mostly, I wanted to write back to thank you for your advice. I know I didnt really follow it that well, but it did mean a lot to have someone validate my desire to not go home for Christmas, and I thought often in the months leading up to Christmas about how I should just rip the Im engaged band-aid off. Ive been in therapy for about a month now, and were having a lot of conversations about my relationship to my family.

A: Thank you so much for the update. Im really glad to hear that you were able to have a quiet holiday with your partner, and while I know it must have been difficult to feel like you were hurting your mother, it also sounds like she was able to muster up the grace to let you do so with minimal hassle. Maybe you two will be able to have a more detailed conversation about it after youve been in therapy for a few months, when Christmas is far away and not a looming pressure. But even if you dont, you got what you wanted, and you were able to verbalize what has been bothering you about your family. I think thats a win.

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Discuss this column with Dear Prudence on his Facebook page!

Classic Prudie

Q. My boyfriend wants to have sex whenever I go number two: My boyfriend and I have been together for over two years. Around 10 months ago we moved in together. Things have been pretty normal except one thing. Let me tell you first, that I grew up in a house where we did not speak of bathroom behavior. As a result, I am quite uncomfortable talking about going number two. I am as secretive as I can be when I have to do my duty. Now that Ron and I are living together, I have to divulge certain information on a need to know basis. More specifically, if I have diarrhea. These times I have had to explain, You may not want to go in there for a while. The weird thing is, 15 minutes or so after telling him such, Ron initiates sex. I find it gross and confusing. He knows how uncomfortable I feel as it is. This has happened four times so far. He denies a pattern or that its unusual. Am I the one being weird about this? Read what Prudie had to say.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : After the police in several states filed FIR for sedition against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam, the varsity proctor has summoned the research scholar to explain his position on the alleged provocative speech.

Imam has been asked to appear before the proctorial committee by February 3.

In his alleged "inflammatory" speech at Aligarh Muslim University on January 16, Imam threatened and urged people to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the country. He was addressing a gathering against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Assam and the UP police have filed sedition cases against him. The UP Police and the Delhi Police have also been conducting searches to trace Imam. The Delhi Police also sent a team to his village Kako in the Jehanabad district of Bihar to search for him.

The Assam Police have also filed an FIR against him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The police carried out a raid at Imam's ancestral house in Jehanabad on Sunday night after the central agencies investigating the cases lodged against Imam sought help, said Manish Kumar, Jehanabad Superintendent of Police.

Imam is son of late Akbar Imam a local Janata Dal-United leader who unsuccessfully contested an Assembly election.
A law updating and clarifying rules for Michigans licensed professional counselors takes effect today, ending a controversy that threatened the livelihood of many counselors and could have left tens of thousands of patients without their therapist.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed House Bill 4325 in October to resolve the dispute between licensed professional counselors and the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

The bill updates the Public Health Code to specify that licensed professional counselors are allowed to diagnose and treat patients.

Updates were needed because the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs proposed a rule that would have precluded many licensed professional counselors from using counseling techniques and psychotherapy to treat patients.

The rule change could have resulted in an estimated 10,000 licensed professional counselors in Michigan losing their ability to see patients and provide mental-health services in a clinical setting. Licensed professional counselors, who have at least a masters degree, serve about 150,000 patients in the state, said James Blundo, executive director of the Michigan Mental Health Counselors Association. They are about 30% of the counselors who work for Michigans community mental health agencies, working alongside psychologists and clinical social workers.

LPCs are invaluable to patients and families across Michigan, said state Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, who sponsored the legislation. My colleagues and I have been committed to improving access to mental health across the state and Im proud to have had the opportunity to advocate for counselors.

Special thanks go to former Rep. Jim Tedder, who first introduced this legislation in 2018 but was unfortunately unable to complete the process before the end of his last term. In his final weeks in office he asked me to carry the torch to the finish line to deliver on the promises he made to Michigan LPCs.

In addition to clarifying psychotherapy and diagnosis as counseling techniques, the law now reflects current training standards that have improved over the past three decades.

Prior to today, the law hadnt been updated since 1988. A lot has changed since then  the law needed to reflect modern practices, Miller said. Counselors in communities across Michigan advocated for these changes for years. This is a historic day for those professionals.
New Delhi: The debate in the European Parliament on India's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), scheduled for January 29 followed by a vote the next day, may trigger uncertainty over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the Belgian capital Brussels for the India-European Union (EU) Summit later this year, sources hinted on Monday. The sources also sought to highlight that individually, European nations like France strongly back the Indian governments stand that the CAA is an internal matter of India.

According to reports, a total of six resolutions have been tabled by six groups comprising 559 members in the 751-member European Parliament. Most of the resolutions are critical of the CAA, while some also criticise the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the security lockdown and detentions in Jammu and Kashmir.

The most critical reportedly is the resolution moved by the S&D Group, the second largest group with 154 MEPs, which states that the CAA has the potential to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world. The resolution by the EPP Group, the largest with 182 MEPs, says the law could have negative consequences for Indias international image and internal stability.

French diplomatic sources in Delhi said France  a founding member of the EU  is of the view that the CAA is Indias internal matter and that the European Parliament is an institution independent of member states and the European Commission, indicating that there may be a rift within the European Bloc on the matter. The European Parliament is the legislative wing of the EU while the European Commission is the EUs executive wing.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad indicated on Monday that the ministry of external affairs (MEA) will explain to the members of European Parliament about the CAA but also took a jibe at it, asking why its members hadnt raised the issue of victimisation of Hindus in Pakistan.

Though no dates have been announced, it had been speculated that PM Modi may visit Brussels in March this year, but the anti-CAA resolution in the European Parliament may put a spanner in the works.

With reports that the European Parliament is set to debate and vote on the resolutions, some of which state that the CAA marks a dangerous shift in the Indias citizenship regime and has created the legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship, Indian government sources had said on Sunday that, The European Union Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world.

Hoping that sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further, Indian government sources had further said that every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation, contemplates both a context and criteria (and that) this is not discrimination, further claiming that European societies have followed the same approach.

Government sources had further said that the CAA is a matter entirely internal to India and that this legislation has been adopted by due process and through democratic means after a public debate in both Houses of Parliament.
Hyderabad: Indians stuck in Wuhan city of Hubei province in China, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak of a new coronavirus disease, are a worried lot. Stuck in their hostel rooms or homes, many of the students, and others who work in Wuhan, want to return home to India.

While multiple people in Wuhan that Deccan Chronicle spoke with on Sunday expressed satisfaction with the Indian embassy in Beijing for reaching out to them to collect information and assuring them of efforts being made to help them leave the city and return home, some were not sure if they wanted to leave, in the hope of the situation improving in the days and weeks to come.

They said that the streets were completely deserted with all businesses shuttering down following instructions from the local government to prevent groups of people coming together that might pose a risk of spread of infection in the event of any individual being exposed to the virus.

Several students had returned to India for winter holidays that coincide with the Chinese New Year Day, which witnessed muted celebrations on Saturday. One of those interviewed said, Some of us who had planned to go home for a longer summer holidays break stayed back and are now stuck here in Wuhan. While some want to go back, others are unable to decide.

Saahil, who hails from Ranchi in Jharkhand and is pursuing a PhD in automobile engineering at the Wuhan University of Technology was one among those this newspaper spoke with. The city authorities have been helpful and we have been following their directions to all Wuhans residents on staying safe and preventing contracting the disease, he said.

We are all following instructions, not going out unnecessarily, or meeting in groups, and taking precautions such as wearing masks. The Indian embassy has been very active over the past five days. It contacted Indians here and set up three hotlines for us to address our questions. They have been very helpful and assured us that they were working on helping those who want to leave, Mr Saahil said.

Nobody thought it would be this serious when the first reports of the disease became public but now the situation has changed. The hospitals are full and most people are scared. Many stores are closed. Some of those that are open are running out of supplies as all transport into the city has been banned, another Indian from Wuhan said.

Kuldeep Malik, a yoga teacher who has been living in Wuhan for the past five years, was one among those who definitely wants to return to India at the earliest.

We are requesting the authorities and the Indian embassy to help us return home. The conditions here are very critical. Everything is in a lockdown status. We are afraid but are keeping our spirits up, said Mr Malik, who hails from Kudana village in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.

Though we want to leave, there is no way to do so as all movement of people out of Wuhan and the province has been banned. There are about 400 to 500 Indians who study and work in Wuhan and elsewhere in the Hubei province, he added.
A day after a suspected case of coronavirus was reported in Jaipur, Rajasthan's medical and health department on Monday issued helpline numbers and appealed to passengers who have travelled to China recently to come forward for screening.

The department has also put up an advisory at Jaipur airport.

It has urged passengers who have travelled to China after January 1 to go for screening if they have fever, cough, respiratory distress etc.

On Sunday, a suspected case of coronavirus was reported in the state, following which the patient was kept in isolation at SMS government hospital here.

"His blood sample has been sent to national virology lab, Pune and the report is awaited," an official said.

A total of 18 people from four districts of the state have returned India from China. Respective district chiefs and medical officers have been directed to keep them under surveillance for the next 28 days.

Novel coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes. The virus, which has so far killed 56 people and affected 1,975 in China, is a novel strain and not seen before.

It emerged from a seafood and animal market in China's Wuhan and is suspected to have spread to as far as the United States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can block thousands of immigrants from receiving public assistance while legal challenges continue.

Under the Department of Homeland Security rule, legal immigrants receiving or deemed likely to need non-cash benefits for more than a year, such as food stamps, Medicaid or housing vouchers, can be denied residency or green cards.

To protect benefits for American citizens, immigrants must be financially self-sufficient," President Donald Trump said when the policy was introduced in August.

It was challenged by officials in California, New York, Illinois, Maryland, Washington State and elsewhere, but only one nationwide injunction from a federal district court in New York remained in effect until Monday.

The Supreme Court wiped that out in a 5-4 ruling opposed by all four liberal justices, and while Chief Justice John Roberts was presiding over Trump's Senate impeachment trial. It does not affect Illinois, where a separate court order has blocked the policy.

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts speaks Monday during the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump.

Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas wrote separately to make the case that federal district court judges should not be permitted to issue such nationwide injunctions anymore.

"The rise of nationwide injunctions may just be a sign of our impatient times," Gorsuch wrote. "But good judicial decisions are usually tempered by older virtues."

The Justice Department also looked beyond the scope of the high court's verdict in the immigration case to urge an end to nationwide injunctions that are "inappropriate and must be curbed."

The rule, which originally was to take effect last October, allows immigration officials to consider public aid in deciding whether to grant legal assistance, along with other factors such as health, education and household income.

In addition to considering whether an immigrant currently receives benefits, they also can decide if there is a likelihood the person will need assistance in the future.

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The current definition of a "public charge" focuses on those who are primarily dependent on government aid. That focuses on people who receive more than half their income or long-term medical care from the government.

Immigration rights groups denounced the court's decision and the Trump administration policy. Carlos Guevara, senior policy advisor at UnidosUS, said the rule "will reshape the immigrant demographics to become both richer and whiter."

Claudia Center, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's disability rights program, said it "enshrines the false stereotype that people with disabilities do not contribute to our society."

And Robert McCaw, government affairs director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the policy "could quite literally kill people by making them too afraid to seek life-saving medical care, and the Supreme Court seems to agree such a cruel system is acceptable."

Earlier last year, the Trump administration instructed agencies to enforce a 1996 law signed by President Bill Clinton that requires sponsors of green card holders to reimburse the government for welfare benefits.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Immigration: Supreme Court lets Trump crack down on public assistance
The United Kingdoms Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday his decision on any role in the UKs future 5G network for Chinese tech giant Huawei would give Britons the benefits of new technology without compromising national security.

Johnson is due to meet senior government ministers on Tuesday to decide whether to ban or restrict the use of equipment made by Huawei in 5G infrastructure development.

The United States says Huawei, the worlds largest telecoms equipment manufacturer, is a cybersecurity threat, alleging its technology could include backdoors allowing China to eavesdrop on global and domestic communications.

Huawei denies it is a vehicle for Chinese intelligence, but US officials have made thinly veiled threats that foreign allies which use its equipment could be barred from intelligence-sharing programmes.

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There is no reason why we shouldnt have technological progress here in the UK, allow consumers, businesses in the UK to have access to fantastic technology, to fantastic communications but also protect our security interests and protect our key partnerships with other security powers around the world, Johnson said in reply to a reporters question about Huawei during a visit to a London university.

Johnson said there was a way for British consumers and businesses to have access to the new technology without compromising security relationships with the US-led Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

So, the Five Eyes security relationships we have, we have got to keep them strong and safe, he said. We are going to come up with a solution that enables us to achieve both those objectives.

Reuters cited two people with knowledge of the matter last week as saying British officials had proposed granting Huawei a limited role in the UKs 5G network.

5G is seen as one of the biggest innovations since the birth of the internet a generation ago, offering much faster data speeds.

Unsubtantiated allegations

Huawei says the US wants it blocked from the UKs 5G network because no US company can offer the same range of 5G technology at a competitive price.

We strongly agree with the prime minister that the British public deserve to have access to the best possible technology,' said Victor Zhang, vice president of Huawei, in a statement emailed to Al Jazeera earlier this month. 

That is why we invested more than $15 billion last year in research and development to ensure our customers receive just that. Huawei has worked with the UKs telecoms companies for 15 years and looks forward to supplying the best technologies that help companies like BT and Vodafone fulfil the governments commitment to make gigabit broadband available to all.

We are confident that the UK government will make a decision based upon evidence, as opposed to unsubstantiated allegations. Two UK parliamentary committees concluded there is no technical reason to ban us from supplying 5G equipment.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May agreed last year  before leaving office  to block Huawei from all core parts of the 5G network, but to give it restricted access to non-core parts.

Opponents of Huawei, including the US, say the division between core and non-core is less clear when it comes to 5G networks.

The UK welcomes foreign investment but needs assurances that national security will not be compromised, Matt Warman, the minister for digital and broadband, told Parliament.

We welcome open trade and inward investment. However, our economy can only prosper and unleash Britains potential when we and our international partners are assured that our critical national infrastructure remains safe and secure, he said.

Warman said the National Security Council, the UKs main forum for discussion of national security, would meet on Tuesday to discuss Huawei.
Politics has never been a place for the thin-skinned, but today candidates are more likely to face personal attacks than any time in recent history.

Instead of criticizing a candidates voting record or stand on issues, politicians are ridiculing things like looks, physical disability or speech.

I was thinking about that recently when former Vice President Joe Biden spoke of overcoming a childhood stutter and former White House Press Secretary Huckabee Sanders tweeted, I-I-I-I-I-I-I h-h-have absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about.

What kind of person makes fun of a stutter?

I asked Mike Lawrence, who was once press secretary for former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, for his thoughts.

It just shows a lack of decency for a person to ridicule a challenge that another person has faced, he said.

Lawrence, who lives in Springfield, was born with a cleft palate that was not surgically corrected until he was 22.

All the way through childhood and college I lived with it, he said. Kids made fun of me because of the way I talked. I worked hard to speak distinctly.

And he overcame that challenge to become the spokesperson for a sitting governor. Thats an incredible accomplishment in anyones life.

I always felt bad that neither of my parents lived long enough to see me become press secretary  after overcoming the challenge of a cleft palate.

A recent article in The Atlantic explored whether any remnants of Bidens stutter emerged during the Democratic debates. In the article, Biden described the ways both students and teachers mocked him for his speech as a child, and the ways hed practice passages from literature in the mirror at night to work on speaking fluidly.

To my way of thinking, those are accomplishments to be extolled. After all, isnt this supposed to be the land of opportunity?

But why are personal attacks becoming more commonplace?

Former Peoria Congressman Ray LaHood says there has been a breakdown in political civility.

Republicans have moved further to the right and Democrats have moved further to the left and there is less of a desire to work together in a bipartisan manner, he said.

But it goes beyond the polarization of the political parties, he said. The advent of social media has contributed to making political discourse coarser.

I think Facebook and other social media has contributed to the ability of people to say things that would never otherwise be said of a person. . President Trump sends out degrading tweets about persons of the other party  and sometimes his own party.

Its worth noting that LaHood is a Republican leveling this criticism of a president of his own party.

Its also worth noting that both Republicans and Democrats bear responsibility for this breakdown in political comity.

Sanders herself has been branded by commentators as Miss Piggy. Her weight and looks have been disparaged. Criticize what she says, not how she looks, folks.

Is this the new normal? Will personal attacks become an accepted part of political discourse?

I sure hope not. But what can we as voters do?

The most obvious thing is not to reward candidates who behave this way. (They do it because they think it helps them at the polls; theyll stop if voters withhold their support.)

Schools have made it a mission to fight bullying. And Im glad. But its a hard lesson to teach when our youngsters see adults electing bullies.

We deserve better and they certainly do.

Perhaps Biden exhibited the best response to a personal attack when he responded this way:

Ive worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And its my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same.

Its called empathy. Look it up.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist and freelance reporter. He can be reached at ScottReeder1965@gmail.com.
RAKEK, Slovenia (AP)  For Marija Frlan it's as symbolic as it can get: A survivor of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, the Slovenian woman turns 100 years old on Monday, the international Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Frlan, who was held at the Nazi's Ravensbrueck camp in northern Germany for over a year in 1944-45, will join other survivors and officials in Poland on Monday for ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Ahead of the ceremonies, Frlan told The Associated Press that one could talk at length about what it was like in the Ravensbrueck camp, but that only those who were there really know how horrific it was.

The ones who didnt survive this, they cant understand, no," the energetic woman said at her home in the small village of Rakek in southwestern Slovenia. It was terrible."

Frlan said prisoners at the Nazi camp for women were given just enough food to survive and had to work throughout the day. Obligatory inspections were held outside every morning, lasting for at least one hour.

One time, the inspection was going on for four hours," she recalled. It was a rainy day. It is impossible to explain if you weren't there."

Women at the camp encouraged each other not to give up, telling one another Girls, hold on!" and No moaning!" she recalled.

The Ravensbrueck concentration camp was the second in size only to the women's camp in Auschwitz, according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Toward the end of the war, some 50,000 prisoners, mostly women, were held at the camp.

Frlan was shipped to Ravensbrueck in March 1944 from a prison in her native Slovenia. After having to clean the the offices of the secret Gestapo police for nine months, Frlan was jailed for helping the resistance movement in Slovenia in a bombing.

The Gestapo knew that I was responsible for the bombs," she said. So they took me to prison."

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It was then that she saw her husband for the last time. He was captured too and executed soon after.

We even couldnt say hello," she said. That was it."

Frlan was sent to Ravensbrueck on train via Munich with a group of other prisoners. The only meal she had in five days was a bowl of soup and three loaves of bread.

The inmates at Raversbruck came from some 30 countries, with the biggest number from Poland. Soviet troops liberated the camp in April 1945.

With the Red Army troops approaching, the Germans forced the prisoners to walk out of the camp toward the front lines, Frlan said. The march continued until early May.

Suddenly, there were no Germans anymore and a Russian soldier appeared on a horse," she remembered. He said: The war is over!"

The prisoners from Slovenia and other nations in the former Yugoslavia then decided to walk back home together, Frlan said. Once she was back in Slovenia, the despair hit again.

I had lost my husband, I had no flat," she said. Nothing."

Still, Frlan managed to get back on her feet. She married again and had a family, giving birth to six children. She worked as a cleaner and factory worker after the war and even climbed Slovenia's highest Alpine peak of Triglav at the age of 70.

Her family  Frlan has survived her second husband and three of her children  is planning a big birthday party in the village once she returns from Poland. Still generally healthy and able to walk on her own, Frlan always keeps a magnifying glass close by because of poor eyesight.

So what is her recipe for longevity?

I always worked hard," she said.
Faster than a speeding bullet? Definitely.

More powerful than a locomotive? Undoubtedly.

Were not talking about birds or planes, were talking about 5G, the new standard in mobile telecommunication thats being rolled out over the next few years by Americas largest wireless carriers.

With the ability to carry massive loads of mobile device data at speeds up to 10 or even 100 times faster than those available today, Verizons 5G Ultra Wideband network promises to usher in a vast improvement in value and efficiency for businesses that leverage its capabilities.

The ability to collect near real-time data and process it at lightning-fast speeds should help small and midsize businesses (SMBs) leverage the kinds of technologies and knowledge networks that, until now, were only available to the largest, most deep-pocketed firms.

This really opens the door for a lot of the more traditional, trade-like businesses; plumbing, electricians, the local doctor or a veterinary clinic, says Steve Szabo, global head of Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms and Solutions at Verizon, the largest U.S. mobile phone provider.

The key to 5G Ultra Wideband is a powerful signal beamed from new low-frequency antennae with enough bandwidth and processing speed to carry nearly as much information as an optical fiber without being tethered to a physical cable. Not only will data travel faster, but it wont have to travel as far.

With 5G Ultra Wideband, sensors placed on objects from spinning jet turbines to implanted medical devices could send large amounts of vital data instantaneously, warning engineers or doctors of the tell-tale signs that a part is nearing replacement or an insulin pump is running out of medication. Earthquake warning systems could work in near real time, sending data to scientists and public safety officials and helping to give residents precious time to evacuate before their homes are lost in a tsunami.

Buttressing 5G Ultra Wideband speeds is the use of decentralized supercomputers, a process known as multi-access edge computing, that processes most data locally, rather than sending it all the way back to a server farm several cities or even states away. That little uptick in speed opens a world of possibilities for users.

In simplest terms, a feature film that might have taken seven minutes to download over a standard mobile connection could be downloaded in six seconds with 5G. Assisted reality goggles could work remotely in near real time. A doctors examining room could connect almost instantly to a regional medical centers specialists, without the need to build an expensive tele-medicine clinic.

In addition, a plumber could use IoT sensors to remotely monitor the flow of water or steam through a customers pipes, and even regularly test the integrity of pipes and valves without having to shut down entire lines.

In smart cities, roadside 5G networks and MEC could ease traffic jams, improve autonomous vehicle safety, and let even the smallest municipalities create bus networks to speed commuters along existing highways, prioritizing vehicles--from buses to cars--with the greatest number of passengers.

Some 25 billion IoT-connected objects will be in place by next year, according to the technology consulting firm Gartner. That opens a world of opportunities for SMBs that know how to jump on the 5G train before it leaves the station.

Businesses are going to have true visibility into their operations and the operations of their vendors and partners, so they can see just how that affects their bottom lines and their timelines, Szabo says.

This high-speed data link wont just be for things: A physician could communicate with a lab hundreds of miles away, or with a specialist in another time zone. They might be able to work together to diagnose a childs illness essentially in near real time, using an ordinary laptop or camera equipped for 5G. Soon, 5G mobile phones will make this even easier.

IoT sensors can track shipments, letting businesses know exactly where their goods are at almost any given moment.

A technician repairing a small plane engine at a local airport could put on a pair of assisted reality goggles and connect instantaneously to an online repair manual that puts wiring diagrams in front of his face. No more time-consuming moving back and forth from engine to manual. Repairs could be made in a fraction of the time and with far more accuracy.

Smaller businesses could create networks of experts who can weigh in when needed, cutting the cost of deploying technicians and maintaining vital infrastructure. If that airplane tech needs someone more expert to weigh in, that can happen almost instantly, eliminating the need to have the service performed elsewhere.

Manufacturers could use 5G Ultra Wideband and IoT sensors to get rid of the wires that hobble the flexibility of their manufacturing systems. Instead, they could get wire-like high speed anywhere on the factory floor, allowing them to move equipment around to seize new contracts and opportunities for growth.

And 5G Ultra Wideband can provide solutions for low tech industries as well. An architect in South Dakota can reach out to a landscape designer in Los Angeles. Wearing assisted reality goggles, she could add a landscape to the house shes designing and share that potential image with her client in moments. No need to fly in expensive experts, who can do--and share--most of their work virtually.

So, as 5G takes connectivity to the next level, it also levels the playing field for tech-savvy people, early adopters, and SMB owners. Yet, with all this promise, many smaller businesses fear the cost of adopting the new technology could be a deal-breaker. In uncertain economic times, they may fear it requires too great an investment.

Thats why Verizon is among the data providers that see adapting to 5G as a multi-step strategy. A company could start with testing IoT sensors on its products to monitor performance, using the existing LTE mobile networks to link them together. As newer technology rolls out, companies could gradually invest in upgrades and take ever greater advantage of high speed mobile computing.
Once she made sure her family was safe after an explosion that moved her house on its foundations, Claudia Arroyo had to figure out where to go.

There are no good options.

Her house is unlivable, she said, especially because her 13-year-old daughter has asthma. Her moms house is 45 minutes away from her daughters school and her husbands job. And a long-term rental might bankrupt them.

Now, we dont know what to do, said Arroyo, 39. To afford an apartment or hotel  its hard for us.

Three days after an explosion at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing killed two people, residents in the Spring Branch area neighborhood are left to bunk with family or scrape together money for a hotel as they figure out how to rebuild. On Monday, authorities released new damage estimates: the blast damaged 450 structures.

Its not clear yet what resources are available. The city is in the process of having those discussions about resources for those affected by the explosion, said Mary Benton, press secretary for Mayor Sylvester Turner. The city is asking impacted residents to call 3-1-1 and leave their information while officials discuss what resources, if any, can be freed up.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Homes near Watson Grinding explosion continue to crumble

More Information Resources The city of Houston asks anyone impacted to call 3-1-1 The Red Cross recovery center: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 4703 Shadowdale Dr., 77041 See More Collapse

Im going to have that discussion with as many people as I can to see if theres something available, said Amy Peck, who represents the explosion area in City Council. Theres a lot of people who need help.

In the interim, nonprofits have moved in: The Red Cross set up a shelter-turned-recovery center at a church, where caseworkers take information and match residents with service providers like Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that helps with rebuilding. Red Cross volunteers offered food and water over the weekend, said Jackie Drake, regional communications officer. Over the weekend, roaming volunteers boarded up shattered windows and set up tarps.

The cost of the disaster  even with insurance  has some families looking at budgets that seem impossible to stretch, especially those close to the blast zone with heavy damage.

On HoustonChronicle.com: 'I thought somebody attacked us': Gessner chemical explosion devastates west Houston neighborhoods

The Arroyo family has homeowners insurance and is hoping that the money will let them make repairs while they find temporary housing. Between Claudia Arroyo and her husband, the family takes home about $800 per week, sometimes more with odd jobs and overtimes. But with mortgage payments and car payments, they often need to spend more than they make every month.

You dont expect anything you dont know to happen, Arroyo said. The explosion changed our life.

She has sign-up forms from the legions of lawyers who passed through the neighborhood over the weekend. She worries about picking the right one and giving out too much of her information.

Luis Carreon thinks his only hope of long-term housing recovery is a lawsuit. Carreon, 50, combs carefully through each form he receives, assessing each lawyers fee or percentage theyll take of any win. He did not have home insurance when the blast tore through his house, so loudly that he thought a small plane had crashed nearby. He isnt sure yet, but he thinks it will take between $25,000 and $40,000 to fix his home.

On HoustonChronicle.com: They are emotionally destroyed: Explosion survivors explore possibility of litigation

Volunteers helped him board up the shattered windows in his home. Hes still living there, in the least-damaged room.

The only thing I need right now is something to get me some help to repair the damage on my house, he said. Thats it.

Kim Laake, 55, was in her mothers house when the explosion hit. She, her mother and her daughter had to crawl through debris to find one another and escape. The family has an attorney. Although her mother is insured, shes not sure what she wants to do about a rebuild.

We wanna move out of that area. There was a chemical plant behind us we knew nothing about. We didnt even know it was there.

Olivia Tallet contributed reporting.

sarah.smith@chron.com
(Newser)  Working against the clock in freezing temperatures, Turkish rescue teams pulled more survivors from collapsed buildings Sunday, days after a powerful magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit the country's east. Rescued survivors wept with gratitude for their efforts, the AP reports. Turkish authorities said the death toll rose to at least 38 people from the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck Friday night. Turkish television showed Ayse Yildiz, 35, and her 2-year-old daughter Yusra being dragged out of the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in the city of Elazig. They had been trapped for 28 hours.

story continues below

The quake also injured over 1,600 people but at least 45 survivors have been pulled alive from the rubble so far, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference Sunday in Istanbul. More than 780 aftershocks rocked the region as over 3,500 rescue experts scrambled through wrecked buildings to reach survivors, working around the clock. One rescued couple was reunited with a Syrian student who had helped to dig them out of their collapsed home with his hands. "He is our hero and angel," a weeping Dudane Aydin said of Mahmud al Osman in an interview on Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency. As overnight temperatures dropped to 23 Fahrenheit, emergency teams set up more than 9,500 tents for displaced residents and distributed 17,000 hot meals.

(Read more earthquake stories.)
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan received today the US delegation led by Kansas National Guard's Adjutant General, Major-General Lee Tafanelli, the MFA told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guests in Armenia the FM praised the fact that the US delegation is going to participate in the Armenian Army Day celebrations in Yerevan. The minister said during the course of years Armenia has established a firm partnering dialogue with the United States and is ready to continue making efforts to further strengthen and enrich the relations between the two peoples.

The officials exchanged views on the Armenian-American strategic dialogue, highlighting the importance of implementation of agreements reached recently.

As a key component of the bilateral agenda the sides outlined the development and expansion of decentralized cooperation. Both expressed readiness to take joint actions at traditional directions, such as peacekeeping, military medicine, etc. In this context the foreign minister highly valued the US contribution to the strengthening of Armenias peacekeeping capacities.

The minister also introduced the guests on the ongoing reforms of the Armenian government, highlighting the constant cooperation with the US partners in this process.

Armenia will celebrate the 28th anniversary of the establishment of the Armed Forces on January 28.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Coronavirus latest news: Two suspected cases of coronavirus have been reported from Nepal. This has led to a coronavirus scare in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh region, particularly Gorakhpur given its proximity to Nepal and heavy traffic across the 1,751 km long open border.

Coronavirus has led to the death of scores of people in several countries, including Nepal. "Checks for the virus should be conducted not only on airports but also at entry points of the Indo-Nepal border," said RN Singh, a doctor-campaigner for 'Mission Save in India' told the news agency IANS. Singh also went on to state that although checking has already started at the airports, open borders between both nations should also be monitored. Regional medical practitioners and experts also firmly believe that the need to create awareness about the Wuhan virus in the region has never been as urgent.

Symptoms of the coronavirus such as running nose, coughing, sore throat and sometimes fever are similar to any other upper respiratory infection.

Gorakhpur has a massive population that travels to Nepal via Sunauli and Badhni borders. RN Singh further went onto say that health check posts should be set up along the UP-Nepal border on the lines of the SARS screenings conducted in 2002.

Awareness campaigns to inform people that any person who has cold, cough and fever needs to be reported immediately to the nearest hospital. Gorakhpur district CMO Srikant Tiwari said that the district hospital would set up an isolation ward soon.According to Tiwari, no coronavirus case has been reported from Gorakhpur and the concerned department is ready to face this situation. An isolation ward at the district hospital is set to come up soon.

Also read: Wuhan coronavirus: Indian embassy in Beijing monitoring health of Indians, says S Jaishankar

Also read: Coronavirus outbreak: More than 2000 people infected globally, 56 dead in China
Zurich, Switzerland--(Newsfile Corp. - January 22, 2020) - SPAR, one of the world's largest supermarkets, partnered with Advertima to increase revenue from its existing in-store digital signage network. To achieve this goal, Advertima upgraded SPAR's traditional digital signs with its innovative smart targeting and audience analytics solution that delivers hyper-personalized advertising for physical stores. As a result, SPAR, along with brands such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Nestle, saw an average sales uplift of 10.5% in comparison with traditional digital signage.









The Advertima AI-powered Smart Signage solution understands real-world demographics (gender and age), engagement (dwell and view time), context (family groups, young mothers, etc). It provides unrivaled consumer insight, even in the digital world. For the first time, brands can communicate with consumers individually and, in real-time, dramatically increase the effectiveness of advertising. Source: Advertima



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6878/51726_enhanced.jpg

Advertima is spearheading the drive-by retailers to use AI and computer vision to unlock the last frontier of consumer data. By understanding audience demographics like gender, age and engagement, retailers can now target the right content to the right customer in real-time. Thanks to its unique 3D vision technology that delivers best-in-class consumer insights, Advertima provides levels of real-world campaign targeting and performance metrics that have never been seen before. Equipped with Advertima's data-driven technology, SPAR's digital signage network improved product discovery and drove impulse buying at the point of sale.

"By achieving 2.7 times more customer engagement, Advertima Smart Signage increased our sales by 10.5% in comparison with traditional digital signage," commented Dr. Wolfgang Frick, Managing Director Purchasing & Marketing at SPAR Group Switzerland.

Story continues

Advertima is disrupting the legacy DOOH industry by enabling brands and media owners to understand precise audience demographics and display relevant content in real-time. This kind of 'hyper-targeting' is unique in the DOOH market and is set to revolutionize the industry. For the first time, retail marketers can use the same programmatic tools (e.g. Google/Facebook) for DOOH media as their digital counterparts and achieve results that traditional DOOH campaigns can only dream of.

About Advertima

Advertima AI is the sales and marketing optimization solution for the physical world. We deliver consumer analytics and engagement information that supercharge the marketing efforts of some of the world's greatest organizations. For more information, visit advertima.com/news/detail/spar-success-story and download the case study.

Media Contact: Clelia Bucher / clelia.bucher@advertima.com 

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SPAR Store With Advertima's AI-Powered Digital Signage

The Advertima AI-powered Smart Signage solution understands real-world demographics (gender and age), engagement (dwell and view time), context (family groups, young mothers, etc). It provides unrivaled consumer insight, even in the digital world. For the first time, brands can communicate with consumers individually and, in real-time, dramatically increase the effectiveness of advertising.

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To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/51726
Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Sarec on Monday announced he would step down, calling for fresh elections, following his finance minister's resignation from the minority government.

"With these members of parliament and this coalition I cannot fulfil the people's expectations," he told journalists.

"The most honest thing we could do now would be early elections... to ask people whether they trust me and they want me to continue to work," added Sarec, a former comedian who became prime minister in 2018.

The resignation comes just after Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj announced he would quit and follows internal conflicts within the five-member coalition.

In December, the coalition barely managed to appoint a new cohesion minister after the populist Slovenian National Party agreed to abstain from the vote.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor will now have to start talks with parliamentary parties to see whether any of them can form a new coalition that commands a parliamentary majority.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi:

Fuel Rates Today: The prices of petrol and diesel prices witnessed a downward trend for the fourth consecutive day on Monday, January 27. According to the Indian Oil website, the petrol rates were lowered by up to 15 paise while diesel prices were slashed by up to 26 paise across major metro cities of the country. After todays (Monday) rate revision, petrol rates are Rs 73.71 per litre in Delhi, Rs 79.32 per litre in Mumbai, Rs 76.33 per litre in Kolkata, and Rs 76.56 per litre in Chennai, respectively. On the other hand, the diesel prices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai remained at Rs 66.71, Rs 69.93, Rs 69.07, and Rs 70.47 per litre, respectively.

In Noida, petrol is retailing at Rs 75.10 a litre, while diesel price is Rs 66.81 a litre. The price of petrol in Gurugram is Rs 73.33 a litre while diesel was selling at Rs 65.77 a litre. It is to be noted that after January 11, the petrol and diesel rates have come down by Rs 2.30 per litre and Rs 2.46 per litre, respectively.

India is 84 per cent dependant on imports to meet its oil needs and any spike in global prices has a direct bearing on its economy. Not just imports but even domestic crude oilwhich forms the raw material for making petrol, diesel and other petroleum productsis priced according to international benchmarks. Middle East accounts for more than two-thirds of the countrys oil imports, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia being the top suppliers.

Why Petrol, Diesel Prices Change Every Day?

The fuel prices are in India are revised daily. Petrol and diesel prices are revised every day at 06:00 am to sync it with the variation in global oil prices. Oil marketing companies (OMC) review the global fuel prices and decide petrol and diesel daily. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum release the new rates at 6 am every morning. Generally, when international crude oil prices gain, prices in India move higher. Other factors also impact the price of fuel like rupee to US dollar exchange rate, cost of crude oil, global cues, demand for fuel, and so on.

Why Fuel Prices Differ In Every City?

The price of fuel includes excise duty, value-added tax (VAT), and dealer commission. As VAT varies from state to state, the price of fuel is different in every city.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Astronomers have found a 'vampire' star in the midst of a feeding frenzy, with the help of an automated program that is sifting through archived data from the decommissioned Kepler Space Telescope.



The new program acts like a detective to find clues of very fast, mysterious explosions in the universe.

Lead researcher Ryan Ridden-Harper said the program found a dwarf nova, which comprises a white dwarf -- the dense remains of a star, something our Sun will be in billions of years -- gorging on a brown dwarf companion. The brown dwarf, which is 10 times less massive, is a failed star resembling a planet. "The rare event we found was a super-outburst from the dwarf nova, which can be thought of as a vampire star system," said Mr. Ridden-Harper, who conducted the study as part of his PhD at The Australian National University (ANU).

"The incredible data from Kepler reveals a 30-day period during which the dwarf nova rapidly became 1,600 times brighter before dimming quickly and gradually returning to its normal brightness. The spike in brightness was caused by material stripped from the brown dwarf that's being coiled around the white dwarf in a disk. That disk reached up to 11,700 degrees Celsius at the peak of the super-outburst."

The program aims to find rare astronomical events that evolve rapidly, over hours or days -- such as gamma ray bursts from core-collapse supernovae, colliding neutron stars or potentially those not seen before through optical telescopes.

"The discovery of this dwarf nova was unexpected, since it wasn't what we were searching for, but it provided excellent data and new insights into these vampire star systems," said Mr. Ridden-Harper, who made the discovery in collaboration with colleagues at ANU and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and the University of Notre Dame in the United States. He recently joined STScI as a Postdoctoral Fellow. "The next steps for this project are to comb through all Kepler data and extend it to data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which is known as TESS," Mr. Ridden-Harper said. "This will give us the best understanding of the most rapid explosions in the universe. Along the way, we might discover some rare events that no other telescope could find."

Dr. Brad Tucker, who supervised Mr. Ridden-Harper's work, said the program has extended the use of the Kepler Space Telescope's data to support innovative science. "We've used it to see stars as they explode, the secret lives of black holes and now things previously missed -- this vampire star that had been lurking in the darkness of space," said Dr. Tucker from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"Discovery of a New WZ Sagittae-type Cataclysmic Variable in the Kepler/K2 Data," R. Ridden-Harper et al., 2019 Oct. 21, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2923].



Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
New Delhi:

Indian Coast Guard has invited applications for the post of Navik General Duty. All eligible and interested candidates need to apply online in the prescribed format on the official website, i.e. joinindiancoastguard.gov.in. The online application process for Navik 2020 Posts has stated from January 27, 2020 and the last date to apply for the Indian Coast Guard Navik (General Duty) is February 2, 2020. Further, according to the official notification, the Navik (General Duty) admit card download link will be activated from February 15, 2020 and the last date to download the same is February 22, 2020.

Indian Coast Guard Navik General Duty Application

Candidates must make sure to go through the official notification and eligibility criteria carefully before applying for the Indian Coast Guard Navik 2020 posts. It is to note that a total of 260 vacant positions of Navik (General Duty) are going to be filled through this recruitment drive of which 113 vacancies are for general category candidates and the remaining are for reserved category candidates.

In order to apply for the Navik GD 2020 Posts, candidates need to have passed class 12 examination from a recognized board with 50 percent (45 percent marks for reserved category) marks. Further, candidates need to be in the age group of 18 to 22 years, i.e. born between August 1, 1988 and July 31, 2002 wherein month dates are inclusive. Age relaxation is provided as per government norms.

To apply online for the Indian Coast Guard Navik post, candidates need to follow the below mentioned steps:

First, candidates need to visit the official website of Indian Coast Guard, i.e. joinindiancoastguard.gov.in

Then, click on the Indian Coast Guard Navik General Duty Application notification link that is flashing on the homepage

A new page will open

Select the Gender, Post and then click on the I agree tab to proceed further

Duly fill the application form

Upload the scanned images

Pay the application fee and submit the application form

Candidates will be selected for the Navik post on the basis of written examination. Candidates who qualify the written exam need to appear for the Physical Fitness Test (PFT) wherein the testing procedure will take 2 days. The Indian Coast Guard Navik Written Test will comprise objective type questions from the sections of Physics, Mathematics, Basic English up to class 12th standard, Basic Chemistry, GK, Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude and Current Affairs.

Candidates can click on the below mentioned direct links to check the Indian Coast Guard Navik General Duty and register accordingly.

Indian Coast Guard Navik General Duty Notification

Indian Coast Guard Navik General Duty Application
A voter learns to use new voting machines at Philadelphia City Hall before the 2019 general election. Read more

Something has been happening in Pennsylvania elections.

When a Democrat leads on election night, that advantage grows as absentee and provisional ballots are counted in the days after. When a Republican leads, that edge shrinks.

It happened in 2018, when Gov. Tom Wolf and Sen. Bob Casey, both Democrats, saw their winning margins grow by more than 28,000 votes after election night. In each of the last four presidential elections, the tallies moved in favor of Democrats by more than 22,000 votes after Election Day.

Its called the blue shift. Its a little-known phenomenon researchers have identified only in the last few years. And it could further complicate the already complex task of declaring a winner on election night, in a critical swing state that helped elevate Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 and that is again expected to be close in 2020.

In short, as more voters began using nontraditional voting methods such as absentee and provisional ballots in recent years, a partisan split emerged in many states: Democrats tended to vote using those methods more often than Republicans.

That means the blue shift will only become more significant, voting experts say, as more and more ballots are cast outside of polling places. And it may take on particular importance in Pennsylvania, where a new election law means anyone can vote by mail starting in this years presidential primary  a dramatic expansion from the previous system, which required a justification for why voters couldnt appear in person. The number of absentee ballots is expected to balloon this year and continue growing after that.

If the blue shift continues, that would mean election night leads  which are tabulated using the initial returns from precincts and often dont include other votes  could be narrowed or even flipped in high-profile races, including for president.

This is the new normal, Edward B. Foley, the Ohio State University law professor who first identified the blue shift in a 2013 paper, said in an interview last week. This is how we conduct elections now, in a world with absentee voting on demand.  We just have to be patient, let the system work, let the ballots be counted, and whoever wins the authentic votes is the winner.

None of this changes the official, certified results that already come in long after the world knows who won. But being able to call a race in the hours after polls close has become an expectation for the public, with news organizations building sophisticated models for projecting winners based on unofficial results as they come in.

As unofficial election night tallies become even less complete than they are now, voting experts fear the spread of misguided claims of fraud and malfeasance: Will voters and candidates, accustomed to knowing the winner on election night, accept the ever-changing numbers as they roll in over several days? Or will they quickly jump to accusations of foul play?

Thats a real worry, Burden said. Once partisan politicians start to make accusations on election night, theres really not much going back in terms of bringing the public back in terms of a reasonable discussion of whats happening.

As Foley put it: No ones trying to steal an election or cheat or anything like that. Its now an additional feature of our system, but its one we havent completely psychologically caught up with.

Why the blue shift occurs

Electoral systems have changed significantly over the last two decades, with states adopting a series of reforms meant to make voting more accessible. The spread of provisional ballots, under federal law, was meant as a fail-safe for voters encountering trouble at the polls, and expanded access to absentee ballots was meant to make voting more flexible.

The reasons for the partisan split that emerged in who uses those methods are still being studied, election experts said. But factors appear to include that young voters, voters who move often, and low-income voters who use absentee and provisional ballots tend to lean more Democratic than other voters.

There is nothing inherently blue or red about this, by law or by design, Foley said.

In fact, he said, some states may experience a red shift, and even Pennsylvanias blue shift may change in the future as different voters adapt to the new absentee ballot system and counties that used to process them on election night stop doing so.

Why the blue shift has become more important

The number of mail-in votes, in particular, has grown significantly.

While absentee ballots used to be meant largely for voters who were literally absent on Election Day, states began to aggressively expand mail-in voting over the last two decades. Some states, including Oregon and Colorado, conduct elections almost entirely by mail.

Pennsylvania, like some other states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, largely resisted that movement, which was pioneered in Western states. But Wolf reached an agreement last year with Republicans who control the state legislature to allow all voters to qualify for mail-in ballots.

Absentee ballots have long been about 5% of votes cast in Pennsylvania or even less. Election officials expect that number to grow to 15% or even 20% this year.

And many counties wont count those absentee ballots on election night, meaning a significant number of votes will be left off the unofficial election night tallies.

Why the blue shift worries experts

Voters and even candidates who dont understand the changing nature of absentee and provisional ballots may think evaporating margins are evidence of malfeasance. Experts warned this becomes more likely in highly partisan environments when people are already primed to see wrongdoing.

For Democrats, this might mean jumping to conclusions about foreign interference. For Republicans, it may trigger worries about voter fraud.

In the 2018 Senate race in Arizona, Republican candidate Martha McSally held a narrow lead on election night, but Democrat Kyrsten Sinema ultimately won. Before the Associated Press called the race six days after the election, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to raise the specter of electoral corruption.

Foley and others said raising awareness of the blue shift can help inoculate people against unfounded claims.

Id hate for this misinformation about the process or this misunderstanding of the process [to contribute] to the anxiety, Foley said. If we think of this ahead of time and put it out there, then maybe we can avoid the problem. If you dont plan for a hurricane, you may not be able to handle it properly.

Theres one other thing people can do to prevent this kind of trouble, said David C. Kimball, a political science professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Get your states to provide more funds so counties can count them as fast as you want, he said. Election administration is vastly underfunded."

Barring that, Kimball said, people will just have to be patient.

I just want the count to be accurate and correct, and if I need to wait a few days or a week after the election to get that, Im willing to wait, he said. Were just going to have to all get used to this, of not knowing the winner on election night.
The Centre may take key steps to prepare for the possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan, officials said here on Monday.

The decision was made after a meeting chaired by the Union Cabinet Secretary to review the situation arising out of novel coronavirus outbreak in China.

The Health Ministry, in a statement, said that the Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities, accordingly.

The meeting was attended by secretaries in the Ministries of Health, External Affairs, Civil Aviation, Labour, Defence, Information and Broadcasting and other officials.

According to Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, nearly 29,707 passengers from almost 137 flights have been screened till Sunday.

"Samples of 12 passengers were referred to NIV Pune and no positive case has been reported so far. The ministeries of Civil Aviation and Health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively," he added.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation will issue an instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

It will also facilitate in-flight announcements and distribution of health cards to all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has been directed to ensure that integrated check posts initiate screening of visitors across the Nepal border. All the states have been requested to provide health staff for these check posts. SSB/ BSF/Immigration officers manning integrated check posts have been sensitised.

The Ministry of Shipping will initiate entry screening at the International ports having traffic from China.

Earlier in the day, the Health Ministry also held a review meeting with chief secretaries to review the preparedness and screening in five states sharing a border with Nepal, in addition to secretaries (Health) of other states.

They have been asked to ensure that community-level monitoring of passengers is undertaken through health staff.

Coronaviruses (nCoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

A novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

In more severe cases, the infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For the first time in eight years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Israel and Palestine. The visit went far beyond the traditional Middle Eastern agenda for Russia; regional dynamics were also discussed during the meetings Putin held with Israeli officials.

Paying tribute to the victims of Nazism and all those who died in World War II, Putin formally laid claim for Russia to be positioned as a global peacekeeper. This is the logical outcome of the policy that Moscow has been pursuing in the region, starting with its campaign in Syria but gradually examining opportunities for its own participation in other crises in the Middle East. It was also a very personal and sensitive visit not only for Putin but for many members of the Russian delegation.

Forgetting the past, disunity in the face of threats can turn into horrifying consequences. We must have the courage not only to say this bluntly but to do everything to protect and defend the world. In my view, an example must be set by the founding countries of the United Nations, the five powers that have a special responsibility to preserve civilization, Putin said, addressing the World Holocaust Forum at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center.

He immediately proposed to organize a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council  Russia, China, the United States, France and Great Britain  in any country, anywhere in the world to search for collective answers to modern challenges and threats.

Putin preferably wants the summit to be held this year when the world commemorates the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations.

In this regard, it is important to recall another statement by the Russian president dedicated to the anniversary of the United Nations and victory in World War II.

We propose joining forces to resolve the new problems we are facing, and creating a truly broad international anti-terrorism coalition.  I have to note that our honest and direct approach has been recently used as an excuse to accuse Russia of growing ambitions. As if those who talk about it have no ambition whatsoever. But the point is not Russia's ambitions, dear colleagues, but the fact it is already impossible to endure the ongoing situation in the world, Putin said when speaking at United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. At the time, few took that statement seriously. Two days later, Russia officially announced the start of its military campaign in Syria.

In both speeches, separated by five years, the key message Putin is trying to convey is the need to join forces. The initial Russian proposal failed. Moscow was not comfortable with the Wests approach that  besides being inconsistent  implied isolation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russias successful military campaign in Syria forced others to listen to Moscow. Although the standing Moscow secured for itself is more an image than reality, Russia is increasingly trying on the status of a peacemaker. Over the last few years, the Russian diplomatic portfolio expanded from the Syrian crisis to an attempt to reconcile Palestinian groups on a Moscow platform, to the introduction of the Russian concept of Persian Gulf security to Moscows willingness to serve as a communication channel between Washington and Tehran, to  most recently  pushing for a central role in hosting the intra-Libyan talks.

All these claims have not yet led to any positive results, with the Syrian settlement having become bogged down altogether. Nevertheless, Russia has achieved a small diplomatic victory, which is the final document of the Berlin Conference that virtually embraced the joint efforts by Ankara and Moscow to mediate an intra-Libyan cease-fire and ultimate settlement.

Putins idea to convene heads of five UN Security Council member states has been publicly supported by French President Emmanuel Macron at the World Holocaust Forum.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council bear historical responsibility nowadays. And I, dear Vladimir, share your intention to bring us all together, Macron said.

But evident dividing lines were seen in the other speeches. While Israeli speakers, as well as US Vice President Michael Pence, reiterated the formula never again when speaking of the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, they primarily implied Iran. Moscow does not share this position. To make matters worse, the United States is now talking about an expanding role of NATO in the Middle East, which is also not appreciated in Moscow.

The role of Iran in the region and the situation in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East was discussed by the Russian delegation, whose members arrived in Jerusalem a few days earlier. Yet Putin and his Israeli interlocutors did not publicly voice these issues in statements. Ultimately, Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have spent many hours talking through these issues over the last few years. Netanyahu is a regular guest in Russia  he was in the country twice each year in 2016 and 2017 and three times in both 2018 and 2019.

Putin was invited to Israel on numerous occasions but could not refuse it this time for at least two reasons: first, because of the World Holocaust Forum dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Red Army where more than a million Jews die; Putin  as a representative of the liberating country  became one of the main guests of the forum. The second reason is due to the unveiling of a monument to those who perished during the siege of Leningrad. Putins elder brother is one of the victims of this landmark tragedy for the Soviet Union during the war with Hitler.

Israel is practically the only country outside the former USSR that fully shares the Russian approach to the history of World War II amid attempts by a number of Western countries to hold Moscow responsible for the events of those years. On May 9, 2018, Netanyahu took part in Victory Day celebrations while the allies in the anti-Western coalition ignored Russia.

Israeli politicians started recalling the family tragedy of Putin and the entire Soviet nation, and the Red Armys role in the victory over Nazism, right after the president went down the ramp. As a representative of the victorious power, they thanked him personally and in the presence of 50 world leaders. The Russian delegation wept at the opening ceremony for the monument, where Soviet songs were sung in Hebrew and the mayor of Jerusalem read verses by famous Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova. This is not a figurative expression  the camera repeatedly recorded Sergey Lavrov wiping away tears. Putin was touched as well.

The monument is very valuable; it will remain for a long time, hopefully for centuries. And you can unveil it in different ways. But just as you did today  thank you, Putin said, completing his speech at the opening ceremony.

Russia received the treatment it feels it deserves in Israel and in appreciation for this attitude may be expected to be softer in its disagreements with Israel  from a vision of Middle Eastern problems to occasional turbulence in bilateral relations.

Although many in Israel argued that Netanyahu needed the forum to win the election and both Putins visit and the Leningrad theme were there to attract Russian-speaking voters to Likud, all of this is of little importance to Moscow whatsoever. Israel gave Russia what it most needed in order to demonstrate itself in the role that it wants to play: the peacemaker.

Putins visit to Bethlehem for the meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which followed after the events in Israel, thus was more of a tribute to traditions. Moscow understands that a Palestinian-Israeli settlement has practically no prospects. But as always, Russia is ready to play the role of mediator and provide assistance  especially in the run-up to the US plans to release the so-called Deal of the Century.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Sen. Bernie Sanders faced a sudden barrage of attacks from his rivals Sunday amid signs that he was surging in the critical early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and closing the gap nationally with the race's longtime polling leader, Joe Biden.

Sanders's rise, with days left before the Feb. 3 caucuses here, prompted urgent warnings from competing campaigns that the party is in jeopardy of nominating a self-identified democratic socialist whose views would turn off the broad swath of voters required to defeat President Donald Trump in the November general election.

"Bernie Sanders could be the nominee," the campaign of Pete Buttigieg declared in an ominous-sounding fundraising message to supporters Saturday. A pointed text message followed on Sunday: "We risk nominating a candidate who cannot beat Donald Trump in November. And that's a risk we can't take."

The focus on Sanders represents a shift from much of the past year in which the top candidates largely ignored the senator from Vermont, wagering that there was little benefit in fighting with a candidate with a loyal following but who might not be able to build on it. The more traditional campaigns - mainly those of Biden, the former vice president, and Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana - focused more on trying to siphon support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who was ascendant in the summer and early fall but has dropped in recent months.

The dynamic underscores the remarkable nature of Sanders's candidacy, which seemed doomed as recently as October after the 78-year-old suffered a heart attack. Since then, Sanders has become re-energized, with new endorsements and surveys that suggest he has the chance to expand his base of support.

Several new public polls have shown Sanders on the rise, particularly in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he appears to have taken the lead. A national Washington Post-ABC News poll published this weekend showed Biden and Sanders in the clear top spots nationally - with Biden at 32% and Sanders at 23% among Democratic-leaning registered voters.

Much of the intensifying debate over Sanders over the weekend centered on his ability - or lack thereof - to defeat Trump. The discussion once again laid bare the argument that has vexed a Democratic Party desperate to beat the president, but unsure whether the best path to victory means energizing liberal voters eager for a "political revolution," as Sanders promises, or nominating a more centrist candidate who can piece together a left-center coalition.

The polling on that question is not conclusive. A Post average of national surveys dating back to December shows that Biden leads Trump 48% to 43%, while Sanders's edge is a slightly narrower 47% to 44% for Trump.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who has presented herself as a moderate best able to defeat Trump, seized a chance to make the electability argument on national television Sunday - telling ABC News that Sanders's Medicare-for-all plan puts him out of step with voters in many more moderate or conservative parts of the country that might be open to voting Democratic in November.

"When you look at what just happened in the last election, as well as those governor races in Kentucky and Louisiana, look what happened," Klobuchar told ABC News. "Those were candidates where Democrats won in states that were red, states that were purple, like Michigan, like Kansas, congressional races all over the country that fit the district, that fit that the state, that did not suggest blowing up our current health system and kicking 149 million Americans off their current health insurance in four years."

A more cutting critique came Sunday from another candidate, former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who seemed to mock Sanders's political ideology during a South Florida speech to Jewish voters.

"I know I'm not the only Jewish candidate running for president. But I am the only one who doesn't want to turn America into a kibbutz," he said, a reference to the socialism shared by Sanders and the Israeli collective farm where Sanders worked decades ago.

Biden, who has long argued that Democrats need to choose a nominee who can help Democrats win back swing-state voters, took subtle steps that seemed designed to create contrasts with Sanders.

After Sanders was criticized for promoting the endorsement of podcast host Joe Rogan, who has made disrespectful remarks about the transgender community, Biden tweeted Saturday: "Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights."

Biden, meanwhile, continued to roll out endorsements from elected Democrats in the early states, underscoring his appeal in the middle of the party.

Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, who offered her high-profile endorsement to Biden on Saturday, said a "pragmatic" platform is key to fostering victories like hers in down-ballot races moving forward.

"I can tell you from flipping a seat here a year ago, you do not win seats in purple districts like ours without a top of a ticket that actually supports the values the people in this country want to see as far as leadership," Axne said in an interview Sunday.

Sanders and his campaign have grown more explicit in their arguments for why they believe he would be the strongest opponent for Trump.

The senator, after all, leads what has effectively become a political movement - one that would surely mobilize for Sanders if he were the nominee but that remains an open question when it comes to turning out for a more establishment-oriented candidate. Many stayed home in 2016 rather than vote for Hillary Clinton, who had defeated Sanders in a bitter primary that year.

"In terms of electability, which is a fair question, we need a campaign which has energy, which has excitement, which has a strong grass-roots movement, which is able to raise money from working families to campaign and not just billionaires and Wall Street executives," Sanders said Saturday at a rally in Ames, Iowa, that drew some 1,400 people, including 400 in an overflow room set up in an adjacent gymnasium.

The argument is being echoed by one of Sanders's most prominent supporters, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a star on the political left who argued during appearances here that many voters in the heartland would be drawn to Sanders's message.

"I almost get insulted on behalf of people" when they say what will or won't win the Midwest, Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday in Marshalltown, Iowa. She argued that because of the economic struggles that many people are experiencing, "radical change is exactly what we need now."

On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez pushed back against critics who say Sanders would alienate some voters.

"I don't think he's divisive," she said. "I think he distinguishes himself. I think he's very clear about who he is."

Another Sanders backer, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, brought along a printed list of campaign events that Sanders did for Clinton after losing to her in 2016, clearly designed to allay lingering anger that Sanders didn't do more to press his supporters to turn out. "He went and held on his own 42 rallies to get out the vote for Hillary," Moore said.

Sanders has sought to turn the sudden hostility he is facing into a battle cry that he hopes will energize his base to turn out in large numbers on caucus night.

"The big-money interests are getting very nervous," he said, prompting cheers. "They're looking at recent polls in New Hampshire and in Iowa, and they're saying, 'Oh, my God, Sanders can win.' "

- - -

The Washington Post's Annie Linskey, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Emily Guskin and Julie Zauzmer contributed to this report.
Michael Bloomberg's 2020 campaign released a plan Monday backing statehood for Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

Why it matters: Other candidates "have tip-toed around the issue of Puerto Rican statehood, saying they want Puerto Ricans to decide whether or not the U.S. territory becomes the countrys 51st state," the Miami Herald writes.

Details: Bloomberg's plan would fully fund Medicaid and other social safety net programs in Puerto Rico, as well as implement federal tax credits and an audit on the island's debt and restructuring plans.

Where it stands: The former New York Mayor is the third 2020 contender to support the island's statehood, according to the Washington Post.

Former tech executive Andrew Yang and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney are the other two, while Joe Biden's position is unclear.

Between the lines: The move is consistent with Bloomberg's non-traditional campaign, which has focused on delegate-rich states and territories, rather than first-in-the-nation contests like Iowa and New Hampshire. Puerto Rico has 51 delegates up for grabs.

What he's saying:

For decades, Puerto Ricans and their interests have been ignored by Washington. And theres a simple reason why: They dont have a vote in Congress. Theres a clear solution to this challenge that a majority of Puerto Ricans support. Most presidential candidates for president have been too afraid to back it. Not me. Ill state it clearly: I support statehood for Puerto Rico. And as president, I will work to pass a bill making it a reality, subject to approval by the people of Puerto Rico  who will make the ultimate decision.

 Mike Bloomberg in a press release

Go deeper: Michael Bloomberg on the issues, in under 500 words
Debates over occupied Polands role continue amid claims that denying complicity is akin to Holocaust revisionism.

Oswiecim, Poland  One tour group jutted up against another on a recent, cold Wednesday at Auschwitz, the German Nazi concentration and death camp complex.

Guides shuffled guests through the crematorium, the torture block, barracks and displays, like human hair shorn from prisoners after their death in gas chambers.

Now known as the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, it is about 70 kilometres (43 miles) west of Krakow. In 2019, about 2.3 million visitors came here  a record.

Press Officer Pawel Sawicki says he wants to reach millions more  online, which he does via the official @AuschwitzMuseum Twitter account.

Sawicki works out of what once was the pharmacy of the German Schutzstaffel, the SS force that guarded the camp. He lifts the blinds and points to the barbed wire in his view.

Throughout the day, he publishes tweets, usually about the people who died here at Auschwitz.

The Nazis murdered at least 1.1. million people here, mostly Jews, but also non-Jewish Poles, gay men, members of the Roma ethnic group, Soviet prisoners and Jehovahs Witnesses.

One exhibit at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum shows shoes that belonged to people deported to the camp complex. The camp complex was liberated on January 27, 1945. [Veronica Zaragovia/Al Jazeera]

Sawicki sometimes contacts other Twitter users publicly if he deems that their tweets, articles, books or films about Auschwitz to be inaccurate.

We see that this is also respecting [victims] story  to ask journalists or writers or artists or anyone: Be factual, be correct when we talk about this story, Sawicki said.

But these corrections at times grow into heated arguments.

Simply put, just like the bomb from Hiroshima wasn't a Japanese bomb, this camp wasn't a Polish camp. Piotr M. A. Cywinski, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum director

In early December, the memorial tweeted to one user: Acts of Poles  whether heroic or horrible  within the context of the German occupation of Poland & extermination of Jews, must be researched honestly, fairly & professionally. However, in the case of the history of Auschwitz talking about Polish complicity is simply false.

The camp was controlled by the German state and the SS, the memorials director, Piotr M. A. Cywinski, told Al Jazeera.

Simply put, just like the bomb from Hiroshima wasnt a Japanese bomb, this camp wasnt a Polish camp.

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, which launched World War II.

The Polish military tried to resist Adolf Hitlers troops, but could not compete against their supplies and machinery. About two weeks later, Joseph Stalin invaded from the east.

As German and Soviet troops controlled Poland by October, borders swiftly shifted.

The Auschwitz complex, which operated from 1940 to 1945, was not in Poland. Pre-war Poland had become occupied.

Still, many on Twitter say even in occupied Poland and across Europe, anti-Semites helped the German Nazis get more victims to their camps, and they want to express this without being confronted by the @AuschwitzMuseum Twitter account.

My great-grandmother has no grave I can visit. She ended up in an Auschwitz chimney, one man tweeted, in response to the memorial.

Today the caretakers of the site where this crime occurred have reached out to me to deny Polish complicity in her murder and to send vile comments from Holocaust revisionists into my feed.

This tweets author asked Al Jazeera to remain anonymous out of concerns for his safety, after he felt attacked by the memorial and an onslaught of cyberbullying.

Because he wrote: Polish complicity, one person tweeted back: For being Jewish you sure act like a pig.

He said that Germans ran the camps at Auschwitz and murdered non-Jewish Poles, but, he added, to ignore the eager and willing collaboration of much of the Polish population in supplying Auschwitz with its victims is nothing short of Holocaust revisionism.

Sawicki said he welcomes negative feedback.

It means that we are doing our job right, he said.

Poland-born Jan T Gross, a retired professor from Princeton University who wrote Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, understands the range of reactions that come with writing about Poland during the Holocaust.

In his book, he reconstructs and examines a massacre in July 1941 when Jedwabnes non-Jewish Poles, and not German Nazis, murdered their Jewish neighbours. They led most of the Jews into a barn and burned them alive.

It implies important things about the complicity of just the regular folks who are not Jewish in the persecution of Jews during the war, Gross said.

After the books publication in 2001, Polands then-President Aleksander Kwasniewski publicly apologised to the victims. Several examples of Holocaust historiography followed. But so did controversy and efforts by some to debunk Grosss work.

During the Second World War in Poland, German occupation was extremely brutal, Gross said. It was genocidal as far as Jews are concerned, but it was extremely brutal and murderous vis-a-vis Poles.

At the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, a display shows suitcases stolen from people deported to the camp complex by the German Nazis [Veronica Zaragovia/Al Jazeera]

Poles suffered extensively under the Germans, but now they had another painful challenge.

How to be a victim and persecutor at the same time, Gross said.

In 2012, as these feelings were still raw, former then US President Barack Obama infuriated Polands leaders by saying the words Polish death camp at a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony.

In 2015, conservative candidate Andrzej Duda won the presidential election and within years signed a bill into law that outlaws blaming Poles for Nazi Germanys crimes.

At first, this carried a potential prison sentence but the government has since backtracked on that. Still, the law strained Polands relationship with countries like Israel.

Israel invited Poland to this months World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem to commemorate 75 years since Auschwitzs liberation. While some presidents were asked to speak, Duda was not and he declined the invitation.

Krakow resident Kamil Kmak, 30, does not believe legislation can solve the Polish camps problem.

He said education is a must and that too few people have learned about Polands history.

During World War II, Polands government went into exile in London.

From there, it supported a resistance movement against the Germans. After the wars end, Britain and France abandoned Poland.

The Soviet Union, whose army had liberated the Auschwitz camps on January 27, 1945, oppressed Poland under communist rule for nearly 45 years.

Aside from his full-time job, Kmak also works to bring attention to the history of both non-Jewish Poles and Jews to the foreground. Kmak joined the efforts of the Popiela Family Foundation of Polish Olympian Dariusz Popiela to restore or appropriately commemorate Jewish cemeteries.

Kmak, who is not Jewish, spent 10 years researching the names of more than 1,700 Jews of a Polish town called Grybow. The Nazis killed Jews in Grybow inside the towns Jewish ghetto, although they murdered most in the gas chambers at Belzec.

Last November, Kmak joined many others to unveil a memorial with the names of Grybows Jewish victims, who had never been memorialised before.

Grybow is where he grew up, decades later.

Were trying to reconstruct the world that was torn apart.

About 2.3 million people visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in 2019. This year marks 75 years since the Soviet Army liberated the camp complex in 1945 [Veronica Zaragovia/Al Jazeera]

Proper reconstruction, he said, depends on the words  a point made by Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, a Nobel laureate in literature.

Tokarczuk has received criticism, even death threats, for criticising Polands past, including anti-Semitic incidents.

The world is made of words, Tokarczuk wrote in her Nobel speech in December 2019.

How we think about the world and, perhaps even more importantly, how we narrate it have a massive significance, therefore.

A thing that happens and is not told ceases to exist and perishes. This is a fact well known to not only historians but also  to every stripe of politician and tyrant. He who has and weaves the story is in charge.
By Ayman al-Warfalli and Ahmed Elumami

BENGHAZI, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar sought on Sunday to open a new front by moving forces towards the city of Misrata, which is allied to the country's internationally recognised government, officials and residents said.

In another sign that a shaky truce was faltering, Tripoli's Mitiga further to the west airport was hit by two rockets, which wounded two civilians and damaged the tarmac and buildings, the U.N. mission to Libya said.

It did not blame anyone for the strike, the second within days. The airport has been used to launch Turkish-supplied combat drones to counter unmanned aircraft used by Haftar's Libyan National Army and provided by the United Arab Emirates.

The increase in fighting comes a week after the UAE, Egypt, Russia, which back Haftar, and Turkey, which backs the government in Tripoli, agreed with western powers at a summit in Berlin to push for a lasting ceasefire and uphold an arms embargo.

Despite the peace efforts, the LNA has now moved from the central city of Sirte towards Misrata. Fighting between the LNA and forces from Misrata was centred on the town of Abugrain, 120 km east of Misrata itself, both sides confirmed.

Two LNA fighters were killed and eight wounded, an LNA source said, adding that his forces later retreated taking some prisoners.

"Battles are raging on all front lines," LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi, blaming Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has been sending troops to defend Tripoli.

Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli in April and has made small gains with the help of Russian and African mercenaries.

Erdogan said the Libyan general, who abandoned talks on a ceasefire in Moscow this month and blockaded oilfields during the Berlin summit, cannot be trusted.

Speaking during a visit to Algeria, Erdogan said Libya "should not be allowed to turn into a playground for terrorist organisations and warlords".

Story continues

Before leaving for Algeria, Erdogan said Haftar's forces had repeatedly violated the ceasefire. "He's continuing attacks with all his resources. However, he will not be successful here."

Libya has had no stable central authority since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. It has had two rival governments, in the east and the west, for more than five years.

In Berlin, foreign powers agreed to form a special committee made up of five military officials from each side to shore up the shaky truce. They are due to meet for the first time this week in Geneva.

The U.N. mission in Libya said on Saturday that numerous cargo flights bringing weapons, trucks and fighters from countries that took part in the summit have been landing in both western and eastern Libya.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Ahmed Elumami, Hamid Ould Ahmed and Ayman al-Warfalli, Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ulf Laessing, Editing by John Stonestreet, Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood)
The Roman Catholic Church in Gujarat on Monday said religion should not be a criteria to award citizenship and voiced apprehensions over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

In a statement here, the Catholic Church expressed "concern" about the new law and registered its "protest". "The Church welcomes the decision of the government to grant citizenship to some helpless migrants from neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

READ: Another Forced Conversion & Marriage In Pakistan: Hindu Bride Abducted, Forcibly Wed

"However, we are also concerned that a particular community has been left out because of its religion. We oppose this move. It is against the Constitution to take into account religion for deciding citizenship," it said. The religious institution said "discrimination" against a particular community goes against the values of the Constitution.

"The Church believes in the principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - the world is a family. This is also enshrined in the Constitution. "Thus, this discrimination against a particular community of this family is against this principle also against the values of our Constitution," said the statement. The Church questioned the need for the NRC-NPR and urged the Centre to stop their implementation to protect the rights of all Indians.

The statement was signed by Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gandhinagar, Thomas Macwan, an spokesperson of the Gujarat Catholic Church, Father Vinayak Jadav, among others. The CAA promises Indian citizenship to persecuted non- Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. CAA's critics say the law is discriminatory and violates the core values of the Constitution.
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Former production assistant Mimi Haleyi broke down in court on Monday as she described how Harvey Weinstein performed oral sex on her against her will while she was on her period in his New York apartment and assaulted her a second time at a TriBeca hotel in 2006.

Haleyi, 42, is the second of six accusers to testify at the Miramax co-founder's high-profile rape trial entering its second week at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Her allegations and that of another woman, Jessica Mann, who claimed Weinstein raped her in a New York City hotel in 2013, are at the heart of the Weinstein trial.

Haleyi began to cry when she recounted the July 10, 2006 incident where Weinstein sent a car to take her to his SoHo apartment for what she thought was a business meeting.

Once there she claimed she was pushed onto a bed, had her tampon pulled out and was assaulted in what appeared to be a child's bedroom or playroom.

'He pushed me down, he held me. I said no, no. At that time I started realizing what was actually happening. I'm being raped,' she said.

'I was crying no, no. I told him Im on my period. It was as if he didnt believe me. I said something like where is it then? He literally pulled my tampon out,' she added.

Describing the bedroom Haleyi said: 'I remember seeing childrens drawings on the walls and some hair colors on the shelf.'

Former Weinstein Co. production assistant Mimi Haleyi (center in beige jacket) took the witness the stand at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial on Monday and recounted how the Hollywood mogul allegedly sexually assaulted her in his New York City apartment in 2006. Pictured arriving to court Monday morning

Haleyi, who worked for Project Runway - a reality show which Weinstein produced, pictured arriving to court on Monday

Weinstein looked tired as he left his sexual assault trial Monday evening after Haleyi underwent an intense cross-examination

Hunched over his walker the film producer made his way out of New York Criminal Court in Manhattan on Monday evening

In Monday's long trial the jury listened to Haleyi's testimony where she was allegedly raped by Weinstein twice, while the defense questioned why she remained in contact with him despite the alleged assaults

On Monday Haleyi, dressed in a cream trench coat, only acknowledged Weinstein to identify him to the court.

She spoke so quietly she was given a microphone to testify as Weinstein blankly stared at her.

Her given name is Miriam Haley but she said she changed it recently to Mimi Haleyi due to the intense scrutiny in light of the Weinstein allegations.

In her testimony she recalled first meeting the movie giant at the 2004 London premiere of the movie Aviator, a Martin Scorsese film Miramax produced. At that time she was working for British film producer Michael White.

He pushed me down, he held me. I said no, no. At that time I started realizing what was actually happening. I'm being raped Mimi Haleyi testified in court Monday

In March of 2006 she bumped into him at the Cannes film festival and asked if he could help her with a job as she had no employment and had just lost her apartment. In a meeting at a suite at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes she saw red flags when he made a comment about her legs and asked her for a massage, she says.

'Then suddenly it turned into him asking me if I gave massages, if I could give him a massage. I declined and said perhaps you should contact the front desk to organize a massage,' she said.

Haleyi said no and left the hotel.

'I was extremely humiliated. I (had been) so excited to see him. I was crying. I waited until I was outside the hotel and burst into tears,' she added.

Days later Weinstein's assistant called Haleyi saying she landed a job on the set of Project Runway, a reality fashion competition show he produced.

On one occasion Haleyi said Weinstein drove her home to her apartment in the East Village in New York City and asked if he could come inside and join her. When she told him no, Weinstein immediately invited Haleyi to fly to Paris on a private jet for a fashion show with him, but she declined by bringing up his sketchy reputation.

'He was very overwhelming and very very persistent. He would not accept the no. I just didnt know how to shut it down so I said you know you have a terrible reputation with women? He got offended and stepped back,' she said at the witness stand.

He then asked her: 'What have you heard?'

Weinstein pictured arriving to the Manhattan criminal court house Monday morning feebly using a walker

Weinstein, who is accused of five felony counts including rape and predatory sexual assault, has denied any wrongdoing. He looked frail in court throughout his trial, often arriving clutching onto a walker

Weinstein pictured watching as Mimi Haleyi is questioned by Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast in front of Judge James Burke during Monday's trial

She broke down in tears as she recounted the alleged rape saying: 'I was crying no, no. I told him Im on my period. It was as if he didnt believe me. I said something like where is it then? He literally pulled my tampon out'

Haleyi pictured describing how she tried to back away from Weinstein when he attacked her

Haleyi said she was raped in Weinstein's New York apartment. Weinstein's $25.6million West Village home which he sold in 2018 pictured above

She later accepted a trip to Los Angeles for the premiere of the movie Clerks 2, paid by the Weinstein company. Haleyi said she was only looking for 'employment opportunities' and did not have any romantic or sexual interest in Weinstein.

In the July incident, one day before the LA trip, Haleyi said she and Weinstein started out by having a seemingly normal conversation on his couch in his apartment, sitting a few feet apart.

'At some point early in me being there he lunged at me and was trying to kiss me. I said oh no, no, no. I tried to reject him and push him away but he kept kissing and fondling me. I got up and tried to walk away from him but he kept coming towards me. I was walking backwards trying to get away,' Haleyi said in her testimony.

He ended up pushing her into the bedroom and pinned her down on the bed.

'He was holding me down by my wrists and also his body on top of me and was pushing down every time I tried to get up - no, stay!' she recalled.

'I expressed the entire time I just said no, no, I dont want this to happen this is not going to happen. I was just trying to tell him stop,' she added.

Haleyi said she began to cry and thought to herself, 'If I scream rape, will someone hear me?'

She said she tried to flee but when she realized she couldn't she 'checked out' as Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her.

Manhattan District Attorney Meghan Hast described the 110-pound Haleyi as 'no match for the 300-pound Weinstein'.

When he finished she left in 'shock'.

She still ended up going to LA the next day because it was booked some time before, was a solo trip, and she felt pressure to go.

Haleyi said she didn't report the incident to police because, 'Mr. Weinstein has a lot more power and resources and connections and I didn't think I'd stand a chance.'

Gloria Allred, the lawyer for Weinstein's accusers including Haleyi, pictured arriving to court Monday morning

A member of the prosecution pictured pushing a cart loaded with files for Weinstein's trial on Monday

Haleyi first came forward with her allegations in a press conference in October 2017 in New York (above)

Two weeks later Haleyi subsequently agreed to meet with Weinstein again in his suite at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in Manhattan because he was 'persistent and insistent'. Haleyi said that 'I felt like I was trying to regain some sort of power'.

She she says she ended up being assaulted in that meeting as well.

'Almost instantly he basically just took my hand and pulled me towards the bed. At that point I thought, well I just dont know,' Haleyi testified.

Speaking through tears she added: 'I felt like an idiot. I was not interested in him and he convinced me to meet him again just to do something like that to me against.'

Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast (above) asked Haleyi: 'Did you want to have sex with Harvey Weinstein that night?' She responded: 'No'

'He pulled me into the bedroom and I didnt resist, I just lay there. He had intercourse with me. He said something like youre a w***e, a b***h.'

She said she didnt tell anyone because it was 'embarrassing' and she felt 'humiliated'.

Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast asked: 'Did you want to have sex with Harvey Weinstein that night?'

Haleyi said: 'No'.

Hast asked: 'Did you do anything to make him think you wanted to have sex with him that night?'

Haleyi said: 'No'.

She added: 'I put it away in a box and pretended it didnt happen and carried on as usual'.

Describing how she felt during the rape she said: 'I felt numb. I felt humiliated and I felt numb.'

Weinstein, 67, has appeared frail during his court appearances and on Monday hobbled into the courthouse clutching onto a walker, just as he has in the previous days of the trial.

He faces life behind bars if convicted on all counts by the jury of seven men and five women. He is accused of five felony counts including rape and predatory sexual assault and has denied any wrongdoing.

Haleyi went public with her allegations in an October 2017 press conference alongside her lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents other Weinstein accusers including Soprano's actress Annabella Sciorra who testified just last week.

Weinstein's defense lawyers question Haleyi and the movie mogul's relationship

Weinstein's lawyer Damon Cheronis intensely questioned Haleyi in a heated cross-examination about why she stayed in contact with Weinstein after the alleged assaults.

After the assaults, Cheronis said, Haleyi flew with Weinstein to London, often sent him e-mails, and a year after the alleged 2006 rapes she reached out to him to pitch a TV show.

Cheronis brought up and displayed on a large screen an e-mail sent in 2008 from Haleyi to Weinstein - two years after the alleged rapes - that he claimed sounded almost romantic.

Weinstein landed Haleyi a job as a production assistant on Project Runway, which he produced, in 2006. Weinstein pictured posing with show host Heidi Klum during the Season 3 finale in September 2006

'Hi Harvey, how are you? Great to see you in Cannes,' the e-mail said.

In the email Haleyi called herself a 'genius' for telling Weinstein in 2005 that The Addams Family should be made into a movie - it had just been announced it was being turned into a film.

She signed off: 'Lots of love, Miriam'.

Weinstein replied: 'You are a genius, good to hear from you'.

Some of Haleyi's messages were made public last year when Weinstein's lawyers sought to get his case dismissed. One sent to Weinstein's phone in 2007 reads: 'Hi! Just wondering if u have any news on whether Harvey will have time to see me before he leaves? X Miriam.'

'That's not predator and prey. The state is going to try and pull a magic trick and say it was because she was fearful...that's not true,' Cheronis said Monday.

The movie giant's defense team is trying to paint the accusers as opportunistic women who willingly had transactional sex with Weinstein in order to advance their own careers. Some of the accusers continued intimate relationships with him after the alleged attacks, his attorneys claim.

They will focus on the accusers' interactions with Weinstein well after the alleged assaults to call into question their accounts.

During Haley's cross examination Cheronis asked why Haleyi wrote in her diary on July 27, 2006, the day after the alleged hotel rape, to call Weinstein's assistant Dan Guando about plane tickets to London. She admitted she did write that in her diary.

Defense attorney Damon Cheronis cross examines Mimi Haleyi during Monday's trial in New York Criminal Court. In the examination they went over her diary posts, e-mails with Weinstein, and trips paid by Weinstein's company

In a heated exchange Cheronis said to Haleyi: 'The truth of the matter is that you had a consensual relationship with Mr Weinstein?' Haleyi replied: 'Not a sexual, consensual relationship, no'

On July 31 there was something scribbled out in her diary that Cheronis said was 'to call Dan to see if I could go (to London).' Cheronis called it an 'obliteration' of the text, not just a scribbling over.

He then asked if it was correct that Haleyi flew to London on August 2nd on a ticket paid for by Weinstein. Haleyi agreed that she did.

Cheronis sarcastically asked if it was before or after Weinstein called her a 'b***h' and a 'w***e that he offered to pay for her ticket to London.

Haleyi said: 'He called me a b***h and a w***e because he thought it would turn me on.'

Cheronis asked: 'He didn't force you to have sex at the Tribeca Grand (Hotel), did he?'

Timeline of Mimi Haleyi and Harvey Weinstein's relationship 2004 - Haleyi first met the movie giant at the London premiere of the movie Aviator, a Martin Scorsese film Miramax produced March 2006 - Haleyi bumped into him at the Cannes film festival and asked for a job - They meet at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes and he allegedly asks for a massage - Days later he gives her Project Runway job July 10, 2006 - He brings her to his SoHo, New York apartment and allegedly forcibly performs oral sex on her -The next day she flies out to LA for a premiere, which Weinstein paid for July 26, 2006 - Haleyi meets Weinstein at his suite e at the TriBeCa Grand Hotel in Manhattan where he allegedly rapes her September 2006 - Haleyi flies out to London and e-mails Weinstein saying she's 'bummed' she won't see him there February 2007 - A year after the alleged rapes she pitches Weinstein a TV show May 2009 - Haleyi sends last e-mail asking for a job October 2017 - Haleyi comes forward with Weinstein allegations Advertisement

Haleyi said: 'I didnt physically resist.'

Cheronis said: 'Did you testify before the grand jury it wasnt forced?'

Haleyi said: 'Correct because I didnt resist'

Cheronis then showed the jury an e-mail Haleyi sent on September 8 to Guando saying she was flying to London and was 'bummed to have missed you guys', referring to him and Weinstein who had been in the UK.

'If you're coming back anytime soon please let me know,' she added.

The defense then questioned Haleyi asking why she e-mailed Guando on February 17, 2007 to pitch a show she was working on entitled Trash TV to Weinstein after the alleged assaults.

She had a meeting with Weinstein soon after about it.

Cheronis asked Haleyi: 'No fear of going into Mr. Weinstein's hotel?' Haleyi replied: 'At that point, no'.

Cheronis showed the jury an email Haleyi sent to Weinstein where she wrote: 'Thank you so much for your kind offer to help', referring to Trash TV.

The email said that Weinstein was 'very informative and very sweet and helpful' during their meeting. She signed off: 'Lots of love, Miriam.'

Haleyi justified the signature saying: 'Its a very common way to sign off.'

Cheronis challenged: 'For the man you just described on July 10 and July 26 (assaulting you)?' She said: 'Correct.'

Haleyi also confirmed that she contacted Weinstein's office about some free tickets to see the film Sicko at Cannes that year and sent him a number of scripts from her friends over the years.

Her last e-mail to Weinstein was sent on May 25, 2009 in which she said: 'I haven't seen you in so long, how are you?' She asked him for a job as a runner - a person who assists senior film figures - because she was training to be a yoga teacher adding, 'my cat needs feeding.'

Cheronis then listed out the details of Haleyi's and Weinstein's interactions - the plane tickets, e-mails, sending scripts for friends - and repeatedly asked why Haleyi didn't mention any of them in her press conference in 2017 when she went public, sparking a heated exchange.

'The reason you didnt tell the rest of the world that was because you knew they would look at you skeptically. Thats the truth?' Cheronis asked.

Haleyi said no.

Cheronis said: 'The truth of the matter is that you had a consensual relationship with Mr. Weinstein?'

Haleyi said: 'Not a sexual, consensual relationship, no.'

Weinstein's defense team is arguing that Haleyi and the producer had a consensual relationship for years.But Haleyi says their relationship was professional and she continued to communicate with Weinstein regarding work opportunities.

Last week's trial ended with Rosie Perez (left and right) testifying about her emotional phone calls where her friend actress Annabella Sciorra claimed Weinstein raped her in 1993 in her New York apartment and ruined a family heirloom nightgown of hers in the act. The alleged rape is not one of the incidents Weinstein is charged over but prosecutors were allowed to bring Sciorra into the courtroom to talk about it to support their case, specifically the charge of predatory sexual assault. Perez is known for her role in Do The Right Thing (right)

Annabella Sciorra cried as she took the stand in Harvey Weinstein's New York trial on Thursday to tell how he raped her in 1993, a year before confiding fully in Perez about it. She appeared in The Sopranos as Tony Soprano's mistress (right)

Harvey Weinstein held the railing as he left court at the end of the day on Friday for his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault

A court sketch shows Harvey Weinstein listening to testimony from Rosie Perez as his sex crimes trial on Friday

Last week actress Annabella Sciorra testified that Weinstein had raped her in her Manhattan apartment in the early 1990s. She said on a second occasion he showed up uninvited outside her hotel room wearing just his underwear and carrying baby oil in one hand and a videotape in another.

At the end of last week, Rosie Perez testified about her emotional phone calls where Sciorra said Weinstein raped her in 1993 in her New York apartment and ruined a family heirloom nightgown of hers in the act.

The alleged rape is not one of the incidents Weinstein is charged over because it is too old to support a separate rape charge, but prosecutors hope it will prove that he is a repeat sexual predator, which could put him in prison for life.

Weinstein has been charged with similar sex crimes in Los Angeles, but that case is on hold until the New York case is resolved.

Who are Weinstein's accusers who have or will testify?

Six women are expected to testify at Weinstein's rape trial, while more than 90 women have accused the Miramax founder of sexual misconduct, harassment, rape, and unwanted touching.

One is actress Annabella Sciorra who claims Weinstein raped her in her New York City apartment in 1993.

A second is Haleyi, who claims Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her inside his apartment in 2006.

A third accuser, Jessica Mann, claims the movie mogul of raped her in a Midtown Manhattan hotel in 2013.

Costume designer Dawn Dunning claims Weinstein sexually harassed her and tried to pressure her into having a three-way with him and his assistant when she was 24 at a Manhattan hotel in 2004.

Aspiring actress Tarale Wulff claims Weinstein masturbated in front of her as she was working as a cocktail waitress at Cipriani Upstairs in Manhattan and he later assaulted her in his bedroom.

A sixth woman, Lauren Young, claims he groped her in a hotel, masturbated and ejaculated onto a bathroom floor in February 2012 at a dinner event during Oscar season when she was 22.

In addition to these six accusers the judge is allowing four other women to testify to establish a pattern of behavior, even though most of their allegations are too old to prosecute as crimes according to state law.
Rise in autoimmune disorders, and increase in demand for organ transplantation propels the growth of the global immunosuppressant market. North America held the highest share in 2018.

As per the report published by Allied Market Research, the global Immunosuppressants industry was estimated at $13.89 billion in 2018 and is expected to hit $42.51 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 14.7% from 2019 to 2026. The report offers an extensive analysis of top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, key investment pockets, market size & share, key segments, and competitive landscape.

Rise in autoimmune disorders, and increase in demand for organ transplantation propels the growth of the global immunosuppressant market. On the other hand, lack of awareness toward organ transplantation hampers the growth to certain extent. However, various growth prospects in emerging economies are expected to provide opportunities for the key players in the industry.

Download the Sample Report @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6288

On the basis of drug class, the calcineurin inhibitors segment accounted for nearly one-third of the global immunosuppressant market share in 2018, and is expected to dominate throughout the study period. In addition, the segment is also anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 16.2% by 2026. This is attributed to increased adoption of these drugs during organ transplantation.

Based on indication, the autoimmune disorders segment contributed to nearly half of the global immunosuppressant market revenue in 2018, and is expected to rule the roost from 2019 to 2026. This is due to rise in prevalence of autoimmune disorders such as arthritis. On the other hand, the organ transplantation segment would manifest the fastest CAGR of 15.5% by 2026. Rise in use of these drugs during organ transplantation has boosted the growth of the segment.

Based on geography, North America held the highest share in 2018, generating more than two-fifths of the global immunosuppressant market. This is due to increase in incidence of auto-immune disorders in this region. However, the region across LAMEA would cite the fastest CAGR of 16.7% during the estimated period. Increase in healthcare expenditure, rise in disposable incomes, and government regulations toward making immunosuppressant drugs available for patients contribute to the market growth.

For Purchase Inquiry @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6288

Scope of the Report:

Report Attribute Details Market size available for years 2019  2026 Base year considered 2020 Forecast period 2019  2026 Forecast units Value (USD) Segments covered By Drug class, By Indication, By Distribution Channel, By Region Geographies covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, LAMEA

The key market players discussed in the research include GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Pfizer, Astellas Pharma, Inc., Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, Mylan Laboratories Inc., F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd, Sanofi S.A, Novartis AG, Inc.

Related Reports:

Elderly and Disabled Assistive Devices Market Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026

Infectious Immunology Market  Opportunities and Forecasts, 2020-2027



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Boris Johnson is preparing to defy President Donald Trump's demand to ban Huawei Technologies Co. from the U.K.'s fifth-generation telecommunications networks, in a decision that risks an angry backlash from within his own ruling Conservative Party.

The prime minister's team will make the decision on Tuesday after a meeting of the National Security Council, Digital Minister Matt Warman told members of Parliament on Monday.

During an urgent question session on the issue, numerous Conservative MPs raised concerns over Huawei gaining any access to U.K. networks, citing fears that the company could become a long-term security risk for Britain.

But Johnson suggested the government can ensure consumer benefits without putting national security in danger, even though the Trump administration has repeatedly warned that Huawei could be vulnerable to Chinese spies.

"We are going to come up with a solution that enables us to achieve both those objectives and that's the way forward," Johnson said in a pooled interview earlier on Monday. "There's no reason why we shouldn't have technological progress here in the U.K. - allow consumers, businesses in the U.K. access to fantastic technology, fantastic communications - but also protect our security interests and protect our key partnerships with other security powers around the world."

The remarks suggest Johnson is set to grant Huawei partial access to Britain's telecoms networks, setting up a clash with Trump, whose administration has lobbied intensely for Britain to ban Huawei, saying its presence in 5G networks would threaten intelligence-sharing.

"Why do we need high risk vendors in our networks at all?" Conservative MP Bob Seely said. "Whoever controls 5G will affect significantly our rule of law, our data privacy, our security and our freedom to support our allies."

The Huawei decision is perilous for Johnson. If he sides with Trump and bans the company, he risks failing to equip the U.K. with the technology Huawei is well placed to provide and betraying his pledge to voters to spread ultra-fast internet services across the country. If he allows Huawei to go ahead, he faces the potential loss of U.S. intelligence cooperation and an angry backlash from the White House at a time when he's seeking a trade deal with Britain's closest ally.

"Any decision that is made will nest a dragon into our critical national infrastructure or not," influential Tory politician Tom Tugendhat told the Commons on Monday. "This is a decision that we will live with for the next 10, 15 or 20 years."

Former Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith said that the U.K. was "at war," in a sense. "There is a cyber war going on in which China is arguably the single biggest participant," he told the chamber. He urged the government to "reject Huawei immediately."

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan, whose department is responsible for telecommunications, told Bloomberg earlier this month that Huawei will be kept out of "critical national infrastructure," while leaving open the prospect the company can be involved in less sensitive areas. That chimes with the message on Monday from Johnson, who discussed the matter with Trump on Friday.

Digital minister Warman was keen to show that the government wants to reduce Britain's reliance on the Chinese vendor. "There are alternatives to Huawei, and we would of course seek to use them as much as possible," he said. The government telecoms supply chain review published in July said officials will pursue a diversification strategy to support the growth of new entrants.
Overhearing a fellow attendee at Day 4 of the Zee JLF 2020 tell his friend, 'Celebrities dikha raha hai toh bol, warna time waste mat kar', I hoped the rather dramatic session featuring Rajdeep Sardesai and Sachin Pilot lived up to his expectations | Harsh Pareek writes

I would tell you all about how impossibly crowded and exceptionally rowdy Day 4 of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) 2020 was, but just the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. So, let's just get on with the other happenings of the day.

David Wallace-Wells, Marcus Moench, Navroz K Dubash and Prem Jha were among the first to take to the stage to for a discussion about climate change. Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth, began with painting the grim (to put it quite mildly) picture of our planet's future, describing in detail the devastation waiting in the wings, and how India will be one of the worst affected countries.

Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2020: Five detained for sloganeering against CAA during a session; police releases them after a warning

Dubash, author of India in a Warming World, talked about the unexpectedly quick pace and high scale we are witnessing when it comes to climate change. He proceeded to talk about the challenges India will face in the coming years, be it related to agriculture or workforce productivity. He suggested India now needs to think of development in the context of climate change, and of building a new narrative which is more accessible for politicians and policymakers.

Moench discussed engaging with available solutions, as well as coming up with new ones, and more importantly avoiding political chaos when working on large-scale long-term projects.

Next, in a much-anticipated session, the recent winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, Abhijit V Banerjee, was in conversation with Sreenivasan Jain to discuss his work in some depth.

Banerjee talked about the research work done by him and his fellow scientists in a variety of fields and how small interventions could help solve complex problems across the world. He further stressed on the approach by giving examples of and talking about Malaria prevention, reforms in the education sector and the police departments.

One of the (many) curious things about the literature festivals that go on for five days is a lot of speakers feature in multiple sessions (this seems to be especially the case this year at JLF), and inevitably end up repeating themselves. Sometimes it's just the same ideas (which is just fine), but at times a speaker will repeat himself in verbatim. Wallace-Wells, for example, seems to have a monologue prepared which he repeats no matter which session at the festival, interview or podcast he is a part of. Anyway, all I'm trying to say is, yours truly is a bit on edge at this point.

As the Sunday afternoon crowds really started to press on, there was a session on artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity by Marcus du Sautoy (who was part of another session on AI just the day before) and a rather dramatic one featuring Rajdeep Sardesai and Sachin Pilot. When a guy close to me told his friend as we were moving (or rather being pushed) across the venue, 'Celebrities dikha raha hai toh bol, warna time waste mat kar', I hoped this somewhat lived up to his expectations.

Next up was the annual travel session featuring Katie Hickman, Howard Jacobson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Peter Hessler and Suketu Mehta, in conversation with William Dalrymple.

In a session always good for discovering some good writing in a genre where it is rather easy to do the opposite, each panelist read an excerpt from their book. Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love (about her attending a Lazio game), Mehta from Maximum City (about the monsoons in Mumbai), Hessler (a Jason Schwartzman doppelganger) from The Buried (about a rather curious garbageman), Jacobson from In the Land of Oz (about spending a night at the home of guy called Humpy Crocodile in Australia. Somehow, unrelated to his reading, he also managed to bring up masturbating a tiger, of course), and Hickman from Travels with a Circus (about her interaction with butterflies in Mexico). The parts read by Hessler and Hickman were the best, just in case you were curious.

Dalrymple too read, for the billionth time, the same excerpt from the same book that he always does (From The Holy Mountain) during this session every year. Perhaps give someone else a chance to showcase their works?

The panel also shared their favourite travel books of all time. Here's the quick list  Mehta: AJ Liebling's Between Meals and Sonali Deraniyagala's Wave; Dalrymple: Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia; Hessler: John McPhee's Coming into the Country; Jacobson: DH Lawrence's Twilight in Italy; Hickman: Colin Thubron's Behind the Wall.

Side note: I had my fingers crossed for the first three days. I was hoping for kind of a record (?) So far, this was the first time during all the audience Q&A sessions I attended that everyone went straight to their questions and didn't go on with sad statements about their lives.

The final session of the day featured Anand Gopal in conversation with Taran N Khan. (A teenager with a delegate pass, sitting close to me, was trying to convince a friend to come over, telling him it's about 'Woh Taliban war chal raha hai na aabhi'. Minutes later he asked me when the festival closed, and then argued it was 6.30, not 6.15. There was also a woman to my left who kept coughing. And now I'm coughing as I type this. The woman to my right was eating something which smelled funny. And, of course, I can smell it still. Yup, yup, yup.)

Gopal discussed at length his book No Good Men Among the Living. He talked about how the events of 9/11 drew him to better understand the Middle East and the American foreign policy, how he ended up in Afghanistan (which has to be one of the best stories of how scam emails can lead to something of great value), how he spent time blending in, looking for leads, embedding with the Taliban and discovering things weren't as black and white as most of us are made to believe, as is often the case in life.

Anyway, I think I'm a bit sick, so this shall be it for now. Final thoughts tomorrow.
India's Republic Day celebrations in the US on Sunday were marred by some peaceful protests and marches by a large number of Indian Americans in various cities of the country against the recent changes in the citizenship law.

Among Indian Americans, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, however, also had a fair share of its supporters who sought to counter-protesters by asserting that India cares for Neighbouring Minorities and CAA Won't Impact Indian Citizens. The supporters, however, appeared to be outnumbered by protesters, who held peaceful rallies and marches in various US cities, carrying anti-CAA banners and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanding CAA's repeal and revocation of the proposed National Register for Citizens. They raised the demand ruing that India's secular fabric is under threat.

In some of the cities, particularly New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and San Francisco having Indian consulates, and at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, the protestors shouted slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Hindu, Muslim Sikh, Isai: Aapas Mein Sab Bhai Bhai. The protesters, however were countered by a number of Indian Americans who supported the enactment and congratulated the Modi Government for taking such a bold step.

The largest gathering of anti-CAA protestors was reported from Chicago where Indian Americans gathered in large numbers and formed several mile-long human chain. In the American capital of Washington DC, more than 500 Indian Americans marched from a park near the White House to the Gandhi Statue in front of the Indian Embassy.



The anti-CAA protests in at least 30 US cities were organized by recently formed Coalition to Stop Genocide, comprising several organizations like Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Equality Labs, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).



The brutal crackdown by government in India on anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests has created a situation in which women in large numbers have come out on streets to challenge the divisive-communal-fascist agenda of the government," Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey said, addressing a gathering in Washington DC.



It gives hope that democracy and Constitution can ultimately be saved by the common people from a government which is bent upon destroying them," he said.



IAMC president Ahsan Khan said from the Bay Area in California, the rally of Indian Americans represents an extension of the massive unrest in India against the ruling BJP government for its relentless attacks against the secular Constitution. "Indian Americans and people of conscience in the US are seeking accountability from the Hindu nationalist regime that wants to turn Indian Muslims into foreigners and render them stateless, said Khan after the rally in San Francisco.

"Protests happening not only in India but around the world represent a global consensus against the draconian policies of the Modi-Shah government," said Dr Shaik Ubaid from New York. All Indians are equal citizens and that is the foundational social contract between the Indian nation and its citizens," said Minhaj Khan from New Jersey. "Breaking this contract has grave implications for the future of India as a country, he added.



At some of the places including Washington DC, pro-Khalistani supporters held separate protests against India. According to the CAA, people from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come to India till December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious persecution there will be given Indian citizenship.



The protesters claim that the legislation was "unconstitutional and divisive" as it excludes Muslims. They have expressed apprehensions that the CAA along with NRC will impact the community in the country. The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law does not deny any citizenship rights, but has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.

-PTI

Also Read: NBA champion US basketball legend Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash; daughter, 8 others also killed
The family of Stephanie Parze plans to start a foundation to help bring awareness to victims of domestic violence and missing persons cases in memory of the 25-year-old Freehold woman, who authorities announced Monday was killed by her ex-boyfriend nearly three months ago and after her body was found in a wooded area in Old Bridge Sunday afternoon.

Ed Parze, Stephanies father, fought through tears with his wife Sharleen by his side after authorities revealed the new details during a press conference on Monday at the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office.

Were not going to stop our efforts, even though we know she is home.," Ed Parze said. In the upcoming weeks, were going to start a Stephanie Parze foundation to bring awareness to battered women and missing people. Its an epidemic.

Stephanie Parze, 25, accused her ex-boyfriend, John Ozbilgen, of assaulting her about a month before she went missing. Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said it was the third time Ozbilgen, 29, was charged with domestic violence.

Stephanie Parze, 25, of Freehold, had been missing since October. Her remains were founded in a wooded area off Route 9 in Old Bridge on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020.

Gramiccioni said Ozbilgen, who killed himself in November after being identified as a person of interest in Parzes disappearance, left a note to his family admitting he killed Parze, saying he could not bear to spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors have said he sent Parze 10 angry text messages on Oct. 30, the night she disappeared.

But Ozbilgens note did not indicate where he left Parzes body, Gramiccioni said. That led to months of near weekly searches in New Jersey and New York by both authorities and by members of the community who volunteered to help.

Ed Parze expressed his familys gratitude to law enforcement and members of the community.

Its been something to see. People become new friends, become part of the family, Parze said. The community came together so much - the donations, the food. We thank you all for that. Without that, we would never have gotten through this.

Sarlene Parze reacts on Monday during a press conference in Freehold. Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced that the body of her daughter Stephanie had found in a wooded area along Route 9 south in Old Bridge. Jan. 27, 2020. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Ed Parze calls those who assisted his family Stephanies angels." He said more than 60 searches had been organized.

He also thanked the two teens who found his daughters body as they were walking along Route 9 south in Old Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

This is an extremely somber day for us, Ed Parze. Our lives are never gonna be the same."

A medical examiners office is still trying to determine Stephanie Parzes cause of death, authorities said.

Stephanie Parze was last seen the day before Halloween. She returned to her Meadowbrook Lane home around 10 p.m. after a night out at a psychic show in New Brunswick. The next day, she missed a nannying job, and her cell phone and car were found at the residence. There was no sign of forced entry.

John Ozbilgen was released by Judge Paul Escandon at his detention hearing at the Monmouth County Courthouse on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019. He is charged with child porn and has been identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Parze, 25, of Freehold Township.Russ DeSantis | For NJ Advance Media

During the investigation into Parzes disappearance, Ozbilgen was charged with child pornography. Investigators found the images on his phone. The 29-year-old former stock broker was granted release from jail while that charge was pending and killed himself days later.

In the note Ozbilgen left, he wrote that He had had enough and he could not do life in prison," Gramiccioni said. Ozbilgen acknowledged he had dug himself a deep hole. He never disclosed where he disposed of Stephanies remains."

Gramiccioni said the investigation is ongoing, but prosecutors are confident Ozbilgen acted alone in killing Parze.

That guilt belongs to John Ozbilgen and John Ozbilgen alone, he said.

Ed Parze noted the months of uncertainty and anxiously awaiting any news of his daughters fate. Services have not yet been announced.

Stephanie is home. Shes coming home at last, where she belongs. We have God to thank for that, Ed Parze said. "Eight-seven days. We found her.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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After more than 30 years in law enforcement, North Charleston Police Chief Reggie Burgess' career has been building to this moment.

Two years ago, the lawman took the helm of the city's police force, where he is credited with helping restore officer morale, cleaning up a troubled department, building community relationships and lowering crime rates in struggling neighborhoods.

His work gained the attention of Gov. Henry McMaster, who nominated Burgess in November to be the next director of the state's Department of Public Safety, overseeing the Highway Patrol as well as several smaller divisions, including the State Transport Police, which polices commercial trucking, and the Bureau of Protective Services, which provides security on Statehouse grounds.

In all, the job entails managing more than 1,200 employees statewide, compared with about 500 as North Charleston's chief.

Initially greeted with praise, Burgess' nomination hit a road bump on Tuesday when senators on a Judiciary screening panel questioned him about unpaid income taxes from 2007 to 2012.

Burgess told The Post and Courier on Friday that the issue stems from a mistake.

He took off-duty work to earn additional income for his family and a friend he trusted did his taxes. That friend assured him his finances were in order.

But the IRS informed him of his tax debt in 2012.

Burgess said he set up a payment plan and paid off the entire $31,790 debt in 2018.

When he filled out his application for DPS director, Burgess said he forgot to include liens for 2011 and 2012 but that he emailed records for all the years he owed taxes to the Senate panel.

"I supplied them with all the information for every year I had a tax lien," Burgess said. "They had all the information before them. I made a mistake."

The chief said he's worked with a new accountant to prevent himself from falling into a similar situation again.

Confirmation

The controversy appears unlikely to derail Burgess' nomination, according to interviews with lawmakers, and the subcommittee could advance his selection to the full Senate Judiciary Committee as early as Tuesday.

But the Senate can be unpredictable.

"I think thats a legitimate line of questioning," Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, an Edgefield Republican, said of the tax liens. "I want to know what happened with the taxes and want a satisfactory response.

He said he also wants to hear Burgess plans for DPS. The agency needs leadership. You want to know what the plans are, not only next month but also next year and three years later.

House Judiciary Chairman Peter McCoy, a Charleston Republican, said he worked closely with Burgess for six years, starting in 2005, as a prosecutor assigned solely to North Charleston cases.

"Theres nobody better," McCoy said. "A guy like Reggie gets in there, I just don't think (taxes will be an issue). Morale comes from the top. When he gets in there, people will have confidence in his decisions."

Sen. Gerald Malloy, a Hartsville Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said the question is whether Burgess success in high-crime North Charleston will transfer to a much larger agency, subject to the whims of legislators.

Hes working in one of the most difficult circumstances in our state, and hes made peace among people there," Malloy said. "Hes very credible. He seems to have high integrity."

The senator said that if Burgess becomes DPS director, he will manage more than twice the number of personnel and would become the face of a highly scrutinized organization.

"Its a mammoth task," Malloy said. "Can he do the job? I think hes capable of doing the job. The question is whether we let a person like that do the job."

Sinking morale

The Highway Patrol has been in turmoil for more than a decade.

In 2008, Gov. Mark Sanford tapped Mark Keel  then-interim chief of the State Law Enforcement Division  to head DPS to restore public trust in the agency, after videotapes surfaced of troopers using racial slurs, ramming fleeing suspects with their patrol cars and kicking a suspect in the head after a high-speed pursuit.

After Gov. Nikki Haley took office in 2011, she made Keel chief of SLED, where hed spent the bulk of his career.

And DPS' interim director, Kenny Lancaster  who'd previously headed the patrol  became embroiled in a scandal over his alleged affairs. State Attorney General Alan Wilson later concluded he did nothing criminal.

But in an effort to move past the drama, Haley found an out-of-state replacement in Leroy Smith, who had spent 22 years with the Florida Highway Patrol.

Complaints mounted that low morale was depleting the ranks, leaving fewer S.C. troopers to enforce highway safety laws.

Between 2011 and 2017, 1,100 employees left DPS, according to a September 2017 inspector general's report. That includes 206 employees in fiscal 2017 alone, representing a 38 percent increase in departures from the prior six-year average. The vast majority of departures were in the Highway Patrol, which was losing seven uniformed officers every month, on average.

Currently, about 740 troopers patrol state highways, roughly the same as two decades ago, when there were 1 million fewer people in the state. There are 130 vacancies in the trooper ranks, according to the governor's office, and McMaster wants the new director to fill 100 of those slots by the end of the year. To help, he's proposed sending $5 million to DPS to raise salaries.

On Facebook, a group of former state troopers created the Troopers FED UP page, on which many anonymously air their grievances and share stories of agency dysfunction.

Legislators with the House Oversight Committee grilled Smith for more than two years about complaints of uneven discipline and low morale. Statistics gathered by legislators showed an increase in collisions, fatalities and injuries, and a decrease in traffic citations.

In 2017, the House voted overwhelmingly to fire Smith by eliminating his position and salary from the budget. Senators restored the job and pay before the budget was finalized. But the House had made its point.

Later that year, David Whatley, a Highway Patrol sergeant in Florence County, dramatically handed his resignation to Smith in front of the House Oversight Committee. Whatley said he was wrongly found guilty of a minor policy infraction. He filed a lawsuit in Richland County in May alleging defamation and unfair treatment. The case is in arbitration, court records show.

In an interview, Whatley spoke about morale at his former agency.

"My experience with the Highway Patrol was, we used to be the pinnacle of law enforcement," he said. "Troopers need to be treated fairly. There's no due process. It deflated me as far as wanting to do my job."

As far as Burgess, Whatley said he didn't know much about him but has heard that he's well-liked in North Charleston.

"My concern with Burgess, honestly, would be that he would fall into the chain of command and not be able to shake things up," he said. "You cannot come in as a director and keep the same operating procedures."

Bridge builder

Burgess' nomination was announced in November, one day after Smith said he would not be reappointed to a third term as DPS director.

Smith's salary this year was $165,559. In North Charleston, Burgess's last posted salary, as of March, was $139,049.

The chief had a reputation as a strong leader and a fair man who would work to restore trust in an agency desperately in need of change.

James Johnson, state president of the National Action Network, said he's known Burgess for about 25 years and said he's the right person to lead DPS.

Burgess worked hard in North Charleston to build bridges with underrepresented communities.

"Anybody in Columbia and any trooper can expect Reggie to be honest with them," Johnson said. "He will tell you like it is."

Burgess said restoring employee morale is a top priority. He plans to identify the problems by getting to know as many DPS employees as he can.

While he will not be able to take the same hands-on approach he did in North Charleston, Burgess said he's confident he can meet troopers and other employees where they are.

"You build that bridge by, first of all, trying to make sure that they understand that you are for them," he said.

And Burgess pointed to the progress made in North Charleston where officer morale has improve drastically since the lows seen in the wake of the 2015 Walter Scott shooting.

After then-North Charleston police officer Michael Slager shot Scott, an unarmed black man, officers started leaving in droves.

Nearly all the officers who left returned to work for the department, which is now fully staffed and has strong recruiting, Burgess said.

Discipline is aimed at helping officers grow and become better at their jobs, he said.

"I want them to understand that we'll be consistent and progressive with the discipline," Burgess said. "If you did something wrong and it's clear that it is, then you understand what the discipline is."

Final hurdles

As questions arose over Burgess' tax debts, his former boss also questioned his readiness for the DPS job.

John Zumalt, who was North Charleston police chief from 2001 to 2012, said the current chief was able to build valuable relationships with the African American community but that he lacked the communication skills and administrative skills to effectively lead a large agency.

He also questioned Burgess' record on crime, noting that it rose significantly from the time he left the agency through the time Burgess took over in 2018.

"Based on my time working with Reggie I do not believe (he) has the problem-solving skills, administrative or leadership skills to solve South Carolinas significant traffic safety problems," Zumalt said.

On Friday, Burgess said he didn't know where the former chief's comments were coming from, and that Zumalt was the one who took him under his wing and helped him develop into the leader he is today by sending him for training at the Southern Police Institute and other command colleges.

Chief Jon Zumalt invested in me," Burgess said. "He put a lot into me, and I think that I followed his path as he laid it out, to get to the place that I am."

As he prepares to move through the confirmation process, Burgess said he's confident he can apply the lessons he's learned over his career to restore DPS to its former prestige.

"If I become the director, that's my title, but I'm a cop," Burgess said. "I know how to lead from the front ... but I know sometimes, too, that I can sit back. I'm not going on a scene where the commander or a first-line supervisor is in charge, to take over that scene unless there's no other choice."
Gurdaspur MP and actor Sunny Deol on Monday attended the first meeting of the district development, coordination and monitoring committee here, officials said.

Deol has often been criticised for his absence from his Lok Sabha constituency and recently posters declaring him "missing" had surfaced in the city.

They were found at public places, including near the railway station, and read, "Gumshuda Ki Talash MP Sunny Deol". He had then blamed his political rivals behind the "senseless" act.

The officials said that Union minister Som Parkash chaired the meeting held to review programmes and schemes of the central government and Deol co-chaired it.

It was was the first review meeting held after the Lok Sabha elections result, they said.

After the meeting, Deol said he was here for the development works to be carried out for the people of Gurdaspur constituency.

Parkash instructed officials to ensure that the benefits of central government schemes reach the people and asked them to draft a proposal to build a medical college in the border district.

Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujjwal said the meeting should be held every quarter.

In 2019 parliamentary polls, Sunny Deol defeated Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar by a margin of 82,459 votes on Gurdaspur seat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man died after an ambulance driver refused to enter the Roma majority village of Csenyet in Borsod county on Friday night.

His family called an ambulance because the mans breathing stopped and no heartbeat could be felt. However, when the ambulance arrived, the crew insisted on waiting for the police to accompany them.



The mans relatives alerted the mayor, who saw that the ambulance driver refused to enter the village without a police escort.



By the time police arrived 20-30 minutes later, the patient had died.



The mayor had to place the body in his own car to carry it to the ambulance, where a paramedic examined it and declared the patient dead.



MTI Photo: Juhasz Gabor
There was no exchange of sweets with Pakistani forces along the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion of Republic Day, officials said, amid the prevailing hostilities especially after the recent beheading of an Army porter by the enemy troops in Poonch.

Indian and Pakistani troops usually exchange sweets and greetings on their important national days and festivals. But the tradition has not been followed for the past few years due to Pakistan's continued support to terrorism in the Union Territory and frequent ceasefire violations, the officials said.

They said there was no exchange of sweets and greetings on Republic day this year as well.

On January 10, Pakistan's Border Action Team comprising regulars and terrorists, beheaded army porter Mohammad Aslam (28) and injured three others in an attack along the LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district.

Meanwhile, police and other security forces unfurled the national flag at various camps along the border and in the hinterland across Jammu region to mark the occasions.

At a function, BSF Inspector General N S Jamwal hoisted the national flag at frontier headquarters here and conveyed his warm wishes to all the border guards serving at the International Border and the LoC.

He reminded the Bordermen about the supreme sacrifices made by the freedom fighters to liberate the motherland from foreign rulers and also asked them not to forget the sacrifices made by their colleagues.

Jamwal later visited BSF hospital and distributed fruits and gifts to the patients, a BSF spokesman said, adding he wished them a speedy recovery and good health.

The spokesman said Republic Day was also celebrated by the BSF personnel deployed on International Border and LoC with equal enthusiasm.

"Men and officers pledged to continue to work for safeguarding and maintaining sanctity of borders and territorial integrity with full devotion, he said.

A CRPF spokesman said the largest paramilitary force held the main function at Group Centre Bantalab in the outskirts of Jammu with Inspector General, Jammu sector, Charu Sinha unfurling the tricolour.

She read out the names of the recipients of medals and said the force is overwhelmed with the recognition of its professionalism and valour of its personnel.

Among the gallantry medals awarded to various forces, the CRPF earned one President's Police Medal for Gallantry, 75 Police Medal for Gallantry, besides six President's Police Medal for Distinguished service and 56 Police Medal for Meritorious service.

"The bravery of the force personnel deployed to combat terrorism in J&K and Insurgency in North-East and Naxalism in Central India is duly recognized. CRPF has walked a long way since its inception and displayed its bravery time and again," the IG said.

The spokesman said similar functions were held at battalion headquarters and camps across Jammu region, where senior officers unfurled the national flag.

Army and Police also organized separate functions to celebrate the Republic Day and hoisted the national flag in all the 10 districts of Jammu region, officials said.
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A US tariff on laminated steel used in packaging will not apply to Tata Steel products manufactured in the Netherlands, the Dutch foreign trade minister said on January 27.

Sigrid Kaag told reporters that the US had agreed the products would be exempt from a 25% tariff announced by the administration of President Donald Trump in June 2018, saving consumers and the company up to 100 million euros annually in tariff costs.

"The import tariffs on laminated steel have been retracted and that's wonderful news for Tata Steel," Kaag told reporters in The Hague. "It's good for us, and good for Dutch employees."

Since 2018, US companies wishing to import the type of steel, which is not produced in the US, had been forced to seek tariff exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

A spokeswoman for Tata Steel, whose Dutch operations are based in the city of Ijmuiden, said that around 100,000 tons of the company's 531,000 tons of steel exports to the US were covered by the exemption.

"This is very good news, we are very happy with the minister's efforts", Tata spokeswoman Ariane Volz said.

She noted that the exemption will last for a period of one year, and must then be extended.
(Natural News) Over 56 million mainland Chinese are already living under military-enforced quarantines; essentially a state of regional martial law. As has been widely reported across the media, food supplies have disappeared from grocery store shelves across the region. Even under the extreme censorship of the communist regime in power there, the truth is leaking out: People are running out of food and medical supplies.

The deadly virus spreading across China has spurred a run on protective face masks and hand sanitizer, with store shelves stripped and re-sellers hawking the items for inflated prices, reported Bloomberg News five days ago. They added:

In one Shanghai mall, customers lined up for nearly an hour at a drugstore Wednesday waiting for a shipment of 100 boxes of masks to arrive. They sold out within 30 minutes, said pharmacist Duan Yueqi, even after the store limited each person to one pack each. Staffers told customers immediately upon entry: everything is gone.

And that was before the news hit that at least 44,000 people in China are infected with coronavirus. Just yesterday, a credible team of scientists from Hong Kong University warned that 44,000 people are already infected in China, even as the official government numbers only claim 2,900. With Wuhan being centrally located in the mainland, and with the mayor of Wuhan now confirming that five million people have already fled the city, it is inevitable that a wave of new infections will emerge in other major Chinese cities, including Beijing.

Chinese companies are already engaged in a desperate effort to buy all N95 masks in North America and ship them to China. Weve covered this in the following podcast, via Brighteon.com:

Brighteon.com/5988d868-263d-4d13-ba04-dedd82eb715b

This means millions of N95 masks are being urgently acquired and shipped to China, even as the government there downplays the official numbers, claiming just 2,901 infections:

Supplies getting wiped out across the USA

Now, Breitbart.com is reporting that supplies of hand sanitizers and face masks are getting wiped out in America, too. At least three pharmacies visited by Breitbart News in Brooklyn, N.Y. were sold out of individual-sized hand sanitizer this weekend An Amazon page for flu masks showed many of the most popular versions of surgical masks and personal anti-dust masks were unavailable.

Notably, people everywhere are scrambling to purchase N95 masks even though they are useless at preventing coronavirus infections, as Natural News previously reported. Infections are now known to occur from exposing your unprotected eyes to the air in a room where another infected person resides.

Protecting yourself from the airborne coronavirus requires full face respirators, which run anywhere from $50  $250 each and use consumable filtration cartridges. A quick check of Amazon.com reveals all full face respirators are sold out. The only respirators available are half-face respirators commonly used by painters and construction workers to protect their lungs from airborne dust and wood particles.

Storable food supplies already nearly wiped out across America

Early today, Alex Jones, host of InfoWars.com, reported that a top contact from My Patriot Supply, a storable food manufacturer that provides the InfoWars-branded food storage products, told him storable food supplies are rapidly being wiped out across the country, with most storable food companies now backlogged for weeks or months.

Within a few days, any remaining storable food supplies from InfoWars or HealthRangerStore.com will likely be gone. Wholesale prices for bulk food ingredients are already spiking across the board, and the storable food industry, given that they are working with perishable items, dont have large supplies of inventory on hand to meet the sudden spike in demand.

The run on supplies will no doubt soon spread to items such as latex gloves, biohazard suits, plastic sheeting, duct tape, colloidal silver products and surface sanitizers.

Officially, the CDC says theres nothing to worry about. Behind the scenes in the world of lab sciences, they are panicking to update labs across the country with various genetic profiles so that local labs can use genetic sequencers to test patient samples for the presence of the coronavirus.

There currently exists no field test for coronavirus. All samples must be sent to CDC-approved labs, which are no doubt already backlogged for weeks in testing incoming samples. (This author owns and runs an analytical laboratory that tests for microbiological contaminants. We know all about the difficulties of sample prep and high-throughput sample testing.)

What happens if quarantines come to America?

The coronavirus reportedly doubles the number of victims every 7 days or less, according to science-based media reports. Hong Kong University scientists are expecting the pandemic to peak in China in late April or early May, at which time they expect to see 150,000 new cases per day.

If quarantines come to America as the outbreak multiplies, the rush for supplies will no doubt spill over into social chaos protection categories such as ammunition, firearms, flashlights, night vision devices (which are already nearly wiped out due to other reasons) and fuel. Residents in Wuhan, China, are approaching the end of their own food and fuel storage supplies, and its unclear how those supplies are going to be replenished.

In America, any quarantine of a major U.S. city would quickly plunge that city into total chaos, given the utter lawlessness, drug addiction, homelessness and left-wing violence that already characterizes the cities most likely to suffer an influx of coronavirus-infected individuals. Martial law would almost certainly be declared in that region, and National Guard troops would have to be deployed on the streets to maintain any semblance of civility.

Meanwhile, truckers would avoid entering cities under quarantine, causing a near-immediate wipeout of local supplies of food, fuel, medicine and other gear. The leadership of Truckers.com has already publicly warned that the 50,000+ truckers who their organization represents will flat-out avoid making deliveries to cities where social unrest is present. This is being called a super supply chain crisis and would plunge any affected city into desperation and violence.

The CDC has proven it cannot be trusted to tell the truth about any outbreak

Currently, President Trump and the CDC are both downplaying the severity of the coronavirus in the United States, implying the pandemic is primarily limited to China and wont spread in the United States. Perhaps they are correct, but millions of Americans are betting their lives on a government that has proven itself to be both incompetent and dishonest when it comes to dealing with infectious disease outbreaks.

Soon, no doubt, the CDC will call for mandatory nationwide coronavirus vaccines as a way of pretending the health authorities have it all under control.

Listen to my important podcast below to hear more details about the possibility of coronavirus quarantines in the United States:

Brighteon.com/5ae1dd40-74dc-42fb-b3fc-86abc79ab68c

Why arent U.S. authorities halting flights from China?

In the United States, there is currently no restriction on incoming flights from China. Although China-originating flights have been cancelled in other countries such as the Philippines, President Trump has so far taken no action to protect the United States from inbound flights from China.

Given that scanning inbound passengers for fevers and coughs has already been revealed to be ineffective  since many people infected with coronavirus show no such symptoms  it is almost certain that coronavirus-exposed travelers are freely entering the United States right now.

Unlike other respiratory viral strains such as SARS, the coronavirus is infectious during its entire incubation period, even when people show no symptoms. During this incubation time, individuals do not even know they are infected. Thus, they take no precautions to avoid crowds or isolate themselves from friends, coworkers or family members.

The Lancet science journal recently reported that coronavirus infects 83% of those who are exposed, killing 15%. Thats an apocalyptic fatality rate for any infectious disease, but even more concerning given that this viral strain spread in stealth mode, showing no symptoms in carriers who inadvertently spread it to others.

According to scientists from Hong Kong University (HKU), coronavirus infections already exceed 44,000.

Chinas official numbers claim only 2,900 infections, but at the same time, China has announced the emergency opening of 100,000 new hospital beds in the Hubei Province, which encompasses Wuhan.

Thus, it appears that both China and the United States governments are downplaying the severity of this outbreak: Trump, in an effort to prevent a stock market panic, and China in an effort to protect its scientific reputation and food export industries.

The first casualty in any pandemic, remember, is the truth.
At least three persons were killed and 13 others injured after two suicide bomber attacked worshippers during early morning prayers in Gwoza town on Sunday, sources said.

Gwoza is the headquarters of a Borno State local government that shares a similar name. It is one of the reclaimed communities that residents returned after it was sacked by Boko Haram in 2014.

It is also one of the local government areas that still has a large presence of the Boko Haram insurgents at its outskirt communities bordering Cameroon.

Yesterday, the residents were woken by a twin explosion after two suspected suicide bombers detonated their deadly vests near a mosque.

The incident occurred in a neighborhood called Guduf Nagadiyo in Bulabaulin in Gwoza.

The attack, which is the first of its kind after a long time, left many residents horrified.

Deadly assault

Security sources said the casualties would have been higher had the suicide bombers made their way into the usually crowded mosque.

The bombers were sighted making an unusual advance toward the mosque, and before worshippers could raise the alarm, the assailants had already gotten to the mosque.

In most northern Muslim communities, early morning congregational prayers are usually attended by males only.

We thank God that despite their attempts to inflict more damage on lives, they could not gain entry into the mosque, so they ended up exploding outside where there were few persons, said a local security source who would not mention his name.

The impact of the two explosions destroyed the mosque but many people were able to pull out of the rubble.

My ears became blocked for some minutes as I ran out of the mosque towards safety, said a witness. Among those killed was a 12-year-boy.

The 13 other injured victims have all been taken to the hospital for treatment.

Suspicous infiltration

The source explained why a highly fortified community like Gwoza could be infiltrated by suicide bombers.

They (Boko Haram) are still there in large numbers in Bayan Dutse (communities behind Gwoza mountains) near Cameroon, another source, who is a top member of Civilian-JTF said.

They can only sneak in when the community has activities that involve the influx of people in large numbers. Like yesterday, there was a big wedding in the palace of the Emir, which could have explained why female suicide bombers could easily sneak into the community.

The military has not officially commented on the incident.

But sources said the troops of 192 Battalion, Gwoza cordoned off the mosque area after the attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 06:59:31|Editor: yan

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SANTIAGO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Some 66 percent of Chileans want a new Constitution drafted, that's 8 percent fewer than last week, when 74 percent were in favor, according to a poll published on Monday.

The survey by pollster Plaza Publica Cadem was taken in the lead up to an April plebiscite that will put the question of whether or not to draft a new Constitution to Chileans.

Meanwhile, 25 percent of respondents said they would vote against the measure, that's 6 percentage points more than last week, and 3 percent said they would not vote, or 1 percent more than last week (2).

Asked who should be charged with drafting a new Constitution, 47 percent said a body that is 100 percent comprised of elected citizens, while 45 percent opted for a body that is 50 percent comprised of members of Congress.

The plebiscite has been set for April 26 as part of a series of measures taken by the government of President Sebastian Pinera following months of sometimes violent anti-government protests against inequality and lack of adequate public services.

Some 14,695,245 registered voters are eligible to vote in the plebiscite, as well as 58,100 Chileans living abroad, Chile's Electoral Service said Monday.
It is the annual event that has accomplished chefs quaking in their toques: Monday's 2020 edition of the Michelin restaurant guide for France reveals the winners and losers of its coveted ratings stars. This year's edition of the so-called gastronomy "bible" caused a stir even before its official release, when it was revealed Michelin has stripped renowned chef Paul Bocuse's flagship restaurant of one of its three stars. The red guide, which can make or break culinary reputations, angered many in the industry by downgrading the iconic Auberge du Pont de Collonges -- the oldest three-starred restaurant in the world created by Bocuse, nicknamed the "pope" of French cuisine. He died in 2018. But Michelin boss Gwendal Poullennec defended the move by insisting stars are not "inherited", and "must be earned every year". "We obviously understand the emotion that the loss of a star can provoke, but there is no exceptional treatment," he told AFP. "All establishments are evaluated anonymously by our inspectors every year... whether you are an iconic chef or a young chef who takes the risk of being plunged into debt by opening a restaurant." Poullennec told AFP no other three-starred restaurants ran the risk of being downgraded in this year's guide. According to Michelin, restaurants are selected on four criteria: the quality of the ingredients used, mastery of flavour and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef reflected in their cuisine, and lastly value for money and consistency between visits. One star denotes "high quality cooking", two stars "excellent cooking", and three stars "exceptional cuisine". - Cooking under pressure - Of 30,000 restaurants listed worldwide, only about 130 have attained the highest distinction. Critics say the process has rendered Michelin stars untenable as more and more diners baulk at spending a fortune on a meal. A handful of French restaurateurs have in recent years relinquished their prized three-star status because of the stress of being judged by Michelin inspectors. The 2003 suicide of three-star chef Bernard Loiseau was linked, among other reasons, to speculation that his restaurant was about to lose its three-star status. Last year, Michelin downgraded three three-starred restaurants: the Auberge de L'Ill in Alsace, which held the highest accolade for half a century, Pascal Barbot's Parisian restaurant l'Astrance, and Marc Veyrat's Alpine restaurant the Maison des Bois, which was awarded its third star just a year earlier. Veyrat sued the guide for suggesting -- wrongly, he insists -- that he had used cheddar cheese in a souffle. His lawsuit was rejected. - From France to Japan - The guide was born in a very different guise, when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, founders of the eponymous tyre company, brought out a travel guide in 1900 to encourage motorists to take to the road and so boost business. There were fewer than 3,000 cars in France at the time. Initially free, the red guidebook included maps, a how-to on changing tyres and lists of petrol stops, mechanics, hotels and eateries along the route. The first run of 35,000 copies was such a success that guides for Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Spain followed. The three-star ranking for restaurants was introduced in 1931. In 2005, the Michelin Guide branched out of Europe with a New York guide, followed in 2007 by editions for San Francisco then Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It moved to Asia with a Tokyo version in 2008 when 90,000 copies, in English and Japanese, flew off the shelves in 48 hours. More than 30 million Michelin Guides have been sold, according to its website. ccid-cds-may/mlr/wai/qan
By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Kyrgyzstand GDP increased by 4.5 percent in January-December 2019 against the forecast of 4.0 percent, according to the information provided by the governments press sevice.

The GDP growth is provided by all sectors of the economy: the growth is observed in the construction industry - 10.6 percent, in agriculture - 2.6 percent, in services - 2.9 percent, in industry - 6.9 percent.

The nominal GDP volume made 590 million soms ($8.45 million).

These are preliminary data, which, as a rule, tend to increase when adjusted.

The volume of industrial production amounted to more than 278.6 billion soms (about $4 billion), having increased by over 21 million soms ($300,921), compared to 2018.

This growth was achieved due to the growth of industrial production of metal ores, basic metals, construction materials, clothing, extraction of crude oil, natural gas and coal, as well as food production.

The foreign trade turnover for January-December 2019 amounted to $6.2 billion, while imports decreased by 6.6 percent. One of the factors of the decrease is decline in re-exports of goods.

In particular, imports of clothing and apparel decreased by 1.8 times, while exports decreased by 1.5 times. At the same time, clothing production increased by more than 18 percent, which indicates a significant reduction in re-exports of these goods, as well as some import substitution of these goods in the country.

In the industrial sector there is also a significant import substitution in other goods such as textiles, leather goods and cement.

At the above-mentioned time span, export volumes increased by 9.4 percent. This growth is due to higher export volumes of gold, ores and concentrates of precious metals, cement, ceramic products, fertilizers, fruits and nuts, vegetables and root vegetables, meat and meat co-products.

In connection with the above, the trade deficit decreased by $465 million. This is a positive figure.

The inflow of remittances amounted to almost $2.2 billion and decreased by $287 million (or 11.6 percent) compared to the same period of 2018. This is mainly due to the introduction of a limit on remittances in Russia in April 2019.

The January-September results showed that the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to $576.8 million, and increased by more than 67 percent compared to the same time span of 2018. Such significant growth was mainly achieved due to the increase in inflow of direct foreign investments in the sphere for professional, scientific and technical activities (geological exploration) by 3.3 times, as well as in manufacturing industry by 2.3 times and other sectors.

The inflow exceeded the outflow level by $63.3 million (by $16.8 million in January-September 2018).

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump hosted Israels prime minister and his chief rival Monday at the White House on the eve of unveiling a long-awaited Mideast peace plan, expressing confidence that despite adamant Palestinian rejection they would ultimately go along with a blueprint he said was very good for them.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump hosted Israels prime minister and his chief rival Monday at the White House on the eve of unveiling a long-awaited Mideast peace plan, expressing confidence that despite adamant Palestinian rejection they would ultimately go along with a blueprint he said was very good for them.

The Trump proposal is widely expected to be favourable to Israel, with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and challenger Benny Gantz speaking in glowing terms about the president and his initiative. But with the Palestinians steadfastly refusing to even speak to Trump, and urging other Arab nations to boycott Tuesday's event, there is great skepticism over the plan's chances of success.

The meetings come just a month before Netanyahu and Gantz are set to face off in national elections for the third time in less than a year, and both were looking to project leadership in their separate meetings with the president.

Trump called his proposal a great opportunity but wouldn't discuss further details, noting that its release has long been delayed because of the uncertain political situation in Israel. He refused to answer questions over whether it would include Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, signalling that it was premature for Palestinians to rule it out.

I think in the end they're going to want it. It's very good for them, he said alongside Netanyahu. Were going to show a plan. Its been worked on by everybody, and well see whether or not it catches hold. If it does, that would be great, and if it doesnt, we can live with it, too. But I think it might have a chance."

Netanyahu has hailed it as a chance to make history and define Israel's final borders. At the White House, Netanyahu pointed out Trump's various gestures to Israel as well as his strong stance against Iran. Netanyahu's office said most of the meeting actually focused on Iran, though the peace plan was also discussed.

Palestinian burn a poster showing U.S. President Donald Trump as they protest the American peace plan in Bethlehem, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington Sunday night vowing to "make history" at a planned meeting with President Donald Trump for the unveiling of the U.S. administration's much-anticipated plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

"You have made our alliance stronger than ever, Netanyahu said to Trump.

Shortly after Netanyahu left, Gantz was invited into the White House for his first meeting with Trump. Speaking to reporters later, he did not disclose details of their conversation, but he did shower Trump with praise. He called his peace plan "a significant and historic milestone" that he looked forward to implementing once he became prime minister, in tandem with other countries in the region  specifically mentioning Jordan.

In the run-up to the March 2 vote, Netanyahu has called for annexing parts of the West Bank and imposing Israeli sovereignty on all its settlements there. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Jordan Valley in particular is considered a vital security asset.

Reports in Israeli media have speculated that Trump's plan could include the possible annexation of large pieces of territory that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. American approval could give Netanyahu the type of cover to go ahead with a move that he's resisted taking for more than a decade in power.

Annexing Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank would appeal to Netanyahu's hard-line nationalist supporters but would almost certainly torpedo the viability of an independent Palestinian state and likely infuriate neighbouring Jordan. In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, the second between Israel and its Arab neighbours after Egypt.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced the still-unpublished proposal again Monday in Ramallah, saying it doesn't constitute a basis for resolving the conflict. He said the plan violates international law and "comes from a party that has lost its credibility to be an honest broker in a serious and genuine political process.

The Palestinians are still fuming at Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, moving the U.S. Embassy there and taking other steps they consider biased toward Israel.

A Palestinian official said President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected overtures from mediators in recent weeks to arrange a phone call with Trump. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified diplomatic issue. Abbas' spokesman also called on ambassadors of Arab countries who were invited to the White House on Tuesday to boycott the event.

Netanyahu's foray to Washington gives him a major boost. The longtime leader has been reeling from a stiff challenge from Gantz and the fallout of his indictment on corruption charges. The Israeli parliament is expected to reject his request for immunity on Tuesday, and a damaging criminal trial looms.

Gantz, a former military chief, has focused his campaign on Netanyahu's legal problems and his character, saying he is unfit for office. Netanyahu will not be able to also manage a country and also manage his trial, Gantz added in Hebrew in Washington.

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Netanyahu has sought to portray himself as a global statesman uniquely qualified to lead Israel through difficult times. He has tried to use his close friendship with Trump as a strategic asset to stay in power.

Trump, himself under the cloud of his impeachment trial in the Senate, appears poised to offer Netanyahu some needed help in the form of the most generous American peace proposal ever. Previous peace plans have included conditions for Israeli withdrawals and the prospect of evacuating Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu was charged in November with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three cases involving accepting gifts from billionaire friends and trading political and regulatory favours for positive news coverage. In two election rounds, neither has been able to secure a required parliamentary majority without the other's support. Each is seeking a knockout punch in the upcoming third round.

Trump delivered political favours to Netanyahu during the previous two races, only to see his friend fall short of victory. Netanyahu's confidants have suggested that his motivations are mostly ideological, since he may be coming to terms with an end to his lengthy career and is eager to leave West Bank annexation behind as a form of legacy.

___

Follow Aron Heller at twitter.com/aronhellerap
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Oncologists in Turkey are closely monitoring clinical trials of a groundbreaking study by scientists which could lead to a cure for cancer

ANKARA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jan, 2020 ) :Oncologists in Turkey are closely monitoring clinical trials of a groundbreaking study by scientists which could lead to a cure for cancer.

Researchers at U.K.-based Cardiff University said last week they have discovered a new type of T cell.

T cells are a type of white blood cell involved in the function of a person's immune system. When these cells are activated by coming into contact with defective or foreign cells in the body, they attack them, helping to fight off infection and disease.

According to a Cardiff University news release, researchers discovered that a new T cell receptor (TCR) is able to recognize most cancer types in humans and kills them while ignoring healthy cells.

So far, the Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) cell is personalized for certain types of cancer, and for most, it has not been successful, especially for solid tumors.

But the latest research discovered that the TCR recognizes a molecule that exists on the surface of various cancer cells and is able to distinguish between cancerous and healthy ones.

Cardiff University researchers published the results of the study in the monthly Nature Immunology.

The research has not been tested in patients, but showed positive results in clinical tests.

Although it is in the preclinical step, experts told Anadolu Agency it is a hopeful development.

Dr. Ahmet Bilici, a medical oncologist and professor at Medipol Mega University Hospital in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul, said doctors are waiting for hopeful results of tests on humans.

"Specialized CAR-T has shown effective treatment especially on hematologic tumors, but the most important deficiency was its ineffectiveness on solid tumors such as lung, breast and colon cancer types," said Bilici.

"Cardiff University researchers found a new type of T-cell receptor which they called MR1. This receptor may treat most types of cancer in a different way," he said, adding that the latest research is likely to direct the cancer treatment.

Dr. Evren Ozdemir, also a medical oncologist and professor at Medicana International Hospital in the Turkish capital Ankara, said obtaining the results of this research is a very important step, because there is potential to treat most tumors.

But Ozdemir added that this is not a standard treatment yet and the final results should be awaited.

"Researchers expect to apply this treatment on the human body at the end of this year. After observing this new treatment on the human body, it may be possible in one or two years to see whether it is reliable and effective," said Ozdemir.

Dr. Alper Can, a medical oncologist and an associate professor at Istinye University Medical Park Gaziosmanpasa Hospital in Istanbul, said this study offers great hope for cancer patients.

The question of how these T-lymphocytes will work in humans is a matter of curiosity, Can said.

The new treatment involves taking immune cells [T-lymphocytes] from the patient, which are then modified externally, and returned to the patient's blood to fight the cancer cells.

He added that this will be effective indiscriminately with all solid tumors.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is universally the second leading cause of death. WHO data shows that approximately 9.6 million people died due to cancer in 2018. Globally, about one in every six deaths results from cancer.

Using tobacco is one of the most important risk factors for cancer, leading to around 22% of cancer deaths.
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Independent General Election Candidate for Sligo, Leitrim, South Donegal and North Roscommon John Perry has condemned Fine Gael for what he has described as an attack on his family.

Mr Perry has reacted angrily after Fine Gael moved to expel his son, Jude Perry, from being a member of the Political Party.

John Perry stated: Come after me all you want, but please, don't come after my family. Particularly my son Jude, who has given tireless hours to Fine Gael. When has it become a crime for a son to help his father? Jude is out of the country and away from his family, studying abroad and yet Fine Gael have expelled him. There has been no hearing, no fair process and no sufficient evidence provided. Just a text message to expel my son, for helping his dad. Such a lack of common decency and respect.

It's understood that Fine Gael have expelled Jude Perry from the party for assisting and supporting his fathers General Election campaign as an independent candidate. It understood Jude Perry promoted seven Facebook posts for less than 100 for John Perrys election bid on the social media platform.

The Independent General Election candidate added I have learned in the last 24 hours that no member of the Fine Gael Executive Council was consulted about this decision to expel my son, Jude. The partys disciplinary committee was also not consulted  so who made this decision to expel a young member, without a hearing ? Its quite evident now that certain people in Fine Gael are hurting at the great possibility of myself winning a seat on the 9th February, and I intend to win a seat as the people of the North West do not like these bully-boy tactics towards my family. Both myself and Jude have been inundated with calls and messages of support. Its another nasty attack on my family. I intend to show these people again my back bone, I will fight for my family and for the people of my constituency against these haters."

On Twitter  Former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter rolled in to support the Perry family.

Dynamic YFG lead member Jude Perry arbitrarily expelled from FG without any due process or opportunity to defend himself.His sin?His dad,John, a GE candidate in Sligo,once rightly took FG to Crt & won.FG the compassionatelaw & order party?Todays FG no decency no moral compass.  Alan Shatter (@Alan__Shatter) January 25, 2020

John Perry concluded saying I am rattling a few feathers, I am determined to win the seat and I am getting great support all across the North West on my canvass. I am looking forward to returning to represent the people of Sligo, Leitrim, South Donegal and North Roscommon in Leinster House, and I will be elected an Independent and I will be remaining independent by the people always.

Also read: 19 on the ballot paper - the final list of Sligo Leitrim General Election 2020 candidates
Bank of Hawaii (BOH) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.45 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.36 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.30 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 6.62%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this bank holding company would post earnings of $1.38 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.29, delivering a surprise of -6.52%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times.

Bank of Hawaii, which belongs to the Zacks Banks - West industry, posted revenues of $171.59 million for the quarter ended December 2019, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.82%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $166.08 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Bank of Hawaii shares have lost about 3.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 2%.

What's Next for Bank of Hawaii?

While Bank of Hawaii has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Story continues

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Bank of Hawaii was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.32 on $168.59 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $5.45 on $678.40 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Banks - West is currently in the top 44% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.



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Bank of Hawaii Corporation (BOH) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
He parted ways with Channel Nine late last year, after being replaced as the Today show's weather presenter by Tim Davies.

And it was back to reality for Steve Jacobs on Friday, as he returned to Sydney after a relaxing holiday in Vanuatu, where he owns a luxury villa.

The 53-year-old TV host looked glum as he strolled through the airport with his two daughters, Isabella, eight, and Francesca, six.

The holiday is over: Former Today show weatherman Steve Jacobs looked glum as he returned to Sydney on Friday after a relaxing holiday in Vanuatu, where he owns a luxury villa

Steve appeared downcast as he pushed along a baggage trolley, on which his children were sitting, before hailing a taxi.

The former Nine star was later seen loading up the the family's suitcases into a cab.

Steve dressed casually for the flight home in a blue shirt, a matching jacket and tight-fitting jeans.

Back to reality: Steve appeared downcast as he pushed along a baggage trolley, on which his two daughters, Isabella, eight, and Francesca, six, were sitting

Steve's departure from the Today show was announced in December.

He had been a fixture of the program on and off since 2005, and had spent much of 2019 as an in-studio weatherman.

While his exit came amid a staff reshuffle which also saw co-hosts Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner moved on to other departments, Steve insisted it was his decision to leave.

Daddy cool: Steve dressed casually for the flight in a blue shirt, a matching jacket and jeans

Taking to Instagram after the news broke, he claimed the real reason he was leaving Nine was to spend more time with his daughters.

'Sadly I can't commit to the future travel requirements of the job and have to put my beautiful daughters first,' he wrote.

'They are my world, my life and my joy.'

Heavy lifting: The TV presenter was later seen loading up the the family's suitcases into a taxi

Steve first joined Today as an on-location weather presenter in 2005.

He announced he was leaving the program in 2016 to 'spend more time with his family', but separated from his wife, Rosie Jacobs, within a year.

He returned as Weekend Today's weather presenter in 2017, before filling in for Natalia Cooper on the weekday edition in 2018 when she went on maternity leave.

New kid on the block: Steve parted ways with Channel Nine late last year, after being replaced as the Today show's weather presenter by Tim Davies (pictured)

Steve rejoined Today as a full-time weather presenter in January 2019.

He would eventually leave the program later that year, alongside co-hosts Georgie and Deborah, sports presenter Tony Jones and newsreader Tom Steinfort.

He has been replaced by Tim Davies, who is now handling weather duties as part of the new-look Today show anchored by Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon.
Today, The Beryl Institute and Ipsos unveiled the inaugural PX Pulse, a first of its kind effort to elevate understanding of and track the current perspectives on patient experience in healthcare across the United States. The first quarterly survey found that most U.S. patients were largely positive about their own experiences with the healthcare system but had a less positive perception of the quality of the U.S. system overall. The positive personal experiences were driven in part by respondents satisfaction with their primary care physician.

This exciting partnership with The Beryl institute will provide healthcare providers, insurers, policymakers and other stakeholders with a detailed understanding of Americans perceptions of their patient experience, said Clifford Young, President of Public Affairs for Ipsos. Jason A. Wolf, PhD, CPXP, President & CEO of The Beryl Institute said, PX Pulse will be a comprehensive and fundamental tracking tool for how patient experience is being addressed and a resource for healthcare organizations looking to reinforce the importance of their experience efforts. We look forward to working closely with Ipsos to deliver deep insights into consumers perspectives of healthcare experience throughout the year.

Key Findings from Inaugural Survey



People are more positive about their own personal experiences with healthcare (66%) than about the overall quality of care in the United States (46%).

Costs are the most important set of issues for consumers, with 73% prioritizing costs related to insurance coverage, prescription drugs, and hospital care.

Over 90% of people affirm that good patient experience is either very important or extremely important to them.

Primary Care Visits



Over 90% of consumers who had a primary care visit in the past three months reported being satisfied with their primary care experiences and felt that their needs related to those visits were addressed.

The top reasons consumers choose their primary care providers is the proximity of their offices to home, work, or school (37%), its inclusion in an insurance company list of eligible providers (32%), and the friendliness and respectfulness of both providers (30%) and staff (24%).

Access & Cost



Some consumers may experience challenges addressing health needs in a timely manner, with consumers sharing that they avoid non-urgent care visits due to costs (47%) and inconvenience (47%).

Communication



The vast majority of consumers find it easy to understand what their healthcare providers are saying (94%) and are comfortable discussing personal health issues (91%).

Impact of Patient Experience



The vast majority of consumers say that patient experience is significant to their decisions about their own and their familys healthcare (94%).

About 70% of consumers say that they had a positive care experience in the past 12 months, compared to only 12% who had a negative experience within the same time frame.

ABOUT THE PX PULSE SURVEY

The Beryl Institute  Ipsos PX Pulse represents a first of its kind effort to elevate understanding of the current perspectives on patient experience in U.S. healthcare.

This effort will regularly capture healthcare consumer perspectives of patient experience in the United States, determine the practices and processes that have the greatest impact and influence on healthcare consumers, and track how the market sees patient experience evolving over time.

##

About The Beryl Institute

The Beryl Institute is the global community of practice committed to elevating the human experience in healthcare. We believe human experience is grounded in experiences of patients & families, those who work in healthcare and the communities they serve. We define the patient experience as the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organizations culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the third largest social science and market research firm in the world, with offices in 89 countries and over 18,000 employees who are passionately curious about people, markets, brands, and society. We have more than 30 years of experience working with physicians, hospitals, payers, brokers, and healthcare organizations on improving healthcare quality, increasing accountability, and advising on new and emerging health policy issues.
Indian organisations have faced over three times more cyberattack than the global average, with cryptocurrency mining malware impacting most of the entities, according to a research.

Most of the attacks have come on Indian companies via online medium, Israel-based firm Check Point Software Technologies said in its report for 2019.

"An organization in India is being attacked on average 1,565 times per week in the last 6 months, compared to 474 attacks per organization globally. 93 per cent of the malicious files in India were delivered via the Web, compared to 35 per cent of malicious files globally," the report said.

The report cited cyber attack on Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) by a malware designed for data extraction as one of the major attacks in India.

"The malware, linked by experts to the North-Korean group Lazarus, infected a computer in the plants external network, rather than the operational one," the report said.

It said that on May 19, an "unprotected MongoDB database" has exposed over 275 million records of Indian citizens.

"The exposed data included names, emails, mobile phone numbers, education details, professional info and current salaries. Despite the massive amounts of information, the database could not be linked to a specific owner," the report said.

Indian organisations were most adversely impacted by XMRig malware, which uses computer resources to mine cryto currencies.

"The top malware in India is XMRig, impacting 17 per cent of organizations," the report said.

On average, cryptocurrency mining malware accounted for 26.9 per cent, botnet 20.4 per cent, mobile malwares 20 per cent, banking 13.2 per cent and infostealer 8.7 per cent.

Check Point said that the Shade ransomware (also known as Troldesh), which historically targets Russian victims, has recently expanded to the United States, Japan, India, Thailand and Canada by English-language malspam.

A ransomware takes over the victim's computer and demands payments to unlock it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
January 27 : Bollywood actor Kunal Khemu who was being praised for his small but important role in his last film 'Kalank', is all excited for his upcoming movie 'Malang'. The actor expressed that playing a negative role in the movie, is like he is debuting again. He also said that, for him acting is acting, whether he play a good guy or a bad guy.

Kunal Khemu was seen interacting with the media on the sidelines at the 26th edition of SOL 'Lions Gold Awards' 2020 on Sunday in Mumbai.

Kunal conversing further on the same said, "My role in the movie 'Kalank' was appreciated a lot by the audience. I really hope that people do like my work in 'Malang' too. People have seen me in comedy and have cherished me for that. The audience have never seen me before as a bad guy. Because for the first time I am working in this genre. I am grateful to Abhishek and Karan for offering me this role.

Watch the video

I am very excited about 'Malang' because Mohit Suri was my first director. He directed me in 'Kalyug' in 2005 and I am collaborating with him after that. It's a very cool film. I loved the script and I loved the way it has shaped up. I am very happy with the kind of response the trailer has received. It is just two weeks away from release, the entire team of 'Malang'is excited about it, he added."

'Malang' is a romantic, action, thriller movie, directed by Mohit Suri and jointly produced by Luv Ranjan, Ankur Garg, Bhushan Kumar and Jay Shewakramani. The film also stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Disha Patani and Anil Kapoor. It is scheduled to release on 7 February 2020.
Choosing the right city to raise a family and call home is a massive decision. There are so many things to consider, such as cost of living, children's education, safety, recreation, etc. After all, as parents, we all strive to give the best quality of life to our children and family.

To make things easier, the main factors to consider in making this decision are crime index, education, and the potential to make a good living. Although not a key factor, it also helps if the city has some history to give its residents a sense of pride and belonging. One city that does satisfy these requirements quite well is Princeton, New Jersey.

This blog will examine Princeton with the above-mentioned factors in mind to help you decide if it's the right fit for you.

A LAND FROM BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Princeton has been home to mankind upwards of a thousand years. What is known today as Princeton, and New Jersey by extension, once served as the home of the Lenni Lenape, a Native American tribe? The first European settlement was established in the area in the late 17th century followed closely by the establishment of the College of New Jersey, which is known today as Princeton University.

Princeton also played an important role during the American Revolution as the site of the Battle of Princeton where George Washington defeated the British and secured the city.

CRIME INDEX

The crime index of a city should be the first thing you look at. If you're going to choose a city to raise your family, you need to make sure it's safe. Luckily, Princeton does not disappoint in this regard. In 2018, there were only 16 incidents of assault, compared to the national average of 286 incidents. Similarly, there were only 6 robbery-related crimes, which are a lot lower compared to the national average of 136. It is safe to say that Princeton is a relatively safe city.

EDUCATION

We don't need to waste a lot of time discussing the standing of Princeton University, a world-renowned Ivy League School. Instead, we can focus on the public school system. In 2018 Princeton High School (the only high school in the area) had a qualification rate of 95%, one of the best in the country. The elementary and middle school systems also hold an impressive rating and continue to perform well.

POTENTIAL FOR EARNING

Princeton is located almost an hour away from both New York City and Philadelphia. Many residents of Princeton choose to commute to both cities for work and manage to lead a content life. One gets to make a decent living in such important economic hubs and enjoy a low cost of living by being a resident of Princeton.

CONCLUSION

One cannot deny that Princeton does perform well when it comes to all of the factors we mentioned at the beginning of this article. As such it shouldn't be surprising that more and more people are moving to Princeton to establish a home and raise their family. If Princeton does make sense to you as a location where you would want to raise your family, then we're sure that, even with so much demand, you'll be able to find homes for sale in Princeton.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Jess Wright has clearly been dreaming of warmer climes.

The star, 34, took to Instagram to share yet more sunny throwback snaps of herself and boyfriend William Lee-Kemp enjoying their Jamaican getaway in December.

The former TOWIE star beamed with happiness as she cuddled up to her hunk on a swim platform in White House, Jamaica, wearing an understated sporty black one piece.

Loved-up couple: Jess Wright, 34, took to Instagram to share yet more sunny throwback snaps of herself and boyfriend William Lee-Kemp enjoying their Jamaican getaway in December

She captioned the image: 'Me & you [world emoji]'.

The pair celebrated her one-year anniversary two weeks ago, with Jess taking to Instagram to share a loved-up post.

She shared two romantic selfies with her businessman beau for the occasion, describing him as her 'first and hopefully last' love.

She captioned the post: 'You're my real first, hopefully my last. You're my absolute everything. Happy anniversary my love.'

Golden hour: The star shared a gorgeous photo on Sunday showing herself in a skimpy white bikini as she relaxed on the beach in golden hour while on the December holiday to Jamaica

And she was not done with the throwback shots, sharing another gorgeous photo on Sunday showing herself in a skimpy white bikini as she relaxed on the beach in golden hour.

Prior to that the star posted a snap of herself sporting tousled waves and a golden tan on the sea front at a resort on the South Coast of Jamaica, wearing a signet necklace along with her black one piece.

In another shot from the holiday, the Essex-born beauty tied a silk bandanna around her head and was leaned back exposing her taut abs in the sexy pic, leaving her raven tresses cascading down her torso.

Gorgeous tan: Another snap showed the star sporting tousled waves and a golden tan on the sea front at a resort on the South Coast of Jamaica, wearing a signet necklace

She captioned the sultry photo: 'I got sunshine on my mind #winter #doone #bringonsummer.'

The reality star enjoyed the holiday back in December and was joined by her sister Natalya, 19, boyfriend William and her famous pal Millie Bobbie Brown, 15.

In September, Jess was pictured passionately kissing her handsome man while on a birthday break in Mallorca.

Jess turned 34 that day, and the day after she took to Instagram to reveal her beau had helped her to get over her hangover in the best way possible.

Throwback: Jess has been littering her social media account with pictures from her Turks and Caicos holiday

Summer vibes: The beauty penned, 'Is it summer yet? #myhappyplace'

Famous friends: The reality star enjoyed the holiday back in December and was joined by her her pal Millie Bobbie Brown, 15

Posing in her bikini on the beach with a giant McDonald's bag in front of her, she wrote that her boyfriend had brought it to her.

'Find yourself a bf that brings you mcdonalds on the beach on your birthday hangover.... I'm lovin it.'

Before that, she had made a very public declaration of love for her man on the social media site.

Sweet: Jess recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with her boyfriend William as she took to Instagram to share a loved-up post

She wrote: 'There's no place I'd rather be & no one I'd rather be with. I love you.

'Thank you for making every day so special, not just my birthday ps. Yes we're very aware our outfits are clashing.'

Jess and boyfriend William only went public with their romance during a romantic getaway together in the summer.
Missing 'cult' mother Lori Vallow has been found in Hawaii along with her husband Chad Daybell, months after her two children vanished and both their spouses died under mysterious circumstances.

Police in Kaua'i served Lori and Chad on Sunday with two search warrants related to the location of her missing children, seven-year-old Joshua 'J.J.' Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan.

The couple have been on the run for two months after abandoning their home in Rexburg, Idaho, when police came to question them about the children's whereabouts.

No arrest warrants have been issued for Lori or Chad, who relatives say are members of a dangerous doomsday cult.

The mother has been ordered to physically appear with both of her children before a judge in Rexburg within five days.

Lori and Chad were seen for the first time since the children's disappearance captured nationwide attention in video recorded by the East Idaho News at the scene where police delivered the warrants on Sunday.

They stayed silent and kept walking as a reporter repeatedly asked them where the children are and if they are alive.

Lori only spoke once after the reporter said that people eastern Idaho and across the country are praying for J.J. and Tylee.

'That's great,' she replied.

Chad kept his mouth shut throughout the entire exchange, merely grimacing when the reporter mentioned his previous wife, who died two weeks before he married Lori.

Lori and Chad were seen for the first time since news of her children's disappearance captured national attention in a video recorded after police in Hawaii served them with search warrants on Sunday. The couple refused to say where the children are or confirm that they are alive

Officers are seen serving the couple with a warrant for their SUV in a resort parking lot in Kaua'i on Sunday. Police have not said what they were looking for or if they found any evidence

Tylee (right) and her brother, seven-year-old J.J., have not been seen or heard from for months

Authorities say Chad and Lori have been hiding out in a gated community in Princeville, Hawaii.

They were stopped by police while driving a black Ford Explorer along the Kuhio Highway and pulled into the Kaua'i Beach Resort, where officers handed them a search warrant for their vehicle.

Lori was placed into one police vehicle and Chad into another as a tow truck came to seize their SUV - but both were released soon after.

Federal, Idaho and Hawaii officers then went to the couple's townhome in Princeville to execute a search warrant there.

Police declined to say what they were searching for or if any evidence was found.

Lori, dressed in a tank top, cropped leggings, sandals and sunglasses, was seen gathering belongings from her vehicle before it was towed, including a large amount of cash in a plastic bag.

The ongoing investigation is being led by the Rexburg Police Department with assistance from the Kaua'i Police Department.

Authorities say Chad and Lori have been hiding out in a townhome in Princeville, Hawaii

J.J. and Tylee (pictured together) were last seen in Rexburg, Idaho, on September 23 but were never reported missing by their mother

J.J. and Tylee were last seen in Rexburg, Idaho, on September 23 but were never reported missing by their mother.

Authorities began searching for the children in late November after performing a welfare check ordered by concerned relatives who said they hadn't spoken to J.J., who is autistic, in months.

Timeline of Joshua and Tylee's disappearance July 11: Lori Vallow's husband, Charles Vallow, killed in self-defense by her brother, Alex Cox, in Arizona following an argument between the three people August: The last time Joshua's grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, said they saw the boy via FaceTime August: September: Lori moved children Joshua and Tylee to Rexburg, Idaho September 23: The last time Joshua was seen at his school in Idaho October: Activity found on a Venmo account that may belong to Tylee October 19: Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy Daybell, dies at their home in Rexburg. Officials rule her death to be of natural causes October 22: Tammy is buried in Springville, Utah October 25: A friend of Tylee receives a text from her phone Early November: Lori and Chad get married November 26: Out-of-state relatives ask Idaho police to perform a welfare check on Joshua. Lori and Chad claim he is in Arizona with a family friend. Police also learn Tylee has not been seen since September, either November 27: Police execute a search warrant at Lori and Chad's home, discovering the couple have fled the city December 11: Tammy Daybell's body is exhumed from the Utah cemetery December 12: Lori's brother, Alex Cox, believed to have died in Arizona December 21: Rexburg police issue a press release about J.J. and Tylee, revealing they believe the children's disappearance is linked to the death of Tammy Daybell December 24: Lori and Chad issue a statement through an attorney saying they love their son and daughter and look forward to addressing 'allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor' December 30: Police accuse Lori and Chad of lying to investigators and say they believe the couple know where the children are or what happened to them January 26: Lori and Chad are seen for the first time in months as police serve two search warrants in Kaua'i Advertisement

When officers first went to Lori's home in Idaho on November 26, she told them that J.J. was visiting relatives in Arizona - which investigators say was a lie.

Officers returned the following day and found that Lori and Chad - who tied the knot early that month - had fled from the home.

Authorities say the couple have repeatedly lied about where J.J. and Tylee are and refused to cooperate with the investigation.

It has since emerged they had told people Tylee was dead and that Lori has no minor children.

Lori and Chad are considered persons of interest in the children's disappearance after investigators said they believe the mother knows where her children are or what happened to them.

The couple issued a statement after they went on the run insisting that they'd done nothing wrong.

Police have said there is reason to believe the children are in danger.

The search for J.J. and Tylee uncovered a web of mysterious deaths surrounding Lori and Chad that has baffled investigators for weeks.

The first death is that of Lori's estranged husband Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 10.

Charles and Lori had gotten into an argument when the father came to pick up J.J. at the mother's home in Chandler.

Lori's brother intervened and fatally shot Charles.

Police initially determined that he acted in self defense - but the case was reopened amid the multi-state search for J.J. and Tylee, who had moved to Idaho, where Chad lived, with their mother in August.

The second mysterious death was Tammy Daybell - Chad's previous wife - who was found dead at the couple's home in Salem, Idaho, on October 19.

An obituary stated that Tammy passed away in her sleep and her cause of death was ruled as natural after Chad reportedly declined an autopsy.

Investigators reopened the case after learning that J.J. and Tylee were missing, as their mother had married Chad just two weeks after Tammy died. They believe the two cases could be linked.

Tammy's body was exhumed on December 11 and the autopsy results have not yet been released.

On December 12, Lori's brother, Alex Cox, was found dead in Gilbert, Arizona.

The 51-year-old's death is now under investigation as police wait for an autopsy to determine the cause.

Chad's then-wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together) was found dead under mysterious circumstances in October, just two weeks before he married Lori

Lori's estranged husband Charles Vallow (pictured together) was shot dead by her brother, Alex Cox, in July

The string of mysterious deaths have left other relatives in fear for their lives as they suspect Lori and Chad's alleged links to a doomsday cult may be responsible.

Family members have said that Lori turned into a 'monster' after she met Chad, the author of 25 books about the end of the world, and joined a cult called Preparing a People with him around 19 months ago.

Lori was married to Charles at the time that she allegedly joined the cult. The couple separated months later and Charles filed a petition for divorce and for custody of JJ in February 2019.

In court documents, Charles claimed that Lori - referred to as 'mother' - had recently become 'infatuated, at times obsessive, about near death experiences and spiritual visions'.

'Mother has told Father [Charles] that she is sealed [eternally married] to the ancient Book of Mormon prophet Moroni and that she has lived numerous lives on numerous planets prior to this current life,' the documents state.

'Mother also informed Father that she is a translated being who cannot taste death sent by God to lead the 144,000 into the Millennium.

'Mother believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the book of Revelations.'

Charles also claimed in the petition that Lori had threatened to kill him.

During a January 29 phone conversation, Lori allegedly told Charles that she was a 'God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020 and that if Father [Charles] got in her way of her mission she would murder him', the documents state.

Attorneys who represented Charles during the divorce proceedings recently revealed that their client had predicted either Lori or her brother Alex would kill him.

Speaking to FOX10 earlier this month, lawyer Steven Ellsworth claimed that Charles told him: 'I'm afraid I'm gonna be killed, and I know who's gonna do it.

'I'm telling you, Steve, so that if something happens to me, I wanna make sure you let everyone know that something happens, I'm killed, that it's my wife Lori and her brother, Alex Cox.'

Five months later, Charles' prediction came true when Alex killed him.

THE PLAYERS: A WHO'S WHO IN THE CASE OF MISSING IDAHO KIDS TYLEE AND JJ

Other family members have expressed similar concern for their safety.

Brandon Boudreaux, who was married to Lori's niece, claims his wife tried to murder him in October after she joined the doomsday cult with her aunt.

On October 2, Brandon was shot at while driving home from the gym in Gilbert, Arizona. The bullet missed his head by mere inches as the shooter fled the scene, according to court documents obtained by The Arizona Republic.

An ongoing police investigation revealed that the shooter was driving a Jeep registered to Charles Vallow.

Brandon has now said he believes the children's disappearance, the three deaths and his attempted murder are connected to a dangerous religious cult that Chad recruited Lori into.

'I just don't know how people can get so wrapped up that they can end up in this space where these people are. It's just so radical, so different,' Brandon told The Arizona Republic this week.

Brandon said his ex-wife, Melani Boudreaux, had begun spending time with her aunt's cult, a radical offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called Preparing for People, before she suddenly demanded a divorce over the summer.

'I thought I had a happy marriage, so it was pretty overwhelming,' Brandon said.

The parents to four young children were in the middle of divorce proceedings when someone tried to kill him in the October drive-by.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Another celebrity has joined the ranks of military reservists, this time with the Philippine Navy.

In a post on Instagram, actress Marian Rivera shared photos of her husband, actor Dingdong Dantes, receiving his rank of Lieutenant Commander.

"Super proud of you my husband... Salute!" Rivera said in the caption.

The Philippine Navy also mentioned Dantes' new rank in a release Sunday about the 2,500 relief packs donated to Taal evacuees by Yes Pinoy Foundation, which the actor heads.

The Navy has not released details of Dantes' role as a reservist.

Dantes is not the first celebrity to take on a role with a branch of the military. In 2019, Matteo Guidicelli became the first civilian to graduate from Army Scout Ranger training with the rank of Army reserve 2nd lieutenant.

In the same year, actors Gerald Anderson, Elmo Magalona, Yves Flores, Jerome Ponce, and Nash Aguas, were conferred the rank of private following a rigorous three-day Scout Ranger training course.
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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 11:16 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206112c00 1 Editorial PDI-P,KPK,harun-masiku,bribery-case,Yasonna-Laoly,political-party Free

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) had endured peaks and valleys throughout 47 years of existence. Born in 1973 out of a merger of five political parties  the Indonesian National Party (PNI), the Independence Vanguard Party (IPKI), the Proletarian Consensus (Murba) Party, the Indonesian Christian Party (Parkindo) and the Indonesian Catholic Party  the PDI-P may have been the one that suffered the most throughout the three-decade rule of Soehartos New Order.

Following a regime change and improvements in the election system during the 1998 reform movement, the PDI-P has seen a steadily improving performance. It is currently on top with its own member, President Joko Jokowi Widodo, leading the country. It also won the most seats in the House of Representatives in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

However, as our Special Report today underlines, the last few years witnessed how the PDI-P has struggled to live up to its name. The party, for example, led the ruling coalitions push for a revision of Law No. 30/2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Ironically, the old KPK Law was enacted during the presidency of Megawati Soekarnoputri, a long-time PDI-P chairperson.

Read also: PDI-Ps transformation: From complementary entity to political stardom

The amended legislation, Law No. 19/2019, is indeed controversial. Syamsuddin Haris, a member of the KPK supervisory council  a supreme body within the KPK that was recently established as a result of the KPK Law revision  has admitted that the new law weakens the antigraft body.

The PDI-P clearly benefits from a less powerful KPK. The latest case in point is the KPKs ongoing investigation into alleged bribery surrounding a PDI-P member. The KPK arrested a General Elections Commission commissioner for allegedly accepting Rp 600 million (US$43,950) from PDI-P legislative candidate Harun Masiku, who is still at large.

The PDI-P has also been accused of tampering with the KPK investigation into the case, which implicates the partys secretary-general, Hasto Kristiyanto. To make matters worse, a group of academics has initiated an online petition to ask for the dismissal of Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who is a PDI-P politician, for alleged obstruction of justice in the graft case.

Apart from the KPK Law, the PDI-P was also behind an initiative to amend the 1945 Constitution by reinstating the State Policy Guidelines (GBHN), operational guidelines issued by the Peoples Consultative Assembly in the form of a mandate for a president to perform his constitutional duties. The GBHN, which was, part of a key the New Order, was removed during the reform movement along with the revocation of the assemblys status as the supreme lawmaking authority.

Surely the PDI-P is now at its peak performance. Unless it resists the temptation to hold onto power through undemocratic means, we might see the partys collapse sooner or later.
The Role of the Party Newspaper

As new Editor-in-Chief of The Workers Weekly Guardian, I wish to outline my understanding and vision of how the partys voice, its newspaper, should be directed. I hope that this will provide transparency between myself (along with the Guardian collective) and party comrades and other Guardian readers by informing the party body of how we view the relationship between the paper and its readers.

The Importance of the Newspaper to the Party

There are many challenges that every communist party faces. The main challenge, however, is dismantling capitalist hegemony  in whatever form it takes. This task must be at the centre of every working class party. It is imperative to the growth of every party and crucial to winning over the working class.

To accomplish this task a party paper is necessary. The creation of a party paper is so crucial that Lenin himself qualified it as the starting-point and the first step in develop[ing], deepen[ing], and extend[ing] a political organisation. Without it, Lenin held that the systematic, all-round propaganda and agitation which he deemed the chief and permanent task of communists cannot [be] conduct[ed]. Without [a party paper], Lenin said, we cannot possibly fulfil our task  that of concentrating all the elements of political discontent and protest, of vitalising thereby the revolutionary movement of the proletariat.

On the importance of the party newspaper, the Communist Party of Australias (CPA) program says that the paper is integral in establish[ing] its political leadership. In the view of the party, establishing political leadership is achieved by arguing our position while respecting the views of others and, at each stage, helping to unify the politically progressive and socialist forces and it is in this process that the paper plays a central role.

The Aim and Nature of the Party Paper

The party paper must aim to crystallise and articulate the sentiment of the working-class and direct that energy towards tasks and actions by clarifying what must be done to win the class struggle. To accomplish this task the nature of this paper must be two-fold; it must be worker-orientated and a vehicle to discuss the ideas of the party. If workers are to be drawn to the party, they must see their struggles reflected in its paper since they do not see it in the bourgeoise press.

Marxist-Leninist analysis of their oppression will develop the political and class consciousness of the working class; it will give them the tools by which they can understand and interpret their struggle against the capitalist class. On this aspect, the CPA program states that the party paper must inform the workers of issues, free of control by vested interests. [...] Our newspaper links the Party and individual members with the more class conscious and politically aware members of the working class and working people generally.

The paper, as the voice of the party, must also reflect its ideas. In other words, and per the CPA program, the papers aim is to educate and organise. However, in the digital age, there are many other forums where comments are spoken too quickly and shared too publicly. They contain little substance and many errors. Damage can be done before offending material can be removed. This volatile nature of social media leaves widespread party discussions vulnerable to losing their focus and effectiveness. Discussions on party practice and its political line require a centralised forum whereby party members from across the country can express and read political ideas. The party paper must serve as this forum. In the sheets of the partys paper, the views of comrades can be moderated and, in the form of articles, will be considered. Furthermore, unlike social media, where comments can be made without scrutiny, the party paper operates on the principle of democratic centralism. Thus, while the party paper must encourage new ideas and perspectives to be shared, they cannot veer from the party program and the principles of Marxism-Leninism when shared publicly and the party paper will ensure this.

The Duties and Responsibilities of Party Members

The partys program seeks to have all its members distribute The Guardian and from the above, we can understand why given the significance of the paper to the party. However, the CPAs extension of that thought to the duty of its members is not without its reasons.

The 24th Session of the Third Congress of the Communist International adopted a document entitled Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work and, under Section VI, we can see directives issued between party members and their partys paper. In this document, the Comintern acknowledges that the communist newspaper can be maintained only by heavy, ongoing material and financial sacrifices and that the means for its improvement will constantly have to be supplied from the ranks of party members until, in legal mass parties, it ultimately attains such wide circulation and organisational solidity that it itself begins to serve as a material support for the communist movement.

This means that we must sell and distribute the paper, if we do not, we lose our central organ for propaganda. Regarding sales, the Comintern states that use must be made of every situation in which there is increased motion among the workers and where political or social life is further inflamed by any sort of political and economic events.

The Comintern also believed it was the duty of comrades to contribute to their party paper: it is not enough for a communist to be an active salesman and agitator for the paper; he must be an equally useful contributor to it. Therefore, comrades are encouraged to share reports of all actions, such as strikes, workplace disputes, rallies, and other organisational activities. This way, the paper can be reflective of the life of its members and the working class.

The Duties and Responsibilities of the Editorial Staff

Responsibilities, of course, dont just fall on the ranks of party members. For instance, the Comintern felt that the editorial staff should receive its stories on working class struggles with great warmth and affection and that such material should be used to make teachings of communism comprehensible by means of these practical examples from the workers daily existence which they felt was the quickest way to make the great ideas of communism immediate and vivid to the broad working masses.

The Comintern also stated that the editorial staff should hold office hours at a convenient time of day for any worker who visits our newspaper, to listen to his requests and his complaints about lifes troubles, diligently note them down and use them to enliven the paper.

These comments are of particular significance if our party paper is to be relevant. As Editor-in-Chief it is my responsibility to reach out to comrades and the working class, find out what is going on in their cities across the country and find the issues that matter to the working class. It is my responsibility to encourage comrades to write about, or report, the social and political issues affecting the working-class. My office needs to be open to hear your concerns and achievements so it can be reflective of the struggles of the working-class.

However, I do not believe my duties end there. It is the twenty-first century and our party press should reflect the technological advances of the current century. Despite the criticisms raised earlier of social media, communist parties must adapt and use these platforms to deliver their message to the people. Furthermore, innovations in technology have no longer made the creation of video content cost prohibitive. This provides an additional dimension for party messaging and has been an extremely effective method for the widespread dissemination of information.

The extent to which other mediums are used for party press will require proper analysis of the material conditions of this nation. A failure to do this will result in weak and ineffective messaging.

The Peoples Paper

Together, united, we the party can awaken the political consciousness of the working-class. To quote from the Comintern one last time: A communist develops the closest ties with his paper if he must work and make sacrifices for it. It is his daily weapon which must constantly be tempered and sharpened anew in order to be usable. The paper is our weapon, we must yield it to defend and fight for the working-class. Without a voice, we are lost.
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(Photo : photo)

In 2017, there were 183 car accidents at the intersection of Okeechobee and Military in West Palm Beach. The city is home to thousands of car accidents each year. Victims are often left with vehicle damage, injuries, and financial burdens. Although an insurance or personal injury claim could get you money for your accident, the claims process takes time. Find out how long your accident could take to resolve.

How Long Does an Insurance Claim Take?

An insurance claim could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to settle. First, you need to file the claim. The insurance company will connect you with an insurance adjuster who will assess your damage. Typically, the less damage involved in the accident, the quicker a claim will be resolved.

The process takes longer when the insurance company denies your claim or refuses to pay for certain expenses. You're not obligated to take the first settlement offer. In fact, the first offer is usually less than you deserve. While you might be in a rush to receive your money, waiting could be worth your time. It could take months for an experienced lawyer to negotiate a deal with the insurance company.

How Long Does a Car Accident Lawsuit Take?

Under certain circumstances, you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent driver or third-party. Much like the insurance claims process, this one also takes time.

A typical case takes about one year to resolve. However, it could take less or more time for both parties to reach a resolution. There are several factors that impact the timeline of a car accident lawsuit.

How Long it Takes to Serve the Defendant

After you file the lawsuit, you need to serve the defendant a copy of the complaint. Nothing can happen until they are officially served. Unfortunately, some people are difficult to track down. Depending on how skilled the plaintiff is at avoiding process servers, they may be able to avoid being served for several months.

How Long it Takes the Defendant to Respond

Once the defendant receives the complaint, they have a set amount of time to respond to it. If they respond immediately, your case can move forward and may be quickly resolved. But if they take their full time to respond, your case could be on hold for about a month.

How Long Discovery Takes

One of the most time-consuming aspects of a car accident case is the discovery process. During the discovery, each party asks for information regarding the case. They look for evidence that will be used in trial. Generally, it takes at least three months for the discovery process to conclude. If the case is complex, it could take longer than one year.

Whether or Not It Goes to Trial

Most car accident lawsuits never make it to a courtroom. This is because they are usually brought to an end with a settlement offer. At any point, after the lawsuit is filed, both parties can go into mediation. If you have compelling evidence in your favor, the other party could give you a settlement offer that gives you the money you need to pay your expenses.

If you go to trial, your case will take longer. But it could be your best option. To learn more about your options for compensation, you should work with an experienced car accident attorney.

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A father-of-three who asked a 12-year-old girl to come to his house for sex was instead met at a train station by a paedophile hunter group.

Gareth Welch, 43, from Ebbw Vale in Wales, messaged the girl's Facebook profile and was immediately told she was 12 years old.

However, he still asked her to be his girlfriend and asked if she wanted to have sex with him.

When she told him she didn't know what sex was, he said he would show her a film.

He even offered to buy her a McDonald's meal 'as a treat' and asked her what presents she would like for Christmas in a bid to come and meet him.

When confronted by members of paedophile hunter group Our Team at a train station, Welch initially denied knowing the girl, who turned out to be a decoy, was 12 years old.

But live stream footage of the defendant later showed him admitting to knowing the girl's age.

A sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court on Monday saw Welch pleading guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, via video link from prison.

The defendant was jailed for 18 months.

Sentencing, Judge Daniel Williams said: 'You knew from the outset this was, what you thought to be, a 12-year-old girl with who you were communicating and almost immediately asked her to meet you.

'You are manipulative and a danger to young girls. You have an entrenched sexual interest in young girls and the offence is so serious only a sentence of immediate imprisonment can be justified.'

On November 16 last year, the defendant contacted the decoy from a Facebook profile in the name of David Lee and sent her a friend request which she accepted.

The father-of-three began messaging the decoy, and upon being told the girl he was speaking to was 12 years old, he asked to be his girlfriend and asked her to send pictures.

The moment father-of-three Gareth Welch, 43, is caught by a paedophile hunters groups at a train station

Welch sent pictures of himself and asked the decoy if she wanted to meet him and they agreed to meet on November 23.

Prosecutor Ruth Smith told the court that the defendant told the girl he was 'teach her how to kiss'.

When the decoy said she was worried about being seen, he said she could come to his home where they would have food and play on an XBox, but the messages became sexual.

Welch asked the decoy if she 'wanted to have sex' and told her that 'sex is what a man and woman do to have a baby'.

He also told her he would show her a film about sex.

He also told her she could stay at his home and could share a bed with him where he would 'keep her warm by cuddling her'.

Welch arrived at Risca train station, in Caerphilly, where he was met by members of Our Team who confronted him with evidence and called the police

Initially he denied knowing the girl's age but live stream footage of the defendant later showed him admitting to knowing it

On November 23, Welch arrived at Risca train station, in Caerphilly, where he was met by members of Our Team who confronted him with evidence and filmed him for a Facebook live stream.

He was arrested by police at the scene and was remanded in custody.

He initially gave a no comment interview but later indicated he would be making guilty pleas.

Ms Smith told the court that Welch had a previous conviction for sexual activity with a child under 16 from 2001, for which he was given a community order. He also had recent convictions for battery in 2017 and harassment in 2018.

Defence barrister Jeffrey Jones said his client regretted his actions and was remorseful and contrite.

He said: 'He was leading an isolated form of lifestyle away from his former partner and children. He knows the live streaming of his arrest and admissions on Facebook caused difficulty in his neighbourhood and his house has been damaged.'

Welch was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years.
Karthik KK By

If there is one voice that is highly recognised among the visually-impaired in Karnataka, it is of KM Nithyananda. The 82-year-old Bengaluru resident has, for the last two decades, been on a mission to provide knowledge to the blind through his audiobooks. Nithyananda has until now dedicated nearly 30,000 hours to record over 1,000 audiobooks, covering over 1.5 lakh pages.

Among the treasure trove are novels and short stories, books on spirituality and personality development, and guides and reference books on competitive exams, besides, of course, textbooks, from Class V to the postgraduation level. Audiobook plays a vital role in addressing the issue of dearth of books for visually-impaired students. Im doing a small service to give something back to the society, which has given me so much, says Nithyananda. The students see me, and connect to me, through my voice. This is the most valuable job in my life, he adds.

Nithyananda first records the content of the books, and then hands over the audio files to Mitra Jyothi, a Bengaluru-based non-profit that works for people with disabilities. It was founded by Madhu Singhal, visually-impaired herself, to help people like her lead an independent life. Nithyanandas recordings are distributed by the NGO.

I was inspired by the work of Mitra Jyothi, which prompted me to volunteer for them. Since I had good oratory skills and voice modulation, I began recording the books. Thats how my journey began, recalls Nithyananda, who began his professional life as a businessman dealing in coffee. A few years later, he took up a job in the pharmacy sector, and gained experience in healthcare. Along with his doctor wife, HS Sheela, he was a part of several medical camps conducted across the state. Nithyanandas initiative, which began in the form of audio cassettes, has come a long way. The books are now available as audio CDs, and Mitra Jyothi has a full-fledged audiobook library.

Nithyananda now spends about three hours every day to record a book at his house, after which he sends it for further editing and compilation. Many visually-impaired students even request him for special recordings. While some like Latha, who studies MA at the University of Mysore, swear by the academic works of Nithyananda, others such as Suresh CN, a PhD student, have read 20-30 novels recorded by him.

It is challenging for blind students to take competitive exams or pursue higher studies due to lack of such books in Braille. However, Nithyananda sir is making things easier for us, says Latha, who wants to become a lecturer. According to her, Nithyanandas recordings also make the topic easier for students to comprehend. Even post-graduate Kannada students find Bharathiya Kavya Meemase difficult to understand, but Nithyananda sirs recording has made it interesting, explains Latha, talking about the book on Indian poetry written by Kannada writer TN Shrikantaiah.

Nithyananda, who also brought out audio magazine Sanchaya for 13 years, now helps train other volunteers in the vocation. He provides guidance for publication and recording of Spardha Shrunkala, a monthly audio magazine in Kannada that aims to prepare candidates for various competitive examinations. Nithyananda sir needs no introduction among the visually-impaired community here, says BR Diwakar, the treasurer of Karnataka Visually Challenged Students Conscious Forum. I have known him for 10 years, and thousands of students have benefited from his service, including many visually-impaired students who have cracked central and state civil services exams, he adds, pointing out that novels such as Huli Hegge and Bullet Savari recorded by Nithyananda have had a great impact on him. Latha echoes the thought; she has even written a poem titled Dhwani Mahatmaru (meaning Voice Mahatma) on Nithyananda. Its affection like this which makes Nithyananda go on, even though he realises that technology is making things easier for the disabled now.

Nithyananda has until now dedicated nearly 30,000 hours to record over 1,000 audio books, covering over 1.5 lakh pages
PR-Inside.com: 2020-01-27 13:00:36

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Scorpio Gold Corporation ("Scorpio Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV:SGN) is pleased to announce the signing of a Toll Milling Agreement (the "Agreement") between the Company's affiliate, Goldwedge LLC, and Lode-Star Mining Inc. ("Lode-Star"). The Agreement will allow for the processing of ore delivered from Lode-Star's mining properties to Scorpio Gold's 400 ton per day Goldwedge milling facility located in Manhattan, Nevada.Under the terms of the Agreement, Lode-Star will advance funds required for the design engineering, permitting and mill modifications required for processing of Lode-Star's ore. Based on previous metallurgical testing, Lode-Star's ore requires gravity combined with flotation for optimal recoveries of contained precious metals. The Goldwedge milling circuit is currently configured with a gravity recovery circuit. The modifications to the Goldwedge milling facility will include the addition of a flotation circuit, supporting reagent tanks/silos, secondary lining of process containment ponds, leak detection and monitoring wells associated with fluid containments. The Agreement provides for Lode-Star to recoup the advanced funds through a reduction in toll milling rates until all advanced funds have been repaid. Following repayment, the toll charges will revert to standard rates.This Agreement is mutually beneficial for both parties. Goldwedge LLC will transition from temporary closure into production. With the addition of a flotation circuit the Goldwedge milling facility will have the capability of processing carbonaceous/sulfidic ores, expanding its availability for toll milling in addition to the Lode-Star arrangement. The new flotation circuit will also result in improved recoveries for mineralized material within the Goldwedge deposit, potentially allowing for lower mining cut-off grades. Lode-Star benefits from having a long-term processing agreement for their ores at a location operated by an experienced processing team. The mill is in close proximity to their mine, thus minimizing haulage costs, and will have a milling circuit optimized for peak metallurgical recoveries.Scorpio Gold's President, Chris Zerga, comments, "This toll milling agreement is the achievement of many hours of work between Lode-Star and Scorpio Gold's management and both parties will greatly benefit from it. We look forward to working with the Lode-Star team and positioning the Goldwedge mill for additional toll-milling opportunities." About Scorpio GoldScorpio Gold holds a 100% interest in the advanced exploration-stage Goldwedge property in Manhattan, Nevada with a fully permitted underground mine and 400 ton per day mill facility. Scorpio Gold also holds a 100% interest in the Mineral Ridge gold mining operation located in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Mineral Ridge is a conventional open pit mining and heap leach operation. Mining at Mineral Ridge was suspended in November 2017; however, the Company continues to generate limited revenues from residual but diminishing recoveries from the leach pads.Scorpio Gold's Chairman, Peter J. Hawley, P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this release.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARDSCORPIO GOLD CORPORATIONBrian LockInterim CEOFor further information contact:Brian LockTel: (604) 889-2543Email: block@ scorpiogold.com Chris Zerga, PresidentTel: (604) 536-2711Email: czerga@ scorpiogold.com Website: www.scorpiogold.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.The Company relies on litigation protection for forward-looking statements. This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's plans with respect to toll milling at its Goldwedge milling facility. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements, including risks involved in mill modifications, toll milling operations and those risk factors outlined in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis as filed on SEDAR. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.SOURCE: Scorpio Gold Corporation
At first, it was every parents nightmare, Anthony Siler said. To see his positivity and optimism every day [was amazing]. There are peaks and valleys as you can imagine, but he knows hes going to walk again and get better. Now that the treatment is done, we have a firm footing in getting better. Throughout the treatment, he kept getting knocked down, but built back up.
A deadly virus that has prompted travel restrictions in China is sending shockwaves through Asia's tourism industry, which has become increasingly reliant on growing numbers of Chinese visitors. At least 81 people have died since the new strain of coronavirus emerged in China's Wuhan, and millions are now under an effective quarantine, with all flights in and out of the city grounded and a ban on Chinese tour groups domestically and abroad. The measures come amid a boom in Chinese foreign travel, with the number of tourists from the country increasing nearly tenfold since 2003, according to a report by research firm Capital Economics. But businesses in destinations that rely on the huge numbers of Chinese tourists are already feeling the heat, with complaints of "deserted" beaches and shops, and concerns about the future. There will be a less immediate impact in Europe, which is currently off peak season for visitors from China. The outbreak carries echoes of the SARS crisis, which paralysed regional travel and battered local economies from late 2002. Chinese tourist numbers then fell by around a third. "If they fell by a similar amount again, it would knock around 1.5-2.0 percentage points from (gross domestic product) in the most vulnerable countries," Capital Economics said. In Japan, the fall in Chinese visitors was already being felt in Asakusa, a popular tourist destination near the Sensoji temple. "We've definitely been seeing less people this year," said Yoshie Yoneyama, 31, manager of a shop selling traditional Japanese sweets and a rice-based drink called amazake. - Beaches 'deserted' - "I think there are less than half the numbers of last year or the year before," she told AFP. The number of Chinese holidaying in Japan has exploded from around 450,000 in 2003 to 8.4 million in 2018, accounting for 27 percent of all inbound tourists as Tokyo works to expand the sector. But it will now be "very difficult" for Japan to achieve its target of 40 million tourists in 2020, Yuki Takashima, an economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP. And the effects will be felt beyond hotels, restaurants and tourist sites, because many Chinese tourists visit Japan specifically to shop. The crisis has already sent Japan's key Nikkei index plunging, with stock in Shiseido -- a cosmetics brand popular with Chinese tourists -- falling more than five percent on Monday. "We can expect those stocks to continue to fall like dominoes," said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp. But he said Japan would be better placed to weather the storm than another top destination for Chinese tourists: Thailand. Tourism accounts for 18 percent of the nation's GDP, with Chinese holidaymakers making up more than a quarter of total arrivals. The country's tourism minister has already warned a crisis on the scale of SARS could cost an estimated $1.6 billion, and the effects are already clear in Phuket. - 'Really serious' - "For two days, the streets, the shops and the beaches have been deserted," said Claude de Crissey, who owns a 40-room hotel and a restaurant on the island. "Phuket has focused almost exclusively on Chinese tourism... if the situation continues, we will all be impacted," he told AFP. Australia too, already reeling from the effects of the bushfire crisis, is likely to feel the impact. Chinese visitor numbers doubled in the six years to June 2019, with mainlanders now accounting for 15 percent of Australia's inbound tourists. Mario Hardy, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association said it was hard to gauge how long the crisis would last. "I would suspect the impact would be between three to six months, but it will really depend on how the situation evolves in the coming few weeks," he told AFP. - Off season in Europe - The impact will be felt less immediately in Europe, which does not attract as many visitors from China during the winter. "We are in low season for now, but if the situation persists... the economic impact will be significant," said Jean-Pierre Mas, head of a French travel lobby group. Last year more than two million Chinese tourists visited France -- the most popular destination in Europe -- staying an average five days and spending a collective four billion euros. Swiss tourism officials said they also expected a decline in bookings from China, which makes up 4.5 percent of all hotel nights bookings. Kurt Janson, director of Britain's Tourism Alliance, said Chinese visitors to the UK represent less than two percent of the annual total "so there will not be any significant overall impact". burs-mis-sah/dan/fox/ind
The paper also noted that an F.B.I. informant learned that a communist acquaintance of the Seborers eventually visited them. The family lived in Moscow and had assumed the surname Smith. The visitor reported back that Oscar and Stuart had said they would be executed for what they did if the brothers ever returned to the United States.

In a recent interview, Mr. Klehr said he originally thought the spies were exaggerating their importance. But, he added, the new information on Oscars technical knowledge suggested otherwise, although Stuarts exact role in the spy case remains unclear. Maybe it wasnt hyperbole, Mr. Klehr said.

Last fall, the historians described the Seborers as a Jewish family from Poland that, in New York, became part of a network of people connected to Soviet intelligence. Both Oscar and Stuart attended City College, a hotbed of communist activism, the historians wrote.

Stuart took a math class there in 1934 with Julius Rosenberg, they reported. In a notorious Cold War spy case, Mr. Rosenberg and his wife, Ethel, were convicted of giving the Soviets atomic secrets. In 1953 they were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y., orphaning their two sons, ages 6 and 10.

The scholarly paper, written with John Earl Haynes, a former historian at the Library of Congress, appeared in the September issue of Studies in Intelligence. The journal, a C.I.A. quarterly, is published for the nations intelligence agencies as well as academic and independent scholars.

A Times article about the historians paper ran on Nov. 23, a Saturday. Four days later, a reporter sent the scholarly paper to Los Alamos and asked if the labs archive had any photos of Mr. Seborer or relevant documents.

Two weeks later, on Dec. 10, the lab emailed 10 pages of newly declassified documents from 1956. The material consists mainly of a correspondence between a top security official at Los Alamos and the labs branch of the Atomic Energy Commission, a federal agency that oversaw the weapons development site. The letters discussed an F.B.I. investigation of Mr. Seborers espionage but gave no specifics on what he may have delivered to Moscow. Instead, the exchange dwelled on the secrets available to him.
YPSILANTI, MI  Eastern Michigan Universitys second Black Leadership Summit is set for Saturday, Feb. 1, with BET News host Marc Lamont Hill booked to deliver the keynote address.

The event, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the EMU student center, will include workshops led by students and community leaders, as well as a full day of training on activism, political involvement, networking and various other aspects of leadership, organizers said.

I believe this is worthwhile for students to attend, because it will help provide the necessary tools to become the leader they want to be, said Kyra Mitchell, vice president of the EMU Black Student Union, in a press release. As students, we understand the different skills that students need or want to develop more, and we have been able to create an entire summit around that and cater it to underrepresented students. It takes a student to know what students need, and I believe weve done that with this years Black Leadership Summit.

Hill currently hosts BET News and is a former political contributor for CNN. He has been a social justice activist and organizer, and he is a founding member of My5th, a nonprofit devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities.

In 2018, CNN parted ways with Hill after a speech he made on Israel and Palestine at the United Nations, according to the Associated Press. The AP said the move came after objections to Hills speech by the Anti-Defamation League and other groups.

Hill is a professor of media studies and production at Temple University and was named one of Americas 100 most influential men by Ebony Magazine.

After Hills keynote address, the summit will feature a Buy Black Expo," featuring various black-owned businesses in from the community. Any interested black business owners can email emublackstudentunion@gmail.com for a vendor application.

The summit is free and open to the public. Anyone interested in attending can register here.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : BJP candidate from Hari Nagar Tajinder Bagga has claimed that the Shaheen Bagh road that has been blocked by anti-CAA protesters will be reopened on February 11 as soon as the Delhi poll results are out.

In a reply to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Bagga tweeted: "Talk to people who are raising slogans in name of Jinnah? Talk to those who are raising slogans for freedom from Hindus? Talk to those who are talking about 'free Kashmir'? And as far as the matter of reopening of roads, it will be thrown open as soon as the election results will be out on February 11." This was in reply to Kejriwal's tweet demanding that BJP leaders intervene. He had tweeted: "People are facing problems due to the closed road in Shaheen Bagh. BJP does not want to open the way. BJP is doing dirty politics. BJP leaders should immediately go and talk to Shaheen Bagh protesters and open the road." The road has been off-limits for more than a month now as protesters camped there since mid-December to register their opposition to the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.

The matter also came under judicial scrutiny when the Delhi High Court asked the Delhi Police to act in the "larger public interest".
Jenelle Evans, formerly of MTVs Teen Mom 2, has been lying low lately. The mom of three announced her separation from her husband of two years, David Eason, in Oct. 2019.

The announcement came as a surprise to many Teen Mom viewers, as Evans stuck with Eason through numerous controversial incidents, from Easons killing of the family dog, Nugget, to his comments on social media about trans and gay people.

Since then, Evans has moved to the outskirts of Nashville with her children, three-year-old Ensley (with Eason) and five-year-old Kaiser (with her ex-fiance Nathan Griffith). Her oldest son, Jace, still lives with her mom, Barbara Evans. Eason still lives on the couples land in North Carolina.

Since her separation from Eason, Evans has been more open on social media, especially on YouTube. In a recent video, she answered Teen Mom fans questions about her personal life and cleared up the rumors that her divorce from Eason was a publicity stunt.

Jenelle Evans | Vivien Killilea/WireImage

Evans said she was single as hell

In her new fan Q&A video, Evans cleared up rumors about a new boyfriend (Herb Wilkinson of Boston, who was spotted with her on Instagram a few weeks ago), as well as claims that her divorce from Eason was fake, on her YouTube channel.

Are you single? one fan asked. Yes, I am single as hell, Evans claimed. Just focusing on me, though.

In terms of her rumored boyfriend from Boston, Evans admitted that shed been up to Boston for a few days to visit, but that it was ultimately nothing. The former Teen Mom 2 star added that she didnt want to give any more details right now in order to protect others privacy.

The former MTV star said she and Eason were co-parenting as peacefully as possible

Some Teen Mom fans wondered how Evans and Eason are getting along these days. Evans initially filed a restraining order against Eason, but she recently dropped it. The MTV star was also spotted out and about with Eason in Nashville on Ensleys third birthday, sparking rumors that the former couple was getting back together.

Evans claimed nothing could be further from the truth, explaining that the meetup with Eason was just as simple as it looked.

I was in downtown Nashville taking pictures with my photographer, and David was in town for the court date, the former MTV star said. He asked to see Ensley. While I was taking pictures, I let him see Ensley. We had lunch, and then he went home. Thats it.

The mom of three added that shes just trying to keep the peace with her ex, but that everything is very platonic between them. Im just co-parenting, Evans said in the video. Im trying to stay out of court, trying to keep things civil between all parties. And I just want to do my own thing.

She added that she wanted to move away from her history of tumultuous relationships and difficult breakups. Im single now. I need to venture out, Evans said. I need to think about my future, my kids, and what Im gonna do in life. And I dont need any distractions at all. And I noticed that guys could be a big distraction.

The mom of three explained the separation and divorce laws in her state

Teen Mom viewers also wanted to know why Evans hasnt officially filed for divorce from Eason yet, although they are living separately. Evans answered by way of explaining the laws around separation and divorce in both North Carolina and Tennessee.

In the state of North Carolina, you first have to be separated for a complete year to even file for divorce, Evans said.

In the state of Tennessee, you have to live there for six months to be a resident, and you also have to be separated for six months in order to file for divorce. So thats why I havent filed yet. But as soon as its legally possible, Evans plans to file for divorce from Eason and move on.
 Flash

Islamic Hamas movement chief Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday declared his rejection to the U.S. Middle East peace plan, also known as the "Deal of The Century," according to a statement by his office.

"We are ready to hold an urgent meeting with the brothers in Fatah party and all factions in Cairo in order to draw our own way and unite in the battle of defending our Jerusalem and our sacred places," he added.

Palestinian factions have slammed the U.S. Middle East peace plan, ahead of a possible announcement by the U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump has invited Netanyahu and his rival, Benny Gantz, to the White House for separate meetings this week, to discuss the details of the new peace pan.

Speaking to the reporters on Jan. 23, Trump said he would unveil the long-awaited plan for Middle East peace, before Netanyahu and Gantz visit Washington.
The woman is believed to have carried her baby 1km before being picked up by an ambulance at the Four Court Photo: Gerry Mooney

Gardai have sealed off the scene where the woman went into labour on the corner of Linenhall Street and North King Street Photo: Gerry Mooney

Gardai sealed off two scenes in Dublin in the early hours of this morning after a distressed woman gave birth on a city street corner.

Passers-by came to the aid of the woman as she went into labour on the corner of Linenhall Street and North King Street near the north quays at around 1am.

But in her distressed state the woman is believed to have carried her baby 1km away to Inns Quay before being picked up by an ambulance at the Four Courts.

The ambulance had been called by the concerned passers-by.

Expand Close The woman is believed to have carried her baby 1km before being picked up by an ambulance at the Four Court Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook

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One local witness said he heard a woman screaming on the street at around 1am.

At first I thought it was horseplay, but she kept screaming so I looked out, said the man.

I saw a lady who was very distressed and people running to her. There were four people who crossed the road to her, and a man in a car stopped too.

They were giving her scarves and clothes. There was a lot of material changing hands and people were pointing down on the street, he explained.

I didn't fully understand what was going on, and then the woman walked away and the people who had helped her were putting their hands to their heads as if they were in panic. I could see someone on a phone, he added.

It is understood that one of the concerned people who had come to the woman's aid followed her while directing emergency services, and she was treated by an ambulance crew at Inns Quay before being taken to hospital.

The woman and the baby are now in good care and are understood to be well.

The area where the woman gave birth is a cold street corner in a landscape of pavements, walls and railings.

Gardai sealed off the scene, as well as where the woman was met by the ambulance.

While they are not being treated as crime scenes, Gardai were gathering information this morning at both scenes as per protocol to help establish the facts of the matter.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale asked filmmaker Naseeruddin Shah to "study" the Citizenship Amendment Act and understand that it doesn't harm the interests of Indian Muslims. Athawale was responding to Naseeruddin Shah joining hands with 300 artists, including filmmakers such as Ratna Pathak Shah, Jaaved Jafferi, Nandita Das, Mira Nair, among others to sign an open letter standing in solidarity with the students who have been protesting incessantly against the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

"Naseeruddin Shah is a good artist and everyone enjoys his films. But I think he needs to study about this Act and understand it better. There is nothing in it that will harm Indian Muslims nor their citizenship. The law is meant to provide citizenship to minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Hence he should support the government," Ramdas Athawale said.

READ | Over 300 Celebrities Pen Open Letter Opposing CAA/NRC, Agree To Have Stayed 'silent'

Celebs pen an open letter opposing CAA-NRC

Saluting the student's collective cry for upholding the principles of the Constitution of India, the letter stated, "The policies and actions of the present government, passed quickly through Parliament and without opportunity for public dissent or open discussion, are antithetical to the principle of a secular, inclusive nation. The soul of the nation is threatened.''

Claiming to be aware that a few of them have remained 'silent' in the 'face of injustice', the open letter stated that, "The gravity of this moment demands that each of us stand for our principles.

READ | Ramdas Athawale Calls It 'Right Of Govt' After Center Brings In NIA On Bhima Koregaon

Further pinpointing the loophole in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the one-page document stated that the ones who have been deemed 'illegal' through NRC may be eligible for citizenship under the CAA unless they are Muslim. Questioning the objective of the government, the letter asks why the minorities from neighbouring areas such as Sri Lanka, China and Myanmar have been excluded.

READ | Assam And Northeast Are An Integral Part Of India, Cannot Be Separated: Athawale

Rest of the letter:

"Several citizens have been killed while protesting. Many more have been placed in preventive detention. Section 144 has been imposed in numerous states to curb protests. We need to look no further than Kashmir to see how far this government is willing to go to suppress democratic dissent. Kashmir is now living under the longest Internet shutdown ever imposed by a democratic government. Enough is enough. Those of us who have been quiet in the past, our silence ends now. We will be clear-sighted in our dissent. Like our freedom fighters before us, we stand for a secular and inclusive vision of India. We stand with those who bravely oppose anti-Muslim and divisive policies. We stand with those who stand up for democracy. We will be with you on our streets and across all our platforms. We are in solidarity.

READ | Now, Pakistan Quotes Naseeruddin Shah To Tell 'bitter Truth' About India
By Chayut Setboonsarng

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting on Sunday with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness.

"We can control the situation and are confident in our ability to handle the crisis," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. The number of cases of the disease in Thailand rose on Sunday to eight.

Anutin added that three of the people infected were being treated and five had recovered and gone home.

The hashtag #crapgovernment was top trending on Twitter in Thailand on Saturday with over 400,000 tweets. Users complained about the management of the virus and other health issues.

"If it reaches a point where public health is in danger, we will take (more) action," Anutin said, adding that the government would not prioritize tourism revenue over health.

"Detecting infected patients is a good sign because it shows that our system is efficient," Anutin said.

China is Thailands biggest source of tourists and had nearly 11 million visitors from there last year.

In China, there have been nearly 2,000 cases of the illness and 56 people have died. A scattering of cases have been reported in other countries, including Thailand.

Graffiti artist, @headachestencil commented on Twitter, "Can close roads and islands, but can't close the country from China for the safety and confidence of the public. Can you not value Yuan more than our lives #crapgovernment."

All but one of the eight cases in Thailand were tourists from Wuhan, the central Chinese city that is at the epicenter of the outbreak. One Thai national, who had visited Wuhan over the New Year, contracted the disease.

There have been no cases of human-to-human transmission in Thailand.

The government is scanning passengers arriving on flights from Guangzhou across five airports including the main Suvarnabhumi airport, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Don Muang and Krabi.

Story continues

Based on numbers during the SARS outbreak in 2003, three months of reduced travel from China would result in 50 billion baht ($1.52 billion) of lost tourism revenue, Minister of Tourism and Sports, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, said.

Major shopping malls in Thai tourist spots have introduced hygiene measures.

Mass transit operators including the Bangkok skytrain and subways are increasing the frequencies of wipedowns and spraying disinfectant in trains, the Transport Ministry said.

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Frances Kerry)
DALLASSitting in the audience of Shen Yun Performing Arts, Robin Baker, owner of an accounting firm, felt this was an experience she had to share. No stranger to the theater, she has seen many performances, but thought there was something more to these artists, and contemplated how she could describe the experience to her friends.

It brings just a little bit of something morethe colors are phenomenaland you just feel the soul in it, Robin said at the Winspear Opera House the evening of Jan. 26, 2020, where she attended the performance with David Baker. You can just feel it, and it feels really good.

[I feel] very happy, and light, I feel light. This feels uplifting, Robin said.

David said he felt the history and the culture come through, exactly what New York-based Shen Yun aims for. The classical Chinese dance company tours the world every year on a mission to bring the ancient, 5,000-year culture to life on stage, and in doing so, has become a sort of phenomenon. After an eight-show run in Dallas last month, the company returned to the Winspear Opera House for a weekend and just last minute added a second show on Sunday as the performances had all sold out.

Also in the audience was Kirk Hampton and Sandy Freyer, who attended the performance with guests. For Hampton, the experience was a fascinating one both visually and emotionally.

I thought it was unique and uplifting, Hampton said of the performance, describing choreography and production, including an interactive backdrop that he had never seen anywhere else. The one of a kind production brought humor and humanity into tales that go 5,000 years back and made the experience fun for all ages.

I think it makes you feel better. It makes you feel uplifted, Hampton said.

Rejuvenated, Freyer added.

For Freyer, the entire production was a beautiful work of art, and very, very captivating. But what added an additional dimension to the production was the Shen Yun artists mission to revive this culture that was once, not so long ago, nearly destroyed.

I think that a lot of people dont realize how the Chinese people were persecuted for so long, for so many years, Freyer said. Indeed, when communism took power in China less than a century ago, it immediately set to rooting out the traditional culture and replacing it with the communist culture.

Thats whats so beautiful about this playthey show it all. They depict it very well, Freyer said.

In a performance of roughly 20 vignettes, every year Shen Yun shows court life from the Tang or Qing dynasties, ethnic dances from Mongolia to Tibet, stories about Buddhist monks and magical Taoist sages, and emperors revealed to be only human. The stories progress through the centuries and across the geography and even touch on the present day.

Juan and Gabriella Chavez, who also attended Shen Yuns last night in Dallas, enjoyed the range of stories that brought up emotions from joy to sorrow to hope, and all of it beautifully depicted.

Some of them were funny, some of them were a little sad, but the storyline was beautiful, Juan said. It shows you a different culture; it shows you a different time; it gives you a different perspective on the world itself. It was beautiful.

The stories alone were touching, but the music made it even more so for the Chavezes.

It touches your soul! Juan said. Most memorable was a solo vocal performance by baritone Qu Yue, who sang of redemption and the persecution of people of faith in China.

I closed my eyes and I could hear his voice, and it just really touched me, Juan said. I just really loved it.  and the woman who played the [erhu], same thing, I could close my eyes and I could hear the music and it was just fantastic.

With reporting by Sophia Zheng.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.
Traveling to a new country, none of us wants to make the first impression of a "stereotype arrogant tourist." Take a few minutes to understand the do's and don'ts of the culture and traditions of the inviting country and enjoy the connections made easier!

Waving Your Hand And Beckoning

Waving our hand from side to side is a common way to greet or say goodbye in many Western countries. In India, it means "come here"; in many East Asian countries, it is considering too showy and impolite. Additionally, in a few Latin American countries or Japan, it might be understood as "no need."

In Laos and some Arabian countries, a gesture that we are used to understanding as "go away" means the opposite - "please come here."

Curling the index finger or four fingers that would mean "come over" in Russia and the US, might be misunderstood in Europe. In the Philippines and East Asia, the same gesture is only used to beckon dogs so it is offensive to use with humans.

The sign that means "stop" in the US should not be used in Greece and Turkey; it would mean "go to hell."

A 'stop' gesture.

A thumb-up is not always an appropriate way to ask for a lift when hitchhiking. "Thumbs up" traditionally means a severe insult in Middle Eastern countries, similar to the middle finger in the US. The sign can be equally offensive in West Africa, Greece, and Sardinia. Just use a loose flat hand with fingers upwards. The same can be useful in China and Morocco.

Counting And Numbers Gestures

In Germany and Austria, a forefinger held up means two instead of one. A thumb up in Japan would mean five. In Russia, "one" is signaled used index finger. In East Slavic countries, the thumb represents number "one." It can be quite funny: imagine if someone asked you whether to give you $20 in two notes, and you show a thumb as "ok!", but in Bulgaria, you are likely to receive a bunch of $1 coins. That is important when ordering food or drinks.

The "a-ok" gesture with your thumb and index finger from the US would mean "zero" in France and Russia. It is also quite rude in Greece (it seems we really should be careful with fingers gestures there!).

Nods, Head Toss, Or Side-To-Side: Yes Or No?

In the Philippines, saying "yes" with the head thrown back means "no." In Turkey, shaking your head, it means "say again." What is the most confusing for people from the US and Russia, in many countries the head nodding up and down means "no," and waving the head from side to side means "yes."

In India, saying "no" directly is generally avoided So here comes the famous Indian head wobble. You get the loose shake with the head that can be "yes," "no," or "not certain" instead of the direct answer. The most common meaning is affirmative; for example, if you ask whether this is the right place to wait for the bus, or if you say "we meet at 7," the wobble would mean 'Ok, understood." Otherwise, it would be best if you watched for the context and subtleties. It can also replace "thank you", which is not typically pronounced in Indian or serve as a recognition or acknowledgment gesture if you see someone familiar at a distance. An enthusiastic and energetic prolonged head shake means yet.

An OK gesture is quite rude in Greece.

A quick and rapid wobble from side to side is "yes." Vague, slower, and subtle, would mean either "not sure" or "maybe, but I am not ready to commit," with the meaning of "no" but polite.

The tongue click in Balkans, Turkey or Croatia can be annoying if you are not familiar with the context, especially if you are Russian. In Russia, a tongue click means patronizing disapproval. In Balkans, it just means "no" and is nothing to be offended by. It can be accompanied by a head tossed back as a way to say "no," "we do not have it," or "it is not here."

Pointing And Directions

Pointing using an index finger directly at a person is impolite nearly everywhere. In Russia, Europe, and many African countries, it is only appropriate for inanimate objects. In China, Japan, Latin America, and Indonesia, it is very rude.
The company that brought us the 2.45 inch Jelly smartphone in 2017 and the similarly-sized Atom a year later took a weird detour last year, by launching a BlackBerry clone called the Titan.

Now Unihertz is returning to the small-screen smartphone space with a new model thats larger but still not very big.

The upcoming Unihertz AtomXL will have a 4 inch screen, making it smaller than most (but not all) modern smartphones.

The company plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the Atom XL on February 25th. We dont know anything about the price, release date, or key specs like the processor, memory, screen resolution, or battery.

But we do know that the screen isnt the only thing thats bigger on the AtomXL.

Unihertz says the new phone will have a 48MP camera, which is a step up from the 16MP rear camera used for the original Atom smartphone. Of course, theres more to camera quality than megapixels, but well probably have to wait until closer to February 25th to find out more about the camera image sensor and the phones other specs.

One other tidbit  Unihertz says the phone is perfect for your outdoor activities, suggesting itll have a rugged design, much like its smaller predecessor.

thanks chrif!
Award Nomination in Connection with a Major Upcoming European Industry Event

NEW YORK, NY, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE  Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a revenue generating company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities and equity investments, today announced that a prestigious United Kingdom (UK) based media company, nominated Tauri-Gum for an award in the category of Best CBD Edibles - - In connection with a major upcoming European industry event. In addition, Tauriga has been invited, by UK based RASB Media, to operate a main floor corporate Exhibitor Booth at the upcoming The CBD Show on May 1-3, 2020 in Olympia, London, UK. Taurigas Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Seth M. Shaw, will be a keynote speaker at The CBD Show (Link: https://rasbmedia.com/team/seth-m-shaw/).

Below Link to The CBD Show (London, UK - - May 1-3, 2020):

Link: https://rasbmedia.com/cbd-show/

The International CBD Show Expo (The CBD Show), held in London, will feature 5,000 B2B, B2C, B2G, aspiring business owners, retailers, e-tail, industry professionals, distributors, wholesalers, online resellers, investors, and pharmacists; will visit the first two days and the third day (May 3, 2020) is dedicated to the public sector for free!

There are many reasons to attend, above all around 100 Suppliers and over 50 high profile speakers, all in one room. For instance, expect to see industries such as beauty care, nutraceuticals, specialty beverage, functional food sector, cultivators, law, packaging firms, accounting, branding experts, private label, white label as well as pharmaceutical therapeutics. This is a professional event for professionals.

Gain insight into the CBD industry through product demonstrations, educational seminars and keynote presentations from companies such as CBD edibles, CBD topicals, CBD lifestyle products, CBD beauty, CBD vape, CBD tincture, CBD Cosmetics, and everything in-between. If youre a B2B or B2C company and interested to find more about packaging, distributors, cultivators, investors, branding, private label, white label, law, accounting and everything in-between our event is the only event to look at. Our event is a 3-day event. Two days for business and one day for public access.

ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES, INC.

Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities. One such opportunity on which the Company has acted, involves the Company having entered into the cannabidiol (or CBD) infused chewing gum product business, as more fully described above and in prior press releases. This CBD infused chewing gum product has been branded under the following name: Tauri-Gum. The Company is currently in production of three distinct flavors of Tauri-Gum: MINT, BLOOD ORANGE, and POMEGRANATE. On December 6, 2019, the Company announced that it completed the initial production run (thereby expanding its existing product lines) with the introduction of a 25mg Vegan CBD Isolate Infused vegan gummy (gumdrop), branded under the name: Tauri-Gummies. Further, the Company continues to identify and evaluate additional potential opportunities to generate revenue, as well as shareholder value, and leverage its resources and expertise to build a diversified and sustainable business model. Please visit our corporate website at www.tauriga.com.

The Company has also announced the development of a Cannabigerol (CBG) Isolate infused version of Tauri-Gum. The flavor that has been selected is Starfruit/Peach and each piece of gum will contain 10mg of CBG Isolate / Each blister pack will contain 80mg of CBG Isolate. The Company expects to commence production during its 4th Fiscal Quarter of 2020 (January 1, 2020  March 31, 2020).

In addition, on March 11, 2019, the Company announced the official launch of its E-Commerce site - as part of its Tauri-Gum commercialization strategy. This site can be accessed by visiting the following URL address: www.taurigum.com

The Company has established corporate offices in both New York City (USA) and Barcelona (Spain).

DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Attachment
D onald Trump today faced a new claim that he told a top aide he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until officials in Kiev helped with investigations into Democratic 2020 presidential challenger Joe Biden and his son.

The explosive allegation is contained in an unpublished manuscript by former White House national security adviser John Bolton, the New York Times reported  raising the stakes in the Presidents impeachment trial.

Mr Trump is accused of withholding military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into starting an inquiry into unsubstantiated corruption claims against former vice-president Mr Biden, and his son Hunter.

The New York Times said Mr Boltons draft book supports the allegation, which is at the centre of Mr Trumps ongoing impeachment trial, citing several peoples description of the text.

The President has insisted there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine and today took to Twitter to deny the report.

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton / REUTERS

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. The claim sparked renewed demands from Democrats for Mr Bolton to testify in Mr Trumps ongoing impeachment trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.

There can be no doubt now that Mr Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the Presidents defence and therefore must be called as a witness, the seven Democratic House managers prosecuting the case against Mr Trump said in a statement.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the...

There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published, when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision senators must now make  whether to convict the President of impeachable offences, it added.
Following Genaro Garcia Luna's arrest last month, another former Mexican official has been charged for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to leak US investigation information to El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel, according to an article by Ney York Post.

Also known as "La Reina," or "The Queen," Ivan Reyes Arzate, of the Mexican Federal Police's Sensitive Investigation Unit pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and is being detained without bail. The top law enforcement official is due back in court on February 19.

Reyes Arzate led the Mexican Federal Police's Sensitive Investigation Unit from 2003 to 2016. The unit is responsible for coordinating closely with US law enforcement to combat drug traffickers. This has given him access to sensitive intel about investigations by the Americans that allegedly leaked to the cartels in exchange of money.

"By choosing to align himself with drug traffickers instead of the people of Mexico that he was sworn to protect, Reyes Arzate's corruption ensured the safe passage of massive quantities of illegal narcotics into the United States," stated Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "This Office will continue working tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to make enablers of drug cartels answer for their crimes, whoever they are and wherever they operate."

According to the press release from the United States Attorney Office, Donoghue expressed his grateful appreciation to the United States Attorney's Offices for the Southern District of California and the Northern District of Illinois for their assistance on the case.

According to the prosecuting panel, Reyes Arzate in 2016 met personally with leaders of El Seguimiento 39, a drug trafficking ring tied to the Sinaloa Cartel, and leaked them with information on a pending investigation of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

"Earlier, in the mid-2000s, in exchange for cash bribes, Reyes Arzate allegedly provided sensitive law enforcement information to other Mexican drug cartels, including the Beltran Leyva Organization, which was then a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as El Chapo," the USAO press release further stated. "As a result, these criminal enterprises operated without significant interference from Mexican law enforcement, and imported multi-ton quantities of cocaine and other drugs into the United States."

For tipping them off, Reyes Arzate received a reward of $290,000 from the drug traffickers.

There were also cooperating witnesses who confessed to the authorities that they personally gave bribes to the allegedly corrupt official.

Reyes Arzate is already serving a federal sentence for his illicit activities with the Mexican cartels. In 2018, Arzate was sentenced to 40 months in prison after pleading "no contest" in Chicago federal court to a conspiracy charge.

If convicted of the drug conspiracy charge, Reyes Arzate will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a maximum of life imprisonment.

In December, federal agents arrested Genaro Garcia Luna on similar charges. Garcia Luna served as Mexico's secretary of public security from 2006 to 2012. As the secretary of public security, Garcia Luna was in charge of the country's sprawling federal police force.

In November 2018, Jesus "Rey" Zambada, one of the former leaders of the cartel, testified during the four-month trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, that he and another member of the outfit personally delivered bribes to Garcia Luna during his tenure.

Over time, Sinoloa Cartel became one of the biggest traffickers of drugs to the US. Guzman escaped a Mexican jail through a tunnel in 2015, but was later arrested and was extradited to the United States in 2017.

Guzman, 62, was accused of helping export hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US and of conspiring to manufacture and distribute heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana.

For drug trafficking and money laundering, Guzman is currently serving a life sentence at ADX Florence.
IN the small hours of this morning former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern took to a stage on the other side of the world to announce the results of an historic independence referendum.

The outcome of Bougainvilles attempt to gain freedom from Papua New Guinea was comprehensive: 176,928 people - around 98pc of voters - had backed independence with just 3,043 supporting the option of remaining part of Papua New Guinea with more autonomy.

Those gathered in Buka to hear the announcement burst into cheers and applause as Mr Ahern read out the figures.

As the former Fianna Fail leader and other commissioners signed the writs after the result, the crowd burst into song.

The regions journey towards the celebrated vote was paved with turmoil that many have compared to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Mr Aherns experience with the Good Friday Agreement was one of the reasons he was called upon last year to chair the Bougainville Referendum Commission (BRC).

The ex-Fianna Fail leader first visited the region in October 2018 when he met with senior officials and international partners including the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, Korea, and Fiji.

His appointment was hailed by the EU and widely reported as a major milestone in the peace process, coming 17 years after an agreement that ended a civil war. Up to 20,000 people died in the cluster of islands to the east of the Papua New Guinea mainland between 1989 and 1997.

Expand Close Bougainville Referendum Commission Chair Bertie Ahern, signs Referendum Writ with the results in Buka, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, December 11, 2019. Bougainville Referendum Commission/Jeremy Miller/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp Bougainville Referendum Commission Chair Bertie Ahern, signs Referendum Writ with the results in Buka, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, December 11, 2019. Bougainville Referendum Commission/Jeremy Miller/Handout via REUTERS

The islands of Bougainville were part of German New Guinea until World War I, and were then annexed to the Australian New Guinea Territories.

In 1975 they became part of independent Papua New Guinea. However, violence broke out in the late 1980s, triggered by conflict over an enormous opencast copper mine at Panguna.

The mine was a huge export earner for Papua New Guinea, but many in Bougainville felt they received no benefit and resented the pollution and disruption of their traditional way of living.

The mine has remained shut since the conflict  but it is estimated to still hold copper and gold worth billions of euro.

Expand Close Referendum Commission Chair Bertie Ahern holds the Referendum Writ next to Bougainville President Chief Dr John Momis (L) and National Minister for Bougainville Affairs Sir Puka Temu, in Buka, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, December 11, 2019. Bougainville Referendum Commission/Jeremy Miller/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp Referendum Commission Chair Bertie Ahern holds the Referendum Writ next to Bougainville President Chief Dr John Momis (L) and National Minister for Bougainville Affairs Sir Puka Temu, in Buka, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, December 11, 2019. Bougainville Referendum Commission/Jeremy Miller/Handout via REUTERS

The 2001 peace deal was founded on three pillars: weapons disposal, autonomy, and a guaranteed but non-binding referendum on independence

That referendum finally took place over the past fortnight with Mr Ahern taking a central role.

It was the former Taoiseach who took centre stage as parties got underway in the region today.

Due to poor communication networks in Bougainville, Mr Ahern was unavailable for comment to Independent.ie today.

But speaking before the vote, he said: "There is a palpable pride that the eyes of the world are watching. I believe the process will be a credible one, free of the fear and intimidation once wrought by weapons of war.

"Today Bougainville is a changed place. People have moved back from their jungle camps where 60% of the population once fled to during the conflict."

He wrote in The Guardian recently that: "Underlying this historic occasion is a resolve by all sides to honour the fallen, but never again return to conflict."

Mr Ahern added: "On my own island of Ireland the Good Friday Agreement took 13 years of hard negotiation from ceasefire to political settlement. Even today, 21 years later, the agreement requires constant care and tending."
University of Houston research professor Brene Brown will head back to her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, in May to deliver the spring commencement keynote address.

Brown, an internationally acclaimed speaker and bestselling author of various books, captured hearts and minds in her popular 2010 TED talk The Power of Vulnerability. Shes since become a go-to expert on topics like empathy, vulnerability and shame and landed her own Netflix special, The Call to Courage.

Brene Brown is an extraordinary scholar, educator and author, but more than anything, she connects with others on a deeply human level, UT-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves said in a news release. It is a great honor that Dr. Brown has agreed to speak to the Class of 2020  many of whom have already been inspired and enlightened by reading her bestselling books and watching her acclaimed lectures.

On HoustonChronicle.com: With Netflix special and new book, Brene Brown shares keys to leadership at Houston benefit

For all her accomplishments, Brown can be all too familiar with the emotions she researches. Her first reaction to word of Fenves call was fear.

I wasnt sure why he was calling, Brown, chair of UHs Graduate College of Social Work, said in the release. When I heard, Please hold for President Fenves, I got scared. It was like I was being called into the principals office. I thought, Oh, here we go. Hes probably going to say something like, We found out you did not correctly cite APA on one of your papers in 1994. Were revoking your social work degree.

Brown, whose Power of Vulnerability has been viewed more than 45 million times, was moved to tears by the real reason for Fenves call.

The fact that Ill be giving the commencement address in front of the (UT) tower  at a school that I love and one that I fought to be a part of  is amazing, said Brown, whose books include Daring Greatly, The Gifts of Imperfection and, most recently, Dare to Lead. Im deeply honored to be asked to share my story and to be a part of this incredibly important day for the Class of 2020. Horns up.

The UT commencement will be May 23 on the universitys main mall. Some 9,000 students will be eligible to receive their degree.

brittany.britto@chron.com
Smart Grid Ireland (SGI), Ireland's leading energy cluster, has announced its support for the Edenderry Carbon Challenge.

SGI, an independent, industry-led networking organisation, actively drives technology and social solutions to achieve a digitalised, decentralised, decarbonised electricity network.



The Edenderry Carbon Challenge (ECC) is a locally-led community energy initiative aimed at encouraging households, businesses and community groups in the town to participate in a community-wide energy savings project.

It has the support of the local Tidy Towns Committee, the Chamber of Commerce, Green Offaly and Croi Laighean Credit Union. It is also a member of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's Community Energy Network Initiative. A number of other large energy and finance companies have also expressed an interest in supporting the project.



Chair of ECC, Cllr Noel Cribbin, said: "SGI's involvement is an exciting development for Edenderry. Our goal is to ensure the ECC becomes an exemplary pilot project for the midlands and the rest of the country. With the range of expertise, SGI and other participating organisations can bring to the project, we are confident that Edenderry can become the smartest energy town in Ireland. The level of interest and enthusiasm from local households, businesses and community groups, has also been a key driver."



Chair of Smart Grid Ireland, Bob Hanna said: We at Smart Grid Ireland are very pleased to be associated with the Edenderry Carbon Challenge. This initiative represents an excellent example of coordinated community mobilisation to implement government policy on decarbonisation through a range of projects which will deliver real benefits for all concerned. The Edenderry area has a highly-skilled workforce with a great track record. This greatly enhances the prospects for the success of this initiative.

"SGI brings to the table relevant industry expertise across the energy and environmental sectors. Our recent Board meeting resolved that we sign the Edenderry Carbon Challenge Charter and join the initiative.

"I look forward to working with our Edenderry Carbon Challenge partners in this exciting venture.

Local businessman, James Kelly, Director of Clever Energy Consulting, said a key objective of the project is to make energy reduction as cost-efficient as possible for all participants: "From completion of a project, households can enjoy a warmer, healthier house, reduced energy bills, and an increase in the value of their home. For local businesses, generous capital allowances can minimise capital expenditure and improve the balance sheet for many years to come."
India on Monday pressed its largest LNG supplier Qatar to lower the price of gas under the existing long-term supply contracts, a request that Doha turned down saying sanctity of contracts is important for the credibility of both sides.

India imports 8.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Qatar under two long-term contracts with a rate linked to crude oil prices. Landed price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) comes to USD 9-10 per million British thermal unit while the same gas is available in the spot or current market at half the rate. The long-term contract with Qatar is the most expensive with volumes from Australia, Russia, and US on long-term contracts coming on cheaper rates.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met Qatar Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi to press for the "need for realignment of existing long-term LNG contracts with the market to suit the affordability of end consumers".

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Pradhan said the pricing of gas as a percentage of prevailing oil prices tends to inflate the price of the environment-friendly fuel, and alternate independent benchmarks needs to be developed.

The linkage means that the price of gas will go up every time there is a spike in crude oil prices.

The US and Russia price gas with no links to oil, he said.

"All energy producers have to revisit this old practice and come to the new methodology of pricing keeping demand and supply in mind," he said. "We need to re-examine the pricing mechanism" of the long-term natural gas deal with Qatar.

Kaabi responded saying current contracts cannot be renegotiated but Qatar was willing to supply additional volumes at different rates.

"We don't renegotiate existing contracts. Contracts are contracts for the duration we sign them for. We as businesses understand that the sanctity of contract is important for both sides. And for the credibility of both sides, both parties must respect that," he said. "We are looking forward to adding more volumes in India and negotiating additional volumes."



He said India has a huge demand for gas and Qatar is willing to meet all of that.

Pradhan said the meeting with Kaabi brought representatives of user industries -- power, fertilizer, steel and city gas distributors -- face to face with the supplier to help them better understand the market dynamics.

Users prefer to buy gas from the spot market rather than take the long-term contracted volumes as it was cheaper.

"Long-term contract is facing a challenging situation," he said.

Qatar sells LNG to India at a price equivalent to 12.67 per cent of the three-month average Brent crude oil price. The indexation of Russian LNG is 11.5 per cent.

The power sector, which is the second-biggest consumer of gas after fertiliser, wants a landed price of LNG to be no more than USD 4.5-5 per mmBtu. Any price higher than that will not help electricity generated using gas to be able to complete with that produced from renewable sources such as solar energy.

Because of the high price, 18,000 megawatts of gas-based power projects are stranded.

India consumes 157 million standard cubic metres per day of gas, half of which is imported.

The government wants to increase the share of natural gas in its energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030 from 6.2 per cent currently.

India has in the past used its status as Asia's third-largest LNG buyer to renegotiate deals with Qatar, Australia, and Russia. In 2015, it renegotiated the price of the long-term deal to import 7.5 million tonnes per year of LNG from Qatar, helping in saving Rs 8,000 crore. At that time, Qatar agreed to price LNG at a three-month average Brent oil price instead of the previous practice of pricing it at a 60-month average of Japanese Crude Cocktail (JCC) in exchange for India buying an additional 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

Both the contracts ends in 2028.

In 2017, India got ExxonMobil Corp to lower the price of Gorgon LNG and a year later convinced Gazprom to lower rates also.

"For us, we have a contract with India. Both sides are professionals who will stick to contracts," Kaabi said. "We have excellent political and business relationships. Contracts that we have, we abide by them."



"We are not renegotiating existing contracts," he said. "We look forward to supplying additional volumes."Pradhan said at the meeting that India presented its demand numbers for the future and the infrastructure that is being built.

"Qatar is our valued partner. Qatar has been a long-standing energy partner for India, with hydrocarbons accounting for over 75 per cent of all our bilateral trade. We see enormous potential to further expand India-Qatar energy ties and also expect to increase our bilateral engagements beyond buyer-seller relationship," he said.

Stating that Qatar is India's largest source of LNG, he said India's appetite for energy, particularly gas, is increasing considerably.

"The surge in India's energy requirement will not be incremental but exponential," he said. "India is rapidly expanding our gas infrastructure to cater to the needs of nearly 70 per cent of our population. An estimated investment of USD 60 billion is lined up in building the gas infrastructure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
She's had a hectic couple of weeks, filming across the UK for series four of The Crown and enjoying a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles to pick up a SAG gong.

But Helena Bonham Carter had a rare day off on Monday, ambling around her Hampstead, London neighbourhood with her beloved pet dog.

The actress, 53, dressed in her signature quirky style as she strolled with her cockapoo pup.

Relaxing: Helena Bonham Carter enjoyed a rare day off on Monday, ambling around her Hampstead, London neighbourhood with her beloved pet dog

Helena teamed a long maroon skirt decorated with floral embroidery with a warm puffer jacket and trainers, accessorising with a colourful scarf.

The actress and her dog walked down the high street, stopping in an art gallery at one point to admire the works on display.

Last week Helena was in Winchester shooting her latest scenes for her hit Netflix show The Crown.

The actress, who took over the role of Princess Margaret from Vanessa Kirby in series three, was spotted strolling around set with Olivia Colman, who stars as the Queen, as they shot scenes at Winchester Cathedral.

Her look: The actress, 53, dressed in her signature quirky style for her day off, a contrast to her regal look on the set of The Crown last week (right)

Helena was back filming last week after a very brief visit to LA on Sunday January 19 for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The actress was joined by Erin Dohety and Josh O'Connor, who play Princess Anne and Prince Charles, to accept the award for best ensemble in a drama series.

It was third time lucky for the cast of The Crown who, after being nominated for best ensemble in a drama series in 2017 and 2018, finally won, beating out Game Of Thrones, Stranger Things and Big Little Lies.

In character: The actress took over the role of Princess Margaret from Vanessa Kirby in series three

Both Helena and Olivia were nominated in the actress category but lost out on the individual awards to Jennifer Aniston for The Morning Show.

Helena took the stage to accept the outstanding ensemble in a drama series award flanked by Erin and Josh, before explaining the absence of their co-stars in her speech.

'I'm sorry there's only three of us here,' Helena told the star-studded crowd. 'They're actually 239 in the cast.'

Royal win: Helena was back filming last week after a brief visit to LA on Sunday January 19 for the Screen Actors Guild Awards where she accepted the Best Ensemble award with Erin Doherty and Josh O'Connor on behalf of the cast

'Were all working tomorrow so were leaving in about five minutes,' she explained.

'Its the most fun job and Im amazed that we get a prize on top of the fun-ness of doing it,' she added.

'Ive had the time of my life, I think we all have. It really is as good as it gets, this show.'

The cast are busy filming the fourth series of the show which will focus on the late 1970s through to the 1980s, before a cast reset for the final two series.
In the cover story of Christianity Todays January/February issue, Paul Matzko makes a provocative argument that churches tax-exempt status comes at a cost, possibly even a detrimental cost, to both churches and the communities in which they are located. The argument is not necessarily new. Though the tax-exempt status for houses of worship has never been a leading political issue, it does make the news every now and then. It extends a cultural privilege, as Matzko calls it, that some cite as one more reason to resent religion. Matzko himself suggests the tax exemption leads to churches that live off government largess and accept the bribery of a tax benefit while forfeiting their religious freedom and their political voice.

I have a different view. Far from inhibiting religious freedom, tax exemption for houses of worship protects it. And in the highly unlikely event that churches lose their exempt status, the common good would suffer far more than it would benefit.

Safeguarding Religious Freedom

Contrary to Matzkos portrayal of an across-the-board religious tax exemption as a vestige of European-style establishmentarianism, houses of worship are tax exempt to respect religious freedom and the separation of church and state. What offends American sensibilities about the European tradition is not tax-exemption, but the practice of taxing disfavored denominations, and using those funds to prop up the state and its favored religion.

Consider Isaac Backus, who Matzko invokes as an evangelical dissenter against government favors for religious groups. He was that, but hardly because he felt churches should pay taxes. As CT explained in a June article from 2018:

Far from operating from the center of power, Backus lived his adult life and ministry as part of a marginalized religious group in his native New England. Backus and his friends and relatives, including his elderly mother, were jailed (some of them many times) for refusing to pay taxes to support state-approved churches. Backuss concern wasnt the amount of the tax, but the states authority to collect it. Its not the pence but the power that alarms us, he wrote. The liberty Backus fought to secure wasnt abstracthe labored to end taxation for religion because he understood that the right to tax implied or presupposed the governments authority to favor one religious group over the others. 

Paying the taxes, Backus believed, amounted to admitting that the state had a right to collect the taxes. So he fought for legislation to protect the conscience of Baptists. But he concluded that a free conscience demanded civil disobedience, and he proposed a nationwide display of it. Backus organized fellow Baptists to raise funds for posting bail, paying legal fees, recovering seized property, and compensating for lost wages.

Tax-exemption was not Backus problem then, and it makes little sense to enlist himor his principled defense of religious freedomin an argument to tax churches now.

Its not just Backus who understood the effect taxation of houses of worship could have to harm some churches while potentially benefiting others. On social media, Matzko defended his essay by suggesting that Christians in financially comfortable churches should welcome religious taxation as it would help weed out churches that just could not cut it. This argumentsupport taxation so that religious rivals might be forced out of existenceshould really inform how we consider the claim that it is tax-exemption which amounts to an undue government intrusion on religious life in America.

Of course, we should also recognize that houses of worship do create tax revenue. Many pay employees who pay income taxes and self-employment taxes. More generally, congregations and their employees obviously contribute to the economy through what they purchase.

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And there are specific tax-related policies related to houses of worship that are worthy of real debate, including the clergy housing allowance and whether houses of worship should be required to file a 990which other nonprofits typically have to file to qualify for tax exemption.

But in general, houses of worship should not be taxed, because doing so would open up new avenues for the government to exert control or influence on houses of worship that would weaken the separation of church and state. It would heighten the debates we already have about religious conscience and the idea of complicity. It is one thing to be a citizen, to pay taxes as a citizen, and to have your tax dollars go toward things that are in violation of your valuesnuclear weapons or abortion, for instance. Imagine what our politics would look like if money intended for the things of God was now at the center of our most morally fraught political debates. Give back to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods, indeed.

If tax-exempt status is not some government favor that grants special privilege to houses of worship, perhaps it is a government bribe intended to harm and limit their political effectiveness for the benefit of those in power?

Some, including President Trump, argue that the Johnson Amendment, which applies to all nonprofits, allows tax-exemption to be used as a tool of political control. The Johnson Amendment is not a ban on political involvement. It does not bar people who work at nonprofits from political involvement, even in elections. As should be quite evident, the Johnson Amendment does not prevent pastors or churches from teaching on issues like poverty, abortion, the environment, or any other issue of public import. What the Johnson Amendment requires, with some exceptions and nuances that do not need to be described here, is that nonprofits not use their own resources to explicitly endorse a candidate, or lobby for a specific piece of legislation.

If the government intended to use tax-exempt status as a tool of political control, theyre doing a poor job of it. The last time the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of a church was in 1995 after a church literally ran newspaper advertisements urging people to vote against Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election. The court suggested the church could set up a 501(c)(4) for that kind of political activity, just like any other nonprofit.

This argument that the Johnson Amendment silences Christians leads to an obvious question: Who could live through the last three years, the last three decades, and come away with the conclusion that the predominant problem facing the churchs political witness is that churches cant go far enough in their political engagement? Now I believe and have argued that Christians could think about politics in healthier ways and engage differently, but that has nothing to do with the Johnson Amendment. How can a person watch Robert Jeffress and Rev. William Barber on cable news every week as they talk about 2020 and believe the real issue we must address is a government campaign to silence pastors? Outside of partisan or financial interest, exactly what could drive a person to suggest that a leading challenge to the Christian witness in America is that Sunday mornings in church arent more like Sunday mornings on Meet the Press?

Safeguarding the Common Good

Because churches facilitate a great deal of charitable work, taxing them wholesale could endanger a wide swath of the nonprofit sector. How could that be avoided? One option, as floated by Matzko, would be to tax the worship service portion of churches but allow them to move the vast majority of their community-facing staff, resources, and presumably even their property costs into separate 501(c)(3) organizations.

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Ruminate on the world this would create for just a moment. Politically, whatever antagonism against religion there is now would not go away, but it would have new targets: the hundreds of thousands of newly created nonprofits that were created for the express purpose of limiting tax liability under the new regime. Also, its not just tax exemption that can be a political tool; the power to tax comes with a certain amount of coercive power as well. Once churches are taxed, it becomes a matter of public debate how much they are taxed. Different localities could tax houses of worship differently. Candidates will be able to campaign on the promise that theyll not only lower middle-class taxes, theyll lower your churchs taxes!

Churches, that would be under new financial pressures as they are now facing taxes avoided by culturally privileged nonprofits (and Amazon!), are now susceptible to political donors, campaigns, and others willing to pay churches to use their pulpit to advocate for particular candidates. Most, lets hope, would resist. But it wouldnt matter. Every reading of Scripture, every utterance, from every church pulpit would now be open to renewed and justified speculation that the pastor was responding not to the prompting of the Holy Spirit but the prompting of a donor. If pastors think the pressure they feel to speak out about politics is bad now, wait until they experience the mobilization campaigns to get them to put a Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders poster on the church doors.

Culturally, no one who currently thinks the church is useless would suddenly become pro-church, but our tax and legal systems would declare religious teaching as uniquely lacking public utility in a way that would result in additional taxation and social stigma. Remember, the entire nonprofit edifice would still exist. If you wanted to bring people together every week to learn about sea turtles (no offense to sea turtles intended), youd be tax exempt. If you wanted to bring people together every week to learn about ultimate reality, the Creator God who made the sea turtles (acknowledgment of the worth and value of sea turtles definitely intended), you better pay up to Uncle Sam. You could be a hate group. Your organization could even be a nonprofit organized around the hatred of churches, and so long as its not a church, it could be tax exempt.

Ultimately, taxing houses of worship would not help churches with image problems or send the message that they are committed to the public good. Rather it would ratify the idea that they have nothing to do with the public good at all. It would weaken the best aspects of the wall between church and state, and strengthen the worst.

Religious tax exemptions are not to blame for the view that churches do not promote the common good. Revoking the tax exemption will not persuade the doubters, and government policy should not be used for the express purpose of helping churches change public perception. There are no easy answers to the real cultural challenge that too much of the public does feel negatively about churches, but there are more direct ways to go about addressing it. Churches can decide themselves to do more and invest more in their communities, and Christians can grow in their understanding about the purpose of the local church. If you believe that taxes and government contribute to the common good, you dont have to support cutting taxes as a leading political priority.

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Christians should support the tax exemption for houses of worship, however, because it is critical for religious freedom, and because houses of worship have at least as much claim to be oriented toward the public good as any other category of nonprofit. We do not need our churches to be electoral battlegrounds, and the government does not need a financial cut of what is meant for God, the edification of his people and the good of the communities in which they are located.

Michael Wear is chief strategist for the AND Campaign. He advises Christian organizations and leaders who engage in public issues. Previously, he led faith outreach for President Obamas re-election campaign and served in the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Speaking Out is Christianity Todays guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the magazine.
BANGKOK  Stock markets and the price of oil tumbled Monday after China announced sharp increases in the number of people infected with a potentially deadly virus.

In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 2.2% to 5,889 while Germanys DAX skidded 2.3% to 13,271. Britains FTSE 100 gave up 2.3% to 7,414. Shares also looked set for declines on Wall Street, where the future contracts for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both sank 1.5%.

China announced it was extending its week-long public holiday by an extra three days as a precaution against having the virus spread still further. By midnight Sunday, the National Health Commission said 80 people had died out of 2,744 cases that were confirmed.

Various governments have announced plans to evacuate people from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the center of the pandemic. China halted outbound tours and Wuhan and some other cities stopped public transport, obliging tens of millions of people to stay where they are at the time of the countrys peak travel season.

Many Asian markets, including Chinas, were closed for Lunar New Year holidays, while Australia was closed for Australia Day. Tokyos Nikkei 225 index sank 2% to 23,343.51. Indias Sensex lost 1% to 41,204.15, while the benchmark in Thailand dropped 3.1%. Indonesias share benchmark was 1.8% lower.

Apart from the direct impact on tourism and travel, any economic shock to Chinas colossal industrial and consumption engines will spread rapidly to other countries through the increased trade and financial linkages associated with globalization, Stephen Innes of AxiCorp said in a commentary.

The virus that has spread to a dozen countries in addition to Hong Kong and Macau can cause pneumonia and other severe respiratory symptoms. The World Health Organization has not yet declared the situation a global emergency, which would bring more money and resources to fight it, but could trigger still more economically damaging restrictions on trade and travel.

On Friday, the S&P 500 had its worst day since early October, dropping 0.9% as health care stocks saw steep losses. The sell-off followed news that a Chicago woman had become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the new virus from China.

Investors have been shifting money into safe-play, high-dividend stocks and government bonds.The surge in bond-buying has sent yields lower.

Investors also are digging through the latest batch of company earnings reports, including strong results from chipmaker Intel and American Express. This week is shaping up to be the busiest week for earnings, with roughly 40% of the companies in the S&P 500 due to issue their results for the last three months of 2019.

Benchmark U.S. crude gave up $1.71 to $52.48 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $1.40 to $54.19 per barrel on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, declined $2.63 to $58.06 per barrel. It shed $1.39 to $59.89 per barrel on Friday.

In currency trading, the dollar weakened to 108.94 Japanese yen from 109.28 yen. The euro was steady at $1.1020.
Tammie Souza, who replaced Sheena Parveen at NBC10, is out after three years with the station. Read more

Philly TV news viewers may have caught a familiar face on the air over the weekend after a long absence, though not at the station on which she previously appeared.

Former NBC10 meteorologist Tammie Souza popped up on the CBS3 weekend weather forecast on Saturday, marking her first time on the air since early December. However, as Souza said via her social media accounts, CBS3 is not where Im going to be winding up.

Im just filling in. This is not a permanent gig. They just needed some help because theyve got vacation time, Souza said in a video posted to her Facebook page Saturday. I was very honored since Im kind of sitting around taking a little bit of a break right now as I make plans for the future.

Souza added that viewers can catch me whenever they need somebody to help out for now, but did not reveal any future appearances on the network. A CBS3 spokesperson indicated that Souza would be filling in on some shifts over the next few months.

Souzas appearance on CBS3 comes more than a month after she ended her run at NBC10. She arrived at that station in March 2017, serving as a replacement for fellow former NBC10 meteorologist Sheena Parveen, who departed Philadelphia herself in October 2016. Prior to her run at NBC10, Souza, a Pittsburgh native, worked as a meteorologist at Chicagos Fox 32.

 READ MORE: Meteorologist Tammie Souza out at NBC10

Despite her appearance on CBS3 over the weekend, Souza was adamant that the station was not a long-term home for her and that she was just filling in. Fans, however, said on social media that they were hoping for a permanent gig.
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Paris (AFP) - France will withdraw from use an explosive tear gas grenade used by riot police and blamed for injuring numerous protesters, the interior minister said Sunday, amid growing anger at perceived police brutality.

Sanctioned for use by French law enforcement since 2011, the GLI-F4 grenade explodes with a loud, powerful blast to release a cloud of tear gas. Each shell contains 26 grammes of TNT.

The grenade is designed to help law enforcers under attack escape from a dangerous situation, but is blamed for maiming protesters in sometimes hairy confrontations with police in more than a year of anti-government "yellow vest" protests.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told France 3 broadcaster: "It happened, a few months ago, that police were obliged to use them (the grenades) to extricate themselves from a threat, and that protesters who picked them up were seriously injured.

"This is why I think we need to withdraw the GLI-F4."

French rights body Defenseur des Droits says France is the only European country to use explosive munitions against protesters.

In July last year, the Council of State -- France's highest court for administrative justice -- rejected a bid by the Human Rights League and the CGT labour union to ban the use of the GLI-F4 as well as LBD stun grenades in public order policing.

The OF-F1 grenade was banned from use in May 2017 after the death three years earlier of an environmental activist, Remi Fraisse, during a protest over a dam.

It has been replaced by the GLI-F4.

French police have come in for much criticism for alleged violent behaviour since the start of the yellow vests protest movement in November 2018, and in recent clashes with striking workers rallying against pension reform

More than 200 alleged abuses related to police handling of the yellow vest protests were signalled to the IGPN police watchdog.

- 'Unacceptable behaviour' -

A number of recent videos showing what appear to be unjustified police violence at demonstrations have sparked outrage on social media.

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One showed an officer tripping a woman, and another an officer firing a rubber bullet at point-blank range.

A few days ago, a riot police officer was caught on camera punching a bloodied protester, held down on his back, at a demonstration in Paris, prompting an investigation by the police oversight body.

President Emmanuel Macron warned last week that the "unacceptable behaviour" of some officers risked undermining the "credibility and dignity" of the force.

But he also denounced the violence of some extremist protesters, who have hurled paving stones and other projectiles at security forces during protests.
Processed vegetable company Mash Direct plans to increase production capacity to meet growing demand following a 10m funding package.

The sixth-generation family business, based in County Down, will make its custom-built, on-farm production facility more environmentally friendly.

Mash Direct grows and produces approximately 40 processed vegetable and potato dishes.

It currently supplies major supermarket chains such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Waitrose, Co-Op, Aldi, Lidl, and Dunnes, and in 2018 its products were sold in the US for the first time.

Now, new solar and wind energy machinery will be installed along with a wastewater treatment facility, helping to future-proof the business by reducing its carbon footprint and making the overall plant more sustainable.

The Northern Irish firm will also increase its capacity for growth by adding new production lines to its industrial kitchen so that it can produce new dishes and increase production capacity.

The business will add a new onion peeler that will free up space in its peeling area. It is also investing in robotics and enterprise management software.

During 2020 Mash Direct will hire 12 new staff hires to support its growth. The new roles will range from operations and management to sales, marketing, exports and human resources.

The business also investing in a robust training programme to up-skill its existing team.

Jack Hamilton, chief operating officer of Mash Direct, said the fund package from HSBC UK will enable the business to invest in new and environmentally friendly machinery.

Improving our carbon footprint is very important to the business and great strides will be made to do this with our investment in new technology, he said.

The finance was allocated from HSBC UKs national SME Fund, which aims to support UK businesses realise their ambitions for growth amid Brexit.

The 14bn fund has recently been announced, with 150 million committed to supporting SMEs in Northern Ireland.

The fund includes an increased ring-fenced pot for the agriculture sector, with the pot rising to 1bn from 300 million last year.
The space race has begun. Private companies have exploded, soaring beyond multiple billion-dollar valuations seemingly overnight. Some of the hottest tech companies on the planet are already facing off for a piece of the pie. But theres a looming crisis that, if not addressed, could bring the entire industry crashing down. Literally.

After over 60 years of space exploration, humankind has left a lot of trash behind. Already, hundreds of thousands of pieces of space debris are in orbit. This is a terrifying reality, especially considering just a tiny 1mm object can have a catastrophic effect on a satellite or spacecraft.

Holger Krag, head of the space debris office for the ESA, notes, Even today we are losing satellites due to debris and it is only a matter of time before more start colliding. If we continue the way we do, 10 years from now some regions in space will be too risky to visit.

With companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic eyeing commercial space flight within the next few years, and even more looking to roll out an array of new private satellites, the space debris risk has never been greater. And if Krag is correct, the more crowded our orbit gets, the more dire the threat will become. Related: The Banking Bonanza Is Just Getting Started

Just last year, space companies raised over $5.8 billion dollars, Virgin Galactic launched its much-anticipated IPO, and pure-space plays spiked in trading interest. Space Angels CEO Chad Anderson sees this number going even higher in 2020, predicting that more companies are gearing up to hit the public markets. Anderson explained, These companies are graduating and going from concept to scale, Anderson said. All the companies that are in space in the last 10 years are new. Theyve all entered a different point over that timeline and you need to see them graduate as, in venture capital investing, graduation rates are really important.

What Is Being Done About Space Debris?

Government organizations are currently taking the lead on the space cleanup initiative, with the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the European Space Agency dedicating sizable budgets to the effort. But some private organizations are looking to contribute, as well.

Take Astroscale, for example. The Japanese firm is already in the construction stages of a space junk removal project, ELSA-d, that it hopes to launch by mid-2020.

ELSA-d will consist of two separate spacecrafts. A 180-kilogram servicer spacecraft, and a 20-kilogram client spacecraft. The Servicer is equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic docking mechanism, while the Client has a ferromagnetic plate which enables it to be docked with. The Servicer will repeatedly release and dock the Client in a series of technical demonstrations proving the capability to find and dock with debris.

Nobu Okada, the founder and chief executive of Japan-based company Astroscale, explains, Cleaning up space is critical, adding, People know about global warming. People know about ocean clean-up. But they dont know anything about the space debris issue.

Another private company looking to tackle the problem is D-Orbit. While the Italian startup hasnt raised the funds that Astroscale has, it is still pushing forward in its ambitious mission to reduce space debris through new innovative technology. While Astroscale is dedicating much of its focus on a single project, D-Orbit is experimenting with a little bit of everything.

D-Orbits flagship product is the D3, an independent, smart motor optimized for decommissioning maneuvers. The D3 is a preemptive end-of-life solution for satellite manufacturers which is attached to new satellites with the goal of being able to remove them from orbit quickly and safely when they have reached the end of their lifespan. Related: How The Trade War Ceasefire Will Impact The Energy Industry

The company is also actively cutting deals with other startups, including a Swiss startup called Astrocast that has raised about $4.2 million, including from Airbus, to deploy a constellation of 80 cube satellites for the Internet of Things, which could even compete with bigger, more expensive IOT networks like those operated by ORBCOMM.

The Future Of Space Travel

Take one look at any major investment website, and youre sure to be bombarded with stories about the next big space company on the horizon. Though the billionaires of the bunch often get the most attention, none of their endeavors will be possible if the space debris crisis isnt addressed.

Matt Ocko, a partner at Data Collective, a San Francisco venture capital firm invested in Rocket Lab, explains, There needs to be pressure from the space community and governments to monitor these companies.

And that pressure is sure to come.

Right now, space is still the wild west, but when government regulations start to take root, and the space junk problem becomes a full-blown crisis on the scale of global climate change, early innovators in the debris removal sector could explode.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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Egypt's main squares witnessed an increased deployment of security personnel after the Ministry of Interior issued instructions to beef up security ahead of the anniversary of the January 25 Revolution. The instructions, which are not public, circulated after rare anti-regime protests broke out in September 2019. The efforts seemed to have worked, with the day passing with little fanfare.

National security and general security officers affiliated with the Ministry of Interior were deployed, in addition to riot police, in anticipation of possible protests Jan. 25 in the main squares of Cairo and Giza, notably Talaat Harb Square, Tahrir Square, Esaaf Square and Ramses Square. Police forces are still deployed in those squares until the end of the week to ensure that no incidents take place.

Mohamed Ali, an Egyptian actor and former military contractor, spread calls Jan. 9 to take to the streets to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the revolution. He called on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to open Tahrir Square and all main squares to celebrate this occasion.

In support of Alis calls, social media activists launched an Arabic hashtag that translates into #TothestreetsonJan25 on Twitter. However, following the reactions on the ground, he announced on Jan. 25 that he was retiring from politics.

Mohammed Nour al-Din, a security expert and former adviser to the Ministry of Interior, told Al-Monitor that security forces were deployed on all main streets in Cairo and Giza, as per orders to intensify the security presence following calls for Jan. 25 protests.

Nour al-Din said such calls for protests were never expected to succeed because Egyptians are aware of their destructive goals and because those who issued the calls are partisans of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egyptians reject. Indeed the calls failed to resonate, as the anniversary of the January 25 Revolution went by with no protests at all.

Even so, the increased security presence was necessary, he said. Police officers must still fulfill their duties in providing security, especially around vital facilities in different governorates, mainly Cairo.

Security was reinforced to protect churches, some Sufi mosques and key facilities, at the same time as Coptic holidays, New Year and Christmas celebrations, Nour al-Din said. The Ministry of Interior received information underlining the importance of tight security to anticipate acts of terrorism or vandalism on National Police Day.

Security forces arrested four members of the Constitution Party from different governorates without clear charges Jan. 17. The party released a statement on Facebook, saying the Ministry of Interior arrested four of its members as part of a wider crackdown and violations campaign on civil forces. Several members of parties and other political groups have also been arrested.

Egyptian attorney Amr Abdel Salam, the vice president of the Egypt-based al-Haq International Human Rights Organization, told Al-Monitor, Police forces have arrested hundreds of people randomly from different squares and streets across Egypts governorates in the wake of the Sept. 20 protests.

Ali, the former contractor, called for demonstrations against Sisi back in September 2019, after accusing the president and army commanders of squandering public money to build presidential palaces.

Abdel Salam added that individuals have been arrested after police search their mobile phones in the streets.

Arrests and random searching of citizens are ongoing," he said. "More than 25 citizens from Helwan in south Cairo sought my help to issue official reports about the disappearance of their children after days of searching for them and asking about them in police stations and hospitals.

He said the security forces have shut down notable restaurants in downtown Cairo and searched patrons' bags and mobile phones. Some individuals who had sarcastic political posts on their Facebook pages were taken away in police cars. Most restaurants are still closed, and will remain so until the end of the week until the security situation is fully stable.

Abdel Salam said the police randomly stop people in the streets and search their mobile phones with no warrants. Ever since the Sept. 20 protests were organized via mobile phones and internet, police have conducted such searches. If people refuse a search, they are arrested, according to Abdel Salam.

He said searching mobile phones and looking at Facebook accounts and citizens private photos is a violation of the constitution, specifically Article 57, which states, Private life is inviolable, safeguarded and may not be infringed upon. Telegraph, postal and electronic correspondence, telephone calls, and other forms of communication are inviolable, their confidentiality is guaranteed and they may only be confiscated, examined or monitored by causal judicial order, for a limited period of time, and in cases specified by the law.

George Ishak, a member of the National Council for Human Rights, a state-affiliated rights council, said that arresting citizens and searching their mobile phones in the streets has been on the rise following post-Sept. 20 security restrictions.

Ishak told Al-Monitor, The National Council for Human Rights condemned the police search of citizens phones forcibly in the streets in an official statement Oct. 4. The council confirmed that the police stopping citizens in the streets, searching their mobile phones and exposing their data breach several texts of the constitution related to privacy of citizens and their correspondences and calls.

The council, he said, also condemned the wide-scale arrest of citizens in the squares and streets, without allowing them to call their families and without informing them of the accusations against them. The council dismissed the procedures as an attack on constitution-protected rights.
A Shelby County man has been indicted in last years beating death of a 73-year-old retired lawyer inside his Hoover home.

A Shelby County grand jury indicted Jackson Bradley Young, 37, according to court records made public Monday. He is charged with murder in the slaying of 73-year-old Arthur Grey Till Jr. Young has been held in the Shelby County Jail on $150,000 bond since his arrest in February 2019.

Tills body was found inside his Caldwell Crossings home about 12:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. Two female friends found him dead when they went to the home. Police said there was no forced entry, and the women had access to his home.

Neighbors said there were frequent visitors at the home and one of them said he saw a man leaving the home late Sunday night. Tills body was taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery for autopsy, and it was that autopsy that determined his death was the result of blunt force trauma.

Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said at the time investigators identified Young as a possible suspect very early into the investigation and were actively looking for Young. The day after Tills body was found, detectives learned that Youngs vehicle had been discovered burned in Talladega County. Sheriffs officials there notified Hoover police.

Detectives believe that the victim was specifically targeted by the suspect. "This was an extremely brutal attack and apparently wasnt well planned either,'' Rector said last year. "Detectives zeroed in on Mr. Young from the beginning and it just took us a couple of days to build a case and locate him. "

At the time of his arrest on the murder charge, Young had already been arrested on 14 criminal charges since 2002. The offenses include drug possession, fraudulent use of a credit or debit car, burglary, theft of property, resisting arrest and burglary.

In 2003, court records show, he was convicted of second-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and second-degree assault in Shelby County. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison

It wasnt clear how long he actually served, but Young pleaded guilty in 2008 to felony burglary charges in Houston County. He was sentenced to five years in prison in that case.

Young will be arraigned on the murder charge on March 3.
Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Artak Davtyan, sent a congratulatory message on the 28th anniversary of the Armenian Army.

"The day of the formation of the Armenian Army is the holiday on which we must congratulate all Armenians," the message reads, in particular. The army is the cornerstone on which our statethe homeland of Armenians worldwideis built.

The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia went through a difficult process of formation, starting with the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] Liberation War and continuing to the present day, but over these years we have had many heroic episodes and occasions of pride.

The army is not only the system, but also the individuals who build and strengthen it.

First and foremost, we never forget the heroism of our fallen heroes, in the origins of the Armenian army.

The Armed Forces of Armenia have no desire to provoke a war, but at any moment it is ready not only to halt any encroachment by the adversary, but also to make it think about the consequences of irreversible losses.

The Armenian Army born from the Artsakh Liberation War is more powerful than ever and is improving every day.
The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries has faulted a report that it has the highest number of single ladies among churches in Nigeria.

The church stated that for the past 10 years, it had conducted over 150,000 weddings.

The MFM made the clarification in a statement on Sunday by Collins Edomaruse, spokesperson for its founder and General Overseer, Dr. Daniel Olukoya.

Edomaruse said, We encourage and actively support all spinsters and bachelors, regardless of denomination, to build their relationships on biblical standards. We strongly advise all our single men and women to marry fellow believers within the Christian faith.

We believe this is Gods will for marriage and is the best foundation for a successful and a Godly marriage. Dr Olukoya and MFM ministries have never stated that single men and women within this ministry should only marry within the ministry.

According to him, the MFM, through its singles ministry, Gen 218, in the last decade, has to its credit, over 150,000 weddings.

Quoting the pastory in charge of the programme, Pastor Popoola, the spokesman said GEN 218 offered training, teaching and guidance for bachelors and spinsters.

Edomaruse said, In the last decade, Gen 218 has provided training, teaching and guidance to thousands of single men and women across Nigeria, Africa and all around the world. To its credit, over 150,000 weddings have occured as a result of Gen 218 forums.
Will make Assam govt party to case against CAA in SC if voted Congress to power: Gaurav Gogoi

CAA: Applications must give proof of religion to get Indian citizenship

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jan 27: Non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will have to provide proofs of their religious beliefs while applying for Indian citizenship under the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA), officials said on Monday.

The applicants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi faiths will also have to furnish documents to prove that they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Those who will seek Indian citizenship under the CAA will have to provide proofs of their religious beliefs and this will be mentioned in the rules to be issued under the CAA, a government official said.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be given Indian citizenship.

New citizenship law internal matter of India: France

The central government is also likely to give a relatively smaller window of just three months to those who want to apply for Indian citizenship in Assam under the CAA, another official said.

Some Assam-specific provisions are expected to be incorporated in the rules to be issued for the implementation of the CAA.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had made a request about a fortnight ago to keep a limited period window for applying under the CAA and also incorporate some other Assam-specific provisions in the CAA rules.

The move comes in view of continuing protests against the CAA in Assam that have been going on since the legislation was passed by Parliament in December last year.

There has been a growing feeling among the indigenous people of Assam that the newly enacted legislation will hurt their interests politically, culturally as well as socially.

The Assam Accord provides for detection and deportation of all illegal immigrants who have entered the country after 1971 and are living in the state, irrespective of their religion.

The protesters in Assam say that the CAA violates the provisions of the Assam Accord.

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Story first published: Monday, January 27, 2020, 23:30 [IST]
A direction by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, Justice B R Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant to the Karnataka high court asked the latter to expeditiously settle the matter of assets deposited before it by Mallya for liquidation, and thereby payment to creditors preferably not later than three months.

It will be interesting to see the view of the London high court, if the settlement of his dues to Indian creditors is imminent, reports Ashis Ray.

Beleaguered Indian businessman Vijay Mallyas lawyers could utilise a recent order by the Supreme Court to seek mitigation at hearings on his extradition to India.

These commence at the Royal Courts of Justice or the High Court of England and Wales in London on February 11.

In July last year, an appeal by Mallya was admitted by the high court -- but only to challenge the evidence of fraud presented by the prosecution to the Westminster magistrates court, which ordered his deportation to India in December 2018.

This was followed by the former British home secretary Sajid Javid approving his extradition in February 2019.

Mallya, who relocated to London in 2017, controlled Kingfisher Beer in India, where he is still a substantial shareholder. He, however, collided with difficulty after failure of Kingfisher Airlines, leaving the carrier with a debt of around Rs 9,000 crores to various Indian banks.

Mallya is liable in this respect, as he provided a personal guarantee in order to secure at least a part of the facilities.

Indian authorities also accused him of obtaining a portion of the loan fraudulently, and of unlawfully siphoning off money abroad. The magistrates court upheld the charges on both counts.

Now, a direction issued by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, Justice B R Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant on the 10th of this month to the Karnataka high court asked the latter to expeditiously settle the matter of assets deposited before it by Mallya for liquidation, and thereby payment to creditors. Mallya has claimed the assets placed at the courts' disposal are worth around Rs 13,000 crores.

According to the order of the three judges, all parties involved in the litigation agreed that the appeal by Mallya pending before the Karnataka high court at Bengaluru, be disposed of by the high court as early as possible, preferably not later than three months from today -- which means 10th April.

A source close to Mallya saw this as favourable.

It will be interesting to see the view of the London high court, if the settlement of his dues to Indian creditors is imminent.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate of the ministry of finance in their arguments before the magistrates court took the stand that Mallya had no intention to repay the money borrowed by Kingfisher Airlines from Indian banks.

Sarosh Zaiwalla, senior partner at London solicitors Zaiwalla & Co said: High court hearings in such cases is generally continuous, and in this instance could take around a couple of days. The judge or judges will then reserve their judgement for 7-14 days before delivering it.

He added the fraud aspect being reviewed is significant, as this was a key element in the magistrates court granting extradition.

Since the verdict of the lower court was so sweepingly against Mallya, there was doubt as to whether the High Court would entertain an appeal by the defendant at all. Now the question is, if the high court reiterates the magistrate courts judgement, what further options would Mallya have?

He could still approach the United Kingdoms Supreme Court. If this application, too, fails, he can conceivably, as long as Britain has not actually exited the European Union, petition the European Court of Justice.

As of now, Britain and the EU aim to part on January 1, 2021. This, though, is subject to the two entities arriving at agreements on innumerable issues in a mere 11 months, including the future trading relationship from the present situation of the UK being a member of the EU single market.

Last week, Javid, currently the chancellor of the exchequer, rather rattled the markets by saying they should not be expecting alignment with the EU in a post-Brexit trading scenario.

Last Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the new president of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen hinted to the BBC that EU-UK trade negotiations could take longer if Britain preferred a competitive future.

Photograph: PTI Photo.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  The United States should have the courtesy to explain why it revoked Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa's visa, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Monday.

"Not that we are requiring the US to tell us the reason for the barring as well as Sen. Bato's visa being cancelled. But we feel that as a matter of courtesy between countries who are allied, it should have given the reasons," Panelo said during a press briefing in Malacanang.

"After all, we stated the reasons why we are refusing entry to three US senators in this country," he added, referring to a travel ban on American Senators Richard "Dick" Durbin, Patrick Leahy, and Edward Markey from entering the Philippines.

The three led calls to release Senator Leila De Lima a staunch critic of Duterte, who has been in jail since February 2017 for drug-related charges.

Dela Rosa confirmed last week that his tourist visa to the United States has been revoked, weeks after initial reports claiming that he would not be allowed to set foot in the North American country. President Rodrigo Duterte responded with a surprise decision to terminate the long-standing Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the US and Philippine military, giving local officials a month to carry out the process.

READ: After Duterte threat, Philippines now working on VFA termination  Palace

Dela Rosa earlier acknowledged that his canceled visa "might be related" to alleged extrajudicial killings under his watch as chief of the Philippine National Police from 2016 to 2018 better known as Oplan Tokhang, the bloody anti-drug operations carried out by the police. The US Congress passed the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act in 2018, which imposes financial penalties and visa ban sanctions on foreign individuals and entities involved in violations of human rights or religious freedoms, and censorship activities.

READ: Another police general's US visa canceled, Dela Rosa says

'Last straw'

The Palace official denied claims that canceling the VFA was an impulsive move against the US.

"The cancellation of Sen. Bato's visa was the last straw that broke the camel's back. It was an accumulation, a series of disrespectful acts by some of the US senators for demanding the release of a senator who is 'lawfully detained.' To the President's mind, that is an intrusion and an insult to the judiciary system of this country," Panelo said.

Panelo added that he does not know what else can change the President's mind to keep the VFA,

Prior to Dela Rosa's cancelled visa, Panelo said the passage of a US Senate resolution condemning supposed human rights violations in the Philippines, the provision in the US federal budget law that bars the entry of certain local officials said to be involved in De Lima's detention, and calls to set her free have piled up.

"It's not as expressed by some as a decision on a whim. It's a studied response to acts that the President deems to be an assault to the sovereignty of this country," Panelo said, dubbing Duterte as a "tactical and thinking President."

Panelo, who is also the President's chief legal counsel, added that Duterte can terminate the VFA without concurrence of the Senate, saying that it is considered an executive agreement rather than a treaty.

The withdrawal process started on Friday, with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro "Teddyboy" Locsin, Jr. saying that he would call the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee to relay the message.

The VFA, which took effect in 1999, provides the legal cover for American troops to hold joint exercises in the country with their Filipino counterparts after the expiration in 1991 of the decades-long military basing agreement between the two allies. The 1987 constitution prohibits foreign troops and facilities in the Philippines except under a treaty concurred in by the Senate.

The VFA is also the first of two agreements between Washington and Manila about the treatment of their troops when they are in the US or the Philippines. Its provisions include lax visa and passport policies for American troops, and the right of the US government to retain jurisdiction over its military personnel, with some exceptions.

The agreement can be terminated by either the Philippines or the US by writing to the other party that they want to end it. Expiration, however, will come 180 days from the time either party notifies each other. Aside from Panelo, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also believes that the VFA can be terminated without the approval of the Senate. However, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said last week that these legal questions are still being studied.

Not worried

Panelo said there's nothing to worry about even if the US decides to end other agreements on security cooperation with Manila.

"I think treaties benefit more the United States than the Philippines. Strategically, the US needs to be in almost any part of the world to secure itself from its perceived enemies," he added.

He said the VFA was lopsided anyway, as it grants unrestricted passage for all American aircraft and vessels in the Philippines and provides special arrangements for American troops involved in crimes committed here  privileges not extended to Filipinos.

The Philippines and the US are longstanding allies under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty. The VFA and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in 2014, which allows US forces extended stay and to maintain facilities within Philippine camps, are designed to bolster that alliance.

Panelo also shot down the suggestion of former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario for Duterte to fly to Washington and join fellow Southeast Asian leaders in meeting President Donald Trump and iron out bilateral relations, saying the President doesn't take advice from people who "lost the West Philippine Sea to the Chinese government."

On Sunday, Del Rosario said there were a number of reasons to revisit rather than end the VFA, adding that the Philippines would need help in tackling external threats as well as "more devastating" natural disasters.

Del Rosario was part of a special delegation that filed a case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The international court dismissed China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea and declared portions claimed by Beijing as within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
- Donald Trump said Monday he has not seen an explosive manuscript by former top aide John Bolton, which reportedly supports an allegation at the heart of the impeachment case against the US president.

"I haven't seen the manuscript," Trump told reporters of the book by his former national security advisor, which was submitted to the White House for security clearance.

According to The New York Times, Bolton -- who Democrats want to hear as a witness in the ongoing impeachment trial -- writes that Trump told him military aid to Ukraine was tied to Kiev investigating his political rival Joe Biden.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BUSIA  A Ugandan primary school teacher, who was arrested last Friday for allegedly smuggling ivory into Kenya, has lost a bid to have his trial held in a Ugandan court.

Mr Joseph Ndeda, who on Monday, January 27, 2020, appeared before a Kenyan Court in Busia presided over by Magistrate Tina Madowo, was instead remanded to Busia-Kenya government prison until February 5.

Ndende lawyer Wycliffe Okutta told journalists that there was no case for his client to answer since there is no proof that he was caught trafficking ivory.

The prosecution is at liberty to prove to this court that the accused was found in possession of ivory and that the ivory belongs to him, otherwise my client is an innocent man. We are trying to raise questions to the prosecution on whether there are reports of an elephant or elephants that were killed here in Busia-Kenya and if not, they should state the source of the ivory, Mr Okutta said.

Mr Ndeda, a resident of Busitema Sub-county in Busia district, was on Friday last week arrested by Kenya Police after he was found smuggling 42 kilogrammes of ivory and 35 kilograms of wildlife bones. Mr Ndeda had allegedly crossed into Kenya on a motorcycle after concealing the wildlife products in sacks.

The illegal ivory trade is the third most profitable form of trafficking after narcotics and weapons. Traffic is driven by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks are used in traditional medicine and ornamentation. Poaching has seen the elephant population fell by 110,000 over the past decade to just 415,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Related
While building their case accusing Jennifer Duloss estranged husband of murdering her, the police impounded cars and seized dozens of electronic devices.

Additionally, they requested data from cellphone towers across Connecticut and asked Google and Waze whether anyone had searched for directions to Ms. Duloss suburban mansion in the hours after her disappearance.

But well before that, the police  responding to reports that Ms. Dulos, 50, had disappeared shortly after dropping her children off at school  encountered a gruesome, bloody crime scene at her home in affluent New Canaan, Conn. They quickly concluded that she had suffered a violent attack there.

Those procedural details of the rigorous investigation into Ms. Duloss disappearance in May were revealed last week, when a state judge unsealed 467 pages of search warrants that helped explain how officials came to charge her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, 52, with murder and kidnapping despite not having recovered Ms. Duloss body.
ESR on Monday said it has acquired 76.84 acre of land in Gurugram, Haryana to develop a logistic park.

ESR-- the largest APAC focused logistics real estate platform-- said in a statement that it will develop a logistics park in Sohna, South Gurugram spread over 76.84 acre.

"ESR acquired the land-parcel, formerly a part of keystone knowledge park, the first and only premier life science and technology ecosystem in Northern India from the Mayar Group," the statement said.

The park is expected to support last-mile delivery for national and global businesses especially e-commerce.

"With this investment, ESR expands its India footprint to 14 locations," the statement said.

Co-founded by its senior management team and Warburg Pincus, ESR and the funds and investment vehicles it manages are backed by investors including APG, SK Holdings, JD.com, Goldman Sachs, CPPIB, OMERS, Ping An and Allianz Real Estate.

The ESR platform spans across the People's Republic of China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and India.

As of June 30, 2019, the fair value of the properties directly held by ESR and the assets under management with respect to the funds and investment vehicles managed by ESR recorded about USD 20.2 billion.

ESR has been listed on the main board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd since 1 November 2019.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tunis, Tunisia (PANA)  More than 800 Tunisian irregular migrants, including women and children, were detained for more than five months in the Spanish center of "Mellila" that accommodates foreigners in inhuman conditions, according to the officer in charge of migration at the Tunisian economic and social rights forum (FTDES)
The Japanese government decided Sunday to repatriate all Japanese residing in Wuhan, China, who wish to return to Japan, in response to the spread of pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus confirmed in the Hubei Province city.

The government plans to use privately chartered planes that will be in operation as early as Tuesday. The spread of the virus has not stopped, and the number of infected people around the world had exceeded 2,000 as of Sunday.
My engagement with the impeachment imbroglio playing out in the hallowed chamber of the US Senate has been mostly after the fact. I watch daily news reports of the congressional proceedings and read the analysis. I scratch my head and roll my eyes. Given the allegiance of the politicians to their parties, the end appears as predictable as the beginning. As a dilettante of American history, Im aware of our countrys predilection toward binary fury in its politics. Partisan democracy draws its energy from the passion polarity generates. Still, I appreciated columnist P. J. ORourkes sardonic advocacy for extreme moderation: We need a political system that isnt so darn sure of itself.  Power to the far middle!

Good and evil exist as mutually exclusive categories, but since we are fallible and finite humans, any overconfidence in judging ourselves or others as either is intrinsically fraught. Christianitys doctrine of original sin (however you slice it) indicts even our best judgments as tinged by self-interest. The biblical writers adjure Gods people over and over to err on the side of mercy and leave the reckoning to God, who alone looks and sees our whole hearts (1 Sam. 16:7; Matt. 5:4445; Rom. 12:1719; 1 Thess. 5:2122). Nevertheless, there are times when we must take a stand and even offend, especially in defense of the powerless and disenfranchised and for the cause of the gospel. Offense is sometimes the roadkill of righteousness (Matt. 11:6).

My esteemed predecessor bequeathed a fairly momentous legacy with his viral editorial last month. Ive inherited the whirlwind, so to speak. Politics and theology both exist on broad continuums. By virtue of Mark Gallis editorial and CT president Tim Dalrymples follow-up, weve situated ourselves on these continuums in a kind of extreme middlein censorial critique of the president and yet open to conversation as well as critique. Tim Dalrymple used the metaphors of a flag and a table. Similarly, my predecessor described himself as a stake in the ground kind of guy. Everybody knows where he stands. I joke about being more of a steak on the grill kind of guy. I like to sit down over dinner and sort it out between us. The flag and the table.

What we say is important, and how we say it matters too. At CT, we strive to speak truth with love. Scripture instructs us to Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone (Col. 4:6, NRSV). Jesus cautioned against losing our saltiness (Mark 9:50), which modern parlance equates with coarseness and disregard for the other. But the biblical metaphor goes back to the practice of Old Testament sacrifice. Offerings of gratitude and atonement would be seasoned with salt so as to be holy and pleasing to God (Ex. 30:35). Thus Jesus said, Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other (Mark 9:50).

Jesus was intentionally elusive as to political alignment. You really cant nail him down, which is part of what got him nailed to a cross. He incited opposition with deliberately political language, speaking of Gods kingdom as one with values and purposes that reject political and cultural prerogatives. Then as now, kingdom implies power, specifically, the power to rule and control . For the Roman empire of Jesus day, kingdom power meant control by military might and brute force. Historians describe Pax Romana as a time of world peace, but Rome made peace by way of war, extortion, and economic domination. Roman apologists labeled this imperial supremacy good news, which it was as long as you werent an enemy of the state, a slave, an immigrant, a woman, poor, or Jewish.

Jesus first sermon in the Gospel of Markright out of the water and having defied the Devil in the desertannounced the kingdom of God as better good news (1:15). Jesus said the kingdom was near, but you had to repent to believe it. This no doubt offended his audience, chosen people chafing under oppressive Roman rule. Rural Galilee was first-century Israels version of a Bible belt. The people already believed in God and suffered for it. They hungered and thirsted for justice. How could Jesus call them to repentance? What did they do?

The better news of the kingdom of God was disturbingly ironic. Kingdom power would not rule through human force or political might or cultural complicity. Kingdom power works from the margins of human power and influence to love enemies and welcome outcasts and strangers. It cares for the poor, shuns privilege and the pursuit of wealth, and humbly goes the second mile, doing its good in secret and not for applause, its left hand not knowing what its right hand is doing. Its confused with weakness and looks like defeat. Nowhere is this more evident than in Christianitys calling card. Rome used crucifixion to viciously squelch insurrection. Jesus used the same cross to expose the futility of Roman violence and religious collusion with it while executing a sentence of forgiveness on his crucifiers. In Gods kingdom, peace was not made through the shedding of enemies blood, but by the King shedding his own blood. Ours is a Savior crucified by majority vote.

We know but forget that governments are not God. Governments lie and cannot be trusted. Only God can be trusted, which is why Jesus said repent and believe the better good news. Trust God, in whom true power resides.

Last months forthright editorials were not the last word, but the next word in what we intend as an ongoing conversation among Christians concerned for our country and its politics even as we pray Gods kingdom come and his will be done on earth as in heaven. Look for space in our pages and online for dialogue and debate but also, we pray, for consensus and commitment to living our lives in a manner worthy of the calling to which God has called us in Christ.

Daniel Harrell is editor in chief of Christianity Today.
Burma Wild Elephant Found Skinned in Myanmar Forest Reserve; Poachers Flee Scene

The wild elephant found killed and skinned on Jan. 24, 2020 in Sinma Forest Reserve. / The Irrawaddy

PATHEIN, Ayeyarwady RegionLocal authorities in Ngapudaw Township, Ayeyarwady Region found a wild elephant poached and skinned with its trunk cut off in Sinma Forest Reserve on Friday.

Officials with the forest department, police and administrative authorities were investigating a report by local residents that wild elephants were running in the forest reserve when they found the dead elephant near the Pathein-Mawtin road.

It was killed by elephant poachers. They fled from the scene and police are pursuing them, Police Lieutenant Colonel Tun Shwe, spokesperson for the Ayeyarwady Region Police Force, told The Irrawaddy.

The female pachyderm was around 2.5 m tall, over 2 m long and estimated to be 28 years old. According to the elephant veterinarian of the Forest Department, the elephant was killed by a poisoned arrow.

Elephant poachers had skinned the elephant and were preparing to take it away, said U Kyaw Myint Tun, administrator for Ngapudaws Tin Chaung Village-Tract. When they saw us, they left their equipment and ran away. We feel sorry that elephants are being poached despite the fact that we are doing our best to prevent elephant poaching.

U Kyaw Myint Tun has won an award from State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for his elephant conservation efforts.

Fridays poaching was the first case in 2020. A total of six wild elephants died last year, two of them from natural causes and four killed by poachers.

In 2018, poachers killed eight elephants in Ayeyarwady Region, a 50 percent decline from 16 in 2017, primarily thanks to collaborative efforts between local authorities, police, civilians and civil society organizations engaged in the conservation of elephants.

In the past, elephants were mainly poached for their tusks but over the past few years they have increasingly been poached for their hides, which are believed to have medicinal properties. Demand for elephant hides has increased and, as with the tusks, the hides are mostly smuggled to China.

Most elephant poaching takes place in Ayeyarwady Region, especially in Pathein, Ngapudaw and Thabaung townships.

Myanmars elephant population is now estimated to be between 1,600 and 2,000, a drastic decline from the estimated population of 10,000 in the 1940s, according to the Forest Department. Poaching is the primary driver of this continuing decline.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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Deptford is one of three Gloucester County school districts asking voters to approve spending proposals. Deptford wants voters to approve improvements at its high school, middle school and elementary schools. Read more

Voters in six New Jersey school districts, including three in Gloucester County, head to the polls Tuesday to consider school construction projects totaling nearly $110.9 million.

In Deptford, the district has proposed a $37.6 million bond issue to build an addition to Monongahela Middle School that includes 16 classrooms, two science labs, a music room, and a central district office space with a public meeting room.

Like a growing number of districts, Deptford wants to add security vestibules to the main office to provide a buffer with a buzzer for visitors to enter a school.

The proposal also calls for repairing Deptford High Schools auditorium and a new HVAC system for the band and choral rooms. Floors also would be replaced at three elementary schools.

 READ MORE: Deptford voters reject school bond referendum - for a second time

The six districts are eligible for state funds, some as much as 40%. The referendum questions, which typically seek a property tax increase, can be a tough sell among voters, and can allow districts to pay for projects that cannot be funded through their annual operating budgets.

In Woodbury Heights, a $2 million bond proposal calls for building an addition that includes a new main office and a new security vestibule, converting classrooms for small group instruction, and replacing the gym floor. If approved, it would add $87.58 annually to the tax bill of a home assessed at the township average of $177,707. The state would contribute $378,957.

Were not looking for luxury, Superintendent Robert H. Goldschmidt said Monday. Were looking for safety, security, and better use of the building for the changing needs of schools.

In Mantua, voters are considering two sequential questions to fund improvements at its three schools. The first, for a $9.6 million bond, calls for building new kindergarten classrooms, replacing a gym floor, and upgrading a security vestibule. It would not impact taxes, the district said. Approval for the first proposal is needed for the second proposal to pass.

If approved, voters then must decide the second $1.3 million proposal to build handicapped-accessible bathrooms for pre-K and upgrade playgrounds at two elementary schools.

The second question, if approved, would increase taxes $9.87 annually for a home valued at the township average of $205,881, the district said. The state would pick up about $2.4 million of the project costs. The district is scheduled to make its final payment on a current bond in March.

 READ MORE: Voters appear to reject $210.7 million plan to improve Cherry Hill schools

Elsewhere in the state, voters in districts in Bergen, Essex, and Morris Counties also are being asked to vote on funding for school construction projects.

Tuesday is one of five times during the year that school boards may propose a bond issue or special question to pay for school projects. Polls are open until 8 p.m.

 READ MORE: Voters to decide bond referendums in three South Jersey districts
An outpouring of positive messages have popped up on a high school's bathroom wall after someone penned a worrisome plea for help.

Students and staff of Golden High School in Golden, Colorado, saw graffiti markings in the female restroom that read: 'Is life worth all the bullsh**?'

Instead of ignoring the world-weary question, dozens of students and staff members responded with positive messages written on Post-it notes, which they tacked to the wall surrounding the sad graffiti.

Heartbreaking: An outpouring of positive messages have popped up on a high school's bathroom wall after someone penned a worrisome plea for help

How it started: The message appeared in the female restroom of Golden High School in Golden, Colorado, last week

Lending a hand: People were encouraged to write notes around the graffiti instead of erasing the question. All the notes attempted to support and inspire the original writer

English teacher Ashley Ferraro was one of the first who noticed the message on the bathroom wall, which appeared sometime last week.

'When I first saw it, my reaction as a teacher was, "Ah graffiti! We need to cover this up or erase it or get rid of it!" and then I had the thought of, if we do that, are we ignoring the question and the person that asked it and the pain that theyre in,' Ferraro told CBS 4 News.

Heartwarming: more than 50 notes were penned and placed around the question

Inspired, the teacher encouraged her students to pen positive and supportive notes to then surround the question on the wall.

Students obliged and the surface soon held more than 50 notes.

Notes ranged in the messaging, with some insisting that life is worth all the B.S. for 'family' and 'being loved,' while another person wrote: 'Yes, because you will find love in your future...in yourself...and in your favorite things to do and the small things in life.'

Other notes read: 'Life is worth it because even if it's bad there is always a good. We were all put here for a reason, we all go through something tough. It always gets better.'

Ferraro said she was impressed by her students for participating and using their words to pen heartfelt messages.

Inspired: English teacher Ashley Ferraro (pictured) saw the graffiti message and encouraged her students to write the notes

New home: The school moved the notes to the hallway so everyone can view and add to it

Adding thoughts: All the messages focus on positivist and reasons life is worth living

Thoughtful: Notes offered tokens of wisdom, including pain is just temporary

Making her mark: Student Hannah Blackman was inspired by the wall and decided to raise money for the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services with the help of students and staff

'I was really impressed with how many kids participated,' Ferraro told CNN. 'And the ones you would never expect to participate...did.'

The project took off and has since been moved to a hallway outside the bathroom so more students can participate in posting their own notes to the wall if they want.

'My hope is that it isn't such an isolated feeling  so people don't think they're the only ones feeling that way and to reach out for help,' Ferraro continued.

Sophomore student Hannah Blackman was also inspired by the note wall and how it blossomed into an area of support for students and staff at school.

'We see these things written on walls and our first reaction is well lets wash it off thats vandalism but some people took the time out of their day to write on sticky notes about why their life is worth it,' she wrote on Facebook.

'This absolutely made my day and gave me a little more hope for our generations happiness. it really shows how much love can be shared by a small act of kindness. i think we can all work on a small act of kindness everyday, im writing my sticky note right now.'

Blackman launched a Facebook campaign to raise money for the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services after being inspired by the wall. She is encouraging people to donate.

'I think it's always  always  important to reach out and see if anybody needs help or even just a small act of kindness like the sticky notes,' she said.
The Eternals - Harry Styles' Eros has one of the most disturbing Marvel Comics histories

The superhero Eros AKA Starfox AKA Thanos' brother is a part of a whole other section of Marvel Comics Eternals' lore
Qatar, the largest source of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for India currently, is not too keen to renegotiate the pricing of its long-term supply contract with India, Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said on Monday.

Al-Kaabi, who also serves as chief executive at Qatar Petroleum, is on a visit to India, where Indias Minister of Petroleum, Dharmendra Pradhan, said earlier on Monday that his country would like to renegotiate the prices in its long-term supply contract with Qatar.

The two ministers explored ways to make LNG more affordable for a price sensitive market like India, especially in our long-term contact, Pradhan said on Twitter after a meeting with the Qatari minister.

Qatar is our largest source of LNG. Indias appetite for energy, particularly gas is increasing considerably. We see an enormous potential to further expand India-Qatar energy ties and also expect to increase our bilateral engagements beyond buyer-seller relationship, the Indian minister added.

India currently imports around 8.5 million tons of LNG from Qatar under long-term supply deals, according to Reuters estimates.

But spot LNG prices for the fuel delivered at Indian ports are currently around half the price compared to that in the long-term supply contracts. So Qatars LNG prices under long-term supply contracts are now much less appealing to India, which has set a goal to more than double the share of natural gas in its energy mix by 2030.

The surge in Indias energy requirements will not be incremental but exponential. India is rapidly expanding its gas infrastructure to cater to the needs of nearly 70% of our population. An estimated investment of $60 billion is lined up in building the gas infrastructure, Pradhan said today.

Last month, the minister said that India would surpass China to become the worlds largest energy growth driver by 2030. India aims to move to a gas-based economy and looks to invest around $100 billion in energy infrastructure, including renewables, he said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Monday that there is no room for compromise in the policy debate surrounding how society should cater to the desires of transgender people.

Lets be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights, Biden wrote Saturday on Twitter.

The former vice presidents statement comes after fellow 2020 Democrat Bernie Sanders received backlash from liberal activists for promoting popular podcast host Joe Rogans endorsement.

Rogan, a libertarian, has faced criticism from the left for his frequent criticism of political correctness, particularly as it relates to gender identity. The comedian has said he is 100 percent in favor of transgender people but has said he opposes puberty blockers for transgender children and has repeatedly objected to biological males competing in womens sporting events.

Hes been insanely consistent his entire life. Hes basically been saying the same thing, been for the same thing his whole life. And that in and of itself is a very powerful structure to operate from, Rogan said.

The Sanders campaign on Thursday shared the video clip of Rogans praise for the Vermont senator along with his quote.

The Sanders campaign the next day defended their promotion of Rogans remarks.

Sharing a big tent requires including those who do not share every one of our beliefs, while always making clear that we will never compromise our values, Sanderss campaign press secretary said in a statement. The truth is that by standing together in solidarity, we share the values of love and respect that will move us in the direction of a more humane, more equal world.

Biden, who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, has received scrutiny for his own record on LGBT issues.

I didnt have to evolve, he said in September, noting that he came out in support of same-sex marriage before former President Barack Obama did.

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Over the weekend, a series of revelations has reshaped President Donald Trumps impeachment trial in the Senate. First, on Saturday a video was released of an April 2018 donor meeting at Trump International Hotel in D.C., during which indicted Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman urged the president to fire Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and he responded by ordering her removed. (This contradicts claims by the president that he never met or spoke with Parnas.) Then on Sunday came the bombshell news from the New York Times that former national security adviser John Bolton writes in his forthcoming book that Trump directly told him security assistance to Ukraine was conditioned on investigations into the presidents political rivals, contradicting months of quid pro quo denials by Trump and the core of his impeachment trial defense. The news could strengthen not only the argument for witnesses in the Senate impeachment trialit could also bolster criminal cases against Trump and many of his officials and associates.

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As the Senate votes this week on whether to subpoena witnesses like Bolton, it should understand that its vote is not the final say. For one, the House could still subpoena or begin impeachment inquiries into many of the officials at the center of the Ukraine scandal. Another intriguing possibility for immediate criminal liability turns not on Attorney General William Barrs Department of Justice but on New York conspiracy and extortion law. If Senate Republicans vote against witnesses or otherwise create a sham trial, then New York state prosecutors have the jurisdiction and the duty to investigateand potentially indictGiuliani and others for extortion conspiracy, and to subpoena his possible co-conspirators inside and outside the administration.

A state trial of Giuliani and any associates involved in a Ukraine bribery plot would serve the interests of justice and deterrence, especially given recent evidence raising new questions about the possible stalking and intimidation of Yovanovitch, and given Giuliani flagrantly continuing the same scheme. Such charges would also open an alternative legal process for pursuing subpoenas of key witnesses and documents that the Senate Republicans have been blocking thus far.

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Since the House voted to impeach Trump, multiple news accounts have strengthened an already clear bribery case.

Can New York prosecutors like Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance pursue criminal charges? Under New Yorks statute on criminal conspiracy jurisdiction, when two or more people agree in New York to engage in criminal conduct in another jurisdiction, it is punishable as conspiracy if that conduct is criminal in both New York and the other jurisdiction. Thus, there would be three steps to such a prosecution: First, was the conduct criminal in the other jurisdiction, in this case, possibly D.C. (or perhaps Connecticut)? Second, was it criminal in New York state? Third, was the conspiracy advanced in New York state?

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The bottom line is that a state criminal prosecution of Giuliani and his team could be based solidly on a combination of federal felonies (bribery and campaign finance, and perhaps stalking), state felonies (extortion), and conspiracy law, plus perhaps a combination of stalking crimes.

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First, the conduct in Washington appears to have violated federal felony statutes as Giuliani (along with Trump and others) likely engaged in bribery, honest services fraud, and felony campaign finance violations. The House Judiciary Committee impeachment report details step by step the potential bribery charges against the president, arguing that President Trumps conduct satisfies [all four elements] of the federal anti-bribery statute, which makes it a crime to corruptly seek a thing of value in exchange for official acts. The report also presents the basis for potential honest fraud services charges against the president, arguing President Trump knowingly and willfully orchestrated a scheme to defraud the American people of his honest services as President of the United States. Trump was unintentionally correct on Sunday when he tweeted that transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed in such a case. Indeed, Trump said, I would like you to do us a favor, though, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned arms sales, clearly linking military support to the conditional investigation of a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked the DNC in 2016 instead of Russia, as well as an investigation of Joe Biden. Further, the House had already offered an overwhelming amount of documentation and witness testimony to confirm a corrupt solicitation of quid pro quo. Giuliani himself undermined the argument that his efforts in any way related to the public interest when he wrote a letter to Zelensky saying that he was acting on behalf of Trump as a private citizen, not as President of the United States.

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Since the House voted to impeach Trump, multiple news accounts have strengthened an already clear bribery case. Lev Parnas text messages, released by the investigating House committees, are consistent with a pressure campaign in July to force the investigations as the aid was being withheld. On Sunday, meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Boltons book draft indicates Trump made these conditions on arms explicit: Trump replied [to Bolton] that he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Hillary Clinton in Ukraine. Further, earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office concluded that when Trump withheld arms from Ukraine, he violated the Impoundment Control Actnot a criminal violation, but additional support for proving the criminal cases in D.C. under the federal code and proof of corrupt intent.

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The second legal step toward a Vance investigation is that this conspiracy is also criminal under New York state extortion law. New York bribery statutes cover only New York state and local officials, not federal officials. But the plot could be prosecuted as felony extortion under New York law as a wrongful taking of property. The withholding of military aid was wrongful (a federal crime and a civil violation of the Impoundment Control Act) and was also calculated to materially harm Zelensky, Ukrainians, and Biden. In the context of extortion and larceny, the term property includes a thing of value  for charge or compensation, and New York courts interpret this phrase broadly, including intangible interests and services, such as milk routes, union contracts, construction contracts, restaurant refuse services, and even access to the subway. It seems very likely that opposition research for a political campaign that will take place in the state of New York would fit under this definition.

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The Supreme Court has wisely ruled that similar federal statutes on corruption have limits, for even though they protect property rights, [they do] not refer to the intangible right of the citizenry to good government. However, such federal statutes still apply broadly to intangible things of value. Federal courts similarly interpret a thing of value to include sex and favorable recommendations. Most relevant here, efforts to prevent witness testimony have been interpreted as seeking a thing of value. In a 1992 case, a federal appellate court held that a statute about mailing threatening communications interpreted a thing of value as an effort to stop witness testimony. Conversely, coercing a prosecutor to manufacture testimony or simply to announce a bogus investigationis also a thing of value in a campaign context.

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Critically, the evidence suggests that Trump and Giuliani were seeking merely the announcement of an investigationnot an actual investigation. This superficial focus suggests bad faith, because such an early public announcement would be more likely to undermine a real investigation by the tipping of any witnesses and co-conspirators to prepare, coordinate, or destroy evidence. It would, however, serve the purpose of offering a valuable political weapon against Trumps opponents. Whether Trump was seeking from Ukrainian officials a real criminal investigation or simply a staged televised statement, both are covered by New York extortion law. Opposition research is clearly a thing of value for which a candidate would ordinarily compensate the investigator. Similarly, producing a televised statement or document as a false public smear against an opponent is similarly a thing of value for which a production company would charge.

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In addition to these crimes, text messages show that Parnas, Fruman, and Robert Hyde appeared to engage in illegal surveillance of Yovanovitch in Kyiv. Stalking is a broadly written federal felony that makes it a crime to travel outside of the United States and place another person under surveillance in a way that attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress. Its also a state misdemeanor in potentially relevant jurisdictions, and there is a long list of computer-tampering federal and state crimes (both felonies and misdemeanors) that cover such surveillance. If theres a possibility that Giuliani conspired with these three to stalk, surveil, and intimidate Yovanovitchas the text evidence indicatesNew York would have a responsibility to find out.

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The third legal step toward a Vance prosecution would be to show whether any conspiracy was overtly advanced in New York City. Indeed, Giuliani met frequently with Parnas and Fruman in New York City. Lev Parnas phone records appear to show contacts with Giuliani in New York and Giulianis explicit references to meet, talk and regroup in New York City. Giuliani has also said that he was in regular direct contact with the president, and phone records show numerous calls to a White House number. It appears likely that Trump made agreements with Giuliani by telephone while Giuliani was in New York. Under New York law, a phone call (or a text) between D.C. and New York as part of a conspiracy agreement would mean the caller in D.C. conspired in New York.

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One big advantage of starting a state criminal prosecution for such an extortion conspiracy is that it would clarify to anyone involved that they cannot rely on a presidential pardon from Trump, which would not cover state crimes. There are also no double jeopardy protections blocking federal prosecutors from digging deeper someday even if states have already gone through their own criminal prosecutions.

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The biggest downsides of the state process are its slowness and reliance on federal courts for enforcing subpoenas. Giuliani, Parnas, and Fruman are not federal officials and have no claim of executive privilege of their own, and of course they have no other possible immunities for criminal conduct that federal employees might have. While a court fight could be lengthy, it would be difficult for Trumps lawyers to run out the clock past the election. Prosecutors and courts can expedite these cases, especially because the Supreme Court is already reviewing similar questions of executive privilege already, and the merits of the administrations claims against these witnesses are relatively weak. Its worth noting that the federal courts in Watergates Oval Office tape cases took four months from trial to Supreme Court decision.

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Finally, as House impeachment manager Adam Schiff has repeatedly said in Trumps impeachment trial, the truth is going to come out eventually. More emails are going to come out. More witnesses are going to come forward, Schiff warned the Senate. Theyre going to have more relevant information to share and the only question is, do you want to hear it now? Do you want to know the full truth now? A state trial of Giuliani is legitimate and increasingly necessary for deterrence and the rule of law on its own terms. If the Senate does its job, a state prosecutor could agree to indict but reasonably hold off on any trial. But if the Republican-controlled Senate refuses to fulfill its own obligation to ensure a fair and full trial, New York state cannot be filibustered from pursuing a fair and full trial.
Fair Work has found an employee was unfairly dismissed after becoming confrontational and argumentative when his request for annual leave was rejected.

In a decision handed down this month, the Fair Work Commission found Stephen Quigleys dismissal from national retailer Belfast Sinks, part of the OKAB group, was unjust, unreasonable and harsh and awarded him $5895 in compensation.

The dispute ensued after Mr Quigley's request for annual leave was rejected. Credit:Peter Braig

Mr Quigley brought the claim in the Fair Work Commission after he was dismissed when his request to use four days annual leave for a holiday to the surf town of Yallingup in Western Australia was rejected.

The sales manager, who was working in Perth, made the leave request by email three weeks before he wanted to take the holiday and told his employer his parents were visiting from overseas.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses at the launch of the website 'www.welcomekejriwal.in' for 'one to one communication' with the voters ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, in New Delhi on Jan 27, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: PK

New Delhi, Jan 27 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal here on Monday promised to regularise the sanitation workers and said he would also work towards integration of the three municipal corporations.

"We will put pressure on municipal corporations to regularise them, and will also work towards integration of the three MCDs," Kejriwal said.

In 2012, then Sheila Dikshit government split the MCD into three -- one each for north, south and east Delhi -- for better jurisdiction.

Kejriwal announcement came as he welcomed former BJP leader and Akhil Bhartiya Safai Mazdoor Sangh chief Sanjay Gehlot in the Aam Aadmi Party-fold. "I have been with the BJP for the last 25 years and a swayam sewak as well. I have organised strike eight times for the rights of the sanitation workers and the Valmiki community without any result.

"Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari has made us suffer a lot. He promised adequate funds from the central government, integration of municipal corporations, regularisation of the sanitation workers. But nothing materialised. When around 45,000 sanitation workers reached Jantar Mantar to present their demands to the Prime Minister, the police thrashed them," said Gehlot.

Through Gehlot, said Kejriwal I wanted to spread this message that the AAP was the only party that had worked for welfare of the poor. "It's the only party that will fight for the sanitation workers' rights," said Kejriwal.
Government lawyers can act strategically to play for bigger long-term victories, while defense lawyers must zealously advocate for the interests of their clients  even when they conflict with the interests of criminal defendants as a whole, the authors wrote. The prosecutions advantages likely distort the law on the margins.

The article, The Defender General, proposes the creation of a new office to counterbalance that of the solicitor general, the Justice Department official who represents the federal government in the Supreme Court. The solicitor generals office is particularly skilled at making strategic litigation choices, and it plays a role in about three-quarters of criminal cases heard by the court.

In federal cases, the solicitor general represents the prosecution. In state cases, it very often files briefs supporting the prosecution and is granted separate argument time to make its points. In all, the solicitor generals office has sided against criminal defendants more than 95 percent of the time.

The defender generals office envisioned by the article would sometimes represent individual criminal defendants or file supporting briefs on their behalf. More important, it would represent the interests of criminal defendants generally, even when they diverged from the interests of the particular defendant in the case.

For instance, the article said, the office could have proposed a middle ground in a 2010 case on how long the police had to wait before asking more questions of suspects who had invoked their Miranda rights. The case involved a gap of two and a half years, requiring the defense lawyer to take an extreme position.

Asked how long the police must wait, the lawyer said: Oh, anything over two years and seven months. A defender general, the article said, could have argued for a more modest but still substantial 60 or 90 days. In the end, the court settled on 14 days.

The proposed defender generals office is more thought experiment than realistic prospect. But it sheds light on an authentic engine of imbalance in the criminal justice system.
Chief of Army Staff Gen. M.M. Naravane has said that every soldier, whether a jawan or an officer, takes an oath to follow the Constitution and that is what should guide us in all our actions and at all times. Recently, when some state governments fulminated against the CAA and NRC/NPR by announcing that they would not implement them, the Union government reacted by saying that they could not do as they were bound by an oath to uphold the Constitution. Whenever there is some controversy, the Constitution is invoked and people are reminded of having taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend it. The question is: What is the meaning of the oath and what does it mean to uphold the Constitution?

When Subhas Chandra Bose refused to join the ICS, his brother Sarat Chandra Bose wrote to him that his father was distraught. Bose wrote back that he could not take the oath of fealty to the British monarchy. However, when the interim government of India assumed office on September 2, 1946, ministers took an oath of loyalty to the British Crown and their successors. Rajendra Prasad has written in his autobiography that it irked many how far it was proper to take an oath of allegiance to the monarchy when they spent their lives fighting British imperialism. But Prasad has ratiocinated that the monarchy acts on the advice of the Cabinet, and he has to sign any paper presented by the Prime Minister even if it were his own death warrant. He cited the example of Edward VIII who had to abdicate the throne on the advice of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. Prasad has written: If Baldwin can advise the King to leave the throne, Indian ministers too can advise him to end British rule in India despite the oath. This may be an example of casuistry. Edward VIII preferred to relinquish the throne for his love in favour of his younger brother, not just because of the advice of the Prime Minister. A constitutional crisis rocked Britain in 1936 when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite married twice who was pursuing her second divorce.

Anyway, the oath can be interpreted the way one likes. But how does one uphold the Constitution? American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a bitter tussle with the Supreme Court, which struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act and also the Agricultural Adjustment Act enacted under the New Deal policy to salvage the country from the Great Depression. In 1936, while campaigning for the election, President Roosevelt noticed a lady struggling to approach him with some papers. He asked his security staff to let her come and hand over the papers. It was a letter addressed to him, I wish you could do something to help us girlsWe have been working in a garment factory, and up to a few months ago we were getting our minimum pay of $11 a week. Today 200 of us girls have been cut down to $4, $5 and $6 a week. You are the man that can do anything about it. Later, while chatting with newsmen, he rued that he wanted to solve problems like child labour, minimum wages and maximum hours, but he did not have any power to do so. He was elected and after taking oath, he commented grumpily: When the Chief Justice read me the oath and came the words Support the Constitution of the United States, I felt like saying: yes, but is the Constitution of the United States, as I understand it, flexible enough to meet any new problem of democracy  not the kind of Constitution your court has raised up as a barrier to progress and democracy?

The concept of the oath has its roots in different religions. Judaism prizes it; God swears that he will never again curse the ground because of man and never again smite every living thing (Genesis 8:21). Biblical commentator Rashi elucidates that the repetition of the term never again serves as an oath. Eliezer, the chief servant of Abraham, is the first person in the Biblical tradition to take oath as Abraham asked him not to take a wife for his son Isaac from the daughters of Canaan, but that he should select one from Abrahams own family. In the Roman tradition, luppiter Lapis (the Jupiter stone located in the Temple of Jupiter) was considered an Oath Stone upon which oaths were taken. Orcus, the infernal deity, punished those who backtracked from their oaths.

However, many religious groups like Quakers and Anabaptists are totally opposed to the taking of oaths, and they also buttress their position from Biblical injunction derived from Matthew 5:34-37. Here, Christ commands, But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven or by earth or anything else. Let your Yes be yes, and your No no, or you will be condemned. Quakers assert that one must be truthful at all times; taking legal oath only allows for duplicity  truthfulness in the legal context is more important than otherwise. However, other Christians do not subscribe to this view and refer to other parts of the Bible to prove that it is viewed favourably. Quakers suffered frequent incarceration for refusing to swear loyalty oaths. Perpetual dissenter and Quakers founder George Fox was jailed many times. He was jailed when he, while testifying in the court, threw a gauntlet to the judge to find any specific passage in the Bible where Jesus or his apostles took oath. Even though the judge could not cite any such passage, Fox was not let off and sent to jail. But the legal reforms from the 18th century onwards brought about a big change that in Britain one could now make a solemn affirmation instead of taking an oath.

In Germany, the Weimar Constitution was drafted after much deliberation which gave all possible rights to the people. But Article 48 allowed the President to suspend civil rights and operate independently in an emergency. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 and within weeks he took recourse to Article 48 to quash many civil rights. Soon thereafter in March, he brought in the Enabling Act to enact laws without the approval of Germanys Parliament or President. He forcibly prevented Communist MPs from voting. Thus, he enacted the law and became a dictator, the oath to uphold the Weimar Constitution notwithstanding. Napoleon also gave the first Republican Constitution to France but later declared himself monarch for his whole life, despite his pledge to protect the Constitution.

What is needed is honesty of purpose. The law is the law because of its binding nature. So, even the ordinary law is binding on everyone, leave alone the Constitution, whether one takes a pledge to abide by it or not. Anyone committing a crime would be prosecuted according to the penal code. There can be no rule of law if people do not respect laws. The Quakers were right  that one must be truthful at all times.
The visa system would allow migrants to apply separately to live only in Scotland (Steve Parsons/PA)

Nicola Sturgeon has called on the UK Government to engage with proposals for a separate Scottish visa system aimed at tackling the countrys post-Brexit needs.

On Monday, the First Minister published a document, Migration: Helping Scotland Prosper, which floated a number of ways in which the Scottish system could diverge from the rest of the UK.

Under the Scottish Governments preferred model for the scheme, which would require talks with the UK Government due to immigration being reserved, migrants would apply separately to the Scottish Government for a visa to live only in Scotland and Holyrood would recommend applicants to the Home Office.

In response, the UK Government department said it would remain a reserved matter.

Plans were also revealed for pilot schemes to boost the populations of rural areas.

Expand Close Nicola Sturgeon said the document was shaped by an advisory group and business bodies throughout Scotland (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Nicola Sturgeon said the document was shaped by an advisory group and business bodies throughout Scotland (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The First Minister said demographic change after Brexit would hit Scotland harder than the rest of the UK, meaning a bespoke approach was needed to attract talent north of the border.

The document, which the First Minister said was shaped by a government advisory group along with business bodies across Scotland, laid out five possible methods for the creation of the visa system, ranging from total Westminster control to fully devolved to Holyrood.

Ms Sturgeon endorsed either models three or four, in which the UK Government would be responsible for the final checks on prospective migrants but would offer more input to the devolved administration on the criteria and eligibility assessment.

The First Minister told the assembled crowd in Edinburgh: The hard reality is this  without continued inward migration in the years ahead, theres a real risk that Scotlands working age population will fall.

The end of free movement will, in my view, harm the whole of the UK, but it will be uniquely harmful for Scotland.

Its likely to weaken our economy, damage the delivery of our public services and make some of our communities less sustainable.

That is the reason for todays paper and the proposals it contains.

She added: A common, UK-wide approach to immigration simply hasnt worked in Scotlands favour for some time now.

I hope the UK Government will be prepared to work with us to deliver a Scottish visa.

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon was in Edinburgh to unveil proposals for a new Scottish Visa to address depopulation and cut skills gaps. Find out morehttps://t.co/hqUithsoBr pic.twitter.com/Xo2m05P6W9  First Minister (@ScotGovFM) January 27, 2020

The First Minister stressed the proposals were designed to work under devolution but they could be adapted for use in an independent Scotland.

Speaking to journalists after the event, Ms Sturgeon said there have been no discussions with the UK Government about the proposal, however she hoped that Boris Johnson would engage with the Scottish Government on the issue in the near future.

Ms Sturgeon went on to brand one size fits all immigration system as being pretty disastrous for Scotland.

When asked about the possibility of an outright refusal from Downing Street or the Home Office to engage in talks, the First Minister said: Im not going to sit here  and say that theyre going to jump and say yes.

But equally, I know what the risks and the realities will be if we dont have this.

If there is a complete blanket refusal to discuss these things then the view that the Westminster system is incapable of accommodating Scotlands distinctive interest just becomes more and more of a real thing.

A Home Office spokesman said: Immigration will remain a reserved matter.

The UK Government will introduce a points-based immigration system that works in the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom, including Scotland.

We want to understand the specific needs of the whole of the UK, which is why we have engaged extensively with stakeholders across the UK, including the Scottish Government.

In response to the Home Office comments, Ben Macpherson, the Scottish Governments Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development, said: The proposals for a tailored migration policy for Scotland are supported by employers, universities and organisations across Scotland and are an essential part of sustaining and improving economic growth, prosperity and public services.

A failure by the UK Government to support proposals to meet Scotlands unique needs would be a further sign that the system does not work for Scotland and it is to be hoped the UK Government rethinks this out of touch response.
Six Benjamin Franklin Medals for transformative advances and global breakthroughs in science and technology, and two Bower Awardsone for extraordinary business leadership, and another for achievement in science, which carries a $250,000 monetary prize will be awarded to ten remarkable individuals this spring.

The laureates will take the stage at a gala ceremony on Thursday, April 30, 2020, in the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial at The Franklin Institute, the culmination of a weeklong suite of public and educational events designed to provide direct access for the public to the world-renowned laureates. Bank of America returns in 2020 as Presenting Sponsor of the Awards Ceremony and Dinner for the 18th consecutive year and their support of the Awards Program continues through the Institute's 200th anniversary in 2024.

The Franklin Institute Awards recognize extraordinary accomplishments in science and technology since the Institute was founded in 1824. The 2020 recipients join others including Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, and Bill Gatesin the Institute's unparalleled history of honoring the greatest minds of the last 196 years. To date, 120 laureates are also Nobel Prize recipients.

"Philadelphia is long known for leading the way in science, technology, and innovation," said Larry Dubinski, President and CEO of The Franklin Institute. "The Franklin Institute Awards Program brings to light some of the greatest minds of our time for accomplishments that will inspire us all and transform our world."

2020 Franklin Institute Awards Laureates

2020 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science

Kunihiko Fukushima , Ph.D.

He bridged principles of neuroscience and engineering to invent a neural network capable of visual pattern recognition, which led to the rise of today's artificial intelligence boom.

2020 Bower Award and Prize for Business Leadership

Arthur D. Levinson , Ph.D.

He launched Genentech to biotech greatness, and today, he continues to culture innovation at Apple through a powerful technology revolution as Chairman, and by leading Calico Life Sciences on a cutting-edge quest to extend human lives and develop new interventions for age-related diseases.

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry

Roberto Car , Ph.D. and Michele Parrinello , Ph.D.

They invented a computational method for mapping and predicting the behavior of atoms in motionan approach with extensive applications from researching new materials to drug development.

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science

Barbara H. Partee, FBA

She synthesized insights from linguistics, philosophy, logic, and psychology to understand how words and sentences combine to express meaning in human language.

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science

Monica G. Turner , Ph.D.

Her work seeded the field of modern landscape ecology and captures the impact of environmental disturbancesfrom forest fires to urbanization--on natural systems and human well-being.

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science

Jeremy Nathans , M.D., Ph.D.

He discovered the genetic basis of color vision and was the first to isolate key genes involved in eye development and diseases, advances that could lead to treatments of some of our most concerning eye disorders.

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Mechanical Engineering

C. Daniel Mote , Ph.D.

His research on spinning discs has made him a driving force in the engineering community. From sawmills to ski slopes, he significantly transformed a broad array of everyday items and mechanical processes, making them more safe, efficient, and ecologically sound.

2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics

Henry C. Kapteyn , Ph.D. and Margaret M. Murnane , Ph.D.

Setting records for speed, their high-intensity lasers are faster, smaller, and less expensive than ever before, making them accessible to a new generation of researchers and applications in fields ranging from electronics to medicine.

Note to Editors/Assets:

Laureate Photos: https://www.fi.edu/press-room/press-kits/2020-franklin-institute-awards

Announcement video: https://www.fi.edu/awards

THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE

Located in the heart of Philadelphia, The Franklin Institute is a renowned and innovative leader in the field of science and technology learning, as well as a dynamic center of activity. As Pennsylvania's most visited museum, it is dedicated to creating a passion for learning about science by offering access to hands-on science education. For more information, visit www.fi.edu.

SOURCE The Franklin Institute

Related Links

https://www.fi.edu


Hillary Clinton heavily criticized Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his authoritarian and Trumpian stance on political speech during a weekend interview with The Atlantic.

Citing a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which Facebook initially refused to remove last year, Clinton argued that Zuckerberg has been somehow persuaded that its to his and Facebooks advantage not to cross Trump.

Thats what I believe. And it just gives me a pit in my stomach, Clinton said.

Zuckerberg has come under fire in recent months for resisting mounting calls to change a Facebooks lax political speech policy, which permits the running of political ads that contain false information.

In general, in a democracy, I think that people should be able to hear for themselves what politicians are saying, Zuckerberg said in October.

The stance caused hundreds of Facebook employees to circulate an internal letter criticizing Zuckerberg.

Free speech and paid speech are not the same thing, the letter stated. Misinformation affects us all. Our current policies on fact checking people in political office, or those running for office, are a threat to what FB stands for. We strongly object to this policy as it stands.

Clinton echoed the claim in her weekend interview, accusing Zuckerberg of prioritizing profit over the health of the nations political discourse.

They have, in my view, contorted themselves into making arguments about freedom of speech and censorship which they are hanging on to because its in their commercial interests, she said.

Clinton has openly criticized a number of prominent public figures in recent months. Last week, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she stood by damaging comments about Senator Bernie Sanders that nobody likes him and he was a career politician in her upcoming docuseries.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) also filed a defamation suit against Clinton last week over October comments in which Clinton suggested Gabbard was a Russian asset.

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[January 27, 2020] Castellum Announces Jim Enicks to Become New CEO of Corvus Consulting; Laurie Buckhout to Become Chief Revenue Officer of Castellum

POTOMAC, Md., Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Castellum, Inc. (OTC: ONOV) announces Jim Enicks, Colonel, U.S. Army Retired, has agreed to become CEO of the Companys subsidiary, Corvus Consulting.

Jim Enicks most recently served as the President of Five Rivers Services, LLC and Synteras, a subsidiary of AKIMA Company, a $1.2 billion government contractor based in Herndon, Virginia. Previously he held senior positions at SRA International and SAIC fter serving over 25 years on active duty in the U.S. Army with his last tour of duty at CENTCOM. He has an MBA from Central Michigan University and his undergraduate degree in business from Indiana State University.



Jims ability to grow businesses and then manage them successfully makes him an ideal new CEO for our Corvus subsidiary, said Mark Fuller, President and CEO of Castellum. Working with Laurie Buckhout, who moves over to be Chief Revenue Officer of Castellum, we believe that we have a powerful business development team that will allow us to organically grow revenue more than 15% per year in addition to additional acquisitions that Castellum has targeted. I am very excited to join such a high-growth, dynamic company with great capabilities in the cyber and IT areas, said Jim Enicks, CEO of Corvus Consulting. Laurie, Mark, and the team have put together a great platform which I plan to help grow significantly over the next several years.

About Castellum, Inc. and Corvus Consulting. Castellum, Inc. is a technology company which is executing strategic acquisitions in the cyber security, information technology, information warfare, and electronic warfare space. In June 2019, the company brought on a new management team specifically to pursue an acquisition-led growth strategy. The company completed its first acquisition in November 2019. Corvus Consulting is a Small Business providing scientific, engineering, technical, operational support, and training services to Federal government and Commercial clients. Focus is on Cyberspace Operations, Electronic Warfare, Information Operations, Intelligence, and Joint/Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations. Our specialties run the gamut of capabilities from high-level policy development and Congressional liaison to requirements analysis, DOTMLPF-p development assistance and design services for hardware and software systems fulfilling the mission needs of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Communities. Services include full-spectrum project and program support, anywhere in the world. Forward-Looking Statements:

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters disclosed at www.otcmarkets.com. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Contact:

Mark Fuller, CEO

[email protected]

301-461-1839

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A pint-sized pooch with a permanent scowl is taking social media by storm by looking constantly fed up with life' due to a wonky underbite that gives him an adorably grumpy expression.

Chico, an 11-month-old Brussels Griffon, looks hilariously miserable in dozens of photos taken by his owner Belle Evans who loves to dress him up in cute outfits and hats.

But Belle - a 47-year-old teacher from Lynchburg, Virgina - insists that Chico is in fact a happy, contented and loving pup.

He's certainly a hit on her social media accounts where she has clocked up more than 9,300 followers on Instagram and more than 4,000 on Facebook.

Chico looks hilariously miserable as he poses for photos in a series of cute outfits and hats

Chico with his dog-loving owner Belle Evans, a 47-year-old teacher from Lynchburg, Virgina

Chico's owner Belle Evans loves to dress him up and insists he's a happy pup despite the frown

Chico is proving to be a hit on social media as he poses miserably in cute hats

Chico's wonky underbite makes him look constantly fed up with life whatever the situation

Belle says she fell in love with Chico the moment she saw the tiny 8lb pup.

She said: 'The first thing I noticed without a doubt was his crooked mouth. I could tell his jaw was somewhat off center.

'I wasn't sure if that was something that would change when his puppy teeth fell out but I hoped it would not. Thankfully he never lost that crooked look.

'My favorite look is when he squints his eyes, along with his crooked mouth, makes me laugh every time.

Looking mean in leather, Chico dressed up as a police officer in jacket and cap

Chico looking grumpy with his more cheerful-looking 'sisters' Hazel, Rita and Ramona

Chico's owner belle Evans says she fell in love with the cute pup at first sight

'Honestly Chico always looks grumpy, irritated and just fed up with life but in reality he is the sweetest little guy around.

'Brussels Griffons are a fantastic breed that are extremely friendly and loving.

'People online immediately fell for Chico and his grumpy face.

'I do get comments sometimes saying 'I don't think he likes that' because of his facial expressions.

'But Chico has the same expression whether he is wearing a costume or eating a steak.'

Belle says Chico loves being dressed up, despite his constantly miserable expression

Pint-sized Chico weighs just 8lbs and can fit snuggly in his owner Belle Evans's hand

Grumpy pup Chico looking thoroughly cheesed off as he poses for the camera in a woolly hat

Chico looks so grumpy in her social media posts that some concerned followers ask her if he's OK.

Dog-loving Belle has three other less grumpy-looking pets - Hazel, a 10-year-old pug mix, pug Rita, six, and three-year-old Ramona, a Boston terrier pug mix.

They also feature on her 'Hazelandthegang' social media pages.

Chico might be a lot smaller than his 'sisters' but that doesn't stop him enjoying some playful wrestling with them.

Ride 'em cowboy! Chico likes nothing better than to sit on the backs of other dogs

Chico's owner says the pup loves to be dressed up, despite looking like a moody teenager

Chico the grumpy pup manages to look hilariously miserable in any situation

And he loves them so much he even likes sleeping on their backs, earning him the nickname 'the piggybacker'.

Belle said: 'Chico has to be touching one of his sisters all the time. He really prefers to use them as pillows and his personal chew toys.

'Rita and Ramona immediately loved him but Hazel, the queen of the castle took a while to warm up.

'He is only 8lbs but blissfully unaware of how small he is. Since the get go he has been all in with his sisters and unafraid to step into the wrestling ring with them.

'His sisters have been awesome helping him to learn that they have a crazy mother that dresses them up and takes tonnes of photos.

'He has learned the routine and has no problem putting on his costumes.

'Their four personalities just mesh well together and bring me so much joy. They make me laugh everyday.

'Honestly they are not trained or really that well behaved but they make my life so much better and I'm lucky to have them.'

Who goes there! Chico playing the part of a stern-looking security guard

Chico loves climbing on the backs of Belle's other dogs giving him the nickname 'piggybacker'

Chico loves playing with this 'sisters' - Hazel, Rita and Ramona at home in Lynchburg, Virgina

He might look grumpy, but his owner belle Evans says Chico loves her other dogs
Every year, on Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust by the Nazi regime, but this year marks the anniversary of two atrocities: 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and 25 years since the end of the genocide in Bosnia.

This years Holocaust Memorial Day theme is Stand Together, reflecting on how regimes used policies and propaganda to create a Us and Them situation to divide neighbours, friends and communities.

Looking back, we can see how the Nazi regime influenced peoples attitudes through propaganda, disseminating powerful messages about who should and shouldnt be included in German society; in this case Jewish people.

The lead up to the Holocaust and subsequent genocides in history deliberately separated people, resulting in certain groups being treated as "the other" by relying on stereotypes and existing prejudices to propagate hate and dehumanise persecuted groups.

The Nuremberg Laws in September 1935 banned Jews from marrying non-Jews; their citizenship and their right to vote were also removed, and eventually Jewish children were not allowed to attend state schools.

In 1991, Bosnian Serb forces wanted to identify Bosnian Muslims and forced non-Serbs to wear white armbands and fly white flags outside their homes. Once identified, they were removed from their homes and often put into concentration camps.

Similarly, in the Vietnam War, propaganda was used extensively by Communist forces to control peoples opinions, as did Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, general Ratko Mladics command in Bosnia, the government of Sudans ethnic cleansing campaign against Darfurs non-Arabs, and the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Recently, Indias parliament passed a bill that offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Although the constitution prohibits religious discrimination and guarantees all citizens legal equality, this bill effectively divides migrants into Muslims and non-Muslims.

In the UK, we are seeing an exodus of EU migrants in the wake of Brexit, driving out a dedicated workforce who have provided essential services to the NHS and countless other organisations. In addition, there was a spike in hate crimes against EU citizens following the EU referendum.

Edwin Shuker, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, couldn't have better summed up this year's theme. The Holocaust was designed to physically eliminate the Jews as a people. It places a unique responsibility on us to stand by any threatened group. The Board of Deputies is currently highlighting the plight of the Uighurs as a priority."

Recommended Holocaust Memorial Day is not just for commemorating the past

No one can change the world by themselves, but each person has the capacity to contribute to positive change, however small. Last week, for example, I attended a vigil outside Mowlem School in east London following antisemitic comments on a wall opposite the school. We stood together in a small group to object to the divisive symbols. Regardless of the scale of such hatred, coming together against it is incredibly important in these times.

There are, thankfully, many examples of brave and inspiring people who have helped and supported those who were being persecuted in their communities and countries, regardless of the possible consequences. Moshe and Gabriela Mandil and their children Gavra and Irena fled their home in Yugoslavia when the Germans invaded in April 1941 and made their way to Albania where they were taken in and hidden by an Albanian Muslim family called the Veselis. The Veselis also hid another Jewish family but when questioned by the Nazis, the village never exposed their secret.

Many other Jews were saved like this and the Albanians refusal to comply with the Nazis genocidal policies was grounded in "Besa", the highest ethical code of honour in the country, which means literally to keep the promise. These were remarkable acts of compassion and a desire to help those in need, regardless of faith or origin.

As we mark the Holocaust in this divided world, let us remember how humanity has and will continue to stand together against genocide. We are stronger when we demonstrate humanity towards others. 
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- CATL's annual net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company is forecasted to stand between RMB4.064 billion and RMB4.911 billion, surging 20% to 45% compared to 2018, the Ningde-based battery giant announced on Jan. 21.

Excluding the impact of certain no-recurring gains and losses, the company expects its 2019 net profit to leap 15%-35% year on year to around RMB3.598 billion-4.223 billion.



Photo source: CATL)



CATL attributed its anticipated profit growth to three main reasons: (1) the fast-growing new energy vehicle (NEV) industry boosted the market demands over power batteries; (2) company's strengthened market expansion made its battery capacity gradually unleashed, thus improving the outputs and sales accordingly; (3) the continuous reinforcement on expense control lowered the ratio of cost to income.

CATL also boasts increasingly more market shares. China's installed capacity of power batteries grew 9.2% over a year ago to 62.2GWh, according to the data offered by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (CAPBIIA), of which 31.46GWh belonged to CATL, whose market share was up by nearly 10 percentage points to 50.57%.

The company has now served as the power battery supplier to multiple global automakers, such as Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Volvo, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover and Daimler Trucks & Buses.

The German premium carmaker BMW Group said in last November its order volume from CATL would be increased to 7.3 billion euros for the 2020-2031 period, up from the initial volume of 4 billion euros under a contract signed in 2018.

The rising market and orders have promoted the battery manufacturer to ramp up its production capacity. In October 2019, CATL held the groundbreaking ceremony of its first overseas factory in Thuringia, a state in east-central Germany. The Germany-based factory would create about 600 jobs and reach production of 14 GWh by 2022.

Besides, CATL kicked off on December 24 the construction of its power battery manufacturing base in Yibin, Sichuan province, which features an expected annual capacity of 30GWh.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-01-27 15:00:27

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Chemesis International Inc. (CSE:CSI) (OTCQB:CADMF) (FRA:CWAA) (the "Company" or "Chemesis"), announces, further to its news release dated January 17, 2019, that the Puerto Rico Department of Health has commenced an appeal of the favourable judgment (the "Decision") obtained by the Company from the Puerto Rico Superior Court, San Juan, in respect of the certain cannabis licenses ("Licenses") held by its subsidiary, Natural Ventures PR, LLC ("Natural Ventures") which had effectively been abeyed by the Puerto Rico Department of Health. The Decision, which is now under appeal, found that such abeyance of the Licenses was invalid and unconstitutional and nullified such action.The Company notes that the Department of Health had applied for a order staying the effect of the Decision until the appeal has been heard and decided; however, the Court decided in favour of the Company and did not stay the effect of the Decision. As a result, the Company remains in active consultation with its legal team with a view to having the Decision implemented as soon as practicable.The Company notes that, at the current time, the Licenses have not yet been reinstated to being operational, and that Natural Ventures is still not permitted to carry out any licensed activities under the Licenses, though it is permitted to carry out certain activities for the purposes of preserving and maintaining inventory. The Company will provide further updates as appropriate.On Behalf of The Board of DirectorsEdgar MonteroCEO and DirectorAbout Chemesis International Inc.Chemesis International Inc. is a vertically integrated U.S. Multi-State operator with International operations in Puerto Rico and Colombia.The Company focuses on prudent capital allocation to ensure it maintains a first mover advantage as it enters new markets and is committed to differentiate itself by deploying resources in markets with major opportunities. The Company operates a portfolio of brands that cater to a wide community of cannabis consumers, with focus on quality and consistency.Chemesis has facilities in both Puerto Rico and California. The Company believes it is well-positioned to win additional licenses in highly competitive merit-based US states and will expand its footprint to ensure it maintains a first mover advantage.Investor Relations:ir@ chemesis.com 1 (604) 398-3378Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future of the Company's business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing, including with respect to the Company's expectations regarding the implementation of the Decision, the outcome of the appeal, the reinstatement of the Licenses, its plans to continue to develop dispensaries in Puerto Rico, and its ability to obtain licenses in additional jurisdictions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Decision may be successfully appealed by the Puerto Rico Department of Health, the appeal may not be resolved promptly, that the activities permitted under the Licenses will be restored, that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected, including, but not limited to, in relation to developing dispensaries in Puerto Rico, and its ability to obtain licenses in additional jurisdictions. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press releaseSOURCE: Chemesis International Inc.
In a heartwarming gesture, a 21-year-old boy, Michael Puzon helped his parents recreate a picture they had taken at the exact same spot 28 years ago. According to reports, Michael along with his parents was on his way to the Lingayen Beach in the Philippines when they asked their son to click the same picture the couple had taken in the year 1990. The original picture of the husband and wife was clicked when they were a couple in college.

So my parents asked me to take their picture so that they could recreate their picture in the same spot from the year 1992  pic.twitter.com/93LAVxRT3l  rayyy (@raymonpuzon) January 11, 2019

The heartwarming gesture has garnered over 100,000 likes and 25,000 comments. A few people have applauded the 21-year-old's gesture in helping his parents.

THEY EVEN TRIED TO DRESS THE SAME??  so pure  Ang Manananggal sa Unit 21-B (@hijadepusa) January 12, 2019

True love does exist,after all.    (@PeterToshBot) January 17, 2019

So cute.... memory lane  @$0N()*Pisces (@top_carson) January 12, 2019

I love old school love

It keeps me alive  Sad Punjabi (@sadquotesyo) January 12, 2019

According to reports, the story behind the picture is quite adorable. Michael's father Ramon met future wife Neal in college and that is when they started dating each other. Although, Nela fell sick and had to return to her hometown. Ramon went to her hometown to find her and ended up finding her and that is when they took the adorable picture.

Read: Kim Kardashian & Kanye West's Adorable PDA Photos That Fans Loved

Read: Selena Gomezs Love For Polaroid Is Visible In These Adorable Pictures

Man builds dream home for step-parents

In another incident, a young man named Jayvee Lazaro Badile built a dream home for his step-parents in the Philippines.

A couple in the Philippines decided to provide everything possible to an abandoned child even when they were barely able to feed themselves and their kids. Now years later, the adopted child, Badile repaid them for their kindness in the best possible way.

In a Facebook post, Badile shared a collage photo with his parents and wrote, Now that I have the chance to give back to them, I will make sure they will live their dreams better than what they could ever imagine.

Read: Leonardo DiCaprio Has An Adorable Nickname For 'Once Upon A Time' Co-star Brad Pitt

Read: BTS' V Imitates His Hyung RM; Watch Adorable Video Of The Two Together
New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited National Human Rights Commission office on Monday and filed a complaint 'against the action of the state police on the protesters during demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act'. The Gandhi siblings were accompanied by senior Congress leaders included Salman Khurshid, Mohsina Kidwai, Jitin Prasada, P L Punia, Abhishek Singhvi, Rajiv Shukla and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.

The Congress leaders met the NHRC officials and discussed the UP police action against the anti-CAA agitators and called it as brutal and inhuman. The Congress delegation further demanded a probe into the deaths that took place in the state during the protests.

Live TV

The Congress party has compiled the proof and other material on record to make a case against the UP Police which cracked down the agitation in the state with force, said news agency IANS.

Earlier, Priyanka Gandi Vadra had visited families of many victims who died during the Anti-CAA stir in several parts of UP including Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Lucknow.

Nearly, 23 people died during the anti-CAA protest which took place in several parts of UP.
Tehran, Jan 27 : An Iranian passenger plane on Monday ended up in the middle of a highway after reportedly skidding off the runway during a botched landing.

None of the 135 passengers on board Caspian Airlines flight were injured in the incident in the south-western city of Mahshahr, reports the BBC.

State TV quoted provincial aviation officials as saying the pilot "landed the aircraft too late and this caused him to miss the runway".

A journalist who was on board the aircraft said that the back wheel of the plane had broken off and that the plane skidded without its wheels.

Civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said that an investigation was underway.

Iran has a poor aviation safety record, said the BBC report.

Sixty-six people were killed in a plane crash in February 2019, while 78 others died when an IranAir plane broke into pieces upon landing in 2011.

The European Union has either banned or restricted two Iranian airlines from using its airspace over safety concerns.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, delivers a speech during a special address on day two of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. Bloomberg

Just as one tax conflict seems to ease, another one emerges. The European Union is assessing whether to implement a tax on importers from countries that don't match Europe's climate guidelines. U.S. officials have already raised concerns about such plans for a so-called "carbon border tax," claiming that it will hurt American businesses. Their latest standoff could hurt efforts to reach a U.S.-EU trade deal this year, experts told CNBC. "The benefits of a carbon import tariff are clear. If domestic producers are hit by higher carbon emission prices at home, foreign producers should also be forced to de facto pay that price by a border tariff that equalizes the difference between the domestic and foreign price on carbon emissions. Otherwise, production would shift abroad," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank told CNBC Monday. The European Union announced in late 2019 new commitments to become more climate friendly. This includes asking European businesses to reduce their CO2 emissions through an emission tax. In order to compensate their efforts, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU's executive branch, said that business from other countries will have to take similar action domestically or face a carbon border tax when selling their products in Europe.

"There is no point in only reducing greenhouse gas emissions at home, if we increase the import of CO2 from abroad. It is not only a climate issue; it is also an issue of fairness," European Commission President von der Leyen told the World Economic Forum last week. However, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told the Financial Times that the U.S. will take punitive action against the EU, if its measures proves to be "protectionist." Lode van den Hende, an international trade law lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills, based in Brussels, told CNBC that the protectionist nature "will depend on the design" of the measures. The European Commission was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC about their carbon tax plans. "It will not be easy," Eric White, an international trade lawyer at the same legal services firm, told CNBC over the phone.

Any carbon tax plan will "need to be consistent with the WTO (World Trade Organization)", he said, "you need to treat everyone equally." Speaking at a panel at the WEF on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Secretary said: "I don't think we know how to price these things." "And if you want to put a tax on people, you know, go ahead and put a carbon tax, that's a tax on hard working people," Steven Mnuchin said to ECB President Christine Lagarde. Carbon taxes are levied against corporations, rather than workers. And they have support within the United States. Speaking last week, Al Gore, former U.S. vice president, said: "One way or another that's really what we have to get done."

Trade and tax
ARISS educational radio contact with school in Serbia

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Primary School Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia.

The event is scheduled on Tuesday 28 January 2020 at approximately 15.51 UTC, which is 16.51 CEWT.

The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

The contact will be a direct between astronaut Luca Parmitano KF5KPD and YU7BPQ.

The contact should be audible over parts of Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.800 MHz narrowband FM downlink.

School information:

Primary school Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj from Sremska Mitrovica, situated on the left bank of the Sava river in the middle of the region of Srem, is a vibrant, friendly and nurturing school with 65 years of tradition and experience.

The motto of the school based on the lyrics of a famous Serbian poet Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj: "Where I stopped, you carry on", so at school they try to continue the tradition of open-minded, creative, innovative, child-oriented learning and teaching. Based on the past generations' legacy, the school is striving towards shaping cosmopolitan citizens with highly developed tolerance within a multinational society while employing a spectre of techniques to keep up with the modern, high-tech approaches.

The school offers a broad, however, balanced curriculum in a stimulating environment to our 1044 pupils, supported by a wide range of after school clubs and quality school trips. They are always seeking ways to bring to life STEM and foreign language subjects via real-life situations.

This year pupils, teachers, and the HAM operators who support them are as busy as bees, or perhaps as the ISS crew, because they want to talk to the astronauts on the ISS so they are learning about space through various subjects and activities. It is a part of their educational proposal with ARISS. There are fun classes, costumes, Milky Way installation, drawings, maths, history geography and more!

Their friends from the radio amateur club YU7BPQ are helping them with the radio contact! They made a huge antenna! Radio communication is for most students and teachers a new experience. Furthermore, they are learning how to use an amateur radio station! Just imagine how thrilling it is to press the button and hear some noise before you hear the voice behind it! Old school though good stuff!

You can follow all their activities on the project blog page https://022tothemoonandback.zmajsm.edu.rs/home/about-project/

Students First Names & Questions:

1. Ena (12): Which planet would you like to visit and why?

2. Hristina (12): What manmade wonders can you see from space?

3. Una (12): What is the furthest spot on the horizon and what can you see around you?

4. Dunja (12): Why is the temperature at ISS at constant 38 degrees?

5. Dositej (13): What do you do when you cut yourself?

6. Masa (13): What do you do when you can't sleep?

7. Dimitrije (13): What kind of music do you listen to and who chooses it?

8. Eleonora (13): What do you do for fun?

9. Elena (13): What is your favourite thing about space?

10. Mihailo (13): Is your space suit comfortable?

11. Lara (14): Is life in space difficult?

12. Natasa (13): Can you eat ice cream in space?

13. Marija (14): What is on today's menu?

14. Luka (12): Do you prefer taking off or landing and why?

15. Andela (11): What do you miss most about Earth?

16. Ognjen (14): Can you see thunders and lightening on Earth?

17. Aleksa (12): What would you do if you happen to drift away from ISS?

18. Aleksandar (12): What do you do when you get ill?

19. Nikola (12): What does it feel like when you get back to Earth?

20. Mila (11): How does the Earth look from above?

About ARISS

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station: NASA, CSA, ESA, Roscosmos, JAXA.

In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio.



For more information, see www.ariss.org.

73,

Gaston Bertels ON4WF
While addressing his first monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' of the year, PM Modi said, "Two weeks ago, a very important agreement was signed in New Delhi which ended the chapter of the painful, almost 25-year-old, Bru-Reang refugee crisis."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the solution of the Bru-Reang refugee crisis was a historic decision, which ended the more than two-decade-old problems of the community.

"This problem dates back to the 1990s. In 1997, Bru-Reang tribals had to leave Mizoram and take refuge in Tripura due to ethnic tension. The refugees were kept in temporary camps in Kanchanpur in North Tripura," he said.

PM Modi said that members of the tribal community had to spend a large part of their lives in refugee camps, which meant them being deprived of the basic facilities.

"It is very painful that people of Bru-Reang spent a sizeable portion of their life in these camps as refugees. For them, living in camps meant deprivation from the basic amenities of life. For 23 years, there were no homes, no land, neither were there any medical facilities for the families nor education for their children," Modi said.

"They spent every moment of their lives in uncertainty. Governments came and went but none could solve their problems. But despite all odds, their belief in the Constitution and culture remained intact and this very belief has brought a new dawn in their lives," said PM.

He commended the signing of the agreement and said, "The pact has opened the path of a dignified life for them. The new decade of 2020 has brought a new ray of hope in their lives. Around 34 thousand Bru-Reang refugees will be settled in Tripura, Centre will assist in rehabilitations and their overall development by giving a package of around Rs 600 crore."

"Every displaced family will get a plot, assistance for homes and rations will be given to them. They will also be able to take the benefits of Centre and State's public welfare schemes," he said, enlisting the benefits of the pact.

The Prime Minister thanked the people of both the states and the respective Chief Ministers of Mizoram and Tripura for ending the crisis.

"This is a unique agreement for a number of reasons, it depicts the essence of co-operative federalism. For this agreement, the Chief Ministers of both Mizoram and Tripura were present and it was signed with the agreement and wishes of the two states. I thank the CMs and people of both the states," Modi said.

"I once again extend my wishes to the people of both the states and the Bru-Reang community," he added.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 16 had presided over the signing of an agreement between the central government and the Chief Ministers of Tripura and Mizoram Biplab Kumar Deb and Zoramthanga and Bru refugee representatives under which around 34,000 internally displaced people will be settled in Tripura.
An Anti-Terrorism Court in Pakistan on Monday adjourned till January 29 the hearing against Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his close aides in terror financing cases after their lawyers couldn't complete arguments.

Saeed, the chief of outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), and his close aides - Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Ashraf, Abdus Salam, Yahya Mujahid and Abdur Rehman Makki - were brought in the Lahore's Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in high security.

"The hearing continued for more than five hours in which Saeed's lawyers - Advocates Naseeruddin Nayyar and Imran Fazal Gull - presented their arguments declaring their client innocent. The court adjourned the hearing till January 29 as his lawyers could not complete their arguments," a court official told PTI.

In a separate case of terror financing against JuD spokesperson Yahya Mujahid and its senior leader Abdur Rehman Makki, the court held the hearing which continued for four hours or so. The court adjourned the hearing in this case till February 3.

Saeed has already recorded his statement before the court in two terror financing cases against him in which he pleaded "not guilty".

The cases of terror financing have been registered against him in Lahore and Gujranwala cities on the application of Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab police.

Cross examination of prosecution witnesses against Saeed and his three close aides by the defense counsel has already been concluded.

The prosecution had produced a number of witnesses against Saeed.

The Anti-Terrorism Court-I (ATC) indicted Saeed and his close aides - Hafiz Abdul Salam, Muhammad Ashraf and Zafar Iqbal - on terror financing charges on December 11.

The CTD had registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices on the charges of terror financing in different cities of Punjab province and arrested him on July 17. He is held at the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

Saeed-led JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media

BETHEL  Former Republican State Rep. Dan Carter hopes to take back the seat he held for six years.

Carter announced Monday he is running against State Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan, D-Bethel, for the House 2nd District seat, which includes portions of Bethel, Danbury, Redding, and Newtown.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in the camps gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease.

Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp gathered on Monday for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of its liberation, returning to the place where they lost entire families, and warning about the ominous growth of anti-Semitism and hatred in the world.

In all, some 200 survivors of the camp were expected, many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who have travelled from Israel, the United States, Australia, Peru, Russia, Slovenia and elsewhere.

Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz or other Nazi death camps, but were being joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

We would like that the next generation to know what we went through and it should never happen again, said 91-year-old David Marks, his voice cracking. He lost 35 members of his immediate and extended family after they all arrived in Auschwitz from their village in Romania.

A dictator doesnt come up from one day to the other, Marks said, saying it happens in micro-steps.

If we dont watch it, one day you wake up and its too late, he added.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by the Nazi German forces at the camp were Jewish, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned there. Some of the Polish survivors walked with Polish President Andrzej Duda through the camps gate on Monday wearing striped scarves that recalled the prison garb they wore more than 75 years ago.

Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945.

Auschwitz concentration camp survivors and their families attend the official ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp at the Auschwitz-Birkenau site on January 27, 2020, near Oswiecim, Poland [Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem last week to mark the anniversary in what many saw as a competing observance. Among them were Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britains Prince Charles.

Politics intruded on that event, with Duda boycotting it in protest after Putin claimed that Poland played a role in triggering World War II. Duda had wanted a chance to speak before or after Putin to defend his nations record in face of those false accusations, but he was not given a speaking slot in Jerusalem.

Duda said Monday that he felt that in Jerusalem Polish participation in the epic fight against the Nazis was ignored.

I want to stress that the Poles fought for the liberty of the entire world and many Polish citizens fell in the battle for liberty in the war against the Nazis, Duda said. Our fallen are etched in the annals of Polish history and we remember and honour them and expect others to do the same.

Among those attending Mondays observances at Auschwitz, which is located in southern Poland, a region under German occupation during the war, were Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Rivlin recalled the strong connection that Israel shares with Poland, which welcomed Jews for centuries. It became home to Europes largest population of Jews  and later the centre of Germanys destruction of that community.

The glorious history of the Jews in Poland, the prosperity of which the Jewish community has enjoyed throughout history, along with the difficult events that have taken place on this earth, connect the Jewish people and the State of Israel, inextricably, with Poland and the Polish people, Rivlin said while standing alongside Duda.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Holocaust survivor Renee Salt arrive to attend a plaque unveiling following Londons financial support of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation [Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters]

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was guided through the camp by museum director Piotr Cywinski and viewed a plaque that includes the name of his city after it recently pledged 300,000 pounds ($391,000) for the sites preservation.

Organisers of the event in Poland, the Auschwitz-Birkenau state memorial museum and the World Jewish Congress, have sought to keep the spotlight on survivors.

This is about survivors. Its not about politics, Lauder said Sunday as he went to the death camp with several of them.

Lauder warned that leaders must do more to fight anti-Semitism, including by passing new laws to fight it.

On the eve of the commemorations, survivors, many leaning on their children and grandchildren for support, walked through the place where they had been brought in on cattle cars, and suffered hunger and illness and came close to death.

They said they were there to remember, to share their histories with others and to make a gesture of defiance toward those who had sought their destruction.

For some, it is also the burial ground for their parents and grandparents, and they will be saying the kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead.

I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage to them, said Yvonne Engelman, a 92-year-old Australian who was joined by three more generations now scattered around the globe.

She recalled being brought in from a ghetto in what was then Czechoslovakia by cattle car, being stripped of her clothes, shaved and put in a gas chamber. By some miracle, the gas chamber that day did not work, and she later survived slave labour and a death march.

A 96-year-old survivor, Jeanette Spiegel, was 20 when she was brought to Auschwitz, where she spent nine months. Today she lives in New York and is fearful of rising anti-Semitic violence in the United States.

I think they pick on the Jews because we are such a small minority and it is easy to pick on us, she said, fighting back tears. Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated.

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron paid his respects at the citys Shoah Memorial and warned about rising hate crimes in France, which increased 27 percent last year.

That anti-Semitism is coming back is not the Jewish peoples problem: Its all our problem  its the nations problem, Macron said.
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Linkedin Ardila Syakriah, Gemma Holliani Cahya and Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 13:12 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206117350 1 National coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,wuhan,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,Indonesia,health,COVID-19 Free

Calls are mounting for Indonesia to escalate preparedness against the Wuhan coronavirus, even though the country has no confirmed cases as of Sunday, amid a far-flung spread of the pneumonia-like ailment that has sickened more than 2,000 people on four continents.

Indonesian authorities are deemed as maintaining business as usual while other countries have implemented extreme measures to contain the virus. In China, at least 10 cities have been sealed off, including Wuhan, ground zero of the virus.

An Indonesian who was studying in Wuhan and recently returned to Jakarta, said airport authorities did not take extra measures to examine passengers arriving from the city where the deadly virus first emerged.

The student, who requested anonymity, handed over a health alert card (HAC) that she had filled out with her personal information, travel history and health complaints but the card was not collected by officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

"In China, we were asked about our school, how long we had been in Wuhan and how long it had been since we left Wuhan. The officers [in China] observed us closely until they were sure they could let us go," the student told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

A person checks the temperature of a passenger (R) wearing a facemask to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, as he arrives at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International airport in Palembang on January 26, 2020. (Photo by ABDUL QODIR / AFP) (AFP/Abdul Qodir)

The airport's health office head, Anas Maruf, said there was a possibility that officers on the ground could not collect all HACs because of the overwhelming number of passengers.

However, he said the office had collected passenger manifest data from the airlines and that all passengers had been given a HAC, which they could bring to health facilities if they noticed any symptoms within two weeks of arrival.

"If a passenger has a fever and breathing difficulties, we will thoroughly examine them. However, many of them enter the country in healthy condition; that's why we give them a HAC as a way to communicate with health facilities in the regions," he told the Post on Sunday.

He said thermal screening and observation had been carried out, adding that the office planned to deploy more officers to intensify monitoring, including individual screening using thermo guns.

A number of individuals across the country, including two tourists from China, were admitted to hospitals in the last several days for showing flu-like symptoms. However, the Health Ministry immediately announced that the patients had not been infected by the new virus.

This occurred even though Indonesia is among the most popular final destination countries for people traveling from Wuhan. According to data from m1nd-sets Business 1ntelligence Service (B1S), Indonesia accounted for 7 percent of the circa 1.4 million outbound flights from Wuhan between December 2018 and November 2019  the six highest after Thailand (33 percent), Japan (12), Malaysia (10), Singapore (9) and Hong Kong (8).

While Indonesian authorities have not come across anyone suspected of being infected by the virus, cases have been reported in several countries, including the United States, France and Australia.

Health Minister Terawan visits BRI 2 building in Jakarta without sporting a face mask on Jan. 23. He dismissed speculation that the virus outbreak  which has been detected in major cities of China and a number other countries  had reached the capital. (Tribun/APFIA)

Amid the global outbreak, the government has remained calm, with Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto dismissing concerns over the virus' transmission within the country. He even called such information a hoax.

There are no people suspected of being infected [by the coronavirus], Terawan said on Sunday as quoted by Antara, despite reports of suspected cases in some regions. The government appears to have applied a stricter definition of people suspected of having been infected with the coronavirus.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, who headed the National Committee for Avian Flu Control and Pandemic Preparedness between 2006 and 2010, said it was understandable that managing an overwhelming number of arriving passengers at airports could be difficult.

"HACs will only be effective if passengers are disciplined. How do we know if they will fill in the right information and if they will report right away once they notice any symptoms?" Bayu argued.

He added that authorities and relevant institutions should also have the right attitude in facing the outbreak. Denying this will not help. We dont have to panic and overreact but we cant be too complacent either. Be alert and strengthen our readiness.

Amin Soebandrio, the director of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, said the government had prepared the necessary infrastructure for the outbreak. However, the government needs to reactivate the systems again because [virus outbreaks] have not happened to us in years, said Amin, who also led the panel of experts at the National Commission on Avian Flu.

Not all people affected by the virus will get sick. Most will heal on their own. But these people still have the potential to become a source of transmission when coming into contact with others who happen to have a weak immune system.

As of Monday, the death toll from the virus had risen to 81 and the number of people infected across China exceeded 2,700, authorities said as quoted by AFP. An estimated 52 people have died in Hubei, the province where Wuhan is located.

The Foreign Ministry is looking into relocating Indonesian citizens and diplomats amid an escalation of the outbreak.
In recent days, though, Beijing seems to be reasserting its primacy over information in ways that go beyond mere rumor control. At a meeting this past weekend between Mr. Xi and other senior leaders, one of the measures they resolved to take against the virus was to strengthen the guidance of public opinion.

Wang Huning, the head of the Communist Partys publicity department and an influential party ideologue, was also recently named deputy head of the team in charge of containing the outbreak, behind only Chinas premier, Li Keqiang.

Chinese officials seem to recognize that social media can be a useful tool for feeling out public opinion in times of crisis. WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging platform, said over the weekend that it would crack down hard on rumors about the virus. But it also created a tool for users to report tips and information about the disease and the response.

Internet backlash may already have caused one local government in China to change course on its virus-fighting policies. The southern city of Shantou announced on Sunday that it was stopping cars, ships and people from entering the city, in a policy that echoed ones in Wuhan. But then word went around that the decision had led people to panic-buy food, and by the afternoon, the order had been rescinded.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 00:44:07|Editor: yan

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HELSINKI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Finland's forest industries were hit on Monday by labour actions of 9,000 workers in the paper and pulp industry and 6,000 workers in the mechanical wood sector.

The strike will continue for three weeks. In addition, 2,300 white collar employees of the paper and pulp industry also started a two-week strike since Monday.

Besides salaries, the key issue in the strikes is the unions' demand to cancel extra free working hours included in the previous agreements. The additional unpaid hours were part of the 2016 competitive edge package sponsored by then Finnish cabinet.

Jyrki Hollmen, director of Labour Market at Finnish Forest Industries Federation, said on Sunday that the employers "cannot give up the benefit the extra hours have given."

Petri Vanhala, chair of the Finnish Paper Workers Union, told Finnish national broadcaster Yle on Monday that the two sides had found some common ground in the talks that continued until the strike began.

Talks about the paper and pulp sector will continue on Tuesday, while no actual talks have taken place in the mechanical wood sector.
Unborn baby shows majesty of God's creation, Trump tells March for Life in historic speech

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U.S. President Donald Trump told the tens of thousands gathered at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., that an unborn baby shows a glimpse of the majesty of Gods creation.

Speaking in person at the March for Life on Friday, the first sitting United States president to do so, Trump spoke about the value of children, both born and unborn.

Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God, he said. Together we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.

When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of Gods creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family.

Trump also touted his record of pro-life accomplishments while in office, declaring that unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House.

This included reinstituting the Mexico City Policy, which prevents tax dollars from going to organizations that promote or fund abortions abroad, appointing pro-life judges, and ensuring Title X funds are being given to family healthcare clinics instead of abortion providers.

As the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made, he continued, referencing Psalm 139:14, which reads: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Vice President Mike Pence, who has addressed the March for Life in person in previous years, gave remarks along with his wife, Karen, via video message because he was in Rome, Italy.

In his video message, Pence spoke about having just finished having a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

During our conversation, I thanked him for all that he and Catholic Americans have done to defend the sanctity of human life throughout the history of this movement, said Pence.

Pence commended the activism of all the proud Catholics who I know are filling our National Mall today, proudly carrying banners representing your parishes.

Pence also said that he could not be more proud to serve as vice president to the most pro-life president in American history.

The results speak for themselves, he added. This movement has a champion in President Donald Trump and you always will.

On Wednesday, March for Life announced that Trump would be the first president to address the March for Life rally in person, rather than previous times which have been via video message.

While pro-life groups celebrated the news, pro-abortion activist groups including NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood were outraged.

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood's interim president, claimed in a message in Twitter that "There is no such thing as infanticide [at abortion clinics] and you know it @POTUS. You are capitalizing on misinformation in order to shame people for seeking abortion and that is disgraceful."

NARAL President Ilyse Hogue suggested that the president's speech at the March for Life was a desperate attempt to divert attention from his criminal presidency and fire up his radical base.

Trump will be the 1st POTUS to attend the annual gathering of anti-choicers on Friday, which he announced today on the anniversary of #RoevWade [because] that's how he rolls, she tweeted.
Indian Americans on Sunday celebrated the 71st Republic Day of their home land across the country with great fervour by hoisting national flag amid singing of national anthem and patriotic songs after gathering in large numbers in various US cities.

Several hundred Indian Americans gathered in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington DC to attend the traditional flag hoisting ceremony by Deputy Indian Ambassador to the US Amit Kumar.

Before hoisting the tricolour amid signing of patriotic songs by students of Gandharva School of Music in Richmond, the Indian diplomat paid floral tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of the embassy. He also addressed the gathering and read out the address of the President of India delivered on the eve of the Republic Day.

Enthusiastic Indian Americans and family members of Indian Embassy officials also enthralled audience by their performance in a cultural programme.

Large number of Indian Americans joined the Republic Day celebrations in other Indian diplomatic missions in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta too.

Uncha Sadaa Rahe Jhanda Hamra tweeted Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations along with a picture of him unfurling the tricolour at the India's permanent mission to the UN in New York.

Indian Americans also celebrated the Republic Day in various universities having Indian student associations, besides various cities and towns having sizeable Indian population.

Honoured to raise the Indian flag during the Republic Day flag ceremony at the India House! 71 years ago the worlds largest democracy emerged and brought forth a culture of unity and acceptance, said Congressman Pete Olson at the Republic Day celebrations in Houston.

As Indians and Indian-Americans across the world celebrate Republic Day today let us dedicate ourselves to the principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity, and renew our commitment to each other and our community, said Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Wishing the people of India a joyous Republic Day. The US and India are close partners in the Indo-Pacific and our people share unbreakable bonds of friendship, tweeted Alice G Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JNU student Sharjeel Imam's house raided in Bihar, relatives detained

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Jehanabad, Jan 27: The team of officials from central intelligence agencies with local police carried out a raid at the ancestral house of anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam, who has been slapped with a sedition case in the national capital for alleged inflammatory speeches he gave at Shaheen Bagh and the Jamia Milia Islamia, a senior official said on Monday.

According to Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad, Manish Kumar, Imams house in Kako police station area was raided late on Sunday night following "help sought by central agencies" which are investigating the cases lodged against the JNU research scholar.

Delhi police books Sharjeel Imam for 'cut off Assam comment

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

Imam, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, was not found at his house but two of his relatives and their driver were detained for interrogation and let off thereafter, the SP said. A graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, Sharjeel Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU.

He was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speeches went viral on the social media wherein he was heard speaking about Assams possible secession from the country in the wake of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Earlier, he had been booked on similar charges at a police station in Aligarh for a speech on 16 January he delivered on the AMU campus. Besides, a case under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA has been registered against him at Assam. Imams late father Akbar Imam was a local JD(U) leader who had unsuccessfully contested an assembly election in his lifetime.

Reacting to the developments, his distraught mother Afshan Rahim told the media, "My son is innocent. He is a bright young man and not a thief or a pickpocket. I swear in the name of God that I do not know about his whereabouts.

Detained Bhim Army Chief forcibly being sent back to Delhi

"But I can guarantee that upon learning about the cases, he will appear before the investigating agencies and fully cooperate in the probe." She said that it has been a long time since she met her son though she had a telephonic conversation with him a few weeks ago.

"He was obviously disturbed by the CAA and fears of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) about being implemented across the country which, he said, would affect not just Muslims but all poor people," she said.

In fact, after 15 days of Shaheen Bagh protest, he had asked the agitators there to withdraw and watch the situation for a month, and then decide on the further course of action, she said.

"But they refused to relent. He was calling for a 'chakkajam' (road blockade). He is just a kid and not capable of instigating people for secession," she added.
Scores of women were not aware of this development and started arriving at the venue, only to find the police occupying the area.

Hyderabad: About 200 women Hyderabadis intending a sit-in at Mir Alam Eidgah got upset when they found police surrounding the entire place and not allowing anyone to assemble there. The venue for the sit-in protest was announced after the organisers received permission from police for the same on Saturday, January 25. Based on this assurance, messages were sent for the sit-in. However, police withdrew the permission on Sunday, January 26.

Scores of women were not aware of this development and started arriving at the venue, only to find the police occupying the area. Hesitant about still going ahead, women marched to the office of Joint Action Committee (JAC) against CAA, NRC and NPR, demanding to know what they must be doing now.

Women were quite angry and it took quite some time for JAC convenor Mushtaq Malik to quieten them down. Malik said, The location was changed from Darulshifa ground to Eidgah as suggested by police officers. However, at the last minute, we were told that there no sit-in will be allowed. The angry women came here. We pacified them and again administered them the pledge that no documents will be given for NRC and NPR. The women who first went to the venue messaged their counterparts when they saw police preventing the gathering. Women were to gather there from 11 a.m. onwards. Due to presence of the police, many women held themselves back.

A woman protestor, on condition of anonymity, said, Police are detaining protesters, which is very uncomfortable for most. Due to this reason, we refrained from going ahead with the planned protest. There is anger within us against police for not allowing peaceful protests.
Iranian FM Muhammad Javad Zarif rejected the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Iran and the United States, Mehr reported.

President Donald Trump is still dreaming about a bilateral meetingto satisfy HIS lust for a "Trump deal". Its wishful thinking, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in a tweet on Sunday.

Zarif added that the only possible venue for talks is at the P5+1 tablewhich HE leftreverting to pre-2017, AND compensating Iran for damages.

This tweet followed Zarif's earlier statement in which he ridiculed Trump for rejecting what he mistakenly interpreted as Zarif's call for bilateral talks with Washington, subject to the lifting of US sanctions against Iran.

Zarif urged Trump to base his foreign policy decisions on facts, and not on biased news headlines from his beloved right-wing Fox News channel or his Farsi translators.

Zarif responded in this way to Trumps tweet written in Farsi and English, where the latter noted that the Iranian FM wants to negotiate with Washington and lift the sanctions.

Earlier in an interview with Der Spiegel, Zarif said the Trump administration should first lift the sanctions that it imposed on Iran after leaving the nuclear deal, and then return to the negotiating table.
Ive had a slight Symmetry OCD since I was a kid. Obsessions with this OCD include the persistent, mostly irrational need for things to feel symmetrical, or be perfectly aligned, or to get to some version of just right. Accompanying compulsions include repeated rearranging, evening up, constant realigning and even repeated tapping. Its not bad in my instance, I just have slight urges every now and then.

What a relief when I later on found out that I am not alone in having obsessions and compulsions like this. I know normal people that have an irrational need to constantly clean everything or, say, make the volume on the TV an even number or a multiple of 3. Im sure you know someone with an irrational tick as well. Those are all mild OCDs.

Perfectionism as an entrepreneur can just as easily evolve into an irrational tick that can have a toll on your efficiency. As an entrepreneur, the last thing youd want is to have a need to be perfect in a sport where the dynamics are ever-changing. Still, when most entrepreneurs have a picture locked within their heads, its hard to get it out. What they however overlook is the negative effects that are associated with being the perfectionist they cling on to being.

Perfectionism is refusal to accept any standard short of your perceived idea of what is perfect.

All successful entrepreneurs share similar values. A good entrepreneur has the ability to accept correction, be a team player, be productive, dream, effect proper time management, and have good networking skills, to mention a few. All these values do not see eye to eye with perfectionism.

Perfectionism is the enemy of correction.

A business entrepreneur must always have a plan. A perfectionist, when presenting his/her business plan, believes that it is the finished work he has done and hence is not likely to consider any input that is going to be given to him/her. A better entrepreneur would see other inputs after sharing said business plan as helpful.

On the other hand, a perfectionist may see the input given as criticism of his/her work. Most perfectionists assume that their standards are the highest standards and hence are not ready to listen to what others have to say. They would always come up with reasons why what you are recommending would not work and for that reason, they stick to what they originally planned on doing, forgoing the opportunities that outside recommendations can bring to the table.

Perfectionism is the enemy of development.

Being obsessed with being right is the main characteristic of a perfectionist. Their standard is the yard stick by which any and every input is measured. In my opinion, perfectionism prevents you the entrepreneur from coming up with a perfect product, by hindering the implementation of helpful input.

The truth is, perfectionists do not usually consider or apply corrections put forth to them. By missing out on chances to better their products and services, a perfectionist gives room for competitors to surpass them. One major setback frombeing a perfectionist is the fact that it gets difficult for you to learn from others. This therefore reduces the rate at which youdevelop. Somehow, most people who call themselves perfectionist believe that they have had more experience than many and hence do not believe that anyone has anything new to teach them, forgetting that the world is evolving, and new things come up every day.

Perfectionism is the enemy of team building.

For a business to be said to have grown, the size of workers is one of the measuring tools. This is normally expanded through team building. Perfectionists however have great difficulty in doing this. They do not do it consciously, but they always end up doing it. A perfectionist will rather work alone and get things done according to their standards than to work with others that he/she feels will stifle progress.

When working as a good team, everyones input is considered, and everything is built from scratch thinking outside the box. When working with a perfectionist, said person comes to the team with what they expect to be done,and how they expect it to be done. They may come asking for what everyone thinks is the right way to go about things but at the end of the day, what they had in mind is what is going to be used by them. This usually tends to discourage team members from contributing towards work that have been presented before them as they feel they will just be wasting their time. Even when they know easier and shorter ways to get things done, they will rather remain silent.

Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity.

Perfectionism will not enable an entrepreneur to come out with a product until he/she feels the product is perfect, based on their perceived standards. While the perfectionist is in the lab working on their product to get the perfect product,competitors will release his product and allow feedback to make the product better to meet the needs of his/her target market.

Following the latter, it enables the market to decide and partake in the development of a generally accepted product while the perfectionist keeps working on making it perfect by his/her standards. The fact that perfectionists have difficulty in accepting correction also prevents them from seeking feedback from the public as they would see this as a criticism of their product or service.

Perfectionism is the killer of dreams.

When an individual has the dream to start a particular business, it looks easy at the beginning. It could be easier when you seek advice from people who have already been in that industry or mentors. Most individual use the advice they receive from such people to make their business a better one and are ready for further inputs to help them grow.

However, that is not the case for people who practise perfectionism. Due to the fact that they believe and are used to being right at all times, they see inputs given them by people in the industry as criticism which do not go too well with them. Most often when perfectionists are faced with challenges, they tend to get frustrated and are most likely to give up on their dreams. If things do not go exactly as they wish it to go, they are likely to drop the dream and console themselves that it was not meant to be.

Perfectionism is the enemy of effective time management.

When you are not focused on getting things done perfectly but having things done properly, you are able to make time for many things. However, when you are focusing on getting something done using perfectionism, you spend all your time on that and in the end, you have many things left undone.

Based on this we can boldly say that perfectionism is the enemy of effective time management. A perfectionist will not move away from what they are working on until they feel they have attained the standard they deem to be perfect. This prevents them from addressing other aspects of their lives and this goes a long way to making perfectionist become workaholics.

Perfectionism is the enemy of good networking.

Perfectionism is said to be the enemy of networking. Networking happens under less tense scenarios and usually outside the work environment. Perfectionists as I mentioned earlier turn to be workaholics. They turn to give up their social lives in an attempt to build the successful business that they envision. This makes whatever you are working on become very stressful and because the entrepreneur does not have time to destress, being a perfectionist has been associated with bringing about illnesses such as anxiety disorder, fatigue and insomnia. Research has also discovered that due to the lifestyle of perfectionists, most of the time they are seen to die earlier as compared to how long they would have lived should they have lived without all the pressures of being a perfectionist.

How does one handle perfectionism?

We should choose attainable targets and not ones that are solely abstract. I am a Ghanaian, so it would be totally unattainable to, say, at this stage and age, aim to be the President of America. That is not to say one shouldnt dream big. But stories of only one person seeing the way and being the pioneer is the exception to the rule. Ask for help or for what you need. There is nothing different under the sun. As you give up trying to reinvent the wheel, embrace the team mentality as you progress step by step as a unit. Its less stressful that way anyways.

How do you think you can apply what youve just read in your current situation? Do you know anyone thats a perfectionist? How do you think once can better manage the urge to try to be perfect at everything?

Hit me up on social media and lets keep the conversation going! I read all the feedback you send me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Also, feel free to send me your articles on relevant topics for publication on the Macroeconomic Bulletin. Id give you full credit, an intro, and an outro. Kindly make it about 1000 words.

Have a lovely week!

Maxwell Ampong is the CEO of Maxwell Investments Group, a Trading and Business Solutions provider. He is also the Business Advisor for the General Agricultural Workers Union of TUC (Gh). He writes about trending and relevant economic topics, and general perspective pieces.

LinkedIn:/in/thisisthemax Instagram:@thisisthemax Twitter:@thisisthemax Facebook:@thisisthemax Website: www.maxwellinvestmentsgroup.com Email: [email protected] Mobile: 0249993319
Usha Chaumars journey is no less than a wonder. She is a sanitation activist and Dalit social worker from Alwar, Rajasthan who has been conferred with a Padma Shri Award, the fourth highest civilian honour.

But what many do not know about her is the fact that she was once a manual scavenger.

Given her caste and profession, Usha faced discrimination and was marginalised from the society for being untouchable, a practice abolished by the government.

Speaking to reporters, Usha Chaumar, one of the winners of country's fourth-highest civilian award, said, "There is a drastic change in my life. Earlier, I used to work as a manual scavenger. It was Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh International, who helped me in coming out of that work."

Twitter

Usha Chaumar, who now works as the President of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, has been honoured for her outstanding service in social work.

Talking about her journey, Usha Chaumar said, "I never thought that I would ever be able to leave the work of manual scavenging, but Dr Pathak made that happen for me. I left manual scavenging in 2003".

"I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi four times and I have also tied Rakhee to him. He is the one who has time and again raised awareness on the issue of cleanliness." Usha Chaumar told news agency ANI.

Usha Chaumar now raises awareness against manual scavenging.

When asked what message she wants to give to other women, Usha Chaumar said, "No one should do the work of manual scavenging, because it leads to untouchability and those who do this job are looked down upon by society."

"My family members are very happy with the award and they say that I have made entire Alwar proud," she added.
A gang of eight dacoits were arrested with a cache of weapons in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, police said on Monday.

The gang was apprehended while they were allegedly plotting to loot shops selling gold ornaments in Joynagar area on Sunday evening, a police officer said.

He said the gang was also planning to commit dacoity in Purba Medinipur district's Kolaghat.

"Two improvised countrymade guns, six rounds of live cartridges and two sharp weapons were seized from their possession," he said, adding that the arrested persons are residents of different areas of South 24 Parganas district.

Tools used for cutting shutters and an autorickshaw in which travelled were also seized, the officer said.

Police officers of Purba Medinipur district have been apprised of the apprehension, he said.

The accused have been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act, the officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Craigavon grandmother called Clare McCann (far right) is taking a High Court challenge to the decision to approve a new college campus in a public park near her home. Pictured outside court today with supporters.

Otter activity at a Co Armagh lake could be harmed by building a new 45 million college campus on its shoreline, the High Court was told.

Lawyers for a grandmother who lives close to the parkland site claimed it is currently used by the aquatic mammals with European protected species.

Clare McCann, 65, is challenging the decision to grant planning permission for the new Southern Regional College at the south lake in Craigavon.

Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council gave the project the green light in January 2019.

Campaigners opposed to the campus being built in the area claim it will reduce green space in a public park, and lead to an annual influx of thousands of students.

Mrs McCann is seeking a judicial review amid concerns about the impact on wildlife and residents.

Her legal team contend that the planning approval was irrational and breached legal requirements.

They also allege that the council failed to assess the impact on protected species, including otters, and did not carry out the proper habitats regulations assessment.

Based on local knowledge of otter activity in the area, they insisted that it was wrong to conclude the development will not cause harm.

Opening proceedings for Mrs McCann, barrister David Scoffield QC said his client now brings her grandchildren to the park she has enjoyed for decades.

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"It has a number of special memories for her, it's an important feature in her life," counsel said.

"She enjoys the water and wildlife which is there, she is aware of otters in the lake."

In a case set to last for three days, Mr Justice Huddleston will also hear challenges to the planning policy and alleged breach of statutory duty.

Outside court Mrs McCann and her solicitor, Claire McKeegan, claimed the land should never have been considered for a new college.

"It's going to be devastating for me if its built," the grandmother said.

"When we discovered there were otters there it brought us such excitement. They are so endangered and they have to be protected."

Kelly Laverty of campaign group Save Craigavon Park and Lakes further claimed development will impact on an area scarred by deprivation and suicide rates.

She added: "If you were to put Belfast Metropolitan College in the middle of Ormeau Park there would be uproar. This is exactly the same."
A former Bombay High Court judge, who was one of the organisers of the Elgar Parishad conclave, an event that allegedly triggered caste violence in Koregaon- Bhima, on Monday said an NIA probe was not needed in the matter and warned of legal action against the Centre's move.

Justice B G Kolse Patil said he and fellow organisers of the conclave, held on December 31, 2017, were mulling challenging in the Supreme Court or the High Court the Union government's move to hand over the probe into the Koregaon- Bhima violence to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The case, in which activists have been arrested, pertains to caste violence that took place near the Koregaon- Bhima war memorial in Pune district on January 1, 2018, following alleged provocative speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave.

The case was transferred by the Union government from the Maharashtra police to the NIA, a central agency that handles terror-related matters, on Friday, a move criticised by the three-party ruling coalition in the state.

Justice Kolse Patil said the Centre transferred the case to the NIA as it did not want the "wrong" investigation carried out by the police under the previous (BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis) government to be "exposed".

"The investigation into the Elgar Parishad case was carried out by the earlier government which was BJP-led. The investigation has been completed.

"The charge-sheet was filed and now they (the BJP-led government at the Centre) are taking the case to the NIA," he said at a press conference.

"Since the probe in the case was fabricated and based on flimsy grounds, they took the case to the NIA as they did not want wrongdoings during the investigation to be exposed after the (Uddhav Thackeray-led) state government planned to appoint a SIT," Justice Kolse Patil said.

The ex-judge questioned that if the probe was "genuine" what was the need to hand it over to the central agency.

He said names of Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide had cropped up during the initial probe into the case, but it took a sudden turn after someone called Tushar Damgude filed a case at the Vishrambaug police station, alleging provocative speeches were given at the conclave.

The Pune police have claimed these speeches led to the violence at Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018. The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people having Maoist links.

Ekbote, booked for instigating and orchestrating the violence, was arrested on March 14, 2018 and granted bail a month later. Bhide, a former RSS activist who heads the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, was named in the FIR but never arrested.

"The entire case of Elgar Parishad is an afterthought as there was no link between Elgar Parishad and the violence," the ex-judge claimed and refuted allegations of a link between the conclave and proscribed Maoist outfits.

During the probe into the violence, police arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

The former HC judge claimed he and other (Elgar Parishad) organisers did not even "personally" know the persons arrested (by the Pune police) in connection with the case.

He alleged the police had foisted cases on Dalits using "fabricated evidence", and said "we are mulling if (SC/ ST) Atrocities Act cases can be slapped against the police officers" associated with the probe.

Justice Kolse Patil said the organisers would ask the Maharashtra government to thoroughly probe the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, registered at the Shikrapur police station here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prince Andrew has not responded to requests from federal prosecutors and the FBI for an interview about his contacts with Jeffrey Epstein, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan said in a press conference on Monday.

To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.

The Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has been in the spotlight since prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts claimed she was raped by Andrew when she was 17. Andrews gave an interview to BBC in which the Duke attempted to deny he had ever met Roberts, despite a photo of the two together with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins friend and alleged accomplice.

Roberts responded by slamming the Dukes ridiculous excuses.

This is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys royalty, she told BBC.

Following the interview and its backlash, Prince Andrew announced he would be taking a leave of absence from public affairs.

I deeply sympathize with everyone who has been affected [by Epsteins alleged crimes] and wants some form of closure, a statement from the Duke read. I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives.

Andrews November statement also said that he would cooperate with any investigations over his alleged involvement in Epsteins sex trafficking.

Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required, his statement said.

Gloria Allred, a lawyer for several Epstein victims, said after Prince Andrews announcement that the Duke should meet with FBI investigators as soon as possible.

It should be done without delay, Allred said. Time is of the essence. These victims have waited long enough.

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Ukraine has observed a minute of silence in the memory of the Holocaust victims. January 27, the whole world recollects the victims of the Holocaust, the systematical genocide of Jews by German Nazis.

January 27 is designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day by UN General Assembly in 2005. Israel, Canada, Australia, Russia, and the U.S. became the initiators of the designation of the date; over 90 countries became their co-authors.

The memory of these events is important not only as a reminder and condemnation of the crimes of Nazi but also as the edification of the persecution of people on the basis of the race, ethnic origin, religion, political believes or sexual orientation, the resolution says.

This day, the commemorative events take place in Dnipro, in the museum of memory of Jewish people and the Holocaust.

The historians gathered in the museum; the witnesses gathered here who survived the times of ghetto and the Holocaust as children. The representative of the Jewish community and partial citizens of Dnipro gathered here to honor the memory of unarmed people who were brought in the cells and were killed just because they have another nationality. A lot of artifacts of the Holocaust times are kept in the museum, 112 Ukraine correspondent said.

She noted that the guests from the U.S., Germany, and France delivered a speech in the museum.

As we reported, Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a working visit to Poland and participated in the events marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who on Monday along with former party chief Rahul Gandhi met officials of the NHRC, took up the issue of "police mitras", or friends of the police, allegedly involved in attacking those protesting against the CAA in Uttar Pradesh, demanding an "impartial probe" into the matter.

After the meeting with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) members here along with Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders, Priyanka tweeted: "Today, a delegation of Congress leaders led by Rahul Gandhi filed a complaint with the NHRC demanding a fair probe in connection with the vandalism and non-constitutional acts done by the UP Police on the people, women and children." "Threats to BHU students to destroy their careers, excesses and repression on common people, killings of innocents - justice is required in all these cases through an impartial probe," she said in another tweet.

Her tweet came after the Congress leaders submitted "proof" on the violence in Uttar Pradesh over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to the NHRC office.

During the meeting, Rahul Gandhi told the NHRC members that a systematic process is being put in place across the country to induct "police mitras" to brutalise people.

"What is taking place is against the very idea of India and the Constitution. We cannot become a country where the leadership brutalises its own people," the Congress leader said.

He also said that the NHRC was the appropriate institution for safeguarding human rights in the country and that it has defended the idea of India and everything that was promised by the Constitution.

Rahul Gandhi also told the NHRC officials that if the rights body was to go into the details of what had been submitted by the party as proof, they would be convinced that something terribly wrong had happened in Uttar Pradesh.
Now wants to raise awareness for other fathers who may be suffering

Said he didn't believe he could be suffering from postnatal depression

Revealed: 'At one point it probably dawned on me that I was probably suicidal'

Said after his son was born two years ago he struggled to enjoy everyday things

A father-of-one has revealed his son's birth left him wishing he 'didn't exist' and says nobody asked if he was OK because people assume only women get postnatal depression.

Professor Viren Swami, who lives in Cambridge, began struggling after his unnamed son was born two years ago.

Viren told the BBC he found he couldn't enjoy everyday things and avoided spending time with his baby, before he started to feel he 'didnt want to exist any more'.

He went on to be diagnosed with postnatal depression after his wife suggested he needed help and now wants to raise awareness for other fathers who may feel the same way.

Professor Viren Swami, who lives in Cambridge, was diagnosed with postnatal depression after his son was born two years ago (pictured together)

Viren, who works as a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, said nobody asked him how he was feeling after his son was born.

He revealed: 'No one asked me if I was doing okay and had I been asked about my mental health, things might have been different.'

He explained: 'After my son was born two years ago, I struggled to enjoy all the normal things I normally would have.

'There was a long period of time, I don't know how long it was, but it felt like to me, every time I picked him up, he would start to cry.

Viren said he 'probably didn't believe' that he could have postnatal depression after his son's birth because he 'believed myths that it only affected mothers'

'And from that point on I almost avoided wanting to spend time with him.'

He added: 'I didn't understand what I was going through and I probably didn't believe I could have postnatal depression.

'I believed those myths that it only affected mothers.'

Viren went to the GP after his wife suggested he needed help and he was diagnosed with postnatal depression.

He revealed at one stage of his depression he 'didn't want to exist anymore', before he was able to get help from his GP

He said: 'Looking back, the signs were pretty obvious and at some point it dawned on me that I was probably suicidal. I didnt want to exist any more.'

He now wants to see improvements to support offered to other new fathers.

He said: 'One way to change this quickly would be to give a routine assessment of all fathers for the history of their mental illnesses which means we can get them into pathways of care much quicker.'
In 2015 Jes Staley was appointed CEO of Barclays PLC (LON:BARC). This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at other big companies. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

View our latest analysis for Barclays

How Does Jes Staley's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

At the time of writing, our data says that Barclays PLC has a market cap of UK30b, and reported total annual CEO compensation of UK3.4m for the year to December 2018. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at UK2.4m. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations over UK6.1b and the median CEO total compensation was UK3.4m. (We took a wide range because the CEOs of massive companies tend to be paid similar amounts - even though some are quite a bit bigger than others).

That means Jes Staley receives fairly typical remuneration for the CEO of a large company. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance.

You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Barclays has changed over time.

LSE:BARC CEO Compensation, January 26th 2020

Is Barclays PLC Growing?

Barclays PLC has increased its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 37% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is down 2.5% over last year.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. Revenue growth is a real positive for growth, but ultimately profits are more important. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has Barclays PLC Been A Good Investment?

Given the total loss of 18% over three years, many shareholders in Barclays PLC are probably rather dissatisfied, to say the least. It therefore might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously.

Story continues

In Summary...

Jes Staley is paid around the same as most CEOs of large companies.

We like that the company is growing EPS, but we find the returns over the last three years to be lacking. Considering the improvement in earnings per share, one could argue that the CEO pay is appropriate, albeit not too low. Shareholders may want to check for free if Barclays insiders are buying or selling shares.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Denver school board votes to require gender neutral bathrooms in all public schools Teachers ordered to use students preferred names, pronouns; hang LGBT rainbow flag in classroom, if desired

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A new school board for Denver Public Schools unanimously passed a resolution in its first meeting requiring all district schools to have at least one all-gender bathroom. The board has also made it mandatory for staff to use students preferred names and pronouns irrespective of their official names or gender.

The resolution added that no employee should be disciplined for disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity in work-appropriate ways, and that teachers and other staff should be allowed to hang a rainbow flag or other symbols that represent support for LGBT people, The Denver Post reported.

While we all hope that schools serve their purpose as an incubator for creativity, connection, and learning, far too often they can be lonely or hostile places, Daniel Ramos, the executive director of the LGBT advocacy group One Colorado, said in a statement. This resolution is a much-needed step to protect LGBTQ youth, educators, administrators, staff, and parents from becoming targets of bullying and abuse.

In Denver Public Schools, we believe that love always trumps hate, at-large board member Tay Anderson was quoted as saying. It is time that we fight for everybody in the United States of America.

Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to admit a challenge to a Pennsylvania school districts policy of allowing students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm representing a group of students suing the school district over the policy, denounced the denial of appeal.

No students recognized right to bodily privacy should be made contingent on what other students believe about their own gender, ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy, John Bursch, said in a statement at the time. But we hope the court will take up a similar case in the future to bring much needed clarity to how the lower courts should handle violations of well-established student privacy rights.

Last August, a federal judge ruled that a Virginia school district's policy preventing a trans-identified student from using boys' bathroom facilities violates the U.S. Constitution.

A 2015 Obama administration guidance, which was rescinded under the Trump administration in 2017, encouraged all public schools to allow trans-identified students to use bathrooms, showers and locker rooms of the opposite sex, if they claim to identify as the opposite gender. It interpreted Title IX law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex to also include protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation even though such protections are not expressly written into federal law.

The 2015 guidance was opposed by a number of social conservatives and concerned parents who feared that a policy allowing access based on gender identity would violate the privacy rights of other students who feel uncomfortable changing clothes in front of members of the opposite sex.

Policies for trans-identified students and bathroom access vary by the school district and by state across the nation. While some school districts have opened their bathroom and locker room facilities on the basis of gender identity, others have passed rules allowing bathroom access only in accordance with one's biological sex.

A Gallup poll last year found that more Americans (51%) believe governing policies should require trans-identified individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with their birth gender. However, other federal courts have ruled in favor of trans students.
British-USA Gold Has Made Persia: A KINGDOM OF OIL AND HUNGER (1946)

British imperialists have usually pulled the kid gloves off the brass knuckles when their right to nominate the governments of oil-rich Persia, now called Iran, was challenged by democratic forces. The British Government is in itself an imperial investor in Persian oil, holding a dominant interest in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

And Persia is regarded by the imperial army as part of the defence system of India, where the protesting shouts of 400 million people are disturbing polo games at Poona and causing pukka sahibs to spill whisky in New Delhi.

Before the last war, British imperialism used all its diplomatic power and military pressure to keep Tsarist Russia out of Persia, with only partial success.

When the 1917 Revolution put an end to Tsarist imperialism, British interventional forces took rigorous action against those Azerbaijanians and others in Persia who learned some obvious lessons from the Russian peasants and workers acquisition of land and factories.

And the rise of Socialism in Russia made Persia of great importance as an interventionary base.

It was from Persia that British forces marched on Batum and Baku, the oil centres, and shot in cold blood the 26 officials of the Baku Soviet. A British seaplane base was established on the Caspian Sea.

Ironsides Man

Fighting with the British interventionists against Russian Bolsheviks and Persian agrarian rebels was a tough looking adventurer called Reza Khan. He was the son of a landowner on the Caspian Sea. His hatred of peasants who wanted to divide up landlords estates, endeared him to General Sir Edmund

Ironside, later called Baron Ironside of Archangel. General Ironside intervened in both north and south Russia.

With a pretence of jocular irresponsibility, General Ironside picked out the ruffian Reza as a military commander, and later he was helped to seize the throne in Teheran.

The pro-British, anti-Soviet adventurer became His Imperial Majesty, Reza Shah Pahlavi. He went even better than that, insisting that he be called Most Lofty of Living Men, Agent of Heaven in the World, Brother of the Moon and Stars, Shah-in-Shah, King of Kings. This concession to Rezas ego and the faded glitter of the Persia of Darius suited the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

Dictator Reza invited Persian nationalists and democrats to dinner, and they soon grew weak from fatal maladies. He personally lashed Azerbaijanian Muslims with his whip, supervised the hanging of others.

When the French tried to muscle-in on Persian Oil, Reza did the right thing by the Anglo-Iranian Company. He broke off diplomatic relations with France, because a French paper punned Shah with chat (cat).

The trouble was that he became too enthusiastic in following the example set by Anglo-Iranian Oil directors.

Mr F C Tiarks, one director of Anglo-Iranian Oil, became a Council member of the pro-Nazi Anglo-German Fellowship in London. Mr Tiarks, as Reza Shah knew, was a very important person.

He was a director of the Bank of England, and partner in the bank of J Henry Schroeder, whose brother, Baron Kurt von Schroeder, the Cologne banker, made his house available for the notorious meeting between Hitler and German industrial and financial magnates  a meeting that sealed the fate of German democracy.

Mr H B Heath Eves, another Anglo-Iranian Oil director, also joined the Anglo-German Fellowship, and others linked with Anglo-Iranian, including the British Government, pursued Munich policies. Reza Shah got the idea, from the behaviour of his masters, that Hitler and Mussolini would soon be the new bosses.

He signed trade agreements with the Nazis; German business men and 100 modern German war planes arrived in Persia. Reza also bought Italian ships and employed Italian army officers. Worse than that, he tried to void Anglo-Iranian oil leases and shunt the British Navy out of the Persian Gulf.

In 1941 when Russia became an ally, Britain and Russia, and later America, agreed to clean up this Nazi base, and oust Hitlers ally, Reza Shah.

Azerbaijanians in the Red Army put on Azerbaijanian operas and plays in North Persia; Red Army culture, the help the Soviet gave in feeding starving Persians and cleaning up food epidemics, made many Persians feel that dictatorial Shahs and Anglo-Iranian Oil had denied them cultural and economic rights for too long.

Hunger, Corruption

Persia has 12 million people, ruled by 2,000 families, who own land and local industry and run Parliament and Government. A British newsagency admitted that of 800,000 people in Teheran, 700,000 are always hungry. Police, army and Government are corrupt, taxes are high.

The peasants are kept in feudal bondage, landlords are absentee or brutal local chiefs. Often the peasant only gets one-fifth of his produce; the landlord takes the rest. There is chronic starvation in the countryside; beggars with bones sticking through their skins hobble along all roads, epidemics and opium ravish the villages.

In the cities, there is child labour, penal laws against trade unions, a system of fines on employees. The great offices of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company rise above the stinking bazaars and slum hovels.

Imperialisms Allies

When the Allies came and Reza Shah was booted out, Persians had hopes of swift democratisation, of a purge of feudal-fascists, lifting of standards and alleviation of hunger. Democracy advanced in the Soviet occupation zone, but the foreign oil interests and the 2,000 ruling families of Persia had different ideas.

The democratic Tudeh Party, which was rising to great strength in its fight against serfdom, and the trade unions which developed in the struggle against factory slavery, were brutally attacked by the Persian gendarmes in the British and American zones. There were murders, arrests, kidnappings.

The sheikhs and khans of Persia, like the princes of India, are the allies of foreign imperialism. They receive subsidies from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in return for leases, goodwill and support, to strengthen which arms were often supplied.

With the German intruders beaten, the sheikhs and khans and their foreign allies felt that a new Reza Shah was needed on the throne in Teheran, to halt the movement of the workers, peasants and middle-classes toward national independence, higher standards and land distribution.

The feudalists and imperialists found their man in Syed Zia-ed-Din, who, according to a British news agency, now leads the anti-Soviet agitation in the Mejlis (Iran Parliament). He is a large landowner.

According to British newspaper dispatches from Teheran, the democratic Tudeh Party has accused the British of giving support to Zia-ed-Din.

American Interests

American trade agents and diplomatic envoys are also showing a far from healthy interest in Persia, and are backing Persian despots intrigues against the Soviet Union.

Rockefeller and kindred Sinclair oil concerns also have interests in Persia. Both Rockefellers and Sinclairs have formidable records in political intervention.

A deal between Sinclairs and Mussolini lead to the murder of Matteotti, the Italian Socialist. Matteotti denounced in Parliament the secret deal which gave an Italian oil monopoly to Sinclairs  and died a few days later.

The ex-American Ambassador to China, Major-General Patrick Hurley, is regarded as a Sinclair diplomat. Representative J. M. Coffee (Democrat) alleged in Congress that Hurley continued to draw 75,000 dollars a year from Sinclairs while in the US diplomatic service. Hurley aided and abetted Chiangs war on Chinese Communists, who had liberated important oil areas.

Hurley, said Rep. Coffee, always operated in countries with rich oil deposits. When he left one country he bobbed up in another with heavy oil-bearing strata.

March To Democracy

Fortunately, these arent the days when oil kings can bribe their way to power over the people, or imperialist interventionaries can nominate and maintain for long dictatorships that are not wanted by a majority of the people.

In Azerbaijan, the people are going to free elections, most of them voting for the first time. In Teheran, the police government, which the British and American Government had backed has fallen.

No amount of disruption and anti-Soviet propaganda at the UNO assembly in London can cover the fact that the people of Persia, like the peoples of Greece and Indonesia, insist on getting their Atlantic Charter rights, whatever barriers the imperialists may place in their path.

* This article originally appeared in the Tribune, January 29, 1946
Pro-life Democrats have all but disappeared on Capitol Hill, and the Democratic orthodoxy today is taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand up to the moment of birth. Dissent from that orthodoxy is not tolerated. For more than 40 years, former vice president Joe Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortions. He said that as a Catholic, he was personally pro-life and that those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them. But in 2020, that isnt good enough. Biden, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, caved in to the pro-abortion radicals last June, abandoned his principles and embraced taxpayer funding.

Given their lack of other options, pro-lifers accepted their second-class-citizen status in the GOP. Then along came Trump, a man who doesnt care what the Republican establishment thinks. He has embraced the pro-life movement in a way no other president has. In 2018, he became the first sitting president to address the annual Campaign for Life gala of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, founded in 1992. And now he will make history again at the March for Life.
A company in Northern Ireland has removed adverts featuring the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after action by representatives of the royal couple.

The ads by Co Antrim-based Hagan Homes play on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's severing of ties with the royal family and include images plastered on billboards and social media.

The building company has now apologised and said they will make a 10,000 donation to a charity of the Sussexes' choice.

Founder and chairman of Hagan Homes James Hagan has said it was not his intention to cause any offence.

"The 'Hagan Homes Fit For Part-time Royalty' campaign was intended to reflect Northern Ireland's typically light-hearted approach to a challenging situation," he said.

"Many young people struggle with the complexities of buying a new home and we were keen to emphasise that support is available in such circumstances."

The use of any image of a person for commercial purposes without permission is illegal.

Julie Burley, assistant communications secretary for Harry and Meghan, told the Belfast Telegraph: "Many thanks for your email and thank you for making us aware. We will follow our normal course of action."

The office did not elaborate on what this would be.

Billboards are in place off the Westlink and on the Donegall and Shankill Roads in Belfast.

All social media posts have been removed, with billboard ads set to come down today.

The images of Meghan, showing her looking pensive, are from an interview she gave to ITV last November.

One of the social media images describes her worried look as one seen many times among first-time buyers. An ITV spokesperson said: "I can confirm that we did not give permission for these images to be used and we will be looking into it." Hagan Homes, founded in 1988 by James Hagan, specialises in building houses for first-time buyers, and the campaign focuses on Meghan and Harry seeking a new home following the sensational events of recent weeks.

Among the taglines in the 'House of Hagan' campaign are ones referring to the split with the royal family, including the advice: "Leaving family and moving home can be daunting and stressful - not with us."

The statement from the Sussexes' representatives refers to Committee of Advertising Practice guidelines that warn: "Royal images may not be used for advertising purposes in any medium".
France's government said Sunday it would begin repatriating French nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan, ground zero of a deadly coronavirus outbreak, by the middle of this week.

Following an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers late Sunday, Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said French citizens could leave the city on a direct flight to France in the middle of the week.

The prime minister asked for the organisation of a repatriation via direct flight, in agreement with the Chinese authorities, Buzyn announced, adding the repatriation would happen with Chinese permission and under the watch of medical experts.

They would be held in quarantine for 14 days, the estimated incubation period for the new coronavirus, which the World Health Organization has named 2019-nCoV.

Tens of millions of people, including thousands of foreigners, have been in virtual lockdown in the Wuhan region since Thursday as Chinese officials try to limit the spread of the disease.

Latest figures on Monday showed 81 people have died in China and more than 2,800 have been infected with the disease.

Cases have been reported around the Asia-Pacific region and in North America as well as in France, which has the only confirmed cases in Europe so far.

800 French citizens in Wuhan

Buzyn presented the repatriation as a voluntary measure, estimating a few dozen to a few hundred of the 800 French nationals thought to be living in the Wuhan area could opt to leave the city.

Wuhan is home to a French international school and to one of the country's six consulates in China.

It is also the site of two factories employing some 2,000 people to produce emblematic French cars of the Peugeot and Citroen brands for China as part of a partnership between carmakers PSA of France and Dongfeng Motor Group of China.

Most of the staff are Chinese. PSA said Saturday it would repatriate expat staff and their families, 38 people in all, first sending them to Changsha some 300 kilometres away and then flying them home.

Wuhan also counts an estimated 560 expats from Japan, 64 from Thailand, 90 from Germany, 20 from the Netherlands and roughly 1,000 from the United States. All those countries are monitoring the situation and assessing options for repatriation to some extent.

No French travel bans

A medical team of several dozen experts has been deployed to Paris's Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport to take charge of arrivals with possible symptoms.

But Buzyn downplayed the idea of imposing travel restrictions, saying any flight ban would happen at the European Union level.

So far France is the only European country to report any cases of the new coronavirus.

Three Chinese nationals are in isolation in French hospitals in Bordeaux and the Paris region, and six further suspected cases being analysed.

Paris and Bordeaux also cancelled Chinese New Year events as a precaution.
A well-performing minister resigned due to an alcohol-induced incident, while Andrej Danko offended the president from his top parliamentary seat.

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Its one month before the parliamentary election and Slovakia has just seen one unexpected ministerial resignation and one unplanned parliamentary session. Meanwhile, the second week of the murder trial unfolded in Pezinok.

Threema messages legal, they dont match Bodors story

The trial with the quartet suspected of having organised and executed the murder of Jan Kuciak, during which his fiancee Martina Kusnirova was also killed, continued for three more days.

Norbert Bodor, son of the Nitra-based businessman Miroslav Bodor, whose security company has been repeatedly successful in winning orders from the state, particularly under Smer governments, denied the allegations that Peter Toth voiced against him in court a few days before. He said he did not partake in the surveillance, financially or otherwise.

Bodors very frequented answer in court was I dont remember and when the court asked him how Kocner procured information about journalists whom he had followed, Bodor said he did not know.
The man believed to be the personal assistant to Mexican druglord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Loera who then 'flipped' on his boss was extradited to the United States last week, court documents state.

Mario Hidalgo Arguello, who is known by the nickname 'Nariz' or 'Nose' because of the unusual appearance of his nose, has been in the custody of federal authorities in San Diego since January 18.

Court documents indicate that Hidalgo was brought to the US a week ago on Saturday to face charges of marijuana trafficking, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Hidalgo's extradition to the US comes six years after he was arrested by Mexican authorities.

Guzman was sentenced last year to life in prison without parole and moved to a high-security facility in Colorado after being convicted in a US court of smuggling tons of drugs over a colorful, decades-long career.

Mario Hidalgo Arguello, who is known by the nickname 'Nariz' or 'Nose' because of the unusual appearance of his nose, has been in the custody of federal authorities in San Diego since January 18

Hidalgo was arrested by Mexican authorities in February 2014. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on marijuana trafficking charges

The federal government has been quiet about the extradition of several alleged senior members of Mexico's notorious drug cartels.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Hidalgo's extradition.

According to the Union-Tribune, Hidalgo was arrested in February 2014 at his home in Culiacan, the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

Culiacan is also home to the Sinaloa cartel, which is considered to be the world's most powerful narcotics trafficking organization.

In February 2014, Mexican authorities raided a stash house after they were able to locate a cell phone belonging to El Chapo's communications chief, Carlos Ho-Ramirez.

During the raid which took place around 2am on February 17, 2014, a group of Mexican marines and US federal agents took Hidalgo into custody.

He was said to be hiding in his master bedroom at the time of his arrest.

At the time, Mexican officials described Hidalgo as El Chapo's 'errand boy' and courier.

The arrest of 'Nariz' was considered 'huge' at the time because he 'flipped immediately' and revealed the locations of five more stash houses and hideouts used by senior cartel members in and around Culiacan.

Nariz told authorities that the cartel equipped its stash houses with steel doors and secret tunnels under bathroom tubs that led to sewage systems.

According to the DEA, Hidalgo was a 'runner' and a 'gopher, an individual that would go and retrieve things for' Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (center), the head of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel

One of those stash houses turned out to be El Chapo's main residence, but the steel doors there turned out to be harder to penetrate than originally thought.

While the Mexican marines were using a battering ram to try to penetrate the stash house, El Chapo managed to evade arrest by escaping through a secret route under the bathtub, according to ABC News.

He was eventually arrested by Mexican authorities along with another top lieutenant in a hotel in Mazatlan on February 21, 2014.

Victor Vazquez, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was part of the manhunt for El Chapo, testified at the drug lord's federal trial in Brooklyn in January 2019.

He told the court how Mexican authorities got to El Chapo by arresting members of his inner circle, including Nariz.

Jose 'The Lord of the Tunnels' Sanchez Villalobos (pictured) was extradited from Mexico to the United States earlier this month. Sanchez Villalobos is accused by a federal California court of building and managing two underground tunnels that were used by El Chapo's organization to ferry drugs across the Mexico-United States border

Investigators check one of the two tunnels that were discovered in November 2010 and November 2011 and connected Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California

'We knew Nariz was an individual, a runner for Guzman Loera, a gopher, an individual that would go and retrieve things for Guzman Loera, an individual that knew all his houses, his cars, locations, where Guzman Loera spent his time in the city of Culiacan,' Vazquez testified.

'He knew absolutely everything about Guzman Loera.'

While Nariz's cooperation did not directly lead to El Chapo's arrest, he did provide information which yielded more arrests.

In 2015, Hidalgo, while in Mexican custody, was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego for marijuana trafficking.

He made his first court appearance on American soil on Monday, the same day that the indictment against him and two other co-defendants were unsealed.

One co-conspirator pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import methamphetamine in a separate case. His sentencing is scheduled for Monday.

The other co-conspirator pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Federal prosecutors say that Hidalgo's co-defendants used a yacht named Out Hook'n to transport marijuana from Mexico into the United States.

In 2012, federal agents searched the boat and seized 679 large bricks of marijuana in addition to other narcotics.

Hidalgo, whose role in the trafficking scheme is unclear, has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier this month, another Sinaloa cartel figure, Jose Sanchez Villalobos, was extradited to San Diego.

The federal government alleges that he built and oversaw El Chapo's network of tunnels used to smuggle drugs across the border into the US.

U.S. federal agents raided two separate warehouses in San Diego, California, in November 2010 and November 2011. The first bust netted 35,350 pounds of marijuana while the second investigation led agents to 51,084 pounds. The drugs were smuggled across two underground tunnels built and operated by Jose 'The Lord of the Tunnels' Sanchez Villalobos, then an associate of El Chapo

Each of the tunnels that were discovered by authorities were at least 600 yards long

He was indicted by a federal California court in October 2012 and charged with building, financing and operating two secret underground tunnels along the Mexico-US border.

Investigators say he supervised the cartel's shipment of marijuana to the Tijuana area. The drugs were then trafficked to the United States across the two tunnels.

Federal agents from the HSI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol unearthed the first tunnel during a Thanksgiving 2010 raid that netted 35,350 pounds of marijuana.

The 612-yard illicit passageway included rail tracks that linked a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial park with one in Tijuana, Mexico.

The elaborate tunnel had an entrance in Mexico that was accessible through a hydraulically-controlled steel door and an elevator hidden under the warehouse floor.

The second tunnel - 600 yards in length - was discovered in the Otay Mesa area in November 2011. Agents seized 51,084 pounds of marijuana.

Despite only having an elementary school education, Sanchez Villalobos was hired by El Chapo to handle the cartel's finances.

The Lord of the Tunnels was also in charge of building tunnels at El Chapo's homes in Mexico, which were crucial in allowing him to evade capture on numerous occasions.

Sanchez Villalobos is charged with 'nine counts of conspiracy to distribute and import marijuana and four counts of building, financing and using the tunnels.' All but one of the counts carry a maximum sentence of life in jail.
Joe Biden was mocked this weekend after launching an Irish-inspired campaign slogan - "no malarkey" - that did little to dispel fears the front-runner in the race for the Democrat presidential nomination is behind the times.

The phrase, emblazoned on the bus he is using to travel around the key state of Iowa, dates back to the 1920s.

Mr Biden who, at 78, would be the oldest first-term president to be sworn in, said the term was intended to highlight his truthfulness when compared to Donald Trump.

"What we're referring here [is] my Irish ancestry, when my grandfather would really think something is full of you-know-what, he'd say, 'that's a lot of malarkey'," he explained to supporters yesterday.

"So we're on a No Malarkey tour, meaning we're telling the truth."

Mr Biden often harks back to his role as vice-president to Barack Obama and he notably used the phrase to dismiss Paul Ryan in a 2012 vice-presidential debate, emphasising his reputation as straight-talking 'Uncle Joe'.

However, the campaign slogan has left some people baffled while others suggested it showed that Mr Biden was out of touch with younger voters.

"I'm voting for Biden so he can finally fix the four big problems facing society: jibber-jabber, hogwash, tommyrot, and flapdoodle," one Twitter user wrote.

A second suggested on the social network that the arcane language showed Mr Biden was "tired and old".

However, Nate Silver, a political analyst, suggested that the slogan was Mr Biden being self-deprecating - which would appeal to his loyal supporters. "It's sort of poking fun at himself," he said.

Mr Biden's age has emerged as an issue on the campaign trail especially after some faltering performances in a series of televised debates.

He has also had to fend off questions about his son, Hunter, who took a seat on the board of the Ukrainian oil company Burisma Holdings Ltd, despite having no experience in the energy sector.

Despite leading in the national polls for the Democrat nomination, Mr Biden has fallen behind in the first two states to vote, Iowa and New Hampshire. Pete Buttigieg has built up a seven-point lead in Iowa, where Mr Biden now languishes in fourth, the same position he's ranked in New Hampshire.

Although Mr Biden's strong support in the African-American community has helped him build a dominant lead in the fourth-voting state, South Carolina, a poor performance in both Iowa and New Hampshire could derail his path to the nomination.

Mr Biden gave a further demonstration of his occasionally eccentric campaigning style when he playfully bit his wife Jill's finger as she waved her arm in front of him during her introductory remarks in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Saturday.
The British teenager accused of lying about a gang-rape in Cyprus has said her attackers behaved like a pack of animals (Henry Vaughan/PA)

A British teenager found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus has said she was attacked by a group of young men and boys behaving like animals.

The 19-year-old claimed she was raped by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the town of Ayia Napa on July 17, before being charged herself after signing a retraction statement 10 days later.

She maintains she was raped, but was forced to change her account under pressure from Cypriot police following hours of questioning alone and without legal representation.

The assaults were so frenzied she did not know how many of a group of 12 boys and young men raped her, she told the Sun.

They were lining up, excited, talking and shouting in Hebrew, said the teenager, who cannot be named.

I was trying to fight them off but I just couldnt.

They were like a pack of animals  a pack of wolves.

She admitted thinking she was going to die during the incident, which happened when she was 18.

She spent a month in prison before being granted bail in August, flying back to the UK earlier this month after being given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for three years, at Famagusta District Court in Paralimni.

Since returning to Britain she has launched an appeal against her public mischief conviction to Cypruss supreme court.

Political opponents have weighed in, with Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon telling the House of Lords that issues around the case were of deep concern and Liberal Democrat Baroness Hussein-Ece calling it a grotesque miscarriage of justice.
T he European Union is to discuss its post-Brexit trade position as Britain launches a 40-person strong negotiating task force for when it officially leaves the bloc.

Britain is set to formally depart the EU on January 31, which will allow each side to move on to discussing their relationship for the future.

Boris Johnson's focus will be on securing a free trade deal, as he has long promised to do, while the EU will look to assess what concessions it can force from Britain.

Divergence from the bloc's rules looks to be a key sticking point - with Brexit secretary stating their will be some differentiation but that this will not be done "for the sake of it".

Michel Barnier will discuss trade negotiation plans with the EU27 / Reuters

Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, today said he would present a negotiating mandate to the bloc's remaining 27 member states on Monday.

While the prime minister's spokesman confirmed an end to the Brexit Department as of January 31, with the launch of a 40-strong negotiating team headed by his former Europe adviser David Frost to take discussions forward.

Mr Barnier, speaking after meeting with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, said: "Brexit is not going to go away.

"We have some important work ahead of us.

"We also need to begin negotiations on our future relationship - an ambitious relationship with the UK.

"It's time for round two and time will be very short. We will maintain the EU unity, and we want to find an agreement that works in the interest of the whole EU."

In regards to a free trade deal, he reiterated the bloc's stance that Britain's access to the single market will be dependent on its willingness to meet with its rules.

Mr Barnier added: "The level of access for the UK and particular for the UK products to the single market will be proportionate to the level of commitments taken by the UK vis-a-vis our rules in particular for the state regulations."

Brexit: In numbers

Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar suggested that the EU27 has the strongest hand in negotiations - though he does not believe they have to be conducted as a contest.

"I think if you see this as a contest, the European Union is in a very strong position - we're 27 countries, we have a population of 450 million people and the single market is the largest economy in the world," he said.

"But I don't think we have to see it as a contest. There is a possibility for us to work together with the United Kingdom over the next few months and come to a future relationship and a trade agreement that's mutually beneficial, and that's the spirit in which we will be entering these talks."

He also said that should Britain decide it wishes to return to the EU in future, there will "always be a seat kept for them at the table".

The home secretary Priti Patel insisted that Britain will diverge from the EU on regulations in an interview on Sunday, despite the risk of this hampering a free trade deal.
The industry body also sought import duty exemption on auto component prototypes to encourage domestic R&D and testing.

New Delhi: Auto component industry body ACMA on Monday sought uniform 18 percent GST in the upcoming Budget.

Currently, about 60 percent of auto components are at taxed at 18 percent, while the remaining high-value parts attract a duty of 28 percent.

The auto component segment, which currently employs 50 lakh people and contributes 2.3 percent to India's gross domestic product (GDP), also urged the government to come up with a fund to support R&D and indigenous technology development.

"The automotive industry in India is undergoing a significant transformation due to new regulations and policy changes. On top of it, the economic slowdown has deterred domestic consumption, we hope that the forthcoming budget will help uplift both the consumer and industry sentiments," Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) president Deepak Jain said in a statement.

To meet the government's vision of a $5 trillion economy by 2025, of which the manufacturing industry would be $1 trillion, it is critical that steps be taken to get the automotive industry back on track, he added.

"We are hopeful that the government would consider our long-standing recommendation of 18 percent GST on all auto components as also extend impetus to R&D and indigenous technology development," Jain said.

The industry body also sought import duty exemption on auto component prototypes to encourage domestic R&D and testing.

"Also retaining of weighted tax deduction on R&D expenditure is critical. The 2016-17 Budget reduced weighted deduction benefit from 200 percent to 150 percent and has further restricted the deduction to 100 percent from 1 April 2020," Jain said.

ACMA also urged the government to reintroduce investment allowance at 15 percent for manufacturing companies that invest more than Rs 25 crore in plant and machinery.

Follow full coverage of Union Budget 2020-21 here
UNI

Lucknow/UNI: Terming the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) 'totally anti- Constitution', former Union minister and a strong critic of the BJP government Yashwant Sinha on Monday said that the law was brought in to divide the society in the names of Hindu and Muslim.

"The only motive of this law is to divide the society on communal lines and trigger fire in the country," he said while demanding an immediate withdrawal of this black law.

Addressing a press conference here along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav at the SP state headquarters, Sinha said that the statement of Home Minister Amit Shah announcing that the CAA would not be withdrawn at any cost, is itself an anti-democratic version.

"Shah's statement that CAA would not be withdrawn even after protests vindicates that the government was working against the citizen. The government already has the power to give citizenship but what is the reason for bringing this new law is yet to be understood," he said with claiming that by bringing in such anti-constitutional law, the government was trying to divert the attention of the people from economic slowdown and unemployment.

He said that rules of the new CAA has not been formulated yet so how it will be implemented. " The law says that the minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if harassed on the basis of religion can apply for the Indian citizenship. But how these people will prove that they are harassed nor the law says anything about it," Sinha said.

He said the present BJP government at the centre was taking unethical and illegal decisions just to benefit handful of industrialists. "While Air India would be given to some industrialists, and on the other hand Rs 1,45,000 crores has been taken from the RBI for these industrial houses," he alleged. " The economical condition of the country is grim and the agriculture sector is most hit leading to suicides of the farmers," he added.

Sinha is in Lucknow along with his Gandhi Shanti Yatra which has come to Uttar Pradesh after covering Maharastra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and other states. The yatra will end on January 30 at Rajghat. The Yatra commenced on January 9 this year from Gatway of India in Mumbai, where Mahatma Gandhi landed after coming to the country from South Africa.

He also raised up the issues of some governors role in the non-BJP state. "These governors are acting like a BJP cadre and were adopting unconstitutional ways to create hurdle for the democratic elected governments," he said.

Meanwhile, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP government was not talking of demonetization as it has failed on it.

"We are opposing CAA,NRC and NPR and will not accept it at any cost," he reiterated with saying that the government had failed in demonetization and it will again meet the same fate in CAA and NRC too.
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The Indian market witnessed a sharp surge in January ahead of the big event - Budget 2020 - pushing the S&P BSE Sensex beyond 42,000, and Nifty50 above 12,400 levels.

The expectations, which are powering the rally, are that Budget 2020 will be tilted towards stimulating growth. The measures expected to be rolled out include cut in personal taxes, and a possible cut in long term capital gains tax (LTCG).

The expectation is running high from the upcoming Union Budget to provide stimulus to revive the economy, and lay down the path for India to achieve $5-trillion GDP by 2024.

Most economists and analysts see the government missing out on the fiscal deficit target by at least 50 bps but that is mostly factored in by markets, but anything more than that could be fatal for the sentiment on the Street.

A 50-60 bps slippage in the fiscal deficit target for FY20 is now the consensus. We believe markets are already building in the same. But anything beyond that is not a great outcome. We believe the market is focussing more on FY21, Ritu Arora  CEO & CIO, Allianz Investment Management Singapore Pte Ltd told Moneycontrol.

We hope to see FDI norms being relaxed meaningfully in sectors such as insurance. This will bring in large pools of capital to India as well as help in further developing and deepening the financial sector, which is essential for India to reach its 5 trillion dollar goal by 2025, she said.

In Union Budget 2020-21, most analysts on D-Street expect the government to continue with its policy push to revive economic growth and demand by focusing on boosting disposable income and that is one of the prime reasons why we are seeing a rally in the small & midcap stocks.

In terms of sectors, the usual beneficiaries include infrastructure, agriculture, rural economy, automobiles, Make-in-India thrust, more on ease of doing business, employment generation thrust could gain focus from the Budget, suggest experts.

Other sectors could be defence, banking, auto, infrastructure and consumption which will be the key sectors to watch out for in Budget 2020.

Given the expectations that the government would take measures to ease the demand-side concerns, we expect consumption both staple (FMCG) and discretionary (consumer durable goods, automobile, etc.) to hog the limelight for the upcoming Budget 2020, Pankaj Bobade, Fundamental Research Head, Axis Securities Ltd told Moneycontrol.

Infrastructure creation is expected to be another focus for the government given the need for better infrastructure; hence, infrastructure plays viz., capital goods, cement, metals, pipes and infrastructure companies viz., EPC players, road construction companies etc would also enjoy demand in the near term, he said.

Investment in railway infrastructure, mass rapid transport is also going to be keenly watched out for in the upcoming budget.

We have collated a list of companies from different brokerage firms that are expected to benefit from Budget proposals:

Sharekhan picked 12 companies, which it thinks will be in focus in the run-up to the Union Budget and have the potential to give good returns in the long term.

Antique Stock Broking:

We expect increased allocation to various rural-centric schemes, along with strong Rabi season may help revive rural demand.

These measures if announced may accelerate earnings largely led by higher volume growth for all consumption linked stocks. Likely key beneficiaries are in Auto (M&M, TVS Motors, Bajaj Auto), consumer durable/electrical (Crompton Consumer, Voltas), Paints and other household linked stocks (Asian Paints), Consumer staples (HUL, Colgate, Dabur) and retail (Avenue Supermarket).

We have projected a 10% growth in FY21 capital expenditure including expenditure over road, highway and railways (in line with our estimate of 10% FY21 nominal GDP) because of the ongoing fiscal constraint.

Likely key beneficiaries are L&T Solar Ind ., KEC BEML and KNR Construction

Angel Broking

In the backdrop of the current slowdown we believe that fiscal slippage is necessary and will go a long way in boosting growth given that India doesn't have a twin balance sheet problem like 2013, said the brokerage firm.

Expert: Umesh Mehta, Head of Research, Samco Securities Ltd.

Investors can look at high dividend-yielding stocks such as ONGC, Hindustan Zinc, Vedanta which might pick up the pace if there is some relief on the personal tax front.

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
The Port of Cork recorded a 5% increase in container traffic in 2019 as it looks to complete and open a new container terminal in Ringaskiddy this year.

Total traffic through both the Port of Cork and Bantry Bay Port Company fell by 5% from 10.6 million tonnes to just over 10 million tonnes in 2019. The port company attributed this decline to fewer volumes of dry bulk cargo through the port.

Overall total imports decreased by 7% while exports decreased by 3%.

Brendan Keating, Port of Cork Chief Executive said the increase in container traffic was encouraging as the look to open the 86 million Cork Container Terminal that will see container operations move from Tivoli to Ringaskiddy.

Once operational the new terminal will enable the port to handle up to 450,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) per annum, he said.

We already possess significant natural depth in Cork harbour, and our work in Ringaskiddy Port will enable us to accommodate vessels of 5,500 to 6,000 TEU, which will provide us with a great deal of additional potential for increasing container traffic.

Moving container operations to Ringaskiddy will free up the 180-acre Tivoli site for future development. The site could deliver more than 3,000 housing units along with office blocks, shops and a railway station.

The site is considered an ideal location because of its proximity to the city centre and as the Cork-Midleton and Cork-Cobh railway lines run through it.

Last year oil traffic handled through Whitegate Oil Refinery, owned by Canadian company Irving Oil, saw a decrease of 9% which the Port of Cork said was partially due to planned maintenance shut down in August.

Cruise liner traffic handled by the Port of Cork increased in 2019 when 100 liners brought more than 243,000 passengers and crew to the region.

The Bantry Bay Port Company welcomed 10 cruise liners to the harbour town.

In 2020 a record 102 cruise ships are scheduled to call between March and December.

The Port of Cork also highlighted progress on the former Irish Fertiliser Industries (IFI) site at Marino Point in Cork Harbour.

The Belvelly Marino Development Company, set up to develop the site, has produced a masterplan for the area.

The company is a joint venture between the Port of Cork and Lanber Holdings.

The masterplan sets out the strategic approach of Belvelly Marino Development Company and is a guide to the future development of the facility.
London: Around 1,500 people who came to Britain from the Chinese epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in the past two weeks must put themselves in isolation, the UK health minister said Monday.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said authorities "cannot be 100 percent certain" that the virus cannot spread from a person who exhibits no flu-like symptoms.

"From today, we are therefore asking anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days to self-isolate," Hancock told a parliamentary hearing.

"Do not leave home until you have been given advice by a clinician."

Hancock said health officials continued to trace people who have arrived in the UK from Wuhan.

"Having eliminated those who we know have since left the country, there are 1,460 people we are seeking to locate."

Britain has not recorded any confirmed cases of the disease.

The Foreign Office said Monday it was "working to make an option available for British nationals to leave (Wuhan's) Hubei province due to the heavy travel restrictions and increased difficulty of accessing consular or medical.
Indore, Jan 27 : Ramesh Prajapati (70), an elderly man who set himself on fire in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh, died during treatment on Sunday evening, the police said.

Prajapati was an activist of the CPI(M), and the party has said that it was a step taken by him in frustration.

The incident occurred on Friday evening at the Geeta Bhawan intersection here. Prajapati got off the bus at the intersection and set himself on fire by pouring kerosene on himself. He also threw some leaflets.

He was rushed to the hospital but died late Sunday evening. Tukoganj police station in-charge Nirmal Shriwas confirmed Prajapati's death.

Badal Saroj, joint secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha and former state secretary of the CPI (M) said: "There is uneasiness among the people about the CAA and unfortunately no discussion is even taking place on this. There is frustration among the people. Ramesh was apprehensive about this and in frustration took this extreme step. But the CPI (M) does not support or agree with this kind of act. "

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Kapil Wadhawan, the CMD of crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), in connection with its money laundering probe against the late underworld gangster and Dawood aide Iqbal Mirchi.

Wadhawan has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe, officials said.

Earlier today, Wadhawan appeared before the special PMLA court in Mumbai after the ED asked the court to issue a non-bailable warrant against him and four others including Mirchi's wife Hazra, sons Junaid and Asif, and Sunny Bhatija (Kapil's brother-in-law).

According to a PTI report, Wadhawan has been remanded in the ED custody till January 29.

DHFL, the country's leading housing financier, has come under the scanner of the ED in connection with its alleged link with global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's aide Iqbal Mirchi, is now suspected of fund diversion. The non-banking financial corporation had come under the ED's scanner after investigations revealed that a loan of Rs 2,186 crore extended by DHFL to Sunblink Real Estate Private Limited had reached D-company in Dubai. Sunblink had facilitated routing of the amount to Mirchi.

The ED alleged that Kapil Wadhawan "diverted" funds from DHFL to shell companies and later these dubious companies got amalgamated with Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd to "cover" alleged diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

DHFL belongs to the Wadhawan family who also own RKW Developers located at the HDIL building. RKW Developers director Ranjit Bindra acted as a broker to negotiate the deal with Iqbal Mirchi in London.

The route of Sunblink was "purposefully created by Kapil Wadhawan as CMD of DHFL and others just to obfuscate the trail of money for purchase of properties" from the Mirchi family, the agency alleged.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi alias Iqbal Memon, his family and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai. Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right-hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.

By Chitranjan Kumar

Also Read: DHFL lent Rs 14,000 crore to 25 group firms, reveals forensic audit

Also Read: ED raids DHFL premises over alleged links with Iqbal Mirchi
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has said that the TDP will restore the AP Legislative Council if the YSRC government abolishes it, once the party returns to power.

The YSRC government seems to be contemplating abolishing the Council going by the assertion by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy that the Upper House did not deserve to exist if it rejects important Bills.

Interestingly, it was TDP founder NT Rama Rao, who abolished the Council in combined Andhra Pradesh in 1985 and it was restored by YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Jagans father, in 2007. Why the government was waiting for three days for Assembly debate if it wants to abolish the Council, Naidu asked.

Is it planing to threaten the MLCs to fall in line and resort to horse-trading. After making tall claims that he will not accept leaders from other parties and maintain values in politics, what is the Chief Minister doing now? the TDP chief sought to know.

"In a humilation to the Chief Minister, the Council sent the Decentralisation Bill to the select committee. This is democracy. No one except your MLAs is afraid of you (Jagan). Even if you adopt a resolution seeking abolition of the Council and send it to the Centre, it is not mandatory for the Centre to approve it. The Bill was referred to the select committee and the Advocate General filed an affidavit in the High Court stating that the outcome is yet to arrive. The question of shifting the secretariat will not arise until then," the TDP chief said, while addressing a press conference here on Friday. Defending his presence in the Council gallery, he said he felt it was not right to confine himself to his room under such circumstances.

"Notwithstanding the fact that I was chief minister for 14 years, an advisor and a marshal asked me to leave the gallery. I will do so if the Council chairman says so. I always follow the norms. Because of that, I handed over my mobile phone immediately after the staff asked for it. The YSRC leaders threw water bottles and papers and abused the Council Chairman and his family members in filthy language and behaved like street rowdies. The ministers even resorted to attack him in his chambers. What was his mistake?" Naidu asked.

Taking a dig at the claim of the Chief Minister that there were eminent persons in the Assembly itself, Naidu alleged that those in the YSRC were not experts, but notorious criminals. "There are criminal cases against 86 MLAs (57%), serious criminal cases against 58 MLAs (33%), murder case against an MLA, attempt to murder cases against 10 MLAs and kidnap cases against seven MLAs," he said, to buttress his claim.

"Why did you (Jagan) mention three capitals (Legislative, Executive and Judicial) in your Bill if there is no Capital word in the Constitution. Do you want to locate the capital at Idupulapaya and sit near the grave of your father?" Naidu asked. Naidu said except in the case of Article 169, there should be no discussion in the Assembly over the proceedings in the Council.

TDP delegation calls on Governor

A TDP delegation, led by Chandrababu Naidu, called on Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan and urged him to take action against the unprecedented and undemocratic conduct of the Speaker in the Assembly.

In a memorandum, the TDP leaders also sought action against the Council of Ministers, ruling party MLAs and MLCs for degrading the sanctity of the Assembly and Council and misusing Section 144 of and Section 30 of police act.
The relevant proposal of Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris received a sufficient number of votes during the opening of the PACE Winter Session in Strasbourg.

The credentials of the Russian State Duma's delegation have been appealed at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The relevant proposal of Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris received a sufficient number of votes during the opening of the PACE Winter Session in Strasbourg. The meeting was broadcast on the PACE official website.

Zingeris said he wanted to appeal the credentials of the Russian delegation on legal grounds, since Russia had recently announced its intentions to hold a referendum on the correlation of international law and domestic legislation of the Russian Federation in accordance with the Russian Constitution.

Read alsoParliament in Ukraine approves return of country's delegation to PACE

According to Russian initiatives, the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights will not be taken into account, the MP said.

This proposal received the required number of votes from at least five PACE delegation countries.

Chairman of the meeting and member of the Latvian delegation to PACE Boris Tsilevitch said the credentials of the Russian delegation had been appealed without debate, and now the PACE Monitoring Committee should prepare a report.

In addition, other PACE members proposed to appeal the credentials of the Russian delegation on procedural grounds over the elections to the State Duma in Russian-occupied Crimea, since, according to international law, residents of annexed territories should take part in the elections in the state to which these territories belong legally, namely to Ukraine. In addition, several Russian members of the delegation to PACE were previously subject to EU sanctions.

This proposal also received the required number of votes. Now this issue should be considered by the PACE Procedural Committee.
The third Twenty20 international between Pakistan and Bangladesh was abandoned without a ball being bowled Monday because of bad weather in Lahore, giving the home side a 2-0 series victory. Murky conditions and drizzle delayed the scheduled 13:00 pm (0830 GMT) toss at the Gadaffi stadium pitch, but play was called off three hours later. Pakistan won the first match by five wickets on Friday and the second by nine wickets the next day. The series win helped Pakistan hang on to their number one ranking in Twenty20 internationals with 270 points, leading Australia by just one point. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said the series win will help the team's confidence. "Our bowling was outstanding in both the games... helped us keep them down to low totals," said Babar who lost 2-0 in Australia last year in his first series as skipper. Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah said the loss was disappointing. "Before the series we knew that Pakistan will be favourites because they are world number one and we are nine. "We managed to put a good fight in the first match, but in the second match they won convincingly because they have a good bowling side." Bangladesh will fly out late Monday but return on February 5 to play the first of two Tests, in Rawalpindi. They play a one-day international on April 3 in Karachi, and the second Test starting April 7. The pitch is covered before rain forced the third T20 international between Pakistan and Bangladesh to be abandoned
At the Directors Guild Awards ceremony, DGA president Thomas Schlamme and writer-director Judd Apatow took on the elephant in the room as they addressed the lack of female directors nominated at this year's edition.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ceremony which was held on Saturday night, saw a much needed discussion about the lack of diversity in nominations this awards season.

The five feature film directors nominated at this year's DGA Awards were Bong Joon Ho for "Parasite", Sam Mendes for "1917", Martin Scorsese for "The Irishman", Quentin Tarantino for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and Taika Waititi for "Jojo Rabbit".

The DGA too overlooked female filmmakers after both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards drew criticism for excluding women in the directing categories.

Greta Gerwig ("Little Women"), Lulu Wang ("The Farewell", Kasi Lemmons ("Harriet") and Lorene Scafaria ("Hustlers") were ignored at all three ceremonies.

"I caution us to use awards as the barometer, the only barometer, of progress it's just one measure. Doing so overlooks the hard work by so many," Schlamme said.

The DGA president also noted that the fight for equality is one "we've led for many years," and lauded the fact that "for the first time, half of TV episodes, 50 percent, (are) directed by women or people of colour."



Apatow, who was the host for the evening, made a quip about the snubs in a reference to director Katherine Bigelow recognised as the first and only female helmer to win best director Oscar for "The Hurt Locker".

"I'm sad to say no women nominated for director this year," he said as the crowd erupted into boos. "It's because women only direct women's movies like 'The Hurt Locker'."



As she accepted the dramatic series award for the "Watchmen" episode "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice", director Nicole Kassell touched on the lack of nominated female directors.

"As a member of the DGA board and a citizen of the world, I must try to do all I can to see this room and the nominees reach equity. The table of first-time filmmakers is simply gorgeous - this must become the norm," Kassell said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington Sunday night vowing to make history at a planned meeting with President Donald Trump for the unveiling of the U.S. administrations much-anticipated plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But the high-profile meeting in Washington looks set to serve mostly as a sideshow to the two allied leaders serious legal problems. The Palestinians have not been consulted on the much-trumpeted deal and have pre-emptively rejected the U.S. proposal.

The Trump-Netanyahu meeting on Tuesday comes as Trumps impeachment trial continues in the U.S. Senate and the Israeli Parliament holds a hearing to discuss Netanyahus request for immunity from criminal corruption charges. For both men, their White House summit will be a welcome diversion.

Vice President Mike Pence announced the surprise invitation for Netanyahu and his top challenger, Israeli politician Benny Gantz, on Thursday in Jerusalem, after addressing an international Holocaust forum.

Netanyahu said he suggested inviting Gantz in a show of unity ahead of a momentous occasion. But late Saturday, Gantz, fearing Netanyahu would use the meeting as an electoral ploy to upstage him, said he would travel to Washington on his own and meet Trump separately. Gantz, a former commander of the Israeli military, will then rush back to Israel for the immunity proceedings in Parliament.

Before taking off Sunday, Netanyahu made no mention of his legal woes. Instead, he said the friendly Trump administration was providing Israel a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that must be seized.

We are in the midst of very dramatic political events, but the peak is still ahead, he said. I am going to Washington with a great sense of purpose, great responsibility and great chance, and I am hopeful we can make history.

The plan is expected to be very favorable to Israel, and appears to have little chance of success. The Palestinians, claiming the White House is unfairly biased toward Israel, have already said they wont accept the plan.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Authoritys Foreign Ministry called for a clear international declaration rejecting the plan.

No single Palestinian would accept this plan, and the Palestinian leadership will defeat it as they have done with similar plans, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas.

The U.S.-sponsored Mideast deal nonetheless could give a lift to Netanyahu, who is running in his third race for re-election in less than a year.

After two inconclusive elections last year, Netanyahu and Gantz are engaged in a tight race ahead of the March 2 vote that once again is seen as a referendum on the long-time Israeli leader.

Gantz has focused his campaign on Netanyahus legal problems, saying he is unfit for office. Netanyahu has sought to portray himself as a global statesman uniquely qualified to lead Israel through difficult times. Hes tried to use his close friendship with Trump as a strategic asset.

Two meetings with the president  on Monday and Tuesday  play into Netanyahus narrative. It is unclear whether this will benefit him at the ballot box. Trump delivered political favors to Netanyahu during the previous two races as well, only to see his friend fall short of victory.

But Trumps Deal of the Century could give Netanyahu more than anything he has received before. Israeli media reports have said it will offer unprecedented gifts to the hard-line Netanyahu.

For better or for worse, the announcement of the deal  both its timing and its political ramifications  is a huge achievement for Netanyahu, wrote Nahum Barnea, a leading Israeli columnist. Time will tell whether it is his lifeline or his swan song.

Netanyahu was charged in November with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three cases involving accepting gifts from billionaire friends and trading political and regulatory favors for positive news coverage. Gantzs centrist Blue and White party refuses to sit with him in government because of the charges, but has been careful not to scare off his voters by veering too far left.

Gantzs decision to travel to Washington separately reflected his need to remain on good terms with Trump while keeping his distance from Netanyahu.

In two election rounds neither has been able to secure a required parliamentary majority without the others support. Each is seeking a knock-out punch in the upcoming third round.

Netanyahu has been reeling and is expected to lose his request for immunity, setting up a potential criminal trial down the road. The sudden invite to the White House, with an appealing peace proposal to market to the public, delivered him a much-needed boost. Leading Israeli opposition figures have accused Trump of intervening in their domestic politics.

Netanyahu has been flirting with plans to annex the Jordan Valley as well as Jewish settlements across the West Bank. Such a move would be popular with his nationalist Israeli base but could also essentially extinguish any hope of creating a viable Palestinian state, while risking a new explosion of Palestinian unrest. According to Israeli reports, the Trump plan is expected to deliver much of what Netanyahu wants without asking much in return.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, which was captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of a future independent state and east Jerusalem as their capital. Most of the international community supports their position, but Trump has reversed decades of U.S. foreign policy by siding more blatantly with Israel. The centerpiece of his strategy was recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there in 2018.

Trumps Israel policies have proven popular among the presidents evangelical and pro-Israel supporters. They could also give him a boost from his base as the U.S. Senate weighs whether to remove him from office after he was impeached last month, and as he gears up for a reelection battle this year.

Immediately after news of the (peace) plan was reported, it became plainly evident based on the reactions that this wasnt a Trump plan, but a Bibi-Trump plot, wrote Israeli columnist Ben-Dror Yemini, using Netanyahus nickname.

___

Follow Aron Heller at www.twitter.com/aronhellerap
More than 13 years have passed, but for Natasha George it feels like July 2006 once again  that was when she got the news her cousin Jeffrey Lewis had been killed outside a Weston Road club.

Right now, I feel like weve been cheated, she said outside a downtown courtroom on Monday.

If this is what Jeffs life is worth?

Just days after a ruling by the provinces top court sent dozens of Ontario trials into chaos, the more than decade-long prosecution of Lewis killer had come to an abrupt end.

Peter Johnson was originally charged with second-degree murder, but last week his third trial collapsed in a mistrial after Superior Court Justice Al OMarra said he had no choice but to heed a Court of Appeal ruling that meant his jury had been improperly selected.

Jeffrey Lewis, left, was shot dead outside a Weston Road nightclub in July 2006. Peter Johnson, seen right in a 2009 courtroom sketch, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was released Monday, days after his latest trial ended in a mistrial following a Court of Appeal ruling on jury selection issues. Courtesy Natasha George, Alex Tavshunsky for The Toronto Star

The Crown had been one day from closing its case. By then, Johnson had already served the equivalent of an 18-year sentence  13 years behind bars with extra credit for nearly nine years spent in pretrial custody.

On Monday, rather than face another trial, Johnson pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and was released on time served, with two years probation.

In court, dressed in black pants, a black and white printed shirt and a black Adidas jacket, Johnson flashed a thumbs up to friends and family as he entered the prisoners box. Asked by Justice John McMahon if he had anything to say with his plea he replied: Id like to say sorry. Deeply sorry.

Had he pleaded not guilty, a fourth trial could have been scheduled to start this week.

The thought that we were so close to wrapping it up and have this come at this time, it was just very tough, George said after the hearing.

Because we knew the outcome could have been different.

According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, Lewis was an innocent bystander when Johnson shot him following a struggle outside the after-hours club Whispers on July 2, 2006.

Johnson, then 23, was with two other men when he was asked to pay a $10 cover charge to get into the club. He paid, but later came back with one of the men and tried to rob the woman working the door. Outside, during the struggle over the purse, the money from inside was cast into the air and on to the ground, according to the statement.

The clubs bouncer, Albert Grant, followed the two men into the parking lot, shouting that they had guns.

Grant next put Johnson in a headlock and secured him with a metal security baton. According to the statement of facts, Johnson could not breathe and initially struggled to get free.

When Grant released him, he was still holding the baton and Johnson panicked.

Johnson fired three shots at Grant, but missed. He instead shot Lewis, 31, and another bystander, Simeon Chase. Chase was saved by doctors at Sunnybrook hospital. Lewis was not so lucky.

In court, McMahon said releasing Johnson on time served was a fair and just decision, balancing factors like his young age at the time of the shooting and that he has shown remorse with his previous criminal record and the fact that the shooting happened in a public place.

McMahon noted that Johnson has already served a sentence comparable to 18 years, at the high end of the range for manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Johnson is left with one day in jail plus the two years probation. He was set to be released later Monday.

This is yet another case of senseless gun violence on the streets of Toronto, McMahon said. Lewis lost his life simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he said.

In her victim impact statement, George described how Lewis looked out for her like the brother she never had. A young man filled with promise who, just before the shooting, had asked her to put a business plan together for an idea he had.

He had always wanted to be a father and was overjoyed when his daughter Destiny was born just eight days before he was fatally shot over a $10 cover charge, of which I am sure was nothing to Mr. Johnson at the time, Crown Rob Kelly read in court as Johnson stared straight ahead.

Today I feel like the system has failed us. Has failed Jeff. Has failed Destiny, Kelly said, reading Georges words.

Johnson nodded and smiled to family and friends as he was led away from court. Under the terms of his probation, he also cant have contact with George, Lewis sister Delomico Williams, or the trial witnesses, must provide a DNA sample, and has a lifetime ban on firearms.

Johnsons first trial ended with a hung jury. In 2010, a second jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder and sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years. Last year, the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial on the charge of second-degree murder because the partial defence of provocation  which could have resulted in a verdict of manslaughter  should have been left with the jury.

His defence lawyer, Anthony Robbins, said Johnson feels terrible, has the support of his friends, family and community, and is no longer interested in the lifestyle he had at 23.

He does understand hes getting a second chance and he intends to capitalize on it, Robbins said.

The Court of Appeal ruling last week has had a far-reaching impact. The court was tasked with ruling on the constitutionality of changes to the jury selection process that took effect last September. Among them, the federal government abolished what are known as peremptory challenges, which allowed both Crown and defence lawyers to reject a specific number of potential jurors without having to give a reason.

The Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of the ban, but also ruled that if an accused person had opted for a trial by jury before Sept. 19, they should have had the right to use the old selection method.

Williams, who lives in the U.S. and was not in court, also submitted a victim impact statement, describing the heartbreaking feeling of watching her brothers daughter grow up without her father.

She will never experience his hugs, his infectious laugh, his pranks that kept me on my toes as a kid, she wrote.

He will not be there for her graduation, or wedding, he is just a fading picture to her. Because no matter how many stories we share with her, being able to recognize his love for her will never happen. She wrote she hopes Johnson will be able to turn his life around, without forgetting the life he took.

You have the ability to start over, Jeffrey Lewis does not.


A file photo of India's SLBM launch.

NEW DELHI (PTI): India on Friday (24 Jan.) successfully test-fired the K-4 nuclear capable submarine-launched ballistic missile off the coast of Visakhapatnam for the second time in the past five days, in a major milestone to augment its strategic arsenal and delivery systems.



The missile, developed by DRDO, has a range of 3,500 km and it will be able to bring almost all parts of Pakistan and several areas of China within its reach, officials said.



The missile is being developed for integration with India's Arihant class nuclear submarines.



The missile was test-fired successfully for the second consecutive time in a week off the coast of Visakhapatnam, the officials said.



It was test-fired from an underwater platform, they added.



India has been steadily enhancing its strategic weapons which included successful test-firing of nuclear-capable inter-continental ballistic missile Agni 5 with a range of over 5,000 km.



In November, India conducted successful night trial of 'Agni-II' surface-to-surface medium range nuclear capable missile with a strike range of 2000 km.


Non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will have to provide proofs of their religious beliefs while applying for Indian citizenship under the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA), officials said on Monday.

The applicants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi faiths will also have to furnish documents to prove that they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Those who will seek Indian citizenship under the CAA will have to provide proofs of their religious beliefs and this will be mentioned in the rules to be issued under the CAA, a government official said.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be given Indian citizenship.

The central government is also likely to give a relatively smaller window of just three months to those who want to apply for Indian citizenship in Assam under the CAA, another official said.

Some Assam-specific provisions are expected to be incorporated in the rules to be issued for the implementation of the CAA.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had made a request about a fortnight ago to keep a limited period window for applying under the CAA and also incorporate some other Assam-specific provisions in the CAA rules.

The move comes in view of continuing protests against the CAA in Assam that have been going on since the legislation was passed by Parliament in December last year.

There has been a growing feeling among the indigenous people of Assam that the newly enacted legislation will hurt their interests politically, culturally as well as socially.

The Assam Accord provides for detection and deportation of all illegal immigrants who have entered the country after 1971 and are living in the state, irrespective of their religion.

The protesters in Assam say that the CAA violates the provisions of the Assam Accord.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Matanat Nasibova - Trend:

Baku should focus UNESCOs attention on the issue of armenization of Azerbaijans historical and cultural monuments, Director of the Caucasus History Center, well-known Azerbaijani historian scholar Rizvan Huseynov told Trend.

Huseynov was commenting on the illegal actions of the Armenian authorities and the illegal regime in Nagorno Karabakh under the guise of reconstruction in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

It is necessary to study and use all leverage that UNESCO can apply in this matter, given the fact of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, said the director.

Unfortunately, so far there has been no precedent for any processes conducted by the occupying regime of Nagorno-Karabakh to be stopped in the occupied lands, Huseynov noted. That is, neither UNESCO nor other structures have interfered to suppress the facts of falsification of Azerbaijans historical architectural heritage by Armenia under the guise of restoration. Accordingly, one cannot count on concrete steps besides attracting the attention of the world community to UNESCO.

The director added that the falsification process carried out by the Armenian side can be stopped only by liberating the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

Recent statement by the Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region reads that Armenian authorities and the illegal regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have been recently conducting the armenization policy under the cover of reconstructing Azerbaijans historical and cultural monuments on the occupied territories.

The puppet regime having rehabilitated the Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque in Shusha city considered an architectural pearl of Nagorno Karabakh and naming it as the Persian cultural center some time ago, currently is going to rehabilitate Shusha fortress founded by Panah Ali Khan Javanshir, the builder of Karabakh Khanate in the 18th century, reads the statement. According to the information disseminated by mass media, it is not ruled out that in the future the same vandalism will be applied to the historical monuments in Aghdere and Lachin districts.

It is well known that thousands of our cultural, historical and religious monuments on Azerbaijans occupied territories have become victims of Armenian aggression, the Azerbaijani community said. Some part of these monuments has been completely erased from the earth, and the remaining monuments have been brought into unfit condition.

Along with occupying our lands, exposing our people to genocide and displacing thousands of people from their native land, Armenia also destroys our historical monuments, the statement said. Armenia hypocritically calls these processes repair and rehabilitation work in order to erase this stain from itself.

Not only us, but also international organizations should think of the outrageous purposes of Armenia under the cover of rehabilitation of these monuments, as spread of this tendency jeopardizes cultural-historical heritage of the world, reads the statement.

All the monuments, situated in occupied territories, were erected by our forefathers, they bear handprints of our ancestors, the Azerbaijani community said. Vitalization of these monuments, which were inherited for us, will be one of our main duties after the return of the Azerbaijani lands.

All these along with being in contradiction with the obligations undertaken by Armenia to UNESCO, are also the manifestation of this countrys hypocrite trait and the attempt to deceive the international community and to give a cultural and civil veneer to its vandalism actions, the statement said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The College of Staten Island (CSI) has announced a new doctoral program is coming to the Willowbrook campus.

The program, the EdD (Doctor of Education) in Community-Based Leadership, will help prepare professionals from all sectors supporting young people, including education, social work, psychology/mental health, medicine, business and law to lead cross-sector coalitions of service.

CSI said the program is the first of its kind to be offered in the United States.

Communities need leaders with the knowledge and research skills to create, disseminate, and utilize locally grounded, innovative approaches to understanding the interdependence of the school and other social systems in support of children, said Ruth Silverberg, acting director of the program. The goal of CSIs EdD is to meet this need for Staten Island communities and beyond.

The program is set to launch in July, and the deadline for applications is April 15.

Graduates will complete the program with advanced qualifications for leading coalitions, non-profits, schools and districts, and agencies; and for positions in academic institutions, research, and other organizations focused on the creation and dissemination of new knowledge in community-based leadership, explained Silverberg.

Faculty from the City University of New York and other institutions will guide an initial cohort of 12 students through coursework in various topics, including: social and psychological foundations; processes of community leadership and research methods; project development.

Classes will meet for four weekends each semester, including summers, with an expected completion in three years.

Our EdD in Community-Based Leadership constitutes an important shift in approach to education from a focus inside the school to inclusion of factors outside the school, said Silverberg. This is consistent with longstanding historical dynamics between schools and the communities in which they reside.

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Besides the new EdD in Community-Based Leadership, CSIs School of Education offers undergraduate degrees in early childhood, childhood, and adolescence education. Graduate degrees are available in childhood, adolescence and special education childhood education, as well as special education adolescence generalist and teaching of English to speakers of other languages.

RESEARCH FACILITY

In October 2019, CSI announced it will soon have a genomic research facility that will allow faculty and students to conduct genome sequencing and analysis.

The CSI Genomic Research Facility will allow students and faculty to search for genetic variations in DNA that may cause the development or progression of diseases or conditions such as cancer, drug addiction and autism. It is slated to open by July 2021.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
The Spotted Pig Photo: Ryan Monaghan

The Spotted Pig is closing. Rumors started to circulate last week that disgraced restaurateur Ken Friedmans West Village restaurant would close. In two Instagrams posted overnight, the restaurants chef, Tony Nassif, wrote that the restaurant has closed. There will be no more food served at the restaurant, though an employee tells Grub Street its possible the bar will remain open tonight. (Eater first reported on the rumors, noting that Friedman denied them.)

Its the end of a business that, in the New York restaurant world, became a bitter focal point in the Me Too movement. Friedman and investor Mario Batali were both subjects of reports alleging sexual harassment and assault at the restaurant. In 2018, Grub wrote that the restaurant is synonymous with the power dynamics and culture of abuse and harassment that festers in the restaurant world.

Still, the restaurant held on. Earlier this month, Friedman agreed to pay 11 accusers $240,000 and a share of his profits from the restaurant through 2030. Friedman was also to step down as the operator and no longer be involved in operations or management.

There was a time when the restaurant was one of the citys most celebrated, and its enormous influence cant be denied. April Bloomfield was, with David Chang, a chef who reshaped restaurants during the aughts. That, however, is not how the Spotted Pig will be remembered.
Boltons book

President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.

The presidents statement as described by Mr. Bolton could undercut a key element of his impeachment defense: that the holdup in aid was separate from Mr. Trumps requests that Ukraine announce investigations into his perceived enemies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, who had worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was in office.

Mr. Boltons explosive account of the matter at the center of Mr. Trumps impeachment trial, the third in American history, was included in drafts of a manuscript he has circulated in recent weeks to close associates. He also sent a draft to the White House for a standard review process for some current and former administration officials who write books. (New York Times)

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In this image taken from video made available by Ankara Municipality Fire Department, a rescuer pulls a girl from the rubble of a collapsed building in Elazig, Turkey. A 2-year-old girl and her mother were pulled from the rubble of an apartment building more than 24 hours after an earthquake struck eastern Turkey. (Ankara Municipality Fire Department via AP)

Death toll rises to 36 and at least 1,607 hospitalized in Turkey earthquake (CNN)

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The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) says it has successfully installed a new CAT 2 Instrument Landing System/ Distance Measuring Equipment (ILS/DME) at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

NAMA General Manager, Public Affairs, Khalid Emele, made this known in Lagos on Monday.

Mr Emele said in a statement that the installation of the new equipment would replace the old system which was installed since 2003.

He said: As the build up to the reopening of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu gathers momentum; the Federal Government has made good its promise to upgrade facilities at the airport.

To this end, NAMA has successfully installed a brand-new CAT 2 Instrument Landing System/ Distance Measuring Equipment (ILS/DME) to replace the old system which was installed since 2003.

A successful site acceptance test on the equipment has also been conducted by NAMA engineers in Enugu in preparation for its calibration in the coming days.

Mr Emele said, in a bid to address communication blind spots in the Lagos and South-East corridor, the agency had installed a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) for satellite communication at the airport.

He explained that this Satellite Communication (SATCOM) node had further been integrated into the national satellite communication network which was linked to the African Indian Ocean SATCOM Network (AFISNET).

Also linked to the VSAT is the newly installed Remote Control Air-Ground (RCAG) Very High Frequency (VHF) radio communication system.

This will ensure that Enugu now has an extended VHF coverage on 127.3MHz frequency for Lagos South-East sector.

Commenting, Fola Akinkuotu, Managing Director of NAMA, said that radio communication along the Lagos South-East sector had improved tremendously.

Mr Akinkuotu said the installation of the VHF Radio in Enugu was particularly significant as the city was strategically located to accommodate over six routes, both local and international.

He said Enugu, being on higher latitude can cover for Manfe entry/exit reporting point in Cameroon for international flights like Ethiopian, Rwanda Airlines, Kenya Airways, South Africa Airways and the like.

He explained that the new installation had provided Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN) link that would enhance effective data communication for transmission of flight plans, NOTAMs and Aeronautical Communication Messages.

Mr Akinkuotu said it had provided effective coordination between Enugu Tower and Lagos Area Control Centre through the ATS/DS (Air Traffic Services/ Direct Speech) for departing and arriving traffic ahead of time.

(NAN)
The European Parliament will discuss the draft resolution on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) during a plenary session on Wednesday.

The 154 members EP members drafted the five-page resolution fearing that the recently enacted legislation by India could trigger the "largest statelessness crisis in the " The Parliament is expected to vote on January 30.

The resolution describes the CAA as "discriminatory" and "dangerously divisive" but also a "violation of India's international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights".

India adopted the CAA in December last year that grants citizenship rights to the persecuted minorities of neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

"However, the legislation has triggered the fears of the Muslim community since its enactment as the naturalisation of non-Muslim refugees, namely undocumented migrants from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities of Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014," the resolution stated.

It also called the CAA "explicitly discriminatory in nature" as it excludes Muslims from having access to the same provisions as other religious groups.

The resolution has also called on the Indian government to ensure the right to peaceful protest is allowed and to guarantee the life and physical integrity of those who choose to protest.

In addition, during the debate, the European Parliament will also take up the Kashmir issue.

On Sunday, sources told ANI that some members of the EU Parliament sponsored a draft resolution on the citizenship law. However, the legislation has been adopted by due process and through democratic means after a public debate in both Houses of Parliament, they added.

Members of the European Parliament should engage with the Indian government to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts with respect to the legislation "before proceeding further", sources said.

Calling CAA an internal matter of India, the sources said that the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the

"Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation, contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination. In fact, European societies have followed the same approach," the sources pointed out.

"We hope sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further. As fellow democracies, the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world," they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By PTI

NEW DELHI/ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre on Monday decided to take steps for possible evacuation of over 250 Indians from Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, and announced a raft of precautionary measures to deal with suspected cases.

A meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed India's preparedness to deal with the virus amid mounting global concern over the increasing number of cases in China and several other countries.

In India, no case has been detected so far though nearly 450 people have been kept under observation in the country, most of them in Kerala, following screening for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.



ALSO READ: Kerala CM urges PM Modi to airlift stranded Indians from coronavirus-hit China

Some, who have returned from China in recent weeks, have approached medical authorities as a precautionary step.

The meeting in Delhi presided by the Cabinet Secretary decided to take a series of precautionary measures including screening of people at international ports having traffic from China as well as at the integrated check posts across the border with Nepal.

Officials said Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, stuck in Wuhan city.

"It was decided that steps may be taken to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. Accordingly, the Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities," a government statement said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani have urged the Centre to take steps to bring back students from their states who are studying in Wuhan.

Wuhan along 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading.

The death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

Over 250 to 300 Indian students are reportedly stuck in Wuhan triggering concerns over their well-being.

The statement said the ministry of civil aviation and ministry of health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively.

The meeting also decided that the civil aviation ministry will issue instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

Officials said the civil aviation ministry will also ask the airlines to make in-flight announcements and distribute "health cards" to all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

The home ministry will ensure that integrated check posts initiate screening of visitors across Nepal border.

"States have been requested to provide health staff for these check posts. SSB/ BSF/Immigration officers manning integrated check posts have been sensitised," the statement said.



ALSO READ: Helpline numbers, ambulances, 24x7 doctors, Visakhapatnam airport gears up for coronavirus threat

Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan spoke to chief secretaries and police chiefs of the five states bordering Nepal -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim to review their preparedness for prevention and management of the coronavirus.

The Principal Secretary (Health) carried out a similar exercise with other states and Union Territories.

Till Sunday, 29,707 passengers arriving in India in 137 flights have been screened for novel coronovirus infection symptoms and no case has so far been detected in India, officials said.

The Union health ministry has also urged passengers who have a travel history to China since January 1 to come forward for self-reporting at the nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms such as fever, cough, respiratory distress etc.

A Chinese national on tourist visa in Kolkata has been kept in an isolation ward at the Beleghata ID Hospital since Sunday after she complained of high fever and rashes, and officials said they are awaiting her test reports.

They said the foreign national has mild fever and stomach ache, symptoms that do not necessarily suggest the presence of the novel coronavirus "She has been travelling for quite some time and came to India from Madagascar a few months ago...

As a part of precautionary measure, we have isolated the woman till her reports arrive," Principal Secretary of Health Department Vivek Kumar said.

According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the virus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Kerala



At least 436 people, who returned to Kerala from China in recent days, are under observation for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus (nCoV), according to health officials in Thiruvananthapuram.

Five people are still under observation in isolation wards at various hospitals across the state, officials said, adding, all results of blood samples sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune till now have been found to be negative for the virus.



ALSO READ | The global spread of Chinese coronavirus: Where is it?

While three people are in hospitals at Ernakulam, one each are in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, officials said.

Two people, admitted earlier to hospitals in Pathanamthitta and Malappuram, have been discharged.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting stranded Indians from Wuhan saying the state had information from relatives of students from Kerala studying at various Universities there that the situation there was "grave."

Maharashtra



As many as 3,756 passengers arriving from China were screened for the coronavirus at the international airport here since January 18, but no confirmed case of the deadly disease has been found so far in Mumbai, a state health department official said on Monday.

Five people are under observation in Maharashtra, including three who have tested negative.

Reports of the others are awaited, the official said.

A high-level meeting was held in chaired by Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, public health department, to review preparations to deal with any situation.

"The government will prepare a list of passengers who have returned to Mumbai from China since January 1 this year and will enquire about their health condition," the official said.

Bihar



A woman who returned from China last week was admitted to a Patna hospital on Monday with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus.

The woman who is in her 20s returned home to Chapra, the headquarters of Saran district, from China on January 22 and she was taken to the Chapra Sadar Hospital three days later.

Punjab



Thermal sensors have been installed at Amritsar international airport to screen passengers for deadly novel coronavirus, the Punjab government said, adding it will also set up a screening facility at Mohali international airport on Tuesday.

Thermal screening is already being done at many airports including in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

The state health department also found no symptoms of the virus among four passengers, three at Amritsar airport and one at Mohali airport, who travelled to China recently, state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said, adding people who travelled to China in the last 28 days can report to their nearest district hospital for any assistance.

Gujarat



Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene after parents of students studying in Wuhan sought help for their safe return.

The state government said as many as 100 students from the state are stuck in China, and informed that Rupani has spoken to Jaishankar on phone asking him to ensure their safe return home.

Telangana



Three persons, who had travelled to China but do not have symptoms of the novel Coronavirus, were under observation of medical authorities in Hyderabad.

The three approached the authorities in view of spread of the virus in China and they were admitted to the state-run Institute of Tropical Diseases (Fever hospital) in the city, medical sources said.

However, two of them have since been discharged after being advised to stay put at home, they said.

Karnataka



As part of preventive steps, two residents of Bengaluru who returned from China about ten days ago, have been kept under medical supervision at a hospital, the Karnataka Health Department said.

Another person who was admitted for medical supervision three days ago had been discharged after he tested negative.

Goa



The Goa government has decided to form a special task force to deal with the situation.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has said that people arriving in Goa from the virus-affected regions outside India would be closely monitored.

"I have given instructions to form a special task force to monitor any cases of coronavirus in Goa.

All the activities, including people arriving from the virus-affected regions, would be closely monitored and information reported to the state Chief Secretary," Rane said.

The task force will work as per the guidelines laid down by the Union Ministry of Health, he added.
Is The Go-Ahead Group plc (LON:GOG) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. If you are hoping to live on your dividends, it's important to be more stringent with your investments than the average punter. Regular readers know we like to apply the same approach to each dividend stock, and we hope you'll find our analysis useful.

In this case, Go-Ahead Group likely looks attractive to investors, given its 5.0% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Go-Ahead Group for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Go-Ahead Group!

LSE:GOG Historical Dividend Yield, January 27th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Looking at the data, we can see that 75% of Go-Ahead Group's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. A payout ratio above 50% generally implies a business is reaching maturity, although it is still possible to reinvest in the business or increase the dividend over time.

We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. Of the free cash flow it generated last year, Go-Ahead Group paid out 35% as dividends, suggesting the dividend is affordable. It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.

While the above analysis focuses on dividends relative to a company's earnings, we do note Go-Ahead Group's strong net cash position, which will let it pay larger dividends for a time, should it choose.

Story continues

We update our data on Go-Ahead Group every 24 hours, so you can always get our latest analysis of its financial health, here.

Dividend Volatility

From the perspective of an income investor who wants to earn dividends for many years, there is not much point buying a stock if its dividend is regularly cut or is not reliable. Go-Ahead Group has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. Its dividend payments have declined on at least one occasion over the past ten years. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was UK0.81 in 2010, compared to UK1.02 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 2.3% a year over that time. The growth in dividends has not been linear, but the CAGR is a decent approximation of the rate of change over this time frame.

It's good to see some dividend growth, but the dividend has been cut at least once, and the size of the cut would eliminate most of the growth, anyway. We're not that enthused by this.

Dividend Growth Potential

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share (EPS) are growing - it's not worth taking the risk on a dividend getting cut, unless you might be rewarded with larger dividends in future. It's not great to see that Go-Ahead Group's have fallen at approximately 3.6% over the past five years. If earnings continue to decline, the dividend may come under pressure. Every investor should make an assessment of whether the company is taking steps to stabilise the situation.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Go-Ahead Group's payout ratios are within a normal range for the average corporation, and we like that its cashflow was stronger than reported profits. Second, earnings per share have been in decline, and its dividend has been cut at least once in the past. Ultimately, Go-Ahead Group comes up short on our dividend analysis. It's not that we think it is a bad company - just that there are likely more appealing dividend prospects out there on this analysis.

Given that earnings are not growing, the dividend does not look nearly so attractive. See if the 7 analysts are forecasting a turnaround in our free collection of analyst estimates here.

We have also put together a list of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Sunday he was sorry for his countrys role during the Holocaust and the lack of action against the persecution of Jews, becoming the first Dutch premier to make such an official apology. Trend reports citing Reuters.

With the last remaining survivors among us, I apologize on behalf of the government for the actions of the government at the time, Rutte said at an event in Amsterdam to mark the 75th anniversary on Monday of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

I do so, realizing that no word can describe something as enormous and awful as the Holocaust.

Earlier Dutch governments have made apologies for the way Jews who survived World War Two atrocities were treated when they returned home from concentration camps, but have shied away from condemning the countrys part in the persecution of Jews and other minorities during the German occupation.

Too many people in government institutions at the time simply followed German orders, without realizing the consequences of their actions for the people concerned, Rutte said.

Around 102,000 of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust came from the Netherlands.

We ask ourselves: how could this have happened?, Rutte said.

In all, we did too little. Not enough protection, not enough help, not enough recognition.
Express News Service

KOLKATA/GUWAHATI: With political fever still running high over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the India-Bangladesh borders along West Bengal and Assam have come alive. Many Bangladeshis, who had sneaked into India in recent years, have opted to go back.

There was an instant proof, as Inspector General of BSF (South Bengal Frontier) Y B Khurania said the force apprehended 268 illegal Bangladeshis trying to cross back, even as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) detained 60 at Petrapole border at Bongaon in Bengal.

Those detained were later handed over to Mohespur police station in Jhenaidah district of Bangladesh, across Bengals Nadia district.

The issue has, however, become a subject for discussion after BGB chief Major General Shafeenul Islam stated in the first week of January that 445 Bangladeshis were nabbed while they were sneaking from India.

Kuldeep Saini, IG of the BSFs Meghalaya Frontier, recently said that inputs suggested that post-NRC, some Bangladeshis, who entered India illegally, had returned to their country.

He also said that the steady improvement in Bangladeshs economy could be a reason why these people went back.

However, the BSF in Bengal said a substantial increase in the outflow of illegal Bangladeshi migrants was recorded in the past one month, giving an impression that the NRC fear among the illegal settlers triggered the trend.

There has been a substantial increase in outflow of illegal Bangladeshi nationals in past one month. In January alone, we have apprehended 268 illegal Bangladeshi migrants when they were trying to sneak into the neighbouring country, said Khurania.

A BSF officer posted in Bongaon sector said the infiltrators were detained in Bengaluru a month ago.

The police spotted them when they were on their way to a local railway station to reach West Bengal. Driven by NRC fear, they were heading to Bangladesh.

The officer said some of the arrested men were living in India for five to 12 years and two of them even had Indian documents.

In Basirhat, BSF personnel detained three agents and handed them over to the police.

They sent at least 30 Bangladeshis in last December to the neighbouring country. They charged Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 for each crossover, said a BSF officer posted at Ghojadanga border outpost in Basirhat.

Besides, sources in the district Intelligence Branch (IB) offices said over 5,000 odd Bangladeshis, who reported their entry after arriving in Bengal with valid documents, have gone missing in the past one year.

Bangladeshi nationals are to report to IB with the details of their documents like passport numbers after arriving Bengal. If they continue to stay for more than a month, they have to inform us again. But, as many as 5,000 didnt come for the second time. When we contacted immigration wings at the airport and border offices, there was no record of their return to Bangladesh, said an IB officer.

However, BSF units in Assam did not have firm figures on the numbers of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants returning to their country from the Northeast routes.

People go from one country to another, legally or illegally, in search of jobs. It is a global phenomenon. It is natural. Labourers arrive in India (from Bangladesh) to work, mostly in the metros. However, instances of them arriving here to work and settling down have decreased, a BSF spokesman said.

The spokesman said he did not find anything to link the return of immigrants to the updation of the NRC or the CAA.

Assams Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said the government has no idea how many of the people went back from the state.

Assam finance ministers absurd claim

Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claims that not a single Bangladeshi infiltrated since Modi came to power in 2014.

In the Northeast, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura share their borders with Bangladesh. Patches of the border are still unfenced.
Global equity markets opened sharply lower on Monday as investors dumped risky equities on growing concerns over the scope of a China virus outbreak. Safe-haven assets such as the Japanese Yen and Treasury notes rose as investors sought protection. Concerns over the spread of the coronavirus in China, and the potential economic impact, are expected to dominate the financial market headlines throughout the week.

Chinas President Xi Jinping on Saturday warned that the spread of the coronavirus presents a grave situation. Xi ordered all levels of government to put peoples life and health as top priority, according to the state-run outlet Xinhua News Agency.

Life is of paramount importance. When an epidemic breaks out, a command is issued. It is our responsibility to prevent and control it, Xi said at a meeting of the leaders of the Communist Party of China, according to Xinhua.

Officials Watching China

The ability of the coronavirus to spread is getting stronger and infections could continue to rise. Chinese health authorities said Monday there were 2,744 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus and 80 deaths, according to a state media report.

Chinas Cabinet also announced it will extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to February 2 and schools will return from their break later than usual, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Trade in Asia has already slowed for the Lunar New Year and other holidays, with financial markets in China, Hong Kong and Australia closed on Monday.

Global investors kept a wary eye on developments surrounding the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed an emergency in China, but not, as yet, for the rest of the world on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Fifth US Case of Coronavirus Confirmed

The fifth U.S. case of coronavirus was confirmed on Sunday in Maricopa County, Arizona, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the health agency said during a call with reporters. All give cases involve individuals who were described as recent travelers from Wuhan, China  the epicenter of the diseases outbreak and where the majority of cases have been reported.

Story continues

The U.S. embassy in Beijing on Sunday issued a notice saying the American consulate in Wuhan will evacuate its staff and some private citizens on a charter flight Tuesday to San Francisco, though seat numbers will be limited.

Hong Kong Declares Emergency

On Saturday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam declared a virus emergency in the city of 7.3 million, halting all official trips to mainland China, extending school cancellations and scrapping official plans for the Lunar New Year, Chinas busiest travel week.

Investors Waiting to Hear from Medical Professionals

We saw last week how the medical community can manipulate the price action in the financial markets. After stocks prices fell on Tuesday, the markets recovered the next day when the World Health Organization (WHO) postponed its decision on whether to call the coronavirus a global emergency.

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday and early Friday after the WHO said the deadly Chinese coronavirus was not a global emergency yet.

Make no mistake, this is an emergency in China. But it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on a conference call following a second emergency meeting on the disease on Thursday.

U.S. stocks gave back their gains on Friday after the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported outbreaks in the United States. Over the weekend, conditions worsened and stocks opened lower on Monday.

The early response so far by investors should be considered normal given the developments from over the weekend.

In my opinion, the next major move in the markets will be determined by comments from the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to reports, Dr. Ghebreyesus, WHOs director general, is traveling to Beijing, China, to meet with government and health officials on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

His decision should trigger a volatile response in financial markets and is likely to determine the direction of global stock markets and the safe-haven assets over the near-term.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:
The Concord City Council may have directed both the master developer and a labor consortium poised to begin development of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station property to work out their differences, but letters to the city from both the developer and the unions indicate those talks may not be smooth, at least right away.

The city has received separate letters - both dated Jan. 17 -- from the developer Lennar and from the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council. And the key points of disagreement that led to an impasse being declared in October to reaching labor agreements for the weapons station remake (formally known as the Concord Community Reuse Project) appear to remain.

In its letter to the city, Lennar President Jonathan Jaffe said the extent of union labor called for by the Building Trades Council is unworkable financially. And Bill Whitney, CEO of the building trades council, in his Jan. 17 letter reminded the city that it is the council that said the Reuse Project's work should meet specific "Concord First" goals including 40 percent of labor hires being from Concord; an approved apprenticeship program; priority for veterans in hiring and training; and paying at least a "prevailing wage" to hired labor. The project labor agreements, Whitney said, should reflect that.

The reuse plan for the 5,000-acre weapons station site - one of the biggest such projects in Northern California - calls for building 13,000 residences, commercial and office space, a college campus and other amenities on 2,300 acres. Most of the development would be near the North Concord-Martinez BART station, just south of state Highway 4 on Concord's northeast edge.

One man was killed and two other people were injured, and one of the injured was arrested on suspicion of felony driving while intoxicated after a two-vehicle accident Sunday afternoon just outside of the city of Sonoma, the California Highway Patrol said.

Abdulhadi Awad, a 36-year-old Vallejo resident, was still at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa Sunday night with moderate injuries, said CHP Officer Marc Renspurger. He has been arrested on suspicion of felony DUI.

Renspurger said that, at 12:20 p.m. Sunday, a gray BMW driven by Awad headed south on Eighth Street East went through a red light at the intersection of Napa Road, and collided with a silver 2013 Subaru driven by the fatal victim, a 35-year-old Sausalito man, whose name was not released Sunday night pending notification of family. He died at the scene, Renspurger said.

Also injured was a passenger in the Subaru, 34-year-old Natalie Weiss of Sausalito. She was at Queen of the Valley Hospital Sunday night with major injuries.

Six people were displaced from their Outer Sunset house by a two-alarm fire Sunday afternoon, the San Francisco Fire Department said.

The fire, at 1270 48th Ave., was reported at 2:46 p.m. Sunday. One person inside the house was evaluated by paramedics but elected not to go the hospital, firefighters said. The fire was declared under control by 4:15 p.m.

The American Red Cross was called in to assist the displaced residents.

At almost the same time, San Francisco firefighters were called to another structure fire only a block away in the Outer Sunset, at 1254 LaPlaya St. That blaze was put out within about 20 minutes; there were no injuries.

Both fires remain under investigation.

Police arrested two juveniles and cited at least another dozen, ages 13 to 16, who were part of a group of at least 50 young bicyclists who were blocking traffic and harassing motorists in the downtown area of Fremont, police said Sunday.

Police were called Saturday mid-afternoon after the several motorists reported blocking traffic and flipping off drivers, police said. When officers arrived the group dispersed in various directions; one started throwing objects at police.

Officers stopped a large group of the 50 near Mowry Avenue and Cherry Street, while other bicyclists kept fleeing, police said. A boy throwing objects at police was eventually detained, as was another who got into an altercation at a grocery store and a third who yelling obscenities at an officer.

The group was determined to be out of the Hayward/San Leandro area and it's unknown if they are associated to the other group of juvenile bicyclists who have been causing similar problems in the city.

The bicyclist mob Saturday was determined to be from the Hayward/San Leandro area. It wasn't established Sunday whether they are associated with other groups of juvenile bicyclists recently causing similar problems in Fremont, police said.

The two juveniles arrested, for resisting and obstructing officers, were processed at the police department and released to their parents/guardians, police said.

A man and a dog were rescued without injury Sunday afternoon from the side of a cliff on Yerba Buena Island, the San Francisco Fire Department said.

Firefighters were called to a cliff off Northgate Road about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, where the man and dog were struck. Firefighters said a "high-angle" rescue was needed, and that a small boat - a "skiff" - and a rescue swimmer were deployed from Fire Boat No. 3 to make the rescue.

All lanes of northbound state Highway 13 have reopened early Monday morning after a big-rig truck carrying 16,000 pounds of avocados overturned and crashed, blocking the roadway Sunday evening, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The truck rolled over at about 6:20 p.m. Sunday on Highway 13 just south of the Joaquin Miller Road interchange, near the Oakland Mormon Temple.

The fruit didn't spill, but it took a while to find another truck to load the avocados onto, the CHP said.

No one was injured in the overturn crash. All lanes were opened at 12:46 a.m. Monday.

Four people were displaced after a one-alarm fire at a home in East Oakland early Monday morning, according to Oakland Fire Department officials.

The blaze was first reported at 12:47 a.m. in the 2100 block of 102nd Avenue, Battalion Chief Frank Tijiboy said. The fire was under control at 1:09 a.m.

Nobody was injured and the cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Monday will be sunny in the morning, then becoming partly cloudy. Highs will be in the upper 50s. West winds will be 5 to 15 mph.

Monday night will be cloudy. Lows will be around 50. West winds will be 5 to 15 mph.

Tuesday will be cloudy with a slight chance of rain in the morning. Highs will be in the upper 50s. Southwest winds will be 5 to 10 mph. The chance of rain is 20 percent.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Eat with the Experts at CICB's Q&A lunch on Wed March 11th at CONEXPO in Las Vegas "The lack of training and not understanding duties and responsibilities can result in tragedy, said Dr. Wiethorn.

Crane Inspection & Certification Bureau (CICB), the leading provider of training and inspection in the crane, lifting & rigging industry, will be offering an informal Q&A session at CONEXPO 2020. The event, held over a complimentary lunch, will be an opportunity for anyone in the industry to bring their standards and safety questions. Registration is open to all and attendees will meet at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on Wednesday March 11th, from 11am-1pm.

Answering the questions will be Jim Wiethorn, PH.D., P.E., an Engineering Specialist at Haag Engineering, and author of Crane Accidents  A Study of Causes and Trends to Create a Safer Work Environment, 1983-2013, the unprecedented, comprehensive look at over 500 crane accidents, as well as Crane Inspection & Certification Bureaus Standards Expert and Technical Advisor Larry Kime, and John OConnor, CICBs Career School Director and General Manager, Houston Operations.

In December 2018 OSHA introduced new language into 29 CFR 1926.1427, redefining requirements for all crane operators, while still requiring employers to make the final judgement on whether their operators are qualified. As Dr. Wiethorn revealed in his doctoral research, 93% of crane accidents are caused by human intervention, making it vital to correctly prepare and identify qualified personnel. Citing a tower crane collapse in San Francisco in 1989, Dr. Wiethorn notes, the lack of training and not understanding duties and responsibilities can result in tragedy. The event will be a chance for attendees to ensure they understand new terminology and are compliant with new regulations.

CONEXPO 2020, one of the most awaited events in Las Vegas, is the largest international trade show for the construction industries. The expo will feature over 2,500 exhibitors and is expected to draw over 130,000 attendees.

About CICB:

Headquartered in Orlando, FL since 1969 with a second training facility in Houston, TX, Crane Inspection & Certification Bureau (CICB) provides customized training for every type of lifting equipment as well as inspection services worldwide.

CICBs professionally trained instructors and subject matter experts are not only NCCCO Accredited Practical Examiners, but are NCCCO Certified as Mobile, Overhead & Articulating Crane Operators, Riggers, Signalpersons, Lift Directors and Crane Inspectors. CICBs instructors have been awarded the prestigious Top Trainer Award in 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2009
The whos who in the sleep industry, including high-level experts from the mattress, retail, health, design and hospitality business, will gather in Dubai from February 9 for this years Sleep Expo Conference.



The Conference, a special highlight of Sleep Expo Middle East, will feature a two-day agenda packed with keynote addresses, panel discussions and insightful presentations from some of the industrys brightest minds and pioneers focusing on harnessing innovation and technology particularly relevant to the burgeoning business of sleep.



A free-to-attend event, the Sleep Expo Conference fosters a culture of idea exchange, learning and relationship-building between relevant industries. It has been designed to tackle two main themes  Sleep Tech on Day 1, February 9 and Sleep Care on Day 2, February 10. The Sleep Tech Conference Programme will largely shed light on the raw materials, machinery and the technology entering the mattress and bed linen industry. At the same time, experts will be discussing the trends, challenges, and best practices observed in the market. On the other hand, the Sleep Care Conference Program will shed light on the current trends, best practices, and challenges faced in the finished goods market of mattresses, pillows, linen and other bedding products. At the same time, Sleep Care on Day 2 will put on spotlight the perspective of the mattress retailers and the hospitality sector.



We at Rainbow Plastic and Foam industry believe that this years Sleep Expo Conference is going to revolutionise the sleep market in the Middle East and Africa. The goal is to provide a high-level knowledge platform to dissect how different industries relevant to the business of sleep can work together to create a positive impact within the business circle and reinvigorate the region to be at the global forefront of sleep innovation, said Haben Woldu, director of operations, Rainbow Bed Foam and Beyond, who is also one of the experts who will grace the event.



Headlining the Sleep Tech agenda on Day 1 are presentations on Technology in Polyurethane Processing from Mahmoud Karime, sales manager for Hennecke and Technical Advances in Fabrics, which will be delivered by Candid Penalba Peiro, chief executive officer for Cotopur. For panel discussions, first up will be Mattress Innovation & Sustainability, with Onder Honi, general manager  Innova Bedding, Muhammed Saleem Ahmed, chairman  Safetex Group, and Ankit Jain, director  Aero Fibre. Another panel discussion will delve on Technology Driving the Foam Industry, featuring Haben Woldu, director of operations 

Rainbow Foam, Rakesh Shah, chief executive officer  Vita Foam, and Mahmoud Karime of Hennecke. Capping Day 1 will be a presentation on Mattress Roll Pack.



On Conference Day 2, taking centre stage in the Sleep Care program is a presentation on Retail under the topic Scope of Brick n Mortar Stores in the Region to be delivered by Anwar Barayil, owner of BAFTE. Another presentation titled For a Healthier Tommorow will be delivered by Jullie Mallon, a Certified Sleep Consultant Parental Educator from Nurture to Sleep. Something of great importance on the second day of the conference is a panel discussion on Direct to Consumer Module, aimed at tackling the benefits and challenges of being in control of the manufacturing process and selling to consumers, featuring Chris Gourdie, managing director  Silent Night, Anwar Barayil of BAFTE, and Shahid Ahmed, brand manager  Tempur. A presentation on Retailer Focus: Creating a Customer-Centric Environment and Hospitality & Sleep: The importance of Sleep for the Hospitality Sector along with Hospitality Meet and Live Demos, are also included in the agenda.



Sleep Expo ME is the first and only event of its kind in the Middle East and Africa region dedicated to the sleep market. The event will run for three days (February 9-11 at Hall 4 of the Dubai World Trade Centre) and will feature three key highlights: the trade show, with leading regional and international exhibitors including mattress manufacturers, bedding and linen companies, mattress machinery suppliers, raw materials providers and sleep technology innovators; the conference, which will present best practices and business solutions by renowned experts; and, the Sleep Expo Awards, the first-ever accolade programme for the difference makers in the regions sleep business community. Attendees will be able to network, find new products, build business relationships, and take advantage of educational events and hands-on demonstrations. - TradeArabia News Service
Four men with illegal weapons were arrested in Delhi when they were allegedly planning an ATM robbery on Republic Day expecting that police personnel would be busy with security arrangements for the celebrations, police said on Monday.

The accused, identified as Aashik (25), Istiyak (22), Farmoon (22) and Rahul (27), belong to Mewat district of Haryana, they said, adding that all of them were drivers.

According to the police, the accused had planned to steal an ATM after the Republic Day parade hoping that police personnel would be taking rest after long duty hours.

On January 26, they were out to recce an ATM so that they could execute robbery in the night. They were carrying a few tools required for ATM cutting, said Anto Alphonse, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka).

After police received inputs that the four criminals from Mewat were roaming in the Najafgarh area to commit ATM theft and that they possessed illegal weapons, a trap was laid on Jhatikara road and they were apprehended, he said.

Two cash carrying trays, stolen from ATMs, were recovered from them.

They disclosed that they were involved in an ATM robbery case in the Uttam Nagar area on December 31, in which they had taken away Rs 3.81 lakh, the DCP said.

They also admitted to their involvement in a failed attempt of ATM theft in the Chhawla area, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 01:21:10|Editor: yan

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ALGIERS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum on Monday held talks with his counterpart of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, discussing economic cooperation in capital Algiers.

The two officials also discussed regional and international issues, in particular the Libyan crisis.

Boukadoum told a joint press conference that "we have discussed our bilateral cooperation in terms of economy, partnership and investment," specifying that "the talks dealt with, in particular, sectors of environment, energy, agriculture, desert tourism and mechanical industries."

On the regional and international level, Boukadoum pointed out that the two sides "exchanged analysis and views with regards to files relating to international politics, including issues of common interest, most importantly the crisis hitting neighboring Libya."

For his part, the UAE foreign minister said that there is "a new beginning for our bilateral relations in the political domain with the coming of a new leadership in Algeria."

He adding that "we are surrounded by true difficult circumstances, yet we have always to look at these challenges as opportunities, and how we can make of them a bridge toward a better future for our two countries and for the peoples of our region."

Algeria and the UAE participated in the Berlin conference on war-torn Libya, and participants agreed to support Libyans to return to the path of dialogue to reach sustainable solution that ensures peace and stability.

The visit of the UAE official comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wraps up his two-day visit to Algeria.

The Libyan crisis was also on the agenda of Erdogan's visit, as he confirmed on Sunday that he and his Algerian counterpart are coordinating their efforts to support the outcome of Berlin conference on Libya.

Libya has been hit by civil war since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011.
ASTORIA, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Fresh & Co. is a New York-based restaurant and meal delivery service with a farm-to-table philosophy and community mindset. The family-owned company, with more than 50 locations in New York City and Westchester, New York, recently awarded National Floors Direct, one of the East Coast's largest flooring providers, an exclusive contract to install and maintain all Fresh & Co. locations, including Fresh & Co., Cafe Metro, Create Ditmars, Kyma in Hudson Yards, Kyma Flatiron, and Elea Upper West Side.

Fresh & Co. CEO George Tenedios was quoted as being excited about the opportunity to work with National Floors Direct, as both companies - in addition to being mainstays in the New York City area - share similar ideals and look to benefit from each other's mutual plans for aggressive growth throughout the North East.

Fresh & Co.'s mission, per the company website, is to "create fresh, creative and healthy meals that excite the mind, heart, and palate. Our menu, farm, local partners and community roots are what makes us different...We are committed to connecting people to real food."

The company has its own farm on Long Island and partners with local farmers to bring fresh, hyper-local and seasonal produce to the people in their restaurants and cafes and through their home delivery service. Since its inception in 2010, Fresh & Co. has become one of New York's biggest and most beloved food service providers.

Similarly, National Floors Direct, a direct-to-consumer carpet and flooring specialty service, "Brings the Store to Your Door." The team offers white-glove service and visits clients' homes or businesses with samples from their extensive catalog packed with products from the world's leading brands. Guaranteeing the lowest price in the industry by 15% or more, National Floors Direct cuts out the middle man by connecting consumers with high-quality products straight from the supplier. They also go the extra mile to provide prompt installation and ongoing customer care.

National Floors Direct works with residential and commercial clients and has been involved in several other major New York City projects, including restoring the flooring at Canal Street Market in SoHo. National Floors Direct also won a contract with the esteemed New York City developer HCRE to be the exclusive floor-covering provider for all of HCRE's NYC buildings. This includes prime locations in SoHo, Chinatown, and LES, as well as Flushing, Queens, where HCRE is currently developing a 300,000 square-foot space.

Learn more about National Floors Direct here: www.nationalfloorsdirect.com, or learn more about Fresh & Co. here: http://www.freshandco.com/

CONTACT:

Caroline Hunter

Web Presence, LLC

+1 7865519491

SOURCE: Web Presence, LLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/574204/Parent-Company-of-Fast-Casual-Dining-Powerhouse-Fresh-Co-Hires-National-Floors-Direct-to-Install-Maintain-Flooring-at-Over-50-Locations
Syrian regime forces were poised Monday to soon enter Maaret al-Numan, a town of symbolic and strategic importance that is deserted after months of bombardment, in the country's last major opposition bastion.

Maaret al-Numan is a strategic prize lying on the M5 highway linking Damascus to Syria's second city Aleppo, a main artery coveted by the regime.

It is also the second biggest city in the beleaguered northwestern province of Idlib, the last stronghold of anti-regime forces and home to some three million people -- half of them displaced by violence in other areas.

Damascus loyalists have since Friday seized around 14 towns and villages around the city, reaching its eastern outskirts, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

They have also cut a section of the M5 highway leading north from Maaret al Numan to Idlib city, according to the Observatory and the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper.

Retaking full control of the highway is essential to the government's efforts to rekindle a moribund economy.

The fighting has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes, with hundreds of vehicles on Monday packing a road leading out of the flashpoint region under heavy bombardment.

"Maaret al-Numan is nearly besieged," said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman, explaining that regime forces were now stationed south, east and north of the city.

Abdul Rahman said Damascus loyalists were now pushing from the west and northwest in a bid to tighten the noose around the opposition holdout.

An AFP correspondent in the region said regime forces were also trying to reach the city's southwestern edges to prevent rebels and jihadists from falling back. Idlib and nearby areas of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces are dominated by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group, led by members of the country's former Al-Qaeda franchise.

In recent months, the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad has chipped away territory under jihadist control in the four provinces, despite several ceasefire agreements.

Assad has repeatedly vowed to reassert control over the whole of Syria. An AFP correspondent said Maaret al-Numan had become a ghost town, but the Observatory maintained that some civilians had remained in the area despite the escalation.

Fearing further regime advances, residents of several towns and villages located north of Maarat al-Numan, have started to flee, according to the Observatory and an AFP correspondent.

Pick-up trucks carrying entire families from the town of Saraqib and the Jabal al-Zawiya region packed a road leading north towards the border with Turkey, said an AFP correspondent.

The vehicles were crammed with mattresses, clothes and household appliances, many of them belonging to families who had previously fled Maaret al-Numan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In addition to the unsurprising realization that Trump wanted to fire turncoat Ukrainian ambassador Marie Yovanovitch (unsurprising because he eventually fired her), there's something else for Trump-haters in Lev Parnas's alleged recordings of a meal at which both he and Trump were present: Trump doesn't think much of marijuana.

To give Trump's comments some context, it's important to understand that Trump neither drinks nor smokes. When he declared his administration's efforts to crack down on opioid abuse, Trump explained the personal reasons behind his decision:

"They will see the devastation and the ruination it causes to people and people's lives," Trump said. "Watch what happens, if we do our jobs, how the number of drug users and the addicted will start to tumble downward over a period of years. It will be a beautiful thing to see." The president said he learned that from his brother, who died an alcoholic in 1981 at age 43. Trump described his brother as a "great guy," the "best-looking guy" with the "best personality  much better than mine." "But he had a problem," the president said. "He had a problem with alcohol." Trump said Fred would frequently tell him "don't drink" and "don't smoke." He said he listened because he respected his brother. "And to this day I've never had a drink, and I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it," Trump said. "To this day, I've never had a cigarette."

To Trump, substance abuse is a serious issue because it destroys people's minds and personalities. He suspects that pot is also bad for people:

"In Colorado they have more accidents," the president said in the clip captured by Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who is at the center of the Ukraine scandal that led to the president's impeachment. "It does cause an IQ problem."

While the nation's pot-smoking bloc is undoubtedly going to be disappointed that the president says pot makes people stupid, the reality is that the data are inclusive, with early studies saying pot lowers I.Q. and later studies denying this. There is certainly evidence, though, that pot impairs neurological abilities:

Certain specific neuropsychological parameters have been found to be affected. Most commonly and consistently reported are response time, prolongation of word viewing time, basic oculomotor deficit, residual verbal memory and executive functioning. The pathways to cognitive dysfunction are given particular focus, including the role of the central nervous system (CNS) cannabinoid system. Finally, the psychiatric effects of cannabis are considered in light of the idea that cognitive function may be the common denominator in the association between cannabis and psychotic disorders.

The great thing about Trump, a man who does not believe in Big Government, is that, while he has his opinions, that's just what they are  opinions, not policy. When it comes to legalizing marijuana at a federal level, Trump is adopting a wait-and-see mode, watching legalization play out in various states that are acting, as the Founders intended, as the "laboratories of democracy."
Prince Andrew has provided zero co-operation with an FBI request for an interview about Jeffrey Epstein, a US prosecutor said today.

Speaking outside Epsteins New York mansion, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said prosecutors and the FBI had contacted the Duke of York's lawyers and asked to speak to him about the disgraced billionaire.

The Duke of York has been approached for an interview about Epstein by the FBI. (PA Images)

To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero co-operation, said Mr Berman.

Commenting on the investigation into Epsteins sex trafficking charges, he added: Jeffrey Epstein couldnt have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward.

He confirmed the investigation is looking into possible conspirators of Epstein.

Prince Andrew has come under renewed pressure over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein . (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

Epstein died in prison in August 2019, and his death was ruled to be a suicide.

Prince Andrews relationship with the convicted sex offender has come under renewed scrutiny since he gave an interview to the BBC discussing their friendship.

He was accused of lacking empathy for Epsteins victims and of failing to show regret over his friendship with the convicted sex offender.

The Queens son was pressed by BBC journalist Emily Maitlis over why he stayed in Epsteins US mansion - despite knowing he had been convicted of sex crimes.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says she was trafficked by Epstein, has claimed she had several sexual encounters with Prince Andrew starting when she was 17. He denies the claims.

She said she danced with Andrew in Tramp nightclub, adding he was the most hideous dancer Ive ever seen in my life and his sweat was raining basically everywhere.

Read more from Yahoo News UK

Queen appears with Prince Andrew for first time since he stepped down from royal duties

Prince William 'part of decision to sack Andrew over sex scandal'

Prince Andrew scandal reveals just how fragile royals really are

Virginia Giuffre says she was left horrified and ashamed after an alleged sexual encounter with Andrew in London in 2001. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Following a backlash to the BBC interview, the Prince withdrew from royal duties in November last year.

Speaking in November, a British QC warned that Prince Andrew could face arrest in the US if he travels there to speak to the FBI.

Story continues

Baroness Helena Kennedy told the BBC: "I wouldn't be wanting to send him there because I would be very concerned that suddenly he might be arrested and not able to leave the US.

"I would be very anxious about that."

Yahoo News UK has approached Buckingham Palace for a response.
MAGALIA, Butte County  A crowd of people gathered on a recent morning outside the wooden, one-room church in this town that was once home to more than 11,000 residents. A cold breeze pushed against their coats as they waited.

Let me know when youre ready! Pastor Kevin Lindstrom, just inside the churchs front door, shouted over his shoulder to volunteer Doreen Fogle.

I just need a couple more minutes, Fogle responded.

She was seated at a folding table decorated with stuffed snowmen, signing paperwork. Fogle, a former IBM software specialist, didnt have a title, but she analyzed data on the families who came to the church seeking help, applied for grants and checked people into the churchs recovery center.

More than 14 months after much of this town was wiped out by the Camp Fire of Nov. 8, 2018, which killed 85 people and destroyed almost 14,000 homes, the Magalia Community Church has become a refuge for fire victims who cant find help elsewhere  and a symbol of how difficult it has been and will be for Butte County to heal and rebuild. By the end of last year, more than 2,000 families had become reliant on the church for food, clothing and other aid.

Magalia lost more than 2,150 homes, but its misfortune has gained less attention than that of Paradise, its larger neighbor to the south. Church leaders entered into a catastrophe mode that is not likely to end soon. In many ways, the need here, the desperation, is deepening.

Blanchard; John

Last fall, as short-term federal aid dissipated and grants dried up in Butte County, Fogle, 59, noted an unexpected jump in the number of households needing help from the churchs recovery center. The biggest increase, she said, was in people who had secure housing but were struggling nonetheless.

The number of people you can look in the eye and just tell theyre suffering ... Her voice trailed off. The level of need has not dropped. If anything, it has increased. And the rebuilding process is barely getting started.

The church seemed to be facing its own demise before the fire, with only 15 parishioners and little money. And as flames swept through, it was nearly lost  until a local man helped save it. But last month, the church won a $100,000 grant from a local nonprofit, enough to pay its seven staff members for another six months. As Lindstrom looked out the front door, he knew that the people needed more than spiritual care.

At 11 a.m., the doors opened.

OK, Kevin, Im ready, Fogle shouted. Let them in.

Those lined up shuffled indoors to the sound of holiday music and clattering pans. They were allowed to shop at the recovery center once a week. Fogle studied their drivers licenses and checked their names on a list, then stamped their hands. It happened only rarely, but people had tried to cheat the system before.

A volunteer welcomed Beatriz Rivera, 35, and escorted her in. Rivera pushed a wheelchair that served as a shopping cart. The small auditorium was stuffed with food and many other items. There was a table of purses, red ones and black ones and striped ones. Cardboard boxes of squash. Aunt Jemima syrup and sweet relish. Brussels sprouts in containers of ice.

All the goods were labeled: batteries (one handful), decor (take what you need), spools of ribbon (one), blankets (also one). Papaya is good for the skin, the volunteer offered, so Rivera placed one of the bulbous fruits into her wheelchair. She was careful to take only what she needed for her husband and two children, ages 9 and 13.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Their small green home, tucked beneath a thicket of pine on Pentz Road, had been one of the first to burn as the Camp Fire surged out of the Feather River Canyon. Rivera and her husband, who had worked at the Calico Kitchen and the Cozy Diner, which both burned, had both lost their jobs after the conflagration. With their insurance payment, theyd been able to pay off only what remained of their mortgage, with little money left over.

They had to move into a cramped apartment in Chico with Riveras parents.

So many years of working to make my dream come true, and it disappeared in a few hours, Rivera said. I think about the fire every day. I remember it every day. I dont know what comes next for us.

Rivera, her family members and other Camp Fire victims were among 1.2 million people across the United States displaced by natural disasters in 2018, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a nonprofit in Geneva that studies what drives people from their homes.

Residents of Paradise, Magalia, Concow and the other communities ravaged by the Camp Fire have scattered, landing in every state so far except Maine and North Dakota.

More than 10,400 people  about 5% of the population  have moved out of Butte County, according to the states Department of Finance. Six bordering counties saw their tax base increase. Meanwhile, homelessness in Butte County is up 16% since 2017, according to the point-in-time survey released in June by the countys Homeless Continuum of Care.

More than 420 families across the county remain in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They live at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico and at more than a dozen other sites. The temporary housing support will end in May. FEMA is considering a plan to sell the units at a cost of $5,906 to $22,630, but buyers would have to move them.

The compounding of costs have led more and more people to Magalia Community Church. Lindstrom lets about a dozen people park trailers in the lot, as long as they volunteer in the distribution center.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

On this morning, he walked around the recovery center, his long blond hair swishing across his back. His blue hoodie read: Be careful or you could end up in my sermon.

Since its been more than a year, the media is gone and there have been other disasters, said Lindstrom, who used to work in the movie industry. Its not getting better. You have so many that are in unfinished houses or in trailers. There are people camping in tents and cars. The homes arent coming back yet, and people are discouraged. Its really tough.

As soon as the line cleared, more people arrived. The recovery center opens four days a week  Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Fogle checked in a muscled man wearing leather work boots, an elderly woman lost in her oversize parka and a couple carrying a baby. A man near the back drew detailed portraits of his fellow victims, wanting to give them something while he was receiving something.

I dont know what I would do without you guys, Kirsten Williams, 38, told Fogle, stepping up to the folding table.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

She had once lived on Foster Road, a block from her 88-year-old grandmother. Her children had gone to Paradise Elementary, the school she once attended. The first six months after the Camp Fire, she said, felt like the longest in her life. She lived in a tent in her sisters backyard. It was so cold and damp that she sent her three children to live with distant relatives.

Now, Williams and her boyfriend were living in a donated trailer on a neighbors property in Paradise. They nailed cardboard up for walls and slept under donated Red Cross blankets. Things had improved, slightly, when he had been hired to work on a five-man landscaping crew.

The areas job market remains bleak. Last year, Feather River Hospital in Paradise, which survived the fire but sustained serious damage, laid off more than 1,330 employees, though it has plans to open as a stand-alone emergency room.

In early January, the local Rite Aid closed. It survived the flames but not the loss of customers on a largely deserted ridge. A quarter of Paradises 1,200 companies have reopened, but most are small businesses with few employees.

Inside the church, Williams exchanged a ticket for a rain-proof tarp. Continuing down the aisle, she spotted a can of Tresemme hairspray, an indulgence that had become unaffordable. She picked it up, read the description on the back and, with a small sigh, placed it in her cart, one small happy thing nestled among necessities.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn
Wockhardt soared 13.76% to Rs 340.20 after consolidated net profit stood at Rs 19.21 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against a net loss Rs 76.86 crore in Q3 December 2018.

Consolidated net sales fell 16.89% to Rs 869.15 crore in Q3 December 2019 as compared Rs 1,045.86 crore in Q3 December 2018.

Profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 16.42 crore in Q3 December 2019, compared with pre-tax loss of Rs 120.59 crore in Q3 December 2018. The current tax expense surged 322.80% to Rs 14.46 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Rs 3.42 crore in Q3 December 2018. The Q3 earnings were announced during market hours today, 27 January 2020.

EBITDA grew 473.68% to Rs 109 crore in Q3 December 2019 from Rs 19 crore in Q3 December 2018. The EBITDA margin improved to 12.5% in Q3 December 2019 as against 1.9% in Q3 December 2018.

During the nine-months ended 31 December 2019, the company repaid Rs 768 crore (previous year Rs 750 crore) towards various long term debt obligations as per schedule. Debt repayment during the quarter was Rs 359 crore (previous year Rs 347 crore). Gross Debt-Equity ratio as on 31 December 2019 stood at 0.95.

India business stood at Rs 235 crore in Q3 FY 2020 as compared to Rs 363 crore in Q3 FY 2019. De-growth was mainly on account of lower sales in quality generics division and in some of the therapeutic areas. The India business contributed 27% of the global revenue.

Total EU Business contributed 33% of the Global Revenue. UK and US businesses contributed 25% each of the Global Revenue. Emerging market business contributed about 16% of the Global Revenue.

Research & Development expenditure during the quarter was at Rs 45 crore (5% to sales) and including capital expenditure is at 9% to sales.

The company's filed 5 patents during Q3 December 2019 taking the cumulative filings to 3,162. The company was granted 9 patents during the quarter and now holds 717 patents.

Wockhardt is a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology organization, providing affordable, high-quality medicines.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man accused of murdering two women days before Christmas has appeared in court.

Sandy Seagrave, 76, and Amy Appleton, 32, were found dead outside a semi-detached house in Crawley Down, West Sussex, on Sunday December 22.

The incident left the close-knit community devastated and led to an outpouring of grief.

Daniel Appleton, from Crawley Down, appeared at Crawley Magistrates Court on Monday accused of the murder of the two women.

Sandy Seagrave, 76, was found dead outside a property in Crawley Down / Sussex Police/PA Wire

Appleton sat in the dock in a wheelchair wearing a blue shirt, speaking only to confirm his details and that he understood what was going.

The case has now been sent to Lewes Crown Court.

Following the incident on the weekend before Christmas, police said a 37-year-old man was arrested and taken to hospital in a very unstable condition.

Amy Appleton was killed during the incident / PA

He was released from hospital on Friday December 24 and charged by police with the two counts of murder.

When the inquests were opened earlier this month, senior coroner Penelope Schofield was told post-mortem examinations showed Ms Seagrave and Ms Appleton died from head injury.

Ms Appleton, who taught at Copthorne Church of England Junior School, was described by her family as a rock who always thought of others before herself.
Sharjeel Imam, a former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, gave a speech on 16 January in Aligarh during an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest meeting, asking people to cut Assam and the North East off from the rest of India

Sharjeel Imam, a former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, gave a speech on 16 January in Aligarh during an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest meeting, asking people to cut Assam and the North East off from the rest of India. Consequently, the police forces of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam have registered FIRs against him on sedition charges, and are seeking his custody.

But has he committed any crime ?

To recap, Sharjeel came to the limelight on Sunday during the ongoing protests at Shaheen Bagh, for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens. The Delhi Police was quoted as saying, "[Sharjeel] had previously delivered one such speech in Jamia Millia Islamia on 13 December last year and thereafter one even more inflammatory against the government which is being widely circulated on social media."

The cops went on to add that the speeches had the "potential to harm the religious harmony" and the unity and integrity of India, for which the case was registered against him.

However, I submit he has not committed a crime. In Brandenburg versus Ohio, 395 US 444 (1969), the Supreme Court of the US held, "The constitutional guarantee of free speech does not permit a state to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

This decision has stood the test of time, and is the law of the land in the US ever since. It was followed by two decisions of the Supreme Court of India in Arup Bhuyan versus State of Assam and Sri Indra Das versus State of Assam (both in 2011), and therefore is the law of the land in India too.

Accordingly, inflammatory speech is also protected by the Freedom of Speech guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution  unless it incites or produces imminent lawless action.

I disapprove of Sharjeel's speech, and I am against the cutting-off of Assam or the any part of the rest of the North East from India. However, I do not see how his speech would incite or produce imminent lawless action. The word 'imminent' in the Brandenburg test is extremely important. It stresses on the time element, and makes more defined and more rigorous Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' 'clear and present danger' test laid down in Schenck versus US, (1919)  Holmes' test had replaced the vague 'bad tendency test' employed previously.

Therefore, I am of the opinion that Sharjeel Imam committed no crime and the FIRs against him deserve to be quashed by the high court under Article 226 of the Constitution or Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

In my opinion, applying the Brandenburg test, the prosecution against the Bhima Koregaon-accused Professor Saibaba of Delhi University, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Sajjad Lone, Syed Ahmed Shah Gilani, Shah Faesal and other political figures also deserves to be quashed. None of these persons in detention said anything that incited or produced imminent lawless action.

The author is a former judge, Supreme Court of India
Security forces conduct works at the site after an Iranian passenger plane belonging to Caspian Airlines skidded off the runway near the airport in the southern city Mahshahr, Tehran, Iran on January 27, 2020.

A Caspian Airlines plane slid off the runway onto a highway on landing at an airport in southwestern Iran on Monday, but all passengers were evacuated without injury, Iranian state media reported.

"It ran out of runway when landing at Mahshahr airport with no casualties," state news agency IRNA said.

Some other Iranian media outlets reported 135 passengers and seven crew members were on board but there was no official confirmation.

IRNA, quoting local aviation officials, said a technical issue delayed the plane's landing which caused the accident.

Iranian media reported that the pilot was unable to deploy the landing gear, adding that the incident was being investigated.

Photographs of the aircraft show registration number EP-CPZ, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 built in 1994.

"The plane did not catch fire and all passengers safely left the plane," managing Director of Khuzestan Airports Mohammad Reza Rezaei told IRNA.

An unverified video shared on social media showed an evacuation of passengers from the plane sitting in the middle of a highway in Mahshahr.

On Saturday, an Iranian airplane en route from Tehran to Istanbul made an emergency landing at a Tehran airport because of a technical problem, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Iran's airlines have been plagued by crashes, which Iranian rulers blame on U.S. sanctions that block the airlines from replacing their ageing fleets or purchasing spare parts from the West.
The FBI is said to be looking into claims congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her brother and will reportedly share their findings with ICE.

Two agents met with a source who handed over information relating to the Democratic congresswoman's marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, The New York Post reports.

It is understood concerns over whether Omar wed British citizen Elmi to help with his immigration to the United States were discussed at the meeting in Minnesota in October.

Any findings will be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Department of Education, the paper reports. Anyone found guilty of committing marriage fraud faces up to five years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000.

The FBI, ICE and the US Department of Education have not confirmed any investigations. Omars office has not commented but she has previously dismissed the claims as 'baseless, absurd rumors', accusing journalists of Islamophobia.

The first report that Omar and Elmi were siblings appeared on the website Somalispot in 2016. It said: 'As soon as Ilhan Omar married him he started university at her alma mater North Dakota State University where he graduated in 2012.

'Shortly thereafter, he moved to Minneapolis where he was living in a public housing complex and was later evicted. He then returned to the United Kingdom where he now lives.'

The FBI is said to be looking into claims congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her brother and will reportedly share their findings with ICE. Omar is pictured on Thursday

It is understood concerns over whether Omar wed Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, pictured, to help with immigration issues were discussed at the meeting in Minnesota in October

Due to a lack of records in war-torn Somalia, where Omar, 36, was born, the allegation that she married her brother has never been proven.

Omar has become one of the most high-profile members of Congress since her election. As one of 'The Squad'  along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts  she has been frequently attacked by President Donald Trump, who said they should go back to where they came from, even though Omar is the only one born outside the United States.

'There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it,' Trump told reporters.

Omar married Elmi, a British subject, on February 12, 2009 at a Hennepin County office in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, southwest of Minneapolis, their marriage license shows. They said they lived at the same address in Columbia Heights, a suburb on the north side of the bustling city.

She had previously been married in the Islamic faith to Ahmed Hirsi, but the marriage was never formalized. She had two children with him before they supposedly split shortly before she married Elmi.

However records suggest that Omar, Elmi and Hirsi all lived together for a while.

Omar, left, had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, right, before they split and she married Elmi

Omar got back with Hirsi, pictured with their children, and had a third child in 2012

Timeline of Omar's two marriages: 1997: Omar and her family settle in Minnesota after fleeing war-torn Somalia 2002: She marries Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in a religious ceremony but it is not recognized legally. The pair go on to have two children. 2008: She and Hirsi separate. Because the marriage was never recognized by law, neither is the separation 2009: Omar marries Ahmed Elmi in Minneapolis 2010: He enrolls at North Dakota State University to study fine art and lives with Omar as well as her first husband 2011: Omar claims she and Elmi split this year and he went back to the UK. She reconciles with Hirsi 2012: Omar and Hirsi have their third child. Elmi is still in the US according to college officials and social media 2013: Elmi starts working in London 2017: Omar divorces Elmi 2018: Omar marries Hirsi in a civil ceremony 2018: The marriage is brought up during Omar's campaign for congress She denies it and it is largely ignored because of the lack of proof around it July 2019: President Trump thrusts the rumor back into the spotlight July 2019: DailyMail.com reveals Omar and Hirsi have separated and she's moved into a penthouse apartment DailyMail.com also reveals Omar's secret relationship with her married aide Tim Mynett August 2019: Tim Mynett's wife files for divorce, claiming her husband had professed his love for Omar Early October 2019: Omar formally files for divorce from Hirsi November 2019: Omar is granted the divorce from Hirsi December 12, 2019: Hirsi marries pediatric nurse Ladan Ahmed December 19, 2019: Mynett is granted a divorce from his wife Beth Advertisement

By marrying Omar, Elmi, now 34, was allowed to enter the United States and attend North Dakota State.

They are said to have split after a couple of years but Omar waited until 2017 to divorce him. In the meantime she got back with Hirsi and had a third child in 2012.

Omar divorced Elmi in May 2017 and then married Hirsi the following January in a civil ceremony, just in time for her freshman campaign for Congress. She won the seat with 78% of the vote.

But her second marriage to Hirsi was short-lived  as Daily Mail.com reported exclusively in July last year she has now moved out of the family home and into a penthouse apartment in the trendy Mill District of Minneapolis.

In December shew was called an adulteress in divorce court by her lover's former wife as the couple formally ended their marriage.

Beth Jordan said she wanted to 'make a statement' about her husband Tim Mynett having an affair with the radical Democrat, during the 16-minute hearing in Washington D.C.

Mynett left the court after the hearing grinning and clapping his hands in glee. He said he was happy with the proceedings but would not comment further.

The hearing ended abruptly shortly after Jordan, 55, spoke publicly of 37-year-old Omar's affair with Mynett, 38. DailyMail.com first revealed the affair in July, a week after revealing that Omar had split from her husband.

She was spotted holding hands with her finance campaign manager Tim Mynett at a restaurant in Playa Del Rey, California, in March.

Hirsi tied the knot with pediatric nurse Ladan Ahmed, who had worked on Omar's election campaign, just 37 days after divorcing the congresswoman.

DailyMail.com acquired exclusive video of the ceremony that took place in an apartment in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Rep. Ilhan Omars congressional career got off to a rocky start, with her provocative remarks on Israel and Jews stirring anger across the country and raising speculation that some other Minnesota Democrat might step forward to challenge her in 2020.

She off her reelection campaign Thursday night with a massive bank account and no challengers who pose a serious threat from either party.

Her campaign slogan - 'Send her back to Congress!' - gleefully evokes President Donald Trump's personal attacks on her.

Omar's second marriage to Hirsi was short-lived after she was spotted holding hands with her finance campaign manager Tim Mynett, pictured, in Playa Del Rey, California, in March

Omar, a Somali American immigrant, became a national figure in 2018 as one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. But her tweets last February insinuating that lawmakers support Israel because they have been bought off came under intense bipartisan criticism.

She added fuel to the fire last March by suggesting that Jewish Americans have divided loyalties between the U.S. and Israel.

Omar's only real primary threat would have to come from a Democratic officeholder, but none has stepped forward, said Kathryn Pearson, another University of Minnesota political scientist.
A mother and daughter attacked a woman in a row over the last available seat on a Tube, a court heard.

Beauty therapists Renata Regin, 50, and Sophia Elsden, 25, assaulted their victim as she travelled back from Portobello Market with her parents and two daughters, aged five and nine.

City of London magistrates heard violence broke out after the five-year-old shot in to grab the last seat in front of Regin, who then complained about the nine-year-old swinging her legs on her mothers lap.

As the argument escalated, Elsden grabbed the mother by her hair and hit her head against a metal handrail while Regin joined in the assault, saying, Im going to kill you, the court was told. She also pulled the nine-year-old by the hair.

The grandfather told the court the row began when Regin moved towards the free seat but my youngest granddaughter shot into it.

The victim, 35, said she had asked Regin to move her bag so that her older daughter could sit on her lap, but Regin responded with comments about the youngsters swinging legs. Elsden grabbed my hair, wrapped it around her hand and pulled my head back and forth, bashing it against the pole.

She added: I had a sore head at that point but could only focus on my children. People on the Tube were screaming at the ladies to stop.

The grandfather said: My youngest granddaughter was crying and screaming her head off and when her sister stood up, the older lady grabbed the nine year-olds hair and pulled her head back. The violence came from nowhere. It was like an explosion of violence.

He said he had struck Regin with a fist with minimal force to the side of her face to get her to stop the attack.

Regin, who was on her way home from Sloane Square where she works with her daughter, insisted she was pushed out of the way as she tried to take the available seat.

She said the girls mother had been aggressive towards Elsden and that she had herself been assaulted by the grandfather.
Standard Chartered and Bahrain Fintech Bay have announced a strategic partnership to support Bahrains fintech sector and industry, in line with the Kingdoms Vision 2030.



Standard Chartered and Bahrain FinTech Bay will work together to offer thought-leadership and mentorship programs to the growing fintech industry and share innovative market expertise and solutions to individuals seeking to grow their fintech businesses.



Abdulla Bukhowa, CEO of Standard Chartered Bahrain said: We are pleased to announce this strategic partnership with Bahrain Fintech Bay. In line with our strategy, this partnership provides another platform for the bank to share global expertise and innovative financial solutions that suit a steadily growing digital business market, led by a diverse population.



Given Bahrains position as one of the leading fintech hubs in the region, we are confident that the fintech sector will continue to grow, especially with the nurturing and cultivating environment Bahrain offers. As we celebrate 100 years of being in Bahrain, we strongly believe in the need for innovation to stay relevant to our markets. We continue to invest and innovate in our digital offerings for clients. This allows us to extend our reach and provide offerings that reflect the changing needs and preferences of our clients.



Khalid Saad, CEO of Bahrain Fintech Bay said: Bahrain FinTech Bay continues to strategically grow its local and international ecosystem. The partnership with Standard Chartered, who this year celebrates 100 years in Bahrain and are one of the worlds leading banks, will aim to further develop Bahrains FinTech ecosystem drawing on Standard Chartereds global presence and innovation lead initiatives.



With its strong prospects for growth, the financial technology market in the Mena region is estimated to grow by up to $125 million a year to reach $2.5 billion in 2022, bringing the number of fintech start-ups from six in 2005 to 250 by 2020. The sector is poised for a major leap with projected private-funding investments worth $2 billion in start-ups in the GCC over the next decade.  TradeArabia News Service
If you're a little girl with a prosthetic limb, alopecia or the skin condition vitiligo, there's now a Barbie doll that looks just like you.

The 2020 additions to Mattel's Barbie Fashionistas line are the company's latest nod to making sure its dolls reflect more of society's diversity.

While a doll with a prosthetic limb debuted last year, this year's version will have a darker complexion. Another new addition has no hair. And even Ken has gotten an updated look, sporting long locks instead of his signature, short, sculpted coif.

"Weve been committed to increasing diversity in our line and showcasing all the different types of beauty that exist ... making the line more accessible,'' says Lisa McKnight, senior vice president and global head of Barbie and its dolls portfolio.

Photographer Paul Jordan Stylist Jen Hoon

More inclusiveness in the toy aisle

Barbie was once criticized by some observers for promoting a narrow, unrealistic ideal of what is beautiful. But the brand has been on a diversity push over the last five years, unveiling dolls with an array of skin tones, hair textures, body sizes and facial structures.

There are Barbies with less defined waists, varying bust sizes and sculpted arms. And the doll in a wheelchair even has her own ramp.

Barbie's focus on a more expansive idea of beauty reflects a broader shift that is impacting not only the toy industry but the worlds of fashion and politics as well.

Model Winnie Harlow, who has vitiligo, has used her celebrity to talk about the autoimmune disorder that leads to a loss of skin color. Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley revealed recently that she lost her hair due to the skin condition alopecia.

A slew of brands have featured people not typically seen in advertising, from Lucas Warren, who in 2018 became the first Gerber baby with Down syndrome, to Diandra Forrest, who has albinism and modeled for cosmetics company Wet 'n Wild.

And Mattel is one of several toy companies creating dolls that are more reflective of people with diverse appearances and abilities.

Story continues

"Consumers are asking for this,'' says Adrienne Appell, trend specialist and spokeswoman for The Toy Association, an industry trade group, who noted that the doll category had not been as inclusive in years past. Now "toymakers are embracing this ... showing what kids are seeing in the real world and representing that in the doll aisle.''

American Girl's 2020 "Girl of the Year," Joss, is hearing impaired. The line's broader array of doll accessories include a wheelchair and diabetes care kit. And Cre8tive Minds, a New York City-based toy company, has a collection called Friends with Diverse Abilities that includes dolls who are visually impaired, and who use a walker or arm braces.

Diversity boosts the bottom line

In 2019, over half of all Barbie dolls were diverse. And some of the newer Fashionistas have been inspired by customers.

"Our wheelchair Barbie and our doll with vitiligo were literally fan requests,'' says McKnight.

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Shoppers have welcomed the inclusiveness. Barbie's top seller throughout 2019 was a curvy black doll with an Afro. And among the 10 top-selling Fashionistas last year, seven were diverse, including the doll that uses a wheelchair.

This year's Fashionistas line will roll out in two phases. The new Ken doll and Barbie with vitiligo are on sale now, while the new doll with a prosthetic leg and the Barbie with no hair will become available starting in June.

Steadily increasing purchases of diverse dolls have given a boost to Barbie's bottom line. The brand reported eight consecutive quarters of growth as of the third quarter of 2019.

What were excited about and proud of is not only is this the right message to send to children,'' McKnight says, "but our efforts focusing on diversity are resonating ... from a business standpoint. The brand is thriving.''

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A bald Barbie? Ken with long hair? New Mattel dolls reflect diversity
France Confirms Digital Tax Delay

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

27 January 2020

On January 22, 2020, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire confirmed that France will suspend collection of its digital services tax this year to prevent the United States from applying retaliatory tariffs on a range of French goods.

Following talks with his US counterpart Steven Mnuchin against the backdrop of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Le Maire said that France will delay collecting digital tax payments until December 2020.

"The framework that we found with Steven Mnuchin is excellent news because it will give us time and a chance for international negotiation rather than entering a trade war that would penalize our winegrowers in particular," Le Maire said in a tweet.

However, Le Maire has stressed that France will not repeal the digital tax, which he reiterated will remain in place until France is able to implement internationally-agreed digital tax measures.

The United States has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on certain French products in retaliation for the digital tax, which the US argues unfairly discriminates against US-based technology companies.

The French DST is a three percent tax on the revenue of digital companies providing advertising services, selling user data for advertising purposes, or performing intermediation services. Companies with global revenues of EUR750m (USD831m) or more and French sales of at least EUR25m are required to pay the tax.

The US has also warned that it could impose tariffs on imports from other countries going ahead with unilateral digital taxes, including Italy and the United Kingdom.
A state representative in Oklahoma has filed a bill that would set regulatory standards for the nascent peer-to-peer rental car industry.

Rep. Lonnie Sims (R-Jenks) says House Bill 3655 supports both the growth and the fair and equitable regulation of the peer-to-peer rental car industry. Oklahoma, like many states, has seen the dramatic growth of car rental companies that allow customers to rent automobiles directly from owners and pay through a smartphone app.

Sims says his bill would establish clarity regarding regulations and taxation. The bill would:

Require all automobiles rented on peer-to-peer platforms to have valid insurance;

Clarify that cars rented on peer-to-peer platforms are subject to the Oklahoma Vehicle Rental Tax and Oklahoma sales taxes; and

Clarify that vehicles rented through peer-to-peer platforms may operate lawfully at Oklahoma airports so long as the relevant peer-to-peer company and airport have reached a vendor agreement.

In a statement, Sims said the goal is to make sure there is clarity about how these businesses are regulated so they can continue their growth while taking responsibility for insuring their vehicles, paying taxes and playing by the same rules as other rental car companies.

Source: Oklahoma House of Representatives

Topics Legislation Auto Oklahoma Sharing Economy
Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman calls for a round of applause during an event last spring to honor first responders who served during the mass shooting at the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora on Feb. 15, 2019. Ziman has been invited to be the guest of U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, at the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4. (Jon Langham / The Beacon-News)
A heroic policeman repeatedly hacked in the head with a 2ft rusty machete has relived how he fought off the savage attack as he prepares to return to work.

Pc Stuart Outten, 29, was dubbed 'Britain's hardest cop' after he survived a frenzied six-strike blade onslaught in Leyton, east London, last summer.

And despite suffering grisly skull injuries requiring surgery and leaving scars, the officer remarkably managed to fend off his assailant, Muhammad Rodwan, with a Taser.

Describing the horrifying assault on LBC this morning, he said he only realised 'four or five hits in' he was being slashed with the mammoth blade.

'There was a point when I was on all fours, blood is coming out of my head like a tap, I thought to myself "I'm in a bit of trouble here".'

Pc Stuart Outten, 29, was been dubbed 'Britain's hardest cop' after he survived a frenzied six-strike blade onslaught in Leyton, east London, last summer (pictured in the studio today proudly wearing his uniform)

PC Outten suffered six severe head wounds (left, and right, after recovery) and a court heard he could have died had he not bravely fired off his Taser in a bid to disarm Rodwan

As he prepares to return to work, the constable bared his head scarring and said: 'I took six machete strikes to the head and two to the arm. I've got visible scars all over my head. 'Visible scar on my right hand, visible scar on my right forearm and they will never go away'

Proudly wearing his uniform in the studio, Pc Outten told how he had pulled over Rodwan's uninsured van when the driver flew into a rage and began punching him.

The policeman went on: 'He tries to dive into the back of his van, which I didn't know at the time but he lives there, so what he has there I had no idea... he grabs a machete and starts chopping up my head.'

'I only realised four or five hits in. I'm there fighting him thinking "why's my head getting wet?" then I realise it's not raining so then I focus my mind and think, well that's a machete, so this must be blood.'

Pc Outten said he yelled 'machete' to warn off his colleagues and scrambled backwards out of the van.

Dramatic footage from the August attack shows Rodwan, 56, leaping on top of downed Pc Outten who desperately tries to shield himself from the machete.

He added: 'I was thinking that if I can slow my breathing, slow my heart rate, slow the blood loss, and stop myself from passing out.

Video captured Rodwan swinging the blade at PC Stuart Outten's head, fracturing his skull and leaving him with six severe head wounds

Pictured: The machete used by Rodwan to fracture PC Stuart Outten's skull during a sustained assault in east London

He told This Morning his fiancee Lizzie is very worried about him returning for work, but said 'I've managed to convince her I won't get into as much trouble as the last time'

'Because if I had pass out, I can't guarantee that I can keep my heart beating.'

The officer only managed to stop the thug by firing his Taser, a piece of kit hailed by him as invaluable.

Responding to a question from presenter Nick Ferrari if the Taser saved his life, Pc Outten responded: 'Yes. Without that Taser, I'd be dead. I wouldn't be talking to you now.'

Rodwan was cleared of attempted murder but convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

The constable, baring the scars received from the attack, also detailed his grisly injuries.

He said: 'I took six machete strikes to the head and two to the arm. I've got visible scars all over my head.

'Visible scar on my right hand, visible scar on my right forearm and they will never go away.'

Muhammad Rodwan (left), fractured the skull of PC Stuart Outten (shown lying on the ground injured, right) when he pulled him over for driving without insurance

Listeners of Pc Outten's remarkable account praised officer and wished him well as he returns to work for the first time since the attack

Pc Outten was joined in the interview by boss detective chief superintendent Richard Tucker who revealed 16 officers are assaulted every day.

Pc Outten will not perform frontline duties on the beat while he continues to recover, but will see a doctor today to declare him fit to return to work.

The constable said: 'I can't wait. I would have been out (on the beat) two weeks later if they had let me.'

In October during a trip to New York, he proposed to his now fiancee Lizzie Matthews, who is also a police officer.

He told This Morning: 'Lizzie is very worried about me returning for work, but I've managed to convince her I won't get into as much trouble as the last time.'

Pc Outten also said he does not harbour any ill will towards Rodwan and claimed the attack was not personal.

In a humble tribute to his fellow officers, he said: 'That night I was doing my job and my colleagues are doing the same thing every day.'

Listeners of Pc Outten's remarkable account praised the officer and wished him well as he returns to work for the first time since the attack.

A listener called Beverely tweeted: Listening to Nick Ferrari and Pc Stuart Outten and his boss Richard giving a horrendous account of being hacked about the head and body but now back at work!

'I'd like to thank Met Police for keeping us Londoners safe every single day. You do a great job. Thank you Stuart.'
The Delhi High Court on Monday slated a petition filed by RK Chandolia, one of the accused in 2G spectrum case and then private secretary of former telecom minister A Raja, to be heard on January 31.

Chandolia had recently moved an application in the High Court stating that CBI's appeal challenging their acquittal is now 'infructuous' due to the 2018 amendment to the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

In his plea, Chandolia said that by virtue of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, substituting Section 13 of the PC Act, 1988, the charge of criminal misconduct no longer applies to him.

According to the plea, the PC Act 2018 was introduced to remedy such gross misuse of the power of launching criminal prosecution by investigating agencies against honest officers, who may have been negligent, but were not accused of receiving any illegal gratification.

"In this case, there is no allegation by the appellant CBI against the applicant of dishonest or fraudulent misappropriation of property or illegal enrichment by the present applicant," the plea said.

Chandolia's plea, filed by advocate Vijay Aggarwal, said that it is a settled proposition of law that once an Act is repealed and that it must be considered as if it had never existed and same would be considered obliterated from the statute books.

"The applicant (Chandolia) and other accused persons have acquired a vested right after having been declared innocent and exonerated from all the charges including but not limited to under the stringent section 13 (1) (d) of PC Act which is no longer a law in force," it said.

The plea stated that the 2018 amendment has entirely changed the definition of the offence of "criminal misconduct", as relevant to the case.

Chandolia argued that the High Court has to make a preliminary enquiry as to whether the allegations would stand in view of the narrower definition of "criminal misconduct" after the amendment.

The High Court is currently also dealing with the CBI's appeal challenging the acquittal of all accused including Raja in the 2G spectrum case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 2020 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement - often described as the 'Nobel Prize for the Environment' - has been awarded to conservation biologist Gretchen C. Daily, and environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev, both pioneers in illuminating and quantifying the economic value of our natural environment.

"The Tyler Prize Executive Committee is honored to recognize two outstanding individuals who have pioneered the valuing of natural capital - in rigorous scientific and economic terms - recognising nature's vital role in supporting human wellbeing," said Julia Marton-Lefevre, Tyler Prize Chair.

Gretchen C. Daily

In May 2019, the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services highlighted devastating biodiversity loss and warned that societies cannot continue to pursue forms of economic growth that are blind to nature. But while the conclusions of this report came as news to many, Professor Gretchen C. Daily had been warning the world for years.

"We can think of ecosystems as a type of capital asset; just as we have assets like human capital, or financial capital, we also have 'natural capital'", said Daily.

"We depend utterly on living natural capital - Earth's lands, waters, and biodiversity. Just imagine trying to live without it, on the moon. But around the world, we are liquidating nature, at accelerating rates".

Daily's ground breaking work forecasting biodiversity change, and estimating the values of ecosystems and their services, started when she was a PhD student, when typical conservation scientists justified their efforts to conserve nature simply for the value of its existence. Her risky, non-classical research projects bore ideas that have transformed the way we think about conservation.

"Gretchen showed how there could be other quantitative values on ecosystems through developing and organising the field of ecosystem services," reflects Hugh Possingham, Professor of Ecology and Mathematics at The University of Queensland. "This research... set her apart as a globally-significant thought leader".

Daily summarized the many services nature provides in her 1997 book, Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. The book was dubbed, "one of the most influential books published on the environment in the past 30 years", by Diana H. Wall, Tyler Prize Laureate (2013) and Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

In 2005, Daily co-founded the Natural Capital Project, whose mission is 'to pioneer the science, technology, and partnerships that enable informed decisions for people and nature to thrive.'

Today, the 'NatCap' Project is one of the world's leading organizations equipping decision-makers with tools and information to make policies and investments that empower green growth. Just one example is NatCap's 'InVEST' software platform, designed to quantify and map the return-on-investment in nature, and risks and costs of its loss, under future scenarios. The software makes the science accessible and actionable, and has been applied in more than 180 nations, in policy, finance and management.

"Remember that nature has not been a part of economic accounting systems in the past. We just took it for granted that we're going to get clean air, clean water, carbon sequestration. The use of economic tools by a biologist is not something that we find in everyday practice, and this has been Gretchen's great gift." reflects Julia Marton-Lefevre, Tyler Prize Chair.

Renowned biologist Professor Paul Ehrlich, holds Daily in the highest regard: "In my view, she is the most important scholar working on environmental sustainability issues in the world today".

"Often we appreciate the costs of loss - of flooding after clearing forests, or polluted drinking water after destroying wetlands - only after it's too late", said Daily.

Pavan Sukhdev

When Pavan Sukhdev was chosen to lead a seemingly routine study into the economic benefits of biodiversity and the economic costs of its degradation and loss, few could have imagined the impact that would follow. When the first report of "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" (TEEB) was published, during the peak of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, news outlets around the world began to dedicate headlines to the staggering cost of deforestation to the global economy.

The TEEB report would go on to become a foundation for the Green Economy movement - an achievement for which Sukhdev is being awarded the 2020 Tyler Prize.

"You don't have to be an environmentalist to care about protecting the environment. Just ask a farmer who now has to rent beehives to pollinate his crops, because there are no longer enough bees in wild nature to do the job for free. But bees don't send invoices, so the value of their services is not recognized", says Sukhdev, explaining the economic invisibility of nature.

As a former Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, Sukhdev was perhaps an unusual choice of environmental leader. A financial markets professional for twenty-five years, he was uniquely placed to put the consequences of environmental decline into financial and business terminology, and help politicians and business leaders to understand the consequences of their policy and business choices, revolutionizing how decision-makers would come to view the natural world.

The UN appointed Sukhdev to lead the 'Green Economy Initiative', one of the nine Joint Crisis Initiatives launched in 2009 by the UN Secretary General. The Initiative demonstrated that the greening of economies is actually a new engine for economic growth, a source of new employment, and a means to poverty alleviation.

"His work, particularly with UNEP's 'TEEB' and 'Green Economy Initiative' has led to extraordinary improvements in our understanding of the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity", reflects Julia Marton-Lefevre, Tyler Prize Chair.

"Using economic instruments to measure what we get from nature may make us take nature's services more seriously".

After years challenging corporations to transition to a sustainable economy, Sukhdev decided to show the world how; founding GIST Advisory, a sustainability consulting network, in 2011. A collective of leading minds from the fields of economics, ecology, environment, finance and policy, GIST Advisory provides sustainability consultancy services to enable governments, corporations and banks to value and manage their impacts on natural, social and human capital.

Sukhdev's transformative ideas have earned him high praise from distinguished colleagues, such as the world-renowned ecologist and Tyler Prize Laureate (2001) Thomas E. Lovejoy calling him, "the most original individual working in this space".

"Sukhdev's phenomenal contribution to the global understanding of ecological and environmental value will define our approach to conservation for generations to come", comments Satya S. Tripathi, UN Assistant Secretary-General.

On April 30th 2020, Daily and Sukhdev will deliver a public presentation about their work at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City.

In a private ceremony on May 1, the Tyler Prize Executive Committee and distinguished members of the international environmental community will join to honour the two new Laureates during a ceremony at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel in New York City.

Prize amount: $200,000, to be shared equally between the Laureates

###

Media kit available at: http://www.tylerprize.org/media-resources/

Press contact: Jayde Lovell, ReAgency | Phone: +1 347 698 3291 Email: jlo@reagencylab.com

The Tyler Prize is administered by the University of Southern California
A fake and racist health alert has warned Australians to stay away from suburbs populated with Chinese nationals amid heightened anxiety about the deadly coronavirus.

The illegitimate media release - which bears the Queensland Government logo - claimed residents should avoid visiting Brisbane suburbs Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hill, Runcorn and Eight Mile Plains.

The 'level 3 health warning for coronavirus' also says Queenslanders should avoid 'all populated areas with Chinese nationals of a ratio of one to three non-Chinese Australians'.

Member for Stretton Duncan Pegg took to Twitter to stop the spread of the misleading health alert.

A fake health alert has warned Australians to stay away from suburbs populated with Chinese nationals amid heightened anxiety about the deadly coronavirus

Pictured: Passengers arrive at Sydney Airport from Wuhan on January 23. There are four confirmed cases in New South Wales

'This media release is 100 per cent FAKE!!! FAKE!!! FAKE!!!' the Labor MP said on Monday.

'I don't normally like to give any credence to people who seek to malign our community but wanted to make things clear this time.

'To get latest updates go to the Queensland Health website and Facebook page. Any questions call 13HEALTH.'

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES: 4 Four people in NSW have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including three men and one woman. January 25 Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.

Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.

They are being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and are in stable condition. January 27 A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.

The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.

She is being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital. VICTORIA: 4 January 25 A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.

The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.

He is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east. January 29 A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.

He became unwell on January 23 - two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. He was assessed as being well enough to stay at home. January 30 A woman in her 40s falls ill with the coronavirus.

She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.

She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital. February 1 A Melbourne woman aged in her 20s is at home recovering. She returned from Wuhan on January 25 and fell ill two days later. She was not infectious on the flight, and has remained in isolation since being tested. QUEENSLAND: 2 January 29 Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national wass diagnosed with the virus.

He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital. January 30 A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition. SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 2 February 1 A Chinese couple were placed in isolation in a public hospital. The man and a woman both aged 60, were from Wuhan and visiting relatives in South Australia. SA Health said the pair isolated themselves at home when they developed symptoms and awaited the results of the coronavirus test. Australia has raised the travel alert level to 'do not travel' for the city of Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - and for the entire Hubei province. Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says unless people have contact with someone who is unwell and has come from that part of China, there is no need for current concern. Advertisement

In a Facebook update on Monday evening, Queensland Health said there were no confirmed cases of the virus in the state.

'There are currently no confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in Queensland,' the update said.

Queensland Health urged the community to visit their official website for 'accurate and current information' and 'to avoid misinformation'.

'Anyone who has developed any respiratory symptoms within 14 days of travel to China should see their GP immediately,' Queensland Health said.

'People should call ahead and advise the clinic of their symptoms so precautions can be taken.'

The virus, which experts fear will 'highly likely' continue to spread in Australia, has so far killed 80 people in China and infected more than 2,000 worldwide.

Since the outbreak at the end of December, Chinese authorities have placed 56 million people in lockdown - including more than 100 Australian children aged between six months and 16 years old.
Inspired by the protestors of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, women in large numbers took to streets in Madanpura here, protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Population Register (NPR) and the proposed Register of Citizens (NRC).

The protests continued through wee hours on Monday with women raising slogans like "We all are one" and "Azadi" despite the best efforts of the police to convince people to cooperate.

"You should love your country but it is not necessary that you also love your government. Chandrashekhar Azad has been detained, he is fighting for all of us. He gets detained wherever he goes...we are sitting here for people like Azad and for the women of Shaheen Bagh. We won't move from here," said Fatima, a law student, addressing the protestors.

"The government is not taking any stand on it (CAA). They have stated that they won't take it back so it is dangerous for us as this law is against the Constitution. Nowhere it is written in the Constitution that a Bill can be made based on caste and religion. A few women had started this protest, and now we have also joined it. We are holding the protest after getting inspired by the women of Shaheen Bagh," she added while speaking to the reporters.

Fatima further asserted that asking people to prove their citizenship would be a gigantic exercise which will ultimately result in hike in unemployment rate and corruption.

"In the last 70 years, you wouldn't have seen women sitting on the streets along with their children late at night. The government should think about it as to why they are being forced to sit on the streets," said one local.

"I want to ask Yogi (UP Chief Minister Adityanath) and Amit Shah (Home Minister) if we are anti-nationals? They have stated that women protesting at Shaheen Bagh are anti- Our rights are being taken away from us," said another protestor.

"A fire broke out at Kurla yesterday...the documents of around 80 families have been destroyed due to that. What will they do now? From where will they arrange their documents," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sunnybrook Hospital is shown in Toronto on Jan. 26, 2020. A man in his 50s who travelled to Toronto from China earlier this week has become the first Canadian case of the new coronavirus, health officials said on Jan. 25 as they urged calm in the face of an international outbreak. (The Canadian Press/Doug Ives)

Ontario Confirms Second Presumptive Coronavirus Case

TORONTOPublic health officials in Ontario are reporting a second presumptive case of the new coronavirus.

They say the wife of the man who became the first case of the illness in Canada has also tested positive for the virus.

The province says the woman has been in selfisolation since arriving in Toronto with her husband last week.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams said Monday the woman tested positive for the virus at Ontarios public health laboratory.

We are working alongside Toronto Public Health, who has been in regular contact with the individual during their selfisolation period, Williams said in a statement.

Given the fact that she has been in selfisolation, the risk to Ontarians remains low.

The province is expected to provide an update on the situation at 11:30 a.m. on Monday.

Public health officials have said the womans husband, a man in his 50s, had been showing mild symptoms on his flight from Guangzhou, China, to Toronto.

Theyve since been reaching out to those aboard the China Southern Airlines flight who sat within two metres of the man.

Canadas chief public health officer has said she believes there will be more cases imported into Canada because of global flight patterns, but she notes theres little risk of becoming infected here.

Dr. Theresa Tam also said she expects to receive official confirmation Monday from Winnipegs National Microbiology Lab that the mans illness is indeed the new coronavirus.

The diagnosis is presumptive until that lab finds the same positive results as the tests conducted in Toronto.

The news of Canadas first coronavirus patient came Saturday as authorities around the world grappled with the new type of virus, which originated in China but has since spread.

Several countries, including the United States, have said they plan to evacuate diplomats and visitors from Wuhan, the viruss epicentre.

Foreign Affairs Minister FrancoisPhilippe Champagne said in a statement Sunday that Canada doesnt have a diplomatic presence in Wuhan, but he noted the government is in contact with and providing assistance to Canadians in the area.

China is reporting 2,744 cases and 80 deaths, but it remains to be seen whether the virus is as dangerous as the common flu, which kills thousands every year in Canada alone.

Canadian doctors are urging concerned citizens to take the same sorts of precautions they would to avoid common illnesses, such as frequent handwashing and coughing into the arm or sleeve rather than the hand.

They also say that wearing surgical masks during everyday life has little use in protecting against coronavirus, despite being effective in hospital settings. Early data on the new form of virus suggests masks wont be especially effective, and some say that repeatedly touching and adjusting the masks with unwashed hands could do more harm than good.

But the fear that would prompt someone to buy such a mask is perhaps heightened by parallels to the 2002 SARS outbreak that originated in China and infected more than 8,000 people, killing 800. There were 44 Canadians killed by that strain of coronavirus.
All arrivals from China now screened at Phuket airport

PHUKET: All passengers arriving in Phuket on direct flights from China are now being screened for elevated body temperatures in the hope of preventing the Wuhan coronavirus from spreading to Phuket, the Health Control Division at Phuket International Airport has confirmed.

tourismhealthChinesetransportCoronavirusCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Monday 27 January 2020, 01:48PM

Passengers are screened for elevated body temperature on arrival at Phuket International Airport. Photo: Phuket Tourism Police

All passengers are screened at the boarding gate as soon as they get off the plane, an officer at the Health Control Division at Phuket airport told The Phuket News today.

We are also checking all passengers returning on direct flights to China when they are leaving as well. A special health screening section has been set up beside the Immigration section, the officer added.

The move follows China suspending all flights out of Wuhan last week, with the virus now claiming 80 lives and Chinas National Health Commission today announcing that in addition to 2,744 confirmed infections nationwide, there were nearly 6,000 suspected cases and more than 30,000 people under medical observation. (See story here.)

However, passengers arriving from China after transferring to domestic flights in Bangkok are not being screened, the Health Control Division officer confirmed.

If they are arriving from Bangkok, they have been checked already, the officer said.

At a national press conference held at Phuket airport yesterday, Phuket Provincial Health Chief Thanit Sermkaew explained that from Jan 5 to 25 health officers at the airport had examined 4,943 people arriving on 33 direct flights from China, including 107 captains and cabin crew staff.

The health officers had identified 14 people in total suspected of being infected with the virus, but eight of those had already discharged from hospital, Chief Thanit said.

Six people are still waiting for their blood tests. There are four in Vachira Phuket Hospital, one in Patong Hospital and one in Thalang Hospital. All six people are in stable condition. They can breathe normally, with no need for a respirator, he said.

All government and private hospitals in Phuket have been informed to have isolation rooms prepared for people suspicted of being infected. At this stage, there are two Airborne Infection Isolation Room (AIIR) rooms in Vachira Phuket Hospital, one modified room at Thalang Hospital and one modified room at Patong Hospital.

The PPHO has arranged for 33 officers to conduct examinations at the airport 24 hours a day, with 11 officers on each shift. Officers are standing by at every entrance and exit to the airport, and any persons found with a body temperature higher than 38C will have to go through a deep examination and will be rushed to hospital, Mr Thanit explained.

The PPHO will issue daily reports about the situation in order to update people about what we are doing and the number of people suspected of being infected, as well as to build confidence among people [in what precautions are being taken], he added.

At the press conference yesterday Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana explained that officials were keeping track of all tourists arriving from China during their stay on the island.

Officers are collecting information, such as where the tourists are staying and how they will leave the country. The information is being to prevent Wuhan flu from spreading, he said.

We have also informed hotels that if any of their guests become ill with a high temperature, to please contact the PPHO or nearest government hospital so the guest can be examined and be taken care of by doctors, he added.

We have implemented intensive measures in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) to take care of the people, Governor Phakaphong assured, and handed out 36 infrared thermometers to PPHO officers to use for checking people at the airport.

Also at the press conference yesterday was national Department of Disease Control Deputy Chief Dr Preecha Prempree.

Right now, we have set our prevention and control measures to Level 3, Dr Preecha said.

Officers will focus on areas full of Chinese tourists, and every province has to set up a temporary disease control centes.

Public Relations Department in every province will be responsible for providing updates on prevention progress and the flu situation. Medical officers in government hospitals must have extra supplies of medicines for patients, and there must be a legal expert to suggest what control measures can be implemented at airports and other places, he added.

Checking people and following up must be done carefully in order to not worry local people and tourists, Dr Preecha said.
Jordanian king reiterates rejection of Trump's peace plan US president meeting with Netanyahu and Gantz today

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 27 - King of Jordan Abdallah II, on Monday reiterated his opposition to a peace plan supported by US president Donald Trump to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. ''Our position on the plan,'' he said during a press conference in the country's southern port city of Aqaba, according to local media, ''is clear: we are against it.'' The Hashemite kingdom and Egypt are the only two Arab countries that have a peace treaty with Israel. However, relations between Jordan and Israel have worsened recently, especially after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel intends to annex the Jordan Valley.



The valley is a vast area, partially Palestinian, along the border between the two states. On Monday Trump was due to receive in separate meetings both Netanyahu and the head of Israel's Blue and White centrist party, Benny Gatz. On Tuesday there is expected to be the official presentation of what the US president has called the ''Accord of the Century''. Palestinians have already said that they reject the agreement and have threatened to leave the Oslo Accords. On Tuesday a Day of Rage is planned across the Palestinian Territories against the plan. (ANSAmed).




Harvard Business School professor and businessman Clayton Christensen, known by many as the "godfather" of disruptive innovation, died last Thursday at the age of 67. His brother Carlton confirmed to the Desert News that Christensen died of complications from ongoing treatment for lymphoma.

In 1995, Christensen introduced the concept of "disruptive innovation" in the Harvard Business Review, but it wasn't until two years later that he published "The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail."

That book's thesis influenced the entire direction of thinking in Silicon Valley and for powerhouses like Netflix and its co-founder Reed Hastings, and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, published just weeks after Jobs's death in October 2011, Christensen's book "deeply influenced" the Apple icon.

Soon after Innovator's Dilemma was published, former Intel CEO Andy Grove stood up on stage with a copy of the book at COMDEX, a computer expo trade show, declaring it "the most important book he'd read in a decade." Grove's endorsement put Christensen on the map, landing them both on the cover of Forbes in 1999.

"Clay was hugely influential on me as CEO," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told the Desert News. "I owe much of our success to his writings."

"Reed brought 25 or 30 of us together, and we discussed the book," Neil Rothstein, who worked at Netflix from 2001 to 2012 and eventually ran digital global advertising for the company, told CNBC in 2018 referring to Innovator's Dilemma. "We studied AOL and Blockbuster as cautionary tales. We knew we had to disrupt, including disrupting ourselves, or someone else would do it."

Another prominent endorsement of his work as "part of the zeitgeist" of the disruptive tech era: CNBC's own Disruptor 50 list.

Silicon Valley mourned the death of the management scholar, with everyone from founders and CEOs to legendary investors expressing grief and condolences on social media.

Veteran venture capitalist Marc Andreessen reacted on Twitter, calling Dr. Christensen a "giant of enterprise," in his attribution of a quote from "How Will You Measure Your Life?"  another famed publication of Christensen's.

Andreessen tweet

Box founder and CEO Aaron Levie referred to "The Innovator's Dilemma" as the "best explanation of business, strategy, and markets out there."

Levie tweet

Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng called Christensen a "brilliant mind and a wonderful person," while also crediting him for his influence on today's most prominent tech companies.

Ng tweet

Christensen remarked in a 2012 TEDx talk, "When I have my interview with God at the end of my life, he's not going to ask me to show how high I went in anybody's org chart or how much money I left behind in the bank when I died. It's actually really important you succeed at what you're succeeding at, but that isn't going to be the measure of life."

Dr. Christensen was born in Salt Lake City and received a bachelor's degree in economics from Brigham Young University in 1975. Two years later, he received his master's in applied econometrics as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. Christensen is survived by his wife Christine and five children, Matthew, Michael, Spencer, Ann and Catherine Christensen.
Vice President Mike Pence along with Trump administration spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway will make a stop in Camp Hill next Wednesday, the vice presidents campaign announced on Monday.

They will speak at a Woman for Trump event which also will feature U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Earlier on Feb. 5 Pence will attend a school choice event in Philadelphia, according to the news release.

The campaign didnt immediately give the time and location of the Camp Hill appearance. The event wasnt listed on the Woman for Trump website as of early Monday afternoon. Conway, who often goes on cable television to speak for President Donald Trump, is also a high-ranking advisor to Trump.
Gareth Hanrahan is garnering quite a reputation as a fantasy author. He tells Ed Power how some of his novels settings are inspired by old Cork.

Sauron's dark fortress in JRR Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings is said to have been inspired by a 16th century tower close to the authors childhood homein Birmingham.

George RR Martins A Game of Thrones is partly a retelling of the dynastic skulduggery of the War of the Roses, which Martin read about growing up in Bayonne, New Jersey.

For rising fantasy author Gareth Hanrahan some of his biggest ideas likewise came from close at hand.

A lot of the locations in my novels are inspired by places in Cork. And some of the history, he says.

Cork is an odd city. To say its a mess is the wrong word. The centre is relatively modern because of the burning of the city.

"But there are chunks of Victorian places right next to them. And next to them, brand new office blocks.

The Irish book world is dominated by mainstream literary fiction  crit lit as writer China Mieville has described it.

Yet the chattering classes of Irish letters tend to ignore the endless expanse of genre fiction.

This is a parallel universe in which Hanrahan is regarded as an up-and-comer on the back of two breathtaking fantasy novels, 2018s The Gutter Prayer and newly-published sequel The Shadow Saint.

Both are rip-roaring romps (a third instalment is due in 2021).

They are populated with compelling and idiosyncratic heroes, such as a thief suffering from a degenerative disease thats slowly turning him into a living statue.

And there are grotesque monsters including the ghoulish Tallowmen: living candles that hunt their prey remorselessly.

The real star of the books though is the setting of Guerdon.

As Hanrahan intimates, the city is constructed out of dream-like fragments of the authors native Cork (interwoven with elements of London, Edinburgh and HP Lovecraft).

There are winks towards Corks past as a trading centre and its present as a pharmaceuticals hub (the alchemic arts have a long history in Guerdon).

There are geographical parallels too. Guerdon is a higgledy-piggledy neverland that has metastasised around a harbour with a star-shaped island (it isnt named Spike Island but it might as well be).

Recently, Hanrahan received an email from a reader who believed he had solved the puzzle of The Gutter Prayer half way through: it was, among other things, a gothic re-imagining of Cork.

He said, Everyone is going up hills. Its really like Cork. To say it is based on Cork is an exaggeration.

"But when youre trying to find things to hang ideas on  you look around and grab from anywhere.

TABLE TOP

Novels are a new frontier for Hanrahan who, since graduating from UCC with a degree in computer science, has becoming a leading writer in the table-top gaming industry, of which Dungeons And Dragons is the best known example.

In fantasy, science and fiction and horror gaming, Hanrahan, who grew up in Douglas and is currently based in Turners Cross, is a bit of a star.

Ask your average table-top gamer to nominate their favourite designer and his is one of the names that will trip off their tongue.

Hanrahan has written extensively for some of the most popular role-playing titles.

Youll see Hanrahans name on rulebooks and adventure scenarios for games such as Traveller, Trail of Cthulhu, Paranoia and Warhammer Fantasy.

Hanrahan is a big name game designer, but has lived quietly in Cork his entire life, attending school at Chriost Ri and Douglas Community School.

My original plan was to get a proper job in computers and do a bit of writing in the side, says Hanrahan who started working with games publishers as a member of UCCs Warps role-playing and wargaming society.

Hanrahan wrote tournament adventures for UCCs Warpcon convention and found he had a talent for it.

His first published piece was a scenario for Blue Planet: nothing to do with David Attenborough but rather a swashbuckling blend of Jacques Cousteau, Kevin Costners Waterworld and William Gibsons Neuromancer.

I got a job in computers and wasnt very good at it. The company downsized. I had three months cash left and thought, Ill try freelancing  see how long it lasts.

He was immediately successful and soon in high demand.

Today, married and with three young children, he writes for Pelgrane Press, acclaimed publisher of titles such as Trail of Cthulhu and Nights Black Agents (and which, a bit surreally, is run out of Bantry in West Cork).

But, with his novels having done well, fiction takes up more and more of his time.

Because I was making money from [writing role playing games] writing novels was taking money away from myself.

"Eventually I thought Id give another shot. I got an agent and the book sold, which was surprising.

GOLDEN AGE

Fantasy is in a fascinating place at the moment. It was for decades looked down on as the bastion for geeks.

But everyone is a geek nowadays and the genre has exploded. There is feminist fantasy, fantasy that draws on non-Western cultures, LGBT fantasy.

The New Yorker recently profiled fantasy and science fiction author NK Jemisin.

Your trendy book club is probably considering reading something by Jeff Van der Meer. All has changed utterly.

Hanrahan is very much part of this new wave in so far as his work exists outside the cliches established by Lord of the Rings.

The Shadow Saint has no dwarves or elves; the line between good and evil is not cleanly drawn (not that it really was with Tolkien either but, such, alas is the perception).

On the other hand, he isnt pretending to have turned fantasy on its head.

I didnt set out to be ground-breaking, he says. In some ways I use tropes, but very seriously.

The plot of my first book is that one girl is the chosen one.

Like many afficionados he is quietly astonished at how popular Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy more generally have become.

Hanrahan remembers the bad old days when tabletop gaming was scorned as a social crutch for 40 Year-Old Virgin types.

But with pop culture juggernauts such as Stranger Things giving Dungeons and Dragons its blessing, perceptions have shifted.

Dungeons and Dragons is doing well and if D&D does well everyone does well. Its not just Stranger Things.

"You have things like [popular web-series] Critical Role. And there are Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. Orbit [Hanrahans publisher] has just sold a huge amount of the Witcher novels [following the Netflix adaptation].

The Witcher

Gamings influence is everywhere he feels.

Hit points, difficulty levels, the use of experience points to boost attributes  all are hardwired into, in particular, video games.

And all ultimately flow from Dungeons and Dragons and its co-creator Gary Gygax.

Gary Gygax has in some ways defined the 21st century, says Hanrahan. Weve had the gamification of things.

"Everything these days has experience points and levels. The geeks have taken over the world.

The Shadow Saint is published by Orbit. Gareth Hanrahan will be signing the book at Waterstones Cork, from 3pm to 5pm Saturday February 1.
Actor/politician/writer Sarathkumar reveals the reasons behind his wife Radikaa relaxing her strict shooting rules for Mani Ratnams VaanamKottatum - including the one about not sharing screen space with him. The script was exceptional, for one thing, he says. The real-life couple plays a reel-life one in the film, acting together after 21 years.

I was staying away from films for a while, and thats when Dhana, a protege of Mani Ratnam Sir, approached us for VaanamKottatum, he told DC in an exclusive. It was a fascinating subject about family relationships set in a rural milieu. We both loved it and gladly gave our nod. Both of us were clear about what our respective roles demanded and performed accordingly. So, we didnt have to compete at any point of time, he clarified.

Radikaa is particular that she wont work after 6p.m and on Sundays, said Sarathkumar. But, for VaanamKottatum, everything got relaxed. Dhana has crystal clarity about his scenes and takes. He never wastes time taking unnecessary shots.

Asked to name one thing which he does not approve of in Radikaa, he said (smilingly) her short-tempered nature.

Sharing thesecret of his youthfulness and energy, he said, I am a fitness freak. I hit the gym every day.

Radikaa, on her part said, Both of us are passionate about our work and hence we are able to bring out our best in various fields. In the past, many have approached us with scripts which we would both be a part of. But they were not appealing. Dhanas script was really good and his writing was strong. Saraths is a power-packed role.

She proudly revealed that both of them are strict about food habits. He is a wonderful man and I love his perseverance. However, his benevolent nature without finding out if others really require help is one thing which bothers me, she confessed
Indias no.1 pain recovery gel  Omnigel, which hails from the Cipla family launches its first-ever TVC to strike a chord with Indians while reinforcing that Omnigel keeps you pain-free and uninterrupted, and empowers you to fulfill your desires. Acclaimed for its medicinal and healing benefits, the commercial aims to spread awareness about its beneficial outcomes which are powered by a Diclofenac formula and lead to speedy recovery whilst working on the root cause of the pain.

This heart-warming television commercial (TVC) speaks volumes about the essential needs of the common layperson suffering from body aches arising due to varied day-to-day activities and how Omnigel is specially designed to provide recovery from physical pain. Set in a picturesque location of a small town, the commercial depicts the story of a young married couple attending a funfair, with the wife facing a physical ordeal while partaking in activities. It then focuses on the husband advising her to use Omnigel, to enable twice as fast recovery than any other gel available in the market, and provide instant relief.

The advertisement ends on a jovial note, with the pain simply vanishing after applying Omnigel, and the wife swinging back into action. Within a short time-span, the TVC showcases the myriad benefits provided by the gel, and how it aims at curbing the chances of the pain from reoccurring, thus preventing a relapse. It vividly conveys the message in line with the brands tagline, Omnigel Dard ko Jadd se mitata hai. Further, even after earning the trust and credibility of its vast user base, this is the first time the brand is communicating directly with its consumers through a television commercial.

Commenting on the release of the commercial, R. Gopalakrishnan, Senior Vice President and Head, India Generics said, Over two decades Omnigel has been recommended by a large number of pharmacists for body pain caused by various reasons. Through the television commercial, we aim to inform those individuals, troubled by recurrent aches, about Omnigel, which helps with beneficial and speedy solutions. The gel has a unique formula which not only provides relief but also leads to a faster recovery.

Commenting on the same, Shivam Puri, CEO, Cipla Health said, We are humbled by how our consumers have bestowed their trust in Omnigel all these years. The primary objective of this television commercial is to inform individuals about not missing out on the little joys of life due to any kind of body pain, for which easy and immediate solutions are available. Omnigel stands for not only providing relief but also promises recovery whilst treating the root cause of the pain. Our brand tends to give multiple solutions for a large number of body ache related issues.
David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., suggested last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos that, from July onward, the company "won't manage the initial public offerings of American and European companies unless they have at least one non-white or non-straight male board candidate." In 2021, he says the company will "move toward ... requesting two."

"[W]e're not going to take a company public unless there's at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women," Solomon boldly said.

This is a "vision," according to Eliza Martinuzzi at Bloomberg, "for his bank's role in imposing better governance on its clients."

That's a curious framing of what is clearly a racist and sexist new investment banking policy, which (for good measure, and to score added points with the wokescolds, I suppose) also openly discriminates against heterosexuals. What Martinuzzi means when she says Goldman Sachs will be "imposing better governance" on its clients is that the investment banking firm will be demanding that its business partners snap to form in embracing diversity as a corporate sacrament.

But is Goldman Sachs really in any position to make demands of its clients and "impose" a standard that they have boards of directors with a specific makeup when it comes to race, sex, or sexual orientation?

Not really. Investment banks like Goldman Sachs compete to underwrite stock issuances when companies seek to go public. For example, let's say Company A has been successfully making and selling widgets for two decades. Now Company A is looking to raise capital in order to expand its business and looks to offer partial ownership of the company by issuing stock in an initial public offering (IPO). Investment banks will gauge the market's appetite for the stock, quantified as a number of shares and a price, and negotiate the fees for marketing and distributing the shares of stock. If the business opportunity is lucrative enough, the competition might be tight and fierce.

To put it bluntly, while Goldman Sachs is a big player in that market space, it's not the only show in town. Other investment banks may be courting Company A's business, too, like Goldman's two largest competitors, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Neither of them has yet followed suit in announcing such an openly discriminatory policy to pacify to the woke mobs.

Company A has choices, you see, and doesn't have to abide by Goldman's arbitrary new standards when deciding upon its own board of directors. That's a key feature of free markets that progressives often lament. You see, progressives can't stand that free markets impede what they consider to be social progress (though in this case, the "progress" they seek is open discrimination against straight white men).

Progressives view government regulation as a cattle prod to enact the social changes they desire among the populace and would like nothing more than to apply that same mechanism to the free market. But absent government regulation, Goldman has given the corporate world "a good start," according to Eliza Martinuzzi. She concedes that Goldman Sachs is likely doing all of this only to shed its "vampire squid" image as a "pure opportunist," but "whatever the motivation, pushing for greater diversity ups the collective pressure on other financiers to use their power for good. Over to you, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan," she writes.

Interestingly, she seems to recognize that market competition renders Goldman's policy toothless without conformity from its competitors. In other words, until the government can force businesses to have boards of directors of which progressives approve, Goldman Sachs pressuring its competitors to follow suit in discriminating against straight white males will, begrudgingly, simply have to do.

A question remains. How will this public proclamation of an openly discriminatory policy benefit Goldman Sachs (aside from such embarrassingly tepid accolades by progressive pundits like Eliza Martinuzzi, that is)?

After all, if Company A is poised to sell five million units of a groundbreaking new product, which is more important? That five million units will likely be sold and substantial profits earned or the fact that the six people on the company's board of directors are white guys? Goldman Sachs now has a publicly declared policy that suggests that the latter observation is so important that Company A's immense potential for financial success is irrelevant. And Goldman's biggest competitors have made no strict proclamations to similarly discriminate against potential business partners, so nothing will inhibit them from making an attractive offer to Company A, which may give them a decided edge in the marketplace.

In the end, if Goldman Sachs really wanted to discriminate against companies with all-white boards of directors, a public announcement wouldn't have been necessary. The firm could simply not make any bids to underwrite IPOs for those companies. No fanfare, but the mission would be generally accomplished. Rather than do that, they instead chose to create a public spectacle by saying that they would openly discriminate against those companies on the basis of their potential clients' race, sex, and sexual orientation. And that is because the public spectacle about the obvious discrimination is the point.

Think about that choice for a moment, in the context of a more day-to-day circumstance than the world of large and lucrative IPOs. Imagine that a regional bank institutes a sinister policy to discriminate against potential borrowers who are black. If the bank truly desires an outcome where it won't be doing business with black borrowers, the bank might invent several reasons why each loan to a black couple is denied, i.e., short credit history, short employment history, lack of collateral, etc.

Now, that would open this hypothetical bank up to massive amounts of liability, as, upon any investigation, the bank would have to prove that it also denied loans to similar white applicants, thereby proving there was no racial discrimination applied in its business practices. But riddle me this -- how could that massive liability be any less than that bank openly proclaiming that that it would not be doing any business with two potential borrowers who happen to be black, and instituting a strict policy that one of the two potential borrowers would have to be non-black to be offered a loan?

If that inverse scenario is clearly not legal or socially acceptable, how can it possibly be that an investment bank's policy to discriminate against any business with an all-white male board of directors is not only assumed to be legal, but celebrated as some sort of social victory?

One would have to harbor a diseased sense of morality, indeed, to consider such an openly discriminatory and bigoted policy to be any kind of social "progress."
A drink-driver pursued at up to 90mph through residential areas is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a court has heard.

Steven Hastings was given three years probation for what his own lawyer described as "outrageous" behaviour near his home in Co Antrim.

The 40-year-old, of Rossmore Green in Greenisland, is also to be disqualified for a further five years.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard he was behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Astra which failed to stop for police on the Old Carrickfergus Road in the early hours of September 14 last year.

Prosecutors said a pursuit began, with Hastings driving at over 90mph on some stretches.

He continued at high speed through residential areas, failing to slow down at junctions and travelling around blind corners.

The episode went on for more than two miles before Hastings stopped the car, got out and tried to make off on foot.

He was arrested a short time later and failed a breath test. Inquiries also confirmed he was banned from driving at the time.

Hastings admitted charges of dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and while disqualified, failing to stop for police, having no MOT certificate and resisting police.

Defence solicitor Pearse MacDermott said: "He accepts his behaviour was outrageous on this occasion."

According to the lawyer Hastings had reacted to bad news about contact with his child by drinking earlier that day.

"He was emotionally unstable... and also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder having been subject to a number of paramilitary punishment beatings over the years," he added.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall pointed out that Hastings was in breach of a previous suspended jail sentence for earlier driving offences.

However, Mr MacDermott argued that imprisonment would not provide the help his client needs for his alcohol and emotional problems.

Deciding there was merit in those submissions, Mrs Bagnall imposed the probation order and driving ban.

She also fined Hastings 100 for having no MoT certificate.
The British government is conspiring with the Trump administration to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US to face bogus Espionage Act charges and a possible 175-year prison term.

The Australian-born journalist and publisher has been the target of a 9-year legal vendetta, mounted by British and US authorities, and supported by the Canadian political establishment, because he sought to inform working people around the world of the crimes carried out by US imperialism and its allies.

Julian Assange in a prison van traveling to Westminster Magistrates Court in London, in December.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The prosecution of Assange is a legal travesty. One, moreover, that is being used to gut basic democratic rights, including the rights of free speech and freedom of the press and the right to due process.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer has repeatedly denounced his treatment by British authoritiesincluding his seven years of effective detention in the Ecuadorean Embassy and his current incarceration, in virtual solitary confinement, at the hellish maximum security Bellmarsh Prisonas psychological torture. Scores of doctors have warned that this torture has placed Assanges life in grave danger.

The CIA has spied on Assanges interactions with his lawyers. Chelsea Manning, who handed over hundreds of thousands of secret US cables to WikiLeaks in 2010, has also been detained since last March because she refused to testify against Assange in a rigged US Grand Jury proceeding.

Assange has been subjected to this horrific treatment by some of the worlds most powerful governments for the crime of informing the public about the war crimes and diplomatic skullduggery of their governments. These include the massacre of civilians in Iraq by US troops, the mistreatment of prisoners of war in Afghanistan, and Washingtons bullying of governments around the world. Even leading bourgeois newspapers, like the New York Times, that have published scurrilous attacks on Assange have been forced to concede that his successful prosecution would represent a threat to journalists and the freedom of the press the world over.

The Canadian political establishment has maintained a deafening and complicit silence about the prosecution and persecution of Assange throughout the past nine years. This is true of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals, but also of all the other parties that posture as progressive, from the New Democrats and Greens to the Bloc Quebecois, and the pseudo-left Quebec Solidaire.

The reason for this deafening silence is not hard to find. The Canadian capitalist elite, which is more reliant than ever on its military-strategic partnership with US imperialism to advance its own predatory interests on the global stage, fears the impact of WikiLeaks exposures. Like its British and American allies, the Canadian ruling elite is anxious that Assange be subjected to exemplary punishment so as to intimidate all those who seek to lay bare the crimes and machinations of the western imperialist powers.

Whilst the Trudeau government is not directly involved in Assanges prosecution, it has provided crucial political support for it. Last July, for example, the then Canadian Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, co-hosted a Global Media Freedom Conference in London along with British Foreign Secretary Jeremey Hunt, just weeks after Hunt had presided over the British governments illegal seizure of Assange from his refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Canada and the UK are working together to defend media freedom and improve the safety of journalists who report across the world, Freelands office declared in a truly Orwellian statement. Needless to say, neither Freeland nor Hunt mentioned the fate of Assange, an award-winning journalist and publisher, at the meeting.

The refusal of any section of Canadas political establishment to criticize the persecution of Assange, let alone mobilize popular opposition to it, is a damning exposure of their oft-repeated claims to stand for human rights and democracy on the world stage. The reality is Ottawa, like Washington, cynically and hypocritically invokes human rights as a cover for the rapacious pursuit of their imperialist interests. The North American imperialist powers denounce both real and fabricated violations of human rights committed by governments they view as obstacles to their interests, while covering up and excusing state repression, torture, and war crimes carried out by their client regimes, allies, and, last but not least, their own military and security intelligence apparatuses.

Since 1999, successive Liberal and Conservative governments have participated in US-led wars and regime change military interventions in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Haiti, Libya, Syria and Iraq that have left entire societies in ruins. Trudeaus Liberals have further integrated Canada into US military-strategic offensives around the world. This includes participating in Washingtons war preparations against nuclear-armed Russia and China, but also its regime-change intrigues in Venezuela.

Canadas ruling elite has also moved to criminalize dissent and workers struggles at home and to build up the repressive powers of the state with the aim of suppressing popular opposition to austerity, social inequality, and war. Canada is a key partner in the global US National Security Agency-led Five Eyes spying network. Under the phony pretext of the war on terror, successive governments have dramatically expanded the powers of the intelligence services. Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) has been empowered to break virtually any law in disrupting activities deemed to pose a threat to public security or Canadas territorial integrity.

The work of whistleblowers like Assange and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been invaluable in bringing to light some of the crimes Canadian imperialism has committed as it pursues aggression abroad and attacks democratic rights at home. It was a US State Department memo released by WikiLeaks that informed the Canadian population that while the Liberal government of Jean Chretien publicly posed as an opponent of the George W. Bush-ordered 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was reassuring Washington behind the scenes that it would provide discreet support for the illegal US war.

Following the meeting, political director Jim Wright emphasized that, despite public statements that the Canadian assets in the Straits of Hormuz will remain in the region exclusively to support Enduring Freedom, noted the memo, which described a meeting between top US and Canadian foreign ministry officials on March 17, 2003. They will also be available to provide escort services in the Straits and will otherwise be discreetly useful to the military effort. The two ships in the Straits now are being augmented by two more en route, and there are patrol and supply aircraft in the U.A.E. [United Arab Emirates] which are also prepared to 'be useful.

Snowdens disclosures in 2013 revealed that the Canadian Security Establishment (CSE), Canadas signal intelligence agency, acts as a veritable arm of the NSA. Documents leaked by Snowden showed that the CSE helps develop NSA spying operations and techniques, provides information on countries that US citizens have difficulty accessing, and conducts economic spying for Canadian corporations around the world.

The Canadian ruling elite was outraged by these exposures. In 2013, Conservative Foreign Minister John Baird declared that Snowden should hand himself over to the US authorities, effectively condemning him to a death sentence. Three years later, Michael Doucetthe governments top watchdog for the countrys intelligence agenciesblurted out the true feelings of the ruling elite towards whistleblowers like Snowden and Assange. Asked his opinion on how Snowden would have been treated had he been an employee of CSIS, the countrys premier domestic spy agency, Doucet responded, If Edward Snowden had worked for CSIS and did what he did, he should be shot. (See: Canadas top spy watchdog says Edward Snowden should be shot)

Underscoring the fact that Doucets remark reflected broader sentiments in ruling circles, the Trudeau government took no action against him for this outrageous comment.

The complicit silence of Canadas political elite on Assanges torture, persecution, and imminent extradition underscores that his freedom can be won only through the mobilization of the working class, the basic constituency for the defence of democratic rights around the world.

Workers and young people who want to oppose Canadian imperialist aggression and war overseas and attacks on democratic rights at home should join the global struggle for the freedom of Assange and Manning, which has already won important and growing support in Britain, Australia, France, South Asia, and countries around the world. The struggle to defend these two courageous whistleblowers must be made the spearhead of the fight to oppose the imperialist powers drive to war and the gutting of democratic rights.

The Socialist Equality Party (Canada) is holding a public meeting in Montreal on Sunday, February 2 to initiate steps to develop a cross-Canada campaign to win Assanges freedom, defend democratic rights, and oppose Canadian imperialism and war.

We strongly urge those living in western Quebec and eastern Ontario to make plans to attend. For details see below.

No to war and the assault on democratic rights: Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning must be defended!

Montreal

Sunday, February 2, at 1:30 PM

Centre St-Pierre, Room 201

1212 Rue Panet (near the Beaudry Metro station, on the Green Line)
Transportation Minister Jose Luis Abalos. XOAN REY (EFE)

Spanish government officials are providing few details about the Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodriguezs controversial layover at Madrid airport last week despite European Union sanctions prohibiting her from entering the bloc.

Opposition parties have been demanding explanations from Spains new leftist coalition of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Unidas Podemos regarding the presence in Madrid of the second-in-command to President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez in 2019. Craig Ruttle (AP)

Spains former foreign minister Josep Borrell, who now serves as the new EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, has been asked by the European parliament about the matter. And Spain could be queried for explanations by the EU body in charge of enforcing the 2017 sanctions. For now, the European Commission has said that applying the sanctions falls to national governments, and that these have a margin of interpretation.

In Spain, the opposition is also asking about the fact that Transportation Minister Jose Luis Abalos met with Rodriguez for 25 minutes inside her aircraft, as first reported by the online news publication Vozpopuli. Abalos has declined to speak about the matter to EL PAIS, and the Foreign Ministry has fallen back on Abaloss various versions of events. On Friday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defended his minister: He did everything he could to prevent a diplomatic crisis, and he managed it.

Madrid-Doha

Security services at Madrids Adolfo Suarez-Barajas airport have confirmed that Rodriguez took a commercial flight to Doha (Qatar) after meeting with Spains transportation minister, Jose Luis Abalos, inside the formers private jet in the international transit area of the airport in the early hours of Monday last week.

According to these sources, Rodriguez technically never stepped on Spanish soil but remained inside her plane, then was briefly allowed into an airport VIP lounge. She is one of 25 Venezuelan officials who are banned from entering the EU due to the political repression against the civilian population by the Maduro regime.

According to Spains Interior Ministry, the travel ban does not prohibit layovers as long as you dont enter the country. But sources specializing in EU sanctions said that member states must adopt the necessary measures to prevent banned individuals from entering their territory, even in transit. These sources said that Barajas airport is located in Spanish territory.

Meeting on plane

Abaloss encounter with Rodriguez inside her plane in the early hours of Monday has triggered criticism from Spains opposition parties. Did Abalos meet with the vice-president of Maduros totalitarian regime? asked Edmundo Bal of the center-right Ciudadanos (Citizens) on Twitter. With someone who is banned from entering the EU for being a senior official of that tyranny?

The Venezuelan official flew out of Maiquietia-Simon Bolivar airport in Caracas at 9am local time on Sunday, January 19, on a private Falcon jet operated by the company Sky Valet.

Also on board was Venezuelas tourism minister, Felix Plasencia, who is not on the list of banned officials and who was planning to spend some time in Madrid to attend the Fitur tourism fair while his travel companions flew on to Istanbul, Turkey. The Venezuelan embassy reportedly informed the Spanish Foreign Ministry about the fact that Delcy Rodriguez would be on board the flight, and that it would make a technical stop in Barajas before proceeding to its final destination.

Rodriguezs flight landed in Barajas at 12.12am on Monday, and stopped at the terminal for private flights. After Vozpopuli broke the story of the Spanish transportation ministers presence, Abalos himself said that he went there exclusively to pick up his personal friend, Venezuelan Tourism Minister Plasencia, but that he suddenly got a call from the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, asking him to try to ensure that Rodriguez did not get off the plane. He said he was on board the aircraft for 25 minutes, and that nothing was discussed.

Airport security sources said that after Abalos had left, Rodriguez and her aides were allowed into the airports VIP lounge because the crew wanted to get some rest and passengers are not allowed to remain on board by themselves. Only Plasencia crossed customs and entered Spanish territory, said these sources.

Delcy Rodriguezs private plane eventually left without her en route to Istanbul at 2.42pm on Monday. By then, the Venezuelan official had already boarded a commercial flight to Doha, followed by another flight from there to Istanbul. The trip from Madrid to Doha is a six and a half hours, almost three more hours than Madrid to Istanbul.

Juan Guaido: We are not alone in this Guaido se dirige a los venezolanos concentrados en la Puerta del Sol Elvira Palomo Venezuela's acting president, Juan Guaido, who is on a European tour to seek support for new elections in his country, visited Madrid on Saturday, where he addressed a crowd gathered in the central Puerta del Sol square to hear him speak. The opposition leader told thousands of fellow Venezuelans currently living in Spain that "in a few years your children, some of whom have never known Venezuela, will ask you what you were doing during the country's most difficult times." Promising to return to Caracas, he said that we are not alone, we are together in this.

English version by Susana Urra.
[January 27, 2020] Citizen is Now Active in Detroit

Citizen is the first app to combine location information with 911 intelligence to keep you and your loved ones safe. Today, you can download it in Detroit. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005350/en/ Alerts about incidents like fires, car collisions, and searches for missing people provide information for your own safety in real time, 24/7. The alerts are accompanied by live stories, real-time updates, and user-generated content to provide you with situational awareness and a comprehensive picture of what's happening around you. "We created Citizen to make your world a safer place," said Andrew Frame, Founder and CEO of Citizen. "We are driven by te extraordinary stories of selflessness and heroism we hear each day from our users. Citizen has prompted multiple families to evacuate burning buildings, and users to help to locate kidnapped children and missing people."



"Citizen gives you peace of mind so you don't have to worry about why there are cop cars on your corner or helicopters overhead," said Ben Jealous, former President of the NAACP and Social Impact Investor. "Alerts provide you with public safety information previously only available to first responders. Citizen empowers communities through information equality, enhancing both personal safety and police transparency." "Citizen is a game changer for public safety," said Bill Bratton, Former NYPD Commissioner, LAPD Chief, and Citizen board member. "Up until now, we relied only on first responders to provide safety to you. That's not the way it's supposed to work. Cops can't do it alone, and firefighters can't do it alone. Citizen allows you to collaborate with your community to ensure public safety. I am proud that New York was the first to prove Citizen's value, and we are excited to bring this technology to the rest of the US. People trust Citizen because it works."

Citizen is a free app available for iOS and Android (News - Alert) platforms. Learn more about the app and download it here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005350/en/

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After last weeks tempest in a Champagne bottle, and a ridiculous extreme pillow fighting contest, The Bachelor Season 24 returns tonight. Whats coming up? Well, airline pilot Peter Weber will be taking the bachelorettes on a date to glamorous Cleveland. Wait, Cleveland? What happened to white sand beaches and exotic climes?

Anyway, the question hovering over the romantic getaway to, um, Cleveland, is whats the dang deal with Alayah? The drama in Episode 3 involved Victoria P. warning Peter that her fellow pageant veteran, Alayah, behaved one way when the the cameras werent rolling, and put on another persona when they were.

(How to watch 'The Bachelor: The Bachelor" airs at 8 p.m. Mondays on ABC. No cable or antenna? Live stream The Bachelor on Hulu + Live TV. You can also catch up on episodes you may have missed via Hulu + Live TV.)

Was Alayah -- gasp! -- there for the dreaded wrong reasons? That is, was she only on The Bachelor to get camera time instead of sincerely looking for love? After talking with Alayah about it not once, but twice, Peter concluded that she had to go.

But after making that decision, Peter wondered if he had done the right thing. In the preview for Episode 4, it looks like Alayah hasnt totally gone yet.

So what will happen? Will Alayah worm her way back into the remaining group of bachelorettes? Or will Peter give her a once-and-for-all goodbye?

Either way, we know there will be anguished confessionals, and maybe even a concerned look or two from Chris Harrison.

The Bachelor airs new episodes at 8 p.m. Monday nights on ABC; stream via Hulu + Live TV.

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
NEW HAVEN  While awaiting word on a visiting high school student being testing for coronavirus, Mayor Justin Elicker said he and the citys Health Department are working closely with Yale New Haven Hospital, the state Department of Health and others to monitor updates on the outbreak.

Elicker requested a conference call on it over the weekend, something that will continue in the future.

A student at the Yale Model United Nations conference, which brought some 1,400 students to New Haven for the event that started on Thursday, tested positive for influenza. Officials could hear as soon as Tuesday whether the student also tests positive for coronavirus, Elicker said.

Yale suspended the conference Sunday because of the concern about coronavirus.

We want to make absolutely sure that we are monitoring the situation so that we catch any potential coronavirus quickly, Elicker said in a press availability Monday.

I think it is very important for the city, health officials to have an ongoing line of communication with the state Department of Public Health and our regional partners should this become an issue, the mayor said.

Wesleyan University Monday reported that the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control found that one of its students with flu-like symptoms does not have the coronavirus. The student was being held in isolation before the CDC report, but that is no longer necessary, Lauren Rubenstein, spokeswoman for Wesleyan said.

The student is doing well, Rubenstein said.

A request for comment was sent to Yale University Monday.

More than 2,700 cases of the new viral respiratory illness have been confirmed since an outbreak began last month in the Chinese city of Wuhan, with more than 80 confirmed deaths, The Associated Press reported Monday.

Elicker reminded residents that this nation is in the middle of flu season with many suffering from that virus, including Elickers young daughter. He said residents should take steps to protect themselves from influenza by getting a flu shot and making sure to wash their hands frequently.

Yale New Haven Hospital issued a statement on the coronavirus that currently it is not treating any patients with confirmed 2019 coronavirus, but it reported having an exceptionally high number of patients with influenza this winter.

Each patient presenting with flu-like symptoms is evaluated thoroughly to prescribe a care plan. Yale New Haven Health also encourages those with respiratory infections to use any of the walk-in clinics listed on our website as an alternative to our emergency department. If you have traveled in China during the past two weeks and are now ill with a possible respiratory tract infection, please call your doctor, or the clinic, first so that you can be cared for in a safe manner, a hospital spokesman said.

Monday was the first day on the job for New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond. Elicker said before this, others in the New Haven Health Department have reached out to the public schools to remind children and families of the precautions they should take. Bond was scheduled to participate in a conference call update on the virus Monday afternoon and will have weekly calls with the CDC.

Elicker was asked whether the university should have canceled the Model UN Forum sooner than Sunday.

Im not going to make a call on that. Im sure there was a very robust dialogue about whether the university should do this or not. ... Im sure there were a lot of disappointed people but I also imagine that the university wanted to make absolutely sure that everyone participating is safe, Elicker said.

Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart, when asked if Yale would recommend cancelling trips to China, said the university was working with public health experts to develop contingency plans should we need them.

Dr. Paul Genecin, director of Yale Health, said in an earlier statement that the visiting high school student tested positive for influenza and that the test result suggests the student has influenza rather than 2019-nCoV, or a coronavirus.

Peart said part of Genecins statement included the fact that the immediate health risk from the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) to the general Amerian public is considered low at this time. Airline passengers from China arriving at major U.S. airports are being screened for illness and China has restricted travel in several cities to help limit the spread of the virus, Peart said.

Southern Connecticut State University said it is following the U.S. State Department advisories on travel. The department issued a Level 3 advisory which essentially tells people to reconsider a trip to Wuhan, China. It also issued a level 3 alert which is to avoid all nonessential travel to the area.

We will not be supporting any study abroad to China at this time, Patrick Dilger, who heads the communication office at Southern, said in text.

Elicker said at this point no one is very concerned that there is a major problem here, but everyone wants to be ready in the event that happens. He said that is the goal of all the officials who are monitoring this.

Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday said the state is continuing to closely monitor the outbreak of coronavirus in China.

Lamont, in a statement, said both persons watched in Connecticut tested positive for influenza type A and the cause of their illness is most likely the flu. At the present time, testing for the new coronavirus strain is only available at the CDC.

The state is closely monitoring reported cases and remaining cautious on behalf of the public, Lamont said. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to provide updated information on these developments to the people of our state. We ask that the public not panic but take possible symptoms seriously and consult a healthcare professional, he said.

I want to assure all residents of Connecticut that we are taking this new virus very seriously and have been closely coordinating our response with local health departments and medical providers throughout the state, DPH Commissioner Renee D. Coleman-Mitchell said.

U.S Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. is asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public health emergency so we can ensure that the Center for Disease Control is able to access the additional funding it may need to expedite the development of a vaccine and to prepare to contain any outbreak in our country, he said in a statement.

Connecticut is at the height of the respiratory virus season, according to the governors office, with a total of 784 influenza-associated hospitalizations reported since the beginning of the 2019-20 season. Seven new influenza-associated deaths were reported last week, resulting in a total of 20 influenza-associated deaths reported since the beginning of the 2019-20 season.

CDC believes at this time that symptoms of the coronavirus may appear in as few as two days or as long as 14 days after exposure. No vaccine or specific treatment for the infection is available, however care is supportive. When person-to-person spread has occurred with MERS and SARS, it is thought to have happened via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, like how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. Spread of SARS and MERS between people has generally occurred between close contacts, the governors office continued.

Symptoms of the coronavirus may include: runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and a general feeling of being unwell.

The CDC recommends that individuals avoid all nonessential travel to Wuhan, China, but has provided specific information for those who are still planning a trip to Wuhan and for individuals who have recently returned from that city and may be experiencing symptoms. While there is currently no vaccine for this coronavirus, everyday preventative actions can help stop the spread of this and other respiratory viruses.

The most recent guidance from the Centers for Disease and Prevention about the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China is available here.

On Sunday, officials in Orange County, CA confirmed a third case of the virus in the U.S., in a patient who traveled from Wuhan, China, the city where the outbreak started.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
We boarded the train at 9am on the promise of gorgeous scenery and a journey flanked by volcanoes. But by 9.05am the party on El Tren Crucero was in full swing and we ended up missing the volcanic mountains completely; there was too much entertainment on board to even consider looking out the window.

Ecuador is beautiful and bizarre in equal measure. It is a country where it turns out the location of the equator is not where it is meant to be; where sprawling historic cities are at altitudes three times higher than Carrauntoohil; where wonderful hotels are built in the clouds; and where Friday-morning train journeys can turn in to carnivals: locals turned out in droves to revel in the Fiestas de Quito, a week-long festival celebrating the foundation of Ecuador's capital.

The lovingly restored steam locomotive swayed through streets and traffic as it tugged its beautiful old timber carriages slowly down tracks hundreds of years old. The passengers cheered and waved as we passed their neighbourhoods while sharing the picnics brought on board.

As the only foreigners on Tren Crucero, we soon became a novelty so I was handed a cup of canelazo, a spiced tea spiked with rum. Drinking at breakfast time isn't something I am accustomed to, but not wanting to cause offence I knocked it back and nodded "gracias" to my generous new travel companion on the other side of the aisle. "Amigo," he shouted, handing me another cup. That didn't last long either.

This fiesta had caught us by surprise so I had nothing to reciprocate with.

Feeling guilty about not being able to share my amigo's hospitality I made my way to the bar. I was a novelty at the counter too and was offered a taste of the rum before it was mixed with the spices and tea. It would have been rude not to and, it must be said, the rum was delicious, but now I was three drinks in and it wasn't even 10am.

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I returned to my seat with a tray of the stuff but the reciprocal drink turned out to be a terrible idea. My new amigo saw this as my in, and any time my cup appeared to be going dry he relentlessly handed over another hit from his vat of home-brew.

Mercifully, the train stopped at a station in the middle of nowhere shortly before 11am which facilitated a break from my amigo. I was now getting a bit light-headed, which I promise was due to the altitude.

We were met with the most wonderful, and again unexpected, welcome at Tambillo Station, at the edge of a small rural town. Children in traditional dress danced in unison, like a scene from some sort of John Wayne musical. Young cowboys danced with farmers' daughters until eventually an older generation took over and performed a few sets beside the platform. Eventually the train had been turned around and it was time to climb on board again.

The return leg was a little different; the music was a little louder and the drinks still flowed for most but thankfully my amigo had dozed off after his canelazo ran dry. A hardy few, who may have started drinking earlier than most, now wore devil costumes and proceeded to dance through the aisles, inviting others to join in until eventually, we arrived back in Quito merry with excitement.

Our journey to Ecuador couldn't have been more different. Travelling business class with Air France, we were afforded the ultimate in luxury, with personal cocoons that contained a footrest, full flat bed, new and classic movies and food to rival most restaurants that don't operate at 35,000 feet. So we arrived relaxed as we were brought from Quito out to the rainforest and the unique Mashpi Lodge - a bewildering Jurassic Park-esque hotel in the clouds.

Locals call the National Geographic-run lodge 'The Cloud Forest' because of its breathtaking location. It is shrouded in mist and nestled high in an Andean nature reserve. Ecuador is renowned for its distinctive wildlife and turtles in the Galapagos; Mashpi is a hidden gem in comparison.

The region it is located in is one of the most diverse places on the planet, making its reserve the perfect spot to observe a universe of animals, birds and untouched, raw scenery. The hotel's floor-to-ceiling glass walls give guests a constant backdrop of picturesque wilderness but it is the expeditions on offer here that really stand out.

Mashpi Lodge is also a world-leading research location for environmentalists and scientists, with local experts on hand to give tours of the surrounding areas. New species of frogs have been discovered here in recent years and it is thought there are dozens of creatures living nearby that remain undiscovered.

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The lodge's rhythm goes with the sun, following the instincts of animals living in the area, so the mornings start at sunrise and nights end early. Our morning there began with a nature walk and some birdwatching. We had breakfast halfway through our outing in a haven surrounded by nesting hummingbirds. Two cable cars of sorts, one motorised and the other pedalled by its users, suspended above the rainforest offer mind-blowing views and animal watching. As well as stargazing at night, you can head out with a guide and see what the nocturnal creatures do when we are all gone to bed.

Quito is just a two-hour drive away, and the city has plenty to offer. It boasts of having one of the largest and best-preserved historic centres in South America. It was declared a Unesco cultural heritage site in the 1970s in recognition of its location, beauty, architecture and traditions.

The capital sits in a valley almost 3,000m above sea level; the old town is a treasure trove of plazas, squares, winding cobbled streets, markets, churches and museums.

Small family-run boutique hotels are increasingly popular here, and Hotel Carlota is perfectly placed at the heart of the old town to suit travellers looking to explore the city. The rooms are snug but designed for people who intend to be out all day. Its roof terrace offers views of the surrounding mountains and glimpses of what the city has to offer.

Quito rivals anywhere else in the world for food, with exceptionally good fish dishes in particular. Ceviches, a popular South American dish with fish cured in lime, lemon, onion, chilli and peppers, is popular and highly addictive. The region also offers some remarkable chocolate, which can be flavoured with anything from rose petals to lemongrass. An award-winning local producer, Pacari, offers taste tests and tours.

As Ecuador is at the centre of the world, a visit to the equator line at Mitad del Mundo is almost compulsory. A monument dedicated to the equator commemorates a Franco-Spanish mission which claimed to fix the location of the equator at that point in the 18th Century. It is a popular spot to get passports stamped and photographs taken.

However, locals long contended that their French and Spanish visitors were wrong in their calculations - and they were eventually proved correct. So in the interest of scientific exactness, I can confide that 240 metres down the road is another (less-visited) site - which actually is on the equator line.

To prove the point, visitors partake in a number of tests, one of which is to balance an egg on the head of a nail. Two people in our party of four completed the test. I tried hardest and longest but failed - so I argue in favour of the Franco-Spanish mission in spite of all the scientific data.

There are also opportunities for plenty of hikes and walks but we chose instead to get a cable car that brings passengers from the bottom of Rucu Pichincha, an active volcano, to a viewpoint over the city.

On our last day, we were set up to see more nearby volcanoes, but as you already know, that didn't go exactly as planned. I am glad of the excuse to go back some day.

Take Two: Top attractions

Mashpi Lodge

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Mashpi Lodge has to be seen to be believed. Double rooms are priced at $1,340 with suites at $1,624, including meals, soft drinks, specialised lectures, tour guides, plus your transport from Quito. See www.mashpilodge.com

El Esmeraldas

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Quito offers many culinary delights (don't miss the chocolate and canelazo) but this restaurant is a real gem, with unique drink options for each meal - and fish is its speciality. www.elesmeraldas.com

Getting there

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* Air France offers flights to Quito via Paris Charles de Gaulle from Dublin, making it the easiest way to travel. Fares from Dublin start at 799 for economy return if booked before January 21, or 2,301 for a return business ticket, including taxes and charges.

* Air France flies Dublin to Paris four times daily and Paris to Quito three times weekly.

* To book or for additional information, visit www.airfrance.ie or call the reservations line on (01)6590442.
She's a keen fitness fan and a qualified personal trainer, who works hard to stay in fantastic shape.

But Chloe Madeley was enjoying a well-deserved cheat day as she attended the fifth annual British Takeaway Awards in association with Just Eat at The Savoy Hotel in London alongside husband James Haskell.

Cosying up to her rugby star husband, the 32-year-old blonde showed off her amazing abs in bright blue co-ords featuring sheer lace detailing.

Date night: Chloe Madeley attended the fifth annual British Takeaway Awards in association with Just Eat at The Savoy Hotel in London alongside husband James Haskell

Chloe displayed her enviable figure in the long-sleeved top and matching pencil skirt, adding some extra height with a pair of stilettos.

Former England rugby international James was looking dapper in a smart suit as he arrived at the bash.

The I'm a Celeb star, 34, proudly cuddled up to his glamorous wife, who he wed in December 2018.

Top of the crops: The 32-year-old blonde showed off her amazing abs in bright blue co-ords featuring sheer lace detailing

Looking good: Former England rugby international James was looking dapper in a smart suit as he arrived at the bash

The look of love: The couple, who wed in December 2018, shared a sweet look

Also in attendance at the culinary event were the likes of Megan McKenna, Louise Redknapp, Ainsley Harriott and Roman Kemp.

Chloe, who is the daughter of TV legends Richard and Judy Madeley, recently revealed that weightlifting 'saved her life'.

The blonde beauty only came to her passion in her mid twenties when struggling to cope with anxiety and panic attacks, brought on partly by the fact she was raised in the public eye.

In attendance: Megan McKenna was also putting in an appearance, rocking a quirky dress

Kimono chic: The X Factor: Celebrity winner sported an avant-garde silver number

Date night: Roman Kemp brought his girlfriend Anne-Sophie Flury along as his date

She instantly fell in love and told the Daily Telegraph in an interview that it 'completely saved me'.

'F*** me, it saved my life. It forces you to be present. There was no space to worry about anything else. It gave me self-respect, self-worth, self-discipline, and it completely saved me.'

Chloe said that she worried a lot about her image and thought people judged her based on her parents.

Dynamic duo: Ainsley Harriott (left) and Jimmy Carr (right) were partying at the event

Animated display: The TV chef was in high spirits at the fun-filled event

Here she is: Former Love Island contestant Chloe Crowhurst slipped into a black minidress

'One of the downsides was that I developed in my 20s quite bad anxiety issues based on what other people thought of me. I became incredibly anxious, I started having panic attacks, my self-esteem was on the floor,' she said.

Weights have become so important to Chloe that she admits her demons began to creep back even when she took a week off for her honeymoon in Fiji.

She was used to a strict four days a week in the gym and said: 'By the last few days, I was acting a little bit weird, a bit insecure. I just started to notice that demons were coming back.'

Party pals: James and Chloe chatted to Louise Redknapp and Roman and Anne-Sophie

Keeping it casual: Louise was effortlessly cool in a black skirt and matching blazer
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking impleadment in petitions challenging constitutional validity of polygamy and 'nikah halala' practised among Muslims.

The application has been filed to oppose a batch of petitions on which the apex court had in 2018 issued notices to the Centre and other stakeholders while referring the matter to a 5-judge Constitution bench.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, 'nikah halala' stipulates that a Muslim woman, who wants to remarry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another man and get divorce from him after consummating the marriage.

The two issues had arisen when the apex court was dealing with the practice of triple talaq. By a 3:2 verdict, a five-judge Constitution bench on August 22, 2017 had banned the 1,400 year-old practice among Sunni Muslims saying it was against the basic tenets of the Holy Quran and violated the Islamic law Shariat.

The top court had then made it clear that it would deal separately with the issues of polygamy and nikah halala at a later stage.

The AIMPLB plea on Monday said the apex court has already dealt with the issue of these practices in its verdict of 1997 in which it had declined to entertain the petitions.

"That personal laws do not derive their validity on the ground that they have been passed or made by a legislature or by other competent authority. The fundamental source of personal laws are their respective scriptural texts," the AIMPLB plea said.

"The Mohammedan law is founded essentially on the holy Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Mohammed and thus it can't fall within purview of expression 'laws in force' as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution and hence its validity cannot be tested," it said.

The plea of Personal Law Board said that Article 44 of the Constitution stipulates that the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

"It is submitted that Article 44, which envisages a Uniform Civil Code is only a directive principle of state policy and is not enforceable," it said.

The Article recognizes the existence of different code applicable to different religions in matters of personal law and permits their continuance until the state succeeds in its endeavour to secure for all citizens a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), it said.

"That these very same practices were challenged in 1997 verdict in Ahmedabad Women Action Group versus Union of India, in which this court had itself declined to entertain the matters by taking the view that these issues were to be dealt with by the legislature and not judiciary," it said, adding that rights of Muslim Women are already protected by virtue of Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act of 1986.

Questioning the locus standi of BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhaya for filing a PIL challenging polygamy and 'nikah halala' practices, the AIMPLB said that it is of the view that ordinarily, any person other than a member of a religious denomination should not be allowed to question the faith of another religious denomination.

"A member of a religious denomination belonging to that faith, in the event of any violation of their fundamental rights, only to the extent of a threat to life and liberty, may be permitted to seek the protection of the court and determine the issues of faith arising therefrom," the petition said.

In March 2018, the apex court had issued notices to ministries of Law and Justice and Minority Affairs as well as the National Commission of Women (NCW) after taking note of the plea of Delhi-based woman Nafisa Khan challenging the two practices, and said the issues raised in a batch of petitions, including by Upadhaya, will be taken up by a 5-judge Constitution bench.

The apex court had also considered the submission that an earlier 5-judge Constitution bench, in its 2017 verdict, had kept open these issues while quashing triple talaq.

On March 14, 2018 Khan had moved the apex court saying that by virtue of Muslim Personal Law, section 494 of IPC (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) was rendered inapplicable to this community and no married Muslim woman has the avenue of filing a complaint against her husband for the offence of bigamy.

She sought that Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 be declared unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Constitution in so far as it fails to secure for Indian Muslim women the protection from bigamy which has been statutorily secured for women in India belonging to other religions.

The petitioner, who herself claimed to be a victim of such practices, had alleged that her husband and his family used to torture her for dowry and she was ousted from the matrimonial home twice.

She had also alleged that her husband had married another woman without taking any legal divorce from her and the police had refused to lodge FIR under section 494 and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the IPC stating that polygamy was permitted under the Sharia.

The top court had also allowed Muslim Women Resistance Committee, Kolkata to file an application for impleadment as a party in the hearing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday held a meeting with HE Er. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatars Minister of State for Energy Affairs in New Delhi along with senior officials from various Government ministries including Petroleum and Natural Gas, Steel, Power, Chemicals and Fertilizers and experts and industry leaders from energy, gas and steel sector.

Minister Pradhan said, Qatar is our valued partner. Qatar has been a long-standing energy partner for India, with hydrocarbons accounting over 75% of all our bilateral trade. We see an enormous potential to further expand India-Qatar energy ties and also expect to increase our bilateral engagements beyond the buyer-seller relationship.

Speaking about LNG trade, he said, Qatar is our largest source of LNG. Indias appetite for energy, particularly gas is increasing considerably. The surge in Indias energy requirements will not be incremental but exponential. India is rapidly expanding our gas infrastructure to cater to the needs of nearly 70% of our population. An estimated investment of $60 billion is lined up in building the gas infrastructure.

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LIMERICK is set to be strongly represented at two of the biggest St Patricks Day parades in the World for the first time.

Proposals to send council delegations to three separate parades in the United States during March are expected to be formally approved by councillors at a meeting this Monday evening.

The Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Michael Sheahan, has been invited the attend the St Patricks Day parades in New York City and in Savannah, Georgia on March 17. Up to three million people will attend both events.

Cllr Sheahan has also been invited to attend the annual St Patricks Day parade at Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York on March 7.

While Limerick City and County Council has been represented at the New York parades in the past, it will be first time a representative will attend the parade in Savannah, which is marking it 196th anniversary this year.

The Parade Committee has worked hard to establish the parade as one of the premier parades anywhere in the world. Numerous bands and groups from all over the United States and from Ireland perform each year in front of an estimated crowd of 800,000 people, states a briefing note for councillors circulated ahead of todays full meeting of the local authority.

It would be a great opportunity for the council to develop linkages for Limerick during the St Patricks Day period at a variety of events that will be taking place in Savannah at the time, adds the note which estimates the cost will in the region of 2,500.

Recommending that a delegation attends the New York parade, the local authority says it will provide an opportunity to build on existing links. Again, the cost is about 2,500 per councillor.

In addition to the St Patricks Day Parade, which will pass along 5th Avenue, it is proposed that the delegation will attend a variety of tourism and cultural events will l take place in New York that week.

Separately, councillors will also be asked to approve proposals to send a delegation to New York next month for an event at the Irish Consulate where Brand Limerick will be launched..
Researchers have mapped 13 key emotions triggered when we listen to music

The Star-Spangled Banner stirs pride. Ed Sheerans The Shape of You sparks joy. And ooh la la! best sums up the seductive power of George Michaels Careless Whispers.

University of CaliforniaBerkeley researchers have surveyed more than 2,500 people in the United States and China about their emotional responses to these and thousands of other songs from genres including rock, folk, jazz, classical, marching band, experimental, and heavy metal.

The upshot? The subjective experience of music across cultures can be mapped within at least 13 overarching feelings: amusement, joy, eroticism, beauty, relaxation, sadness, dreaminess, triumph, anxiety, scariness, annoyance, defiance, and feeling pumped up.

Imagine organizing a massively eclectic music library by emotion and capturing the combination of feelings associated with each track. Thats essentially what our study has done, said study lead author Alan Cowen, a University of CaliforniaBerkeley doctoral student in neuroscience.

The findings were published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We have rigorously documented the largest array of emotions that are universally felt through the language of music, said study senior author Dacher Keltner, a University of CaliforniaBerkeley professor of psychology and Greater Good Science Center founding director.

Cowen and fellow researchers have translated the data into an interactive audio map where visitors can move their cursors to listen to any of thousands of music snippets to find out, among other things, if their emotional reactions match how people from different cultures respond to the music.

Graphic by Alan Cowen

Potential applications for these research findings range from informing psychological and psychiatric therapies designed to evoke certain feelings to helping music streaming services like Spotify adjust their algorithms to satisfy their customers audio cravings or set the mood.

While both U.S. and Chinese study participants identified similar emotionssuch as feeling fear when hearing the Jaws movie scorethey differed on whether those emotions made them feel good or bad.

People from different cultures can agree that a song is angry, but can differ on whether that feeling is positive or negative, said Cowen, noting that positive and negative values, known in psychology parlance as valence, are more culture-specific.

Across cultures, study participants mostly agreed on general emotional characterizations of musical sounds, such as anger, joy, and annoyance. But their opinions varied on the level of arousal, which refers in the study to the degree of calmness or stimulation evoked by a piece of music.

How They Conducted the Study

For the study, more than 2,500 people in the United States and China were recruited online. First, these volunteers scanned thousands of videos on YouTube for music evoking a variety of emotions. From those, the researchers built a collection of audio clips to use in their experiments.

Next, nearly 2,000 study participants in the United States and China each rated some 40 music samples based on 28 different categories of emotion, as well as on a scale of positivity and negativity, and for levels of arousal.

Using statistical analyses, the researchers arrived at 13 overall categories of experience that were preserved across cultures and found to correspond to specific feelings, such as depressing or dreamy.

To ensure the accuracy of these findings in a second experiment, nearly 1,000 people from the United States and China rated more than 300 additional Western and traditional Chinese music samples that were specifically intended to evoke variations in valence and arousal. Their responses validated the 13 categories.

Vivaldis Four Seasons made people feel energized. The Clashs Rock the Casbah pumped them up. Al Greens Lets Stay Together evoked sensuality, and Israel (Iz) Kamakawiwooles Somewhere over the Rainbow elicited joy.

Meanwhile, heavy metal was widely viewed as defiant and, just as its composer intended, the shower scene score from the movie Psycho triggered fear.

Researchers acknowledge that some of these associations may be based on the context in which the study participants had previously heard a certain piece of music, such as in a movie or YouTube video. But this is less likely the case with traditional Chinese music, with which the findings were validated.

Cowen and Keltner previously conducted a study in which they identified 27 different human emotions, in response to visually evocative YouTube video clips. For Cowen, who comes from a family of musicians, studying the emotional effects of music seemed like the next logical step.

Music is a universal language, but we dont always pay enough attention to what its saying and how its being understood, Cowen said. We wanted to take an important first step toward solving the mystery of how music can evoke so many nuanced emotions.

Yasmin Anwar is a media relations representative at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley. This article was originally published on Greater Good online magazine.
Global companies including Honda and Groupe PSA are evacuating workers from areas of China hardest hit by a deadly viral outbreak. Theme park operators, retailers and restaurant chains are suspending or curtailing operations to protect workers and limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The moves by companies highlight Wuhan's importance as a manufacturing, shipping and business hub. The central Chinese city has more than 500 factories and other facilities, placing it 13th among 2,000 Chinese cities in Bloomberg's supply chain database. It's the capital of Hubei province, which has 1,016 such facilities, making it seventh of 32 such jurisdictions.

Japan-based companies have about 54 of the facilities, while U.S. firms account for 44 and Europeans about 40, the data show. Many plants are in the auto and transportation industries, and big names include PepsiCo Inc. and Siemens AG.

As the outbreak accelerates, China has extended the Lunar New Year holiday to Feb. 2 from the original Jan. 30 date to reduce travel. Authorities have also locked down cities with a combined 40 million people around the epicenter in Wuhan, as they race to contain a pneumonia-like illness that has killed at least 80 in the country with about 2,744 confirmed cases.

Countries including the U.S., Japan, Singapore and South Korea have also reported cases of infection.

Here is how some of the biggest companies are responding:

Jan. 27

GMO Internet Inc.

--The Japan-based internet infrastructure provider has told about 4,000 employees in the country to work from home after the confirmation of novel coronavirus cases in Japan, the Nikkei newspaper reported without saying where it got the information. GMO Internet employees in Shanghai and other parts of China will return to Japan, the Nikkei report said.

Jan. 26:

Honda: The automaker will evacuate from Wuhan about 30 Japanese workers and family using a government charter aircraft, family members and employees visiting on business trips, Teruhiko Tatebe, a Tokyo-based spokesman, said by phone. The carmaker has informed the Japanese government that it wishes to utilize a charter jet to evacuate Japanese citizens. A handful of staff needed to maintain local operations will remain in the city.

Jan. 25:

Groupe PSA: The French maker of Peugeot cars and other brands. said it will evacuate its expatriate staff and their families from the Wuhan area. A total of 38 people will leave, the company said in a statement.

Hennes and Mauritz: The clothing retailer better known as H&M has closed a total of 13 stores in the region. Svenska Dagbladet reported. China is the company's 5th biggest market in terms of revenue, with 524 stores as of Aug. 31.

Ikea: The Swedish furniture maker closed its warehouse in Wuhan on Thursday, according to the same report.

Jan. 24:

Remy Cointreau: The French cognac maker abandoned its forecasts for this year after a slump in Hong Kong dented sales in the Christmas period and as the viral outbreak threatens business in China, the source of 20% of its profit, according to Jefferies estimates. "Clearly we are concerned," Chief Financial Officer Luca Marotta said of the coronavirus on an earnings conference call. "We do not have any scenarios on a quantified basis. It is evolving hour after hour."

McDonald's: The fast-food giant, which had about 3,000 stores in China at the end of 2018, temporarily closed locations across five cities of the Hubei province due to the virus, including Wuhan. The Chicago-based company is taking extra preventative measures in the rest of the country, including taking the temperature of workers upon arrival and giving out hand sanitizers to diners.

Walt Disney Co.: The world's largest theme park operator said it would close its Disneyland resort in Shanghai effective Jan. 25. The company is offering refunds to guests who bought theme park tickets or reserved rooms in its hotels. "We will continue to carefully monitor the situation and be in close contact with the local government, and we will announce the reopening date upon confirmation," it said in a statement.

Starbucks: The Seattle-based chain, with about 4,100 cafes in China, also said it's closing some locations, without providing more details.

Delta Air Lines: The Atlanta-based carrier issued a travel waiver that allows passengers traveling to, from or through Beijing and Shanghai between Jan. 24 and Jan. 31 to change their itinerary once without having to pay a fee.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Wynn Resorts: The Chinese Lunar New Year is peak time for profits at casino operators. Authorities in Macau, the world's largest gambling market, are requiring casinos to screen guests for high temperatures and make their staff wear respirator masks. Many Chinese tourists are also heading to Las Vegas to celebrate. "Although as of this date there are no reported cases of the coronavirus in Las Vegas that we are aware of, we will be in close contact with the Southern Nevada Health District who is monitoring the situation along with the CDC," the company said in a statement. "We will implement any health directive they issue."

Jan. 23:

Avnet: The Phoenix-based distributor of computer products and semiconductors said it hadn't seen an impact so far. "But if it gets worse and they start shutting down airplanes, et cetera, then that will have a different effect on shipments out of China," CEO Bill Amelio said on a conference call. Asked whether the area is a meaningful region from an electronics manufacturing perspective, Amelio answered: "Of course, it is."

American Airlines: President Robert Isom said it is too soon to see an impact. "Our network isn't that extensive in Asia. But we're on top of it," he said on a conference call. "We've seen viruses in the past that we've had to make accommodations for and to be prepared for, we're doing all those same things right now."

Keppel: The Singapore-based owner of the largest oil-rig builder, which has about 170 employees in Wuhan and operations across China, said it hadn't seen a direct impact either. "We have advised our operations there and our staff there to take the necessary precautions. We are watching this very closely," CEO Loh Chin Hua said on an earnings call.

Jan. 22

United Airlines Holdings: The U.S. carrier was among the first global corporations to comment on the coronavirus on an earnings conference call. "We've been coordinating closely with the CDC to ensure that we're taking all the necessary steps to ensure that our customers and employees can travel safely," CEO Oscar Munoz said. "By working closely together, we have in the past effectively managed situations like this."

_ _ _

With assistance from Bloomberg's Leslie Patton, Thomas Mulier, Thomas Buckley, Christopher Palmeri, Phil Kuntz, Mary Schlangenstein, Yukari Chilnik and Brian Moran.
[January 27, 2020] Calian Launches New Custom Mobile Wireless Product

OTTAWA, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calian Group Ltd. (TSX:CGY) has commenced deliveries of a new custom telecommunications product for a Tier 1 North American mobile operator. The product comes as a result of research and development efforts undertaken by Calians Advanced Technologies segment over the past 16 months. The product enables the customer to maximize its use of existing spectrum assets and supports ongoing development and upgrade of its mobile network. This innovative product is further evidence of our capability to solve complex customer problems using our deep knowledge base in leading-edge, mixed-signal analog-digital product designs, said Patrick Thera, VP, Advanced Technologies, Calian. This marks our first deployment of telecom equipment for a Tier 1 mobile operator, demonstrating our ability to satisfy the demanding performance and certification requirements of such customers. This significant milestone supports our customer diversification objectives and is the direct result of our exciting innovation agenda at Calian, stated Kevin Ford, President and CEO, Calian. Our program of targeted investment in research and development is yielding tangible, positive results with respect to our growth strategy. The multimillion-dollar commitment is expected to span multiple quarters, with current orders on hand included in Calians current year financial guidance. About Calian Calian employs over 3,400 people in its delivery of diverse products and solutions for private sector, government and defence customers in North American and global markets. The Companys diverse capabilities are delivered through four segments: Advanced Technologies, Health, Learning and Information Technology. The Advanced Technologies sement provides innovative products, technologies and manufacturing services and solutions for the space, communications, defence, nuclear, government and agriculture sectors. The Health segment manages a network of more than 1,800 health care professionals delivering primary care and occupational health services to public and private sector clients across Canada. Learning is a trusted provider of emergency management, consulting and specialized training services and solutions for the Canadian Armed Forces and clients in the defence, health, energy and other sectors. The Information Technology segment supports public- and private-sector customer requirements for subject matter expertise in the delivery of complex IT and cyber security solutions. Headquartered in Ottawa, the Companys offices and projects span Canada and international markets.



For investor information, please visit our website at www.calian.com or contact us at [email protected] Kevin Ford Patrick Houston Media inquiries: President and Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Simon Doyle 613-599-8600 613-599-8600 613-599-8600 x 2205 DISCLAIMER

Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Such statements are generally accompanied by words such as intend, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect or similar statements. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the impact of price competition; scarce number of qualified professionals; the impact of rapid technological and market change; loss of business or credit risk with major customers; technical risks on fixed price projects; general industry and market conditions and growth rates; international growth and global economic conditions, and including currency exchange rate fluctuations; and the impact of consolidations in the business services industry. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, please see the Companys most recent annual report and other reports filed by Calian with the Ontario Securities Commission. Calian disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No assurance can be given that actual results, performance or achievement expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking statements within this disclosure will occur, or if they do, that any benefits may be derived from them. Calian  Head Office  770 Palladium Drive  Ottawa  Ontario  Canada  K2V 1C8

Tel: 613.599.8600  Fax: 613-592-3664  General Info email: [email protected]



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All that and dim sum at these five Chinese restaurants in Hanoi

Shrimp dumplings, steamed buns and roasted duck noodles at these five restaurants are popular Chinese delicacies in Hanoi.

Anh Beo Restaurant

At 131 Nguyen Ngoc Vu Street, Cau Giay District, stands Anh Beo Restaurant run by a Chinese couple. It has two floors with six tables each. On the wall on the first floor is a large menu board with a dizzying variety of dishes ranging from VND35,000-100,000 ($1.5-4.3).

Delicacies such as noodle soup with crispy duck and stir-fried beef noodles with wonton dumplings are yours to relish. Customers can enjoy the dishes after watching them being made in the kitchen on the first floor. The homemade soy milk greatly complements the dishes.

Sui cao De nhat Dong Bac (Northeasts Finest Wonton)

If you prefer your food to be spicy and fat, head for Sui cao De nhat Dong Bac Restaurant at 102-G22 Huynh Thuc Khang Street in Ba Dinh District. Situated close to the main street, the restaurant is easy to find. The menu compensates for the humble appearance of the place, offering everything from sweet sour meat and fried lo mein noodles to Sichuan-style tofu and all types of dumplings. But be warned that the food is quite spicy.

It is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Prices range from VND30,000-80,000 ($1.3-3.5). The canned ginseng tea here is highly recommended to refresh your palate.

Hem Thuong Hai (Shanghai Alley)

Situated at 11 Nguyen Thi Dinh Street, Cau Giay District is Hem Thuong Hai, a restaurant popular with youngsters. The stark red window frames, roof tiles and colorful lanterns in the building instantly transported customers to Shanghai. Beautiful paintings cover the walls on all three floors.

Besides the obvious dumplings, the menu also offers meat skewers, dry goat hot pot, snail chicken feet hot pot, oyster salad, fish grilled over coal, and other unique specialties. According to reviews, the restaurant offers authentic Shanghai cuisine with its rich flavors and low levels of spiciness. The average tab per person is around VND200,000 ($8.6).

Tiem Chu Long (Uncle Longs Eatery)

Tiem Chu Long, which specializes in roast duck and char siu barbecue pork, is at 79 Hang Luoc Street in Hoan Kiem District. The meat here is known for its good marination and tender and juicy texture, which pairs well with noodles.

Depending on the size, dishes cost from VND40,000-50,000 ($1.7-2.2). Though it has limited space, the eatery attracts large numbers of customers who are happy to eat on the sidewalk or order takeout. Its eye-catching red and black decor and friendly staff make up for the lack of space.

Sui cao Dai Loan (Taiwanese Wonton)

At 17 Dai La Street, Hai Ba Trung District, near the Dai La  Bach Mai intersection is a clean and spacious restaurant called Sui cao Dai Loan. As its name suggests, it serves all styles of dumplings like har kow, fried and steamed wonton and xiaolongbao besides noodle dishes.

Its har kow dumplings have received high praise for their succulent fillings and doughy, yielding outside. Dishes cost VND25,000-70,000 ($1.1-3). The restaurant is open the whole day but is busiest during lunch.
How can a person vanish without a trace? This is the question Sumia Osman, 58, asks herself every week, as she trawls through the hospitals, morgues and police stations in Khartoum looking for her missing son Ismail. The 24-year-old Sudanese student had joined his countrys revolution last year while on holiday from Maryland, in the US, where he was studying psychology.

He was last seen by his uncle on the evening of the 7 June getting into his car. There was a nasty edge to that night in the Sudanese capital. Members of the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were playing cat and mouse with protesters who had tried to build barricades around the neighbourhood, the family said.

Four days earlier, the same paramilitary group had raided an anti-government sit-in killing over 100 people, and beating and raping others, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). From that moment dozens of people who participated in the rallies began disappearing. Some have since been found dead. Others reappeared months later showing signs of physical and psychological torture.
Ekran System Inc. Opens New Headquarters in Newport Beach, CA

Ekran System Inc., a leading vendor of insider threat prevention software, has announced the opening of their new US headquarters. The company will have a foothold in the sunny city of Newport Beach, California, close to UC Irvine, one of the best public universities in America.

Previously, Ekran System had its North American headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. Now, team is moving to Orange (News - Alert) County, California, a popular hub for startups and tech companies.

"We are happy to move to one of the most important tech hubs of California - Irvine and the Newport Beach area," says Dennis Turpitka, founder and CEO of Ekran System. "A lot of technology companies have a presence here, and we decided to join them in this premier location for tech talent. We are thrilled to join the locl tech community and hope to capitalize on the talent from universities like UC Irvine."







For more information about Ekran System, click here.

About Ekran System

Ekran System Inc. is a recognized vendor of cybersecurity software for insider threat protection. Ekran System addresses user-based risks with flexible and efficient solutions for user activity monitoring, identity management, and access management.

The Ekran System platform makes per-session indexed video and audio records to enable user activity monitoring and analysis. To enhance the protection of critical assets, Ekran offers features such as two-factor authentication, one-time passwords, third-party vendor management, and integration with existing ticketing systems. A robust alerts and notifications system and real-time incident response capabilities are also included.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005475/en/
Gold has been a beneficiary of risk aversion since Chinas coronavirusbegan making international headlines around week ago, said Brown Brothers Harriman. There is a lot going on at the start of this week, BBH said of market-moving factors. As of an early-morning BBH research note, the virus death death count had hit 80, plus there were some 2,700 confirmed cases of the virus across 15 countries. Meanwhile, BBH said, Italys local elections brought back some stability to the governing coalition. In other news, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was hit by missiles fired by Iran-linked militia Sunday, with reports of several U.S. injuries. The virus news is center stage, and BBH pointed out that oil prices have taken a hard hit due to expected lower travel demand, with Brent crude oil trading below $60 per barrel for the first time since October. Global stocks are weaker, with news reports blaming this on worries about the virus impacting the economy. Gold, in contrast, has benefited from the risk aversion move, rising about 1.5% since the virus scare began, BBH said. As of 8:50 a.m. EST, spot gold was $10.40 higher at $1,582 an ounce.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Commerzbank: will India's government trim import taxes on gold?

Gold remains range-bound between roughly $1,540 and $1,580 an ounce, awaiting further U.S. impeachment and political headlines, as well as geopolitical news, said George Gero, managing director with RBC Wealth Management. As of 8:47 a.m. EST, Comex February gold was right in the middle of that trading band, down $5.20 to $1,560.20 an ounce. The average price of gold is a barometer of political and economic well-being, Gero said. Traders, however, view technicals and day-to-day headlines, so we see fluctuations and many upswings and downdrafts. Gero noted that buying ahead of the Chinese New Year, one of the important seasonal time periods for gold, has now passed, as the holiday begins this weekend.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Bannockburn: FOMC meeting unlikely to be major market-moving event

The major negative factors for the U.S. economy have receded, said Brown Brothers Harriman. The U.S. economy is in its longest expansion ever. Much of the focus of financial markets this week has been a coronavirus outbreak in China and its potential impact on the global economy. this week's spell of virus-driven nervousness led to some re-pricing of the implied probability of a Fed cut, which still seems exaggerated to us, BBH said. According to the Bloomberg model, there is a 60% chance of a cut by the September meeting. We understand that the virus poses a new tail risk, which should be taken into account. But on balance, we still think that the U.S. economy is holding up well and that most of the big negative factors have receded.
The death of Kobe Bryant

Heres what you need to catch up on what happened in Calabasas, California.

Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in California on Jan. 26. The NBA legend and sports icon was 41 years old.

Nine people, including Bryant, were killed in the crash. Gianna Bryant, the former players 13-year-old daughter, was among the dead.

Memorial service: Los Angeles honored Kobe Bryant, his daughter and the victims of the crash with a memorial at Staples Center. Bryants widow, Vanessa, spoke at the memorial, as did NBA legend Michael Jordan, among others.

Obituary: Bryant was an individual whose tirelessness and competitive drive were as notable as his versatility and ambition.

Photos: Bryants milestones | Kobe through the years | The scene as people mourn in L.A.

Commentary: Bryant accomplished so much, sports columnist Jerry Brewer writes. Yet his story still feels disturbingly incomplete, and thats why so many are taking his death so hard. Barry Svrluga writes: Lives are not clean. Legacies are messy. Memories are personal. Its worth talking through.

Read deeper:

 Kobe Bryants beautiful game was built on grace, intensity and confidence

 For LeBron James, Bryants death provided a powerful reminder of lifes priorities

 Bryant was a storyteller in search of perfection. The most vexing tale was his own.

 Media coverage of Bryants death was a chaotic mess, but there were moments of grace
BEIJING - The mayor of Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, announced several stark numbers at a late-night news conference on Sunday, with most focusing on his prediction that there would be at least 1,000 new infections.

But Mayor Zhou Xianwang revealed another number that underscored the metastasizing challenge of the accelerating epidemic: 5 million.

That was the number of people who had emptied out of Wuhan in recent days - and scattered all over the world - as China's Lunar New Year holiday period approached and authorities announced a lockdown in an urgent bid to contain the outbreak.

So far the virus has infected 2,744 people in China and killed 80, according to numbers provided Sunday night by the National Health Commission.

The effectiveness of an unprecedented quarantine around the viral epicenter in central China's Hubei Province has become a key question, as Chinese and international authorities ponder how to rein in the disease - and, at this point, whether it could be contained at all.

"Radical times call for radical measures," said Dong-Yan Jin, a professor of molecular virology and oncology at Hong Kong University's School of Biomedical Sciences. "A lot of cities have followed Wuhan in announcing a lockdown, but don't forget that many potential patients are already out there before such an administrative order. Are we going to shut down the whole country?"

Jin said Chinese authorities already missed the critical moment to control the epidemic: before the New Year travel rush began a week ago.

"There was a lack of transparency in Hubei and an unwillingness by local governments to face the music; now they tend to overcompensate," he said. "You cannot expect that to work miracles and stop the outbreak."

Widespread suspicions on Chinese social media that government officials mishandled the early stages of the crisis were fanned dramatically on Monday by an unlikely player: the Wuhan mayor himself.

In a remarkable interview with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Zhou acknowledged that his city did not release "timely and satisfactory" information at the start of the epidemic and appeared to blame higher-ups in his chain of command.

"I hope everyone can understand that this is an infectious disease, and infectious diseases must be disclosed according to law," he said. "We can only disclose information after we receive authorization."

Zhou proceeded to defend the decision to lock down the city.

"To seal a city of more than 10 million people has never been done before in human history," he told CCTV, adding that he would be willing to step down from his post to assuage angry citizens if that would have a beneficial effect on "saving people's lives."

Some medical experts warn that the number of cases may be higher than the authorities know or admit, and that the mass lockdown and efforts to quarantine patients are already too late due to the missteps in December, when reports of a novel virus in Wuhan began to emerge without prompting a response.

Escalating worldwide concerns, Chinese Health Minister Ma Xiaowei said Sunday that people carrying the new coronavirus could infect others even while they do not show any symptoms for as long as 14 days, a period known as incubation. That implies that, unlike SARS, seemingly healthy travelers could have unwittingly infected others.

But international experts, including at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say they are still seeking to confirm Ma's statement. Australia's chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, told reporters on Monday that expert panels were not yet convinced that the virus could be spread by people who were still symptom-free.

Some researchers say that even a small degree of porousness in the quarantine effort could have magnified implications for the epidemic's toll.

In a study published Saturday, Professor Yu Xiaohua at the University of Gottingen in Germany concluded that the epidemic cannot be controlled if the quarantine rate of the infectious population falls below 90 percent.

If 90 percent of patients are quarantined, his modeling suggested, the final number of cases might reach 59,000, with 1,500 deaths. But if only half the infected patients are quarantined, the final number of infected people could approach 5 million, with more than 100,000 deaths.

Yu, who is calling for a stricter polices to reach the 90 percent target, told The Post that the consequences of 5 million people already leaving Wuhan could turn out to be "huge."

But he is also concerned about migrant workers from around the country returning to the big cities at the end of the New Year break, where they will live and work in close proximity to each other.

"The mobility of this huge population [of migrant workers] will cause the disease to spread again," he said.

Even Yu's optimistic scenario would make the current epidemic considerably more deadly than the 2002-2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, which infected more than 8,000 people and killed nearly 800.

"Based on the Chinese system, a 90 percent quarantine rate can be easily achieved, just by stopping people moving. The Communist Party can reach that goal," he said, but he warned that the economy would take a massive hit. One week's closure of the economy would shave 2 percentage points off the gross domestic product.

"The dilemma facing the Chinese government is a very difficult one, how to control the movement of the population while not damaging the economy, which is not so good now," he said. "How to balance that - that's a political decision."

China's Cabinet, the State Council, announced Monday it would extend the Lunar New Year holiday period to reduce the number of travelers. Schools in cities such as Beijing delayed the start of the spring semester by as much as two weeks, and numerous Chinese city governments have posted statements urging citizens who had recently traveled to the epidemic regions to quarantine themselves on their own accord.

But already, stories are emerging of just how difficult it will be to enforce the quarantine.

Taiwanese authorities on Saturday fined an infected man who had traveled to Wuhan - and then hid his symptoms to enter Taiwan before going dancing in a nightclub. Eighty people were identified as coming into contact with the infected traveler, including a nightclub employee who showed symptoms of illness, Taiwanese state media reported.

Last week, a tourist from Wuhan boasted on Chinese social media that she took anti-fever pills to enter France and dine at an upscale Lyon restaurant. Over the weekend, Malaysian police detained a Chinese couple who refused to be quarantined although they were traveling with a child who showed influenza-like symptoms.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Frustration was mounting among Wuhan residents, who said life and commerce have all but ground to a standstill inside the metropolis. A resident surnamed Zhang who lived on the Luoyu Road, a major Wuhan artery, said nearly all restaurants were closed and the streets were completely devoid of pedestrians.

Daily shipments of fresh groceries to a supermarket that remained open were sold out by midday, he said.

Jan Renders, a Belgian PhD student in Wuhan, said many pharmacies around the city were closed. A pharmacist who was still open sounded apologetic for charging him far higher prices than normal - about $16 - for two bottles of antibiotics and disinfectant, he said.

Chinese officials have acknowledged that a challenge remains in providing medical supplies and care to the Hubei province countryside, where the disease could be spreading unabated.

A Chinese volunteer based in Sichuan province who has been coordinating nationwide donations to 130 hospitals in Hubei said the "lion's share" of state resources have gone to Wuhan but smaller towns and rural villagers were in urgent need of masks and protective gear.

Huangmei County, located in Huanggang and with a population of a million, reported being short of a million face masks and a million surgical masks, said the volunteer, who asked to be identified by his surname, Luo.

"All of them are grappling with a rising number of patients and are running of supplies very soon," Luo said.

In Hong Kong, everyone arriving from the mainland will have to sign a health declaration and could be subject to a penalty of six months in jail or a fine of about $650 for giving false information.

As the territory confirmed its eight case of the virus, authorities say they are considering stronger measures and have opened the possibility of a fuller ban on all mainland residents. Hong Kong this weekend has banned all Hubei residents from entering the territory, unless they are also Hong Kong residents.

"We have to consider whether it's practical for us to ban all mainland residents from entering and leaving Hong Kong, and whether we can implement such a measure promptly," said Health Secretary Sophia Chan.

In the United States, health officials confirmed three new cases - one in Arizona and two in California - bringing the total to five. The patients - in Southern California, Chicago, Arizona and Washington state - had traveled from Wuhan, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. All are hospitalized.

Health officials expect more American cases, Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters. But the virus is not believed to be spreading from person to person in the United States, she said.

Patients also have been confirmed in France, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan and Australia.

Lyric Li in Beijing and Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday met the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) officials to file a complaint against the action of Uttar Pradesh Police on the protesters during demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).



Party spokesman and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu, legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra and MP PL Punia were also present in the meeting.

At least 19 protesters persons were killed and several others were injured during violent clashes with the police in different parts of Uttar Pradesh last month. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have accused the state police of using excessive force against the civilians and shooting above the waist, which is in contravention to the standard operating procedure.

Priyanka Gandhi had also visited Bijnor and Meerut and met the families of the men who were allegedly killed in police firing during the protests. She had also instructed lawyers associated with the party to give legal aid to the people who were arrested for taking part in the agitations.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. (ANI)






returned for season two with The Roswell Incident  Part 1 written by David OLeary and directed by Deran Sarafian whose other credits include House, Buffy, Fringe, Hemlock Grove, and Colony. This new season sees Hynek (Aiden Gillen) committed to finding out the truth and Mimi (Laura Mennell) taking up a new role as his research partner. Quinn (Michael Malarkey) remains torn between his military training and loyalty to it and joining with Hynek in his quest for truth. Susie (Ksenia Solo) has turned her affection  and surveillance from Mimi to Quinn. This episode dives right in to perhaps the biggest UFO mystery of all time  Roswell!The episode begins with a helpful recap and a slightly longer take on Quinns encounter with the mysterious spacecraft last season. Jump forward and Hynek is decorating the office with instances of he and Quinn toeing the party line and finding scientific explanations for phenomena. Quinn is trying desperately to convince himself that he didnt see anything  that Hyneks theory about oxygen deprivation explained what he saw.Meanwhile, Harding (Neil McDonough) is called to Roswell. Hes being threatened with exposure on what really happened. Valentine (Michael Harney) seems to be in the dark. Harding wants Project Blue Book to run an official investigation and close the book once and for all on the Roswell incident! He orders Quinn and Hynek to come with him. Harding leaves the room, and Valentine dismisses Hynek. He keeps Quinn back and tells him to call him if he sees anything unusual. There seems to be some tension between Valentine and Harding.Once in Roswell, General Blackstone (Spencer Garrett) is in charge and is an old friend of Harding. He jokes about the local spreading lies about aliens running around  which is ironic when it seems thats exactly what happened!Quinn and Hynek are given access to all the files, which is a joke because they are all redacted! Quinn tells Hynek that they should just rubber stamp it and move on as they said the would. But Hynek wants to know why all the secrecy if it was just a weather balloon? They are interrupted by an alarm going off  theres an aircraft down and the whole desert is on fire! Which turns out to be a huge exaggeration. Its really a tire fire.Hynek, however, finds a locked box with Hardings name on it. He opens it  using the date of the first incident  July 8, 1947  to open the lock. Inside are notes accusing Harding of a cover up. The notes also promise to reveal all with proof on the next morning. Blackstone frets that the smoke can be seen for miles and will make the situation worse as it reignites memories of 1947.Hynek and Quinn say they will get ahead of the panic and will head to the tv station. On the drive in, Hynek reveals that he has a new source, but its not until they get to town that we find out its Mimi. I really liked how both make phone calls and reveal what the women are up to now. Susie is largely relegated to a passive role and Mimi is the active one  at least so far this season.At the tv station, the two learn that in 1947 when it was a radio station and they broadcast news about the incident, they lost their license, so this time around they are desperate to simply say whatever the government wants so that they dont lose it again. The station manager insists that hes a patriot  and doesnt that just sound like how Harding would push it?Hynek fills Quinn in on the unofficial record of events  which happens to be quite extensive. There was a storm on the night of July 8, 1947. A rancher, Mike Connors (Matthew MacCaull) found a strange metal all over his property the next day. He informed the authorities and was convinced it was some kind of alien technology  I really liked the special effect of the metal in his hand. Then Harding showed up in Roswell. He was in charge of the investigation  cover up. Two days later, Connor bought a new car and everyone shut up about it. The official story was it was a weather balloon.Quinn and Hynek stop in a diner for something to eat and continue to argue over their course of action. Hynek says that they have to investigate because the cover up was real. He insists that the two of them are in the best position to reveal the truth. Hynek is sympathetic about Quinns loyalty to Harding, but is that still the case? I have to wonder after his order from Valentine.Harding meanwhile goes to Connor, convinced hes the one behind the phone call and the box and notes. Connor, however, clearly has no idea what hes talking about. Harding is prepared to offer him more money, but when Connor insists he doesnt know, Harding is prepared to call in the MPs to make him comply. McDonough really delivers a great performance in this episode as we finally get to see a bit of nuance in his character. Hes unhappy that it looks like he wasnt doing his job when conspiracy theories pop up, but its also clear that he doesnt really enjoy what hes doing. Like Quinn, hes a military man and a patriot and hes doing what he has to.We find out that Mimi has been largely getting her information from a UFO group, lead by Evan Blake (Keir ODonnell). Shes been going there as Betty  but when she picks up Evens notes on Roswell, another woman their identifies her to Evan. Mimi gives Hynek his next leadHynek and Quinn head to Duncan Bookers (Zach McGowan) house and find all kinds of evidence. Duncan has obviously been collecting it and investigating himself. They discover that there were actually two crash sites. Duncan runs off before they can talk to him, but they discover an alien ship in back of his house! Or perhaps a recreation of one?Duncan comes back and denies having anything to do with the tires. He tells them that he doesnt want to expose anything, hes just doing research. Hynek says, like building that spacecraft out back They tell him they just want to hear his story. Hynek tells him that they dont think hes crazy, they just want to hear his story. They want the truth. He tells him about parking with his girlfriend, Judy (Emily Tennant) the night of the storm and that they saw the ship crash. They went to look at it but ran away when the hatch started to open. Harding forced them to sign a document saying they hadnt seen anything. He tells them that Harding threatened to bury them in the desert if they didnt say it was a weather balloon! Judy, his fiance, left town and he never saw her again.Valentine calls Harding and tells him that they have to show Eisenhower their worth. Harding actually shows some compassion for the town, saying theyve been through enough, but Valentine insists. Harding is angry and hangs up on Valentine, who is never the one actually having to do anything.Back at home, Susie breaks into Quinns apartment. She doesnt really find anything, but we get some flashbacks that fill in the gaps about how their relationship has progressed. Apparently, Susie has told him she has a boring secretarial job  but she doesnt give him any details. Its hilariously ironic when he teases her that its a matter of national security and he needs to know what shes hiding under her dress  as he teases her to come back to bed Dude! Shes hiding a spy!Hynek and Quinn drive back to town. Quinn is reluctant to call the US Force criminals without evidence. The two run into a road block. Roswell is under quarantine by Hardings orders. They are attacked by a shooter. The shooter gets away, but Hynek finally convinces Quinn to go after the truth.They go right to Harding, who tells them that it wasnt a weather balloon. He actually apologizes! And he tells them hes glad theyre alright. They accuse him of the cover up, and he actually confesses that there was! But the crash was a top secret spy balloon to monitor Russian atomic bomb tests. Quinn is on board that it was necessary and plausible. Hynek is not convinced  a balloon is just a balloon. How could so many people have been wrong?They find the shooter and hes a former service member  Stewart Terry (Patrick Currie). Harding wants him alive, and theres a great shot as Quinn clotheslines him off his motorcycle as hes trying to get away. Quinns neck has a burn and he gets checked out. This is the second reference to Quinn having a burn  is it actually from his encounter? Harding is now eager to leave Roswell as it seems the incident has been wrapped up. The shooter didnt want to see another cover up  mystery solved.Evan shows up at Mimis house. She apologizes for the secrecy. He tells her that they thought she might be FBI  they think civilian UFO groups are dangerous! He tells her that they are dangerous because they are trying to expose the governments massive cover up. Evan wants to know how much Hynek shares with her. He tells her that Hyneks reputation is stellar and hes happy to pass on information  but he wants to blow the lid off the government cover up!At the infirmary, Hynek isnt convinced that Quinns explanation that Terry just wanted to be a martyr for the cause. Then Terry is brought in beat to hell. He tells them that Harding had it done, but its clear that he doesnt know who Harding is. He also tells them that he kept his secret. He tells them that there were two separate crash sites  and the second was far more secure. He was stationed to secure the perimeter and he shot a figure he saw running away. When he shot it, he could feel its pain. He didnt tell anyone and went back and buried it  and its still out there!The alarm sounds again  a space ship has crashed in town  and the hatch is opening as the episode ends! It looks like Duncans ship, so Im betting hes the one about to get out.The second season is off to a great start with the twist and turns of the mystery and lots of action and intrigue that made the first season so successful. Harding is clearly not getting to go home just yet. This weeks episode is part two, so maybe well get more answers. Will Mimi continue her partnership with Evan? What is Susie really up to? Can Harding lock down the town again  given that the show is following history, the answer here pretty much has to be yes. Kudos to McDonough for a terrific performance in this episode  its great to see a bit more depth to his character this season. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
(Newser)  Mike Pompeo says journalist Mary Louise Kelly "lied" to him regarding his Friday interview on NPR's All Things Considered, which ended with an expletive-filled tirade after Kelly asked the secretary of state about Ukraine. But emails appear to support Kelly's side of things. While Pompeo said during the interview that he had only agreed to talk about Iran, emails exchanged between his press aide and Kelly on Thursday show his staff understood that wouldn't be the case, reports the Washington Post. After Pompeo's aide asked Kelly if they could stick to the topic of Iran, Kelly replied that she planned to ask about other things: "Also Ukraine. And who knows what the news gods will serve up overnight. I never agree to take anything off the table." The aide said she understood but still hoped "a healthy portion of the interview" could be spent on Iran.

story continues below

Pompeo "wouldnt want to spend the interview on questions he's answered many times for the last several months," she noted. Kelly said she did plan "to spend a healthy portion of the interview" on Iran and agreed they shouldn't "waste time on questions hes answered many times in recent months." Neither side has commented on the emails since their release by the Post. Pompeo also accused Kelly of breaking an agreement to keep their post-interview talk off the record, but she has previously said she was never asked to keep that discussion off the record and that she never would have agreed if asked. Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted Sunday, "A very good question!" in response to a question wondering why NPR still exists and, specifically, why the government is still funding it. (Read more Mike Pompeo stories.)
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
A drug-coated nanoparticle reduces plaque buildup in mouse arteries without causing harmful side effects, Stanford School of Medicine researchers have found.

Atherosclerosis, the accumulation of plaque inside artery walls, can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Its the worlds No. 1 killer. Available therapies treat risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol but fail to address the accumulation of diseased cells and inflammation within artery walls.

This is precision medicine, said Nicholas Leeper, MD, professor of vascular surgery and cardiovascular medicine. We used the nanotubes to deliver a payload like a Trojan horse.

Leeper, who sees patients at Stanford Health Cares vascular and endovascular care clinic, is a senior author of a paper about the research that was published Jan. 27 in Nature Nanotechnology. The other senior author is Bryan Smith, PhD, a former visiting associate professor at the School of Medicine. He is now an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Michigan State University.

Alyssa Flores, a former research fellow who is now a student at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, and Stanford postdoctoral scholars Niloufar Hosseini-Nassab, PhD, and Kai-Uwe Jarr, PhD, are co-lead authors.

Dont eat me

Diseased and dying cells in artery plaque give off a dont eat me signal, preventing the immune systems waste-removal cells, known as macrophages, from engulfing them. The same signal is found on the surface of many types of cancer cells, allowing them to escape detection and multiply. The Leeper lab had previously reported in Nature that certain antibody-based therapies could block this cloaking signal and prevent plaque growth in mice. Unfortunately, this nontargeted approach also resulted in macrophages removing some healthy cells, thus limiting its chance of becoming a new treatment for heart disease.

Smith developed a nanotube to carry a molecule that turns off the dont eat me signal. Unlike the nonspecific antibodies, these nanotubes were taken up by white blood cells (thus the Trojan horse metaphor) that made their way to inflammatory sites such as artery plaque. Once they were inside the plaque, these white blood cells  known at that point as macrophages  ate up diseased and dying cells.
While coronavirus continues to spread globally, many multinational companies pledged donations to assist those affected by the highly contagious virus and fight against the outbreak.

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba announced it is setting up a special 1 billion yuan fund to support medical supplies in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The fund will be used to purchase medical supplies and medicine from home and abroad, and will be delivered to hospitals in Central China's Hubei province.

Meanwhile, the company will continue to coordinate with plants in 58 regions in the country to resume production of medical supplies. The first batch of 3.3 million masks will be sent to Wuhan through "green passages".

"As people in China and around the world celebrate the Lunar New Year, we send our love and support to the many impacted by the coronavirus. Apple will be donating to groups on the ground helping support all of those affected," Apple's CEO Tim Cook wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Through his social media account on Twitter and China's Weibo, Cook announced that his company will be donating to "groups on the ground supporting those impacted by the coronavirus."

This effort was initiated by a group of employees based in Cupertino, California, on Friday night, according to a resource close to this operation.

The first advocacy email was sent to Apple HR and senior management in the name of Wuhan Coronavirus Support Team around Friday night, requesting company-wide measures be taken to assist Wuhan.

"Within a short period of time, we heard from Apple management, with a very detailed arrangement, that our concerns will be taken care of," said one of the organizers, speaking on condition of anonymity. "That includes all resources and channels we might leverage now."

Shortly after Cook posted his message on Weibo, Isabel Ge Mahe, the company's managing director of Greater China, reposted and wrote, "as a member of this community, it's our duty to be with you."

The comments from Apple's executives were received enthusiastically on Weibo, with many users thanking the technology giant for its support. Cook's message has been reposted nearly 4,500 times as of Saturday afternoon.

Eric Yuan, founder of the San Jose, California-based Zoom Video Communications, which provides remote conferencing services using cloud computing, announced that he will offer free video conference services to users in China.

Several Chinese technology giants also announced they will be providing financial support and medical equipment to help combat the spread of the deadly virus.

Tencent said it would donate 300 million yuan from its charity. The money will be used for the purchase of masks, sanitizers and other medical supplies, as well as to support medical personnel.

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba said it's setting up a 1 billion yuan medical supplies fund, which will be used to buy equipment and medicine for Wuhan. It also will be used to ensure that medical personnel in Wuhan have access to a "hot meal".

JD. com said it had donated 1 million surgical masks and 60,000 other medical supplies.

Computer manufacturing company Lenovo said it would donate all IT equipment necessary for the specialist treatment center being built in the city.

Many e-commerce platforms, such as Alibaba's Taobao, Suning, and JD.com, have all pledged to keep prices from rising on medical items such as face masks and disinfectant.

The latest death toll for the coronavirus climbed to 42. There are now more than 1,400 confirmed cases of the illness around the globe.

The US State Department has ordered all American employees at the United States Consulate in Wuhan to leave the city, as a lockdown imposed on central China expanded.

Officials said Friday that a Chicago woman in her 60s has been diagnosed with the virus, and they're monitoring 63 other possible cases across 22 US states.

June Chang in San Francisco contributed to this story.
Washingtons move to ban Iranians from U.S. trade and investment visas has generated plenty of headlines, but the move is largely meaningless and should not be considered an intensification of the confrontation. On Thursday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that E-1 and E-2 trade and investment visas would no longer be issued to Iranian nationals as a result of the termination in October 2018 of a treaty of amity with Iran.

The E-1 and E-2 classifications are non-immigrant visas that grant holders entry into the United States to engage in international trade or invest a substantial amount of capital into a U.S. business.

Due to the termination of the treaty, USCIS will send Notices of Intent to Deny to affected applicants who filed applications after the Department of States Oct. 3, 2018, announcement. Iranians currently holding and properly maintaining E-1 or E-2 status may remain in the U.S. until their current status expires, USCIS said. However, they will not be able to extend that status.

While the announcement may sound like another big policy move on Washingtons part, against Iran, the reality is that it will have minimal impact, if any.

In 2018, only one Iranian was issued an E-2, compared to 20 in 2017.

Iranians were already effectively barred from these visas, removing any relevance from announcements of a ban on E-1 and E-2 visas.

Due to the severe restrictions on the transfer of funds from Iran as a result of sanctions, it has been very difficult for Iranians to obtain non-immigrant investor visas in the E-2 or in the permanent residence category of EB-5, East Lansing, Michigan-based business immigration attorney Amy Maldonado told SafeHaven.com

All of these categories require proof of lawful source of funds, Maldonado said.

Related: How The Trade War Ceasefire Will Impact The Energy Industry

With only 21 Iranian nationals having been issued E-2 visas in the past two years, and with the amount of substantial capital being undefined, but in some cases limited to $100,000, the foreign investment loss to American businesses is minimal at best.

Even prior to sanctions, Iranian nationals were not clamoring for E-2 visas. In 2016, no E-1 visas were issued to Iranians, and only 15 E-2 visas were issued, according to government data. In 2015, 25 E-2 visas were issued to Iranians.

Washington made a second announcement this week when it slapped more sanctions on targets connected to an alleged Iranian oil smuggling network.

The U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on four companies accused of purchasing Iranian oil and petrochemical products in violation of U.S. sanctions. Two of the companies are based in Hong Kong, the third in Shanghai and the fourth in Dubai. The Treasury Department says the four aided the Iranian state-owned oil company in the export of millions of dollars worth of petroleum products.

Irans petrochemical and petroleum sectors are primary sources of funding for the Iranian regimes global terrorist activities and enable its persistent use of violence against its own people, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Neither move, however, represents an escalation of the confrontation between the United States and Iran in the aftermath of the U.S. assassination of a key Iranian general on Iraqi soil following Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq. The markets have already decided there will be no major escalation, and the situation has now reverted to small jabs, such as visa announcements and additional, targeted sanctions.

By Fred Dunkley for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
The government is planning to raise at least Rs 10,000 crore through the seventh tranche of which will open for anchor investors on Thursday.

Central Public Sector Enterprises ETF runs a concentrated portfolio with a handful of stocks having weights of as high as 20 per cent on the underlying index. The portfolio is concentrated towards the energy and oil sector.

The issue will open for anchor investors on Thursday and for other institutional and retail investors, the next day-- Nippon Life India Asset Management-- which has been mandated to manage the on behalf of the government, said in a statement.

Besides, the investors would get a 3 per cent discount over the issue price, it added.

The sixth FFO (further follow on offer) or seventh tranche will have a base issue size of Rs 10,000 crore with a greenshoe option to retain a portion of the oversubscription.

Retail investors can invest a minimum of Rs 5,000, while non-institutional investors and qualified institutional buyers (other than anchor investors) can invest a minimum of Rs 2 lakh. The minimum investment for anchor investor is fixed at Rs 10 crore.

The decision to launch seventh tranche of CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) has been taken after receiving robust response for earlier stake sale by the government in the product.

Through the earlier six tranches of the CPSE ETF, the government has already raised about Rs 50,000 crore; Rs 3,000 crore from the first tranche in March 2014, Rs 6,000 crore in January 2017, Rs 2,500 crore from the third in March 2017, Rs 17,000 crore in November 2018 and Rs 10,000 crore in March 2019 and Rs 11,500 crore in July 2019.

Nippon Life India Asset Management, formerly known as Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management, had already filed 'scheme information document' for sixth FFO of with regulator Sebi.

The CPSE ETF tracks shares of 11 CPSEs -- ONGC, NTPC, Coal India, IOC, REC, PFC, Bharat Electronics, Oil India, NBCC India, NLC India and SJVN.

The proceeds from the ETF will help the government meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for the current financial year. It had aimed to garner Rs 85,000 crore through disinvestment in the preceding financial year.
Bank of Baroda fell 2.41% to Rs 93.30 after reporting net loss of Rs 1406.95 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against net profit of Rs 471.25 crore in Q3 December 2018.

Total income rose 49.58% to Rs 21,809.08 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against Rs 14,562.85 crore reported in Q3 December 2018.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 73,139.70 crore as on 31 December 2019 as against Rs 69,968.95 crore as on 30 September 2019 and Rs 53,184.28 crore as on 31 December 2018.

The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 10.43 % as on 31 December 2019 as against 10.25% as on 30 September 2019 and 11.01% as on 31 December 2018. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 4.05% as on 31 December 2019 as against 3.91% as on 30 September 2019 and 4.26% as on 31 December 2018.

Net Interest Income (NII) rose 9% and stood at Rs 7,128 crore. Net interest margin improved and stood at 2.8% in Q3FY20 as against 2.62% reported in Q3FY19.

Provisions and contingencies (excluding tax provisions) soared 156.1% and stood at Rs 7155.42 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against Rs 2794.20 crore in Q3 December 2018.

Provision coverage ratio (PCR) excluding two increased to 63.76% as on 31 December 2019 compared with 58.87% as on 31 December 2018. Of the total fresh slippages of Rs 10,387 crore, Rs 4,509 crore is on account of RBI divergence.

Bank of Baroda is a public sector bank with 46 branches in 14 countries. The Government of India held 71.6% stake in the bank as on 31 December 2019.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

The information on alleged introduction of compulsory medical insurance during three months in each Azerbaijani district disseminated in social networks is false, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijans State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance.

This information causes confusion, anxiety and the influx of citizens into medical facilities, the report said.

Compulsory medical insurance will be implemented in four stages throughout Azerbaijan during 2020. From Jan. 1, 2020, the application of compulsory medical insurance has already begun in 23 Azerbaijani districts.

In addition to these districts, from April 1, residents of 21 districts and cities, from July 1 - residents of 15 districts and cities, and from October 1, residents of seven districts and cities will use the services of compulsory medical insurance.

In order to prepare medical institutions and the population for this process, to inform people about the importance and benefits of compulsory medical insurance, as well as introduce a new financing mechanism in medical institutions, the system at each stage is planned to be implemented within three months.

Those who have health problems (except for emergency medical care) are recommended to contact family doctors with their IDs first, reads the report. A family doctor gives a citizen a referral to a specialized doctor who, after the necessary examination, will provide the treatment. It is necessary to contact a medical institution on the basis of a referral of the family doctor.
By Maha El Dahan and Rania El Gamal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, urged caution on Monday against "gloomy expectations" regarding the possible impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the global economy and oil demand.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 with more than 2,700 infected, while health authorities around the world stepped up screening of passengers from China.

Crude prices fell about 3% on the day as the rising number of cases and China's city lockdowns and extension of its Lunar New Year holiday deepened concerns over oil demand.

But Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the impact being seen on oil and other markets was primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite its very limited impact on global oil demand.

"Such extreme pessimism occurred back in 2003 during the SARS outbreak, though it did not cause a significant reduction in oil demand," the minister said in a statement.

Fellow Gulf OPEC oil producer United Arab Emirates echoed the Saudi minister's comments.

"It is important that we do not exaggerate projections related to future decreases in oil demand due to events in China," UAE Minister of Energy Suhail al-Mazrouei said.

"OPEC and OPEC+ member countries will discuss market conditions (in March) and, if required, all options to ensure continued market balance," he said.

GLOBAL IMPACT

The Saudi minister also said OPEC and its allies could respond to any impact on the oil market, adding he was confident China and international authorities could contain the virus.

Algeria's Energy Minister and current President of OPEC Mohamed Arkab, also referring to the outbreak, said that "the impact on the outlook for global oil demand would ... be small".

Brent crude futures were down around 2.8% at $59.01 by 1402 GMT having earlier dropped to $58.50. U.S. crude was down by 2.6% at $52.77, having earlier eased to $52.13. Both hit their lowest levels since October.

Prince Abdulaziz said he was confident the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, a group known as OPEC+, "have the capability and flexibility needed to respond to any developments."

Story continues

Oman's oil minister told Reuters on Monday he fully supported Saudi Arabia's readiness to react to any impact the virus has on the market.

OPEC+, which includes Russia, has been reducing oil supply to support prices and has agreed to hold back 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of output until the end of March.

Prince Abdulaziz said all options were open when OPEC+ meets in Vienna in March.

An OPEC source said there were preliminary discussions within OPEC+ for an extension of current oil supply cuts beyond March, and a possible deeper cut was also an option if there was a need, and if the China virus spread impacted oil demand.

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Rania El Gamal in Dubai; Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Editing by Jason Neely and David Holmes)
External Article

27 January 2020

It increasingly looks like what we expected will happen will come true: Chairman Barry Diller is likely to make Expedia Group's acting boss Peter Kern the permanent CEO. It's very probable, too, that Diller is shopping the online agency giant to potential buyers. But who would buy?

After Expedia Group Chairman and Senior Executive Barry Diller fired the travel giant's CEO and chief financial officer in early December, investors pushed the share price up by 6 percent. Continued share price gains since then reflect the hope that new management will boost the competitiveness of the online travel agency.

Yet not everyone has been as enthusiastic. Some investment analysts and company insiders speculate that Diller's looking for a buyer for Expedia.

One factor driving uncertainty is that Diller said the company wasn't searching immediately for a CEO during a December 19 meeting with Expedia employees, as Skift reported from Seattle at the time. He had already appointed Expedia Vice Chairman Peter Kern as effectively the interim CEO to replace ousted Mark Okerstrom.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan and Head of the Migration Service Armen Ghazaryan hosted the delegation of the European Union led by Head of the EU delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, Ombudsman Tatoyan said on Facebook.

During a productive meeting we discussed issues relating to the judicial reforms, anti-corruption fight, protection of rights of children and women, migration and rights at state border check-points, the Ombudsman said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday flagged off the Ganga Yatra here.

Speaking at the event, Adityanath said, "We have started the Ganga Yatra here from Bijnor to Kanpur. The other Ganga Yatra is being flagged off by Governor Anandiben Patel from Ballia to Kanpur. On January 31, both Yatras will meet at Kanpur."

"And why Kanpur, because it was a critical point in the Namami Gange project. For years Ganga water in Kanpur was polluted which not only hurt our beliefs but also impacted our economy," he said.

The chief minister further said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi started Namami Gange project in 2014 and now we see how much the water has improved in the Ganga at Kanpur."

"If it can be done in Kanpur then the same can be done in Delhi with Yamuna water for which the government of Delhi hasn't done anything," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ghanaian bank GCB has stated that it will launch its G-Money mobile money platform on 30th January.

GCB, which is one of the countrys leading banks, announced last year that it intended to compete with Ghanas operator-branded mobile money services. In November, it was cleared to do so by the Central Bank.

A statement from the bank read: Apart from affording customers the freedom to perform transactions regardless of their mobile network operator, G-Money will also create an enabling environment for the ongoing digitisation processes in Ghanas economy.

GCB noted that a bank-operated mobile wallet represented an industry first in Ghana, noting that customers would be able to manage payments, loans and savings via their devices. The countrys three largest operators - AirtelTigo, MTN and Vodafone  all provide a mobile money offering.
Etawah (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Amid ongoing protests against CAA-NRC-NPR in the various parts of the country, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Sunday said that the 'Constitution is in danger' and he will not allow 'the country to be divided on the name of religion'.





"We have embarked on this journey with Gandhi ji's message of truth, peace and non-violence. There is a need for this today, because the Constitution and the Republic of this country are in danger," said Sinha addressing Republic Day event here in Saifai.



He said that the Republic and the Constitution, which were given to the country by Bhimrao Ambedkar and his colleagues on January 26, 1950, is in danger.



"Protests are taking place all over the country as efforts are being made to divide the country in the name of religion. But we will not allow the country to be divided again," said Sinha asking people to take a pledge that they will not show any papers to the administration to prove their citizenship.



Sinha, who had embarked on a 'Gandhi Sandesh Yatra' from Mumbai, reached Saifai on Sunday.



He unfurled a 158 feet high national tricolour flag in Saifai along with Samajwadi Chief Akhilesh Yadav. (ANI)
Gail Porter has admitted filming and watching back her new documentary exploring her mental health battle has been 'tricky'.

Appearing on ITV's Lorraine on Monday morning, the Scottish star revealed her daughter Honey, 17, broke down in tears after watching the recently released BBC Scotland programme, after her mother told her not to.

The documentary also explores the backlash Gail received after her naked image was famously projected onto the House of Commons in 1999 as part of a FHM campaign.

Emotional: Gail Porter has admitted filming and watching back her new dolcumentary exploring her mental health battle has been 'tricky'

Speaking to Lorraine about filming her new mental health documentary, she said: 'It was much more tricky than I thought it was going to be I learnt a lot and I felt better. I'm trying to get through emails and tweets and Instagram messages there are just so many people it seems to have helped.

'I have seen it once when I was doing the voiceover for it. And I did find it quite tricky. So I had to disappear a little bit and come back in and deal with it I do cry an awful lot.'

Gail also explained that she had no idea a naked image of herself would appear on the House of Commons in 1999 as part of the publicity stunt, revealing: 'I knew the picture was taken... I didn't [know they were going to do that], I didn't know I was going to be on the front cover. I didn't get paid for it. I just saw it on the news.

Candid: Appearing on ITV's Lorraine on Monday morning, the Scottish star revealed her daughter Honey, 17, broke down in tears after watching the recently released programme

Infamous: The documentary also explores the backlash Gail received after her naked image was famously projected onto the House of Commons in 1999 as part of a FHM campaign

Iconic: Gail explained that she had no idea a naked image of herself would appear on the House of Commons, revealing: 'I didn't get paid for it'

On the negative backlash, she admitted: 'I took everything personally I didn't know it was going to be that big or that massive. I was thinking it would be a wee picture in the middle of a magazine and that no one would see it. My mum phoned me up and said "What have you done". I said, "Sorry".

Fail's mental health began to deteriorate at the height of her fame and battling with depression, Gail was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2011.

Speaking about her daughter Honey's response to the candid documentary which explores her troubled life, Gail said: 'I didn't want her to watch it she knows certain bits, but she doesn't know all of it. And then she came to my flat and said, 'I actually watched it yesterday, Mum'.

Moving forward: Speaking to Lorraine about filming her new mental health documentary, she said: 'It was much more tricky than I thought it was going to be I learnt a lot'

Mum: Speaking about her daughter Honey's response to the candid documentary which explores her troubled life, Gail said: 'I didn't want her to watch it' (pictured together in December 2019)

And I said, "Oh no, I'm so sorry." And she said she cried and I said, "What did you cry for?" and she said, "You didn't tell me everything". We have got even stronger together, so I got lots of hugs. She's great.'

'I think I was brought up, Scottish, I think that helps, we are very stoic,' she said of the difficulties she found in opening up. 'I was embarrassed about certain bits, being homeless and stuff I didn't really want to discuss that.'

Gail previously revealed how she slept rough on a park bench after being left homeless for year amid her bankruptcy filing in 2017.

The TV star now says she is in a much better place, revealing she is open about her mental health when speaking with loved ones. 'Now that I speak to my friends more often, because I kept a lot of things to myself, because I was too embarrassed to pick up the phone and say "Do you know what I'm in a bit of dire straits here".. it's taken me a while to learn.'

Talking about her fighting spirit, she concluded: 'As soon as I came in I said Lorraine is going to make me cry again I'm still here. You can take the hair but you're not going to take the girl!'

For confidential support or advice call the Samaritans on 116 123 for free or visit www.samaritans.org.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent a note to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) mentioning that there is a direct link between the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in Uttar Pradesh and the Popular Front of India (PFI).

The ED has sent the note after correlating the dates of money deposited in bank accounts and dates of anti-CAA protests in UP, ED sources told ANI.

ED's note to the Home Ministry comes after an investigation into bank accounts of PFI in some districts of western UP. During the investigation, ED found that a huge amount of money was transferred to bank accounts linked to the PFI.

Protests against the CAA had turned violent last year, resulting in damages to public property in several places across Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier this month, MHA had received a report from the UP government on the activities of PFI in the state.

The UP DGP OP Singh had also said that PFI was actively involved in violent protests against the CAA, he added that some members of the party had been arrested and there was proof regarding the same. Singh also wrote a letter to the MHA seeking a ban on the PFI for its involvement in anti-CAA protests last year.

The CAA grants Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A trio of armed robbers is suspected in three separate Saturday morning home invasions in Lebanon County, investigators said.

According to Lebanon City police, officers were dispatched to three home invasion robberies within less than 30 minutes.

In all three incidents, the suspected robbers matched the same description, police said, describing them as two black men and one Hispanic man.

A gun and knife were displayed during the incidents, police said, adding that no one was injured during the robberies.

Police were first called about 1:54 a.m. Saturday to the 700 block of Glenwood Street. Then, about 2:04 a.m., they were called to the 500 block of East Cumberland Street. And finally, about 2:19 a.m., they were called to the 300 block of Chestnut Street.

Home invasion robberies were reported at all of those locations, police said.

Police believe the addresses were specifically targeted not randomly selected, investigators said.

The suspected robbers stole money from the homes on Glennwood and East Cumberland streets, police said. They stole personal property from the Chestnut Street home, according to police.

An investigation into the robberies is ongoing, police said.

Anyone with information about the reported robberies has been asked to contact investigators at 717-272-2054 or Lebanon County Crime Stoppers at 717-270-9800.

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Its been a whirlwind month for trade agreements.

On Jan. 15, the first phase of the much-awaited U.S.-China trade deal was signed by both nations.

Per the agreement, the U.S. will keep imposing tariffs of 25% on approximately $250 billion of Chinese imports, most of which are production inputs for finished goods. It will reduce tariffs to from 15% to 7.5% on $120 billion of consumer goods. China will maintain duties ranging from 5% to 25% on U.S. imports. It also will agree to buy an additional $200 billion of U.S. goods above the baseline year of 2017, in which it purchased $185 billion. Under the agreement, China commits to buying an additional $5 billion in U.S. agricultural goods.

From a non-tariff standpoint, China agrees to step up its protection of intellectual property rights, which has been a sore point for many companies across the world that have seen their products copy-catted without permission. The agreement mandates that China enforce intellectual property rights through criminal penalties. The one area not covered, and certainly to be a concern to pharmaceutical companies, are life-saving biologic drugs.

A major issue to the U.S. is addressed within the agreement  stopping Chinas practice of stealing foreign companies proprietary information or requiring them to share their technology with the Chinese government. However, as in the case of intellectual property rights enforcement, this area will be left solely to the Chinese government for enforcement.

Finally, China will ease the equity rules for foreign banks operating within the country. Previously, China imposed strict equity restrictions on foreign banks, not letting them use equity held by their other banks outside of the country to comply with Chinas laws. This effectively made it hard for them to compete in Chinas financial services market. Under the agreement, a banks equity held outside of China can now be used for compliance purposes.

The obvious upside of the agreement is that China is committing to buying additional U.S. products, which should help ease the trade imbalance that the U.S. currently has with that country. However, committing to the terms of the agreement means that China will have to increase its U.S. imports by more than 50% in a short period of time. The probability of this remains to be seen.

Increased intellectual property rights and the protection of corporate secrets are two of the biggest complaints the U.S. government has had against China. Addressing these in the agreement is a welcome step in the right direction. However, the ultimate enforcement body to ensure compliance is the Chinese government itself. For this part of the agreement to work, it will need to act in good faith by providing self-enforcement, of which there are many skeptics.

After previous passage by the House, on January 16 the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA), or as I like to say, NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) 2.0, was passed by the U.S. Senate. A collective sigh of relief was heard by North American companies that import or export throughout the hemisphere. Due to higher North American content requirements in the agreement, it is hoped that more manufacturing will take place on U.S. soil.

One provision of the USMCA increases the amount of North American content in automobiles from 62.5% to 75%. Another requires trucks and light trucks to have 40% to 45%of their content manufactured by workers earning at least $16 per hour. Most industry players I have talked to have expressed doubt that these requirements can adequately be achieved and/or monitored. Some say it will be easier to simply pay a tariff rather than attempt to achieve compliance with these rules. Stricter content and labor rate rules could mean higher prices for cars and trucks, which would be passed on to consumers.

The putting to bed of the agreement in the U.S. allows companies that were sitting on the fence, wondering whether their operations could proceed based on an agreement facilitating free trade between the three nations, to commence with new investments. Now, Canada is the only country left to ratify the agreement, and it is expected to do so soon. This will wrap up a contentious three years in which NAFTA was bashed by the Trump administration, made uncertain, and used as a bully pulpit against our North American neighbors. Putting it fully in place will allow the three countries to work hard at again being good neighbors and trading partners.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.
A former TalkTalk executive is suing the telecoms giant, claiming she earned 40 per cent less than male colleagues doing the same job.

Rebecca Burke, 43, led a cybersecurity programme at the company after it was hit by a high-profile data breach in 2015.

She was made redundant from her 110,000 position 15 months later and alleges that four of her male colleagues were paid up to 40 per cent more in salary and 50 per cent more in bonuses.

Ahead of the tribunal hearing today at the Central London employment tribunal in Holborn, Ms Burke  who is suing for unfair dismissal and unequal pay discrimination  said: Im keenly aware of the gender discrimination that thousands of women and girls are facing every day.

The cost to me, my family and my friends in getting this far has been enormous. The financial expense of bringing a claim is huge. The anxiety and sleepless nights are just part of the damage to me and my familys health and wellbeing.

But I am totally committed to getting justice. I hope that by seeing this through I will encourage other women to do the same, and not to be deterred by the many hurdles that make the process so hard.

Ms Burke was flanked by supporters as she arrived at the hearing today.

BBC presenter Carrie Gracie, who revealed gender pay discrimination at the broadcaster, pledged her support, saying: Rebecca has been through a long ordeal.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said: We strongly refute these claims and we do not tolerate gender discrimination of any sort.
An attempt by Italy's right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini to destabilise the government by forcing the left out of power in a key northern region appeared to founder Sunday.

With 20% of precincts reporting in Emilia-Romagna, Democratic Party incumbent Stefano Bonaccini was leading with 50% of the votes in the regional president's race, against 45% for the candidate of Salvinis right-wing League.

Salvini was looking for more than a symbolic victory in Emilia-Romagna, which has been a left-wing stronghold in postwar Italy with unbroken leftist administrations for 70 years.

Hoping to force new national elections, the firebrand former interior minister aimed to shake the weak governing coalition in Rome formed last summer after he made a failed grab at power.

Bonaccini claimed victory in a speech to supporters in the regional capital of Bologna, saying the League tried to use the regional campaign for other ends,'' but that sticking to topics that mattered to voters - like health care, education, the environment - had prevailed.

Salvini, addressing reporters earlier in Bologna, wasnt ready to concede the contest, but his comments were far from the bluster of recent weeks.

Bonaccini had found himself in the role of underdog in Emilia-Romagna despite a strong local economy and a favorable job rating.

He ran against a little-known League politician, Lucia Borgonzoni, who lost the 2016 Bologna mayoral race, but Salvini made himself the real face of the campaign.

Analysts said a victory by Salvinis right-wing populist League in Emilia-Romagna would have prompted a crisis in Rome, where the 5-Star Movement is in a shaky governing coalition with the Democratic Party.

The government was formed last summer after Salvini, who was vice premier and interior minister, made a failed grab for power, collapsing the previous 5-Star-League government and losing his posts.

Salvini, who remains Italy's most popular politician in opinion polls despite the misstep, is looking for ways to force new elections, betting on a national victory.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte had said his government was determined to complete its mandate until 2023, no matter the outcome of Sundays vote.

But the 5-Star Movement had miserable showings in both regions Sunday, which could be a destabilising factor especially after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio resigned as political leader earlier this month.
Slamming former President for telling "blatant lies" about the city, Aam Aadmi Party leader said on Friday that the Union Home Minister was lying as none of the seven MPs in Delhi have done anything for the national capital.

Speaking to the media, Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia said that in 2014, the people of Delhi voted for 7 MPs and it was repeated in 2019.

"Had these 7 MPs or the Central government had done any work for the people on the ground, they wouldn't have to resort to 'jumlas', or be confused about issues to attack the Arvind Kejriwal government," Sisodia said, asking BJP leaders to raise real issues.

Sisodia said on Thursday, Shah made some statements during his rally in Delhi. He appreciated that Shah was talking about the work being done in Delhi.

"We had said that we entered politics to transform it and Shah himself provides ample proof of the manner in which we have changed the narrative," said Sisodia.

He added that Shah, when referring to Delhi, also had to speak about the real issues and the works done.

Sisodia said that Shah had to finally admit on Thursday that 'some' cameras have been installed.

"Even though he only acknowledged that 'some' cameras have been installed, at least he accepted that work has happened. Since he is the Union Home Minister, he has all the sources at his disposal to gather information. He is also in constant touch with officers of the Delhi government.

"Had he gathered the right information, he would have known that of the 2.8 lakh CCTV cameras were promised and we have already installed more than 2 lakh of them. The process is on to install the remaining. Therefore, I request Shah to kindly keep himself updated about the work happening in Delhi," Sisodia said.

He added that it doesn't speak well for a nation if its Home Minister needs to go around with a binocular to look for CCTV cameras.

"Yesterday, he also claimed that no schools have been constructed by the I would like to invite him to my Assembly constituency -- Patparganj. I want to send him a message that if he plans a roadshow or rally in Patparganj, he should make a pit stop at Khichripur village and see for himself the newly constructed Government School Of Excellence," Sisodia said.

He also challenged Shah to show even a single government school of comparable standard that has been constructed in any of the BJP ruled states.

"I am also willing to accompany him to any other area of Delhi he chooses to visit and show him a school in that area. I don't know whether he is looking for a school in Delhi or the sky using his binocular. We have not just constructed new schools, but also refurbished the older ones to a great extent," Sisodia said.
One new boy and one new girl are set to enter the Love Island villa on Monday night, after it was revealed that either Connor or Sophie will have to leave.

In a dramatic new teaser ahead of the show, the Islanders are left speechless as Demi Jones and Wallace Wilson make their grand entrance.

Demi, a 21-year old style advisor from Portsmouth, shows off a self-assured strut while walking into the South African villa in a form-fitting black dress.

Here they come: Two new Islanders are set to enter the Love Island villa on Monday night, just after it was revealed that either Connor or Sophie will have to leave

Meanwhile Scottish hunk Wallace, 23, ticks his own share of boxes as they make their way inside to meet the Islanders for the first time.

The Inverness based personal trainer looks confident enough to hold his own with boys, and may well ruffle plenty of feathers.

News of their arrival comes in the form of a text received by Nas, who tells the stunned group: 'Tonight one new boy and one new girl will be entering the villa.'

Make way: In a dramatic new teaser ahead of the show, the Islanders are left speechless as Demi Jones and Wallace Wilson make their grand entrance

Let's do this: The pair are full of confidence during their arrival on Monday evening

However the reaction appears to be mixed, with Rebecca - until now the newest addition to the villa - squealing with delight while Paige looks despairingly at the sky.

The latest clip also teases the fallout from Monday evening's departure as Islanders cope with the loss of another contestant.

The public had been voting for their least favourite couple, with Sophie and Connor finding themselves at the bottom of the pile.

But only one of them will be removed from the show, as it was revealed that the other Islanders will make the final decision.

WINTER LOVE ISLAND 2020: MEET THE HOT SCOT AND THE SOUTH-COAST STYLIST Hot Scot: Wallace Wilson is looking for someone ambitious and athletic Name: Wallace Wilson Age: 23 Location: Inverness Occupation: Personal Trainer Ideal Woman? 'Someone ambitious, athletic and confident.' Marks out of 10? 'I would say I''m an 8 out of 10 and my eyes are my best feature.' Got an eye on any other Islanders? 'Ive got my eyes on three different girls, Paige, Siannise and Sophie.' Bad Habits? 'I can over analyse things sometimes when it comes to love.' Fun Fact? 'I've taken part in a men's physique and bodybuilding shows.' Watch out: Demi Jones has her eyes on Islanders Nas and Finn Name: Demi Jones Age: 21 Location: Portsmouth Occupation: Style Advisor for a boutique Celebrity Crush? 'Tom Hardy, he's quite sexy isn't he? Or Zac Efron.' Love Island Goals? 'To find someone macho and mature. Someone sexy! I like cheekiness, also at the same time theyve got to make me laugh.' Best Chat Up Line? 'A guy messaged me this recently: Do you like Star Wars because Yoda licious."' Who's Caught Your Eye? 'I've got my eyes on Nas and Finn.' Fun Fact? 'My dream career is to be a museum curator in Rome after Ive learnt Italian.' Advertisement

Can't believe it: New girl Rebecca is visibly stunned after discovering she is no longer the newest addition to the Love Island villa

Here we go again: Paige's reaction appears to rather more uncertain as Nas reads out a text confirming the arrival of two new Islanders

Gutted: The latest clip also teases the fallout from Monday evening's departure as Islanders cope with the loss of another contestant

EUGH! Elsewhere in the episode, the villa will leave fans' jaws dropping when a revolting task sees the stars of the show pass food between their mouths in a sickening style

Laura broke the news to the group, who looked stunned at the double-whammy, leaving the episode on a tense cliff-hanger.

Sauntering into the South African abode in a sizzling red number, the contestants appeared less than pleased to see the show's hostess, as she asked them to gather around the fire pit.

Laura said: 'Islanders, I guess you're all wondering why I'm here  I've got some very important news for you all. The public have been voting for their favourite couple. The couple with the fewest votes risk being dumped.'

Newcomers Luke M and Luke T were exempt from the vote as they are recent additions, meaning their partners - Jess and Rebecca respectively - were also safe.

Ripped apart: Either Sophie and Connor will leave the Love Island villa on Monday night's show, after host Laura Whitmore revealed the latest twist on Sunday evening's installment

Shock: Laura broke the news to the group, who looked stunned at the double-whammy, leaving the episode on a tense cliff-hanger

Uh oh! Sauntering into the South African abode in a sizzling red number, the contestants appeared less than pleased to see the show's hostess, as she asked them to gather around the fire pit

The public then voted for their favourite couple between the remaining five pairs - Sophie and Connor, Leanne and Mike, Paige and Finley, Siannise and Nas, and Shaughna and Callum - to leave Sophie and Connor with the fewest votes.

The news came as a shock to the Islanders, as Siannise and Nas managed to gain more votes despite not being romantically interested in each other.

Siannise chose to couple up with Nas earlier this week to save him from elimination and give him a chance to find love, after she was left unable to choose the man she wanted when Rebecca swooped in and stole away Luke T.

Twist! The public had been voting for their least-favourite couple, with Sophie and Connor finding themselves at the bottom of the pile

Take your pick: It was revealed that the other Islanders will make the final decision

Fuming: It's perhaps not a surprise that Connor and Sophie came out as the least-liked couple, as they have spent the entire series thus far having tiffs, with Connor branded 'controlling' and Sophie classed as 'a snake'

Connor sparked bewilderment among fans on Friday, as he denied being 'sensitive' after yet another clash with the Essex-based beauty.

The 25-year-old fiercely denied his insecurities during a chat with his love interest, 21, after previously storming off when she joked about fancying newcomers Luke M and Luke T.

It comes after Connor insisted he was getting 'f*****g angry' as he watched Sophie joke about having an eye on the two male Islanders, even after both Shaughna and Callum insisted she was joking.

Safe and sound: Newcomers Luke M and Luke T were exempt from the vote as they are recent additions, meaning their partners - Jess and Rebecca respectively - were also safe

As the new Lukes' headed off on dates at the start of the show, Sophie decided to wind up her man by hinting she had her eye on one of them.

Connor struggled to hide his frustration and stormed off, even after Shaughna insisted she was only pulling his leg.

It led to a tense exchange between them as Connor insisted: 'It annoyed me because it felt like you were rubbing it in my face, it did f**k me off. You listen to so many things I was like I felt uncomfortable there.

'If you think I've overreacted or whatever you don't like it, I just felt uncomfortable in that situation. Ever I think other think you p****d them off as well.'

Unhappy: The previous evening Sophie joked that she might have eyes for one of the newcomers, leaving Connor annoyed

Clearly bewildered Sophie later added in the Beach Hut: 'I feel like he shouldn't have even got annoyed, I don't want to be too cold where I'm not thinking about his feelings, I'm trying to be sympathetic, but I'd literally laugh if he said that to me.'

The couple's drama then spilled into the following day as Sophie was chosen to go on a date with Luke M, and Connor decided they needed to sit down for another chat.

Sophie told him: 'I know before you say you're chilled out, I feel your actions have proven different, I would rather you just be honest with me, and say you're sensitive and you need a bit of reassurance.'

Bizarre: He claimed that Sophie made him angry with her playful comments, despite his fellow Islanders claiming they were all in good humour

Sweet: The couple's drama then spilled into the following day as Sophie was chosen to go on a date with Luke M

Baffled that she thought of him as sensitive, Connor then replied: 'I didn't want to sit there and listen to that s**t last night. I don't think I'm sensitive.

'In here for once I've opened up more than I had in the outside world, I wanted to be honest and open about things, that's what I've done, maybe I've been too honest with things. You do whatever you feel I don't wanna be pushing you.'

Clearly rattled Sophie then said: 'I don't want you to get stressed. This is the first time I've had a serious chat with you,' while Connor said it was 'boring.'

Addressing it: Sitting down with Connor for a chat after their date, Sophie told him she thought he was behaving sensitively

No! But Connor quickly hit back by saying: 'I didn't want to sit there and listen to that s**t last night. I don't think I'm sensitive'

'He's getting so worked up and pretending to act cool, you're trying to both and what's happening here? It's a bit draining,' Sophie added in the Beach Hut.

But it was clear that Connor had a conflicting view, as he insisted: 'She thinks I'm sensitive what the f**k? I don't think I am am I?'

While the question was clearly meant as rhetorical, viewers couldn't hide their bewilderment as they rushed to Twitter to question his own claim that he wasn't 'sensitive.'

He said what? Viewers couldn't hide their bewilderment as they rushed to Twitter to question his own claim that he wasn't 'sensitive

One wrote: 'Connor is not sensitive he's possessive. Sophie shouldn't have to reassure him. Classic red light signals from an early relationship.'

Another added: 'Nah Connor says he's not sensitive,' with one fan also tweeting: 'Connor making out he's not sensitive as if he doesn't have a hissy fit every time Sophie looks at another boy,' a third fan also tweeted.

Despite their clash, by the episode's end things seemed to be far better between Connor and Sophie, as she chose to stay with him during the re-coupling.

Islanders will make a decision on who leaves the villa on Monday's episode, which airs at 9pm on ITV2.
MEXICO CITY - A four-day pilgrimage by family members of murdered or missing Mexicans culminated in a tense confrontation in the capitals main square Sunday as supporters of Mexicos president hurled insults at the families  including dozens of Mormons with dual U.S.-citizenship.

Fervent followers of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador swarmed the Caravan for Truth, Justice and Peace as it neared the National Palace with the intention of leaving a letter for the president. Leave the country! they yelled, accusing the victims families of being provocateurs or having been paid off by political opponents of the president.

The hostilities underscored the difficulties of bringing peaceful solutions to a country shaken by frequent and brutal killings that often go unpunished.

There were nearly 35,000 homicides in Mexico last year  a record high for the country and a disappointing figure for Lopez Obradors first full year in office. That works out to a rate of roughly 23 killings per 100,000 people, compared with five per 100,000 in the United States.

Tens of thousands more Mexicans have gone missing over the past decade, with few clues as to their final resting places and little help from authorities in tracking them down.

Members of the LeBaron Mormon community in northern Mexico lent their voice to the protest Sunday. Their settlement was upended in November when gunmen ambushed a convoy travelling on a rugged mountain road a few hours drive south of Arizona. Three American women and six of their children were killed.

The LeBaron community traces its origins to a polygamist group that left the U.S. for Mexico several generations ago, after the Mormon Church banned plural marriage.

Adrian LeBaron lost a daughter and four grandchildren in the November attack. Before the slayings, he said, he was like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand  unaware of the massacre taking place in Mexico.

Now, I have lifted my head to never bury it again, LeBaron said.

Critics have accused LeBaron of seeking attention. He said staying silent would be an insult to the memory of his daughter and grandchildren and counterproductive for the hopes he has for Mexico to be a safer place.

It would bring me shame to not give a face to a tragedy like this, LeBaron said.

Lenzo Widmar, another member of the LeBaron community, encouraged those walking in the protest march to remove a shoe in honour of 9-year-old Mackenzie, a survivor of the attack on the Mormons who trekked more than 10 kilometres (six miles) semi-barefoot to summon help for her wounded siblings.

Widmar said marches like the one in Mexico City are an opportunity to draw attention to the many other cases of slain and missing people in Mexico that fail to draw much attention from the media, or even a proper investigation by police.

Walking in the procession were women like Maria Alicia Guillen, whose 6-year-old son, Eduardo, vanished without a trace while playing marbles outside their home in the southern state of Chiapas in 2012, and Maria del Carmen Volante, whose 23-year-old daughter, Pamela, was last seen at a music festival on the south side of Mexico City more than two years ago.

All of us Mexicans have to look to see where we are responsible for this, said Widmar. Its an embarrassment that we have this much violence in Mexico.

As the procession advanced, trudging in silence for hours toward the presidential palace, it paused at anti-monuments positioned along Paseo de la Reforma, the capitals premier boulevard, to mark searing tragedies.

Marchers shouted Truth! Justice! Peace! next to a pastel-colored structure marking the deaths of 49 toddlers and infants in a fire at a government daycare centre and for which no one has been declared liable.

Then they paused to count to 43 next to a metal installation that sits at an intersection to recall the college students of Ayotzinapa who were abducted and purportedly killed by a drug cartel working in cahoots with police.

Farther along, more than a dozen mothers of missing young men waited for the procession while holding images of their boys with personal details, such as a puma tattoo on the left forearm. The mothers chanted: Son, listen. Your mother is in the fight.

All along the route, supporters shouted to the extended LeBaron family: You are not alone!

But when the marchers reached the central Zocalo plaza, hundreds of the presidents supporters briefly blocked their path while chanting phrases like: Its an honour to be with Obrador and Get out!

LeBaron responded from a platform while speaking into a microphone that the caravan was made up of human beings of all political stripes.

This is a call for conciliation, he said, his voice breaking with emotion. Peace is born in the heart.
After the United States and Japan, France is also planning to evacuate its citizens from the city of Wuhan which has been put under quarantine following deadly coronavirus outbreak.

French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said that the citizens would be repatriated to France during the middle of the week and kept under observation for 14-day, Sputnik reported.

The coronavirus, which so far has claimed the lives of 80 people and sickened more than 2500 people, was originated from the Wuhan city of China.

Following the outbreak, China has imposed lockdown in the city. However, the virus has spread in many parts of the including France, where three cases have been reported so far.

Many countries are screening travelers at airports from certain parts of China for symptoms of the virus.

Meanwhile, the United States has organised a special flight from Wuhan to San Francisco to relocate citizens and personnel stationed at the consulate in Wuhan.

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japanese authorities were coordinating with China to evacuate its citizens from the Chinese province.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Biocon Biologics, the subsidiary of Biocon, is banking on its biosimilar portfolio and a strong pipeline of future launches to reach its $1 billion revenue target by end of FY22.

The biologics segment grew 50 percent year-on-year (YoY) in nine-month period to Rs 1594 crores, led primarily by contributions from Pegfilgrastim and Trastuzumab in US market. Adalimumab in European Union and Trastuzumab in several emerging markets, also contributed towards growth.

Biocon Biologics expects to end FY20 with sales of around $300 million. The company expects margins to expand as its biosimilars gain sales traction in US and other markets.

"What we are seeing in the US biosimilar market is very encouraging with biosimilars reaching double digit market share. And that is very important trend," said Christiane Hamacher, Biocon Biologics, CEO & MD of Biocon Biologics told Moneycontrol.

Pegfilgrastim is a biosimilar version of Amgen's Neulasta used to stimulate the level of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that gets damaged in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Biocon started supplying Pegfilgrastim from the expanded capacity since December last year, and is now focused on increasing market share by participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program that covers one-third of one-third of the market in the US.

The 340B is a US federal government program that requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to eligible health care organizations and covered entities at significantly reduced prices.

"We are seeing the encouraging signal in terms of increase in market share and this will play out in the one or two quarters, so pegfilgrastim biosimilars have just captured 29 percent of the total overall innovator revenue, so there is a lot of space that is here to grow," said Hamacher.

Trastuzumab promise

On Trastuzumab, the company said it expects a more gradual off take.

"We have both the 150 and 420 milligram (mg) versions of Trastuzumab. We have launched without any legal risks. So our partner Mylan has put everything in place for commercialization and we expect to see ramp up from the next quarter," said Hamacher.

Biocon and its partner Mylan on December 2 last year launched Trastuzumab, a biosimilar to Herceptin - in US used for treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer and metastatic stomach cancer. Roche, the innovator, had made $2.9 billion in 2018 on sales of Herceptin in the US.

Unlike Pegfilgrastim, which is acute or a short term treatment, Trastuzumab is a longer treatment.

Biocon is expecting the launch of Insulin Glargine in US in the second half of calendar year in 2020, and two more products in the following years thereafter.

Rise in R&D expenses

Biocon has pipeline of 28 molecules targeting patients across the world including all major developed markets, while this means steep rise in R&D spend in next few years.

"We will see R&D expenses go up next few years. We will also continue to see rise in revenues. The impact of R&D on percentage of sales will not be as much as absolute increase of revenues," said MB Chinappa, CFO of Biocon Biologics India Ltd.

The biosimilar opportunity globally by 2025 is estimated to be around $260 billion globally,

"We have the capacity to serve the markets globally, and patients across the world, because it's not only about reaching the $1 billion target. Its about reaching 5 million patients. And we also have the cost structure that really enabled us to work across the globe with price volume, value maximisation," said Hamacher.

Biocon has partnered with Mylan for broad portfolio of biosimilar and insulin products. While Biocon develops and manufactures the drug, Mylan takes care of regulatory approvals and commercialization of products in the highly regulated markets such as US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and EU. Biocon has co-exclusive commercialisation rights with Mylan in the rest of the world.

Biocon has another partnership with Sandoz, the generic arm of Novartis, to develop the next wave of biosimilars.
AONN+ is excited to have the addition of new leadership, which will cultivate accelerated growth and engagement within our membership and partnerships.

The Lynx Group, a global strategic alliance of medical communications and education companies, and the official association management and marketing company of the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+), is pleased to announce important changes to the organizations leadership, effective January 1, 2020. The changes include 1 major leadership shift and 2 appointments to senior roles.

Sharon Gentry, RN, MSN, CBCN, CBEC, HON-ONN-CG has been named AONN+ Program Director. In this new role, Sharon takes over the former duties and responsibilities of Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, HON-ONN-CG, who previously held the position for 10 years. Lillie will continue in her role as AONN+ Co-Founder and supporter.

Sharon has been a member of the AONN+ Leadership Council since its inception in 2009 and speaks at the organizations annual and midyear conferences on nurse navigation issues. From 2012 through 2017, she co-chaired the annual AONN+ Conferences as well as served on the teams for certification and metrics. Sharon currently sits on the editorial boards of AONN+ publications The Oncology Nurse-APN/PA (TON) and CONQUER: the patient voice and is the breast cancer editor for the Journal of Oncology Navigation & Survivorship (JONS). She has authored several pieces in JONS, Cancer, TON, Journal of Psychosocial Oncology and CONQUER, as well as chapters in Delivering Patient-Centered Care Across the Continuum, Nurse Navigation Case Studies, and Team-Based Oncology Care: The Pivotal Role of Oncology Navigation. She also has been instrumental in the development of local navigation networks across the US and internationally. She speaks nationally on the topic of patient navigation.

AONN+ welcomes Emily Gentry, RN, BSN, OCN, HON-ONN-CG as Senior Director of Education and Program Development and Co-Director of Certification. In her role as Senior Director of Education and Program Development, Emily will work on building processes and defining outcomes that will enable nurse navigators to work as part of an integrated care team. Emily has been engaged in supporting patients with cancer and their families for more than 30 years. Her most recent position was Navigation Director at Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute at Medical City Healthcare in Dallas/Fort Worth. She served on the AONN+ Leadership Council in 2016 and founded the AONN+ North Texas Regional Local Navigator Network in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in 2013. Emily also currently serves on the national AONN+ Conference planning team and has worked over the past several years to elevate the relevance and define the role of the oncology nurse navigator within the community hospital setting. She has also authored several articles in JONS and co-authored chapters in Team-Based Oncology Care.

Monica Dean is appointed Director of Patient Navigation Program Development and Co-Director of Certification. As Director of Patient Navigation Program Development, Monica will work on strengthening as well as forging relationships with advocacy groups to advance collaborative projects. In addition, she will liaise with pharmaceutical interests to develop funding and support specifically for patient navigation educational initiatives. Monicas most recent position was as the Director of the National Navigation Roundtable (NNRT) at the American Cancer Society Global Headquarters. She was responsible for supporting, planning, and implementing initiatives of the NNRT; overseeing long-term activities; and enacting strategic plans and task group action plans, while creating and maintaining collaborative relationships with external partners and roundtable member organizations.

As Co-Directors of Certification, Emily and Monica will govern, oversee, and direct the process of AONN+ Certification.

With the addition of both Monica and Emily to the AONN+ team, we are reaffirming our dedication to strong leadership for the nurse and patient navigators that make up the membership, said Lynx Group CEO Brian Tyburski. Their extensive experience in the navigation space bolsters their deep understanding of the needs of AONN+ members. I am confident they will invigorate the ongoing certification and accreditation efforts as we continue on our growth trajectory.

AONN+ is excited to have the addition of new leadership, which will cultivate accelerated growth and engagement within our membership and partnerships, said Danelle Johnston, MSN, RN, HON-ONN-CG, OCN, Chief Nursing Officer, Sr. Director of Strategic Planning and Initiatives. The mission remains focused on professional development of our membership that impacts and drives value-based quality cancer care, she added.

About the Lynx Group (http://www.thelynxgroup.com)

The Lynx Group is a rapidly growing global strategic alliance of medical communications and education companies. Through its unique business model, The Lynx Group strives to provide pivotal and contemporary information and education for all stakeholders in healthcare.

The Lynx Group is the official association management and marketing company of the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators, Association for Value-Based Cancer Care, and Association for Oncology Practice Management.

About the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (http://www.aonnonline.org)

The Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators, Inc. (AONN+) is the largest national specialty organization dedicated to improving patient care and quality of life by defining, enhancing, and promoting the role of oncology nurse and patient navigators. The organization, which has more than 8,600 members, was founded in 2009 to provide a network for all professionals involved and interested in patient navigation and survivorship care services in order to better manage the complexities of the cancer treatment process.

The Journal of Oncology Navigation & Survivorship (http://www.jons-online.com) is the official publication of AONN+. JONS seeks to strengthen the role of nurse and patient navigators in cancer care by serving as a platform for these professionals to disseminate original research findings, exchange best practices, and find support for their growing community.

CONQUER: The Patient Voice Magazine (http://www.conquer-magazine.com) is the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) premier forum for patients with cancer. CONQUER features articles written by and for patients with cancer, survivors, nurse navigators, and other oncology team members. This magazine addresses the issues that patients, their family members, and caregivers face every day in an easy-to-read format. Issues include interviews with patients with cancer, information on access to care, and articles on lifestyle topics such as nutrition, stress management, personal finance, and legal and employer issues. CONQUER also features patient stories that are nominated for the AONN+ HERO OF HOPE award, which is presented at the AONN+ Annual Conference. All stories are compiled in a special issue of CONQUER at the end of the year.


Last October, two Amazon employees  Maren Costa (UX designer) and Jamie Kowalski (software engineer) spoke on the record to the Washington Post about their employer's complicity in the climate crisis, including the provision of cloud computing services to energy company in search of new sources of fossil fuels.



Amazon threatened to fire them. Rather than shutting up, the two employees recruited fellow members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice to publish 357 on-the-record, attributed condemnations of Amazon's climate policies from current Amazon tech workers.





It's the latest installment in the tech worker uprising in which tech workers are realizing that the high demand for their skills and massive talent shortage gives them incredible leverage over their employers. Tech workers are a critical part of the fight for a better world, because they can both hold their employers to account and provide accurate assessments of the culture, choices and decisions that feed into our current tech landscape.

"Amazon's main principle is Customer Obsession, it is time to broaden it and get obsessed with Humanity. Collaborating all together we can save our Planet. With great power comes great responsibility  Amazon should make drastic changes in the way it operates, shift company goals and values to be an example for other corporations. Amazon's order of 100,000 electric vans is the right move for our supply chain's future and is also a step in the right direction that sends a signal to the market to help the transition to clean technology. Well done! At the same time, Amazon should end its contracts with oil and gas companies. Our AI and ML are being used for 'finding oil,' 'producing oil,' and 'optimizing production' (source: AWS Oil & Gas public website)."  Mila Rahman, DSP Payments Lead

Amazon Employees Share Our Views on Company Business [Amazon Employees for Climate Justice/Medium]

Amazon employees launch mass defiance of company communications policy in support of colleagues [Jay Greene/Washington Post]
FOR the first time, leading travel agents from around the world attended the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA)s Caribbean Travel Marketplace in the Bahamas.





The 2020 event, which traditionally caters to wholesalers and tour operators, was held from January 21 to 23 at Baha Mars Performing Arts and Convention Centre.





Chair of this years marketplace was Karen Whitt, vice president of marketing and brand development for the Hartling Group in the TCI.





She explained that top-selling travel agents came to the event as part of a new pilot programme to bring together travel advisors with operators of Caribbean hotels, resorts and attractions.





"Throughout the years weve discussed the idea of how to incorporate the travel agent industry into our event and we have a lot of different ideas on how this could be done successfully.





She said that to kick-start the process, the CHTA invited a select group of agents to experience the event, participate as a buyer, and provide feedback.





"This feedback will help shape policies into the future. However, what we can assure is that our Caribbean suppliers are very excited about this pilot programme and its potential to increase business to the region.





Prior to the event Whitt, who is vice president of the CHTA, said that the agents would meet with executives from a cross-section of destinations and hotels.





The visitors, who came from New York and Rhode Island to Tennessee and Texas, were also scheduled to participate in site inspections with select hotels on the island.





The Caribbean Travel Marketplace presents the opportunity to showcase the regions tourism offerings  its traditional ones as well as new and improved product.





It is a one-stop gathering for travel suppliers - hotels, attractions, destinations and transportation providers - to meet with the worlds key influencers of consumer travel decisions.





It also is the industrys key forum for attracting new decision-makers who otherwise would not be familiar with the region.





The event was held in collaboration with local partners Baha Mar, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, and the Nassau Paradise Island Promotion Board.




Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday met the Human Rights Commission (NHRC) officials to file a complaint against the action of Uttar Pradesh Police on the protesters during demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Party spokesman and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu, legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra and MP PL Punia were also present in the meeting.

At least 19 protesters persons were killed and several others were injured during violent clashes with the police in different parts of Uttar Pradesh last month. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have accused the state police of using excessive force against the civilians and shooting above the waist, which is in contravention to the standard operating procedure.

Priyanka Gandhi had also visited Bijnor and Meerut and met the families of the men who were allegedly killed in police firing during the protests. She had also instructed lawyers associated with the party to give legal aid to the people who were arrested for taking part in the agitations.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Security Professionals Association (SPA) for SIRA is showcasing its comprehensive services to potential members and provide core insights into the regions security sector in the lead up to Expo 2020, during its debut participation in Intersec 2020 Exhibition, being held in Dubai, UAE.



The event which opened on January 19 will run until January 21, at the Dubai World Trade Centre.



As the worlds leading trade fair for security, safety and fire protection, Intersec is the ideal platform for SPA for SIRA to launch its comprehensive services to potential members and provide core insights into the regions security sector in the lead up to Expo 2020.



SPA for SIRA foresees the much-awaited Expo 2020 to set the trend for the regions security systems and services. As the world enters a new decade, security will play a key role across all industries and security professionals must exceed their level of creativity and determination to protect the people and places they are responsible for.



Applications such as smart cities, artificial intelligence and cyber security, all in development under the Expos theme of Sustainability, makes the scope of job availability within the security sector highly opportunistic.



Commercial security, smart home, cyber security, fire and rescue, safety and health, homeland security and policing, and perimeter and physical security are all key sectors that will be amplified as Dubai gets set to host the world for Expo 2020.



The industry is advancing towards technologies such as AI and machine learning applications, which will be used as part of the security protocols of Expo 2020, said Engineer Khalid Al Hammadi, chairman of SPA for SIRA, the first security professionals association in the Middle East. This is sure to create an array of job opportunities that will benefit individuals within the security sector, and SPA for SIRA will be there to act as a platform that bridges the gap between security professionals and regulators, as well as fosters a platform for knowledge exchange and development.



Participating in Intersec not only enables our members to interact with a global network of security experts, but broadens their opportunity to inform themselves of the latest security applications and trends within the industry. This event showcases the latest cutting edge innovations and technologies in one of the most important years for the UAE, which will support the safe and secure logistics of Expo 2020, noted Al Hammadi.



At Intersec 2020, new and existing SPA for SIRA members will be able to participate in interactive discussions with committee members, in order to gain knowledgeable insights from leading industry case studies and ascertain best practices. The initial launch of the organisation has welcomed more than 600 security professionals of all levels.



The association also encouraged professionals in the security industry to register as a member and enjoy the benefits of a locally based professional security association, including women, who currently comprised only six per cent of the regions security professionals. SPA for SIRA aims to encourage women to join the industry in all fields.



Adil Abdel-Hadi, second deputy chairman of SPA for SIRA, said: Enhancing and developing the quality of security professionals is very important, which is why SPA for SIRA welcomes individuals from all levels of the security industry to connect, by creating and sustaining a learning environment that cultivates a collaborative, competitive and diverse security industry in the region.



SPA for SIRA will collaborate with top security professionals across the globe to discover cutting-edge solutions, share insights with industry experts and equip its members with the right tools to effectively carry out their duties and tasks in the rapidly evolving security world. Members will enjoy information services, knowledge and professional development, excellence and innovation, and discounts and promotions.



Security professionals who are interested in becoming a member must meet certain requirements and be 21 years of age and above. The membership fee is Dh500 ($) and is valid for one year, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that U.S. strategic goals could include drawing down troops in Africa despite French pleas that American support is "critical" to countering the growing strength of terror groups in the region with links to the Islamic State and al-Qaida.

"My aim is to adjust our footprint in many places," including Africa, to free up forces for a "great power competition" against China and Russia, he said at a joint Pentagon news conference with French Defense Minister Florence Parly.

Esper said no final decisions have been made on withdrawing the estimated 6,000 U.S. troops in Africa, but said the priority must be either to bring the troops home or reposition them for a possible great power conflict.

He declined comment on whether the U.S. would abandon the drone base recently built in Niger at an estimated cost of more than $100 million as part of any potential drawdown.

Related: US Wants to Reduce Presence in Africa, Says Milley

Esper added that other European nations could fill the void if the U.S. withdraws support for the French.

"I think it's time for other European allies to assist as well in the region," he said, "and that could offset whatever changes we make as we consider next steps in Africa."

"We know perfectly well" the U.S. priorities, Parly said, but she suggested that Esper reconsider when it comes to Africa.

"I will mention again that U.S. support is critical to our operations, and its reduction would severely limit our effectiveness in our operations against terrorists" in the Sahel (sub-Sahara), where France intervened in 2013 and now has about 4,500 troops in Mali in a continuing counter-terror war.

"Our friends in the Sahel are in a situation where our assistance is critical, and I have expressed the hope that both the United States and France will keep on supporting them," Parly said.

Since the French intervention in Mali, the U.S. has been aiding French troops with intelligence, aerial surveillance and in-flight refueling.

Parly's visit came a day after insurgents attacked a Malian army camp near the Mauritanian border, killing 20 government troops in the latest in a series of attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, according to Agence France-Presse.

In late October, another attack by militants claiming allegiance to ISIS killed 53 Malian soldiers, according to government reports.

In late November, two French military helicopters collided during an operation against insurgents in Mali, killing 13 troops in the single worst loss for the French military in 36 years, according to the French Defense Ministry.

Earlier this month, the Army Chief of Staff in Niger was fired and three days of mourning were declared after a Jan. 9 raid on a remote base killed at least 89 Nigerian soldiers.

U.S. forces also have been increasingly engaged in East Africa against al-Shabaab rebels in Somalia. On Jan. 4, the rebels crossed into Kenya to attack the Manda air strip, killing a U.S. soldier and two American contractors.

The soldier was identified as Army Spc. Henry Mayfield Jr., 23, of Evergreen Park, Illinois, an air traffic services mechanic.

U.S. Africa Command announced Monday that another airstrike was carried out against Al Shaba in Somalia, killing one suspected terrorist.

Last year, U.S. warplanes and drones conducted 55 airstrikes through October, the highest number since the U.S. involvement in Somalia, according to the Defense Department.

The increasing threat levels across the region have triggered a bipartisan push in Congress against a troop drawdown.

In a Jan. 10 statement, Rep. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, said that troop withdrawals from Africa "would be short-sighted, could cripple AFRICOM's ability to execute its mission and, as a result, would harm national security."

Last week, in a letter to Esper, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the ranking member, warned of the "adverse implications of reducing our force posture in Africa."

Another bipartisan letter to Esper on Jan. 10 from Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Maryland, vice chairman of the committee, and 10 other House members said that U.S. troop withdrawals from Africa would go against the National Defense Strategy aimed at countering Russia and China that Esper has been advocating.

The letter noted the growing influence and investments of Russia and particularly China in Africa and said, "The execution of stability operations in Africa and meeting China and Russia in great power competition are not mutually exclusive.

"Rather than retreat from African affairs, it is in the interest of the United State to continue to share democratic values and military expertise with developing nations across the continent," the letter continued.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Read more: Air Force E-11A Networking Plane Has Crashed in Afghanistan, Top General Confirms
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to renovate roads in the city of Sumgayit.

Under the presidential order, 6.4 million manat is allocated to the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency for the renovation of the roads in the city.
Concurs repetat pentru selectarea unei companii sociologice, care sa efectueze un studiu tematic "Barometrul opiniei publice in domeniul schimbarilor climatice"
Ukraines authorities are changing their approach to the coal industry, as the result more than half of all state mines could be eliminated very soon. However, it seems that the commercial interests of domestic oligarchs would be satisfied as well, who ultimately would gain big benefits

Open source

Ukraine intends to refuse from the thermal power plants till 2050 by increasing the part of the green generation, which will be accompanied by a "gradual reduction of coal generation" through social acceptability. The further developments in this regard are possible, if only the concept of "green" energy transition is approved, a project presented by the team from the Ministry of Energy and Environment, headed by Oleksiy Orzhel, yesterday. Thats why they did not rule out the possibility of reduction of state coal mines, because those mines were unprofitable, as the minister said. Orzhel gave a piece of advice to the children, who are part of families of miners, to look for more interesting and promising directions towards the new professions. According to the minister, there will be no more work left

Mines are in debts

The reduction of state mines is supported by the project of a conception of coal industry reforming, which recently was represented at the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on energy and public utilities (112.ua has got a copy of this document). Out of 33 state mines only 14 are planned to be left. Thus, only half of them will be at service, as Mykhaylo Volynets, the member of the committee, the MP and the chairman of the Independent Union of Miners of Ukraine, said.

However, it is not indicated in the project the exact number of mines, which are planned to be closed. In the section "ways and methods to tackle the problem" is stated the need to identify unpromising and promising enterprises. Thus, the unpromising ones should be eliminated, according to the results of the feasibility study of the inappropriateness of their further functioning. The promising ones should be privatized, or strategic investors should be attracted for them "on the basis of public-private partnerships under concession, long-term lease, and joint activity. "The state is not able to support unprofitable enterprises of the coal industry due to the difficult situation in the national economy," - the projects reads.

It should be noted that the state mines of today are at a very dreadful condition. The majority of state-owned coal companies are bankrupted, which continues to exist only because of the government support and a temporary moratorium on property seizure and bankruptcy. Almost all of the assets of these companies are under arrest or in alien. The accounts payable indicator at the end of the third quarter of 2019 amounted to $ 7.2 million, which is in several times higher than the carrying amount of assets. At the same time, the largest share in the structure of accounts payable is debt for electricity (as of December 1, 2019 was $ 4.3 million).

It is impossible to develop production and to upgrade fixed assets, due to the lack of sources of capital investment. The production of coal in 14 mine faces is carried out with breakers, due to the lack of mining equipment. As a result, the high cost and non-competitive coal production of state-owned coal mines far exceed the market prices, and also it requires continued state support, as the ministry complained. Coal production in the state sector has been declining year by year: in the last 15 years, it has fallen from 24 million tons to 4.1 million tons per year. According to Volynets, the reduction was about 2 million tons last year.

Besides, Ukraine is steadily increasing its import of coal, and by its individual types, Ukraine has already become a net importer. The import of coal products has increased from 15.6 million tons to 21.4 million tons over the last three years, due to the deficit of domestic energy and coking coal, as the project states. Salary arrears at state-owned mines are rather "chronic" ones. In 2019, the share of the state budget in financing the payroll fund was 60%. However, it only temporarily reduces the degree of tension in the coal regions but does not systematically solve the problem of mines. The amount of state budget expenditures increased from $ 78 million in 2016 to $ 188 million in 2019 in order to support the state coal industry. However, these funds are mainly used to pay off salary arrears and to pay for electricity consumed.

Very interesting scheme

Further, it would be possible to start discussions on whether should we or should we not" put an end to the state mines, many of which are located in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Furthermore, for some small towns and settlements, they play the town-forming role. It should be noted that the optimization attempt had already been made in 2017, but it has not been finished yet. No one dared to do so.

It was provided by and then approved by the Concept of Reforming and Developing the Coal Industry for the period up to 2020. "The foreseen optimization of the structure of state-owned coal mining enterprises by the creation of the National Coal Company was not realized and then it was deemed inappropriate," as the new concept of coal industry reform states.

However, without even agreeing with both sides at the discussion whether "to cut or not to cut the Gordian knot, it is obvious that the authorities have to act in accordance with the civilized approaches like in European countries. But in our case, there might be a trick. And as always, it seems that it will not do without satisfying the interests of oligarchs.

Recently, on January 14, order on creation of the State Enterprise Ukrvuhillya was issued by the Minister of Energy and Environment. The new structure was created exclusively for coal trading and is an analog of the state-owned enterprise Derzhvuhlepostach, which is subordinate to the Ministry, as Olexiy Orzhel said to the correspondent of 112.ua at a recent briefing. It was created in 2016 for sale of produced coal at Ukrainian state mines. The focus on creating a replacement is needed in order to cover the debts, leaving them in the old firm, as Mikhail Volynets believes. "Obviously, the minister is creating a structure similar to the Derzhvuhlepostach in order to leave on this organization debt that has appeared because the state mines have not paid for the supplied coal, as well as in order to suspend the debts about $ 40.9 million of the Centerenergo to the Derzhvuhlepostach. Now, this structure is controlled by oligarch Kolomoyskiy, "Volynets told the reporters.

Earlier, journalists found the office of Ihor Kolomoyskiy's firm, which deals with the supply of coal from Russia for the state-owned enterprise Centrenergo. Despite that even officials of the country are aware of the fact of under whose control the Centrenergo really is, but officially the connection between the enterprise and the oligarch has not yet been proven. It was reported that Ihor Kolomoyskiy personally called the current acting CEO of Centrenergo Volodymyr Potapenko "understandable" for himself personally. In addition, Nikopolskiy and Zaporizhskiy ferroalloy plants, controlled by a businessman, receive electricity at a significant discount with a change of management of the Centrenergo.

And, what is so terrible about this? Most of the state mines will be closed anywaySo why should we bother at all? But the problem is the inextricable link between the payments for coal delivered and without exaggerating for the hellish work of Ukrainian miners. As a result of the focus on the creation of a new state-owned company, the Derzhvuhlepostach will not be able to pay off the Lvivvuhol, whose six mines were disconnected from electricity supply in December, which leads to flooding. According to the chairman of the Union of Miners, salary arrears in this organization exceeded already for $ 12.3 million. Miners and families of miners from the South Donbas mine, which has not been producing coal since December 6, will not get paid, as the organization is also unable to pay off their electricity debt: wage arrears reached $ 1.7 million there.

Thus it stays unclear who will pay to the mines and miners in this case.
Professors demand apology after Catholic college screens pro-life film 'Unplanned' Principal says the film screening is 'consistent' with college's mission

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Over three dozen faculty members of a Catholic college in Canada are calling for an apology after a film about a former abortion workers departure from the industry was screened on campus.

Forty-three faculty members of the Kings University College at Western University in Ontario signed onto a letter criticizing the Catholic liberal arts university for allowing the pro-life film Unplanned to be shown to students.

Unplanned is based on the life of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic manager who created an organization to support those who decide to leave the abortion industry.

Johnson has become one of the United States most well-known activists advocating for restrictions on abortion. The film depicts violent abortions, women bleeding and complications after taking an abortion pill.

The film was screened on Jan. 9 free of cost to Kings University College students by the college's Campus Ministry, which seeks to facilitate campus life rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition.

The screening is part of the ministrys Veritas series for Faith and Culture, which in the past has also featured events highlighting left-leaning causes and speakers such as Father James Martin.

The colleges events calendar labeled the film as an inspiring true story that provides an eye-opening look inside the abortion industry from a woman who was once its most passionate advocate. In response to the event, pro-choice students and activists held a protest on campus.

Last week, a group of professors that spans across disciplines signed onto a letter sent to Principal David Malloy, claiming that the screening of the film created furor and fear throughout campus.

They claimed that the universitys handling of the screening was inappropriate. The faculty argued that the screening of the film did not meet the standards of the universitys mission to uphold respectful and critical dialogue of difficult subjects in a scholarly, just and ethical manner.

The Unplanned event did not meet the threshold of those elements within the Catholic intellectual tradition, the letter states.

Specifically, the faculty took issue with comments made by Campus Ministry Director Rev. Michael Bechard to media following the screening of the film. He was quoted as saying that he hopes the film will send a message to women that we are concerned about unborn children.

The protesting faculty called on Bechard to issue an apology.

His position is hostile to women, the letter reads. Abortion is a safe and legal health service for women in Canada and is accessed by approximately one-quarter of child-bearing women. Women who have exercised their rights to reproductive care risk being stigmatized and traumatized by the ideological position presented both in the film and in the Directors statement.

They also called for the college to affirm that faculty, staff, and students at Kings University College are not mandated to ascribe to all or any elements of Catholicism.

"The public endorsement of an anti-abortion stance at King's University College by the Director of Campus Ministry is of great concern to the viability of our institution as we work to recruit and maintain excellent students, staff and faculty."

Bechard, a priest in the Diocese of London, told The Gazette prior to the screening that the goal of the film showing was not to persuade anyones opinions on abortion but simply to have a conversation around the issue.

"It's part of our values and our mission statement to support life in all its stages, from conception to natural death, Bechard said in accordance with traditional Roman Catholic teaching. And we hope that this will begin to really challenge people to think about how we are responding to the many complex needs in our community.

Despite his intentions, critics believe Bechard underestimated the commitment to deep debate at Kings University College.

Consequently, we have lost the opportunity to engage a highly inflammatory issue in an informed, deliberative context, the faculty contended. We have lost the opportunity to model to our students and the broader community the methods of inquiry and debate that are at the centre of the liberal arts."

David C. Malloy, principal of the college, responded to the facultys concerns in a statement posted to the colleges website. He explained that the film screening is consistent with Kings mission to be a place where controversial topics can be presented and discussed.

Kings, like any other university, is where challenging political, social, and religious topics can be discussed in an environment that is respectful and safe, Malloy explained. Open dialogue and debate about uncomfortable truths is part of our mission. We are not advocating for any side of this debate but rather being a vehicle for the conversation.

He said that uncomfortable truth discussions are not designed to make people feel badly or hurt.

I regret that people in our community have experienced anxiety, stress and frustration as a function of this event. As Principal, I take responsibility for this and will strive to create a more open format for future events.

Malloy added that while pro-choice advocates protested the film, they were invited to participate before, during, or in the discussion period after film screening. He said that no one was prevented from speaking during the discussion.

For example, the protestors used space on campus to make their protest signs prior to the event, he said. They also came inside the Student Life Centre (without signs or chanting) during the screening.

The school created a safe space by having security present for the event, just like it has for past Veritas series events, he noted. Malloy assured that the presentation of the film and the belief that life begins at conception is a stance held by Campus Ministry, not the university as a whole.

Kings employees, faculty and students do not need to prescribe to the tenets of the Catholic Church, he said. Kings does not have a position on abortion.

While abortion may have become safer for women over the years, a study from 2018 shows that thousands of women are sent to emergency rooms each year due to complications with abortion.
Upcoming political events in the Bay Area:

WEDNESDAY

Politics and rationality: Two experts in the history of modern science and philosophy examine whether the intellectual history of the past few centuries help reinvigorate reasoned political and cultural debate. Featuring Jessica Riskin, Stanford history professor and Jean-Paul Gimon director of the France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; and Justin Smith, philosophy professor at the University of Paris 7. $25 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. 7 p.m., Outdoor Art Club, 1 West Blithedale, Mill Valley. More information is here.

THURSDAY

Trumps testing of America: Washington Post journalists Carol Lennig and Philip Rucker, authors of A Very Stable Genius, on covering the Trump administration. $35 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. Noon, 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

Housing and local control: A UC Hastings symposium on state legislative efforts to restrict local control over housing decision. Features attorneys discussing the background and impact of these legislative efforts, and an academic panel covering the different dimensions of growth and housing in the state. Free. 2:30 p.m., 200 McAllister St., Alumni Reception Center, San Francisco. More information is here.

Reimagining urban housing: David Sobel, CEO of San Francisco Housing Development Corp., on rethinking the real estate development and operations process to create more affordable homes. Free. 7:30 p.m., Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FRIDAY

Rep. Barbara Lee: East Bay Democrat in conversation with Mission District community leader Miguel Bustos. $15. Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Endless war: What is driving endless war? Who benefits and who pays? What is the connection between war and racism? Is endless war inevitable? Educational presentations and discussion, sponsored by the San Francisco Party for Socialism and Liberation. $3-$10. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here.

SATURDAY

Night of Ideas: Friends of the San Francisco Public Library hosts an evening of philosophical debate, keynotes, panels, performances and interactive experiences is designed to spur dialogue and creative participation on the theme, Living on the Edge. Free, registration required. 8 p.m., San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco. More information is here.

SUNDAY

Achieving social change: Activist and sociologist, George Lakey and author Kazu Haga facilitate a workshop on How We Win, to give details about how to achieve needed social change. 2:30 p.m., 1924 Cedar St., Berkeley. More information is here.

MONDAY

Watch party: For Iowa caucuses returns. Free. 5 p.m., Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 4

Health and human capital in Russia: A discussion on the extent to which 15 years of Russian investment in improving its education and health care systems has paid off. Free. Noon, William J. Perry Conference Room, 616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford University. More information is here.

Guns and responsibility: A moderated discussion of guns and gun control, hosted by the League of Women Voters Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville. Free, registration required. 5:45 p.m., 2530 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. Registration and more information is here.

Guantanamo prison: Peter Jan Honigsberg, a law professor at the University of San Francisco and director of the Witness to Guantanamo Project, details the continued U.S. detention of suspected enemy combatants at its Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. Benefit for KPFA-FM. $12 in advance, $15 at the door. 7:30 p.m., Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. More information is here.

FEB. 5

Chronicle experts on 2020 elections: Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper, columnists Heather Knight and Phil Matier, and senior political writer Joe Garofoli analyze the March 3 primary election. $15, $10 for subscribers. 6 p.m., Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 7

Watch party: For the Democratic presidential candidates debate. $10. 6 p.m., Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 8

Rock the Primary: Performances by bands including the Basementals, the Robs, Matt Jaffe, Amalgamation, Splat! and Edens Lost. Nonprofit and political clubs will discuss issues, candidates and upcoming ballot initiatives. Free. 3-11:30 p.m., Ferment.Drink.Repeat Brewing Company, 2636 San Bruno Ave., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 9

Race and 2020 elections: A daylong workshop on race and the 2020 elections, hosted by the Catalyst Project and Bay Resistance. Sliding scale donation. 9 a.m., Oakstop17 1721 Broadway, No. 201, Oakland. More information is here.

Spanish for activists: A session on canvassing among the Latinx community, sponsored by Democracy Action. Intended for intermediate and advanced Spanish speakers. Bring a laptop and phone. Free. 10:30 a.m., 80 Liberty Ship Way, Suite 20, Sausalito. More information is here.

FEB. 10

Climate politics: A meetup on climate politics to plan for the March 3 California primary and other elections. Speakers include Susan Bolle of Democracy Action Marin and Susan Morgan of Indivisible Marin. 6 p.m., Good Earth Natural Foods, 201 Flamingo Road, Mill Valley. More information is here.

FEB. 11

Socialist feminism: A reading group focused on Gloria Martins Socialist Feminism: The First Decade, recording the formation of theirst Marxist socialist feminist party, the Freedom Socialist Party. First of two sessions hosted by Freedom Socialist Party; second session is at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 12. $3-$5 donation. 7 p.m., New Valencia Hall, 747 Polk St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 13

Responsible conservatism: Political analyst William Kristol on whether American conservatism has a future. Free. 7 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium, 485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford University. More information is here.

FEB. 15

Rep. Pramila Jayapal: Washington state congresswoman and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair in conversation at the Commonwealth Club. $30 for nommembers, $10 for students. 1 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 16

Rep. Pramila Jayapal: Washington state congresswoman and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair in conversation at Mannys. $15. 2 p.m., 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 19

Iran Reframed: A Talk by Narges Bajoghli, assistant professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University and an anthropologist, filmmaker and writer. Free. 4 p.m., Room 587, Humanities Building, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco. More information is here.

Watch party: For the Democratic presidential debate, hosted by TechEquity Collaborative. Free. 5 p.m., Starline Social Club, 2236 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. More information is here.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

FEB. 20

Primary ballot explainer: An overview and conversation of key housing and workforce and labor ballot measures on the March 3 primary ballot, hosted by TechEquity Collaborative. Free. Online, 344 Thomas L. Berkley Way, Oakland. More information is here.

Disinformation and democracy: A forum on the threats to democratic elections from digital disinformation. Panelists include Irina Raicu, director of internet ethics at Markkula Center; Alex Stamos, former chief security officer at Facebook and director of the Stanford Internet Observatory; and Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at Markkula Center. $10. 6 p.m., Computer History Museum, 1401 North Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View. More information is here.

Polarization and the Constitution: Is the Constitution part of the problem in political polarization rather than the solution, and if it is, what can we do about it? A conversation with Paul Pierson, political science professor at UC Berkeley. Free. 6:30 p.m., Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 22

Oscar Lopez Rivera: Puerto Rican independence activist, long imprisoned by the U.S. government for alleged connection to paramilitary actions, discusses his organizing activities as the island tries to recover from 2018 hurricanes. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 5:30 p.m., La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. More information is here.

FEB. 23

Dismantling racism: Screening of the documentary film When They See Us, followed by discussion groups focused on building bridges for the purpose of dismantling white supremacy and racism. Hosted by San Francisco Black and Jewish Unity Group. Free. 1 p.m., Calvary Presbyterian Church, 2515 Fillmore St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Oscar Lopez Rivera: Puerto Rican independence activist, long imprisoned by the U.S. government for alleged connection to paramilitary actions, discusses his organizing activities as the island tries to recover from 2018 hurricanes. $20. 1 p.m., Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here.

FEB. 26

W. Kamau Bell: Political comedian teams up with Mother Jones to talk about the 2020 election. $15. 7 p.m., Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. More information is here.

FEB. 27

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Washington Post columnist on how progressives and moderates can unite to win 2020 elections. $25 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. Noon, 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 1

Rep. Jackie Speier: Peninsula Democrat in conversation for KQED-FMs Live on Stage With Michael Krasny. $25. 5 p.m., Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Hoytt Theater, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael. More information is here.

MARCH 3

Super Tuesday watch party: For primary returns from California and 13 other states. Free. 5 p.m., IGS Library, 109 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley. More information is here.

MARCH 4

Gender issues and political identity: Rose McDermott, international relations professor at Brown University, discusses gender issues and leaders emotional manipulation of political identity. $5. 7 p.m., 518 Valencia St., San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 5

Rahm Emanuel: Former Chicago mayor and Barack Obama adviser on how mayors run the world. $40 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $15 for students. 6:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

To list an event, please email Politics Editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com.
The PCS orders just arrived and it's time to get your military family packed and ready to go, which is never easy. Whether it's your first move or your 101st, it's a bit trying to move your family across the country. However, Military.com created a new PCS Guide to help your military family navigate through the relocation process.

We'll start with your branch of service. Depending on your service, the name of the government office which will handle your relocation varies:

Make a list of what you want to do, then you will know what you need.

Has instant email access become your drug of choice or can you go a few days on vacation without forwarding those cute little chain emails? Do you like to play games with a bit more memory requirement than solitaire? Are you uploading every picture and video you've ever taken into an online album?

We'll start with your branch of service. Depending on your service, the name of the government office which will handle your relocation varies:

The Department of Defense : Joint Personal Property Shipping Office

: Joint Personal Property Shipping Office Air Force : Traffic Management Office

: Traffic Management Office Army : Installation Transportation Office

: Installation Transportation Office Navy and Marine Corps: Personal Property Shipping Office

Personal Property Shipping Office Coast Guard: Household Goods Shipping Office

These offices will put you in touch with personal property entitlement counselors who can advise you about the best way to go about your PCS.

Peak season for relocation is usually May through August. Most military families prefer to move during the summer months, as well as civilian families. This creates a shortage of drivers, movers, trucks, van lines and warehouse space. This added competition for service makes PCS-ing stressful for all.

As a result, it's best to plan and book shipments of household goods as far ahead of time as possible. In fact, many offices require 30 days from the scheduled appointment to set up a shipment. During non-peak time many shipments can often be scheduled within 10 days of counseling.

To ensure a successful move, be sure to provide the following information to your personal property entitlements counselor:

Alternative pack/pickup dates (just in case the dates you want are not available).

Accurate contact phone numbers.

In-route point of contact phone number/address.

Six legible copies of your orders (per shipment).

Proof of dependents, from your service record.

Dependent Entry Approval.

A Power of Attorney or Letter of Authorization notarized or countersigned by a commissioned officer, if someone other than you will sign documents on your behalf.

Information on prior shipments if household goods will need to be moved from a location other than your current residence.

The registration for any motorized vehicle, motorcycle, boat or trailer that is being shipped.

The make, caliber, and serial number of any firearm being shipped.

For a home of record move, in addition to the above, you will need to bring two copies of your enlistment contract or officer home of record papers, and two copies of every set of orders received up to the current duty station (this additional paperwork is required to correctly calculate the entitlement).

Generally, your moving needs will fall into one of the following categories (all topics are grouped in alphabetical order):

Battlefield Control Disconnection (BCD)/Other If you separate from the service with other than an Honorable Discharge you must obtain a letter from your convening authority, which will get permission to move your dependents.

Continental United States (CONUS) CONUS moves make up the majority of most relocations, and is usually done by the contract carrier assigned by the government by the member as a Do-It-Yourself (DITY) move, in some areas by Servicemember Arranged Move (SAM), or a combination of the above.

Deployment Storage If deployed with a ship or squadron for 90 days or more, you (especially single and geographic bachelors) may be eligible to store household goods at government expense.

Do-It-Yourself Move (DITY) If you volunteer to move yourself and meet all requirements, you're entitled to 95 percent of what it would cost the government to pay a government-contracted carrier. Most members can receive up to 60 percent of this amount in advance, to help cover the expenses of their move. Some restrictions apply.

Entitlements Your moving entitlements depend in large measure on your orders and what is written in them.

Home of Record or Combination of Orders Move This move involves shipment of household goods from a location other than within your current local area, or another area in the continental United States (CONUS) or overseas. It's the most complex move because of the paperwork involved.

Local Move A door-to-door move within the local area, with no storage involved. The most common are in and out of government quarters.

Overseas Duty Orders

Shipment of household goods upon receipt of PCS orders. Must have 12 months or more remaining after the scheduled arrival of household goods.

An unaccompanied baggage shipment.

Long-term storage (non-temporary) for the length of the tour.

Shipment of household goods and/or unaccompanied baggage to a specified or designated location in the continental United States.

Shipment of a privately owned vehicle (POV), if permitted. Some overseas areas restrict shipment of POVs. If moving overseas, the personal property counselor will review these restrictions with you, depending on your destination.

Dependent entry approval is required for some overseas locations. Contact your local PPSO for more information.

Overseas Move A move from a CONUS location to an overseas base, including Alaska and Hawaii, is considered an overseas move. Family member entry approval is required for some locations.

Permanent Change of Station Orders (PCS)

Shipment of household goods from the current duty station to the new duty station.

An unaccompanied baggage shipment.

Transfer of goods from long-term storage (non-temporary) to the new duty station.

Retiring from Service If you're a retiring servicmember, you have one year to complete your final move. If you haven't made your home of selection, you're entitled to storage for one year at "origin" from date of retirement. If you have less than 18 years of service as of Nov. 1, 1981, your goods may be shipped anywhere within the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. If you have retirement orders you may request extensions beyond the one-year limit for medical, training, educational or other deserving reasons.

When requesting an extension of shipment rights, you should contact the nearest moving company in person or by mail. You will need your retirement orders (with accounting data), your DD-214, documentation from school verifying commencement and a letter from your doctor showing your hospitalization or treatment. Note: You could be liable for all transportation costs arising from making more than one shipment.

Sea Duty Orders

Shipment of household goods to the new homeport.

An unaccompanied baggage shipment.

Placement of goods in long-term storage (non-temporary) for the length of the tour, or continuation of non-temporary storage.

Transfer of goods from long-term storage (non-temporary) to the new duty station.

Separating from Service.

Members separating from the service on a Voluntary Separation with Incentive (VSI) or a Special Separation Bonus.

(SSB) have the same entitlements as retirees. Members separating on the transition management program (TAMP) or separating involuntarily have the same entitlements as retirees.

Separation Orders You have 180 days from the effective date of discharge to move personal property at government expense. If you're unsure of where they want to move, you can request up to 180 days of local storage.

If you live in government quarters and separate or retire, you may move locally out of the quarters (Local Move) and still have your shipping rights within the authorized time limit.

Unusual or Arduous Sea Duty Orders Same as sea-duty orders, but make shipment of household goods and /or unaccompanied baggage to a specified or designated location within CONUS locations.
LONDON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Reiss Holdings Limited, the premium international fashion brand, today reported Christmas trading figures for 7 weeks to 18th January 2020.

In summary, for the 7 weeks to 18th January 2020:

Total Group sales growth +21%

Total like-for-like* sales growth +18%

UK sales growth +19%

UK like-for-like sales growth +15%

*Like-for-like sales, worldwide, in constant currency

Reiss is now present in 15 markets, with a total of 226 points of sale. It has 82 standalone stores, 104 department store concessions and 40 wholesale and franchise points of sale including Nordstrom in the US and Shinsegae in South Korea.

Christos Angelides, CEO of Reiss commented:

"We are pleased that Reiss has performed strongly over the Christmas period, which is a continuation of the momentum we have seen throughout the whole of 2019. Our customers are responding positively to the steps we have taken to improve the quality and style of our products and we have introduced the brand to more customers both online and through additional physical points of sale. Looking ahead, as we start the New Year, I am encouraged by the early sell through of our Spring/Summer collections and the continued expansion of our business internationally".

Imagery of the new Spring/Summer 2020 campaign is available to download here:

https://we.tl/t-2Y9REbE2Uv

Reiss' financial year ends on February 1st 2020. Reiss will report full year results before the end of Q1 2020.

Contacts:

Jonathan Blanchard

Chief Operating Officer

0203 075 2000

www.reiss.com

SOURCE Reiss

Related Links

http://www.reiss.com


Britains embattled Prince Andrew has given "zero cooperation" to federal authorities with their ongoing investigation of people who enabled the crimes of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his former friend, a top prosecutor said Monday.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said that Andrew, a son of Queen Elizabeth II, has not followed through on a public offer he made in November to help investigators with probes of the wealthy Epstein.

Berman spoke to reporters outside of Epsteins luxurious townhouse on Manhattans Upper East Side, the site of many of his alleged misdeeds.

Berman previously has said that his office is investigating possible co-conspirators of Epstein, who killed himself in August in jail while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.

"To date Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation," Berman said.

"Jeffrey Epstein couldnt have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward," he said.
Opinion Article

27 January 2020

Today, Africa is seen as one of the most promising regions for hotel developers. Aside from small chains and independents, four global hotel groups dominate signings and openings on the continent. Over the last four rolling quarters, as of September 2019, Accor, Hilton, Marriott International and Radisson Hotel Group have opened 2,800 rooms and signed deals for 6,600 rooms. Across Africa, hotel development remains important in most advanced economies, such as Morocco and South Africa; and projects are multiplying in East Africa, especially in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In West Africa, Nigeria is back on the development scene thanks to emerging regional destinations beyond Abuja and Lagos. Francophone Africa is also moving fast. The Ministry of Tourism of Ivory Coast has launched an ambitious national plan for tourism development, Sublime Cote d'Ivoire, and already announced over US$1bn investment in the sector. Senegal is the other regional star, with local programmes such as Diamnadio, Lac Rose near Dakar and Pointe Sarene. Other countries showing active hotel development include Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Niger, and Togo.

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Now, in an interview, Philippe Doizelet, Managing Partner, Hotels, Horwath HTL, West Africa's leading hospitality consultant, in conjunction with the Forum de l'Investissement Hotelier Africain (FIHA), the premier hotel investment conference in Francophone Africa, has identified four fundamental factors which are fuelling an increasing flow of investment into the hospitality sector in West Africa. They are, in alphabetical order: Air connectivity, Better economic growth, Currency and Demographics.

In the past few years, additional flight connections have transformed travel to and from West Africa, which, in the words of Philippe Doizelet, Managing Partner, Hotels, Horwath HTL, has been a game changer. He said: "It used to be that the main hubs for flying between West African countries were Paris and Casablanca. However, thanks to the rapid growth of Ethiopian Airlines and other carriers, such as Emirates, Kenya Airways and Turkish, the situation has changed; and new routes are offered to travellers. For example, it is now possible to fly direct from New York to Abidjan, where the African Development Bank is located, and to Lome, where the Central Bank of West African States (BOAD) is situated and with increased travel comes increased commerce and demand for accommodation." According to the UNWTO, international tourist arrivals in Africa grew by 7% in 2018, one of the fastest growth rates in the world together with East Asia and the Pacific. The flight data analyst, ForwardKeys, recently confirmed that trend continuing. In 2019, African aviation experienced 7.5% growth and it is the stand-out growth market for Q1 2020. As at 1st January, international outbound bookings were ahead 12.5%, 10.0% to other African countries and ahead 13.5% to the rest of the world. As a destination, Africa is also set to do well, as bookings from other continents are currently ahead by 12.9%.

The second factor is the superior economic growth of many West African countries, which are expanding substantially faster than many of the world's most advanced economies. According to World Bank data for 2018, several, such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Senegal are growing at 6% per annum or better, more than double the world average, 3%. That is a potent attraction to international investors. However, that's not all; as prosperity grows domestically, so too does the local financial services industry. It then looks to invest client monies; and a good proportion of that capital gravitates towards real estate projects and, in turn, new domestic infrastructure. As those projects come to fruition, more prosperity is generated and so a virtuous cycle is stimulated, which acts as a catalyst for further economic development.

Currency is the third factor. Later this year, the CFA franc, which is pegged to the euro, is planned to be dropped and 15 countries in West Africa (ECOWAS) will adopt the Eco, a new, free-floating, common currency, designed to reduce the cost of doing business between them and so increase trade. However, whilst there is great enthusiasm for the Eco, it is somewhat qualified because the economies of participating countries are at different stages of development and governments may find it difficult to adhere to agreed guidelines for managing their economies.

The fourth factor is demographics. The population is young and the fastest growing of any major world region. According to Philippe Doizelet, it is also characterised by a hunger to learn and confidence about the future. "People are seeing their standards of living improve and they are keen to seize opportunities. We are seeing that mindset reflected throughout the hospitality industry; it's incredibly refreshing and it's attracting business." he said.

However, the picture is not all rosy. Horwath HTL also identifies four factors which threaten economic progress; they are security issues, political agenda, governance and increasing public debt. Although Africa today experiences much less conflict than it did three or four decades ago, when most African countries experienced war, some parts of the Sahel are still subject to security threats. On the political front, although democracy is continuing to spread, it is not yet the general rule everywhere, especially when come the times of major elections. Third is governance. Philippe Doizelet says: "When people are poor and the state is weak, there will be corruption, but I'm not convinced that it is much worse than in other parts of the world." The fourth concern is rising public debt, much of which has been incurred as long-term loans from the Chinese to build infrastructure. That said, the debt to GDP ratio of many West African states is still less than many highly developed nations.

Matthew Weihs, Managing Director, Bench Events, which organises FIHA, concluded: "Africa is not the easiest place to do business, but it is an incredibly exciting place because the opportunities substantially outweigh the threats. Every time we organise a hotel investment forum, I see more hotel openings being announced and I meet new players keen to enter the market. The FIHA delegates are literally constructing the future of Africa in front of our eyes and anyone who attends the conference has the opportunity to join in." FIHA takes place at the Sofitel Abidjan Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan, March 23-25.
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Two radio stations in Gambia - Home Digital FM and King FM - were shut down on Sunday, while four journalists were arrested and detained by the government
Jan. 13

At 3 p.m., Officer Clisham responded to 5130 Bellaire Blvd. in reference to a shoplifting. A subject matching the suspect description was located in the parking lot of the store. The suspect admitted to stealing eight bottles of assorted body wash and returned them to the store. The store manager advised the store will prosecute the suspect and a criminal trespass warning was issued. The suspect was issued a citation for theft and released from the scene.

At 8:20 p.m., Officer Trujillo was dispatched to 6700 Ferris St. in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle. Upon arrival he spoke to the victim who stated between 4 and 8:15 p.m., an unknown person(s) broke out the rear driver side window and took several items without permission.

At 9:48 p.m., Officer Barrientos was dispatched to the 6000 block of South Rice Avenue regarding a burglary of a habitation. Upon arrival, Ofc. Barrientos made contact with the reportee/victim who stated unknown suspect(s) forced entry to the rear of the residence and took items.

Jan. 14

At 4 p.m., Officer Trujillo was dispatched to 5100 Maple St. in reference to a person shot call. Upon Officer Trujillos arrival to the victim, he observed a male unconscious and not breathing. Victim was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased by hospital staff. A suspect was later identified and arrested by Bellaire Police.

Jan. 15

At 6:24 a.m., Bellaire Officers were dispatched to a burglary of a building in progress at 5430 Bissonnet St. Officer Quimby arrived at approximately 0626 hours and observed the glass on the front door was shattered. An unknown suspect had fled before officers arrived.

At 8 a.m., Officer Jenkins was dispatched to the 4300 block of Beechnut Street concerning the burglary of a coin operated machine. Officer Jenkins made contact with the owner of the business who stated someone broke into his carwash vacuum coin operated machine overnight.

At 2:50 p.m., Sgt D Kerr was dispatched to the 800 block of Carol Street in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle. The suspect vehicle was a gray SUV occupied by at least one black male. Upon arrival Kerr spoke with the victim who stated someone had broken the front left door window to his truck and entered it. A baggie containing marijuana was located where the suspect had parked his vehicle. The victim stated nothing was missing.

Jan. 16

At 3:02 a.m., Officer Bellard was on patrol in the 4500 block of Bellaire Boulevard when he observed the suspect vehicle traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of travel. Officer Bellard initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and after further investigation the driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Jan. 17

At 3:33 p.m., Officer Andrade was dispatched to 5801 Bissonnet St. in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle. Officer Andrade met with the victim who stated she parked and secured her vehicle and entered the business. An unknown suspect forced entry into her vehicle and stole items. Officer Trujillo assisted in this case.

At 3:03 p.m., Officer Bailey was dispatched to meet with the victim at 5350 Bellaire Blvd. The victim advised that he was assaulted by his juvenile daughter and her mother during a verbal altercation. The victim advised he did not feel pain and declined filing charges. Sgt. D. Kerr, Corporal OSullivan, and Officer M. Andrade assisted in this case.

At 11:32 p.m., Officer Ortega was dispatched to an in-progress burglary of a motor vehicle on Pin Oak Estates Court. A male wearing an orange shirt entered the victims vehicle and stole a backpack from the vehicle. The suspect fled from officers and was eventually placed into custody for evading arrest on foot and burglary of a motor vehicle. West University PD Sgt. Millard assisted in this case.

At 11:14 p.m., Officer Bellard of the Bellaire Police Department heard a call through Houston Police Department Southwest Dispatch of a flash mob occurring at 5310 S. Rice Ave. It was advised there were street racers doing donuts and popping fireworks in the parking lot. Officer Bellard arrived on scene and observed the defendants vehicle doing donuts in the parking lot and fireworks being set off. Officer Bellard attempted to contact the defendant who disregarded lights and sirens and evaded. After a pursuit the defendant was placed into custody after crashing his vehicle. Corporal Clawson assisted in this case.

Jan. 18

At 10:10 a.m., the victim left Chase Bank at 5104 Bellaire Blvd. and drove to Prospect Place. The victim left her vehicle unsecured in the driveway while she walked across the street to meet with other neighbors. At approximately 1020 hours, an unknown suspect in a gold Buick sedan parked in the street at the end of the driveway. A suspect exited the front passenger seat of the Buick and stole a purse and diaper bag from the front seat of the victims vehicle. The suspects vehicle then left in an unknown direction.

At 5:05 p.m., Officer D. Norman was dispatched to a theft in progress at 5130 Bellaire Blvd. Upon arrival, Officer Norman located the suspect standing outside of Randalls. Officer Norman located a fraudulent Texas ID card on the suspect and he was arrested.

At 2:31 p.m., Officers Andrade and Norman were dispatched to 5002 Bellaire Blvd. in reference to a theft. Upon arrival, Officer Norman located and attempted to make contact with the suspect. The suspect ran away and was located a few minutes later. After further investigation, it was determined the suspect had exited all points of sale from Walgreens without any attempt to pay. The suspect was placed in custody and later charged with possession of a controlled substance, evading, and theft.

Jan. 19

At 12:38 a.m., Officer Ortega observed the suspects vehicle stopped with the hazard lights on and the driver side door open, at 4301 Bellaire Blvd. Officer Ortega initiated a welfare check to see if occupants needed assistance. After further investigation the suspect was found to be a convicted felon and had a weapon in his possession. Officer Ortega placed the suspect into custody for unlawful carrying of a weapon by a felon. Officer Bellard assisted in this case.

At 3:08 p.m., Officer Marcotte was dispatched to a DWI in progress call in the 7600 block of Chimney Rock. Officer Marcotte located the suspect and the caller and initiated a traffic stop on the suspect's vehicle. The driver was showing signs of intoxication and was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

At 10:04 p.m., Officer Schwausch was dispatched to an auto theft that occurred at 5106 Bissonnet St. Officer Schwausch made contact with the victim who advised an unknown person entered her office, took her keys, then stole her vehicle and left the area in an unknown direction.

At 7:57 p.m., Corporal Kramer observed a vehicle exit the freeway exit ramp in the 5400 block of West Loop South with no taillights illuminated and cross two lanes of travel without signaling. Cpl. Kramer initiated a traffic stop in which the suspect immediately fled, crashed his vehicle, then fled on foot. It was later determined the suspect had been involved in an accident in which he fled from the victim vehicle a few moments prior. Officers Baylis, Norman, Liccketto, and Marcotte assisted as well as Houston Police Department K-9.

Jan. 20

At 10:52 p.m., Officer Clisham initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle in the 5300 block of Bissonnet Street for failing to signal two separate lane changes. After making contact with the driver and further investigation, said driver was placed in custody for the offense of unlawful carry of a weapon after a handgun and a substance believed to be marijuana was located inside the vehicle driven by the suspect.
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Check out what is in the news today:

Society

-- Police are investigating an incident in which a mother was killed and two children were hospitalized in critical conditions, following a series of alleged gunshots in the central province of Quang Tri on Sunday night.

-- The Department of Health in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa on Sunday told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the death of a child patient in the hospital nearly 20 days ago was not related to a new coronavirus outbreak from China. She tested positive for an old strain of coronavirus, not the new one which has been spreading in China and all over the world.

-- The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) allowed Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air to run four exceptional flights from Khanh Hoa to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a novel coronavirus outbreak, to fly Chinese tourists back home after an order to cancel all flights between Vietnam and Wuhan, Hubei Province. The flights returned empty with no passengers and all crew members underwent health check-ups while the aircraft were sterilized in line with regulations, according to Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan.

-- Da Nang General Hospital on Sunday said twelve people including seven Chinese nationals who have been put in isolation in the central Vietnamese city over the new coronavirus the same day showed no signs of pneumonia and have been recovering. They were under observation as they all have fevers and recent contact with high-risk subjects.

Lifestyle

-- Under a master plan for developing Mui Ne National Tourism Site to 2025 with a vision for 2030 recently approved by the prime minister, the Mui Ne beach in the south central province of Binh Thuan is set to become one of the most-visited destinations in the Asia-Pacific by 2030, projected to attract around nine million visitors including 1.5 million foreigners in 2025.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
PITTSFIELD  The Pikeland School Board has hired a new superintendent to replace Paula Hawley, who served as superintendent for a decade and a half.

Carol Kilver, superintendent for the West Prairie school district in McDonough County, will start her new role July 1.

It is an honor to accept this position, Kilver said. There are many aspects of the district promoting a culture and climate in the practice of doing what is best for students. I look forwarding to serving the Pikeland School District.

Kilver has taught since 1991 in Jacksonville, Bluffs and Lafayette, Indiana, school districts. During her 29 years in education, she has worked as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent.

She received her bachelors in elementary education from Illinois College, a masters degree in educational administration from the University of Illinois-Springfield and her superintendent endorsement and doctorate in education from Western Illinois University.

Pikeland school board President Mike Gerard said the board is optimistic about Kilver.

We have found a progressive leader who will guide our district into the future, Gerard said.

Hawley worked almost exclusively for the Pikeland School District for more than three decades, the past 15 years as superintendent.
BEIJING, Jan. 26 -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi by phone on Sunday at the latter's request, discussing efforts to combat and control the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Motegi said the Japanese side pays tribute to the positive and powerful measures taken by the Chinese government and people under the leadership of President Xi Jinping to resolutely control the spread of the new coronavirus epidemic.

A friend in need is a friend indeed, Motegi said, adding that Japan stands ready to work with China to deal with the threat of the epidemic and provide all-round support and assistance to China.

Wang gave a briefing on the prevention and control of the epidemic by the Chinese side, saying that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the epidemic situation.

President Xi has repeatedly given important instructions on prevention and control work and held a meeting in person on the first day of the Lunar New Year for redeployment and remobilization, Wang said.

Wang noted that China has built an all-round and multi-level prevention and control system focusing on the city of Wuhan and the Hubei province, from the central government to the local level.

All aspects of work are open and transparent and progress is being accelerated in a scientific and orderly manner, he said.

The Chinese nation has gone through great winds and waves and overcome countless difficulties, he said. "We believe that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, the people of the whole country will unite as one, and be fully capable and confident to win this battle of epidemic prevention and control at an early date," Wang said.

Combating the spread of the epidemic is a common concern of the international community, Wang said, noting that China is willing to work with other countries in the world, including Japan, to actively respond to the epidemic.

China has informed the World Health Organization (WHO), relevant countries and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions of the latest epidemic situation, and has shared information on virus genome sequence with all parties in a timely manner, Wang said.

An expert group from the WHO has arrived for the field visit in Wuhan and highly praised the effective measures taken by China to deal with the epidemic, said Wang, adding that the director-general of WHO also fully affirmed it.

China thanks the international community, including Japan, for its full understanding and support, he said.

Life is of paramount importance, Wang said. The Chinese government is committed to safeguarding the safety and health of the Chinese people, and will, in a responsible manner, safeguard the safety of every foreign national in China, including the Japanese expatriates, and address their legitimate concerns in a timely manner, he noted.

China will continue to strengthen communication and coordination with the international community and work together for epidemic prevention and control, Wang added.

Expressing appreciation for the efforts made by the Chinese side, Motegi said he believes that China will certainly be able to eliminate the epidemic at an early date.
To help service members perform better in the field, military training emphasizes the importance of certain traits associated with traditional masculinity, including suppression of emotion and self-reliance. But when veterans return home, strict adherence to these traits can become detrimental, leading to more severe post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and making it more difficult to treat, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

These findings suggest that veterans with rigid adherence to traditional masculinity may be at increased risk for developing PTSD, may have more severe PTSD symptoms and may be less likely to seek mental health treatment for PTSD." Elizabeth Neilson, PhD, of Morehead University and the lead author on the study

The research was published in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinities.

Neilson and her co-authors analyzed data from 17 studies, comprising more than 3,500 military veterans, conducted in the last 25 years that involved, at least in part, measuring the relationship between adherence to traditional masculine ideals and trauma-related symptoms. The studies primarily focused on men, but one included both male and female participants. While most studies were conducted in the United States, the researchers also included studies from Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and Vietnam.

"Overall, we found that strict adherence to masculine norms was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms in veterans, but more detailed analysis suggests that the association may specifically be caused by the veterans' belief that they should control and restrict their emotions. In other words, they should be tough," Neilson said. This held true for both male and female veterans.

While all members of society are exposed to aspects of traditional masculinity, members of the military receive messages that normalize, reinforce and instill values of masculinity as part of their training, according to Neilson.

"Previous research has found that military personnel report high levels of conformity to traditional masculine norms, such as emotional control, self-reliance and the importance of one's job," she said. "These values can promote self-confidence and skill-building in the field, but when a service member is confronted with physical or mental trauma, they can also contribute to more severe PTSD."

Traumatic experiences, including combat and sexual trauma, can lead to feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness, both of which are in direct opposition to what society expects of men: That they should be strong and in control. The discrepancy between reality and societal expectations can exacerbate PTSD symptoms. Research estimates as many as 23% of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD .

Adherence to masculine norms can also create barriers to getting necessary treatment, according to Neilson. Previous research on veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan found pride in self-reliance and a belief that one should be able to handle mental health problems on one's own kept service members from seeking help when they needed it.

And even if veterans did seek treatment, the emphasis on stoicism and mental fortitude within both military culture and traditional masculinity could make treatment more difficult, she said. The two most widely used, evidence-based therapies for PTSD require explicit discussions of emotions, thoughts and behaviors related to traumatic experiences. PTSD is perpetuated by avoiding stimuli associated with a traumatic experience, including emotions. Successful PTSD treatment involves breaking that cycle of avoidance and confronting those stimuli, she said.

"Both military culture and traditional masculine ideals lead to the avoidance of disclosure and speaking about traumatic experiences, which may interfere with appropriate treatment," Neilson said.

Another trend the researchers found was that veterans often try to reaffirm their masculinity following trauma, engaging in exaggerated stereotypical male behavior, such as aggression and increased sexual behavior, to compensate for the injury the trauma had on their identity, according to Neilson.

"In one study we reviewed, veterans reported engaging in frequent sex to avoid negative thoughts, because feeling sexually desirable temporarily suspended those negative thoughts about their self-worth," she said.

APA published voluntary guidelines in 2018 recommending that therapists consider discussing masculine ideology and the effects of cultural expectations of men and boys when treating male veteran clients. Neilson hopes that future research will examine how clinicians already are addressing conformity to masculinity ideology in their treatment of PTSD.

"It would not surprise me if some clinicians are already considering how a veteran's masculinity ideology contributes to their PTSD symptomology and treatment engagement," she said. "Consistent with APA's recommendations, I suggest that clinicians discuss beliefs and adherence to traditional masculinity ideologies with the patients. This information is important for conceptualizing patients' mental health and identifying specific behaviors to target in treatment."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:44:00|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Monday called on the international community to reject the new U.S. peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The International community should reject to be a partner in the conspiracy of the American 'Deal of the Century'," he told the Palestinian Authority (PA) at a weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah.

He told his cabinet's ministers "we reject the so-called Deal of the Century and we want the international community not to be a partner because it contradicts with the international law and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."

He added that the rights of the Palestinian people "are to establish a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and have the right of the return of the Palestinian refugees."

The new U.S. plan for resolving the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is scheduled to be declared in the White House in Washington this week, according to media reports.

Before the United States announces its peace plan, the Palestinians, including President Mahmoud Abbas, the PA and all national and Islamic factions, have largely rejected the plan and vowed to topple it.

The U.S. administration invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz to visit Washington this week to discuss the details of the plan and agree on releasing it to the public.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have embarked on their new life away from the confines of the British royal family. Now that the couple no longer works for the royal family, they will have to make their own way in the world  becoming financially independent.

With so many possibilities on the table including film and TV specials, speaking engagements and book deals  the Sussexes next step will be to define their brand. We already know that the pair have a heart for charity work, mental health issues, education for women and girls, and animal rights. All of those passions can be used to guide their business ventures.

Though they are no longer going to be using their His/Her Royal Highness titles, the duo have already begun the process of trademarking Sussex Royal, but their efforts are being blocked.

This is how Meghan Markle and Prince Harry could make money

Since they are no longer being supported by Queen Elizabeth, the duke and duchess will need to work to become financially independent. Presently, the Sussexes have a combined personal wealth of $30 million. We could easily compare them to any former presidents, Royal commentator and author Kristen Meinzer explained to Business Insider. My mind keeps going to Barack and Michelle Obama and how [they] make money. The reason I compare the two is that theyre already friends with each other and I would put them on the same level in terms of fame.

This is the reason Prince Harry and Meghan Markle trademarked Sussex Royal

Though the public just uncovered the Sussexes trademark paperwork in the weeks leading up to their resignation, it appears that the pair have been planning their exit for some time. The application was submitted in June 2019 and covers printed materials  like magazines and booklets  as well as clothing items, education, social care services, and charitable fundraising.

Rumor has it that the pair could be cooking up a magazine or even looking into selling merchandise. Either way, now that they are not beholden to royal rules  they can decide their own path.

The Sussex Royal trademark was just blocked

For the duke and the duchess, its vital for them to keep the royal aspect of their branding  experts say that it could be worth billions. However, the duos trademark was just blocked by an Australian doctor who filed a complaint against the trademark.

Filing a notice of threatened opposition is relatively easy and can be done online for free, Lee Curtis, a chartered trademark attorney told Express. The filing of a formal notice of opposition is much more involved. Right now, the threatened opposition delays the progress of the Sussex Royal application by at least one month, but if a formal opposition is ultimately mounted, this will involve the payment of an opposition fee, the drafting of formal grounds of opposition and the filing of evidence and legal submissions in support of the opposition. The whole opposition could take at least a year to get to a decision and is thus not an action entered into lightly with a possible costs award against the losing party.

Were sure the Sussexs lawyers are working overtime to get this debacle sorted.
For years, medical professionals, parents and kids hoping to stay home sick from school have looked to one magic number when it comes to assessing health vs. illness: 98.6.

That number, in degrees Fahrenheit, has long been held as normal human body temperature, as determined nearly 150 years ago by German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich, who analyzed temperatures from 25,000 patients and published the precedent-setting findings in 1869.

Over a century later, however, it seems Wunderlichs findings no longer hold true. According to the Wall Street Journal, a new study from Stanford University argues that while Wunderlichs analysis was correct at the time, the average human body temperature today has dropped to 97.5 degrees.

While the researchers arent sure why the drop has occurred, it would seem the human body itself has simply changed over time. As the papers senior author, Julie Parsonnet, noted, People are taller, fatter and live longer. And while Parsonnet added that researchers are unsure exactly whats behind those changes, its clear that temperature is connected. The question is which is driving the others.

Parsonnet and her team at Stanford analyzed 677,423 temperatures collected from 189,338 individuals over a span of 157 years, finding not only that human body temperatures had declined, but that they have been declining steadily for decades. The researchers found that temperatures recorded from Civil War vets were higher than those gathered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1971 through 1974, which were in turn higher than temperatures recorded in the 2000s.

Two things impressed me, Parsonnet said. The magnitude of the change and that temperature has continued to decline at the same rate.

While a difference of about one degree may seem marginal, Philip Mackowiak, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, called it a huge drop for a population.

Whatever the reason, humans are cooling off. Maybe its our weight, maybe its our height or maybe its just the growing postmodern consensus that were all dead inside (and dying on the outside!)

Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.

The post Normal Human Body Temperature Is No Longer 98.6 Degrees appeared first on InsideHook.
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has rejected claims that a change in government in Ireland would be a concern to the Brexit process.

Asked about the forthcoming Irish General Election, Mr Barnier insisted a change in government would not have an impact on his working relationship with Ireland.

Obviously I have been informed of the next election in this country.

Frankly speaking, as an EU negotiator I always worked with each and every other 27 EU member state with elected governments, he said.

I will continue to work with the government chosen by the citizens.

Standing alongside Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Government Buildings in Dublin, Mr Barnier was asked what advice he would give to any leader who is struggling to get re-elected.

Mr Barnier said: Always walking in the middle of the road.

Real pleasure to welcome @MichelBarnier back to Dublin today. Always a great friend of Ireland. This is the start of #Brexit week and well be discussing the next crucial phase of the negotiations @HMcEntee pic.twitter.com/OO0p1CCHj4  Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) January 27, 2020

The latest poll shows that Fianna Fail remains in the lead to be the majority partner in the next government.

The Red C poll, paid for by the Business Post newspaper, shows Micheal Martins party on 26% (up two), while Fine Gael has gone down seven points to 23% and Sinn Fein up by eight to 19%.

The Greens are polling at 8%, up one, Labour are on 4% and Solidarity-People Before Profit on 2%.

The poll also shows that Independent candidates are feeling the pressure due to Sinn Feins popularity. Their support is down by two points to 14%.

The Fine Gael leader commented on Monday that while he said he would not offer a running commentary on polls, he pointed out that he is ahead when measured against other party leaders.

We will have to generate revenues of billions of euros over the next couple of years, and that's only possible if we keep the economy strong and to do that we have to have a good trade deal post-BrexitLeo Varadkar

If you look at the polls, for what its worth, in the Ipsos (MRBI opinion) poll, when the party leaders are measured against each other, the polls put me slightly ahead of the other party leaders, he added.

In the Red C poll at the weekend it showed that the public trusted my party with Brexit ahead of all other parties by quite a distance.

But one thing I do know is that theres been a huge focus in this election on really important issues like health and housing and childcare, and reducing peoples taxes and making sure that more money is in their pockets.

All of that costs money. Its going to cost a lot of money to deliver those projects.

We will have to generate revenues of billions of euros over the next couple of years, and thats only possible if we keep the economy strong and to do that we have to have a good trade deal post-Brexit.

The issues that dominate this election are actually very much interlinked, because only a strong economy and only a favourable Brexit for Ireland will allow us to do all of the things in health care, housing, childcare, that we all know are necessary.
Clark Oliver

POLICE are hunting for a man in connection with a series of thefts in East Dene.



Clark Oliver (33, pictured) is wanted in connection with thefts which took place between December 30 and January 19, a police spokeswoman said.

He is said to have targeted retail premises in East Dene, including Heron Foods, Jet Garages, One Stop and McColls.



Oliver is described as being 6ft tall, of slim build with ginger hair. He is known to frequent the East Dene and Herringthorpe areas.



If you see him, please report information to 101 quoting incident number 805 of January 3.



Alternatively, you can stay completely anonymous by contacting the independent charity Crimestoppers via their website Crimestoppers-uk.org or by calling their UK Contact Centre on 0800 555 111.
Nearly 200 civilians were killed in violence last month in two volatile provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless east, the highest toll since June 2017, a monitor said on Monday.

"Armed groups and security forces killed at least 197 civilians over the course of the last 31 days of 2019," in the North and South Kivu provinces, said the Kivu Security Tracker, a joint project of the Congo Research Group, based at New York University's Centre on International Cooperation, and Human Rights Watch.

It "was the deadliest month for civilian deaths ever recorded by the Kivu Security Tracker since its creation in June 2017," a statement said.

The bulk of the civilians deaths occurred in the restive Beni region, with 120 victims slain "in attacks mostly attributed to the Islamist rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)," it said.

The ADF is a ruthless militia of Ugandan origin.

Several militias operate in eastern DR Congo, a bloody legacy of two regional wars in the 1990s that dragged in the country's neighbours.

Violence has spiked since the end of October when the DR Congo army began an offensive against the ADF and the militia responded with a series of massacres against civilians.

"Adding to the Beni crisis, a new deadly front was opened with the Congolese military offensive against the Rwandan Hutu uprising by the National Council for Renewal and Democracy (CNRD).

"This attack successfully led to the rebellion retreating from the bases it had occupied since early 2019.

"But many civilians were also killed, mostly among rebel fighters' families. KST has been able to confirm the violent deaths of at least ten non-combatants," the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The West Bengal Assembly on Monday passed a resolution demanding immediate repeal of the CAA and dropping plans for a pan-India NRC and NPR, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee calling the new citizenship law "against the Constitution and humanity".

West Bengal became the fourth state after Left-ruled Kerala, and Punjab and Rajasthan, where the Congress is in power, to have passed a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also said the protests against the law is "not just for the minorities but for the sake of the country's unity".

"In Bengal, we won't allow CAA, NPR, and NRC. We will fight against them peacefully. We want CAA to be repealed immediately. We also want NPR to be revoked," Banerjee said.

"The Citizenship Amendment Act is against the Constitution and humanity."



The resolution was supported by the opposition Congress, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, but opposed by the BJP.

The Congress and the LF, however, criticised the TMC government for not allowing them to pass a similar resolution on January 9.

The Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan (Cong) took a dig at the TMC government for its "late realization in bringing the resolution".

Opposing the resolution, BJP legislator Swadhin Sarkar thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the Citizenship Amendment Act to help refugees get their citizenship of the country.

He also demanded a voting on the resolution, but it was rejected by the speaker.

The resolution stated that with religion being the criteria for getting citizenship as per the CAA, it is not only against the Constitution but will also destroy the harmony in the country and has already led to disturbances in various places.

"The prime minister has been saying that no existing citizens will loose their citizenship under CAA. But there is no mention of any such clause in the Act. This is creating confusion in the country," the resolution stated.

The TMC lawmakers were seen sporting "No NRC NO CAA" badges.

Banerjee, while speaking on the resolution, criticised CPI(M) and Congress for its comment 'Didibhai-Modibhai' (refering to the alleged understanding between TMC and BJP) and said the slogan 'Didi-Modi are both sides of same coin' will boomerang for the opposition parties.

She urged the CPI(M) and Congress to put aside political differences and fight together against the "fascist" BJP government at the Centre.

"Time has come to forget our differences and fight together at least on this issue (CAA, NRC, NPR) to save the country," she said.

"As per the CAA one has to become a foreigner to become a citizen. This is a terrible game which pushes people towards death. Don't fall into their trap," she added.

Banerjee dismissed allegations by Congress and CPI(M) that their resolution on CAA was "stonewalled" by the TMC and said the one brought by the government is "more impactful".

Commenting on her government giving the meeting on NPR convened by the Centre in New Delhi a miss, Banerjee said "Our government had the guts to skip it (the meeting). If the BJP wants, it can dismiss my government".

The TMC supremo also slammed the saffron party for making references to Pakistan, which, she said, is a ploy to divert public attention from issues like economic slowdown and growing unemployment.

"The BJP and prime minister seem to have become brand ambassadors of Pakistan as they always talk of it and less of Hindustan," she said.

The amended citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the West Bengal with TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail and BJP pressing for its implementation.

The state assembly had passed a resolution against NRC in September 2019 and the BJP had not supported it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Here are the stocks that are in news today:

Results: HDFC, Dr Reddy's Lab, InterGlobe Aviation, United Spirits, Wockhardt, DCM Shriram, Mold-Tek Technologies, Navin Fluorine, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, IIFL Finance, Triveni Glass, TTK Prestige, V2 Retail

Bank of Baroda: Q3 loss at Rs 1,406.9 crore versus profit of Rs 736.7 crore, NII rises 1.4% to Rs 7,129 crore QoQ.

ICICI Bank Q3: Net profit was at Rs 4,146.5 crore versus Rs 1604.9 crore, NII at Rs 8,549.3 crore versus Rs 6875.3 crore, YoY

Wendt: Q3 profit dips 59.3% to Rs 2.2 crore, revenue falls 22.2% to Rs 33.9 crore YoY.

EIH: Q3 profit rises 5.3% to Rs 95 crore, revenue dips 3.8% to Rs 509.5 crore YoY.

JSW Steel: Q3 profit plunged 88.3% to Rs 187 crore, revenue fell 11.1% to Rs 18,055 crore YoY.

APL Apollo Tubes Q3: Net profit was up at RS 83.3 crore versus Rs 12.9 crore, revenue at was up Rs 2,115.9 crore versus Rs 1,691.2 crore, YoY

DCB Bank Q3: Net profit was up 12.3% at Rs 96.7 crore versus Rs 86.10 crore, NII was up 10% at Rs 323.1 crore versus Rs 293.6 crore, YoY

Prestige Estates Q3: Consolidated net profit at Rs 216 crore versus Rs 67.4 crore, revenue was at Rs 2,680.9 crore versus Rs 1,053.5 crore, YoY

Siemens: Company signs definitive agreement for acquisition of 99.22% stake in C&S Electric for Rs 2,120 crore

Axis Bank proposes to raise funds up to Rs 5,000 crore via NCDs

SBI: Government nominates Debasish Panda as director on the Central Board of SBI with immediate effect

Reliance Capital delayed in payment of interest / principal obligations due on January 24

Reliance Infra - CARE Ratings revises rating of NCDs to CARE D; issuer not cooperating

Vodafone Idea: India Ratings downgraded rating on NCDs of Rs 3,500 crores to IND BBB-/ RWN and CRISIL also downgraded rating to CRISIL BB/ (Rating watch with negative implications)

Cipla - USFDA completes cGMP inspection at Bommasandra unit with 4 observations

Bajaj Finance: Board will mull raising funds via NCDs on January 29.

VST Tillers: Signs MoU with Czech Republic-based Zetor Tractors

PSP Projects: Company bags orders worth Rs 358 crore

Prestige Estates approved allotment of equity shares on preferential basis to GAMNAT Pte.

NHPC has been declared as the successful resolution applicant by the committee of creditors (CoC) of Jalpower Corporation

Sunteck Realty entered into an agreement for joint development of properties with 4 entities

VST Tillers entered into a MoU with Zetor Tractors a.s., Czech Republic

Axis Bank proposes to raise funds by issuing senior unsecured redeemable NCD aggregating upto Rs 5,000 crore

Varun Beverages board meeting on February 7 to consider capital raising

ITI board meeting on January 29 to consider and approve the issue price for FPO

Maruti Suzuki NEXA rolls out Stylish and Sporty Ciaz S
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump hosted Israels prime minister and his chief rival Monday at the White House on the eve of unveiling a long-awaited Mideast peace plan, expressing confidence that despite adamant Palestinian rejection they would ultimately go along with a blueprint he said was very good for them.

The Trump proposal is widely expected to be favourable to Israel, with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and challenger Benny Gantz speaking in glowing terms about the president and his initiative. But with the Palestinians steadfastly refusing to even speak to Trump, and urging other Arab nations to boycott Tuesdays event, there is great skepticism over the plans chances of success.

The meetings come just a month before Netanyahu and Gantz are set to face off in national elections for the third time in less than a year, and both were looking to project leadership in their separate meetings with the president.

Trump called his proposal a great opportunity but wouldnt discuss further details, noting that its release has long been delayed because of the uncertain political situation in Israel. He refused to answer questions over whether it would include Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, signalling that it was premature for Palestinians to rule it out.

I think in the end theyre going to want it. Its very good for them, he said alongside Netanyahu. Were going to show a plan. Its been worked on by everybody, and well see whether or not it catches hold. If it does, that would be great, and if it doesnt, we can live with it, too. But I think it might have a chance.

Netanyahu has hailed it as a chance to make history and define Israels final borders. At the White House, Netanyahu pointed out Trumps various gestures to Israel as well as his strong stance against Iran. Netanyahus office said most of the meeting actually focused on Iran, though the peace plan was also discussed.

You have made our alliance stronger than ever, Netanyahu said to Trump.

Shortly after Netanyahu left, Gantz was invited into the White House for his first meeting with Trump. Speaking to reporters later, he did not disclose details of their conversation, but he did shower Trump with praise. He called his peace plan a significant and historic milestone that he looked forward to implementing once he became prime minister, in tandem with other countries in the region  specifically mentioning Jordan.

In the run-up to the March 2 vote, Netanyahu has called for annexing parts of the West Bank and imposing Israeli sovereignty on all its settlements there. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Jordan Valley in particular is considered a vital security asset.

Reports in Israeli media have speculated that Trumps plan could include the possible annexation of large pieces of territory that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. American approval could give Netanyahu the type of cover to go ahead with a move that hes resisted taking for more than a decade in power.

Annexing Israels settlements in the occupied West Bank would appeal to Netanyahus hard-line nationalist supporters but would almost certainly torpedo the viability of an independent Palestinian state and likely infuriate neighbouring Jordan. In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, the second between Israel and its Arab neighbours after Egypt.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced the still-unpublished proposal again Monday in Ramallah, saying it doesnt constitute a basis for resolving the conflict. He said the plan violates international law and comes from a party that has lost its credibility to be an honest broker in a serious and genuine political process.

The Palestinians are still fuming at Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital, moving the U.S. Embassy there and taking other steps they consider biased toward Israel.

A Palestinian official said President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected overtures from mediators in recent weeks to arrange a phone call with Trump. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified diplomatic issue. Abbas spokesman also called on ambassadors of Arab countries who were invited to the White House on Tuesday to boycott the event.

Netanyahus foray to Washington gives him a major boost. The longtime leader has been reeling from a stiff challenge from Gantz and the fallout of his indictment on corruption charges. The Israeli parliament is expected to reject his request for immunity on Tuesday, and a damaging criminal trial looms.

Gantz, a former military chief, has focused his campaign on Netanyahus legal problems and his character, saying he is unfit for office. Netanyahu will not be able to also manage a country and also manage his trial, Gantz added in Hebrew in Washington.

Netanyahu has sought to portray himself as a global statesman uniquely qualified to lead Israel through difficult times. He has tried to use his close friendship with Trump as a strategic asset to stay in power.

Trump, himself under the cloud of his impeachment trial in the Senate, appears poised to offer Netanyahu some needed help in the form of the most generous American peace proposal ever. Previous peace plans have included conditions for Israeli withdrawals and the prospect of evacuating Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu was charged in November with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three cases involving accepting gifts from billionaire friends and trading political and regulatory favours for positive news coverage. In two election rounds, neither has been able to secure a required parliamentary majority without the others support. Each is seeking a knockout punch in the upcoming third round.

Trump delivered political favours to Netanyahu during the previous two races, only to see his friend fall short of victory. Netanyahus confidants have suggested that his motivations are mostly ideological, since he may be coming to terms with an end to his lengthy career and is eager to leave West Bank annexation behind as a form of legacy.

___

Follow Aron Heller at twitter.com/aronhellerap
1905

Levi Manning and Leo Goldschmidt subdivide the land they had bought between Main and the Santa Cruz River, then known as The Flats, later as the Goldschmidt Addition and then as Snob Hollow on Granada Street. The houses will be two-story houses in set-back American (not curb-side Sonoran) style. Goldschmidt (b. Hamburg 1852, d. Tucson 1944), brother-in-law of Jacob Mansfeld, had worked in Zeckendorfs store after coming to Tucson, then started a furniture store that did well, then in 1888 had bought into the Eagle Flour Mill (with four stories, Tucsons tallest building) that had been founded in 1898 by E. N. Fish and partners two blocks northwest of the train depot. Goldschmidt ended up owning it, and remained president of the company until 1922 when he sold out to a Phoenix firm and retired. In 1919, with Mose Drachman and Judge W. H. Sawtelle, he will build the Hotel Congress and the Rialto building, both now on the National Register of Historic Places.
HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy approached the Telangana High Court on Monday after facing a setback in the CBI special court on Friday last, which had refused to give him exemption from personal appearance in connection with the quid pro quo cases pending against him.

Mr Reddy filed 11 criminal petitions in the High Court challenging the CBI court orders in as many separate cases, urging the court to allow his advocate and Jagathi Publications to appear before the trial court on his behalf on every trial day.

In the petitions, he explained the reasons for his inability to appear before the trial court. He said that as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he had to discharge his official duties and would not be in a position to attend court personally in the cases pending against him.

Since the CBI court was refusing to give him exemption, he said he was forced to move the High Court.

He requested that his co-accused from Jagathi Publications be allowed to appear on his behalf in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases.
The Al Ahdab oil field in Iraq has resumed oil production after a weeks suspension that followed protests from security guards at the field, Bloomberg reports. Production has resumed at full capacity of 70,000 bpd.

Al Ahdab is operated by Chinas CNPC, but it was blockaded last week by security guards who are protesting against the absence of permanent employment contracts. There was also another field at risk of closure in the vicinity, Badra, which produces about 50,000 bpd. Russias Gazprom Neft is the operator of that field.

Now the Iraqi authorities have agreed to provide the Al Ahdab security guards with permanent employment contracts and the protesters have lifted the blockade of the field.

Economic protests began in Iraq last October and have since then escalated into anti-government demonstrations. According to Bloomberg, as many as 600 people have died during the demonstrations, which have regularly led to clashes with security forces.

The protests shut down another oil field twice in less than a month. The Nassiriya field, in southern Iraq, was first shut down in December and then earlier this month as protesters demanded jobs, the Iraq Oil Report wrote. Nassiriya produces some 80,000 bpd.

So far, the effect of the protests on oil production in OPECs number-two exporter has been temporary. In December, the country pumped 4.65 million bpd. However, its production expansion plans have been put at risk by the protests as the foreign companies that would be responsible for them have started pulling their personnel out of the country.

In more bad oil news, BP dropped its plans to expand production from the Kirkuk fields in northern Iraq after exploration results fell short of expectations.

On the flip side, Baghdad announced plans to resume production at four oil fields in northern Iraq, in the Nineveh governorate. These fields were destroyed by the Islamic State, which used to control these territories before the Kurdish and Iraqi security forces drove it out.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A baby born with a tiny head and part of his brain sticking out from his misshapen skull has defied slim chances of survival.

Ozzie Gordon, from Austin, Texas, was found to have a smaller than normal head during early pregnancy scans.

Knowing it was likely his brain was underdeveloped, medics offered parents Omobola and Checotah Gordon an abortion.

The couple refused but had to create a palliative care plan in the final weeks of pregnancy in the likelihood that Ozzie wouldn't survive the first few days of life.

When Ozzie was born, it was clear his skull and brain had not formed correctly. It caused brain tissue to bulge outside of his skull.

The condition is almost always fatal at birth. But Ozzie has defied the odds and reached his first birthday in October, after having the bulge fixed in surgery.

Despite having a range of health issues, Mr and Mrs Gordon call him a 'miracle' and are determined to give smiley Ozzie a normal life.

Ozzie Gordon, who was born with a tiny head and part of his brain protruding from his misshapen skull, is thriving despite doctors urging his parents to terminate their pregnancy

When Ozzie was born, it was clear his skull and brain had not formed correctly. The condition is almost always fatal at birth. But Ozzie has defied the odds and survived past his first birthday

Ozzie is pictured on his first birthday. His parents say they hope he is accepted in society 'regardless of him lacking a major part of his brain and looking different'

Mrs Gordon, 25, a stay-at-home mother, said: 'People are always telling us how much of a miracle and a blessing Ozzie is to our family. Surprisingly, people in public always have something positive to say.

'We really just hope to give him the best life possible. God willing, he lives a long time we strive to make it as normal as possible for him and to embrace his differences among his peers.

'We hope for him to be accepted by society regardless of him lacking a major part of his brain and looking different.

'We hope that he can be a vessel to touching people's hearts and being an example that miracles do happen and special children deserve just as much love and care as other children.'

Ozzie has microcephaly, a condition where a baby's head is much smaller than expected. It has various causes, including Zika virus.

In Ozzie's case, he has the serious birth defect anencephaly, in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.

Anencephaly is estimated to affect one in 4,600 babies born in the US, according to the CDC, who say almost all babies with the condition die shortly after birth.

Ozzie's skull is complete, but it is misshapen. This caused an encephalocele - a portion of brain tissue outside of the skull and protected only by skin - to cover a third of his face.

Researchers estimate that about one in every 10,500 US-born babies have an encephalocele.

Mr Gordon, 26, and his wife were warned early on in their pregnancy that something wasn't right.

Mrs Gordon, 25, was warned early on in her pregnancy that something wasn't right

Ozzie was found to have a smaller than normal head during early pregnancy scans (pictured). The underlying reason was not clear, but knowing it was likely his brain was underdeveloped, medics knew the odds of survival were low

Despite having a range of health issues, Mr and Mrs Gordon call Ozzie a 'miracle' and are determined to give him a normal life

WHAT ARE NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS? Neural tube defects are deformities of a person's brain, spine or spinal cord which occur in the very early stages of pregnancy. They happen when the foetus does not develop properly, usually during the first four weeks after conception. The most common forms of NTD are conditions called anencephaly, spina bifida and encephalocele. Anencephaly is when a foetus does not develop its entire brain or skull  almost all babies which are born with it die shortly after. Spina bifida, a deformity of the spine, is less often fatal and many children survive well into adulthood, but it can cause severe disability. Encephalocele happens when part of a baby's brain and membranes protrude out of the head through a hole in the skull. This may be treated with surgery but will likely cause long-term brain problems. Women are advised to take 400 micograms of folic acid per day during and before pregnancy until at least the 12th week after conception, because it has been proven to reduce the risk of neural tube defects. Advertisement

At 20 weeks, medical staff were able to check that the legs and abdomen were measuring fine, but they struggled to measure the baby's head.

A few weeks later, Mrs Gordon went to one of her regular check-ups where doctors again struggled to be able to measure her baby's head.

They suspected that her unborn child might have Trisomy 18, a chromosomal condition associated with abnormalities in many parts of the body.

After this, Mrs Gordon was referred to a maternal-foetal specialist who told her that her child didn't have Trisomy 18 but would likely be born with some malformations to the brain or skull.

She said: 'Really during my pregnancy doctors didn't give us an absolute "this is what it is" diagnosis just because all of my blood tests and genetic tests came back as normal and so they were just going off what we could visually see on the ultrasounds.

'It wasn't until he was actually born that we were able to see that he in fact had the malformations that the ultrasounds were showing.'

Mr and Mrs Gordon were offered a termination, but they declined as they wouldn't know for sure what was wrong with their baby until birth.

The couple were prepared for their baby to die soon after he was born, on October 1, 2018.

Ozzie's skull is complete, but it is misshapen. This caused an encephalocele - a portion of brain tissue outside of the skull - to cover a third of his face when he was born

The couple were prepared for Ozzie to die soon after he was born. He is pictured one week old

Ozzie was born weighing 7lb 5oz. Two days after giving birth the family were discharged from hospital with the support of hospice nurse visits.

At four months old, Ozzie underwent surgery to remove his encephalocele and he has been defying the doctors ever since.

Although he can't crawl or toddle yet, he babbles and smiles like any baby, and Mrs Gordon says Ozzie's star smile warms the hearts of everyone who meets him.

Mrs Gordon said: 'He is developmentally delayed. He doesn't crawl or walk but he can babble up a storm and his smile warms anyone's heart who witnesses it.

'He seems pretty content most days. He does suffer from seizures, but he is on medication to keep them under wraps.

'Tests have come back inconclusive as far as his vision and hearing are concerned but we notice that he does engage in what's going on around him.

'He certainly has a sense of direction that you wouldn't expect in babies like him to have, if I'm talking or making noise behind him you all see him turn around or look around to hear me.'

Ozzie does suffer from seizures and he is on medication to keep these under control, he also suffers with tight spasticity but is on muscle relaxers to help him be more flexible.

Although he can't crawl or toddle yet, he babbles and smiles like any baby, and Mrs Gordon says Ozzie's star smile warms the hearts of everyone who meets him. He is pictured after having surgery to remove the encephalocele

Mrs Gordon said: 'We hope that he can be a vessel to touching people's hearts and being an example that miracles do happen and special children deserve just as much love and care as other children'

Mrs Gordon said they are trying to get him on an early childhood intervention physical therapy programme to help with his coordination and mobility.

The couple are committed to giving Ozzie the best life possible for however long that may be.

Mrs Gordon said: 'We do catch stares sometimes but I understand that people can be curious and shy to ask questions but we are always open to answering people's questions about Oz and educating them as much as we can about his condition.

'We have had other special needs parents some that we know and some that we don't know reach out to us and express their gratitude of us doing the right thing by Ozzie and being there for him and loving him the way we do.'

Mrs Gordon decided to share their journey on social media to help other families who have children with special needs and the support has been overwhelming.

She said: 'For the first few months of Ozzie's life, I was in a dark space both mentally and emotionally and I thought that sharing his story with other people would allow me to get out all the feelings that I had been keeping to myself.

'In hindsight I'm glad that I decided to share Ozzie's story and tell people about what we were going through with him because the emotional support we have received has completely surpassed my expectations.

'I think that very often people think they are going through things alone and really it's not until we speak up and people are more informed that they can then reach out and show you the love and support you didn't know you needed.

'It is amazing to see strangers from other parts of the world reach out to me and say how much they are supporting us and praying for Ozzie. That feeling is just unbeatable.'

For more information, see Mrs Gordon's Instagram.
VATICAN CITY - Holocaust survivor and life Senator Liliana Segre, 89, told Vatican News on Monday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, that she is "very concerned" about the "reemergence of feelings of hate". Segre said "this wave isn't anomalous" but is due to the economic crisis and "also the result of very wrong teachings, of sovereignism (nationalism) and populism".

"Young people, learn not to listen to those who yell the loudest," she said.

Pope Francis also said "remembrance is dutiful" on this day.

He warned against becoming indifferent to the Shoah.

"If we lose the memory, we annihilate the future," he said.

"May the anniversary of the Holocaust, the unspeakable cruelty that humanity discovered 75 years ago, be a call to stop, to be silent and remember.

"We need this, so as not to become indifferent". Rome on Friday became the latest Italian city to make Segre an honorary citizen.

Segre survived Auschwitz as a girl.

She was named senator for life by President Sergio Mattarella on 19 January 2018.

Born into a Milanese Jewish family in 1930, Segre was expelled from her school after the promulgation of the Italian Racial Laws in 1938.

In 1943 she was arrested with many members of her family and deported to Auschwitz.

After 1990 she started to speak to the public, especially young people, about her experience.

Segre was recently given a police escort after anti-Semitic threats against her.

Premier Giuseppe Conte said remembering the Shoah was "an antidote to barbarity".

"The remembrance of the facts is fundamental so that this never happens again," he said.

President Sergio Mattarella said the appearance of "Juden Hier (Jews Here) scrawled on the home of the son of a Holocaust survivor in the northern town of Mondovi last week was "ignoble" and shows "how unfortunately anti-Semitism has not disappeared".

He said "the Shoah transcends time and is a perennial warnings".

He also said that Jewish persecution under Fascism was "ferocious" and said "enough of whitewashing the crimes of Fascism".

"The persecution of Jews in Italy was not watered down," he said.

"We must eradicate the virus of hatred and racism," said the Italian president.
Bengal CM says parties must bury narrow differences to build movement against law.

Kolkata: The West Bengal on Monday became the fourth state in the country after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan to have passed an anti-CAA resolution in the state Assembly.

After the passage of the resolution, Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee called upon the Opposition parties, including the Congress and Left, to bury their narrow differences to build a united movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

She also slammed senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiyas for his controversial comments on Poha saying, a single colour can not run the country.

Earlier in the day, state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatter-jee moved the anti-CAA resolution under rule 169 in the House where it was adopted and passed with support from the Left Front and Congress parties amidst the BJP's opposition.

The MLAs of the Congress and Left, which on January 9 pressed for an anti-CAA resolution which was rejected by the Trinamul government, however demanded for amendments in the governments resolution.

Appealing to them to not move any amendment, Ms Banerjee said, Time has come to shun narrow differences and put up a fight together to protect the country. The CAA is anti-people. It should be immediately abolished.

She elaborated, Let us stay united and raise our voices against the central government on the CAA, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register. The protest against the CAA is not only of the minorities but of all. I thank my Hindu brothers for spearheading the agitation from the front. We will not allow the CAA and NRC and NPR. But we will fight it out peacefully against those who try to destroy the Constitution.
Image credit : UNI

Mangaluru/UNI: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that the Congress was the reason behind bringing an amendment to the Citizenship Act.

Addressing pro-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rally organised by the BJP at Goldfinch City, Singh said, "Congress is the main reason bringing an amendment to citizenship Act. Congress leaders divided India based on religion, not the BJP."

He further said Mangaluru has played a major role in bringing BJP to power in Karnataka and made the whole country to talk about this city.

"In 2014, people of Mangaluru and Dakshina Kannada voted for the BJP and brought it to power, now in 2019 once again with your support, the BJP has come to power in the state and the centre. I would like to wholeheartedly thank the people of Mangaluru," Singh said.

We claimed that we would abrogate Article 370 in our manifesto, we kept our promise, said the Defence minister.

He claimed that all the promises made by BJP in the election manifesto were fulfilled and CAA also part of it.

He added that the Congress divided the country into India and Pakistan.

The same had said by Mahatma Gandhi.

"This act of CAA will not affect anybody and those who come from Pakistan and Bangladesh, most of them are Dalits, and for them, this act has been implemented," he clarified.

Digging at the Opposition parties, he said that they have been using this act as a tool for their political gains.

On the Kashmir Pandit issue, he said no power can now stop them from returning to Kashmir.

Image credit : UNI
Adam Schiff did most of the heavy lifting for the House managers, and if he performed ably, he also relied on arguments and tropes that dont withstand scrutiny.

The Democratic case for impeachment and removal is now heavily encrusted with cliches, widely accepted by the media, meant to give their indictment additional weight.

In his lengthy opening statement last week, Schiff relied on all of them, and then some.

This is not to say that the basic charge against Trump  withholding defense aid to Ukraine to try to force investigations that he wanted  is wrong, or that Trumps conduct was proper.

Its just that to try to get it to the level of impeachment and removal requires rhetorical gymnastics. Schiff strained to make Trumps Ukraine scheme a piece of Russias interference in the 2016 election, to exaggerate its national-security and electoral consequence, and to portray removal as the only remedy.

Here are 15 times that Schiff related a stilted, distorted, or flatly erroneous version of events:

Just as he made use of Secretary Clintons hacked and released emails in the previous presidential campaign.

Schiff wanted to connect Trump to Russias hacking, even though there is no connection. So he said Trump made use of the emails. But what does that mean? That he cited them. Well, so did everyone else. As Byron York pointed out the other day, the press widely reported on the WikiLeaks disclosures. If it was blameworthy to make a big deal of information revealed in the hacks, Bernie Sanders was a major offender, calling for the resignation of thenDNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after the DNC hack.

In 2016, thencandidate Trump implored Russia to hack his opponents email account.

Again, this is an attempt to make Trump responsible for Russias hacking. It refers to a press conference where Trump made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Russians being rewarded by the press if they found Hillarys missing emails. The Russians did attempt to spearfish a domain used by Clintons personal office on the same day, but its hard to believe Russian hackers were taking their cues from Trump, and of course, they had already hacked the DNC  hence, the occasion for Trumps riff.

Story continues

In pushing the Ukrainians on the discredited CrowdStrike theory, Trump was attempting to erase from history his previous election misconduct.

Trump has been, no doubt, desperate to find someone else to finger for the Russian hacking since Russia is such a focus of his critics, but the hacking wasnt his work, so to refer to it as his previous election misconduct is absurd.

Robert Mueller testified that Russia systemically interfered in our election to help elect Donald Trump, that the campaign understood that, and they willfully made use of that help.

Schiff wants to portray Mueller as having found Trump guilty in his probe, when he actually found no evidence of collusion.

After Mueller catalogued Russian interference, the very next day, President Trump is on the phone with a different foreign power, this time Ukraine, trying to get Ukraine to interfere in the next election.

In the Schiff version, a Trump caught red-handed working with the Russians to interfere in U.S. politics then immediately turns around to work with the Ukrainians. But the opposite was true. It was Trumps sense of outraged innocence over the Mueller probe that partly motivated him to focus on Ukraines purported role in getting the Russia investigation started.

Trump believes that under Article II, he could do anything he wants.

This has become a favorite chestnut of Democrats during impeachment, but it wrenches Trumps statement out of context. He was talking about having the inherent Article II power to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. Whatever you might have thought about the wisdom of such a move, Trump was correct about his power.

The military aid that we provide Ukraine helps to protect and advance American national-security interests in the region and beyond.

This is certainly true, but every time Democrats revert to the importance of Ukrainian defense aid as a matter of policy, it raises the question of why, by and large, Democrats went along with Barack Obamas refusal to provide any lethal assistance to Ukraine whatsoever and how Trump, overall, has been better on Ukraine assistance.

Trump is guilty of abusing the powers of that office in such a way to jeopardize our national security.

Its ridiculous to suggest that what turned out to be a brief hold on Ukraine aid had dire national-security consequences for the U.S.

He personally asked a foreign government to investigate his opponent.

This has become the conventional way that Democrats refer to Trumps request of Zelensky, although in concrete form it became a push to get them to commit to probe Burisma, the shady Ukrainian energy company that had Hunter Biden on its board. An investigation of Burisma is not the same thing as an investigation of Joe Biden. Assuming the Bidens arent at the center of some corrupt scheme involving Burisma (and theres zero indication that they are), the investigation would have been a nothingburger in its impact on U.S. politics. Trump would have touted the investigation, but it is doubtful that this would have had any more impact than his already full-throated denunciations of Biden corruption.

Trump was asking the Ukrainians to help smear a political opponent.

This accords more with Schiffs fictional version of Trumps phone call with the Ukrainian president than the reality. The Ukrainians werent being asked to manufacture evidence against Joe Biden, and an investigation of Burisma presumably wouldnt have smeared him, per the above point.

Acting ambassador Bill Taylor testified that the Trump team wanted the Ukrainians in a public box by publicly committing to the investigations, and this shows that President Trump didnt care about the investigations being done.

Schiffs theory is that Trump wanted only a public announcement of an investigation, so he could use it against Joe Biden in his campaign. Usually, though, if you want an official to publicly commit to something, its to make it harder for him to back out of his promise.

Trump doesnt have a right to solicit prohibited foreign aid in his reelection.

This makes it sound like Trump was raking in Ukrainian campaign contributions and getting the Ukrainians to run ads in swing states. In reality, he was pushing for the Ukrainians to investigate a Ukrainian company, the practical political effect of which would have been nil in the U.S.

The presidents misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cant be assured that the vote will be fairly won.

Its really amazing that Democrats have gone, in about three years, from insisting its impermissible to question the potential outcome of an election, when Trump ill-advisedly did so at a debate in 2016, to making it central to their worldview. They believe they were robbed in 2016 and also believe they will perhaps be robbed again. But Hillary lost under her own power in 2016, and regardless, its beyond the power of one person to rig a national election that will draw massive attention and turnout.

I dont think that impeachment power is a relic. If it is a relic, I wonder how much longer our republic can succeed.

Schiff argues that failure to remove eviscerates the impeachment power. Since no president has ever been convicted and removed, its not clear why this would be. It just means that there is a high bar to removal.

If impeachment and removal cannot hold him accountable, then he truly is above the law.

Again, Schiff wants to portray impeachment as the only way a president can be held accountable, when Congress has all sorts of other levers  from investigations, to funding, to inter-branch relations, to censure  to hold a president accountable.

More from National Review
The Sri Lankan Navy on Monday arrested 11 fishermenfrom this island for allegedly poaching in their territorial waters, officials said.

According to them, the fishermen have been taken to Kangesanthurai.

The fishermen were using banned fishing nets when they were arrested, officials said, adding the Lankan navy also seized two boats which were making use of the nets.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sukhdev wins the prestigious prize for revolutionising how decision-makers would come to view the natural world.

New Delhi, India  Since 2008, Indian banker-turned-environmentalist Pavan Sukhdev has been warning the world about the kind of climate catastrophe currently unfolding in countries such as Brazil and Australia.

On Monday, Sukhdev, 59, was awarded this years Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, often called the Nobel prize for environment, for revolutionising how decision-makers would come to view the natural world.

Sukhdev, who shares the prestigious award with Gretchen Daily, a conservation biologist from the United States, is the third Indian in the last decade to receive the award, instituted in 1973.

In August last year, fires razed more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of forest within the Amazon rainforest  the lungs of the world. The forest had not burned like that in the last decade.

A month later, more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) of land burned in Australia, killing 30 and leading to the loss of more than a billion animals. The Australian bushfires were 46 percent larger than the Amazon fires.

Some 2,000 homes were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in Australia. The total damages and economic loss will exceed $100bn, according to Accuweather, a US-based media firm that provides commercial weather forecasting.

Congratulations to 2020 Tyler Prize co-Laureate PAVAN SUKHDEV,

Founder & CEO of @GistImpact ,

President of @wwf , @unep Goodwill Ambassador and Study Leader of @TEEB4ME pic.twitter.com/vnHTl8bvda  Tyler Prize (@TylerPrize) January 27, 2020

A different part of the world erupted in unprecedented protests a month later against the governments decision to cut down a forest to build a metro railways shade in Mumbai, Indias commercial capital, known as the Aarey forest controversy.

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Local NGOs had demonstrated convincingly that the metro train sheds could be built elsewhere, without ecological losses to Aarey, but it seemed that the temptation of land-grab from nature was apparently too much. This is a familiar story in India and elsewhere, Sukhdev told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.

In 2011, Sukhdev had delivered a TED Talk in which he warned of gradual degradation and depletion of the natural capital or ecological services such as minerals, water, arable land, habitat, fossil fuels and biodiversity required to support life on the planet.

Using the example of the Amazon rainforests, he said it fed an agricultural economy worth $240bn in Latin America. But he asked how much do Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and indeed the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil pay for that vital input?

And the answer is zilch, exactly zero, he said, warning it cannot go on because economic incentives and disincentives are very powerful.

Influential research

Speaking to Al Jazeera about his 2011 TED Talk, Sukhdev said it was not prophetic.

Science is not prophecy, its about understanding the natural world and I understand the natural world; its about understanding the way things work in nature, he said. Its really for the people of Brazil to decide if they value the rainforests or not.

A major cause of Amazon fires, experts said, is due to deforestation, particularly the fires started by humans to clear land.

If they dont understand this, if they dont recognise the fact that small changes in forest cover can lead to very dramatic changes in precipitation, then they can end up wrecking their entire agricultural economy, he told Al Jazeera.

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Sukhdevs work  from leading the United Nations Environment Programs (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative in 2009 to his work with some Indian states in the 2000s  has been driven by an urgent need to make the world understand the consequences of taking nature for granted.

But it was his selection as leader of the United Nations-led Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study that his work really gained a global significance.

The first TEEB study, published in 2008, estimated that the world was losing its natural capital to the tune of two-to-four trillion dollars every year. It pointed out that global development came at a huge environmental and human cost mostly borne by the worlds poorest.

His work, particularly with UNEPs TEEB and Green Economy Initiative led to extraordinary improvements in our understanding of the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity, Tyler Prize committees chairperson Julia Marton-Lefevre said in a statement.

Using economic instruments to measure what we get from nature may make us take natures services more seriously.

Roots of inspiration

Sukhdev, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, put his 25 years of financial markets experience to good use to calculate the consequences of environmental decline.

He has helped politicians and business leaders understand the consequences of their policy and business choices, and change the way they looked at the natural world and formulated growth strategies.

People who claim there is a trade-off between environmental responsibility on one hand and economic and social development are simply misstating facts. These people are either uneducated about the increasing success of green development models, or they are merely lying because they are paid by vested commercial interests, he told Al Jazeera.

On January 22 during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Sukhdev launched two digital platforms to help businesses measure their environmental impact.

Sukhdev has been described as a pioneer in illuminating and quantifying the economic value of the environment [File: Amit Dave/Reuters]

Ideas took shape in rural India

As president of the World Wide Fund for Nature since 2017, Sukhdevs passion for sustainable development took shape in rural India.

Some of my understanding of the importance of nature to the poor comes from my early life in India, from living close to poverty, frequent travels into the countryside, and visiting my uncles farm in Rajasthan, he said.

All these elements of upbringing and my subsequent engagement with NGOs in India helped build in me a sense of how important nature is to the poor.

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In TEEB, he said, this dependency is called the GDP of the poor or the GDP of the village.

While villagers are poor in terms of income, he said, they are not poor in terms of what he called the human wellbeing quotient.

They have deep community bonds and family support systems. What they dont have is a fair wage and thats where nature comes in. It provides security and a degree of sustenance, which is extremely vital to developing the village economy of India, he told Al Jazeera.

To grow in a sustainable manner, Sukhdev thinks India will need to focus on its village economy and natural farming processes rooted in traditional Indian methods.

Zero Budget Natural Farming implemented in Andhra Pradesh is a successful example and it is scaling fast, he said, referring to an agricultural practice adopted by nearly 580,000 farmers in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The practice focuses on the natural growth of crops without adding any fertilisers and pesticides and has proved to be effective in addressing the uncertainties of climate change.

Sukhdev said the practice could lead to higher income, less health damage, a reduction in use of water and lower carbon emissions. He believed the next generation would take the lead in conserving nature.

Todays youth are determined to change humanity from being planetary locusts to being planetary stewards, he told Al Jazeera. [But] will their short-sighted parents and elected leadership leave this generation with a future worth living?
Earth's tropical regions  the most diverse areas in the world  are facing an unprecedented collapse of biodiversity and ecosystems, a study reveals.

Researchers discovered that the combination of climate change, extreme weather and human activity is creating a perfect storm, bringing the regions to the brink of catastrophe.

More than 100 locations of tropical forests and coral reefs were mapped after being devastated by extreme climate events such as drought, floods and hurricanes.

Experts involved in the study claim the only way to prevent further damage is to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

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More than 100 locations of tropical forests and coral reefs were mapped after being devastated by extreme climate events such as drought, floods and hurricanes. Researchers discovered climate change, extreme weather and human activity are combining for a perfect storm bringing the regions to the brink of catastrophe

Dr Cassandra Benkwitt, a marine ecologist from Lancaster University, said: 'Climate change is causing more intense and frequent storms and marine heatwaves.

'For coral reefs, such extreme events reduce live coral cover and cause long-lasting changes to both coral and fish communities, compounding local threats from poor water quality and overfishing.

'Although the long-term trajectory for reefs will depend on how extreme events interact with these local stressors, even relatively pristine reefs are vulnerable to both climate change and extreme weather.'

WHAT IS EL NINO? El Nino is caused by a shift in the distribution of warm water in the Pacific Ocean around the equator. Usually the wind blows strongly from east to west, due to the rotation of the Earth, causing water to pile up in the western part of the Pacific. This pulls up colder water from the deep ocean in the eastern Pacific. However, in an El Nino, the winds pushing the water get weaker and cause the warmer water to shift back towards the east. This causes the eastern Pacific to get warmer. But as the ocean temperature is linked to the wind currents, this causes the winds to grow weaker still and so the ocean grows warmer, meaning the El Nino grows. This change in air and ocean currents around the equator can have a major impact on the weather patterns around the globe by creating pressure anomalies in the atmosphere. Advertisement

Tropical forest species are also being threatened by the increasing frequency of another weather event triggered by climate change  extreme hurricanes.

Dr Guadalupe Peralta from Canterbury University in New Zealand says the fall-out for tropical rainforests after extreme hurricanes is wide-reaching.

He said plants are destroyed which has a knock-on affect to the animals, birds and insects that rely on them for food and shelter.

'In some regions, such as the Caribbean Islands, extreme weather events have decimated wildlife, reducing numbers by more than half,' he continues.

'We are starting to see another wave of global extinctions of tropical birds as forest fragmentation reduces populations to critical levels', explained Dr Alexander Lees, from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The combination of higher temperatures with longer and more severe dry seasons has also led to the spread of unprecedented and large-scale wildfires.

Dr Filipe Franca said that at the end of 2015, Santarem in the Brazilian state of Para was one of the epicentres of that year's El Nino impacts. it triggered extreme drought, forest fires and coral bleaching (file photo)

El Nino events  a global weather phenomenon that triggers exceptionally warm weather  have also wreaked havoc in tropical areas.

Dr Filipe Franca said that at the end of 2015, Santarem in the Brazilian state of Para was one of the epicentres of that year's El Nino impacts.

'The region experienced a severe drought and extensive forest fires, and I was very sad to see the serious consequences for forest wildlife,' he said.

The drought also affected the forests ability to recover from the fires and critically damaged some coral reefs.

Professor Nick Graham from Lancaster University said: 'The 2015-16 coral bleaching event was the worst ever recorded, with many locations globally losing vast tracts of valuable corals.

'Worryingly, these global bleaching events are becoming more frequent due to the rise in ocean temperature from global warming.'
The 2016 election of Donald Trump sent an earthquake through the D.C swamp. I was already living in our nations capital at that time working for Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who was then chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.

My job was to advise the congressman on key issues and to craft legislation to combat terrorism, strengthen the United States economy and promote the free market to nations that were making turns toward socialism.

But as the congressmans foreign policy advisor, part of my time was also spent traveling the world on his behalf to hotspots where I saw firsthand the challenges we face as a nation.

As a congressional staffer, no matter where you travel, you are a representative of this great country, and I accepted that responsibility with honor. It was a privilege.

My world travels allowed me to see and understand a world much different than the dusty road I grew up on as a child off Farm-to-Market Road 1787, nearly 30 miles south of Midland. A world I would have never seen without the caring and supportive community in both Midland and Odessa that supported me and my siblings after my mom passed away. I owe this community a great deal.

I have been as far as Taiwan to visit with our allies regarding the increased Chinese militarization of the South China Sea and to reassure them of our strong commitment to them as a free and democratic nation despite Beijings aggression.

I traveled to Jordan during the Syrian civil war and visited the refugee camps. We discussed ways the U.S. can assist our Jordanian allies with the mass wave of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-torn nation and ways we could work together to destroy the Islamic State, as well as limit Irans expanding Shiite crescent forming across the Middle East.

I have been to Saudi Arabia, and while our relationship with the Saudis is complicated, there is no question they are an important player in a chaotic region. We discussed U.S.-Saudi defense cooperation and our joint intelligence efforts with a focus on limiting Irans expansion and funding of terrorists grouped in the region through the IRGC.

My trip to Saudi Arabia during the 2016 November election came on the heels of controversial legislation passed by the Congress and vetoed by then-President Obama. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) was meant to secure justice for the victims of 9/11 by allowing their grieving families to sue the Saudi government for their actions and inactions that led to the terrorist attacks on America.

It was a difficult time to be involved in foreign affairs. And as I watch the events that have unfolded across the world since my departure from Washington, like the recent Iranian missile attack on Saudi refineries, the successful drone strike on the terrorist Qassem Soleimani, the failed Iranian missile attack on U.S. bases, I am reminded of the Obama years when we saw how inaction and apologies can lead to disaster.

Let me be clear. I am proud of my work in Washington on behalf of the United States and the state of Texas, and over the course of my congressional campaign I have talked about these accomplishments and why they make me the most qualified candidate running to fight for our conservative values in the D.C. swamp.

So, it came as a surprise to wake up one morning to find an article claiming my only travel was to Colombia, insinuating I lied about the reason I did not vote in 2016. Despite responding to the writer, even including photos of my travel, the attack article ran any way.

But in politics, this is what happens when you are running a strong campaign.

Yes, I have been to Colombia  and Jordan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and many more countries, all on behalf of the United States.

As I searched through old photos of my congressional travel, I cannot help but think about my time in Washington, and what I hope to change should this district bless me with the opportunity to represent them.

So, while the rest of the America voted in the historic 2016 election, I did not. I was performing an important civic duty abroad on behalf of my country.

I wont miss this presidential election, and I hope you do not miss it, either.
- Stivo's Saturday started out normal but at the end of the day, he was locked up and desperate

- The musician had gone to shoot a video while his friend Gideon sold merchandise at Friends' Church

- Gideon was arrested and Stivo learnt about it later on

- Stivo, a good friend, decided to visit Kilimani Police Station and ask why his friend had been apprehended

- He however ended up in a cell and was forced to spend the night in police custody

Upcoming rapper Stivo Simpleboy has been arrested.

The musician was taken into police custody alongside his friends after a misunderstanding ensued over what was termed as idling.

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A source privy to TUKO said the ordeal started when the rappers friend Gideon Ngaira was apprehended for selling his merchandise along Ngong Road on Saturday, January 25.

Gideon was accused of idling at Friends Church and selling his goods without proper documentation.

READ ALSO: Kenya vs South Africa: Kenyans battle South Africans after mzansi man trolls Stivo Simple Boy

Gideon has been selling his stuff at that church for two years now and has never had issues. He and the church have an agreement, the source revealed.

According to Stivos friend, the artiste was shooting a video at the time of his pal's arrest and when too much time elapsed, he started wondering about Gideons whereabouts.

Stivo then learnt his pal had been arrested and decided to go to Kilimani Police Station.

When Stivo went to the station, the authorities mocked him and claimed he thought he knew the law better than them. We did not cause any commotion and all we did was inquire where our friend was, the source added.

The rapper is said to be in good condition but a little shaken up.

Apparently, Stivo and his friends tried to negotiate their release with the police but the latter turned down their plight and told them to wait for arraignment on Monday, January 27.

The friends in custody alongside Stivo are Geoffery Ochieng, Simon Sikote, Eric Mutunga and Phillip Oyoo.

Gideon was released shortly after the rapper was apprehended.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

Edgar Obare is not sorry for exposing celebrities | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Kolkata: The West Bengal on Monday became the fourth state in the country after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan to have passed an anti-CAA resolution in the state Assembly.

After the passage of the resolution, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee called upon the Opposition parties, including the Congr-ess and Left, to bury their narrow differences to build a united movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also said the protests against the law is not just for the minorities but for the sake of the country's unity.

In Bengal, we won't allow CAA, NPR, and NRC. We will fight against them peacefully. We want CAA to be repealed immediately. We also want NPR to be revoked, she said. The CAA is against the Const-itution and humanity.

She also slammed senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiyas for his controversial comments on poha saying, a single colour cannot run the country.

Earlier in the day, state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee moved the anti-CAA resolution under rule 169 in the house, where it was adopted and passed with support from the Left Front and Congress parties amid the BJP's opposition.

The MLAs of the Congress and Left, which on January 9 pressed for an anti-CAA resolution which was rejected by the Trinamul government, demanded amendments in the government's resolution. Ms. Banerjee said, "The time has come to shun narrow differences and put up a fight together to protect the country. The CAA is anti-people. It should be immediately abolished."

She elaborated, "Let us stay united and raise our voices against the central government on the CAA, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register. The protest against the CAA is not only of the minorities but of all. I thank my Hindu brothers for spearheading the agitation from the front. We will not allow the CAA and NRC and NPR. But we will fight it out peacefully against those who try to destroy the Constitution."

Before the passage of the anti-CAA resolution, Ms. Banerjee at the Trinamul student-youth workshop at Netaji Indoor Stadium said, "A single colour cannot run a country. A colour stands for the harmony of all castes, creeds and religions, and the rich and poor. Labourers are our assets, like farmers. They are our pride also."
Merrill said a version of this coalition had lobbied for expansion in the past. But there was renewed confidence this year that a Medicaid expansion bill could be passed in Wyoming's previously expansion-adverse Legislature. A measure approved by the Joint Revenue Committee would establish a framework for expanding Medicaid, with the first step being Gov. Mark Gordon and agencies beneath him to study expansion, before forwarding a recommendation  if Gordon gives it  to the Health Department to proceed. But before that happens, the Legislature would have the ability to kill the process.

It's a different process than those in other states, where expansion has typically been an up-or-down vote by either a state legislature or by a state's voting public. Most of Wyoming's neighbors, with the exception of South Dakota, have expanded Medicaid through those means in recent years. Indeed, the majority of the United States has done so.

States have the ability to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act and via a Supreme Court decision. The process would broaden the joint state-federal program to those making 138 percent of the federal poverty line. The new costs of the larger program would be split between the federal government and the state, with the feds paying 90 percent going forward.
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): A special court on Monday extended the interim bail of six bureaucrats in the INX Media case till February 18.

The interim bail of six bureaucrats who were part of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which granted approval to INX Media during former finance minister P Chidambaram's tenure was extended by the court.



The bureaucrats include Ajeet Kumar Dungdung, the then Section Officer; Rabindra Prasad, the then Under Secretary; Prabodh Saxena, Director, FIPB unit of Finance Ministry; Pradeep Kumar Bagga, the then Officer on Special Duty; Anup K Pujari, the then Joint Secretary, and Sindhushree Khullar, Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs.

The arguments on granting regular bail and scrutiny of documents will also be held on February 18. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier in its reply opposed the regular bail petition of the bureaucrats.

The agency's reply came on a notice served to it by the court on November 29 on the bail petition moved by them. The interim bail is a temporary bail for a period in which the court can ask for documents to be presented which are required to make a final decision on the bail application. Subsequently, the court can grant permanent bail, extend interim bail or reject bail application altogether.

Former Union Minister P Chidambaram, who is the main accused in the case, is out on regular bail in the case.

The case pertains to FIPB clearance given to Karti Chidambaram's INX Media to the tune of Rs 305 crore when his father P Chidambaram was the finance minister.

The economic offences watchdog had registered a PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) case based on an FIR by the CBI and alleged that irregularities took place in the FIPB clearance to INX Media. (ANI)


Jaipur, Jan 27 : The suspected case of coronavirus who was admitted in SMS Hospital here since Sunday 5 p.m., is suffering from cough, cold, fever and Rhinitis. The report against the samples sent to National Virology Lab situated in Pune is expected on Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

"We are giving him symptomatic treatment as of now," confirmed Dr Pushpendra Bairwa serving the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in SMS hospital on Monday.

He said that the patient is 19-year-old and is a second year MBBS student in China. He came to India on January 12 with severe symptoms of the viral disease. "However, as we did not want to take any chances, we have admitted him in isolation ward and are giving him symptomatic treatment," he said.

The patient is a resident of Sanganer in Jaipur.

The doctor said that the symptoms of coronavirus are very similar to viral fever which include cough, cold, and then comes fever at a late stage due to pneumonia.

The incubation period for this virus is 3-14 days, he informed.

The medical superintendent Dr D.S. Meena was taking a detailed meeting in the hospital when IANS tried to contact him.

On Sunday, health minister Dr Raghu Sharma said that a total of 18 people from four districts of Rajasthan had returned to India from China and therefore the respective district chiefs and medical officers were directed to keep them under surveillance for 28 days.

Sharma had also urged the union health minister to make the screening facility available at the international terminals of airports in the country.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27) Fourteen people are under investigation for suspected infection of the novel coronavirus.

Eleven of are cases recorded by the Department of Health from January 12 to 16, reported in hospitals in Muntinlupa City, Pasay City, Kalibo in Aklan, Tacloban, El Nido in Palawan, Cebu City, and Camiguin.

We're closely monitoring 11 PUIs (patients under investigation), which means they more often than not presented symptoms with fever, cough colds, some shortness of breath, and a travel history in Wuhan, Health Secretary Franciso Duque III told CNN Philippines The Source, stressing that the country remains free of the coronavirus.

Duque said the individuals are of international nationalities  including Chinese, Brazilian, American, and German. The cases had reported travel history in Wuhan, China  the city at the center of the virus new strain (2019-nCoV).

The San Lazaro Hospital in Manila confirmed Monday night to CNN Philippines that three Chinese nationals have been admitted and are considered PUIs.

Two of them, a couple who came from Wuhan, had been admitted since Friday. San Lazaro Hospital spokesperson Dr. Ferdinand de Guzman said only the man had exhibited flu-like symptoms, but his female partner had also been admitted.

Another Chinese man from Hubei province has been admitted at the San Lazaro Hospital, De Guzman said. Wuhan is located in Hubei province.

De Guzman said nose and throat swabs from the three Chinese patients have been sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for testing and have also been sent to Australia for confirmatory testing. They expect results from Australia on Wednesday or Thursday.

Some of the PUIs have already tested negative for the coronavirus  including a five-year-old boy in Cebu, and the Brazilian and Taiwanese children in Palawan, and the 29-year-old man in Camiguin.

What we know is that the one in Cebu, the five-year-old has been discharged already. And there are some who are in the process of being released now, DOH Epidemiology Bureau officer-in-charge Chito Avelino said in a media briefing in Malacanang.

Duque added theres no cause for alarm for other patients who would seek treatment in hospitals where some of the PUIs are housed.

There shouldnt be any cause for alarm just because we flashed (presented) the areas where the PUIs come from, doesnt meant that those areas are infected with the novel coronavirus. Because there is none, Duque said.

Aside from respiratory and fever symptoms, other cases which can be categorized as PUIs include: individuals who have had direct contact with a confirmed case of novel coronavirus; individuals who had interactions with health workers of a facility tackling the illness; individuals who have visited the animal market in Wuhan the Chinese city at the center of the virus new strain(2019-nCoV); and individuals who have had contact or eaten animals from the market.

The coronaviruses, believed to be a cousin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, are a large group of viruses common among animals, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization, however, said the coronavirus is not as deadly as SARSas the latter posted a higher mortality rate.

In advanced cases, the virus can also cause other respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

At least 80 people have been killed by the mysterious respiratory illness in China, CNN reported Monday. Over 2,000 confirmed cases have also been listed.

The outbreak of the coronaviruswhich has spread to other regions including the United States and Europehas prompted several international airports to impose stricter security and monitoring measures.

Zero confirmed cases, no to fake news

Meanwhile, the Manila Health Department stressed there is no confirmed case of coronavirus at the Metropolitan Hospital in Binondo countering claims circulating online.

In a statement, the city government said the suspected casea 27-year-old man from Obei, Chinashowed symptoms but did not list any history of travel to Wuhan, or history of exposure to a positive case.

The Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang also debunked speculations that it is treating a patient with confirmed 2019-nCov.

Duque also appealed to some Filipinos, particularly netizens, to stop spreading false information amid the ongoing coronavirus scare.

This can cause a lot of anxiety and undue fear. We have to be very careful. Do not absorb all these news just because you find it on social media, the Health Secretary said.
[January 27, 2020] Smart Cannabis Corp's (SCNA) new Budding Botanicals acquisition offers exciting line of CBD and Hemp Products

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smart Cannabis Corp. (the Company) (OTC PINKSHEETS: SCNA) is pleased to provide further details of its new Budding Botanicals line of CBD and hemp products for retail sales.

Budding Botanicals offers CBD Tinctures ranging in size from 100 mg to 1,500 mg, CBD Salves (in 2 versions made with or without THC), CBD 25 mg Capsules, CBD hard candies, and also CBD Pet Treats for our four-legged companions. While our products are not USDA certified Organic, we strive to make healthier products with organic ingredients. Please visit Budding Botanicals online store at https://www.buddingbotanicalsca.com/store/. With the acquisition of Budding Botanicals CBD and Hemp retail sales operations, the Company has taken steps to enter into a cannabis sector that shows little signs of slowing down. According to one observer: The industry has exploded in just the past year, but this is nly the beginning. Wall Streets top cannabis analyst, Cowen Vivien Azer, predicts that the cannabis industry in the US alone will grow to $80 billion by 2030, assuming national availability in the coming years. (https://flowhub.com/cannabis-industry-statistics)



As a result, the Company is positioning itself to capture a share of that growing CBD market space, says Mark Cheung, the Companys interim CEO. About Smart Cannabis Corp.

The company previously focused its cannabis sector operations in the construction and sales of cannabis-related greenhouses, but has now diversified into the retail sales of cannabis and hemp products by acquiring Budding Botanicals (see https://www.buddingbotanicalsca.com/).

Safe Harbor:

Statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including the failure to complete successfully the development of new or enhanced products, the Company's future capital needs, the lack of market demand for any new or enhanced products the Company may develop, any actions by the Company's affiliates that may be adverse to the Company, the success of competitive products, other economic factors affecting the Company and its markets, seasonal changes, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from those contained in this press release. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any statements in this press release. Contact:

Smart Cannabis Corp.

Email: [email protected]



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In line with its ongoing efforts to promote collaboration between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently hosted the first meeting of the joint working group from the two countries at the ministrys headquarters in Dubai.

The Saudi-Emirati joint working group is part of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council.

Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of MoF, as well as representatives from the ministry and relevant government entities, attended the meeting. The Saudi delegation was headed by Jaber Al-Mishaal, Executive Director of International Relations and Commercial Attachments at the General Authority for Foreign Trade.

Al Khoori welcomed the Saudi delegation and reaffirmed the deep historic relationship the two countries share based on the foundations laid by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the Emirates.

He said: The UAE is keen to strengthen its cooperation with Saudi Arabia in various areas, especially when it comes to facilitating the flow of traffic at customs points. This supports strategic projects between the two countries and helps achieve happiness and prosperity of the people.

He added: This meeting is a platform to enable the two nations to discuss the mutual challenges that may affect economic and commercial cooperation. As per the directives of the Executive Committee of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council, the Ministry of Finance will work to coordinate with the concerned authorities to ensure the optimal application of this meetings outcomes.

The results of the strategic partnership between the UAE and Saudi Arabia were reviewed, which demonstrated that the value of investments of Saudi citizens and banks in the UAE amounted to Dhs 10.93 billion in 2018, of which Dhs6.35 billion was the value of Saudi investments in joint-stock companies allowed to be exchanged for Gulf nationals. There was a further Dhs4.58 billion in the value of Saudi investors transactions in the country. The number of licences for economic activities granted to Saudi citizens in the UAE reached 12,329 in 2018, including 1,282 professional licences, 9,565 commercial, 950 industrial, 468 tourism, 29 agricultural and 35 for other activities.

The value of real estate deals made by Saudi citizens in 2018 amounted to Dhs1,064 billion, and the total amount of real estate owners from Saudi citizens reached 14,455. During the same year, the number of Saudi employees covered by pension and social security in the UAE reached 4,055 beneficiaries, and the number of Saudi students enrolled in general and vocational education schools in the country reached 2,147. Furthermore, the number of Saudis benefiting from health services in the UAE in 2018 was 59,068.

Unsurprisingly, Saudi Arabia is the United Arab Emirates foremost partner in the GCC. Trade between the two countries increased from Dhs71.60 billion in 2016 to Dhs97.30 billion in 2017, and then to Dhs107.42 billion in 2018 - this constitutes 49 per cent of the total trade exchange value of the UAE with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The Executive Committee of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Councils meeting held in Riyadh on 15 April 2019, decided to assign Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia; and Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs; in coordination with the relevant authorities in the two countries, to form a joint working group to facilitate and enhance trade.

During the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council meeting, seven committees were formed to achieve Emirati-Saudi cooperation in vital fields, in order to achieve the common vision of the two countries and enhance bilateral ties.

The seven committees include the Finance and Investment Committee chaired by Al Tayer and Al-Jadaan.

The committee will implement several strategic initiatives when it comes to customs union and the common market, services and financial markets, as well as entrepreneurship. -- Tradearabia News Service
Barack Obama called Donald Trump a fascist during the 2016 election, according to Virginia senator Tim Kaine.

Related: Pete Buttigieg's campaign donors include top McKinsey employees

The incendiary comment is included in Hillary, a forthcoming Hulu documentary which has already stoked controversy.

Remarks Hillary Clinton made about Bernie Sanders, her challenger for the Democratic nomination four years ago, went viral last week.

This weekend, NBC News, the Atlantic and other outlets reported that the film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, shows Kaine, Clintons pick for vice-president, in conversation with his running mate at an unspecified time during the 2016 campaign.

President Obama called me last night, he says, and said: Tim, remember, this is no time to be a purist. Youve got to keep a fascist out of the White House.

Photograph: White House/Reuters

Clinton says I echo that sentiment and adds: But thats really  the weight of our responsibility is so huge.

Obama has been critical of Trumps policies and character but never in such direct terms  warning for example of the danger of homegrown demagogues in a speech at the Democratic convention in July 2016.

The 44th president will be a key campaign presence for whichever Democrat wins the nomination to face Trump at the polls in November.

Obama and Kaine did not immediately comment on the reported fascist remark. Nor did Trump. But at Sundance on Saturday, Clinton discussed it with Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.

If you look at the definition [of fascist], which Ive had the occasion to read several times, she said, I think we can agree on several things.

[Trump] has authoritarian tendencies and he admires authoritarian leaders, [Vladimir] Putin being his favorite.

He uses a form of really virulent nationalism. He identifies targets: immigrants, blacks, browns, gays, women, whoever the target of the day or week is 

Related: Trump linked Ukraine aid to Biden inquiry, Bolton book draft says  report

Story continues

I think you see a lot of the characteristics of what we think of [as] nationalistic, fascistic kinds of tendencies and behaviors.

Clinton also said Obama never called Trump a fascist in conversation with her.

But she said Obama observed  this populism untethered to facts, evidence, or truth; this total rejection of so much of the progress that America has made, in order to incite a cultural reaction that would play into the fear and the anxiety and the insecurity of people  predominantly in small-town and rural areas  who felt like they were losing something.

And [Trump] gave them a voice for what they were losing and who was responsible.

The Hulu documentary will be available from 6 March.
News

Columbus, Ohio - Comprehensive Pain Management Institute and its owner, Leon Margolin, M.D., have agreed to pay the United States $650,000 to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they knowingly billed Medicare for nerve conduction studies and alcohol/substance abuse assessments and interventions (SBIRT) that were medically unnecessary or not provided as billed, the Justice Department announced today. Margolin is a pain management physician in Columbus, Ohio.

Billing Medicare for unnecessary services undermines the integrity of this important federal healthcare program and squanders taxpayer funds, said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justices Civil Division. The Department will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to protect Medicare and its beneficiaries.

Nerve conduction studies are used to measure how fast an electrical impulse moves through a persons nerve. Electromyography is the study and recording of electrical activity in a persons muscles. This testing is invasive in that it requires needle electrode insertion and adjustment at multiple sites. Performed together, the tests identify the presence and location of diseases that damage nerves and muscles. When a nerve conduction study is performed alone, the results can often be misleading, and it is considered medically unnecessary, except in limited circumstances not present here. SBIRT is an early intervention targeting those with substance abuse to provide effective strategies prior to the need for more extensive treatment. The government alleged that Margolin and his clinic billed Medicare for nerve conduction studies for patients who did not need them and without performing electromyography and for alcohol and/or substance assessments that were not necessary because the patients had no history of drug or alcohol abuse or where the services were not provided as billed.

Attempting to make a profit by knowingly submitting false claims to Medicare will cost you in the end, said U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers of the Southern Disitrict of Ohio. The U.S. Attorneys Office remains committed to pursuing improper billing practices by doctors and other medical providers, and will hold them to their obligation to treat Medicare beneficiaries in an ethical manner, and request reimbursement from Medicare in accordance with all applicable rules and regulations.

The allegations resolved by todays settlement were identified by a government investigation that arose out of a critical analysis of Medicare claims data. The governments settlement in this matter illustrates its emphasis on combating health care fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).

The matter was investigated by the Civil Divisions Commercial Litigation Branch, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

The claims asserted against this defendant are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
Of patients suspected of carrying the new pneumonia virus originating in China, two have tested positive, 22 negative and 35 are awaiting results.

The Ministry of Health on Sunday afternoon revealed these figures in the third emergency meeting called in the past four days over the spread of the deadly nCoV pneumonia virus.

As of January 26 (the second day of Lunar New Year) afternoon, health officials in the northern region had quarantined 23 people suspected of carrying the infection, and were awaiting test results.

In the southern region, Phan Trong Lan, director of Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, said two Chinese nationals from Hubei Province are being monitored on Phu Quoc Island.

In the central region, of 24 suspected cases of nCoV infection, 14 have tested negative and the remaining need further tests.

Thus, the total number of patients suspected of carrying the nCoV virus has risen to 35. All have been tested, quarantined and are being monitored.

A Chinese father and son confirmed to be infected with the nCoV virus remain quarantined at the Cho Ray Hospital in Saigon. After three days of treatment, the son no longer has a fever, while the father is still on oxygen support, due to a lung injury.

Those who have been in contact with suspected patients have been cautioned and are being monitored closely by health officials, the meeting heard.

Tran Dac Phu, former head of the general department of preventive medicine under the Ministry of Health, advised people not to worry, since no Vietnamese have been confirmed infected yet.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said the situation regarding the coronavirus epidemic is stable in Vietnam. Vietnam was proactively taking preventive measures at a high level, especially in areas visited by Chinese nationals, he said.

Dam noted that Japan and Thailand have not yet raised the same level of high alert on the problem as Vietnam has done.

Vietnam demands all tourists from China complete health declaration forms as it combats the spread of the new coronavirus. The Ministry of Health order, effective starting Saturday, requires all tourists with symptoms of the nCoV like coughing, fever, shortness of breath and fatigue be examined and quarantined.

"Because of our geographic location, we have to pay the highest attention to detect, quarantine and care for suspect patients in time so that the virus does not spread widely. Prevention of the outbreak must be placed on top, even sacrificing economic benefits," he said.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said the ministry has opened a public emergency response center to report daily on the situation and directed localities to closely monitor, detect and treat cases of suspected infection.

Acute pneumonia caused by nCoV virus has spread rapidly in 30 provinces of mainland China. The disease has also spread to Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, France and Canada.

As of January 27 morning, there were more than 2,510 cases of nCoV infection recorded worldwide. China declared it has had 80 deaths caused by the virus.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronavirus is contagious and transmissible between humans. However, the agency has not yet initiated measures to restrict trade and tourism activities with China.
The Bristol Beaufighter was a versatile combat aircraft, fulfilling many roles in WWII from night fighter to ground attack to maritime torpedo bomber. Based upon its older sibling, the Beaufort, the type was significantly faster, more agile and packed a greater punch. While predominantly used by Britains Royal Air Force, a dozen other nations fielded Beaufighters, including the USA and Australia. Indeed, Australia loved the aircraft so much that they even produced their own examples at the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) factory in Fishermans Bend, near Melbourne. The type, however, is so often overshadowed by its more accomplished and sexier stablemate, the deHavilland Mosquito. And so few Beaufighters remain  just eleven more or less complete examples, and none currently flying  that the breed struggles to remind us of its importance in WWII, especially as there are four Mosquitos currently flying, with several more on the way. It has been more than half a century since a Beaufighter flew, and while several groups have tried, unsuccessfully, to get one back in the air, there has been a major problem sourcing the correct engines, as so few of the appropriate variant of Bristol Hercules engine remain in rebuildable condition. While later marques are relatively plentiful, their accessory sections are too bulky to fit the Beaufighter nacelles. However, recent developments regarding the engine supply have taken a positive turn in Australia, and we might very well see a Beaufighter take to the skies again in the coming decade. Our good friend John Parker at Warbirds Online recently paid a visit to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Societys main facility at Albion Park in Australia to take a look at one of the Beaufighter restorations currently back in play and we thought our readers would enjoy reading his report on the good news

Beaufighter Restoration in Australia

by John Parker

It was exciting to learn that the HARS Bristol Beaufighter rebuild project has recently moved back into their workshops and display hangar in Albion Park. Work is about to recommence on the aircrafts restoration! HARS has had a project to rebuild an airworthy Beaufighter for decades, however this task has only recently become a realistic proposition. This follows on from the recent progress which Peter Brooke has made overhauling several Bristol Hercules engines at Historical Aircraft Engines, his company in Brisbane, Queensland. These engines are destined for the Bristol Beaufighter project with HARS and Robert Grienerts Historic Aircraft Restorations Limited (HARL). [Ed.Details about these engines can be found in John Parkers previous article from last summer HERE].

We recently visited Albion Park to view the aircraft on display awaiting its rebuild resumption. Most of the components of the fuselage have already received some structural restoration, with the cockpit and stern frames already rebuilt structurally. The nose/cockpit for this project came from the British-built Beaufighter Mk.1f X7688, once an engine test rig for training technicians at RAF Halton. Greinert purchased this project, which comprised the forward fuselage and center-section with engines, props and many spares, from Tim Moores Skysport Engineering in the UK. At present, this restoration will likely use the center section from X7688 too, although there are several other center sections on hand if required. Indeed, the center section has moved back from storage to Albion Park, and is also on display pending the commencement of work, which is expected to begin shortly. This will involve stripping the center section down for assessment, and then follow the normal route of repair and replacement as required. The reasoning behind using X7688s center section is that it is the most complete and most recently serviceable of those center sections currently available, so it should be less difficult and quicker to restore.

The projects rear fuselage section has already been restored, which means that the entire fuselage is more or less done, from a structural standpoint. This will allow the airframe to go together more quickly once the center section is completed. Outer wing panels are on hand, but these will require complete dismantling for rebuild in purpose-built jigs; this will be a time consuming process.

The horizontal stabilizer had some reconstruction performed earlier, however this will also take some time to verify and complete. The fin and rudder are in store, but they will also require a complete restoration before they can be fitted. This is also true for the aircrafts control surfaces.

All of the work on the Beaufighter will be completed in-house; it is a large and complex aircraft, and its restoration will require a lot of work to coordinate. Once all of the structural work is completed the task of fitting out the aircrafts systems will be carried out, including rewiring along with plumbing for hydraulics and fuel.

As with all projects currently underway at HARL, work is expected to accelerate considerably in the coming months. Given the excellent progress being made at HARL on their three P-38 Lightning projects, they have proven themselves capable of working on complex, multi-engine warbirds. Despite the Beaufighters rarity, the restoration teams expertise and knowledge for the type should see this project through to a successful completion in a reasonable timeframe.

HARL has not as yet settled on the exact model and identity of the completed Beaufighter they are working on, except to say that it will represent an Australian-operated aircraft from an Australian squadron. It is a fantastic project that will see this magnificent type fly again sometime reasonably soon  something that has long seemed elusive given the hurdles of solving both the engine and propeller issues that have plagued other efforts in the past. It is indeed fortunate that HARL now has solutions for these issues, and these changes have allowed this project to resume.

Upon completion the aircraft will be housed within the HARS collection at Albion Park NSW and operate within their fleet -hopefully attending many airshows, events and reunions well into the future!

Many thanks again to John Parker and WarbirdsOnline for this report. We look forwards to hearing more progress sometime soon!
Saki Selects Jeff Mogensen as General Manager of SAKI America Published: 27 January 2020 by Chelsey Drysdale by Chelsey Drysdale

Mogensen brings 39 years of inspection and PCBA experience to SAKI

Tokyo, Japan - January 27, 2020 - Saki Corporation, an innovator in the field of automated optical and X-ray inspection and measurement equipment, announces the selection of Jeff Mogensen to the position of general manager of SAKI America, Inc. Mogensen will be responsible for all sales, R&D, application support, service, and operations for Saki's 3D solder paste inspection (SPI), automated optical inspection (AOI), and automated X-ray inspection (AXI) equipment, software, M2M communication initiatives, and relationships throughout the Americas. Mogensen has 39 years of electronics industry experience in various roles, including key account manager, vice president of sales, and general manager, for companies manufacturing inspection and placement equipment.

"We are excited that Jeff has joined our team at this time of growth and expansion in the Americas," said Norihiro Koike, president of Saki Corporation. "Jeff has built successful teams serving customers across multiple segments both locally and globally. We look forward to having Jeff lead our efforts to support customers in meeting their manufacturing goals and challenges. Please stop by our booth, #2025, at IPC APEX 2020, being held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA from February 4-6, to talk to Jeff about your inspection needs."



For more information contact Saki at pr@sakicorp.com, or visit www.sakicorp.com or www.sakiglobal.com.

About Saki Corporation

Since its inception in 1994, Saki Corporation has led the way in the development of automated recognition through robotic vision technology. Saki's 3D automated solder paste, optical, and X-ray inspection and measurement systems (SPI, AOI, AXI) have been recognized to provide the stable platform and advanced data capture mechanisms necessary for true M2M communication, improving production, process efficiency, and product quality. Saki Corporation has headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, with offices, sales, and support centers around the world.
Apple, Verizon, Nokia -- there are almost as many stocks you can use to play the "5G revolution" as there are investors attempting to play it. Today, we're going to use data from TipRanks' Stock Screener to explore two lesser-known names that might be worth buying -- and also examine why another could be one to avoid.

Without further ado -- but with a word of thanks to Susquehanna Financial Group for doing the legwork -- let's dive right in and introduce you to all three:

Keysight Technologies (KEYS)

We'll begin with Keysight -- at $19.4 billion in market cap, possibly the biggest 5G play you've never heard of.

Santa Rosa, California-based Keysight provides electronic design and test solutions to the 5G industry, ensuring that products designed to implement this new technology will work as promised, and with an emphasis on infrastructure testing as well as R&D work. Within 5G, Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini notes that Keysight "has exposure throughout the entire [5G] ecosystem including chipsets, devices, network infrastructure and data centers," and plays a role in testing base stations and network upgrades as well.

Keysight is coming off a strong Q4 report in November, says Hosseini, in which the company reported 8% sequential sales growth (that might have been 10% growth but for the impact of the Trump administration's ban on sales to customer Huawei). Based on how the stock is performing so far, Hosseini predicts Keysight could earn as much as $4.73 per share in fiscal 2020, and $5.77 in 2021, en route to consistent annual earnings in the $6-plus range. Not bad for a stock selling for only about $103 a share.

The analyst establishes his $127 price target on the stock based on the fiscal 2021 earnings estimate, applying a 22x multiple to those earnings, roughly in the middle of "peer group" stocks that are being valued at between 20 and 24x FY2021 earnings, which seems fair. (To watch Hosseini's track record, click here)

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For the record, six of the seven Street analysts who have published ratings on Keysight stock in the past two months, have rated it a "buy." Even with average price targets a bit short ($122) of what Susquehanna is saying ($127), the consensus on the Street is that Keysight buyers today can expect to earn an 18.5% profit on their investment. (See Keysight stock analysis on TipRanks)

Viavi Solutions (VIAV)

Next up: San Jose, California-based Viavi Solutions, another testing provider that also offers monitoring and assurance solutions to the 5G industry. Once again, this is one of Hosseini's favorites, and "a leader on fiber network testing and testing of base stations." Hosseini goes so far as to describe it as "the king of fiber."

"But wait!" you object. Aren't we talking about 5G wireless internet? What does fiber have to do with that?

Hosseini explains: Even if 5G is a wireless technology, wireless providers still "need more fiber at points of access and as networks continue to replace legacy cables with advanced fiber technology." What's more, because 5G technology won't appear by magic, and all in an instant, "between the 5G network buildout and the core network upgrade, the fiber business is in a strong position to capitalize on new opportunities," which is a good reason to own Viavi in the time period leading up to the 5G buildout.

Hosseini has a $19 price target on this one, and viewed from one perspective, it's slightly more aggressive than what some other analysts are saying.

So why does Hosseini think $19 (20% upside) is a more likely price? As the analyst points out, $19 a share is only about 20x to the company's fiscal year 2022 earnings estimate. For comparison, some of Viavi's competitors are trading for even richer multiples, approaching 27 times forward earnings! Viewed in that light, a $19 target price doesn't look all that unreasonable.

TipRanks' records show that over the last three months, even as six rating analysts have unanimously declared Viavi a "buy," their average price target is only $17.50 per share. Which by the way is till 11% upside. (See Viavi stock analysis on TipRanks)

Teradyne (TER)

But will tell you what Hosseini does think unreasonable: Buying and holding Teradyne stock.

The only one of these three stocks that Hosseini dislikes enough to tar with a "negative" rating, North Reading, Massachusetts-based semiconductor tester Teradyne is almost certainly the best-known of the three stocks discussed in Hosseini's report. It's also, at a valuation of just 26.5 times earnings, arguably the best bargain of the three. (Keysight stock costs almost 32 times earnings, and Viavi -- more than 133x!)

So why doesn't Hosseini like it?

Simply put, he doesn't think this stock's earnings power is going to stick around much longer. Earnings per share are "peaking" at Teradyne, says the analyst, "with no rebound till mid 2021" -- and 18 months may feel like a long time to wait for investors as they see competitors to Teradyne stock pulling ahead. Meanwhile, Teradyne stock is priced close to a 20-year high right now, which suggests there's substantially more downside risk than upside potential in the near term.

With revenues slowing and costs rising, Teradyne's current share price north of $72 just isn't sustainable, argues Hosseini, and he believes that a year from now, the shares could be selling for as little as $55 -- 24% downside risk.

Simply put, Hosseini thinks you can do better than that -- and thinks buying Keysight and Viavi are the best ways to do it.

Granted, the analyst may be early to this call. Most of the other bankers following Teradyne today rate the shares no worse than "hold." But even these optimists think Teradyne stock won't climb much farther than $75 a share over the next 12 months -- a bare 5% profit off of today's prices. (See Teradyne stock analysis on TipRanks)
Houston liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy hit a milestone 1,000th export shipment of LNG  and the cargo is headed to France.

The Norwegian-flagged LNG tanker Hoegh Galleon left the company's Corpus Christi LNG export terminal with the company's 1,00th cargo on Monday morning.

Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco told the Houston Chronicle that the tanker is headed to France and that the milestone shipment comes less than four years after the company's first cargo was sent out from Sabine Pass LNG in Louisiana in February 2016.

The 1,000 cargoes, he said, carried enough natural gas to power all 7.4 million home in Texas for nearly five years.

"In the LNG production industry, getting to 1,000 cargoes is something special," Fusco said. "We're the first LNG company in the world to hit that milestone in less than four years."

Liquefied Natural Gas: Top 10 destinations for U.S. LNG exports in 2018

Cheniere plans to host celebratory events on Tuesday at its liquefaction plants in Texas and Louisiana as well as its offices in Houston, London, Singapore and Beijing.

"We're pleased to hit that milestone reliably and safely," Fusco said. "We did it in a pretty tough four-year period -- we've had everything from hurricanes and freezing events to wind and fog. But we made it look easy."

Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Houston, Cheniere Energy employs nearly 1,400 people. The company closed 2018 with a $471 million profit on $8.0 billion of revenue.

Purchasing an average of 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from more than 70 producers and shipped on 25 pipelines, Cheniere has emerged as the largest buyer of natural gas in the United States.

Read the latest oil and gas news from HoustonChronicle.com
Keeping your mind engaged is often suggested as a way to stave off dementia, and something as simple as reading and writing can make a huge difference. Dr. Jennifer J. Manly of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York says:

Being able to read and write allows people to engage in more activities that use the brain, like reading newspapers and helping children and grandchildren with homework.  Previous research has shown such activities may reduce the risk of dementia. Our new study provides more evidence that reading and writing may be important factors in helping maintain a healthy brain.

The Study

Manly is the author of a new study examining dementia thats been published in Neurology, the journal published by the American Academy of Neurology. The study administered memory and thinking tests to 983 people in northern Manhattan with low levels of education and an average age of 77 to determine if literacy affects dementia risk levels. Of those evaluated, 237 people were illiterate.

The test subjects who hadnt learned to read or write began at a disadvantage. Thirty-five percent of test subjects who couldnt read began the study with dementia as opposed to only 18 percent of the literate subjects. The gap between literate and illiterate continued throughout the study. After follow-up evaluations that occurred an average of four years later, 48 percent of the illiterate group had developed dementia while 27 percent of the literature group registered dementia.

Healthy Brain While Aging

Maintaining an active brain is a crucial strategy for lowering the risk of dementia. Crossword puzzles or learning new skills are frequently mentioned as viable options. Researchers at the University of Michigan published a 2017 study that attributed Americas decline in dementia to an increase in levels of higher education. While getting a college degree might not be an option or even something you want, Manlys study suggests that even mental activities we take for granted can provide surprising benefits.

Kristina Martin works at Green Lifestyle Market and is a natural health wellness reporter for Organic Lifestyle Magazine, which first published this article.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Four people from Hyderabad were kept under observation in the Coronavirus (nCoV) isolation ward of Fever Hospital on Monday, but were discharged later in the day.

However, they will be under observation at their respective homes. This brings the total number of people under observation at their homes in Telangana to 12, including eight who were kept under observation last week.

The four included three who returned recently from their trip to China and wife of one of them. Swab samples of one of the three persons was sent for suspected Coronavirus testing to National Institute of Virology, Pune, where it tested negative.

To tackle any outbreak of Coronavirus, the State is planning to set aside 100 beds for isolation wards in three top government hospitals in the city.

Speaking to Express, Dr K Shankar, superintendent of Fever Hospital, said, "Three of the patients who were under observation had travelled back from China, and one other is the wife of one of these tourists. Due to contact with her husband, she also approached the hospital to be kept under observation. Symptoms were noted in only one of these patients whose test samples had been sent. The patients were admitted on Saturday morning and the samples were sent on Saturday night, results of which are negative. All four of them are under supervision in their respective homes."

He added, "All the four people approached the hospital on their own, owing to their travel history and the precautionary steps suggested by the health ministry. They had cleared the airports thermal screening, as they did not have any symptoms." Additionally, Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Shanthi Kumari, and others interacted with the team of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi, via video conference on Monday morning.

Dr Shankar further added, "To tackle any possible, albeit unlikely, outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic in the state, 40 beds have been set aside in three isolation wards in Fever Hospital and 20 beds in Chest Hospital. We are planning to provide 100 beds in isolation wards across the city to keep ourselves prepared."

Additionally, Dr Shravan Kumar, superintendent of Gandhi Hospital confirmed that 10 beds have been kept aside as an isolation ward in Gandhi Hospital as well to treat or observe any suspected cases of the novel virus. However, the other multidisciplinary team that was supposed to visit RGIA Airport, Fever Hospital and Gandhi Hospital, was unable to inspect as their flight was delayed.
The government on Monday decided to take steps for possible evacuation of over 250 Indians from Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the fast spreading coronavirus.

A meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed India's preparedness to deal with coronavirus amid mounting global concern over increasing number of cases in China and several other countries.

The meeting decided to take a raft of precautionary measures including screening of people at international ports having traffic from China as well as at the integrated check posts across Nepal border.

Officials said Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, stuck in Wuhan city.

"It was decided that steps may be taken to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. Accordingly, Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities," a government statement said.

Wuhan along with 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading. The death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

Over 250 to 300 Indian students are reportedly stuck in Wuhan triggering concerns over their well-being.

The statement said the ministry of civil aviation and ministry of health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively.

The meeting chaired by Gauba also decided that the civil aviation ministry will issue instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

Officials said the civil aviation ministry will also ask the airlines to make in-flight announcements and distribute "health cards" to all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

The home ministry will ensure that integrated check posts initiate screening of visitors across Nepal border.

"States have been requested to provide health staff for these check posts. SSB/ BSF/Immigration officers manning integrated check posts have been sensitised," the statement said.

The Health ministry also held a meeting earlier on Monday with chief secretaries to review the preparedness and screening in five states having border with Nepal.

So far 29,707 people from 137 flights have been screened across the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Italian restaurant in Australia has made a 103 metre (338 foot) Margherita pizza to raise funds for firefighters battling bushfires.

The pizza was rolled out in rectangular, meter-long pieces of dough, pieced together and covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella, before being baked using a conveyor oven.

It was then liberally seasoned with basil leaves, oregano and olive oil.

The effort took about four hours, according to Pellegrinis restaurant, and yielded 4,000 slices.

The proceeds went to the New South Wales Rural Fire service.

A video of the pizza being made has gone viral on social media with lots of users marvelling at its size.

The restaurant is now holding a contest to guess how many kilograms of flour went into making the pizza.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

The report on the global baby monitors market provides qualitative and quantitative analysis for the period from 2017 to 2025.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05775040/?utm_source=PRN

The report predicts the global baby monitors market to grow with a CAGR of 7.45% over the forecast period from 2019-2025. The study on baby monitors market covers the analysis of the leading geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW for the period of 2017 to 2025.



The report on baby monitors market is a comprehensive study and presentation of drivers, restraints, opportunities, demand factors, market size, forecasts, and trends in the global baby monitors market over the period of 2017 to 2025. Moreover, the report is a collective presentation of primary and secondary research findings.



Porter's five forces model in the report provides insights into the competitive rivalry, supplier and buyer positions in the market and opportunities for the new entrants in the global baby monitors market over the period of 2017 to 2025. Further, IGR- Growth Matrix gave in the report brings an insight into the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider.



Report Findings

1) Drivers

 Growing Numbers of Working Parents

 Acceptance of Baby Monitors in Daycare Centers

2) Restraints

 Declining Birth Rate Due to High-stress Level

3) Opportunities

 Technological Advancement



Research Methodology



A) Primary Research

Our primary research involves extensive interviews and analysis of the opinions provided by the primary respondents. The primary research starts with identifying and approaching the primary respondents, the primary respondents are approached include

1. Key Opinion Leaders associated with Infinium Global Research

2. Internal and External subject matter experts

3. Professionals and participants from the industry



Our primary research respondents typically include

1. Executives working with leading companies in the market under review

2. Product/brand/marketing managers

3. CXO level executives

4. Regional/zonal/ country managers

5. Vice President level executives.



B) Secondary Research

Secondary research involves extensive exploring through the secondary sources of information available in both the public domain and paid sources. At Infinium Global Research, each research study is based on over 500 hours of secondary research accompanied by primary research. The information obtained through the secondary sources is validated through the crosscheck on various data sources.



The secondary sources of the data typically include

1. Company reports and publications

2. Government/institutional publications

3. Trade and associations journals

4. Databases such as WTO, OECD, World Bank, and among others.

5. Websites and publications by research agencies



Segment Covered

The global baby monitors market is segmented on the basis of product type, and connectivity type.



The Global Baby Monitors Market by Product Type

 Audio Baby Monitor

 Fixed Video Monitor

 Pan and Tilt Monitor



The Global Baby Monitors Market by Connectivity Type

 Wired Monitors

 Wireless Monitors



Company Profiles

 Koninklijke Philips N.V

 Hisense Group

 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

 summer infant inc

 Dorel Industries Inc.

 Windeln.De Ag

 Lorex Technology Inc.

 Sony Corporation

 Angelcare Monitors Inc.

 VTech Holdings Limited



What does this report deliver?

1. Comprehensive analysis of the global as well as regional markets of the baby monitors market.

2. Complete coverage of all the segments in the baby monitors market to analyze the trends, developments in the global market and forecast of market size up to 2025.

3. Comprehensive analysis of the companies operating in the global baby monitors market. The company profile includes analysis of product portfolio, revenue, SWOT analysis and the latest developments of the company.

4. IGR- Growth Matrix presents an analysis of the product segments and geographies that market players should focus to invest, consolidate, expand and/or diversify.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05775040/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

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Three people died Sunday as hundreds of people took to the streets demanding the resignation of Gambian President Adama Barrow who wants to extend his term.

They were the first deaths since protests erupted months ago against Barrow, who pledged in late 2016 to step down after three years in office.

Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who responded by throwing stones and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw.

"I can confirm that there have been three dead," said Kebba Manneh, director of the Serrekunda hospital where victims were taken.

He told reporters that people had been treated for gas inhalation, and said some were still under observation.

Tension has been building in The Gambia, a tiny West African country surrounded by Senegal, over Barrow's decision to stay in office for five years after initially pledging to step down after three.

"No one can force me to leave the presidency before 2021," he said recently. Red Cross sources said 28 people were taken Sunday to Serrekunda hospital, close to where protesters had gathered in the districts of Old Jeshwang and Stink Corner on the outskirts of Banjul.

Clashes broke out after demonstrators tried to change their itinerary to get closer to the city centre.

"Let's go and burn everything that belongs to Adama Barrow and his family," one protestor called out to those alongside him, the AFP reporter heard.

"We will protest until Barrow resigns," said another who identified himself as Amadou Sanyang. "He is a traitor who betrayed the population's trust, we are going to teach him a lesson." Opposition activists said police had arrested scores of people, including Abdou Njie, leader of the Three Years Jotna (is up) Movement.

Among those arrested were the director of local radio King FM and a radio presenter who had been charged with inciting violence, a station employee told AFP.

The head of another radio station, Digital fm, was also arrested and it was not known where he was being held, Saikou Jammeh, secretary general of Gambia Press Union, told AFP.

On Saturday, hundreds of Gambians had marched on the outskirts of Banjul, responding to the call of victims associations demanding justice for sweeping rights abuses and murder suffered under former dictator Yahya Jammeh's 22-year rule.

Jammeh ruled Gambia with an iron fist but fled in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to Barrow, who was little known at the time.

Since January 2019, around 190 witnesses have appeared before a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) set up to investigate abuses under Jammeh's rule.

Last week, thousands marched to demand he be allowed to return from exile in Equatorial Guinea.

They argued he has a right to do so under a joint statement from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations, published at the time of his exile.

But Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou warned that Jammeh would "face immediate arrest and charges of the most serious kind" if he returned, including "crimes against humanity.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There's quite a story behind Washington's latest hotel-but depending on whom you talk with, you might hear an entirely different tale.

From history buffs, you'll get the original backstory about the Riggs National Bank: The building was once the bank of presidents, where 20 commanders in chief (including Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon) stashed their cash.

From those who find intrigue in local lore, you'll hear it's built on the site where Honest Abe's assassination was planned. The Ford Theater stands right around a corner.

From finance pros, you'll get bombshell stories about the bank's collapse due to money laundering with such shady figures as Chile's Augusto Pinochet.

And from residents of downtown, you'll get some confusion about all of the above, as well as why the beautiful, 120-year-old Romanesque Revival building has been shuttered, despite its successful recent life as a by-the-numbers Courtyard by Marriott hotel.

Either way, all that's in the past, and the Riggs' next chapter should be just as interesting. On Feb. 3, it will officially open as a 181-room hotel officially called Riggs Washington DC and operated by the up-and-coming Lore Group. With its middle-of-everywhere location-right around the corner are the National Portrait Gallery, the National Mall, and the White House-plus a rooftop event space, bold design, and subterranean bar, it's poised to become the no-brainer hangout for city folks and a game-changing, no-compromises-required place for visitors to stay.

"D.C. is a city that has evolved dramatically in the past 10 to 15 years, especially in its restaurant scene," says Billy Skelli-Cohen, chief executive officer of Lore Group. "We haven't seen that [growth] yet on the hotel side as we have in other American cities, so-from a business side-we saw that as an opportunity. Opening a hotel is masochists' work."

Two and a half years after first laying eyes on the empty building, Skelli-Cohen is hoping that Riggs can add another success to his small but ambitious collection of hotels, which include the Pulitzer in Amsterdam and the riverside Sea Containers hotel in London. "It's such an amazing transformation," he tells Pursuits of the Riggs building.

That transformation comes courtesy of Jacu Strauss, Lore's creative director, who began by identifying aspects of the original building worth restoring-including a 22-foot-high barrel ceiling, geometric marble floors, and Corinthian columns with ornate plaster rosettes, all in the now-lobby space. "The building is so imposing, even from the outside," he says. "It juts out a little bit [into the street] so you can see it from further away, and when you walk in, it's just as grand."

Revealing those monumental features-many of which had been covered up or concealed-was like "peeling an onion," says Skelli-Cohen. "And if you could create the top 20 problematic things that you might find as you undertake a renovation of an old building, we probably ticked all of them: structural issues, asbestos, you name it."

None of that shows now. The reception area is designed like an old-school bank teller desk. Front desk staff sit behind tall, brass bars in wood-paneled booths lined with decorative mail slots. It's not so much a restoration as a reinterpretation of what the building once was, says Strauss, who commissioned enormous art deco-inspired chandeliers to fill the tall space and lined it with silver-leaf mirrors for a wow factor that nods to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in France.

Turn left and you'll find Cafe Riggs, a brasserie-style, all-day spot serving caviar grilled cheese sandwiches and rib-eye for two under chandeliers hanging from an intricately coffered ceiling. (The chef, Patrick Curran, is a Momofuku alum.) Or follow the sweeping marble staircase near reception and you'll wind up downstairs in the bank's old vault. It was previously completely blocked off but is now a high-end bar called Silver Lyan. (It will open on Feb. 7.) Helmed by Ryan Chetiyawardana (aka "Mr. Lyan"), best known for his sustainability-driven bars in London, the edgy, subterranean space will play on the idea of "exchanges," not just those of banks but also political ones during America's infancy.

Take the cherry blossom. "It arrived in D.C. as a gift from Japan as a means of starting a new trade relationship with the young country," explains Chetiyawardana, who is using the flower and its leaves as botanicals in a gin drink called the Japanese Saddle. Other drinks follow this philosophy, too: The Resolute, for instance, refers to the nearly abandoned British ship saved by Americans during the rule of Queen Victoria; timber from it was later donated to form the desk in the Oval Office. The drink is made with Officers' Reserve Ford's Gin, falernum, and sherry.

Upstairs, the guest rooms are filled with bold colors and patterns, like jewel boxes the Riggs might have safeguarded. On-the-nose bank jokes are few and far between, but the minibar looks like a safe (and contains the room safe), and bears a brass plaque featuring the Roman goddess of money. Marble-inspired upholstered headboards created in collaboration with local artisan George Venson from design studio Voutsa offer a subtler nod to the building's riches. "Ninety-five percent of what's in those rooms is custom-created for us," says Strauss. "It all has to fit together just right."

For a city that receives 19 to 20 million visitors annually, Washington can be surprisingly short of upscale hotels. Some of its most luxurious properties, such as the recently redone Rosewood and the Watergate, fall outside the city center and are closer to Georgetown. Of the remaining competitors within walking distance of the city's main sites, only the Jefferson holds wide appeal for both corporate and leisure travelers. The Trump International Hotel is a spectacle caught up in its own political associations, and while the nearby Eaton hotel is very well liked by locals, it deliberately caters to liberals. This gives the Riggs a non-partisan advantage.

It'll also fill multiple gaps for the neighborhood, according to Neil Albert, president of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District. First among them: a range of suites, including two-bedroom options that the city currently lacks. "That's going to stand out," he says, "and it'll draw both families and extended stays."

The four "First Lady" suites at the Riggs are the hotel's piece de resistance, with individual design schemes inspired by first ladies past, such as Louisa Adams, and by Angelica Van Buren, the eighth president's daughter-in-law. Add a buzzy bar and a rooftop events space, and locals are excited, Albert adds. "In Downtown D.C., people expect the best of the best, and the community has started to embrace this project even before it's opened."

Elliott Ferguson, president of Destination D.C., the city's tourism bureau, agrees. "That building, when it was a Courtyard by Marriott, was always an interesting juxtaposition. The location is so good, it sometimes commanded higher rates than even the JW Marriott-which is supposed to be the flagship of luxury for all of Marriott in D.C."

Plus, says Ferguson, the hotel plays into the narrative of downtown Washington's renaissance. After years of big-box commercial development, the area is seeing a spike in heritage-driven urban renewal projects. (See Succotash, the trendy Southern-Asian fusion restaurant in another former bank, as well as the $30 million restoration of the Carnegie Library by Apple.)

Ferguson says Washington's rising profile over the last decade was largely due to the way the Obama family treated the city as home. Rather than jetting off on weekends to estates in sunnier places, the Obamas stuck around and patronized local restaurants, gyms, and parks. It put the city on a pedestal.

Skelli-Cohen is trying to do the same, in his own, albeit smaller, way. "We [at Lore Group] feel very strongly about respecting our surroundings, to be curious about them, to not impose our ways, and to deliver something that is relevant to the community," he explains. Whether or not it lives long enough to count a further 20 presidents as guests, the Riggs's latest incarnation already looks up to the task.
SIU kicks off Black History Month next week

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Inspirational speakers, amazing acrobats, poetry, dance, a diversity luncheon and a wide variety of other activities are planned as Southern Illinois University Carbondale commemorates Black History Month in February.

African Americans and the Vote is the theme for the celebration in 2020, a year in which voters will cast ballots for president as well as deciding numerous other legislative and local races. All Black History month events are open to the public as the university honors and reflects upon the contributions and heritage of African Americans and inspiring change for the future.

Kickoff is Feb. 3

The festivities begin with a big kickoff fest at 5 p.m. on Feb. 3 at Shryock Auditorium. Jennifer Brobst, interim associate dean and associate professor of law at the SIU School of Law will be the guest speaker.

As SIU is wrapping up its 150th anniversary celebration, this year also marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which gave all men, regardless of race or color, the right to vote. Brobst will discuss the historic amendment and the importance of exercising voting rights.

The event will also feature performances by Laurie Goux, who was trained in the Katherine Dunham technique, and the Zuzu Acrobats. Dunham was an acclaimed dancer, anthropologist, scholar, choreographer and activist who revolutionized American dance by weaving in elements of black culture and dance. Renowned for her dancing and choreography, Dunham also made recordings, wrote books, and served as an artist-in-residence at SIU Carbondale in 1965. Morris Librarys Special Collections Research Center houses a substantial collection of Dunhams papers, manuscripts, scrapbooks, recordings and other materials.

The Feb. 3 dance performance features Goux, who is the SpiritWing Dance Ensemble artistic director/choreographer and instructor.

The Zuzu African Acrobats will perform a colorful, high-energy show featuring traditional Kenyan acrobatics. The troupe from Mombasa, Kenya, reached the the semifinals of Americas Got Talent competition with their pyramid-building, chair-balancing, hat-juggling act that includes hoop diving, and fast skip-roping. They have appeared on various television programs, at three Super Bowls and in numerous venues across the country.

Finding Peace

My Journey: From Active Duty to Discovering Pieces of Peace, a personal account of military experiences and lessons learned over two decades in the military, and the journey to reclaim pieces of peace every day is what the 2020 Margie Parker Teach-In for Peace is all about. Set for Feb. 4 in Room 108 of the Carbondale Civic Center, 200 S. Illinois Ave., the event begins with social hour at 6 p.m.

Natasha Erskine, Chicago Veterans for Peace public school parent activist, will speak at 7 p.m. She enlisted in the U.S. Air Force while a high school senior and went on to serve in a number of key military roles over the course of her 20-year career before retiring in 2016. She deployed with Army and Marine units to expedite the drawdown from Iraq and redeployment to Afghanistan. As the only Air Force Osprey weapon system support manager, Erskine led programmatic acquisition for 50 specialized aircraft valued at $4.4 billion.

While stationed in northwest Florida, Erskine found a reignited focus on connecting with her community and getting involved with community organization. Shell share her insights into finding personal peace.

Donations for local food banks will be accepted at the event in memory of Margie Parker, who served as an organizer and officer for the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois.

Hip Hop Caucus keynote

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president and CEO of the non-profit, non-partisan Hip Hop Caucus, will be the keynote speaker for Black History Month. He will address the Importance of Voting at 5 p.m. on Feb. 11 in the SIU School of Law Lesar Law Building Auditorium.

A minister, community activist and retired United States Air Force officer, Yearwood is very influential in the world of hip hop politics, serving as a key architect of P. Diddys Vote or Die! campaign prior to the 2004 presidential election. He led the 2008 launch of Respect My Vote, a campaign and coalition that works with hip hop artists to engage young people in the electoral process.

Yearwoods efforts have been directed at a variety of causes, including environmental issues, engaging young people in the politics, fighting climate change and helping those who have been suffering due to natural disasters.

He established the award-winning Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has led campaigns working toward divestment of fossil fuels, was dubbed a New Green Hero by Rolling Stone magazine and was named a Champion of Change by President Barack Obama.

Diversity in Aviation

Four aviation student groups on campus are collaborating to present the inaugural Aviation Diversity Luncheon at 11 a.m. on Feb. 21 at the Transportation Education Center. The Aviation Student Diversity Leadership Council event will feature a variety of speakers from the aviation industry, sharing about their professional journeys, diversity and the challenges they have overcome.

The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Women in Aviation, National Gay Pilots Association and The Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance have invited panelists from numerous air transportation companies to participate.

Anyone may attend and there is no cost but all must RSVP by Feb. 7. For more information email diversity.luncheon@gmail.com.

Much more on tap

2020 Census Q&A sessions, a showing of the movie Harriet, an Afrocentric Fashion Show, a poetry event, Dunham Dance Technique presentations, the Tunnel of Oppression and numerous other events will also take place during the month.

The Black Vote with MK, originally slated for Feb. 13, is now scheduled for 5 p.m., Feb. 20 in Student Services Building Room 150/160. Recent SIU graduate Mikala Barrett will be featured.

All events are open to the public and unless otherwise specified, free.

Find the complete schedule and additional information online at www.smrc.siu.edu.

Call 618/453-3740 for more details.

Black History Month 2020 at SIU is sponsored by the Black Resource Center and the Office of Associate Chancellor for Diversity, with assistance from numerous other campus units and offices.
The Tule River Tribe will open a cannabis dispensary on its reservation in California, The Porterville Recorder reports.

The Eh-Lo Dispensary will be located at 31071 Hwy 190 in Porterville, according to job openings posted by the Tule River Economic Development Corporation , the tribe's economic development arm. The 4,000 square-foot facility is expected to open in April, CEO Dennis Ickes told the paper.

Ickes also told the paper that the business will only sell marijuana products made by the tribe or by other tribes in California. It will operate under tribal regulation, not under state law.

Marijuana is otherwise legal under state law. But it remains illegal under federal law and, by extension, in Indian Country.

The Eh-Lo Dispensary will be located by the Eagle Feather Trading Post #1

Read More on the Story

Department of Justice Guidance [Since Rescinded]

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Church of England: Sex outside of heterosexual marriage 'falls short of Gods purpose'

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The Church of England has released a guidance stating that sexual relations belong between married, heterosexual couples, and that sex in gay or straight civil partnerships falls short of Gods purpose for human beings."

The House of Bishops of the Church of England issued pastoral guidance in response to the recent introduction to mixed-sex civil partnerships, which says: For Christians, marriage  that is, the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows  remains the proper context for sexual activity.

The church seeks to uphold that standard in its approach to civil partnerships, and to affirm the value of committed, sexually abstinent friendships within such partnerships.

The introduction of same sex marriage, through the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, has not changed the churchs teaching on marriage or same sex relationships, it says.

"Sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage are regarded as falling short of Gods purpose for human beings.

The Church of England explains that while many of the provisions in the legislation on civil partnerships are, however, similar to, or identical with, those in marriage law, the commitment in a civil partnership is different than that of a marriage.

In particular, [civil partnerships are] not predicated on the intention to engage in a sexual relationship, says the guidance.

There is likely to be a range of circumstances in which people of the same sex or opposite sex choose to register a partnership, including somewhere there is no intention for the relationship to be expressed through sexual activity.

Officially, the Church of England does not conduct or recognize same-sex unions as marriage. However, In December 2012, the Church of England permitted gay clergy in civil partnerships to become bishops, provided they were abstaining from sexual relations.

Same-sex civil partnerships have been legal since 2005 and same-sex marriage was introduced in 2013.

The Rev. Malcolm Brown, the Church of Englands director of mission and public affairs, said, Civil partnership is not the same as marriage, which is founded on the taking of solemn public vows and is recognized in the churchs teaching as the only proper context for sexual relationships, The Telegraph reports.

So, as with same-sex civil partnerships, there is no formal service or blessing but clergy will, as always, be encouraged to respond pastorally to couples wishing to formalize their relationship in this way.

The move comes as the U.K. has changed its statute to allow heterosexual couples to enter into civil partnerships instead of marriages.

The change was mandated by the British Supreme Court in 2018 and took effect in late December. The new rule gives mixed-sex couples similar rights to those who are married, including inheritance, tax, and property entitlements.

On Facebook, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, applauded the Church of England for its stance on sex and marriage.

I appreciate the church taking this strong stand with the Word of God, which is truth, he wrote.

The Church of England is part of the global Anglican Communion, which has long experienced division over theological issues, including gay marriage and ordination. Those rifts widened in 2003 when The Episcopal Church in the U.S. consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

In recent years, a number of denominations have entered the debate over LGBT issues and how the church should approach them.

Last month, the United Methodist Church proposed a plan that would formally split the denomination after years of division over noncelibate LGBT clergy and same-sex marriage, with the formation of a new denomination for Methodists who hold to a biblical understanding of marriage and sexuality.

The Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the theologically conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association and one of the signatories of the Protocol, expressed his support for the measure.

We can choose further conflict and uncertainty, or we can support a plan that frees us to be the church God desires, wrote Boyette.
Harish Dhami, in his resignation letter said, "I have been overlooked in the appointment of the state committee and those who have done nothing and only sycophants are getting the post in the Congress."

Dehradun, Jan 27 (IANS) The crisis within the Congress deepened in Uttrakhand as sitting MLA from Dharchula resigned from his post of secretary of Uttrakhand Congress. He was appointed secretary on Saturday in the State committee.

However, he has not resigned from the post of MLA.

Sources said Congress leaders in Uttrakhand have been upset with the continuation of the state president and many are upset with Indira Hridyesh being the Leader of Opposition.

Talking to IANS from Dehradun, Harish Dhami said: "I will go to my constituency in Pithoragarh and then talk to supporters and take a decision about my future strategy," claiming that he has the support of 6 MLAs in the state where the party has only 11 in the assembly.

Harish Dhami alleged, "Both the State President Pritam Singh and Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh have tacit understanding with the BJP as Pritam Singh's brother-in-Law Rajendra Singh is a state Minister in the BJP government while Indira Hrideyesh does not want to confront the state government because of SIDCUL scandal."

While former minister Nav Prabhat said, "This committee has to work in the election in 2022 and the concerns of MLAs and normal workers should be looked by the state President and the In-charge, if the concerns are not addressed, party may suffer and I hope the central leadership will look into the issues raised by the MLA."

Close aide of Nav Prabhat claimed that Pritam Singh, rejoined Congress after being in the BJP for many years and the party has made him state president as he is trying to push the opponents.

miz/skp/
As President Donald Trumps impeachment trial enters its second week, many of the players seem both emotionally drained and on edge.

Despite some public waffling from the president himself on the question of calling witnesses to appear during the Senate process, Trumps lawyers and his Republican allies appear eager to exploit the building sense of weariness to head off any new testimony that could upend the current state of the evidence.

With several GOP senators publicly on the fence about allowing witness testimony, one key argument the presidents defenders are wielding is that calling current and former officials would create a legal quagmire over executive privilege  the protection for the presidents ability to receive confidential advice and to trade views freely with his advisers.

Trumps backers hope the prospect of a protracted delay and litigation that might wind its way to the Supreme Court will contribute to all or nearly all Republican senators deciding that witness testimony just isnt worth the hassle. Democrats need at least four GOP colleagues to allow the potential fireworks that new witnesses could bring to the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history.

Heres POLITICOs look at how both sides are framing the potential battle over executive privilege and how it might play out if the Senate gives the green light for fresh testimony:

How many witnesses could be caught up in a privilege fight?

So far, Senate Democrats have requested that four witnesses testify at Trumps trial: acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Mulvaney aide Robert Blair, former national security adviser John Bolton and Michael Duffey, an official at the Office of Management and Budget.

Testimony from all four might be subject to claims of executive privilege by the White House. Indeed, none of them complied when House committees sought to question them last year.

However, executive privilege claims are generally strongest when the witness has regular dealings with the president and is involved with providing advice, not simply carrying out the presidents orders. That could make the claims of privilege stronger for close Trump advisers like Mulvaney and Bolton and weaker for Duffey, who implemented a hold on aid to Ukraine.

Story continues

Bolton, who was ousted by Trump last September, is perhaps the most important witness on the list and something of a wild card. House committees never actually subpoenaed him after he threatened to join a suit filed by one of his deputies seeking a ruling on the privilege issue. A judge later dismissed that suit as moot.

At the time, Bolton appeared to be saying that he would testify only if a judge ordered him to do so. But earlier this month the former Trump adviser shifted his stance and said he would appear and testify if subpoenaed in the Senate impeachment trial of his former boss.

A report in The New York Times on Sunday evening could make Bolton an even more compelling witness. The article said that the unpublished manuscript of a book by Bolton revealed that Trump told his former national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue withholding aid to Ukraine until the country carried out investigations into the presidents rivals.

Boltons willingness to be a witness could be a crucial distinction from the others. If Trump wants to stop Boltons testimony, he may have to take legal action to halt it, while in the case of the other officials, the status quo suggests they will fight or ignore any Senate subpoena.

Executive privilege cannot be used to prevent a witness who is willing to testify from appearing, and certainly not one who no longer works in government, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), one of the House impeachment managers, wrote on Twitter on Thursday. Its not a gag order. And witnesses testify on national security all the time. Bolton has a right to testify if he wants to.

Some Bolton associates say they doubt hed defy specific claims of executive privilege by the president.

I know John Bolton and hes a strong constitutionalist, so I dont think hed do that, said David Rivkin, a former Justice Department official, while acknowledging that Boltons shift earlier this month was hard to interpret.

Democrats have also demanded documents that the White House could assert executive privilege over if the Senate subpoenaed them. Democratic senators could add to the list of potential witnesses they began demanding last month, but might refrain from doing so to avoid fueling claims that allowing any witnesses would bog the Senate down in an unwieldy mess.

Who would decide whether Trumps privilege claims are valid?

If Trumps lawyers object in the trial to any subpoena the Senate might issue, Chief Justice John Roberts will be the one to rule at the outset. Such a decision would be closely scrutinized, in part because Roberts and Trump have tangled publicly before about Trumps blunt criticism of federal judges.

Whatever ruling Roberts issues would be subject to immediate appeal to the full Senate, where the vote might well be a close one, tracking any earlier vote to hear from witnesses in the first place.

Democrats seem hopeful that Roberts decisions would carry some weight.

Whether or not theres executive privilege related to a witness, he can rule right away, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said on Fox News on Saturday.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead impeachment manager and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Friday: Unlike in the House, where the president could play rope-a-dope in the courts for years, that is not an option for the presidents team here. We have a very capable justice sitting in that Senate chamber, empowered by the Senate rules to decide issues of evidence and privilege.

Any of the witnesses or perhaps Trump himself could also try to take the dispute to court, filing a motion to quash the subpoenas in U.S. District Court in Washington.

A judge would probably take submissions from both sides before hearing arguments and issuing a ruling. That decision could be appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and even leap-frogged to the Supreme Court, if the justices agreed.

Taking the privilege issue to the courts before objecting in the Senate might be a good option if Trumps lawyers want Roberts to rule on any disputes that reach the court. He might be reluctant to rule on challenging a decision he made as the presiding officer in the Senate.

Exactly how this would all unfold procedurally is uncertain.

We are in new territory here with the issue of executive privilege coming up during the impeachment trial itself, said Mark Rozell, an authority on executive privilege who is dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. There are no clear guideposts as to what must happen next.

Some Republicans say the novelty and uncertainty of the situation is a very good reason not to call witnesses in the first place.

I just think its best for the country to vote on the record established, because if you go down the witness road, you run into executive privilege in a way thats uncharted territory, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally, told reporters at the Capitol on Saturday. No ones ever been in the box were in before, and I really dont want to turn the trial into a circus.

How long would a court fight take?

Democrats say not terribly long, with any delay well worth it to hear from Bolton and the other senior officials who never spoke to the House. Republicans say trying to battle out an assertion of executive privilege could take months, prolonging a divisive national spectacle.

Schiff pleaded with senators on Friday to not let the predictions about the duration of a privilege fight dissuade them from calling witnesses.

This is no parking ticket we are contesting, no shoplifting case we are prosecuting, Schiff said. How long is too long to have a fair trial?

Schiff suggested that executive privilege was not a legitimate basis for entirely excusing a witness from testifying. He even joked awkwardly with senators that they should seize the rare opportunity to pass judgment on Roberts rulings, instead of the nations top jurist getting the last word on their work.

When the chief justice decides where a narrow application of privilege ought to apply, you will still have the power to overrule him, Schiff stressed. How often do you get the chance to overrule a chief justice of the Supreme Court? You have to admit: Its every legislators dream.

Republicans have suggested that if a privilege fight heads to the courts, all bets are off and the trial could be suspended for a protracted delay.

One GOP senator, James Lankford of Oklahoma, has suggested that a fight over executive privilege could take as long as five months to resolve in the courts and is unnecessary, to boot. We can answer the question that theyre asking us right now, without having to go through all that, Lankford said.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., reacts to the final statement of House Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as he speaks to the media at the end of a day of an impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

One prominent, if dated, point of reference to predict how time-consuming a privilege-related legal fight might be is the half-century-old showdown over President Richard Nixons Oval Office audiotapes that eventually reached the Supreme Court.

The key chapter in that battle, involving a subpoena to use the tapes in a criminal trial, went from the district court to a Supreme Court decision in less than three and a half months. The high courts consideration of the case  in an era of paper court filings  took 61 days from petition to final ruling, including a three-hour oral-argument session on July 8, 1974, during the courts traditional summer recess.

This time around, it seems certain that taking an executive privilege fight to the courts would lead to at least a couple of weeks of delay, frustrating many Republican senators desire for a quick acquittal of the president before his scheduled State of the Union address on Feb. 4.

Has anything like this happened before? Whod win in court?

Not really, but this is only the third presidential impeachment to result in a trial.

Other cases of executive privilege that have played out in the courts do provide some indication of how the courts might rule.

Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton made similar claims of executive privilege in the criminal investigations related to the impeachment investigations they faced. Neither got very far.

The best legal point Trumps team may have is that when the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the handover of the Nixon tapes, the justices indicated they would give the president much greater deference if military or diplomatic secrets were involved.

That language from the high court might explain why some working on Trumps defense have told reporters that a court bid to block Boltons testimony could involve claims that part of it is classified.

Another legal talking point for the presidents lawyers and the Justice Department is a 1974 D.C. Circuit ruling in Watergate that denied a Senate committees effort to enforce a subpoena for Nixons tapes.

That decision said the Senate panel could prevail only if the information was demonstrably critical to the committees work, but the judges also warned that executive privilege could not be used to cover up crimes.

Clinton claimed executive privilege in the face of a couple of independent counsel investigations. Judges acknowledged the privilege, but turned around and said it had to yield because of the importance and urgency of a criminal probe. Democrats contend that a Senate trial of the president is at least as important as a run-of-the-mill criminal case and, therefore, that any privilege claim Trump actually makes would ultimately fail in court.

Democrats also have a key Supreme Court case that could hamper any bid by Trump to use the courts to second-guess Senate rulings on subpoenas or matters of privilege: a 1993 ruling in a case involving a federal judge that gives the Senate broad latitude to devise its own rules and procedures on impeachment.

What the courts do in the coming days could also affect the balance of legal precedents and arguments available to both sides. Two of the Houses unfulfilled demands for information  the subpoena for former White House counsel Don McGahns testimony and the request for grand jury secrets in special counsel Robert Muellers report  are the subject of cases pending at the D.C. Circuit, which could rule any day.

Indeed, as recently as Thursday, House lawyers implored the panels to rule expeditiously because of the ongoing impeachment trial, and called McGahns testimony more urgent than ever.

Are the Justice Department and Trump out of sync on the issue of the courts role in privilege fights?

When presidents assert executive privilege in court, their case is normally pressed by Justice Department attorneys. In the Trump administrations ongoing court fight against a House effort to force testimony from McGahn related to Trumps response to Muellers investigation, Trumps interests have been represented by lawyers from the departments Civil Division and the solicitor generals office.

In recent days, however, a tension has emerged between the Justice Departments stated positions in impeachment-related court cases and the rhetoric used by Trumps impeachment trial defense team, as well as the president himself.

The departments argument in court has been that judges should essentially butt out of fights between Congress and the White House over access to documents and witnesses. Such disputes should be battled out in the political sphere, department lawyers argued, as they have for years.

However, as the impeachment trial got underway, Trump and his attorneys argued that the House should have pursued litigation to enforce all its subpoenas, rather than waiting to seek some witnesses testimony through the Senate trial.

Were acting as if the courts are an improper venue to determine constitutional issues of this magnitude, Sekulow said on the Senate floor last week. That is why we have the courts. That is why we have a federal judiciary.

Democrats were quick to highlight the apparent contradiction, both in the Senate and in court.

House Democratic impeachment manager, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., arrives at the Senate as work resumes in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Other lawyers  maybe not the ones at this table, but other lawyers for the president  are in the courts saying the exact opposite of what theyre telling you today, Schiff said. Theyre saying, You cannot enforce congressional subpoenas. You cant do it.

House Counsel Doug Letter also fired off a letter to the D.C. Circuit appeals court saying that Trump had undermined the Justice Departments arguments and had essentially conceded that courts should resolve subpoena fights between the White House and Congress. The Executive Branch cannot have it both ways, Letter said.

The Justice Department insisted to the court that theres no contradiction, with one department official who commented on the condition of anonymity calling it an entirely contrived conflict. The department accused the House of trying to have it both ways by rushing to court and then using Trumps refusal to concede the McGahn suit as grounds for impeaching the president.

So, whod represent Trump in such a privilege battle?

If Trump wants to go to court in a bid to use executive privilege to block testimony by Bolton or others, the president may not want to use Justice Department lawyers for that, given their earlier arguments that the political branches need to settle such fights on their own.

Such a handoff took place when the Clinton White House wanted to press executive privilege claims in independent counsel investigations. Sensing a possible conflict, the Justice Department agreed to pay an outside lawyer, Neil Eggleston, to argue for the White House in court.

I was a DOJ employee for this purpose, not a private lawyer. My client was the Office of the President, recalled Eggleston, who later served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama.

Eggleston said that only lawyers officially appointed by the Justice Department should be allowed to advance claims of executive privilege and that they should be left to the Senate during an impeachment trial, not the courts.

If lawyers file in any court  the courts should dismiss the case immediately, Eggleston told POLITICO. The Constitution makes clear that the impeachment processes are solely within the purview of the Senate.

Is it all a bluff?

Democrats have also noted during their floor arguments that despite a string of combative letters and defiant rhetoric from Trump, he never actually asserted executive privilege in response to the House subpoenas. At the Senate trial, the presidents lawyer Patrick Philbin called the claim technically true but misleading, because the White House had other legal grounds  backed up by the Justice Department  for instructing witnesses not to comply.

Indeed, Trump is still resisting testimony by McGahn and fighting efforts by House and other investigators to acquire documents in a variety of probes.

Nevertheless, Democrats and some legal experts think the lack of a formal privilege invocation by Trump may indicate a reluctance or even ambivalence on his part to being seen as directly and personally blocking testimony  particularly in the extraordinarily high-profile context of his own impeachment trial.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the minority leader, also hinted on Friday that the talk of invoking executive privilege might be a bluff, or something Trump wouldnt follow through on if the Senate actually demanded to hear from witnesses.

Theres a simple answer, when our Republican friends claim it would take too long . go tell the president not to invoke executive privilege. Hes the one delaying it, not us, Schumer told reporters. If this is as serious as it should be to them, theyll go to the president and say we dont want executive privilege invoked. If the president believes he did nothing wrong, that everythings perfect, he should have nothing to fear from these witnesses and documents.

Of course, what Trump would do will remain an academic question unless four Republicans join Democrats to call for witness testimony.

The threat of the use of executive privilege may be a ploy to try to keep all GOP senators in line, added Rozell, the George Washington University dean.

Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: Mark Rozell is affiliated with George Mason University. An earlier version of this article listed the wrong university.
RTE are broadcasting a special leaders debate live from NUI Galway this evening.

The seven party leaders joining Claire Byrne for the two hour live debate will be: Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar, Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald, Labour's Brendan Howlin, Solidarity/PBP's Richard Boyd Barrett, Green Party's Eamon Ryan and Social Democrats' Roisin Shortall.

But what will they be saying? And is there substance behind the claims? Our experts at Independent.ie will be fact-checking their claims live.

The debate will be available to watch live on RTE One, RTE News Now and worldwide on the RTE Player.
By Olivia Rose

IT WAS a "miracle that no-one was injured during a shootout between armed criminals and members of the police force last weekend, Police Commissioner Trevor Botting has said.





The police chief joined Governor Nigel Dakin and Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson in condemning the "cowardly attack in Kew Town, Providenciales, this week.





According to a police statement, officers on patrol were closing in on suspects at about 9pm on Saturday evening (January 18) after responding to reports of shots being fired.





They came under sustained gunfire, and in response the officers discharged their firearms, the statement said.





While no injuries were reported, more than 20 shell casings were recovered at the scene.





In the statement, Commissioner Botting said that kind of "threat is unacceptable.





"This was an attempt to cause harm to officers from the Royal TCI Police Force and its a miracle our police officers were not killed or seriously injured during this cowardly attack on them.





"My officers doing their duty, protecting the public, it is unacceptable on every level for such an attack to be perpetrated on them.





"I attended the scene and spoke with the officers involved. I salute their courage and commitment as they undertook their duty last night and their resilience and determination.





He added: "We are facing a real threat from cowardly, reckless and mindless individuals.





The top cop made it clear that this attack on officers of the force will not deter them from protecting communities.





He said: "We will not relent in hunting down those who carried out this attack.





"Let me be clear, this attack on our officers is unacceptable and should be condemned by all on the Turks and Caicos Islands.





"In continuing in their duties to protect their communities, our officers will take all measures to protect themselves from the threats posed by those who commit crimes and who attack our officers.





He underscored that the matter is now under investigation, with detectives from the police force leading the work to identify and arrest those involved.





"I urge our communities to assist and support the force. This is our TCI and we need to work together to identify and bring to justice those who are harming our communities and the TCI as a whole.





Significant escalation

At a press conference on Monday at the Office of the Premier in Providenciales, Governor Nigel Dakin also condemned the ambush of officers in Kew Town.





Dakin stressed that this new level of criminality in the TCI is a "very significant escalation.





"The police operating in Kew Town came under sustained gunfire. Different calibres of rounds were recovered from the scene which tell us there was more than one gunman.





"This is a very significant escalation and one that we should note. There cant be no go areas for the police in the TCI and there wont be.





"I stand fully behind the commissioner and the decisions hes making to ensure that that will not be the case.





The governor disclosed that the police force has beefed up patrols around the island after the incident.





"You wouldve seen that there has been a greater police presence on the streets, and you will also start to see that police, where appropriate, will be carrying long high velocity weapons as well as personal side arms.





He said he visited Kew Town with his family on Sunday evening and worshiped in a Spanish speaking church.





"We were made to feel extremely welcome. Now that church was a few hundred metres away from where the incident occurred.





"And when asked to say a few words the first thing I said is that I stood in complete solidarity with the police but I also stood in complete solidarity with the community in which these criminals are operating.





Governor Dakin stressed the importance of the police force and the community they serve fostering a better relationship.





These communities should not have to live under these types of circumstances and so my wish for 2020 is that there will be a different relationship between the police and the community but also that there will be a very different relationship between the community and the police.





"In this country, we police through consent and that requires the community and the police to work together. We really need this to happen in 2020.





Hearts and minds

Speaking at the same press conference, Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson condemned the actions of the criminals who engaged in an exchange of fire with police officers.





She publicly expressed her gratitude to God that no one was injured or killed.





The premier stated that everyone must and should condemn these acts against the police who stand as the authority on our behalf.





She also criticised the use of social media to support criminals who behave in this way.





During her speech, the premier urged members of the public to not take a hands-off approach to crime because the victim it is not a relative of theirs.





She encouraged them to say something given the possibility that the withheld information may be the information that the police need.





Cartwright Robinson again promoted the use of Crime Stoppers where members of the public can give anonymous tips.





In calling the country to prayer, the premier stated that she recognised that the violence among young men is a regional challenge.





It is a heart and mind problem, she said, and lamented that the minds and hearts of todays criminals are darker and more different.





Cartwright Robinson accepted the Governments rehabilitative role, however, she stated that "only God can change the hearts and minds of man.




A father and daughter play with a digital tablet at an Estee Lauder store in Shanghai.

The Chinese coronavirus is forcing Wall Street to turn sour on certain stocks.

Bank of America downgraded shares of Wynn Resorts to neutral from buy and Oppenheimer downgraded shares of cosmetic company Estee Lauder to perform from outperform on heightened fear about the spreading deadly virus. Shares of the hotel chain fell 8% and shares of the skincare company ticked 4% lower on Monday.

"Following recent developments in China with the coronavirus coupled with the premium valuation at which shares trade, we no longer view the risk/reward as attractive from current levels," Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh said in a note to clients about Estee Lauder.

Stocks fell last week as worries about the Chinese coronavirus stoked fears about slowing global growth. The virus has killed more than 80 people and infected nearly 2,800 people in China. China's National Health Commission said on Sunday the ability of the virus to spread was getting stronger and the World Health Organization's director general is traveling to China to meet with government and health officials.

Dow futures were off by more than 400 points on Monday as coronavirus fears deepened.

Shares of travel and tourism related stocks, like airlines and hotel companies, got hit last week as the Wuhan virus made its way to the United States. Shares of hotel and casino chain Wynn Resorts fell more than 11% last week and Chinese-exposed makeup company Estee Lauder fell nearly 10% in the same period of time.

"Understandably, the Macau focused gaming names have traded off more than the broader market as they are 1) highly exposed to domestic Chinese travel, 2) the timing is concurrent with Chinese New Year," Bank of America equity analyst Shaun Kelley said in a not to clients on Monday.

China has restricted travel for at least 35 million people across 15 cities, suspended tour groups and closed major tourist destinations, including Shanghai Disney World and Hong Kong Disney World.

In recent years, the Chinese consumer and the Asia-Pacific region have represented a key driver in Estee Lauder's business, offsetting weakness in the United States, said Parikh. Credit Suisse estimates the makeup company has about 17% revenue exposure in China.

"Although difficult to measure the precise impact and the length at which the coronavirus-related challenges could persist within the Chinese economy, we now expect EL's higher margin travel-retail segment to be adversely impacted at least in Q3 (Mar.) and potentially longer," said Parikh.

Oppenheimer lowered its price target on Estee Lauder to $210 per share from $230 per share. Bank of America lowered its price target on Wynn to $150 per share from $160 per share.

While Wynn and Estee Lauder are two of the only downgrades CNBC spotted so far on Monday, other analysts are raising flags about the coronavirus' impact on singular stocks. UBS said cruise lines Carnival and Royal Caribbean could be impacted.

"The coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan remains the most important topic in gaming and lodging space this week," said Jefferies, mentioning Wynn, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts.

 with reporting from CNBC's Michael Bloom.
The head of Irans Judiciary has said, We will soon meet the killers of Qassem Soleimani, but not for talks, adding that Iran will pursue legal action in international tribunals.

Ayatollah Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi) at a meeting of Irans Supreme Judicial Council said that Soleimanis killing has aroused the people of the region and has united them with the Iranian nation, Tasnim news agency reported.

General Qassem Soleimani was the commander of Irans extraterritorial Qods (Quds) Force, which is a military and intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC). He was killed by a U.S. drone strike on January 3 near the Baghdad airport.

The killing raised tensions further between Iran and the United States and was also seen as a hard blow to the Islamic Republics influence-building efforts in the region.

Raeesi emphasized that Iran will pursue legal options against those responsible for the targeted killing, He said he has spoken with his Iraqi counterpart and received assurances the Iraqi government is also planning to pursue the matter but did not offer any details.

The conservative cleric appointed by Iran's hardliner Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei announced: Sooner or later we will meet with the killers of Qassem Soleimani, but not for talks, rather we will pursue the matter through international bodies and take the killers to trial and punishment.

There have been no reports so far of Iran taking any steps to start legal action in Soleimanis case. Western governments regarded the shadowy general as someone involved with militant groups in the Middle East and possibly in attacks against Western interests.
Donald Trumps legal team kicked off the bulk of its defence case by contending the president did not freeze a massive military aid package for Ukraine to investigations of top US democrats  and tried to undermine the legitimacy of impeachment itself.

The presidents lawyers started their second day of case-making by attacking the very nature of a presidential impeachment, with one of his lawyers telling senators it is tantamount to domestic war. Their case continued hours later with Pam Bondi, a former Florida state GOP attorney general, laying out the White House's version of what happened with former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma. Bondi claimed the then-VP and son acted inappropriately as the father was leading the Obama administration's anti-corruption push there while his son sat on the company's board, which the UK government was investigating for money laundering.

Ms Bondi pushed a disputed narrative about the former vice president's involvement in the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company. She hinted VP Biden did so to help his son, but the Obama administration stipulated its own aid package for Ukraine on the ouster of that prosecutor because he was deemed by the West to be corrupt. "That is enough," she said.

Ms Bondi also criticised the House Democratic managers for not giving senators "the full picture," even though the one she laid out has been challenged by Democratic lawmakers and fact-checkers.

Neither Biden has been charged in either country with wrongdoing, something Ms Bondi excluded from her presentation.

Eric Herschmann, another Trump lawyer, followed and asked while noting Hunter Biden had no energy-specific experience: "Why would Burisma want Hunter Biden on its board? ... He had one qualification: He was Joe Biden's son."

But it was an attack on impeachment itself the team opted to lead with on Monday.

Its filled with acrimony and it divides the country like nothing else, Mr Starr said in the Senate chamber of impeachment. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment understand that in a deep and personal way.

Notably, Mr Starr did not contend Mr Trump is innocent of the actions House Democrats accused him of. Rather, he said impeaching a sitting commander in chief brings grave disruption to the government ... regardless of what the president has done.

Mr Starr began his presentation with a detailed lecture on impeachment, describing it as a flawed and outdated process. Saying other countries have all but abolished it, he declared it fails to meet modern procedural standards of fairness.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

Attempting to discredit impeachment itself was a theme of the sessions opening hour.

Jay Sekulow, one of Mr Trumps personal lawyers, led off for the defence, telling senators House Democrats had wrongly rebuked the president for actions that fail to clear the Constitutions impeachment bar.

If this becomes the new standard, the future is going to look a lot different, Mr Sekulow warned senators.

The presidents defence team began its second day of laying out their case after the trial was rocked  and potentially changed  by a New York Times report that a former senior adviser to Mr Trump heard him say he intended to keep a military aid package for Ukraine frozen until that country announced probes of top US Democrats.

That contradicts the presidents claims that he held up aid over concerns about widespread corruption in the Eastern European country. Mr Trump on Monday morning denied Mr Boltons allegation.

Mr Sekulow did not mention Mr Bolton, but said Mr Trump never conditioned the military aid package on the Ukraine investigations he desired.

Those are the facts, he told senators, moments before the defence team played a video of Trump administration officials testifying before the House  in which they said there were no investigations announced after the aid monies were allowed to flow.

Michael Purpura, deputy White House counsel, soon walked the senators through a series of events, including more House testimony clips from administration officials he said shows Mr Trump was concerned about burden-sharing on Ukraine aid with Americas European allies and corruption inside Ukraine.

Its the same two convincing themes every time, Mr Purpura said.

Mr Trumps legal team is not expected to bring up the former White House official on Monday or Tuesday as they make and close their case. But the Ukraine aid and other allegations in the leak of his coming book now hangs over the entire proceeding, with two GOP senators  Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah  signalling they likely will now join Democrats in voting to call Bolton as a witness. Two more Republicans would have to do the same, then the White House could claim executive privilege over Mr Boltons testimony, setting up a legal battle.

Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana told reporters he has talked with several Republican senators who have grappled with whether to support calling new witnesses, and believes Mr Boltons account of the military aid will change the dynamic around the trial.

 Ken Starr: 'Like war, impeachment is hell'

Seeking to plant seeds of doubts about House Democrats intentions, the defence team played a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi handing her seven impeachment managers the pens she used to sign the articles against Mr Trump.

During that ceremony, Pelosi and other Democrats at times smiled. Some insisted on posing for pictures, with wide grins, alongside the speaker.

A celebratory moment, Mr Sekulow said to a silent chamber. Think about that.
About 20 demonstrators Monday called on Sen. Doug Jones to vote to acquit President Trump on impeachment charges in the Senate in a rally organized by the Alabama Republican Party.

The state GOP demonstration followed a rally organized by the party Friday in Huntsville. Another rally is planned for Tuesday in Mobile.

Chants of 4 More Years for supporters of President Trump at a rally outside Sen. Doug Jones office in Birmingham, organized by @ALGOP. Demonstrators are calling on Jones to vote to acquit Trump. A similar rally was held in Huntsville last week. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/HtmEWsK3E2  Howard Koplowitz (@HowardKoplowitz) January 27, 2020

Dusty Campbell, who said he drove to the rally outside Jones office in the Vance Federal Building from Anniston with his mother after hearing a radio advertisement for the demonstration, said the senator should stick with the majority of Alabamians and vote to acquit Trump.

Jones keeps going with the impeachment and the people of Alabama really dont want him to be [removed], Campbell said. Hes there to represent us, and Id like him to do it honestly if hes representing us.

But Jones, in an interview Monday morning with CNN, said constituent reaction among those who reached out to his office has been fairly mixed between acquittal and removal and hearing from witnesses with knowledge of Trumps alleged offenses.

We have a number of people that have called and have emailed and theyre supporting the president, and I appreciate that, Jones told CNNs Dana Bash. Weve also had a significant number ... who either want him removed ,or particularly, they want to hear witnesses and a fair trial, and I think thats really important because even though the president has a lot of supporters in Alabama, those supporters deserve to hear the entire case.

Encouraging motorists passing by to honk their horns in support, those who attended the rally held Trump campaign signs and posters reading Trump Girl and Stand with Trump" and chanting Four More Years and Keep America Great" -- the presidents re-election slogan.

A counter-protest of five people stood about 20 feet away from the Trump supporters, holding up signs like Truth" and Call the Witness" and chanting Lock Him Up and No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA. The latter cry was viewed as offensive by those backing the president.

KKK? Thats bull----, one protester said at the insinuation that Trump voters are white supremacists.

While some protesters told AL.com that they still would not vote to re-elect Jones in November, including one who took that stance because of the senators vote against confirming U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Campbell said he could envision himself voting for Jones, a Democrat who faces a tough re-election battle in 2020.

If he would vote for Trump I would probably vote for him, actually. I would. But I dont actually see that happening, Campbell said. But if he surprised me like that I would cast a vote for Jones because that would be an honest mans work right there.
Gardai say it could be up to a week before the results of toxicology tests from three children found dead at their home in west Dublin last Friday night are known.

And detectives may have to wait some time before their mother, Deirdre Morley, who is in a serious condition in hospital, is physically and psychologically capable of talking to them.

The bodies of Conor, aged nine, Darragh, aged seven, and their three-year-old sister, Carla, were discovered in the house in Newcastle by their father, Andrew McGinley, when he arrived home at around 7.45pm.

There were no obvious injuries on the children and a post mortem was not conclusive in determining the cause of death.

Toxicology tests are being carried out on the children to determine whether or not they had consumed any substances and what role they might have played in their deaths.

Sources said that while the results could be back in a matter of days the results of a broad spectrum analysis could take a week or so.

Ms Morley was found by a taxi driver at around 7.30pm walking near her home in a disorientated state.

Concerned for her safety, the driver took her home, but on arrival her condition had deteriorated and he rang emergency services.

A garda patrol car happened to be in the area responding to a separate matter when they saw ambulance staff tending to a person and went to see if any assistance was needed.

At that stage, Mr McGinley had arrived home. It is understood that when he discovered his wife was being cared for outside the house he went inside to see if the children were okay.

When gardai heard the father's anguish they immediately went into the house, followed by paramedics.

It is understood one of the children was in a downstairs room and the two others upstairs.

It is understood that two notes were found inside the house, one of them immediately inside the door, asking that people ring 999 and not to go upstairs. Both notes are being forensically examined.

The Technical Bureau has conducted a detailed examination of the house.

Ms McGinley, a nurse, was brought to Tallaght Hospital and was described as being in a critical condition on admittance.

She is thought to have stabilised over the weekend, but is still in a serious condition.

Detectives will have to wait until doctors assess that she is able to talk to them before they can ask her about that day.

Sources said doctors will need to be satisfied that she is both medically and psychologically able to speak to gardai before giving detectives the all-clear.

Gardai have been working very closely with Mr McGinley.

A family liaison officer had been appointed and is in contact with the father and the extended family.

House to house inquiries are being conducted in the estate.

It is understood the children had attended school or creche as normal on Friday before returning home that afternoon.

Conor and Darragh were in third and first class respectively in a local gaelscoil in Rathcoole, while Carla attended a pre-school.

The garda investigation team is trying to determine when the children were collected, what were their movements after that and when they were last seen alive.

An Garda Siochana is liaising closely with South Dublin Children and Young People's Service Committee (CYPSC) to provide supports through schools, counselling services, family services, local groups etc to support children and families through the days, weeks and months ahead.
Florida Governor Introduces Replacement for Common Core School Standards

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Jan. 24 the creation of academic standards that will replace the previous standards, called Common Core.

When I took office, I made a pledge to the citizens of Florida to overhaul our educational standards to remove all vestiges of Common Core and return to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, DeSantis said in a release. I am pleased that this historic task has been completed and we are well on our way to making Florida the best state in the nation for education.

The standards establish what students need to learn by the end of each grade, from kindergarten to the end of high school. DeSantis issued an executive order a year ago to scrap Common Core and ensure we return to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Common Core was developed in 2009 by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, with heavy input from people working for standardized testing companies such as College Board (which develops the SAT tests) and ACT (which develops the ACT tests). The standards were supposed to ensure college- and career-readiness.

At about the same time, the Obama administration promised over $4 billion in grants to states that adopted college- and career-ready academic standards. Florida was one of the greatest beneficiaries, getting about $700 million. But adoption and maintenance of the standards and the related testing regimens ultimately cost states billions more.

Common Core was criticized for being poorly written, untested, and not rigorous enough. Some have also said that the standards had a leftist ideological bent.

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said the new standards are the highest quality knowledge-based standards in the nation.

They not only incorporate civics throughout every grade, a first of their kind in the nation, ensuring that our students are well versed in the United States Constitution and the responsibilities of citizenship, they also provide educators with clear and concise standards, he said in the release.

The standards are supposed to be released this week.

One point of the new standards was the elimination of Confusing/Crazy Math, says a fact sheet released by the state. Common Core-aligned curricula has often been mocked for teaching math in a confusing way thats incomprehensible to parents. It focused, for example, on having children in early grades explain how they arrived at their answers of simple arithmetic problems.

Corcoran suggested its more practical to have simple arithmetic equations memorized.

When youre trying to remember whats four times four, and you have to think about it and its not automatic, youre never going to be able to conquer algebra and all those other courses, he said during a Jan. 24 press conference with DeSantis, Tampa Bay Times reported.

In English, learning will be framed around classic literature and primary source material. American history and civics will be interspersed into all grade levels, rather than having civics typically in 7th grade, American history in 11th grade, and U.S. government in 12th. Rhetorics class will be moved from 9th to 6th grade and all high school students will also receive financial literacy lessons.

The standards will also de-emphasize standardized testing, although most changes to testing regimes would require legislative approval.
Baldwin Filters, a Parker Hannifin Corporation brand, recently released the BF63000 high efficiency fuel filter for on-highway applications. The BF63000, with highly engineered layered media, delivers outstanding contaminant-holding capacity, while removing damaging particles down to 4 microns.

Precise industry standard testing shows the BF63000 captures two times more particles larger than 4 micron. Hydrostatic burst testing also reveals the BF63000 is two times more durable, withstanding pressures up to 800 psi.

We are really excited about the release of this filter. The BF63000 fits on hundreds of on-highway applications with popular Cummins and Paccar engines, said Steve Zimmerman, Division Engineering & Product Management Manager. Baldwin has a history of providing heavy-duty, quality filtration. We have invested heavily in research, development and testing to ensure we provide our customers with the best products in the industry.

Baldwins BF63000 meets strict OE performance requirements to keep fuel clean and ensure high performance and longer fuel system life.

Here is the link to the brochure to learn more about the BF63000.

About Baldwin Filters

Baldwin Filters offers heavy-duty lube, air, fuel, coolant, hydraulic and transmission filters for over-the-road vehicles and off-road equipment, as well as industrial, agricultural, automotive and marine applications. Baldwin Filters meets or exceeds their customers expectations by providing high quality filtration products supported by outstanding customer service, support, and follow-up. The brand stands for quality, performance, and dependability. In February 2017, Baldwin Filters parent company became part of the Parker Hannifin Corporation Filtration Group. This highly complementary combination, along with the Win Strategy has established Parker as the worlds leading supplier of filtration solutions and services.

About Parker Hannifin

Parker Hannifin is a Fortune 250 global leader in motion and control technologies. For more than 100 years the company has engineered the success of its customers in a wide range of diversified industrial and aerospace markets. Learn more at http://www.parker.com or @parkerhannifin.
The on Monday dismissed the bail plea of Bhushan Steel's former chief financial officer Nittin Johari, who was arrested by the SFIO for alleged fraudulent activities.

The verdict by Justice Brijesh Sethi came after the Supreme Court set aside the bail granted to Johari by the high court in August last year and asked it to hear the matter afresh.

The details of the high court's decision to reject his bail plea would be available when the judgement is uploaded on its website.

The apex court's order had come on an appeal by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) challenging the August 14, 2019 order of the high court.

Johari was arrested by SFIO on May 2, 2019 for alleged fraudulent activities, including filing false documents with various banks.

SFIO had said Johari was managing the affairs of Bhushan Steel and was looking after raising of funds from banks and financial institutions and was also one of the signatories to the financial statements of the company till fiscal year 2016-17.

SFIO had said that during the probe it found there were several alleged fraudulent practices at the company, including manipulations of accounts and financial statements during the term of Johari.

In its order, the high court had said that it became evident that the "mind and will of the accused company are the main accused -- Brij Bhushan Singal and Neeraj Singal, who had been actually controlling the company".

The high court had observed that it is a matter of record that main accused Brij Bhushan Singal has not been arrested and co-accused Neeraj Singal has already been granted bail.

SFIO had claimed that Johari was a member of the committee of board of directors on borrowing, investment and loans along with former promoters Brij Bhushan Singal and Neeraj Singal.
WEST KINGSTON, R.I., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- APC by Schneider Electric's iRewards Program, an incentive program for APC by Schneider Electric IT Channel partners, is celebrating its 10th anniversary  a major milestone! The program is looking ahead to another exciting decade filled with innovative ways to reward participants, thank them for their dedication, and cultivate brand ambassadors.

Since the program's launch in February 2010, the North American based program has acquired over 3,000 active participants. The program has also expanded globally and is available in 11 languages across 60 countries. APC by Schneider Electric's iRewards Program participants are awarded points for purchasing qualifying products from provided SKU lists, claiming sales, becoming subject matter experts by completing challenges, and participating in additional promotions. An online engagement platform, powered by HMI Performance Incentives, provides real-time points tracking, an ever-changing rewards catalog, information about the latest APC by Schneider Electric product releases and company information, and online learning opportunities.

As of January 2020, APC by Schneider Electric's iRewards Program participants have redeemed over one billion points for rewards, with some of the most unique redemptions including an engagement ring, an Apple MacBook Pro, a Caribbean cruise, and Hamilton on Broadway tickets. Participants have access to over 60,000 products and experiences to choose from in their rewards catalog. Special promotions throughout the year also give participants the opportunity to win valuable merchandise and concierge travel experiences.

An APC by Schneider Electric's iRewards Program 10th Anniversary campaign will launch this week to thank all participants for their continued involvement throughout the past 10 years and celebrate the overall success of the program.

About APC by Schneider Electric

Developed over decades of innovation, APC by Schneider Electric is a global leader in power and cooling services, provides industry-leading hardware, software, and services designed to ensure availability and higher energy efficiency across many different venues. Backed by strength, experience, and a wide network of Schneider Electric, APC well-planned, flawlessly installed, and maintained solutions throughout their lifecycle.

About HMI Performance Incentives

Founded in 1980 in Cambridge, MA, HMI Performance Incentives is a global leader in designing and managing sales and customer incentive solutions. At HMI, success is measured by the outcome of our clients' programs and their satisfaction. Our programs are designed to accelerate sales, increase customer or employee engagement, and increase market share. With nearly 40 years of experience in the performance improvement industry, we know what it takes to deliver results. For additional information, visit https://www.hmiaward.com/

Follow us on: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

SOURCE Schneider Electric

Related Links

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The UK looks likely to declare a case of coronavirus at some point, public health officials say.

 Are there any treatments for coronavirus?

Global health experts have stressed that many people with coronavirus will make a full recovery, although some people  both young and old  are being badly affected, with some cases proving fatal.

At the moment, there is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for this strain of coronavirus infection  known as 2019-nCoV infection.

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Patients in England with the virus will be transferred to one of four High Consequences Infectious Diseases (HCID) units in Liverpool, London or Newcastle.

The two main contact centres in England are the Royal Free London High Level Isolation Unit (HLIU) and the Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary HLIU.

All these units have specialist areas where patients can be isolated to ensure infectious diseases are not spread further.

The units have specific areas where staff can change in and out of protective clothing and equipment, while patient isolation rooms have tightly controlled air flow and filtering.

No confirmed cases of Wuhan coronavirus have been detected in the UK and the risk to the UK population is low. If you have travelled to the affected area, make sure you know what to do if you experience symptoms: https://t.co/vvIWp72flo pic.twitter.com/RXc806Xsfk  UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) January 26, 2020

In severe cases of infection, treatment can include life support such as the use of a ventilator, dialysis to support the kidneys and artificial hydration or nutrition.

Anyone who thinks they have been exposed to the virus is urged to call NHS 111 for advice.

 What advice is being given to the NHS?

GPs have been told to isolate patients and call health protection teams if they suspect a patient has coronavirus.

Hospitals have been urged by Public Health England (PHE) to check their equipment, supplies and procedures.

This includes checking they have respirators that staff can wear if dealing with a patient in isolation.

NEW BLOG: Wuhan novel coronavirus: what you need to know https://t.co/9vOzpEOscA  UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) January 24, 2020

They should also stock protective clothing such as gloves with long tight-fitting cuffs, disposable and fluid-resistant full-sleeve gowns and single-use goggles.

Plenty of clinical waste bags, hand hygiene supplies and chlorine-based disinfectant solutions should also be in stock.

 What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

The main symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of 2019-nCoV may appear two to 14 days after infection.
Instagram and TikTok were able to fill the huge void left by Vine, which got the axe shortly after being acquired by Twitter. However, a successor to the 6-second long video sharing platform recently emerged on the Play Store and Apples App Store in the US.

Despite being only a couple of days old, Byte has already surged in installs, rocketing to the top of Apples app store in the United States. Byte is expected to compete with ByteDance Inc.s TikTok. The video-sharing app was created by Dom Hofmann and reboots the deprecated Vine video-sharing service.

Hofmann co-founded Vine in the summer of 2012 and sold it to Twitter later that year, who failed to make the platform profitable, eventually ending it in 2016. Despite its brief existence, Vines six-second video format became highly successful in the US.

According to Sensor Towers Randy Nelson (Via Bloomberg), Byte ended Friday as the No. 1 free iPhone app on the US App Store and is still in the top spot. Additionally, Byte is also the top iOS app in Canada and is ranked in the top 10 in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Norway. It is also ranked sixth among free apps in the US on the Plat Store.

The timing of the Bytes launch and subsequent popularity surge comes at a time when ByteDance-owned TikTok is facing scrutiny in the United States with some senators deeming TikTok as national security risks. TikTok also recently became the second most popular app on the Google Play Store in 2019.
If Tom Jones had worked in Ireland and not in show business, his future would have stopped at 65, says Terry Prone.

LETS not talk about the general election. Lets look at Tom Jones,instead.

The editorial in this paper last Friday managed to get Tom Jones and our election into the same paragraph, which must deserve some kind of a prize.

The point was that the tens of thousands of people who fret that they face income collapse when they retire may find a sliver of inspiration in Tom Jones being a headline act at the Live at the Marquee series of concerts in June, just five days before his 80th birthday.

Tom Jones is a lucky Welshman. Imagine if hed been born in Ireland and had not worked in show business.

Hed have found the green green grass of his future stopped dead at 65, unless he got himself into An Garda Siochana, in which case hed have been out the door earlier, at 60, even if he could prove his skills were as sharp as when he was 50.

Thats the wider issue attached to the pension thing. The French are right to protest that they work hard, physical jobs, which leave them, by 60 years of age, knackered. They should be facilitated to retire at that age, with a livable pension.

Ditto for anyone in Ireland worn out by the physical exertion or the mental tedium of their work. Nobody should be forced to work past the point where work is enjoyable, nor be impoverished when they quit.

Now, set all that pension stuff aside and look at the other end of the stick: where citizens who are perfectly healthy, sound in wind and limb, energetic and intellectually all there, are forced outof their jobs because they have reached 65.

Last year, out of nine people over the age of 65, one was whats called economically active.

Still working, in other words. That may sound a small number, but its up 50% on the previous decade. Which means it may be, nay, certainly is, a trend.

A trend we should be encouraging, given that this time 10 years down the road, in 2030, this country will have 1m people over the age of 65.

If the trend of being economically active continues, then more than 100,000 people over the ageof 65 will be working. If the trend accelerates, perhaps a quarter of a million of them might be employed.

This would be a good thing. The workplace is where most of us spend our lives, where we communicate, develop a sense of self-worth, and earn money.

It keeps us intellectually alive and physically active. It beats the hell out of most of the alternatives.

And yet, as the headlines throughout the year underline, this is not something thats seen as a basic human right.

Willis Towers Watson, a financial services firm, surveyed workers in 71% of Irish companies and found an interesting disconnect.

Most of the companies have rules about when staff should retire, and 90% of those that have such rules insist employees leave when they reach the (black) magic age of 65.

The disconnect lies in the fact that large numbers of those employees want the opposite. They want to continue working into their late sixties or seventies.

Some of them want to work on because they love what they do. Some want to work on because their finances are goosed and their mortgage as yet undischarged. Some want to work for both reasons.

But the overwhelming majority of the companies they serve say: Uh, uh. Out the door with you. Shelf life exceeded.

It may not be said out loud, but the message is clear to their staff: It doesnt matter what service youve given in the past or how much of a team player you are or how much you still have to offer; we, your employers, will cut you off at the pass and evict you from the place where youve given the service and served on the team, and we will do this simply on the basis of your age.

This pointless discrimination against older workers stimulates the weirdest responses from people who think they believe in equality.

For example, one report about how workers feel about retirement was headed: Only a third of people want to keep working after the age of 66. Why the only? Given the pressures already mentioned and the physical exhaustion that affects some people in their old age, a third is an amazing figure.

Similarly, listening to a radio item about older workers recently, I was shocked and inflamed when it was stated that forced retirement frees up jobs for the next generation.

This was said not by a shopper jolted into idiocy by a microphone put in front of their face in the street, but by the person presenting the programme.

The egregious bias was clear: Younger people are somehow more deserving of jobs than are older people.

The same argument wasadvanced, in my youth, to justify expelling women from the civil service when they married: They had got themselves a provider, so it was time to give over their job to a more worthy, ie, single, person.

It took a while to kill off that one, but nobody in their right mind, today, would suggest women should leave the workplace because their marital status makes them into a lesser person.

AND this latest suggestion that older folk should give up their place on thecareer bus to the young ones has a disproportionate impact on women.

Large numbers of women who enter the workplace with high promotional hopes get lassoed by the wondrous noose of childbearing.

Many of those women take time out to be present with their children, returning after several years, fulfilled, but also disadvantaged.

It takes time to get to where they would have been had they stayed put. Thats one aspect of the oncoming problem.

The other is that theyll livelonger than their partners, if those partners are male. So being told theyre going to enter the golden years of retirement, whether or not they want to, is a double whammy.

Theyre deprived of the years that would allow them to make thecareer progress they postponed, and forced to spend at home and jobless the extra years MotherNature delivers to women.

The exceptions to this forced exit rule are to be found all around the country: men and women happily working into their seventies or eighties, or sometimes longer.

The reason, of course, is that they employ themselves. Now, theres a great slogan: Start your own business: They cant fire you when you hit 65.
The Congress-led Punjab government has announced that it will distribute free smartphones to youngsters in the state, one of its key poll promises, before March 31.

The Capt Amarinder Singh government had last month announced that it will start distributing the phones from Republic Day.

I think that is all in the pipeline. Some testing was left. That is why it cannot be launched otherwise we would have rolled them out on January 26, state education minister Vijay Inder Singla said on Sunday.

I hope they will be launched before March 31, Singla told reporters in Patiala when asked about the governments announcement of giving smartphones on Republic Day.

The minister was in Patiala to unfurl the national flag on Republic Day.

On December 2, the chief minister had tweeted, This 26th Jan, when we celebrate the Republic Day, we will start the 1st Phase of the smartphone distribution. 1st batch of 1.6 lakh smartphones will be given to girl students of Class 11 & 12. Hoping that these phones will help them in their studies & make them more tech-savvy.

Before coming to power, the Congress had announced in its manifesto that to encourage and incentivise youngsters to use digital technology in day-to-day lives, it would distribute free smartphones.

The opposition has been criticising the Congress government for not honouring its poll promises, including the distribution of free smartphones.
Advice: Former chancellor Philip Hammond has joined UK fintech firm Oaknorth

Former chancellor Philip Hammond has joined UK fintech firm Oaknorth to aid its growth plans.

Hammond, 64, will become a member of the Softbank-backed firm's advisory board as it looks to accelerate its overseas expansion. The ex-Treasury boss will join Oaknorth's board alongside Conservative grandee Francis Maude and former senior regulators Lord Turner and Martin Stewart.

Oaknorth is the second company Hammond has joined since quitting politics last month, having joined the board of Irish glass and metal container business Ardagh Group.

His appointment comes almost a year after Oaknorth was valued at 2.1billion in a bumper fundraiser led by Japanese conglomerate Softbank's vision fund.

Hammond had been MP for Runnymede and Weybridge in Surrey for 22 years, having previously run a housebuilding business.

Oaknorth co-founder, entrepreneur Rishi Khosla, said: 'He will spend time with global clients and policymakers, as well as advising us on the continued expansion of our UK loan book.'
[January 27, 2020] Harbert Discovery Fund Sends Letter to Fellow Enzo Biochem Shareholders

Harbert Discovery Fund, LP and Harbert Discovery Co-Investment Fund I, LP (collectively "HDF"), the beneficial owners of more than 11.8% of the outstanding shares of Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE: ENZ) ("Enzo" or the "Company"), today sent a letter to shareholders in connection with its efforts to elect two highly-qualified, fresh voices - Fabian Blank and Peter Clemens - to the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board") at its 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "Annual Meeting"), which will be held on January 31, 2020. The full text of the letter follows and is available at https://cureenzo.com/: January 27, 2020 Dear Fellow Shareholders, With the Enzo Annual Meeting quickly approaching, you have a very important choice to make. Will you allow the Company to continue on its current path, which has been defined by broken promises, value destruction and disregard for the views of its shareholders? Or will you vote to elect two experienced fresh voices to join the five-person Board, so that your best interests will be effectively represented and Enzo can be put on the path to value creation? As you think through this decision, we urge you to consider the following points: Enzo's Drastic Underperformance is Undeniable Enzo has indisputably destroyed value for its shareholders. As proxy advisory firm Glass, Lewis & Co. ("Glass Lewis"), stated in its report, "The Company has underperformed every benchmark over every period." It does not get simpler than that, as the below table of the Company's total shareholder return (TSR (News - Alert)) illustrates:







-14%* -61%* -42%* 49%* 1 Year TSR 3 Year TSR 5 Year TSR 10 Year TSR *Note: Market data as of November 30, 2019 *Source (News - Alert): Bloomberg

Enzo's story is one of promises without progress. In this campaign the Company has simply recycled the same excuses and reassurances it has used for years without giving investors any reason to trust that things will be different this time around. Enzo's narrative is that success and value creation is always "just around the corner." Unfortunately, this story has become a broken record. In its 2015 presentation - issued in the context of a proxy fight with another investor - Enzo said that it was "positionedto thrive." The Company's presentation issued earlier this month claimed that "Enzo is well-positioned to succeed" Shareholders could be forgiven for thinking that Enzo's strategy is more about tired repetition than successful execution. Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS"), had this to say about Enzo's lack of strategic direction and chronic underperformance1: " [Harbert] has made a compelling case that board change is warranted , as evidenced by operational deterioration, prolonged absolute and relative TSR underperformance, and substandard corporate governance." "[T]here are no clear signs of recovery in share price or operating performance to provide shareholders with confidence that the turnaround strategy is taking root or that the market has been receptive to its chances of success." Glass Lewis noted the following: "Disconcertingly, investors hoping to see a bold response steeped in critical measures of operational progress have instead been greeted by what we consider to be a fairly loosely structured narrative functionally ripped from Enzo's last battle, including rehashed promises of pending value generation ." Glass Lewis cites " entirely legitimate concerns around strategy and shareholder value , as well as the board's failure to produce arguments that meaningfully update its own dated case from late 2015." Clearly, change is needed. Otherwise the broken record of unfulfilled promises will continue to repeat at Enzo. Enzo's Current Board Has a Credibility Problem In the context of this proxy campaign, the tactics Enzo's Board has resorted to in order to obfuscate, confuse, and distract shareholders are concerning, as well as disappointing. As Glass Lewis notes, the evidence, suggests "there may be some foundational and atypical disconnect between the Company and investors." First, Enzo has only addressed corporate governance issues when forced to do so. Nearly every single governance "improvement" the Company cites occurred after public pressure from Harbert and other investors in the context of proxy campaigns. This includes the appointment of Rebecca Fischer to the Board on December 31, 2019 months after HDF launched its campaign and Barry Weiner stepping down as CFO so that he would not continue serving in that role while also being on the Board - a move Glass Lewis described as nothing more than "another low risk, high optical upside modification intended to cultivate a more favorable impression of Enzo's governance." Additionally, a close study of Enzo's filings reveals that the Company has only mentioned Board refreshment when under public pressure from shareholders. Enzo's "proactive engagement process" with shareholders and the institution of a "diversity policy," as well as a proposed bylaw change to a majority voting standard, were first mentioned in December 2019, well after Harbert had gone public with its concerns. These facts demonstrate that the current Board does not take proactive, positive actions with regard to corporate governance unless it faces public criticism from large shareholders. That is at the root of the problem within this Company's boardroom. ISS notes the following on this subject: "ENZ also missed the opportunity to enhance its governance structure in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 proxy contest , instead waiting until recently to appoint the first woman to its board, strengthen the lead independent director role, and propose a majority voting standard for uncontested director elections." "Although the board states that it has integrated shareholder feedback into its governance improvements, such feedback did not translate into changes until recently ." Second, Enzo has repeatedly attempted to distract investors by attacking Harbert and our independent nominees. The Company seemingly misses the point that this campaign is not about Harbert. It is about the need for fresh, independent voices with exceptional track records of value creation in the healthcare industry on the Board. Our nominees are completely independent of Harbert and we believe they would be strong advocates for the best interests of all Enzo shareholders. In its investor presentation, Enzo notes roughly six times that a company on whose board our nominee Fabian Blank sits is based in what they persistently describe as "Georgia (former Soviet Republic)." Rebuking Enzo for this odd tactic, Glass Lewis notes, "In contrast, the board's criticism of Mr. Blank -- which highlights GHG's microcap status despite the fact that it is worth nearly twice as much as Enzo and seemingly pleads for guilt by association by repeatedly referencing a thirty-years out-of-date association between Georgia and the former Soviet Union -- is, in our view, entirely unconvincing." We believe this type of behavior is simply not the approach of a professional, objective board that prioritizes what is best for investors over what is best towards maintaining the status quo. Third, Enzo troublingly mischaracterizes ISS's report in the Company's January 17, 2020 press release. Enzo states, "ISS highlights the dissident's puzzling unwillingness to engage in constructive discussions with the Board, recognizes the significant refresh of Enzo's Board over the last four years and highlights the meaningful improvements in a number of corporate governance areas" In reality, ISS's analysis says nothing of the sort. These points only appear in the section of the ISS report that summarizes Enzo's position - which is standard in every ISS report. It is deeply troubling that Enzo would so blatantly mislead investors about ISS's position. Fourth, the incumbent Board is clearly divorced from reality. The ISS report highlighted perplexing comments from Enzo nominee Dr. Bruce Hanna regarding CEO Elazar Rabbani, further calling into question the Board's independence and judgement: "When asked by ISS how he was recruited to the board in 2016, director Hanna replied that he has been familiar with ENZ for almost 40 years , having served as a consultant to ENZ in the late 1980's, and that he has been a longtime associate of CEO Rabbani ." "Further, when discussing Rabbani's performance as CEO, Hanna offered significant praise, going so far as to liken Rabbani to Steve Jobs (News - Alert) ( despite the TSR and operational underperformance discussed above)." "These factors raise doubts for shareholders about whether Hanna is sufficiently capable of challenging management." These quotes, in our view, are representative of a broader problem in the Enzo boardroom - namely, the idolization of management and a complete misunderstanding of the importance of director independence. HDF's Nominees Would Bring Valuable, Fresh Perspectives to Boardroom The addition of our two independent nominees, Fabian Blank and Peter Clemens, will provide the relevant skillsets and expertise required to help realize Enzo's value potential. Both Fabian's and Pete's voices in the boardroom are necessary to ensure change is truly enacted. We believe this is the first step to unlocking value for Enzo's shareholders. The addition of only one of these nominees would create a situation where that director could easily be ignored and sidelined by the rest of the Board and would limit that individual's ability to stimulate fair debate. It is critical that that situation be avoided by electing both of our independent nominees. Both Glass Lewis and ISS have positive things to say about our nominees. Glass Lewis states: "Speaking first to Fabian Blank, we identify a reasonable health care services background, including what appears to be a breadth of advisory roles spanning varying industry segments and geographies." "Peter Clemens, in turn, has a background which includes c-suite roles at several healthcare services firms, including Surgical Care Affiliates and Caremark Rx, Inc.The presence of this senior executive experience at a range of larger and more complex enterprises in the healthcare sector supports Mr. Clemens' prospective ability to add value to a range of key strategic and financial discussions and overrides, in our view, nominal concerns that Mr. Clemens has not previously served on the board of a publicly-traded firm." ISS notes the following: "Dissident nominee Blank seems qualified to contribute industry expertise and a fresh perspective which would be additive to the board and appears to be sufficient to prompt the board to address performance and oversight concernsHe currently serves on the board of Georgia Healthcare Group plc (LSE:GHG), a similarly sized healthcare company to ENZ based in the Republic of Georgia, experience which would be additive to the board given that only one other ENZ director has public board experience." "[D]issident nominee Clemens' qualifications could also be additive to the board in light of his experience as a CFO at two public healthcare companies (where he likely would have had to work directly with each company's board on a regular basis)." *** Finally, we strongly urge the incumbent Board to refrain from taking any steps in the run-up to the Annual Meeting that would disenfranchise shareholders and / or prevent a free and fair election of directors at the Annual Meeting scheduled for January 31, 2020. Any last-minute attempts to do so would not be in the long-term interests of the Company and its investors. Further, we will not hesitate to hold individual Board members individually responsible for any such actions. Now is the time to vote your shares. Vote on the BLUE proxy card FOR the election of Fabian Blank and Peter Clemens today. Please visit our website at www.cureenzo.com to learn more. Sincerely, Harbert Discovery Fund, LP Harbert Discovery Co-Investment Fund I, LP Kenan Lucas, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of Harbert Discovery Fund GP, LLC and Harbert Discovery Co-Investment Fund I GP, LLC Important Information about Participants in a Proxy Solicitation: Harbert Discovery Fund, LP ("Harbert Discovery"), Harbert Discovery Fund GP, LLC ("Harbert Discovery GP"), Harbert Discovery Co-Investment Fund I, LP ("Harbert Discovery Co-Investment" and together with Harbert Discovery, the "Discovery Funds"), Harbert Discovery Co-Investment Fund I GP, LLC ("Harbert Discovery Co-Investment GP"), Harbert Fund Advisors, Inc. ("HFA"), Harbert Management Corporation ("HMC"), Jack Bryant ("Mr. Bryant"), Raymond Harbert ("Mr. Harbert") and Kenan Lucas ("Mr. Lucas" and together with Harbert Discovery, Harbert Discovery GP, Harbert Discovery Co-Investment, Harbert Discovery Co-Investment GP, HFA, HMC and Messrs. Bryant and Harbert, the "Harbert Discovery Parties") (collectively, the "Participants") have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC (News - Alert)") a definitive proxy statement and accompanying form of proxy to be used in connection with the solicitation of proxies from the shareholders of Enzo Biochem, Inc. (the "Company") in connection with the annual meeting of shareholders of the Company (the "Annual Meeting"). All shareholders of the Company are advised to read the definitive proxy statement and other documents related to the solicitation of proxies by the Participants in respect of the Annual Meeting, as they contain important information, including additional information related to the Participants, their nominees for election to the board of directors of the Company and the Annual Meeting. The definitive proxy statement and an accompanying proxy card will be furnished to some or all of the Company's shareholders and are, along with other relevant documents, available at no charge on the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov/ and are available upon request from the Participants' proxy solicitor, Okapi Partners, by calling (888) 758-6707 (banks and brokers call collect (212) 297-0720). Additional information about the Participants can be found on the Definitive Proxy Statement filed by the Participants on December 6, 2019. About Harbert Discovery Fund (HDF) HDF invests in a concentrated portfolio of publicly traded small capitalization companies in the US and Canada. We perform significant due diligence on each portfolio company prior to investing. In addition to researching all publicly available information and meeting with management, our diligence includes substantial primary research with industry experts, consultants, bankers, customers and competitors. We often spend months or years researching ideas before making an investment decision and we only invest in companies that we believe are significantly undervalued, and where there is the potential for change to enhance or accelerate value creation. In an effort to unlock this potential value, we seek to work directly with the boards and management teams of our portfolio companies privately and collaboratively, engaging with them on a range of factors including governance, board composition, corporate strategy, capital allocation, strategic alternatives and operations. We have effected positive, fundamental changes at our current and past investments through this behind-the-scenes, constructive approach. HDF currently has board representation at three of our portfolio companies. In each case, changes to the board were agreed upon privately and it is our strong preference in every investment to avoid the unnecessary distractions and costs of a public proxy campaign. About Harbert Management Corporation (HMC) HMC is an alternative asset management firm with approximately $7.0 billion in regulatory assets under management as of December 31, 2019. HMC currently sponsors nine distinct investment strategies with dedicated investment teams. Additional information about HMC can be found at www.harbert.net. ________________________________

1 Permission to quote third parties was neither sought nor obtained. Emphasis added. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005284/en/

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The 20th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) was held at the Kigali Convention Centre in Kigali, Rwanda, from 2-7 December 2019. It attracted over 10,000 delegates from around the world, and featured a 3,500m exhibition - for which Scan Display Rwanda was contracted to supply shell scheme and custom package stands.

Scan Display Rwanda is South African exhibition and events supplier, Scan Displays Rwandan branch. The branch allows Scan Display to offer exhibition products and technology that are new to the Rwandan market.One such new product which Scan Display Rwanda provided for ICASA 2019 is the Tension Fabric System (TFS)  printed graphics which are stretched into frames to create walls and exhibition structures. It is a flexible system as the frames create modular structures. The decision to use TFS proved a wise one, as it allowed for last-minute modifications, says Alastair Stead, Scan Displays African Business Development Manager.A number of our clients also commented about how cost-effective it was to use our TFS package solution, compared to bringing in items from the UK, Canada or the US, adds Stead. Again, this is because of the compact, lightweight nature of TFS, which means its transport-related costs are minimal.The systems fabric graphics pack small and are lightweight, making them easy to transport. They can also be washed and re-used. Freight delays can sometimes cut into the available build-up time, but because assembling TFS is quick and easy, all the stands can be completed on time.Alastair Stead says, The clients on the ICASA show were thrilled with the quality of their stands and commented on the professional look and feel of the show.He continues, Having Tension Fabric System for ICASA 2019 has added a new dimension to the exhibition industry in Rwanda. The ICASA stands looked fantastic and we have had a number of enquires for other events.He added that Scan Display Rwanda has TFS stock in Rwanda, having just recently added another 50 3x3 metre fabric booths to the ICASA stock, for future projects.For more information about Scan Display Rwanda, please contact Alastair Stead on az.oc.yalpsidnacs@riatsala or +27 73 236 6618, or visit www.scandisplay.co.za
BAGHDADIraqi security forces fired teargas and live bullets in clashes on Sunday with protesters angered by high-level corruption. The protesters resisted with stones and petrol bombs, Reuters witnesses and security sources said.

One protester was killed in Baghdad, police sources said, and more than 100 demonstrators were hurt in the violence in the capital and several other cities after the security forces tried to clear sit-in protest camps, medical sources said.

Other medical sources said 75 of those hurt were in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where a Reuters witness said protesters set fire to two security vehicles. Hundreds of other demonstrators controlled key bridges in the city.

The protesters are demanding the removal of what they consider a corrupt ruling elite and an end to foreign interference in Iraqi politics, especially by Iran, which dominates state institutions.

Unrest resumed last week, after a lull of several weeks, following the U.S. killing of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi paramilitary chief in Baghdad this month.

The killing, to which Iran responded with ballistic missile attacks on two Iraqi military bases, has revived tensions in Iraqi politics and delayed the formation of a new government.

In Baghdad, protesters were coughing and washing their faces and eyes to rid themselves of the effects of teargas. At the same time, medical workers provided first aid, as the site was inaccessible to ambulances, a Reuters reporter said.

Tuk-tuks evacuated wounded protesters in clouds of tear gas and black smoke from burning tires.

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of university students had gathered in Tahrir square, the main protest camp, chanting slogans against the United States and Iran.

In the southern city of Basra, more than 2,000 students arrived at a protest camp, another Reuters witness said.

Protests also continued in the cities of Kerbala, Najaf, and Diwaniya, defying attempts by security forces to end their months-long sit-in, police sources and Reuters witnesses said.

In other violence, five Katyusha rockets landed on Sunday night in Baghdads Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, a military statement said. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but sources said the rockets landed near the U.S. embassy.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack, a statement from his office said, and said that the continuation of such acts could drag Iraq into becoming a battlefield.

Cleric Cancels March

Tens of thousands protested against the U.S. military presence in Iraq in a march on Friday.

Populist Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had also called for demonstrations against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other cities on Sunday but canceled them, with his office giving avoiding internal strife as the reason.

Sadr, who has millions of supporters in Baghdad and the south, said Saturday he would end his involvement in anti-government unrest.

We protest because we have a cause. I dont think Moqtada Sadr or any other politician will change our mind, said a protester in Baghdad who declined to give his name.

Sadrs supporters have bolstered the protesters and, at times, have helped shield them from attacks by security forces and unidentified gunmen, but began withdrawing from sit-in camps on Saturday following his announcement.

Security forces then removed concrete barriers near Baghdads Tahrir Square, where demonstrators have camped out for months, and across at least one main bridge over the Tigris River.

I dont go to protests often, but I came out today because of what they did yesterday. I want to express my solidarity with my brothers in Tahrir, said Hussain Ali, a student.

The Iraqi High Commission on Human Rights called on all sides to exercise self-restraint and keep demonstrations peaceful.

By Nadine Awadalla
The 22nd meeting of the Central Zonal Council (CZC) comprising Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh is scheduled to be held at Naya Raipur on January 28.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the meeting. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is the vice-chairman of the CZC and the host of the event.

"Other Chief Ministers from the states in the Zone along with two Ministers each are the members of CZC. Chief Secretaries and senior officers from the State Governments and the Union Government will also attend the meeting," reads a government release.

The last meeting of the Central Zonal Council was last held in Lucknow on September 24, 2018.

The Council takes up issues concerning Centre and States and member-States of the zone. The Zonal Councils are thus an effective platform for the resolution of inter-state disputes as well as irritants between Centre and member-States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Defence Department confirmed on Monday that a military jet crashed in Ghazni province in Afghanistan, but rejected Taliban suggestions that it was shot down.

Afghanistan US Forces spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett confirmed in a statement that the aircraft was a US Bombardier E-11A, a type of jet used as an airborne communications node in the region.

"While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire," Leggett said.

He gave no information on casualties in the crash.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Holocaust survivor has claimed that photos showing the liberation of Auschwitz aren't real, because none were taken at the Nazi-occupied concentration camp.

Anne Frank's step-sister Eva Schloss, 90, who was sent to the notorious camp in Nazi-occupied Poland at the age of 15, appeared on Good Morning Britain today to discuss the 75th anniversary of its liberation.

Eva was 23-years-old when her mother Fritzi married Otto Frank, making her the posthumous stepsister to Anne Frank, who had died eight years earlier in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

She spent eight months at Auschwitz before the camp was liberated, and avoided being taken on a death march by the Nazis who fled with prisoners to try to cover up their crimes, because she and her mother overslept and were left behind.

However, the survivor has alleged that pictures of Soviet Red Army liberating the camp are fake, because Russian soldiers hadn't brought cameras, and says there was a heavy snowfall at Auschwitz at the time, which isn't shown in pictures.

She claimed that the photos, which apparently show the liberation, were in fact taken at other camps, but she didn't give an explain her theory further in the interview.

Scroll down for video

Eva Schloss, 90,has claimed that photos showing the liberation of Auschwitz aren't real, as none were taken at the concentration camp

Like the Frank family, Eva and her family were discovered hiding in Amsterdam and Eva was sent to the notorious camp in Nazi-occupied Poland at the age of 15

She said: 'It wasn't just Auschwitz , they liberated all the camps in [Nazi-occupied] Poland and that is really not known.

'Another thing I wanted to point out, there are many pictures about the Russians liberating Auschwitz and there's never any snow.

'The snow was honestly that high, I was at the Russian embassy once and I said "Something puzzles me, those photos are fake".

'They said, "Well yes, they are not fakes", but when the army came they didn't have cameras they didn't take photographs.

Pictured allegedly showing soviet red army soldiers of the first Ukrainian front with liberated prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, 1945. Eva Schloss has now claimed that this and other photos were taken at another camp

Eva appeared on Good Morning Britain today to discuss the 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation

'Only much later they took pictures, you see now, but this is definitely not in Auschwitz and not the liberation of Auschwitz.'

It is estimated that 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz, and 1.1 million died there including 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans.

Eva told of her horrific experience in the camp, detaining the inhumane conditions of the Nazi-occupied camp, and telling how she would wake up to dead bodies in her shared bunk.

Eva was 23 years old when her mother Fritzi married Otto Frank, making her the posthumous stepsister to Anne Frank (pictured)

She said: 'This was an enormous area of concentration camps. There were tens of thousands of people in inhumane conditions, without food or clothing.

'With illnesses and lice, no toilets no drinking water, working in the hot summer the big snow, you slept in a bunk with eight people.'

She added how it was 'very awful' in the morning to find the person to you hadn't woken up, and you'd 'spent half the night next to a dead body'.

Like the Frank family, Eva and her family were discovered hiding in Amsterdam, arrested by Nazi soldiers and sent to a concentration camp when Eva was just 15.

Eva and her mother survived the notorious Auschwitz camp, however her father and brother didn't.

On their return to Amsterdam Fritzi fell in love with Otto Frank, the only member of the Frank family to survive the Holocaust, and they married in 1953.

She told of how she had originally thought her mother had been sent to her death after being selected to be gassed, and was forced to tell her father the news.

' My mother was actually selected to be gassed,' told Eva.

'We had to parade naked and if they thought you were too thin, you couldn't work anymore, you went to the wrong side.

Photo made available by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum showing prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp after the liberation of Auschwitz. However, Eva Schloss has claimed this photo was taken elsewhere and doesn't show Auschwitz

Photo made available by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum showing child prisoners in January 1945 showing their tattooed numbers on their arms after the death camp's liberation. Eva Schloss claims that the Red Army did not have cameras with them when they arrived at Auschwitz

'I thought I had lost her but again a miracle, she was not lost.'

When asked how she survived the horrific camp, Eva told how she simply felt too young to die, and wanted to go on and 'get married and have a family' - but says it was 'miracles' that saved her.

She said: 'For me it was when I was arrested on my 15th birthday, I didn't want to die, who wants to die when they're young?

'We had a beautiful life in Vienna, I wanted to get married and have a family so I never gave up.

'Never the less, without a miracle I wouldn't be here, little things that saved your life in some kind of ways.'
By PTI

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan health authorities on Monday said the country has its first confirmed case of a person infected with the new virus from China.

The patient is a Chinese woman in her 40s who arrived in Sri Lanka last week as a tourist from China's Hubei province, said Dr Sudath Samaraweera, chief epidemiologist of the country's health ministry.

The woman was suffering from a fever when she was admitted on Saturday to the island nation's Infectious Disease Hospital, a state-run facility that treats people suffering from potentially deadly infectious diseases.

Sri Lanka became a major travel destination for Chinese tourists in recent years.

Many Chinese nationals also work on Chinese-funded infrastructure projects - including a sea port, port city and highways.

Thousands of people have been sickened in China by the new virus and scores of people have died.
The Nigerian Senate is no longer investigating its 2018 invasion by men who forcibly removed the mace, a spokesperson has said.

The Senate spokesperson, Godiya Akwashiki (APC, Nasarawa North), made this known to journalists on Friday. He said the probe ended as soon as the eighth Senate rounded off and that the present ninth Senate cannot restart it, according to Vanguard newspaper.

He said it was impossible to do so since the immediate last Senate could not present and consider its findings.

Mace Theft

In April 2018, some men invaded the Senate chamber and carted away the mace which serves as a symbol of authority in the legislature.

The incident, executed in the full glare of lawmakers, journalists and other observers in the Senate Chamber of the National Assembly, bore the imprints of a security operation with at least two of the attackers identifying themselves as police officers.

It was the first in Nigerian history.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, was accused of leading the thugs into the chamber to steal the mace although the lawmaker has continually denied being involved in the incident.

A joint ad hoc committee was set up to investigate the Senate invasion and mace theft. The committee had summoned the lawmaker, alongside another senator, Ali Ndume, for allegedly aiding the hoodlums.

Although he appeared before the investigative panel, Mr Omo-Agege refused to answer questions. He told the panel that he had filed a court order restraining the public hearing and that speaking about his role would only amount to subjudice.

The ad hoc committee recommended that the lawmaker be suspended for 180 legislative days. It also called for the immediate prosecution of Mr Omo-Agege and six other suspects on charges of treasonable felony, assault occasioning harm, conspiracy to steal and theft of the mace.

Mace theft saga gone forever

When asked if the report of the mace snatching would come up in the present Senate, Mr Akwashiki said the Senate will not start a fresh probe of alleged involvement of Mr Omo- Agege in the matter.

As far as I am concerned, anything that affects the life of the eight National Assembly, any uncompleted report, has expired with the life of the last Assembly. If it is a bill that was passed but not assented to, or any other uncompleted billhas expired with the life of the eight Assembly, he was quoted as saying.

As far as the ninth National Assembly is concerned, even if we want to enact a bill, we have to start it afresh. Anything unresolved issue in the eight Assembly has gone forever. So, the implication is that the report of mace snatching has gone with the eight Senate.

Although the ad hoc committee had called for his suspension, an Abuja high court restrained the National Assembly leadership and eight others from considering the report of the ad-hoc committee.

The court said the restraining order shall remain, pending the determination of a suit filed by Mr Omo-Agege.

Mr Omo-Agege was elected Deputy President of the Senate on July 11 amidst condemnation from opposition parties and civic groups who have said he should be prosecuted for coordinating the mace theft.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

Azerbaijan will put forward its candidacy to host 20 large-scale business events in 2020, Director of the Azerbaijan Convention Bureau (AzCB) Sevda Aliyeva said at the 10th Eurasian Event Forum in St. Petersburg, Trend reports.

The participants of the event were informed about the contribution of large-scale events to the development of tourism in Azerbaijan, the work done in the country towards the development of the industry of business events, as well as existing business opportunities in the tourism sector.

The event was attended by over 500 representatives of associations and unions specialized in business events from 20 regions of Russia and eight foreign countries. The forum held panel discussions on topics such as various areas of the business events' industry, current trends, promotion and other issues.

The main goal of the AzCB under the Azerbaijan Tourism Board is to conduct large-scale international events in the country in the field of tourism, to increase the country's prestige in business tourism.
A company employing 352 people in providing a contact centre service for Irish Water has challenged a tender process leading to another company being awarded a 63m contract to provide such a service for some seven years.

Among the claims by Abtran Unlimited Company is that Irish Water acted unlawfully in allegedly accepting an "unlawfully low" tender from Capita Customer Solutions Ltd.

The contact centre is intended as a service allowing Irish Water customers contact it about issues including water quality and water supply.

In court documents, a solicitor for Irish Water said the operation of the contact centre "is of significant value to the general public" in their dealings with the company.

The challenge concerns the process leading to the award to Capita last November of the single party framework for supply of contract centre services to Irish Water.

Abtran, with registered offices in Blackrock Business Park, Cork, is the current provider of the contact services at issue under a contract with an expiry date in July 2020.

Abtran says it has been providing such services, via a staff of 352 people based at a dedicated premises in Cork, since 2013.

It claims the contract awarded to Capita involved no major change to the services Abtran has been providing.

Among various claims, it alleges Irish Water had wrongfully discriminated against Abtran and had failed to disclose to Abtran all of the relevant criteria and/or sub-criteria and/or requirements in its evaluation of the Abtran tender.

At the Commercial Court today, Eileen Barrington SC, for Irish Water, said the case concerned a procurement contract with a value of about 63m over a number of years.

She said there was "no active opposition" to Irish Water's application for fast-tracking of the case in the commercial list.

Counsel said Irish Water is concerned about the automatic suspension of the contract triggered by the legal challenge and may bring an application to lift that, counsel outlined. There are talks between the sides on the suspension issue, she added.

Catherine Donnelly BL, for Abtran, confirmed there has been communication between the sides concerning the suspension issue.

Mr Justice Barniville said he would admit the case to the Commercial Court and noted there may be an application to lift the suspension. Because of the talks between the sides, he adjourned further directions to next week.
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: Rajasthan became the first state in the country to pass a resolution against CAA, NRC and NPR earlier today.

The resolution which was presented and tabled by State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal drew the ire of the BJP MLAs in the house who objected by chanting slogans.

Kerala and Punjab state legislative Assemblies in the past have only passed resolutions against CAA, which made Rajasthan the first to implement against all three.

The resolution stated that CAA violated the basic spirit of the constitution. That it is feared by a large section of people in the country and that Census work should be done only after the withdrawal of the new provisions under NPR.

The resolution also mentioned that recent amendments made through the Citizenship Amendment Act differentiated between people on religious grounds. It was designed to deprive citizenship of India to a section of individuals. Further, it stated that it was for the first time after India gained independence, that a law has been brought which was discriminatory and hence put the country's secular fabric at risk.

The resolution also said that since there was a clear statement in the constitution that India is a secular country, it cannot be changed or altered in any form. It also quoted Article 14 of the Constitution that provides for equality before the law or equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Adding that CAA would deprive people of equality as its prime goal is to differentiate illegal immigrants on the basis of religion and that such discrimination is not in conformity with the constitution.

After the resolution was passed, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted: #Rajasthan Assembly has passed a resolution today against the #CAA and we have urged the Central govt to repeal the law as it discriminates against people on religious grounds, which violates the provisions of our Constitution.

In his second tweet Gehlot remarked: Our Constitution prohibits any kind of discrimination. This is the first time in the history of the nation that a law has been enacted which discriminates people on religious grounds. It violates secular principles of our constitution and also Article 14 of our Constitution.

Meanwhile, BJP opposition leaders were evidently irked at the passage of the resolution.

"When Parliament has passed this law (CAA) then why are you not enforcing it? No power of the world can stop this," said party state president Satish Poonia.

However, Rajasthan government has gone one step ahead with state Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra announcing that reading the preamble of the constitution before the morning assembly will now be mandatory in all government schools.

"An atmosphere of hate has been created in the country. It is very dangerous to maintain such an environment in a tolerant country like India. Therefore, our government has decided to teach the Preamble to the Constitution in schools with a view to increase the faith in the Constitution of children and to build a tolerant society," said Dotasra.
San Diego, California - Arch Health Partners, Inc. (Arch Health) has agreed to pay the United States $2,910,370 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare. Arch Health is a San Diego-based medical organization that contracts with physician groups to provide care through the Palomar Health system.

The United States alleged that Arch Health violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims for federal reimbursement for medical evaluation and management services absent sufficient documentation regarding the nature and complexity of the services provided. Those particular allegations were originally brought in a lawsuit filed by a former employee of Arch Health, Catherine Jones, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which allow private citizens with knowledge of fraud against the government to bring suit on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery. Ms. Jones will receive $183,830 of the settlement proceeds. The United States also alleged, based on certain self-disclosures by Arch Health, that it paid compensation to referring physicians and physician groups that was above fair market value in violation of the Anti-Kickback Act, the Stark Statute, and, by extension, the False Claims Act.

Improper billing practices and unlawful financial arrangements with referring health care providers present serious program integrity concerns, said United States Attorney Robert S. Brewer, Jr. This civil settlement confirms our commitment to civil health care fraud enforcement as a key component of the mission of our office. We also commend the whistleblower for coming forward and working with our investigators.

When companies falsely claim payment for services, taxpayers and government health programs are both victimized, said Timothy B. DeFrancesca, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who would harm these programs.

This $2.9 million dollar settlement demonstrates how these violations have a significant and direct economic impact on the health care industry, said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Scott Brunner. Our priority is to protect consumers and hold accountable those in the healthcare system who misuse government health programs.

The investigation was conducted by the United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. Attorney Brewer commended the excellent work by AUSA Glen Dorgan of the offices Civil Division, whose diligence was a major factor in resolving this matter.

This case is captioned United States ex rel. Jones v. Arch Health Partners, Inc., et al., Case No. 3:17-cv-0090-MMA-BLM, and the matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Glen F. Dorgan of the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit of the U.S. Attorneys Office.
People visit Estee Lauder booth on day two of the 2nd China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on November 6, 2019 in Shanghai, China. The 2nd China International Import Expo (CIIE) is held in Shanghai on November 5-10. (Photo by Xu Congjun/VCG via Getty Images)

Check out the companies making headlines midday Monday:

Estee Lauder  Shares of the cosmetic company sunk more than 5% following a downgrade from Oppenheimer to perform from outperform on heightened fear about the spreading deadly coronavirus. The Chinese consumer has represented a key driver in Estee Lauder's business in recent years, offsetting weakness in the United States, Oppenheimer noted. Credit Suisse estimates the makeup company has about 17% revenue exposure in China. Oppenheimer lowered its price target on Estee Lauder to $210 per share from $230 per share.

American Express  American Express shares dipped more than 3% after an analyst at Stephens downgraded them to equal weight from overweight. The analyst noted the downgrade was based on valuations, adding he doesn't see a "material catalyst" to drive the shares higher in 2020.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals  Inovio Pharmaceuticals surged 23% after the biotech company said last week it was granted $9 million by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. The stock has rallied nearly 60% in the past week. However, analysts have warned the company could still be years away from any vaccine for commercial production.

Clorox  As the broader market sold off on China virus worries, shares of Clorox rose more than 2%. Investors bought into the consumer goods manufacturer, which makes disinfecting wipes that kill bacteria and prevent the spread of diseases.

Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts  Shares of major hotel and casino chains dropped on fears the coronavirus would dent travel. Through the third day of the Chinese New Year holiday, Macau visits were down 60% year-over-year, according to Deutsche Bank. Wynn Resorts was also downgraded by Bank of America to neutral from buy on Monday. The firm lowered its price target to $150 per share from $160 per share. Shares of Wynn Resorts dropped 7.6%, shares of Las Vegas Sands tanked 7.3% and MGM Resorts fell 2.3%.

Nike  Shares of Nike fell 1.8% amid the deepening coronavirus fears. The retailer has high revenue exposure to China, generating roughly 17% sales each year from mainland China, according to Credit Suisse estimates. The bank said it could see a 3% to 5% decrease in earnings per share next quarter if the virus continues to spread.

Micron Technology, Nvidia  The chipmakers dropped 4% and 4.6%, respectively, as worries over how the coronavirus would impact the global economy increased. Micron was on pace for its biggest decline since Oct. 18, while Nvidia headed for its worst session since Aug. 23.

American Airlines  Shares of the airline slid more than 6% and was among the travel-related stocks under pressure Monday as the number of deaths from the coronavirus rose. United Airlines, Delta and Hawaiian Holdings were all down more than 4% as investors weighed the impact from a potential global slowdown in air travel.

Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Concho Resources  Energy stocks followed oil prices lower amid growing fears of a global economic slowdown. Chevron and Exxon slid 1.4% and 2%, respectively, while Concho dropped 4.8%. U.S. crude prices slid 2.5%.

CNBC's Yun Li, Maggie Fitzgerald, and Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.
South African Airways could receive another R8 billion from the government, according to a report from the City Press.

The newspaper reported that Minister of Finance Tito Mbowenis plans to liquidate SAA and start a new airline were thwarted during a meeting of the ANCs national executive committee (NEC) last week.

The party wants the government to rather restructure SAA and create a new profitable airline under the struggling carriers brand, an endeavour which will cost R8 billion.

This is in addition to the pending provision of R2 billion which SAA is set to receive as part of its business rescue process.

National Treasury missed the deadline to provide these funds last week.

Not a bailout

According to an insider in the governments economic cluster, the additional R8 billion cannot be considered a bailout.

The state will need money to finance a restructuring. It is not a bailout. If you are starting a new airline under the SAA brand, then you are going to finance it anyway, the insider stated.

The decision was supposedly made to avoid the possibility of a R50-billion loss if SAA was to be liquidated immediately, as well as the prospect of a credit rating downgrade for the country.

Liquidation could further lead to lenders calling in their credit at other SOEs.

Desperate measures

The new funding comes at a time when SAA is suffering severe financial woes.

It was placed in business rescue in December 2019 and has in recent weeks taken several steps in what appeared to be an attempt to avert total bankruptcy.

On 16 January, it announced it was selling nine of its Airbus A340 planes, several of which are still flying on routes to France, New York, Germany, and Australia.

On Tuesday, it announced it was cancelling a number of domestic and international flights to cut costs.

The national airline has a total debt of more than R12 billion.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Governor of Another Kind

TRIBUTE

Shri. T.N. Chaturvedi, was a Governor of another kind. I had a personal experience of witnessing how he conducted the business of a Governor. It was exemplary. He kept a distance from both bureaucracy and civil society but was always there as an arbiter of justice.

I had three close encounters with him as a citizen of Bangalore during his governorship. The first revealed both his magnanimity and his consciousness of what can be called national events, national initiatives. In other words, he was not limited to the State but brought the Central Government into the State. This was when I was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President at that time, Dr Abdul Kalam. He organised a reception for all those from Karnataka who had received Padma Awards, not only that year but in other years too.

Another virtue was his deep interest in what I would like to call justice or the implementation of the law. This was related to land rights and the land revenue department of the State Government, under political influences, especially caste-driven political interventions, were influencing the revenue department and its perception of the ownership of a piece of private land. This land had been converted to be part of a public trust and its activities.

Builders and other vested interests had somehow influenced the bureaucracy in the revenue department to challenge this legal entitlement. Shri Chaturvedi took charge of this and got the maps and the files from the revenue department, examined the case and ensured that there would be no political interference in the implementation and the reverence to the rule of law.

A third illustration: Governors are usually the presiding authorities of the university structure. As a member of the syndicate and at one time its chair I found that administering the syndicate was constantly being undermined by caste lobbies. Again Shri Chaturvedi was able to intervene and ensure that as much as possible the university administration was functioning without being dragged into the net of patronage and therefore rule breaking.

These are only a few examples from personal experience that on the whole, citizens of Bangalore and Karnataka experienced, the kind of moral and intellectual leadership of a Governor in a way that had never been before. He was distant but he was also near, he was warm- hearted but not malleable, he was accessible but there was a protocol.

Many years later I met him in Delhi as the Chairman of the Governing Body of the IIPA, the Institute of Public Administration He always attended the annual events, and in this case it was an event in memory of a faculty member who had passed away. He presided over one of the event where I gave the memorial lecture. It was so empowering to hear him speak about Bangalore and the friendship to a Delhi audience which would find it, as if it came from another world.

Exemplary as a term would be insufficient to describe Shri Chaturvedi. Perhaps we should say exemplary raised to the power of exemplary. We miss him and he well deserves the rest that comes with leaving this world. May his soul rest in peace.
Uttarakhand Congress Committee Secretary Harish Dhami on Monday resigned from his post bringing infighting in the party's unit to the fore.

Dharchula MLA Dhami said he resigned from the post as the new members of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) were given more importance despite the fact that they have never won an election.

The new PCC team announced on Saturday includes almost all main party leaders.

Dhami, known to be close aide of AICC general secretary and former chief minister Harish Rawat, is a three time MLA from Dharchula seat in Pithoragarh district.

He denied that Rawat told him to to step down from the post.

"Harish Rawat is no doubt my guru but I take my own decisions," Dhami said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lumbee Tribe is mourning the death of Terry Hunt, the president of Lumbee Tribe Enterprises

Hunt was on overseas business in Kenya for the tribe's economic development arm when he became ill. He passed away on Sunday, according to a statement shared on social media

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is deeply saddened by the loss of Mr. Terry Hunt," Chairman Harvey Godwin, Jr., said in the statement. "Terry was dedicated to serving our Tribe and the Lumbee people will be forever grateful of his work on the Tribal Council and as President of LTE. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hunt Family during this time."

With the passing of Terry Hunt, LTE has suffered a major loss," said Caleb A. Malcolm, chairman of the enterprise board. "The LTE family will work tirelessly to ensure the timely return of Terry to his family through the Embassy. Notwithstanding that loss, the Board is confident that the rest of the LTE team will capitalize on the foundation that Terry has built.

Hunt was a retired law enforcement officer in North Carolina. He served as chief of police in the city of Fairmont.

"Even after retirement Chief Hunt was involved in his community while serving with the Lumbee Tribe," the Fairmont Police Department said on social media . "The community has taken a big loss."

"Terry was a true public servant that will surely be missed," Sheriff Burnis Wilkins of Robeson County , where the Lumbee Tribe is based, said on social media.

Lumbee Tribe Enterprises is a tribally-established business that mostly provides services through government contracts.

Read More on the Story

It is with great sadness that we announce that Terry L. Hunt, President of Lumbee Tribe Enterprises LLC, died today in... Posted by Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina on Sunday, January 26, 2020

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Mr. Terry Hunt. Terry was a great public servant,... Posted by Robeson County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, January 26, 2020

The Fairmont Police Department is sad to announce that retired Chief Terry Hunt passed away this morning. Chief Hunt was... Posted by Fairmont Police Department on Sunday, January 26, 2020

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 21:13:37|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ZAGREB, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The priority of Croatia's presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) is to reach an agreement on a multi-annual financial framework for the period 2021 to 2027 as soon as possible, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday.

Plenkovic made the remarks when, together with Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, met here with representatives of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) of the European Parliament.

The prime minister said the coming months are key to the deal and that Croatia will contribute and work closely with European Council President Charles Michel to reach a compromise between EU member states ahead of the Feb. 20 summit in Brussels.

Maric told the representatives of BUDG that Croatia supports the creation of a budgetary framework that will be realistic but also efficient enough to meet all the needs and priorities of the EU, as well as all citizens of the member states.

Committee Chairman Johan Van Overveldt, who also chairs the European Parliament's budgetary negotiation team, also believes that the following months are crucial to reaching an agreement.

"A constructive solution must be found very quickly so that even after Brexit, when there will be far less money in the budget, a multi-annual financial framework that will satisfy all citizens could be adopted," said Johan Van Overveldt after the meeting.
A tidal power project in waters off the north coast of Scotland sent more than 13.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to the grid last year, according to an operational update issued Monday. This figure  a record  almost doubled the previous high of 7.4 GWh in 2018.

In total, the MeyGen tidal stream array has now exported more than 25.5 GWh of electricity to the grid since the start of 2017, according to owners Simec Atlantis Energy. Phase 1A of the project is made up of four 1.5 megawatt (MW) turbines.

The 13.8 GWh of electricity exported in 2019 equates to the average yearly electricity consumption of roughly 3,800 "typical" homes in the U.K., according to the company, with revenue generation amounting to 3.9 million ($5.09 million).

Onshore maintenance is now set to be carried out on the AR1500 turbine used by the scheme, with Atlantis aiming to redeploy the technology in spring.

In addition to the production of electricity, Atlantis is also planning to develop an "ocean-powered data centre" near the MeyGen project.

The European Commission has described "ocean energy" as being both abundant and renewable. It's estimated that ocean energy could potentially contribute roughly 10% of the European Union's power demand by the year 2050, according to the Commission.

While tidal power has been around for decades  EDF's 240 MW La Rance Tidal Power Plant in France was built as far back as 1966  recent years have seen a number of new projects take shape.

In December last year, Scottish tidal energy business Nova Innovation was issued with a permit to develop a project in Nova Scotia, Canada.

In an announcement at the time, the firm said a total of 15 tidal stream turbines would be installed by the year 2023. The project, according to the firm, will produce enough electricity to power 600 homes.

Elsewhere, a business called Orbital Marine Power is developing what it describes as the "world's most powerful tidal turbine."

The company says the turbine will have a swept area of more than 600 square meters and be able to generate "over 2 MW from tidal stream resources." It will use a 72-meter-long "floating superstructure" to support two 1 MW turbines.
NEW YORK - As she tried to fight off Harvey Weinsteins advances, Mimi Haleyi told him no, no, no before he held her down on a bed and forcibly performed oral sex on her, she said in emotional testimony Monday at Weinsteins trial.

Haleyi, one of two women whose assault accusations led to Weinsteins trial, took the stand Monday and, at times sobbing, detailed her allegation that the disgraced movie mogul sexually assaulted her at his New York City apartment in 2006.

I did reject him, but he insisted. Every time I tried to get off the bed, he would push me back and hold me down, the former Project Runway production assistant testified, adding that she told Weinstein she was menstruating in an attempt to deter him.

Haleyi, now 42, told jurors she thought, Im being raped, and considered different options. If I scream rape, will someone hear me? she wondered.

I checked out and decided to endure it, she said. That was the safest thing I could do.

Haleyi is the first of the two women at the heart of the case to take the stand at his trial. A total of six accusers are expected to testify, but because of the statute of limitations and other legal technicalities, Weinstein is charged in only two incidents: The alleged rape of an aspiring actress in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and the alleged sexual assault of Haleyi. Under New York law applicable at the time, Weinstein is not being charged with rape in connection with Haleyis accusations.

Weinstein, 67, has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.

One of his attorneys, Damon Cheronis, used his cross examination to zero in on Haleyis continued relationship with Weinstein after the alleged assault.

He showed jurors a friendly email she sent him after they ran into each other at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Cheronis pointed to calendar entries and emails that show Haleyi meeting with Weinstein, pitching him on a television show and travelling at his expense to Los Angeles and London. When they couldnt connect before she left London, she sent him an email lamenting: totally bummed to have missed you guys.

Haleyi conceded shed been in contact with Weinstein not often, but yes occasionally and that she sent the 2008 email after a newspaper article reminded her of a conversation they had weeks before the alleged assault.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they agree to be named as Haleyi has.

Haleyi went public with her allegations at an October 2017 news conference, appearing in front of cameras alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents Sciorra and other Weinstein accusers.

Haleyi, born in Helsinki, Finland, and raised in Sweden, said she met Weinstein while in her 20s at the 2004 London premiere of the Leonardo DiCaprio film The Aviator.

They crossed paths again in Cannes in 2006 and, when she expressed interest in working on one of his productions, he invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage. She declined, saying she was extremely humiliated.

More meetings followed, and Weinstein secured Haleyi a job helping on the set of Project Runway, the reality competition show he produced. She testified that before the alleged assault, Weinstein showed up at her apartment and begged her to join him on a trip to Paris for a fashion show.

At one point, because I just didnt know how to shut it down so to speak. ... So I said, You know you have a terrible reputation with women, Ive heard, Haleyi testified.

The then-revered Hollywood honcho got offended, she said. He stepped back and said, What have you heard?

Asked by prosecutor Meghan Hast if she had any romantic or sexual interest in Weinstein, Haleyi firmly answered: Not at all, no.

Haleyi also described a second encounter a few weeks after the alleged assault in a Tribeca hotel room where she said she went numb as he took her hand, pulled her toward the bed and had intercourse with her.

She said she didnt call the police because she was working in the U.S. on a tourist visa and was scared of Weinsteins power, telling jurors: Obviously, Mr. Weinstein has a lot more power and resources and connections and so forth. I didnt think Id stand a chance.

Haleyi said she just felt like an idiot for letting Weinstein convince her to meet again, but thought seeing him could help her regain power as she tried to make sense of the alleged assault.

Haleyi said she didnt want to have sex with Weinstein that night, but during Cheronis cross examination, she was asked whether Weinstein forced her to have sex during that encounter.

No, Haleyi said.

Weinstein was jotting notes in a thick yellow notebook through most of Haleyis account, but looked at her and shook his head when she described their encounter. Weinstein has not been charged in connection with that incident.

The jury of seven men and five women heard last week from Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who testified that Weinstein overpowered and raped her after barging into her apartment in the mid-1990s. While outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges, Sciorras allegations could be a factor as prosecutors look to prove Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behaviour.

Jurors also heard from Dr. Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who said that most sex assault victims continue to have contact with their attackers, often under threat of retaliation if the victims tell anyone what happened.

On the stand Monday, Haleyi said she dealt with the alleged assaults by compartmentalizing, occasionally interacting with Weinstein on a professional basis bypassing along scripts from friends or discussing work opportunities.

Honestly, I didnt know how to deal with it so its almost like I put it away in a box, like it didnt happen and I just carried along as usual, Haleyi said.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Mimi Haleyi was born in Helsinki, Finland, not England as prosecutors initially said.

___

On Twitter, follow Tom Hays at twitter.com/aptomhays and Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak

___

For more coverage visit: apnews.com/HarveyWeinstein
By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's monthly palm oil imports from Malaysia could fall to the lowest level in nearly nine years in January as traders stopped buying the tropical oil from Kuala Lumpur following informal instructions from New Delhi, traders and refiners told Reuters.

Lower imports by India, the world's biggest palm oil importer, could weigh on Malaysian prices that have corrected nearly a tenth after hitting a three-year peak earlier this month.

In the second week of January New Delhi privately urged palm oil importers to boycott Malaysian products after the country's Prime Minister criticised India's actions in Kashmir and its new citizenship law.

Some traders had been hoping state-run trading firms could buy refined palm oil for the public distribution system by floating tenders, but this does not seem to have materialised.

"No one is buying Malaysia's crude palm oil (CPO) or palmolein for February shipments. There are no open tenders from state agencies yet," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

India is set to import less than 70,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in January, the lowest since April 2011 and significantly lower than the 253,889 tonnes it imported in January 2019, traders and refiners said.

In February imports could be negligible at less than 10,000 tonnes as almost every Indian buyer has switched to Indonesia, they said.

"Traders stopped buying from Malaysia after the government gave verbal instructions. This month's shipments are from the contracts signed before the government instructions," said a Mumbai-based dealer with one global trading firm.

In 2019, India imported 4.4 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia, with average monthly imports of 367,459 tonnes, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) data showed.

Indonesian sellers are currently charging a premium around $25 per tonne over CPO supplies from Malaysia, but "we have little choice but to buy," said an Indian refiner, which had shifted its entire buying to Indonesia.

Story continues

India's palm oil imports from Indonesia could be around 550,000 tonnes in January, said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of the Sunvin Group, a Mumbai-based vegetable oil importer.

Indonesia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil, followed by Malaysia.

Palm oil accounts for nearly two-thirds of India's total edible oil imports. India buys more than 9 million tonnes of palm oil annually, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Even in coming months, Indian imports would be negligible from Malaysia, unless the Indian government changes its stance," said an importer based at Indore in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Additional reporting by Mei Mei Chu in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by David Holmes)
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: There seems to be no end to the unrest in AMU as hundreds of students blocked the main Aligarh-Moradabad Highway overnight till Monday morning demanding the release of a student who was held for allegedly heckling Vice Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor during his Republic Day speech on Sunday.

As per the official sources of AMU, the blockade, which started on Sunday evening, continued till 2 am. However, it finally ended at 11 am following the assurance of the police administration that the arrested student A Mujtaba Faraz would be released soon.

The AMU Vice-Chancellor was heckled by a group of students during his Republic Day speech soon after he termed as "unfortunate" the recent happenings on the campus and said peaceful protests would be allowed on any issue within the ambit of the law. As the Vice-Chancellor was giving his concluding remarks, a group of students raised

slogans  V-C go back-- demanding his removal and a minor tussle ensued between two groups of students in the audience before the security staff chipped in, according to eyewitnesses.

Four students -- Tahir Azmi, Rafiuddin, Sudhir Gulati and A Mujtaba Faraz-- were whisked away by the security staff and taken to the Proctor's office. They were then handed over to police by the university authorities.

In the afternoon, a group of protesters gathered at AMU Proctor's office demanding their release. Three students were later freed by the police.

While talking to media persons, AMU Proctor, Prof Afifullah Khan, said three students were released whereas Faraz was sent to jail. Responding to the news, students in large number gathered at Purani Chungi gate of the University and blocked the Aligarh-Moradabad Highway. Consequently, the university administration had to cancel exams of the AMU Engineering College slated for Monday.

Meanwhile, a group of teachers and top university officials met senior district officials to facilitate the release of Faraz.

The protests on AMU campus against the amended Citizenship Amendment Bill have not ebbed since mid-December. After the winter vacations of around a month, the protests have been continuing on the campus and over 1,200 students, including unidentified ones, have been booked in about a dozen-odd cases connected to different protests.

The students are reportedly enraged with the Vice-Chancellor for calling the cops on campus on December 15, 2019, when the students were protesting against police action on their counterparts in Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi. They are demanding the resignation of top University officials including the registrar and the V-C for failing to secure justice for those students who face police action during anti-CAA stir.

Security arrangements in and around the AMU campus have been further beefed up.
Who can ever remember why President Andrew Johnson was impeached? And who can ever forget why President Bill Clinton was?

A quick check of Google reminds us that Johnson was impeached over the long-forgotten Retention in Office Act. Boooorrrring.

But Bill Clinton, now that dude knew how to provoke a memorable impeachment controversy. His had the three principal elements of gripping drama: Sex, sex and sex.

That was 22 years ago, but everybody remembers the salacious storyline, if not any of the legal minutiae involved.

Ol horndog Bill got caught up in a sexual-harassment suit from his days as Arkansas governor involving Paula Jones, a lowly state employee.

In a circuitous way, that litigation led to the disclosure of Clintons later lascivious liaisons in the White House with a young intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Strictly XXX-rated stuff. America soon found itself bandying about a Latin term  and not Veni, vidi, vici.

Even today, all these years later, if you Google spotted blue dress you get millions of hits.

Yet the Senate didnt come close to mustering the two-thirds, 67 votes to convict Clinton. And he was cited for committing specific crimes, unlike the amorphous case against President Trump.

On a grand jury perjury impeachment count, the Clinton vote was 55-45 not guilty, with 10 Republicans backing him. On an obstruction-of-justice count, the vote was a 50-50 tie, with five Republicans supporting the president.

Clintons presidency survived. Nobody says today, in Nancy Pelosis words, that Clinton remains impeached forever, that he is eternally tainted.

Today he seems to be regarded more or less fondly as a charming if somewhat lecherous rogue.

Its largely forgotten history that he anted up $800,000 to settle the Paula Jones suit, paid an $80,000 fine for making false statements under oath in a federal court deposition and is the only president to have been stripped of his lawyers license.

Everybody, however, remembers the spotted blue dress, the cigar, and the impressive ability he showed to compartmentalize by taking a White House call while being pleasured by the intern.

In the minds of his countrymen, the statue of William Jefferson Clinton depicts him pointing with bent finger and squinting with fake sincerity into the TV camera. The words engraved at the base are: I.did.not. have.sex.with.that.woman.

Yet he can still fetch $250,000 or more, plus expenses, for a speech.

As for poor old Andy Johnson, hes generally held in much lower regard than Clinton, although nobody cant quite say why.

Johnson had been Republican Abe Lincolns VP, but he was actually a Democrat himself. Hed been a staunch foe of secession, and Lincoln picked him, a Tennessean, to balance the ticket.

The Radical Republicans of Capitol Hill hated Johnson from the moment he took office upon Lincolns assassination.

A bit like todays sanctimonious liberals, the Radical Republicans were certain of their own righteousness and equally certain of the oppositions total lack of it.

The Radical Republicans were right about one big thing  their opposition to slavery. Slavery, of course, had powerful Democrat friends. Liberals later, likewise, would be right about one big thing  their opposition to racial segregation, which, likewise, had powerful Democrat friends.

The Radical Republicans viewed the southerner Johnson as being too soft on the recently defeated Confederacy. No deft politician like Lincoln, he incited impeachment sentiment with his vetoes of reconstruction bills punitive to the South, measures contrary to the policy Lincoln had proclaimed.

Johnsons flouting of the Retention in Office Act proved to be the political bridge too far. The highly dubious act barred a president from removing one of his own cabinet members without Senate approval. The Senate had passed the legislation over Johnsons veto.

The defiant Johnson, confident the act was unconstitutional (as is now widely agreed), used a loophole to sidestep the law. While Congress was adjourned, he fired the Secretary of War, Radical Republican Edwin M. Stanton, a Lincoln appointee.

All hell erupted. The Senate voted to restore Stanton based on the Retention In Office Act. Stanton, meanwhile, refused to go, barricading himself in his office. When his replacement arrived, an old war-horse general named Lorenzo Thomas, Stanton had him placed under arrest.

Ah, those must have been tumultuous, fun-filled days!

In the final act of the drama, the Senate fell a single vote short of the then 36 votes needed to remove Johnson from office.

The vote was 35-19 for removal, with 10 Republicans joining nine Democrats in support of Johnson. A Kansas Republican, Edmund Ross, cast the decisive vote that

saved Johnsons presidency. Ross was later hailed in John F. Kennedys Profiles in Courage.

Johnson never went on to cash in the huge book advances and speech fees that Bill Clinton later did. But he did win a vindication of sorts.

After his rancor-filled presidency, he returned to Tennessee and won election to a U.S. Senate seat, the only former president ever to do so. He died in that office.

As for the legislation that ignited the great impeachment hoo-ha, the Retention in Office Act was uneventfully taken off the books in 1887.

And in a 1926 case involving the presidential removal of a postmaster, the U.S. Supreme Court all but retroactively declared unconstitutional the act that had come within a single vote of toppling a presidency and precipitating national chaos.

All of which likely puts the civics class into a deep snooze. And the impeachment trial of Donald Trump seems unlikely to rouse it.

The case against Trump is even more gossamer than the case against Johnson was. And its every bit as driven by boring, byzantine, partisan politics.

Also, both cases were constructed on the same wobbly opposition premise: We cant stand the guy!

Democrats are seeking to give Trump the heave-ho in a sleazy controversy involving a prominent politician and his sons cushy deal with a shady Ukrainian oil and gas company.

The prominent politician admits  indeed, brags  that he threatened to withhold $1 billion of U.S. aid from Ukraine unless officials there fired the countrys top prosecutor. The prosecutor says he was investigating the eyebrow-raising arrangements the politicians son had with the Ukrainian oil and gas company.

If the key figures in question had been Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr., Democrats at this point surely would be rubbing their hands in gleeful anticipation. Probably also salivating, maybe even wetting their pants.

The problem is, however, that the figures involved in the compromising situation were, of course, Joe Biden and son Hunter, not Donald Trump and Donald Jr.

The Democrats impeachment maintains, in effect, that cops should ignore a million-dollar Brinks heist outside a bank to pursue the shoplifting of a candy bar in the 7-Eleven next door.

The Trump impeachment maintains that its a high crime for a president to request that a foreign leader look into a potentially corrupt matter involving hundreds of millions of U.S. aid dollars.

The impeachment would remove Trump on the unproven, in fact unprovable, suspicion that he had a political motive when he asked Ukrainian authorities to look into the suspected Biden shenanigans.

Speculated motives, of course, dont constitute a misdemeanor, much less a high crime. Having a political motive is not illegal per se. Were it otherwise, wed soon run out of prison cells for our politicians.

While Democrat and media juntistas are eager to keelhaul Trump on political suspicions alone, they insist, on the other hand, that theres no cause for concern whatsoever when a vice president, threatening to hold back $1 billion of U.S. aid, demands a foreign prosecutor be fired who allegedly was investigating matters involving the vice presidents son.

But even more damaging to this impeachment case than its glaringly flimsy and contradictory premise is its lack of hanky-panky to appeal to prurient interest and drive up TV ratings.

Before proceeding further, Democrats might want to review the Bill Clinton case for ideas on making their impeachment gambit more of a draw to the key television audience demographics.

The Democrat and media juntistas have been saying, nonstop, that Trump is a stupid, crude, lying, sexist, racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic, economy-wrecking, environment-destroying, war-mongering, Russia-conniving, fraudulent, lawless ogre.

If so, this is the best case they could concoct against him?

Cmon.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Insisting he is not a bad person, a 63-year-old repeat offender asked a judge to go easy on him at his sentencing Friday for peddling drugs multiple times.

I apologize to the court, graying defendant Michael Hamilton said. I ask the court to grant me some leniency. I was in a (substance-abuse) program, and I fell off the track.  Im not a bad person. I just want to get home.

But Justice Mario F. Mattei said he couldnt in good conscience sentence Hamilton to two years, the minimum end of his plea-negotiated sentencing range.

Especially since the Stapleton resident had recruited his daughter, a 40-year-old with drug issues, to help with his sales.

This is a continuation of his life of crime, which I dont think anyone can deny, Mattei said. I recognize that he is not a kingpin, but I still cant get over that he had his daughter involved in selling drugs. That went on for a long time. It sticks in my craw.

The judge said a fathers job is to protect his children.

Mattei also said he believed the defendant sold drugs to other people besides the officers.

Mattei sentenced Hamilton to five years behind bars and two years post-release supervision.

Hamilton was accused of selling cocaine on nine occasions to an undercover cop between April and November of 2018.

Last November, the defendant pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance to resolve his case. It was the top charge against him.

Assistant District Attorney John Hall asked Mattei to impose the maximum sentence under the plea agreement  seven years.

He said Hamilton, over the years, has racked up more than 50 misdemeanor convictions and three felony convictions.

This defendant has been living a life of crime for decades, said Hall.

Defense lawyer Mark J. Fonte sought the minimum, calling the defendant a gentle soul.

He is the poster child for the horror and scourge of the narcotics epidemic, Fonte. His life has been destroyed the by the scourge of narcotics.

The defendant is certainly not a danger to society, said Fonte. He is certainly not a kingpin. Hes at the lowest level. This is your typical drug addict who cant get the monkey off his back.

Later, outside court, Fonte said he understood the judges rationale in imposing the sentence.

One cannot argue with Judge Matteis accurate assessment of the situation, said Fonte. A father involving his daughter in criminal activity is indefensible.
Imperial Valley News Center

Mustafa Al-Imam Sentenced to More than 19 Years in Prison for September 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, Libya

Washington, DC - Mustafa al-Imam, a 47-year-old Libyan national, was sentenced Thursday to 236 months in prison on federal terrorism charges and other offenses stemming from the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. Special Mission and CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. government personnel Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty died in the attack.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu, Jay Tabb, Executive Assistant Director of the FBIs National Security Branch, and Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr. of the FBIs New York Field Office.

We have not rested in our efforts to bring to justice those involved in the terrorist attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, which led to the death of four courageous Americans  Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Ambassador Christopher Stevens  and we never will, said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. Those responsible for these crimes must be held accountable. I want to thank the agents, analysts, and prosecutors  and all of their partners in the U.S. government  who are responsible for this important investigation.

Todays sentence demonstrates the United States continuing commitment to pursue justice against those who commit terrorist acts against the United States no matter how far we must go or how long it takes. Mustafa al-Imam played an important role in the terrorist attack that destroyed the U.S. Mission and the CIA Annex in Benghazi, said U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu for the District of Columbia. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to pursue justice against all those who murdered these four American heroes and who seriously injured our personnel defending these U.S. facilities overseas.

The tragic loss of four American lives in the Benghazi attacks will never be forgotten and todays sentencing of Mustafa al-Imam is an important reminder of that, said Jay Tabb, Executive Assistant Director of the FBIs National Security Branch. The FBI is committed to investigate and bring to justice all individuals involved in acts of terrorism against U.S. facilities or citizens and will use the full range of our resources to pursue such cases.

Mustafa al-Imam played a significant role in the 2012 Benghazi attack, one that ultimately claimed American lives, said Assistant Director William F. Sweeney, Jr. While nothing will ever change the outcome of this horrific event, todays sentencing is a reminder that the safety of Americanswhether at home or abroad, civilian or otherwisewill always be our top priority. If you commit an act of terrorism, we will find you and bring you to justice."

Al-Imam was captured in Libya on Oct. 29, 2017, and brought to the United States to face trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was found guilty by a jury on June 13, 2019, following a six-week trial, of one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists and one count of maliciously destroying and injuring dwellings and property, and placing lives in jeopardy within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. He was sentenced by the Honorable Christopher R. Cooper.

According to the governments evidence, on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, a group of extremists, armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades, and other weapons, swept into the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, setting fires and breaking into buildings. During that violence, Ambassador Stevens, Mr. Smith, and Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Special Agent Scott Wickland valiantly tried to protect themselves when the attackers stormed into the Ambassadors residence, sheltering in a secure area. However, when the attackers could not gain entry to the secure area, the attackers set fire to the residence. Ambassador Stevens and Mr. Smith suffocated from the thick, black smoke that enveloped the residence. Special Agent Wickland, who tried to guide them to safety, was injured and repeatedly took small arms fire while trying to rescue Ambassador Stevens and Mr. Smith.

Al-Imam arrived at the Mission shortly after the attack began, accompanying Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the leader of an extremist militia named Ubaydah bin Jarrah and one of the planners of the attack. During the attack on the Mission, al-Imam maintained contact with Khatallah in a series of cellphone calls, including an 18-minute phone call that took place during the height of the attack. Members of Ubaydah bin Jarrah, as well as other extremist groups, were caught on surveillance video attacking the Mission. After the American security personnel withdrew from the Mission, al-Imam, Khatallah, several UBJ members, and other extremists entered the Missions office and removed sensitive information, including maps and other documents related to the location of the CIAs Annex in Benghazi.

Following the attack at the Mission, in the early hours of Sept. 12, 2012, the violence continued at the CIA Annex, first with gunfire and then with a precision mortar attack. While defending the Annex, Mr. Woods, Mr. Doherty, DSS Special Agent David Ubben, and CIA security specialist Mark Tiegen were hit by a precision mortar attack, leading to the deaths of Mr. Woods and Mr. Doherty. Special Agent Ubben and Mr. Tiegen were seriously wounded but survived.

This case was investigated by the FBIs New York Field Office with substantial assistance from various other government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the two victim agencies, the CIA and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service. The National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section provided significant assistance.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Cummings and Karen Seifert of the National Security Section of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia. Assistance was provided by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas Coleman and Jolie Zimmerman, Paralegal Specialist Donna Galindo, detailed Paralegal Specialist Ashley Davis, Intelligence Research Special Dustin Powell, contract Document Management Analyst Michael Watts, Victim-Witness Advocates Yvonne Bryant, Tonya Jones, Laverne Perry and Wanda Queen, and Litigation Technology Chief Leif Hickling. Earlier stages of the prosecution were handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Opher Shweiki and Julieanne Himelstein.
/ -- IIIT-Hyderabad has decided to take positive steps to improve the gender ratio among its undergraduate students. Towards this goal, the institute has set a target of 25% representation of girls among students admitted to the 4-year BTech program through the JEE mode of admission for 2020-2021. Several measures are being taken to facilitate this, including:



Introduction of scholarships, fellowships, and partial waiver of tuition for girl students;



Partial/full waiver of application fee; andEstablishment of a diversity pool of seats for the JEE mode of admission.

Events will also be organized at various points in the admission season to publicise what the institute offers in terms of academics, extra-curricular activities, scholarship opportunities, and residential facilities.

Deadline for applications is May 19, 2020.

For more details visit: https://www.iiit.ac.in/admissions/undergraduate/



About IIIT-Hyderabad:



The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) is an autonomous research university founded in 1998 that focuses on the core areas of Information Technology, such as Computer Science, Electronics and Communications, and their applications in other domains through inter-disciplinary research with great social impact. Some of its research domains include Visual Information Technologies, Human Language Technologies, Data Engineering, VLSI and Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, Wireless Communications, Algorithms and Information Security, Robotics, Building Science, Earthquake Engineering, Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IT in Agriculture and e-Governance.

Website: www.iiit.ac.in



Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/600789/IIIT_Hyderabad_Logo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
EU Financial Transactions Tax Agreement Close, Says Scholz

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

27 January 2020

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has said he is confident that an agreement can be reached on a European Union financial transactions tax.

According to a statement issued by the German Finance Ministry following the recent meeting of EU finance ministers, Scholz said that the member states negotiating the terms of the proposed EU FTT are close to reaching a conclusion.

Scholz presented what he described as a final proposal for an EU FTT to the 10 member states participating in the initiative in December 2019. This would impose a tax of 0.2 percent on the purchase of shares in domestically listed companies with a market capitalization in excess of EUR1bn (USD1.1bn). The tax would also apply to depositary receipts issued domestically and abroad and which are backed by shares in these companies. Initial share offerings would be excluded from the FTT.

The German Government says such a tax would apply mostly to institutional investors, as share purchases by private investors represent only about three percent of overall trading volume.

It has been estimated that Germany would collect around EUR1.5bn in additional tax revenue from the FTT as currently proposed, which would be used to help fund the state pension.

The other member states taking part in the negotiations towards an EU FTT are Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. These countries are participating in the initiative under the EU's enhanced cooperation mechanism, which allows smaller groups of member states to proceed with EU legislation when unanimity on a proposal cannot be achieved.

As initially proposed by the European Commission in 2011, the FTT was to be imposed on all transactions in financial instruments, with the exchange of shares and bonds taxed at a rate of 0.1 percent and derivative contracts at a rate of 0.01 percent. However, member states failed to reach an agreement on the technical details of the draft directive.
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Today, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous Nazi death camp known as Auschwitz, the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The millions who each year visit Auschwitz, as well as the Holocaust museums in Jerusalem, Washington D.C., and elsewhere become witnesses to an era of almost unimaginable cruelty.

They, and we, are told to never forget. And we shouldnt. But, it is crucial not only that we remember, but how we remember.

Last week, in the online magazine TLS, Nikolaus Wachsmann reflected on the plea of camp victim Zalman Gradowski that future generations would form an image of the hell of Auschwitz.

But, Wachsmann writes, the Auschwitz of popular imagination often bears little relation to the Auschwitz Gradowski had lived and died in. As a global emblem of evil, the camp has become unmoored from its actuality.

For example, Wachsmann relates that It is often said ... that Auschwitz was a different planet, so alien that even birds did not sing there. But thats not true. The camps surroundings were rich in wildlife. So rich, in fact, that employees of IG Farben, the German firm that enslaved thousands of prisoners, went birding together, while a trained ornithologist among the SS guards meticulously surveyed the local species for scholarly publications.

In other words, there is a very real human tendency to mis-remember the grave evils of history: to imagine that they happened in a different world; to think that those who perpetuated such evil, or those who scandalously remained silent and complicit, were somehow different kinds of people than we are.

Exacerbating this tendency is the modern illusion of moral evolution. That somehow we are more enlightened and tolerant than they, having moved on from the bigotry of our human past.

That moral chronological snobbery is not only wrong, its dangerous, creating a blind spot to the evils and horrors of which we are capable.

In his 1993 Templeton Prize address, Chuck Colson described the realization that came to Holocaust survivor Yehiel Dinur at the trial of Adolf Eichmann:

Dinur entered the courtroom and stared at the man ... who had presided over the slaughter of millions. The court was hushed as a victim confronted a butcher. Then suddenly Dinur began to sob and collapsed to the floor. Not out of anger or bitterness. As he explained later in an interview, what struck him at that instant was a terrifying realization. I was afraid about myself, Dinur said. I saw that I am capable to do this ... Exactly like he.

Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote about the Eichmann Trial in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem. She found Eichmann neither perverted nor sadistic, but terrifyingly normal. She called this the banality of evil.

Hidden evil flourishes. Throughout history, evil has often hidden in plain sight, enabled by its terrifying normalness and the moral blind spots we self-inflict. And it continues today  Consider how the world is mostly silent as China sends Muslim Uighurs to concentration camps.

Or, why the voices of so many victims of sexual abuse in Hollywood, in corporate America, in homes, and churches are only now, decades later, being heard? Just last Friday, hundreds of thousands of people marched, for the 47th time, to draw attention to the government-subsidized slaughter of millions of pre-born babies.

Hans Scholl, who, along with his sister Sophie, was executed in 1943 for founding an anti-Nazi student group called the White Rose, once described his struggle to understand evil. Marveling at the beauty of the German landscape he wrote in a line reminiscent of the Psalmist, Does God take us for fools, that he should light up the world for us with such consummate beauty . . . And nothing, on the other hand, but rapine and murder?

Then Scholl asked a question we should all ask: How ought we respond to evil? Should one go off and build a little house with flowers outside the windows  and extol and thank God and turn ones back on the world and its filth? Isnt seclusion a form of treachery of desertion? Im weak and puny, but I want to do what is right.

In Christ, God entered the world in order to confront, and ultimately defeat, evil. He calls us to confront evil as well, but lets be clear: The world Christ entered was this world. The evil He confronts is the evil we too are capable of. As we remember, lets be sure to remember that.

This article was originally published at BreakPoint.
A property developer has been forced to remove its advertisements featuring Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which claim their homes are 'fit for part-time royalty'.

Hagan Homes, based in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland, claimed its campaign, which featured images of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex looking thoughtful and emotional, was meant to be a 'light-hearted' play on their move to Canada.

But the building company received a warning from the couple's legal team demanding their removal.

According to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), members of the Royal Family should not normally be shown or mentioned in a marketing communication without their prior permission.

Hagan Homes has complied and offered to pay a 10,000 donation to a charity of Meghan and Harry's choice.

A property developer has been forced to remove its advertisements featuring Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which claim their homes are 'fit for part-time royalty'

Its advertising campaign had appeared on billboards in Belfast and online, and used taglines such as 'Leaving family and moving home can be daunting and stressful - not with us'.

One image showed Prince Harry thoughtfully looking off into the distance, while another featured a still of the duchess looking close to tears from their documentary Meghan and Harry: An African Journey.

The couple announced they were quitting as senior members of the Royal Family and want to work to become financially independent earlier this month.

Another of the taglines used by Hagan Homes on the controversial adverts read: 'If after many months of reflection and internal discussions, you have chosen to make a transition this year to start to carve out a progressive new role as a home owner and if you intend to step back as "senior" members of your family and work to become financially independent, we have the first time buyer home for you.'

Hagan Homes, based in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, claimed its campaign, which featured images of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex looking thoughtful and emotional, was meant to be a 'light-hearted' play on their move to Canada

A further one said: 'You might still want to split your time between your new home and family home, best of both worlds.'

The company agreed to pull the adverts after the Sussexes' legal team claimed they did not have the couple's permission to use their photos, and warned of further action, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

James Hagan, founder and chairman of Hagan Homes, established in 1988, said the adverts were not intended to cause offence.

'The "Hagan Homes Fit For Part-time Royalty campaign" was intended to reflect Northern Ireland's typically light-hearted approach to a challenging situation,' he explained.

The company agreed to pull the adverts after the Sussexes' legal team claimed they did not have the couple's permission to use their photos, and warned of further action

'Many young people struggle with the complexities of buying a new home and we were keen to emphasise that support is available in such circumstances.

'We believe Harry and Meghan are strong role models for all young people who are trying to find their own path in life, and in recognition of this, Hagan Homes is keen to make a donation of 10,000 to a charity of Harry and Meghan's choice.'

It is not yet known which charity will benefit from the donation.

The social media adverts have already been removed, while its billboard ads will be be taken down by close of play today.

An incidental reference unconnected with the advertised product, or a reference to material such as a book, article or film about a member of the Royal Family, may be acceptable.

Meghan and Harry, pictured in January last year, announced they were quitting as senior members of the Royal Family and want to work to become financially independent earlier this month

Yesterday it emerged that the Queen offered Meghan and Harry the freedom to live without titles ahead of their wedding, but the Suits star was 'happy' to stop acting and become a working royal.

The source went on to say that officials had become frustrated that the couple now feel they were pressured into quitting royal life.

Last week Buckingham Palace announced that from the spring, the couple will stop using their HRH titles and withdraw from royal duties, including official military appointments.

Earlier today Meghan's father Thomas Markle told ITV's Good Morning Britain he is 'embarrassed' at the way his daughter and her husband have stood down, claiming they have 'hurt' the Royal Family.
Educators are bracing to receive children traumatized anew. In some ways, the earthquakes have created more anxiety and fear for children, said Pedro Sanchez, a librarian at Agripina Seda School, because they keep recurring. Many of his students are living in encampamientos  outdoor camps  because their homes are damaged and too dangerous to enter. Sanchez has taken to sleeping on a couch in his front yard because he worries about the condition of his earthquake-damaged home.
A passenger plane carrying 83 people crashed in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province in Afghanistan on Monday (January 27), said Khaliqdad Akbari, a member of the local provincial council. Tolo News reported that Akbari has sought help from Afghanistan government urging it to send special forces to the crash site.

It is learnt that the Ariana Afghan Airlines plane crashed in territory controlled by the Taliban. The plane was en route to Kabul from Herat. The fate of the passengers and crew was unknown.

Local media reported that members of the Taliban were at the crash site and trying to douse the fire which has engulfed the plane, Mirror reported.
Phuket Town roads to close for Chinese New Year parade

PHUKET: Motorists are being urged to avoid certain roads in the heart of Phuket Town tomorrow (Jan 28) as a major street procession is being held to honour Guan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, as a part of Chinese New Year celebrations.

Chineseculturetransport

By The Phuket News

Monday 27 January 2020, 05:29PM

The procession will start at the Put Cho Shirne on Phuthorn Rd at 3pm and conclude at the 72nd Anniversary Queen Sirikit Park on Thalang Rd, explained Phuket City Municipality official Wathakarn Intharat.

Roads to be closed to traffic while the procession proceeds include Soi Phuthorn, the northbound lane of Bangkok Rd, Suriyadej Circle, and Yaowarat Rd from the roundabout northward to Thalang Rd, Mr Wathakarn said.

Both lanes of Thalang Rd, from Yaowarat Rd to Queen Sirikit Park, will be closed, he added.

The roads will be closed until the procession reached its destination. It may take around 30 minutes, Mr Wathakarn said.

Please avoid using the routes and plan alternative routes before traveling, he added.

Capt Surachart Chainarong of the Phuket City Traffic Police has already warned that some roads in Phuket Town will be closed, in full or in part, or have parking prohibited along them, from 3pm to midnight from Jan 30 to Feb 1.

Roads to be affected include Thalang Rd, Soi Rommanee, a part of Krabi Rd, Phang Nga Rd, Soi Pradit, a part of Takua Pa Rd, Thepkrasattri Rd and Phuket Rd.

Please check before travelling to this area, because these roads around the events will be busy, he said. (See story here.)
In Stephen Soderbergh's 2011 film Contagion, a mysterious virus originating in Macau ripples through the United States. What follows is a bubbling concoction of state anxiety, pandemic imagery and looming societal collapse.

The emergence of a new coronavirus in central China, termed 2019-nCoV, has dampened Lunar New Year celebrations in the country and sparked memories of SARS, which spread to more than two dozen countries, including Australia, and infected thousands in 2003.

Women and a child wear protective masks in Beijing, China, on Saturday. Credit:Getty Images

Images of Chinese people in masks are saturating the TV news. Apocalyptic imagery and headlines have foreshadowed a global health emergency, although the World Health Organisation is yet to declare one.

Meanwhile, the death toll is on the rise, cities are in lockdown and Australians consume daily updates indicating the number of people being tested for the virus on our shores. Authorities have confirmed that, so far, three people have tested positive in NSW and one in Victoria.
A lion cub who made his entrance to the world while Mogo Wildlife Park was under threat from raging bushfires has been given an adorable - and appropriate - name.

Fires were heading towards the popular NSW south coast tourist attraction when white lioness Chitwa gave birth to her first cub on December 23.

An 'apocalyptic' blaze crossed the Princes Highway and surrounded the zoo eight days later on New Year's Eve, putting 200 animals in danger.

Park director Chad Staples and 15 staff battled for hours to defend the zoo by dousing the grounds with hundreds of thousands of litres of water as the inferno approached.

Mogo Wildlife Park director Chad Staples introduced lion cub Phoenix to the public on Monday

Thanks to their desperate efforts, all the animals escaped the fires unscathed.

On Monday, the zoo took to social media to reveal the now five-week-old cub was named Phoenix, which was a bird which rose from the ashes in Greek mythology.

'Chad had considered a number of names, as with naming any newborn, but settled on the name Phoenix as it symbolises the recovery that Mogo Wildlife Park and the South Coast communities are focused on following these catastrophic fires,' zoo spokeswoman Sara Ang said in a statement.

'Phoenix the lion cub has been safely housed in his night den with his mother, and is sure to be a popular new member of the Mogo Wildlife Park family when in park reopens in the coming weeks.'

Phoenix was among 200 animals in grave danger when surrounded by fires on December 31

The cub's name was well received by the public on social media.

'Very very fitting name. Absolutely beautiful,' one wrote.

Another added: 'Such a perfect name.'

Phoenix is Chitwa's first cub.

'When we knew the due date was approaching, fires had been in the region for weeks and you don't want any stress on mum at that time,' Mr Staples told the Batemans Bay Post.

'It can be common for big cats to not know what to do the first time around. Thankfully she was amazing. We were able to tend to her. I feel she has written the textbook on how to be a first-time mum.'

Lion cub Phoenix (pictured) was born on December 23 and was just eight days old when raging bushfires threatened Mogo Wildflife Park

The popular tourist attraction (pictured on December 31) remains closed due to ongoing fires

Mr Staples took over the management of Mogo two month prior and had no hesitation in his decision to out his life on the line to defend the zoo and save the animals.

'I had to be there. All these animals are individuals. I had the pleasure of getting to know them for 18 months and had become very close. I felt that weight,' he said.

The zoo is currently closed to the public due to ongoing bushfire crisis in the region.

'We're waiting for the community to be fully ready ,' Ms Ang told Daily Mail Australia.

'We don't have a definite date because of the fires but we're hoping around late February.'
A shipwreck has been discovered off the Great Barrier Reef by an 84-year-old underwater explorer.

Ben Cropp uncovered the ruins of a vessel last Monday on a dive with his son Adam Cropp at Sudbury Reef, 45m south-east of Cairns.

The diver of five decades believes the discovery could solve the mysterious disappearance of a ship off Australia's east coast 150 years ago.

Ben Cropp and his son travelled out to Sudbury reef in search of an old wreck, going off several clues - including the location of an anchor which was found by his friend Kerry Bailey.

Shipwreck hunter Ben Cropp (pictured) analyses an old anchor of a shipwreck off Sudbury Reef at the Great Barrier Reef

When they arrived Mr Cropp's son found the anchor using his drone and then after after swimming about 50 metres towards the shallows they started to uncover evidence of the ship's remains.

There were signs of an iron frame, the keel and small sections of chains buried beneath the ocean floor.

Shipwreck hunter Ben Cropp told the Daily Mail Australia he believes the wreck is about 150 years old.

'There was a clipper called the Undine which disappeared up north and it would have had to pass that area it was 1878 I think it was, I'm guessing. That could have been it,' he said.

The 1800-tonne clipper left Brisbane on May 15, 1873 in ballast heading north and was never seen again.

Mr Cropp said while he initially wasn't sure of the ship's identity he's now more confident because of the past practice of sailors stripping ships that washed up near major cities.

'It's all detective work. I hadn't considered it before if the wrecker's hit it they would have taken all the bigger anchors out and just left the small one under water they couldn't get to,' he said.

Divers uncovered an iron frame, the keel and small sections of chains buried beneath the ocean floor about 50 metres from an old anchor (pictured) off the Great Barrier Reef

Mr Cropp has been working as a shipwreck hunter for almost 50 years, and isn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

He said he started out doing odd jobs before building his career off underwater exploring.

'I started salvaging on wrecks, we'd go in and load them up with dynamite and get the brass, and lead and copper off them just to make some money because in those days I was on $10 a week wage and had to supplement by salvage or spearing fish,' he said.

Among his most notable achievements was discovering Napoleon Bonaparte's escape ship Swiftsure in 2015 and the HMS Pandora in 1977.

Among Ben Cropp's most notable achievements was discovering remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte's escape ship Swiftsure (pictured) in 2015

Ben Cropp (pictured) has been working as a shipwreck hunter for almost 50 years, and isn't planning on stopping anytime soon

But he's still got a significant bucket list of wrecks to track down, and he's spent the past eight years searching for clues.

'My interest is in prehistory, meaning on the east coast before Cook or in all of Australia before 1606: the Dutch discovery of Australia,' he said.

'I'm interested in that and I've got some many clues on Portugese and Spanish possible discoveries of Australia.

'With Cook he had a log- everyone knows he found the east coast but I have got to find proof like that so I can name the person, the ship and the date that they discovered Australia,' he said.

The shipwreck was discovered off the Sudbury Reef, about 45 kilometres southeast of Cairns
The Indigenous Art Code, established in 2008, is a voluntary code designed to protect artists by getting dealers to commit to treating them fairly and honestly. Sanctions can be imposed on dealer members who have acted unethically. But the code has no power to regulate private dealers who are not members. [The Minister for Indigenous Australians] said it was not working.  The Guardian (UK)
Global benchmark crude and benchmark US crude are both trading at their lowest levels since October.

Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, on Monday urged caution against gloomy expectations regarding the possible impact of the spread of the new coronavirus on the global economy and oil demand.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 on Monday with more than 2,700 infected, as health authorities around the world stepped up screening of passengers from China.

Crude prices fell about 3 percent on Monday as the rising number of cases of the coronavirus and Chinas city lockdowns and extension of its Lunar New Year holiday deepened concerns over oil demand.

Oil prices had already been weighed down by oversupply and slowing demand from China. Last week, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group said the coronavirus could cause global oil demand to slip by 260,000 barrels a day, with jet fuel accounting for some two-thirds of that drop.

But Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the impact being seen on oil and other markets was primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite its very limited impact on global oil demand.

Such extreme pessimism occurred back in 2003 during the SARS outbreak, though it did not cause a significant reduction in oil demand, the minister said in a statement.

Fellow Gulf OPEC oil producer United Arab Emirates echoed the Saudi ministers comments.

It is important that we do not exaggerate projections related to future decreases in oil demand due to events in China, UAE Minister of Energy Suhail al-Mazrouei said.

In March OPEC and OPEC+ member countries will discuss market conditions and, if required, all options to ensure continued market balance, he said.

The Saudi minister said OPEC and its allies could respond to any impact on the oil market, adding he was confident the Chinese and international authorities could contain the virus.

Brent crude was down 3.1 percent at $58.82 at 1312 GMT, having earlier dropped to $58.68. US crude was down by 2.8 percent at $52.68, having earlier eased to $52.15. Both hit their lowest levels since October.

Prince Abdulaziz said he was confident the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, a group known as OPEC+, have the capability and flexibility needed to respond to any developments.

Omans oil minister told Reuters news agency on Monday that he fully supported Saudi Arabias readiness to react to any impact the virus has on the market.

OPEC+, which includes Russia, has been reducing oil supply to support prices and has agreed to hold back 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of output until the end of March.

Prince Abdulaziz said all options would be open when OPEC+ meets in Vienna in March.

An OPEC source said on Monday that there were preliminary discussions among OPEC+ for an extension of the current oil supply cuts beyond March, and a possible deeper cut was also an option, if there was a need, and if the China virus spread impacted oil demand.
By Antonette Mckay

Cleaning houses is demanding work. Clients sometimes under-pay, refuse the rate you charge, or cancel last minute without offering to compensate you for time and money lost. Especially for workers in the industry who do not have an intermediary to protect them by always guaranteeing fair pay and cancellation protections. Fortunately, I dont have to worry about those risks because I use an app called Handy, an online platform that connects people like me with people looking to hire for home services, such as cleanings and repairs.

But, the best part of my job is the flexibility. I started using Handy because I wanted to set my own hours and make a good living. Using Handy, I know Ill always get paid in full and on-time, unlike with other jobs that dont have the same guarantee. I also know Ill always be able to make it to pick up my 10-year old son from school or stay home with him when he is sick. As a single mother living in Newark, opportunities like this are a lifesaver.

Thats why when I heard that legislators in my home state of New Jersey were considering a bill (S863) that would reclassify independent contractors as employees, I got very nervous. For me, being a mom is my full-time job and cleaning houses on the side is how I earn money to support my family. Im worried that with rushed legislation, policymakers will end up doing more harm than good.

While I believe our state legislators have good intentions, what they are currently doing threatens not only my income, but also my ability to provide and care for my son the way I want to. Im not saying everything is perfect, but we need to be creative about addressing these issues.

For example, if you work full-time, you should probably be an employee. But, many of us dont work full time and dont want to. Reclassifying us as employees could risk losing our flexibility, or worse: our jobs if the platforms restructure their businesses to comply with new laws. This might mean there wont be jobs for people like me who truly want to be independent and have flexible work. Problems with some bad actors isnt a reason to do away with the aspects of the sharing economy that are working well and that workers themselves want to keep.

With rents rising and the cost of living going up, especially in a state like New Jersey, the legislature can do right by gig economy workers. They should start with wage protections. Even if workers are not classified as employees, we should still be guaranteed at least the equivalent of minimum wage for the hours with our customers. This has nothing to do with being an employee, its about fairness.

My favorite thing about my work is that I do what I want when I want. If I wake up and want to book three cleaning jobs that day or none at all, I can, and no employer is dictating my schedule or responsibilities. People like me dont want to work under a typical boss-employee relationship. Laws threatening this would be bad for me, my family and New Jersey.

I stand with other workers in the gig economy, such as freelancers who want to preserve their lifestyle while still meeting a higher standard of living. But, it doesnt have to be an either-or scenario. On-demand workers can have our flexibility and our standards, too. The right balance is out there, it is now just a matter of whether our elected leaders will take the time to actually listen to the people who make their living in this sector and respond appropriately to our concerns.

Antonette Mckay is a single mom living in Newark.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
The Pentagon said yesterday that 34 service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following missile strikes by Iran on a base in Iraq earlier this month, a number higher than the military had previously announced.

President Donald Trump and other top officials initially said Irans attack had not killed or injured any US service members.

Last week the US military said 11 of its troops had been treated for concussion symptoms after the attack on the Ain Al Asad airbase in western Iraq and this week said additional troops had been moved out of Iraq with suspected injuries.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that 17 of the service members diagnosed had already returned to duty in Iraq.

Eight service members who had been previously transported to Germany had been moved to the United States and would receive treatment at either Walter Reed military hospital or their home bases.

Mr Hoffman said the service members were being treated on an outpatient basis and were transported back to the United States in order to be closer to their pre-deployment bases.

Nine service members remain in Germany and are undergoing evaluations and treatment.
Two years ago, most people would scoff at the idea of Married At First Sight 'villain' Dean Wells being The Bachelor.

But all that changed when the 41-year-old 'bad boy' signed a contract with Channel 10 at the start of the year to appear on Dancing with the Stars.

In an unexpected twist, New Idea reports that Dean is now being considered as a potential candidate for The Bachelor 2020.

Twinkle toes: Married At First Sight's Dean Wells has emerged as an unlikely candidate for The Bachelor 2020 after signing a contract with Channel 10 to appear on Dancing with the Stars

Despite these rumours, it was claimed earlier this month that Bachelor producers were looking for a doctor to be this year's suitor.

Casting agents reportedly contacted the Australian Medical Association trying to 'secure a male doctor who can pack a stethoscope as well as a six pack'.

Production is reportedly set to begin next month, which coincides with filming of Dancing with the Stars.

Controversial choice: Production on The Bachelor is reportedly set to begin next month, which coincides with filming of Dancing with the Stars. Despite this, New Idea is reporting that Dean is being considered as a potential suitor

Due to the clashing schedules, Dean would likely only be considered for the role if he is eliminated early from DWTS.

The creative director had been cast as the 'villain' on Married At First Sight 2018 due to his chauvinistic views.

He caused further controversy when he cheated on his 'wife', Tracey Jewel, with another bride, Davina Rankin.

Bad boy: The creative director had been cast as the 'villain' on Married At First Sight 2018 due to his chauvinistic views and cheating

After filming, he claimed that his business had suffered financially as a direct result of his portrayal on Nine's social experiment.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel 10 for comment.

Dancing with the Stars premieres Sunday, February 9 on Channel 10
A robot arm that can pick up and carry objects without touching them using ultrasonic levitation is being developed by scientists.

Researchers at ETH Zurich used an array of tiny speakers that emit sound at tightly controlled frequencies and volumes in order to 'grip' an object.

The sound waves from the speakers create a pressure field that holds an object up - a kind of 'acoustic levitation', according to researcher Marcel Shuck.

Dr Shuck says the acoustic gripper will be ideal for delicate tasks such as assembling watches or microchips, where any damage from touch marks would cost money.

The speakers are contained within two 3D printed semi-spheres - the volume and frequency of each speaker can be controlled using a specially programmed piece of software

The sound waves used to levitate an object can also move it around by having audio coming from multiple directions, the team says.

A conventional robotic gripper is covered in soft, rubber-like materials that can damage fragile objects and contaminate delicate items, Shuck said.

The effect behind the acoustic gripper has been around for more than 80 years and was first used in space travel  it involves creating a pressure field from ultrasonic waves that humans can't see or hear.

Pressure points are created as the acoustic waves overlay each other, and small objects can be trapped within these points.

As a result, they seem to float freely in the air  in an acoustic trap, the team said.

It is currently at the prototype stage and involves multiple tiny speakers fitted within two semi-spheres pointing in towards each other to create the pressure field.

Shuck and his team created software that lets them control the speakers to adjust the acoustic pressure points and move the objects around.

At the moment it is a fairly static process, but the goal is to be able to change position in real time without the object falling to the ground.

At the moment, researchers can move various small objects around but have to use the software to adjust the gripper to the shape of the object.

The robot arm then transports the gripper and the object to a target destination.

The audio gripper was created by Dr Marcel Alexander-Schuck. It is currently at the prototype stage and involves multiple tiny speakers fitted within two semi-spheres pointing in towards each other to create the pressure field

Pressure points are created as the acoustic waves overlay each other, and small objects can be trapped within these points

The acoustic gripper eliminates the need for an extensive set of expensive high-precision grippers, according to Shuck and his team.

He said the robot carrying the gripper doesn't even need to be particularly precise.

The exact positioning of the object being held is determined by the acoustic waves controlled by the software, not the robot arm.

His next stage is to work with various industries to find out exactly what they'd expect from an acoustic gripper.

The innovation is likely to be of interest to the watchmaking industry, where highly precise micromechanics is essential for handling expensive minute components.

'Toothed gearwheels, for example, are first coated with lubricant, and then the thickness of this lubricant layer is measured,' Shuck said.

'Even the faintest touch could damage the thin film of lubricant.'
Although parametric solutions have been generally available since the late 1990s, they have more recently found their way into corporate insurance. Parametric insurance solutions offer a means to guarantee direct payout after a qualifying event and protect against unpredictable but potentially devastating risks in ways traditional insurance packages cannot.

These insurance solutions may offer alternatives to funding loss that are not possible with traditional insurance products that indemnify for an actual loss sustained.

The basic concept of parametric solutions is quite simple: Traditionally, instead of indemnifying for the actual loss incurred, parametric insurance covers the probability of a predefined event happening (e.g., a major hurricane and earthquake), and pays out according to a predefined scheme. Events may refer to an index-based trigger (e.g., crop shortfall) or an event within a defined area (often referred to as a cat-in-a-box). Exemplifying the cat-in-a-box concept, a policy might be structured to pay out 50%, 75%, or 100% of a predefined limit for a Category 3, 4, or 5 hurricane, respectively, happening within a 30-mile radius around the clients point of interest.

The notion of point of interest is an interesting feature of parametric cat-in-a-box solutions. The client defines a point on the map, i.e., a longitude-latitude geographical coordinate. Hence, the cover is not limited to the insureds own locations but can also include infrastructure critical for the client. This provides policyholders with flexibility.

Addressing Coverage Gaps

By addressing gaps in the cover such as non-damage business interruption, normally excluded assets, loss of attraction and prevention costs, parametric solutions complement rather than replace traditional indemnity products.

This structure offers benefits beyond expanding coverage. It also reduces complexity from the loss investigation process and provides greater certainty of loss payment recovery compared to traditional insurance products. Therefore, parametric insurance provides customers confidence when it comes to liquidity and speed of payout where predictive loss methods fall short.

Key Policy Differences

For those new to parametric insurance, it is helpful to highlight the key differences between traditional insurance products:

Nature of risk. Traditional indemnity insurance reimburses the insured for actual losses incurred. In contrast, parametric covers payout according to pre-defined parameters.

Basis risk. Traditional insurance includes deductibles, exclusions and conditions that balance insurer and insured interests. Parametric insurance, on the other hand, determines risk using pre-defined parameters (e.g., selected index), a pay-out matrix and the defined limit. Both types of cover do have a basis risk (i.e., the payout by the insurer does not cover the incurred losses). However, the basis risk tends to be greater for parametric solutions as it requires the clients to have an in-depth understanding of their exposure to the peril in question. Hence, if the trigger design is not well aligned with the underlying risk exposure, the insured will suffer a loss net of the insurance payment.

Term. Traditional insurance, especially in North America is frequently offered on an annual basis while parametric insurance may be offered on a one year or multi-year arrangement.

Structure. Traditional insurance contracts typically have standardized wording. While there may be some customized wordings negotiated, for the most part this is limited. Parametric insurance on the other hand is a customized product with uniquely tailored index and pay-out provisions. This wording is based on each clients specific needs, ideally aligned with its risk management game plan and the single or multi-trigger nature of the risk. However, parametric wording tends to be much shorter than a standard traditional policy.

Payment differences and claims handling. Traditional insurance includes payment triggered by actual loss or damage from an insured peril to a physical asset. Parametric insurance payments are triggered by an event exceeding a parametric threshold, i.e., an earthquake with minimum magnitude of 6.5 in a defined geographic area. While the assessment of actual losses with traditional insurance might be both complex and time-consuming (typically requiring a loss adjuster, which often takes months to years), the payout of parametrics is instead a matter of days. For example, some carriers offer terms to pay out within 20 business days after the event has been reported by the client. To sum up, traditional insurance involves reimbursement of actual loss sustained versus a pre-agreed payment structure based on an events index value.

Hypothetical Example

It can be helpful to learn about parametric policies by looking at a hypothetical example. For instance, a pharmaceutical companys drug manufacturing facility is located along the water of a coastal U.S. city that has been affected by rising sea levels. The companys executives are interested in protecting the facility from the potentially devastating impact of rising water levels around the facility but is having a hard time securing traditional coverage from insurers wary of taking on this risk.

A parametric insurance policy may be able to fill this gap. Based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an insurer capable of supplying a parametric policy could set up a triggering event of water rising past a certain level above the mean sea level, as defined by NOAA. The pay-out mechanism would be defined by how much the water level rises above a certain threshold. For example, the policy might pay out $2.5 million if water levels reach between 16 and 16.5 feet, $5 million if water levels reach between 16.5 and 17 feet, and $10 million if levels rise above 17 feet.

Under these scenarios, the water levels would be measured and reported by a third-party government agency (in this case, NOAA) and the insured would receive the payout immediately upon the ruling.

Parametric Insurances Key Elements

Parametric insurance policies contain two key elements: triggering events and pay-out mechanisms. These two elements (described below) define the scope of the policy, pricing, as well as other important terms that dictate the amount of financial reimbursement an insured will receive.

1. A triggering event. The insurance pays if an event (e.g., hurricane, earthquake) hits the defined trigger level for the index/measurement reflecting the peril in question. The index in question needs to reflect the exposure of the client. An independent, third party data source, providing the relevant information, is a crucial requirement for the parametric cover as the entire payout is based on this data. Hence, the objectivity and reliability of this source (also in case of a major event) is paramount. If we consider an earthquake event, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) earthquake magnitude indices would be such a source.

Typically, a triggering event might be a hurricane, flood or earthquake where the parameter or index is the wind speed, precipitation or magnitude of the quake. Catastrophe loss such as these are clear triggers but by no means the only ones used to fashion coverage. Other possible triggers often cited include crop yield, power outage, stock market indices or economic damages hitting municipalities due to event shortfalls in a supply chain. All events must be fortuitous and quantifiable to be able to model them.

2. A pay-out mechanism. The pay-out mechanism defines what happens in the case of an event meeting or exceeding the defined threshold, i.e., they determine how much money is paid out to the insured. Consider the recent magnitude 7.1 earthquake that occurred on July 5 in a defined geographical area of California. Say the pre-agreed pay-out parameter was 100% of the limit for magnitude 7.0 or greater. In this scenario, the policyholder would receive a 100% payout in this hypothetical example.

The idea is that a threshold may be set to align with a companys own business continuity plan and risk tolerance. For example, a company may know that with the risk mitigation measures currently in place, its business can sustain the effects of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the prior example. Above that magnitude, the company would require alternative risk transfer solutions. In short, parametric insurance allows management to better align its risk management goals with its overall financial objectives.

One of the most compelling aspects of parametric solutions is the clarity around these payouts. Claims are resolved much faster and without dispute. Contrast that with a complex insurance claim on a traditional policy, which may take a long time to adjust and be paid, due to the need to develop claim details and financial components as well as address issues like valuation and other conditions.

Current Landscape for Parametric Cover

The first parametric products have been around since the late-1990s and were developed by commodities traders as well as energy companies. Companies like AXA, Swiss Re and Munich Re entered the parametric space in the early 2000s.

More recently as interest has grown, some of these companies have invested in parametric-focused teams to focus solely on crafting and pricing index-based solutions.

Currently, parametric insurance solutions are mostly used in the reinsurance space around catastrophe risks, but they have started to be used in other sectors such as aviation, special events and projects to protect against pure financial losses resulting from forces outside of an insureds control.

Of course, more traditional situations covering specific physical assets or property exposed to a pre-defined event, like agricultural, retail, agribusiness, energy, food & beverage, construction, transportation or industrial sectors, remain attractive to companies seeking an indexed approach. In fact, parametric insurance remains especially attractive to a company with more balance sheet risk than traditional insurance can alone address or in a cost-effective manner. The goal of such enterprises is to utilize a parametric approach to mitigate the liquidity risk of a traditional insurance contract.

Insurance buyers considering a parametric solution face a number of challenges that must be reconciled before moving forward. The data demands of parametric solutions are different than for traditional insurance and since the cover tends to be wider, it may be more expensive. Therefore, a buyer must have a strong understanding of the organizations business model and must be able to develop financial details and significant amounts of data to ensure that the approach will benefit the organization.

Feedback from carriers suggests that more and more customers, especially insureds with more complex liquidity risks, are making more inquiries about parametric solutions. Since both available data and the accuracy of modelling is improving, these solutions become efficient for sophisticated companies.

Parametric policies are also rising in popularity among carriers considering the virtual elimination of the claims handling process, which also presents significant cost savings to the insurer. The predetermined trigger and pay-out mechanism create a situation where it is crystal clear whether or not a company will receive payment and exactly how much is owed. Along these lines, insureds are paid much more quickly when there is limited necessary discovery or claims adjusting.

The Role of Brokers

While the claims handling process becomes much more streamlined after the policy is secured, companies considering parametric insurance policies will likely need assistance in the early planning stages of acquiring a policy. These companies will need to ensure that the triggering event and payout mechanisms are clearly defined and articulated in the policy.

Without firm language on what constitutes a triggering event and how much exactly will be paid, companies risk leaving coverage gaps in their policy that could leave them on the hook for devastating losses.

Insurance brokers play a particularly important role in establishing and enforcing a robust process when it comes to purchasing a policy.

This process goes far beyond that of traditional products, as parametric insurance is often a new product for purchasing companies. Insurance brokers that are able to truly understand the details of the product and its pros and cons for the policyholder can act as a trusted adviser to clients.

Brokers can also play a role in reviewing and understanding traditional covers and identifying gaps which might be filled with a parametric offering, identifying key loss drivers and selecting and managing insurance carriers on behalf of clients. Additionally, brokers should play an important role in identifying relevant data sources to set up an index appropriate to the exposures or coverage needs of the policyholder, especially for non-traditional risks.

Aside from some additional work upfront, the obvious benefits of parametric insurance will likely lead to continued growing adoption of these coverages. But before securing a parametric policy for themselves, businesses are wise to consult an insurance broker knowledgeable about the intricacies of these innovative products.

Insurance brokers experienced in parametric insurance policies will also be able to parse through complex policy language to ensure an organizations coverage needs are met. They can also assess a companys existing coverage and offer guidance in terms of where a parametric insurance policy could fill in coverage gaps or provide an extra layer of coverage.
Al Jazeeras Beijing cameraman went home to Hubei with his family to celebrate Lunar New Year and has no idea when they will be able to return.

Yangxin, Hubei  I thought it would be the usual once-a-year happy journey home for my family when we boarded the high-speed train to go to my hometown, Wuhan, on January 20.

We knew there was this outbreak of a new coronavirus in Wuhan that had killed about 10 people, but there was no warning at all and it was mostly seen as another flu virus.

The temptation of the Spring Festival family reunion was just too irresistible for us, so we decided to wear our masks and go home.

When we arrived at Wuhan station, we found there were thousands of travellers like us. The station was totally packed and there were long queues at every boarding gate, the typical festival travel rush scene you see every year. Only a few travellers were wearing masks like we were. Most had decided not to bother or had not even thought about it.

As planned, we changed trains in Wuhan to go to our final destination  Yangxin, a small county about 180 kilometres (112 miles) away from Hubeis capital city and home to my parents-in-law.

Everything was festive: the laughter of my kids and in-laws, the familiar feast of hometown food and playing mahjong after dinner.

Peng Peng travelled back to Hubei from Beijing to enjoy the Lunar New Year with his family, arriving shortly before the province was sealed off. They ended up having the main reunion dinner [Peng Peng/Al Jazeera]

However, things started to change overnight. Within days of our arrival, it felt like we were dropping from heaven to hell.

Cut off

On January 23, the Hubei provincial government announced it would seal off its capital, Wuhan, as the outbreak got worse.

Soon the lockdown had been expanded to Yangxin, the county where we were. Then we heard that most provinces and municipalities of China had activated the highest level of alert to tackle the spread of the new virus.

Officials at the train station sent messages telling us our pre-booked train back to Beijing on February 1 had been cancelled as part of the government alert escalation. Teachers at my daughters elementary school and my sons kindergarten in Beijing contacted me, asking for details of my familys whereabouts, including where we were staying, when did we live in Beijing and when we had arrived in Wuhan and so on. We were asked to report on our temperature and health conditions every day. Then the community workers from my apartment in Beijing called me to ask for similar travel details.





My father-in-law, a retired doctor, brought everyone together for a family meeting. Everyone agreed to stop all visits to public areas and stay home: An unexpected self-quarantine had become a special new year gift.

Our planned family dinner in a restaurant, the biggest feast of the year, was cancelled, and we cooked at home instead.

Everyone kept a close eye on the updates about the virus outbreak and we shared what we read among each other. But rumours started to fly on social media, like WeChat.

Reports like Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang was fired as punishment for his poor performance of controlling the outbreak went viral on social media, before quickly being exposed as fake news. The rumours highlighted the anxiety and anger of people on the internet. Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, was being blamed for its slow reaction and its mayor was facing calls to resign after he confessed on national television that the city didnt have sufficient warnings about the epidemic.

One night, people on Wechat started saying that the price of vegetables in the supermarket had tripled. The next morning, my father-in-law rushed to his favourite store only to find most vegetables were pretty much gone. He came back in shock: I have never seen this in my lifetime, he said. The manager of that supermarket assured him that there would be more vegetables the next day.

On January 25, President Xi Jinping called the outbreak a grave situation and urged more effort to tackle the problem. It reminded me of what happened in the SARS outbreak in 2003. I was a junior student then and forced to stay on my isolated campus for three months: I knew stricter measures would soon follow.

The entrance to the village where Peng Pengs mother-in-law lives has been blocked off with a sign reading: No entry. No visiting during Spring Festival. The photo was taken on January 25 [Peng Peng/Al Jazeera]

It came as no surprise to me that a day after President Xis remarks, we heard that all private cars were being banned in public areas in Wuhan, adding to previous measures to cut off the city. In Yangxin, all the highway entrances were sealed off and bus and train stations shut down, No one could leave without special permission.

We blocked the road

What does surprise me is how people in the countryside are geared up for such an outbreak. Many have blocked the roads leading to their villages, refusing to allow outsiders to visit for fear of the virus spreading.

When my mother-in-law called her brother to say we would not be going back to the village to visit them this year  the visit, or bainian in Chinese, is a very important tradition during the Lunar New Year  she was surprised by her brothers response.

Dont worry about it, he said over the phone. We understand. You cant get in anyway, because we blocked the road to our village.

The battle against this coronavirus looks like a long one but, compared with what I experienced during the SARS outbreak, people seem more confident and my family remains optimistic for now.

The lockdown screwed up our festival plans, but it is the most effective way to get rid of the spread, my father-in-law, a veteran Communist Party member, said after watching CCTVs main news programme on President Xis speech. If everyone follows the Partys arrangements, we will win the battle soon. No matter what, safety comes first.

My brother-in-law, a dentist who worked in his hospital to tackle the SARS outbreak 17 years ago, believes that China is now better prepared with medical facilities and a quicker response. It has also made more progress scientifically.

SARS killed more than 750 people in China and it took a few months for scientists to identify SARS virus, and this new coronavirus killed about 50 people so far and we already know its gene structure, he said. Its not a battle as hard to fight as SARS,

Being cut off does worry people like me who are trapped here because I will need to go back to Beijing to work, even if that means a further 14 days of self-quarantine ahead of me. Whats worse, there is no timetable for this massive lockdown, which means the self-quarantine here could go on for much longer than I can imagine.

Going back to Beijing from Wuhan has been a fairly easy and enjoyable trip for my family in the past, we could have breakfast in Wuhan, then take a 4-and-half-hour high-speed train, and have dinner at home in Beijing.

But at this stage, its looking like mission impossible for us.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-01-27 16:10:47

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As an interventional cardiologist, Dr. Alfred Sparman understands the importance of obtaining a post-secondary education. With the rising cost of tuition, he is proud to lend financial support to those looking to fulfill their long-term career objectives.BARBADOS / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / Prominent physician, Dr. Alfred Sparman is excited to announce that he has selected three recipients of his Academic Scholarship Campaign with funding valued at both $2,000 and $1,000 USD.Applicants were required to compose a 500-word essay detailing why they selected their chosen field of study and how they plan to cultivate positive change in their area of expertise. Candidates were also asked to submit proof of enrollment to an accredited post-secondary institution in the U.S., Canada, or Barbados.Dr. Alfred Sparman hopes that his scholarship contribution will help to minimize the financial stress that comes with receiving an education and wishes all winners the best of luck in their future endeavors.Additionally, he would like to thank everyone who applied, as there was an extensive list of deserving applicants.For more information on the details of the Scholarship Program please visit https://www.alfredsparmanscholarship.com About Dr. Alfred SparmanDr. Alfred Sparman is an American trained, highly experienced physician, whose primary objective is to provide advanced cardiac care. Having been trained by some of the best cardiologists in the country, he eventually relocated to Barbados with the hopes of implementing a top-quality treatment center in the area. In 2001, he founded The Sparman Clinic, where he specializes in angioplasty and the implementation of cardiac devices. Dr. Sparman values the well-being of his patients and works diligently to provide innovative surgical solutions.For more information on his practice visit his professional website at https://www.alfred-sparman.com/ Contact InformationDr. Alfred SparmanEmail: apply@ alfredsparmanscholarship.com SOURCE: Dr. Alfred Sparman
Edmunds' top-rated awards go to the cars, trucks and SUVs that rank at the top of their class. Here's a look at five of 2022's top-rated vehicles.
A security force personnel was injured on Monday after suspected militants opened fire on a patrol party in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The jawan received injuries after he was hit by a bullet fired by suspected militants in Arwani area of Anantnag district, they said.

They said security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the assailants.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Excessive student numbers at some of Western Australias most prestigious and in-demand public schools are not expected to ease until Perths newest inner-city high school reaches capacity in five years' time.

The opening of Bob Hawke College in Subiaco next week had been hailed as the solution to overcrowding at the surrounding Shenton College, Mount Lawley, and Churchlands senior high schools.

Education Minister Sue Ellery took media through the new Bob Hawke College in Perth on Monday. Credit:Lauren Pilat

But ahead of the first cohort of Year 7s starting at the college on Thursday, Education Minister Sue Ellery said it would take some time for the pressure on nearby schools to ease.

By the time its finished [Bob Hawke College] will take 2000 students, that will take some pressure off Churchlands, Mount Lawley and Shenton, she said.
Healthcare out of reach for at least 140 children with complex, life-threatening conditions in notoriously crowded camp.

Lesbos, Greece  Mohammed, two years and eight months old, has been living in the Moria refugee camp in Greece, for four months with a life-threatening condition and limited access to healthcare.

He was born prematurely with hydrocephalus, a blockage of the circulation of fluid around the brain resulting in increased pressure in the skull, which can cause brain damage.

In the arms of his mother, 26-year-old Fawzia Ahmadi, he wriggles as she attempts to soothe him.

The family of four, including a one-year-old girl, live in a small tent at the top of an olive grove, which is acting as an overspill for the refugee camp, now close to a population of 20,000 people as of January.

It was designed to hold no more than 3,000.

They came here via Turkey, fleeing the continued unrest in their home in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Its very difficult in the night, Ahmadi said. He complains of headaches a lot and so we take it in shifts to sleep and check that he is OK. I worry about him so much.

Ive been told that I need to keep him clean but I dont know how I can do that here? We cannot wash him every day, the weather is very cold and so is the water.

Ahmadi said she understands that the local hospital cannot cope with her sons needs.

I think its not their problem because there are too many sick people there. My son is sick but there are already too many kids who are sick, they dont have the time to take care of them all. I just want him to be somewhere warm where I can wash him and take care of him.

Mohammed is just one of at least 140 children in the camp who have chronic, complex and life-threatening diseases who MSF (Doctors Without Borders) are deeply concerned about.

The organisation says they are being denied access to adequate medical care.

Left to right  Mohammed Ahmadi, Fawzia Ahmadi, Hassan Ahmadi and their one-year-old daughter in Moria [Katy Fallon/Al Jazeera]

In July 2019, the Greek government rescinded access to healthcare for asylum seekers and undocumented people living in Greece, leaving around 55,000 people without medical care, according to MSF.

George Makris, the assistant medical coordinator in Greece and the north Balkans for MSF, told Al Jazeera regarding Mohammeds case: We dont have the resources to investigate this kind of medical condition and we dont have the specialised doctors who are paediatric neurologists either.

At the same time, not even the hospital on the island of Lesbos has a paediatric neurologist and they do not have the diagnostic tools necessary to investigate this kind of condition.

Makris said that MSF doctors believe a device put in to help alleviate pressure could be malfunctioning, which is why Mohammed is having severe headaches.

We are extremely worried about the complications that this malfunction could have, which could be life-threatening to this child, he said.

MSF is calling for the immediate transfer of children like Mohammed from the camp to hospitals in the mainland.

Access even to urgent healthcare in the Moria refugee camp is challenging. The local hospital is around 10km away, ambulances are not always readily available and most families cannot afford the taxi fare there.

Makris told Al Jazeera that the local hospital is overwhelmed.

They have to cover 20,000 more people here without the proper equipment and humanitarian resources, he said. For us as doctors, its extremely difficult to examine and treat children with severe physical or mental disabilities and send them back to a camp that is unsafe and overcrowded where they live in summer tents in the middle of winter. Its tragic.
WESTPORT  Four individuals were arrested after robbing a wireless store in Westport and then trying to rob another in Stamford.

According to a press release by the Westport Police Department, the group was first noticed by WPD when three masked suspects robbed a T-Mobile at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Jan 26.

It was explained that these suspects allegedly began forcibly removing displayed demonstration cell phones by ripping them from the various cases that they were affixed to, the release said. After a short period inside the store gathering merchandise, the suspects quickly then left the area in a waiting vehicle reportedly driven by a fourth suspect. The total value of the stolen items is initially estimated at $6758.92. 

The release said through the departments investigation into this incident, it was learned that at least three similar ones had occurred on the same day in other jurisdictions.

A description of the suspects in the Westport incident and their vehicle was provided to responding officers by employees who had witnessed the crime, the release said. Through information sharing between the Westport Police Department and other surrounding agencies, as well as those that experienced similar incidents on this date, officers began monitoring these stores within their local jurisdictions.

Westport police said information was also shared internally between wireless stores belonging to the same chain, thereby apprising employees of the situation.

The release said shortly after leaving Westport, the same suspects attempted a similar crime at a wireless retail store in Stamford.

This attempt was unsuccessful due to the advanced preparation of both the stores staff and police, and a total of four parties were ultimately taken into custody by the Stamford Police Department, the release said. These four suspects were subsequently turned over to this agency for criminal charging in connection with the above detailed incident.

Police are still investigating and trying to identify the four suspects, but at least two of them have been preliminary identified as juveniles. The release said the suspects will likely be charged with a combination of larceny, conspiracy and criminal mischief related offenses relative to this incident.

WPD said an update regarding the adult suspects identities and their charges would be forthcoming.
The largest pureplay mortgage lender HDFC on Monday reported a near four-fold growth in net profit at Rs 8,372.5 crore for the three months to December as against Rs 2,113.8 crore in the same period last year.

The company said the massive gain in bottomline is notional but mandatory from an accounting perspective, as it is based on the valuation gain on its 9.9 per cent stake in Bandhan Bank following the merger of subsidiary Gruh Finance with the Kolkata-based lender effective last October.

It can be noted that in October, HDFC had allotted 9.90 per cent of its subsidiary Gruh Finance to Bandhan Bank, the value of which is pegged at Rs 9,020 crore at the end of the reporting quarter.

The reported profit-before-tax for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 stood at Rs 9,143 crore compared to Rs 2,869 crore in the previous year and after providing for tax of Rs 771 crore, profit after tax is Rs 8,372.5 crore compared to Rs 2,113.8 crore, the company explained.

For the first time, the loan book crossed Rs 5 lakh crore during the quarter, vice chairman and chief executive Keki Mistry told reporters here this evening.

The company booked a 24 per cent growth in individual loans, after adding back loans sold in the preceding 12 months, while excluding that the same clipped at 16 per cent.

On an AUM basis, growth in the individual loan book was 16 per cent while total loan book grew 14 per cent.

Net interest margin, which is the key profit metric, remained flat at 3.3 per cent during the reporting quarter as in the past two quarters, and the same from individual loans stood 1.97 per cent. The spreads stood at 2.27 per cent.

Despite a negative market and the rising gloom on the overall economy, gross non-performing loans stood at Rs 5,950 crore or 1.36 per cent, while NPAs on the individual portfolio stood at 0.75 per cent, up 2 bps from Q2 and that of the non-individual portfolio at 2.91 per cent, Mistry said.

HDFC's capital adequacy ratio stood at higher 18.6 per cent, of which tier I was 17.3 per cent and tier II was 1.3 per cent as against the regulatory requirement of 13 per cent.

As of December 2019, individual loans comprised 76 per cent of the loan book, while if looked from a nine months perspective, the same accounted for 90 per cent of the incremental loan growth taking the total outstanding individual loans to Rs 63,679 crore.

The corporation on average has been approving 9,400 affordable housing loans on a monthly basis, with monthly such average approvals at Rs 1,500 crore. Total individual loan approvals grew 15 per cent and disbursements grew by 13 per cent. The average size of individual loans has come down to Rs 26.9 lakh from over Rs 27.2 lakh.

As against the mandated provision of Rs 3,624 crore, the company made a provision of Rs 9,934 crore or 2.25 per cent of total loans.

The HDFC counter closed 2.25 per cent down at Rs 2395.80 on the BSE whose benchmark Sensex plunged by a whopping 1.1 per cent.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Sharjeel Imam -- the man who has been giving the police forces of several states sleepless nights of late -- has apparently managed to outwit the 'Men in Khakhi' who are pursuing him in a hate speech case, a top police officer said on Monday.

Ironically, Delhi Police -- considered to be one notch above the police forces of other states -- was quite late in waking up from its slumber in registering a case against the self-proclaimed JNU student leader.

The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police registered a case on Sunday against Sharjeel for delivering a provocative speech on January 13 -- the video of which went viral on January 25. Delhi Police also conducted searches at various places to nab him.

Police of five states -- Bihar Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi -- have booked Sharjeel under the relevant sections of the IPC. He is also facing the charge of sedition. The police in Bihar -- his native state -- have already conducted raids at his ancestral home on Sunday.

His family members were also called for questioning even as Sharjeel could not be found.

In a video that went viral on January 25, he is seen talking about splitting the northeast from India to block the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). "We know how Muslims are being treated in Assam. We have to save people from the NRC. The only way to do this is by cutting off northeast from India." Several questions vis-a-vis Delhi Police's delay in initiating action against Sharjeel are arising now.

After police force of other states began actively looking for the student leader, Delhi Police began treating the matter as its own.

Personnel and officers of Delhi Police were on alert mode throughout the day across the courts -- suspecting Sharjeel may surrender.

A top officer of Delhi Police Crime Branch told IANS on Monday night on the condition of anonymity: "As of now, he seems to have escaped. He was probably within our reach till January 25. On the same day, he 'disappeared' after delivering a speech in Bihar's Fulwari area. Since then, we have not received any inputs on him." Imam is the son of late Akbar Imam a local Janata Dal-United leader who unsuccessfully contested an Assembly election.

(Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be contacted at sanjeev.c@ians.in)
Boris Johnson has vowed not to 'jeopardise' British national security ahead of a crunch decision on whether to give Huawei a role in building the UK's 5G network.

The Prime Minister hinted at a potential compromise agreement this afternoon which could allow the Chinese tech giant a role while also addressing US concerns.

Speaking in London this afternoon, Mr Johnson responded to claims that involving Huawei in the infrastructure would mean handing power to Beijing.

He said: 'I think there's a very, very important strategic win for the UK.

'The way forward for us clearly is to have a system that delivers for people in this country the kind of consumer benefits that they want through 5G technology or whatever but does not in any way compromise our critical national infrastructure, our security or jeopardise our ability to work together with other intelligence powers around the world.'

He said the UK government's decision on the issue - widely expected to be announced tomorrow following a meeting of the National Security Council - will enable ministers 'to achieve both those objectives and that's the way forward'.

He insisted there was 'no reason why' the UK could not have 'technological progress' while also protecting 'security interests'.

The US administration has urged allies to ban Huawei from their infrastructure, claiming it would be a security risk - something the company vehemently denies - while there is also widespread disquiet among Tory MPs on the issue.

The PM's comments came after Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, said the UK will 'take into account the views of other sovereign states' but ultimately the 'decision we make will be based upon our own sovereign right to choose'.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said overnight the UK faced a 'momentous decision' on Huawei ahead of talks with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in London on Wednesday.

Boris Johnson, pictured at King's College Londong University today, hinted at a potential compromise which could allow Huawei to help build the UK's 5G network while also allaying the security concerns of the US

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary pictured in Downing Street on January 21, said the UK had a 'sovereign right to choose' whether to hand Huawei a role

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to visit the UK for talks on Wednesday with Huawei likely to dominate discussions

Why is Huawei's involvement in UK 5G controversial? Huawei has come under scrutiny over allegations of close ties to the Chinese state. Founder Ren Zhengfei's past links to the military have been cited as a concern, as has China's history of state sponsorship and surveillance. Chinese law can also compel firms to co-operate with Chinese national intelligence work, which some critics have suggested could see Beijing require Huawei to spy on people through so-called 'back doors' in its telecoms equipment. Huawei has vehemently denied the allegations of any ties with the Chinese state and says it abides by the laws of every country in which it operates. Advertisement

If the government does announce tomorrow - as is now expected - that Huawei will help to build the UK's 5G network then the showdown between Mr Pompeo and Mr Raab could prove explosive.

Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, this morning warned it would be unwise for the UK to be 'technologically dependent' on another country while former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt also raised concerns amid a rising Tory backlash on the issue.

Mr Buckland told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: 'The British cabinet has to act in the interest of the United Kingdom first and foremost, of course it will take into account the views of other sovereign states.

'But as a sovereign state that has to place at the heart of its decision-making national security but also the wider interests of the country, namely the development of broadband, then we've got to make a decision calmly and dispassionately on the evidence.'

Mr Pompeo tweeted last night in support of an article written by Tory MP Tom Tugendhat which suggested allowing Huawei into the 5G network could harm British sovereignty.

He said: 'The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G. British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: 'The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign.''

Why is Huawei so important to 5G? Huawei has invested billions of pounds into research and development around 5G network infrastructure and, as a result, is now considered the industry leader in 5G technology. It is also already part of the existing network infrastructure in a number of countries, including in the UK. As a result, using one of Huawei's rivals, and most likely alternatives - Ericsson or Nokia - for the building of 5G networks, would likely cause a delay and add cost to the introduction of widespread 5G in the UK. In contrast, none of the four largest mobile carriers in the United States use Huawei equipment in their networks. Advertisement

But Mr Buckland appeared to dismiss US concerns as he said it will be 'Britain that will have to live with the consequences' of whatever decision it makes.

'All of us have to take that calculation in terms of our own national interest, that's what we're going to do,' he said.

'The decision we make will be based upon our own sovereign right to choose. It's Britain that will have to live with the consequences of that.

'There are risks but we will make an informed decision based on the evidence and we will do so in an autonomous way.'

The government was grilled by MPs this afternoon in the House of Commons on the potential involvement of Huawei in the construction of the network.

Asking an urgent question, Mr Tugendhat said other countries, ranging from Australia and the Czech Republic to Vietnam, have rejected the company's involvement in their domestic schemes.

He said: 'If even the Communist Party in Vietnam rejects it, deciding to set up its own network and to reject Huawei, perhaps we should be beware of strangers and the gifts they bear.'

Responding for the government, Culture minister Matt Warman said: 'Britain is in a unique position and so comparisons with other countries can only go so far, but he is right to make those comparisons.'

Meanwhile, Mr Hunt cautioned against involving Huawei in the construction of the UK's 5G network.



He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I must admit I always wondered whether it was wise to allow ourselves to become technologically dependent on another country, whichever country, for something as critical as 5G technology.

'That is my view, but I would say if the decision goes the other way this week, as some of the signs seem to indicate it might, I hope there will also be some reflection in the US because we have never needed the Western alliance to be stronger than now.'

There are growing concerns in Washington that the potential involvement of Huawei in the UK's network could harm intelligence sharing with Britain and cause lasting damage to the 'special relationship'.

Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, questioned whether it would be wise to involve Huawei in the UK's 5G network

Penny Mordaunt, the former defence secretary, this morning set out a number of concerns about involving Huawei in the UK's 5G network

Mr Hunt said he does 'accept the word of our intelligence community', with officials of the belief that Huawei can be safely involved in building non-core parts of the network.

But he added: 'But I think the issue is what happens if we get to the situation where no Western companies that are really able to compete with Huawei going forward and, like it or not, in a decade's time people will look back and say 'was this really wise to take this decision in 2020 that has led to this dependency?''

Ms Mordaunt said the government needed to consider more than just the security implications of handing Huawei a role in the 5G network.

She said: 'Media reports about Huawei have focussed on how we can limit it to the non-core. That's not the only issue Ministers need to focus on.

'Do we value protection of IP and ideas? Do we care how a company treats its workers?

'Do we value democracy & the good stewardship of capital? What are the standards, values and reliability we want from any company our national infrastructure depends upon?

'Finally, what's the alternative - the detail of what we'd need to do, with others, if we said no.'
Toomey has confided to GOP senators that proposing a one-for-one deal with Senate Democrats may be necessary at some point, particularly with pressure mounting for witnesses to be called, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. He has argued that such an arrangement could force Democrats to accept a Republican witness against their wishes or else risk having Republicans move ahead to acquit Trump, the officials said.
Lucknow, Jan 27 : "Sanskar", "Sanskriti" and "Samrasta" will be at the core of the education that will be provided to the countrys future soldiers in the first "Army School" to be run by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), classes for which will start in April in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr.

The school, known as Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir (RBSVM), will be a first of its kind school to be run by the RSS. Rajju Bhaiyya was a former RSS chief.

"We want those aspiring to join the defence forces, to get proper education in values (sanskar), culture (sanskriti) and harmony (samrasta) so that our defence forces emerge even stronger in the coming years.

"The idea is to give education as well as moral and spiritual guidance to students and this is possible only in a residential school," said a senior RSS functionary.

Sangh functionaries will provide moral and spiritual guidance to students which will help them cope with the career in armed forces.

Asked whether the 'moral and spiritual guidance' would imply lessons in Hindutva, the functionary said: "We are focusing on 'Rashtra bhakti' (nationalism) and if anyone wants to equate that with Hindutva, it is their problem." Sources said that students will be provided education from Classes 6 to 12 under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum.

The classes are set to begin from April 2020 and its first batch is expected to comprise around 160 students.

The school is meant only for boys though, sources said, there could be a wing for girl students later on, too.

The school building is in Shikarpur tehsil of Bulandshahr district, where the former RSS chief Rajju Bhaiyya was born in 1922.

The school will be run by Vidya Bharti, the education wing of the RSS, and will offer defence training to students. Vidya Bharti already runs over 20,000 schools across India.

The residential school has come up on an eight-acre land donated by former soldier Chaudhary Rajpal Singh.

According to reports, the three-storey building has a hostel, quarters for staff, a dispensary and a stadium.

"We will prepare students for NDA, Naval Academy and technical examination of the Indian Army. Registration will continue till February 23. Entrance test will be held on March 1. We will examine students' abilities in reasoning, general knowledge, Mathematics and English. After the written examination, there will be interview and then a medical test. We will start the session from April 6," said RBSVM director Colonel Shiv Pratap Singh.

According to a senior RSS functionary, the school building is almost ready and school has started inviting applications for the first batch of 160 students for Class 6.

Eight seats will be reserved for the children of personnel killed in battle. The wards of the martyrs will also get some age relaxation. There would be no other reservation in the school and it would follow the CBSE pattern.

The school has also initiated the process of hiring teachers and administrative staff which would be completed by February-end.

The principal of the school would be provided by RSS' educational wing Vidya Bharati.

Both students and teachers will have uniforms -- light-blue shirt and dark-blue trouser for students; grey-coloured trouser and white shirt for teachers.
Dalhousie University is home to four of the newest recipients of funding from the Government of Canada for their innovative health research.

The $1,159,527 in funding is provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grants, which help researchers gather the kind of information they need to make real improvements to clinical practice, health service delivery, and public health policy.

The Project Grant competition is one of CIHRs flagship funding programs. They are multi-year grants that are designed to support researchers at various stages in their careers as they conduct health research and knowledge translation projects that cover the full range of health research topic. Project grant recipients are leaders in their fields and their projects tackle pressing health issues that matter to Canadians, such as chronic pain management, mental health literacy intervention for Indigenous youth, and harnessing mast cell responses to viral infections.

In addition, four clinician scientists affiliated with the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) and the IWK Health Centre also received funding, bring the total in new health research funding to $3.2 million.

The researchers receiving funding include:

Paul Gratzer, Associate Professor, Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science, School of Biomedical Engineering

Project: Application of Advanced Wound Care Products and Techniques in the Northern Ontario First Nations Community









Noreen Kamal, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial EngineeringProject: Atlantic Canada Together Enhancing Acute Stroke Treatment (ACTEAST): Improving Access and Efficiency of Treatment





Jean Marshall, Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology

Project: Harnessing Mast Cell Responses to Viral Infections









Yifeng Wei, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Project: Developing, Evaluating, Disseminating and Sustaining a School-Based Mental Health Literacy Intervention for Indigenous Youth





Javeria Hashmi, Affiliated Scientist, Nova Scotia Health Authority and Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine

Project: Strategy for Understanding How Expectations Interfere with Chronic Pain Management: A Multi-Modal Neuroimaging Study.



Rudolf Uher, Psychiatrist, Nova Scotia Health Authority and Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Project: Sleep and Circadian Rhythm as Development Antecedents to Major Mood Disorders





Francesca Di Cara, Department of Pediatrics, IWK Health Centre and Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics/Microbiology and Immunology

Project: Defining the Peroxisome-Lipid Signaling Network in Innate Immunity





Souvik Mitra, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, IWK Health Centre and Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics.

Project: Relative Effectiveness and Safety of Pharmacotherapeutic Agents for Treatment of Patent Ductus Arteriosis (PDA) in Preterm Infants: A National Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Project.



Highlights of successfully funded projects:

Application of Advanced Wound Care Products and Techniques in the Northern Ontario First Nations Community

First Nations people living in Canada are among the highest risk population for diabetes and related complications. Community-based and culturally appropriate prevention strategies and monitoring of indications of diabetes among this high-risk population are essential to reducing health disparities.

With diabetes, minor abrasions and cuts on the feet can become chronic, infected wounds. Once the infection reaches the bone, amputation often becomes necessary. Canada currently spends $1.5 billion on direct costs for diabetic amputations, and in Ontarios North West Local Health Integration Network area alone, there were more than 100 amputations last year, which cost up to $43 million.

Paul Gratzer who has developed a new tissue engineered would care product called DermGEN, is working with Joanne Ogden, an award winning wound care nurse who has created a Wound Care Centre of Excellence in the Fort Frances area with a focus on limb preservation. DermGEN was created through research at Dalhousie and will be applied in a clinical study to assess the efficacy of this product in treating diabetic ulcers in the First Nations Communities of Northwest Ontario. DermGEN is unique in that it can be stored at room temperature, is easily transportable, and requires simple wound preparation and aftercare treatment which can be managed by patients at home.

"I am very excited to receive this funding as it enables my research to be used in helping a population who experience the highest rates in Canada of diabetic complications that lead to limb amputations, says Prof Gratzer. In partnership with the local First Nations communities, their Chiefs and Elders, and local wound care clinicians, we will bring advanced wound care technology directly to diabetic ulcer patients enabling them to heal faster and potentially eliminate the need for amputations.

Prof. Gratzers hope is that this research will significantly improve wound care in the First Nations communities at a lower cost.

Atlantic Canada Together Enhancing Acute Stroke Treatment (ACTEAST): Improving Access and Efficiency of Treatment

Stroke is a devastating disease, and the leading cause of severe physical disability. Ischemic stroke is the most common form of stroke; and is treatable with medical treatment and a new minimally invasive surgical procedure. These treatments can transform lives, but minutes matter for improving outcomes.

Dr. Noreen Kamals research is focused on increasing the proportion of ischemic stroke patients receiving treatment, and improving the efficiency of treatment. Her team will carry out this work across all of the Atlantic provinces, and employ an Improvement Collaborative intervention. This intervention uses the Model for Improvement adopted from Industrial Engineering, which employs alternating

face-to-face workshops and action periods to test and implement changes at local hospitals. The workshops involve sharing information with hospital teams and facilitation of cross-site learning.



It is anticipated that the potential benefit for patients experiencing ischemic stroke is profound. It is anticipated that 10-20% of ischemic stroke patients will have improved outcomes, which means that up to 550 more patients each year in Atlantic Canada can return to their homes with no or little disability, and use much less rehabilitation and long-term care services.

This funding means so much because ACTEAST is incredibly important to me for a number of reasons, says Dr. Kamal. The first reason is for the patients of course, who deserve the best possible outcomes that medical evidence has to offer. This brings me to my second reason, this is a cluster trial using a novel design to rigorously study the impact of an implementation, which will show its impact on being able to mobilize knowledge obtained from randomized clinical trial into practice. Finally, I have fallen in love with this region and its people; I look forward to working with the people from Atlantic Canada across four provinces and multiple health authorities to make it one of the best performing acute stroke systems in the world.

For more information about the CIHRs Project Grant program can be found on the CIHR website.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked party leaders to "aggressively" raise the issue of CAA, NPR and NRC to corner the government in the Budget Session beginning January 31.

Gandhi gave the directions to top Congress leaders during a meeting at her residence to discuss the party's strategy for the session.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and K Suresh were present during the meeting.

The party will fight against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and raise the economic downturn and other issues concerning the common man, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told reporters after the meeting.

"We will fight for the Constitution and will also fight against the CAA," he said.

The Congress intends to go aggressive on the issue of CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) and corner the government amid countrywide protests over these issues.

The Congress and other opposition parties will also meet soon to plan a joint opposition strategy ahead of the Parliament session.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN.  The majority of My Step faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders has convened an urgent session today.

The meeting will focus on faction member and ruling Civil Contract party member Henrik Hartenyans dissemination of the photo of the daughter of president Hrayr Tovmasyan of the Constitutional Court of Armenia.

As reported earlier, Hartenyan posted a picture of Tovmasyan's daughter on his Facebook page and wrote: "This is the FB of H. Tovmasyan's daughter; let me see you, people."

The Civil Contract party steering committee has also issued a statement, noting that Henrik Hartenyan's Facebook statement is unacceptable and contrary to the values and principles adopted by the party.
Deadly coronavirus believed to have originated in a Wuhan food market continues to spread sparking global concern.

China and countries around the world are scrambling to contain the spread of a new coronavirus that has killed 81 people and infected more than 2,700.

More than 56 million people in almost 20 Chinese cities  including Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province where the virus originated  have been under a strict lockdown, introduced amid fears the transmission rate will balloon as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel during Lunar New Year celebrations.

Health authorities around the globe are taking action to prevent a pandemic as more countries report cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the respiratory illness is an emergency in China but said it was too early to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.





Here are the latest updates:

Monday, January 27

UK asks those from Wuhan to isolate themselves

Anyone who has returned to Britain from Wuhan in China in the last two weeks should self-isolate and stay indoors, the UKs health minister said.

As of 14:00 GMT on Monday, Britain had tested 73 people for the Wuhan coronavirus but has not had any confirmed cases.

We are  asking anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days to self-isolate, to stay indoors and avoid contact with other people, Matt Hancock said.

Public Health England officials are continuing to trace people who have arrived in the UK from Wuhan. Having eliminated those who we know have since left the country, there are 1,460 people were seeking to locate.

Beijing city reports first coronavirus death

Chinas capital Beijing reported its first death caused by the new coronavirus, state television station CCTV said.

The victim was a 50-year-old man who visited the central city of Wuhan on January 8 and developed a fever after returning to Beijing seven days later, the citys health commission said.

He went to a hospital on January 21 and died on Monday of respiratory failure, the commission said.

It was not immediately clear if the death was included in the total. All the deaths occurred in China.

Sri Lanka confirms first case of coronavirus

Sri Lanka confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the South Asian island nation.

A Chinese lady, who is in her 40s, arrived on the 19th as a tourist and fell ill on the 25th and was confirmed as having the coronavirus following a test on Monday, said Sudath Samaraweera, chief epidemiologist with Sri Lankas health ministry.

The woman was suffering from a fever when she was admitted on Saturday to the Infectious Disease Hospital, a state-run facility that treats people suffering from potentially deadly infectious diseases.

US State Department warns against visiting China

The US State Department warned against visiting China and said Americans should not travel to the Hubei province, given the city of Wuhan is ground zero for the deadly coronavirus.

The department already ordered the departure of all non-emergency US personnel and family members from the province and said the US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to its citizens there.

It said travellers should be prepared for the Chinese government to put travel restrictions in place with little or no advance notice.

Trump: US, China in close contact on outbreak

US President Donald Trump said the United States and China were in close contact over the deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has infected thousands in more than 10 countries and killed at least 81.

We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in USA, but strongly on watch. We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary! Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Trump offered China any help that is necessary.

US stocks follow global markets lower over virus concerns

US stocks tumbled following a sell-off in markets in Europe and Japan after China announced a sharp rise in cases of a deadly new virus that threatens to crimp global economic growth.

Every major US index gave up a significant amount of their gains for January and bond yields moved lower as investors headed for safer holdings. Airlines, resorts and other companies that rely on travel and tourism suffered steep losses. Gold prices rose.

Investors are in a sell first, ask questions later situation, said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell.

WHO corrects China virus global risk level to high

The World Health Organization on Monday admitted an error in its assessment of the global risk of a deadly virus in China, saying it was high and not moderate.

The Geneva-based UN health agency said in a situation report published late Sunday that the risk was very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level.

In a footnote, the WHO explained it stated incorrectly in its previous reports on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that the global risk was moderate.

The correction of the global risk assessment does not mean an international health emergency has been declared.

Wuhan mayor willing to resign if it helps contain virus

The mayor of the Chinese city where a deadly virus broke out said he would be willing to resign if it helps the government contain its spread.





Mayor Zhou Xianwang told state broadcaster CCTV both he and Wuhans Communist Party secretary are willing to take responsibility for closing off the city, including being removed from office.

As the virus spread through China and overseas, transportation links to the city were cut last week to prevent more people from leaving.

Zhou also responded to allegations that the city was slow to disclose information in the early days of the outbreak, saying local governments are restricted from releasing information about infectious diseases without authorisation.

He told state broadcaster CCTV the citys management of the crisis was not good enough  rare public self-criticism for a Chinese official.

Canada reports 2nd presumptive case

The wife of a man hospitalised in Toronto with a suspected Chinese coronavirus infection has herself contracted the virus, making her Canadas second presumptive case of the contagious disease.

The province of Ontario announced on Saturday that Canadas first suspected case involved a man in his 50s who had been in Wuhan. He arrived in Toronto on January 22.

His wife, who made the same trip with him, also is believed to have contracted the virus and has been placed in isolation, David Williams, the provinces state medical officer, said in a statement.

Cambodia confirms first case

Cambodia has confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country, Health Minister Mam Bunheng said.

The patient is a Chinese man who came with his family from the central Chinese city of Wuhan to the coastal city of Sihanoukville earlier this month, he said.

Mam Bunheng said the patient left Wuhan on January 23 and developed a fever on January 25.

The patient is now stable, he added.

People who return from Wuhan city, Hubei province of the Peoples Republic of China must regularly check their health and if they have fever symptoms, cough, running nose  please hurry to seek medical treatment at public health centres, he said.

Taiwan to inspect travellers to enforce mask export ban

Taiwan will inspect people leaving the island to ensure they are not breaking a temporary ban on exporting face masks but people carrying them for personal use will be exempted, Taiwans customs administration said in a statement.

Customs will judge the reasonable number for personal use according to the circumstances of the number of accompanying people, the number of travel days, and the tourist area.

Last week, Taiwans government announced a month-long ban on the export of specialist masks, saying it had to look after the needs of its own people first.

Dutch government evaluating options for Wuhan evacuation: ANP

The Dutch government is evaluating options for evacuating 20 Dutch citizens from Wuhan, press agency ANP reported.

The Dutch foreign ministry has yet to comment.

Chinas coronavirus: All you need to know in 500 words

Catch up with the fast-moving story here.

Iraq working to evacuate students from Wuhan: foreign ministry

Iraqi embassy officials in China are working with Chinese authorities to provide services to and evacuate Iraqi students from Wuhan.

Everyone is awaiting approval for the Iraqis to leave the city, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a press release.

He added through continuous monitoring the embassy had not recorded any case of the virus in the students.





UAE: Impact of virus on oil demand should not be exaggerated

The United Arab Emirates Minister of Energy said the oil market should not overreact to the possible impact of the outbreak on demand.

Suhail al-Mazrouei said he was confident in the ability of China and the international community to bring the current outbreak under control.

Face mask shortage in China boosts sales in Seoul

A shortage of face masks in many Chinese cities has prompted tourists to stock up while abroad.

In the South Korean capital, queues formed outside pharmacies as some of the tens of thousands of Chinese tourists thought to be spending the Lunar New Year holiday in South Korea waited to buy masks.

Al Jazeeras Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said a steady stream of [Chinese] visitors have been snapping up literally armfulls of face masks, filling up the bags and in some instances, the cases that theyre going to be returning to China with at the end of their holiday.

Number of infected people likely much higher: HK public health expert

A senior public health expert in Hong Kong said the real number of people infected by the new coronavirus is likely close to 25,000  significantly higher than the 2,744 cases confirmed by Chinas National Health Commission.

Gabriel Leung, the head of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong told a press briefing that his teams research indicated that there were likely around 44,000 cases in the incubation stage in Wuhan, adding that the rate of infection will double every six to seven days.

This is based on computer modeling, it doesnt mean its necessarily going to happen but he said it is a forecast, a sort of worst-case scenario, Al Jazeeras Adrian Brown, reporting from Hong Kong said.





Germany mulling evacuating citizens from Hubei: German FM

Germany is considering evacuating its citizens from Hubei, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

We are now also considering a possible evacuation of all Germans who are willing to leave, Maas told a news conference, adding that a team from the German embassy in Beijing would arrive in Wuhan on Monday to help Germans there.

Maas said Germans should avoid all travel to China that was not absolutely necessary.

WHO chief arrives in Beijing

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has arrived in Beijing for talks on the outbreak, the health organisations office in Beijing confirmed.

He is scheduled to meet representatives of government agencies and other experts who are involved in the crisis management efforts.

UK offers to help citizens to leave Hubei province

The United Kingdom has offered to help its citizens leave Hubei province, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said.

We are working to make available an option for British nationals to leave Hubei province, a statement on the FCOs China advice page read.

Spain to repatriate its citizens from Wuhan

The Spanish government is working with China and the European Union to repatriate Spanish nationals from Wuhan, Spains Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said.

Were working  with our consulate in Beijing, and officials in China and the European Union to repatriate around 20 Spaniards in Wuhan, Hubei, the epicentre of the coronavirus. We will continue to update on any advances, she wrote on Twitter.

Russia tour operators stop selling China tours

Russian tour operators have stopped selling tours to China due to the coronavirus outbreak and are only bringing Russian tourists back, Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Association of Russian Tour Operators told Reuters news agency.

The tours are not being sold because there is a safety threat, he said, adding that the move followed recommendations from Russias tourism watchdog.

Malaysia imposes temporary ban on visitors from Hubei

Malaysia has imposed a temporary ban on Chinese visitors from Wuhan and the wider Hubei province in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The government decided to impose the measure with immediate effect following the rising death toll in China, according to a statement from the Malaysian prime ministers office, which added that the ban would be lifted once the situation returned to normal.

Malaysia has reported four confirmed cases of the deadly virus.

Read more about which countries have confirmed cases here.

Saudi Arabia watching oil market closely amid outbreak

Saudi Arabias energy minister said the country is closely monitoring developments in global oil markets resulting from gloomy expectations regarding the possible impact of the coronavirus on the Chinese and global economy, as well as on the oil markets fundamentals.

OPEC and its allies can respond to any impact on the stability of the oil market if needed, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.

Read more about the impact of the outbreak on oil prices here.

South Korea confirms fourth case

South Korea has confirmed its fourth case of the virus in a 55-year-old South Korean man who returned from Wuhan on January 20 and tested positive for the virus.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control (KCDC) said the man was placed in quarantine on Sunday and that health authorities are in the process of tracking his movements since returning and the people he may have contacted.

Read more about which countries have confirmed cases here

Mongolia closes China border, shuts schools

Mongolia has closed its border crossing with China to cars and pedestrians and shut schools in an effort to halt the spread of the deadly virus.

Pedestrians and cars are prohibited to cross the Chinese border, said Vice Prime Minister Enkhtuvishin Ulziisaikhan said on Sunday, adding that schools and universities would stay closed until March 2, along with other public places.

Public events are also prohibited. Public events mean conferences, any public gathering such as sports, entertainment or travel and competitions, he said.

Macau to deny entry to Hubei visitors unless they prove virus-free

Macau has said it will deny entry to visitors from Chinas Hubei province or those who visited the province 14 days prior to arrival unless they can provide documentation showing they are not infected.

Macaus government has also said it is banning anyone who had been to Hubei province within 14 days of arrival in the island from the premises of the citys casinos.

Five cases have been reported in the gambling hub, which is hugely popular with mainland tourists.

Macau, a gambling hub, is a popular destination for mainland tourists [File: Jason Lee/Reuters]

China allots nearly $9bn to contain spread

Chinas finance ministry and National Health Commission have extended the 60.33 billion yuan ($8.74bn) to help contain the spreading virus, according to a statement on the ministrys website.

Oil prices and Asian shares fall as virus fears stalk financial markets

Oil prices and Asian shares skidded lower as concerns grew over the potential impact of the virus outbreak, with safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and US Treasury notes in greater demand.

The price of Brent crude oil fell below $60 per barrel for the first time since October, as Asian stocks fell in line with their Wall Street counterparts.

Read the full story here.





Chinas Hainan province announces first coronavirus death

Chinas southern province of Hainan has confirmed that an 80-year-old woman died after being infected with the coronavirus, its first fatality in the outbreak, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Australia confirms fifth coronavirus case

Australia has confirmed its fifth case of coronavirus, with health officials saying the patient was a 21-year-old woman who was on the last flight out of Wuhan to Sydney before the travel ban was imposed.

The woman travelled on a direct flight to Sydney from Wuhan and developed symptoms within 24 hours and went to an emergency department, New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters.

The patient was immediately put into isolation, Chant said.

Officials were tracing a couple of very low-level contacts related to the woman, Chant said.

Read more about which countries have confirmed cases of the virus here.

China has deployed the military to the sealed-off city of Wuhan as it attempts to stop the deadly virus from spreading [Cheng Min/Xinhua via AP Photo]

WHO chief travelling to Beijing

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is travelling to Beijing to meet government officials and those dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

He said he wants to understand the latest developments and strengthen our partnership with China in providing further protection against the outbreak.

Japan to arrange charter flight to evacuate citizens from Wuhan

Japan is expected to arrange a charter flight as early as Tuesday for any of its citizens who wish to return from Wuhan, Kyodo news agency reported, citing a senior ruling party official.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference earlier on Monday the government was working with Chinese authorities to make arrangements for all Japanese nationals wishing to return from Wuhan, including on charter flights.

Chinese premier visits city at epicentre of virus

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has visited Wuhan where he was expected to meet patients as well as frontline medical teams.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, entrusted by President Xi Jinping, has arrived in #Wuhan to inspect and guide the #CoronavirusOutbreak response work; he will also visit patients and medical workers in the area pic.twitter.com/zpKi5rGaCY  CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) January 27, 2020

Pictured on social media wearing a mask and blue plastic scrubs, Li was in the city to investigate and guide ongoing efforts to control the virus, Chinas State Council said on its official social media account.

The premier heads a working group that was set up to tackle the outbreak.

Holiday extended to February 2

China will extend the Lunar New Year holidays to February 2, to strengthen the prevention and control of the new coronavirus, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The holidays had been due to end on January 30.

https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/1221640368522813446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Schools that are currently on a term break will also extend their holidays, but the specific dates will be announced by the Ministry of Education, CCTV said.

Popular hotpot restaurant closes stores across China

The popular Haidilao chain of hotpot restaurants will close all its outlets across China from January 26  31 to contain the spread of the virus.

Haidilao is closing its restaurants across China as the country tries to curb the spread of a new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan [File: Jason Lee/Reuters]

Haidilao has restaurants in 118 cities in mainland China.

Death toll rises to 80 with more than 2,700 infected

China has said that the death toll from a deadly outbreak of coronavirus jumped to 80 as the hard-hit province of Hubei announced 24 new fatalities, while total confirmed cases nationwide rose sharply to 2,744.

Read updates from Sunday, January 26 here.
The Egyptian air force, affiliated with the Egyptian armed forces and in coordination with the Egyptian air defense forces, redeployed its various types of aircraft across a number of military bases Jan. 13 to provide air protection to all those participating in the Qadir 2020 maneuver.

Military spokesman Col. Tamer al-Rifai published an official statement Jan. 13 on his official Facebook page, stating that the Egyptian air force has done this redeployment with the help of the Egyptian navy while carrying out their tasks to secure economic interests in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea operations.

In the same statement, Rifai said the Western Military Region Command affiliated with the army carried out a number of exercises and training along the Libyan land and coastal borders in cooperation with the main branches of the armed and border guard forces as part of Qadir 2020. It also carried out many tactical projects with live ammunition in order to secure the coasts, he noted, adding that paratroopers conducted a number of training activities to increase preparedness.

Maj. Gen. Mohamed al-Shahawy, adviser to the army's Command and Staff College, told Al-Monitor over the phone that the army carried out the Qadir 2020 maneuver because the state is exposed for the first time to a very special type of threat very close to its western borders in light of the ongoing war and instability in neighboring Libya.

Shahawy said this comes after the Turkish parliament approved the deployment of military forces to Libya to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fayez al-Sarraj in its war against Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, who is backed by Egypt.

The Turkish parliament had approved a law Jan. 2 allowing the deployment of Turkish military forces to Libya after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a memo to support the GNA in its war against Hifter, whose forces control eastern Libya.

After that, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an urgent statement on the same day, Jan. 2, in which it strongly condemned Turkey's interference in Libyan internal affairs. It also called on the international community to address these dangerous developments. Meanwhile, the National Security Council headed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met on the same day to discuss the Turkish military intervention in Libya and the threat of Egyptian interests on the western border, according to a presidential statement issued Jan. 2.

The National Security Council is made up of the president, the prime minister, head of General Intelligence, the parliament speaker, and the ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs, along with other ministers. It specializes in facing disaster and crisis situations and identifying the sources of dangers to Egyptian national security and the necessary measures to address them.

Shahawy said the Qadir 2020 maneuver is a war training project and includes wide-ranging military exercises carried out by the armed forces in a number of axes, mainly at the Berenice Military Base south of the Red Sea, to send clear and unequivocal messages to the Turkish side, which intervened in Libya without having the right to do so, thus violating the rules of international law in this regard.

Redeploying Egyptian aircraft across various air bases in coordination with the Egyptian air defense forces is primarily aimed at knowing the Egyptian army's operational ability on the ground. It also aims to raise full preparedness in the event of a war or a military strike in some areas, especially after the tension with Turkey and the complex security situation in Libya, as well as other terrorist acts that come from the Libyan surrounding and extremist groups on the western borders of Egypt, Shahawy noted.

He stressed that this maneuver also aims to secure the northern Egyptian border overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Zohr gas field and various other gas and oil sources.

Shahawy pointed out the special importance of Sisis participation in the Qadir 2020 opening ceremony and the clear indications of his presence as the highest-ranking official in Egypt to oversee these huge maneuvers, in which the Mistral helicopter carrier and a number of combat ships, submarines and attack helicopters in the air force are taking part.

On Jan. 15, Sisi inaugurated the Berenice Military Base overlooking the Red Sea, in the presence of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nayhan, President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian and Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud.

During the opening ceremony, Sisi also watched Protecting a Homeland, a documentary on the training activities carried out by the army during the Qadir 2020 maneuver.

On Jan. 18, Sisi saluted all the commanders and members of the Egyptian armed forces for their great performance during the opening of the Berenice Military Base, noting that the opening reflected the professional capabilities of the armed forces and their efficiency and advanced combat preparedness.

The Berenice base is located southeast of Aswan, on an area of 150,000 acres, and includes a naval base, an air base, a military hospital, and a number of administrative and combat units.

Berenice is the second military base Sisi has inaugurated; he opened the southern Mohamed Naguib Military Base in July 2017, which was also attended by Crown Prince Zayed Al Nayhan.

Director of the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies Brig. Khaled Okasha told Al-Monitor that Qadir 2020 is the first maneuver for the Egyptian army in 2020. It was named "Qadir" (Arabic for "able") because it indicates the ability of the Egyptian army to repel any enemy and preserve the wealth of the Egyptian state.

The importance of this maneuver lies in thwarting off the threats on the western borders of Egypt after the Turkish parliament's decision to send military forces to Libya, which constitutes a threat to Egyptian national security, Okasha said.

He said the Egyptian army announced for the first time the names of the new weapons, namely the Kamov aircraft and the multirole MiG-29, which are the latest models of attack aircraft joining the air forces and which have participated for the first time in this maneuver.

In addition, Okasha noted, the advanced fourth-generation fighter Rafale and a number of naval frigates also took part in the maneuver, whose main objective is to protect Egypt's national interests and send a direct message to Turkey that Egypt can protect itself well in times of crisis.
Photo: Doner Box/Yelp

Ready to get to know the newest businesses to open in Belltown? From a tea shop to a kebab stop, read on for the newest businesses to arrive in this area of Seattle.

Jardin Tea

1099 Stewart St., Suite 101

Photo: Anh P./Yelp

Jardin Tea is a spot to score coffee and tea, as well as juices, smoothies and desserts.

The eatery serves up a variety of eats, including banh mi sandwiches, acai bowls and artisanal toasts. There are also a slew of tea lattes and iced teas, as well as steeped tea, blooming tea and tea-ffogato  chai or matcha served over a scoop of ice cream.

Jardin Tea currently holds 4.5 stars out of six reviews on Yelp, indicating good reviews.

Yelper Angela C., who reviewed Jardin Tea on January 20, wrote, "Wanted to try out this new spot and it did not disappoint. The decor is really cute with a modern, nature, sort of LA vibe. Love it."

Yelper Michelle H. added, "The milk tea with boba is delicious, but the real star is the lobster banh mi. They warm the bread so it has the perfect crunch but is soft in the middle. I highly recommend."

Jardin Tea is open from 8 a.m.5:30 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.3:30 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.)

Street Bean Coffee Roasters

910 Stewart St.

photo: yolanda s./yelp

Street Bean Coffee Roasters is a coffee roastery, offering coffee, tea and more.

The coffee shop offers a variety of coffee drinks, alongside pastries like cinnamon rolls, croissants, scones and doughnuts.

With a 4.5-star rating out of four reviews on Yelp, Street Bean Coffee Roasters has been getting positive attention.

Yelper Sergio M., who reviewed Street Bean Coffee Roasters on December 5, wrote, "Tried a cup of their drip coffee and it was pretty amazing. I'm really picky with my coffee too, I usually stick with Coffee Roasters for my drip because of the quality and this place is the best I've had in a while. Really cozy inside as well."

Katie C. noted, "I had a breakfast sandwich (which are new). It was on a super flaky croissant with egg, bacon and cheese. My non-fat latte was perfect and a great start to my Friday."

Story continues

Street Bean Coffee Roasters is open from 6 a.m.5 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m.5 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.)

Doner Box

2421 Second Ave.

Photo: Doner Box/Yelp

Doner Box is a German spot.

On the menu, look for sandwiches and wraps, which can be filled with meats like carved chicken, lamb or beef. There are also vegan and vegetarian options available, including falafel, fried tofu and halloumi cheese. Finish up your meal with add-ons like lentil soup and flatbread, or opt for baklava.

Doner Box's current rating of 4.5 stars out of 46 reviews on Yelp indicates positive attention from users.

Yelper Ian S., who reviewed Doner Box on January 9, wrote, "This is the one the one Doner spot to rule them all. Everything here is as close as you could get from your local corner Donerbude in Berlin, the real game-changers being the great chicken and the type of bread they use."

Doner Box is open from 11 a.m.9 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 11 a.m.10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
In the face of critiques, Jeanine Cummins is pushing back in public. Her publisher released a statement encouraging discussion around the title, while some authors and booksellers have come to Cummins defense. In a culture that is used to debating black and Asian representation and stereotypes, the entrenchment around American Dirt is fueling even more complaints over the ease with which popular culture still employs Latino-related stereotypes in contemporary movies, television and fiction.  Los Angeles Times
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The global automatic wiper system market is predicted to grow at a 5.6% CAGR over the forecast period (2018-2023), states the new Market Research Future (MRFR) report. A wiper system is a tool or device in a vehicle used to remove debris, ice, snow, and rain from a windshield or windscreen. An automotive wiper is powered either by a pneumatic power or an electric motor.

Wiper systems are a vital part of a car that comprises of two wiper arms and wiper drive. They are made from fabrics, metal, plastics, and molded substrates. Latest technologies are being introduced in the market for reducing noise and improving the effectiveness of the wiper system such as removing of dust and cleaning of water.

Various factors are propelling the automotive wiper system market growth. These factors, as specified by the Market Research Future (MRFR) report, include growing production and sales of cars across the globe, increasing disposable income in India as well as China, increasing adoption of rear wipers in SUVs, rise in GDP, improved standard of living, and growing demand for driver and vehicle safety. Additional factors boosting market growth include rising automotive R&D spending, technological advancements, demand for smarter auto components, use of sensors in wiper system, the ever-present threat of car accidents, growing population, demand for electric cars, and an improving economy.

On the contrary, complex design of systems, lack of skilled drivers, and lack of standard protocols for developing automotive wiper systems are factors that may impede the automotive wiper system market growth over the forecast period.

Market Segmentation

The Market Research Future report provides a wide segmental analysis of the automotive wiper system market based on propulsion, vehicle type, application, motor type, and arm type.

Based on arm type, the automotive wiper system market is segmented into pantograph arm and synchronized radial arm.

Based on motor type, the automotive wiper system market is segmented into brushless, brush, and stepper.

Based on vehicle type, the automotive wiper system market is segmented into commercial vehicle and passenger car. Of these, the passenger car will have the largest share in the market over the forecast period.

Based on propulsion, the automotive wiper system market is segmented into electric vehicle and ICE. Of these, the electric vehicle segment will dominate the market over the forecast period.

Based on sales channel, the automotive wiper system market is segmented into aftermarket and OEM.

Regional Analysis

Based on the region, the automotive wiper system market report covers growth opportunities and the latest trends across the Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, North America, and the Rest of the World (RoW). Of these, the APAC region will lead the market over the forecast period. This is due to the increasing production of automobiles in Japan, Korea, India, and China. Besides, increasing purchasing power of consumers, growing population, infrastructure development across this region, and growing industrialization are accelerating market growth.

The automotive wiper system market in Europe is predicted to have significant growth over the forecast period. This is due to the growing number of light vehicles and stringent regulations all across the European Union.

Key Players

Leading players profiled in the automotive wiper system market report include Mitsuba Corp. (Japan), B. Hepworth and Company Limited (UK), Am Automotive (US), Pilot Automotive (US), DENSO Corporation (Japan), Magneti Marelli (Italy), WAI Global (US), DOGA Automotive (Spain), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), and Valeo S.A. (France) among others. The key players have adopted different strategies to make a foothold in the market, such as acquisitions, mergers, partnerships, research and development, and more.

April 2019: Valeo, a leading auto component manufacturer has opened a new wiper motor manufacturing facility at Vallam, Chennai. This plant will manufacture rear wiper motors that will cater to the needs of the aftermarket and OEMs segments. Currently, this facility makes left-hand motor for specifically sufficing the needs of the OEM as well as possess the capability of producing medium and short version wiper motors.
The District Court of The Hague confirms that at least one of the suspects in the MH17 case has expressed a desire to join the legal proceedings and wants to be represented in court by a Dutch law firm.

"Recently, the Court has received the message that at least one of suspects expressed a desire to be represented in court by the Dutch defense," an Ukrinform correspondent learned from the press service of the Court.

The Court did not disclose who had expressed a desire to join the MH17 trial. Neither the Court informed what law firm would represent the suspect.

As noted, this is a common practice when participants involved in the legal proceedings and the materials and petitions submitted are not announced prior to the public hearings.

As reported, the trial of suspects in downing MH17 flight will start on March 9, 2020.

On June 19, 2019, the international Joint Investigation Team named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin, retired officer of the Russian Armed Forces, and former colonel of Russias Federal Security Service; Sergey Dubinskiy, colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Russian Airborne Forces Reserve. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic. The four men were put on the international wanted list. Their presence in the courtroom is unlikely. However, this will not hinder the legal proceedings.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The JIT reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

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India's 71st Republic Day celebrations in the US on January 26 were marred by some peaceful protests and marches by a large number of Indian Americans in various cities of the country against the recent changes in the citizenship law.

Among Indian Americans, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, however, also had a fair share of its supporters who sought to counter protesters by asserting that India cares for Neighbouring Minorities and CAA Won't Impact Indian Citizens.

The supporters, however, appeared to be outnumbered by protesters, who held peaceful rallies and marches in various US cities, carrying anti-CAA banners and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanding CAA's repeal and revocation of the proposed National Register for Citizens.

They raised the demand ruing that India's secular fabric is under threat.

In some of the cities, particularly New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and San Francisco having Indian consulates, and at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, the protestors shouted slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Hindu, Muslim Sikh, Isai: Aapas Mein Sab Bhai Bhai.

The protesters, however were countered by a number of Indian Americans who supported the enactment and congratulated the Modi Government for taking such a bold step.

The largest gathering of anti-CAA protestors was reported from Chicago where Indian Americans gathered in large numbers and formed several mile-long human chain. In the American capital of Washington DC, more than 500 Indian Americans marched from a park near the White House to the Gandhi Statue in front of the Indian Embassy.

The anti-CAA protests in at least 30 US cities were organized by recently formed Coalition to Stop Genocide, comprising several organizations like Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Equality Labs, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).

The brutal crackdown by government in India on anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests has created a situation in which women in large numbers have come out on streets to challenge the divisive-communal-fascist agenda of the government," Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey said, addressing a gathering in Washington DC.

It gives hope that democracy and Constitution can ultimately be saved by the common people from a government which is bent upon destroying them," he said.

IAMC president Ahsan Khan said from the Bay Area in California, the rally of Indian Americans represents an extension of the massive unrest in India against the ruling BJP government for its relentless attacks against the secular Constitution.

"Indian Americans and people of conscience in the US are seeking accountability from the Hindu nationalist regime that wants to turn Indian Muslims into foreigners and render them stateless, said Khan after the rally in San Francisco.

"Protests happening not only in India but around the world represent a global consensus against the draconian policies of the Modi-Shah government," said Dr Shaik Ubaid from New York.

All Indians are equal citizens and that is the foundational social contract between the Indian nation and its citizens," said Minhaj Khan from New Jersey.

"Breaking this contract has grave implications for the future of India as a country, he added.

At some of the places including Washington DC, pro-Khalistani supporters held separate protests against India.

According to the CAA, people from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come to India till December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious persecution there will be given Indian citizenship.

The protesters claim that the legislation was "unconstitutional and divisive" as it excludes Muslims. They have expressed apprehensions that the CAA along with NRC will impact the community in the country.

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law does not deny any citizenship rights, but has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.
(Alliance News) - Fastjet PLC said Monday that trading in 2019 was in line with management expectations and reiterated that it will require further funding by the end of February in order to continue trading in its current form.

The low-cost African airline said that in order to carry out its restructuring plan and to address its funding requirements, it "remains in active discussions" with investors for the disposal of its holding in its Zimbabwe unit.

This restructure would involve Fastjet selling its Zimbabwe business for USD8.0 million to a consortium which includes Solenta Aviation Holdings Ltd, which is the 60% shareholder in Fastjet.

Whilst discussions are ongoing, the company said it cannot guarantee a successful outcome.

"If the group is unable to carry out the restructuring proposal by the end of March 2020 it would be unable to continue trading as a going concern," Fastjet said.

In October the company had announced it suspended flight operations in Mozambique amid "ongoing supply and demand challenges". During the first six months of 2019, revenue from Mozambique had fallen to USD2 million from USD4 million a year prior.

In a trading update for the year ended December 31, Fastjet said its revenue, including the Zimbabwe unit, is expected to be USD42 million, up from USD39 million a year before.

Loss after tax is expected to be USD7 million to USD8 million compared to a loss of USD65 million the year before.

"Trading to the year end, including through the peak holiday season, was in line with management's expectations," the company said.

Fastjet shares were trading 1.8% higher in London at 0.17 pence each on Monday.

By Loreta Juodagalvyte; loretajuodagalvyte@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
A group of Muslim women in Mumbai Central have gone on an indefinite protest, demanding withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), similar to the one at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi. Started by 60 to 70 women, including students, household helps and their family members, on a road in Madanpura on Sunday, more than 350 to 400 people had joined the protest by Monday.

Protesters said that they wont budge from their place until the Centre withdraws the Act.

The government is doing what it feels like. They have detained Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad when he was protesting against the Act, women in Uttar Pradesh are not being allowed to protestthis is completely unconstitutional. We are just following the call to create a Shaheen Bagh in each and every city of the country. We wont budge until the Act is withdrawn and the Supreme Court gives the right order, said Fatima Khan, a law student, who is leading the protesters.

Khan said their other demands include a clear stand from the state government rejecting CAA, National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). We are reaching out to more people through social media and asking women to join the protest, Khan said.

Rosina Aslam Ansari, who works as a house help, said she hadnt gone to work on Monday morning to be a part of the protest. What is happening here will affect us as we do not have documents. We are left with no option but to join the protest. The person I work for gave me a leave to be a part of the protest, saying she would join me too, said Ansari.

The Act, which was passed by Rajya Sabha in December, amends the Citizenship Act, 1955, and fast tracks the process for granting citizenship to members of non-Muslim persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The conflict between Visva-Bharati (VB) vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and a section of students and teachers escalated on Monday after a new video clip, showing Chakraborty questioning protesters against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), surfaced.

In the video, he can be hard saying that some people are treating the Preamble to the Constitution as Veda.

Students announced a prolonged agitation seeking Chakrabortys resignation, accusing him of trying to saffronise the campus.

The agitators also objected to the campus being extensively covered by new security cameras installed over Saturday and Sunday. They also objected to the authorities issuing a notice on Monday, prohibiting any gathering or agitation near the central administrative office and the library.

On Monday evening, students took out a rally inside the campus, shouting slogans that included Sanghi VC go-back and VC must resign.

Late in the evening, the teachers association convened a general body meeting to decide the future course of action.

Those opposing CAA are reading out the Preamble. But this Constitution was passed with minority votes. 293 persons created it sitting in the Constituent Assembly. If you go through the papers of that time, we will find that many had disliked it. But today it is being treated as the Veda. The Preamble has turned into Veda. But if we dislike it, we, the voters who form the Parliament, will change it, Chakraborty is purportedly seen telling a group of students in a speech after hoisting the tricolour at the Purbapalli senior boys hostel on Republic Day.

Students who shared the video on social media claimed it was shot on mobile phone.

HT sent the video to the VB public relations officer, Anirban Sarkar, and asked for comments. HT asked whether the person shown in the video is Chakraborty. Sarkar did not respond.

In an earlier video, the VC was seen instructing some students to attack the protesting students. This new video confirms that the VC is working on his agenda to saffronise Tagores sacred land, said Somnath Sow, a leader of the VB Students Unity Forum, a platform of various Leftwing students organizations that is spearheading the agitation against the CAA.

Our movement will continue till we free the campus of him. Agitation will resume after Saraswati puja (January 29), Sow added.

The new video clip surfaced three days after students lodged a complaint at Bolpur police station, submitting a video clip that they claimed to have been shot on January 7. The video purportedly showed the VC instructing some students to gather bike bahini (motorcycle army) and give those planning to disrupt BJP Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasguptas scheduled lecture on CAA on the campus on January 8 a dose.

A section of students and teachers had called for the boycott of the event, arguing that the VC had invited a BJP leader alone to allow only BJPs views on the issue to be aired on the campus. The students had also gheraoed Dasgupta, the VC and some teachers at the auditorium.

VBs PRO said on Sunday that the voice in the January 7 video did not match with that of the VC. A senior police officer of Birbhum district, who did not want to be named, said that a preliminary investigation was being conducted on the basis of the complaint lodged by the students but no FIR had been filed till Monday evening.

After Mondays general body meeting, president of Visva Bharati University Faculty Association, Sudipta Bhattacharya said, The VC has illegally locked up our office room. We condemn it and we will fight against it. How can the PRO say that the January 7 video is doctored when the police is probing it?

On January 15, three students belonging to the Students Federation of India (SFI) were beaten up inside the campus. While SFI blamed RSS student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), for the attack, ABVP refuted the charge and demanded a probe. The police have arrested three persons in connection with the attack and ABVP has said none of them belonged to their organisation.

VB authorities have announced a three-member probe panel, to be headed by former Calcutta high court chief justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, to investigate the January 8 agitation and the January 15 attack.

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A top health chief has warned the deadly coronavirus is already likely to be in the UK.

Public Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle told Sky News she "would expect" there are already cases of the SARS-like strain in the country.

But she added the UK is well prepared to handle the infection and said: "Weve been here before, weve dealt with Middle Eastern virus, weve dealt with SARS, we deal with flu regularly, which can be dangerous, but were ready.

Despite 52 people being tested for the virus in the UK, no confirmed cases have been identified since the December outbreak in the Hubei province in China.

Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP

The new strain was first discovered at a live animal market in Wuhan and it has since infected more than 2,000 and killed 56 around the world.

The region, home to 11 million people, has been put on lockdown with public transport and roadblocks erected to stop people travelling.

Gathering in groups has also been banned.

Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus / AFP via Getty Images

Dr Doyle said efforts were continuing to trace the 2,000 people who have entered the UK from China on international flights.

We are now looking back to see whether any of them are still in the country, because some of them will have returned to China, but there are moves to identify them, she said.

Its not always possible to find everybody but we are working to our best endeavours.

A pair of British teachers who have been working in Wuhan said they have not left their apartment for five days, that all transport has been stopped and there is no place to go and so we are pretty much stuck.

Jason Neal and Sophie Hunt told BBC Breakfast there has been no reassurance from the British authorities whom they have struggled to contact, possibly because of the time difference and them being closed over the weekend.

They have about five days of food left and are keeping in touch with colleagues online while the scene outside is now like a ghost town.

Ms Hunt said emailing and trying to ring the authorities has brought a useless automated response back from the embassy saying not to go to the area.

She feels the Chinese authorities have made the right decision by shutting down the city, adding: All we keep hearing is that the death toll is accelerating every day. All we can do really is sit tight and wait for more news.

One British man, who had travelled to Wuhan to visit his girlfriend, is stuck in the city after his return flight on February 3 was cancelled, and he described trying to get out of the area as impossible.

A pedestrian wears a surgical mask while walking along London's Oxford Street / AFP via Getty Images

The 29-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: There is no news on when the airport will reopen therefore the airline (China Southern) have just cancelled the flight.

Ive also had no help from the UK Embassy in Beijing who are conveniently closed for the weekend.

The British Foreign Office has now confirmed it is working on making an option available for British nationals to leave the city.

British citizens in the region have been told to call the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for help.

A spokesperson said: We continue to monitor developments closely and are in close touch with the Chinese authorities.

The safety and security of British nationals is always our primary concern.

Builders are rushing to complete a 1,000-bed hospital in Wuhan to cope with a surge of coronavirus patients / Getty Images

Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt suggested airlifts for UK citizens in China and warned of the pressure the coronavirus could put on the NHS.

Asked if he supported flying Britons back from Wuhan and elsewhere, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I think I would be very sympathetic and Im sure the Foreign Office would be too.

He said the NHS is well-equipped to deal with patients returning with the virus but warned that it could strain the service.

This is a very difficult time of year for the NHS  it is the most difficult time. But, again, my experience is that the NHS does know how to cope with these kinds of emergencies.

I think the thing that will be difficult is the knock-on impact on other NHS services, he said.

I think it would be very, very challenging for the NHS in terms of the regular workload but I have absolutely no doubt that, when it comes to doing what comes to necessary to isolate the virus and keep the public safe, our doctors and nurses will do exactly what they need to do.

Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of the high speed train station in Hong Kong. / AP

Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said his best guess was that 100,000 people had been infected with the flu-like virus.

Authorities in China have cancelled a host of events marking Chinese New Year as they expand their measures against the virus.

British passportholders trapped in the city should call the FCO on +86 (0) 10 8529 6600 or (+44) (0)207 008 1500 should they need assistance.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader:
A Mexican soldier was killed and a commander was wounded in a shootout with a suspected group of drug traffickers who landed a two-seat jet on a highway near the Belize border.

Speaking during his daily press briefing, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said a unit from the 34th Military Zone was met with fire from the landed plane Monday morning at around 7am.

Drivers along the two-lane road in Bacalar, a southern city in the state of Quintana Roo, alerted law enforcement to the parked Cessna on the right side of the highway.

Commander Jose Luis Vazquez Araiza was shot during the military operation and his driver, whose name was withheld, was killed.

A Mexican military servicemen was shot dead and a commander was wounded during a shootout with drug traffickers Monday morning in Bacalar, Quintana Roo

Law enforcement in the Mexican state of Quintana was alerted by drivers of a Cessna plane that was parked on a highway near the Belize borde

Jose Luis Vazquez Araiza, commander of the 34th Military Zone, was injured during a shootout Monday with drug traffickers after they landed a modified Cessna on a two-lane road in Quintana Roo, a state on Mexico's Caribbean coast that is a favorite destination for tourists

'Today at dawn there was a confrontation in Quintana Roo with a plane, a plane with drugs, and the one who heads the operation is the commander of the area, and unfortunately they shot him,' Lopez Obrador said.

'There was a confrontation, the driver was killed and he was injured.'

Located on Mexico's Caribbean coast, Quintana Roo is home to some of the country's top tourist destinations, including Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Tulum and Isla Mujeres.

Investigators found two canisters with fuel in the narco jet. However, no arrests were made

However, the state's tourism image has taken a hit in recent years due to the ongoing violence with local gangs and cartels competing for the lucrative control of drug turf.

On Sunday, authorities came across six dead bodies that were littered across the Cancun.

Responding to a call at a home in the northern part of the resort city, police discovered three dead people. In separate incidents, two other bodies were later located found several streets from each other on a dirt road.

Law enforcement encountered the sixth body on the side of a highway that connects Cancun and Punta Sam, not too far from where a new resort is being built.
The Enforcement Directorate has found that the recent violent protests in Uttar Pradesh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had a "financial link" with the Kerala-based outfit PFI, official sources said on Monday.

The agency, which is probing the Popular Front of India (PFI) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has found that at least Rs 120 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the Act was passed by Parliament late last year.

It is suspected and alleged that these funds were used by PFI affiliates to fuel anti-CAA protests in various parts of UP, sources said, citing the findings of the Enforcement Directorate probe report.

They said the ED has shared these findings with the Union home ministry.

TheUP police had also recently sought a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), days after its complicity was suspected in the statewide violent protests against the amended citizenship law.

Nearly 20 people had died during these protests.

The ED, sources said, found the funds deposited in bank were also routed from some foreign shores and were sent in the accounts of certain investment firms.

A National Investigation Agency's FIR and chargesheet against the PFI had formed the basis for the ED to file a PMLA case against it.

The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government of India is all set to sign an agreement with all factions of banned insurgent organisation Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) on Monday.

The accord will give political and economic benefits to the Bodos.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to do a press briefing in this regard, where Home Minister Amit Shah along with representatives of the NDFB and the Assam government will sign the accord. Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal will be present for the signing.

It is expected that the central government will provide a massive political as well and economic package for the community.

The government has also made it clear that the Centre would not make the state Bodoland territorial district into a Union Territory.

Home Minister Amit Shah and representatives of Bru refugees had on January 16 signed an agreement to end the long-pending crisis of Bru refugees and for their settlement in Tripura in presence of Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi all the issues of Northeast are getting solved. This is one such step. Approximately 30,000 Bru refugees will be settled in Tripura. Rs 600 crores rupees package has been given for this," Amit Shah had said after signing the agreement.

Centre also said that Bru refugees, who will be settled in Tripura, will get a 40 by 30 feet plot along with Rs four lakh Fixed Deposit, cash assistance of Rs 5000 per month for two years and free ration will be given to Bru Refugees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: A 29-year-old woman from Bihar's Chapra district was suspected to have symptoms of the coronavirus on Sunday and was referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Monday morning.

Ekta Kumari had returned from China on January 22 at Kolkata airport and reached Chapra by train, where her parents live in Shanti Nagar colony.

She is completing her research project in China's Tianjin University, which is in the northeastern part of China. She had left Tianjin University just after the city was hit by the coronavirus.

"She is reportedly speaking well and has not panicked over the situation but wanted to get proper medical care," said a doctor from Chapra.

According to the Principal Secretary of Health Sanjay Kumar, she is suspected to have the virus after reporting mild fever to doctors.

Meanwhile, official sources at Chapra said that she has complained of experiencing mild fever and some minor ailments due to her train journey from Kolkata to Chapra on January 22. She was admitted at Chapra's Sadar hospital ICU.

She was brought to the isolation ward created for coronavirus cases on the first floor of PMCH with adequate deputation of doctors and pathological facilities.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Kumar has asked the airport administration in Bihar, as many tourists from China come to visit many Buddhist circuit tourist places in the state, to take all preventive measures including thermal screening.

Kumar said that the health department has also sent a set of formats developed by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) to all district for proper reporting on any suspected cases.

The department has also deputed doctors in some seven districts, which share a border with Nepal as a precautionary measure and have been put on alert.
If you have ever registered a domain name for your website, or even if you just know a little about the process, you may be wondering about a few things: since domain names aren't a physical product, who or what exactly decides how they are priced? Who creates them? Who manages them? Who is this "ICANN" character that I keep seeing on the homepage of my registrar? And what even is a registrar, anyway? This article will be giving you a peek inside the surprisingly simple world of domain name registration, following the case of a peculiar domain extension, .BOND, to guide you through the levels of organization at play.

ICANN

The top-dog of website and domain administration is an organization called ICANN. ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a not-for-profit institution founded in 1998 that oversees and regulates domain name policies in order to "keep the Internet safe, secure, and interoperable" (Source). They also oversee DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, and allows for the use of domain names to find locations on the Internet, as opposed to a complicated IP addresses that computers have to use to find data.

Generally, any time something new happens in the field of domain naming, it happens under the influence of ICANN. Take the release of the .BOND domain extension, for example. A college called Bond University reached out to ICANN in order to create a brand new, never before used domain extension (.BOND) to be used by them and them alone.

Bond University

Unfortunately, for the purposes of understanding the curious history of the .BOND domain extension, the part played by Bond University begins and ends rather quickly. Bond University is a reasonably sized private, not-for-profit university in Queensland, Australia. It has only been open for a short time, since 1989. They reached out to ICANN to create the .BOND extension in 2014. Later that year, they finalized their contract. However, for one reason or another, the newly obtained domain went widely unused-to this day only one instance of a .BOND domain from Bond University exists as a placeholder domain.

ShortDot

That would be where the story ends, if not for the saving grace of another company, ShortDot. ShortDot is an Internet registry, a term which will be defined a little later in the article. Needless to say, they noticed that the .BOND extension was going unused and under the radar in the hands of Bond University. They saw potential in the .BOND extension, thinking that it would appeal to "bail bondsmen, offerers of financial bonds, and yes, even James Bond fans" (Source).

They decided to swoop in and purchase the contract with ICANN from Bond University, effectively terminating the University's exclusive rights to it while simultaneously saving .BOND from internet purgatory.

ShortDot, from the beginning, had plans to make the domain extension available as a gTLD, or generic Top Level Domain. This would mean that any user could purchase access to the extension from an accredited registrar (stay tuned to read a definition of this type of organization as well). However, since the contract with ICANN was for the University's exclusive use, the contract had to be renegotiated. After some work, and no doubt a lot of legal humdrum, they finalized their contract in 2019. As of writing this article (in late December of 2019), the domain is available for public use from a few different ICANN accredited registrars, and are being sold for around a thousand dollars a piece.

Registries & Registrars

Thus far, I've thrown around a couple of jargon terms-registry and registrar-pretty casually. While the difference between these two entities is not intuitive, I assure you they are very easy to tell apart.

A domain registry is an organization that oversees one or more domain extensions. They manage rules about who can use the domain and under what circumstances, they set the prices, and they decide who can distribute access to the names. ShortDot oversees the .BOND domain extension, plus a few others, so they are a registry. VeriSign is one of the largest registries in existence, and they oversee the ubiquitous .COM extension.

A domain registrar is an entity from which a user can purchase, or register, a domain and domain extension for their personal use. 101domain is an ICANN accredited domain registrar, which means they are allowed to sell .BOND domains, and therefore makes them a good example to use. The way their business model works is that a registry, let's say ShortDot, sells domains to a registrar, which buys them wholesale (.BOND domains are sold for around $5 - $10 a piece). The domain registrar then has permission to sell individual domains to users, usually with a hefty markup in order to ensure a feasible profit margin. If you're interested in seeing which .BOND extensions are available, and their significant markup prices, you can check that information out with most domain registrars, like 101domain.

Being an ICANN accredited registrar is a bit like having an ICANN seal of approval attached to the business. To pull a quote from ICANN itself:

"ICANN is a technical coordination body. Our primary objective is ensuring the stability of the Internet's system of assigned names and numbers. This objective is furthered by the requirement that every business desiring to become a registrar with direct access to ICANN-designated top-level domains must first become accredited for this purpose by ICANN." (Source)

Essentially, the ICANN stamp of accreditation is what allows ICANN, 101domain (or other accredited registrars) and a registry (in this case ShortDot) to work together as a cohesive whole.

While this article describes the most common business practices between registries and registrars, there are some exceptions. Occasionally, registries allow domain names to be purchased directly from them. Furthermore, not all registries are independent organizations; some are government operated, as is the case with India's registry gov.in. Some registrars also manage "resellers," which are a further step down and sell domains to users on behalf of the registrar, and not the registry. Most of the time, however, registries sell domains "wholesale" to a third-party registrar, which then sells them "retail" to individual registrants.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The campaign for Big Ben to ring out to mark Brexit was finally abandoned today - with hundreds of thousands of pounds now going to charity.

The famous bell at Parliament is undergoing a major overhaul, but Eurosceptics had hoped it could be sounded when the UK legally leaves the EU at 11pm on Friday.

Boris Johnson had fuelled the efforts by suggesting that ordinary people 'bung a bob' to help pay for the bongs.

However, the House of Commons Commission estimated that the cost of bringing the bell back into use for the occasion could be as much as 500,000.

And the government effectively washed its hands of the proposal, instead focusing on a light show at Downing Street and address to the nation by Mr Johnson.

The fundraising drive led by Stand Up 4 Brexit and Tory MP Mark Francois on the GoFundMe website, was cancelled at noon today.

Mr Francois said the campaign received more than 14,000 donations from 56 countries in under a fortnight. The 272,770 raised is now being given to the Help for Heroes military charity.

The famous clock at Parliament (pictured today) is undergoing a major overhaul, but Eurosceptics had hoped the Big Ben bell could be sounded when the UK legally leaves the EU at 11pm on Friday

Mr Francois said: 'The response from the British people has been fantastic and we are deeply grateful to everyone who donated.

'However, having made final attempts over the last several days to persuade the House of Commons authorities that Big Ben should chime, we regret to report that we have been unsuccessful and therefore we feel we can no longer ask people to donate.

'We officially closed the fund at noon today.'

He added that 'even though Big Ben will regrettably not chime for Brexit' many people 'will be celebrating the fact that we become a free country again' at 11pm on January 31.

That was 'the greatest prize of all', he said.

A fortnight ago Mr Johnson said in an interview that he could not justify using taxpayers' money to restore the bell for one night - but instead suggested the public could 'bung a bob for a Big Ben Bong'.

Despite Downing Street frantically trying to play down the idea afterwards, the crowdfunding effort was launched and donations started rolling in.

Those giving money included Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom who handed over 10. She wrote on Twitter: 'I admit I've donated a tenner. #LoveBigBen. The Big Ben must bong for Brexit campaign.'

Andrea Leadsom, pictured, was among those who gave to the online appeal for Big Ben's bongs to sound on January 31 at 11pm
Sixty programmers in Prague have created and launched an IT system selling virtual motorway toll stickers, in a move to protest an overpriced government contract, organisers said Sunday.

The Czech government of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis initially struck a 401-million-crown (16 million euros, $17.6 million) deal with the Asseco Central Europe company to supply the IT system.

But the price led entrepreneur Tomas Vondracek, the head of a Prague-based IT company, to mobilise programmers from home and abroad and offer the government a new IT system for free.

"We were led by a desire to stand up against the system overpricing government contracts, abusing the ignorance of the client and resulting in our money going down the drain," Vondracek told reporters on Sunday.

Asseco got the four-year deal without an open tender.

The contract led to Transport Minister Vladimir Kremlik losing his job on Monday, and Asseco then said it was willing to pull out of the deal without demanding any compensation.

The free IT system comprises two e-shops and mobile Android and iOS apps with links to a payment gate, enabling drivers to get virtual stickers instead of regular vignettes currently placed on the windscreen.

The system is also available in several languages including Slovak, Polish and Spanish, owing to volunteers abroad, said Vondracek.

"We also have an offer for a Japanese version. If someone drives from Japan to the Czech Republic, they can buy a sticker in their native tongue," Vondracek chuckled.

Babis said the government would use the system if it passes tests, adding it would announce a tender for a company that would run it.

"I think we can see a way to launch it... by December 1," said Vladimir Dzurilla, the government's chief digital officer.

Babis became prime minister after his ANO movement had won the 2017 general election with an anti-corruption campaign.

But the Slovak-born food, chemicals and media mogul and the fourth wealthiest Czech according to Forbes magazine is himself facing police charges over an alleged EU subsidy fraud and an EU probe into his dual role as a politician and entrepreneur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Already 74 years have passed since the end of World War II, however, the Holocaust, its causes and consequences are still being actively discussed

Holocaust is an unprecedented manifestation of evil that cannot simply be left in the past and forgotten, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Open source

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution and designated January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day. In doing so, the assembly urged the nations of the world to observe the day so that future generations will be spared acts of genocide. The date was not chosen by chance  on that day the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated.

What is the Holocaust?

In a broad sense, the word "Holocaust" means the Nazi persecution and mass extermination of certain social and ethnic groups, such as Jews, patients, gypsies, and homosexuals.

In a narrower sense, this word means the persecution and extermination of the Jews who lived in Germany, as well as in the union and occupied territories during the Second World War.

The word "Holocaust" is translated from ancient Greek as "burnt offering."

The Holocaust of European Jewry

Hitler's policy against the Jews began with his appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933. One of the first concentration camps in Germany, Dachau, was created, officials and doctors of Jewish nationality were deprived of their jobs, and quotas in educational institutions were introduced. The situation was becoming increasingly complicated and gaining momentum right up to the Nuremberg racial laws adopted in 1935.

The Nuremberg laws carried out the isolation of Jews on a racial basis. The decrees that followed them first barred Jews from access to almost all professions, then restricted their freedom of movement, and also introduced a special and mandatory mark on racial identity in their identity cards - Jew. As a result, the Jews were outlawed and given to the arbitrariness of the police.

But Hitler did not stop there. After the Anschluss of Austria, Austrian Jews were also persecuted, and, according to the personal order of the Fuhrer, Kristallnacht took place on November 9-10. A series of coordinated attacks swept across Nazi Germany, parts of Austria, and the Sudetenland, which were carried out by paramilitary SA and civilian units. Kristallnacht marks the beginning of a "final solution to the Jewish question."

The final solution to the Jewish question

Despite the fact that Hitler first applied the term final solution of the Jewish question back in 1919, the Nazis set about the final goal precisely during the Second World War.

After Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, Polish Jews were also persecuted. As early as September 21, Polish Jewish ghettos appeared, and Germany began broadcasting anti-Semitic radio programs in North Africa and the Middle East in order to attract the Arab world.

However, in 1940, the Jews had the opportunity to at least survive - in Germany, they discussed the "Madagascar plan", which included the deportation of Jews to the island of Madagascar and the creation of a prisoner colony there. However, later this idea was abandoned.

During the war, the Nazis killed thousands of people, however, special attention was paid specifically to Jews and Roma people. Ghettos and concentration death camps were created. Since 1941, there have been four camps specializing exclusively in the extermination of people - Chemno, Bezec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Later, two more were adapted for these purposes  Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek.

Only a small group of people remained alive in the death camps - so that there was someone to remove the corpses from the gas chambers, and then burn them. The rest were subject to immediate destruction.

For the murder of Jews in 1941, they even used special cars, gas cars, designed to poison passengers with carbon monoxide.

However, despite all the atrocities that have been going on for more than a year, the decision on the mass extermination of Jews was made on January 20, 1942. In February, the first mass shootings took place - in the village of Khaschevate, Ukraine, 986 Jews were shot. On March 2, the Minsk ghetto was destroyed in Belarus  about five thousand people were murdered. From February to March, Polish ghettos were liquidated  their inhabitants were sent to death camps.

Chemno concentration camp became the first place where the mass extermination of Jews began, 320,000 people were killed, 98% of them were Jews.

Treblinka-2 existed for a year, during which from 750,000 to 810,000 people were killed, 99.5% of whom were Jews.

Bezec concentration camp took the lives of at least 434,500 people.

During the year of the existence of Sobibor, about 250,000 Jews were killed on its territory.

About 80,000 people became victims of the Majdanek camp, 60,000 of whom were Jews.

Auschwitz-2, also known as Birkenau, was one of the largest concentration camps in Nazi Germany. From 1.4 to 4 million people, mostly Jews became its victims.

It is difficult to estimate the number of Jews killed during the genocide, but according to rough estimates this figure reaches six million people - this number is indicated in the sentences of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

Nazi Germany destroyed about 60% of the Jewish population of Europe and about a third of the world.

Righteous Among the Nations

The title of the Righteous Among the Nations is assigned to people who saved Jews at the risk of their lives during the Nazi occupation. 25 513 people from 51 countries of the world were awarded this title.

All 117 inhabitants of the village of Nieuwland, the Netherlands, and more than 40 inhabitants of the French village of Chambon-sur-Lignon were righteous of the world.

Residents of Nieuwland during World War II decided that the inhabitants of each house should shelter a Jewish family or at least one Jew. At the initiative of the local pastor and his wife, the inhabitants of Chambon-sur-Lignon hid Jews throughout the commune. So they saved from death from 3 to 5 thousand people.

The most famous righteous people of the world are Raoul Wallenberg, Irena Sendler, Chiune Sugihara, Oskar Schindler.

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat. Using his diplomatic status, Wallenberg issued the Jews "protective passports" of Sweden. In addition, by threatening punishment for war crimes, he persuaded some German generals not to comply with orders for the removal of Jews to death camps and prevented the destruction of the Budapest ghetto. Raoul Wallenberg managed to save about 100,000 Hungarian Jews. After the Soviet army occupied Budapest, Wallenberg was detained and secretly transported to Moscow. He supposedly died there in 1947. Sweden officially recognized Wallenberg dead only in 2016.

Irena Sendler was an employee of the Warsaw Health Authority and a member of the Polish underground organization. She often visited the Warsaw ghetto and watched there for sick children. Thanks to this, she and her comrades managed to remove 2,5000 children from the ghetto. They were taken out in the back of the car, through the basements of houses, gutters. Sometimes children were carried out even in bags, baskets and cardboard boxes.

Chiune Sugihara served as a Japanese diplomat in Kaunas, Lithuania. He issued Japanese transit visas to those who fled, thanks to which it was possible to travel to the Far East through the territory of the USSR. Sugihara saved more than 6,000 Polish and Lithuanian Jews from the Nazis.

Oskar Schindler "bargained" from Nazi officials for the possibility of accepting Jews from the Plash concentration camp at their factories in Poland. He actively used this opportunity and during the war saved about 1,2000 people.

After the war ended, many of the surviving Jews chose to leave Europe, so they emigrated to Israel and the United States.

Holocaust Revenge

Abba Kovner, an Israeli poet and prose writer, who became partisan and underground, in 1945 created the secret organization Nokmim, which included 50 people.

The most ambitious and destructive plan of Nokmim was the intention to poison water pipelines in Hamburg, Munich, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt. Thus, the organization would have killed six million Germans  that is how many Jews died during the Holocaust. However, the operation was foiled by the British military police.

After that, the members of the group switched to a backup plan. They poisoned prisoners of war in the prisons of Nuremberg and Dachau with arsenic hidden in bread. 2283 German prisoners of war were poisoned, about 350 were killed.

There are dozens of Holocaust museums in the world, hundreds of monuments to victims, the Holocaust is reflected in literature, cinema, music, and visual arts.

The memory of these events is important not only as a reminder and condemnation of the crimes of the Nazis but also as a warning about the danger of persecution of people on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion, political views or sexual orientation, the European Parliament resolution condemns the Holocaust.
Switzerlands tiny Swiss Alps town of Davos has meant many different things to people as it hosts the annual World Economic Forum summits. The meeting of plutocrats used to be a forum where ideas were thrown at the super-rich and governments on how to make the world better. If this years event turned into a series of confrontations than cosy confabulations, blame it on the effects of climate change, like the Australian bush fires.

Its evolution as an anti-capitalist event of capitalists has veered more towards climate activists taking on the powerful to tell them the world is on fire and they better do something. Greta Thunberg versus Donald Trump was a great sideshow that took centrestage, to act as a shrill ringtone to the ears of the powerful to mend themselves lest there be not much of a planet left if the rich go on living off the fat of the land.

Official India may not have been too impressed with George Soros warning on rising populism and its noticeable effects in the biggest and most frightening setback in India (read Hindutva). To walk the talk, he pledged $1 billion to fight dictators. A godmans voice that regularly supports the government was heard saying the burning of buses on the streets in the anti-CAA protests was likely to put off global investors. But would the adamant even think of giving up pet populist projects in the face of trenchant criticism?

It is undeniable the fight against global warming will be more effective under a progressive tax system and stricter carbon emission standards, but the rich and the multinational corporations are unlikely to stomach it. How long will the poor bear the brunt? This is why we need Davos to be even more confrontational while it speaks truth to power.
* European shares open down sharply on China virus worries

* Miners, luxury, airlines lead sectoral fallers

* Italian banks rise as regional vote brings relief

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters

stocks reporters and anchored today by Joice Alves. Reach her on Messenger to share your

thoughts on market moves: joice.alves.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

POSTCARD FROM ITALY (0924 GMT)

Clouds may be darkening on markets this morning on the growing China virus scare but it

looks the sun is shining over Italy.

Milan stocks are outperforming and the FTSE MIB even managed to rise slightly at

one point. Even though further turbulence down the road is not ruled out, the outcome of local

elections over the weekend has eased worries over a snap election which, some fear, could hand

power to anti-immigrant and anti-EU right-wing leader Matteo Salvini.

Here are a few views:

UniCredit: "We expect the center-left victory in Emilia Romagna to help ease some pressure

within the ruling coalition and provide some support to government action in the coming months".

Barclays: "With the centre-left win in Emilia-Romagna, the risk of a government crisis in

the short term has receded somewhat, yet many hurdles persist: the future nature of the

coalition with a fractured M5S, the thin majority in the Senate, the regional and referendum

votes further into 2020 (among others)".

Citi: "Following the regional elections, we believe that a country risk stabilization in the

short-term is now more likely".

Italian banks, which are highly sensitive to local politics because of their big

holdings of sovereign bonds, are up 1.1%. Poste Italiane, which also has a large

government bond portfolio, is the top gainer on the STOXX.

(Danilo Masoni)

*****

OPENING SNAPSHOT: CHINA-EXPOSED SECTORS UNDER PRESSURE (0841 GMT)

European stock exchanges opened in negative territory with mining, airlines and luxury

companies suffering the most as China coronavirus death toll climbs to 80.

The China-sensitive mining sector is down 3.4% and travel & leisure index is

2.2% lower as investors are growing anxious about the new virus.

Despite the week-long holiday to celebrate the Chinese new year, investors are concerned

people will avoid travelling. Hotel group Accor is the worst performer of the French

index and airlines Lufthansa, Fraport, Easyjet, Air France-

KLM and Ryanair are all lower between 4 and 5.8% in the early minutes of

trading.

In the heavily Asia-exposed luxury space, Burberry, Christian Dior and

LVMH are also feeling the heat of the spreading virus outbreak.

Here is a snapshot of the European bourses:

(Joice Alves)

*****

ON OUR RADAR: LUXURY AND AIRLINES (0759 GMT)

Futures point to a lower start of the week for European bourses as investors are growing

anxious about the economic impact of China's spreading virus outbreak.

Traders are seeing European airlines and luxury stocks opening down 1-2%, while

China-exposed miners should come under pressure too.

There will also be some results to digest: Traders are seeing Landis+Gyr Group

down 3-3.5% after company confirmed FY 2019 guidance at lower end of all ranges.

Petra Diamonds 1H revenue fell 6%, dented by lower prices as the diamond industry

grappled with soft demand from China because of the trade war with the U.S. and the

anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

In the retail space, one trader is seeing H&M down 1% after it said on Saturday

that data security breaches found at its German unit were unacceptable and it was cooperating

with authority. [nL8N29U0FA}

Reuters reported that a Swuss regulator probes board role in Credit Suisse spying

scandal, as the spying debacle risks tipping the bank into a crisis that could engulf its top

executives.

In terms of M&A, Swiss food giant Nestle bought Allergan's medical nutrition

business Zenpep. And the founder of British subprime lender Amigo is

putting his 60.6% stake of the company on the block. Amigo is seen 5% lower this morning.

(Joice Alves)

****

EUROPEAN STOCKS SEEN LOWER (0642 GMT)

Bourses in Europe are expected to open lower imitating Asian markets as investors are

growing increasingly worried about the economic impact of China's spreading virus outbreak.

Last week, investors took some relief when the World Health Organisation said the

coronavirus outbreak was an emergency in China but not yet a global one. But they are now

getting more anxious as more cases add on.

Back in Europe, investors will have a week long of political events to digest: Yesterday,

Italy's right-wing leader Matteo Salvini failed in his effort to overturn decades of leftist

rule in Emilia-Romagna, one of Italy's richest regions, home for Ferrari luxury cars.

Later this week, Britain is due to leave the EU and said it will set out more details about

its objectives for a free trade deal with the European Union after the country leaves the bloc

on Friday.

Taking all into consideration, financial spreadbetters at IG expect London's FTSE to open 75

points lower at 7,585, Frankfurt's DAX to open 164 points lower at 13,576 and Paris' CAC to open

75 points lower at 6,028.

(Joice Alves)

*****

?

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Joice Alves, Julien Ponthus and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
PORTLAND, Oregon, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Hybrid Operating Room Market by Product (Intraoperative Diagnostic System, Operating Room Fixtures, Communication Systems, and Others) and Application (Cardiovascular Surgery, Neurosurgery, Thoracic Surgery, Orthopedic Surgeries, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026". According to the report, the global hybrid operating room industry was pegged at $744.1 million in 2018 and is projected to reach $1.80 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 11.7% from 2019 to 2026.

Incentives for market growth

Rise in number of surgical procedures, surge in patient preference for minimally invasive surgeries, and surge in regulatory approvals have boosted the growth of the global hybrid operating room market. However, the high cost associated with the hybrid operating room hampers the market growth. On the contrary, untapped potential in developing countries is expected to create lucrative opportunities in the near future.

Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6294

Intraoperative diagnostic system segment dominated the market

By product, the intraoperative diagnostic system segment held the largest share in 2018, contributing to more than half of the global hybrid operating room market. This is due to increased use by surgeons in neurosurgery applications for removing brain tumor and interventional neurovascular procedures. Moreover, it is used to guide the localization and delineation of regions of surgical interest, which boosted the growth of the segment. However, the communication systems segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 13.7% during the forecast period, owing to rise in demand for communication systems in hybrid operating room, increase in awareness and availability of these systems, surge in acceptance of minimally invasive surgical procedures, technological advancements in communication systems, and increase in incidence & prevalence of neurosurgical, and orthopedic procedures.

Neurosurgery segment to manifest the fastest CAGR by 2026

The neurosurgery segment is expected to portray the fastest CAGR of 13.2% during the study period, owing to rise in number of neurological disorders patients, surge in number of minimally invasive neurovascular surgeries, and rapid technological advancements in the field of medical robotics. However, the cardiovascular surgery segment held the largest share in 2018, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the global hybrid operating room market, owing to rise in preference of heart surgeons for hybrid operating room settings during target surgical procedures, surge in adoption of endovascular procedures during cardiovascular surgery, poor nutrition rise in incidence & prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, surge in demand for minimally invasive surgery, and increase in number of patients suffering from obesity.

North America held the lion's share

The global hybrid operating room market across North America held the largest share in 2018, contributing to nearly three-fifths of the market, owing to technological advanced hybrid operating room equipment, increase in number of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers in the U.S., and rise in a geriatric population. However, the market across Asia-Pacific region is expected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 14.2% during the forecast period, owing to improvement in healthcare infrastructure, rise in number of hospitals equipped with advanced medical facilities, the developing R&D sector, rise in healthcare reforms, technological advancements in hybrid operating room settings.

For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6294

Major market players

Alvo Medical

Getinge AB (MAQUET Holding B.V. & Co. KG)

GE Healthcare

IMRIS Inc.

Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (Trumpf Medical System, Inc.)

Mizuho Corporation

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Stryker Corporation

Siemens AG

Toshiba Corporation (Canon Medical Systems Corporation)

Avenue Basic Plan | Library Access | 1 Year Subscription |

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Similar Reports:

Intraocular Lens Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026

Orthodontics Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026

Medical Spa Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

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NEW HAVEN  The Sunrise Cafe is now an independent nonprofit after being part of Liberty Community Services for the past five years.

The organization, mainly run by volunteers, has its own 501(c)(3) status and will continue to offer its weekly free breakfast program serving the homeless and food insecure population in the city.

The Sunrise Cafe is powered by incredible volunteers and supported by a group of generous benefactors, Anne Calabresi, a New Haven civic leader and board president of the Cafe, said in a statement.

We are so grateful to Liberty for our many years of partnership that helped us get this program going. Sunrise and Liberty will continue in partnership, with Liberty providing onsite services that connect our breakfast guests with vital resources and services for housing and employment, Calabresi wrote. The conversation to become an independent nonprofit had been ongoing for the past year.

The program was cofounded in 2015 by Calabresi and John Bradley, the former executive director of Liberty Community Services, and Ellen Gabrielle, a longtime advocate for social justice in New Haven.

The volunteers serve more than 240 guests a day at peak times during the month. Its mission has been to serve a nutritious breakfast with compassion and kindness by treating each guest with respect and dignity, Calabresi wrote. This year the organization is on track to serve more than 37,000 meals.

With its partnerships, it will continue to be an access point for housing, employment, medical and counseling services through Liberty, Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, Connecticut Mental Health Center and Christian Community Action.

Calabresi wrote that under the new board that she is heading, a group of volunteers and staff have accepted management responsibility for the program.

Everyone at Liberty extends our deep appreciation to the talented group of community volunteers for this important work serving our community, Jim Pettinelli, executive director of Liberty said in a statement. The loyal volunteers of Sunrise provided an impressive 5,600+ hours of service over the last twelve months to make each morning happen. We look forward to our continued collaboration.

Sunrises vision and culture of compassion, kindness, and respect will remain as the crucial ingredients that makes this program special, Calabresi wrote.
Burma NLD Dismisses Outspoken MP for Hurting Partys Image

National League for Democracy lawmaker U Kyaw Zay Ya gives an interview to the media at the Yangon regional parliament in late January 2020. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

YANGONThe ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) dismissed outspoken party lawmaker U Kyaw Zay Ya of Yangons Dagon Township constituency on Jan. 21, saying he hurt the image of the party.

NLD spokesperson Dr. Myo Nyunt told local media during the weekend that the party dismissed Yangon parliament member U Kyaw Zay Ya because he shared information that was only meant to be discussed within the party. The spokesperson didnt elaborate about the disclosure.

I dont know why I was sacked from the party, U Kyaw Zay Ya told The Irrawaddy on Monday. He insisted that he didnt receive any warnings prior to his dismissal.

The former military officer joined the NLD in 2013 and was elected to the Dagon Township seat in the Yangon regional parliament in 2015. He is one of a few NLD lawmakers well known to the public for their critical views of the Yangon governments controversial policies and performance.

U Kyaw Zay Ya told The Irrawaddy that he guessed the NLDs move to revoke his party membership was connected to his comments in parliament last week. Last Tuesday, he raised questions in the regional parliament about the Yangon governments spending of a 64-billion-kyat budget (US$43.6 million) that was approved for housing, as the housing project has yet to be implemented and the Yangon government was found to have misused budgets for other projects.

He explained that he raised the question officially in parliament because the Yangon Region chief minister had refused to answer it earlier in recent meetings with the government, parliament and the NLD.

Prior to his dismissal, U Kyaw Zay Ya was suspended from party membership by the NLD in August 2018, along with Union Parliament Lower House member Daw Thet Thet Khaing, for allegedly violating the partys rules.

Daw Thet Thet Khaing subsequently resigned from the NLD in November 2019, saying she faced restrictions from the party that violated the standards of democracy and that the party tried to restrict her rights as an elected member of Parliament. She told the media at the time that the party censored her questions for discussion in Parliament. Since her resignation late last year, she has founded the Peoples Pioneer Party (PPP).

As he has been dismissed by the NLD but retains his seat in the Yangon parliament, U Kyaw Zay Ya said he has now applied for membership in the Peoples Pioneer Party (PPP).

The Irrawaddy reached out to the NLD spokesperson on Monday for further comment, but he was unavailable.
A Houston police officer driving down U.S. 59 northeast of downtown was flagged down by a group of men after one of them had been shot early Monday morning.

The officer was driving south on the Eastex Freeway near Parker Road when another vehicle grabbed his attention, police said. Once the officer spotted the gunshot victim, he radioed for paramedics to meet him on the side of the freeway.
Romania, in and of itself, but also as a member state of the European Union, promotes tolerance between people, non-discrimination and peace, remaining active in the process of preserving and completing the Holocaust memory, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said in a message conveyed on Monday, on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"It is already the second decade in which the entire world commemorates the millions of Holocaust victims, in a necessary exercise of remembrance, compassion and the preservation of an awakened conscience. Anyone browsing the pages of that terrible disaster in the rather recent history, the Holocaust, cannot but remain shaken by the horrors that occurred, by the size of the hate crime gear, the lack of reaction of the people, institutions and states. They cannot but reflect on the consequences brought about by the crises in society and the evil produced by the slumber of reason," says Ludovic Orban.The prime minister recalls that "six million Jews, representing two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population, and several million members of other nationalities considered 'impure' by the Nazi regime lost their lives in ghettos and camps, on the way to them, or simply killed in the street, between 1941 - 1945, victims of a racist ideology, myths and a tendency to find the scapegoat.""The restoration of the truth is due in particular to the members of the Jewish community, many of them survivors of the Nazi camps and having become prominent figures of the humanist militancy, joined by intellectuals, artists and human activists worldwide, in a common effort to prevent the recurrence, ever, of similar acts of extinction of the peoples. Prestigious memorial institutions have been founded, books have been written, art works and events have been created, values have been reconsidered from the perspective of the defence of human rights and human dignity," the prime minister said.Orban stresses that today, 75 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, "the world can be considered united in solidarity in the fight against anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and intolerance, which becomes yet again a major concern in the context of regional conflicts exclusively based on ethnic resentments and the emergence of new extremist tendencies.""Romania, in and of itself, but also as a member state of the European Union, promotes tolerance among people, non-discrimination and peace, remaining active in the process of preserving and completing the memory of the Holocaust. Because we must not forget those who were humiliated, tortured and killed by hatred, nor those who protected lives at the risk of their own life, thus saving the idea of humanity. I convey my full compassion for the victims of the Holocaust during World War II and I hope that humanity will have the ability to learn from the great mistakes of its history," the head of the Executive shows.Prime Minister Ludovic Orban is paying an official visit to Poland on Monday to participate in the commemorative ceremonies dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

AGERPRES
Global Small Hydropower Market value is expected to reach around US$ 3.2 bn by 2026 and growing at a CAGR of around 3.3% over the forecast period 2019 to 2026.



LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acumen Research and Consulting, a global provider of market research studies, in a recently published report titled  Small Hydropower Market (By Capacity: Up to 1 MW, 110 MW, Others; By Type: Micro Hydropower, Mini Hydropower, Pico Hydropower; By Components: Electromechanical Equipment, Electric infrastructure, Civil Works, Others)  Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Opportunities And Forecast, 2019 - 2026.

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Asia Pacific region is projected to witness a major share of the global small hydropower market during the forecast period. The region is primarily gaining growth due to increasing investment in renewable energy development in developing nations of the region. For instance, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing training to young Indian leaders on building renewable energy sector by its Knowledge Co-Creation Program. Moreover, the major economies of the region including China, India, and Vietnam are majorly contributing to the regional market growth.

By capacity, the 110 MW segment is expected to contribute to the major share in the small hydropower market. The segment is primarily gaining positive growth due to the increasing installation of small hydropower projects in developing economies. For instance, a 9MW solar-hydro hybrid project in development in Burundi was awarded $990,000 by the African Development Bank-managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) in 2019.

View Detail Information with Complete TOC@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/small-hydropower-market

On the basis of type, mini hydropower segment is projected to register maximum share during the forecast period. The increasing installation of mini-hydropower plants in various economies across the globe is expected to support the segment market value. The developed economies including the US and Norway are investing in the small hydropower projects to increase the renewable energy share in the nations energy mix.

Some of the leading competitors are Voith (Germany), ANDRITZ (Austria), GE Renewable Energy (France), Siemens (Germany), Toshiba (Japan), BHEL (India), SNC-Lavalin (Canada), HNAC Technology (China), Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd (UK), Mavel (Czech Republic), HM Hydro (Japan), Ganz EEM (Hungary), Kolektor Turboinstitut (Slovenia), Canyon Hydro (US), CKD Blansko (Czech Republic), Canadian Hydro Components (Canada), ATB Riva Calzoni (Italy), Flovel (India), B Fouress (India), and Global Hydro(Austria).

Small Hydropower companies have announced strategic partnerships to expand their position in the small hydropower industry. Major players are also moving into new regions with advanced technologies.

Browse More Energy and Power Industry Research Reports@ https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/industry-categories/energy-and-power

Some of the key observations regarding small hydropower industry include:

Azerbaijans Azerenerji OJSC has commissioned a new small hydropower plant in the territory of Shimla-2 in the year 2019. The new plant is incorporated in Baku with the 400-megawatt power which is the highest efficiency in the South Caucasus region.

Voith Hydro has opened its new office in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2019. The company is supplying hydropower equipment in Nepal since 1968 and this expansion is expected to increase its customer base with assured quality services. Voiths subsidiary VolgaHydro has opened its new production plant in Balakovo, Russia in the same year. This new investment is intended to supply equipment to large and small hydropower plants in the region.

In 2019, GE Renewable Energy with its partnership with Energy has started offering modular turbines for micro hydropower. The new hydropower units are available in 10kW and 15kW sizes and can offer up to 1MW.

The Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change of Malaysia under section 63 of the Renewable Energy Act 2011 (REA) has issued the Renewable Energy Order 2019 for biomass and small hydropower installations. The new order specifies feed-in-tariff rate for small hydropower where feed-in-tariff rate ranges from RM0.2300 to RM0.2599 per kilowatt-hour for the installation capacity less than 30MW with the net head of more than 10 meters and feed-in-tariff rate range from RM0.2900 per kilowatt-hour for installations capacity of less than 30MW with the net head less than 10 meters.

European Commission has announced an initiative of 18 million and a consortium of 19 partners at the climate change conference (COP25) 2019 in Madrid, Spain. The new energy innovation project is named XFLEX HYDRO (Hydropower Extending Power System Flexibility), which can deliver low-carbon, reliable and resilient power to help meet the renewable energy targets of the countries.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced US$24.9 Mn funding in 2019. The funding is intended to drive innovation and technology-based solutions for the marine and hydrokinetics industry to increase hydropowers ability to serve as a flexible grid resource.

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By Stephanie Kelly

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must reconsider three of the biofuel waivers it recently granted to small oil refineries, arguing the agency's justification for approving the exemptions was flawed.

The decision https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/18/18-9533.pdf from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit dated Jan. 24 came after a coalition of biofuel industry groups had challenged the 2016 exemptions for Holly Frontier's Woods Cross and Cheyenne refineries, as well as CVR Energy's Wynewood refinery.

The biofuel industry has been incensed by a surge in biofuel waivers granted under President Donald Trump's administration, which it says is hurting farmers by undermining demand for corn-based ethanol.

Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, the nation's oil refineries are required to blend billions of gallons of biofuels such as ethanol into the fuel or buy credits from those that do. But the EPA can waive their obligations if they prove compliance would cause them financial distress.

According to the court's decision, the EPA overstepped its authority to grant the Holly Frontier and CVR waivers because the refineries had not received exemptions in the previous year. The court said the RFS is worded in such a way that any exemption granted to a small refinery after 2010 must take the form of an "extension".

"Because an 'extension' requires a small refinery exemption in prior years to prolong, enlarge or add to, the three refinery petitions in this case were improvidently granted," according to the court's 99-page decision. "We remand these matters to the EPA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."

Biofuel groups cheered the decision and said it could raise questions about numerous other waivers granted to small refiners in recent years. The Trump administration has roughly quadrupled https://www.epa.gov/fuels-registration-reporting-and-compliance-help/rfs-small-refinery-exemptions the number of waivers it has handed out to small refiners.

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"Although RFA will be digesting the opinion and the implications for other proceedings, we are pleased to see judicial agreement with our long-held position that EPA's recent practices and policies regarding small refinery exemption extensions were completely unlawful," according to a statement from the Renewable Fuels Association.

Consultancy ClearView Energy Partners said in a note to clients it expects the decision to raise prices for biofuel blending credits required for RFS compliance, called Renewable Identification Numbers.

Officials at the EPA, Holly Frontier, and CVR were not immediately available to comment.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
The Full Package - By Design

A Ultimate Banners the wide roller banners printer, we know a thing or two about design. One of those things is the fact that branding and product design are so closely connected that you can't work on one without the other. Creating strong branding and effective product packaging requires great, customer-centric design. This is of such paramount importance that you shouldn't even think about launching a product without it. The following is our guide to effective branding and product and packaging design.

Start with your story

For a brand to be successful - and for it to resonate with customers - it needs a personality and a story which should be the central hub to everything the brand does. This story should include history, values, vision and the brand's mission. When designing your brand, you need to think about the beliefs which drive it and, the things that make it unique. These are the things which will make up the brand personality and, will guide you regarding branding, logo and slogans.

Create your model

Now that you've got your story straight, it's time to create a persona. Basically, this is a way of thinking about your brand as a living, breathing creature with a personality and a unique look. By doing this, you'll get a good idea of what kind of design will resonate with your customers.

Do your research

Although your product and packaging design is up to you, it's worth researching the images and colours which are attractive to your target customer. For example, green is commonly used for healthcare products and packaging as it is associated with nature and with reliability.

Consistency is king

Once you have your design, don't be tempted to 'mix things up' by changing it regularly. For a brand to be considered reliable - and to, therefore, attract loyal customers, branding and packaging needs to remain constant and consistent.

Don't skimp on packaging

For many consumers, the packaging is actually part of the product. Consider, for example, a bottle of perfume - the scent itself is the actual product but, for most consumers, the bottle is almost as important. The quality of your packaging should always match the quality of the product.

Get creative

People always remember expertly designed packaging. Take a leaf out of Note's book with it's quirky and practical earphone packaging design.

Less is more

Always resist the urge to over-design. When it comes to effective, recognisable product and packaging design, simple really is best.

By thinking about your product and packaging design as an extension of your brand, you can ensure a consistent and effective brand for years to come.

This article was contributed by ben. You can visit his website here This article was contributed by ben. You can visit his website here ultimatebanners.co. Ultimate Banners are the premier British printer and sign maker based in Birmingham UK.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Israel is one of the diamond hubs - a centre where not only rough and polished diamonds are traded, but also the diamond manufacture, especially of large-sized stones, is maintained. The Israeli cutting companies are at the cutting edge in the world, they are equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, which is very sophisticated and developed mainly in the country. the Israeli technological advances, such as diamond cutting lasers, roughing machines, automatic grinding machines and CAD systems are used today throughout the global diamond industry.

The local diamond industry is based on a rich history of diamond cutting and polishing. It has a very valuable experience in polishing large and expensive stones. That is why Israeli manufacturing firms specialize in cutting and polishing large and medium-sized diamonds of any shape. Over the past decade, the Israeli diamantaires have launched a great many new types of diamond cuts.

In addition, Israel places orders for the manufacture of small diamonds in India, China and Africa, and then these stones are exported by Israeli companies to the markets of the North America, Asia, Europe and to other countries.

The supply of rough diamonds to the country is provided mainly through Europe. Israel is one of the largest rough diamond trading centres in the world (Table 1).

Table 1

Israels rough diamond imports and exports, 2006-2017







The dynamics of the Israel's imports-exports for the period under review indicates that there is a steady decline in trade volumes, both in value and carat weight. This suggests that other more competitive world diamond trade centres have appeared, and also there is a shift of the Israeli diamond industrys focus to the development of machinery and technology for processing rough diamonds.

Israel's cutting and polishing industry

Diamond cutting is the oldest industry in Israel that is the most important global centre for polishing and cutting diamonds, taking a leading position in the world for the large diamond manufacture. The country's cutting and polishing industry is one of the top and most advanced in the world. At present, there are about 4 thousand employees at the Israeli diamond cutting enterprises. In general, about 20% of the cut and polished diamonds of all sizes pass through Israel, which allows us to consider the country a world leader in both the manufacture and export of these stones.

In Israel, there are over 400 cutting and polishing firms. More than half of them are based in the Tel Aviv area, where the diamond exchange is also located, as well as in the cities of Netanya and Jerusalem.

The entire diamond business is concentrated in several dozens of cutting and polishing companies and controlled by them, which plays a significant role in the Israels trade and finance (Table 2).

Table 2

Israeli top manufacturers diamond sales, 2010-2017

$ mn





Prospects for the development of diamond business in Israel

The current stage of the development of the diamond business in Israel is characterized by the following factors:

1. The highly developed infrastructure in combination with a well-developed system of rough diamond purchasing and polished diamonds selling.

2. The close relationship between the leadership and the diamond community in Israel and the full state support of the diamond business.

3. The orientation of the diamond sector towards the import of high-quality rough diamonds and the export of polished diamonds in diamond jewelry allows them to get the maximum profit from the diamond business.

4. The introduction of the advanced technical and technological achievements in the cutting sector provides a high level of labor productivity and product quality.

All these factors will enable the Israeli diamond industry to maintain a long-term leading position in the global diamond business.

Yury Danilov, Ph.D. in Economics, independent analyst and expert




About 5 million residents left Wuhan before the lockdown because of the deadly coronavirus epidemic and the Spring Festival holiday, mayor Zhou Xianwang revealed on Sunday, as health officials warned the virus ability to spread was getting stronger.

There were about 9 million people remaining in the city after the lockdown, Zhou told a press conference.

Of the 2,700 people currently under observation in the city, about 1,000 were likely to be confirmed cases. As of Sunday, Wuhan had 533 confirmed cases.

The central government imposed a lockdown on Wuhan and several cities on Thursday hoping to stop the new virus from spreading to other parts of the country. However, many had already left the city for the holiday, while others rushed out after the lockdown was announced on Wednesday night.

China, meanwhile, said Premier Li Keqiang would head the high-level group to fight the coronavirus epidemic that has killed 80 people and infected more than 2,500 others, while health officials said the viruss ability to spread is getting stronger.

Beijing city reported five more confirmed cases, including a nine-month-old infant. It is the first confirmed infant case. On Saturday, a two-year-old girl in Guangxi was confirmed to be infected.

The Chinese State Council has extended the Lunar New Year holiday to February 2 to curb the spread of the virus, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The holiday, which was initially supposed to last until January 30, is the countrys most important festival and hundreds of millions of rural migrant workers nationwide travel home for it.

Suzhou was the first city to announce a holiday extension, saying workers at companies within its jurisdiction should resume work no earlier than February 8.

The State Council also said that kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and colleges will be suspended until further notice from the education ministry.

Ma Xiaowei, the minister in charge of Chinas National Health Commission (NHC), told a press conference that battling the outbreak was complicated, particularly as it had been discovered that the new virus could be transmitted even during incubation period, which did not happen with Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

Story continues

From observations, the virus is capable of transmission even during incubation period, Ma said, adding that the incubation period lasted from one to 14 days.

Some patients have normal temperatures and there are many milder cases. There are hidden carriers, he said.

Ma said also that the virus had adapted to humans and appeared to have become more transmissible.

There are signs showing the virus is becoming more transmissible. These walking contagious agents [hidden carriers] make controlling the outbreak a lot more difficult.

The authorities had also not ruled out the possibility of the virus mutating in the future, he said, which meant it could spread to different age groups.

To date, most of the people infected are in the 40-60 age range, health officials said earlier.

Sars, which killed more than 800 people and infected over 8,000 around the world, typically had an incubation period of two to seven days, and was not infectious during that time.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said that how transmissible the virus was during its incubation period depended on the viral load in each infection.

If I sneeze on you point blank, you may get a fever and pneumonia tomorrow too, he said.

Ma said that the epidemic was accelerating and may last for some time.

It is possible that there will be more cases, he said.

Speaking to the press on Sunday, Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the peak of the outbreak had yet to come.

There are trends for an epidemic cycle, he said. It is still growing.

However, he said there had yet to be any signs of the virus mutating.

Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says the peak of the outbreak has yet to come. Photo: AFP

Li Bin, deputy minister of the NHC said the authorities that the severe measures they had taken to control the spread of the virus  such as issuing travel bans and locking down cities  would at least delay the peak and buy time to combat the next stage of the outbreak.

China has closed off 13 cities in Hubei province, which is at the epicentre of the outbreak, while almost the entire country has declared an emergency response.

Of all of Chinas confirmed infections, more than half are in Hubei.

To help tackle the epidemic, Ma said that 2,360 military and civilian doctors and nurses had been sent to Wuhan, the city in which the outbreak was first detected at the end of last month.

As the pressure has mounted on the citys hospitals, the medical system has moved ever closer to collapse.

Many people who developed feverish symptoms were turned away by hospitals earlier in the week because there were not enough beds, local residents said earlier.

Medical practitioners are also running seriously short of protective kits and are being forced to recycle goggles and masks.

Ma said 2,400 hospital beds had been added in Wuhan, and the government was planning to add 5,000 more over the next three days.

Wang Jiangping, Chinas vice-minister of industry and information technology, said China had the capacity to produce a maximum of 30,000 protective outfits per day, but that was less than a third of what was needed in Hubei.

And during the Lunar New Year holiday, manufacturing capacity was only about 40 per cent of normal, he said.

The government was working to acquire the 50,000 protective jackets China produces for export every day to send to Hubei, he said.

However, the civil affairs ministry issued a statement on Sunday banning charity organisations and NGOs from sending teams to Hubei.

Any donations should be sent to government-sanctioned charity organisations in Hubei, such as the Red Cross, and they would be allocated by the Hubei and Wuhan governments as appropriate.

The NHC also issued a nationwide plan on containing the epidemic by locking down certain neighbourhood communities in both urban and rural areas.

In the case of a neighbourhood community or village having two confirmed cases, it could be declared an epidemic zone and sealed off, it said.

A Wuhan resident, who declined to be named, said that checkpoints had been set up in some communities on Sunday. People who had fever symptoms were being screened by medical workers within the community and those needed more attention were sent to hospital, he said.

China also imposed a nationwide ban on wildlife trade on Sunday. The outbreak is suspected to have originated at a seafood market in Wuhan, which also sold wild animals.

However, a research paper published by medical journal The Lancet on Saturday said the first confirmed case of the viral infection was a person who had not been to that market.

When asked if China planned to expand its travel ban to more cities, Li said the authorities would make adjustments as necessary.

China is hoping the travel bans will reduce the spread of the outbreak. As a result of the restrictions, rail passenger numbers have fallen by 41 per cent, road travellers by 25 per cent and air passengers by almost 42 per cent on Saturday, the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Meanwhile, the United States, France, Australia, Japan and Russia are all preparing to pull their citizens out of Wuhan, while others are ramping up measures to prevent people travelling from infected cities into their territories. Health officials in the US confirmed early Monday the fourth and fifth cases there, one in Los Angeles County, California and the other in Arizona. Both patients had traveled to Wuhan.

The ABC reported that more than 100 Australian children were currently trapped in Wuhan.

Additional reporting by Victor Ding and Cissy Zhou

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A 21-year-old Indian-origin female student's body has been recovered from a lake on the campus of a premier university in the US state of Indiana.

Annrose Jerry, an accomplished musician, was a student at the University of Notre Dame. She was missing since January 21, CBS Minnesota reported.

Jerry, who has relatives in Kerala, topped her class at Blaine High School. She was majoring in science and business.

On Thursday, the authorities issued a silver alert, believing she was in extreme danger.

In a statement, Notre Dame News, the university's media relations office, said, "Jerry had been missing since the evening of Tuesday and Notre Dame police scoured the campus and pursued multiple leads in an effort to find her."



Public safety personnel found her body in an on-campus lake on Friday. St. Joseph County Coroner Michael J McGann positively identified Jerry.

McGann said external examination of the body revealed no apparent signs of trauma.

"Devastated. Very saddened. ... She was one of the best students in my class, actually," WNDU channel quoted Phil McCown, who taught Jerry biochemistry as saying.

In her obituary, Jerry was described as a skilled musician, with expertise in playing the piano. She also played the flute for her university's Folk Choir.

"Annrose was a sweet, intelligent, strong, passionate, kind-hearted friend and she will be so dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and loved ones," the University of Nore Dam Folk Choir said in a Facebook post.

Jerry was going to graduate this year and was looking to pursue dental studies.

Local reports said Jerry could have died after accidentally falling into the lake.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Today, the world marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz death camp. On the International Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, the world stopped to remember one of the darkest periods in the history of humankind.

A dwindling number of elderly Holocaust survivors gathered at the former German Nazi death camp on Monday to honour its more than 1.1 million mostly Jewish victims and to share their alarm over rising anti-semitism.

More than 200 survivors came from across the globe to the camp the Nazis built at Oswiecim in then-occupied Poland, to share their testimony as a stark warning amid a recent surge of anti-semitic attacks on both sides of the Atlantic, some of them deadly.

Survivors dressed in blue and white striped caps and scarves symbolic of the uniforms prisoners wore at the camp, passed through its chilling "Arbeit macht Frei" (German for "Work makes you free") black wrought-iron gate.

Accompanied by Polish President Andrzej Duda, they laid floral wreaths by the Death Wall in Auschwitz where the Nazis shot dead thousands of prisoners.

"We want the next generation to know what we went through and that it should never happen again," Auschwitz survivor David Marks, 93, said earlier at the former death camp, his voice breaking with emotion.

Thirty-five members of his immediate and extended family of Romanian Jews were killed in Auschwitz, the largest of Nazi Germany's camps that has come to symbolise the six million European Jews who died in the Holocaust.

From mid-1942 the Nazis systematically deported Jews from all over Europe to six camps -- Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Organisers insist that Monday's memorial ceremony must focus above all on what survivors have to say rather than the bitter political feuds that have tainted the run-up to the anniversary.

AFP

"This is about survivors, it's not about politics," Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress, told AFP in the Auschwitz camp, now a memorial and state museum run by Poland.

"We see anti-semitism rising now and we don't want their (survivors) past to be their children's future or their grand children's future," he added.

Royals, presidents and prime ministers from nearly 60 countries will attend the ceremony, but no top world leaders, some of whom opted instead to attend a high-profile Holocaust forum in Israel last week seen as rivalling the ceremonies in Poland.

Poland's President Duda boycotted the Jerusalem forum after he was denied the opportunity to speak there while Russian President Vladimir Putin was given the floor, despite having earlier falsely accused Poland of colluding with German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and contributing to the outbreak of World War II.

Duda was to make an address at the Monday ceremony in Auschwitz alongside survivors.

While the world only learned the full extent of its horrors after the Soviet Red Army entered the camp on January 27, 1945, the Allies had detailed information about Nazi Germany's genocide against Jews much earlier.

In December 1942, Poland's then London-based government-in-exile forwarded a document, titled "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", to the Allies.

The document included detailed accounts of the unfolding Holocaust as witnessed by members of the Polish resistance, but drew disbelief and only muted reactions from the international community.

Reuters

To inform the Allies, Polish resistance fighters Jan Karski and Witold Pilecki famously risked their lives in separate operations to infiltrate and then escape from Nazi death camps and ghettos in occupied Poland, including Auschwitz.

Regarded as exaggeration and Polish war propaganda, "a lot of these reports were simply not believed", renowned Oxford historian Professor Norman Davies told AFP.

Despite "strong demands" by the Polish and Jewish resistance for the Allies to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz and other death camps, "the military's attitude was 'we've got to concentrate on military targets, not on civilian things'", said Davies.

"One of the targets that the (British) military did bomb was a synthetic fuel factory near Auschwitz" in 1943-44, he added.

Although Allied warplanes flew over the death camp itself, no orders were given to bomb it.

"It was one of the biggest crimes committed by those that were indifferent, because they (the Allies) knew what was happening here, they could have done something about it and they deliberately didn't," Auschwitz survivor David Lenga, 93, told AFP, standing next to a barbed-wire fence inside the former camp.

"People of this world need to be educated about the consequences when they become indifferent to evil; if you let evil raise its ugly head, this (the Holocaust) is exactly what is going to happen," said Lenga, a Polish Jew who now lives in California.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of all Nazi death and concentration camps and the one where most people were killed, primarily European Jews, but also Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and Poles.

Operated by the Nazis from 1940 until 1945, Auschwitz was part of a vast network of camps across Europe set up for Hitler's "Final Solution" of genocide against the estimated 10 million Jews in Europe.
Minister for Education Joe McHugh has pledged to continue to reduce the pupil teacher ratio in small schools (Brian Lawless/PA)

The Education Minister has pledged to continue to reduce the pupil teacher ratio in small schools and said the idea of scrapping homework for primary school students needs analysis.

Joe McHugh said the party will also abolish the charge for the School Transport Scheme and introduce a free school books scheme for all primary schools.

Speaking at the launch of Fine Gaels education plans, Mr McHugh said there will be a 25% increase in school capitation funding.

Addressing the Green Partys suggestion to scrap homework for primary school children, Mr McHugh admitted it was an issue that comes up all over the country.

I think it's a subject that needs analysis, but there's also the major benefits of homework, whereby parents are able to monitor the progressJoe McHugh, Education Minister

Its an interesting conversation because there are questions around stress, around pressure, he added.

There are a lot of parents who commute and they have to go home and sit down and do the homework and that can be stressful.

I think its a subject that needs analysis, but theres also the major benefits of homework, whereby parents are able to monitor the progress.

Most schools have one opportunity through a parent-teacher meeting, so if you are making any changes you would probably have more than one parent-teacher meeting.

I just believe that there is value in homework and its also what type of homework.

Theres this notion that homework is just a drudgery but homework from my own personal insight is that young people are doing research, its project work, theyre using different data and thats at a primary school level.

The debate has to start with the young people.

Its an area that will require the parents voice and students voice before any minister or leader of any party stands up and says this should happen or this should not happen.

We will establish a long-term funding model for higher and further education on the basis of it not raising registration feesMary Mitchell O'Connor, Minister for Higher Education

The Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell OConnor said that homework should be age-appropriate and time-appropriate.

Ms Mitchell OConnor also rejected claims that the party is starving universities of funding.

She ruled out increasing registration fees and introducing a student loan scheme, adding that the budget was 1.8 billion euro last year.

We will establish a long-term funding model for higher and further education on the basis of it not raising registration fees, she added.

We will not increase registration fees and one of the reasons is because it makes no sense because many universities across the world do not charge for registration fees, so we do not want our students leaving our country.

We will continue to increase public funding and will ensure that extra funding provides more student places and a better student experience.

We will increase the SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) grant by 5% on the income threshold for the grant and that will ensure that more students will be able to avail of third level places.

She also said she is against the decriminalisation of drugs, including soft and hard drugs.

Im a former school principal, Im a mother and a grandmother, and I really dont want to see that in our country, she added.

I also attended funerals of students who died during the summer, and I have seen the devastation of families.
By Tarun Jain

There is a tax rate and then there is an effective tax rate. This is how tax advisors inform the client. The former reflects the basic rate of tax whereas the latter is the actual tax incidence, which may increase or decrease, depending upon the fine print of the tax law.

The increase, generally, is on account of various cesses and surcharges which are imposed for specific reasons. For example, in 2004 the then Finance Minister implored upon the Governments priority for providing basic education to all children to introduce an Education Cess, to be computed as a percentage of almost all Union taxes in force. In 2007 a new cess  Secondary and Higher Education Cess (SHE Cess)  was imposed to fulfil the commitment of the Government to provide and finance secondary and higher education. The list of cesses is endless.

There is a Constitutional justification for levy of such cesses. Considering that there is an upper hand to the Union Government, the Constitution provides for mandatory devolution of a share of the Unions tax proceeds with the States.

For illustration, in terms of the XIV Finance Commissions recommendations, for every 100 rupees of taxes collected by Government of India, 42 was the share of the States. In wake of such considerations and in order to permit the Union Government to additionally augment its resources, Article 271 of the Constitution allow levy of surcharge for the purpose of Union. Such additional levies, being earmarked for specific purposes, are not required to be shared with the States. This has led to proliferation of a wide variety of surcharges and cesses, even though they constitute a tax both in form and spirit.

The purpose of levy of a cess meant for a dedicated objective, however, is lost if its proceeds are not utilized for such purpose. For example, the February 2019 report of the CAG is on record to highlight that despite 94k crores of SHE Cess being collected till 2017, the utilization of such fund was not operationalized. In such circumstances, speaking from a policy-perspective, such cesses are no different from ordinary taxes in which cases the Government is not obliged to utilize the proceeds for any specific purpose.

In addition, there cannot be any over-emphasis in highlighting that progressive introduction of cesses increase compliance woes and are a hot-bed for litigation. Neither from a tax-administration nor a taxpayer perspective, either of these ramifications are acceptance. They also muddle formulation of a coherent tax-policy, besides obviously diluting the tax-certainty cannon, at the expanse of petty gains, given that cesses generally carry a low rate.

No doubt, a number of indirect tax related cesses were discontinued with the introduction of GST regime, but the state-of-affairs is far from optimal. In fact, even under the GST regime introduction of sugar cess is a bone-of-contention between the sugar producing and consuming States. Mercifully, its levy still continues to be debated, though that is not the case with flood cess to which the GST Council has consented, and which is currently in vogue in State of Kerala.

The flip flop of judicial opinion also adds to the continuing woes of the taxpayers. In 2017 the Supreme Court in SRD Nutrients had decisively opined that Education Cesses and other cesses are in nature of piggy-back levies. Thus, when the main levy was exempt, the exemption should naturally be extended to cesses.

On such premise, lakhs of taxpayers  who had established their units in a host of industrially backward states relying the tax exemptions offered to them  heaved a sigh of relief as it implied negation of the claims of tax officers that notwithstanding the exemption from the main tax (here Central Excise duty), the cesses continued to remain payable.

Again, in early 2019 the Supreme Court in Bajaj Auto applied the same principle to extend exemption from National Calamity Contingent duty (NCCD) which was levied as a percentage of central excise duty and the latter duty was unconditionally exempt. Here the Supreme Court categorically observed that cesses / additional duties are in the nature of a surcharge and bear the same character as those respective taxes to which the surcharge is appended, thereby also covered within scope of exemption.

Last month, however, a larger bench of the Supreme Court in Unicorn Industries has reversed both these decisions. It opined that there is no exemption by inference and unless the Government specifically exempts cesses, the fact that the main tax is exempt is irrelevant to claim to exemption from cess. Even if this proposition may be legally sound, it creates an anomalous position that the rationale for granting exemption is virtually lost; the taxpayer must nonetheless undertake tax compliance and discharge the innocuous yet confirmed liability on account of these cesses.

There is yet another reason to revisit the cess structure. Let us take the illustration of exemption on account of export extended under the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP). Credit scrips are issued under the FTP by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOC) which can be utilized for payment of customs duties on import of raw materials, thus obviating blockage of working capital which can be gainfully employed in manufacturing the final export goods.

On January 10, 2020 the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has issued a circular to the effect that such scrips issued by MOC are at best relevant for basic customs duty and cannot be utilized towards Social Welfare Surcharge, which is leviable as a cess on imported goods. The Circular, examined legally, is right to deny the benefit of the scrips to such surcharge. Logically extended, indeed there may be small revenue gains by compelling the Indian manufacturers to pay the Surcharge by denying benefit of the scrips. However, the moot question is that does it no interfere with the larger policy consideration that taxes should not be exported? This is a clear case of getting lost in detail to allow blurring of larger policy considerations.

A heart-felt expectation for both the taxpayer and the consumer would, therefore, be that the upcoming Budget revisits the tax-policy rationale for continued levy of cesses and surcharges. If indeed revenue-collection is an objective, let that be collected in form a tax simplicitor. The Government is also free to determine the utilization of proceeds of such levy instead of being tied down to specific objectives, as is the case with cess. Such simplification will also bridge the gap between the tax rate and effective tax-rate, streamlining compliance and closing dispute-avenues.
New market analysis has suggested that there are a number of factors behind new figures which show that 2019 was a bumper year for lamb and beef production.

Recent data from Defra on UK abattoir throughputs show a slight increase in the lamb crop, and a rise in carcase weights of both lambs and prime cattle.

Throughput figures show that total UK sheepmeat production in 2019 stood at 307,500 tonnes, 6.4% higher than last year.

This is due to a 3% increase in the number of animals slaughtered to a total of 14.9 million, combined with heavier carcase weights.

Wales accounts for around 30% of the UK flock, but the continuing practice of some animals being slaughtered across the border means that the Welsh statistics for 2019 totalled 63,400 tonnes of production and a throughput of 3.3m animals, from a total sheep population of 9.5m head in June.

UK production levels of beef stood at 914,400 tonnes, with a small increase in the number of animals slaughtered and a large rise in carcase weights.

This ranged from a 3.9kg increase in the average weight of heifers to a 10.6kg jump in weights of adult cattle.

According to Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) data analyst Glesni Phillips, the figures reflect long-term trends in production efficiency on-farm, but also climate factors which were unique to 2019.

In the case of the sheep industry, the June survey showed the Welsh lamb crop was up by 1.2% over the previous season, and that increase has now been reflected in the production figures, said Phillips.

2019 was clearly a good year for grass growth, and conditions at lambing time were also much better than 2018 which saw a spell of very cold weather in February and March.

Political factors, however, may have contributed to lambs being finished sooner. She continued: The favourable weather conditions enabled many farmers to bring lambs to market sooner in the autumn, and many will have done so earlier than usual due to the uncertainty of the October 31 Brexit deadline.

This may now lead to a tightening of supply in the early months of 2020 before the new season lamb crop is ready.

According to Phillips, the market outlook for both lamb and beef is complicated by global factors.

In terms of beef, the Welsh June Survey figures show the breeding herd declining. The high UK-wide slaughter throughput of heifers during 2019 suggests that an immediate recovery in breeding numbers is unlikely, she explained.

This addition to the overall supply, combined with heavier carcase weights, contributed to poor farm-gate prices last year, although there are other trends in both UK retail and international trade which also played a part.

The presence of African swine fever in pigs in China has increased global demand for pork and other types of meat which could support prices, but uncertainty around what trade deals will be struck after Brexit is far from over, she said.
Press Release

January 27, 2020 Report: Investigate vigilante groups in Negros killings Members of anti-communist vigilante groups should be unmasked and be made accountable in the spate of killings in Negros Island, a report stated. Committee Report No. 33, prepared by the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, chaired by Sen. Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, and the Committee on Justice and Human Rights of Sen. Richard Gordon, submitted the report last week urging colleagues to adopt its recommendations and their immediate implementation. The two committees made the recommendations after conducting a hearing on August 27, 2019, based on Senate Resolution Numbers 47 and 65 filed by Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, respectively. The report was signed by 11 senators. CRN 33 recommended that members of anti-communist vigilante groups, such as "Kagubak," involved in the series of killings of alleged New People's Army should be unmasked and charged in court. The report also recommended that the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines should conduct internal investigation and gather evidence for possible filing of administrative and criminal liabilities against police and military personnel involved in the implementation of "Oplan Sauron" for possible human rights abuses and/or violations of law, if any. "To say that the period between October 2018 and July 2019 was bloody is a gross underestatement. In that eight-month period, a series of killings and attempted killings took place in both provinces. No one was spared - men, women and children suffered at the hands of lawless armed men," the report stated. It cited the killing of nine farmers in October, 20, 2018 by some 40 armed men in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City; and the killing of human rights lawyer last November 6, 2018. In response, the Simultaneous Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO), which involved the PNP and several battalions of the AFP, was launched on December 27, 2018. Its second version - Oplan Sauron - was also launched on March 30, 2019. The launching of these two police-military operations saw the further escalation of killings in the two provinces, the report stated. "During these simultaneous police operations, six persons were killed while 31 were arrested. Among those killed were habal-habal driver Reneboy Fat, Demetrio Fat, Jaime Revilla, Dondon Isugan, Jun Cubul of Guihuingan City, and Constancio Languita of Sta. Catalina town. The ones who were killed and many of those who were arrested were members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON)," the report stated. The committees also recommended the following: Deploy additional police and military personnel to secure the provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental, and if possible, the neighboring provinces; and to augment local police in the said provinces, in order to better address the security needs of the people;

Deploy more Commission on Human Rights Investigating Officers in Negros Islands for the continuing investigation of complaints or allegations of violations of human rights and abuses committed against the local residents, the police or military; and if the facts and evidence warrant, file the appropriate cases against those liable, and be held accountable for human rights abuses;

Provide the necessary budget for the CHR to hire more investigating officers to be assigned in all the regions in the country in order to efficiently and expeditiously conduct investigations into reported cases of human rights violations;

Enhance and strengthen the cooperation between the CHR and the PNP, not only in the conduct of investigations regarding the series of killings in Negros Island, but all cases of human rights violations all over the country;

Intensify anti-insurgency operations in identified rebel-infested areas in Negros Islands, but with due regard to the protection of human rights, and observance of the established principles of due process of law;

Provide adequate socio-economic and psycho-social assistance to the families of individuals who were killed;

For the PNP and AFP to review, evaluate and report to the President the effectiveness of Oplan Sauron in the objective to suppress and end lawless violence in the Negros Island;

Give administrative and budgetary support to the full implementation of Executive Order 70 providing for a whole-of-nation approach in defeating the local communist terrorist groups. Towards this end, support must likewise be extended to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC); and

Pursue amendments to Republic Act 9372, otherwise known as The Human Security Act, by considering the series of killings or violence as acts of terrorism, with the end goal of creating public emergency, and/or that which undermines public safety.
FMG Suite Logo We are excited to launch MarketingCentral to our advisors so they can easily implement effective digital marketing strategies to grow their business, said Michael Zuna, Chief Marketing Officer at Cetera.

FMG Suite, a SaaS company specializing in marketing software and services for financial advisors and insurance agents, today announced that it has launched MarketingCentral by Ceteraan enterprise solution that delivers a comprehensive marketing platform to help Cetera Financial Groups network of financial advisors compete in a crowded landscape.

Powered by FMG Suite, MarketingCentral helps advisors grow their practices, retain customers, and attract new business by adopting a modern, technology-first approach to marketing. It lets Cetera advisors establish their digital presence with access to powerful digital tools to launch automated, yet personalized email and social media marketing campaigns that drive traffic back to their sites.

To communicate more consistently and effectively, Cetera advisors will also have direct access to an extensive library of high-quality FINRA-reviewed articles, videos, infographics, quizzes, presentations, and more spanning a range of financial topics. Also included are event marketing tools, along with customizable and printable greeting cards delivered by mail to mark every special occasion. The library allows advisors to position themselves as subject matter experts by delivering valuable, timely, and relevant content that meets the high expectations of their customers.

MarketingCentral represents a major step forward in our ability to deliver value-added marketing capabilities to our network of advisors, with solutions they didnt even know they needed. Events are key in building relationships with clients and prospectsand offering a tool to help simplify how our advisors manage events is a game-changer. We are excited to launch MarketingCentral to our advisors so they can easily implement effective digital marketing strategies to grow their business, said Michael Zuna, Chief Marketing Officer at Cetera.

FMG Suite is dedicated to helping advisors grow their businesses through extraordinary marketing, and we are proud to partner with Cetera to do just that with MarketingCentral, said FMG Suite CEO Scott White. We look forward to growing the partnership to provide more value to Cetera advisors in the future, he added.

In an ongoing effort to offer the most advanced marketing capabilities to the financial services industry, FMG Suite has outlined product plans for 2020. Plans include new functionality for advisors, including a new compliant SMS texting channel, pay-per-click advertising, additional content libraries, search engine optimization support, and an AI-curated news service in 2020. FMG Suite and Cetera continue to work closely to add new tools to the platform to help Cetera advisors communicate effectively in a digital age.

About FMG Suite

FMG Suite delivers the leading advisor marketing platform backed by an award-winning, FINRA-reviewed and compliance-ready content library. Powering the industrys best websites, multimedia content, and communication tools for financial advisors and insurance agents, FMG Suite helps them deepen relationships with clients, stay connected with prospects, and grow their businesses. Rated first in market share and customer satisfaction in the 2019 T3 Software Survey Report by Morningstar, FMG Suite solutions are designed to advance how advisors develop their marketing strategies and automate their most effective marketing tactics. FMG Suite is headquartered in San Diego, CA with satellite offices across the United States.
January 24, 2020Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer, (970) 586-1363

This afternoon park rangers were notified of a suicidal subject likely in Rocky Mountain National Park. The individuals vehicle was located near Upper Beaver Meadows Road. While searching for the occupants of the vehicle, park rangers temporarily held traffic at the Beaver Meadows Entrance and Fall River Entrance on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park. This occurred from approximately 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.



The subject and another individual were located by park rangers and both were deceased. Park rangers conducted an on scene investigation and the individuals were transferred to the Larimer County Coroners Office. The Larimer County Coroners office will release positive identification when next of kin are notified. The cause of death will be released after an autopsy is conducted.



Assisting Rocky Mountain National Park Law Enforcement rangers during this quickly developing incident were Estes Park Police Department, Larimer County Sheriffs Office, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Loveland Police Department.



The investigation is ongoing and no further information will be released at this time.






Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, who is often at loggerheads with the state government, has accused Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy of refusing to honour the Padma awardees at an event in Raj Nivas on the occasion of Republic Day.

She also claimed that the Chief Minister shouted and argued with the official who requested him to present shawls to the Padma awardees.

"People of Puducherry need to know how their elected representatives disrespected their own Padma Awardees and also artists who came from Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal to perform here at Raj Nivas," read a statement from Governor.

"We invited both the Awardees so that Puducherrians get an immediate opportunity to greet these heroes. Both the Padma Awardees were gracious to attend even at such short notice. Once present in the audience our Comptroller Raj Nivas Asha Gupta considered it respectful to recognise the presence of the Padma Awardees by requesting the Chief Minister to present a shawl to them," read the statement issues on Monday.

"She thought it would be befitting the occasion that the HCM does the honours. The Honourable Chief Minister instead of welcoming this offer in the presence of Mr Munisamy, the terracotta Padma Awardee shouted back and argued back, saying "how can it be done without his prior intimation and prior approval?" There was a great deal of embarrassment. This was right in the presence of select invitees and all the senior officers of the administration," it read.

She said that Narayansamy and his Cabinet colleagues left the venue without "normal courtesy" for taking leave.

"We tried to play it down by not reacting to the situation and moved on with our cultural event. Soon after the Chief Minister left without walking up to the host as a normal courtesy for taking leave for whatever compelling reason. On the contrary, the accompanying cabinet ministers also followed him in the same way," it read.

"We thanked the two Padma Awardees from Puducherry, Mr Manoj Dass Billingual Author with Padma Bhushan and PondyTerrocotta Artist VK Munusamy before select invitees at the At Home hosted on the evening of Republic Day," tweeted Bedi today.

"They ought to express their regret to two Padma Awardees,the J & K & Arunachal Pradesh artists sent by Govt of India also. Besides to the office of Lt Gov for disrespecting the sanctity of a event. This is not a desirable behaviour from persons in responsible positions," she said in her subsequent Tweet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Under the theme UAE HealthA Shared Responsibility, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) is taking part in the Arab Health 2020, running from January 27 to 30.

The ministry will showcase innovative projects based on next-generation technologies including; the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) and Blockchain.

It will also focus on preventive healthcare and round-the-clock smart services with no human intervention. This will be the widest participation ever for the ministry in this history of Arab Health.

Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al Owais, the Minister of Health and Prevention said: While the UAE is the inspiring the world through its awareness-raising models about the sustainable future, the countrys health sector is on the cusp of a new stage for the next 50 years of its pioneering career, heading to the UAE Centennial 2071 with determination, confidence and a road map for the future.

This includes innovative platforms in all fields of government work, with the aim of achieving important national files to provide an innovative model of preventive health practices for the next generation, towards reinventing future health services to provide predictive solutions for patients, based on innovation and artificial intelligence, added Al Owais.

He asserted that MoHAPs participation the Arab Health 2020 is a reflection of the aspirations of the wise leadership in the year of preparing for the next 50 years to pave the way for a new era of smart health and innovation through a single national platform under the theme UAE Health is a Shared Responsibility.

The Health Minister further said: Through the UAE Health  a Shared Responsibility Platform, we look forward to the next 50 years, in which our health services will be built on innovation, future exploration, and AI utilisation with no human intervention, through smart services that reach patients wherever they are, and through implanting smart devices that will predict proactively specific diseases or complications. This would help allow clinicians or robots to intervene remotely without the need to hospitalise patients.

While Dr Mohamed Salim Al Olama, the Undersecretary of MoHAP said that the Ministrys participation in the 45th Arab Health 2020 is seeing the rise of its AI-based innovative health projects compared to the previous edition.

Al Olama added: Upon visiting MoHAPs platform, the visitors and exhibitors can learn more about a unique package of 5g-technology-based smart and future health services which are divided into four key pillars. This includes; non-communicable diseases and prevention, artificial intelligence, innovative health services, and mental health. Our aim is to reinforce the community health in the next 50 years up to the UAE Centennial 2071 through the implementation of preventive health projects for children and adolescents.

While the Arab Health 2020 is seeking to enhance the UAEs position as prestigious global hub in medicine, science, healthcare, and employment of advanced future technology in health services, by promoting the quality of life and healthcare sustainability. This can be achieved by adopting smart preventive services that can reach patients, senior citizens and people of determination in their homes, based on artificial intelligence technologies, augmented reality and virtual reality, home care tools, telemedicine, and blockchain he concluded. -- Tradearabia News Service
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Baghdad Friday calling for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. The protests come as James Jeffrey, U.S. Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, acknowledged that the fight against the terrorist group in Iraq is paused
A US military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan today, a Taliban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group said.

Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area, said that he saw the burning aircraft.

In an exchange on Twitter, he told The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned.

He added that aircrafts body and tail were hardly damaged. His information could not be independently verified.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a US airforce plane crashed in the Ghazni province.

He claimed the crash killed lots of US service members. The militant group often exaggerates casualty figures.

Mr Ghazniwal said the crash site was about 10km from a US military base.

US Army Major Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, declined to comment when told about the Taliban claim.

She earlier acknowledged American military officials were investigating reports of a crash in Afghanistan. She said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash.

Maj. Riordan declined to immediately comment further.

However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the US military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

Images on social media purportedly of the crashed plane showed an aircraft bearing US Air Force markings similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft photographed by aviation enthusiasts.

Visible registration numbers on the plane also appeared to match those aircraft.

The so-called Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) can be carried on unmanned or crewed aircraft like the E-11A.

It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone.

Colloquially referred to by the US military as Wi-Fi in the sky, the BACN system is used in areas where communications are otherwise difficult, elevating signals above obstacles like mountains. The system is in regular use in Afghanistan.

Local Afghan officials had said earlier today that a passenger place from Afghanistans Ariana Airlines had crashed in the Taliban-held area of the eastern Ghazni province.

However, Ariana Airlines told The Associated Press that none of its planes had crashed in Afghanistan.

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled. The number of people on board and their fate was not immediately known, nor was the cause of the crash.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1.10pm local time (8.40am GMT) in Deh Yak district, some 80 miles (130lm) south-west of the capital Kabul.

He said the crash site is in territory controlled by the Taliban. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

But the acting director for Ariana Airlines, Mirwais Mirzakwal, dismissed reports that one the companys aircraft had crashed.

The state-owned airline also released a statement on its website saying all its aircraft were operational and safe.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter. The Taliban currently control or hold sway over around half the country.

The last major commercial air crash in Afghanistan occurred in 2005, when a Kam Air flight from the western city of Herat to Kabul crashed into the mountains as it tried to land in snowy weather.

The war, however, has seen a number of deadly crashes of military aircraft.

In 2013, an American Boeing 747 cargo jet crashed shortly after take-off from Bagram airbase north of Kabul en route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

All seven crew member were killed.

The US National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that large military vehicles were inadequately secured and had shifted during flight, causing damage to the control systems that rendered the airplane uncontrollable.
Donald Trumps legal team took a detour during Mondays impeachment trial to mount a vigorous if tangential defense of the presidents lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whom House impeachment managers have described as a key figure in the pressure campaign against Ukraine.

Trump lawyer Jane Raskin downplayed Giulianis role as an unofficial presidential envoy to the Ukraine government, while lauding him as a national hero for his leadership of New York City after 9/11.

In this trial, in this moment, Mr. Giuliani is just a minor player, that shiny object designed to distract you, Trump lawyer Jane Raskin said on the Senate floor. Senators, I urge you most respectfully, do not be distracted.

On the July 25 phone call that sparked the impeachment inquiry, Trump directed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet with Giuliani regarding the investigations Trump sought into former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraines supposed role in influencing the 2016 election. But Giulianis efforts in Ukraine on Trumps behalf stretched back at least a year earlier to a campaign to get the U.S. ambassador to Kiev fired.

Still, Raskin painted Giuliani as a sideshow.

Trump legal counsel Jane Raskin and Rudy Giuliani. (Photos: Senate TV via Getty Images, Charles Krup/AP)

If both the law and the facts are against you, present a distraction, Raskin said. Emphasize a sensational fact or perhaps a colorful and controversial public figure who appears on the scene. Then distort certain facts, ignore others even when they are the most probative, make conclusory statements and insinuate the shiny object is far more important than the actual facts allow. In short, divert attention from the holes in your case.

Raskin said Giuliani had sought to weed out corruption in Ukraine out of patriotic duty, not on a political errand for Trump, who, according to the impeachment charges, was trying to discredit Biden, a leading Democratic candidate to challenge his reelection.

Raskin acknowledged Giulianis combative, combustible style.

To be sure, Mr. Giuliani has always been somewhat of a controversial figure for his hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners approach, but its no stretch to say that he was respected by friend and foe alike for his intellect, his tenacity, his accomplishments and his fierce loyalty to his causes and his country, she said. She quoted the legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow in Giulianis defense:

Story continues

The House managers may not like [Giulianis] style. You may not like his style. But one might argue that he is everything Clarence Darrow said a defense lawyer should be: outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade.

Republicans in Congress have shied away from defending Giuliani publicly, while Democrats have raised his name regularly during the impeachment inquiry. During her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, former National Security Council official Fiona Hill recounted former national security adviser John Bolton complaining about Giulianis role in the withholding of U.S. military aid from Ukraine.

Giulianis a hand grenade whos going to blow everybody up, Hill said Bolton told her.

Giuliani, who has for months promised proof that the Bidens were involved in a variety of unsubstantiated corruption schemes in Ukraine and China, was left off the presidents defense team, but expressed his gratitude for Raskins words of support.

...incriminating documents. It was already a fully-intact bribery/extortion case.



The reason you dont know about it is because of the cover up by the corrupt Democrats and their establishment media!  Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 27, 2020

Giulianis repeated assurances on Joe Bidens guilt have left many observers, including a leading Trump defender, Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro, wondering when that evidence will be forthcoming.

Jeanine: Do you have the evidence?

Rudy:  I got the evidence

Jeanine: Can we see the evidence?

Rudy: You saw the evidence! It was on Fox. It was just on OAN! Go watch OAN and go watch my podcast!!! pic.twitter.com/xmEFldVdv6  Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 26, 2020

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
PHILADELPHIA  An update by the education advocacy groups representing over a dozen petitioners in a public school funding lawsuit against the state is expected in the coming days.

Representatives from the Education Law Center and the Public Interest Law Center  the latter serving as counsel for the petitioners led by the William Penn School District  will host a webinar press conference for journalists Wednesday afternoon to provide an update on current litigation in the on-going fight that asks the Commonwealth Court to declare the current state funding system of schools does not comply with the state constitution.

Public Interest Law Center Staff Attorney Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, Education Law Center-PA Legal Director Maura McInerney and William Penn School Superintendent Jane Ann Harbert are all expected to make comments at the progress of the case.

The press conference comes less than a week before Gov. Tom Wolf, one of the named defendants in the case who has vocally supported the petitioners in the case, is expected to deliver his annual budget address to legislators outlying what he wants to see in the 2020-21 budget. Wolf has added over $1 billion to basic and special education funding since taking office in 2015, but all of these new dollars are argued to still not be enough.

The lawsuit was expected to go to trial this summer in a scheduling order from Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer in December 2018. Jubelirer wrote in a Jan. 23 order that trial is tentatively scheduled for this fall as she granted an application for extension of case management deadlines.

The years-long case was not expected to go to trial after appeal court denials on the case mounted up, taking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2017 to say that the case was justiciable to be heard in Commonwealth Court.
She plays a woman on a mission for revenge in her new mystery/thriller movie, The Rhythm Section.

And on Monday, Blake Lively stepped out looking nothing like the character she plays on-screen while out promoting the film as she continues her press tour in New York City.

The 32-year-old gave a big smile as she waved to fans outside of her SoHo hotel as she made her way to her getaway car.

Out and about: Blake Lively stepped out to promote her latest movie The Rhythm Section on Monday as she continues her press tour in New York City

Looking good: She gave a big smile as she waved to fans outside of her SoHo hotel as she made her way to her getaway car

For her look of the day, the Simple Favor actress wore a long blush-colored coat that she had tightly closed around her waist.

She spiced the look up with a pair of burgundy combat boots and a pair of matching leather gloves to stay warm.

Her long blonde hair was pinned back out of her face and helped showed off her stacked necklace collection by Adinas Jewels she had hanging off of her neck.

Stylish: For her look of the day, the Simple Favor actress wore a long blush-colored coat that she had tightly closed around her waist

Recently, while promoting the movie on her social media, she shared a snap of her and her co star Sterling K. Brown showing off her pre-baby body.

'Looking for a good pic of me and @sterlingkbrown but my abs look so good here,' she wrote in the photo of her lying down.

'Dear abs, I miss us,' she added.

Details: Her long blonde hair was pinned back out of her face and helped showed off her stacked necklace collection by Adinas Jewels she had hanging off of her neck

Her abs: While promoting the movie, she shared this photo of herself flashing her abs in her new movie before giving birth to her third daughter

Back in October, Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds welcomed their third daughter together.

While they have yet to reveal their little one's name, their new addition is joined by her two big sisters Inez, aged three, and James, aged four.

Back in 2016, the Gossip Girl alum started to work out with her trainer Don Saladino following the birth of Inez.

'Turns out you can't lose the 61 lbs. you gained during pregnancy by just scrolling through Instagram and wondering why you don't look like all the bikini models,' she captioned the photo while posing alongside Don.

'Thanks @donsaladino for kickin my A double S into shape,' she added. '10 months to gain, 14 months to lose. Feeling very proud.'

New movie: In her new thriller The Rhythm Section she plays Stephanie Patrick who seeks revenge after her family was killed in a plane crash

New style: For the movie, she is seen rocking a short dark hairstyle
Meanwhile, detached real estate prices in Greater Vancouver saw their benchmark prices shrink by 4% year-over-year, ending up at $1,423,500 in December. The decline was more acutely visible within the city, as detached benchmarks fell by 3.1% annually in Vancouver East (down to $1,390,100) and by 6.7% in Vancouver West (down to $2,588,900).

The situation was in marked contrast to Metro Vancouvers rental market, which enjoyed significant growth in activity and value over the last year.

Per the CMHCs last prediction in October, the citys rental housing is expected to have a vacancy rate of 1.1% by the end of 2019, and two-bedroom average rent rates are forecast to settle at around $1,715 (from $1,649 in 2018).

Its a combination of issues that need to get fixed  not just in Vancouver but a lot of other [surrounding] municipalities, LandlordBC chief executive David Hutniak told CBC News.

A spokesperson for CMHC reiterated that it is still confident in those predictions. These levels will place Metro Vancouver among the regions with the nations lowest vacancy rates and highest rents.
Ukrposhta not limiting incoming packages from China, says no risk of virus transmission from packages

JSC Ukrposhta has so far not imposed restrictions on the reception of shipments from China, Ukrposhta CEO Igor Smelyansky told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

"At the moment, no restrictions are planned. We, as members of the Universal Postal Union, are certainly in contact with colleagues from other countries, however, according to the status today, taking into account how the disease spreads (airborne droplets). Forwarding during 7-10 days it doesn't even allow the virus to be transmitted in theory. So there are no grounds for restrictions," he said.

The company emphasizes that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet introduced any prohibitions on the movement of goods across borders and international trade.

Ukrposhta monitors the situation and is in constant contact with Ukraine's Ministry of Health and our partners in China. No evidence has yet been recorded of the risk of the spread of coronavirus through goods," the company's website said.

As reported, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine announced that from Sunday, January 26, at the Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv), temperature screening of passengers on direct flights from China began, conducted by trained specialists using special equipment.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Reports that John Bolton has written a firsthand account of the presidents direct involvement in withholding aid to Ukraine has left some Republicans confused and angry over the legal strategy by the presidents defense team  which has devoted much of its arguments in the Senate impeachment trial to arguing that no such firsthand evidence existed.

One Republican operative who advises the White House said he was flabbergasted at how stupidly they have handled this.

Trump attorney Mike Purpura argued Saturday that not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting or anything else.

Purpura repeated that claim on Monday afternoon, saying that anyone who spoke to the president said there was no pressure campaign on Ukraine.

That assertion echoes what the presidents legal team argued in its legal brief filed a week ago: House Democrats claims are built entirely on speculation from witnesses who had no direct knowledge about anything and who never even spoke to the President about this matter.

The disclosure in the New York Times Sunday night directly contradicts the arguments of the presidents lawyers, who said in their brief that this is the central fact in this case. Bolton, Trumps former security adviser, has written in his forthcoming memoir about having just such a conversation with the president last August.

This just completely washes away Purpuras whole argument, the White House adviser said. WTF. He misled the Senate.

Mike Purpura, counsel to the president, at the impeachment trial in the Senate on Saturday. (Screengrab: Senate TV via Yahoo News)

The first of two articles of impeachment in the Senate trial accuses Trump of withholding military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation that could discredit former Vice President Joe Biden.

The House impeachment inquiry heard from numerous witnesses who testified that such a pressure campaign was undertaken by the administration, but none of them had direct evidence that implicated Trump personally.

Story continues

Bolton claims to have that firsthand knowledge, according to reports about his manuscript.

Boltons lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, provided a manuscript of Boltons forthcoming book to the White House on Dec. 30, weeks before the Senate impeachment trial began.

The Republican who advises the White House predicted there now may be no way for the White House to prevent Bolton from testifying. The adviser said the cardinal sin by the president's lawyers was not finding out what was in Bolton's book and addressing it in their opening remarks on Saturday.

President Trump in the Oval Office in 2018 with then-national security adviser John Bolton looking on. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

It is not known who at the White House had access to the document, but at least one former top executive branch attorney, Jack Goldsmith, said a presidential administration often circulates manuscripts submitted for [prepublication] review widely, including to political officials, and it often asks for deletions for reasons having nothing to do [with] disclosure of classified info.

Another Republican operative who speaks regularly with the White House said the upshot of Boltons revelations will be to increase momentum toward calls for him to testify.

I think it pushes at least four GOP senators to vote to call witnesses. They were soft before this little bombshell, the Republican operative said.

There are 47 Democrats in the Senate. Together with at least four Republicans, they would make up a majority.

On the question of why the presidents lawyers relied so heavily on the absence of a firsthand account tying the president to the pressure on Ukraine, this operative said: They all represent a serial liar. [You] never know what is really going on. This is how he ran his businesses.

And indeed, the immediate reaction on Capitol Hill did seem to suggest that the Senate was moving toward the idea of calling at least Bolton to testify. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it was increasingly likely that at least four Republicans would vote to call Bolton to appear before the Senate.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Muscovite awarded $320 in compensation for illegal compulsory mental treatment

 RIA Novosti, Mikhail Mordasov

13:00 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  Moscows Tverskoy District Court awarded 20,000 rubles ($320) to a Muscovite for illegal admission to a mental hospital, lawyer Ilnur Sharapov told RAPSI on Monday.

In June 2011, Yevgeny Alyokhin was arrested by police allegedly after a family conflict and forcibly transferred to a psychiatric hospital, where he was held within 29 days, the attorney said. He was given antipsychotic drugs and kept in a common hall but not in a hospital ward, Sharapov added.

In November 2014, the Moscow City Court overturned a lower courts ruling on compulsory treatment. Following that, Alyokhin turned to the Tverskoy District Court seeking a 1-million-ruble ($16,000) compensation for moral damages but was refused. Later, the Moscow City Court vacated a ruling denying compensation and ordered retrial in the same lower court, which recovered 20,000 rubles from the Finance Ministry.

The claimant disagreed with the amount of the awarded compensation and would challenge the ruling in a higher instance, according to the lawyer.
Inside a small room in the low light, a rectangular tin box filled with green, pink, yellow, white and blue marbles sits atop a thin stand, encased in glass.

The box looks fragile. The marbles are faded. Little wonder: they are more than 70 years old. The marbles and case belonged to Anne Frank, who gave the set to a friend and neighbour for safekeeping while she hid from Nazis in Amsterdam  never to return.

Of course, unlike her tin of marbles, Anne didnt grow old, but the memory of who she was, what she wrote and why she, her mother, older sister, and millions of other Jews were murdered must not fade.

Recently, I saw those marbles on display in the secret annex where Anne, her family, and four other Jews took often silent refuge in several rooms concealed behind a bookcase above her fathers warehouse for 25 months beginning in 1942.

It is where Anne, an effervescent teenager who loved ice-skating, wrote stories and kept a diary about her new, claustrophobic life, her constant fear, her will, her longings, her desires, her anger, her frustrations, her disappointments, her hopes, and her aspirations of becoming a journalist and a famous writer when the war was over.

In that moment, I understood that Annes story, however poignant, was one of six million stories, each one requiring our attention, each one needing to be told, each one needing to be remembered, each one a lasting lesson about the simple and profound human consequences when hatred prevails over humanity.

In another room, the story of six Dutch non-Jews, the men and women who helped Anne and the others hide and survive before being found out by Gestapo officers on August 4, 1944, is also on view.

In that dark time of the war, we did not stand on the sidelines, but extended our hands to help others. Risking our own lives. We could not have done more, one of the helpers, Miep Gies, told an interviewer in 1998.

The helpers knew, despite the mortal risks, that it was their duty to do whatever they could to keep eight Jews alive and safe for as long as they could.

They were my friends, I could not let them be butchered by the Germans, Victor Kugler, another helper, said after the war.

What the helpers did and why they did it must be remembered, too. It must be remembered since too many people in too many places abetted by too many political and religious leaders have chosen these days to endorse hate, rather than confront and resist it.

They have chosen to say and do nothing while too many  mostly men who wield great power and influence  choose to traffic in hatred and bigotry.

Finally, and undeniably, they have chosen to watch mute while other forgotten innocents are murdered and maimed in the profane name of ultra-nationalism, brewed together with a large, toxic measure of xenophobia.

The year 2020 may not resemble the confluence of events, personalities and extremism that fuelled the rise of Nazism in Europe in the late 1930s. Still, the rabid fanaticism disguised as populism that was rampant then is rampant today throughout Europe and beyond.

To deny this is to deny the plain, distressing truth.

Far-right nationalists who promise to defend the homeland against invasion by Muslims and African asylum seekers have swept across Europe like a virulent, disfiguring pandemic.

Propelled by overtly racist and anti-Semitic tropes, still more have been elected to scores of parliaments, including the European Parliament.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told supporters after his re-election for a third term in 2018 that his victory was an opportunity [for Hungarians] to defend themselves and to defend Hungary.

Emboldened by success, Orban doesnt use code to camouflage the meaning and intent of his ugly, but all too familiar, rhetoric. He and his legion of disciples consider a Europe with a mixed population and no sense of identity a real threat and aim to purify white Christian Hungary of the unwelcome others in their midst.

Apart from a few wrist-slapping tsk-tsks, the reaction by Europes liberal democracies to Orbans self-proclaimed illiberal democracy has been predictably wanting.

It is the same limp response that the leaders of the same liberal democracies have offered in reply to United States President Donald Trumps and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaros routine, authoritarian-saturated spasms of hate and bigotry.

They yawned while Trump tore migrant children from their parents and locked them in cages. They yawned when Trump called a regiment of tiki-torch-wielding neo-Nazis very fine people. They yawned when Trump described El Salvador, Haiti and Africa as s***holes. They yawned when Bolsonaro said a fellow lawmaker in Congress was too ugly to rape. They yawned when Bolsonaro told a reporter you have a terribly homosexual face. They yawned when Bolsonaro said of Brazils 900,000-strong Indigenous community: Its a shame that the Brazilian cavalry wasnt as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated their Indians.

Instead, the leaders of liberal democracies have literally embraced Trump and Bolsonaro as valued trading partners and strategic, geopolitical allies.

The leaders of liberal democracies make solemn pledges to never forget, but they always do.

So, when our dark time demanded that they not stand on the sidelines, thats what they did. When our dark time demanded that they defend tolerance and understanding, they chose complicity and appeasement. When our dark time demanded a blunt, unequivocal rejection of hate and bigotry, they opted for palatable, diplomatic niceties.

On January 27, 200 survivors of the Holocaust gathered in southern Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. (Nine out of 10 children, women and men murdered there were Jewish.)

They warned that history has a lethal habit of repeating itself. This happens inexorably  step by inevitable step. It starts with hateful words that translate into hateful laws that make legal hateful acts.

That is what happened in the 1930s and it is happening now.

That means another doomed child may soon have to give up her tin of marbles. We just do not know her name.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
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Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, on Monday hosted the groundbreaking ceremony for the tomato processing factory of Tomato Jos.

At the ceremony, the governor said his government was elated that processing facilities owned by private investors were being located across the state, and were complementing its ability as a foremost primary producer of food.

The event, held in Kangimi, Igabi Local Government Area, was witnessed by CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, US Ambassador to Nigeria Mary Beth Leonard and John Coumantaros, chairman of Flour Mills of Nigeria.

Mira Mehta, founder and chief executive of Tomato Jos, said that her company intends to invest N10.25bn over five years in its farming, processing and marketing activities.

This includes the N1.5bn already invested, and another N1.75bn earmarked for building and installing the processing facility in 2020.

Ms Mehta disclosed that Tomato Jos was already providing 2500 jobs and intends to put 3000 hectares under cultivation between it and its out-growers and that its processing facility will handle 80-100 metric tonnes daily.

Mr El-Rufai said the ceremony was the second groundbreaking event in 10 days for an agriculture-related investment in the state.

Ten days ago, on Friday, 17th January 2020, we were in Kubau Local Government Area to break ground for the Damau Milk Farm, our joint project with Arla Foods, designed as a pragmatic and sustainable solution to the security challenges that now accompany nomadic livestock production, create jobs and boost domestic production of milk and milk products.

Today, we are excited that Tomato Jos is expanding its investment footprint in our state by taking a leap from growing tomato and other crops to building a processing facility to make tomato paste. With its farm in Kangimi, in Igabi Local Government Area, Tomato Jos has already impacted on its community, creating jobs and empowering its outgrowers with modern farming techniques and a route to market.

The Kaduna State Government welcomes this latest investment in the agricultural potentials of our state. Olam showed the way back in 2017 when President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the hatchery and feed mill project that this multinational sited in our Chikun Local Government Area.

Governor El-Rufai said Kaduna is well-endowed with farming potential, with vast arable land and many water sources, and is the top producer of maize, ginger, sorghum and tomatoes.

He congratulated Ms Mehta for locating Tomato Jos in Kaduna and responding with investments to all the support offered her company by the Kaduna State Government and its agencies. He wished her success in growing this business and helping to deepen the position of Kaduna State as not only a major farming state, but also a significant location for agro processing businesses.

The governor said the state welcomes the combination of primary production and industrial capacity that Tomato Jos investment signifies.

Mr El-Rufai noted that firms like Olam and Tomato Jos demonstrate why Kaduna State is ranked as the Number 1 place for doing business by the World Banks Doing Business Report.

It is an accolade we are working hard to retain, not for popularity, but for the concrete results it brings in attracting and retaining new investments in Kaduna State.

Our approach to business is to be an enabler and a facilitator of value-creation. It is imperative to encourage and support the private sector to create jobs, transfer skills and technology and contribute to public revenues. We have often said that our approach to business is simple: we are very friendly, and we become friendlier with those who create jobs and pay tax.
Kevin Frayer

HONG KONGThe Chinese government has a famously (or infamously) sophisticated surveillance system that incorporates facial recognition, tight observations of social media networks, and phone tracking. One piece of equipment that Chinese police departments have adopted is described by its manufacturer like this: People pass and leave a shadow. The phone passes and leaves a number. The system connects the two.

Fifth U.S. Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Patient Who Traveled From Wuhan, China

But at a time of critical need, as a medical crisis is escalating across the country and spreading to other parts of the world, threatening to become a global epidemic if quarantines cannot be enforced, the Chinese governments vaunted ability to monitor the population has been nullified.

In the days leading up to a citywide quarantine of Wuhan and lockdowns in nearby areas, where residents of the Hubei provincial capital have been barred from leaving its limits, 5 million people left the city nonetheless.

In a cold winter where people are bundled up, and where many are donning face masks, face-scanning software has been rendered moot. And though every SIM card purchase requires a face scan to verify a users identity, tracking down millions of travelers who have left the viral outbreaks epicenter is proving to be a Sisyphean task.

To make matters worse, we now know that the coronavirus can be transmitted by carriers who exhibit no symptoms, compounding worries that body temperature checks are ineffective as screening measures.

As of 8:30 p.m. on Monday in China, 81 people have been killed by the coronavirus. More than half of the confirmed infections and most of the deaths were in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital.

So far, there are five confirmed cases of the coronavirus within American borders. They are in Washington state, California, Texas, and Chicago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the coronavirus risk to America remains low, though U.S. health officials are retracing these patients footsteps to identify people who they have been in close contact with.

Story continues

American and other stock markets took major hits on Monday amid fears that China's oil consumption, tourism and trade may all see massive declines.

There is some good news. With supplies from across the country and abroad pouring in, hospitals in Wuhan are catching up to the backlog to treat people who are seeking help. Waiting rooms at most hospitals arent as congested, and reinforcements from other parts of China, including more than 2,000 military and civilian doctors, are providing relief for local physicians and nurses. The head of Chinas National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei, said the government has added 2,400 hospital beds in Wuhan, with 5,000 more coming in the next two days.

Right now, however, hospitals are at full capacity, and new patients are still being turned away by some facilities.

Local officials have been slow to react and inept. At a press conference held on Sunday, Wuhans mayor, Zhou Xianwang, showed up wearing his face mask upside-down, and Hubeis governor, Wang Xiaodong, provided incorrect figures about the provinces production capacity for face masks10.8 billion, then 1.8 billion, then finally 1.08 million after being corrected by someone who passed a note to him.

WeChat, the dominant social media platform in China, has implemented a whistleblower function, allowing users to file reports about officials negligence or mismanagement when handling the coronavirus crisis.

There have been other snafus and points of disorganization. Police havent received clear direction on how to execute the private vehicle ban on roads in Wuhans city center. Text messages that were supposed to indicate who can drive where and when werent sent out to the general population. Six thousand taxi drivers who have been commissioned to deliver medication dont know how the system is supposed to work.

A Chinese Saga of Swine, Surveillance, and Sanctions

The general rule of thumb for everyone in the city has been to remain indoors and venture out only for supply runs or emergencies.

People in Wuhanand across Hubeiare angry. Some have questioned why local officials have been so slow to respond to the outbreak, and why significant efforts were put into censoring information about the coronavirus in news reports and on social media. Theyre also bored because they have been stuck at home for days, with no end of the quarantine in sight. Some people have resorted to shouting out windows to vent and communicate with their neighbors in real life, and not just through screens.

Major airports worldwide are checking arriving travelers body temperatures, but that may be ineffective in stopping the virus from landing in new locations via global transportation hubs.

The coronavirus has an incubation period of up to two weeks. During this period, hosts may not run fevers or exhibit any flu-like symptoms.

On Monday, Chinas National Education Examinations Authority canceled all February exams for the IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, and GMATall tests that Chinese students need to take before they can be enrolled in schools abroad.

A Shanghai-based Reuters journalist who visited Wuhan was tracked down by government officials and placed under a 14-day self-quarantine at home. There are cases in other provinces, like southeastern Chinas Guangdong, where police are actively seeking out travelers who originated from the infection zone, possibly by tracking the locations of their smartphones.

A chartered plane arranged by the U.S. State Department will evacuate 230 Americans, including diplomats and people working in Wuhan, taking them Stateside. Thats roughly one-quarter of Americans who live in the city that is the origin of the coronavirus outbreak. The Japanese and Australian governments are making similar arrangements to move their nationals back home.

The American consulate in Wuhan has suspended its regular services.

As the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc around China and appear in new corners around the world, infecting thousands, and efforts to manage the crisis are falling short of whats needed, experts are already looking beyond this phase, outlining plans for a global push to fight an epidemic.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins SPH Center for Health Security, pointed out in a series of tweets that governments and health institutions worldwide need to plan for the possibility that the coronavirus cannot be effectively contained in China. He said this should include multiple, parallel efforts to create and manufacture vaccines, as well as plans for a global stockpile and allocation by the World Health Organization. Inglesby also underlined the importance of urgent blood serum diagnostics to figure out how severe the virus spread is around the globe, as well as new plans for determining potential infections in travelers beyond airport screenings.

All of these measures require collaboration among nations and the relevant corporations, as well as a coordinator to manage the information flow. So far, no such cooperation is taking place.

The World Health Organizations director general is traveling to Beijing to meet with government officials and health experts in China. The WHO has been hesitant to declare a global health emergency that would demand a coordinated international response to the virus spread across borders.

Chinese Communist Party premier Li Keqiang is in Wuhan coordinating the efforts to contain the coronavirus. Two hospitals designed to house a combined 2,300 beds are being constructed to treat people who have fallen sick. The first is expected to be completed by Monday, February 3, and will be staffed to handle 1,000 patients.

For now, people who are stuck in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei feel paralyzed. Mixed messages about what will happen to them in the coming days are fraying nerves. Beijing has extended the Lunar New Year holiday until February 2, hoping to delay mass travel as people head back to work, but the history of the last few days suggests the deferment is far from enough to contain a virus that has spread, already, around the world.

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LAS CRUCES  You have to wait until dark to catch an emu.

So says Brad Cates, who last week had to follow this advice to bring home an emu that had been on the lam for nearly two months.

Cates owns two emus on his eight acres of land north of Las Cruces. Around Thanksgiving, one of them escaped. On, Thursday, Cates got news of the whereabouts of his wandering emu and was able to contain the exotic, large bird in the backyard of a house.

Ive had emus for 30 years. I know all the ways to catch em, Cates said. Theres no way you can catch one in the daytime. But once they go to sleep, you can put a blanket on it and that makes it halfway easy to get em. Theyre like chickens.

Cates said he reported his emu missing around Thanksgiving but hadnt heard anything until Thursday.

Social media sites last week were flooded with images of an emu roaming around Grey Fox subdivision  a gated community on Thorpe Road and North Valley Drive  fairly close to Cates property. Thursday morning, a state livestock inspector showed up at Cates home to inform him of the elusive emu. A game warden also contacted Cates.

Cates said he headed to the area where the emu might be Thursday afternoon and spotted it in the backyard of a home. He closed an open gate to the home to ensure the emu would stay in the backyard. Emus, according to Cates, arent adept at climbing over things taller than five feet. But hed have to wait until nightfall to corral the flightless bird.

Cates left a handwritten message for the homeowner: My emu is in your backyard. Please call me. I can organize a rescue. Thanks. Cates also left his name and phone number.

About 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Cates and his posse headed to the Grey Fox property to bring home the sleeping, 150-pound emu.

The emus name? Hey You! And the other one is Hey You! Cates said, laughing. You cant tell them apart.

When Cates lived in Virginia, he said, he had 25 to 30 emus on his property, which included a lake. Now, he just has the two.

I dont know why, but I like these animals, he said.

Cates is well-known in Dona Ana County. In 2016, he was the Republican nominee for district attorney, eventually losing to Mark DAntonio.

A graduate of New Mexico State University, Cates served four terms as state representative and played a leading role in writing the states criminal code. He also previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, has experience as a state prosecutor and once served as an assistant attorney general.

He now describes himself as a lawyer, software developer and pecan farmer.

Funny how things work, he said.  Im not out there chasing criminals as DA. Instead, Im chasing emus!
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Wuhan  Mon, January 27, 2020 10:37 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2061114c8 2 World Wuhan-coronavirus,#Wuhan,#coronavirus,outbreak,#outbreak Free

Anxious foreigners in the locked-down city that spawned China's deadly viral epidemic say they are stranded at home, running out of food and desperate to leave, as governments scrambled to draw up evacuation plans.

Authorities have barred travel to and from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected before it spread across China and to a dozen other countries -- including the United States, France and Australia.

Several other large cities in China have introduced their own travel restrictions in a bid to contain the disease, which has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000 others.

"In the past week we've not been able to go out and buy anything to eat," said Mashal Jamalzai, a political science student from Afghanistan at Central China Normal University.

He told AFP that he and his classmates had been living on biscuits, and his embassy had not responded to requests for help.

"We want to be evacuated as soon as possible, because either the virus, the hunger or the fear will kill us," Jamalzai said.

Thousands of foreign students and other international residents live in Wuhan, a normally bustling transport hub in central China home to a huge steel and auto industry.

But with schools, hospitals and public offices shut and no transport to and from the city, Hubei University student Siti Mawaddah says the city now "looks like a ghost town".

"The situation in Wuhan right now is very intense and worrying," the 25-year-old Indonesian told AFP, adding that the situation had taken a psychological toll on her and her classmates.

"If we stay in Wuhan, it's as if we're just waiting for our turn to get infected," she said.

Mawaddah said she had heard the United States plans to evacuate consular staff and some American citizens living in the city, and hoped her own government could do the same.

The US State Department is sending a flight to collect its consular staff and carry them to San Francisco, but warned that there would only be limited space for the estimated 1,000 Americans living in Wuhan.

"If there is insufficient ability to transport everyone who expresses interest, priority will be given to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus," the department said.

Diana Adama, an American teacher living in Wuhan, told CNN that she was upset at the lack of information about the virus.

But she said she didn't want to leave on the chartered flight if it meant carrying the virus back home.

"I'm not going to endanger anybody else. And that's just erring on the side of caution," she told the broadcaster.

France is also planning to evacuate its citizens stuck in Hubei province by bus, and French carmaker PSA -- which has a sizable presence in Wuhan -- said was formulating plans to evacuate staff and relatives for quarantine in a neighboring province.

South Korea's consulate general in Wuhan conducted a poll on Sunday to determine the demand for a chartered plane for its citizens who want to return home, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country would fly out any nationals who wanted to leave.

Singapore has already repatriated 20 airline staff and passengers who were quarantined in the eastern city of Hangzhou for more than a day after fears one person on the flight was carrying the disease, according to the Straits Times newspaper.

And Sri Lanka said Sunday it would fly back 150 students from China in the next two days.

With China ramping up travel restrictions in cities across the country -- including Beijing and Shanghai -- foreign countries have told their citizens to avoid Wuhan.

Russia has yet to report its first case of the virus but has gone a step further, with tourism officials on Friday asking operators to stop selling tour packages to China and inform customers about the dangers of the outbreak.

Tourism company Rus-Tour announced Sunday it was transporting 1,100 of its customers home from Hainan, a resort island popular with Russian travelers around 1,600 kilometers south of Wuhan.

The firm was also halting sales of tours to China "until the epidemiological situation in the country is back to normal", it said in a statement.
In the House, Speaker Michael Madigan has never been required to reveal the extent of his law practice, its clients or its income, despite representing high-profile companies seeking property tax reductions. Madigans law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner, is among the citys most clout-heavy firms in winning property tax reductions for its clients. Those reductions mean the countys overall tax burden gets spread to other property owners. Where are the demands for Madigan to separate from his law practice? Where are the calls for more disclosure? House Democrats who huff and puff about the need for ethics reform in government should start with their own leadership.
The US State Department has raised the travel advisory level for all of China due to the rapidly-spreading coronavirus.

Officials raised the advisory from 'Level 2- Exercise increased precautions' to 'Level 3 - Reconsider travel' on Monday. A 'Level 4 - Do not travel' advisory was issued for Wuhan - the Chinese city where the outbreak originated - last week and remains in effect.

The nationwide upgrade came as the US government rushes to evacuate Americans from Wuhan as Chinese officials warn that the deadly strain's spread is picking up speed.

A charter flight is scheduled to fly from the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday.

The US consulate in Wuhan began reaching out to all Americans registered as living in the city - of which there are said to be roughly 1,000 - last week to offer them a seat on the plane.

The State Department warned that the single flight will have 'limited capacity' to transport private US citizens along with consulate staff, and said 'priority will be given to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus'.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, passengers are expected to be quarantined and screened for the virus which has sickened more than 2,800 people in at least 14 countries - with five confirmed cases in the US.

The death toll in China climbed to 82 on Monday as the Chinese government sent reinforcements into Wuhan, where the outbreak originated late last month.

The US government is rushing to evacuate Americans from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan as China's death toll climbed to 81 on Monday and officials warned the deadly strain's spread is picking up speed. Staff are seen at a subway station in Wuhan - which has been on lockdown for five days - on Monday

The US consulate in Wuhan began reaching out to all Americans registered as living in the city last week to offer them a seat on a charter flight scheduled for Tuesday. The State Department released the statement above on Saturday warning that there will not be enough seats on the flight to evacuate all American citizens

As of Monday, the coronavirus has sickened more than 2,890 people in 14 countries and 82 people have died from the disease in China

Countries evacuating nationals from China virus areas United States - The US State Department said it will evacuate staff from its Wuhan consulate and a limited number of private American citizens on a single flight to San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday. United Kingdom - Officials are working with international partners to find solutions to help British and other foreign nationals leave Wuhan, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. France - French officials are planning to evacuate a few hundred of the 800 nationals living in the Wuhan Area. Evacuees will be quarantined for two days to avoid spreading the virus. Spain - The Spanish government is working with China and the European Union to repatriate Spanish nationals from the Wuhan area, according to Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya. Netherlands - The Dutch government is reportedly reviewing ways to evacuate 20 Dutch citizens from Wuhan. Russia - Russian officials have been in talks with China about evacuating nationals from Wuhan and the Hubei province, according to the Russian embassy in China. Japan - Japan is expected to arrange charter flights as early as Tuesday for any citizens who want to return from Wuhan. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said about 430 Japanese nationals have been confirmed to be in Hubei province. Myanmar - The Myanmar government canceled a planned evacuation of 60 students from Mandalay who were studying in Wuhan. A spokesman for the Mandalay municipal government, told Reuters that a 'final decision' had been made to send the students back after 14 days, once the virus' incubation period had passed. Advertisement

A source familiar with the chartered evacuation flight told CNN that those who choose to evacuate will be forced to pay for their spot on the Boeing 767 jet, which carries around 230 people.

It is understood medical personnel will be on the flight to care for anyone who may have been infected by the virus and prevent it from spreading.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it is involved in the efforts to help Americans leave Wuhan.

'Department of State has the lead for the safe and expedient ordered departure of all US citizens from Wuhan, China,' CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said Saturday. 'CDC is aware and coordinating in the planning.'

Washington gained approval for the operation from China's Foreign Ministry and other government agencies.

The US also plans to temporarily shut its Wuhan consulate, officials said.

Some 57 million people across 15 Chinese cities - including Wuhan - are on lockdown as officials work to slow the virus' rapid spread.

The coronavirus strain, known as 2019-nCov, is believed to have emerged from illegally-traded wildlife at a seafood market in Wuhan, which sits about 700 miles south of the capital of Beijing in the Hubei province.

While preliminary research suggests the virus was passed to humans from snakes, Chinese health officials reported this week that some cases have been caused by human-to-human transmission increasing the risk of it spreading.

As of Monday morning, more than 2,800 cases have been reported in China, the majority of them in Hubei.

Another 47 have been reported across 13 other countries: Thailand (8), Taiwan (5), Singapore (4), France (3), Malaysia (4), Japan (4), South Korea (5), Vietnam (2), Nepal (1), Australia (5), Canada (2) and the US (5).

International concern has grown with the revelation that the virus spreads not just from animals to people, but between people, likely in a similar way to how colds spread.

As of Monday morning, there are seven confirmed cases and 64 suspected cases of coronavirus in the US and Canada

The US evacuation from Wuhan comes after a seventh coronavirus case was confirmed in North America on Monday morning.

The Ontario government announced that a second person had tested positive for the virus in Toronto - the wife of a man in his 50s who had been diagnosed on Saturday following a trip to China.

Three new cases were confirmed in the US over the weekend - two in California and one in Arizona.

US health officials say that both California patients, one in Orange County and the second in Los Angeles County, had recently returned from the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan.

The Arizona case came out of Maricopa County, and no other information was immediately available on that patient.

The two other US cases were previously confirmed in Snohomish County, Washington, last Tuesday and Chicago, Illinois on Friday.

Cities across America are on high alert as 63 people in 22 states are suspected to have contracted the deadly strain.

On Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted: 'We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in USA, but strongly on watch. We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!'

A second person in Canada has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Ontario government revealed on Monday. Travelers are seen wearing face masks at Toronto Pearson Airport

Three new cases of the deadly infection were confirmed in the US over the weekend as two patients tested positive in California and one in Arizona. Passengers are seen arriving at Los Angeles International Airport from Shanghai, China

Tensions have been high at US airports as travelers worry about exposure to the virus in such a high-traffic, confined environment.

Last week, US officials began funneling all passengers arriving in the US from Wuhan on direct or connecting flights through five major airports to ensure that they are screened.

Public health entry screenings are currently taking place Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and San Francisco International Airport.

The screening begins with a survey to determine whether a traveler shows possible coronavirus symptoms and whether they visited the meat or seafood markets in Wuhan that have been tied to the outbreak.

If they appear to have any symptoms associated with coronavirus, travelers are taken to on-site triage for further examination and a temperature check.

The State Department issued its highest travel warning for Wuhan on Thursday, advising Americans to not travel to the region.

The level 4 warning puts the city on par with countries such as Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
An airplane belonging to Caspian Airlines with 135 passengers on board skidded off the runway and crash landed in the middle of a street ...

An airplane belonging to Caspian Airlines with 135 passengers on board skidded off the runway and crash landed in the middle of a street in Iran on Monday.The incident that occurred in Mahshahr city, southwestern Khuzestan province, follows the shooting down of a Ukraine International Airlines flight on Iranian soil with 176 people on board.No serious injuries were reported in the Monday incident; however, the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight killed all the 176 people aboard.The Monday incident took place at 7:50 a.m. local time, and preliminary report indicates that the crash was due to a technical problem in the aircrafts landing gear.Caspian Airlines had since confirmed the incident, saying its emergency response team, along with civil aviation experts, had been dispatched to site of the crash.According Fars, a local news agency, the Caspian Airlines Flight 6936 departed from the capital city, Tehran and was set to land at Mahshahr Airport.Reza Jafarzadeh, Civil Aviation Organizations Spokesman said further investigations were underway.The cause of the accident and the reason for the planes departure after landing on the runway are under investigation. Further details will be announced in the future. Fortunately, all passengers of the Tehran-Mahshahr flight are safe, Jafarzadeh said.See video below showing passengers leave the crashed plane unharmed:
Three arrested after Cancun police woman shot

Cancun, Q.R.  Three men involved in the weekend shooting of a female police officer have been arrested in Region 99 of Cancun.

According to police reports, the incident began at 7:30 a.m. Saturday when a female officer was attending to the report of a street fight on Oaxacactun Avenue in Region 95. She was shot at and hit in the hand and leg by suspects inside a moving Durango SUV, which activated a Red Code that sent additional units to the area.

Those inside the vehicle then fled the scene, however, police located the SUV in Region 99 and proceeded to intercept the vehicle.

Elements of the Secretariat of Public Security of Cancun succeeded in arresting the three men responsible for shooting the Cancun officer. Taken into custody for attempted manslaughter were 38-year-old Manuel N, 30-year-old Irving N and 39-year-old Raphael N all of whom, are originally from Cancun.

The injured officer was transferred to the IMSS Hospital by colleagues where she is reported in stable condition.
The Stoics advised that you can do your 'duty' without anger. There is no such thing as healthy anger, taught Seneca

According to the latest NPR-IBM Watson Health poll, 42 percent of those polled said they were angrier in the past year.

Most of us think we are better than average. We believe others are getting even angrier than we are: Some 84 percent of people surveyed said Americans are angrier today compared with a generation ago.

No wonder some popular politicians speak like they are in a perpetual rage. For many, their success depends upon attracting angry voters.

And its not just in the political arena that anger rules the day. Harvard University law professor Ronald Sullivan, forced to step down as a faculty dean, wrote of angry demands on college campuses:

Unchecked emotion has replaced thoughtful reasoning on campus. Feelings are no longer subjected to evidence, analysis or empirical defense. Angry demands, rather than rigorous arguments, now appear to guide university policy.

In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius observed: Its courtesy and kindness that define a human being. Thats who possesses strength and nerves and guts, not the angry whiners.

Stop Feeding Your Anger

A few months ago, my wife and I missed our highway exit. When we exited to retrace our steps, we found ourselves backed up at a traffic light. Each time the light turned green, only five cars could make it through before it turned red again. My thinking riffed on getting to our destination on time. As I railed against reality and behaved boorishly, my wife sat, well, stoically.

At that moment, I was sure my anger was coming from the traffic light. I didnt sign up for a poorly controlled intersection and a delayed trip. Take the issue away, and I would be calm again. Wrong. Anger starts with an internal decision to be angry. If we want to be angry, we will find things to be angry about.

My momentary agitation was made of the same stuff as full-blown road rage. I had given the world, in the form of a traffic light, power over my peace of mind. You shouldnt give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they dont care at all, Marcus Aurelius counseled.

The moment I stopped feeding my anger with more thinking, the anger was gone. In their book The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman write:

The first rule of holes, goes the adage, is that if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. This might be the most violated piece of common sense wisdom in the world. Because what most of us do when something happens, goes wrong, or is inflicted on us is make it worsefirst, by getting angry or feeling aggrieved, and next, by flailing around before we have much in the way of a plan.

Life often wont meet our expectations. The traffic light will only let five cars through when you have to get somewhere. But do you have to allow your thinking to make the situation even worse? If you keep pinching your arm, dont be surprised if you get bruised.

Seneca on Anger

James Romm is a professor of classics at Bard College. His book How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management is a new translation of the Stoic philosopher Senecas work On Anger.

In his introduction to his book, Romm asks us to recall the last minor incident that sent you into a rage. He asks us to reflect on these questions: You were injuredor were you? Were you notably worse off, a day or two later, than before the incident occurred? Did it really matter that someone disrespected you?

Then Romm offers this pointed advice:

By shifting our perspective or expanding our mental scale, Seneca challenges our sense of what, if anything, is worth our getting angry. Pride, dignity, self-importancethe sources of our outrage when we feel injuredend up seeming hollow when we zoom out and see our lives from a distance.

In Senecas words, Your anger is a kind of madness, because you set a high price on worthless things.

Using the common example of road rage, Romm explains the price of our madness:

In your momentary road rage, in your desire to honk at, hurt, or kill the other driver, lie grave threats to the sovereignty of reason in your soul, and therefore to your capacity for right choice and virtuous action. The onset of anger endangers your moral condition more than that of any other emotion, for anger is, in Senecas eyes, the most intense, destructive, and irresistible of the passions. Its like jumping off a cliff: once rage is allowed to get control, theres no hope of stopping the descent.

Awareness cures anger. Look at all the vices anger gives rise to and take a good measure of them. Seneca was adamant:

If you truly want to examine its effects, the damages it causes, I say that no plague has done more harm to humankind. Youll see slaughters, poisons, mutual mud-slinging of litigants, wreckage of cities, extinctions of whole races, lives of leading men sold at public auction, torches touched to buildings, flames not contained within walls but, held by an enemy host, gleaming over vast spans of territory.

Anger harms the angry host. Seneca taught:

Deaf to reason and advice, stirred up by empty provocations, unsuited to distinguishing whats just and true; [anger] resembles nothing so much as a collapsing building that breaks apart upon that which it crushes.

Dont Let Anger in the Front Door

The Stoics advised that you can do your duty without anger. There is no such thing as healthy anger, taught Seneca.

Some men think it valuable to moderate anger rather than set it aside, to force it to conform to a healthy measure and restrain its overflows, to hold on to that part without which action grows weak and the force and energy of the mind is dissipated. First, however, its easier to shut out harmful things than to govern them, easier to deny them entry than to moderate them once they have entered. Once theyve established residence, they become more powerful than their overseer and do not accept retrenchment or abatement.

In short, Once shaken and overthrown, the mind becomes a slave to that which drives it. Choose against anger as soon as you recognize it. Seneca instructs:

It is best to repel instantly the first prickings of anger, to stamp out its very seedlings, to take pains not to be drawn in. For once it has knocked us off course, the return to health and safety is difficult; no space is left for reason once passion has been ushered in and given jurisdiction.

Here is Senecas timeless thumb rule: Dont trust your first angry thoughts shrieking insane advice. He explains:

Since we ought to fight against first causes, the cause of anger is the sense of having been wronged; but one ought not to trust this sense. Dont make your move right away, even against what seems overt and plain; sometimes false things give the appearance of truth. One must take ones time; a day reveals the truth.

Like other Stoics, Seneca advised mind training. Each of us must come to know our personal storm warnings. He instructs:

It is best therefore to restrain oneself at the first sign of the evil, then to give as little rein as possible to ones words and to block the onset. Its easy to detect when ones emotions first arise, since the hallmarks of the ailments precede them.

Seneca asked, Wont everyone want to call themselves back from angers borders, once they understand that its first onset is to their detriment?

Dont Trust the Angry

If you shouldnt trust yourself when you are angry, surely you shouldnt trust others who are angry. There is no reason to trust the words of angry people, which make loud and menacing noise despite the great timidity of the mind that lies beneath, advised Seneca.

Angry politicians believe they are wise. Enraged college students believe they are just. A driver overcome by road rage believes he is in the right. Seneca would say they are all insane.

Everyone whos transported beyond mortal thinking by an insane mind believes hes breathing in something elevated and sublime. But theres nothing firm underneath; things that grow without foundations are likely to slide into ruin. Anger has nothing on which it can lean; it arises from nothing steady or durable.

Some may believe that the ability to be angry with impunity is a perk of their power. Seneca would say getting angry is a booby prize.

Dont you want me to advise those people who wield anger from the height of power, who think it a testament to their strength, who reckon a ready revenge to be one of the great benefits of great wealth, that he who is a prisoner of anger cannot be called powerful, or even free?

Can we reduce our attraction to anger? Can we keep our cool while others lose theirs? If enough of us can, there will be less demand for angry politicians.

Forgiveness Is a Healing Balm

Romm places On Anger in context: By the time he came to write On Anger, or at least the greater part of it, he had witnessed, from the close vantage point of the Roman Senate, the bloody four-year reign of Caligula.

Most of us are not pure saints nor demented souls like Caligula. Seneca wrote, Even in good characters there is something rather unsavory. Human nature contains treacherous thoughts, ungrateful ones, greedy and wicked ones.

Understanding human nature allows us to be kinder to one another. Seneca advised us to forgive the foibles of others: Were just wicked people living among wicked people. Only one thing can give us peace, and thats a pact of mutual leniency.

Always see your common humanity with others, counseled Seneca.

The majority of humankind gets angry not at the wrongs but at the wrongdoers. A good look at ourselves will make us more temperate if we ask ourselves: Havent we ourselves also done something like that? Havent we gone astray in the same way? Does condemning these things really benefit us?'

Seneca pointed to our hypocrisy:

Each of us has the spirit of a king inside us: We want total freedom to be granted to us but not to those acting against us. Its either our ignorance or our arrogance that makes us prone to anger. For what is so surprising if wicked people do wicked things?

And when we forget our ignorance and arrogance, Seneca suggests we recall every time we find it hard to forgive, whether its to our benefit that everyone be implacable. How often has the one who refused mercy later sought it?

Today, like every day, the world will provide ample opportunity to practice Senecas wisdom. How we spend our days becomes how we spend our life. Are we willing to learn, as Marcus Aurelius puts it, that we have something in [us] more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls [us] like a mere puppet?

Barry Brownstein is professor emeritus of economics and leadership at the University of Baltimore. He is the author of The Inner-Work of Leadership. To receive his essays subscribe at Mindset Shifts. This article was originally published on FEE.org
KALAMAZOO, MI -- The nationwide search for Bronson Healthcares new president and CEO has ended and Bill Manns, president of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, has been selected.

Manns will succeed Frank Sardone, 62, who retired in December after 32 years with the healthcare group.

Candidates both internally and externally were considered with a focus on someone who understands Bronsons regional scope and broader influence on western Michigan, Sardone said during an August interview with MLive.

As long as were strong and future-thinking then the economy in the region will be strong so someone with that understanding of how we fit in the bigger region and community will be very critical," Sardone said previously.

Manns, 52, was born and raised in Detroit and is a University of Michigan alumnus. He is currently president of of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, according to a news release from Bronson Healthcare. His first day at Bronson will be March 30, 2020.

I am honored to be chosen to lead this prestigious regional healthcare system," Manns said. "Bronsons reputation for quality, collaboration, its culture of positivity and putting patients first, its growth and investment in programs and services to meet community needs and its local governance are all qualities that attracted me. I cant wait to get started and meet all of the wonderful people who are moving health forward in southwest Michigan.

Currently, Manns presides over a 537-bed tertiary care and academic medical center, and St. Joseph Mercy Livingston, a 136-bed community hospital in Howell. Both hospitals are part of Trinity Health Michigan and, combined, have more than 6,200 employees and 1,500 medical staff members, according to the release.

Manns worked for nine years in operations at St. John Detroit Riverview and St. John Providence in Detroit where he was promoted to chief operating officer and executive vice president in 2003.

He served as chief operating officer for Alameda Health System in Oakland, California, for eight years before returning to Michigan in 2013. At that time, he took over as president of Mercy Health Saint Marys, an integrated health network in Grand Rapids, for five years, according to the release.

Also on MLive:

Bronson hiring more than 130 employees at new primary care facilities

Bronson CEO Frank Sardone leaves legacy of core values in hospitals culture

Bronson Methodist Hospital building 7 new primary-care facilities

Bronson buys Battle Creek primary care provider, expands cardiovascular and neurosurgy care
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Former Staten Islander John Ozbilgen was responsible for the death of missing Freehold, N.J., resident Stephanie Parze, 25, whose body was found in a wooded area in Old Bridge, N.J., according to the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office.

Authorities believe that Ozbilgen, 29, of Freehold, who later committed suicide, acted alone when he killed and disposed of Parzes body along Route 9 near Old Mill Road in Old Bridge, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said at a press conference Monday.

Authorities believe that Parze was murdered either late at night on Oct. 30, or early in the morning on Oct. 31, and that her body was dumped shortly after the killing at the location where she later was found, Gramiccioni said.

The Middlesex County medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of her death, the prosecutor said.

Parse was last seen by her family around 10:15 p.m. on Oct. 30 heading home after attending a popular psychic event. She was reported missing by her mother after she did not show up for her job as a nanny the next day.

Authorities and the Parze family had been searching on Staten Island and in New Jersey since her disappearance. In November, the NYPD and police and other emergency responders from all over New Jersey converged on Long Pond Park in Richmond Valley for a major canvass. It was at least the second search of that area by law enforcement personnel. The family and more than 100 volunteers also searched various South Shore locations on Staten Island, including Tottenville, Princes Bay and Wolfes Pond Park.

Early on, Ozbilgen was identified as a person of interest, partly due to his on-and-off relationship with Parze as well as various social media communications. Ozbilgen also had been charged with three domestic violence incidents, one of which involved Parze, Gramiccioni said.

Authorities accumulated extensive evidence that Ozbilgen was responsible during an exhaustive homicide investigation that lasted three months, the prosecutor said.

We executed more than 50 search warrants in 10 different locations across the region during our investigation, Gramiccioni said. We searched Ozbilgens residence five times, and we also canvassed hundreds of acres of land in Monmouth, Middlesex and Ocean counties, as well as in Staten Island, all in search of Stephanie Parze based on evidence that we had gathered during our investigation.

During the investigation, Ozbilgen was charged with possessing child pornography. He committed suicide at his home on Nov. 22.

Authorities had concluded that he was responsible for Parzes death, and a suicide note he left behind essentially reaffirmed their belief, the prosecutor said.

Among other items recovered from his home after his suicide was a note that John Ozbilgen left for his parents. In the note, Ozbilgen stated that he had had enough and that he could not do life in prison. He also admitted that what his parents would hear in the news was true, except for charges of child pornography that were found by our office on Nov. 9, 2019. Ozbilgen acknowledged that he had dug himself a deep hole and wrote at the end of his note that this was the only choice. Sadly, however, in that note, he never disclosed where he disposed of Stephanies remains. 

Noting the difficulty of prosecuting a homicide without a body, authorities were working actively toward charging Ozbilgen prior to his suicide, the prosecutor said.

Parzes body was discovered Sunday afternoon by two teens, ages 17 and 18, who were walking southbound on Route 9 near Old Mill Road and saw her remains in a wooded area, according to authorities.

The body was decomposed, according to NBC New York.

This is an extremely somber day for us, our family is devastated, said Parzes father, Edward. Our lives are never going to be the same.

Her father said she was missing for 87 days before she was found.

Stephanie is coming home at last where she belongs, he said.

He thanked all of Stefs Angels, including the teens who found her, the authorities and the many volunteers who searched for her.

I think the most important development to focus on was that Stephanie was found, Gramiccioni said. Of course, all of us hoped and prayed that we would find her alive, even against the odds and the evidence in this case. But today, we sincerely hope and pray that the Parze family can have some level of closure and lay their daughter to rest in peace."
Philip Hammond has joined the board of OakNorth (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Former chancellor Philip Hammond has joined UK fintech firm OakNorth to aid its growth plans.

Mr Hammond will become a member of the SoftBank-backed firms advisory board as it looks to accelerate its overseas expansion.

The ex-Treasury boss will join OakNorths board alongside Conservative grandee Francis Maude and former senior regulators Lord Adair Turner and Martin Stewart.

OakNorth is the second company Mr Hammond has joined since quitting politics last month, having joined the board of Irish glass and metal container business Ardagh Group.

His appointment comes almost a year after OakNorth was valued at 2.8 billion dollars (2.1 billion) in a bumper fundraiser led by SoftBanks vision fund.

(Hammond) brings both an international perspective, having worked with finance ministers across the globe, as well as a deep understanding of the British economyOakNorth co-founder Rishi Khosla

The challenger bank lends to medium sized businesses in the UK and also licenses its credit technology to overseas lenders.

Mr Hammond said: OakNorth is the flagship of the UKs vital and fast-growing fintech sector  attracting record levels of investment and generating sustainable profits while bringing much-needed change to an undeserved area of the banking market.

The development by OakNorth of a platform to deliver cost-effective lending to them is a major boost to the potential of not only the British economy, but economies worldwide.

I look forward to being part of both OakNorths growth story in the UK and its expansion into international markets, licensing its platform to partners across the globe.

Mr Hammond had been MP for Runnymede and Weybridge in Surrey for 22 years, having previously run a housebuilding business.

OakNorth co-founder Rishi Khosla, said: He brings both an international perspective, having worked with finance ministers across the globe, as well as a deep understanding of the British economy.

He will spend time with global clients and policymakers, as well as advising us on the continued expansion of our UK loan book.
'Plastic expiry date' stickers have started appearing on supermarket products as environmentalists attempt to highlight the impact of packaging.

The stickers, which are currently being added to products in London, feature an 'expiry date' for the plastic and say 'please recycle me'.

The date is 500 years from when the sticker was first printed has been added to show that plastic takes anything from 500 to 1,000 years to decompose.

Environmental campaigners Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves created the Plastic Expiry Date stickers to call out supermarkets 'on their own turf' and highlight the impact of single-use plastics.

They want supermarkets to either remove single-use plastic completely from product lines, or add the expiry date so consumers can 'make an informed choice'.

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'Plastic expiry date' stickers have started appearing on supermarket products as environmentalists attempt to highlight the impact of packaging

The duo say that plastics haven't existed for long enough to have broken down yet, which means that all plastic ever made is still around on the planet.

They said they wanted to help shoppers think beyond their next craving, and realise plastic packaging lives on longer 'than the time taken to devour a meal deal'.

'Gag and Joe' say they were inspired by the work of Greenpeace and others to highlight the impact single use plastic has on the environment.

So far they have added the stickers to 'meal deal' style products in central London supermarkets including Coca-Cola bottles and fruit packed in plastic

So far they have added the stickers to 'meal deal' style products in central London supermarkets including Coca-Cola bottles and fruit packed in plastic.

'The supermarkets haven't noticed yet as we're pretty stealthy and meal deal items sell so quickly that the stickers don't linger in store for too long,' Joe said.

'We are hoping that supermarkets, along with reducing their quantities of plastic, will warn consumers more clearly about the long term effects of plastic, especially when the plastic is non-recyclable such as plastic film.'

The focus has been on major supermarkets - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Boots and M&S - in busy central London areas where people need a quick lunch.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson said they care about reducing plastic waste and don't want to see any of their packaging end up where it shouldn't.

'All of our bottles are 100 per cent recyclable and we want to get more of them back so they can be recycled and turned into new bottles,' they said.

The stickers, are currently being added to products in London, feature an 'expiry date' for the plastic and say 'plastic expiry date 14/01/2499 please recycle me'

'We agree that more needs to be done to reduce our reliance on plastic', a Sainsbury's spokesperson said in a statement.

'That's why we've made the ambitious commitment of halving the amount of plastic we use by 2025. We would love to see other retailers following us by making similar commitments.'

Marks and Spencer says the priority is to remove and reduce its use of plastic packaging and has already phased out 2,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from the across the business.

'We're focused on helping our customers to reuse and ensuring all our packaging is widely recyclable by 2022,' a spokesperson said.

The stickers have mainly been added to lunch deal products in Farringdon, Shoreditch, Bank, Fitzrovia and Soho.

'Most recently we've particularly targeted Coca-Cola products after their statement of refusal to get rid of plastic bottles,' said Gag.

They started adding the stickers at the start of January and so far have put over 1,000 of them on products found on supermarket shelves.

They've also made them available to print online.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says the government is committed to leading the global effort to tackle plastic pollution.

A spokesperson says they have already cut plastic bag use by 90 per cent through the 5p charge, introduced a ban on microbeads and are working to introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks containers.

Coca-Cola says it backs the move for a deposit scheme and wants to create a circular economy for all of its packaging.

The focus has been on major supermarkets - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Boots and M&S, focusing on busy central London areas where people need a quick lunch

They started adding the stickers at the start of January and so far have put over 1,000 of them on products found on supermarket shelves.

On their website the group describe a dystopian future about 500 years from now.

In it 'animals can be tried in court, prisons are overflowing with pigeons and the plastic water bottle purchased in 2020 has finally started to decompose.'

'We're used to seeing expiry dates on food to remind us to eat something sooner, so why not print expiry dates on plastic,' the pair said.

'Supermarkets all claim they want to reduce plastic, but in the last year the top 10 supermarkets actually increased the amount of un-recyclable plastics.'

A Tesco spokesperson said they were scrapping all plastic wrapping from tinned multipacks and replacing them with multibuys - which would save 67 million pieces of plastic from its product lines.

They said: 'Since May 2018 we have removed 4000 tonnes of the hardest to recycle plastic and packaging and this year we will remove a further 1bn pieces of plastic.'

A Boots UK Spokesperson said: 'We know this issue is really important to our customers, and as a business we're actively looking at ways we can help them lead more sustainable lives that have a lower impact on our environment.

'We are committed to reducing single-use plastics and the goals set out in the UK Plastics Pact, and we are aiming to reduce plastic usage by 1,300 tonnes this year.'

They said they wanted to help shoppers think beyond their next craving, and realise plastic packaging lives on longer 'than the time taken to devour a meal deal'

They are not affiliated with any specific organisation but say that environmental groups are all working towards the same sustainable goal.

They say they've been most inspired by the acts of individuals who have pledged to reduce their single-use plastic consumption.

'We want people to take notice of how long their single-use plastic purchases actually last on the planet.

'If you take a look around, we don't seem too concerned about throwing away plastics. Britain still fails to recycle most of its plastic waste.'

Waitrose says it is working to reduce unnecessary plastics from its products - both own brand and by working with other manufacturers.

'We're removing and redesigning packaging to cut the amount of plastic we use,' a spokesperson for the company said.

'By 2021 we will reduce the use of single-use plastic in our own-brand packaging by 20 per cent'.
The Meridian Public Schools symphonic band recently had a special opportunity to travel to Grand Rapids and perform at the DeVos Place, as part of the 15th annual Michigan Music Conference.

Every year, select Michigan high school ensembles are nominated and blind auditioned for a chance to perform at the conference. According to the Michigan Music Conference website, the purpose of the event is to provide relevant professional development and vibrant musical experiences that support music education for educators and their students.

In addition to school ensemble concerts, the conference features performances from honors choirs, all-state bands, and orchestras.

Meridian band director of 20 years, Matthew Shephard, said thousands of music educators attend the conference each year and this year, the Meridian Public Schools' symphonic band, which is made of 125 local students from grades 9-12, was one of five chosen to perform on Jan. 17. Students had been practicing for this performance since late October.

Its a huge honor and a great testament to the students and the work ethic  theyre incredibly hard workers. Theyre very motivated, he said. Our community has always been very supportive of the arts and music education and because of that, these kids have grown up in an environment where theyre encouraged to participate in the arts and keep pushing themselves. So, it was a great honor to be selected.

The students were allotted a 45-minute performance in which they played seven pieces, Shephard said. When they werent performing, they had the opportunity to meet other qualifying students from across the state, network with other band directors, and explore the different vendors, exhibits and instrument models.

However, it was mostly an opportunity for students to relax and spend some time with their friends.

We consider our band to be a big family and for them to be able to go down and spend time with their friends  we went down the night before and stayed in the (Amway Grand Plaza Hotel)  and they had the opportunity to just relax with their friends and enjoy that experience, Shephard said.

Shephard said the trip was made possible, at no cost to the students, thanks to the generous community.

I would just throw my thank you out to the community," he said. "Like I mentioned, our community is a huge supporter of the arts, and we know that without their help, that this wouldnt have been possible."

The Meridian band has played at this conference once before, in 2011, Shephard said. Although at that time, it was a different group of students.
As Iowa's Democratic caucuses approach, polls show that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is gaining traction. Sanders evokes strong reactions from all sides. Supporters see the Jewish socialist as an unapologetic straight shooter who takes uncompromising stands against structural inequality. Detractors criticize his socialist ideology itself or paint Sanders as free-spending and fuzzy on details.

But Sanders could face another kind of attack in a general election - one based not on critiques of his policies or personality but on a much more old-fashioned suspicion. It's a form of anti-Semitism that was born 100 years ago. If Sanders continues his political momentum, we all may soon confront it again.

The story begins in 1917, when governments around the world were shocked by the fall of the czar and the seizure of power by Russian revolutionaries. As a civil war raged, Russians opposed to the revolution found one of their most powerful rhetorical tools in the Russian Empire's rich legacy of anti-Semitic teachings.

That's how the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism was born, defined by historian Paul Hanebrink as the belief that communism was a Jewish plot. The idea rapidly crossed borders, as pro-monarchy Russian exiles settled in Berlin, Paris and other European cities. The emigres' descriptions of a fearsome takeover by Jewish revolutionaries found an eager public reception.

Other influential voices soon joined in, such as the British journalist Robert Wilton, who blamed a "seething mass of Jewish pauperdom" for the Russian Revolution and framed the killing of the czar's family as an act of Jewish ritual murder.

By 1920, popular interest had ignited a publication boom for "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the Russian hoax that explained modern evils as the result of a vast conspiracy of Jews uniting to subjugate the globe.

The fact that most Bolsheviks were not Jews - nor most Jews Bolsheviks - didn't matter. The myth resonated powerfully, both for Russian exiles and a wider public anxious about political instability. The image of the bloodthirsty Jewish Bolshevik traveled well, showing up in places as far-flung as Philadelphia, Buenos Aires and Madrid. It took root easily in countries where church teachings and popular lore had long framed the Jews as the corrupting, conspiratorial force behind the world's evil.

The trope of the Jewish Bolshevik never functioned independently. It was bound to existing images of Jews sowing chaos, from medieval falsehoods of Jews poisoning wells, to modern fantasies of Jewish bankers and liberals plotting society's downfall. But the persistence of the Soviet challenge to capitalism gave the notion of the Jewish Bolshevik added currency. Even politicians who considered themselves friends of the Jews considered it fair game to call attention to this "sinister confederacy" of Jews. As British war secretary in 1920, Winston Churchill contrasted "good Jews" with the "International Jews" he imagined plotting to bring about "impossible equality" through a "worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation." To Churchill, the threat went far beyond Russia; these scheming International Jews had been "the mainspring of every subversive movement" of the 19th century.

As suffering increased worldwide under the Depression, more people joined socialist movements - and fascist ones. Fascist art symbolized the communist threat with larger-than-life Jewish demonic figures presiding over a Russia in flames, its pillars of smoke drifting ever closer to helpless Christian nations. It was largely by sounding alarms about the Judeo-Bolshevik threat that the Nazis rose to power and mobilized for genocide.

In the United States, where the first Red Scare was ramping up in the 1920s, respected leaders subscribed to the Judeo-Bolshevik myth, among them Henry Ford, who introduced it to the public in the anti-Semitic newspapers he gave out at every dealership, and State Department staffers and senior military officers.

As fears of radicals combined with racial pseudoscience of the time, Congress took steps to dramatically curtail immigration. Immigration laws had long discriminated against non-Europeans. Now new legislation was added to keep out racially undesirable Europeans. Members of Congress were particularly anxious about Jews, repeatedly raising concerns about how many were coming into the country.

U.S. officials' reports to Congress disparaged most immigrants but took special care to catalogue Jews. In Rotterdam, officials had found Russian and Polish Jews "of the usual ghetto type . . . filthy un-American and often dangerous in their habits." Diplomatic staff in Poland warned: "The majority of these people belong to the undesirable classes . . . from whom the present type of political and labor agitators are drawn. . . . Many bolshevik sympathizers."

Jewish organizations fought a losing battle against the new immigration restrictions. Even pleas for exemptions for those fleeing religious or political persecution were looked upon with suspicion.

Sen. James Thomas Heflin, D-Ala., a powerful defender of the Jim Crow social system, argued: "We are face to face with one of the greatest evils that has confronted us in a century. We have reached the point where alien power and influence dares to challenge that of the native stock in our country."

Heflin warned of a "dangerous and despised element" which "secretly or openly seeks to overthrow the free institutions of America." In his eyes, the choice was between protecting the United States or allowing it "to become the dumping ground for the scum and refuse of the Old World." He urged lawmakers to "build a wall against bolshevism, which is seeking to aid a world movement by spreading its poison here."

Despite the efforts of Jewish organizations, the new immigration restrictions passed. The ramifications for Jews were chilling: Millions were trapped in Europe, captive to the coming genocide.

After World War II, most open expression of anti-Semitism became frowned upon in the United States. But the Judeo-Bolshevik charge lingered: During the Cold War, fear of Jewish communists became the acceptable way to suspect Jews. While many Jewish leftists found themselves in the public eye during the McCarthy era, the dangers also extended to those outside of the political spotlight.

The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, driven by Sen. Patrick McCarran, D-Nev., who was obsessed with the threat of Jewish communists, set new precedents for removing citizenship from immigrants who had already achieved it. Observers lamented that the act made it harder for Holocaust survivors to enter the United States than for Nazis. (Indeed, McCarran soon proved willing to help Nazi supporters.)

For Jews, the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism was tinged with tragic irony. Thousands of Jews did initially find inspiration in the Soviet vision of a fair world for everyone, including its promises to undo Russia's legacy of anti-Semitism.

One Jewish communist captured the sense of relief and hope that many felt early in the Soviet era: "There was a tremendous joy and a tremendous friendship between the Gentiles and the Jews. We thought that this was like the Messiah came."

Yet over time, Soviet actions showed precisely how little power Jews had over the state: Soviet leaders systematically repressed Yiddish culture, lost interest in interrupting popular violence against Jews and eliminated Jewish leaders through exile, secret executions and show trials. Even a revolutionary society - one that had rebuilt itself from scratch in opposition to the traditional dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church - carried with it the anti-Semitic ideas that had shaped Russian culture for centuries.

The United States is not Russia or Europe, where, for centuries, discrimination against Jews was official policy and churches were privileged arms of government. Americans have a history of racism all our own. But the cultures of those lands shaped the people who colonized and settled this country. As white nationalism resurges in the United States, Eric Ward has pointed out, anti-Semitism continues to form its ideological and strategic core.

If there is a Jewish candidate come November - even one very different from Sanders, such as former New York mayor and billionaire Mike Bloomberg - understanding the peculiar contours of anti-Semitism will be a critical asset for voters. Biases against other groups, such as African Americans, indigenous people or Latinos, have tended to paint them as morally flawed or culturally inferior. These tropes serve to justify robbing them of power: stealing their labor or their land, withholding public services from them or profiting from their incarceration. But anti-Semitism is based on inflating Jews' imagined power. It describes Jews as the ultimate masterminds, in league together to dominate the world's unsuspecting non-Jews.

What shape might this view take in a general election? Anti-Semites might not openly name Jews as the enemy. They might more subtly urge voters to "fight back" against the shadowy forces manipulating the little guy, such as George Soros, "globalists" or international bankers. Or they might grow more explicit, turning Sanders's powerful criticisms of a rigged economy around to argue that Democrats' messages of equality are a ruse. In the eyes of anti-Semites, Jews are the ones rigging things behind the scenes, whether they are capitalists like Bloomberg or socialists like Sanders. Among the most overt anti-Semites, the rhetoric of Judeo-Bolshevism is already being used to defend the incumbent president. Florida-based pastor Rick Wiles, who received White House press credentials last week to cover the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and thanked Trump for inviting him there, has blamed Trump's impeachment on a "Jew coup," part of a takeover of the United States by "a Jewish cabal, a Bolshevik revolution."

Sanders's supporters think his outsider appeal can bring in disaffected voters. But anti-Semitism says that it is non-Jews who have been made outsiders, and that taking the country back requires uniting against Jews.

In an economy where more people feel like outsiders than insiders, this is a message with dangerous appeal - and Jews aren't the only ones at risk. The Judeo-Bolshevist myth doesn't just preach that Jews are bad; it says that the search for "impossible equality" is itself morally suspect. The reality is that defending Jews and defending the right of all people to fight for a fair economy will be one struggle.

Anti-Semitism poses a threat to Democrats in 2020. The answer is not to hide from it. When anti-Semitism increases, even non-Jews can't escape it. Just ask Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided during the last historic rise of American anti-Semitism. Roosevelt wasn't Jewish, but that didn't protect him from consistent rumors that he was secretly a Jew or that he was a puppet of his Jewish advisers. Nor was this phenomenon limited to the 1930s - look at the anti-Semitic rhetoric used in 2016 against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, both by Republican candidate Donald Trump and his supporters.

Americans will need a candidate who can slay this dragon, a leader who understands that the answer to both anti-Semitism and inequality in America is to face them head-on. Such a candidate will need supporters who grasp how anti-Semitism works in America: its deep roots, its power to divide movements and its strategic role in silencing people who know how possible equality really is.

_ _ _

Rosenblum is a graduate researcher in history who writes about race, class and Jewish identity.
A medical helicopter flew a patient from the scene of a Sunday evening fire at a retirement community in Dauphin County, emergency responders on scene confirmed.

Firefighters were called about 5:20 p.m. to the blaze in an apartment at the Manor at Oakridge on the 4500 block of Oakhurst Boulevard in Susquehanna Township, according to a Dauphin County emergency dispatcher.

Shortly before 6 p.m. firefighters from multiple companies could be seen working near a first-floor apartment. Susquehanna Township police and emergency medical responders also were on scene.

Just across Ailanthus Lane, emergency responders blocked off a large space in a shopping centers parking lot. There, a medical helicopter was standing by for a patient, according to fire police officers on the scene.

Moments later, someone was loaded onto the helicopter, and it took off from the parking lot.

Emergency responders continued to investigate the scene about two hours after the fire was reported. At that time, there were no visible signs of a fire outside of the Manor at Oakridge building.

Emergency responders said they were not immediately able to answer questions, but information about the fire likely will be issued through a news release.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
F or eco-conscious London nomads, turning a short-term rental property into a stylish and sustainable home is a challenge.

Here are six tips for renting for the greater good.

Go for blinds and curtains you can take with you

Curtains and blinds help you put your own stamp on a temporary space but be sure to select those which can easily be taken down, reducing the risk of waste if the next tenant wants to change them.

If the window isnt a standard size, and the blind may not work in another property, opt for a recyclable option such as those offered by Blinds In A Box.

Selecting blackout materials also acts as thermal insulation, especially for single-pane windows, leading to increased energy efficiency within the home. Blackout blinds start from 200.

Add colour and cosiness with reclaimed fabrics

Blackout curtains start from 200, available at stitched.co.uk / Stitched.co.uk

Without the landlords permission to paint, repurposing textiles as wall hangings is a great way to inject colour and feel cosy. Use liquid starch to stick them to walls and they can be peeled off when you leave.

At The Textile Review you can buy or hire fabric salvaged from exhibitions, installations and other design projects.

When you leave your rental, reuse the fabric in your next property, or simply hand it back to The Textile Review where it will go back into their cycle.

Draped velvet is the perfect portable feature that can follow you from home to home.

Hire your furniture

Online platforms are making it much easier to become an environmentally conscious renter.

If you do not intend to stay in one place for a very long time, renting otherwise big-ticket items, rather than buying them, can make good financial sense and avoids being stuck with poor-quality, stop-gap alternatives that will have a short life.

We throw away 22 million items of furniture a year, according to Censuswide, for North London Waste Authority.

London-based furniture rental platform Harth takes care of all the logistics and insurance issues, minimising hassle on moving day.

With no compromise on style, and peace of mind that you can dress a temporary space as you would a permanent home, this is a no-brainer if you are renting for just a few months.

A French double bed can be hired for a month for 87.15. A handsome oak desk is 37.98 a month, a jelly bean rug 42.88 a month and a Blanca sofa by Att Pynta for about 80 a month.

If you need to buy furniture, choose durable and modular

Nomad London's flat-pack furniture is both durable and stylish

Flat-pack furniture saves money and space when moving between rentals, but always opt for durability combined with style.

Nomad London flat-pack plywood furniture range has the class and quality to endure the transient nature of modern London life.

Other durable designs include the T01 Cross Chair by PearsonLloyd for Danish brand TAKT, priced 199, while pieces from the Tense collection, by Swiss duo Panter & Tourron, also bring a refined aesthetic to the flat-pack industry, minimising waste with each component being easily replaceable and recyclable.

Change your light bulbs to LED alternatives

Swap your light bulbs for long-lasting, energy-efficient LED alternatives

Swapping your light bulbs for long-lasting, energy-efficient LED alternatives is a cost-effective route towards a more sustainable rental home.

A vast range of LED bulbs can be found at Tala or, for a statement aesthetic, look at the unique designs of Beem.

Use your power

Look for rentals with strong existing eco-credentials and, as a tenant, you can change energy providers if the existing system isnt efficient  or at least explain to your landlord the benefits of switching.
Scott Mullin / For Hearst Connecticut Media

NORWALK  American Legion Post 12 is handing out free winter coats to veterans.

On Friday, Jan. 31 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., anyone with an acceptable veteran ID can come collect a free coat at American Legion Post 12 at 60 County Street on the buildings second floor. Free coats will also be available the following day on Saturday, Feb. 1 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, January 27, 2020

Media brands, including Amazon, Netflix, MSNBC, Fox, Google, and an ascendant WhatsApp, are dominant among the top 20 loyalty brands, according to findings from the just-released 2020 edition of Brand Key's annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

Other top consumer brands based on a loyalty focus include established ones like Chick-fil-A, Dunkin, Hyundai, Avis, Apple, Chase, and the NFL.

The study, based on a comprehensive sample of more than 60,000 Americans, also shows that brand loyalty has increased an average of 20% between 2019 and 2020 across 85 categories representing 16 industries and 833 brands, including consumer, B-to-B and D2C ones.

Two decades into the 21st century the world has more complex brand and mediascapes. Its more data-rich and technologically-intensive. Consumers are more complex, connected, and complicated. They connect with each other before even considering connecting to a brand and assess loyalty relative to how they envision an Ideal brand, Brand Keys President Robert Passikoff asserts, adding: It only takes a nanosecond for consumers to note how well a brand is seen to meet their expectations for the path-to-purchase drivers that defines behavior toward and fidelity to a brand."
27.01.2020 LISTEN

Loyalists of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda has descended heavily on the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr. Eric Amoh, over comments they described as derogatory against the Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central, Hon. Joseph Adda.

According to the group, his comments seek to damage the reputation of Hon. Adda and put him up for public ridicule.

At a press soiree organized by the regional minister over the weekend, Mr. Amoh accused Hon. Adda of wanting to vilify other politicians and inciting chaos in the region, and further described him (MP) as childish and immature.

In a release signed by Ing. David Adda, as the chairman, the group stated, that its aware of a political motive orchestrated by the regional chairman to support the candidature of the regional minister Ms Tangoba Abayage, in the upcoming NPP parliamentary primaries.

Yes, we know that Mr. Amoh is in bed with the regional minister and is helping her in her bid to contest in the primaries. We dont care who he associates with. What we would want to make clear to him is to desist from making comments about internal issues he has no much knowledge about, the statement said.

The group, however portrayed Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda, who doubles as the Aviation Minister as a politician of great repute, love and has respect for all.

It is demanding an apology from the regional chairman and further called on the national body of the Ghana Journalists Association to call him to order.

Ultimately, we want Mr. Eric Amoh to openly render an immediate apology to Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and the good people of Navrongo. We are also calling on the National Leadership of the Ghana Journalist Association to investigate Mr. Amoh and follow with the necessary punitive measures, it further stated.

Read below full statement...

Monday, January 27, 2020.

Immediate Release.

[Office of the Loyalists of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda]

*DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE APOLOGY FROM ERIC AMOH, THE UPPER EAST REGIONAL CHAIRMAN OF GHANA JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION.*

The attention of the Office of the Loyalists of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda, Minister for Aviation and Navrongo Central Member of Parliament (MP) has been drawn to an audio clip and a publication on A1Radioonline.com, dated January, 26th, 2020, with the headline, Reprimand Kofi Adda for acting childish- GJA Chairman tells NPP.

In the said audio clip and publication which has made the rounds on social media, the regional GJA chairman used venomous language and attacked the renowned and revered politician by calling him childish and immature for granting an interview on A1 Radio, a radio station in the region.

He accused Hon. Adda of wanting to vilify other politicians and inciting chaos in the election year with his utterances in the radio interview.

His comments seek to damage the reputation of Hon. Adda and put him up for public ridicule.

But to the best of our knowledge, Hon. Adda never attacked and has never made attempts to vilify any political figure in the region and country. He stands for peace, serenity and development and has been very integral in peace building in the region.

Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda is a politician of great repute who has love and respect for all. He is arguably one of the most accommodating, humble and approachable political leader in the country. Even though, he made responses and said some truths to certain questions from the host of the radio show that needed clarifications, and which we believe were set up, that doesnt warrant the intemperate language the GJA Chairman used on Hon. Adda in the presence of his paymasters.

It beats our understanding that a GJA chairman who should know better and is supposed to guide his members against the use of foul language in their line of duty, is said to have coerced a Radio show host to render an apology to a Minister of State for speaking his mind on an issue, will himself kowtow shamelessly in the presence of his paymasters and on the grounds of one of two sides, to insult a man who is way out of his league.

Yes, we know that Mr. Amoh is in bed with the regional minister and is helping her in her bid to contest in the primaries. We dont care who he associates with. What we would want to make clear to him is to desist from making comments about internal issues he has no much knowledge about. Henceforth, he should NEVER, EVER think of attacking Hon. Kofi Adda. This should be the last!

Ultimately, we want Mr. Eric Amoh to openly render an immediate apology to Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and the good people of Navrongo. We are also calling on the National Leadership of the Ghana Journalist Association to investigate Mr. Amoh and follow with the necessary punitive measures.

Again, we wish to urge Journalists in the region and country to desist from electing corrupt and failures like Mr. Amoh as executives. Persons like him only care about their stomachs and have nothing better to offer the profession. Evident is how he puts unqualified people up as journalists for educational trips outside Ghana while right and deserving journalists rot.

National GJA body must act now before he plunges the regional branch further into the ditch.

Signed

Chairman.

Ing. David Adda.

(0203893890)

Secretary

Hon. Stephen Gebute

(0244946739)
Brazil has decided to stay out of OPEC for the time being as it seeks to expand its oil production, Bloomberg has reported, citing energy minister Bento Albuquerque.

The idea is just to increase our production and to participate more in the international oil and gas market, Albuquerque told Bloomberg in an interview. But this is not a plan for Brazil to join OPEC or any other association or group of oil and gas producers. We dont want restrictions, we want to increase our production.

Interestingly, it was Albuquerque who told Reuters earlier this month that Brazil would begin talks with OPEC to discussing joining it later this year.

But now the minister said that even if the talks were successful, Brazil would not join the cartel this year.

The idea is said to have originated with Brazils President, Jair Bolsonaro, who last year said that OPECs top producer and de facto leader Saudi Arabia had informally asked Brazil to join the organization.

I personally would very much like Brazil to become a member of OPEC, Bolsonaro said at the Future Investment Initiative 2019 in Riyadh in October.

Even though the latest plans are to stay out of the cartel, Albuquerque told Bloomberg that Brazil was open to a dialogue with OPEC on energy-related topics. At the same time, the country will seek oil tender feedback from international oil companies to improve turnout.

Petrobras has a lot of oil and lot of areas to exploit, but it doesnt have enough funds to prospect all these areas, the minister told Bloomberg. Theres a limit for Petrobras. For that reason, we want to make it attractive for others to come and do the investment.

Brazil last year broke a record in oil production, with its annual total passing the 1-billion-barrel mark for the first time. The daily average was 3.106 million barrels. Brazil is expected to become the fifth-largest oil producer globally in the next few years.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
In Kerala, around seven million people took to the streets for a novel Republic Day celebration. From newlyweds to children, to senior citizens and foreigners, and the chief minister of the state, those opposing CAA, NPR and NRC formed a 624-kilometre-long human chain on Sunday, and joined the ongoing nationwide protests against the citizenship law.

Here are some pictures and videos of Great wall against CAA:

1. Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan and Kanam Rajendran leader of CPI joined the protest in Thiruvananthapuram.

twitter

2. Even young children were seen at the protest.

twitter/@abraham_chacko

3. The 620-km long human chain extended from Kasaragod (north Kerala) to the state's southernmost part in Kaliyakkavilai.

afp

4. The 'Great wall against CAA' was organised by the Left Democratic Front (LDF).

afp

5. People could be seen lining the roads as others drove by.

afp

6. Around seven million people took to the streets on Sunday to protest against CAA-NRC.

reuters

7. Also part of the chain were foreigners.

twitter/@comrademallu

8. Those against the CAA took it upon themselves to protect the Constitution from the attempts of the central government to destroy it .

twitter/@hisamud47588796

9. This long human chain protest against CAA-NRC was formed at 4 PM, following which the preamble of the Constitution was read out.

twitter/@ikramnizam5





10. Several newlyweds came straight from the wedding venue to be a part of the protest.

twitter/abraham_chacko

11.

twitter/@abraham_chacko

12.

twitter/@ikramnizam5

13.

twitter/@vaisakhjayapal

14.

twitter/@vijayanpinarayi

15.

twitter/@theleftturn

16. What also stood out was this group of women who joined the 620-km-long human chain.

twitter/@ikramnizam5

17. Other leaders of the Left Front took part in the human chain at various places in the state.

twitter/@moglitadipar

18. Women take an oath to 'protect the Constitution.'

twitter/@moglitadipar

19. Protesters stood in the middle of the roads in an orderly fashion so as not to affect traffic.

twitter/@moglitadipar

20. "Today the whole Kerala stood as one and protested. I would like to thank everyone who joined in this protest. But it's not the time to rest. We need to continue our protest. We had made it clear that CAA, NPR and NRC will not be implemented in the state," Vijayan said in a public meeting after the human chain.

twitter/@sanjuktachoudh5

21. "We demand scrapping of the CAA. This law is a danger to the country, its secularism," he added.

twitter/@vijayanpinarayi

Here some videos of a 620-km human chain against CAA-NRC in Kerala:





 ...

Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Dalit, Sikh, and Christian protesters against BJP's anti-Muslim citizenship laws formed a 620 kilometer (380 mile) unbroken human chain in Kerala.#CAA_NRCProtests



pic.twitter.com/dCtUmFNUlo  We The People of India  (@aleemkhan0091) January 27, 2020
Krispy Kreme has brought back its conversation hearts donuts for the second year in a row.

The chain announced that starting today through February 14, it will be serving up Valentine's Day treats in the shape of hearts with cutesy sayings printed on the top, just like the iconic candy.

They'll also come in four different flavors, giving sweet-toothed customers motivation to stop by a handful of times before they're gone.

XOXO: Krispy Kreme has brought back its conversation hearts donuts for the second year in a row

Variety: The four flavors are cake batter, strawberry and kreme, original kreme, and chocolate kreme

The four flavors are cake batter, strawberry and kreme, original kreme, and chocolate kreme.

The donuts, which debuted last year, come frosted with pink, purple, yellow, or green icing and are topped with sayings like XOXO, Love, Bae, Say Yes, BFF, Pick Me!, and I [Heart] You.

There are 24 sayings in all, and there are also limited-edition themed gift boxes.

'With all the online tools today, we talk so much, yet say so little. Theres so much room for mixed signals and misinterpretation, especially around Valentines Day  the one day you definitely dont want to mess it up,' Chief Marketing Officer Dave Skena said in a statement.

'Getting offline and saying how you feel with delicious Doughnut Messages makes perfect sense.'

Tasty! Krispy Kreme celebrated Thanksgiving with three limited-edition pie-inspired donuts

Flashback: Locations were serving up Dutch Apple Pie Donuts, Chocolate Kreme Pie Donuts, and Cherry Pie Donuts

Yum! And from September through Thanksgiving, the chain sold Pumpkin Spice Original Glazed Doughnuts stuffed with cheesecake creme

Back in November, the donut chain celebrated Thanksgiving with three limited-edition pie-inspired doughnuts.

Locations were serving up Dutch Apple Pie Donuts, Chocolate Kreme Pie Donuts, and Cherry Pie Donuts.

And from September through Thanksgiving, the chain sold Pumpkin Spice Original Glazed Doughnuts stuffed with cheesecake creme.
Barnaby Joyce and Liberal MPs have slammed Jacinda Ardern for 'climate hypocrisy' over New Zealand's emission targets.

After telling the Morrison Government it 'will have to answer to the Pacific' on global warming last year, Ms Ardern is set to use controversial carry-over credits to reach New Zealand's 2020 Kyoto target.

Carry-over credits are a carbon accounting measure used by countries to count old emission reductions that exceeded previous international goals towards its current targets.

'We don't need to be lectured about our environmental policy when we are complying with our agreements,' Mr Joyce said.

After telling the Morrison Government it 'will have to answer to the Pacific' on global warming last year, Ms Ardern is set to use controversial carry-over credits to reach its 2020 Kyoto target

'When New Zealand starts quoting environmental policy, start counting your carbon credits.'

For this year's Kyoto deadline of reducing emissions by five per cent from 1990 levels, New Zealand will use 27.7 million tonnes of credits from its successful 2012 target.

Liberal MP Jason Falinski slammed the New Zealand Government for showing a 'lack of consistency and standards'.

'At the moment, no one wants to hold people accountable when they didn't meet their targets so we introduced carry-over credits,' he told The Australian.

'There is actually a rational reason for applying carry-over credits: to encourage people to exceed their targets when they can and not reward people who don't meet their targets.

The Coalition's scathing comments on New Zealand's Kyoto targets come five months after Ms Ardern warned the Morrison Government they 'will have to answer to the Pacific' on global warming at the Pacific Islands Forum.

New Zealand called for Australia to back a UN commitment to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 during last August's Pacific Islands Forum.

But according to government stats, New Zealand likely won't meet its Paris target to reduce emissions by 30 per cent of its 2005 levels by 2030.

Last week, New Zealand Climate Change Minister James Shaw said there was an 'allergic reaction' to using carry-over credits to meet the 2030 Paris targets.
President Donald Trump vented rage on Twitter just hours before his Senate impeachment trial was set to resume Monday, denying his ex-national security advisor John Bolton's reported claim that military aid to Ukraine was frozen in order to secure investigation into Trump's political opponents.

Trump's pushback came amid growing pressure for the Republican-majority Senate to allow witnesses to testify in the trial.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton, in his upcoming book "The Room Where It Happened," wrote that Trump personally tied a nearly $400 million aid package to Kyiv to an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. CNBC has not seen a copy of Bolton's manuscript.

But Trump flatly denied the account from Bolton, who left the White House in September amid a public dispute with the president over whether he resigned or was fired.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump tweeted early Monday morning. "In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination."

"If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Trump claimed.

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At the White House later Monday, Trump told reporters that he has not seen a copy of Bolton's manuscript. But he maintained that Bolton's reported allegations are "false!"

Democrats have held Bolton up as a key witness who must be heard in the trial. And the handful of Republicans seen as being moderate enough to side with the Democrats on witnesses appeared to be taking Bolton's reported claims seriously.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters Monday morning that "I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, released a statement saying the reports on Bolton's book "strengthen the case for witnesses."

They "have prompted a number of conversations with my colleagues," Collins said.

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Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Democrats need a simple, 51-vote majority to have their requests for witnesses and documents approved. But Republicans have compiled their own list of witnesses, including Hunter Biden and the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's leader sparked the impeachment proceedings.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday morning that the new reports erase even a "shred of logic left to not hear witnesses and review the documents."

It remains highly unlikely that two-thirds of the Senate will vote to remove Trump, as the Constitution requires.

Democratic House managers, led by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., laid out their case last week for Trump's conviction and removal from office on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both related to his Ukraine dealings. Trump's legal team began their defense on Saturday and are set Monday to continue arguing that the president did nothing wrong.
Israeli citizens are not allowed to come to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's foreign minister announced Monday after the Jewish state said it gave its citizens the green light to visit.

Israel's interior ministry on Sunday said Israeli citizens, both Muslims and Jews, have the right to travel to Saudi Arabia for religious and business visits.

But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told CNN Israelis are not welcome at the moment in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites.

"Our policy is constant. We don't have relations with Israel and holders of Israeli passports cannot visit the kingdom for now," he said, according to CNN's Arabic website.

Like most Arab countries, Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Israel has peace deals with only two Arab countries -- Jordan and Egypt -- but its occupation of Palestinian territory has long served as a major factor preventing similar accords with the rest of the Arab world.

Israel has, however, been seeking to build ties with Gulf nations in recent months. "We strongly encourage the reaching of a solution" to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, said Bin Farhan.

"When a peace treaty between the Palestinians and Israel is reached the question of Israel's integration in the region will be on the table (for negotiations) I believe," he added.

His comments came as US President Donald Trump said in Washington that his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan -- already rejected by the Palestinians -- has a "chance" and will be unveiled Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)




ZIMBABWE and Chinese authorities are encouraging travellers between the two countries to either delay or cancel unnecessary journeys to stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) which has killed 81 people in the Asian country from 2 886 confirmed cases of infection in the past month.





Surveillance systems in Zimbabwe have also been activated with special focus being put on the main ports of entry and exit; Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, Joshua Nkomo International Airport and Victoria Falls and Beitbridge ground ports.





This comes as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Sunday announced a US$10 million commitment in emergency funds and additional technical support to help responders in China and Africa contain the spread of the 2019-nCoV.





In a statement, the foundation said US$5 million will go to China while the other half will assist the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in scaling up public health measures against 2019-nCoV among African Union (AU) member states.





These measures will include technical support to implement the screening and treatment of suspected cases, laboratory confirmation of 2019-nCoV diagnoses and the safe isolation and care of identified cases, said the foundation.





The Ministry of Health and Child Care has confirmed that Zimbabwe is under threat from the disease due to its close relations with China. Zimbabwe, however, does not have direct flights to and from China, which minimises the risk.





Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo yesterday toured Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airports surveillance section to assess the screening of people coming into Zimbabwe.





Dr Moyo said he was happy with the process adding that they were going to perfect some of the areas.





It is necessary that as the Ministry of Health and Government of Zimbabwe that we protect our nation against any outbreaks of diseases and at this particular instance we are dealing and talking about the novel Coronavirus.





The epicentre at the moment is Wuhan Province in China and we are very happy that we have been communicating with the Chinese Embassy and they have also advised us that they have also put a delay in travel and cancelling unnecessary travels to Zimbabwe so that is good.





There are Zimbabweans who are also living in China and some who fly to China for business, we have heard one or two cases and we are currently monitoring them.





We have to make sure that we have all the equipment necessary to detect any persons or visitors to make sure that they do not

and so we are making sure that our airports are well covered and that our personnel are well-trained in the processes of checking on all those who are coming to Zimbabwe, he said.





Although no cases are confirmed in African nations, health officials in Cote dIvoire on Sunday said they were investigating a suspected case of a student arriving in Abidjan from Wuhan, the Chinese province at the epicentre of the outbreak. It is the first such case on the continent.





According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).





The virus is highly contagious and there is no cure for Coronavirus as with most viral infections.

So far, only experimental treatments have been used in China with success in stabilising patients. An ARV, Kaletra (ritonavir and lopinavir) has been used. Coronavirus symptoms include pneumonia, high fever, flu like symptoms, chest pains, diarrhoea and shortness of breath.





Precautions include covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, washing hands the same way as people do when guarding against cholera and typhoid.





Although Zimbabwe is located thousands of miles away from the source of the coronavirus, it remains at great risk considering the volume of traffic the country gets from China for tourism and business.





A novel coronavirus, is a new strain of virus that has not been previously identified in human beings.





The Ministry of Health and Child Care said in the case of the disease spreading to Zimbabwe, it was prepared to deal with it despite the difficult operating environment.





Since last week, almost 70 people who arrived from Wuhan have been under monitoring for the signs and symptoms of the rare respiratory infection.





The people will be monitored for 21 days although they are not under quarantine. They are however, expected to inform the Ministry of Health of their whereabouts and are encouraged to report any symptoms.




The aunt of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has suddenly reappeared for the first time since 2013, scotching rumours she may have been imprisoned or even executed.

Kim Kyong-hui was pictured sitting one seat along from Mr Kim at a performance to mark the Lunar New Year in state-run media on Sunday.

She is the sister of Mr Kims father and predecessor Kim Jong-il and was for a time an influential and significant figure in the North Korean hierarchy after the youngest Kim assumed power in 2011.

However, in 2013 her husband Jang Song-thaek, who was widely believed to be the second-most powerful figure in the regime, was abruptly demoted, accused of betraying the authorities and then executed.

Since then, Ms Kim had not been seen in public again, raising speculation she could have been caught up in her husbands purging and perhaps killed as well.

Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse during snowfall in Mount Paektu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits the newly built Pyongyang Orphans' Primary School on 2 February 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a women's company under Unit 5492 of the Korean People's Army in November 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects the test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location in July 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un celebrates the successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location in July 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a potato at the Samjiyon Potato Factory in North Korea in October 2018 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse through a forest in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 EPA Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a block of frozen fish at a processing facility in North Korea in November 2018 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un celebrates the succeful launch of a strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile in August 2016 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Donald Trump as they meet for the first time at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore in June 2018 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump share a glance as they meet in the Demilitarised Zone in Panmunjon, Korea in June 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects mushrooms at Pyongyang Mushroom Farm AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a super-large multiple rocket launcher ahead of a test in September 2019 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects an apple farm in South Hwanghae Province in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects an apple farm in South Hwanghae Province in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects dental wares at a newly built factory in June 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits Farm No 1116 in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits a motor factory in November 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse during snowfall in Mount Paektu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects the Command of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location in August 2017 AFP/Getty

Many North Korea-watchers had assumed that Kim Kyong-hui had gone into exile or even [been] killed in the wake of her husbands death, so to see her pop up by the leaders side some six years later is certainly a surprise, said Oliver Hotham, the managing editor of NK News, a Seoul-based organisation that monitors North Korea.

As well as featuring in pictures published after the event, Ms Kims name was also mentioned in a list of dignitaries present by the state-run news agency KCNA.

She appeared second in the list, after Choe Ryong-hae, North Koreas deputy leader.

The sudden appearance of major officials in a regime like North Koreas is always massively important, said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert with the American thinktank the Stimson Center.

Even if she does not have a political office or formal position in the regime, making a personal appearance like this is a public demonstration of support for her nephew, he said. It is a strong expression of Kim family unity.

It is unclear why exactly Ms Kim has now been allowed to re-emerge in public, although the fact she was placed so highly in the list of officials could suggest she has been given some kind of new role in the government.

Power in Mr Kims North Korea is often very tenuous and previously leading figures have been suddenly purged without clear explanations, and then even brought back into the fold later.

The dictator is also believed to have ordered the assassination of his own half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, using the VX nerve agent at a Malaysian airport in 2017.
Principal District and Sessions Judge C M Joshi said as voters played an important role in the development of country, every citizen, who has turned 18, should exercise their franchise.

He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the National Voters Day programme, organised by district administration in association with Zilla Panchayat and district legal services authority, at Town Hall on Saturday.

The judge said it was the right of the people to elect their representatives through the democratic process. India is the biggest democracy in the world, he said.

Joshi stressed on creating high level of awareness to motivate young voters to register their names in the voters list. The voters should be part of the development process and in true sense the electorate are the rulers in democracy, he emphasised. District Legal Service Authority Member Secretary Kaveri Lele said the Constitution of country had empowered citizens by giving them voting rights without any discrimination on the lines of religion, caste, class, creed, belief and colour.

She lamented that the educated citizens were abstaining from voting, which is hampering true meaning of democracy.

Kaveri urged the youth to excercise their franchise in large numbers. The changes can be realised in society when there is active participation by voters, she said.

Oath administered

Additional Deputy Commissioner Sadashiva Prabhu administered oath to the voters on the occasion. Campus Ambassador Harshal Rao and first-time voters were felicitated on the occasion.

Alur High School, Brahamavar PU College, KMC-Manipal, Padukere Government Polytechnic College and Lakshmi Soma Bangera PU College were honoured as the Best Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC).

No ELC awards

For the second year in a row, the names of colleges which had won the Electoral Literacy Club were not made public during the National Voters Day celebrations orgainsed at Town Hall on Saturday.

The colleges through ELC conduct voter awareness programmes on voting rights, guiding people in obtaining voter ID Card, motivating new voters to register in voters list among others with their own expense.

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Dr Selvamani R when contacted said he had no information about the ELC. Awards were presented to anganwadis but not to Best ELC awards to colleges, he added.
King Mohammed VI presided, on Monday at the Royal Palace in Rabat, over a ceremony on an integrated program destined to support and finance enterprises. The ceremony was also marked by the signing of three agreements related to the program.

King Mohammed VI is thus following up on the call he launched last October at the opening of the Fall parliamentary session, urging the banking and financial sector to be more involved in the countrys development process, mainly through simplifying and facilitating access to loans, being more open to self-employment projects and financing the creation of small and medium sized enterprises.

Speaking during the ceremony, Economy & Finance Minister Mohamed Benchaaboun said that following the Monarchs call and in a bid to facilitate access to finance for businesses, the banking sector has elaborated an Integrated Program to Support and Finance Enterprises.

This program focuses on the funding of entrepreneurship, the coordination of support actions for entrepreneurship at the regional level and the financial inclusion of rural populations, outlined Mr. Benchaaboun, noting that this program includes several measures intended to overcome the difficulties that hinder access to finance for young project holders and very small and small enterprises.

Part of this program, the 2020 Appropriation Bill provided for the setting up of the Fund to support entrepreneurship financing. The $625 million fund (6 Billion DH), spanning over 3 years, is financed equally by the State and the banking sector, explained the minister.

The fund will mainly benefit young project holders, small and medium-sized enterprises to enable them to have access to financing, in addition to granting support to companies active in the export sector, added Mr. Benchaaboun, pointing out that the facility will also promote economic and professional integration of workers in the informal sector.

This initiative will help create annually about 27,000 new jobs and support 13,500 additional companies, affirmed the minister, saying that commissions will be set up at the regional level to coordinate and monitor the implementation of measures relating to entrepreneurial support.

The economy & finance ministry, in coordination with Moroccos central Bank (Bank Al Maghrib) will follow up the implementation of this program, through the elaboration of periodic reports which will be submitted to the Sovereign, stressed Mr. Benchaaboun.

Taking the floor, Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib Abdelatif Jouahri said following the Royal Instructions laid down in the Royal Speech made during the opening of the autumn parliamentary session of 2019, the Central Bank adopted a set of measures including unlimited refinancing mechanism of all credits granted to the categories mentioned by the Sovereign in his speech.

This refinancing mechanism will also benefit the agricultural sector and projects carried out in rural areas, said Mr. Jouahri, noting that this mechanism is an addition to the special program set up in 2012 by Bank Al-Maghrib and relating to direct refinancing of bank loans granted to very small, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The central bank also decided to reduce equity capital requirements applied to banks with regard to the loans, added Mr. Jouahri, noting that the success of this program is the responsibility of all the stakeholders concerned, in particular the banking sector, public establishments and the beneficiary clients.

For his part, President of the GPBM Othman Benjelloun assured that the banking sector will contribute by up to $315 million, in equal shares with the Government and Bank Al Maghrib, to the financing of the Fund of Entrepreneurship Financing Support.

Each of the Banks commits to provide young project holders and small and medium enterprises with all the support and time they need, in terms of proximity, assistance for structuring, training and consultancy, in all economic sectors and across the Kingdom, he stressed.

The banks also pledge that their response times to entrepreneurs will not exceed three weeks, said Mr. Benjelloun, affirming that entrepreneurs will see their access widened to the various financial services in general thanks to technological tools such as Mobile Banking, as well as Microfinance and MicroAssurance.

Afterwards, the Monarch presided over the signing of three agreements relating to the implementation of the Integrated Program to Support and Finance Enterprises.
MIDDLETOWN  The queen of Asian cuisine, Margaret Kuo, recently added one more destination for fine dining to her Delaware Valley restaurant dynasty.

The restauranteur came full circle when she opened Margaret Kuos Kitchen in mid-December at the same location where her very first restaurant, Margaret Kuos Peking, was located.

Located in the rear area of the Promenade at Granite Run, easily accessible from Route 1 or Route 352, Margaret Kuos Kitchen has the same high-quality cuisine, the same classy feel and the same friendly service as the former Peking and all the Kuos other restaurants. But make no mistake about it -Margaret Kuos Kitchen has its own individual characteristics and ambiance and a unique flavor all of its own.

Managed by Mark Kuo, Margarets son who also manages Mandarin in Malvern, Margaret Kuos Kitchen is already garnering rave reviews. The restaurant is the only family-owned non-chain restaurant located at the new Promenade at Granite Run. Kuo opened her original restaurant there 40 years ago.

It feels really good to be back, the grand dame of Asian restaurants said with a smile as she greeted customers.

Overlooking a panoramic view of the Promenade at Granite Run, the new restaurant has a spacious outside patio that will soon be equipped with tables, chairs, umbrellas, heaters and canopies so patrons can dine al fresco when desired.

Walking through the front door, customers will be delighted to find a restaurant with dramatic design that includes a full-service bar, a main dining room, a Sushi bar and a more intimate side dining room. The restaurant is just as suitable for business or casual lunches while shopping or meeting friends, as it is for dinners out with the family, date nights or celebrating special occasions.

Our restaurant is not a cookie-cutter chain, Kuo explained. We gave a lot of personal attention to detail.

The restaurant project, started in 2017, was a team effort, the creation of Margaret, her husband Warren and her son Mark. Warren, a designer who founded and owned the Pearl of the East stores at five locations in the 70s and 80s, was in charge of the new restaurants decor and acted as the general contractor, arranging the details and overseeing construction. DAS Architects of Philadelphia and Tian Mei Construction of Philadelphia developed the Kuos vision of the 3,250 square-foot building into a reality worthy of bearing the Kuo name.

The main dining room is spacious with the capability of comfortably seating about 80 diners. Larger than life three and five foot-wide lamps hang from the ceiling, becoming the focal point of the room. A side dining room, which has glass doors that can be closed, seats 30-40 people and is available to be reserved for private parties. The patio, which seats 40-50 guests, can also be reserved for parties, as can the Sushi Bar which seats eight people. Casual diners can also sit at the Sushi Bar, where Sushi fans can enjoy freshly made Sushi and Sashimi daily.

A red Japanese wedding kimono hangs opposite the Sushi Bar. Exotic Yang Longquan art dots the walls and a dramatic floor to ceiling temperature-controlled wine rack cabinet, designed with geometric lines and a glass front, is lit up, highlighting an extensive offering of wines and sake.

The Kuos have two large pictures and a huge green vase, which they repurposed from Peking for the new restaurant. Margaret plans to return the two giant gold lions that used to be a signature staple outside of Peking, back to their original home at Granite Run from their temporary residence at Margaret Kuos Wayne.

Although the friendly service, first class ambiance and beautiful decor combine to make a memorable dining experience, make no mistake about it, the exceptional food is what will keep customers coming back again and again.

Margaret Kuo is noted for offering fine dining of traditional Chinese and Japanese cuisine. She has won award after award through the years, including being credited by the Delaware Valley Restaurant Association as one of the main restauranteurs, along with Neil Stein and Georges Perrier, who created the Philadelphia Restaurant Renaissance in the 1970s. In addition to being the recipient of the coveted Panache Award from the Philadelphia Restaurant Association, and one of the few chefs featured by New Yorks James Beard Foundation, a prestigious culinary institution, Kuos restaurants have earned regional Best Of awards in newspapers and magazines multiple times.

Master Chef Su Lin, who has been with the Kuo restaurants for 30 years, has brought his expertise and cooking skills to Margaret Kuos Kitchen, as did longtime Kuo chef Sean Wei. Margaret will take an active role in overseeing the kitchen at her latest restaurant.

I called it Margaret Kuos Kitchen because I plan on spending a lot of time in this kitchen, she explained. I want to create and offer unique dishes. Thats how I devised the menu. Eventually, I also plan to offer cooking classes here.

Kuo, who offers Chinese and Japanese cuisine in her five restaurants, merges four regional styles in her Chinese cooking: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Shanghai, and Szechuan. Her menu offers dishes that combine nouveau Asian and traditional cuisine.

Choices on the dining menu include Margarets old classics like Jumbo Shrimp with Candied Walnuts, Moo Shu Pork, Mandarin Steak with Spring Pancakes, and Crispy Beef with Orange Sauce to the Kuos favorite entrees such as Cumin Sauteed Beef or Lamb, Whole Fish, Royal Peking Duck, Margarets Signature Lamb Stew and a variety of Seafood choices. The restaurant is known for its Dumplings, which are made fresh daily and come in at least eight varieties.

Additionally, the menu offers Dim Sum and Small Plates, soups, salads, a wide variety of vegetarian selections, rice and noodle options and much more.

Rather than getting a large pot of generic tea to be shared at the table, each diner gets to select an individual teapot full of their own choice from teas like Chrysanthemum, Dragonwell, Jasmine Green and Osmanthus Oolong.

The bar, which has two 48-inch large screen TVs and a stylish white composite stone bar top and textured wood front, offers a premium wine and liquor selection, as well as specialty drinks, bottled beers and a variety of beer on tap. The Kuos will soon offer Happy Hour specials. With lunch and dinner, the wine list is impressive, with a premium selection of white wine, red wine and champagne. Warren Kuo is a ten-time winner of Wine Spectators Award of Excellence, including Best Restaurant Wine List.

In addition to the main lunch and dinner menu, offering many dining choices and specials, the restaurant also offers a large take-out menu and will soon offer a late night bar menu.

In celebration of the restaurants opening, as well as the Year of The Rat, Margaret Kuos Kitchen will have a Chinese New Year prix fixe menu special for two people, with special grand opening pricing, from Jan. 25-Feb. 29. The seven-course meal will include appetizers, Duck, Shrimp, Fish, Grass-fed Beef, and a traditional Chinese dessert. Each Margaret Kuo restaurant will have its own individualized Chinese New Year menu and celebration.

Margaret Kuos Kitchen is the Kuos fifth restaurant. The Kuos also own Margaret Kuos Wayne, Margaret Kuos Media, Margaret Kuos at Lancaster County Farmers Market in Stratford and Mandarin in Malvern.

Margaret Kuos Peking gave many county residents their first taste of authentic Mandarin and Szechuan cuisine when it opened in Granite Run Mall in 1974, introducing them to new Asian foods like Peking Duck and Scallion Pancakes, made by her own mother. Her father helped her to recruit master chefs for Peking when she opened, who taught her authentic cooking methods and recipes. Margaret made the menu as sophisticated as the decor at Peking, introducing more upscale authentic Chinese foods, rather than the typical Chow Mein or Egg Fu Yung found on other restaurants menus.

Her exceptional cooking won her many loyal customers and fans, as well as awards and by 1978, Philadelphia Magazine named Peking the Best Asian Restaurant, expanding the restaurants appeal outside of the county. Zagat Reviews and many accolades as Best Restaurant and Best Chinese Restaurant have followed them from the mall location to their other dining establishments.

Peking was forced to close in May 2015 when the demolition and redevelopment of Granite Run Mall began. Margaret Kuos Peking was the last restaurant to close before demolition and the only returning non-chain restaurant when the refashioned Granite Run reopened.

Im really delighted to be back at Granite Run, the award-winning restauranteur said. It is wonderful to reconnect with old friends and customers, as well as see a whole new generation coming through the doors. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to offer something new and exciting in the culinary world, and I am more than ready to meet that challenge.

IF YOU GO: Margaret Kuos Kitchen is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner: Weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and weekends, 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Address for GPS is 1109 W. Baltimore Ave., Suite A, Media. For more information or reservations, visit www.margaretkuo.com or call Margaret Kuos Kitchen at Granite Run, 610-891-8880.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 01:58:38|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Four Katyusha rockets on Sunday landed near the U.S. embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, capital of Iraq, an Interior Ministry official said.

The attack took place in the evening when the four rockets landed near the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone, which also houses some of the main Iraqi government offices, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

There was no casualty reported, as the rockets landed in empty area near the embassy, the official said.

The heavily fortified Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10 square km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital.

On Friday, the Iraqi prominent Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr called for a scheduled withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq through peaceful means.

The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq on Jan. 5, two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.
Indian and Chinese officials on Monday discussed plans to evacuate over 250 Indians from coronavirus-hit Wuhan city and Hubei province. The death toll in the coronavirus has climbed to 82 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases, mostly in Wuhan and other Chinese cities.

According to the Indian Embassy in Beijing, its diplomats held a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on Monday. "In the meeting, Chinese authorities briefed on the steps taken by them to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Various options for evacuating foreign nationals from Wuhan/Hubei province were also discussed," the embassy said in a note circulated on the social media.

"We continue to engage with the Chinese authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian nationals in Hubei province. We will update you when we have more information from the Chinese authorities," it said.

The embassy said for any issues regarding food, water and other essential supplies, the Hubei Foreign Affairs Office has provided two helplines (027-87122256 and 87811173) on which the provincial authorities can be contacted round the clock. "You may approach them on issues that you may face there. However, please also let us know about your concern with specific details so that we are also able to take it up with the authorities in Hubei," it said.

Wuhan has about 700 Indian students, majority of them studying medicine. There are also a number of Indian students pursuing their doctorate degrees from several universities in Wuhan and its surrounding areas. While the majority of the students have apparently left Wuhan the city a few weeks ago to avail the Chinese New Year holidays, over 250 to 300 Indian students are reportedly stuck in the city, triggering concerns over their well-being.

Wuhan and 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading. While India has earlier issued travel advisories to its citizens travelling to China in view of the coronavirus, the Indian Embassy here in the last few days has set up two hotlines for the students in Wuhan to extend assistance and took up it up with the local officials about proper supply of food and other necessities for them.

The embassy also tweeted on Monday that in addition to the three hotlines (+8618610952903, +8618612083629, +8618612083617), it has also opened a dedicated email ID, helpdesk.beijing@mea.gov.in, to deal with the ongoing emergency. The embassy also requested some of the stranded Indians to furnish the details of their passports. A decision about their evacuation is expected to be made shortly, though officials have not mentioned any timeline.

Over 2,000 Pakistani students too made a request to their government for their evacuation. They made a special video and circulated on media networks, appealing for help. Students from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and several African countries have also been making representations for evacuation. Expectations for early evacuation increased after the Chinese government permitted the US to airlift its Wuhan-based diplomats and Americans citizens. France, UK and South Korea are also trying to airlift their citizens stuck in Wuhan. No foreigner in China has been infected with the virus so far.

(Image credits: AP)
Basma, a Beirut, Lebanon-based digital dental startup, secured US $1.2M in seed funding.

The round was led by B&Y Venture Partners and Cedar Mundi Ventures, with participation from iSME and various business angels.

The company intends to use the funds and accelerate expansion in the MENA region.

Led by Founder and CEO Dr. Cherif Massoud, Basma is a direct-to-consumer healthcare brand that allows customers to get a 3D scan at one of its Basma Booths or order an impression kit and take an impression of their teeth at home. Rather than visiting the orthodontist every month to have braces painfully adjusted, the company send users a series of orthodontist-prescribed aligners to home. Each aligner is a predetermined step, so every new aligner they wear pushes their teeth closer to their position.

FinSMEs

27/01/2020
Local farmers gathered to exchange opinions and hear about new developments from University of Maine Cooperative Extension specialists at the Lee Pellon Center in Machias during the Downeast Agriculture Conference on January 18. Topics included the future of wild blueberry cultivation, the use of high tunnels to increase yield and the growing season and the harvesting of kelp.

Lily Calderwood of the University of Maine Extension began by addressing the difficulties facing small wild blueberry farms caused by competition from the evergrowing number of high-bush growers. "Quality is the competitive advantage you have to focus on," she said, along with the need "to be your own marketers to the very specific markets you know best." She estimated the demand for Maine wild blueberries to be enough to supply 60,00070,000 pounds of juice and 110,000400,000 pounds of fresh berries at a value of $3 to $8 a quart. "The challenges," she said, are "storage and transportation costs" and to "collaborate with other small growers wherever possible."

Mark Hutton gave an informative presentation on how to build a "high tunnel" that would "increase profits, extend the growing season, allow for early crops and suppress disease and insects" for winter crops. Most high tunnels are only hooked up to a water supply and only some have heat, yet they can still yield a healthy crop of greens, beets, carrots and other root vegetables.

Discussion then turned from farming on land to the waters in the Gulf of Maine. Jaclyn Robidoux explained that Maine has quickly become a leader in seaweed farming thanks to a worldwide interest in sustainability and diversification; the fact that seaweed is a winter crop; the abundance of clean, cold water; and the well developed "wild harvest" industry, regulated as a fishery. In addition, starting in 2010, Maine began with a single farm in the waters of southern Maine and now has 180 sites, from the Isle of Shoals all the way to Eastport, producing various types of seaweed. Robidoux reported that kelp production is expected to be 600,000 pounds this year, twice the harvest recorded in 2019. Robidoux's colleague at Maine Sea Grant, Dana Morse, followed with a discussion on shellfish farming, providing an overview of the methods for growing oysters, mussels, scallops, soft-shell clams and bait fish. Getting fresh product to market

The conference then turned back to themes that cut across the spectrum of small farmers and their common challenges to the topic of "getting products to market" in a timely and profitable way. Inez Lombardo, head of Machias Marketplace, provided a useful historical review of how the idea of a "community market" was developed in 2003 and then reworked again and again as farmers and customers and modes of communication changed.

Richard East, a selfdescribed "urban farmer" of six acres in Calais, continued this theme saying, "You're constantly reinventing yourself when you are a small farmer." He described how five years ago he "discovered" the community of Amish family farmers in Maine and made a pact with them, which he called a "farm community." Federal regulations

The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, a set of requirements following 9/11, is a bureaucratic process that is a relatively minor annoyance to agribusiness and big corporate growers but a tremendous burden on small farmers. A further problem for wild blueberry growers are the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules that make no distinction between the low-bush Maine variety that is harvested only once in two years and the high-bush crop -- ironically developed at the Maine Cooperative Extension farm in Jonesboro -- that is harvested in huge amounts annually in multiple states and countries. As one grower said during the conference, "USDA is the problem. We were never asked for our opinions if the laws we now have to live with made sense."

Marie Emerson of Wescogus Farms and the only woman serving on the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine said, "Wild blueberries are one of four indigenous fruits that have been growing in North America for 10,000 to 12,000 years, and no one has ever gotten sick from eating them." Yet USDA treats the Maine wild crop as they do the agribusiness variety. Labor problems

All small farmers are struggling to sustain their crops and livelihoods with a labor supply that is tenuous, at best.

Courtney Hammond of Lynch Hill Farms in Harrington needs 50 people to help in the harvest season and says, "The local labor force doesn't exist." During the conversation on this topic he went on to say, "The best recruiting source for us is in the nursing home." And backing this up was Lisa Hanscom in Roque Bluffs who said, "Four women over the age of 80 are some of my best workers." Hanscom went on to say, "When I was four, I raked blueberries, but that is legally called child abuse today. If you're 13 and you haven't raked blueberries already, you're not going to start after 13."

And when the topic of migrant labor was discussed as a potential solution, Hammond said, "I know you will find this hard to believe, but 90% of migrant workers make more money than I do." A farmer from East Machias recalled the time a local mother called him to see if he would hire one of her children to rake blueberries. He was agreeable and asked the mother which of the two groups of workers, either Mexican or Haitian, she would like her child to join. There was no reply from the mother in answer to his question. But this farmer went on to stress, "It's vital for you to have workers' compensation if you're going to employ migrant labor."

Carly DelSignore and Aaron Bell of Tide Mill Farm in Edmunds and Hammond both use apprentice programs to help initiate and train young people interested in farming but, while worthwhile, it is not a solution to their labor problems.
BJP Lok Sabha MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj on Monday refuted veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah's claims that the amended Citizenship Act has "threatened the nation's soul".

He further urged the veteran actor to point out a single Muslim who has left India due to the alleged threats.

"Naseeruddin Shah should have the basic knowledge that Muslims are not protected and respected anywhere else in the world as they are in India. If they feel threatened then why has not a single Muslim from India gone seeking refuge in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh? Can Naseeruddin Shah name one Muslim who has done so?" Maharaj told ANI here.

"CAA is not a law to snatch anyone's citizenship but to give it to those who faced religious persecution in the neighbouring countries, he added.

Naseeruddin Shah was among the 300 personalities who had signed a letter supporting the anti-CAA protests and termed the Act and Register of Citizens (NRC) a "threat" to the soul of India.

Asserting that the opposition is not against the CAA or NRC but against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his way of solving long-standing issues, the BJP MP said, "They do not have problems with the CAA, but with Narendra Modiji and Amit Shah. The way they removed Article 370, solved the triple talaq matter, or ended the Ayodhya temple dispute has made the Opposition feel threatened."

He also condemned the anti-CAA protests being held at Shaheen Bagh.

"Just look at what is happening in Shaheen Bagh. They are attacking journalists there...They (protesters) think the illegal Rohingyas will be thrown out. They will definitely be thrown out as we cannot let intruders stay. But it is our duty to provide refuge to those who have come seeking protection," Maharaj said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 10:23:23|Editor: zh

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TRIPOLI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Sunday condemned attacks on the capital Tripoli's Mitiga airport, as the armed conflict between the eastern-based army and the UN-backed government continues.

"UNSMIL condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack against Mitiga Airport, by two grad missiles, which resulted in the injury of at least two civilians, and damage to the tarmac and a number of buildings," UNMSIL tweeted.

"UNMSIL reiterates that attacks against civilian targets, especially public facilities, represent a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and that repeated attacks against Mitiga Airport deprived two million residents in the capital of their only functioning airport," the mission added.

The UN-backed government's forces said the eastern-based army attacked the airport.

The east-based army on Wednesday announced the reactivation of the no-fly zone over western Libya, where the Mitiga International Airport locates.

The eastern-based army has been leading a military campaign since April 2019 in an attempt to take over Tripoli from the UN-backed government.

The conflict killed and injured thousands of people, and displaced more than 150,000 civilians.

The two rival parties, which agreed to a ceasefire on January 12, accused each other of breaching the truce.
A trillion dollars: Thats how much money was invested in Vanguards Total Stock Market Index Fund at the end of December.

The largest mutual fund by assets is just over $60 billion shy of crossing the trillion-dollar line across all share classes, which sounds like a long way off  but its not. The funds year-end assets totaled $938 billion.

Assuming investors neither add nor withdraw a penny from the fund, it would take a gain of just 9.3% to push it over the line to $1 trillion in assets, noted Jeff De Maso, research editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors newsletter.

Investors have, over the last five years, poured a net $30 billion into the fund annually. If that pace keeps up, a gain of only 5.8% or so will see the fund reach $1,000,000,000,000 this year, he estimated.

Yes, thats 12 zeroes. And no, there isnt another fund that comes even close in size.

Malvern-based Vanguard currently manages $6 trillion in assets  $5.2 trillion excluding money market funds  and is just behind No. 1 BlackRock, best known for its iShares exchange-traded index funds, with $7 trillion under management. The No. 3 index fund manager, State Street Corp., manages $2.9 trillion. These three firms together hold about 80% of all indexed money, according to Bloomberg data. The combined Schwab-TD Ameritrade would have $5.1 trillion, assuming the merger goes through.

SECURE Act Updates

The SECURE Act was passed quickly in December, so lets dive into a refresher course:

No more maximum contribution age. Americans are living longer and working beyond traditional retirement age, so the SECURE Act eliminates the age ceiling for contributing to a traditional IRA, previously 70. This change also aligns the rules with 401(k)s and Roth IRAs, which did not have a maximum age.

Repaying student debt. Individuals with 529 savings accounts can now take money out to pay for apprenticeships and student loans. Distributions for student loans max out at a lifetime amount of $10,000 per person.

The new rules apply to any money taken on or after Dec. 31, 2018, according to Wells Fargo and retirement expert Ed Slott. Weve seen conflicting dates, but confirmed the 2018 date refers to distributions taken from the 529 plan and not the date loan funds were received, which could have been earlier. The date of a student loan is immaterial, Slott said.

Recall that investors can also take money out of 529 accounts for K-12 education as well as college. While 529 money isnt taxable at the federal level, it may be taxed by the state in which you live, said Eric Bronnenkant, head of tax for Betterment. Check with your accountant and the state, he said.

Is student debt taxable if discharged for fraud? Not anymore. The IRS and Department of the Treasury on Jan. 15 determined that student debt discharged by a lender will not be treated as taxable income.

When the government discharges a federal loan because a student was defrauded, it is common sense that the student should not be taxed on the relief, said Aaron Ament, president of the nonprofit Student Defense.

Previously, the treasury and the IRS made exceptions in only two cases  for Corinthian Colleges and American Career Institute borrowers  but did not address all debt discharges. Now grads are no longer vulnerable to large tax bills based on their schools misconduct.

Annuities. Under the SECURE Act, employers can offer lifetime income annuities within retirement plans. Also, these can be directly transferred to another retirement plan, avoiding potential surrender charges and fees.

It will be significant. The annuity companies will want to get products out there, we just dont know when, said Michael Repak, senior estate planner at Janney Montgomery Scott in Yardley.

Medical expenses. Individual taxpayers with high medical bills can deduct unreimbursed expenses that exceed 7.5% (in 2019 and 2020) of adjusted gross income, according to Isdaners Mitchell Gerstein, senior tax adviser at the Bala Cynwyd firm.

In addition, taxpayers can withdraw money from qualified retirement plans and IRAs penalty-free to cover expenses that exceed the medical expense threshold (although regular income taxes apply). The threshold returns to 10% in 2021, according to Isdaner.

Overall, was the SECURE Act helpful, or did it just make life more complex?

The SECURE Act isnt great, but its better than nothing, said Paul Tully, founder of Eagle Wealth Strategies in West Deptford.

The insurance companies love the new law, and I do think this may result in more life insurance sold, because if someone was hoping their IRA would help fund their childrens or grandchildrens retirement, thats a little less likely now.

A copy of the law is available here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1865/amendments?searchResultViewType=expanded&KWICView=false.
Virus reported to have originated in Chinas Wuhan has killed more than 957,000 people and infected over 30 million.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the new coronavirus outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China, a pandemic.

As of September 20, the global death toll surpassed 957,000 amid more than 30.8 million cases. Over 21 million people have recovered from the disease worldwide, according to the data collected by the Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Here is what you need to know:

What is a coronavirus?

The coronavirus family causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), according to the WHO.

They circulate in animals and some can be transmitted between animals and humans. Several coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

The new coronavirus, the seventh known to affect humans, has been named COVID-19.





What are the symptoms?

Common signs of infection include fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. In severe cases, it can cause pneumonia, multiple organ failure and death.

The incubation period of COVID-19 is thought to be between one and 14 days. It is contagious before symptoms appear, which is why so many people get infected.

Infected patients can be also asymptomatic, meaning they do not display any symptoms despite having the virus in their systems.

Where did it come from?

China alerted the WHO to cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan on December 31.

COVID-19 is thought to have originated in a seafood market where wildlife was sold illegally.

On February 7, Chinese researchers said the virus could have spread from an infected animal to humans through illegally trafficked pangolins, prized in Asia for food and medicine.

Scientists have pointed to either bats or snakes as possible sources.

Should I worry? How can I protect myself?

The WHO declared the virus a pandemic on March 11 and said it was deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity of the outbreak.

The WHO recommends basic hygiene such as regularly washing hands with soap and water, and covering your mouth with your elbow when sneezing or coughing.

Maintain physical distancing  keeping at least 1 metre (three feet) between yourself and others  particularly if they are coughing and sneezing, and avoid touching your face, eyes and mouth with unwashed hands.

Avoid unnecessary, unprotected contact with animals and be sure to thoroughly wash hands after contact.
(Photo : Best Universities and Colleges for Hispanic Students)

The number of Latino students is increasing in the best colleges and universities. In different corners of Europe, you can find the best value Hispanic-serving institutes (HSI). A Hispanic-serving institute is an accredited, private, public institution for higher education. A Hispanic institution is incomplete without Hispanic students in higher education. Here are some best universities and colleges in the world for Hispanic students.

1. Arizona State University (ASU)

With four campuses in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, the university offers a small and large college experience to satisfy the diverse needs of students. Students can study in the largest campus in Downtown Phoenix.

For many Hispanics, ASU is the top choice, with more than 72,000 students. ASU is serving its neighbors to tackle puzzling challenges. It is one of the best universities in the world for its academics, facilities, student life, etc.

2. UTRGV (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)

It is the second largest Hispanic-serving school in the nation. With its high-quality education and groundbreaking research opportunities, it is serving students from different countries. The university is expanding economic and educational opportunities for the draw and region talent.

They are famous for graduate and bachelor's degrees in different disciplines. Students can get a bachelor's degree in health professions, literature/letter, English language, and biomedical and biological sciences.

3. University of Texas (El Paso)

A predominately doctoral Hispanic research university in Texas is boasting the Mexican American population. The university has 80% Hispanic students and 36% Hispanic faculty. Over 24,000 students are completing their education.

UTEP offers 74 master's degrees, 21 doctoral programs, and 72 undergraduate degrees. Numerous programs are available online. Their engineering and business programs are mainly famous among students.

4. University of Texas Arlington

It is a thriving research university in North Texas. This institute offers more than 180-degree programs in bachelor's to Ph.D. levels. In UTA, almost 25% of the undergraduate population is Hispanic. In the Nursing & Health Innovation school, they offer special programs for the Hispanic community.

They are looking forward to improving the quality of life and health of Spanish-speaking (underserved) populations in the United States. Hispanic students can get advantage of different student organizations.

5. Texas A&M University Kingsville

Texas A&M Kingsville university is a famous Hispanic university because of its 62% Hispanic students. The institution is accredited by the Schools and Colleges Association (Southern) to award Doctorate, master's and baccalaureate degrees.

Texas A&M Kingsville institute is a home to SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) and MAES (Mexican American Engineering Society). Maximum university students belong to South Texas. The student body represents 43 different countries and 35 states.

6. Texas State University San Marcos

Texas State University is facilitating 38,808 graduate and undergraduate students. Students can choose between 13 doctoral degree programs, 91 master's degree programs, and 98 bachelor's degree programs. TSU is one of the best institutes for Hispanic students.

In this emerging research university, students can get advantage of classified research activities. The school holds a research conference each year. Almost 22 of the faculty members are privileged as Piper Professors because of their outstanding teaching.

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, who represent rival visions for the Democratic Party, are solidifying their status as frontrunners in the crowded presidential field, according to a Washington Post-ABC News national poll.

Coming just a week before voters finally get to have their say in the Iowa caucuses, the polls show Biden with a solid 32% overall among registered voters who lean Democratic, while Sanders registered support from 23%. Both are doing slightly better than in the same poll in October.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was once considered a front-runner and earned endorsements from the New York Times a week ago and from the Des Moines Register in Iowa on Saturday, has seen a significant drop in her support. She was at 12% in this poll, down from 23% in October.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has spent $250 million on advertising since getting a late start in the race and will not compete in the first contests, pulled in support from 8%. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

Businessman Andrew Yang, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was also endorsed by The New York Times, were all mired in single digits.

National polls are less predictive of the eventual winner at this point in the race because the winners of early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire often ride a wave of momentum and attention to surge nationally.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Jan. 20-23. Results have an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Separately, an NBC News/Marist poll for New Hampshire released on Sunday showed Sanders, at 22%, and Buttigieg at 17% leading in the state, with support for Biden and Warren also in the teens. That survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points and was also taken Jan. 20-23.

This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.

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To contact the author of this story: Magan Sherzai in Washington at mcrane19@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
A Pittsburgh man with what investigators have described as an 'obsession' with hate-crime violence has been arrested after an FBI raid on his home uncovered a cache of guns and ammunition, and videos of the suspect dressed as a Nazi performing a 'Heil Hitler' salute.

A criminal complaint was filed last week in federal court against 50-year-old Dennis Riggs charging him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to the complaint, at around 6am last Wednesday, federal agents executed a search warrant at Riggs' home in the 1500 block of Hatteras Street on Pittsburghs North Side as part of an ongoing investigation.

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Dennis Riggs (left and right), from Pittsburgh, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after an FBI raid turned up a cache of weapons and Nazi memorabilia at his home

FBI agents arrived at Riggs' home on Hatteras Street last Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation

The residence was found to contain seven weapons, six of them loaded, including an AR-15-style rifle

During the search, officers seized seven firearms of various calibers, including an AR-15-style rifle, and multiple rounds of ammunition. Six of the guns were said to be loaded at the time of the raid.

Riggs is prohibited from possessing a firearm because he was convicted on March 30, 1994, of aggravated assault, a felony.

When FBI agents reviewed the contents of Riggs' phone, they allegedly discovered a video of the 2019 deadly Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shootings which killed 51, and a photo of white supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof, who has been convicted of shooting and killing nine black parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

Federal agents walked in to find photos and posters of Nazis on the walls. This 2017 image shows Riggs posing in lederhosen in front of a poster depicting Adolf Hitler

Riggs has been traveling extensively in Europe. This undated image shows him posing in front of the historic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Riggs' phone also contained Roof's current Bureau of Prisons contact information, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.

The suspect's device included footage showing Riggs dressed in a red shirt emblazoned with a Swastika loading and unloading the AR-15-style rifle, and giving the 'Sieg Heil' salute, according to the complaint.

A further search of Riggs' residence turned up posters and photos of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis, as well as multiple knives and daggers, and hundreds of bottles of liquor.

Federal prosecutors described the 50-year-old US Navy veteran as obsessed with hate-crime violence

A photo shared on Riggs' Facebook page in 2017 showed him posing in traditional German lederhosen and a Tyrolean hat in front of a large poster depicting Hitler, with the motto of Nazi Germany - 'one people, one realm, one leader' - printed across the bottom.

'Riggss Nazi videos, photos and paraphernalia clearly show his obsession with hate-based violence. His cache of firearms clearly shows his capability to act on that obsession,' US Attorney Brady said. 'Our Office is committed to identifying, disrupting and preventing such potential threats to our community.'

Robert Davis, a neighbor of Riggs', told CBS Pittsburgh he was not entirely surprised by what happened, based on his interaction with the suspect a few years ago when he allegedly made an inappropriate remark about Davis' African-American race.

During a detention hearing on Wednesday, Assistant US Attorney Jessica Smolar revealed that Riggs was arrested in 2005 for pulling a gun on a neighbor, hurling racial slurs and declaring that 'he was ridding the Catholic neighborhood of blacks,' reported Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Riggs also allegedly bragged at the time that his nickname among friends was 'Adolf Hitler.'

He was involuntary committed for psychiatric evaluation, after which charges of ethnic intimidation and simple assault were dropped against him.

A public defender representing Riggs argued that all his US Navy veteran client had done with the AR-15-style rifle, which his significant other had purchased on his behalf in 2018, was pose for videos with it.

US Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo ordered Riggs held in jail pending trial based on evidence presented by federal prosecutors.

If convicted of the charge against him, Riggs could face up to 20 years a prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
An American military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on January 27, the U.S. military and the NATO-led force in the country said, adding that there were no indications so far it had been brought down by enemy fire.



The spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Sonny Leggett, said that the military plane, a Bombardier E-11A, crashed in the Ghazni Province and an investigation of its causes was ongoing.

He gave no information on casualties or details of the crash.



Separately, the NATO-led Resolute Force mission confirmed the crash in an e-mail to RFE/RL.



"A U.S. Bombardier E-11A crashed today in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan," the message said.



"While the cause of [the] crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available. Taliban claims that additional aircraft have crashed are false."



Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a U.S. Air Force plane crashed in the Ghazni Province, which sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. Mujahid claimed the crash killed lots" of members of the U.S. military. The militant group often exaggerates casualty figures.



The Aviation Safety Network, a website of the Flight Safety Foundation that that keeps track of aviation accidents, incidents, and hijackings, tweeted that video posted online has confirmed that the plane that crashed was a U.S. military plane.

"A video confirms that a USAF Northrop Grumman E-11A crashed in Afghanistan," it said. "This is a Bombardier Global Express outfitted as Battlefield Airborne Communications Node."

The Bombardier E-11A aircraft is used by the U.S. military for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan. It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone.



The Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, also referred to by the U.S. military as Wi-Fi in the sky," can be carried both on manned planes such as the E-11A or by unmanned aircraft.



Local Afghan officials had told RFE/RL earlier on January 27 that a passenger place from Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines had crashed in the Taliban-held area of Ghazni Province. Provincial Governor Wahidullah Kalimzai told RFE/RL that the aircraft belonged to Ariana Airlines and was carrying about 83 people.

However, the state-owned airline denied in a Facebook post that one of its planes had crashed.

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled. The number of people on board and their fate was not immediately known, nor was the cause of the crash.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
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Sundance is a microcosm of change across the film industry; its also a barometer for broader concerns. The stories told across Park City at the start of each year may not have been programmed with trends in mind, but they often signal the acceleration of aesthetic or cultural developments. This years festival has brought much interest in the market for documentary storytelling, as questions about the barriers between reality and fiction have never felt so charged.

Some of the more timely documentaries at the festival delve into dueling media narratives and ease with which powerful institutions can bury the truth. The Dissident explores the role of social media in Saudi Arabias propaganda war that culminated with Jamal Khashoggis assassination, while On the Record explores the turmoil faced by Russell Simmons sexual assault victims when they decided to speak out.

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Both movies use conventional filmmaking to provoke important questions about navigating censorship and confront some of the most pressing moral imperatives of the moment. However, theyre less instructive when it comes to assessing the artistry of the documentary form, and how much it has grown during a period of dramatic new interest in its marketability. Some of the best movies at Sundance are looking to change the way stories are told.

The 2020 lineup includes several standouts that bend the rules of non-fiction storytelling while asking major questions about these fractured times. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, Bill and Turner Ross anarchic look at the last night of a rambunctious Vegas bar, was actually shot in New Orleans with a mixture of locals and professional actors.

While it doesnt have the gravitas of a more conventional activist documentary, Bloody Nose does carry a profound sense of purpose, as its various barflies roam through a grungy interior on the verge of the 2016 presidential election, as television reports become the Greek chorus for an absorbing depiction of the countrys underlying sense of abandonment. The ethos is at once celebratory and tragic: The outside world sucks; may as well order another drink.

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Bloody Nose is one of many Sundance movies this year using unconventional approaches to confronting profound themes. Kristen Johnsons poignant The Death of Dick Johnson approaches societys queasiness around death through her own fears of losing her father, and builds that anxiety into its formalism by repeatedly depicting gruesome ways in which he could die any second. (Released by Netflix, its going to prompt a lot of family therapy discussions when it hits the platform worldwide.) Despite its morbid connotations, Dick Johnson also offers some measure of hope for desperate times  its a lively rumination on the notion that everyones doomed, so living in the moment is the best way to go.

Documentary innovation also crops up in NEXT entry I Carry You With Me, documentary veteran Heidi Ewings original foray into narrative filmmaking, which focuses on the sprawling 20-year plight of Ivan, a closeted gay Mexican who escapes across the border and forges a successful career in New York. Ewings affecting, understated drama begins as a traditional work of fiction before arriving in the present day, weaving in footage of the real Ivan to inject the nature of his struggle with authentic foundation.

Ivans story derives much of its emotional center around Ivans romance with Gerardo, the partner he initially leaves behind during his harrowing attempt to make it into the United States. I Carry You With Me is a movie composed of small gestures, but its hybrid approach exploits the pliability of the medium with purpose: A traditional documentary about Ivan wouldnt capture the scope of his experiences  and might even put him at risk of deportation. Its a riveting example of how the creative process can suit a wider agenda, and a reminder the truth/fiction dichotomy doesnt have to be clear cut.

To understand the prominence of documentary innovation in this years lineup requires a Sundance history lesson. Ten years ago, the festival played host to two major premieres that toyed with their audiences. Catfish portrayed photographer Nev Shulmans online relationship with a woman who turns out to be very different from the way she describes herself, and the movie generated immediate questions surrounding its authenticity. (DIY consultant Peter Broderick famously confronted the filmmakers during the Q&A.) However, the 2010 movie was groundbreaking in its ability to embody the slippery nature of social media in its very storytelling. All across Sundance, audiences debated whether Shulman was actually tricked by a middle-aged rural woman who pretended to be a nubile teen on Facebook, or if the filmmakers were tricking her all along. Catfish existed within the confines of an ambiguous new information age.

And then there was Exit Through the Gift Shop, a future Oscar nominee directed by an invisible filmmaker. Banksys directorial debut about eccentric street artist Thierry Mister Brainwash Guetta surfaced as a surprise Sundance screening riddled with uncertainties. In the movie, Guettas laughable artistry rips off virtually every modernist tradition, and tries to make a terrible documentary about street featuring Banksy himself. But the mysterious British vandal takes control of the project when hes mortified by the results, and ends up crafting a portrait of Guettas ironic ability to sell his knock-off artistry to top bidders.

Nothing in Exit Through the Gift Shop is entirely credible, starting with Banksy, who appears bathed in shadows throughout the saga as Guetta seems to embrace the performance art undercurrents of the project. In reality, Guetta and Banksy appeared to have orchestrated a bold prank to illustrate the commodification of street art. As with Catfish, the specific nature of the production only added to its ability to provoke meaningful debate about the porous nature of authenticity in the modern age.

Sundance programmers embraced these questions while washing their hands of responsibility: Both Catfish and Exit Through the Gift Shop screened out of any official documentary sections, leaving the specifics of their production up to pervade conversations around the festival. A decade later, they remain intriguing provocations, but conversations surrounding documentary form have caught up: Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is screening in U.S. Documentary Competition, and theres no reason why it shouldnt. The medium mandates an expansive approach.

It may not always look that way, but these edgier approaches speak to the most pressing issues of our times, as the more traditional documentary entries prove. Among these, Boys State confronts the ongoing battle between honesty and obfuscation in the political process, using a weeklong retreat for teenagers to run for their own makeshift government. Directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBain dont take any wild filmmaking swings as they follow a handful of characters battling it out for a fictional public office, but the movie oscillates between well-intentioned campaign strategizing and heartbreaking dirty tricks. Watching Boys State, in which social-media soundbites and misleading online campaigns end up imitating some of the more grotesque developments of 2016, its impossible not to consider the tenuous nature of fact and fiction in the future of democracy. It may not have the answer to these fractured times, but it sets the stage for many arguments to come, and the potential for countless storytellers looking to keep the debate alive.

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The Trinamool Congress government on Monday passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the West Bengal Assembly, thus becoming the fourth state to take this step. The state follows Punjab, Kerala and Rajasthan to vote against the law.

After the move, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asserted that the state government will not allow the CAA, National Population Register (NPR), and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal. "This protest is not only of minorities but for all. I thank my Hindu brothers for leading this protest from the forefront. In Bengal, we won't allow CAA, NPR, and NRC. We will fight peacefully," she stated.

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On January 25, the Congress government in Rajasthan passed a resolution against the Act in the state assembly. The resolution was passed with voice vote amid stiff opposition by the BJP which accused the ruling Congress of pursuing appeasement politics.

The resolution passed by the Rajasthan assembly urged Centre to repeal the law as it discriminated against people on religious grounds, which violates the provisions of Constitution. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took to Twitter and inform that the state assembly has passed a resolution against CAA.

"Rajasthan Assembly has passed a resolution today against the #CAA and we have urged the Central govt to repeal the law as it discriminates against people on religious grounds, which violates the provisions of our Constitution," Gehlot had said in a tweet.

The Supreme Court had refused to put a stay on the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and granted four weeks` time to the Central government to file a reply on the petitions regarding the same.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
The Holocaust tragedy is a lesson for all people who must remember it and never make it happen again, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has written on Facebook.

"We are filled with feelings of pain and grief over the millions of Holocaust victims. It is a terrible tragedy for the Jewish people and a tragic lesson for all mankind. It is with deep respect that we honor the memory of all those who died. We must remember it and never make it happen again. It is our duty to the millions of innocent victims. This is our duty to future generations," Zelensky said.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked on January 27.

Zelensky is on a working visit to Poland on January 26-27. He participates in commemorative events in Oswiecim dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:42:59|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- State Grid Corporation of China, the power supplier of over 1.1 billion people in China, has vowed to secure power use to combat the viral pneumonia outbreak.

The company said in a statement Monday it will advance the construction of power supply facilities at 17 new or reconstructed hospitals, investigate hidden troubles of power facilities at 114 designated medical institutions and 554 fever clinics in Hubei Province.

Efforts will also be made to guarantee the power use of hotels accommodating medical workers, as well as key enterprises researching and developing medicines as well as producing, purchasing and selling medical equipment, the company said.

The firm also aims at securing civil power use, promising not to cut off electricity supply to households due to arrears during the period of epidemic prevention and control.

The company donated 50 million yuan (about 7.26 million U.S. dollars) in cash to Hubei Province as well as assets worth 60.28 million yuan for power facility construction at two makeshift hospitals in Wuhan.
Law enforcers detained the reconnaissance commander of the illegal armed group OPLOT, who wounded a local police officer on the night of January 24-25 in the Desnyansky district of Kyiv near one of the recreation facilities. The Department of Internal Security of the National Police reports.

Information about the shooting came to law enforcement officers at night. Already on the spot, it was found that a 25-year-old local police officer of the Desnyansky police department received a gunshot wound.

It was established that on the night of January 24 to 25, local police officers wore civilian clothes and had no weapons. An unknown man approached them and began to provoke a conflict, swearing obscenely, and then suggested continue to sort things out on the street. The video from the surveillance camera shows a man who, waiting for his opponents, loaded his weapons," the report said.

According to law enforcement officers, the attacker continued the abuse, and then took a gun from his pocket, pointed it at one of the police officers and fired.

However, a misfire occurred. Then the attacker shot the second policeman in the chest. At the moment when the district officer bent over the wounded colleague, the shooter put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger again. But this time the weapon also failed. The attacker left the scene," reads the message.

The identity of the shooter was quickly established - he turned out to be a 36-year-old previously repeatedly convicted of serious crimes, a native of Donetsk region. According to information on the Myrotvorets website, the man served in the illegal armed groups of the so-called DPR, is the intelligence commander of the OPLOT unit, and participated in battles near Debaltseve and Ilovaisk.

The attacker was detained on one of the streets of the capital. Suspicion was announced to him under part 4 of article 266 (hooliganism) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The wounded police officer was operated on, he is under the supervision of doctors. His condition is satisfactory.

As we reported, in the Kharkiv region, the investigator illegally sold service information with limited access, which is stored on computers.
An aircraft of Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot on Monday returned to the departure airport in Russia's Khabarovsk after receiving a bomb threat, a representative of the airport told Sputnik.

"Flight 1713 left Khabarovsk on Monday afternoon. Already after the lift-off, information about a threat was received. The crew decided to return. All the emergency services are placed on alert. There are 262 passengers and 10 crew members on board," the representative said.

He specified that the crew had received a message about a possible bomb threat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Trumps former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in an unpublished manuscript that Trump conditioned aid to Ukraine on a Biden investigation.

The New York Times reported:

President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.

The presidents statement as described by Mr. Bolton could undercut a key element of his impeachment defense: that the holdup in aid was separate from Mr. Trumps requests that Ukraine announce investigations into his perceived enemies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, who had worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was in office.

Trump was caught on tape ordering his former Ukraine ambassador to be taken out. The presidents former national security adviser is willing to testify that Trump conditioned Ukraine getting their aid on a Biden investigation. It is clear to everyone who is not a Trump supporter or Republican in the US Senate that Donald Trump is guilty.

The Ukraine scandal is not going to go away with the end of the Senate trial. More documents and revelations will continue to come out. Eventually, perhaps when he is losing to the Democratic nominee in the fall of 2020, and several endangered Senators who aided Trump with the cover-up are poised to lose their seats, Republicans will realize that Trump is damaged goods.

The House should subpoena John Bolton as part of the ongoing Trump investigation. Trump will try to block Boltons testimony, but the American people deserve to hear the truth about Trumps corruption.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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Singapore: American journalist Philip Jacobson was released from prison in Indonesia and would be deported "as soon as possible" for a visa violation, authorities said.

Jacobson, who turned 31 on Sunday, was jailed last week in the city of Palangkaraya and is facing up to five years in prison after he attended a public meeting between local lawmakers and indigenous rights activists in December.

Mongabay editor Phil Jacobson was detained on December 17 after preparing to leave a city in Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Credit:Twitter

After spending three nights in a six-man cell, Jacobson, an editor at the nonprofit environmental news website Mongabay, was released Friday under orders not to leave Palangkaraya, the capital of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province.

"We are grateful that authorities have made this accommodation and remain hopeful that Phil's case can be treated as an administrative matter rather than a criminal one," Rhett Butler, Mongabay's founder, said in a statement.
In yet another case of forced conversion in Pakistan, a Hindu girl was abducted during her wedding ceremony and was married off to a Muslim man after being converted to Islam.

The woman--Bharti Bai-- was abducted by a group of people during her marriage ceremony on Saturday in Hala, a city located in Matiari district in Sindh province. She was then married to Shah Rukh Gul.

The authorities have not taken any action against the abductors. According to reports, the police helped the men in forcibly taking away the bride.

Every year, around 1,000 young Sindhi Hindu girls between the age of 12 and 28 are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam, US-based Sindhi Foundation has said.

ALSO WATCH | Mob surrounds, threatens to occupy Nankana Sahib Gurudwara in Pak

In Pakistan, many such incidents are regularly reported where girls belonging to the countrys minority community, mainly Hindu, Sikh and Christian, are forcibly converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men.

Over the past few months, several incidents have come to fore highlighting the miserable condition of minorities in the country.

In August last year, 19-year-old Jagjit Kaur remained missing for several days. Later, it was learnt that she was forcibly married to a Muslim man by her abductors.

Daughter of Bhagwan Singh, a granthi (priest) of Gurdwara Tambu Sahib, she was converted to Islam at gunpoint.

The incident sparked a furore in India, with several political leaders across parties seeking action against the perpetrators of such crimes.

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The court convicted the defendants of the attempted murder of Alexandria's security director and the murder of two lower ranking policemen

A Cairo criminal court handed preliminary death sentences on Monday to three defendants over the failed assassination of Alexandria's security director in March 2018 ahead of Egypt's presidential elections.

The court referred the preliminary sentences to the Grand Mufti, which is a necessary, albeit non-binding, procedure before issuing a death sentence, as per the Egyptian penal code.

The court convicted the defendants, 11 in total, of charges including the attempted murder of Alexandria's security director Mostafa El-Nemr and members of his convoy and others in the Mediterranean city, and the murder of two lower ranking policemen in the attack.

The court is set to issue its final ruling on 21 March.

In March 2018, an improvised explosive device placed under a car detonated as El-Nemrs convoy was passing in El-Moaskar El-Romany Street. El-Nemr was unharmed in the attack; however, the blast killed the two policemen and injured several others.

The attack came days before Egypt held its 2018 presidential elections, which saw Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi win in a landslide victory.

Days later, the Egyptian police said they killed six Hasm terrorist group members believed to be behind the failed assassination attempt on Alexandria's security chief.

The assassination attempt was the first against a security official since late 2016, which witnessed a number of attacks that included a failed assassination attempt on a senior judicial official in September 2016, and the October 2016 assassination of an army brigadier general who had previously served in North Sinai, where the armys war against terrorism is concentrated.

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New Delhi/IBNS: A a day after 600 of its 751 European Union Parliament members moved six resolutions on the Citizenship Amendment Act, expressing concern that it would create the "largest statelessness crisis in the world", Lok sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday wrote to its President stating that is is not proper for a legislature to pass judgement on another.

In a letter to the President of EU, Birla wrote: "It is inappropriate for a legislature to pass judgement on another, a practice that can be surely misused for vested interests."

"This Act provides for granting easier citizenship to those who have been subjected to religious persecution in our immediate neighbourhood. It is not aimed at taking away citizenship from anybody," the letter read.

Earlier, India rebuffed the EU's six resolutions and claimed the same as India's "internal matter."

Accusing the Narendra Modi government of "discriminating against, harassing and prosecuting national and religious minorities and silencing any opposition, human rights groups... and journalists critical of the government", the EU lawmakers had asked their Parliament to encourage a "strong human rights clause with an effective implementation and suspension mechanism" during any trade agreement.

The resolutions are likely to be tabled during the European Union Parliament session that starts next week in Brussels.

The same also comes ahead of PM Modi's visit to Brussels for India-EU summit in March.

The Narendra Modi government is also facing massive protests back home against the new contentious CAA which aims to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi but not Muslim refugees who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015.

Already several states, which are not governed by the country's ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have said they will not implement the law.

After returning to power in 2019, the BJP government on Aug 5 took a historic step of abrogating Articles 370 and 35A to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir's "temporary" special status.

With the passage of time, the Centre is slowly restoring normalcy in the valley though several Kashmiri politicians including former Chief Ministers- Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti- are kept in detention.

Interestingly, the EU countries were not a part of the list of envoys from 15 countries who had recently visited Jammu and Kashmir at the Indian government's invitation.

However, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said the EU countries were absent due to "number constraints".

"It is not true that the EU ambassadors do not want a guided tour. We had restrictions in number. In fact EU had welcomed the visit to Jammu and Kashmir but they wanted to go in a group which was quite big," Kumar had said.
Late last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, announced that he had fulfilled a campaign promise from 2018: He declared that the state had found a replacement for the Common Core State Standards . DeSantis pointed to the Florida Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (or B.E.S.T.) Standards that he said would replace the common core. He said that this overhaul of the states English/language arts and math standards would remove all vestiges of the common core from the states classrooms.

I am pleased that this historic task has been completed and we are well on our way to making Florida the best state in the nation for education, DeSantis said in a statement .

But in fact, the Florida Department of Educations move deals with issues beyond strictly the standards.

Heres some background: DeSantis ran for governor on the pledge that he would end the common core, which all but a handful of states adopted roughly a decade ago before it became a political pariah for liberals as well as conservatives. And very early in his tenure, DeSantis signed an executive order mandating an overhaul of the standards. The new B.E.S.T. standards will be revealed before February, according to the governors office.

Over the last several years, its been popular for politicians to announce that theyve supposedly ended the standards without changing them very much. And its not even the first time Florida has announced revisions to the standards; see this story about a repeal lite strategy from all the way back in 2014.

So what will actually change in Florida?

Part of the answer is: We dont know yet. As of Monday, the state department of education had yet to release a final version of the new standards. But it did release a summary of how the state had gone about dumping the common core into Biscayne Bay. Among the steps taken, the department says it has:

 Renewed Floridas focus on content-rich English Language Arts (ELA) standards by prioritizing the basic of reading and writing and promoting civil literacy.

 Added secondary grades (grades 6-12) foundations for literacy to provide targeted instruction for students who struggle in reading.

 Increased rigor by introducing rhetoric in 6th grade, giving students the opportunity to develop their reasoning, understanding of argumentative language, and writing skills.

 Increased mastery by focusing on foundational computational skills in the early grade levels before they enter middle school to reinforce the basics of arithmetic.

 Placed an elevated focus on memorizing math facts so students are not penalized for using the strategy that works best for them.

In addition, the State Board of Education has approved a rule change that requires publishers to submit, with their textbook bids, a No Common Core & Common Core Standards Assurance.

Math Facts and Civics

Its important to remember a few things.

The new Florida standards, and content standards in general, are supposed to be benchmarks, but how students get there depends largely on things like teacher strategies and curriculum. The standards themselves dont prohibit teaching things like civics and rhetoric, so just because those areas get additional emphasis or get explicitly added to Floridas standards doesnt mean that the common core is somehow diminished or overturned. As it happens, while some have advertised how the common core can incorporate lessons about civics , others believe the standards diminished civics .

Related news: On Monday, DeSantis announced a new speech and debate initiative for Florida middle and high school students, the Miami Herald reported.

And while textbook publishers pay close attention to states standards, its not clear how exactly the state would guarantee or ensure that a textbook is free of the common core.

That bit about memorizing math facts might irritate common-core supporters because it could represent a substantive departure from the standards. In 2015, for example, Jo Boaler wrote that the common core would help schools move away from the idea that students who are better memorizers do really have more ability in math.

More broadly, until theres a detailed crosswalk as to how certain common-core standards are altered or replaced, its not necessarily easy to declare the standards dead, alive, or somewhere in between in Florida.

Prior to this public shift away from the common core, Florida conducted a review of its standards to determine what it might want to change. As we pointed out in a story about DeSantis last year, some teachers made it clear that they didnt really want a radical change to the standards.

States often review their standards every few years, so the process of revamping standards works in cycles.

DeSantis isnt the only governor to make the common core a focus recently. In his State of the State address earlier this month, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, declared to lawmakers , Lets dismantle the remnants of common core, adding the state should also reduce standardized testing and give teachers a well-deserved pay raise.

The Florida departments document outlining how its changing the common core deals with more than the standards. The department plans to require, for example, all high school students to take the Florida Civics Literacy Test; under Florida law, students entering the Florida state university system or state community college system must demonstrate competency in civic literacy.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 01:54:12|Editor: yan

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DUBLIN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and European Union (EU) chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier held a meeting on Brexit in Dublin on Monday, according to a press release from the Irish government.

The meeting came just days before Britain will leave the EU on Jan. 31, 2020.

During the meeting, Varadkar and Barnier discussed the next phase of Brexit negotiations, dealing with the future relationship between the EU and Britain, including trade, said the press release.

They also discussed implementing the Irish Protocol as part of the Withdrawal Agreement, which sets out to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, guarantee citizens' rights, and protect the Good Friday Agreement, it said, adding that in the meeting Varadkar emphasized that "the upcoming negotiations should ensure no trade quotas, no tariffs, minimum bureaucracy and a level playing field between Ireland, the EU and the UK."

Local media RTE reported that Barnier would travel to Britain's Northern Ireland on Monday afternoon following his meeting with Irish prime minister in Dublin.
Mumbai: Siemens Ltd on Friday signed an agreement to acquire New Delhi-based C&S Electric Ltd for around Rs 2,100 crore.

Under the agreement, Siemens Ltd will acquire around 99 percent of the equity share capital of C&S Electric.

"The acquisition of one of the leading providers of electrical and electronic equipment for infrastructure, power generation, transmission and distribution, will strengthen Siemens' position as a key supplier of low-voltage power distribution and electrical installation technology in one of the world's fastest-growing economies," Siemens said in a statement.

The scope of the acquisition comprises the Indian operations of C&S Electric's low-voltage switchgear components and panels, low and medium voltage power busbars as well as protection and metering devices businesses. Other businesses of the company such as medium voltage switchgear and package sub-station, lighting, diesel generating sets, EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) and the Etacom busbars business will be retained by the owners, it said.

Post the acquisition, C&S Electric will continue to operate under its own brand name.

Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Ltd said: "The addition of C&S Electric's products, sales network, manufacturing units and a highly competent employee base will complement and strengthen the range of Siemens' offering. This will bolster our portfolio not only in India, but also for export to competitive international markets in line with our growth strategy."

C&S Electric was founded in 1966 and has more than 5,000 employees across three main manufacturing locations -- Haridwar, Noida and Guwahati -- including a research and development centre in India.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa  When Pete Buttigieg was asked Thursday if it worried him that mostly white people attended his big rallies in South Carolina, he said yes.

But when Mr. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., was asked Saturday if he was concerned about speaking to a nearly all-white crowd in Storm Lake, a northwest Iowa town that is 38 percent Hispanic, he dodged the question.

While Mr. Buttigieg has established himself as a top-tier candidate in Iowa and New Hampshire, two states at the front of the Democratic presidential nominating calendar that are 90 percent white, he has struggled to win support from the black voters who make up the vast majority of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina, which comes fourth.

That has led Mr. Buttigieg to adopt divergent campaign styles for Iowa and for South Carolina.

In Iowa, Mr. Buttigieg is the centerpiece of his theater-in-the-round-style town hall events. The production is designed to show him as ascendant, with momentum building toward the states caucuses next Monday. In South Carolina, where the primary falls Feb. 29, Mr. Buttigieg still needs help telling his story, so he has invited prominent African-American supporters to interview him onstage, where he has faced sharper and more skeptical questions than he does in Iowa.
A closely watched lawsuit in Las Vegas, Nevada, Case No. A-18-779645-B, between businessman Michael Evers and serial debtor in default, Eric Brashear came to its conclusion on January 24, 2020, after nearly two years of contentious litigation. The facts of the case were simple. Evers, who has business interests ranging from highly profitable Las Vegas tourist attractions to the world's largest solar-powered data center worth billions, and Brashear, who owns a struggling shooting range geared toward tourists, used to be close friends.

Evers loaned Brashear a large six-figure sum of cash as a lifeline to bail out Brashear's plague of poor financial decisions as Brashear was in imminent danger of his Las Vegas home being foreclosed.

Brashear showed his gratitude by failing to repay his friend in a timely manner as they had previously agreed. Perhaps Brashear's desperate need for an infusion of cash should have been a red flag to Evers, but Evers was doing as any loyal friend would and gave Brashear the benefit of the doubt. Brashear did not refute he breached the loan agreement, but he brazenly sued Evers after Evers attempted to recover money which was legally his to recover.

What was Eric Brashear's justification? He claimed his failure to repay was due to a slump in business caused by the 2017 Las Vegas massacre where 58 people were killed and another 413 were wounded. This line of defense taken by Brashear caused outrage and Brashear found himself the subject of media scrutiny and contemptuous public comments.

The entire 148-minute video deposition of Eric Brashear is included at the bottom of this article.

There are also video clips of the deposition for readers to view. Below, Eric Brashear contradicted his claims of being unable to pay his debts due to financial hardship caused by the 2017 mass shooting when he stated under oath his profits soared in 2018.

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Plainly spoken, Eric Brashear attempted to manipulate the circumstances following the murder of innocent concert-goers for his financial benefit and when he was forced to tell the truth he admitted his lies for the public to see in shock and horror.

Eric Brashear's sympathy seeking didn't impress the judge

Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who presided over the case, was not persuaded by Brashear.

Gonzalez found it as a conclusion of law, "The Court concludes failure to make timely payments on the Promissory Note is a default." Gonzalez also decisively found as a conclusion of law, "There is no breach of the covenant of good faith or fair dealing." This conclusion eliminated Eric Brashear's argument which attempted to muddy the waters by accusing Evers of business interference.

Gonzalez further wrote, "The interference claims did not cause damage to the Plaintiffs [Brashear]; Plaintiffs' [Brashear's] decision to terminate the employees resulted in the loss claimed by the Plaintiffs." In other words, Eric Brashear fired his own employees and then attempted to blame the firing on Evers, by apparent osmosis, when it was the largess of Evers who graciously hired several of Brashear's former employees to work for him.

Furthermore, an expose published during the trial that interviewed Brashear's former employees uncovered treatment which was described as abusive and was corroborated by multiple sources. Judge Gonzalez found it as fact, "Evers accused Brashear of sending empty envelopes with no checks for the November and December 2018 payments." During his deposition, Eric Brashear opened the envelope sent to Michael Evers in December of 2018 and it was empty.

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Eric Brashear denied by Steve Wynn's former business partner's brother

Fred Doumani, the brother of Ed Doumani, Steve Wynn's former business partner, was brought forward as a witness by Eric Brashear. Discussions had previously taken place where Brashear sought to gain a loan from Fred Doumani.

Brashear attempted to claim because Evers sought to recover the money he loaned to Brashear, which Brashear then sued Evers for, to thwart the recovery, was the cause of Fred Doumani declining to loan Brashear any cash. The premise of the argument was absurd. During his deposition, Eric Brashear admitted under oath, "Ultimately, Fred made the decision to not get involved based on the lead cleanup." Judge Gonzalez found as fact, "Plaintiffs did not establish that Evers interfered with potential loans from Doumani."

Now Eric Brashear Must Pay Hundreds Of Thousands In Legal Fees

As a consequence of the ruling, Eric Brashear is now liable for all of the legal fees Michael Evers accrued as that too was a stipulation of the loan agreement.

Eric Brashear was asking during his deposition, "What was your understanding of this provision for collection costs?" Eric Brashear conceded, "That if we didn't make the payments that we would be responsible for the collection costs required to recover his money."

Brashear was further asked by Evers' lead counsel Joseph Gutierrez, "And collection costs would include attorney fees. It says whether or not a lawsuit was commenced. Was that your understanding?" Eric Brashear again conceded, "Yeah, my understanding was if we failed to make the payments and he needed to incur collection costs to get that money, to recover his money, that we would cover those costs."

Eric Brashear May have more legal trouble on the horizon

Eric Brashear claimed poverty and that he couldn't afford to pay Michael Evers, but he took it upon himself to retain the services of several law firms and rack up a six-figure bill for services most of which he has not yet been paid.

It is expected some of Brashear's former legal team will soon be filing a lawsuit against him for non-payment. He will now likely be effectively paying over three times what he would have paid had he simply repaid his friend.

Judge Gonzalez ruled as a finding of fact, "Section IV of the Promissory Note states that 'If any payment obligation under this Note is not paid when due, the Borrower promises to pay all costs of collection, including reasonable attorney fees, whether or not a lawsuit is commenced as part of the collection process.'" Those attorney fees are estimated to be at least $100,000 as Evers retained the services of the high powered and nationally feared firm of Maier Gutierrez & Associates who have the distinction of previously winning a $2.2 billion judgment which is the largest single civil case award in Nevada history.
Communication goes beyond language and its nuances to express thoughts that should be clearly understood. Anyone who has ever misunderstood a message knows that communication can easily miss the mark.

Agency and team credits

Ad title: Venda/Vendor

Country: South Africa

Client: King Price

Creative agency: Freckle

Account director: Bouwer Bosch

Executive creative director: Bennie Fourie

Creative director: Bennie Fourie

Copywriter: Bennie Fourie

Art director: Reg Hart

Concept: Gerrie Cloete

TV production: Freckle

Media planners: Xfacta

Production company: Freckle

Recording studio: Planet Awesome

Music and sound design: Peach van Pletzen

Agency producer: Bouwer Bosch

King Prices latest TV commercial uses wit and humour to poke fun at South Africans occasional cultural misinterpretations.In this funny and insightful insurance ad by King Price, a white businessman is seen learning Venda culture from the regalia to the language. The eager learner soon bids farewell to his Venda host community and heads to the city.He then enters a boardroom dressed in Venda traditional clothing. In shock, the meeting chairperson asks him What are you doing? to which he replies You said if I wanted to do business with you I have to become a Venda. The man chairing the meeting turns towards the wall with a sign that reads vendor applications.This humorous piece by Freckle for King Price sends an important message about communicating to be understood and making sense to your customers as a brand.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A new paper-thin radio-frequency detector designed to work inside a lithium-ion battery provides information about the battery's health while charging and discharging.

"It could enable researchers to check a battery's function and capacity after years of storage without destroying it," said Eric Sorte, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories.

The work, funded by Sandia's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program will help researchers better understand and characterize batteries to improve them for renewable storage and national security applications. Manufacturers also might use this one day to run diagnostic tests, Sorte said.

Magnetic resonance detector moved inside battery

As a lithium-ion battery powers an electronic device and then recharges, chemical and physical changes happen inside that reduce its function over time. Molecular side products form as lithium ions nestle into and leave each electrode. These molecules can consume the active lithium and reduce a battery's capacity. Electrodes also can undergo unwanted chemical changes, reducing their ability to stay charged. Microscopic spikes of lithium can grow from an electrode surface, consuming key charge-carrying ions and creating potentially flammable conditions.

As researchers work to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries, they tweak a battery's chemical components and cycle the system through many charges and discharges. Then they open the battery and examine the materials under a microscope to see how their structure and composition have changed.

Researchers could get that information much faster if they could monitor conditions inside a battery as it's charging and discharging. One way they currently do that is with a technique that uses the same principles as magnetic-resonance imaging in hospitals. This method provides clues to a molecule's structure and environment by looking at signals from a specific element in that molecule.

Here's how it works: First, the instrument sends a pulse of radio waves tailored to interact with a specific atomic nucleus in elements such as lithium, sulfur or hydrogen. As a nucleus settles back to its original state, it gives off a signal that changes predictably depending on an atom's surroundings.

Researchers have used this technique to look at chemical changes in batteries before, but they had to modify battery components in ways that don't exist in working batteries. This new detector, created by Sorte along with Sandia materials scientist Todd Alam and other colleagues, is designed to work in batteries as they are made for everyday use. It is thinner than a sheet of paper and can be made to fit inside a battery of any shape.

The researchers have already slipped it inside a commercially available battery. They imagine one day inserting the detector strip inside a battery during manufacturing, so it already contains the component needed for a quick health check.

Specific signals from molecular components indicate charge, chemical changes

Using this detector, Sorte and his colleagues can see unique signals for lithium ions as they interact with the material in each electrode. This enables them to track how much charge a battery holds throughout repeated charging and discharging cycles; declining capacity is a sign that a battery is dying.

The researchers can also see unique signals from molecules produced during side reactions as a battery operates. They can monitor these molecular side products and then tweak a battery's chemical components to reduce undesirable reactions. These changes can help them improve batteries to have properties needed for applications such as large-scale renewable energy storage. Manufacturers also could use this device one day to run diagnostic tests on batteries, Sorte said.

The same approach and detector strip could be used to look at the inner workings of vanadium flow batteries and other chemistries too, he added. Sorte also is working on monitoring the inner life of a battery using the electrodes already there, so that no additional components are needed.

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.
Dismissed: Oliver Morley had claimed RBS's controversial Global Restructuring Group placed him under 'economic duress'

A propertydeveloper who was trying to sue Royal Bank of Scotland for ruining his business has lost his case.

Oliver Morley had claimed RBSs controversial Global Restructuring Group (GRG) placed him under economic duress, which led to some of his properties being seized by the bank and sold for a profit. But in a High Court judgment yesterday, the claim was dismissed.

Mr Justice Kerr found that RBS did not breach its duty to exercise reasonable care and skill when dealing with Morley, that its actions were rationally connected to its commercial interests, and that the bank did not engineer a default on Morleys loan.
Buttigieg Refuses to Give Ground During Questioning by Pro-Life Democrat

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg declined to shift away from the official Democratic stance on abortion when questioned by a pro-life Democrat voter during a town hall over the weekend.

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats For Life of America, told Buttigieg that shes proud to be a pro-life Democrat.

Do you want the support of pro-life Democrats, pro-life Democratic voters? There are about 21 million of us. And if so, would you support more moderate platform language in the Democratic Party to ensure that the party of diversity, of inclusion, really does include everybody? she asked the 2020 contender during a Fox News town hall on Jan. 26.

Buttigieg said he wanted Days vote but didnt want to get it by tricking her.

I am pro-choice. And I believe that a woman ought to be able to make that decision, he said.

The best that I can offerand it may win your vote and, if not, I understandthe best I can offer is that if we cant agree on where to draw the line, the next best thing we can do is agree on who should draw the line. And in my view, its the woman whos faced with that decision in her own life.

Day said she wasnt satisfied with Buttigiegs answer because he didnt answer the second part.

A doctor performs an ultrasound scan on a pregnant woman at a hospital in Chicago. (Teresa Crawford, AP Photo/File)

She said, The Democratic platform contains language that basically says that we dont belong, we have no part in the party, because it says abortion should be legal up to nine months, the government should pay for it, and theres nothing that says that people who have a diversity of views on this issue should be included in the party.

Day noted that the Democrat Party used to be more open to pro-life voters and asked Buttigieg again if he would be open to a shift in the official party stance.

I support the position of my party that this kind of medical care needs to be available to everyone. And I support the Roe vs. Wade framework that holds that early in pregnancy there are very few restrictions, and late in pregnancy there are very few exceptions. And again, the best I can offer is that we may disagree on that very important issue, and hopefully we will be able to partner on other issues, he said.

Democrats have shifted from a line popularized by President Bill Clintonthat abortions should be safe, legal, and rareto safe and legal abortion.

We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion, the partys 2016 platform states.

Most of the partys presidential contenders support abortion even in the third trimester, which surveys show is opposed by about four out of every five Americans. Among questions sent to candidates by The New York Times last year was one that asked whether opponents of abortion rights should be welcomed as members of the party. A number of candidates indicated no.

Buttigieg signaled he doesnt think of pro-life Americans as Democrats.

Democrats believe every person has the right to make decisions about their own reproductive health and about their body, he said in response to the question.

Buttigiegs comments earned support from pro-abortion groups.

Anyone, regardless of personal beliefs is and always has been welcome in the party as long as they are not trying to exert control over others, with massive damaging effect. Pete said as much in his answer, Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said on Twitter.

Petes answersand Petewere spot on. I applaud him. Values-based and unwavering. His is an honest attempt to win people over to a pro-choice position. Its important bc were literally in a crisis, and too often, its invisible unless our candidates shine a light on it, she wrote.

There was pushback from pro-life groups.

Doubling down on abortion extremism, last night Mayor Buttigieg could not identify a single instance where he would limit abortion, or even acknowledge room for debate on the issue within the Democratic Party. This is a mistake. Recent polling shows 44 percent of rank-and-file Democrats want to vote for a candidate who supports common-ground limits on abortion, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.

The modern Democratic Party is the party of abortion on demand through birth, paid for by taxpayers, and even infanticide. President Trump, in stark contrast, has championed popular legislation to stop late-term abortion and protect babies who survive abortions. The choice for voters is clear. Only one candidate will uphold the compassionate consensus of the American people when it comes to abortion: President Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Monday sent a message on the Sveti Sava Day saying that the Serb minority is "a model of inter-ethnic relations and social cohesion in Romania, to which it contributes alongside the other ethnic minorities and the majority population."

"This is a special day for the ethnic Serbs. For we are marking today, for the first time, the Sveti Sava Day, which is the day when we celebrate the Serb minority in Romania, as adopted last year by Parliament, in a grateful recognition of the contribution of our Serb fellow citizens to the Romanian cultural, social and political life. The presence of the ethnic Serbs on the Romanian territory ever since the early Middle Ages represents a real gain for the national cultural heritage," Ludovic Orban said in his message.He brought to mind that, more than two decades ago, Romania hosted in Timisoara the first meeting of the Serb minorities from all over Europe."The same city, Timisoara, and its twin city Novi Sad from Serbia, were designated European Capital of Culture in 2021, for which event they prepare a complex cultural offer that will complete the other city's. The main argument in promoting Timisoara to become a cultural capital was its multiculturalism, considering the ethnic-cultural mixture of the city, while the representatives of the Serb minority were an active part of this process. This is an important project, which will capitalize once more on the potential of cultural diversity, to the benefit of the entire community, in social and development terms," said Orban.The head of the Executive pointed out there is need of more examples like this."We need more examples like this and especially today I want to thank the members of the Serb minority on behalf the Government for the model of good inter-ethnic relations and social cohesion they showed in Romania, to which social cohesion they contribute alongside the other ethnic minorities and the majority population. History made it so that the Romanian territory is home to us all and together we will build our future too," Orban said.The PM pointed out that the national minorities enjoy the respect of the majority population and have equal rights in Romania, which is known on a domestic and international level."Promoting the minorities' culture, tradition and specificity, guaranteeing their representativeness in the decision-making process of the Romanian state are natural things in a developed and educated society, and this is the path that the Government will continue to follow. Many happy returns of the day, Serb minority in Romania! Many happy returns to all Serbs on the occasion of this day dedicated to their spiritual protector, Saint Sava!," concluded Orban.
WASHINGTON - Mounting evidence released amid the ongoing presidential impeachment hearings indicates that the pressure President Donald Trump and his aides put on Ukraine was driven by a focus on his political rivals, even as Trump's defenders say the president was acting out of general concern about corruption in that country.

The White House is emphasizing that argument anew as the defense makes its case in the Senate trial.

"Asking a foreign leader to get to the bottom of issues of corruption is not a violation of an oath," Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, told the senators Monday.

But that assertion was dramatically undercut by reports Sunday about a draft book manuscript by former national security adviser John Bolton. In it, he recounts that Trump told him he was holding up military aid to Ukraine until the country's leaders agreed to open investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the book.

Trump has denied that account, which was first reported by the New York Times, tweeting Monday, "I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens."

"The transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed," he added.

But a rough transcript of the July call released by the White House shows that Trump specifically urged the Ukrainian president to pursue two investigations: one into the Bidens and the other into a discredited theory involving an internet security company that probed the Democratic National Committee hack in 2016.

He never mentions the word "corruption," the transcript shows.

Text messages and congressional testimony also show that, behind the scenes, the president's envoys repeatedly rejected efforts by Ukrainian officials to commit to broadly cracking down on corruption - insisting instead that their public statements mention the Ukrainian gas company where Biden's son was on the board and allegations about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In exchange, the Ukrainians were hoping to secure a coveted meeting at the White House for President Volodymyr Zelensky, which has still not occurred.

Trump's allies have suggested that a president concerned about corruption would be irresponsible to ignore the allegations of wrongdoing about Biden. However, the president only began speaking out about the role of Biden's son on the board of a Ukrainian gas company after the former vice president emerged as a potential 2020 rival.

While Trump has fixated on Biden, he has expressed sympathy for his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty to failing to pay taxes on $30 million he earned in political consulting fees in Ukraine, where he worked with an array of officials around former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who fled the country amid corruption accusations.

Trump has repeatedly said in recent months that he was urging Ukraine to look at corruption broadly.

"I don't care about Biden's campaign, but I do care about corruption," he told reporters outside the White House in October.

The president reiterated that in recent weeks, telling reporters at his Florida resort on Jan. 1, "We did nothing wrong," adding: "We have to check corruption."

His Republican allies have echoed that argument.

"A president always has the constitutional authority and in fact, the responsibility to investigate serious evidence of corruption," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday.

However, the political aim of the Ukraine pressure campaign is underlined in the newest batch of text messages released by the House from Lev Parnas, a onetime associate of Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

The messages show a concerted effort to secure statements regarding Biden from then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko for U.S. news outlets, just as special counsel Robert Mueller geared up to release his report about Russian interference and Biden prepared to announce his presidential run.

At one point, Lutsenko wrote to Parnas that he was prepared to "screw over your opponent," in an apparent reference to Biden.

Texts between the two men also show they discussed a clear deal: In exchange for making the damaging statements about Biden, Lutsenko was seeking the ouster of the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, as well as a visit to the United States to meet Attorney General William P. Barr and other unspecified help for his boss, Poroshenko, who was fighting for his political life in a presidential election he would ultimately lose.

The messages show that Giuliani became angry when Lutsenko reversed his previous public suggestions of wrongdoing by Biden.

None of the exchanges between the men make mention of U.S. aims to end corruption in Ukraine.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Parnas said that Giuliani emphasized the importance of the Ukrainians singling out Biden in a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky adviser Andriy Yermak in the lobby of a five-star luxury hotel in Madrid in early August.

"They had to include a statement about Burisma and Biden," said Parnas, who was at the meeting.

Burisma is a gas company owned by a former Ukrainian government minister accused by authorities and anti-corruption activists there of abusing his office to build his energy fortune. Hunter Biden served on the firm's board from 2014 to 2019.

Parnas's account matches what Giuliani told The Post in September, when he said that he urged Yermak to pursue investigations into Burisma and alleged coordination between Democrats and Ukrainians in 2016.

"Your country owes it to us and to your country to find out what really happened," Giuliani said he told Yermak during the Madrid meeting.

Yermak, according to Giuliani, indicated that the Ukrainians were open to pursuing the investigations. The aide reiterated the Ukrainians' plea for a meeting with Trump, a summit that would be an important signal to Russia of Washington's support for Ukraine.

Parnas said Giuliani told Yermak that he planned to follow up with two U.S. diplomats, Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland, and that the three Americans would discuss the precise wording of Zelensky's statement.

"They were supposed to work it out," Parnas said.

After the Madrid meeting, Yermak texted Volker that the Ukrainians would announce probes into Burisma, as well as the 2016 election, according to messages released by House investigators.

"Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations," he wrote.

"Sounds great!" Volker responded.

But two days later, Yermak sent Volker a draft statement that referred only generally to "the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States," text messages show.

Volker and Sondland consulted with Giuliani on the statement. The president's lawyer did not find it "convincing," Volker recalled in his testimony.

"Mr. Giuliani was the one giving the input as to what the president wanted in the statement. He wanted Burisma and 2016 election mentioned in the statement. And I don't believe the Ukrainians were prepared to do that," Sondland told House investigators.

In a group text with Sondland, Volker sent new language to Yermak that included an "insert at the end for the 2 key items" - specific references to Burisma and the 2016 election.

But privately, Volker said, he warned Yermak that releasing the statement "was not a good idea" and could entangle the Ukrainians in U.S. domestic politics.

"Because of conversations with Giuliani, I wanted to make sure that I was cautioning the Ukrainians, 'Don't get sucked in,' " Volker recounted.

The Ukrainians ultimately did not release the statement - and Zelensky has still not received an official White House meeting.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials grew increasingly concerned that Trump was holding back more than $300 million in military assistance to Ukraine until Zelensky agreed to open the Biden investigation.

Trump has denied linking the two issues. But people familiar with Bolton's new book say that the former adviser says he was told by the president in August that Ukraine would not get the aid without complying.

Text messages released by the House show that the pressure on Ukrainian officials to make a statement about Trump's Democratic opponents began in early 2019, before Zelensky's election.

Texts written in Russian show Lutsenko urging Parnas early last year to force out Yovanovitch in exchange for cooperation regarding Biden. At one point, Lutsenko suggested he wouldn't make any helpful public statements unless "madam" is removed.

"It's just that if you don't make a decision about Madam - you are calling into question all my declarations. Including about B," Lutsenko wrote to Parnas in a March 22 message on WhatsApp.

It's unclear if 'B' is a reference to Biden or Burisma.

Four days later, Lutsenko told Parnas that work on the case against the owner of the gas company is proceeding successfully and evidence of the money transfers of "B" had been obtained.

"And here you can't even remove one fool," Lutsenko laments, using a sad-face emoticon as he again appeared to push for Yovanovitch's ouster.

"She's not a simple fool[,] trust me," Parnas responded. "But she's not getting away."

Yovanovitch was called back to Washington in late April and removed from her post about a month later.

The messages show that Lutsenko became frustrated as the ambassador remained in her post for months, and Parnas failed to get him a meeting with Barr and help Poroshenko.

Lutsenko wrote on March 13 that he was "sick of this," using an expletive. "I haven't received a visit," he added. "My boss hasn't received jack. I'm prepared to screw over your opponent. But you just want more and more. We're over. I'll deal with you later. This isn't honest."

After Poroshenko lost, putting Lutsenko's political future in doubt, he gave an interview to Bloomberg News saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens in Ukraine.

Giuliani became incensed, the text messages show. Parnas immediately texted Lutsenko: "911 911 call me." He demanded to see Lutsenko in person in the middle of the night.

"Yura tell me where I should come I have to see you urgently," Parnas wrote in a frenzy, using a nickname for Yuri. "Yura it is very very very important."

When Lutsenko said he was 30 kilometers outside Kyiv and asked to talk by phone, Parnas replied: "I have no choice i really need very important to speak with you very important and Because Rudy really wants to speak with you today with me it's really important. Trust me I don't want to go 30 km right now."

They discussed where to meet before Lutsenko reluctantly agreed to come to Parnas.

_ _ _

The Washington Post's Toluse Olorunnipa, Seung Min Kim and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged her arch-rival Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M) and the Congress to put aside narrow political differences and jointly fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre as West Bengal became the fourth state to pass an assembly resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the passage of the resolution, Banerjee said the National Population Register (NPR), the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the CAA are related. She called the amended citizenship law anti-people amid slogans like Didi-Modi are two sides of the same coin by members of the Opposition Congress and the CPI (M). Banerjee is popularly known as Didi or sister.

Banerjee referred to the Congress and the CPI (M)s criticism over her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 11 and added her government had the guts to skip a meeting related to the NPR in Delhi ...if the BJP wants, it can dismiss my government, said Banerjee.

She insisted the CAA is anti-constitutional. We want this law to be repealed immediately, she said. Banerjee asked the Congress and the Left Front to stop spreading canards against her government. Time has come to forget our narrow differences and fight together to save the country, she said.

Banerjee maintained her government will never allow citizenship screening. The CAA and the NRC will alienate genuine citizens, she said.

The resolution came two days after Congress-ruled Rajasthan passed an assembly resolution saying the CAA should be scrapped. Left-ruled Kerala and Congress-ruled Punjab passed similar resolutions on December 31 and January 17.

The CAA was passed last month to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before 2015, and triggered protests across the country.

Slogans against Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah were also raised during the discussion on the West Bengal assembly resolution, which sought a repeal of the CAA. The resolution also demanded that the NRC and NPR process be withdrawn immediately. It added the NPR and NRC are linked.

The NPR is a comprehensive biometric database of all usual residents in India as opposed to the Census, which is a database of households. It has generated controversy with the Opposition parties contending the exercise is linked to the National Register for Indian Citizens aimed at identifying undocumented immigrants. The government has in the past described NPR as the first step towards a nationwide NRC. It now maintains that there is no link between the two and that an all-India NRC is not immediately on the anvil.

Kerala and West Bengal have announced they will not participate in the NPR exercise, which will begin from April.

West Bengals parliamentary affairs minister, Partha Chatterjee, tabled the resolution in the assembly. BJP lawmakers like Swadhin Kumar Sarkar opposed the resolution amid anti-Centre slogans by ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) members. The BJP has 14 members in West Bengals 294-member House.

Congress and the Left parties supported the government and voted for the resolution even as their leaders criticised the TMC for not allowing them to introduce it earlier this month.

CPI (M) lawmaker Sujan Chakraborty questioned why the TMC government did not pass the resolution they wanted to present on January 9 and waited till January 27. The Centre brought the CAA into force on January 10.

BJP leader Rahul Sinha said the resolution proves that the TMC government is anti-national and anti-Constitution because it speaks against a law [CAA] of the country. He said the TMC is opposed to the NPR because once the population data is compiled, people will come to know how many people in Bengal are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and how many citizens are jobless.
The holocaust memorial day was observed by Jammu and Kashmir Unity Foundation (JKUF) here on Monday capital city.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 commemorates the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jews.

The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Russian forces, organiser of the event Ajaat Jamwal said, adding that it was for the first time that the day was observed in Jammu.

Increased awareness about the genocidal war unleashed on Hindus and Sikhs during partition and on Hindus in Kashmir in 1989-90 has created an urgency among the citizens to understand human holocausts around the world and particularly the genocidal wars, Jamwal said.

To commemorate the day, JKUF organised a panel discussion on 'genocides by Pakistan in J&K - 1947 and afterwards' which was attended by distinguished citizens of Jammu from various walks of life.

The panelists were unanimous in highlighting the necessity of recognising genocides against Hindus of the subcontinent from time to time.

These genocides have not been recognised internationally because Hindus and other patriotic citizens have chosen to be willfully blind about them, they said.

This has eventually led to the worst form of denial of genocide by successive governments since Independence as well as by the entire political establishment, they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MANILA, Philippines  The Manila City government on Monday, January 27, denied rumors spreading online about a case of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the Philippine capital.

In a statement, the Manila Public Information Office (PIO) said there is no confirmed case of the 2019-nCoV involving a Chinese national who was admitted at the Metropolitan Hospital in Binondo.

Manila City Health Officer Dr. Arnold Pangan identified the Chinese national as a 27-year old male who was working at a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO).

Pangan said the Chinese man was hospitalized last January 25, 2020, due to fever and cough. The City Health Officer said the foreigner reportedly resides on the boundary of Pasay and Paranaque Cities.

Case is a 27-year old male, arrived in the Philippines as POGO worker last January 8, 2020. He is from Obei, China, Pangan said in his report to the Office of the Mayor.

MHD Surveillance Team, in coordination with DOH surveillance, and as per investigation, patient has fever and cough but negative on the history of travel to Wuhan, China, and no history of exposure to a host or positive case, he stressed.

Pangan said the Chinese national was diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia.

As of the moment, the patient is well and does not have fever, he said.

The MHD is in a continuous effort of intensive information dissemination in our public schools and respective barangays regarding precautions on stopping transmission of coronavirus, he added.

The Manila PIO said the coronavirus scare on social media has apparently compelled the following schools in the nations capital to suspend classes for Monday.

Philippine Academy of Sakya

Saint Stephens High School

Saint Jude Catholic School

Chiang Kai Shek College  Padre Algue and Narra branches

Uno High School

Meanwhile, Manila Mayor Francisco Isko Moreno Domagoso appealed to the public to avoid sharing unverified information on social media to prevent panic or anxiety among the public over the virus spreading internationally.

Story continues

Hindi ikinikibit-balikat ang sitwasyong ito. Be vigilant. Huwag kayong maiilang. Huwag muna masyadong mag-alala. Tayo po ay makinig sa mga lathalain, panawagan ng mga tamang tao at ahensya ng gobyerno, he said.

Mayor Isko also encouraged all citizens to immediately proceed to the nearest clinic or health center if they feel they are suffering from symptoms of the virus, which include cough, fever, and shortness of breath.

Ngayon naman, sa lahat ng ating mga barangay, nakikisuyo ang ating MHD na kayoy makipagtulungan by just being vigilant. Kayo rin, tayong lahat, huwag kayong matatakot kapag kayo ay may ubo. Mas maganda magpagamot at magpa-check up, he said.

The national Department of Health (DOH) has said there is still no confirmed case yet of 2019-nCoV in the Philippines although it is monitoring at least 11 individuals for a suspected respiratory infection. These patients under investigation have been recorded in different hospitals in Muntinlupa and Pasay Cities in Metro Manila, Kalibo in Aklan, El Nido in Palawan, Cebu City, and Camiguin, based on DOHs data.

Based on the latest report of Chinas National Health Commission, the death toll from the novel coronavirus strain has spiked to 80 on Monday with hundreds of new infections despite massive travel lockdown and quarantines in China.

The virus was first detected in the Chinese City of Wuhan and has since spread to neighboring towns and other countries. Confirmed 2019-nCoV cases have been reported as far as the United States, Canada, France, Australia, Nepal, as well as in Asian cities of Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The post Manila Health Dept. says rumored novel coronavirus case just pneumonia appeared first on UNTV News.
P olice are investigating the sale of beer with a Nazi-style label in an east German supermarket.

Around the world, 75 years to the day since Soviet troops liberated the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, leaders and organisations paid tribute to the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

As commemorations were held, police were investigating the sale of a German Reich Brew (Deutsches Reichsbrau) beer in the town of Bad Bibra.

The beer has a label bearing the Nazi eagle symbol, but with the Iron Cross shown inside a wreath rather than a swastika.

Its Gothic script lettering echoes that used in neo-Nazi propaganda, and the label is the brown colour of Nazi uniforms.

A district chief in Germany shared the pictures of the beer on Facebook / Gotz Ulrich/Facebook

It was being sold in crates costing 18.88 - 18 being a significant number to neo-Nazis, who treat the first and eighth letter of the alphabet, AH, as code for Adolf Hitler.

District chief Gotz Ulrich posted on Facebook expressing shame and anger at the sale of the beer.

Mr Ulrich wrote on the site: I feel so ashamed The worst thing is that the beer has been flying off the shelves and is sold out."

The use of Nazi symbols is banned in Germany if there is a clear link to Nazi or other far-right groups or ideology.

German media reported that the beer was first sold over the internet earlier this month, advertised by a known neo-Nazi activist, Tommy Frenck.

The activist runs a pub near Themar, a small town in Saxony which is the venue for an annual neo-Nazi festival.

Retail chain Getranke-Quelle told German media it was their franchisees decision to sell the item in the store Bad Bibra, that the manager has been asked to withdraw the beer and the company will remove its branding from the store.
President Donald Trump has hit back at John Bolton, after explosive revelations in a leaked copy of the former national security advisor's new book.

Bolton reportedly claims that he was told by Trump that he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals, in a leaked copy seen by the New York Times.

But in a series of late-night tweets the president once again denied such arrangements between the U.S. and Ukraine were made.

'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,' the president tweeted.

'With that being said, the transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems,' he continued.

'Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations.....(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration,' the President wrote in a series of tweets.

National security advisor John Bolton says he's 'prepared to testify' in Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed

Trump reportedly told the then-national security advisor he wanted a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine unless it aided investigations into his rivals

Bolton's revelations challenge the defense offered up by Trump and his attorneys in his Senate impeachment trial and raises the stakes as the chamber decided this week whether to seek sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses.

Bolton, who acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on September 11, has already told lawmakers that he is willing to testify, despite the president's order barring aides from cooperating in the probe.

Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has played a prominent role in the Ukraine affair, replied to a request for comment with a text: 'I used to like and respect John and tell people they were wrong about how irresponsible he was. I was wrong.'

Democrats need at least four Republicans to vote with them to seek witness testimony. Those prospects looked unlikely in recent days and it's unclear if the new revelations about Bolton's book will sway any GOP senators.

Democrats quickly sought to ramp up the pressure on their Republican counterparts.

President Trump sent out a triple set of tweets early on Monday morning in response to allegations made by National security advisor John Bolton the president wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his rivals

'John Bolton has the evidence,' tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. 'Its up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trumps actions testify in the Senate trial.'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no immediate comment, according to his office.

The Associated Press has not confirmed the content of Bolton's draft book. A person familiar with the matter told the AP the book had been submitted to the White House for pre-publication review, which is standard for the work of former officials with security clearances. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject.

The book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, declined to comment.

Democrats accuse Trump of abuse of power in withholding the military assistance to Ukraine to push that country to mount investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden (right) and his son Hunter (left)

President Trump's defense team began their case for his acquittal on Saturday

Sarah Tinsley, an advisor to Bolton, said: 'The ambassador's manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period.'

Bolton attorney Charles J. Cooper said in a statement that the pre-publication review process had been 'corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript.'

Democrats accuse Trump of abuse of power in withholding the military assistance to Ukraine to push that country to mount investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company, Burisma, while his father was in office.

On Saturday, the president's attorneys said during their opening day of defense arguments that there was no evidence that Trump made the military aid contingent on the country announcing an investigation into Biden.

The Times also reported that Bolton says he told Attorney General William Barr that he was mentioned by Trump on his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Bolton acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on Sept. 11

Adam Schiff leads the House impeachment managers to the Senate to hear Trump's defense team

A Justice Department official on Sunday disputed Boltons account that he had told Barr about the presidents call with Zelenskiy but did say that Bolton had called Barr to raise concerns about Giulianis shadow diplomacy efforts.

Trump on Wednesday told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, that he didn't want Bolton to testify before the Senate.

'The problem with John is it's a national security problem,' Trump said. 'He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and its not very positive and then I have to deal on behalf of the country?'

He added: 'It's going to be very hard. It's going to make the job very hard.'
Mayo Clinic Healthcare in partnership with Oxford University Clinic, which has opened a new premium preventative healthcare facility in central London, is set to attend Arab Health 2020.

The Clinic is joining the HSMA delegation at Arab Health 2020 for the first time  as part of the 18 world-leading clinics and hospital groups showcasing Londons medical excellence at the largest healthcare trade exhibition in the Middle East.

Mayo Clinic, has forged a unique collaboration with Oxford University Clinic, itself a partnership between the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Located at 15 Portland Place, in the heart of Londons prestigious Harley Street Medical Area, the clinic provides an elevation in the coordination of care that is unique to the London healthcare space.

The new clinic provides advanced screening and diagnostics services, delivered through personalised health plans tailored to individual and corporate clients. These options include predictive genetics, MRI imaging, and artificial-intelligence heart health assessment. The programme, informed by the success of the executive health screening service that Mayo Clinic has refined over 40 years, is designed for people who want to take a proactive approach to managing their health.

The clinic welcomed its first patients in September 2019 and is the first manifestation of this partnership, which strives to boost innovation in medical research and patient care for patients in the UK, the USA and worldwide.

Mikaela Saunders, Head of Business Development at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in partnership with Oxford University Clinic, says:

Through combining two world-renowned names in healthcare, were thrilled to bring something new to the London medical scene. Our patient-centred ethos ensures everyone who steps through our doors is guided through the programme by their dedicated personal doctor, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to their health and wellbeing. As Mayo Clinic expands its footprint in the middle east, with the launch of a new hospital in Abu Dhabi, were excited to showcase this unique offering at Arab Health 2020.

The Harley Street Medical area is famed for its medical excellence in treating complex and life-threatening conditions. The area, managed by long-term landlord The Howard de Walden Estate, brings together a community of world-renowned medical professionals.

The Arab Health Exhibition and Congress is the largest healthcare event in the Middle East. The event takes place 27 January  30 January 2020 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE. -- Tradearabia News Service
MANILA, Philippines  Philippine officials in China are closely coordinating with the Filipinos in China especially those stranded in cities locked down due to the outbreak of novel Coronavirus.

In an interview with UNTVs Good Morning Kuya, First Secretary Raphael Hermoso of the Philippine Embassy in Beijing said they have already contacted one of the four Filipinos registered workers in Wuhan City, the epicenter of the outbreak.

The Filipino, a student in Central China Normal University, confirmed to the Embassy that he is in good condition, according to Hermoso.

The official said they are enforcing strict health measures in the Embassy and all consulates across China to help prevent the infection.

Ini-impose natin ang (We are imposing the) no mask, no entry (policy) and temperature check, Hermoso assured.

Mag self-quarantine kung may nararamdaman na, (We advise Filipinos to self-quarantine if they feel the symptoms) na then (contact us) and we will address the situation, he added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has advised Filipinos in China to take necessary precautions and follow the advice from local health authorities in their areas.

Consulate officials are already in touch with around 150 Filipinos in Wuhan City and has requested Filipino community leaders to provide assistance to those on tour or holders of short-time visit.

We are hoping na hindi na po lumala ang (We are hoping the outbreak will not go out of hand.) Of course, our Philippine Embassy and Consulate will be ready to assist our Kababayans, Hermoso assured.

The UNTV was able to contact Filipino worker Shaukeen Canas in Jingzhou City in Hubei Province.

Jingzhou City is among the 20 cities currently on lockdown.

Canas said he immediately packed his things upon hearing of the nCoV outbreak.

But when he reached the Jingzhou Train Station, service was shut down and no passengers were allowed inside the station.

Hindi kami nakasakay. Na-close na kami, (We werent able to board. It was already closed,) Canas said.

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When they returned to the hotel they were staying, almost all employees have gone out.

Canas was able to film the empty streets in Jingzhou where establishments and houses were all closed.

Lahat sarado po ng establishment para pong (All establishments are now closed), its like a ghost town, she described.

Shaukeen fears for their health given the increasing number of people infected by the novel coronavirus.

She calls on Philippine representatives in China for assistance to immediately leave the virus-stricken area.

The UNTV News Team has forwarded Shaukeens number to the Philippine Consulate office in Bejing for assistance.  MNP (with inputs from Victor Cosare)

The post PH officials reaching out to Filipinos in virus-stricken Hubei province appeared first on UNTV News.
On the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, January 27, the United Nations is holding a symposium on the Church's action to save lives during the Holocaust.

Vatican News

Monday, January 27, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Hitlers notorious death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Nazi-occupied Poland. International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is being observed today across the world, to recall the systematic killing of six million Jewish men, women and children and millions of others by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.

Several events are being organized at the United Nations in New York. Among them is an international symposium entitled: "Remembering the Holocaust: The Documented Efforts of the Catholic Church to Save Lives".

The aim of the conference is to make known to the international public about the recent results of historical research documenting how the Catholic Church and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli who later became Pope Pius XII (from 1939 to 1958), helped save the lives of numerous persecuted people, many of them Jews, during the Nazi persecution.

The symposium is being organized by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the UN, in collaboration with "Pave the Way Foundation", a non-profit organization. The event will be streamed live from 7.30 p.m. (UTC) onwards on http://webtv.un.org.

Among the international experts participating in the symposium are Gary Krupp (USA), Edouard Husson (France), Michael Hesemann (Germany), Ronald Rychlak (USA), Mark Riebling (USA), Limore Yagil (France), Matteo Luigi Napolitano (Italy), Johan Ickx (Holy See).

Ickx, the head of the Archives of the Section for Relations with States of the Vatican Secretariat of State, will address the gathering citing from about 2000 pages of research by Dominiek Oversteyns on the efforts of Pope Pius XII to save lives. The study is based on primary sources, documents and testimonies of survivors, revealing what happened to the Roman Jews, many of whom were hidden in the convents of the Eternal City.
Kate Middleton has unveiled her latest photographic project: moving portraits of two Holocaust survivors and their families.

She invited the two survivors to Kensington Palace so she could capture the striking images alongside their grandchildren. The portraits will form part of a new exhibition that will open later this year, bringing together 75 powerful images of survivors and their family members to mark 75 years since the end of the Holocaust. In all, six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

Steven Frank and his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie Fleet | The Duchess of Cambridge

Kate paid tribute to the life-affirming stories of those she met and says she is honored to help tell their stories for future generations. With that theme in mind, Steven Frank, 84, was pictured alongside his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie Fleet, 15 and 13, and Yvonne Bernstein, appears in a photograph with her granddaughter Chloe Wright, 11.

The royal mom of three said, The harrowing atrocities of the Holocaust, which were caused by the most unthinkable evil, will forever lay heavy in our hearts. Yet it is so often through the most unimaginable adversity that the most remarkable people flourish. Despite unbelievable trauma at the start of their lives, Yvonne Bernstein and Steven Frank are two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet.

RELATED: Auschwitz Liberation 75 Years Later: Survivors Reveal How They Cheated Death

Yvonne Bernstein and her granddaughter Chloe Wright | The Duchess of Cambridge

She added, They look back on their experiences with sadness but also with gratitude that they were some of the lucky few to make it through. Their stories will stay with me forever. Whilst I have been lucky enough to meet two of the now very few survivors, I recognize not everyone in the future will be able to hear these stories first hand. It is vital that their memories are preserved and passed on to future generations, so that what they went through will never be forgotten.

Kates part in the project is one of several ways the royal family is marking the anniversary. On Monday, she and husband Prince William are set to attend the U.K. Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony in Westminster, while, in Israel, Prince Charles spoke powerfully about how the genocide defies comprehension.

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Kate added in her statement accompanying the photos, One of the most moving accounts I read as a young girl was The Diary of Anne Frank, which tells a very personal reflection of life under Nazi occupation from a childs perspective. Her sensitive and intimate interpretation of the horrors of the time was one of the underlying inspirations behind the images. I wanted to make the portraits deeply personal to Yvonne and Steven  a celebration of family and the life that they have built since they both arrived in Britain in the 1940s. The families brought items of personal significance with them, which are included in the photographs.

RELATED: Prince Charles Delivers Powerful Speech at Israels Holocaust Memorial: All Humanity Must Learn

It was a true honor to have been asked to participate in this project and I hope in some way Yvonne and Stevens memories will be kept alive as they pass the baton to the next generation.

Kate Middleton | CHARLOTTE GRAHAM/POOL/AFP via Getty

The two photos are part of a collaborative project between the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Jewish News and the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) of which Kate is Patron. Two other photos by RPS Honorary Fellow Jillian Edelstein and RPS member Frederic Aranda are also released.

Steven Frank, who was originally from Amsterdam, in The Netherlands, survived multiple concentration camps as a child. Yvonne Bernstein was originally from Germany, but was hidden in France throughout most of the Holocaust. He said in a statement, I would hope that the people who look at these pictures not only look at the beauty of the photography, but they will also think of the people behind the photos and their families that they lost in the Holocaust.

Franks granddaughter Trixie said Princess Kate was really interested in our family and in Opas story, and the items we brought with us. Her Maggie added, I think it helped put into perspective that hes just our Opa  hes our grandpa as well as a Holocaust survivor. Its important to tell the story so it doesnt happen again.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : State-owned Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC) on Monday listed its global notes on India INX's Global Securities Market (GSM), GIFT IFSCs leading primary market platform for raising funds from global investors.

The listings are of $750 million worth bonds at 3.950 per cent due under $5 billion Global Medium Term Note Programme.

"We congratulate PFC on their largest single tranche global bond issuance under the USD 5 billion Global MTN Programme which is a testimony of the positive global view on India's growing power sector. The growing volumes of listing on India INX further helps Government of India's vision of making IFSC a hub for Indian and global issuers & investors and reiterates our world class listing practice," India INX MD and CEO V. Balasubramaniam said.

Since launch of Global Securities Market, it has been the leading listing platform for bonds at GIFT IFSC. The Global Securities Market platform of India INX offers fund raising guidelines at par with other international venues. MTNs established on India INX platform since launch in January 2018 aggregate to $46.5 billion and listing of bonds more than $20.1 billion. India INX is also the first introducer of Green Securities Platform for issuance of green bonds.

As India's first international exchange, India INX has several firsts at GIFT IFSC since launch in January 2017. India INX is the first exchange to introduce a single platform across multi-assets i.e. equities, commodities and currencies derivatives. India INX is also the first exchange in India to launch Gold Options and has recently commenced derivatives trading in base metals viz. - Aluminium, Lead, Nickel and Zinc.

To address the requirements for Indian and foreign issuers to raise debt from global investors, India INX has been the first to set up a primary market platform, the Global Securities Market. India INX's clearing arm, the India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Limited (India ICC) is the first to offer international market participants an ability to settle trades seamlessly through ICSDs (International Central Securities Depositories). This has been enabled through Clearstream, which also facilitates accepting foreign securities as collateral. India INX derivatives trading turnover has crossed $697 billion as on date.
A Cookstown-based door company has opened a 10million showroom and distribution centre in Rochdale.

Trade Mouldings' new 76,000 sq ft facility in Greater Manchester follows the unveiling of showrooms in Cookstown and Dublin last year.

The family-run firm specialises in kitchen, bedroom and bathroom unit doors.

Trade Mouldings' sales director Damien Connolly said: "We are already reaping the rewards of being able to service retailers across the UK and Ireland and the addition of our Rochdale showroom and distribution centre will help us meet demand.

Our extended warehouse facilities allow us to keep sufficient stock of all our existing ranges and carry more product lines. We are delighted to be launching a series of new product ranges at the Kitchen, Bedroom and Bathroom Exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham in March 2020.

Trade Mouldings employs more than 150 across the UK and Ireland and has been in business for four decades.

Councillor Billy Sheerin, the Mayor of Rochdale, said he was "delighted" to attend the official opening of the facility.

As mayor it is important to provide civic support to Trade Mouldings, who will play a vital role in our economic future. I wish the company and the new showroom huge success in the future," he added.
Turnover in F&O segment rises

The Nifty January 2020 were at 12,118.95, a discount of 0.05 points compared with the Nifty's closing of 12,119 in the cash market.

In the cash market, the Nifty 50 index slumped 129.25 points or 1.06% to 12,119.

Turnover on the National Stock Exchange's & options (F&O) segment was Rs 11.67 lakh crore compared with Rs 9.66 lakh crore reported in the previous session.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 10.92% to 17.26.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 30 January 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 55.73 lakh contracts at the 12,200 strike price. Maximum put OI of 43.72 lakh contracts was seen at 12,000 strike price.

The option chain indicates that Nifty will hover between 12,000 and 12,200 in the January 2020 series.

Yes Bank (down 1.29%) was banned from trading in NSE's F&O segment for today after the security crossed 95% of market wide position limit.

ICICI Bank, Dr. Reddy Laboratories and HDFC and were the top traded individual stock contracts in F&O segment of NSE for January expiry.

ICICI Bank January 2020 futures were at 536, compared with spot closing price of 535.9. Dr. Reddy Labs January 2020 futures were at 3,207.95, compared with spot closing price of 3200. HDFC January 2020 futures were at 2,394.20, compared with spot closing price of 2389.95.

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He attended the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to premiere his new movie, The Nest.

And Jude Law was certainly ready for action as he put on a cosy display when he stepped out on Sunday to head to the festival's final day in Park City, Utah.

The Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald star, 47, cut a relaxed figure in a beige coat with a shearling collar while adding a funky touch with tinted shades.

Retro: Jude law looked cosy when he stepped out on Sunday to head to to the Sundance Film Festival's last day in Park City, Utah

While his look was certainly kooky, Jude still managed to look as handsome as ever with his smattering of salt and pepper facial hair in place.

He topped off his retro style with a pair of thick framed sunglasses and appeared in high spirits as he strolled down the street.

Upon arrival, the legendary actor gave an impassioned speech at the IMDb Studio where he put on an animated display.

Jude ditched his eccentric coat and favoured a biker style instead, with a leather shirt left open over a simple black T-shirt and jeans.

Groovy: The Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald star, 47, cut a relaxed figure in a beige coat with a shearling collar while adding a funky touch with tinted shades

Cosy: He topped off his retro look with a pair of thick framed sunglasses and appeared in high spirits as he strolled down the street

Chic and funky: Once he arrived, the actor gave a speech at the IMDb Studio where he put on an animated display

The Sherlock actor could not stop smiling as he gave a demonstration waving his arms in the air to the observing audience.

The star had a whole new outfit change for the premiere of The Nest. He looked dapper in a salmon pink shirt and slipped into a grey loose fitted suit for the event.

The film is a creepy psychological thriller that follows the story of a British investment broker (Jude) living in New York in 1986 with his wife Allison (Carrie Coon), step-daughter Sam (Oona Roche) and son Ben (Charlie Shotwell).

Animated: Jude then ditched his eccentric coat and favoured a biker style look instead, with a leather shirt left open over a simple black T-shirt and jeans

One day, he announces that theyre moving to England, where he believes hell be able to capitalise on some new business opportunities.

His wife Allison is wary as the family have been uprooted many times due to her idolistic husband chasing a dream future, but she agrees regardless.

The family find themselves to a palatial Surrey estate. But something seems foreboding about the rundown property, and eventually it begins to effect the OHara clan.

Cheeky chap: The Sherlock actor could not stop smiling as he gave a demonstration waving his arms in the air to the observing audience

Beaming: The actor smiled at the panel as he delivered his speech in the tent before hitting the premiere of his own film

Jude also recently appeared in The New Pope. The mini-series premiered on Sky Atlantic and HBO on earlier this month however it sparked criticism from The Catholic Church.

In the first scene of the nine-episode HBO Drama, 16 gyrating nuns dressed in their nighties dance at the base of the huge fluorescent crucifix.

The scene is filmed in a former monastery on the island of San Giorgio in the Venetian lagoon.

Dapper: The star had a whole new outfit change for the premiere of The Nest. He looked dapper in a salmon pink shirt and slipped into a grey loose fitted suit for the event

Handsome: The film is a creepy psychological thriller that follows the story of a British investment broker (Jude) living in New York in 1986

'The scene is offensive and lacks any narrative context that would justify it,' said Father Gianmatteo Caputo, the patriarchs official in charge of cultural heritage.

'Because it lacks context, what is being offered to viewers is more like a music video, filmed in a place which is important historically and for the monastic tradition of Venice,' the archbishop said, adding the former monastery had been 'transformed into a stage for a coquettish and suggestive dance, performed beneath the supreme symbol of Christianity, the cross.'

Jude stars in the series as Lenny Belardo, also known as Pius XIII, the first-ever American pope. Actresses Cecile de France and Ludivine Sagnier also star in key roles.

Up close: One day, he announces that he is moving his family to England, where he believes hell be able to capitalise on some new business opportunities however it takes a sinister turn

Action shot: Jude pictured along side his costars in upcoming film The Nest which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
It was an almost total victory for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano but for the loss of a federal legislative seat.

Of the seven legislative seats for which rerun elections were held in the state, the APC won six while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won in one.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Ali Datti-Yako of the PDP defeated a former lawmaker, Abdulmumin Jibrin of the APC, in the Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency.

Mr Datti-Yako polled 48,601 votes against Mr Jibrin who scored 13,587 votes.

A former leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa of the APC, however, won his re-election to represent Doguwa/Tudunwada federal constituency.

INEC declared Mr Doguwa as winner having polled 66,667 votes against his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival who scored 6,323.

Mr Doguwa was first elected to the House of Representatives under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1991. He has also represented the constituency since 2003, making him one of the longest serving lawmakers.

Also, Munir Babba-DanAgundi of APC regained his seat to represent Kumbotso federal constituency after scoring 32,114 against the PDP candidate, Umar Balla, who got 31,258.

The APC also won the four state assembly seats whose rerun elections were also held on Saturday. The results show a tightly contested race between the APC and the PDP, similar to what obtained during the governorship election in the state last year.

See details of the legislative rerun results below.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY RE-RUN ELECTION RESULTS

1. Tudun Wada/Doguwa APC 66, 667 PDP 6, 323

2. Kumbotso APC 32, 114 PDP 31, 258

3. Kiru/Bebeji APC 13, 507 PDP 48, 641

STATE ASSEMBLY RE-RUN ELECTION RESULTS

1. Madobi APC 25, 403 PDP 23, 625

2. Minjibir APC 18, 455 PDP 17, 607

3. Rogo APC 26, 730 PDP 26, 362

4. Bunkure APC 20, 566, PDP 19, 941
The Girl With The Red Coat

Ronald S. Lauder at Auschwitz :

Ronald S. Lauder at Auschwitz : The Girl With The Red Coat

The annihilation of the Jews in Auschwitz was perpetrated by Germans and Austrians. But it also happened because Europe und the United States did not care. What does this mean for the fight against Anti-Semitism today?

Your Majesties, your Excellencies, Rabbis, Clergy, honored guests and, most importantly, the survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, who are with us today.

This is about you, the survivors and I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am that you are here and in some cases, here with your children and grandchildren. Five years ago, when I stood here, in front of these painful gates, I admitted that I am not a survivor: But I am so grateful for the survivors who are here today. I am not a liberator, although I salute the courage of the veterans who saved us all.

I am here, simply, as a Jew. And, like all Jews everywhere, this place, this terrible place called Auschwitz has sadly become an inseparable part of us.

Auschwitz is like a scar from a terrible trauma. It never goes away and the pain never stops. I have always wondered, if I had been born in Hungary, where my grandparents were from, instead of New York in February, 1944, would I have lived?

The answer is: no.

I would have been one of the 438,000 Hungarian Jews gassed by the Nazis in 1944 right here in Auschwitz. I can assure you, almost all Jews have pondered this question.

75 years ago today, when Soviet troops entered these gates, they had no idea what lay behind them. And since that day the entire world has struggled with what they found inside.

We have all wondered how an advanced country that gave the world great literature and art and scientific advancement, could sink to an anger, a meanness, a depravity like Auschwitz.

Im afraid Auschwitz offers more questions than answers.

But let me be clear: While Germany and Austria caused, created and carried out this shattering evil practically every other European country helped the Nazis gather up their Jewish citizens. Too many people in too many countries made Auschwitz happen.

And when European Jews begged the world for a safe harbor, someplace to go, the entire world turned its back on them.

Even my own country - the beacon of freedom - turned out its light on the jewish people when they needed it the most.

The U.S. organized a conference in Evian, France, in July of 1938, to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis. There were a lot of lovely speeches but, the United States did not let any additional Jewish refugees in and every other country in attendance followed their lead.

There were 32 countries and none of them, except for the tiny Dominican Republic wanted anymore Jews. Hitler saw this. Four months later, came Kristallnacht.

And again, there was no world reaction.

Hitler tested the world. And at every step he saw the truth: the world did not care. Thats when he knew that he could build this factory of death.

Evian led to Auschwitz. Kristallnacht led to Auschwitz. World Anti-Semitism led to Auschwitz.

Thankfully, there were some people throughout Europe who had a moral decency and who acted differently. Ordinary people who risked their lives and their familys lives, to save other human beings sometimes people they didnt even know.

At Yad Vashem in Jerusalem you will see 27,362 names of what we call: The Righteous Among Nations. Those gentiles, who risked everything to save Jewish lives. We have not forgotten these honorable men and women and we never will.

Five years ago, at the 70th anniversary, I was very concerned about the shocking rise of Anti-Semitism here in Europe. Today, you all know the attacks on Jews, the killings, the vicious slanders have only grown worse, and they have even spread to my country.

75 years ago, when the world finally saw the pictures of the gas chambers here and the piles of bodies, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with Nazis. But now, I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime: The open and brazen spread of Anti-Jewish hatred throughout the world, once again.
Tantra, the set of ideas, beliefs and practices with roots in Hinduism and Buddhism, is the subject of the first such exhibition at the British Museum focussing on its impact in India and beyond, tracing its development as a radical philosophy since its emergence AD 500.

Called Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, the exhibition depicting original Tantra texts and images is supported by the Bagri Foundation and will run from April 23 to July 26. The idea is to raise Tantras awareness in the West beyond sex and yoga, and remove some misconceptions.

The exhibition will explore Tantras early medieval transformation of Hinduism and Buddhism, along with its links to the Indian fight for independence and the rise of 1960s counterculture in western countries, organisers said.

Imma Ramos, the exhibitions curator, said: This major exhibition will capture the rebellious spirit of Tantra, with its potential to disrupt prevailing social, cultural and political establishments.

Tantra is usually equated with sex in the West, but it should be understood as part of a broader philosophy of transgression. We will demonstrate Tantras enduring potential for opening up new ways of seeing and changing the world.

It is the first time the British Museum  which houses one of the biggest and most comprehensive collections of Tantric material in the world  will explore the subject in an exhibition.

Over 100 objects will be on show, including masterpieces of sculpture, painting, prints and ritual objects, with around one-thirds on loan to the Museum from important collections in the UK and internationally.

The exhibition will demonstrate that from its inception, Tantra has challenged political, sexual and gender norms around the world, and that it has always been linked to successive waves of revolutionary thought, the organisers added.

The exhibition will feature four examples of some of the earliest surviving Tantras in the world, on loan from Cambridge University Library. Made in Nepal from around the 12th century, these texts outline a variety of rituals for invoking one of the many all-powerful Tantric deities, including through visualisations (imaginatively identifying with a deity) and yoga.

The exhibition will particularly explore Tantras radical challenge to gender norms. The Tantric worldview sees all material reality as animated by Shakti  unlimited, divine feminine power. This inspired the dramatic rise of goddess worship in India and confronted traditional gender roles.

Goddesses and female Tantric practitioners will be featured prominently in the exhibition, ranging from a 9th-century sandstone temple relief from Madhya Pradesh depicting the ferocious goddess Chamunda dancing on a corpse, to an 18th-century courtly painting showing female gurus offering Tantric initiation.

Alka Bagri, trustee of the Bagri Foundation said: We are excited to be part of an exhibition that we hope can change peoples perceptions of Tantric philosophy and its art, contributing to a greater understanding of this complex subject.

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Britain's intelligence chiefs will come together today to tell Boris Johnson that Huawei should be allowed to build part of the UKs 5G network.

Senior representatives from MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre will dismiss fears that our sovereignty would be under threat from the Chinese firm, sources said.

The Prime Minister is expected to grant Huawei limited access to the network.

The PM has promised to deliver better broadband and the Government believes that if it were to choose another provider for 5G, it would take years to get the same result, at a higher cost

But the move will be met by a backlash from the Prime Ministers own MPs, who say it will give China the ability to spy on British citizens and sabotage critical infrastructure.

It also risks upsetting our security relationship with the US, which has for months been lobbying Britain to exclude the firm.

The Prime Minister will hear from the spy chiefs at a meeting of the National Security Council before he makes an announcement.

Speaking last night, Mr Johnson said the decision would be a strategic win for Britain and consumers deserved access to fantastic technology.

Many Tory MPs are furious at the prospect of the Chinese firm being allowed access and expressed their anger during an Urgent Question in the Commons yesterday. Huawei promoters are pictured with one of the Chinese telecoms company's phones

He also signalled that Huawei would be barred from the core parts of the 5G network by insisting he would never jeopardise Britains security relationship with the US.

Washington has been lobbying the UK to exclude Huawei on the grounds of national security.

Many Tory MPs are furious at the prospect of the Chinese firm being allowed access and expressed their anger during an Urgent Question in the Commons yesterday.

Britain's intelligence chiefs will come together today to tell Boris Johnson that Huawei should be allowed to build part of the UKs 5G network

Former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said it was utterly bizarre to allow in a Chinese company when there is a cyber war going on at which China is arguably the single biggest participant.

Tom Tugendhat compared to move to nesting a dragon into our critical national infrastructure and said Britain would have to live with the decision for decades to come.

And Owen Paterson said the situation was absolutely extraordinary and if the Government know there is a risk of losing key intelligence from our closest allies, what is the overwhelming advantage of this equipment if we are looking to take this risk?

Responding for the Government, culture minister Matt Warman said the UK would never take a decision that threatens our national security or the security of our allies.

5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet connectivity, promises much faster speeds, wider coverage and more stable connections.

The PM has promised to deliver better broadband and the Government believes that if it were to choose another provider for 5G, it would take years to get the same result, at a higher cost.

However, the US and Australia have banned Huawei from their 5G networks over security fears.

US officials have warned British ministers that proceeding with Huawei could undermine UK-US intelligence sharing.

It has been widely suggested that Mr Johnson will announce a compromise on the issue, allowing Huawei access to the non-core elements of the network and excluding sensitive areas.

Tom Tugendhat compared to move to nesting a dragon into our critical national infrastructure and said Britain would have to live with the decision for decades to come

During a university visit yesterday the PM said: The way forward for us clearly is to have a system that delivers for people in this country the kind of consumer benefits that they want through 5G technology... but does not in any way compromise our critical national infrastructure, our security or jeopardise our ability to work together with other intelligence powers around the world.

By giving the green light Mr Johnson is likely to ignite a transatlantic row, which could come as soon as tomorrow with the start of the two-day visit of US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who sources say is expected to voice his opinion on Huawei.

But UK security sources said during todays National Security Council meeting, the chiefs planned to rubbish US claims.

One told the Mail: There is unanimity of opinion on this. The security risks can be mitigated. If he (Boris) doesnt go with it then this (5G) could be put on hold for years.

Senior representatives from MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre will dismiss fears that our sovereignty would be under threat from the Chinese firm, sources said. One of the tech company's offices is pictured above in Reading

What is 5G, why do we need it... and can we trust the Chinese to build it? ROSS CLARK analyses the controversial impending tech deal with Huawei

By Ross Clark for the Daily Mail

What is 5G?

5G is the fifth generation upgrade to mobile telecommunications. It does not consist of a single new operating system but a system of systems that will so dramatically increase data speeds youll be able to download a movie in just three seconds. It will also increase internet capacity a thousand-fold when its fully operational.

What is the difference between 4G and 5G?

4G, like all the Gs before it, is principally designed for smartphone browsing. But 5G is far more ambitious, linking together all kinds of devices, from household appliances such as fridges and washing machines to cars and electricity meters.

It is supposed to create what has been termed the internet of things, where everything we use in our day-to-day lives can be controlled remotely.

For example, you could use the 5G network to control your washing machine from the other side of the world.

It could also speed up the development of driverless cars by allowing vehicles to interact with each other.

The Government is most likely to stick to its existing policy, which is to allow Huawei to build communication towers and other peripheral equipment for the 5G network but ban it from the core parts of the network

Why do we need it?

In its strategy document for 5G roll-out, published in 2017, the Government predicted that global data traffic would grow from 3.7 exabytes (3.7 billion billion bytes of information, where one byte is equivalent to a short email) in 2015 to 30.6 exabytes in 2020.

Thats the same as if the number of passengers on Londons Tube network grew by 53 per cent every year. Without an upgrade, existing systems face being overloaded.

But there are also government policies which are dependent on 5G. If we are to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050  the ambitious target unveiled by outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May last summer.

For example, we will need to make much smarter use of the electricity grid.

The 5G network would allow appliances like fridges and electric car chargers to switch in and out of the grid when needed.

Are there risks?

Yes. An internet of things, where every appliance is inter-connected, provides new opportunities for hackers to interfere with electronic systems.

They could potentially seize control of vehicles and cause them to crash, or hack smart door locks to gain entry to a house.

Hostile nations could exploit 5G to try to disrupt our utility supplies, nuclear plants or airports. There are also serious privacy issues as 5G will make it easier for governments and corporations to track our lives one click at a time.

But there are also advantages  5G networks involve far more secure data encryption.

So while there will be more appliances for hackers to target, doing so wont be easy.

Huawei has repeatedly denied that it is an arm of the Chinese state, but as a Chinese company it is vulnerable to the control of a dictatorship with an appalling human rights record

Whats the problem with Huawei?

Whoever builds the 5G grid, or supplies equipment for it, could potentially plant bugs to allow interference with the network or enable mass surveillance by accessing data.

Huawei has repeatedly denied that it is an arm of the Chinese state, but as a Chinese company it is vulnerable to the control of a dictatorship with an appalling human rights record.

We wouldnt allow a Chinese company to supply fighter jets for the RAF, goes the argument, and therefore we shouldnt allow one to supply vital communications infrastructure.

Former national security adviser Lord Ricketts has dismissed the fears, however, saying: I personally think we can find a solution which does allow them to have some role.

Another serious concern is what it would mean for Britains role within the Five Eyes network of security partners  the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain  who exchange intelligence. Canada has yet to make a decision, while New Zealand initially stopped Huawei providing 5G equipment but has since said it has not imposed a complete ban.

Why is the US worried?

Donald Trump doesnt trust Huawei to build even the smallest part of our 5G network and the US has warned that it might be reluctant to share intelligence with the UK if we employ the Chinese company  although MI5 chief Andrew Parker recently claimed that this is an unlikely consequence.

Some have argued that the US is only saying this as a protectionist ruse in its trade war with China.

But that doesnt explain why Australia, too, has banned Huawei from building its own 5G network.

The chair of Australias intelligence and security committee, Andrew Hastie, claims it is a question of digital sovereignty, while his colleague James Paterson points out: Successive Australian governments banned Huawei from our broadband and 5G networks with very little controversy.

In any case, no US company currently makes 5G network equipment. Instead, the US is considering subsidising Swedish firm Ericsson and Finnish company Nokia in order to help develop its own 5G network.

In the US T-Mobile has already switched on a slower version of its 5G network, claiming it covers 200 million people.

What about our other allies?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reluctant to ban Huawei, fearing retaliation against German companies exporting to China.

France, too, has said it will allow Huawei to build parts of its 5G network.

Donald Trump doesnt trust Huawei to build even the smallest part of our 5G network and the US has warned that it might be reluctant to share intelligence with the UK if we employ the Chinese company  although MI5 chief Andrew Parker recently claimed that this is an unlikely consequence

Isnt Huawei already involved?

Under Theresa Mays premiership, the Government announced that Huawei would be allowed to provide equipment for the periphery of the 5G network, such as masts, but not the control systems at the core of the network.

These security services claim that the risk to 5G from using a Chinese supplier is manageable.

But one complication is that our existing 3G and 4G telecoms networks already contain equipment manufactured by Huawei.

In 2005, for example, BT signed a contract with Huawei that allowed it to connect customer lines to the main part of the network.

Does 5G have to include Huawei?

Our government claims that Huawei has such a technological head-start in creating 5G equipment that shunning it would delay the introduction and increase costs.

Alternative, though significantly more expensive, suppliers are ZTE, which is owned by the Chinese government, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung (South Korean) and Viettel (owned by the Vietnamese military).

The cost to the Government of Huaweis input into 5G is unknown, as is the time frame.

Restricting Huaweis involvement would delay the launch of 5G by up to two years and cost the economy between 4.5billion and 6.6billion, according to a 2019 report by the telecoms industry body, Mobile UK.

What is the most likely outcome?

The Government is most likely to stick to its existing policy, which is to allow Huawei to build communication towers and other peripheral equipment for the 5G network but ban it from the core parts of the network.

There may also be measures to reduce future reliance on China by imposing a cap on Huaweis share of the market.

What are our alternatives?

We could upgrade the existing 4G network which would give extra capacity for now.

But in the long run it would lead to Britain lagging behind in telecommunications.
NEPTUNE, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Spectrotel, Inc., a leading national integrated solutions and managed services provider for SLED (State, Local and Education organizations) and enterprise businesses, is excited to announce it has been awarded under the ESCNJ (The Educational Services Commission of New Jersey) Voice, Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions contract.

"Spectrotel is committed to supporting public sector customers seeking a smooth, affordable path to telecommunication solutions," stated Ross Artale, President & COO." We have extensive experience working with all phases of the public sector, from Education, Police and Fire Services, to State and Local agencies and now with the ESCNJ contract, New Jersey schools will be able to take full advantage of our comprehensive and integrated Voice, Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions."

The availability of this new contract simplifies services procurement for New Jersey authorized users by significantly reducing the length of the bidding processes. It also expedites procurement and service delivery while offering our partners the ability to provide fast and cost-effective solutions.

More information on Spectrotel's contract New Jersey State approved Co-op # 65MCESCCPS RFP #ESCNJ 19/20-30RFP term: 12/13/19  12/12/22 ESCNJ web address: www.escnj.k12.nj.us can be found here

About the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey Cooperative System (ESCNJ)ESCNJ has been in existence since 1977 and has grown to become the largest cooperative pricing system in New Jersey providing educational and business services to over 1,300 public entities throughout the state. The ESCNJ is also a member of the Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies (AEPA), a national purchasing association that includes 26 states, bringing additional buying power to their co-op members.

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Soon after taking office, US President Donald Trump adopted policies that led to the strengthening of Iranian hard-liners. With the Jan. 3 assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, he laid the ground for the near-total marginalization of the Reform movement and President Hassan Rouhani.

In domestic politics, Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, actually held moderate positions. Now, to take advantage of his killing, Iranian hard-liners are painting him as an ultraconservative aligned with their own interests. Their strategy could end up tarnishing the image of Soleimani, who was regarded as a national hero among diverse segments of Iranian society.

Trump bragged about how he had ordered Soleimanis assassination in Baghdad, while the general was on an official visit. His boasting closed the doors to diplomacy, while making Iranians even more cynical about the US administration. In fact, the establishment controlling Iran's political system cant even consider sitting at a table with Trump representatives one day in the future, as it would lose face with its main backers among the religious class in Iran.

Nonetheless, the hard-liners and establishment figures welcome the current atmosphere, as they see the possibility of Soleimanis assassination leading to the resounding defeat of Rouhanis moderate foreign policy approach. Staunch conservatives argue that Rouhanis policies  including negotiating with the United States in reaching the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015  have been humiliating for Tehran. In a direct swipe at Rouhani, the hard-line activist Mehrdad Bazrpash assertd on Jan. 10, Between the dignity and humiliation, [Soleimani] chose the dignity and thus became dear in the hearts and minds of the people.

As president, Rouhani has been striving to improve and maintain Tehrans relationship with the West, but Trump's ascendance and then reneging on the JCPOA have increasingly weakened Rouhani. If a figure like Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, were in office and implemented the JCPOA as agreed, Rouhani and the Reformists, who support him, would have a level of support sufficient enough to ward off opponents daring to obstruct their policies, including restoring ties with Washington.

As the result of Trumps Iran policies, however, no one in Tehran has the courage to speak about the advantages of negotiation let alone suggest a new round of talks with the United States. Under the current circumstances, Irans domestic politics are under strict scrutiny. For instance, hard-liners reacted harshly to a letter from a number of Reformists merely advising against seeking military revenge for Soleimanis slaying for fear it would lead to a war they described as a trap by American-Israeli warlords.

In reality, even speaking about peace with the United States is considered a sin in Iran, and advocating such thoughts could be costly. Hassan Abbasi, a hard-liner linked to the IRGC and known for his fierce rhetoric against Reformists and Rouhani, was reported as declaring on Jan. 7 that reformists risked being killed in the streets and cut into pieces.

Such an environment makes it difficult for Rouhani to find a pretext or even perhaps the will to talk about diplomacy with the United States. He has no choice but to go along with what the establishment outlines.

At this point, the Reformists and moderates have been so undermined that their priorities appear to be shifting, putting the avoidance of war ahead of other matters. Hence, they and Rouhani dare not call for political and social freedoms for the time being. Rouhani had put all his eggs in the foreign policy basket in pursuing big deals, starting with the JCPOA and theoretically others following from that, assuming that resolving the long-standing dispute with the United States would lead the majority of Iranians to get behind him in other efforts. He might have been right, but the US withdrawal from the JCPOA and constant obstructions throw up by diehard conservatives positioned him as having failed. The hard-liners and the establishment now have the power to easily dismiss the Reformists without cost.

All this does not, however, mean the public wants the hard-liners in power, but the situation certainly could permit radicals in Iran to pursue what they want. They are now sufficiently confident that they can at the least convince their base that the moderate approach has not only failed to produce results, but has actually harmed Iran.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior US officials have stated that Trump was sent by God to lead. Iranians heard that same kind of language from the hard-line entourage backing former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Might Pompeo have been right in some regard?

Trump has indeed been a divine gift to Iranian hard-liners, an American president who keeps on giving. The hard-liners, who had lost face among ordinary people in Iran, have experienced a revival that began during the first days of Trumps presidency, while the Reformists and Rouhani, who had been enjoying a good deal of public support, saw their standing decline. Thus, as the Reformists and moderates, including Rouhani himself, are further marginalized in domestic politics, Iran is likely to move forward based on policies advocated by the hard-liners.
The statement of Ukraines Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk on the transfer of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (Ukrainian Railways) to German national railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG for 10 years, is rather political. The specific conditions for a possible partnership will be announced later.

I studied the text of the memorandum, signed with the company the day before. This is more a working document fixing the very fact of the Strategic Partnership. I believe that information on the format of cooperation, its period and specific content will appear in the near future after the agreements are documented.

Now we can say that cooperation with Deutsche Bahn will be beneficial and interesting to Ukraine. It is customary to speak of a company as a German entity, but it has long been leading a wide international expansion, working in more than 50 countries around the world. If you look at the companys website, the company works in various formats with almost all European railways. This is the largest freight transport operator in Europe, it cooperates with Qatar, the UAE in terms of railway management and freight transportation, and is represented in all areas, including passenger transportation and infrastructure projects. Deutsche Bahn works with our closest neighbors, in particular with Kazakhstan. There have been reports that they will prepare the Kazakhstan Railways, establish operational efficiency and prepare the company for an IPO. With the Russian railways, Deutsche Bahn is developing a project for the transit of goods from China to the EU.

A similar project can be implemented with the participation of Ukraine. Our railways can be used to make us work as a transit country between Europe, Central Asia, and China. The development of such a project is possible only with a powerful partner in the EU.

In Ukraine, in particular at the first stage, we might talk about a certain consulting component: the company needs some time to learn the situation within the company and would probably conduct its audit. In order to make real changes, they will need to enter the management panel. It is possible that appointments will occur at the level of the board, heads of branches.

Does this mean that the new team will be totally German? I dont think so. Most likely, these will be competent managers who share the values of Deutsche Bahn. This might mean improving the overall controllability of the railway transport system, simplifying the conditions for attracting international capital, implementing Deutsche Bahn's public procurement and logistics solutions. Today, Ukrzaliznysia has a huge need for capital investment.

Why Deutsche Bahn might be interested in cooperation with Ukraine? The company has long been active outside Germany. Ukraine is one of the stages of their work in foreign markets. Railways in Europe are currently experiencing a difficult period: the volume of freight flows is decreasing, and in Ukraine (due to the fact that we have large volumes of grain, coal, and iron ore), there are prospects for market growth and revenue growth. This is an interesting market for cooperation between UZ and a German company.

I that the talks about the potential privatization of Ukrzaliznysia in the context of cooperation with Deutsche Bahn are just speculation. Today, this is legally impossible. In addition, the company is listed on public markets, they will not go to some covert games. This is an international giant with a turnover of more than 40 billion euros, which is more than 10 times higher than the revenues of Ukrzaliznysia.

Another thing, the issue of cooperation with Deutsche Bahn might be heavily torpedoed by beneficiaries from corruptive Ukrzaliznysia circles, in particular, the procurement and distribution of rolling stock. If the Germans with their zero tolerance for corruption come in, such schemes will be destroyed.
A n aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan was a small US military plane, US officials have said.

The officials, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said there were no indications so far that the plane had been brought down by enemy activity.

One of the officials said there were believed to be less than 10 people on the plane. The Pentagon declined to comment.

The Taliban said it had shot down a US military plane in the central Afghan province of Ghazni on Monday, killing all on board.

A senior defence official investigating the crash told Reuters earlier on Monday that no senior US officials were killed.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down at about 1.10pm local time (8.40am UK time).

Tariq Ghazniwal via AP

The jet, first said to be a Boeing craft, hit the ground in the Deh Yak district.

It was first believed to be an Ariana Airlines commercial flight - though the carrier has since denied this.

The Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, released a statement claiming it was a US military aircraft which was "brought down" in the area.

The group, which often exaggerates casualties, said: "The plane, which was on an intelligence mission, was brought down in Sado Khel area of Deh Yak district of Ghazni province."

It earlier said the jet crashed and had added: "The aircraft was destroyed in the crash and all crew along with multiple senior CIA officials killed."

Images said to be of the crashed plane show an aircraft bearing US Air Force markings, which appear similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft.

The US military has previously declined to comment on the Taliban's statement.
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans' loyalty to President Donald Trump could face its starkest test yet this week after John Bolton, the former national security adviser, reportedly wrote that Trump told Bolton he had blocked U.S. military aid to Ukraine in an effort to get Ukraine to investigate a Democratic rival.

The revelations, contained in a book draft, sent tremors through Capitol Hill on Monday morning hours before Trump's lawyers were set to resume their defense of the president, which began Saturday morning.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters that "it's increasingly likely" that there will be enough votes to subpoena Bolton as a witness, as Democrats have demanded.

"The reports about John Bolton's book strengthens the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, another key moderate.

Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a firm Trump ally who has opposed having any witnesses, suggested he would be open to some kind of agreement to bring in witnesses.

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"If there is a desire and decision by the Senate to call Democratic witnesses, then at a minimum the Senate should allow President @realDonaldTrump to call all relevant witnesses he has requested," Graham tweeted.

Trump's lawyers have staked their defense in part on denying any link between the events at the heart of the impeachment case, which alleges that Trump abused his power by pressuring a foreign government to help his reelection campaign - and then obstructed Congress by ordering aides not to testify or provide documents.

Trump's lawyers also have repeatedly declared that no witness had firsthand knowledge of a direct link between the White House order to withhold $391 million in congressionally authorized security aid and Trump's push for Ukraine to announce an investigation of Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and his son Hunter.

The president denied Bolton's claims in a series of angry tweets that began after midnight and picked up again in the early morning.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," he wrote. "In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."

It's unclear whether Bolton's description of his conversation with the president will cause Trump's lawyers to alter their defense arguments. After giving an abbreviated defense on Saturday, they were expected to shift the focus Monday toward Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Trump and his lawyers have tried to portray the Bidens as corrupt in order to justify Trump's request for Ukraine to investigate them. The Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.

After defense arguments are finished, senators will get 16 hours to submit written questions followed by an opportunity to debate whether witnesses should be called. That debate could occur as soon as Thursday.

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Bolton has offered to testify to the Senate if he is subpoenaed. He had resisted a request from the Democratic-controlled House during the impeachment proceedings there.

It's still unclear if four Republicans will join Senate Democrats to subpoena Bolton and possibly other witnesses.

Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have sought to ensure a speedy path to acquittal without any witnesses.

Trump could try to block the testimony from his former national security adviser on the basis of executive privilege, which allows presidents to keep confidential their deliberative conversations with aides. But it's not clear that Trump has any enforcement provisions if Bolton decides to honor a Senate subpoena.

Democrats say a claim of executive privilege would fail because Bolton has already written his story in his book draft, which was submitted to the White House for classification review on Dec. 30 and is scheduled to be published in March, and because executive privilege is not a shield for presidential wrongdoing.

"Senators should insist that Mr. Bolton be called as a witness, and provide his notes and other relevant documents," the House impeachment managers said in a joint statement Sunday after the New York Times reported the details from Bolton's manuscript. "The Senate trial must seek the full truth and Mr. Bolton has vital information to provide."

Bolton could have additional evidence in his possession as well.

"He is known to be a voracious note taker," said a Democratic aide working on the impeachment trial, and may have a "contemporaneous account" of his conversations with Trump on Ukraine.

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Unlike some who testified during House impeachment hearings, Bolton is a Republican establishment figure with government service dating back to President Reagan's administration. His hawkish views and sharp elbows in bureaucratic battles made him controversial, but he's respected by many high-profile Republicans.

Romney called Bolton a "brilliant man" when Trump fired him in September after disputes over the president's policy in Syria, North Korea and other parts of the world.

McConnell also praised Bolton at the time.

"I always appreciated John's candor and clear advice," he said.

---

(c)2020 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Congress demanded on Monday that the Election Commission (EC) take action against Union minister Anurag Thakur for allegedly instigating the crowd at a poll rally here by raising indecent slogans.

"The EC must take immediate action against the minister for instigating violence and take appropriate measures," Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee said.

"As the economy is going downhill, unemployment is at record levels and the Modi government does not have anything to showcase, the BJP is back to its favourite game of polarisation," she added.

Triggering a row, Thakur egged on the participants in the election rally to raise an incendiary slogan that says "traitors should be shot at", after he lashed out at anti-CAA protesters.

At the poll rally in Delhi's Rithala, the Union minister of state for finance shouted "desh ke gaddaron ko", to which the crowd responded, saying "goli maro sa*** ko" (shoot down the traitors).

"What could be more outrageous, provoking and scary than a crowd chanting 'goli maro sa*** ko' at the provocation of none less than a Union minister? Anurag Thakur seems to be following the footsteps of his esteemed leaders, who identify crowds on the basis of the clothes they wear," Mukherjee said.

Any responsible citizen of this country, let alone a minister, would deter crowds from raising such slogans and provoking violence against anyone who was opposed to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), she added.

The head of the Delhi Congress campaign committee, Kirti Azad, also hit out at the saffron party, saying its leaders were the "real traitors" as they were working to "destroy" peace and amity.

Addressing the rally in support of Manish Chaudhary, the BJP candidate from Rithala in the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls, Thakur raised the pitch of nationalism as he linked opposition parties with the anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh and alleged anti-India slogans, and then asked the crowd to raise the controversial slogan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


By Mark Leonard





BERLIN  Looming over this year's commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, were two contradictory impulses that lay behind the creation of the Jewish state: cosmopolitanism and nationalism. A painful dialogue between these perspectives marked the event, reflected in the utterances of the officials who attended and the objections of those who stayed away.



In opening the ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set the tone for what was to come. He described Auschwitz as "an abyss" and Jerusalem as "a peak," with the former representing "enslavement" and "death" and the latter epitomizing "freedom" and "life."



To give meaning to the lives of those murdered in the Holocaust, he sought to link their deaths to Israel's founding just a few years later. But in doing this, he risked presenting the massacre of the Jews as a necessary staging post on the "marvelous journey of the revival of our people." Rather than presenting the fate of Europe's Jews as a reason to renew the struggle against hatred and genocide everywhere, he focused more narrowly on the interests of the state of Israel and concluded his remarks with a battle cry against Iran.



The choice between cosmopolitanism and nationalism has always been an especially difficult one for Jews. Historically, the exclusion of "wandering Jews" from official life meant that they were de facto "citizens of nowhere," and thus cosmopolitan by default. Yet precisely for this reason, many Jews went on to become ultra-nationalists in the countries where they were eventually assimilated.



A quintessential example was the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, who as a young man initially welcomed World War I as an opportunity to fight for his country. The same contradictory sentiments are now bound up in Israel's national identity, animating an abiding tension between democracy and the desire to provide a Jewish homeland.



The foreign speakers at Yad Vashem this year also embodied this conflict between nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Russian President Vladimir Putin decried the weaponization of history, before doing exactly that, claiming (not inaccurately) that the Holocaust was carried out not just by Germans but also by European collaborators who "were often crueler than their masters." Not surprisingly, he directed this charge specifically at Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia  all countries with which Russia has a troubled relationship.



But it was the Polish government that objected most strenuously to this interpretation. After not being invited to speak, Polish President Andrzej Duda boycotted the ceremony. And in anticipation of Putin's speech, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote a commentary for Politico arguing that, "Russia is trying to rewrite history. Far from being a 'liberator,' the Soviet Union was a facilitator of Nazi Germany and a perpetrator of crimes of its own  before and after the liberation of Auschwitz."



The official Polish response comes as no surprise, given that this is the same government that, in 2018, passed a law criminalizing any mention of Polish complicity in the Holocaust.



The contrast with the remarks delivered by the French and German presidents could not be greater. Each reflected on his own country's guilt before making a case for universal human values. "Those who murdered," noted German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, "those who planned and helped in the murdering, the many who silently toed the line: They were Germans."



Like Netanyahu, Steinmeier also focused on the theme of renewal following the Shoah, which gave way to a new "order of peace, founded upon human rights and international law." But, unlike Netanyahu, Steinmeier was not triumphalist. In fact, he underscored an issue that, in spite of decades of vergangenheitsbewaltigung ("working through the past"), is now afflicting Germany: the return of anti-Semitism.



Likewise, French President Emmanuel Macron was equally brutal in his self-criticism. "France has looked at its history head-on and faced up to the irreparable responsibility of the French state in the deportation of the Jews," he declaimed. The lessons he takes from Auschwitz are universal and forward-looking. "No one has the right to use the memory of the dead," he argued, "to justify some kind of contemporary hatred."



One wonders how Zweig would have responded to all of these speakers. Although he was a protege of Zionism's founding intellectual, Theodor Herzl, a recent biography by George Prochnik shows that Zweig became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of nationalism over the course of his life.



Following the rise of the Nazis, he argued that Jews had a "sacred mission" not to create yet another state with "cannons, flags, and medals." Rather, he wanted Jews to serve as "the gadfly which plagues the mangy beast of nationalism," and to work for the "dissolution of nationalist tendencies."



In other words, were Zweig alive today, he doubtless would sympathize more with the cosmopolitan humanism of Steinmeier and Macron than with Netanyahu's ethno-nationalism. But, it is worth remembering that even as they established a Jewish nation-state, David Ben-Gurion and most of Israel's founders were similarly committed to a cosmopolitan and universalist vision based on "complete equality of social and political rights  irrespective of religion, race, or sex."



For my part, as a descendent of German Jews  some of whom were exterminated  I strongly support Israel's right to exist. But I also believe that Netanyahu's instrumentalization of the Holocaust's victims  many of whom did not share his Zionist nationalism  directly undermines the ideals of the country's founders.



As Auschwitz passes from memory into history, it is ironic that the lessons people draw from it would become more particular, rather than more universal. Clearly, the global fight against anti-Semitism needs a new narrative for the 21st-century world of hyper-fragmented and multicultural societies, where no one knows Holocaust survivors personally. Otherwise, history will continue to be politicized and pressed into the service of nationalist agendas, rather than showing the way to a more peaceful future for all.





Mark Leonard is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).




Appointment

27 January 2020

Meyer Jabara Hotels (MJH) CEO Richard Jabara, and Chairman William Meyer, proudly name Justin Jabara president of the award-winning, multi-branded, 43-year old hotel ownership and management company effective immediately. With dual corporate locations in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Danbury, Conn., MJH was launched by second-generation hoteliers, Richard Jabara and William (Bill) Meyer in 1977 with the purchase of their first hotel here. Meyer and Jabara developed an industry-leading, best-in-class company that has a unique culture, built on core values and empowerment to deliver excellence.

Learning and opportunity stand firmly as a cultural pillar in this company. Justin Jabara grew up in and around hotels. At the age of 16 he secured his first job waiting tables, delivering roomservice and working as a banquet prep cook at the Christiana Hilton in Delaware. He went on to graduate from Johnson and Wales in Providence, R.I., with a degree in Hotel Management. Over the years, Justin Jabara grew his career holding numerous operational positions across the portfolio and blazed a strong operational track record of success. He made the jump to vice president of development and acquisitions six years ago to start working on the other side of the business. With Meyer as his mentor, Justin Jabara led the growth of the portfolio at an impressive rate. Not only did the portfolio prosper, but many new partnerships were formed, and creative joint ventures established.

This applied learning spotlighted the leadership ability of this third-generation hotelier. The family business is staying in the family.
Stormont ministers have reallocated almost 20 million to under-pressure education authorities to help them pay teachers wages.

The executive has also agreed to provide 1 million to increase support payments for people in Northern Ireland impacted by the infected blood scandal.

Around 1 million will also be spent implementing recommendations of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

Almost 3 million will be used to improve street lighting and fund winter services such as gritting, while another 2 million will be invested in the new Belfast Transport Hub.

More than half of the 41 million being reallocated among departments as part of the in-year budget monitoring round will go towards education provision.

Expand Close Education Minister Peter Weir (Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/PA) PA Media / Facebook

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There are three monitoring rounds every financial year, with money not spent by Stormont departments being reclaimed by the Department of Finance and redistributed to meet pressures that have emerged in other areas since the annual budget was set.

With powersharing restored, this is first occasion local ministers have been involved in the process since the collapse of the Assembly.

The 19 million for the Education Authority is to meet existing contractual pay costs for teachers and non-teaching staff for 2019/20, and is not related to the pay dispute that was the subject of industrial action by teaching unions.

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The executive is also allocating 10 million to address a backlog of assessments and diagnosis for children with educational needs.

In total, the Department of Finance is reallocating 35.8 million for day-to-day resource spending pressures and 5.8 for capital projects.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy announced the monitoring round results in the Assembly on Monday evening.

With the end of the financial year fast approaching we have a short window to spend reallocations, he said.

I have therefore moved quickly to agree this monitoring round with Executive colleagues.

I have allocated 10 million for children with special education needs to help address the backlog in assessment and diagnosis, and cover costs such as transport and educational support.

I have provided 1 million for people affected by the contaminated blood scandal to help alleviate the financial hardship experienced by many of those affected.

I have also awarded 1.1 million to help take forward the recommendations of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

Education Minister Peter Weir said: I want to welcome this additional funding which will go some way to addressing the pressures in the current financial year.

There are many challenges ahead. School budgets are under severe pressure and we need to ensure our teachers receive the level of pay they deserve. It is essential that adequate resources are made available to deal with these, and the many other issues, currently faced within the education system.
IS vows 'new phase' of attacks focused on Israel: audio message



Beirut, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



The Islamic State group vowed to turn to Israel as the main target of its attacks, according to a purported audio message of its spokesman released on Monday.

Abu Hamza al-Quraishi said IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi encourages the group's fighters to launch "a new phase" and vowed major operations against Israel.

"The eyes of the soldiers of the caliphate, wherever they are, are still on Jerusalem," the spokesman said in the 37-minute message.

"And in the coming days, God willing, you will see what harms you and what will make you forget the horrors you have seen," Abu Hamza al-Quraishi said, apparently threatening attacks of unprecedented scope.

AFP could not immediately authenticate the message but the recording was published via the group's usual social media channels.

The jihadist organisation once administered a sprawling self-proclaimed "caliphate" straddling big parts of Syria and Iraq, where it minted a currency, levied taxes and ran school curricula.

Under pressure from combined military operations by Syrian and Iraqi forces supported by their respective allies, the proto-state collapsed last year.

IS has remained a potent outfit in its Euphrates heartland and surrounding desert hideouts however and its franchises in Africa and Asia have also continued to expand their attacks.

The group also has a presence in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and which the Jewish state occupied for 15 years after the 1967 war.

The spokesman said IS leader Quraishi was "determined, and has encouraged his mujahideen brothers in all provinces, and Muslims across the world," to launch "a new phase".

That new focus "is fighting the Jews and reclaiming what they have stolen from the the Muslims, and this cannot be reclaimed except through fighting," he said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 12:11 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206114787 4 World Wuhan-coronavirus,outbreak,health,coronavirus,wuhan,Indonesians-in-Wuhan,Foreign-Affairs-Ministry,evacuation Free

The Foreign Ministry says it is not likely that it will evacuate Indonesian citizens trapped in the city of Wuhan, China, just yet as the place where the deadly coronavirus first emerged is on lockdown.

Wuhan is still isolated, meaning we cant go in and out of the city, said the ministrys acting spokesperson, Teuku Faizasyah, on Monday.

The statement comes after a number of countries, such as the United States and Japan, expressed their willingness to evacuate their respective citizens from the epicenter of the viral outbreak. But from our observations, it seems to be impossible, Faizasyah said as quoted by kompas.com.

He said that no Indonesian citizen in Wuhan had been exposed to the virus. Based on data from the Wuhan branch of the Indonesian Students Association in China, an estimated 93 Indonesian citizens were trapped in the citya majority of whom were students.

Read also: Coronavirus outbreak: Indonesians in locked-down Wuhan want to come home

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi had offered a different number, saying there were 428 Indonesian students in Wuhan, 1,280 in Beijing and 849 in Shanghai. She, however, said 90 percent of the Indonesian students in Wuhan and its surrounding area had returned to Indonesia as of December last year.

The ministry previously issued a warning for Indonesians living in or planning to visit Wuhan. They were discouraged from having physical contact with living animals, including birds, eating undercooked meals and visiting fish markets as the virus was believed to have emerged from a fish market in the city of Hubei province.

The Chinese government confirmed on Sunday that the death toll from the outbreak had risen to 80 people, while the number of people infected by the virus had risen to over 2,000.

Cases have also been scattered in more than 10 countries, including the United States, France, Japan, as well as Indonesias neighbors of Singapore and Malaysia. As of the morning of Jan. 27, Indonesia has yet to declare a confirmed case of the virus. (vny)
By and large, the message to the public has been one of reassurance. We are encouraging New Yorkers to go about their everyday lives and suggest practicing everyday precautions that we do through the flu season, Dr. Barbot said.

But there is considerable anxiety and debate over the proper precautions within the citys Chinatowns. That has only grown in the past few days as more alarming news has emerged out of Wuhan about the viruss spread. So far more than 4,500 people have been sickened and more than 100 people have died.

In response, the authorities in China have imposed a lockdown of some 56 million people in cities in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, though by the time it was in effect some five million people had already traveled from Wuhan, according to Wuhans mayor.

Scott Liu, 56, a textile importer who lives in Queens, said he was on the last direct flight from Wuhan to Kennedy Airport before the flights were canceled last week. He and his fellow passengers learned of the city lockdown mid-flight.

He does not think he is sick, but he knows that symptoms take time to appear  the authorities have said the incubation period is up to two weeks, although symptoms seem to usually appear within a week, Dr. Barbot said.

In the meantime, Mr. Liu has confined himself at home alone, even at the start of Lunar New Year.

Instead of going out to visit friends and family or sharing holiday meals, Mr. Liu stood behind his door as friends dropped off traditional Hubei dishes for Lunar New Year on his doorstep  lotus root and pork rib soup, salted fish and dumplings.

Mr. Liu said he did not think he was overreacting, just acting responsibly.

For us, this is very serious, he said in Mandarin during a phone interview on Friday.
Eye cancer specialists discover previously unrecognized cells in deadly eye cancer

A study analyzing new evolutionary complexity in uveal melanoma by J. William Harbour, M.D., associate director for basic science at the NCI-designated Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professor of ophthalmology, and vice chair and director of ocular oncology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was published today in Nature Communications, a highly regarded, peer-reviewed scientific journal.

This is the first-ever single cell analysis of uveal melanoma, said Dr. Harbour, holder of the Mark J. Daily Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology. We discovered previously unrecognized genetic and cellular complexity in this deadly eye cancer.

A key finding was an enrichment of T cells expressing the checkpoint molecule LAG3, rather than the more familiar PD1 and CTLA4 molecules, which have been the focus of most checkpoint inhibitor therapy to date. This may explain why uveal melanoma has responded poorly to such drugs and nominates LAG3 as a new target for immunotherapy in uveal melanoma.

Uveal melanoma is the most common primary cancer of the eye, with approximately 2,0003,000 cases diagnosed each year in the United States. Uveal melanoma is highly metastatic and unresponsive to checkpoint immunotherapy.

Dr. Harbours ocular oncology laboratory focuses on the use of genetic and genomic methods, computational and bioinformatic technologies, and genetically engineered cellular and animal models to better understand and treat major forms of eye cancer, including uveal melanoma, retinoblastoma, and lymphoma.

This work was supported by National Cancer Institute grant R01 CA125970, Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. Senior Scientific Investigator Award, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program, the University of Miami Sheila and David Fuente Graduate Program in Cancer Biology, the Center for Computational Science Fellowship, the Melanoma Research Foundation Senior Investigator award, and a generous gift from Dr. Mark J. Daily. The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute received funding from NIH Core Grant P30EY014801 and a Research to Prevent Blindness Unrestricted Grant. The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center also received funding from the National Cancer Institute Core Support Grant P30CA240139.

Miller School of Medicine
Monday, 27 January 2020 16:58:42 (GMT+3) | Brescia

The European Commission has initiated an expiry review of the antidumping (AD) measures applicable to imports of certain welded pipes and tubes of iron or non-alloyed steel originating in Belarus, China and Russia. The Commission has accepted the request made on October 25, 2019, by the Defense Committee of the welded steel tubes industry of the European Union.

The investigation of a continuation or recurrence of dumping will cover the period from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019. The examination of trends relevant for the assessment of the likelihood of a continuation or recurrence of injury will cover the period from January 1, 2016, to the end of the investigation period.

The current measures, which entered into force in January 2015, consist of a definitive antidumping duty with rates of 90.6 percent for all Chinese companies, and 38.1 percent for all Belarusian companies. As for Russia, the rates amount to 16.8 percent in the case of TMK Group, 10.1 percent for OMK Group and 20.5 percent for all other companies.

The product subject to this review is welded tubes and pipes, of iron or non-alloy steel, of circular cross-section and of an external diameter not exceeding 168.3 mm, excluding line pipe of a kind used for oil or gas pipelines, casing and tubing of a kind used in drilling for oil or gas, precision tubes and tubes and pipes with attached fittings suitable for conducting gases or liquids for use in civil aircraft, currently falling under CN codes ex 7306 30 41, ex 7306 30 49, ex 7306 30 72 and ex 7306 30 77 and originating in Belarus, China and Russia.
Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez has asked all her ministers to resign a little more than three months before a general election.

The news Sunday came just hours after communication minister Roxana Lizarraga resigned in protest at Anez's decision to stand as a presidential candidate in the May 3 election.

Anez assumed the presidency on November 12, two days after Evo Morales resigned following three weeks of sometimes violent protests against his controversial re-election in a poll the Organization of American States said was rigged.

Anez, a little-known senator at the time, had said she had no intention of standing for the full-time job.

But that changed on Friday when she announced her candidacy.

Anez "has decided to ask for the resignation of all ministers to approach this new stage in the management of the democratic transition," the presidency said in a statement.

The statement added that it was "usual" in an electoral cycle to have "adjustments in the working team of the Executive."

Anez said she would name a new cabinet of 20 ministers "as soon as possible."

Hours earlier, Lizarraga, who was appointed by Anez on November 13, criticized the interim president for having "lost sight of her objectives."

Lizarraga said Anez had "started to fall into the same evils" as the party of her predecessor Morales.

"This is not the path the citizenry has signaled to us," said Lizarraga.

- 'Making a big mistake' -

Anez was criticized for going back on her initial commitment not to run for president.

"I respect President Anez, but I think she's making a big mistake" because "she has not been appointed to propose herself as a candidate for the presidency," former president Carlos Mesa, 66, said.

Former presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina voiced his opposition and ex-president Morales, in exile in Argentina, reminded his successor that "she promised not to be a candidate," although he said "it is her right."

There is also still doubt about the legality of Anez contesting the election.

Lawmaker Luis Felipe Dorado said he would consult the Constitutional Court.

Anez came only fourth on 12 percent in an opinion poll published on Sunday that was led by Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) candidate with 26 percent.

MAS headed the survey by Mercados y Muestras and published in the Pagina Siete newspaper, which was conducted before the party had announced the name of its candidate, former economy minister Luis Arce.

"In all the polls we are first," Morales tweeted in reaction, adding: "We are ready to beat the coup and regain the homeland."

Parties have until February 3 to register their candidates.
Various Air India employee unions will meet in New Delhi on January 27 to discuss proposed privatisation of the debt-laden airline, sources said.

The meeting was scheduled after the government, earlier in the day, announced sale of 100 percent stake in Air India as it issued the preliminary bid document for the strategic disinvestment.

Representatives of various Air India trade unions will meet here to discuss the government's privatisation plans, sources said.

There are around a dozen recognised trade unions at Air India.

Also read: Govt to sell 100% stake in Air India; issues bid document

As part of the strategic disinvestment, Air India would also sell 100 per cent stake in low-cost airline Air India Express and 50 per cent shareholding in joint venture AISATS, as per bid document issued on Monday.

Management control of the airline would also be transferred to the successful bidder.

This is the second time in less than two years that the government has come out with proposal for selling stake in Air India, which has been in the red for long.

The government has set March 17 as the deadline for submitting the expression of interest.
A Delhi Court on Monday (January 27) dismissed the review petition filed by father of one of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case convicts, Pawan Gupta, challenging magistrate order which dismissed the application questioning the credibility of the sole witness in this case. In his plea, Pawan's father had also claimed that the sole witness was tutored and his statements were credible.

Earlier on Monday, Nirbhayas mother Asha Devi had expressed confidence that Court will reject the appeal of the convicts and their efforts to delay the hanging will fail.

In a related development, another convict Mukesh Kumar Singh on Monday filed a plea before the SC seeking urgent hearing on his plea against dismissal of his mercy petition by the President Ram Nath Kovind. It is to be noted that the mercy plea of Mukesh, 32, was dismissed by President Kovind on January 17.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this" and asked Kumar's counsel to approach the mentioning officer as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

The bench also comprised justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant. Notably, the warrant for the hanging of all four convicts in Nirbhaya case has been fixed on February 1 at 6 am. Singh had approached President Kovind for mercy plea after his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence was dismissed by the top court.

On January 25 (Saturday), the lawyer of one of the convicts Vinay Sharma had told the Delhi's Patiala House Court that his client was being slow poisoned and was hospitalised, adding that his medical reports were not supplied.

Advocate AP Singh made the claims during the court hearing. Singh had filed an application in the Patiala court accusing the Tihar Jail administration of causing a delay in filing mercy petitions for the convicts, by holding on certain documents. Singh moved an application on January 24 alleging that the jail authorities are yet to give the documents which are required to file the mercy petition for Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and curative petitions for Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Singh (25).

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.
Milltown massacre gunman Michael Stone has told the Police Ombudsman that the weapon used in the attack was given to him by an RUC officer who was also in the UDA.

However the loyalist - who is serving a 30-year jail sentence for a sectarian murder campaign - insists his rogue cop contact had no idea what the police-issue Ruger revolver was to be used for.

The gun ended up being seized by republicans who chased after Stone following the cemetery slaughter.

The UDA killer also claims that IRA veteran Seanna Walsh, who was among this group, tried to shoot him in the head with the weapon but it jammed. Mr Walsh, now a Sinn Fein councillor in Belfast, refused to respond to Sunday Life inquiries about the allegation.

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This newspaper further understands that the RUC officer who Stone says provided him with the Ruger took his own life in 1989, the year after the Milltown attack that claimed three lives. His name has been passed to the Police Ombudsman.

When asked if its investigators met and took statements from Stone, a spokesman for Marie Anderson's office said: "We often speak to a range of people when following lines of inquiry in our investigations.

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"These discussions are confidential and we would not wish to identify in public anyone who has provided us with information."

Stone has previously admitted that an RUC officer drove him to collect the weapons used in the 1988 Milltown attack.

However, this is the first time he has confessed to having been handed the guns and ammo directly by a serving cop who was also in the UDA.

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A close confidant of the 64-year-old loyalist told Sunday Life: "Michael was interviewed by the Police Ombudsman some three years ago regarding the Ruger. He told its officers it had been swapped with the quartermaster of a paramilitary organisation in Mid-Ulster some time prior to Milltown.

"The quartermaster had dual membership of both the RUC and a paramilitary organisation (UDA), which was not illegal at the time. The man had no knowledge of Stone's intention for the weapon, it was not discussed."

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Stone, via his friend, claims the officer whose name is known to the Police Ombudsman, died in a suspicious suicide the following year.

The pal added: "The story was that false allegations regarding money and firearm certificates had been made against him.

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"This co-operation, not collusion, between police and loyalist paramilitaries was down to them having a common enemy."

Stone, who suffers from Motor Neurone disease and can barely walk, also made several other startling jailhouse revelations about the Millown massacre and his terror past.

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These include:

A claim that IRA veteran turned Sinn Fein Belfast City councillor Seanna Walsh tried to shoot him in the head with one of his own weapons;

That his health has deteriorated significantly in the past year leading him to promise: "I will take nothing to the grave".

Sinn Fein refused to respond to Stone's claims that Cllr Walsh tried to execute the UDA gunman with his own weapon. The veteran republican admits to being among the mourners who gave chase to the loyalist after he had thrown hand-grenades and opened fire at the IRA Gibraltar Three's funerals.

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Whatsapp Mourners panicking at Milltown Cemetery, Belfast, after a gun and hand grenade attack was launched by loyalist Michael Stone

As of last night Walsh, who served more than 21 years in jail and read the Provo's 2005 decommission statement, was neither confirming or denying that he tried to shoot Stone.

The Sinn Fein politician was caged in the Maze Prison on three occasions, firstly after being arrested in 1973 for robbing a bank and again in 1976 for possession of a firearm. From the Short Strand district of east Belfast, Walsh went on to become Officer Commanding (OC) of the IRA prisoners in the jail. He was arrested again in the 1980s after being caught making explosives and was released in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Recalling the moment Stone was apprehended by Milltown mourners after attacking the funerals of IRA members Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Dan McCann, the loyalist's friend said: "Some of those giving chase were plain-clothed IRA volunteers. One of these men was Seanna Walsh who received shrapnel wounds.

"What Walsh doesn't brag about is that he was the last person on the day in possession of the Ruger 357 owned by Stone. He chased Stone and when he thought he was out of ammo shouted 'kill the Orange bastard'."

Stone's pal said the loyalist used a back-up Ruger to fire two shots at Walsh, who was not known to him, which missed and the republican responded by playing dead.

He added: "Minutes later when Stone reached the motorway and discarded the guns, one of which was jammed with bog debris, a voice was heard shouting, 'stand back, stand back'.

"It was Walsh, and he stepped forward and attempted to fire the Ruger into Stone's temple. He tried six times to no avail and placed the weapon in the waistband of his trousers."

Stone was then bundled into a car hijacked by the IRA on the M1 motorway, but was rescued by RUC officers who sped to the scene. The UDA killer claims at this point, Walsh shouted "say it's a citizen's arrest".

Two years ago the republican talked publicly about the injuries he received in the Milltown Massacre, saying a hand-grenade thrown near him by Stone "sizzled".

Walsh explained: "I felt an impact on my inner thigh and I realised that I was injured. They actually put me into the hearse, they gave me anaesthetic and operated, took the shrapnel out and gave me a lot of stitches."

After being taken into custody by police, Stone admitted carrying out six sectarian killings for which he was jailed for a minimum of 30 years.

He was freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 2000 but returned to jail in 2006 for trying to murder Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont. Despite being seriously ill, the loyalist is not eligible for release until at least 2024.

Stone's Milltown victims were Thomas McErlane, John Murray and Kevin Brady, each of whom were attending the funerals of three IRA members executed by the SAS at Gibraltar.

The cemetery massacre was captured by a multitude of TV cameras making him infamous across the world. Prior to Milltown, the UDA hitman murdered innocent Catholics Patrick Brady, Kevin McPolin and Dermot Hackett.
In San Francisco, it's apparently now OK to take out a broken booze bottle, raise it, and charge a police car, (on film no less); get predictably shot; and for that...face no charges.

That's the story, in far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin's San Francisco.

Hugo Chavez's former translator won his district attorney's office on a promise to basically make laws illegal same as Hugo Chavez before him, and now he's giving it to the city good and hard.

Here's the San Francisco Examiner report:

Newly elected District Attorney Chesa Boudin has withdrawn the criminal complaint against a man who was shot by police after allegedly attacking two officers in the Mission, the San Francisco Examiner has learned. Jamaica Hampton, 24, faced various charges including assault after videos appeared to show him striking an officer with a glass vodka bottle near 23rd and Mission streets last December before being chased and shot by police. On Friday, Boudin withdrew the charges because his office is also investigating the two officers who shot at Hampton. "It would be problematic to ask the officers to testify while they are under investigation," Boudin told the Examiner on Saturday.

That's a hell of a floor for letting a violent thug off. Assault on cops bringing no charges? Apparently, there's no crime too blatant in young Chesa's mind not bad enough to prevent letting them off.

His logic that "it would be problematic" to ask cops to testify while they themselves are under investigation for the shooting pretty well lays it out: it's the cops, not the thugs, who are on trial here.

The message to the cops is that it's their own fault, and if they had not attempted to defend themselves from a raging violent thug, maybe the guy would have been charged, see. Leftist message to cops: "Don't defend yourselves; just let the thugs kill you."

Not surprisingly, the cops are incensed:

"This unprovoked attack was a violent, criminal act," [San Francisco police chief Bill] Scott said in the email obtained by the Examiner. "I want you to know that we remain committed to working with the DA to see that justice is done in this case for our officers[."]

Good luck with that one, Chief Bill.

Chesa seems to know there's a public relations problem with letting a thug out who's just assaulted the cops, but the logic he gives is an unusually bad red herring:

"Mr. Hampton remains in the hospital in serious condition so there is no public safety concern with allowing the investigation to proceed and for my office to obtain more information on [both] sides of the investigation," Boudin said.

Who the heck cares what condition this loser is in after he got out the broken booze bottle? The problem is not the individual thug, but the message it sends to all the remaining healthy thugs out there. Attack a cop, get shot as a result, find yourself not worrying about any charges at all. The template is set, and thugs are unusually good at reading the tea leaves.

The San Francisco police union outlined the unaddressed problem quite well.

"We urge you to protect police officers and the public from dangerous individuals such as Jamaica Hampton and hold him accountable for his assault," [SF Police Officers Association chief Tony] Montoya said Friday in the letter obtained by the Examiner. "Failure to do so sends a message to every suspect that it is perfectly acceptable to physically assault an officer to get away with your crimes."

And anyone with a brain can see that that's the other shoe to drop as a result of this leftist idiocy.

Rather creepily, Chesa says he's going to reserve the right to file charges in a three-year window, which should make this thug a perfect puppet for saying the kinds of things about criminal justice reform that Chesa likes since he's unlikely to be in any condition to commit more crimes. We already know he's all in for leftist re-education for thugs.

And the locals are noticing. You can see from the guy's GoFundMe page that pretty much no one, other than a bleeding-heart NGO that gave $1,400, is actually rallying to this guy's side, not even the rabid leftists who showed up in community meetings described in the Examiner's piece. His fundraiser has raised just $2,669 on a $500,000 goal over the course of about a month, even as the story has gotten widespread news coverage.

At his level, it's dubious he needs money in any case. If he's on Medi-Cal for the indigent, he doesn't pay a red cent for his medical care, not even a deductible; he gets a full free ride, courtesy of the taxpayers. The fundraiser actually looks like gravy, except that no one is donating.

What's startling here about this whole made-for-chaos approach to law enforcement is how closely it resembles the Chavista Venezuela socialist model. Early in Hugo Chavez's presidency, Hugo himself, breaking into television airwaves, announced that it was O.K. to steal if you're poor because capitalists hoard everything, opening the hellgates to Venezuela's massive crime spree.

Similar is coming to San Francisco now that the Chesa die is cast. Young Chesa, as the son of violent terrorists himself, spent his youth learning at Hugo's knee. It's pretty clear he's internalized the Hugo model now, and surprise surprise, San Francisco is now set to head straight down to Venezuela way.

Image credit: KPIX via shareable YouTube screen shot.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas Republican challenging first-term Rep. Steve Watkins in the partys August congressional primary has returned from a trip to Israel and is escalating his opposition to Watkins position on Israeli settlements.

The Kansas City Star reports that Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner is attempting to draw a clear contrast between him and Watkins on Middle East policy headed into the states Republican convention on Friday and Saturday.

Watkins, who represents much of eastern Kansas including Topeka and Lawrence, was among five House Republicans who voted with Democrats in December for a resolution against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in support of a two-state solution with Palestine.

For decades, the United States agreed with the United Nations stance that the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory violate international law. President Donald Trumps administration announced in November that the U.S. would no longer consider the settlements illegal, saying any legal questions about settlements should be resolved by Israeli courts.

LaTurner has been calling Watkins soft on Middle East policy since the vote.

LaTurner travelled to Israel earlier this month, his second trip there in two years. He visited an Israel Defence Forces base near Jerusalem and an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

This is without a doubt a key issue for Kansas voters. Kansas voters are incredibly supportive of Israel, LaTurner said.

These are Gods chosen people in the Promised Land and that is incredibly important to the Christian community across this country, but its also a strategic ally to the United States in the Middle East that cant be replaced, said LaTurner. We need Israel and Israel needs us.

Watkins campaign spokesman Bryan Piligra dismissed LaTurners criticism but did not directly explain Watkins rationale for his December vote.

Skipping out on official state duties to embark on two politically motivated trips to Israel does not make Jake LaTurner smart on foreign policy in the Middle East, it makes him an ego-driven opportunist. Voters will have a clear choice between a self-serving career politician who went to the Middle East for pictures, or a seasoned war veteran who went to fight insurgents, Piligra said.

Watkins served as an Army ranger and paratrooper in Afghanistan.

Some Republicans worry that Watkins is vulnerable to Democratic defeat in 2020, which prompted LaTurner to abandon a campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat in September to challenge Watkins. Watkins won the November 2018 election by less than 1 percentage point after emerging from a crowded Republican primary with less than 27% of the vote. The only Democratic candidate so far is Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday demanded the Uttar Pradesh government to take back the "wrong" cases filed against all those who were protesting against the amended Citizenship Act and the Register of Citizens (NRC).

Apart from this, she also asked the state government to provide help to the families of those who lost their lives during the protests.

"All wrong cases registered against those, including the women, for protesting against the CAA and NRC by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh should be withdrawn and the government should also provide help to (the families of) those who lost their lives during these protests, this is BSP's demand," Mayawati's tweet, translated in English from Hindi, read.

Protests have been going across the country, including the Uttar Pradesh, against the CAA and NRC.

The citizenship law grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) promoter Kapil Wadhawan in connection with the money laundering probe against late gangster Iqbal Mirchi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), official said.

DHFL came under the EDs scanner when the agency was examining three properties linked to Mirchi who was an aide of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Earlier in the day, Wadhawan arrived at the EDs office where he had been called for questioning.

DHFL allegedly extended loans to Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd, which purportedly routed money to Mirchi who died in the UK in August 2013.

The ED claimed that its investigation has shown that in 1986, Mirchi bought three properties from the Mohammad Yusuf Trust, an organisation that Mirchi allegedly used as a front to negotiate with several developers. In 2010, when Mirchi was based in Dubai, Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd bought the three properties from him and later developed them. According to the ED, Mirchi signed agreements in 2010 in which he received 90 million dirham for the development rights to these properties. All these are proceeds of crime, the ED said.

Among the four people arrested so far in the case are two alleged aides of Mirchi  Haroun Yusuf, a British national, and Humayun Merchant. Two others who have been arrested are Ranjeet Bindra, a broker, and Rinku Deshpande, through whom Bindra allegedly received his commission. Along with the four, the agency has named Iqbal Mirchi and his family members, and Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd and its directors as accused.

The ED started an investigation into the gangsters assets in the city on the basis of eight cases of narcotics smuggling and extortion registered against him since 1985. The central agency alleged in 1986, Mirchi purchased three properties from Mohammad Yusuf Trust for 6.5 lakh through his company M/s Rockside Enterprises. These properties  Sea View, Marium Lodge and Rabia Mansion  were bought using the proceeds of crime, ED alleged.

As Mirchi subsequently left the country and was declared a proclaimed offender, the properties were confiscated by the Mumbai police under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act (SAFEMA). However, during the court battle, the trust alleged that the properties still belonged to them and not Mirchi. The court then handed over the properties to the trust in 2005.

ED claimed Mirchi used the trust as a front and began negotiating with several developers to redevelop the properties. Between 1981 and 2010, the original tenants were replaced with Mirchis relatives. The agency claimed that by 2005, almost all tenants were Mirchis nominees and were planted by Merchant in connivance with Yusuf.

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The efficient contact established between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky as Interfax-Ukraine reported citing Putins Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Between two presidents, actually, the working contact is already established, quite effective as the recent events showed, he stated.

Putins spokesperson underlined that the contact itself is not something remarkable, not sensational. It is such a working, meticulous process, Peskov explained.

He also reported that the possibility of the meeting of Putin and Zelensky (at the sidelines of the commemorative events in Jerusalem on January 23) was ventilated but within the multilateral event it is impossible to organize the separate meeting physically.

Earlier, Dmitry Peskov excluded the possibility of making amendments to the Constitution that would provide the capability to incorporate annexed regions of Ukraine and Belarus into the Russian Federation.

As we reported earlier, Russias government has resigned, following President Vladimir Putin's proposal for constitutional changes.
Two beauty therapists face jail after grabbing a mother by the hair and smashing her head against a metal pole after her five-year-old daughter took the last seat on the Tube.

Renata Regin, 50, and her daughter Sophia Elsden, 25, were foaming with rage when they were forced to stand on their Jubilee Line journey, a court heard.

And they are also claimed to have flipped out at the mother's eldest girl, nine, who they branded 'disgusting' for allegedly kicking her legs while sat on her parent's lap.

Renata Regin, 50, (right)and her daughter Sophia Elsden, 25, (left) were foaming with rage when they were forced to stand on their Jubilee Line journey, a court heard today

After Elsden got into the child's face to warn her to 'watch your mouth', she suddenly clenched a clump of the mother's hair, wrapped it around her fist and pulled her skull into one of the railings, City of London Magistrates Court was told.

The screaming mother, 35, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a savage onslaught from both women, and watched in horror as Regin wrenched her nine-year-old's hair.

Regin, of Searles Drive, Docklands, and Elsden, of Union Street, Torquay, have been convicted of assaulting the mother.

Regin alone was found guilty of assaulting the nine-year-old.

After Elsden (pictured) got into the child's face to warn her to 'watch your mouth', she suddenly clenched a clump of the mother's hair, wrapped it around her fist and pulled her skull into one of the railings, City of London Magistrates Court was told

The victim mother was returning with her two girls and 65-year-old father from Portobello Road Market in October 2018 when she suffered the violent episode.

Describing the nightmare journey she told the court: 'I had asked the older one (Regin) to move her bag, which was in front of me, so my daughter could sit on my lap, but then she started saying: "Look at her legs, look at her legs." They were making loud comments about us.'

She went on to explain how she confronted the Regin and Elsden, asking: 'Is there a problem?'

From behind a screen in the court, the mother said: 'The younger one (Elsden) grabbed my hair, wrapped it around her hand and pulled my head back and forth, bashing it against the pole.'

'I had a sore head at that point, but could only focus on my children. People on the tube were screaming at the ladies to stop.'

In his account, the grandfather told the court: 'The older woman (Regin) moved towards the free seat, but my youngest grand-daughter shot into it.

'The nine year-old was on my daughter's lap and I could hear them saying: "Disgusting child" and "Look at her feet, disgusting."

'The older one said: "Yes, I've got a problem with your child. She's disgusting," and the younger one said "Yes, she is disgusting."

'The younger one got into my grand-daughter's face and said: "You'd better watch your mouth child," and then grabbed my daughter's hair and smashed her head into the railing.

Regin (right), of Searles Drive, Docklands, and Elsden (left), of Union Street, Torquay, have been convicted of assaulting the mother.

'They were both attacking her at one point and the older one said: "I'm going to kill you, I'm kill to kill you."

'My youngest grand-daughter was crying and screaming her head off and when her sister stood up the older lady grabbed the nine year-old's hair and pulled her head back.

'The violence came from nowhere. It was like an explosion of violence. Everyone was in shock due to the extreme violence.

'They were attacking my daughter and my grandchildren and at one point I did hit the older one with my fist, with restraint, with minimal force to the side of her face to get her to stop the attack.

'The older one then swaggered over and did a high karate-style kick to try and take my head off and I hit her a little harder into the face.

'I've never seen people lose their tempers as quickly as that.'

Regin told the trial trouble began when she scolded the mother about the way her children were behaving.

She said: 'A seat was available next to the woman and I was about to take it, but was kind of pushed because the girl jumped on the seat.

'The girl on the woman's lap was moving her feet, her legs were in the air, you could feel them and I told her it was not the way to bring children up.'

She claimed the mother then became aggressive towards her daughter and as she tried to protect her was attacked by the granddad.

'All of a sudden I felt a blow to my chin and I tried to kick the man in the groin. I was shocked, hurt, humiliated and was then elbowed on the side of my throat and gasped for air.

'I didn't pull any child's hair, I didn't touch the children. They are fabricating the story to protect the grandfather.'

Elsden, who says the distressing incident prompted her move to Devon, said: 'I pointed the seat out to my mum and as she was about to sit down the child pushed and rushed across to sit down next to her mother.

'My mother did say the child pushed past with no regard and the parents should bring them up better and then the woman said: 'Do you have a problem?' and continued to taunt my mum.

'The lady then came towards me with her arms out, aggressively and the grandad hit my mum under the chin and she fell back into two guys.'

Both Regin and Elsden were bailed until February 14 for pre-sentence reports.
Gorakhpur, Jan 27 : The first case of the deadly coronavirus reported from Nepal, has led to a scare in eastern Uttar Prdesh, particularly Gorakhpur, because of its proximity to Nepal and the heavy traffic flow across the porous border.

R. N. Singh, a doctor-campaigner for 'Mission Save in India', said: "The virus is deadly and has already claimed lives in many countries. A case has been reported from Nepal too. We share 1,751 km long open border with Nepal and checking virus only at the airport and not on borders will be an exercise in futility. Health check-posts should be established at entry points on the Indo-Nepal border to check the entry of virus in the country." Checking for virus has already started at the airport, but open border between the two countries should also be monitored, he said.

Medical experts in the region feel that there is an urgent need to create awareness about the deadly virus in the area, especially in the rural interiors.

The symptoms of coronavirus are similar to any other upper-respiratory infection, including running nose, coughing, sore throat, and sometimes a fever.

"When the symptoms appear, people believe that it is a flu which is normal thing in this season. It is only when the condition gets beyond repair that people come to the hospitals and by then, the patient is firmly in the grip of coronavirus," said M. M. Sahay, a local medical practitioner.

Gorakhpur, which is close to Indo-Nepal border, has a sizeable population that commutes daily to Nepal through Sunauli and Badhni borders. Steps have already been initiated for screening of the virus at the airport, but experts believe that health check-up along the open border is more important to check the entry of infection to India.

R. N. Singh further said that health check posts should be set up, along the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border just like it had been done during the SARS epidemic in 2002.

An awareness campaign was also needed to inform people that patients with cold, cough and fever must immediately be reported to the nearest hospital.

"Around half-a-dozen cases of coronavirus have also been detected in Thailand. Many people from here also go to Thailand and people from the country visit Gorakhpur. Health check-posts are the need of the hour," he said.

Meanwhile, Chief medical officer (CMO) Srikant Tiwari said that an isolation ward would soon be set up at the district hospital.

"As of now, no case of coronavirus has been reported in Gorakhpur, but the department is ready to deal with the situation. An isolation ward will be constructed at the district hospital soon," the CMO said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
[January 27, 2020] Trustmark Selects Britt Lindley as Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer

Trustmark Mutual Holding Company, a national employee benefits provider, has selected Britt Lindley as its new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Bradley Bodell, Chief Information Officer, made the announcement. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005635/en/ Britt Lindley, Trustmark Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer (Photo: Business Wire) "Britt's deep breadth of leadership experience, his proven track record of execution and collaboration and strategic approach makes him the right person at an exciting time for Trustmark," Bodell said. "Trustmark operates in ahighly regulated industry and each of its businesses requires best-in-class cybersecurity protection."



Lindley has more than three decades of experience in Information Security and IT. For the last nine years, he served as a VP and CISO for Thrivent Financial, a Fortune 500 not-for-profit financial services organization. Prior to Thrivent, he held IT leadership positions with Schneider National, Marconi Communications, PNC (News - Alert) Bank and ANSYS, Inc. Lindley served in the U.S. Army National Guard from 1988-2004. He was awarded the Bronze Star in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1982 to 1986.

Lindley earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Point Park College in Pittsburgh. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and also a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). About Trustmark

Trustmark, with its long tradition spanning over 100 years, offers employee benefits beyond expectations. Specialized expertise in voluntary benefits, self-funded health plan design and administration, and the delivery of wellness, fitness, recreation, and injury prevention and treatment programs mean we solve complex benefit challenges. A caring, personalized approach engages employees to help them protect their financial security, become smarter healthcare consumers and increase overall wellbeing. And our commitment to building long-term, trusted relationships helps people and businesses thrive. Trustmark: benefits beyond benefits. Visit us at trustmarkbenefits.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005635/en/

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It is that time of year again. Those with school going kids like me would know that nothing compares to the nightmare popularly known as back to school.

Yes, I said it, a nightmare! Whether the pains that seem to come with this period are caused by unpreparedness on our part as parents, the anxiety of new beginnings for our bundles of joy, or a reminder that the life of hectic schedule juggling is starting I am yet to determine. But what remains undisputed is that back to school blues are real and a pain!

As a mom who has had to deal with back to school blues for quite some time, I always wished for a manual, a detailed guide that would act as my sanity compass. Stationary suppliers, reliable school shuttles, where to get the best deals for school supplies, mopako deals, after school care etc. It is against this that I decided to share a few hints that will hopefully make the first few weeks bearable for us and a bit exciting for our little ones.

Firstly, let us look at the issue of kids transport to school. It goes without saying that the outmost care should be taken when choosing a shuttle for your kid. Get to know the driver, interview them and make sure you are comfortable with entrusting your child to them. If need be, kindly ask for references and do a background checks. Also get to know one or two other parents, you need not be best friends, but keeping in contact helps. Consider the route that the taxi takes as it will determine the time of pick up from home. Another point to consider is the age composition in the taxi. Mixing very young kids with the seniors is never a good idea, unless if you are sure that the elder kids will have the kind of influence you want for your little ones.

Next lets look at stationary. You would think with quite a number of stationary suppliers around, this will be a breeze but oh no. Wait until you have to replace pencils because you bought the wrong lead size! My word of advice here is, check if your childs school cant provide you with a stationary list if they arent already. Some suppliers will be glad to package for you the required stationary as prescribed on the list. For those shops where this service is not extended, its still easier for you to navigate, as you know exactly what you want and in what quantities. And just to contend for that mom/dad of the year award it will not hurt to add one or two pieces of fancy stationary.

Now that we have sorted the stationary it is up to us to try keep it safe for as long we can manage. This brings us to marking and labeling. I can only imagine the trouble the poor teachers go through trying to determine the owner of an unmarked item being claimed by two or more tearful faces. With 25 or more students using the same stationary, our only rescue will be labeling. Thankfully, we have those who supply personalised labels for stationary, clothing items, bags and even lunch boxes. But if you are a DIY mom like me, correction fluid or permanent marker will do the trick.

One other thing to get right at the start of any school year is the times. Wake up time, what time to leave home, pickup time and lastly bedtime. It is very important to establish a routine that works well for the both of you. And just in closing let us remember to engage our kids daily. Talk to them and find out how their day was. Check the bags for homework and assist. Till next time.
President Donald Trump's impeachment trial enters a pivotal week as his defense team resumes its case and senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal.

The articles of impeachment charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Those decisions on witnesses may be complicated by reports that Trump said he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals.

That's from former national security adviser John Bolton in a draft of his forthcoming book.

The report by The New York Times was later confirmed by The Associated Press. The revelation challenges the defense offered up by Trump and his attorneys in his impeachment trial.

The Capitol Hill maneuvering will be complemented by high-stakes efforts on both sides of the aisle to claim political advantage from the proceedings as the presidential nominating season kicks off in Iowa on February 3.

After a two-hour opening argument Saturday, Trump's defense team will lay out its case in depth beginning Monday.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Trump's lawyers don't expect to take the full 24 hours allotted to them, but there will be arguments from some familiar faces.

Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, former independent counsel Ken Starr and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will speak on specific topics.

Dershowitz said Sunday he would argue that the charges against Trump are too minor to warrant the Republican president's removal from office under the Constitution. Even if true, they did not allege impeachable offenses," Dershowitz told "Fox Sunday."



The Trump team has also teased the notion that it would draw attention to Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company Burisma, while the elder Biden was vice president.

An extended focus on Joe Biden, one of the leading Democratic presidential contenders, could mean blowback from even some of the GOP members of the Senate.

Once Trump's team concludes, senators will have 16 hours to ask questions of both the House impeachment prosecutors and the president's legal team. Their questions must be in writing.

Chief Justice John Roberts will read the questions aloud.

He is expected to alternate between both sides of the aisle. Many senators have been talking copious notes throughout the trial in preparation for the question-and-answer time.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters Saturday that Republicans expected to get together on Monday to start formulating a list of questions.

We will meet as a conference and decide what questions we want to pose, what the order may be of those of those questions, he said.

Under the Senate rules passed last week, senators will get another chance to vote whether to consider new witnesses and evidence after the Q&A time is elapsed.

Four Republicans would have to break ranks to join Democrats in the GOP-controlled Senate to extend the trial for an undetermined amount of time.

If that happens, expect a bitter fight over which witnesses might be called and which documents might be subpoenaed.

Democrats have called for testimony from Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, and his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney.

An attempt to call either probably would lead to a showdown with the White House, which claims both men have absolute immunity" from being called to testify before the Senate, even in an impeachment trial.

Still, Bolton has said he would appear if issued a subpoena by the Senate.

While Republicans have hoped for a speedy trial, Trump has called for the testimony of the Bidens and the intelligence community whistleblower whose summer complaint about Trump's July telephone call with Ukraine's leader instigated the impeachment inquiry.

But some Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have expressed resistance to calling those witnesses.

If the vote fails, the Senate could move swiftly to its vote on whether to remove or acquit Trump, giving the president the result he's been looking for as soon as the end of the week.

Senate rules also call for four hours of deliberations before voting. Since senators are required to sit silently during the trial, expect a closed session where they can deliberate in private.

Trump's lawyers argued Saturday that no one knows what Trump's motives were on holding up military assistance to Ukraine.

A recording obtained by The Associated Press hours later suggests the president well understood that assistance was a point of leverage over Ukraine.

The recording is of 2018 meeting at the Trump Hotel in Washington that Trump had with donors. including two now-indicted associates of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

The audio portion includes Trump inquiring about Ukraine, How long would they last in a fight with Russia? He later calls for the firing of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

The recording contradicts the president's statements that he didn't know the Giuliani associations, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.

They are key figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges.

If new evidence and witnesses are allowed, the recording could take center stage in the Senate proceedings.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
27.01.2020 LISTEN

The Ghana Physician Assistants Association and the entire Physician Assistant fraternity is taken aback by a directive dated 12th December, 2019 from the Board and Management of the National Health Insurance Authority through its Chief Executive Officer to all Active Credentialed Private Health Centres on withholding of Credentialing of Private Health Centres manned by Physician Assistants.

The Leadership of the Ghana Physician Assistants Association sees that above directive not only discriminatory to Physician Assistants nationwide, but also an eternal attempt to prevent Physician Assistants from going into private practice.

In addition, the above directive will affect masses of the population who seek health care at the peripheries of this nation as a result of lack of well-resourced public health facilities, and will go a long way to impact negatively on Ghanas strides to attaining Universal Health Coverage through National Health Insurance Scheme which is a strategy of making financial accessibility to health less costly to the poor majority.

Interestingly, His Excellency President Nana Akuffo Addo happens to be a Co- Chair of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Committee set up by the United Nations Assembly but his appointees who should be committed to the attainment of Universal Health Coverage for All through ensuring Good Health and Well-Being (SDG  Goal 3) of all citizens, are through their actions and inactions serving as bottlenecks to the attainment of this goal.

Ghana in 2003 under Ex-President Agyekum Kufuor introduced National Health Insurance Scheme in order to provide equitable access and financial coverage for Basic Health Care Services to Ghanaian citizens. This bold pro poor policy was a major stride in public financing of health, and is seen as the most equitable and sustainable way of achieving Universal Health Coverage.

We want the NHIA to clarify the following issues/questions for us:

Why is the National Health Insurance Authority under this current Board and Management bent on denying Ghanaians financial access to healthcare of their own choosing? Majority of Public Health Centres across the country are being manned by Physician Assistants and these facilities have been credentialed using the licenses of Physician Assistants, so why cant the NHIA credential a Private Health Centre manned by same cadre? Why single out only the Physician Assistant in this directive? Why should workers of the Authority go about convincing Physician Assistants to get licenses of other health care practitioners in order for their Private Health Centres to be credentialed? What are their motives? What were the issues leading to the above directive?

The Leadership of the Ghana Physician Assistants Association wants to reiterate using this platform that the National Health Insurance Authority has been unfair to Physician Assistants for far too long. Mention can be made of Levels of Care outlined by the Authority where the Physician Assistant was conveniently omitted from the B1 Level (Health Centre without a Doctor). Which cadre works at that level? We have petitioned the Ministry and the NHIA on several occasions but nothing has been done up to now.

In addition, the NHIA also in reviewing its Medicine List intentionally removed certain medicines like anti- hypertensives and anti- diabetics from the B1 Level without any justification as if the Physician Assistant is not capable of managing Hypertensive and Diabetes cases at the Health Centre Level. The Authority thought they were punishing us, but unfortunately it is the clients that are being denied those medicines thus making clients report at the so called big facilities with end organ damage.

All the above events are not coincidences. They are calculated machinations to obliterate our relevance in the Health Care fraternity. However, we want to point it out that Physician Assistantship as a profession has come to stay as the World Health Organization recognizes the relevance of these cadres and is making frantic efforts in maximizing their potentials for accelerated health outcomes, and the attainment of Universal Health Coverage for All.

In a Country where trained and highly skilled professionals are unemployed because of Governments inability to employ them into the public sector, the best any Government can do to help the unemployed is to encourage and help these professionals to venture into the private sector to contribute their quotas to national development rather than coming out with these directives.

We are by this press release calling on the National Health Insurance Authority through its Chief Executive Officer to withdraw such a circular as a matter of urgency within two (2) weeks while a broader stakeholder meeting is scheduled to address issues leading to such a directive. This has become necessary because when the Association wrote to the NHIA seeking audience on the above subject matter, the Authority scheduled a meeting only to inform us later that the meeting has been postponed indefinitely.

The Association is also calling on the President of the country and the Minister of Health to step in immediately to forestall any industrial action. The Private and Public Physician Assistants are together in this call.

We shall fight with our blood and strength the oppressors rule and machinations till we are totally liberated.

Leadership of the Associations waits patiently for your prompt response

Thank you all.

Signed

EMMANUEL YAW APPIAH PETER EYRAM KUENYEFU

PRESIDENT (0244 779518) GENERAL SECRETARY (0249883933)

DAVID KOJO DONKOH

NATIONAL PRO (0243683988)

DISTRIBUTION


For a city to maintain its identity, its people must know and respect their history, but recognizing a city's very recent past might be more i
Hundreds of ex-servicemen from Gujarat and their kin held a rally in Gandhinagar in Gujarat on Monday to demand strict implementation of reservations for them in government jobs as well as higher compensation for families of martyrs.

The ex-servicemen, who have 14 demands, are on a sit- in protest at Shahid Smarak in Shahibaug area since Sunday and also held a car rally till the state secretariat complex in Gandhinagar on Monday.

They said the BJP government in Gujarat should emulate the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and pay Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of soldiers who died in the line of duty.

"While the AAP government in Delhi is giving Rs 1 crore to kin of martyrs, the Gujarat government provides only Rs 1 lakh. We want the BJP government here to increase the compensation to Rs 1 crore. The kin of martyrs should also be given pension," said Jitendra Nimavat, president of Gujarat Ex Armymen Union.

"We also demand strict implementation of the policy of reservations in government jobs for retired army personnel. The Gujarat government has agreed to meet us in the afternoon to find solutions," he added.

Nimavat exuded confidence the Vijay Rupani government will accept all 14 of their demands.

Key demands include building a state-level martyr's memorial in Gandhinagar, providing agricultural land to retired army men as per rules, no separate liquor permit, giving priority in issuing or renewing gun licences, removing contract system in jobs offered to former army men as well as quota for their children in higher education.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[January 27, 2020] The Spanish Government Invests in Kenmei Technologies Through Its NEOTEC Technology Fund

VALENCIA, Spain, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Network Intelligence and Automation company Kenmei Technologies announced today that the Spanish Government has invested in the company through the NEOTEC technology fund managed by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI). The CDTI is a public business entity, reporting to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, which fosters the technological development and innovation of Spanish companies. It is the entity that channels the funding and support applications for national and international R&D&i projects of Spanish companies. The CDTI thus seeks to contribute to improving the technologcal level of the Spanish companies.



The NEOTEC program is a 250,000 equity-free grant for tech companies with a total available sum of 25 million euros to be invested in the most innovative startups or SMEs across Spain. "Being selected by the Spanish Government for the NEOTEC program, which is one of the most competitive funding initiatives in Spain, is a significant milestone for Kenmei Technologies because not only does it provide funds to develop our products, but it also recognises our company as one of the top technological companies in Spain," said Vicent Soler, Chief Executive Officer of Kenmei Technologies. "The NEOTEC investment will consolidate our business plan by accelerating the development of our Network Intelligence & Automation solution, ADELE," added Vicent.

About Kenmei Technologies Kenmei Technologies is a Spanish company based in Valencia founded by telecoms and software experts, focused on providing data intelligence through machine-based decision making methods, automating network operations and customer assurance, all designed to help operators deal with increasing network complexities. For further information, please visit http://www.kenmei.ai.

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Aontu party leader Peadar Toibin has withdrawn his application for a High Court injunction preventing tonight's planned political party leaders debate due to broadcast on RTE's Claire Byrne Live from going ahead.

Lawyers acting for the Meath West TD told Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds on Monday afternoon that after some consideration the application was no longer going ahead.

The court was told that the time constraints involved in bringing such an application were among the reasons why the TD and party leader was not proceeding with his action.

Outside of court Mr Toibin said he was "disappointed" with RTE's decision to exclude a representative of his party from participating in the debate.

With the level of preparation of documents involved, there was not enough time to have the action heard in advance of the planed debate, he said.

It was "unfair" that Aontu cannot take part when other political groups with smaller or similar support were, he added.

He said that had been discussions about the debate with Aontu and RTE up until Tuesday of last week, adding that he had hoped those talks would have ended "amicably."

He added that he "radically disagreed" with RTE's criteria for inclusion on the show, and add that other options are being considered, including referring the issue to Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI)

Earlier on Monday Louis Masterson Bl, instructed by solicitor Cormac O'Ceallaigh, for Mr Toibin told Ms Justice Reynolds that it was hoped to formally apply for the injunction against RTE during the course of the day.

Counsel said the proposed action was been brought arising out of Deputy Toibin's "exclusion from the debate." by the national broadcaster and the TD was going to look for an order preventing the planned debate, which the leaders of seven political parties are expected to participate, from being broadcast.
Three capital row: Andhra Pradesh cabinet clears resolution to abolish Upper House of Legislature

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Amravati, Jan 27: The Jagan government on Monday cleared resolution to abolish the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council after the opposition TDP, which has an absolute majority in the Upper House, continued to block the AP Decentralisation of Governance and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill-2020 that facilitates the creation of three capitals for the State.

The crucial bill, which provides for a Legislative Capital in Amaravati, Executive Capital in Visakhapatnam and Judicial Capital in Kurnool, was passed in the Assembly Monday night and the same was sought to be introduced in the Upper House on Tuesday morning by Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy.

Last week, during a special winter assembly session, the TDP created a roadblock for the YSRCP in the council by sending the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Bill 2020 and the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of all Regions Bill 2020 to a select committee for further deliberation, after it was passed in the assembly.

With this, only five of 28 states will have a State Legislative Council. The latest state to have a council is Telangana.

Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes the 3 capital resolution Bill 2020

The Legislative Council is the upper house in those states of India that have a bicameral legislature; the lower house being the State Legislative Assembly. Its establishment is defined in Article 169 of the Constitution of India.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

Bihar

Karnataka

Maharashtra

Uttar Pradesh

Telangana
Michel Barnier tore into British reasons for wanting to leave the EU tonight, warning that Brexit would be a 'damage limitation exercise'.

In a speech in Belfast tonight he gave a stark warning that there would be 'negative consequences' for Britain after it quits the trade bloc on Friday.

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator insisted that Brussels sought no 'punishment' or 'spirit of revenge' on Britain, even while the Brexit debate raged in London.

But in his lecture at Queen's University, Belfast, he said: 'People must be aware of the consequences, because it's absolutely clear that there will be negative consequences.

'The UK chancellor, Sajid Javid, recognised last week that parts of industry will face negative fallout.

'Whatever agreement we reach on our future relationship, Brexit will always be a mater of damage limitation, always.

'No one single person, no one, from the UK or elsewhere has ever convinced me of the added value of Brexit, no one.'

It came after Irish premier Leo Varadkar warned Boris Johnson that the EU is 'stronger' than Britain - as he plotted tactics for trade talks.

In a speech in Belfast tonight he gave a stark warning that there would be 'negative consequences' for Britain after it quits the trade bloc on Friday

Mr Barnier was in Dublin earlier for talks with premier Leo Varadkar

Mr Barnier, who met Mr Varadkar in Dublin this afternoon, said tonight that Brexit will mean 'creating trade barriers that do not exist today'.

Barnier says there WILL be checks between GB and Northern Ireland after Brexit Michel Barnier dismissed UK claims of frictionless trade movements between Britain and Northern Ireland after Brexit. Boris Johnson has repeatedly claimed there will be no checks on goods passing across the Irish sea despite the creation of a customs border down the centre of it. But in his speech tonight, Mr Barnier said said in agreeing to a border protocol to get a deal, the UK has 'agreed to a system of reinforced checks and controls for goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain'. 'The UK has chosen to become a third country; to leave the Single Market and the Customs Union; to leave behind the EU's framework of common rules, common supervision and common Court of Justice,' he said. 'It has chosen to create two regulatory spaces. This makes frictionless trade impossible. It makes checks indispensable. 'We will need sanitary and phyto-sanitary checks on food products and live animals.' Advertisement

After the UK leaves the EU on Friday it faces trying to agree a trade deal with the remaining 27-nation entity by December. If that is not done it raises the spectre of increase cross-border tariffs on goods and services.

Mr Barnier went on to say that Brexit is 'meant to be about 'Global Britain', but stated that 'it is the EU that helps make Member States more global'.

'Even without the UK, the EU forms a Single Market of 450 million people - a truly global market. Our economic power allows us to stand proudly on the world stage; to speak with other superpowers as equals on questions such as the economy, climate change, security and trade,' he said.

'There is no way that any of our countries, alone, could have the same impact. Especially as other economic giants emerge around the world.'

Mr Barnier said the EU has the 'responsibility to engage respectfully with UK negotiators, who represent a great nation, one which has been part of the EU for 47 years'.

'We have always stuck to this line... no aggressiveness, no punishment, no spirit of revenge,' he said.

'No frustration or impatience when the House of Commons was unable to agree on what kind of Brexit it wanted.

'We have always respected the ongoing debate in the UK, and we will continue to do so.'

This afternoon Taoiseach Mr Varadkar made clear he believes the bloc will emerge on top in wrangling over the future relationship, saying the UK will not 'have its cake and eat it'.

He also insisted Britain will be welcome to rejoin the EU if its Brexit 'adventure' does not 'work out'.

At a press conference after discussions with Mr Barnier, with just days left until Brexit legally happens, he said the remaining 'Team 27' member states had to stay united in the next phase of negotiations.

'On Friday, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, we'll say goodbye to an old friend embarking on an adventure,' he said.

'We hope it works out for them. But if it does not, there will always be a seat kept for them at the table.'

Mr Barnier said tonight it is now the 'EU and the UK's joint responsibility to make this agreement work on the ground'.

'The EU takes this responsibility very seriously. And let's be clear: We have been creative and flexible in finding a workable solution. But this is a detailed legal text. Now is the time to implement it precisely.

'The Withdrawal Agreement must be applied with rigour and discipline by all sides. It cannot be re-opened under the guise of implementation.

'We will be monitoring its correct application very carefully.'
Tripoli, Jan 27 : Clashes between Libya's UN-backed government forces and the east-based army in Abugrein town killed 24 troops and injured more than 100 from both parties.

"The battle in Abugrein town killed 12 and injured 55 of our troops," a source of the east-based army told Xinhua news agency on Sunday night.

The UN-backed government's forces also said that 12 of their fighters were killed and more than 50 others injured during the clashes.

It said that they repelled the attack and destroyed and seized a number of armoured vehicles of the east-based army.

The east-based army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, has been leading a military campaign since April 2019 in an attempt to take over Tripoli from the UN-backed government.

Thousands of people have been killed or injured in the fighting, and more than 150,000 civilians were forced to flee their homes from the violence.

The two rival factions, which agreed to a cease-fire deal on January 12, have been accusing each other of breaching the truce.
H5 Matter Analytics targets the most challenging parts of the privilege workflow, adding quality search capabilities to the identification of potentially privileged information and providing automated, customizable name normalization and designation of privilege reasons.

H5 today announced a new release of H5 Matter Analytics that enhances the H5 well-established Relativity-integrated application with the power of advanced privilege analytics that automate labor-intensive tasks in the privilege review workflow to expedite eDiscovery, reduce costs, and facilitate identification of privileged information.

The arduous chore of identifying potentially privileged information in massive datasets has long been a headache in eDiscovery. The workflow to detect, review, and log potentially privileged communications is routinely bogged down by scattershot manual searches for lawyer names and sensitive content across huge volumes of data. Further, privilege status may be challenging to assess when difficult-to-parse email threads contain names of third parties.

The new release of H5 Matter Analytics leverages the strength of email threading and name normalization techniques already present in the software, adding to it privilege analytics to automate identification of discernable lawyers, lawyer communications, lawyer mentions and legal discussions, resulting in prioritized tiers of potentially privileged documents, including identification of documents that may be subject to privilege waiver.

Advanced email analytics also provide visibility into privilege actors and content in subsumed and derived email message headers. H5MA creates re-usable profiles with normalized names for people and organizations and also provides templates for tailored privilege rules and reasons to expedite privilege logging and enhance accuracy and uniformity across matters in an entire portfolio.

There are few technologies in the marketplace that effectively address privilege and privilege logging, which are huge costs in litigation, said Jason Richard, H5s Vice President of Products. H5 Matter Analytics targets the most challenging parts of the privilege workflow, adding quality search capabilities to the identification of potentially privileged information and providing automated, customizable name normalization and designation of privilege reasons. Were very excited to leverage nearly 20 years of service and technology experience in this new release to help customers address the costs and risks associated with privilege review.

The new release of H5 Matter Analytics will be on display at Legaltech 2020 to be held at the Hilton Hotel in New York from February 4-6, and will be widely available shortly thereafter.

About H5

H5 helps corporations and law firms find and manage the documents that matter in litigation and investigations by providing expert-driven, technological solutions to address the complex challenges created by electronic data. With expertise in eDiscovery, technology-assisted review and search, H5 is committed to helping clients find and manage the information they need to win cases, meet regulatory requirements and address risks by providing creative solutions that ensure fast, accurate, cost-effective results. This commitment has resulted in the development of H5 Matter Intelligence and H5 Matter Analytics, advanced eDiscovery products that streamline review and enhance the user experience for Relativity-hosted matters.


Nicola Sturgeon picked a fresh fight with Boris Johnson today by demanding Scotland gets powers over visas after Brexit.

The SNP leader insisted it is vital that immigration from the EU is allowed to carry on because the economy needs workers.

But the UK government has flatly dismissed the idea, saying control of borders will remain a reserved matter.

The spat erupted after Ms Sturgeon published a report on how Scotland should diverge from the rest of the union's immigration rules.

Under her preferred blueprint, migrants would apply separately to the Scottish Government for a visa to live only in Scotland and Holyrood would recommend applicants to the Home Office.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon (pictured on Sky News today) insisted it is vital that immigration from the EU is allowed to carry on after Brexit, saying the economy needs workers

Ms Sturgeon told an event in Edinburgh: 'The hard reality is this - without continued inward migration in the years ahead, there's a real risk that Scotland's working age population will fall.

'The end of free movement will, in my view, harm the whole of the UK, but it will be uniquely harmful for Scotland.

'It's likely to weaken our economy, damage the delivery of our public services and make some of our communities less sustainable.

'That is the reason for today's paper and the proposals it contains.'

She added: 'A common, UK-wide approach to immigration simply hasn't worked in Scotland's favour for some time now.

'I hope the UK Government will be prepared to work with us to deliver a Scottish visa.'

The document laid out five possible methods for the creation of the visa system, ranging from total Westminster control to fully devolved to Holyrood.

Ms Sturgeon endorsed models that would see the UK Government keep responsibility for the final checks on prospective migrants, but devolved administrations get more say on the criteria and eligibility assessment.

The First Minister stressed the proposals were designed to work under devolution but they could be adapted for use in an independent Scotland. The Scottish Parliament is due to vote on Wednesday on whether to hold another independence referendum - even though Mr Johnson has insisted he will not give permission for one to be held.

Ms Sturgeon branded the 'one size fits all' immigration system 'pretty disastrous' for Scotland.

When asked about the possibility of an outright refusal from Downing Street or the Home Office to engage in talks, the First Minister said: 'I'm not going to sit here ... and say that they're going to jump and say yes.

Boris Johnson (pictured on a visit to King's College London University today) has dismissed Ms Sturgeon's pressure for a fresh Scottish independence vote, and the UK government said immigration powers will stay with Westminster

'But equally, I know what the risks and the realities will be if we don't have this.

'If there is a complete blanket refusal to discuss these things then the view that the Westminster system is incapable of accommodating Scotland's distinctive interest just becomes more and more of a real thing.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'Immigration will remain a reserved matter.

'The UK Government will introduce a points-based immigration system that works in the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom, including Scotland.

'We want to understand the specific needs of the whole of the UK, which is why we have engaged extensively with stakeholders across the UK, including the Scottish Government.'
By Bill Cole

In the earnest 2009 documentary, American Teacher, which vividly highlights both the rewards and challenges of being a classroom teacher, one of the featured young teachers who graduated from Harvard muses over how so many people ask her why she didnt become a doctor or a lawyer instead of her chosen profession.

Why would you do that? You went to Harvard, they gratuitously remind her. Her retort, Would you not want your children taught by someone who went to Harvard?!

This exchange seems to get at a central paradox in our society. We typically talk a big game about the importance of a first-class education. And, yet, we too often exhibit a dismissive attitude toward the practitioners on the front lines in the field. The teaching career is simply not taken very seriously as a professional choice today.

In a McKinsey & Company study it was found that a mere 23% of teachers in the U.S. come from the top third of their high school and college graduating classes, compared to 100% in such countries as Singapore, Finland and South Korea. Ironically, there is a distinct possibility that the very people involved in conducting this study did graduate from the top of their college class.

McKinsey & Company is an elite corporate consulting firm, highly coveted by young hyper-achieving college graduates. Why would so many people in the United States overwhelmingly prefer to work in a stodgy corporate environment, dispassionately analyzing the demographics of teachers, rather than be the educators themselves, passionately seeking to make the world a better place and leaving a lasting and meaningful impression on future generations?

We know the answer to this question lies within some kind of convoluted mix of pay, prestige and power. But, how did we get to a point in the United States in which this ego-fueled mix has become the preeminent value system that elucidates our career paths? This certainly is not the case in so many other industrialized countries.

One source that might be useful in pointing the way to how we got here is David Riesmans classic sociological analysis on American character, The Lonely Crowd. On the 70th anniversary of the books initial publication, it seems worthwhile to consider its enduring relevance. One of Riesmans primary assertions in the book is that over the first half of the 20th century, with the rise of industrialization, American society went through a sweeping evolution. There was a significant shift from a long-standing inner-directedness, in which most individuals assumed a more private and personal approach to self-definition and the development of a value system, to an other-directedness, in which individual life choices and value systems are most often cultivated through a comparative, and even competitive, dynamic.

This societal transformation with an increasing emphasis on materialistic concerns inherently brought factors like pay, prestige and power to the forefront when constructing individual life goals. This shift also seems to have something to do with the obscene consolidation of wealth among the scant few at the top over the last several decades. Of course the explosion of social media has served to further perpetuate this Keeping-Up-With-The-Joneses mentality, infusing Riesmans ideas with a newly realized immediacy 70 years later.

Under these conditions, it should come as no surprise that the teaching profession has become as marginalized as it is today, our trite public praise of teachers notwithstanding. But, how can we change course? It seems impossible to put the genie back in the bottle and hold those in the teaching profession in a similar regard to those in medicine, finance or law, which is what actively occurs in Finland, South Korea and Singapore, among other countries.

Targeted policy proposals such as teacher merit pay or more rigorous training standards ultimately just tinker around the edges. It seems evident until we have another large scale societal transformation that compels us to reassess our core value system and the defining criteria for motivation and success, the state of the teaching profession will remain essentially unchanged. And if the forces of pay, prestige and power continue to be the qualities we truly value most, they will inevitably come at a huge cost to our students and their futures.

Bill Cole is a school psychologist and public relations specialist for the Morris County Council of Education Associations (MCCEA).

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 22nd Central Zonal Council meeting here on Tuesday and it will be attended by chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, said an official.

Five zonal councils - Western, Eastern, Northern, Southern and Central were set up under States Reorganization Act, 1956 to foster inter-state cooperation and coordination.

They are mandated to discuss and make recommendations on any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, border disputes, linguistic minorities or inter-state transport among others.

"The meeting will take place from 11 am to 3 pm at Mayfair Lake Resort in Naya Raipur, the upcoming capital city of the state. Chief Ministers Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand) will attend," the official said.

"Host state CM Bhupesh Baghel will be present as the vice chairman. Two ministers from each of the four states, the respective chief secretaries and senior officials will take part," he added.

The council takes up issues involving the Centre and states and is a forum for resolving disputes, informed the official.

He said a broad range of issues, including security, infrastructure matters like road, transport, industries, water and power will be discussed, besides those pertaining to forests and environment, housing, education among others.

Left Wing Extremism (LWE), faced mainly by host state Chhattisgarh, will also figure prominently in the meeting and is likely to centre on the need for sophisticated weapons and other equipment to fight Maoist ultras, the official informed.

A BJP spokesperson said Shah will later address a meeting of party workers in its Kushabhau Thakre Parisar here, and then leave for Delhi at around 5:35 pm.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah presides over the signing of a historic agreement between Government of India, Government of Assam and Bodo representatives, to end the over 50-year old Bodo crisis, in New Delhi on Jan 27, 2020. Also seen Ass Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah presides over the signing of a historic agreement between Government of India, Government of Assam and Bodo representatives, to end the over 50-year old Bodo crisis, in New Delhi on Jan 27, 2020. Also seen Ass Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah presides over the signing of a historic agreement between Government of India, Government of Assam and Bodo representatives, to end the over 50-year old Bodo crisis, in New Delhi on Jan 27, 2020. Also seen Ass Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 27 : In a step aimed at ushering in peace in the northeast, the Union government entered into a peace agreement on Monday with representatives of Bodo organisations. The move comes following the government's attempts to put an end to the Bodo insurgency demanding a separate state carved out of Assam.

The tripartite agreement was signed by representatives of the Union government, Assam government and representatives of banned Bodo organisation - National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) is also a signatory to the peace accord.

The peace accord signed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, provides for the economic and political development of Bodos without affecting the territorial integrity of Assam.

As per the peace plan, 1,550 cadres along with 130 weapons will surrender on January 30. Shah assured the Bodo representatives that all the promises made in the peace agreement will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner.

Monday's peace accord is the third Bodo peace agreement to be signed since 1993. The demand for a separate Bodoland is almost five decades old.
Frustrated by polling data showing that voters trust Democrats more on the issue of health care, President Trump reportedly lashed out earlier this month at Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. That has led Azar to scramble to pull together details of a plan tying U.S. drug prices to a benchmark of prices in other developed countries, Politicos Sarah Karlin-Smith and Adam Cancryn reported late Friday:

There had been internal disagreement among Azar and other key health officials like White House Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan over whether to release the rule on international benchmarking, as Azar wanted, or keep it for leverage as Congress keeps working on drug pricing, as Grogan has argued. Trumps insistence on an imminent win helped bring the dueling parties together around issuing the rule.  But the administration has little ability to speed up the pace of federal rulemaking. That means even under the most favorable circumstances, the administration wont be able to demonstrate any real change to consumers for years.

The pharmaceutical industry strongly opposes the idea of an international price index, as do many Republicans, who object to what they see as government price controls. Republicans have also been wary of backing bipartisan legislation from Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), which the White House supports.

Working on a plan to cut insulin costs for seniors: On a related note, Axioss Caitlin Owens and Jonathan Swan report that the Trump administration is working on a plan to lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors who require insulin, though the details thus far are unclear or undecided.

Seniors spent an average of $588 out-of-pocket for insulin in 2016, or almost double what they paid in 2007, according to Axios. But Owens and Swan add that, Lowering patients' out-of-pocket spending probably wouldn't lower the actual cost of the drug, meaning that it'd get shifted onto taxpayers.

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A woman has been accused of keeping her sister caged inside her own home under the guise of caring for her, while actually committing alleged acts of torture.

Leona Biser, 51, was arrested and appeared in court on Friday on charges of neglect and false imprisonment after the Pennsylvania Attorney General claimed her sister was being kept inside a 'house of horrors' not fit for anyone to live in and which had no running water.

Authorities discovered 53-year-old sister, Loretta Lancaster, inside a wooden cage with a filthy mattress laid out in the living room in their Vestaburg home.

Biser has been charged with neglect of a care-dependent person, abuse of a care-dependent person, recklessly endangering another person, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.

Leona Biser, 51, of Vestaburg, Pennsylvania, is accused of keeping her sister in a wooden cage with only a dirty mattress and little-to-no medical care

Biser is facing several charges including neglect of a care-dependent person

The home where they both lived was said to be filthy, swarming with bugs, covered in dog feces with no access to running water, microwave or stove

So much dog feces lined the kitchen floor that it was impossible for those living there to reach the sink or stove.

There was no bathroom and the entire place was found to be swarming with bugs, with authorities saying a snake had even shed its skin on the floor.

As well as keeping her sister locked up in such deplorable conditions, Biser is also accused of withholding her essential medication.

Despite the urgency of the situation, it took authorities more than three months before anything was done.

As well as keeping her sister locked up in such deplorable conditions, Biser, pictured, is also accused of withholding her essential medication

Leona Biser, 51, was arrested and appeared in court on Friday on charges of neglect and false imprisonment after Pennsylvania Attorney General claimed her sister was being kept inside a 'house of horrors' not fit for anyone to live in which had no running water

Adult Protective Services first went to the house in August 2019 when they discovered the horrendous conditions the pair were living in.

Police said they found Lancaster in a kneeling position inside the cage and that her nephew was kneeling beside her.

But it wasn't for another three months when the agent returned, this time bringing a doctor, and it was found that Lancaster was unable to even stand up or walk.

It then took a further three weeks before the Attorney General's office got involved and summoned an ambulance to take the woman to hospital according to WPXI,

Family members say things took a turn for the worse after the sisters' mother had died.

Family members say things took a turn for the worse after the sister's mother had died

Biser was supposed to be caring for her dependent sister and she was in a cage 'for her own protection'

The sisters' nephew, Anthony Gilpin, said Lancaster had the mental capacity of an infant, unable to communicate or use the bathroom by herself.

Gilpin claimed that the cage was put up for the woman's 'own safety' so that she didn't hurt herself.

Police said they found a baby's bottle that appeared to contain milk in the cage when they arrived.

'I don't want to believe it's true,' he said. 'Sometimes, people try to do what's best and take on too much and don't realize what they're doing until it's too late.'

When officers asked Biser about her sister's living conditions, she told them she kept her in 'an enclosure due to her constantly falling, and that in doing so prevented her from getting injured,' according to a police criminal complaint.

It took authorities more than three months from when they discovered the horrendous conditions before Adult Protective Services finally visited the home and rescued the sister

Investigators found Lancaster to be 'disheveled, dirty ... and the clothing that she was wearing was extremely dirty.'

Lancaster was treated for a urinary tract infection and breakdown of muscle caused by infection.

In the last couple of months, her condition has steadily improved having regained some mobility. She is now working with a speech therapist.

'This defendant professed to be caring for her sister when, in fact, the home was in deplorable condition, had no running water, and the victim was not getting her prescribed medicines. We fight to protect those who cannot protect themselves,' AG Josh Shapiro said in a statement.

'And our agents have made sure the victim has received needed care and will no longer have to suffer daily living in a cage.'
Tran Quoc Thai, vice director of the Ministry of Constructions Urban Development Agency

In recent years, urban areas around the world are greatly tapping into their potential to develop into smart cities. Smart city investment seems to be boundless and can be seen in cities of different histories, sizes, and economic potential.

The application of urban city development solutions promises to bring in numerous benefits, helping data-driven decision making and urban governance while narrowing the gap between the public and authorities, and directly providing multi-dimensional information for the public.

Smart technologies allow better management and supervision over cities infrastructure, improving the quality of provided infrastructure services, and contributing to improving peoples livelihood.

Such applications even allow people of different ages and demands to directly compare the liveability of cities. A key point in smart city development is the promotion of innovation to improve cities competitiveness regionally and globally.

The application of the Internet of Things, big data, and other advanced technologies has created diverse options to improve peoples lives and economic transactions. Thus, smart city development has become increasingly important to all cities and nations.

Nations in the world have invested in building smart cities in different forms. For example, the United Kingdom supports innovation programmes via money from the UK Innovative Programme. In India, the 100 Smart Cities Programme deployed on a pilot basis in 20 cities has attracted the participation of 2,500 projects worth $29 billion, and 189 projects of which valued at $479 million have been completed, with equal investment from the central and local budgets.

Meanwhile, in 2012, China began to pilot the first 90 smart city projects. About 180 urban areas joined the Chinese programme in developing smart urban areas, with the total investment capital amounting to $79.5 billion.

In 2013, about 193 projects were approved. Ningbo city alone, with a population of over 7.5 million people, has designed a programme to invest nearly $6.5 million in smart city development.

In another case, last November, South Koreas President Moon Jae-in commenced the ground-breaking ceremony of an ecological smart city project covering 280 hectares in a 1,100ha complex.

Not only using public investment for developing smart cities, many nations have also been using private investment for this purpose in many different sectors.

Quickening the application of smart cities will help boost the provision of sufficient information about cities in a more timely manner. This will enable enterprises and investors to better conduct research and analysis, and set up business strategies and plans based on the data acquired.

Prospects for Vietnam

If implemented well, smart city development will bring direct benefits to people of all walks of life, including the most vulnerable groups. Thus, in Vietnam, smart city development is considered one of the biggest priorities for the country to approach and promote the advantages of Industry 4.0.

At present, Vietnam has more than 30 cities and provinces which have been implementing plans on smart city development in different ways.

The southern province of Binh Duong, for example, has co-operated with Eindhoven in the Netherlands in order to implement a triple helix model, which there is co-operation among researchers, enterprises, and the state in developing Binh Duong into a smart city.

In 2018 and 2019, Binh Duong was recognised by the Intelligent Community Forum, a non-profit policy research organisation focusing on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy, as one of the 21 community regions with the worlds smartest city development strategies.

In Ho Chi Minh City, smart city development focuses on constructing a concentrated monitoring centre and a simulation and forecast centre which can bring about traffic benefits to the public.

A number of other smart areas have also been zoned and developed in Hanoi, the central city of Danang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Many localities are also investing in developing e-government and raising the use of online public services.

A resident in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai said that previously, locals had to pay VND250,000 ($11) for conducting procedures, travelling, and meals when applying for a driving licence. However, now they can bring the necessary papers to the communes headquarters to conduct the procedures. When the licence is available, the communes staff will send it to them via post.

The prime minister has enacted three priorities in smart city development, including smart city zoning, smart city construction and management, and the provision of smart city utilities for organisations and individuals in the cities with the fundaments being urban infrastructure and ICT systems, including urban space database connections.

From the investment and business angle, it is clear that there are immense opportunities for investing in smart city development, such as the provision of services and solutions for sectors such as finance, healthcare, transport, traffic, culture, and tourism.

More opportunities can also be seen in supporting zoning activities and development orientation, and in the forecast of short- and long-term scenarios based on statistics.

Investors also pour money into managing and operating urban infrastructure systems.

However, to reach the targets on smart city development, there would need to be a proper hard and soft ICT infrastructure. This promises a big market for providing equipment, solutions, and maintaining services, as well as human resources for operating smart cities.

Vietnam currently has more than 830 urban areas, inhabited by over 38 per cent of the countrys total population. These areas grow by about one million people each year.

Infrastructure, human resources, and IT application are receiving heavy investment, which has made it more favourable for investors and enterprises to pour money into scientific and technological development, and put into operation development and innovation funds.

In addition, internet has been increasingly cheap in Vietnam, while the countrys golden population structure means it is rich in human resources, and leaders of the country and localities are paying more attention to the application of IT in the operation of their apparatuses.

Vietnam currently embraces key factors in order to successfully implement the goal of smart city development to create big breakthroughs in national socio-economic development.

Hurdles in the way

Smart city development in Vietnam is facing certain difficulties. Specifically, the country has yet to have any successful smart city development model. Almost all localities are in the first period of smart city development. Their urban databases are scattered in many sectors without consistency in information and data, making it quite difficult for smart city development initiatives.

In addition, investment in smart city development is a new area that will set high demand in many segments such as lighting equipment, surveillance, Wi-Fi, advertising, and sensors.

Intersectoral investment models are also in their initial stages, with difficulties in determining risks in investment, benefits, and responsibility for stakeholders. Meanwhile, the legal framework for smart city development is coming along slowly.

At the same time, rapid changes in technology make the selection of suitable solutions quite difficult. In this context, increasing co-operation and communication has become a common goal in the region and the wider world.

This year, Vietnam undertook its role as chair of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network, and this will be a strong opportunity for the country to boost both connectivity and co-operation with regional and international partners in smart city development. With its great potential and strong determination from the state, the business community, and people, Vietnam is on the right track to materialise its dream of building smart cities in the next decade of the 21st century.
Immigrants may now face visa and citizenship restrictions based on their past or hypothetical future use of public benefits.

In a 5-4 decision Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration's public charge rule to take effect nationwide. The rule would restrict immigrants who are considered or could later be considered a "public charge" from gaining legal status, and comes despite multiple prior courts striking down the rule.

The Monday decision came along ideological lines, with the court's four liberal justices dissenting from the majority opinion. U.S. District Judge George Daniels previously struck down the rule, mirroring critics who've called it a "wealth test" for immigrants by saying the rule is "repugnant to the American dream." Daniels had also placed an injunction on the rule's implementation due to a likely appeal to the Supreme Court, and the higher court lifted that injunction Monday.

The theory of a public charge rule has existed for decades, but wasn't codified until the Trump administration drew up this rule in 2017. The rule targets people attempting to legally immigrate into the U.S. by assessing if they have used public benefits such as food stamps in the past, or if they might use them after gaining legal status. If the government determines a person is or could become a "public charge," they can block a person from getting a visa, green card, citizenship, and other forms of legal status.

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BRANFORD - Shoreline Community Church (SCC) announced today that they will serve as one of nearly 700 churches around the world already registered to host Night to Shine 2020, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation.

This event is hosted through local churches across the globe simultaneously Feb. 7. Night to Shine is a prom night experience for people with special needs ages 14 and older. Every guest enters this complimentary event on a red carpet complete with a warm welcome from a friendly crowd and paparazzi. Once inside, guests receive the royal treatment, including hair and makeup stations, shoe shining areas, limousine rides, corsages and boutonnieres, a catered dinner, karaoke, prom favors, a dance floor, all leading up to the moment when each guest is crowned king or queen of the prom.

It is awe inspiring to see how God is using the Church globally to stand up and advocate for people with special needs. I truly believe that the world is coming together through Night to Shine to celebrate the love that God has for us, said founder Tim Tebow in a statement. Every town, every village, every state, every country needs a Night to Shine for their special needs community - a chance to be a part of something significant and life-changingand to be blessed in the process.

As sponsor of Night to Shine, the Tim Tebow Foundation will provide each host church with the official 2020 Night to Shine Planning Manual, personalized guidance and support from a Tim Tebow Foundation staff member and access to free and discounted resources that will assist them in creating an unforgettable night for their guests. The foundation also has committed nearly $3.5 million in financial support to hundreds of churches needing assistance in hosting the event.

Night to Shine has experienced incredible growth, now in its sixth year of existence. The event launched in 2015 with 44 host churches and 15,000 volunteers honoring more than 7,000 kings and queens of the prom. This past February, 655 host churches and 200,000 volunteers came together to celebrate 100,000 honored guests with special needs. Now in its sixth year, the Tim Tebow Foundation anticipates 800 churches to sign up to host the event taking place this coming February.

For additional information on the Night to Shine hosted by Shoreline Community Church in Branford, venue provided by Bill Millers Castle, visit, https://shorelinecommunitychurch.nighttoshine.com

KeyBank offers business workshop

MIDDLETOWN  The Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce will host a KeyBank Workshop on The Fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) at 8 a.m. Feb. 11 at the chamber office at 393 Main St., Middletown.

Presented by Thomas Lee of Keyword Performance, the workshop provides the practice of refining aspects of a website - both on-page and off-page - so that it appears, or ranks, at the top of search engines for specific keywords. There is no single SEO trick that will give you overnight success; on the contrary, SEO requires trial, error, and long-term commitment. What works for one website will not work for every website; therefore, true SEO professionals will devise and execute a plan that is tailored to the goals of your business. This workshop will help you find out what plan is tailored to your business to meet your business goals.

To register, visit https://www.middlesexchamber.com to register or call 860-347-6924. Registration cost for Chamber members is $30 and for non-members $40.

Relay for Life committee sets dates

HADDAM/KILLINGWORTH  In June, the 13th edition of The Relay for Life of Haddam-Killingworth was held at the HK High School track and field facility.

As committee membes start organizing for next years event, they acknowledged the entire Haddam-Killingworth community for making the event a success. All are invited to join the Relay for Life on June 27, 2020, noon to 10 p.m.

Meetings are held monthly and are open to all, and continue Feb. 19, March 18, April 22, May 20 and June 24.

All meetings held at Haddam-Killingworth High School, Little City Road, Room C112, 6:30-8 p.m. More information can be found at www.relayforlife.org/hkct

East Hampton Senior Center offers trips

EAST HAMPTON  The East Hampton Senior Center, 105 Main St., is offering the following trips. Visit www.easthamptonct.gov, call 860-267-44426, or stop by for more information.

Ogunquit Maine- Kennebunkport City Tour, Fosters Clambake, and Nubble Lighthouse Cruise, June 1-3 2020. Cost is $479 double/triple and $589 single. $200 deposit due by March 2nd. Register at the senior center.

Newport Playhouse, July 19, 2020. A unique dinner theatre presents On Golden Pond and features a great lobsterfest menu and cabaret show. Cost is $111 and a $25 deposit is due by March 25. Register at the senior center.

The Lighthouses of Boston Harbor, Aug. 25, 2020. Enjoy a 90 minute narrated historical cruise of the five Boston Lighthouses. Lunch at The Venezia Restaurant, waterfront location with views of the Boston skyline. Cost is $121.00, deposit of $25 is due by April 22nd. Register at the senior center.

Dinner dance benefits draft horse rescue

PORTLAND  Residents are invited to Denim, Diamond and Drafts, an evening of dancing, dinner, and drinks to support the horses of the CT Draft Horse Rescue, on Feb. 29 at Saint Clements Castle, 1931 Portland-Cobalt Rd., Portland. Tickets $80 per person and include a buffet dinner, raffles, live auctions, and a cash bar. Tickets are limited and are $80 per person. Call Lori to purchase tickets at 860-267-1542. Tickets can also be purchased via Paypal - send the payment to ctdraftrescue@aol.com (reference Denim, Diamonds, Drafts tickets on the payment). Tickets must be purchased by Feb. 19 and are not refundable. The event is snow or shine.

CDHR in a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the lives of neglected or abused draft horses as well as draft horses heading to slaughter. For more information visit www.ctdraftrescue.com, www.facebook.com/ctdraftrescue, or send an email to ctdraftrescue@aol.com.
tom was going to be the lead? he looks waaaay too young to be playing Nathan

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The movie is about young Nathan Drake.

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thats a harrible photo of tom they used.

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Gestating like an elephant?

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im only close to finishing the second game but my god, he just seems like a bland lara croft. literally nothing appealing about nathan to me, all the other characters (esp the women) seem so much more interesting

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No way - all the characters are great!



And I love tomb raider, but Lara is pretty bland as a character in cut scenes.

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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Kill it.



Uncharted needs to be a series.

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And it will still end up getting released before chaos walking, whew

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Deaaaad at Noah Centineo gaining all that weight and looking  for a film he thought would be his traditional motion picture lead all for it to probably just get sold to Netflix anyways lmfaoooo

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I feel like Tom wont really have a career outside of the UK after Spider-Man

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The Uncharted series is perfection. And yet here we are with another game made into a film. Major floppage.

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As a fan of the games I was tepid about the movie to begin with and then lost any interest when they went and cast Mark Wahlberg as Sully. With losing 6 directors maybe they should take the hint and shelf it.

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STORY LINK Pound to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate: GBP/CAD Lower as Coronavirus Fears Weigh on Oil Prices

Pound Sterling Exchange Rates Flat Ahead of BoE Rate Decision

Pound vs Canadian Dollar Outlook: Bank of England in Focus

Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues:

The Pound Sterling to Canadian Dollar exchange rate rose slightly on Monday January 27 leaving the pairing trading around CA$1.7218.CAD remained muted on Monday as oil prices extended last weeks declines.The risk-off mood amongst investors saw prices fall below $60 for the first time in nearly three months.Fears surrounding the Wuhan coronavirus sent prices lower as more businesses in China were forced to close.This prompted expectations that oil demand would slow which weighed on the oil-sensitive Canadian Dollar.Commenting on this, chief executive at Sun Global Investments, Mihir Kapadia noted:Investors will react quickly to any sign of negativity and this is no exception as China announces that the issue has become an emergency. This could keep oil prices fragile until the coronavirus shows signs of slowing down.Today saw the death toll for the virus rise above 80, causing the Chinese government to extend the Lunar New Year holiday to 2 February in an attempt to keep people at home and prevent the virus from spreading further.The fears over slowing global oil demand have prompted speculation that OPEC could consider deepening production cuts.However, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud noted:[Markets are being] primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite [the virus] very limited impact on global oil demand.Such extreme pessimism occurred back in 2003 during the SARs outbreak, though it did not cause a significant reduction in oil demand.Sterling was left flat against the Loonie ahead of Thursdays Bank of England (BoE) monetary policy meeting.Many analysts have argued the banks decision is too close to call, with markets predicting a 55% chance of a cut.While upbeat economic data releases last week sparked hope the bank would leave rates on hold, previous weak data and dovish statements from BoE policymakers left the door open for a cut.Commenting on this, Deutsche Bank strategist, Jim Reid noted:This [BoE] meeting follows a run of fairly weak economic data over the last few weeks but with last weeks strong employment data and better than expected flash PMIs confusing the picture.Our economists have expected a cut for a good couple of months now but markets are closer to 50:50.Looking ahead, due to the lack of notable economic releases, it is likely oil prices will remain a major driver for the Canadian Dollar (CAD).The oil-sensitive Loonie is likely to remain under pressure against the Pound (GBP) if Wuhan virus fears continue to weigh on oil prices.Meanwhile, Sterling could slump as the Bank of England (BoE) meeting remains the main focus for investors this week.If the chances of the bank slashing rates increase over the next few days, it will likely offset weaker oil prices and send the Pound Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate lower.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

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Update issued after complaints of rancid smelling air from Johnstown landfill site  petition gains pace asking for cleaner air

This article is old - Published: Monday, Jan 27th, 2020

It has been announced that a number of improvements have been identified to minimise the odour at the landfill site in Johnstown, that has been subject to ongoing complaints about the bad smell emanating from it.

This afternoon Councillor David A Bithell, who represents Johnstown as well as being the Lead Member for Place  Environment & Transport on Wrexham Council, issued an update of actions following several issues raised to him prior to Christmas, and on-going complaints regarding the Landfill Site in Ruabon/Johnstown.

Cllr Bithell said, I have raised concerns and arranged for a meeting with National Resources Wales (the regulating body). I have also raised concerns locally with Senior Officers at Wrexham Council and have arranged for Environment, Planning and Public Protection Officers to be present. The meeting is arranged for early February when I will ensure local concerns are discussed.

I am aware of an Action Plan that the site operator, Enovert have developed to tackle many of the concerns, these include; improvements to the leachate preventions, new and improved gas extraction infrastructure, amendments and improvements to the capping layers and new fencing to help reduce wide blown litter from the site.

Hopefully this work will improve the situation for residents in Johnstown and the surrounding communities. I do encourage residents to report issues via the number provided below.

Industry Regulation Team Leader for Natural Resources Wales said: Following complaints of an odour from local residents, our officers have been working with Hafod Landfill in Johnstown near Wrexham.

The site operates under an environmental permit that we regulate, and contains conditions that the operator must comply with, in order to minimise the impact of their activities on the environment and local communities.

A number of improvements have been identified to minimise the odour, and these will be put in place over the coming weeks by the site operator Enovert. These include new gas wells and improved temporary capping.

Natural Resources Wales incident hotline 0300 065 3000 (24 hour) is available for members of the public to report any incidents relating to the site

A petition has been launched asking for cleaner air in Johnstown. It reads Johnstown landfill, used to dump the waste from Merseyside residents, has been stinking for quite some time.

On certain days the smell can be detected as far as the top of Pen Y Cae. Something needs to be done about the smell. For the mental and physical health of those living in the vicinity having to endure days, weeks, months and years of polluted rancid smelling air. The vulnerable amongst us and those who are unable to leave their homes are the most affected, is this fair that babies, the elderly and the infirm are having to live with this day in day out without a break from it while visiting other areas? 

The petition has several hundred signatories, many with comments such as It stinks when you drive past on the bypass so goodness knows what its like for the people living near there. Feel for them and I live off New Hall Road in Ruabon. Its horrific the stench it causes and the flies in the summer, its not funny and something needs to be done.

You can view the petition and comments here.
Health Ministry has put up signage boards at Mumbai International Airport advising the passengers to self-report in case of any symptoms of novel coronavirus.

The board depict symptoms of the virus and the precautions that should be taken by the people.

Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health said that the vigil has been strengthened at Panitanki (West Bengal), the entry point from Nepal subsequent to the confirmed coronavirus case in Nepal.

Airport Health Organisation (APHO), Bengaluru also conducted thermal screening of the passengers who visited the Chinese city of Wuhan in the last 14 days at the Bangalore International Airport. No passenger has been tested positive for novel coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Investor anxiety that's swept the globe over the coronavirus extended to Canadian stocks and the loonie after a second person in Toronto tested positive for the illness.

Volatility on the S&P/TSX Composite Index spiked as stocks posted their biggest drop since October, joining a world-wide equity rout. The loonie weakened against the greenback and Canada's two-year and 10-year bonds rallied for a fifth straight day.

With two infected patients in Canada's most populous city, concern is rising about the speed with which the virus has spread beyond China. Its similarity to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) -- a disease that killed 44 in Canada, the highest number of deaths outside of Asia -- has both heightened fears and served as a reminder that the country is in a much better position to deal with a pandemic than it was 17 years ago.

"Panic is the biggest risk," said Rebekah Young, an economist at Bank of Nova Scotia, by phone. "When you actually look back at SARS where Canada was an epicenter, the overall economic impact was negligible. It was a very-short lived impact and in a big picture, not that bad."

For the nation's stock market, it's a tale of two moves: gold miners surged Monday as investors piled into haven assets, while industrial metal miners slumped as the price of copper and iron ore sank on concerns that global growth could slow. Teck Resources dropped for a third day, to its lowest since July 2016.

Air Canada slipped for a fifth day, taking its plunge to about 12% over that stretch, the biggest drop since June 2016. The airline reported quarterly losses during the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic as travelers avoided Toronto.

Other market moves:

- Canada Goose Holdings Inc. fell 4% and Gildan Activewear Inc. slipped 2%. Both clothing companies could see a decline in earnings.

- Ballard Power Systems Inc., the fuel-cell manufacturer that gets more than 30% of its revenue from China, fell as much as 9%

- Imax Corp., a Mississauga, Ontario-based company listed in the U.S. that gets more than 30% of its revenue from China, extended last week's drop, for a six-day decline of about 15%.

A major spread of the disease couldn't come at a worse time for the nation's economy, which is emerging from what may have been its weakest growth since 2016 at the end of last year. Any rebound this year could be tempered if the disease spreads into the North American country, economists said.

Economists at Scotiabank estimate that a similar outbreak to the 2003 SARS epidemic could dent the economy by just over 0.1% on the level of GDP by mid-2020.

While trader jitters seep into market sentiment, some are saying buy the dip. Jefferies industrials research team said in a report that the knee-jerk reaction within the metals and mining sectors could be an opportunity to pick up stocks amid the sell-off. During the spread of SARS, the initial reaction was sharply negative for metals and mining equities but the sector rebounded sharply afterwards, which could be the case for coronavirus, the analysts said.

The wife of the man who was identified as Canada's first confirmed case was infected by the virus, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams said in a statement Monday. She has been in self-isolation since arriving in Canada's largest city with her husband last week.

Over the weekend, Williams confirmed that the woman's husband -- a man in his 50s -- had tested positive for the SARS-like illness. The man, who had traveled from Wuhan, China via Guangzhou, arrived in Toronto on Jan. 22 and went to Sunnybrook hospital the following day after feeling ill. The patient is in stable condition, officials said Saturday.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Officials will be contacting flight passengers who were within 2 meters of the patient aboard the flight from Guangzhou to Toronto. Minister of Health Patty Hajdu spoke to reporters in a press briefing Sunday to reiterate the risk to Canadians still remains low.

"While the risk of an outbreak of novel coronavirus in Canada remains low, I encourage Canadians to tell your health-care professional if you've traveled to an affected area of China and develop flu-like symptoms," Hajdu said from Ottawa.

On Jan. 23, the World Health Organization stopped short of calling coronavirus a global health emergency, saying it remains a local crisis confined to China. However, with millions of people set to travel over the Chinese New Year, other nations are taking their own steps to slow the spread of the disease.

There are 2,804 confirmed cases worldwide and at least 80 deaths as of Jan. 27.

- - -

Bloomberg's Jacqueline Thorpe and Aoyon Ashraf contributed to this report.
Edudzi Tamakloe, lawyer for Sammy Gyamfi, the Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says he is disappointed at the arrest of his client.

Mr. Gyamfi has been arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in forgery and attempts to spread false information to cause fear and panic in the country.

He was picked up at the premises of Accra-based UTV at Abeka Junction on Monday, January 27, 2020.

But speaking to Citi News, moments after the arrest, Edudzi Tamakloe described the incident as unlawful and one that suppresses the rights of his client.

As you are aware, based on the instruction of Sammy Gyamfi, we caused a human rights application to be filed. While an application is pending, an application for injunction was subsequently filed. I have personally followed up with a letter to the Police. I met the one in charge of cybercrime in his office and delivered the letter to him. He indicated to me he will consult the legal department and respond to me appropriately on the request that we made before the Police. From the time we sent the letter to the Police to date, the Ghana Police has never responded. That is the regrettable low that the Akufo-Addo administration has taken the law to.

They are yet to file a response to the human rights application and application for injunctionThe Police itself is acting lawlesslyThe Ghana Police is becoming pathetic. I am disappointed. When it comes to the rule of law, it is about all of us. When issues about respecting the rights of people come upIt is something that affects all, he added.

Background

Mr. Gyamfi's arrest comes weeks after he turned down an invitation by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) after he sued to stop the police from examining his phone records and gaining access to his Facebook account.

Mr. Gyamfi filed the lawsuit at the Accra High Court, demanding an injunction on an earlier court warrant by the Kaneshie District Court for the seizure of his electronic gadgets.

He argued in the suit that the police failed to establish any legal basis to have access to the Applicant's phone records when it failed to show any probable cause that the Applicant has or is about to commit the alleged crime to justify the revocation of the Applicant's right to privacy and the protection of same.

He also said the police are yet to provide the document he allegedly forged and any evidence of the said forgery.

The forgery claims are said to have been made by the Jubilee House.

However, Mr. Gyamfi noted that the claims have not been attributed to any particular individual at the Jubilee House.

---citinewsroom
Ongoing construction as Eversource Energy installs a new substation will disrupt night-time traffic next week on Interstate 95.

The work will take place at Exit 4 from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Feb. 2 through Feb. 7. There will be temporary closures of the Exit 4 southbound exit ramp, requiring traffic to be rerouted to Exit 3 at Arch Street.

The exit ramp will be open fully during non-working hours.

The energy company is coordinating closely with the Connecticut Department of Transportation to ensure public safety during road or ramp closures, Eversource said in a statement. Signs will be posted approaching the location to help manage the flow of traffic.

The new substation that is under construction on Railroad Avenue will be connected with 2.3 miles of underground transmission lines to the existing substation in Cos Cob.

The new substation is necessary to upgrade the electrical infrastructure in town and to boost reliability, Eversource has said.

The town had opposed the project and appealed the Connecticut Siting Councils decision to allow it to go forward. However, Greenwich and Eversource reached a settlement agreement last June for the new substation to be installed.

The project should be completed later this year.

Byram

First Selectman Fred Camillo vowed to continue speaking out against a proposed apartment development in Port Chester, N.Y., that has raised concerns about increased traffic in Byram.

The project proposed for the corner of North Main Street and Mill Street  at the site of the former Tarry Lodge Restaurant  has been blasted by many in both Greenwich and Port Chester for its size. The original design called for a nine-story building with 274 apartments; it has since been scaled down to seven stories with 242 apartments.

Camillo is one of the many in Greenwich who have criticized the developments impact on Byram, particularly when it comes to traffic congestion on Mill Street and Delavan Avenue.

If our EMT, police and fire vehicles are having a hard time getting through that traffic to get to our citizens, the town will have to look at any and all options, Camillo said.

At the Board of Selectmen meeting last week, Camillo said he had met with Port Chester Mayor Fritz Falanka to make sure the mayor knows how seriously Greenwich is taking the proposed development.

Theres concern on both sides of the border about the proposal, Camillo said. This is a very, very busy intersection. Some of the officials there have expressed the same concerns we have about this.

The development is currently before the Port Chester Zoning Board of Appeals, which will again consider the proposal on Feb. 20. Camillo said he will attend that meeting.

Old Greenwich

Residents of Stuart Drive in Old Greenwich just got some relief  courtesy of the Board of Selectmen. Parking rules that had restricted vehicles from parking on the south side of the street were unanimously lifted by the board this past week.

The old rule had prevented parking on the south side from 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Residents had spoken out against the restrictions, saying it caused problems when they had visitors or repair workers on weekdays.

Additionally, residents complained that with parking restrictions on both sides of Stuart Drive, it opened up too much of the street and encouraged speeding through the residential neighborhood.

The Board of Selectmen was presented with a petition signed by 63 residents, including 16 homeowners on Stuart Drive. Several residents appeared at Thursdays Board of Selectmen meeting to urge an end to the restriction on the south side of the street.

The restrictions had been in place since 2008, but apparently no one in the neighborhood knew about the rules until the police department put up signs last year. Neighbors said that took them by surprise, and they began to push to get rid of the restriction for the south side.

If I had seen these signs in front of my house when I was looking at it, I would have never moved in, Janine Cirilli said. I just want to park in front of my house. Thats all.

It was not immediately clear why the restrictions were recommended in 2008 by then-Director of Parking Services Alan Correy. But Deputy Police Chief Mark Marino said it may have been to prevent congestion that could slow emergency vehicles and to prevent parking for the nearby businesses on Havemeyer Lane.

Cos Cob

The new term of the Representative Town Meeting is not even a week old yet, but there is already a vacancy that needs to be filled.

The empty seat is in District 8, which covers a large portion of Cos Cob. All interested residents should call the town clerks office at 203-622-7897 or reach out to District Chair Cheryl Moss through the districts web page at www.greenwichct.gov/1496/District-8.

To be eligible to serve on the RTM, a resident must be a registered voter and live within District 8. The RTM is a nonpartisan body so a candidate can be a registered Republican, Democrat, third party or be unaffiliated.

If more than one candidate steps forward, there will be an election among District 8s RTM members. District 8s next meeting, when the new member is likely to be seated, is scheduled for March 4.

The next meeting of the full RTM is March 9.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
On This Day After Four Years in a British Prison in Uganda, Myanmars ex-Premier Came Home

Galon U Saw, Myanmars ex-Premier.

YANGONOn this day 74 years ago, Burmas Premier U Saw arrived back in his homeland after four years as a prisoner of the British Government in Uganda. He was arrested for allegedly telling Japanese officials that Myanmar would support Japan, which was then fighting with the allied forces led by Britain, if it invaded Burma.

In 1941, following the outbreak of World War II, U Saw, then prime minister of British Burma, traveled to London to ask British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to grant Myanmar dominion status.

Dominions were the semi-independent polities under the British Crown that constituted the British Empire. Canada became the first dominion upon its confederation in 1867.

After a two-hour talk, Churchill made a vague promise regarding Myanmars independence and said Britain would consider the matter if it won the war. Disappointed, U Saw went on to the US and asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to urge Churchill to listen to Myanmar.

Roosevelt replied that he would not intervene in Britains decision and U Saw decided to return to Myanmar. On his way back home, U Saw visited the Japanese ambassador in Lisbon, Portugal, where he supposedly expressed support for a Japanese invasion of Myanmar.

He was arrested by the British in Haifa, in what is now Israel and was imprisoned in Uganda for the duration of World War II. After he arrived back in Myanmar, he became embroiled in a series of disputes with General Aung San, the Burmese national hero of Myanmar. In 1947, he conspired with a group of British officials to assassinate Gen. Aung San and his cabinet. U Saws life ended at the gallows.

You may also like these stories:

The Day When a US Medic was Jailed in Myanmar for Treason
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Linkedin (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Mon, January 27, 2020 18:27 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206134acc 2 SE Asia Malaysia,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus Free

Malaysia on Monday imposed a temporary ban on Chinese nationals from the city of Wuhan and its surrounding Hubei province, in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in the Southeast Asian nation.

Malaysia has so far reported four confirmed cases of the newly identified virus, which can cause pneumonia and has been deadly in some cases. It is still unclear how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people.

Meanwhile, Germany urged its citizens on Monday to avoid "unnecessary trips" to China amid fears over the rapid spread of a deadly virus.

Agence France-Presse reported that Berlin also said it was considering evacuating citizens from Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.

"Travellers should consider delaying or cancelling any unnecessary trips to China," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told a press conference in the capital.

Maas added that the government was "considering a possible evacuation of all willing German citizens" from Wuhan, in Hubei province where the coronavirus first emerged.

The number of German citizens currently in the city was estimated to be "in double figures", he said.

The respiratory virus has infected thousands and killed 81 since it was discovered in Wuhan last December.

The Chinese government has sealed off Wuhan and neighbouring cities, effectively trapping tens of millions of people -- including thousands of foreigners -- in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

Its ability to spread appears to be "getting stronger" though it is "not as powerful as SARS", top Chinese health officials said.

Both France and the United States have announced flights to evacuate personnel and citizens trapped at the epicentre of the outbreak.

Germany is yet to record a confirmed case of the coronavirus on its soil, though local media have reported several suspected cases.

Maas said the German government was holding crisis talks with health experts to discuss the epidemic.
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A Russian newspaper has reported that the Kremlins main human rights advocate may have been deliberately deceived as part of her investigation into police raids in Chechnya that allegedly killed more than two dozen men.



Novaya Gazeta reported on January 27 that Tatyana Moskalkova held a meeting in Chechnya in September 2017, as part of her investigation into the raids.



Two men she met with were identified to her as being among those who had reportedly been killed in the raids, the paper said, in what appeared to be an effort by local authorities to undermine the reports about the raids.

In fact, Novaya Gazeta said, the two men she met with were the siblings of two men who had allegedly been killed.

The paper said it compared social media and other photographs with official lists provided to Moskalkovas office during the meeting to establish the two men were not who they said they were.



Moskalkova was investigating the police actions that took place in December 2016 and January 2017. Novaya Gazeta earlier reported that as many as 27 people were killed on January 26, 2017, as part of the raids.



In a statement issued after the newspapers latest report was published, Moskalkovas office said it was investigating the report, which it called very serious.



The commissioner contacted Novaya Gazeta and requested available materials, Interfax quoted her office as saying.



There was no immediate response to the report by the Kremlin, which in the past has avoided commenting on reports of rights abuses in Chechnya.



According to earlier press reports, Chechen law enforcement personnel conducted raids across the North Caucasus region in the wake of the killing of a police officer. Detainees were never formally arrested and no paperwork was filled out on them before they were summarily executed, Novaya Gazeta said.



The newspaper also said that an unnamed official within the Interior Ministry provided a list of victims.



The raids appeared to be separate from actions Chechen authorities took around the same time that targeted dozens of gay men in the region.



Chechnya is ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, who was tapped by the Kremlin in 2007 to run the war-torn region. Outright military conflict, and even small-scale skirmishes, have all but ended. But Kadyrovs administration has been regularly accused of rampant human rights abuses, including abductions and extrajudicial killings.
During her travels, Dr. Rachel Grosvenor has discovered folktales that have helped her to question stories left behind at home.

The queen of Laos was feeling peckish, but nothing in the palace was satisfying her craving. It was more specific than the food the streets of Luang Prabang could offer; more nuanced than the average daily snack. She wanted mushrooms from a mountain in Sri Lanka. Now thats no mean feat, especially in a time before planes, and given the fact that railways dont exist in Laos even now. The queen therefore asked a god for help, and explained her desire to the Monkey King. He was only too happy to oblige, after all, this was the queen of Laos. He beat his magical wings and flew to the mountain and collected the first mushrooms he found there, delivering them back to the queen with pride. She stared at them, shaking her head. Those werent the mushrooms she wanted, she explained. The Monkey King, a little less enthusiastically, returned to the mountain in Sri Lanka and collected more. On his return the queen repeated her displeasure. Those werent the mushrooms she had been craving. This continued, again and again. Eventually, the Monkey King sighed to the queen.

Your majesty, please tell me the name of the mushrooms that you desire, so that I can give you the correct ones.

The queen refused. She knew the name of the mushrooms she wanted, but they were called monkey ears, and she was worried that this would offend the god. Instead, she asked him to continue his efforts. The Monkey King flew back to the Sri Lankan mountain, and considered the hundreds of types of mushrooms that grew atop its peak. Suddenly, a solution provided itself. He lifted the entire top of the mountain, and brought it back to the queen.

Your majesty, now you may select the mushrooms you desire yourself.

Phousi Mountain still sits in front of the palace today. This is only one of the intriguing folktales told in Laos culture, shared through generations to explain how the landscape was formed. After spending an evening learning about Laos folktales, I began to wonder about my own country. What did I know about British folktales, and how had I come across them? The only ones that sprang to mind were German folklore such as Hansel and Gretel, or Little Red Riding Hood. However, even these are arguably called fairy tales  as Masterclass confirms, Fairy tales are written folktales credited to an author. Were the only folktales I knew therefore written stories (the Brothers Grimm being the main providers), or was there still a practice of traditional storytelling in the UK, as there is in Laos?

British folk talkes: Jack the Giant Killer and Robin Hood are still talked of today

I realised through research that there was actually a British folktale that I was incredibly familiar with: Jack the giant killer, which brought to mind Jack and the Giant Beanstalk. Though these two stories differ from each other, they both use the classic Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell the blood of an English man. This line alone can be traced back to 1606, when Shakespeare used it in his tragedy King Lear (Act 2, scene 4). The story, or various stories of Jack, did not appear in print until early 1700, and its impossible for us to say whether the stories were verbally told prior to the lines use in King Lear  though I think it probable.

Another familiar tale was Robin Hood and his Merry Men, popular since the 15th Century in England. I remembered my sister and I coveting the Disney movie on VHS, and watching the series Maid Marian and her Merry Men as children. Though the British folktales that I recognised were outnumbered by those that I had never heard of, I realised that people still share these stories with each other today  its just the medium of sharing that has changed.

Folklore and the power and longevity of storytelling

I was a lecturer of Creative Writing for four years, and I took pleasure in teaching the history of writing to each of my classes. This is, in itself, a folktale. From sharing and embellishing stories verbally from village to village, to writing, and printing by hand, the world has been full of storytellers for as long as we have had the ability to share a tale. The phrase Once upon a time, a line that my mother would use at the beginning of each story she made up for me, can be traced to 1380. And here perhaps lies the real beauty of folklore. Theres a comfort to a story we know well, being told with phrases used for centuries. Its more than a familiar story  its a sense of belonging.

When children in Laos walk the steps up to the top of Phousi Mountain, and look down on Luang Prabang, they know that the Monkey King placed that mountain there. Whether or not they believe the story doesnt matter, because the result is something more than knowledge  its the memory of the story being told to them, the fascination of a familiar tale, the gift of a narrative that they can share.

Western culture amnesia, and the twining threads of folklore and folk music

Luckily, there are still people out there sharing folklore. Welsh musician Owen Shires tells folktales both through his music and storytelling. I asked him about why this was important to him:

We have a bit of a cultural amnesia in the West, and I think weve lost touch with the past, and I think weve lost the mythic understanding of folklore, i.e. we tend to see folktales as childrens stories rather than have the capacity to understand them on a symbolic and mythical level  because thats what they were designed for originally. They were moral guidelines on how to live well. Its also important in Wales to maintain a Welsh language tradition  and theres not many people doing that. Theres barely any Welsh language storytellers, so thats another reason that this is important to me.

The stories that Owen tells are not ones he grew up with, but rather tales that he discovered in books and manuscripts. He was driven to research these tales after coming to the conclusion that the oral tradition of storytelling had pretty much died in the UK, so he now shares both geographical tales with factual roots and broader tales, from love and romance, to tragedy.

English folk music has used the narrative form of ballads since the middle ages, and it was after talking to Owen and seeing his fascinating work that I discovered two folktales that I was brought up with, and that I had never even considered as folklore. The first is Scarborough Fair. Now, I know what youre thinking, As in, the Paul Simon song? and the answer is yes, almost. Simon and Garfunkel did borrow from the original English ballad, though they added their own lyrics and music, embellishing in the classic folklore storytelling tradition. The source of the ballad is in fact the English folktale that first appeared in print in 1670.

The second folktale is one that I sing every year with confidence, despite only knowing a few of the lyrics, Auld Lang Syne. Though attributed to Scottish poet Robert Burns, written in 1788, it was originally accompanied by a note from said author, stating that:

The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man.

Perhaps then, we are more familiar with folklore in England than we know, we just dont always realise the historical context of our familiar traditions. As I write this article I am in my third month of travelling South East Asia, and its been a fascinating experience because its helped me to understand how my own British culture leads me to behave.

Though not every English person would agree, there is a lot of Britishness that informs my personality traits, and Ive been noticing them for the first time this year. Whether its a slight reserve, being quick to apologise for a minor incident, or insisting on queueing whether others are pushing in or not  theres a lot that I do that could be called inherently British.

British folklore lies in our bones, our stories, our hearts.

English folklore, it seems, is a part of who I am without my even realising. From repeating the same words at New Year since I was a child, to the Midlands based sayings that I learned from my mother, such as going around the Wrekin. This phrase alone is based on the Wrekin hill, which folklore says is the result of a tired giant dumping a spade full of dirt on the ground.

English folklore is, then, still present today. It might just take a little research to discover its origins.
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U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike earlier this month that killed the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. Trump said Soleimani was "plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel."
Israel announced that it would permit Israeli citizens to travel to Saudi Arabia for the first time, under certain conditions that include Israeli entrepreneurs seeking investments, in a signal of warming ties.



Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri issued a statement saying that Israelis would be allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia under two circumstances: for religious reasons on pilgrimage on the haj, or for up to nine days for business reasons such as investment or meetings, Reuters reported.



Travelers would still need an invitation and permission from the Saudi authorities, according to the statement.



Israelis have been traveling to Saudi Arabia for years but usually with special permission or using foreign passports.
PANAMA CITY, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors (the "Board") of Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. ("Bladex" or the "Bank") (NYSE: BLX) today announced that, effective March 9, 2020, Mr. N. Gabriel Tolchinsky will step down as Chief Executive Officer. He will be succeeded by Mr. Jorge Salas.

Bladex's Chairman, Mr. Miguel Heras, said: "The Board would like to express its appreciation to Gabriel for his management of the Bank during the last two years, in which the institution made significant strides in improving efficiency and overall performance. Thanks to Gabriel's stewardship, Bladex today is well positioned to succeed in the banking sector's rapidly evolving landscape."

As part of an orderly and programmed succession plan, and in coordination with Gabriel, for several months, the Board conducted a thorough internal and external search, which concluded in the engagement of Mr. Jorge Salas as new CEO. Mr. Salas worked as President and CEO of Banesco USA for the last 5 years and previously served as General manager of Banesco Panama. Mr. Salas holds a master's degree in Business Administration (M.B.A) and a master's degree in Public Policy (M.P.P) both from the University of Chicago.

Bladex is fortunate to have a successor of Jorge Salas' caliber, who is a seasoned international banker with vast experience and a proven track record in the financial services industry in Latin America and the US. "We are confident that under Jorge Salas' leadership, the Bank will continue to thrive, enhancing its role as a strategic partner for Latin America and our clients, while delivering increasing value to our shareholders," Mr. Heras commented.

Mr. Salas said of his appointment: "I am honored to have been assigned the responsibility to continue building upon Bladex's unique strengths as the best trade finance bank in Latin America. We operate in an important Region which presents opportunities to fuel the Bank's growth and success. I am grateful to the Board for their confidence and look forward to developing these opportunities and continuing to work together with the extraordinary team of professionals at Bladex."

Mr. Tolchinsky commented: "I am honored to have been a part of Bladex in different capacities over the past 5 years. As CEO, I had the opportunity to lead a first-class financial institution, vital to Latin Americas foreign trade and economic wellbeing, through a difficult credit cycle and onto a path of sustainable growth and profitability. To our Board of Directors and shareholders, I am grateful for your support and confidence during my tenure. To the outstanding team of professionals at Bladex, it has been a privilege to work alongside you in strengthening the Banks leadership role in the Region. I am confident that Jorge, along with our professional team, will successfully build upon this foundation at the helm of Bladex."

Bladex, a multinational bank originally established by the central banks of Latin-American and Caribbean countries, began operations in 1979 to promote foreign trade and economic integration in the Region. The Bank, headquartered in Panama, also has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the United States of America, and a Representative License in Peru, supporting the regional expansion and servicing of its customer base, which includes financial institutions and corporations.

Bladex is listed on the NYSE in the United States of America (NYSE: BLX), since 1992, and its shareholders include: central banks and state-owned banks and entities representing 23 Latin American countries, commercial banks and financial institutions, and institutional and retail investors through its public listing.

For further information on Bladex, please access its website at www.bladex.com or contact:

Monica Cosulich  SVP, Finance and Investor Relations

E-mail address: [email protected]. Tel.: (+507) 210-8563

Head Office Address: Torre V, Business Park, Avenida La Rotonda, Urb. Costa del Este,

Panama, Republic of Panama

SOURCE Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. (Bladex)

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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 07:55 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20610880e 1 Editorial #Editorial,coronavirus,wuhan,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,Terawan-Agus-Putranto,health,WHO,outbreak Free

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto might not want to appear alarmist amid fears of the global spread of the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, but by visiting the BRI building in Jakarta on Thursday without wearing a face mask after a Chinese employee was reported to have had a fever  a common symptom of the virus  he sent the wrong message about the health risk emergency.

The World Health Organization has yet to declare the coronavirus a global emergency, but the number of confirmed cases and deaths continues to rise in China and other countries. As of Sunday, at least 56 deaths had been reported, all in China, and almost 2,000 confirmed cases have been recorded worldwide, including in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

And while the Chinese government has imposed lockdowns on at least 15 cities to contain the spread of the virus, little is known about the virus, let alone the cure.

Indonesia already has experiences and capabilities in handling outbreaks since it was the country worst-affected by the avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak that killed 168 people in the country and 286 in the rest of the world between 2003 and 2017, according to the WHO.

While none were fatal, the country also handled cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)  other ailments caused by different strains of coronavirus. During the nine month outbreak from 2002 to 2003, SARS, first reported in Guangzhou, China, killed more than 775 people, mostly in China and Hong Kong. Initially discovered in Jordan in 2012, MERS caused 858 deaths up until last year, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

Until the WHO issues a new protocol to handle the current outbreak, it would be better for the country to exercise the same level of preparedness implemented during the bird flu emergency.

Anyone that reports pneumonia-like symptoms should be sent to one of the 100 hospitals that have been named as referral hospitals by the Health Ministry. When the hospitals suspect the patient shows symptoms, they should isolate them and send swab samples to the ministry, which has the authority to confirm the cases.

To prevent panic, other hospitals and authorities should not confirm nor declare believed cases, unless they receive information from the ministry. It is also important for the ministry to act swiftly to respond to suspected cases.

The government also needs to keep in close contact with Indonesians in Wuhan and other cities in China. It is imperative to keep track of their health and inform their families. If an evacuation plan is prepared, like the United States has done for its citizens, it should be done immediately, before the situation in China worsens and they begin to fall sick.

Remaining alert and acting swiftly should be the keywords in responding to the outbreak. This will be another test of whether the government is capable of protecting its citizens at home and abroad.
Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Jan 28 (ANI): As things are unfolding, police on Monday did not rule out the possibility of a murder angle in the "suicide" committed by a woman here.



It was reported earlier that a woman -- Mamta Mishra, 40 -- died after eating poisoned food. She had gone to a hotel with a man named Shauji Khan. It turned out that the man was not her husband as was thought earlier.

This revelation was made when the actual husband and family members of the deceased reached Vrindavan.

"Mamta had left for New Delhi from Bihar but how did she reach Vrindavan is a mystery," said Mamta's husband.

"The woman had come to Vrindavan earlier as well with a man. The woman had died because of eating poisoned food. Police are interrogating Khan in which it came to light that the woman knew the man for the last three years. Police are investigating that both the persons ate the poisoned food or the woman was lured into eating that food by the man," Shalabh Mathur, SSP, said.

Further investigation is underway. (ANI)


Global Healthcare BPO Market Share, Growth And Industry Trends By Services (Pharmaceutical Service, Payer Services And Provider Services) And Region (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific And The Middle East & Africa)  Forecast Till 2023

Most of the modern businesses today use Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in some way. Some outsource their customer care. Some do the same for their hardware assembling or production. In the medical sector, BPO entered with the jobs of medical transcriptionists. Later various medical and healthcare services started getting outsourced too in order to reduce expenditures. Tasks in the healthcare sector are tedious, and healthcare BPO aims at reducing their complexity. The purpose of healthcare BPO services is to boost financial performance, enrich resource allocation, and increase the effectiveness of healthcare providers. These services include medical billing & collection medical billing, medical claims processing, medical coding, medical data entry, medical records indexing and more. In near future, the Healthcare BPO Market is expected to increase due to rising demand for health services from society experiencing population growth, and technological improvements in medical care. In the modern scenario, digital technologies are playing an important role in transformation of all the clusters, ranging from processes regarding electronic records to telemedicine. Medical bills can also have errors, healthcare BPO aims at avoiding critical errors and ensure maximum accuracy in data entry tasks.

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Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a research report about the global healthcare BPO market that estimates 12.3% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) growth during the forecast period (2017  2023). Apart from billing, the BPO professionals ensure highest accuracy rates tasks including (but not limited to) accounts receivable, claims adjudication, medical coding, records indexing, and others. This boosts the Healthcare BPO market. Other factors that boost this market are cost saving, demand for niche services and rise in recovery audits. In the modern healthcare market scenario, many companies are manufacturing and marketing computer hardware and software, offering consulting and hosting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. They are emphasizing on digital revolution via the cloud, data improvement, and mobile and social security. Various collaborations are taking place among companies offering Healthcare BPO services that aim at expanding the market share and product portfolio of partners. Many companies are also providing cybersecurity services so that hospitals can protect the data and medical reports of their patients.

The global healthcare BPO market is segmented on the basis of services and region. Service-based segmentation coveres payer services, pharmaceutical services, and provider services. The regional segmentation of global healthcare BPO market covers the Americas (North America and South America), Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA) and rest of the world (RoW). The Americas dominate global healthcare BPO market due to huge development in healthcare domain and presence of strong economic conditions. Maximum revenue from this region comes from the United States of America (USA) and Canada. In the global market, Europe holds the second position after the Americas. Biggest markets in Europe include France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK). The Asia Pacific, the fastest growing market for healthcare BPO garners maximum revenue from countries such as Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. In this region, higher number of cancer patients is increasing demands for various diagnosis & treatment methods. Such demands boost the market growth. In countries such as India, government resolutions are aiming to enhance healthcare services, not only due to a high percentage of population suffering from cancer like illnesses, but also due to the popularity of medical tourism.

Key Players

Some of the key players in global Healthcare BPO Market include Accenture, Catalent, Inc., Charles River Laboratories International, Inc., Cognizant Cyber Securities, Covance Inc., Genpact, HCL Technologies Limited, IBM, Infosys Limited, Lonza, PAREXEL International Corporation, Quintiles IMS, Sykes, and SUTHERLAND.

Latest Industry News

Omega Healthcare Management Services, a Bengaluru-based healthcare BPO firm has plans to open a 300-seater delivery center in Andhra Pradesh, India and hire 1,500 associates by the year-end. This step has been taken to support the surge in demand for its healthcare provider services. Ranked among top three service providers in the healthcare provider BPO market along with Access Healthcare and Cognizant, by the Everest Group, Omega Healthcare Management Services serves over 115 customers in the US from 5 delivery locations in India and two in the Philippines.

Cognizant has announced its plans to buy Bolder Healthcare Solutions for an undisclosed amount. Cognizant aims to grow its revenue cycle management services for healthcare providers in the USA.

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MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.

In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.

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Bird, a Santa Monica, CA-based provider of micromobility solutions, acquired Circ, a Berlin based European micromobility leader.

The company also announced a $75m extension to its Series D funding round, bringing the size of the round to $350m. Investors joining Birds existing investors as part of the combined company include Target Global, Team Europe, Idinvest Partners, and Signals Venture Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to increase its vehicle development and research initiatives, and to support European expansion plans.

Founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Lukasz Gadowski, CEO, Circ is a shared e-scooter company in Europe and the Middle East with operations spanning across 43 cities in 12 countries.

The combined company will result in Bird adding more than 300 employees to its European operations to provide streamlined operations for cities looking to reduce carbon emissions and congestion.

Led by Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO, Bird had raised an initial $275m Series D investment led by CDPQ and Sequoia Capital.

FinSMEs

27/01/2020
By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Jan. 27, Trend reports.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
It is the dawn of a new era in the Kenyan political atmosphere where sitting governors are not spared from the long arm of the law. 2019 was a tough year for Kiambu Governor, Ferdinand Waititu. He has been in court facing numerous corruption charges, and now he is going through impeachment. Waititu is no stranger to court cases. His years as a Member of Parliament showed a rather primitive side of his demeanour whereby he was frequently filmed in tricky situations. To put things in perspective, the Kenyan Senate, under the leadership of its Speaker (Kenneth Lusaka) has created a special day to deliberate on his unfortunate circumstance. Through the Kenya Gazette Vol.CXXII-No.16, the Waititu Impeachment case will be heard on January 28. What does this mean for the governor?

Image: facebook.com, @GovWaitituBabayao

Source: Facebook

The Kiambu County Government Members of County Assembly successfully oversaw the Waititu impeachment motion under the laws of Kenya and prerequisite standing orders. They stated the gross violation of the Constitution, County Government Act and the Public Finance Management Act as the main reasons. This only added to woes that he was facing in court, barring him from entering his office.

Now, Governor Waititu has a date with the Senate to discuss his fate. This was agreed on the request of Kiambu County Assembly and in according to the prerequisite impeachment law. The new Constitution has brought impressive improvements, and most are yet to see such a process in action. Only one governor in Kenya has been impeached in the past. However, it was a process with a lot of political influence and a later reinstatement.

READ ALSO: Kiambu youths, MCAs camp outside parliament to demand for Waititus outster

What does impeachment mean in Kenyan law?

The promulgation of the new Constitution brought new administrative positions of governors. Before, impeachment was only a term associated with the president; however, the process is now applicable to governors.

Impeachment means the process of charging a public official with gross misconduct or in violation of any other applicable law to dismiss them from office. Does that mean that once impeached, they are done? Well, the dynamics are more complicated than they appear on the surface. For instance, many would have thought that Waititu Ferdinand would have been the ex-governor by now. However, it does not seem so.

Here is the catch: impeachment of a governor is a process that requires a hearing and final decision by the Senate. Therefore, until a governor appears in the Senate under a special sitting to hear their impeachment case, their conviction is not final. There are certain circumstances that a governor can be impeached:

Gross violation of the Constitution

Abuse of the governors office

When there are reasons to believe that the governor has committed serious crimes

Incapacity to fulfil their official duties because of physical or mental problems

READ ALSO: MP Junet Mohamed welcomes Tanga Tanga leaders to Mombasa BBI rally

How did Kiambu governor Waititu get to impeachment?

Image: facebook.com, @GovWaitituBabayao

Source: Facebook

The County Government Act possesses a well-detailed, step-by-step process on this matter. It all starts with the Members of County Assembly tabling a motion to oust the sitting governor. In the Waititu case, Solomon Kinuthia forwarded the proposal. He only needed two-thirds support from other members.

After everything goes through and they all vote in support of the motion, then the impeachment process starts. The Speaker of the County Assembly ought to communicate to the Speaker of the Senate in writing. This is after two days of the motion being passed. During this time, the impeached governor can continue with their typical responsibilities.

Unfortunately, Waititu Ferdinand had pending cases in court that barred him from fulfilling his official duties. Therefore, his situation stayed the same, even when the impeachment process started.

Waititu case: what next after Senate hearing?

Once the Speaker of the Senate receives the MCAs resolution, they are supposed to call for a sitting to resolve the matter. The decision possesses all the main points for impeaching the governor.

In the Waititu case, he was impeached on December 19. The Speaker of the Senate was given the processed motion on December 23, 2019. According to the laws governing this process, the Senate is supposed to handle the request after seven days of receipt. The proposed hearing date is January 28, 2020.

The Senate come up with a committee. The team applies special techniques to find out more about the matter and creates a report after the process ends.

In case the Senate does not find any proof, then they are going to dismiss the entire process, and the governor resumes regular duties. If they find the governor guilty of the charges, they are going to vote on the motion. They can only do this after they are confident the governor has received a fair hearing.

Every governor facing impeachment can have lawyers in their defence arsenal. If the Senate resolution supports the MCAs interests, the Senate Speaker informs the Speaker of the County Assembly. On the other hand, if the governor doesnt get impeached, the MCAs can reintroduce the charges after three months from the Senates vote.

READ ALSO: Kikosi cha mawakili wa Gavana Waititu tayari kupinga kutimuliwa kwake

The vacancy of the office of the County Governor

Image: facebook.com, @GovWaitituBabayao

Source: Facebook

Article 182 of the Constitution is evident in the process of filling the office of the governor after impeachment. In case this happens, the deputy takes office to serve the remainder of the term. In the unique scenario that the deputy cannot assume office, the Speaker of the County Assembly takes charge, awaiting election within 60 days.

There you have it: the latest Waititu news and a comprehensive overview of what impeachment entails. The Waititu impeachment process has been facing intense political pressure, with different factions having varied interested in the case. However, the Kenyan Constitution is clear on such a process, and the law will prevail.

READ ALSO: Senators plot special sitting to save embattled Kiambu governor Waititu

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Paula White says she was 'praying Eph 6:12' when she called for 'all satanic pregnancies to miscarry'

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Pastor Paula White, who serves as an adviser to the Trump administrations Office of Public Liaison with the Faith and Opportunity Initiative, clarified Sunday that she was praying Eph 6:12 when she called for all satanic pregnancies to miscarry in a clip from one of her sermons that went viral over the weekend.

I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context. I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life, White tweeted in response to the clip from her sermon.

That is- any plans to hurt people. Let's be clear what is really going on... this is a disingenuous attempt to use words out of context for political gain. I will just keep praying! she added.

The clip was first posted by liberal advocacy group Right Wing Watch and then further shared online by author and expert on the religious left Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons as well as others, resulting in more than 8 million views as of Monday afternoon.

"We declare any strange winds  any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent to hurt this nation, sent against the president, sent against myself, sent against others  we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now," White said in the clip.

I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context. I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life... https://t.co/tKEUs4muwZ  Paula White-Cain (@Paula_White) January 26, 2020

"In the name of Jesus, we command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now. We declare that anything that has been conceived in satanic wombs will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm, she added.

Reactions to the clip of White preaching were quickly attacked by other liberal Christians like unapologetic Trump critic Pastor John Pavlovitz.

The Christianity of Jesus left people with more dignity and greater care; with healed wounds and fuller bellies, with calmed fears and quieted worries. It left a wake of generosity and compassion. No, this isn't Christianity. To hell with what this is, he wrote in one of many responses to Fitzsimmons tweet.

Asking your imaginary friend to terminate someone elses pregnancy against their will is pretty messed up, added The Church of Satan in a tweet of its own.

Many of Whites more conservative fans, however, noted that they did not interpret her message to mean hoping for a physical miscarriage but rather for Satan's plans to be stopped.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted a page showing four U.S. states with confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus .

However, the CDC said in a telebriefing with reporters Monday that it would be up to individual states to reveal whether they have patients under investigation for the coronavirus.

The CDC has said there are 110 suspect cases in 26 states, and that figure includes five confirmed cases in the states of Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington.

There are no confirmed cases in Massachusetts, the state Department of Health has verified, and said Monday that at this time were not commenting on suspect cases, only those confirmed to meet the clinical criteria of the coronavirus as defined by the CDC.

Some other states seem to be following the same protocol.

The CDC said there is no evidence the new virus linked to an animal and seafood mark in China is becoming established and transmitted within the country.

All the confirmed cases to date are travel related and the CDC has asked anyone who may have been exposed to the virus through travel, or exposure to someone who has been exposed, to contact their health care provider if they are experiencing respiratory-like illness symptoms.

We understand many in the United States are worried about this virus and how it will affect Americans, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, said during the briefing.

She added that the virus is not spreading in the community and the immediate health risk to the general public is low at this time, though she termed the overall situation a rapidly evolving one being closely monitored by the CDC in its actions to protect the public.

Some 2,700 cases of the illness have been confirmed in mainland China, where the virus is believed to have originated in a marketplace in Wuhan, and 82 deaths confirmed there from the respiratory disease whose symptoms range from mild to severe.

The CDC continues to screen travelers from Wuhan at five U.S. airports - John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago OHare International Airport  and could possibly expand that screening to travelers from a larger area.

The CDC is warning against nonessential travel to Wuhan as well as Hubei Province where it is located in Central China.

China has restricted travel for about 60 million of its people because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Massachusetts DPH has issued a clinical advisory to health care providers on monitoring patients for the virus and said shipping of specimens to the CDC for testing will be coordinated through its Public Health Laboratory.
Nicki Minaj's brother has been sentenced to 25 years to life in a New York prison after he repeatedly raped an 11-year-old child while her mother was at work.

Jelani Maraj, 41, was found guilty of 'predatory sexual assault against a child and endangering the welfare of a child' in 2017 and on Monday, Nassau County Supreme Court Judge, Robert McDonald, refused to give him a soft sentence.

It was despite his lawyer reading a 2016 letter his famous sister wrote in a bid to reduce his time behind bars, calling him the 'most patient, gentle, genuine, giving selfless man I know'.

The judge said that his 'view is that you ruined this child'.

Sentenced: Nicki Minaj's brother Jelani Maraj was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Monday in New York following his 2017 conviction for child rape (Jelani and Nicki pictured)

Guilty: He was found guilty of 'predatory sexual assault against a child and endangering the welfare of a child' for repeatedly raping an 11-year-old child while her mother was at work (Maraj pictured arriving to court for the verdict in 2017)

'You raped this child. You raped her over and over again,' the judge added.

Maraj's long sentence was for sexual assault but he was also sentenced to 364 days for the endangerment of a child.

Maraj had been held in custody, awaiting sentencing, since he was found guilty of the felony following a three-week trial.

The victim, now 14, testified in excruciating detail about sexual assaults that she said occurred as frequently as four times a week and sometimes twice a day.

She told the court she had become suicidal over the abuse.

'I didnt think I could make it through the day without an anxiety attack.' she said. 'I felt I had no voice,' the victim said Monday.

Maraj has maintained innocence and was stoic in the Long Island court room Monday.

Minaj's brother told the court: 'Id like to apologize for the pain that I caused. I had an excessive drinking problem.

His father had an alcohol and drugs problem and burned down the family's Trinidad and Tobago home in 1987. It prompted Maraj's mother to move to New York City and Maraj followed when he was 10.

Maraj added that he's 'just asking for mercy from the court'.

Maraj's 2015 mug shot, left. The victim testified that the abuse started in April 2015 and continued until that November. The siblings and their mother Carol (pictured right with Maraj) moved to New York when Maraj was 10 after their father burned down their house in Trinidad and Tobago

His lawyer David Schwartz said he plans to appeal.

'We will be appealing this excessive sentence,' he told Pitchfork. 'There was clear juror misconduct amongst other issues.'

Schwartz did not elaborate on the issues.

Neither Maraj nor his famous sister testified at the trial, even though during opening arguments defense lawyers said that the rapper was on the witness list.

The victim testified that the abuse started in April 2015 and continued until that November. He slapped her if she refused his advances.

'I had went to him to go say "Good morning". I had hugged him as usual. I went to go lie next to him as I usually do. When I did that, he told me to go close the door,' she told the court. 'He told me to take off my pants. Then he told me to come under the covers with him and he started caressing me We would have sex in his bedroom, in my bedroom, in the basement.'

The girl's younger brother testified at the trial that he witnessed one assault when he was just eight years old.

Falling out: Minaj paid her brother's $100,000 bail back when he was first arrested for the crime in 2015 when the siblings were reportedly quite close, however, sources said the two grew apart following the convictions

Maraj threatened to have their mother sent away if they told anyone.

'I thought he would send me away from my mother. ... Thats what he said would actually happen. So I didnt say anything,' the victim testified.

She added they were told to 'keep quiet or Jelani would hit us or we would get sent away because Jelani would deny it'.

But the boy reported it to a school administrator he saw Maraj touching his sister while they were partially clothed.

He was arrested December 2015.

The prosecutor said DNA evidence recovered from the girl's pajama pants was linked to Maraj. It emerged Maraj would call the girl his 'puppet'.

An October 2019 attempt to overturn the case was thrown out.

Maraj's lawyers tried to convince the jury that the rape allegations were concocted by the girl's mother as part of a scheme to get Minaj, 37, to pay the family $25 million in hush money.

It emerged the mother's lawyer had asked for the money from Maraj after he was arrested, claiming it was to get the potential civil lawsuit settled.

But the civil attorney James R. Ray III later admitted the mother had no idea what was going on.

He said: 'She was never involved as far as what we did.'

In the fall of 2019, the rapper tied the knot with convicted sex offender Kenneth Petty who served time for the 1995 rape of a 16-year-old girl in Queens, New York

Minaj - real name Onika Tanya Maraj- paid her brother's $100,000 bail back when he was first arrested for the crime in 2015.

The siblings were reportedly quite close prior to the arrest, with Minaj previously plunking down $30,000 to pay for her older brother's wedding to the mother of his rape victim.

Following this conviction, however, sources said the two grew apart. A week after his conviction, Minaj visited her brother in jail, but reportedly only did so to support their mother Carol, according to TMZ.

While Minaj appeared to distance herself from her brother following the conviction, she ironically married a man who was previously convicted of a similar crime.

In the fall of 2019, the rapper tied the knot with convicted sex offender Kenneth Petty who served time for the 1995 rape of a 16-year-old girl in Queens, New York.

He spent four years in prison in connection with the incident, and was also placed on the sex offender registry.

Kenneth also has a first-degree manslaughter conviction in 2006 in the fatal 2002 shooting of a man. He served seven years of a 10-year sentence and was released from custody in 2013.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Read more

The National Academy of Sciences is giving its most prestigious award this year to the University of Pennsylvanias Kathleen Hall Jamieson for her work as an expert in science communication and as a nonpartisan crusader for the importance of facts in public discourse, the academy announced Monday.

She is the winner of the 2020 Public Welfare Medal, an award previously given to such well-known figures as Alan Alda, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill and Melinda Gates. Last years winner was Agnes Matilda Kalibata, who has worked in Africa to drive agricultural transformation.

In an age when misinformation, spin, and confusion about whom to trust threatens our very democracy, Kathleen Hall Jamiesons nonpartisan, evidence-based approach to science communication and political analysis is an invaluable national treasure, academy president Marcia McNutt said in a news release. Her scholarship has been essential to elevating our public discourse and boosting the integrity of science communication. We are thrilled to present her with our highest honor.

Jamieson, who is proudly 73, is a communication professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg School of Communication and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which she founded in 1993. Among the centers research priorities is a focus on the science of science communication, including why there is controversy about climate change and vaccinations despite strong scientific evidence.

Jamieson also co-founded FactCheck.org in 2003 as a way to help voters evaluate political claims. In 2015, the site expanded to include SciCheck, which debunks false or misleading scientific claims.

A prolific author, Jamiesons most recent book is Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President.

For decades, Kathleen Hall Jamiesons groundbreaking work has shaped political and science communication," Penns president, Amy Gutmann, said in a statement. "She has changed how we access and think about facts, what it means to have meaningful discourse, and how this affects all manner of politics, from local elections to presidential campaigns. In todays political climate, this work couldnt be more crucial, and were proud its happening at Penn.

Jamieson said it was an understatement to say she was surprised by the award and believed it was recognition of her pioneering work on how to communicate scientific evidence more effectively.

She became interested in the subject when politics and science collided during the 1988 presidential campaign  that was Vice President George H.W. Bush against Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis  around the issue of prison furloughs, or short trips into the outside world to help prisoners prepare for release. The scientific evidence for the value of furloughs was extraordinarily strong, she said. But the Bush campaign turned the policy into a major political issue with TV ads featuring Willie Horton, who committed crimes while on furlough from a Massachusetts prison. Jamieson said Democrats also used a crime committed during a furlough to undermine Bush.

She concedes the state of science literacy is still a problem, and says the current cornucopia of news sources of widely varying quality is not helping matters, even though many journalists are doing high-quality, factual work. The more accurate work, she said, no longer has the same capacity to reach people.

One sign that something is badly wrong is that we are having measles outbreaks, she said, referring to how activists have raised doubts about vaccine safety, though they have no scientific evidence.

It may be possible to increase the receptivity of the audience, she said, if scientists explain their sources and how they reached their conclusions, and if people are allowed to explore data and reach their own conclusions. For instance, people have a strong tendency to assume that trends will continue from the most recent end point. Showing them year-to-year variation helps them see variability and broader trends.

She supports teaching high school students how to identify credible information and wants platforms like Facebook to do more to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation. There needs to be more repetition of quality information, such as, for example, links to what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about the Zika virus every time the virus is mentioned.

As for the biggest communication story of the day  the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump  Jamieson is reserving judgment until Republicans have made their case. I am trying to suspend judgment until we get to the end, because I am chronically optimistic about people standing up to do the right thing when they need to," she said.

Only rare citizens will have watched the whole thing, she said, so shes interested in how the testimony will be summarized and how factual the summaries will be. The trick will be to help ordinary people understand the proceedings while not losing the forest for the trees. Plus, the American people need to believe the process was fair.

This is a real test, Jamieson said, of the institutional protections the founders put in place.

Jamieson will receive the award at the academys annual meeting in April.
An Australia Day reveller has been charged after an all-in brawl ended with a police officer being attacked.

The fight broke out at Seasons music festival at Claremont Showgrounds in Perth on Sunday.

Footage obtained by The West Australian shows a brawl breaking out, with some people trying to break it up.

An Australia Day reveller has been charged after an all-in brawl ended with a police officer being attacked

The punch-up left at least one man with blood covering his face.

A 24-year-old man from Baldivis, south of Perth, was charged with assaulting a police officer who tried to break up the fight.

He will face court at a later date.

Police are still investigating.

By the time the brawl is broken up one man in a white shirt is seen with blood covering his face as another stands in the middle calling for calm.

The fight broke out at Seasons music festival at Claremont Showgrounds in Perth on Sunday

Meanwhile, at a beach in Queensland, twelve people including a 15-year-old were been arrested after another drunken fight.

Alcohol is being blamed for the violence at Moffat Beach on the Sunshine Coast, with reports suggesting bottles were thrown at police.

Police were called to Eleanor Shipley Park multiple times on Sunday afternoon following reports of anti-social behaviour by a group of teens and adults.

After several hours of disturbances 12 people were arrested and 26 charges were laid, police said.

A 15-year-old was among the arrested dozen and charged with assaulting a police officer.

Acting Superintendent Jason Overland said the behaviour resulted in families leaving the park and injuries to officers.

"The behaviour witnessed by police yesterday does not represent the overall community who know how to celebrate respectfully and without disrupting those around them," he said.

Three officers were injured during the incident with one officer being kicked in the head and another with a suspected broken hand.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Tesla <TSLA.O> Chief Executive Elon Musk sought to allay environmental concerns about the electric carmaker's planned factory in Germany, saying the plant would use less water than was estimated originally.

The U.S. company had said in planning documents that the factory would need 372 cubic meters of water from the public drinking water network per hour, sparking protests by local residents earlier this month.

"Sounds like we need to clear up a few things! Tesla won't use this much net water on a daily basis. It's possibly a rare peak usage case, but not an everyday event", Musk said on Twitter on Saturday.

On another environmental issue, Musk tweeted that only a small part of the forest on the property that Tesla bought in the outskirts of Berlin will be cut to construct the planned factory.

"Also, this is not a natural forest -- it was planted for use as cardboard," he said.

The U.S. carmaker announced plans last November to build its first European car factory in Gruenheide, in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

Politicians, unions and industry groups have welcomed the move, saying it will bring jobs to the region, but environmental groups have aired concerns and a Brandenburg water association warned against "extensive and serious problems with the drinking water supply and wastewater disposal" for the proposed factory.

Separately, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Sunday that Tesla had applied for subsidies for battery cell production and research in Germany.

Tesla had no immediate comment on the matter.

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Helen Popper)
Sharjeel Imam has been booked on sedition and other charges in several states. (Photo Credit: File)

New Delhi:

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) chief proctor has summoned research scholar Sharjeel Imam, who has been booked on sedition and other charges in several states, to appear before him and explain his position on the alleged provocative speeches made by him.

Imam, who was one of the initial organisers of Shaheen Bagh protests, has been asked to appear before the Proctorial Committee by February 3.

A security report dated January 27 against Sharjeel Imam, has been received in the Chief Proctor's office from the Office of Chief Security Officer. The report has cited media reports saying Imam made provocative speeches at Aligarh Muslim University threatening the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country upheld by the constitution," JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar said.

The report also refers to several FIRs lodged against Imam by police of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and some other states, he added.

Meanwhile, raids are being conducted in Mumbai, Patna and Delhi to arrest research scholar Sharjeel Imam. Five teams of the Crime Branch have been deployed to locate Imam, a resident of Bihar, they said.

Imam, a PhD students at the varsity's Centre for Historical Studies, has been booked in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged inflammatory speeches, in which he threatened to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country, made during protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

A case against Imam under IPC sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) was registered by the Delhi police on Sunday.

Also, a case of sedition was lodged against him on Saturday for a speech he delivered on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus on January 16. The Assam police has also filed an FIR under the anti-terror law UAPA against Imam for his speech.

(With PTI inputs)

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Environmentalists and other opponents of three proposed liquefied natural gas export terminals at the Port of Brownsville are one step closer to filing a federal lawsuit after losing one of their requests to have permits for the projects decisions reconsidered.

Over the past week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission tabled requests filed by the Sierra Club, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and other opponents to reconsider the agency's Nov. 21 decision to issue permits for the Texas LNG and Annova LNG. The agency denied the request to reconsider a permit for Rio Grande LNG in a 2-1 vote on Thursday that also turned down a request to halt any construction activities.

Under federal law, the next step for opponents seeking to stop the Rio Grande LNG project would be to file a lawsuit against the agency. Proposed by Houston liquefied natural gas company NextDecade, Rio Grande LNG received a FERC permit to produce up to 27 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas per year. Annova LNG is permitted to produce 6.5 tons per year while Texas LNG received a permit to produce 4 tons.

Opponents argue that FERC commissioners did not take the combined pollution, noise and other impacts of the projects on neighboring communities and endangered species such as the ocelot, jaguarundi and aplomado falcon.

These projects would disproportionately impact our already-marginalized Latino community, subject us to increased air pollution, and threaten our local tourism economy," Sierra Club Brownsville organizer Rebekah Hinojosa said in a statement. "With this decision, FERC has completely dismissed those concerns and signaled that we do not have the same environmental rights as other people. We will not stop fighting to ensure that these dangerous facilities are never built.

Permits Approved: LNG projects to bring billions to South Texas

Located just a few miles north of the U.S./Mexico border, the three Brownsville projects would receive natural gas via pipeline from the Permian Basin of West Texas and other shale plays across the United States that would be supercooled into a liquid form and shipped aboard massive tankers to customers around the world.

If they land contracts and receive financing, the three projects represent more than $38 billion of private investment, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs in one of the poorest regions of the United States.

Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox

Sierra Club was joined in all three requests by the Defenders of Wildlife, the City of South Padre Island, the City of Port Isabel, the Town of Laguna Vista, the Save RGV From LNG coalition and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which is working on behalf of the community groups Shrimpers and Fisherman of the RGV and Vecinos para el Bienestar de la Comunidad Costera, or Neighbors for the Well-Being of the Coastal Community.

FERC is legally required to evaluate the impacts of this proposed facility and the other two nearby facilities on low-income and minority communities, Texas RioGarnde Legal Aid Attorney Erin Gaines said in a statement. With this decision, they have failed to live up to that responsibility.

Opponents may have an ally in FERC Commissioner Richard Glick, who wrote a dissenting opinion in the order denying the request for rehearing on the Rio Grande LNG permit.

"Rather than wrestling with the projects adverse impacts on the environment and the surrounding community, todays order makes clear that those impacts are little more than a bump in the road to approving the project," Glick wrote in his dissenting opinion on Thursday.

Read the latest oil and gas news from HoustonChronicle.com
PHILADELPHIA  People holding their breath to see how Pennsylvania votes in the 2020 presidential election might not want to wait up too late on election night.

While the unofficial and more immediately available results have accounted for the vast majority of votes cast in years past, a new law means a significant share of ballots might not be tallied until after Election Day, according to county elections officials. Races with razor-thin margins may be too close to call for days.

Its an unintended consequence of changes meant to make voting more flexible and accessible, including by making absentee ballots available to everyone. Many of those mail-in ballots wont be counted on election night  even in counties that used to include them in their initial results.

This does not change the official, certified results that already come in long after the world knows who won. But being able to call a race in the hours after polls close has become an expectation for the public, with news organizations building sophisticated models for projecting winners based on unofficial results as they come in.

And Pennsylvania is a critical swing state in presidential elections. Donald Trump won the state in 2016 with just 44,292 more votes than Hillary Clinton, less than 1% of the more than 6.1 million votes cast. Along with similarly narrow victories in Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania was key in elevating Trump to the White House  and is again expected to be close.

No county wants to be the reason we dont know the leader of the free world on election night, said Lee Soltysiak, Montgomery Countys chief operating officer and clerk of its election board. And thats the position, depending on the margin, were all likely to be in.

In addition to many more absentee ballots likely than in the past, the new election law changes how they are processed.

The election night numbers are going to be minus what we anticipate will be a fairly sizable number of ballots that have not yet been counted and will be counted later that week, said Randall O. Wenger, the chief clerk of the elections board in Lancaster County. Absentee ballots there used to be counted on election night, but now that wont happen until the day after.

Your universe of uncounted ballots just blew up big time on election night, said Forrest Lehman, elections director for Lycoming County, in central Pennsylvania.

Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvanias secretary of the commonwealth, whose Department of State oversees elections, pushed back on the idea that county election officials wont be able to count absentee ballots right away. Counties need to adjust their staffing, purchase new equipment, and change some of their current procedures, she said, and then theyll have everything ready to go so literally when the clock ticks 8, they can start the canvass.

Theres a period of time when theres not a lot going on for elections officials, Boockvar said, after polls close and before the first results start coming in from polling places.

There are lots of good procedures that have been developed over time in other places, Boockvar said. We are going to be sharing those. And I think as long as the counties plan for that extra staffing at 8 p.m. on Election Day, its going to be fine.

But that would further strain county resources, officials said, as they are already struggling to implement other changes in the law, roll out new voting machines, and accommodate expected high turnout.

Philadelphia, the largest county in the state, will continue to hold off counting absentee ballots until after Election Day. The second-largest county, Allegheny, counted absentee ballots on election night in the past but might not be able to in the future.

Officials in Bucks County, a key suburban Philadelphia battleground, dont expect to start counting absentee ballots that night. Elections director Tom Freitag told county commissioners at a meeting last week that his office likely wouldnt be done counting until a few days later.

Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, a former state lawmaker who voted in favor of the new election measures last year, asked Freitag what that could mean in November.

So if theres an election thats somewhat close, its really going to be up in the air until two, three days later, DiGirolamo said.

Yes, probably, Freitag responded.

Westmoreland County, which used to count absentee ballots on election night, likely wont do so anymore either, elections director Beth Lechman said. Chester County also used to count them on election night, and officials there arent sure whether they will again. Northampton County does plan to count them on election night.

We have no way of counting our mail-in/absentee ballots on election night, said Jeff Greenburg, elections director for Mercer County, in Western Pennsylvania. We will begin working on our absentees the following morning.

All this means its highly likely many, if not most, of the states absentee ballots will be missing from election night results, in counties both large and small, Democratic and Republican.

In the past, restrictions on absentee ballots meant only about 5% of votes were cast absentee. Now, any Pennsylvania voter can request a mail-in ballot without providing a justification. Thats generally good news for voters, elections officials said, but it significantly changes the election night calculus if suddenly three or four times as many absentee ballots are being cast.

While counties used to distribute absentee ballots to polling places, allowing them to be counted by poll workers on election night, the new law requires them to be counted by county officials in one central location. Even for a small county, that could mean thousands of votes being counted in one spot instead of being processed in small batches in multiple locations at the same time.

Lehigh County officials also dont expect to start immediately counting absentee ballots. I dont know if I want to open that can of worms on election night, just because of how crazy it is, said Timothy A. Benyo, chief clerk for the county elections board and chair of the Association of Eastern Pennsylvania County Election Personnel.

Boockvar noted the state is reimbursing counties for about 60% of the cost of election equipment and providing them guidance  giving tremendous amounts of resources, she said. County officials havent raised the issue of counting absentee ballots as a major concern, she said.

Id be really surprised if the huge majority of counties did not do counting that night, Boockvar said. And yes, we absolutely would urge the counties to do so.

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Pashteen, leader of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, was taken into custody in northwestern city of Peshawar.

Islamabad, Pakistan  Pakistani police say they have arrested prominent rights activist Manzoor Pashteen, the leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which is known for its strident criticism of the countrys powerful military for alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Pashteen was arrested late on Sunday from the Shaheen Town area of the northwestern city of Peshawar, police official Nabibul Khan told Al Jazeera.

He was required in a case by the police from Dera Ismail Khan city police station, so we [arrested him], said Khan.

According to the police report, he was arrested on sedition charges.

As the PTM rose to prominence through nationwide rallies, police routinely filed cases alleging Pashteen and other PTM leaders committed sedition in their speeches.

However, it is the first time Pashteen has been arrested in such a case.

Mohsin Dawar, a PTM leader and member of parliament, confirmed the arrest to Al Jazeera.

This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful [and] democratic manner, Dawar said in a Twitter post on Monday. But Manzoors arrest will only strengthen our resolve.

Pashteen, in his 20s, and a small group of other young activists who had been displaced by the Pakistani militarys war against the Taliban in their native South Waziristan, founded the PTM in Dera Ismail Khan, located about 250km south of Peshawar.

They shot to national prominence in 2017 when the group championed the cause of Naqeebullah Mehsud, the victim of an extrajudicial killing by a notorious Pakistani counterterrorism police officer.

Since then, Pashteen has led rallies of thousands across the country, demanding justice for other victims of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and alleged torture while in security forces custody.

His group has also demanded that the Pakistani military clear the countrys northwestern tribal districts  the site of the war against the Pakistan Taliban since 2007  of all land mines and other unexploded ordnance.

Funded by foreign intelligence services

The group has long been in the crosshairs of Pakistans military, which has directly ruled the country for roughly half of its 73-year history and still holds control over security and foreign policy.

Coverage of PTM rallies and Pashteens statements is regularly censored across Pakistani news media.

In April, the military warned the PTM that its time is up, accusing the group of being funded by foreign intelligence services. PTM denies the charges and has invited the military to make its evidence of any such funding public.

A month later, a PTM rally clashed with security forces at a checkpoint in the northwestern district of North Waziristan. Soldiers fired into the crowd, killing at least three people, rights activists say.

Police registered a terrorism case against Dawar, the member of parliament, who was leading the rally and spent days in hiding following the violence.

He was eventually arrested, alongside fellow PTM leader and Member of Parliament Ali Wazir, and held for three months before being released on bail for lack of evidence against them.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim
Bushfires: Catastrophic Failure to Govern

The catastrophic nature of the bushfires in all likelihood could have been prevented or been less severe if governments had listened to scientists and acted on their advice. Instead, funding was cut to the very organisations that are critical to our understanding of bush fires and climate change, and the preventative action that could and should have been taken.

Successive Australian governments  Coalition and Labor  are guilty of taking little more than token steps. As far back as the 1980s, CSIRO research forecast the catastrophic fires that would occur due to climate change.

Even the unprecedented nature of the bush fires that Australia is experiencing have not resulted in the federal Coalition government stepping up to its responsibilities to protect the Australian people and our flora and fauna.

US President Trump took a side-swipe at climate change activists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, saying that the world must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse.

Australias Finance Minister Matthias Cormann addressed the forum and sang the praises of Trumps speech and emphasised that the Coalition would not compromise the strength of the economy to manage rising environmental concerns as international authorities urge governments to do more to tackle climate change. By strength of the economy he means reliance on, and expansion of, the fossil fuel sector.

Failure to Heed Warnings

In the 1980s Dr Tom Beer, a meteorologist at the CSIRO, investigated what impact climate change might have on bush fires. He drew together the research of several scientists specialising in such fields as agriculture, ecology, hydrology, irrigation, farming, power generation, and the insurance industry.

The study, Australian bush fire danger under changing climatic regimes, was published in 1988. Beer and his boss at the time, Graeme Pearman, today question why the science did not lead to action. Pearman had presented their findings to countless politicians and organisations. These include Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, and John Howard when they were in office.

I would blame most of that on the lobbying, Pearman told Guardian Australia. That lobbying has been extremely powerful in a country driven by the resource sector that includes uranium, coal and gas.

Those investing in the fossil fuel industry worked diligently to try to stop action on the reduction of emissions, Pearman said. As a scientist you think many years ahead and out to the turn of the century and beyond. But in a business with investment in a coal mine, their interest is in what happens in the next five years. Those industries have been very effective [in lobbying].

Australian Governments since then have wilfully refused to take the urgent and necessary measures to arrest climate change that are required.

Research funding cuts

The Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments, in particular, have cut funding to key research institutions and fire fighting services. Research is integral to all aspects of tackling climate change and its consequences.

In 2016, Australias leading government research agency CSIRO announced it would sack 120 climate scientists. CSIROs work in this area is core to global research in climate modelling and monitoring and for future climate projections, including that of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which produces the worlds most authoritative statements on the nature of climate change, its impacts, and how to adapt to mitigate it.

Scientists in Australia and around the world were shocked and horrified. The protests flooded in. Hundreds of scientists signed a petition. The New York Times ran a front-page story.

Eventually CSIRO and the government were forced to back down: but not before they had lost some top scientists to overseas jobs. The attempted cuts were political. It came out in a Senate Committee inquiry into the cuts that Andreas Schiller, the deputy director of the oceans and atmosphere business unit at CSIRO, had written to the director of the unit explaining why they should aim to cut 120 staff.

He stated that it would allow a clean cut in terms of eliminating all capability associate with public good/government-funded climate research.  He also pointed out that if fewer cuts were made, they would inevitably face the problem of keeping some of the climate scientists!

This rejection of science for the public good is the result of profit-making business outcomes that are extremely short-sighted and regressive. It reflects the Coalition governments approach.

Pearman was also critical of the CSIRO, his former employer, for becoming too focussed on work to drive economic benefit. In the long term if the science is ignored then there will not be any economy to speak of.

Andy Pitman, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of NSW, described the scale of the cuts as jaw-droppingly shocking.

Its a catastrophic reduction in our capacity to assess present and future climate change, Professor Pitman said. It will leave us vulnerable to future climate change and unable to take advantage of any positives that result.

In 2017, the Coalition government decided to discontinue funding for the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffith University, an initiative of the Howard government. Its director Jean Palutikof pointed out the negative impact it would have on their research and the capacity to take action on climate change.

The cuts have already taken their toll with the facilitys work on bush fires, but also on droughts, floods and other natural disasters.

Diversion

PM Scott Morrison, having been forced to concede that the size and intensity of the bush fires is connected to something called climate change, is trying to shift the focus away from addressing climate change head-on to one of adaptation and resilience. Prevention is not on his agenda.

In doing so, he is attempting to side-step the urgent need to phase out the use of fossil fuels, a major driver of climate change. As the impacts of climate change are increasingly being felt, divisions within the Coalition are once again emerging.

Australia has a Prime Minister who worships coal and opts for miracles instead of science and planning. We have a deputy PM who says that people who link catastrophic bush fires to climate change are inner city raving lunatics and that the start of the fire season in September was a tad early.

It is the head-in-the-sand, short-sighted attitude of capitalism that has resulted in the present crisis and climate change with the bush fires, but the dry river systems, the dead fish, dust storms, rising oceans, and extreme weather events a taste of things to come.

Act now!

The government must accept its responsibility to plan and take action on prevention, mitigation, and adaptation. This would include such measures as:

plans to deal with disastrous events

management of river systems

purchase of necessary equipment to fight mega fires

development of a full-time, paid workforce of highly trained firefighters

drawing on Indigenous knowledge and skills of management and development of country, including the use of fire

action based on the science of climate change

ceasing to subsidise fossil fuel industries

planning for a just transition to renewable sources of energy

boost to funding to climate and related research agencies.

just transition to renewable energy

There are a host of other measures such as for transport, urban planning, housing that all centre on taking preventative action towards carbon neutrality.
Karnataka imposes weekend curfew to contain the surge in Covid-19 cases; details here

First suspected case of coronavirus in Bengaluru found to be negative

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Bengaluru, Jan 27: A middle-aged Bengaluru resident, who returned to the city on January 19 from the Chinese city of Wuhan, has been tested negative. He was kept under observation at the State-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV), which has infected a large number of people in China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and the United States.

The middle-aged man from Yelahanka, had visited the affected city of Wuhan in Hubei province in China, and arrived in Bengaluru on January 19 and was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) on January.

The man's samples (blood and throat swab) were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

Apart from this person, two others from Bengaluru who returned from a trip to Beijing and Wuhan, apart from four Chinese nationals who are on a business trip to Bengaluru, have also been isolated.

Around 21 samples have been sent to the National Virology Institute in Pune for testing.

Coronavirus epidemic: Death toll climbs to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

Speaking to leading daily, B G Prakash Kumar, state joint director (communicable diseases), said, "Only one suspected case has been reported. Six cases of asymptomatic highrisk patients - four businessmen from China and a medical student and a business professional from Bengaluru who visited Wuhan - have been quarantined for a 28-day observation."

Over 100 people have been kept under observation in Kerala and Maharashtra following thermal screening for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus (nCov).

Thermal cameras have been installed at the pre-immigration area of the seven major airports in India and airlines staff will bring the passengers to the health counters before the immigration check.
Oil prices extended losses early on Monday, slumping to nearly four-month lows amid fears that the Chinese coronavirus outbreak will slow Chinas economic growth and oil demand.

At 08:25 a.m. EDT on Monday, WTI Crude was down 3.19 percent at $52.46 and Brent Crude traded down 3.11 percent at $58.03, as investors and speculators were dumping riskier assets such as oil and rushed to safe-haven assets such as gold, Treasury bills, and the Japanese yen.

Oil extended its losses from last week, while the death toll from the coronavirus continues to rise. Brent Crude prices are nearing their lowest since early October 2019 and are now below the $60 a barrel psychological threshold for the first time in 2020.

Brent Crude prices have dropped by some 9 percent since the virus was first detected last week, ING strategists said on Monday, noting that Macro concerns over energy demand due to curtailed movement of people and trade have been weighing on an oil market that is otherwise tight due to ongoing supply concerns in Libya and OPEC+ output cuts.

Amid the panic mode in the market, OPECs largest producer and de facto leader Saudi Arabia issued a statement on Monday, trying to calm the oil market.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ producers have the capability and flexibility needed to respond to any developments, by taking the necessary actions to support oil market stability, if the situation so requires, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. Related: Increased New Well Productivity Helped US Shale Growth In 2019

The current market meltdown, including oil and other commodities, is primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite its very limited impact on global oil demand, the minister added.

In a separate statement, the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Suhail al-Mazrouei, said that the market should not overreact to the gloomy demand outlook due to the virus outbreak in China.

It is important that we do not exaggerate projections related to future decreases in oil demand due to events in China, and the market does not over-react based on psychological factors, driven by some traders in the market, al-Mazrouei said, as carried by Reuters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
PLYMOUTH  A 70-year-old man was killed when his minivan collided with a pickup truck towing a utility trailer Sunday afternoon.

Reynold Cullman, of Bridgewater, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Beth Israel Hospital by ambulance after the 2:15 p.m. crash. He later died, Massachusetts State Police said.

Cullman was driving a 2003 Pontiac Montana minivan on Route 44 west when the vehicle crossed the center median into oncoming lanes. He then struck the 2007 Dodge Ram that was heading eastbound, police said.

The 59-year-old driver of the pickup truck was not injured in the crash, police said.

The crash is being investigated by the state police Troop D with assistance from the departments Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section, Crime Scene Services Section, and the Plymouth County Detective Unit. The state Department of Transportation assisted at the crash, police said.
A Florida pastor and longtime spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump says she was speaking in metaphor when she recently prayed in a sermon for all "satanic pregnancies" to end in miscarriage.

In video of the Jan. 5 sermon, posted by the liberal advocacy group Right Wing Watch, televangelist pastor Paula White breathlessly calls on Jesus Christ to "command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now."

"We declare that anything that's been conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm," White said before an auditorium of congregants.

As of Sunday morning, the clip, which was just under two minutes long, had been viewed more than 2.5 million times.

White's words are largely being interpreted literally - that she wishes for evil women to have miscarriages - but she shared a rare response to the criticism in which she explained that she was speaking in metaphor, praying for evil plans to be foiled in her congregants' lives.

"I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context," White tweeted Sunday. "I was praying (Ephesians) 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life ..."

Ephesians 6:12, according to the King James Bible translation, reads: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

After watching the clip, Andre Gagne, a theological studies professor at Concordia University and expert on the Christian right, said White was probably speaking in metaphor when she called for the miscarriages. He pointed to a book by Nigerian evangelist D.K. Olukoya that describes "satanic pregnancies" as "the plans that Satan has against a person's life."

According to Gagne, "White is commanding that Satan's plans be aborted."

Still, many observers recoiled at White's remarks.

"So Paula White wants everyone at @WhiteHouse to know she is praying for abortion," tweeted Jennifer Gunter, an obstetrician and gynecologist who writes a column on women's reproductive health for the New York Times.

"No pregnancies are satanic. Every child is a gift from God," tweeted James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest. "No one should ever pray for any woman to miscarry. No one should ever pray for evil or harm to befall another person. Jesus asked us to pray for our persecutors, not to curse them. To love our neighbors as ourselves."

White did not respond to a request for comment sent Sunday morning.

The 53-year-old megachurch pastor, who recently joined the White House Office of Public Liaison as a religious adviser, delivered the remarks during a sermon in which she inveighed against a variety of forces, including anyone who sought to harm Trump.

"We come against the marine kingdom, we come against the animal kingdom," said White, eyes closed. "We declare that any strange winds - any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself, sent against others - we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now."

She also condemned "any hex, any spell, any witchcraft, any spirit of control, any Jezebel," and "anything that the enemy desires through spells," according to the footage.

Impassioned rhetoric is one of White's calling cards. She has used the same type of language in numerous rallies and public events, including a re-election rally for Trump in June.

But it is almost unheard of for a leader of an evangelical church to call for the death of unborn babies in any context. The belief in the right to life and opposition to abortion rights are paramount political issues for religious conservatives, and defections from those stances are rare, even in metaphor.

An October 2018 article from Christianity Today, the country's flagship evangelical magazine, offered a list of recommendations for pastors to help grieving couples cope with the loss of a baby. "Grieving parents need to know that their friends and church family care about them," the article read. A post last year on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website also offers supportive words for mothers who have miscarried.

Miscarriages are the most common type of pregnancy loss, occurring in 10 to 20 percent of all pregnancies. The causes can vary: chromosomal abnormalities, infections, substance abuse. In the United States, medical professionals define a miscarriage as the death of an embryo or fetus before the 20th week of pregnancy. The loss of a baby after the 20th week is a stillbirth.

White has been in Trump's orbit for years, sticking close to him as he has embraced the evangelical movement, an essential part of his support base.

The pair first spoke in the early 2000s when Trump called her with glowing reviews of her televised sermon, The Washington Post Magazine has reported. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson later credited White as having "personally led (Trump) to Christ."

White said she was aware of Trump's presidential ambitions long before he ran. She told The Washington Post in 2017 that Trump reached out to her in 2011 for advice on a White House bid. "I don't feel it's the right timing," she said she told him.

When he did decide to run, White was involved with the campaign, at one point helping orchestrate a meeting with hundreds of evangelical leaders. And when Trump was inaugurated, White was one of six clergy members who spoke at the ceremony.

In October, she joined the White House in an official capacity, advising the president's Faith and Opportunity Initiative and handling outreach to religious groups.
Imperial Valley News Center

Union Officials Plead Guilty to Violent Extortion

Indianapolis, Indiana - Two officials from the local Iron Workers union pleaded guilty Friday for their role in a brutal assault on a group of non-union ironworkers in Dyer, Indiana. The attack, which left multiple workers with serious injuries, was part of an effort to obtain a contract for the union to assist with the construction of the Plum Creek Christian Academy, a school affiliated with the Dyer Baptist Church.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II of the Northern District of Indiana, Special Agent in Charge Irene Lindow, Chicago Regional Office, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG) and Special Agent in Charge Grant Mendenhall of the FBIs Indianapolis Field Office made the announcement.

Thomas Williamson Sr., 68, and Jeffrey Veach, 56, pleaded guilty to one count of extortion conspiracy before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Martin of the Northern District of Indiana.

Veach is the current president of Local 395 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers (Local 395), based in Portage, Indiana. Prior to his recent retirement, Williamson was a business agent for Local 395. Under federal law, following their guilty pleas, Veach will forfeit his position as president and both men will be barred from holding any union position for at least 13 years following the end of any prison sentences they may serve.

Pursuant to their plea agreements, Williamson and Veach admitted that on Jan. 7, 2016, they conspired to use actual and threatened violence to obtain contracts for Local 395  a business contract from general contractor Lagestee-Mulder of Illinois, and/or a labor contract from D5 Iron Works (D5), also of Illinois. Prior to Jan. 7, 2016, the two defendants had learned that D5 was performing structural ironwork for the Dyer Baptist Church, which was located in Local 395s territory. They also knew that D5 was not signed up to a labor contract with Local 395.

On the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2016, Williamson visited the church jobsite to talk to the foreman of the D5 crew and convince him to sign up with Local 395, or to stop work on the site. After being told to leave the site, Williamson went across the street to the church. Once inside, he confronted a youth pastor for the church and told him that it was unethical to use non-union labor for the construction site. Williamson offered to get his guys on the jobsite instead. The next morning, Williamson returned to the jobsite, this time accompanied by co-defendant Veach. The D5 foreman again refused to join the union and asked the two defendants to leave the site. Williamson became angry and grabbed the foremans jacket, calling him, among other things, a scab bastard. As they left the site, Williamson remarked to Veach that the two of them were going to have to take things back to old school.

The two defendants then gathered up about 10 rank-and-file members of Local 395 to return to the jobsite that afternoon. Once at the jobsite, the union members immediately attacked the D5 workers and beat them with fists and loose pieces of hardwood, kicking them while they were on the ground. As a result of the attack, one D5 worker sustained a broken jaw that required several surgeries and extended hospitalization.

The DOL-OIG, the FBI and the Dyer Police Department investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Alexander Gottfried and Robert Tully of the Criminal Divisions Organized Crime and Gang Section are prosecuting the case. Through its Labor Unit, the Organized Crime and Gang Section supports federal criminal prosecution in cases involving labor-management relations, internal union affairs, and the operation of employee pension and health care plans. Assistant Chief for Labor-Management Racketeering Gerald Toner provided invaluable assistance in the prosecution of this case.

Editor's note: Wondering why this took four years to come to trial?
#50. Bill Perkins

New York City Council

Laws enacted: 0, #45 (tie)

Bills introduced: 0, #50

Attendance: 63.89%, #49

Constituent response: No

Communications response: No

Last February, New York City Councilman Bill Perkins was taken into custody and transported to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after shouting and throwing objects in his Manhattan home, according to press reports. Perkins downplayed his behavior at the time and denied he was evaluated, explaining that he had been confronting health issues  in particular drug treatments for colon cancer. But anonymous sources expressed worry about his lack of presence and observed that something is really off with him.

Those concerns may be founded. Perkins didnt introduce or pass a single bill last year. The longtime Harlem lawmaker, who served in the City Council previously and returned in 2017 after a decade in the state Senate, also skipped more than a third of his meetings.

Yet Perkins disputed his last-place ranking. Its not about the number of tweets or press stories or even being at every meeting. I will go where I can do the most good, have the maximum impact for my constituents, and often that is in the community and on the streets, and not at City Hall, he wrote in an email. From being the only elected who stood up for the Exonerated Central Park 5 to now for the first time bringing participatory budgeting to Harlem, I have always fought hard for this community I love and the people who call it home.

#49. Andy King

New York City Council

Laws enacted: 1, #41 (tie)

Bills introduced: 3, #43 (tie)

Attendance: 53.06%, #50

Constituent response: No

Communications response: No

New York City Councilman Andy King suffered a spate of bad press in 2019. In October, he was fined $15,000, suspended for 30 days and removed from all council committees as part of an unprecedented punishment for a variety of offenses, including self-dealing, harassing his staff and retaliating against whistleblowers. Some colleagues even sought to remove him from office. Yet King responded with a lawsuit, and was soon back in the news for failing to pay his fine and keeping up his political activities during his suspension.

Fair or not, the probe and the ongoing scrutiny appear to have hampered King, who made little headway legislatively in 2019. He missed about half of his meetings  the worst of any council member  with only a handful of them the result of his suspension.

King told City & State that he blamed his situation on a downtown agenda, insisting that he is working hard and that his constituents still love me.

Ive submitted legislation and some have sat in the queue, King added. You see a set of council members whose stuff is always moving forward, and anothers who dont.  It shouldnt be that if youre in leadership, your stuff is always moving and if youre not in leadership, your stuff isnt going anywhere.

RELATED: How we calculated Best & Worst New York City Lawmakers

#48. Ruben Diaz Sr.

New York City Council

Laws enacted: 0, #45 (tie)

Bills introduced: 3, #43 (tie)

Attendance: 69.81%, #45

Constituent response: No

Communications response: Yes

New York City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. has been a magnet for controversy, including when he made remarks critical of the LGBTQ community, which resulted in him losing his chairmanship of the For-Hire Vehicles Committee last year. But Diaz landed near the bottom of this ranking for other reasons  including his scant legislative record and his poor attendance.

Diaz countered that hes effectively serving his community as an invaluable resource and advocate for taxi drivers, and by keeping his office open five days a week, 9-to-5  although nobody in that office responded to an anonymous constituent request sent by City & State. Im No. 1 in constituent services. Ask anyone! he told City & State. Im the only one that has an office for taxi drivers. And then Im the worst?! Come to the community. Come to my office. See what I do when a crisis comes to the area. My office is open. I dont think the others are like that.

#47. Mark Gjonaj

New York City Council

Laws enacted: 2, #32 (tie)

Bills introduced: 9, #26 (tie)

Attendance: 70.75%, #44

Constituent response: No

Communications response: No

Similar to several other lawmakers on this list, New York City Councilman Mark Gjonaj has been in the headlines lately for unflattering reasons, including taking donations from alleged members of the Gambino mob family and other questionable uses of city and campaign funds. While the Bronx lawmaker was solidly in the middle of the pack as a legislator, his poor attendance record and lack of responsiveness to media and constituent requests put him near the bottom of this ranking.

Gjonajs office countered that in 2019 it had handled 1,300 constituent cases, attended more than 1,000 community meetings, launched a participatory budget process, offered services such as free tax preparation and immigrant assistance, and passed a law to protect people seeking refuge from a violent situation. One random email from a made-up resident or a headshot request are not accurate or serious measurements of responsiveness, a spokesman said in an email.

#46. Inez Barron

New York City Council

Laws enacted: 2, #32 (tie)

Bills introduced: 5, #36 (tie)

Attendance: 86.76%, #23

Constituent response: No

Communications response: No

New York City Councilwoman Inez Barron is the only lawmaker to make the bottom five both in 2017 and in our latest rankings. She was slightly below average in terms of bill activity and slightly better than average in attendance, but failed to respond to our media and constituent requests in a timely manner. Barrons office did not respond to a request for comment.

-with reporting by Jeff Coltin, Jon Lentz and Madeline Lyskawa
Vietnam is growing as a manufacturing location for medical device producers, and exports have been posting consistent growth.

Torben Minko, chairman of EuroChams Medical Devices and Diagnostics Sector Committee

Torben Minko, chairman of EuroChams Medical Devices and Diagnostics Sector Committee, discussed with VIR reporter the opportunities and the preparation of members ahead of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

Last year saw improvements in total sales of medical devices. How did members of the Medical Devices and Diagnostics Sector Committee (MDDSC) perform in Vietnam in 2019?

Vietnams healthcare infrastructure has developed rapidly over the past few years. This is thanks to the significant efforts of the Vietnamese authorities to improve public infrastructure across the country and to open the market to private healthcare providers.

The related double-digit growth of the medical devices and diagnostics market, which consists of around 90 per cent imports, has stimulated multinational corporations (MNCs) to better serve the market through investments in a solid local network of partners. This has involved the set-up of representative offices or, very often, the creation of local Vietnamese branches employing and training high-qualified Vietnamese experts.

It has also created opportunities for some of the MNCs to establish local production to serve the market with high-quality healthcare products.

How can the Vietnamese government work with the legal framework to leverage foreign investment, and to benefit Vietnamese patients?

Continuous improvements in regulations and harmonization are the key to access innovations and knowledge for the Vietnamese healthcare community, as well as an increase in pre-sales and post-sales service levels to healthcare providers. Decree No.36/2016/ND-CP, Decree No.169/2018/ND-CP and Decree No.03/2020/ND-CP amending decrees 36 and 169 on medical device management, which has been largely aligned to international standards, are only two examples and significant milestones for the improvement of the regulatory landscape.

Consistent implementation will foster a more efficient and quality-oriented supply of medical devices and diagnostics solutions in Vietnam for the benefit of Vietnamese patients.

A number of issues still need to be addressed in order to keep on the path to a state-of-the-art healthcare system, giving efficient access to innovative and high-quality healthcare to all citizens.

These include improving the regulatory, budgetary, and administrative framework through healthcare technology assessment to optimize usage, quality, and costs of medical devices throughout their life cycle; preventing counterfeiting and illegitimate imports; focusing on the medical device socialization and machine installation process; and providing diverse and feasible socialization models as well as consistent policies to create an open and transparent legal framework that will stimulate further foreign investment.

What prospects for MDDSC members do you foresee in 2020 when the EU- Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) takes effect, and what preparations have members made to cash in on these projects?

MDDSCs companies welcome the major opportunities created by the EVFTA. It will come with further improvements of regulatory standards, exchanging information on customs requirements, investing in the modernization and simplification of customs procedures, and ensuring transparency. New market access opportunities will be created to become long-term partners in Vietnam.

Continuous improvement in the regulatory and legal frameworks, and training for ministries and hospitals to allow better understanding of the policies as well as full compliance with the law, will stimulate more investment and ultimately a more sustainable state-of-the-art healthcare system in Vietnam.

Our mission is to engage with governments, regulators, payers, healthcare providers, and others to advocate good practice, promote high industry standards, and help develop policies which will shape the future of healthcare in Vietnam.

This will enable timely access to sustainable, innovative, and high-quality healthcare for all citizens of Vietnam. MDDSC, which consists of 24 international companies responsible for more than 70 per cent of the medical device and diagnostic market, is happy to continuously work together with the respected departments for the benefit of Vietnamese patients. VIR
An earlier version of this article stated that Iran's legislative elections would be held on February 9. The vote will in fact be held on February 21, as is now reflected below.

On February 21, Iranians will head to the polls to choose members for the countrys 290-seat parliament. The vote could not come at a more sensitive time for Iran.

The country is still grappling with the chaotic fallout from the United States assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3. The killing, which pushed the longtime foes to the precipice of an all-out-war, came as Washington tightened sanctions against Tehran as part of a years-long maximum pressure campaign that has crippled Irans economy and driven down its oil exports. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpss (IRGC) actions to avenge Soleimanis killing, however, only increased the turmoil in Iran.

On January 8, the paramilitary force fired a volley of missiles at US targets in Iraq, and while the retaliatory attacks did not cause any fatalities, the IRGC shot down a Ukrainian airliner hours later, killing all 176 people on board.

Amid fears the plane disaster could trigger a new bout of protests, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took the stage in a rare Friday sermon on January 17, defending the IRGC and urging his countrymen to take part in the legislative elections. The presence of the people insures the country and disappoints the enemy, he said.

For the Islamic Republic of Iran, high electoral participation is heralded as a sign of public legitimacy.

But observers say they expect a reduced turnout in Februarys polls, as public discontent at perceived government mismanagement and corruption rises amid the US pressure and worsening economic conditions. The worries over voter participation have intensified in the past week, after the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog that vets legislation and electoral candidates, announced it had disqualified more than a third of the 14,500 parliamentary hopefuls, including a record 90 incumbent legislators.





Among them is Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the reformist bloc affiliated with President Hassan Rouhani in parliament. The outspoken legislator said most of those deemed ineligible to run were reformist and moderate candidates, who advocate for more democracy and greater Iranian engagement with the global community.

At the moment, only 18 to 20 reformist candidates have been approved in Tehran, he told Al Jazeera, a decision that he said deprived the reformists of the ability to come up with a complete list for the capital, which is allocated 30 seats. He contended that the rival bloc, known as the principlists and who favour rule based on the values of Irans Islamic Revolution, had hundreds of candidates on their lists for the capital.

Elections will not be competitive and fair when they are not participated by candidates from various parties, said Sadeghi. This will result in a low turnout, especially in major cities.

This could result in a parliamentary majority for the principlist bloc, observers said  a win that could strengthen their hand ahead of the presidential election of 2021, and provide fresh impetus to launch impeachment proceedings against Rouhani before the end of his term.

On January 15, a day after the Guardian Council announced the disqualifications, Rouhani sharply criticised the decision. Please do not tell people that there are 17, 170 or 1,700 candidates for a single parliamentary seat. 17 candidates from what faction? Only one? This is not an election, he said in a televised address. Allow all parties and groups to run for the elections. The country cannot be run by a single faction. The country belongs to everyone.

There are two main factions in Irans 290-member parliament  the reformists and the principlists [Vahid Salemi/AP]

But Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, slammed Rouhanis comments as anti-national on Twitter. He later told reporters the council was reviewing petitions from some 3,700 of the disqualified candidates and would release the final list in the coming days.

Bijan Nobaveh, a principlist who was allowed to run, also dismissed the reformists claims, insisting candidates from both camps had been disqualified  most of them because of corruption-related issues. Nobaveh described the reformists complaints as a bid to divert attention from what he called a weak performance by the reformist and moderate-dominated legislature.

Even if all of their candidates are approved, the reformists will not get more than 5 percent of the vote, he told Al Jazeera, citing popular frustration at the countrys deepening economic woes.

Indeed, the tide of public opinion has appeared to turn against the reformists and moderates since they unexpectedly won a parliamentary majority in the 2016 elections  a win that came on the back of a nuclear accord that Rouhanis government negotiated with world powers. The landmark agreement, which offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, is now in danger of unravelling after the US unilaterally pulled out from the pact in 2018 and reimposed punishing economic measures against Tehran.

While Rouhanis promise to improve life for common Iranians has been severely weakened by the US sanctions  which depleted the countrys coffers and caused the rial to lose more than 50 percent of its value against the US dollar  some experts contend Washingtons pressure campaign alone could not be blamed for the loss of support for the reformist and moderate forces.

The reformist or moderate forces of the establishment do not enjoy credibility any more because they have been unwilling and unable to push through the reforms they were promising the people, said Ali Fathollah-Nejad, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.

And they have constantly opposed the protests of the last few years and even supported the crackdown against the protesters, he added, referring to a series of crackdowns on protesters, including in 2017 and 2018, and most recently in November, when security forces killed hundreds of demonstrators protesting a surprise increase in fuel prices.

Iranian protesters clash in the streets following fuel price increase in the city of Isfahan, central Iran, on November 16, 2019 [File: EPA]

At least 304 people were reportedly killed in the nationwide protests, where banks and shops in some cities were set on fire. The violence was the deadliest political unrest in Iran in decades, with Rouhani warning that anarchy and rioting would not be tolerated.

Many reformist politicians and groups, including an organisation led by former president Mohammad Khatami, had also criticised the 2017-18 upheaval, when protesters rallied against economic hardship and political repression.

The expectation is that the hardliners will win the upcoming elections, said Fathollah-Nejad First, because important contenders are disqualified, and second, because the moderate forces have lost a lot of legitimacy and credibility in the past few years. That does not mean they [the principlists] have popular support. It will be interesting to see the percentage of participation.

In this context, Emad Bahavar, a disqualified reformist candidate, said there was still a possibility that the Guardian Council approves 10 to 20 percent of the disqualified reformists to prevent a consensus within the bloc to boycott the elections, and allow it to come with a candidates list.

Regardless of what happened next, Raha, a young voter in Tehran, said she would not vote in the upcoming election.

The process of disqualifying candidates is a kind of playing games which occurs in every election. First, they are rejected. But, its not clear how some of them are approved in the next stages and even get elected, the young woman who asked to be identified only by her first name said in a telephone interview. It makes no difference whether we take part in the elections or not, because nothing will be done to improve our lives. So, I prefer not to vote.
The Meaning of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo The essence of Buddhism is the conviction that we have within us at each moment the ability to overcome any problem or difficulty that we may encounter in life; a capacity to transform any suffering. Our lives possess this power because they are inseparable from the fundamental law that underlies the workings of all life and the universe. Read more
Jindal Defence, part of O P Jindal Group on Monday announced its advent into small arms manufacturing in India with the company signing a joint venture (JV) agreement with Taurus Armas S.A., of Brazil for manufacturing small arms.

"Jindal Defence, part of O P Jindal Group, today announced its advent into small arms manufacturing in India. In a move aimed towards empowering indigenous manufacturing, Jindal Defence has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with Taurus Armas S.A., of Brazil for manufacturing an array of small arms," an official statement said in this regard said.

According to the statement, the JV agreement was signed today at the 1st Brazil-India Defence Industry Dialogue of the India-Brazil Business Forum (IBBF), organised by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in association with CII, ASSOCHAM, and FICCI.

This forum is part of a business exchange program hosted in honour of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's official visit to India.

The agreement proposes setting up of a JV Company at Hisar (Haryana) with equity participation from both, Jindal Defence and Taurus Armas S.A, in the equity ratio of 51:49. the statement informed.

The JV Company will manufacture carbine, assault rifle, pistols and revolver in India based on the Transfer of Technology from Taurus to achieve localisation of production in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedures.

"To further strengthen the 'Make in India' vision of Prime Minister, our collaboration with Taurus Armas S.A. will support self-reliance in strategic small arms manufacturing. The JV Company envisages the creation of world-class infrastructure along with the adoption of best manufacturing practices to achieve perfection in design and engineering and achieve high-quality standards. Moreover, with the technological expertise emerging with this JV, we aim to support the emerging demands of the Indian Armed Forces," Abhyuday Jindal, Promoter, Jindal Defence was quoted as saying.

The statement mentioned that the partnership aims to maximise existing domestic opportunities in the small arms manufacturing sector and provide significant support to the ongoing and future modernization plans of the Armed Forces, particularly the Indian Army, the Para-Military, and State Police Forces.

Taurus Armas S.A, Brazil is one of the largest firearms manufacturers in the world, with a wide range of small arms in its portfolio.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Norway Ready To Implement Digital Tax

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

27 January 2020

Norway's Minister of Finance, Siv Jensen, has said that Norway will adopt a national digital services tax if negotiations towards an international digital tax framework fail to materialize this year.

Speaking to Norwegian daily newspaper Klassekampen, Jensen expressed optimism that an international digital tax agreement will be reached in 2020. However, she added that if this does not happen, "we must immediately get a Norwegian solution in place."

Jensen declined to say whether a Norwegian digital tax will be similar in form to France's recently enacted digital services tax. However, she suggested that putting in place such a tax in Norway would be a relatively simple task as "we have gained a good understanding of the problem area."

Norway has been considering the taxation of companies operating predominately in the digital realm for some time, and in January 2018 Jensen wrote to parliament's finance committee that the Government was considering possibilities for the taxation of multinational companies' "value creation" in Norway, including in the area of value-added tax.

The letter noted that governments are currently limited in their ability to tax the profits of companies that provide goods and services via digital platforms, as these companies typically lack a physical presence in the jurisdictions in which they generate sales.

"This means that if a foreign company sells goods and services to consumers in Norway and it happens without the company being physically present here, we will normally have limited tax on income from such sales," Jensen wrote.

She went on to note that it is seen as unfair that companies can earn "huge revenues" that are subject to little or no tax.

Jensen also said in the letter to parliament that digital companies' sales in foreign markets should be subject to value-added tax there under the destination principle.

"The destination principle means that it is the country where consumption takes place which has the right to tax," she observed, adding later that sales tax "is an appropriate solution."

Although Jensen stressed at the time that the Government's preference was for a multilateral solution to avoid taxpayer uncertainty, her latest comments suggest that Norway is now more willing to act unilaterally on the matter.
UPDATE JAN 29 2020

From Sephora's PR agency:

I caught your recent story on BoingBoing regarding Avast. Wanting to see if it is possible for you to make a correction to the piece? Sephora is not a past, present or potential client. You can find a quote from Sephora below.



"Sephora is not a client and has not worked with Avast/Jumpshot."

The brand name has been redacted from this blog post, which in turn quoted a VICE NEWS article which named the brand as having been associated in some way with Avast.

 Xeni Jardin, Jan 29 2020



Documents show that the antivirus company Avast has been selling its users' internet browsing data, through a subsidiary named Jumpshot, to clients that include Pepsi, Google, and Microsoft, reports Motherboard. The report is the result of a joint investigation between the VICE News site and PC Mag.

"An Avast antivirus subsidiary sells 'Every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site,'" and clients of that data broker firm, Jumpstart, have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey," Joseph Cox at Vice/Motherboard.

"An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to many of the world's biggest companies," the joint investigation with VICE Motherboard and PCMag found.

Excerpt:

The documents, from a subsidiary of the antivirus giant Avast called Jumpshot, shine new light on the secretive sale and supply chain of peoples' internet browsing histories. They show that the Avast antivirus program installed on a person's computer collects data, and that Jumpshot repackages it into various different products that are then sold to many of the largest companies in the world. Some past, present, and potential clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, [XXXXX redacted at company's request, see note above], Home Depot, Conde Nast, Intuit, and many others. Some clients paid millions of dollars for products that include a so-called "All Clicks Feed," which can track user behavior, clicks, and movement across websites in highly precise detail. Avast claims to have more than 435 million active users per month, and Jumpshot says it has data from 100 million devices. Avast collects data from users that opt-in and then provides that to Jumpshot, but multiple Avast users told Motherboard they were not aware Avast sold browsing data, raising questions about how informed that consent is. The data obtained by Motherboard and PCMag includes Google searches, lookups of locations and GPS coordinates on Google Maps, people visiting companies' LinkedIn pages, particular YouTube videos, and people visiting porn websites. It is possible to determine from the collected data what date and time the anonymized user visited YouPorn and PornHub, and in some cases what search term they entered into the porn site and which specific video they watched.

Read more:

Leaked Documents Expose the Secretive Market for Your Web Browsing Data [Joseph Cox / VICE, via techmeme]

New: leaked documents, data, contracts show how hugely popular antivirus Avast now harvests internet browsing data and sells it for millions of dollars. Clients included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft. Documents show a product called "All Clicks Feed"https://t.co/i5s2lX8FJL  Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) January 27, 2020

Before selling the data Jumpshot/Avast removes personal info like names. But multiple experts believe you could identify people inside it. The data itself is also highly sensitive, being able to see specific porn videos and searches people looked at https://t.co/i5s2lX8FJL pic.twitter.com/DCLEP0qbXB  Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) January 27, 2020

It was nice knowing you, Avast! You can kiss your enterprise customerbase good bye! https://t.co/goI9bbkpc6  Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi) January 27, 2020

SCOOP: Leaked documents show that the world's largest companies, including Google, Microsoft, McKinsey, Bain, Altria, etc. are spending millions tracking your every click around the internet: https://t.co/kXGegjaSPp  Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) January 27, 2020

Our privacy laws need a desperate update: such data collection should itself be illegal. https://t.co/H549nCisRy  Vivek Wadhwa (@wadhwa) January 27, 2020

Companies LOVE to pretend that "anonymizing" your data somehow means users can't be identified or their data abused. These duo reports do a lovely job highlighting how that's nonsense:https://t.co/dEG5EwPVjx pic.twitter.com/605IElYGu3  Karl Bode (@KarlBode) January 27, 2020

Been using free antivirus software? Your very, *very* detailed browsing history has been put on the market  and lots of companies have been eagerly buying it. If you're not paying (and sometimes when you are), you're the product, not the customer. https://t.co/NVceWrAoNV  James Ball (@jamesrbuk) January 27, 2020

This is another reason why quitting these services is futile. Their power is so far beyond our standard ways of dealing with companies. https://t.co/5Rv8BhYSeL  SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN??? (@sivavaid) January 27, 2020

The antivirus business doesn't make much money anymore, so software like Avast is selling your browsing data instead. Don't use third-party antiviruses, people. ? https://t.co/X9YUUuch97  Owen Williams  (@ow) January 27, 2020
C oronation Street actor Neville Buswell has died at the age of 76.

Buswell was best known for playing Ray Langton in the long-running British soap.

An obituary for the star was published on the website of Las Vegas' Palm Eastern Mortuary and Cemetery, stating that he died on December 25, 2019.

Buswell joined Coronation Street in 1966 as troublemaker Langton and first left the show later that year. He then returned in 1968 and remained in the soap for a decade, before being written out of the show when his character abandoned his family and moved to the Netherlands.

Buswell was best known for his soap role / John Madden/Keystone/Getty Images

He then moved to Las Vegas, where he worked as a croupier, and reprised his role as Langton in the Coronation Street spin-off episode Viva Las Vegas in 1997. Buswell also worked as a mortgage broker while living in the US.

He made a final return to Coronation Street in March 2005 for a six-week story arc that saw Langton return to Weatherfield and reunite with ex-wife Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) and daughter Tracy (Kate Ford) before dying of cancer.
Parents are being warned about the dangers of magnetic balls. [Photo: Getty]

Doctors are warning parents about a dangerous new trend which risks children swallowing magnetic balls.

The craze involves children putting the small magnetic balls in their mouth  one inside the mouth and one outside  in order to give the illusion they have a face piercing.

But some have accidentally swallowed the balls, which can damage the digestive system.

It has been reported that at least four children in the Stockport area have needed abdominal surgery after accidentally swallowing the magnets.

Though the magnets are widely available in stores and online in the UK, they are banned by some countries.

The main problem is that the magnets continue to work even once inside the body and can stick to each other through loops of gastrointestinal tract, potentially causing bowel perforation or intestinal blockage.

This sort of damage can also lead to tears and potentially internal bleeding, and could be fatal if not treated quickly and the source of the damage removed.

READ MORE: More than a quarter of children are not getting enough sleep

MyHealthcare Clinic's Dr Stephanie Ooi, a GP, told Yahoo UK that magnetic balls can be extremely dangerous if swallowed.

These balls may cause a choking hazard if grouped together, but even individually can cause damage to the digestive tract including the delicate lining of the bowel, she says.

This can cause tears which could lead to internal bleeding and further infection.

Recently, there have been a number of cases where these magnetic balls have been swallowed causing perforated bowels and tears in the stomach which had required surgical intervention.

I would recommend keeping them away from children.

Last year a six-year-old girl suffered a perforated bowel after she accidentally swallowed a magnetic ball bearing.

It was reported that Libbie Walker needed major surgery and was left with a seven-inch scar, which runs from her belly button to her hip.

Three other children, including a four-year-old, were also rushed to hospital after swallowing the ball magnets.

Story continues

The four-year-old was lucky to escape injury as the magnets stuck to each other and passed through their digestive system without complications.

However, the two others were admitted to the childrens ward with significant internal damage.

One suffered a perforated stomach and duodenum after swallowing nine ball magnets, while another had a small bowel perforation.

The magnetic balls can continue to work in the body if they are swallowed, potentially risking internal tears. [Photo: Getty]

Following the spate of hospital admissions, a letter from a Stockport doctor has been distributed to schools in the area urging parents not to buy the balls for their children.

It warns parents that if the highly magnetic balls are swallowed, the digestive system and the intestines can be severely damaged.

I cannot emphasise [enough] how dangerous these can be if swallowed. You may wonder why a child would swallow these or you may think my child wouldnt swallow them but I plead with you to not take the risk, the letter says, according to Metro.

The balls are highly magnetic and when swallowed can cause severe damage to the digestive tract.

As the balls move through the bowel they can magnetise together even when in different parts of the bowel.

The letter explains that the pressure applied to the bowel tissue between the two magnets is so strong it causes a perforation in the bowel.

This is extremely serious and can be fatal if not identified and promptly fixed by abdominal surgery, it adds.

Sanja Besarovic, a consultant paediatric surgeon at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, has previously written to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents warning against the craze and calling for more official warnings.

We have been able to save these children but I'm growing increasingly concerned that this is happening often, she said.

Both of the children recovered well after surgery but the next child may not be so lucky.

READ MORE: What to do if your child puts something up their nose or in their ear

It isnt the first time parents have been warned about a potential internal risk of children accidentally swallowing part of a toy.

Back in 2018 doctors advised parents to be alert to the dangers of button batteries following an investigation into the death of a child who swallowed one.

The small, round batteries, which are often found in toys and remote controls, can cause chemical burns if they come into contact with the mouth or nose.

The warning, issued by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, came after an investigation into the death of a child in 2018.
Benny Gantz, the leader of Israel's Blue and White Party, told President Trump in their Oval Office meeting today that he supports Trump's Middle East peace plan but wants to move ahead with it only after Israel's elections on March 2nd.

Why it matters: Gantz is the primary electoral rival for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political survival and wants a green light from Trump to annex parts of the West Bank immediately after the plan is presented. Gantz indicated major steps should wait until Israel has a new, stable government.

Gantz's meeting with Trump was widely seen as an achievement, given he holds no official position. He had considered skipping the trip to Washington out of fear he'd be sidelined by Trump and overshadowed by Netanyahu.

Facing corruption indictments at home, Netanyahu is leaning on his connection with Trump as a reason to re-elect him.

The peace plan will play a central role in the coming elections, Israel's third in the span of a year.

What he's saying: Gantz called the plan a significant and historic milestone."

Immediately after the elections, I will work toward implementing it from within a stable functioning Israeli government, in tandem with the other countries in our region."

 Gantz

He also said he and Trump discussed the importance of dialogue with the Palestinians, the neighboring countries and the King of Jordan."

The Palestinians have boycotted talks over the peace plan and are expected to emphatically reject it. Trump said earlier today that there could be "no deal without the Palestinians."

The bottom line: Gantzs remarks show he views Trump's plan as a chance to restart the peace process, but in such a way as to get the Palestinians back to the table and involve the Arab states.
Polands President Andrzej Duda walks along with survivors through the gates of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp gathered for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet armys liberation of the camp, using the testimony of survivors to warn about the signs of rising anti-Semitism and hatred in the world today.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp prayed and wept as they marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation, returning to the place where they lost entire families and warning about the growth of anti-Semitism around the world.

We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes, Polish President Andrzej Duda told those at the commemoration, which included the German president as well as Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.

The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying, but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it, Mr Duda said.

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About 200 camp survivors attended, many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who had travelled from Israel, the US, Australia, Peru, Russia, Slovenia and elsewhere.

Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps during the Second World War, but were joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

They gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that transported people to Birkenau, the part of the vast complex where most of the murdered Jews were killed in gas chambers and then cremated. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27 1945.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, brought the crowd to tears with the story of a survivor who was separated from his family. The man watched watched his young daughter, in a red coat, walk to her death, turning into a small red dot in the distance before disappearing forever.

Do not ever let this happen again to any people, Mr Lauder said, warning about rising anti-Semitism.

After the war, when the world finally saw pictures of gas chambers, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with the Nazis, he recalled. But now I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime: the open and brazen spread of anti-Jewish hatred.

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People stood in silence as a Jewish survivor recited Hebrew prayers for the dead, bowing their heads or wiping away tears. Clergymen of other faiths also prayed.

Then, with the famous gate and barbed wire illuminated in the dark, cold evening, guests marched in a procession to place candles at a memorial to the victims set amid the remains of the gas chambers.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by Nazi forces at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned and killed there.

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem last week to mark the anniversary in what many saw as a competing observance. Among them were Russian President Vladimir Putin, US vice president Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and the Prince of Wales.

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Politics intruded on that event, with Mr Duda boycotting it in protest after Mr Putin claimed Poland played a role in triggering the Second World War. The Polish leader had wanted a chance to speak before or after Mr Putin to defend his nations record, but he was not given a speaking slot in Jerusalem.

Those claims comes as many eastern European countries in recent years have been mythologising their own peoples behaviour during the war and suppressing knowledge of wrongdoing, something Polands government has been criticised for.

Among others attending the observances at Auschwitz, which is in the part of southern Poland that was occupied by Germany during the war, were German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

The US was represented by Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.
PLEASANTON, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellie Mae (NYSE: ELLI), the leading cloud-based loan origination platform provider for the mortgage industry, today announced the 2020 Ellie Mae Innovation Award winners, honoring mortgage companies that have distinguished themselves with their innovative use of Ellie Mae technology.

The Ellie Mae Innovation Awards, previously known as the Ellie Mae Hall of Fame Awards, recognizes the best and brightest companies in the mortgage industry who are using Ellie Mae's Encompass Digital Lending Platform and solutions to originate more loans, lower origination costs and reduce the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality and efficiency. This year's winners will be recognized during Ellie Mae Experience, held March 23-25, 2020 in San Diego. These winners will enjoy many opportunities to showcase their company and success story during and after the event.

The Ellie Mae Innovation Award Winners are:

Outstanding Consumer Engagement: Securityplus Federal Credit Union

Digital Mortgage Automation: Home Point Financial

Best Use of Data: Paramount Residential Mortgage Group

AI Innovation: Wyndham Capital Mortgage

Lenders' Choice for Innovative Service Provider: Arch MI (Arch Mortgage Insurance Company)

"Congratulations to our 2020 Ellie Mae Innovation Award Winners," said Jonathan Corr, president and CEO of Ellie Mae. "We are honored to recognize these leading lenders for their use of technology to grow their businesses and the mortgage market at large. They truly are shaping the industry by leveraging automation, data and automated intelligence by simplifying core processes and making their workforces more efficient. We look forward to honoring them at Ellie Mae Experience."

With an expected audience of more than 2,500 mortgage industry professionals, Ellie Mae Experience 2020 gives attendees insight into current and future trends from thought leaders, skills to maximize investments in Ellie Mae's Encompass digital mortgage solution, and the latest information about consumer engagement, mobility and compliance. The event will include six conference tracks, more than 32 interactive breakout sessions, hands-on training sessions hosted by Ellie Mae experts and industry leaders and compelling keynotes.

For more information about Ellie Mae Experience, visit https://experience.elliemae.com

About Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry. Ellie Mae's technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, reduce origination costs, and shorten the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality and efficiency. Visit EllieMae.com or call 877.355.4362 to learn more.

 2020 Ellie Mae, Inc. Ellie Mae, Encompass, AllRegs, Velocify, Capsilon, the Ellie Mae logo and other trademarks or service marks of Ellie Mae, Inc. appearing herein are the property of Ellie Mae, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Other company and product names may be trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners.

SOURCE Ellie Mae

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He's just wrapped his latest movie.

And Joaquin Phoenix was spotted out for an evening stroll, days after finishing work on C'mon C'mon in New Orleans.

This outing comes just days before the 45-year-old is expected to make an appearance at the Oscars, where his film Joker is nominated for 11 awards, including a Best Actor nod for Joaquin.

Evening stroll: Joaquin Phoenix was spotted out for an evening stroll shortly after wrapping on his latest movie C'mon C'mon in New Orleans

For his late-night stroll, he carried a large black backpack while rocking a simple T-shirt and jeans.

For his latest film, the actor plays uncle to a gifted and sensitive boy which sounds like a mind-wrapping role he juggled when playing in the Joker.

On the go: For his late-night stroll, her carried a large black backpack while rocking a simple t-shirt and jeans

Following his recent SAG Award win just days ago, Joaquin opted to celebrate in a way that was close to his heart.

The die-hard vegan quickly celebrated his impressive win and then headed over to a Los Angeles Slaughterhouse where he helped comfort pigs before they died.

'Most people don't really know of the torture and murder in the meat and dairy industry,' he said during an interview to the animal-rights channel Jane UnChained.

'I've seen it for what it is, so I have to be here.'

That's a wrap! Earlier in the day, he appeared to enjoy the nice weather as he prepped to head back to the sunshine in a navy long sleeve and a pair of glasses

New role: For his latest film, the actor plays an uncle to a 'gifted and sensitive boy' which is much different than the mind-wrapping role he juggled when playing in the Joker.

In the video, Phoenix is still all dressed up in his SAG Awards suit as he stands outside in what is called a 'pig vigil' surrounded by tons of other activists.

The group of animal-lovers are then seen giving water to the little pigs as they await their fate through the holes of trucks.

Back in 2019, the actor opened up about his lifestyle choice to Vanity Fair and added that he has been a proud vegan since 1979.

Speaking out: Following his recent SAG Award win just days ago, Joaquin opted to celebrate in a way that was close to his heart

His obligation: The die-hard vegan quickly celebrated his impressive win and then headed over to a Los Angeles Slaughterhouse where he helped comfort pigs before they died

'It was so violent, it was just so intense,' he recalled an incident involving fish which ultimately made him go vegan.

'I have a vivid memory of my mom's face, whichI have seen that same face maybe one other time, where she was completely speechless because we yelled at her.

'How come you didn't tell us that's what fish was?' I remember tears streaming down her face. She didn't know what to say.'

During the vigil, he also added that he feels he has a 'moral obligation' to speak up about animal cruelty.
China's capital on Monday recorded its first death from a deadly coronavirus as it struggles to contain a rapidly spreading disease that has sparked global alarm, with countries scrambling to evacuate their citizens from the epicentre of the epidemic. The fatality in Beijing raises the death toll from the new virus to 82, with more than 2,700 people infected across the nation. Cases have been identified in more than a dozen other countries, including the first confirmed patients in Canada and Sri Lanka. The United States urged its citizens to "reconsider" all travel to China and told them not to go to central Hubei province, where the pneumonia-like virus emerged. Mongolia closed its vast border to vehicles from China. In a sign of mounting official concern, Premier Li Keqiang visited ground zero to oversee containment efforts in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where the disease first appeared late last month. The government has sealed off Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province, effectively trapping tens of millions of people including thousands of foreigners, in a bid to contain the virus as the Lunar New Year holiday unfolds. China decided to extend the holiday, initially due to end on January 30, for three days to limit population flows and control the epidemic. US President Donald Trump said the United States has offered Beijing "any help that is necessary" in combatting the virus. The health commission in the capital said a 50 year-old-man who visited Wuhan died of respiratory failure on Monday, less than three weeks after visiting the city. More than 700 new infections were confirmed in the country, while the number of suspected cases doubled over a 24-hour period to nearly 6,000. The youngest infected patient was a nine-month-old baby being treated in Beijing. In Wuhan, AFP reporters saw construction workers labouring on one of two field hospitals that China is racing to complete by next week to relieve overcrowded facilities swamped with people waiting for medical attention. On day five under quarantine, residents shouted "Go Wuhan" from their windows, according to videos posted online, and a building lit up the night sky with the words in red. "I'm getting more concerned every day," Do Quang Duy, a 32-year-old Vietnamese masters student in Wuhan, told AFP. - Global fears spread - The United States urged its nationals to "reconsider travel" to China as the epidemic spreads, and categorically advised against travel to Hubei. A US-bound flight is scheduled to leave Wuhan on Tuesday with consular staff and some American citizens. Turkey and Germany likewise advised their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to China. Landlocked Mongolia -- which is heavily dependent on trade with China -- closed the border with its huge neighbour to cars, cancelled classes until March 2 and suspended large public gatherings. Malaysia banned visitors from Hubei province. France plans to fly citizens out of the city in the middle of this week. Japan will also bring its citizens home. Belgium, Bangladesh, India and Spain said they were working to repatriate their nationals, while Germany was considering the possibility. The World Health Organization last week stopped short of declaring the outbreak a global emergency, which could have prompted international trade or travel restrictions. But the world body on Monday admitted it had made an error in the global risk from the deadly virus, assessing it as "high" worldwide, rather than "moderate". WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus headed to Beijing for discussions with Chinese officials. Global stock markets and oil prices plunged Monday over coronavirus fears. - China shuts down - The virus is believed to have jumped to people from animals in a Wuhan market that sold a wide range of exotic wild game. China on Sunday banned all wildlife trade until the emergency subsides. The virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003 and was also traced to the wild game trade. Authorities around China have already imposed aggressive curbs on transport during the usually high-traffic Lunar New Year season to keep the virus from spreading. At Beijing's main international airport, almost all passengers wear masks. Fever checks are conducted at subway and railway stations. Typically, hundreds of millions of people criss-cross China in jam-packed buses and trains during the holiday, a time for family reunions. But the festivities have been ruined this year by coronavirus, which can be transmitted between humans, with people told to avoid gatherings. Countless popular public attractions and seasonal festivals have been shut down. Several Beijing malls shortened their opening hours, according to state media. The nationwide measures threaten to put a dent in an economy that was already slowing down. Beijing and Shanghai were among places mandating stringent checks and 14-day observation periods for people arriving from Hubei. Wuhan's mayor Zhou Xianwang said around five million people had left the stricken city during the new year travel rush in January, highlighting fears the virus could spread further. burs-dma-lth/sst/dw
The opposition's crushing defeat in Peru's legislative elections has left a fragmented Congress without a dominant party -- but with a surprising newcomer threatening to become a serious player. Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force lost dozens of seats Sunday in the Congress it had dominated since 2016, shrinking from 73 out of 130 seats to an expected 16. The Christian evangelical fundamentalist party Frepap is expected to have a larger representation as the fourth largest group with a projected 12 seats. "Frepap's success is in part due to a transfer of votes from the collapse of Fujimorism," analyst Luis Benavente, director of the Vox Populi consultancy, told AFP. The vote share for Frepap, whose leaders wear long beards and flowing tunics in the style of Jesus, "is part of Peru's significant protest vote," political analyst Carlos Melendez said on Twitter. Popular Force looks to have paid for its leader's implication in the sprawling Odebrecht corruption scandal. Fujimori is accused of accepting $1.2 million in illicit party funding from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht for her unsuccessful 2011 presidential election campaign. Odebrecht has admitted to paying at least $29 million to Peruvian officials since 2004, and bribing four former Peruvian presidents. The scandal destroyed the popularity of the 44-year-old daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). She spent 13 months in pre-trial detention before being released in November, and on Tuesday faces a judge's decision on whether to send her back to jail. "It's the collapse of Fujimorism, it's a very deep fall, a very hard blow," Benavente said of the election result. - 'Political minorities' - The big winner was center-right President Martin Vizcarra, who dissolved parliament in September and called snap legislative elections in a bid to end a political crisis between the executive and Congress. His attempts to push through anti-corruption reforms had been repeatedly blocked by Popular Force. Vizcarra said he wants to establish with the new Congress "a responsible, mature relationship that seeks a consensus that benefits Peru." Vizcarra doesn't have a party but with centrist parties in the ascendency, the president will "achieve a more bearable relationship" with Congress than he had done with Fujimori, said political analyst Augusto Alvarez. The new Congress will sit for only 16 months as a general election is already scheduled for April 2021. With 60 percent of Sunday's votes counted, hardly any party has managed more than 10 percent. The center-right Popular Action party is expected to come out on top, with 24 seats. Another center-right party, Alliance for Progress, is next on 18 seats, with the nationalist Union for Peru on 17. The largest left-wing party, the Broad Front, is expected to come in joint fifth with the right-wing Popular Force on 12 seats. It has been an even worse election for Popular Force's main ally, the social-democratic APRA of former president Alan Garcia, who died by suicide in April as police arrived at his home to arrest him in a corruption case related to the Odebrecht scandal. APRA, Peru's oldest political party, is expected to lose all of its seats. "This election... shows that we're a country of political minorities, practically microscopic" ones, Melendez told AFP. - Huge support for Vizcarra - There were more than 2,300 candidates representing 21 parties in Sunday's election -- the first time legislative polls have been held separately from presidential voting. It came about after Vizcarra dissolved Congress on September 30, a move that was popular among Peru's 25 million population. The opposition accused him of a "coup d'etat" and swore in Vice President Mercedes Araoz as "acting president" but she resigned the following day. The opposition took its case to the constitutional court, which ruled in Vizcarra's favor. Demonstrators took to the streets to support Vizcarra and his anti-corruption push. Polls showed 90 percent support for the president's daring move. Center-right President Martin Vizcarra appears to be the biggest winner from legislative elections that decimated the Keiko Fujimori-led opposition Voters queue at a polling station during legislative elections in Lima, on January 26, 2020 Profile of Peruvian Opposition leader Keiko Fujimori. The opposition accused Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra, pictured casting his vote on January 26, 2020, of a accused him of a "coup d'etat"
Former Paladin director Ian Stewart. Paladin chief executive David Saul said: "No verified or substantiated evidence could be found in support of the allegation," adding the "alleged approach was similar to another approach Paladin had from a person purporting to be an elected official". The PNG officials in question have alleged that impostors made the demands for bribes in their names. However, The Age and Herald understand Mr Stewart has audio recordings and text messages from a man he strongly believes is a senior PNG government official who was asking for a $15,000 payment just before an extension to a Paladin contract was publicly announced. "If Im ever asked, and Im in a position where I have to answer, Ill just give the straight answer," Mr Stewart said. "I dont see the point in denying approaches. Weve had plenty of approaches across our company, not just in relation to the contract. But when weve had those I reported those up and its up to others to determine how they respond to that and whether they investigate it.

"I would say that if there are Australian government people aware of [improper requests for payments] but are not having it investigated, then they are just as bad." Australia's offshore detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Home Affairs said a search of all electronic records and questioning of relevant staff about an earlier claim a PNG official had demanded an $8 million political donation from Paladin had failed to find anything to indicate the department was made aware. But Mr Stewart said he had phoned the Home Affairs department in late 2017 to report the donation request and other improper approaches for Paladin to give subcontracts to politically connected PNG companies. Newspaper advertisement

Mr Stewart said he was aware that senior PNG officials who had regular dealings with Paladin have recently claimed impostors may have been using their identities to make demands to Paladin. In November the office of Sir Isaac Lupari, the chief secretary of the PNG government, authorised an advertisement in the Post Courier newspaper to warn of impostors "using the name of the Office of the Prime Minister and Chief Secretary  for monetary gain". Mr Stewart said although it was theoretically possible he had been asked for money by an "impostor", it was highly unlikely in his case because the person making the approach had access to sensitive information that was not in the public domain. "Can you verify 100 per cent the people who made the approach? I guess that can be contentious, but for me its not that tricky," he said. "People were approaching us from inside. We were getting approached and told things from inside announcements that were yet to be made. The people were clearly aware of things that had not been made public yet. So if they are not who they say they are, they must be very close to those on the inside."

Loading Company doubts Mr Stewart also said he had begun doubting the direction of his former company. He conceded that a previous public statement the company released in response to adverse media reports last year had been incorrect. "In terms of those hard ... decisions about what were doing and what were not doing and what we stand for, I dont really know whats going on in the business any more ... I dont have confidence one way or the other," Mr Stewart said. Mr Stewart said he removed a February 2019 media statement from Paladins website before he resigned as a director because he learnt it contained inaccuracies about the companys historical performance in relation to bad debts and failed contracts.

The Paladin media statement claimed a report by The Australian Financial Review that linked the company to another firm called High Risk Security Group and its operations in East Timor was incorrect. But Mr Stewart said he learnt months after putting out the statement that Paladin and High Risk Security Group were historically closer than he had been led to believe. Loading "I wasnt given the full information but once I was given the full information I had that statement removed," he said. Mr Stewart has worked for more than a decade on projects in developing countries in south-east Asia, the Pacific and Africa. He has previously contracted to Australias Defence Department and the United Nations. He admitted that taking on offshore processing work in PNG was a "moral dilemma" on a personal level. "And Paladin, again, even though its a commercial enterprise, is always delivering for and on behalf of a government or government body somewhere. So you need a sense of public service about how you do that," he said.
Locals, including scores of burqa-clad women, protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Register of Citizens (NRC) and Population Register (NPR) at Morland Road area here on Monday.

Inspired by Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protesters, women in large numbers took to the streets in Madanpura here.

The protests continued through wee hours on Monday with women raising slogans like "We all are one" and "Azadi" despite the best efforts of the police to convince people to cooperate.

Protests erupted in different parts of the country last year, including the capital, over the CAA which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh if they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Cardiology and Valvular Institute Medical Director Dr. Nalini Rajamannan has received the Senate Files from the Senate Finance Committee Investigation, the US Senate provided the files to Dr. Rajamannan over the years. The newly discovered evidence defines the stages of the Design Control study, FMEA outcomes, and the final development of the medical device, the FDA Affidavit, the FDA FOIA, and communications surrounding the audio recordings of the 3.5-hour FDA meeting in Minneapolis, MN, to help the commissioners review of the evidence to report to the 667 patients the status of the Device as reported to Senator Charles Grassley in 2009, by the FDA Congressional office.

Dr. Rajamannan has permission to reproduce this photo. Dr. Rajamannan has permission to reproduce this photo.

The FDA Commissioner, Dr. Hahn, the Illinois and Minnesota Attorney General's offices, Chicago Public Health Department, and the Chicago Mayor's office are reviewing the Minneapolis FDA affidavits regarding patients' rights under HHS Federal Codes for human subject research. The FDA is led by the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, appointed by President Trump with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.

The FDA Commissioner's office now has the newly discovered evidence of delays by the FDA and the reporting to the US Senate Finance Committee regarding the Design Control study to research and develop the Model 5100 device and the delays to inform Chicagoans and U.S. citizens of a new health concern related to the testing of the non-exempt heart device.

The events follow recent reporting by Kaiser Health News that the FDA has lifted their exemption laws. Dr. Nalini Rajamannan, a specialist for patients with valvular heart disease at Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Cardiology, confirms FDA statements after a decade of requesting answers from the FDA from her location in Downtown Sheboygan. Dr. Rajamannan revealed the confirmation FDA letter to Congressman Glenn Grothman that the Food and Drug Deputy Commissioner on policy for the FDA will not inform the patients regarding the status of a heart device implanted in 667 patients across the United States of America.

Former Board of Trustee for the University and now Governor of Illinois, Governor Pritzker, also received the FDA affidavit after years of delays by the FDA in reporting to the patients. The surgical placement of these devices began in 2006. In 2007, the device manufacturer confirmed the "exempt status" in a two-line email to the hospital. The saga related to the heart device is outlined by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's new book "An American Sickness," which highlights the issues related to exempt medical devices in the chapter, "How to get into a Patient's Heart? Follow the Money." The chapter outlines the events summarized by eye-witness Dr. Nalini M. Rajamannan in the series "The Myxo Files a XXIV: A Tale of Three Rings", as published by Kindle Publishing on Amazon.com. Dr. Rajamannan reviewed the FDA letter to the Senate Finance Committee's Chairman Grassley after several years of investigations, classifying the device as not exempt from reporting the device to the FDA and that the device manufacturer needs to submit a new approval application. (See Linked PDF of the FDA Congressional Letter.)

Summation points from the recent press conference at the Institute after a decade of FDA investigations:

FDA Congressional letter to Senator Charles Grassley , Senate Finance Committee Chairman, confirms the Myxo ETlogix Device is not exempt and needed an approval from the FDA. FDA letter to Senator Richard Lugar confirms 667+ patients received the non-exempt device which needed an approval. FDA report to the House Committee on Government Oversight confirms that the FDA does not plan to inform the patients. Congressman Grothman is still waiting for a response as to why the FDA is not planning to inform the patients since 2018. HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson is not planning to inform the patients of the non-exempt status of the heart device after requests for information by Senator Ron Johnson . Dr. Rajamannan presented documents and an affidavit to Senator Amy Klobuchar 's staff in Minneapolis . Senator Klobuchar has met with Dr. Rajamannan since 2014 in Washington D.C. , after the Senate Judiciary Committee began their investigation. Dr. Rajamannan is awaiting response by the FDA to inform the patients of the design control study under 21CFR810.30, as reviewed by the FDA Minneapolis office. The goal is to obtain critical safety information to inform the patients and doctors across the country to learn about the non-exempt, non-registered heart device placed in their hearts between 2006-2007. The Senate Finance Committee Files are now in Washington D.C. with the FDA Commissioner's office and the US Senate Finance Committee under the laws requiring informed consent dating back to the Nuremberg Code and the Belmont Report.

The information will help the 667+ patients to finally get answers about whether medical devices placed in their bodies are tested and safe, as the Food and Drug Administration begins to allow access to volumes of previously shielded data from consumers as written to then-Senator Richard Lugar (IN) and Congressman Glenn Grothman (WI). The Senate Finance committee is involved in these investigations on behalf of Medicare and Medicaid because government dollars fund the use of medical devices in patients' health.

More importantly, the findings published in the Daily Northwestern in 2019 will help patients know more about medical devices implanted into their bodies.

Dr. Nalini Rajamannan is a heart valve expert in the field of cardiovascular medicine. She earned her undergraduate science pre-professional degree from the University of Notre Dame, her Medical Doctorate from Mayo Medical School and her post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic and Research Fellowship on the NIH training Grant. She also worked at the Mayo Clinic as a staff consultant in Internal Medicine and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University and the Lakeside and Westside VA. Currently, she practices consultative valvular medicine and Osteocardiology at Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Cardiology and Valvular Institute, WI.

Press Contact

Oscar Delgado

Press Officer for Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Cardiology and Valvular Institute

Former NBC Bureau Chief Latin America

773-573-6890

[email protected]

Related Images

cardiology-department-in-2006.jpg

Cardiology Department in 2006

Dr. Rajamannan has permission to reproduce this photo.

co-investigators-in-2006-at-the.jpg

Co-Investigators in 2006 at the start of the trial

Dr. Rajamannan has permission to reproduce this photo.

Related Links

US Senate Finance Investigation and MPLS FDA

FDA Congressional Letter to Senator Grassley

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X00NFQJqQHI

SOURCE Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Cardiology and Valvular Institute
The Ghana Police Service has alerted the public to an emerging trend is vehicle break-ins which uses sophisticated electronic devices to interfere with the locking systems of vehicles.

The warning comes after three persons suspected of breaking into vehicles to steal from their targets, were arrested by the Accra Regional Police Command.

The Police in a statement said the perpetrators of this crime usually operate at parking lots, shopping malls and recreational centres.

The police also advised the general public to take note of the following crime prevention tips:

Lookout for people loitering at car parks and alert the security on ground;

Crosscheck doors to ensure they are properly locked before leaving parking lots;

Avoid exposing or leaving valuables in vehicles;

Management of public facilities should enhance the security of their premises by installing CCTVS.

Read the entire statement below;
A Japanese group of researchers says it has conducted heart surgery using sheets of heart muscle cells made from iPS cells.

Induced pluripotent stem cells are created from reprogrammed human cells and can develop into various kinds of body tissue.

The Osaka University team, led by Professor Yoshiki Sawa, aims to establish a treatment for patients with serious heart disease by restoring the organ's function. The team's surgery involves putting sheets of heart muscle cells derived from iPS in a patient's heart.

At a news conference on Monday, the team announced that they successfully performed the world's first surgery of its kind this month.

They said the patient had been suffering from ischemic cardiomyopathy and it was difficult for the patient to recover with treatments through internal medicine using drugs.

The latest surgery was done as a clinical trial to develop a new treatment method. The group will verify the method's safety and effectiveness over one year and plans to conduct operations on nine other patients over a three-year period.

Professor Sawa said he hopes the technique will save as many patients as possible. He said he hopes the method will be used for patients who have no options with internal medicine and before they need an artificial heart or a heart transplant.
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The 22nd meeting of the Central Zonal Council, a forum for the Centre and the states to exchange ideas and experiences on issues related to security, industries and power among others, will be held in Chhattisgarh's Raipur city on Tuesday, officials said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will preside over the day-long meeting to be attended by chief ministers and senior officials of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is the vice-chairman of the Central Zonal Council and host of the event. Two ministers, chief secretaries and other senior officers of the state governments will attend the meeting with central government representatives, an official from the Home Ministry said on Monday.

The council takes up issues concerning the Centre and member-states of the zone. The zonal councils are thus an effective platform for the resolution of inter-state disputes as well as irritants between the Centre and member-states.

The zonal councils discuss a broad range of issues which include boundary-related disputes, security, infrastructure-related matters like roads, transport, water, industries and power etc.

Matters pertaining to forests and environment, housing, education, food security, tourism and transport are also expected to be discussed during the meeting, another official said.

The states have been divided into five zones and each zone has its council comprising the chief minister, two ministers and the chief secretary of each state.

The zonal councils are headed by the Union home minister and each zone nominates one chief minister as its vice chairman on rotation basis.

The zonal councils provide a forum where irritants between the Centre and the states, and among the states themselves can be resolved through free and frank discussion and consultations, another official said.

Being advisory bodies, there is full scope for free exchange of views at these meetings.

The meeting of the central zonal council was last held in Lucknow on September 24, 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kolkata, Jan 27 : The West Bengal Assembly on Monday passed a resolution demanding scrapping of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

The resolution, moved by Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee, was backed by the members of the Congress and the Left Front, while the BJP opposed it, at a special session of the House.

Bengal now becomes the fourth state to adopt resolution against the CAA after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan.
The Syrian Arab Army has pushed towards the city of Maarat al-Numan, clearing a number of villages on the way writes SANA.

Units of the Syrian Arab Army have cleared the village of al-Ghadfeh, one of the last hotbeds of terrorists, achieving fresh progress in the direction of Maarat al-Numan in the southern Idleb countryside.

SANAs reporter in Hama said that units of the army continued their operations against terrorist organizations in several directions towards Maarat al-Numan city, making fresh progress by clearing the village of al-Ghadfeh and chasing the remnants of the fleeing terrorists.

The reporter added that the army units engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists in the vicinity of strategic Wadi al-Deif, adjacent to Maarshamsha village liberated by the army units on Saturday evening.

The reporter pointed out that the army units, in parallel with their operations in the direction of al-Maara, confronted an attack by terrorist groups in the direction of al-Samaka village, which was liberated by the army on Saturday, inflicting both personnel and equipment losses upon terrorists.

Over the past two days the towns and villages of Maar Shamareen, Taqana, Talmans, Maarshamsha, al-Samaka, al-Tah, and Deir al-Sharqi in the southern countryside of Idleb were cleared of terrorism after heavy losses were inflicted upon the terrorists.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Moscow will strengthen its contacts with Baku in the near future, the minister of Moscow City Government, head of Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations Sergei Cheremin told Vestnik Kavkaza during the Russian delegation's visit to Azerbaijan.



"I am sincerely glad that our initiative to resume active relations between Moscow and Baku was supported not only by the leadership of the Azerbaijani capital, but also by the leadership of Azerbaijan. Moscow and Baku are historically linked by friendship, excellent political relations and foreign economic relations," he stressed in the first place.

"When the sanctions were announced, Azerbaijan was the first extend a hand of friendship, sharply increasing agricultural supplies to Russia. And this is only one of the small episodes of our common life. It is impossible to divide our culture or our history. We lived an entire era being one country, defending the same values," Sergey Cheremin drew attention.



"Now there's a need to exchange experience in organizing the life of cities, in improving the quality of life of our citizens, in making our cities smart, safe and comfortable for living. We agreed with Baku to develop and sign a cooperation program in the near future, which will cover practically all spheres of municipal relations," the Moscow minister said.

"That is why our proposal to hold the Days of Moscow in Baku is a positive event, which is highly appreciated and supported by the leadership of both Azerbaijan and Baku. We held official meetings with the leadership of the city, with the country's prime minister, with representatives of various ministries interested in cooperation with Moscow," Sergey Cheremin said.



The minister noted that the second phase of the Days of Moscow in Baku, including concerts, exhibitions and an economic forum, will take place in the second half of April.
The federal government says the speculated plan by the U.S. to add Nigeria to its existing list of visa travel ban countries is ill conceived.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this on Monday in London during an interview session with Reuters News Agency.

The minister is in London to officially engage with international media and other think tank.

Mr Mohammed said although the report is speculative, but if it turns out to be true the government will respond comprehensively.

On the issue of the travel ban our position is that it is still speculative because we are yet to be communicated. When we are communicated we will respond comprehensively.

However, in our view it was not well thought out but based largely on negative narratives spread by naysayers.

I know that we are working very well with our neighbours to ensure that terrorism is addressed. We are working with international community including the EU and the U.S.

Our advice to the U.S. is that it should have a rethink on the issue because any travel ban is bound to affect investment and growth in the country and those who will be affected are the most vulnerable people in Nigeria, he said.

It was recently reported that the Donald Trump administration planned to add Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania to its existing list of U.S. visa travel ban countries.

READ ALSO:

Speaking on the border closure, the minister told Reuters that Nigeria took the hard decision because the neighbours, notably Benin Republic and Niger Republic, failed to respect the ECOWAS Treaty on Transit of Goods.

Not only that they are sabotaging the economy of the country but also the security of the nation was being threatened.

Under the guise of smuggling rice, a lot of small arms and light weapons are being smuggled into the country, he said.

Mr Mohammed said the border drill had been positive and successful in terms of revenue, securing the nation and boosting the capacity of the farmers.

On the date to end the closure, he said the government was awaiting the outcome and recommendations of the committee that was set up to look into the issue.

The minister also said that measuring the successes recorded in the fight against terrorism in the North-East region must go beyond the military.

He said that the fight against insurgency in the region had been largely successful in the area of economy and social activities.

Specifically, he said Monday markets in Maiduguri and the popular Baga fish market which respectively contributed a lot to the economy of the state had remained open.

He added that schools had remained open in the state since the administration came into power while social activities had come back to live.

(NAN)
Last year, a new crop of legislators swept into Albany. Young and eager, inspired by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and empowered by the dissolution of the state Senate Independent Democratic Conference, they helped bring about a wave of far-reaching reforms.

But it would be a mistake not to acknowledge that todays buzzy young stars are standing on the shoulders of giants  the leaders who broke barriers, set the stage and made our city and state the greatest in America.

This is the fifth year weve partnered with AARP to honor 50 of these leaders  some widely known and others who became influential behind the scenes. We also highlight the work of 10 Lifetime Achievement award winners, such as David Paterson and H. Carl McCall, who both paved the way for a whole generation of elected leaders of color.

Here are the 2020 50 Over 50  an inspiration to anyone who wants to make a difference in New York.

Tom Allon

City & State President and Publisher

Preet Bharara

Distinguished Scholar in Residence, New York University School of Law

Guerin Blask

During the past few weeks, Preet Bharara has spent a lot of airtime discussing the impeachment of President Donald Trump with other legal experts on his popular podcast, Stay Tuned With Preet. He says the impeachment process has piqued peoples curiosity about the legal system.

I think theres a much greater interest than before in hearing from people whove done this work, Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, tells the Detroit Free Press. I think thats why these voices have become more important than weve ever seen.

During his tenure at the U.S. Attorneys Office  which ended in 2017 when Trump fired him shortly after being inaugurated  Bharara was dubbed the Sheriff of Wall Street for his aggressive prosecution of white-collar criminals. He also secured convictions against high-profile officials like former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. He looks back on that time in his book, Doing Justice: A Prosecutors Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law.

Part of your job, especially as the leader of the office, is to figure out new and lawful ways to keep people safe and to give people their money back and to hold people who violated their oaths of office accountable, Bharara tells The New York Times in a Q&A about the book last year. Theres nothing more exhilarating than that.

He has been a scholar in residence at the New York University School of Law since April 2017.

Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez

Commissioner, New York City Department for the Aging

Guerin Blask

Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez is a seasoned public servant who has held key positions in the Assembly and in the administration of then-Gov. David Paterson. But she says one of her most important career moves was taking a hiatus from government work. She advises early-career civil servants to do the same.

Get out for a while because you start believing your own methods, says Cortes-Vazquez, who took over in April as commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging. Youll come back a better, stronger government servant.

Cortes-Vazquez is speaking from experience. After serving as chief of staff to then-Assemblyman Roberto Ramirez, she spent six years in the nonprofit world, as president of the Hispanic Federation, and then joined Cablevision as its vice president of government and public affairs.

Now Cortes-Vazquez is working to ensure the city is prepared to meet the needs of its rapidly aging population (the number of residents age 60 or older is expected to surpass 1.8 million by 2030), a task made even more challenging by the current slate of services that were designed decades ago. Meanwhile, the aging population has changed: More people are retiring later, living longer after retirement, and choosing to stay in their homes rather than move to assisted living.

People are working well into their 70s, some into their 80s, Cortes-Vazquez says. It is a matter of reshaping, redesigning and recreating what has been the mindset of what is an aging service network.

Ronnie Eldridge

Host, Eldridge & Co.," CUNY TV

Guerin Blask

Politics has been part of Ronnie Eldridges life pretty much from the moment she was born  on the birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite a resume peppered with some of the biggest names in New Yorks political history, she insists she didnt plan to embark on a political career after graduating from college in 1952 with a degree in government.

It was a whole different generation. I was a housewife, Eldridge remembers. When I graduated from Barnard, it was  What are you going to do? Youre going to work for a little while, then you get married.

Eldridge spent nine years working as a research assistant at CBS. She really wanted to work in the news business, she says, but they didnt really hire women. In the 1960s, she joined her local Democratic club, where she volunteered as a district leader during the reform movement, eventually working on Robert F. Kennedys 1968 presidential campaign. She went on to work as a special assistant to New York City Mayor John Lindsay and later served in Gov. Mario Cuomos Cabinet and as a longtime member of the New York City Council.

As the host of CUNY television show Eldridge & Co., which has been running since 2002, Eldridge brings a local lens to various topics, including politics, community organizing and education.

Its been a very full life and Ive been very lucky, says Eldridge, who was married for decades to the late newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin. And it hasnt been boring.

Ethan Geto

Principal, Geto & de Milly

Guerin Blask

Inspired by his parents commitment to serving the community, Ethan Geto started working on political campaigns when he was in his teens  and in the process he met none other than Eleanor Roosevelt.

She led this group that was spearheading this reform movement to get rid of the old, the corrupt Democratic machines, Geto says. He remembers working alongside the legendary former first lady, campaigning and doing strategy and working to defeat some of the bad actors.

After an early role in the administration of New York City Mayor John Lindsay (as assistant commissioner for the Department of Buildings), in 1969 Geto went to work for another reform movement leader: then-Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams. He stayed on, as press secretary and campaign manager, until Abrams was elected state attorney general in 1978.

In the meantime, other campaigns came calling and Geto answered, taking leave from his job as needed.

In 1977, he went to Florida to help defend a local ordinance that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. Though the law was repealed by voters, We got the gay rights issue on the national political agenda, he says.

Since founding his firm with partner Michele de Milly in 1980, Geto has tackled a variety of projects but focuses on two main practice areas: social services and real estate development.

Its hard for me to get my arms around it, he says of the past 40 years. The nonprofit sector obviously has grown a lot.

David R. Jones

President and CEO, Community Service Society of New York

Guerin Blask

David R. Jones spent an early part of his career going back and forth between working in corporate law  where he logged countless hours handling cases for big-name clients  and political campaigns. It didnt take him long to figure out his true calling.

I loved the law, he says, but I found much more excitement ultimately doing public service.

Jones, who was particularly interested in working on racial equality and civil rights issues, soon left the legal field to work as a special adviser to New York City Mayor Ed Koch, handling issues ranging from urban development to education to immigration reform. Since 1986, he has led the Community Service Society of New Yorks advocacy efforts on behalf of low-income communities. But he still keeps a hand in law overseeing the organizations various legal initiatives, including a recent effort to get peoples records expunged after a certain amount of time so they can go back and get work.

When it comes to career advice for younger generations, Jones says passion is key.

No matter what you put your energies into, unless youre passionate about it, its very hard to sustain the kind of hours that its going to take to do professional work, whether you decide to be a corporate lawyer or a civil rights lawyer, he says. I see the people who are happiest  doing both the for-profit and not-for-profit  are the ones who are deeply passionate about what theyre about.

H. Carl McCall

Former State Comptroller and SUNY Chairman

Guerin Blask

H. Carl McCall may be newly retired  he stepped down from his role as SUNY chairman last year after 50 years in public service  but instead of slowing down, he has already started writing his next chapter. Literally.

The former state senator, state comptroller, ambassador to the United Nations and Port Authority commissioner is working on a memoir looking back on the lessons he learned from mentors who played a role in shaping his career. Hell write about former Rep. Charles Rangel, former Gov. David Paterson and former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, among others.

Theres nothing like lived experience, he says. When someone has actually been through something, they have something valuable to pass on.

Of course, McCall has plenty of experience of his own, and hes excited to start sharing it with students at Hunter College as part of a course that looks at the intersection of education, politics and race. McCall developed the course based on his decades of experience working in education, including at SUNY and in his earlier role as president of the New York City Board of Education.

It will be his first time venturing into the classroom since he taught briefly at a Boston area high school about 60 years ago.

Im particularly looking forward to the engagement with the students and learning from them, McCall says. There are young people today who have thoughts and experiences that are very different from what Ive probably been used to.

Luis Miranda

Founding Partner, MirRam Group

Guerin Blask

When Luis Miranda was a teenager, he started closing his letters with two words that have become his trademark: Siempre, Luis. He wanted to say, Im here always  available if needed, he recalls.

When Miranda, who was born in Puerto Rico, moved to New York City to pursue a doctorate at New York University, he could not have known he was beginning a family tradition that would span three generations. His son, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, and his 18-year-old nephew, Miguel, have both adopted the letter closing.

During his wide-ranging and prolific career, Miranda has served as a special adviser to New York City Mayor Ed Koch, was the founding president of the Hispanic Federation and helped manage the U.S. Senate campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, among many other roles. His life is now the subject of a documentary titled Siempre, Luis, which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. The film follows Miranda as he helps bring Hamilton to Puerto Rico and raises money for hurricane relief, all while running Letitia James successful campaign for state attorney general.

Whats next for Miranda? Hes been spending a lot of time in Florida, working on voter registration campaigns. He is trying to identify Latino populations that have the potential to shape the political future of cities and states outside of New York, he says. Its what I want to dedicate my time to.

Charles John OByrne

Executive Vice President for Policy, Related Companies

Guerin Blask

Ask Charles John OByrne to describe his career and he sums it up in one word: nonlinear. Hes been, among other roles, a human rights lawyer, a Jesuit chaplain, a teaching fellow, a speechwriter to the Democratic leader of the state Senate and secretary to Gov. David Paterson.

I have always been attracted toward organizations and institutions that are mission-driven and support a set of values that resonate with my own values, he says. I also think I find intellectually stimulating environments to be the most attractive  places which respect the importance of serious thinking about challenging issues.

A native of Manhattan and a Columbia graduate, OByrne credits his parents with inspiring him to pursue a wide range of intellectual, social and cultural interests and stressing the importance of work and the duty to be productive members of society. In addition to the varied positions he has held throughout his career, he has been active in many philanthropic organizations, including as a past co-chair (and current executive committee member) of the Hetrick-Martin Institute board of directors.

In his current role at Related Companies, OByrne oversees a range of assignments involving government affairs on the federal, state and local levels, including political strategy on development projects, legislative issues and community relations.

His advice for someone just beginning their career?

Always seek advice and always be open to learning from people who are smarter than you.

David Paterson

Senior Vice President and Special Adviser, Las Vegas Sands

Guerin Blask

When former Gov. David Paterson joined the Moldaver, Paterson, Lee and Chrebet Groups financial asset management team at Stifel Nicolaus after leaving office, he quickly learned a lot about finance.

Within two years I became a director of finances in our firm, says Paterson, who was governor from 2008 to 2010, following Eliot Spitzers resignation. (I) really learned a lot about how the world operates around government and how the private sector views things, and some of the contributions that the private sector makes.

In his current role at Las Vegas Sands, Paterson is pushing lawmakers to expand downstate gambling  a position he finds both challenging and exciting.

For the first time Im on the other side of the table  because I was usually the one listening, he says. You have an idea. You think it can work, but youre going to have to persuade very responsible people  the legislators know their stuff and so do the leaders and the governor  youre going to have to persuade them that this is a good move for the state.

Paterson, who is legally blind, has made history several times during his career  including in 2004, as the first visually impaired person to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

He joined the faculty at Touro College in 2013, where he has taught government and public health courses. He now teaches a class on black-Jewish relations.

Ed Wallace

Co-chairman, Greenberg Traurig

Guerin Blask

When Ed Wallace was working as an attorney at The Legal Aid Society in the 1970s, he had a client whose apartment door had been removed by the landlord. It was a Friday in August, and Wallace knew that trying to resolve the issue only through legal channels would take a long time. How do I help this guy? he recalls thinking.

Wallace looked in the Yellow Pages, bought a door and installed it himself.

I think its better to try to find practical solutions than ideological solutions, he says. Assess the problem and solve the problem.

Wallace, who majored in English at Columbia and once planned to pursue a doctorate in literature, veered toward law instead, on the advice of a mentor. He went on to Fordham School of Law and to The Legal Aid Society, then served in the New York City Council as an at-large member representing Manhattan and then as chief of staff to the council president. Switching to the private sector, he served as a vice president at real estate investment trust Boston Properties for several years before joining Greenberg Traurig.

In recent years, Wallace has worked on securing government approval for high-profile projects, including Columbia Universitys 17-acre expansion into West Harlem, Fordham Universitys new Lincoln Center campus and New York Universitys major expansion into Greenwich Village. They are among his proudest accomplishments.

How does Wallace deal with the inevitable obstacles that are part of the job? Just like hes done throughout his career: He looks for a practical solution.
The government has updated its advice on the deadly coronavirus as the disease starts to spread from China.

At least 17 people people have so far died and 291 people have been infected, while the US has reported its first case after a man in his 30s arrived from China.

North Korea has already placed a ban on foreign tourists to stop the spread of the disease, and the UK government has now updated its guidance.

Public Health England (PHE) confirmed it was monitoring the situation.

The government said control of the virus relies on the prompt identification, appropriate risk assessment, management and isolation of possible and confirmed cases, as well as an investigation and follow up of close contacts to minimise potential onward transmission.

Chinese travellers wear protective masks as they arrive to board trains at Beijing railway station as fears grow over the coronavirus. (Getty)

The Department for Health said: We have been carefully monitoring the situation in Wuhan for some time and are ready to put in place proportionate, precautionary measures.

From today, enhanced monitoring will be in place from all direct flights from Wuhan to the UK. The enhanced monitoring package includes a number of measures that will help to provide advice to travellers if they feel unwell.

People travelling back from Wuhan will be able to speak with Port Health teams on flights who will check for symptoms if they feel unwell, while leaflets about the virus will be available to all passengers.

The Department for Health added: Based on the emerging evidence regarding case numbers, potential sources and human to human transmission, the risk to the UK population has currently been assessed as low. This has been raised from very low due to current evidence on the likelihood of cases being imported into this country.

(PA Graphics)

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said PHE is putting in place new precautions in relation to travellers to the UK from the region of China at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

He told Sky News: There have been some announcements this morning about flights that come direct from the affected region to Heathrow with some additional measures there.

Story continues

At the moment PHE have moved this from very low to low but obviously we want to stay ahead of the issue so we are keeping a very close eye on it.

Initially this is to ensure that when flights come in directly into Heathrow there is a separate area for people to arrive in.

A passenger walks past a notice for passengers from Wuhan, China, displayed near a quarantine station at Narita airport in Japan. (Getty)

Dr Nick Phin, PHE deputy director, previously said: "We have issued advice to the NHS and are keeping the situation under constant review.

"People travelling to Wuhan [in China] should maintain good hand, respiratory and personal hygiene and should avoid visiting animal and bird markets or people who are ill with respiratory symptoms.

"Individuals should seek medical attention if they develop respiratory symptoms within 14 days of visiting Wuhan, either in China or on their return to the UK, informing their health service prior to their attendance about their recent travel to the city.

READ MORE FROM YAHOO NEWS UK:

A 32-year-old British man in Thailand is feared to have contracted the virus after coming down with flu while on holiday on Koh Phi Phi Island.

Ash Shorley was said to have been days from death and remains in a critical condition in hospital.

Yahoo News UK has contacted the Department for Health and Social Care for comment.

Ash Shorely is thought to have contracted the disease while on holiday in Thailand. (GoFundMe)

What is the coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). The strain that has recently emerged is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.

How did it come about?

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Cases have since been identified elsewhere that could have been spread through human-to-human transmission.

An airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, China. (AP)

The human coronavirus causes respiratory infections (colds) and gastroenteritis. (Getty)

How is it spread?

Questions remain about the outbreak's nature and mode of transmission. Chinese government expert Zhong Nanshan revealed on state television that human-to-human transmission had been confirmed. The WHO says some coronaviruses can be transmitted in this way, usually after close contact with an infected person, for example, in a household workplace or healthcare centre.

What are the symptoms?

Initial symptoms of the novel coronavirus include fever, cough, tightness of the chest, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. More severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and death. There are no specific treatments for a new coronavirus but symptoms can be treated.
The body found in a wooded area off Route 9 in Old Bridge on Sunday is believed to be Stephanie Parze, a 25-year-old Freehold Township woman who has been missing since late October, based on preliminary evidence from the scene, a law enforcement source told NJ Advance Media on Monday.

The Middlesex County Prosecutors Office contacted investigators in Monmouth County who have been handling the Parze disappearance about the discovery and an autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning, according to the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case.

The body was found just south of Old Mill Road on the southbound side of the highway around 2:45 p.m, the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said Sunday. Police vehicles remained at the scene on Monday morning.

Soon after the information about the recovery of a body was made public Sunday night, Parzes father Ed posted an image of candles on his Facebook page. The Parze family has been organizing searches in various spots around their Freehold home and in New York on a near-weekly basis. A family spokesperson contacted Sunday night indicated the Parzes were not prepared to make a statement.

Stephanie Parze hasnt been seen by her family since Oct. 30, when she left the familys Route 33 house after a night out in New Brunswick. Stephanie then drove back to her late grandmothers nearby home on Meadowbrook Lane.

The next day, Parze didnt show up to her nannying job. Her car and phone were found at her grandmothers house, but there was no sign of forced entry.

Police identified her ex-boyfriend John Ozbilgen as a person of interest in Parzes disappearance. Ozbilgen, 29, was arrested on a child pornography charge after images were found on Ozbilgens phone as authorities investigated Parzes disappearance, officials said.

Ozbilgen, who was accused of assaulting Parze in August, had fired off 10 angry text messages to her the night before she disappeared, investigators said. No charges related to Parzes disappearance were filed against Ozbilgen and he was ordered released from jail pending trial in November on the child porn charge. Days later, Ozbilgen was found dead in his Freehold home and authorities determined he took his own life.

The numerous community searches for Parze in the months since she went missing included locations in Staten Island, New York as well as in New Jersey. Ozbilgen, previously lived in Staten Island and was a stockbroker there until being fired.

Woods along Elton-Adelphia Rd by Wellesley Way, Freehold Twp., were searched by officials and volunteers in an attempt to find Stephanie Parze who has been missing since October 30, 2019. The search was conducted on Saturday, November 23, 2019.Russ DeSantis | NJ Advance Media

Staff writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this post.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ.

Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
BELOIT, Wis., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Louis Pinkham, Chief Executive Officer of Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE: RBC), announced that the Board of Directors, at its regular quarterly meeting held on January 25, 2020, declared a dividend of $0.30 per share. The dividend is payable on April 9, 2020, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 27, 2020. The company has paid a dividend every quarter since January 1961.

Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE: RBC) is a global leader in the engineering and manufacturing of electric motors and controls, power generation products and power transmission products serving customers throughout the world. We create a better tomorrow by developing and responsibly producing energy-efficient products and systems.

Our company is comprised of three operating segments: Commercial and Industrial Systems, Climate Solutions and Power Transmission Solutions. Regal is headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin and has manufacturing, sales and service facilities worldwide. For more information, visit RegalBeloit.com.

SOURCE Regal Beloit Corporation

Related Links

https://www.regalbeloit.com


Yuma News

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Interstate 8 Immigration Checkpoint thwarted two methamphetamine smuggling attempts valued at more than $345K in two separate events over the weekend.

In the first event at approximately 9:52 a.m. Saturday, a Border Patrol canine working at the primary lane of the checkpoint alerted to an odor it was trained to detect originating from a beige 2003 Honda Civic. Upon further investigation in the secondary inspection area, agents discovered 82 packages of methamphetamine hidden in the gas tank, rear quarter panels and passenger door. The narcotics weighed approximately 94.3 pounds with a street value of more than $216,820.

The male driver, a 28-year-old United States citizen from Yuma, was arrested for the transportation of a controlled substance.

In the second event at approximately 7:40 a.m. Sunday, another Border Patrol canine assigned to the primary inspection lane of the checkpoint positively alerted to an odor it was trained to detect emitting from a silver 2010 Chrysler Sebring with Mexican plates. Agents sent the vehicle to the secondary inspection area and discovered 14 packages of methamphetamine hidden in the gas tank of the vehicle. The narcotics weighed approximately 55.73 pounds with an approximate street value of $128,185.

The female driver, a 25-year-old Mexican national, and her 22-year-old male Mexican national passenger, were arrested for the transportation of a controlled substance. Both individuals had Border Crossing Cards.

Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The grounds and motives of the procedural decision will be known after receiving a copy of the disposition

Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) has delayed the investigation into the case of Ukrainian sailors seized off the Crimean coast in 2018, who were released as part of a prisoner exchange that took place last September. This was reported by Russian lawyer Nikolai Polozov on his Facebook page.

"Today, the investigator of the FSB's Investigative Office announced a procedural decision to delay the preliminary investigation into the case of Ukrainian navy sailors. The reasons and motives of the procedural decision will be known after receiving a copy of the disposition," he wrote.

As we reported earlier, Nikolai Polozov, the lawyer of Ukrainian sailors, was concerned that Russia would put his clients on the wanted list, as Krym.Realii informed.

There is a very real danger that the Russian authorities may put the sailors on the wanted list if they will not appear on the summon of the prosecutor or to the court, he said.

Polozov reminded that the sailors stayed as accused in Russia and their case was at the stage of the familiarization with the materials by the defense.
[January 27, 2020] Jubilant Radiopharma Receives Approval from Health Canada for Drax Exametazime

YARDLEY, Pa., Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jubilant Radiopharma, the Radiopharmaceutical Division of Jubilant Pharma Ltd , announced today that the company received approval from Health Canada for Drax Exametazine (Kit for the Preparation of Tc99m Exametazime for leukocyte labeling). Leukocyte labeling scintigraphy is a nuclear medicine imaging procedure that helps physicians localize an intra-abdominal infection and inflammatory bowel disease.

We are very pleased that Drax Exametazine is now available to patients in Canada, stated Pramod Yadav, CEO of Jubilant Pharma, Ltd. This approval aligns with our core strategy of providing our customers with innovative and differentiated nuclear medicine products used for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Drax Exametazime, which is currently approved in the United States, is a radiopharmaceutical used in nuclear medicine (a medical imaging specialty) to help doctors locate infection in a patient when a source of the infection cannot be accurately identified. Identifying the source of the infection is imperative for the proper diagnosis and characterization of disease and a crucial first step in defining a treatment plan for the patient. The Health Canada approval furthr demonstrates the continued commitment by the Jubilant Radiopharma business to advance the field of nuclear medicine and supports our ongoing mission to improve lives through nuclear medicine, commented Sergio Calvo, President of Jubilant Radiopharmaceuticals Division. We remain committed to providing healthcare professionals with the highest quality radiopharmaceuticals and dependable advanced technologies designed to enable better patient outcomes across the globe.



ABOUT JUBILANT RADIOPHARMA Jubilant Radiopharma, Radiopharmaceutical Division of Jubilant Pharma Ltd., is an industry-leading radiopharmaceutical business focused on developing, manufacturing, commercializing and distributing high quality and sustainable diagnostic and therapeutic agents for the sole purpose of Improving Lives through Nuclear Medicine on a global scale. For more information, click here website

ABOUT JUBILANT PHARMA LIMITED Jubilant Pharma Limited (JPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jubilant Life Sciences Limited, is an integrated global Pharmaceutical company engaged in manufacturing and supply of APIs, Solid Dosage Formulations, Radiopharmaceuticals, Allergy Therapy Products and Contract Manufacturing of Sterile Injectables and Non-sterile products through 5 USFDA approved manufacturing facilities in the US, Canada and India and a network of over 50 radio-pharmacies in the US. The Company has a team of over 4,300 multicultural people across the globe and is committed to delivering value to its customers spread across over 75 countries. It is well recognized as a 'Partner of Choice' by leading pharmaceutical companies globally. For more information, visit www.jubilantpharma.com Contact: Investor or Media: Mary Coleman

Jubilant Pharma, Ltd

[email protected]

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The ruling Nepal Communist Party's lawmaker Agni Prasad Sapkota took oath of the office and secrecy on Monday.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to newly elected Speaker of House of Representatives at President's Office as per the Nepali constitution.

Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and National Assembly chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina were present in the ceremony.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokhrel, former Prime Minister and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', ministers, lawmakers, and officials from the constitutional bodies were also present on the occasion.

Sapkota was elected to the post on Sunday unanimously after his candidacy remained uncontested.

Meanwhile, Human rights activists had staged sit-in protest in front of the President's office opposing swearing-in of the newly elected House Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota.

As the demonstration started police intervened and have arrested 12 activists from the spot.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Florida lawmakers are considering a number of insurance-focused issues over the course of the 60-day 2020 Legislative Session that started Jan. 14. At the top of the list for industry and consumer advocates are reforms to curb what they say are abuses of the states legal system that are hurting insurers bottom line.

The issue is of particular importance to industry stakeholders in light of recent news about financial issues in the states insurance market.

In 2019, the insurance industry scored a big win with the passage of property insurance reforms addressing the abuse of a policyholder benefit known as assignment of benefits (AOB) after seven years of failed attempts. While the reforms have already begun to curb the abuse that experts said was causing an insurance market crisis, its effects in the short term havent yet reached the balance sheets of Florida carriers who are still dealing with past inflated claims.

In his State of the State address to the Florida Legislature at the start of the session, Governor Ron DeSantis thanked lawmakers for passing AOB reform and said the legislation has already led to lower rates for 44,000 policyholders of the state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. He urged Florida lawmakers to target other lawsuit abuses.

The legal system is supposed to be used for redressing concrete injuries and disputes, DeSantis said. It is not a game and shouldnt be used as such. Reforms such as AOB that improve the legal climate here in Florida are welcome.

William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, praised the governors remarks.

As Governor DeSantis said, Floridas legal system is supposed to address real injuries and disputes, not to be used as a game. Those games clog the courts and frustrate Floridas growth, he said.

The explosion of AOB claims over the last several years and other market forces, including excessive litigation and losses from Hurricanes Irma and Michael, have created a hazardous financial environment for many insurers, according to Demotech, which rates 46 Florida-based carriers. As a result, Demotech said in early January that many of Floridas domestic insurance carriers face rating downgrades. Anchor Property & Casualty and Anchor Specialty were the first recipients. Both companies announced they would be acquired as a result.

Industry advocates and consumer groups are urging the Florida Legislature to pass legislation this year that would help the states private market, including reforms to the excessive litigation.

Market factors such as Floridas crumbling legal environment and lawsuit abuse have had significant consequences in the insurance marketplace and made it challenging for companies to maintain A ratings, said Logan McFaddin, vice president of state government relations for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA). The Florida Legislature needs to implement meaningful reforms during the 2020 Legislative Session that reduce lawsuit abuse and restore fairness to Floridas legal system. APCIA looks forward to working with lawmakers during the upcoming session to address these critical issues.

Paul Handerhan, president of the Federal Association for Insurance Reform (FAIR), said two bills have been introduced, both sponsored by Senator Jeff Brandes, that would target first party litigation abuses. Senate Bill 914 would provide that for certain attorney fees awarded for claims arising under property insurance policies, the maximum fee a court may award is a lodestar fee and prohibit the court from considering contingency risk or using a contingency risk multiplier.

The other bill, SB 1634, would revise requirements for the civil remedy notice provided to insurers and the Department of Financial Services; delete a requirement for certain persons acting on behalf of an insurer to provide certain notice before scheduling a meeting or onsite inspection for certain purposes; and require named insureds to provide insurers with a specified notice as a condition precedent to filing suit under a property insurance policy.

Brandes, who is a member of the Florida Senate Banking & Insurance Committee, also sponsored SB 924 which would target civil actions against insurers. That bill provides that in third-party bad faith actions against insurers, insureds and claimants have the burden to prove that an insurer acted in reckless disregard for insured rights which resulted in damage to the insured or the claimant, according to the bill summary. It also would require in these claims that insured or claimant actions or inactions are relevant in bad faith actions; provide that an insurer is not liable if certain conditions are met; and provide that an insurer is not liable beyond available policy limits as to certain competing third-party claims if it files an inter-pleader action within a certain time frame.

APCIAs McFaddin said bad faith reform in Florida is a top legislative priority for the association this year.

Consumers rights to seek legal action will remain protected, but it is past time to implement reforms that will reduce lawsuit abuse, curb frivolous tactics, and begin to restore fairness to Floridas legal system.

The APCIA and other industry and consumer advocates will also focus on reform for auto glass claims abuse. This scheme also uses AOBs but instead targets windshield claims. According to a November report from the Florida Justice Reform Institute, there were 17,000 auto glass suits in 2017, up from about 400 in 2006. The number of suits peaked in 2017 with 24,000.

Last year, auto glass was removed during negotiations from the AOB reform bill that passed.

For this session, the industry backed a House bill that would have called for prohibiting motor vehicle repair shops and employees from offering anything of value to customers in exchange for making insurance claims for motor vehicle glass replacement and repair, but its sponsor withdrew it (HB 169). A Senate version (SB 312) was voted down. McFaddin says the industry will keep pushing for legislation to be passed this session, but as of press time, no bills had been introduced.

The Governor and Florida Legislature took steps last session to protect homeowners from AOB property scams, and now lawmakers have an opportunity to bring similar protections to Florida motorists, continued McFaddin. APCIA urges Florida lawmakers to put a stop to AOB auto glass abuse during the 2020 Legislative Session.

FAIR is also hoping to see legislation regarding the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Funds ratemaking formula, which it says does not adhere to required standards because its underlying catastrophe model results are unidentified and there is no way for peer review or audit of the FHCFs Ratemaking Formula Report.

The FHCF takes in nearly $100 million in premium a month from policyholders, FAIR said in a statement. Shouldnt Floridians have the right to know exactly how the FHFC rate is calculated?

FAIR said it is asking state regulators and legislators to develop and pass balanced and meaningful reforms to provide relief to Floridas policyholders.

Topics Lawsuits Carriers Legislation Auto Florida Claims Property Market
Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia on Monday accused the Congress of spreading anarchy and misleading youths through anti-CAA rallies under the leadership of party leader Rahul Gandhi.

Poonia made the remarks a day ahead of Gandhi's 'Yuva Aakrosh' rally in the Rajasthan capital.

"An agenda has been set to spread confusion in the country and to mislead people of the country without any reason. Congress party has made youths a medium to spread unrest and anarchy in the country under the leadership of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi," Poonia told reporters here.

"Rahul Gandhi is coming to Jaipur and I welcome him because BJP gets benefit wherever he goes," he said.

He claimed that the Congress government in the state passed a resolution against the CAA to please Gandhi.

Poonia accused the Congress of not fulfilling its promises of waiving off loans of farmers and giving unemployment allowances to youths and said the government machinery was being misused for the proposed rally.

During the rally, Gandhi should answer on the rising crime graph in the state and the promises made to farmers and unemployed youths, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Accidents never come with a warning and create havoc in our lives. You suffered from an accident, too bad, but now you want to recover your claim. You are planning on going court yourself, bad move, you will probably lose your case. I have faced a similar situation in Manassas and, what did I do? I hired a personal injury lawyer, and you deserve an advocate too, let me tell you why?

You can go on trial for yourself but can't win a case against a professional defence attorney, whereas your lawyer has years of experience in talking with the jury.

Imagine the difference between the research report prepared by you and the one that is made by your attorney.

Lawyers can help build your claim quickly.

Most of the lawyers do not charge a fee if you don't win the case also settlements are higher with an attorney, what's there to lose.

There is a long list of benefits with a personal injury lawyer, if you are in an accident situation or if you ever be in one, always seek a professional for the best advice.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In 2014, Yahya Jammeh shocked even his strongest critics when he said, in wolof, dekabi mako mum  I own this country. Gambias former leader also made religious pronouncements. He would tell Christians that the Bible bars eating pork. He would tell Muslims which day they should observe their religious fests.

One person who paid dearly for opposing Jammehs religious mis-teachings, as he sees it, is Imam Baba Leigh. Imam Baba Leigh is a controversial Gambian cleric. He is considered an ally to Gambias so-called progressive camp. He openly criticizes the practice of female genital mutilation. His views of the world and the religion often put him in opposite terrain to where the countrys Muslim leaders sit, the Supreme Islamic Council, which was established in 1992 and was composed of Saudi-trained clerics who allied with the former president.

Leigh and Jammeh did not see eye to eye on lots of issues but in December 2012 this would peak when Jammeh had death row prisoners executed and justified his order on religious grounds. Jammeh made his announcement at a meeting with Muslim leaders on Eid-al-Fitr, the day marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. All those guilty of serious crimes and condemned will face the full force of the law, Jammeh said in the 2012 meeting. By the middle of next month, all the death sentences would have been carried out to the letter. A few days later, Jammeh ordered the execution of nine death row inmates.

Opposing executions under the guise of religion

Since the rule of the British colonialist in the Gambia, it has become a tradition for Muslim elders, from mainly the capital Banjul, to visit the State House on Eid-al-Fitr. This gives the Muslim leaders the opportunity to meet ministers and the President to discuss issues of mutual concern. Under Jammeh, this had become a platform for vitriolic attacks on opponents or for religious pronouncements.

Last year, some Junglers  a group of hitmen under the orders of Jammeh  testified before Gambias Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) that after the death row inmates were executed, they were thrown into a well. Some died by suffocation in transportation vehicles as they were driven to the firing range. The people killed on that day were not even returned to their relatives.

It was wrong, said Imam Baba Leigh  who now serves as a commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission  on January 22 before the TRRC. You cannot kill people in the name of Shariah [Islamic law] if they were not prosecuted under Islamic jurisprudence.

Back in 2012, Leigh took his disagreement with Jammeh and his Supreme Islamic Council to the pulpit and the local newspapers. He took the issue to his Friday sermons. And he gave interviews to The Standard and The Daily News. Jammeh felted tested by Leighs actions. Leigh got warnings from close friends to lay low or leave the country. It would not take long before he was arrested and the two newspapers were ordered to shut down operations. While in detention, state agents told me that if I wanted to get my freedom, I should say that I was misquoted by The Standard but I refused, said Leigh.

Secret detention, torture in the name of Allah

At the time, the government refused to acknowledge the arrest of the cleric. Leigh was taken to the National Intelligence Agency where he was severely beaten. Omar Jallow, a Jungler who confessed to participating in the killing of 48 people, admitted last year before the TRRC that he had tortured Leigh. They beat me, kicked me and even off cigarettes on my body. They beat me until I fainted, confirmed the imam. I was stripped naked. I sustained injuries on my back and there was no medical facility for treatment.

In addition to a nine-day continuous torture in detention, Leigh was detained incommunicado at Mile 2 prison for more than five months before he was placed before the state broadcaster to publicly blame himself for his detention. In a televised plea, the secretary general of the government and religious leaders told Leigh that it was not Jammeh who arrested him and that his ordeal was ordained by Allah.

Humiliations in the moonlight

Imam Baba Leigh was not the only cleric who paid a hefty price for disagreeing with Jammeh.

On July 27, 2014 the presidents favored Supreme Islamic Council declared the following day as Eid-al-Fitr. The next day, Jammeh and his Council prayed. But a large section of the population and their clerics refused to pray. They considered that they needed to sight the moon before they ended their fasting while the Council relied on Saudi Arabia for moon sighting. Gambian scholars are heavily divided on the issue as to whether the country can fast on the moon sighting of Arabia. For Jammeh, there was no debate about it. All those who did not pray today, they will not pray tomorrow. I own this country, he declared on July 28 2014 in a meeting with the religious clerics who conferred on him the title of leader of the people of faith. The following day intelligence officers were dispatched to various mosques and places.

Sheikh Muhideen Hydara, a venerable Muslim cleric who was then in his late 80s, was a prominent voice in opposition to praying on a day imposed by Jammeh. The Hydaras are a revered clan of Muslims in West Africa. They are believed to be direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad. That didnt protect him. Sheikh Muhideen Hydara was arrested and humiliated for not observing the end of Ramadan on the day proclaimed by Jammeh and his Islamic Council. He was eventually set free by a court in May 2015. In fact, the charges against him  disobeying the lawful orders made by Yahya Jammeh on the observations of Eid Prayers  could not stick. The court said Hydara broke no law in the Gambia. He was acquitted and discharged.

The Supreme Islamic Council under siege

Sheikh Muhideen Hydara died in early 2019. Before the TRRC his eldest son Abass Muhideen Hydara said his fathers humiliation and illegal arrest have contributed to his death.

Another cleric who fell victim to the collusion between the Council and Jammeh was Imam Ba Kawsu, a fearless critic of both Jammeh and the Council, and a traditionalist. Kawsu, who owned a Quranic memorization school, was arrested several times by state agents, leading to the closing down of his school. In 2012, he was arrested and held incommunicado for nine days during which he was reportedly tortured. He then fled the country for Casamance, in the south of Senegal, where he lived until 2015 when he was allowed to return.

Just like Kawsu blamed the Supreme Council for his arrest, Abass Hydara also blamed the Council for his fathers arrest and humiliation. Imam Abdoulie Fatty [the Councils secretary general to date] has told my father that he was the one who ordered his arrest, testified Abass. The son of the late Sheikh Muhideen Hydara thinks the Council should be renamed, like the countrys infamous National Intelligence Agency was renamed State Intelligence Services after the end of the dictatorship.

The struggle over the control of the Supreme Islamic Council between the moderates, the traditionalists and the Saudi-trained clerics is not over.
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unsavory accusations, threatening private messages, and even revenge porn. When conflict in divorce runs high, angry spouses may be tempted to use Facebook and other social media as a tool of retaliation. But when inflammatory posts cross the line into cyber harassment, what are the legal consequences?

Family Law Expert, Bari Z. Weinberger, Esq.

In a recent feature article for the New Jersey Law Journal, "Targeted Harassment or Just Venting Among Friends? Unraveling Social Media Tort Claims in Divorce," Bari Z. Weinberger, founder of Weinberger Divorce & Family Law Group, analyzed criminal and civil repercussions for bad social media behavior in divorce. According to her findings, finding justice for victims of cyber harassment is still very much a work in progress.

"In 2020 it may feel like Facebook and Twitter have been around forever. Looked at through a legal lens, however, and it's clear that laws protecting individuals from cyber harassment and revenge porn are still very much new and evolving," Weinberger wrote.

Are current legal remedies tough enough? "The good news: When vindictive actions on social media rise to the level of criminal behavior, New Jersey has some of the strictest laws on the books. The not-so good news: Civil remedies related to a spouse's bad behavior on social media, including proving damages in related marital tort claims, continue to tread in uncertain waters."

To understand the legal fallout, Weinberger described a scenario in which an angered husband began posting expletive-filled rants on Facebook detailing his wife's drug use, infidelity and unfitness to parent. The rage-filled husband went so far as to post nude photos of the wife, photoshopped with the word "slut". The wife also received a string of ominous private messages stating that he was watching her every movement.

"Legally, what can happen here?" Weinberger asked, noting that the example could have just as well been a vindictive wife doing the posting.

"In New Jersey, actions such as creating offensive posts or tweets, sending disturbing messages, or posting private content online may not be brushed away as just 'venting.' In the scenario described above, it is possible that four crimes could be prosecuted against the husband: harassment, cyber-harassment, stalking, and criminal invasion of privacy," she relayed.

In NJ, each crime could result in fines and/or jail time, and form the basis for a domestic violence restraining order.

In these types of matters, targeted spouses can also a file civil claim called a "marital tort" to recoup monetary damages related to their spouse's injurious actions. Possible civil claims related to social media harassment could include: intentional infliction of emotional distress; defamation (libel); a privacy claim known as "false light"; and invasion of privacy with photographs, films or videotapes.

Unlike the clear-cut nature of New Jersey's criminal laws, Weinberger's analysis revealed that proving a civil marital tort claim still falls into a gray area. "Currently, there is an extremely high threshold for showing that social media posting inflicted emotional distressthe damaging behavior needs to 'go beyond all possible bounds of decency,' which is subjective and open to interpretation. More clarity is needed here."

Until then, Weinberger concluded, "Divorcing spouses may want to establish a social media agreement that spells out what is acceptable to post, and what happens when posts and Tweets cross the line."

As the saying goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

About Bari Z. Weinberger, Esq.

Family law expert, Bari Z. Weinberger, is the managing partner of Weinberger Divorce & Family Law Group. Ms. Weinberger is also a published author and frequent media contributor on divorce and family law for local and national audiences.

Media Contact:

Bari Weinberger

888-888-0919

[email protected]

SOURCE Bari Z. Weinberger, Esq

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1995  25 years ago

In one of the most important vote in years, the House approved a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget by 2002, a measure that would force a radical reshaping and shrinking of the federal government. The amendment goes to the Senate, where its fate is in doubt.

Jack Noenning, hired as Rochesters 26th school superintendent, will start his new position this week. He has 27 years of experience as a teacher and administrator.

1970  50 years ago

Kris Tymeson was crowned as Rochester State Junior Colleges Sno Queen at Heritage Hall in the Kahler Center. Other Sno Week activities include an ugly man contest, beard contest, and a snow fort competition.

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Some 21 million workers will get a raise as the federal minimum wage will increase from $1.30 per hour to $1.45 per hour.

Most of a crowd of about 470 Dodge Center residents voiced opposition to the proposed Dodge Center-Hayfield consolidation at a meeting sponsored by the Citizens Information Committee, a group of residents opposed to the merger.

1945  75 years ago

The current most popular non-fiction book at the Rochester Public Library is a collection of stories of miracles of the commonplace and is entitled, "Pause to Wonder." The book includes a number of noted writers.

Seniors of the Rochester High School viewed a film provided by the war department at the senior class meeting. The senior prom will be held on April 13, and the farewell dance will be conducted on commencement night.

Registrations for the fall term of the Rochester nursery schools is underway for children between two and a half and five years of age. There are currently two nursery schools.

1920  100 years ago

Wanted: Men for railway mail clerks  pay is $110 per month. No experience necessary.

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Wanted: Man and wife to work for two sisters. General housework in private home. Good wages. Call at residence 612 Tenth Avenue SW.

Wanted: A second cook, dish-wiper, and cooks helper. Apply at Worrell Hospital.
It was recently announced that Bollywood celebrities Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar, Adnan Sami, and Ekta Kapoor have been conferred with the Padma Shri award. However, actress Kangana Ranaut being awarded the State honour has not gone down well with the fans of Century Star Shivarajkumar.

They are of the opinion that the senior superstar of Sandalwood deserved the award before Kangana as he has been a part of the movie industry for a longer period of time. They have also accused the government of discrimination against the Kannada film industry.

A fan club called Dr. Shivarajkumar Yuva Sene group is furious with the Padma Shri snub for the lifetime contribution of an artist like Shivarajkumar. They even requested the fans of all the Kannada actors to band together and raise their voice against the step-motherly treatment meted out to southern actors.

A fan tweeted and reminded everyone that Shivarajkumar has acted for more than 35 years and in over 120 movies whereas Bollywood actress Kangana has a filmography of around 30 odd films. He questioned and wondered on what basis was Shivanna deprived of the Padma honour.

In other related news, director Simple Suni also took to social media to express his displeasure over not giving the award to veteran actor Anant Nag who has been part of the industry for many debates.

The voices of dissent are only growing by the hour. Fans from all over the state have gone online to call out the Central government whist also requesting them to end such discrimination. They want all artists irrespective of language and medium to be treated equally. They also hope to see Shivarajkumar and other talented Kannada film actors being bestowed with the prestigious state honour next year.

ALSO READ: Kangana Ranaut On Karan Johar's Padma Shri Honour: 'He Totally Deserves This Award'

ALSO READ: Padma Shri: Rangoli Chandel Mocks Alia Bhatt For Sending Flowers To Kangana Ranaut
By Trend

Baku should focus UNESCOs attention on the issue of armenization of Azerbaijans historical and cultural monuments, Director of the Caucasus History Center, well-known Azerbaijani historian scholar Rizvan Huseynov told Trend.

Huseynov was commenting on the illegal actions of the Armenian authorities and the illegal regime in Nagorno Karabakh under the guise of reconstruction in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

It is necessary to study and use all leverage that UNESCO can apply in this matter, given the fact of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, said the director.

Unfortunately, so far there has been no precedent for any processes conducted by the occupying regime of Nagorno-Karabakh to be stopped in the occupied lands, Huseynov noted. That is, neither UNESCO nor other structures have interfered to suppress the facts of falsification of Azerbaijans historical architectural heritage by Armenia under the guise of restoration. Accordingly, one cannot count on concrete steps besides attracting the attention of the world community to UNESCO.

The director added that the falsification process carried out by the Armenian side can be stopped only by liberating the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

Recent statement by the Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region reads that Armenian authorities and the illegal regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have been recently conducting the armenization policy under the cover of reconstructing Azerbaijans historical and cultural monuments on the occupied territories.

The puppet regime having rehabilitated the Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque in Shusha city considered an architectural pearl of Nagorno Karabakh and naming it as the Persian cultural center some time ago, currently is going to rehabilitate Shusha fortress founded by Panah Ali Khan Javanshir, the builder of Karabakh Khanate in the 18th century, reads the statement. According to the information disseminated by mass media, it is not ruled out that in the future the same vandalism will be applied to the historical monuments in Aghdere and Lachin districts.

It is well known that thousands of our cultural, historical and religious monuments on Azerbaijans occupied territories have become victims of Armenian aggression, the Azerbaijani community said. Some part of these monuments has been completely erased from the earth, and the remaining monuments have been brought into unfit condition.

Along with occupying our lands, exposing our people to genocide and displacing thousands of people from their native land, Armenia also destroys our historical monuments, the statement said. Armenia hypocritically calls these processes repair and rehabilitation work in order to erase this stain from itself.

Not only us, but also international organizations should think of the outrageous purposes of Armenia under the cover of rehabilitation of these monuments, as spread of this tendency jeopardizes cultural-historical heritage of the world, reads the statement.

All the monuments, situated in occupied territories, were erected by our forefathers, they bear handprints of our ancestors, the Azerbaijani community said. Vitalization of these monuments, which were inherited for us, will be one of our main duties after the return of the Azerbaijani lands.

All these along with being in contradiction with the obligations undertaken by Armenia to UNESCO, are also the manifestation of this countrys hypocrite trait and the attempt to deceive the international community and to give a cultural and civil veneer to its vandalism actions, the statement said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Hezbollah commander Jaafar al-Sadek Harb has been buried in southern Lebanon, after being killing in an attack in Idleb reports Zaman al-Wasl.

A funeral ceremony was held in southern Lebanon for a Hezbollah field commander Friday, the Iran-backed group announced.

Jaafar al-Sadek Harb was killed on the outskirts of Idleb on Thursday, according to a Hezbollah source.

A statement from the group said that Hezbollah and the residents of Harouf held a ceremony to honor the death of Jaafar al-Sadek Harb, who died while carrying out his holy duty.

Regime-run media and opposition activists said rebels had launched a major attack on regime forces in Idleb on Thursday that Russias defence ministry said killed up to 40 regime soldiers and allied militants.

Russias defence ministry said that jihadists had seized two settlements in one of the offensives, which began on Wednesday, forcing regime troops to abandon some of their positions in the southeast of the so-called de-escalation zone under rocket fire.

Rebels and jihadists have killed more than 130,000 regime forces and allied Shiite militiants since the armed conflict erupted eight years ago with the brutal repression of protests against Assad, according to local monitoring groups.

All of the Shiite militias are working under the command of the Quds Force, which are responsible for the extraterritorial operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
A Phase 1 clinical trial testing the safety and effectiveness of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against malaria has begun enrolling healthy adult volunteers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The trial, sponsored by NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is the first to test mAb CIS43LS in humans. It aims to enroll up to 73 volunteers aged 18 through 50 years old who have never had malaria. After receiving mAb CIS43LS, most of the volunteers will be exposed to malaria parasite-carrying mosquitoes under carefully controlled conditions at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda to assess the ability of the mAb to confer protection from malaria infection.

If proven safe and effective in this study and in larger trials, this monoclonal antibody might be used prophylactically by tourists, medical workers or military personnel who travel to areas where malaria is common. In the absence of a highly effective, long-lasting vaccine, preventing malaria infections for several months with a single dose of monoclonal antibody also could be valuable in specific parts of Africa where malaria cases increase greatly during annual rainy seasons. NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

Several years ago, Robert Seder, M.D., and colleagues at NIAID's Vaccine Research Center (VRC) isolated an antibody (CIS43) from the blood of a volunteer who had received an investigational vaccine made from whole, weakened malaria parasites. When tested in two different mouse models of malaria infection, CIS43 was highly effective at preventing infection by the deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, the team reported in 2018. Modifications to CIS43 yielded mAb CIS43LS, which lasts longer in the blood than the original antibody. CIS43LS was manufactured for clinical use by the VRC's investigational product Vaccine Production Program and the NIAID-funded Vaccine Clinical Material Program of Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., under a contract to the National Cancer Institute's Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.

In the new trial, one group of volunteers will receive a single dose of CIS43LS at 5 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight as an injection under the skin. Patients in other groups will receive a single dose of the mAb intravenously at one of a series of escalating dosages (5, 20, or 40 mg/kg of body weight.)

Most of the study volunteers will then take part in a controlled human malaria infection, which will occur between 10 days and 10 weeks after CIS43LS administration. Volunteers will be exposed via mosquito bites to a strain of malaria parasite (P. falciparum 3D7) that is readily curable with two standard anti-malarial medications. Close and frequent monitoring of volunteers after challenge will include use of the most sensitive test for detection of early malaria infection, so that drug therapy can begin promptly and continue until the infection is cured in any volunteers who become infected. Infection may be detected and treated even before symptoms occur. Volunteers who do not develop infection will nevertheless receive a short course of anti-malarial medication 28 days after the challenge.
Queen Elizabeth II has started to unload her schedules since last year. However, as she prepares to pass down the throne to Prince Charles soon, she has also began training Prince William by giving him a new title.

The Kensington Palace took to Twitter to announce the news, saying "The Queen has appointed Prince William as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the @churchscotland this year."





Find out more here  The Queen has appointed Prince William as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the @churchscotland this year.Find out more here  https://t.co/YaPU7FjUYU  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) January 25, 2020

Appointing someone to be the Lord High Commissioner has been a long-existing tradition in the royal family.

Since the 16th century, the monarch chooses someone for the position to lead the Church of Scotland's Sovereign General Assembly and maintain the church.

The duty was also included in the 1707 Act of Union signed by England and Scotland, which states that "they have to preserve the settlement of the true Protestant religion as established by the laws made in Scotland."

For Britain's current head of the nation, Queen Elizabeth II pledged to the aforementioned act during the first Privy Council meeting under her leadership in Feb. 1952.

For The Future King

Amid the news about stripping off the HRH titles of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, royal watchers saw the Queen's move to give Prince William a new title as her way to "to prepare the Future King."

According to Daily Express royal correspondent Richard Palmer, the new honorary appointment is a usual thing someone can receive from the Queen. However, he believed that the position also came with "important undertones."

"An honorary appointment but further preparations for a future King: the Queen has approved the appointment of the Duke of Cambridge as Her Majesty's Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2020," Palmer said on Twitter.

Though Prince Charles is currently the heir to the throne and Prince William the next in line after him, many royal watchers wanted to skip the Prince of Wales instead and let his son do the job.

Prince Charles vs. Prince William: Who Won?

Express.co.uk conducted a survey and found out that people want Prince Charles to give way and allow Prince William to be the next King instead after Queen Elizabeth II.

The result of the survey unveiled that more people favored the Duke of Cambridge to become the next monarch over his father -- with 45% wanting to skip the succession and 20% preferring the Prince of Wales.

However, if the palace would listen to what its people want, the decision could set "a dangerous precedent" for the royal family.

According to the Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter, "Skipping a generation sets a dangerous precedent and could lead to calls for Prince George, who would be in his late sixties or seventies by the time his father's reign came to an end, to step aside for his heir, be it a son or a daughter.

He added that Prince William's time would come. For now, Prince Charles, who spent the longest time being the heir to the throne, needs to succeed his mother.
OSWIECIM, Poland -- Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp recalled their suffering as they marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation, returning to the place where they lost entire families and warning about the ominous growth of anti-Semitism and hatred in the world.

"We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes," Polish President Andrzej Duda told the dignitaries at the commemoration, which included the German president as well as Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.

"The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it," Duda said.

About 200 camp survivors attended, many of them elderly Jews and non-Jews who have traveled from Israel, the United States, Australia, Peru, Russia, Slovenia and elsewhere. Many lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz or other Nazi death camps, but were joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

They gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that had transported people to Birkenau, the part of the vast complex where most of the murdered Jews were killed in gas chambers and then cremated. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.

Survivors carry a wreath at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Survivors of the death camp gathered for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet army's liberation of the camp, using the testimony of survivors to warn about the signs of rising anti-Semitism and hatred in the world today. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) AP

WORDS SPOKEN FROM THE HEART

Jewish survivors told their stories, as did a Sinti, or Gypsy, woman who is now blind and delivered a few words that she said were "spoken from the heart" before having someone else read them.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by the Nazi German forces at the camp were Jews, but other Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned there. Polish survivors walked with Duda through the camp's gate early Monday wearing striped scarves that recalled the prison garb they wore more than 75 years ago.

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem last week to mark the anniversary in what many saw as a competing observance. Among them were Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Prince Charles.

Politics intruded on that event, with Duda boycotting it in protest after Putin claimed that Poland played a role in triggering World War II. Duda had wanted a chance to speak before or after Putin to defend his nation's record in face of those false accusations, but he was not given a speaking slot in Jerusalem.

Those claims comes as many countries across Eastern Europe have in recent years been mythologizing their own people's behavior during the war and suppressing knowledge of wrongdoing, something Poland's government, too, has been criticized for.

Duda said Monday he felt that in Jerusalem, "Polish participation in the epic fight against the Nazis was ignored."

Monday's commemoration gave him a chance to defend his nation, and he used it to recall how Poland was invaded and occupied, losing 6 million of its citizens in the war, half of them Jews. He recalled how Poland fought the Germans on several fronts, warned the world in vain about the genocide of the Jews, and for decades has been a responsible custodian of Auschwitz and other sites of the German atrocities.

Survivors and their relatives walk through the gates of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp to attend the 75th anniversary of its liberation in Oswiecim, Poland, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)AP

TRUTH MUST NOT DIE

"Distorting the history of World War II, denying the crimes of genocide and negating the Holocaust as well as an instrumental use of the Auschwitz for whatever purposes is tantamount to desecration of the memory of the victims," Duda said. "Truth about the Holocaust must not die."

Among others attending the observances at Auschwitz, which is located in southern Poland, a region under German occupation during the war, were German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Rivlin recalled the strong connection that Israel shares with Poland, which welcomed Jews for centuries. It became home to Europe's largest population of Jews  and later the center of Germany's destruction of that community.

"The glorious history of the Jews in Poland, the prosperity of which the Jewish community has enjoyed throughout history, along with the difficult events that have taken place on this earth, connect the Jewish people and the State of Israel, inextricably, with Poland and the Polish people," Rivlin said while standing alongside Duda at a news conference.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was guided through the camp by museum director Piotr Cywinski and viewed a plaque that includes the name of his city after it recently pledged a contribution of 300,000 pounds ($391,000) for the site's preservation.

Organizers of the event in Poland, the Auschwitz-Birkenau state memorial museum and the World Jewish Congress, have sought to keep the spotlight on survivors.

On the eve of the commemorations, survivors, many leaning on their children and grandchildren for support, walked through the place where they had been brought in on cattle cars and suffered hunger and illness and came close to death. They said they were there to remember, to share their histories with others, and to make a gesture of defiance toward those who had sought their destruction.

For some, it is also the burial ground for their parents and grandparents, and they said they would say kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

"I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage to them," said Yvonne Engelman, a 92-year-old Australian who was joined by three more generations now scattered around the globe.

She recalled being brought in from a ghetto in what was then Czechoslovakia by cattle car, being stripped of her clothes, shaved and put in a gas chamber. By some miracle, the gas chamber that day did not work, and she later survived slave labor and a death march.

Russian WWII veteran Alexander Martynushkin, 96, and his great-great-granddaughter attend an exhibition dedicated to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. Martynushkin was among the Red Army soldiers who liberated the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)AP

NOTHING IS FOR SURE

A 96-year-old survivor, Jeanette Spiegel, was 20 when she was brought to Auschwitz, where she spent nine months. Today she lives in New York and is fearful of rising anti-Semitic violence in the United States.

"I think they pick on the Jews because we are such a small minority and it is easy to pick on us," she said, fighting back tears. "Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated."

"We would like that the next generation know what we went through, and it should never happen again," said 91-year-old David Marks, his voice cracking. He lost 35 relatives after they all arrived in Auschwitz from their village in Romania.

"A dictator doesn't come up from one day to the other," Marks said, saying it happens in "micro steps."

"If we don't watch it, one day you wake up and it's too late," he added.

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron paid his respects at the city's Shoah Memorial and warned about rising hate crimes in France, which increased 27% last year.

That anti-Semitism is coming back is not the Jewish peoples problem: Its all our problem -- its the nations problem, Macron said.

STATEN ISLAND SURVIVORS

In 2018, SILive and the Staten Island Advance produced a powerful documentary that tells the story of 10 Staten Island Holocaust survivors. The 24-minute film -- Where Life Leads You" -- tells the riveting and heart-wrenching stories of how they endured the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe, and began a new life on Staten Island.

The documentary was conceived and produced by former SILive multimedia specialist Shira Stoll, who won a New York Emmy for the project. You can view the film above.
Saginaw Valley State University has hired an experienced educator - with a passion both for preparing the next generation of teachers and developing individuals already leading classrooms - to serve as the new dean of the institution's College of Education.

James Tarr will join SVSU after more than three decades spent working as a teacher, researcher and faculty leader at the K-12 and higher education levels, including most recently at the University of Missouri.

Tarr said he was excited for the opportunity to join an institution with SVSU's strong reputation for empowering individuals in the education sector.

"As dean, I will support SVSU's outstanding faculty and staff in delivering high-quality programs, engaging with local communities, and producing scholarship that informs practice and addresses important societal challenges," Tarr said. "One of my favorite sayings is, 'To teach is to touch the future.' Today's college students are passionate about making a difference in the world, and a career in teaching is an essential way to cultivate a new and brighter future."

Deborah Huntley, SVSU provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, said she was impressed by Tarr's experience as an administrator and his strong record of research and teaching.

"We are looking for a strong leader as we work to respond to the current and looming teacher shortage across Michigan, as well as other changes in the educational landscape," Huntley said.

"Our College of Education has been growing in enrollment, and we want that momentum to build. We are confident Dr. Tarr has the qualities and experience we need, and we welcome him to SVSU."

Tarr served in various roles at the University of Missouri, which he joined as an assistant professor in 2000 and was promoted to associate professor in 2006. After earning his status as a professor of mathematics education in 2013, he served first as the associate director and later as chair of the university's Department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum. In those roles, he oversaw expansion of online education; developed graduate programs; and advocated for policies that favored diversity and inclusion among students, faculty and staff.

He served in leadership roles for several University of Missouri programs exploring the influence of various math education approaches on students. Among those programs was a research initiative known as the COSMIC (Comparing Options in Secondary Mathematics: Investigating Curricula) project, which examined how different math education curriculums impacted teaching and learning in U.S. high schools.

As an educator, Tarr also demonstrated a passion for studying the influence of math education. He authored 65 scholarly papers and presentations that appeared in professional journals, books and academic conferences. He also served as chairperson of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics research committee from 2012-13.

Prior to joining the University of Missouri, he worked as an educator at Illinois State University, Middle Tennessee State University and as a visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota. Earlier, he gained experience in the K-12 system as a middle school and high school math teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska and St. Paul, Minnesota from 1987-1993.

Tarr received a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Illinois State University in 1997. He earned a master's degree in educational psychology and measurement from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993; and both a bachelor's degree in mathematical sciences as well as a teaching license in math from University of Iowa in 1986 and 1987, respectively. He will join SVSU on July 1.
A series of 2020 banners and marketing tools for Medicare insurance agents have been introduced by the American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance (AAMSI).



"Medicare insurance agents face increased competition both from other insurance professionals as well as from the direct-to-consumer trend," shared Jesse Slome, AAMSI's director. "We strive to help agents who want to be seen as the local Medicare insurance professional in their community as well as the surrounding area."

The Association maintains the nation's number-one ranked online directory used by consumers to find Medicare insurance agents based on their Zip Code. "While consumers today are bombarded with television ads promoting various Medicare insurance solutions, many still value speaking with or meeting with someone in their community," Slome explains. "These agents typically do not have the big budgets to spend on television ads, celebrity spokespeople or even large mass mailings. Our goal is to help them be successful."



The Association has just made available various marketing tools for agents listed on the Association's Find A Medicare Agent Near Me directory. "The directory generally ranks very high when consumers do a Google search for local Medicare brokers," Slome confirms. "The tools we have created will enable listed agents to show consumers that they are listed on this prestigious directory."

During Medicare's 2019 Annual Enrollment Period website traffic to the Association's website and usage of the directory increased significantly according to AAMSI.

To find local Medicare insurance agents visit the Association's directory at www.medicaresupp.org/find-local-agent/. There is no charge to utilize the directory and no personal information is entered to access the online resource.

The American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance is an advocacy and informational organization that supports the industry and insurance professionals who market Medicare insurance options. The Association organizes the annual Medicare insurance conference that includes a free sales day for insurance agents.
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JACKSON COUNTY, MI  An ATM stolen from a northern Jackson County business Saturday has been found emptied, police said.

The machine, with cash inside, was taken from Dukes Outpost, 5042 E. Berry Road in Henrietta Township, just before 2:13 a.m., Jan. 25, Jackson County Undersheriff Chris Kuhl said.

Police believe the thief or thieves got into the closed store quickly and took the ATM, then fled to the north, Kuhl said. The Ingham County Sheriffs Office found the empty ATM just inside the county on Sunday, Jan. 26.

Evidence technicians have processed the machine for clues for potential suspects, Kuhl said. An undisclosed amount of money was stolen, he said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Mid-Michigan Crime Stoppers at 517 483-7867 or Jackson County Det. Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker at 517-736-7931.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 00:23:05|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has been selected to host the global summit on prevention of malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) 2020, a senior health official said Monday.

"Rwanda is ready to host the summit in June 25, 2020, and this offers a unique and big opportunity for our country to host such a health big gathering on malaria and NTDs," said Diane Gashumba, Rwandan minister of health at the launch of the preparatory phase of the summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

According to her, the summit will provide great global attention and catalyze action to end these preventable yet often deadly diseases (malaria and NTDs) that have plagued humanity for thousands of years.

"We need renewed political commitment to fight against malaria and NTDs. We need to share across countries the best practices and innovations to beat these diseases," said Gashumba.

According to Kasonde Mwinga, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Rwanda, control and elimination of malaria and NTDs is core to the economic growth of Africa.

"We need to engage and galvanize the countries, the partners, the communities, and the individuals themselves, to get to a point where we have eliminated these diseases," said Mwinga at the launch of the summit preparations.

"We all know this requires resources. It will also be a moment to mobilize resources," added Mwinga.

The summit will be the first pledging event for NTDs in Africa, calling for 1.5 billion U.S dollars towards fulfilling the upcoming WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) 2030 roadmap, said Mwinga.

According to WHO, the objective of the 2030 NTDs roadmap is to be a key guiding document for the global response to NTDs over the next decade.

"To beat malaria and NTDs, we must accelerate local ownership and commitment, innovation, and investment," said Diallo Abdourahmane, chief executive officer, RBM Partnership to End Malaria, a global partnership for a malaria-free world at the launch of the preparatory phase of the summit.

He added, "In order to realize the Africa we want, we must increase the amount we spend on health in our national governments."

The Kigali summit will be the first formal summit to bring a united global focus on ending these preventable diseases that have been devastating the world's poorest and most vulnerable people for thousands of years, according to organizers.

The summit, co-hosted by two global partnerships tackling the diseases, the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases, will be held on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Over the past decade, roughly 1.1 million lives have been saved through preventative measures such as drugs, insecticides and education on malaria. However, the malaria parasite is developing resistance to current drugs, and the mosquito vector is developing resistance to insecticides, according to RBM Partnership to End Malaria.
'The idea of a 'Hindu Rashtra' only emerged in the 1920s and 1930s.'

'The context at that time was the clear British attempt at 'divide and rule' between Hindus and Muslims and within Hindus on caste lines,' argues military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).

Kindly note that the image has only been posted for representational purposes. Photograph: Jitendra Prakash/Reuters

The recent controversy and agitation over the badly drafted Citizenship (Amendment) Act has revived the bogey of India turning into a 'Hindu Rashtra'.

But the CAA is merely an excuse. This attempt is similar to the on-off debate over Veer Savarkar and his 'feigned apology' (as commented by the British) to survive the Andaman prison and secure his release.

The historical context of these events, actions and ideologies is deliberately being obfuscated to suit current political needs.

It is conveniently forgotten and never mentioned that around the time Veer Savarkar was being accused of being apologetic to the British, Mahatma Gandhi and many other leaders of the freedom struggle were actively helping the British war effort.

Gandhiji was conferred the Kaiser E Hind award for his services to the British crown which he returned in 1920 post the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

In the historical context of the time, Gandhi and many others felt that this was the best method to get dominion status or 'self rule' 'home rule' for India.

The current crop of politicians with selective memory never bring this out, and also forget that during World War I, the Germans had tasked their cruiser Emden (that had bombarded Madras port) to attempt a rescue of Savarkar from Andaman prison.

Savarkar's contacts with Irish revolutionaries is also a matter of record.

Yet, despite all this, a campaign to malign him continues unabated.

Recently former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh had accepted Savarkar's contribution, but asserted that he was opposed to the concept of a 'Hindu rashtra' propagated by him.

To understand the entire bogey of a Hindu rashtra, on the lines of an Islamic State, it is necessary to know the historical context of the idea.

Like Gandhiji's actions during WWI, it must also be seen in its historical background.

In its close to 5,000-year history, India has never had the concept of a faith-based nation. The king was expected to follow 'Raj Dharma'.

Dharma is more akin to a value system that is indicative of duties rather than faith. Thus, there is 'Dharma' of various kinds, like Pitru Dharma (fatherly duties), Putra Dharma (son's duties), Manav Dharma (humanism) or Rashtra Dharma (duties towards the country) that one is expected to follow.

The only exception to this rule of faith neutral rule was during Ashoka's time when he made Buddhism the State religion and actively promoted and propagated the Buddhist faith and teaching it both within India and abroad.

The only other attempt of spreading faith with State power was during Aurangzeb's time. This attempt too failed as it led to a revolt by Sikhs and Jats in the north and a determined organised resistance by the Marathas on the Narmada so the south of India also remained out of Mughal grasp.

In the East, the Mughal onslaught was checked by the Ahoms of Assam under Lachit Borphukan.

This is in direct contrast to Abrahamic faiths wherein both Christianity (till the Reformation and Renaissance) and Islam had faith-based rule.

The concept of a caliphate and its duty to spread the faith has been a feature of Islam right till the 21st century.

The rise of ISIS and the widespread support it gathered all over the Islamic world shows the power of this idea.

In the modern era, while the caliphate ceased to exist, various Muslim majority States have declared themselves as 'Islamic States' where Islam is the official faith.

The Indian subcontinent has followed a different trajectory. The underpinning of Indian civilisation and culture was Vedic and Upanishadic philosophy.

This put forward the concepts like Vasudhaiv kutumbakam (the whole world is one family) or ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti (truth is one but called by different names) from the Upanishads.

The outcome of this was the mind-boggling diversity of faiths, languages, races and culture found in the subcontinent.

In the conventional understanding of 'religion', ancient pre-Christian era India had three broad streams: The Vaishnavas or worshippers of Vishnu, the Shaivaites or worshippers of Shiva, and Shakta or worshippers of Mother Goddess or Shakti.

In the later period, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism emerged as reform movements and revolts against Vedic orthodoxy and became separate religions in the Western sense of the term. These multiple faiths co-existed peacefully.

The initial arrival of Christianity in South India through St Thomas, or Islam in the seventh century in Kerala and western coast through Arab traders, is well known. Al Baruni, who came to India in the 11th century during the invasions by Muhammad Ghazni, has noted the presence of Muslim settlements on the western coast.

It was around this time the word 'Hindu' was first coined and basically referred to the land of the Sindhu river valley and beyond. Sindhu became Hindu and the Arabs began to refer to the land as Hindustan -- or land of the Hindus.

The Southern part of the subcontinent continued to be called Deccan or Dakkhan or simply the south right up to modern age. The people living south of Narmada were simply referred to as Dakkhanis or southerners, separate from Hindus.

Thus narrowly defined, the Hindu Rashtra roughly corresponds to current Pakistan.

Given this historical background and understanding of the Indian past, the idea of a 'Hindu Rashtra' only emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. The context at that time was the clear British attempt at 'divide and rule' between Hindus and Muslims and within Hindus on caste lines.

The British encouraged Muslim separatism and militancy and recruited Muslims in larger numbers in the armed forces. This was a complete reversal of policies followed by them immediately after the 1857 revolt.

The foundations of a separate 'Muslim' State were laid when a delegation of 35 Muslim leaders met then British viceroy Lord Minto on August 10, 1906, and demanded and got separate electorates and larger share in power.

With inputs from Lieutenant Gen Ashok Joshi (retd).
The daughter of a US firefighter killed in a tragic accident while fighting blazes in NSW has spoken of the person behind the hero portrayed in the media in the wake of tragedy.

Lt Col Ian McBeth was piloting a C-130 Hercules water bomber when it went down at Peak View northeast of Cooma, NSW on Thursday afternoon. Fellow Americans, first officer Paul Clyde Hudson and flight engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr, were also killed in the crash.

In an emotional interview with TV station KULR8, Ian McBeths daughter, Abi, shared memories of her fun-loving father who liked to play pranks.

She recounted one story where the family managed to get one back on him by tricking him into biting a bar of soap.

Honestly, I just think about how much I miss my dad... it sucks, she said.

As a father he was super supporting, he always made sure my homework was done, he always wanted me to do the best that I possible could at school and have as many opportunities as I could.

I just want everybody to see how wonderful he was as a person, she said.

Abi McBeth said he dad loved to joke around. Source: KULR8

Lt Col McBeth, 44, was a member of the Montana Air National Guard's 120th Airlift Wing and served on US military tours of Afghanistan and Iraq.

I know everyone calls him a hero, but overall with his family and everything, I just want everyone to realise that all around he was just a wonderful person, she said.

Following in her fathers footsteps

In the interview, Ms McBeth revealed that she is undertaking training to become a pilot and follow in her fathers footsteps.

I hope everyone realises that anything can happen. Cherish the memories you have with the people you love, cause I never thought this could happen, she said.

Representatives of Canadian company Coulson Aviation, which operated the C-130 involved in the crash, said Capt McBeth's love for his wife Bowdie and three children was evident for anyone who spent time around him.

Ian McBeth and his daughter Abi, who he was teaching how to fly. Source: KULR8

Investigators spent the weekend combing through the wreckage of the crash site, which resulted in debris being strewn more than a kilometre in length.

Story continues

The large aerial water tanker was engulfed by a fireball after crashing in the Snowy Mountains region last week, authorities said, making the crash investigation particularly difficult.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators on Sunday began examining data downloaded from the plane's cockpit voice recorder.

It generally records the last two hours of a flight. It will record the pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer's discussion in the cockpit, ATSB boss Greg Hood said.

Investigators also used a drone to produce a three-dimensional map of the crash site.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
We started our own investigation. We interviewed the students, contacted the parents, interviewed the staff member in question. We notified DCFS and the Elmwood Park Police Department. At this time we are in a holding pattern waiting to see where the investigations go with both the police department and DCFS, Wade said. He added that he expected the police investigation to wrap up in a couple of weeks but couldnt estimate how long DCFS would take.
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 29, 1963



Shark kills actress in shallow cove: fight by fiance

Miss Marcia Hathaway, a well-known Sydney actress, was fatally mauled by a shark in Middle Harbour yesterday afternoon.

The shark attacked her while she was standing in murky water only 30 inches deep and 20 feet from the shore in the northern arm of Sugarloaf Bay.

Shark-attack victim Marcia Hathaway is carried into a waiting ambulance on January 28, 1963 Credit:Staff photographer

Seconds before she died , while friends were hurrying her to hospital, Miss Hathaway told her fiance: "I am not in pain. Don't worry about me, dear. God will look after me."
E mily Beecher hasnt really stopped thinking about it since it happened. The night a drunk man started harassing her on the Piccadilly line: leering, leaning into her, shouting about her great tits in front of the rest of the carriage.

Its what happened next that makes this particular incident stand out in her depressingly long history of Tube harassments. Another man stepped in.

He didnt even speak to the other guy, he just put himself between us and asked me if I was OK, recalls Beecher, 41, a producer from north London. Thats what made me cry, because there have been so many times when no one has done that. Beecher admits she was one of the lucky ones. A survey released by YouGov last week revealed that more than half of women say theyve suffered sexual harassment on public transport in London, the most common being deliberately pressed up against by a stranger.

As many as 12 per cent say theyve seen a flasher expose themselves and eight per cent have had a complete stranger request sexual favours. Almost two thirds of incidents are on the Tube.

For Beecher, the statistics are sad but not a shock. Shes surprised the figures arent higher. How many of the people who reported being harassed had been harassed multiple times? she wonders. Sexual harassment on the Tube has become a regular occurrence for many women she knows, and most go without reporting it.

For London support charity Solace Womens Aid, this lack of formal reporting is a large part of the issue: only two per cent of victims feel able to make a complaint, according to recent figures. This speaks volumes to how society continues to minimise womens experience of sexual harassment and the lack of confidence women have in being believed and taken seriously, a spokesman warned.

Whats behind this lack of reporting? For some, its a case of normalisation. Women across the capital say men rubbing up against them, watching porn beside them and shouting sexual, explicit things at them across the Tube has become a normal part of London life while using public transport.

Its horrible at the time but I never even think to report it, admits one Circle line user. I was worried it wasnt extreme enough, wrote another female commuter on Twitter  a common rhetoric Netflix explores in the latest series of hit teen series Sex Education when a man masturbates on Aimees leg on a bus.

Im fine, the 17-year-old tells her friend Maeve, shrugging it off. Its only when Maeve encourages her to report the incident that the weight of what happened sinks in  and even then she apologises for wasting officers time.

British Transport Police has run a Report It To Stop It campaign since 2015, encouraging victims to text 61016 to report an incident, but many women say a lack of faith in the system stops them contacting authorities.

Cyberflashing is an easy way for sex pests to harass men and women without facing any consequences

Cyberflashing  the modern phenomenon of sending unsolicited images to a strangers phone using AirDrop  was made illegal in Scotland in 2010 but is still legal in England (despite traditional flashers landing two years in prison), making it an easy way for sex pests to harass women (and men) without consequences.

The perpetrators get away scot-free, complains one female commuter, 26, who was sent 120 d*ck pics by a stranger on a bus last year. She didnt bother to report the incident precisely because it wasnt an offence.

But marketing director Joanna Montgomery says that cyberflashing is arguably more dangerous: technology has enabled perpetrators to gain a new layer of anonymity. With old-school flashing at least you could see that it was a pathetic old man, and you could just turn around, says Montgomery, 41, who was sent a picture of a mans genitals while sitting at a bus stop in Streatham last year.

The one I got is clearly a young man so I couldnt be as confident I could escape or take him on, and I was alone at the bus stop. I assumed he was watching me, which was the creepy thing. Walking home I was thinking, Is he following me? She screenshotted the image and showed friends, but didnt think to report it. Id never even heard of the concept before.

Journalist Lauren Clarke, 27, is one of the two per cent of victims who did report her harassment on the Tube, but the response has left her feeling angrier. She was groped multiple times by a stranger on the Central line in September and reported the mans clothing, backpack and Tube stop to police, but was told nothing could be done because there was no CCTV.

The Central is one of two Tube lines without CCTV (the other is the Bakerloo), despite one in four sexual assaults happening on the red line. Up to 100 assaults were reported on the Central line between 2016 and 2018  nearly double that of the next most reported line, the Victoria, at 55.

Cameras are not due to be introduced until 2023 but Mayor Sadiq Khan is under pressure to bring this forward. His potential successor, Tory candidate Shaun Bailey, says perpetrators are targeting the line because of the absence of cameras and The London Assembly filed a motion in October urging Khan to shorten the four-year wait. At the current rate, thousands of women will be assaulted in that time, Bailey warned last year.

Clarke feels angry that womens safety has become a matter of money. Were encouraged to use the Tube, were encouraged to get to work on public transport but to know that your only option is fundamentally not really policed or safe is terrifying.

Despite her frustration, shed still encourage victims to report incidents because it can add to a stack of evidence. Each offence reported to us helps build up a picture of an offender, said a police spokesman this week.

For Beecher, the solution is also cultural: prevention needs to be a communal effort. Ever since another passenger stepped in to block a stranger harassing her last year, shes made a conscious pledge to do the same. Last month, she stepped in to help a passenger in her twenties who was being harassed by a drunk man. I could see the relief in her face the moment I called him out.

The solution is also cultural  preventing harassment needs to be a communal effort from bystanders, too

Upskirting campaigner Gina Martin agrees: billboards discussing harassment should be commonplace on the Tube. Signs should encourage people to report it even if it didnt happen to them, says Martin, who still thinks about the time a man groped her on the Northern line in 2017. I let it rest there for two stops. Then, finally, I said loudly Could you please remove your hand from my bum cheek. The hand slipped away, but the guy didnt even flinch. No one said a word. I got off at the next stop half-wanting to cry, half-wanting to scream. I felt humiliated and violated.

Beecher realises not everyone always feels safe to step in  especially when the culprit is bigger and stronger. Which is why men need to be part of the solution. As women we can call it out as much as we want but we also need men as our allies, she says, referring to last months incident. Its really easy [for that man] to say, This woman was a total b***h to me on the Tube, but if there had been another guy in the carriage when I called out his behaviour with the girl, that would have reinforced the message. As a feminist I hate to be like We need men to help us with this problem, but 99 per cent of guys that do this dont think theres anything wrong with their behaviour. Until that changes, sexual harassment will continue to be normalised.
New coronavirus 'not spreading' in the US, CDC says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

While the death toll for the new coronavirus has crossed 100 people people in China and put the world on edge, it is not spreading in the U.S., health officials said in news conference Monday.

"We understand that many people in the Unites States are worried about this virus," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

"At this time, in the U.S., the virus is not spreading in the community," she added. "For that reason we continue to believe that the immediate health risk from the new virus to the general public is low at this time.

PHOTO: Confirmed Coronavirus cases (ABC News, CDC)

In the U.S., 110 individuals from 26 states are being investigated to determine whether they have coronavirus. Of those individuals, 32 have tested negative, five have tested positive, and the remaining test results are pending.

No new coronavirus cases have been diagnosed overnight, according to the CDC, and all five cases were in people who had traveled to China. Two of those five cases are in Southern California and Chicago, Washington state and Arizona have each reported one coronavirus case.

MORE: 5th US case of coronavirus confirmed as death toll rises to 80 in China

The CDC is currently advising Americans to avoid non-essential travel to China's Hubei province and Wuhan, which is the epicenter of the outbreak. Travelers to China, particularly older adults and those with underlying health problems, should discuss their travel plans with their health care providers. Anyone traveling in China should avoid contact with sick people, and should avoid animals, animal markets and animal products, such as uncooked meat. They should also wash their hands thoroughly and often.

The State Department issued a new travel advisory Monday, urging U.S. travelers to "reconsider travel" to China because of coronavirus.

Story continues

Countries with Confirmed Coronavirus Cases (ABC News, WHO, CDC, NHC, Dingxiangyuan, Local Governments)

Five U.S. airports, in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, continue to screen passengers from Wuhan for pneumonia-like symptoms, such as fever and respiratory problems. So far, airports have screened about 2,400 passengers, with screenings declining following strict travel bans and a quarantine in Wuhan.

The purpose of those airport screenings is two-fold, according to Messonnier. Health officials want to quickly detect and respond to respiratory illness in travelers coming from Wuhan. They also want to educate travelers who've been to Wuhan, so that if they develop symptoms later, they know to call their health care provider to get checked out.

PHOTO: Passengers leave LAX after arriving from Shanghai, China, after a positive case of the coronavirus was announced in the Orange County suburb of Los Angeles, Jan. 26, 2020. (Ringo Chiu/Reuters)

The CDC is in the process of developing a real-time diagnostic test to identify the virus and is hoping to quickly roll that test out to states. For now, all samples are being sent to the CDC in Atlanta, a process which takes about a day, from the time clinicians and the CDC agree to test a patient for coronavirus until results come back from Atlanta. Other countries are doing similar centralized testing, Messonnier explained. While speed is important, accurate testing is the agency's priority.

While a report in the Lancet, published Jan. 24, suggested that people who contract coronavirus might be able spread the disease before they develop symptoms, Messonnier maintained that the CDC has "no clear evidence" of patients' being infectious before symptom onset. For now, the virus' incubation period is believed to be between two and 14 days.

MORE: What to know about coronavirus and how it is transmitted

In China, where the coronavirus outbreak began, there have been more than 4,535 cases and 106 deaths. In addition to the cases in the United States, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Macao, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, France, Germany, Vietnam, Nepal and Sri Lanka have all confirmed travel-related cases in their respective countries.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. urged the Department of Health and Human Services to declare a formal public health emergency in the United States. Such a designation would free up money for the CDC to preemptively prepare for the virus to potentially spread in the U.S.

PHOTO: Dr. Sharon Balter, at podium with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials, confirms a patient was taken to a hospital with Coronavirus symptoms at a news conference in Los Angeles, Jan. 26, 2020. (Chris Weber/AP)

"If we have learned anything from the risks the new viruses pose to public health, it is a 'stitch in time saves nine,' and the more we can do to be proactive, the better off the public will be," Schumer said during a news conference Jan. 26.

A recent budget deal negotiated by Schumer and Rep. Nita Lowey, chairwoman of House Appropriations Committee, increased the federal Infectious Disease Rapid Response Reserve Fund from $50 million to $85 million, but in order to use that money, HHS has to declare a public health emergency.

MORE: Public transportation shut down in Wuhan, city at center of coronavirus outbreak

"The critical thing about these specific dollars is that the CDC has full discretion," Schumer said. "The agency can use them for whatever activities it deems appropriate, so long as they inform Congress. This kind of flexible funding needs to be unlocked now should this outbreak worsen."

The World Health Organization did not declare a public health emergency of international concern last week, after deliberating for two days over the decision.
No, Star Trek: Picard doesnt employ de-aging technology; this is from The Next Generation. Photo: Paramount Television

There are no prerequisites for watching Star Trek: Picard, the CBS All Access series that brings Star Trek: The Next Generations Captain Jean-Luc Picard out of retirement for a new adventure. Patrick Stewart hasnt lost a step in his depiction of the good captain, and the series opening episodes have woven in references to past events in ways that dont force viewers to pause and consult Wikipedia. Picard becomes a richer show, however, if you know the history that preceded it.

To that end, heres a list of Star Trek: The Next Generation installments that will add depth to the Picard experience, all readily available to stream via Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and CBS.com. Some flesh out the character of Captain Picard, others contain the roots of story elements that are developed in Picard, and they double as examples of Star Trek at its finest (well, most of them, anyway).

Encounter at Farpoint (Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2)

Star Trek: The Next Generation got off to a famously rocky start thanks to a mostly crappy first season that included trips to planets filled with African stereotypes and half-naked women. The two-part premiere, however, remains essential viewing because it introduces viewers to the new Enterprise-D, its crew, the reality-bending adversary Q (John de Lancie), and, of course, Picard. Stewart appears to know the character from the start. In his first interaction with his android chief operations officer, Data (Brent Spiner), his face captures a range of emotions from wry humor to muted exasperation. Stewart made Picard a searching, commanding figure without losing sight of his humanity, and over the course of seven seasons and four movies, he remains stately and inspiring even after later episodes that depict his doubt and vulnerability. Stewart had already started to suggest those qualities in the TNG premiere, and thats part of what made viewers want to stick around and power through the rough patches that followed in hopes of better things to come.

The Measure of a Man (Season 2, Episode 9)

Picard and Datas relationship evolves and deepens over the series as Picard starts to regard Data as a colleague and friend rather than a mechanical enigma. But that doesnt stop the question of Datas true nature from coming up from time to time. The Measure of a Man puts Datas independence and status as a sentient being on trial when robotics scientist Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) tries to take him apart to study what makes him work. Datas only defense against being declared property rather than a person: the legal arguments of Captain Picard. The episode gave both Spiner and Stewart some of their best moments on the series, both in the courtroom and in quieter scenes, as when a dispirited Picard consults with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) about whats really at stake in Datas trial. (Worth noting: A still-unseen character with the last name Maddox is being set up to play a central role on Picard.)

The Defector (Season 3, Episode 10)

Prior to the events of Picard, a supernova destroys the Romulan homeworld, scattering one of the Federations oldest foes across the galaxy and leading Picard to tender his resignation when the Federation abandons attempts to mount a rescue. A pair of Romulans have become two of Picards closest friends in the new show, but other Romulans drive for power and gifts for deception suggest that they will also play a major role. Those qualities are very much in evidence in The Defector  scripted by future Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore  in which a Romulan admiral seeks asylum aboard the Enterprise and draws the ship into a complicated web of lies and deceit. Its just what they do, those Romulans. Bonus: The episode opens with Data performing Henry V to an approving Picard.

The Offspring (Season 3, Episode 16)

We dont yet know much about Picards Dhaj or Soji, the identical androids who dont even realize theyre androids. But we do know theyre modeled after a painting created by Data, titled Daughter. Whether through acting, music, or painting, Data has a yen to make art. He also has a desire to reproduce, which he attempts in The Offspring by creating an android based on his own design. The android becomes Datas first daughter, Lal (Hallie Todd in a heartbreakingly vulnerable performance), who soon proves she possesses a feature that was denied to Data: the ability to feel emotion. Confusion and a Measure of a Manlike argument about her independence follow before mechanical trouble overwhelms her, in an episode oddly made all the more moving by Datas inability to feel the family enveloping him.

Captains Holiday (Season 3, Episode 19)

In the Trek oral history The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, Next Generation writer Ira Steven Behr recalls a lunch meeting in which Stewart told him, The trouble with this show is the captain doesnt get to fight and fuck enough. He gets his chance in Captains Holiday, in which the overworked Picards trip to the pleasure planet Risa turns into an Indiana Jonesinspired adventure involving a treacherous Ferengi (Max Grodenchik) and a beautiful woman (Jennifer Hetrick). One of the series lightest installments, it allows Stewart to show what Picard is like when he lets his hair down (metaphorically speaking, of course). Its not really a good episode, but its fun and shows viewers a side of Picard they otherwise rarely get to see.

The Best of Both Worlds (Season 3, Episode 26, and Season 4, Episode 1)

Even in 1990, long before spoilers could reach the public with a click of a button, it took a lot to shock TV audiences. The two-part The Best of Both Worlds, however, managed the feat by having Picard be absorbed into the ultrapowerful Borg collective and take on the name Locutus of Borg to threaten the Federation with assimilation. The first part ends with Riker ordering the Enterprise to fire on the Borg even if it means killing Picard. It ultimately doesnt, of course, but the events of the casualty-filled episode would have far-ranging aftereffects for both Picard  who leaves the encounter with abnormal activity in his parietal lobe that comes back to haunt him in Picard  and for the Star Trek universe as a whole. The central battle helps set the stage for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine while opening the door for the moral ambiguity, long-lingering political entanglements, and desperate situations that would define that show and soon find footing in other Trek projects.

Family (Season 4, Episode 2)

The Best of Both Worlds also helped establish that Trek stories dont always have to be self-contained, in part because the episode that immediately followed it deals with the fallout from the Borg encounter. When the Enterprise returns to Earth, various crew members find themselves confronting family conflicts, none more directly than Picard when he returns to his familys vineyard in France. There he considers giving up the stars, heats up a long-simmering conflict with his brother, Robert (Jeremy Kemp), and, in one of Stewarts series-best scenes, breaks down as he sorts through the trauma of being abducted and used as a tool to slaughter his own people. Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991, shortly after this episode aired, became less directly involved with the series as his health declined. With that came a relaxation of his edict that the series characters live in a utopian society that has eliminated the need for weakness and doubt  opening an opportunity for the writers and cast to explore depths they had previously ignored.

I, Borg (Season 5, Episode 23)

Star Trek has made surprisingly rich use of the Borg, despite their being a group of single-minded, personality-free drones. I, Borg explores what it might take for one member of the collective to break free and become an individual; it introduces a character, eventually named Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), who is the lone survivor of a wrecked Borg scout ship. As with many of the best Trek episodes, it explores a deeper question  in this case, what it means to be an individual serving the greater good in any society. Its a strong outing thats particularly relevant to Picard since Hughs reappearance is one of the few details that have been revealed about upcoming episodes.

The Inner Light (Season 5, Episode 25)

An hour on anyones short list of the best Next Generation episodes, The Inner Light finds Picard knocked unconscious by the beam of a probe that is discovered during a routine mission. Unless, that is, he was never Picard at all but Kamin, an ironworker on the peaceful planet of Kataan, who has been dreaming of being a starship captain. By this point, viewers whod seen Picard in the 124 preceding episodes thought they knew him inside and out. The Inner Light proves otherwise by giving the captain everything he didnt have: a wife, a child, friendship without the burden of command, and long stretches of contemplative time. Perhaps to his surprise, Picard discovers he loves it, as seeming years stretch on and the Enterprise starts to fade into memory. A heartbreaker, the episode lets Stewart quietly upend our understanding of the captain: Without fundamentally changing the character, it sends him down a road not taken toward the bittersweet discovery that he might have found a different sort of happiness if he had never gone to the stars.

Tapestry (Season 6, Episode 15)

Speaking of roads not taken and aspects of Picard wed never seen before, Tapestry sends a grievously wounded Picard on a journey through the past. Escorted by Q, he returns to his time as a reckless cadet shortly before a bar fight left him with an artificial heart. Given the chance to relive the moment as a more mature man, Picard makes a different choice, and his life takes a dramatic turn as a consequence. Another great Stewart showcase, the episode challenges him to shrug off six seasons of gravity and authority to play the dumb, hotheaded kid Picard used to be, deepening our understanding of the character in the process.

Chain of Command (Season 6, Episodes 10 and 11)

Another dramatic two-parter, Chain of Command sends Picard on a covert-ops campaign against the dreaded Cardassians, a brutal, power-hungry race. The first part features some unusual cloak-and-dagger action and depicts the Enterprise crews struggle to adjust to life under a captain with a decidedly un-Picard-like approach to command. But the second half is what makes the episode a classic, taking Picard to the brink of madness as hes tortured by the smooth-talking Cardassian Gul Madred (David Warner). Stewart and Warner turn the confrontation into a battle of wits in which Madred has all the advantages but one: Picards iron will. But even iron can break.

The Pegasus (Season 7, Episode 12)

By contrast, The Pegasus pushes Commander Riker to the limit when an event from his past resurfaces. A fine episode guest-starring future Lost star Terry OQuinn, its most relevant to the new show for an opening sequence in which Picard awkwardly joins a group of Enterprise schoolchildren celebrating Captain Picard Day. In Picards first installment, we see this old episodes Captain Picard Day banner hanging in his archives, but its more than just an Easter egg. Picards awkwardness with children was always a running theme, and Picard finds the still-childless captain grappling with what his legacy will be in a world that has seen the Federation drift away from the principles to which he has devoted his life.

All Good Things  (Season 7, Episodes 25 and 26)

Its tough to end a great show satisfyingly, as one series after another has proven. Star Trek: The Next Generation, however, went out with one of its best episodes, a two-parter that challenges Picard by zapping him from one point in time to another  including a future in which the bonds between the crew members have frayed. A clever science-fiction story that brings the series full circle via an alternate take on the events of Encounter at Farpoint, All Good Things  also explores what made the Enterprise crew so special and ends with a moment suggesting that Picard has come to realize theres more to their friendship than he has allowed himself to feel.

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

A flop that killed the Next Generation film series after a mere four outings, the draggy Nemesis is dominated by dull action scenes in which Picard confronts a Romulan-commander clone of himself named Shinzon (Tom Hardy). Picard makes many of the films plot points central to the series, however, particularly Datas death and the captains long, fraught history with the Romulans. File under disappointing but essential.
Facing lawsuits and pollution-related fines, U.S. plastic pellet producers, exporters and the international organization dedicated to reducing spills has begun a self-policing program that requires companies to report unrecovered nurdle spills as small as a pound and commits the industry to publicly reporting annual spill totals.

Thats good news, especially as the S.C. State Ports Authority works to lure more exporters from the Gulf Coast to Charleston, which has seen the tiny preproduction pellets wash up on shore in and around the harbor since July.

But the state and local governments cant depend entirely on the industry to police itself. Thats how we got to where we are, with an estimated 250,000 tons of pellets entering oceans annually.

While nurdle pollution is relatively new along our coast, concentrations found along beaches and waterways here rival those in the Houston area, according to Charleston Waterkeeper Andrew Wunderley, whose crews have picked up about 10,000 of the lentil-size dots, which can number 25,000 to a pound.

The tiny pellets act as magnets for poisons like DDT and PCBs, are mistaken for food by birds and marine life and rank as the second-biggest source of microplastic pollution in oceans behind even tinier particles like microbeads, which are used in cosmetics, and airborne tire dust.

That is why South Carolina, first, needs a law on the books that identifies nurdles as pollution  Charleston-area Sen. Sandy Senn has filed a bill to do just that  then a strict set of nurdle-handling rules that include regular inspections at all trans-loading points.

To its credit, the SPA recognizes that last summers accident wasnt just bad for business, it was bad, period. Everybody in this situation lost, said SPA Chief Operating Officer Barbara Melvin, who said the SPA has stepped up its inspections. The risk of another local nurdle spill, she said, should drop dramatically once Frontier Logistics moves from Union Pier.

After the July nurdle spill was noticed, Frontier, at the direction of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, put up some netting in work areas. But DHEC quickly closed the case without fining Frontier, and nurdles are still being moved from railcars to the over-the-water pier where they are packaged for overseas transportation.

Any spillage can be a problem, Mr. Wunderley said, because wind and rain eventually carry the tiny pellets into waterways even if spilled on land. In October, Charleston Waterkeeper, the Coastal Conservation League and the Southern Environmental Law Center put Frontier on notice by filing pollution claims under the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

In December, Texas-based Formosa Plastics agreed to pay $50 million settle a lawsuit over spills near Galveston.

South Carolina must get ahead of this menace. Nurdle exports are a growing business tied to the boom in natural gas, the main feedstock for virgin plastic.

We welcome the SPAs stepped-up inspections and the move by the American Chemical Council and Plastics Industry Association to reduce spills and improve reporting standards. Its new program is called OCS Blue, part of Operation Clean Sweep, which is a 25-year-old international organization dedicated to reducing nurdle spills. But its not enough for South Carolina to rely on voluntary industry-driven reforms.

State lawmakers should pass Sen. Senns bill, and DHEC should come up with a set of enforceable regulations, complete with regular inspections and fines for violations.
Not fit for purpose, is how the 30bn Brunell Pension Partnership described the finance sectors response to the climate crisis, and it's hard to argue with that assessment.

One of eight pooled local authority pension scheme funds, the Partnership is proposing to do something about that, committing to use its influence to challenge the fund management industrys terminal complacency in the face of the biggest challenge of the age.

And it goes beyond barking. The Partnership's promise has bite.

Between now and 2022, Brunel will demand that the money managers it uses demonstrate reduced exposure to climate risk and engage effectively with companies with respect to climate change.

Those that fail to do so could find themselves fired by Brunel.

Similarly, its investee companies will be told to take take steps to align with the benchmarks set by the Paris Clinate Accords and to improve their climate management quality.

Again, the refuseniks face sanctions, ranging from votes against the re-appointment of their board directors to the potential removal from Brunels portfolios when the partnership carries out a review of the policys effectiveness in 2022.

Brunel's stance matters

What it is asking the fund mangers it uses to do is something they all ought to be doing given the economic harm and the damage to investment returns that the climate crisis will inflict.

But this is an industry for which the phrase absentee landlords remains depressingly apt.

Despite the recent promise by BlackRock, the worlds biggest money manager, to put climate change at the centre of what it does, two recent studies have demonstrated the scale of the problem.

One was by Share Action, and one was by InfluenceMap. While they both looked at slightly different things, and used different methodologies, their conclusions were remarkably similar.

They found a stark difference in the way asset managers are reacting to the climate crisis.

European ones were found to have a reasonably good record. By contrast, their US (including BlackRock) and Asian peers were some way behind the curve.

Much of the fund management world is still treating the climate crisis like the three wise monkeys, despite the mounting evidence of the problems it is causing, and the disturbing reality that weve only seen the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Capital is the resource businesses, financiers and fund mangers run on. If it becomes a struggle for climate laggards to get their hands on it they wil have to respond.

In investment terms, the 30bn Brunel has in its arsenal is not a lot of money. BlackRock, for example, has $7tn (5.35tn) under managemnet. But Brunel is not alone. More and more big investors are making similar statements, adopting similar policies.

This is a movement whose time has come.
By AFP

BEIJING: A virus similar to the SARS pathogen has claimed 81 lives since emerging in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and spread around the world.

Here are the places that have confirmed cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus:

China

As of Monday, more than 2,700 people have been infected across China, the bulk of them in and around Wuhan.

Nearly all of the 81 who have died were in that region, but officials have confirmed at least five deaths elsewhere.

The city of Macau, a gambling hub hugely popular with mainland tourists, has confirmed six cases as of Monday.

In Hong Kong, eight people are known to have the disease. Of those, six arrived via a newly built high-speed train terminal that connects with the mainland.

France

There are three known cases of the coronavirus in France, the first European country to be affected by the outbreak.

One person is sick in Bordeaux and another is ill in Paris. A third person, a close relative of one of the other two, has also been confirmed to have the virus.

All three had recently travelled to China and have been placed in isolation.

Japan

Japan's health authorities confirmed the country's fourth case on Saturday: a man in his 40s, visiting Japan from Wuhan, who is in hospital in a stable condition.

Another man was hospitalised on January 10, four days after his return from a visit to Wuhan.

And a further two people from the Chinese city -- a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s -- have also been treated in hospital for fever.

Australia

Australia confirmed its fifth case of the virus on Monday -- a 21-year-old woman who recently arrived in Sydney on a direct flight from Wuhan. She is being treated in a Sydney hospital.

One man in Melbourne and three men in Sydney earlier tested positive and were being treated in hospital isolation units after also arriving in the country from Wuhan.

United States

The US has confirmed five cases of the virus in patients who had recently entered the country from Wuhan.

A man aged in his 30s reported himself to authorities on January 19 after returning to his home near Seattle.

On Friday, public health authorities said the virus had been detected in a Chicago woman in her 60s, and on Saturday a traveller from Wuhan in California was confirmed as the third infected person on US soil.

A second case was confirmed in California on Sunday, along with one in Arizona.

Canada

Canada has reported a "presumptive" case of the virus in a man who returned to Toronto from Wuhan.

The patient is aged in his 50s and has been placed in isolation.

Malaysia

Malaysia confirmed its fourth case on Sunday. All are Chinese nationals on holiday from Wuhan who arrived in the country from Singapore.

A 66-year-old woman and two boys, aged two and 11, were in stable condition, Malaysia's health minister said Saturday.

The latest confirmed case is a 40-year-old man who entered the country on a bus with a Chinese tour group.

Nepal

Nepal said a 32-year-old man arriving from Wuhan had the disease.

The patient, who was initially quarantined, recovered and was discharged.

Singapore

Singapore announced its fourth case of the coronavirus on Sunday. All four patients had arrived in the city-state from Wuhan over the last week.

South Korea

South Korean media reported the country's fourth case on Monday.

The latest patient is a 55-year-old Korean man who returned from Wuhan on January 20. He was quarantined and tested after experiencing symptoms.

The other patients include two South Korean men, both aged in their 50s and working in Wuhan, who returned to the country earlier this week.

Seoul reported the nation's first case on January 20 -- a 35-year-old woman who flew in from Wuhan.

Taiwan

Taiwan has uncovered four cases so far -- the latest a woman in her fifties who was in Wuhan for a sight-seeing tour and returned home voluntarily on January 25.

Thailand

Thailand has detected eight cases so far -- three are receiving treatment in hospital and five have been discharged, according to the health minister's statement.

All the infected persons are Chinese nationals, except for a 73-year-old Thai woman who came back from Wuhan this month.

Vietnam

Vietnam confirmed two cases of the virus on Thursday. An infected man from Wuhan travelled to Ho Chi Minh City earlier this month and passed the virus on to his son.
The second phase of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire has begun as investigators search for an honest and complete account of the circumstances and causes of the disaster.

For more than two years, the inquiry has sought to establish the facts of what happened on the night of the fire, which killed 72 people in June 2017, in order to prevent future accidents.

In October last year, the report for phase one of the inquiry criticised the London Fire Brigade for serious shortcomings in its response to the fire and found that cladding on the tower did not comply with building regulations.

It determined that the cladding was the principal reason for the rapid spread of the flames, which were sparked by an electrical fault with a fridge-freezer.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the chair of the inquiry, has said there are many complex questions that still need to be answered in the investigations second phase.

Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in Newcastle ahead of the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures People release balloons in front of the Grenfell Tower during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the fire (Peter Summers/Getty Images) Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Downing Street is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire EPA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Kensington Palace is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in Salford ahead of the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in by the Grenfell Tower ahead of the second anniversary of the fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Cards bearing names of victims of the Grenfell fire are attached to a railing nearby to the tower Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures People obersve a memorial during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in Salford ahead of the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures The Grenfell Tower is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Kensington Palace is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Downing Street is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire EPA

How will phase two differ from phase one?

Phase one of the Grenfell Inquiry established what happened on the night of the fire, while phase two will attempt to explain why it happened.

It will consider how the high-rise block came to be wrapped in flammable cladding and call witnesses involved in the refurbishment of the tower.

Although Grenfell was built in 1974, it was significantly altered between 2012 and 2016, most significantly when combustible aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding was added over its concrete exterior.

Recommended Grenfell Tower inquiry panel member quits after cladding link exposed

The lead architects for the main refurbishment, Studio E, and the firm Rydon, the lead design and building contractor, were called to deliver opening statements on Monday, along with Harley Facades Ltd, a cladding subcontractor to Rydon.

The inquiry wants to establish the precise reasons why the cladding was added to the building, according to the phase one report.

Phase two will be split into seven modules, which will attempt to answer how robustly cladding products were tested and how residents complaints to the towers management were dealt with.

More than 93,000 documents have been disclosed so far for this phase, which is due to run until June 2012, the inquiry said.

Who is Benita Mehra?

The second stage of the inquiry comes just days after a newly-appointed member of the panel resigned over links to a charitable arm of the firm that supplied Grenfells deadly cladding

Benita Mehra had been appointed as an expert panellist but tendered her resignation to Boris Johnson, the prime minister, on Saturday following pressure from victims families and campaigners.

It was revealed that Ms Mehra is an immediate past president of the Womens Engineering Society, which, according to the its website, received funding last year from Arconic  the supplier of the cladding  for an apprentice conference.

Michael Mansfield QC, a lawyer representing victims of the fire, said there had been a stunning silence from Mr Johnson and the Cabinet Office over the resignation of Ms Mehra.

Mr Mansfield said on Monday there had been not a word about whether there is going to be a replacement for her on the panel.

What do survivors groups want from phase two?

Survivors groups have called for phase two of the inquiry to focus on who is to blame for the devastating refurbishment, with Grenfell United saying they hope it will expose the people and organisations who put profit and greed above safety.

The group, which represents bereaved families and survivors, added: Those responsible continue to deflect blame and we have to suffer their persistent refusal to accept accountability for the preventable loss of life.

They must now be held to account.

Grenfell United has also called for criminal charges to be brought against anyone found responsible for the deaths.

The Metropolitan Police, which is conducting its own investigation into the fire, has said possible criminal charges including gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and breaches of the Health and Safety Act are being considered.

However, any decision on charges will not be announced until the public inquiry has concluded.

Richard Millett QC, counsel to the inquiry, has accused those involved in the refurbishment of showing no trace of responsibility for the disaster.

With the sole exception of RBKC (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea), not a single core participant involved in the primary refurbishment of Grenfell Tower has felt able to make an unqualified submission against its own interests, Mr Millett told the inquiry on Monday.

Additional reporting by PA
AGC elects 2020 officers, board

Gimmestad

Curt Gimmestad

President

Curt Gimmestad, operations director at Absher Construction Co., started with the company as a project engineer in 1993. Gimmestad has served the AGC in many capacities, including first vice president in 2019, an association trustee, and an instructor and executive board member for the Education Foundation. He also is a member of the Association for Learning Environments and the Capital Advisory Review Board's Project Review Committee.









Stephens

Dawn Stephens

First Vice President

Dawn Stephens is the CFO of Charter Construction, where she oversees financial processes and operations. Her career as a finance professional spans more than 25 years at several construction and real estate firms. In 2006, Stephens joined Harbor Properties as corporate controller and later became CFO. She is active in Commercial Real Estate Women, is past president of the Puget Sound Chapter of the Construction Financial Managers Association, and serves on several committees benefiting the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.









Slattery

Glyn Slattery

Second Vice President

Glyn Slattery is the western region vice president and project executive for Lydig Construction. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in building construction/construction management and a master's from the University of Colorado in civil engineering/construction management. Slattery has been an active leader in the AGC throughout his career, is a past board member and won the AGC of Washington's Contractor of the Year award. In 2014, he collaborated with the city of Seattle to improve communications, teamwork and efficiency. His input and participation resulted in a more engaging and harmonious project environment.









Pizzey

Grace Pizzey

Secretary/Treasurer

Grace Pizzey is the vice president at Holaday-Parks in Seattle and has served as AGCW's secretary/treasurer for the past year. With a bachelor's degree in economics from Colorado College, she brings 25 years of experience in financial and business management including executive leadership, board membership, financial reporting, legal representation, personnel development, budgeting, risk management/mitigation and human resources.









Mayo

Paul Mayo

Past President

Paul Mayo, Flatiron West's Northwest area manager, served as the AGC of Washington's 2019 president. He was the recipient of AGC of Washington's Contractor of the Year award, and was a key contributor to the AGC-led effort to pass a state transportation package during the 2016 session. He also served as co-chairman of WSDOT's Design-Build Committee, and is active in AGC's Next-Generation Task Force.









Board members

John Huntley, Mills Electric Co.

John Salinas, Salinas Construction

JB Gibson, Clise Properties

Sean Hilt, Turner Construction Co.

Bryan Kelley, Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company

Patrick McQueen, Lease Crutcher Lewis

Matt Osborne, Osborne Construction Co.

Lindsay Watkins, Ahlers Cressman & Sleight

Brad Neudorfer, Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company





District representatives

Jeff Tiegs, Lincoln Construction (Southern District)

Chris Lang, Fisher Construction Group (Northern District)

Ross Pouley, RAP Consulting (Seattle District)

Tanya Davis, Western Ranch Buildings (Central District)





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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 20:50:34|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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VALLETTA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) rescued 95 migrants and brought them to Malta on Monday after rescuing 47 on Sunday.

A government statement said the second group, which included two women, were brought in to the AFM Maritime base on Monday morning after having been rescued during the night. One man was rushed to Mater Dei Hospital for urgent medical attention.

Meanwhile, according to NGO Alarm Phone, it had been alerted to at least seven boats in distress in the central Mediterranean region. Five had been rescued by NGOs and two by Malta.
Yemen's Huthi rebels said on Monday they had transferred 64 child soldiers captured during fighting to a rehabilitation centre and planned to release them in two months.

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said it welcomed the move.

Abdulqader al-Murtadha, the head of the Huthis' prisoners of war committee, told AFP in Sanaa that "these children were captured on the war fronts while fighting (alongside) government troops".

The children would be handed over to the rebel administration's social affairs ministry for a two-month rehabilitation course before their final release, Murtadha said.

Murtadha accused the Yemeni government and the "countries of aggression", a reference to the Saudi-led coalition fighting there since March 2015, of recruiting teenagers and sending then to the frontlines.

A UN source said all the 64 captured combatants are under 18 years of age.

UNICEF representative Sara Beysolow Nyanti wrote on Twitter that "I welcome the release today in Sanaa by the Ansar Allah (Huthis) of 64 children allegedly captured during military operations".

She voiced hope the rebels would sign up to an action plan "to end the recruitment and use of children in the conflict in Yemen".

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have been killed in the past five years during fighting between the Yemeni government backed by the coalition and the Iran-backed Huthis.

The United Nations and many non-governmental groups have repeatedly denounced the recruitment of child soldiers by both the rebels and the government.

In February 2017, the UN High Commission for Human Rights identified some 1,500 child soldiers in Yemen.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chennai, Jan 27 : Chennai police have arrested eight persons in connection with an alleged attempt of attack on the residence of Thuglak Editor S. Gurumurthy.

According to police, a group of motorcycle-borne persons were planning to throw petrol bombs at Gurumurthy's residence on Sunday morning, but sped away after seeing the police security.

Police on Monday said special probe teams were set up and arrested eight persons -- Sasikumar, Janardhanan, Balu, Tamizh, Prasanth, Sakthi, Deepan and Vasudevan.

Two persons out of the group were moving around Gurumurthy's residence in a suspicious manner and a dog inside started barking.

The police security personnel chased them and foiled the attack.

In a statement, police said Sasikumar had several cases pending against him including that of petrol bomb attack on Woodlands Hotel and Sathyam theatre here.

Meanwhile in a series of tweets on Monday, Gurumurthy said: "The current story goes back to the arrest of Police Fakruddin in 2013 who confessed he had been caught before he could shoot me. He had done recci at home & office. The police then insisted I must have a gun man with me and advised us to install CCTV cameras at home and office." Gurumurthy tweeted that lifestyle of his family doesn't allow rearing dog.

"One of my long-standing friend started sending a dog with its guard everyday between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

"This has been happening for 5 years now. It is that dog that alerted the security and made the miscreants attack impossible," he said.

According to Gurumurthy, the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had advised as to what should and should not be done and an Intelligence Bureau official also visited personally often to keep him on the alert.

"Lessons for the attackers. One, they must know I have been facing threats for 30 years. Theirs is not new to me. Two, they need better training and more courage," Gurumurthy tweeted.
US congressmen Babin, Olson expressing concerns in a letter to PM Giorgi Gakharia - GeorgianJournal
New Delhi: The Modi government is likely to introduce heavy-duty measures for rationalization of key equity taxes including scrapping capital gains on sale of property, shifting the tax applicability of dividend distribution tax (DDT) to the receiver and extending the timeline of long-term capital capital gains (LTCG) tax from the current 12 months to 24 months, in the upcoming Budget.

In what is being termed as a make or break Budget to revive the economy, if the breakthrough measure materializes, it will be doing away with capital gains on the sale of a property. The move has the potential to revive the real estate sector which is in the doldrums and facing immense stress.

The government is considering a proposal to do away with capital gains on the selling property. Currently, one has to pay 30% capital gains on the sale of a property, if the property holder doesn`t re-invest it back in property within 3 years.

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If the property is sold within 24 months, one has to pay a short-term capital gains tax (STCG) on the gains as per an individual`s income-tax slab.

After 24 months, one has to pay an LTCG tax, which is charged at 20% with indexation benefits. Section 54 gives an exemption if there is sale of a property and then another one is bought.

This exemption under section 54 is available when the capital gains from a property sale are reinvested into buying or constructing maximum two houses.

However, the capital gains on the sale of house property must not exceed Rs 2 crore in order to claim an exemption for reinvesting in two properties. This benefit can be claimed only once in a lifetime.

The exemption will be reversed if this new property is sold within three years of purchase and capital gains from sale of the new property will be taxed as short-term capital gains. The new properties must be purchased either one year before the sale or two years after the sale of the property. Alternatively, the new residential properties must be constructed within three years of sale of the property.

DDT

In addition, the government is likely to change the applicability of dividend distribution tax (DDT) by shifting the tax liability from dividend issuer or the company to the receiver.

Currently, the dividend distribution tax is levied at an effective rate of 20.56% on the company declaring dividends. This is over and above the corporate tax. Apart from this, resident non-corporate taxpayers need to pay 10% tax on dividends in excess of Rs 10 lakh a year. The DDT was introduced for more efficient collection of dividend tax from the companies rather than shareholders.

LTCG on equity

In a move that will fire up the stock markets, the government is likely to extend the timeline of long term capital gains (LTCG) on shares from the current 12 months to 24 months.

Currently, LTCG of 20% is paid by domestic investors if they hold equity for 12 months, and 10% is charged to non-residents if they hold equity for 12 months.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Damaturu, Yobe State, has expressed disappointment and sadness over reports that Leah Sharibu has given birth to a baby boy while being held hostage by the Boko Haram terrorists in the northeast Nigeria.\

The news that Leah gave birth to a baby boy in the Boko Haram den broke out at the weekend, compounding the trauma of the Christian community in Nigeria and Leahs family and hometown in Yobe State.

Reports indicated that a clergy in Damaturu, Rt. Reverend Yohana Audu, expressed his sadness over the news of Leah giving birth to a child in her captivity. He decried that the traumatic occurrence shows the failure of the government to secure her release long ago. Rev, Audu, however, still anticipates the safe and prompt return of Leah Sharibu.

The Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Yobe State, Reverend Bright Ogbasiegbe, had also lamented CAN members are disappointed about latest information on Leah giving birth to a child in captivity. The CAN State Secretary demanded thorough investigation. He, however, prayed for safe and quick return of Leah.

The Christian community in Yobe State are not giving up on her return; the community demanded the Federal Government to intensify efforts to secure the release of Leah sharibu.

Leah Sharibu was abandoned by the federal government rescue team who negotiated the release of the Dapchi schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram because of her Christian faith which they said she refused to renounce, while all the Muslim converts were set free.

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A third of Brits say they know little of nothing about the Holocaust, a survey has found. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A third of British people say they know little or nothing about the Holocaust, a survey has found.

The poll comes as survivors of Auschwitz return to the Nazi death camp to mark the 75th anniversary of its liberation.

Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps, was established in 1940 in German-occupied Poland, near the city of Oswiecim.

More than 1.1m men, women and children died there, of whom an estimated 1m were Jewish. 6m Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust.

More than 1.1 million people, including children, were murdered at the Auschwitz death camp. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A survivor attends commemorations at Auschwitz. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

The YouGov survey asked a panel of 2,663 adults how much they feel they know about the Holocaust.

19% said they know a great deal, and 46% said they know a moderate amount.

27% said they know a small amount and 5% said they know nothing at all.

To mark #HolocaustMemorialDay we asked Brits how much they know about the events of the Holocaust:



A great deal - 19%

A moderate amount - 46%

A small amount - 27%

Nothing - 5%https://t.co/vwHn4FgHHW #Auschwitz75 pic.twitter.com/KrGDYh5bhe  YouGov (@YouGov) January 27, 2020

Older people were less likely to say they know nothing about the Holocaust  1% of over 65s gave this answer compared with 8% of 25-49 year olds.

Speaking on Monday, the chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust urged people do do better to call out anti-Semitism and commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

Karen Pollock said: I never thought when I started this work that I would have spent the past three years calling out anti-Semitism in mainstream politics.

I didnt expect to witness attacks on synagogues in Halle in Germany or in Pittsburgh.

I dont think any of the survivors thought they would witness what they have witnessed in their lifetime and its for their sake that we need to do better.

Story continues

READ MORE:

'I am here': Holocaust survivors mark Auschwitz liberation

Concentration camp survivor turns 100 on Holocaust Remembrance Day

The history of Auschwitz

Auschwitz was liberated on 27 January, 1945, when Soviet soldiers reached the camp.

The Nazis had been evacuating prisoners from the camp and had been destroying evidence of their crimes since mid-1944.

Between 17 and 21 January, 1945, about 56,000 prisoners were marched out of Auschwitz.

It is estimated that at least 9,000 people died during the evacuation.

About 7,000 prisoners lived to see the liberation of Auschwitz and were admitted to hospital or allowed to return home.
Google continues to bring updates to its camera with new features like Do Not Disturb and slightly tweaked the menus in the settings. But more interestingly, with an APK teardown, future features have been revealed like a 24fps mode and even the codenames for the upcoming Pixel 4A.

One of the minor changes in this update is the slight tweak in the settings panels for Portrait and Camera modes. The settings have been rearranged with the flash setting at the top of the menu with the other settings retaining their original order.

A cool feature in this update is the option of activating Do Not Disturb mode when using the camera. This will prevent notifications from interrupting the user when shooting a video. For most users, this option will automatically be turned on once the app updates.

From the APK teardown, few more interesting updates have been noted. Videography has never been a strong suit for Pixel devices. There has been a lot of backlash from users for Google choosing to not include high frame rate options at 4k in the Pixel 3 and 4. Interestingly, Google also did not allow 24fps shooting, a mode that cinematographers love to use. But that might change as a 24fps mode was spotted in the new Camera APK.

And lastly, a possible leak of sorts was discovered as the codename of the upcoming Pixel 4A devices called needlefish. The name was spotted in the list of whitelisted devices for which the Camera app is intended to be compatible. It is unclear as to whether the codename is confirmed but we will get more updates the closer we get to its launch.

You can check out the new Google Camera v7.3 on your Pixel devices here.

Source 1, 2
(Kitco News) - Gold prices are higher and hit a three-week high in early U.S. futures trading Monday. Safe-haven demand for gold and silver prices is featured as the weekend saw the coronavirus outbreak spread significantly. However, gains in the metals are being somewhat tempered by the steep drop in crude oil prices, which hit a 3.5-month low overnight. February gold futures were last up $11.70 an ounce at 1,583.60. March Comex silver prices were last up $0.162 at $18.275 an ounce.

Asian and European stock markets were solidly down overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward sharply lower openings when the New York day session begins. Over the weekend the coronavirus illness that apparently originated in China has rapidly spread, killing at least 80 of its citizens, with nearly 8,500 cases now reported in China. Several Chinese cities are under quarantine.

Several cases are now reported in the U.S. as doctors are now saying the illness is more easily contractable. There are increasing worries the outbreak could hurt world economic growth. Raw commodity prices, including crude oil, are slumping. Safe-haven gold prices are higher Monday. This week is the Chinese Lunar New Year holidaythe most important holiday in China. Chinese authorities have extended the week-long holiday by two days due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Reports of a Boeing jetliner crashing in Afghanistan are further unsettling the marketplace. Details on the purported crash are sketchy with Boeing officials currently denying one of their planes has crashed.

The key outside markets today see crude oil prices sharply lower, at a 3.5-month low, and trading around $52.35 a barrel. Meantime, the U.S. dollar index is slightly higher and hit a seven-week high overnight, as the USDX is trending up.

Technically, the gold bulls have the firm overall near-term technical advantage, but the January spike high is still strong chart resistance to overcome. A price uptrend is in place on the daily chart. Bulls next upside price objective is to produce a close in February futures above solid resistance at the January high of $1,613.30. Bears' next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $1,550.00. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $1,588.40 and then at $1,600.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,575.30 and then at $1,565.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 7.0.

March silver futures bulls have regained the slight overall near-term technical advantage. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at the January high of $18.895 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at the January low of $17.59. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $18.375 and then at $18.50. Next support is seen at the overnight low of $18.145 and then at $18.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 5.5.
Victims from some banks' mis-selling of derivative-linked fund (DLF) options hold a protest, urging financial regulators to remove leaders of Woori Bank and KEB Hana Bank from their posts, in front of the headquarters of the Financial Supervisory Service on Yeouido in Seoul, on Jan. 16. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



Major bank stocks here are unlikely to bounce back in 2020, as unfavorable regulatory policies will continue holding back their interest income growth, according to experts, Monday.



Revenue from loan interest has been a major cash cow for most banks here, but the government is planning to introduce more regulations to prevent investors in particular from getting additional mortgages



Analysts say there is little potential for a rebound at a time when it remains tough for banks to find new revenue sources in the non-interest sector. What is worse is that they continue to be involved in sales fiascos that produce scandals. This has damped investors' appetite for leading financial firms here, such as Shinhan, Hana and Woori.



"Bank stocks are in a slump amid predictions that their 2020 earnings will be on par with 2019 at best," IBK Investment & Securities analyst Lee Eun-gab said.



The weakening stock price is in part due to the outlook that their loan businesses will continue to be hit by existing and upcoming government regulations on mortgages, according to the economist.



The stock price of Shinhan Financial Group, the nation's biggest financial holding firm, closed at 41,200 won ($35.27) Jan. 23, a drop of about 10 percent from Dec. 16 when the price reached as high as 46,150 won.



Other top-tier banks also reported a steep decline in their stock valuation in the first month of the year.



Woori Financial Group was hit hardest by the falls in stock valuation. Its stock price was traded as high as 12,450 won Nov. 15, but nosedived to 10,350 won Jan. 10, a decline of around 17 percent.



"Bank stocks have recently underperformed more than those of other industries," the IBK's Lee said. Banks' shareholder return policy is one factor raising expectations for a rebound, but this is just an intermittent event and not a sign to drive stable growth, he added.



The brokerage maintained a "neutral" view on whether to invest in bank stocks amid the weak outlook.



Another economist at Hana Financial Investment pointed out that banks failed to make a meaningful rebound in January due to lingering uncertainties surrounding their leadership.



"Banks have recently failed to find opportunities for a rebound amid widening uncertainties on the fate of some of CEOs in the wake of the scandalous sales fiasco regarding the troubled hedge fund Lime Asset Management," Choi Chung-uk said.



Aside from the "Lime fiasco," Woori and Hana were involved in the recent mis-selling of derivative-linked fund (DLF) options to hundreds of customers late last year.



The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) plans to decide on the level of sanctions against the leaders of the two financial holding firms, Jan. 30.



On Jan. 22, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung received a suspended jail term after being found guilty of exerting personal influence in the recruitment of some employees.



However, Choi said the banks' stock process have already bottomed out despite their involvement in such scandals.



"The stock prices of the banks have already declined too much, and chances are that the prices will be readjusted before or after early February when their fourth-quarter earnings reports are released," he said.


The Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Segun Awolowo has said that 20 million Nigerians will be lifted out of poverty if the country implements the zero oil plan.

Awolowo said that the zero oil plan is a long term goal of earning 20 percent Nigeria GDP ($100b) from non oil export, adding that the initial target is to exceed $30billion over the next 10 years.

The Executive Director who stated this Monday when he paid a courtesy visit to Governor Babagana Zulum at the Government House Maiduguri further told the governor that "the vision of NEPC is to make the world a market place for Nigerian non-oil goods and services."

"While its mission is to spearhead the diversification of the Nigerian economy by expanding and increasing non-oil exports for sustainable and inclusive economic growth", Awolowo said.

He lamented on the countrys over dependence on crude oil which is Nigerias major source of revenue.

Awolowo said the zero-oil plan will lead to the achievement of three results, if well implemented.

The zero oil plan will add an extra $150bn ( minimum) to Nigerias foreign reserves accumulating from non- oil exports over the next 10 years,.

The zero oil will create at least 500,000 additional jobs annually due to an increase in productive and export activities helping to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal( SDG) to decent work and economic growth.

The zero oil plan will lift at least at least 20 million Nigerians out of poverty., Awolowo said.

Awolowo had earlier said Nigeria could earn $30 billion and create 500,000 export-oriented jobs through 22 products from the non-oil sector.

He said the country could generate huge revenue from cocoa, cotton, cement, leather, cashew, sesame, shea butter, palm oil, fertiliser, petrochemicals and rubber.

In his remarks, Governor Zulum commended the NEPC Executive Director, describing him as a reputable investment guru.

However, he said the states economy needs to be revamped following Boko Haram attacks which have affected it's economic activities.
A 38-year-old father is facing a string of criminal charges in Colorado, where authorities allege he killed his toddler son by running him over with his vehicle while impaired by drugs.

Last week, Isaac Bullard was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, vehicular homicide, child abuse and careless driving causing death after driving over his 23-month-old son, Jesse James Bullard, in the driveway of his Canon City, Colorado, residence.

The fatal incident happened Wednesday, and was captured by a neighbors surveillance cameras.

Police were called to Bullards residence just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

The Canon City Daily Record, citing the arrest affidavit, reports that the surveillance footage apparently shows Bullard leaving the driveway at 10:33 a.m. and going eastbound on Natalie Street.

In the footage, the truck is seen backing over Jesse, according to the paper. The footage showed Issacs truck returning at about 10:47 a.m., the arrest affidavit alleges. The footage showed Issac picking [his son] up, getting into the truck and leaving.

The Mountain Mail of Salida, Colorado, reports that Bullard allegedly admitted to running his son over when speaking to police.

Bullard also allegedly admitted to ingesting marijuana hours earlier, and said he was still high at the time of the incident.

Police have filed additional drug charges against Bullard after allegedly finding 79 marijuana plants in his home.

In addition to cultivation of 30 or more marijuana plants, Bullard was charged with possession with the intent to manufacture and/or distribute marijuana 50 lbs. or greater, unlawful manufacture of marijuana concentrate and special offender, according to online court records.

It was not immediately clear if Bullard has entered a plea or retained an attorney to comment on his behalf.

Jesses mother, Tamlin Bullard, spoke to 11 News about her sons death from Texas, the station reports .

Story continues

Once again, Isaac put marijuana in front of his family, Tamlin Bullard told the station. He threw away his marriage to pursue his dream; now his actions of illegal activities has cost us our child.

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The grieving mother said her son has touched so many people. So many peoples lives changed because of him. I just wish that Isaacs would have changed because of him. But it didnt.

She added: Jesse was, he was just the most amazing boy youve ever met. Anyone walking beside him, anyone who didnt know him, his smile would just warm your soul. He was just the most amazing boy youve ever met. He loved everything. He loved nature. He loved animals. He was a mans boy. I think that God brought him to us to bless our lives for such a short time. Then he [God] realized he was just too perfect for this cruel world and brought him home.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched, intent on raising funds for the boys funeral.
[January 27, 2020] Expansion of networks contributes to a doubling of fixed broadband penetration.

Sydney, Jan. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, the 25th edition of Paul Budde Communications annual report on Nepal outlines the major developments and key aspects in the mobile, broadband and fixed line telecoms markets. Comprehensive data is provided on regulatory developments, spectrum assignments and licensing, subscriber statistics, penetration rates and the key market players.

Read the executive summary of the report here - Nepal - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Expansion of networks contributes to a doubling of fixed broadband penetration. Fixed broadband penetration in Nepal remains very low mainly due to a limited number of fixed lines and the subsequent dominance of the mobile platform. However, the market has grown strongly over the past five years with penetration more than doubling since 2017. Over the next five years to 2024 strong growth is expected to continue. The increase in development of FTTH etworks is fuelling the growing demand for fast Internet in the country,



Between 2018 and 2019 numerous ISPs announced contracts to deploy fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). This is in line with the governments vision of a digital society, whereby 90% of the population will have access to broadband services by 2020. Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has signed an agreement for the Nepals first national satellite to be built and launched. The launch is expected in 2022 and the satellite will be used to expand the countrys internet access.

Fixed Broadband Subscribers 2009  2019 Nepal has also seen a very rapid increase in mobile broadband penetration over the past seven years driven by increasing numbers of 3G and 4G mobile subscribers. However, the mobile broadband market is still at an early stage of development with penetration well below most other Asian countries. Strong growth is predicted over the next five years to 2024. Nepal is ranked 24th within Asia for telecoms maturity according to BuddeComms Telecoms Maturity Index. Compared to other Asian nations it has very low fixed line and fixed-broadband penetration and low mobile broadband penetration. Read the executive summary of the report here - Nepal - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Table Of Contents Key statistics

Country overview

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Fixed Network Operators

Telecommunications infrastructure

Fixed-line broadband market

Mobile market

Major mobile operators

Digital economy

Digital media Nicolas Bombourg [email protected] Within Australia (02) 8076 7665 Outside Australia - UK +44 207 097 1241

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 20:30:31|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Troops of India and Pakistan exchanged heavy fire and mortar shelling on the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir on Sunday evening, state-run broadcaster -- All India Radio (AIR) said Monday.

The two sides targeted each other's positions and civilian areas in Degwar sector of Poonch about 185 km southwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The broadcaster quoting Indian army sources said Pakistani army opened unprovoked fire on civilian areas and Indian forward posts on Sunday evening.

"Indian army is retaliating befittingly with equal calibre," AIR said. "The shelling by Pakistan army was on when reports last came in."

There were no reports of any casualty in the firing on the Indian side, however, the broadcaster said a few houses in the village suffered damage because of the shelling.

The troops of India and Pakistan intermittently exchange fires on the LoC and International Border (IB) in Kashmir, despite an agreement in 2003 to observe a ceasefire. However, the ceasefire remains in effect.

New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of resorting to unprovoked firings and violating ceasefire agreements. And both sides maintain their troops gave befitting reply to the other side.

The LoC is a de facto border that divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani controlled parts.
Seventy-five years ago the Red Army swept through southern Poland from the east and liberated the notorious death camp of Auschwitz. Soviet soldiers were met with the most depraved living conditions as they encountered a camp complex that systematically murdered 1.1 million men, women, and children. Of those 1.1 million, an estimated 1 million were Jews.

Today, on the 75th anniversary of their liberation, some 200 Auschwitz survivors are expected to walk the paths of the camp. Traveling from the United States, Australia, Israel, Peru, Russia, and Slovenia, survivors were brought to Poland by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and Ronald S. Lauder, the World Jewish Congress president.

As world leaders gather to mark the anniversary, and as Russia and Poland feud over World War II history, the past is seemingly serving the aims of present-day politics. Amidst this, Winston Churchills words perhaps ring truer, even today: Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.

With anti-Semitism on the rise worldwide, the horrific lessons of the Holocaust are all the more important. Jeanette Speigel, a 96-year-old survivor told the Associated Press, Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated.

David Lenga, who survived Auschwitz and was liberated in 1945, told NBC, I remember the hangings. I remember the horror. I remember the smoke of the chimney coming out from the crematoria. I remember everything.

For many survivors, the notorious death camp is the place where their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, and uncles perished. Without a gravestone to visit, this pilgrimage is a way to pay tribute to their dead and remember the depravity so that the never again phrase is more than just words.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau a handwritten note carved in one of the barracks still survives and reads, We live as long as the memory of us is alive.

Today we honor that memory.
'Shaheen Bagh' has gradually taken the centre stage in the BJP's election campaign in Delhi, pitchforking its nationalist agenda which has virtually overshadowed its polls plank of development work by the Centre.

Top BJP leaders, party president J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other union ministers -- who have been holding at least two-three public meeting everyday -- have repeatedly hit out at the opposition parties for backing the protest against Citizenship (Amendment) Act in south Delhi, which has been attracting thousands everyday since mid-December.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, senior BJP leader and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged the protest site is emerging as "a textbook case of a few hundred people trying to suppress the silent majority".

He also claimed that those trying to fragment India are getting cover at Shaheen Bagh protest where the tricolour is being waved.

The party has also targeted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the remarks made by Sharjeel Imam, a JNU student, and one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest.

At a rally in Rithala, Shah on Monday dared Kejriwal to visit Shaheen Bagh so that people of Delhi can decide who to vote for in the February 8 election.

He said the Delhi Police has booked Imam on sedition charge for his comment of "trying to cut the chicken's neck" and break the northeast from the rest of the country.

"I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi," Shah said.

On Sunday, the Union Home Minister said voting for the BJP in Delhi polls will prevent "thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh".

A senior Delhi BJP leader cited an internal survey claiming there were around 30 per cent voters who are still largely undecided about who to vote.

The BJP, which is attempting to return to power in Delhi after two decades, has been focusing on this segment of voters, he said.

Hundreds of women have been protesting at the Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The sit-in, which has been on for more than a month now, has received both support as well criticism.

Its critics claim that the protestors have blocked the road, causing inconvenience to many, including students, motorists. There have been other protest sites like Shaheen Bagh in the national capital as well as other parts of the country.

The Delhi Police, which takes care of law and order in the national capital and comes under the Centre, has so far only made appeals to the protestors but that has not worked.

In response to a plea, the Delhi High Court on January 14 did not order removal of traffic restrictions. The court said no direction can be issued by it on how to handle an agitation or the place of protest and the traffic as it depended on ground reality and wisdom of police.

Addressing party workers last month, Shah had said the BJP will fight the polls under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and highlight the developmental work carried out in the national capital by the Centre in the last five years.

However, since last week the BJP has maintained its attack on the AAP and the Congress over their opposition to the CAA, which is a part of the saffron party's nationalist agenda, and the Shaheen Bagh protest.

In a rally last week, Shah accused Kejriwal of speaking Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's language and alleged the ruling AAP had engineered riots over the CAA, and the national capital will be unsafe if Kejriwal-led party is voted back to power.

He had also hit out at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who told a TV channel that he stood with Shaheen Bagh protesters, and said the AAP has worked to disrupt peace in the city.

Union minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh, known for his controversial remarks, accused the AAP and Congress of having links with Shaheen Bagh protest and asked the people if they will vote for such parties.

"Let's go with Modi and have a BJP government in Delhi. Cast your votes thinking of India's honour," he said in a video message posted on Twitter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police raided the ancestral home of anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam in Bihar, hunting for him in sedition cases lodged across several states for his alleged "inflammatory" speeches, but he eluded the dragnet, officials said on Monday.

Police in two northeastern states--Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh--lodged FIRs against the JNU scholar, over his speech in which he threatened to "cut off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country.

Jehanabad Superintendent of Police Manish Kumar said police swooped on Imam's ancestral house in Kako police station area on Sunday night after "help was sought by central agencies".

Imam was not to be found but two of his relatives and their driver were detained for interrogation and let off thereafter, the SP said.

A graduate in computer science from IIT-Mumbai, Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the Centre for Historical Studies at the JNU.

He was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speeches went viral on social media where he was heard speaking about "cutting off" Assam and the northeast from India.

Earlier, he had been booked on similar charges by Aligarh police in Uttar Pradesh for a speech he delivered on the AMU campus.

The cases were lodged after Imam's purported video emerged where he spoke about cutting off the northeast from India if "five lakh people stand organised".

"If five lakh people are organised, we can cut off the northeast and India permanently. If not, at least for a month or half a month. Throw as much 'mawad' (variously described as pus or rubbish) on rail tracks and roads that it takes the Air Force one month to clear it.

"Cutting off Assam (from India) is our responsibility, only then they (the government) will listen to us. We know the condition of Muslims in Assam....they are being put into detention camps," he was shown in the video as saying.

Assam police has already lodged a case against him under the anti-terror law--the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act.

Imam's father, the late Akbar Imam, was a local JD(U) leader who had unsuccessfully contested an assembly election in his lifetime.

Meanwhile, police in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have registered FIRs against Imam under IPC sections relating to waging war against the nation and sedition. If convicted, he could be imprisoned for life.

"Taking cognisance of the objectionable video of Mr Sharjeel Imam, in which he threatened to sever Northeast from the rest of country, the Manipur Police has filed an FIR (No. 16(1)2020 IPS) under sections 121/121-A/124-A/ 120-B /153 IPC," Rajat Sethi, an adviser to the Manipur chief minister tweeted. Singh retweeted it. The case was filed on Saturday.

The crime branch of Arunachal Pradesh police also filed a similar case against Imam on Sunday, Special Investigation Team (SIT) SP Dr Navdeep Singh Brar said.

The SIT has already begun investigating the case.

"This kind of provocation inciting secession of Assam & other NE states from rest of India, creating communal disharmony, hampering sovereignty & territorial integrity of India will not be tolerated," Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu tweeted.

Imam's mother reacted with anguish to the developments back home in Bihar's Jehanabad.

"My son is innocent. He is a bright young man and not a thief or a pickpocket. I swear in the name of God that I do not know about his whereabouts," Afshan Rahim told reporters.

"But I can guarantee that upon learning about the cases, he will appear before the investigating agencies and fully cooperate in the probe," she said.

She said it has been a long time since she met her son though she had a telephonic conversation with him a few weeks ago.

"He was obviously disturbed by the CAA and fears over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) being implemented across the country which, he said, would affect not just Muslims but all poor people," she said.

Rahim said after 15 days of Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi, he had asked the agitators to withdraw and watch the situation for a month, before deciding on the further course of action.

"But they refused to relent. He was calling for a 'chakkajam' (road blockade). He is just a kid and not capable of instigating people for secession," a distraught Rahim said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that his lawyers "absolutely shredded" Democrats' case that he should be convicted of impeachment charges and removed from office.

A day after Trump's lawyers began their defense of him at his Senate trial, he said on Twitter, "The Impeachment Hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which has never been seen before."

He attacked the Democrats' lead prosecutor in the case, Congressman Adam Schiff, as "a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!"

Trump's trial resumes Monday before the 100 U.S. senators deciding his fate, with his lawyers laying out their argument that he did nothing wrong in asking Ukraine last July to launch an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone began his defense Saturday during two hours of arguments on the two impeachment charges Trump is facing  that Trump abused his presidency and obstructed congressional efforts to investigate his Ukraine-related actions.

Cipollone said Trump's legal team does not believe that Democrats from the House of Representatives prosecuting the case came "anywhere close to meeting their burden" that Trump committed "high crimes and misdemeanors"  the U.S. Constitution's standard for impeachment and removal from office.

Now, Cipollone and other Trump defense attorneys have said they will expand on their defense, in part focusing on why they believe there was nothing wrong with Trump's request last July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, his son Hunter Biden's work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to undermine Trump's campaign. No evidence has ever surfaced against the Bidens.

Over three days last week, seven House Democrats laid out their case that Trump endangered U.S. national security to benefit himself politically by asking for the Biden investigations by Ukraine at the same time he was withholding $391 million in military aid that Kyiv wanted to help fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"The evidence against the president is overwhelming," Congresswoman Val Demings, one of the House impeachment managers, told ABC News' "This Week" show on Sunday.

Criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, part of Trump's legal team, told "Fox News Sunday" that he will argue that there is not a "legally constitutional" argument that Trump can be impeached. He claimed that the offenses he is accused of have "to be a crime," a contention disputed by scholars supporting Trump's impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate.

Trump released the defense aid to Ukraine in September after a 55-day delay, even though Zelenskiy had not opened the Biden investigations. Republicans say that is proof that Trump had not engaged in a reciprocal deal with Kyiv  the military aid in exchange for the politically tinged investigations Trump wanted. Democrats say he did so only after the alleged scheme was exposed.

Trump's impeachment trial is only the third such event in U.S. history. After Trump's lawyers finish their defense of the country's 45th president, possibly by Monday evening, 16 hours have been set aside for the senators to ask questions of the House managers and the Trump lawyers.

With the completion of the question-and-answer session, Democrats then are expected to resume their efforts to try to get the Senate to vote to subpoena key witnesses familiar with Trump's actions, specifically former national security advisor John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others in Trump's orbit, as well as Ukraine-related documents from the White House, State Department and Defense Department.

But Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are opposed to calling witnesses and subpoenaing documents and instead are hoping to acquit Trump by week's end, just days ahead of his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 4.

With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Democrats will need the votes of four Republicans to secure a majority calling for witnesses and more documents, but so far do not have assurances of four Republican votes.

If the Democrats' subpoena efforts fall short, McConnell could move quickly to vote on the two articles of impeachment, which Trump is all but assured of winning since a two-thirds vote is needed for Trump's removal from office. No Republican has called for Trump's ouster.

On Saturday, Cipollone reiterated the oft-repeated criticism of the Democratic-led impeachment proceedings that they are trying to nullify Trumps 2016 election win and keep him off the November 2020 ballot when he is seeking a second term in the White House.

"Theyre here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we cannot allow that to happen, Cipollone said. It would violate our Constitution. It would violate our history. It would violate our obligations to the future. And, most importantly, it would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you.

In a two-hour session, White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura played a video clip of lead House manager Adam Schiff embellishing the conversation Trump had with Zelenskiy during a July 25 phone call that is central to the impeachment probe.

"Thats fake. Thats not the real call, thats not the evidence, Purpura said in an attempt to discredit Schiff and other Democrats.

Schiff said after the hearing that his recounting of the Trump-Zelenskiy call during the House impeachment investigation was in character with what the president was trying to communicate.

"During the July call, Zelenskiy told Trump that Ukraine sought more U.S. military assistance. Trump responded, I would like you to do us a favor, though, and then asked Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens. Trump's lawyers contend that the "us" refers to the United States, not Trump personally.

Even though the aid embargo was lifted in September, Congressman Jason Crow said during the House impeachment managers' closing arguments Friday, "It was only lifted because President Trump had gotten caught. Shortly before the release of the aid, a still-unidentified government intelligence official filed a complaint against Trump for soliciting a foreign government's help in investigating a political rival.

But Purpura said Saturday that Ukraine did not become aware of Trumps hold on the military aid until the latter part of August, well after the fateful July 25 call.

"There cant be a threat without a person knowing hes being threatened, Purpura said. There cant be quid pro quo without the quo. Democrats contend that Ukraine was already asking about the delay in the aid around the time of the Trump-Zelenskiy conversation.

Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached and tried before the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 because of a post-Civil War dispute over states that seceded from the union. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to a grand jury over a sex scandal. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted and remained in office until the end of their terms.
USAF E-11,

Twitter/Badr-ul-huda Media

The US military said a surveillance plane crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday.

Videos shared on social media showed the wreckage of a US Air Force Bombardier E-11A.

It was thought to be carrying half a dozen passengers.

The plane was first thought to be a commercial aircraft operated by Ariana Afghan Airlines.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A US Air Force surveillance plane crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday.

A US military official told Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson it was a Bombardier E-11A airborne communications plane.

It crashed in Taliban-controlled territory at 1:10 p.m. local time.

A statement from a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that all passengers, which he claimed included high-ranking CIA officers, were killed.

Local media reported that there were six victims of the crash.

Tariq Ghazniwal, a local journalist, told The Associated Press he saw two bodies lying beside the aircraft.

Ab Qadir Sediqi (@qadir_sediqi) January 27, 2020

The plane was first thought to be an Ariana Afghan Airlines commercial aircraft.

At first, Arif Noori, a spokesman for the governor of the Ghazni province, told Reuters that a Boeing plane belonging to the airline crashed in the Deh Yak district of the province.

US aif force crash bombadier

Twitter/Badr-ul-huda

Aviation experts and sleuths combed purported footage and images of the crash on social media and found that the plane was a US military Bombardier E-11A.

The US military later confirmed their suspicions.

The E-11A is used for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan, according to the AP.

Story continues

Ariana Afghan Airlines had denied reports of its involvement in the crash in a Facebook post.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday congratulated star shuttler P V Sindhu and others from the state on being selected for the Padma awards.

Rao has specially congratulated Sindhu for getting the Padma Bhushan award, a release from his office said.

The Chief Minister also greeted innovative farmer Chintala Venkata Reddy from Secunderabad and Sanskirt scholar Vijaya Saradhi Sri Bhashyam from Karimnagar on being selected for the Padma Shri.

Rao said it was unique individual contributions in their respective fields that brought national fame to Padma award winners and made them role models to others.

He also appreciated the Centre for honouring people who have rendered public service in their respective fields, the release added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CARLINVILLE  Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday visited Carlinville Intermediate School to tour the districts pre-kindergarten facilities and discuss his early childhood education goals.

Pritzker met with Carlinville Mayor Deanna Demuzio and state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill.

From our aggressive efforts to secure federal funding to our historic investments in early childhood programs and facilities, Illinois will become the best state in the nation for families raising young children, Pritzker declared last month. We have so much more to accomplish for Illinois families and their children, and this administration will continue investing in the care and education our kids need to succeed.

The visit took place as Pritzker gears up to build on the states record investment of $100 million in early childhood education programs, which will provide pre-K to 14,000 new children across Illinois. Last month, Pritzker announced a 20% increase to the reimbursement rate for child-care centers and home-based providers in certain rural and downstate communities, including Macoupin County.

Im deeply optimistic about the future of child care and early education in rural communities like Carlinville and the one I grew up in, Manar said. We have a governor who is committed to building an early childhood education system that empowers every student in Illinois to start kindergarten off on a strong foot, and I look forward to working with him to make it happen.

Manar  the architect of the states landmark Evidence-Based Funding reform for K-12 schools in 2017  plans to help push the states long-term plan to deliver equitable access to high-quality early childhood education and care services for all children birth to age 5.

In December, Pritzker selected Manar to co-chair the Governors Commission for Equitable Funding for Early Childhood Education and Care.
A pedestrian walks in front of an electric quotation board displaying share prices of world bourses, including the Tokyo Stock Exchange (top C), along a street in Tokyo on January 27, 2020. KAZUHIRO NOGI | AFP via Getty Images

Oil prices slumped to multi-month lows on Monday, with energy market participants increasingly concerned about demand growth as the coronavirus spreads globally. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $58.99 a barrel Monday afternoon, down nearly 2.8%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at $52.70, tumbling over 2.7%. Both crude benchmarks have slipped to lows not seen since early October, as oil traders closely monitor the outbreak of a deadly pneumonia-like virus. On Sunday, Chinese officials confirmed there had been more than 2,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 461 people in a critical condition as the death toll rose to 80. The virus, which started in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has spread to other major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Macao and Hong Kong. China has warned the ability of coronavirus to spread is getting stronger, spooking financial markets and prompting a sharp fall in oil prices. Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement on Sunday that he was confident the outbreak would be contained.

In an attempt to soothe energy participants' fears, Abdulaziz said, according to a Reuters report, that markets are "primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative market expectations adopted by some market participants despite (the virus') very limited impact on global oil demand." When asked whether Middle East producers  such as OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia  were likely to be much more concerned than they were letting on, John Carey, former deputy CEO of ADNOC Distribution, replied: "I think there is a worry, no question." "Whilst I think oil prices will drop and probably stay down for a few months  as they did after the SARS virus  I think there is a lot of work gone on in the region to actually protect it." "I think it is going to bounce around (and) I think you are going to see spikes," Carey told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday.

'Further weakness is anticipated'

Saudi Arabia's Abdulaziz has insisted that OPEC, along with other allied non-OPEC producers, have the capability to steady the oil market if necessary. The group, sometimes referred to as OPEC+, has been limiting supply to prop up crude futures and recently increased its agreed output reduction by 500,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 1.7 million b/d through March. Tamas Varga, senior analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said Monday that the brokerage had initially expected prices to "bottom out" at around $60 a barrel. But, "the Chinese epidemic has gotten us wrong-footed (and) further weakness is anticipated unless the epidemic is contained." "When it happens, prices are expected to stabilize and start climbing again in case OPEC reduces its production towards the 29 million (barrels per day) mark. Until then bears party in heaven and bulls burn in hell," Varga said in a research note.

An oil tanker sits beside transfer pipes at a terminal as it prepares to unload its cargo of fuel on July 4, 2018 in Zhoushan, China. VCG | Getty Images
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Over the last couple of weeks, the coronavirus has spread to various cities in China, as well as other countries. The death toll has reached 80 while more than 2,000 people have been infected. Chinese health experts warn that the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger, warning people to become vigilant and protect themselves from contracting the illness.

Latest death toll and confirmed cases

As of writing, Chinese officials confirmed that there are 2,744 cases of the potentially fatal disease with 461 in critical condition and a death toll reaching 80.

The government reported additional cases, with five confirmed cases in Hong Kong and two in Macau. Hong Kong started to deny entry to people who have visited the Hubei province, where Wuhan City is located, during the past two weeks.

Wuhan in Hubei is currently in lockdown and many other cities have issued travel bans. More than half a million medical staff have joined control, prevention, and treatment operations in the virus outbreak ground zero. The city has built more two new makeshift hospitals with at least two thousand beds, while factories work double-time to produce protective clothing and masks.

Cases in other countries

The Wuhan coronavirus or novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) first emerged in the city of Wuhan in China on New Years Day. In a couple of four weeks, the virus has spread to other countries, including Japan, Thailand, France, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, and the United States.

France has confirmed its three cases in Jan. 24, while Australia announced five cases of the novel coronavirus. In the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed its third case in Southern California, with more than 60 patients under observation for possible infection in over 20 states.

Virus ability to spread getting stronger

The new coronavirus strain is still under investigation since scientists have yet to fully understand its destructive potential. At present, scientists and health experts are trying to figure out where the virus started, how its transmitted, and how far it has spread.

Colorized transmission electron micrograph of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus particles (blue) found near the periphery of an infected VERO E6 cell (yellow). Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

During the first days of the outbreak, Chinese health officials traced the infection in a market in Wuhan City, but with the fast spread of the virus, they believe the virus can spread via human-to-human transmission. Chinese authorities also warned the public that the virus was able to spread during its incubation period, making it more difficult to control and contain.

The incubation period in humans is the period during which a person has the infection but no symptoms. The officials believe that in the current outbreak, the incubation period ranges between one and 14 days. Further, the countrys health minister said that the country is now entering a crucial stage since the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger. China's National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei did not estimate how long it would take to control the situation, but he added that travel restrictions and other precautionary measures can help mitigate the spread of the virus.

The current epidemic has revived memories of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that also originated in China, killing nearly 800 people as it has spread in many countries across the globe.

How to protect yourself

The Wuhan coronavirus or the 2019-nCoV belongs to the same family as that of SARS and MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). Coronaviruses belong to a family known as Coronaviridae. Usually, these viruses are found in animals, including livestock, pets, and even wildlife animals like bats. When these viruses transmit to humans, they can cause many signs and symptoms, such as fever, the difficulty of breathing, colds, cough, and inflammation in the lungs.

People who are at the highest risk of developing serious illness are those with compromised immune systems, the elderly, pregnant women, children, infants, and those with underlying respiratory disease.

The CDC warns individuals to report symptoms including fever, chills, headache, and sore throat, and seek medical attention immediately, to treat the condition and prevent further spread of the virus. Travelers should try to avoid contact with other people who display symptoms.

People should avoid going to crowded places, coming in contact with sick people, animal markets, and live or dead animals, including uncooked meat. Proper handwashing of about 20 seconds with soap and water is important to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. Do not touch your nose, mouth, or eyes with unwashed hands.

Further, for those who manifest the symptoms of Wuhan coronavirus, they are advised not to travel, seek medical attention, and cover their mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.

The Wuhan coronavirus infection has no known treatment and vaccine. At present, health practitioners provide treatment for the symptoms of the disease and supportive measures to prevent complications.
Four Indian business schools have made it to the top 100 list on the Financial Times' Global MBA Rankings 2020.

These are the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B), the Indian School of Business (ISB), the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

IIM-B jumped 6 places from last year to the 27th spot this year. The B-school scored a full 100 in the 'employed at three month' category, which suggests that graduates from the institute's one-year full time MBA programme, the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP), see 100 percent placements.

At the 28th rank is the Indian School of Business, which has seen a fall in its ranking from last year's 24th spot.

Meanwhile, IIM-C and IIM-A grabbed the 42nd and 61st spots respectively. For IIM-C, this is an improvement in ranking from last year's 49th position. Again, IIM-A which is considered one of India's leading business schools, has dropped from the 47th rank it achieved in 2019.

The FT Global Rankings takes into consideration parameters like the salary today, weighted salary, career progress, aims achieved, percentage of female faculty, percentage of female students and other such factors.
Ameya Dalvi

Our list of phones under Rs 15,000 undergoes a drastic change quarter after quarter. If you had a phone with 48 MP camera last quarter, you can get one with a 64 MP sensor now. If 4 GB RAM seemed decent for the budget then, you now have 6 GB on every handset in this list. And the evolution continues. So lets see which are the top smartphones one can buy under Rs 15,000 this month.

Best phones under Rs 15,000 you can buy in India

Redmi Note 8 Pro

You can now get the base variant of the Redmi Note 8 Pro (Review) in this budget. It comes with quad cameras at the back with a combination of 64 MP primary sensor, 8 MP (ultra-wide), 2 MP (macro) and 2 MP (depth sensor). The phone's design is quite elegant with a glass back and Gorilla Glass 5 protection at the front as well as at the back. The phone is on the larger side courtesy of its 6.53-inch Full HD+ display thats sharp and supports HDR. You get 6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal (expandable) storage.

The Redmi Note 8 Pro is powered by a MediaTek Helio G90T SoC which is quite a powerhouse for this segment and raises the performance bar. Not only does it outperform its Qualcomm counterparts in system benchmarks but comfortably takes the honours in gaming performance too. One can play PUBG Mobile on it in Ultra mode with HDR on. It has a 4,500 mAh battery that can last you for a couple of days of moderate usage without much gaming, and just over a day if you indulge in ample gaming. It runs Android Pie with MIUI 10 on top.

Redmi Note 8 Pro price in India: Rs 14,999 for 6 GB RAM/64 GB storage

Realme 5 Pro

Realme 5 Pro (Review) is another stylish phone that offers great value proposition along with quad cameras at the back. The camera combination here is similar to that of the Redmi Note 8 Pro except for the primary camera, which has a more than capable 48 MP sensor instead of 64 MP. The rear cameras manage to capture excellent shots with a great amount of detail, accurate colours, and sharpness. They do a good job with night photography too, and you have the Nightscape mode to take it a notch higher. The 16 MP front shooter wont disappoint selfie enthusiasts either.

The textured back makes the Realme 5 Pro look eye-catching. A layer of Gorilla Glass 3+ on its 6.3-inch Full HD+ screen protects it from scratches. It is powered by a Snapdragon 712 chip with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage that can be expanded further, thanks to a dedicated microSD card slot. Its 4,035 mAh battery easily lasts beyond a day, and in case it is running low at a crucial time, the company bundles a 20 W fast charger with VOOC Charge 3.0 to charge the battery doubly fast. It runs Android Pie with a fairly clean ColorOS 6.0 user interface.

Realme 5 Pro price in India: Rs 13,999 for 6 GB RAM/64 GB storage

Poco F1

This phone just refuses to go away. And now that Poco has been floated as a separate entity, we can expect a Poco F2 sometime this year. Poco F1 (Review) arrived in late 2018 with Qualcomms then flagship, Snapdragon 845 SoC for just over 20K. While its base variant was priced at 21K at launch, you can now get its mid variant with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage under Rs 15,000. You can add up to 256 GB further to it using a microSD card, if you wish to. The design isnt the most eye-catching but it is still a beast in this segment when it comes to performance.

The Poco F1 comes with a 6.18-inch full HD+ notched display and a 12 MP + 5 MP dual-camera setup at the back that does a good job in average to good lighting. The image quality is pretty good but nothing fancy for 2020. Theres a more than decent 20 MP front camera for selfies. This is mainly a phone for gamers on a budget than camera enthusiasts. If you are looking to play PUBG Mobile in its full glory on a tight budget, Poco F1 is still a great option. The Poco launcher on top of Android Pie remains a better alternative to MIUI that you get on most Xiaomi phones.

Poco F1 price in India: Rs 14,999 for 6 GB RAM/128 GB storage

Vivo U20

Vivo U20 is a fairly recent launch that offers a bit of everything for a good price. This phone flaunts three rear cameras with a combination of 16 MP (primary) + 8 MP (ultrawide) + 2 MP (macro) lenses. The cameras do an acceptable job in various conditions for this budget range. This handset will keep the selfie enthusiasts interested with a 16 MP front shooter that captures some crisp shots.

The Vivo U20 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB expandable storage. It has a 6.53-inch Full HD+ display with a drop notch. The battery life here is quite impressive with a 5,000 mAh battery keeping the phone powered for close to two days of moderate usage. It supports fast charging and the company bundles an 18 W fast charger too to charge it quickly. The phone runs Android Pie with a layer of FunTouch OS 9.2 on top.

Vivo U20 price in India: Rs 11,990 for 6 GB RAM/64 GB storage

Lenovo K10 Note

Lenovo manages to hold on to its position in our list in this crowded midrange space with the highly competent K10 Note. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 710 SoC and comes bundled with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. It has a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with a drop notch. Theres a 4,050 mAh battery that can keep it powered for a day.

Camera department comprises of triple cameras with a combination of 16 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP sensors. But whats interesting here is that the company has opted for a telephoto lens instead of ultra-wide. So the Lenovo K10 Note provides you with 2X optical zoom, something not very common in this segment. Theres a 16 MP front camera for selfies. The phone runs Android Pie with ZUI 11 on top. Its price has come down by a good 20 percent in the past few months making it an even better deal.

Lenovo K10 Note price in India: Rs 11,999 for 6 GB RAM/128 GB storage

Thats it for now. If you are on a tighter budget, you may want to check our list of best phones under Rs 10,000 this month.
Shell casings from multiple firearms were found at the scene of a Lebanon County shooting on Sunday, investigators said.

According to Lebanon City police, officers heard gunshots about 2:05 p.m. Sunday near the intersection of North Eighth and Lehman streets.

In that area, officers later found shell casings from two different guns, police said.

Later, they also found an abandoned vehicle with bullet holes in its body near the 200 block of Gannon Street, police said.

A second vehicle involved in the shooting was described as a black SUV, police said.

There were no reports of injuries, police said.

Anyone with information about the shooting has been asked to contact police at 717-272-2054 or the Lebanon County Crime Stoppers at 717-270-9800.
The ad also was released on the same day Conway, a former assistant states attorney, released a new wave of television and digital ads criticizing Foxx for her handling of the Jussie Smollett case. Conways ad features his client Candace Clark who says she was charged with the same crime as Smollett but her case wasnt dismissed.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 17:46:06|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army has reached the outskirts of the Maarat al-Numan city, the second-largest city in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, a war monitor reported on Monday.

The Syrian army has captured 14 areas since Jan. 25 evening in the southern countryside of Idlib province amid heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Battles also continued in the western countryside of Aleppo province in northern Syria, where the rebels killed 12 Syrian soldiers on Monday during targeting their army positions on the outskirts of western Aleppo countryside, said the Britain-based watchdog group.

Capturing Maarat al-Numan will enable the Syrian army to secure the Hama-Aleppo road as part of an agreement reached in Russia's Sochi in 2018 that aims to secure the official road to Aleppo, which extends all the way south to the capital Damascus.

Since the Hama-Aleppo road is under rebel control, people have traveled to Aleppo through another extension of the road.

The army is now prioritizing the recapture of the entire road between Hama and Aleppo, which will enable the travel movement to return to its pre-war time from Damascus in the south to Aleppo in the north without rerouting to other roads.
An increase in the overdiagnosis of cancers are creating pyschosocial and physical concerns for patients who may never have been impacted by the disease, a study has revealed.

A paper in the Medical Journal of Australia highlighted concern over the increase in the overdiagnosis of cancer in Australia between 1982 and 2012.

According to the new research, led by a Bond University team, 22 per cent of breast cancers and 18 per cent of cancers in total were overdiagnosed in women in 2012.

In men, 42 per cent of prostate cancers and 42 per cent of renal cancers and 24 per cent of cancers overall were overdiagnosed.

Overdiagnosis is the discovery of cancers and provision of treatment such as chemotherapy for the disease in people who would never have experienced harm if undetected (stock)

A total of 54 per cent of melanomas were classed as overdiagnosed.

The study looked at breast, renal, prostate, thyroid and melanoma cancers.

Overdiagnosis is the discovery of cancers and provision of treatment such as chemotherapy for the disease in people who would never have experienced harm if undetected.

The paper suggests the increase in diagnoses can create an increased suicide risk in men and treatments such as surgery and radiotherapy cause harm only acceptable when the diagnosis is appropriate.

Professor Paul Glasziou, the Director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University, led the study.

Professor Glasziou said the increase in diagnosis rates were due to improvement and more people testing for cancers.

He said the problem is some screenings identify abnormal cells as cancer, but they only look like the disease and don't act like it.

'While much of the overdiagnosis is due to screening, many overdiagnosed cancer cases are incidental findings, that is, the patient is being tested for something else when the cancer is detected,' Professor Glasziou said.

'Getting the balance right between too little and too much screening and testing will not be easy, but this is an important step.

One medical expert said it is hard to determine what is considered overdiagnosed.

'There will be cancers diagnosed that will not go on to be life threatening,' Cancer Council CEO Professor Sanchia Aranda told The Age.

'But the issue remains that we don't always know which cancers are overdiagnosed and which cancers pose a real threat.

'Not diagnosing a cancer and having a woman die would be considered a bigger harm that the damage of getting a cancer diagnosis that was of a cancer that might not have harmed you.'
A health worker checks the temperature of a man entering the subway in Beijing, China on Jan. 26, 2020. (Betsy Joles/Getty Images)

Beijing Extends New Year Holiday as Conoravirus Death Toll Continues to Rise

The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China continued to climb on Jan. 27, as authorities extended the Lunar New Year holiday in an effort to stem the spread of the disease.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived at the central city of Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, on Monday and visited patients and medical staff amid growing pressure on the regime to prove it is effectively responding to the crisis.

Thousands have been infected in China. The youngest confirmed case is a 9-month-old girl in Beijing.

Overseas, confirmed cases linked to people who have traveled to Wuhan have been reported in more than 10 countries or regions, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, the United States, and Australia. No deaths have been reported outside of China.

Several Western countries including the United States and Australia, are working to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan.

Hong Kong, which has eight confirmed cases, on Monday barred entry to residents of Hubei Province or anyone who had visited Hubei in the past 14 days. The ban did not include Hong Kong residents.

The nearby gambling hub of Macau, which has had at least one case of the flu-like virus, imposed a similar ban on those arriving from Hubei unless they can prove they are virus-free.

Mongolia, which borders China, on Monday closed border crossings for pedestrians and auto traffic.

The city of Haikou on Hainan island in southern China said tourists from Hubei would be quarantined for 14 days.

Meanwhile, Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang on Monday said he and the local Chinese Communist Party leader were willing to resign amid rising criticism of the citys slow response to the outbreak.

Zhou, in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV, said he and the local Party secretary Ma Guoqing will bear any responsibility, while admitting that the city had been unsatisfactory in disclosing information about the outbreak.

Hospitals in Wuhan have posted urgent appeals online for medical equipment. Several hospitals in the city told The Epoch Times by telephone over the weekend that theyre overwhelmed with patients. Due to lack of supplies, theyre forced to re-use disposable protective suits, which is potentially dangerous for contamination.

Footage posted on Chinese social media shows hospital corridors packed with patients lining up for treatment.

Wuhan, with a population of 11 million people, is under lockdown with similar travel lockdowns imposed on several other cities in Hubei. Much of the province, home to nearly 60 million people, is under some kind of travel restriction.

Earlier on Sunday, Zhou revealed that 5 million residents of Wuhan left the city before the lockdown was imposed on Jan. 23. This includes people who traveled for Lunar New Year festivities, as well as those who fled to escape the virus and impending lockdown.

Authorities extended the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 2, in an attempt to slow the virus. During the holiday, hundreds of millions of Chinese travel to their hometown to celebrate with their families.

Contagious Even in Incubation Stage

Chinas health minister, Ma Xiaowei, told reporters on Sunday that the coronavirus is contagious during its incubation period, which can last up to 14 days.

The epidemic is now entering a more serious and complex period, he said. The outbreak is expected to continue for some time.

Ma added that the virus was infectious during incubation, unlike SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). That outbreak which occurred from 2002 to 2003, which originated in southern China, killed nearly 800 around the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated an incubation period of two to 10 days. It is also not clear if an infected person can pass it on before they show symptoms.

Wendy Barclay, a professor and virologist at Imperial College London, said many of the respiratory viruses that spread among humans do transmit even in the absence of symptoms, and it would not be surprising if the new coronavirus also did.

If this does prove to be the case then controlling the spread does become more of a challenge, and measures like airport screening are unlikely to stem the virus effectively, she said.

Last week WHO stopped short of declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, although some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.

Some of Chinas biggest companies have been affected, with hotpot restaurant chain Haidilao International Holding shutting branches nationwide from Sunday until Friday.

Gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. advised staff to work from home until Feb. 7, and e-commerce firm Alibaba removed vendors offers of overpriced face masks from its online Taobao marketplace as prices surged.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Neville Buswell has died at the age of 76. (PA Images via Getty Images)

Former Coronation Street actor Neville Buswell, who was best known for playing Ray Langton in the long-running ITV soap, has died at the age of 76.

An obituary for Buswell was published on the website of Las Vegas's Palm Eastern Mortuary and Cemetery, detailing that he passed away on Christmas Day 2019. His picture was posted to the site alongside a poem.

Buswell, who was born in Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire in 1943, joined the Coronation Street cobbles in 1966 with his character becoming well known for being a troublemaking womaniser.

Neville Buswell as Ray Langton on Coronation Street in 1970. (John Madden/Keystone/Getty Images)

He left in the same year before returning full time in 1968 for a 10-year stint.

The bad boy had romances with many of the street's women before settling down in 1975 when he wed the iconic Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride).

However, when the actor was written out of the programme in 1978, Ray ended up abandoning his family, leaving Deirdre and their young daughter Tracy behind as he set off alone for Amsterdam.

Buswell subsequently relocated to the US where he worked as a croupier, and had a cameo as Langton in a one-off Coronation Street special entitled Viva Las Vegas in 1997.

Jack (left) and Vera Duckworth (Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn) meet up with Ray Langton (Neville Buswell) in the Coronation Street special Viva Las Vegas. (PA Images via Getty Images)

His character met his end for good in 2005 when Ray came back to Weatherfield to reunite with Deirdre and Tracy before he died from cancer.

Anne Kirkbride, who played Buswell's on-screen wife, died in 2015 from breast cancer.

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Moo shu pork is a Northern Chinese dish from Shandong, popularized in the United States in the mid-20th century. My parents were introduced to it at Joyce Chens restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., where it had been served since 1958, alongside now-ubiquitous dishes like Peking duck, pan-fried dumplings (which she called Peking ravioli  a term youll still find on Boston-area menus), double-cooked pork and won-ton soup, among others.

The recipe for moo shu (or moo shi, as she calls it) pork in my parents copy of her now-long-out-of-print cookbook tracks closely with the traditional Shandong version. Eggs are fried until puffy (the name of the dish derives from muxi, the Chinese name for sweet osmanthus flowers, which the puffy eggs are said to resemble), then lightly marinated pork is stir-fried with wood ear mushrooms and day lily buds.

In Beijing, you may find the dish made with sliced cucumbers in place of day lily buds, whereas in the United States, variants of the dish with mung bean sprouts, carrots or green cabbage are not uncommon. The stir-fry itself is relatively mild, flavored only with soy sauce and wine, toasted sesame oil, a little white pepper and a hint of ginger. A paper-thin Mandarin pancake, brushed with sweet hoisin sauce and folded around the filling like a little burrito, gives it an adjustable punch of flavor.
Baselworld upgrades to V2

The Basel fair is undergoing a complete transformation. After several years of declining participation  in terms of both watch brands and visitors  Michel Loris-Melikoff has embarked upon a four-year reconstruction plan (due to complete in 2024). The aim is to make the fair more digital and more affordable, to bring the brands back and to connect the different members of the watch and jewellery industry. We want to attract both professional players and the general public, he explains. We have developed a central concierge service which gives all exhibitors and visitors access to a single office to handle all their flight, accommodation and transport needs.

Michel Loris-Melikoff, CEO of Baselworld  Baselworld

In the famous Hall 1.0, a central village  left vacant by the withdrawal of the Swatch Group  will accommodate islands hosting from one to three brands. These pre-built, customisable booths will give medium-sized businesses the opportunity to showcase their wares just a few metres from Rolex, Patek Philippe, TAG Heuer, Bulgari and Chopard, the formidable institutions that are the main draw for the great majority of the 80,000 visitors that attend each year. These visitors may not enjoy the same level of attention from the part of Basels hoteliers and restaurateurs.



Despite the best efforts of Michel Loris-Melikoff, very few have signed up to his fair price charter, which is intended to rein in the price hikes that have become an inevitable accompaniment to the fair. While Baselworld will offer lower entrance fees than ever (CHF 45 per day, or CHF 110 for the whole thing), external distractions could put the portfolio at risk once again. I was perhaps a little too optimistic on this point, Michel Loris-Melikoff admits. But I am hopeful that, with the success of our centralised concierge service, well get most people on board. Even before 1st January, 1200 rooms had already been reserved through our system.





Les Ateliers  Baselword

Geneva, a trio of transformations

We can no longer call it the SIHH: the fair celebrating its 30th anniversary this year is henceforth known as Watches & Wonders. Thats the first and most visible change. The new name creates a more obvious alignment between the Geneva fair and the Miami event in February.

SIHH 2019  Watches & Wonders

Second: the event will be expanding outside of the walls of Palexpo. The In the city programme will extend into Geneva, showcasing the citys watchmaking heritage through conferences, workshop visits, presentations, exhibitions, etc. Our aim is no longer to be just a trade fair; we want to open up to end customers and the general public, explains Fabienne Lupo, chair of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, which organises the fair. Its what the brands have clearly requested, and this programme supports that.

SIHH 2019  Watches & Wonders

And finally, Watches & Wonders will offer a number of new features inside its traditional venue. It will now be open to the general public every day (the entrance fee of CHF 300 grants access to all the services available at the fair). Some brands previously found in the Carre des Horlogers have relocated to the central aisles (H. Moser & Cie, MB&F). Other brands will be exhibiting for the first time: Arnold & Son, Cecil Purnell, Faberge, Rebellion, Rudis Sylva. A total of 31 brands will be present at Watches & Wonders. And finally the Lab, dedicated to watch innovation and startups, will feature an even wider range of innovative companies selected in partnership with the EPFL.
As many as 3,756 passengers arriving from China were screened for the coronavirus at the international airport here since January 18, but no confirmed case of the deadly disease has been found so far in Mumbai, a health department official said on Monday.

Of these, five passengers complained of cough and fever, symptoms found in coronavirus patients, and their blood samples were sent for examination to the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV), he said.

Samples of three of them were found to be negative for the virus, while the report of the two others is expected on Tuesday, said the official from the Maharashtra government's health department.

Between January 18 and 26, 3,756 passengers arriving from China, from where the coronavirus outbreak has been reported, were subjected to thermal screening at the international airport, he said.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China, a high-level meeting was held here on Monday to review preparations to deal with any situation, the official said.

Chaired by Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, public health department, the meeting was attended by senior health officials as well as NIV representatives.

"The government will prepare a list of passengers who have returned to Mumbai from China since January 1 this year and will enquire about their health condition.

"Details of discussion at the meeting were shared with officials of the Centre who are coordinating at the national level," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The latest funding round was led by Michael Spencer's investment company IPGL Limited and supported by a number of other industry leaders including Warren East, Christopher (Jock) Miller, Gavyn Davies, Stuart Roden, and Stephen Catlin, who also serves as a non-executive director on the Bloc Board. As part of the round, Samantha (Sam) Wren, CEO of IPGL, also joins as a non-executive director.

Bloc was founded by CEO Bruce Beckloff, CTO David Leftley, technology industry veterans from ARM and Vodafone respectively, and Chairman Paul Roy, to fill the gap in Europe for expert led funding of early stage deep technology companies. Andrew Griffin, former managing director of European technology equity research for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, joined as CFO in early 2019.

The team has already built a portfolio of nine companies and will use the new funds for new portfolio additions and follow-on investments in line with Bloc's strategy to create companies of global scale with enduring value in the European deep technology market. Sectors in which Bloc has invested include high performance computing, wireless communications, networking infrastructure, and the Internet of Things.

Commenting on this announcement, Paul Roy, Chairman of Bloc said:

"We are very pleased to have reached this significant milestone and to welcome further notable new shareholders to Bloc, and Sam Wren to the Board. Sam brings considerable expertise and a full understanding of the perspectives of the professional investor to the table. Existing and new investors have supported Bloc in this funding round, and we are excited by the opportunity to accelerate the growth and success of our current portfolio and continue our disciplined approach to investing in new companies in the deep technology space."

Bruce Beckloff, Co-Founder and CEO added:

"Our approach is to invest in companies in the deep technology sector that provide the picks and shovels for the digital world. With Bloc's hands-on approach and tight complementary mix of experience and expertise, we are uniquely placed to identify and invest in the next generation of technology companies, whilst de-risking the journey for our shareholders by actively helping our companies optimise and scale. It is a significant endorsement of our strategy to have such notable industry players backing Bloc. We look forward to continuing our journey to build a global brand for investing in deep technology in Europe."

Notes to Editors

About Bloc Ventures

Bloc Ventures is a permanent venture capital company providing expert-led funding of European deep technology. Bloc is passionate about supporting and growing the next generation of European technology businesses at the forefront of telecommunications and computing. It provides its shareholders with access to the exciting, high growth early-stage European deep-technology landscape using an approach that lowers the risk of crystallising returns.

The Bloc team has a tight complementary mix of technology, commercialisation and finance expertise borne out of extensive careers in the technology industry, including many years in corporate venture capital and M&A at Vodafone and ARM. They apply expertise via detailed due diligence pre-investment, and a hands-on collaborative approach with portfolio companies to scale them rapidly post-investment.

Bloc serves as the catalyst for its portfolio companies, moving them from early-stage to growth businesses and driving substantial value-creation. This positions Bloc as the preferred investor partner for tech businesses.

www.blocventures.com

About Samantha Wren

Samantha Wren joined the interdealer broker ICAP in 2009 as Group Treasurer and later became CFO and COO of the voice-broking division. On the sale of this division, Wren became the Chief Commercial Officer for NEX Markets, which houses NEX Group's trading venues, before becoming Group CFO and COO of NEX Group Plc. In 2019 she became Chief Executive Officer of ICAP founder Michael Spencer's private investment company, IPGL.

www.ipgl.co.uk

For further enquiries:

Bloc Ventures

Andrew Griffin (CFO) +44 20 3826 7100

[email protected]

Paternoster Communications

Catriona Woolner-Winders/Tom Buchanan/Charlie Codrington +44 20 3012 0241

[email protected]

SOURCE Bloc Ventures Limited
VANCOUVER - The British Columbia government has appointed former New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen as a provincial liaison with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in an LNG pipeline dispute, a move welcomed by spokesmen for both the chiefs and the company.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NDP MP Nathan Cullen rises during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Wednesday, Oct.25, 2017. The British Columbia government has appointed former New Democrat MP Cullen as a provincial liaison with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in an LNG pipeline dispute. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

VANCOUVER - The British Columbia government has appointed former New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen as a provincial liaison with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in an LNG pipeline dispute, a move welcomed by spokesmen for both the chiefs and the company.

Cullen represented Skeena-Bulkley Valley, a sprawling part of northern British Columbia that includes the Wet'suwet'en traditional territory, until last year when he decided not to seek re-election.

The premier's office said Monday that Cullen will work with Wet'suwet'en leaders, the RCMP, Coastal GasLink, the provincial public sector and other parties.

Cullen will focus on de-escalating the conflict surrounding a court-ordered injunction regarding the company's access to a forest service road outside of Houston.

"I'm pleased all parties have agreed to the appointment of a liaison," Premier John Horgan said in a statement.

"Nathan has agreed to act as an intermediary in the hopes of finding a solution to this challenging dispute."

The premier's office said Cullen would not be available for an interview.

Coastal GasLink has signed agreements with 20 elected First Nations along the pipeline's 670-kilometre route from northeastern B.C. to an export terminal in Kitimat but the hereditary clan chiefs say it has no authority without their consent.

Work on the project has been halted for about a month, since the court granted the injunction and the chiefs countered with an eviction notice to the company.

Supporters of the chiefs have since built a new encampment along the road toward the work site and felled trees along the road.

The RCMP have said patrol officers found stacked tires with jugs of accelerant and rags soaked in fuel nearby.

Na'moks, who is one of the five hereditary clan chiefs, said in an interview that Cullen is well informed and represented the community well in Parliament for 14 years.

"There is a level of trust that currently we don't share with many current elected officials or former," said Na'moks, who also goes by John Ridsdale.

"It gives me more confidence than the premier of the province."

Horgan has said that the rule of law must be respected and that the project will be built, but has not met with the hereditary clan chiefs since this year's impasse began.

Horgan offered to have a phone conversation and sent Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser for a meeting. But Na'moks said the chiefs were in a conflicting meeting at the time of Fraser's visit, and they prefer face-to-face meetings with fellow decision-makers.

The Wet'suwet'en are a peaceful people but there's no scenario where a resolution will also involve a pipeline through their territory, he said.

Coastal GasLink president David Pfeiffer said he's pleased with Cullen's appointment and remains hopeful the chiefs will meet with the company.

The dispute has not yet affected the project's schedule and it remains on track for service in 2023, he said. He declined to say exactly when the impasse would begin affecting the schedule.

"We know that time is getting short according to our schedule and we will start seeing impacts at some point," he said.

Before the eviction notice was issued, the company was in the process of dismantling a temporary work camp in the disputed area and building a larger one that would allow major construction to begin this summer.

About 500 workers were expected to work in the area over the next 18 months or so, he said.

Small local route changes are possible, like a 40-kilometre or so diversion already approved south of Houston, he said.

But a major reroute at this stage is not possible, Pfeiffer said, because the regulatory work required would have a "major scheduling impact."

The challenging terrain created by the Coast Mountains means the planned route would have the lowest environmental impacts based on river crossings and other considerations, he added.

"Every pipeline that's come along has looked through there because that is the area that is most technically viable," Pfeiffer said.

The company's focus is on reaching a peaceful resolution and avoiding enforcement of the injunction by the RCMP. If the chiefs consent to a meeting, Pfeiffer said the company would like to discuss possible benefits for the Wet'suwet'en members they represent, he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2020.
BAD AXE  Krista Marie Cranston was sentenced to 270 days in jail for her involvement in a robbery hoax in October at Advanced America Cash Advance store in Bad Axe.

Cranston, 37, had previously pleaded guilty Dec. 5, 2019 to three charges in connection to the crime  one count of embezzling more than $20,000 but less than $50,000, one count of false report of a felony and one count of larceny in a building.

Cranston was the manager at the Advance America Cash Advance store when she and her sister-in-law and Assistant Manager Kayla Marie Orchard orchestrated the robbery hoax in an attempt to cover up embezzling they had each been doing for several months prior.

At the start of Cranstons sentencing hearing Jan. 27, Huron County Circuit Court Judge Gerald Prill announced the court had received 15 letters addressing Cranstons good character before turning the floor over to Cranston and her defense attorney Elizabeth Weisenbach.

Weisenbach told the court that Cranston had a clean criminal record, comes from a good upbringing, has a good household and was involved in the case because she panicked about not being able to take care of her family.

This is a case of sheer panic, she said. When your bills are here and your income is here, what is in the middle and whats missing is where the panic sets in. She could lose her house, she couldnt take care of her child and what is missing is the frightening unknown.

Weisenbach said Cranston had worked for the company for 17 years and made one big, bad choice that will forever follow her. That choice overshadows the amount that she gives back to the community, according to Weisenbach. She said the sentencing guidelines do not give points for volunteer work, good deeds and helping others in need.

Weisenbach said she expected the court to follow the sentencing guidelines, but asked for work release, which was later granted by the courts.

Cranston started her testimony by apologizing to the community for her actions, which left the community to feel unsafe.

I didnt want any part of this, she said. I wanted to tell my boss but Kayla was never on board with that and I couldnt betray family. I wish I could have. I wish I could turn back time and do the right thing.

Cranston said Orchard told her she couldnt stop stealing because it was too easy.

I am not blaming this on Kayla, as I am a big girl and have to take responsibility, she said. I should have done the right thing.

After Cranston and her attorney addressed the court, Prosecutor Timothy Rutkowski told the court that the theft occurred not in a single day, but over a seven-month period of time.

Before delivering the sentence, Prill told Cranston that he appreciated her apologizing to the community for the fear the robbery hoax caused, but he said he has to consider the facts in the case.

I cannot overlook the fact that when you were first approached by police, you denied any involvement, he said.

Prill sentenced Cranston to 270 days in jail for embezzlement with credit for one day served, and 180 days for each of her other counts. All charges were allowed to be served concurrently.

In addition to her sentence, Cranston was sentenced to 36 months probation and is responsible for paying back the money she stole. Prill approved Cranstons request for work release.

Mrs. Cranston, I hope this is the end, Prill said. Hopefully down the road, when things get tough, you dont engage in this behavior.
The way aircraft noise is monitored in the UK seriously underestimates the disturbance it causes, research suggests.

Some European countries, such as the Netherlands, start measuring plane noise at 45 decibels (dB), but the UK starts it at 55dB  the minimum it is legally obliged to, which has caused needless disruption to peoples lives and health, the report says.

Countryside campaigners, who say lower levels are a better indicator of noise pollution, are calling for the government to make the monitoring more sensitive, which could have significant effects on decisions over airport planning.

It comes as airport expansion plans are being considered across the UK, including a new Heathrow runway, and as the government prepares a new aviation strategy.

The research, commissioned by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), is a central part of a new report, Flight Blight: the Social and Environmental Cost of Aviation Expansion.

Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Show all 51 1 /51 Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Angela Christofilou/The Independent Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Police officers arrest an activist at London City Airport on the fourth day of demonstrations by the climate change action group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Police officers react as an activist scales the roof above the entrance to London City Airport AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Activists blockade the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) statio AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Protests have been carried out in 60 cities around the world this week, with thousands taking to the streets of New Delhi, Cape Town, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, and Buenos Aires Reuters Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Extinction Rebellion is demanding that governments drastically cut carbon emissions AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport AP Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Police officers detain a protestor Reuters Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport The activist gestures after scaling the roof AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport Police officers detain protester Phil Kingston Reuters Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport An activist holds a placard during a 'Hong Kong style' blockage of the exit from the Docklands Light Railway to City Airport PA Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport AP Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport REUTERS Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport AFP/Getty Extinction Rebellion block entrance at City Airport AP

Research shows that aircraft noise is more annoying than road or rail noise and that we are becoming increasingly sensitive to it, the report says.

Mapping at lower levels would lead to action plans taking account of considerably more people, according to the new research, by aviation consultancy To70. The Civil Aviation Authority is responsible for monitoring noise around airports and publishing information about its impact.

In 2018 the World Health Organisation recommended reducing aircraft noise levels to 45dB in the daytime and 40dB at night.

Using Gatwick airport as an example, the report says that applying more appropriate standards increased the area affected by aircraft noise five-fold.

Kia Trainor, the director of CPRE Sussex, said: We are becoming more sensitive to low-level aircraft noise. For many people it is not just a minor annoyance: noise has been linked to serious health issues such as cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety and disturbed sleep.

She told The Independent: Research shows experiences of noise are not linear  lots of factors come into play.

Even though planes are getting quieter people are becoming more sensitive to noise.

A combination of factors could be responsible, she said, including peoples expectations of peace and quiet, trust in the aviation industry, the climate crisis and a rise in numbers of flights.

As well as reducing the noise-reporting threshold, the report recommends the government should commission independent research into the impact of aviation noise on health.

Noise has been linked to serious health issues Kia Trainor

It also calls for the Independent Commission on Civil Aviation Noise (ICCAN) to have statutory powers so that communities distrust of the aviation industry is reduced.

And the report authors want aviation CO2 emissions to be included in the governments net-zero greenhouse gas target and further aviation expansion to be ruled out on climate grounds.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: We take the health impacts of aviation noise very seriously, which is why we established an independent commission to advise us on the best ways to reduce noise pollution.

Since 2017 noise impacts must be considered across much larger areas and health impacts assessed when changes to flight paths are proposed.

We have also been clear that expansion at Heathrow airport will not be allowed to proceed unless it complies with strict noise targets.

The government has promised to review ICCANs powers within two years, including possibility putting it on a statutory footing.
Officers went to Mama's Pizza at 715 N. Saddle Creek Road about 5:45 p.m. after receiving a report of an injured person next to the building. They located Stuart Schweitz, 34, of Omaha, suffering from stab wounds. He was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center in critical condition. Police said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa explains a Medicare for All bill that has slowly been picking up support in the State House.

Medicare For All Bill Slowly Building Support in Massachusetts

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  There's a group working hard to make Massachusetts the Saskatchewan of the United States.

State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, 1st Hampshire District, sees the potential for the Bay State to follow the Canadian province's groundbreaking example in 1962 of being the first to provide single-payer health care to its citizens.

"Health-care costs are rising by 3 percent every year ... we know we're in an untenable situation where health care costs keep rising, where people are paying more and more every year," she told more than three dozen people gathered at the Tavern on the A on Thursday night. "We need to really come up with something bold and dramatic that isn't based on corporate insurance."

The Northampton Democrat, joined on Thursday by state Rep. Paul Mark, is now the lead sponsor on a Medicare for All bill that's been bouncing around the State House for two decades. And they both see growing support for government-run health care in recent years.

Mark said the idea was once "pegged as being too extreme," and noting that the election of Scott Brown to the Senate was seen as a vote against the federal Affordable Care Act  better known as ObamaCare and based on state's health care reform. But over the past decade, the number of sponsors has increased and the concept of single-payer or Medicare for All has become a talking point in gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. And Sabadosa, who made Medicare for All a key issue in her successful first election in 2018, is now a founding member the Medicare for All Caucus.

Sabadosa says there are a lot of misleading information and unfamiliarity with how a single-payer system would work  that people would lose their doctors or be prevented from getting care.

"It is not a system where we tell you how to get health care," she said. "It is simply a system where we change how we pay for health care."

The bill  House bill 2974  as it is currently structured would create a health care trust funded by a employer payroll tax of 7.5 percent (the first $30,000 exempted) and an additional .44 percent on organizations with more than 100 employees; an employee payroll tax of 2.5 percent; a 10 percent payroll tax on self-employed (first $30,000 exempt); and 10 percent tax on unearned income above $30,000 (Social Security, SSI, unemployment and pensions exempt). Federal Medicare dollars would also go into the trust.

The trust would be overseen by an executive director and by a board of 23 directors appointed from a broad spectrum of stakeholders including health-care professionals, senior citizens, unions, state officials and one citizen from each of the Governor's Council districts. The organizational chart would have operational divisions with a director for each.

All Massachusetts residents would be able to opt in to the trust as would non-state residents who work 20 hours or more per week in Massachusetts and pay state taxes. Non-residents requiring emergency care would also be covered, although the trust would try to recoup expenses.

The lawmakers say Bay Staters are already paying about $5,000 a year now toward health care  and they're paying for the costs of people who can't afford health care through higher premiums and charges at health care facilities.

"Per person, we pay more in taxes for people's health care than any other countries around the world that have access to universal services," Mark said. "We are already paying more, so in theory this would make our taxes go down and we would be paying for fewer people."

Sabadosa said the state would be in a strong position to negotiate with health care facilities and pharmaceutical companies because it would be covering the entire state. She also thought single-payer would provide equity in payments across the board that could help retain doctors in more rural areas.

"We spent a lot of time modeling this, this is not just done as pie in the sky," she said. "We've actually looked at the numbers and said we can afford to cover all of these things under this system."

Still, there are a number of challenges ahead for any attempt at a single-payer for Massachusetts at the state and federal level. Vermont floated an attempt at universal health care but came up short when in the end.

Sabadosa and Mark answered questions about the proposed bill for more than an hour from the largely supportive group and encouraged feedback. Sabadosa said she's been holding public information sessions because it was important to hear from a variety of people and perspectives.

"We're trying to make sure we're not just telling people what they want to hear, we're not just telling people this is how it should work," Mark said. "We're trying to find out what will work at a state level for the most people possible."
PHILIPSBURG:--- World NGO (Non-Government Organizations) Day is Feb 27th and the international community will be celebrating and honoring NGOs across the entire globe. Here in St. Maarten we also plan on doing something a little special for the heart-wearing-on-sleeve, charitable, liberal, freehearted organizations and individuals on the island.

On February 22nd the NPOwer project, funded by the Dutch Disaster Fund (Nationaal Rampenfonds) of the 4C Foundation will host the first-ever of its kind NPO (non for profit organization) workshop conference the island will experience. It Takes (more than) Two to Tango NPO conference will take place at the National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA), which was generously donated as the venue by the institution. The St. Maarten Training Foundation will cater for the lunch for participants.

Outgoing President of the NPOwer Foundation, Jose Verschueren-Sommers, in reflecting about the intention for the project she and her board had set in motion two years ago that lead to this moment stated, there is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. Verschueren-Sommers envisioned a platform where all of St. Maartens NGOs and NPOs could be better supported in the very important work they do in taking care of the communitys vulnerable. Together with recently appointed project coordinator Cassandra Richardson and Alston Lourens, the St. Maarten community was combed and the brightest, most experienced and innovative minds were invited to be facilitators and requested that they impart knowledge and best practices to attendees in order to run their respective foundations with an enlightened perspective.

NPOwer and many others in our community agree that for too long the persons that have a hand in taking care of our elderly, our disadvantaged youth and children, our ill, the economically challenged, our fragile natural environment and the animals that are neglected, and passionate about growing and securing our very own food to help nourish our minds and bodies have been existing because of their passion and want to do good. The goal of the conference and many conferences to come is to further fortify their passion for the respective social causes. By building knowledge and know-how, NPOwer also assists foundations in running their organizations effectively, having a positive impact on the community at large.



The event kicks off on Saturday, February, 22nd, at 8 AM. Attendees can expect to choose topics ranging from marketing your foundation to managing your foundations finances, proper board governance, using social media to reach your audience, building and retaining your volunteer pool, corporate/social responsibility and others. Foundations are encouraged to register soon as space is limited. Foundations should register first with http://www.NPOwersxm.com if they have not already done so to take advantage of attending for free. Non-members of NPOwer and private persons pay a small fee of USD 50 to take part. The online registration form can be found at http://www.bit.ly/NPOwer2020

NPOwer is Foresee (4C) Foundation's latest project which aims to bring Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) together to share expertise, grow capacity, assist with funding, fundraising, marketing, governance, and other innovative strategies.
Three-part series: Revisiting the Nightmare.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to retired U.S. Magistrate Judge William Deaton as the late U.S. Magistrate Judge William Deaton.

Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Dwight Duran was being held in solitary confinement in 1976 at the old Main prison south of Santa Fe when he managed to smuggle out a handwritten civil lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections and then-Gov. Jerry Apodaca, claiming inmates were being held in inhumane conditions.

Despite his death at age 68 in 2008, his influence is still felt in the legal battles over New Mexicos prison system.

Duran, who first ran into trouble with the law at age 16, was paroled and left the prison 12 days before the 1980 riot. He was apprehensive about leaving because he believed that he was helping to keep a lid on a simmering prison that would erupt soon after he left.

Duran became a paralegal and never, according to his nephew, Rep. Antonio Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, had so much as a traffic ticket the rest of his life.

But Durans legacy lives on.

Next week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kirtan Khalsa will decide whether to approve yet another settlement agreement in the inmate class action lawsuit that still bears Durans name as lead plaintiff.

The latest incarnation of the lawsuit was filed in 2015 alleging the state had violated a 1998 agreement that released the state from federal court oversight because of overcrowding at medium security prisons, in particular the womens prisons in Grants and Springer and the dormitories housing men at the private prison in Otero County.

The state has now agreed to reduce crowding in those prisons, although inmates in the Otero County prison say the states promise to cut dormitory crowding in Otero County is insufficient.

Agreement implemented

In 1979, then-Attorney General Jeff Bingaman and Gov. Bruce King signed off on the original agreement for federal court oversight of the states prison.

It was approved by U.S. District Judge Santiago Campos in July 1980 after revisions that came about as a result of the riot.

For 20 years, the Duran Consent Decree governed the way the state ran prisons and treated inmates, based largely on standards set by the American Corrections Association that covered everything from sanitary conditions in kitchens, to heating and cooling systems and access to basic hygiene products like toothpaste and soap.

The agreement set out rules for classifying inmates and for discipline. Inmates were guaranteed access to medical and mental health services, attorneys and mail.

A court-appointed monitor and a team of specialists reviewed the departments compliance with standards laid out in the decree.

But there was unhappiness on both sides.

Prison officials blamed the decree for increasing budgets, prison violence and escapes. They complained the decree tied their hands in dealing with problem prisoners.

Inmate attorneys claimed prison officials used the decree as a smokescreen to cover their own incompetence.

In any case, it was expensive.

The decree cost the state millions of dollars a year in attorney fees for its own private lawyers and fees awarded to inmate attorneys when the court ruled in their favor.

The state also had to pay for the costs of the monitor and the specialists filing reports to the court on the states compliance or noncompliance with the standards.

The legal landscape changed in 1996, when Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), which placed restrictions on the ability of prisoners to file lawsuits like the Duran case based on conditions of their confinement.

The law placed additional burdens on prisoners seeking to get their case before the federal courts for civil rights violations, including more payment of court fees and a requirement that inmates had to exhaust all administrative remedies set out by the state before filing in federal court.

And the law set time limits on how long the court could oversee prison operations, usually two years.

In 1998, U.S. District Judge John Edwards Conway found the state was in substantial compliance with the decree except in the area of mental health. It took another two years for the state to meet those standards.

Despite Conways ruling, the Corrections Department has struggled providing medical and mental health services to inmates over the last 20 years and has faced and lost additional inmate civil lawsuits over the care they received.

Duran case grows

Durans legal filing was taken up by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, who combined it with other inmate lawsuits in a class action civil rights case that bore Durans name as lead plaintiff from 1977.

Dwight Duran showed amazing courage in starting what turned into the consent decree case, said Peter Cubra, who has represented prison and jail inmates throughout the state for almost 40 years.

Mark Donatelli, one of the attorneys in the prison lawsuit, asked then-Gov. Bill Richardson to grant Duran a posthumous pardon. The pardon was never granted.

Dwight showed a special degree of heroism, Donatelli said.

Over the course of the case, Duran worked with other notable attorneys: the late state Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels, David Freedman, retired U.S. Magistrate William Deaton, Ray Twohig, Phillip Davis, and others.

Duran told the Journal in 2004 that his criminal career started when he was 16 and that he served a total of 16 years and six months for robbery, larceny and forgery charges.

He was serving a four-year sentence for forging a $35 check at the time he wrote his legal complaint.

The settlement negotiations on what became known as the Duran Consent Decree were in the final stages when the state Parole Board notified him that he was going to be paroled in December 1979.

Maestas said Duran had mixed feelings about the parole.

He was respected by the different inmate groups within the prison, Maestas said. He felt he was keeping the lid on inmate unrest. He could tell them the lawsuit was making progress and they believed him.

Duran became a paralegal after leaving prison and worked on the National Prison Project for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C.

He then returned to New Mexico, where he worked on the lawsuit that bore his name and testified numerous times in federal court.

He was honored by the ACLU in 2001 with its Civil Libertarian Achievement Award. He was also recognized by the Mexican-American Law Students Association in 2000 with its Fighting for Justice Award.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA)  The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has "strongly condemned" the attack against Maitigua airport at the eastern suburb of Tripoli with two Grad missiles, that left at least two civilians wounded and damaging the tarmac and a number of buildings, including private and public properties
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

Recently, Japans environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, created a social-media stir when he announced hes taking parental leave to take care of his newborn son.

It will not be a long leave  roughly two weeks, taken over three months  but the move was seen as significant, especially in a country where very few men take leave, despite Japan having among the most generous parental leave policies for dads in the world. (Japanese fathers can take up to a year off.)

"I hope my taking paternity leave will lead the way of working styles to one where everyone can easily take child-care leave without hesitation in the environment ministry," Mr. Koizumi told the New York Times.

Here in Canada, Toronto city councillor Joe Cressy will, in September, become the first person to use the City of Torontos new parental leave program for councillors. His leave would be 20 weeks  but because proxy voting is not permitted, he would still have to show up to vote in person on key matters. Hes calling for councillors on leave to be granted proxy votes so they can actually be on leave.

That these men are not just taking advantage of their leave policies but are advocating for other men to do the same  and, in Mr. Cressys case, for a more comprehensive policy  is encouraging, and may also be an indicator of a generational shift. Mr. Koizumi is 38, Mr. Cressy is 35.

Establishing progressive policies is one piece of that puzzle. Getting men to actually take advantage of such policies is a cultural matter. Too many people still view dads who temporarily back-burner their careers to take care of a baby as "Mr. Moms" on a "paid vacation."

Many professional men fear being passed over for promotions, or being seen as a less-dedicated worker  things that have long been the reality for professional women who choose to have kids.

Normalizing parental leave, especially for fathers, will have positive ripple effects. It will lead to more engaged dads who have had critical bonding time with their children. It will level the field, both professionally and domestically.

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Making leave for dads common could go a long way in challenging the socially entrenched expectation that its mom who raises the kids and defers her career. Equality starts at home.

What could help close the pay gap and get more women running for office? More dads taking parental leave.

In 2018, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould made history as the first federal cabinet member to take maternity leave. At that time, there was no formal policy; members of Parliament didnt get the right to take paid parental leave until 2019. Many MPs are also pushing for proxy voting, without which a leave is hard to take.

In Mr. Cressys case, critics have expressed concerns about an elected official taking part of a term off on leave; constituents understandably want the person they elected to represent them to indeed represent them. But the solution isnt to ban parental leave; the answer is to figure out a way a communitys needs can be met during the weeks-long leave. Dont we also want elected officials to have lives that more closely resemble ours, so they can be better representatives for us?

Antiquated attitudes about parental leave need to be left in the past. Its been a long time since the only people making decisions for our cities and countries were men over the age of 60.
By Trend

The export of citrus fruits from Turkey to Turkmenistan increased by 30 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, a source in the Turkish Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Exporters Association told Trend on Jan. 21.

"Turkey exported 7,358 tons of citrus fruits to Turkmenistan in 2019," the source said. "Turkeys income obtained from the export of citrus fruits to Turkmenistan increased by 40 percent in 2019."

Turkey's income obtained from the export of citrus fruits amounted to $5.3 million in 2019, which is one percent of Turkey's total income obtained from the export of citrus fruits in 2019.

The export of Turkish fruits and vegetables decreased by 11 percent and reached over 4 million tons in 2019 compared to 2018.

Turkey's income obtained from export of fruits and vegetables decreased by three percent and reached $2.2 billion in 2019 compared to 2018.

In 2019, 1.1 million tons of fruits were exported from Turkey, which is five percent less compared to 2018. At the same time, Turkey's income obtained from the export of fruits grew by two percent in 2019 and amounted to $846 million compared to 2018.

Export of vegetables from Turkey decreased by two percent and reached 1.2 million tons in 2019 compared to 2018.

Vegetables worth $645 million were exported from Turkey in 2019. Turkey exported 1.6 million tons of citrus fruits in 2019, which is 20 percent less compared to 2018.

Citrus fruits worth $756 million were exported from Turkey in 2019.

---

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In a sense, the change addresses old imbalances  and not just racial ones. Northern Virginia has never had positions of influence equal to its proportion of the states population and wealth, particularly in the House of Delegates. And Republicans over the past quarter-century have used their majorities to pass measures that Democrats found extreme, such as requiring ultrasounds before abortions or undoing any hint of restrictions on guns.
Iran sentences Christian convert to prison on charge of insulting Islamic beliefs

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A court in Iran has sentenced a 65-year-old convert to Christianity to three years in prison for insulting Islamic sacred beliefs even as he is yet to be tried in the court for two other charges, a religious freedom watchdog group has reported.

The U.K.-based group Article 18 reported this week that Ismaeil Maghrebinejad has 20 days to appeal his sentencing and that the court referred to Article 513 of the Islamic Penal Code, which provides for a punishment between one and five years in prison.

Maghrebinejad was convicted for forwarding a message on his phone that allegedly made fun of Irans ruling clerics.

The convert was arrested at his home in the south-central region of Shiraz last January. Iranian security officials have regularly harassed Maghrebinejad for 40 years ever since he accepted Christ, the group said.

He is under trial for two other charges: propaganda against the Islamic Republic and membership of a group hostile to the regime.

Last November, a court dropped another charge, of apostasy, which is punishable with the death penalty in Iran. He was initially charged for apostasy due to his conversion to Christianity. In its hearing at the time, however, the court said the case against him for engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic would still apply as he allegedly started a Telegram channel to promote evangelical Christianity.

The converts daughter, Mahsa, believes that her father has been targeted at least partially because she and her husband, Nathan, both of whom now live in the U.S., minister to Christians inside Iran over the Internet.

About 10 years after his conversion, there was a murder attempt on Maghrebinejads wife but she survived, the group said.

In December, Irans Revolutionary Court sentenced nine Christians to a combined total of 45 years in prison for converting to Christianity. The converts were arrested in January and February 2019.

The convicted Christians included Pastor Matthias Haghnejad, Shahrooz Islamdust, Behnam Akhlaqi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Mehdi Khatibi, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Naamanian, and Mohammad Vafadar.

Earlier this month, another Iranian Christian convert, a 21-year-old woman, was arrested during an anti-government protest in Tehran.

Fatemeh Mohammadi, also known as Mary, was detained near Azadi Square in Tehran, where protests occurred after the Iranian military shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane and killed 176 people.

Mary had published a series of tweets that day, saying that the Iranian people faced soft repression in the country as the regime creates false beliefs through selective coverage of the news.

She was arrested also in 2017 during a raid on an underground house church meeting and later sentenced to six months in prison. She served her time in the womens ward of Irans notorious Evin prison.

She wrote an open letter to Irans Minister of Intelligence Mahmoud Alavi last May accusing him of targeting Christians and violating the constitution.

Iran ranks as the ninth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. Open Doors USA reports that 169 Christians were arrested in Iran during the organizations 2019 reporting period  Nov. 1, 2018, to Oct. 31, 2019. Iran has also consistently been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for egregious violations of religious freedom.
Other business risks to make the top 10 globally include: fire and explosion, climate change and the increasing volatility of weather, and macroeconomic developments. The complete list of top business risks around the world in 2020, according to the Allianz Global Risk Barometer, is below:

Cyber incidents Business interruption Changes in legislation and regulation Natural catastrophes Market developments Fire, explosion Climate change Loss of reputation or brand value New Technologies Macroeconomic developments

The threat landscape varies around the world. While cyber and business interruption featured as top business risks in almost all countries, the final top three spot was more hotly contested. For many countries, concerns revolved around changes to legislation and regulation, but there was also a lot of worry worldwide about fire and explosion, and natural catastrophes.

USA

Cyber incidents have been ranked as the top business risk in the USA for 2020. Cyber replaces business interruption, which has moved down into second spot, and natural catastrophes remain in third place. Bill Scaldaferri, CEO of AGCS North America said its no surprise cyber incidents have emerged as the top risk for US businesses in 2020. It follows a year filled with significant cyber events, including the Capital One breach, which saw 106 million records exposed on March 22 and 23, 2019, making it one of the biggest breaches in history.

Scaldaferri commented: Increasing connectivity and sophistication of attacks have been driving up the frequency and severity of incidents for some time. Given that most cyber insurance is written in the US this risk will continue to influence the direction of our industry and encourage close portfolio reviews of silent exposures.

UK

UK businesses have also selected cyber as the top business risk for 2020, followed by changes in legislation/regulation and business interruption respectively. The start of the new decade brings about a period of huge uncertainty for the UK, with its impending exit from the European Union and the potential economic fallout from such a move.

Canada

Canadian companies have ranked business interruption as their top threat in 2020, with cyber incidents coming in second place, and changes in legislation/regulation following in third. Linda Regner-Dykeman, chief agent, AGCS Canada, said its no surprise that BI and cyber continue to be major exposures for Canadian businesses.

She commented: Changes in legislation and regulation has moved up significantly to 3rd, chosen as a top risk by almost a third of respondents. Trade wars, tariffs, economic sanctions and protectionism have companies concerned about the instability of future markets. We must ensure underwriters ask the right questions in order to understand todays risks and exposures and find solutions accordingly to help manage this uncertainty.

Australia

As unprecedented bushfires continue to reap havoc across multiple Australian states, its hardly surprising that climate change has made it into Australias top three business risks (in third spot). James Stack, CEO of AGCS Australia, said: Fuelled by rising temperatures and extreme dry weather attributed in part to climate change, these fires not only cause physical property damage, but also potential business interruption as the smoke causes hazardous air quality levels. With increased awareness, and first-hand experience of the negative impact, it is no surprise to see climate change in the top three Australian risks for the first time. The top business risk voted by Australia companies was changes in legislation/regulation, followed by cyber incidents.

China

With the country locked in a trade war with the US that does not look to be fully resolved any time soon, risk managers in China have chosen business interruption as their top risk, again, as the unpredictable nature of tariff announcements has made it difficult to plan accurately for the future, said Patrick Zeng, CEO of AGCS Hong King and Greater China. A new risk in the top three for China this year is cyber incidents. This reflects greater global understanding of cyber risk and its potential impact upon businesses.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 27, 2020) - Asterion Cannabis Inc. ("Asterion" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce the voting results from the Company's 2020 annual general meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") held on Friday, January 24, 2020, in Vancouver, British Columbia. A total of 45,613,167 common shares were voted at the Meeting, representing 68.36% of the outstanding common shares of the Company, as at the record date for the Meeting. All matters submitted to shareholders for approval, as set out in the Company's notice of meeting and management information circular, dated January 13, 2020, were unanimously approved by the votes cast at the Meeting.

Shareholders re-appointed Smythe LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants as the auditor of the Company for the ensuing year at the remuneration to be fixed by the directors of the Company and approved the Company's 10% rolling stock option plan.

The number of directors of the Company has remained at six and management's nominees for election as director, Stephen Van Deventer, Kimberly Van Deventer, Shabira Rajan, Hamish Sutherland, Peter Haukedal, and Robert Coltura, were all elected as directors of the Company.

Stephen Van Deventer, Chairman and CEO, commented, "We are extremely pleased to have Mr. Coltura join the Board of Directors of Asterion. Collectively, the boards diverse experience and backgrounds will be a valuable asset as the Company advances into the next phase of its development."

Robert Coltura

Mr. Coltura is a businessman and is the President and principal shareholder of Matalia Investments Ltd., a company that provides management consulting and corporate finance services to public and private companies. Mr. Coltura is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Fiorentina Minerals Inc., the President of Coltura Financial Corp and Coltura Properties, which has commercial properties and hotels in North America. With over 20 years of experience in the public sector, as a director and officer, and in successful business development, he works with companies to strengthen their positions within their industry.

About Asterion

Asterion Cannabis Inc. is a Canadian medicinal cannabis company with a wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Asterion (Australia) Pty Ltd. With its cultivation to market strategy, the company's focus is leading and advancing cannabis agriculture, producing the highest quality, lowest cost, genetically uniform cannabis strains and cannabinoid products. The Australian government formally recognizes the company with a Major Project Status and the company has been granted a medicinal cannabis license, a cannabis research license, and a manufacture license from the Australian Office of Drug Control.

Led by a highly experienced team with over 200 years of combined successful track records spanning - North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. Management experience with large scale projects includes medicinal cannabis, renewable energy, and capital markets.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Stephen Van Deventer"

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations

info@asterioncannabis.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Other than statements of historical fact, all statements included in this news release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's anticipated business plans and prospects of success in executing its plans, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Various risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from Asterion's expectations. Other factors such as general economic, market or business conditions, future prices of cannabis, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for cannabis, or changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the biotechnology or cannabis industry, and delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals, may also adversely affect the future results or performance of the Company. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly, are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/51829
The deadly Marburg virus has been detected for the first time in West Africa in Sierra Leone. A team of researchers have confirmed the presence of the virus in eleven Egyptian rousette fruit bats. These bats were found in three different health districts raising concern that the finding is not an isolated one. The researchers have confirmed the findings in the fruit bats and reported their results in the journal Nature Communications.

Scientists have detected Marburg virus in fruit bats in Sierra Leone, marking the first time the deadly virus has been found in West Africa. Following discovery of the virus in bats in three districts of Sierra Leone, the PREDICT-USAID team worked with the Sierra Leone government to inform people about his new health risk. This photo shows a community meeting in Kakoya village, northern Sierra Leone. Image Credit: Brian Bird / UC Davis One Health Institute

The Marburg virus is a close relative of the Ebola virus explain researchers. It may also lead to the deadly life threatening hemorrhagic disease in patients as seen with Ebola. Until now there have been no reported cases of Marburg infection in Sierra Leone say health officials. The detection in the bats however could signal the risk the local population might be at or getting infected.

These Egyptian Rousette bats are known to carry the Marburg virus. They feed primarily on fruits and are fruit bats. When the bats get infected, they pass on the virus in their saliva, urine and feces. These bats tend to urinate and defecate where they eat and take small bites of fruits before leaving them uneaten. This means that these bitten fruits are contaminated with the infected virus filled saliva and the food sources are also contaminated with infected bat urine and feces. Thus, the fruits become a potential source of spread of infection to animals and humans living around them. This causes the infection and its spread. The bats may also bite humans and thus spread the infection via their saliva.

For this study the researchers used a test based on PCR to detect the antibody as well as the virus within the fruit bats. The results of suspected cases among the bats were first announced in December 2018. Since then steps have been taken to ensure that citizens of Sierra Leone are warned about the danger of the infection. In addition, health organizations across the world were notified about the risk of infections to the local population.

This new study urges the key stakeholders including the health organizations, administration and other health bodies in the animal as well as environmental sectors to come together and help prevent the spread of this infection within the community. The researchers call for strategies that need to be developed to prevent the spread of the infection.

The virus was first detected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with the USAID-funded PREDICT project. This project was led by the One Health Institute at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Njala University, Sierra Leone and the University of Makeni, Sierra Leone.

Tracey Goldstein, co-principal investigator and pathogen detection lead for the PREDICT project from the UC Davis One Health Institute, in a statement said, Finding Marburg virus in bats in Sierra Leone before any known cases in people is a huge success, as public health officials and doctors can now include Marburg virus among the possible causes when diagnosing hemorrhagic fever cases in the region.

The world has witnessed 12 outbreaks of this virus say experts. These outbreaks have been regularly occurring with the last seen in Uganda in 2017. Scientists have said that the largest Marburg virus outbreak was seen Angola in 2005. In this attack an estimated 227 persons had died of the infection. In this new study the team found five new strains of the virus that are similar in their genetic make-up with the strains seen in the Angola outbreak. The team explained that this similarity with the Angola strain has been noted for the first time and it is cause for concern.

At present the team PREDICT is continuing its work in sensitizing the governments and other stakeholders to raise community awareness regarding the spread of the Marburg virus and ways to prevent spread of infection in Sierra Leone. Marburg virus disease has also been included in the routine testing panels of the laboratories in Siera Leone, write the researchers.

Amara Jambai, deputy minister of health for Sierra Leone, in a statement said, PREDICT opened up the window to show there is more beyond Ebola and demonstrated the need for partnership well before outbreak events unfold.

The public has been warned against attempting to kill or remove the bats by trying to catch them. They are being made aware of the ways in which the fruit bats help in agriculture and pollination and maintain the ecological balance. Protecting oneself from the infection would mean avoiding contact with anything the bats have contaminated and avoid getting bitten by the bats.

Brian Bird from the UC Davis One Health Institute and global lead for Sierra Leone and Multi-Country Ebola operations for PREDICT-USAID, in a statement said, Over a year ago, we worked with our Sierra Leone government colleagues to inform people across the country as fast as possible of this new health risk and remind people not to harm or come in contact with bats. I'm very proud of that work and our teams now that this full report is available.
By Jami Ganz, New York Daily News

A woman took her own life at a Chicago-area cigar lounge Friday after shooting three people, killing a retired Illinois State Police trooper, wounding another retired trooper as well as an off-duty trooper, according to authorities.

Around 10:10 p.m. Lisa V. McMullan, 51, shot the three troopers at The Humidor in Lisle -- about 26 miles west of Chicago -- where they were all patrons, said Lisles acting police chief Ron Wilkes, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

McMullan killed retired trooper Gregory Rieves, 51, and injured both retired trooper Lloyd Graham, 55, and 48-year-old Kaiton Bullock, who was off-duty at the time of the incident and has been with the state polices Chicago district for 22 years, the agency said.

According to authorities, Graham and Bullock were transported to local hospitals in serious condition.

The Illinois State Police family have heavy hearts this morning, said State police director Brendan F. Kelly via a statement. Please keep all our officers and families in your prayers in the dark and painful moment.

Wilkes told media at the scene that authorities have no idea why this happened.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo privately dismissed Trump lawyer Rudy Giulianis assertions that former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch had criticized the president, the New York Times reported Sunday.

A record of the private conversation was contained in the manuscript of former White House national security adviser John Boltons upcoming book. Pompeo apparently followed through on the order to recall Yovanovitch last May despite privately questioning the rationale for her dismissal.

According to the manuscript, Pompeo privately speculated that Giuliani wanted Yovanovitch fired so that he could advance his own business interests in Ukraine without her interfering. (Some of Giulianis clients were at the time being targeted by Ukrainian anti-corruption efforts that the ambassador supported). Yovanovitch offered the same explanation for her removal when she testified before the House Intelligence Committee last year.

The news follows a contentious interview Pompeo gave to NPR on Friday, during which host Mary Louise Kelly asked the secretary of state why he didnt express support for Yovanovitch. Kelly said that after the interview, Pompeo berated her for asking about Yovanovitch and demanded Kelly identify Ukraine on an unmarked map. The secretary of state, meanwhile, said his and Kellys team had agreed not to discuss Ukraine at all in the interview.

NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to me, twice, Pompeo said in a statement after reports of the confrontation were released. First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record. It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency.

Kelly said that Pompeo had in fact not requested that the post-interview conversation be kept off the record. Emails obtained by the Washington Post appear to show Kelly and Pompeos teams did agree that questions regarding Ukraine would be allowed in the interview.

Story continues

Yovanovitch was reportedly fired after Giuliani and associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman claimed the former ambassador was badmouthing the president. The former ambassador stated in testimony to House Democrats that Parnas and Fruman were pushing for a replacement who would cooperate with their efforts to coerce investigations that would benefit the president as well as their efforts to advance their own business interests.

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Would IndiGo be interested in Air India? asked an analyst at IndiGo's post-results conference call on January 27.

"No comments," replied IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta.

To industry observers, the comment is more like a glass half-full, than half-empty.

And that's because of three reasons. One, the government has decided to completely exit from Air India, and will sell 100 percent of its share. That means a new investor will have complete control over the operations.

At the same time - the second reason - the government wants an Indian investor to call the shots at Air India, after the divestment. That again will be an advantage for IndiGo.

Third, India's largest airline was open about its interest in Air India when the government last called for expression of interest, in 2018.

Though IndiGo eventually decided to stay away from Air India, it will surely check on what the government's view is on one critical factor: Will the government be open to separating some of Air India's operations, and sell them individually?

In 2018, IndiGo went public on its interest in acquiring only the international operations of Air India, and that included the latter's low-cost arm Air India Express. Two years on, the Gurugram-based airline hasn't yet commented on Air India divestment, but it will loath to pass on an opportunity to acquire some of the assets.

More so now, because IndiGo is rapidly expanding internationally. It started flying to seven new international destinations in the third quarter of the present financial year. In all, IndiGo now flies to 23 international cities.

How will Air India and Air India Express add to it?

The combine will command an overall share of 18.6 percent of the international market, flying to 45 overseas destinations. Also, Air India has 2,738 international slots, and has code share agreement with 25 airlines.

This will be significant for IndiGo, which as Dutta pointed out in the conference call, is now deploying half of its new aircraft on international routes.

Interestingly, Sanjiv Kapoor, the former Vistara veteran, took to Twitter to advocate the government to sell Air India in four parts. These included selling the international operations, and Air India Express, separately.

But what if the government doesn't want to sell Air India piecemeal? Will IndiGo back out?

Rahul Bhatia, IndiGo's co-founder, gave the answer, two years ago.

".... if the Government of India decides to sell all of Air Indias airline operations and, I emphasise airline operations, to a single entity and not carve out the international operations, we would still be interested in exploring that option."

It's difficult to tell if that view has changed two years on. But surely, it will be worth tracking.

Other takeaways

The following is what Dutta and rest of IndiGo's senior management said on several other issues in the conference call.

On the impact of coronavirus outbreak on travel: The company is monitoring the situation closely, even as cancellation have started coming in. It will take a call on continuing services to China, in the coming days. IndiGo operates two daily flights to China.

On engine replacement of Neo: Company has replaced 60 percent of engines in its Neo fleet. The executives added that the airline will meet the May 2020 deadline. The DGCA had recently extended the deadline.

On capacity expansion: The fleet expansion rate will be about 20 percent in FY21. The present financial year will end with the company expanding capacity by 23 percent. The expansion has been hit by the Neo engine problem, and also a delay in deliveries by Airbus.

The rate will improve from June onwards, after the engine troubles are resolved and more pilots join operations, after training. At present, 400 pilots are undergoing training, down from 600 in the second quarter.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday made the Netherlands' first government apology for the war-time persecution of Jews.

"Now the last survivors are still with us, I apologise today in the name of the government for what the authorities did at that time," Rutte said.

He was giving an address in Amsterdam in memory of victims of the Holocaust on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

Only 38,000 of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands survived World War II, but no government apology had been offered for the role the authorities played.

The question of an apology was raised in 2012 when Rutte was also prime minister. He said then that not enough information was available about government action during the war and there was "not broad enough support" for an official apology.

In 1995, Queen Beatrix said in a speech to the Israeli parliament that the Dutch had done enough to help their Jewish compatriots during the war.

In 2000, then prime minister Wim Kok apologised for the "icy welcome" Nazi camp survivors received on their return to the Netherlands, which the Nazis occupied from 1940-1945.

On Sunday, Rutte went further saying: "Our government institutions did not act as guardians of justice and security. Too many civil servants carried out the orders of the occupiers.

"The bitter consequences of the drawing up of registers (of Jews) and of the expulsions have not been adequately recognised, nor recognised in time," Rutte added.

"On the whole, it was too little too late. Too little protection. Too little help. Too little recognition." "Seventy-five years after Auschwitz, anti-Semitism is still amongst us. That's exactly why we fully recognise what happened and say it out loud," Rutte said.

A number of Holocaust survivors were present at the ceremony to hear Rutte's apology.

"I lost everything during the war," said Zoni Weisz, in comments to Dutch broadcaster NOS.

Weisz, who was a child during the war, lost his parents, brother and sisters, all of whom perished in the Nazi death camps.

"They cannot have died in vain," said the 82-year-old. "In this respect, it is important that apologies be made. And for myself, I accepted them.

"A pity we had to wait 75 years," he added. Holocaust survivors will gather in Auschwitz on Monday to mark 75 years since Soviet troops liberated the camp, while world leaders held a sombre remembrance ceremony in Jerusalem last Thursday.

More than 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One might wonder from reading Paul if there was not an age requirement to be an elder/bishop.

Seniors in our churches today are not valued as they should be. There are plenty of them in most of our churches as their numbers are growing. We value creativity of youth today more than the wisdom of age. So a reminder from the Bible and a rather noticeable demographic shift occurring in our churches that may call for us to form councils of wisdom in our churches.

The apostle Paul, in Titus 1, says this:

Titus 1:5 I left you behind in Crete for this reason, so that you should put in order what remained to be done, and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you: 6 someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious. 7 For a bishop, as Gods steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain; 8 but he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout, and self-controlled. 9 He must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it. [NRSV]

The Bibles world  from Moses to Paul  valued age as something expressing maturity and wisdom.

Not all old people were wise and not all young people were fools, but the Bibles valuing of age is largely neglected today. But a remind of valuing age: the term elders meant older people and it would not completely off base to translate the term elderly. It was about the seniors of that society. Always.

Notice just a few texts from the Old Testament:

Ex. 3:18 They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. Num. 11:24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Josh. 24:1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. 1Sam. 8:4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah Prov. 31:23 Her husband is known in the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land. Ezek. 8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. Acts 15:6 The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. James 5:14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 1Pet. 5:1 Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you 1Pet. 5:5 In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Image: Photo by Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash

You can ask the older folks in your church if they are valued, and they may tell you the truth. At least ask. A side note: older is a relative term now as it was in the Old and then also in the New Testament times. There isnt and wasnt a specific age when one turned into an elder.

A growing demographic today, as described in a recent report, is the yolds. The young olds.

Here comes the YOLDS!

THE YEAR 2020 will mark the beginning of the decade of the yold, or the young old, as the Japanese call people aged between 65 and 75. The height of the baby boom, the period of high fertility in rich countries after the second world war, was 1955-60. The traditional retirement age is 65, and 2020-25 is 65 years later. One might therefore expect peak retirement for baby-boomers in the coming yearsexcept that they are not retiring.

Lots of them, and not at all retired or withdrawn: they are engaged. The report continues with this important statement that churches would be wise to ponder:

By continuing to work, and staying socially engaged, the boomers, in their new guise as the young old, will change the world, as they have done several times before at different stages of their lives.

Not withdrawn but engaged, the yolds have plenty of resources and health that churches can value:

The yold are more numerous, healthier and wealthier than previous generations of seniors. There will be 134m 65- to 74-year-olds in rich countries in 2020 (11% of the population), up from 99m (8%) in 2000. That is the fastest rate of growth of any large age group. Health worsens with age, but the yold are resisting the decline better than most: of the 3.7 years of increased life expectancy in rich countries between 2000 and 2015, says the World Health Organisation, 3.2 years were enjoyed in good health. The yold are also better off: between 1989 and 2013, the median wealth of families headed by someone over 62 in America rose by 40% to $210,000, while the wealth of all other age groups declined. The yold are busier, too. In 2016 just over a fifth of people aged 65-69 were in work in rich countries, a figure that is rising fast. Working is one of the factors that are helping people stay healthy longer. A German study found that people who remain at work after the normal retirement age manage to slow the cognitive decline associated with old age and have a cognitive capacity of someone a year and a half younger.

Maybe we need to appoint yolds in every city.

The Bibles idea is that age and wisdom are correlated. IF that is the case, and it often is, the Yolds in our churches need to be consulted, need to be advisors, need to be what they are  elders  and as such they can become a council of wisdom.

What say you? I say, Think about it.
Boris Johnson stressed he would not jeopardise the UKs security relationship with the US, as he faced pressure from Washington over the possible involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in the 5G network.

The United States warned that British sovereignty would be put at risk by allowing the firm to play a role in the UKs 5G infrastructure, while senior Tories have also raised concerns about the looming decision on whether to allow Huawei equipment to be used.

The Prime Minister claimed it would be possible to give Britons access to fantastic technology while also protecting key partnerships with other security powers.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the choice facing the National Security Council as momentous in a last-ditch plea to ministers who are expected to make the call on Tuesday.

The Financial Times reported the meeting is expected to agree the company can play a restricted role, with ministers looking to impose a cap on its market share to prevent over-reliance on its equipment.

The US administration has previously urged allies in the Five Eyes intelligence community  made up of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand  not to use Huawei, claiming it would be a security risk  something the company vehemently denies.

The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G. British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign. https://t.co/8lLEUEUxdL  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 26, 2020

But Mr Johnson told reporters: The way forward for us clearly is to have a system that delivers for people in this country the kind of consumer benefits that they want through 5G technology but does not in any way compromise our critical national infrastructure, our security or jeopardise our ability to work together with other intelligence powers around the world.

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The Five Eyes security relationships we have, weve got to keep them strong and safe.

He added: Theres no reason why we shouldnt have technological progress here in the UK, allow consumers, businesses in the UK to have access to fantastic technology, fantastic communications, but also protect our security interests and protect our key partnerships with other security powers around the world.

Mr Pompeo, who is due to visit the UK later in the week, said: The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G.

British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign.

He retweeted a comment by Mr Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in the last parliament, in which the MP said: The real costs will come later if we get this wrong and allow Huawei to run 5G.

In an urgent Commons question on Monday, Mr Tugendhat warned that the UK should not be nesting the dragon.

If even the Communist Party in Vietnam rejects it, deciding to set up its own network and reject Huawei, perhaps we should beware of strangers and the gifts they bear, he said.

.@TomTugendhats undeniable point: doing 5G right goes beyond data mitigation  its about national sovereignty. https://t.co/AJXuWHjtrw  Ambassador Johnson (@USAmbUK) January 26, 2020

Washingtons ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, said Mr Tugendhats point was undeniable, adding that doing 5G right goes beyond data mitigation  its about national sovereignty.

Senior Tories  including former Cabinet ministers  also voiced concerns about the imminent decision.

Former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt said ministers must decide what are the standards, values and reliability we want from any company our national infrastructure depends upon?.

But she acknowledged that the decision must also weigh up what the alternative would be if the UK rejected Huaweis involvement.

1/2 Media reports about #Huawei have focussed on how we can limit it to the non-core. Thats not the only issue Ministers need to focus on. Do we value protection of IP and ideas? Do we care how a company treats its workers?.  Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) January 27, 2020

2/2 .Do we value democracy & the good stewardship of capital? What are the standards, values and reliability we want from any company our national infrastructure depends upon? Finally, whats the alternative  the detail of what wed need to do, with others, if we said no.  Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) January 27, 2020

On the issue of security, she told the PA news agency: I dont think anyone doubts that there are concerns, what is in question is whether they should be offset against other issues.

And that is about more than the technical ability to limit the scope of their involvement. It is also about values and trust.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis said that although the US had sometimes been heavy handed in their dealings with the Chinese they have a point about Huawei.

He claimed potential vulnerabilities could be exploited by Beijing later down the line.

He told PA: The problem with this is that it is irreversible. Once you have done it, the technology is not designed to be plug and play  where you can pull out a Huawei unit and put in a Samsung one  its effectively proprietary, a bit like having an Apple plug.

So its quite close to an irreversible mistake, and its also close to a mistake you wouldnt know if youd made it.

Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warned against a dependency on a Chinese company in delivering 5G technology.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I must admit I always wondered whether it was wise to allow ourselves to become technologically dependent on another country, whichever country, for something as critical as 5G technology.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director of defence and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said he did not believe the US would cut off intelligence-sharing if Huawei was given a role in the UKs 5G network.

When the dust settles, I find it very hard to believe that the US would want to cut off its access to UK-generated intelligence as a response to a decision of this nature. I dont take that threat very seriously, he said.

Last year, the US imposed trade restrictions on Huawei over concerns about the companys security and ties to the Chinese government.

Allegations that its telecommunications equipment could be used to spy on people have been repeatedly denied by the firm.
W&M geology teaching, mentoring specialist Macdonald honored with Jefferson Award

Thomas Jefferson Award: Heather Macdonald, Chancellor Professor of Geology at William & Mary, will be awarded the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Award at a Jan. 29 ceremony. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption

Heather Macdonald always loved science, and that combined with a love of teaching to shape her future.

In high school, Macdonald taught French and math to elementary school students as part of a partnership. Now after 36 years at William & Mary, the Chancellor Professor of Geology will receive the universitys 2020 Thomas Jefferson Award.

The honor is given annually to a member of the W&M faculty for significant service through his or her personal activities, influence and leadership. The award will be presented at a ceremony for the Jefferson awards and Monroe Prize on Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. in Miller Hall Brinkley Commons as part of the universitys Charter Day festivities. This years Plumeri Award recipients will also be announced at the reception.

Ive really always enjoyed working with people and getting them excited about whatever the subject is, and moving on from there, Macdonald said.

Indeed, thats what Macdonald has been doing since coming to W&M in 1983, when she was the first and only woman in the geology department. She has carved a role of go-between, taking work at the university and national levels back and forth to benefit both arenas.

Macdonald received W&Ms Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award in 1990, and now becomes the first woman in the science, technology, engineering and math fields to receive the Jefferson Award since Cirila Djordjevic in 1991.

I was completely thrilled, astounded, happy, honored, Macdonald said. It was a nice recognition of my career and the work Ive tried to do at William & Mary and elsewhere.

Macdonald researches in the area of geoscience education and faculty professional development, including early career geoscience faculty, community colleges and K-12. Mentoring and emphasizing inclusion in the workplace, she became a model for students and faculty at various stages of their education and careers.

Geology professors Rowan Lockwood and Christopher Bailey had interactions years ago with Macdonald, who both say was a major influence. Bailey was an undergraduate student in one of Macdonalds classes, while Lockwood attended a graduate student workshop Macdonald conducted for the Geological Society of America.

Her class helped to set the trajectory of my academic/professional life, Bailey wrote in a nomination letter. Heathers teaching has made a difference for thousands of William & Mary students  she makes geology and science approachable.

Lockwood wrote that Macdonald was the main reason she applied to work at W&M.

Heathers dedication to mentorship, education and service permeates both the geology department and the university, Lockwoods and Baileys letter continued. Heathers research and professional service is of great value to William & Mary, as the institution has not only benefitted from her grants, but our prestige as a university that embraces excellent teaching is well known because of Heathers impact.

Macdonald said Bailey describes the geology department as a place of opportunities, and she feels that way about being able to pick activities she wanted to pursue at W&M. She started early on to network across campus, and built out nationwide from there.

One of the things that I like so much about being here is feeling like this is a place of opportunity, Macdonald said. There are so many opportunities for me to learn from other people. And often it was learning about what we shared in common, which was our interest in working with students.

She worked extensively with other departments to develop new programs, including the Noyce Program for teacher preparation at the School of Education and the marine science minor and Marine Science Teaching Fellows program for doctoral students, which she co-developed with Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Canuel, at W&Ms Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

With the GSA, Macdonald started the Early Career Geoscience Faculty Workshop program that she ran for about a decade and then supported the successful transition to new leadership for the multi-day workshop that continues today.

I have enjoyed throughout my career the inter-play between things that I have been able to do at William & Mary and things that I have been able to do working in geoscience at the national level, Macdonald said.

All of this she did while serving at W&M, connecting various entities and constantly helping others.

Since her arrival at W&M, Heather has promoted faculty development and served as a mentor to countless individuals within the university and across the nation, wrote Virginia McLaughlin, Chancellor Professor of Education who also joined the W&M faculty in 1983.

Whether co-chairing the Womens Caucus, serving on panels to demystify the tenure and promotion process or personally counseling colleagues as they shape their career paths, Heather has generously supported the growth and success of others.

Part of that was working to recruit, retain and encourage members of underrepresented groups in the STEM fields, including community college faculty.

From my own perspective, it was being a woman in a field that was underrepresented in terms of women, Macdonald said. It is important to have all voices at the tables that we were part of.

Canuel wrote that Macdonald has been a personal inspiration and mentor to me in many ways. Boles-Ash Distinguished Professor of Biology Paul Heideman wrote: Long before inclusion was a common word in higher education, Heather was always inclusive.

Honoring Macdonald, the GSA devoted part of its annual meeting in September 2019 to Celebrating the Role of Heather Macdonald in Geoscience Education in Two-Year Colleges. Looking back, she talked about all the things she has enjoyed about teaching and learning.

Im incredibly grateful to be here at William & Mary and incredibly grateful for the geology department  to my colleagues, the four founders, current and past faculty and staff, and of course the students, Macdonald said. The department is a place of opportunities  teaching, research, leadership and service.

And I am privileged to have worked with so many across the university. Im particularly excited about the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation. I have learned so much from the many colleagues Ive worked with over the years, both here and elsewhere.
The Vietnamese real estate market at all segments continues showing its appeal to foreign investors, and hundreds of millions of USD are waiting to be poured into the market, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

A corner of My Dinh II urban area in Hanoi



Particularly, investors from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and anincreasing number of investors from China, are showing their interest in the affordablehousing segment in the Southeast Asian country.



JLLs recent figures revealed that the total supply of apartments in Ho ChiMinh City and Hanoi reached 201,707 and 224,179 units, respectively, as of theend of Quarter 4 in 2019, equal to a rate of 17 apartments per 1,000 people. Asthe rate is really low, the focus should be channeled into the mass housingmarket where there is real demand.



In the next two decades, Vietnam will enter the demographic golden period

with25 percent of the population aged between 10 and 24 and a median age around 30.The young will be the main driver for affordable housing, especially projectsnear industrial parks and having favourable connection to major traffic points.



While many investors are interested in low-cost housing projects, it is alittle bit hard for them to overcome initial challenges in doing business in anemerging market like Vietnam.



Accessing to a good land fund is a major hurdle for the investors who oftenlook for clean land with land use right, good planning as well as completionof compensation and site clearance procedures. However, the assets arecurrently rare in Vietnam; therefore, JLL suggested foreign real estatedevelopers consider partnering with local groups or professional consultationcompanies to break into the market./.VNA
One group of Muslims in Assam, whose ancestors or they themselves migrated to the state from erstwhile East Bengal and present Bangladesh, are in focus for past few months following the updated the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the amended Citizenship Act.

Reports of how many from this section have got excluded from the final NRC list released last year and non-inclusion of Muslims from Bangladesh (and also those from Pakistan and Afghanistan) as beneficiaries of the CAA are getting highlighted in newspapers, TV and social media.

But theres another group of Muslims, whose ancestors didnt migrate from East Bengal and Bangladesh, who are not in focus. This group known as indigenous or Assamese Muslims is feeling a threat to their identity due to Muslim migrants and wants measures to protect them and their interests.

Who are Assamese Muslims?

In Assam, indigenous Muslims can be divided into three distinct groups called Goria, Moria and Deshi. Some smaller groups like Moimal, Julha, Ujani and Syed are also called Assamese Muslims.

Unlike the Muslims who migrated from East Bengal and Bangladesh, members of these groups use Assamese as their mother tongue and follow and cultural traditions and festivities similar to Assamese Hindus which clearly differentiate them from the migrants.

While the Morias are mainly descendants of Muslim soldiers who were part of invasions to Assam and were captured by Ahom kings, the Deshis and Gorias are people from indigenous communities in lower and upper Assam respectively who converted to Islam.

Deshis were from Koch-Rajbongshi communities. Besides captured Muslim soldiers, Muslims engaged in various tasks by Ahom kings are also known at Morias. Gorias comprise of Muslims brought from outside Assam by Ahom kings, captured Muslim soldiers and those who converted locally, said Muminul Aowal, chairman, Assam Minorities Development Board.

Assamese Muslims have contributed a lot to the states history, right from the time of the Ahom kings when they distinguished themselves in the army to the Assam Agitation of 1979-85 against Bangladeshi immigrants and also towards embellishing Assamese literature and culture.

Change of fortunes

Fortunes began changing for the Assamese Muslims with the end of the six-century long Ahom rule in 1826 following signing of the Yandaboo Treaty, which brought Assam under British colonial rule.

Large scale immigration of people from East Bengal, mostly Muslims, to Assam during British rule and even after Independence changed the population dynamics in the state and over the next few decades Assamese Muslims become marginalized.

If we look at comparative census figures between 1891 and 1931 of four districts in Assam and equal number of districts in neighbouring Bangladesh (when both areas were under British rule), they show the scale of migration, said Hafizul Ahmed, president of Sadou Asom Goria Moria Deshi Jatiya Parishad, the umbrella body of the three indigenous Muslim communities.

While Mymensingh, Rangpur, Bogra and Pabna districts in Bangladesh saw population decline as high as 8.3% during that period, the four Assam districts of Goalpara, Darrang, Kamrup and Nowgong (later renamed Nagaon) saw sharp rise in population (Nowgong recorded a 61.3% jump).

A microscopic minority

The six-year-long agitation against illegal Bangladeshis culminated with signing of the Assam Accord in 1985, which stipulated March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for entry of foreigners.

According to Census 2011, there are over 10.67 million Muslims in Assam. This includes Muslims who migrated from East Bengal and Bangladesh, those who came to Assam from other parts of the country as well as Assamese Muslims.

At present fates of nearly one-fifth of the total 126 assembly seats in Assam are decided by votes of migrant Muslims and their descendants. The Assamese Muslims, who are scattered all over Brahmaputra Valley dont have a single representative in state assembly, Nekibur Zaman, a senior advocate and vocal activist for rights of Assamese Muslims, said.

Since we dont have any representative, the benefits of most government schemes for minorities are availed by Muslims who migrated to Assam. We are a microscopic minority, he added mentioning for nearly 1.5 lakh indigenous Muslims have been left out of the final NRC released last year.

Need for a census

In order to have an identity separate from the Muslims who migrated, Assamese Muslims have been demanding a separate census where people from the community could be identified and enumerated. Some say the total number of indigenous Muslims could be anywhere between three to four million.

In its 2019-2020 annual budget, Assams BJP-led government announced conducting of a socio-economic census of Assamese Muslims and setting up of a corporation with a sum of 100 crore for the all-round development of the community. Neither task has been initiated yet.

We are aware of the unique problems faced by the Assamese Muslims. Process of registering the corporation is underway and will happen very soon. Once that is done, a survey will be done to find out the exact number of indigenous Muslims, said minorities welfare minister Ranjit Dutta.

The urgency for a separate census is also because the provisions under Clause 6 of Assam Accord, which seeks to give constitutional safeguards to indigenous Assamese through reservation of seats in legislature and jobs, are likely to be implemented this year and Assamese Muslims dont want to be left out.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail
Performance

27 January 2020

HENDERSONVILLE, TennesseeThe Caribbean hotel industry reported lower occupancy but record-breaking average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) during 2019, according to data from STR.



Compared with 2018:

Occupancy: -2.7% to 63.7%

ADR: +5.6% to US$218.82

RevPAR: +2.8% to US$139.45

The absolute occupancy level was the lowest in the Caribbean since 2011, but the ADR and RevPAR values were the highest for any year on record in the region.

"Despite six straight months of RevPAR declines between June and November, Caribbean hotels were able to reach a slight increase in December to end the year on a positive note," said Rico Louw, STR's client account manager. "The decline in performance during those earlier months was likely due to the effects of Hurricane Dorian and the negative perception impact that followed, as well as continued supply growth in the region. Hoteliers have been able to maintain rates despite an abundance of new supply and muted demand."

In absolute values, March was the Caribbean's top-performing month for each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (75.0%), ADR (US$276.08) and RevPAR (US$207.13). February and January were the highest RevPAR growth months at +10.6% and +10.4%, respectively.

September was the lowest month of the year for occupancy (47.1%), ADR (US$148.53) and RevPAR (US$70.01) as well as the worst month for RevPAR comparisons (-6.2%).

When looking at individual islands, Turks & Caicos Islands experienced the highest rise in occupancy (+4.3% to 62.7%) and RevPAR (+12.8% to US$653.75).

The Cayman Islands posted the largest lift in ADR (+8.3% to US$466.06).

Dominican Republic saw the steepest declines in each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (-8.0% to 67.7%), ADR (-3.5% to US$136.10) and RevPAR (-11.2% to US$92.12). Performance levels were pressured by supply growth (+2.6%) in addition to lost demand (-5.6%), and the island continues to lead the region in construction activity with 5,403 rooms being built.

Overall, there are 13,033 rooms in construction in the region.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 06:10:29|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- As the U.S. Mideast peace plan, also known as the "Deal of the Century," is about to be declared, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday he rejects any U.S. role in the peace process.

Abbas told British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab during a telephone conversation that the U.S. administration "is fully biased toward Israel," the official Palestinian News Agency WAFA reported.

The report said that Abbas told Raab that the Palestinians are sticking to the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.

"Without this, we will never accept any plan or deal from anyone in the world," Abbas said. "We are ready to make peace according to international legitimacy resolutions."

According to the report, Raab told Abbas his country's positions concerning the two-state solution, the settlement and the international law are "clear."

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeinah called on Arab and Islamic ambassadors, who were invited to attend the ceremony of declaring the U.S. peace plan in Washington, to boycott it.

"The American deal is considered a conspiracy aiming at eliminating the rights of the Palestinian people and thwarting the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Abu Rudeinah.

Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, President Trump announced that he is scheduled to declare his peace plan on Tuesday, according to media reports.

After the U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped in 2014, the Palestinians have been calling for an international mechanism to sponsor the peace talks instead of the United States.
Protesters say sit-ins will continue despite popular Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadrs decision to withdraw from protests.

Baghdad, Iraq  Anti-government protesters in Iraq have struck a defiant tone at their main sit-in encampment in the capital, Baghdad, as continuing clashes with security forces continued for a third day.

The central Tahrir Square was a bustle of activity on Monday. Protesters took advantage of the warm sun to air out blankets and mattresses soaked from days of rain.

Street vendors selling battery packs, mobile chargers and assorted knickknacks crowded the square, where various nationalistic songs blared from the speakers.

A few hundred metres away, at Khilani Square, one of the front line battle spots of the protest movement, security forces fired tear gas and live bullets on protesters in an attempt to force them back to Tahrir.

On Saturday, riot police briefly managed to push those protesters back by shooting at them and setting tents on fire.

In the southern cities of Nasiriya, Basra and Diwaniyeh, clashes erupted as security forces attempted to overrun the main protest squares and barricades set up by the demonstrators.

A pro-revolution mural on a wall inside a Turkish restaurant says: By the peoples command, now is the time [Linah Alsaafin/Al Jazeera]

At least two protesters were killed overnight on Monday in Nasiriya after unknown gunmen in pick-up trucks shot at them.

The crackdowns on Saturday came shortly after influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who also heads the largest bloc in Parliament, announced he is withdrawing his support to the protests.

Al-Sadrs decision came a day after tens of thousands of his supporters crowded Baghdads Jadriya neighbourhood on Friday, calling for the removal of US and Iranian forces from the Iraqi soil.

Sadr took a wrong decision

Al-Sadr, whose Sairoon bloc opposes foreign interference, had initially joined the anti-government protests a few weeks after they took off last October, as Iraqis from different backgrounds and ages banded together to call for a complete overhaul of what they considered a corrupt ruling elite.

200124153718034

The Shia leaders support bolstered the movement with numbers, supplies and protection from the powerful pro-Iranian armed groups.

But al-Sadrs withdrawal has prompted his supporters to pack up their tents and leave, which the anti-government protesters said led to the recent attacks by security forces on their sit-ins.

Al-Sadrs decision was wrong in my opinion and hurt us because it opened the doors for those who are against us and the Sadrists to attack us, said Umm Aqeel, a protester who has been a permanent fixture at Tahrir Square since October 25.

We acknowledge the sacrifices the Sadr bloc has made and the support they have given us, but they should be standing here with us on the side of the oppressed people, she added.

Umm Aqeel stands under the metal structure of her new tent after security forces burned her first one to the ground [Linah Alsaafin/Al Jazeera]

Umm Aqeel, who leaves her house every morning and spends the entire day and most evening hours at Tahrir, says she supports the protesters in any way she can, by giving them food, blankets, mattresses and medicine.

On Saturday, our tents were burned. So we decided to set up tents made from metal, she said. In Nasiriya, they are replacing tents with brick structures.

I respect Sayyid Muqtada, but unfortunately there are infiltrators within parties who are trying to create a rift between us and the Sadrists, who we cant deny have held some sway in the protest movement, she added.

Under umbrella of independent Iraq

According to Ali al-Abadi, a surgeon who has been going to Tahrir Square since October 1, at least 430 people have been wounded since the latest escalation began on Saturday.

When we began protesting, it was under the umbrella of an independent Iraq, not a specific political party or group, he told Al Jazeera. Therefore, any bloc that decides to leave the protest site does not affect us. We are capable of protecting ourselves, as the last few days have shown.

Al-Abadi said the Sadrists leaving the protest sites has not affected the mood of the anti-government protesters. He insisted he bore no ill will towards them, who he described as brothers to the movement.

We are both calling for an end to corruption but we have different paths to achieve that, he said.

Personally speaking, I have no issues with them and if they come back to the sit-in, we will welcome them with open arms.

Ali al-Abadi said at least 430 protesters have been injured since Saturday [Linah Alsaafin/Al Jazeera]

But other protesters were not so forgiving, casting doubts on the intentions of Sadrs supporters.

Abu Siwar, a 22-year-old protester who has been camping inside a Turkish restaurant overlooking the square, told Al Jazeera that Sadrists leaving had done the protest movement a favour as it reverted back to its non-partisan nature.

When we first took to the streets to protest in October, we did so out of our own convictions and need for a new political system and a better future for us, he said.

We did not go to the streets in response to a call from any political party or minister or religious figure. As activists, as a society, we protested together and our ideas evolved from there. We are a popular youth-led movement.

Abu Siwar saw the Sadrists involvement in protests as one based on following orders of their leaders rather than conviction.

Their withdrawal has achieved the opposite effect of breaking up the movement, he said. We have had more protesters joining in. On the day Sadr declared his decision, the entire area from Tahrir Square to Tayaran Square was full of people, waving only the Iraqi flag.

US embassy attack

Meanwhile, overnight on Monday, at least five katyusha rockets targeted the US embassy inside Baghdads fortified Green Zone, the US military said in a statement.

It was the third attack on the embassy this month since the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi head of Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces or PMF) on January 3.

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There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks. But the US has accused Iran-backed militias of targeting its interests by attacking military bases housing Americans and diplomatic missions.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack in a statement, asserting Iraqs commitment to protecting diplomatic missions in the country.

But according to political analyst Hashem al-Hashemi, the US is losing patience with Abdul Mahdis failure to curb the influence of pro-Iranian armed groups.

It is certain the US will not renew its confidence in Abdul Mahdi and trust him to form a new government, al-Hashemi told Al Jazeera. The US wants him to restrain the PMF, but that is complicated by the fact that they are his last allies.
About 75 Civil Air Patrol members and their families enjoyed a catered dinner at the Rhea County Squadron headquarters (located a Mark Anton Airport) on Saturday evening to celebrate the transition of command.

After successfully serving his four-year term as squadron commander, Major John Yost recommended Lieutenant Colonel David Ellis as a replacement to take command of the squadron.



Col. Ellis has been a member of the squadron since 2007, and had been serving as the squadron's personnel officer and professional development officer, assisting other members in their advancement through the ranks, and progressing through CAP's leadership program. This is Col.

Ellis' second term serving as the squadron commander. He filled this position about a decade ago.Colonel Berry Melton, past Tennessee wing commander and past southeast region commander, addressed the group, and commended Maj. Yost on his successful leadership, and expressed his confidence that Col. Ellis would continue leading with the same level of excellence. "It's great to see three squadron commanders and the group commander here tonight, along with the members of Cleveland Composite Squadron and Chattanooga Composite Squadron joining with Rhea County Composite Squadron for this event. The squadron is the basic building block of CAP. and it is great to see the squadrons come together at an event like this, and the show of support is just terrific," Col. Melton said.Col. Melton continued, "I've been in the Civil Air Patrol for 35 years, and I can tell you, now is the best time to be in CAP. We have a wonderful national commander. We are increasingly being recognized by the Air Force. They are seeing the fruits of their investment in our cadet program. We have a cadet with us tonight that the Air Force has heavily invested in, and he now has his pilot's license. Another cadet here tonight is one check ride away, weather permitting, from getting his pilot's license. I am really proud of what our program is doing for cadets now. You have to put your effort into the program, but you will get back more than you put in, but you have to put the effort in."Civil Air Patrol, the longtime all-volunteer U.S. Air Force auxiliary, is the newest member of the Air Forces Total Force. In this role, CAP operates a fleet of 560 aircraft, performs about 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of more than 80 lives annually. CAPs more than 65,000 members also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. In addition, CAP plays a leading role in aerospace/STEM education, and its members serve as mentors to nearly 28,000 young people participating in CAPs Cadet Programs. Visit www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com or www.CAP.news for more information.When asked what his goals were for the coming three years, Col. Ellis said, "Our squadron has been serving our nation and the community of Dayton for more than three decades, and I want to make sure we are in a position to be here, serving another three decades." Col. Ellis also serves on the Tennessee Wing, Group II staff, and when he isn't serving the Civil Air Patrol, he works as the parts and service director at a local car dealership.
Slamming the Telangana government over refusing to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said that the BJP does not need a certificate of approval from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao or AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi over its policies.

"The BJP does not need a certificate from KCR or Owaisi. We work keeping in mind the welfare of the people of this country," Reddy said on Monday. "K Chandrashekar Rao claims that the BJP-led central government is trying to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra. The Chief Minister is lecturing the BJP after compromising and forming an alliance with Majlis Party (AIMIM) which does politics over religion," he added.

Kishan Reddy's statement came after Telangana Chief Minister KCR opposed the CAA and asked the Central government to reconsider its decision. On Saturday, KCR appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rethink over CAA while reaffirming that the state is against the law.

READ | Kishan Reddy Slams Telangana CM From Attacking Centre On CAA

READ | 'Unbelievable Arbitrariness': Asaduddin Owaisi Fearmongers Over NPR Data Collection

Kishan Reddy's challenge to KCR

Taking exception to Telangana Chief Minister's criticism of the NDA government at the BJP government over the CAA issue, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Sunday challenged K Chandrasekhar Rao to point out anything in the amended Citizenship Act that affects anyone in the country.

His response came a day after Rao said the state Assembly may pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) like some other states did recently.

READ | Telangana Assembly May Pass Resolution Against CAA: CM

State BJP president K Laxman claimed that CM Rao has joined the Congress in opposing CAA with "unfounded doubts and ill- motives."

The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians who faced religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

READ | 'Asaduddin Owaisi Creating Panic On CAA Among People In Telangana', Says BJP's Dr Laxman

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image credits: PTI)
Saorview customers in Leitrim may notice a change in service as the frequency is changing. Customers in Leitrim are likely to be affected by the frequency change and should take action now to avoid any disruption in service.

To find out if you are affected and what you need to do visit saorview.ie/changes

Why is this happening: Following a decision by the EU, some of the TV broadcast spectrum that is used by Saorview is being reallocated for other purposes. This is part of future-proofing Irelands infrastructure.

When is this happening: Between now and 4th March 2020.

Who is affected: Many customers wont notice anything at all, some will need to take action to ensure their service continues.

What does this mean: Many customers won't notice any change. For some a simple rescan or their Saorview box or TV will solve any issues. A small number of customers will need to take further action and should contact Saorview if a channel rescan doesnt work.

Speaking of the change in frequency, Head of Saorview Jim Higgins had this to say: Most Saorview customers will experience perfect continuity of service. Some customers will need to do a simple channel rescan, while a small number of customers may need to take further action. We want to support our customers through this EU led frequency change, and our helpline and call centre is primed with the answers our customers need to continue to enjoy Saorview.

Higgins continued The important thing is to check if you are affected and to take action now if needed. Customers are still able to enjoy service on both the new and old frequencies but after March 4th the old frequency will terminate.

If you are unsure whether you are affected or not, go to saorview.ie/changes , call 1890 222 012 / 01 258 3540 or email info@saorview.ie to find out more.

Also read: Leitrim Mammy Diaries - New baby visiting restirctions at home








A Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has revealed plans to create an industrial park in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region to support industrialisation in the area.

I am very happy about the industrial development of this area and if we continue to support the government, Ahanta West might become one of the best industrial hubs in the country, he stated.

The deputy minister then appealed to the chiefs and traditional leaders in Ahanta West to ensure flexible land schemes to facilitate the setting up of industries.

According to him, the president had agreed that the Ministry of Trade and Industry used $79 million to create an industrial park with the requisite facilities in each region.

He explained that the move was geared towards enhancing industrial production across the regions and generally promoting export development.

It is also one of our 10 points transformation agenda which is to establish at least one major industrial park in each of the regions, he added.

The deputy minister disclosed this when he inaugurated the Ahanta West Municipal Assembly on Thursday.

The 52 assembly members comprised 36 elected and 16 government appointees.

He urged the assembly to remain focused in improving the basic necessities of life and to improve conditions in their areas.

He said government was determined to empower local governments and communities by giving them more resources and authority to improve their living standards.

He pointed out that the rapid development of the country must be a shared responsibility of the central government, and more significantly, the district assembly and the communities.

The Municipal Chief Executive, Henrietta Eyeson said the inauguration marked another important milestone in the history of the countys local governance system.

She called on the elected and government appointed assembly members to live up to the tasks and the expectations of the people who voted them into office.

---Daily Guide
Constitutional amendments proposed by President Vladimir Putin are being pushed through fast, and longtime presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, the so-called Gray Cardinal, is said to be leaving the Kremlin. RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson joins host Steve Gutterman to take stock of what we know and what we don't know -- and what it means.
This song may be about efficiently parking your limo. Or not. Its considered one of the top disco/dance club songs of all time. Whats the song, and who did it? The first person with the right answer gets a Tribune pen, and glory.
While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Delek US Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DK).

Our data shows Delek US Holdings has a return on equity of 23% for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn $0.23.

Check out our latest analysis for Delek US Holdings

How Do You Calculate ROE?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

Or for Delek US Holdings:

23% = US$427m  US$1.9b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2019.)

It's easy to understand the 'net profit' part of that equation, but 'shareholders' equity' requires further explanation. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company.

What Does ROE Signify?

ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, as a general rule, a high ROE is a good thing. Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies.

Does Delek US Holdings Have A Good ROE?

By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Delek US Holdings has a superior ROE than the average (12%) company in the Oil and Gas industry.

NYSE:DK Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

That is a good sign. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For example, I often check if insiders have been buying shares.

Story continues

Why You Should Consider Debt When Looking At ROE

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.

Delek US Holdings's Debt And Its 23% ROE

Delek US Holdings clearly uses a significant amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 1.08. I think the ROE is impressive, but it would have been assisted by the use of debt. Investors should think carefully about how a company might perform if it was unable to borrow so easily, because credit markets do change over time.

The Bottom Line On ROE

Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

But note: Delek US Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Members of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association on Monday submitted a petition to the Coimbatore district Collector showing their opposition to implement hydro-carbon projects in the delta area of the state.

Raising their voice in support of their counterparts in the delta region, farmers, including a few women, arrived at the Collectorate by wearing black turbans and submitted the petition.

Led by the association president S Palanisamy, the farmers opposed the Centre's decision for not seeking permission from the locals and farmers for the project and for not discussing the issue with them and the state government.

If the hydro-carbon projects were implemented, the entire area would turn into a desert, the farmers said, demanding that the projects be shelved.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bengaluru: Will Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa get the much awaited nod for Cabinet expansion and be able to placate the 12 newly elected BJP MLAs who have been waiting anxiously for their ministerial berths for more than a month now?

With pressure mounting on him to expand his Cabinet, the CM is likely to leave for Delhi on Tuesday to meet new BJP national president J.P. Nadda in this regard. It will also be an opportunity for Yediyurappa to greet Nadda on his election to the prestigious post as the CM was in Davos when the change of guard took place. If the Central leadership gives him permission, the CM may go for expansion on or before January 31, sources added.

Yediyurappa has already held one round of talks with party national general secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh regarding induction of the new ministers. All he needs now is the nod of the party national president for the ministers list, sources said. If the CM still fails to get the approval of the national president, the expansion will be postponed till the Delhi Assembly poll process is completed in February, said party sources.
Highlights Motorola may come with a 5G variant of the Razr in the latter part of 2020.

The new Razr might end up getting a more powerful and modern chipset with support for 5G.

The Razr is up for pre-orders in India, US and UK.

Last November, Motorola shook the smartphone world with its new Razr- a brand new flagship phone that gets a foldable display. The Razr received lots of praises from the world for its slim design that is closer to the original Razr from 2004. However, Motorola had to rely on midrange specifications to get that slim form factor and the Snapdragon 710 was the best chip they could find during its development. However, the Razr might get more powerful by the middle of 2020.

According to a tip from a Chinese blog, Motorola will showcase a 5G variant of the new Razr at the 3rd China Industrial Design Exhibition held at Wuhan International Expo Center in Wuhan City. The phone is said to be manufactured in Wuhan City in China and it will be made available to the mass market by the middle of 2020. Motorola has so far said nothing about the 5G variant of the Razr but given the 5G trend, it might happen soon.

With the inclusion of 5G, Motorola may be changing a few things to accommodate the native support for 5G connections. The Razr currently comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 chipset, which only supports 4G connectivity. In order to bring 5G, Motorola will need to include a 5G modem in the device and chances are that it will upgrade the chipset on the Razr.

Currently, only a few chipsets in the market support 5G connectivity. Qualcomm has the Snapdragon 765G that brings an embedded 5G antenna in the chipset and Motorola may use this to keep the Razr as affordable as possible. Motorola may also look at other 5G enabled chips from Samsung and MediaTek, given that the company uses chips from these two manufacturers on its affordable smartphones.

Hence, if Motorola decides to go ahead with the Snapdragon 765G, it will offer a massive performance boost to the Razr, bringing it on par with phones from 2020. The 5G variant could result in some other changes such as heat management and battery capacity (5G consumes a lot of power).

Currently, the Motorola Razr is available for pre-orders in a few country, including the US, UK and India. The Razr starts at Rs $1,500 and is the only Motorola phone to come with a foldable display. The Razr comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage as standard. It runs on a stock Android interface similar to existing Android One devices.
A 21-year-old student was allegedly thrashed by a crowd at Union Home Minister Amit Shahs election meeting here for raising anti-CAA slogans.

The student raised slogans against the amended citizenship act when Shah was talking about the CAA at the poll meeting in Babarpur constituency on Sunday evening.

The minister noticed a commotion during his speech and repeatedly asked security personnel to rescue the student.

He sought to gain back the crowds attention by asking them to raise Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogan.

ALSO WATCH | Vote for BJP so current hits Shaheen Bagh: Amit Shah poll pitch in Delhi

Leave him, leave him. Security please rush and take him away safely, he said.

The BJP leaders present on the occasion denied having any information about the youth and whether he was thrashed.

I was on the stage and heard Shah ji asking policemen to save the boy. But, there were many people there and it was difficult to determine what had happened, said a Delhi BJP leader present at the election meeting.

A purported video of the incident on social media showed people throwing chairs at someone during the rally.

A senior police officer said that the 21-year-old student was at Shahs meeting to protest against the amended citizenship act. The security personnel deployed at the rally handed him over to police. He was brought to the Welcome police station where he was examined. He did not have any ID proof. He did not sustain any major injuries, said the officer.

The youth was released after he gave his residential address and his family was informed, he said.

The officer added that the youth was a student of Delhi Universitys School of Open Learning and he lived with his parents in South Delhis Sangam Vihar area.
A Holocaust survivor has urged society to stand up against anti-Semitism and remember "what it can lead to" 75 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz.

Helen Aronson - who was born in Pabjanice, Poland on April 24, 1927 - has described her experiences and called for others to discuss the atrocities to address the threats of anti-Semitism.

She was just 15-years-old when she and her mother and brother were sent to Lodz ghetto - the second-largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe.

Sat at her home in London, the 92-year-old described the trauma she endured at Lodz: "The conditions are very difficult to describe: malnutrition, typhus, illnesses, very little ration and work. Work was the only way you could obtain a ration card... and people were dying in the street."

Lodz ghetto was established in February 1940. More than 165,000 Jews were forced into an area of less than 4 sq km.

Helen alongside her older sister who emigrated to Palestine in 1937

"People from Germany, people from Czechoslovakia, they were all sent to Lodz ghetto. They were told that they were going on a holiday and ladies used to arrive, beautifully attired, with hats and handbags thinking they are going on holiday. And, of course, little did they know what awaits them".

Helen worked at an orphanage at Lodz looking after children - a job arranged for her by the chairman of the ghetto who as friends with Helen's father. "In order to survive in the ghetto, you just had to try, somehow, to get little bit more food. But it was a struggle from day to day."

She, her mother and brother were among 750 survivors of slave labour out of some 250,000 who entered the ghetto. When asked how she feels, she said: It just happened that way not because I was more clever, not because I knew what to do, it just happened that way.

Sadly, however, she would be leaving with her family incomplete. He father was killed in a gas chamber along with children he had volunteered to accompany to Chelmno concentration camp; a sad truth she didnt know about until after the war. Holding back tears, Helen calls him as an unsung hero.

Helen received the British Empire Medal for her services to Holocaust Education

Survivors who reached Britain initially chose not to speak about their horrific experiences. "For ten years nobody said anything, I didn't say anything." Helen opened up for the first time after she was approached by the USC Shoah Foundation established by Steven Spielberg.

For over two decades she has been encouraging people to speak out against hate and anti-semitism. Last year, she received the British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to Holocaust Education - one of many accolades that Helen has received for her bravery.

She also works with the various organisations including the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity that helps to support and promote Holocaust Memorial Day, to share her experiences.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap) has launched a smart application to facilitate communication between deaf and dumb patients and healthcare providers.

The smart App coverts sign language into audible speech and audible speech into sign language using deep neural networks (DNN). It would help healthcare professionals understand the health condition of the patient, who will also be able to figure out what is going on.

The App was launched by the ministry at the 45th Arab Health being held at Dubai World Trade Centre from January 27 to 30, in cooperation with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence. It aims to help doctor diagnosis patients correctly and give the right medication accordingly, in the framework of ministrys effort to provide high quality health care services and streamline communication between the patient and health care providers.

Awad Al-Ketbi, Assistant Undersecretary of MoHAPs Support Services Sector, stressed that the ministry of health is keen to harness artificial intelligence techniques to offer deaf and dumb patient advanced healthcare services of top-notch quality. This is in line with the vision of our government to implement the National Policy to Empower People of Determination and give them priority in decisions and procedures in all government entities, added Al-Ketbi.

Speaking on how the platform functions, Al-Ketbi said: The App will help bridge the communication gap between medical team and patients. It reads patients expressions and turns them into an audible speech for doctors, through a highly intelligent digital translation. This would lead to a better utilisation of patients capabilities and achieve social equality across our health facilities.

For his part, Ali Alajmi, Director of Health Information Systems Department, highlighted that the smart platform will guarantee an effective doctorpatient communication by not only turning patients sign language into audible speech, but also transforming physicians advice, guidelines and words, prescriptions into a sign language that patients can understand.

Alajmi added: The app is expected to help patients take their medication in the correct way, thus reducing medication errors and removing communication barriers. The translation process takes place in real time via algorithms and all it requires is a smart device camera, and an internet connection. The app can be used on multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, or personal computers. -- Tradearabia News Service
YEREVAN. - Today the My Step faction will convene an urgent session, after which it will make a statement. The majority My Step faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders has issued a statement yesterday in this regard.

"We strongly condemn any expression of hatred," the statement said, in particular. We apologize for what happened.

Tomorrow My Step Faction will convene an urgent session, after which we will make a statement."

As reported earlier, Henrik Hartenyan, a member of the majority My Step faction at the Yerevan Council of Elders, posted a picture of Constitutional Court of Armenia president Hrayr Tovmasyan's daughter on his Facebook page and wrote: "This is the FB of H. Tovmasyan's daughter; let me see you, people."

This became a subject of criticism on social media. The aforesaid member of the Council of Elders later deleted his Facebook page.
A 'naive' vicar was accused of impregnating a female parishioner who had duped him into believing she was terminally ill, a church tribunal has heard.

The married Rev William Bulloch was the victim of 'dishonesty and manipulation' by the parishioner only known as AB who even persuaded him to let her move into his home.

The Rev Bulloch, vicar of St James the Great, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, became suspicious of the 'dying' and wheel-chair bound parishioner after seen her walking around a hospital.

He told her that he would no longer be able to give her pastoral care at which point AB accused him of having sex with her in her own home and making her pregnant.

The woman lodged an official complaint with the Diocese of Chelmsford and the Archdeacon of Southend, the Venerable Michael Lodge, in November 2017.

The Rev Bulloch, vicar of St James the Great, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, pictured, became suspicious of the 'dying' and wheel-chair bound parishioner after seen her walking around a hospital

Details of the complaint, which was initially dealt with under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) procedure, were disclosed at a church tribunal report into the case.

A 40-page tribunal ruling, released this week, concluded that the CDM process had failed to investigate the allegations properly.

The Bishops Disciplinary tribunal heard that the woman had accused the Rev Bulloch of adultery and produced a number of recordings she said back this up.

In November 2016 AB first told Mr Bulloch that she was dying and included around 130 emails from a psychiatrist or medical professional called 'Julian' to back it up.

Julian had stated that it was AB's dying wish to be part of a family at the time she died and that she wanted to move into Mr Bulloch's home.

Both the Rev Bulloch and his wife allowed AB, who wore 'morphine' patches and needed an oxygen mask, to move in.

After a while AB moved out of their home and back into her home at which stage, she alleged, she had sex with the vicar.

The tribunal heard that in January 2017, shortly after AB had asked the vicar to tell her seven-year-old daughter that she as about to die, he saw her walking in a hospital unaided.

He confronted AB but later received emails from a cardiologist called Dr Khokhar at Southend Hospital proving a medical explanation for this and confirming that AB was terminally ill.

Mr Bulloch emailed the real Dr Khokhar who said that had not written the email which prompted him to tell AB that he could not longer have contact with her.

Mrs Bulloch later claimed that it was this stage that AB had threatened to tell people that she had sex with her husband if he did not continue to be her priest.

The tribunal, according to the Church Times, heard that AB then waged a campaign against the vicar.

This included sending crude and abusive emails, sending flowers to his house for 'the baby' and brought an urn with his name on it to the church.

Mr Bulloch later admitted refusing AB pastoral care and using 'foul and obscene language.'

However he denied having a sexual relationship with her.

The tribunal ruled that the sexual relationship was 'not established by the evidence' and that the pregnancy was not proven.

It dismissed the claim of adultery.

It did find overwhelming evidence that AB had been the author of the 'Julian' and 'Dr Khokhar' emails and had never been on a 'palliative-care pathway.'

However it concluded that Mr Bulloch had acted ' extremely naively' and 'without any appropriate sense of boundaries.

The tribunal's judgment was made on January 20.

A penalty for the admission of the two offences is being considered.

A Chelmsford Diocese spokesperson said: 'This has been a complex and distressing case.

'The Diocese of Chelmsford takes all disciplinary issues very seriously and is following Policy and Practice guidance.

'We ask for prayers for all those affected by this case.'

The Rev Bulloch has been contacted for comment.
Sport and Exercise Science has been described as the "Cinderella" subject of Wales and a key part of the Welsh economy, according to new labour market data being released at an event in the Assembly tomorrow (Tuesday).

In the first analysis of its kind, Sport and Exercise Science students in Wales have been shown to be employed in sectors as diverse as health care, legal services and research. The economic analysis shows that across the UK, SES education provides an impact of almost 4 billion to the economy every year.

There is a huge opportunity for SES graduates, with around 750,000 jobs in industry sectors in Wales employing SES students. Across the UK, for every 1 that a student invests in their education in SES they will earn 5.50 in higher future wages. Graduates can expect to earn nearly 670,000 more over the course of their working life as a result of their SES education, compared to their peers that do not graduate from university.

Jobs for SES graduates are also geographically spread throughout Wales. Although Cardiff, Swansea and Newport make up just under half of the 2,440 new job postings for roles requiring an SES skillset between July 2018 and June of the following year, both Wrexham and Rhyl had 49 or more unique job postings in roles such as family support worker and personal trainer.

This newly published analysis also highlights the broader benefits to society for sport and exercise science. As well as generating over 6 billion across the UK in income from higher student lifetime earnings and increased business investment, the scientific research done by sport and exercise scientists is helping people live longer, healthier lives. For example, research being undertaken by the University of South Wales into exercise regimes before an operation is helping reduce mortality following major surgery in cancer and vascular patients.

The analysis was commissioned by The Physiological Society and GuildHE and carried out by the labour market economic consultancy, Emsi. It will be launched at a reception in the Welsh Assembly on Tuesday, with Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM. The Minister will be joined by Public Health Wales, Sport Wales, the Older People's Commissioner for Wales and physiologists from Bangor University and the University of South Wales.

Ahead of the launch event, Professor Bridget Lumb, President of The Physiological Society, said:

"In many ways Sport and Exercise Science is the "Cinderella subject" of Wales. It plays a vital role in the health and wealth of Wales but too often doesn't get the recognition it deserves. We hope to raise the profile of sport and exercise science and show how the research done in this field is changing peoples' lives.

"With 2020 being designated 'Year of the Outdoors' by Visit Wales, this is an ideal time to be launching this new analysis. Sport and Exercise Science brings huge benefits to the Welsh economy, with graduates working in sectors as diverse as healthcare and legal services. For every 1 a student invests in their SES education, they will make 5.50 back in higher wages."

"Welsh universities are driving scientific innovation in Sport and Exercise Science, which is improving the quality of life of patients with life-threatening diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. These conditions cost the NHS billions every year and this research will become ever more important as we face the challenges of an ageing population."

###

The factsheet, including all the SES economic data for Wales, and the UK-wide report into Sport and Exercise Science it relates to can be found here https://www.physoc.org/policy/sport-exercise-science-education-impact-on-the-uk-economy/.
Amsterdam: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said he was sorry for his country's role during the Holocaust and the lack of action against the persecution of Jews, becoming the first Dutch prime minister to make such an official apology.

"With the last remaining survivors among us, I apologise on behalf of the government for the actions of the government at the time", Rutte said at an event in Amsterdam to mark the 75th anniversary on Monday of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Barbed wire and a floodlight at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau German concentration camp on Sunday, near Oswiecim, Poland, where international leaders and survivors will mark the anniversary of the camp's liberation. Credit:Getty Images

"I do so, realising that no word can describe something as enormous and awful as the Holocaust."

Earlier Dutch governments have made apologies for the way Jews who survived World War II atrocities were treated when they returned home from concentration camps, but have shied away from condemning the country's part in the persecution of Jews and other minorities during the German occupation.
1. Yes. The downtown area needs a good draw. Some quality taverns would be a plus.

2. Yes. Too many storefronts are vacant. Bars could help to bring in needed revenue.

3. No. Putting a number of bars downtown is just asking for trouble. Dont change things.

4.No. Several churches have located downtown. Putting bars close by would be a bad fit.

5. Unsure. It would depend on how the law is written and what standards are enacted.

Vote

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Convicted Israeli Naama Issachar to appeal for pardon through Russian ombudsman Moskalkova

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

11:26 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  Staffers of the office of Russias High Commissioner for Human Rights have helped Israeli citizen Naama Issachar sentenced to 7.5 years for trafficking and possession of drugs to draw up a petition for pardon.

Tatiana Moskalkova would support the petition addressed to President Vladimir Putin, RAPSI was told in the ombudsmans press service on Monday.

Last week, Moskalkova met with the Israeli.Moskalkova communicated to the convict, checked her jail conditions and quality of medical care. According to the rights commissioner, the woman is generally in a good mood. The Israeli also did not complain about the incarceration conditions, the ombudsman stated.

Earlier, the warden of the penal colony in the Moscow Region, where Naama Issachar serves her sentence, was reprimanded for unlawfully denying her visitations of her mother.

According to Moskalkova, last year first deputy mayor of the town of Ashkelon in Israel asked her to protect Issachars rights; the ombudsman promised to sort out the situation.




27.01.2020 LISTEN

Ghanaian gospel musician based in London, Maame Kuukua has charged her colleagues in the music industry to lead a life that attracts people to God as they require to achieve with their songs instead of concentrating on too much makeups.

Maame Kuukuaa who was talking to Attractive Mustapha stressed on the fact that nobody is perfect but some gospel artistes have reduced the ministry to shabby dressing and seem to display extravagance which makes them depart from the primary aim of spreading the gospel.

She further stated that some gospel artistes intentionally write songs just to cast insinuations at their purported enemies and also get at others in the industry which she cautioned that it belittles the Kingdom of God.

The musician has an album to her credit titled Ayeyi which features two popular Ghanaian gospel artistes namely Ernest Opoku and Brother Sammy also known as the Nations worshipper.

Attractivemustapha.com
The Islamic State group vowed to shift its focus from the remnants of its "caliphate" towards Israel, in its first audio statement since confirming the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In a purported audio message by its spokesman Abu Hamza al-Quraishi, the jihadist organisation called for sabotaging a so-called peace plan US President Donald Trump is due to unveil.

The spokesman said IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi encourages the group's fighters to launch "a new phase" and vowed major operations against Israel.

"The eyes of the soldiers of the caliphate, wherever they are, are still on Jerusalem," the spokesman said in the 37-minute message.

"And in the coming days, God willing, you will see what harms you and what will make you forget the horrors you have seen," Abu Hamza al-Quraishi said, apparently threatening attacks of unprecedented scope.

AFP could not immediately authenticate the message but the recording was published via the group's usual social media channels.

The jihadist organisation once administered a sprawling self-proclaimed "caliphate" straddling big parts of Syria and Iraq, where it minted a currency, levied taxes and ran school curricula.

Under pressure from combined military operations by Syrian and Iraqi forces supported by their respective allies, the proto-state collapsed last year.

Trump plan

IS has remained a potent outfit in its Euphrates heartland and surrounding desert hideouts however and its franchises in Africa and Asia have also continued to expand their attacks.

The group also has a presence in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and which the Jewish state occupied for 15 years after the 1967 war.

The spokesman said IS leader Quraishi was "determined, and has encouraged his mujahideen brothers in all provinces, and Muslims across the world," to launch "a new phase".

That new focus "is fighting the Jews and reclaiming what they have stolen from the Muslims, and this cannot be reclaimed except through fighting," he said.

Trump was from Monday hosting both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the premier's rival Benny Gantz in Washington ahead of unveiling his "peace plan".

The IS spokesman made a direct reference to the "Trump plan", which has already been rejected by the Palestinians, who ironically call it the "Deal of the Century".

"To Muslims in Palestine and across the world... be the warhead in fighting Jews and foil the so-called 'Deal of the Century'," Abu Hamza al-Quraishi said.

He urged IS fighters, especially those in Syria and Sinai, to turn Jewish settlements into "a testing ground" for their weapons.

Some 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem among around 2.9 million Palestinians.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981.

On its southern coast, Israel imposes a crippling blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza, a strip which is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas and shares a border with Egypt's Sinai region.

Since coming to office, Trump has already gifted Netanyahu -- who is running for re-election -- a number of political presents.

These include breaking with diplomatic consensus to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and ending US opposition to settlements.

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British boarding schools have been warned to look out for Chinese pupils being subjected to xenophobia by other students following the coronavirus outbreak.

Following the spread of the disease that has killed 81 since its outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the Boarding Schools Association (BSA) has issued guidance for fee-paying schools in the UK, where pupils from China account for one in six international students.

Action should be taken against any students who are prejudiced against Chinese pupils, the advice to private schools says.

It comes after independent school groups in the UK urged schools to consider making plans for pupils who are unable or unwilling to travel home for half term due to the viral disease.

Students who travel to China may need to be quarantined before returning to school depending on the how the virus spreads, according to the updated BSA guidance published on Monday.

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(Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) HECTOR RETAMAL AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Vapor blurs the goggles of an ambulance driver while they work, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff getting on an ambulance in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor of traditional masks wears a facial mask at his shop in Thamel EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An ambulance driver talking with medical staff in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers produce protective suits at a factory in Nantong AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers scanned by thermal imaging for body temperature as they go through health measures and procedures after they landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Thai royal guard wears a mask while on duty at the Grand Palace in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A shopper wearing goggles with a face mask and gloves uses a self checkout machine at a supermarket in Wuhan AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Italian Red Cross putting on protective gear, getting ready to give health checks to passengers that landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of the Hong Kong government's Civil Aid Service gestures at the entrance to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village which is being used as one of two quarantine centres for people who have been in close proximity with suspected cases of a SARS-type virus. Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan STR/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Malaysia Health official checks passengers going through a thermal scanner upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting Yingtan North Railway Station, China China banned trains and planes from leaving the major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on January 23, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed lives and spread to other countries AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A passenger walks past a quarantine control station at Narita airport, Japan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Patients queue up to seek treatment in Wuhan Tongji Hospital Fever Clinic, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Quarantine workers spray disinfectant at Incheon International Airport, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of staff checks the temperature of a guest entering the casino of the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau, after it reported its first case of the new SARS-like virus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Three Gorges Medical Laboratory offering free masks to the public in Yichang, China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Gabriel Leung, right, chair professor of public health medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, speaks about the extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conducting searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine officer at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, uses an electronic thermometer to check the temperature of passengers arriving by plane from Wuhan The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A screen shows cancelled flights at Tianhe airport in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials hand out information about the current coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A store owner argues with security guards as he attempts to enter the closed Huanan wholesale seafood market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Handan, China's northern Hebei province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff and security personnel stop patients' family members from being too close to the Jinyintan hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus maya-goodfellowAn airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A rescue worker walks past a notice about new coronavirus that has broken out in China Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials wear face masks at an inspection site at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A staff member checks body temperature of a child after a train from Wuhan arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine station measures passenger body temperatures at Narita Airport JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a notice displayed near a quarantine control station at Narita airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a poster alerting on coronavirus screening ahead upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An employee sprays disinfectant on a train, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Kazakh sanitary-epidemiological service worker uses a thermal scanner to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms possibly connected with the previously unknown coronavirus, at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading "face masks are sold out" at her pharmacy in Shanghai AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A notice for passengers from Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wears a mask while riding on mobike past the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market Getty

It adds that some schools have already cancelled visits from parents, agents and pupils from China.

In a section on supporting pupils, the BSA says it is natural that all students will be concerned.

The guidance says the boarding schools should stay alert for any signs of xenophobia by students towards one another, or by any external audiences, either in school or on social media sites.

Such behaviour should not be tolerated and action should be taken against anyone acting in this way.

Recommended China extends New Year holiday in bid to stop travel and contain virus

On the issue of xenophobia, a BSA spokesperson said: We have not heard of anything happening in our schools, and we dont envisage it happening in our schools.

We are trying to make sure we are covering every eventuality.

China has stepped up its efforts to contain the coronavirus by locking down 17 cities, with more than 50 million people affected by the travel restrictions, after the death toll rose to 81.

Some 52 people have been tested for the viral disease in Britain, with all tests returning negative, according to the Department of Health.




Names of credit cards and payment service providers at the entrance of a restaurant. Korea Times file
Arnold Memorial Elementary hosts Boys Night Out on Monday, 5:30-7 pm. All Arnold boys, dads, granddads, uncles or big brothers are invited for a night of games, activities and pizza. For more information contact Marsha Wallace, 423-472-2241, mwallace@clevelandschools.org.



Candy's Creek Cherokee Elementary hosts a Mother/Son Ultimate Game Night on Tuesday, 5:30-7:30 p.m. CCCES boys and their moms or any special woman in their life are invited for a fun evening of games including laser tag, 4 square, dodge ball, corn hole and more. For more information contact Lisa Earby, 423-476-1160, learby@clevelandschools.org.

Blythe-Bower Elementary hosts the All Pro Dad Breakfast on Friday, 7:40 a.m. All students and fathers are invited to attend this monthly breakfast program. For more information contact Laura Murray, 423-479-5121, lmurray@clevelandschools.org.




The Health Minister has expressed hope a 1 million boost for infected blood patients will help alleviate the hurt caused by a funding disparity with England.

The money allocated by the Executive as part of the in-year budgetary monitoring process will address an imbalance in support offered in other UK regions.

Thousands of patients across the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. Around 2,400 people died.

In April last year, at the outset of a state inquiry into the scandal, the Government announced an uplift in the level of financial support offered to those impacted during the time-frame of the inquiry.

However, that move only affected victims in England, with the devolved regions handed responsibility for making their own decisions on support. In Northern Ireland, the issue was one of many put on the long finger as a result of the powersharing impasse.

A commitment to resolve the issue was made in the deal that restored powersharing earlier this month.

I am very conscious of the hurt this divergence with England has caused to victims of infected blood hereRobin Swann

The 1 million announced on Monday will fund interim payments for Northern Ireland beneficiaries of the Infected Blood Payment Scheme ranging between 4,000 and 8,000 per person, depending on individual circumstances.

With a wider review of support payments ongoing, further support may be forthcoming before the end of the financial year.

Health Minister Robin Swann said: I very much welcome this allocation. It allows my department to now issue payments to help alleviate hardship  ahead of concluding the review of the overall package of support in Northern Ireland.

The use of contaminated blood and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s was clearly the worst disaster in UK health care since the creation of the NHS. I am very aware of the terrible suffering and financial hardship that people have endured as a result of receiving a devastating diagnosis following receipt of NHS contaminated blood.

Mr Swann acknowledged that the failure to increase funding in line with England last year had caused hurt.

I am very conscious of the hurt this divergence with England has caused to victims of infected blood here, he said.

I hope the interim payments I have announced today will go some way toward addressing that hurt and alleviating financial hardship.

I am also committed to a wider ongoing review of all the support provided to victims in Northern Ireland. I want to make sure all aspects of our support scheme best meet the needs of our people.

He said the first phase of the review has already commenced and would inform the provision of further support before the end of this financial year.

The Infected Blood Inquiry, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, is due to deliver its report in 2021.
A civil rights movement campaigning against alleged military abuses in its war-ravaged homeland in northwestern Pakistan has called on supporters to protest the January 27 detention of its young leader.

Leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) called on their supporters to hold protest demonstrations on January 28 to demand the release of Manzoor Pashteen.

The 27-year-old leader was picked up by police in the early hours of January 27 in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The 2-year-old PTM is a civil rights movement campaigning for rights and security for Pashtuns, Pakistans largest ethnic minority.

We condemn this arrest in the strongest terms. I appeal to all our supporters to protest across the country and around the globe, lawmaker Mohsin Dawar, a PTM leader, told journalists in Islamabad on January 27. All those who believe that the survival of Pakistan depends upon ensuring the rights enshrined in our constitution, should join us in protest, he tweeted later.

Police officials said Pashteen was detained on charges of making anti-government speeches at rallies and inciting violence. A copy of a police report circulating online accuses Pashteen of saying he rejects Pakistans constitution. The report also accused him of using insulting language about the state during a speech on January 18.

The First Information Report, the formal name of the police complaint, accused him of calling the constitution against human rights because it preserves the rule of the countrys Punjabi majority while keeping the Pashtuns weak. The laws invoked to detain Pashteen are related to sedition, criminal conspiracy, and inciting public disturbance.

But Dawar said Pashteen was detained to disrupt his plans for holding a traditional Pashtun jirga or tribal council to highlight the issues faced by the estimated 35 million members of the minority in the country. The PTM emerged from a Pashtun sit-in protest in Islamabad against military abuses such as forced disappearances, illegal killings, landmines, and harassment by the security forces.

People who do not want the unity of Pashtuns in this state really didnt like this effort, he told the BBC Urdu. The PTM has also declared its support for a January 29 protest by the tribes of North Waziristan.

Pashteen was arrested ahead of planned protests by tribes and businessmen to demand compensation for losses suffered during military operations in North Waziristan and his native South Waziristan. The large mountainous region bordering Afghanistan was the scene of large-scale military operations against Pakistani Taliban groups since 2003.

PTM leader Dawar said that some of their fellow PTM leaders were probably arrested while en route to Tank. The remote district in southern Khyber Pakhunkhwa is the scene of a planned protest by the Mehsuds, a Pashtun tribe. They are demanding compensation for property damaged during the fighting in their native South Waziristan. In 2009, a large-scale military operation displaced half a million Mehsuds for many years.

In Miran Shah, the headquarters of neighboring North Waziristan, traders had been protesting for more than a month to push the authorities for delivering on promised compensating for losses to properties and businesses in a major military operation in 2014. They are now launching a sit-in protest in Peshawar on January 27.

In 2014, Zarb-e Azb, the formal name of a Pakistani Army operation, displaced nearly 1 million North Waziristan residents for years. Thousands of shops comprising the bazaar in Miran Shah were obliterated during the offensive.
Experts from the World Health Organization have visited the locked-down central Chinese city at the epicentre of the deadly global coronavirus outbreak

China's capital on Monday recorded its first death from a deadly coronavirus as it struggles to contain a rapidly spreading disease that has sparked global alarm, with countries scrambling to evacuate their citizens from the epicentre of the epidemic.

The fatality in Beijing raises the death toll from the new virus to 82, with more than 2,700 people infected across the nation.

Cases have been identified in more than a dozen other countries, including the first confirmed patients in Canada and Sri Lanka.

Mongolia closed its vast border to vehicles from China while Germany urged its citizens to avoid travelling to the country and Malaysia banned people from central Hubei province, where the pneumonia-like virus emerged, from entering its soil.

In a sign of mounting official concern, Premier Li Keqiang visited ground zero to oversee containment efforts in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where the disease first appeared late last month.

The government has sealed off Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province, effectively trapping tens of millions of people including thousands of foreigners, in a bid to contain the virus as the Lunar New Year holiday unfolds.

China decided to extend the holiday, initially due to end on January 30, for three days to limit population flows and control the epidemic.

US President Donald Trump said the United States has offered Beijing "any help that is necessary" in combatting the virus.

The health commission in the capital said a 50 year-old-man who visited Wuhan died of respiratory failure on Monday, less than three weeks after visiting the city.

More than 700 new infections were confirmed in the country, while the number of suspected cases doubled over a 24-hour period to nearly 6,000.

The youngest infected patient was a nine-month-old baby being treated in Beijing.

In Wuhan, AFP reporters saw construction workers labouring on one of two field hospitals that China is racing to complete by next week to relieve overcrowded facilities swamped with people waiting for medical attention.

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On day five under quarantine, residents shouted "Go Wuhan" from their windows, according to videos posted online, and a building lit up the night sky with the words in red.

"I'm getting more concerned every day," Do Quang Duy, a 32-year-old Vietnamese masters student in Wuhan, told AFP.

- Global fears spread -

Landlocked Mongolia -- which is heavily dependent on trade with China -- closed the border with its huge neighbour to cars, cancelled classes until March 2 and suspended large public gatherings.

Malaysia banned visitors from Hubei province.

Turkey and Germany advised their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to China altogether.

A US-bound flight is scheduled to leave Wuhan on Tuesday with consular staff and some American citizens. France plans to fly citizens out of the city in the middle of this week. Japan will also bring its citizens home.

Belgium, Bangladesh, India and Spain said they were working to repatriate their nationals, while Germany was considering the possibility.

The World Health Organization last week stopped short of declaring the outbreak a global emergency, which could have prompted international trade or travel restrictions.

But the world body on Monday admitted it had made an error in the global risk from the deadly virus, assessing it as "high" worldwide, rather than "moderate".

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus headed to Beijing for discussions with Chinese officials.

Global stock markets and oil prices plunged Monday over coronavirus fears.

- China shuts down -

The virus is believed to have jumped to people from animals in a Wuhan market that sold a wide range of exotic wild game.

China on Sunday banned all wildlife trade until the emergency subsides.

The virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003 and was also traced to the wild game trade.

Authorities around China have already imposed aggressive curbs on transport during the usually high-traffic Lunar New Year season to keep the virus from spreading.

At Beijing's main international airport, almost all passengers wear masks. Fever checks are conducted at subway and railway stations.

Typically, hundreds of millions of people criss-cross China in jam-packed buses and trains during the holiday, a time for family reunions.

But the festivities have been ruined this year by coronavirus, which can be transmitted between humans, with people told to avoid gatherings.

Countless popular public attractions and seasonal festivals have been shut down. Several Beijing malls shortened their opening hours, according to state media.

The nationwide measures threaten to put a dent in an economy that was already slowing down.

Beijing and Shanghai were among places mandating stringent checks and 14-day observation periods for people arriving from Hubei.

Wuhan's mayor Zhou Xianwang said around five million people had left the stricken city during the new year travel rush in January, highlighting fears the virus could spread further.


A new study provides scientific evidence to support the idea that stress can cause a persons hair to turn gray.

A team from Americas Harvard University said the new study is the first to show a clear link between stress and graying hair. The findings were recently published in the journal Nature.

Researchers say they discovered a chemical process that can change hair color during times of stress. The process is linked to the bodys fight-or-flight reaction that can happen during dangerous situations.

Ya-Chieh Hsu is a professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard. She said in a statement that the research team was in search of the first scientific confirmation of the commonly held belief that stress can cause gray hair. Everyone has an anecdote to share about how stress affects their body, particularly in their skin and hair - the only tissues we can see from the outside, Hsu said.

The team used experiments with mice to look at how stress affects stem cells in hair follicles. Most people have about 100,000 hair follicles on their head. The follicles are responsible for making melanocytes, the cells that give hair its color. As people age, melanocyte production is reduced. This causes a persons hair to begin turning gray naturally.

At first, the researchers suspected that an immune attack caused by a stressful event might be targeting the melanocyte stem cells. That theory, however, turned out to be false. The mice lacking immune cells still showed signs of graying hair.

The team also thought the hormone cortisol, which always increases in the body during times of stress, might be a likely cause. However, when researchers removed the gland that produces the cortisol hormones, the hair of mice still turned gray.

The scientists then centered their experiments on the bodys sympathetic nervous system. This is the body system that controls fight-or-flight reactions in dangerous situations.

The sympathetic nervous system is made up of a collection of nerves that extend through the body, including the skin. When the mice were subjected to short-term pain or placed in stressful laboratory conditions, these nerves released a chemical called norepinephrine. The chemical then flowed through the stem cells up into the hair follicles -- where melanocytes are kept.

The researchers found that when the norepinephrine was released, all the melanocyte stem cells were highly activated and changed into pigment-producing cells. This overproduction process resulted in the early loss of color-producing cells.

Ya-Chieh Hsu said the experiments confirmed the teams belief that stress is bad for the body. She added that the results demonstrated the harmful effects are more major than what the researchers had imagined. After just a few days, all of the pigment-regenerating stem cells were lost. Once theyre gone, you cant regenerate pigments anymore. The damage is permanent, Hsu said.

The scientists said their research could lead to new treatments for stress-related graying in the future. Graying hair is just one example of how stress affects the body. New experiments could also be carried out in other areas, as well, the team said. These could include studies to see whether stress can also cause changes in body tissues.

Hsu said she would also like to study whether stress has a large effect on the overall aging process. We dont know if that is true yet. We are interested in finding out the link, she said.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Scientists Discover How Stress Can Cause Gray Hair Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

stress  n. feelings or worry or nervousness caused by difficult situations or problems

anecdote  n. a short story that you tell someone about something that happened to you or someone else

follicle  n. any of the very small holes in the skin that a hair grows from

immune  adj. relating to the way the body fights disease

hormone  n. one of several chemicals produced in the body that influence growth and development

gland  n. an organ of the body that produces chemicals

pigment  n. a substance that gives something color

regenerate  v. to grow again or make something grow again
The radical Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) had paid hefty funds to several top lawyers in the Hadiya case. The NIA investigations had revealed that Akhila Ashokan, the daughter of Ashokan KM, was a target of PFI activists and Sathya Sarini and was converted to Islam and became Hadiya. She married Shafin Jahan, a PFI activist.

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(Markazul Hidaya) Sathya Sarani Educational and Charitable Trust, Manjeri, Kerala, a PFI centre for religious learning which imparts religious lessons to Islam converts, was raided several times by several agencies. It has been suspected of involvement in conversions and has even been linked to ISIS. The Hadiya matter went up to the Supreme Court in the case "Shafin Jahan Vs Ashokan KM & Ors."

According to sources, Rs 92 lakh was transferred into the bank account of these noted lawyers on behalf of the petitioner i.e. Shafin Jahan and the PFI was not a party in the case.
The UAE government is set to hand over a total of 1,729 housing units to needy Emiratis under the Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme by the end of this year.



The Dh2-billion ($544 million) housing project will see around 888 homes being delivered in Ras Al Khaimah, 500 in Ajman and 341 in Dubai.



In another development, Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme has approved Dh395 million to help 503 citizens acquire residential accommodations through housing loans and grants.



Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Infrastructure Development, and chairman of the programme, said the decision to help these citizens once again reiterates the fact that the UAE leadership is keen to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens, and to help them secure permanent residential accommodations and enjoy a sense of security.



The leadership is keen to ensure that these modern units have all the required facilities, as normally found in housing, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Bidders for cash-strapped Air India will need to absorb Rs 23,286.50 crore of its debt, as government plans to sell its entire stake in the national carrier for the second time after a failed attempt in 2018. At Rs 23,286.50 crore, the debt amounts to be more than a third of the total debt of Rs 58,282.90 crore of Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. The remaining debt will be transferred to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL), a special purpose vehicle of the national carrier.

The government has made the deal lucrative this time by offering 100 per cent stake in the airline as well as reducing the debt of the company from Rs 33,392 crore earlier.

In 2018, the government had offered to sell its 76 per cent stake in the airline but did not get even a single bidder. Currently, the Government of India owns a 100 per cent stake in the airline and its subsidiary Air India Express.

"At the time of closing of the proposed transaction, debt of Rs 23,286.5 crore will remain with Air India (AI) and Air India Express Limited (AIXL), and the remaining debt of AI and AIXL will be allocated to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL)," says a government notification.

Also Read: Air India sale: Here are the main conditions set by Modi govt

The notification adds the allocation of debt to AIAHL is subjected to requisite approvals from lenders, creditors and regulators, as applicable.

As of March 31, Air India has a total debt of Rs 58,283 crore and servicing the loans is a major challenge for the national carrier as the annual outgo is more than Rs 4,000 crore.

Also Read: Govt to sell 100% stake in Air India; issues bid document

In a bid to make offer more attractive, the government has also relaxed the bidding norms wherein net worth for the potential bidder has been fixed at Rs 3,500 crore, from Rs 5,000 crore net worth earlier. The minimum stake for an individual consortium partner has been also lowered to 10 per cent. The last date for submission of bids for Air India will be March 17, 2020.

During the financial year 2018-19, the national carrier had posted a net loss of about Rs 8,400 crore due to higher operating cost and foreign exchange losses. The state-run carrier has posted an operating loss of around Rs 4,600 crore in the last financial year, mainly due to a rise in fuel prices and higher costs as Pakistan closed its airspace for Indian carriers.

By Chitranja Kumar
Accused "Penis Man" graffiti tagger Dustin Shomer announced on Facebook early Saturday morning that "25 heavily armed SWAT officers" had arrested him on January 23 at his Phoenix condo.

Tempe police confirmed on Saturday afternoon that they had arrested Shomer at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Phoenix New Times published an article just before 5 p.m. on Thursday about the investigation, which police launched after numerous instances of a tagger scrawling "Penis Man" across public and private buildings and other objects since late November. The taggings had received nationwide attention on social media and on news sites including ABC-15 News and New Times.
On Monday, President Donald Trumps impeachment trial defense got underway in earnest with a presentation from former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, now acting as one of Trumps defense attorneys.

Starr is, unquestionably, an expert on impeachment. He is most famous for having investigated Bill Clinton and issuing a report listing 11 possible grounds for impeaching and removing the president based on his actions in the Monica Lewinsky affair. On Monday, though, his job was to argue that Trump should not be impeached and removed from office for the charge that he attempted to extort a foreign ally into announcing politically useful investigations into rivals and blocked all efforts by Congress to look into the case.

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How did Starr attempt to resolve the contradiction of having supported impeachment in the case of Clinton and opposing it now in the case of Trump? He didnt! The face of petty, partisan impeachment simply declared that, unfortunately, impeachments have become too common in recent decades, that the process has become too partisan, and that the House Judiciary Committee was right in 1998 to have rejected one of the planks for impeachment he had advocated for.

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In short, it was one of the baldest displays of legal chutzpah in the history of our nation.

Here are the key elements of what Starr argued on Monday, and how it contradicts his past approach to impeachment.

 First, Starr said that impeachments have happened too frequently in the post-Watergate era, citing the Iran-Contra scandal and the impeachment effort he personally led. How did we get here, with presidential impeachment invoked frequently in its inherently destabilizing as well as acrimonious way? Starr intoned on Monday. How, indeed? He explained that past investigationsincluding his ownhad led to a consensus that independent counselslike Kenneth Starrhad gone too far and that their power should be curbed. The acrimony surrounding Iran-Contra and then the impeachment and trial, and President Clintons acquittal by this body, led inexorably to the end of the independent counsel era, Starr said. Enough was enough.

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 Second, Starr, who led an effort to impeach Clinton that was opposed by a large majority of the country, said that impeachmentwhich has majority support in this case according to recent pollinghad become too partisan. Repeatedly citing the experience of people who lived through the Clinton impeachment, the architect of the Clinton impeachment argued that presidential impeachment has become a weapon to be wielded against ones political opponent. Starr, who was heavily criticized at the time for weaponizing his investigative powers in the Whitewater case to examine Clintons personal sexual misconduct, continued: Here I respectfully submit to the court that all fair-minded persons will surely agree, there is no national consensus to impeach and remove Trump. He then noted the fact that no Republican in the House voted for impeachment, neglecting to mention that one Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, quit the party and became an independent because of his caucuss lockstep loyalty to Trump. Impeachment must be bipartisan in nature, Starr said. Sitting as a court, this body should signal to the nation the return to our traditions, bipartisan impeachments. Starr also failed to mention that the bipartisanship in 1998 consisted of only five Democrats in the House voting to impeach Clintonwhile five Republicans and one independent voted against impeachment.

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 Third, Starr argued that at least in his effort to impeach Clinton, there had been crimes alleged and provenperjury about extramarital affairs in a civil lawsuit and obstruction of justice as part of an effort to cover up extramarital affairs. The nations most recent experience, the Clinton impeachment, even though severely and roundly criticized, charged crimes, Starr noted. He didnt mention that the Judiciary Committee report on Trumps impeachment alleged that Trumps actions toward Ukraine had met the criminal definitions of bribery and honest services fraud violations, and that the Government Accountability Office had found Trumps decision to withhold aid to Ukraine a violation of the law. Starr also neglected to mention that his 11 potential grounds for impeaching Clinton included things that were notably not criminal, such as Clinton lying to the public about his affair with Lewinsky.

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 Fourth, Starr argued that Trump should not be impeached and removed now, pointing to a 1999 Hofstra Law Review article by Yale Law professor Akhil Amar: Impeachment and removal not only overturns a national election and perhaps profoundly affects an upcoming election, in the words of Yales Akhil Amar  [it causes a] grave disruption of the government,  Starr said. Professor Amar penned those words in connection with the Clinton impeachment. Grave disruption of the government, regardless of what the president has done, grave disruption.  Here, Starr was explicitly citing the opposition to his own 1998 impeachment campaign to argue against removing Trump. He did not explain why he didnt mind disrupting the political system or overturning the results of an election when he recommended impeachment in 1998.

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 Fifth and finally, Starr told the Senate he was wrong in 1998 to have called for impeachment for Clintons abuse of executive privilege and efforts to obstruct Congress, saying that even though he was right on the merits of Clintons obstruction, the House Judiciary Committee was correct not to have taken his own recommendation. History once again is a great teacher. In the Clinton impeachment, the House Judiciary Committee rejected a draft article asserting that President Clinton fraudulently and corruptly asserted executive privilege, Starr said. In my view, having lived through the facts, and with all due respect to the former president, he did! He did it time and again, month after month. We would go to court, we would win. But at the end of the day, that committee, chairedthe Judiciary Committee of the House, chaired by Henry Hyde, wisely concluded that President Clintons doing so should not be considered an impeachable offense.

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Heres what Starr wrote about Clintons obstruction efforts in 1998: The president repeatedly and unlawfully invoked the executive privilege to conceal evidence of his personal misconduct from the grand jury. He added: By publicly and emphatically stating in January 1998 that I did not have sexual relations with that woman and these allegations are false, the President also effectively delayed a possible congressional inquiry, and then he further delayed it by asserting Executive Privilege and refusing to testify for six months during the Independent Counsel investigation. This represents substantial and credible information that may constitute grounds for impeachment. Finally, President Clinton abused his constitutional authority by  refusing six invitations to testify voluntarily to the grand jury; [and by] invoking Executive Privilege.

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Trump has not even bothered to invoke executive privilege in his unprecedented all-out blockade of all subpoenas in Congress impeachment inquiry, and he refused flatly to testify voluntarily as part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. This is not enough for Starr to make the same recommendation he did two decades ago.

Despite the gentle, unctuous cadence of his remarks, it was impossible, watching Kenneth Starr hold forth on the wrongness of Kenneth Starrs own theories of impeachment, to believe he was there to do any sort of legal persuasion. Trumps acquittal, according to plan, will be a triumph of the power of shamelessness. The real defense was in the hypocrisy and absurdity of Starr being there at all.
HAPPY Chinese New Year! Its the year of the rat! In this column, we will focus on Filial Piety, one of the greatest virtues of Confucius. Who was Confucius? He was a great sage of China, and his theories are currently being reevaluated by the Chinese in their pursuit to be the worlds next economic powerhouse. Like Sun Tzus Art of War, Confucianism has become essential in laying the foundations of a successful family business. According to Wikipedia, in Confucian, Chinese Buddhist and Taoist ethics, filial piety is a virtue of respect for ones parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian Classic of Filial Piety, thought to be written around the Qin-Han period, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of filial piety. The book, a purported dialogue between Confucius and his student Tseng Tzu, is about how to set up a good society using the principle of filial piety.

Filial piety must be shown toward both the living and the dead (including remote ancestors). The term filial (meaning of a child) characterizes the respect that a childoriginally, a sonshould show to his parents. The idea of filial piety influenced the Chinese legal system: A criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers often exercised enormous power over their children. Filial piety was the basis of a law mandating grown-up children to be responsible for providing for their elderly parents. The main source of the importance of filial piety is The Book of Filial Piety, a work attributed to Confucius and his son.

Relationships are central to Confucianism. Particular duties arise from ones particular situation in relation to others. The individual stands simultaneously in several different relationships with different people: as a junior, in relation to parents and elders; and as a senior, in relation to younger siblings, students, and others. While juniors, in Confucianism, owe their seniors reverence, seniors also have duties surrounding benevolence and concern toward juniors. This theme of mutuality is prevalent in East Asian cultures, even to this day.

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The choice of conflict strategies is based on the following: concern for relationships, interpersonal norms, and collective interests. The Chinese in the Philippines are mostly business owners, and their lives revolve mostly around the family business. Chinese Filipinos attribute their success in business to frugality and hard work, Confucian values, and their traditional Chinese customs and traditions. They are very business-minded; entrepreneurship is highly valued and encouraged among the young.

Although family-owned businesses can generate and significantly improve the financial wealth which stems from the familys original fortune, most Chinese family businesses are relatively short-lived, rarely extending beyond one generation. The high mortality rate in family businesses points primarily to the challenges of management succession. The is recognition that inter-generational succession is essential for both the profitability of Chinese family businesses and the welfare of the family as a whole.

However, Chinese family business leaders often neglect the issue of succession particularly if they are entrepreneurial founders, until it is too late. A more likely reason is that the first-generation founder might have a certain vision or dream of all of his children owning the business and working together to continue the joint venture in the future. It might not be acceptable within the family to question the feasibility of this vision or dream, and as such any talk about any agreement, or the possibility of family members exiting, is perceived to be too sensitive.

To be continued....
Photo: Luke C./Yelp

Here's the latest in SF food news. In this edition, a popular cookie shop plots its first SF location in the FiDi, a beloved taqueria closes its Fisherman's Wharf outpost, and a Filipino restaurant makes way for a Korean fried chicken chain in SoMa.

Openings

FiDi

Insomnia Cookies (362 Kearny St.)

Photo: Albertino M./Hoodline Tipline

Veteran tipster Al M. has informed us that Insomnia Cookies will be opening its first San Francisco location at 362 Kearny St., in the space that formerly housed Fashion SF.

The national chain has locations throughout California, including Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles, but this appears to be its very first outpost in the Bay Area.

Insomnia's gimmick is that it delivers warm cookies and brownies until 3 a.m., alongside accompaniments like cold milk and ice cream. The shop stocks a dozen flavors, from traditional chocolate chip and snickerdoodle to more elaborate offerings like s'mores and double chocolate mint. It also offers cookie cakes and large boxes of cookies for parties.

The chain didn't respond to a request for comment on when it will open its doors. We'll keep you posted.

Closings

Fisherman's Wharf

Taqueria El Farolito (358 Beach St.)

Photo: Ariel J./Yelp

Tipster Mason S. has informed us that Taqueria El Farolito has closed its location at 358 Beach St. A representative from one of its other locations confirmed the closure, but did not disclose the reason why it shuttered.

El Farolito's other three locations in San Francisco  two in the Mission and one in the Excelsior  are still open for business, as are its other locations around the Bay Area.

SoMa

Inay Filipino Kitchen (135 4th St.)

Over at the Metreon, tipster Myron L. informed us that Inay Filipino Kitchen has closed its food-court kiosk after eight years of business. Its last day was December 29.

Owner Manuel Ramirez first opened the counter-service Filipino eatery at the Great Mall in Milpitas, alongside his mother and his wife. "It has been the highlight of my professional career, serving my take on my mothers food to all of you each day," he wrote in a letter to customers on his website.

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But it's not the end of the road for Ramirez, who'll be transitioning the location into an outpost of Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon. He said it should open in the late spring.

This will be the first San Francisco location for Bonchon, which has over 300 outposts worldwide (including South San Francisco and Berkeley). It offers wings, strips and drumsticks coated in a trio of sauces: spicy, soy garlic, or sweet crunch. Korean snacks like potstickers and pork buns round out the menu, along with fries and onion rings.

Thanks to tipsters Al M., Mason S. and Myron L. If you've seen something new (or closing) in the neighborhood, text your tips and photos to (415) 200-3233, or email tips@hoodline.com. If we use your info in a story, we'll give you credit.
Boston is heavily represented in Super Bowl LIV through David Ortiz, Chris Evans, John Krasinski and Rachel Dratch in Hyundais Remote Smart Parking Assist commercial.

The celebrity-filled ad goes full Bostonian, referring to the Remote Smart Parking Assist feature as Smaht Pahk.

In the ad, Krasinski is shown using smaht pahk to fit into a tight space  a problem known all too well in Boston. As this happens, Evans and Dratch deliver a play-by-play, adding in a little more Boston by referring to Boston Gahden and the Boston Hahbah"  in case you didnt know they are in Boston at this point. Even Big Papi is impressed by the feature.

Its pretty clear Hyundai was betting on The New England Patriots to advance to the Super Bowl. This will be the first time in four years to not feature the New England Patriots. But the ad also stands on its own.

Its a common construct for [Super Bowl] commercials to avoid the product for 45 seconds, then slip in a mention, Innocean exec creative director Barney Goldberg said, according to AdAge. We took the opposite approach and feel the ad is strongerand funnierfor it.

Remote Smart Parking Assist is such a mouthful, Hyundai Motor America Chief Marketing Officer Angela Zepeda said in an interview to AdAge. But smaht pahk we thought was something memorable.

And if you cant get enough of this commercial  or Dratchs Boston accent  Hyundai also produced a TikTok capitalizing on the social media trend of recording her accent each day. What do you think of her accent by day 4?

The ad will air during the first quarter.

Related Content:
The final progress report by the Expert Assurance Group (EAG) on how Tusla deals with allegations of child sex abuse has outlined how some targets have been met but also how a shortage of funding has impeded progress in other areas.

The EAG was established arising out of the disastrous handling by Tusla of a false allegation made against garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe. In March 2017, Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, asked the Health Information and Quality Authoruty to undertake a statutory investigation into Tusla.

Since then a number of progress reports have been published, with the final report now issued.

"Overall, the EAG is satisfied with the progress that has been made by Tusla and the Department across a range of reforms and details of these are outlined below and in the body of the report," it said in the executive summary.

That progress includes Tuslas Executive putting four regional teams in place for the management of retrospective allegations in place as well as a revised policy - National Child Abuse Substantiation Procedures (CASP) - to guide social workers.

However, shortcomings were identified in other areas.

"The EAG considers that while substantive work has been done by Department officials in establishing a Social Work Education Group comprising all relevant stakeholders to address the shortfall in the graduate pool, it is unlikely that progress will be made in 2020," it said.

"This is due to the absence of funding for bursaries or for the development of a national placement framework to increase the supply and the capacity of third level institutions to expand the number of social work places. Integral to the expansion of social work places will be negotiations with the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

It is likely that new business support roles for front line child protection social workers will also be impacted by funding shortages.

When it came to the legal framework for the management of retrospective allegations by Tusla and communicating a concern about a person to a third party, the EAG concluded that "the existing provisions of the Child Care Act 1991 do not adequately equip Tusla to conduct investigations with a view to making findings on the balance of probabilities while also observing fair procedures".

It recommended Tusla continue looking at an enhanced role for the National Vetting Bureau.

While noting "momentum towards interagency working", the EAG also wanted to see the prioritising of joint specialist training between Tusla and An Garda Siochana and said "key challenges remain".

"One of these is the lack of substantive progress in implementing the workforce strategy, in particular the lack of urgency in developing a performance achievement and development system," it said. "Another challenge lies in increasing the number of social work graduates available to Tusla to tackle unallocated cases and retaining staff.

"It should be noted that the EAG has worked under a limited remit," it said. "Evidence of progress has been dependent on reports submitted by Tuslas Executive and the Department.

The EAG has not been in a position to directly verify the progression of each action, particularly those which require an implementation phase. The EAG is aware of greater difficulty in progressing some themes than others. While accepting this, the EAG will be satisfied if the Tusla Executive can maintain the current momentum and fully implement all actions as committed.

Responding to the publication of the report, Minister Zappone said: "I am satisfied that the report demonstrates sufficient evidence of progress and that the planned outcomes are on track to being realised. I wish to thank the Chair and the members of the Expert Assurance Group for the huge commitment and dedication that they have given this really important process.

Bernard Gloster, CEO, Tusla, said: "While we are happy with the progress made, we must also be aware of areas where challenges remain and continue to work on these areas which include attracting and retaining staff, managing increasing demands across our services, and rebuilding public confidence."

He said key priorities for the Child and Family Agency this year included building public confidence and improving the experience of the children and families who work with Tusla.
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Linkedin Ardila Syakriah, Gemma Holliani Cahya and Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post)  Tue, January 28 2020

On alert: A health officer operates a temperature scanner to check the temperature of airplane passengers arriving at Abdulrachman Saleh Airport in Malang, East Java, on Monday to anticipate the spread of the new coronavirus. (JP/Nedi Putra AW)

Calls are mounting for Indonesia to escalate preparedness against the Wuhan coronavirus, even though the country has no confirmed cases as of Sunday, amid a far-flung spread of the pneumonia-like ailment that has sickened more than 2,000 people on four continents.

Indonesian authorities are seem as maintaining business as usual while other countries have implemented extreme measures to contain the virus. In China, at least 10 cities have been sealed off, including Wuhan, ground zero of the virus.

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Etiya, the leading Independent Software Vendor, will showcase its 5G Intelligent Slicing Platform at Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona, addressing its theme Limitless Intelligent Connectivity

The key features of Etiyas 5G Intelligent Slicing Platform are:



Empowerment by Etiyas Artificial Intelligence

Plug and Play Slice Creation

Enriched API Exposure

Agile Monetization of Ecosystem

Faster Deployment and Time to Market

Etiyas 5G Intelligent Slicing Platform enables operators to offer flexible, AI based slicing to monetize and manage their 5G ecosystem. It will allow service providers to generate additional revenue by offering Network as a Service Business Model, monetize tailored services agilely, deploy the services faster, and provide guaranteed quality of service levels.

As the Platform is not dependent on existing BSS, there will be no need for extensive development work to integrate with Operators entire infrastructure to support tailored slicing. It is flexible to integrate with any orchestration layer and tenant ecosystem.

Our 5G Intelligent Slicing Platform perfectly aligns with this years theme of MWC  Limitless Intelligent Connectivity, said Aslan Dogan, CEO of Etiya. Intelligence and Connectivity will become the conjoined twins of the future and 5G will empower the convergence of technologies and create limitless opportunities for Service Providers to offer the ultimate customer experience.

You can learn more about Etiyas 5G Intelligent Slicing Platform at Stand (Hall 5  5I65) during Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona at Fira Gran Via on 24-27 February 2020.

Contact marketing@etiya.com to book a meeting with Etiya executives.

About Etiya

Etiya is a leading software company providing customer experience focused AI driven Digital Transformation with its own award-winning product portfolio.

Founded in 2004, Etiya has more than 850 highly qualified employees and offices in 3 continents and 7 countries.

Its microservice-based architecture, DevOps methodology and AI-driven portfolio provides competitive advantage to its customers by bringing agility and flexibility into their business.

Etiya provides turn-key, end-to-end digital transformation to many customers worldwide from different sectors including telecom, finance and retail.

With the Connected Customer First approach which prioritizes the digital customer experience and the agile methodology it applies, becoming digital-ready is possible in a matter of months via fast delivery of products and solutions.

In 2019, Etiya won the TM Forum Disruptive Innovation Award for its Fizz project and the Outstanding Catalyst Innovation Award for the Digital Twins proof of concept project.

Etiya exists to move agilely beyond existing standards in its relationships with the customers, in innovation, and in its ambition to expand and grow.

Exceed, Every Day

http://www.etiya.com
Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) said on Monday that it looks increasingly likely there will be enough Republican votes to call former White House national security adviser John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.

I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton, Romney told reporters. I have spoken with others who have opined upon this.

Romney did not indicate which Senators he believed would vote in favor of Boltons testimony. Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) said in early January that she was working with a fairly small group of GOP Senators to allow witnesses at the trial.

Romneys comments came after a New York Times report on Sunday alleged that Bolton wrote in his upcoming book that President Trump told the former adviser he had conditioned military aid to Ukraine on that countrys commitment to investigate corruption allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden. On Monday morning Republican Senators canceled a scheduled press briefing.

President Trump has repeatedly denied demanding an investigation into the Bidens in exchange for the release of military aid. Trump also denied Boltons reported allegation on Sunday evening.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination, the President wrote on Twitter. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.

As late as last Friday, GOP Senate aides had said Democrats would probably not be able to get the votes needed to summon witnesses to give testimony. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority, so Democrats will need to convince four Republican Senators to gain enough votes to summon witnesses.

More from National Review
Safai Karamcharis Union president Sanjay Gehlot on Monday joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ahead of polls in the national capital.

Gehlot has led several protests for the rights of sanitation workers in the past few years.

"I have been with the BJP for the last 25 years. BJP chief Manoj Tiwari Ji has made us suffer a lot. He promised adequate funds from the central government, which did not happen. He promised integration of the MCD, which did not happen. He also promised to regularize the sanitation workers, but that also did not happen," he said.

Gehlot said "Kejriwal helped us every time we hit the streets".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Philip Hammond, UK's former chancellor of the exchequer. Photo: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Former UK chancellor Philip Hammond has joined the advisory board of fintech OakNorth.

OakNorth said on Monday Hammond would be taking up his role from today, helping the bank in discussions with senior policy makers around the world.

OakNorth is the flagship of the UK's vital and fast-growing fintech sector  attracting record-levels of investment and generating sustainable profits while bringing much-needed change to an underserved area of the banking market, Hammond said in a statement.

I look forward to being part of both OakNorth's growth story in the UK and its expansion into international markets, licensing its platform to partners across the globe.

Hammond was chancellor of the exchequer from 2016 to 2019 under Theresa Mays government. He stepped down as an MP at Decembers general election after 22 years in parliament.

A spokesperson for OakNorth declined to comment on Hammonds pay arrangements or how much time he would be devoting to the new role.

READ MORE: Tony Blair: 'Im sorry Philip Hammond is leaving politics'

OakNorth was founded in 2015 as an entrepreneur-focused startup bank. It developed a machine learning-powered platform that helps it make decisions on which loans to write. OakNorth has lent $5bn (3.8bn) in the UK since inception, to businesses including fast food chain Leon, and leases its credit platform to banks around the world.

The startup has raised over $1bn from investors including Japans SoftBank and hedgefund Toscafund. OakNorth is one of the UKs few unicorns, a private tech business worth over $1bn, and was valued at $2.8bn in a funding round last year.

Rishi Khosla, co-founder of OakNorth, said in a statement: During his time as chancellor, Philip proactively advocated for small and medium-sized businesses and the fintech sector  two areas that have clear synergies with OakNorth.

He brings both an international perspective, having worked with Finance Ministers across the globe, as well as a deep understanding of the British economy.

Were delighted that hes joined us and look forward to working together to change commercial banking globally, so it can truly address the financing requirements of small and medium-sized business.

Hammond will serve on the advisory board alongside fellow former Conservative minister Lord Francis Maude, as well as Britains former top financial regulator Lord Adair Turner and former Bank of England official Martin Stewart.
The manufacturer of the cladding used on Grenfell Tower knew in 2011 that the panels were not suitable for use on building facades and could be dangerous, an inquiry has heard.

The admission came in documents released for the second phase of the public Grenfell inquiry, which determined in October that flammable cladding which was added to the tower during its refurbishment was the principal reason for the rapid spread of the fire.

Manufacturer Arconic worked on the cladding, which contained the material Reynobond PE, the inquiry heard on Monday.

In emails shown to the inquiry, senior members of the firm appeared to be aware that the panels performed worse in fire tests than their advertised performance rating.

Studio E, the lead architects in the 2012-16 refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, has claimed it did not have any knowledge that the products used on the tower were unsafe and accused manufacturers of misleading designers into thinking the cladding was safe.

Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in Newcastle ahead of the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures People release balloons in front of the Grenfell Tower during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the fire (Peter Summers/Getty Images) Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Downing Street is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire EPA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Kensington Palace is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in Salford ahead of the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in by the Grenfell Tower ahead of the second anniversary of the fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Cards bearing names of victims of the Grenfell fire are attached to a railing nearby to the tower Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures People obersve a memorial during a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Campaign group Grenfell United project a message on to the side of a tower block in Salford ahead of the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire to highlight the number of blocks that are still covered in flammable cladding, despite the role that it played in the fire PA Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures The Grenfell Tower is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Kensington Palace is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire Getty Grenfell fire remembered two years on: In pictures Downing Street is illuminated green to mark the second anniversary of the Grenfell fire EPA

Rydon, the main contractor for the refurbishment, has claimed Arconic and Celotex, a provider of insulation, misled buyers into believing their products were safe for use on high-rises, despite appearing to know of potential dangers.

An internal report from an Arconic director in 2011 noted Reynobond PE was dangerous on facades and everything should be transferred to (FR) fire resistant as a matter of urgency, according to Marcus Taverner QC, counsel for Rydon.

Mr Taverner also read an internal Celotex email from 2013 which showed officials were aware that using the insulation Celotex RS500 alongside the aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding used on the tower could be dangerous.

We cannot seem to find or design a suitable barrier in which we have enough confidence that it can be used behind a standard ACM panel which we know will melt and allow fire into the cavity, the email said.

However, the company marketed its insulation as being suitable for buildings taller than 18m after it decided to get in the lucrative high-rise market in 2013, Mr Taverner told the inquiry.

Recommended What to expect from the second phase of the Grenfell Tower inquiry

The accusations came as Richard Millett QC, counsel to the inquiry, criticised those involved in the refurbishment for showing no trace of responsibility for what happened in the fire.

With the sole exception of Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council, not a single core participant involved in the primary refurbishment of Grenfell Tower has felt able to make an unqualified submission against their own interests, Mr Millett said on Monday.

With that solitary exception, Mr Chairman, one finds in those detailed and carefully crafted statements no trace of any acceptance of any responsibility for what happened at Grenfell Tower.

Studio E has insisted it is a conscientious, ethical and responsible firm and argued that it acted as would be expected as a reasonably competent architect in its position.

Arconic and Celotex are due to give opening statements to the inquiry tomorrow.

Survivors groups have urged phase two of the inquiry to focus on who is to blame for the devastating refurbishment of the tower.

Grenfell United, a group which represents bereaved families and survivors, has expressed hopes that the panel will expose the people and organisations who put profit and greed above our safety.

Additional reporting by Press Association
The FTSE 100 has closed down more than 2 per cent as markets began a new week after initial calm over the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in China gave way to heightened fears it could get much worse, and hit the Chinese economy hard in the process.

Lender Amigo has put itself up for sale and launched a strategic review after losing more than 75 per cent of its share value since June.

A record 110.5billion was paid out in dividends by companies on the London Stock Exchange last year. A weak pound and a rise in special dividend payments helped push payouts to their highest level last year, says the Link Group's Dividend Monitor.

Supermarket chain Planet Organic is planning to double its store numbers in the next four years. The company says that growing demand for its ethical and sustainable products means has enabled it to overcome difficulties on the high street.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American: GORO) (the Company) declares its monthly instituted dividend of one-third of a cent per common share for January 2020 payable on February 24, 2020 to shareholders of record as of February 11, 2020. Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA.



The Company has returned $113 million to its shareholders in consecutive monthly dividends since July 2010 and offers its shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. For more information on Gold Resource Corporations physical dividend program, visit the Company website at http://www.goldresourcecorp.com/gold-silver-dividends.php.

Dividends may vary in amount and consistency or be discontinued at the Board of Directors discretion depending on variables including but not limited to operational cash flows, Company development requirements and strategies, construction, spot gold and silver prices, taxation, general market conditions and other factors described in the Cautionary Statements below and the Company's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

About GRC:

Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company targets low capital expenditure projects with potential for generating high returns on capital. The Company has returned $113 million back to its shareholders in consecutive monthly dividends since July 2010 and offers its shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. For more information, please visit GRCs website, located at www.goldresourcecorp.com and read the Companys 10-K for an understanding of the risk factors involved.

Cautionary Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. When used in this press release, the words plan, target, "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding Gold Resource Corporations strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to Gold Resource Corporation on the date of this press release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Companys 10-K filed with the SEC.

Contacts:

Corporate Development

Greg Patterson

303-320-7708

www.goldresourcecorp.com
Meerut, Jan 27 : The Meerut police, on Sunday, gunned down a dreaded criminal who carried a reward of Rs 1.5 lakh on his head.

IG Police Praveen Kumar said that police head constable Manoj Dixit was also injured in the encounter.

The official said that the criminal Kale was killed in police encounter while his accomplice managed to escape.

SSP Ajay Sahni had a narrow escape because he was wearing a bullet proof jacket during the encounter which took place in T P Nagar area of Meerut.

The body of the criminal has been sent for post-mortem and the police have recovered one carbine, one double barrel gun and a large number of cartridges from his possession.
Baghdad:

Thousands of students flooded Iraqi streets Sunday to keep up their anti-government movement despite a crackdown, while rockets landed near the US embassy in Baghdad. One protester was killed in the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah, with demonstrators defying gunshots and tear gas fired by riot police seeking to shut protest camps. Activists have long worried that their months-long movement demanding a complete overhaul of Iraq's political establishment could be snuffed out.

Stoking those concerns, firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr dropped his support for the protest movement on Friday, after holding an anti-US rally attended by thousands in Baghdad. On Sunday, two days after Sadr supporters demanded the departure of some 5,200 American troops from Iraq, a volley of rockets landed near the US embassy in Baghad's Green Zone, two security sources told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest this month to target the high-security zone, which is also home to the Iraqi parliament.

The rocket fire came as thousands of students rallied across the country on Sunday, waving Iraqi flags and holding up two fingers in a victory sign in defiance of security forces who fired live rounds in a bid to clear them. "Only for you, Iraq!" read a sign held by a young protester in the shrine city of Karbala, hinting at the movement's insistence on not being affiliated with any political party or outside backer.

Violence has resurged in Baghdad Iraq's Shiite-majority south this week, with more than 15 people killed as anti-government activists stepped up road closures and sit-ins. On Saturday, four demonstrators were shot dead as riot police stormed protest camps across the country, according to medics, stoking fears of a broader crackdown. In Basra, hundreds of students gathered to condemn the riot police's dismantling of their main protest camp the previous day, according to an AFP correspondent. In Baghdad, university students marched from a campus in the city centre to the main rally area of Tahrir Square.

Riot police fired live rounds and tear gas at clusters of young protesters in the nearby Khallani and Wathba squares, but protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails to keep them back. At least 17 protesters were wounded, a police source said. Security forces have stopped short of entering Tahrir Square, where some protesters stood their ground even after many tents were dismantled. In the southern city of Nasiriyah, security forces Sunday also fired live rounds to disperse protesters who were angered by authorities pushing them out of roads around their main protest camp in Habbubi Square.

One protester died after being shot by security forces and dozens more were impacted by tear gas in the brief skirmishes, a medical source told AFP. At least 75 protesters suffered bullet wounds and around 100 were impacted by tear gas in brief skirmishes, a medical source told AFP. The youth-led protests erupted on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption before spiralling into calls for a government overhaul after they were met with violence.

Protesters are now specifically demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed. Their voices have been heard by top UN envoy in Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert who has said: "Unaccountability and indecisiveness are unworthy of Iraqi hopes, courageously expressed for four months now." "While death and injury tolls continue to rise, steps taken so far will remain hollow if not completed," she said Saturday. More than 470 people have died, a vast majority of them demonstrators, in protest-related violence since the rallies erupted on October 1.

The defiant demonstrations on Sunday came despite Sadr's withdrawal of support for the anti-government movement. The notoriously fickle militia leader-turned-politician initially backed the protests and called for the government's resignation although he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts. On Friday, thousands attended a rally he organised in Baghdad demanding the departure of some 5,200 US troops based in Iraq. After the mass gathering Sadr said he no longer wanted to be involved in the youth-led protest movement.

Analysts said Sadr was striving to both maintain his street credibility and win favour with Iraq's powerful neighbour Iran. Iran holds tremendous political and military sway in Iraq and will likely have a major say in who will replace Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi who submitted his resignation in December. Meanwhile anger at the United States has swelled since an American drone attack near Baghdad airport on January 3 killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and leading Iraqi military official Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Also Read: Iraq Protests: Death Toll Rises To 60, Firebrand Cleric Demands Govt's Resignation

On Sunday a volley of rockets hit near the US embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone without causing casualties, security sources said. One source said three Katyusha rockets were fired while the Iraqi security forces said five rockets struck the Green Zone.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
To the Editor:

The three-quarter front-page Commentary article on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, titled Did we ever believe in the ideals of the American Revolution? by Michael Leroy Oberg, distinguished professor of history at SUNY Geneseo, is a revealing testament to the depths to which academia has plunged in recent times. This pathetic, toxic tripe is apparently indicative of the fare being served as history to our gullible youth, partly at taxpayers expense. No wonder that the current woke generation on our campuses are, with their safe spaces, intellectual intolerance, protests and general paranoia, so far alienated from reality.

The professor, who appears to be overwhelmed with guilt, should cede his property back to the Haudenosaunee People and quit this American empire in favor of some land that has been more or less continuously occupied and ruled by its indigenous people such as China, North Korea or maybe Japan. Leave it, please, to those of us -- including the president -- who continue to cherish the ideals of our great founders and their military who suffered so greatly in revolution for the cause of freedom and equality that all of the rest of us enjoy and hold dear.

Peter Judge

Cazenovia

Related: Did we ever believe in the American Revolutions ideals? (Commentary)
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are likely to be asked for a proof of religion when they seek Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, officials said on Monday.

Sharing details of the draft rules for the CAA, they said that the rules will also require immigrants to furnish documents to prove that they arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014 from the three specified countries.

The rules will ensure that the law is not misused and that genuine people from the three countries get citizenship, officials said, adding that rules may specify applicants to prove religion through government records.

Applicants will have to provide proof of religious beliefs through documents."

READ| West Bengal Assembly passes anti-CAA resolution, fourth state to do so

"Any of the applicants living in India from before 2014, will have some government document or the other where they would have mentioned their religion, a senior government official said.

The official added that the states would have no role in implementing CAA and that the refusal of some states to do so holds no merit.

Under the CAA, there is a provision for notifying authority for the implementation of the law. The government will soon notify a central authority. So, the states will not have any role in implementing the CAA,

According to the CAA, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who arrived from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution will be granted Indian citizenship.

The Centre is also likely to give a relatively smaller window of three months to those who want to apply for Indian citizenship in Assam, another official said.

Assam has requested the Centre to keep a limited period window and to also incorporate some other state-specific provisions in the CAA rules.

The move comes in view of ongoing CAA protests in which protesters say the CAA violates the provisions of the Assam Accord, which provides for detention and deportation of all illegal immigrants who had entered the country after 1971.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Monday targeted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with photos and videos showing poor conditions at some of the Delhi government-run schools.

Taking on the AAP, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari tweeted pictures of a school in bad condition and a videos of students standing outside the school. The classes at the school were conducted only for two hours, which included the lunch break, Tiwari alleged.

A child in school uniform claimed that it was Sarvodya Bal Vidalya near Khajuri in east Delhi.

"Increasing the world class school of the Delhi government giving education to students for only 2 hours a day...what a shame, @AamAadmiParty spent crores on the advertisement and look at the school infrastructure," Tiwari tweeted.

Parvesh Singh, MP from West Delhi, visited a government school in Matiala and showcased a PWD's letter, written to the government four months ago, which warned that the school building was dangerous and could collapse anytime.

Despite such a warning, children were being made to study in the building, he said and alleged to have found a dead rat next to a classroom.

Another BJP MP Gautam Gambhir released a 55-second video of a school showing broken toilets and poor infrastructure.

The BJP has sharpened attack on the AAP over government schools after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday accused it of "making education a part of dirty politics".

"Don't make education a part of your dirty politics. Please take out time and come with me to visit government schools. You are surrounded by negativity the whole day. Meet our students and you will get some positivity. Do positive politics over education," Kejriwal said.
Passengers arrive in France from Beijing. Kamil Zihnioglu (AP)

The Spanish government is preparing to repatriate the 20 or so Spaniards who are currently trapped in the city of Wuhan, China due to the quarantine imposed there by the Chinese government in a bid to halt the spread of a new strain of coronavirus.

No cases of the virus have so far been identified in Spain

Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya announced today via Twitter that her department is working with the Health Ministry, the Spanish consulate in Beijing and the Chinese and European authorities in an effort to bring back the countrys nationals who are still in the area in Hubei province, which is the epicenter of the outbreak.

Health Minister Salvador Illa said today during a radio interview with the Cadena SER network that his department is studying the protocols that will have to be followed when the Spanish nationals in question arrive in their home country, so that they receive the medical treatment that they require.

Asked whether they would have to be placed in quarantine, Illa replied that measures will be taken to confirm whether are not they are infected with the virus. The minister pointed out that no cases have so far been identified in Spain, with four possible infections already ruled out. He added that the Spanish health system is perfectly capable of dealing with the situation.

The minister explained that a protocol has been agreed with Spains regional governments, who are in charge of their own health systems. Salvador stated that he is in ongoing contact with the regions, as well as with the World Health Organization (WHO), and explained that daily meetings are being held in the ministry in order to keep on top of the latest information.

Health Minister Salvador Illa said Spain is perfectly capable of dealing with the situation

I want to convey a message of calm, Illa said.

Several countries are preparing to repatriate their nationals from the affected area in China. So far, France, Germany, United States and Japan have announced that they will do so soon, although for now none of these operations have taken place.

According to news agency Reuters, the current coronavirus outbreak has killed 81 people in China so far and infected more than 2,750 globally.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Sara Huegill has lashed out at an Internet troll who asked her if she'd paid for her outfit, two years after she was accused of stealing a $2,500 pair of leather pants.

The 36-year-old publicist shared a photo to Instagram on Sunday of herself posing in a bathroom wearing leather trousers and a Paco Rabanne crop top.

Sara, who is the ex-wife of retired Olympic swimmer Geoff Huegill, was soon forced to defend herself after a troll asked: 'Did you pay for those pants?'

'You are a hater!' Sara Huegill has lashed out at an Internet troll who asked her if she'd paid for her outfit, two years after she was accused of stealing a $2,500 pair of leather pants

She responded: 'That I did. Karma is a b**ch. Good to see you are someone that hasn't made mistakes.

'Why follow me if you are a hater? Later skater.'

In May 2018, Sara was accused of stealing a $2,500 pair of leather pants from a Byron Bay boutique.

Online abuse: The 36-year-old publicist shared a photo to Instagram on Sunday of herself posing in a bathroom wearing leather trousers and a Paco Rabanne crop top. It didn't take long for a troll to ask: 'Did you pay for those pants?'

Taking a stand: Sara responded, 'That I did. Karma is a b**ch. Good to see you are someone that hasn't made mistakes. Why follow me if you are a hater? Later skater'

In August that year, a magistrate found that Sara had a mental illness and was suffering from 'adjustment, depressive, eating and substance abuse disorder'.

They also acknowledged the socialite's remorse and dropped the charge on mental health grounds.

Sara's lawyer had previously said in a statement that she was being treated for issues related to anxiety and depression.

Legal matter: In May 2018, Sara was accused of stealing a $2,500 pair of leather pants from a Byron Bay boutique. Pictured with her ex-husband, Geoff Huegill

At the time, a tabloid magazine claimed the incident was the 'final straw' for Sara and Geoff's 13-year marriage. Geoff later denied this was the case.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia after announcing their break-up in December 2018, the 40-year-old athlete praised his ex as an 'amazing woman'.

'Sara is an amazing woman and the best mother you will ever meet,' he said.

Charges dropped: In August that year, a magistrate found that Sara had a mental illness and was suffering from 'adjustment, depressive, eating and substance abuse disorder'. They also acknowledged the socialite's remorse and dropped the charge on mental health grounds

He continued: 'Her priorities are our beautiful girls and anyone who has seen her with them will agree on these claims.'

Geoff and Sara married in Bali, Indonesia, in 2011.

They share custody of two daughters, seven-year-old Gigi and five-year-old Mila.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 26, 2020

Facebook claims it will provide users with privacy protections far beyond those required by United States law" as part of a $5 billion proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The company makes the statement in papers filed Friday that urge U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C. to approve the controversial deal.

Facebook agreed to the sweeping terms in the Stipulated Order because it is committed to rebuilding the trust of its users and protecting consumers privacy, lawyers for the social networking platform wrote.

The FTC also urged Kelly to sign off on the settlement, arguing it will bring definite and substantial relief to consumers as soon as possible.

In addition to the $5 billion fine, the deal requires Facebook to accept new oversight on privacy.

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If accepted by Kelly, the deal would also immunize Facebook from prosecution for some other potential privacy violations that occurred before June 12 of last year.

The settlement, approved by a 3-2 vote at the FTC, has drawn criticism from numerous observers, including Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), who called it an "insult to consumers."

The new filings by Facebook and the FTC come in response to a challenge to the proposed settlement by five advocacy groups -- including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Public Citizen, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Common Sense Media and U.S. Public Interest Research Group -- that argued the deal is too favorable to Facebook.

Among other concerns, the advocates say the deal's immunity provisions are too broad.

The settlement releases Facebook from liability for past violations that are not addressed or even identified in the complaint, and the settlement does not impose meaningful changes to Facebooks business practices, EPIC wrote in papers filed with Kelly last October. No one can fairly evaluate the propriety of a settlement whose terms are indeterminate; not the FTC, not the court, and certainly not the public.

The FTC says in its most recent court filing that the settlement only releases Facebook from liability for alleged violations noted in the agency's complaint.

The proposed settlement does not in fact release any actual violations of the FTC Act beyond those discussed in the complaint, the agency writes. This is because, after extensive investigation and review of submitted consumer complaints, the FTC knew of no other cognizable violations that occurred before June 12, 2019.

If granted approval, the deal will resolve an investigation into whether Facebook violated the terms of a 2012 consent decree. That earlier order, which also stemmed from an investigation into Facebook's privacy practices, prohibits the company from misrepresenting its data policies to users.

Facebook allegedly ran afoul of the decree in several ways, including by allowing Cambridge Analytica and other outside developers to access users' data. Facebook also allegedly violated the prior order by collecting phone numbers for security purposes but then using them for advertising, and misleading people about the use of facial recognition technology, according to the FTC's complaint.
Winter Institute 15s last day kicked off with the usual university and small press presentations during breakfast. This year, 13 presses participated in the event, beginning with Chicago's Agate Publishings overview of its program and concluding with the University of Torontos announcement of two new trade imprints that it is launching. But the announcement made by University of Chicago Press sales director John Kessler that, beginning in spring or early summer, the Chicago Distribution Center, which distributes books for 130 academic and scholarly presses headquartered in the U.S. and elsewhere, is going to offer free freight with a 15-book minimum order, upstaged everyone else. (Although the University of Texas Press marketing director Gianna LaMorte came close when she told booksellers that the indies sold more copies than any other channels of Go Ahead In the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib.)

The CDCs announcement is the biggest thing thats happened here all morning, David Enyeart of Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul, Minn., told PW. We order so many books from the University of Minnesota Press. This is such exciting news.

While Fridays sessions focused upon what Winter Institute is supposed to be abouteducation on the business of booksellingit was two conversations concerning race in American history and popular culture that most excited booksellers, resulting in lively discussions that continued for the rest of the day, and persisted even at the airport the next day. "Bookselling and Liberation: Black Bookstores in America from the 60s to the Present," moderated by Columbia University history professor Joshua Davis, featured Black Classic Press publisher W. Paul Coates; Shirikiana Aima Gerina of Sankofa Video Books and Cafe in Washington, D.C.; Nati Kaumu-Nataki of Everyones Place in Baltimore; and Judy Richardson, representing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The group discussed the rise of African-American bookstores and presses during the Civil Rights movement, their symbiotic relationship, and their impact into the present day.

Literacy for black readers is essential, Kaumu-Nataki said. The quest for literacy through publishing, through bookselling, through writing, has always been part of our existence.

Noting that Black Classic Press grew out of the Black Panther movement and that many of the people who were fundamental to it and worked with me back then were in jail, Coates added: There are people who dont want information to be made available. Do not feel safe. It is still happening.

Later in the day, Ibram X. Kendi, an American University history professor and the author of Stamped From the Beginning, participated in a conversation with Jason Reynolds, the newly-appointed Ambassador for Young People's Literature, whose book for young readers aged 12+ cowritten with Kendi, Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Mar.), is being billed as a remix of what Reynolds called Stamped Senior. The two discussed the how and why of the central premise of both books: that racism takes two formssegregation (nature) and assimilation (environment)both insidious and both to be overcome to liberate children of all races and help them to fulfill their potential and develop healthy relationships.

There is nothing wrong with black people. Theres a lot wrong with America, but nothing wrong with black people, Reynolds said, explaining that the childrens edition of Stamped puts young people right in the middle of the conversation about the history of race and racism in the U.S. When asked how booksellers should hand sell it to their customers, Reynolds suggested that they declare Stamped to be the boldest book about racism you are ever going to get.

Hannah Oliver Depp, owner of Loyalty Bookstores in the Washington, D.C., area, said afterwards that the conversation between Reynolds and Kendi was, for her, "the highlight of the conference and an excellent reminder of why the work we do mattersand that it is on us." Summer Dawn Laurie of Books, Inc. in San Francisco, told PW that this was the discovery of the show for her, saying, I am hoping that Stamped will give me the language and techniques to use in the store. I want customers on all sides to read this book. And I am especially excited that its nonfiction.

Ironically, the book most buzzed about at WI15, though, was a novel, already quite familiar to booksellers, that was published on January 21, just as WI15 was kicking off: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. While some booksellers said that they intend to assemble a reading list for those interested in reading more about the issues raised in American Dirt, other booksellers were less sanguine. It added a layer of stress to the conference, admitted Pamela Klinger-Horn of Excelsior Bay Books in suburban Minneapolis. Excelsior Bay is hosting Cummins on February 7 as part of its Literature Lovers Night Out authors series. On Saturday evening, Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Mo., announced that, due to customer feedback and other concerns, it was cancelling an author event with Cummins that had been scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

Favored Books

As for the books that booksellers grabbed in the galley room and elsewhere, there seemed to be two tracks: literary fiction either set in one city or addressing the environment and climate change; and nonfiction that focused upon the natural world, and, in some cases, upon climate change. Paris, in particular, proved a popular setting. A number of booksellers PW talked to raved about Paris Hours (Flatiron Books, May) by Alex Georgethe Columbia, Mo., indie booksellers third novelwith Mary OMalley describing it as beautifully weaving several stories together in one day in Paris"; Paris Library (Atria, June) by Janet Skeslien Charles, which Maxwell Gregory of Lake Forest Books in Lake Forest, Ill., called a stunning work of historical fiction; and Three Hours in Paris (Soho Crime, April) by Cara Black, which Kate Rattenborg of Dragonfly Books in Decorah, Iowa, described as Blacks first standalone after 19 Aimee LeDuc mysteries, a book that I can definitely get my customers interested in. I thoroughly enjoyed it, a World War II thriller set in Paris. It made me feel as if I were in Paris.

Klinger-Horn of Excelsior Bay and many others raved about Migrations (Flatiron Books, Aug.) by Charlotte McConaghy, with Klinger-Horn explaining that the novel, set in remote Greenland with a plot inspired by the impact of climate change, is very timely. The Bear (Bellevue Literary Press, Feb.), a novel by Andrew Krivak, a fable about the relationship between the two last humans on earth and their environment, also created a buzz among booksellers.

A number of booksellers talked up Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom (Knopf, Sept.), with Loyalty's Depp saying of this sequel to 2016's Homegoing: "I think was the first galley to go from the galley room, and if fisticuffs had broken out I would not have been surprised. I didnt even manage to get one and that weirdly brought me joy."

As for nonfiction, while Rattenborg buzzed about Solved: How the Worlds Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis (University of Toronto Press, Sept.) by David Miller, her daughter, Sarah Krammen, also a Dragonfly bookseller, talked up books containing reflections upon nature and the environment and being published by small presses. On Lighthouses (Two Lines Press, May) by Jazmina Barrera, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, reflects upon the mystique of lighthouses and water surrounding them. Its comparable to Bluets by Maggie Nelson, Krammen said. Its just lovely, and beautifully written, which is a credit to the author and to the translator. Krammen and many others also praised World of Wonders (Milkweed, Aug.), a collection of essays about the natural world by Aimee Nezhukamatathil. Every single bookseller who told PW about it insisted that its cover contained the most gorgeous art of any book at this year's conference.

Winter Institute will head back to the Midwest next year, where it will take place February 7-10, 2021, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Update: In an earlier version of this novel, the author of the poetry collection, Bluets, was misidentified. It has been corrected.
Missed the most recent top news in San Diego? Read on for everything you need to know.

San Diego fans mourn loss of LA Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant

The death of Los Angeles Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant, is hitting fans in San Diego deeply.

Read the full story on 10News  ABC San Diego KGTV.

Front Street reconstruction project will begin, expect closures

Front Street in downtown San Diego will be closed for more than a year as crews complete a reconstruction project meant to improve the safety of a federal building.

Read the full story on NBC 7 San Diego.

Reading a challenge for 560,000 San Diego adults

According to the San Diego Council on Literacy, 560,000 adults in the county read at a 4th-grade level or less. Individuals with limited reading skills will have a hard time finding employment and suffer even more financially.

Read the full story on 10News  ABC San Diego KGTV.

Agreement inked to make NAVWAR facility a transit hub

Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly signed an exclusive agreement at the Pentagon Thursday to redevelop the former SPAWAR facility, now "NAVWAR," into a transit hub.

Read the full story on 10News  ABC San Diego KGTV.

San Diego middle-schoolers to interview space station astronaut via satellite

UCSD graduate Jessica Meir, who has been in space nearly four months, will field their questions today.

Read the full story on The San Diego Union-Tribune.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Despite widespread killings rocking Nigeria, the presidency has said the Muhammadu Buhari administration has handled the issue of security better than previous governments.

Mr Buharis spokespersom, Femi Adesina, made this assertion while speaking on Channels Television Sunday Politics.

He argued that compared to the previous administration where bombs were going off 10 times a day, the situation has improved.

We know what the situation was as at 2015 and we know what it is today. Despite the reversals in security, it is still not as bad as it used to be in this country.

There are many redeeming sides to the security situation in the country compared to how President Buhari met it in 2015 and it is those who are affected most who can tell you, particularly, those who live in the North-east.

If you hear Nigerian media, social media, and some international agencies, you will think it is all over in the North-east, it is not. The people living there will tell you that the difference between now and 2015 is the difference between heaven and hell, the former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors said.

Mr Adesina also asked Nigerians to be grateful to Mr Buhari and troops at the battlegrounds.

We should be thankful and encourage those who are doing this work, they are young men and women in the frontline battling day and night, he said. When we make it seem as if they are not doing anything, things are getting worse, they get dispirited. They need to be encouraged, that is what I am saying.

Mr Adesina also said efforts are in place to return the abducted schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, who reportedly gave birth to a son for a Boko Haram commander at the weekend.
(Bloomberg) -- Europes peripheral government bonds are eluding the rush of money out of riskier markets amid the spread of coronavirus.

Greek bond yields dropped to a record low Monday after a Fitch Ratings upgrade marked the latest step in the countrys recovery from a debt crisis, while Italys bonds also rallied as local election results damped political risk. The gains exceeded an advance in haven assets such as U.S. Treasuries, German bunds and the yen on deepening fears over the spread of the virus.

While Greek and Italian bonds were also the best performers in Europe last year as yield-starved investors sought their high returns, in bouts of wider market risk aversion the securities generally suffered. Following a series of ratings upgrades and relative political calm, the gains Monday show economies on the periphery of Europe may be losing their status as the regions black sheep.

Peripherals arguably offer some insulation from the elevated uncertainty, strategists at Rabobank International, including Richard McGuire, wrote in a note Monday. If bund yields push further into negative territory, investors will be forced into higher yielding markets.

Greek 10-year yields fell 15 basis points to their lowest ever level of 1.155% after Fitch lifted the nations rating by one notch to BB with a positive outlook on Friday. Thats good timing for the country to raise debt at lower borrowing costs, with the government on Monday mandating banks for a new 15-year bond sale. Investor interest would signal confidence in Greeces long-term debt sustainability because the notes mature in 2035, after a euro-area safety net expires.

Italys benchmark yields dropped as much as 20 basis points to a more than two-month low at 1.03%, while an index of the nations banking stocks was relatively shielded from the global sell-off with a drop of 1.2%. In contrast, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 2.3% in its worst decline since October, as the death toll from the virus climbed.

Story continues

The spread between Italian and German yields, a barometer of the countrys risk, narrowed to the lowest since November after Italys populist firebrand Matteo Salvini lost regional elections, boosting Prime Minister Giuseppe Contes fragile coalition. Candidates for a Democratic Party-led bloc swept up 51% of the vote against 44% for Salvinis center-right, while support for fellow coalition member and anti-establishment party Five Star Movement fell to under 5%.

We think theres room for spreads to tighten a little bit between Italy and Germany, said Anthony Crescenzi, a portfolio manager at Pacific Investment Management Co. The European Central Bank is being very supportive of the overall euro-wide story, he said on Bloomberg TV.

While every improvement in rating and stabilization in national politics is a source of relief for investors, diving head first into peripheral bonds might not be the best tactic just yet, said Alessandro Tentori, chief investment officer at AXA Investment Managers in Milan. He cautioned that a ratings decision cant be the sole reason for investing in Greece.

The story in Greece sounds very positive right now, in particular they are adding liquidity to the market and investors have produced a squeeze in yields also thanks to the negative rates environment, he said. However, this all came at a huge toll for the population, which is the bit that worries me the most when I look at Europe.

(Updates prices, adds PIMCO comment in eighth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Alice Gledhill, Blaise Robinson, William Shaw and Sotiris Nikas.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anooja Debnath in London at adebnath@bloomberg.net;James Hirai in London at jhirai3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Neil Chatterjee, Paul Dobson

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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Six Hungarians are stranded in Hubei province in China, where authorities have imposed a quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak, Foreign Affairs Ministry state secretary Tamas Menczer announced on Saturday.

At the moment, no one is advised to travel to the region, and it is impossible to leave, he added.



Four Hungarian citizens live and work at a hotel in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, while a fifth is also in Wuhan and a sixth resides in another city in the quarantined province. They are all well, and the ministry is constantly in touch with them, Menczer said in a statement.



The Hungarian embassy in Beijing is also in contact with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They have been asked to provide further information on other Hungarians in the province should there be any.



Menczer emphasised that the ministry is closely monitoring any new information on the quarantine.



He mentioned that professionals recommend frequent hand washing and compliance with hygiene rules to control the spread of the virus, which has already appeared in Europe.



The ministry urges travellers to China to exercise due diligence and register on the Consular Services website.



MTI Photo
CHICO, Calif.- Many people say they're upset about Chico's Needle Distribution Program.

Action News Now took their concerns straight to the Northern Valley Harm Reduction Coalition.

Roxanne Eldridge, from Chico, says the program doesn't sit well with her. "I want better help for these people, I dont want them to keep using.Its advertising for our kids I dont want this for them, I dont want it here. I wanted to know exactly what was going on and go straight to the source. I was baffled to see the stuff that they were giving out."

Action News Now confirmed that they give out items such as condoms, cookers, Narcan, Fentanyl testing strips, and volunteers say that people can request even 100 syringes at a time.

Nathan Wills, a volunteer with The Northern Valley Harm Reduction Coalition says, People are trying not to go into withdrawal, so they will shoot up small amounts of heroine throughout the day, youre supposed to use a clean syringe every time you poke yourself. So people can go through 20 syringes a day or more. So if people are using 20 syringes a day, thats only getting them through five days."

Wills added that they understand why people in town are concerned. He says, "One of the purposes of this program is to try to reduce litter. We also have the hotline you can call if you find needles and we can come and pick them up. Its one of those interesting programs that has a lot of worries attached to it but I genuinely believe that it does more good than harm around the community."

Roxanne Eldridge told Action News Now, "I think that this program caters to the needs of the users and not for the rest of us in the community."

At the distribution site they also give out food and offer referrals for treatment programs.

They also have HIV and Hepatitis testing and they have a list of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meeting times.

Volunteers say people who attend these programs are 5 times more likely to seek help.

Volunteers from the organization told Action News Now theyd be open to having a discussion with some of the concerned people in Chico to answer any questions they may have about the program.
A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to put in place a policy connecting the use of public benefits with whether immigrants could become permanent residents.

The new policy can be used to deny green cards to immigrants over their use of public benefits including Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers, as well as other factors.

The justices' order came by a 5-4 vote and reversed a ruling from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that had kept in a place a nationwide hold on the policy following lawsuits that have been filed against it.

The court's four liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, would have prevented the policy from taking effect.

Federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia, had previously overturned trial court rulings against the policy. An injunction in Illinois remains in effect, but applies only to that state.

The lawsuits will continue, but immigrants applying for permanent residency must now show they wouldn't be public charges, or burdens to the country.

The new policy significantly expands what factors would be considered to make that determination, and if it is decided that immigrants could potentially become public charges at any point in the future, that legal residency could be denied.

Roughly 544,000 people apply for green cards annually. According to the government, 382,000 are in categories that would make them subject to the new review.

Immigrants make up a small portion of those getting public benefits, since many are ineligible to get them because of their immigration status.

In a separate opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch urged his colleagues to confront the "real problem" of so-called nationwide injunctions, orders issued by a single judge that apply everywhere. In this case, even though the administration won rulings in two different appellate courts covering 14 states, its policy could not take effect.

"What in this gamesmanship and chaos can we be proud of?" Gorsuch wrote in an opinion joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, praised the high court order. "It is very clear that the US Supreme Court is fed up with these national injunctions by judges who are trying to impose their policy preferences instead of enforcing the law," Cuccinelli said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
No longer relying on bank loans, real estate firms are seeking capital from many different channels, including bond issuance, stock sales and M&As.

A report of SSI Research showed that real estate firms issued VND106.5 trillion worth of bonds, which accounted for 38 percent of the total value of bonds issued.





In Q3 2019, Hung Thinh Land mobilized VND500 billion worth of bonds through 2 issuance campaigns. The firmed raised VND3 trillion worth of funds in total in 2019 to implement a series of important projects.



Phat Dat JSC mobilized VND1.8 trillion worth of capital from bonds to prepare for the projects to be implemented in 2020. It will build street houses, develop apartments in Binh Duong and continue implementing the Nhon Hoi New City project in Quy Nhon.

No longer relying on bank loans, real estate firms are seeking capital from many different channels, including bond issuance, stock sales and M&As.

In the stock market, An Gia Real Estate in early 2020 listed 75 million shares with the capitalization value of VND1.875 trillion. An Gia now has the land bank of 70 hectares and plans to launch 9,000-12,000 products in the next three years.



Some days ago, FLC Homes announced the plan to list shares, slated for early 2020, with the share price of VND35,000 per share, i.e. the capitalization value of VND14.35 trillion.



In addition to 10 high-end ongoing projects, FLC Homes plans to expand its land bank in many localities, including Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Soc Trang and Gia Lai.



Real estate firms are trying to approach foreign capital. Novaland has successfully found the foreign syndicated loans of $250 million. The capital would be used to develop coastal recreational resort complexes.



Analysts affirmed that there are many channels through which real estate firms can mobilize capital for 2020.



Corporate bond and FDI are the capital sources for firms to exploit thanks to the attractiveness of the Vietnamese real estate market. However, in order to issue corporate bonds, they need to strictly follow the regulations on information exposure and upgrade the project implementation capability.



Le Nhi Nang, chief representative of the State Securities Commission in HCM City, predicted that the capital to be mobilized from bond issuance in 2020 may increase by 80-90 percent to VND200 trillion.



At present, the capitalization value of real estate firms account for 23 percent of the total capitalization value in the market. However, there are only 120 listed firms, and if the other firms list shares, they would be able to easily find capital in the stock market.



Analysts believe that the shares of the companies with high competitiveness and high growth rates such as VHM of Vinhomes, DXG of Dat Xanh JSC and HDG of Ha Do will attract cash flow.

Mai Lan

Ken Research reveals Vietnam real estate market outlook to 2025 Ken Research has released the report titled Vietnam Real Estate Market Outlook to 2025", providing a comprehensive analysis of the real estate space within Vietnam.
The agriculture and tourism industries are feeling the worst effects of Australias devastating bushfire season.

Eden, Australia  For much of the new year, Eden, on Australias southeastern coast, has been anything but paradise. Despite recent rains in some parts of fire-ravaged Australia, a smoke haze has hung over this town in the state of New South Wales.

Many residents in the area have been in limbo for weeks, after a horrific bushfire season displaced communities and engulfed more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) across southeastern Australia, an area greater than the size of South Korea.

Eden was surrounded by fires after December 25 and into the new year and, while the immediate threat has lessened, the effect of the fires on industry here and across Australia is starting to become apparent.

We are a ghost town, Eden restaurateur Diana Stojanovic told Al Jazeera, adding that the fire cut off the main highway between Melbourne and Sydney, which passes near Eden.

After 20 years running my cafe at the wharf area, this is extremely upsetting. We have all been waiting for something to boost Edens economy. Now with the fires, we are laying off staff. The town is suffering, our country is suffering, said Stojanovic.

Bushfires are an accepted part of life in rural Australia but the blazes this summer have been exceptional, contributing to the worst fire season in the recorded history of New South Wales, Australias most populous state.

While some towns continue to defend themselves against the fire front, the national focus has turned to how the disaster will affect economies  both local and federal  now and into the future.

So far, the impact of the fires on the broader Australian economy seems to be minimal. But some sections of society are paying a disproportionately higher price.

The costs also remain manageable for the general government, with the immediate fiscal costs expected to be less than 0.1 percent of Australias gross domestic product in 2020 and 2021, Moodys Analytics said in a recent statement.

And AMP Capitals head economist Shane Oliver predicts the fires will shave about 0.4 percentage points off Australias economic growth rate this year.

Physical disasters invariably cause a brief disruption to economic activity as measured by GDP followed by a boost as wealth destroyed by the disaster is rebuilt. In this sense measured across a year or so they are often seen as positive for economic growth, albeit this seems perverse particularly for those directly impacted, Oliver said in a research note.

Tourism and agriculture impacted

The results of a survey published on January 22 suggest a tough period ahead for many Australian industries. Consumer sentiment fell by 6.2 percent in January compared with the same month last year, according to the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index.

A worker tries to put out a bushfire behind a row of factories near West Queanbeyan [Mick Tsikas/AAP via Reuters]

But the damage is not evenly spread, with people in rural communities experiencing the worst of the economic impact. Pockets of Australias tourism and agriculture industries have been dealt a particularly heavy blow.

In evacuated areas, residents are asked to make the choice to leave immediately or prepare to defend their homes or businesses against the fire. During this time, economic activity virtually shuts down, Marcia Keegan, an associate and partner at research firm SGS Economics, told Al Jazeera.

This is especially difficult for the areas that are beach holiday towns  which are shutting down during their peak tourist period.

Tourism accounts for 3.1 percent of Australias economy and employs 666,000 people, or 5.2 percent of the countrys workforce, according to government figures. More than nine million people visited Australia last year from overseas, and spent more than $30bn, both figures higher than the previous year. Domestic tourism has also been on the rise.

The government has promised help for the sector.

One in thirteen Australian jobs rely on tourism and hospitality so our $76 million investment is an urgent injection to help all those hotels, restaurants and cafes and tour operators get back on their feet, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.

This is make or break for many businesses and tourist hot spots and not just in those areas directly hit by the bushfires.

Agriculture is also badly affected, although losses in this industry may be less visible than in other sectors of the economy.

The latest government figures say more than 46,000 head of livestock have been lost in the fires.

Meat and Livestock Australia, an industry body, says 30 percent of the national sheep flock and 20 percent of the national cattle herd have been either directly or partially impacted by the fires.

It has been a devastating start to 2020 for many red meat and livestock producers, its managing director, Jason Strong said in a statement.

Cherries, bees and abalone

Meanwhile, smaller  in some cases unique  industries have also felt the brunt of the disaster, such as cherry farming, forestry and abalone production. Some of these sectors may take years to recover, if they ever do.

Australian Defence Force vehicles prepare to deploy to bushfire-affected zones from the town of Bairnsdale, Victoria [Rebecca Lancaster via Nick Rodway/Al Jazeera]

Among these is the beekeeping industry. More than 4,600 beehives have been destroyed with a further 23,000 suffering significant losses.

Adding to the strain on the economy is the impact of bushfire smoke on surrounding metropolitan areas. When the smoke haze has been at its worst  both Melbourne and Canberras air quality was rated the worst in the world at the height of the fires  some businesses have been forced to cease operations.

The federal government has committed 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.4bn) to fund a new National Bushfire Recovery Agency (NBRA), dipping into the budget surplus delivered by federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg in 2019. It aims to help farmers and small businesses, and to attract tourists back to regions affected by the fires.

But with scientists forecasting hotter, longer summers across Australia, analysts say these numbers are going to have to increase.

Deloitte Access Economics said in a 2017 report that the total economic cost of natural disasters in Australia is growing and will reach 39 billion Australian dollars ($26.6bn) a year by 2050.

David Pannell, director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy at the University of Western Australia, says the Australian economy  and its agriculture sector in particular  are not ready for the effects of such catastrophic fires.

If fires of this scale and intensity do become the new normal, I dont believe agriculture is prepared for the repercussions, he told Al Jazeera. For that matter, neither is government or the community.

It would be such a big change from what we are used to that almost nobody is mentally or practically prepared for it.
This article is reprinted with permission from Geopolitical Futures.

Shiite clerics have always played an active and essential role in Iranian public affairs. Safavid shahs (1501-1736) found them extremely useful in proselytizing Persians from Sunnism into Shiism. They also extended political legitimacy to Qajar shahs during most of the 19th century. Clerics in Shiism are more involved than Sunni counterparts in the lives of their religious communities. Shiite Muslims, following their religious doctrine, need continuous guidance from senior clerics; otherwise, they would go astray. Toward the end of the last decade of the 19th century, a revered ayatollah rose to the center stage of Persian politics upon the urging of nationalist and clerical compatriots.

Shiite Clerics Pioneer Irans Political Development

In 1890, Nasir al-Din Shah issued the Tobacco Concession, which granted a British company the right to monopolize the countrys tobacco industry. In response to widespread public grievances against the humiliating terms of the concession, Ayatollah Mirza Shirazi issued a binding religious edict that banned the sale and consumption of tobacco products. Shirazis decision emptied the concession of its meaning and coerced the shah to annul it. Then, in 1901, Mozaffar al-Din Shah authorized the DArcy Concession, which gave exclusive rights to a British company to prospect for oil in Iran. Even though William DArcys company struck oil in commercial quantities in 1908, the Iranian people, led by the clergy and Bazaaris (the merchant class), disapproved of the deal since it overlooked the countrys national interests. The shah and corrupt Qajar bureaucrats were only interested in cash and personal gains. The Tobacco and DArcy concessions paved the way for a national movement that demanded the establishment of a National Assembly and creation of a constitutional form of monarchy. The move, known as the 1905-1911 Persian Constitutional Movement, failed because of Russian military intervention and British withdrawal of support for it.

In 1921, the Persian Cossack Brigade under the command of Reza Khan staged a military coup with British backing to defeat Bolshevik-supported ethnic forces who wanted to seize Tehran. He blunted their objective and became prime minister. In 1925, he established the Pahlavi Dynasty and assumed the name of Reza Shah Pahlavi. He saw himself as a modernizer and was impressed by the secular approach to the modernity of Turkeys Kemal Ataturk. He stopped short of adopting Ataturks secularist approach because he feared backlash from Irans powerful clerical establishment. Reza Shahs contributions to Iranian economic and cultural domains, including the emancipation of women, clearly demonstrated Ataturks influence on him. Reza Shahs anti-British sentiment and Anglophobia, and preference for Nazi Germany, led Britain to force his abdication in 1941.

Iranian civil society thrived during the years of British occupation of southern and southwestern Iran. Political parties functioned freely, and independent media publications increased. In 1951, the Iranian Majlis (parliament) voted to appoint Mohammad Mossadeq, who immediately moved to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. His nationalist and social secular stance alarmed the U.S. and Britain about his possible linkages to Irans communist Tudeh Party. In 1953, the army staged a coup that overthrew Mossadeq, and the U.S. and Britain colluded to reinstate Reza Shah.

The Accidental Success of Khomeinis Islamic Revolution

The Iranian people did not forgive the shah for returning to power as a result of an Anglo-American conspiracy. Interaction with these two countries, in addition to Russia, did not favor Iran, which succumbed to their superior military power. The shahs legacy did not stop them from seeking to modernize Iran and transform it into a significant military force. In 1963, he unleashed the White Revolution to accelerate the process of economic development. Industrialization increased the demand for labor and set off a massive process of internal migration from rural areas into Iranian cities. The new urban dwellers, who arrived with their spiritual guides, found shelter in slummy neighborhoods. Hostility to the Pahlavis did not matter much in the countryside, which lay on the margins of Iranian politics. The death of pacifist and politically quietist Ayatollah Borujerdi in 1961 ushered in the rise of Ruhollah Khomeini, who loathed the shah and waited for an opportunity to challenge his policies. The White Revolution presented itself as an opportunity for Khomeini to condemn the shahs Westernization as an attack on Islamic principles and way of life. The shah ordered the arrest of Khomeini, who went into exile in Turkey in 1964. Khomeini then settled in Najaf, Iraq, until 1978, when he moved to France to continue his anti-shah activism.

Low-intensity demonstrations opposing the shah started in 1975 and gained momentum right after the Rex movie theater arson attack in Abadan in August 1978, which killed more than 400 people. Influenced by Khomeinis description of the shah as an American and Israeli lackey, streets in Iranian cities became full of anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist slogans. Opposition to the shahs repressive policies and aversion to U.S. foreign policy dominated the course of the 1979 revolution. Despite police repression and torture of political activists by secret police, the regime found itself unable to stop the rebellion. The shah fled Iran in January 1979, and Khomeini returned triumphantly to Tehran two weeks later. Khomeinis rule by the jurisconsult religious theory, which amounted to an ideological coup in the doctrinal history of Twelver Imami Shiism, has governed the country ever since.

Khomeini took advantage of his public support to tighten his grip on state institutions without any opposition from the new religious ruling elite, who did not take the idea of the modern state seriously. Khomeini realized the importance of creating political and military institutions to protect the regime against the possibility of a counterrevolution, especially at a time when its Arab neighbors and the United States were contemplating ways to abort the revolution. He wanted the guardians of the Islamic Revolution to operate outside the jurisdiction of the state to oversee its activities and ensure their conformity with Khomeinis religious doctrine.

Khomeini took advantage of the 1980-88 war with Iraq to eliminate leftist and nationalist opposition to his regime. Many Iranians grew discontented with the revolution because it failed to improve their standard of living and suppressed their freedom of expression. The reformists emerged as a counterforce to the conservatives in the aftermath of the 1997 presidential elections in which Mohammad Khatami won a landslide victory. Protests simmered afterward mainly by moderate parliamentary aspirants whose candidacy was disqualified by the Guardians Council.

The protests peaked in 2009 over the outcome of the presidential elections. They occurred mostly in Persian cities such as Tehran, Isfahan and Tabriz. They pitted reformists against conservatives over rigging the presidential polls that enabled Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win a second term in office. Reformist candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi did not seek to dismantle the revolution; they demanded only the removal of the temporal powers of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who lacked Khomeinis charisma, and restriction of his powers to spiritual matters. The Basij volunteer militia ruthlessly crushed the protests that came to be known as the green movement. The green movement fell short of a revolution because it sought to reform the events of 1979 instead of phasing them out. Subsequent protests did not take off because of political differences.

But today, ordinary people are finding it even more challenging to make ends meet, as demonstrated in 2017-18 over the sharp increase in food prices. In 2019, demonstrators took their anger to the street to protest sudden oil price increases. In the two spates of protests that turned violent, Iranians chanted Death to Palestine, and Help us, not Gaza, to register opposition to squandering scarce Iranian financial resources on foreign adventures. The Basij had no mercy on the protesters.

State-controlled media outlets now accuse foreign countries of perpetrating the violence targeting private and public property. Irans protests do not seem to have a political leadership to give them direction and momentum. Activists who could provide a powerful boost to the demonstrations have fled the country to escape the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps harsh, oppressive measures. The conservatives hope to use the protests to topple the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who, in turn, expects them to cause the demise of the supreme leaders rule. Rouhanis long-shot goal is to extend his authority to the institutions of the supreme leader that dominate the Iranian economy, especially the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Firm, which belongs to the IRGC.

The Fate of Khomeinis Revolution

The reformists are increasingly winning over the public at the expense of the conservatives, who are rapidly losing popular support. Mousavis Green Path of Hope front has succeeded in rallying a broad coalition of opposition groups ranging from leftist reformists to centrists. Demography is working against the conservatives; the majority of Irans population is young. More than 70 percent of Iranians are under 35 years old, and many of them neither relate to Khomeinis revolution nor know what slogans he raised. Young Iranians remember Khomeini for meddling in foreign affairs and provoking Iraq to start an eight-year war against the Islamic Republic that decimated its economy and inflicted more than 1 million deaths.

Iran suffers from prolonged and torturous sanctions that are becoming unbearable. The currency has become worthless, and necessities are expensive and unaffordable. The past two years demonstrations over food and fuel price hikes differ from previous waves of discontent in at least two respects. People are no longer making demands for political reforms, but regime change. Of equal importance is that protests cut across Irans diverse ethnic composition. Iran is not yet, however, ready for a new revolution that ushers in a new political system on the ruins of wilayat al-faqih (guardianship by an Islamic jurist) because the IRGC does not allow protesters to question the authenticity and legitimacy of Khomeinis religious revolution.

The unfortunate shooting down of the Ukrainian aircraft in early January enraged the Iranian people. It shifted the focus of the Iranian people from the condemnation of the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani into anger and frustration against the regime. During the most recent protests, demonstrators chanted, The enemy lies within us. Frequent droughts are increasing the pace of internal migration from rural areas into Iranian cities and overburdening their antiquated infrastructure. The new urban poverty belts are capable of initiating Irans counterrevolution.

The Iranian peoples mood during the past 150 years has vacillated between demands for reform (both bureaucratic and political), nationalism and anti-imperialism. Iranians today yearn for freedom and are unmoved by Khomeinis revolutionary slogans. Foreign countries need to avoid prodding Iranians to revolt against the regime because it would legitimize a harsh crackdown. Since U.S. President George W. Bush in 2003 encouraged Iranian demonstrators to bring down the government and introduce a democratic order, Iranian reformist leaders have eschewed sponsorship of the protests lest they be labeled treacherous. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus hope that Israel and Iran could restore their amicable relations after overthrowing the regime does a disservice to Iranian protesters.

Political change in Iran is bound to be painful and delayed. The Iranian revolution has created deep roots in the country, and it will not collapse because of protests, since the authorities are determined to do whatever is necessary to crush the opposition. In previous demonstrations, they unleashed thugs to destroy property in order to justify Basij retaliation and intimidate peaceful protesters against taking their anger and frustration to the street. The success of the 1979 revolution owes much to the Iranian army, whose commanders chose to maintain neutrality. The IRGC, however, is highly unlikely to take a neutral stance since its survival is at stake. The best course of action for the U.S. is to keep the sanctions in place because they are working, while Irans economy of resistance is not. The Iranians no longer tolerate empty ideological mobilization that does not put bread on the table. The Iranian political system is anachronistic and will atrophy in the end, but there is no quick fix.
Kannada writer Devanur Mahadeva on Sunday quoted Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandson of Subhash Chandra Bose, to say that the nation is in the grip of terror politics.

Terror politics is not my phrase. It was used by Chandra Kumar Bose in his plea to the government for a review of the CAA, NPR and NRC. It should be noted that he is a BJP leader from West Bengal, Mahadeva said, adding every Indian needs to speak up.

The writer noted that the reaction to the controversial law has once again shown that the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar was still strong.

Great men of conscience have kept alive this spirit, which is shining brightly across the country, he said.

Earlier, thousands of protesters took out a rally against the Centre from Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna Railway station to Freedom Park.

Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said the agitation will not stop till the government removes columns that seek details of parents and grandparents from the National Population Register (NPR) form.

Speaking about the CAA, he said any law that seeks to exclude a particular religion was against the Constitution. This agitation doesnt have a leader. This is a peoples movement, and even foreign newspapers are writing about it, he said.

He said the government should announce in Parliament that the National Register of Citizens (NCR) will not be conducted in any part of the country.

The anti-secular CAA should be repealed, he said.

Former IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil said people will not sit back to watch the Constitution being defied. We are late in hitting the streets. Any delay in taking part in this light is the betrayal of our children, he said.
Alexa Chung and Tan France join forces for new, high-stakes, competition series Next In Fashion.

As the contestants vie for glory, the duo tell Gemma Dunn exactly what they look for in the next big industry name.

Alexa Chung is returning to her presenting roots.

But unlike previous gigs which have seen her focus mainly on the music industry  from her first small-screen gig on Channel 4 hit Popworld to T4 to her most recent, 2013, appointment on Americas Fuse News  her latest outing will focus on her favourite pastime, fashion.

And having secured her status as a global icon in the style stakes, she couldnt be happier.

I had always enjoyed interviewing bands, but after a while I just couldnt do it any more with the same passion, says Chung, 36, who left the UK in 2009 to pursue a career in the US.

My life had become more entrenched in the fashion industry.

"I was invited to collaborate with a lot of brands and I was enjoying that aspect, and writing for Vogue, and doing other bits... Then I started my fashion line [ALEXACHUNG], so that was the focus and took all of my time  and still does.

I had been offered things, she muses of her TV hiatus. But nothing that was compelling enough that I said yes.

"Until now, because [this format] seemed to dovetail my interests.

The lucky show in question is Next In Fashion, a high-stakes competition series featuring some of the worlds best and quietly innovative designers who compete for a chance to become the next big industry name.

Launching on Netflix, the 10-parter will be hosted by Chung and designer and TV personality Tan France (better known as one of the so-called Fab Five on Netflixs reality series Queer Eye).

Its a union that owes thanks to a swanky London fash-pack party, no less.

It came about in December 2018, begins France, also 36. I was asked to do the show and I said yes  I love the idea of a fashion competition. And Alexa?

I bumped into Tan at a party, she says with a big grin.

I was really letting loose because it was my fashion show the day before, so Id completed this runway show and I guess I was elated.

When Tan walked in I just screamed  I love him and Id literally just been watching Queer Eye, she explains.

He heard me and so I ducked under the DJ booth and said to my friend, Oh my God, how embarrassing!. And then he came over and thats how we met.

He mentioned something about a show, but I havent done TV for years and years and years, so I dont remember being told that [part], she quips.

I think she was too drunk to realise I was saying it, Tan interrupts.

Just over a year later and all is well, as the British hosting duo welcome 18 designers, each set to face challenges that centre on a different trend or design style thats influenced the way the entire world dresses.

Far from amateurs, these talented contestants  whove worked for major brands and dressed A-listers  will go head to head to see who has the skill, originality, and determination to win the grand prize of $250,000 (226,000) and an opportunity to debut their collection with luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter.

Hailing from all over the world, viewers can expect to see work from the likes of, among others, Adolfo Sanchez, a Mexican-American designer specialising in evening wear and bridal; UK-based Claire Davis, who is exploring eco-friendly fashion; and Korean designer Minju Kim, who works on contemporary womenswear.

Netflix is a global platform and it made sense to make sure that this was a global competition show, comments France on its international appeal.

It makes for a much more interesting show if its not just American contestants.

But also, definitely in my office, theres people from all over the world, adds Chung.

Its typical of fashion and a true reflection of the industry as well.

So whats essential to great design, in their opinion?

Energy, Chung offers simply. Theyre obviously very fatigued as the finishing line gets closer, but you have to still attack it with the same amount of energy as you start the project with.

"If you lose focus, you lose it.

Whats also important, and we mention to our designers pretty much every episode when were critiquing their work, is were saying, Yes, it could be a lovely garment, yes, its a beautiful black dress, but this is a competition show, says France.

Were not asking them to make regular clothes, we need something thats going to really impact on the runway, he reiterates.

I think weve done a lovely job of  not we, the designers  creating looks that the audience is going to be obsessed with.

He adds: But everyone is so talented, you dont get on that show [otherwise]. Are there some people who were incredible but just caved under the pressure? Yeah, absolutely, he confides.

I couldnt do it, theres no way I could do that show.

As with any contest, its an emotional ride for all, says France.

I used to be a designer, and a struggling designer, and Alexa is a designer also, so we know the pressure of this game  its not like were coming from a position where we dont get it.

It was hard letting people go knowing that theyre so dedicated to what they do.

"This really does affect their life, its not just a competition, its not just a show. Were about to break somebodys dream.

Its knowing that could be a life-changing amount of money and opportunity, and then feeling the responsibility of that, says Chung.

It was tough.

As for another season?

I am always thinking about season two, confesses France, who hopes to grow this alongside working on Queer Eye.

If Ive done a season, I better get a second! he cries.

I am praying  it was some of the most fun Ive had in a very long time.

It was very funny, I laughed every day, Chung finishes.

It was delightful.

Next in Fashion launches on Netflix on Wednesday, January 29.
India and Bangladesh: Witnesses to a disappearing act

January 27,2020 | Source: Orissa Post

Located at the mouth of the Ganges, where the river empties into the Bay of Bengal, the Sagar island attracts millions of Hindu pilgrims each January for the Ganga Sagar festival. This year, about 2 lakh pilgrims took bath in the sea there on Makar Sankranti. However, the Sagar island, and with it the future of the entire festival, is under increasing threat from rising sea level and coastal erosion. The Kapil Muni temple, where the pilgrims offer prayers after the holy dip, had to be shifted several times in the past to keep it from being submerged. Sagar Island is part of the Sundarbans, an archipelago of 102 islands, of which 54 are inhabited by more than 4 million people. Some of these islands, such as Bedford, Lohachara, Kabasgadi and Suparibhanga, have already disappeared under the sea. Others such as Ghoramara and Mousuni will soon be lost due to rising sea levels. Due to this, tens of thousands of people have lost their homes and migrated to safer places. In Odisha, sea level rise is affecting a cluster of seven villages called Satabhaya near Paradip in Kendrapara. Land records in 1930 show the Satabhaya cluster was spread over 320 square kilometres; the 2,000 land records existing at present indicate that the area has shrunk to 155 square kilometres. Five of the seven villages have already been completely swallowed by the sea. The Bay of Bengal is eating through the coast at a brisk pace, taking with it several villages and fertile farmlands in its fold along Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Balasore districts.



India has a 7,500 km coastline spread over nine states, two Union Territories and two island territories  Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep. There are 171 million people, a seventh of Indias population, living in 70 coastal districts in these states, UTs and islands; the majority of them depend on fishing for livelihood. Four of Indias ten most populated cities are on or near the coast, and they are facing an increasing threat of submergence owing to sea level rise. The picture is not also good for many island nations around the world. Kiribati (Population: 1,07,800) in the Pacific has lost at least two islets already while in the Marshall Islands, home to about 62,000 people, some 60 hectares of dry land (8.6 per cent of the total land area) are in danger of being swallowed.



Closer home, Bangladesh has become highly vulnerable to the sea level rise. About 10 per cent of Bangladesh is hardly 1 metre above the mean sea level and readings taken at Hiron point, Charganga and Coxs Bazar show a steady rise in sea level. Experts say sea level rise of 1 metre would wipe away almost 60 per cent landmass of India. Over the past century, the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities have released huge quantities of green-house gases (heat-trapping gases) into the atmosphere. These have caused the Earths temperature to rise as oceans absorbed about 80 per cent of the additional heat. Core samples, tide gauge readings, and most recently, satellite measurements indicate that over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 10 to 20 cm. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 projected a high-end estimate of 60 cm (2 ft) rise in the Mean Sea Level by 2099. This is alarming. Sea-level rise is linked to the thermal expansion of sea water and melting of glaciers owing to global warming.



Hence, climate-induced sea level rise has affected people, places and livelihoods worldwide. Humanity must find an immediate solution to avert this impending disaster. There is an urgent need to retard the rate of global warming on our planet. This can be achieved by cutting green-house gas emissions at individual and collective levels. Phasing out fossil fuels and increasing implementation of green technologies is the need of the hour. Massive plantation drives should be undertaken to ensure greater absorption of carbon dioxide, a major heat-trapping agent.
Catalytic, the easiest-to-use, next-generation digital automation platform, today announced major successes from 2019 and plans for continued growth in 2020. After raising $30 million in a Series B funding round in February 2019, Catalytic saw record revenue, customer and employee headcount growth.

2019 was a milestone year for Catalytic, and were dedicated to continuing our trajectory as we move into 2020, said Sean Chou, CEO and co-founder of Catalytic. After securing our latest funding round, we were able to fuel our engineering, sales and operations teams with additional resources to meet market demand and help our customers scale their use of our platform. Our efforts across all of these areas paid off, and were looking forward to accelerating this momentum in 2020 as we continue to help organizations realize their digital transformation goals and save massive amounts of time in the process.

In 2019, Catalytic reported its revenue tripled year-over-year and the company has doubled its number of customers. Catalytic spent 2019 building a talented team as its employee headcount increased by 46%. Catalytics monthly active users in the platform increased by 252%.

Catalytic is committed to partnering with customers to scale their transformation initiatives organization-wide. The company's 2019 user data suggests they are effectively increasing their customers time and money savings in the process:



The average customer saved 51,492 hours in 2019 as a result of partnering with Catalytic.

On average, Catalytic customers saved $2.23 million by embracing automation as a core part of their digital transformation journeys.

Catalytic customers typically build more than 50 automations within the first six months of use.

Scott Palmer, Catalytic customer and COO of Spikeball said, "We've been growing pretty rapidly and because of this growth, it's calling for us to reevaluate the business. We don't want to have to say no to a customer because we just can't handle that volume. Rather than add more individuals in the company, Catalytic allows us to take those individuals that we already have and give them the opportunity to manage and create automations, allowing people to do more with less."

Product Innovation

Customer successes can be attributed to key product advancements the company made over the past year in an effort to deliver on its promise of being the easiest-to-use process automation platform. In October, Catalytic released its updated Builder interface, which is an intuitive automation builder that makes creating process automations easy and seamless for employees. Builder has already received positive feedback from customers, with one citizen developer citing, The most impressive thing about Catalytic was how quickly I was able to pick it up. In a matter of days, I was able to build robust automations that helped across the company and add significant value. Its streamlined and simplified a lot of our operations, said Wyatt Haines, Change Management Coordinator at Reveleer.

Builder, along with the entire Catalytic platform, is being fully utilized by employees across roles and departments due to its user-friendly and no-code interface. Specifically, 71% of Catalytics app builders are non-technical and do not work within the IT department. Catalytic customers were able to build automations 21% faster in 2019, with the typical business process being automated in just 11 hours.

In 2019, Catalytic also enhanced its data processing capabilities and enabled connection anywhere via its robust offerings of integrations. Catalytic doubled the number of systems customers can integrate with and built a new integration capability that will significantly increase this velocity in 2020.

As Catalytics platform grows and scales, so does its security controls. Last year, Catalytic completed both its System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2 examination and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance examinations. These examinations ensure Catalytic customers sensitive information is stored securely in the cloud.

Looking ahead to this year, Catalytic will place an increased emphasis on customer collaboration as it continues to expand its platform. Through its new Community feature, Catalytic customers can share ideas, suggest future features, upvote others contributions and ask for input from peers to maximize their use of the tool. To bring the Community to life, Catalytic is hosting its first customer conference  Catalytic Connect Conference  Oct. 5-7 in Chicago.

Were proud of what our team accomplished in 2019, and were looking forward to continuing to build upon this momentum in 2020, said Chou. To do so, well remain focused on product innovation and enhancing our ecosystem strategy by releasing two new products, Workbench and our Software Development Kit. These tools will allow our customers development teams to extend our platforms capabilities and enable custom app building. In addition, we look forward to debuting a new Insights module that will give our customers proactive guidance on how to improve their process automations.

###

About Catalytic

Catalytic, the next-gen digital process automation provider, supercharges employee productivity with smart workflows. Using Catalytic, anyone can easily build low-code automations that connect systems, data and people so companies can execute higher volumes of work with less time, cost and risk.

In one collaborative platform, IT and non-technical users alike can embed AI, integrations, and data analysis tools into everyday operations. Then, recurring information gathering, document processing, decision-making and reporting become more automatic, rapidly boosting operational efficiency and transforming organizations at scale.

Proven by customers like Bosch, Dentsu Aegis Network, Edwards Elmhurst Hospital, Mayo Clinic, TalentWave, and UL, Catalytic is unlocking up to 5x returns, improving customer experiences and increasing competitive edge for companies globally. To learn more, visit: https://catalytic.com/.
German mobile bank N26 has attracted 250,000 users in the United States, where it claims new customers are shifting funds from established giants like Chase Bank and Citibank.

The financial technology company, which is backed by controversial Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel, started life in Berlin nearly seven years ago. It's since expanded throughout Europe and began U.S. operations in July 2019.

"We track where the money comes from when people fund their accounts, and I definitely see some of these big-name banks crop up quite frequently," N26's U.S. CEO Nicolas Kopp told CNBC in an interview. "So far, that's where I see a lot of customer growth for N26."

N26, one of a breed of new banking challengers, is known for its slick app design and clear debit card. As is the case with rivals like Monzo, Revolut and Starling, people can sign up for an account with N26 within minutes and don't pay any additional foreign exchange fees when spending abroad.

The bank remains a long way from challenging the dominance of the Big Four in the U.S.  which also includes Wells Fargo and Bank of America  and faces stiff competition from U.S. upstarts like Chime, which reported 5 million users last year. N26 said it has 5 million customers globally.

N26 hasn't broken out its user numbers to disclose how many customers are switching their accounts from the big banks. That's been a problem for many online banks across the pond, with Monzo having claimed that only 30% of its customers use it as their primary account.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.  Three Central New York teens are facing a slew of charges after allegedly leading state troopers on a vehicle chase on the New York State Thruway early this morning, according to state police.

Troopers clocked a 2013 Hyundai going 80 mph in a 65 mph zone in the westbound lanes of the NYS Thruway around 12:30 a.m. on Monday.

The troopers, patrolling from North Syracuse, pulled the vehicle over and walked up to the vehicle. The driver then sped off.

The driver tried to exit the Thruway at Exit 35 but lost control, struck a guide rail and flipped the vehicle before coming to a rest on the shoulder.

All three occupants fled the vehicle on foot, troopers said.

But troopers quickly arrested one teenage girl. A second teenage girl was found by officers with the DeWitt Police Department.

And the police helicopter operated by the sheriffs office found the driver, a teenage boy, hiding in a wooded area near the scene of the crash, troopers said.

The driver is a 16-year-old male from Syracuse. The two girls are aged 17 and 15 and are from Utica, troopers said.

The teenage girls are facing charges of criminal possession of stolen property. The teenage boy is being charged with criminal possession of stolen property and fleeing from police.

Troopers later learned the Hyundai was stolen from Utica, according to a news release.

All three teens were issued a family court appearance ticket and released to a legal guardian, troopers said.
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S ir Philip Pullman is leading the charge for the new Brexit 50p to be boycotted due to a missing comma, while others are calling for the new coins to be donated to refugee charities.

Around three million of the new pennies will be introduced on Friday January 31 with the message peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations and another seven million will eventually be brought into circulation.

A debate has also raged online about the lack of an Oxford comma in the statement, which would nestle after the word prosperity.

His Dark Materials author Sir Philip is among those to call for the coin to be boycotted.

Sir Philip has called of the coins to be boycotted / PA

An Oxford comma sits between the penultimate item on a list and the word and or or.

The writer was joined by Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell, who tweeted: Not perhaps the only objection, but the lack of a comma after prosperity is killing me.

User @TychoNestoris1 replied: Be gone with your American serial comma nonsense!

Aside from the debate around punctuation, a number of Twitter accounts were calling for the donation of the new 50p to refugees, using the hashtag with the hashtag #fiftypeesforrefugees.

Choose Love / Help Refugees posted: What a great idea. People are donating the #Brexit50p coins they find to groups upholding the UKs tradition of welcome & sanctuary.

3m enter into circulation this Friday. We love the idea of using them to support groups creating real peace and friendship.

The coins were first planned for introduction ahead of the October Brexit day last year by Chancellor Sajid Javid.

The coins were first propsed ahead of the October 31 Brexit date last year / PA

But following delays to the countrys departure from the bloc, the fresh coinage was put off until Friday.

Mr Javid, in his role as Master of the Mint, said: Leaving the European Union is a turning point in our history and this coin marks the beginning of this new chapter.

Sabir Zazai, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, told Third Force News: The commemorative coin promises peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations. I came to the UK seeking peace, prosperity and friendship, and have been lucky enough to find it, yet we are now seeing refugee rights being voted and eroded away.

We cant have peace, prosperity and friendship in word only. We need action.

We are grateful to those who have said they will donate their 50ps to us and to other refugee support organisations across the country  goodness and hope prevails, even in the most uncertain and worrying of times.

It later transpired that the case of the missing comma was an issue of preference.

The Oxford comma - also known as a series comma - derives its common name from its use in by the Oxford University Press (OUP).

Author and economics commentator Frances Coppola said the punctuation was not essential for the new 50p.

Responding to Sir Philip, she tweeted: As all literate people know, the Oxford comma is entirely optional. But it offends both in its presence and its absence.

Whatever the choice, someone will think it wrong. There could not be a better commemoration of Brexit.

Sir Philip noted the debate was not a matter of grammar but orthography, the conventions of language.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 22:33:49|Editor: huaxia

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To further contain the coronavirus epidemic, China has extended the Spring Festival holiday, postponed school openings and adopted transport restrictions.

Donations, funds, medical supplies and teams have been sent to central China's Hubei Province to contain the epidemic.

BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- China extended the Spring Festival holiday and postponed school openings on Monday, while transport restrictions have been adopted in various areas to further contain the coronavirus epidemic.

The seven-day Spring Festival vacation, scheduled to end on Jan. 30, was extended to Feb. 2. Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice, according to the General Office of the State Council.

Entrusted by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Premier Li Keqiang on Monday arrived in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, to inspect and direct the efforts for the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

In Wuhan, Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, thanked front-line medical workers for their all-out efforts in treating patients and urged them to pay attention to their own protection.

He required efforts to guarantee medical resources supply, race against time to treat patients and ensure adequate market supply and stable prices.

Chinese health authorities announced Monday that 2,744 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), including 461 in critical condition, had been reported in the country by the end of Sunday. The pneumonia situation has resulted in a total of 80 deaths. Fifty-one people have recovered.

Besides the temporary closures of public venues such as tourist sites, museums and cinemas and cancellations of gatherings, transport restrictions have been imposed in various areas as the country is still in its Spring Festival travel rush period.

Photo taken on Jan. 27, 2020 shows suspended buses at a bus terminal in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

On Monday, the northern port city of Tianjin and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Anhui as well as the southwestern city of Chongqing began to suspend inter-provincial highway passenger bus services. Previously, Shanghai and Qinghai Province had halted similar bus services.

Beijing has also launched temperature detection at 55 subway stations, including stops at railway stations and the Beijing Capital International Airport. Passengers with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to the hospital.

Beijing's subway stations and buses have also stepped up cleaning and disinfection work. Each carriage of the train is ordered to be disinfected every day. The entrances and exits, escalators, self-service machines, toilets and other public areas of subway stations are disinfected three times each day.

A staff member disinfects a bus at a bus terminal in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Tianjin has asked all taxi drivers and passengers to wear masks and taxi drivers to disinfect the car after each passenger.



The Lanzhou bureau of China Railway on Monday suspended 30.5 pairs of trains to cities such as Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Xi'an until Feb. 8.

Shopping malls are also reacting to the epidemic. Several malls in Beijing have shortened business hours in an effort to battle the novel coronavirus.

China has stressed all-around community-based efforts to prevent and control the spread of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

"We must give full play to the mobilization ability of primary-level communities, including rural communities, in personnel tracking and management among efforts to curb the spread of the virus," said He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission on Monday.

Strict measures have been implemented in rural areas.

A medical worker demonstrates how to correctly use masks in Wuying, a village of Miao ethnic group on the border of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)

"Our 96 grassroots staff members are all working right now. We have been visiting households and monitoring body temperatures of returning migrant workers every day," said Wu Lihui, Party official of a subdistrict office in the city of Shangrao, eastern China's Jiangxi Province.

Yang Xiaoxia, a villager in Lantian county, northwestern Shaanxi Province, planned to hold a large dinner party for her one-month-old grandson during the Spring Festival. However, she decided to postpone it because of the spreading coronavirus.

"A villager in our community canceled his wedding banquet," said Yang. "I will invite everybody over to celebrate when the outbreak is over."

Online medical consultation platforms were launched in many different places in China in an effort to relieve hospital pressure amid the novel coronavirus spread.

"Doctor, I have been coughing for two days. Do I have the coronavirus," Mr. Li from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, typed on his phone.

"Do you have a fever? Have you had close contact with anybody from Wuhan?" doctor Lin Jianmei from the people's hospital of Sichuan Province replied through the online medical consultation system.

After being told that he did not need to rush to the hospital and just needed to rest at home, Li was relieved.

"I have 'seen' over 50 patients every day since the launch of the online medical consultation platform. Some of the patients are consulting because of their cold symptoms, others are just having psychological stress," said Liu Jie, a doctor from the city of Guangyuan in Sichuan.

The online platforms can preliminarily screen the patients, relieve the pressure of some overly worried patients and allow patients in need to go to the hospital, said Fan Wei, a doctor from the city of Yuncheng in northern China's Shanxi Province.

In eastern China's Shandong Province, which has reported 63 confirmed cases of the new pneumonia, 48 hospitals have opened online fever clinic services to help control the epidemic.

Donations, funds, medical supplies and teams have been sent to Hubei to contain the epidemic situation.

Medical staff members load luggages on a bus before heading for Wuhan of Hubei Province in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Jan. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

"The 2.4 million medical masks and over 100,000 items of protective clothing we produced have all been transported to Wuhan," said Che Jinjun, a worker at a medical equipment company in Rizhao, Shandong Province. All employees gave up their Spring Festival holidays.

On Monday, 410 doctors and nurses in three medical teams were formed in Fujian, Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces to leave for Wuhan. A number of medical teams from other provinces and the military are already in Wuhan treating patients. 

(Reporting by Han Xiaojing, Li Laifang, Li Baojie, Wang Chenyang, Wei Yijun, Zhang Jianxin, Liu Weizhen, Li Jie, Liang Jun, Wang Bo, Zhang Zhilong, Wang Kai, Zhang Yizhi, Dong Xiaohong, Yue Wenwan, Yu Pei, Ji Ning; Video reporters: Yu Guoqing, Wang Siban, Rao Rao, Pan Zhiwei, Xu Yang, Yang Zhigang, Dong Bohan, Jiang Mingming, Zhao Dandan, Zhang Nan, Lin Juan, Wu Hongbo; Video editor: Liu Xiaorui)




FILE PHOTO: Former drug company executive Martin Shkreli exits U.S. District Court after being convicted of securities fraud in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Reuters

The Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a lawsuit filed Monday that former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli  dubbed the "Pharma Bro"  created an illegal monopoly by raising the price of the drug Daraprim by more than 4,000% "overnight."

Vyera Pharmaceuticals, formerly Turing Pharmaceuticals, was also charged in the suit regarding the drug, which is the only FDA-approved medication to treat toxoplasmosis.

Daraprim was "cheap and accessible for decades" until Vyera purchased the rights to the drug and increased its price, James said in a statement.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James charged "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli in a lawsuit filed on Monday, alleging that he and Vyera Pharmaceuticals stifled competition to protect "exorbitant, monopolistic pricing" on the drug Daraprim.

Skhreli and Vyera  formerly called Turing Pharmaceuticals  increased the price of Daraprim from $17.50 to $750 per tablet after purchasing the rights to the drug in 2015, the FTC said in a statement. The drug had been affordable for over 60 years, the FTC said, until Shkreli and the firm bought the drug and raised the price.

Following a multiyear investigation, James and the FTC allege that Shkreli and Vyera illegally maintained a monopoly on the drug by restraining distribution to prevent other manufacturers from creating a generic version of the drug.

The price increase of over 4,000% held the drug "hostage" and forced consumers to make "difficult and risky decisions," James said in a statement.

As the only FDA-approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, Daraprim is "the gold standard treatment for a rare, potentially fatal parasitic infection," the FTC said in a statement.

Story continues

The FTC voted unanimously to file the complaint. Vyera parent company Phoenixus AG and former chief executive Kevin Mulleady are also named in the suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

"We filed this lawsuit to stop Vyera's egregious conduct, make the company pay for its illegal scheming, and block Martin Shkreli from ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again," James said.

Vyera did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Skhreli was previously sentenced to prison for a separate case of securities fraud, in which he was widely criticized as arrogant, and lost an appeal in July to overturn his sentence.

Read more: Blogger Chris Mamula paid off his house and built a 6-figure portfolio by his mid-30s. He shares the 3 'game changers' that led to his early retirement.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Banda, Jan 27 : Illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district has led to a scuffle between two groups in which the "nephew" of the local BJP MLA has been beaten up.

The incident took place on Sunday night in Naraini.

Naraini station house officer SHO, Girindra Singh, said that Deepak (who claimed to be the nephew of MLA Raj Karan Kabir) was engaged in a scuffle. The SHO said that the matter was under investigation.

Deepak, who belongs to the Dalit community, has told reporters that he was beaten up by Chunnu Yadav and his men, when he stopped them from taking away sand from Mudarrimpur area.

Deepak said that Chunnu Yadav was involved in illegal mining in the Baghein River in the area since the past one month.

"On Sunday, I went to the river bank to take some sand for my personal use and Chunnu Yadav's men asked me to pay money. Later in the evening, I had gone to attend a function and Chunnu Yadav and his men came there and beat me up," Deepak said.

Chunnu Yadav has rebutted that the legislator's nephew was involved in illegal mining. He said that the local police was working under the influence of the BJP MLA.

The MLA could not be contacted despite several attempts.
A 21-year-old student was allegedly thrashed by a crowd at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's election meeting here for raising anti-CAA slogans.

The student raised slogans against the amended citizenship act when Shah was talking about the CAA at the poll meeting in Babarpur constituency on Sunday evening.

The minister noticed a commotion during his speech and repeatedly asked security personnel to rescue the student. He sought to gain back the crowd's attention by asking them to raise Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogan.

"Leave him, leave him. Security rush there and take him away safely," he said.

The BJP leaders present on the occasion denied having any information about the youth and whether he was thrashed.

"I was on the stage and heard Shah ji asking policemen to save the boy. But, there were many people there and it was difficult to determine what had happened," said a Delhi BJP leader present at the election meeting.

A purported video of the incident on social media showed people throwing chairs at someone during the rally.

A senior police officer said that the 21-year-old student was at Shah's meeting to protest against the amended citizenship act.

"The security personnel deployed at the rally handed him over to police. He was brought to Welcome police station where he was examined. He did not have any ID proof. He did not sustain any major injuries," said the officer.

The youth was released after he gave his residential address and his family was informed, he said.

The officer added that the youth was a student of Delhi University's School of Open Learning and he lived with his parents in South Delhi's Sangam Vihar area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Campus News

Nursing HRSA grants benefit underserved communities, student training

An alumna of UB's DNP family nurse practitioner program, Amanda Adams was an ANEW scholar who worked with underserved populations at the Tuscarora Nation Health Center in Lewiston. She now works at the center full time. Photo: Meredith Forres Kulwicki

By CHARLES ANZALONE

If you have people seeking traditional medicine treatment, but their Western medicine provider does not understand the concepts of traditional medicine, patient care may suffer. Our goal is to provide personalized health care, which is culturally sensitive, safe and effective. 

The School of Nursing has expanded its clinical sites for students, improved nursing services to local Native Americans and other underserved populations, and enhanced its curriculum, thanks to $3.4 million in grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Because of the students clinical experiences and didactic education, our students have a better understanding of what they are going to face in practice within rural and underserved settings, says Linda Paine Hughes, clinical assistant professor and program director for the two HRSA grants.

Some of the programs are works in progress, says Paine Hughes. And a key component of the grant works success is the ability to adjust the plan if roadblocks occur, a process called Rapid Cycle Quality Improvements through PDSA cycles. Being able to change direction quickly  rather than having to wait months  was essential for meeting the grants objectives, she says.

PDSA cycles made it possible for us to be overwhelmingly successful with the HRSA grants, nearly 100 percent, she says. The students benefitted, the School of Nursing benefitted and our community partners benefitted.

The HRSA funding was actually two grants, Paine Hughes explains. The first, an Advanced Education Nursing, or ANE grant, ended in December. The second, an Advanced Nursing Education Workforce grant, or ANEW, will be extended to June.

The two grants led to significant improvements in addressing nursing shortages, both in reaching underserved populations and allowing the School of Nursing (SON) to educate more doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students.

Amanda Adams, an ANEW scholar and alumna of the DNP family nurse practitioner program, says that besides paying for part of her education, the grant also exposed her to different underserved populations, as well as paid for technology such as telehealth  most notably at the Tuscarora Nation Health Center in Lewiston.

It can be very difficult, especially at the Nation, for patients to utilize health care facilities, says Adams. We often dont think about things like access to heat, water or food when were dealing with primary care issues, but when you consider whether or not a patient has the ability to access even the basic of necessities, it changes the way you build your patient plan of care to better suit the needs of the person in front of you.

The HRSA program gave her the experience of caring for these types of populations, Adams says. The telehealth program funded through HRSA expanded that access to patient care by bringing in additional clinical preceptors and students to see more patients.

Adams is now a full-time nurse practitioner at the Tuscarora Nation Health Center, serving the patients I cared for during my time as a student at UB.

To say that I am grateful for the experience is an understatement, she says. The grant allowed me to see patients and understand underserved populations better than I would have ever imagined. Not only did it allow the patients access to quality health care, but it also allowed me the opportunity to learn and grow as a provider seeing patients that truly need care the most.

Results and outcomes from the HRSA grant include:

Increased community partnerships and more services for the underserved

The HRSA grants enabled the School of Nursing to expand its presence in the community and establish new clinical sites for students.

In the past four years, 36 students completed clinical rotations in rural underserved settings, such as the Tuscarora Nation Health Center, Salamanca, Warsaw and Niagara Falls.

The grants funded two part-time primary care nurse practitioners through the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center clinics: a part-time psychiatric nurse practitioner and a cultural expert who served as a liaison between the SON and the Tuscarora Health Center.

Tuscarora Nation leaders cited the need for traditional medicine services at their health center, Paine Hughes says, and SON faculty identified this request as an important result of the grants. Trust was established between the Native elders and the SON through these grants. Now, team members will work together to better understand and implement traditional medicine care as an option for this population.

If you have people seeking traditional medicine treatment, but their Western medicine provider does not understand the concepts of traditional medicine, patient care may suffer, says Paine Hughes. Our goal is to provide personalized health care, which is culturally sensitive, safe and effective.

That is our goal. Its a journey. As trusted team members, we will help improve access to health care for rural and underserved populations in Western New York and beyond.

Paine Hughes says the grant also addressed the need for increased access to mental health services in Western New York, specifically integrating mental health into primary health.

At this time, two nurse practitioners at the Tuscarora Nation Health Center are graduates of UB programs, providing insight for other UB graduates who plan to work in similar settings.

Integrating telehealth into rural settings

Unlike traditional clinical encounters where the health care professional is on site, the telehealth model provides a means for high-quality health care provided through live-stream video with the provider at a distance from the clinic. ANEW scholars have experience in providing telehealth care, as they are present with their patient in the clinic and the preceptor or supervisor is off site, but present through telehealth technology. Other uses of telehealth implemented at the SON include remote site visits, interprofessional consultations and educational sessions.

Nursing school symposiums

A supplementary ANEW grant was awarded to the School of Nursing in 2018, enabling it to offer a series of symposiums. Students, faculty, preceptors and community partners attended symposiums on substance abuse, mental health and telehealth in the past 12 months, with attendees from Mexico, California, Texas and rural regions attending via live-stream telehealth format.

Tuition assistance

ANEW scholars receive up to $20,000 a year in tuition and stipends. The students are required to complete at least 15 hours of volunteer service each semester in rural or underserved communities, as well as a longitudinal clinical placement in such settings.

With increased exposure to these settings, says Paine Hughes, students frequently choose to return to work in one of these settings upon graduation. Thats been proven with Amanda.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 01/27/2020



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MICHAEL AND JULIANA

ANGELA AND MICHAEL

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MIKE AND NATALIE

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

featured Mursel Mistanoglu choosing to return to America after receiving his parents' blessing to marry Anna Campisi Mike Youngquist contemplating canceling Natalie Mordovtseva 's K-1 visa, Michael Jessen marrying Juliana Custodio de Sousa , and Emily Larina walking down the aisle to Sasha Larin during Sunday night's Season 7 episode on TLC.has featured Americans and their foreign fiances looking to wed within 90 days in the United States or else the American individuals would risk losing love and having their significant others return to their home countries.The twelfth episode of 's seventh season featured Anna, a 38-year-old from Bellevue, Nebraska, and Mursel, a 38-year-old from Antalya, Turkey; Mike, a 34-year-old from Sequim, Washington, and Natalie, a 35-year-old from Kyiv, Ukraine; Michael, a 41-year-old from Greenwich, Connecticut, and Juliana, a 23-year-old from Goiania, Brazil; and Emily, a 28-year-old from Portland, Oregon, and Sasha, a 31-year-old from Moscow, Russia.The following couples also made an appearance in the episode: Robert, a 41-year-old from Winter Park, Florida, and Anny, a 30-year-old from Santiago, Dominican Republic; Blake Abelard, a 29-year-old from Los Angeles, California, and Jasmin Lahtinen, a 27-year-old from Helsinki, Finland; Tania Maduro , a 29-year-old from Colchester, Connecticut, and Syngin Colchester , a 29-year-old from Cape Town, South Africa; and Angela Deem , a 54-year-old from Hazlehurst, GA, and Michael Ilesanmi , a 30-year-old from Lagos, Nigeria.Below is the latest on each couple currently starring on Season 7 of :Juliana was very sad she hadn't heard from her family on her wedding day, but she wasn't going to let that ruin her big day considering she was marrying the man she loved. She therefore wiped her tears and walked down the aisle in her beautiful long-sleeve, lace ballgown with a tiara and veil on her head.Michael felt he and Juliana had conquered so much together, and he was emotional because they had remained in love through it all."You look amazing. Oh my gosh, you're a princess," Michael told his bride.The ceremony was officiated by Michael's ex-wife Sarah, which was a little "weird" for Juliana, but the girls had become great friends. Sarah gushed about how Juliana had treated her two kids, Max and Cece, like they were her own and Juliana had made it clear her relationship with Michael was sincere.Both Max and Cece gave adorable speeches at the wedding, saying they loved Juliana and she's a great person.Michael was so proud of his children and to have them participate in the wedding made him so happy they were moved forward as a family and "all in this together."Sarah said it was an honor to officiate their wedding."Of course I'm supposed to be the bitter, resentful, 42-year-old stay-at-home mom whose husband got a newer, better model, you know? But that's not really what it is, and I'm saying this with all honesty and sincerity," Sarah told the cameras."My kids have never been happier. My kids have never felt more secure in their lives than how things are right now."The wedding reception included cake and dancing, and Michael noted in a confessional, "It's more perfect than I could ever picture perfect being."Juliana was also on Cloud 9, telling the cameras Michael was "even better" than the man of her dreams and he was stuck with her forever. Juliana said even if Michael wanted a divorce down the road, she wouldn't allow it.Angela didn't like what Michael's brother Yekini said at the dinner table. Yekini suggested if they couldn't get the K-1 visa approved, Michael should just move on and start a family with a new woman in Nigeria.Michael didn't say much in reply, so Angela was pissed.Michael explained he was tired of being alone in Nigeria, but Angela insisted she continued to sacrifice for Michael as well."If we love each other, nothing should separate us, especially being alone," Angela told her fiance.The dinner went from a fun gathering to a "disaster," and Angela admitted she was ready to go home.Michael assured Angela he wasn't leaving for anything and had already made the decision to be and stay with Angela, even during difficult times. Michael promised he was going stick by her.Michael's family ultimately convinced Angela they wanted the couple to be together, so Angela felt relieved and comforted. Seeing how supportive Michael's relatives were, Angela also revealed she'd think about getting married in Nigeria so they could apply for a spousal visa instead."I came on this trip thinking, 'I am not getting married here in Nigeria,' but I'm going to give it a chance and be open-minded and discuss the spousal visa," Angela said in a confessional.With 30 days left to wed, Robert admitted he and his brother Kenny had been "out of line" during their trip to a brewery, and he regretted how he had acted and treated Anny. Robert therefore took Anny shopping for new shoes to make it up to her.Anny picked out a pair of red heels, and Robert didn't even care how much they cost. Robert apologized to Anny for making her feel bad, and he insisted that he loved, cared for and respected her.Robert said he hated watching Anny cry but his mind, eyes and heart were focused on her and no one else.Robert told the cameras his goal was to keep Anny happy, as they were "one team" and "one dream." Robert said he wanted Anny in his life, but Anny pointed out his loved ones didn't really accept or like her.Anny said she wanted the negative people out of her life, but Robert said, "Who cares?""It's us against the world," Robert noted.Anny was grateful Robert apologized to her, and they decided to move forward with the wedding and be happy together.Later on, Robert and Anny met with Ben and Stephanie again in attempt to find some peace. Anny didn't want bad energy around her, but Ben at least approached the conversation with a happy and sweet tone.Ben apologized to Anny for coming across "aggressive and hard" during their first meeting, but Anny didn't have much to say.Anny revealed Robert's son Bryson was very attached to her and loved her, so Ben was worried about whether she'd stay in the picture long-term and Robert was satisfying her needs and desires.Anny insisted she loved Robert and Bryson, but Ben didn't think they looked in love."Better to end it now than to end it in two years," Ben told the cameras in a confessional.Ben told Anny there seemed to be an underlying financial problem in her relationship with Robert, and so Stephanie took out her checkbook and offered to buy Anny off -- as well as a plane ticket back to the Dominican Republic.Anny was shocked and called Stephanie "crazy," but Stephanie was trying to give Anny a legitimate "out" in case she was unhappy in the United States and in her relationship. Stephanie went as far as to offer $15,000, but Anny told her to shove it up her ass."Call Donald Trump to send me to Dominican. Go do it!" Anny shouted.Robert couldn't believed Ben and Stephanie had acted that way. Robert said if he wanted Anny to return home, he'd be the one to pay for it.Anny accused Ben and Stephanie of not truly caring for Bryson or calling him to check up on him, and then Robert argued the couple could have offered to pay for Bryson's school or something if they really loved him."You can go f-ck yourself," Stephanie told Anny. "You're over here in America to get a Green Card.""You don't have quality moral to talk to me... You are so nasty," Anny replied.Robert said Ben and Stephanie should be thanking Anny for taking care of Bryson and being a great mom.Ben claimed he and Stephanie just offered the money "out of love" in case Anny wanted to leave the country.With 21 days left to wed, Syngin met up with a friend of eight years from Philadelphia named Tjaart. They had previously lived together in South Africa, but Tjaart had moved to America three years prior to their visit.Tjaart told Syngin that South Africa and the United States are "two totally different worlds."Syngin said Tania didn't really seem to grasp what he had given up -- friends, family and animals -- just to come to America and see if their relationship could work out. Syngin was also still upset Tania had admitted her first love was her true soul mate.Syngin told Tjaart he felt Tania was his soul mate, and so it clearly crushed him Tania believed otherwise."It's stressful," Syngin said, before Tjaart asked his pal whether Tania was "really worth it.""You're giving your whole world up for this person. Are you sure it's the right decision?" Tjaart asked.Later on, Tania went wedding dress shopping with her mother, sister and best friends. Tania was looking for a red, black or champagne gown, saying she wanted to "push the norm" and not go with the typical "princess vibe."But Tania's sister begged for her to try on an off-white dress "just for fun" after they didn't like her in a black lace gown, and Tania seemed to like the sparkly, strapless dress.Tania told her relatives and friends she thought her first love was her soul mate, and they all appeared concerned. Tania said it was "a rough" conversation and they didn't even sleep in the same bed that night.The girls felt bad for Syngin, saying he must have been crushed and Syngin probably didn't take that well.The girls assumed Tania was just nervous and worried about being a bride, which is why she didn't even want to look like a bride.However, Tania insisted she loved Syngin and wanted to be with him. She also thought it was a possibility someone could have two or more soul mates in his or her life.With all that being said, Tania decided not to buy the sparkly wedding dress since there were bad vibes in the room when she had tried it on.Blake and Jasmin had 27 days left to wed during Jasmin's stay in America, but the pair was trying to get over an argument. As fans recall from last week's episode, Jasmin chose not to attend Blake's friend Everett's 30th birthday party.Jasmin wanted Blake to spend more time with her rather than his friends, and she admitted she didn't like it when his friends were around all the time.When the pair reunited after their fight, Jasmin acknowledged it was "awkward." Blake said all his friends asked where Jasmin was, but she was more concerned with how much her fiance chose to drink at the bar.Blake responded by saying, "I didn't keep count," and then Jasmin admitted it felt like he was choosing his friends over her. Blake, however, argued Jasmin never would have missed her sister Janette's 30th birthday and it was a big deal to him.Blake was disappointed in Jasmin because she wasn't showing any commitment to building a relationship with his friends and loved ones, but Jasmin didn't think she had done anything wrong.Blake insisted they had to blend their two different lifestyles or else their relationship would never work. Blake reminded Jasmin their wedding was "right around the corner.""I'm just trying to figure out if this is the right thing," Blake told the cameras.Jasmin apologized for walking out on Blake and leaving him in a restaurant, but he replied, "I get it.""I just don't want it to happen again in the future," Blake said, adding that they needed to implement better communication in the future.The couple therefore patched things up and seemed fine again. Jasmin was all smiles.Later on, Blake and his mother Kerline met up with Jasmin's parents Mirja and Markku, whom Blake had met before and liked a lot. Blake hoped his parents would get along great with Jasmin's parents or else they'd have a big problem.Blake revealed he and Jasmin wanted to have a simple wedding ceremony in a park next to where Blake grew up right before sunset, and Jasmin agreed she liked small weddings.Jasmin said she didn't want to hold down a 9AM-5PM job and would rather work on her inner self instead, but that worried Kerline because she noted it's very expensive to live in Los Angeles and a young couple would need to sources of income to feel comfortable.Jasmin acknowledged she's not a work-oriented person and would rather not work at all if that's possible. Jasmin thought it was rude Kerline was asking those questions in front of her parents.Jasmin said Blake was going to be the breadwinner and he had no problem with that. She also insisted Blake was making enough money to support them both.Blake told the cameras it made him nervous to have to provide for the both of them, but he was ready to "hustle" for the woman he loved.Emily and Sasha were in Portland, OR, and they were driving to a cute beachside condo they had rented for their wedding, which was the very next day.Emily complained Sasha drove their car like "a maniac," but her frustration didn't last long once they arrived at the condo.Emily's sister Betsy still didn't think the wedding was a great idea, but she decided to support her sister and give Sasha a chance to earn her trust. Betsy just hoped history wouldn't repeat itself and that Sasha was "in it for the long haul."The night before the wedding, Betsy asked Sasha to promise to love her sister forever, and Sasha said, "Of course I promise to love her, if she will not stop loving me."Sasha vowed to love Emily and do his best, and he told Betsy he's not the type of guy who cheats on his wife. Betsy hoped Sasha would prove her wrong and he'd be a wonderful husband and father who takes his marriage very seriously.On his wedding day, Sasha was sad his parents and children couldn't attend his wedding. Before the ceremony, Sasha therefore checked in with his parents as well as his son. Sasha promised his son they'd be together again someday and he loved him.Meanwhile, Emily was a little nervous because the wedding was so rushed and details were not well-planned out. However, she was excited, and Sasha and Betsy were finally getting along.Sasha was glad he and Emily were having a small wedding after his two previous marriages ended in divorce, but he said he was convinced he had finally found the love of his life.Anna was shown waiting for Mursel's phone call, which was apparently an hour late.An on-screen graphic then revealed the following to viewers: "Anna called the production crew last night. Mursel told her that he wants to return to America... Mursel has an interview with the U.S. Embassy, requesting his K-1 Visa be reissued."Anna said she was really heartbroken when Mursel returned to Turkey, but once he arrived to his home country, his parents apparently changed their minds and gave Mursel their blessing to marry Anna -- despite the fact she has three children from a previous relationship.Anna said she was in "disbelief" upon hearing the news. While she was angry at him, she still loved him at the same time.Anna believed it was a long shot Mursel could return to the United States on the same K-1 visa, but she was so grateful for the opportunity. Anna maintained high hopes.Suddenly, Mursel called Anna and revealed his visa had been approved. Anna expressed how she was so happy, and then Mursel shared he'd leave Turkey in two days. In fact, Mursel had already bought his ticket to America.Anna and Mursel exchanged professions of love, but the couple would be in a race to wed within two days or else everything they had worked for in the last 90 days would be for nothing."I don't know how the boys are going to react to Mursel coming back, but I'm happy and excited we're going to get this second chance," Anna explained in a confessional.Meanwhile, in Turkey, Mursel was shown packing up his suitcase again. Mursel was happy to return to America.Mursel said his parents were angry with him at first but then he explained he had lied about Anna's sons because he's so in love with Anna and knew they wouldn't approve of his romance."We argued for a very, very long time," Mursel admitted. "So I was in total shock when they told me I could actually marry Anna."Mursel said it was probably his mother who changed her mind first and came up with the idea because she felt sorry for her son.Mursel gushed about how he's "very lucky with official documents," but if he missed any of his flights to Nebraska, everything would be ruined and he wouldn't have time to marry Anna.Anna then brought her three sons to a restaurant for lunch and shared the big news of Mursel's return and how she intended to still marry him. Anna's middle son, Gino, was happy because he could tell Mursel made his mother happy."I just hope Mursel is really in love with my mom," Gino told the cameras.Anna's eldest son Joey said he didn't care, but Joey told the cameras in private he thought going through with this wedding would be a mistake.Anna knew the last 90 days had been a crazy whirlwind for all involved, but she said they both knew what to expect going forward. Anna said once Mursel returned, they'd wed within hours -- before midnight.Joey didn't really want to attend the wedding because he didn't like how Mursel treated his mom or reacted to her sometimes. Anna said she'd really appreciate Joey being there to support her, but Joey didn't like Mursel being the groom.Anna was upset because she had been there for her sons for their entire lives and this was the one occasion she really needed their love and support in return.Mike and Natalie weren't in the best place. Natalie was ignoring his phone calls, but Mike decided to meet with a lawyer to learn more information. He wanted to know how to proceed if his relationship didn't work out.Mike admitted he and Natalie had a falling out, so he wondered if he would still be responsible for Natalie if they didn't end up getting back together. He was also curious whether she could still come."Are you thinking of canceling the request for the fiance visa?" the lawyer Michelle asked.Mike hesitated in answering and then said, "I don't know."Michelle explained Mike could easily put a stop to the visa but he'd have to be really sure because if Mike ultimately changed his mind, he'd have to start the K-1 visa process from the beginning again.Mike said he was just trying to figure stuff out, and Michelle said since Mike couldn't find details on the status of Natalie's visa and documents were supposedly "classified," there could be something "pretty serious out there." Michelle advised Mike to factor that possibility into his grand plan.Michelle said this pending visa was actually advantageous for Mike because it afforded him some time to think.Michelle explained Mike should be careful because if Natalie's K-1 visa got approved and he and Natalie got married within 90 days, Natalie could apply for a Green Card and then, if granted, Mike would be financially responsible for her, potentially for the rest of Natalie's life.Mike didn't plan on making any rash decisions, and he said there was a lot he had to process.Want spoilers? Click here to visit our Spoilers webpage!
Fine Gael has continued to rule out working with Sinn Fein in a coalition government in Dublin, speaking ahead of the Irish general election.

The party said long-held differences with Mary Lou McDonald's party prevent it from relying on support in any coalition government.

Polls have consistently suggested that Leo Varadkar's party is falling behind Fianna Fail, and within the margin of error to be neck-and-neck with Sinn Fein.

A new poll shows Fianna Fail remains in the lead to be the majority partner in the next Dail. The Red C poll for the Business Post suggests Fianna Fail is on 26% (up 2), Fine Gael is down seven points to 23% and Sinn Fein is up eight to 19%.

Speaking yesterday during canvassing, it was put to Mr Varadkar that his stance on Sinn Fein was hypocritical, as he had long criticised the party for not restoring Stormont sooner, and urged them repeatedly to get back into government in Northern Ireland.

Mr Varadkar said that "the north is different". "Northern Ireland is a devolved government, it's not a sovereign state, and in Northern Ireland the Good Friday Agreement provided for what is effectively an all-party coalition," he said. "I don't think people comparing Stormont with a sovereign parliament like the Dail is an accurate comparison."

"The reason we have ruled out working with Sinn Fein is a point of principle," he added.

Sinn Fein was also accused of double standards for voting to increase the state pension age in Northern Ireland to 66 years, while pledging in the Republic to cut the age to 65. The party unanimously supported legislation passed by the Assembly in 2012 which means the pension age here increases to 66 years this coming October.

Its current election campaign in the Republic centres around a promise to reduce the pension age to 65.

Fianna Fail social protection spokesperson Willie O'Dea said Sinn Fein was "speaking outside of both sides of their mouths" on the contentious issue.

Sinn Fein said it was not responsible for the legislation it voted for in the Assembly that increased the pension age. "Westminster sets the pension age and controls the pension purse strings," a spokesperson said.

Ms McDonald remained unrepentant yesterday about reducing the pension age to 65 in the Republic. She accepted it would always be "challenging" to fund welfare and pensions - but if young people got a chance to work and get their own homes "demographics will take care of themselves".

Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have ruled out working with Sinn Fein, although current numbers in polling suggest neither could form a government alone, and even with the backing of preferred partners the Green Party and Labour, could still come up short.

Fine Gael has indicated it would be willing to work with Fianna Fail - however, leader Micheal Martin has ruled out any such pact, noting that Mr Varadkar and his colleagues have maligned his party both before and during the campaign, and he has no interest in forming a government with them after February 8.
A 27-year-old Pakistani Pashtun minority leader, known for criticising the country's powerful military, was arrested on Monday for alleged sedition, media reports said.

Manzoor Pashteen, chief of the rights-based alliance Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), attended a gathering on January 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dera Ismail Khan city where he had allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights, Dawn newspaper reported.

He was arrested along with nine other PTM workers from Peshawar, police said.

The PTM has been critical of the Army's policies in the restive northwestern tribal areas where a massive operation against terrorists was carried out in recent years, leading to large-scale displacement and enforced disappearances, the report said.

It also calls for ending extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions besides holding the practitioners responsible.

The PTM chief has been booked for criminal intimidation, promoting enmity between different groups, criminal conspiracy, sedition and condemning the creation of the country and advocating the abolishment of its sovereignty, the report said.

The FIR said that Pashteen also made derogatory comments about the state.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called for Pashteen's "immediate and unconditional" release.

"Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally," it said on Twitter.

Taking to Twitter, senior PTM leader and National Assembly member Mohsin Dawar said: "This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful and democratic manner. Manzoor's arrest will only strengthen our resolve. We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen".

"We will devise a strategy after consultations. We are up against those who are most troubled by demands for constitutional rights, and we will continue doing that," he said.

Soon after Pashteen's arrest, #ReleaseManzoorPashteen started trending on the micro-blogging site.

In the past, PTM's leaders, including its elected members of Parliament, have been criticised by the Army which alleges it to be running an anti-national agenda and for playing into the hands of the state's enemies.

The Army had launched a military operation 'Khyber-4' under 'Radd-ul-Fasaad', which roughly translates to 'elimination of discord', to eliminate terrorists and consolidate gains of counter-terrorism operations in the country's restive northwest tribal region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At the start of the new year, IREC reflects on the various clean energy policy and regulatory efforts happening across the country, and recognizes those states that have demonstrated notable achievements and/or movement toward clean energy goals. This year's Clean Energy States Honor Roll notes states to keep an eye on in the year to come for more promising developments in 2020 and beyond.

Most Ambitious Clean Energy Goals: New York

For enacting bold clean energy legislation and an aggressive energy storage goal that will increase the deployment of distributed energy resources in the state.

New York has long been at the forefront of clean energy policy discussions. It has garnered significant attention over the past five years for its initiatives, including massive regulatory undertakings aimed to increase the resiliency of the electric grid and enable more efficient and equitable integration of distributed energy resources. Though its work is still underway, a major policy move in 2019 is certain to accelerate clean energy progress in the Empire State. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for both 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040 and economy-wide, net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Meeting these ambitious goals will require considerable effort, especially given the fact that New York is the third-largest economy in the country. To reach the new targets, the bill calls for a 23 percent increase in energy efficiency, 9 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035, 6 gigawatts of distributed solar energy capacity by 2025, and 3 gigawatts of energy storage capacity by 2030. The storage target, approved by the New York Public Service Commission in December 2018, is one of the biggest targets set in any state.

Growing Clean Energy Leader: Colorado

For laying the foundation for clean energy growth and tackling progressive regulatory reforms to change the utility business model

In 2019, Colorado's legislature passed seven climate and energy bills, including a bill that aims to decarbonize the state's economy 90 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. In 2019, Governor Jared Polis also released the Roadmap to 100% Renewable Energy by 2040 and Bold Climate Action, which laid out his administration's renewable energy vision. The roadmap identifies the policies and actions necessary to achieve a low carbon, clean energy economy and highlights the state's progress in meeting its goals.

In addition to legislative and executive actions, the state's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) recently launched a proceeding on performance-based regulation (PBR). PBR is a regulatory framework that seeks to align a utility's financial incentives with how well it performs on key metrics - for example, increased customer adoption of energy efficiency measures or acquisition of non-wires alternatives to avoid capital investments, as well as increased value to customers. And just this month, the PUC ordered the main regulated investor-owned utility (Xcel Energy) to "decouple" its profits from the amount of energy it sells. Decoupling can help to encourage energy efficiency and distributed clean energy technologies which may otherwise decrease electricity sales and in turn utility profits.

Most Charged for Storage: Massachusetts

For adopting policies and taking steps to boost energy storage deployment

Massachusetts has adopted policies to increase storage development through a multi-pronged policy strategy: clarifying the eligibility of energy storage to participate in existing programs, providing targeted incentives for energy storage, and setting a storage target of 1 gigawatt by 2025. In addition to allowing behind-the-meter energy storage to be eligible for energy efficiency incentives, the state also clarified that solar-plus-storage systems can qualify for net metering (a program that provides credit for energy generated from renewable energy facilities in excess of any energy used on site).

The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) also made clear that solar-plus-storage system owners participating in the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program can participate in forward capacity markets to earn additional revenue. Launched in 2018, SMART is an incentive program that will fund 1,600 megawatts of solar. Lastly, the DPU initiated an investigation to determine how energy storage will be addressed in the state's (and utilities') interconnection standards. The issues considered in the regulatory process will be key to ensuring energy storage has a clear path to connect to the grid, such that the state can achieve its related energy storage policy goals.

Nascent Market Poised for Clean Energy Growth: Virginia

For advancing interconnection improvements and creating a new initiative to address financial barriers to solar energy for low- to moderate-income households

In 2019, Virginia's regulatory commission updated the state's interconnection standards, which include the rules and processes for connecting distributed energy resources to the grid. In a December 2019 filing, the commission ordered that a copy of the proposed interconnection rules be published in the Virginia Register of Regulations. This important milestone to update and make improvements to the state's interconnection rules will establish a more efficient and streamlined process for customers, developers and utilities alike.

Clearer rules for connecting to the grid will also ensure Virginians can take advantage of distributed energy resources, setting the stage for strong clean energy market growth in the years to come. In addition, taking a first step to help address the important issue of ensuring equitable access to clean energy for all customers, the state legislature created a Clean Energy Advisory Board which will be responsible for developing a pilot program that will help to finance solar projects for low- to moderate-income (LMI) households.

About IREC

The Interstate Renewable Energy Council builds the foundation for rapid adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency, toward a 100% clean energy future that is reliable, resilient and equitable. IREC is an independent not-for-profit organization leading transformational work since 1982. IREC: Independent leadership. Trusted clean energy expertise. https://irecusa.org

Contact: Ruth Fein ruthfein@irecusa.org m.518.858.7329
Montana Cox has denied dating Melbourne businessman Lewis Romano, after a Sydney newspaper claimed the pair were an item.

The 26-year-old model told Daily Mail Australia she was baffled by the story, which appeared in The Sun-Herald's Emerald City column on Sunday.

'I have met Lewis once, not sure where they come up with this,' Montana said, adding that she already has a boyfriend who is based in LA.

Fake news! Montana Cox has denied dating Melbourne businessman Lewis Romano, after reports the pair were an item. Pictured on August 3, 2016 in Sydney

Lewis also poured cold water on the rumours.

'I have met Montana once and we are certainly not dating or even know each other,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Citing unnamed 'friends', Emerald City had claimed that Montana and Lewis were 'totally smitten' with each other.

'I have met him once!' The 26-year-old model (left) told Daily Mail Australia she was baffled by the story, which appeared in The Sun-Herald's Emerald City column on Sunday. Right: Lewis

Montana rose to fame on Australia's Next Top Model in 2011, while Lewis is the co-founder of financial technology company Credit Clear.

Lewis was previously in a relationship with The Bachelor 2015 star Laurina Fleure.

In late 2018, Montana was romantically linked to Sydney pub baron Justin Hemmes, 46, but they both denied they were dating.

Exes: Lewis was previously in a relationship with The Bachelor 2015 star Laurina Fleure (left)

'We are just friends, we have always just been friends, I think people just like to talk about things,' she said in October 2018.

Justin also denied the claims, telling the Sydney Morning Herald in November that year they were 'just friends'.

The speculation came after Justin had announced his split from Kate Fowler in July 2018, after nearly five years together.
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B oris Johnson believes the woman suspected of killing Harry Dunn should return to the UK to face justice.

Mr Johnson believes the refusal of the US to extradite Anne Sacoolas is a "denial of justice", his spokesman said today.

Mr Dunn, 19, was killed when his motorbike and a car collided outside a US Military base in Northamptonshire last year.

The woman behind the wheel of the car, Mrs Sacoolas, was the wife of a US diplomat and returned to the her home nation, claiming diplomatic immunity.

Harry Dunn died in August 2019 / PA

She was subsequently charged with causing death by dangerous driving and an extradition request was issued - though it was rejected by the US.

The PMs spokesman, speaking at a Westminster briefing, said: We believe that this is a denial of justice and the individual concerned should return to the UK."

Anne Sacoolas returned to the US following the incident / Sky News

It comes with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo due to visit the UK, where he is set to meet the PM and with foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

Earlier today, Mr Dunn's mother has asked Boris Johnson to "put an end to all of this" and force the US woman suspected of causing her son's death to return to the UK."

Charlotte Charles, issued a direct message to the PM calling on him to use his power to force the return of the suspect.

Harry Dunn's mother appeals to Boris Johnson to ensure Anne Sacoolas returns to the UK

"You are the one that's got the power in your hands. You're the one who can put an end to all of this," she said, while appearing on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.

"You're the one who can bring her back to the UK. Do the humane thing, make your country proud, make the UK proud of you.

"Show us that you are willing to stand up for your citizens' rights and bring her back."

She said there is "no harm in trying again" despite the US rejecting the request.

A spokesman for the US State department previously said if the extradition request was granted, it would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity.

They claimed this would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent.

Mr Johnson "reiterated the need" for Mrs Sacoolas to return to the UK during a phone call with US president Donald Trump on Friday.
Speaking to Sepah News, the IRGC news agency on Sunday the Revolutionary Guard's spokesman denied the claim of a former commander who had accused the elite military of making money by taking hostages for ransom.

A viral video with English subtitles on social media which shows Hassan Abbasi, a former IRGC commander and a hardliner politician making a speech. In the speech, Abbasi says that in one instance the Guard "arrested a spy", presumably the American-Iranian journalist Jason Rezaian, and the United States paid $1.7b to Iran to secure his freedom. He claimed that 400 million was paid in cash.

U.S. media reported at the time that the Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Tehran in January 2016 at the same time as Rezaian and three Iranian-Americans were released, although the Obama administration later said the two events were unconnected.

The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement that the Obama administration reached with The Islamic Republic to resolve a decades-old failed arms deal signed during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavis reign, long before the Islamic Revolution.

Twitter post with the controversial video.

Without naming Abbasi the Guard's Spokesman Ramezan Sharif told Sepah News that the claim IRGC makes money by such acts has given excuses to those who wish ill for the Guard. Sharif also called on the authorities to investigate the person who made such claims and said the "expert in question" has a record of making some "illogical comments".

Abbasi who often speaks at the rallies of Basij militia and Khamenei's supporters and state-run television programs was sued for his controversial comments by the Iranian army in 2016 and by the Guards in August 2019. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry sued Abbasi who is an ardent critic of President Hassan Rouhani in 2017. Hardliners with influence in the courts and the Judiciary have always ensured that Abbasi does not stay in prison for more than a few days.

In his speech Abbasi claimed that in early January Qatar paid $3b "blood money" for the Qods (Quds) Force Commander "martyr Qassem Soleimani".

During the visit of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to Tehran, in a report on 12 January, Middle East Online claimed that several sources had said the Emir was in Tehran to offer the Iranian President $3b in compensation for the 176 passengers who lost their lives when Iran shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane.

This has not been confirmed by any other source and its is not clear why Qatar would pay any money as a party not involved in the Ukrainian plane incident. But widespread speculation on social media pose the theory that Qatar paid to calm Iran down after Soleimani's killing.

The attack on the plane happened only a few hours after Iran carried out a missile attack on Iraqi bases hosting American forces in retaliation for the targeted killing of General Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3.

On January 13 Iran's Cabinet Spokesman refuted the claim of compensation payment for the victims of the crash.
Trump signs bill authorizing $375M in grants for houses of worship to defend against violence

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The Trump administration has authorized millions in federal grants for churches and other houses of worship and nonprofit organizations for the purpose of defending against violence amid rising hostility to religion, specifically anti-Semitism.

In remarks last week in the East Room of the White House before a gathering of American mayors about the economy and community renewal, President Donald Trump noted that "in the face of attacks on synagogues, mosques, and churches in our community  something that is just so horrible  we must work together to reject the monstrous evils of anti-Semitism and anti-religious bigotry."

"I will sign legislation authorizing $375 million for federal grants to help houses of worship and other faith-based and non-profit organizations defend against violence," Trump said to applause, adding, "Its crazy; whats going on is crazy."

"We are committed to building a nation where every community is secure, every family is safe, and every child can grow up in dignity and in peace."

The bipartisan authorization, which substantially increased the funding for the Nonprofit Security Grants Program, allows houses of worship to apply for $100,000 grants to be used for things like fencing, cameras, stronger doors and the hiring of security professionals. The bill passed the U.S. House by voice vote and passed through the Senate via Unanimous Consent.

The move follows increasing anti-Semitic violence and attacks in New York and New Jersey and, most notably, two separate synagogue shootings that occurred in Poway, California, in April and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in October 2018.

For Christian churches, the issue of taking more steps toward greater security measures rose to the fore following the massacre at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where 26 people were shot and killed in November 2017.

Such considerations are being discussed again after a shooter entered a church in White Settlement, Texas, late last month and began shooting. Two were killed but the shooter was taken out by an armed member of the congregation, Jack Wilson, who was the head of the congregation's volunteer security team. His quick action was praised as heroic and was credited with preventing further carnage.

The Texas Tribune reported last week that the Krugerville, Texas-based National Organization for Church Security and Safety Management has seen an increase in interest in the past few weeks in light of the recent church shooting.

For someone to go through the training, churches pay approximately $800 per person to be fully certified, which includes the program and the state licensing.
U.S. live and feeder cattle futures touched their lowest prices in months on Friday as traders booked profits amid fears about the spread of a new virus from China.

Broad selling also hit pig futures, along with equities and crude oil as investors moved into safe-haven assets.

Developments in the spread of the coronavirus will likely continue to direct cattle futures on Monday, said Rich Nelson, chief strategist for Illinois-based commodities broker Allendale.

Concerns increased as U.S. health officials confirmed a second U.S. case of the coronavirus and France confirmed its first three cases, while Chinese authorities sought to contain an outbreak that has killed at least 41 people in the country and infected about 1,000.

I dont know how much pressure we should have seen due to the coronavirus but based on psychology, it fits, Nelson said.

April live cattle futures reached their lowest price since Oct. 31 before ending up 0.125 cent at 124.300 cents per pound at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. CME March feeder cattle futures dropped 0.850 cent to 139.675 cents per pound and touched their lowest level since Nov. 22.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a monthly report issued after the close of trading, said the nation had 12 million head of cattle on feed for slaughter as of Jan. 1, up 2.3% from a year earlier. A Reuters poll of 10 analysts had projected an increase of 2.2%.

The USDA said 1.83 million head were placed in feedlots during December, up 3.5% from the previous year. Analysts were expecting an increase of 3.4%.

The data was neutral across the board, Nelson said.

Uncertainty about Chinese demand for U.S. meat continues to hang over the livestock markets.

Beijing pledged to increase imports of U.S. agricultural products in a trade deal signed last week that is meant to reduce tensions after nearly two years of a tit-for-tat tariff war. Traders are unsure about the timing and scale of future Chinese purchases, though.

China needs to further boost meat imports after an outbreak of a fatal pig disease, African swine fever, decimated its herd.

Weekly U.S. pork shipments to China from Jan. 10-16 were 16,917 tonnes, the biggest reported since February 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Net sales to China, the worlds largest pork consumer, were relatively modest at 2,996 tonnes.

CME February lean hog futures fell 1.275 cents to 67.225 cents per pound. The most-active April contract ended down 1.900 cents at 73.450 cents, a day after reaching a two-week high.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan  The Pakistani authorities on Monday arrested the leader of a civil rights movement who for nearly two years has challenged the countrys powerful security forces by demanding they be held accountable for extrajudicial killings and kidnappings, his colleagues said.

The leader, Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen, was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning on five separate charges, including conspiracy and sedition, after giving a speech that officials said was against the Constitution and the state. He was detained in Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, his colleagues said.

Mr. Pashteen and his movement, widely known by the initials P.T.M., have presented one of the most influential challenges to the militarys dominance of Pakistan as it has cracked down on minorities, journalists and other critics in recent years.

While the P.T.M. focused on demanding justice for the countrys sizable Pashtun minority, its influence quickly grew larger than the movement itself. The large crowds P.T.M. drew to the streets, and the boldness of its leadership in openly challenging the security forces, inspired other advocates to join in.
The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed a statutory resolution seeking to abolish the state Legislative Council

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed a statutory resolution seeking to abolish the state Legislative Council, days after the YSRC government failed to get two crucial bills on its plans to have three capitals cleared by the Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-dominated Upper House.

All 133 members present in the 175-member House, when the division vote was taken at 6 pm, voted in favour and the resolution under Article 169 (1) of the Constitution was adopted unanimously. Speaker Tammineni Seetaram announced that the resolution was adopted by a majority as stipulated under Article 169 (1) related to abolition or creation of Legislative Councils in states.

The TDP boycotted the days proceedings, protesting the government's decision to abolish the council.
As 2019 murder rate hits record high in Mexico, relatives say President Lopez Obradors policies have failed.

Family members of murdered or missing Mexicans have marched for four days to the capital to take their message to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refused to receive them.

Last year saw the homicide rate at 35,000  an all-time high for the country.

The relatives say the president has not empowered the police force or strengthened the judiciary and has instead militarised the fight against crime.

Al Jazeeras John Holman reports from Mexico City.
A woman is believed to have had her hair set on fire during an incident on the Luas.

During a separate incident on the red line, a teenager was arrested for damaging the inside of a tram.
A video posted by Chevy Dude , a Youtuber and Chevy Salesman that tends to get a lot of insider information, has brought forth news that Chevy is revoking or canceling C8 Corvette allocations to dealers nationwide. The amount of allocations is said to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 percent. Right off the bat, this sounds troubling, especially if youve placed an order, but its not as cut and dry as it sounds.

If youve already placed an order for your 2020 C8 Vette, then youre probably okay LISTEN 02:12

Is Chevy Cancelling C8 Corvette Orders?

As of right now, theres no evidence that Chevy is, in fact, canceling orders for the Chevy C8 Corvette. It is cutting allocations to some dealers, but as youll learn from the video above, the automaker is focusing on allocations of unsold C8s. So, if the dealer down the road was allocated two build slots and couldnt sell the car, then the dealer probably isnt getting either car. If someone has ordered them, however, chances are that Chevy isnt canceling the order.

Chevy Dude is citing that there are some internal issues with the car while others are saying that the reduced allocations come from a delay in production after the United Auto Workers Strike. If anything, this will certainly penalize dealers that were overcharging for build slots and have yet to make a sale as, chances are, theyll be the first to lose their allocation altogether.

On that note, weve reached out to Chevy to see what they had to say about the whole ordeal, and we got the same message as other outlets:

"We have had to make adjustments to our planned dealer allocations due to the work stoppage we experienced last year. Were not providing specifics on the level of adjustments."

Chevrolet Corvette C8 specifications Engine LT2, 6.2-liter, n/a V-8, mid-mounted Power 490 hp, 495 hp w/ the Z51 pack Torque 465 lb-ft, 470 lb-ft w/ the Z51 pack Transmission 8-speed DCT 0-60 mph 2.9 s Top speed 194 mph Price tag $59,995

With that said, it wouldnt be a good move for Chevy to start canceling allocations that have already been booked, so if you fall into that category, I suggest you wait patiently for your number to be drawn. The last we heard, customer car production of the C8 Corvette Kicks off in early February, so those that were first to order should be taking delivery sometime in the near future. If you want to learn more about whats going on behind the scenes, check out our more recent coverage:
A plane has crashed and caught fire in south-west Afghanistan, officials say.

The aircraft came down in Ghazni provinces Deh Yak district, south-west of the capital Kabul, in an area with a strong Taliban presence.

Local officials initially said it was a passenger plane belonging to Afghan airline Ariana.

However, the airline said all of its fleet were accounted for, and the countrys aviation body later announced that no civilian plane had crashed.



Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the BBC that his group had not yet located the aircraft.

The cause of the crash remains unclear, and no details about casualties have been given.

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Researchers have successfully tried a biodegradable bridge like device (biodegradable polycaprolactone PCL conduit) in vivo for management of nerve injuries. The team published their findings in a paper titled, Long-gap peripheral nerve repair through sustained release of a neurotrophic factor in nonhuman primates, in the latest issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Lauren Kokai, Ph.D., (left) developed the technology used for this project when she was a graduate studying under Kacey Marra, Ph.D., (right). Credit: UPMC

Nerves form the working units of the central nervous system and those that extend from the brain and spinal cord are called part of the peripheral nervous system that lies in the limbs and other parts of the body. These carry signals to and from the brain. The team explained that there are annually over 600,000 nerve injuries in the United States and while some may repair and recover, thousands are left with debilitating paralysis or disabilities. Many of the injuries sustained by American soldiers are these nerve injuries explain the researchers. Similarly machinery accidents, car crashes and other automobile accidents, cancer treatment and diabetes also contribute to nerve damages.

They explained that when these nerves of the peripheral nervous system are damaged or nicked, they can heal on their own if the damage is not great. The gap between the cut ends needs to be short  around one third of an inch, in order to allow the nerve endings to connect and join. If the gap is greater, the chances of the nerve repairing itself become smaller, the team explains. Sometimes when the gap is greater, the nerve endings tend to start to grow and get tangled into knots without finding the other cut end. This leads to a ball like knot of nerve endings called a neuroma. Neuromas can be painful and nerve injuries often lead to neuromas that are chronically painful.

For patients who have had a severed nerve with a wide gap that prevents it from reconnecting and healing, surgeons and neurologists usually attempt to remove a healthy bit of a nerve from elsewhere (usually from the side or back of the leg) and place it over the gap. This is called an autograft. In many patients these autografts are capable of restoring more than 50 percent of the nerve activity. However, lead author of this study, Kacey Marra from the University of Pittsburgh, explains that this autograft could damage another area of the body from where the healthy nerve bit is taken. This region on the back of leg for example, from where the nerve part of taken, could become numb after the autograft. She said, It's like you're replacing a piece of linguini with a bundle of angel hair pasta...It just doesn't work as well.

Marra is also a professor of plastic surgery at Pitt and core faculty at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. She said, We're the first to show a nerve guide without any cells was able to bridge a large, 2-inch gap between the nerve stump and its target muscle. Our guide was comparable to, and in some ways better than, a nerve graft.

Thus for this new study the team developed a new biodegradable bridge like device that has shown success in repairing nerve injuries in primates. This bridge is essentially a miniscule tube made up of a polymer that is used to make sutures that dissolve within the body by themselves. These biodegradable polymers are used widely for suturing and have been found to be safe. They usually dissolve by the time the stitch line has healed. In this biodegradable bridge created for nerve healing the researchers embedded microspheres of a glial cell derived neurotrophic factor. This protein embedded in the tube wall is a specific one that promotes neuronal survival.

Next the team implanted these tube-like devices into macaques with nerve defects in their arms. The tubes worked as scaffolds that helped the cut ends of the nerves to grow over them. After the end of the study the team noted that nearly 80 percent of the nerve function was restored by the time the tubes dissolved. Gaps as much as 12 centimetres or 4.7 inches also showed healing, wrote the researchers.

As a next step the team is working on planning human clinical trials with these tubes. The trials are set to begin in 2021 wherein the persons with nerve damage could benefit from these bridges that help the damaged ends of nerves to grow back and reconnect. Researchers are working on a startup company called AxoMax Technologies Inc. that would be working on the trials. Researchers explain that for humans it may take at least three years for the nerves to grow back, but if proven successful, these bridges could replace autografts as a method for repairing nerve damage.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : Men's grooming brand Bombay Shaving Company has roped in actor Kartik Aaryan as its new brand ambassador, it said Monday.

"I love to experiment with my looks and I look forward to working with the team in building a brand that helps men look their best," Kartik said.

The 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama' actor will be seen endorsing the brand's shaving and facial grooming range.

"Kartik's boyish good looks have made him a heartthrob of India and have overshadowed many peers of his generation. Kartik embodies the spirit of a young, feisty startup - he is self-made in an industry where it is rare, has garnered fanfare based on his talent alone. His appeal among the younger audience is exceptional," the brand said in a statement.

Launched in 2016, the premium brand is into skin, beard and bath categories. It aims to become an Rs 100 crore brand by next year, it said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday expressed hope that resolutions tabled in the European Parliament against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and curbs in Kashmir will be followed up with sanctions.

"Relieved to see EU parliament pass resolutions against communal CAB & brutal lockdown in Kashmir. Hope it's followed up with sanctions. GOIs actions are frittering away all of India's assiduously earned soft power," a tweet on Mehbooba's twitter handle reads.

The PDP president's twitter handle is operated by her daughter Iltija after Mehbooba was taken into preventive custody on the wake of abrogation of article 370 in August last year.

"Discriminatory CAB & repressive measures in Kashmir are India's internal matter only when EU Parliamentarians/international community condemn such actions. Had they spoken about it in glowing terms, the same establishment would lap it up," she added.

The European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a motion tabled by a large chunk of its members against India's new citizenship law, which it alleges marks a "dangerous shift" in the country's citizenship regime.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Inside the stone walls of a 13th-century fortress, Albanian and Russian actors are striving to re-enact a little-known but troubling chapter of their shared history for the big screen.

Co-written by Albania's acclaimed novelist Ismail Kadare, this historical drama is the first joint production between the two countries in almost 70 years.

The working title for the love story is "Gjirokastra", the southern Albanian city where the story unfolds. It will be the first feature film to delve into the tragic fate of mixed couples persecuted by Tirana's communist regime.

The trouble started after Tirana severed ties with Moscow in 1961, a diplomatic break that, overnight, turned young Albanians with Soviet-born wives into suspected traitors.

"The characters I'm interested in are forgotten or little-known victims of communism: foreigners held in Albania and savagely persecuted by the regime," Kadare told AFP.

The film is a 'tribute to all the innocent victims of totalitarian regimes', says director Yuri Arabov /  AFP

While this is his debut as a screenwriter, the novelist and poet has won a string of literary prizes and is regularly mooted as a contender for Nobel honours.

"So many individual fates were shattered by history," said Kadare, who co-wrote the script with the Russian screenwriter and director Yuri Arabov.

In the 1950s many Albanian men studied abroad in the Soviet Union, some of them returning home with Russian, Polish, Hungarian or Bulgarian partners.

The film follows the story of one such couple.

- Executions and labour camps -

For years, Albania and the USSR were close allies, and Tirana's communist dictator Enver Hoxha an admirer of Joseph Stalin.

But after the Soviet leader's successor Nikita Khrushchev embarked on a series of de-Stalinisation reforms, Albania's dictator broke with "revisionist" Moscow and its satellite states in 1961.

Shot on location in Gjirokastra, Albania, the film was co-written by director Arabov and the celebrated novelist Ismail Kadare /  AFP

Foreign women living inside Albania, whose borders were locked down under Hoxha, were given a choice: return home or stay with their husbands and risk persecution.

There is no data on how many couples joined the tens of thousands of perceived regime opponents jailed or sentenced to hard labour during Albania's 40 years of communism.

Some 5,500 men and 450 women were also executed by the regime.

One survivor, however, is Irina Sallaku, an 88-year-old who now lives in Tirana.

Born in Soviet Russia, Sallaku married an Albanian who was studying engineering in Leningrad. The couple returned to Tirana in 1955 with twins.

Their lives were shattered two decades later, when her husband was executed by the Albanian regime on charges of "sabotage".

Sallaku was sent with their two daughters to a labour camp. They were not released until 1988.

"Many foreigners who made an act of heartfelt resistance by choosing to live in Albania have had a tragic destiny," Sallaku told AFP.

Like many, she still doesn't know the final resting place of her husband, a constant source of torment.

But she welcomes the making of a movie that will tell a story similar to hers on a large scale.

"This is a tragic episode in the story (of Albania) that needs to be told in order to understand the scale of the crime," she said, speaking in a hushed voice.

- Real love -

The film, which Kadare started writing in 2010, traces the story of Russian student Katia, who meets her future Albanian husband, Arjan, in Moscow.

Years after starting a new life together in Albania, the husband is arrested for "spying" and executed.

Katia, also accused of spying, ends up imprisoned in the Gijrokastra fortress, which at that time was used as a jail.

While most of the filming took place in Gijrokastra, the birth place of both Hoxha and Kadare, some scenes were also filmed in the late dictator's villa in the centre of Tirana.

Two Albanian actors play the Hoxha, who died in 1985, and his wife Nexhmije, still alive at the age of 99.

Director Arabov describes the film as a "tribute to all the innocent victims of totalitarian regimes".

With the shooting wrapped, editing starts at the end of the month.

And the work has already given birth to a new love story -- between Polina Grishina, the Russian actress who plays Katia, and Besmir Bitraku, the Albanian actor who plays her husband.

"We are our history," Bitraku, a popular actor in Albania, said with a smile.

Loreta Mokini, the Albanian co-producer of the film, added: "Love is blind, it doesn't learn from history".
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An airliner carrying 150 passengers has skidded off a runway into a street next to an airport in the Iranian city of Mahshahr.

No major injuries were reported after the plane apparently lost its landing gear in a hard landing.

Provincial airport director Mohammad Reza Rezanian said all of the passengers had been safely taken off the plane.

A Caspian Airlines plane carrying 150 passengers from the Iranian capital of Tehran to the southern city of Mahshahr suffered a fault with its landing gear while touching down around 9.30am local time Monday

The plane skidded off the runway at Mahshahr Airport, through safety barriers at the end of the tarmac, then came to rest across a four-lane highway, just a short distance from residential buildings

There were 150 passengers on board the jet at the time it crashed, though none of them were seriously hurt in the accident

Iranian state TV said the jet suffered a hard landing which damaged the wheels, causing them to break away, though officials would only say that an investigation is underway

Passengers are evacuated from the McDonnell Douglas jet on Monday morning following the accident. No serious injuries were reported by investigators

Tragedy was only narrowly avoided, as images from the scene showed the plane had ground to a halt not far from a populated area.

The incident comes as Iran is still coping with the aftermath of the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner over Tehran.

The plane was shot down by the Revolutionary Guard earlier this month amid heightened tensions with the United States, killing all 176 people onboard.

Iranian state television said the plane involved in the incident came in harder than usual and lost its landing gear as it hit the tarmac.

No landing gear was evident in pictures of the plane after the accident, but it was not immediately clear if it failed to deploy or somehow collapsed as the jet hit the runway at about 9.30am local time.

Officials said the accident is under investigation.

The flight from the Tehran-based airline originated in the Iranian capital.

Iranian reports identified the plane only as a McDonnell Douglas without being more specific.

The accident comes as Iran is still reeling from the deaths of 176 people - including 82 Iranians - after the Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down a Ukraine Airlines plane over Tehran

Fire crews douse the crashed aircraft with flame-retardant foam to stop any spilled fuel from catching fire after the Caspian Airlines plane skidded off the runway in Mahshahr

An Iranian passenger plane belonging to Caspian Airlines is seen at the site after skidded off the runway near the airport in the southern city Mahshahr

An investigation into the exact cause of the crash is underway, though state TV attributed it to a 'hard landing'
P eople who have returned to the UK from the coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China should "self-isolate" even if they show no symptoms of the virus, the Health Secretary has said.

In a significant ramping up of precautions in the UK, Matt Hancock said officials could not be 100 per cent certain the virus is not spread by people who are not displaying symptoms.

The move means more than 1,400 people who have returned from Wuhan since January 10 should isolate themselves for 14 days from the date of leaving China.

Ministers have said they are working to get Britons out of Hubei province in China, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the Government is doing everything we can.

Taking precautions: A health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing / Getty Images

Officials estimate up to 200 UK citizens currently there will want to return to the UK.

If they end up being flown home by the Foreign Office, health officials will also tell them to self-isolate for 14 days.

If they are unable to stay at home, quarantine facilities will be provided, officials said.

Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP

Mr Hancock told MPs in the Commons: Coronaviruses do not usually spread if people dont have symptoms  but we cannot be 100% certain.

From today, we are therefore asking anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days to self-isolate.

Stay indoors and avoid contact with other people  and contact NHS 111. If you are in Northern Ireland, you should phone your GP.

If you develop respiratory symptoms within 14 days of travel to the area, and are now in the UK, call your GP or ring 111 informing them of your symptoms and your recent travel to the city.

Do not leave your home until you have been given advice by a clinician.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock / PA

Some 1,561 people are now known to have entered the UK from Wuhan since January 10, including airline crew, although some have since left again.

Just 10% of these people supplied an email address to the airline and have been contacted with advice on what to do if they feel ill.

Mr Hancock said Public Health England officials are trying to trace the others.

Having eliminated those who we know have since left the country, there are 1,460 people we are seeking to locate, he said.

Regarding those UK citizens who wish to leave Wuhan, he said: The Foreign Office is rapidly advancing measures to bring UK nationals back from Hubei province.

I have asked my officials to ensure there are appropriate measures in place upon arrival to look after them and protect the public.

If you are in Hubei province and wish to leave, please get in contact with the Foreign Office.

Passengers in the arrivals concourse at Heathrow Terminal 4 / PA

Public health teams are working 24 hours a day to greet the 66 flights a week coming to Heathrow Airport from China.

PHE is also putting teams in place at Gatwick and Manchester airports.

Health officials said on Monday that it is clear the virus is being passed from person to person but it does not look at this stage as if it is hugely infectious.

Experts expect more cases to emerge outside China, including in the UK.

Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus / AFP via Getty Images

At the moment, around 2% to 3% of people who get the virus die, most of them elderly or who have other health complications.

Around 10% to 11% of people who contracted Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) died.

On Monday afternoon, Mr Johnson told reporters efforts were being made to reassure UK citizens in Wuhan.

He said: We are looking at everything we can to give reassurance to those people in Wuhan and you will be hearing a bit more in due course, but I dont want to pre-empt the decisions we are going to make.

Getty Images

He said travellers arriving in the UK would be properly screened and checked if they have come from an area that is known to have the infection.

So far, there is still no case of somebody with coronavirus here in the UK but clearly there are a lot of cases in China and it is spreading.

Professor Yvonne Doyle of PHE said the first UK case is likely to come from somebody already in the country.

In an interview with Sky News, she said: Our view is that, although airports are important, the most likely place that we might find a case is somebody in the country already, and its absolutely critical that the public health service and the NHS are ready to diagnose that and are able to designate the person to the right facilities.

Thats the most likely scenario we are dealing with.

AFP via Getty Images

Asked if there could be cases already in Britain, she said: I would expect so.

Prof Doyle urged anyone who has entered the UK from Wuhan and who has fallen ill with a fever, cough or difficulty breathing to contact NHS 111.

Some 73 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK, although all tests have come back negative.

Hubei province has been on lockdown for several days as China seeks to contain the illness, with restrictions also in place in other major cities.

The number of people killed in China has risen to 81, with almost 3,000 confirmed ill.
Irish Water wish to advise customers in Dara Park, Moorefield, Highfield Estate, Piercetown, Pairc Mhuire, Charleton Avenue, The Maples Apartments, Weston Apartments and surrounding areas in Newbridge, that as part of water mains improvement works being delivered, there may be disruption to water supply from 10.30am to 2.30pm on Tuesday 28 January 2020.

These works are necessary to safeguard the water supply to homes and businesses in Newbridge.

During these essential planned works, homes and businesses in the above areas may be impacted by reduced water pressure and water outages. Following these improvement works water supply may take 2-3 hours to return as water refills the network.

Irish Water understands this type of work can be inconvenient and will ensure our work crews make every effort to minimise any disruption these works may cause.

Customers can call the Irish Water customer helpline on 1850 278 278 for any questions in relation to the works.

These works are being carried out as part of Irish Waters national Leakage Reduction Programme which will, over the next 4 years, see 500 million invested to reduce the level of leakage across the country by fixing and replacing ageing water mains. This will ensure a safe, reliable water supply which is vital for our health, our environment and our growing population and economy.
Whatever one calls it here, it simply isnt an evidence question: Its not about whether to admit into evidence a particular document, but about obtaining that document in the first place; and its not about whether a witness must answer a specific question, but about forcing that witness at least to show up. And that threshold question falls squarely under Rule V  meaning under the chief justices authority alone. And thats why the Senate, despite outlining the rules for subpoenas, never made its subpoena rules governed by Rule VII.

If there were any doubt, recall the language of the Constitution, which orders that, in an impeachment trial of the president, the Chief Justice shall preside. To preside is not a merely symbolic role; it can mean, just as it meant during President Andrew Johnsons impeachment trial, to be asked to make a range of actual rulings, including ones on which the chief justice is not merely the first word but also the last.

Theres a reason that, to our knowledge, no chief justice presiding over a presidents impeachment trial has had to confront precisely this issue before: No president has tried to hide all of the facts from Congress before. To be sure, previous presidents facing the prospect of impeachment  like Presidents Nixon and Clinton  have been accused of failing to share all of the information sought from them. But none ever vowed, as Mr. Trump has, to continue fighting all the subpoenas regardless of their particular validity. Ultimately, some accommodation was reached in previous impeachment inquiries as to the scope of information provided  including, for Mr. Clintons impeachment trial, an eventual agreement on witness testimony. If Chief Justice Roberts is being asked to answer difficult questions, it is a direct result of President Trumps scorched-earth approach to congressional oversight.

The framers wisdom in giving this responsibility to a member of the judiciary expected to be apolitical and impartial has never been clearer. With key Republican senators having told the American people that they prejudged the case against President Trump before it began and even working with Mr. Trumps lawyers to build the very defense for which theyre supposed to be the audience, the notion that theyre doing the impartial justice theyve sworn to do is very much in question.

The Democrats impeachment managers should immediately ask the chief justice to issue subpoenas for key witnesses and documents, insisting that the Senate rules make him and him alone the decision maker about whether to make and enforce those subpoenas. Thats his prerogative  and his responsibility, one he cant simply shift to the senators as permitted for evidentiary questions under the Rule VII carve-out.

What happens next wont be totally within Democrats or the chief justices control. As Representative Adam Schiff acknowledged Thursday, the chief justice can decide evidence questions like executive privilege, but his determinations can be overruled by a majority of senators.
The inability of international law to effectively address situations of mass human rights atrocities, in particular genocide, within States has been the source of much consternation for international lawyers. The term genocide, deriving from the Greek prefix genos meaning race or tribe and the Latin suffix cide meaning killing, was coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

It was soon codified as an independent crime under the 1948 United Nations Convention, acceded to by around 152 states. However, in over 70 years of operation of the Convention, the record of establishing State responsibility for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide has been unsatisfactory, illustrated by well-documented failures in Cambodia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia.

However, in a significant ruling on the Rohingya issue, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) took tentative steps towards remedying its otherwise unenviable record of adjudicating allegations of genocide.

In its preliminary judgment, the ICJ unanimously granted provisional measures, at the request of Gambia, directing Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts, including by any persons subject to its direction, control or influence, which constitute genocide under the convention in relation to the Rohingya people in its territory; and take all measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to the allegation of genocide. More strikingly, the ICJ sought to oversee the implementation of its provisional measures, directing Myanmar to submit a report to the court on all measures taken to give effect to the order, within four months from the date of the order, and thereafter every six months until the final decision.

The case before the ICJ concerned allegations made by Gambia that, from October 2016, Myanmar security forces began a widespread and systemic cleansing operation against the Rohingya people, during which they committed mass murder, rape and other atrocities, including setting fire to villages, and which, from August 2017 onwards assumed genocidal proportions.

The Rohingyas are a largely Muslim ethnic group belonging to the Rakhine region, who were rendered stateless under a controversial 1982 citizenship law and have been the subject of persecution since.

In recent years, the attempts of the Rohingya to flee Myanmar by sea or land have captured international media attention. During the proceedings, Gambia relied on the report published by the Independent Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar established by the UN Human Rights Council to support its case.

However, it is important to reiterate that the ICJ did not find Myanmar guilty of genocide and only found that Gambia had established a prima facie basis of jurisdiction, a plausible case on merits, a real and imminent risk of irreversible prejudice, and a link between the measures sought and the rights claimed.

Nevertheless the decision of the ICJ is legally significant for a number of reasons.

First, it reiterated that the international community had a common interest in the prevention and punishment of genocide, and consequently obligations under the convention were not owed to any particular State, but to the international community as a whole. The ICJ accordingly rejected Myanmars contention that Gambia, geographically distant from Myanmar, and an alleged proxy for the Organisation of Islamic States, was not specially affected by the subject matter of the application.

Second, the ICJ, while recognising that provisional measures create legally binding obligations, however aware of the difficulty in procuring their compliance through enforcement action, sought to remain seized of the matter, by prescribing timely reporting obligations for Myanmar.

Third, despite the reluctance of Myanmar to even use the word Rohingyas during the proceedings, the ICJ expressly recognised the Rohingyas as a protected group within the meaning of the convention. The recognition of their plight by the UNs principal judicial organ is more than just symbolic.

The decision has important implications for the Indian subcontinent, which in recent years, has witnessed an increasing influx of Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution at the hands of Myanmar security forces. In particular, the decision has practical relevance for national refugee policies.

Although India is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention and does not have any refugee legislation, it extends protection to refugees under the 2011 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Moreover, the obligation to not deport or return refugees to countries where they may face a threat to their lives or freedoms has assumed customary international law status and binds the Indian government internationally.

Last year, amid much media attention, the Indian Supreme Court had refused to intervene in the government decision to deport Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar.

In view of the ICJ decision, however, Indian authorities would be required to more carefully consider the case for temporary protection of the Rohingya people within their territory, or at the very least refrain from returning them to Myanmar, where admittedly they face threats to their lives and freedoms.

Jay Manoj Sanklecha is a lawyer, who has specialised in international law

The views expressed are personal
A serial nail-biter was left fighting for his life after one of his fingers become infected after chomping down too hard on it.

Steven MacDonald, 48, had sliced open his left finger, leaving it gushing with blood, after nibbling on it on January 3.

In the following days it began to swell up and fill with pus, prompting him to make a trip to the hospital.

The father, from Coatbridge, near Glasgow, was diagnosed with paronychia - a bacterial infection of the skin around the fingernail - which had spread to his bloodstream.

After giving him a strong dose of antibiotics Mr MacDonald was rushed for emergency surgery to have the wound drained and cleaned.

Steven MacDonald, 48, was rushed to hospital just days after noticing his left index finger had become infected from biting it

He had sliced open his left finger, leaving it gushing with blood, after nibbling on it on January 3

Doctors had to sugrically open the wound and drain it of puss. His fingernail may never grow back

Mr MacDonald began noticing his finger balloon and a rash develop up his forearm earlier this month.

His fiance Karen Peat, 47, rushed him to University Hospital Monklands in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, where the couple found he had a severe case of paronychia.

Ms Peat said: 'At first we weren't that worried as he'd had little swellings before where he'd been nail biting, but when it kept getting worse and then he showed me the rash, I really started to panic.

'I knew it was quite serious then so I rushed him into our local hospital. The doctor took one look at it and he was whizzed right through the A&E queue.

'After giving him a strong shot of antibiotics they told us we'd need to go straight to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for emergency surgery.

'They told us that if we'd left it even a few hours longer he might have been dead.

'It was horrible to hear, I was so scared. I've told him he's never biting his nails again, it's just not worth it.'

The father, from Coatbridge, near Glasgow, was diagnosed with paronychia - a bacterial infection of the skin around the fingernail

It had spread to his bloodstream where it could have become deadly. He was treated with antibiotics and put under general anaesthetic while medics drained the infected finger

Steven was admitted onto the plastic surgery ward, at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, on January 6 and within an hour was in surgery, under general anesthetic.

After a successful two-hour operation to remove the infected flesh, Mr MacDonald was kept in for observation for four days.

The former postman was told his fingernail might never grow back. He has warned other nail-biters against the habit.

He said: 'This ordeal has taught me a huge lesson, to any nail biters out there, please just pull your finger away from your teeth.

'I'd never had a problem like it before but it left me seriously considering life and death.

'I was quite jokey about it until I came around from the operation and realised what a close call it had been.

After putting off going to hospital for days, his fiance Karen Peat (pictured together) took him for an emergency GP appointment

'I've been tempted to bite a few times since, as it's been a habit of mine for so long, over 50 years, but I've told myself not to.

'It's weird now that I'm not nibbling away at them, they're actually growing really fast. I keep joking that I might need to get myself down the salon for a manicure.

'But seriously, I really cannot thank the NHS enough, they reacted so fast, it was incredible'.

Mr MacDonald said that initially, doctors were not too concerned about his wound.

He added: When we went to the emergency GP appointment the doctor wasn't that worried but did suggest it needed to be lanced and properly cleaned out.

'He wasn't able to do it then and there so suggested we go to hospital to get it sorted.

'He made a call to University Hospital Monklands but they said it might be an eight or nine hour wait and so we decided to go up there first thing the next morning.

'But when I got up the next day there was a rash all up my arm, coming from the finger, it was a bit like sunburn.

'From there it was all quite a blur as a nurse came to look at it and rushed me into a room.

'A doctor then gave me antibiotics and sent me straight to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for surgery.

'In the cab over there, it was only 15 minutes but it felt like hours. I could tell Karen was really anxious but I wanted to stay positive and so was laughing and joking around with the taxi driver. Looking back now I just didn't realise how serious it was.'
The fifth case in the U.S. of the deadly coronavirus was confirmed in Arizona, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.

Cases of the virus in the U.S. have been reported in Washington state, Chicago, Californias Los Angeles County and Orange County, and Arizona.

All infected individuals recently traveled to Wuhan, China, where the virus originated. Scientists in Wuhan believe the virus originated in bats, similar to the deadly Ebola virus, which killed thousands in West Africa several years ago.

The news comes as Chinese health minister Ma Xiaowei warned that the virus can spread during its incubation period, about two weeks, before infected individuals are experiencing symptoms.

At present, the rate of development of the epidemic is accelerating, Ma said at a press conference. I am afraid that it will continue for some time, and the number of cases may increase.

However, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, appeared skeptical about Mas claim.

We at CDC dont have clear evidence that patients are infectious before symptom onset, but we are actively investigating that possibility, she said.

The virus, which causes serious respiratory infection, has killed at least 81 people so far and infected 2,744.

As with other respiratory illnesses, there are steps that everyone can take to reduce the risk of getting sick from circulating viruses, including coronavirus. This includes remaining home when ill, washing hands with soap and water frequently, and getting vaccinated against flu, said Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

The U.S. plans to evacuate about three dozen U.S. diplomats and their families from Wuhan on Tuesday on a medically staffed flight that will land in California.

U.S. federal and state officials are contacting anyone who may have been exposed to the virus by the infected individuals.

More from National Review
DNC leaders angry at Betsy Devos for comparing ending slavery to ending abortion

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Some Democratic Party leaders are angered that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos compared the battle to end slavery in America with the fight to end abortion.

[Former President Abraham Lincoln] too contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that a states choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it, DeVos said during a speech at the Colorado Christian Universitys annual presidents dinner Wednesday night at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., according to the Colorado Times Recorder.

Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil, she said.

Lincoln was right about the slavery 'choice' then, and he would be right about the life 'choice' today," she added. Because as its been said: Freedom is not about doing what we want. Freedom is about having the right to do what we ought.

DeVos also pointed out the irony of supporting a womans choice to have an abortion but not for mothers who want to enroll their children in nontraditional public schools.

There are many in the pro-life movement who heroically work to make abortion unconstitutional, DeVos said. Tonight, lets talk about making it unthinkable.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a pro-abortion advocate, attacked DeVos for saying that both slavery and abortion are human rights issues. Pressley then challenged DeVos to "come say this to my face."

"Dear Betsy, As a black woman & the Chair of the abortion access task force, I invite you to come by the Hill and say this to my face. Would welcome the opportunity to educate you, Pressley wrote in a statement on Twitter.

The rhetoric & policies of anti-choice zealots like DeVos put the lives & bodily autonomy of far too many people at risk, she argued.

In a statement cited by Politico on Friday, the Democratic National Committee also weighed in.

"What an insult to the generations of Americans who still live with the scars of slavery and Jim Crow. What an insult to those who have fought valiantly to make abortion safe and legal in all 50 states," DNC CEO Seema Nanda and DNC Vice Chair and Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Carter Peterson said.

"The secretary of education remains woefully uneducated on the history of our country. Her ignorance would be laughable if it werent so disturbing. As with so many issues shes commented on before, Secretary Devos has once again failed a simple test of competence and character. November 3 cant come soon enough, they added.
[January 27, 2020] Opentrons Labworks and Swift Bioscience Launch "Plug-&-Play" NGS Library Preparation Automation Workstation

Opentrons Labworks, Inc. ("Opentrons") and Swift (News - Alert) Biosciences, Inc. ("Swift") announce the launch of the most affordable fully-automated workstation for next-generation sequencing (NGS) library preparation ever put on the market. The two companies will be launching the product at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening Conference (SLAS2020) in San Diego, CA (News - Alert), January 25 - 29. For an all-in cost under $15,755, biologists can get everything they need to go from double-stranded DNA to a ready-to-sequence NGS library in a single fully-automated run -- for under $30 / sample. The full workstation includes an Opentrons OT-2 lab robot with on-deck magnetic module, temperature module, and thermocycler, plus the Swift 2S Turbo DNA Library Kit?, and Omega Bio-tek MagBind TotalPure NGS cleanup beads, as well as all required labware and consumables for 100 samples. The verified protocol is available to download free at opentrons.com. "Our goal has always been to make sophisticated biotechnology tools more accessible to more people. This means fully-automated genomics workstations that are affordable, of course, but also extremely robust and easy to use," says Opentrons Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Will Canine. "With this workstation, labs can save 6 or more hours of hands-on time for each batch of NGS libraries they produce." This announcement follows on Opentrons launch of their fully automated on-deck thermocycler in Q4 2019. Thisnew module enables biologists to keep amplification steps on-robot during NGS library prep protocols, rather than requiring they move samples to an off-deck PCR (News - Alert) machine. This eliminates human intervention steps, removing opportunity for error while giving scientists more hands-off time.



"At Swift, we specialize in high quality library preparation workflows and have found a capable automation partner in Opentrons," said Mida Pezeshkian, Senior Product Manager at Swift. "Together, we deliver a turnkey solution with a pre-scripted liquid handler running Swift reagents at a price point compatible with most labs' budgets." To learn more about the workstation, visit opentrons.com/ngs-library-prep.

About Swift Biosciences Swift Biosciences develops enabling technologies for genomics, translational, and clinical research. Our technologies expand the range of sample inputs to extend the applications of next-generation sequencing (NGS). Swift has developed unique intellectual property (IP) to enhance adapter ligation to both single and double-stranded DNA, improve multiplexed PCR for targeted sequencing and enable novel solutions for NGS workflows and our RNA is the fastest on the market using Adaptase technology. Using its proprietary technologies, Swift has developed DNA and RNA library preparation kits and library normalization for NGS. Our high-quality product portfolio features fast, easy and reliable solutions for many lab workflows. For more information, visit SwiftBioSci.com and follow Swift Biosciences on Twitter (News - Alert) (@SwiftBioSci). About Opentrons Opentrons is making automation accessible for any lab, starting with affordable pipetting robots for biologists. With its easy-to-use hardware and an open software platform, Opentrons automates manual lab work and empowers collaborative research for life scientists. Opentrons has helped over 1,500 labs in 45 countries save time, money and lab costs -- including 47 of the top 50 academic universities in the world such as MIT (News - Alert), Oxford, and Stanford, and 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies such as GSK, Merck, and Novartis. To learn more, visit opentrons.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005103/en/

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ATLANTA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Functional solutions that help you achieve antibiotic-free production: that is the promise German-based attendee EW Nutrition makes at this year's IPPE. Recognizing that the challenges of antimicrobial resistance are now spilling from animal production into human welfare, the company is pushing for drastic action to ensure that antibiotic use is brought to the lowest level necessary, while livestock farming remains predictable and profitable.

"What motivates most producers to use antibiotics," says Mark Richards, President of EW Nutrition USA, "is fear of animal diseases. With our programs, we can mitigate risks and support animal health and welfare with products and services that give our partners peace of mind."

Poultry performance is a long-standing focus for EW Nutrition, which is uniquely placed to offer Antibiotic Reduction programs, as well as solutions for Toxin Risk Management and Young Animal Nutrition. These programs come with customized consultancy services in the fields of animal nutrition, management, and biosecurity.

"We are international in structure and experience, but we thrive on delivering the best local know-how through our personnel on the ground," says Michael Gerrits, Managing Director, EW Nutrition. "We are glad to be once again at IPPE, where we always meet old and new partners in our mission to promote antibiotic reduction through improved animal nutrition solutions. That's a mission we are always happy to deliver on."

About EW Nutrition

EW Nutrition is an animal nutrition company that offers integrators, feed producers, and farmers comprehensive animal nutrition solutions that support performance and profitability. Headquartered in Northern Germany, EW Nutrition has subsidiaries all over the world and R&D and production facilities in Germany, Brazil, China, the US and Japan.

Booth location: #2325 Hall A

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SOURCE EW Nutrition GmbH

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New Delhi:

The Popular Front of India (PFI) has slammed reports claiming that the recent violent protests in Uttar Pradesh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had a "financial link" with it. Earlier, several reports quoting official sources has said that the Enforcement Directorate has found a "financial link" with the Kerala-based outfit and the anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh. These reports claimed that the agency, which is probing the Popular Front of India (PFI) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has found that at least Rs 120 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the Act was passed by Parliament late last year.

Reacting to the reports, PFI on Monday said, "Popular Front of India strongly condemns the news reports that are published in various news channels regarding Popular Fronts financial link to instigate the CAA protest. Firstly, the news channels have attributed the report to Enforcement Directorate through some unnamed sources but the ED has not contacted our organization, nor the ED has issued any such official statement regarding these allegations."

"The news attributes around 73 bank accounts to Popular Front and states that Rs. 120 crore was transferred through these alleged Popular Front accounts to fund the anti-CAA protest. Popular Front of India had stated it multiple times that we fully comply with the law of the land and the allegation of Rs.120Cr transferred from the Popular Fronts accounts just before the CAA protest is totally baseless and the people who are leveling these allegations should prove these claims," the PFI statement added.

It also clarified that the payment to some eminent lawyers mentioned in the reports were made as legal fees for a case.

The reports claimed that ED suspected that these funds were used by PFI affiliates to fuel anti-CAA protests in various parts of UP citing the findings of the Enforcement Directorate probe report via official sources. The ED, sources said, found the funds deposited in bank were also routed from some foreign shores and were sent in the accounts of certain investment firms.

The UP police had also recently sought a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), days after its complicity was suspected in the statewide violent protests against the amended citizenship law. Nearly 20 people had died during these protests.

The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF).

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Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > In other words, who is lying?

IMPRESSIONS

The President of India in June 2019, six months ago said: My Government has decided to implement the process of NRC (National Register of Citizens). The Prime Minister of India in December 2019, just a few days ago stated: My Government has never discussed the word NRC. So whose government is running the country? In other words, who is lying?

For the general elections early this year, the BJPs manifesto said: We are committed to the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process on priority and will implement the NRC in other parts of the country. Home Minister Amit Shah repeated these points at various election rallies. The Prime Minister declared that there was no discussion on NRC after I became Prime Minister. So, do the manifesto and the Home Minister repudiate the Prime Minister? In other words, who is lying?

In his angry speech last week, the Prime Minister said that stories about detention centres in several parts of the country were jhoot hai,jhoot hai,jhoot hai (lies, lies and lies). In September, three months before this condemnation of jhoot, a detention centre with capacity to house 3000 inmates was nearing completion in Matia in western Assam at a cost of Rs 146 crores. This was the first of 10 centres planned. A few days before his speech, Karnataka opened its first detention centre for illegal immigrants 40 km outside Bengaluru. So, whose words are jhoot hai, jhoot hai, jhoot hai?

When December witnessed, across India, protests of a kind never seen since independence, the spontaneity of it surprised everyone. It was a peoples movement, spearheaded by no one in particular. For two weeks, even Modi was too stunned to speak. Then came his proclamation that anyone could make out who was behind it from the clothes they worean obvious reference to Muslims. But is it true that clothes maketh the man? From the clothes Modiji wears, no one will make out that he is the leader of a poor country. For, he is the most expensively dressed leader in the world today.

He wears bespoke costumes customised by an exclusive tailor (Bipin Chauhan of Ahmeda-bad), Bvlgari spectacles, Movado watches and Montblanc pens. He once appeared in a pinstripe suit with Narendra Damodardas Modi imprinted as stripes all over it. When rumours spread about its cost (Rs 2 crore by some accounts), he discarded it swiftly. So, who promotes one set of values and lives by another? In other words, who is the master of doublespeak?



The notable feature of the nationwide protest was the absence of a central leadership. Students and young women seemed to be their own leaders. Yet, according to the Prime Minister, Urban Naxals and the Congress were behind the protests. The Congress, lodged in ICU, must have felt flattered. The Urban Naxal is something else. It is part of the ironies of our time that a phrase that was intended to denote the political underground became, instead, one that meant citizens who stood up to fight the wickedness of those in power. Bengaluru will remember for long the sight of an ailing Girish Karnad sitting at a public meeting wearing a placard with the words Me too, Urban Naxal. So, who is the patriot and who the oppressor? Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap gave an opinion when he described the Prime Minister as Urban Nazi.

Given the atmosphere of fear in the country (to which industry leaders drew attention recently), it is heartwarming that critics continue to flourish. Maybe, the population of India is too large to be easily controlled. Southern filmstar Rima Kallingal trawls BJP leaders and says, Let us stop making fools famous.

Many prominent stars, the moment they utter a critical word, begin getting visits from the income tax and enforcement authorities. In Yogi Adityanaths UP, Muslims, who oppose the (amended) Citizenship Act, are picked up and killed. Activist Rana Ayyub released a list of 14 young men who were thus eliminated. Other reports describe how Muslim families flee as police vandalise their homes and harass their women. All the 23 deaths in the course of the protests have been in BJP-ruled States.

This new India is getting international attention as well. The outside world sees the citizenship laws as essentially anti-Muslim. Indias stock in countries from Japan to Europe and the US has gone significantly down if foreign reports are any indication. So much for Howdy Modi. Obvious lesson will obviously be ignored: You cannot fool all the people all the time.
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Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020

As residents in Jakartas coastal areas have long dealt with regular flooding from both heavy rainfall and rising tidal waves, the city administration plans to implement a zero-runoff concept to minimize flood impacts.

The areas bordering on the Jakarta Bay in North Jakarta were under constant threat from the rising sea level and land subsidence. The zero-runoff concept would optimize [the flow of] water from the runoff in designated artificial lakes, North Jakarta Mayor Sigit Wijatmoko said.

As the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had predicted high tides in the coastal areas for the past week, Sigit admitted the administration had let floods remain for a few hours at some places after heavy downpour on Friday.

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Enforce Public Charge Immigration Rule

The Supreme Court has voted to allow the Trump administration to enforce its new rule that restricts the eligibility of new immigrants who are deemed to likely become public charges if they receive visas.

The top court justices voted 54 on Jan. 27 to grant a stay on nationwide injunctions issued by a lower court, allowing the Trump administration to enforce its public charge rule across the country, except for Illinois, while the appeals play out in court. A separate injunction ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois remains in effect, but only in that state.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan said in the opinion (pdf) that they would have prevented the rule from taking effect.

The public charge rule, which was issued in 2019, provides clarification about what factors would be considered when determining whether someone is likely at any time in the future to become a public charge. A public charge refers to an individual who is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence through assistance such as food stamps or Medicaid.

The rule will consider a person a public charge if they receive at least one government benefit for more than 12 months in a three-year period.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, previously said that the rule was implemented because the administration wanted to see people coming to this country who are self-sufficient.

Thats a core principle of the American dream. Its deeply embedded in our history, and particularly our history related to legal immigration, he said.

Meanwhile, opponents of the rule say it discourages immigrants and their families from accessing necessities such as health, food, and housing programs that supplement their wages and help them make ends meet. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Jan. 22 that the rule leaves the door open for discrimination and uncertainty. The U.S. House of Representatives filed a motion (pdf) to submit a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the challengers of the rule.

The rule was challenged by several states and immigration groups, leading to injunctions that prevented the rule from going into effect on Oct. 15, 2019. Two federal appeals courtsthe 4th Circuit and the 9th Circuitlifted similar injunctions in December 2019. But the 2nd Circuit has refused to set aside a pair of injunctions issued by a New York District Court, prompting the Trump administration to file an emergency request (pdf) to the top court earlier in January to lift those blocks.

The Supreme Courts order reverses the 2nd Circuits decision to keep the nationwide injunctions in place while the appeals are pending. The injunctions that have an expansive reach far outside the confines of the current case attracted criticism from Justice Neil Gorsuch, who, in a separate concurring opinion, underscored that the court at some point needed to confront the real problem of the case. Justice Clarence Thomas joined in that opinion.

The real problem here is the increasingly common practice of trial courts ordering relief that transcends the cases before them, Gorsuch wrote. Whether framed as injunctions of nationwide, universal, or cosmic scope, these orders share the same basic flawthey direct how the defendant must act toward persons who are not parties to the case.

He said that nationwide injunctions raise serious questions about the scope of the courts powers under Article III of the Constitution. He added that the equitable remedies, and remedies in general, are meant to redress the harm sustained by a plaintiff in a lawsuit.

But when a court goes further than that, ordering the government to take (or not take) some action with respect to those who are strangers to the suit, it is hard to see how the court could still be acting in the judicial role of resolving cases and controversies, he said.

The White House and New York Attorney General Letitia Jamess office didnt immediately respond to The Epoch Times request for comment.
One Killed as Iraqi Security Forces Clash With Protesters

BAGHDADIraqi security forces fired teargas and live bullets in clashes on Sunday with protesters angered by high-level corruption. The protesters resisted with stones and petrol bombs, Reuters witnesses and security sources said.

One protester was killed in Baghdad, police sources said, and more than 100 demonstrators were hurt in the violence in the capital and several other cities after the security forces tried to clear sit-in protest camps, medical sources said.

Other medical sources said 75 of those hurt were in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where a Reuters witness said protesters set fire to two security vehicles. Hundreds of other demonstrators controlled key bridges in the city.

The protesters are demanding the removal of what they consider a corrupt ruling elite and an end to foreign interference in Iraqi politics, especially by Iran, which dominates state institutions.

University students shout slogans during ongoing anti-government protests in Kerbala, Iraq on Jan. 26, 2020. (Abdullah Dhiaa al-Deen/Reuters)

Unrest resumed last week, after a lull of several weeks, following the U.S. killing of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi paramilitary chief in Baghdad this month.

The killing, to which Iran responded with ballistic missile attacks on two Iraqi military bases, has revived tensions in Iraqi politics and delayed the formation of a new government.

In Baghdad, protesters were coughing and washing their faces and eyes to rid themselves of the effects of teargas. At the same time, medical workers provided first aid, as the site was inaccessible to ambulances, a Reuters reporter said.

Tuk-tuks evacuated wounded protesters in clouds of tear gas and black smoke from burning tires.

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of university students had gathered in Tahrir square, the main protest camp, chanting slogans against the United States and Iran.

In the southern city of Basra, more than 2,000 students arrived at a protest camp, another Reuters witness said.

Protests also continued in the cities of Kerbala, Najaf, and Diwaniya, defying attempts by security forces to end their months-long sit-in, police sources and Reuters witnesses said.

In other violence, five Katyusha rockets landed on Sunday night in Baghdads Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, a military statement said. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but sources said the rockets landed near the U.S. embassy.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the attack, a statement from his office said, and said that the continuation of such acts could drag Iraq into becoming a battlefield.

Cleric Cancels March

Tens of thousands protested against the U.S. military presence in Iraq in a march on Friday.

Populist Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had also called for demonstrations against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other cities on Sunday but canceled them, with his office giving avoiding internal strife as the reason.

Sadr, who has millions of supporters in Baghdad and the south, said Saturday he would end his involvement in anti-government unrest.

We protest because we have a cause. I dont think Moqtada Sadr or any other politician will change our mind, said a protester in Baghdad who declined to give his name.

Sadrs supporters have bolstered the protesters and, at times, have helped shield them from attacks by security forces and unidentified gunmen, but began withdrawing from sit-in camps on Saturday following his announcement.

Security forces then removed concrete barriers near Baghdads Tahrir Square, where demonstrators have camped out for months, and across at least one main bridge over the Tigris River.

I dont go to protests often, but I came out today because of what they did yesterday. I want to express my solidarity with my brothers in Tahrir, said Hussain Ali, a student.

The Iraqi High Commission on Human Rights called on all sides to exercise self-restraint and keep demonstrations peaceful.

By Nadine Awadalla
By West Kentucky Star & MSU Staff Jan. 26, 2020 | 04:39 PM | MURRAY

Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 6 pm and Fridays from 8 am to 4:30 pm. All gallery events and artists talks are free and open to the public. For further information about the exhibitions on view, please contact university art galleries by phone at 270-809-3052, or by email at msu.eaglegallery@murraystate.edu.



You can also find announcements about these and other upcoming events in the galleries by visiting murraystate.edu/artgallery or following the Department of Art & Design on social media.



Since 1922, Murray State University has provided a collaborative, opportunity-rich living and learning community that fosters personal growth and professional success through a high-quality college experience. Students receive support from inspiring faculty and staff and will join a distinctive campus community  the Racer Family. With nearly 10,000 students, Murray State prepares the next generation of leaders to join more than 70,000 successful alumni who make a difference in their community, across the country and around the world. We are Racers. The Universitys main campus is located in Murray, Kentucky, and includes five regional campuses in Ft. Campbell, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville and Paducah. To learn more about Murray State University, please visit murraystate.edu.





The Murray State University Department of Art & Design will begin the spring 2020 semester with three new exhibitions. Works by visiting artists Donald Fodness, Calista Lyon and visiting professor Michelle Burdine will be on view in university art galleries in January and February.The Department of Art & Design is pleased to present Living Loss, an exhibition of artwork by Michelle Burdine, visiting assistant professor of photography. The exhibit will be on view in the Clara M. Eagle Upper Gallery through February 14. Burdine holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Ohio State University, a Master of Humanities from Wright State University, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in humanities from Antioch Midwest and an Associate of Applied Science from the Ohio Institute of Photography. Burdine has been teaching photography at the postsecondary level since 2007.Calista Lyons exhibit, the horizon as a dark line, will be on view in the Mecoy Hall Gallery through February 12. Lyon will also visit campus in February; details on her visit are forthcoming. Born in Nagambie, Australia, in 1986, Lyon received a diploma of art in applied photography from Melbourne Polytechnic in 2006. Relocating to the United States in 2012, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art from California State University in 2015 and an MFA in photography from Ohio State University in 2019. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Art at Ohio State.Transmogrification, an exhibit of work by Colorado-based artist Donald Fodness, will run through February 17 in the Clara M. Eagle Gallery. Fodness will visit campus to give an artist talk on February 4, at 5 pm in Price Doyle Fine Arts Center, room 631. Fodness earned a BA in art history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MFA in painting from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has an interdisciplinary practice that includes drawing, sculpture, furniture and installation, and his drawings have been exhibited nationally and internationally. He has also created site-specific installations for the Denver Art Museum, The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Gallery of Contemporary Art in Colorado Springs, two Biennial of the Americas and Harmony Hammond's Material Engagements at Redline. His work has been published in New American Paintings, Sculpture Magazine, Found Magazine, The Creators Project, and art LTD."The first set of exhibits for the spring 2020 University Art Galleries season features three solo exhibitions by artists who incorporate both 2D and 3D elements into their diverse studio practices, said T. Michael Martin, director of the Murray State university art galleries. Each artist blends a variety of references and sources in a unique way to create their respective work and expand beyond traditional visual art boundaries. Visitors will discover something within each exhibit that will spark lively conversation and inspire their imaginations."
FINE Gael has overturned its decision to expel the founding member of its first Northern Ireland branch for promoting his father's general election campaign.

The decision comes after criticism from one of its own ministers of Fine Gaels decision to expel Jude Perry, who founded a Fine Gael branch in Queens University Belfast last year.

A Fine Gael source confirmed on Monday that the decision had been rescinded and Mr Perry has been reinstated as a member.

However Mr Perry said there are still unanswered questions over his sudden expulsion last week. He called for an apology from Fine Gael and an independent inquiry into the matter.

In a statement to Independent.ie, Mr Perry said the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had contacted him on Sunday night to inform him that his membership and his mother Marie's had been reinstated.

He said he would now consider this but added that there are a number of "substantial questions" over the manner in which he was abruptly expelled. Mr Perry said he also wants a public apology from Fine Gael and the party figure who informed him of his expulsion last week.

He also said that Fine Gael needs to appoint a person independent of the party to conduct an inquiry into the matter to ensure "no similar expulsion without a hearing can ever happen again".

Read More

Mr Perry (21) was informed via text last week that his membership had ceased after it was discovered he paid less than 100 for a handful of Facebook ads to promote his father, former Fine Gael minister John Perry, in his Dail bid.

On Wednesday, I was expelled from @FineGael by a text message. No written notice, no proper reason or evidence provided and no fair hearing.



Where is the professionalism and common decency. When we are trying to attract young people into politics, why have I been targeted? pic.twitter.com/YkReVgZfSV  Jude Perry (@judeperry98) January 25, 2020

Mr Perry is running as an Independent candidate in Sligo-Leitrim.

Fine Gael stood over the decision last week, with a party spokesman saying: "It is incompatible with membership of Fine Gael to be actively engaged in a campaign for another political party or Independent."

However, on Sunday Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said it was a silly decision and that Jude Perry was very welcome back into our party.

A Fine Gael source confirmed on Monday: The decision to expel Jude Perry has been rescinded. All these matters will be examined after the general election.

Mr Perry said he also wants a public apology from the Taoiseach, Fine Gael and the party figure who informed him of his expulsion last week "for the substantial reputational damage extraordinary stress and upset, experienced by both me and my mum as a result of this stressful unnecessary event. At a time when I am on a study exchange in Washington DC, apart from my family."
According to the report, these kinds of insurance policies have gained popularity in recent years, with their balance growing to NT$300 billion (US$10 billion) in November 2019, up from NT$200 billion in January 2019.

There is a wide credit gap between the issuer and the issued, but insurance companies fail to clarify the risks involved, Taiwan Ratings credit analyst Andy Chang was quoted as saying in the report.

The new rules are expected to come into effect in February, but will not affect existing policies, according to the regulator. Taiwan Ratings said that the restriction is reasonable, as insurers should not be selling investment products that they themselves would reject.

It added that these policies are hard to assign credit ratings to, as they are linked to structured debt and come with conditions for redemption. Taiwan Ratings also reminded customers not to confuse the credit ratings of insurers or fund houses for the ratings of their offered products.
A 16-year-old Indonesian boy suffered a horrific injury to his neck after a needlefish suddenly jumped out of the water and literally pierced his neck clean through, knocking him out of the boat he was fishing from.

The freak accident occurred on January 18, when 16-year-old Muhammad Idul and his friend Sari decided to go on a late-night fishing trip. The boys went out to sea in Buton, off the South East Sulawesi province, and everything went according to plan until Sari turned on his flashlight, which allegedly caused a needlefish to suddenly leap out of the water and lodge its pointy, long jaws in Muhammads neck, piercing it from his chin to the base of the skull. Not only did the force of the attack knock him out of the boat, but the thrashing fish, which remained dodged in his neck, almost made him drown.

Muhammad somehow managed to grab a hold of the fish to prevent it from moving around and making the wound worse, rose up from the dark water and asked his friend for help. Sari had the bright idea to stop the injured boy from trying to remove the fish, to prevent the bleeding from getting worse. The two boys swam about 500 meters to shore and sprinted to their home village in South Buton.

As soon as Muhammads father laid eyes on his son, with a whole fish sticking out of his neck, he knew he had to take him to the hospital. They got in a car and rushed to a hospital in Bau-bau, about an hour-and-a-half from their village. Doctors here removed most of the needlefish so just the head remained, but they couldnt do more because they lacked the proper tools.



To remove the sharp head of the fish, Muhammad had to travel to a provincial hospital in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, where a team of five specialists needed an hour to carefully clean what remained of the fish and close his neck wound.

Five days after the surgery, Muhammad Idul was feeling much better. He still had a bandaged neck, and couldnt move his neck to the right, but the wound didnt hurt anymore. Incredibly, the bizarre experience didnt affect his love for fishing.



I just need to be more careful next time. Needlefish cant tolerate light  that was why it jumped out of the water and stabbed me, the 16-year-old told BBC Indonesia.
It can be, as evidenced by this story: Bay Area Couple To Be Jailed For Massive Ponzi Scheme Worth $1 Billion.

A Martinez couple who was operating a seemingly legitimate business selling solar generators pleaded guilty Friday to various charges stemming from a Ponzi scheme that netted them $1 billion in fraudulent income  affording them an extremely lavish lifestyle.

Ponder that for a moment$1 billion in fraudulent income. That might be better than the Bidens! How did this Ponzi scheme work?

Jeff and Paulette Carpoff launched DC Solar in Benecia to provide trailer-mounted, mobile solar generators for off-grid uses  like for large outdoor events, emergency situations, and more.

So far, so good.

But, as the Associated Press reports, the company morphed into a Ponzi scheme by telling investors they can take advantage of federal tax credits by leasing the generators back to DC Solar, which would then provide them to other companies for their use.

What a business model! I will lease a product to you, but wait! Rather than use it, you lease it back to me. Then I can lease it to someone else, and he in turn can lease it back to me! And so on. This is obviously idiotic, and it wouldnt be a plausible scheme in a sane market. Why, then, did it work, at least for a while?

The key point: the fraudsters [told] investors they can take advantage of federal tax credits by leasing the generators back to DC Solar. Wind and solar energy are inefficient, unreliable and uncompetitive. They exist only because of a complex web of subsidies and mandates that have turned green energy into the great cronyism scam of the 21st century. No wonder it was plausible to lessees that it made sense to lease the mobile solar generators back to DC Solar in order to take advantage of federal tax credits. For all I know, it could be true.

The owners of DC Solar are going to jail. But the real malefactors, the businesspeople, activists and politicians who promote subsidies and mandates for green energy, are still walking around freely, soaking taxpayers and electricity ratepayers while lining their own pockets. What they are doing is not exactly a Ponzi scheme, but it is infinitely more destructive than the billion-dollar fraud perpetrated by the owners of DC Solar.
At a glance:

Research using heart cells from squirrels, mice and people identifies an evolutionary mechanism critical for heart muscle function.

Gene defect that affects a protein found in the heart muscle interferes with this mechanism to cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart condition.

Imbalance in the ratio of active and inactive protein disrupts heart muscle's ability to contract and relax normally, interferes with heart muscle's energy consumption.

Treatment with a small-molecule drug restores proper contraction, energy consumption in human and rodent heart cells.

If affirmed in subsequent studies, the results can inform therapies that could halt disease progression, help prevent common complications, including arrhythmias and heart failure.

The heart's ability to beat normally over a lifetime is predicated on the synchronized work of proteins embedded in the cells of the heart muscle.

Like a fleet of molecular motors that get turned on and off, these proteins cause the heart cells to contract, then force them to relax, beat after life-sustaining beat.

Now a study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of Oxford shows that when too many of the heart's molecular motor units get switched on and too few remain off, the heart muscle begins to contract excessively and fails to relax normally, leading to its gradual overexertion, thickening and failure.

Results of the work, published Jan. 27 in Circulation, reveal that this balancing act is an evolutionary mechanism conserved across species to regulate heart muscle contraction by controlling the activity of a protein called myosin, the main contractile protein of the heart muscle.

The findings--based on experiments with human, mouse and squirrel heart cells--also demonstrate that when this mechanism goes awry it sets off a molecular cascade that leads to cardiac muscle over-exertion and culminates in the development of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common genetic disease of the heart and a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people and athletes.

"Our findings offer a unifying explanation for the heart muscle pathology seen in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy that leads to heart muscle dysfunction and, eventually, causes the most common clinical manifestations of the condition," said senior author Christine Seidman, professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Importantly, the experiments showed that treatment with an experimental small-molecule drug restored the balance of myosin arrangements and normalized the contraction and relaxation of both human and mouse cardiac cells that carried the two most common gene mutations responsible for nearly half of all HCM cases worldwide.

If confirmed in further experiments, the results can inform the design of therapies that halt disease progression and prevent complications.

"Correcting the underlying molecular defect and normalizing the function of heart muscle cells could transform treatment options, which are currently limited to alleviating symptoms and preventing worst-case scenarios such as life-threatening rhythm disturbances and heart failure," said study first author Christopher Toepfer, who performed the work as a postdoctoral researcher in Seidman's lab and is now a joint fellow in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford.

Some of the current therapies used for HCM include medications to relieve symptoms, surgery to shave the enlarged heart muscle or the implantation of cardioverter defibrillators that shock the heart back into rhythm if its electrical activity ceases or goes haywire. None of these therapies address the underlying cause of the disease.

Imbalance in the motor fleet

Myosin initiates contraction by cross-linking with other proteins to propel the cell into motion. In the current study, the researchers traced the epicenter of mischief down to an imbalance in the ratio of myosin molecule arrangements inside heart cells. Cells containing HCM mutations had too many molecules ready to spring into action and too few myosin molecules idling standby, resulting in stronger contractions and poor relaxation of the cells.

An earlier study by the same team found that under normal conditions, the ratio between "on" and "off" myosin molecules in mouse heart cells is around 2-to-3. However, the new study shows that this ratio is off balance in heart cells that harbor HCM mutations, with disproportionately more molecules in active versus inactive states.

In an initial set of experiments, the investigators analyzed heart cells obtained from a breed of hibernating squirrel as a model to reflect extremes in physiologic demands during normal activity and hibernation. Cells obtained from squirrels in hibernation--when their heart rate slows down to about six beats per minute--contained 10 percent more "off" myosin molecules than the heart cells of active squirrels, whose heart rate averages 340 beats per minute.

"We believe this is one example of nature's elegant way of conserving cardiac muscle energy in mammals during dormancy and periods of deficient resources," Toepfer said.

Next, researchers looked at cardiac muscle cells from mice harboring the two most common gene defects seen in HCM. As expected, these cells had altered ratios of "on" and "off" myosin reserves. The researchers also analyzed myosin ratios in two types of human heart cells: Stem cell-derived human heart cells engineered in the lab to carry HCM mutations and cells obtained from the excised cardiac muscle tissue of patients with HCM. Both had out-of-balance ratios in their active and inactive myosin molecules.

Further experiments showed that this imbalance perturbed the cells' normal contraction and relaxation cycle. Cells harboring HCM mutations contained too many "on" myosin molecules and contracted more forcefully but relaxed poorly. In the process, the study showed, these cells gobbled up excessive amounts of ATP, the cellular fuel that sustains the work of each cell in our body. And because oxygen is necessary for ATP production, the mutated cells also devoured more oxygen than normal cells, the study showed. To sustain their energy demands, these cells turned to breaking down sugar molecules and fatty acids, which is a sign of altered metabolism, the researchers said.

"Taken together, our findings map out the molecular mechanisms that give rise to the cardinal features of the disease," Seidman said. "They can help explain how chronically overexerted heart cells with high energy consumption in a state of metabolic stress can, over time, lead to a thickened heart muscle that contracts and relaxes abnormally and eventually becomes prone to arrhythmias, dysfunction and failure."

Restoring balance

Treating both mouse and human heart cells with an experimental small-molecule drug restored the myosin ratios to levels comparable to those in heart cells free of HCM mutations. The treatment also normalized contraction and relaxation of the cells and lowered oxygen consumption to normal levels.

The drug, currently in human trials, restored myosin ratios even in tissue obtained from the hearts of patients with HCM. The compound is being developed by a biotech company; two of the company's co-founders are authors on the study. The company provided research support for the study.

In a final step, the researchers looked at patient outcomes obtained from a database containing medical information and clinical histories of people diagnosed with HCM caused by various gene mutations. Comparing their molecular findings from the laboratory against patient outcomes, the scientists observed that the presence of genetic variants that distorted myosin ratios in heart cells also predicted the severity of symptoms and likelihood of poor outcomes, such as arrhythmias and heart failure, among the subset of people that carried these very genetic variants.

What this means, the researchers said, is that clinicians who identify patients harboring gene variants that disrupt normal myosin arrangements in their heart muscle could better predict these patients' risk of adverse clinical course.

"This information can help physicians stratify risk and tailor follow-ups and treatment accordingly," Seidman said.

###

Other investigators on the research included Amanda Garfinkel, Gabriela Venturini, Hiroko Wakimoto, Giuliana Repetti, Lorenzo Alamo, Arun Sharma, Radhika Agarwal, Jourdan Ewoldt, Paige Cloonan, Justin Letendre, Mingyue Lun, Iacopo Olivotto, Steven Colan, Euan Ashley, Daniel Jacoby, Michelle Michels, Charles Redwood, Hugh Watkins, Sharlene Day, James Staples, Raul Padron, Anant Chopra, Christopher Chen, Carolyn Ho, Alexandre Pereira and Jonathan Seidman.

The work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant 206466/Z/17/Z), Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation, National Science Foundation (cooperative agreement EEC-1647837), MyoKardia, Italian Ministry of Health (grant RF-2013-02356787 NET-2011-02347173), American Heart Association, A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute, British Heart Foundation (grant RG/12/16/29939), British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, Leducq Foundation, National Institutes of Health (grants 1P50HL112349, 1U01HL117006, HL11572784, U01HL098166, 5R01HL080494 and 5R01HL084553), Sao Paulo Research Foundation (2017/20593-7) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Relevant disclosures: Researchers Christine Seidman and Jonathan Seidman are founders and own shares in MyoKardia, a company developing therapies that target the heart muscle, including the chemical compound used in the experiments.
New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party's top leadership including its president JP Nadda and Union Home minister Amit Shah have decided to adequately accommodate the issue of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and Shaheen Bagh protests in the party's election campaign.

While Shah has specifically targeted 'sponsored' Shaheen Bagh protest and sit-in dharna staged by the locals, Nadda also trained guns on AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Party's MP and spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao went a step ahead by comparing the anti CAA protests witnessed in Delhi to Baghdad and Syrian violence.

He said while the Delhi elections will be fought on both the local issues of development and issues dominating today, all will have an important place in campaigning.

"AAP and Congress, are supporters of violence on the streets of Delhi. A few weeks ago Delhi was brought to a standstill, how Delhi seemed like Baghdad for some time or Syria's capital Damascus, where one has seen a lot of disturbing incidents. Delhi will not be reduced to a terrorized city, " stated Rao while speaking to ANI.

He further added, "We want peace, development in unauthorised colonies and 40 lakh people to get free medical insurance under Ayushman Bharat scheme. Delhi can develop only if the BJP rule comes. People of Delhi have an important choice to make of keeping Delhi safe and secure. "

Earlier in the day, while taking to Twitter, BJP Chief JP Nadda had attacked AAP for shielding likes of 'Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, and other anti-India forces' for long.

"Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. They were threatening to violate India's sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file charge sheet", Nadda wrote.

"They sought Kejriwal's permission to prosecute this tukde tukde gang but one year later, till yesterday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank, " tweeted the BJP president.

Rao also took a dig at UP Congress chief Ajay Singh Lallu for daring UP CM Yogi Aadityanath on Azadi slogan.

"The government will take action, be it the leader of the Congress party. Those who are chanting Azadi slogans for Kashmir, to divide India, to break northeast from India, to make India insecure, action will be taken against them. If UP Congress chief wants such Azadi, he will be put behind bars. Let him chant, he will be sent behind bars within 24 hours. Yogi govt will not spare him, " Rao stated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) and other media fraternities including Somali Women Journalists (SWJ) and Somali Media Association (SOMA) shared their concerns over the devastating Somalia Media law with the President of Federal Republic of Somalia his Excellency Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo after meeting with him on Sunday night January 26,2020 and jointly appealed the President not to sign the contentious media bill passed by both houses of Somalia Parliaments recently.

New draft of the Press Law contains harsh provisions that put pressure on the media and contradicts

article 18 of the country's Provisional Constitution which clearly indicates that Every person has the right to have and express their opinions and to receive and impart their opinion, information and ideas in any way.

The Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has listened the concerns of Somali journalists about media law

and the most serious provisions of concern in the draft media law and said he would consult with his legal advisors and consider recommendations made by Somali media fraternities and the concerns raised on the press law.

President Farmaajo said the government's leadership is committed and giving greater importance to the freedom of speech and media and is a clear indication of how they dealt with the past three years in which the way media is treated have dramatically improved.

The President finally said that the media fraternities would be needed to do strong lobbies and engagements with parliamentarians while being reviewed in the houses of Somali legislative bodies but said now he is making consultations over what can be done to make sure further perfection of the media bill before he is signed into law

The media's meeting with the President came after a request from the FESOJ and other affiliated organizations to the president through Presidential Media Director Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed, which the President accepted and welcomed.

The review of the Media Law was a request from us, we believe it now falls short & if you President signs it, it will be a major obstacle to the press freedom in Somalia & may lead intimidation, harassment of journalists & censorship, therefore we respectfully request you Mr President not to sign the bill until further perfections are amended or removed deadly provisions in the media law  Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu said on behalf of Somali media.

FESOJ doesnt undermine the efforts made by both houses of the Somalia Parliament who have amended more than 10 provisions, and have added new articles supporting the journalist's protections such as Article 2 Clause 7 which says Only a court order can be detained a journalist or suspend a media, this rules out the constant arbitrary arrest of media workers by commanders or political leaders.

The following provisions are some of the harsh articles which are still in the media law and media groups are complaining about.

Interpretation of who is a Journalist has been provided under two contradictory articles ( 1 and 34)

 Article 1- Journalist: is any person who has the knowledge of journalism, engages in the practice of journalism and is authorized to operate

 Article 34.1- Any person with an expertise of journalism university decree, journalism institute or has been in the media sector minimum of two years

 Under international law, the freedom to seek and impart information and ideas can never be conditioned on a certain diploma or certain period in media.

Article 8.1 indicates that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is responsible for the distribution and planning of airwaves and frequencies spectrum development and proposes that the media law shall set up a licensing mechanism.

ICPPR Human Rights Committee recommends that States parties/countries that have ratified the ICPPR should establish an independent and public broadcasting licensing authority, with the power to examine broadcasting applications and to grant licenses.

In line with international standards, FESOJ recommends for self-regulation for print media, and independent regulation for audio visual media (to allocate frequencies on a fair, open, transparent and participatory manner + it must ensure pluralism and diversity).

 Article 9.D directs all media stations, whether new or current, are required to put a deposit amount of money in which the Media Council will issue with special regulation.



 Article 14 refers to the formation of the Somali Media Council as an independent entity but article 39-B it says Minster of Information directs the work of Media Council. How can such Media Council be an independent?



 25.2- The Ministry of Information and the Media Commission in consultation with journalists organizations in the country shall set the regulations of the general code of ethics of journalism, which shall stipulate the following issues, among others:

A  Respect for the Islamic religion and sound Somali culture.

 FESOJ believes that The Media Code of Conduct should not be part of the media law and The Government/ Ministry of Information should not have a role in establishing the journalists code of conduct. Likewise, sound Somali culture cannot be easily defined and thus can be problematic in terms of interpretation.

We request President Farmaajo, as the custodian of the Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia not to sign a media law which is violating Somalias Provisional Constitution ,so we expect the President to do everything he can to make sure that Somalia has a press law in line with the international standard .FESOJ President Abadir Abdulkadir Elmi who was at a meeting said.
The (ED) has found that the recent violent protests in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) had an alleged "financial link" with the Kerala-based Popular Front of India (PFI), a claim termed as "baseless" by the organisation.

Official sources said on Monday that the federal probe agency, which is investigating the PFI under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has found that at least Rs 1.04 crore were deposited in several bank accounts linked to the organisation between December 4 last year and January 6 this year in various parts of the country.

This was the time when Parliament passed the law to grant citizenship to non-Muslims who were persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The sources said a total amount of Rs 120 crore, credited to bank accounts linked to the PFI, are under the ED's scanner.

"The Popular Front of India has stated it multiple times that we fully comply with the law of the land and the allegation of Rs 120 crore transferred from the Popular Front's accounts just before the CAA protests is totally baseless and the people who are levelling these allegations should prove these claims," the organisation said in a statement.

The sources claimed that these dubious deposits were either made in cash or through the immediate payment service (IMPS) and a number of such instances were seen in Uttar Pradesh, where the maximum number of violent anti-CAA protests were reported to have taken place.

Quoting the ED findings, the sources said, the withdrawal of money from the bank accounts linked to PFI and its related entities had a "direct correlation" with the violent demonstrations against the CAA.

It is suspected and alleged that these funds were used by PFI affiliates to fuel the anti-CAA protests in various parts of Uttar Pradesh and other locations, the sources said.

The PFI said the allegations levelled against it were unfounded.

"We are confident that the fate of this series of allegations will also be like the ones before, which could never be proved.

"Recently, the UP and Assam governments alleged Popular Front's role in the anti-CAA protests-related violence and even arrested our state-level leaders. But their claims proved to be nothing but imagination when they could not prove anything in court and our leaders were released on bail," the organisation said.

The Popular Front, it said, will not be bowed down by "such cheap campaigning by the forces backed by the fascist who wants to stop us".

The sources claimed that there were instances of about 80-90 money withdrawals from one bank account in a day during the stated period.

They said the ED had also shared these findings with the Union home ministry's internal security division after the latter asked it to obtain facts.

The Uttar Pradesh police also sought a ban on the PFI recently, days after its alleged complicity was suspected in the statewide violent protests against the amended citizenship law. Nearly 20 people had died during these protests.

The ED, the sources said, found out that the funds deposited in banks were also routed from foreign shores and sent to the accounts of certain investment firms.

A Investigation Agency FIR and chargesheet against the PFI formed the basis for the ED to file the PMLA case against the organisation.

The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the Democratic Front (NDF).
The Government Inspectorate of Vietnam has ordered the Hanoi administration to deal with violations relating to nine projects of La Vong Services and Trading Joint Stock Company.

A beer pub of the La Vong Services and Trading Joint Stock Company in Tran Duy Hung Street, Hanoi.  Photo tuoitre.vn

The main violations consist of changing the purpose of land use, constructing restaurants without permission, violating the Law on Construction as well as failing to share profits with the State following agreements.

The Hanoi administration must send its report to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc before April 1, the inspectorate said.

Projects include hiring land at DX1, DX2, DX3, DX4 and CX2 area in an urban area southeast of Tran Duy Hung Street; building technical infrastructure and housing in an urban area southwest of Road 70 in Nam Tu Liem District; constructing a luxury housing project in Quoc Oai urban area, building offices and apartments in Xa La area, Ha Dong District; and upgrading the National Highway 6.

To deal with violations, the inspectorate told the administration to direct the citys Department of Finance and the citys Tax Department to re-check land leasing prices at Tran Duy Hung Street to avoid financial losses for the State budget.

The city was also required to review the entire planning of the land the company hires in the area and implement with the original purpose as leasing for parking and planting trees instead of using as a ground for running restaurants.

The inspectorate required the company to pay an additional of VND125 billion (US$5.38 million) to the State budget to build technical infrastructure and housing in an urban area southwest of Road 70 in Nam Tu Liem District. To build the project for the State, the company was given 14.5 hectares of land in exchange following an agreement. However, the investor only spent VND400 billion ($17.2 million) to implement the project instead of VND610 billion ($25.8 million) as the initial estimation.

The agency also discovered the company was allocated 27.5 hectares of land in Quoc Oai urban area project without bidding. This violates the regulations on investor selection for commercial housing projects.

The company is also appointed to implement the project to upgrade the National Highway 6 without bidding.

For the project in the Xa La area, Ha Dong District, the inspectors identified the company failed to share profits with the State following agreements.

The inspectorate said that the Department of Planning and Investment, Department of Planning and Architecture, Department of Finance and the People's Committee of Hanoi were also blamed for the violations.

Under the conclusion No 106/TB-TTCP, signed by Deputy Inspector General Nguyen Van Thanh last Friday, Thanh conveyed the order of Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh to request the city administration to strictly handle violations of any individual and organisation.VNS
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State-owned Bank of Baroda, which saw slippages soaring over Rs 10,000 crore in December quarter, is expecting the same to taper down from the next quarter, its newly-appointed managing director and chief executive Sanjiv Chadha said on Monday. In the three months to December period, BoB's fresh slippages stood at Rs 10,387 crore, of which Rs 4,509 crore were on account of divergence found by the Reserve Bank for 2019 fiscal.

The city-based lender had reported a loss of Rs 1,407 crore in the December quarter as against a net profit of Rs 436 crore a year ago due to higher provisioning for bad loans.

"Given the fact that there are some indicators like the watch-list coming down, in terms of size, I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that the slippage levels should be lower going forward," Chadha, who took over the charge last week told PTI in an interview.

The lender's watch-list came down to Rs 10,500 crore in the December quarter from Rs 14,500 crore in the September quarter.

Chadha, who was with SBI prior to joining BoB, said if the divergence is kept aside, then slippages in the third quarter were similar to the previous quarters, which is in the region of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore.

He also said slippages will come down as the bank has been tightening its underwriting standards and loans are offered to highly rated entities.

"Nearly 70 per cent of our loans are of A-grade or higher. So, underwriting standards are much tighter than they would have been in the past. So, it should help (in reducing the slippage levels)," he said.

The bank is looking at recovery from a large stressed steel account (Bhushan Power & Steel) in the current quarter. Barring this, the bank does not have large exposure to NCLT accounts, so recoveries will mostly come through other sources.

During December quarter, there were three NBFC accounts worth Rs 2,900 crore, one chemical company worth Rs 2,700 crore and two power companies worth Rs 1,000 crore that slipped into NPAs.

The bank's gross NPA ratio declined to 10.43 per cent as against 10.91 per cent in the third quarter, while net NPA stood at 4.05 per cent as against 4.79 per cent.

Starting April 1, 2019, BoB amalgamated Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with it.

Talking about the merger, he said the move was very well orchestrated.

"Over the next few months, we must make sure that it reaches a conclusion. The plan is to do it over 12-18 months period and we will make sure that it actually happens," he said.

Chadha said merger of the three lenders will result in savings of around Rs 9,000 crore over the next five years.

"There is an estimate that over five years there would be Rs 9,000 crore of cost savings which will come on account of rationalisation of branches and treasury, among others," he said, adding one major cost cutting will be by way of three headquarters becoming one.

According to him, international operations will remain an important part of the business mix for the state-owned bank and the emphasis may change from one geography to another depending on the growth opportunities.

Chadha said the bank must play its role in terms of being a purveyor of credit to the economy and so the focus will be to have better risk management.

"We will ensure to make all the investments that are required to increase the pace of loan growth but at the same time do it in a manner which is risk-mitigated. Therefore, we will invest more in sprucing up our risk management processes," he concluded.

BoB counter closed 3.4 per cent down at 92.35 on the BSE on a day when the benchmark Sensex plunged 1.1 per cent on the global risk averseness following the spread of the coronavirus to many nations from China.
Shah Rukh Khan's recent statement at a dance reality show has won many hearts of netizens. It's known to all that the current political climate of India is anything but peaceful. Amidst all the chaos, SRK's take on his kids' religion will win your heart! Shah Rukh and his wife Gauri Khan are parents to three children, Aryan Khan, Suhana Khan and AbRam Khan.

While shooting a special episode of television reality show Dance Plus 5, Shah Rukh said, "Humne koi Hindu-Musalman ki baat hi nahi ki. Meri biwi Hindu hai, mai Musalman hoon. Aur mere jo bacche hain, wo Hindustan hain."

He further added, "Jab wo school gae to school me wo bharna padta hai ki religion kya hai. To jab meri beti choti thi, usne aa ke pucha bhi mujhse ek baar, 'papa hum kaun se religion ke hain?' Maine usme ye likha ki hum Indian hi hain yaar, koi religion nahi hai. Aur hona bhi nahi chahiye."

Netizens are in the awe of SRK's heart-warming words. Watch the video here:

My wife is Hindu, I am a Muslim and my kids are Hindustan. My daughter was asked the religion in school form, I told her we are Indians   - The pride of India Shah Rukh Khan. #RepublicDayIndia #RepublicDay2020 pic.twitter.com/Qk95xxLT3j  Neel Joshi (@neeljoshiii) January 25, 2020

It's not the first time when Shah Rukh Khan has made it very clear that no particular religion is imposed inside his house and the Khans love to celebrate all the festivals. In fact, SRK and Gauri are known for hosting grand Eid and Diwali parties.

Talking about his kids and their religion to a leading daily, SRK had once said, "I gave my son and daughter names that could pass for generic (pan-India and pan-religious) ones - Aryan and Suhana. The Khan has been bequeathed by me so they can't really escape it."

Shah Rukh Khan To Collaborate With 'Stree' Writers Raj And DK

"I pronounce it with my epiglottis when asked by Muslims and throw the Aryan as evidence of their race when non-Muslims enquire. I imagine this will prevent my offspring from receiving unwarranted eviction orders or random fatwas in the future."

As far as SRK's professional life is concerned, the superstar has not made any official announcement about his next project. He was last seen in Aanand L Rai's Zero alongside Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma.
In a bid to boost tourism in the country, the government has come out with a very creative approach which might cheer travel enthusiasts. The Ministry of Tourism has stated that it would reward people who visit at least 15 tourist spots in the country in a year.

"The tourism ministry will fund the travel expenses of tourists who visit 15 destinations in the country in a year and submit the photos on our website," Union Tourism Minister Prahalad Patel Singh said.

"Prime Minister Modi had urged Indians to visit at least 15 domestic tourist destinations by 2022, our campaign aims to make that pledge a reality," Pate added. "We will start a mass movement encouraging every Indian to visit more domestic destinations, this will boost up local as well as national economy," Patel told IANS.





Thanks to all the citizens for the overwhelming response in the last two days! We shall keep adding interesting trivia on 'Dekho Apna Desh' campaign.



Happy Republic Day 2020!#DekhoApnaDesh#EkBharatShreshthaBharatpic.twitter.com/nNSIsV0cMk a Ministry of Tourism (@tourismgoi) January 26, 2020

The minister also added that one needs to travel outside their home state to be eligible.

Indian travellers can also take a pledge to visit 15 destinations by 2022 and get a certificate.

How to take a pledge in "Dekho Apna Desh" campaign?

Step 1: Visit pledge.mygov.in

Step 2: Select language -Hindi/ English

Step 3: Take a pledge

Step 4: A certificate will be given via mobile text or e-mail
India's 71st Republic day celebrations in the US on Sunday were marred by protests and marches, albeit peaceful ones, against recent changes in the citizenship law by large number of Indian Americans in various cities of the country.

Among Indian Americans, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, however, also had a fair share of its supporters who sought to counter protesters by asserting that India cares for Neighbouring Minorities and CAA Won't Impact Indian Citizens.

The supporters, however, appeared to be outnumbered by protesters, who held peaceful rallies and marches in various US cities, carrying anti-CAA banners and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanding CAA's repeal and revocation of the proposed National Register for Citizens.

They raised the demand ruing that India's secular fabric is under threat.

In some of the cities, particularly New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and San Francisco having Indian consulates, and at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, the protestors shouted slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Hindu, Muslim Sikh, Isai: Aapas Mein Saab Bhai Bhai.

The protesters, however were countered by a number of Indian Americans who supported the enactment and congratulated the Modi Government for taking such a bold step.

The largest gathering of anti-CAA protestors was reported from Chicago where Indian Americans gathered in large numbers and formed several mile-long human chain.

In the American capital of Washington DC, more than 500 Indian Americans marched from a park near the White House to the Gandhi Statue in front of the Indian Embassy.

The anti-CAA protests in at least 30 US cities were organized by recently formed Coalition to Stop Genocide, comprising several organizations like Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Equality Labs, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).

The brutal crackdown by government in India on anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests has created a situation in which women in large numbers have come out on streets to challenge the divisive-communal-fascist agenda of the government," Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey said, addressing a gathering in Washington DC.

It gives hope that democracy and Constitution can ultimately be saved by the common people from a government which is bent upon destroying them," he said.

IAMC president Ahsan Khan said from the Bay Area in California, the rally of Indian Americans represents an extension of the massive unrest in India against the ruling BJP government for its relentless attacks against the secular Constitution.

"Indian Americans and people of conscience in the US are seeking accountability from the Hindu nationalist regime that wants to turn Indian Muslims into foreigners and render them stateless, said Khan after the rally in San Francisco.

"Protests happening not only in India but around the world represent a global consensus against the draconian policies of the Modi-Shah government," said Dr Shaik Ubaid from New York.

All Indians are equal citizens and that is the foundational social contract between the Indian nation and its citizens," said Minhaj Khan from New Jersey.

"Breaking this contract has grave implications for the future of India as a country, he added.

At some of the places including Washington DC, pro-Khalistani supporters held separate protests against India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A heartbroken mother whose infant son died of meningitis and sepsis claimed paramedics were 'more interested in filling out paperwork' than in rushing her baby to hospital.

Three-month-old Mohammad Aldmour died at Tameside General Hospital, Manchester, in September 2018, hours after he was first taken by his desperate mother, Muna Aburizeq, 37.

An inquest into Mohammad's death last week heard how Ms Aburizeq was told her baby had a cold and was discharged despite her pleading with medical professionals not to send him home, telling them her son was 'not right'.

Speaking today, Ms Aburizeq said when she phoned for an ambulance to take her son back to hospital after his condition failed to improve, the paramedics 'refused to see the urgency' of the situation and spent 40 minutes at the family home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, before leaving for the hospital.

Three-month-old Mohammad Aldmour (right) died in hospital in September 2018, hours after he was first taken by his desperate mother, Muna Aburizeq, 37. Pictured left, Muna with her son

An inquest into Mohammad's death last week heard how Ms Aburizeq was told her baby had a cold and was discharged despite her pleading with medical professionals not to send him home, telling them her son was 'not right'. Pictured, newborn Mohammad with his cousins

She said: 'I told the doctors in no uncertain terms that I did not want to take my baby home. I knew he was seriously ill, but they wouldn't listen.

'A mother's instinct is a very powerful one, and if they had taken notice, Mohammad would still be alive today.

'When I called an ambulance a second time, the paramedic seemed far more interested in filling out his paperwork than he was in treating Mohammad.

'I told him Mohammad had a rash and blue lips and he actually accused me of being dramatic.

'By the time we arrived at hospital, I knew it was too late. I will never forgive the staff who treated him. My son was just starting out in life, we had so many hopes and dreams for him, but they failed him at the time he needed them the most.

Ms Aburizeq noticed her son had a soaring temperature, blue lips and a rash and immediately became concerned. Pictured, the rash on Mohammad's chest hours before his death

Earlier that day Mohammad, described as a happy and content baby, had joined his mother on the school run for the first time. Pictured, the baby in his pram on the day of his death

Mohammad pictured with his father Emad, mother Muna, and her step-mother Linda. The couple had longed for a baby and had spent 11 years trying before Mohammad arrived

What is Meningitis B? Meningococcal group B bacteria is a serious cause of life-threatening infections, including meningitis and blood poisoning, worldwide and the leading infectious killer of babies and young children in the UK. There are 12 known groups of meningococcal bacteria, and group B (MenB) is responsible for about 90% of meningococcal infections in the UK. Meningitis and septicaemia caused by meningococcal group B bacteria can affect people of any age, but is most common in babies and young children. In the past 20 years, between 500 and 1,700 people every year, mainly babies and young children, have suffered from MenB disease, with around 1 in 10 dying from the infection. Many of those who survive suffer permanent disability, such as amputation, brain damage and epilepsy. www.NHS.uk Advertisement

'I look back on those three months of motherhood and they were so perfect, so full of joy. Now, it feels like a dream. My heart aches to hold my son again, and it gets no easier as time passes.'

Muna and her husband Emad had tried for 11 years for a baby and suffered five miscarriages before welcoming Mohammad in May 2018.

Muna says: 'Mohammad was beautiful. I adored him, and I was very protective of him. He was my entire world.

'He was a contented, happy little baby and aside from some mild reflux he had no health problems.'

At the time Muna was living with her sister, Fatmeh, a teaching assistant, and her two daughters, while Emad worked overseas.

Mohammad was doted on by his cousins, pictured, and much loved by his entire family

When Mohammad finally reached hospital, he was rushed away by a team of medics who were unable to save him. He suffered a cardiac arrest and died. Pictured, happy and healthy at home

On 10 September 2018, Mohammad had been on his first 'school run' with his cousins but fell ill in the afternoon.

He vomited violently after a feed and his temperature spiked; his lips turned blue and his mother and aunt were immediately concerned.

He was taken to Tameside General Hospital, Manchester, by ambulance where Muna was unable to settle him.

She continued: 'I was becoming alarmed at how distressed he was. He was burning hot, but his feet were freezing, which is a marker for meningitis, but a nurse told me just to wrap them in a blanket.

A doctor told me he just had a cold virus, and that he could go home. I was very polite, but I said to her: 'I know my baby and he is not right, and I really don't want to take him home'

'A doctor told me he just had a cold virus, and that he could go home. I was very polite, but I said to her: "I know my baby and he is not right, and I really don't want to take him home".

'I asked her to check his breathing, because it seemed laboured, but she told me he was fine.

'I was insistent but the most they would do was keep him for a further two hours. During that time nobody checked on him at all and then we were discharged. I felt absolutely helpless. I trusted the doctors, but I felt they weren't listening to me.'

At home Mohammad became increasingly agitated and at 4am, Muna noticed a rash on her son's stomach. She called another ambulance and the call was categorised as urgent.

But when paramedics arrived, they spent around 20 minutes in the house and a further 17 outside the house, before eventually taking the little boy to hospital.

The bereaved mother told how her life felt empty without her precious baby boy, pictured

Muna said: 'It was as if I was wasting their time, like they didn't believe me. I showed them the rash and they said the glass test was inconclusive. I told them his lips were blue and one paramedic actually said he thought I was "dramatic".

'Outside in the ambulance he insisted on filling in paperwork, repeatedly asking me about my heritage, saying: "Are you black African?"

'I was appalled. I had Mohammad on my chest, his eyes were huge and glassy, and he was covered with a rash. I couldn't believe it was happening. They just refused to see the urgency.'

When Mohammad finally reached hospital, he was rushed away by a team of medics who were unable to save him. He suffered a cardiac arrest and died with Muna at his side.

Muna continued: 'When we arrived, one of the nurses from our earlier visit said to me: "This is why we should always listen to mothers". I told her: "It's too late".

Muna said: 'Mohammad was beautiful. I adored him, and I was very protective of him. He was my entire world.' Pictured, Muna (left) and her son (right)

'I knew in my heart that he was drifting away. He opened his eyes one last time as the doctors tried to get anti-biotics into him, and then he died.

'I felt such a pain in my heart as he passed away. It felt my whole world went dark. I felt so guilty afterwards, that I should have been able to look after him, as his mother, yet I know I could not have done more.'

Mohammad's family struggled to cope with their loss and Muna suffered a breakdown.

At an inquest into Mohammad's death, held last week at South Manchester Coroner's Court, a jury concluded there was a 'gross failure' by Tameside General Hospital.

According to the hospital's own policy and national guidelines, three from five readings taken from the little boy should have triggered the sepsis pathway.

The coroner, Alison Mutch, recorded a conclusion that the baby died of natural causes contributed to by neglect, and the jury unanimously agreed that a number of failings during the first visit to hospital had contributed to Mohammad's death.

Mohammad's family struggled to cope with their loss and Muna suffered a breakdown. Pictured, Muna with her step-mother Linda

Ms Mutch also acknowledged a series of failings by the North West Ambulance Service Crew who took Mohammad back to hospital for his second visit.

However she directed the jury to conclude that these failings did not contribute to Muhammad's death as it was then, in all probability, too late for him to be saved.

The hearing heard that the issues raised, in relation to early medical intervention for sepsis patients, are of national importance.

Victoria Beel, a clinical negligence specialist at Slater and Gordon who represents the family, said: 'The tragedy here is that Mohammad's mother did absolutely everything right but she was let down by the professionals who failed to act on the very clear warning signs.

'Mohammad was seen by two doctors and three nurses who should have identified sepsis and started appropriate treatment, but instead he was discharged home against the family's wishes and died a short time later.

'It is accepted that by the time paramedics were called it was probably too late to save Mohammad, but that was not known at that stage. What is known, however, is their failure to recognise how serious his condition was.

Mohammed was triaged by a paediatric nurse in the children's area of A&E at Tameside Hospital, pictured, but was later sent home after a doctor said 'he's got a cold'

'Neglect  or a gross failure to provide basic medical care  is not a common finding at inquest and shows how serious the hospital's failings were in this case. Lessons must be learned.

'The family have paid the ultimate price and their only wish now is that this doesn't happen to anyone else'.

A spokesman for Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: 'This is a tragic situation and our heartfelt condolences go to Mohammad's family for their loss. We cannot begin to understand the grief they have been through. Our thoughts are with them.

'We fully accept the Jury's findings today; and as a result, the lessons we have learned from our internal investigation; a number of changes have been implemented to secure further improvements in our pathways of care.'

Director of operations for North West Ambulance Service, Ged Blezard said: 'We express our sincere condolences to Mohammad's family and appreciate this continues to be a very difficult time for them.

'We acknowledge the jury's findings and thank the Coroner for her handling of this very sensitive case.

'Whilst we understand that the care provided to Mohammad did not contribute to his death, we are deeply sorry that the care provided to him was not to the standard that we would expect.

'The trust strives to provide the very best care to all of our patients but on this occasion, that was sadly not the case.

'Lessons have been learnt and following a full and comprehensive internal review, changes have been made to ensure better future care for our patients.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 18:03:09|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TAIPEI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan confirmed a fifth case of the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia, the island's epidemic monitoring agency said Monday.

A woman in her 50s from Taiwan returned from central China's Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, showing symptoms of fever and muscle ache on Jan. 25, the agency said in a press release.

The hospital placed her in an isolation ward on Jan. 25 and confirmed the infection Monday.

The patient has been in stable condition, and authorities are monitoring the health condition of people who had contact with her.

Currently, the island still has 207 suspected cases under quarantine.
The change, McAndrew said, would allow companies like Amazon to have access to a larger pool of job candidates with an easy transportation option. Suburban Maryland residents would have an easy train ride to jobs in areas like Crystal City, soon to be home to 25,000 new jobs at Amazons second headquarters. Today, for example, anyone coming fromKensington on MARCs Brunswick line would need to transfer at Union Station to Metros Red Line and then to the Yellow Line at Gallery Place to get to Crystal City. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)
WASHINGTON  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel warning Monday to a level 3, its highest alert level, urging U.S. citizens to avoid all nonessential travel to China because of the coronavirus outbreak. The warning says those who travel should avoid all contact with sick people, animal markets and products that come from animals. It advises travelers to wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Older adults and travelers with underlying health issues may be at risk for more severe effects of the disease and should discuss travel with their health-care provider, the agency said.
A teenager who wrapped a neck chain around his fist to maximise injury to another young man at a fast food outlet has been ordered to do 220 hours of community service to avoid a jail term.

Judge Olann Kelleher also fined Daniel Herlihy 500 on the charge of assault causing harm.

The victim felt that he had been punched by a man bearing a knuckleduster but the defendant  who admitted the charge of assault causing harm  said he had wrapped a neck chain around his fist before the attack.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the accused had brought 1,000 cash to court as a gesture of compensation to the injured party.

Mr Buttimer said there had been some kind of altercation between two groups attending a gig at the Marquee that night and they later crossed paths by coincidence later that night. Mr Buttimer said the defendant was not involved in the first incident.

In another coincidence, the assault carried out by Herlihy was broken up on the night by two off-duty security men from the Marquee who happened to be in the premises at the time.

Questioned about whether he had assaulted the young man because he was chatting to the accuseds ex-girlfriend he denied this and said the assault was a case of mistaken identity.

Daniel Herlihy, 19, of 62 Ardcullen, Hollyhill, Cork, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm at Cork District Court.

Sergeant John Kelleher outlined what happened in the case.

After midnight on June 21, 2018, the injured party was sitting in Burger King on Patrick Street with a young woman when he heard the sound of metal banging on the window. He saw Daniel Herlihy banging on the window.

Shortly after this a different man approached him and grabbed him around the throat telling him he wanted him to go outside and the injured party refused.

Daniel Herlihy then approached the injured party with something in his hand.

He started punching him in the head with the item in his hand. The injured party put his hands up to protect himself but Herlihy continued to punch him.

At this point a friend of the injured party returned to the table and Herlihy then made a go for him. At this stage two security personnel from the Marquee who were present in the premises intervened and the defendant and his friend left the premises.

The injured party sustained a gash over the right eye and another cut over his right ear and had some swelling that back of his head and bruising to his throat afterwards, Sgt. Kelleher said.
by Ngoc Lan

Two confirmed cases have been reported, but 11 people are under observation. Chinese tourists have crossed the border into Vietnam for the Lunar New Year, but many have decided to stay home believing that this will limit their risk of contracting the virus. For Vietnamese and foreign experts, the country could become the second most infected.

Hanoi (AsiaNews)  Vietnamese authorities are struggling to contain the new coronavirus outbreak that is spreading across the country.

The latter has led to a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, the capital of Chinas Hubei province. However, for ordinary Vietnamese as well as experts, the control measures imposed by the government on the regions bordering with China are inadequate.

So far, two cases of contagion have been confirmed in Vietnam. An unidentified man and son, both from the Chinese province of Hubei, have been placed in an isolated area for treatment at the Cho Ray hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the doctors, the two are in stable condition and their fever is dropping. The mans wife, who is the mother of the boy, is under close surveillance. She travelled to Vietnam with her husband from Wuhan, but hasnt shown any symptoms of the infection.

Yesterday, the second day of Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the Health Ministry began a round of meetings to see how best to prevent the contagion from spreading.

An agreement between Vietnam and China has been in place for years allowing Chinese nationals to enter Vietnam without a visa.

For this New Year, many Chinese have already travelled to Vietnam to visit places like Hai Phong, Nha Trang, a Lat, Mui Ne, a Nang and Phu Quoc.

However, their number is much lower. Tens of thousands have decided to stay home on the belief that this will reduce their risk of contracting the coronavirus.

So far, some over 2,700 cases of pneumonia and 81 deaths have been recorded in China.

On 22 January, a flight from Wuhan with 218 Chinese nationals on board landed in a Nang. Local health authorities report that they have not shown any symptoms of the infection; for this reason, they were able to continue their tour to Nha Trang, a city in Khanh Hoa province.

According to a local business involved in the tourist sector, the high number of Chinese tourists coming to the area makes it hard to implement any controls to fight the spread of the virus.

The authorities are expected to step up efforts against the outbreak. On Saturday, the Health Ministry issued directives to provincial and city authorities along the border with China, requiring travellers who cross the border to make a statement about their medical condition.

Meanwhile, the authorities in a Nang have announced that 11 Chinese nationals have been placed under observation because they show a high fever. The people in question have had contacts with pneumonia patients.

The group includes six Chinese citizens, four Vietnamese, and another Chinese tourist from Hunan who was intercepted at the airport two days ago.

Several experts, Vietnamese and foreign, are feeding the fears of the population about the lack of effective measures by the Vietnamese government.

In their view, if the authorities do not implement in time policies that protect human health, if they dont increase controls or close border crossings with China, Vietnam will likely become the second country in terms of coronavirus cases in the Asia-Pacific region.
India Gold February futures rose on January 27 tracking gains in the international market as spot gold climbed to a more than two-week high on rising concerns over the spread of a virus outbreak in China.

The new coronavirus in China has killed 80 and infected more than 2,000, as residents of Hubei province, where the disease originated, were banned from entering Hong Kong amid global efforts to halt the rapid spread of the outbreak, said a Reuters report.

On the MCX, gold contracts for February were trading higher by Rs 233, or 0.58 percent, at Rs 40,585 per 10 gram at 0920 hours.

Gold and silver prices gained last week after the death toll rose in China from Coronavirus. The initial reports suggest that the Virus is also spreading to other countries from China.

Experts are of the view that the Yellow metal is likely to gain momentum amid fears of rising risks with respect to Coronavirus. India Gold could retest 40,600-40,800 levels.

Gold & Silver Rates Gold Rate in Mumbai 10g of 24K gold in Mumbai 

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Safe-haven buying was seen in both the precious metals amid fears of Coronavirus. At MCX, Gold prices closed above 40,330, and if it sustains above this crucial resistance level, it could test 40,450-4,0600 levels, Manoj Jain, Director & Head of Commodities, IndiaNivesh Securities told Moneycontrol.

The levels of 40050 is likely to act as a major support for gold in the domestic market. Silver also closed above 46,800 and if it sustains above this crucial resistance could test 47,100-47,400 levels. 46,500 act as a major support for silver in the domestic market, he said.

Track live Gold price here

Trading Strategy:

Expert: Pritam Kumar Patnaik, Head Commodities, Reliance Commodities

MCX Gold February has taken a support of Rising Trend Line which is placed at 39,830 which will act as immediate support to the counter.

Moreover, it has sustained well above 39,950 levels which suggests strong strength in the counter for upside momentum up to 40,600 levels.

International Gold has given upside breakout and likely to move higher towards $1,600 levels. On the downside, $1,568 will be a crucial support to watch out for.

Intraday strategy: MCX Gold February Buy in the range of 40,500-4,0450 with 40,360 as stop loss and target of 40,800 levels

Expert: Jateen Trivedi, Sr Research Analyst - Commodity & Currency, LKP Securities Ltd

On the daily chart, Gold traded positive and closed strong on Friday. Gold prices climbed to a more than two-week high on Monday as rising concerns over the spread of a virus outbreak in China and its potential economic impact prompted investors to buy the safe-haven metal.

20,50,100-Days EMA is signalling positive range bound movement ahead. RSI & MACD are signalling strength. For the day 40600-40750 will act as resistance whereas 40500-40300 as supports.

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
[January 27, 2020] Gryphon Investors Makes Majority Investment in PestRoutes

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gryphon Investors ("Gryphon"), a San Francisco-based middle-market private equity firm, announced today that it has made a majority investment in PestRoutes (or the "Company"), a leading provider of software for pest control companies with recent momentum in other field service verticals such as lawn care and pool servicing. Existing financial sponsor Mainsail Partners will retain a minority stake, as will PestRoutes co-founder, Jared Green. The current executive team, led by CEO Patrick McKittrick, will continue to manage the business. Founded in 2012 and based in McKinney, Texas, PestRoutes provides business management software and, through its Lobster Marketing brand, integrated marketing solutions to pest control, lawn care, pool servicing, and other field service industries. The Company serves over 1,500 residential and commercial pest control and field service companies, automating all aspects of their operations, including route optimization, real-time technician tracking, customer communications, scheduling, and billing. "PestRoutes serves a number of large and growing field services markets with complex software needs that are not being met by existing solutions," said Jon Cheek, Deal Principal in the Software Group at Gryphon. "PestRoutes not only addresses the complicated requirements of field services companies of all sizes, but it does so through the use of modern, easy-to-use software complemented by high-quality customer service, which together provide tremendous value and a superior customer experience." As part of the transaction three Gryphon executives will join the PestRoutes Board of Directors  Nick Orum, President and Co-Head of the Software Group; Carl Theobald, Software Operating Partner; and Mr. Cheek  joining Mainsail Partner Jason Payne, who remains on the board. Mr. McKittrick commented, "We have enjoyed rapid growth under our partnership with Mainsail and we are now excited to work with Gryphon as we pursue further expansion of functionality to our existing customers and markets as well as products serving new industries within field services. Gryphon's added financial and operational resources will allow us to more easily scale our operations rapidly and efficiently, ultimately improving the already high-quality experience that our customers have come to associate with PestRoutes." Mr. Orum at Gryphon added, "Through ur multiple prior investments in field services and route-based companies, as well as our proactive sector research leading to those investments, we've consistently found that the field services industry has been underserved by modern technology that's capable of managing the complexities of these distributed business models from end-to-end. The rapid growth and high customer retention of PestRoutes are key indicators that the Company has cracked the code on providing high-quality software that offers meaningful value to its customers. We look forward to partnering with Patrick and his team as we work to build the business together."



"The partnership with Jared, Patrick, and the broader PestRoutes and Lobster team has been incredibly fulfilling," added Mr. Payne. "Our original thesis was based on the unique value PestRoutes delivers to customers and the durability of the end market. That thesis has held up very well and we are excited to continue our involvement as investors and partners in building a leading field services software company through organic growth and M&A." Vista Point Advisors acted as financial advisor to Gryphon, and Arbor Advisors was the financial advisor to PestRoutes. Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal advisor to Gryphon, and Goodwin Procter acted as legal advisor to PestRoutes. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About PestRoutes

PestRoutes' software and mobile applications power the entire operations of pest control, lawn care, pool servicing, and other field service businesses. Over 1,500 pest control and field service companies rely on PestRoutes to automate all aspects of their operations, making them more efficient from the office to the field all while helping to grow their businesses. PestRoutes business management software and integrated marketing solutions deliver the data-driven insights pest control and field service companies need to grow quickly, scale smartly and serve customers relentlessly. Launched in 2012 and headquartered in McKinney, TX, PestRoutes is dedicated to delivering software solutions that create long-term value for pest control and field service business owners and their families. For more information, please visit www.pestroutes.com. About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. The firm has managed over $5.0 billion of equity investments and capital since 1997. Gryphon targets making equity investments of $100 million to $300 million in portfolio companies with enterprise values ranging from approximately $100 million to $500 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form strong partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon's capital, specialized professional resources, and operational expertise. About Mainsail Partners

Mainsail Partners is a growth equity firm that invests exclusively in fast-growing, bootstrapped software companies. Since 2003, we have invested in over 50 growth companies. Our dedicated operations team is purpose-built to help exceptional entrepreneurs scale their businesses and accelerate growth. For more information, please visit www.mainsailpartners.com. Contact

Lambert & Co.

Caroline Luz, 203-656-2829, [email protected]

or

Jennifer Hurson, 845-507-0571, [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gryphon-investors-makes-majority-investment-in-pestroutes-300993791.html SOURCE Gryphon Investors

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By PTI

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested the CMD of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), Kapil Wadhawan, in connection with its money laundering probe against dead gangster Iqbal Mirchi and others, officials said on Monday.

They said Wadhawan, 46, has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe and was "untrustworthy" in his dealings and statements made to the agency.

Wadhawan was questioned during the day at the agency office at Ballard Estate her. He had been questioned in the past too.

Wadhawan has been renamed in the ED custody till January 29 after he was produced before a special PMLA court here.

The case relates to Mirchi's Mumbai properties, which have been called as proceeds of crime by the ED, and three such properties were sold to Sunblink, the company linked to Wadhawan brothers, Kapil and Dheeraj.

It is alleged by the agency that Kapil Wadhawan "diverted" funds from DHFL to shell companies and later these dubious companies got amalgamated with Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd to "cover" alleged diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

The ED alleged that the conduit of Sunblink was "purposefully created by Kapil Wadhawan as CMD of DHFL and others just to obfuscate the trail of money for the purchase of properties" from the Mirchi family.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi alias Iqbal Memon, his family and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai.

Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right-hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.
Let's be honest, law is not the most appealing topic to talk about for most people and personal injury law is especially complex. But knowing some basics about injury law is important and a legal remedy that can help you recover some losses as a result of an unfortunate accident or incident.

In case you might be asking yourself, personal injury law comes into effect when a person suffers physical harm as a result of negligence by another person. Simple enough? That being said, you can also file a lawsuit under personal injury for unsafe premises, defective products and even dog bites.

Anyway, in this article, we consider five common reasons behind personal injury law:

1. Injury as a Result of Car Accidents

As you might have guessed, car accidents are the most common cause for personal injury lawsuits. The premise for these lawsuits is that a particular driver was careless in some way and the other person was injured as a result of this negligence.

2. Harm of Injury as a Result of Any Other Kind of Accident

While car accidents are more common, many personal injury claims relate to people falling or sustaining injury on a particular premises. What's more, negligence or malpractice at a dentist, doctor or medical facility can result in a personal injury lawsuit.

3. Injury of Harm Due to Assault (And Other Deliberate Acts)

Assault is another common reason why you might want to know more about personal injury law. Simply put, this refers to an intentional or deliberate act which causes harm to another person.

4. Damage in the Form of Defamation of Character

Defamation of character is when a person's reputation suffers as a result of a false statement. Most often, these defamatory statements will relate to a crime and a person can file a personal injury lawsuit against whomever released this false statement. However, it should be noted that even is a statement is true, some countries (Sweden & South Korea) will even enable individuals to file an injury lawsuit on the grounds of defamation.

5. Injury or Harm as a Result of Defective Products

Almost any product can cause injury or harm to a person. For many of these lawsuits, the product itself was faulty in some way and the manufacturer had no intention of causing harm. Either way, it's possible to file an injury lawsuit when injury or harm is sustained as a result of a defective product.

But that's just part of the story...

Final Thoughts

The truth is, every personal injury case is entirely different and the details of each incident will dictate much of the legal process. In other words, while it's often easy to determine whether a lawsuit can be filed, further investigation is needed in order to assess the validity of a claim. For this reason, learning as much as possible about injury law will certainly help, but it's best to allow an attorney to deal with the complexities involved in these lawsuits. Either way, injury law gives a person a legal remedy to recover losses that may stem from an incident or an accident.
The most noticeable change will be that voters will fill in an oval rather than connecting to sides of an arrow when filling out a paper ballot, Allen said. The new touch-screen voting machines, which will resemble giant iPads, will print out a paper ballot, which voters will then feed into a scanner, much like they do with handwritten ballots.
- DJ Evolve raised concerns over his life and future days after he was shot by Embakasi East lawmaker Babu Owino

- The DJ who is still in Nairobi Hospital said the incident left him in fear and trauma

- His family is opposed to the release of the lawmaker on bail saying he could use his power to subvert justice

- Should he be released, the family asked the court to institute protective measures to secure the family and the victim from Babu

DJ Evolve, also known as Felix Orinda, has said he is in pain and trauma days after he was shot by Embakasi East legislator Babu Owino on Friday, January 17.

The DJ who is still in Critical Care Unit in Nairobi Hospital raised concern over his safety during the bail application hearing of the lawmaker.

READ ALSO: Remembering Kobe Bryant: 7 heartwarming photos showing the legend's happy times

Babu Owino shot DJ Evolve on the morning of Friday, January 17. Photo: Babu Owino.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Comedian Njugush discloses wife Wakavinye paid his bills while they were dating

According to papers presented in court by the prosecution on Monday, January 27, the victim said he has been living in fear of his life and future since he was shot on his neck by Babu on the fateful Friday.

"I am tired, in pain, and traumatised. I don't want to talk and I cannot fathom anything," Evolve said.

READ ALSO: Mfuasi wa Babu Owino akamatwa kwa kutatiza kikao cha mahakama

He further said he had trouble sleeping due to the horrendous act that was meted on him.

"I have not slept for days because I am scared of my life and future, he said according to the bail assessment report.

The DJ also did not pronounce himself on issues related to the bail and the relationship he has with the MP.

READ ALSO: Raila: Mimi si tajiri wanavyodhani watu, thamani ya mali yangu ni KSh2 bilioni tu

The family of DJ Evolve was opposed to Babu Owino's release. Photo: Babu Owino.

Source: Facebook

His family also opposed the release of the lawmaker on bond citing his influence and power which they argued he can use to intimidate witnesses and manipulate evidence.

They also said his release would endanger their family and the victim.

"Their plea to the court is that if the same is granted, other protective measures should be instituted to ensure the security of the victim, family and also to safeguard against witness interference, read the report in part.

Babu is said to have pulled the trigger on the B Club's resident DJ after a dispute ensued between them.

The incident happened at Billionaire's Club (B-club) located along Galana Road in Nairobi's Kilimani estate.

A statement from Kilimani Police Station indicated the lawmaker shot the DJ on the neck at around 7am on Friday.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

I chose rabbit farming over office job - Maureen Wanyaga | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The Gambian government on Sunday launched a crackdown on a weeks-old movement demanding the departure of President Adama Barrow, following violent demonstrations in which medical officials say three protesters were killed. Tension has been building in The Gambia, a tiny West African country surrounded by Senegal, over Barrow's decision to stay in office for five years after initially pledging to step down after three. Police in the capital Banjul on Sunday fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters, who responded by throwing stones and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. Police arrested 137 people at the demonstration, it added. The government later announced a ban on the "Three Years Jotna (is up) Movement", the group that has spearheaded weeks of protests calling for Barrow to step down. In a statement, spokesman Ebrima Sankareh said the group was a "subversive, violent and illegal movement" that was "determined to illegally overthrow the constitutionally elected president". The group's president Abdou Njie was also arrested on Sunday, according to an AFP journalist, although the government would not confirm it was holding Njie. Three people were killed in Sunday's clashes according to Kebba Manneh, director of the Serrekunda hospital where victims were taken. Red Cross sources said 28 people were taken Sunday to Serrekunda hospital, close to where protesters had gathered in the districts of Old Jeshwang and Stink Corner on the outskirts of Banjul. The government denied that any protesters were killed on Sunday. - Radios silenced - Among those arrested were the director of the King FM radio station, and a radio presenter who had been charged with inciting violence, a station employee told AFP. The head of another radio station, Digital FM, was also arrested and it was not known where he was being held, Saikou Jammeh, secretary general of Gambia Press Union, told AFP. Authorities later moved to shut the two stations, accusing them of serving as platforms for inciting violence and broadcasting for the anti-Barrow movement and threatening "the security of The Gambia". Sunday's clashes broke out after demonstrators tried to change their itinerary to get closer to the city centre. "Let's go and burn everything that belongs to Adama Barrow and his family," one protestor called out to those alongside him, the AFP reporter heard. "We will protest until Barrow resigns," said another who identified himself as Amadou Sanyang. "He is a traitor who betrayed the population's trust, we are going to teach him a lesson." On Saturday, hundreds of Gambians had marched on the outskirts of Banjul, responding to the call of victims associations demanding justice for sweeping rights abuses and murder suffered under former dictator Yahya Jammeh's 22-year rule. Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron fist but fled in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to Barrow. Since January 2019, around 190 witnesses have appeared before a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) set up to investigate abuses under Jammeh's rule. Last week, thousands marched to demand he be allowed to return from exile in Equatorial Guinea. They argued he has a right to do so under a joint statement from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations, published at the time of his exile. But Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou warned that Jammeh would "face immediate arrest and charges of the most serious kind" if he returned, including "crimes against humanity". Barrow, a relative unknown at the time, defeated former autocrat Yahya Jammeh in elections in the tiny West African state in 2016. "No one can force me to leave the presidency before 2021," he said recently. Tension has been building in The Gambia over Adama Barrow's decision to stay in office for five years after initially pledging to step down after three
Lady Kitty Spencer put on an elegant display as she stepped out for a stroll in New York alongside her millionaire fiance Michael Lewis this week.

Princess Diana's niece, 29, looked fashionable in a Holland Cooper camel coat featuring gold adornments, belted to accentuate her figure amid the dreary weather.

The model, who reportedly said yes after Michael proposed with an estimated 30 carat diamond ring in Cape Town over Christmas, accessorized the look with oversized black sunglasses, as she and her 60-year-old partner shared an umbrella.

The pair, who were on their way to have breakfast at Sarabeth's restaurant in Central Park South, appeared to be enjoying a casual chat.

Lady Kitty Spencer, 29, and Michael Lewis, 60, walked to Sarabeth's restaurant in Central Park South on Saturday

Lady Kitty Spencer gave her hair a centre parting, tucking the her blonde waves into her scarf.

She looked fresh-faced with minimal make-up, and sported a relaxed look complete with trainers.



The first cousin of Princes William and Harry, showcased a ring on her wedding finger - though it was not clear if it was the engagement ring that is thought to be worth up to 300,000.

She has been dating fashion tycoon Michael Lewis, who is six years older than her father, Earl Spencer, 55, since last spring.

The 29-year-old who began dating Michael last spring, donned a camel coat by Holland Cooper paired with oversize sunglasses and trainers

The couple went public with their relationship during a stroll through New York City in May and were seen kissing after leaving Club 55 in St Tropez in August.

Kitty grew up in Cape Town, and spent Christmas, her birthday and New Year's Eve in South Africa, where Michael is also based.

Millionaire fashion tycoon Michael reportedly proposed to Kitty over Christmas, with a diamond ring estimated to be worth as much as 300,000.

Kitty was first spotted wearing the diamond ring as she stepped out in Cape Town with her beau at the beginning of the month.

South-African born Brit Michael who turns 61 this month, has three adult children and was previously married to a woman named Leola in 1985.

Kitty, who was spotted at the tycoons 19 million mansion in central London last summer, told the Mail at the time that she didnt feel in any rush to start a family.

I can see myself having children at some point, she told me, but Im only in my 20s. I do have friends my age who are having children, and they are so, so, sweet, but I think everyone should do things in their own time.

The royal's last boyfriend was Italian property magnate Niccolo Barattieri di San Pietro, who was also significantly older.
Photo: Facebook

UPDATED: January 27, 10:49 a.m.

The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP have issued a formal missing persons report for Jay Rosenburger. The RCMP say Jay's missing vehicle is a 2002 Mazda 626 with BC license plate JV2 76F.

If you have any information about Jay's whereabouts, you can contact the family and the RCMP using the information below.

ORIGINAL: January 26, 5:15 p.m.

The family and friends of Jay Rosenberger have issued a plea on Facebook, concerned about Jay's whereabouts.

Rosenberger, aged 38, was last seen on Friday, Jan. 24 at 11:00 p.m. at the Riviera Village Green Hotel complex, where he works as the manager.

He was supposed to return to work that night, and also had plans to spend time with friends on Saturday but never showed.

His sister Holly Frances wrote in a Facebook post that Rosenberger's phone is dead, and his charger was found in his home.

His car is also missing, and because it was recently purchased, family members don't know the license plate number. His car is a silver sedan, seemingly an early 2000's Mazda.

"I cant believe Im writing this post, it feels like we are in a nightmare we cant wake up from," wrote Frances.

"This is completely out of character for him."

Some of Rosenberger's family are arriving from Edmonton to continue the search.

A Facebook group has been started up to share information, and assist family and friends in the search for Rosenberger. People are also invited to contact Frances with information.

Information can also be shared with Vernon RCMP at (250) 545-7171, or to report information anonymously contact Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit www.crimestoppers.net.
Nigerians have taken to Twitter to react to the death sentence slammed on Maryam Sanda, who was found guilty of killing her husband, Bilyamin Mohammed Bello in 2017.

Justice Yusuf Halilu of the federal high court in Abuja on Monday sentenced the defendant to death by hanging, a judgment that has sparked social media debate.

Sanda reportedly stabbed her husband, son of Haliru Mohammed Bello, a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to death with a bottle in November 2017.

Sanda was charged with culpable homicide in November 2017 by the police who are seeking the death penalty in the two-count charge.

Read Also: Husband Killer, Maryam Sanda Sentenced To Death By Hanging

According to Police, she did so with absolute intent to kill him.

However, she pleaded not guilty to the crime and was able to secure bail with the conditions, including an undertaking from her father to produce her in court till the end of the trial after several attempts.

However, on Monday, the court found her guilty as charged, and sentenced her to death by hanging.

See some reactions below

Maryam Sandas kid is going to be like my mom killed my dad then the government killed my mom  Boardman (@TimelineBandit) January 27, 2020

Maryam Sanda was sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband. To all the girls out there, please always control your jealousy.#AewaConnect  Arewa T W I T T E R (@ArewaTwiter) January 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/Onuhsimon1/status/1221765683849191425?s=19

Maryam Sanda convicted of murder. Justice served yo  J A N N A H (@Jvnnvh) January 27, 2020

Maryam Sanda, within 2 Minutes of rage ruined her life.

Indeed the Prophet has spoken the Truth, on anger, he said; "When one of you becomes angry while standing, he should sit down. If the anger leaves him, well and good; otherwise he should lie down."   (@Najeebwali_) January 27, 2020

Happy to read the news that Maryam Sanda who killed her husband has been convicted. This serves as a warning to all those planning to kill their spouse, you will rot in jail and probably die by hanging. Leave the marriage if you have issues. Dont kill your husband or wife.  Sally Suleiman (@is_salsu) January 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/Haidaer__/status/1221763165899427846?s=19
An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. AP



South Korea on Sunday reported its third confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus and said it will tighten quarantine rules amid mounting fears over the spread of the pneumonia-like illness throughout China and other parts of the world.



According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), a 54-year-old South Korean resident of Wuhan who arrived back home on Monday showing no symptoms tested positive for the new strain of the virus that has killed 56 people so far.



"Upon arrival at the airport, he showed no signs of illness and was not aware he had been infected until he started suffering from fever, chills and muscle cramps on Wednesday. His condition seems to have improved for a few days before getting worse again, at which time he contacted health authorities and was placed in isolation on Saturday for tests and treatment," the KCDC said.



Authorities said that in the latest case, the man had engaged in normal activities after flying into Incheon International Airport late Monday from Wuhan via Qingdao. It said officials are checking where he visited and the people he may have been in contact with so as to inform them of health risks and ask them to report any signs of illness.



On a broader level, Seoul said it has decided to revise its rules on checking and isolating people who may have contracted the disease. It said all of China will be classified as a "coronavirus risk area," with travelers coming in from the country required to fill out detailed health questionnaires upon arrival.



Starting on Tuesday, if a person from Wuhan or nearby areas shows signs of fever or has breathing issues, he or she will be placed in quarantine, while those from other parts of China that seem to have pneumonia will be isolated as well.



Previously, Seoul had kept people in quarantine only if they had been to Wuhan in the recent past and were feeling ill, with those with no or very mild symptoms not being restricted and only advised to stay at home.



It said that for other milder symptoms, people who have not been to Wuhan will be placed on an active monitoring list.



Common symptoms of the coronavirus, thought to have originated in Wuhan, central China, include fever, sore throat and breathing difficulties, with more acute cases bringing chills and muscle pain.



"If a person under observation manifests symptoms of the new virus strain, that individual will be placed under quarantine immediately," KCDC chief Jung Eun-kyeong said at a press conference in Sejong, 130 kilometers south of Seoul.



The KCDC said it will receive around 200 additional personnel from the police, local governments and the military to man checkpoints and asked citizens to be understanding of inconveniences that tighter screening may cause.



The latest case follows Seoul confirming two incidents of the new coronavirus strain on Monday and Friday, respectively, with health workers checking on the conditions of those that have come in contact with such people. In the first incident, the KCDC discovered 45 people who came into contact with the 35-year-old Chinese woman, while in the second case, involving a 55-year-old South Korean man, a total of 75 people have been identified and have been monitored, with the 11 people tested for having cold-like symptoms all testing negative for the virus.






Amid the rising number of coronavirus infection cases in China, the Indian government is preparing a plan for "possible evacuation" of Indian nationals living in Wuhan area of China. It is learnt that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) would make a request to the Chinese authorities to help India in evacuating Indians from Wuhan and other regions of China.

The officials from India and China met on Monday (January 27) to discuss plans to evacuate over 250 Indians from Wuhan city and Hubei province, which are worst hit by coronavirus outbreak, reported PTI.

It is to be noted that the number of death due to the coronavirus has jumped to 82 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases, mostly in Wuhan and other Chinese cities. According to the Indian Embassy in Beijing, Indian officials held a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on Monday. "In the meeting, Chinese authorities briefed on the steps taken by them to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak. Various options for evacuating foreign nationals from Wuhan/Hubei province were also discussed," the embassy said in a note.

"We continue to engage with the Chinese authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian nationals in Hubei province. We will update you when we have more information from the Chinese authorities," it said.

The embassy also said for any issues regarding food, water and other essential supplies, the Hubei Foreign Affairs Office has provided two helplines (027-87122256 and 87811173) and these numbers are in operation round the clock. "You may approach them on issues that you may face there. However, please also let us know about your concern with specific details so that we are also able to take it up with the authorities in Hubei," it said.

An Air India Boeing 747 has been kept on standby for the evacuation of Indian citizens from Wuhan city of China, the epicentre of novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the official of the national carrier.

The aircraft is waiting for the Centre`s decision regarding the evacuation."Air India Boeing 747 is on standby for the evacuation of Indians from Wuhan (China) due to scare of Coronavirus. Carrier is waiting for the government the decision," an Air Indian official told ANI on Monday.

Notably, the MEA had said on Sunday (January 26) that no Indian in China has been affected by the outbreak of coronavirus so far. The MEA added that the Indian embassy in Beijing is in touch with Indian students studying in Wuhan and Hubei and other Indians living in different parts of China.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted on Sunday that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is closely monitoring the situation. "We are also closely coordinating with Chinese authorities. As of now, we understand that no Indian citizens have been affected by the outbreak and that food and water supplies are available to them," Kumar had tweeted.

He added that three helplines have been made operational at Indian embassy in Beijing to address the concerns of Indians without any delay. "Our embassy in Beijing is in close touch with Indian citizens including students to extend assistance, including on possible travel options out of Hubei province," the MEA spokesperson said in another tweet.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Secretary on Monday (January 27) held a meeting to review the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak in China. The meeting was attended by Secretaries in the Ministries of Health, External Affairs, Civil Aviation, Labour, Defence, I&B and Member-Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority and DG(Armed Forces Medical Services).

Live TV

Notably, India has so far screened 137 flights and 29707 passengers to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country, The samples of 12 passengers were referred to National Institute of Virology Pune and no positive case has been reported so far.

Ministry of Civil Aviation has been asked to issue an instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China. The airlines have also been directed to facilitate in-flight announcements and distribute health cards to all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China. Ministry of Home Affairs has asked integrated check posts to initiate screening of visitors across Nepal border.
Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy has been advised one of the people being investigated for coronavirus in Perth may test positive.

"I'm advised that one of the people being tested in Perth may be positive, and the others look like they may be negative, but that's still to be confirmed," he told a national press conference.

Western Australia's chief health officer had earlier on Monday revealed four people who had symptoms and had travelled recently were being tested in the state.

"The Western Australian Department of Health can confirm that four case are currently under investigation for the novel coronavirus," Andrew Robertson said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 12:53:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch more space science satellites in the coming three to four years, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The satellites will be used to detect electromagnetic signals associated with gravitational waves, solar eruption activities, astronomy and the interaction between solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere.

Four new missions include the Gravitational Wave Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor, the Advanced Space-borne Solar Observatory, the Einstein-Probe and the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer.

Previously, CAS has successfully launched several space science satellites including the Dark Matter Particle Explorer, the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope and the Taiji-1, China's first satellite to conduct in-orbit experiments on key technologies related to space-based gravitational wave detection.
A lot of attention in diplomatic circles has been focussed on six resolutions on Indias Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) tabled by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), including the four largest blocs within the 751-member House. What exactly do these resolutions say and what do they mean?

What do the resolutions state?

The six resolutions have been tabled as part of the European Parliaments debate on the CAA and will be taken up for discussion on January 29. This will be followed by a vote on the matter on January 30.

Most of the resolutions are scathingly critical of the CAA, while some also criticise the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the security lockdown and detentions in Jammu and Kashmir. The most critical is the resolution moved by the S&D Group, the second largest group with 154 MEPs, which states the CAA has the potential to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world. The resolution by the EPP Group, the largest group with 182 MEPs, says the law could have negative consequences for Indias international image and internal stability.

ALSO WATCH | Pro-CAA protest in Scotland on Indias 71st Republic Day

The possible impact of the resolutions

The different groups that have tabled the resolutions are working behind the scenes to agree on a compromise text that can be taken up on January 29. Even if the resolutions are debated and passed, they are not binding on the European Commission. However, they can increase pressure on the Indian government at a time when it is grappling with strong criticism from Western powers, including key European Union (EU) members such as Germany, of its handling of the situation in Kashmir, the citizenship law and the NRC implementation in Assam. Experts believe the MEPs could also lobby politicians in their home countries to raise these issues.

Impact on India-EU relations

The matter is coming up in the European Parliament at a crucial time, as the Indian prime minister is expected to visit Brussels for the India-EU Summit on March 13. One of the groups of MEPs has suggested in its resolution that the CAA should be raised during the visit. The EU has already expressed concern about the situation in Kashmir and a visit to the region by envoys of EU countries is currently being discussed by the EU mission in New Delhi and the external affairs ministry.

Though the two sides have struggled to negotiate a trade agreement, the EU is Indias largest trading partner, accounting for 92 billion euros worth of trade in goods in 2018 or 12.9% of total Indian trade, and also a key source of inward FDI, which was worth 5 billion euros in 2014. The EU is also the leading destination for Indian exports  almost 18% of the total value.

How has India reacted

There has been no official reaction so far from the external affairs ministry to the resolutions though Indian officials have reiterated the CAA is an entirely internal matter and that the law was adopted by due process and through democratic means in Parliament. However, the officials also called on the sponsors and supporters of the resolutions to engage with the Indian government to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further.
Becca Cason Thrash is a self-professed Francophile.

In 2017, she threw a "Liaisons au Louvre IV" masked ball in Paris which raised $3.4 million for the Musee du Louvre. And that's no one-off. Her 2008 black-tie bash set the bar tres high; it lured hundreds of Texans across the Atlantic and raked in $2.5 million for the French art museum and historic monument.

This is a woman who takes her American Friends of the Louvre and International Friends of the Louvre board commitments very seriously.

So a few years back, when Notre-Dame de Paris tapped Thrash for support to help restore and renovate the cathedral's roof, it pained her to decline.

"My house had just taken three feet of water from Hurricane Harvey," Thrash said. "So I had to tell Notre-Dame, 'I'd love to help with your restoration, but I'm working on my own.'"

That all changed in April 2019 when the cathedral's roof caught fire.

In the immediate aftermath, President of France Emmanuel Macron launched a fundraising campaign which brought in pledges of more than $1.5 billion from the world's wealthiest citizens in less than 24 hours.

"Pledge being the operative word," Thrash clarified. "Because the truth is, Notre-Dame hasn't received much of that money."

She has a point. Reportedly, less than $100 million has been collected to date - so Thrash decided to take action.

She turned to Steak 48 owner Jeff Mastro and the restaurant's chief branding officer Oliver Badgio, who offered up their River Oaks District hotspot for an exclusive Patrons for Notre-Dame de Paris fundraising dinner.

And that's how 200 sequin and fur-clad VIPs wound up taking over the steakhouse on Tuesday night. (#SorryNotSorry if your dinner reservation got canceled.)

The mood was decidedly Parisian. A late evening cocktail reception transitioned into an even later dinner seating, as is the French style. Glasses of Chateau Miraval Cotes de Provence rose swirled as attendees migrated from the downstairs bar to the second-floor dining room. There, by Richard Flowers of the Events Company's expert hand, dim-lit tables were covered by Lucite candelabras, and a single white flower marked each guests' place card.

The food, however, was a celebration of all things American, starting with the restaurant chain's signature monkey bread. Next, diners chose between two salad options and five entree offerings, though most ordered the petit filet mignon or bone-in ribeye -- when in Rome, er Steak 48. As main courses were served, wait-staff circled with decadent family-style sides: Chef Jeff Taylor's famous au gratin potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and corn creme brulee.

Later, a chunk of the crowd air-kissed their goodbyes before dessert. It was a school night, after all. But for those who lingered, the warm vanilla caramel cake with toasted pecans and s'mores in a jar were well worth the wait -- and calories.

Most importantly, Thrash's efforts raised $150,000 toward Notre-Dame's reconstruction, thanks in part to the evening's sole auction item, Hunt Slonem's oil on canvas painting, "Aricari."

Vive la France.
A man has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

An enlarged jury is due to be sworn in this afternoon for a trial that could take up to sixteen weeks.

Det Garda Adrian Donohoe was killed in the line of duty outside Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Co. Louth on the night of January 25, 2013.

Aaron Brady from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh denied the charge at his arraignment this morning.

Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe

He also pleaded not guilty to robbing Pat Bellew of 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques at the same location, on the same date.

Potential jurors were warned not to sit on the jury if they couldn't be completely impartial.

An additional three jurors will be sworn in because of the expected duration of the trial. Mr. J Michael White told them it could take up to sixteen weeks.
SCOTTSBORO, Ala.  Tim Cuzzort drove fast through the early morning darkness, swerving on winding country roads toward a fire that had lit up a patch of the northern Alabama sky. He had been jolted awake by a phone call, from someone alerting him to a large fire that had ripped through the marina where his daughter, her husband and their children lived in house boats.

But when he arrived, he said, all that remained of the dock on the banks of the Tennessee River was the incinerated ruins of boats, pontoons and the wooden walkway to which they had once been tied. Soon, he learned that his daughter and his grandchildren were among the eight people who were killed.

The whole dock is gone, Mr. Cuzzort said hours later, his voice quiet and uncertain. Theres nothing left.

Shortly after midnight, the authorities said, an inferno tore through the dock at Jackson County Park, a recreational area in Scottsboro, Ala., exploding fuel tanks and setting loose flaming vessels that drifted out into the river. Neighbors described seeing nothing but a wall of orange and red through their windows, and the torment of hearing the anguished cries for help.
Chennai, Jan 27 : The phones at the nadhaswaram playing couple's house in Srirangam have not stopped ringing since January 25.

The callers -- relatives, friends, fellow musicians and journalists -- have been calling the couple who are still dazed after hearing that they have been selected for the Padma Shri award.

"We always thought that we had to travel more in this field to hope for Padma awards. It was really a shock, though a pleasant one, when we heard about the Central government's decision," Sheik Mahaboob Subhani told IANS over phone on Monday.

"The award was possible mainly due to the cooperation of fellow musicians. Perhaps after a long time a nadhaswaram artiste is getting the Padma award," he added.

Nadhaswaram is a double reed wind instrument that is used as a traditional classical instrument in South India.

The couple were originally from Andhra Pradesh and had settled in Tamil Nadu in 1980s.

"We are an eighth generation of nadhaswaram artistes. My father, grandfather and their forefathers were nadhaswaram artistes. Same is the case with my wife," Subhani said.

He learnt to play the instrument first from his father Kothapalli Sheik Meera Sahib and later from his wife's paternal uncle Sheik John Sahib.

"My husband supported me to perform in public. I learnt to play the instrument from my father Sheik Meera Sahib and his younger brother Sheik John Sahib," Kaleeshabi Mahaboob told IANS.

Later the couple got trained in Carnatic vocal from K. Chandramouli, Principal, Government Sarada Sangeetha Kalasala in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.

After settling in Uraiyur in Tamil Nadu, the Subhanis learnt under the famous Sheik Chinna Moulana.

"Even before our wedding, we had performed together at a marriage function in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu," she said.

The two got married in 1977 and started their musical journey together.

Curiously, the first public performance of the couple happened in Thiruvaiyaru, considered to be among the most sacred places for Carnatic musicians.

It was at Thiruvaiyaru that saint composer Thyagaraja composed several devotional songs, mostly in praise of Lord Ram, and his samadhi is located there. A large number of Carnatic musicians regularly come and sing during the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival.

Recalling that performance with reverence, Subhani said: "Our teacher Chandramouli took us to Thiruvaiyaru where he got the permission for us to play for 10 minutes." "It was Sheik Chinna Moulana who gave his nadhaswaram to us to play there as we hadn't taken our instruments. Instead of 10 minutes, we played for nearly 40 minutes," Subhani mused.

Soon the couple decided to settle down in Uraiyur in Tiruchirappalli so that they could look for chances to perform in Tamil Nadu.

The talented couple soon got going with their performances, and at the Tiruchirappalli All India Radio, they graduated from B Grade to the top-grade artiste level.

In 1994, they received the Kalaimamani Award from the Tamil Nadu government and in 2017 the Hamsa Kala Ratna award from Andhra Pradesh government.

The couple had also released a few albums.

The duo has performed in Abu Dhabi, Belgium, Canada, Dubai, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the USA and the UK.

Life was chugging along comfortably for the couple who have three children.

"I used to perform even when I was nine months pregnant. I used to be back in circuit one month after my delivery," Kaleeshabi Mahaboob laughed.

According to Subhani, the meeting with late President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was an unforgettable moment in their lives.

"In 2005, we gave a performance at Malai Mandir in Delhi. We had expressed our wish to meet the then President Abdul Kalam to former President R. Venkataraman who was the Chairman of the temple. The next day we got the permission to meet Kalam," Subhani said.

"We performed for about two hours at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. Interacting with us, Kalam, among other things, told us that he can play the veena. As requested by Kalam, we played at some schools for mentally challenged children. Later we got a letter from Kalam thanking us," he said.

Interestingly it was Kalam who had convinced the nadhaswaram couple's son Ferose Babu to carry on the family's tradition of being a musician, rather than getting into the computer field.

"I have seen my parents struggle and wanted to work in a software company after my MCA. My mother requested me to carry on the family tradition. With my wife being agreeable, I decided to quit my job and start my music training all over again," Babu told IANS.

"Kalam said there will be hundreds of MCA degree holders but there cannot be a musical family with such a rich tradition," Babu recalled.
HARRISBURG  A 2018 Vidal ice wine from Mazza Vineyards in Erie County won the Pa. Wine Societys Wine Excellence XVIII on Sunday afternoon.

Its the second straight year that a white wine has won the intra-state event, which annually takes place at the Hilton Harrisburg. More than 100 people, the biggest crowd ever for one of these events, attended. It drew members of the Wine Society, other guests, and winemaker/owners representing most of the wineries that finished as finalists.

Dauphin County producer Armstrong Valley Winery finished runner-up with its 2017 Cabernet Franc.

The wine competition drew 88 submissions from 20 Pa. wineries. Nine wineries and 13 wines, including two ice wines from Mazza Vineyards, placed among the 13 finalists.

This has been a competition that for years included a list of 10 finalists and wine made only from vinifera grapes, but the criteria were tweaked a few years ago to allow hybrids such as Chambourcin, Traminette and Vidal. This years list deviated more than it ever has, featuring several ice wines and a port, a sparkling and also a sweet wine among the finalists.

Some surrounding states hold a gala event to announce their best wine: Theres the Governors Cup and Governors Case in Virginia, the New York Wine Classic in New York, the New Jersey Governors Cup, and the Governors Cup and Comptrollers Cup competitions in Maryland. Pennsylvanias recognition of its wines and wineries and been divvied up into four contests: the Pa. Farm Show and Wine Excellence in January, the Pennsylvania Wine Competition in March and the Sommelier Judgment Day thats announced with an accompanying event in the fall.

Mazza entered a 2017 and 2018 ice wine, both of which finished as finalists.

Thanks to some ties in the final scoring, the list of finalists increased to a bakers dozen. Its a list that includes, in alphabetical order:

Armstrong Valley (Dauphin County) Cabernet Franc 2017

Armstrong Valley Fort Halifax 1796 Port

Benignas Creek (Schuylkill County) Sunshine 2018

Briar Valley (Bedford County) Cabernet Franc 2017

Cassel Vineyards of Hershey (Dauphin County) Vidal 2017

Mazza (Erie County) Vidal Ice Wine 2017

Mazza (Erie County) Vidal Ice Wine 2018

Mazza Cabernet Franc 2017

Nissley (Lancaster County) Chardonnay Reserve 2018

Presque Isle (Erie County) Dornfelder 2017

Shade Mountain (Snyder County) Chardonnay 2017

Stony Run (Berks County) Sparkling Chardonnay 2017

Stony Run (Berks County} Gruner Veltliner 2017

As for those that received an honorable mention: Cassel Vineyards at Hershey Cabernet Franc Reserve 2016; Chaddsford (Delaware County) Merlot 2017; Folino Estate (Berks County) Merlot non-vintage; Folino Estate Pinot Noir 2017; Nimble Hill Gruner Veltliner 2018; Nimble Hill (Wyoming County) Pinot Noir 2017; Stony Run Chardonnay Reserve 2017; Stony Run Viognier 2017; Waltz (Lancaster County) Cherry Tree Merlot 2016; Waltz Crow Woods Cabernet Sauvignon 2016.

Waltz Vineyards Estate Winery won the last three Wine Excellence competitions, twice with its Cabernet Sauvignon and then last year with its 2018 Moscato. It was the first white still wine to ever win the competition. Mazza won the event with a Vidal ice wine in 2015.

Wineries that finished in the top 10 last year and returned to it this year include Benignas Creek, Cassel, Nissley and Stony Run.

Per a brochure from the Pa. Wine Association that was given out for the event, there are more than 270 licensed wineries operating across the state, the seventh highest in the country. It ranks fifth nationally in grape production and makes more than a million gallons of wine annually.

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Its a sin to tell a lie. Millions of people have lost their lives because lies were spoken.

On January 23, 2020 a gathering of the World Holocaust Forum, which coincided with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was held at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel. The event was titled , Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism. At it, a well known prayer was recited. It was the Shehecheyanu, the Hebrew prayer articulated by Jews around the world: Blessed are You Lord, Our God, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion. What was stunning and is significant is that it was uttered by the President of Germany, Walter-Frank Steinmeier. He bowed his head in deepest sorrow for the Holocaust, which he called the worst crime in the history of humanity, and he warned that the spirits of evil are emerging in the form of antisemitism.

How to explain the horrors that have and still occur in the world: genocide, massacres, terrorism, tortures, serial killers? Philosophers have struggled with the problem of evil, how to explain and reconcile its existence with or without any divine presence, and with the question of whether human beings are inclined to evil as well as to good. Simply, evil is the opposite or absence of good, manifested in personal fashion by demonic, profoundly wicked, morally bad, human beings. Literature is full of villains of this kind: Richard III, Iago, Macbeth, the Joker, Don Juan, Lucifer.

Life, for differing ideological perspectives, imitates art. The murderous dictator Joseph Stalin, heralded by some admirers as a victorious wartime leader and subject of a personality cult, was a notorious implementor of evil by mass executions, ethnic cleansing, deportations, causing famine that killed millions. One more recent example of an evil murderer is Osama bin Laden whose preoccupation was to kill Christians and Jews because of his fantasy that Islam was being attacked in Western European countries and the United States.

Another was Adolf Eichmann, whose nature was misunderstood by Hannah Arendt in portraying him as merely an intelligent bureaucrat of death for the Nazi regime, obeying orders but not an initiator of them. In fact, Eichmann was a murderous advocate of Nazi ideology, the expert for the SD, the intelligence agency of the SS, on Jewish matters. He was convinced that the Jews had declared war on Germany. He gloried in his villainy. His only expressed regret was that only six million Jews had been killed by his Nazi regime. Though historians still dispute the origin of the Holocaust, whether it was functionalist or intentionalist, whether it was or was not a master plan launched by Adolf Hitler, there is no question that Hitler was personally responsible for fostering the Holocaust.

The world has witnessed in recent decades genocides in Rwanda, Croatia, the Balkans, and massacres in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, crimes not always punished. Various groups have been victims: Roma, Sinti, Rohingya, homosexuals, and political critics, but Jews have experienced the largest and most deadly fate.

Auschwitz, is the ultimate symbol, the iconic site of evil, with its gates of hell inscribed with Arbeit Macht Frei and its use of Zyklon B in gas chambers . At least 1.1 million Jews were murdered in the facilities using 3 main camps and 40 sub camps. At Auschwitz-Birkenau, 70% of those who entered, died.

The host site of the January Forum, Yad Vashem states that Auschwitz and the Holocaust have become paradigms to measure the human capacity to engage in radical, cruel, and systematic evil. The attempt to eradicate an entire people and culture was supported and even encouraged by age-old antisemitic tropes, some of which are present in our post-Holocaust global society.

The January Forum stems from a meeting convened in Stockholm by the former Swedish prime minister, Goran Persson. Its outcome was The Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust in 2000 which was the founding document of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance . It called for a task force for international cooperation on Holocaust education, remembrance, and research.

The Declaration held that the unprecedented character of the Holocaust will always hold universal meaning. The representatives of the 46 governments present at the event held that the magnitude of the Holocaust planned and carried out by the Nazis must forever be seared in our collective memories. They agreed that the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight the evils of genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. They shared a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honor those who stood against it.

The January 23, 2020 Forum in Jerusalem was attended by a host of world famous dignitaries; Mike Pence, U.S. vice-president, Prince Charles, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron, Nancy Pelosi, kings and presidents of a number of countries., and Serge Klarsfeld, famous hunter and bringing to justice of Nazis.

It was also a battle over history as well as over the perpetrators of evil. It provided an opportunity for the leaders to express their views on various subjects.

Poland was absent because the president was told he could not speak at the Israeli event because of a dispute with Putin who had said Poland shared responsibility for World War II. Polish president Andrzej Duda accused Putin of spreading a historical lie about Poland and called Putins remarks a kind of post-Stalinist revisionism.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there must be no compromises with radical regimes with murderous ideologies: We must stop them in time, we must stand together in a broad international front. He specifically castigated Iran, which he called the most antisemitic regime on the planet. He called on all governments to join in the vital effort of confronting Iran. VP Mike Pence also described Iran as the one country that denies the Holocaust as a matter of state policy and threatens to wipe Israel off the map.

Prince Charles talked of hated and intolerance still lurking in the human heart. He spoke of the Holocaust as the story of incomparable inhumanity, from which all humanity can and must learn. Prince Charles planted a tree at the Israeli presidents residence. Mike Pence , accompanied by Netanyahu, put a note in the crevices of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Putin praised his own compatriots and their sufferings, pointing out that 40% of Jewish Holocaust victims were Soviet Jews. He commemorated the people of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, who endured a 1940 siege, and where an estimated number, 600,000-1.5 million were killed. His father was one those fighting against the siege, and his 3 year old brother had died during the blockade. He criticized Poland which had snubbed the event.

Putin helped inaugurate a memorial to the victims of the siege of Leningrad. It is a Memorial Candle monument in Sacher Park in Jerusalem designed by a team of Russian and Israeli architects. It is a large 8.5 meter high brass steel column with a cast bronze element representing a candle that is illuminated at nighttime to give the effect of an eternally burning flame, honoring those who died in Leningrad.

The intention of the Forum is that it can lead to an action plan to fight antisemitism aggressively. This is a formidable task as public opinion polls of recent years show. Among the findings is that one third of Europeans know only a little or nothing about the Holocaust. One European out of 20 has never heard of the Holocaust. In France, one in five of those aged 18-34 have never heard of it. In Austria, birthplace of Hitler, 12% of the young had not heard. In the U.S. , 10% of adults and one in five of millennials were not sure they had heard of the Holocaust. Half of the millennials, and 45% of U.S adults could not name a single concentration camp of the Nazis.

The dilemma is whether the outcome of the Forum will end the dark shadow of antisemitism. History reminds us that the International Committee of the Red Cross ,ICRC, based in Geneva, did not, until late 1942, interfere with or was largely silent about the Nazi treatment of Jews, and only became active when it seemed that Germany was going to be defeated. Similarly, in what is still a highly contentious issue, the U.S. did not bomb Auschwitz even after the horrors of the Holocaust were known. The given reason by the U.S. State and War departments that bombing would divert bombers from the battle zones is dubious.

Perhaps it is utopian to believe that sin can ever be removed, but malevolence must not be allowed to stand or triumph. It is outrageous that some misguided people believe that Jews talk too much about the Holocaust. They should know the combat against the sin of antisemitism must continue. Hitler must not win. The World Forum must lead to an active force in keeping Hitler dead.
Detectives from Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Command on Monday made a third arrest in connection with their investigation into the killing of three Indian men in a stabbing incident in east London.

The Metropolitan Police said the 29-year-old man is in custody after he was arrested on suspicion of "conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm" after he attended an east London police station on Monday.

The three men -- 29-year-old Narinder Singh Lubhaya, 30-year-old Harinder Kumar and 37-year-old Malkit Singh Dhillon alias Baljinder Singh -- were found with serious stab wounds by emergency services and pronounced dead at the scene in Seven Kings area of Redbridge in Ilford on January 19.

"All three men were living in the Ilford area and were Indian nationals. Their next of kin have all been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers," the Met Police said last week.

A man previously arrested in connection with the case, 29-year-old Gurjeet Singh, has been remanded in custody to appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on February 19 after being charged with possessing an offensive weapon in a public place this week.

While he remains under investigation in connection with the murders, a second man referred to as [B] by police arrested as part of the murder investigation has since been eliminated from police enquiries.

"I know that people were present when the attack occurred, I urge them to come forward. This is a dreadful incident that has shocked the local community. I need their help to piece together exactly what happened and the events that led up to it," said Detective Chief Inspector Paul Considine, who is leading the investigation.

The Met police has reiterated that they do not believe the fatal incident was gang-related as their enquiries around the motive behind the killings remain ongoing.

"Officers at this stage are not seeking to make any further arrests for murder," the police said.

All the men involved worked as local builders in the area and an "ongoing dispute" is feared to have escalated over the issue of non-payment for some building work.

The Indian High Commission in London said it is providing assistance with the repatriation of the bodies to families in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Management of Neoplan Ghana Limited has sent a passionate appeal to President Akufo-Addo to save the company after the announcement of its imminent closure.

According to a letter addressed to the presidency and sighted by Citi News, the Company is about to officially close down by 31st January 2020 due to lack of financial support and contracts from our majority shareholder, Government of Ghana.

In the letter, the company highlighted the reluctance of several governments to award them contracts which has negatively affected the productivity of the Company.

They further pleaded with President Akufo-Addo to come to their aid as the collapse of the firm would have a huge effect on the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.

Background

Neoplan Ghana Limited had earlier announced a total shutdown on Friday 31st January because it was not capable of working effectively due to continuous debts it kept incurring.

According to the company, the decision was influenced by the inability of the minority shareholder, the Fadoul Group, to continue funding the company on its own, while the government had stopped performing its duties as the majority shareholder.

Workers of Neoplan, complaining about the state of the company for years now, expressed fear of being laid off following this decision to shut down the firm.

Im even afraid that just tomorrow I can be sacked from the Company because of the rundown of the Company. Because we are looking forward to being paid all the time, but if the managerial team is not getting any money, it becomes hard for them to sustain the workers. All they would have to do is to send us home, Simon Darkwa, the Head of the Locksmith Department of the firm said.

Chief Accountant of the company Samuel Eghan speaking to Citi News said that the company should have been shut down a long time ago but for the reason of retaining their workers for future contracts since they still had hope of receiving new contracts.

---citinewsroom
Vernon Kruger, a 52-year-old man from Dullstroom, a small town in South Africa, hasnt set foot on the ground in 73 days, ever since he climbed into his home in the sky, a small barrel at the top of a 25-meter-tall pole.

The first time Kruger climbed into his now famous barrel was 22 years ago, as a dare. He was on a an exotic island, during a vacation, when one of his friends said why dont you break the record for sitting in a tree?. It was a joke at first, than it became a dare, so Vernon started looking into it. He learned that an Indonesian man had already broken the record by sitting in a tree for 28 days, but instead of letting it go, his friends suggested he try pole sitting instead. The record stood at 54 days at the time, so the South African set up his own pole and stood on it for 64 days. That was in 1997, and since no one managed to break his world record since, he decided to do it himself.

Photo: Michele Meacher/Facebook

Well, I dont know why anymore, Im starting to question myself, Kruger answered when asked why he took up the record breaking attempt again. The previous time I did it was a dare and that was 22 years ago, nobody has managed to beat my record. A similar attempt was made by David Blane, the magician, and they all failed, so I was approached to see whether Id raise the bar a bit.

It may sound like a very wacky challenge, but living in a small barrel at the top of an eight-storey-tall poll is no joke. There is very little space, not much to do, and youre reliant on people on the ground for things like food an water. Still, Kruger has been able to stay there for a whopping 73 days, and he doesnt plan on coming back until he reaches 78 days, at least.



It does get a bit frustrating up here especially because I cant do many things for myself, I need to rely on other people for absolutely everything, the 52-year-old said. Sleeping in this barrel is not very easy, its a very small place to curl up in and I have to lie in a foetal position.

Food is being provided by local restaurants, and hoisted up to Vernon via a wicker basket. He bathes two times a week in a small basin, and all the waste he generates goes into a septic tank under the pole, connected to his barrel through a long drainage system.

I have broken my own record now, Vernon Kruger recently told Sky News. Twenty-two years ago I broke the British record of 54 days. I took it to 67 days. This time Im going to try push it to about 80.
Large-scale protests against CAA in London on Republic Day weekend

Students, activists and representatives from several Indian diaspora and human rights organisations gathered opposite Downing Street in London to protest against Indias new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on the Indian Republic Day weekend.

The protesters describied themselves as representatives of diverse and multi-faith Indian communities across the UK. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@MoizNiyazi

The rally involved thousands of people marching while carrying placards around a mile down the street to gather outside the Indian High Commission in London.

The CAA came into force in India last December amid protests in India and around the world.

Despite facing a major diplomatic backlash from the European Union (EU) parliament and the global community, the Indian government has insisted that the new Act does not deny any citizenship rights but has been brought in to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and provide them citizenship.

As many as 600 of 751 members of the European Union parliament have moved six resolutions on both the CAA and Kashmir issues, their greatest concern arising over the likelihood of the controversial citizenship law creating the "largest statelessness crisis in the world".

The protesters, describing themselves as representative of diverse and multi-faith Indian communities across the UK, demanded that the CAA be repealed because it undermines India's secular Constitution.

They also called for the abolition of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), which they said in conjunction with the CAA, open the way for selective mass disenfranchisement of India's Muslim population.
Three weeks after he escaped from Japan, former Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn is relishing his newfound freedom and his ability to speak out about the Japanese justice system. He also has a warning for foreign executives in Japan: Watch your back.

Carlos Ghosn, former chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, gestures as he speaks to the media at the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020. Hasan Shaaban | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"If you're a foreigner working in Japan, you have to be very careful, because unless the system changes, you're playing with your life," Ghosn told CNBC during an extended interview in Beirut, Lebanon. Ghosn was arrested in Japan in November 2018 for alleged financial misconduct that included underreporting his compensation to authorities. He reportedly hid inside a musical instrument case and smuggled himself out of Japan last month to avoid criminal prosecution.

Photo provided by Istanbul Police Department shows the case which former chairman of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn hid in while fleeing from Japan , where he was held in house arrest, to Lebanon in Istanbul, Turkey on January 08, 2020. Istanbul Police Department | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

In the interview, Ghosn said spending more than a year under arrest in Tokyo gave him a sobering view of how some in Japan may view foreign business leaders. "I'm saying get out," said Ghosn. "If you have the risk of having a problem with your colleague or with your partners, you can be set up, and if you're set up nobody is gonna save you." Ghosn said some of the people he promoted while running Nissan went to prosecutors in Japan accusing him of numerous financial crimes, including not disclosing millions in deferred compensation. Since his arrest, Ghosn has vehemently denied the allegations. Now that he's free, the former titan of the auto industry says he is gathering documents to prove his innocence. He says these documents also show Greg Kelly, an American executive at Nissan who was also arrested in November 2018, is innocent.
In a news release, Lisle police said they still have not determined a motive for the shooting, but that based on the writing on the wall, McMullan, 51, may have acted out of a personal motivation. Officers who entered McMullans Hyde Park residence say she had written I hate you ... hope you two die! on a wall with the name of Rieves and a second man.
Private schools with students whose families have recently travelled to China are banning those pupils from returning to classes if they do not have medical clearances.

The New South Wales Department of Education is also encouraging all school principals to 'monitor children and staff closely for any strange illnesses.'

Both moves are precautions to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus which has been introduced to Australia from the China, where it was first detected in Wuhan.

Three of the four cases of the disease confirmed in Australia are in NSW.

Sydney's Newington College and The Scots College for boys and Kambala school for girls have told parents that students whose families had been to China would require a doctor's certificate to commence term one.

Private schools with students whose families have recently travelled to China are banning those pupils from returning to classes.Pictured are medical workers moving a coronavirus patient from the intensive care unit of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University

Newington College and The Scots College for boys and Kambala school for girls have told parents that students whose families had been to China would require a doctor's certificate to commence term one. Kambala, at Rose Bay, is pictured

The Scots College told parents in an email it had received received 'several enquiries' about coronavirus, according to the ABC.

'If your family has recently visited China, we ask that you refrain from sending your son/s to school until they have received a medical clearance from a doctor,' the email reads.

Pupils who had visited China would have to 'visit the College Clinic immediately for a preliminary check-up' before they could start classes.

Pymble Ladies College parents have also been asked to comply with strict guidelines to protect pupils and staff from the spread of the virus.

Parents were asked to keep girls home for at least 14 days from their return to Australia if they had visited China over the Christmas holidays.

Pymble girls should also not attend school within 14 days of their last contact with someone who had visited a virus-affected area, Nine.com.au has reported.

Melbourne private schools Firbank Grammar School and Scotch College have asked parents to keep their children home for 14 days if they have travelled to parts of China affected by coronavirus, according to 3AW.

Nine.com.au also reports Sydney private schools including Ravenswood School for Girls, Knox Grammar School and St Aloysius' College have issued similar guidelines.

Three men in NSW aged 43, 53 and 35 and one Victorian man aged in his 50s were confirmed to have caught the disease. Pictured are passengers arriving at Sydney Airport from Wuhan

The New South Wales Department of Education is also encouraging all school principals to 'monitor children and staff closely for any strange illnesses.' Pictured is Newington College

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said any child who had been in contact with a person confirmed as having coronavirus must not attend school or childcare for 14 days after the last contact with the infected person.

'Fourteen days represents the internationally recognised incubation period for the disease,' Dr Chant said.

'After this time the child is considered to be not be at risk of infection.'

The Scots College is among schools which have issued warnings about coronavirus

Students who had been to Wuhan and Hubei during the school holidays could return to school but should be carefully monitored for symptoms of coronavirus infection.

'The most common symptom is a fever,' Dr Chant said. 'Other symptoms include cough, sore throat and shortness of breath.'

Anyone who exhibits these symptoms should be isolated immediately from other people and seek medical attention as soon as possible.

A 21-year-old Chinese student is likely to become the fifth person in Australia to be infected by coronavirus, health authorities have said.

The nation's chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy confirmed the woman was in isolation and had tested positive to the virus in preliminary examinations.

'She is in isolation until the final confirmation,' Professor Murphy said.

'But NSW Health feel she's likely to be the fifth case in the country.'

Health authorities are working to track down people the 21-year-old woman came into contact with and potentially infected.

The news comes after three men in NSW aged 43, 53 and 35 and one Victorian man aged in his 50s were confirmed to have caught the disease.

The virus, which experts fear will 'highly likely' continue to spread in Australia, has so far killed 80 people in China and infected more than 2,000 worldwide.

Since the outbreak at the end of December, Chinese authorities have placed 56 million people in lockdown - including more than 100 Australian children aged between six months and 16 years old.
Acroamatics Telemetry Systems (Acroamatics), a Delta Information Systems Company, has been selected by Northrop Grumman to deliver multiple Model 3022AP Portable Multi-function Telemetry Processing Systems in support of the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) program production and test operations.

Northrop Grummans AARGM is a supersonic, medium-range, air-launched tactical missile compatible with U.S. and allied strike aircraft. AARGM provides the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, Italian Air Force, and the Royal Australian Airforce with the latest and most advanced weapon system to engage and destroy enemy air defenses and time-critical, mobile targets.

Acroamatics Model 3022AP is a real-time, portable Telemetry Data Processing and Simulation System (TDPSS) that features high-performance telemetry acquisition and data processing within a Linux or Windows 10 display and archive environment. This multi-function and modular processing system includes industry-leading RF Receivers, Bit Synchronizers, IRIG 106 Standard Decommutators/Simulators and IRIG Standard Time.

Acroamatics Telemetry Data Processing (TDP) striping language allows users to customize various aspects of the system, making the Model 3022AP a future-proof design. Whether the mission calls for a custom data processing function or a unique archive format, the TDP scripting language can be used with the decommutation or data processing modules to quickly support most of the end-use missions unique requirements. All of Acroamatics Telemetry Data Processing equipment, including the Model 3022AP, has been designed and tested to comply with cyber security standards and platform technologies as they evolve in todays defense and aerospace engineering sector.

Leveraging nearly 50 years of experience and generations of mission critical telemetry system products, Acroamatics latest generation of telemetry processing systems and multi-function processing card/software level solutions offer superior performance, integration, software and hardware compatibility with enterprise and portable processing and data distribution requirements. Unique OS independent embedded processor architecture assures reliable long-term support, simplified IA compliance, and trouble-free API development. Acroamatics enthusiastic team and loyal customers are the driving force of product innovation and support for the aerospace defense industry and government test ranges worldwide.

ABOUT ACROAMATICS TELEMETRY SYSTEMS

For nearly 50 years, Acroamatics Telemetry Systems has been the leading choice for engineering lab, production test, and range test & evaluation products, systems, and software for missile and aircraft telemetry test needs. For more information visit http://www.gdpspace.com, follow @Delta_Info_Sys on Twitter, or contact Cassandra Lang at clang@delta-info.com
A Croatian military helicopter crashed on Monday off the country's Adriatic coast, killing the pilot and leaving a second crew member missing, the defence ministry said.

The US-made Kiowa Warrior OH-58D helicopter was on a training flight, and an intensive search and rescue operation for the missing crew member was underway, it added.

The reasons for the crash, which occurred off the central coast in the Zlarin channel, were not immediately known.

The chopper was one of 16 armed reconnaissance helicopters donated to Croatia by the US in 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A series of unfortunate events?

Brazil is not having the best of luck in the past few months -- environmentally speaking.

Last September 2014, the state of Minas Gerais had to address a dam collapse at a detached iron ore mine which caused a landslide resulting to three human casualties.

A few months later, in April 2015, a fuel storage facility near Santos caught fire which lasted for nine days causing a suspension of a thick black smoke in the sky.

However, Brazil's "worst environmental disaster" occurred when, in the same state of Minais Gerais, a dam holding waste water from an iron broke and killed at least 13 people. More than that, the mud from the incident eventually reached the Atlantic Ocean contaminating it with toxic substances like mercury, arsenic, chromium and manganese.

Not more than a few days ago, chemical explosion occurred in Guaruja, the country's largest port located in Santos spreading toxic gas in the nearby areas, according to a report by Reuters.

The fire was reported by the local fire department to have been extinguished two days after the chemical containers caught fire, exploded and "sent poisonous gases into the sky."

BBC notes that the containers were found to be "full of acid and a disinfectant." The two chemicals apparently were not compatible with rainwater which seeped into the containers causing a life-threatening chemical reaction.

Localfrio, a logistics company in Guaruja - located on the east of Santos, Sao Paolo - was reported to be the owner and operator of the containers. Reuters reports that more than a hundred people were sent to the hospital after they inhaled toxic smoke. The same report also points to Localfrio as to why the commodity-carrying trucks were unable to access the east area of the port.

Localfrio exports chemicals used for refrigeration and general cargo. The company spokeswoman, as told by BBC, said that the containers "were filled with chloric acid and sodium dichloroisocyanurate - a cleaning and disinfectant agent." Firefighters in the area also identified rainwater, which combined with the chemicals, as the main culprit. Mayor Mario Antonieta de Brito, the local authority figure, cautioned the citizens to stay out of the rain as it may "contain chemical elements that can burn the skin."

The Guaruja fire had been extinguished. However, smoke is still enveloping the scene. Nearby homes including the cargo area were evacuated. Moreover, residents living near the port were asked to remain inside their homes. At least 66 people were recorded to be sent to the hospital due to breathing difficulties, according to BBC.

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The BSP on Monday demanded withdrawal of cases lodged by the UP government against women protesting against the amended Citizenship Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

Women have been staging protests in different parts of Uttar Pradesh, including at the historic Clock Tower here, demanding scrapping of CAA and NRC.

In a tweet, BSP supremo Mayawati said, "Wrong cases filed against women and others protesting against CAA/NRC by the



BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government should be immediately withdrawn, and those who lost their lives during this time should also be extended proper help, this is the demand of BSP."



Around 100 women protesters have been booked for violating prohibitory orders at the clock tower here.

"A case has been registered against 10 women and 100 unidentified women for violating Section 144 of CrPC, while protesting at Ghantaghar. Apart from this, eight persons have been arrested," Station House Officer of Thakurganj Police Station Pramod Mishra had said on Saturday.

The dharna at Lucknow's Clock Tower is on the lines of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protest against CAA and NRC.

Women protestors have said their stir will continue until the Centre scraps the CAA and the NRC.

Nearly 20 people have been killed in the state after violence erupted during anti-CAA protests last month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

VST Tillers Tractors share price gained 4.5 percent in the morning trade on January 27 after the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Europe-based manufacturer.

"We entered in to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Zetor Tractors a.s. from Czech Republic manufacturers of tractors, components, engines and transmission over seven decades and having the

registered office at Brno, Czech Republic," the company said in a BSE filing.

"These players with over 120 years of combined experience agreed upon the joint product development, manufacturing and business plan for tractors with a horsepower greater than 36 HP for India and global

markets."

VST Tillers has manufacturing facilities in Tamil Nadus Hosur and Maluru and Mysuru in Karnataka, where it also has its corporate office in Bengaluru.

Zetor Tractors exports to more than 56 countries and has a customer base of 1.3 million.

The stock has rallied more than 30 percent in the last one month. It was quoting at Rs 1,400, up Rs 53.75, or 3.99 percent, on the BSE at 1024 hours.
Any week that kicks off with drinks beneath a giant redwood tree is bound to be pretty great.

Keep it going with CUESA's Winter Cocktails tasting event at the Ferry Building, a special dinner with Heath Ceramics at Chez Panisse, a Chinese New Year celebration at Presidio Social Club, and a spectacular modern flamenco performance at Herbst Theater. Plus, eat your weight in croissants at Arsicault Bakery's new location and catch a flick at SF IndieFest.

Have a good one!

Monday, January 27th See on Instagram Wine + Japanese Steak Seatings at 5:45pm and 8:15pm, last Monday of every month The Butcher Shop by Niku Steakhouse, 57 Division St. (SoMa), nikubutchershop.com The Niku Steakhouse team is putting together an intimate monthly wine dinner in their neighboring Butcher Shop. This Monday, taste special bottles from Napa-based Ashes and Diamonds. // Reservations ($285 per person) can be made by emailing nikureservations@nikusteakhouse.com.

Double Standard's 5th Anniversary Bash 8pm to midnight The Double Standard, 2424 Telegraph Ave. (Oakland), doublestandardbar.com Celebrate five years of one of our favorite Oakland bars with live DJ beats, food, and drinks beneath the neighborhood watering hole's towering redwood trees. // Details on Facebook.

Remembering the Holocaust Through Film 9am to 8pm Goethe-Institut San Francisco, 530 Bush St #204 (Chinatown), goethe.de It's International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. To commemorate the occasion, Litquake, Berlin International Literature Festival, and Goethe-Institut are co-presenting Claude Lanzmann's nine-and-a-half hour 1985 documentary film Shoah, featuring first-person accounts from Holocaust survivors. // Free to attend, find more info on litquakeyearround2020.sched.com.

Tuesday, January 28th See on Instagram Happy Hour in the Presidio 5pm to 6:30pm, Mondays through Thursdays The Commissary, 101 Montgomery St. (Presidio), thecommissarysf.com Cap the workday with a new social hour menu of delightful Spanish tapasthink croquettes, pan con tomate, jamon serrano, and patatas bravasat The Commissary. Don't miss the housemade sangria. // View the full menu on thecommissarysf.com.

Speaker Series: Art, Architecture + Design 6pm Museum of Craft and Design, 2569 Third St. (Dogpatch), sfmcd.org In advance of presenting their new project, "Shelter.2020," at this year's Venice Biennale, Studiolo Berlin founder Lukas Feireiss and architect Leopold Banchini will be at Dogpacth's Museum of Craft and Design to speak about the convergence of art, architecture, and design. // Tickets ($8; free for members) can be purchased at the door.

Heath Ceramics + Chez Panisse Reservation available from 5:30pm Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Ave. (Berkeley), chezpanisse.com See Chez Panisse's new collection of dinnerware created by Heath Ceramics at one of two special dinner seatings tonight. Say hey to Alice Waters herself, as well as Heath's owners. // $500 per person, including wine pairings by Beaune Imports; call 510.548.5525 to reserve.

Sustainable Fashion and Beauty Chat Canopy, 595 Pacific Ave. (Jackson Square), canopy.space Learn more about sustainability in fashion and beauty during a panel discussion with Careste founder Celeste Markey and BeautyCounter's Jenn Indra; Fashion Community Week host Po On Yeung will moderate. Plus, shop the pop-up from sustainable styling service Senseduo. // RSVP on senseduo.com.

Wednesday, January 29th See on Instagram Chinese New Year Celebration

6pm to 9pm Presidio Social Club, 563 Ruger St. (Presidio), presidiosocialclub.com Back for the second year, Presidio Social Club's Chinese New year event will include a walk-around affair of dim sum stations (hello, orange chicken, pork buns, shumai dumplings, and duck noodles) and lion dancers. // Tickets ($75/all food stations plus 2 drink tickets; $125/access to all food stations plus open bar) can be purchased on Eventbrite.

Winter Cocktails 5:30pm to 8pm San Francisco Ferry Building (Embarcadero), ferrybuildingmarketplace.com CUESA and the U.S. Bartenders Guild are putting together a night of delicious drinks. Head upstairs to the Ferry Building's Grand Hall for sips of 14 cocktails from local bartenders repping spots like Liholiho Yacht Club, Junior, Elda, and Elixir. You'll get four full-sized signature cocktails and unlimited sips of sample-size drinks, plus small bites from Bay Area restaurants. // Tickets ($55-$60) can be found on Eventbrite.

Wine + Yoga 6:30pm Eristavi Winery, 1300 Potrero Ave. (Mission), eristaviwinery.com Get over the hump with a special one-hour CorePower vinyasa class inside Eristavi Winery's calming barrel room. After, stick around for a a glass of wine. // Tickets ($12) can be purchased on Eventbrite.

SF Indie Fest Through February 13 Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. (Mission), roxie.com, and Victoria Theater, 2961 16th St. (Mission), victoriatheatre.org You can Netflix and chill anytime. Starting tonight and for the next two weeks, join fellow film enthusiasts for SF IndieFest, with screenings of international flicks. Opening night films include Woman in Motion (8pm at Victoria Theater), a documentary about Star Trek star and civil rights activist Nichelle Nichols (aka Lt. Uhura), who will be in attendance with director Todd Thompson; and Come As You Are (7pm at Roxie Theater), a coming of age movie about kids with disabilities directed by the Bay Area's Richard Wong (Colma, the Musical) and starring Gabourey Sidibe and Janeane Garofalo. Also catch special showings of The Big Lebowski, American Psycho, the 10th annual "Super Bowl Comedy Show: Men in Tights," The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, and Ibiza: The Silent Movie. // For tickets and schedule, go to sfindie.com. Thank you to our partners at SF Indie Fest.

Thursday, January 30th See on Instagram The Great Cable Car Chase 7pm Meet up at A Runner's Mind, 3575 Sacramento St. (Presidio Heights), arunnersmind.com What's fastera human or a cable car? Find out at the Great Cable Car Chasea monthly event where a group of runners will race the Powell-Hyde cable car from Bay to Chestnut streets. // Free to participate; find event details on Facebook.

Opening Reception: Jamil Hellu and Natalie Krick 6pm to 9pm

SF Camerawork, 1011 Market St. (SoMa), sfcamerawork.org Tonight, SF Camerawork hosts the opening of two new exhibits of photography and videography. In his installation Together, Jamil Hellu explores queer visibility through self-portraiture; meanwhile, Natalie Krick's works showcase an entirely different style of portraiture through themes of camp and Neo Noir.

A New Irish Bar 4pm to 2am Wednesday to Friday; 3pm to 2am Saturdays and Sundays Casements, 2351 Mission St. (Mission), casementsbar.com Lads and lasses, team yer McVicker's Proud Mary and Guiness with meat and potato stew, hand pies, and soda bread at this new Mission watering hole from a team that hails from Virgil's Sea Room, Driftwood, and Wesburger

Friday, January 31st See on Instagram Nob Hill's New Cannabis Dispensary 10am to 10pm daily California Street Cannabis Company, 1398 California St. (Nob Hill), californiastreetcannabis.com Maryjane is moving into Nob Hill with the arrival of California Street Cannabis Company, from the bar experts and neighborhood business owners behind Tonic, Soda Popinski's, and Teeth. Shop edibles, vapes, flower, topicals, tinctures and more from Northern California growers and makers including Kiva Confections, Sherbinski's, Cann, and Willie's (as in Nelson) Reserve.

Redwood Room's Roaring Return Redwood Room, 495 Geary St. (TenderNob), redwoodroomsf.com Ring in the roaring 2020s at the newly refurbished Redwood Room, where Art Deco glamour meets modern hospitality. Don your flapper best for an evening of dancing to music by Hella Fitzgerald, and of course plenty of Champagne and cocktails to go around. // Free tickets on Eventbrite.

The Case of the Vanishing Firefish 7pm to 8:30pm, with additional showtimes on Saturday and Sunday Cubberley Theatre, 4120 Middlefield Rd. (Palo Alto) Catch a new play based on Ajay Chowdhury's original novel of bedtime stories told by a father to his daughters. In the interpretation, 10-year old Ayesha is on a mission to figure out what is causing the disappearance of the ocean's bioluminescent phytoplankton. With a talking dolphin, wormholes, and appearances by Stephen Hawking, the Dalai Lama, and Antoni Gaudi it's one trippy little journey. // Tickets ($15-$50) are available at Eventbrite.

Friday Night at OMCA 5pm to 9pm Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. (Oakland), museumca.org If you've yet to see OMCA's No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, seize the chance for a nighttime viewing of the popular exhibit, which has been extended through February 16th. Also take part in lucky red envelope making for Lunar New Year, munch endless bites from Off the Grid food trucks, shop goods by local artisans, and groove to DJ sets. // Details and tickets (prices vary) are available at museumca.org.

USS Hornet History Mystery Tour

7pm to 10pm USS Hornet Museum, 707 West Hornet Ave. (Alameda), uss-hornet.org Take an after-hours peek at hidden areas of the USS Hornet that aren't usually open to the public. Tour the Combat Information Center, Radio Central, Brig, Special Weapons Locker, and Boiler Rooms. By the end of this three-hour tour, you'll know for sure if the ship is actually haunted. // Tickets ($35) are available on Eventbrite.

Saturday, February 1st See on Instagram Hopocalypse Beer Festival

1pm to 5pm Drake's Barrel House, 1933 Davis St., #177 (San Leandro), drinkdrakes.com IPA lovers should head over to Drake's today for two special pours: Hopocalypse Double IPA and Hopocalypse Triple IPA, alongside beers from 10 other local craft breweries. There will also be a blind tasting booth, sensory room. and training stations. // Tickets ($40) can be purchased on drinkdrakes.com.

Theatre Flamenco's "Soul y Alma" 8pm Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. (Civic Center) Spain's critically acclaimed dancer Eduardo Guerrero will take the stage for Theatre Flamenco's 53rd home season in a performance of "Soul y Alma." In addition to dramatic flamenco dancing and live music, this innovative show also includes a live performance by the Gospel Chorus of Glide Ensemble. // Tickets ($25 and up) can be purchased on cityboxoffice.com.

Endless Croissants Open daily at 7am Arsicault Bakery, 87 McAllister St. (Civic Center) ICYMI, famed croissant maker Arsicault Bakery has opened a second location in hush-hush manner. Jump on the opportunity to get the best fresh baked croissant in the city with less of a linethat is, until word gets out.

Quantum Flow Fitness Classes at 8:30am and 10:10am Core40, 3726 Cesar Chavez (Noe Valley), core40.com Squeeze in a weekend workout at Core40 with Quantum Flow Method creator Juan Pablo Barahona. During this sweaty 40-minute class, you'll activate your muscles and increase your flexibility and focus with core moves and interval training. Need some more motivation? Class is free! // Rregister on mindbodyonline.com.

Night of Ideas 7pm to 2am 2nd Floor of San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St. (Civic Center), sfpl.org This year's Night of Ideas follows the theme "Living on the Edge." Do so during seven hours of events including philosophical debate, lectures, interactive exhibits, dance, music, and other performances that bring top minds and talents together. Painter-poet-writer Obi Kaufmann will give the keynote. // Free to attend, register via nightofideassf.com.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that high-ranking officers were among the dead after the aircraft was shot down around 1.10 p.m. (local time), Mail Online reported.

Kabul, Jan 27 (IANS) The Taliban on Monday claimed that it had shot down an American military plane in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province in Afghanistan, killing everyone on board, a media report said.

The US military said it is investigating the crash but did not confirm that the aircraft was American or gave an estimate on the deaths.

Mujahid spoke after footage was posted online by a Taliban-affiliated journalist appearing to show plane wreckage with the US Air Force symbol.

Whilst most of the jet was a charred wreck, a USAF symbol was clearly visible on an engine attached to the tail fin of the plane, which could be a Bombardier E-11A aircraft used by the US military for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

Initial reports had said a Boeing jet belonging to state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines had caught fire and crashed in central Ghazni province in Afghanistan on Monday.

The passenger plane had 83 people on board when it crashed due to technical reasons, the Mail Online report had quoted officials, with no information as yet on the casualties.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor's office in Ghazni city, said: "A Boeing plane belonging to the Ariana Afghan Airline crashed in Sado Khel area of Deh Yak district of Ghazni province around 1.10 p.m. (local time)."

Ariana Airlines, however, said all its planes were safe.

The crash site was around around 130 km south west of Kabul, and reported to be under Taliban control.

tsb/bg
The long-awaited Mumbai nightlife policy came into force on Sunday on a cautious note, offering an opportunity to people to shop, dine and explore round-the- clock a city that never sleeps.

While the policy is still to become a big draw with mall owners, who have to iron out issues related to additional costs, manpower and late night footfalls, the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra is hopeful of Mumbai's nightlife gaining momentum in the coming weeks and months.

Cleared by the state Cabinet on January 22, the 'Mumbai 24 Hours' policy allows shops, eateries and theatres in malls and mill compounds located in non-residential areas to remain open round-the-clock. The policy came into force from the January 26 midnight.

In upscale Nariman Point and Worli areas, several shopping malls remained closed during the night though this is being blamed on lack of awareness about the new regime.

However, Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray, seen as the prime mover behind the Mumbai 24x7 initiative, sounded optimistic.

"It would gather pace in the coming weeks when people will start realising that it is safe for them to come out late night and enjoy," he told reporters late Sunday night when asked about several shopping malls remaining shut.

He said a huge response to the move on the very first night was anyway not expected.

Mumbai nightlife is going to be a permanent arrangement and not an event for a couple of days or weekends, said Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

"Several malls and supermarkets have yet to reschedule shifts of their workforce to align with the nightlife policy.

"Shopping is available online (round-the-clock) but retail shops are generally open till 10 pm. Under our new policy, they can continue to operate overnight as well," said Aaditya Thackeray.

Sources attributed the not so enthusiastic start to the policy to little awareness about the overall concept and the services that are covered under it.

The minister said, "The shops complying with safety and waste processing norms are being allowed to operate under the nightlife policy".

He said Mumbai is safe for all and it will remain so.

"This policy has been finalised only after discussions with mall operators and BMC officials over the last two years. More and more shops will participate in it in coming weeks for sure," he said.

As per the policy, keeping shops, malls and eateries open in the night is optional and not mandatory.

Explaining the rationale behind the need of such a policy, Aaditya Thackeray had said on Wednesday that Mumbai is a "24x7 functional city" where people who work in night shifts and tourists in transit need to have access to food in late hours.

Bars, permit rooms and pubs are currently excluded from the purview of the policy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Depending on how you feel about cats, the feline situation on the island of Cyprus is either the stuff of a delightful childrens story or a horror film to be avoided at all cost.

Despite being surrounded on all sides by water, the cat populationan estimated 1.5 millioncurrently outnumbers human residents. The overwhelming majority are feral, though as we learn in the above episode of PBS EONS, they, too, can be considered domesticated. Like the other 600,000,000-some living members of Felis Catus on planet Earthwhich is to say the type of beast we associate with litterboxes, laser pointers, and Tender Vittlesthey are descended from a single subspecies of African wildcat, Felis Silvestris Lybica.

While theres no single narrative explaining how cats came to dominate Cyprus, the story of their global domestication is not an uncommon one:

An ancient efficiency expert realized that herding cats was a much better use of time than hunting them, and the idea quickly spread to neighboring communities.

Kidding. Theres no such thing as herding cats (though there is a Chicago-based cat circus, whose founder motivates her skateboard-riding, barrel-rolling, high-wire-walking stars with positive reinforcement)

Instead, cats took a commensal path to domestication, lured by their bellies and celebrated curiosity.

Ol Felis (Felix!) Silvestris (Sufferin Succotash!) Lybica couldnt help noticing how human settlements boasted generous supplies of food, including large numbers of tasty mice and other rodents attracted by the grain stores.

Her inadvertent human hosts grew to value her pest control capabilities, and cultivated the relationship or at the very least, refrained from devouring every cat that wandered into camp.

Eventually, things got to the point where one 5600-year-old specimen from northwestern China was revealed to have died with more millet than mouse meat in its systema pet in both name and popular sentiment.

Chow chow chow.

Interestingly, while todays house cats gene pool leads back to that one sub-species of wild mackerel-tabby, its impossible to isolate domestication to a single time and place.

Both archeological evidence and genome analysis support the idea that cats were domesticated both 10,000 years ago in Southwest Asia and then again in Egypt 6500 years later.

At some point, a human and cat traveled together to Cyprus and the rest is history, an Internet sensation and an if you cant beat em, join em tourist attraction.

Such high end island hotels as Pissouris Columbia Beach Resort and TUI Sensatori Resort Atlantica Aphrodite Hills in Paphos have started catering to the ever-swelling numbers of uninvited, four-legged locals with a robust regimen of healthcare, shelter, and food, served in feline-specific tavernas.

An island charity known as Cat P.A.W.S. (Protecting Animals Without Shelter) appeals to visitors for donations to defray the cost of neutering the massive feral population.

Sometimes they even manage to send a furry Cyprus native off to a new home with a foreign holidaymaker.

Related Content:

An Animated History of Cats: How Over 10,000 Years the Cat Went from Wild Predator to Sofa Sidekick

Medieval Cats Behaving Badly: Kitties That Left Paw Prints  and Peed  on 15th Century Manuscripts

A New Photo Book Documents the Wonderful Homemade Cat Ladders of Switzerland

Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, theater maker and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine. Join her in NYC on Monday, February 3 when her monthly book-based variety show, Necromancers of the Public Domain celebrates New York, The Nations Metropolis (1921). Follow her @AyunHalliday.
The Great Falls-based Center for Mental Health is soliciting bids for the construction of a new group home in Helena.

According to CEO Sydney Blair, the new home will serve adults who meet the definition of a chronic disabling mental illness.

"We've envisioned it as a long-term facility for adults in need of care and rehabilitation," Blair said.

The new home will add 12 beds to the Center for Mental Health's current 14-bed capacity, according to Chief Financial Officer Rich Moog.

Two dilapidated buildings on 16th Street will be demolished to make way for the new construction.

The total cost of the project is $1.5 million, with $450,000 of that funded by a Community Development Block Grant the organization received in 2017 and the rest funded by the Center for Mental Health directly.

Blair hopes this illustrates the organization's willingness to invest in the Helena community.

"We are always evaluating those who need additional structure and support," Blair said. "Currently, we have two facilities in Helena. We hope to open this one to serve these individuals and to promote dignity and respect."

Moog said the new facility is set to open with 24-hour staffing. However, he said that could change in the future, depending on the needs of the community.

Based on staffing levels at its other locations, the Center for Mental Health is estimating the new facility will need an equivalent of 7.25 full-time staff positions, but that could also change.

"When you have the kind of occupancy we have in Helena it highlights the need for more resources," Moog said. "This is a commitment to the fact that we see a need and we are investing back in the area."

In terms of design, Moog said the organization is aiming for a more residential look and feel to the group home.

Currently, the project is on track to begin construction in March and be completed in September. The organization hopes to have patients in the facility by fall 2020.

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Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The statewide minimum wage set by Missouri law is $9.45 an hour, up from $8.60 in 2019. The federal minimum wage, which hasnt changed since 2009, is $7.25 an hour.

On Jan. 17, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson set $15 as the new minimum wage for the citys lowest-paid civil service employees. City Treasurer Tishaura Jones last year did the same when she won approval of a new $15 minimum wage for 99 of her offices lowest-paid jobs, including many in the city parking division.

Mondays protest was noted by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said in a post on Twitter that he stands with SEIU Local 1 and its allies who are risking arrest today in St. Louis to fight for living wages and respect on the job.

At the event, Charles Harris said he has been a janitor for the Whitfield School for 17 years and makes $10 an hour.

With a $15-per-hour wage, Harris said, You can put more food on the table. ... And you can afford your house.

He added: Its like dignity. You want dignity for you and your family.

Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
A man wears a mask following the outbreak of a new virus as people arrive from the international terminal at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, where a hospital has a confirmed case of the deadly virus from China. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP) Read more

UPDATE: Health officials said Tuesday that the exchange student has tested negative for coronavirus, but William Penn still is dealing with fallout.

Philadelphia health officials are investigating whether a Chinese exchange student at William Penn Charter School may have contracted coronavirus, the respiratory illness that has sickened thousands and killed 80 people in China, where it originated. The school later told parents that it was ending the exchange program.

The possible victim was among a group of 18 high school students and three adults from China who are visiting Penn Charter. They had a connecting flight in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, on the way to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York earlier this month, Sharon Sexton, a spokesperson for the school, said in a statement.

Health officials have informed the school that the exposure time in Wuhan was limited, and it is important to know that many other common respiratory viruses are circulating in China and here in the United States at this time, so the students illness is more likely to be caused by one of those viruses, Sexton said.

The exchange students arrived at the school last Tuesday and will return next Tuesday, she said.

On Monday night, 6ABC reported that the head of Penn Charter sent a letter to parents notifying them that he was ending the exchange program.

Although we have not been advised that it is necessary or advisable for us to cancel the exchange for medical or public health reasons, I make this decision because of the following factors, Darryl J. Ford wrote in the letter, posted on 6ABCs website. He cited parent and student concern, the disruption to the educational program, uncertainty about when the school will learn about the test results, the media presence Monday at the school, and reports citing the Chinese government as saying the virus can be spread even though a person is not showing symptoms.

Penn Charter will be open [Tuesday], and we look forward to resuming our normal, robust program with a full complement of students," Ford wrote.

More than 100 people in 26 states have been investigated for possible infection with the virus. Of that group, five have been confirmed as having the illness  all after traveling in the area of Wuhan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Also, 32 have tested negative, and the rest of the 110 have not yet had their cases resolved, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Health officials said Americans should be far more concerned about the flu, which has claimed at least 8,000 lives this season. Thats a typical toll, though many in the United States avoid getting a flu shot. No one in the U.S. has died of coronavirus.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health was notified of the potential case on Friday. The student sought medical attention in Montgomery County, and health officials there sent samples to the state for testing, said James Garrow, a spokesperson for the citys health department. Results are expected this week.

Sexton said the students symptoms had improved since last week.

The symptoms of coronavirus are similar to respiratory viral infections or the influenza virus  cough, fever, and shortness of breath. Coronavirus symptoms are mostly respiratory, without the muscle aches and fatigue common with the flu.

The CDC has said the current threat to the U.S. is low, but in an effort to control an outbreak, the guidelines for referring a case for further testing are broad: basically anyone who has traveled to China and is experiencing flu-like symptoms, Garrow said.

This is a rapidly changing situation. The guidance will change from day to day. We wouldnt be surprised if we did get a case or two here, Garrow said.

The city health department has dispatched doctors to the East Falls school to talk to parents about coronavirus and how to take precautions against infection.

The recommendations are no different for the flu at this point, Garrow said.

The CDC recommends that anyone suspected of having a coronavirus infection be isolated to avoid infecting others.

For everyone else, the CDC recommendations for protecting against infection are similar to precautions against spreading typical winter illness: cover your mouth with the inside of an elbow when you sneeze or cough, wash your hands frequently, and stay home if you feel sick.

Face masks, like those used by doctors during surgery, may be helpful if worn by someone who is sick in order to keep germs from spreading, but science has not shown them to be effective in protecting healthy people from getting sick, Garrow said.

Whenever you get in a situation where theres a novel virus ... its scary, Garrow said. But the flu is worse, and it is here, and it is spreading throughout the city, he said.

Six people have died from the flu here this season, he said. He encouraged everyone to get a flu shot.

Still, the health department is keeping a close eye on coronavirus, he said.

Chinese officials have identified more than 2,744 infections and 80 deaths from the virus, which is believed to have originated in a large animal market in Wuhan.

The five U.S. residents with confirmed infections live in Arizona, California, Illinois, and Washington. Five U.S. airports are screening passengers from China to ensure they dont have symptoms.

As area college students return from winter break, administrators are also being vigilant.

Temple University emailed its students from China  even though not all returned home during the break  as well as any faculty and staff known to have traveled to China. The email summarized the CDC advisories about coronavirus, symptoms, and what to do in case of illness, said Mark Denys, Temples senior director of health services.

About 1,500 Temple students are from China, accounting for just over 40% of the universitys international student population, according to Temples 2017-18 fact book.

Temple has not been notified of any potential cases, but wants students, faculty, and staff to know what to do if they suspect illness, Denys said. The schools health service has added to its seasonal flu and cold public health campaign to also alert students about coronavirus, with additional information on its website.

Right now, theres no reason to have great concern. Its something to monitor and keep an eye on, he said.

Staff writers Tom Avril and Robert Moran contributed to this article.
President Trump made a thinly veiled incitement of violence against the leader of the House Democrats prosecuting the impeachment case against him in the Senate. Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man, Trump tweeted Sunday morning. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!

The Sunday morning message comes in the wake of a previous Trump retweet of a photo-shopped picture showing House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer in Muslim garb in front of an Iranian flag, after Democrats voiced mild criticism of Trumps drone-missile assassination of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani.

White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

The Trump tweet, sent out to more than 60 million followers, is certain to swell the number of death threats sent to Schiff and other congressional Democratic leaders as the political tensions over the impeachment trial escalate.

Congressional Republicans denied that Trumps statement was an incitement to violence, when the issue was raised with them on Sunday morning television interview programs. Senator James Lankford, speaking on the CNN program State of the Union, said, I dont think its a death threat. I dont think hes encouraging a death threat.

The denial was remarkably limp. And CNN interviewer Jake Tapper responded, People who are supporters of the president have heard his rhetoric and then actually tried to bomb and kill politicians and the media.

Schiff himself appeared on the NBC program Meet the Press Sunday and described Trump as a wrathful and vindictive president, citing the tweet a few hours earlier. Asked by interviewer Chuck Todd whether this was a threat, Schiff replied, I think its intended to be.

Significantly, Schiff raised the threat only at the end of his interview, spending most of his time on the program defending US intelligence agencies against criticisms made by Trumps defense counsel during the two-hour Senate session on Saturday morning, where the defense began its rebuttal of the House impeachment case.

Responding to a question about the decision of the Trump defense team to declare that Trump had every right to question the conclusion of the intelligence community that Ukraine did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Schiff said, I was surprised. I think it was a huge mistake. Basically, what he did  he continues to believe Russian propaganda over his own intelligence agencies, over his own FBI director and that makes him dangerous to our country. 

He continued, It's astonishing. And, you know, for on the first day of the president's defense to say, The president should disbelieve his own intelligence agencies. He has every right to believe Vladimir Putin, I wouldn't want to be making that argument.

This continued the vitriolic anti-Russian line of the final day of the Democratic prosecution on Friday, when Schiff and the other House managers repeatedly suggested that Trump was acting on behalf of Putin in his actions in relation to Ukraine.

At one point, Schiff played a video of the news conference in Helsinki, Finland, where Trump appeared side-by-side with Putin and endorsed Putins denial of charges of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections (for which not a shred of evidence has been provided, despite claims to the contrary by US intelligence agencies and the corporate media).

Thats one hell of a Russian intelligence coup, Schiff said. I would submit to you that in the entire length of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had no such success. No such success.

Schiff later showed a clip of the late Republican Senator John McCain denouncing Russia and hailing the bipartisan US government policy of supporting the ultra-right government in Ukraine established through a CIA-backed destabilization operation in 2014. He quoted McCain declaring, We are all Ukrainians, and reiterated suggestions that the US was fomenting war in eastern Ukraine as a substitute for fighting Russian troops in the streets of America.

While Trump appeals to his ultra-right Christian fundamentalist and white supremacist supportersincluding an unprecedented appearance at Fridays March for Life rally in Washington, the first ever presidential address given in person to the anti-abortion eventthe Democrats are making a thoroughly reactionary appeal to the military-intelligence apparatus, seeking to uphold its authority against the occupant of the White House.

The infighting within the ruling elite that has produced the impeachment of Trump will continue regardless of the likely foreordained outcome of the Senate trial. This was signaled by the publication Sunday night on the New York Times website of an article based on the unpublished manuscript of a forthcoming book by Trumps former national security adviser, John Bolton.

The article, most likely the product of a leak by Bolton himself, outlines what he would say if called as a witness in the Senate trialan eventuality that may still materialize, if four Republican senators break ranks and agree to summon him as a witness in a vote later this week.

By the Times account, Bolton would substantially bolster the House impeachment case, describing personal conversations with Trump in which the president said he wanted to maintain a freeze on $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until the Ukrainian government agreed to help Trumps reelection campaign by announcing investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and alleged Ukrainian intervention in the 2016 election.

The House case against Trump on the withholding of Ukraine aid has been largely circumstantial, because those top aides in direct contact with Trump during the summer of 2019 have refused to testify, including Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

Bolton, a ferocious militarist and advocate of the 2003 Iraq war, was fired by Trump in early September under murky circumstances, which appear to include his opposition to the temporary freeze on aid to Ukraine, which apparently disrupted a planned military offensive in eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed separatist forces.

White House officials have said that they would invoke executive privilege in the event the Senate votes to call Bolton as a witness in the impeachment trial, creating the possibility of a lengthy court battle that could delay the resolution of the trial for months.

The Times article appears to have been coordinated with the congressional Democratic leadership. Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer issued a joint statement within minutes of its publication, demanding Bolton appear as a witness. There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the presidents defense, they said.

The alignment of the Democratic leadership with Bolton, a longtime advocate of a US war against Iran, only demonstrates the reactionary nature of both sides in the conflict within the US ruling elite. While Trump incites fascist violence against the Democrats, they seek to represent the interests of the military-intelligence apparatus.
A 16-year-old Victorian girl was sexually assaulted and other teens left traumatised during a nightmare overnight train journey in India taken as part of the esteemed World Challenge program.

High school girls, surrounded by men, were forced to huddle together for safety in the overnight sleeper beds while desperate teachers accompanying the group went without sleep to patrol the carriages and keep the teenagers safe.

In a ticketing bungle, young, vulnerable students were booked across separate carriages on the crowded Indian train.

Lisa O'Connor, whose teenage daughter was assaulted on the train, also claims World Challenge organisers waited a week to contact her directly about the frightening incident.
El-Bahth aan Khalas  Azmat El-Dawla wel-Islam wel-Hadatha fi Masr (The quest for Salvation  The crisis of state, Islam and modernity in Egypt) by: Sherif Younis, (Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation), 2014

A state stranded between an assumed, and in fact deceptive, dream of religion-based "imperialhood," and a failed dream of a strong nation state is inevitably a sad story. This is actually a story of failed institutionalisation of the modern state.

This is basically the argument that political historian Sherif Younis is arguing in his 2014 book El-Bahth aan Khalas  Azmat El-Dawla wel-Islam wel-Hadatha fi Masr (The quest for Salvation  The crisis of state, Islam and modernity in Egypt).

Published by the General Egyptian Book Organisation in the wake of the elimination of the rule of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, the first president to rule after the January Revolution, this book was designed perhaps to argue the case for the need of a modern state that is freed from the assumed  at times contradicting but not always mutually exclusive - schemes of the "July Regime" or the "Islamist Movement".

Both schemes, which have used the highly misleading base of identity, one way or the other, Younis argues in a voluminous book of 400 pages, have failed the true requirements of a fully modern state.

The book is not offering any sympathy either for the regime that "the Free Officers assembled after their coup in 1952"  with all its manifestations from Gamal Abdel-Nasser to Hosni Mubarak  or to the "manipulative schemes of Islamsits, including the Muslim Brotherhood." It is rather critical of both concepts as inapt for modernity.

The fact that one of these trends would step in to fill a vacuum created by the failure of the other, Younis argues, is no indication that either could allow for Egypt to finally find its path towards true modernity. Neither has had the answer to Egypt's problem, he insists.

With a host of introductory chapters that set the reader into the mood of seeing the authors distinct determination to separate the question of identity from that of modernity, when it comes to statehood, Younis is dedicating the biggest part of his 14-chapter book to depict the reasons behind the continued dilemma that haunted subsequent regimes, from that of the khedives as established by Mohamed Ali, in the early 19th century, and his heirs, through the monarchy and subsequent republic rulers.

In a very clever construct, Younis designs the sequence of his book in the order that would put the reader in a constant comparison between the "July Regime" that he argues saw its last days upon the January Revolution, and the "Islamist Movement" which he suggested lost its last bet post, or maybe during, the January moment.

For Younis, the failures were only inevitable for any type of "statehood" that is based on depending on the army to promise a modern state, as the July Regime seemed to do, or on the Quranic text to assume the legitimacy to rule, as the Islamists would claim.

As he argues his case, Younis is often offering the reader detailed pictures of the layered dynamics that often involve multiple agents  like political parties and religion institutions  that come together in a battle of power that is not conducive to the pursuit of modernity.

It is only when all these agents come to terms with the fact that it takes more than religion and more than an army, along with an ultra security mechanism, that Egypt would finally find the path of salvation from the long, redundant and false question of state and identity.

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PHOENIXVILLE  Chester County is one of only two in all of Pennsylvania where population is growing.

And while thats good news on the economy side, it can also make it hard to find affordable housing to take advantage of that economy.

Thats why U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th Dist., held a roundtable on affordable housing and transportation on Thursday, Jan. 23, prior to her town hall meeting at the Colonial Theater.

Not all the jobs available in Chester County are top-level jobs, but many of the mid-level and lower-paying jobs are in places where the housing is too expensive for those workers to live, said Houlahan.

Someone making minimum wage has to work 86 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom home in Chester County, she said. The strain is very real here.

Houlahan listed a number of bipartisan bills in Washington she has supported in an effort to ease that strain, including the aptly named Build More Housing Near Transit Act,' she said.

These bills indicate the need to think about these issues holistically, not in a vacuum.

Phoenixville has done that, said Borough Manager E. Jean Krack.

As the borough has revitalized, it has recognized the necessity of having a mix of housing prices to ensure residents to not get forced out by higher housing prices and rents.

He pointed to a project made possible by the donation of land in the center of town where the old public works building was located for 50 units of affordable housing for senior citizens.

A lot of our seniors can get priced out of their own homes as the costs accumulate, he said. The project, which will have rents between $300 and 700 a month, keeps them in Phoenixville and keeps them in the downtown, which is good because those are the folks who support those businesses in the middle of the day.

Phoenixvilles approach has been exemplary and a number of other towns in the county are starting to take notice, said Pat Bokovitz, director of the Chester County Department of Community Development.

Those not lucky enough to land such accommodations stay in town and can become a burden on social services here, said Susan Elks, community planning director for the Chester County Planning Commission.

Others, said Kathryn Evans, co-chairwoman of the Phoenixville Council on Affordable Housing, are constantly at risk of becoming homeless.

Phoenixville has homeless people living in tents under some of the bridges in town, said Janice Biros, a Realtor with Fox & Roach and also a co-chairperson of Phoenixvilles affordable housing council.

The need for affordable housing in the county is evidenced by the fact that when the county opened up application for housing vouchers for low-income families, it received 3,000 applications in just 24 hours, said Dale Gravett, executive director of the Housing Authority of the County of Chester.

And we had to put most of them on a waiting list because we gave priority to the applicants who are homeless, he said.

At Episcopal House Senior Housing on Center Street, the waiting list for the 46 units there is several years long, said Evans, who is also the executive director of Church Housing Corps which built and operates the facility.

Residents there pay rent that is never more than 30 percent of their income, with most ranging from $150 to $600 per month, Evans said during a tour of the facility prior to the roundtable

The tour included a stop-over at the 540-square-foot apartment of Janice Muller, a retired mechanical contractor who lost her house in the housing crisis of the previous decade.

The facility includes a social worker to help connect residents with the services they need.

Were not just sticks and bricks. Our buildings allow seniors to age in place, to age gracefully, said Evans.

Affordable housing can also be an issue in rural areas, and one way to help may be to change zoning to make it easier to have an accessory dwelling unit, sometimes called a mother-daughter, said Elks.

Helping people stay in their homes before they become homeless should also be a priority, said Bokovitz. One suggestion he offered was tax relief for mobile home parks, saying such an initiative seemed to be helping in Honey Brook.

When you can reduce a tax bill by $400 to $1,000, thats a big deal, he said.

Shared housing is another option in high-cost areas, said Gravett. Three individuals in a three-bedroom home, each subsidized separately, can afford housing even in a competitive market.

Helping to repair and upgrade infrastructure can also help with affordable housing and preserving open space, said Krack.

When you can make it easier to have people hook up to water and sewer, they can stay in town and dont have to build out in a farm field, he said.,

Another aspect of affordability is transportation.

We have people working in restaurants here in Phoenixville who cannot afford to live near their work, said Biros.

This is a walkable town, said Evans, but if you cant afford to live here, you cant walk to work here.

And those who look for less expensive housing nearby discover a transportation gap. There is a real gap in public transit among the small towns here, said Evans.

You cant get to Phoenixville from Royersford or Spring City on public transit without going to West Chester first, she said. The disconnect between these little towns is huge.

The best-known connections between those towns is Route 422, which carries 100,000 vehicles a day, not terribly successfully in my opinion, said Houlahan.

And that car-dependent sprawl growth is continuing on up into Berks County said Rob Henry, executive director of the Greater Valley Forge Transportation Management Association.

In addition to traffic jams, dependence on automobiles is also reducing air quality.

Transportation is now the number one source of emissions, Henry said. People are commuting well over an hour and it impacts their quality-of-life, their work performance.

Returning passenger rail to the route 422 corridor is still a work in progress, and Mayor Peter Urscheler updated Houlahan on the progress being made in his efforts to use deferred tax payments to finance a return of passenger rail service to Phoenixville.

Its good policy, said Henry, given that the next generation seems less taken with automobiles than their parents. Less than 50 percent of millenials have a drivers license and we should take those preferences into account when we make transportation improvements.
President Donald Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow speaks during impeachment proceedings against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 25, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images)

Trump Impeachment Trial Day 6: Defense Teams Arguments Continue Amid Bolton Allegations

The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump started again on Monday, with Trumps legal counsel offering arguments for why the president should not be impeached. It follows arguments made last week by House managers led by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

The defense continues their opening arguments amid news of allegations from John Bolton, who was Trumps national security adviser until he departed late last year.

Details of Boltons book were leaked to several news outlets on Sunday evening, which contained the claim that Trump allegedly linked hundreds of millions of dollars to investigations in Ukraine. Trump said on Monday that such claims were false.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said at the beginning of the proceedings regarding the allegations, We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information. We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all.

9:10 p.m.  Senate Adjourns, To Resume 1:00 p.m. Tuesday

Pat Cipollone delivered the defenses closing remarks after Dershowitz wrapped up his arguments. The Senate is adjourned for the night, and McConnell announced that the trial is set to resume at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

The presidents defense team has used 8h and 27 minutes so far, and have 15h and 33 minutes remaining. The team has indicated that they will not use the total 24h available to them for their opening arguments.

8:38 p.m.  Dershowitz on Abuse of Power and Quid Pro Quo

Dershowitz said that presidents in the past have been accused of abuse of power, but were not impeached. He named several former presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

He also turned to the term quid pro quo, saying that it is not a basis for abuse of power, and that it is part of the way foreign policy has been operated by presidents since the beginning of time.

The claim that foreign policy decisions can be deemed abuse of power based on subjective opinions about mixed or sole motives that the president was interested in only helping himself demonstrates the dangers of employing the vague, subjective, and politically malleable phrase abuse of power as a constitutionally permissible criteria for the removal of the president.

He said that nothing in the [John Bolton] revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.

That is clear in the language of the Constitutionyou cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like quid pro quo and personal benefit,' he said, adding that the term abuse of power has been weaponized as a tool for impeachment.

7:55 p.m.  Dershowitz Takes the Floor

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz took to the Senate floor and delivered a Constitutional argument against the impeachment of President Trump.

Legal Counsel for President Donald Trump, Alan Dershowitz speaks during impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images)

Earlier, Robert Ray argued that Trumps actions have not risen to a level that would qualify as an impeachable offense.

7:30 p.m.  VP Chief of Staff Releases Statement Regarding Aid to Ukraine

In an apparent reference to John Boltons recent allegations, Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff, Marc Short, released a statement to clarify the situation regarding the military aid to Ukraine.

As a matter of policy we dont typically share or discuss conversations between the President and Vice President, but given the journalistic fury over alleged conversations, the President has given me permission to set the record straight, Short said in his statement.

In every conversation with the President and the Vice President in preparation for our trip to Poland, the President consistently expressed his frustration that the United States was bearing the lions share of responsibility for aide to Ukraine and that European nations werent doing their part.

The President also expressed concerns about corruption in Ukraine. At no time did I hear him tie aid to Ukraine to investigations into the Biden family or Burisma. As White House Counsel presented today, based upon testimony provided by Democrat witnesses in the House hearings, these were Theo only issues that the Vice President with Ukraine officialsbecause thats what the President asked him to raise.

A recent New York Times report contained allegations that Bolton was told by Trump about a link between military aid to Ukraine and investigations into Burisma or the Bidens.

7:00 p.m.  Senate Returns From Dinner

The Senate returned from dinner around 6:55 p.m.

Robert Ray, a member of President Trumps defense team, proceeded to deliver his arguments.

6:20 p.m.  Cruz: Hunter Biden is Potentially Most Important Witness

Sen. Ted Cruzwhen asked whether he would be open to a one-for-one witness call for Republicans and Democratstold reporters outside the Senate chamber that he thinks additional witnesses are not necessary.

In my view, additional witnesses are not necessary. The House managers have presented their case, they havent come remotely close to meeting their burden of proof, he said. If the Senate later this week, when we vote on witnesses, decides to go down the road to additional witnesses, I think at a minimum, the most important witness for the Senate to hear from is now Hunter Biden.

Commenting on the trial so far, Cruz said that the Senate had just seen two hours of evidence of corruption presented by Trumps defense team that he believes justifies Trumps call to investigate such corruption.

The legal issue before this Senate is whether a president has the authority to investigate corruption. The House managers built their entire case on the proposition that investigating Burisma corruption, investigating the Bidens for corruption was baseless and a sham, he said. [House managers] said there wasnt a shred of evidence concerning corruption. Weve just seen 2 hours of evidence.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said he believed that last hour closes the deal for anybody needing more information.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters that the Senate will decide on Friday on whether to allow witnesses.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) commented that the House could have called witnesses during the impeachment inquiry.

I would advise the senators not to call for more witnesses. The reason is the House was supposed to call witnesses  they could have subpoenaed John Bolton but they chose not to, she said. Dont put the burden of proof on the Senate for something that the Democrats didnt do in the House.

6:02 p.m.  Senate Takes Dinner Break

The Senate is having a 45-minute break for dinner. The trial is set to resume 6:45 p.m. where President Trumps defense team will continue their opening arguments.

4:50 p.m.  Trump Lawyer Pam Bondi Highlights Ukraine Corruption

Trumps lawyer Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, sought to highlight corruption in Ukraine and questioned why former Vice President Joe Bidens son worked on a gas company that has been investigated for corruption.

She noted that former Vice President Biden led a U.S. delegation into Ukraine in 2014 and was the Obama administrations point man.

Pam Bondi on the Senate floor on Jan. 27 in Washington. (US Senate TV)

She said Hunter Biden, the ex-vice presidents son, worked on the board of Burisma Holdings, whose oligarch owner Mykola Zlochevsky was accused of corruption and fled the country, soon after Biden became the administrations point man on policy in Ukraine.

Hunter was brought on the Burisma board with a business partner, Devon Archer, who was the roommate of former Obama Secretary of State John Kerrys stepson Christopher Heinz, Bondi noted. She said his hiring came one month after the United Kingdom opened a corruption case against Burisma. She noted that Heinz later tried to distance himself from the two.

Hunter Bidens choice to join Burisma raised [red] flags almost immediately, Bondi said, highlighting reports that Hunter and Archer were allegedly paid $3.1 million by Burisma.

In an interview in October, Hunter Biden said that he did nothing wrong but acknowledged that working on Burismas board would create the perception of a conflict of interest.

4:30 p.m.  Giuliani Thanks Trump Lawyer

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani thanked President Trumps lawyer Jane Raskin for her defense of him.

Jane Raskin is doing a masterful job defending me in my role as defense counsel. As she pointed out, I did not dig up dirt on Joe Biden. The information RE his outrageous criminal conduct was handed to me, along with a video tape, 4 witnesses, incriminating documents. It was already a fully-intact bribery/extortion case, he wrote on Twitter.

The reason you dont know about it is because of the cover up by the corrupt Democrats and their establishment media! he added.

Giuliani had served as Trumps personal attorney and has been the subject of allegations by House Democrats in their impeachment push against the president.

incriminating documents. It was already a fully-intact bribery/extortion case. The reason you dont know about it is because of the cover up by the corrupt Democrats and their establishment media!  Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 27, 2020

4 p.m.  Trump Lawyer Jane Raskin: Giuliani a Minor Player

Trumps lawyer Jane Raskin told the Senate that Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer, is a small player in the impeachment case.

Raskin said Giuliani was not on a political errand for Trump and was following a lead to defend his client against false allegations.

In this trial, in this moment, Mr. Giuliani is just a minor player, that shiny object designed to distract you, Raskin said. Senators, I urge you most respectfully, do not be distracted.

3:15 p.m.  Trump: Nothing Was Ever Said to John Bolton

Well, I havent seen a manuscript, but I can tell you: Nothing was ever said to John Bolton. But I have not seen a manuscript. I guess hes writing a book. I have not seen it, Trump told reporters before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

The president is referring to allegations contained in a New York Times report that claimed Bolton was told by Trump about a linkage between military aid to Ukraine and investigations.

3 p.m.  Bolton Denies NY Times Collaboration

A spokesperson for former Trump national security adviser John Bolton responded to allegations that he timed his book and released details for publication in the New York Times.

Ambassador John Bolton, Simon & Schuster, and Javelin Literary categorically state that there was absolutely no coordination with the New York Times or anyone else regarding the appearance of information about his book, THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, at online booksellers. Any assertion to the contrary is unfounded speculation, Bolton aide Sarah Tinsley said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

The NY Times reported that Boltons forthcoming book alleges President Trump sought to link U.S. military aid to Ukraine and investigations. The book did not use any direct quotes.

2:20 p.m.  Newest GOP Senator Calls for Quick End

The newest senator, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), said fellow Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is trying to appease Democratic members of Congress with recent statements about witnesses.

After 2 weeks, its clear that Democrats have no case for impeachment. Sadly, my colleague @SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is over. Its time to move on! she wrote on Twitter. Loeffler took over former longtime Sen. Johnny Isakson earlier this month.

Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Romney told news outlets Monday that he would like to hear witnesses following reports about details from a forthcoming book from John Bolton.

1:45 p.m.  Ken Starr Takes the Floor

Trumps lawyer, Ken Starr, a former Clinton impeachment prosecutor, took to the floor and issued a statement.

Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment, including members of this body, full well understand that a presidential impeachment is tantamount to domestic war, but thankfully protected by our beloved First Amendment, a war of words and a war of ideas. But its filled with acrimony and it divides the country like nothing else. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment understand that in a deep and personal way, Starr said.

He said the impeachment against Trump is being weaponized. Let the people decide, Starr, a current Fox News contributor, said.

1:35 p.m.  Mulvaney Responds to Bolton

White House chief of staff and former OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, in a statement (pdf) via a spokesman, disputed a report about former national security adviser John Boltons book, where he alleged Trump told him that he linked military aid to investigations in Ukraine.

The latest story from the New York Times, coordinated with a book launch, has more to do with publicity than the truth. John Bolton never informed Mick Mulvaney of any concerns surrounding Boltons purported August conversation with the President. Nor did Mr. Mulvaney ever have a conversation with the President or anyone else indicating that Ukrainian military aid was withheld in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation of Burisma, the Bidens, or the 2016 election. Furthermore, Mr. Mulvaney has no recollection of any conversation with Mr. Giuliani resembling that reportedly described in Mr. Boltons manuscript, as it was Mr. Mulvaneys practice to excuse himself from conversations between the President and his personal counsel to preserve any attorney-client privilege, the statement reads.

Trump has also denied the claims on Twitter.

Democrats have sought to obtain Senate trial testimony from Mulvaney and Bolton.

1 p.m.  Trial Starts

President Trumps defense has taken the floor, led by counsel Pat Cipollone.

12:15 p.m.  GOP Senators Suggest Witnesses

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) both suggested on Monday that a report about National Security Adviser John Boltons upcoming book should warrant calling witnesses to testify in President Donald Trumps impeachment trial.

The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues, Collins said in a statement.

Details of Boltons book were leaked to several news outlets on Sunday evening. Trump, meanwhile, said on Monday that alleged details offered in the forthcoming book by Bolton, who was Trumps national security adviser until he departed late last year, were falsenamely, the alleged claim that Trump linked hundreds of millions of dollars to investigations in Ukraine.

In this Nov. 6, 2019, file photo, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is surrounded by reporters as she heads to vote at the Capitol in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Collins added that she has always said that she would likely vote to call witnesses in the trial just as I did in the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Ive said that in fairness to both parties, the decision on whether or not to call witnesses should be made after both the House managers and the presidents attorneys have had the opportunity to present their cases, she said.

Romney, considered another possible swing-vote who has been an outspoken critic of Trump within the GOP, told reporters Monday that it is increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton before adding that it is increasingly likely other Republican senators would join in too.

12 p.m.  Schumer Calls for Bolton Testimony

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said reports about former national security adviser John Bolton should prompt the need for witnesses.

Then-national security adviser John Bolton speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington on Jan. 28, 2019. (Holly Kellum/NTD)

This is stunning. It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president, Schumer told reporters. Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offenses charged in the first article of impeachment.

Trump, meanwhile, has denied allegations in the book on Twitter.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, he wrote on Twitter.
Originally, Randolph said he drafted a bill to require testing of drinking water in East Chicago and Hammond schools. But, after discussing the bill with Niemeyer, they agreed to expand the bill to include all of Lake County because Niemeyer said he heard of lead concerns in his district.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A team of physicists has discovered an electrical detection method for terahertz electromagnetic waves, which are extremely difficult to detect. The discovery could help miniaturize the detection equipment on microchips and enhance sensitivity.

Terahertz is a unit of electromagnetic wave frequency: One gigahertz equals 1 billion hertz; 1 terahertz equals 1,000 gigahertz. The higher the frequency, the faster the transmission of information. Cell phones, for example, operate at a few gigahertz.

The finding, reported today in Nature, is based on a magnetic resonance phenomenon in anti-ferromagnetic materials. Such materials, also called antiferromagnets, offer unique advantages for ultrafast and spin-based nanoscale device applications.

The researchers, led by physicist Jing Shi of the University of California, Riverside, generated a spin current, an important physical quantity in spintronics, in an antiferromagnet and were able to detect it electrically. To accomplish this feat, they used terahertz radiation to pump up magnetic resonance in chromia to facilitate its detection.

In ferromagnets, such as a bar magnet, electron spins point in the same direction, up or down, thus providing collective strength to the materials. In antiferromagnets, the atomic arrangement is such that the electron spins cancel each other out, with half of the spins pointing in the opposite direction of the other half, either up or down.

The electron has a built-in spin angular momentum, which can precess the way a spinning top precesses around a vertical axis. When the precession frequency of electrons matches the frequency of electromagnetic waves generated by an external source acting on the electrons, magnetic resonance occurs and is manifested in the form of a greatly enhanced signal that is easier to detect.

In order to generate such magnetic resonance, the team of physicists from UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara worked with 0.24 terahertz of radiation produced at the Institute for Terahertz Science and Technology's Terahertz Facilities at the Santa Barbara campus. This closely matched the precession frequency of electrons in chromia. The magnetic resonance that followed resulted in the generation of a spin current that the researchers converted into a DC voltage.

"We were able to demonstrate that antiferromagnetic resonance can produce an electrical voltage, a spintronic effect that has never been experimentally done before," said Shi, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Shi, who directs Department of Energy-funded Energy Frontier Research Center Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems, or SHINES, at UC Riverside, explained subterahertz and terahertz radiation are a challenge to detect. Current communication technology uses gigahertz microwaves.

"For higher bandwidth, however, the trend is to move toward terahertz microwaves," Shi said. "The generation of terahertz microwaves is not difficult, but their detection is. Our work has now provided a new pathway for terahertz detection on a chip."

Although antiferromagnets are statically uninteresting, they are dynamically interesting. Electron spin precession in antiferromagnets is much faster than in ferromagnets, resulting in frequencies that are two-three orders of magnitude higher than the frequencies of ferromagnets -- thus allowing faster information transmission.

"Spin dynamics in antiferromagnets occur at a much shorter timescale than in ferromagnets, which offers attractive benefits for potential ultrafast device applications," Shi said.

Antiferromagnets are ubiquitous and more abundant than ferromagnets. Many ferromagnets, such as iron and cobalt, become antiferromagnetic when oxidized. Many antiferromagnets are good insulators with low dissipation of energy. Shi's lab has expertise in making ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic insulators.

Shi's team developed a bilayer structure comprised of chromia, an antiferromagnetic insulator, with a layer of metal on top of it to serve as the detector to sense signals from chromia.

Shi explained that electrons in chromia remain local. What crosses the interface is information encoded in the precessing spins of the electrons.

"The interface is critical," he said. "So is spin sensitivity."

The researchers addressed spin sensitivity by focusing on platinum and tantalum as metal detectors. If the signal from chromia originates in spin, platinum and tantalum register the signal with opposite polarity. If the signal is caused by heating, however, both metals register the signal with identical polarity.

"This is the first successful generation and detection of pure spin currents in antiferromagnetic materials, which is a hot topic in spintronics," Shi said. "Antiferromagnetic spintronics is a major focus of SHINES."

###

The technology has been disclosed to UCR Technology Commercialization, assigned UC case number 2019-105, and is patent pending.

Shi was joined in the study by Junxue Li, Ran Cheng, Mark Lohmann, Wei Yuan, Mohammed Aldosary, and Peng Wei of UC Riverside; and C. Blake Wilson, Marzieh Kavand, Nikolay Agladze, and Mark S. Sherwin at UC Santa Barbara.

The research at UC Riverside was supported by SHINES.

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 24,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of almost $2 billion. To learn more, email news@ucr.edu.
The City watchdog has been fined 2,000 by the Pensions Regulator for failing to provide enough details about its own defined contribution pension scheme.

The embarrassing news for the Financial Conduct Authority, which is responsible for regulating financial services, comes as its departing boss Andrew Bailey prepares to take over as the new Governor of the Bank of England.

The Pensions Regulator said its routine checks showed that the FCA - which set up an auto-enrolment scheme for its staff - failed to provide specific details on what regular training its pension trustees received to make sure they are on top of their brief.

Fined: The FCA has been fined 2,000 by the Pensions Regulator

It also said the FCA should have provided more historical detail on the costs charged by fund managers investing the pension pot - although officials pointed out this had been on the members' website.

An FCA spokesperson said: 'In considering the FCA Pension Plan's application to become an authorised Master Trust, the Pensions Regulator reviewed its 2018 DC governance statement and ruled it contained insufficient detail.'

The watchdog added: 'The FCA Pension Plan Trustee has apologised to members of the Plan, and reviewed systems and processes to ensure all the required information is available to members and the 2019 governance statement (provided in October) was fully compliant.

'The Plan's application to become an authorised Master Trust has been approved.'

The embarrassing news comes as the FCA has been facing widespread criticism for not having enough teeth and not acting quickly enough on several matters, including the recent Woodford scandal.

Departing: FCA boss Andrew Bailey will take up the post of Governor of Bank of England on 16 March, replacing Mark Carney

Recently, it has also faced a backlash after it emerged that millions of borrowers will be worse off following a change to overdraft rules.

Meanwhile, an internal memo, leaked to the Evening Standard in November, found that the organisation's 60million head office had been reduced to 'shameful' squalor.

According to the letter, staff were 'leaving cutlery and crockery in the kitchen areas, overflowing bins, stealing plants and charging cables from desks, catering and security teams being subject to verbal abuse, colleagues defecating on the floor in toilet cubicles on a particular floor, urinating on the floor in the men's toilets and leaving alcohol bottles in sanitary bins'.

It comes as the FCA's chief executive Andrew Bailey will take up the top job at the Bank of England on 16 March, replacing Mark Carney.
Today, we'll introduce the concept of the P/E ratio for those who are learning about investing. To keep it practical, we'll show how China Evergrande Group's (HKG:3333) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. Based on the last twelve months, China Evergrande Group's P/E ratio is 10.27. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 9.7%.

Check out our latest analysis for China Evergrande Group

How Do You Calculate China Evergrande Group's P/E Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share (in the reporting currency)  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for China Evergrande Group:

P/E of 10.27 = CNY16.86 (Note: this is the share price in the reporting currency, namely, CNY )  CNY1.64 (Based on the year to June 2019.)

Is A High P/E Ratio Good?

A higher P/E ratio means that investors are paying a higher price for each CNY1 of company earnings. That is not a good or a bad thing per se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future.

Does China Evergrande Group Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?

The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. The image below shows that China Evergrande Group has a higher P/E than the average (6.7) P/E for companies in the real estate industry.

SEHK:3333 Price Estimation Relative to Market, January 27th 2020

That means that the market expects China Evergrande Group will outperform other companies in its industry. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up.

Story continues

China Evergrande Group's earnings per share fell by 41% in the last twelve months. But it has grown its earnings per share by 13% per year over the last five years.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.

Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof).

Is Debt Impacting China Evergrande Group's P/E?

China Evergrande Group's net debt is considerable, at 272% of its market cap. If you want to compare its P/E ratio to other companies, you must keep in mind that these debt levels would usually warrant a relatively low P/E.

The Bottom Line On China Evergrande Group's P/E Ratio

China Evergrande Group trades on a P/E ratio of 10.3, which is fairly close to the HK market average of 10.4. With relatively high debt, and no earnings per share growth over twelve months, the P/E suggests that many have an expectation that company will find some growth.

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. So this free visualization of the analyst consensus on future earnings could help you make the right decision about whether to buy, sell, or hold.

Of course you might be able to find a better stock than China Evergrande Group. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The Bombay high court (HC) last week held that the director of a company cannot be treated as its representative and asked to answer charges levelled against the establishment in a criminal trial. A corporation by itself is a distinct legal entity than its director, said justice AM Badar, while striking down the order of a special CBI court which had ordered Sanjeev Malhotra, director of M/s Sudarshan Overseas Limited, accused in a case registered by CBI, to answer the charges on behalf of the firm.

The judge said that for prosecuting a company as the accused, the court is required to issue a process against the company and then it is for the latter to nominate its representative.

Malhotra approached the HC after the special court rejected his plea to send summons to the company for answering the charges levelled by CBI against it. The CBI court had directed him and one more director of the firm to remain present on the next date and answer charges on behalf of the company.

Advocate Niranjan Mundargi, arguing on Malhotras behalf, said that section 63 of CrPC enabled the court to serve summons to a corporation through its managing director, local manager or secretary and the corporation then chooses its representative to answer the charges. He submitted that therefore, the CBI court could not have compelled Malhotra and the other director to answer the charges. Justice Badar accepted his contention and noted that section 305 of CrPC lays down the procedure to serve summons on a corporation and also states how the representative chosen can record statement of the company.
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Linkedin Leo Ramirez and Sebastien Ricci (Agence France-Presse) Wuhan, China  Mon, January 27, 2020 14:22 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20611d142 2 Health Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-lockdown,wuhan,virus,coronavirus,health,volunteer,volunteers Free

Citizens of China's virus-stricken city of Wuhan have been told to stay indoors, avoid strangers and keep their cars off the road, but locals like Zhang Lin are refusing to sit by and watch their hometown suffer.

Defying the threat from a contagious respiratory illness that broke out in the city and has killed dozens of people, Zhang and other Wuhan residents are pitching in by driving sick fellow citizens to hospital.

"We're from Wuhan, and even though you guys are here to help us, our own citizens should also come out to (help)," Zhang Lin told AFP journalists as he waited for a patient to emerge from a clinic for the drive back home.

"There has to be someone who does this."

The 48-year-old Zhang and others have been enlisted by the government to provide the free service, and it is sorely needed.

Wuhan has for days been the nucleus of a transport lockdown that began in the city of 11 million and has since been expanded to much of the rest of Hubei province, in an attempt to cut off transmission routes for the virus.

Wuhan's public transport system has been halted, taxi services curtailed and, on Sunday, new restrictions were introduced banning most cars from the streets.

Difficulty getting around adds another challenge for sick people who, even after they reach overwhelmed hospitals, may need to wait hours to see hard-pressed doctors.

Read also: RI students trapped in Wuhan want to go home

But drivers like Yin Yu have obtained special dispensation to drive for humanitarian reasons.

"There are no cars, so we are responsible for sending them there ... and taking them back. This is all for free," said Yin, 40.

To many Chinese, such can-do attitudes are hardly surprising for Wuhan.

The city, located in the center of the country on the Yangtze River, was the starting point for an armed rebellion against the Qing dynasty in 1911 that ended imperial rule -- and gave the city's people a reputation for toughness.

That toughness was referenced in a public announcement blaring from a loudspeaker in the city on Sunday, which offered tips on hygiene and seeking medical care, but also a dose of civic pride.

"Wuhan is a city that dares to face difficulties and keeps overcoming them," said a female voice.

"This is not the first time we have faced a similar situation. In 1998 we fought against extreme (Yangtze River) flooding. In 2003 we fought SARS," it said, referring to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a national viral epidemic similar to the current one.

"We've come a long way and have had great results!"
New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has said that tribals are the original inhabitants of the country, while addressing the first conference on the Constitutional rights of indigenous people of Central India in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on Sunday (January 26).

The NCP chief said, "we support their demand for recognition of their indigenousness from the United Nations."

"Tribals are original natives of India. There is a need for the official recognition from the United Nations in this regard. We support the demand of the tribal community on this issue. We are duty-bound to make a bid for it (such declaration from the UN)," Pawar said.

Live TV

Calling tribals as the "real masters", the NCP supremo said that they have the strength to lead the country to the right path, while paying respect to the martyred tribal freedom fight Tantia Bhil on his 175th birth anniversary.

"Bhil's anniversary should be observed across the entire country along with MP and Maharashtra," he said, adding that he would speak with President, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Speaker and chairman of both the houses of Parliament for installing a statute of Bhil in the Sansad Bhawan.

Further, he said that problems of tribals from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are common, therefore, called for a joint programme for their education, employment and farming welfare.

Speaking on the occasion, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath said, "the culture of India and the Congress is to bind hearts together and keep brotherhood intact. We bind people of all religions and castes. But today that culture of ours and the Constitutional values is under attack. You all have to protect it."

(With Agency Inputs)
A top Egyptian court has ruled in favour of banning female academic staff at Cairo University from wearing the Muslim face veil, saying it impedes interaction with students.

The decision taken by the Supreme Administrative Court last week to ban staff from wearing the niqab was confirmed by lawyer Ahmed Mahran today.

The court had rejected appeals against a 2016 lower court verdict banning the niqab on grounds that it impeded interaction between students and teachers.

As online media publication, Gulf News reported, the court explained that while the law regulating work at universities does not commit teachers to wearing a certain uniform, it obliges them to maintain direct communication with students in lectures and other academic activities.

'The ruling is final and not subject to appeal,' said Mahran, who represented 80 women in challenging the 2016 ruling.

However, its unclear if the ban will actually be enforced, with the University leadership not specifying how the ruling would be upheld, if at all.

This file photo shows a woman standing outside Cairo University where women staff are banned from wearing the niqab. A top Egyptian Court has this month upheld a ruling saying female academic staff wearing the Muslim face veil gets will face challenges interacting with students

The ban was introduced in 2015 by a previous head of Cairo University, two years after the 2013 military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Mahran said the decision was issued for 'political reasons' at the time.

'But it never came into effect. I do not expect it to be applied now,' he added.

Students gather outside Cairo University, which is one of Egypt's oldest higher education institutions

Cairo University is one of Egypt's oldest higher education institutions.

Its current head, Mohamed Othman Elkhosht, quoted by local media, said his institution respected decisions taken by the judiciary but did not specify if the ban would be enforced.

The ban on the niqab, which covers the entire face except for the eyes, has often sparked fierce debate on religious freedoms.

Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, or hijab, which covers the hair but not the face. The niqab is largely worn by women of ultra-conservative backgrounds.
According to news published on January 17, 2020, on the The Korea Times website, the South Korean Company Hyundai Rotem could sign a deal with the Polish government to develop and produce 800 K2 Black Panther main battle tanks (MBTs).



K2 Black Panther main battle tank at DX Korea defense exhibition in South Korea. (Picture source Army Recognition)

The South Korean Defense Company Hyundai Rotem is planning to partner with the Polish government to develop and produce 800 K2 Black Panther main battle tanks (MBTs).

According to Hyundai Rotem, the official project could be announced in the first half of this year. The total project will be divided into two stages to produce a total of 800 main battle tanks.

According to previous reports, the Polish government partnered with Hyundai Rotem to produce next-generation tanks is scheduled to start in 2023. In 2016, Poland has already inked a deal with South Korea for the purchase of 120 K-9 self-propelled howitzers. Poland could be the first foreign customer for the K2 Black Panther MBT.

The K2 Black Panther is a new generation of main battle tank (MBT) designed, developed and manufactured in South Korea by the South Korean Company Hyundai Rotem. The K2 was unveiled for the first time to the public during the Defense Exhibition ADEX at the Seoul Airport in October 2009.

The main armament of the K2 Black Panther consists of a German-made Rheinmetall 120-mm/ L55 smoothbore gun produced under license in South Korea. The gun is fitted with an automatic loader which ensures the loading of projectiles on the move even when the vehicle moves on uneven surfaces. The 120mm gun can fire about 10 rounds per minute.

The layout of the K2 Black Panther MBT is conventional, with the driver's compartment at the front, fighting compartment in the center and engine and transmission at the rear. The armor on the Black Panther consists of an unknown type of composite armor and an Active Defense System utilizing Explosive Reactive Armor blocks.

The K2 Black Panther was previously motorized with an MT 833 diesel engine from Tognum, but the latest version of the tank is now fitted with a license-built German MTU 883 diesel engine and Renk transmission system. The K2 can run at a maximum speed 70 km/h on surface roads while being able to maintain speeds up to 48 km/h on off-road conditions.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The next session of the Austrian-Azerbaijan Joint Commission together with a trade mission is envisaged in the first half of 2020 in Baku, Austrias Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs told Trend.

As the ministry said, the Austrian-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Commission is providing a tangible contribution to the promotion of the bilateral economic relations.

"Its main tasks are setting priorities for future cooperation, project-identification and problem solving. To increase synergy, the meetings of the joint commissions are organized back to back with bilateral trade missions and economic forums," said the Federal Ministry.

Regarding the current status of trade, the ministry said that the volume of bilateral trade and investment is well below the current potential but could be improved due to the wide variety of opportunities offered by the Azerbaijani market and the high level of expertise Austrian companies can provide in sectors such as telecommunications, infrastructure, tourism, renewable energies, agriculture (food processing, feed production, breeding facilities) and environmental protection.

"Other opportunities of cooperation exist in the field of transfer of knowledge in various branches of industry (engineering industry, chemical industry, building materials industry, textile industry, automotive industry and food industry)," said Austrias Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs.

The volume of bilateral trade between Azerbaijan and Austria stood at $268.1 million as of 2019. The volume of exports from Azerbaijan to Austria stood at $185.7 million, while the imports from Austria amounted to $82.3 million, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
A challenge to An Bord Pleanala's permission for a wind farm straddling the Laois-Kilkenny border is to be fast-tracked in the Commercial Court.

Pinewood Wind Ltd, the developer, says the 11-turbine wind farm involves an investment of between 70 and 80m and its construction will involve about 100 jobs over a 12- to 18-month period.

Today, Mr Justice David Barniville granted an application on behalf of Pinewood to fast-track the challenge to the Board's permission decisions of September 2019.

The matter is "time-sensitive" because of the nature of the system for making bids for providing power to the national grid, the judge was told.

Last November, Kieran Brophy, of Graiguenahown, Abbeyleix, Co Laois and Peter Sweetman, an environmental consultant, of Bunahowen, Cashel, Co Galway, secured leave from the High Court to bring judicial review proceedings against the Board and State arising from the permission decisions.

The turbines and most of the associated works will be constructed on lands at Knockardugar, Boleybawn, Garrinataggart and Ironmills, Co Laois. Permission was also granted for site access on lands at Crutt, Co Kilkenny.

In their judicial review challenge, the applicants make a range of claims, including the Board's decision was made contrary to provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats Directives, lacked sufficient reasons and breached fair procedures.

Among the claims against the State, it is alleged, if the court finds the Board had not breached either Directive, then the State has failed to adequately transpose both Directives.

In court documents, the applicants claim there is a "long history" of failed planning applications for wind farms at the Co. Laois site.

The entire site drains into the River Barrow and River Nore Special Area of Conservation and is located about one kilometre from an aerodrome in Ballinakill, Co Laois, they said.

The Board had failed to make available to the public a "single source" of information relied upon in making the development consent, they claim.

Mr Brophy, in an affidavit, claims the proposed wind farm will have an "unacceptable" impact on the local community and natural environment. He and others will suffer the effect of shadow flicker and noise at their homes and the effects on "this quiet agricultural landscape in the catchment of the River Nore have not been adequately assessed".

Mr Sweetman, in his affidavit, said the obligations imposed by European environmental law must be properly incorporated into plans and projects "from the outset".

Proposals capable of having significant effects on the environment must be "fully and appropriately" assessed by decision makers to ensure any negative effects are avoided and the rights of the public to participate meaningfully in environmental decisions "are at all times respected", he said.
Will wearing a surgical mask help protect against the new coronavirus that originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has so far killed more than 80 people?

"Masks may not have the preventive effect people hope," Satoshi Hori, Professor of Infection Control Science at Juntendo University in Tokyo, told the Nikkei Asian Review. "Wearing a mask works to help prevent patients with the virus from spreading it, as it blocks the dispersal of droplets containing the virus."

Wearing gloves won't help much either, said Professor Hori, because people wearing gloves who touch a contaminated surface such as door handles, can still spread the virus. They can also contract the virus if they touch their eyes or mouth with a gloved hand.

"Washing your hands with soap, or using rubbing alcohol, is more important and is supported by scientific evidence," he said.

Scientific evidence is one thing, but the wisdom crowds is another, with panicked consumers driving gallopping demand for surgical masks that has left manufacturers scrambling.

According to Japan's top mask maker Unicharm, in addition to making more masks at its domestic factories -- Unicharm began round-the-clock operation last week -- the company has also asked its suppliers in China to ramp up production.

Since the first case of coronavirus in Japan was confirmed, Unicharm said it has been flooded with orders for masks from drugstores and other retailers. According to the company orders temporarily topped 10 times the normal level and remained three times higher than usual through last week.

Unicharm offers a range of high-quality face masks, including "Cho-kaiteki," or super comfy, masks, which promise to be very comfortable to wear, and "Cho-rittai," or super three-dimensional, masks, which feature a "super 3D fit" that shapes to the user's face without leaving gaps, but also stops the mask from sticking to the user's mouth.

Unicharm, which plans to continue increased production levels through to the end of January, said it had also decided to increase production of alcohol wet wipes in several domestic factories in response to surging demand.

Another Japanese mask manufacturer, Kowa, which is based in Nagoya, said it had also lifted production at its domestic plants. "We can't meet demand, we are getting so many orders and production cannot catch up."
Courtesy of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce / Submitted

The Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce announced the arrival of this years community magazine, The Spirit of Tomball Texas 2020 Community and Business Guide.

The annual guide includes community information about topics such as area demographics, education and local businesses. The magazine is meant as a resource for anyone interested in the Tomball area, whether a resident, visitor or member of the business community.
Prince Harry and Prince Williams relationship may have hit some hard times, but Williams recent speech appeared to contain a secret message that confirms the feud is finally over. See what Prince William said that shows the brothers are aligned now despite their past differences.

Prince William | Victoria Jones  WPA Pool/Getty Images

Prince Harry confirmed he and Prince William were feuding

In the 2019 documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, Prince Harry was asked about the rumored feud between him and William and he confirmed that the gossip was true, explaining: Part of this role and part of this job and this family being under the pressure that its under inevitably, you know, stuff happens.

Prince Harry continued: But, look, were brothers. Well always be brothers. Were certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be there for him and, as I know, he will always be there for me.

Prince Harry shared that the majority of stuff is created out of nothing, adding, But as brothers, you have good days and you have bad days.

Prince Harry and Prince William issued a joint statement about the feud rumors

After Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex announced they would be exiting the royal family, rumors of a feud between the brothers once again started swirling.

Before the gossip could take off, the brothers issued a rare joint statement about the status of their relationship. The statement addressed a report from The Times of London that claimed Prince William had a bullying attitude towards Markle, noting: Despite clear denials, a false story ran in a U.K. newspaper today speculating about the relationship between the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge.

The statement shared: For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful.

Did Prince William send a secret message to Prince Harry?

During a speech to attendees of the UK-Africa Investment Summit at Buckingham Palace, Prince Harry appeared to send a secret message to Prince Harry that they are aligned, according to royal expert Angela Mollard.

Mollard believes that Prince Williams mention of his time in Africa with his brother following the death of their mother, Princess Diana, is a clear signal about how he feels about Harry despite his decision to leave the royal family.

During the Royals podcast, Mollard explained: There was a reception at Buckingham Palace with the leaders from plenty of African nations  I see this as an act of connection, an act of showing his brotherly love for Harry.

She continued, noting that Prince William actually talked about how much Africa meant to them in the wake of their mothers death in so much as Prince Charles took them both on a trip to Africa The fact that William referenced his brother, referenced the time in Africa after their mother died wasnt just for the benefit of those African leaders.

According to Mollard, it was a signal, as she shared: I think it was very much sending a signal that they are brothers, they will always be brothers and things that have happened to them means they will always have an understanding of each others stories. That means they are always aligned, even if weve seen them in fractured circumstances.

Prince William told attendees: The African continent holds a very special place in my heart. It is the place my father took my brother and me shortly after our mother died. And when deciding where best to propose to Catherine, I could think of no more fitting place than Kenya to get down on one knee.

He continued: Throughout my life, I have been lucky enough to spend time in many other parts of Africa. Im also honored to be the Patron of the Royal African Society. And as Catherine and I have said to several of you here tonight, we hope to have the chance to visit many more countries in the future and share our mutual love of your continent with our children.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro of Jersey Shore and Jen Harley were living in Las Vegas together. Now it seems like theyre moving on after their breakup by selling their home. Find out what their plans are from a new career to moving to another city.

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Jen Harley are reportedly no longer together

Ortiz-Magro is currently facing charges for a previous alleged incident involving him, Harley, and their daughter. The charges are brandishing a weapon, child endangerment, resisting arrest, criminal threats, false imprisonment, and resisting arrest. He entered the plea of not guilty.

Recently his attorneys, Scott E. Leemon and Leonard Levine claimed Harley entered his home while he was sleeping and started viciously assaulting him on Jan. 11, according to Us Weekly.

Ronnie immediately called the Las Vegas Police Department and filed a domestic violence complaint against Jennifer, they claimed. Then, this morning [Wednesday, January 15], a Family Court Judge in the Clark County (Las Vegas, NV) District Court, Family Division granted Ronnie an Emergency Order for Protection Against Domestic Violence. This Emergency Order is in effect until February 25, 2020.

Harleys attorney, Lisa Bloom gave a response to this news to TMZ. Contact that Ronnie Ortiz had with Jen Harley recently was in violation of the restraining order in effect against him. We have not received any restraining order against her, and if Jenn does get served with one, we will oppose it. Jenn just wants to raise her baby in peace, she claimed.

Theyre selling their home for $869,900

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro attends the 2018 MTV Movie And TV Awards | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

TMZ reports that the couple put their 4 bedroom and 4 bathroom Las Vegas home back on the market three months ago. It is on sale for $869,900 and the former couple plans to split the profits.

The couple has still been going through their legal battles with each other. Ortiz-Magro reportedly plans to move back to Los Angeles. Harley reportedly no longer has use for the property.

Harley has reportedly gotten her real estate license

The mother has reportedly made a big career move by getting her real estate license in Nevada, according to TMZ. She will reportedly be joining the team of Realty One Group in Las Vegas.

Sources claimed Harley has owned six homes and became passionate about buying and selling them. She reportedly wants to be licensed in California too.

Harley announced this new career move in a post on Instagram. She wrote in a caption announcing her new Instagram page:

I will be posting homes for sale in Las Vegas , interior design ideas, amazing unique art you can get for great prices and rental and investment properties! I bought my first house when I was 21 years old! I have owned 7 properties and have made the majority of my income off of real estate the last 3 years ! I have a system that worked for me thats why I wanted to become a real estate agent! I can help guide you In [sic] the right direction and buy your own home!

It sounds like Ortiz-Magro is ready to leave Vegas behind and Harley is ready to focus more on real estate.
Elgazala Technopark in Tunisia features telecom, startups Companies and investors will participate in February 6 fair

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JANUARY 27 - The first edition of 'Smart Tunisian Technoparks Demo Day' is scheduled for February 6, 2020 in the conference area of Elgazala Technopark.



The fair is organised by Smart Tunisian Technoparks, the new management company of the Elgazala technopole (near Tunis), one of the key players in the telecommunications sector in Tunisia.



The event aims to bring together those with innovative ideas, startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises to attract investors and ensure direct exchange and interaction with visitors and various participants.



'S2T DEMO DAY 2020' aims to support companies and startups in a highly competitive environment through business opportunities that will be offered to them after the presentation of their innovative products in connection with various economic sectors (electronic health, intelligent agriculture, e-education, fintech, green technology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence).



A statement by organisers said the event will, from this point forward, be a key meeting point for Technopark companies and investors, facilitating the meeting of technology supply and demand.



A presentation session will allow the best selected companies to present their projects, products, and digital solutions to a wide public.



A demo space will be dedicated to those bringing ideas, startups and companies to present their products, services, and to discuss opportunities for business, collaboration, and financing with large companies, banks and financial institutions.(ANSAmed).




Following the Sunday protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the event organisers issued a statement on Monday saying they had to ask the protestors to leave to ensure that the visitors could enjoy the festival seamlessly.

"Yesterday, while the venue was at full capacity, a few protesters who were not our speakers or invitees had to be asked to leave after they started sloganeering that was impairing the literary sessions, and for which we received complaints from our partners.

"It is not our wish to silence protests, but to ensure our visitors - students, older people and international guests - can take in the diverse content and knowledge for which the festival is known," the statement read.

On Sunday, five people were detained for raising anti-CAA slogans after a session, police said. They were released following a warning to not repeat such acts in future, the police added.

A group of activists holding a tambourine, shouted slogans against the new citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the fest.

In a video, purportedly of the protest, which circulated on social media, the activists are seen shouting slogans like ''Modi-Shah ko ek jawab, Inquilab Zindabad'', ''CAA down-down'', ''Amit Shah ho Barbad, Modi-Yogi Murdabad'' and ''Hum Lekar Rahege Azadi''.

The organisers said that they were "fully committed to ensuring the safety of every guest".

"(we) have a responsibility and duty to the Diggi Palace family to maintain peace and calm at all times," they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Fallen SpaceShipTwo pilot Michael Alsbury's name glows with light projected from behind the Space Mirror Memorial at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. A ceremony was held on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020 to reveal the addition to the national monument.

A name has been added to the U.S. national memorial for fallen astronauts, honoring the first commercial spacecraft pilot to die in the pursuit of opening spaceflight to the public.

Michael Alsbury was remembered on Saturday (Jan. 25) as his name was unveiled on the Space Mirror Memorial at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Alsbury died in 2014 during a test flight of Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane.

A ceremony held by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF) included tributes from Alsbury's fellow SpaceShipTwo pilots Frederick "CJ" Sturckow and Doug Shane, as well as Commercial Spaceflight Federation chairman Taber MacCullum and former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins, who is a member of the AMF board.

In Photos: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity Soars to Space in 4th Test

Alsbury's name was revealed carved into one of the 90 polished black granite plates that form the memorial's surface. Like the 24 other names emblazoned on the monument, Alsbury's name, which was added to the lower right of the Space Mirror, glows by the light continuously projected from behind the 42.5-foot-tall by 50-foot-wide (13 by 15 meter) wall.

Alsbury died on Oct. 31, 2014, in the crash of Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo vehicle, the VSS Enterprise. The 39-year-old Scaled Composites' test pilot was serving as co-pilot on what was his ninth SpaceShipTwo flight when, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), he prematurely deployed the spaceplane's feather braking mechanism.

Alsbury died and pilot Peter Siebold was severely injured as the vehicle broke apart over the skies of the Mojave Desert in California.

Recovering from the tragedy, Virgin Galactic made changes to the feather-deploy controls and moved construction of the next SpaceShipTwo to its own subsidiary, The SpaceShip Company. In 2018, the VSS Unity reached space for the first time, earning its pilot and co-pilot commercial astronaut wings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Scaled Composites test pilot Michael Alsbury died on Oct. 31, 2014, in the crash of Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise. (Image credit: Scaled Composites)

Virgin Galactic is now nearing the start of commercial operations to fly tourists and scientists on suborbital spaceflights from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Alsbury was the 20th person to die during a space mission or test flight, along with four Russian cosmonauts, 14 NASA astronauts and a U.S. Air Force pilot. The nine additional names on the Space Mirror represent U.S. astronauts and crew members on U.S. spacecraft who died during training or aircraft accidents.

The Astronauts Memorial Foundation, which maintains the Space Mirror, voted in July 2019 to include commercial or private astronauts on the memorial. Sturckow, a former NASA astronaut and current pilot for Virgin Galactic , assisted the foundation in developing new criteria that led to the addition of Alsbury to the monument.

"The AMF board feels Michael's contributions are worthy of remembrance, as he gave his life in the furtherance of the mission of space exploration," Collins said in a statement. "Michael's life story will be remembered by future generations and be an inspiration to those who seek to explore the unknown."

The Space Mirror Memorial, seen in a file photo, was designated as a national memorial to the United States' fallen astronauts in 1991. The Mirror now displays the names of 25 people who have died in the pursuit of spaceflight and exploration. (Image credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex)

Astronauts memorialized on the Space Mirror include the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger's STS-51L mission and Columbia's STS-107 flight; NASA pilots Charles Bassett, Theodore Freeman, Elliot See and Clifton "CC" Williams; U.S. Air Force pilots Michael Adams and Robert Lawrence; and space shuttle mission specialist ML "Sonny" Carter.

The Space Mirror Memorial does not include every U.S. astronaut who died in accidents while in service to U.S. efforts in space. The monument omits Apollo-era astronaut Edward Givens, who died in a car crash, and shuttle-era astronauts David Griggs, Patricia Hilliard Robertson and Stephen Thorne, who were lost in commercial or private aircraft accidents. The AMF limits the Space Mirror Memorial to astronauts who perished in U.S. government-sponsored missions or training activities.

The AMF, together with NASA, holds annual ceremonies at the Space Mirror to honor everyone who has died in the pursuit of space exploration. This year's NASA Day of Remembrance public event is scheduled for Thursday (Jan. 30).
In his forthcoming book, former National Security Adviser John Bolton writes that President Donald Trump directly told him he wanted to keep military aid for Ukraine frozen until its leaders launched investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, The New York Times reported Sunday night.

The newspaper cited multiple sources descriptions of an unpublished draft manuscript by Bolton.

Boltons account contradicts a cornerstone Trumps impeachment defense  the freezing of congressionally approved aid to Ukraine and the presidents request to a foreign power that it investigate his rival were unrelated.

While not directly confirming the accuracy of The New York Times report, Boltons attorney Charles Cooper told CNN that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript.

A draft manuscript of the forthcoming book was submitted to the National Security Council on Dec. 30, 2019 for pre-publication review, he said.

Top Democrats called on the Republican-led Senate to call Bolton as a witness in Trumps impeachment trial.

John Bolton has the evidence, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-New York, (D-N.Y.) tweeted. Its up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trumps actions testify in the Senate trial.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-California, tweeted that Republican senators faced a clear choice between our Constitution or a cover-up.
Nigerias former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has proffer solution how Nigeria can win the battle against raging Lassa Fever in the ...





Nigerias former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has proffer solution how Nigeria can win the battle against raging Lassa Fever in the country and put machinery in place to fight Coronavirus in case of emergency.





Lassa Fever is currently raging in many states in Nigeria, with health officials battling to curtail the deadly disease.





Reacting to the development, Atiku said the Nigerian government needed to fight Lassa Fever with the same zeal it fought the deadly Ebola in 2014.





He said there must be swift response from health and emergency officials to battle Lassa Fever and get ready for the threat posed by Coronavirus.





In 2014, Nigeria confronted and quashed the dreaded Ebola disease. The swift battle was won by careful screening and rapid isolation.





Let us apply the same level of world-class epidemiological detective work in the case of Lassa Fever and the looming Coronavirus.





Awareness and education are also the most potent tools for combating Lassa Fever and Coronavirus. Please share these materials with all family and friends, he said.
CHERRY HILL, N.J., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As first-time homebuyers prepare to dive into the housing market this year, three in four (75%) admit they're overwhelmed by the process, according to TD Bank's First-Time Homebuyer Pulse. Nevertheless, two-thirds (68%) believe it's a good time to buy a home, and 52% are already actively searching home listings online.

TD Bank surveyed more than 850 millennials (age 23-38) planning to buy their first home in 2020 to uncover their feelings around the purchase process, the greatest influences on their home buying plans, and how their perceptions and behaviors are shaped by what they've observed in the housing market of the past and present.

Despite an intent to purchase in the next 12 months, many buyers have not taken steps to prepare financially. Just half (52%) said they have started saving for a down payment and 53% have reviewed their credit report. What's more, 42% said they have established a budget for their home purchase, but only 30% have spoken with a mortgage lender.

"It continues to amaze me how many buyers begin their home search without first speaking with a mortgage lender," said Rick Bechtel, Head of U.S. Residential Lending at TD Bank. "A knowledgeable loan officer will work hand-in-hand with a buyer to help them understand mortgage and homeownership costs and establish a realistic budget. To put the cart before the horse is to pursue a significant life decision with possibly incomplete or inaccurate information."

When homebuyers are ready to start the financing process, 52% say they would prefer to start their mortgage application in person with a lender, while 34% prefer the online channel.

Despite Prime Purchase Market, Affordability Remains a Road Block

Although millennial buyers believe it's a good time to buy, many feel priced out of the market. One in five (22%) said steep home prices in the neighborhood where they want to live has prevented them from purchasing a home to date, and a third (36%) of those respondents thought homes were overpriced. Furthermore, 17% of buyers said they have yet to buy a home because they enjoy renting in their current neighborhood, but can't afford to buy there.

Buyers' perceptions of the housing market are also shaped by their current living situations  whether at home with their parents (19%) or in rentals (78%). As many as 70% of buyers agreed their expectations for their first home are higher because of the amenities they have where they currently live, and a majority would prefer to delay the purchase of a home until they find the ideal place (84%).

Shockwaves from 2008 Housing Crisis Linger in Buyers' Minds

Despite their relatively young age at the time of the housing crisis, many millennial buyers are acutely aware of its impact; 67% of respondents are familiar with the housing crisis, and among that group more than half (55%) said their family or a family they knew lost their home. Further, 47% said growing up during the crisis has made them more nervous to purchase a home, and 70% said they view the housing market as fragile.

As such, many millennial buyers indicated stability in their personal and professional lives is a prerequisite to buying a home. Buyers said they are worried about their job stability (51%) and the stability of their relationship with their significant other (35%) when thinking about the homebuying process. Looking outward, top worries included the state of the economy (57%) and potential changes in policies due to the 2020 election (47%).

Homebuyers Tap into Parental Support, Guidance

Parents are playing a large role in their children's homebuying process, from doling out advice to providing temporary housing and financial support.

More than a third (37%) of buyers said they regularly ask their parents for advice about homebuying, and nearly half (49%) said their parents are chipping in by contributing to a down payment, closing costs, monthly payments or co-signing the loan. Notably, 85% of buyers who said their families lost their home during the 2008 housing crisis said they will receive financial help from their parents.

"The millennial cohort of homebuyers is unlike any other in history," said Bechtel. "They grew up during the explosion of personal technology, the fall of the housing market and the renaissance of the rental market. And as our survey found, their expectations of homeownership are shaped by all of it."

For more information about TD's First-Time Homebuyer Pulse, please visit TD's Digital News Center.

Survey Methodology

An online questionnaire of 10 - 15 minutes in length was administered to millennials (ages 23-38) who are looking to buy their first home in 2020. A random sample of 862 respondents considering to buy a house in 2020 would have a margin of error of +/-3% nineteen times out of twenty. These samples are targeted convenience samples. The data was weighted by gender and region.

About MARU

Maru/Matchbox is a professional services firm dedicated to improving its clients' business outcomes. It delivers its services through teams of sector-specific research consultants that have technology in their DNA, specializing in the use of Insight Community and Voice of Market technology. Maru/Matchbox research drives decision-making across all aspects of customer experience, including innovation, product, branding, commercialization and communications

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 9 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,200 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.td.com/us. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com/us.

SOURCE TD Bank

Related Links

http://www.TDBank.com


Fairfax County Public Schools, one of Boyskos districts, piloted a program in November across 37 schools to have pads and tampons in bathrooms using the existing budget.

Its unclear what Boyskos proposal would mean for local school budgets. Max Smith, assistant director of operations at Maggie Walker, said any increased costs need to be anticipated and examined.

If theres no funding attached to it, that would be something to consider in the next budget cycle, Smith said. Public school budgets are very tight. It would be a challenge.

Hanover County Public Schools spokesman Chris Whitley said in an email that as a rule, the district opposes unfunded mandates. With about 400 education-related bills on the table, Whitley said school officials hadnt talked about the potential costs of Boyskos proposal.

In Henrico County Public Schools, nurses across the 70-plus schools already order feminine hygiene products as needed, according to spokesman Andy Jenks. He said that since that already exists, the district would be able to make adjustments as necessary.
France warns Pentagon Africa cuts would 'severely limit' counter-terror ops



Washington, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly warned Monday that expected cuts to the Pentagon's African operations would hamper efforts against jihadist groups, especially in the Sahel region.

But US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made clear that the United States was prepared to reduce its global military footprint and that African operations could be affected -- while giving no details about how severely.

"US support is critical to our operations, and its reduction would severely limit our effectiveness in our operations against terrorists," Parly said in a joint news conference with Esper in Washington.

"Our friends in the Sahel are in a situation where our assistance is critical. And I have expressed the hope of both the United States and France will keep on supporting them," she added.

Esper has launched a review of the US military footprint around the world and is expected to reduce the presence of US forces in West Africa, where they have partnered with the French in battling a rise in Islamic extremist groups in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and other countries.

The US Defense Department wants to focus its forces on what it sees as priority threats, starting with China and Russia.

Washington has been a key ally for France's 4,500-member Barkhane operation, providing intelligence and surveillance via drones as well as in-flight refueling and logistical transport, at a cost of $45 million a year.

Esper declined to say what cuts he was considering in Africa, which according to reports could include shutting down a US drone base in the region.

"France has been a great leader in the Sahel," Esper told reporters.

"I think it's time for other European allies to assist as well in the region, and that could offset whatever changes we make as we consider next steps in Africa."
TDP MP Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar on Monday hit out at Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy for Andhra Pradhesh Cabinet's decision to abolish the Legislative Council.

"This is not a decision by the government but has been done by chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy. It shows there are no constitutional values and no respect for any constitutional bodies," Kumar told ANI.

He said, "Andhra Pradesh government is expected to follow values of the Constitution, unfortunately, it has taken an abnormal decision. Legislative Council may be dissolved for other reasons but not on the reason that it sent the bills to a select committee."

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shocking social media footage has emerged showing a baby being fed a pre-mixed vodka drink.

The footage showed a baby in New Zealand being given a Long White, which is a vodka drink mixed with spring water, and was circulated on social media over the weekend.

Footage showed the infant propped up on a while pillow beside a man while a woman with a One Love music festival wristband poured alcohol down the baby's throat.

The footage circulated on social media at the weekend of a baby in New Zealand being given a Long White, which is triple-distilled vodka with spring water

One Love was a music festival held in Tauranga, in the North Island's Bay of Plenty region, on the weekend.

A caption over the video read 'fml' with an emoji of a man putting his head in his hands and a crying of laughter emoji.

Long Whites have an alcohol level of 4.8 per cent.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest the infant actually consumed any alcohol. The video clip has since been deleted.

A man, believed to be the one in the video, has hit back at the social media outrage over the clip.

'I'm being threatened over a Facebook post [because] of the video about my baby,' the man wrote, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Footage showed the infant propped up on a while pillow beside a man while a woman with a One Love wrist band pour alcohol down the baby's throat.

'Me and my wife and a couple of my mates were there and we [were] just joking around [with] her.'

He said he would be an 'idiot' if he actually let his child consume the alcohol and that his child are 'his heart'.

A second image, believed to be of the same man, showed a picture of a man holding a beer up to a baby's mouth at a bar with the caption 'her first Xmas eve and beer'.

A man, believed to be the one in the video, has hit back at the social media outrage over the clip

Authorities in New Zealand said they were distressed about the video.

Dr Harriette Carr, Deputy Director of Public Health, said the Ministry of Health were 'appalled' at the footage.

'The Ministry does not recommend babies or children be given alcoholic drinks,' Dr Carr said.

'Alcohol has been shown to be harmful for the unborn child, babies and children, particularly affecting brain development.'

Authorities in New Zealand are distressed regarding the contents of the video

Meanwhile Oranga Tamariki, also known as the Ministry of Children, said the department is taking the incident seriously.

'We are aware of a video that has been circulating on social media, and will work with police as necessary,' a spokesperson said.

New Zealand Police said they have not received a complaint about the video.

'Police is not aware of any report or complaint to us in relation to this matter,' a spokesperson said.

'Based on the information available from the video, it is not possible to confirm if a criminal offence has taken place.

'If indeed alcohol has been given to a baby, we would concur with our Ministry of Health colleagues who have described such behaviour as appalling.'
A consequence of the long Brexit hiatus is that so many of the biggest decisions to be taken by government ended up in nowhere land.

Now they are arriving at the door of 10 Downing Street in a mad rush.

As part of the Johnson government's effort to speed up connectivity across the country, it wants to get 5G networks and ultra-fast broadband done.

Anyone who has scanned the headlines will know the fastest way of doing this stuff is to deploy Chinese telecom whizz Huawei Technologies.

On track? Among the other big decisions left hanging include HS2, the high-speed rail link between London and the North, future nuclear development and Heathrow

Therein lies the problem. The US is seeking to marginalise Chinese technology on security grounds.

UK security services are none too enthusiastic either. Their view is that using Huawei to build infrastructure is fine, as long as it doesn't get near the sensitive stuff. That may solve the political problem, as the UK pivots between Washington and Beijing, but may create an engineering problem.

Using multiple contractors creates its own issues  as on Crossrail, where the engineers who built the signalling have struggled to match their software with the advanced trains, and so postponing the start-up until at spring 2021.

Other big decisions left hanging include HS2, the high-speed rail link between London and the North, future nuclear development and Heathrow.

It looks as if HS2 might survive. It is worth listening to Michael Heseltine. He pressed on with the infrastructure for Canary Wharf in spite of huge opposition inside government. In the process he helped to cement Britain's place as a world centre of finance.

As the National Audit Office report has found, original costings on HS2 were built on a European model which took no account of UK geography.

The important thing for the future is to tighten oversight and hold management feet to the fire.

Another outstanding issue is nuclear. Hinkley is under way in spite of a contentious funding model.

French contractor EDF is shortly to pitch for a new super reactor on the Sizewell site using different financing, similar to the pay-as-you-go interest structure being used on the Thames Tideway.

Finally, there is Heathrow. Given Boris's threat to lie in front of the bulldozers I suspect no one is holding their breath.

Scam artists

Britain may be the best place for committing white-collar offences.

Investigations by the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), take a lifetime.

The FCA is still living with a backlog of cases dating back to the financial crisis of more than a decade ago.

New high profile probes pile up, including those into Neil Woodford's fund empire and mini-bond firm London Capital & Finance.

The Serious Fraud Office struggles to bring cases to a conclusion. All this at a time when financial scams proliferate.

In the last few days alone, I have been subjected to two prospective scams.

The first to my home phone purporting to be Mastercard. The claim was that someone had sought to make a 600 payment overseas on my card. Could I press '1' on the keypad to go through a series of checks?

I chose to directly call my Mastercard provider Santander and was told it was the 'dial 1 scam' with which the bank was familiar. Why Santander hadn't chosen to communicate a warning of this to cardholders was not explained.

The second scam came by letter from a purported CTBC Bank in Hong Kong. It was handling the legacy of a John Brummer they thought might be a relative.

Would I consider making a claim on the $11million estate? If I chose to do so, they would split the inheritance '50/50'.

As a financial journalist I found both of these approaches suspicious. But I couldn't but help think that the less knowledgeable victims of such attempted scams might easily be sucked in.

The UK spends up to 1.7billion a year on enforcing regulation and financial justice. Online finance has been a gift to the crooks.

Banks may regard the scams as a cost of doing business. That is no comfort to the victims and allows enforcers to pretend they are doing their job.

That cannot be acceptable.

Red faces

More egg on face for the FCA. It has been fined 2,000 by the Pensions Regulator for poor governance of the house pension fund over its failure to provide a compliant 'chair's statement'.

Whoops!
Egypt will soon receive mercy flights operated by the UN with Yemeni patients on board, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Monday.

The patients will be treated at Egyptian hospitals and medical centres, the ministry said.



It added that the move comes as part of Egypt's continued support to the Yemeni people and its keenness to improve the humanitarian conditions of the country.

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Paul Perez, 57, from California, faces charges for the killings of five of his children, who were all under the age of six months at the time of their deaths

A California father has been arrested in connection to the deaths of five of his infant children, a case that the sheriff said 'has haunted my agency for years.'

'I cannot think of a case more disturbing than this one. There can be no victim more innocent than an infant and unfortunately this case involves five of them,' Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez said.

Paul Perez, 57, of Delano, was arrested at a state prison days before he was expected to be released on unrelated charges. He is now being held in connection to the deaths of his children born between 1992 and 2001.

Perez is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday on five counts of first-degree murder, as well as related assault charges.

Each of the murder counts comes with attached special circumstance, making it a death penalty-eligible case, according to officials.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig said the killings involved lying in wait and torture, though he did not immediately reveal other details.

He and Sheriff Lopez also declined to address the possible roles of additional family members, including the children's mother or mothers, in this case.

Authorities started investigating after the decomposed remains of the child identified last October as three-month-old Nikko Lee Perez were found in a sealed, submerged box by a fisherman in 2007 in an irrigation slough.

Perez is suspected of causing the deaths of his five children born between 1992 and 2001

Two of the dead siblings have been identified as Kato Allen Perez (left) and Kato Krow Perez (right)

Those remains were identified in October using new DNA techniques that authorities have begun applying widely in the wake of other recently solved cases. Department of Justice officials checked the database weekly for direct matches.

'Sadly, during this investigation we learned that Nikko was not an only child,' the sheriff said.

The infants body was found on March 29, 2007, in an irrigation canal popular with anglers looking for carp or catfish. A fisherman named Brian Roller told local news reporters at the time that he shot an arrow into the murky water, and it struck a box buried under the mud.

Perez is suspected of torturing his five children to death when they were babies

When he hauled the box out of the water and opened it, he found stones used to weigh it down and the baby's badly decomposed body wrapped in a blanket.

Authorities said a decomposed diaper was also in the box, indicating the infant had been cared for at some point.

Investigators immediately treated the case as a homicide and submitted the baby's DNA to the US Department of Justice in hopes of obtaining an identity.

They also enlisted the help of a forensic anthropologist, who determined the remains were those of a boy about one month old who died of blunt force trauma.

Testing showed that Nikko had siblings fathered by Perez. It is now believed all children had been murdered in infancy.

One sibling, Kato Allen Perez, was born in Merced, California, in 1992 and is known to be dead.

Three other siblings, identified as Mika Alena Perez, born in 1995; another Nikko Lee Perez, born in 1997, and Kato Krow Perez, born in 2001, are now also believed to be dead, but their remains have not been located.

'While I am proud of the efforts of my investigators and coroner's office, this is not a day that will bring joy to any one of us,' Sheriff Lopez told reporters on Monday.

According to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records, Perez was sentenced the first time in 1990 to two years for assault with intent to commit sex offense.

He was paroled two years later and was discharged from parole in 1994.

Perez was back behind bars in February 2002 after being sentenced to two years and eight months for vehicle theft as a second-striker.

After receiving credit for time served, he was paroled in January 2004, absconded in 2006 and returned to prison in March of that year.

Perez again was on and off parole between 2006-2008, and was discharged from his sentence in December 2008.

He was most recently imprisoned in August 2010 for vehicle theft as a second-striker and evading peace officer while driving recklessly.

In 2014, Perez was handed an additional four-year sentence on top of his seven-year term for possession/manufacture of deadly weapon by a prisoner, an in-prison offense. He was due to be released for post-release community supervision on Monday.
Islamabad [Pakistan], Jan 27 (ANI): A woman was killed and five others sustained injuries following an accident between a vehicle of the U.S. embassy and a car in Islamabad on Sunday, police said.



The accident took place near Faisal Avenue Chowk on Margalla Road when the US embassy vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser, collided with the car coming from the other direction, reported Dawn.

The injured were rushed to a hospital.

Police also seized the US embassy vehicle involved in the accident. It has also arrested a Pakistani driver named Amjad Zaman. However, it was not clear who else was in the vehicle at the time of the accident. (ANI)
An Armagh man will go on trial tomorrow for the murder of a detective garda outside a credit union more than seven years ago.

Aaron Brady (27), of New Road, Crossmaglen, is charged with the murder of Det Gda Adrian Donohoe at the Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013.

Mr Brady is also charged with the robbery of 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques at the same location on the same date.

The accused, wearing a blue suit and a white shirt, stood up and pleaded not guilty to both counts when they were put to him by the registrar at the Central Criminal Court this morning.

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The court heard the first count is one of capital murder of a police officer in the course of their duty contrary to the Criminal Justice Act 1974.

Justice Michael White notified the pool of prospective jurors that the trial will take up to 16 weeks, including the Easter recess, and that it may run up until May 28, 2020.

He warned them that there will be extensive media coverage of the trial and that they must remain impartial.

Justice White also said that the alleged offences occurred on the Carlingford peninsula, and involved events in Dundalk and "quite near" south Armagh.

Anyone with links to these areas, Mr Justice White said, should bring this to his attention and should not serve on the jury.

After midday a 15-person jury panel of nine women and six men were sworn in.

Justice White said that they should only focus on evidence given in court and not to go on social media or the internet to carry out research of the parties involved.

The trial will commence tomorrow morning.
authorities on Monday reported the Chinese capital's first death from a new deadly virus that has rapidly spread across the country, killing more than 80 people and causing global alarm.

The victim was a 50-year-old man who had visited the central city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, on January 8 and developed a fever after returning to seven days later, the city's health commission said.

He died on Monday of respiratory failure.
About 60 Muslim women, who have been carrying out their demonstration against the CAA, and the proposed nationwide NRC at the Park Circus Maidan here, continued their agitation on Sunday and took the pledge to save the Constitution on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day.

The sit-in by the women, ranging from homemakers to professionals, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) on the lines of the Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi, entered its 20th day on Sunday.

Nausreen, one of the 60 women and a homemaker, said "this is a different 26th January" for her, unlike past years.

During past occasions, she had gone to Alipore Zoo, Maidan, Eco Park or some other places with her husband and son for a family picnic but this year, they are at the protest venue.

"This is a new feeling. There is a new spirit of bonhomie among all of us - the men and women of different communities - as we all take oath to remain united to save the Constitution," Nausreen said.

As one of the participants suddenly started singing the national anthem, all others present on the occasion at the ground, joined her.

The gathering swelled during afternoon as students of different college and universities gathered to express their solidarity with the women.

"We will never leave the place unless there is a favourable decision with regard to our demand for scrapping of the CAA," another protester Nauseen Baba Khan said.

As people formed a human chain to protest against the new citizenship law and the proposed NRC at the Park Circus seven point crossing, many of those, who gathered at the sit- in, rushed outside the ground to participate in the programme.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Choudhury, who went to Park Circus Maidan to express solidarity with the protesters, said he went there not as a politician but as a citizen of this country.

"I offer my support to the "mothers and sisters who have been staying out of their homes for so many days," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Contrary to repeated assurances from local union officials that this would not happen at our plant, Ford Motor Company is moving ahead with video surveillance technology at its Dearborn Truck Plant in suburban Detroit. DTP, which employs 4,400 hourly workers, is a company flagship facility producing the F-150 pickup truck, the best-selling vehicle in North America and source of the vast majority of the companys profits for the region.

A little over one week ago, United Auto Workers plant president Burkie Morris issued a single-sided news sheet for the month of January. Couched in the usual fluff about benefits, job-postings and new construction is a four-sentence paragraph entitled New Technology Letter, which reads:

The Company will be piloting a First Hour Optimization Program on the Door line This program will show the Company who is at work and in position to work when the shift starts. This or any other New Technology can not be used for discipline without the approval of the National Ford Department. The Company will have meetings and information for those teams involved in the pilot.

With this program, Ford is introducing tracking technology perfected by technology firms such as Amazon, which have used surveillance to track workers every movement in real time and impose a draconian system of speed-up and discipline. The program was made possible by a provision in the sellout national agreement which the UAW forced through at Ford last year, shortly after it shut down the strike at General Motors and enforced concessions.

The Ford contract was overseen by then-UAW Vice President Rory Gamble, now interim president after Gary Jones, implicated in the corruption scandal engulfing much of the unions top leadership, was forced to resign. Gamble himself has also since been implicated.

Workers told the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter that during informational meetings prior to the vote, local union officials told them not to worry about the provision, and that the video surveillance would not be used at DTP. This has now been exposed as a lie.

As one worker told the WSWS, This pilot program is part of the monitoring program which they said would not be implemented at our plant. But this is expanding everywhere.

Anyone who slows or stops the assembly line because of unsafe conditions, for instance, will risk being disciplined and fired. If there are stoppages, he said, They can play the video back and review everything.

Another worker at DTP explained the implications of the program. They will be able to look at everybodys movements and see if anybodys job could be increased based on that, she said. Very skeptical of Burkies assurances, she continued, They are trying to downplay the pilot program. It will just be for the first hour when the shift starts. Thats it, they claim.

[But] they call it an optimization program. They are going to want to optimize everything, not just the first hour. Why would they stop there?

The surveillance program is outlined in a letter of understanding which is part of the recent contract, entitled Production Standards and Other Issues, from Kevin Legel, Director of US Labor Affairs for the company, to Gamble. In the online version of the contract white book, the letter is buried on pages 412 and 413 of the 769-page PDF document.

A critical passage explains why the company and the union were in a hurry to roll it out before the end of January. Within 90 days of ratification, it states, the parties will mutually agree to identify pilot locations to introduce the technology tools. The National parties will develop a framework for the pilot in order to ensure alignment. The company was determined not to waste any time.

The clear intent of weaponizing the new surveillance technology as a means of disciplining and firing workers is spelled out in the letter. The technology will not be used as the sole [emphasis added] basis for disciplinary action. The wording of this statement makes clear that it can, in fact, be used to build a disciplinary case against workers.

The company intends to use the new technology to vastly intensify speedup under the new agreement. The contract language reads: Utilization of relevant technology to support workstation optimization including digital video recording and walk path mapping devices.

Implicitly acknowledging that these measures amount to an invasion of the privacy of autoworkers, the letter adds: The Company will ensure access by authorized personnel and follow existing data privacy policies, including the LOU entitled Privacy-Confidentiality of Personal Data and Information.

Its role in implementing this technology is further proof that the UAW functions as an industrial police force on behalf of the auto companies. Any successful struggle by autoworkers against surveillance and other forms of management harassment require first of all that workers begin to break free from the straitjacket of the UAW and organize themselves independently. Workers must form rank-and-file committees in every factory to take the defense of workers conditions in the shops out of the hands of the corrupt and corporatist unions.
It was only after a brief written statement under Xi's name on January 20, when he was touring a military base and shopping exposition in Yunnan province, that the vast Chinese state bureaucracy began to shudder into action. Loading Officials then quickly acknowledged the dangers of the coronavirus and ordered drastic measures to stop the spread  perhaps, experts said, belatedly  including the lockdown of much of the province where the epidemic emerged, penning in 56 million people. The government also ordered the construction of two hospitals in Wuhan to deal exclusively with patients afflicted with the coronavirus, which are expected to open within days, not months or years. "The thing about China is that they can mobilise agencies and resources faster than anybody else can," said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney and author of Xi Jinping: The Backlash. "The other side is that they can conceal things." "In China there is no independent entity that can get on the front foot and disseminate information," he added.

From a localised medical mystery a few weeks ago, the coronavirus has erupted as one of the most complex and unpredictable tests for Xi since he came to power more than seven years ago. Over that time, he has by some measures established himself as the most formidable Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. The epidemic and the effectiveness of the government's response remain subject to many unknowns, but the outbreak comes at a time when Xi has already been facing quiet whispers about his political acumen. In the past year, he has experienced repeated setbacks on some of the most vital issues on his agenda. Protests against China's tightening grip continue to convulse Hong Kong. Rancor with Washington was only partly eased by a trade deal that some said required China to promise too many concessions. Two weeks ago, voters in Taiwan, the island democracy that Xi has made clear should join a greater China, resoundingly re-elected a president despised by Beijing. Xi's sheer dominance, according to several experts and political insiders, may be contributing to his problems by hampering internal debate that could help avoid misjudgments. Beijing, for example, has underestimated the staying power of the protesters in Hong Kong and the public support behind them.

"It's a paradox," said Rong Jian, an independent scholar of Chinese politics in Beijing. "It's precisely because Xi is so powerful that policy problems often arise  nobody dares disagree, and problems are spotted too late." Loading While state and local officials have been criticised, the public health system has been credited with responding effectively, particularly compared with the response to the SARS crisis. In that case, officials covered up the extent of the viral outbreak for months, almost certainly abetting its spread and exacerbating the death toll, which reached nearly 800. This time, even as officials in Wuhan said nothing publicly, government scientists shared information with the World Health Organisation on the last day of 2019, isolated the virus and posted details about it on an international database 10 days later.

That allowed experts from around the world to quickly conclude that the new coronavirus, like the one from SARS, had very likely originated in bats and made the leap to humans through infection of another mammal in a market in Wuhan. The Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, praised China's handling of the outbreak so far in an editorial. "The lessons from the SARS epidemic  where China was insufficiently prepared to implement infection control practices  have been successfully learned," it wrote. "By most accounts, Chinese authorities are meeting international standards and isolating suspected cases and contacts, developing diagnostic and treatment procedures, and implementing public education campaigns." On the local level in Wuhan, people have vented anger and frustration, which is percolating on social media despite censorship. In widely circulated, and then censored, comments, a senior journalist with The Hubei Daily, the province's main party newspaper, called for a change of leadership in Wuhan. "With this extraordinarily grim situation worsening and expanding by the day, those currently in office lack that commanding leadership," the journalist, Zhang Ouya, wrote on Sina.com Weibo, a popular Chinese social media service.

There is evidence, too, that local authorities kept a lid on the crisis in the first days of January so as not to upset the cheerful tone for a provincial legislative session that is a highlight of the local political cycle. "This year will be a major landmark year," Wang Xiaodong, the provincial governor, told the legislative members. "Let us unite even more closely around the party central leadership with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core." Wang is now widely accused of underplaying the virus threat. "China is a much more decentralised place than it appears," said David Cowhig, a former American diplomat who served 10 years in China and monitored health and science issues.

"Local officials have great discretion; China is a coalition of 'little' Big Brothers," he said. "Xi realises this and is trying to re-centralise China." Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies China, said that the centralisation of power since the SARS crisis did not appear to have strengthened expertise at the local level or the willingness of underequipped regional hospitals to report. "I think the central health authorities are trying to be more transparent," he said, "but the local government remains loath to share disease related information in a timely and accurate manner." Not all the blame can fall on the officials in Wuhan. The central authorities still control the political and propaganda apparatus, which has sought to minimise the severity of the crisis. Before the standing committee's meeting on Saturday, Xi and other senior officials went about their business as if there were no crisis, appearing at a banquet on Thursday in the Great Hall of the People to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
With the Senate impeachment trial looming over the head of President Donald Trump, several of his defenders said he cannot be impeached for abuse of power.

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a high-profile criminal attorney, told ABC News This Week Sunday that Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis, in his defense of former President Andrew Johnson, argued that abuse of power doesnt constitute an impeachable offense. Dershowitz confirmed Friday that he will join Trumps legal team and will attempt to defend the integrity of the Constitution.

So I am making an argument much like the argument made by the great Justice Curtis, he said. And to call them absurdist is to, you know, insult one of the greatest jurists in American history. The argument is a strong one. The Senate should hear it. His absurdist reference was a response to House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who said that to claim abuse of power isnt impeachable is an absurdist position.

Curtis argued, very successfully, winning the case, that you needed proof of an actual crime. It neednt be a statutory crime, but it has to be criminal behavior, criminal in nature, Dershowitz added. And the allegations in the Johnson case were much akin to the allegations here  and that lost.

In a separate interview on CNN Sunday, Dershowitz said that if his argument is successful, it would negate the need for any witnesses. Several Democratic and Republican senators have argued that witnesses should be called in the trial.

No need for even arguments, any further arguments, he said. If the House charges do not include impeachable offenses, thats really the end of the matter.

Even if everything that is alleged by the House managers is proven or taken as true, they would not rise to the level of an impeachable offense, Dershowitz also argued.

Robert Ray, a former prosecutor who was added to Trumps legal team, concurred with Dershowitzs claim.

Abuse of power alone, and history has shown this, similar to also obstruction of Congress, those types of articles of impeachment have been tried on for size before but they have not fared well, he told Fox News Sunday Morning Futures.

The core of the impeachment parameters allege that crimes have been committedtreason, bribery, and things like thatin other words, other high crimes and misdemeanors, he added.

Trumps legal team also includes former special prosecutor Ken Starr, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and others.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) didnt argue that presidents could not be impeached for abuse of power, but he told Fox News on Sunday that House Democrats allegations have been so poorly defined here I dont know presidents in the future can conform their conduct.

The claim from Dershowitz was attacked by Democrats on Sunday.

This is preposterous that this would not be an impeachable offense, that this standard in America is now that presidents could abuse their power to help in elections, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told NBC News.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told CBS News that he was surprised and said his claim is simply ignorance.

From The Epoch Times
A cyberattack has knocked out the phone lines and Internet for Tillamook County, Ore., throwing local government service delivery into disarray, local news reports and official accounts show."We're learning to use paper and pen again," said Lt. Gordon McCraw, emergency management director with the county sheriff's department, who is helming the local response to the crisis.Computer difficulties in various departments Wednesday morning alerted officials to a potential infection, with the county IT department quickly realizing systems had been hit with encrypting malware. All work stations and servers were subsequently disconnected to quarantine it, McCraw explained toWhile it's not yet clear whether the attack is ransomware, it closely resembles the many incidents to strike state and local governments over the past year. A local report showed a county commissioner quoted as saying the infection is "apparently ransomware in nature" but said a ransom had not been posted.The incident also takes place only a week after an Oregon city was hit with a similar cyberattack "Obviously, it's affected all county computers and unfortunately, since our phone system is VoIP [voice over Internet protocol], it's also taken the phone system offline. Right now, of course, we have interruption of the systems and services that would need a computer to complete. In the meantime, we are back to paper and pencil," McCraw said.The county has hired a digital forensic team from Arete Advisors, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in incident response, to identify the source, nature and extent of the attack, he said. It isn't entirely clear how long it will take to get everything back up and running.Tillamook, which is located in northwestern Oregon and has a population of some 25,000, has never suffered an incident of this kind before, he added."Obviously it's not something that the county has ever experienced, and I've not known any company or government agency personally that has dealt with this, so it's new to a great number of us," he said.Officials' decision to outsource some response operations makes sense given that the county did not have a plan specifically drafted to address a cyberincident, though it did activate its incident response team  a "flexible" assortment of county leaders that can "grow as large as it needs to be or small as it can be to accomplish whatever" needs to be done in an emergency, McCraw explained.In the meantime, Arete will be at the front of local response efforts, the emergency management director said, also expressing a desire to keep outside help limited and "not have too many cooks in the kitchen.""We'll let the experts tell us what direction we need to go," he said. "Obviously we'll have a lot of lessons learned from this."
The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Central government on a petition claiming that around 2,000 transgenders were excluded from the Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam.

A Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde issued a notice seeking a reply from the Centre.

The petition, filed by Assam's first transgender judge Swati Bidhan, said that NRC was not inclusive of the transgenders and forced them to accept male or female as their gender.

The plea said that most transgenders were abandoned and they do not have documents from before 1971, which is required for the NRC.

The applications did not contain 'others' as a gender category, the plea added.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, which seeks to provide a mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgenders, was passed by the Parliament of India on November 26 and received the President's assent on December 5.

The bill defines the expression "transgender person", prohibits discrimination against them, confers the right to self-perceived gender identity and provide that no establishment shall discriminate against them in matters of employment, recruitment, promotion and other related issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Army and People's Liberation Army on Sunday jointly celebrate 71st Republic Day of Indian and Chinese lunar year at Natu La, Bum La, and Kibithu.

According to officials, Ceremonial Border Personnel Meetings (BPM) were organised between the two armies to jointly celebrate the occasions.

"The BPM mechanism has evolved into an important interface where local issues get discussed and are resolved thereby fostering confidence amongst the Border Guarding Troops. This ensures the prevalence of peace and tranquillity along the line of actual control (LAC)," an official statement said.

The function also involved the extension of greetings and display of cultural programmes while a gift exchange ceremony was also hosted by the Indian Army for PLA at Kongra La in North Sikkim.

The events commenced with the hoisting of flags and rendition of the anthems of both the nations.

"The proceedings reflected a mutual desire to maintain an environment of peace and tranquillity along the LAC which is a prerequisite for good relations between both the nations," the statement said.

The delegations of both countries interacted with each other in an environment of amity and friendship.

"During the interaction, the participants reaffirmed their resolve to strengthen friendship and maintain peace and tranquillity along the LAC. The delegations parted amidst feeling of friendship and commitment towards enhancing the existing cordial relations along the LAC," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Hailing the accord signed with Bodo groups on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it would usher in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness and that those associated with armed resistance groups would now enter the mainstream and contribute to the nation's progress.

He said the accord will lead to transformative results for Bodos as it successfully brings together leading stakeholders under one framework and would help Bodo people get access to development-oriented initiatives.

ALSO READ | Peace Accord will lead to full, final solution to Bodo issue: Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

"Ushering in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness! Today is a very special day for India. The Accord with Bodo groups, which has been inked today will lead to transformative results for the Bodo people," the prime minister said on Twitter.

He said the accord stands out for many reasons as it successfully brings together the leading stakeholders under one framework.

"Those who were previously associated with armed resistance groups will now be entering the mainstream and contributing to our nation's progress," he said.

ALSO READ | Centre signs peace pact with Bodo militant group NDFB, in presence of Amit Shah

In a series of tweets, the prime minister said the accord with Bodo groups will further protect and popularise the unique culture of the Bodo people.

"They will get access to a wide range of development-oriented initiatives. We are committed to doing everything possible to help the Bodo people realise their aspirations," he said.

The government on Monday signed an accord with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), one of the dreaded insurgent groups of Assam, providing political and economic bonanza sans a separate state or Union Territory.

The All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state since 1972, and another group called United Bodo People's Organisation were also signatories to the accord.
The Department of Agriculture is liaising with international veterinary authorities following confirmation of rabies in an imported pet in Cork.

An 8km surveillance zone remains in place around Riverstick after test results last week confirmed that a sable  a species of marten - had been exposed to lyssavirus, more commonly known as rabies.

The surveillance zone combined with restrictions on the gatherings of certain animals will remain in place for up to a month.

The infected pet is believed to have been imported from Russia via Italy and England, by a homeowner who lives in Riverstick, near Kinsale in County Cork.

The Department declined to comment on the international dimension of its involvement in this case other than to confirm that it is liaising with the "relevant veterinary authorities connected with this case".

Concerns were first flagged on January 7 when the department said it was made aware of a sable that was intermittently displaying atypical behaviour.

It is understood that the animal's owner raised concerns about their pet with a local vet who immediately recognised the symptoms.

The Department said it is satisfied that the animal was kept securely confined at a private house and there was no evidence of contact with animals outside the household.

But the animal was euthanised when the initial investigation could not rule out rabies infection.

The Department has been liaising closely with both the HSEs regional Department of Public Health and Health Protection Surveillance Centre, which has led to the identification and follow up a small number of people who may have been exposed to the animal.

While initial screening tests by the departments Central Veterinary Laboratory and the European Reference Laboratory in France were negative, further test results released last Thursday found evidence of low levels of lyssavirus genetic material in brain samples taken from the animal.

The Department said that based on these results, rabies cannot be ruled out in the sable.

And while no contact with any other animals outside the household has been identified, and the likelihood of spread to other animals in the area is extremely low, the Department has imposed precautionary measures in the surveillance zone, prohibiting the gatherings of dogs, cats or ferrets, including hunting, sales and fairs, for a month, subject to review.

Owners of dogs, cats and ferrets have been advised to monitor the health and behaviour of their animals and report any abnormal or unusual behaviour to the department.

Signs of disease involve changes in behaviour, such as unusual aggression, fearfulness or friendliness out of character for the individual animal.

Ireland has been rabies free since 1903.

Rabies is responsible for up to 59,000 human deaths per year, with most occurring in developing countries caused by dog bites. The virus is spread through the saliva of infected animals.

Information is available from the departments regional office in Cork on 021-4851400
Hartford is exploiting an anomaly in the Medicaid program to extract billions from the U.S. Treasury, not to finance health care, but rather to finance otherwise unaffordable state spending, primarily state employee health care and retirement benefits.

This anomaly, or shell game (the term used in a U.S. Senate committee report) operates through the hospital tax. While all states impose this tax, no state imposes nearly as high a hospital tax rate. Thats what former Office of Policy and Management Director Ben Barnes told me in late 2017. He said Connecticuts hospital tax scheme requires explicit federal approval, because the roughly 9 percent rate exceeds a 6 percent threshold that no other state exceeds.

The Medicaid program is a federal-state partnership providing medical care to poor citizens, with the federal government reimbursing states for about one-half to two-thirds of allowable fees and costs that hospitals and others charge Medicaid patients for medical care. Under Obamacare, Connecticut and other states expanded Medicaid in return for much higher federal reimbursement percentages on the patients newly covered.

Apart from this straightforward reimbursement arrangement, states provide hospitals supplemental payments, with the federal government matching the payments, in order to achieve various policy objectives. The hospital tax exploits this supplemental payment mechanism in a manner which the U.S. General Accountability Office criticized strongly in a 2014 report.

Lets start with some fundamental questions. Why is government taxing hospitals, which only serves to raise the cost of the nations primary providers of health care? Many are nonprofit. Why tax nonprofits? Many are for-profit and already pay corporate income taxes. Why levy a second tax? Hospital taxes are truly strange and wonderful.

Before Christmas, the Connecticut General Assembly went into a special session to approve unanimously a plan to extend the states stratospheric hospital tax for seven years. The plan will generate about $675 million annually, including $375 million in federal matching funds. This past Monday, Gov. Lamont and the state hospital association inked the deal.

The plan requires the approval of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, or CMS, which may not be forthcoming. In mid-2018, a U.S. Senate committee took a look at hospital taxes and issued a report calling hospital taxes a shell game and singling out Connecticut as a major perpetrator.

Connecticuts seven-year plan originates from a settlement of a lawsuit between the state and its hospitals charging the state with violating the original understanding under which it began taxing hospitals in 2011. The hospitals had thought they were to get more out of the arrangement than they paid in taxes, but they didnt. So, in 2016, they filed suit for as much as $4 billion, charging that state filched on the understanding and, instead, utilized the Hospitals Tax to balance the budget.

On the surface, the lawsuit would seem surrealistic. Why would any industry expect to get back more than it paid in taxes? What would be the point of the state levying the tax and then paying back more than it collected? And, why would any taxpayer think that tax revenue shouldnt be used to balance a state budget? Isnt that what taxes are for?

So what is the hospital tax, and how does this shell game work?

States tax hospitals. Then, they turn around and give back to the hospitals most of the tax revenue, which, on the return voyage, is deemed to be a Medicaid supplemental payment, for which states are entitled to federal matching funds.

The more a state taxes hospitals, and returns the money, the more cash it can extract from the federal treasury. Theres big money in this, and its not required to be spent on health care.

Connecticuts hospital tax has grown to enormous scale  from $350 million in 2011 to about $900 million in fiscal 2018 and 2019. Together with taxes on other health care providers (e.g. nursing homes), it is nearly tied with the corporate income tax as the states third-biggest tax.

The states seven-year plan extends the hospital tax at only a slightly decreased annual average of about $860 million and increases its supplemental payments slightly to approximately $560 million, leaving the hospitals in the red (and the state in the black) by $300 million. The $560 million generates $375 million in annual federal matching funds (at a 67 percent match).

Combining the $375 million with the $300 million in taxes not refunded, the state will clear about $675 million annually.

This does not help the hospitals. So, the state is using another inducement to quiet the hospitals  specifically, increased reimbursement rates for Medicaid services they provide. Of course, the federal government covers up to two-thirds of these reimbursements (more for Obamacare expansion patients).

Uncle Sam may not go along with Connecticuts continuing machinations. Even Connecticut is worried, so there are explicit contingencies in the lawsuit settlement with the states hospitals in case CMS rejects it. Remember, CMS cannot just go along; it must provide explicit approval since Connecticuts tax exceeds the 6 percent threshold. Below the 6 percent threshold, states dont need specific CMS approval and they enjoy a safe harbor from any federal enforcement action.

With the Senate scrutinizing CMS policy on hospital taxes, CMS might not feel comfortable approving the most egregious case of the shell game.

At best, the scheme shifts most of the financial burden of the Medicaid program to the federal side, subverting any sense of partnership. At worst, as Connecticut hospitals allege, the scheme uses federal health care money to finance state budgets, inflating our national and state health care costs and every citizens medical bills. No wonder U.S. health care costs are the highest in the developed world.

Rejection of the settlement by CMS would have dire consequences for Connecticut. If CMS just reduced the states proposed 9 percent tax to the prevalent 6 percent level, the state would be out hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Instead of relying so heavily upon such a risky revenue source, Connecticut should finally address the fundamental drivers of its fiscal and economic decline. One driver dwarfs all others, state employee health care and retirement benefits.

Red Jahncke is the president of Townsend Group Intl, LLC, a Greenwich-based consulting firm.
Mumbai: Indias Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday the country needs to look into the pricing mechanism of existing long term gas supply contracts with Qatar.

He was speaking to a gathering of oil company officials in New Delhi.

India imports 8.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually under a long-term supply deal with Qatar.

Spot prices, or current market prices, of LNG have dropped to multi-year lows in January, highlighting the loss being borne by LNG importing countries tied in long term contracts with suppliers.
Al Hilal Computers, one of the leading systems integrators in Bahrain, said it has received ISO 9001:2015 certification from TUV Nord.



The ISO 9001 is the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). Organizations use the standard to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.



TUV Nord had awarded the certification to the Bahrain group in recognition of the organizational processes of the company meeting the exhaustive standards required by ISO.



Hilal Computers is committed to meeting and exceeding customers and business partners' expectations and further enhance its credibility along with sister companies Hilal Computer and Technical For Trade Company, Northstar Computer Trading EST and Northstar Technology.



Commenting on the achievement, Roshan George, the Commercial Director, said: "Al Hilal Computers have had exponential growth over the last 10 years. This growth has seen the companys reputation and business spread across the GCC and it has brought with it organizational challenges."



"The ISO 9001:2015 certification has focused our commitment to providing high-quality and leading-edge technologies and services to our clients supported by our customer focused processes," noted George.



"The accreditation is a result of a team effort. Our ISO 9001 Certification will promote the development of continual improvement, risk reduction, customer satisfaction and traceability through the implementation of various management system processes across Hilal Computers," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Hunter Biden has come to an agreement with his Arkansas baby mama on child support, according to new court documents filed on Monday.

The 49-year-old and Lunden Roberts, 28, finally hashed out the terms, and Biden will pay an undisclosed amount each month for their 17-month-old child starting on February 1.

As part of the agreement, Biden has to retroactively pay support from November 2018, meaning he'll have to cough up 14 months worth of payment by March 1.

He will also have to pay Roberts' legal fees and costs, according to the Independence County court documents.

Although Biden was ordered to show up at court on Wednesday, that is now off the table because he and Roberts were able to come to an agreement.

However, he will still have to show why he shouldn't be held in contempt for allegedly not turning over his financial records to Roberts' legal team.

Hunter Biden has come to an agreement with his Arkansas baby mama on child support, according to new court documents filed on Monday

The 49-year-old and Lunden Roberts, 28, (pictured) finally hashed out the terms, and Biden will pay an undisclosed amount each month for their 17-month-old child starting on February 1. As part of the agreement, Biden has to retroactively pay support from November 2018, meaning he'll have to cough up 14 months worth of payment by March 1

The next hearing for the case is scheduled for March 13.

The agreement will likely be seen as a win for Roberts, who has been fighting Biden since May 2019 for child support and to foot her legal bill.

The child, whose gender is being kept secret, was born in August 2018.

Roberts, who met Biden while working as a stripper in Washington D.C., had been demanding her former lover to turn over the past five years of his financial records to establish how much he should pay in support.

The agreed upon amount has been redacted from the court filing, but the court noted that because it 'lacks sufficient information to determine child support based off the defendant's income... it reserves judgement on temporary child support and final child support until after adequate discovery is completed and relevant evidence is available for a child support determination.'

It adds: 'The Court specifically reserves the right to retroactively amend or modify child support without the need for the filing of a proper motion by either party to modify support.

'If the evidence indicates that the defendant should have paid more in support than the amount set forth in this Order, the Court may order that he pay an additional amount after reviving credit for what he has paid.'

The agreement is also a slight win for Biden, who had been trying to get out of traveling to Arkansas.

The agreed upon amount has been redacted from the court filing, but the court noted that because it 'lacks sufficient information to determine child support based off the defendant's income... it reserves judgement on temporary child support and final child support until after adequate discovery is completed and relevant evidence is available for a child support determination'

The next hearing for the case is scheduled for March 13

The agreement is also a slight win for Biden, who had been trying to get out of traveling to Arkansas

He has repeatedly skirted court appearances, saying he didn't have enough time to prepare for a trip, and had requested in the past to appear via telephone.

Still, he has to present evidence why he shouldn't be held in contempt by March 1, after Roberts' legal team demanded for it last week, saying he hadn't turned over court-ordered evidence of his financial records.

Her team referred to a previous court order that said both parties must submit all documents pertaining to discovery no later than January 16.

They claimed he 'failed to provide any additional discovery information of any nature,' saying: 'Biden continues to act as though he has no respect for this Court, its orders, the legal process in this state, or the needs of his child for support.

'This Court should take some action that will make the defendant follow court orders and a believer in the rule of law.'

Last week, DailyMail.com revealed Biden had been 'hunkered down' inside his Hollywood Hills home 'prepping' in case he's called as a witness in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.

A source close to the Bidens told DailyMail.com: 'Hunter is taking no chances, he knows that he could get called as a witness any day so he wants to be fully prepared, he's going over every fine detail.' Pictured: Adam Schiff speaking during Trump's impeachment trial on Wednesday

Trump came under fire for a phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urging him to investigate Hunter's work with Burisma, while withholding some $400 million in military aid. The President himself has demanded that Hunter be called as a witness in the trial

Biden, who is at the center of the trial over his business links to the Ukraine, is said to be taking 'no chances' over the looming prospect of being called to testify in Washington D.C. and wants to be fully prepared.

A source close to the Bidens told DailyMail.com: 'Hunter is taking no chances, he knows that he could get called as a witness any day so he wants to be fully prepared, he's going over every fine detail.

'He's been keeping low for a while ever since Trump decided to start attacking him, but for the past week or so he has asked to be left alone and isn't taking visitors or too many calls.

'He's taking the trial very seriously and wants to make sure he's ready for whatever the Republicans throw at him.'

Senate Republicans have warned Democrats that if witnesses are permitted in the impeachment trial they will call Hunter - who served on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma from 2014-2019.

Trump came under fire for a phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urging him to investigate Hunter's work with Burisma, while withholding some $400 million in military aid.

The President himself has demanded that the 49-year-old be called as a witness in the trial.

Trump has also pushed for Senate Republicans to call the still-anonymous whistle-blower, whose report of the president's July 25 phone call with President Zelesnky sparked the events that led to the impeachment inquiry.
EarthKind Celebrates the "Year of the Rat" Chinese culture gets it right when they say that rats are highly intelligent. They also have a great memory, are highly social creatures, and have even demonstrated empathy and affection. But most important, despite our aversion to them, rats and other rodents serve a vital role to our ecosystem.

January 25ths Lunar New Year rung in 2020 as the year of the metal rat. The first in the cycle of Chinese zodiac signs, the metal rat symbolizes renewal, success, and favorable outcomes for all signs this year. But beyond cultural personifications, Kari Warberg Block, CEO/Founder of award-wining plant-based pest prevention brand EarthKind, emphasizes that it really may be the year of the rat, and not in the metaphorical sense.

In 2019, rat and mouse populations, particularly in urban areas, surged. And while there are a number of factors for this including accessibility to food waste and gentrification, warmer weather is certainly a culprit, too, she states, Rodents typically shut down and stop breeding once winter hits, so shorter winters and warmer weather equate to more breeding time throughout the year, and they breed fast. To put it in perspective, just 2 rats can turn into 1,250 rats in one year!

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2019 was declared as the second hottest year on record in 140 years, and the past four years have ranked as the hottest in recorded history, with 2016 holding the number one slot. Warberg Block explains that following this pattern, we can expect 2020 to come with lots of rats and mice. However, she emphasizes that rodents shouldnt always get such a bad rep.

Ironically, a group of rats is called a mischief, and along with other rodents, they are estimated to invade around 21 million homes each winter. But just because they arent wanted in the home, doesnt mean they arent needed for the planet.

Chinese culture gets it right when they say that rats are highly intelligent. They also have a great memory, are highly social creatures, and have even demonstrated empathy and affection. But most important, despite our aversion to them, rats and other rodents serve a vital role to the balance of our eco-system, both for the food-chain and for spreading seeds for tree and plant growth. However, this doesnt mean to say that they dont come with risks, she explains.

According to Advanced IPM, rodents can carry and spread disease in addition to causing roughly $20 billion in damage to homes, businesses and agriculture in the US every year. With a few cold winter months left, Warberg Block notes that rodents will still be trying to sneak into homes while looking for shelter. Instead of using dangerous rodenticides and traps, she strongly encourages keeping them out with preventative measures.

Start with these DIY tips: eliminate rodents food source by storing foods in airtight containers and keeping trash in a bin with a tightly fitted lid. Seal potential entry points, like gaps around the openings for electrical wires, along with gaps in windows, door ledges, holes underneath doors, she says, I hope everyone thinks twice before using harmful rodenticides, as they pose serious risks to curious children and pets, and cause second-hand poisoning in wildlife creatures. Opt for a sustainable, poison-free repellent, like EarthKinds Stay Away Botanical Rodent Repellent pouch.

Stay Away Botanical Rodent Repellent is federally registered by the U.S. EPA for use in all 50 states and District of Columbia and functions without killing or the use of harmful chemicals. Formulated with a patented blend of plant fibers and essential oils, Stay Away Botanical Rodent Repellent effectively keeps rodents out of the home, guaranteed, without harm to you, the planet or the pest. EarthKinds Stay Away Botanical Rodent Repellent is safe for use around children and pets when used as directed.

Preserving the good and preventing the rest through a cycle of kindness has always been at the root of EarthKinds purpose, comments Warberg Block, I started EarthKind to save farmers and families from costly rodent damage. My intention was never to poison or kill them, but to invent a safer, eco-friendly alternative. We need these creatures. In addition to the beautiful celebration of the Lunar New Year, perhaps the 'Year of the Rat' will have people thinking more positively about rats, too.

Media interested in receiving additional information or speaking with CEO/Founder of EarthKind, Kari Warberg Block, please contact Sara White at sara@adinnyc.com or 212-693-2150.

About EarthKind

Founded by leading pest prevention expert Kari Warberg Block, EarthKind is a pioneer in natural prevention for families and households everywhere. EarthKind is a pest prevention brand that manufactures naturally powerful and effective pest solutions that keep pests away, without killing or poisoning them. All EarthKind products are designed by inventive artists, scientists and engineers who care about the earth, made in the USA with 80% of the materials sourced from American farms and the company is providing handicapped individuals with meaningful employment. Kari was awarded the 2019 GMDC Retail Champions of Change award for her role as an inspirational industry retail leader, and was named to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman Class of 2012, 2013 ND SBA Small Business Person of the Year and National Second Runner Up. Her latest product line, Stay Away was the winner of the 2015 NEXTY People's Choice Award for Best New Product of the Year. Learn more at https://www.earthkind.com and on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthkindinc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/earthkind

Instagram: @earthkindinc

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/earthkindinc/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/earthkind2010
Police have released photographs of a newborn baby who was abandoned on a doorstep when he was 12 hours old as they continue the hunt for his mother.



The infant, whose umbilical cord was reportedly still attached when he was discovered, was left on a doorstep in Hackney, east London, shortly before midday on Saturday.

He has been named Edward after the member of public who discovered him and is currently being looked after by medical staff in hospital.

A baby found abandoned on a doorstep when he was 12 hours old has been named Edward - as police release new pictures of the newborn in the hunt for his mother

Police were called to the scene by a passerby who discovered the little infant wrapped up in a white knitted blanket after he was left on a doorstep.

Detectives are concerned for the health of his mother, who gave birth outside a hospital environment.

Appealing to Edward's mum, police said she should contact them or her GP so they know she is safe.

Detective Sergeant Andy Barry said: 'Baby Edward was only about 12 hours old when he was found abandoned on a doorstep in Sandringham Road.

The infant, whose umbilical cord was reportedly still attached when he was discovered, was left on a doorstep in Hackney, east London, shortly before midday on Saturday

'Edward is being well cared for by hospital staff and is a healthy, bonny lad.

'I am reaching out to Edward's mother. You are my primary concern. I do not know the circumstances around Edward's birth but, as a father myself, I understand how daunting becoming a parent can be.

'I can offer you help, please be assured that you are not in trouble. Edward is safe and well, and your health and wellbeing is our priority.

The baby was found wrapped up in a white knitted blanket on the residential street in east London (pictured). He is now being cared for at an east London hospital, and the Metropolitan Police have appealed for his mother to come forward

He has been named after the member of public who discovered him and is currently being looked after by medical staff in hospital

'To anyone who may know Edward's mother, I'd urge you to come forward and help me locate her - this can be done in confidence.

'I'd also like to hear from anyone who was in the Sandringham Road area between 10am and 12pm on Saturday January 25. If you noticed anything or saw someone, please contact us as a matter of urgency.'

Edward was found just hours after another newborn baby was discovered dead in a street in Portsmouth.

Police were called to the scene by a passerby who discovered Edward wrapped up in a white knitted blanket after he was left on a doorstep

The tiny infant was left at the junction of Victoria Street and Old Commercial Road, at around 6.15am.

Police are 'extremely concerned' for the mother of the newborn baby and have been revieing CCTV are continuing to search for her.

Edward remains in hospital in east London.
Government air raids in Afghanistans northern Balkh province have killed at least seven civilians, including three children, triggering protests from local residents.

Tolo news, a local news website, reported that the victims belonged to one family and were killed while they were having dinner on Sunday.

A member of parliament from Balkh alleged that the attack was carried out in areas controlled by the government, according to local media reports.

The West-backed Afghan government, which has been battling an armed rebellion from Taliban, pledged to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the reports of civilian deaths.

The Balkh operation was part of the governments ground-and-air offensive against the Taliban, which has waged an armed rebellion since it was dislodged from power in a United States-led invasion in 2001 following deadly attacks on US soil.

The government offensive comes as the US has been engaging Taliban in peace talks to end the 19-year-old war.

Afghan defence ministry on Sunday said it has killed dozens of terrorists in 13 ground and 12 air operations across nine provinces in the last 24 hours, Reuters news agency reported. At least 13 people have been wounded and six others arrested, the ministry said.

Taliban claim deadly attacks

Meanwhile, the Taliban said it had staged two more attacks aimed at security forces over the weekend, following sporadic assaults last week.

Afghan security forces checkpoints in Kunduz were attacked on Saturday night, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement, adding that 10 members of the security forces were killed and three wounded. Taliban fighters also captured a large weapons cache, he said.

In a separate statement, the Taliban said its fighters had ambushed an Afghan forces patrol in Balkh, killing eight security personnel.

The spike in hostilities comes as US and Taliban negotiators resumed talks in the Qatari capital Doha after US President Donald Trump abruptly suspended talks last September following a deadly attack in Kabul that killed a US soldier.

Last week, another round of talks kicked off with US Special Representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad meeting repeatedly with the Talibans chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Multiple sources close to the talks said the Taliban had agreed internally to halt attacks against US forces and reduce assaults against Afghan government interests.

Over the last week, however, reports of attacks by Taliban fighters on government installations, including police stations continued to filter in from different parts of Afghanistan.
Netherlands Sets Out 2020 Tax Treaty Goals

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

27 January 2020

On January 20, 2020, the Dutch Ministry of Finance announced the list of countries with which the Netherlands intends to negotiate new or amended double tax treaties in 2020.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's quarterly overview of tax treaty negotiations, in 2020, the Netherlands will continue treaty talks with Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Curacao, Morocco, Uganda, and Portugal, among others.

The Finance Ministry said that the Government would also attempt to start or restart negotiations with Australia, Aruba, India, Israel, Mozambique, Senegal, and Thailand in 2020.

Individual and business taxpayers may submit comments on current or new tax treaty negotiations to the Finance Ministry.
Moskalkova seeks for pardon of Israeli Naama Issachar convicted in Russia

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

17:37 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  Ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova has turned to a pardon committee asking that its members recommend applying of the act of pardon to Naama Issachar sentenced to 7.5 years in Russian prison for trafficking and possession of drugs, according to the rights commissioners press service.

Earlier, Moskalkova said that she would support the convicts petition for parole.

Last week, Moskalkova met with the Israeli.Moskalkova communicated to the convict, checked her jail conditions and quality of medical care. According to the rights commissioner, the woman is generally in a good mood. The Israeli also did not complain about the incarceration conditions, the ombudsman stated.

Earlier, the warden of the penal colony in the Moscow Region, where Naama Issachar serves her sentence, was reprimanded for unlawfully denying her visitations of her mother.

According to Moskalkova, last year first deputy mayor of the town of Ashkelon in Israel asked her to protect Issachars rights; the ombudsman promised to sort out the situation.




Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Close to 5 million children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will need humanitarian assistance over the course of 2020, UNICEF said on Monday, indicating that the figure is going up from 4
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 14:02:42|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- China extended the Spring Festival holiday and postponed school openings on Monday, while transport restrictions have been adopted in various areas to further contain the coronavirus epidemic.

The seven-day Spring Festival vacation, scheduled to end on Jan. 30, was extended to Feb. 2. Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice, according to the General Office of the State Council.

Chinese health authorities announced Monday that 2,744 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), including 461 in critical condition, had been reported in the country by the end of Sunday.

Besides the temporary closures of tourist sites, museums and cancellations of gatherings, transport restrictions have been imposed in various areas as the country is still in its Spring Festival travel rush period.

On Monday, the northern port city of Tianjin and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Anhui began to suspend inter-provincial highway passenger bus services. Previously, Shanghai and Qinghai Province had halted similar bus services.

Beijing has also launched temperature detection at 55 subway stations, including stops at railway stations and the Beijing Capital International Airport. Passengers with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to the hospital.

Beijing's subway stations and buses have also stepped up cleaning and disinfection work. Each carriage of the train is ordered to be disinfected every day. The entrances and exits, escalators, self-service machines, toilets and other public areas of the subway stations are disinfected three times each day.

Tianjin has asked all taxi drivers and passengers to wear masks and taxi drivers to disinfect the car after taking each passenger.

The Lanzhou bureau of China Railway on Monday suspended 30.5 pairs of trains to cities such as Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Xi'an until Feb. 8.

Strict measures were also implemented in rural areas.

"Our 96 grassroots staff members are all working right now. We have been visiting households and monitoring body temperatures of returning migrant workers every day," said Wu Lihui, Party official of a subdistrict office in Shangrao city, eastern China's Jiangxi Province.

Yang Xiaoxia, a villager in Lantian county, northwestern Shaanxi Province, was going to hold a big dinner party for her one-month-old grandson during the Spring Festival. But she decided to postpone it because of the spreading coronavirus.

"A villager in our village canceled his wedding banquet," said Yang. "I will invite everybody over to celebrate when the outbreak is over."
Texas state Rep. J.M. Lozano has been appointed to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) Legislative Oversight Board, a group of four State Representatives and four State Senators that will closely monitor TWIA and conduct oversight activities on behalf of the legislature.

TWIA serves as the property insurer of last resort for wind and hail insurance along the Texas Gulf Coast. While not a state agency, the association operates under legislative oversight, as well as regulatory oversight by the Texas Department of Insurance.

Lozano, who represents Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg and San Patricio Counties, has been at the front and center of battling TWIA rate increases and making agency reforms since his election to the Legislature.

He continues his fight for coastal Texans with this most recent leadership position in the Texas House of Representatives. Lozano currently serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation and sits on the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee.

In a statement released by the House of Representatives, Lozano said it is time to make meaningful reforms to this program. The Coastal Bend is a economic engine for the entire State of Texas. I wont stand for us to be discriminated against with unfair rates just because we live on the coast.

TWIAs underwriting and actuarial committee last year had recommended a rate increase for both commercial and residential properties but at its quarterly meeting in December, the associations board declined to request a rate hike.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Legislation Windstorm
ACCU Announces Selection of New President/CEO

NEWS PROVIDED BY

America's Christian Credit Union (ACCU)

Jan. 27, 2020

GLENDORA, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Board of Directors of America's Christian Credit Union officially introduced the new President and CEO at a specially called staff meeting this morning at 8:30am. Vicki VannBerstein (photo) will assume the post succeeding retiring CEO, Mendell Thompson, who has served for 34 years and been employed at ACCU for 43.

"We are grateful to God for the good work Mendell has done and the way the Credit Union has grown during Mendell's years. The future is bright and we look forward to Vicki's leadership" said Board Chair, Rev. Dr. Kevin Mannoia.

Vicki comes to ACCU from her role as Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of FirstLight Federal Credit Union in El Paso, TX. Her leadership and financial experience are broad and deep. Prior to FirstLight, she served as Executive Vice President & CFO at ServiceLink, the mortgage lending service for Fidelity National in Pittsburgh. She also directed a financial turnaround at PSCU Financial Services as Senior Vice President & CFO, and subsequently as Executive Vice President for Shared Services at PSCU.

Beyond her Credit Union experience, Vicki has deep experience in the corporate sector having served as Vice President & Controller of Tropicana with responsibility for the U.S. and Latin America. Also, as Vice President & Controller of the Swanson & Vlasic Division of Campbell Soup Company. Prior to that she held various financial management positions of Kraft General Foods.

Vicki received her B.S. in Economics/Accounting & Finance from Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, and her MBA in Management & Finance from New York University.

Vicki and her late husband are the parents of two adoptive children, Steve (15) and Vikki (14) both of whom come from southern Russia. Vicki says, "I have always felt privileged that the Lord has blessed me in the strength of my family as I grew up, education, career, husband, children, and now this opportunity to assume the role of CEO of America's Christian Credit Union. I feel God has chosen this path for me."

VannBerstein will assume her new role as CEO of ACCU on March 23, 2020. Her strengths in strategic leadership, financial analysis, and innovation are coupled with a strong work ethic and highly focused desire to see growth while stretching people to their full potential. Board Vice-Chair, Dr. Barbara Dickerson affirms the new CEO, "Vicki will bring not only her professional expertise and lived faith in Christ to ACCU but as an adoptive parent she already has demonstrated that to whom much is given, much is expected. She and her late husband provided a forever family to her two wonderful children. She is a living example of one of ACCU's commitments to providing forever families for children!"

About America's Christian Credit Union

Founded in 1958 and currently managing over $500 million in assets, America's Christian Credit Union (ACCU) provides a broad range of financial solutions grounded in Christian stewardship principles. Notable among these are the savings and personal loan products that serve ministry expansion and families through the Adoption Loan program. ACCU's vision as "A Financial Partner for Cultural Impact" is realized through its mission to reach, serve, and teach in concert with its corporate priorities to build stronger families, communities, ministries, and futures. For more information, please visit www.AmericasChristianCU.com.

SOURCE America's Christian Credit Union

CONTACT: Fawn Imboden, 626-208-5478

Related Links

www.AmericasChristianCU.com
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's first full year Budget is expected to provide short-term stimulants to boost consumer demand, and such measures will get a positive response from markets, an American brokerage report said on January 27. If the government fails to take the necessary measures, the current cyclical growth slowdown can turn into a structural one, analysts at Bank of America Securities said.

Sitharaman will place the budget proposals on Saturday and all eyes are set on the government, which is likely to announce measures to revive the economic growth that may slide to a decadal low of 5 per cent for FY20.

"Social spends are essential for the long term, but a short-term demand stimulus may be needed to prevent a cyclical slowdown from turning into something structural. In the whole budgeting exercise, the last is a choice we think the government could realistically make," the BofA report said.

The market will be keenly watching for action on two specific measures on the taxation front, including companies and individuals, it said.

These would include changes to the long-term capital gains tax framework to reduce tax liabilities, reduction in securities transaction tax and dividend distribution tax, the report added.

There is also a possibility of changes in personal income tax structures, where relief to the low income earners can result in a push to growth, it said.

The tax cuts will be small as percentage of GDP because the government cannot afford to forego revenue, it said.

On the flip side, some of the measures can impact cigarette companies in then near-term through the proposals, it said.
I want each of us to experience the filling of the Holy Spirit, so that we can be used to heal the sick and diseased.

Richard Dunlap attended a revival on August 23, 1997, where he experienced a supernatural healing of his cancer. Since then, he has experienced prophetic dreams, visions and testimonies, which he is now sharing to heal others.

In Keys to the Kingdom Revealed, Dunlap shares his experience of being prayed over, seeing his cancerous arm leave his body, and waking up healed from the bone cancer that had afflicted him. In his new book, he shares the keys to the kingdom of heaven that have been revealed to him over the past 20 years.

Just as God healed me, through a woman at that revival, Dunlap said, he can use us to heal one another. I want each of us to experience the filling of the Holy Spirit, so that we can be used to heal the sick and diseased.

The keys Dunlap refers to include: keys for being filled with the Holy Spirit to bring healing to the body and deliverance of evil spirits, keys to spiritual warfare and how to be protected, keys to generational curses and the prayer to remove them, keys to the revival of the Christian church and how to maintain it, as well as keys to releasing the Holy Spirits presence in church service.

This book contains revelations from the Holy Spirit in these days, Dunlap said, for all Christians who want to minister in kingdom power for the healing and deliverance of sickness and evil spirits.

Keys to the Kingdom Revealed

By Richard Dunlap

ISBN: 978-1-7960-5368-5

Available at Xlibris and Amazon

About the author

Richard Dunlap grew up in southwest Portland. After high school, he graduated from Oregon Technical Institute with a degree in highway engineering technology. He married his wife, Beverly in 1967, and spent the next 45 years working with several insurance companies as their director of loss control. Richard and Beverly have three children and five grandchildren. To learn more about the author and his book please visit, https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/793175-keys-to-the-kingdom-revealed.

###

Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Indianapolis

Lindsey Gobel

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Affirming his faith in the wisdom of the voter, Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and Congress leader Sachin Pilot says people of India will do the right thing when the time comes and the BJP will lose the Delhi elections next month.

Addressing a gathering at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, Pilot also lamented the government's lack of inclination to engage with those protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

There's absolutely no inclination, and there is nobody forcing the hand of those who run the country that they should at least reach out and engage with people. You can talk to your worst enemies but you can't talk to people who are your citizens, your workers, who have supported you," he said at the session titled "The Democracy Index".

The government, Pilot said, is morally, constitutionally and socially bound to speak and reach out to people who feel alienated.

"It's not about religion, caste, or language. When you say I am the democratically elected government... it means, even those who didn't vote for me, I am responsible for you, I am accountable for you, he said.

Voters are responsible for the government they elect, the 42-year-old added.

We want quality of leadership, we want people to look at issues, we want empathy, compassion, accountability and, believe me, people of India are smarter than me and you here on the stage, they will do the right thing when the time comes, he said.

It's ultimately about the person who presses the button. People didn't press the button for BJP in Jharkhand, why? In Delhi, BJP will not win the election, why? It's the wisdom of the voter," he said.

Pilot said people get the government they deserve.

"People vote for the people they elect. There are no two ways about it."



He said politicians still question Congress for what is happening in the country.

Congress was in power for such a long time because these very people voted for the party every time, and institutions survived for six-and-a-half decades because never did you see the Election Commission or the RBI or the SC or the armed forces interfering in debates, making comments, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[January 27, 2020] Community State Bank Selects Teslar Software

Teslar Software (Teslar), a provider of automated workflow and portfolio management tools that help community financial institutions thrive, announced today that Community State Bank has selected its advanced platform to improve efficiencies within the commercial lending process while enhancing the overall borrower experience. Union Grove, Wis.-based Community State Bank is primarily a business bank with seven locations throughout Southeastern Wisconsin. The bank recognized the need to streamline commercial lending, making processes such as exceptions, scorecards and secure file transfers more seamless. To address this need, the bank selected Teslar because of its modern technology and automated workflows. Community State Bank expects to save time and boost productivity by leveraging Teslar's robust platform. "When considering potential partners, we decided that Teslar was the best fit for our institution not only because of their leading technology, but also because of their strong culture," said Steve Donovan, Executive Vice President, Community State Bank. "The Teslar team has deep experience in the banking industry and they really understand the challenges we face and the opportunities in front of us. Plus, their excellent customer service and commitment tohelping us succeed has been evident from the start. Teslar encourages us to review our workflows and processes in order to find new, better ways of operating."



Community State Bank expects the Teslar platform to help them better reach and engage with customers. The bank serves a wide variety of customers in both urban and rural areas, and these markets each have unique preferences and characteristics. By leveraging Teslar, bankers will have easier, more immediate access to relevant customer data, allowing them to more strategically serve customers across various segments and more effectively meet their specific needs. The bank also plans to use the Teslar platform in their upcoming website redesign to expand online capabilities and deliver a more secure and intuitive user experience. "Community State Bank is prioritizing the adoption of contemporary technology that will improve processes organization-wide and allow them to more meaningfully connect with their customers," said Joe Ehrhardt, CEO and Founder of Teslar. "By leveraging the Teslar platform, bank employees will be able to perform their jobs faster and with more efficiency, while also benefitting from increased visibility into customer relationships and needs. We look forward to working with Community State Bank as they use Teslar in many capacities across their institution."

About Teslar Software Springdale, Ark.-based Teslar provides community financial institutions with automated workflow and portfolio management tools to streamline and improve processes with easy access to relevant information needed to operate. The Teslar platform integrates siloed systems, centralizes data and boosts efficiencies enterprise wide to optimize profits and make customer interactions more meaningful. Please visit www.teslarsoftware.com to learn more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005034/en/

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This is definitely a value wine. It was picked up by my wife while grocery shopping as a backyard casual sipper. In fact, this can be ...
Heavy and persistent showers in Port of Spain yesterday afternoon brought a worrying discovery.

The newly renovated and restored Red House, which opened on Monday to much praise and amid much splendour, has various leaks. Most of them were small, but the major one is around the skylight in the rotunda.
The focus on Sanders represents a shift from much of the past year in which the top candidates largely ignored the senator from Vermont, wagering that there was little benefit in fighting with a candidate with a loyal following but who might not be able to build on it. The more traditional campaigns  mainly those of Biden, the former vice president, and Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind.  focused more on trying to siphon support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was ascendant in the summer and early fall but has dropped in recent months.
More than 60% of Ukrainians consider joining the European Union as Ukraine's main integration area, and more than 50% support their country's joining NATO as the best option for guaranteeing security for the state, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

The results of the survey were presented on Tuesday, January 21.

"Nearly two-thirds of the population (64%) believe that Ukraine's main integration area should be EU accession, 13% support accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, and 23% were undecided. The greatest support for Ukraine's accession to the EU was recorded in western (90%) and central (79%) regions," the study said.

At the same time, in the south and the east, these figures are 44% and 43% respectively. However, some locals also support accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (23% and 24%).

However, experts point out that since 2013, the number of citizens favoring EU membership has increased from 46% in December 2013 to 57% in December 2014, gradually increasing to 64% in December 2019. At the same time, according to the study, the number of supporters of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan dropped sharply - from 36% to 13%.

"More than half of the population - 51% - believes that the best option for guaranteeing security for Ukraine would be to join NATO. This is the highest percentage during the entire period of polls. Ukraine's non-bloc status is supported by 26%, and 6% believe that a military alliance with Russia and the CIS countries is needed," the poll said

Some 17% of respondents were undecided.

A nationwide survey was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the sociological service of the Razumkov Center from December 13 to December 18, 2019 in all regions of Ukraine, except Crimea and occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A total of 2,017 respondents aged 18 and over were interviewed. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.3%.

op
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 01:29:10|Editor: yan

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LONDON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Britain's proportion of electricity generated from coal has fallen significantly from 40 percent to just 3 percent ever since a tax on carbon dioxide emissions was introduced in 2013, according to a report released Monday by the University College London (UCL).

Introduced in England, Scotland and Wales at a rate of 4.94 pounds (6.45 U.S. dollars) per tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent, the Carbon Price Support tax was increased to 18 pounds (23.49 dollars) per tonne of carbon dioxide in 2015, said the report.

After the increase, the share of coal-fired electricity generation in Britain fell from 28 percent in 2015 to 5 percent in 2018 and further decreased to 3 percent by September 2019, said the report.

Meanwhile, adding on average 39 pounds (around 51 dollars) to British household electricity bills, the tax collected around 740 million pounds (965.6 million dollars) for the Treasury in 2018, according to researchers from the UCL and the University of Cambridge.

The decline in coal generation accelerated substantially after the tax was increased in 2015, and the coal generation was replaced by other less emission-heavy forms of generation such as gas, the report said, noting that increased electricity imports from the European continent reduced the price impact in Britain.

Britain's electricity transition "has also demonstrated the power of an effective carbon price in lowering dependence on electricity generated from coal," said one of the report authors professor Michael Grubb from the UCL.
Gatchalian tells DepEd to locate out-of-school youths ahead of Feb 1 early registration

Senator Win Gatchalian is urging the Department of Education to increase its conscious efforts in tracking down out-of-school youth and children, prior to the early registration set on February 1 for incoming school year 2020-2021.

DepEd Order (DO) No. 3, series of 2018 or the "Basic Education Enrollment Policy" seeks to locate, identify and register learners who are out of school, with disabilities and those who live in conflict-torn, far-flung, geographically isolated, drug-affected and natural disaster-stricken areas. Early registration also aims to locate learners such as those who are living with chronic illness and nutritional problems, and survivors of child abuse or economic explanation.

"Kung nais nating papasukin sa paaralan ang mas maraming kabataang nasa mahirap na kalagayan, kailangan natin silang puntahan. Nasa malayong mga lugar at nasa mahihirap na sitwasyon sila. Pero kung mapupuntahan natin, mapapadali ang proseso ng kanilang pagpaparehistro at mas makukumbinse pa natin silang pumasok," said Gatchalian.

At the same time, Gatchalian is pushing for an institutionalized Inclusive Education Learning Resource Centers in all regional public schools nationwide.

This will highlight the need of persons with disabilities (PWDs) and children with special needs to adapt to regular schools, whether private or public, so that they'll be provided the same care, attention, and guidance when they spend most or all of their time with non-special needs students.

The lawmaker also took note that DepEd should fully enforce initiatives such as the 'Child Find' component of Department Order 72, series of 2009 or Inclusive Education as Strategy for Increasing Participation Rate of Children. 'Child Find' aims to locate learners with disabilities through family mapping survey, advocacy campaigns and networking with local health workers.

In a public hearing on inclusive Education, Gatchalian lamented what he considers a dismal roll-out of 'Child Find' to locate children and youth with disabilities.
President Michael D Higgins with Holocaust survivor Suzi Diamond and Eibhlin Byrne, chair of the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, in the Mansion House

President Michael D Higgins said it is "deeply worrying" to observe an emerging trend of the rise of extremist language and politics across Europe.

He was speaking last night at an event in the Mansion House to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, which is today, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on January 27, 1945.

Survivors

"Some 75 years on, the vis- ible signs of World War Two have largely been erased from the rebuilt cities and towns of Europe and fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors remain to tell their stories," Mr Higgins said.

"As time continues to pass and we move further away chronologically from that darkest period of history, it becomes even more important to understand the obligation of remembering what led to that barbaric chapter and its consequences and learn from it.

"It would be a grievous error to consign the Holocaust or the lessons that should be learnt from it to a past that was assumed to be no longer relevant."

Mr Higgins said we must preserve sites such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) will organise three debates for presidential candidates in three zones ahead of the 2020 general election.

The debates, which will be organised in collaboration with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), will be held in the Northern, Middle and Southern zones in September, October and November this year.

It will also organise debates for parliamentary candidates in all 275 constituencies and undertake door to door and dawn and dusk broadcast on voter turn-out from September to December.

The Director of Public Affairs of the NCCE, Mrs Joyce Afutu, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the commission would also roll-out civic awareness programmes to enable the public to demand accountability from public officials while intensifying education on electoral offences and sanctions.

Identifiable groups

She said the NCCE would also scale up engagements with identifiable groups on civic and voter education, show relevant documentaries and films in communities to promote non-violent political atmosphere and public education on the Public Order Acts.

She stated that as part of measures to increase public awareness, the NCCE would embark on door-to-door education on the electoral process to whip up voter turnout and broadcast civic and voter education messages using cinema and other vans.

We will use radio and community information centres to educate the electorate on the need to participate in the elections and participate in election observation, she said.

Post election

Mrs Afutu said the NCCE would also engage in post-election education on good governance and peaceful co-existence.

She added that as part of measures to minimise electoral violence, the commission had adopted measures to empower the youth to understand the tenets of the Public Order Act and the Code of Conduct of Political Parties to curb politically motivated violence.

She said the NCCE was collaborating with strategic state institutions including the Ghana Police Service, Judicial Service, Electoral Commission, National Media Commission, Community Radio Network, National Peace Council and Small Arms and Light Weapons Commission to empower the youth to stand against violence.

Engagements

Mrs Afutu said other activities of the NCCE for the year included engagements with traditional authorities on Elections and Good Governance, Education on Environmental Governance, Child Protection  child marriage, child labour, among others.

She stated that the NCCE would also engage with identifiable groups and communities for education on elections to promote peace and tolerance and hold TV, radio, discussions on the Constitution Week celebration.

During the 2020 Constitution Week celebration, the commission would also engage security services, corporate and professional bodies, engage with people living in places identified as hot spots for peaceful election and education for first time voters in educational institutions.

She said the commission, in collaboration with the National Peace Council and Small Arms and Light Weapons Commission, would also hold meetings with stakeholders on conflict management in constituencies and sensitise the public to political party vigilantism.

---GNA
Turtle tracks found, but no turtle nest on Koh Phra Thong

PHUKET: Marine experts and volunteers have failed to find a turtle nest on Koh Phra Thong after turtle tracks were found on a beach at the southern end of the island located off the Phang Nga coast, north of Phuket, on Friday (Jan 24).

marineanimalsenvironmentnatural-resources

By Khunanya Wanchanwet

Monday 27 January 2020, 06:14PM

Despite turtle tracks found on Friday, the team of DMCR officers and volunteers have failed to find a turtle nest on the Koh Phra Thong Beach. Photo: Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong / PMBC

Despite turtle tracks found on Friday, the team of DMCR officers and volunteers have failed to find a turtle nest on the Koh Phra Thong Beach. Photo: Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong / PMBC

Despite turtle tracks found on Friday, the team of DMCR officers and volunteers have failed to find a turtle nest on the Koh Phra Thong Beach. Photo: Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong / PMBC

Despite turtle tracks found on Friday, the team of DMCR officers and volunteers have failed to find a turtle nest on the Koh Phra Thong Beach. Photo: Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong / PMBC

Despite turtle tracks found on Friday, the team of DMCR officers and volunteers have failed to find a turtle nest on the Koh Phra Thong Beach. Photo: Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong / PMBC

The tracks were found by a sea turtle conservation volunteer who reported them to the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) on Friday afternoon.

The tracks indicated that the turtle was believed to be 1.8 metres wide, Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Chief of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre (PMBC), told The Phuket News. (See story here.)

The tracks were hoped to lead to the eighth turtle nest to be found in the region since the first nest was discovered on Thai Muang Beach in Phang Nga on Nov 17.

However, a team of DMCR experts have so far failed to find a nest on the Koh Phra Thong beach, Dr Kongkiat told The Phuket News today (Jan 27).

The team followed the tracks and kept digging for two hours on Saturday, but were unable to find any turtle nest, he said.

I think that the turtle to came to explore where to lay eggs, but found that the beach had too much of a slope, so she didnt lay her eggs and returned to the sea. She might come back next week, Dr Kongkiat said.

We now have officers to check the beach every day to check for fresh tracks or even see the turtle return herself. The officers will check other areas on Koh Phra Thong and Koh Ra island [immediately north of Koh Phra Thong], Dr Kongkiat explained.

I will let everyone know if we find anything, he said.
(Photo : Photo taken from pexels.com) (Photo : Screenshot from Official Tim Cook Twitter Account)

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple has pledged to donate money to all those who are fighting the deadly plague that popped up in December 2019, the Coronavirus. Here is the gist of the story.

It is a strain that has not been seen by scientists since ever - coined the "novel coronavirus" or 2019-nCov. Symptoms include but not limited to are acute respiratory infection and have already spread too quickly and fast in China and now have affected more parts of the world. Originally the virus was believed to be located in Wuhan City, a province of Hubei.

Read more: Kobe Bryant Tribute Phone Cases in Amazon

As far as the news related to the cases of people who are infected as well as the countries listed are: Australia, China, France, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Taipei. All have at least 2 or 3 confirmed reports of the virus in their country. This is due to the lunar celebration as per usual it lasts 15 days, and a massive influx of tourists travel and visit different locations and, by this, spreads the virus much more quickly to different countries.

Read More: iPhone 2020 New Rumored Features Will Make Your iPhone Way More Different

Tech giant Apple is known for donating to various charities and fundraisers that usually help mankind as a whole. Most recently, before the outbreak, they donated to the fight the spread of wildfires in Australia that has rocked the country for a long time. Even before this, Tim Cook donated close to 5 million dollars to an undisclosed charity. He seems to be the type of person who helps without asking for much, given that Apple is really raking in the dough from all of their products and services. This is only right to give back to his fellow man and especially those who are in need most.

Tim sent a tweet out on Twitter last Saturday pertaining that he will be donating funds towards the fight of the Coronavirus and has since made news all over the internet due to this, the virus has been sowing fear and panic to the world as of now because it appears that nowhere is safe. People now tend to hoard face masks, specifically the n95 variant, which prevents you from 95 percent of pollutants. This is not necessarily required, but it is highly effective in hopes of preventing the disease from spreading from one person to another because the virus is highly contagious and is rumored to be transferable from humans to humans, especially with weak immune systems.

How to Protect Yourself from Novel Coronavirus

Symptoms of the illness are fever, flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sore throat, headaches, and difficulty in breathing.

As there is much that we don't know about yet since this is an entirely new strain related to SARS and MERS, the public must be vigilant to protect themselves.

Wash your hands regularly

Cover your nose while sneezing or coughing

Avoiding contact with possible infected or wild/farm animals

Protect yourself and loved ones at all costs. Keep up-to-date with the news regarding this illness to prevent panic. Learn what to do in case unexpected thing happens.

Also Read: Apple's iPhone 12 Chipset will have 15 Billion Transistors, Making it At Par with MacBook Pro

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Actor James Norton has dismissed the speculation of him taking over as the next James Bond, calling the reports "crazy" and "not real".

The "Little Women" star has currently emerged as the favourite to play the Agent 007 famous spy after after Daniel Craig's exit following "No Time to Die".

"It's crazy. It's not real. It's speculative. There is no truth behind it, unless journalists know something more than I do.

"It's bizarre and quite flattering to be even considered in that world, but beyond that? Pure speculation," Norton told The Times.

Actors Tom Hiddleston, Sam Heughan, Jack Lowden and Justin Hartley are also in the top five who may be the next Bond.

Back in 2017 as well, the actor rubbished the claims that he was in the running to play the iconic British spy.

"No Time to Die", directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, is Craig's fifth and last outing as Bond. The film releases in April.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New figures released today reveal that livestock worth 3 million were stolen from UK farms in 2019.

Large-scale sheep thefts over the past two years have contributed to a 19.4% rise in value since 2017, according to rural insurer NFU Mutual.

This makes rustling the most costly crime for the UKs farming sector after agricultural vehicle and machinery theft.

As well as causing untold suffering to sheep, which may be in lamb when they are stolen, rustling is causing high levels of anxiety for farmers who have built up their flocks over many years.

Rebecca Davidson, rural affairs specialist at NFU Mutual, said: Rustling has always been an aspect of farming but ten years ago we would rarely see claims of more than a dozen sheep taken in one go.

We are now regularly getting reports of fifty to a hundred sheep being taken in a single raid and it is devastating for farmers as they deal with the aftermath.

As well as causing untold suffering to sheep, which may be in lamb when they are stolen, rustling is causing high levels of anxiety for farmers who have built up their flocks over many years, she said.

Rustlers are getting more skilled and organised, quickly loading sheep onto trailers and lorries late at night.

We are concerned that gangs are now using working sheepdogs, which have also been stolen, to get the job done.

One of the most alarming trends which has developed in recent years has been the illegal butchery of animals in the field.

As well as the financial loss, these crimes are deeply disturbing for farmers and their families who find the remains of slaughtered animals in the field.

Ms Davidson added: We believe that meat from stolen animals is being sold on the black market and undermining welfare standards.

Meat which has been butchered in unhygienic conditions, and may be from animals which have had medical treatment, poses a real threat to human health.

To avoid buying stolen meat which has been slaughtered in unregulated abattoirs, NFU Mutual advises members of the public to look for the Red Tractor logo and not to buy meat from unusual sources.

The insurer is also involved in a number of schemes with police forces that share valuable intelligence and support the training of officers to work more closely with farmers and identify livestock theft.

NFU Mutual has also supported secure shelters for stolen farm animals so they can be cared for while police investigations take place.

How do I prevent livestock rustling?

Preventing rustling is not as easy as putting a padlock on a building or fitting a security system to a tractor.

However, there are a number of steps farmers can take to reduce the risk and technology is now providing effective ways of tracing stolen livestock.

To deter livestock thieves, NFU Mutual advises farmers to:

 Ensure stock is clearly marked and records are up to date

 When possible graze livestock in fields away from roads

 Check stock regularly - and vary times of feeding/check ups

 Consider a high-tech marking system such as TecTracer which puts thousands of coded microdot markers into a sheeps fleece

 Join a Farm or Rural Watch scheme to share information about rural crime in your area

 Ask neighbours to report any suspicious sightings to the police, or to give information 100% anonymously to the Rural Crime Hotline 0800 783 0137

 Dial 999 immediately if an incident is taking place - do not approach criminals
By Mai Nguyen

Jan 27 (Reuters) - London copper prices on Monday fell to near an eight-week low as concern mounted over the potential economic impact of the newly-identified coronavirus in China after the death toll there jumped to 81.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) , widely used as a gauge of economic health, was on track for its ninth consecutive session of falls and hit its lowest since Dec. 4, 2019 at $5,812 a tonne. It rebounded slightly to $5,823 a tonne, down 1.7% at 0758 GMT.

China is the world's biggest copper consumer. Last week, LME copper posted its steepest weekly loss in five years of 5.5% as the virus spread.

China said the total number of confirmed cases in the country had risen about 30% to 2,744, while the death toll grew to 81 by Monday from a previous 56 reported during the weekend. "The market is reacting to more risk-off news over weekend. Fingers crossed we will get good earning reports this week from U.S. companies or else the panic selling will be even worse," a base metals trader, who asked not to be named, said.

Big businesses across China are temporarily shutting stores, advising staff to work from home, offering longer holidays or cancelling events to guard against the spreading of the virus. The Chinese government extended the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 2, set aside nearly 60.33 billion yuan ($8.74 billion) to help contain the virus and encouraged banks to lower lending rates for sectors affected by the outbreak. "The additional holiday is another (period) of economic activity shaved off this year's gross domestic product. Until the ... holidays are over, metal prices will just track the virus news and supportive measures," the trader said.

The World Health Organization last week deemed the virus "an emergency in China," but did not declare the outbreak a global health emergency. FUNDAMENTALS



* PRICES: LME zinc fell 2.3% to $2,288 a tonne, aluminium declined 0.4% to $1,774 a tonne, nickel dropped 2.2% to $12,665 a tonne, lead lost 1.7% to $1,906.50 a tonne and tin was down 0.9% to $16,695 a tonne.

* SINGAPORE: Singapore, Southeast Asian travel and tourism hub, said the outbreak will hurt its economy this year.

* U.S. TARIFFS: U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation boosting duties on derivative aluminum products from some countries by an additional 10 percent.

* CODELCO: Chile state miner Codelco filed with regulators on Friday a plan to begin exploration for lithium in its Maricunga salt flat holdings, the country's second-richest deposit of the metal needed for batteries.

* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or PRICES

Three month LME copper Most active ShFE copper Three month LME aluminium Most active ShFE aluminium Three month LME zinc Most active ShFE zinc Three month LME lead Most active ShFE lead Three month LME nickel Most active ShFE nickel Three month LME tin Most active ShFE tin ARBS ($1 = 6.9040 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Barbara Lewis)

Messaging: mai.nguyen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))



LME price overview COMEX copper futures All metals news All commodities news Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES ))
8. Kabul, Afghanistan: AQI 159 (File image: Reuters)

A Taliban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group say that a US military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on January 27. Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area, said that he saw the burning aircraft.

In an exchange on Twitter, he told The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned. He added that aircraft's body and tail was hardly damaged. His information could not be independently verified.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a US airforce plane crashed in the Ghazni province. He claimed the crash killed "lots" of US service members.

Ghazniwal said the crash site was about 10 kilometers from a US military base.

US Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, declined to comment when told about the Taliban claim.

She earlier acknowledged American military officials were investigating reports of a crash.

However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the US military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

It was earlier believed that the crashed aircraft belonged to Ariana Airlines.

Images on social media purportedly of the crashed plane showed an aircraft bearing US Air Force markings similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft photographed by aviation enthusiasts. Visible registration numbers on the plane also appeared to match those aircraft.

The so-called Battlefield Airborne Communications Node can be carried on unmanned or crewed aircraft like the E-11A. It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone.
Rathin Datta, a doctor from Tripura, who won accolades both in India and Bangladesh for his medical service during the 1971 Liberation War, breathed his last on Monday at his Kolkata residence due to old-age related ailments.

Datta had joined the health services in Tripura during the late 1960s. He retired from service in 1992. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992 for his medical service during 1971. He had operated many liberation warriors of Bangladesh and Indian Army personnel. He was also honoured with Friends of Liberation War award for his medical service in Dhaka.

Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb expressed grief over Dr. Dattas demise.  Deeply grieved at the sudden demise of Padma Shri Dr. Rathin Datta, an outstanding doctor, known for his excellent services in the medical care history of Tripura. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this moment of grief. May his soul rest in peace. Om Shanti, Deb wrote on his Twitter account.

Datta was born at Mongoldoi in Assam in 1931. He had done his schooling in Shillong and completed medical education from the Dibrugarh Medical College. He had done his studies of FRCS in England.
Virginia Dare was the first English child to be born in what would become The United States of America. She was born on August 18, 1587, on Roanoke Island (Virginia colony), to Eleanor White Dare and Ananias Dare. Her grandfather, John White, was the Roanoke colony governor. She was baptized on August 24, 1587 and was the second person to be baptized into the Church of England in the US. Shortly after her birth, White left Roanoke to return to England and gather more supplies. Due to England being at war with Spain, White did not return to Roanoke until August 1590.

When he arrived, he found that no settlers, including his granddaughter, remained. All that was left behind was one word, carved on a tree: Croatoan. Its possible that they were killed by illness, attacked by indigenous peoples, or subsumed into a friendly tribe. John Smith (of Pochahontas notoriety) attempted to find out from local Indian tribes, but was given varying accounts as to what had happened with the people. To this day, historians do not know what happened to any of the colonists, including Virginia Dare. The Lost Colony of Roanoke was, in fact, the third (and final) attempt at settling Roanoke Island.

Although little is known of Virginia Dares life, she has held the popular imagination for years and figures prominently in American myth and folklore. Many locations, from roads to bridges, to parks, hold her namesake. In 1937, there was both a half-dollar that commemorated her birth and a stamp that commemorated the 350th anniversary of her birth.

Her legacy goes beyond stamps, coin, and roads it isnt just the government that acknowledges her importance. In fact, there is a wine (Virginia Dare Wine) named after her which was the most purchased wine in the United States prior to Prohibition. It was a sweet wine, mostly used as a dessert wine. Paul Garrett, the winemaker who created it, used Sally Southall Cottons poem from 1901, The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare as part of his marketing and promotional materials. Cottons poem makes the argument that Virginia Dares disappearance was because a jealous Native American turned her into a white doe. This tale in turn led to the legend that if a white doe is seen near Roanoke Island, it is, in fact, Virginia Dare. Her birthday is celebrated annually at a festival held on Roanoke Island.

In the 1930s, there were a series of stones known as the Dare Stones found throughout Georgia and the Carolinas they supposedly have messages written on them by the lost colonists. A total of 48 of them have been found. Most of them were purportedly written by Eleanor Dare to her father, John White. By 1941, most scholars had discredited the stones as hoaxes. Whether or not they are authentic, they do demonstrate that Virginia Dare and the lost colonists still remain deep in the imagination of the people.
England captain Joe Root believes "the sky is the limit" for his team as the tourists completed a 3-1 series victory with a 191-run win in the fourth and final Test against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium on Monday.

Root hailed a "very special" triumph in a series in which England had to overcome several adversities. They were struck by illness at the beginning of the tour, lost the first Test and were hit by injuries.

Jack Leach, selected as their number one spinner, went home without playing a game because of illness, opening batsman Rory Burns was injured after the first Test and fast bowlers Jofra Archer and James Anderson suffered injuries in the first and second Tests which put them out of the series.

"If you look at where we were after that first game, to pick ourselves up and play the way we have in the last three games is really pleasing," said Root. "It has taken a big effort from everyone and it was very much a squad effort."



Root praised the way young players had stepped up and taken their opportunities. "I do think we are at the start of something," he said.

"We've got to keep looking to learn and keep getting better but it's been a fantastic tour for us as a Test team. It's been a real squad effort with a number of guys who are at the start of their international careers." "I think the sky is the limit for us right now," he added.

England encountered some stiff resistance from South Africa on Monday before winning with a day to spare.

Set to make a world record 466 to win, South Africa reached 181 for two shortly before tea on a hot afternoon before man of the series Ben Stokes and man of the match Mark Wood combined for a double strike, dismissing South African captain Faf du Plessis for 35 and Rassie van der Dussen for 98. The pair had shared a partnership of 92.

- 'Better in every department' -



================================Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma shone briefly after tea but South Africa were bowled out for 274. Wood finished the innings with four wickets for 54 runs. He had match figures of nine for 100.

Du Plessis said England deserved their win.

"We said after the first Test that one Test doesn't make a summer. After that England were just a little bit better than us in every game in every department."



Stokes was the outstanding player in the series, changing the course of the match with both bat and ball in the second Test in Cape Town, hitting a century in the third Test in Port Elizabeth and making crucial breakthroughs with the ball in both innings in Johannesburg.

It was his second successive man of the series award in South Africa, having achieved the accolade four years ago. "Playing against South Africa is always such a competitive series. I really enjoy the competition," he said.

Stokes' father Ged remains in hospital after suffering a serious illness before the first Test. "I hope the old man is watching this in his hospital bed with a smile on his face," said Stokes.

South African fast bowler Vernon Philander finished his Test career on a low note. He took two wickets in the first innings but only bowled nine balls in the second innings before leaving the field with a hamstring injury. He batted in the final innings but was out for 10.

But Du Plessis paid tribute to a "tremendous achiever and a champion guy off the field as well".

Philander took 224 wickets in 64 Tests at an average of 22.32. Asked how he would like to be remembered, he said: "As someone who always gave it my all.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 40-year-old man tragically died in a serious injury crash involving a snowmobile over the weekend while vacationing in Colorado.

According to an official press release from Pitkin County Sheriffs Office, a 40-year-old male was seriously injured Saturday night when he crashed his snowmobile on Midnight Mine Road in Aspen.

Dispatchers were alerted of the crash from a 911 call at 7:21 p.m. via a second snowmobile rider who witnessed the crash on Saturday, Jan. 25. Rescue personnel responded and the rider was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on Midnight Mine Road, located about three miles from Castle Creek Road.

The snowmobiler that died on Midnight Mine road was positively identified by the Pitkin County Coroners Office as a John Boyd, 40, from Washington D.C.

The Aspen Times reports the snowmobiler that was riding with Boyd indicated that the two were just going down a hill at normal speed when the crash occurred.

Midnight Mine Road sits in the high country of Aspen Mountain. It is often used by snowmobilers and skiers during the winter season.

The official cause and manner of death are pending further investigation from The Pitkin County Coroner.

The Pitkin County Sheriffs Office, Aspen Volunteer Fire Department, Mountain Rescue Aspen, Aspen Ambulance District, and the Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol assisted in rescue and recovery efforts.
Wisdom Education International Holdings Company Limited (HKG:6068) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 16% in the last week. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last three years have been pleasing. To wit, the share price did better than an index fund, climbing 82% during that period.

View our latest analysis for Wisdom Education International Holdings

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Wisdom Education International Holdings was able to grow its EPS at 19% per year over three years, sending the share price higher. We don't think it is entirely coincidental that the EPS growth is reasonably close to the 22% average annual increase in the share price. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. Au contraire, the share price change has arguably mimicked the EPS growth.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

SEHK:6068 Past and Future Earnings, January 27th 2020

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Wisdom Education International Holdings's TSR for the last 3 years was 94%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

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A Different Perspective

Pleasingly, Wisdom Education International Holdings's total shareholder return last year was 4.0%. That includes the value of the dividend. The TSR has been even better over three years, coming in at 25% per year. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Wisdom Education International Holdings .

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The United States wants India to buy at least another $5-6 billion worth of American farm goods if New Delhi wants to win reinstatement of a key US trade concession and seal a wider pact, four sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump cited trade barriers last year when removing India from its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme that allowed zero tariffs on $5.6 billion of exports to the United States. In retaliation, India slapped higher tariffs on more than two dozens US products.

Ahead of a Trump visit to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi next month, negotiators on both sides are hammering out terms for a trade deal that would include New Delhi rolling back higher tariffs on some farm goods such as almonds, walnuts and apples, one of the sources said. Both governments had hoped to work out a limited trade deal last year, but struggled to reach an agreement. India's commerce ministry and the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi did not respond to a request for comment. The office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond outside regular business hours.

While India has offered partial relief on medical device price caps that have hurt American pharma giants and a roll-back in tariffs on some U.S. goods, Trump's team wants a sweetener of $5-6 billion in additional trade for U.S. goods to restore GSP privileges, three of the sources said. That demand was conveyed by the United States to India in late December, said two sources. As part of the negotiation, the U.S. wants India to increase imports of frozen poultry products, the first source said. The U.S. has already been pushing India to cut the high import taxes on poultry products.

"The deal has to be agriculture focused, the U.S. is putting a number on everything (if India wants GSP back)," said one of the sources. The sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions. Other than the agriculture sector, the United States could be swayed if some of that additional revenue goes to its energy sector, said one of the sources.

Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan this week said India was looking forward to extending its energy cooperation with the United States and other countries, but didn't disclose any planned deals. Trump is likely to visit India in late February, in what would be his first visit to the South Asian nation since he took office three years ago.

SMALLER CHINA-TYPE DEAL

India and the United States have built close political and security ties, but in recent years trade frictions have come to the fore. Trump has often named India as one of the countries with the highest tariffs in the world. Trump's administration has also been upset with India's decision to force foreign card networks to store more data locally and imposition of stringent e-commerce investment rules that impacted operations of Amazon.com Inc and Walmart's Flipkart.

A fifth Washington-based source with knowledge of the U.S. administration's thinking said a U.S.-India trade deal would be far smaller than one the United States struck with China this month, but will "look basically the same". China this month agreed to increase purchases of U.S. products and services by at least $200 billion over the next two years in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs, defusing an 18-month row that had hit global growth.

"It will be challenging for the U.S. to see a reasonable agreement with India ... without concessions on the trade gap. Given the recent deal with China, India has to follow suit," said Samir Kapadia of Washington-based lobbying and advisory firm, The Vogel Group.

Trade between United States and India stood at $142.6 billion in 2018, but Trump wants to reduce its $25.2 billion deficit with India.

India has also offered the United States a commitment to increase purchases of almonds and apples and scrap an import tariff of 50% levied on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, the first source said. Trump has publicly said India's high tariffs on such bikes was unacceptable. India initially also offered to relax some tariffs on high-end U.S. technology products, but that is now off the table, said one of the sources.

Also read: Budget 2020: Scope of personal tax cut grows slim as govt stares at tax shortfall of Rs 2 lakh crore
A 21-year-old Chinese student is likely to become the fifth person in Australia to be infected by the deadly coronavirus, health authorities say.

The federal government's chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy confirmed the woman is in isolation and had tested positive to the virus in preliminary examinations.

'She is in isolation until the final confirmation. But NSW Health feel she's likely to be the fifth case in the country,' Prof Murphy said.

Health authorities are now working to track down people the woman came into contact with and potentially infected.

The news comes after three men in New South Wales, aged 43, 53 and 35, and one Victorian man aged in his 50s, caught the deadly disease.

A 21-year-old woman has been taken to hospital after fears she may have contracted the deadly coronavirus

The virus, which experts fear will 'highly likely' continue to spread in Australia, has so far killed 56 people in China and infected 2,000 people worldwide.

Since the outbreak at the end of December, Chinese authorities have placed 56 million people in lockdown - including more than 100 Australian children aged between six months and 16 years old, the ABC reported.

Photos taken outside Westmead Hospital on Sunday show a woman wearing a face mask being moved by paramedics with protective gloves, masks and clothing.

Prof Murphy said there would likely be more cases in the country.

'There is no cause for general concern,' Prof Murphy said in Melbourne on Sunday.

'I would not be surprised if there are some more cases... it's highly likely that we may see some more.

'We are incredibly well prepared to isolate and deal with that.'

Emma Wei, from Melbourne, is trapped in Wuhan with her two children amid China's lockdown

Medical staff are seen wearing protective clothing outside a hospital in Wuhan after the coronavirus outbreak

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES: 4 Four people in NSW have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including three men and one woman. January 25 Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.

Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.

They are being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and are in stable condition. January 27 A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.

The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.

She is being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital. VICTORIA: 4 January 25 A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.

The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.

He is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east. January 29 A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.

He became unwell on January 23 - two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. He was assessed as being well enough to stay at home. January 30 A woman in her 40s falls ill with the coronavirus.

She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.

She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital. February 1 A Melbourne woman aged in her 20s is at home recovering. She returned from Wuhan on January 25 and fell ill two days later. She was not infectious on the flight, and has remained in isolation since being tested. QUEENSLAND: 2 January 29 Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national wass diagnosed with the virus.

He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital. January 30 A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition. SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 2 February 1 A Chinese couple were placed in isolation in a public hospital. The man and a woman both aged 60, were from Wuhan and visiting relatives in South Australia. SA Health said the pair isolated themselves at home when they developed symptoms and awaited the results of the coronavirus test. Australia has raised the travel alert level to 'do not travel' for the city of Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - and for the entire Hubei province. Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says unless people have contact with someone who is unwell and has come from that part of China, there is no need for current concern. Advertisement

In the wake of the rapid spread, Chinese-Australian parents are now desperate for their children to get out of Wuhan in China's Hubei province.

Yi Xu is demanding his six-month-old daughter be brought home to Australia.

'The Australian Government needs to follow what the US is doing [and] to charter a plane to evacuate its citizens for emergency,' Mr Xu told the ABC after reports the U.S was using a plane to evacuate Americans from the area.

A father from Melbourne, Nathan Wang, said his 11-month-old daughter is stuck in Wuhan with his wife and other child.

Mr Wang said his family was struggling to access medical resources.

'I can't even fall asleep. As a father, I was very desperate. I am guilty that all of the risks and pressure were put on my wife alone,' he said.

Another Chinese-Australian man said the children who were left stranded in the areas were being cared for by their grandparents.

'They are desperate to get out, because there starts to see a shortage of face masks and other protective supplies,' the man who only wanted to be referred to as John told The Australian.

'Many children are running out of baby formula powders soon,' he said.

The Australian government is now considering options to allow Australians in the infected areas to travel.

A China Eastern Flight from Wuhan arrives at Sydney International Airport on Thursday where health authorities were screening passengers for coronavirus

'The Government acknowledges the concerns of Australians who are in Hubei Province in China and the concerns of their families and friends,' Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Sunday.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THE CORONAVIRUS? Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms. If and when they do, typical signs include: a runny nose

a cough

sore throat

fever (high temperature) The vast majority of patients  at least 97 per cent, based on available data  will recover from these without any issues or medical help. In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people. Advertisement

'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working closely with Chinese authorities and international partners to consider possible assistance with travel for Australians from areas that are affected by Chinese travel restrictions.

'Given the circumstances of the spread of the Coronavirus, Chinese authorities are currently imposing very tight restrictions on all travel from Hubei. We are seeking advice from the Chinese authorities on these restrictions and whether any options are available to international travellers.

'Our Embassy in Beijing and our Consulate in Shanghai are also working with international partners and the Chinese government to determine what support can be given to Australians on the ground.'

Authorities are urging anyone who has travelled to the Wuhan region and experienced flu-like symptoms to contact their GP or local emergency department.

The patient in Victoria is a Chinese national aged in his 50s who flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19 on an A380 plane, which can can carry 500 passengers.

A passenger wearing a protective mask (pictured) is seen at Sydney Airport on Thursday, as a man in Melbourne is confirmed as the first Australian case of coronavirus

He became the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Australia on Saturday morning and is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east.

Earlier on Saturday a baby was rushed from Sydney Airport to hospital for testing and was later discharged cleared of the virus.

A Hobart man has tested negative for coronavirus on Sunday after he was admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital on Saturday with mild respiratory symptoms.

The man in his 30s had travelled to China earlier this month and spent time Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak began.

He contacted a general practitioner with respiratory problems and was admitted into an isolation room in hospital while tests were conducted to rule out the infection.

Public Health services identified the man's contacts since returning to Hobart in case he had been identified as carrying the virus.

The man has been discharged from hospital after his results showed he was not infected.
The ex-boyfriend of 25-year-old Stephanie Parze, whose body was found Sunday in the woods off Route 9 in Old Bridge, admitted to killing her in a note he wrote to his parents before he took his own life in November, authorities said Monday.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni was joined at a press conference by the Parze family, who thanked the community for the extensive searches since Parze disappeared in October.

This is an extremely somber day for us. Our lives are never going to be the same," her father, Ed Parze, said, choking back tears. "Stephanie is home - shes coming home, at last, where she belongs.

Ed Parze is joined by his wife Sharleen Parze in thanking those who helped search for their missing daughter, Stephanie, during a press conference Monday at the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

In the note Ozbilgen left, he wrote that He had had enough and he could not do life in prison," Gramiccioni said. He also admitted that what his parents would hear in the news was true except for charges of child pornography.

Ozbilgen acknowledged he had dug himself a deep hole," the prosecutor continued. He never disclosed where he disposed of Stephanies remains.

Gramiccioni said the investigation remains ongoing, but prosecutors are confident Ozbilgen acted alone in killing Parze.

That guilt belongs to John Ozbilgen and John Ozbilgen alone, he said.

Two teens, ages 17 and 18, walking south on Route 9 found Parzes body just south of Old Mill Road in Old Bridge around 2:45 p.m Sunday. The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office announced Monday morning that a medical examiner had confirmed the remains found Sunday were Parzes.

Ed Parze said the family plans to start a foundation in Stephanies name to benefit battered women. Ozbilgen had been accused of assaulting Stephanie Parze about a month before she disappeared.

Its an epidemic," Ed Parze said, of domestic violence. "Its out of control.

The discovery of Parzes body brings to an end months of police and community-organized searches in New Jersey and New York.

Gramiccioni said police had executed 50 search warrants at 10 different locations. Ozbilgens house had been searched five times. The cause of Parzes death has not yet been determined, he said. He said a leading theory is that Ozbilgen strangled Parze at the Freehold home she was staying at, which belonged to her late grandmother, on Oct. 30.

John Ozbilgen was released by Judge Paul Escandon at his detention hearing at the Monmouth County Courthouse on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019. He is charged with child porn and has been identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Parze, 25, of Freehold Township.Russ DeSantis | For NJ Advance Media

Ozbilgen was identified by authorities as a person of interest in her disappearance. Ozbilgen, 29, was arrested on a child pornography charge after images were found on his phone as authorities investigated Parzes disappearance, authorities have said.

During a court hearing for Ozbilgen, prosecutors revealed that he sent Parze 10 angry text messages the night she disappeared. A judge released him from jail and days later, Ozbilgen killed himself inside his familys Freehold Township home.

Police investigate a wooded area along Route 9 south in Old Bridge,NJ where the body of 25-year-old Stephanie Parze was found on Sunday.Noah K. Murray | For NJ Advance

Gramiccioni said Ozbilgen had become a suspect in Parzes death in early November, based on his relationship with Parze and some social media communications. Ozbilgen, Gramiccioni said, also had a history of domestic violence, with three incidents reported to police, including one involving Parze as a victim in September.

Staff writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this post.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ.

Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
Hey, do y'all remember Akon? He sang a bunch of songs in the mid-to-late 2000s (the best of which was arguably "I Just Had Sex" with The Lonely Island). He has since branched out from music and gotten into acting, and like a whole bunch of other oddball celebrities over the past few years, even mulled an entry into politics. But here's the thing that sets him apart: Akon might actually be en route to doing some real good. Albeit in a very weird, roundabout way.

See, Akon has taken a serious interest in raising the prosperity of Africa, specifically his native Senegal. Senegal's President also gifted him a 2000 acre plot of land, located a stone's throw away from Dakar, with its brand spankin' new international airport. How is that relevant? Well, there's a bit of a housing crisis in Dakar, and a new settlement nearby might give the area a second borough of sorts, and some real breathing room. This all sounds pretty good, right? If Akon can help the area grow and get some housing built, he'd be a hero. And check it out: the plan's already been approved!

Here's where it gets weird, though. Akon wants this new city (that he's humbly calling Akon City) to be run on a cryptocurrency he's launching that's (very humbly) called Akoin. The idea is that, because so much of Senegal doesn't have bank access, this currency would grant them greater financial freedom. But Akoin transactions are done exclusively on smartphones at this point. And only about 1/3 of Senegalese people have a smartphone. So if Akon is trying to design a crypto-utopia (he's likened his vision to a real-world Wakanda), right now it would only be available to the upper classes of Senegal. Not exactly an ideal starting point -- if only 1/3 of the people in your city even have access to your city's money, that's gonna pose some problems.

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Critics are calling it a frivolous dream, but small dreams don't change the world, you know? And Akon does have a record of making things happen: He's provided renewable energy to hundreds of thousands of people throughout Africa with his (super humbly named) Akon Lighting Africa project. So really, if anyone's going to make a crazy new crypto-city just happen, it's Akon. Seriously, even Pitbull hasn't done this much for Miami.

So the next logical step would be to try some of these ideas on an already-established city. Might we suggest...Akron?

Boldly Go! This week in One Cracked Fact, we're heading to space. Join us--subscribe now! SIGN ME UP
Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Countryside Properties PLC (LON:CSP).

Countryside Properties has a ROE of 19%, based on the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every 1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn 0.19.

Check out our latest analysis for Countryside Properties

How Do You Calculate ROE?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

Or for Countryside Properties:

19% = UK168m  UK899m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2019.)

It's easy to understand the 'net profit' part of that equation, but 'shareholders' equity' requires further explanation. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets.

What Does Return On Equity Mean?

ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, all else equal, investors should like a high ROE. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses.

Does Countryside Properties Have A Good ROE?

Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. However, this method is only useful as a rough check, because companies do differ quite a bit within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Countryside Properties has a superior ROE than the average (15%) company in the Consumer Durables industry.

LSE:CSP Past Revenue and Net Income, January 27th 2020

That's what I like to see. We think a high ROE, alone, is usually enough to justify further research into a company. For example, I often check if insiders have been buying shares.

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The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity

Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.

Combining Countryside Properties's Debt And Its 19% Return On Equity

Although Countryside Properties does use a little debt, its debt to equity ratio of just 0.0024 is very low. The combination of modest debt and a very respectable ROE suggests this is a business worth watching. Careful use of debt to boost returns is often very good for shareholders. However, it could reduce the company's ability to take advantage of future opportunities.

But It's Just One Metric

Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt.

But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to check this FREE visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
New Delhi :

Hours after Delhi Police booked former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches against the amended Citizenship Act and the planned National Register of Citizens, the central agencies and local police raided his ancestral house in Kako town of Jehanabad District of Bihar. According to reports, the police have also detained three, including two of his relatives, for interrogation. Sharjeel Imam was not at his home when the police raided his house. The raid was conducted to arrest Imam as a case of sedition was lodged against him on Saturday for a speech he delivered on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus on January 16.

A case under IPC sections 124 (offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against the government), 153 (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) has been registered against Imam.

He had previously delivered one such speech in Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13 last year and thereafter one even more inflammatory against the government which is being widely circulated on social media, they said. These speeches have the potential to harm the religious harmony and the unity and integrity of India, for which the case was registered against him, police said.

Imam, one of co-ordinators of the Shaheen Bagh protest, was heard saying in an audio clip that Assam should be cut off from the rest of India and taught a lesson, as Bengalis - both Hindus and Muslims - are being killed or put into detention centres. He reportedly said that if he can organise five lakh people, it would become possible to permanently cut off Assam with rest of India...if not permanently, then at least for a few months.

MP Asaduddin Owaisi Slams Sharjeel Imam's 'Cut Off Assam' Remark

Meanwhile, AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has slammed Sharjeel Imam for his "cut off Assam" remark saying 'India was not a chicken's neck that can be broken or separated'.

Condemning his statement, Owaisi on Saturday said that 'no one can break India or any of its region'. "India is a nation and not a chicken's neck that can be separated or broken. I do not accept such statements. I condemn it," said Owaisi.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Sejal Sharma, TV actor who committed suicide by hanging self at her residence, was said to be depressed after she suggested the same in her suicide note. However, her mother has dismissed the claims that Sejal had depression, adding the actor had even landed a lead role recently.

According to a report in Amar Ujala, Sejals mother said, She had got a lead role. I dont know what happened after that she chose to kill herself. Donal Bisht, who worked with Sejal on the show Actor of Dil Toh Happy Hai Ji also revealed that the actor had auditioned for a role and was also shortlisted.

Sejal had reportedly said, I cant take the pressure of this hard life in her suicide letter which seems to have been written in a hurry and was not legible. A report in Mumbai Mirror has quoted a Thane police official as saying, We are calling experts to decipher many words in the letter written cursively. However, from whatever we have been able to understand, she was tired of the struggles in life. He also informed that she also apologised to her parents stating that they would have to live with the stigma for her decision (of committing suicide).

In the note, she has not blame anyone for her decision to take the extreme step, he added.

Also read: Mission Mangal director Jagan Shaktis condition serious, undergoing diagnosis for clot in brain: reports

Jasmin Bhasin, who played the role of Happy in Dil Toh Happy Hai Ji, had told Pinkvilla, Her mother and father were not keeping best of health, she had the responsibility of doing something for them, make money and be something. She was a very talented and ambitious girl. I always told her that she will get a show on her talent anytime. She was disciplined and focused. She was auditioning. I have spoken to a couple of her co-stars too and they are equally shocked.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
ATLANTA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In recent weeks, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was detected in Wuhan City, China, and the virus has spread to a growing number of countries, including the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is taking aggressive public health measures to help protect the health of Americans, including requesting that the CDC Foundation activate its Emergency Response Fund to provide support to rapidly emerging response needs. The CDC Foundation today announced a catalytic donation of $1 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in support of this fund.

"The novel 2019-nCoV is the latest outbreak to demonstrate the importance of CDC's global and domestic preparedness to fight contagions at home and abroad," said Robert R. Redfield, MD, CDC director. "As a global leader in public health preparedness and response, CDC values support from the philanthropic and private sectors, as partnerships allow flexibility in meeting essential response needs."

CDC has been proactively preparing for the introduction of 2019-nCoV in the United States for weeks, including putting out alerts, creating guidance for clinicians for testing, developing a diagnostic test to detect the virus and implementing public health entry screenings at U.S. airports, among numerous other efforts.

According to the World Health Organization, as of January 26, more than 2,000 cases of 2019-nCoV have been confirmed globally, with 1,985 cases in China and 29 cases in more than 10 countries outside of China. There have been a total of 56 deaths, all in China. CDC has announced five confirmed cases in the United States and anticipates more confirmed cases, including some spread from person-to-person.

Funds raised by the CDC Foundation through its Emergency Response Fund will be used to meet fast-emerging needs identified by CDC to help respond to the public health threat posed by this virus. These include additional support for state and local health departments, support for the global response, logistics, communications, data management, personal protective equipment, critical response supplies and more.

"Government support is essential in tackling health threats, such as this novel coronavirus," said Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. "But we know that philanthropic and private sector support is critical for use alongside government funding to address needs that arise in rapidly evolving situations where speed and flexibility are paramount to saving and protecting lives. That's why flexible philanthropic and private sector support is imperative. We are incredibly grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the first gift to our Emergency Response Fund, and we hope this donation will encourage others to provide much needed support."

"For our nation's public health system to continue to match modern global disease threats, we must remain vigilant, and support the swift response of our public health officials," said Richard Besser, MD, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "It is critical that we support the CDC and public health workers in our communities so they can work to rapidly contain threats to the public's health."

According to CDC, coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing illness in people and others that circulate among animals, including camels, cats and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can evolve and infect people and then spread between people such as has been seen with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Early on, many of the patients in the outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to Chinese health officials, reportedly had some link to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. However, a growing number of patients reportedly have not had exposure to animal markets, suggesting person-to-person spread is occurring. At this time, according to CDC, it is unclear how easily or sustainably this virus is spreading between people.

Contributions to the CDC Foundation's Emergency Response Fund are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law and can be made on the CDC Foundation's website (donate here) or by phone or mail. To discuss giving opportunities or an in-kind donation, contact Advancement at the CDC Foundation: by email at [email protected] or 404.653.0790, toll-free at 888-886-4CDC.

The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the sole entity authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC's critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has launched approximately 1,000 programs and raised over $800 million. The CDC Foundation managed nearly 300 CDC-led programs in the United States and in more than 130 countries last year. For more information, visit www.cdcfoundation.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

SOURCE CDC Foundation

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U.S. health officials are currently monitoring 110 people across 26 states for the coronavirus, including the five patients who contracted the deadly infection in China and brought it back to America. The disease, which has killed at least 81 people in China and sickened more than 2,800 worldwide, isn't spreading within the community in the U.S. and the risk to the public right now is still considered low, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call Monday. "We understand that many people in the United States are worried about this virus and how it will affect Americans," Messonnier said. "Every day we learn more, every day we assess to see if our guidance or our response can be improved." The number of "patients under investigation" in the U.S. has almost doubled from the 63 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said were under surveillance on Thursday. The CDC says 32 people have tested negative for the virus. "While that number is 110, we are certainly prioritizing based on [patients under investigation] that might be at higher risk," Messonnier said. The CDC confirmed Sunday a fifth U.S. case of the virus  a patient in Maricopa County, Arizona, who recently traveled to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the disease's outbreak and where the majority of cases have been reported.

Messonnier said the CDC has screened roughly 2,400 people flying from Wuhan to five major U.S. airports and is considering expanding its screening. The agency increased its travel warning for all of China, asking people traveling to practice "enhanced precautions." "This outbreak is unfolding rapidly and we are rapidly looking at how that impacts our posture at the border. We're certainly considering broadening of that screening," she said. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually infect animals but can sometimes evolve and spread to humans. Symptoms in humans include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, which can progress to pneumonia. Physicians have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of SARS, which had a short incubation period of two to seven days. China's National Health Commission minister, Ma Xiaowei, said on Sunday that the incubation period could range from one to 14 days, and the virus was infectious during incubation, unlike the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Reuters reported.
Workshops on writing and publishing for young writers View(s):

A series of half-day Workshops on Writing and Publishing Fiction for older children and young teens will be held by well-known author Dr. Ken Spillman, starting in February. The workshops are to be held in three stages, with Stage 1 on February 26, 27 and 28; Stage II on June 9, 10 and 11; and Stage III on September 28, 29 and 30, each day from 8.30 a.m.-12.45 p.m.

Dr. Ken Spillman from Australia is the author of around 80 books, most of them for young people. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages.

The workshops in Sri Lanka are being held with the Colombo Universitys National Institute of Library and Information Sciences (NILIS) as the academic partner.

For more information and the application form, please access www.ibbysrilanka.org

The fee for the series of workshops is Rs. 20,000 and the deadline for applications is February 10.
NEW YORK  Federal prosecutors and the FBI have sought to interview Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein, but he has provided zero cooperation, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said Monday.

Geoffrey Berman, the federal prosecutor, revealed Andrews lack of cooperation in response to a reporters question during a news conference outside Epsteins Manhattan mansion about victims of human and sex trafficking.

Andrew, following a disastrous TV interview over his ties to Epstein, said in a statement last year that he was willing to help law enforcement agencies in their investigations into the disgraced financier and his associates.

Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required, his statement said.

Epstein hanged himself last summer in a Manhattan jail where he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors had accused him of sexually exploiting dozens of women and girls in New York and Florida.

Shortly after Epsteins death, Berman issued a statement vowing to continue the investigation into his co-conspirators.

The case brought renewed scrutiny to Epsteins relationships with prominent figures in politics, academia and business  including Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II who is also known as the Duke of York.

The prince has said he met Epstein in 1999.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in a separate case to charges of soliciting prostitution and served 13 months in a Florida county jail under a widely criticized plea deal. After Epsteins release in 2010, Andrew stayed at his Manhattan mansion and drew fire for continuing the relationship.

One of Epsteins accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said that Epstein trafficked her to Andrew when she was 17, an accusation the prince denied.

In 2011, a photograph was published that Giuffre said was taken in 2001. The snapshot showed Andrew standing alongside her in a London apartment with his arm wrapped around her bare waist.

Nicole Hong is a New York Times writer.
(TNS)  Researchers at the University of Michigan have been exploring the need to set ethics standards and policies when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence, and they now have their own place to do so.The university has created a new Center of Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC) that will focus on AI, data usage, augmented and virtual reality, privacy, open data and identity.According to the centers website , the name and abbreviation alludes to the ESC key on a computer keyboard, which was added to interrupt a program when it produced unwanted results.In the same way, the Center for Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC  pronounced escape) is dedicated to intervening when digital media and computing technologies reproduce inequality, exclusion, corruption, deception, racism or sexism, the centers mission statement reads.The center will bring together scholars who are committed to feminist, justice-focused, inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to computing, the university said in a news release.Associate Director Silvia Lindtner said the center has been in a soft launch phase since March 2019. The idea for ESC was born out of making a critical engagement with the politics and ethics of computing a central aspect of technology research and design, she said.We established ESC to build on and give legitimacy to the long-term scholarship and activism in technology, engineering and design, and to create an interdisciplinary space to explore and apply critical, justice-oriented and feminist approaches to computing and technology research, Lindtner said.Director Christian Sandvig said the center is hosting a visiting artist working on robotics this term, and that the center includes faculty from computer science, architecture, music and business schools.We are fairly unique because we are aggressively pursuing research approaches and topics beyond what people normally think about as computing, Sandvig said.Lindtner said the universitys public nature allows the center to engage deeply with the broader public, policy experts and actors in the social justice movement.This is a topic that used to be on the fringes, but more recently has gotten broader attention as we have experienced many unintended consequences of technology, Lindtner said.Some of the concerns the center will be tackling include gender and racial stereotyping in AI and data-based algorithms, as well as an overall lack of accountability and digital justice.Sandvig said a lot of companies are now rushing to nominal ethics conversations as a solution to the negative perceptions of their products, but ESC is not interested in ethics-washing.Were looking ahead to difficult debates about the future path we are steering with technology in society, Sandvig said. We need to make it normal that there is an extensive program of research about this topic  ethics, justice, technology, people and the future  and it must be central to the enterprise of developing technology and training students.ESC hosted an opening event on Jan. 24. The talk was video recorded Speakers at the event include Julia Angwin, Danah Boyd, Andre Brock, Marc DaCosta, Jen Gennai, Holly Okonkow and Monroe Price.The center is sponsored by the School of Information; the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research, and the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts at U of M.
Built by Del Mar, Calif.-based Davidson Communities, the Davidson Collection at Delta Coves was honored last week at the National Sales and Marketing Awards ("The NationalsSM"), presented by the National Association of Home Builders.

Davidson Communities opened its 42-home enclave last September when master developer DMB Development unveiled the first phase of the 560-home Delta Coves master-planned community.

"This is a one-of-a-kind location," said Bill Davidson, who as president of Davidson Communities has built over 6,000 new homes since 1978. "Where else could you live on the water in an elegant new home, with an opportunity to fish off your own dock, waterski, wakeboard or take your boat up to San Francisco?"

Homes offer two-story floorplans range from 2,849 to 4,264 square feet, with up to five bedrooms and 5.5 baths. Kitchens and all social areas open to the docks and blue water. Prices range from $1 - $1.6 million.

Robert Hidey Architects of Irvine, Calif. was the project architect, with interior design and merchandising by Design Line Interiors, Inc. of Del Mar, Calif. Environmental Foresight of Walnut Creek, Calif. was project landscape architect.

Davidson Collection at Delta Coves is located at 55 Seaward Court, Bethel Island, Calif. 94511. Homeowners commuting to Delta Coves from Oakland, San Jose or San Francisco can utilize a new Bay Area Mass Transit (BART) station in Antioch, just 15 minutes away.

For more information, call 925-513-5794 or visit https://www.davidsoncollectionatdeltacoves.com/.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jan Percival, 858-414-4715, [email protected]

SOURCE Davidson Communities

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New Delhi, Jan 27 : Reliance Jio has become the largest telecom player by revenue and subscriber base, India Ratings said on Monday.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd has remained aggressive in subscriber acquisition and has become the largest player in terms of wireless subscriber market share, broadband subscriber base and revenue, it said.

The increase in RJio's subscriber base is largely at the cost of Vodafone Idea Ltd, whose subscriber market share has declined consistently in last two years.

Revenue market share of RJio's also grew to 34.9 per cent in 2QFY20, which is the highest in the industry compared to other players, the agency said.

India Ratings also said that the industry is showing signs of recovery.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) reported by telecom companies has started showing signs of recovery in the last two to three quarters. Moreover, the recent tariff hikes by telcos in the range of 25 per cent to 35 per cent is likely to support the increase in ARPU over the next few quarters. Furthermore, the share of broadband subscribers in the overall subscriber base is on a continuous rise.

"The rising share of data subscribers along with growing data traffic and stabilising data tariffs augurs well for revenue growth in our view," it said.

It also said that the release of a consultation paper by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in December 2019 to evaluate setting a floor price for telecom tariffs is a positive move for the telecom industry in its view. Additionally, some sense of relief to the telcos was also provided by the extension of the implementation of zero interconnect usage charge regime by a year, the agency said.

TRAI has extended levy of INR0.06/minute till December 2020 from December 2019 earlier. As a result, the effective date of implementation of the regime has been postponed to January 1, 2021.

Indian Ratings has downgraded VIL's long-term issuer rating to 'IND BBB-' from 'IND BBB' while maintaining it on rating watch negative. The downgrade reflects the crystallisation of adjusted gross revenue related liabilities for VIL post the Supreme Court's adverse ruling on January 16, dismissing the review petition filed by telcos. The SC ruling provides clarity on the liabilities that are payable by VIL to the Department of Telecom, which was earlier contingent upon the outcome of the review petition, the agency said.
Promoter of the initiative, 70 percent operation local music and also Director at Gilbert Promotions, Gilbert PP wa Pimp Seagile says that it is long overdue since the local content has been awarded 40 percent over 60 percent of international airplay, locally.

Their research notes that there is so much local content produced but still overwhelmed by international airplay in the ratio of 40:60 percent airplay. They therefore saw it fit to try and change this because of the findings that local artistes have enough content to be presented at a higher percentage. On the other hand, he shares that Botswana is the only country that plays more international content than local content within the Southern African region.

Regardless of the small population of Botswana, musicians present at least 50 different songs on average on a day at a radio station, as per what we have gathered at Duma FM, and this means at least 350 new music is produced in a week in the country, so we want this music to be given more chance so that the artistes are known for what they have produced. We wish to have 70 percent local content and 30 percent of international content, said Seagile. He shared that in Namibia, its 50:50 percent ratio and they are vying to also make it 70:40 ratio to give local content more coverage. He adds that in Eswatini, South Africa and Zimbabwe they already have a higher percentage for local content because the idea is to motivate the local artistes and sell them internationally too.

Asked if the quality that the local musicians produce is competent enough to be shared internationally and occupy the 70 percent margin, Seagile said that local talent has grown tremendously and only needs more publicity.

The reason we have stagnant growth in our industry is because people do not get to know some of the music produced locally because, it takes time for the music to be played. I am confident that the quality of our music is fine and that is why we want to elevate artistes like Vee or Charma Gal to the international platform and have others also reaching their level. This can only happen if their music is well known, he said, adding that they are hopeful that this can also reduce hiring international artistes or at least groom local artistes to be booked outside too.

Forty percent airplay just limits our music industry and it has been a very long time that we have played more of international music, reiterated Seagile. He adds that promoters outside the country earn a lot more than the local ones because of the current airplay as it creates demand and controls the market. He clarifies that their team is made up of relevant people, including lawyers, and they look forward to be working with other music associations in Southern Africa.

Seagile further highlights that the initiative would also boost the cultural exchange between countries because some people in the neighboring countries listen to Botswana radios. He says they also plan to draw parliament and the cabinet to also take part in this initiative, just like they did with the Steve Harvey initiative. It is only through partnership that we can grow our music industry, he said.

They plan to have a press conference on February 15th and they expect advocates from ECASA, South Africa, CRAN-Namibia and economists to be present as they try to map out how this would benefit the GDP of the country. According to him, musicians are excited about the campaign and they are also thankful to the radios for their support. Radios are currently in support of this campaign and elders in the industry like Alfred Mosimanegape aka Alfredo Mos and Shima Monageng are helping us through this, said Seagile.




Andhra Pradesh: VIT- honours policemen, fishermen for selfless service

January 27,2020 | Source: The New Indian Express

On the occasion of the 71st Republic Day celebrations, VIT-AP University posthumously honoured APSRTC driver Y Guravaiah, who suffered a heart attack while driving, but managed to safely bring the vehicle with 76 passengers on board to a halt.



Six fire service personnel, three constables and 20 fishermen, who saved the lives of many in the Godavari boat tragedy, were also honoured. Justice Siva Sankara Rao, chairman of the Judicial Preview Committee, unfurled the national tricolour and presented awards winners of various competitions organised for the purpose. During his address, he lauded the university authorities for choosing Republic Day and Independence Day to felicitate unsung heroes in remembrance of the selfless service to humanity. All the 30 unsung heroes received these awards and a cash reward of Rs 25,000.
Alleged husband killer, Maryam Sanda has been found guilty of murder by a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.

The court has sentenced the accused to death by hanging for stabbing her husband to death.

The deceased, Bilyaminu Bello, was the son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello.

Police believed the murder was premeditated as Ms Sanda committed the crime with broken bottles at about 3:50am on November 19, 2017, following an allegation of infidelity against her husband after seeing a text message on his phone.



In January, the police charged her for culpable homicide and sought a death penalty against her on two counts.



Read Also: EFCC Arraigns Shehu Sani In Court

Upon hearing the final pronouncement from Justice Yusuf Halilu, the accused fled the dock but she was brought back by court officials and prisons officials.

According to reports, Ms Sanda began wailing and shouting Inna lilahi Inna roji hun, after hearing her fate while her family and lawyer tried to console her.

The accused was also heard saying, I was fasting and praying  Ya Allah, why?.
DETROIT -- Businessman and Detroit native Peter Karmanos says hes helping ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in efforts to get the disgraced politician freed from federal prison. During an appearance on a podcast hosted by Charlie LeDuff, Karmanos admitted to giving a letter written by Kilpatrick to President Trumps staff.

What you guys witnessed was a modern day lynching, Karmanos said about the case against Kilpatrick.

The former owner of the Carolina Hurricanes said the charges against Kilpatrick were inflated and the sentences for his crimes were excessive.

28 years? Are you kidding me? 28 years for really less than $500 from his campaign fund? Karmanos said when asked why he gave the letter to Trump.

Karmanos went on to say all the people who convicted him are Democrats" and hinted that the entire case was a conspiracy to convict Kilpatrick. When LeDuff refuted some of those claims, Karmanos simply said thats not true and the two men agreed to disagree on the issue.

Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2013 on several charges including racketeering, bribery and extortion. His earliest possible release date is in 2037. Last year, Kilpatrick wrote a letter to Trump praising his actions as president and asking Trump for help in commuting his sentence.

I applaud your boldness and tenacity in confronting the traditional and sometimes deformed politics of our country, Kilpatrick wrote.

President Trump has not commented on the request by Kilpatrick, nor has he responded to a similar request from Kilpatricks son. However, Karmanos said he thinks Trump will consider the request.

(Jared) Kushner is handling all those clemency things, Karmanos said. Im going to continue to push because its not right.

The entire podcast can be heard here. The discussion on Kilpatricks letter begins around the 41 minute mark.
A court in the city of Burgas in Bulgaria arrested Oleksiy Moskalenko (Levin), who was wanted on suspicion of involvement in the attack on Kateryna Handziuk, for 40 days. The page of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in Telegram reports this.

Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Trepak handed over the documents necessary for the extradition of the detainee to Ukraine to the Bulgarian law enforcement authorities personally on January 24, 2020. Victor Trepak also met with the Prosecutor General of Bulgaria, Ivan Geshev, where the issue of the speedy extradition of the detainee to Ukraine was discussed.

Earlier today, the Bulgarian news agency of Flagman reported that Levin was renting an apartment with a wife of Ukrainian origin. According to the detainee, he did not have documents, but he managed to conclude an agreement on rental housing.

The defense requested that Levin be released under house arrest with an obligation to wear an electronic bracelet. The suspect supposedly has serious health problems - in Ukraine he underwent four heart operations.

Recall that the adviser to the mayor of Kherson and the public activist Kateryna Handziuk doused with sulfuric acid on the morning of July 31, 2018, near the entrance of her house in Kherson. She received chemical burns of more than 30% of the body, acid got on the back, head, arm, and also in the eye. On November 4, the activist died.

As we reported before, Prosecutor General's Office filed to Bulgaria the materials on the extradition to Ukraine of Oleksiy Levin (Moskalenko), the suspect in the organization of the attack on activist Kateryna Handziuk
The Guardian reports:

Pete Buttigieg knew he was foraying into unfriendly confines when he was en route to Orange City, the seat of Iowas most conservative county.

What you need to realize with Sioux county is theres a very strong religious flavor there, from their courts to their public squares, said Ned Bjornstad, a former elected prosecutor in north-west Iowa turned veteran defense attorney who practices regularly in Orange City. For a candidate like Buttigieg, Id expect protesters.

There werent any.

As Buttigieg entered the Prairie Winds Events Center in downtown Orange City, a crowd of around 200 instead roared in a standing ovation.

Regan Harms, a 22-year-old senior majoring in biblical studies at Northwestern College in Orange City, said she wasnt at all surprised with the turnout. As she introduced Buttigieg, she described him as a neighbor and fellow midwesterner, one who understands life in rural America. 

But Orange City is hostile territory to Democrats and fervently socially conservative. There, no Democrat running for governor or president has registered over 18% support since 2008. In Orange City, penalties are levied for work on Sunday.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Trump administration pledged Friday to step up efforts against the vast amounts of counterfeit clothing, medicine and other goods that have flooded into the U.S. in increasing waves with the rise in e-commerce.

Customs and Border Patrol would subject online retailers, including the growing number of third-party sales that have proliferated on major online platforms, and warehouse operators to increased scrutiny and potential penalties under measures announced by Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.





. . .
The cut-off area in Odisha's Malkangiri district turned into a fortress with a huge deployment of armed forces on Monday, two days after villagers killed a Maoist and left another injured for attacking them for supporting development activities in the region.

The unprecedented security arrangement was put in place to boost the morale of the villagers, who, for the first time, dared to challenge Maoists in their den.

Maoists had threatened the villagers to observe Republic Day as "Black Day", which was rejected by the locals who held the ultras responsible for no development in the area.

The cut-off area under Chitrakonda block of Malkangiri, which is encircled by the Balimela reservoir from three sides and has a dense forest connecting Andhra Pradesh on another side, was considered as a den of Maoists ever since they spread their network in the mid 1990s.

The people in the region earlier used to support the Maoists out of fear, but now they have found the courage to face them due to deployment of forces after the construction of the Gurupriya bridge, Malkangiri Superintendent of Police (SP) RD Khilari said.

Security personnel belonging to the Border Security Force (BSF), Odisha's elite commandos of the SOG (Special Operation Group) and the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) were deployed in large numbers in the four villages of Jodamba, Janturai, Sindibeda and Tikarpada and the combing operation was intensified in the area, a senior police officer said.

Besides the SP, Malkangiri District Collector Manish Agarwal and other senior district-level officers rushed to Janturai village, where a Maoist was killed and another left seriously injured by villagers on Saturday night.

Agarwal said security was beefed up in Jodamba, Janturai, Sindibeda and Tikarpada villages to foil any retaliatory attack by Maoists.

The collector also announced that the state government will provide financial assistance to the 10 families of Jodamba, whose houses were damaged by Maoists following the killing of the ultra.

The deceased Maoist was identified as Ganga Madhi of the Kalimela area and the injured as Jipra Hatrika of Narayanpatna. Both were members of the Gumma Area Committee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Colorado election officials will be mailing out 3.3 million presidential primary ballots to registered voters, but there's still time for vote
The Loose Women panellists treated viewers to a trip down memory lane on Monday's show, when they each shared 30-year-old throwback snaps of themselves.

Andrea McLean, 50; Gloria Hunniford, 79; Denise Welch, 61, and Saira Khan, 49, all gasped in reaction when their younger versions appeared on a wall screen behind them in the studio, complete with a range of notably retro looks.

In her shot, former Coronation Street star Denise was seen sporting an '80s hairstyle and a sparkly jacket as she struck a smouldering pose.

Retro: Loose Women panellists Andrea McLean, Gloria Hunniford, Denise Welch (pictured) and Saira Khan shared 30-year-old throwback snaps of themselves during Monday's show

'Look at the hair!' Denise laughingly said, as her snapshot was flashed up for the studio audience and her fellow panellists.

'I'm hoping I was playing a [character] part in that one there, otherwise I needed serious help.'

Presented with a more recent snap of herself, the soap actress continued: 'I'm not as slim as I was then, but I am much more comfortable in by body now because I feel like I am much more in control.'

Looking back: Host Andrea was also shocked by her throwback hairdo, which was cut into a bob with a gappy full fringe, and wearing a plain bright red jacket

Host Andrea was also shocked by her own throwback hairdo, which was cut into a bob with a gappy full fringe, while she posed in a plain bright red jacket.

The TV personality, who was aged 20 at the time, said the shot was from her first ever promotional shoot when she started her TV career.

'Can I just say, yes I do think I look a bit better there,' Andrea said, igniting cheers from the studio audience.

Gloria was shown sporting a huge bouffant hairstyle while posing in a shimmering ensemble, which came complete with a glittery jacket.

Age-defying: Gloria, 79, had a huge bouffant style and was clearly a fan of the glittery jackets

The presenter, who was 49 when the snap was taken, said: 'Look at mine! It's like a mohican. I mean goodness.'

Saira resembled her current self more closely than the other panellists, when she was shown wearing a sharp white dress suit and jeans.

It was taken when the star was aged 19, and was an aspiring businesswoman.

The television personality said of herself: 'I have had a big big journey, I'm 50 this year, and that is how I saw myself for most of my life, quite conservative.'

Back in the day: Saira Khan, 49, resembled her current self more closely than the other panellists in her throwback image, wearing a sharp white dress suit and jeans

Gorgeous: The studio audience went wild for the presenters' throwback snapshots

Her moment of reflection was quickly broken by a second photo of her posing semi-nude for OK! magazine, receiving a loud cheer from the audience.

The decision to share the series of throwback images came after Hollywood actress Jennifer Lopez posted a racy snap of herself posing in bikini.

The Hustlers star recently turned 50, but followers have argued that she looks better now than she did 30 years ago.

'She looks amazing, but she looked gorgeous then [30 years ago], she just looks a different kind of gorgeous,' said host Andrea.

Proud: The panellists all said they felt happy with their looks. Pictured with guest Neil Tennant
Pro-Pakistani elements have infiltrated the anti-CAA protests in the US to execute their hidden agenda against India, an Indian-American community leader has said.

During a recent protest against the CAA in Washington DC, posters were seen reflective of the presence of pro-Pakistani elements.

Not only this, at least two Pakistani-Americans were among the main organisers of the anti-CAA protests in Washington DC on January 26, claimed Indian-American community leader Adapa Prasad.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) came into force in India last December amid protests in India and around the world.

The Indian government has stressed that the new Act does not deny any citizenship rights but has been brought in to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and provide them citizenship.

"Darakshan Raja, a Pakistani-American activist who also co-ordinates Kashmiri separatist protests in Washington DC area along with another Pakistani-American Muslim activist named Khudai Tanveer, were one of the main coordinators of the anti-CAA protests," Prasad told PTI.

Prasad and his team shared videos and pictures of the individuals from the anti-CAA protests in Washington DC, which was attended by more than 500 Indian-Americans from in and around the city.

Prasad said one of the posters written in Urdu said Hans ke Liya hai Pakistan, Larr ke lengey Hindustan.

"This in English means we easily got Pakistan, now we will fight out to get India," he said as he shared the picture of the said poster.

"This is disgusting. Pro-ISI and pro-Pakistani elements are using this protest to execute their hidden agenda which is depicted in their own poster," Prasad said.

He said the protests are also being misused by pro-Khalistani activists to push their agenda.

"Arjun Sethi, a pro Khalistani activist, was also amongst the coordinators of the anti-CAA rally," Prasad said.

Sethi had recently testified before a Congressional Committee on Kashmir.

In recent weeks, some of the Indian-Americans, during private conversation in WhatsApp groups, had expressed apprehensions that their anti-CAA protests could be misused by elements close to ISI and Pakistan.

There had been moments during which the organisers of these protests had increased scrutiny of those trying to lead the anti-CAA protests.

"It could be a trap to portray Indians and Indian Muslims in a negative light by someone, Mike Ghouse, an Indian-American who is the president of Washington DC-based Center for Pluralism, said in a recent blog.

Most of these anti-CAA protestors chant Bharat Mata Ki Jia and carry Indian national flag.

Some of the eyewitnesses told PTI that the "Hindustan Pakistan" poster written in Urdu was withdrawn quickly after it came to the notice of some of the organizers.
A man wanted in a case of attempt to murder in northeast Delhi's Nandnagri was arrested by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, officials said on Monday.

The accused was identified as Shahrukh Khan, a resident of Sunder Nagri. He was earlier arrested in two cases of auto-theft and was released from jail in July, 2019, they said.

According to police, on January 23, a quarrel took place between the victim and Khan's brothers, and the matter was resolved at that time. But the next day, Khan along with his brothers attacked the victim. Khan allegedly fired four gunshots at the victim's mother when she tried to save her son from them.

She sustained gun shot injuries on both hands and was admitted to a nearby hospital while Khan fled from the spot after the incident, said Rajesh Deo, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

A case was registered in connection with the incident, he said.

The police team tracked the locations of Khan and later nabbed him following a raid, he added.

One country made pistol with two live cartridges was recovered from his possession, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "Hailstorms can wreak havoc on vehicles parked outdoors," said an inventor from Evanston, Ill. "In order to keep vehicles protected, I developed an energy-absorbing cover that safeguards against damages caused by hailstones."

He developed HAIL PROTECTION COVERS to provide an effective way to protect a vehicle from damages caused by hailstones. The cover stops the paint from being chipped, nicked and scratched. It also avoids dents and dings to the vehicle body, and keeps glass from breaking. This eliminates the need for costly repairs. Additionally, the cover is easy to apply and remove, and adaptable for use with any vehicle.

The original design was submitted to the Chicago sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 18-CKL-1225, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com


OSWIECIM, Poland  On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp in German-occupied Poland. The Germans had already fled westward, leaving behind the bodies of prisoners who had been shot and thousands of sick and starving survivors.

The Soviet troops also found gas chambers and crematoria that the Germans had blown up before fleeing in an attempt to hide evidence of their mass killings.

But the genocide was too massive to hide. Today, the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau endures as the leading symbol of the terror of the Holocaust. Its iconic status is such that every year it registers a record number of visitors  2.3 million last year alone.

On Monday  75 years after its liberation  hundreds of survivors from across the world will travel to Auschwitz for official anniversary commemorations. In advance of that, Associated Press photographer Markus Schreiber visited the site. Using a panoramic film camera, he documented the remains of the camp in a series of haunting black and white photos.

Auschwitz today is many things at once: an emblem of evil, a site of historical remembrance and a vast cemetery. It is a place where Jews make pilgrimages to pay tribute to ancestors whose ashes and bones remain part of the earth.

Auschwitz is in fact not one camp, but two: Auschwitz I, built in an abandoned Polish military base, and Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, a much bigger complex that went up later about two miles (three kilometers) away to expedite the Nazis Final Solution.

Early on, Auschwitz I operated as a camp for Polish prisoners, including Catholic priests and members of the nation's underground resistance again the German occupation. Later in the war Birkenau was created for the mass killing of Jews and others who were transported there from across Europe.

Prisoners arrived in cramped, windowless cattle trains. At the infamous ramp at Auschwitz, the Nazis selected those they could use as forced laborers. The others  old people, many women and especially children and babies, were gassed to death soon after their arrival.

It is Birkenau that shocks more profoundly, a flat, vast space still ringed by the silver birch trees (Birken in German) that gave the place its name. Crematoria lie in rubble but still intact are the rail tracks and watchtowers and some of the barracks where prisoners slept in cold, cramped conditions.

Schreiber's photos show the notorious main gate with the cynical Nazi slogan Arbeit Macht Frei  a German phrase meaning work will set you free.

Today, visitors can also see the suitcases, eyeglasses and other items they brought on their journeys. Especially haunting are the prosthetic limbs: Many of the Jews who were murdered had fought for their homelands, including Germany, in World War I.

At some parts of Auschwitz-Birkenau only dozens of brick chimneys remain on a vast field where once the barracks for detainees stood.

More than 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis and their henchmen in Auschwitz. Most who were killed were Jews, but the victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others. In all, about 6 million European Jews died during the Holocaust. When the Soviets liberated the camp, they found about 7,000 survivors.

By Markus Schreiber and Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press

Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

See all of APs coverage of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at https://apnews.com/Auschwitz

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Pennsylvanias nearly 16-year-old casino law is continuing to benefit local economic development, job training and community improvement projects.

State lawmakers this past week announced $603,950 in Local Share Account grants from gambling revenue in Monroe County available to Northampton and other contiguous counties.

Im pleased to announce the approval of these state funds allocated to help expedite important projects that will improve the quality of life and increase community safety, state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, said in a news release.

I will continue to seek state funding and resources for local efforts aimed at making our community a better place to live and work," Boscola added. "All of these grants will help fund and advance worthwhile local projects.

Joining Boscola in announcing Local Share Account grants for Northampton County were state Reps. Zach Mako, R-Lehigh/Northampton, and Robert Freeman, D-Northampton. State Reps. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe/Pike, and Jack Rader, R-Monroe, announced an additional $2.3 million in the gaming-funded grants for projects in Monroe County.

The grants were approved by the Commonwealth Finance Authority under the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act (Act 71 of 2004).

Seeking to develop and improve Monroe County communities, PA State Rep. Jack Rader and I announced today that Monroe... Posted by PA State Rep. Rosemary Brown on Wednesday, January 22, 2020

The grants awarded in Northampton County are as follows, according to the lawmakers' announcements:

$300,000 for Walnutport to purchase a new vacuum street sweeper. The sweeper will have the ability to lift the grating from the catch basins and storm inlets and clean within them. This will cut down on the debris on the streets and prevent debris from entering the storm sewer system and waterways. The sweeper also would be available for use by neighboring municipalities.

$100,000 for Hellertown for Phase 1A of its new public works facility.

$86,450 for North Catasauqua to improve the area around the Delaware and Lehigh (D&L) Trail along Main Street in the borough. Specifically, the funding will be used to construct a retaining wall to create suitable public space above the entrance to the trailhead.

$50,000 for Lower Saucon Township for its Heller Homestead Widows House Windows project.

$40,000 for Centennial Park Improvement to Easton for replacement of recreational equipment and fencing.

$20,000 for a Security and Information Technology Improvements Project in Freemansburg to install 43 security cameras at various borough properties and upgrade technology systems.

$7,500 for Easton Murals Arts Festival to the Greater Easton Development Partnership for the creation of public murals throughout Easton.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 21:08:36|Editor: zyl

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Afghan security forces head to the site of a plane crash in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, Afghanistan, Jan. 27, 2020. A passenger plane crashed in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province on Monday with dozens killed or injured, a member of provincial council Khaliqdad Akbari said to local media. (Photo by Sayed Mominzadah/Xinhua)

KABUL, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A passenger plane crashed in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province on Monday with dozens killed or injured, a member of provincial council Khaliqdad Akbari said to local media.

The crash took place in the Taliban-held area of Sadokhil in Deh Yak district in the afternoon, he said.

Confirming the incident, Wahidullah Kalimzai, governor of the restive Ghazni province told local media that the crashed aircraft belonged to a foreign company but failed to identify it.

The governor also noted that security forces had been sent to Sadokhil village to secure the place of the incident.

Similarly, the spokesman for Ghazni's provincial government Aref Nuri told media that the plane crash occurred at 1:10 p.m. local time on Monday in Sadokhil area of the restive Deh Yak district.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi has also confirmed the plane crash in the eastern Ghazni province.

Earlier reports suggested that the crashed plane belonged to Afghanistan's national carrier Ariana airlines.

Afghanistan's Second Vice President Sarwar Danesh in his speech at a gathering in Kabul said that the crashed plane belonged to the state-run Ariana airliner company.

However, Ariana's acting chief Mirwais Mirzakalwal has rejected the report, saying the Ariana had two flights on Monday and both planes reached safe and sound to their destinations.

In the meantime, no private aviation company has confirmed the plane crash, nor did the Taliban outfit report the incident in its held-territory.
Sanditon Episode 4 Season 1 Episode 4 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Simon Ridgway/PBS

Im getting concerned. Not about any abatement of the heady volcano of drama and emotion that comprises the seaside resort of Sanditon, no. Im concerned that we are really truly stuck with Sidney as Charlottes main love interest. Ive tried to keep an open mind. I keep thinking, Well, maybe hell suddenly apologize for being a condescending dick with a childlike inability to control his temper, but I am foiled at every turn by his own behavior.

Since the narrative seems to be turning toward Sidney relenting in his constant irritation at the very sight of Charlotte, I have to assume Otis Molyneux is shady. He certainly doesnt SEEM shady, except for the boat-stealing that happens this episode, but Sidney doesnt trust him, and if he doesnt trust him and hes proved wrong, that just makes him even more of an ass. But he doesnt tell Charlotte why he doesnt trust Otis. He just screams at her in the street. You know. Like love interests do.

The romanticizing of cruelty and bad behavior is deeply disturbing, and something I hoped wed moved past as a culture. I dont care if he is sometimes nice to Charlotte; selective niceness is a method by which people gain license to continue behaving abusively. Charlotte should steer clear of him and spend her time with someone who doesnt scream at her when she disagrees with him.

To sum up, I wont be speaking of Sidney Parkers abs anymore. And the possibility of shipping him with Charlotte is now closed, boarded up, and chained off like a haunted house of petty arguments and thirsty stares.

Elsewhere in Sanditon! Events turn darker as Tom Parker seems less affable than ever before, refusing to deliver the machinery and workers he promised after last weeks accident, and instead buying an obscenely expensive necklace for his wife. TOM. I hurl the Tyra Banks we were all rooting for you  how dare you GIF at you. A fictional town of villains is more interesting than a fictional town of perfectly pleasant people, though, so I accept this Tom revelation, so long as he leans into it and becomes the Machiavelli of Sanditon.

The real drama this episode lies in Georgiana-Otis and Esther-Edward. The man Georgiana was writing to last time pops up! His name is Otis Molyneux, and theyre going to have a clandestine picnic, with Charlotte third-wheeling it all the way. Georgianas governess-like figure, Mrs. Griffiths, is 100 percent aghast at the idea of a picnic, calling it an invitation to licentiousness, but Georgiana lies and says Mr. and Mrs. Parker will be joining them, so theyre golden for their ungodly picnic experience.

They of course meet Otis in an almost unnaturally beautiful forest setting that would be conducive to romance if Charlotte werent sitting five feet away, staring at them. Otis says, oh, so were going to go off together by ourselves now, and Charlottes says, nope, because she promised Sidney shed watch Georgiana. Charlotte has a thankless task here, which I relate to as the self-appointed monitor of my romantically involved eighth grade schoolmates on our class trip. No one appreciates thrilling adherence to the rules. No one except authority figures like Sidney, which is definitely why Charlottes doing it.

Georgiana and Otis are very cute, but I dont trust him. He proposes to her, and she says she cant marry without Sidneys consent. Side note: If youre interested in Otiss mention of the Sons of Africa, they were an 18th-century abolitionist group in Britain. Britain abolished the international slave trade in 1807 everywhere but India. According to the linked article, they continued their work after 1807, but I can find no mention of them beyond the 18th century. Regardless, Georgiana tells Charlotte to ask Sidney about his time in Antigua. This is later what Charlotte hurls at Sidney when he tells Otis he will never see Georgiana again. She accuses him of having his fortune tainted with the stain of slavery, and he viciously shouts at her. Charlotte tells Georgiana she will help her, and a letter to Otis wings its way to London at the end of the episode.

But whats going on with our Flowers in the Attic pairing, Esther and Edward? Esther owned this episode, IMHO. After having Edward relace her corset in an overly sensual way and getting caught by Clara, they are summoned to Lady Denhams, who orders them to wed without delay. Sir Edward casually mentions Lord Babington being into Esther (note: he totally is; it is my favorite), and Esther immediately dismisses the idea. Because shes only into Edward.

Okay, but lets get into Clara and Esther, who have such a beautiful cobras-squaring-off dynamic this episode. Clara corrals Esther into turning pages for her while she plays the piano, and they have one of those metaphoric conversations about musical tempo where Clara uses tempo terminology to indicate that Esther likes to bang her (step)brother. When Esther storms out, Clara follows her. There is a heavy vibe that theyre going to make out, mostly because theyre both emotionally riled up and theres a perfectly good tree right there. The women of this show have a habit of speaking to each other with their faces only five inches apart, and Im fooled into thinking there will be makeouts every single time. Clara ends up offering Esther helpful advice: namely, that Edward is not going to stick around. This bears fruit when, after brooding by a candelabra and some gothic curtains, Esther asks Edward to run away and he turns her down. HE CARES FOR NONE BUT MAMMON, ESTHER.

Questions For Next Time

 Can I love good-tempered, easily collapsible Arthur Parker more? (The answer is no.)

 Will Handsome Stringer and his ambition, kindness, calm, and common interest with and admiration of Charlotte win the day? Hahahaha I think we know the answer to that.

 Is Tom Parkers motto Build town, do crimes? And by crimes, I definitely mean spend all the money he does not have?
Councils across NSW face paying up to twice as much to run their elections this year compared to the last polls, piling financial pressure on communities already feeling the strain from bushfires and drought.

Months after the Berejiklian government said it was "committed to minimising the financial pressure on councils" of the local government elections, internal figures show the total bill for councils is forecast to surge by more than a third compared with polls in 2016 and 2017, to more than $43 million this year.

Councils face a major increase in the cost of holding elections this year. Credit:Ben Rushton

Hunters Hill, in Sydney's north-west, and nine councils in rural and regional areas, have been told to expect their election costs to more than double.

More than 100 other councils face increases of 23 to 95 per cent in their bills from the NSW Electoral Commission, the figures issued under freedom of information laws show.
Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh

In 2019, with the close attention and guidance of the Party, the National Assembly (NA) and the government, as well as co-ordination between ministries and central and local agencies, Vietnams science and technology sector gained many encouraging results, contributing to the overall success of the country.

For the first time, Vietnams ranking on the Global Innovation Index by the World Intellectual Property Organization increased by three places compared to 2018, ranking 42th out of 129 countries and economies, first among 26 low-average income countries, and third in the ASEAN, right after Singapore and Malaysia.

Last year, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) implemented many solutions to promote the development of the national and access to the international startup ecosystem.

In addition to the national Techfest, the MoST also organised International Techfests for the first time in the United States, South Korea, and Singapore to promote Vietnams innovative startup ecosystem to the world.

Besides these events, the MoST implemented a traceability system to transparently publicise products origin, serving for international integration and efficiency of state management and ensuring the quality and safety of products.

Social sciences and humanities provided the scientific foundations for building socio-economic strategies and national policies.

Meanwhile, natural sciences have made practical contributions to strengthening the capacity of forecasting, warning, and preventing natural disasters.

Moreover, scientists have been continuously working on solutions to adapt to climate change and to design, build, and launch the MicroDragon earth observation satellite. In addition, research results have contributed to the development of a number of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary applications.

The number of international publications in Vietnam in 2019 increased by 1.3 times compared to 2018.

In agriculture, science and technology have contributed to the success of the National Target Programme on New Rural Development, actively supporting value chains for local products, according to the One Community One Product programme.

As for industry and trade, the MoST has worked closely with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to carry out scientific research tasks and formulate standards and technical regulations for products, as well as to protect intellectual property and prevent commercial frauds.

In healthcare, for the first time, a liver of a brain dead patient was successfully divided and transplanted to two patients, marking a breakthrough in Vietnams organ transplant technique. In addition, the IVACFLU-A vaccine was successfully manufactured. This is the first made-in-Vietnam flu vaccine which can prevent three common strains of the influenza virus.

Regarding construction, Vietnam used modern technologies in the construction of large-scale projects. New materials were found such as concrete produced with sea sand and seawater, reducing the impact of corrosion for building houses in seashore regions.

In terms of defense and security, thanks to the research and application of technology, Vietnam has manufactured many kinds of equipment, serving the protection of the countrys sovereignty, including radars and rockets.

In localities, businesses are increasingly interested in the application of science and technology in manufacturing and developing products along the value chains, thereby improving the competitiveness of their products.

The application of science and technology in businesses helps them to drive Vietnams economic growth in the coming years

Promoting business connections

Identifying that enterprises play a key role in technological innovations along with institutes and universities, the MoST has made efforts to facilitate them by developing and submitting legal documents to the NA and the government. Additionally, the ministry has also carried out action programmes to encourage enterprises to improve their productivity, quality, and competitiveness.

Moreover, the MoST will continue supporting enterprises in implementing projects in technological innovation and research and development.

The ministry aims to make optimal use of national science and technology programmes, the National Technology Innovation Fund, thereby supporting businesses to apply technology in design, production, and distribution while improving labour quality and efficiency. With these executed and planned measures and actions, the science and technology sector has already achieved encouraging results such as the improved growth rate reflected by the increase in labour productivity.

Especially in 2018 and 2019, the economic growth was at a record high for the last 10 years, reaching over 7 per cent with credit growth of less than 14 per cent compared to 17-18 per cent of previous years.

Regarding connecting Vietnamese businesses with foreign counterparts, the MoST has also developed and implemented a number of policies to promote technology transfer, especially for high and advanced technologies in priority industries.

Furthermore, the MoST has provided funding for domestic businesses to import the worlds most advanced technologies under the National Science and Technology Programme or the National Technology Innovation Fund.

Particularly, from 2011 to 2019, the MoST proactively organised 11 technology matching and demonstration events with the participation of businesses from Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, the Czech Republic, and the United States. During these events, more than 3,000 processes for equipment and products of domestic and international institutes, schools, and enterprises were showcased, and nearly 150 contracts for co-operation and technology transfer were signed with a total value of more than VND2.25 trillion ($98 million).

Raising number of tech firms

In order to ensure the feasibility of the set goals, the MoST has been promoting activities of perfecting institutions and policies, including building a number of amended laws. All of these amendments and guiding documents aim to supplement regulations on incubation and the establishment and development of science and tech enterprises.

Moreover, the MoST aims to synchronise the system of mechanisms, policies, and legal documents on science and technology, including all relevant laws and documents. Meanwhile, the country has also enhanced the effective formulation and implementation of programmes to support the development of innovative businesses by co-operating with ministries and sectors.

The science and technology sector will pay special attention to establishing incubation institutions in close co-operation to regional and international ones, thereby meeting the current needs of supporting innovative startups  all with the active and strong support of the MoST.
New Delhi, Jan 27 : The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has submitted in the Supreme Court that any person other than a member of a religious denomination should not be allowed to question the faith of that religious denomination.

The Board has filed an application opposing the PIL filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay challenged the validity of practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims.

"A member of a religious denomination belonging to that faith, in the event of any violation of their fundamental rights, only to the extent of a threat of life and liberty, may be permitted to seek the protection of the court and determine the issues of faith arising there from," said the application by the board, a registered societyof Islamic clerics and scholars.

Upadhyay's petition has relied upon the top court verdict declaring instant triple talaq as void ab initio, and also its verdict on the right to privacy.

The application also contended that personal laws do not derive their validity on the ground that they have been passed or made by legislature or other competent authority. The Board insists the foundational sources of personal law are their respective scriptural texts.

"The Mohammedan Law is founded essentially on the Holy Koran and the Hadith of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) and thus it cannot fall within the purview of the expression laws of force, as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution, and hence its validity cannot be tested on a challenge based on Part III of the Constitution," it held.

The Board also cited its view on the Uniform Civil Code, saying that Article 44 in the Constitution, which talked about having a common law for the entire country, was "only a directive principle of state policy and is not enforceable". According to the application, the top court has already dealt with the issue of polygamy in 1997 and declined to issue any directive at that point in time.

The petition by Upadhyay has claimed such practices violate Muslim women's right to live with dignity and their privacy.

The Board has now claimed these practices may not fall under the purview of the "law in force". It has also sought top court's permission to present its arguments when this petition is listed for hearing.
One person was taken to a hospital with burn injuries after a fire at a home in the unincorporated area of Bradley in southern Monterey County late Sunday night, according to Cal Fire.

Firefighters responded at 11:03 p.m. to a report of a fire at a single-family home on Dixie Street just east of U.S. Highway 101.
Ukraine's Cabinet approves UkSATSE's 2020 financial plan  PM Honcharuk

12:03, 27.01.20 1809

The financial document will allow UkSATSE to continue the development of the Ukrainian air navigation system.
A Florida pastor and longtime spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump says she was speaking in metaphor when she recently prayed in a sermon for all "satanic pregnancies" to end in miscarriage.

In video of the Jan. 5 sermon, posted by the liberal advocacy group Right Wing Watch, televangelist pastor Paula White breathlessly calls on Jesus Christ to "command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now."

"We declare that anything that's been conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm," White said before an auditorium of congregants.

As of Sunday morning, the clip, which was just under two minutes long, had been viewed more than 2.5 million times.

White's words are largely being interpreted literally - that she wishes for evil women to have miscarriages - but she shared a rare response to the criticism in which she explained that she was speaking in metaphor, praying for evil plans to be foiled in her congregants' lives.

"I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context," White tweeted Sunday. "I was praying (Ephesians) 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life ..."

Ephesians 6:12, according to the King James Bible translation, reads: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

After watching the clip, Andre Gagne, a theological studies professor at Concordia University and expert on the Christian right, said White was probably speaking in metaphor when she called for the miscarriages. He pointed to a book by Nigerian evangelist D.K. Olukoya that describes "satanic pregnancies" as "the plans that Satan has against a person's life."

According to Gagne, "White is commanding that Satan's plans be aborted."

Still, many observers recoiled at White's remarks.

"So Paula White wants everyone at @WhiteHouse to know she is praying for abortion," tweeted Jennifer Gunter, an obstetrician and gynecologist who writes a column on women's reproductive health for the New York Times.

"No pregnancies are satanic. Every child is a gift from God," tweeted James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest. "No one should ever pray for any woman to miscarry. No one should ever pray for evil or harm to befall another person. Jesus asked us to pray for our persecutors, not to curse them. To love our neighbors as ourselves."

White did not respond to a request for comment sent Sunday morning.

The 53-year-old megachurch pastor, who recently joined the White House Office of Public Liaison as a religious adviser, delivered the remarks during a sermon in which she inveighed against a variety of forces, including anyone who sought to harm Trump.

"We come against the marine kingdom, we come against the animal kingdom," said White, eyes closed. "We declare that any strange winds - any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself, sent against others - we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now."

She also condemned "any hex, any spell, any witchcraft, any spirit of control, any Jezebel," and "anything that the enemy desires through spells," according to the footage.

Impassioned rhetoric is one of White's calling cards. She has used the same type of language in numerous rallies and public events, including a re-election rally for Trump in June.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

But it is almost unheard of for a leader of an evangelical church to call for the death of unborn babies in any context. The belief in the right to life and opposition to abortion rights are paramount political issues for religious conservatives, and defections from those stances are rare, even in metaphor.

An October 2018 article from Christianity Today, the country's flagship evangelical magazine, offered a list of recommendations for pastors to help grieving couples cope with the loss of a baby. "Grieving parents need to know that their friends and church family care about them," the article read. A post last year on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website also offers supportive words for mothers who have miscarried.

Miscarriages are the most common type of pregnancy loss, occurring in 10 to 20 percent of all pregnancies. The causes can vary: chromosomal abnormalities, infections, substance abuse. In the United States, medical professionals define a miscarriage as the death of an embryo or fetus before the 20th week of pregnancy. The loss of a baby after the 20th week is a stillbirth.

White has been in Trump's orbit for years, sticking close to him as he has embraced the evangelical movement, an essential part of his support base.

The pair first spoke in the early 2000s when Trump called her with glowing reviews of her televised sermon, The Washington Post Magazine has reported. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson later credited White as having "personally led (Trump) to Christ."

White said she was aware of Trump's presidential ambitions long before he ran. She told The Washington Post in 2017 that Trump reached out to her in 2011 for advice on a White House bid. "I don't feel it's the right timing," she said she told him.

When he did decide to run, White was involved with the campaign, at one point helping orchestrate a meeting with hundreds of evangelical leaders. And when Trump was inaugurated, White was one of six clergy members who spoke at the ceremony.

In October, she joined the White House in an official capacity, advising the president's Faith and Opportunity Initiative and handling outreach to religious groups.
CASS COUNTY, MI  Police arrested a woman who was in a stolen motor home that got stuck in a field.

Police obtained a key to the recreational vehicle after the woman refused to open the door or talk to police.

The incident happened around 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26. Sheriffs deputies responded to a report of a suspicious situation. An RV was being driven in a field near Osborn Street and Eagle Point Road in Cass Countys Calvin Township.

When sheriffs deputies got to the scene, the RV was stuck. The woman inside refused to talk to police or open the door.

Police determined that the RV had been stolen from a manufacturers lot in Middlebury, Indiana. After four hours, police obtained a key, opened the front door and arrested the woman.

She was taken to Cass County Jail.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday announced several development initiatives including an Integrated Waste Management System and a new Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to be set up at Kharar in Mohali.

"Land had been identified and possession already handed over to Department of Local Government for this purpose," said Singh.

Addressing the gathering at the Republic Day event, the Chief Minister also announced a series of welfare measures to boost progress in the Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar) district of the State.

Singh told the massive gathering that a new Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) would be set up at Kharar as part of his government's commitment to build a Swachch (Clean) Punjab.

"My government would continue to work towards ensuring sustainable development by creating the necessary infrastructure for a clean and green Punjab," he added.

With skill development being another priority agenda, the Chief Minister also announced a new Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Village Tripari, in Kharar. The Rs 5 crore project will further promote vocational training and create an employable youth force to further the state's progress in the coming years, Singh said.

A new market committee will also be established in Mohali to facilitate smooth and hassle-free procurement and marketing of farm produce.

The Chief Minister also announced the construction of Police Line to ensure the welfare of the police force and their families in the district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The head of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is stepping down, less than a year after she took the job.

Diane Sanchezs last day will be Feb. 1, the chambers board of directors announced Monday.

A South Texas native and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Sanchez joined the chamber in February 2019. Her predecessor, Ramiro Cavazos, departed in the fall of 2018 to lead the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C.

Sanchez didnt respond to requests for comment.

The board received Sanchezs resignation Saturday. It was unexpected, said chairwoman Erika Gonzalez, but the board doesnt expect operations to be interrupted.

Board directors are looking for an interim leader and will put a nominations committee together, Gonzalez said. The ideal candidate for CEO will have operational experience and a focus on small business, she added.

We have a lot of talent here in San Antonio, so were hopeful, Gonzalez said.

On ExpressNews.com: New head of San Antonio Hispanic Chamber says focus on diversity, data is good for bottom line

Before taking on the chamber role, Sanchez spent much of her career in leadership roles at telecommunications and telecom infrastructure companies.

In an interview at the beginning of her chamber tenure, Sanchez said her focus would be on bottom line results and empowering female Hispanic entrepreneurs. Access to capital, leadership acumen and marketing and sales experience are some of the barriers local Hispanic-owned businesses face, she said.

San Antonio is going through a transformation right now  as a Hispanic community and a business community, where either were going to turn left or were going to turn right, she said. Weve not done a good job as a community to make sure that its inclusive, and were consciously looking at the impact.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
Police identified the victim in a fatal two car-crash that closed Sandy Boulevard in Park Rose Saturday morning as Salvador Cruz Garcia, 52, of Portland.

The driver of the vehicle that hit Garcias car, Tyrell P. Dixon, 28, of Happy Valley, was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the second degree, driving under the influence, and reckless driving.

Investigators said Dixon was driving a 2003 Pontiac Bonneville westbound on Northeast Sandy Boulevard and ran a red light at Northeast 105th Avenue. His vehicle hit a 2003 Mazda Miata, driven by Garcia, which was moving northbound through the intersection. Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene. Dixon and a passenger in his vehicle were treated for minor injuries.
English French

Press Relations:

Florence Lievre

Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 54 50 71

E-mail: florence.lievre@capgemini.com





Press & Investor Relations:

Stephanie Bia

Tel.: +33 (0)1 46 41 72 01

E-mail: stephanie.bia@altran.com

Investor Relations:

Vincent Biraud

Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 54 50 87



E-mail: vincent.biraud@capgemini.com







Following the success of Capgeminis friendly tender offer for Altran

the offer is reopening from January 28 to February 10, 2020 (inclusive)

Paris, January 27, 2020  In accordance with the general regulations of the French financial market authority (Autorite des marches financiers - AMF) and following the success of the friendly tender offer of Capgemini (Euronext Paris: CAP) for Altran Technologies (Euronext Paris: ALT) 1 the offer is automatically reopening from January 28 to February 10, 2020 (inclusive). Shareholders who have not yet tendered their shares to the tender offer will have the right to do so, under identical terms of the initial tender offer, i.e. for a price of 14.50 per Altran share, which represents a premium on the full value of Altran.

Capgemini's offer document and Altran's response document, as approved by the AMF on October 14, 2019 under visa no. 19-489 and visa no. 19-490 respectively, as well as documents relating to the other information of each company, are available on the AMF website (www.amf-france.org), and on the websites of Capgemini (www.capgemini.com/altran-en) or Altran Technologies (www.altran.com). These documents can be obtained free of charge from Capgemini (11 rue de Tilsitt, 75017 Paris, France) or Altran Technologies (96 avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), depending on whether they relate to Capgemini or Altran Technologies.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This press release is disseminated for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase, or a solicitation of an offer to sell, any securities of Altran Technologies.

Investors and shareholders are strongly advised to read the documentation relating to the tender offer, which includes the terms and conditions of the offer, as well as any amendments or supplements to those documents as they will contain important information about Capgemini and the proposed transaction.

This press release must not be published, broadcast or distributed, directly or indirectly, in any country in which the distribution of this information is subject to legal restrictions. The tender offer will not be open to the public in jurisdictions in which its launch is subject to legal restrictions.

The publication, broadcasting or distribution of this press release in certain countries may be subject to legal or regulatory restrictions. Therefore, persons located in countries where this press release is published, broadcasted or distributed must inform themselves about and comply with such restrictions. Capgemini disclaims any responsibility for any violation of such restrictions.

About Capgemini

A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of over 200,000 team members in more than 40 countries. The Group reported 2018 global revenues of EUR 13.2 billion.

Visit us at www.capgemini.com . People matter, results count.

About Altran

Altran ranks as the undisputed global leader in engineering and R&D services. The Group offers clients an unmatched value proposition to address their transformation and innovation needs. Altran works alongside its clients, from initial concept through industrialization, to invent the products and services of tomorrow. For over 30 years, the company has provided expertise in automotive, aeronautics, space, defense & naval, infrastructure & transportation, industry & consumer goods, life sciences, communications, semiconductors & electronics, software & internet, finance and the public sector. The Aricent acquisition extends this leadership to semiconductors, digital experience and design innovation. Altran generated revenues of 2.9 billion in 2018, with nearly 47,000 employees in more than 30 countries.

www.altran.com .







1 See also Capgeminis press release dated January 14, 2020 .





Attachment
London, Jan 27 : Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, has photographed Holocaust survivors to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Four survivors, alongside their children and grand-children, feature in the emotive portraits to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday, reports metro.co.uk.

Each of the images depict the special connection between a survivor and younger generations of their family, who will carry the legacy of their grandparents.

The Duchess, who was among photographers behind the lens, described the survivors she photographed as "two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet".

She was referring to 84-year-old Steven Frank, originally from Amsterdam, who was sent to multiple concentration camps during his childhood. Dark, moving images show the survivor alongside his two grand-daughters.

Middleton's other portrait captures 82-year-old Yvonne Bernstein, originally from Germany, also pictured with her grand-daughter, aged 11. During the Holocaust, Yvonne was kept in hiding as a child in France.

The photographs were taken at Kensington Palace earlier this month, and because both survivors have strong links to the Netherlands, Middleton was inspired by 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, who specialised in interior domestic scenes, said the metro.co.uk report.

The photographs will be part of an exhibition which opens later this year, bringing together 75 powerful images of survivors and their family members.

Speaking about the project, the Duchess, who is Royal Photographic Society patron, said: "The harrowing atrocities of the Holocaust, which were caused by the most unthinkable evil, will forever lay heavy in our hearts.

"Despite unbelievable trauma at the start of their lives, Yvonne Bernstein and Steven Frank are two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet."
Beijing: Hundreds of medics are being sent to help deal with a rising number of cases of the new coronavirus in China's central metropolis of Wuhan, health authorities said on Monday.

Medical workers in protective gear talk with a woman suspected of being ill with a coronavirus at a community health station in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. Credit:AP

Eighty people have died and 2744 people were confirmed infected across China as of Monday, marking a rise in the death toll of 24 since Sunday morning, according to the National Health Commission.

Beijing reportedly saw its first death from the coronavirus on Monday night. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on the Weibo messaging service that a 50-year-old man had died after returning from Wuhan.

China sent 959 medical teams from other provinces to Wuhan, in Hubei province, where the virus was first discovered in December.
A woman shot three Illinois State troopers, killing one and injuring two others before killing herself, in a cigar lounge in a Chicago suburb on Friday.

The suspect, who was identified as 51-year-old Lisa V. McMullan of Chicago, was sitting together with the three victims inside the Humidors media room watching a big television screen at the Humidor Cigar Lounge, which is located at 1600 Ogden Avenue in Lisle some 25 miles west of Chicago, at 10:12 p.m. on Friday.

McMullan then suddenly stood up without apparent provocation and fatally shot retired trooper Gregory Rieves, 51, who was sitting in front of her, in the back of the head. McMullan then fired at the other two victims, 48-year-old off-duty Trooper Kaiton Bullock, and 55-year-old retired trooper Lloyd Graham. She then turned the gun on herself.

Graham and Bullock were later transported to nearby hospitals and are said to be in serious but stable condition and are expected to recover. Rieves was also rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead. McMullan was found dead at the scene.

The Illinois State Police family have heavy hearts this morning, state police Director Brendan F. Kelly said in a statement, Associated Press reported. We are mourning the loss of a retired trooper, and praying for a full recovery of both our active and retired officers. Please keep all our officers and families in your prayers in the dark and painful moment.

The perpetrator and the victims were all acquainted with one another, though the exact relationship between the woman and the three men is unclear. Acting Lisle Police Chief Ron Wilke said, I believe they know each other, but do not believe there is any relation. However, McMullan and Rieves were more often seen at the Humidor together, Police said in an update on Facebook.

McMullan possessed an Illinois State-issued firearm owners identification and had no previous history with law enforcement, Lisle Police wrote in the update.

A total of seven bullets were fired, including the one McMullan used to take her own life, the update said.

Lisle Police Department also especially praised law enforcement officers who took great risk arriving on the scene.

The quick thinking, decisive action by Lisle PD Officers and all responding personnel, in this case, is to be commended. They acted without regard for their own safety, and entered a chaotic and dangerous scene, not knowing what they were going to encounter, it said on Facebook.

Rieves had served 22 years with Illinois State Police, ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly said at a press conference, according to ABC news.

The Humidor said in a statement on Facebook, We look at all our customers as family, and we ask you to pray for the victim and the speedy healing of the injured. The Lisle location will be closed Saturday, the shop said.
WASHINGTON -- The National Academy of Sciences is presenting its 2020 Public Welfare Medal to distinguished science and political communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson for her "non-partisan crusade to ensure the integrity of facts in public discourse and development of the science of scientific communication to promote public understanding of complex issues." The medal is the Academy's most prestigious award, established in 1914 and presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good.

Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and program director of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. She is a pioneer in the development of science communication as an academic field and has authored or co-authored 16 books and more than 100 book chapters and articles on science communication, the media, and politics and presidential campaigns. Jamieson is also the co-founder of the award-winning website FactCheck.org and its subsidiary, SciCheck, a resource for fact checking science-based claims.

"Throughout her long and exemplary career, Kathleen Hall Jamieson has worked tirelessly to bring science, evidence, and facts to the forefront of our public and political spheres," said Susan Wessler, home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences and chair of the selection committee for the award. "Her work is strengthening the foundation of an important cornerstone of our democracy -- an informed citizenry that is better able to discern fact from fiction."

"In an age when misinformation, spin, and confusion about whom to trust threatens our very democracy, Kathleen Hall Jamieson's nonpartisan, evidence-based approach to science communication and political analysis is an invaluable national treasure," said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt. "Her scholarship has been essential to elevating our public discourse and boosting the integrity of science communication. We are thrilled to present her with our highest honor."

The Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), which Jamieson founded in 1993, has become the premier communications and public policy center in the nation. Designed to build civic engagement and inform policy debates on a wide range of political, science, and health issues, one of APPC's focus areas is the "science of science communication" -- examining what is behind public controversy about climate change, vaccinations, and genetically modified organisms despite valid, compelling, and widely available scientific evidence. Jamieson also spearheaded the establishment of a five-year advanced study program that allows postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to collaborate with APPC on science communication issues of public importance.

In 2003, Jamieson co-founded FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that "aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." The website has received numerous honors and awards, including a 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, a 2009 Clarion Award for presidential election coverage, and 10 Webby Awards from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. In 2015, the site expanded to include SciCheck, which focuses exclusively on debunking false or misleading scientific claims. SciCheck articles have garnered more than 5 million page views and have been widely cited.

Books authored or co-authored by Jamieson have received 12 political science or communication book awards. Her most recent book, Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President, received the Association of American Publishers' 2019 R.R. Hawkins Award, its highest prize. Jamieson's other books include investigations of how money and media coverage influenced the 2008 U.S. presidential election and the effects of "the double bind" on women's lives and careers. She co-edited the Oxford Handbooks of the Science of Science Communication and of Political Communication, and published many papers and articles on science-related topics, including works on communicating the value and values of science and overcoming endpoint bias in climate change communication.

Jamieson has received numerous awards and honors, including three lifetime achievement awards. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the International Communication Association, and is a past president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Jamieson's prior academic appointments include serving as dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, the G.B. Dealey Regents Professor of Communication and chair of the speech communication department of the University of Texas, and as assistant, associate, and full professor at the University of Maryland. She earned her bachelor's degree in rhetoric and public address at Marquette University and her master's degree and doctorate in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

###

The Public Welfare Medal will be presented to Jamieson on April 26 during the Academy's 157th annual meeting. More information, including a list of past recipients, is available at http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/public-welfare-medal.html.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and -- with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine -- provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Contact:

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Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan city and said that it may be appropriate "consider operating a special flight to Wuhan/a nearby functional airport and airlift the Indian nationals stranded there and bring them back to India."



Stressing that the ground situation in Wuhan has further worsened, the Kerala Chief Minister in the letter, dated January 27, said, "And we have information from the relatives of students from Kerala studying at various Universities in Wuhan, that the situation there is grave. It is also reported that the Yichang area has also been affected."

"It may be appropriate to consider operating a special flight to Wuhan/ a nearby functional airport and airlift the Indian nationals stranded there and bring them back to India," the Chief Minister said.

Vijayan requested the Prime Minister to give necessary instruction, direct the Indian Embassy in China to act proactively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians stranded in the affected Chinese cities.

"On behalf of the State of Kerala, I would like to offer assistance of medical professionals from our side in case the Indians being evacuated from Wuhan are to be medically attended to. I request you to give necessary instruction direct the Indian Embassy in the People's Republic of China to act proactively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians including Keralites stranded in Wuhan and Yichang," he said.

Sharing the concern of the state on the situation which has arisen in Wuhan following the outbreak of the deadly virus, the Chief Minister said he has already written to External Affairs Minister on January 24 "requesting steps to have a comprehensive assessment of the emerging situation and to provide necessary assistance to the people of Indian origin most of whom are students of Wuhan University."

The virus, which has no effective vaccine, was reported on January 16 in Japan, the first case outside China and its territories.

Coronaviruses (nCoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, the infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. (ANI)


ST. LOUIS, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ENR) ("Energizer") today announced that Carlos Abrams-Rivera and Rebecca Frankiewicz were elected to Energizer's Board of Directors at the company's Annual Shareholders' Meeting. Mr. Abrams-Rivera was appointed to the Finance and Oversight and Nominating and Governance Committees of the Board, and Ms. Frankiewicz was appointed to the Audit and Human Capital Committees of the Board.

"We are delighted to welcome Carlos and Becky to our Board of Directors," said Pat Moore, Independent Chairman. "Each of our new independent directors has a strong record in building brands, driving customer engagement, and embracing emerging opportunities. We look forward to the benefits of their contributions to our Board, Company and shareholders for years to come."

Mr. Abrams-Rivera is the newly appointed U.S. Zone President of The Kraft Heinz Company, effective February 3, 2020. Presently, Mr. Abrams-Rivera is Executive Vice President of Campbell Soup Company, a multi-national food company where he serves as President of the Campbell Snacks division, which generated approximately $3.8 billion in revenue in fiscal 2019. He joined Campbell in 2015. Mr. Abrams-Rivera previously spent 21 years in leadership roles with the business that is today known as Mondelez International, which encompasses the former Kraft Foods global snack and food brands. His prior roles included President of Gum & Candy for Mondelez Latin America and President of Mondelez Mexico.

Ms. Frankiewicz is President of ManpowerGroup North America, a $3 billion revenue segment comprised of 4,000 employees and 11,000 clients. Before joining ManpowerGroup, Ms. Frankiewicz held a variety of roles for PepsiCo from 2006 to 2017, including leading Quaker Foods North America, as well as senior positions in innovation, strategy, marketing/sales and finance. Prior to PepsiCo, Ms. Frankiewicz served as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting and Andersen Consulting and began her career at Procter & Gamble Company.

About Energizer Holdings, Inc.:

Energizer Holdings, Inc. ("Energizer",NYSE: ENR), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of primary batteries, portable lights, and auto care appearance, performance, refrigerant, and fragrance products. Our portfolio of globally recognized brands include Energizer, Armor All, Eveready, Rayovac, STP, Varta, A/C Pro, Refresh Your Car!, California Scents, Driven, Bahama & Co., LEXOL, Eagle One, Nu Finish, Scratch Doctor, and Tuff Stuff. As a global branded consumer products company, Energizer's mission is to lead the charge to deliver value to our customers and consumers better than anyone else. Visit www.energizerholdings.com for more details.

SOURCE Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

www.energizerholdings.com


BRIDGEPORT  Four people were shot Monday as part of what appears to be a dispute between Stratford Avenue and Greene Homes residents.

Police were reviewing video taken by surveillance cameras after a car rolled up on another vehicle parked near the Golden Hill Street courthouse shortly after noon Monday and pumped at least 20 bullets into the sitting vehicle, striking four people. It then sped away.

Police Chief A.J. Perez, Capt. Brian Fitzgerald and Mayor Joseph Ganim tied the Golden Hill Street shooting to Sundays killing of Myreke Kenion, 18, and the wounding of a companion near the Greene Homes complex.

This was not something that was random, Ganim said during a news conference Monday. It appears this was targeted and related to something that happened over the weekend.

Three men, each considered a person of interest in the shooting, were arrested and charged with unrelated offenses after a motor vehicle pursuit, Fitzgerald said in a Monday night release.

As the investigation develops, all three remain persons of interest in the shooting incident, but at this time are not being charged with offenses connected to the shooting, said Fitzgerald in the release. We continue to examine the motive for today's shooting and have established strong leads in the case.

Acting schools Superintendent Michael Testani at Mondays Board of Education meeting called Kenions death another senseless act of violence. A moment of silence was held for Kenion, a former Central High student, during the meeting.

The nearby state police barracks has dispatched troopers to assist local police in patrolling the streets during the next several days, officials said.

Tonight, this citys going to be locked down, Perez said Monday, referring to planned heavy police presence in the primary hotspots of Stratford Avenue, the Greene Homes and the P.T. Barnum housing projects. We will not tolerate this sort of behavior.

Ganim said he will be seeking funding to increase security not only in the city but inside and around its courthouses where confrontations, fights and shootings have occurred in recent years.

The mayor also said he believes federal investigators, particularly the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will assist. ATF and the U.S. Attorneys office run Project Safe Neighborhood, which in the past included sit-downs with gang leaders and a seminar for newly released felons which offered social services and a warning of what would happen if they are caught with guns.

Following Mondays shooting, three of the victims stumbled into the Golden Hill Street courthouse where they were assisted by state marshals who immediately shut the building down. A fourth man fell near the car.

Fitzgerald said two of the four were undergoing surgery Monday afternoon at local hospitals and the other two were being treated for minor gunshot wounds. All are expected to survive.

None is speaking to police, Perez said.

The shooting last night near Greene Homes is a tragedy, said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., one of several officials to comment on Monday. Families in Bridgeport have the right, like all Americans, to be free of the scourge of gun violence. Increasing safety and security for the community in Greene Homes and across Bridgeport is a top priority, and Ill continue to work with the City of Bridgeport, state and federal officials to help however I can.

Tweeted U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Deeply concerned & saddened to hear about the shooting outside Bridgeports courthouse. My thoughts are with victims, their families, & first responders.

Aidee Nieves, chairwoman of the City Council, and Ernie Newton, a former state senator and current councilman, said they will be meeting with their fellow councilman, state legislative delegation, Ganim and Perez to formulate a plan to deal with continued violence involving warfare between groups from different parts of the city.

Its all about funding, Nieves said. Unfortunately, social programs get cut first.

Newton agreed.

Kids cant be acting like this is the Wild Wild West, Newton said. Theres no telling what could have happened. There are a lot of people standing on the courthouse steps every day.

No one near the courthouse was hit. The shootings appeared to be targeted on the parked car.

Nieves pointed out that a 2012 attempt to create a curfew after several young people were shot came up against a strong challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union and died.

The plan is to sit with the mayor this afternoon and the (police) chief, and even the housing authority executive director to create a viable plan to assure the safety of the residents that live in the area and the community, Nieves said Monday.

This could have been a lot worse, seeing as its an open, public area, Nieves said. Thankfully, there werent that many people on the steps going into the courthouse.

Nieves did not know what type of dispute set off the latest shootings.

Dave Simons, a bail bondsman, witnessed the courthouse shootings.

One car just pulled up to another car and started firing. It was crazy. It was insane, he said. The windows opened and it just went crazy.

In addition to these shootings, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head near Calhoun Avenue and James Street about 1 a.m Sunday and is expected to survive. That shooting is believed to be unrelated.

Almost exactly a year ago, there was another confrontation at Golden Hill Street court.

On Jan. 28, 2019, more than two dozen people  men and women  battled each other, quickly overwhelming the meager force of judicial marshals as horrified onlookers ran for cover. No one was seriously hurt in that incident.

Fitzgerald asked anyone with information about Mondays shooting to call Bridgeport police at 203-576-TIPS.
The annual address delivered by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on January 24 was devoted to internal issues of the country's development. The head of state declared 2020 the year of development of science, education and digital economy. Priorities in the international direction were also identified - Russia, the U.S., China, European and Asian countries, cooperation with neighbors and within the framework of integration associations.

Mirziyoyev summed up the results of the first reforms in the country and announced strategic plans for the future: developing production with the government reduced take, establishing a productive atmosphere for the further development of the investment sphere and favorable conditions for entrepreneurs, developing employment opportunities as a means of combating poverty, developing medical services and others.

The head of state noted that the inflow of foreign direct investment increased over the past year to $4.2 billion, which is $3.1 billion more than in 2018. The share of investments in GDP reached 37%. "For the first time, our country received an international credit rating and successfully placed $1 billion worth of bonds on the global financial market," Mirziyoyev noted. He emphasized that Uzbekistans position in the credit risk rating of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has improved for the first time in 10 years. According to experts, this will encourage foreign investors to invest in new development projects of Uzbekistan.

The leader of Uzbekistan emphasized the importance of supporting small and medium enterprises - the engines of the country's economic growth: "As a result of reforms carried out last year, 93 thousand new business entities were created, which is almost 2 times more than in 2018." According to him, measures are being developed to improve the country's position in the Doing Business ranking. The president expects Uzbekistan to take 50th place in the World Bank's Doing Business ranking. It can happen on the basis of the plans to commission new 206 large facilities that will be implemented as part of an investment partnership. As noted in the address, the gradual payment of taxes will be introduced for the first time in the tax sphere.

Mirziyoyev made a special emphasis on the problem of corruption. "Until all sectors of the population and the best specialists are involved in the fight against corruption, until our whole society is, figuratively speaking, vaccinated with a 'vaccine of honesty', we cannot achieve our goals. From eliminating the consequences of corruption, we must proceed to early warning," the head of state noted and suggested creating an anti-corruption agency.



"The presidents idea of establishing an anti-corruption body is important for economic and social growth, strengthening the country's positive image," Honorary Consul of Uzbekistan in Campania and Molise (Italy) Vittorio Giorgi said.

Attention was also paid to social reforms to radically improve the people's life, which have been carried out on the basis of the 'Human interests come first' principle over the past three years. For example, Mirziyoyev proposes to reduce poverty not by issuing social benefits, but by stimulating entrepreneurial activity, mobilizing the population's abilities and potential and creating jobs. "The population and entrepreneurs will be given wide access to microfinance services and financial resources, to public procurement," the Uzbek leader suggested. Those who do not have entrepreneurial ability will be offered professional retraining. The government will allocate $700 million for these purposes.

"Over the past three years, Uzbekistan has undergone a large-scale transformation in all spheres of life, both political and economic. But the most important thing was mentioned by the president: "The fear has gone." The deputies were afraid to say anything, therefore all proposed laws were adopted unanimously, without discussion. Nut now they can express their opinions, criticize certain actions of the government. In a short time, from a closed country, Uzbekistan has turned into one of the advanced states in the post-Soviet space, which was recently reported by The Economist, a British magazine. Its positions in many rankings are growing at a fast pace, doctor of economic sciences, professor and corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Market Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences Nabi Ziyadullayev told Vestnik Kavkaza.

Another important point that was voiced in the address concerns citizenship, Nabi Zayadullaev said. Those who have been living in Uzbekistan since 1995 will automatically receive citizenship. There are 50 thousand such people in the republic. "I think this position should be extended to compatriots from Uzbekistan living abroad - in Russia, the U.S., Germany, Turkey. Since compatriots, wherever they are, think about the republic, work for the republic and help promote its authority," the expert noted.

Education is one of the address' main directions. "2020 was declared the year of science, education, the digital economy. Science didn't receive any attention for 20 years. The Academy of Sciences in Uzbekistan was dying. Now it has not only revived, but also increased support from the state, the communication with world science has renewed. Now they plan to raise the level of cooperation with foreign universities. Entering the international arena is very important. Over the past year, dozens of branches of foreign universities, including Russian ones, have been opened in Uzbekistan. Even MGIMO has its branch in Tashkent," Nabi Ziyadullaev stressed. Uzbekistan is among the CIS countries, which put forward digitalization, the transition to information technology as one of the main tasks.

The place of Uzbekistan in the international arena was also defined in the address. Close relations with neighbors will continue, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said. "We should further strengthen friendship, good neighborliness and strategic partnership with the countries of Central Asia in all areas," the head of Uzbekistan emphasized.

Political, trade, economic, investment, transport, communication and cultural ties with Russia, China, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the EU and Asia, with all authoritative international organizations will develop. "The chairmanship of Uzbekistan in the CIS in 2020 is of historical importance for us. We will use every opportunity to expand economic cooperation in the Commonwealth, increase the effectiveness of the decisions adopted by the organization and further strengthen humanitarian ties between the participating countries," the president promised. "Already in the next decade, Uzbekistan will become the second country in the CIS in terms of population. As of now, 33 million people live in the country. At a time when there is a decline everywhere, even Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that Russia will face a demographic pitfall, a decrease in the birth rate, Uzbekistan is growing. Its role is growing both in Central Asia and within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization," Ziyadullaev believes.

As for the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Mirziyoyev noted that the decision to join the association will be made taking into account national interests after a thorough study of this issue by experts and specialists, as well as after receiving the opinion of the Legislative Chamber deputies.

According to the Russian scientist, the issue of Uzbekistans entry into the EEU is being carefully studied. There are pros and cons. Tashkent did not like the statement of Russia's Valentina Matvienko on Uzbekistan's entry into the EEU, as about the resolved issue. "The phased interaction of Uzbekistan with the EEU would be right. First, they should discuss strengthening bilateral ties, removing customs barriers and other problems. The Republic is watching how things are in the EEU. There are issues between Russia and Belarus. Uzbekistan should not rush to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, when the republic joined the Eurasian organization, but then quit. This issue requires in-depth examination, and I have no doubt that the leadership of the republic will make the right decision. In any case, it will be in the interests of the people of Uzbekistan," Nabi Ziyadullaev said.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The My Step faction of the Yerevan City Council urged its member Henrik Hartenyan to step down, faction head Suren Eyramjyan told reporters after the urgent session of the faction convened today.

During todays discussion the faction members reaffirmed that it is against our value system and principles. Remained committed to these principles we urged Mr. Hartenyan to refuse from his mandate, and he agreed, the faction head said.

Earlier today the My Step faction of the Yerevan City Council convened an urgent session regarding its member Henrik Hartenyans recent post of the photo of niece of Constitutional Court President Hrayr Tovmasyan on his social account.

On January 26 My Step faction member of the Yerevan City Council Henrik Hartenyan posted the photo of Sara Tovmasyan user on his Facebook story and wrote that this page belongs to the daughter of CC President Hrayr Tovmasyan.

Following this the My Step faction of the City Council issued a statement strongly condemning any manifestation of hate speech and apologizing for the incident.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

The global agriculture drone market is expected to reach USD 3,770.0 million by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The increasing technological advancements in equipment and for enhancing the quality of the farming techniques have led to the increased implementation of agriculture drones in the market.

Increasing automation in the agriculture process, owing to the labor crisis, such as lack of skilled farmers, aging farmers, is also expected to positively impact the market growth. A favorable shift in the regulatory policy is also expected to allow start-ups to operate in small and large farming operations and aid in disease & water management.

Innovations in the GPS mapping field coupled with the advancements in precision agriculture are expected to propel the industry growth over the forecast period. Drones have the potential to implement better plantation with crop rotation strategies and give crucial inputs related to the daily progress of crops which is further contributing to the growth.

The companies operating in the industry are designing and manufacturing systems that are collecting the data and are incorporating them into business models, which is further anticipated to enhance the industry growth. The data gathered from drones help the farmers to improve yields; supply water, fertilizer, or chemical when needed, and are also able to map their fields, check for signs of disease, monitor crop health, and save time in the process.

The scarcity of trained pilots for operating the drones may impact the market growth, although the market is expecting to overcome the scarcity, gradually, with the increasing applications of the drone.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

The fixed wing agriculture drone is expected to remain as a key revenue generating segment over the forecast period. The hybrid agriculture drones are anticipated to witness enormous growth in the next 8 years, owing to their ability to carry heavy weights and hover over fields.

The crop scouting application is anticipated to drive the market growth over the forecast period, with the increasing application of crop spraying, which will further increase the yields and reduce the wastage of pesticides & fertilizers and crops.

The North America agriculture drones market is expected to remain the key revenue generating region with a prevalent share of the industry. The increasing adoption of the drones, in various applications including spraying, seeding, and livestock farming, has led to the enormous market share.

The Asia Pacific agriculture drone market is anticipated to witness a significant growth over the forecast period, owing to the increasing investments in R&D in the region.

The key players in the agriculture drone market include DJI Technology, Trimble Navigation Ltd., PrecisionHawk, Parrot SA, and 3D Robotics

Grand View Research has segmented the agriculture drone market based on product type, application, and region:

Product Outlook (Transaction Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2024)

Fixed wing

Rotary blade

Hybrid

Application Outlook (Transaction Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2024)

Field mapping

Variable rate application

Crop scouting

Others

Regional Outlook (Transaction Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2024)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

MEA

Access full research report on global agriculture drone market:

www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/agriculture-drones-market
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Trivantis, the creator of Lectora for eLearning authoring, and CenarioVR for immersive learning, was honored with its fifth award for its software products in 2019. Selected by the readers of Training magazine, a leading trade publication for the Learning and Development (L&D) industry, this crowd-sourced award demonstrates that Trivantis has maintained its leadership position in the course authoring tool category throughout its 20-year company history.

Trivantis named a winner of Training Magazine Network Choice Awards for Authoring

"We would like to thank our loyal base of clients for choosing us. Many have been with us for over ten years and it's an honor to serve them," said Joe Wieloch, Chief Architect of Lectora at Trivantis.

More than 3,300 votes were cast by the Training Magazine Network (TMN) 147,000+ member community across five different categories, which included Authoring Tools, Custom Content/Program Development, Gamification, Learning Portal/Learning Management System (LMS), and Measurement/Testing/Assessment. Because the winners were selected by thousands of industry professionals, this particular type of recognition stands out from other industry award programs.

"We like to think of the Training Magazine Network Choice Awards as the 'Gold Standard of Recognition in the Training Profession,'" said Training magazine Publisher Lori Gardner. "The winners have dedicated a great deal of time and effort to developing innovative products and solutions that enable Training professionals to deliver best-in-class learning and development..."

"We take great pride in having developed a social community that adds hundreds--even thousands--of new members every month," says TMN's VP of Webinars, Gary Van Antwerp. "It was clear by their response...that the corporate training and learning community is truly passionate about these tools and products that help them to accomplish their goals."

Trivantis, which is known for creating Lectora, the industry's first eLearning authoring tool, offers several versions of this original flagship product line. Its premium desktop version, Lectora Inspire, has been around since 2004, but Trivantis rolled out new plan options in May of 2019 for its cloud-based product, Lectora Online.

"Every eLearning developer should have an opportunity to work with high-quality authoring tools - regardless of budget or team size. From free plans to enterprise plans with built-in digital asset management, we have a Lectora plan designed for every kind of training and development professional," said Laura Silver, COO of Trivantis.

In addition to Lectora, its traditional course authoring product line, Trivantis offers CenarioVR, its VR training tool for creating courses in virtual reality. Gaining traction since its introduction in 2018, clients gravitate towards the product due to its simplicity.

"Some of the largest global enterprises are benefiting from CenarioVR, and it's rewarding to see them succeed," said John Blackmon, CEO of Trivantis. "When they start using the product, they are amazed at how simple it is."

As a recipient of the Training Magazine Network Choice Awards, Trivantis will be featured editorially in the January/February issue of Training magazine, as well as online at www.TrainingMag.com. Trivantis will also be demonstrating its award-winning authoring solutions, Lectora and CenarioVR, in the Expo Hall at the Training 2020 Conference & Expo, Feb 24-26, at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, FL. To set up a product demonstration prior to the conference, or to interview the executive team, please contact Christie Calahan, Director of Marketing, at [email protected].

About Trivantis

Trivantis is the award-winning eLearning software company that has been driving innovation for twenty years. Its widely used products include Lectora for authoring, CenarioVR for immersive learning, ReviewLink for collaboration, and CourseMill for learning management. As the industry leader of learning accessibility, Trivantis serves a broad global client base including large enterprises, SMBs, government agencies, and educational institutions.

About Training and Training Magazine Network (TMN)

Training magazine is the leading business publication for L&D and HR professionals. It has been the ultimate resource for innovative learning and development in print, in person, and online for 50 plus years. Established in 2008, TMN is Training's 147,000-member community which offers 24/7 access to free training tools, webinars, and other resources.

Media Contact

Christie Calahan | Director of Marketing

Trivantis

Office: (954) 372-3544

Mobile: (646) 436-8990

[email protected] | www.trivantis.com

SOURCE Trivantis

Related Links

http://www.trivantis.com


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Cu Lao Cham, a group of islets located 15 kilometers off Hoi An City in central Vietnam, is in the midst of a tourism boom, thanks in part to the hard work of a 62-year-old Italian national passionate about the rich local marine life.

Lodovico Ruggeri, an Italian who goes simply by Lodo, is changing tourism on Cu Lao Cham, thanks to the diving service his company offers that has helped introduce the islets to adventure seekers from all over the world and shaped the archipelagos current-day popularity.

A passion for the sea

In addition to serving as the director of Hai Ban Diving Company, Lodo is one of the many non-Vietnamese who have chosen to make Hoi An their new home.

Back in Italy, Lodo and his family ran a small textile factory, but after the birth of his son, he decided to leave the factory with his wife and travel the world.

In 2002, he landed on Cu Lao Cham and fell in love with its clear waters and white, sandy beaches.

[I] love the sea. In every dream, I see myself swimming in the ocean, he said, adding that while the seas in Malaysia are also nice, he does not like living there because he does not "feel safe."

That was when he decided to officially bid his family farewell and settled permanently in Hoi An, where he now resides in a seafront house on the citys Cua Dai Beach.

At the end of 2002, the Peoples Committee in Hoi An City dropped piles of paperwork off at Lodos house in response to his request to set up a diving company on Cu Lao Cham.

With help from a domestic business, he eventually completed the paperwork and sparked the tourism boom on the archipelago.

Over the course of his stay in Vietnam, Lodo has become a fluent Vietnamese speaker, even capable of mimicking the local Quang accent, a very different dialect of Vietnamese from what is commonly heard in other parts of the country.

He also has two children, Hai and Thien, from a second marriage.

I am a simple man. I found myself here, he said.

Many of my friends speak ill of this country, but I dont know why they think so. Only when you truly know and love a place can you really understand it.

Besides diving services, Lodo has established a diving center to provide training for potential dive instructors where he offers free tuition for those who are highly skilled and ready to work.

People go scuba-diving off Cu Lao Cham islands in central Vietnam. Photo: B.D. / Tuoi Tre

Exploring Cu Lao Chams seabeds

Visitors who dive with Lodos company have the option of taking wooden boats out to the archipelagos pearl-like islands, where they can dive into the waters and admire the swarming marine life.

According to Lodo, after the first two years of his partnership with a local business, there was a shift in laws which allowed him to set up his own, independent company.

He then began recruiting staff, purchasing a fleet of boats, and expanding his business throughout the entirety of Cu Lao Cham.

However, sustaining tourist activities is still a challenge due to the strict regulations imposed by the islands authorities.

In 2009, Cu Lao Cham officially became a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve, a major factor in the influx of tourists visiting the island.

Currently, the islands welcome 400,000 visitors per year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
New Delhi:

A terrorist was killed in encounter with security forces in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. The encounter took place after terrorists opened fire on a patrol team in Bijbehara, injuring a soldier. The jawan suffered injuries after he was hit by a bullet in the Arwani area, officials said.

Security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the assailants. As the searches were going on, security forces personnel were fired upon, triggering retaliation, the officials said. In the ensuing gunfight, one unidentified terrorits was killed.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The officials collected classified data in favor of the Russian Federation

Open source

The Bulgarian government ousted two Russian diplomats suspected of espionage. A worker of the Russian embassy in Sofia and the employee of the trade office left the territory of the country, DW reported.

Prior to that, Bulgarian prosecutor's office reported that two Russian diplomats collected classified data in favor of the Russian Federation. One of them appeared to the first secretary in the consulate division of the Russian embassy in Sofia, the other one was a worker of Russia's trade mission.

On January 24, Bulgarian foreign ministry summoned the ambassador. He received the notes of non grata status.

The Russian side called Sofia's decision "openly hostile and provocative", which is "not in line with the constructive and traditionally mutually respective nature of Russian-Bulgarian relations".

A similar case took place in Slovakia, when a Russian diplomat was sent off in December 2018 due to suspicion with espionage.

In November 2019, Russia found itself in the epicenter of the espionage scandal in Serbia.
China Resources Medical Holdings Company Limited (HKG:1515), which is in the healthcare business, and is based in China, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the SEHK over the last few months, increasing to HK$4.84 at one point, and dropping to the lows of HK$4.28. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether China Resources Medical Holdings's current trading price of HK$4.70 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at China Resources Medical Holdingss outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

Check out our latest analysis for China Resources Medical Holdings

Is China Resources Medical Holdings still cheap?

According to my relative valuation model, the stock seems to be currently fairly priced. Ive used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because theres not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stocks ratio of 12.77x is currently trading slightly below its industry peers ratio of 16.83x, which means if you buy China Resources Medical Holdings today, youd be paying a reasonable price for it. And if you believe China Resources Medical Holdings should be trading in this range, then there isnt much room for the share price grow beyond where its currently trading. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since China Resources Medical Holdingss share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.

What kind of growth will China Resources Medical Holdings generate?

SEHK:1515 Past and Future Earnings, January 27th 2020

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. China Resources Medical Holdingss earnings growth are expected to be in the teens in the upcoming years, indicating a solid future ahead. This should lead to robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value.

Story continues

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? 1515s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at 1515? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below its fair value?

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on 1515, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for 1515, which means its worth further examining other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on China Resources Medical Holdings. You can find everything you need to know about China Resources Medical Holdings in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in China Resources Medical Holdings, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The 2020 Franklin Institute Laureates. (Top row, left to right) Barbara H. Partee, Henry C. Kapteyn, Margaret M. Murnane, Michele Parrinello, Roberto Car. (Bottom row, left to right) Monica G. Turner, C. Daniel Mote, Kunihiko Fukushima, Arthur D. Levinson, Jeremy Nathans. Read more

When Yellowstone National Park was ravaged by fire in 1988, Monica Turner saw its forests start to recover within a year. The intense heat had caused lodgepole pine cones to open and release their seeds, a natural process that had been occurring every century or two for the last 10,000 years.

What has happened since then, she fears, is unnatural.

In 2016, much of the same area burned again  before many of the new trees had grown cones to keep the cycle going.

Turners work, projecting what will happen to forests in a hotter, drier climate, has earned her one of the Franklin Institutes annual science awards, the museum announced Monday. The others are pioneers in such fields as mechanical engineering, genetics, chemistry, and computer science, and will be honored at a black-tie ceremony April 30. Nine scientists in all are sharing seven awards, and a 10th honoree, biotech-industry titan and Apple Inc. chairman Arthur D. Levinson, is getting an award for business leadership.

Honorees also will participate in lectures and other events, including an April 28 Laureates Lab, during which they field questions from any museum-goers who happen by.

This is where you really see how terrific these folks are, said Donald E. Morel Jr., chair of the institutes board. Theyre teachers.

Here are the winners:

Kunihiko Fukushima, Bower Award in Science

Fukushima has been making waves in artificial intelligence and machine learning since the 1960s, developing theoretical models of how the brain acquires and processes information.

He is best known for one he devised in 1979, the neocognitron  a deep neural network that describes how a computer can learn to recognize visual patterns. A longtime university professor in Japan, he now is a senior research scientist at Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute in Fukuoka.

Arthur D. Levinson, Bower Award for Business Leadership

As CEO, Levinson steered Genentech through the testing and 1998 approval of the breast-cancer drug Herceptin, the first medicine genetically targeted" to attack a tumor..

Before moving to the executive suite, Levinson was a Ph.D. scientist at Genentech in the 1980s.

In addition to holding the chairmanship at Apple, a post he assumed in 2011, Levinson is chief executive officer of Calico LLC, a Bay Area biotech firm conducting advanced research on the biology of aging. Calico, founded in 2013, is funded by Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google.

Roberto Car and Michele Parrinello, chemistry

Car, a theoretical physicist at Princeton, and Parrinello, a computational chemist at the Swiss university ETH Zurich, jointly developed a technique in the 1980s for predicting the movement of atoms and electrons.

Called the Car-Parrinello method, it has been described as a virtual microscope.

Barbara H. Partee, computer and cognitive science

Partee, a Swarthmore College graduate and professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is considered the founder of a sub-field of linguistics called formal semantics, teasing apart the logic and structure that underlies human communication.

Among her many contributions is the Partee puzzle"  the fact that the two statements The temperature is rising and The temperature is ninety do not together mean Ninety is rising.

Monica G. Turner, earth and environmental science

A professor of ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Turner cautions against attributing any one event to human-induced climate change.

But forest fires are projected to become more common in a hotter, drier world. The fires in Australia are consistent with this pattern, as were the longer-than-usual fire seasons in California in 2017 and 2018, she said.

Still unclear is how forests will respond. In Yellowstone, the conventional wisdom was that young trees would not burn. Yet in 2016, they did, along with much of the deadwood on the forest floor.

Jeremy Nathans, life science

Nathans is famed for identifying the genes that enable humans to perceive color, work that began in the late 1970s when he was at Stanford University.

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, said Nathans, a longtime professor at Johns Hopkins University.

In order to search retina cells for DNA sequences that might be involved in recognizing color, he had to painstakingly assemble genetic probes," one DNA base-pair at a time  a multiday process that today would take a robot a few hours.

C. Daniel Mote, mechanical engineering

Mote, a professor and former president of the University of Maryland in College Park, is an expert in behind-the-scenes technologies that drive much of modern life: spinning disks, tapes, cables, and other axially moving materials." Among his innovations was improving the stability of rotating saw blades, resulting in reduced wood waste.

He also was a pioneer in measuring the forces that downhill skiers experience on their lower legs and knees, leading to the eventual development of safer bindings.

Henry C. Kapteyn and Margaret M. Murnane, physics

Kapteyn and Murnane, professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder, are research partners as well as husband and wife. They are known for developing ultra-fast, high-intensity X-ray lasers that enable scientists to capture the details of chemical reactions in minute detail.

Their work has applications in such diverse fields as biology and astronomy, leading Morel to remark on how distinctions among the sciences can be artificial.

The laser technologies invented by the physicists get used by the chemists to study how reactions happen, he said. The boundaries between traditional disciplines have become so blurred.
The Met Office has issued an ice warning for Northern Ireland.

The Met Office has issued an ice weather warning for Northern Ireland.

Showers of rain, hail and sleet are likely on Monday night and Tuesday morning, leading to a risk of ice on some surfaces as temperatures fall below freezing.

Some snow is also possible, but mostly restricted to high ground above 200 metres where a few centimetres may settle.

The Met Office has issued a warning to come into effect from 7pm on Monday until 10am.

Forecasters are warning of potential slippery surfaces and travel disruption.

Send us your winter weather pictures to digital.editorial@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Communist Party of India (CPI) secretary D Raja on Monday slammed the Centre for allowing the Members of European Parliament to visit Kashmir.

"The Indian government organised the visit of some EU parliamentarians to Kashmir ... Serious observations have been made in the resolution about CAA, which has been moved in the European Parliament. The Indian government should take it seriously," Raja told ANI.

"The people from all walks of life are agitating. They have the perception that the Citizenship Amendment Act is broadly against all poor people, downtrodden, and marginalised sections. The government should consider this. It is time that the government makes its position clear on the demand to repeal the Act," Raja added.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has triggered a set of protests across the country, will be taken up for debate in the European Parliament next week. It will also vote on a draft resolution, which states the law will "create the largest statelessness crisis in the world.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mumbai, Jan 27 : Fifteen disabled Indian Army soldiers were felicitated by the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha to mark the 71st R-Day celebrations, an official said here on Monday.

As part of the Shanmukhananda's annual tradition, this year each soldier disabled in action was honoured with a cheque of Rs 1 lakh each, and mementos at the hands of Lt. Gen. S.K. Prashar, GOC-in-C, Maharashtra, Gujarat & Goa.

The Sabha President V. Shankar said that till date, the organization has honoured 43 soldiers who have been incapacitated while defending the nation.

While the Sabha honours the families of martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the cause of the nation every year on August 15, Independence Day, it has also made a contribution of Rs 10 lakh each to the Paraplegic Unit of the Indian Army and the Artificial Limb Centre, both in Pune, said Shankar.

Lt. Gen. Prashar said that January 26 and August 15 remind us all that "we are the citizens of this country and these national days bring us together in the celebrations".

"Such functions to honour the army personnel bring confidence in the minds of other soldiers that the 'Society is with Us' in times of need. Although no amount of money or material can actually help wounded warriors or soldiers' widows, the emotional support of the society and the feelings for them truly helps heal their wounds," Lt. Gen. Prashar said.

Sabha spokesperson K.A. Viswanathan said the Sabha has forged "a unique partnership with the armed forces, and it is the first time that a civil society engaged in furthering fine arts joins hands with the armed forces to celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day, and work for the welfare of the armed forces personnel and their families".
A summer stroll in 2018 along San Antonios famed River Walk turned horrific for a Bexar County woman and her toddler.

Cassandra DeLa Cruz was pushing her two-year-old son Jacob Francisco in a stroller on the evening of Aug. 18, 2018, when he was struck in the head by a glass ketchup bottle that allegedly fell from a fifth-floor balcony of the Omni La Mansion Del Rio.

Jacob allegedly suffered serious injuries to his neck, brain and other parts of his body.

DeLa Cruz now is suing the hotel, its Dallas-based parent company Omni Hotels & Resorts and owner TRT Holdings of Irving for more than $1 million in damages.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man sues H-E-B after cashier allegedly whacked him with a cucumber

Attorney Simon Fraser of the Law Offices of Thomas J. Henry, which filed the lawsuit earlier this month in state District Court in San Antonio, said through an assistant that he had no comment. DeLa Cruz couldnt be located for comment.

Calls and emails to Omni Hotels & Resorts were not returned.

The complaint also names Eric McCoy of Cleburne, accusing him of causing the incident by failing to keep the ketchup bottle from falling. He couldnt be located for comment.

The lawsuit doesnt detail the extent of Jacobs injuries, saying only that he has received medical treatment since the incident.

The injuries may be permanent in nature, the suit says. The injuries have had an effect on (Jacobs) health and well-being. It adds that he may continue to suffer into the future, physical pain and mental anguish.

San Antonio Police Department officers wrote a report on the incident, but its not public because a minor is involved.

Nevertheless, SAPD released some preliminary information that contained no names.

A police officer was dispatched to the hospital where the child was receiving treatment. The mother told the officer that after her son was hit in the head, she looked up and observed a female duck her head down from the hotels fifth or sixth floor. Another person witnessed the same thing, she said.

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They then entered the hotel lobby to report the incident. The other witness took two hotel managers outside to show them the hotel-room balcony where the bottle had fallen from.

The officer then interviewed two people in the hotel room. According to one of them, they had ordered burgers that were delivered on a cart.

The pair decided to eat the burgers on the balcony. The first person said he didnt know who accidentally bumped the cart and knocked off the 2.25-ounce Heinz ketchup bottle, but thinks it was probably him.

The man said he tried to grab the the bottle before it rolled off the balcony. The man added he immediately got on an elevator to go down to see if anyone got hurt, but the elevator stopped at the third floor.

The police officer ultimately told the mother that the matter was an accident and would not be filed as a criminal offense.

A crime scene investigator arrived and took custody of the broken ketchup bottle and placed it in the property room, the preliminary information from SAPD concluded.

The lawsuit alleges the hotel and related companies were in charge of keeping pedestrians passing by their establishment safe from objects falling from their hotel balconies.

Vincent R. Johnson, interim dean at St. Marys University School of Law, said the hotel had a duty to exercise reasonable care.

Johnson cited three items in determining into whether the hotel acted reasonably: whether there were prior similar incidents; whether it exercised the same type of precautions that hotels ordinarily exercise; and whether the hotel was acting in violation of any laws, such as those dealing with the construction of balcony railings.

Sometimes things are just  an unfortunate accident, Johnson said. So its not necessarily the case that the hotel guest or the hotel acted unreasonably.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD
When businesses in the Huntsville area decided to do something to help improve schools, they started down a path that few similar organizations across the country have taken.

They chose to invest in teacher development in their tri-school district area, raising enough money to pay for 100 teachers, at $2,000 each, to earn national board certification. Thats a research-based credential that demonstrates a teacher meets the highest standards in improving student learning.

So far the Committee of 100, an advocacy group representing several businesses in Huntsville, has raised $215,000over their original $200,000 goal set last summerthrough the fundraising arm of the organization, the Creative Cities Fund.

"What we're trying to do," said John Allen, Executive Director of the Committee of 100, "is generationally change student achievement by investing in professional development in a teacher that teaches generation after generation of students in a classroom."

Allen said the Committee was looking for a way to invest money beyond the typical "pizzas, pencils, and paper" gift donated to schools.

Today, the #HSVC100 had the privilege to host National Board Certified Teachers from Huntsville, Madison, and Madison... Posted by Huntsville Committee of 100 on Tuesday, July 23, 2019

National board certification is a great investment, Allen said, and national research shows students taught by teachers with national board certification learn more during the course of the school year than students taught by non-board certified teachers.

Michelle Accardi, the policy and partnerships director for National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, called the Huntsville group "trailblazers" for taking the lead to provide funding.

"It's groundbreaking in that it came through the business community into the school system rather than the other way around," Accardi said. "It's a model for the country."

Board certification is a stamp of approval similar to what lawyers and doctors achieve and is considered the gold standard for the teaching profession. Getting certified through NBPTS is a rigorous process and an additional certification on top of the one to become a teacher in Alabama.

Research has shown that students taught by nationally board certified teachers learn the equivalent of an additional two months of instruction in math and one month in English language arts.

Teachers say (the process) is transformative in their ability to help all students, Elizabeth Fleming told AL.com. Fleming is the director of The Schools Foundation, which supports Huntsville City Schools, Madison City Schools and Madison County schools.

The first grants from the Committee's proceeds have yet to be awarded, but Fleming's organization will administer the grants. Each school district is using their own application process to determine which teachers will receive the support.

The national board certification process can take from one to five years, and teachers spend about 100 hours completing each of the required four modules. At the end of the process, a review team either awards the certification or requests the teacher re-work one or more of the modules for reconsideration.

Alabama added 244 new board certified teachers in December, the fourth-highest number in the country, bringing the total number of Alabama teachers who have earned board certification to nearly 3,000. About half of those are still teaching in Alabama's classrooms, Accardi said, while some moved into administrative positions and others have likely retired or moved out of state.

Those board-certified teachers are not spread evenly across the state, though, and newly certified teachers are highly recruited. Piedmont City Schools, a small system in east Alabama, recently earned the distinction of being one of only three school districts in the country where more than 40% of their teaching force is board certified.

During the 2018-19 school year, of 1,700 teachers in Huntsville, 1,100 in Madison County and 600 in Madison, only 114, or around 3%, have earned National Board Certification.

Beyond the in-classroom benefits a board certified teachers brings to students, they have been shown to be four times more likely to stay put, Accardi said, particularly in high-needs schools. Thats good news given the growing teacher shortage across Alabama and the nation.

Related: More pay, better retirement part of pitch to solve Alabama teacher shortage

While Alabama lawmakers have provided a $5,000 yearly bonus for teachers who are nationally board certified in recent years, that amount isn't guaranteed from year to year. Two years ago, lawmakers sweetened the deal, providing an additional $5,000 bonus for board-certified teachers in some subject areas, like math and science, who teach in high-needs schools.

While the bonus is an incentive, it isn't always the reason teachers choose to start the process.

Sarah Baker teaches middle school art in the city schools in Madison. "I was feeling like I was ready for more personal growth as a teacher," Baker, who has been teaching since 2008, said. "You do a lot of reflection on what you do and how you do it," Baker said. "It is a really good experience."

Baker said the cost to earn certification was a barrier, and she is grateful for the partial grant she received. She has completed two of the four components and plans to complete the final two by the time the school year ends.

Monica Hickman teaches eighth-grade English in Madison County and also received a grant to seek certification. Shes in her 14th year of teaching and is in her second year of seeking national board certification, hoping to complete the final three components by the end of the school year, like Baker.

I wish I would have done this sooner, Hickman said. "I think it would have made me more self-aware of just my teaching practice."

Baker and Hickman said that what the Committee of 100 is doing will help their communities.

"With better teachers, you'll have more equipped students," Baker said. "They'll be more prepared for the jobs these businesses will need to fill."

Accardi hopes more businesses will contact her about investing in their communities like the Committee of 100 is doing. I know groups of teachers right now across Alabama that are ready to start the (board certification) process, she said. They just need the financial jump start.

Related: How to find and read your schools report card

For all of Alabamas Education news, bookmark this link: https://www.al.com/education/
Chennai Police have arrested eight members of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam in connection with the early-morning attack that was attempted at Thuglak Magazine Editor, Chartered Accountant Gurumurthys Mylapore residence. According to the Police, around nine members had approached the residence of Gurumurthy on two-wheelers, with the alleged intention of hurling a petrol bomb.

The attackers had arrived in front of Gurumurthys residence at around 3am on Sunday, but were forced to flee after hurling two bottles into the premises, as a guard dog had alerted the cops guarding the residence, following which the nine bike-borne assailants fled on five bikes. AN on-duty police personnel had also chased the attackers as they fled from the scene, but it went in vain.

On Monday morning, Gurumurthy had tweeted about the attempted attack, Lessons for the attackers. One, They must know I have been facing threats for 30 years. Theirs is not new to me. Two, they need better training and more courage. The current story goes back to the arrest of Police Fakruddin in 2013 who confessed he had been caught before he could shoot me. He had done recce at home and office. The police then insisted I must have a gunman with me and advised us to install CCTV cameras at home and office

He also stated that there was a break-in attempt at his residence in March 2014, when masked assailants tried to break their house doors, while trying to gain entry into the residence in the wee hours.

As our lifestyle doesn't allow rearing a dog, one of my long-standing friends started sending a dog with its guard everyday between 10pm and 5am. This has been happening for 5 years now. It is that dog that alerted the security and made the miscreants attack impossible Gurumurthy tweeted about the thwarted incident.

While attack attempts targeted at Gurumurthy arent new, Sundays incident should be seen in the light of Thuglaks 50th Anniversary event where Rajinikanth had spoken on social reformed Periyar.

Periyar's influence looms large over Tamil Nadu's politics as both dominant parties the DMK and AIADMK have followed the path of the Dravidian leader.

Rajini had lauded the magazine's founder late Cho Ramaswamy for having carried a cover story of a 1971 rally in Salem, that was led by Periyar himself. Rajini stated that Thuglak was the only magazine to carry the story on the incident where pictures of Lord Ram and Sita were displayed in the nude and garlanded with slippers while being paraded.

He said the Tamil magazine was the only one to cover this event, adding that the founder Cho Ramaswamy had condemned this. This brought a bad name to the ruling DMK who did not want the magazine to be circulated, Rajinikanth said. The issue was seized by the government but Cho reprinted it and the magazine was sold in black. What was sold for Rs 10, was then sold for Rs 50 and Rs 60.

Even after threats of protests and police complaints from the fringe groups, Rajinikanth had politely stated that he would not apologize for his comments as he had spoken based on news articles that he came across, regarding the 1971 incident.

Rajini's comments did not go well with major political leaders of the state. DMK President MK Stalin said that the actor has to think and speak. "Rajinikanth is not a politician, he is an actor. Please think and speak about Periyar. I appeal to you. Periyar lived for 95 years, working for the Tamil race".

AIADMK Co-coordinator and Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said that he wouldn't be where he is, if not for Periyar. Another AIADMK leader to come out against Rajini's statement was Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar, who condemned the actor's statement. Jayakumar called it an unwanted issue, adding that nothing had happened the way Rajini had described it."Why is Rajini diverting people by speaking something that didn't happen? This issue is from around 50 years ago, and one shouldn't play cheap politics over it. There are so many issues to be talked about and we shouldn't remain in the past."

When asked about BJP leaders expressing support for Rajini's statement, while the leaders of the AIADMK (which is an ally of the BJP) are disapproving his comments, Jayakumar said that ideology has to be looked at separately from political alliances. "We accept Periyar, Anna, MGR and Jayalalithaa as our leaders and will not accept it if anyone speaks in a manner that degrades them. Periyar had been a rationalist and did not believe in God, but Anna believed in One Race, One God. Our way is that of Anna."

Tamil Nadu Congress Chief K.S. Alagiri issued a statement condemning Rajini's speech. "Rajini has said that he will foray into politics but still hasnt done so, in this stage it was unnecessary for him to have made such a statement about Periyar who had dedicated his life and championed the cause of social-justice in Tamil Nadu."

Alagiri's 'friendly advise' for Rajini was, "Actor Rajinikanth can be whichever way he prefers to be and you have the rights to be so. But please don't fall prey to the agenda of evil, sectarian forces."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 14:13 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20611c871 1 Politics Romahurmuziy,KPK,Corruption-Eradication-Comission,Jakarta-Corruption-Court,appeal Free

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors plan to appeal a sentence handed down to graft convict and former United Development Party (PPP) chairman Muhammad "Romy" Romahurmuziy, deeming the punishment too light in comparison to the severity of his crimes.

A three-panel judge at the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Romy to two years imprisonment last week after finding him guilty of accepting bribes in relation to promotions within the Religious Affairs Ministry.

The sentence was only half of the four years initially demanded by prosecutors. The judges also decided not to strip Romy of his political rights.

KPK prosecutors will appeal the sentence because [it] has yet to fulfill the public's sense of justice. A fine was not considered [for Romy] and the judges did not deny [Romy's] political rights, Ali said in a statement on Monday.

Ali said the prosecutors were preparing appeal dossiers to be submitted to the Jakarta High Court through the Jakarta Corruption Court.

KPK investigators arrested Romy in March last year for allegedly accepting Rp 416.4 million (US$30,617) in bribes from two Religious Affairs Ministry officials in return for his support for their promotions.

The two officials, Haris Hasanuddin and Muafaq Wirahadi, had been both found guilty of bribery and sentenced to two years and 1.5 years in prison, respectively.

In his defense statement, Romy denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had accepted Rp 250 million from Haris out of politeness and returned the money afterward. He denied accepting any money from Muafaq. (ami)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram hit out at Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday for his alleged remarks against Shaheen Bagh protesters, saying only those who despise Mahatma Gandhi would want to "get rid of Shaheen Bagh".

Shah on Saturday had reportedly said that there should be "no Shaheen Bagh" in Delhi and the electorate must press the BJP's lotus symbol on February 8 for it.

Canvassing for the party candidate in Babarpur constituency on Sunday, Shah said, "Your vote to BJP candidate will make Delhi and the country safe and prevent thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh."

"When you press the button (of EVM) on February 8, do so with such anger that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh," he said.

Coming down hard on Shah's remarks, Chidambaram said, "Home Minister seeks votes to 'get rid of Shaheen Bagh'."

"Only those who despise Gandhiji would want to get rid of Shaheen Bagh. Shaheen Bagh represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi," he said in a series of tweets.

"Getting rid of Shaheen Bagh amounts to getting rid of Ahimsa and Satyagraha," Chidambaram said.

Protesters opposing the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and a planned pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC), have been sitting on protest at Shaheen Bagh for over a month now.

The agitators said they will continue their agitation until the government decides to rollback the contentious law and scrap any NRC.
Taiwan tightens restrictions on people with recent Hubei travel history

ROC Central News Agency

01/26/2020 03:40 PM

Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) People arriving in Taiwan who have recently been to Hubei province in China will now be subject to compulsory home confinement for 14 days, the government announced Sunday as it continues to beef up its preventive efforts against the deadly 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The new measure will apply to all travelers, regardless of nationality, and those who do not follow the regulation will have to serve the confinement period at a government-established quarantine site, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung () announced at a press event in Taipei.

Details of how the new measure will be implemented remained sketchy, but the government will get each traveler's recent travel history from health cards to be filled out on inbound flights from China and turned in to health authorities at the airport.

During the confinement period, people should closely monitor their health, including their temperature, and those who develop a fever or symptoms of an upper respiratory infection should wear a surgical mask and contact local health authorities, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Previously, only those suspected of having the coronavirus or who had come into close contact with a person confirmed as having the coronavirus were subject to compulsory confinement in their places of residence for 14 days.

Though the epidemic appears to be spreading beyond Hubei and its capital Wuhan, where the coronavirus originated, Chen said those arriving in Taiwan from other parts of China who have not been in Hubei recently will not be subject to home confinement.

They will regularly be checked on by quarantine officials, however, to monitor their health condition, Chen said.

The latest measures were announced after the Kaohsiung city government on Saturday said it would fine a Taiwanese man NT$300,000 (US$9,987) for not reporting his illness after returning home from Wuhan.

The man is one of three confirmed cases of infections from the 2019-nCoV in Taiwan so far.

The patient did not tell relevant authorities that he had upper respiratory problems before arriving in Taiwan at Kaohsiung International Airport on Jan. 21.

The man in his 50s visited a dance club in Kaohsiung on Jan. 22 without wearing a surgical mask, sparking fears that others at the club that day may have been infected as well.

Vice President Chen Chien-jen (), an epidemiologist by training, called on Taiwanese on Sunday not to conceal their travel history and health conditions upon returning home from China, given the recent case in Kaohsiung.

Such illegal behavior could hurt others, Chen said in a Facebook post, and he urged people to cooperate with epidemic control measures to prevent more cases of the virus in the country.

To prevent the spread of the virus at home, Taiwan has suspended all exchanges with Hubei province and extended its highest level travel warning Saturday to all of Hubei, from just Wuhan previously.

As of Sunday morning, 283 suspected cases of the Wuhan coronavirus had been reported in Taiwan, 92 of which were reported Sunday alone.

In 124 of the 283 cases, coronavirus infections have since been ruled out, while three were confirmed as coronavirus infections and the other 156 people still suspected of having the virus are currently under quarantine.

Since the new infectious disease emerged in Wuhan in December last year, China has reported 1,975 cases and 56 deaths as of Sunday morning.

A few cases have also been reported recently in other countries, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Nepal, the United States, France and Australia.

(By Chen Cheng-wei and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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GARY  Two Gary juveniles were arrested early Monday after police spotted them driving in a stolen vehicle.

Gary officers spotted the car near 4th Avenue and Clark Road at about 1:20 a.m. Monday, reports say.

Officers attempted a traffic stop, at which point the vehicle fled, according to Gary police Lt. Dawn Westerfield.

Eventually, the vehicle struck a parked car and a residence on Grand Boulevard in Hammond.

A brief foot chase ensued and two juveniles were taken into custody. A third remains at large, Westerfield said.

Police declined to provide the juveniles' ages. The investigation is ongoing.

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[January 27, 2020] Public Pensions Reducing Fee Outlays to Improve Efficiency

Public retirement systems are squeezing down their expenses to operate more efficiently, according to an annual study by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005606/en/ Hank H. Kim, Esq., executive director and counsel of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (Photo: Business Wire) The 2019 NCPERS Public Retirement Systems Study, based on responses from 155 state and local pension systems, shows that trustees, managers, and administrators are working to ensure funds' fiscal and operational integrity, according to Hank H. Kim, executive director and chief counsel of NCPERS. "Pension systems are constantly looking for ways to strengthen their performance and provide a secure income for millions of public servants," Kim said. Survey participants had 12.6 million active and retired members and asses exceeding $1.4 trillion in actuarial and market value. The majority-62 percent-were local pension systems while the remaining 38 percent were statewide systems. NCPERS conducted the ninth annual survey from September through December 2019 in partnership with Cobalt (News - Alert) Community Research. It covered the most recently concluded fiscal year, which for most pension systems was calendar year 2018.



An interactive version of the study is available to NCPERS members at no cost. This login-protected "dashboard" enables public pension funds to build their own comparisons and peer groups in order to analyze their performance, assumptions, and expenses. Among the key findings:

During their most recent fiscal year, pension systems reduced their costs to administer funds and pay investment managers to an average of 55 basis points (0.55 percent), down from 60 basis points (0.6 percent) a year earlier. (One hundred basis points equal one percentage point.)

In all, 59 percent of all responding funds said they lowered their assumed rate of return, and 23 percent are considering this measure.

Some 45 percent set higher benefit age and service requirements, and 6 percent are considering doing so.

Thirty-four percent increased employee contributions, and 12 percent are considering this option.

A majority of respondents-55 percent--excluded overtime pay from the benefit calculation in their most recent fiscal year, versus 49 percent a year earlier.

The average cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) offered to members in the most recent fiscal year was 1.6 percent, which is slightly lower than a year earlier. Many responding funds did not offer a COLA in the most recent fiscal year.

Funds reported one-year returns averaging 4.5 percent, five-year returns of 7.1 percent annually, 10-year returns of 7.7 percent annually and 20-year returns of 11.2 percent annually. The results underscore the long-term and patient nature of pension investing. The timing of fiscal year-ends made a significant difference in investment experience for many funds due to the stock market correction that occurred in December 2018. Despite the drag exerted by negative returns recorded by major stock indexes during 2018, pension funds returns remained in positive territory. Results of funds with a December end-date were much lower than those with non-calendar fiscal years.

Funded levels dipped to 71.7 percent, down from 72.6 percent a year earlier, largely due to weaker than expected one-year returns. About NCPERS The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) is the largest trade association for public sector pension funds, representing more than 500 funds throughout the United States and Canada. It is a unique non-profit network of public trustees, administrators, public officials and investment professionals who collectively manage more than $4 trillion in pension assets. Founded in 1941, NCPERS is the principal trade association working to promote and protect pensions by focusing on advocacy, research and education including e-learning for the benefit of public sector pension stakeholders. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005606/en/

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A tax on carbon dioxide emissions in Great Britain, introduced in 2013, has led to the proportion of electricity generated from coal falling from 40% to 3% over six years, according to research led by UCL

A tax on carbon dioxide emissions in Great Britain, introduced in 2013, has led to the proportion of electricity generated from coal falling from 40% to 3% over six years, according to research led by UCL.

British electricity generated from coal fell from 13.1 TWh (terawatt hours) in 2013 to 0.97 TWh in September 2019, and was replaced by other less emission-heavy forms of generation such as gas. The decline in coal generation accelerated substantially after the tax was increased in 2015.

In the report, 'The Value of International Electricity Trading', researchers from UCL and the University of Cambridge also showed that the tax - called Carbon Price Support - added on average 39 to British household electricity bills, collecting around 740m for the Treasury, in 2018.

Academics researched how the tax affected electricity flows to connected countries and interconnector (the large cables connecting the countries) revenue between 2015 - when the tax was increased to 18 per tonne of carbon dioxide - and 2018. Following this increase, the share of coal-fired electricity generation fell from 28% in 2015 to 5% in 2018, reaching 3% by September 2019. Increased electricity imports from the continent reduced the price impact in the UK, and meant that some of the cost was paid through a slight increase in continental electricity prices (mainly in France and the Netherlands).

Project lead Dr Giorgio Castagneto Gissey (Bartlett Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL) said: "Should EU countries also adopt a high carbon tax we would likely see huge carbon emission reductions throughout the Continent, as we've seen in Great Britain over the last few years."

Lead author, Professor David Newbery (University of Cambridge), said: "The Carbon Price Support provides a clear signal to our neighbours of its efficacy at reducing CO2 emissions."

The Carbon Price Support was introduced in England, Scotland and Wales at a rate of 4.94 per tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent and is now capped at 18 until 2021.The tax is one part of the Total Carbon Price, which also includes the price of EU Emissions Trading System permits.

Report co-author Bowei Guo (University of Cambridge) said: "The Carbon Price Support has been instrumental in driving coal off the grid, but we show how it also creates distortions to cross-border trade, making a case for EU-wide adoption."

Professor Michael Grubb (Bartlett Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL) said: "Great Britain's electricity transition is a monumental achievement of global interest, and has also demonstrated the power of an effective carbon price in lowering dependence on electricity generated from coal."

The overall report on electricity trading also covers the value of EU interconnectors to Great Britain, measures the efficiency of cross-border electricity trading and considers the value of post-Brexit decoupling from EU electricity markets.

Published today, the report annex focusing on the Carbon Price Support was produced by UCL to focus on the impact of the tax on British energy bills.

###

The findings from UCL and the University of Cambridge were part of wider research to examine cross-border electricity trading between Great Britain and connected EU markets, commissioned by energy regulator Ofgem to inform its annual State of the Energy Market report.
Connecticut lawmakers are weighing the effects of making public the list of felons whose names appear on the states secret Deadly Weapon Offender Registry.

Theyll try to calculate whether the publication of the list, including photographs and addresses, should be open to full public scrutiny like the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry.

And police have differing opinions over the use and effectiveness of the registry, admitting there are better ways to access a suspects criminal history.

I lean toward opening it unless someone can give me a reason not to, said veteran Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, a member of the law-writing legislative Judiciary Committee.

Speaking Monday in reaction to a Hearst Connecticut Media report on the 1,875-names of criminals on the weapon registry, Godfrey noted that the criminal information, approved in the states landmark gun-safety legislation after the 2012 Newtown School shooting, is already available in other forms including the Judicial Branchs database.

But it was exempted from the state Freedom of Information Act in the April, 2013 legislation.

Godfrey, with 30 years of service in the House of Representatives, said that Hearsts report has prompted him to research the issue thoroughly before coming to a conclusion. In particular, as an urban lawmaker, he understands the obstacles in housing and employment that people face coming out of the prison system, even though a 2017 law prohibits prospective employers from asking applicants whether they have been arrested or convicted.

But why would we prevent anyone from accessing records in general that doesnt involve trade secrets or security information? Godfrey said in a phone interview.

On the Judicial Branch website people can check pending cases as well as convictions under the specific names of defendants and convicts. The Sex Offender Registry allows people to search neighborhoods and whole towns for people whose names they likely do not know.

Its not the only place to get this information, Godfrey said of the weapon registry. Its the annoying thing about a bureaucracy when a department says Its my stuff and you cant touch it. I wonder how much of that attitude is involved here. Im hoping we can take a good hard look at it.

I think it should be open to the public, said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven. Every other registry is open. This isnt good public policy. If I had the opportunity to change that law, I would.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, vice chairman of the legislative Public Safety and Security Committee, also believes the information offenders provide the registry and update annually for their first five years out of prison, should be accessible to the public.

She recommended that lawmakers look closely at the circumstances around the initial arrest of sex offenders and violent felons alike.

Both registries do not give all the information to people they think they may, Osten said, noting that the plea bargain process often drastically modifies details.

For instance, exposing oneself is not the same thing as molestation or rape, but the offender may land on the registry, Osten said. Same thing with the Deadly Weapon Offender Registry. You dont know what the original charge was to determine how dangerous a person may be.

There are 42 crimes involving knives and guns that can result in offenders being given the requirement at the time of their criminal sentencing. Also required to register when they are released from incarceration, are those who have been found not guilty of similar crimes by reasons of mental disease or defect.

Osten, a former state correction officer, said the weapon offender registry was originally designed to provide additional information for law enforcement officials, but she stressed that arresting officers can easily access the original charges when encountering suspects.

Meanwhile, police officials disagreed Monday over the usefulness of the weapon registry.

Its not really helpful, said Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin, whose city has 28 names on the registry. A lot of times someone will get arrested with a weapon and it is pleaded down to a different charge And if it is not one of those 42 criminal charges that is appropriate for the weapons registry, they are not going to show up on the registry.

As an example Conkin said if someone is caught illegally carrying a gun, they will get charged with carrying a pistol without a permit. But if the person is a first offender and is granted entrance into a court diversionary program, the registry will not contain the defendants name.

He said checking someones criminal history is more effective.

Running a criminal history will show more because you can see what they were arrested for and oftentimes the pleas are much different than the litany of charges they were arrested for, Conklin said. It is not something that has proven its worth so much. It is something I very infrequently use.

But Lt. John Slusarz, the Greenwich police spokesman, said the registry, like other databases that local law enforcement have access to, is a valuable tool.

A police officer has access to a great deal of information that isnt available to the public, so we know what were dealing with, he said. It was up to state lawmakers to set the guidelines on how those databases are managed or made available to the public, he said.

All tools are good, but we always have access to someones criminal history anyway, said Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour. And we already have the ability to run a person through the law enforcement database to find out whatever we need to know beforehand.

Newtown police Capt. Christopher Vanghele said he supports the registry, because, before the registry was established, the only way to know if a person was convicted of an offense involving a deadly weapon would be to somehow get a copy of the entire case file from the arresting agency and then read through it. Not exactly a timely way to get information.

With the registry in place, if an officer comes across this person in the field and runs their name and DOB, an alert will come up on the search return warning the officer that the person is a File 37, meaning they are registered on the DWOR, Vanghele said. This gives the officer timely information on the possible dangers this person may present.

In December, the one person living in Newtown who is on the Deadly Weapon Offender Registry was pulled over for a moving violatoin, Vanghele said.

When the officer ran the plate of the vehicle, dispatch immediately warned the officer that the person who was the registered owner of the vehicle was a File 37, Vanghele said. This specific example shows that this system works in real time and is very helpful information in terms of officer safety.

In New Milford, police Lt. Lee Grabner agreed that the registry is a good but rarely used tool.

Our agency rarely uses the registry, but I feel that is a proactive tool to check individuals, Grabner said. The information is helpful to plan how and when a warrant may be served.

Katrina Koerting, John Nickerson, Rob Ryser and Robert Marchant contributed to this report.
Its 70 years since the death of prophet of doom / visionary genius (delete according to taste) George Orwell. As supposedly grown-up countries bow down to and elect right-wing authoritarians, you imagine Orwell not so much turning in his grave as on an advanced spin cycle. Were he still alive, what would he make of it all? What would he think about our love affair with Big Brother-levels of surveillance, data harvesting and misinformation? About our current leaders? About us, the proles, and why we vote for such terrible people?

Its always been too easy to dismiss right-wing ideology as the politics of the thick. Its not like were short of examples: from the Brexit Party MEP complaining how Britain will have no EU representation when it leaves the EU, to the ongoing horror show in the White House, people voted for stupid. This is why we have far more left-wing intellectuals than right-wing ones: the ratio of Noam Chomskys to Jordan Petersons is  fake statistic alert  a million to one. And its why right-wing thugs far outnumber any other kind.
Air India is the flagship carrier airline of India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. It is owned by Air India Limited, a government-owned enterprise, and operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving 94 domestic and international destinations. The airline has its hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, alongside several cities across India.

Air India is the largest international carrier out of India with an 18.6% market share. The airline was founded by J.R.D. Tata as Tata Airlines in 1932.

Tata himself flew its first single-engine de Havilland Puss Moth, carrying air mail from Karachi to Bombays Juhu aerodrome and later continuing to Madras (currently Chennai).

After World War II, it became a public limited company and was renamed as Air India. On 21 February 1960, it took delivery of its first Boeing 707 aircraft named Gauri Shankar and became the first Asian airline to induct a jet aircraft in its fleet.

In 2000-2001, huge attempts were made to privatize Air India and from 2006 onwards, it suffered losses after its merger with the Indian Airlines. The Air India mascot is the Maharajah, that is an Emperor and the logo consists of a flying swan with the wheel of konark inside it.

Wikipedia

Early years of Tata Airlines (1935-1945)

Air India has its origin as Tata Air Services which was later renamed to Tata Airlines founded by J.R.D. Tata of Tata Sons, an Indian Aviator and business tycoon. In April 1932, Tata won a contract in the area of imperial and the aviation department of Tata Sons was formed with two single-engine. On October 15 1932, Tata flew a plane which was carrying air mail from Karachi to Bombay and the aircraft continued to Madras which is currently Chennai. It was piloted by Nevill Vintcent a former Royal Air Force pilot and friend of Tata. This service initially included weekly airmail service between Karachi and Madras via Ahmedabad and Bombay.

In the First year of operation, this Tata airline flew 160,000 miles carrying 155 passengers and 9.72 tonnes of mail and made a profit of 60,000.

As Tata Airlines launched its first domestic flight from Bombay to Trivandrum with a six seater Miles Merku. In 1938, it was re-christened as Tata Air Services and later as Tata Airlines. Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri lanka) and Delhi were added to the destination chart in 1938. During the Second World War, the airline helped the Royal Air Force with troop movements, shipping of supplies and rescue of refugees.



Privatisation of Air India:

On 28 June 2017, the Government of India approved the privatisation of Air India. A committee got set up for the process. In March 2018, the Government issued Expression of Interests to sell 76% stakes of Air India along with low-cost airlines. Air India Express and 50% stake of AISATS, a ground handling joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
Homeownership is a central aspect of the American Dream, for latinos and non-lations. In this country, you haven't made it until you have a casa to call your own. Tiny bungalow or a massive 3,000 square foot McMansion - it doesn't matter. If you own your pad, you're going places.

However, when you own, all the things your landlord did - are now YOUR responsibility. From fixing leaky faucets to paying for a $4,000 roof replacement, it's all on you.

However, these enormous bills don't often jive with our financial reality. I mean, c'mon - who among us has four grand lying around to cover a major repair? Not all of us are rich or are willing to forego a social life to save up a maintenance fund.

That's where home warranties come into play. Increasingly, homeowners are relying on them to take the "shock and awe" out of their home repair bills. Below, we'll discuss the rise of the home warranty industry, and talk about states where they've become popular.

What is a home warranty?

Okay - so there's a decent chance you've never heard of a home warranty before. It's not because you're out-of-the-loop - most Americans haven't heard of them, either. According to Rodney Martin, CEO of America's Preferred Home Warranty, only 4% of households have them.



However, as household finances tighten in today's low wage environment, interest in home warranties are rising. So, what is a home warranty, exactly? They're service contracts issued by firms who promise to cover repair/replacement costs for home appliances and systems, in return for a monthly premium.

When anything goes wrong, you call your home warranty firm. After confirming they cover the described issue, they dispatch the appropriate technician to your home. At this point, you pay a small service fee or deductible, usually between $60-$120. The repairperson then fixes the problem, regardless of whether the real cost is $200 or $2,000.

This way, you can avoid getting ambushed by sudden, significant household expenses. If your furnace breaks down, you'll pay as little as $60 out-of-pocket for a repair that could cost THOUSANDS of dollars.

Of course, you're paying a monthly premium as well, but take the long view. The average American spends over $2,000 per year on household maintenance. The average home warranty costs $800 in premiums. If you make five service calls per year, you're spending between $1,100 - $1,400 per year on maintenance.

I don't know about you, but we'd take a 25%-50% reduction in household expenses ANY day of the week!

Home warranties in America are different

If you've moved to America from abroad, the term "home warranty" may confuse you. If you step across the border into the Great White North, it means something fundamentally different. For example, in the Canadian province of Alberta, a "home warranty" refers to a home builder's warranty. These deals cover labor and material defects in newly-built homes for up to ten years. Unlike American home warranties, they do NOT include appliances.

Finally, government intervention in the industry is more pervasive. For instance, the Alberta government, through legislation, defines minimally acceptable coverage by "home warranty" plans. They also require builders to input warranty info into a publicly searchable database.

In America, however, a home warranty, as you already know, refers to service contracts. These cover systems and appliances on any home, regardless of their age. While some states regulate the industry, many others have not.

As you will see below, this influences the availability of home warranties in different parts of the country.

Which states have the best choice for home warranties?

As their popularity in the USA increases, the number of home warranty firms are expanding. However, due to differences in regulation, population, and so forth, selection can vary widely from state-to-state.

For instance, California, a state whose population (39.7 million) exceeds that of 157 other countries, only has 20 home warranty firms. Meanwhile, in sleepy Wyoming, population 572,381, 23 home warranty companies offer their services. Texas has the best selection overall, with a whopping 36 home warranty providers operating within its borders.

What's behind this disparity? Commentators often cite population, but given the California/Wyoming comparison, there's more to it than that. Regulations are more strict in the Golden State, as they compel firms to prove they have considerable liquid assets.

These rigorous requirements scare off firms from seemingly lucrative markets. For instance, New York State, another wealthy jurisdiction with stringent regulations, is only served by 19 home warranty firms.

How can home warranty firms increase their appeal on the coasts?

Despite living in America's most populous states, homeowners lack choice when it comes to home warranties. To improve selection, residents could vote for governments dedicated to slashing unnecessary red tape.

Even in free-wheeling states like Texas, regulatory bodies oversee the industry. When home warranty companies misbehave, Texans can lodge complaints with the Texas Real Estate Commission.

The difference between them and California lies in excessive regulations and their scope. Many of them set out incredibly high liquidity requirements. As a result, only the most wealthiest corporations can afford to offer services in California, hence the low head count (20).

Additionally, places like New York State and California have a higher proportion of residents who live in condos. Unlike traditional home ownership, condo owners share systems like heating/cooling, plumbing, electrical, etc. Their condo board covers these repairs through fees paid each month.

When a condo owner does pay for repairs out-of-pocket, it doesn't amount to much. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average condominium resident spent $609 on maintenance in 2011.

It's reasonable to assume most of these expenses were on appliance repair. To expand profits in densely populated stets, home warranty companies should aggressively promote appliance plans. These packages cost much less than comprehensive plans, with many costing less than $30/month.

Home warranties: An industry on the grow

As houses in this country continue to age, Americans are rightly concerned about their integrity. Home warranties are a great solution, as these policies can protect their investment and their finances. It's not hard to see why, as they raise resale values and make maintenance a predictable expense.

 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An American man arrested in Co Antrim over a drugs-related murder in Florida is facing a renewed threat of extradition.

High Court judges overturned a decision to end proceedings against Jonah Horne after rejecting claims he could spend the rest of his life in jail if found guilty.

Home Office officials must now decide if they will press to have the 25-year-old returned to the United States.

Horne, who remains in custody in Northern Ireland, is being sought in connection with the fatal shooting of Jacob Walsh nearly four years ago.

Mr Walsh, 25, was shot outside apartments at North Military Trail, Boca Raton on June 7, 2016.

His killing was associated with an apparent drug deal, according to reports at the time.

A previous court heard claims that Horne's DNA, video and witness evidence links him to the murder, with the victim's blood said to have been found on a vehicle connected to the wanted man.

He was detained under a provisional warrant at a house on Drumard Drive, Lisburn in March 2017.

Since then, however, he has been fighting attempts to have him returned to the US.

His lawyers have denied that he is a fugitive who fled following the fatal shooting.

Instead, they contended, he fell in love with a woman from Northern Ireland and travelled to be with her.

Central to his case was the uncertainty surrounding any assurance from the Governor of Florida that he would serve no more than 40 years in prison if ultimately found guilty.

In March last year a judge in Belfast ruled that the extradition proceedings against him should be discharged on the ground that the American state's clemency and commutation system is inadequate.

US authorities mounted a High Court appeal against that decision in a further attempt to secure Horne's return over his alleged role in the murder.

The possibility of President Donald Trump personally intervening in the case was explored at one point in the hearing.

Ultimately, however, the two appeal judges quashed the decision to discharge proceedings.

Sir Donnell Deeny ruled that the risk of a whole life sentence if Horne was ever convicted of second degree murder is "very slight and most unlikely."

He said: "We consider the possibility of that whole life sentence being maintained on appeal and after consideration by the Governor of Florida and the President of the United States to be wholly negligible.

"We do not consider therefore that there is a real risk... of this man being subjected to cruel or inhumane and degrading treatment by suffering a whole life irreducible sentence."
To the Editor:

Re Money to Ukraine Tied to Inquiries, Bolton Book Says (front page, Jan. 27):

Your report of the contents of John Boltons book is a game changer. The impeachment trial is not the same as a judicial trial in which jurors are instructed not to consider any information that has not been formally received in evidence. Therefore, senator-jurors are free to consider the Times report as evidence against the president, without Mr. Boltons having actually testified.

If the presidents supporters refuse to call Mr. Bolton to testify in person, clearly they are afraid to cross-examine him. Moreover, if they refuse to call other witnesses who might have been able to contradict the accounts in Mr. Boltons book, the presidents team would be tacitly admitting that what Mr. Bolton asserts in his book is true.

Malcolm M. Gaynor

Chicago

To the Editor:

Re John Roberts Can Call Witnesses to Trumps Trial. Will He?, by Neal K. Katyal, Joshua A. Geltzer and Mickey Edwards (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, Jan. 27):

Please, Chief Justice Roberts, we implore you! If the majority of Americans, including the majority of Republicans, want witnesses and relevant documents included in the impeachment trial, you can exercise your power to make it happen. Please do this service to the American people!

James G. Goodale

Fort Myers, Fla.

To the Editor:

Re Recording Is Said to Show Trump Ousted Envoy (front page, Jan. 25):

President Trump has denied knowing Lev Parnas, saying maybe theres a picture of them together because, well, he has his picture taken with a lot of people. Of course, multiple photos of them together have materialized. But now we have a recording of Mr. Trump telling Mr. Parnas and an associate to take out the ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
A fishing dhow was yesterday stopped in Muharraq after the authorities detected an illegally caught hammerhead shark, which is an endangered species of shark.

This was announced yesterday by the Agriculture and Marine Resources in Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry through its official page on Instagram. The statement mentioned that the dhow was caught in Muharraq Fishermen Port in co-ordination between the directorate and the Coast Guard in Interior Ministry.

The directorate explained in the statement that catching hammerhead shark is banned internationally, in accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is also known as the Washington Convention.

The directorate added that the matter has been referred to the concerned departments in the Supreme Council for Environment in order to take the necessary legal measures in this regard. Bahrain have joined CITES back in 2012 as per a law ratified by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on June 7, 2012; Law 27 of 2012.
Investor plans to renew hotel construction in Vake Park

By Nika Gamtsemlidze

Investor plans to renew the construction of the hotel Budapest in Vake Park. According to the director of Tiflis Developments, Giorgi Zakaidze, within a few days, they will select the construction company by tender and start works. He said they have a construction permit and a court ruling on the right to build.Zakaidze said that the company presented an audit report to the City Hall based on which they had to get their investment back but said that they had not received an accurate offer yet.The City Hall promised that in exchange for the land we would be given an appropriate value of the land or real estate or even money. More than a year has passed, and we still have not received any offers. There were promises, and the only suggestion was the area next to the oncological hospital. We didn't want to build a hotel or business center next to such a facility, noted Zakaidze.Irakli Zarkua, deputy chairman of the Tbilisi City Council, said no hotel would be built in Vake Park during their time in office. At the same time, he acknowledged that no agreement has been reached with the investor so far.There were some offers for the investor, but they said no because it is not easy to offer a land worth of $7 million, noted Zarkua.One year ago, on January 25, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze promised the public that no hotel would be built in Vake Park. The mayor then announced that the issue of relocation to the investor would be resolved in the future.The meeting between the hotel investor and the Mayor was also held on January 21, 2019. The parties failed to reach an agreement. After the meeting, the investor said the mayor was under the pressure of a small section of the public.Zakaidze said at the time that the City Hall's proposals were unacceptable to him and that if they did not obtain the permission of building a hotel, they would apply to the court and demand compensation.Vake Park is a public park in Tbilisi. The park was opened in 1946 and is located in the Vake district of Tbilisi at the western end of Chavchavadze Avenue.
This brave toddler loves racing to the scene of accidents and dreams of being a paramedic when he grows up. Wutthipat Jangbua, three, has his own custom-made blue uniform for the volunteer foundation in Trang, southern Thailand. The youngster helps his father Wichaiwit Jangbua, 32, and mother Sathidarat Thongtea, 29, who are both volunteer rescue workers. Footage from Monday (January 20th) afternoon shows the toddler dressed up in the rescue volunteer outfit. He even seems to know his way around the ambulance and is familiar with the equipment his parents use. Sathidarat said they often take the boy to work with them, which has led to him being interested in the role. She said: "We first brought him to work when there was a big flood. He would hand us the tools. Back then, he was just one year old. "After that, we started to bring him to the accident scenes, but not the unpleasant ones or when it was dangerous, like catching snakes. "We bring him so often that he will always cry when we don't take him. He told us he loved helping people and wanted to be like us when he grew up. "Now he is only three years old and has just started to read and write but if he really wants to be a rescuer, he will have our full support."
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(Newser)  The next Democratic debate won't be an all-white affairand there will be somebody there to make the case for a universal basic income. Andrew Yang has become the seventh candidate to qualify for the Feb.7 debate in New Hampshire, which takes place just four days before the state's Democratic primary, NPR reports. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Tom Steyer have already qualified. Yang, who missed the January debate in Iowa, qualified for the February debate after topping the 5% mark in four DNC-approved polls, Politico reports. Tulsi Gabbard also has a chance of qualifying but Michael Bloomberg, who has passed the polling threshold, does not accept political contributions, meaning he will be unable to meet the requirement to receive donations from at least 225,000 individuals. (Read more Andrew Yang 2020 stories.)
The Philadelphia Museum of Art soon will have an anonymous system in place for staff to report sexual-harassment and discrimination complaints, and a museum-wide training program covering harassment, discrimination, and anti-bias issues is planned to begin next month, according to several people who attended all-staff meetings Monday.

The meetings, regularly scheduled affairs designed to keep employees abreast of museum policies and news, were devoted entirely to issues related to fallout from a Jan. 10 New York Times article that detailed the complaints of several women concerning the behavior of Joshua R. Helmer, 31, who worked as a middle manager at the museum for several years before leaving in 2018.

Helmer subsequently was named head of the Erie Art Museum and departed that position in the wake of the Times article. In that article, several women alleged that Helmer pursued relationships with them while holding out possibilities for professional opportunities.

A lawyer for Helmer, Paul John Susko, said Monday that he was declining to comment for now.

To accommodate the staff at Mondays meetings, Leslie Ann Miller, chair of the museums board of trustees, led two sessions at which she was joined by Nancy Brennan, head of the museums human resources department. The museum declined a request from The Inquirer to attend the meetings, and staff members were not allotted the opportunity to ask questions.

According to staff members in attendance, Brennan said the museum will offer two days of on-site, one-on-one counseling sessions, available to all employees, beginning Tuesday. Throughout February, attendees said, the museum also will offer nine sessions encouraging conversations on workplace issues. The sessions will be facilitated by the Anti-Oppression and Resource Training Alliance (AORTA).

A spokesperson for the museum confirmed the programs announced to the staff Monday.

Several who attended the sessions said that the harassment training and anonymous reporting system are welcome and even long overdue.

It was really heartening to hear that our senior management agrees with the immediate need for such action, said Sarah Shaw, an employee of the department of education.

Museum educator Adam Rizzo noted that concrete actions  such as the counseling sessions and third-party reporting  represent positive movement but come months too late.

This isnt new information, this is information thats newly being acted on, Rizzo said after the meetings.

Neither Brennan nor Miller, attendees said, could provide details of a promised outside cultural assessment of the museum, discussed by museum director and CEO Timothy Rub at an all-staff meeting last week and at small departmental sessions prior to that.

Rub had said details of the assessment would be forthcoming at Mondays meetings. They were not, according to staffers in attendance.

A small group of board members is considering proposals for the assessment. What its scope should be, who could best conduct it, and for what purpose are questions still to be answered, according to staffers. Miller said that she would be joined by museum board members Ajay Raju, Jennifer Rice, Romulo L. Diaz Jr., Mary Patterson McPherson, and Zoe Pappas in reviewing options for the assessment. She characterized the group as diverse.

According to attendees, the museum hopes to select a third-party reporting hotline vendor by the end of the week. Brennan reportedly said that the human resources department will make its offices more accessible and private.

So far, between the department meetings and the [all-staff meeting] last week, this is the most weve heard in terms of concrete steps, said Shaw. Im appreciative of any concrete steps, but I wonder why they are taken only in reaction to bad press.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.27

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Czech Republic ready to discuss mutual investments with Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister of Czech Republic Tomas Petricek said in an interview with Trend.

In line with relevant legislation, the Czech Republic provides various incentives such as tax relief for up to 10 years to foreign investors, especially those who create jobs in regions with a higher level of unemployment  i.e., not in Prague where the level of unemployment is currently below 2 percent. According to the recent amendments to the Investment Incentives Act, projects focused on regions other than Prague will receive preferential treatment. This applies particularly to technology centres which can obtain grants for creating jobs, training and retraining new employees. Prospective foreign investors in the Czech Republic are advised and supported by the CzechInvest agency, established by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Investment in both directions is obviously a topic we are ready to discuss at the Joint Commission in 2020 [on Economic, Technical-Scientific and Cultural Cooperation], he said.

As for the prospects for creating joint ventures between the two countries in various spheres, Petricek said Czech Republi sees such potential in a variety of economic sectors, including energy, automotive industry, transport infrastructure and agriculture.

As for the latter sector, one which has great potential in Azerbaijan with its fertile land, our Embassy in Baku brought a trade mission led by the Czech Deputy Minister of Agriculture Pavel Vesely to Azerbaijan in April 2019, allowing for the establishment of contacts between companies from both countries, said the foreign minister.

Petricek pointed out that while the CzechTrade agency established by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with its office in Baku, does a great job in establishing links between Czech and Azerbaijani private businesses, doing business with enterprises owned, or co-owned to a significant degree, by the Azerbaijani state is a matter of interest for the Czech-Azerbaijani Joint Commission on Economic, Technical-Scientific and Cultural Cooperation.

Both of its previous co-chairs moved to other positions within the Czech and Azerbaijani state service late in 2019, and we hope new ones will be appointed by both sides very soon so this important Commission can soon meet in Prague for another round of a strategic debate on the future of our relations. Based on our positive experience, we will continue to seek participation in projects aimed at modernisation of the Azerbaijani economy, he said.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Patna, Jan 27 : Police have conducted raids at the ancestral home of the self-proclaimed JNU student leader Sharjeel Imam who is being pursued by the police forces of several states for delivering a hate speech, in Bihar's Jehanabad district.

Jehanabad police sources on Monday said a team of a "central probe agency" conducted raids in Kako town on Sunday, in a bid to trace Sharjeel and arrest him.

Meanwhile, his mother Afshan Parveen said her son's statements are being presented in a distorted manner and also claimed that her family is being harassed.

She said Sharjeel is not a "thief or swindler who would remain absconding, and he would appear soon".

Police said his family members were called for questioning even as Sharjeel was not found at home.

His mother alleged: "My son is being trapped. He was just voicing his protest on CAA." Claiming that she has not spoken to Sharjeel for the last few days, she said "we believe in the law and justice would be done to him".

In a video that went viral on January 25, he is seen talking about splitting the northeast from India to block the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). "We know how Muslims are being treated in Assam. We have to save people from the NRC. The only way to do this is by cutting off northeast from India." The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, which registered a case against Sharjeel for the provocative video, on Sunday conducted searches at various places to nab him.

While the Delhi Police conducted raids in the national capital and nearby areas, the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Assam Police have been searching for him for some time in connection with the provocative statement in the national capital's Shaheen Bagh area on January 13, which went viral on Saturday.
Sign on door of Swiss Haus indicates that the business has closed. Read more

Swiss Haus, whose bakery roots in Rittenhouse Square date back nearly 100 years, has shuttered its location after four months, thwarting customers seeking its signature hazelnut and buttercream cakes.

A sign reading closed!!! with the emphatic notations farewell, for good, not open, and forever was spotted over the weekend on the door at 1740 Sansom St.

Owners Ronald Simms and John Proctor, financial executives who bought the brand in 2019 and then moved the shop from its longtime home nearby on 19th Street, did not return messages seeking comment. Building owner Allan Domb said he had not heard from them.

The Cristen family opened Swiss Pastry Shoppe at 35 S. 19th St. in 1923. It closed just before Christmas 2007. In early 2008, entrepreneur Jim Hausman reopened it with the same baker (Donna Feldman) and, facing unpleasant correspondence from the previous owner, rebranded as Swiss Haus. Hausman sold it in 2014 to Joshua White, who opened an Old City location in 2015 and closed in late 2018, just before the most recent sale to Simms and Proctor.

Swiss Haus most recent incarnation, which opened in September 2019, was a cafe setting.
Various Air India employee unions will meet in New Delhi on January 27 to discuss proposed privatisation of the debt-laden airline, sources said.

The meeting was scheduled after the government, earlier in the day, announced sale of 100 percent stake in Air India as it issued the preliminary bid document for the strategic disinvestment.

Also read: Air India EoI out; govt to completely exit airline

Representatives of various Air India trade unions will meet here to discuss the government's privatisation plans, sources said.

There are around a dozen recognised trade unions at Air India.

As part of the strategic disinvestment, Air India would also sell 100 per cent stake in low-cost airline Air India Express and 50 per cent shareholding in joint venture AISATS, as per bid document issued on Monday.

Management control of the airline would also be transferred to the successful bidder.

This is the second time in less than two years that the government has come out with proposal for selling stake in Air India, which has been in the red for long.

The government has set March 17 as the deadline for submitting the expression of interest.
More than two decades after his investigation of former President Bill Clinton, Ken Starr while defending President Trump on Monday asked how it is we came to live in the "age of impeachment."

The former independent counsel spoke as part of Trump's legal defense team during the Senate's impeachment trial, making the argument that presidential impeachments are being invoked too often in recent years.

"The Senate is being called to sit as the high court of impeachment all too frequently," Starr said. "Indeed, we're living in what I think can be aptly be described as the age of impeachment. ... How did we get here?"

Starr went on to decry the fact that impeachment has become not a "once in a century phenomenon" but rather a "weapon to be wielded against one's political opponent." He added the Senate should return to a time when "impeachment was truly a measure of last resort."

Given Starr's role in the last presidential impeachment, CNN's John Avlon asked "who thought that Ken Starr was the best choice to make the case for bipartisan process and against impeachment," while MSNBC's Garrett Haake observed, "Ken Starr, arguing against overly-political, thinly-predicated impeachment is enough to make a certain generation of Democrats' heads explode."

Ken Starr, whose investigation led to Bill Clinton's impeachment, now says impeachment is happening "all too frequently": "We are living in what I think can aptly be described as the age of impeachment." https://t.co/iwYPRsRtGP pic.twitter.com/JO12w11rd9  CBS News (@CBSNews) January 27, 2020

More stories from theweek.com

John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi

It's 2020 and women are exhausted

Mike Pompeo is a disgrace


HOUSTON - (Jan. 27, 2020) - That banana peel, turned into graphene, can help facilitate a massive reduction of the environmental impact of concrete and other building materials. While you're at it, toss in those plastic empties.

A new process introduced by the Rice University lab of chemist James Tour can turn bulk quantities of just about any carbon source into valuable graphene flakes. The process is quick and cheap; Tour said the "flash graphene" technique can convert a ton of coal, food waste or plastic into graphene for a fraction of the cost used by other bulk graphene-producing methods.

"This is a big deal," Tour said. "The world throws out 30% to 40% of all food, because it goes bad, and plastic waste is of worldwide concern. We've already proven that any solid carbon-based matter, including mixed plastic waste and rubber tires, can be turned into graphene."

As reported in Nature, flash graphene is made in 10 milliseconds by heating carbon-containing materials to 3,000 Kelvin (about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit). The source material can be nearly anything with carbon content. Food waste, plastic waste, petroleum coke, coal, wood clippings and biochar are prime candidates, Tour said. "With the present commercial price of graphene being $67,000 to $200,000 per ton, the prospects for this process look superb," he said.

Tour said a concentration of as little as 0.1% of flash graphene in the cement used to bind concrete could lessen its massive environmental impact by a third. Production of cement reportedly emits as much as 8% of human-made carbon dioxide every year.

"By strengthening concrete with graphene, we could use less concrete for building, and it would cost less to manufacture and less to transport," he said. "Essentially, we're trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that waste food would have emitted in landfills. We are converting those carbons into graphene and adding that graphene to concrete, thereby lowering the amount of carbon dioxide generated in concrete manufacture. It's a win-win environmental scenario using graphene."

"Turning trash to treasure is key to the circular economy," said co-corresponding author Rouzbeh Shahsavari, an adjunct assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice and president of C-Crete Technologies. "Here, graphene acts both as a 2D template and a reinforcing agent that controls cement hydration and subsequent strength development."

In the past, Tour said, "graphene has been too expensive to use in these applications. The flash process will greatly lessen the price while it helps us better manage waste."

"With our method, that carbon becomes fixed," he said. "It will not enter the air again."

The process aligns nicely with Rice's recently announced Carbon Hub initiative to create a zero-emissions future that repurposes hydrocarbons from oil and gas to generate hydrogen gas and solid carbon with zero emission of carbon dioxide. The flash graphene process can convert that solid carbon into graphene for concrete, asphalt, buildings, cars, clothing and more, Tour said.

Flash Joule heating for bulk graphene, developed in the Tour lab by Rice graduate student and lead author Duy Luong, improves upon techniques like exfoliation from graphite and chemical vapor deposition on a metal foil that require much more effort and cost to produce just a little graphene.

Even better, the process produces "turbostratic" graphene, with misaligned layers that are easy to separate. "A-B stacked graphene from other processes, like exfoliation of graphite, is very hard to pull apart," Tour said. "The layers adhere strongly together.

But turbostratic graphene is much easier to work with because the adhesion between layers is much lower. They just come apart in solution or upon blending in composites.

"That's important, because now we can get each of these single-atomic layers to interact with a host composite," he said.

The lab noted that used coffee grounds transformed into pristine single-layer sheets of graphene.

Bulk composites of graphene with plastic, metals, plywood, concrete and other building materials would be a major market for flash graphene, according to the researchers, who are already testing graphene-enhanced concrete and plastic.

The flash process happens in a custom-designed reactor that heats material quickly and emits all noncarbon elements as gas. "When this process is industrialized, elements like oxygen and nitrogen that exit the flash reactor can all be trapped as small molecules because they have value," Tour said.

He said the flash process produces very little excess heat, channeling almost all of its energy into the target. "You can put your finger right on the container a few seconds afterwards," Tour said. "And keep in mind this is almost three times hotter than the chemical vapor deposition furnaces we formerly used to make graphene, but in the flash process the heat is concentrated in the carbon material and none in a surrounding reactor.

"All the excess energy comes out as light, in a very bright flash, and because there aren't any solvents, it's a super clean process," he said.

Luong did not expect to find graphene when he fired up the first small-scale device to find new phases of material, beginning with a sample of carbon black. "This started when I took a look at a Science paper talking about flash Joule heating to make phase-changing nanoparticles of metals," he said. But Luong quickly realized the process produced nothing but high-quality graphene.

Atom-level simulations by Rice researcher and co-author Ksenia Bets confirmed that temperature is key to the material's rapid formation. "We essentially speed up the slow geological process by which carbon evolves into its ground state, graphite," she said. "Greatly accelerated by a heat spike, it is also stopped at the right instant, at the graphene stage.

"It is amazing how state-of-the-art computer simulations, notoriously slow for observing such kinetics, reveal the details of high temperature-modulated atomic movements and transformation," Bets said.

Tour hopes to produce a kilogram (2.2 pounds) a day of flash graphene within two years, starting with a project recently funded by the Department of Energy to convert U.S.-sourced coal. "This could provide an outlet for coal in large scale by converting it inexpensively into a much-higher-value building material," he said.

###

Tour has a grant from the Department of Energy to scale up the flash graphene process, which will be co-funded by the start-up company, Universal Matter Ltd.

Co-authors of the paper include Rice graduate students Wala Ali Algozeeb, Weiyin Chen, Paul Advincula, Emily McHugh, Muqing Ren and Zhe Wang; postdoctoral researcher Michael Stanford; academic visitors Rodrigo Salvatierra and Vladimir Mancevski; Mahesh Bhatt of C-Crete Technologies, Stafford, Texas; and Rice assistant research professor Hua Guo. Boris Yakobson, the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair of Engineering and a professor of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry, is co-corresponding author.

Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation supported the research.

Read the paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-1938-0.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1938-0

This news release can be found online at https://news.rice.edu/2020/01/27/rice-lab-turns-trash-into-valuable-graphene-in-a-flash/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Videos:

https://youtu.be/GzDrnoGdLO4

Produced by Brandon Martin/Rice University

https://youtu.be/hzm5AMPFMqs

Credit: Tour Group/Rice University

Related materials:

Graphene at 15: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b06778

Tour Group: http://www.jmtour.com

Department of Chemistry: https://chemistry.rice.edu

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://natsci.rice.edu

Images for download:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2019/10/1111_FLASH-1-WEB.jpg

Graduate student Duy Luong prepares a sample of carbon black for conversion through the flash graphene technique created at Rice University. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2019/10/1111_FLASH-2-WEB.jpg

Carbon black powder turns into graphene in a burst of light and heat through a technique developed at Rice University. Flash graphene turns any carbon source into the valuable 2D material in 10 milliseconds. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2019/10/1111_FLASH-3-WEB.jpg

In a flash, carbon black turns into graphene through a technique developed by Rice University scientists. The scalable process promises to quickly turn carbon from any source into bulk graphene. From left: undergraduate intern Christina Crassas, chemist James Tour and graduate students Weiyin Chen and Duy Luong. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2019/10/1111_FLASH-4-WEB.jpg

Rice University chemist James Tour, left, and graduate student Duy Luong show a sample of pure turbostratic graphene just converted through the flash graphene technique developed in Tour's lab. The researchers said the process can be scaled up to produce industrial-scale quantities of the valuable material from any carbon source. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/01/1111_FLASH-5-WEB.jpg

Rice University scientists are turning waste into turbostratic graphene via a process they say can be scaled up to produce industrial-scale quantities. (Credit: Rouzbeh Shahsavari/C-Crete Group)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Per

Media Contacts:

Jeff Falk

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Mike Williams

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UTICA, N.Y. -- Brandon Clark, who is accused of killing 17-year-old Bianca Devins last July, has been charged with a possessing a sharpened toothbrush as a shank in jail, police said.

Clark, 21, of Cicero, is awaiting trial next month on a second-degree murder charge.

While conducting cell searches in the Oneida County jail on Dec. 29, corrections officers discovered a shank in Clarks cell, Oneida County sheriffs deputies said. Clark had sharpened the end of a toothbrush to a point to be used as a a weapon, deputies said.

Clark was charged with first-degree promoting prison contraband, a Class D felony, and arraigned this morning on the charge in Oneida County court, deputies said.

Clark is accused of slitting Devins throat July 14 in Utica, and then posting bloody photos of her on the Internet. He then tried to kill himself and then took a selfie of himself with the body, police said.

Devins and Clark had been to a concert in New York City and were returning back to Utica when Clark allegedly got jealous, and killed her. The two were friends, but not romantically involved, police and the family have said.

Clark is scheduled to go on trial in Oneida County Court in late February.

Kim Devins, Biancas mother, has been working with politicians to advocate for social media reform and clamp down on instances like this where people can share bloody photos online. She has said she wants justice for her daughter.

Her family is planning a Bee Gala in Utica Feb. 15 to raise money for scholarships in Biancas name.

17 Remembering Bianca Devins

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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals, former national security adviser John Bolton recounts in a draft of his forthcoming book.

The revelation challenges the defence offered up by Trump and his attorneys in his Senate impeachment trial and raises the stakes as the chamber decides this week whether to seek sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses.

Boltons account was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the manuscript on the condition of anonymity to discuss the book, The Room Where It Happened; A White House Memoir, ahead of its release March 17.

Bolton, who acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on Sept. 11, has already told lawmakers that he is willing to testify, despite the presidents order barring aides from co-operating in the probe.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment Sunday night. Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has played a prominent role in the Ukraine affair, replied to a request for comment with a text: I used to like and respect John and tell people they were wrong about how irresponsible he was. I was wrong.

Democrats need at least four Republicans to vote with them to seek witness testimony. Those prospects looked unlikely in recent days and its unclear if the new revelations about Boltons book will sway any GOP senators.

Democrats quickly sought to ramp up the pressure on their Republican counterparts. The House managers called the books revelation explosive in a joint statement and said, Senators should insist that Mr. Bolton be called as a witness, and provide his notes and other relevant documents. They added: During our impeachment inquiry, the President blocked our request for Mr. Boltons testimony. Now we see why.

John Bolton has the evidence, tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Its up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trumps actions testify in the Senate trial.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no immediate comment, according to his office.

The books publisher, Simon & Schuster, declined to comment.

Sarah Tinsley, an adviser to Bolton, said: The ambassadors manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period.

The pre-publication review is standard for the work of former officials with security clearances.

Bolton attorney Charles J. Cooper sharply criticized the White House for allowing excerpts from the book to be made public, saying in a statement that the pre-publication review process had been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript.

Democrats accuse Trump of abuse of power in withholding the military assistance to Ukraine to push that country to mount investigations into Democrats, including former Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company, Burisma, while his father was in office.

On Saturday, the presidents attorneys said during their opening day of defence arguments that there was no evidence that Trump made the military aid contingent on the country announcing an investigation into Biden.

The Times also reported that Bolton says he told Attorney General William Barr that he was mentioned by Trump on his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. A Justice Department official on Sunday disputed Boltons account that he had told Barr about the presidents call with Zelenskiy but did say that Bolton had called Barr to raise concerns about Giulianis shadow diplomacy efforts.

Trump on Wednesday told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, that he didnt want Bolton to testify before the Senate.

The problem with John is its a national security problem, Trump said. He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and its not very positive and then I have to deal on behalf of the country?

He added: Its going to be very hard. Its going to make the job very hard.

___

Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 21:28:38|Editor: huaxia

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Medical staff and a cured patient pose for a photo at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Jan. 27, 2020. The patient of the novel coronavirus pneumonia has been cured and discharged from the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University on Monday. He is the first coronavirus-infected patient that was cured in Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

NANCHANG, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A patient diagnosed with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pneumonia was discharged from a hospital in east China's Jiangxi Province on Monday, marking the first cured patient in the province.

The 38-year-old male from Xingan county drove a friend to the city of Honghu in Hubei Province on Jan. 3 and returned to Xingan on Jan. 5. Soon after, he developed symptoms including fever, cough and chest tightness. He was diagnosed with novel coronavirus pneumonia and transferred to the provincial-level designated hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, on Jan. 23.

The patient was in critical condition when he was first transferred to the hospital, said Xu Fei, deputy director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the hospital. His condition improved significantly after treatment and met the standards for de-segregation and discharge of confirmed cases of pneumonitis infected with novel coronavirus of the National Health Commission, according to Xu.
Human rights activists say increase in fighting in Libya places refugees and migrants in the line of fire.

An increase in fighting in Libya will make life even more precarious for the more than 636,000 refugees and migrants in the country, human rights activists say.

The comments came as the United Nations on Monday gave new details about an air raid that hit a migrant detention centre and killed at least 50 people last July.

Libya, a large oil producer, has been engulfed in chaos since 2011 when longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in an uprising.

It is now split between two rival administrations: the internationally backed Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and the House of Representatives allied to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA).

A crumbling ceasefire, brokered by the Russian and Turkish presidents, has been in place since earlier this month.

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However, at least three people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday in a battle between Libyas two rival governments. Earlier this month, an attack of a military academy killed at least 30 people.

Different armed groups and external powers are currently involved in the Libyan civil war. The conflict seems likely to intensify and become deadlier, making life even more precarious for the countrys refugee and migrant population, Jeff Crisp, a research fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera.

Those being held in detention centres will be at greatest risk of aerial bombing raids, added Crisp, a former head of policy, development and education at the UN refugee agency.

Atmosphere of chaos

In addition to the ceasefire agreement, there have been various diplomatic efforts taking place, with al-Sarraj and Haftar called for various meetings with world powers. But there has been no reduction in violence in Libya.

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was deploying military units to Libya to support the GNA. On Friday, he said the personnel will support and train GNA forces before adding that if calm is not established as soon as possible, the atmosphere of chaos in Libya will affect all the Mediterranean basin.

Any escalation in fighting is going to put all civilians, including migrants, at even greater risk, Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told Al Jazeera.

Detained migrants are especially vulnerable and are at heightened risk as some of the detention centres are in proximity to clashes. The situation in Libya for people that find themselves in areas of active conflicts is already very difficult, and if the fighting were to escalate it would get significantly worse.

About 4,500 people are currently held in official detention centres across Libya. Thousands more are held in prisons run by armed groups.

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The detention centres are not safe from the conflict. One in the eastern Tripoli suburb of Tajoura was bombed last July, killing at least 50 migrants and refugees and wounding more than 130.

The 13-page UN report on Monday said authorities running the facility  a militia allied with the UN-recognised government based in Tripoli  may have contributed to the high death toll.

Witnesses told investigators they tried to escape but were stopped by guards and forced back inside  and thats when a second attack occurred.

There are grounds to believe that migrants and refugees could have been saved, and their right to life protected, had they not been prevented from exiting following the first air strike, said the report.

#Libya: The @UN renews calls for #accountability for a deadly airstrike on the Tajoura migrant detention centre last July that killed at least 53 migrants & refugees  urgent steps are needed to prevent a similar tragedy. Learn more: https://t.co/q4Jm2ONkZD#StandUp4Migrants pic.twitter.com/COqnSoSNe4  UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) January 27, 2020

Vulnerable to militia groups

Libyas conflict has also driven migrants and refugees to the sea in the hope of reaching Europe, across one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.

Since 2016, almost 12,000 refugees and migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.

If the conflict continues to escalate, refugees and migrants are certain to seek ways of escaping from the country, using both land and sea routes, said Crisp.

The majority will have to find their own way out of the country, leaving them vulnerable to militia groups, criminals, traffickers and smugglers. Looking to the future, there is also a distinct possibility that a growing number of Libyan citizens will try to leave the country by boat.

The IOM has called for an end to detention in Libya, adding that the centres close proximity to clashes makes those detained more vulnerable and at a heightened risk.

Any escalation in fighting is going to put all civilians, including migrants, at even greater risk, Msehli added.

Ending detention in Libya and the adoption of alternative solutions that safeguard lives are of utmost urgency.
Press Release

January 25, 2020 De Lima proposes 15-day paid leave for disaster response volunteers Senator Leila M. de Lima has proposed a 15-day paid leaves from work to be granted to disaster response volunteers to allow them to participate in specialized disaster-related operations for government-led and government-accredited institutions. De Lima filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 1284 seeking to grant disaster service volunteers up to an aggregate of 15 days of paid leave from work within a year to allow them to perform their duties when called upon to render disaster response service. "As a country who has suffered increasing levels of calamity, it behooves our government to continue to rise to the occasion. One such measure is to activate our civil servants as reserve emergency responders in times of extraordinary disasters," she said. "Legislation must be made not only to allow our government employees to join the disaster response contingent but to encourage them to do so by protecting their tenure and granting paid leaves to those who are truly qualified," she added. De Lima pointed out how the Philippines has always been vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters, becoming the third most disaster-prone country in the world due to its proximity to the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire". "These natural disasters, such as typhoons, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, landslides and fires exposes the country and our people to a wide range of risks, billion-worth destruction and losing the lives of our citizens," she said. According to her, a proactive approach to disaster-response, which includes increasing the required number of competent volunteers with the necessary support and developing an up-to-date disaster-response plan, among others, is imperative. "These volunteers play an important role in increasing the government's response capacity especially at the community level," said De Lima, who chairs the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development in the Senate. Under SB No. 1284, to be known as the "Disaster Response Volunteer Leave Act of 2020," the disaster response volunteer leave with pay shall be subject to approval by the government department or agency in which the covered employee is employed. The employee who was granted leave must be compensated by the employing agency at the employee's regular rate of pay for those regular work hours during which the employee is absent from work due to volunteer service. "A covered employee who is granted leave [s]hall not lose any seniority or any already accumulated vacation time, sick time or earned overtime due to such leave," De Lima noted, citing a provision in her proposed measure. The De Lima bill also mandates the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to enter into an agreement with the Government Service Insurance System to provide for insurance coverage for all covered employees rendering disaster response services. Last Jan. 21, the lady Senator from Bicol also filed SB No. 1285 which seeks to protect licensed and qualified volunteers from liability in the performance of their duties and functions in times of emergency situations or disasters.




Haiti - FLASH : Shipwreck off the Bahamas 31 survivors, several Haitians missing





On January 21, 31 Haitian boat people were spotted and rescued by the military ship HMBS LLSmith of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) between Maycock Cay and Double Breast Cay after their loaded boat was wrecked.



According to the testimonies of the survivors, their boat capsized around January 13 and they survived on the cays (small low islands mainly composed of corals and sand). They told investigators that there were other missing persons, including at least 5 women, but they were unable to provide a precise number of the passengers who had left Port-de-Paix in Haiti, in hope for a better life...



As a result, RBDF air assets, as well as OPBAT air support, swept the area with negative observations.



On January 24, a boater reported seeing a body stranded at Double Breast Cay around noon and another body an hour later. A third lifeless shipwrecked man was also found by residents in the vicinity of Hog Cay, about three kilometers southwest of Double Breast Cay.



Members of the EBDF and the Royal Bahamas Police Force CDU continue to search for possible survivors in the small islands (cay) of Ragged Island.



SL/ HaitiLibre


















A pressure group, Occupy Ghana is piling pressure on the Akufo-Addo government to retrieve some 361 state vehicles sold to political appointees while they exited office between 29 December 2016 and 6 January 2017.

According to the pressure group, the sale breached the laws of Ghana.

Read the full statement below:

27TH JANUARY 2020

OCCUPYGHANA PRESS STATEMENT

OCCUPYGHANA DEMANDS RETURN OF GOVERNMENT VEHICLES ILLEGALLY SOLD TO POLITICAL APPOINTEES

OccupyGhana has read reports of a statement by President John Mahama on 17 January 2020 that if he is elected back to office, he would put an immediate and permanent end to the purchase of duty post vehicles by political appointees, and that: Government vehicles will remain government vehicles. On this matter, there appears to be unusual unanimity among the two leading contestants, as President Akufo-Addo is also reported to have told ministers on 11 April 2017 that: No official is any longer going to have the opportunity to buy any official car, so that we put an end to [the constant buzz], 'Where are the cars? Where are the cars?' Nobody is going to have that capacity anymore.

While we, at OccupyGhana, wholeheartedly agree with these pronouncements, we have grave reservations that must be addressed. Simply, we are not satisfied with bare promises and assurances of executive action. We believe that this is a matter where the government is simply required to respect and comply with the law as laid down in the 2003 Public Procurement Act, as amended in 2016.

Therefore, we demand proof that the government followed that law in the sale of a massive 361 government vehicles to political appointees between 29 December 2016 and 6 January 2017, or a return of all of those vehicles to the government for due process to be complied with and proper value realised for them. The law that applied in 2016 is that which applies now. If the law was breached then with no consequences and sanctions, there is no guarantee that it would not be breached again. That is why these the never again assurances provide cold comfort and ring hollow to us.

When the Public Procurement Act was passed in 2003, it introduced under its Part Eight (sections 83 and 84) a mandatory procedure for disposing of government stores, plant and equipment. That procedure involved establishing a Board of Survey, obtaining a Technical Report and Recommendations, and ultimately, the sale of only obsolete or surplus items by public tender to the highest tenderer or public auction subject to a reserve price.

While several citizens were in no doubt that this law applied to the sale of government vehicles, successive governments still disposed of such vehicles especially to their appointees after every election, without recourse to the law. The ridiculous and risible excuse from those governments was that the words stores, plant and equipment in the law did not specifically apply to vehicles.

However, with pressure from civil society and several others, in June 2016, Parliament finally amended section 83 of, and introduced a new section 83A to, the 2003 Public Procurement Act, so that the mandatory procedure for disposing of government assets would specifically apply to government vehicles.

Thereafter, one would have expected that the government would comply with this new law. However, in a period of just nine days starting from 29 December 2016 and ending on the night before the handover of power on 7 January 2017, and while Ghanaians were focused on the political transition, there was this massive sale of government vehicles to departing political appointees in apparent disregard and breach of the law, at an average of 40 cars per day!

On 28 March 2017, we wrote to both the Chief of Staff and the Administrator-General under our right to information under Article 21(1)(f) of the Constitution, inquiring whether the government followed the law in those disposals. It was within weeks of this letter and while we were awaiting responses that President Akufo-Addo announced the ban.

When after several months of more waiting we did not receive a response from either office, we sent reminders on 30 January 2018. This time we received a response from the Administrator-General on 7 February 2018 providing us with a schedule and details of 361 vehicles disposed of as end-of-service benefits to political appointees, the names of the beneficiaries, and how much they were sold for.

If the breach of the law was surprising, then the prices at which the vehicles were sold told a shocking story. For instance, a Toyota Camry registered in 2014 was sold to a political appointee in 2016 for GHS12,500. A Toyota Corolla commissioned in 2013 and registered in 2015 was sold to another political appointee for GHS6,000. Another Toyota Corolla, commissioned and registered in 2016 was sold for GHS6,100 to an appointee. A one-year-old Nissan Sunny went to an appointee for GHS7,500. In another instance, a Toyota Avensis was sold for just GHS1,200 to another appointee. BMWs were sold to the more prominent appointees at between GHS25,000 and GHS45,000.

In the absence of the Technical Report that the law demands, it is impossible to ascertain if these vehicles were even or duly classified as obsolete and surplus. What has become apparent is that there was no Board of Survey or Technical Report. There certainly were no public tenders or public auctions. The vehicles were simply handed over to political appointees at 'yor k3 gari' prices, all in flagrant breach of the law.

That is why in the Administrator-General's 7 February 2018 letter, he tellingly stated that he could not provide information on whether the disposals complied with the mandatory procedure imposed by law, and then directed us to seek answers to this from the Office of the Chief of Staff. That office has never responded to us. When on 14 February 2018 we wrote back to the Administrator-General demanding data on disposal of assets since 2003, he responded on 15 February 2018 to say that his office did not have that data since it only came into existence in 2013.

Our further letter to the President dated 17 July 2018 demanding a full-scale inquiry into the matter has received neither a response nor any action. The lack of response is particularly worrying when viewed against the fact that section 92 of the Act criminalises breaches of its provisions and makes offenders (i.e. officials and beneficiaries) liable to be jailed for up to five years.

It is in the light of the above that we remain unconvinced by the assurances made by the immediate past president and the current president to end this practice. We note that they still fail to acknowledge the sheer illegality of it. That is why we believe that the best way to assure Ghanaians that this practice is or will be a thing of the past, would be to satisfy Ghanaians that the December 2016 sale of 361 government vehicles was in accordance with the law. If not, we expect the government to rescind those sales forthwith and then compel compliance with the law.

We call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to support our demands especially in the light of our shared constitutional duty under Article 41(f) to protect and preserve public property and expose and combat misuse and waste of public funds and property.

We believe that in the coming elections, Ghanaians will judge the parties, especially those that are in power or have been in power before, not just by the sweetness of their promises and assurances, but by their deeds concerning the same matters about which they seek to make promises and give assurances.

Still in the service of God and Country.

OccupyGhana
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After marking down the Vodafone Idea debt investments to zero, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has now gone ahead and side-pocketed or segregated the bonds of the company that were held in six of its debt schemes.

Known as side-pocketing in mutual fund parlance, this refers to a practice where fund houses isolate risky assets from the rest of their holdings and cap redemption in the segregated assets.

"The Board of Trustees of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has approved the creation of segregated portfolios in Franklin India Low Duration Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund," the fund house said in a statement.

The fund house also said that the side-pocketing was done only after CRISIL downgraded the telecom companys debt securities below investment grade.

On January 24, CRISIL had downgraded the non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of Vodafone Idea to BB, that is considered to below investment grade.

On Jan 16, 2020, debt securities of Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) held in the schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund were marked down to a value of zero immediately after Supreme Court dismissed the review petition by telecom players including Vodafone Idea on account of liabilities related to adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.

Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs 53,038 crore as AGR to government.

Franklin Templeton MF, which has 62 percent (Rs 1,738 crore) exposure in Vodafone Idea (VIL) - the highest, was also the the first fund house to mark down its investment in the company to zero.

The marking down of exposure in Vodafone Idea had led to a 4-7 percent drop in the net asset value of its schemes.

Investors in the affected schemes as on January 24 will receive separate units in the segregated portfolios, the fund house said.

Franklin Templeton is followed by UTI MF, Nippon India MF and Aditya Birla Sun Life MF in terms of exposure to the company, Morningstar India data showed. The other three have not yet marked down their holdings.

After the credit crisis in IL&FS and DHFL, SEBI issued a comprehensive circular in December 2018 to allow mutual funds to segregate their holdings in stressed securities.

EXPERTS SAY

The side-pocketing is positive for investors as upon recovery of money from the issuer (Vodafone Idea) in the segregated portfolio(s), whether partial or full, it will be distributed to the investors in proportion to their holding in the segregated portfolio.

Mutual fund experts said that the fund industry has now definite guidelines in form of side pocketing SEBI regulations, that saves the remaining scheme from being affected, said an Ex SEBI DGM who worked in mutual fund department .

It now seems that troubled Vodafone debt papers would generate that part of scheme returns of Vodafone os also able to restructure debt paper with mutual funds for a possible delayed payment after it pays out AGR dues and stays afloat. Segregation of Vodafone papers through side pocketing would be in vogue till then, the Ex-SEBI DGM added.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman extended her greetings to the nation on the occasion of Republic Day, the day India's Constitution came into force.

READ: Republic Day 2020 LIVE Updates: India Gears Up For 71st R-Day Celebrations & Parade

FM extends wishes

Greetings and good wishes on the occasion of 71st Republic Day. #RepublicDay #Indian  Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) January 26, 2020

The day marks India's 71st Republic Day of the country and multiple senior ministers have wished the nation on the occasion. Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro is the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations. He will be accompanied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind.

READ: Govt Announces Padma Shri Awards 2020: Here Is All You Need To Know About The 21 Awardees

The PM will begin the celebrations with a visit to the National War Memorial near India Gate in the National Capital. Other Union Ministers, as well as Opposition leaders, wished the nation on the occasion.

Wishing everyone a happy #RepublicDay.



      - 



 !  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 26, 2020

My best wishes to each & every Indian on this our Republic Day.



       #RepublicDay2020 pic.twitter.com/P4ogRzuPN3  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 26, 2020

   71     



Greetings to all Indians on 71st Republic Day. pic.twitter.com/BRn4YB5q0h  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) January 26, 2020

I convey my warm greetings and best wishes to all citizens of our nation on the joyous occasion of Republic Day celebrations. It was on this historic day in 1950 that our Constitution came into being. #RepublicDay2020 #RepublicDay pic.twitter.com/sc3Ee6fODZ  Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) January 26, 2020

The 90-minute-long Republic Day parade ceremony will begin after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays respect at the National War Memorial near India Gate. As per the tradition, the Indian National Flag will be unfurled with a booming 21-gun salute followed by the national anthem. The parade will be commanded by Parade Commander Lieutenant General Asit Mistry, while Chief of Staff Major General Alok Kacker will be the parade Second-in-Command.

READ: President Kovind Addresses Nation On Eve Of R-Day, Stresses On Gandhian Principles

READ: Here's What You Will See During The 90-minute-long Republic Day Parade
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Islands new fast ferry service will be situated between the base of the Richmond County Bank Ballpark and Empire Outlets in St. George, the Advance has learned.

The Economic Development Corp. (EDC) vowed to begin the new service to and from Midtown Manhattan before the end of this year, however, an exact date has yet to be determined. The city initially announced plans for the new fast ferry route more than a year ago.

I think well have a lot more schedule certainty around when we think well start after we get our permits, which were hoping is going to be spring or summer, said Seth Myers, the EDCs executive vice president, during a recent tour of the future ferry dock site.

Three boats currently under construction will service the route. Commuters are expected to pay $2.75 for the ride, which will take 18 minutes to get from St. George to Battery Park/Vesey Street, and then another 17 minutes to continue onto Midtown West at Pier 79/West 39th Street. Shuttle buses are expected to regularly pick up commuters from the West 39th Street stop.

The EDC said it anticipates the new route will be the second most popular in the NYC Ferry system after its East River route, and expects the Island to see 1.9 million annual trips.

As the city works to get the service up and running, Borough President James Oddo and Rep. Max Rose said they are working to turn the North Shore into a ferry mecca and secure an East Shore ferry, too.

A ROUTE TO BROOKLYN?

Oddo said he would like to see a route to Brooklyn that would connect the North Shore to Brooklyns existing South Brooklyn fast ferry route, which includes stops in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Red Hook, Atlantic Avenue and DUMBO.

He said he has been working with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a potential mayoral candidate, on the expansion. Adams said it would be a missed connection if the city does not look at additional ways to connect the boroughs.

Adams thinks connecting the two boroughs by ferry is something that could happen this year and he is open to where the connection, or multiple connections, could go.

It would take a substantial amount of decades to build a tunnel under the waterway. It would take a long period of time to  add tracks onto the Verrazzano Bridge if that was feasible. Even to open and put bike lanes, all of this would take time. It would take little or no time to build out a dock, create a route for a ferry and to allow the system to be utilized, Borough President Adams said.

EAST SHORE FERRY SERVICE?

Oddo and Rose said they want to bring ferry service to the Islands East Shore. They hope the East Shore Seawalls construction will allow a fast ferry to be built along that shore, a plan currently being studied by consultants.

I want the EDC and the mayor to add us to an existing New York City ferry route, Oddo said.

Right now, lets get this [North Shore route] up and running, lets focus on adding us to the Brooklyn route. I think thats the most tangible next achievement we can get in terms of fast ferry, all the while we go over the consultants report, Oddo added.

WHAT ABOUT THE WEST AND SOUTH SHORES?

But Staten Islanders will likely not get fast ferry service routes along the West and South shores anytime soon.

When the fast ferry service expansion was announced last year, many South Shore residents were upset the city did not include the area in the plan. They were puzzled at why the city added a route already serviced by the Staten Island Ferry when they typically commute two hours or more to Midtown.

Asked if the South Shore was being considered for a future route, the EDC said it will continue to look at new locations, but noted its most recent study showed that the South Shore was not feasible due to low water depth and safety issues.

The mayors office declined to say whether de Blasio was considering fast ferry service to Brooklyn or the South Shore, only saying the administration is always looking for additional ways to optimize and expand the system.

The Coast Guard and EDC studied a potential West Shore fast ferry route, but concluded that ferry service there would be impossible due to the volume of tankers and shipping activity along the West Shore waterway.

Last year, the mayor said the door was still open to thinking about other fast ferry stops in the future and that come 2021, he would do another assessment to see if more fast ferry routes are needed around the city.

With this vision of the North Shore as a ferry mecca, you have points up and down where we can continue to add access points, so the skys the limit here, Rose said.

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While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the Austin Engineering Limited (ASX:ANG) share price up 14% in a single quarter. But that can't change the reality that over the longer term (five years), the returns have been really quite dismal. Indeed, the share price is down 69% in the period. So we're hesitant to put much weight behind the short term increase. But it could be that the fall was overdone.

Check out our latest analysis for Austin Engineering

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During five years of share price growth, Austin Engineering moved from a loss to profitability. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.

In contrast to the share price, revenue has actually increased by 6.5% a year in the five year period. So it seems one might have to take closer look at the fundamentals to understand why the share price languishes. After all, there may be an opportunity.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

ASX:ANG Income Statement, January 27th 2020

It is of course excellent to see how Austin Engineering has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We've already covered Austin Engineering's share price action, but we should also mention its total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. Austin Engineering's TSR of was a loss of 59% for the 5 years. That wasn't as bad as its share price return, because it has paid dividends.

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A Different Perspective

Austin Engineering shareholders gained a total return of 7.7% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 16% per year, over five years. So this might be a sign the business has turned its fortunes around. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Austin Engineering you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
By Umit Ozdal

ELAZIG, Turkey, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Rescue teams working through the night in sub-zero temperatures pulled 45 people from collapsed buildings, Turkey's disaster authority said on Sunday, as the death toll from a powerful earthquake in the country's east rose to 31.

Broadcasters showed footage of a 35-year old woman and her infant daughter being rescued from under the rubble 28 hours after the magnitude 6.8 quake struck Elazig province.

Rescuers using their hands, drills and mechanical diggers continued searching for survivors at three sites in the province, Disaster and Emergency Authority AFAD said.

It said the quake, which was followed by more than 700 aftershocks, killed 27 people in Elazig and four in the neighbouring province of Malatya. More than 1,600 sustained injuries.

AFAD urged residents not to return to damaged buildings because of the potential risk of collapse. It said officials had identified 645 heavily damaged and 76 collapsed buildings in the two provinces.

(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by John Stonestreet)
Chinese health authorities said Tuesday that the coronavirus outbreak has killed 106 people and infected 4,515. The officials also said 60 people had been discharged. The majority of the reported cases are in mainland China, where local authorities have quarantined several major cities and canceled Lunar New Year's events in Beijing and elsewhere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday expanded its Level 3 travel advisory for China, asking Americans to "avoid all nonessential travel to China." The advisory was previously just for Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the disease's outbreak and where the majority of cases have been reported. The U.S. Department of State on Monday raised its travel advisory for China from Level 2 to Level 3 asking Americans to "reconsider travel to China due to the novel coronavirus." They added that some areas have "added risk." President Donald Trump addressed the matter in a tweet Monday, saying the U.S. is "in very close communication with China concerning the virus." Trump Tweet. Multiple cases of the virus have been confirmed in Hong Kong, Macao, Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, France and the United States. On Monday, local authorities in Germany confirmed the country's first case. Nepal has confirmed one case. Cambodia confirmed its first case on Monday, according to Reuters, citing Health Minister Mam Bunheng. Sri Lanka also confirmed its first case on Monday, Reuters reports. Several companies, including Walt Disney with its Shanghai Disney, are suspending operations until further notice during the normally festive weeklong Lunar New Year holiday to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Starbucks and McDonald's also closed stores in Hubei province. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Sunday a fifth U.S. case of the coronavirus  a patient in Maricopa County, Arizona, who recently traveled to Wuhan, China.

U.S. health officials warned that the flu or other respiratory illnesses could complicate identifying more cases. They recommend that people call a health-care provider before seeking treatment so the appropriate measures can be put in place. The CDC is trying to speed up testing and to get the tests in the hands of state health officials. It currently takes the CDC about four to six hours to make a diagnosis once a sample makes it to its lab. CDC officials said Monday that the number of "patients under investigation" in the U.S. has almost doubled since Thursday to a total of 110 across 26 states. The disease is not spreading through human-to-human contact in the U.S. and the risk to the public right now is still considered low, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call Monday. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually infect animals but can sometimes evolve and spread to humans. Symptoms in humans include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, which can progress to pneumonia. Physicians have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of SARS, which had a short incubation period of two to seven days. U.S. officials said Friday that symptoms from the new virus, temporarily named 2019-nCoV, may take up to 14 days to appear. The WHO's director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is traveling to Beijing to meet with government and health officials. According to the organization, more data needs to be collected before the virus, which can spread through human-to-human contact, is declared a global health emergency. WHO declined at two emergency meetings last week to say it was a worldwide emergency.
India's monthly palm oil imports from Malaysia could fall to the lowest level in nearly nine years in January as traders stopped buying the tropical oil from Kuala Lumpur following informal instructions from New Delhi, traders and refiners told Reuters.

Lower imports by India, the world's biggest palm oil importer, could weigh on Malaysian prices that have corrected nearly a tenth after hitting a three-year peak earlier this month.

In the second week of January New Delhi privately urged palm oil importers to boycott Malaysian products after the country's Prime Minister criticised India's actions in Kashmir and its new citizenship law.

Some traders had been hoping state-run trading firms could buy refined palm oil for the public distribution system by floating tenders, but this does not seem to have materialised.

"No one is buying Malaysia's crude palm oil (CPO) or palmolein for February shipments. There are no open tenders from state agencies yet," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

India is set to import less than 70,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in January, the lowest since April 2011 and significantly lower than the 253,889 tonnes it imported in January 2019, traders and refiners said.

In February imports could be negligible at less than 10,000 tonnes as almost every Indian buyer has switched to Indonesia, they said.

"Traders stopped buying from Malaysia after the government gave verbal instructions. This month's shipments are from the contracts signed before the government instructions," said a Mumbai-based dealer with one global trading firm.

In 2019, India imported 4.4 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia, with average monthly imports of 367,459 tonnes, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) data showed.

Indonesian sellers are currently charging a premium around $25 per tonne over CPO supplies from Malaysia, but "we have little choice but to buy," said an Indian refiner, which had shifted its entire buying to Indonesia.

India's palm oil imports from Indonesia could be around 550,000 tonnes in January, said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of the Sunvin Group, a Mumbai-based vegetable oil importer.

Indonesia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil, followed by Malaysia.

Palm oil accounts for nearly two-thirds of India's total edible oil imports. India buys more than 9 million tonnes of palm oil annually, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Even in coming months, Indian imports would be negligible from Malaysia, unless the Indian government changes its stance," said an importer based at Indore in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
The state government is all set to start culling of chicken after confirmation of avian influenza or bird flu in the poultry farms of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) located here, official sources said.

The culling will be conducted within one kilometre of the OUAT poultry farm located inside the campus of the College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry at Siripur locality.

"We had sent the blood sample of the birds to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal and these were tested positive to the H5N1 virus," said Prof Susen Panda of the OUAT.

An official of the Fisheries and Animal Resources department said, "All the poultry birds within one km radius of the infected site will be culled and disposed of by deep burial method with application of disinfectants like lime and bleaching powder."



Panda said the blood sample was sent to for the test to the HSADL following unusual death of chicken in the poultry farm.

"So far, about 1500 birds have died in the farm and they were buried deep inside the ground," Prof Panda said adding that the state government would undertake culling procedure after confirmation of the bird flu in the state capital.

The OAUT authorities have sealed the poultry farm which houses above 15,000 chickens.

The government also appealed people not to panic over the bird flu outbreak as all measures were being taken for its control.

Meanwhile, sources said, the authorities of the Nandankanan Zoo located at the outskirt of the state capital have decided to close the Bird Park from Tuesday in view of the avian influenza outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Spains freshly inaugurated governing coalition is composed of socialists, Communists, and Communist sympathizers. But instead of seizing the means of production or nationalizing Spanish industry, the governing Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) is waging war on homophobia.

Government leaders announced their intention to veto a parental-rights law passed in the subdivision of Murcia. The law, which allows the regions parents to opt their children out of lessons on socially controversial moral questions or sexuality in public schools, infuriated members of the Spanish Left, who claimed that the carve-out denies the children of homophobic and sexist parents the right to state-sanctioned moral instruction on matters of sex and gender. Irene Montero, Spains equalities minister, told reporters that the sons and daughters of homophobic parents have the same right as everyone else to be educated about respect, the promotion of human rights, and being able to love whoever they want. The children of sexist parents, she said, still have a right to be educated about equality and feminism.

Theres no reason that this line of argument  which holds that the state must usurp parental authority in certain matters of moral formation  should end with compulsory sex education for elementary-school students. It could equally be used to deprive homophobic and sexist parents of their custody rights. If children of such parents have the same right as everyone else to be educated about sexual morality in the manner the state prescribes, how much more of a right do they have to live with parents who will affirm their right to love whoever they want or uphold the ideals of feminism?

The prospect sounds less outlandish when one considers the contempt that the governing coalition holds for those dissenting parents. To the PSOE, those who would withdraw their children from the classroom do not merely hold to an alternative moral paradigm but instead cause a rupture [in] school harmony and the culture of dialogue and reflection, while imposing a blind and uncritical authoritarianism. Describing traditionalist parents in such a manner is a strange use of the word authoritarianism, but then again, its a strange understanding of human rights that includes lessons about homosexuality for small children in public schools. I fail to see what human rights has to do with instructing seven-year-olds about the glory of various sexual practices and perhaps my failure is evidence that such lessons ought to be compulsory.

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Such is the Orwellian state of the Spanish regime, which claims that parents are authoritarians for objecting to its undisguised authoritarianism and that it, the regime, is cultivating a culture of dialogue and reflection as it does the opposite. Spanish officials call dissenting parents blind and uncritical, even as the Spanish government itself insists on blind and uncritical deference to its preachment on matters of sexual morality.

C. S. Lewiss The Abolition of Man provides a window into the potential consequences of such pedagogical subversion. In Man, Lewis responds to a contemporary primer for British students called The Green Book, written by Alec King and Martin Ketley (pseudonymized as Gaius and Titius), that Lewis claimed was designed to discredit the natural law and Christian morality. Gaius and Titius masked their polemics, Lewis said, in apparently neutral prose, which gave their textbook a false air of impartiality. He worried that The Green Book was sufficiently subtle that students might swallow its premises whole while remaining oblivious to the ideology they imbibed. Lewis wrote:

The very power of Gaius and Titius depends on the fact that they are dealing with a boy: a boy who thinks he is doing his English prep and has no notion that ethics, theology, and politics are all at stake. It is not a theory they put into his mind but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its pretense unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.

Spanish children may not realize that ethics, theology, and politics are all at stake in classes the government insists are about equality and human rights. The government may very much want children to believe, in contravention of their homophobic parents, that there is no controversy at all about matters of sexual morality, even as their parents objections militate to the contrary. But the largest question  what any of this has to do with the governing coalitions professed socialist ambitions  is yet unanswered. Suffice it to say, Karl Marx would be surprised to see his ideological progeny waging war against homophobic proles instead of ushering in the Workers Paradise.

More from National Review
PHOENIX, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Advisor Group Holdings, Inc. ("Advisor Group") today announced that AG Issuer, LLC ("AG Issuer") intends to offer $575 million in aggregate principal amount of its Senior Secured Notes due 2028 (the "Notes"), subject to market and other conditions. The Notes are being offered in connection with Advisor Group's previously announced acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. ("Ladenburg") pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated November 11, 2019 (the "Merger").

Advisor Group intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with proceeds from an equity contribution, cash on the balance sheet, and borrowings under an incremental $200 million term loan B facility, to finance the consummation of the Merger and related transactions, repay certain Ladenburg debt and pay fees and expenses incurred in connection with the transactions. Advisor Group intends to use any remaining proceeds for general corporate purposes.

To the extent the offering closes prior to the Merger, the proceeds from the offering will be placed in escrow until the closing of the Merger. Upon the closing of the Merger, AG Issuer will merge with and into Advisor Group, with Advisor Group continuing as the surviving corporation and assuming the obligations of AG Issuer under the Notes and the related indenture.

Following the closing of the Merger, (i) the Notes will be guaranteed on a senior secured basis by each of Advisor Group's existing and future wholly-owned U.S. restricted subsidiaries that will guarantee Advisor Group's senior secured credit facilities and (ii) the Notes and related guarantees will be secured on a first-priority basis by liens on all assets of Advisor Group and the guarantors that secure the senior secured credit facilities.

The Notes and the related guarantees are being offered only to persons reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and to certain non-U.S. persons in transactions outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes and related guarantees have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any state or other jurisdiction's securities laws. Accordingly, the Notes may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements under the Securities Act and any applicable state or other jurisdiction's securities laws.

This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful.

About Advisor Group

Advisor Group, Inc. is one of the nation's largest networks of independent financial advisors serving over 7,000 advisors and overseeing $271 billion in client assets. Headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, the firm is mission-driven to support the heroic role that advisors can play in the lives of their clients, offering securities and investment advisory services through its subsidiaries FSC Securities Corp., Royal Alliance Associates Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc. and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., as broker/dealers, registered investment advisors and members of FINRA and SIPC. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial advisors and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release regarding the Notes offering, the use of proceeds therefrom and the Merger are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and actual results may differ materially as a result of a variety of factors. Such forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which Advisor Group is unable to predict or control, that may cause actual results, performance, or plans to differ materially from any future results, performance or plans expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (i) the timing to consummate the Notes offering and Merger; (ii) the risk that a condition to closing of the proposed Merger may not be satisfied and the Merger may not close; (iii) the risk that a regulatory approval that may be required for the proposed Merger is delayed, is not obtained or is obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated; (iv) the risk that a sufficient number of shares of Ladenburg common stock are not voted in favor of the proposed Merger; (v) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the agreement governing the Merger; (vi) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the Merger on Ladenburg's business relationships, operating results, and business generally; (vii) risks that the proposed Merger disrupts current operations of Ladenburg and potential difficulties in Ladenburg employee retention as a result of the Merger; (viii) risks related to diverting management's attention from Ladenburg's ongoing business operations; (ix) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Ladenburg related to the Merger; and (x) the amount of the costs, fees, expenses and other charges related to the Merger. The list above is not exhaustive. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Advisor Group disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Media Inquiries

Joseph Kuo / Chris Clemens

Haven Tower Group

424 317 4851 or 424 317 4854

[email protected] or [email protected]

SOURCE Advisor Group Holdings, Inc.
The Duchess of Sussex 'really regretted giving up' her professional career for her royal family role which 'didn't compare' to her life as a TV star, according to the Queen's biographer.

Sally Bedell Smith, who has written biographies on senior royals including Princess Diana and Prince Charles, has revealed how Meghan Markle, 38, was unhappy 'renouncing' her former life for one in The Firm.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Sally explained: 'It seems now that she really regrets having had to give that up, and what she was expected to do in the royal family didnt compare with what she had been accustomed to.'

Last week, Buckingham Palace announced that from the spring Harry and Meghan will stop using their HRH titles and withdraw from royal duties, including official military appointments.

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith has said Meghan Markle, 38, now 'really regrets' having had to give up her successful career before joining the royal family (pictured, the former actress starring in Suits)

Sally said there were 'innumerable advantages and perks' to being in the royal family, but that joining The Firm meant renouncing 'a lot of things that may have meant a lot to you.'

She said many of those advantages were available in exchange for official duties and charitable work and an effort to dedicate oneself to the institution.

But the royal biographer suggested that Meghan 'may not have seen it that way' when she married into the royal family.

Sally said it now seems Meghan 'really regrets' having had to give up her professional life, while what she was expected to do as a royal couldn't compare.

The Queen's biographer said Meghan's role in the royal family 'didn't compare with what she had been accustomed to' (pictured, Prince Harry and Meghan in London earlier this year)

The Duchess appeared in US legal drama Suits as character Rachel Zane for six years but gave up her acting career when she started to date Prince Harry.

But the actress kept on her high-powered Hollywood team, including Hollywood agent Nick Collins of The Gersh Agency, to look after her future career despite marrying into the Royal Family.

It emerged earlier this month that her Beverly Hills team are now handling lucrative film, TV and philanthropic offers and opportunities on behalf of the couple from around the world.

Experts say that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have the potential to rake in tens of millions of dollars annually, particularly if they choose to follow in the lucrative footsteps of Barack and Michelle Obama with public speaking opportunities, books, and TV deals. Additionally, Meghan could endorse fashion and beauty products.

The biographer suggested the Duchess had been unhappy renouncing her Hollywood life to join the royal family (pictured, Meghan in 2016 visiting the Today Show before royal life)

Last week Buckingham Palace announced that from the spring Harry and Meghan will stop using their HRH titles and withdraw from royal duties, including official military appointments.

However the couple will be allowed to maintain their private patronages and associations.

They are currently staying in a Vancouver Island bolthole with their one-year-old son Archie as they continue to pursue their charity projects.
ATLANTA, GA, and WUHAN, CHINA, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. (GOVXD), a biotechnology company developing human immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer, together with BravoVax, a vaccine developer in Wuhan, China, today announced the signing of a Letter of Intent to jointly develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus (known as 2019-nCoV).



Under the collaboration, GeoVax will use its MVA-VLP vaccine platform and expertise to design and construct the vaccine candidate using genetic sequences from the ongoing coronavirus outbreak originating in Wuhan, China. BravoVax will provide further development, including testing and manufacturing support, as well as direct interactions with Chinese public health and regulatory authorities.

David Dodd, GeoVax President & CEO, commented, Serious infectious disease epidemics such as the current coronavirus outbreak require rapid and effective response in order to minimize the detrimental impact on populations at risk. We are extremely pleased to begin working with BravoVax on this important and critical project, focused on minimizing the threat and impact of 2019-nCoV. The GeoVax technology and expertise has previously demonstrated success in addressing various infectious disease threats, based upon our novel MVA-VLP platform and expertise. With BravoVax located at the epicenter of this outbreak and their respective expertise, we feel confident towards advancing our vaccine candidate into clinical development in a timely manner, providing a critical tool in addressing the new coronavirus threat. We look forward to further collaborations and support from US and other international public health entities joining in addressing the 2019-nCoV threat.

Wu Ke, BravoVax Founder & CEO, said: As an established human vaccine developer, BravoVax is committed to utilizing its resources and network of connections within the Chinese virology, epidemiology, and regulatory communities to address this new threat to public health. Our physical location in Wuhan, essentially Ground Zero for the novel coronavirus outbreak, gives us even greater incentive to be a part of an effective solution. We are excited by the opportunity to partner with GeoVax in leveraging their proven MVA-VLP vaccine platform to address this crisis. We look to collaborate closely with them in moving their vaccine candidate through pre-clinical and clinical testing in the most expeditious way possible in our aim to bring a safe and effective vaccine to those at risk for acquiring this infection.

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GeoVaxs Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) platform technology is built on a 5th generation MVA vector system that is improved for high expression and stable transgenes during manufacture. Similar to its parent MVA, it has the advantage of being a live replication-competent vector in avian cells for manufacturing, yet replication-deficient in mammalian cells for vaccination, thus inherently safe. Importantly, MVA vaccines elicit protective T cell as well as antibody responses in animals and humans. The GeoVax MVA platform can be combined with the potent immunogenicity of Virus Like Particles (VLPs) (insertion of multiple antigens from each pathogen of interest conferring broad protection) or be used to express proteins in their native conformations, enabling construction of vaccine candidates that induce full protection after a single dose. Single dose protection is a favourable characteristic of preventive vaccines for emerging infectious disease outbreak response, given the speed of spread of pathogens and the impracticality of multi-dose regimens in the under-resourced settings where outbreaks often occurs. MVA-VLP vaccine candidates against various virus families (e.g. Ebola, Marburg, Lassa and Zika) induced strong antibody and T cell responses and demonstrated broad protections after single dose vaccinations against lethal challenges.

About Coronavirus

Coronaviruses are common in many species of animals, including mammals, avians, and bats. In rare occasions, these viruses can evolve to cross the animal species and infect humans. They can quickly spread from person to person, resulting in lethal, yet rare, respiratory infections. Recent epidemics of SARS and MERS coronaviruses resulted in 774 and 858 deaths, respectively. Since 2015, there have not been any cases of SARS and MERS reported. But in January 2020, WHO identified a novel coronavirus, named 2019-nConV in Wuhan City of China. As of January 26, 2020, more than 2,000 people have been infected and at least 56 people have died as a result of the 2019-nCoV infections. To control the epidemic, China has implemented travel restrictions for more than 56 million people in the affected areas in at least 20 cities and has cancelled the mass Lunar New Year celebration in Beijing in an effort to control the spread of this deadly virus. On January 23, the Emergency Committee of the WHO advised that the current outbreak did not constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), but agreed on the urgency of the situation and suggested that the Committee should be reconvened in a matter of days to examine the situation further.

About BravoVax

BravoVax is a private, national-level biotechnology company specializing in the research and development of high-quality human vaccines. Based in Wuhan, China, BravoVax is currently in the preclinical stage of developing a pipeline that includes pneumococcal conjugate, respiratory syncytial virus, human papilloma virus, and varicella zoster vaccines. Its in-house R&D staff and pilot-scale manufacturing site equipped with state-of-the-art instruments are well positioned to transition its vaccine pipeline to clinical testing. By leveraging its multiple technologies and vaccine platforms, BravoVax has established collaborations with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and other national and international organizations. BravoVax seeks to improve global health through development and provision of high-quality vaccines, while meeting both domestic and international regulatory standards. For more information, visit www.bravovax.com

About GeoVax

GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer using a novel patented MVA-VLP based vaccine platform. On this platform, MVA, a large virus capable of carrying several vaccine antigens, expresses proteins that assemble into VLP immunogens within (in vivo) the person receiving the vaccine. The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated mimics virus production in a natural infection, stimulating both the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent, and control the target infection. The MVA-VLP derived vaccines elicit durable immune responses in the host similar to a live-attenuated virus, while providing the safety characteristics of a replication-defective vector.

GeoVaxs current development programs are focused on preventive vaccines against HIV, Zika, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa), and malaria, as well as therapeutic vaccines against chronic Hepatitis B infections and multiple cancers. The Company has designed the leading preventative HIV vaccine candidate to fight against the subtype of HIV prevalent in the larger commercial markets of the Americas, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia; this program is currently undergoing human clinical trials managed by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). GeoVaxs HIV vaccine is also part of collaborative efforts to develop an immunotherapy as a functional cure for HIV. For more information, visit www.geovax.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this document are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including whether: GeoVax can develop and manufacture its vaccines with the desired characteristics in a timely manner, GeoVax's vaccines will be safe for human use, GeoVax's vaccines will effectively prevent targeted infections in humans, GeoVaxs vaccines will receive regulatory approvals necessary to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises required capital to complete vaccine development, there is development of competitive products that may be more effective or easier to use than GeoVax's products, GeoVax will be able to enter into favorable manufacturing and distribution agreements, and other factors, over which GeoVax has no control. GeoVax assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements and does not intend to do so. More information about these factors is contained in GeoVax's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those set forth at "Risk Factors" in GeoVax's Form 10-K.

GeoVax Labs Inc.

678-384-7220

investor@geovax.com
A renewed drive by President Bashar al-Assad to recapture rebel-held territory in Syria's northwest sparked a fresh exodus of many thousands of civilians toward Turkey's border on Monday amid heavy air strikes, aid workers and witnesses said.

Syrian government forces have stepped up a campaign to recapture Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold where millions took refuge after fleeing other parts of Syria earlier in its nearly nine-year civil war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said Assad's forces had since Friday wrestled control of 22 towns and had cut through a strategic highway in Idlib that links the capital Damascus to Aleppo in northern Syria.

It said the Syrian army had encircled and was close to capturing Maarat al-Numan, an urban centre 33 km (20 miles) south of Idlib city. This would mark a significant advance for Assad's drive to take back all of Syria.

A rescue worker who posted a video from Maarat al-Numan said the city had been devastated by an assault of barrel bombs, missiles and shelling in recent days that had laid waste to scores of homes and vital infrastructure.

"Marat al-Numan is completely destroyed and its population has been displaced and is living in uncertainty," said the civil defence force worker, who did not identify himself.

Moscow and Damascus say they are fighting jihadist militants that have stepped up attacks on civilians in Aleppo, but rights groups and rescue workers say air strikes have demolished hospitals, schools and other civilian areas.

The renewed fighting comes despite a Jan. 12 ceasefire deal between Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides of the conflict.

Fouad Sayed Issa, an aid worker with the Violet Organisation in northern Syria, said Assad's latest campaign has frightened Syrians in the rebel enclave who fear death or arrest if their towns are recaptured.

"Over the past few days we have seen thousands of new internally displaced persons and we are talking here at the very least about 50,000 over the past four days," said Issa.

A witness said that thousands on Monday fled from the Idlib towns of Ariha and Saraqib, with trucks and cars seen crawling in gridlocked traffic toward areas, including the town of Azaz, close to the Turkish border.

The Observatory estimated that about 120,000 people had fled from countryside around Aleppo and Idlib over the past 12 days. Aid workers said most have moved to relatively safer parts of northern Syria near the Turkish frontier.

Turkey, which backs some rebel groups opposed to Assad, already hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees and fears that millions more could soon cross the border.

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There can be few places on Earth more infused with evil than this  the railhead at Auschwitz; the spot where countless families were savagely wrenched apart for eternity; where a click of the fingers dictated death now or death later; the end of the line in every sense three quarters of a century back.

And it was here last night, between the wreckage of two gas chambers, that some of the surviving witnesses to the greatest crime in modern history came with world leaders to lay candles and to declare: never again.

It had been 75 years ago this very day that advancing Soviet forces had liberated Auschwitz, the date the world now chooses to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

While events were taking place around the world  with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Prime Minister joining survivors and families in London last night  the main international ceremony was unfolding at the ghastliest concentration camp of them all.

It had been 75 years ago this very day that advancing Soviet forces had liberated Auschwitz, the date the world now chooses to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Pictured: A survivor of Auschwitz at last night's ceremony

Walking slowly but purposefully, driven by the tungsten resolve of those who have known the depths of man's inhumanity to man and never want to see it again, 200 survivors took their seats at the main ceremony.

Many wore caps or scarves with the same blue and white stripes that once marked them out as prisoners. In front of them stood the notorious arched watchtower  the 'Gate of Death'  which stands at the entrance to Birkenau, once the heart of the vast Auschwitz extermination complex.

Here, too, were heads of state including the kings and queens of Holland and Spain and several presidents (including those of Germany and Israel). The Duchess of Cornwall represented the UK.

Afterwards, the leaders of all the national delegations, along with a handful of survivors, walked the final stretch of railway track to the Auschwitz monument, half a mile inside the camp.

Through the gloom, they passed beneath the same watchtowers and fences which had greeted those terrified new arrivals tumbling out of their stinking cattle trucks 75 ago.

At the monument itself  a communist-era wall of stone and concrete lined with commemorative plaques in every language  the Duchess of Cornwall laid her candle at the English language plaque. It states: 'Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews.'

On either side stood the ruins of the crematoria which served Gas Chambers II and III.

It was here that the dreaded 'selections' took place, just after each train or 'transport' had clanked to a halt; men and women separated into lines before each line was split again.

It was here last night, between the wreckage of two gas chambers, that some of the surviving witnesses to the greatest crime in modern history came with world leaders to lay candles and to declare: never again. Pictured: The Duchess of Cornwall at last night's ceremony

The very young and the old would be sent one way for instant execution while those earmarked for slave labour would be sent the other.

Amid depravity on such an industrial scale, it was the small personal details which had the greatest impact on yesterday's audience.

Bat-Sheva Dagan, 94, originally from Poland, spoke of being ordered to sort through the belongings of the dead and her horror at finding a photo of her schoolteacher.

Else Baker, who was sent to Auschwitz from Hamburg as a little girl because of her mother's gipsy heritage, was so overcome by it all that she had to ask a helper to finish reading her speech.

It included an eight-year-old's horror on overhearing adult gossip that the Germans had run out of gas and had resorted to burning prisoners alive.

Rounding off the proceedings was the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, son of the late cosmetics magnate, Estee Lauder. A former US ambassador to Austria, he has devoted much of his life and fortune to preserving Auschwitz as a memorial and assisting survivors who want to return.

There can be few places on Earth more infused with evil than this  the railhead at Auschwitz

Addressing yesterday's main event, he reduced many to tears with the chilling testimony of an Auschwitz survivor who could only look on helplessly as his young daughter, in her little red coat, was gradually swallowed up into the herd of new arrivals heading straight for the gas chambers.

To this day, said Mr Lauder, he could not see a child in a little red coat without faltering.

What has made this anniversary even more poignant is the fact that the large majority of today's survivors were children during the Holocaust. Their memories are not just painfully vivid but seen through the prism of a child's mind.

These elderly men and women don't tell you about the rise of national socialism so much as the day that a happy childhood suddenly soured, the morning when a schoolfriend suddenly hit them for being Jewish, the moment when a parent's brave attempts at preserving normality suddenly crumbled in the face of some random act of unspeakable violence.

A recurring narrative was the descent from one squalid ghetto tenement to another before the bashing on the door in the dead of night and the herding of entire families into putrid cattle wagons. All would recall the sudden terror of Auschwitz  the yelling, the dogs and the shock of separation.

The saddest part of so many tragic stories I have heard this week has been survivors welling up as they admit they have spent their entire lives wishing they could have had one last kiss and hug from a mother or father who, instead, simply vanished. Yet they had all insisted on making one last journey back.

They found the dreaded watchtower encased in a giant marquee with seating (and heaters) laid out below for the main formalities. Once, this ceremony might have taken place in the open air.

However, it was decided that if the survivors were going to spend several hours seated with the world leaders, they should do so in a warm tent. Even so, it was never going to be an easy return.

Miriam Ziegler admitted that on her first return to Auschwitz, in 1982, she had been so overwhelmed that she asked her husband to get her away as quickly as possible. Despite the protestations of her family, she had insisted on coming back for yesterday's event.

She could well remember the liberation of the camp, she told me. Indeed she features in one of the most famous images of that day, a Soviet Army photo of a group of children huddled behind an Auschwitz fence.

What she still cannot recall are the exact circumstances before that moment. For Miriam was a child victim of the unspeakable experiments of camp doctor Josef Mengele. 'I remember the table and the medical implements but I have managed to blank everything else from my mind,' she said. 'It was just my way of coping.'

To this day, she has no idea precisely what Mengele did to her.

Among the British delegation accompanying the Duchess of Cornwall were two Londoners who survived the Holocaust. Renee Salt lived through both Auschwitz and Belsen and found the latter worse. It was also where she lost her mother.

'I never wanted to come back here but the first time I did, I think it helped to lay a ghost,' she told me.

Having made several visits since, she said, yesterday's trip would be her last. She was joined by Hannah Lewis, who had been imprisoned at another Nazi camp, Adampol, when she too lost her mother, shot dead in cold blood by a roving SS hit squad.

Both women regularly address schools on behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust. Though it pains them to do so, they do it out of a sense of duty  and a fear that anti-Semitism is, once again, on the rise.

It is why these survivors will keep talking until the bitter end. Tomorrow, another Auschwitz survivor, Eva Schloss, will address a meeting in London organised by the Foreign Office and the Israeli Embassy. Eva is the step-sister of Anne Frank, the girl whose diary of hiding from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam touched the world.

Eva's memories of Anne are of a pretty, vivacious girl  'not a tomboy like me'  but it is the horror of being parted from her mother which is still etched in her mind all these years later.

'She was selected for gassing and I thought I'd never see her again. I almost gave up after that,' Eva says. Miraculously, her mother survived and went on to marry Otto Frank, Anne's widowed father, eight years after the war.

Even so, it took decades before Eva could bring herself to speak about it. As Bat-Sheva Dagan said yesterday: 'You can open a dictionary but you will never find a phrase that can describe the depravity of Auschwitz.'
By Laman Ismayilova

"Baku-Moscow: dialogue of cultures" conference has been held in Baku bringing together public and cultural figures from both countries.

The project was implemented for the first time between the capitals of the two countries to strengthen the ties between Azerbaijan and Russia.

The event was co-organized by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture, Moscow Government and TASS News Agency.

Speaking at the conference, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stressed that dialogue of cultures has become a cornerstone of all international relations.

"This is respect for each other and the search for common ground, despite the fact that we are all different - if we are talking about peoples, countries and each person," she said.

First Deputy Director General of the Russian TASS News Agency Mikhail Gusman noted that Azerbaijan and Russia have deep historical roots.

He expressed gratitude to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva for their support in holding the conference.

"Everyone feels great joy from being in Baku, and the matter is not only in traditional Azerbaijani hospitality, but also in the atmosphere of friendship, cooperation, attention that the delegation is surrounded by, the first deputy director general added".

At conference, Azerbaijan Minister of Culture Abulfas Garayev said that the event was held for the first time.

The Minister emphasized that the Baku Process, launched at the initiative of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, continues its work in various forms and gives impetus to the implementation of various international projects.

These events aim to lay the foundation for expanding relations and consider topics to be discussed during the upcoming Baku International Humanitarian Forum.

People's writer of Azerbaijan Anar Rzayev noted that Azerbaijan pays great attention to Russian culture.

The Luch (Light) Literary and Creative Association operates under the Azerbaijan Writers Union. Moreover, Literary Azerbaijan and World of Literature editions are published, thus uniting Russian-speaking authors.

"The Writers' Union contributes to this noble cause for the further development of cultural ties between countries. The conference "Baku-Moscow: dialogue of cultures" conference will serve to further bring closer our peoples, culture and literature," he said.

As part of the conference, Baku and Moscow signed a protocol on cooperation in the field of culture. The document was signed by Head of Bakus Main Department of Culture Jalil Melikov and Head of Moscows Department of Culture Alexander Kibovsky.

The cooperation will be carried out in the areas of concert activity, museum and exhibition work, library work, cultural and leisure activities, art and music education.

The books "Formula of Power" and "Formula of Life" by the First Deputy General Director of the TASS News Agency, Honored Journalist of Russia Mikhail Guzman was presented at the conference.

The event was held at Baku Book Center to mark the 70th anniversary of Mikhail Guzman.

The evening was held in a very warm and friendly atmosphere with the participation of prominent public figures, representatives of culture and science.

At the ceremony, the director of the Baku Book Center Gunel Rzayeva said that the presentation serves as a good example of a high level of cultural cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia.

The book "Formula of Power" consists of 70 interviews with prominent figures. During the discussions, world leaders shared their personal opinions on a wide range of issues.

The second book "Formula of Life" is dedicated to the parents of Mikhail Guzman. The book tells about their impeccable professional service and devotion to their family and friends.

Moreover, a photo exhibition of prominent representatives of both countries opened its doors to visitors at Heydar Aliyev Center. The event was jointly organized by the TASS News agency and the Azerbaijan State News Agency.

The exhibition displays more than 60 photographs taken by TASS and AZERTAC photo journalists.

These works feature the leaders of the both countries, well-known politicians, public figures, scientists, actors, musicians and athletes.

In his speech, AZERTAC Chairman of Board Aslan Aslanov emphasized that the exposition highlights the great creative potential of photo journalists.

"TASS and AZERTAC photojournalists, is evidence of the close ties of our agencies, which have always been distinguished by friendliness and mutual support. This is the story of the relationship between our countries in photographs, and over the years these photographs become even more valuable. I am sure that we will have many more joint exhibitions ahead. Indeed, the cooperation of our countries is expanding and gaining strength, and we will do everything to create with our messages and photographs a chronicle of this friendship," said Aslanov.

Director General of Russian TASS News Agency Sergey Mikhaylov expressed his confidence that relations between Russia and Azerbaijan would be further strengthened.

After the ribbon symbolizing the opening was cut, the participants viewed the exhibition.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
...focused on making more high quality affordable units available. All the homes available in the Kachina Pines development are classed as affordable housing and come with a price tag under $280,000

AspireFund, under the leadership of Ryan Scott, recently finished construction on five of nine new homes in Kachina Village, Flagstaff. The development, named Kachina Pines, sits on a plot of land that was previously thought to be undevelopable.

AspireFund, a Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOF) Fund, used creative financing and an out of the box site plan to mitigate various obstacles and successfully develop Kachina Pines.

A Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund (QOF) is an investment vehicle that is organized for the purpose of investing in qualified opportunity zone property. Opportunity zones are designated areas that have been identified by the State government as distressed or in need of the biggest reason to invest in QOF is because of the tax incentives for investors with capital gains.

For the past ten years, the 1.5 acre plot of land in the middle of Flagstaffs Kachina Village confounded developers in Northern Arizona. Ryans vision for the project was to go beyond the simple five lot split everyone else claimed was the only way. Instead, he and his team pursued and successfully received county approval for nine lots. More lots, plus the financial leverage provided by the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program, rendered the project not just feasible, it became a home run.

Kachina Pines, with its five homes complete and four to go, is perfectly situated in Kachina Village, Flagstaff, where a housing crisis has been influencing land values for years. In the first of several planned OZ projects near Flagstaff, the true purpose of the program is being realized by Aspire Fund: investment dollars are flowing into areas that need them, creating positive outcomes for the community.

The district manager of the Kachina Village Improvement District, Sam Mossman said, Maybe three or four developers over the years inquired about developing the property, no single developer got as far as Ryan Scott in our process.

For them to get water and sewer connection; the developer writes the check for the improvement fee then we take and hold the entire amount in escrow until its approved.

With the influx of investment dollars, incentivized by the tax-benefits of Opportunity Zone investing, Scott raised over $1M to cover the entire project up front, including land purchase, entitlements, a new sewer main line extension, and construction. Mossman said, Ryan Scott was the only one willing to put that money on the line to get that land developed. He was good to work with, paid his bills, didnt try to pull one past us. I take my job as running the utility for the community seriously, so we make sure its a good project for the community and we make the developer foot the bill.

In addition, AspireFunds plan for the project sped through the entitlement process because the county is focused on making more high quality affordable units available. All the homes available in the Kachina Pines development are classed as affordable housing and come with a price tag under $280,000. Several are under contract today with no money down through the VA Loan program.

AspireFund is a Qualified Opportunity Zone Investment Fund led by Ryan Scott and focused on boutique real-estate development in Arizona.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact AspireFund at info@aspirefund.co
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Mondaylaunchedthe 'Kejriwal aapke dwaar' campaign to directly connect with the people of Delhi through pre-recorded messages.

The name of the website launched under the campaign is: HYPERLINK http://www.welcomekejriwal.in



Kejriwal said with the help of technology he would be able to directly reach out to the people of the city.

"We made a website through which I would be able to talk directly to the people of Delhi on different issues" he said.

The website has pre-recorded messages of the chief minister talking on different issues, such as health, education and unauthorised colonies among others.

"People would also be able to register their complaints which I will address after elections," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police at the scene in Newry.

Admissions have been made by a Latvian man during police interview concerning an attempted murder investigation in Newry, a court has heard.

Viktors Panfilovs (35) of Talbot Street in the city appeared in Newry Magistrates Court on Monday, January 27, charged with attempted murder on the previous Friday.

A PSNI, detective constable said she could connect the accused to the charges. No bail application was made.

The charges relate to a 41-year-old man being stabbed in the leg in an incident in Talbot Street. Police said it was a savage attack. The alleged victim was left with "life-changing injuries".

The incident took place at approximately 10.35pm.

A 22-year-old man who was also arrested and later released without charge.

Panfilovs appeared handcuffed and in a grey tracksuit in the dock.

Speaking through an interpreter, the defendant confirmed his name and date of birth.

Defence solicitor Declan Boyle cross-examined the detective and asked if she was aware of allegations made during interview?.

There have been certain admissions during interview and as such I would expect the case to be fast tracked, said Mr Boyle.

The police officer confirmed that she was aware.

District judge McGarrity adjourned the case to February 19.

The defendant was remanded into custody.
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Biocon's API manufacturing facility completes pre-approval and GMP USFDA inspection

Biocon is Asia's premier biopharmaceutical company that is driven by the vision to make a difference to global healthcare through improved access to high quality, life-saving biotherapeutics by making them affordable for patients across the world.

The company has announced that its API manufacturing facility has completed the pre-approval and GMP U.S. FDA inspection. The US drug regulator issued a Form 483 with five observations for the company's API manufacturing facility.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a pre-approval inspection (PAI) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspection of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing facility of Biocon.

At the conclusion of the inspection of the Bengaluru facility, which took place between 20 and 24 January 2020, the agency issued a Form 483, with five observations.

Biocon will respond to the FDA with a corrective and preventive action plan (CAPA) and is confident of addressing these observations expeditiously.

The company said it remains committed to global standards of quality and compliance.
The Korean Productivity Center Chairman Noh Kyoo-sung speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Jongno, Seoul, on Jan. 16. / Courtesy of KPC

By Kim Jae-heun



South Korea has been witnessing the steady decline of its economic growth rate since the country encountered financial crisis in 1997. The rate has been falling by 1 percentage point every five years to record 5 percent in 2000, 4 percent in 2005 and 3 percent in 2010.



In the last decade, the government took defensive measures to keep the rate of economic growth in the 2 percent range and has achieved a national per capita income of over $30,000 in 2018. Korea became the seventh country in the world with a population over 50 million to do so.



However, like Japan, Spain and Italy, Korea has failed to find its next growth engine that would at least maintain this rate. Last year, Korea's economic growth marked 2 percent; the lowest in 10 years.



But the Korea Productivity Center (KPC) Chairman Noh Kyoo-sung, whose agency trains and consults local firms and the government to encourage improvements in productivity, is offering a new strategy of national economic growth  the "Digital New Deal."



The "Digital New Deal stands on the basis of intelligence information technology, which will create new markets and solve the issue of polarization," said Noh during an interview with The Korea Times on Jan. 16. "When I say polarization, I am talking about the economic gap between the capital city and other local areas and the gap between major companies and small and medium-sized enterprises. The wage differential between rich and poor is also a problem."



"The most urgent task is to disperse the concentrated population and businesses to outside the capital area. All the opportunity and capital are saturated in Seoul. We need to balance them out and moving public firms and major companies' affiliates to local regions will make the start," Noh said.



The chairman said next comes digital transformation.



Major companies here have already became familiar with the process of using digital technologies to create new business processes, culture, and customer experience to meet changing business and market requirements.



Medium-sized firms are well aware but face difficulties applying the concept.



"We've developed a methodology for medium-sized firms' digital transformation to foster hidden champions. The aim is to obtain the maximum effect with minimum investment. Besides, we are helping firms to digitalize the manufacturing industry and expand the smart-factory system," Noh said.



To foster more local hidden champions, the KPC signed an MOU with various universities in the United States, Europe and the Middle East to incubate promising start-ups which came into effect last year.



"Purdue University has agreed to open a center with us to raise venture businesses there starting March. We will send Korean students to America, where they will learn the latest technology trends at Silicon Valley and make global connections," Noh said.



"The KPC will play the coordinator's role to attract venture capital investment for students, who learn to create start-ups at Purdue University, the State University of New York and the Plug and Play Tech Center," Noh added.


Refugees sentenced in Lebanon, skirmishes between US and Russian fighters, Jabhat al-Nusra attacks continue and the Syrian army advances. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend.

1. A Lebanese military court sentenced a Syrian refugee to three years hard labor on charges of affiliation with the Islamic State (ISIS) and planning to commit crimes against the Lebanese people and undermining the authority of the state, activists said Saturday. Zaman Al Wasl added that the court also sentenced, in absentia, four Syrian refugees to a life imprisonment with hard labor for belonging to ISIS. Mostly from the same family.

2. On Saturday, the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV reported that skirmishes took place between Russian and US forces in northeastern Syria. The skirmishes took place near the key town of Tel Tamr, where the US forces previously blocked Russian troops from entering. They reported shortly after that Russian military choppers were flying over the area, but did not provide anymore details.

3. A military source said that the Syrian Arab Army is determined to put an end to the breaches and attacks by Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and affiliated groups against civilians and army positions in Aleppo and Idleb. The source told SANA that al-Nusra and groups fighting alongside it continue to commit daily breaches of the de-escalation zone in Idleb and west Aleppo, targeting residential areas and army positions with rocket shells and car bombs that claim multiple lives and spread destruction and fear, and this cannot be permitted.

4. On Friday, Syrian regime forces inched closer to capturing a key rebel-held city in northwest Syria following pitched battles with rebels that killed 23 fighters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Damascus loyalists seized the villages of Deir Sharqi and Deir Gharbi in southern Idleb province, and were four kilometres from Maaret al-Numan. The rebel-held city is one of the largest urban centres in Syrias last major opposition bastion and a key target of the regime, the monitor said. Deir Sharqi and Deir Gharbi are the keys to capturing Maarat al-Numan, the Observatory said.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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Linkedin Imanuddin Razak (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27 2020

Its official: The national congress of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) on Dec. 22, 1993, elected Megawati Soekarnoputri, the eldest daughter of founding president Sukarno, as chairwoman for the 1993 to 1998 leadership period. PDI was an amalgamation of five political parties, which agreed to coalesce on Jan. 10, 1973, following a Peoples Consultative Assembly decree on the simplification of political parties. (JP/Arief Hidayat)

The rise of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)  the winner of the last two national legislative and presidential elections in 2014 and 2019  has been almost beyond imagination. After being a pariah political party throughout the three-decade rule of the New Order administration, when it was called the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), it has taken the lead in the countrys political affairs since the start of the Reform Era in 1998.

The success of the PDI-P, the ideological offspring of the former PDI, in achieving its current status as the leading member of the coalition government  if not the ruling political party  perhaps follows the law of nature that likens life to a rotating wheel: One day you might be at the lowest point, but you will certainly find yourself at the top someday.

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One of Portlands most revered primary schools is facing intense scrutiny, legal challenges, a criminal investigation and serious questions about whether, and how it allowed multiple teachers or employees to sexually abuse students for decades.

Catlin Gabel, the Southwest Portland private institution, released its own investigation of the decades of alleged abuse last month.

The Oregonian/OregonLives Jeff Manning broke the story and continues to reveal more details about the decades-old issues at Catlin. Hes spoken to nearly two dozen former students who say they were abused by teachers or staff at the progressive school. The abuse allegations span from the 1970s to as recently as 2016.

On the latest episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, Manning discusses how he landed the story, the flood of lawsuits he expects to arrive soon, where the story goes from here and whether Catlin Gabel can survive.

Heres the full episode:

-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
TEHRAN, Iran, Jan.27

Trend:

Iran has reduced gas export to Iraq due to technical problems, while the gas export to Turkey continues, said Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh, Trend reports citing ILNA.

"The increase of gas consumption has not created problem in gas export, but due to technical reasons export to Iraq has been reduced," Zangeneh said.

"Iraq has not paid us money for the gas," the minister added.

"Our first priority is providing gas to households, and then to small industries, while power plants are the last recipients," he noted. "The power plants currently consume 170 million cubic meter gas; considering the increase of gas consumption in households, we asked the power plants to reduce power export," Zangeneh said.

"The gas production process is currently very good and soon we will hit the record of producing 1,000 million cubic meters," the minister added.

The official has also indicated that the development phase 11 of South Pars by Petropars Company has been started.

"Our plan is to produce 1 billion cubic feet of gas," he said.
Israel's Channel 12 on Sunday reported that cyber-attacks originating from Iran were among the 800 distinct cyber-attacks on Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and planes of world leaders arriving in Israel to attend Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial on 23 January.

According to The Times of Israel on Sunday Channel 12 cited officials from the Airports Authority Cyber Division in a report that said last week, when world leaders including U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Russian President Vladimir Putin were arriving in Israel to attend the memorial, more than 800 cyber-attacks targeted Israel's international airport and the planes landing there.

Channel 12, also known as Keshet 12, is a free-to-air television owned by a media group of the same name.

The report said the attacks originated in Iran, China, North Korea, Russia and Poland but since preparations had been made ahead of the momentous event for Israel, the threats were neutralized by Israel's cyber defense, Hercules.

The Hercules project was launched by the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INDC) in 2017 to specifically counter cyber threats to aviation such as airports, control towers, airspace control, airlines and airplane maintenance.

On January 5, the United States Issued an alert warning of potential Iranian cyberattacks. A bulletin of the National Terrorism Advisory System dated January 4 said Iran maintains a robust cyber program and can execute Cyberattacks against the United States.

On December 11 Iran's Communications Minister admitted a "massive state-sponsored cyber-attack" aimed at the Iranian governments cyber-infrastructure and websites but did not name the state behind the attack. A few days later he said a second cyber-attack had been launched, this time "aimed at spying on government intelligence" but said both attacks had been defused.

Iranian officials have yet not reacted to the report.
Washington: Followers of the poet-saint Guru Ravidas staged a protest outside the office of a pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in New York on Sunday, against the alleged burning of the Indian Constitution by them. SFJ also allegedly demanded a referendum in Punjab, for a separate Khalistan state.

"SFJ tore a copy of the Indian Constitution and burnt it," said Ashok Kumar Mahi, president of Guru Ravidas temple in New York.

However, it came to light that SFJ did not burn the Constitution in public, as they had announced earlier. "They sent us a video of burning the Constitution," said Mahi, who had called for the demonstrations outside the SFJ office on Sunday.

The protesters raised slogans against the organisation and burnt the effigy of its leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannu. According to Mahi, members of the Guru Ravidas Gurudwara had been insulted by the act of burning the constitution. "Our protest is against them burning the sacred Constitution. They provoked us by sending this video," Mahi said.

The pro-Khalistan group has long been banned by India for its alleged activities against the country. SFJ, along with other like-minded organisations are planning to organise a referendum later this year for a separate Khalistan state.
TEHRAN, Iran - The chief of Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Monday that it will retaliate against American and Israeli commanders if the U.S. continues to threaten top Iranian generals.

I warn them to withdraw from this field, Gen. Hossein Salami told state television, adding if they do not, they will definitely regret it.

The U.S. killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who headed the expeditionary Quds force, in a drone strike outside of Baghdads airport in Iraq on Jan. 3. Five days later, Iran retaliated by launching ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq housing American troops, causing injuries but no fatalities among soldiers there.

Soleimani was responsible for Iranian proxy forces across the Mideast. The U.S. alleged that he was plotting attacks on American targets.

Soleimanis replacement, Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, has said he would carry with his predecessors work.

Salamis comments come in response to remarks from the U.S. special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, made to an Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper at the Davos economic forum last week.

Asked about Ghaanis pledge, Hook was quoted by the daily Asharq Awsat daily newspaper as saying if he follows a similar path of killing Americans, he will meet the same fate.

He said any any attacks against American personnel or interests in the region will be met with a decisive response.

I think the regime now understands that they cannot attack America at will, and expect to get away with it, Hook was quoted as saying. So we will hold the regime and its proxies accountable for any attacks on Americans, or on American interests in the region.

Salami said both the U.S. and Israel should know that if they threaten our commanders, none of their commanders will find a safe place to live.

He added that Irans reaction to continued threats would be completely different from the past but did not elaborate.

Later, the head of Irans judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, vowed to bring Soleimanis killers to trial and punishment for this terrible crime.

___

Associated Press writer David Rising in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this story.
Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic graffiti were spray-painted on the walls of a bank and takeaway in south-east London just hours before Holocaust Memorial Day.

Vandals daubed swastikas, symbols of white supremacy and the word 'Jews' across the windows of a Caribbean takeaway in Greenwich and a Barclays bank half a mile away in Blackheath on Saturday evening.

Greenwich council leader Danny Thorpe said he was 'disgusted and appalled' by the vandalism, and confirmed on Twitter that more graffiti had today been discovered as thousands across the country commemorate those who suffered in the Holocaust.

Vandals daubed swastikas, symbols of white supremacy and the word 'Jews' across a Barclays bank in Blackheath on Saturday evening

He said: 'I am appalled to see Anti Semitic, racist graffiti appear in Blackheath overnight. It is shocking and will not be tolerated in our borough.

'We take any incidence of this nature very seriously and are working closely with Greenwich Police to investigate and find those responsible.

'As a council we work hard to promote community cohesion and challenge prejudice and the language of hatred to make our borough a better place.'

He said the council worked through the night to paint over the graffiti and has urged members of the public who witnessed the attack to contact police.

Greenwich council leader Danny Thorpe said he was 'disgusted and appalled' by the vandalism which was also found on a Caribbean takeaway in Greenwich

He said the council worked through the night to paint over the graffiti and has urged members of the public who witnessed the attack to contact police

Greenwich & Woolwich MP Matt Pennycook said he was 'sickened' by the vandalism, which was also blasted by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

He tweeted: 'I will not give the racists who carried out these disgusting acts the satisfaction of reproducing images of the hate they want to see spread in our community.

'These crimes are a stark reminder of the rise in white supremacism and Jew hatred in our country and, when it comes to the latter, of the need to never be complacent about the unique and constantly mutating form of prejudice that is antisemitism.'

Greenwich & Woolwich MP Matt Pennycook said he was 'sickened' by the vandalism, which was also blasted by the Board of Deputies of British Jews

The Board of Deputies of British Jews thanked Greenwich council for their 'quick action' in removing the graffiti, adding that 'hatred has no place in our society, in our politics or on our streets.'

Metropolitan police believe the vandals struck between 10pm and 11pm on Saturday and are currently investigating the incident.

A spokesman said: 'Officers are investigating a report of anti-Semitic and racist graffiti on a bank on Vanburgh Park which is believed to have occurred between 10pm and 11pm on Saturday, 25 January.'
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine this week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Donald Trump's impeachment.

As Trump's Senate trial on impeachment charges continues, Pompeo will travel to Kiev as part of a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia.

His trip comes as the Ukraine is back in the news thanks to the president's impeachment trial, new revelations about U.S. relations with Ukraine in John Bolton's book, audio that indicates Trump ordered the former ambassador's firing, and Pompeo's own remarks about the country when he yelled at an NPR reporter 'do you think Americans care about Ukraine?'

Since November, Pompeo has twice canceled plans to visit Ukraine, most recently just after the New Year when developments with Iran forced him to postpone the trip. Pompeo will also visit Britain, as it finalizes its divorce from the European Union, along with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will make his first trip to the Ukraine this week

Pompeo will meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky while he is in Kiev

Trump's impeachment on charges of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress hinges on his policy toward Ukraine. Witnesses told House investigators that Trump wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son in return for releasing critical military aid to Ukraine.

And The New York Times received a leaked copy of an unpublished manuscript for a new book Bolton is writing, in which the former national security adviser claims the president told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the Eastern European nation helped with political investigations into his political rivals.

Trump has denied the charge.

'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,' he tweeted in response.

Pompeo has sought to stay above the impeachment fray and his stop in Ukraine will likely test his ability to continue to do so while leading diplomatic efforts to boost ties between Washington and Kiev that have been complicated by the process.

One of the impeachment witnesses, William Taylor, was until Jan. 1 the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Pompeo had appointed Taylor to the post over the summer to take over from Marie Yovanovitch, whose tour was abruptly cut short last May after Trump's personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani made unsubstantiated allegations against her. Yovanovitch testified that Trump supporters had mounted a smear campaign against her.

Audio released by an attorney for Lev Parnas, one of Giuliani's indicted sidekicks, on Saturday appears to show Trump ordering Yovanovitch's firing at the urging of Parnas, who claimed Yovanovitch was telling people Trump would be impeached.

In the audio, recorded at an April 2018 fundraising dinner at the Trump Hotel in Washington D.C., Parnas appears to say, 'The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start, is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration.'

Trump then appears to say, 'Where? The ambassador to Ukraine?'

Parnas replies, 'Yes. She's basically walking around telling everybody 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait'.'

A few seconds later, Trump appears to say, 'Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.'

During her testimony to House investigators during the impeachment inquiry, Yovanovitch denied ever saying Trump would be impeached.

And just before Pompeo's trip was announced, Giuliani said he would be presenting evidence of corruption involving the Bidens and Ukraine. Such allegations, even if they are unfounded, may distract from Pompeo's mission in Kiev, which is to show U.S. support for the country in the face of Russian aggression.

New audio appears to show Donald Trump ordering Marie Yovanovitch's firing

A new book by former National Security Adviser John Bolton claims Trump told him the aid to Ukraine was being held up in return for an investigation into the Bidens

Taylor departed Kiev just a day before Pompeo was to have arrived on his previously planned trip. The position was temporary and time-limited by law but his tenure could have lasted until mid-January. His departure prompted complaints from lawmakers that his departure was similar to Yovanovitch's early recall and sent a poor message to the embassy in Kiev and career diplomats more generally, as well as to Ukrainian authorities.

Pompeo responded testily on Friday when asked about Ukraine and Yovanovitch in an interview with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly. Repeating a frequent talking point, he said the Trump administration had done more for Ukraine than President Barack Obama had done, including supplying the country with lethal defensive weaponry.

'This administration has delivered the capability for the Ukrainians to defend themselves,' he said. 'President Obama showed up with MREs, we showed up with Javelin missiles. The previous administration did nothing to take down corruption in Ukraine. We're working hard on that. We're going to continue to do it.'

The Obama administration pushed Ukraine to do more to fight endemic corruption.

Asked about Yovanovitch, who is still employed by the State Department, Pompeo replied: 'I'll say only this: I have defended every State Department official. We have built a great team. I have defended every single person on this team. I have done what's right for every single person on this team.'

After the interview, Pompeo shouted his displeasure at being questioned about Ukraine, repeatedly using expletives, according to Kelly. During the f-word laced tirade he said: 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?'

Kelly claims Pompeo told aides to bring her to see him in his private living room, and not to bring a recording device.

It was there 'where he shouted at me,' Kelly said, adding: 'He asked: "Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?" 'He used the f-word in that sentence and many others.

'He asked me if I could find Ukraine on a map. I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing.

'I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He said: "People will hear about this."'

Pompeo, a West Point graduate who left the Army as a captain after a spell as a tank commander in West Germany, where he rose to squadron maintenance manager, has previously been director of the CIA before becoming Donald Trump's top diplomat.

Kelly has a masters degree in European studies from Cambridge University.

When Kelly reported on their post-interview conversation, Pompeo issued a statement which accused her of breaking an agreement to go off the record.

Going 'off the record' is a two-way agreement between a journalist and the person they are speaking to not to report what they said; Kelly says she never agreed to go off the record.

Emails obtained by The Washington Post show Pompeo's staff was aware Kelly planned to ask him about the Ukraine.

Kelly told Pompeo's press aide, Katie Martin, a day before the interview show that she was going to ask about topics other than Iran.

Pompeo also got into an f-filled rant with NRP reporter Mary Louise Kelly

Emails with Katie Martin, Pompeo's press aide, showed Kelly told the State Department she was going to ask Pompeo about Ukraine

'Just wanted to touch base that we still intend to keep the interview to Iran tomorrow,' Martin wrote. 'Know you just got back from Tehran so we would like to stick to Iran as the topic as opposed to jumping around. Is that something we can agree to?'

Kelly responded, 'I am indeed just back from Tehran and plan to start there. Also Ukraine. And who knows what the news gods will serve up overnight. I never agree to take anything off the table.'

In Kiev, Pompeo will meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose July 25 phone call with Trump triggered the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment. In that call, Trump disparaged Yovanovitch and asked Zelensky for 'a favor,' suggesting he wanted Ukrainian authorities to investigate Biden's son, Hunter Biden, for corruption. Trump has said the call was 'perfect' and has denied doing anything wrong.

In his meetings, Pompeo will 'reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity' as the country continues to battle Russia-backed separatists in the east, the State Department said. Pompeo also will honor Ukrainians who have died in the conflict, which intensified after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014, in a move condemned and rejected by most of the international community. A senior official said Pompeo would underscore that the U.S. will never recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The senior official, who previewed Pompeo's ultimately postponed trip, said the secretary would discuss Zelensky's anti-corruption efforts but would not comment on whether the secretary would raise Trump's desire for an investigation into Hunter Biden and his role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company or discredited claims that Ukraine and not Russia was responsible for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In addition, Pompeo plans to meet Ukrainian religious, civic and business leaders for talks on human rights, investment and economic and political reform, the department said.

Audio from a fundraiser with Lev Parnas appears to show Trump ordering Marie Yovanovitch's firing

Pompeo will begin his trip on Jan. 30 in London, where he will meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson and stress the administration's desire to forge a free-trade trade deal with Britain as it exits the EU.

From Ukraine, Pompeo will travel on to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan before returning home in time for Trump's State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 4. Human rights, energy independence and economic reform will top Pompeo's agenda at each of those stops.

In Minsk, the secretary plans to affirm the U.S. commitment to improving ties with Belarus, which has had a strained relationship with Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko has pursued better relations with the West since Russia's annexation of Crimea as Belarus is wary that Russia could try to absorb it.

In September, the U.S. and Belarus agreed to upgrade diplomatic ties by returning ambassadors to each other's capitals after an 11-year break.
Donald Trump has hosted Israels PM and his chief rival at the White House on the eve of unveiling a Middle East peace plan, expressing confidence that despite Palestinian rejection they would go along with a blueprint he said was very good for them.

The Trump proposal is widely expected to be favourable to Israel, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and challenger Benny Gantz speaking in glowing terms about the president and his initiative.

But with the Palestinians refusing to even speak to the US president, and urging other Arab nations to boycott Tuesdays event, there is great scepticism over the plans chances of success.

The meetings come a month before Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz are set to face off in national elections for the third time in less than a year, and both were looking to project leadership in their separate meetings with the president.

Mr Trump called his proposal a great opportunity but would not discuss further details, noting that its release has long been delayed because of the uncertain political situation in Israel.

Expand Close Benjamin Netanyahu with Donald Trump at the White House (Evan Vucci/AP) / Facebook

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He refused to answer questions over whether it would include Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, signalling that it was premature for Palestinians to rule it out.

I think in the end theyre going to want it. Its very good for them, he said alongside Mr Netanyahu.

Were going to show a plan. Its been worked on by everybody, and well see whether or not it catches hold. If it does, that would be great, and if it doesnt, we can live with it, too. But I think it might have a chance.

Mr Netanyahu has hailed it as a chance to make history and define Israels final borders. At the White House, he pointed out Mr Trumps gestures to Israel as well as his strong stance against Iran.

You have made our alliance stronger than ever, he said to Mr Trump.

Shortly after Mr Netanyahu left, Mr Gantz was invited into the White House for his first meeting with Mr Trump. Speaking to reporters later, he did not disclose details of their conversation, but he did shower the president with praise.

Expand Close Benny Gantz speaks during a news conference in Washington (Jose Luis Magana/AP) / Facebook

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He called the peace plan a significant and historic milestone that he looked forward to implementing once he became prime minister, in tandem with other countries in the region  specifically mentioning Jordan.

In the run-up to the March 2 vote, Mr Netanyahu has called for annexing parts of the West Bank and imposing Israeli sovereignty on all its settlements there. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, and the Jordan Valley in particular is considered a vital security asset.

Reports in Israeli media have speculated that Mr Trumps plan could include the possible annexation of large pieces of territory that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state.

American approval could give Mr Netanyahu the type of cover to go ahead with a move he has resisted taking for more than a decade in power.

Annexing Israels settlements in the occupied West Bank would appeal to his hardline nationalist supporters but would almost certainly torpedo the viability of an independent Palestinian state and infuriate neighbouring Jordan.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced the still-unpublished proposal in Ramallah, saying it doesnt constitute a basis for resolving the conflict.

He said the plan violates international law and comes from a party that has lost its credibility to be an honest broker in a serious and genuine political process.
Detention of ex-Russian senator Arashukov, his father extended till late April

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

16:31 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Monday extended detention of ex-Federation Council member Rauf Arashukov and his father Raul until April 24, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

Detention of the first deputy CEO of Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Stavropol Nikolay Romanov was also extended for the same period.

In May, the Federation Council terminated senators powers of Rauf Arashukov charged with murder and participating in a gang. According to the Federation Councils Deputy Chair Yury Vorobyev, an upper houses commission revealed that Arashukov had not submitted his and his relatives tax declarations in time.

In April, Moscows Basmanny District Court ordered the seizure of assets belonging to Arashukov. The seizure has been applied to monetary funds, land plots, cars and residential houses.

Rauf Arashukov was arrested and detained in late January. The upper house of parliament stripped him of immunity and gave consent to his prosecution upon an application by the Prosecutor General. He stands charged with murder, participation in a gang and witness tampering.

According to investigators, ex-Federation Council member was involved in the murder of a Karachay-Cherkessia public youth movements deputy chairman Aslan Zhukov and the republican presidents advisor Fral Shebzukhov in 2010. Moreover, investigators believe that the former senator is implicated to natural gas embezzlement from Gazprom company.

He has pleaded not guilty.

His father Raul Arashukov is accused in a 30-billion-ruble natural gas embezzlement case ($455 million). He was detained by court in February. Moreover, a court placed branch manager of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol Guzer Khashukoyev, CEO of Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Astrakhan and Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Astrakhan Ruslan Arashukov, first deputy CEO of Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Stavropol Nikolay Romanov and CEO of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol Igor Travinov in jail for the same term.

According to investigation, all of them are involved in gas embezzlement from Gazprom company. The top managers have been allegedly stealing gas from the state-run energy giant over a period of several years.

Raul Arashukov pleads not guilty and calls the case against him fabricated.
(UPDATE: Man dies after head-on crash with ambulance in St. Clair County)

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, MI -- A 33-year-old Marine City man was seriously injured Monday morning after hitting an ambulance in St. Clair County.

Deputies with the St. Clair County Sheriffs Office were dispatched shortly before 5 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27 to River Road just north of Hathaway Road in East China Township for a report of a head-on crash.

When they arrived, deputies learned a 2003 GMC Envoy was headed northbound on River Road, crossed over the center line, and hit the ambulance headed southbound.

The driver of the Envoy had to be extricated from the vehicle by members of the St. Clair Fire Department. He was the only person in the vehicle.

He was transported by a Tri-Hospital Ambulance to Ascension River District Hospital in East China Township.

There were three people in the ambulance -- the 33-year-old man Macomb Township man who was driving, a 24-year-old female paramedic in the jump seat in the rear of the unit and a 67-year-old Port Huron Township woman who was being transported.

The EMS workers sustained minor injuries. The woman who was being transported on a gurney in the ambulance told deputies that she was not injured.

The St. Clair County Sheriffs Office Accident Investigation Unit was called to the scene of the crash, which remains under investigation.
The governments peace accord with all the factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) will ensure a golden future for Assam and the Bodo people, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Monday.

The agreementexpected to bring lasting peace to the Bodo-dominated areas in Assamwas signed by Assams chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the top leadership of the four factions of the NDFB, ABSU, the home ministrys joint secretary Satyendra Garg and Assams chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna in New Delhi.

As the home minister, I want to assure all representatives that all promises will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner, Amit Shah said after the accord was signed.

The home minister also said that 1550 cadres will surrender along with 130 arms on January 30.

Several non-Bodo organisations have called a 12-hour general strike in Assam on Monday to protest the likely creation of a Union Territorial Council as part of the Centres new peace accord with Bodo rebel outfits.

The Bodo Accord shall reaffirm the territorial integrity of Assam and at the same time usher us into a new hope of peace and progress in Bodoland. My best wishes, Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted on Monday morning.

While Bodo groups have welcomed the deal, several non-Bodo organisations like All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union, All Bodo Minority Students Union, All Adivasi Students Union, Kalita Janagosthi Students Union etc have opposed the creation of a new UTC.

There are speculations that the deal might lead to the extension of the authority of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) beyond the four districts under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD)Chirang, Baksa, Kokrajhar and Udalguriand include portions of Biswanath, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur districts.

On Monday, protesters opposing the Bodo deal blocked roads at several places in the BTAD districts and some other places since early morning. The strike didnt have much impact in Kokrajhar town where Bodo groups are celebrating the deal.

Mondays deal will be the third Bodo accord signed in the past 27 years since the movement for a separate Bodoland for the states largest tribe started over four decades ago.

The first one signed with ABSU in 1993 led to the creation of Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC).

Ten years later, the second deal was signed with Bodo Liberation Tigers and led to the formation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), which included Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri districts (collectively called BTAD).

The violent separatist movement has claimed hundreds of lives, injured many more and affected peace and development in Assam.
Ms. Brandt: And I think thats interesting, too, about getting street-by-street air quality data. What were seeing in cities around the world is its often the most urban populations who have the worst air quality. So when you actually have that granularity of data, it becomes very stark and very clear that there are issues, and there are opportunities to address them, and you can really see that disparity actually in the air quality data.

Averting a Climate Apocalypse

Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager and climate activist, made the opening remarks at a Times panel, Averting a Climate Apocalypse, moderated by Rebecca Blumenstein, deputy managing editor of The Times, with Jun Ma, the director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in China; Oliver Bate, the chief executive of Allianz; Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, coordinator of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad; and Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Ms. Blumenstein: Five years after the Paris Accord, governments need to reset their goals and businesses are finally and quickly talking about setting goals. We have top voices from across the world to discuss the urgency of the situation and next steps. But we are going to start with some words from Greta Thunberg, who made headlines around the world last year by saying here at Davos that our house is on fire.

Image Ms. Thunberg Credit... Alessandro Della Valle/EPA, via Shutterstock

Ms. Thunberg: I joined a group of climate activists demanding that you, the worlds most powerful and influential business and political leaders, begin to take the action needed. We demand, at this years World Economic Forum, participants from all companies, banks, institutions and governments immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction; immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies; and immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels. We dont want these things done by 2050 or 2030 or even 2021. We want this done now.

Image Ma Jun Credit... Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Mr. Ma: Chinas emissions [goals] have not been accomplished. Were still burning half of the worlds coal. We need to do more. But now, at this moment, were facing the economic downturn locally and globally. Were facing the [trade]war and also the withdrawal by the U.S. government from the Paris agreement. All these are not helpful. So we need to find innovative solutions which tap into the market power, which can balance growth and protection. But all this needs people to join the efforts. So with that, I truly salute the efforts to raise public awareness.
After seven sessions closing above 7000 points the S&P/ASX 200 has shed 96 points to close 1.3 per cent lower at 6994.5. Trading volumes were moderate at 618 million shares, especially considering the market was closed on Monday for the Australia Day public holiday.

Every sector except healthcare closed lower and just 35 companies out of the top 200 ended the day higher or flat. Energy dropped 2.9 per cent, consumer discretionary fell 2.5 per cent, and materials dropped by 2.3 per cent. Financials also dragged with a decline of 1.2 per cent.

The best gain was in fruit and vegetable producer Costa Group after it jumped just before the market closed from $2.70 up to $2.86, a gain of 4 per cent. The jump coincided with the Australian Financial Review reporting its joint venture partner Driscoll's has built up close to a 5 per cent holding in the company.

Gold miners also did well today with Saracen Minerals up 3.5 per cent, Northern Star up 3 per cent, and Evolution Mining up 2.4 per cent.

Meanwhile Webjet shed nearly 14 per cent to close at $12.37, the lowest price since December 12, after a Morgan Stanley analyst downgrade, while Corporate Travel dropped 7 per cent and Helloworld dropped 4.8 per cent.

Orocobre shed nearly 8 per cent, Oil Search fell 7.5 per cent, and Fortescue dropped 7.3 per cent to $11.57. Fortescue's market capitalisation dropped by $2.8 billion in one day.
Amid all that, Biden and Sanders found good news in various new surveys of Iowa, New Hampshire and the country at large.

The Times/Siena College poll of Iowa showed Sanders had consolidated his strength in recent months among young people and the most liberal voters. An online poll of Democrats in Iowa taken by CBS News and YouGov found Sanders and Biden in a virtual tie. Both candidates have increasingly attacked each other over the past two weeks, sparring on Bidens past positions on Social Security and Sanderss record on guns.

[The Upshots Nate Cohn on why different polls might be showing different results]

Hurling attacks isnt your usual front-runner behavior, so the weekends events seem to reaffirm that the race is too close for any one candidate to claim that title.

Heres our colleague Sydney Ember, who was covering Sanders this weekend, with her analysis of where he stands:

Bernie Sanders has been saying for months that he will win Iowa, and his demeanor this weekend was largely the same as it has been for months. At stop after stop, he lamented that he was stuck in Washington for Trumps impeachment trial but largely delivered versions of his familiar stump speech.



He did, however, emphasize more than usual that the Iowa caucuses would all come down to turnout: If the turnout was high, he said, he would win; if it was low, he wouldnt.

The Timess Thomas Kaplan, who was with Biden, said the feeling was a bit different at his events  but thats to be expected.

Bidens campaign events this weekend did not give the impression that you were watching someone who was surging to victory in Iowa. He doesnt draw big crowds, and this weekend was no different. But Biden has never been a big-crowd candidate; he thrives in one-on-one interactions with voters along the rope line. So its hard to know how much to extrapolate from his less-than-electric events.



Im a tactile politician, he told reporters on Sunday. The poll I feel is what Im doing when Im out, and it feels good. His prediction for next weeks caucuses: I think its going to be a close race in Iowa.

A big endorsement gets Warren dancing

While the polls have not been as kind to her recently, Warren got a jolt of good news on Saturday night, when The Des Moines Register, Iowas largest newspaper, endorsed her candidacy. When she heard the news, the Massachusetts senator channeled her inner Ellen DeGeneres, busting out a few little dance moves.
Former country head of Citi India Pramit Jhaveri could be appointed as one of the main Tata Trusts trustees. Jhaveri could be appointed as a trustee in the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, a report in The Economic Times, citing sources, said. Notably, the 56-year-old Jhaveri had taken early retirement after spending close to four decades at the bank in various capacities in November last year.

Neither the trust nor Jhaveri have officially confirmed the development.

He joined the Wall Street major as a management associate way back in 1987 and saw a steady rise to become vice-chairman of banking, capital markets and advisory for the Asia Pacific earlier this year, after heading the India operations for almost a decade between 2010 and 2019.

Under his helm, the bank saw a steady rise as its domestic assets doubled (95.48 per cent to be precise) between FY10 and FY19, to Rs 1.86 lakh crore, while gross non-performing assets improved massively to 1.37 per cent in March 2019 from 3.43 per cent in March 2010.

Net profit also grew 386 per cent to Rs 4,185 crore in the same period when a majority of domestic banks were passing through a tumultuous phase.

When he took over, the bank was witnessing a surge in bad loans in its unsecured portfolio. He went in for a restructuring, which resulted in the shuttering of 280 branches of Citi financial, its in-house NBFC.

Jhaveri's possible appointment comes at a crucial time when TataTrusts is engaged in a legal wrangle with I-T Department. The recent NCLAT order reinstating former executive chairman Cyrus Mistry also came as a blow to the trusts, which hold significant holdings in Tata Sons.

Income Tax department in November terminated the registration of six Tata Trusts, making them unable to avail tax exemptions by virtue of being trusts. This could lead to substantial losses as all Tata Sons profits were handed over to Tata Trusts as dividends. However, the trust said it was a culmination of the decision taken by these trusts in 2015 to surrender, of their own volition, their registration under the Income Tax Act and to not claim the associated income tax exemptions.

ALSO READ: TCS moves Supreme Court against NCLAT order reinstating Cyrus Mistry

In another legal battle, an NCLAT order in December last year reinstated Mistry on the Tata Sons' board and termed the appointment of N Chandrasekaran as the executive chairman "illegal". Tata Sons, the conglomerate's patriarch, Ratan Tata, and its flagship company, Tata Consultancy Services, have all filed separate appeals against the order in Supreme Court. Cyrus Mistry has, however, said he is not pursuing the position of Tata Sons' executive chairman.

Also read: 6 Tata Trusts lose Income Tax registrations; explore legal options on Rs 1,800 crore demand
Nearly 500 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by two boats run by aid agencies were looking for safe ports in Malta and Italy, the groups said Monday. The Ocean Viking, a rescue vessel run by SOS Mediterranee in partnership with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was carrying 407 people rescued in a total of five operations carried out over 72 hours. Another 78 people were taken on board the Alan Kurdi, run by the Sea-Eye organisation based in Germany. They were rescued in two operations. Sea-Eye tweeted Sunday that the Alan Kurdi was headed for Italy after Malta refused them a safe port. "Ocean Viking has rescued 184 men, women and children in distress... on two inflatable rafts," off the Libyan coast, MSF tweeted. They pulled 82 of them out of the water in a zone normally covered by the Maltese authorities, they added. "With five night-time operations carried out in less than 72 hours, that's a total of 407 survivors who are now safely on board," MSF added. "As we approached, it was clear the people were highly stressed & panicking," MSF tweeted, quoting Catherine, one of the nurses on board the Ocean Viking. "Having been at sea for 22 hours, many were suffering from hypothermia & dehydration. Others had been exposed to fuel, which can develop into burns on the skin," she added. - Security 'deteriorating' in Libya - "Despite the winter, despite the bad weather, and despite the very few boats dedicated to the rescue in the area, boats are still leaving Libya in numbers," Aloys Vimard, MSF's coordinator on board the Ocean Viking, told AFP. "The survivors tell us about the deteriorating security situation in Libya where there is active conflict." MSF had refused an offer to land them at Libya as "it is not a safe place" and were looking for other destinations," he added. An internationally brokered truce between the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and rival eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar has already broken down. The Libyan capital's sole functioning airport came under renewed fire Sunday and fresh fighting broke out hours after the UN mission there condemned ongoing violations of an arms embargo. Since the summer of 2018, the European Union has tasked Libya's coastguard with coordinating search and rescue operations in a vast stretch of the Mediterranean beyond their territorial waters. But the conflict there means that these operations are beyond them, says SOS Mediterranee. In 2019, the International Organization of Migrants recorded 1,283 deaths in the Mediterranean, the deadliest route for migrants attempting the perilous crossing from North Africa to Italy. Over the past five years, at last 19,164 migrants have died there. The Ocean Viking rescue ship picked up 407 people in five operations in recent days The 'Alan Kurdi' is named after a Syrian boy who drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015
WASHINGTON  For weeks, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer has had a three-word mantra: "witnesses and documents."

In the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, Schumer's primary role has been pressuring Senate Republicans to admit more evidence. As more details about Trump's Ukraine dealings emerge in the press, it's an open question whether some moderate Republicans will side with Schumer in the coming days.

Schumer, D-N.Y., wants Republicans in a box: the GOP must help reveal more details about Trump's conduct toward Ukraine before the penultimate trial vote, or if Republicans block witnesses and documents, Democrats want to implicate them in the Trump cover up.

It appears Democrats don't have the numbers for the big victory they dream of  removing Trump from office  but their strategy may deliver Democrats a smaller win. In the court of public opinion, they want to play the role of "truth seekers," words Schumer and other Democrats have often used. If Republicans vote to acquit Trump without admitting all of the evidence, Democrats could argue Trump was absolved based on an incomplete record, casting doubt on the outcome.

Pressing the idea that Republicans are trying to stifle and suppress the full record because it would be even more damning of President Trump is an attempt to basically take a victory in public approval  and obviously this is playing toward the 2020 elections  take a victory out of what is a losing hand in the sense of the removal of President Trump, said Bruce Miroff, a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Albany.

Democrats cite polling suggesting that the American public supports their push for more evidence, but how will that translate to votes in 2020 for Trump and senators up for re-election? It's a question that could decide Schumer's whether Schumer could become majority leader and how the trial, and Schumer's place in it, is chronicled in history.

Now in week two, the trial is among the most bitter and high-stakes battles in American political history.

Ive always said its an uphill fight because of the pressure from the White House and the pressure from [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell who don't want to hear the truth but every few days something else happens that makes it clearer and clearer that we need the truth, Schumer said on Monday. "This is very serious stuff. This isn't just nothing."

The battle over witnesses and documents was initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In an unusual and unexpected move, Pelosi withheld the articles of impeachment from the Senate for about a month over the December holidays, declaring she wanted to see "fair" Senate rules for the trial before she set it into motion.

If Schumer has been leading the fight to bring new witnesses to testify, Pelosi handed him that baton, said Louis Michael Seidman, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown Law School.

"I don't think he has been the principle force behind what's been happening," Seidman said. "Even though this has moved into the Senate, the person who has actually been running things is Nancy Pelosi. ... It's not like he has no role to play, but I think he's really taking a back seat here."

As Pelosi held the articles, Schumer and McConnell, R-Ky., skirmished over the trial rules. Schumer said he was ready to meet with McConnell to write the rules together for weeks, but that meeting never happened, a Senate aide said.

McConnell said on Fox News on Dec. 12, he would work in "total coordination" with the White House to organize the Senate trial. Schumer responded with a public letter three days later with a Democratic proposal for the rules.

Later that week, the leaders did meet, but could not iron out their differences before the start of the trial, a Senate aide said.

This rift between the Senate leaders over the rules was a departure from the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton. In 1999, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., worked together to write bipartisan rules for the trial. After a series of negotiations between the parties, they developed rules that were approved by the Senate unanimously.

There is this stark difference between what happened in 1999 and whats happening now," Seidman said. "So I remember the Clinton impeachment very well. Then as now, there was lots of partisan rancor, but I think its also fair to say it was not as bad then as it is now and in 1999, whatever the House did and whatever the advocates were saying, Sen. Daschle and Sen. Lott thought it was important for the reputation of the Senate that it not be a circus.  They came up with some compromises.

McConnell and Schumer never reached a compromise like Daschle and Lott. On Jan. 21, the Senate approved Republican-drafted rules for the trial in a party line vote. Those rules, like in Clinton's trial, outlined a plan for the trial in which the prosecution and defense would present opening arguments, senators would ask questions and then later, senators would cast a vote on whether to call new witnesses to testify or subpoena White House documents.

In the Clinton trial, the Senate did call three witnesses, but they were ones that the House had already heard from during its inquiry. This time around, Democrats want to hear from individuals whom the White House blocked from testifying during the House inquiry. The House had declined to subpoena those witnesses because the Democrats had asserted it would result in legal delays of what was an urgent matter. Many Republicans insist that new witness testimony should have been gathered by the House, and that any court would have prioritized the issue.

On Jan. 21, Democrats, convinced the witnesses and documents should come earlier in the trial, called a series of 11 amendments to subpoena various witnesses and documents from the State Department, White House and other offices. Each amendment that Schumer called was voted down.

After the votes, the spotlight shifted to the House impeachment managers, representatives tapped by Pelosi to prosecute the case against Trump. For three days, the managers argued at a podium in front of the Senate as Schumer sat in the front row across a carpeted aisle from McConnell.

"This is Schumer's moment, but again it's a peculiar moment because the House Democrats are prosecuting the case," Miroff said.

Before and after the eight-hour presentations and during rare breaks in the trial, Schumer held press conferences and appeared on cable television shows to continue to drum for witnesses and documents.

Between Democrats' media blitz and new reporting on Trump's Ukraine efforts, the clash over evidence has remained in the national spotlight even as Trump's lawyers have sought to tamp down the idea of witnesses in their defense that started Saturday and continued Monday.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that an unpublished manuscript of former National Security adviser John Bolton's book says Trump connected U.S. military aid for Ukraine to that country's pledge to investigate the circumstances under which the son of a Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, had been given a high-paying job with a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings.

This is stunning," Schumer said Monday morning. "It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president.

Democrats are seeking the testimony of Bolton, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Michael Duffy, the associate director for National Security Programs at the Office of Management and Budget, and Robert Blair, an assistant to the president.

Schumer said Monday the book manuscript "erased" any reason why Bolton, who has said he would testify, should not be called.

"The eyes of America are upon the Republicans in the Senate," Schumer said. "They have been before and now what Mr. Bolton evidently wrote in his book increases the desire of the American people to have a fair trial with witnesses and documents. ... Its not us putting on the pressure.

U.S. Sen. Michael Braun, R-Ind., said the book manuscript "took an already hot topic and added some fuel to the fire," but did not fundamentally change how senators will decide on calling witnesses later.

But U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Monday that its increasingly likely that more Republicans will join calls to seek testimony from Bolton, while other Republican moderates, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, indicated they were also interested.

Democrats need four Republicans to side with them to win a vote to call witnesses.

Chuck Schumer, he comes up here and he always says 'I just need four Republicans,'" said U.S. Sen. John Barasso, R-Wy. "Ladies and gentlemen, thats not about witnesses. He needs four Republicans to be the majority leader of the United States Senate. It is his magic number. Thats his focus. He has known from the beginning that he was never going to have an ability to actually remove Trump from office or remove President Trump from the ballot.

Schumer has served as Senate Democratic leader since 2017, but never as majority leader.

Any vote on witnesses like Bolton may come on Friday, after Trump's lawyers conclude their defense and senators ask questions of the prosecution and defense.

In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday, 66 percent of respondents said the Senate should call new witnesses during the trial. Another poll conducted by Fox News released Sunday found 48 percent of voters said the Senate already had all the information it needs, whereas 44 percent called for witnesses. Both polls found the public remains largely split over whether Trump should be removed from office, with Democrats heavily favoring removal, Republicans supporting acquittal and Independents divided.

During Clinton's impeachment, a Gallup poll in December 1998 found that 35 percent of Americans were pro-impeachment, with 73 percent of Republicans and only 12 percent of Democrats in favor. The Democrat-led Senate acquitted Clinton.

A younger Schumer opposed impeachment in the House and then after he was elected to the Senate in 1998, fought against Clinton's removal in the Senate trial. (McConnell, who was also a senator at the time, favored removing Clinton.)

Since Schumer was elected to Congress in 1981, he has participated in six impeachment proceedings.
With an aim to bring permanent peace in Bodo-dominated areas in Assam, the government on Monday signed an accord with the dreaded insurgent group National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and two other outfits, providing political and economic benefits without acceding to the demand for a separate state or Union Territory.

The All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state since 1972, and the United Bodo People's Organisation were also signatories to the Comprehensive Bodo Settlement Agreement.

In the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the tripartite agreement was signed by top leaders of the four NDFB factions, the ABSU and the UBPO; Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry Satyendra Garg; and Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also signed the pact as one of the witnesses.

Soon after the agreement was signed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it would usher in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness.

"Today is a very special day for India. The Accord with Bodo groups, which has been inked today will lead to transformative results for the Bodo people.

"Bodo Accord inked today stands out for many reasons. It successfully brings together the leading stakeholders under one framework. Those who were previously associated with armed resistance groups will now be entering the mainstream and contributing to our nation's progress," Modi said in a series of tweets.

The home minister described the agreement as "historic" and said it would bring permanent solution to the decades-old problems of the Bodo people.

"This agreement will facilitate all round development of the Bodo areas, their language and culture will be protected without compromising the territorial integrity of Assam," he told reporters after the accord was signed.

The home minister said due to the violence perpetrated by the Bodo militants, over 4,000 people lost their lives in the past few decades.

The NDFB was responsible for a series of violent acts in the past few decades, including the massacre of nearly 70 Adivasis in December 2014.

Shah said no stone would be left unturned for the development of Assam and the Northeastern region.

"A final and comprehensive solution to their demands has been made, while retaining the territorial integrity of Assam. After the agreement, NDFB factions will leave the path of violence, surrender their weapons and disband their armed organisations within a month of signing the deal," he said.

The Assam chief minister said that after the accord different communities in the state will be able to live with harmony and it withh lay the foundation of a bright future, fulfilling aspirations of the people.

"A historic day for peace and progress of Assam. The signing of the tripartite agreement under guidance and leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah resolves a decades long conflict and permanently reaffirms the territorial integrity of Assam," he said.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the pact will bring comprehensive solution to the Bodo issue. "It is a historic accord," he said.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said as per the accord, 1,550 militants belonging to the NDFB lay down their arms on January 30, an economic programme of Rs 1,500 crore will be implemented in the next three years with equal contribution of Rs 750 crore each from the central and state governments.

Around 1,550 cadres of NDFB(P), NDFB(RD) and NDFB(S) will be rehabilitated by the central and state governments.

Sarma said the existing structure of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) will be strengthened with more powers and its seats will be expanded from 40 to 60, he said.

A commission will be set up for inclusion of Bodo-dominated villages in the BTC and exclusion of those where Bodos are not in majority.

This was the third Bodo accord to be signed in 27 years.

The first accord was signed with the All Bodo Students Union in 1993, leading to the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers.

In 2003, the second accord was signed with the militant group Bodo Liberation Tigers, leading to formation of a Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with four districts of Assam -- Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri -- called Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).

As per Monday's accord, the name of BTAD will be changed to Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and it will have more executive, administrative, legislative and financial powers.

The BTC currently has control over 30 subjects such as education, forests, horticulture but no jurisdiction over the police, revenue and general administration departments, which are controlled by the Assam government.

The BTC was formed under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.

The Assam government will soon notify Bodo language as in Devanagari script as an associate official language of the state.

The state government will give Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of those who lost their lives during the agitation for a separate state, criminal cases with non-heinous charges against NDFB members will be withdrawn while heinous cases will be reviewed case-to-case basis as per the existing rules, according to the pact.

The demand for a separate state for the Bodos has been going on in Assam for about five decades with several Bodo overground and militant groups raising the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JP Nadda accused Arvind Kejriwal of 'supporting those who want to break India, as he raised the issue of AAP government not giving police the permission to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case

New Delhi: BJP president JP Nadda on Monday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "supporting those who want to break India", as he raised the issue of AAP government not giving police the permission to prosecute ex-JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case.

He also sought to know from the AAP national convener "whether acting against anti-nationals would hurt his vote bank".

"Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. They were threatening to violate India's sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file charge sheet," Nadda tweeted.

They sought Kejriwals permission to prosecute this tukde tukde gang but one year later, till yday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank?  Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) January 27, 2020

"They (police) sought Kejriwal's permission to prosecute this 'tukde tukde' gang but one year later, till yesterday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank," he wrote on the microblogging site.

In its campaign for the 8 February Assembly polls in the national capital, the BJP has often raised the issue of the AAP government so far not grating the Delhi Police its nod to prosecute the accused in the case of raising seditious slogans in the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

On 14 January, the police had filed a charge sheet in the court against Kanhaiya Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, saying they were leading a procession and supported the seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on 9 February 2016.

A court is Delhi has directed the police to get the requisite nod by 19 February.
Fair City bosses were concerned about the safety of actor John Cronin, who plays the monstrous domestic abuser Will Casey in the popular soap.

They checked with the actor that he was not gett- ing flak from the public for playing the violent gay man who terrorises his partner Cristiano in a storyline that shocked fans.

Will battered Cristiano to a pulp in one episode before he fled and got hit by a car. The character is currently behind bars, but Cronin said he would soon be making a comeback.

"At the story's height, people in RTE were asking if I was getting a hard time, but the reaction I got was always very positive," he said.

"People would clock you straight away when you walk into a supermarket or on to a bus and they would say things, but it was always good and people were friendly.

"If there was an issue, RTE would look after you, but there wasn't.

"People who like the show really like it and have positive feelings for it and people who don't like it don't watch it.

HELLO

"Fair City is on so regularly that people have a relation- ship with it and they feel like they want to come over and say hello or get a picture.

"It's always been lovely, never negative. You get a lot of, 'Oh, it's you! You're a real b*****ks,' but it's all in fun.

"You notice when the storyline drops off and the show moves on that the recognition factor goes down very quickly.

"I know people found it difficult to watch because people love Cristiano. He has been in the show for over three years, so it was like watching a friend go through this ordeal."

Cronin can be seen on stage all this week in a new play, Restoration. He plays Dean, a worker in an inner- city community centre who is attacked and beaten by one of the youths he is trying to help.

"I'm the victim who is trying to be the adult but the trauma I've suffered makes it difficult," he said.

"My character has been more affected than he real- ises and things come out. Everything comes to a head for all the characters."

The play, at Dublin's Project Theatre, was written by Shaun Dunne and is being directed by Darren Thornton.
The 2020 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement goes to conservation biologist Gretchen C. Daily and environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev for their pioneering work in quantifying the economic value of our natural environment.

The Tyler Prize Executive Committee is honored to recognize two outstanding individuals who have pioneered the valuing of natural capital  in rigorous scientific and economic terms  recognizing natures vital role in supporting human wellbeing, stated Julia Marton-Lefevre who chairs the Executive Committee of the Tyler Prize.

A Brief History Of The Tyler Prize

Often described as the Nobel Prize for the Environment, the Tyler Prize was established in 1973 by the late John Tyler, founder and former chairman of California-based Farmers Insurance Group, and his wife, the late Alice Tyler.

Both John and Alice Tyler appreciated nature and enjoyed outdoor life. Concerned about the growing ravages of pollution and to preserve and protect the existing natural wealth of the world, they decided to establish the Tyler Prize. With the help of this award, they aimed to recognize and honor individuals and organizations who have made monumental contributions to the scientific knowledge and public leadership that has helped protect the environment and enhance its existing state.

Since 1993, the University of Southern California has been administering the Tyler Prize through an endowment.

Today, the Tyler Prize is one of the oldest and most prestigious international environmental awards. Since its inception, 76 individuals and 4 organizations have been awarded the Tyler Prize. 2020's winners increase the total count by 2 to 82.

The Winners Of The 2020 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement

Dr. Gretchen C. Daily

Image: Dr. Gretchen C. Daily

Dr. Gretchen C. Daily, one of the two joint winners of the 2020 Tyler Prize, is renowned for her groundbreaking work in the field of conservation biology that has led to her designation as one of the 50 Most Important Women in Science.

Dr. Daily currently serves as the Bing Professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Biology at Stanford University and holds a joint appointment as the Director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the same institute. She is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

For years, Daily has been warning the world that societies must not alienate nature while determining the future of economic growth, a fact that was echoed by the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in May 2019.

Since her days as a Ph.D. student, Daily focussed on estimating the value of ecosystem services and forecasting changes in biodiversity. In 1997, she published a book entitled Natures Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems.

Diana H. Wall, 2013 Tyler Prize Laureate, and Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University dubbed the book as one of the most influential books published on the environment in the past 30 years.

In 2005, the Natural Capital Project was co-founded by Daily. Today, it is regarded as a global leader in equipping policymakers with the knowledge and tools needed to draft policies and direct investments in a manner that would enhance green growth.

Daily believes that ecosystems must be regarded as capital asset just like financial capital or human capital.

We depend utterly on living natural capital  Earths lands, waters, and biodiversity. Just imagine trying to live without it, on the moon. But around the world, we are liquidating nature, at accelerating rates, she warns.

Renowned biologist Professor Paul Ehrlich who holds Daily in the highest regard said, In my view, she is the most important scholar working on environmental sustainability issues in the world today.

Pavan Sukhdev

Image: Pavan Sukhdev

Pavan Sukhdev, the joint winner of the 2020 Tyler Prize with Dr. Daily, is known for his phenomenal contribution to understanding the economic benefits of biodiversity and the economic costs of its degradation and loss. He also won the KfW Foundation 'Bernhard Grzimek Award for Biodiversity' in 2015 and was the joint winner of the 'Blue Planet Prize' awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation in 2016.

As an international banker, Sukhdev helped shape economies all over the world. His decades of experience in leading economic positions across the globe complemented his passion for nature conservation and sustainable development and this led to the birth of some outstanding work that enhanced the worlds perspective of treating ecosystems as valuable assets.

In 2008, Germanys Environment Minister invited Sukhdev to lead the G8+5 study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). The interim report of this study was globally recognized for its great value in understanding the economic and social importance of ecosystem services and the true costs of loss of such services.

Following the study, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) appointed Sukhdev to lead the Green Economy Initiative, a program designed to demonstrate that greening of economies is a novel approach to economic growth and not a burden on economic progress. Today, Sukhdev continues to support the Green Economy Initiative as a UNEP Goodwill Ambassador.

Distinguished colleagues in his field have highly praised Sukhdev. Thomas E. Lovejoy, a world-famous ecologist and 2001 Tyler Prize Laureate called him the most original individual working in this space.

Today, Sukhdev is fostering the practical implementation of the recommendations made by him based on his own research. For this purpose, he instituted the GIST Advisory in 2011 that guides corporations and governments worldwide in adopting the strategies, metrics, and methods outlined by TEEB, the Green Economy Initiative, and his book Corporation 2020. The vision is to build a smarter future where the world thinks beyond GDP and profits and invests in nurturing a green and equitable economy of permanence.

You dont have to be an environmentalist to care about protecting the environment. Just ask a farmer who now has to rent beehives to pollinate his crops, because there are no longer enough bees in wild nature to do the job for free. But bees dont send invoices, so the value of their services is not recognized, said Sukhdev, explaining the economic invisibility of nature.

Currently, Sukhdev also serves as the President and Chairman of the Board of the World Wildlife Fund. He is also a Board Member for TEEB Advisory Board, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Satya S. Tripathi mentioned, Sukhdevs phenomenal contribution to the global understanding of ecological and environmental value will define our approach to conservation for generations to come.

The 2020 Tyler Prize Ceremony

On May 1, a private ceremony will be held at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel in New York City where the Tyler Prize Executive Committee and distinguished members of the international environmental community will join to honor the two new laureates. Prior to that, Daily and Sukhdev will deliver a public presentation about their work at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City on April 30, 2020. The prize amount of $200,000 administered by the University of Southern California, will be shared equally between the two laureates.
Irvine, Calif. - A neural network-driven Earth system model has led University of California, Irvine oceanographers to a surprising conclusion: phytoplankton populations will grow in low-latitude waters by the end of the 21st century.

The unexpected simulation outcome runs counter to the longstanding belief by many in the environmental science community that future global climate change will make tropical oceans inhospitable to phytoplankton, which are the base of the aquatic food web. The UCI researchers provide the evidence for their findings in a paper published today in Nature Geoscience.

Senior author Adam Martiny, UCI professor in oceanography, explained that the prevalent thinking on phytoplankton biomass is based on an increasingly stratified ocean. Warming seas inhibit mixing between the heavier cold layer in the deep and lighter warm water closer to the surface. With less circulation between the levels, fewer nutrients reach the higher strata where they can be accessed by hungry plankton.

"All the climate models have this mechanism built into them, and it has led to these well-established predictions that phytoplankton productivity, biomass and export into the deep ocean will all decline with climate change," he said. "Earth system models are largely based upon laboratory studies of phytoplankton, but of course laboratory studies of plankton are not the real ocean."

According to Martiny, scientists traditionally account for plankton by measuring the amount of chlorophyll in the water. There is considerably less of the green stuff in low-latitude regions that are very hot compared to cooler regions further away from the equator.

"The problem is that chlorophyll is not everything that's in a cell, and actually in low latitudes, many plankton are characterized by having a very small amount of it; there's so much sunlight, plankton only need a few chlorophyll molecules to get enough energy to grow," he noted. "In reality, we have had so far very little data to actually demonstrate whether or not there is more or less biomass in regions undergoing stratification. As a result, the empirical basis for less biomass in warmer regions is not that strong."

These doubts led Martiny and his UCI colleagues to conduct their own phytoplankton census. Analyzing samples from more than 10,000 locations around the world, the team created a global synthesis of the key phytoplankton groups that grow in warm regions.

The vast majority of these species are very tiny cells known as picophytoplankton. Ten times smaller in diameter than the strains of plankton one would find off the California coast - and 1,000 times less voluminous - picophytoplankton are nonetheless great in number, making up 80 to 90 percent of plankton biomass in most warm regions.

The group built global maps and compared the quantity of biomass along the gradient of temperature, a key parameter, according to Martiny. Conducting a machine learning analysis to determine the difference now versus the year 2100, they found a big surprise: "In many regions there would be an increase of 10 to 20 percent of plankton biomass, rather than a decline," Martiny said.

"Machine learning is not biased by the human mind," he said. "We just give the model tons and tons of data, but they can help us challenge existing paradigms."

One of the theories the team explored to explain the growth, with help from co-author Francois Primeau, UCI professor of Earth system science, had to do with what happens to phytoplankton at the end of their life cycle.

"When plankton die - especially these small species - they sit around for a while longer, and maybe at high temperature other plankton can more easily degrade them and recycle the nutrients back to build new biomass," Martiny said.

Such ecosystem features are not easily taken into account by traditional, mechanistic Earth system models, according to Martiny, but they were part of the geographically diverse dataset the team used to train its neural network-derived quantitative niche model.

Martiny said that this study as a follow-up to research published last summer is further evidence as to the diversity and resilience of phytoplankton.

"We could obviously let climate change get out of hand and go into completely uncharted territory, and then all bets are off," he said. "But at least for a while, I think the adaptive capabilities in these diverse plankton communities will help them maintain high biomass despite these environmental changes."

Joining Martiny and Primeau were fellow authors Pedro Flombaum, former UCI postdoctoral researcher and later visiting scholar in Earth system science (currently a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina), and Weilei Wang, UCI postdoctoral scholar in Earth system science. The study received support from the National Science Foundation's Ten Big Ideas program and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research.

###

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
There's no doubt that India has become a key market for a lot of companies in various domains. There are a lot of growth opportunities here and the brands clearly see that. Over the years, we've seen significant growth when it comes to the smartphone market.



According to a new Counterpoint Research, India has surpassed the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world. That's right, India is now a larger market than the US, which is quite amazing.

 Reuters

The research estimates that over 158 million smartphones were shipped in the US in 2019. That's a significantly larger number than 145 million that were shipped in 2018. This sudden growth is largely due to the surge of Chinese manufacturers.



The Chinese smartphone makers, as we already know, offer their smartphones at aggressive prices. So naturally, people are buying them in huge numbers over the other devices. A whopping 72% of the 158 million phones came from Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme, and Oppo.

 Reuters

Out of all the brands, Xiaomi still holds the top spot with command over 27% of the market. It's been at the top for ten consecutive quarters now. Vivo surpassed Samsung to become the second-largest player in the country. Samsung holds the third spot, whereas more Chinese brands like Realme and Oppo take the remaining spots to enter the top 5.



Apple also gained some numbers in the country thanks to the rapid movement of iPhone XR units towards the end of 2019. But at the end of the day, there's no denying that Chinese brands are dominating the charts in India, at least when smartphones are concerned.

Source: Counterpoint Research
We would like to inform that, due to the new Coronavirus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in the Peoples Republic of China, the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Armenia and the field-related specialized bodies continue to follow the development of the situation and are in touch with international organizations, as well as the authorities of the Peoples Republic of China and other partnering countries. Necessary information is being exchanged. This is reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

Due to the current situation connected to the Coronavirus, we urge citizens of the Republic of Armenia to temporarily avoid visiting China, if it is not strictly necessary.

We urge our citizens who are currently in the Peoples Republic of China to be constantly in touch with the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.

In the press release that it released yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that there are 3 citizens of the Republic of Armenia in the city of Wuhan, but there is no information about citizens of the Republic of Armenia among the infected.
SAN MATEO (BCN)

The San Mateo County Human Trafficking Program on Tuesday night will host a program called "Fighting Human Trafficking in San Mateo County" to coincide with National Human Trafficking Prevention and Awareness Month.

Opening remarks by Sheriff Carlos Bolanos will be followed by a program about human trafficking in the area and how to help fight it, and a question-and-answer session after that.

Resource tables will be staffed by the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition; the District Attorney's Victim Services Division; FBI San Francisco Citizens Academy Alumni Association; Freedom House, a Burlingame facility providing a safe home and long-term aftercare for human trafficking victims; Rape Trauma Services of Burlingame; San Mateo County Special Operations (SOS); the StarVista nonprofit; and Worldsong Aid.

The event will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the San Mateo City Council Chambers, 330 W. 20th Ave.

The program is free, but registration is required. People can go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fighting-humantrafficking-in-san-mateo-county-tickets-86868681565.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
A 47-year-old police officer has died following a single car crash on the M6 in Cumbria after his vehicle reportedly burst into flames.

The male officer, who worked for Cumbria Constabulary's mobile support group, died at the scene, police said.

The accident happened between junction 44 and 43 southbound of the motorway near Carlisle at around 2pm on Sunday.

He was the only occupant of the police car at the time of the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene, Cumbria Constabulary said.

The scene where a police officer died after a crash on the M6 in Cumbria on Sunday

Witnesses claimed the police car swerved off the road and went down a ditch next to the southbound carriageway of the motorway.

A passerby was said to have jumped in to try to save the police officer as emergency services arrived a not longer after the accident.

A source near the scene reportedly saw the vehicle on fire, according to LBC News.

The Central Motorway Police Group tweeted: 'I'm sure I speak on behalf of all our followers in sending our thoughts and prayers to the officer's colleagues, family and friends at this tragic time.'

The officers had a young family and his wife is also a serving officer in Cumbria Police, according to reports.

Specialist officers are supporting his family, Cumbria police said.

Traffic slowed on the M6 near Carlisle after the serious crash involving police car on Sunday

A spokesman for the forces said in a statement: 'We are saddened to confirm that a police officer has died today following a single-vehicle collision on the M6 motorway.

'Cumbria Constabulary can confirm that a police officer has died following a single vehicle road traffic collision that occurred earlier today.

'The officer - a 47-year-old man who worked for Cumbria Constabulary's Mobile Support Group - was pronounced dead at the scene and was the only occupant of the vehicle.

'Specialist officers are supporting his family at this time.'
Partners have been integral to NATOs work on WPS from the start. They play a key role in shaping policy and practice. The policy itself is developed by the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), which involves partners and all Allies. In addition, seven partners beyond the EAPC framework have associated themselves with the policy: Australia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Through their cooperation programmes with NATO, partners are encouraged to adopt specific goals that reflect the principles and support implementation of the WPS agenda. Some contribute to the development of education and training activities on WPS, from which they also benefit, and they help ensure that gender perspectives are included in the curriculum of NATO training centres and Centres of Excellence, as well as in pre-deployment training. NATO partner Sweden hosts the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations.

The NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme promotes concrete, practical cooperation on gender-related issues among NATO member and partner countries, through collaborative multi-year projects, training courses, study institutes and workshops.

NATO also collaborates with international organisations, and this is particularly valuable in its work related to WPS. NATO works closely with the UN, the European Union (EU), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the African Union (AU) to learn from and build on each others experiences. NATOs work on WPS is supported by women and men, civilian and military, throughout NATOs structures. At NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the Secretary Generals Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security serves as the high-level focal point for all of NATOs work on the WPS agenda. The position was created in 2012, and made permanent in 2014. In November 2021, Ms Irene Fellin was appointed as the new Special Representative. Her tenure will commence in early 2022.

Gender Advisors are in place across NATOs military structures and in all operations and missions. The first NATO Gender Advisors were deployed in 2009 to NATOs two Strategic Commands, as well as to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, replaced in 2015 by the Resolute Support Mission (RSM), which operated until early September 2021. There are now Gender Advisors deployed across NATO structures and missions, including NATO Mission Iraq and the Kosovo Force (KFOR). These men and women operate at strategic and operational levels, and are valuable resources to Commanders, who are responsible for the overall integration of gender perspectives into planning, execution and evaluation.

The NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives promotes the integration of gender as a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of both women and men an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programmes and military operations.
Baghdad, Jan 27 : The Iraqi Independent High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) has said that at least 12 protesters were killed and 230 people injured during the past two days of anti-government demonstrations in the country.

Mass anti-government demonstrations were launched in Baghdad and other cities in central and southern Iraq last October, demanding comprehensive reform, fight against corruption, better public services and more job opportunities, reports Xinhua news agency.

A IHCHR said in a statement on Sunday that the victims comprised nine from Baghdad and three in Dhi Qar province.

The injured comprised 118 in Baghdad, 78 in Dhi Qar, 34 in Basra.

A total of 89 protesters were arrested by the security forces in Baghdad and Basra, the statement added.

Early Sunday, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the protest sites in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, while sporadic clashes occurred with the riot police, mainly in the capital and Dhi Qar.

IHCHR expressed concerns about the violence that accompanied the protests, which led to the deaths and injuries of demonstrators and security members.

It called on all parties to exercise restraint and keep the protests peaceful.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Dayamoyee: A Blazing Star in Vidyasagars Neighbourhood

by A.K. Biswas

The year 2020 marks the bicentennial celebration of educationist and social reformer, Iswar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, more popularly known and eulogised as Vidyasagar, who was born on September 26, 1820 in village Birsingha under Ghatal police station of district Midnapur. Intensive intellectual activities in West Bengal are underway to commemorate his contri-butions in various fields.

Dayamoyee, an untouchable illiterate woman, belonged to a faceless village in the neighbouring Tamluk thana in Tamluk subdivision under the same Midnapur District. Contemporaries though, both of them, I am afraid, never met or knew each other. She could have been the most suitable mascot for the social cause of the crusader of Birsinha, who committed to give his life to relieve the sufferings of the widows.1 Sadly, the proverb, Nearer the temple remoter the god holds good here! As a widow, remarried a second time on the initiative of and organised by her father, Dayamoyee courageously fought a case for her right of inheritance through the labyrinth of the courts of the Munsif of Tamluk and then Sub-Judge, Midnapur up to the High Court, Calcutta which, in the end, handed down a landmark verdict. Bengal including Vidyasagar, turned a blind eye and deaf ears to this unique case. This essay deals with the case of a villager for securing, single-handed, her right of inheritance. In her era, an inspirational story of great social dimension and relevance authored by an illiterate woman from the margins of society was uncommon as also unheard of.

Why is Dayamoyee a landmark in nineteenth century Bengal?

Some 137 year ago, the case had meandered from her village to the Calcutta High Court via the Munsif Court in Tamluk and Subordinate Judges Court in Midnapur. Undaunted and indefatigable she fought legal battles valiantly and defended her right of inheritance enshrined in the extant law. The Munsif at Tamluk and the Sub-Judge at Midnapur had rejected her pleas for right of inheritance of her fathers properties and declared her re-marriage illegal, rendering thereby her two sons illegitimate and her pleas for right of inheritance untenable. Decisions of both the lower courts presided over by native magistrates at Midnapur were perverse and arbitrary. Overpowering orthodoxy and domi-neering feudal influences had vitiated the vision and faculties of the Munsif and Subordinate Judge for appreciation of the objective of the extant law in the end to deliver a fair and appropriate decision. The woman was unfairly denied justice, compelling an illiterate and ignorant litigant to approach the Calcutta High Court from distant village for redress of her grievances, that threatened her life and existence including the future of her sons. Considering the time and the crisis confronting her life, the decision of the rustic woman from Tamluk to approach the High Court, Calcutta was undoub-tedly a great and historic step in the 1880s. The illustrious neighbour of Ghatal Thana was active in full vigour.

Facts of Dayamoyees case

Dayamoyee was the daughter of Radha Mohan Dass. Dayamoyee admitted that she became a childless widow during her fathers life time, discloses I. L. R. [1883] 10 Calcutta 238 Hurry Charan Dass & Others vs Nimai Chand Koyal,but she asserts that among her caste people widow marriage is in vogue from time immemorial, and that she was given in marriage a second time by her father, and that Chandra Mohan and Tara Chand are her children of her remarriage.

Dayamoyee was given in marriage a second time by her father, conforming to the custom of her caste. Her contention before the High Court was that she is a widow daughter having sons of her own, and is, therefore, the only heir to her father. The land in dispute belonged to Radha Mohan Dass who died in 1878 (1284 BS, leaving behind his brother Sadananda Dass, besides daughter Dayamoyee. Sadananda, representing himself as the only heir of his deceased brother, the said Radha Mohan sold the lands in dispute to one Nimai Chand Koyal under a kobala on March 24, 1880. Nimai Chand, the plaintiff encountered stiff resistance from Dayamoyee when he attempted to take possession of the land on April 5, 1880. According to the High Court, Nimai Chand Koyal, therefore,.......seeks to recover possession and mesne profits after declaration of his title. The Munsif of Tamluk, rejecting her pleas, had decreed in favour of the plaintiff Nimai Chand Koyal. In an appeal, challenging the Munsifs order, an aggrieved Dayamoyee first moved the Subordinate Judge at Midnapur who came to the same conclusion and on the same ground. The Bench of the High Court expressed the view that the lower Appellate Court (Sub-Judge, Midnapur) should have held from the evidence of both sides that Shunga marriage is prevalent among the Nomosudra caste, and the issues of such marriage are legitimate, and entitled to succeed according to Hindu law.

Madhab Chandra Chakrabarty was the Munsif of Tamluk and Kedar Nath Mazumdar was the Sub-Judge of Midnapore. The Munsif delivered his verdict on November 25, 1881 and the Subordinate Judge affirmed the Appellate Degree no. 2074 of 1882 on July 26, 1882. Dayamoyee challenged the Appellate Degree no. 2074 of 1882 before the Calcutta High Court.2

Contemporary print media or intellectual curiosity of the nineteenth century Bengal during the so-called renaissance seem uncon-cerned about a case as this pregnant with immense sociocultural ramifications. Academia too turned blind eye to it till date! A Bench comprising Mr Justice Princep and Mr Justice OKinealy heard the case of Dayamoyee and handed down their verdict on June 29, 1883. It was alleged by the plaintiff Nimai Chand Koyal before the Bench that Dayamoyee became a widow during the lifetime of her father, and that Chandra Mohan and Tara Chand are her natural sons, and that they are, therefore, not entitled to succeed. The opposite party insinuated against the moral character of Dayamoyee and challenged her remarriage though her remarriage was sanctioned both by custom as well as by law in place. The opposite party had attempted to portray her in dark colours that her sons were natural born. A natural born, according to dictionary, is an illegitimate child. Such imputation is derogatory for the character of Dayamoyee. But her opponents aim was to smear her character before the High Court to reap benefit by scurrilous allegations of his opponent.

In the light of appellants contention with regard to the custom of widow marriage being in vogue from time immemorial and her sons of her re-marriage, the Division Bench was seized with most critical issue for decision: Whether widow marriage is a sanctioned custom among the Nomosudras and if so, is it a valid marriage.3 Dayamoyee, the defendant was a Nomosudras, an untouchable caste of Bengal. The High Court observed that the custom of widow marriage was in vogue amongst the Nomosudras and if so it was a valid marriage but he (Tamluk Munsif) came to the conclusion that the marriage was not a valid one as its recognition depended upon payments of money to the zamindar, the barber, the Brahmin and the village headman.

Mr. Justice Princep and Mr. Justice OKinealy also observed that Madhab Chandra Chakra-barty had put reliance on issues immaterial to the case. Actually, at the beginning itself, the Munsif in Tamluk had placed blind reliance on immaterial issues and passed a perverse and arbitrary order and ultimately denied her right of inheritance. We, therefore, have to analyze the instant case in broad social perspective. Were the Munsiff and Subordinate Judge predisposed to pass order detrimental to the right and interest of Dayamoyee in the teeth of social custom and law in force?

The Munsif accepted and recognized that custom of widow marriage was in vogue amongst the Nomosudras, the caste to which Dayamoyee belonged.TheHigh Court Judges held the conclusion of the Munsifthat the marriage was not a valid one as its recognition depended upon payments of money to (1) the zamindar, (2) the barber, (3) the Brahmin and (4) the village headmanwas immaterial. The native Tamluk Munsif Madhab Chandra Chakrabarty and Midnapur Subordi-nate Judge Kedar Nath Mazumdar, out of feudal instincts and inclination, blindly pandered to perverse interests! The High Court, we have noted already, indicted both these native officers, who took recourse to immaterial issues while denying justice to Dayamoyee.

This was a landmark judgement of Calcutta High Court that could go a long way in reforming the society. Dayamoyee made a history though history did not document for reasons known to historians and intellectual class, contemporary and/or about last fourteen decade the ssince!

Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic Chinua Achebe (November 16, 1930March 21, 2013) was right in saying: Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

Act No. XV of 1856 legalised Hindu Widow Marriage: Vidyasagars movement flopped!

The Act No. XV of 1856, legalizing Marriage of Hindu Widow, received assent of Governor General of India Viscount Canning on 26 July 1856.4 Objective of the Act was to remove all legal obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows. Two of its sections were path-breaking for the Hindu society, which, in the nineteenth century, was steeped in the abyss of conservatism and orthodoxy.

Section 1 of the Widow Marriage Act envisaged that,

No marriage contracted between Hindus shall be invalid, and the issue of no such marriage shall be illegitimate, by reason of the woman having been previously married or betrothed to another person who was dead at the time of such marriage, any custom and any interpretation of Hindu law to the contrary notwithstanding.5

No marriage of any widow, in the face of this legal provision and authority, would be invalid and her son or daughter stigmatized as illegitimate if her previous husband was dead at the time of her second marriage. This provided an important legal safeguard for the widow to contract at the time of her second marriage. No custom or interpretation of Hindu law contrary to this provision, could render the marriage invalid. Unfortunately, social attitude as also mindset rarely changes. Orthodoxy invariably triumphed and reason together with enlightenment and above all, humanism trampled.

Section 5 of the Act further announced that

..........a widow shall not, by reason of her re-marriage, forfeit any property, or any right to which would otherwise be entitled, and every widow who has remarried shall have the same rights of inheritance as she would have had such marriage been her first marriage.6

Vidysagar had laboured hard to see that such an Act was in place for furtherance of the movement he had launched but success, to speak candidly, was limited. The first widow marriage under the Act was solemnized at Calcutta on December 7, 1856. He defrayed expenses for bridal dresses, ornaments and other incidentals.7 Several such marriages celebrated during his life time cost Vidyasagar a good some of money. One cannot count as success of his mission, if the crusader himself was obliged to provide for the maintenance of many poor families, who were boycotted from the society and persecuted in different ways for contracting widow marriage or associating with those who had ventured to enter into such alliances by majority of the Hindus. In the end, he incurred debts to the fearful amount of nearly half a lakh of rupees for the cause according to C. E. Buckland, ICS Vidyasagar made the chief aim of his life.8 Do we take pride in widow marriages that were greased for solemnization through brides paid in cash and kind to bridegrooms, their parents, etc.?

Opposition against widow marriage emanated out of vain glorious sense of caste superiority in a tiny section of Bengali Hindus. The movement was not all-embracing nor did it involve a national question; it affected Hindus only and of the Hindus only the upper castes, Brahmans, Kayasthas, etc.9 What was the strength of these few castes? In 1872 Brahmans numbered 11,00,105; Baidyas, 68,353; and Kayasthas, 11,60,478totalling 23,27,936 persons in Bengal Proper10 as against 1,2425,750 Hindus in Bengal Proper. Would we conversely be wrong to state that that these three castes failed the mission of Vidyasagar?

Bengalees, designated and returned as Semi-Hinduised Aboriginals in 1872 numbered 51,10,989. 11 Mind it these sections had widow marriage as social custom prevailing among them. It was the bhadralok who needed social reforms as their women paid highest prices because of sati, polygamy which their men folks considered prestigious and forced widowhood ordained by scriptures.

The high wall of orthodoxy and prejudice against women was so stubborn, immutable and insurmountable that the reform movement like widow marriage, though blissful and noble for human happiness and social stability, actually flopped. The reason diagnosed for failure of the Vidyasagar-led movement of widow marriage according to a historian, may be cited here under:

It (widow marriage) was more specifically a custom of the antyaja (low born) castes, prevalent among the Mehtar, Dom, Hari, Chandal etc. Vidysagar appeared to be proposing the adoption of the values of the unclean castes who were at the bottom of the society, by the Brahman and the clean Sudras who were the elites of the Bengali Hindus. He was asking the bhadralok to adopt a social practice that the chotalok had been pursuing since time immemorial. This must be looked like a reform of the popular culture in reverse directiona counter reform. The elites could only be expected to resist this effectively.12

The above observation, while flattering for the untouchable castes, e. g., Mehtar, Dom, Hari, Chandal, etc.it is galling for women of the advanced castes. A cursory perusal of the ethnological survey carried by Herbert Hope Risley, ICS in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa along with the report of various censuses since 1872 yields mines of information on castes and tribes that practised widow marriage as a social custom. They were Amat, Bagdi, Barhi, Barai, Barui, Bhandari, Bhuiya, Bhumij, Bind, Binjhia, Chakma, Chamar & Mochi, Chandal, Dhoba/Dhobi, Dom, Dosadh, Goala, Hajam, Hari, Kaibartta, Kahar, Koch, Kumhar, Lepcha, Mal, Munda, Musahar, Nunia, Pan, Pasi, Patni, Santal, Sunri, and Tanti. These castes aggregated at 15,221,547 in 1872. Some of the castes that socially recognised widow marriage was numerically very populous.13 Goalas,for instance, returned in census of Bengal 1872 were 29,32,969; Chandal, 16,20,545; Chamar and Mochi, 8,93,490; Bagdi, 6,80,278; Kaibartta, 6,92,140; Koch and Rajbanshi, and 831,491 persons.14

An infinitesimal section of Hindus, self-styled as bhadralok, determines what was good for tens of millions and those who did not follow their diktat were held to be inferior, if not barbarous, and subjected to cold terror through torture and indignity, discrimination, injustice, inequality and segregation. Those who imitated the terror-mongering tint section in social behaviour and rituals, the process initially coined was called brahminization but was later changed to Sanskritization. In a word, Sanskriti-zation invasive in connotation and nature, denied them the right of free choice and self-esteem to live in their own way. Widow marriage practised in their society was far more humane in character and capable of ensuring happiness in the family and society at large. The despicable miseries of the upper caste women speak eloquently and their tales of woes cannot be subject of this deliberation here.

Footnotes

1. Subal Chandra Mitra, Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, [first published in December, 1902], Rupa and Co., 2008, p. 201.

2. I. L. R. [1883] 10 Calcutta 238 Hurry Charan Dass & Others vs Nimai Chand Koyal.

3. Spelling Nomosudra has been retained unchanged as mentioned in the Calcutta High Court verdict.

4. His tenure of office was between 28 February 1856 to 1 November 1862.

5. Subal Chandra Mitra, Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, [first published in December, 1902], Ruma & Co., 2008, p. 230.

6. Ibid., p. 232.

7. Ibid., p. 252.

8. S.C. Mitra, op. cit., pp. 252-253.

9. Dr Arabinda Podder, introduction to Marriage of Hindu Widows by Vidyasagar, K.P. Bagchi and Company, Calcutta, January 1976, p. xiv.

10. Report on the Census of Bengal 1872, by H. Beverley, Bengal Secretariat Press, Calcutta, General Statement V. B. pp. cxvii-cxviii.

11. Ibid.

12. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, essay Caste, Widow-Remarriage and Reform of Popular Culture in Colonial Bengal, compiled in Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar, Women and Social Reform in Modern India, A Reader, Indiana University Press, 2008, p. 112.

13. Ibid., pp. cxiv-cxxiii.

14. Ibid.

The author, a retired IAS officer and former Vice-Chancellor, B.R. Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, may be reached at biswasatulk[at]gmail.com
Residents of areas surrounding the virus-hit Chinese province of Hubei have walled off streets and highways with bricks and other obstructions in a bid to stop people fleeing areas worst-hit by the epidemic, as the death toll from the coronavirus passed 80 on Monday.



Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people are under some kind of travel restriction imposed either by the authorities or by local residents trying to prevent infected people from fleeing the worst-hit areas of the epidemic.



A total of 2,737 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) were reported in mainland China, according to a website set up by researchers at Johns Hopkins University to track the epidemic.



Of those cases, 1,423 were in Hubei, which also reported 76 out of the total of 81 deaths.



Meanwhile, 146 cases were confirmed in the southern province of Guangdong, with eight in neighboring Hong Kong and six in nearby Macau.



More than 100 cases have been reported in Henan province, Chongqing municipality, and Hunan province, all of which have borders with Hubei.



One of the road closures was in Hunan's Sanghzi county, where piles of bricks blocked a highway leading from Hubei, sources told RFA.



A local journalist surnamed Li said the road closure wasn't an isolated incident.



"This place [in Sanghzi county] is at the meeting point of three provinces with Hubei on one side, Chongqing on another, and Hunan on the other," Li said. "People from Hubei will try to pass this way, and if people here prevent them, there will be conflict."



"[This is happening] along the entire length of the border between Hunan and Hubei, as well as along the border between Hubei and Henan," he said.



'The situation is pretty bad'



A resident of Hubei's Hefeng county surnamed Zhao said people are being prevented from traveling to nearby Sanghzi county along local roads by similar roadblocks, even though they are more than 1,000 kilometers from Wuhan.



"The road from Hefeng to Sangzhi is closed, blocked off with a wall at the intersection to stop people from going through," Zhao said. "We are is Hefeng, a small county in a mountainous area more than 1,000 kilometers away from Wuhan."



"None of the shops are allowed to open, provincial and national highways leaving the village and the county town are shut, and no vehicles or personnel are being allowed to use them," he said.



"The situation is pretty bad."



An official who answered the phone at the Sanghzi county government declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Monday, saying they were unaware of the situation.



A resident of Hubei's Xianning city surnamed Wang reported similar scenes where he lives.



"Everything is under tight restriction around here," Wang said. "The roads into town for each town have been blocked using excavators, and people aren't being allowed to move between towns and villages."



They have dug up the road surfaces, so how are we supposed to get past?"



A map showing the latest confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) in Asia. RFA Chinese premier visits



Chinese premier Li Keqiang visited Wuhan on Monday, promising reinforcements amid growing public anger over the city government's failure to respond adequately to a fast-changing public health emergency.



"Li ... thanked frontline medical workers for their all-out efforts in treating patients and urged them to pay attention to their own protection," state news agency Xinhua reported.



"He required efforts to guarantee medical resources supply, race against time to treat patients and ensure adequate market supply and stable prices."



Li promised that 2,500 more medical workers would arrive in Wuhan, where workers are being pressed into service to complete a new hospital to house the overflowing caseload from the city's overwhelmed hospitals.



Social media comments have been sharply critical of the Hubei authorities. The provincial governor corrected himself twice during a news conference over the number of face masks being produced in the province.



Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang told state broadcaster CCTV the city's management of the crisis was "not good enough," a rare public self-criticism for a Chinese official, and said he was willing to resign.



"Right now we are all beyond caring," a resident of Wuhan told RFA on Monday. "When this whole thing started, they should at the very least have made us aware of how serious it was."



"Also, it's not just us who were ill-prepared. They don't seem to have been well-prepared within their own ranks either," he said.



Wuhan businessman Qin Daling said an estimated 300,000 people had left Wuhan before the lockdown.



"I saw it myself: the night before the city was cut off, 300,000 people left," he said.



Provinces isolating themselves



Zhang Maolin, a resident of Lushan Scenic Area in Jiangxi province, which also borders Hubei, said similar road closures were also in force all around his home.



"Each province is isolating itself ... and civilian drivers daren't go anywhere," Zhang said. "Anyone who is trying to run a business isn't going to be able to operate."



"The key now is to re-open the flow of materials, because prices are very high right now in Wuhan because the goods can't get in," he said. "Here in my town, there was no rice available yesterday, although there was some today."



"There is no way you can get hold of a face mask," he added.



Elsewhere in China, people who fled Wuhan before the lockdown are now being driven out of villages, denied food in eateries, and accommodation in hotels and guesthouses, according to posts on social media platforms Sina Weibo and WeChat seen by RFA.



One video posted to social media showed a group of people from Wuhan being told to turn around by local residents and police in the southwestern province of Yunnan, while a similar scene was posted from Chongqing.



Only authorities in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Hainan island, and Xuwen in Guangdong are running centralized resettlement and medical observation programs for residents of Hubei.



But neither the National Health Commission nor the Ministry of Civil Affairs responsible for rescue operations have commented on the crisis so far.



Global threat unclear



Health experts are still unsure how great a global threat is posed by the virus, which has spread to other countries, but only in single figures so far with no deaths reported.



National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said on Sunday that the incubation period for nCoV could range from one to 14 days, and that the virus was infectious during incubation, which would allow it to spread while still undetected.



The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated an incubation period of two to 10 days.



Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has arrived in China to work with local officials.



The U.S. Consulate in Wuhan will operate a charter flight on Tuesday to evacuate its personnel and some other Americans from the city, while Japan is getting ready to fly out 560 of its nationals "as soon as possible," the Associated Press reported.



French citizens who want to leave Wuhan will be taken on a direct flight to France in the middle of the week, and then held in quarantine for 14 days, while employees of Peugeot and Citroen carmaker PSA, said it was evacuating its expatriate employees and their families from Wuhan and quarantining them in another city.



Reported by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
KYODO NEWS - Jan 27, 2020 - 23:11 | World, All, Coronavirus

Singapore's government said Monday that the threat from the coronavirus epidemic in China will undoubtedly impact the city-state's economy, while it assured the public that it has stepped up prevention measures.

"We certainly expect there to be an impact on the economy, business and consumer confidence this year, especially as the situation is expected to persist for some time," Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing told a press conference.

Of immediate concern are tourism-related sectors, he said, adding that government will try to help local businesses and workers hit by the economic impact of the epidemic.

(Passengers with face masks ride a subway train in Beijing on Jan. 27, 2020, amid fears over the spread of pneumonia caused by a new deadly coronavirus circulating in China.)

Singapore has already reported four confirmed cases, all of whom are Chinese nationals visiting from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, in Hubei Province.

"We have no evidence that there is community spread of this virus in Singapore, but it may happen," National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said. "This does not mean overreacting or turning xenophobic. We must be proactive and rational in our response."

On Monday, a ministerial taskforce formed to tackle the threat asked Singaporeans to defer non-essential trip to China. An earlier travel advisory had urged them to avoid travel to Hubei.

At Changi airport, thermal scanners are being used to monitor passengers from all incoming flights, not just those from China.

Singapore was among countries worst hit by the SARS virus outbreak of 2002 to 2003, with 238 people infected and 33 deaths.

Meanwhile, Malaysia announced on Monday that it has suspended granting of visas to Chinese coming from Hubei due to the virus outbreak.

Related coverage:

Cambodia reports 1st case of new coronavirus infection

China's virus-related outbound group travel ban hit Japan firms

New coronavirus may "infect" China's decelerating economy
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Monday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is collecting population data using non-government organizations (NGOs) and asked people to be careful about sharing personal information.

The BJP is asking people to submit their Aadhaar card numbers. It is happening in some places at Jhargram (West Midnapore district). Some NGOs are doing this for the BJP in exchange for money. These are religious fundamentalist organizations. Be careful. Spread the message in every locality, Banerjee said while addressing a gathering of her partys students wing, the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata.

I have seen the leaflet myself. It has BJPs name on it and it asks people to submit their Aadhaar document at the BJP office. Why should people submit their Aadhaar document to them? she questioned.

ALSO WATCH | Over CAA fear, woman allegedly manhandled during Economic Census exercise

BJPs Jhargram district unit president Sukhamay Satpathy said that they have, indeed, released a leaflet asking people to provide Aadhaar numbers.

However, we sought this to expose corruption in disbursement of allowance for folk artists. We will submit a list of legitimate beneficiaries who are left out. People not eligible for the scheme are receiving money and we want to expose that, Satpathy said.

Banerjee also reiterated her opposition to the National Population Register (NPR) and justified her governments stand on not attending the NPR related meeting in New Delhi that all other states attended. She said those who would not be able to fill all the columns in the NPR form would get marked for citizenship screening.

Had we attended the meeting, we would have become a party to the decisions taken, she said.

Banerjee also criticized the Centre for its privatization drive. They are selling out everything. Air India, BSNL, railways and ordnance factory, everything is being sold out, she said.

She announced that her partys trade union wing will organize a two-day demonstration at Esplanade in Kolkata from Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 18:25:12|Editor: huaxia

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Staff members of China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd. prepare to get on the top of a bullet train for inspection in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jan. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

Transport restrictions, temperature detection, online medical consultation platforms... China has stepped up efforts to control the outbreak of coronavirus epidemic through a series of measures.

BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- China extended the Spring Festival holiday and postponed school openings on Monday, while transport restrictions have been adopted in various areas to further contain the coronavirus epidemic.

The seven-day Spring Festival vacation, scheduled to end on Jan. 30, was extended to Feb. 2. Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice, according to the General Office of the State Council.

Chinese health authorities announced Monday that 2,744 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), including 461 in critical condition, had been reported in the country by the end of Sunday. The pneumonia situation has resulted in a total of 80 deaths. Fifty-one people have recovered.

Besides the temporary closures of public venues such as tourist sites, museums and cinemas and cancellations of gatherings, transport restrictions have been imposed in various areas as the country is still in its Spring Festival travel rush period.

On Monday, the northern port city of Tianjin and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Anhui as well as the southwestern city of Chongqing began to suspend inter-provincial highway passenger bus services. Previously, Shanghai and Qinghai Province had halted similar bus services.

Beijing has also launched temperature detection at 55 subway stations, including stops at railway stations and the Beijing Capital International Airport. Passengers with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to the hospital.

Beijing's subway stations and buses have also stepped up cleaning and disinfection work. Each carriage of the train is ordered to be disinfected every day. The entrances and exits, escalators, self-service machines, toilets and other public areas of subway stations are disinfected three times each day.

Tianjin has asked all taxi drivers and passengers to wear masks and taxi drivers to disinfect the car after each passenger.

The Lanzhou bureau of China Railway on Monday suspended 30.5 pairs of trains to cities such as Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Xi'an until Feb. 8.

China has stressed all-around community-based efforts to prevent and control the spread of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

"We must give full play to the mobilization ability of primary-level communities, including rural communities, in personnel tracking and management among efforts to curb the spread of the virus," said He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission on Monday.

Strict measures have been implemented in rural areas.

"Our 96 grassroots staff members are all working right now. We have been visiting households and monitoring body temperatures of returning migrant workers every day," said Wu Lihui, Party official of a subdistrict office in the city of Shangrao, eastern China's Jiangxi Province.

Yang Xiaoxia, a villager in Lantian county, northwestern Shaanxi Province, planned to hold a large dinner party for her one-month-old grandson during the Spring Festival. However, she decided to postpone it because of the spreading coronavirus.

"A villager in our community canceled his wedding banquet," said Yang. "I will invite everybody over to celebrate when the outbreak is over."

A bus dispatcher measures a driver's temperature at a bus station in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Online medical consultation platforms were launched in many different places in China in an effort to relieve hospital pressure amid the novel coronavirus spread.

"Doctor, I have been coughing for two days. Do I have the coronavirus," Mr. Li from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, typed on his phone.

"Do you have a fever? Have you had close contact with anybody from Wuhan?" doctor Lin Jianmei from the people's hospital of Sichuan Province replied through the online medical consultation system.

After being told that he did not need to rush to the hospital and just needed to rest at home, Li was relieved.

"I have 'seen' over 50 patients every day since the launch of the online medical consultation platform. Some of the patients are consulting because of their cold symptoms, others are just having psychological stress," said Liu Jie, a doctor from the city of Guangyuan in Sichuan.

The online platforms can preliminarily screen the patients, relieve the pressure of some overly worried patients and allow patients in need to go to the hospital, said Fan Wei, a doctor from the city of Yuncheng in northern China's Shanxi Province.

In eastern China's Shandong Province, which has reported 63 confirmed cases of the new pneumonia, 48 hospitals have opened online fever clinic services to help control the epidemic.

Donations, funds, medical supplies and teams have been sent to Hubei to contain the epidemic situation.

"The 2.4 million medical masks and over 100,000 items of protective clothing we produced have all been transported to Wuhan," said Che Jinjun, a worker at a medical equipment company in Rizhao, Shandong Province. All employees gave up their Spring Festival holidays.

On Monday, 410 doctors and nurses in three medical teams were formed in Fujian, Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces to leave for Wuhan. A number of medical teams from other provinces and the military are already in Wuhan treating patients. 
President Donald Trump View Photo

President Trump spoke at the 47th annual March For Life in Washington D.C.

Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Well, thank you very much and thank you, Jeanne. It is my profound honor to be the first President in history to attend the March for Life. (Applause.) Were here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential. (Applause.)

For 47 years, Americans of all backgrounds have traveled from across the country to stand for life. And today, as President of the United States, I am truly proud to stand with you. (Applause.)

I want to welcome tens of thousands  this is a tremendous turnout  tens of thousands of high school and college students who took long bus rides  (applause)  to be here in our nations capital. And to make you feel even better, there are tens of thousands of people outside that we passed on the way in. If anyone would like to give up their spot, we can work that out. (Laughter.) You have a tremendous group of people outside. Thousands and thousands wanted to get in. This is some great success. (Applause.) Young people are the heart of the March for Life, and its your generation that is making America the pro-family, pro-life nation. (Applause.)

The life movement is led by strong women, amazing faith leaders, and brave students who carry on the legacy of pioneers before us who fought to raise the conscience of our nation and uphold the rights of our citizens. You embrace mothers with care and compassion. You are powered by prayer, and motivated by pure, unselfish love.

Youre grateful  and we are so grateful  these are incredible people  to be joined by Secretary Alex Azar and Kellyanne Conway. (Applause.) Thank you.

And thanks also to Senators Mike Lee and James Lankford, who are here. James, Mike  thank you, fellas. And Representatives Steve Scalise  (applause); Chris Smith  (applause); Ralph Abraham  (applause); Warren Davidson  (applause); Bob Latta  (applause); John Joyce  (applause); Lloyd Smucker  (applause); Brian Fitzpatrick  (applause); and Brad Wenstrup. (Applause.) Thank you, all. (Applause.)

And I have to say  and I look at it  I see it exactly  we have many, many more politicians in the audience. But, if you dont mind, I wont introduce them all. (Laughter.)

All of us here today understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. (Applause.) Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and sanctity of every human life. (Applause.)

When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of Gods creation. (Applause.) When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world. From my family  and I can tell you, I send love and I send great, great love.

And from the first day in office, Ive taken a historic action to support Americas families and to protect the unborn. (Applause.) And during my first week in office, I reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, and we issued a landmark pro-life rule to govern the use of Title X taxpayer funding. (Applause.)

I notified Congress that I would veto any legislation that weakens pro-life policies or that encourages the destruction of human life. (Applause.)

At the United Nations, I made clear that global bureaucrats have no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that protect innocent life. (Applause.)

Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House. (Applause.) And as the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made. (Applause.)

We have taken decisive action to protect the religious liberty - so important. Religious liberty has been under attack all over the world, and, frankly, very strongly attacked in our nation. You see it better than anyone. But we are stopping it, and were taking care of doctors, nurses, teachers, and groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor. (Applause.) We are preserving faith-based adoption. (Applause.)

And to uphold our founding documents, we have confirmed 187 federal judges  (applause)  who apply the Constitution as written, including two phenomenal Supreme Court Justices: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. (Applause.)

We are protecting pro-life students right to free speech on college campuses. (Applause.) And if universities want federal taxpayer dollars, then they must uphold your First Amendment right to speak your mind. And if they dont, they pay a very big financial penalty, which they will not be willing to pay. (Applause.)

Sadly, the far-left is actively working to erase our God-given rights, shut down faith-based charities, ban religious believers from the public square, and silence Americans who believe in the sanctity of life. They are coming after me because I am fighting for you and we are fighting for those who have no voice. And we will win because we know how to win. (Applause.) We all know how to win. We all know how to win. Youve been winning for a long time. Youve been winning for a long time. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Together, we are the voice for the voiceless. When it comes to abortion, Democrats is a  and you know this, youve seen whats happened  Democrats have embraced the most radical and extreme positions taken and seen in this country for years, and decades  and you can even say for centuries.

AUDIENCE: Booo 

THE PRESIDENT: Nearly every top Democrat in Congress now supports taxpayer-funded abortion, all the way up until the moment of birth.

AUDIENCE: Booo 

THE PRESIDENT: Last year, lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mothers womb right up until delivery.

AUDIENCE: Booo 

THE PRESIDENT: Then, we had the case of the Democrat governor in the state of Virginia  the Commonwealth of Virginia.

AUDIENCE: Booo 

THE PRESIDENT: And we love the Commonwealth of Virginia, but what is going on in Virginia? What is going on? The Governor stated that he would execute a baby after birth. You remember that.

Senate Democrats even blocked legislation that would give medical care to babies who survive attempted abortions. Thats why Ive called on Congress  two of our great senators here, so many of our congressmen here  and called upon them to defend the dignity of life and to pass legislation prohibiting late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in their mothers womb. (Applause.)

This year, the March for Life is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which forever enshrined womens rights to vote in the United States  (applause)  and given by the United States Constitution. Such a big event. (Applause.)

Today, millions of extraordinary women across America are using the power of their votes to fight for the right, and all of their rights, as given in the Declaration of Independence - its the right to life. To all the women here today: Your devotion and your leadership uplifts our entire nation, and we thank you for that.

The tens of thousands of Americans gathered today not only stand for life  its really that they stand for it so proudly together, and I want to thank everybody for that.

You stand for life each and every day. You provide housing, education, jobs, and medical care to the women that you serve. You find loving families for children in need of a forever home. You host baby showers for expecting moms. You make - you just make it your lifes mission to help spread Gods grace.

And to all of the moms here today: We celebrate you, and we declare that mothers are heroes. (Applause.) Thats true. Your strength, devotion, and drive is what powers our nation. And, because of you, our country has been blessed with amazing souls who have changed the course of human history.

We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve, the dreams they will imagine, the masterpieces they will create, the discoveries they will make. But we know this: Every life brings love into this world. Every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting. (Applause.) And above all, we know that every human soul is divine, and every human life - born and unborn - is made in the holy image of Almighty God. (Applause.)

Together, we will defend this truth all across our magnificent land. We will set free the dreams of our people. And with determined hope, we look forward to all of the blessings that will come from the beauty, talent, purpose, nobility, and grace of every American child.

I want to thank you. This is a very special moment. Its so great to represent you. I love you all and - (applause)  and I say with true passion: Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America. Thank you all.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 00:43:07|Editor: yan

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NANCHANG/JINAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A patient diagnosed with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pneumonia was discharged from a hospital in east China's Jiangxi Province on Monday, marking the first cured patient in the province.

The 38-year-old male from Xingan county drove a friend to the city of Honghu in Hubei Province on Jan. 3 and returned to Xingan on Jan. 5. Soon after, he developed symptoms including fever, cough and chest tightness. He was diagnosed with novel coronavirus pneumonia and transferred to the provincial-level designated hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, on Jan. 23.

The patient was in critical condition when he was first transferred to the hospital, said Xu Fei, deputy director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the hospital. His condition improved significantly after treatment and met the standards for de-segregation and discharge of confirmed cases of pneumonitis infected with novel coronavirus of the National Health Commission, according to Xu.

In east China's Shandong Province, a 37-year-old male patient was cured and ready to be discharged from hospital on Tuesday, officials said at a press conference held by the provincial government on Monday.

The patient is a native of Wuhan City but works in the Shandong city of Rizhao. He was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus pneumonia on Jan. 21.

A total of 2,744 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) were reported as of Monday. Eighty people died and 51 patients have recovered.




Cooking for people I love, creating deliciousness out of fresh ingredients, browsing through cookbooks for inspiration, perusing grocery shelves for choice items and writing about my expat life enriched by food. That's what I do here.



Leave me a comment or write me at foodlustpeoplelove [at] gmail [dot] com.
Director of Inland Marine Underwriting, Liberty Mutual Insurance

Liberty Mutual has several job openings, such as this role  which involves analyzing exposures, loss history, requested coverages of an assigned territory, then using that information to select business and determine appropriate terms and conditions. Directors will independently produce and manage their own book of business and manage producer/customer relationships. Candidates must have a minimum of eight years of builders risk/inland marine underwriting, or related experience. More details here.

Underwriting Consultant (Healthcare Practices, National Specialty), Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual has another opening on its national insurance specialty team  specifically for the healthcare segment. The unit serves mid- and large-sized healthcare providers; the underwriting consultant will write workers compensation, auto, general liability, and mid-sized property insurance for these clients, and for all program structures. More than eight years of commercial lines underwriting experience is preferred. More details here.

Insurance Actuary, Connecticut Department of Insurance

The Department of Insurance of the state of Connecticut is hiring an insurance actuary for its actuarial division. The actuary will support the major P&C functions of the actuarial division in financial analysis, field exams, NAIC committees, and other product management support. Actuaries will also review the annual actuarial opinions and actuarial reports, ORSA, capital modeling, and so on. Applicants must have at least 10 years of experience serving as an actuary with an insurance company or another insurance regulator. More details here.

Insurance Specialist, US Department of Homeland Security

The federal government is looking to hire insurance specialists as part of FEMAs Cadre of On-call Response/Recovery Employee (CORE) program. As an insurance specialist with the Department of Homeland Security, the candidate will ensure complex, high-dollar grant subawards comply with all insurance requirements. The specialist will also help in interpreting NFIP claims. More details here.

Group Insurance Division Manager, State of Illinois

The Illinois Department of Central Management Services, Bureau of Benefits is hiring a manager for its group insurance division. The candidate will oversee statewide group insurance programs such as the State Employees Group Insurance Program (SEGIP), Teachers Retirement Insurance Program (TRIP), College Insurance Program (CIP) and the Local Government Health Plan (LGHP). Applicants must have prior experience administering group health insurance plans, and must have working knowledge of the Affordable Care Act. More details here.
Stepping up attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday dared the AAP chief to visit the anti-CAA protest site at Shaheen Bagh here so that people of Delhi can decide whom to vote for in the assembly election.

The BJP leader said the Delhi Police has booked Sharjeel Imam, a JNU student, on sedition charge for his comment of "trying to cut the chicken's neck" and break the northeast from the rest of the country.

"I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi," Shah said addressing an election rally in Rithala in northwest Delhi.

Imam was one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest.

"You (the AAP leaders) people say that you are with Shaheen Bagh. If you have the guts then go and sit with them. And let Delhi decide," Shah said.

Last week, Shah had hit out at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for his remarks that he stood with people of Shaheen Bagh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ocean Viking rescues 184 more migrants, 407 onboard Alarm Phone says 800 fled Libya over 3 days

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 27 - In another two rescue operations conducted over the night between Sunday and Monday, the Ocean Viking vessel rescued 102 people some 80 kilometers off Libya and 82 in Maltese search and rescue waters. There are currently 407 people onboard who have bene rescued over the 72 hours by the ship operated by the Sos Mediterranee and MSF NGOs. In three days, at least 13 boats carrying migrants fled from Libya with almost 800 people onboard, according to Alarm Phone, a telephone service assisting migrants in difficulty in the Mediterranean Sea.



Some 720 reached Europe, it said. (ANSAmed).




TICKERS: MDV; MSTXF; M5QN

Source: Streetwise Reports (1/27/20)

The chief geologist believes the deposits are part of a large, emerging trend.



Megastar Development Corp. (MDV:TSX.V; MSTXF:OTC; M5QN:FSE), a small-cap exploration company focused on the emerging Oaxaca Gold-Silver Belt in Mexico, has conducted fieldwork over two months that has revealed multiple targets for further exploration.

The fieldwork is being overseen by David Jones, chief geologist and a director of Megastar, who over his 40-year career has had a number of high-profile discoveries and expansions under his belt. Those in Mexico include the 1995 discovery of the Los Filos deposit in what is now known as the Guerrero Gold Belt (GGB), leading the successful Teck bid for the Morelos Reserve in the GGB (now Torex Gold), principal geological consultant in the fundraising and start-up of Torex Gold, the targeting of Gold Resource Corporation's recent Switchback mine discovery, and participation as a director in the successful sale of Cayden Resources to Agnico Eagle. Jones was one of the early geologists to recognize the larger potential of the Guerrero Gold Belt, which over the past 25 years of his involvement has grown from less than 2 million ounces of gold to more than 30 million ounces.

"The reason I tend to have more success than failure is that I focus on thinking about why mineralization is where it is and where I might find more, especially if there are no obvious indicators in the area. Los Filos was a blind discovery; there was nothing at the surface, and it was based on a geologic idea that paid off," Jones told Streetwise Reports. He says that similar thinking may be applied to the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Jones has become interested in the regional structures that cross through southern Mexico. "In Oaxaca, there are super volcanoescalderasand every mineralized district that I know of along the central volcanic belt in the state, including Fortuna Silver's San Jose Mine and Gold Resource Corp.'s Arista-Switchback and Alta Gracia mines, is associated with Tertiary calderas and their related structures. The liquid magma that comes up fills the cracks and associated hydrothermal fluids make the ore body," Jones explained.

Epithermal gold-silver deposits are known for their bonanza grades, "fabulous high grades, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, with gold upwards of 5 grams per tonne, silver in the kilo range and base metals in the multi-percentage range, all in the same vein," Jones said.

Jones views the emerging Oaxaca Gold-Silver Belt as an "opportunity parallel to that of the early Guerrero Gold Belt" with the potential for significant discoveries. Fortuna Silver's San Jose Mine has produced 767,000 gold-equivalent ounces (gold and silver) since 2013; Gold Resource's Arista-Switchback and Alta Gracia mines have produced 465,000 ounces of gold since 2011.

Acting on his working theory is what allowed him to target what became the Switchback mine discovery. Applying his knowledge on a more regional scale led Jones to secure three highly prospective properties in Oaxaca, "the perfect number for a junior company," and joined with Brian Ostroff of Windermere Capital to get Megastar going. Today, David Jones is the largest shareholder, believing strongly in the opportunity.

Megastar's three Oaxaca projectsYautepec, Magdalena and Rama de Orohave no history of systematic exploration work, and thus the opportunity to find something of significance is considered wide open, Jones stressed.

At Yautepec and Magdalena, "we are seeing things that are textbook examples of mineralized epithermal systems even before we get to the first stage of drill testing. We have identified multiple centers of strong quartz veining, fossil hot springs, rhyolite domes and dikes, all with associated abundant sulfides, which is nothing short of remarkable for the small amount of work completed to date. We have an abundance of mineralized samples from Yautepec from a quartz vein system of over 500 meters strike length with estimated widths of 2 to 9 meters; this flanks a 700-meter-long mineralized fossil hot springs (sinter) deposit that demonstrates we are at the very top of the epithermal system, with the full potential preserved at depth," Jones explained. "Another target consists of multiple dikes we have identified along a canyon bottom that are similar to those associated with the nearby producing mines of Gold Resource Corp. In total, we have identified four principal targets so far at Yautepec over a 3-kilometer trend, and that's just a small part of the 20-kilometer caldera-related structural trend that defines the larger project."

With positive results coming out of the initial work, Megastar in October announced the signing of an option agreement to acquire the mineral rights to Cerro Minas, an extension of the trend at Yautepec. "Completely surrounded by our current land holdings, Cerro Minas displays similar epithermal characteristics to targets that we had already identified and, given our early-stage success, adding this land is a natural as we look to enlarge our footprint in, what we believe, is a very prospective area," Jones stated.

The Cerro Minas property covers "5 kilometers strike length of highly prospective ground containing polymetallic (Ag-Au-Cu-Pb-Zn) skarn-style mineralization along a northwest trending caldera structural margin," the company stated. "With this agreement, Megastar has consolidated over 7 kilometers strike length of high potential epithermal and skarn mineralization targets for drill testing proposed in 2020."

At another Megastar property, the Magdalena project, fieldwork has recently identified a 1.7-km structural trend "within a well-defined volcanic caldera." In December Megastar announced that its preliminary work identified "characteristics of a significant epithermal system including gold mineralization locally exceeding 3.00 grams per tonne." Jones stated, "We have mapped a principal 300 by 285 meter area of surface gold mineralization defined by 58 samples, including a couple of samples of over 3.00 g/t gold. This main zone, along with other prominent outliers, constitute easy-to-access and drill-ready targets."

"The first-round Magdalena results are remarkable sampling numbers for anyone, anywhere," Jones stressed, "58 samples above 0.20 grams with two over 3 grams, a dozen over a gram."

Megastar geologists have been finding fossilized stromatolite mounds at Magdalena. "They form at the margins of previously active surface hot springs, which means that they are at the very top of the epithermal system," Jones explained. "That's important because it means that the entire vertical potential of that bonanza system is conserved; if it is there at all, you've got the full down dip extent of potential bonanza grade mineralization."

"Megastar has a busy exploration program planned as it looks to follow up on its early success," Jones said. As well, the company is currently in the process of applying for drill permits and expects to begin drilling this year. "This work should create a steady news flow for the company in coming months."

Megastar boasts a tight share structure, with 44 million shares outstanding and 14 million warrants and options, which when exercised would generate just under $1.4 million. Management and insiders control approximately 16% of the company and other significant shareholders control an additional 23%.

Megastar closed a non-brokered private placement last spring that raised $672,600, which is being used to advance exploration on the properties and, to date, has generated results that have confirmed and heightened Jones' early and persistent optimism.

Industry veteran Robert Archer, cofounder of Great Panther Mining and CEO of Newrange Gold, sits on Megastar's board of directors. He told Streetwise Reports, "The Megastar projects in Mexico represent the best in fundamental gold exploration. We have the prolific Sierra Madre trend, the Oaxaca gold belt with producing mines, a highly respected and knowledgeable geologist responsible for some of those discoveries, and early stage prospects that are demonstrating all the right characteristics of epithermal gold deposits. We are excited about the potential for new discoveries and 2020 should be a pivotal year for the advancement of the projects."

"People ask me why I've invested in Megastar," Jones stated, "and I tell them that when you understand what you are looking at, it's easy to become excited because I can clearly see the unrealized opportunity."

Technical analyst Clive Maund wrote on CliveMaund.com on January 18, that the company is nearing an upside breakout. "Megaster is an explorer/developer that in addition to gold and silver properties has a copper-zinc project. . .we stay long and Megastar continues to be rated a buy here."

Maund's technical chart on Megastar:

[NLINSERT]

Disclosure:

1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Megastar Development. Please click here for more information.

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Clive Maund does not own shares of Megastar Development and neither he nor his company has a financial relationship with the company.
New Delhi: Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra on Monday said the very fact that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is going around the "lanes and bylanes" of Delhi, seeking votes for BJP candidates, shows that the party has "failed on all fronts".

Despite having seven MPs in the city and ruling the municipal corporations for 13 years, the BJP has not been able to implement the Modi government's "pet cleanliness campaign Swachhta Abhiyan", he alleged.

"The very fact that the home minister is going around lanes and bylanes to canvas for votes shows that the BJP has failed on all fronts in Delhi," he said.

"The people of Delhi are so upset and angry with the BJP that the home minister had to face black flags wherever he went," he alleged.

Chopra claimed the Modi government passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill to divide people on communal lines, and the Kejriwal government did not say a word to oppose it.
By Pap Saine

BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambian police arrested 137 people and more than two dozen were injured as protests calling for President Adama Barrow to honour a pledge to step down after three years in office turned violent for the first time, the government said.

Barrow came to power after a 2016 election, ending 22 years of authoritarian rule by Yahya Jammeh. But he has reneged on his campaign promise to step down by this month, saying the constitution requires him to serve out a full five-year term.

In response, a movement called "Three Years Jotna" - which means "enough" in the local Wolof language - began protesting last month to demand his departure.

On Sunday, police intervened when protesters deviated from the planned route on the outskirts of the capital Banjul in order to march toward the city centre, the government said.

In a statement late on Sunday, government spokesman Ebrima Sankareh said the protesters had stormed a police barricade and chanted that they planned to unseat Barrow.

"The protesters became riotous and violent by obstructing roads and burning tyres and logs on the highway as well as setting up fires in nearby bushes and on government wetland," Sankareh said.

Eighteen police officers and seven civilians were injured, Sankareh said, adding some of those among the 137 arrested were executive members of Three Years Jotna.

The government also decided to ban Three Years Jotna, Sankareh said, calling it "a subversive, violent and illegal movement", and suspended two radio stations it accused of inciting violence during demonstrations.

Opposition leaders could not be immediately reached for comment.

After winning plaudits at the beginning of his tenure for committing to respect rights and establish a truth commission to investigate abuses under Jammeh, Barrow is facing multiple challenges.

Hundreds of Jammeh's supporters demonstrated earlier this month to demand the former president be allowed to return to Gambia from exile in Equatorial Guinea. Jammeh fled there in January 2017 under military pressure from West African countries to respect his election loss to Barrow.

Story continues

The government has said Jammeh will be arrested if he returns to Gambia for killings, torture and other abuses allegedly committed by his security forces. Jammeh denies those allegations.

Barrow also faces a weak economy, hobbled by massive debts incurred by Jammeh's government.

(Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Seven doctors and five nurses have been quarantined at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, Adamawa state, following their contact with a...





Seven doctors and five nurses have been quarantined at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, Adamawa state, following their contact with a patient diagnosed with Lassa fever.





A source at the hospital said on Monday that a pregnant woman who lost her fetus was the primary contact.





She said the woman was admitted at the labour ward, where the fetus was evacuated on Friday.





After the evacuation, it was observed that the woman had fever and was bleeding. So the medical team thought as much that it was a case of Lassa fever, then she was transferred to the isolation room, she said.





When she was sent to the isolation room, the blood samples were taken away for test, because normally they dont do the test here (FMC Yola). They had to send the samples and we waited for the test results which came out yesterday and showed that she was positive. But the patient died about two days to the release of the result.





He said there have been no symptoms from other health workers.





The only problem now is that many people are in contact with the patient. Seven doctors, five nurses and two sub staff had direct contact with her, he said.





But these are just contact, they dont have any case or anybody that is manifesting with any symptom. Those that had direct contact with the patient are being quarantined for the incubation period of the disease.





Those who are in isolation are expected to be observed for at least 21 days.





This development is coming a day after the Jigawa state government confirmed a case of Lassa fever involving a medical doctor.





In Ogun, Tomi coker, the state commissioner of health, also confirmed a single case of the disease.





She said the patient is a pregnant 29-year-old who took ill and was referred to the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Abeokuta.





The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had earlier confirmed the death of two health workers, who contracted the disease, in Kano.





The NCDC said 195 cases of Lassa fever have been confirmed and that 29 deaths have been reported in 11 states as of January 24.




Rebecca Judd revealed last week that she was 'fighting back' after Melbourne's dust storm left the swimming pool in her $7.3million mansion green and murky.

And the footy WAG has since been criticised by ABC journalist Jen Browning, who pointed out that Australians in rural areas are suffering greatly due to the bushfires.

Browning tweeted: 'At least you have a pool with water in it, try not having enough water to do anything but keep you and your animals alive.'

Scroll down for video

Controversy: Rebecca Judd is facing a backlash after complaining about her mansion's dirty pool amid Melbourne's dust storm, as bushfire-affected families struggle with water supplies

'Have a think next time before you tell everyone how you're slowly "fighting back" from the tiny dust storm you had,' Browning added.

'How about considering what it's like to face dust 10 [times] what poor Melbourne had at least three or four times a week. Seriously! Oh, and most of NSW can't water their lawns let alone their pool tiles.'

Other Twitter users joined in the discussion, with one saying: 'I saw it too and got so annoyed. Also if you're going to show a pool with dust in it, at least do it properly.'

Another wrote: 'At last, a call-out against pompous first world problems that are nothing when you live in the bush.'

'Seriously!' The footy WAG was criticised by ABC journalist Jen Browning, who pointed out on Twitter that Australians in rural areas are suffering greatly due to the bushfires

Backlash: Other Twitter users joined in the discussion, with one saying: 'I saw it too and got so annoyed. Also if you're going to show a pool with dust in it, at least do it properly'

Having their say: Another person tweeted, 'At last, a call-out against pompous first world problems that are nothing when you live in the bush'

On Thursday, Rebecca shared footage to Instagram showing how her magnesium salt pool had been affected by the orange haze brought on by Melbourne's dust storm.

After enlisting the help professional cleaners, she uploaded another video on Friday in which she revealed her pool had been transformed back to its original glory.

'We are slowly fighting back from the dust storm. I've had my pool guy over this morning,' said the 37-year-old mother-of-four.

Murky: On Thursday, Rebecca shared footage to Instagram showing how her magnesium salt pool had been affected by the orange haze brought on by Melbourne's dust storm

'Fighting back': After enlisting the help professional cleaners, she uploaded another video on Friday in which she revealed her pool had been transformed back to its original glory

Showing off: In December, Rebecca gave fans a tour of her Spanish colonial-style home - including her backyard pool - on her Channel Nine lifestyle show, The Style School

While red dirt and dust settled on Melbourne on Wednesday night, the dust storm had actually been swept across from South Australia.

The swimming pools of many homes were blanketed in thick dirt due to the weather event.

In December, Rebecca gave fans a tour of her Spanish colonial-style home - including her backyard pool - on her Channel Nine lifestyle show, The Style School.

'It's like a muscle therapy bath': Rebecca explained there were many benefits to magnesium salt pools

She explained there were many benefits to magnesium salt pools.

'It makes the water so clear, it's amazing. You don't get that chlorine smell at all. It's meant to be really good for eczema and muscle release, so if you're really sore you can bathe in the magnesium salt pool. It's like a muscle therapy bath,' she said.

Rebecca and her husband, retired AFL star Chris Judd, share four children: son Oscar, eight, daughter Billie, five, and three-year-old twin sons Tom and Darcy.
As she has in the past, Foxx on Monday avoided answering specific questions about the Smollett case and wouldnt explain what led her to drop the charges against the actor who became famous for his role in the Empire television series. Instead, she said could not discuss specifics about the case or her handling of it because it is currently under investigation by Webb. She said she sees her failure as not keeping the public informed on how her office was handling the case.
John Barilaro. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

NSW Nationals leader John Barilaros fractious relationship with his Liberal colleagues is never far from bursting through the surface.

It was only in August  with Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Germany  that the Deputy Premier asked Nationals MPs to provide feedback on the future of the Nationals in government. Within hours, that missive had been leaked to the press.

Should the Nats revisit our relationship with the Liberal Party, he asked.

Since then, these musings have taken a back seat to a war with Environment Minister Matt Kean and relentless argy-bargy over the future of the Murray Darling Basin. But Berejiklian can look forward to more consideration of these Coalition issues if the last few months are any guide.
Two months ago, Britains Prince Andrew issued a public statement saying he would be willing to help American law enforcement officials with their investigation into allegations of sex-trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.

F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors in New York took him at his word. They reached out to his lawyers and asked to interview him.

There was no response at all, according to three people familiar with the investigation.

On Monday, in a rare move, the United States attorney in Manhattan publicly called out the prince for breaking his commitment.

To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation, the prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, said in response to a question at a news conference outside Mr. Epsteins Upper East Side mansion.
When you support a worthy education charity in Thailand, youre supporting the future of Thailand as well. The children are the future of any country. By supporting education charities, youre helping enable the children of a community to contribute to that community as they grow into adulthood.

Educated children, once they begin to sue their education to help their families and neighbours, are the ones most likely to become the leaders of their communities in the future.

But worthy educational charities in Thailand can offer much more than an education. They can provide other valuable services to the local community as well.

Providing Community Services

Due to their involvement with a communitys children, some charities become involved in protecting the childrens welfare outside of the classroom as well. Some of these responsible charities protect the children from instances of abuse, neglect and abuse. In this regard, they can also serve as leaders in raising social awareness of the need to protect children from these ills of society.

They also provide medical services to prevent the spreading of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and provide humanitarian aid during community emergencies.

These educational charities in Thailand work as advocates for the children of the communities in which theyre based. Far from locking up the school doors at the end of the day, these charities take an active role in all aspects of childrens lives outside of the schoolroom. They organise games and sports, teach parents the benefits of proper nutrition, and provide a childrens liaison service with government organisations.

Education is the Primary Goal

But the dedicated individuals running these charities, realise that the more a community is educated, the less they rely on a charity for its services to the community. Therefore, education is still their primary goal.

Besides providing primary and secondary education at local schools, these charities work with higher education universities and trade schools to ensure they are open to including the admission of disadvantaged children into their education systems.

Continuing Education

To succeed as far as they can through their primary and secondary education, only to be refused the advantages that pursuing higher education can bring to them, is heart-breaking to an intelligent and gifted child.

This is where the advocacy facets of a responsible educational charity in Thailand come into play. The benefits of maintaining close contact with higher institutes of learning are often realised with the interest these institutes display in the educational programmes the charities are conducting.

By maintaining a high profile in the local and regional communities, these charities are often able to find places for their best and brightest students to continue their education. And this is where the future community leaders of Thailand are born.

Quality educational charities in Thailand need public support to enable them to continue the heavy workload they have willingly taken on. By supporting these charities, you not only help the children, but youre supporting the future of Thailand as well.

Photos and Web Content by Primal Co., Ltd.
Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung responds to a customer call at an office in Seoul, Saturday. He worked for one day as a call center counselor, celebrating the Lunar New Year here. Courtesy of Woori Bank
Mango farmers in the country have called for government's intervention to help deal with the Black Bacteria Disease (BBS) to save the sector from collapsing.

Mr Godfred Alimo, Secretary, Blue Skies Mango Collectives, a Fair Trade group, said there was the need for a holistic approach in dealing with the disease just like the state treated the Black Spot disease that plagued the Cocoa sector some years ago.

This needs a national approach through mass spraying or an introduction of bactericides that can take care of the disease.

Other than that, the mango industry will totally collapse, Mr Alimo said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of the Fair Trade Ghana Network held in Accra.

Mr Alimo said just after members of the Network had worked so hard to defeat the fruit flies that used to devastate mango production years ago, the farmers were now battling with the BBS in all mango producing communities nationwide.

He said the BBS, an airborne disease, had within the past four years, continued to spread from farm to farm and it's very serious and devastating for mango farmers in the country.

He said the disease had become widespread nationwide affecting most farmers and reducing yields.

For instance, on my farm, I have 100 acres, which produce 200 tonnes of mangoes per annum but because of the disease, I now produce 50 tonnes of mangoes per annum.

Mr Alimo explained that the association had already alerted the Ministry of Food and Agriculture over the situation and were waiting eagerly for the Government's intervention to save the situation.

He said market accessibility was still a problem for mango and citrus producers since there were only a couple of companies especially, the Blue skies company that buy such fruits in larger quantities and a few other local industries.

He said there was also the need for more processing plants that could support in reducing postharvest losses by adding value to the mangoes.

Mr Johannes Koumedjro, President of Fair Trade Ghana Network, said the challenges of members made it important to always stick together to champion their cause, especially for the citrus farmers.

Many of the members of the Network, especially those into citrus production, were said to be facing challenges with fruits diseases and marketing.

Others, including mango producers, also face similar challenges which seemed to kill the interest of farmers who engage in fruits production.

Mr Koumedjro said the Network was working hard to encourage its members to do value addition to transform their produce into easily marketable products.

We are exploring further ways that we can help them solve their problems, he said.

He said some of the individual farmers and producers were also linking up with the Government's One District One factory programme to explore opportunities there.

He therefore, expressed optimism that the year 2020 would be better for the members as they plan to roll out the Network's new two-year strategic plan that would help members to move forward.

Mr Abubarkar Benjamin Afful, Programme team leader for cocoa in Ghana and Coordinator, Fairtrade Africa Region, expressed the organization's resolve to push for better opportunities that would inure to the benefit of all its members.

He explained that for a producer to meet a fair trade international standards, producers needed to produce in an ethical way under sustainable and good environmental condition.

Here, we look at where farmers or producers who produce without using child labour or doing things that will negatively affect others in the community during the course of production, having a good leadership system in place to ensure that whatever benefits that would be accrued will go to benefit all the workers, he said.

Meanwhile, the AGM enabled the Network to review and chart the way forward for its members, made up farmers and producers of Cocoa, Cashew, Mangoes, Citrus, Banana and other artecrafts.

The Organisation, partners FairTrade Africa under the Fair Trade International, to coordinate its membership and seek both local and international buyers and market for them.

---citinewsroom
Irans president warned Monday of threats to the Islamic republics democracy and national sovereignty, after a body dominated by his ultra-conservative rivals disqualified thousands of candidates, weeks before elections.

President Hassan Rouhanis moderate conservatives and their reformist allies are locked in a public quarrel with the Guardian Council over the disqualification of thousands of candidates -- including 92 sitting MPs.

The council, which oversees Irans elections, says it has barred some 9,500 potential candidates from standing, almost two thirds of the 14,500 hopefuls.

Rouhani, whose alliance fears losing its majority in the February 21 polls, said the disqualifications risked appointments being made elsewhere than the ballot box.

The greatest danger for democracy and national sovereignty is the day when elections become a formality, the governments website quoted Rouhani as saying in a meeting with provincial governors.

May God never bring this day, he added.

Let us reassure the people and tell them our system is not a single-party system.

In an apparent reference to ultra-conservatives, he said they should at least let there be competition and participation.

He called on Iranians of all stripes to vote, even if... there are shortcomings in elections.

Sometime I may not want to vote for some reason, but some other time I may not have enough trust to go to the ballot box; this is very dangerous, he said.

Candidates who are disqualified are allowed to appeal before the elections.

The polls come after a traumatic month for Iran, in which it approached the brink of war with the United States and mistakenly shot down a passenger jet.

A US drone strike in Iraq killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on January 3, and Iran retaliated five days later by launching a wave of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq.

Hours later, with Iranian forces on high alert, its air defences mistakenly shot down a Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board.

The disaster triggered scattered protests in Tehran and other cities, although they appeared smaller than nationwide demonstrations in November, sparked by a fuel price hike, in which Amnesty International said at least 300 people died.
SHANGHAI, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CHINA AID, the leading exhibition for the fast developing senior care market in China, organized by the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai and Shanghai Intex Exhibition, will be held from June 11-13, 2020.

The exhibition and conference platform has been held for over 20 years, AID has become one of the largest and most established exhibitions of senior care in the world, incorporating multiple platforms for product demonstration, service showcasing, knowledge exchange and prospect networking.

More than 400 exhibitors from at least 20 countries are expected to attend AID 2020, with the show's floor space set to reach 36,000 square meters and attract over 50,000 professional visitors.

It is the must-attend event for growing businesses in the fast-developing senior care industry in China, providing international companies establishing their presence with an effective platform to develop serious business opportunities.

Open to new business through entering China's fastest growing market

In China, public awareness of the extent of rehabilitation services and the growing availability of assistive technologies is limited and still growing. So, it is very important for international senior care operators entering China to gather local market information and promote their services or products effectively.

Most choose to attend a professional senior care show to act as a launch pad into the domestic market, and the first choice is CHINA AID.

Shifting demographics offer immense opportunities

China's population aged over 60 will reach 255 million this year. This is predicted to peak at 34.9 percent of the population, or 487 million people by 2050. By then, caring and medical services are expected to make up 26.2% of the Chinese economy, compared with 7.3% in 2015.

Already the demographic shift is being felt, with demand rising for assistive technology and mobility products, while the provision of nursing care is currently falling considerably short of needs.

With a rapidly expanding elderly population and expansive government measures under full steam to address this challenge, China's emerging senior care industry has a very bright future.

As we enter the 2020s, the huge challenge of an ageing population is a great opportunity for international senior care product and service providers looking to enter the Chinese market. With huge pressure on the country's traditional family-centric model of elderly care, maintaining care only within the family is unfeasible for China's modernizing citizens.

This large and growing demographic of elderly without access to necessary care embodies a real opportunity for those seeking to provide elderly care products and services in China. The country is set to quickly become one of the world's most lucrative markets for senior care in the decade ahead.

The market value of China's senior care industries will approach 8 Trillion Yuan this year and is anticipated to surpass 22 Trillion Yuan by 2030, overtaking real estate to become China's largest market.

New policy priorities are fueling further growth

As China rapidly transitions to an ageing society, the government is tackling the need to expand the supply of elderly care services and meet demand for products and technology in the sector.

China's new Medium-to-Long-term Plan specifically addresses several policy priorities to actively cope with population ageing, which include improving the senior care market's available labor supply, implementing health-related education services, and expanding on the use of assistive technologies.

In doing so the plan stresses the importance of fostering the quality of human resource in senior care, primarily through concentrating on professional training and developing the skill sets necessary to meet demand.

In recent years, Chinese regulators have continuously promoted favorable policies directed at enhancing foreign involvement in the senior care industry, increasingly opening up the market and providing attractive subsidies and incentives. This is to strongly encourage the international experience needed in China to develop domestic talent and effectively train practitioners in elderly care support services best practice.

The new Foreign Investment Law that took effect in China on January 1st 2020 will better protect the interests of foreign investors in the country. Under the law, the government will treat domestic and foreign-owned enterprises equally in consideration of government funding, land provision, tax cuts and fee cuts, licensing, standards setting, project applications, and human resource policies, among other areas.

Policy inducements, coupled with rising consumer demand and purchasing power, have also bolstered entrepreneurial interest among real estate developers, venture capitalists, investors, and many other business interests  both foreign and domestic  in tapping into China's booming senior care market.

Plan a trip to Shanghai, China from June 11-13, 2020, and immerse yourself in China's 8 Trillion Yuan senior care market. Visitors can register at the exhibition for free through the official website www.china-aid.com/en .

CHINA AID point of contact:

Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd.

Michelle Ma

T: +86-21-6295-7553

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd.
The vision of a New India is a reflection of the development that is taking place at a much faster pace than expected. According to the United Nations State of the World Population report, 40.76% of the country's population is expected to live in urban areas by 2030.

Mobility flows have become a key dynamic in the rapid transformation of Indian cities, requiring state-of-the-art urban transportation infrastructure; smart mobility solutions for the movement of people and goods between cities and within cities are imperative. While India has long been struggling to ensure mobile comfort for its citizens, issues like last-mile connectivity, optimisation of existing capacity, feasibility of varied transportation modes and safety demand immediate assiduity.

Government's vision to shape a self-reliant India sets the foundation of a robust transportation architecture. With the exigency to upgrade the present urban transportation system including rail, Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), Metrolite and other modes to citizens is a challenge the Indian government is addressing over the medium-term. Its bold and ambitious vision of modernising the urban transport system incorporates bullet trains, dedicated freight corridors (DFC), high speed train corridors in the Golden Quadrilateral linking Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, MRTS networks within cities with Metrolite options for smaller cities and optimising existing infrastructure for the Indian Railways through modernisation.

Hitachi has been an active collaborator and contributor in effectuating the government's vision while also stressing on the 'Make in India' initiative.

In a conscious bid to employ local engineering and project management talent and to boost indigenous manufacturing capabilities, Hitachi has sourced and integrated locally manufactured products in varied projects it has collaborated with the government. Hitachi has been closely following the ambitious expansion plan in rail sector and its relationship with Indian railways dates back to 1950s, when it delivered the first steam locomotive to India.

With the experience and expertise of nearly 100 years in Operations Technology (OT) and of around 50 years in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), its contributions to developing new standards in the Indian Railways has translated into a trusted and enduring association.

Hitachi with its advanced end-to-end solutions has been following the yearning extension plan for a complete transformation of the Railways into a highly efficient network.

According to the latest Union Budget, building railway infrastructure needs massive investments of $60 billion every year, to be largely met through public-private partnerships. It is estimated that one unit of investment in the railways enhances five-times the nation's GDP according to the Economic Survey.

Highlighting Hitachi's technological prowess and its approach towards addressing the growing challenges of urban transportation in India, Hitachi Rail STS India, avowed for its design and implement solutions and components for rail transport and mobility conferred with the unique project to establish Communication Based Train Control (CBTC)-based Signaling and the Telecommunications system for Noida-Greater Noida Metro Project. Hitachi Rail STS India accomplished a series of significant firsts in India by delivering the Aqua Line Metro Rail Project in an unprecedented 28 months. The successful implementation of the project has swiftly emerged as a unifier of the two urban areas cities covering 29.7 kilometers comprising 21 stations from Noida Sector 51 to Delta Depot Station in Greater Noida.

With the government's vision to upgrade and modernise railways with latest Operations Technology and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Hitachi Rail Systems Business Division is geared up to collaborate and provide solutions towards achieving sustainable, environment-friendly and affordable transportation systems across the country. With an intent to reduce vehicular pollution and density, enabling citizens to commute faster, and subsequently contribute to their productivity, Hitachi is closely working on significant projects which includes Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), and Navi Mumbai Metro Rail (CIDCO), and has close to 250 railway engineering and management professionals implementing multiple projects across India in the rail sector and has also invested in the localisation in terms of signaling equipment. The Electronic Interlocking system and Multi-Section Digital Axle Counter (MSDAC) are now manufactured in India as well.

"As a comprehensive rail systems provider, Hitachi possesses a unique blend of intelligent solutions that encompass an impressive line-up of end-to-end solutions, allowing Hitachi to emerge as a partner in India's integrated growth lead by digital transportation." says Bharat Kaushal, Managing Director, Hitachi India.

Hitachi's rail expertise encompasses rolling stock systems to state-of-the-art signaling systems and has developed future-ready railway solutions in multiple countries. Hitachi is aligned with the Indian Railway's objective to achieve faster speeds for passenger and freight trains, by segregating freight operations from the present mixed movement through the implementation of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) and also building high speed corridors in the Diamond Quadrilateral. Hitachi, in fact, is installing state-of-the-art signaling and telecom equipment for a segment of the western DFC, a 1,500km high-speed Delhi-Mumbai freight line, which is the backbone of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor mega infrastructure project.

Hitachi's advanced signaling work from Rewari to Vadodara and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai on the western DFC includes a robust train monitoring system (TMS) and Diagnostic system. Ensuring safe operation of trains by controlling signal LED lights and points, automated warning system at level crossing that activate with an approaching train and a GSM-R, (Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway) telecom system to link these systems to work in tandem. Additionally, implementing latest European Train Control System (ETCS) in train protection and warning system.

Indian Railways envisions to modernise its vast network by harnessing Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to consolidate data on one platform ensuring greater operational efficiencies wherein an overall merger is considered imperative to optimise functioning. ICT supports in understanding the interdependency between systems and subsystems, and then building a railway model using simulation tools for operations, investments and decision-making.

Hitachi through its connected customer solutions can contribute in enabling seamless integration of high-speed corridors with multi-modal transportation systems with last mile and first mile connectivity.

These initiatives are a reflection of Hitachi's commitment to contribute in building a sustainable urban transportation system through offering its Social Innovation Business Solutions, focusing on greater social, environmental and economic values that strives to improve the lives of citizens. Hitachi also seeks to provide safe and comfortable railway services to passengers globally.

Hitachi Rail's connected solutions impact the lives of citizens, as cities become home to more people, easier and smart mobility solutions are the need of this rapidly developing nation. Creating new benchmarks for India's urban transportation system through Social Innovation Business, Hitachi aspires to Power Good and build a sustainable society.

Learn More About Hitachi Social Innovation

Know more about our Railway Solutions

Powering Good in Action
[January 27, 2020] St. Croix Hospice adopts newly developed predictive modeling technology

OAKDALE, Minn., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In line with a long Minnesota tradition of healthcare innovation, St. Croix Hospice is proud to be the only hospice agency to implement a newly developed predictive modeling technology which enhances hospice patient care in the critical final days of life. "As hospices across the country are scrutinized for a lack of visits during a patient's final days, St. Croix Hospice already led the industry in providing experienced hands-on care for patients in the last three days of life and has now further enhanced our expert care coordination with the adoption of this cutting-edge tool," said St. Croix Hospice Medical Director Dr. Andrew Mayo. "We are there when we are needed the most." Hospice quality measures include in-person care in both the last seven and three days of life when death is imminent. Although St. Croix Hospice has historically been above state and national averages for those visits, the agency launched the Voyage Vigil Program in 2019 to further ensure we are there for patients, families and caregivers at the end of life. 2019 data reported St. Croix Hospice patients received an average of 6.48 visits in the last seven days of life from medical social workers, chaplains, LPNs and/or hospice aides. And in the last three days of life our patients received an average of 3.23 visits by a physician, RN and/or nurse practitione.



"The use of world-class analytics further enhances the St. Croix Hospice clinical team's care coordination throughout a patient's time in hospice, and our ability to anticipate the need for additional bedside care as the patient progresses," said Dr. Mayo. During a pilot of the predictive modeling technology last month, St. Croix Hospice immediately recognized the benefits of enhanced care coordination and moved quickly to implement the program across our entire agency in order to provide the added benefits to all patients. With a focus on clinical excellence, this technology supports the St. Croix Hospice care team's expert assessment of patient needs by leveraging machine learning to analyze thousands of data points, including vital signs, symptoms, medication changes, Voyage Vigil Program visits and in-person assessments, and then integrating that data with St. Croix Hospice's EMR. The clinical team is then alerted when data indicates a patient is transitioning toward the end of life and may benefit from additional visits.

St. Croix Hospice made this pioneering investment in care, knowing these evidence-based data-driven insights would support our push toward fully informed coordination and communication with patient, families, facilities and physicians. The predictive modeling tool is an accurate indicator, to be used in conjunction with the clinical assessment, to ensure excellence in care planning and symptom management during the last days of a patient's life. St. Croix Hospice is committed to providing enhanced quality of life for all those we serve and will continue to be a trail blazer in innovation, seeking out cutting-edge tools and technology to support our promise of being there when we are needed the most. About St. Croix Hospice

St. Croix Hospice supports patients, families and caregivers when they need us the most, delivering exceptional hospice care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year wherever a patient calls home. With branches in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin, St. Croix Hospice takes pride in round-the-clock availability, prompt response and same day admissions, including evenings, weekends and holidays. Contact St. Croix Hospice 24/7 at 855-278-2764 or stcroixhospice.com. CONTACT: Cate Pardo

[email protected]

651-393-7977 (d)

651-900-5746 (c) View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/st-croix-hospice-adopts-newly-developed-predictive-modeling-technology-300993569.html SOURCE St. Croix Hospice

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Stephanie Shelpman was told that the half dozen reporters visiting her classroom as Harrisburg School Districts Rowland Academy Monday were there to report on the districts academic recovery.

They werent. It was a lie, arranged by her longtime boyfriend Alexander Knell, a lieutenant with the U.S. Army National Guard, who wanted to surprise her with his return from an overseas deployment.

Knell snuck in behind the reporters, and when Shelpman spotted him, it was clear his surprise had worked.

With her mouth open in shock, she reached out and embraced him with a hug.

Weve been through a lot the last 10 to 12 months, Shelpman said, expressing her happiness in the moments after her reunion with Knell.

It was a reunion cheered on by the applause of Shelpmans students. She is a fifth-grade math and science teacher at the middle school.

Knell and Shelpmen were introduced by mutual friends about 5 years ago, when they were living near Pittsburgh, and soon, they were dating, he said.

Knell also is a member of the Army National Guard, which has led to trainings and a deployment that have taken him out of town away from Knell and their new home in Dauphin.

For the last 10 months, a deployment sent Knell away to Poland, where he served as part of a NATO battle group working a European deterrence initiative, he said.

Its been tough being away, Knell said, explaining hes missed out on major life events," including the death of a loved one, while overseas.

All the time, he had his return on mind, and last week, when he found out his homecoming was imminent, he orchestrated the surprise at Rowland.

Standing in an office inside the school Monday afternoon, Knell said hes already been back in the United States for about a day and a half, but hed been hiding out, waiting for the big surprise.

And when that moment came, Knell and Shelpman werent selfish. They shared it with her students, who had written to Knell while he was on deployment.

We consider them kind of part of the family, too, Knell said.

The students took turns asking Knell questions about his time overseas and role in the military.

Now that Knell is home, the couple said they are excited just to spend time together in their new house, relaxing and playing board games. Knell said hes also excited for home-cooked meals.

Hes grown tired of Polands pork and perogies, he joked.

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Miffed with the state machinerys failure to fix potholes on Faridabad roads, telecom engineer Manoj Wadhwa and a few of his friends took it upon themselves to fill up some potholes. This comes in light of Wadhwas loss - his three-year-old son died in a pothole-related road accident on the Delhi-Agra highway six years ago.



Wadhwa went through tutorials on how to fill potholes. He then reached the site with three bags of mixed bitumen and other necessary items.

Shashank Bengali

With the help of two teams, Pothole Warriors and Pothole Raja he brushed the site to take out the dust and then poured the cold-mix to fill the potholes. Pothole Warriors and Pothole Raja carry out several campaigns to fill potholes to bring to light the inefficiency of municipal bodies and other road owning agencies.

We chose Sunday (Republic Day) to fill potholes with the hope that this will wake up government agencies. If a few of us can fill potholes, why cant government agencies and contractors do this small thing despite having all resources at their disposal, TOI quoted Wadhwa as saying.

TOI

According to him, if there was no pothole on Delhi-Agra highway on February 10, 2014 his son Pavitra would still be alive. He would have been nine years now. Negligence of agencies ruined our happiness forever. I dont want anyone else to go through this pain of losing a family member. Now, it's a mission of life and I dont get disheartened even if I dont get very encouraging support from others, he said.

He has been fighting a battle against National Highways Authority of India and a private construction firm to fix responsibility for the pothole since then.

AFP

Talking about the accident he said, Pavitra was sitting between me and my wife. I spotted a pool of water on the highway and applied brakes. As I lost balance, Pavitra fell on a sharp stone, which hit his chest. A vehicle coming from behind ran over my wifes legs. Pavitra was declared brought dead when we reached hospital.

Authorities should take notice of this problem and help Wadhwa with his mission.
WEST SPRINGFIELD  The police are actively searching for a 38-year-old man who was reported missing by his family on Sunday.

Kevin Kimball, 38, is believed to be in the area of Mittineague Park, Police Sgt. Joseph LaFrance said.

Officers and detectives are currently searching the area of the park, located off Route 20. The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing is assisting by searching by helicopter, he said.

The search began on Sunday after family members reported they were concerned for his well-being, LaFrance said.

Anyone who has seen Kimball or has any information about his location or disappearance is asked to call the Police Department at 413-263-3210.
VANCOUVERLunar New Year celebrations lit up Vancouvers Chinatown with firecrackers and colourful lion dancers on Sunday, though at least one other event in the Lower Mainland was cancelled over fears of the new coronavirus.

The Live in Langley Chinese Association cancelled its gala, which was also sponsored by the Township of Langley, as fears rose after authorities detected Canadas first case of coronavirus on Saturday in a patient who had travelled to Toronto from Wuhan, China.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Sunday that the risk of infection is low and Canadians should not worry about contracting the virus in a casual setting, urging people to take normal precautions but otherwise continue their lives.

Vancouver resident Jason Ng attended the Lunar New Year celebrations with his wife, father and three-year-old son to watch his other five-year-old son dance in the parade.

It was something kind of in the back of our heads, Ng said of the virus. It wasnt a huge concern.

Another spectator, Ethan Donnelly, said he works at the University of British Columbia and a co-worker who is from China skipped this years celebrations for fear of the virus.

We want to celebrate, but better safe than sorry, he said, gesturing to the mask he wore during the parade.

Though some donned the surgical masks at the event, experts advise against them, saying the ones widely available at drug stores arent particularly effective and noting that repeatedly adjusting them with unwashed hands can actually exacerbate risk of infection.

Ella Lewis-Vass, who also works and studies at the university, said she believed those who were most concerned about contracting the virus likely stayed home.

The illness has sickened at least 1,975 people and killed 56 in China, but it remains to be seen whether its as dangerous as the common flu, which kills 3,500 people every year in Canada alone.

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Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - Arrivals of illegal migrants in Europe have been decreasing since last November, according to a report by Frontex, the European coastguard and border guard agency, sent to the press on Monday in Brussels
As things are unfolding, police on Monday did not rule out the possibility of a murder angle in the "suicide" committed by a woman here.

It was reported earlier that a woman -- Mamta Mishra, 40 -- died after eating poisoned food. She had gone to a hotel with a man named Shauji Khan. It turned out that the man was not her husband as was thought earlier.

This revelation was made when the actual husband and family members of the deceased reached Vrindavan.

"Mamta had left for New Delhi from Bihar but how did she reach Vrindavan is a mystery," said Mamta's husband.

"The woman had come to Vrindavan earlier as well with a man. The woman had died because of eating poisoned food. Police are interrogating Khan in which it came to light that the woman knew the man for the last three years. Police are investigating that both the persons ate the poisoned food or the woman was lured into eating that food by the man," Shalabh Mathur, SSP, said.

Further investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It wasnt until the 1990s that Zofia and Andrzej Pilecki found out their father was a hero. As teens in postwar Poland, they had been told he was a traitor and an enemy of the state, and they listened to news reports about his 1948 trial and execution on the school radio.

In fact, Witold Pilecki was a Polish resistance fighter who voluntarily went to Auschwitz to start a resistance, and he sent secret messages to the Allies, becoming the first to sound the alarm about the true nature of Nazi Germanys largest concentration and extermination camp.

Auschwitz was liberated 75 years ago on Monday. In a new book, The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz, former war correspondent Jack Fairweather unearths the story of Pileckis heroism.

Pilecki (pronounced peh-LET-skee) was born into an aristocratic Polish farming family in 1901. As a young man, he fought against the Soviets in the Polish-Soviet War, earning citations for gallantry. Upon inheriting the family land, he took up the life of a country gentleman, married and had two children.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 at the start of World War II, Pilecki was called back to military service. But Poland fell in less than a month, split by the Nazis and the Soviets. Pilecki went into hiding and joined the burgeoning Polish resistance.

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The French resistance is so famous, but in actual fact, over half of all the intelligence from continental Europe to reach London came from the Polish underground, Mr Fairweather said in an interview with The Washington Post. It was the biggest operation in Europe, and they provided the highest-quality intelligence  much prized by the Allies  about German capacity and war production.

As the Nazi occupations grip tightened on Polish Jews, some Poles turned against Jews, too, while many others secretly helped their Jewish neighbours. The leader of Pileckis resistance cell pushed to make the group Catholic-only. Pilecki was a Catholic, but he argued against the change and pushed successfully to unite the group with a mainstream resistance cell that believed in equal rights for Jews.

Recommended Poland is in denial about the Holocaust

When (the Nazis) are doing their best to try and atomize society and break down the bonds between Poles, Pilecki doesnt turn inwards, he doesnt retreat into his ethnicity or his class, Mr Fairweather said. He actually does the complete opposite, and begins to reach out to those around him.

Then Pilecki got his first big mission: get arrested and sent to Auschwitz. At the time, the site run by Germany in occupied Poland was known to be a Nazi work camp for Polish prisoners of war. Pilecki was to gather information about conditions inside and organise a resistance cell, perhaps even an uprising.

The dangerous mission was voluntary; he could have refused. On Sept. 18, 1940, he placed himself in the middle of a Gestapo sweep and was sent to Auschwitz.

Nothing could have prepared him for the brutality he found. As he leaped out of a train car with hundreds of other men, he was beaten with clubs. Ten men were randomly pulled from the group and shot. Another man was asked his profession; when he said he was a doctor, he was beaten to death. Anyone who was educated or Jewish was beaten. Those remaining were robbed of their valuables, stripped, shaved, assigned a number and prison stripes, and then marched out to stand in the first of many roll calls.

Let none of you imagine that he will ever leave this place alive, an SS guard announced. The rations have been calculated so that you will only survive six weeks.

The mass gassings that came to define the Holocaust had yet to begin, but the crematorium was up and running. The only way out of Auschwitz, another guard said, was through the chimney.

Thus began 2 years of misery. As Pilecki and other prisoners starved, lice and bedbugs feasted on them. Typhus outbreaks regularly ranged through the camp. Work assignments were exhausting. Guards delighted in punishing them. Prisoners, in desperation, stole from and betrayed one another for scraps. Many killed themselves by leaping into the electrified fence.

But slowly, Pilecki organised his underground. At first it was just a few men he knew from before. In the end, there were nearly a thousand. They formed a network to steal and distribute food and extra clothing, sabotage Nazi plans, hide injured and sick prisoners, and improve morale with a sense of brotherhood and regular news from the outside world.

With almost a thousand men by 1942, and  barring for one incident with a Gestapo spy  not one of Pileckis men betrayed each other, in extraordinary circumstances of starvation and violence, Mr Fairweather said. He built something really powerful in that camp.

Starting in October 1940, the underground worked together to smuggle messages to the resistance outside. The first was sent via prisoner Aleksander Wielopolski. In Auschwitzs early days, a few prisoners were able to secure their release if their families paid big enough bribes. Wielopolski was one of those few. Rather than risk smuggling out a paper report, Pilecki had him memorise it.

A picture taken in January 1945 shows Auschwitz concentration camp gate and railways after its liberation by Soviet troops(AFP/Getty Images) (AFP via Getty Images)

Once free, Wielopolski passed the message on to Pileckis friends in the resistance. Pilecki never knew whether his reports reached the Allies, but Mr Fairweather and his researchers were able to track down how they were smuggled across Europe to the highest levels in London.

His first message was blunt: Bomb Auschwitz. Even if it meant killing everyone inside, himself included, it would be merciful. Conditions were horrifying, and the Nazis had to be stopped, he implored.

The British considered Pileckis request in early 1941, Mr Fairweather found, but ultimately decided against it. The United States had not yet entered the war, and the British Royal Air Force was down to fewer than 200 planes, all of which lacked radar. It would have stretched the limits of their fuel capacity. And the British had no precedent to take action for humanitarian reasons.

Over the next two years, Pilecki continued to send messages to London via risky escapes by his men and notes passed to Polish farmers neighbouring the camp.

Each message was more dire: The Nazis were conducting disgusting medical experiments on patients in the camp hospital. The Nazis killed thousands of Soviet POWs in a mass execution. The Nazis were testing a way to gas prisoners en masse. The camp was expanding. Huge trainloads of Jews were being gassed and cremated. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were being murdered.

Pilecki, by recording every step of the camps evolution towards the Holocaust, he was in some ways grappling with the very essence of the Nazis evil before anyone else, Mr Fairweather said.

Photo of Pilecki in Auschwitz (Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Museum)

Pilecki kept asking: Couldnt the Allies at least bomb the train lines leading to the gas chambers? Or create a distraction so the prisoners could try to rise up and escape?

Mr Fairweather said he gained a lot of sympathy for the British from their initial decision not to bomb the camp. But later, when the United States joined the war, bringing a far superior air force, continuing that decision becomes untenable, he said. The Allies fell back on the original decision without considering that both the necessity and their capabilities had changed.

Not bombing Auschwitz is one of historys great might-have-beens, Mr Fairweather said.

By spring 1943, it was clear the Allies werent going to help the prisoners of Auschwitz. Without any outside help, an uprising would never succeed. Increasingly frail and in danger of being found out, Pilecki decided it was time for him to leave.

It took months to plan, but he and two friends pulled off an incredible escape through the camp bakery in the early hours of April 27. From there, he sneaked into Warsaw, where he was briefly reunited with his wife and children.

Pilecki began working for the resistance again, but the symptoms of what we might now call post-traumatic stress disorder dragged him down. He struggled to connect with his friends and family, according to Mr Fairweather, and wrote day and night about the horrors he had witnessed. He even returned to Auschwitz after the war, where he found other former prisoners living in their old barracks and giving tours to the curious.

In the summer of 1944, the Soviets were advancing on the German army, pushing them westward and out of Poland. The Polish resistance hoped to kick the Germans out of Warsaw ahead of the Soviets arrival to re-establish a sovereign state. Pilecki was one of thousands who fought in the Warsaw Uprising, the largest action taken by a European resistance group in World War II. In the end, the Soviets held back their advance so the Nazis could crush the Poles. Then they swooped in and took over.

The Soviets liberated Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945. By then, 1.1 million people had been killed there, most of them Jews.

The railway tracks leading to the main gates at Auschwitz II Birkenau seen in colour December 10 2004 (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

For a lot of us in the West, we think of May 1945 as the end of the Second World War in Europe, and parades and so on, Mr Fairweather said. Pileckis story is a powerful reminder that what happened in Eastern Europe was the Allies gave (Soviet leader Joseph) Stalin a free hand to occupy and subjugate half of continental Europe. And the war didnt end for so many people.

Poland would spend the next four decades as a communist puppet state behind the Iron Curtain. But Pilecki didnt see much of it. He remained loyal to the idea of a free Polish republic and continued sending messages to British intelligence. He was arrested by communist authorities in 1947, tortured repeatedly and executed as an enemy of the state the next year.

According to a Polish newspaper, as he was led to his death, he said, Ive been trying to live my life so that in the hour of my death I would rather feel joy than fear.

Pileckis reports remained hidden away in Polish archives until the 1990s. Now he has been showered with posthumous awards and hailed as the hero he was. A documentary about him is scheduled for release this year.

He is also a symbol of the way many Poles were forced to bury their war experiences for decades, Mr Fairweather said, comparing it to if the American heroes of D-Day had been treated as traitors and pariahs.

That reckoning continued as leaders from all over the world gathered in Israel on Thursday to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz. In attendance was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has recently spread misinformation about the Poles during World War II. He was given a top speaking role at the ceremony, prompting Polish President Andrzej Duda to boycott the event.

President Duda is expected to attend a commemoration ceremony at Auschwitz on Monday. Zofia Pilecki and Andrzej Pilecki, now 86 and 88, will not be there, Mr Fairweather said  they prefer to honour their father on the day of his execution. For years under communism, Ms Pilecki would light a candle alone outside the prison walls where her father was killed. Last year, hundreds of people joined her.

Washington Post
Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Anil Chauhan on Monday held discussions with Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) B D Mishra and Chief Minister Pema Khandu on security and border infrastructure-related issues in the state.

Holding the discussions at Itanagar, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, Lt Gen Chauhan apprised the governor of the actions being taken by the Army in coordination with other agencies for maintaining peaceful security situation in the state, a Defence official said.

Lt Gen Chauhan assured Mishra and Khandu of all possible assistance from the Army whenever required, he said.

The governor emphasised on strengthening the coordination between the border state and the Army to reinforce the sense of security among people, a Raj Bhavan communique said.

Mishra urged the general officers commanding of the Eastern Command and 4 Corps to enhance the socio-economic activities of the people of Arunachal Pradesh, it said.

The general security arrangements on the entire Sino- India border were also reviewed during the meeting.

In a separate meeting with Khandu at Raj Bhavan, the governor discussed administrative issues and deliberated on removing the hurdles and bottlenecks in the implementation of welfare projects, the communique added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UK Steadfast On Digital Services Tax Plans

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

27 January 2020

The UK Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has said the UK intends to push ahead with the introduction of a digital services tax from April 2020, despite warnings from the US that it would consider tariffs on UK-made goods.

Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, has indicated that the US Government may retaliate against the levy, as it considers it will disproportionately affect US multinational companies. It has said it is considering hiking tariffs on UK automobile exports to the US market in response.

The announcements come after France and the US were said to have resolved a similar dispute regarding France's digital services tax. France has now agreed to cease collection of its digital services tax this year, in return for the US dropping its plans to introduce steep tariffs on French goods.

The UK Government has proposed that its DST will apply to revenue generated by search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces, to revenues from those activities that are linked to the participation of UK users. It will apply only to groups that generate global revenues from in-scope business activities in excess of GBP500m (USD659m) per year. Businesses will not have to pay tax on their first GBP25m of UK taxable revenues.

The regime will include a safe harbor provision that will exempt loss-making businesses as well as provisions that will reduce the effective rate of tax on businesses with very low profit margins. It is proposed that the tax will be deductible against UK corporation tax under existing principles, but it will not be creditable.
UPDATE: Stephanie Parzes ex-boyfriend admitted to killing her in note before suicide, prosecutor says

The body of Stephanie Parze, a 25-year-old Freehold woman who has been the subject of massive searches for months, was recovered from a wooded area in Old Bridge on Sunday, authorities confirmed Monday.

It is with great sadness we announce that Stephanie Parzes remains were recovered yesterday in Old Bridge, the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office said.

A medical examiner confirmed the identified the body discovered in the woods off Route 9. The prosecutors office will hold a press conference later Monday. No cause of death has been released.

Family and friends were gathering Monday morning at the Freehold home of her parents and siblings. A large sign bearing the message Stephanie Come Home" remains in the front yard.

The discovery of Parzes body brings to a close months of police and community-organized searches in New Jersey and New York since she was last seen by her family on Oct. 30. Flyers and road signs bearing Parzes missing poster were scattered throughout Monmouth County homes and businesses.

We also want to thank the public for your remarkable efforts in trying to find Stephanie for the past few months, the prosecutors office said in a statement. May God bless Stephanie and her family during this terribly difficult time.

Stephanie Parze, 25, was last seen on Oct. 30.Courtesy

Parze was found just south of Old Mill Road on the southbound side of the highway around 2:45 p.m, the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said. Multiple police vehicles remained at the scene on Monday morning.

Stephanie Parze hasnt been seen by her family since when she left the familys Route 33 house after a night out in New Brunswick in October. Stephanie then drove back to her late grandmothers nearby home on Meadowbrook Lane, where she had been residing.

The next day, Parze didnt show up to her nannying job. Her car and phone were found at her grandmothers house, but there was no sign of forced entry.

Police identified her ex-boyfriend John Ozbilgen as a person of interest in Parzes disappearance. Ozbilgen, 29, was arrested on a child pornography charge after images were found on Ozbilgens phone as authorities investigated Parzes disappearance, officials said.

Just days after he was released from jail on those charges, Ozbilgen was found dead in his Freehold home and authorities determined he took his own life.

Prosecutors have said Ozbilgen fired off 10 angry text messages to Parze the night before she went missing and detectives noticed marks around his neck during their investigation. Parze had also previously filed an assault complaint against Ozbilgen a month prior to her disappearance.

Police investigate a wooded area along Route 9 south in Old Bridge,NJ where the body of 25-year-old Stephanie Parze was found on Sunday.Noah K. Murray | For NJ Advance

Staff writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this post.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ.

Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
"While the reader will certainly enjoy the charming adventures and beautiful scenery described in both Walts and Charlies travel diaries, this book offers so much more" Pulitzer-Prize Nominated Author, Barbara Benjamin

After retiring in 2005, author Charlie Seymour went on a six-month, mind-expanding road trip, on motorcycle, to Mexico. One of the few personal items he brought with him was his father Walt Seymours pocket diary, which he had kept when he took his own life-changing road trip at the age of 17, back in 1926. During his motorcycle trip, Charlie reflected on both his and his fathers road trips, intrigued by the way road trips related to life-changing events, Walt's journey in 1926 in response to his graduation from high school; and Charlie's in 2005, in response to his retirement. Fascinated with the possibilities of reliving his fathers experience, Charlie decided his next trip would be to retrace the route his father traveled in 1926, to keep his own diary and to discover what the two diaries, side by side, might reveal.

The route started in Madison, Wisconsin, north to Canada, west across Canada to Vancouver, then south along the Pacific coast, through Washington, Oregon and California to Mexico and, then, returned to Madison via the Grand Canyon. Walt traveled by train and hitch-hiking; Charlie traveled in a 30-year-old RV, his first taste of the RV lifestyle.

While the reader will certainly enjoy the charming adventures and beautiful scenery described in both Walts and Charlies travel diaries, this book offers so much moreBy recounting many memorable incidences when his father gently and firmly taught him right from wrong and tangibly demonstrated his support and protection for him, Seymour provides timeless, valuable examples of how to be a strong, supportive father.  Pulitzer-Prize Nominated Author, Barbara Benjamin

Readers will be engrossed in this touching true story of a father and son as they embark on the engaging and personal journey Walt and Charlie took together, though 80 years apart. In this inspiring story, the reader will enjoy a glimpse of what life was like in 1926 and will be moved by those timeless adventures that bind us together and make life exciting from one generation to another. To learn more, and to see Walt's photos from 1926, please visit http://www.charliesbooks.com.

Walt: A Story of Fathers, Sons and Road Trips

By Charlie Seymour

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2865-0 (sc); 978-1-4808-2866-7 (e)

Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Archway Publishing

About the Author

Charlie Seymour has lived in many places around the world and has worked as a teacher, computer programmer, corporate executive, auto mechanic, entrepreneur, and farmer. He retired in 2005 and has devoted himself to writing, travel, spiritual growth, tinkering with cars and motorcycles and staying alive. He currently resides in Galveston, Texas.

For Interviews & Review Copies Contact:

LAVIDGE Publicity

Lauren Dickerson

ldickerson@lavidge.com

480-998-2600 x 601


The man who notoriously tormented the families of Sandy Hook victims has been arrested in Florida, after the father of a six-year-old boy killed in the shootings claimed he shared his personal information to encourage other hoaxers.

Wolfgang Halbig, 73, allegedly shared Leonard Pozner's social security number, date of birth, as well as other information with an extensive list of recipients, including 'multiple different law enforcement agencies and news stations', according to an affidavit.

Pozner, whose son Noah was murdered in the school shooting on December 14, 2012, filed a complaint and Halbig  who claims the shooting was a hoax and the victims are still alive - was arrested Monday.

Wolfgang Halbig, 73, was arrested Monday in Florida and charged with the unlawful possession of another person's identification. He is pictured in mug shots left and right

He allegedly shared Leonard Pozner's social security number, date of birth, as well as other information with an extensive list of recipients. Pozner's son, Noah, died in the Sandy Hook shooting which Halbig and others have denied happened

Pozner lives in hiding but Halbig published a 100-page TransUnion background report on him.

Halbig has tormented families of victims with images of what the children 'all grown up' as he claims they are still alive.

The Sandy Hook shooting claimed 26 innocent lives, the majority of which were children's.

'We are gratified that prolific Sandy Hook hoaxer and serial harasser of the families of victims Wolfgang Halbig has been arrested,' Pozner told the New York Times.

'For five years, he has used my most personal and private details to incentivize and enable other hoaxers and conspiracy theorists to hunt, abuse and terrorize myself and my family.'

Halbig claims the shooting was a hoax and the victims are still alive. He was released from jail on $5,000 bond

Pozner founded HONR in 2014, a network of volunteers who seek to expunge online content targeting the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Pozner added: 'We have a long way to go, but this is a positive step in the right direction.'

Halbig was charged Monday with the unlawful possession of the personal identification of another.

He has since been released on bond from the Lake County Jail and is due in court February 24.

He faces a maximum of a year in prison.

Halbig - a contributor to Alex Jones' website InfoWars - has theories that include Avielle Richman, one of the children murdered in the attack, still being alive.

Her father, Jeremy Richman, was one of 10 parents suing Jones, for defaming them and causing them emotional distress by saying the massacre was a hoax.

Richman killed himself last March.

Jones has tried to justify publishing the address of Pozner, alleging the parent was trying to stop their free speech with his HONR organization.

Jones said that he exchanged thousands of emails with Halbig about the conspiracy. Their conspiracies were shared with millions of people online.

The website even provided Halbig with equipment to go to Newton, where the shooting occurred, and film children near the church where victims' funerals were taking place.

The Sandy Hook shooting claimed 26 innocent lives, the majority of which were children's. Pictured, starting on the top row, from left to right, are Ana Marquez-Greene, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Emilie Parker, and Noah Pozner; Jesse Lewis, Olivia Engel, Josephine Gay, Charlotte Bacon and Chase Kowalski; Daniel Barden, Jack Pinto, Catherine Hubbard, Dylan Hockley and Benjamin Wheeler; Grace McDonnell, James Mattioli, Avielle Richman, Rachel Davino and Anne Marie Murphy; Lauren Rousseau, Mary Sherlach, Victoria Soto, Dawn Hochsprung and Nancy Lanza

Connecticut State Police lead a line of children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, December 14, 2012 after the shooting at the school

He said in a deposition that Halbig 'seemed credible at first' but became 'agitated' over the years. He has since admitted that he does believe the massacre happened.

Halbig has sent hundreds of request for receipts to officials in Newton and wider Connecticut, demanding to see images of the murder scene including bodies, 'bodily fluids, brain matter, skull fragments and around 45 to 60 gallons of blood'.

Halbig isn't the only hoaxer looking at prison for tormenting Pozner.

Lucy Richards was jailed for five months in 2017 for threatening Pozner's life.

She's no longer allowed to visit the InfoWars website or other conspiracy theory platforms as part of her parole conditions.

Pozner successfully sued Nobody Died at Sandy Hook authors James Fetzer and Mike Palacek last October. He received $450,000 for the claims made in the book.

Halbig - a contributor to Alex Jones' website InfoWars. Jones (pictured) said in a deposition last year that Halbig 'seemed credible at first' but became 'agitated' over the years
A group of men allegedly belonging to a Dravidian outfit attempted to hurl a petrol bomb at the residence of noted Hindutva ideologue S Gurumurthy here but it was foiled by alert sentries aided by a dog's bark, police said on Monday.

Days after Tamil magazine 'Thuglak' reprinted some pictures linked to the 1971 rally led by rationalist leader EV Ramasamy Periyar, eight men riding four motorcycles arrived in front of the house of Gurumurthy, who is also the periodical's editor at 3 am on Sunday.

A row had broken out recently following a remark by superstar Rajinikanth that undressed images of Lord Ram and his consort Sita were taken out with a garland of sandals in the rally at Salem.

The actor had made the remark on January 14 at an event held by Thuglak here.

"The eight men belonged to Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam and before they could act, the alert sentries chased them and they fled," a police official said.

Following investigations, they were tracked down and arrested and their motive was to hurl a petrol bomb, he said.

"Probe will reveal if there are others who were part of the attempt," the official said.

To a question, he told PTI: "A dog and his trainer were present at that time (in Gurumurthy's residential premises) and the animal barked after seeing the motorcycle-borne men and it helped.

The police personnel on duty noticed the men simultaneously."



Thuglak, in its last Tuesday issue published some pictures and a commentary related to the rally vis-a-vis the row following remarks by the actor.

The magazine is also expected to reprint similar matter in its next issue tomorrow.

Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan visited the spot and held inquiries, a police release said, adding all the eight men were aged between 22 and 36.

One of them, 33-year-old M Sasikumar had several cases against him including throwing petrol bombs at a hotel and a cinema hall, it said.

Gurumurthy took to twitter on the foiled attack and said, "Lessons for the attackers. One, They must know I have been facing threats for 30 years. Theirs is not new to me.

Two, they need better training and more courage. He thanked and congratulated the police for swift action.

The Hindutva proponent said in March 2014 CCTV footage revealed attempts to break the doors of his house.

Also, Gurumurthy claimed that extremist 'Police' Fakruddin, now in a Tamil Nadu prison, had years ago confessed to police that he had been caught before he could shoot him.

Days after actor made his remark, the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam accused him of uttering a blatant lie and demanded his unconditional apology and also filed police complaints seeking action against him.

Protests were also held against the actor by DVK and Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam and similar fringe Dravidian outfits.

Rajinikanth, however, did not budge and asserted that he will not apologise since his remarks were factual.

The row led to renewed curiosity about what happened at the rally held nearly half a century ago and a couple of dialies republished nuggets from its archives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period is an extremely important time of year for people who are on a Medicare Advantage Plan, says Anthony P. Solazzo, CEO of e-TeleQuote. It can be critical for individuals who are enrolled in a plan that does not fit their needs."

easyMedicare.com (https://www.easyMedicare.com), an affiliate of e-TeleQuote Insurance, Inc., released a new video containing information about the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, also known as OEP.

The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Periodwhich was initiated in 2019provides an opportunity for individuals who are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage (Part C) Plan to drop their plan or switch to a different Part C Plan. This enrollment period occurs from January 1, 2020, through March 31, 2020. Medicare beneficiaries can change plans only once during OEP, which differs from the Annual Election Period (October 15 through December 7 annually).

Consumers who consider dropping a Part C Plan without switching to a different Part C Plan during this period should know that doing so will not make them eligible for a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) Plan, although they may be able to qualify through medical underwriting. Individuals who drop a Medicare Advantage Plan will be returned to only Medicare Parts A and B, and will have an opportunity to enroll in a Part D Plan so they are not without prescription drug coverage.

The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period is an extremely important time of year for people who are on a Medicare Advantage Plan, says Anthony P. Solazzo, CEO of e-TeleQuote. It can be critical for individuals who are enrolled in a plan that does not fit their needs. We want to ensure that beneficiaries are informed about their options and have the opportunity to make the choice that is best suited for them.

easyMedicare.coms new video about the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period can be viewed at http://www.easyMedicare.com.

About e-TeleQuote and easyMedicare.com

e-TeleQuote Insurance, Inc., the owner and operator of easyMedicare.com, is an independent digital insurance marketplace providing individuals the ability to purchase Medicare insurance from the comfort of their homes. The company diligently researches available plan options from multiple insurance carriers, helping people choose a plan that best suits their needs. e-TeleQuote provides personal consultation through experienced licensed Medicare advisors who suggest plan coverage options based on an individuals particular needs. The company has proudly served tens of thousands of people across the United States.
Donald Trump has hosted Israels PM and his chief rival at the White House on the eve of unveiling a Middle East peace plan, expressing confidence that despite Palestinian rejection they would go along with a blueprint he said was very good for them.

The Trump proposal is widely expected to be favourable to Israel, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and challenger Benny Gantz speaking in glowing terms about the president and his initiative.

But with the Palestinians refusing to even speak to the US president, and urging other Arab nations to boycott Tuesdays event, there is great scepticism over the plans chances of success.

The meetings come a month before Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz are set to face off in national elections for the third time in less than a year, and both were looking to project leadership in their separate meetings with the president.

Mr Trump called his proposal a great opportunity but would not discuss further details, noting that its release has long been delayed because of the uncertain political situation in Israel.

Expand Close Benjamin Netanyahu with Donald Trump at the White House (Evan Vucci/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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He refused to answer questions over whether it would include Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, signalling that it was premature for Palestinians to rule it out.

I think in the end theyre going to want it. Its very good for them, he said alongside Mr Netanyahu.

Were going to show a plan. Its been worked on by everybody, and well see whether or not it catches hold. If it does, that would be great, and if it doesnt, we can live with it, too. But I think it might have a chance.

Mr Netanyahu has hailed it as a chance to make history and define Israels final borders. At the White House, he pointed out Mr Trumps gestures to Israel as well as his strong stance against Iran.

You have made our alliance stronger than ever, he said to Mr Trump.

Shortly after Mr Netanyahu left, Mr Gantz was invited into the White House for his first meeting with Mr Trump. Speaking to reporters later, he did not disclose details of their conversation, but he did shower the president with praise.

Expand Close Benny Gantz speaks during a news conference in Washington (Jose Luis Magana/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Benny Gantz speaks during a news conference in Washington (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

He called the peace plan a significant and historic milestone that he looked forward to implementing once he became prime minister, in tandem with other countries in the region  specifically mentioning Jordan.

In the run-up to the March 2 vote, Mr Netanyahu has called for annexing parts of the West Bank and imposing Israeli sovereignty on all its settlements there. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, and the Jordan Valley in particular is considered a vital security asset.

Reports in Israeli media have speculated that Mr Trumps plan could include the possible annexation of large pieces of territory that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state.

American approval could give Mr Netanyahu the type of cover to go ahead with a move he has resisted taking for more than a decade in power.

Annexing Israels settlements in the occupied West Bank would appeal to his hardline nationalist supporters but would almost certainly torpedo the viability of an independent Palestinian state and infuriate neighbouring Jordan.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced the still-unpublished proposal in Ramallah, saying it doesnt constitute a basis for resolving the conflict.

He said the plan violates international law and comes from a party that has lost its credibility to be an honest broker in a serious and genuine political process.
[January 27, 2020] FedEx Pledges Transportation Support to Aid in Coronavirus Emergency

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) is committing transportation and logistics support to humanitarian relief agencies as they respond to the coronavirus outbreak. As part of these efforts, FedEx Express will ship today more than 200,000 surgical masks and personal protective equipment such as gowns and gloves to its Asia Pacific Hub in Guangzhou, China to assist the humanitarian work of Direct Relief. FedEx is working closely with China Post which will deliver the aid from Guangzhou to Wuhan Union Hospital. "Direct Relief is deeply thankful to FedEx for enabling this rapid response to fulfill a very specific order that the medical staff in Wuhan's largest hospital selected from our current stockpile," said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief President & CEO. "In rapidly unfolding situations such as this, it's obviously important to move fast but with precision and proper coordination with all the relevant authorities - which FedEx's extraordinary team has made possible." This collaboration is part of the FedEx Cares "Delivering for Good" initiative. The company uses its expertise in shipping and logistics to connect oranizations, communities and individuals with the resources they need through charitable shipping and cash donations.



"FedEx is proud to mobilize its global network to deliver aid, comfort and care to people suffering in the wake of this unprecedented health emergency," said Raj Subramaniam, president and chief operating officer, FedEx Corporation. "We will continue to work closely with humanitarian and disaster relief organizations to provide support and deliver supplies, doing what we do best to help those who need it most." FedEx is working closely with Guangzhou Baiyun Airport Customs as well as the China Post on these relief shipments to swiftly complete clearance and get the critical supplies to Wuhan. China Post is coordinating the movement of the supplies into Wuhan to deliver the relief as quickly as possible.

FedEx has a long history of working with nonprofit and government entities to support communities and economies during times of crisis. The company has donated $6 million in cash and in-kind assistance to support humanitarian organizations so far this fiscal year, which began on June 1, 2019. These contributions have helped with other crises such as the wildfires in Australia, the Taal volcano eruption in the Philippines, Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and the earthquake in Puerto Rico. The delivery of these critical supplies is part of the company's FedEx Cares 50 by 50 goal to positively impact 50 million people around the world by the company's 50th anniversary in 2023. For more information on the company's Delivering for Good initiative, click here. About FedEx Corp. FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $69 billion, the company offers integrated business solutions through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world's most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 490,000 team members to remain focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. To learn more about how FedEx connects people and possibilities around the world, please visit about.fedex.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005711/en/

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In other security news:

Welcome to the Future of Security. Lets get started:This revelation came to light as Attorney General William Barr has pressured Apple to unlock and release data from two iPhones belonging to a Saudi Air Force lieutenant who shot and killed people at a Pensacola, Fla., base in December.Apple has resisted these types of requests from federal, state and city police. However, local law enforcement agencies have turned to third-party software firms to unlock and access encrypted data from mobile devices at relatively low cost, according to, a Medium publication, which contacted 50 agencies and found that law enforcement in at least 11 states spent over $4 million in the last decade on devices and software designed to get around passwords and access information stored on phones.The extortion software attacks seem to be everywhere these days, but theres been little action on the legislative front to deal with the problem. Now, thats beginning to change. The state of Maryland has a new bill that would criminalize the possession of ransomware if a person intends to use it maliciously. According to reporting bys* Lucas Ropek, Senate Bill 30, introduced in January by Sen. Susan C. Lee, D-Montgomery, would make possession of the malware a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The bill makes exceptions for researchers who may be using the malware to better understand how it works.The legislation follows last years devastating attack on Marylands largest city that is estimated to have cost more than $18 million , a combination of lost or delayed revenue and direct costs to restore systems.Ropek reports that given the anonymous nature of most cybercrime, there are some very obvious limitations to what this law could accomplish. Ransomware  which is already illegal to possess in a number of states , including Michigan, Wyoming and California  ravaged cities and towns across the country last year, but in most cases the culprits never went to prison or were even publicly identified.A King County, Wash., plan, which went into effect earlier this week , allows voters to cast ballots through a touchscreen device in the race for King Conservation District Board of Supervisors. But at least one state lawmaker has called mobile-device voting an unacceptable risk.Two of the first three states to vote in the Democratic presidential race will use new mobile apps to gather results from thousands of caucus sites  technology intended to make counting easier but that raises concerns of hacking or glitches, according to the Associated Press *Government TechnologyGoverning's
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Linkedin Karina M Tehusijarana and Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020

Government officials from several ministries have called for calm while detailing the measures they have taken to defend against the fast-spreading Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, as suspected cases begin to be recorded across the country.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the public should be alert but not overly panicked or anxious.

"We are conducting surveillance in all our airports, especially for flights to and from China," he said during a visit to state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL in Surabaya, East Java, on Monday, according to a press release from the State Palace. "The most important thing is to be alert to the symptoms [of the virus]."

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"The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free."

- John F. Kennedy.

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change."

- Jim Rohn

Do Yoruba really want Oodua Nation? Do they really want to get out of Nigeria? Is this the desire of their majority? Or this demand is just a rant of the vocal few? What exactly do the Yoruba want? Nigeria or Oodua Nation?

What does the majority Igbo want? Do they really want Nigeria? Or they want their Biafra? Is the noise about Biafra that of the grassroots or "misguided" few? What exactly do the Igbo people want, Nigeria or Biafra?

Do the ethnic nationalities in the Middlebelt still want Nigeria or they want out? Are they excited to remain the willing tools of feudalism only to be beheaded when they are no longer needed? What exactly do they want? Nigeria or their freedom?

Well, there is only one way to find out. - plebiscite. In any polity, including the ones presided over by divine Kings and or emperor's, the people are the ultimate. They are the final arbiters. They determine the survival or the eventual death of a polity by submitting to the extant authority or by rebelling or revolting against it.

Cross sections of the Nigerian State, through their various leaders have been asking for Restructuring of this Country for a long time. But those identified by the Great Osagyefo, Kwame Nkrumah, as neo-colonialists, the purveyors of the next stage of imperialism, who are in control of the appurtenances of political power in Nigeria would not allow it. The reason they are against Restructuring is that the subsisting crooked structure is to their advantage.

But unfortunately for them, the time for RESTRUCTURING OF NIGERIA has expired. We no longer want restructuring. No more. What we now want is to determine our destiny. We want to be the ones to determine where we go from here. We want to vote on our next course of action. We want plebiscite to decide whether we want and are ready for Oodua Nation or not. We want to decide whether we want Biafra or not. We want to decide whether we want Niger Delta Confederacy or not. We want to decide whether we want Middlebet Federal Republic or not.

Yes, the time for Restructuring of the Nigerian State is far gone into the sunset. Restructuring as at this moment has become a prolepsis . It has become anachronistic. It has become outdated. The Yoruba Nation does not want any Restructuring any longer. We are no more interested. Any effort to engage in any form of Restructuring of this dead contraption called Nigeria is solecistic.

What the people of Oodua land want right now is to decide on Nigeria. They want to decide whether they want to remain in Nigeria or bail out of this denigrating slavery. They want to decide about their future. They want to make a decision for the posterity. The Yoruba people today are worried about what to bequeath to their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren and those coming after them.

All the taxi drivers of Yoruba extraction, all the bricklayers, the students, the market women, the nurses, the doctors, the lawyers, the architects, the unemployed, the civil servants, the farmers, the tailors, the vulcanizers, the carpenters, the painters, the traders et al want to have a say in the direction of their destiny. It is their right. They are entitled to it and they would have it. Yes, the people must decide.

Whether they agree to the creation of Oodua Nation or they're opposed to it, they want an opportunity to have a say. It is their inalienable right. It is their right to self-determine their own destiny. They are the captains of their own souls. They are the ones in the driver's seat. They are the people. They are the final arbiters.

The Yoruba people are tired of being second class citizens in Nigeria. They are tired of limitations placed on their potentials. They no longer want their destiny to be determined by others. They have seen their talents wasted. They have witnessed their capabilities cinctured. They have been denied several times what should be theirs. They no longer have rights in Nigeria. That are tired of the nonsense.

They have seen the people they voted for, shortchanged several times. They have witnessed the contamination of their values. They have witnessed the corruption of their culture. They have seen how their brilliant children are repeatedly frustrated and forced to serve characterless and colourless goons. They have seen how their children have been forced to worship on the altar of mediocrity. They have witnessed how they have become third and fourth class citizens is a country they have not chosen for and by themselves.

Currently, the Yoruba Nation wants its freedom. They want to extricate themselves from the Fulani bondage. They want to disengage from all aprons of feudalism. They want an end to apartheid system where the minority is ruling the majority using weapons of war, by opting out of Nigeria. It doesn't make any sense to be in a marriage where the parties involved are diametrically opposed to each other and the relationship itself.

The Yoruba people would like to discuss the possibility of an Oodua Nation as a matter of courtesy. But essentially, the final decision is theirs. The choice is theirs to make. And at the time they choose. The Yoruba are determined to be free in a Nation they could call their own and where they could dictate the directions and the dimensions of their destiny.

The Yoruba want to control their resources by themselves. They are tired of their resources being taken to the North of the Niger to sustain rabid incompetence and rancid values that are foreign to them. We don't think we are better than any group of people. But we reserve the right to live our lives according to our own dictates, our own values and Culture.

Feudalism was never part of our culture. It was never part of our History. Every Yoruba man and woman have always had the right to be free within his or her milieu. He or she has always determined how and where to live his live. Merit has always been a watchword. Fairness has always been a guidance. Justice has always been their framework.

At this point in the membership of the Yoruba Nation as a component of this subjugating gizmo called Nigeria, what we want right now is a plebiscite. We must be allowed to decide. If at the end, we decide to stay in Nigeria, then we would sit down to determine how. At that point, anyone could speak of Restructuring. But right now, plebiscite is what we want. We should not and could not put the cart before the horse. For the cart to be moved, the horse has to come first.

When this PLEBISCITE is going to be done, it must be completely organised and supervised by outsiders and monitored by the people themselves. The Nigerian State and its vestiges must not have anything to do with it either overtly or covertly, immediate or remote by any acts of omission or commission. It must be free of the Nigerian involvement. It must be free of the Nigerian poison.

Plebiscite is not just what we need, it is what we want. It is the desire of our hearts right now. We are no longer interested in Restructuring. No, not anymore. Plebiscite is what we want. We should, we would and we must get it. And the time is now!

"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it."

-John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1960.

Remi Oyeyemi
A hotel in Da Nang has recently become a topic of debate after it denied Chinese tourists service for fear of a new coronavirus epidemic that has been hitting Wuhan City in China very hard.

The debate erupted on Friday when the hotel on Tran Hung Dao Street in Son Tra District refused to welcome Chinese guests, canceling bookings by a group of Chinese and refunding them when they came to check in.

Those Chinese visitors had made a reservation up to two months in advance.

The establishment owner explained that the service denial was to ensure safety for staff and other guests who are staying in the hotel amid the ongoing epidemic of a novel coronavirus from China.

A pneumonia outbreak, caused by a new strain of the coronavirus family that caused SARS and MERS, first surfaced in Wuhan City in December 2019.

The virus has killed at least 80 and infected more than 2,700 people in China while spreading to the U.S., France, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and others.

A photo surfaced on social media showed the hotels announcement in Vietnamese that reads, We do not welcome guests from China during this time because your country has the corona disease which is spreading. We will make an announcement when we are ready to serve tourists from China again. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your cooperation.

A photo has surfaced over the Internet of the hotel's announcement on not receiving tourists from China.

After being informed of the announcement, local authorities on Friday night came to convinced the hotelier to remove it, as well as adhering to the Chinese tourists bookings.

However, the hotelier disagreed, saying that if they receive guests infected with the new coronavirus, the place could be blocked and their business would be affected.

At the moment, the hotel still does not receive Chinses tourists, including groups which have made a reservation one or two months in advance.

It has also shared the announcement on social media, receiving mixed comments.

Some labeled the hotels act discrimination," as those Chinese tourists had booked their stay one to two months in advance and they came in normal health conditions.

Others supported the hotels refusing service to guests from high-risk areas at this time, calling it self-defense.

In Vietnam, 39 patients are being isolated and under observation for the new coronavirus, including 13 in the northern region, two in the southern region, and 24 in the central region.

There is currently no Vietnamese citizen infected with the disease, Dang Quang Tan, deputy head of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health, confirmed at a Sunday conference regarding the new coronavirus epidemic.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

Uzbekistan's Center for Economic Research and Reforms under the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan (CERR) and European Institute of Asian Studies (EIAS) will work together on reducing the cost of international remittances to Uzbekistan, Trend reports referring to the center.

At a meeting with the Director of the European Institute of Asian Studies Axel Goethals and Program Coordinator Albert Turkstra held at CERR, the parties discussed introduction of alternative services that will increase the real incomes of migrant workers.

Axel Goethals noted that today, many people have to rely on such services as Western Union or MoneyGram. These services charge rather high fees for facilitating such transactions (according to the data published by the World Bank, the average cost of sending $200 is $14).

It was also noted that financial technology can play an important role in reducing the cost of operating and launching financial services.

"The future of financial technology and cross-border money transfers may lie in services that create superior technology. High-speed transactions and inexpensive costs with strong security are crucial in determining which platform will stand out," Goethals said.

To increase the efficiency of remittances, the European side proposed the introduction of innovative products, digital technology, including the technological advantages of commercial banks. In addition, the importance to create a regulatory framework that will clearly define the future direction of development and close cooperation between market participants, was stressed.

Following the meeting, a preliminary agreement was reached to work together on reducing the cost of international remittances through fintech and the development of financial instruments to finance infrastructure, in particular, green bonds and portfolio investments.

European Institute for Asian Studies is a policy and research think tank based in Brussels. Its research focuses on finding ways to comprehensively strengthen ties and cooperation between Asia and Europe.
Batelco, a leading digital solutions provider in Bahrain, has launched its SmartConnect service on SD-WAN 2.0 technology, to support cloud connectivity, automation and digital transformation services for enterprise customers.



Batelco will complement its existing business services by providing customers with simplified management of, and dynamic support for, traditional connectivity, cloud and IoT applications. This development follows the signing of an agreement between Batelco and Nokia during Gitex last year.



Batelco is the first in the Kingdom to offer the SD-WAN 2.0 SmartConnect service as part of its digital business strategy, where SD-WAN 2.0 technology can use software-defined networks (SDN) over any type of wide area network (WAN).



Batelco customers can enjoy advanced control over their network, allowing network traffic segmentation where data transmissions can be prioritized on reliable pathways and less-critical traffic routed to public internet connections.



With the new service, Batelcos enterprise customers can also reduce their IT admin costs by managing their corporate networks, including branches, data centres and the public cloud, using one unified dashboard. The dashboard will support customers managing key functionalities, such as user access, security as well as quality and performance parameters, across the network. This service will support Batelco's digital transformation strategy for customers across various sectors such as banking, healthcare, education, hospitality, transportation and energy.



Batelco GM Enterprise Division Abderrahmane Mounir said: We are delighted to announce the launch of SmartConnect, which will allow enterprise customers to have comprehensive control over their networks, and efficiently carry out their business with improved capability. We are extremely proud to be the first to launch this service in the Kingdom.



The launch of SmartConnect is in line with our digitization strategy to position the company as a leader in providing digital communication solutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the region. We reaffirm our commitment to provide our customers with the latest technologies and to continue contributing towards the development of the telecommunications sector in the Kingdom in support of the growth of the digital economy, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Recently installed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez flew to Davos to show his governments credentials to the hundreds of bankers, corporate executives, celebrities, heads of state and cabinet members who participated in the Swiss citys 50th annual World Economic Forum (WEF).

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addresses the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019 (Photo Credit: Markus Schreiber/AP)

In his speech, Sanchez stressed that his new Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos coalition government is committed to austerity: We maintain our commitment to reducing the deficit and public debt levels, which will undoubtedly generate greater confidence among economic agents and enable us to have a government with greater possibilities for action and future investment.

His speech was well received, obtaining endorsements from international finance capital. In a closed-door meeting on Spain with investors, Sanchez was told by Franck Petitgas, Head of International Operations at Morgan Stanley that in the markets we buy your arguments, Mr. President. We believe you will lead a responsible government in economic matters and we are not worried.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria introduced Sanchez to the forum as one of the great champions of multilateralism. Gurria said in an interview with EURACTIV that Sanchez was very clear yesterday, when I introduced him here in the forum, about the reforms and about his programme. We are going to be supporting him, and were going to be working with him and for him so that he succeeds.

The PSOE-Podemos accord, brokered with Spanish business federations and trade unions, lifting the minimum wage 5.5 percent or 59.8 euros to 1,108 euros ($1,230) gross a month, was not discussed. Those attending shared the opinion of the president of the Confederation of Employers Organizations, Antonio Garamendi, who said that we would have liked [the raise] to be a little lower, but was satisfied that figure agreed was below the initially proposed 1,167.

The banks understand so well the reactionary role of the pseudo-left Podemos party that after a meeting with investors at Davos, Sanchez smiled and told journalists: They didnt even ask me about Podemos, I was the one who had to raise the issue.

Just five years ago, representatives of the Spanish financial aristocracy like Ana Botin (CEO of Santander Group, Europes fifth-largest bank), Francisco Gonzalez (former CEO of BBVA, Spains second largest bank) and Ignacio Sanchez Galan (CEO of Iberdrola, one of the worlds biggest electricity utilities) had to fly to Davos to calm investors about a possible Podemos government. US billionaire and hedge fund manager Raymond Dalio warned: In Europe, parties are surging like Podemos in Spain.

Podemos had been founded the year before, becoming the undeserving benefactor of rising social opposition to austerity, militarism and attacks on democratic rights. It had risen significantly from 1.2 million (8 percent of the vote) in the 2014 European elections, to 3 million (12 percent) in the 2015 general elections. Its leader, Pablo Iglesias, spouted phrases about the caste, comprising the Popular Party and the PSOE, and made demagogic promises to reverse austerity.

Five years later, El Confidencial Digital cited sources around Davos who said the main conclusion on Spain is Pedro Sanchez has deactivated Podemos. This is the message that the CEOs of Santander and Iberdrola have received. They have also been congratulated from some prominent executives from various sectors.

The fact is that Podemos has not been deactivated. Podemos was never created to threaten Spanish or European capitalism. A receptacle for Stalinist or Pabloite petty bourgeois forces whose forebears negotiated the 1978 Transition to parliamentary democracy with the previous Francoite fascist regime, it was always an integral part of the Spanish ruling establishment.

Podemos, as the WSWS warned weeks after its foundation in January 2014, was a political fraud seeking above all to politically disarm the working class. It was based on postmodernist theories of left populism rejecting the revolutionary role of the working class, class struggle, and socialism. The WSWS wrote that Podemos aimed to prevent a rebellion by the working class against the social democratic parties and the trade union bureaucracy and channeling discontent into supposedly radical, but pro-capitalist, formations.

Terrified at the growing international upsurge of the working class and reflecting the fears of the ruling class about Spanish imperialisms international position amid neo-colonial wars, trade wars and deepening divisions in the European Union, Podemos backed a PSOE-led government in 2018. After the elections in 2019, it formed a coalition government. The pseudo-left party calculated this would be the best way to suppress growing social opposition to austerity and militarism, and feather the nests of a layer of affluent middle class youth for which it spoke.

These reactionary policies predictably strengthen far-right tendencies in Spanish bourgeois politics that doubtless also have substantial support among the oligarchs assembled at Davos.

The judiciary is moving to stop the PSOEs attempts to suspend temporarily the crackdown on the Catalan nationalists to garner their support for the PSOEs austerity budget. The PSOE and Podemos have overseen Madrids anti-Catalan campaign for years, including support for violent crackdowns on protestors, judicial frame ups, the show trial and incarceration of Catalan nationalist leaders and passing anti-democratic laws, like the Digital Gag Law.

On Thursday, the Spanish Supreme Court stripped Catalan regional premier Quim Torra of his seat in the regional parliament until a final sentence is reached on his ban from public office. In December, the Catalan Regional High Court found Torra guilty of disobedience for refusing to remove banners in support of jailed pro-independence leaders.

Torra has refused to stand down. Catalan parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent, who has publicly opposed removing Torra from his seat, is now being threatened by the Supreme Court. He could be charged with disobedience.

The public debate is increasingly dictated by the fascistic Vox party, whose resolutions, policies and speeches are widely promoted by the media and the political establishment.

Last week, the plans of the region of Murciaruled by the right-wing partiesto force schools to ask for parents permission to give talks, workshops or activities with an ideological or moral leaning against their convictions, became headline news across Spain. For now, these plans target primarily talks on sex education and LGBTQ+ rights. The measure, which has no popular support, aims at mobilising Voxs far-right Catholic base.

Days later, Vox again dominated the debate by proposing in parliament to ban Catalan and Basque nationalist parties. The measure would affect six parties represented in the Spanish parliament.

The week ended with right-wing opposition parties calling on Transportation Minister Jose Luis Abalos to resign after it emerged that he had secretly met with the Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodriguez early Monday morning at the Madrid airport. European Union sanctions, supported and designed by the previous PSOE government, ban Rodriguez from entering European Union airspace.
An Alabama mother who was pregnant with quadruplets suffered the devastation of losing three of the of unborn babies in utero  but she had to continue to carry and deliver them to save the one who survived.

Tori Keller, 23, and Tyler Hallman, 24, from Athens were shocked to learn that Tori, then 19, was expecting quadruplets, particularly because she hadn't been taking any fertility medication.

But the shocking news kept coming as she lost one and then two more of the fetus, but still had to deliver them in order to give birth to one healthy baby girl.

Difficult: An mother who was pregnant with quadruplets lost three of the of unborn babies in utero  but she had to continue to carry and deliver them to save the one who survived

Baby: Tori Keller, 23, and Tyler Hallman, 24, from Athens, Alabama welcomed a daughter named Athena in 2017

Tori, a bartender, and her fiance Tyler, a stone polisher, were quite taken aback by the news that she was pregnant with not one but four little ones.

'Finding out I was pregnant with quads was shocking, to say the least,' she said. 'I thought the doctor was joking when he told me. I honestly didn't truly believe it until I was able to see the actual ultrasound.'

They also learned that one baby  baby A  had placenta and a sac of its own, while babies B, C, and D, were sharing placenta and a sac.

Once theyd got over the initial shock and had seen their four babies on the ultrasound, Tori and Tyler, who first met on the dating app Tinder, were looking forward to becoming a family.

But Tori suffered with terrible morning sickness during her first trimester, and her pregnancy was deemed high risk.

Surprise! Tori hadn't been taking fertility medication but wound up pregnant with four babies

Sacrifice: Sadly, she lost one at 15 weeks and two more at 18 weeks  but she had to carry them to keep the other one alive

That meant she had to see her doctors weekly for checks.

At 15 weeks along, the couple went to the OB-GYN for a scan that would determine the sex of the children  but they didn't get the happy news they were expecting.

'As we got settled in the ultrasound room, I lifted my shirt over my already round baby bump to get ready to see them all again,' she said.

'The ultrasound tech first started with baby D, but the baby wasnt moving much, so she moved on to baby C, then baby B, then baby A [who was in its own sac].

'As she went back to baby D, I started to get nervous. The baby was smaller, and not moving around anywhere near as much as the others. The tech said she was going to be right back.

'As she walked back into the ultrasound room, my OB followed her in. He sat down and sighed, "Ms Keller, I am so sorry, but we were unable to find a heartbeat in baby D."

Little: On January 2, 2017, their daughter Athena was born. She weighed just 1 lb. 5 oz. and was 12 in. long, with her eyes still fused shut and her ears not yet fully developed

'Holding her for the first time, it was the best feeling ever,' Tori said

'I had to carry on. I knew that I couldn't give up for my other babies,' Tori said. 'I didn't know how to feel about carrying her with no heartbeat, but I didn't have a choice. It's a feeling with multiple feelings. It was hard.'

Heartbroken, Tori and Tyler discovered that she would have to carry all four of her babies  all girls  to term.

But then, after her 18-week appointment, she stopped feeling any movement.

'I had some pains in my side, but I was told that it was round ligament pains because my uterus was growing at such a fast rate,' she said. 'I was worried and scared. I'm honestly not super religious, but I prayed. I prayed every day until my next appointment.'

Terrified, Tori phoned her doctor and was told not to worry and that her pains were just her uterus growing.

'Seeing Athena for the first time was unreal,' Tori said. 'Of course, I never wanted to see her like that, but it truly is an amazing thing to see a baby that small'

But at her 19-week scan, Tori and Tyler were told the heart-breaking news that babies B and C no longer had heartbeats.

Again, she was told that she would have to continue to carry all four fetuses and deliver them.

'I was monitored very closely after losing baby B and C: cervix checks, very intricate ultrasounds, fluid samples, blood samples. And then of course, I was admitted into the hospital at twenty-one weeks for closer monitoring and strict bed rest,' she said.

'It was nerve-racking and honestly kind of humiliating. I hated not being able to move around.

'I really hated not being able to use an actual bathroom. That's something I will never take for granted. I hated being monitored all the time. I like my privacy,' she said.

She had been staying at the hospital for two weeks when, at 23 weeks along, she went into labor and had an emergency C-section.

'The labor was barely noticeable at first, some minor back pain but as it got more intense, and coming and going,' she said.

Waiting: Tori and Tyler had to wait two and a half weeks before they could hold their delicate daughter

'I was terrified. Especially when the nurse confirmed I was having contractions. Then when my water broke, I knew there was no going back. I was so scared that I was going to lose my baby.'

But she didn't and on January 2, 2017, their daughter Athena was born. She weighed just 1 lb. 5 oz. and was 12 in. long, with her eyes still fused shut and her ears not yet fully developed.

'Seeing Athena for the first time was unreal,' Tori said. 'Of course, I never wanted to see her like that, but it truly is an amazing thing to see a baby that small.

'Surely, I was scared, and sad that she had to be hooked up to tubes and wires, rather than in my belly, but I was filled with so much love for her. Love is the main thing I felt.

Tori and Tyler had to wait two and a half weeks before they could hold their delicate daughter.

Cutie: Athena has started to grow up, though she does have some developmental delays

'She is amazing, now. She walks, talks, runs, jumps, screams, and just everything a normal toddler does, even the tantrums,' said Tori

'Holding her for the first time, it was the best feeling ever,' Tori said. 'I waited two and a half weeks to hold her. It felt so natural and perfect. We connected. There's no other way to describe it but perfect.'

Still, Athena had to spent 127 days in the hospital before she was discharged.

'It was hard to adjust. She stayed on the NICU schedule for a long time. Which means she was up every two to three hours. I was fine with it, but Tyler and I were tired all the time. It was definitely worth it though,' Tori said.

'I bawled like a baby when we had to leave the hospital,' she added. 'I was nervous and anxious, but it was time. I was going to miss the nurses and the doctors, but it was a relief to be able to bring her home and not have nurses watching your every move.'

Seeing the doctors and nurses care for Athena and the other babies in the NICU made Tori realize that she would like to become an NICU nurse one day.

Meanwhile, Athena has started to grow up, though she does have some developmental delays.

Little bro: Tori and Tyler have also given her a younger brother, one-year-old Zachariah

'She is a perfect big sister,' Tori said. 'She was unsure of him at first, but as they both got a little older, she wanted to hold him all the time, and love on him'

'She is amazing, now. She walks, talks, runs, jumps, screams, and just everything a normal toddler does, even the tantrums,' said Tori.

'She is behind on her speech, but we are working on it. A year ago, she could say maybe three to five words. Now she does nothing but talk, even if you can't understand her.'

Tori and Tyler have also given her a younger brother, one-year-old Zachariah.

'She is a perfect big sister,' Tori said. 'She was unsure of him at first, but as they both got a little older, she wanted to hold him all the time, and love on him. Now they spend all their time together. They are very very close. She calls him "Riah."'

The couple has also told their two little ones about the sisters they lost.

'We already talk to them about their sisters. They have seen pictures of them as well. She knows that they are angels now, and they watch over us every day. I know she doesn't quite understand yet, but we do talk about them a good bit,' she said.

'For anyone who has a micro-preemie, they can get through it. For anyone struggling with child loss, you can get through it. Having a micro-preemie taught me so much.

'It taught me to appreciate every small detail and to be patient. Athena taught me how to be strong. She taught me how to get through the dark times. She saved me. Shes my hero, and she doesnt even know it.

'As mothers of micro-preemies or NICU babies in general, we often forget to take care of ourselves because we are so wrapped up in the NICU. It is okay to take time for yourself. Your mental health matters.'
Top 10 Blog Posts First Published in 2019

Top Overall Blogs Viewed in 2019  Regardless of When They Were Published

2019 was quite a year in cyberspace. As highlighted last month in my year-end top story blog, the top cybersecurity theme was all about the ways that ransomware targeted state and local governments and hospitals . In fact, we are still learning about some 2019 government ransomware impacts, like this story from Albany County, N.Y., over Christmas break.Also, data breaches were up more than 33 percent in 2019, when compared with 2018, according to Risk Based Security So readers always ask: What were the most popular Lohrmann on Cybersecurity & Infrastructure blogs in the past year?We crunch the numbers every January, and offer you the opportunity to go back and focus in on the topics that others are reading and spending their time on or have special significance.Overall, blog page views are up 25% percent over 2018, which is no surprise.And this year, we decided to try something new. Rather than just look at blog posts published last year, we examined the top read blogs in 2019  regardless of when they were published. Here you go:10b.I was really surprised by the attention that the chip implant topic has received. In fact, several journalists have asked for interviews to cover these issues in more detail.I was not surprised by the attention given to the annual security predictions blogs, as these always receive plenty of attention and more and more global coverage. These summaries provide references to the top industry reports, and many industry colleagues express their gratitude for this post every year.As we head into the 2020s will the palm print or other biometrics replace credit cards ? Or, will implanted chips be more widely adopted. Either way, the privacy and security debates have just begun  so expect much more coverage of this topic this year.Another hot topic will be privacy regulations and plans to roll out penalties and/or other actions to ensure enforcement of new laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story stocks' without revenue, let alone profit. But as Warren Buffett has mused, 'If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.' When they buy such story stocks, investors are all too often the patsy.

So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Judges Scientific (LON:JDG). Even if the shares are fully valued today, most capitalists would recognize its profits as the demonstration of steady value generation. In comparison, loss making companies act like a sponge for capital - but unlike such a sponge they do not always produce something when squeezed.

Check out our latest analysis for Judges Scientific

Judges Scientific's Improving Profits

In the last three years Judges Scientific's earnings per share took off like a rocket; fast, and from a low base. So the actual rate of growth doesn't tell us much. Thus, it makes sense to focus on more recent growth rates, instead. Like the last firework on New Year's Eve accelerating into the sky, Judges Scientific's EPS shot from UK0.95 to UK1.74, over the last year. Year on year growth of 84% is certainly a sight to behold.

Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. Judges Scientific shareholders can take confidence from the fact that EBIT margins are up from 11% to 16%, and revenue is growing. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in my book.

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

AIM:JDG Income Statement, January 27th 2020

In investing, as in life, the future matters more than the past. So why not check out this free interactive visualization of Judges Scientific's forecast profits?

Story continues

Are Judges Scientific Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It makes me feel more secure owning shares in a company if insiders also own shares, thusly more closely aligning our interests. As a result, I'm encouraged by the fact that insiders own Judges Scientific shares worth a considerable sum. Indeed, they have a glittering mountain of wealth invested in it, currently valued at UK79m. That equates to 23% of the company, making insiders powerful and aligned with other shareholders. Very encouraging.

It's good to see that insiders are invested in the company, but are remuneration levels reasonable? Well, based on the CEO pay, I'd say they are indeed. For companies with market capitalizations between UK153m and UK612m, like Judges Scientific, the median CEO pay is around UK664k.

The CEO of Judges Scientific only received UK218k in total compensation for the year ending December 2018. That looks like modest pay to me, and may hint at a certain respect for the interests of shareholders. CEO compensation is hardly the most important aspect of a company to consider, but when its reasonable that does give me a little more confidence that leadership are looking out for shareholder interests. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally.

Does Judges Scientific Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?

Judges Scientific's earnings per share growth have been levitating higher, like a mountain goat scaling the Alps. The sweetener is that insiders have a mountain of stock, and the CEO remuneration is quite reasonable. The sharp increase in earnings could signal good business momentum. Judges Scientific certainly ticks a few of my boxes, so I think it's probably well worth further consideration. Of course, just because Judges Scientific is growing does not mean it is undervalued. If you're wondering about the valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here is a list of companies with insider buying in the last three months.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores mantiene hoy las banderas a medias asta en senal de duelo por el fallecimiento del Embajador Jorge Valdez Carrillo. pic.twitter.com/nYj0pDrCCx
A police officer has died in a motorway crash.

Cumbria Constabulary said the 47-year-old man, who worked for the force's mobile support group, was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision on the M6 near Carlisle at about 2pm on Sunday.

The crash, which involved one police vehicle, happened on the southbound carriageway between junctions 44 and 43.

The man was the only occupant of the vehicle, a force spokesman said.

The spokesman added: "Specialist officers are supporting his family at this time."
This novel portrays my love of London, New York and island lifestyles. Although fiction, there are many topics in the book that people of all levels of life may relate to such as grieving the loss of a loved one, supporting ill loved ones and starting over," says Culmer.

Gabrielle F. Culmer has released Easing Distractions, the sequel to her previous novel, Damp Whisper. Newlywed Amelie-Aurore is enjoying her busy life in Knightsbridge, London with her husband Lars where she owns a property consultancy firm and Lars is the senior partner of his legal practice. Their lives are filled with family, friends, vacations, elegant soirees and Amelie has no desire to exchange it for anything.

Everything changes once Amelie becomes a victim of international commercial fraud.

When Amelie and Lars are faced with new developments regarding the attempted heist of the family's art collection, they unearth more uncertainty surrounding Amelies late mother's business dealings. As Amelie continues to grieve her mother and learn about new leads in the case, an unexpected illness in the family causes more fear and challenges her perspective on life.

While she envisions a summer of galas, sporting events and romantic holidays, details continue to emerge that haunt her happiness. An old, mysterious family acquaintance appears in London to assist in solving the case adding more confusion to Amelies life. Now Amelie must decide whether to continue relying on her dependable partner or turn to family connections for relief.

This novel portrays my love of London, New York and island lifestyles. Although fiction, there are many topics in the book that people of all levels of life may relate to such as grieving the loss of a loved one, supporting ill loved ones and starting over. The book also shows an appreciation for legal mystery, sustainable travel, nature, the arts as well as theatre and drama, says Culmer.

Easing Distractions illustrates the strong bond between family and friends even in the most difficult situations and how you can overcome these experiences and still appreciate family members and quality of life.

Easing Distractions

By Gabrielle F. Culmer

ISBN: 9781480881792 (softcover); 9781480881785 (electronic)

Available at the Archway Publishing Online Bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Gabrielle F. Culmer is a lawyer with degrees and qualifications from universities in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, New York and Chicago. She is the author of five other fiction novels including, "Arrive by Dusk," "Where Lives Lead" and two collections of poetry. When she is not writing, Gabrielle enjoys riding horses, researching history and traveling to New York and Europe.

To learn more about Gabrielle F. Culmer and her literary works, please visit http://www.gabriellefculmer.com.

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Linkedin Marina Rafenberg (Agence France-Presse) Athens  Mon, January 27, 2020 18:06 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206132da4 2 People greece,Holocaust,nazi,Jews Free

"I celebrated my seventh birthday inside the camp of Bergen-Belsen with a piece of bread and sticks for candles," recalls 83-year-old Lola Angel, one of the few Greek Jews left to remember the horror of Nazi concentration camps.

"I was just three when I had to hide," says Nina Camhi, who is 80. "But I still remember the fear."

Approximately 83 percent of Greek Jews, nearly 59,000 people, were exterminated when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941-1944.

Most of them came from Thessaloniki, which until then had a prosperous Jewish community dating back to the 15th century, and was known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans.

Nina and Lola are among survivors who have not spoken until now. Because they were so young at the time, they felt it was not their place to speak. But 75 years after the end of World War II, they finally feel ready to pass on their stories to the next generation.

'I forgot nothing'

"I was but a child but I forgot nothing," Lola told AFP.

"The memories still haunt me, and the intense smells of the camp are ever present."

Lola's family fled to Athens from Thessaloniki in January 1941, a few months before the capital fell.

In April 1944, the little girl and her family were put on a train to an unknown destination.

"We were packed atop each other and could hardly breathe. Many died en route," she said.

The intensification and coordination of the "Final Solution" was agreed at a landmark conference of government ministries and top-ranking Nazi and SS officials in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on January 20, 1942.

The 15 participants at the Wannsee Conference agreed that 11 million Jews should be moved to death camps in an operation under the exclusive authority of the SS.

Jews from all over Europe were systematically deported from mid-1942 to six death camps -- Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

At Auschwitz -- which became the symbol of the Holocaust -- more than 1.1 million people were killed, primarily Jews, but also Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and Poles.

At Bergen-Belsen, however, the Nazis tried a different strategy, said Lola, speaking from her Athens apartment where the walls are covered with the pictures of survivors and the dead.

Death by disease

"It was slow death by disease. After the Allies landed in Normandy, the Nazis began concentrating people there, hoping they would die of typhus."

Her father fell ill with the disease while Lola caught measles.

She said that childhood distractions kept her going.

"I kept my doll until I returned to Greece, and my mother would put a bow in my hair every morning," she said.

Nina said that in order to evade the first convoys from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz in March 1943, she and her parents and brother fled the city.

A business partner of her father managed to smuggle them by fishing boat to the island of Skopelos.

But her mother's family died at Auschwitz.

"My mother kept all their letters, up to the point they were deported. After the war, she shut herself up in painful silence," Nina said.

Read also: Holocaust survivors meet their savior 75 years later

History lessons

The fate of Greek Jews is still not widely known in the country.

It was only in 2004 that teaching about the Shoah became compulsory in Greece and 10 years later a monument was erected at the site of the former Jewish cemetery which the Germans razed and where the city university now stands.

Just before Bergen-Belsen was liberated in April 1945, Lola was removed by train to north Germany, part of a last-ditch effort by the Nazis to exterminate camp survivors before the Allies arrived.

After days of travelling, the guards abandoned the train and fled. The exhausted and starving prisoners were found by American soldiers a few hours later.

Nina and her parents crossed most of Western Europe -- the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy -- before ending back in Greece in September 1945.

By that point, she had forgotten her Greek, and her family had lost everything.

"We had to start from scratch," she said.

And returning to Thessaloniki was no easier, with the ghosts of Jewish families staring back from every corner.

"Even today I have nightmares. And I rarely board trains," she said.

Topics : greece Holocaust nazi Jews
Msgr. Nelson J. Perez says Mass in Spanish at the Church of St. William in Northeast Philadelphia in 2003. Pope Francis recently appointed Perez as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Read more

I identify myself as a lifer from St. William parish in the Lawndale/Lawncrest community. For over 62 years, St. William parish has been my home  from attending St. William School as a student, to coming home to attend Mass as an adult, and the icing on the cake: teaching there for over 20 years until its 2012 closure.

During my youth in Lawncrest and neighboring Lawndale, most residents were white, blue-collar civil servants. Households were typically ones in which dad worked and mom stayed home. Children went to their neighborhood school, and you were identified as being a Catholic or public.

As the years marched on, Lawncrest and St. William changed. For 22 years, St. Williams pastor, Msgr. James E. Mortimer, embraced the changing demographics, calling the church a welcoming community, and establishing an after-school program, a day-care center, and a learning disabilities program. He helped the parishioners welcome priests from the Indian and Pakistani communities, as well as members and clergy from the Hispanic community.

In 2002, a new pastor, Nelson J. Perez, arrived, just as the community was undergoing even more change.

In the seven years he oversaw St. William, more blended families moved into Lawncrest and Lawndale, as well as a wide diversity when it came to cultures and languages.

Then-Msgr. Perez did everything he could to welcome these new community members.

When you were in Perezs presence, you sensed he did not see a nationality, a race, a creed, or a religion: He simply saw you as a person.

He really excelled at not just hearing you but listening to you. I recall going to face-to-face confession after a particularly trying week of teaching. I felt I was not getting through to some students, parents and I were locking horns, and I was beyond frustrated. I sat down in anger with tears streaming down my face. He listened as I vented and fumed. He then gently, but firmly, reeled me back in for a reality check. He told me to take a deep breath, acknowledge to myself I am human, and move forward.

His homilies were never preachy, but rather an opportunity that allowed you to ponder, reflect, and, if need be, question.

He also was not afraid to be hands-on. I recall working with my fifth-grade students on service projects ahead of their confirmation. We would hold pancake breakfasts. I was always worried about the students pouring hot coffee, so whenever Perez would come in to support us, Id hand him a coffee pot and ask him to help out, which he did gladly.

When working with Perez on numerous committees, I always remembered his closing remarks at meetings. He would remind us that he would eventually move on; that we, the people of St. William, would need to move forward and implement changes. He told us over and over that St. William was our parish, not his. This humble man never made anything about himself. It was always about those he tended.

Now that Msgr. Perez has become Archbishop Perez and has been appointed to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I am looking forward to welcoming him back. I believe that this is a new era in our archdiocese. Undeniably, we, as a faith community, face issues in need of repair and healing  whether it be low Mass attendance, closures or consolidations of beloved schools and parishes, or the continued pain felt with the clergy abuse scandal.

 READ MORE: As Mass attendance in Philly declines, Archbishop Chaputs successor must be more pastoral than polarizing | Opinion

In my opinion, Pope Francis had the keen insight to assign the right man to shepherd the people of our archdiocese. He comes not as a miracle worker, but as a dynamic, supportive, faith-filled, and faithful servant who will continue to do what he already does extraordinarily well. He will guide, he will be a hands-on presence, and most importantly, he will listen.

Kathleen McDonough is a lifelong member of the St. William parish community. She taught full-time for 28 years, including 21 years at St. William. She remains active in St. William parish and is involved in other service through Phil-Mont Kiwanis.
Being a safe driver, having safety devices installed and making smart coverage changes will help you save money on car insurance, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Car insurance rates are determined after analyzing multiple factors, including car model, driving history and ZIP code. While some factors, like state legislation, are beyond drivers control, other rating factors can be modified and bring the costs down. Find out how to get better premiums:



Use online car insurance quotes. Brokerage websites are recommended to complete car quotes. Make sure you complete the same information on all the questionnaires. After you received at least three car quotes, start analyzing them in order to find the most advantageous deal. Also, check all available discounts offered by each insurer.

Carefully adjust deductible levels for comprehensive and collision coverage. Deductibles are the money paid by the policyholder before the insurance policy kicks in. By raising deductibles, the policyholder will lower his premium rates. However, choose a deductible that can be easily paid.

Avoid committing traffic violations or accidents. A driver with a clean driving record for a number of years is eligible for a safe driver discount. Most insurance companies will lower premium rates after three years of clean driving, while other insurers will wait even five years to provide this discount. Usually, this discount will lower insurance rates by 10%-20%.

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Keep a good credit score. Insurance companies calculate rates based on how good or bad is a persons credit score. Drivers with bad credit scores will pay higher insurance rates. Improve credit score by using balance transfer credit cards of short term loans with a credit union.

Do not redundant or useless full coverage. If the car is worth less than ten times the premium, having full coverage may not be cost-effective. Auto dealers and banks can tell you how much your car is worth it.

Pay for the whole policy in advance. Drivers can save even 10 percent form their premium, by choosing to pay the whole insurance once. In that way, they will no longer pay monthly administrative fees.

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By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the Democratic lawmaker leading the impeachment case against him, Representative Adam Schiff, has 'not paid the price, yet' for his actions, a statement Schiff said he viewed as a threat

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the Democratic lawmaker leading the impeachment case against him, Representative Adam Schiff, has "not paid the price, yet" for his actions, a statement Schiff said he viewed as a threat.

The vitriol from Trump against Schiff and other Democrats followed three days of their arguments in his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate on charges he abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, and then tried to obstruct an investigation by Congress.

"Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!" Trump said on Twitter.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he took the Republican president's social media post as a threat, Schiff said, "I think it's intended to be."

As lead impeachment manager, Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, played a central role in Democrats' efforts to paint Trump's behavior as dangerous to democracy the Republican-led Senate, where Trump is likely to be acquitted.

While some Republican senators said Schiff had been effective, most appeared unswayed. The lawmaker from California, a former federal prosecutor, has been a regular target of attack from Trump and Trump's Republican supporters in Congress.

Some Republican senators took umbrage at Schiff's more pointed comments, including that the president could not be trusted to do the right thing for the country and that Republican senators were under extreme pressure to acquit Trump.

Schiff said on NBC he was making the argument "that it's going to require moral courage to stand up to this president."

"This is a wrathful and vindictive president," he said. "I don't think that there's any doubt about it and if you think there is, look at the president's tweets about me today, saying that I should pay a price."

Trump regularly levels personal attacks against political opponents. His broadsides against Schiff have included "pencil neck" and "liddle." Critics accuse Trump of using an anti-Semitic trope in referring to the Jewish lawmaker as "shifty."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Trump's Twitter post. Representatives for Schiff said they had nothing to add to the congressman's comments.

TRUMP'S DEFENSE

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told Fox News Channel she had not spoken to Trump about the tweet but, "I think he means he hasn't yet paid the price with the voters."

U.S. Senator James Lankford, a Republican, likened Trump's comment to those of Democrats who say Republicans will pay a price at the ballot box for supporting Trump or will pay a price in the future as they are held accountable.

"I don't think the president is trying to be able to do a death threat here or do some sort of intimidation," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Both of them are saying the American people will speak on this."

Another House impeachment manager, Democrat Zoe Lofgren, told CNN Trump should "get a grip" and be more presidential. "The president has a tendency to say things that seem threatening to people," she said.

Trump's team of lawyers began their defense on Saturday, arguing Democrats' efforts to remove the president from office would set a "very, very dangerous" precedent in an election year.

Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump's legal team, told "Fox News Sunday" the conduct described in the Senate trial did not amount to an impeachable offense. He shrugged off a recording first reported on Friday in which Trump told Lev Parnas, an associate of his lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, he wanted to see the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, fired.

"The president has full authority to fire an ambassador," Dershowitz said.

During the House of Representatives impeachment hearings last month, witnesses described Giuliani as leading efforts to pressure Ukraine on investigating former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic candidate, and his son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Yovanovitch was seen as resisting those efforts and was recalled in May.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With several Indians stranded in China, where the novel coronavirus outbreak was first reported, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday requested the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in evacuating them to safety.

In a letter addressed to the PM, the CM said that going by the accounts of the relatives of students from Kerala studying at various universities in Wuhan, the ground situation has further worsened and hence a special flight will have to be operated to Wuhan to airlift the Indian nationals stranded there.

The CM also added that necessary directions will also have to be provided to the Indian Embassy in China to reach out to the Indians including Keralites stranded in Wuhan and Yichang provinces. In the letter, the CM also extended the assistance of medical professionals from the state for the evacuation process.

Kerala is on high alert as the novel coronavirus (nCoV) is spreading to various parts of the world.

As per the data released by the state health department, 288 people have reached the state from places where the nCoV outbreak has been notified.

Of this, 281 have been put under house surveillance and seven are admitted to isolation wards of hospitals.
LOS ANGELES  When The Sacramento Bee published a scathing editorial about the impeachment trial last week  using words like deliberately misled betrayed and lied  much of the newspapers wrath was directed not at President Donald Trump, but at one of his leading defenders: Devin Nunes, a Republican congressman who represents the Central Valley.

Across the state, another California congressman was being targeted by Trumps backers for his role in seeking to remove the president from office. Liar! demonstrators shouted at Adam Schiff, the Los Angeles Democrat who is the lead House manager.

As the Senate trial of Trump barrels ahead in Washington, California is playing an outsized role. It has lawmakers who have been leading the investigation of Trump for months, and at the same time, lawmakers who have been fighting fiercely on the presidents behalf.

Those divergent views can be seen from Fresno to Santa Monica, in a state that is far more politically complex than its image.

In California we have red counties and blue counties, just like America has red states and blue states, said Gil Duran, the California opinion editor at The Sacramento Bee, who wrote the recent editorial about Nunes.

After three years at the vanguard of the battle against Trump  on the environment, immigration and reproductive rights  it is no surprise that California Democrats are on the front lines of the drive to remove him from office.

There is Schiff, from Los Angeles, who said Thursday that Trump was a danger to our country. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, whose assent was needed to bring the proceedings, represents San Francisco. And polls suggest that California voters are more supportive of impeaching Trump than are voters nationally, reflecting the Democrats big registration edge in a state that Trump lost by nearly 4 million votes in 2016.

Yet the impeachment trial in Washington has also invigorated what has emerged as a Republican resistance to the states resistance to the president.

And it is a reminder that portraits of California as overwhelmingly Democratic gloss over the nuances of the states political makeup. The Republican Party in California, a onetime powerhouse that gave the country numerous GOP luminaries, has shrunken in the last 30 years. Still, the states areas of Republican power remain strong and influential.

In Washington, the California Republican delegation punches above its weight.

Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from the Central Valley, is the House minority leader, and helped unite his caucus behind Trump, a longtime ally, in opposing impeachment. Nunes, who has served in Congress since 2003 and grew up in a dairy farming family, is another of Trumps heartiest backers, often appearing on Fox News combatively defending the president.

Nunes has become a prominent figure in the investigation of Trump. Text messages have connected one of Nunes aides to the administrations efforts to prod the Ukrainian government to seek potentially damaging information about Joe Biden, the former vice president and possible challenger to Trump in this years election. Even Ken Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel who is now on Trumps defense team, has a California connection: he served for two years as dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu.

All of this reflects how, even as the state has become more liberal overall, rock-solid pockets of conservatism remain in areas like San Diego and the Central Valley, where both Nunes and McCarthy remain popular among their constituents and are likely to cruise to reelection in November.

I have relatives who grew up on welfare, and had an undocumented parent, and I see them posting pro-Trump memes on Facebook and I ask, how did that happen? said Duran, the Bee opinion editor, who grew up poor in Tulare County, a conservative region partly in Nunes district. Welcome to deep red California, Duran said.

On a recent Saturday morning, two people stood on a street corner in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, defiantly hoisting signs reading Recall Newsom. It is part of a quixotic, yet persistent, drive by Republicans to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom, the first-term Democrat, over homelessness and the high cost of gasoline, among other things. Since the beginning of his term, Newsom has been at war with the president, taking on the Trump administration in legal battles and Twitter fights.

Republican former members of Congress who were swept out of office in 2018 are trying to get back on the stage, including Darrell Issa of San Diego. Issa, who declined to seek reelection in 2018 in the face of a strong Democratic challenge, has decided to run this year for a different seat, the one held until recently by a fellow Republican, Duncan Hunter, who resigned after pleading guilty to using campaign funds for personal expenses.

In Hunters old district, Randy Birrenkott, 70, said he knows many neighbors who became disgusted with Californias liberal politics and moved to places like Texas or Montana. Right now its a strong conservative district, but its slowly going down, he said.

California is not the only state whose political complexity is often overlooked in the shorthand of a polarized era. New York as a whole is overwhelmingly Democratic, but upstate New York and the New York City borough of Staten Island are as Republican as parts of Central California are.

New York Democrats like Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, have played important roles in the impeachment drama. But with Schiff, Pelosi, McCarthy and Nunes at the forefront of the daily battles in Washington, no other state has become quite as identified with the impeachment battle as California has.

The Republican Party is hobbled in California, and many moderate Republicans believe it will only become less influential in years ahead. The party has been on a steady decline for nearly 20 years in the state, where Richard M. Nixon was born and where Ronald Reagan was one of its most successful governors.

There are now more independent voters in California than registered Republicans. The GOP does not hold a single statewide office, and is vastly outnumbered in the Legislature. While the effort to recall Newsom has the support of Republican leaders, it is unlikely to gain enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. or enough support to win the approval of voters if it did.

Republican moderates  who were once a major force in the party, particularly when Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was governor  have been marginalized.

But as the state party has shrunk, it has shifted to the right and embraced Trump.

Across the nation, the Republican Party has become more conservative, and California is not the only place where moderates have been driven out of its ranks. But there is almost certainly a higher political price for that trend in California. The more the party becomes identified with Trump, particularly on issues like the environment, abortion and immigration, the tougher time the party is likely to have winning elections.

Still, conservatives wield considerable influence in the state. High-profile right-wing media outlets are active in Southern California, where Ben Shapiro, the conservative commentator and founder of the Daily Wire, runs his empire and where the conservative radio host Dennis Prager operates his youth-focused Prager University.

Even in largely liberal Los Angeles, there are plenty of voters who say they are outraged over the effort to impeach Trump.

Crooked is the word that comes to mind, said Alan Herrera, 48, a bail enforcement agent from East Hollywood, referring to Schiff. This gentleman is a liar. He has lied repeatedly, he has claimed things were there when they werent, and he has basically run impeachment on baseless, faceless accusations.

Of course, Schiff, a former prosecutor who is mild-mannered but cutting in his public remarks about Trump, can count on many more defenders of his impeachment role among his constituents.

Alexander Seedman, 28, a writer in West Hollywood, said the impeachment process had been really hard to follow, because I find it so enraging, knowing that the Republicans are trying to hide so much evidence.

But he said, Just hearing Adam Schiff speak so clearly and eloquently about what went wrong, it just seems to obvious to me  and yet, we have more than half of the Senate who clearly just doesnt want to listen. He added, Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are my new heroes at this point, and I feel really proud to live in a state that they come from, because I think theyre doing an incredible job.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Dramatic video posted to social media shows a group of passersby heroically lift a black Mercedes SUV off of a pedestrian who was struck by the vehicle on Manhattans Lower East Side on Sunday evening.

The video shows about a dozen locals rush over to the intersection near Delancey and Norfolk Streets, where a woman was trapped underneath the SUV.

They then lifted the SUV off of its two right-side tires and held it in the air long enough for others to drag the female pedestrian from underneath the vehicle.

A photo taken by Colby Droscher, who filmed the incident, showed the woman talking on her phone and appearing to be okay afterward.

Video posted to social media on Sunday shows a group of passersby pull a woman out from underneath an SUV which struck her in a pedestrian crosswalk on Manhattan's Lower East Side

In the video, about a dozen people lift the SUV onto one side and pull out a 25-year-old female who was struck by the vehicle

The woman is seen using her phone while firefighters and first responders attend to her on the street near the intersection of Delancey and Norfolk Streets on Sunday

Witnesses said the car drove over the womans ankles and trapped her underneath.

A New York Police Department spokesperson told DailyMail.com that authorities received an emergency report of an incident around 5.10pm.

When police arrived after the rescue, they found a 25-year-old female pedestrian lying on the pavement conscious and alert.

The NYPD said that the woman suffered pain and bruising after she was struck by a dark-colored Mercedes-Benz SUV.

She was transported to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. She was released later on Sunday evening with pain, scratches, and bruises, but no broken bones.

The driver of the vehicle is a 65-year-old female, according to the NYPD.

The authorities said that the driver was making a turn from Norfolk Street onto Delancey Street when she struck the 25-year-old woman who was walking across the pedestrian crosswalk.

The victim (seen lying on her back as witnesses gather to observe) was rushed to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries

After striking the pedestrian, police said the driver also hit several occupied vehicles which were stopped at a traffic light.

Minor damage was reported by the other drivers, according to police.

Police officers arrived on the scene only after the young woman was pulled from underneath the SUV.

The driver of the SUV was issued a summons for failure to yield to a pedestrian.

Usually, the penalty for such a traffic violation is a fine.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Azerbaijan Zacharie Gross.

The meeting was also attended by employees of the relevant departments of BHOS and Embassy Attache for Cooperation between Universities and Scholarships Ms. Clemens Felipo.

First, the guests were familiarized with the BHOS campus and the conditions created there. Elmar Gasimov gave the embassy representatives detailed information about Baku Higher Oil School.

The rector emphasized that cooperation between Azerbaijan and France in the energy, political, economic, socio-cultural, scientific and educational spheres is growing day by day. He also noted that in 2013, BHOS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP), which indicates the development of relations between France and Azerbaijan.

The rector also spoke about Baku Higher Oil Schools close cooperation with a number of French companies, including Total.

Ambassador Zacharie Gross, in turn, thanked Rector Elmar Gasimov for the warm welcome. He expressed satisfaction with the ongoing cooperation between Baku Higher Oil School, which trains specialists in the areas that are important for the region, and the universities in France.

Speaking about the importance of expanding ties between the two countries in the field of education, the ambassador emphasized that issues related to the provision of quality education and training of foreign students in higher education institutions in France are one of the priorities not only for the embassy, but also for his country.

Zacharie Gross praised the collaboration between IFP and BHOS.

At the meeting, an exchange of views took place on the prospects for further cooperation, exchanging students and teachers, establishing contacts in the fields of teaching the French language and conducting research activities.

In conclusion, a memorable photograph was taken with the guests.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Bronia Brandman entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland as a young girl with her family in the 1940s. She lost everyone except for a brother she discovered later.

I knew what was in store for us ..., she recalled while being interviewed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. No sooner than I get to my sisters line that I realized what I had done. It meant my two baby sisters were going to the gas chamber alone.

In a gripping Associated Press video, courtesy of the Brandman Family, the horrors of Auschwitz are recounted. The video can be viewed above.

So Dr. Mengele was the head of Auschwitz where, remember, more than a million were murdered. We had to pass him and it was our turn, recalled Brandman in the film.

Monday marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where 1.1 million people -- mostly Jews -- were murdered by the Nazi German forces. About 200 survivors returned to the site for a commemoration ceremony. They were joined by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes, Polish President Andrzej Duda told the dignitaries at the commemoration, which included the German president as well as Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.

They gathered under an enormous, heated tent straddling the train tracks that had transported people to Birkenau, the part of the vast complex where most of the murdered Jews were killed in gas chambers and then cremated. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.

"The magnitude of the crime perpetrated in this place is terrifying but we must not look away from it and we must never forget it," Duda said.

Associated Press material was used in this report.
We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. By way of example, Atrum Coal (ASX:ATU) has seen its share price rise 233% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

In light of its strong share price run, we think now is a good time to investigate how risky Atrum Coal's cash burn is. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

View our latest analysis for Atrum Coal

Does Atrum Coal Have A Long Cash Runway?

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. As at June 2019, Atrum Coal had cash of AU$21m and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$7.4m. Therefore, from June 2019 it had 2.8 years of cash runway. Arguably, that's a prudent and sensible length of runway to have. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

ASX:ATU Historical Debt, January 27th 2020

How Is Atrum Coal's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Atrum Coal isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. The skyrocketing cash burn up 114% year on year certainly tests our nerves. That sort of spending growth rate can't continue for very long before it causes balance sheet weakness, generally speaking. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

Story continues

Can Atrum Coal Raise More Cash Easily?

Given its cash burn trajectory, Atrum Coal shareholders may wish to consider how easily it could raise more cash, despite its solid cash runway. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash to fund growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$167m, Atrum Coal's AU$7.4m in cash burn equates to about 4.4% of its market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

So, Should We Worry About Atrum Coal's Cash Burn?

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Atrum Coal is burning through its cash. In particular, we think its cash runway stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. Although we do find its increasing cash burn to be a bit of a negative, once we consider the other metrics mentioned in this article together, the overall picture is one we are comfortable with. Looking at all the measures in this article, together, we're not worried about its rate of cash burn; the company seems well on top of its medium-term spending needs. When you don't have traditional metrics like earnings per share and free cash flow to value a company, many are extra motivated to consider qualitative factors such as whether insiders are buying or selling shares. Please Note: Atrum Coal insiders have been trading shares, according to our data. Click here to check whether insiders have been buying or selling.

Of course Atrum Coal may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.


Donald Trump's legal legal team opened up an all-out attack on Hunter Biden on the second day of its defense of the president Monday, unleashing White House advisor Pam Bondi to accuse him of cashing in on his powerful father.

Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, took to the well of the Senate following a trial where it has primarily been Democrats bringing up the Bidens  to make the case that Trump held up millions in security aide to Ukraine to get an investigation of his political rival.

And another Trump attorney - one from his long-time New York law firm - suggested that Barack Obama should have been impeached for saying he would have more 'flexibility' to deal with Russia after the 2012 election.

After fellow attorneys Ken Starr and Patrick Philbin used their speaking time to stress sometimes arcane legal arguments, Bondi, a Trump loyalist, went for the political jugular.

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. She tore into Hunter Biden for what she cast as ethical lapses during her presentation

'We would prefer not to be talking about this. We would prefer not to be discussing this. But the House managers have placed this squarely at issue, so we must address it,' she told the Senate, before opening up an attack on Hunter, whose personal struggles have drawn headlines amid disclosures about his work for the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

She described how Hunter Biden joined the firm after warning signs about it, and chose not to relinquish his role even amid cautions by his business partners.

'Remember, this is just one month after the United Kingdom serious fraud office opened a money laundering case into Burisma, Hunter Biden joins their board,' said Bondi.

She brought up fellow business partner Chris Heinz, who backed away after disclosures. 'He thought that working for Burisma was unacceptable,' she said.

Bondi quoted liberally from 'public reporting'  even calling up slides of publications the president regularly derides, including ABC News, which reported on potential conflicts of interest at the time Hunter landed the lucrative gig, and the Washington Post.

'It said the appointment of the vice president's son to a Ukrainian oil board looks nepotistic at best, nefarious at worst,' Bondi said.

'We would prefer not to be talking about this,' said Bondi as she brought up Hunter Biden

READ THE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP In 1,414 words, the articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives lay out two charges against President Donald Trump. Article I: Abuse of Power Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election. He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage. President Trump also sought to pressure the Government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official United States Government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations. President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct for corrupt purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit. In so doing, President Trump used the powers of the Presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process.' Article II: Obstruction of Congress As part of this impeachment inquiry, the Committees undertaking the investigation served subpoenas seeking documents and testimony deemed vital to the inquiry from various Executive Branch agencies and offices, and current and former officials. In response, without lawful cause or excuse, President Trump directed Executive Branch agencies, offices, and officials not to comply with those subpoenas. President Trump thus interposed the powers of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, and assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the 'sole Power of Impeachment' vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives. In the history of the Republic, no President has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the House of Representatives to investigate 'high Crimes and Misdemeanors.'' This abuse of office served to cover up the President's own repeated misconduct and to seize and control the power of impeachment -- and thus to nullify a vital constitutional safeguard vested solely in the House of Representatives. Advertisement

Bondi also included video of Hunter Biden acknowledging that he 'probably' wouldn't have gotten the gig if he weren't Biden's son.

Bondi has herself been the subject of ethics criticism for her decision while Florida AG to decide not to join a multi-state class action lawsuit against Trump University by students alleging they got scammed. The case ultimately resulted in a settlement and a $25 million payment by the Trump Organization.

Hunter Biden has not been accused of any criminal behavior connected to the deal, although company head Mykola Zlochevsky had accounts frozen during Ukrainian investigation that later got halted.

'Did Hunter Biden stop working for Burisma? No Did Vice President Biden stop leading the Obama administration's foreign policy efforts in Ukraine? No,' said Bondi.

Biden's role raised concerns by State Department official George Kent, who brought the potential of a conflict of interest to higher-ups.

Following Bondi's presentation, fellow Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann took up the cause, also going over Hunter Biden's Ukraine connections.

He also pivoted to President Obama, recalling his hot-mic conversation with then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, who promised to transmit information to 'Vladimir' during a conversation about a missile defense treaty.

Obama told Medvedev in South Korea in 2012 - who despite his title was actually junior partner to Putin - that 'this is my last election,' and said: 'After my election I have more flexibility.'

Medvedev replied: 'I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.'

The hot mic moment was to become a favorite Republican talking point against Obama.

Herschmann suggested that it could have been used to impeach Obama then read his version of the first article of impeachment - abuse of power - changing Trump's name for Obama's and the Ukraine aid allegations for what Obama said.

Inside the Senate chamber, majority of Senators from both sides of the aisle sat stony faced, listening in silence as required. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker stood leaning on his desk chair, face grim, during part of Bondis presentation.

Trump's team resumed its efforts to blast the case against him and defend the president's interactions with Ukraine  with Independent Counsel Ken Starr taking making the case that impeachment is invoked 'all too frequently.'

Starr, who led the impeachment case in the same chamber in 1999, bemoaned the arrival of an 'age of impeachment' without sufficient justification.

'Like war, impeachment is hell. Or at least, presidential impeachment is hell,' said Starr.

Starr began his remarks hours after bombshell revelations in a new book manuscript claimed the president personally tied millions in military aide to Biden investigations.

He took to the well of the Senate to attack 'a series of deficiencies' in the impeachment articles that passed the House, according to fellow Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow.

'Judge Starr is very familiar with this process,' said Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, alluding to Starr's role leading the charge to remove President Bill Clinton from office during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Starr began his remarks not by pointing to fights over Trump's July 25 call with the president of Ukraine or the murky way a whistleblower came to light  but with a history lesson that referenced the Nixon impeachment, Iran Contra, and other partisan clashes  then went back to the British parliament of the 19th Century.

'Like war, impeachment is hell,' former Independent Counsel Ken Starr told senators as a member of President Donald Trump's impeachment defense

'Instead of a once in a century phenomenon, which it had been, presidential impeachment has become a weapon,' he said.

As other Trump lawyers had noted, the trial occurs with an election around the corner. Adam Schiff countered this in his own arguments by arguing Trump was trying to invite interference in the election  which could call it's fairness into doubt.

'There is a huge prudential factor that this trial is occurring in an election year when we the people in a matter of months will go to the polls,' Starr said.

Rather than the impeachment remedy, Starr invoked the 'tradition of oversight,' which he called 'an enormous check on presidential power.'

If there is a dispute over documents and witnesses, 'Then go to court. It really is as simple as that,' said Starr.

Democrats included an 'Obstruction of Congress' article after the administration refused to provide documents or make witnesses available for the impeachment inquiry in the House.

When Starr was done, New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was unimpressed.

'Im not sure who he was talking to but his arguments were exceedingly thin and did not bear out,' she told DailyMail.com. On Starrs remark that impeachment is hell, she said: I thought that it was an absurd argument and quite rich coming from him.

Trump's high-powered legal team took to the well of the Senate Monday to resume a defense they began on Saturday, when the president complained many Americans wouldn't be tuning in due to the timing.

Before the lawyers made their case, Senate Chaplain Barry Black made note of tragic news, referencing the helicopter crash that killed L.A. Lakers great Kobe Bryant.

'We think about life's brevity, uncertainty and legacy,' said Black.

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow sketched out how the day's arguments would go  after Trump once again pressed his own case with Twitter attacks over the weekend.

'We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all,' said Sekulow.

'The president was all times acting under his constitutional authority, under his legal authority, in our national interest pursuant to his oath of office,' Sekulow argued.

Republicans senators are saying it's increasingly likely there will be witnesses called in Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the wake of revelations from John Bolton's forth coming book.

Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins - two crucial votes in the Democrats' quest to bring more witnesses in the trial - said it's important to hear from the former national security adviser.

They also both said they have spoken with their colleagues about the topic, which could be seen as a warning to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that support is there for such a move.

LEGAL SHOWDOWN AT THE CAPITOL: Trump impeachment attorney Kenneth Starr arrives at the U.S. Capitol on the sixth day of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, in Washington, DC, Monday, January 27, 2020

Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr stands before a crowd of reporters and photographers outside the Justice Department and answers questions about his investigation into President Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky, Washington DC, January 22, 1998. Clinton was acquitted in the Senate. Starr on Monday warned against partisan impeachments

Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020

Mitt Romney and Susan Collins said it's increasingly likely witnesses will be called in Donald Trump's impeachment trial

Both senators cited revelations from John Bolton's forthcoming book as reasons they want to hear from him

JOHN BOLTON'S KEY REVELATIONS John Bolton makes a series of bombshell claims in his book, according to the part of the manuscript seen by the New York Times. They are: Trump told Bolton in August 2019 that he would not release military aid to the Ukraine until they investigated the Bidens and claims of trying to intervene in 2016 in favor of Hillary Clinton

Mike Pompeo privately admitted that Rudy Giuliani's claims Marie Yovanovitch were corrupt were baseless - and that he suspected they were being made to help other Giuliani clients

Bolton warned White House lawyers that he feared Giuliani was using his work with the president to help his private clients

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, was present at least once when Trump and Giuliani discussed Yovanovitch. Mulvaney has told 'associates' he stepped away from such conversations

Pompeo told Bill Barr that he was mentioned in the July call with Zelensky. The Justice Department claims Barr did not know until mid-August

Trump railed about Ukraine trying to 'damage' him in May 2019 when he met Ron Johnson, a Republican senator who was going to Zelensky's inauguration. And Trump also mentioned the conspiracy theory that Ukraine had a hacked Democratic server

Bill Barr expressed concerns about Trump doing personal favors for autocrats including China's Xi and Turkey's Erdogan when Bolton raised the issue with him Advertisement

Democrats need four Republican senators to cross to their side and vote to subpoena witnesses.

'It's increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton,' Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday.

'I of course will make a final decision on witnesses after we hear not only from the prosecution but from the defense,' he said. 'I think at this stage its fair to say John Bolton has a relevant testimony.'

He added that he expected other Republicans to join the call for Bolton to testify.

'I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,' he said. 'I have spoken with others who have opined upon this.'

A senior Democratic congressional staffer working on impeachment told DailyMail.com Monday that, 'We had no communication with Mr. Bolton or Mr. Boltons lawyers.

Bolton has said he will testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.

Collins also said she was leaning toward voting for witnesses.

'From the beginning, Ive said that in fairness to both parties the decision on whether or not to call witnesses should be made after both the House managers and the presidents attorneys have had the opportunity to present their cases. Ive always said that I was likely to vote to call witnesses just as I did in the 1999 Clinton trial,' she said in a statement Monday.

'The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,' she added.

Other Republican senators have weighed in as lawmakers return to Washington for day two of President Trump's defense team.

'We dont know whats in there other than whats being leaked. My guess is John Bolton tells the truth,' said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Bolton and Johnson had spoken in August - when Bolton still worked in the White House - about aid to Ukraine. Bolton urged Johnson to call President Trump directly on the matter, which the senator did.

Some of the president's defenders, however, have charged Bolton with trying to sell a book. Bolton was fired from the White House in September of last year

'Truly theres nothing new here. It does seem to be an effort to sell books. I think theres going to be a new revelation every day. Todays just one more day,' said Republican Sen. John Barrasso.

'I dont think it changes any fundamental information of the basic case, that the House has to put the case together,' said Sen. Roy Blunt.

McConnell has said the Senate will vote on calling witnesses after opening arguments are made. That would set up a vote sometime this week.

President Trump denied the charges in Bolton's book

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Monday that Bolton's book puts increased pressure on the Senate to call witnesses.

'The eyes of America are on Republicans in the Senate,' he said.

The impeachment trial was upended Sunday night when The New York Times reported on a leaked copy of an unpublished manuscript for the new book Bolton is writing.

'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' is scheduled to be published March 17.

In it, Bolton wrote that the president told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the Eastern European nation helped with political investigations into his political rivals.

Trump has denied the charge.

'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,' he tweeted in response.

The president also told reporters at the White House on Monday that he has not seen Bolton's manuscript.

Bolton had sent it to the White House for pre-publishing clear, which is required by federal law when former government employees with security clearances are writing about their time in government service in order to assure classified information is not compromised.

Sarah Tinsley, an advisor to Bolton, said in a statement: 'The ambassador's manuscript was transmitted to the White House in hard copy several weeks ago for pre-publication review by the NSC. The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period.'




Adding to its rich offering of Indian originals, HistoryTV18 presents a one-hour special about the worlds most spectacular human gathering, the Kumbh Mela. The incredible festival is widely known to be the largest peaceful gathering on the planet. According to official estimates, a staggering 240 million people converged on Prayagraj, formerly the city of Allahabad, over two months. Thats more than three times the number of people that came to New York, the worlds most visited city in 2019, over the entire year! The documentary takes viewers among the believers and behind the scenes of the Kumbh Mela, to find human stories, present jaw-dropping facts, and take a closer look at the gargantuan logistics of the world-famous mega-event. While decoding its present-day avatar, the multi-dimensional narrative also traces the known history and enduring folklore of the centuries-old fair.

The original production, almost a year in the making, captures the breathtaking spectacle of the Kumbh - from build-up, through key phases, to the final day of the seven-week long Mela. Filming by day and night in high definition and 4K, high-speed cameras follow the action, bringing iconic images, unseen perspectives, and revealing details to the screen. The flood plains of Prayagraj and the banks of the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers, form the stage upon which the drama unfolds. Scenes of festivity, processions, and thousands of ascetics charging into frigid waters for the holy baths of the Shahi Snaan, are some of the highlights. The changing seasons, myriad moods, vivid colours, and sheer scale, make for a compelling visual feast. The myriad challenges of managing crowds, providing security, and organising basics like food and accommodation, get their due place in the documentary. Viewers will get a sense of what it takes to pull off historys biggest religious event. Candid moments and the spectrum of emotions  from anxiety and despair, to hope and joy  play out at the Khoya-Paya (Lost & Found) Centres, in a heart-warming sequence. Historical archive footage and graphical representations further enrich the factual storytelling. Naga Sadhus, wearing only ash and dreadlocks, akhaaras, pilgrims, foreign visitors, VVIPs, organisers, mounted-police, officials, cooks, volunteers each with a purpose or on a quest, present the many faces of the Kumbh. In this churning sea of humanity, the narrative zeroes into quiet moments, to tell intimate stories of individuals and what the Kumbh means to them. The varied cast of characters includes a Bollywood cinematographer, a member of the third-gender Kinnar Akhaara, a Sadhvi of American extraction, an artist, and the head of the control and command centre. Along with top-end production values, never-before-seen footage, research, and catchy stats, the film also benefits from the insights of an erudite panel of experts. The cultural historians and authors featured in the film, shine a light on the fascinating nuances, ideas and belief system that are at the heart of the Kumbh Mela  a shared human experience like no other.

HistoryTV18 aims to tell stories of India that engage, inform, and entertain.

Kumbh: Among the Seekers premiering on January 29th, 9 PM is the latest in a set of dramatic documentaries about Indias rich cultural history and the elemental human quest to find answers to lifes enduring mysteries.

Pilgrims, visitors, and curious seekers come to Kumbh looking for spirituality, spectacle, or salvation. They come from India and across the globe. The Ardh Kumbh of 2019, held at the Triveni Sangam at Prayagraj, was the largest religious congregation, ever. Its central message remains spiritual and its appeal universal. In Kumbh: Among the Seekers, viewers will meet devotees from far away shores, seeking to transcend the material and connect with something intangible and meaningful. Some come to find themselves, some to escape, and some to renounce the material world. The thirteen Akhaaras or Hindu monastic orders are spotlighted, as they arrive in Prayagraj. The wandering mystics of India, the Naga Sadhus, are the rock-stars of the Kumbh Mela. The film captures the exalted status of those who have renounced the world. In time-honoured tradition, these Digambar or skyclad, who own nothing, are seen leading the faithful in the holy Shahi Snaan. Just as the waters of sacred rivers merge at the confluence, a multitude of ideas, influences, cultures, and languages mix in the great melting pot that is the Kumbh. Everyone is welcome here.

Taking viewers back to the weeks preceding the Mela, Kumbh: Among the Seekers shines a light on the challenges and scale of operations. The event entailed building the largest temporary city in the world, spread over 32 km. As many as 130 Million pilgrims camped here. The Mela area had 300 KM of roads and 22 pontoon bridges built in record time. There were also thousands of make-shift kitchens serving daily bhandaras, CCTV cameras, wireless networks, supervised lost and found centres, 3,500 megaphones, and fifty-thousand security personnel. It was unprecedented in scale and cost over 4,000 Crores. The high-powered dignitaries visiting the Prayagraj Kumbh, included the President and the Prime Minister of India, whom we also see in the film.

Avinash Kaul, MD A+E Networks | TV18 and CEO Network18, says, At HistoryTV18, we believe in telling stories that are engaging, visually spectacular, as well as relevant for our viewers. Kumbh: Among the Seekers is not just a compelling story, it's a celebration of a living wonder, quintessentially Indian yet universal in its appeal. The show does a fabulous job of chronicling a recurring event in our cultural history, which continues to grow and evolve.

Watch Kumbh: Among the Seekers on Wednesday, 29th January, 9 PM only on HistoryTV18.
To help service members perform better in the field, military training emphasizes the importance of certain traits associated with traditional masculinity, including suppression of emotion and self-reliance. But when veterans return home, strict adherence to these traits can become detrimental, leading to more severe post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and making it more difficult to treat, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"These findings suggest that veterans with rigid adherence to traditional masculinity may be at increased risk for developing PTSD, may have more severe PTSD symptoms and may be less likely to seek mental health treatment for PTSD," said Elizabeth Neilson, PhD, of Morehead University and the lead author on the study.

The research was published in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinities.

Neilson and her co-authors analyzed data from 17 studies, comprising more than 3,500 military veterans, conducted in the last 25 years that involved, at least in part, measuring the relationship between adherence to traditional masculine ideals and trauma-related symptoms. The studies primarily focused on men, but one included both male and female participants. While most studies were conducted in the United States, the researchers also included studies from Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and Vietnam.

"Overall, we found that strict adherence to masculine norms was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms in veterans, but more detailed analysis suggests that the association may specifically be caused by the veterans' belief that they should control and restrict their emotions. In other words, they should be tough," Neilson said. This held true for both male and female veterans.

While all members of society are exposed to aspects of traditional masculinity, members of the military receive messages that normalize, reinforce and instill values of masculinity as part of their training, according to Neilson.

"Previous research has found that military personnel report high levels of conformity to traditional masculine norms, such as emotional control, self-reliance and the importance of one's job," she said. "These values can promote self-confidence and skill-building in the field, but when a service member is confronted with physical or mental trauma, they can also contribute to more severe PTSD."

Traumatic experiences, including combat and sexual trauma, can lead to feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness, both of which are in direct opposition to what society expects of men: That they should be strong and in control. The discrepancy between reality and societal expectations can exacerbate PTSD symptoms. Research estimates as many as 23% of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD.

Adherence to masculine norms can also create barriers to getting necessary treatment, according to Neilson. Previous research on veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan found pride in self-reliance and a belief that one should be able to handle mental health problems on one's own kept service members from seeking help when they needed it.

And even if veterans did seek treatment, the emphasis on stoicism and mental fortitude within both military culture and traditional masculinity could make treatment more difficult, she said. The two most widely used, evidence-based therapies for PTSD require explicit discussions of emotions, thoughts and behaviors related to traumatic experiences. PTSD is perpetuated by avoiding stimuli associated with a traumatic experience, including emotions. Successful PTSD treatment involves breaking that cycle of avoidance and confronting those stimuli, she said.

"Both military culture and traditional masculine ideals lead to the avoidance of disclosure and speaking about traumatic experiences, which may interfere with appropriate treatment," Neilson said.

Another trend the researchers found was that veterans often try to reaffirm their masculinity following trauma, engaging in exaggerated stereotypical male behavior, such as aggression and increased sexual behavior, to compensate for the injury the trauma had on their identity, according to Neilson.

"In one study we reviewed, veterans reported engaging in frequent sex to avoid negative thoughts, because feeling sexually desirable temporarily suspended those negative thoughts about their self-worth," she said.

APA published voluntary guidelines in 2018 recommending that therapists consider discussing masculine ideology and the effects of cultural expectations of men and boys when treating male veteran clients. Neilson hopes that future research will examine how clinicians already are addressing conformity to masculinity ideology in their treatment of PTSD.

"It would not surprise me if some clinicians are already considering how a veteran's masculinity ideology contributes to their PTSD symptomology and treatment engagement," she said. "Consistent with APA's recommendations, I suggest that clinicians discuss beliefs and adherence to traditional masculinity ideologies with the patients. This information is important for conceptualizing patients' mental health and identifying specific behaviors to target in treatment."

###

Article: "Traditional Masculinity Ideology, PTSD Symptom Severity and Treatment in Service Members and Veterans: A Systematic Review," by Elizabeth Neilson, PhD, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, and Morehead State University; R. Sonia Singh, PhD, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, University of Arkansas and South Central Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center; Kelly Harper, PhD, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, and The National Center for PTSD at Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System; and Ellen Teng, PhD, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, and South Central Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center. Psychology of Men and Masculinities, published online Jan. 27, 2020.

Full text of the article is available online at https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/men-men0000257.pdf

Contact: Elizabeth Neilson can be contacted via email at ecneilson@moreheadstate.edu or by phone at (606) 783-2981.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 121,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.
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The World Health Organization has upgraded China's risk to other countries as 'high' because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak and admitted the 'moderate' rating it issued last week was a mistake.

The WHO's chief is in Beijing for crisis talks and today admitted the danger of the infection spreading to other countries is higher than previously claimed and is 'very high' inside China.

A total of 15 countries or territories outside of China have now confirmed cases, with Sri Lanka and Cambodia the latest to announce and a second case diagnosed in Canada today, in the wife of the Toronto man who was the first patient.

Beijing also today saw the Wuhan coronavirus claim its 82nd death when a 50-year-old man died in hospital in the nation's capital at around 8pm local time (12pm GMT).

China has extended its New Year holiday by three days to February 2 to fight the outbreak as people have now been diagnosed with it in every corner of China, except for Tibet.

A team of scientists in the UK believe more than 100,000 people have been infected already but many of them without knowing, and expect the case and death tolls both to continue rising as the outbreak goes on.

The damage has spread to the stock markets, too, as investors fear travel cancellations and business closures, as well as growing panic outside of China, are damaging the world economy.

Researchers in Hong Kong have warned the outbreak could become a 'global epidemic' if the Chinese government doesn't start 'draconian' travel restrictions on its citizens.

Beijing insists it is continuing drastic efforts to contain the outbreak. Measures currently in place reportedly include:

Transport restrictions in Hubei province, which is home to around 60million people  most public transport has been stopped, along with flights in and out

Long distance buses have been cancelled in Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Chongqing and Shandong

The New Year bank holidays will continue until February 2  an extension of three days

All of China's state-run schools will remain closed until further notice in an extension of a school holiday

No businesses in Shanghai, including supermarkets, will be allowed to reopen until February 10

Many businesses closed voluntarily before the holiday began  among them the Disney resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and Starbucks and McDonald's stores in Hubei

Chinese citizens have been banned from booking holiday tours and flight and hotel packages in other countries, according to the New York Times

Buying and selling wild animals has been banned until the coronavirus outbreak is over

People are pictured queuing at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital as they wait for medical workers to see them. Hospitals in the city are overwhelmed with people, many of whom may have the virus and others who might catch it while they're there for other treatment

Workers in protective gear catch and bag a giant salamander outside the Huanan Seafood Market, where the outbreak began almost a month ago

Medical staff in Wuhan, the crisis-hit city at the centre of the outbreak, help a patient off the back of an ambulance yesterday (Photo issued today, January 27)

Thermal scanning at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Indonesia shows people's temperatures beside their heads  those who have high temperatures will be checked to see if they have a fever

The coronavirus outbreak has now killed 82 people and struck down more than 2,800. Sri Lanka and Cambodia today became the latest countries to confirm cases

The above picture shared by China's National Microbiology Data Center shows a microscopic image of the first-ever specimen of the new coronavirus, known as '2019-nCov', extracted from a patient

Wuhan, which is in near-total lockdown, can be seen deserted earlier today, January 27. People are no longer allowed in or out of the city because the government is desperately trying to stop the virus spreading

New cases today include the first to be diagnosed in Cambodia, in a Chinese national, and a second in Toronto, Canada, where the wife of the first Canadian patient is now being treated for coronavirus.

The disease's spread has seemed all but unstoppable over the last week, and scientists at Hong Kong University say more drastic action needs to be taken.

There is a risk the virus could trigger a global epidemic  when the illness spreads uncontrollably around the world  if the Chinese government doesn't clamp down on the movement of people, the researchers said.

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR What is this virus? The virus has been identified as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of pathogens, most of which cause mild respiratory infections such as the common cold. But coronaviruses can also be deadly. SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is caused by a coronavirus and killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in the early 2000s. Can it kill? Yes. Eighty-one people have so far died after testing positive for the virus. What are the symptoms? Its symptoms are typically a fever, cough and trouble breathing, but some patients have developed pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the small air sacs in the lungs. People carrying the novel coronavirus may only have mild symptoms, such as a sore throat. They may assume they have a common cold and not seek medical attention, experts fear. How is it detected? The virus's genetic sequencing was released by scientists in China to the rest of the world to enable other countries to quickly diagnose potential new cases. This helps other countries respond quickly to disease outbreaks. To contain the virus, airports are detecting infected people with temperature checks. But as with every virus, it has an incubation period, meaning detection is not always possible because symptoms have not appeared yet. How did it start and spread? The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. Cases have since been identified elsewhere which could have been spread through human-to-human transmission. What are countries doing to prevent the spread? Countries in Asia have stepped up airport surveillance. They include Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Australia and the US are also screening patients for a high temperature, and the UK announced it will screen passengers returning from Wuhan. Is it similar to anything we've ever seen before? Experts have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The epidemic started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in mainland China, Hong Kong and elsewhere SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MAILONLINE'S FULL Q&A ON THE CORONAVIRUS Advertisement

'We have to be prepared that this particular epidemic may be about to become a global epidemic,' said Dr Gabriel Leung.

'Substantial, draconian measures limiting population mobility should be taken sooner, rather than later.'

Concerns about the virus have been growing as scientists say people may be passing on the virus before they even realise they are ill, and the number of predicted cases has soared dramatically.

China's health minister Ma Xiaowei said yesterday 'it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger' and that it can be passed from person-to-person even before symptoms appear.

And researchers at Imperial College London have estimated that more than 100,000 people may be infected around the world already. The same team had previously thought the number was around 4,000, up to 10,000.

Professor Mark Harris, from the University of Leeds, said: 'Its true that the numbers... look scary.

'One positive spin is that if we are only aware of five per cent of the total cases, the implication is that 95 per cent of cases have only resulted in either mild symptoms such that the infected people did not consider it serious enough to seek medical help, or indeed the virus may be causing an inapparent infection.

'This would significantly reduce the apparent [death] rates.'

The mayor of Wuhan, where the outbreak started, has admitted he and the ruling Chinese Communist Party did not react quickly enough to the coronavirus danger.

Mayor Zhou Xianwang offered to resign earlier today when he revealed five million people managed to leave the city before he put it into lockdown.

He said: 'On one hand, we did not reveal [information] in time; on the other, we did not use effective information to improve our work to a satisfactory level.'

And he added: 'Regarding the untimely disclosure, [I] hope everyone can understand. [Coronavirus] is a contagious disease. Contagious diseases have relevant law and information needs to be disclosed according to law.'

Stock markets dipped today as fear of the coronavirus grows in Asia and around the well.

An All-Country World Index on the London Stock Exchange dropped 0.9 per cent today to its lowest level since January 9.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average in the US fell 1.5 per cent, or 439 points, with the NASDAQ Composite index falling by 1.9 per cent and the S&P 500 by 1.5 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei index had its biggest fall in five months, dropping two per cent.

The international health situation got worse over the weekend, with France, Canada and Australia declaring their first cases.

There have also now been infections confirmed in Thailand, the US, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. China and the territories Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan have had the majority of cases so far.

Thailand, where there have been at least eight confirmed diagnoses, has been the worst hit outside of China, followed by eight in Hong Kong and five in Macau, the US and Australia.

The Philippines, which is in the danger zone but still without any confirmed cases, had another scare today, with 14 people under investigation for potential infection in Manila and various other parts of the country.

In a step up in the global response, Microsoft founder Bill Gates's Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced it would donate $10million (7.64m) to help stop the outbreak and that it was already giving funding to public and private firms in China.

Meanwhile, countries around the world are taking various steps to try and stop the virus reaching their shores, from screening at airports, to warning citizens away from China and even closing borders.

In the US and Canada there have been seven confirmed cases and 64 suspected cases of the Wuhan coronavirus. The wife of an infected man in Toronto today became the seventh official diagnosis

People trying to use the subway in Beijing, China's capital some 700miles (1,152km) from Wuhan, are met by medical workers in protective clothing

An ambulance driver in protective gear delivers medical supplies on a deserted street in Wuhan, Hubei (Photo issued today, January 27)

Passengers at Nanjing South railway station have their temperatures scanned by a masked employee. The system is used to try and detect people with fevers  fever is a symptom of viral infection

The rapid-build hospital in Wuhan started to take shape today, January 27, as hundreds of people work tirelessly to build the pre-fabricated structure in a matter of days

Photos posted on social media show deserted streets in Wuhan, where the outbreak is worst and where the government has stopped public transport and blocked the roads to stop people leaving or entering the city, home to 11million people

The streets of Wuhan were empty today, January 27, as the government transport lockdown continues

People in Wuhan have complained of feeling 'trapped' in the city which is being ravaged by the illness. Roads have been closed and public transport stopped there (Pictured: A family look out of their window on the city outskirts today, January 27)

Panic has spread out of the Hubei province, where the outbreak began almost a month ago, and into the wider world. (Pictured, unverified video shows people having their temperatures taken on a plane after arriving on a runway in Milan, Italy, from Hong Kong)

A family looks out the window from their home in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27

Mongolia today closed its land border with China and said no vehicles or pedestrians would be allowed to cross onto its land.

OUTBREAK SCUPPERS TOP-FLIGHT SPORTS EVENTS AND OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS The coronavirus outbreak and fears of it spreading further at large gatherings of people have caused a number of high-profile sporting events to be cancelled. Olympics qualifying events in boxing, women's football, women's basketball and wrestling have all been cancelled or rescheduled after having been planned to take place in Wuhan or nearby cities. A World Series event of diving and synchronised swimming scheduled for March has been cancelled. Cycling event the Tour of Hainan, planned for late February has also been cancelled. The World Indoor Athletics Championships scheduled for March in Nanjing, some 333 miles (537km) from Wuhan, are in doubt as organisers say they will monitor the situation. Advertisement

Germany has told its citizens not to go to China at all unless it is necessary.

And travellers from Wuhan or the Hubei province, where the city is located, will not be allowed the enter the territories of Macau or Hong Kong, or Malaysia.

Temperature screening is in place at airports around the world, including in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Saudi Arabia's health ministry issued special hand-washing advice to its citizens 'to prevent acute respiratory tract infections' with the hashtag #coronavirus on Twitter. The advice involved using a hand towel to turn off the tap.

After originating in Hubei's capital of Wuhan, the virus has spread throughout China and across the world - with cases confirmed in around a dozen countries including as far away as France.

'Patients with influenza can transmit the infection before becoming ill but only for a day at most before symptoms develop,' said Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia.

'The primary way that coronaviruses are spread is by ... coughs and sneezes.

'By definition once a patient is coughing and sneezing they have already developed symptoms.

'A description of the early cases suggest that on the current outbreak affected patients are less likely report upper respiratory symptoms such as sore throats and runny noses which may even reduce the risk of person to person spread early in the illness.'

The development comes as the mayor of Wuhan, Zhou Xianwan, said officials are stepping up the construction of specialised hospitals to deal with infection victims.

US President Donald Trump today tweeted: 'We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in US, but strongly on watch. We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!'

A medical worker at Wuhan's Jinyintan Hospital is pictured treating a coronavirus patient who was transferred there from elsewhere in the city

A driver and passenger have their temperatures checked by people at a traffic stop in Tengzhou, Shandong

A young couple embrace while wearing face masks in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, which has had eight confirmed cases, has banned the entry of anyone travelling from Wuhan

Saudi Arabias health ministry released rigorous hand-washing guidance in a desperate bid to stop the virus from spreading. It included using a paper towel to handle the tap

WHAT IS CHINA'S TRAVEL SITUATION? Flights to and from China are still available  except in the Hubei province, where Wuhan is  but tourists may struggle to travel inside the country. The UK Foreign Office has advised against all travel to the Hubei province where the coronavirus spawned. The eastern city of Wuhan is under lock-down and the government has enforced an effective travel ban, meaning public buses and trains, as well as roads, have all been closed so people cannot get in or out of the city. The same measures were reportedly taken last week in at least a dozen nearby cities in Hubei, including Huanggang, Ezhou, Zhijiang, Dangyang, Qianjiang, Chibi, Xiantao, Lichuan, Jingmen, Xianning, Yichang and Enshi. China's two most major cities, Beijing and Shanghai, have announced bans on long-distance buses entering or leaving. Cruise operators including Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Costa Cruises said they had cancelled a combined 12 cruises that had been scheduled to embark from Chinese ports before February 2. Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of these efforts. Advertisement

Workers are now four days into their drastic plan to build an entire hospital from scratch in less than seven days  the spontaneous build was ordered on Thursday last week.

Incredible footage and photos revealed today show the rapid progress being made at the hospital, named the Huoshenshan or 'Fire God Mountain' Hospital, since its building was ordered last week.

A fleet of diggers all working at once has cleared space for the 1,000-bed facility and workers have now started to erect the pre-fabricated structure. One wing of the hospital was built in just 16 hours.

China's health minister, Ma Xiaowei, yesterday said authorities have cranked up efforts to stop the spread of disease after admitting that they have limited knowledge of how the virus mutates.

Mr Ma said 'it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger' and added that the state will continue to restrict public transport and scrap planned public gatherings.

The country has also banned the sales of wild animals until the outbreak is over.

'Wet markets', like the one where the outbreak began in Wuhan, sell all manner of animals both dead and alive  bizarre creatures such as giant salamanders, koala bears, snakes and wolf puppies had all been seen there. Wild animals are believed to be the source of the virus.

President Xi Jinping said at the weekend that the country, which has the biggest population in the world with some 1.4billion people, faced a 'grave situation'.

Yet top health official Gao Fu said the coronavirus was 'not as powerful' as the SARS outbreak which rocked China in 2003, although it is becoming more contagious.

While SARS-infected people were only contagious when their symptoms were showing, coronavirus victims can infect others during their incubation period  the time between someone becoming infected and them actually feeling ill  which can be up to 14 days.

Professor Jonathan Ball, from the University of Nottingham, said this knowledge should make the World Health Organization reconsider its decision not to declare a global health emergency.

He said: 'Defining the scale of asymptomatic transmission remains key: if this is a rare event then its impact should be minimal in terms of the overall outbreak.

'But, if this transmission mode is contributing significantly then control becomes increasingly difficult. Its looking like this coronavirus is behaving very differently to SARS and MERS, and this is a big concern.

'I would be surprised if WHO do not declare this as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.'

Construction workers are pictured at the site where the government ordered a new hospital to be built in less than a week to help Wuhan cope with surging coronavirus cases (Photographer today, January 27)

Medical staff are pictured at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, where thousands of people are infected

A company in Nantong, China, has had to step up production of its surgical masks as the country faces a shortage because people are afraid of catching the Wuhan coronavirus

What do we know about the deadly coronavirus? What are the symptoms... and how worried SHOULD the world really be?

Someone who is infected with the Wuhan coronavirus can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say.

Eighty-one people with the virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 2,800 have been infected in at least 11 countries. But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be 100,000, or even as high as 350,000 in Wuhan alone, as they warn it may kill as many as two in 100 cases. Here's what we know so far:

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN THE US? Five people have been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus in the US. The cases have been confirmed in Washington state; Chicago, Illinois; Orange County, California; Los Angeles, California; and Arizona. None of the patients have died and all are in hospital. All the patients had travelled to Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, before they became ill, CNN reported. There have been dozens of other suspected cases and people tested  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that it was monitoring 63 people in 22 states. Advertisement

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN THE UK? No cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have been diagnosed in the UK yet. At least 73 people have been tested but all have been negative so far, according to the Government. The Government says it is now trying to work out how repatriate British citizens who are trapped in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak where all public transport and flights have been stopped. Experts and officials expect a case to be diagnosed in the UK at some point in the near future. Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England, said the first case is likely to come from somebody who is already in the country. Advertisement

What is the Wuhan coronavirus?

A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. It is an RNA virus (RNA is a type of genetic material called ribonucleic acid), which means it breaks into cells inside the host of the virus and uses them to reproduce itself.

This coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It is currently named 2019-nCoV, and does not have a more detailed name because so little is known about it.

Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: 'Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals.

'Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses).

'Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.'

The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, after medics first started seeing cases on December 31.

By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. Tests were developed for the new virus and recorded cases started to surge.

The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 4,500.

Just a week after that, there had been more than 800 confirmed cases and those same scientists estimated that some 4,000  possibly 9,700  were infected in Wuhan alone. By that point, 26 people had died.

By January 27, more than 2,800 people were confirmed to have been infected, 82 had died, and estimates of the total number of cases ranged from 100,000 to 350,000 in Wuhan alone.

Where does the virus come from?

Nobody knows for sure. Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals  the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.

The first cases of the virus in Wuhan came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in the city, which has since been closed down for investigation.

Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat.

Bats are a prime suspect  researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a recent statement: 'The Wuhan coronavirus' natural host could be bats but between bats and humans there may be an unknown intermediate.'

And another scientific journal article has suggested the virus first infected snakes, which may then have transmitted it to people at the market in Wuhan.

Peking University researchers analysed the genes of the coronavirus and said they most closely matched viruses which are known to affect snakes. They said: 'Results derived from our evolutionary analysis suggest for the first time that snake is the most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the 2019-nCoV,' in the Journal of Medical Virology.

So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it?

Experts say the international community is concerned about the virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.

It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in Asia in 2003, in that it is a type of coronavirus which infects humans' lungs.

Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the virus because they've never encountered it before. This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.

Speaking at a briefing in January, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: 'Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.

WHAT ARE COUNTRIES DOING TO GET THEIR CITIZENS OUT OF CHINA? British ex-pats and tourists stuck in Wuhan have begged officials to 'get us out of here', venting their frustrations at the Government's response so far. About 300 Britons who live in the city are growing increasingly anxious after the number of virus cases soared by 50 per cent in just 24 hours. They accused the UK of dithering as it emerged the US, France, Spain, Australia, Japan, Thailand and Sri lanka had already organised evacuations for its citizens. France France's health minister Agnes Buzyn said officials will put 'hundreds' of citizens on a direct flight to the country later in the week. She said authorities were working on arranging a bus service to get the expats to the airport. There are some 800 French citizens stranded in the Wuhan area. She said French nationals will be held in quarantine for two weeks on arrival to stop the virus spreading on home soil. French car manufacturer Peugeot Citroen, which has a factory in Wuhan, said it was moving foreign employees and their families by bus to be quarantined in another city. The US The US State Department is organising a single flight out of Wuhan on Tuesday directly to San Francisco. It said in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals 'at greater risk from coronavirus' - those already showing symptoms. Officials invited US citizens with a valid passport to contact the embassy in Beijing. Private citizens are expected to later repay the travel costs, the notice said. It is reported that a Boeing 767 jet - that can carry around 230 passengers - will fly the citizens home. There are roughly 1,000 Americans living in and around the Wuhan area. Germany The German government said it was 'considering a possible evacuation of all willing German citizens' from Wuhan. On Monday January 27 it advised all citizens to avoid travelling to China at all unless the trip was necessary. Japan Japan said it planned to evacuate all of its citizens using chartered flights. It claimed it was in final discussions about the logistics with Chinese authorities. Some 430 Japanese nationals reside in or near Wuhan. The government is also considering evacuation by road from Hubei Province, and have Japanese nationals take flights home from other places, according to Japanese media. Spain Spain's foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez tweeted this morning that Spanish official are trying to evacuate 20 Spaniards stranded in Hubei province. She did not provide further details. Thailand The government is meeting today to discuss how to evacuate the 70 known expats living in Wuhan, most of whom are students. Air force commander ACM Manat Wongwat said that up to four planes with medical staff are on stand-by to evacuate its citizens in the coming days. Sri Lanka Officials have applied for a chartered plane to be allowed to land at Wuhan airport and pick up 32 Sri Lankan students and their family members stranded in the outbreak's epicentre. Its foreign office also said it was working to bring back all other citizens living in the wider Hubei province. There are about 860 Sri Lankan students are in China. Australia Foreign Minister Marise Payne said her government is 'exploring all opportunities' to help with evacuation of a number of Australians reportedly in Wuhan. There are thought to be a small number of citizens living in the central Chinese city. India India has asked China if it can make arrangements for its expats to leave. It is not clear how and when India plans to evacuate its citizens if approval is granted. Around 250 Indians are still in Wuhan. Advertisement

'Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we're talking about a virus where we don't understand fully the severity spectrum but it's possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.'

If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die.

'My feeling is it's lower,' Dr Horby added. 'We're probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that's the current circumstance we're in.

'Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.'

How does the virus spread?

The illness can spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection. And it may also spread even before someone has symptoms.

It is believed to travel in the saliva and even through water in the eyes, therefore close contact, kissing, and sharing cutlery or utensils are all risky.

Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person.

There is now evidence that it can spread third hand  to someone from a person who caught it from another person.

What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?

Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms  but they may still be contagious during this time.

If and when they do become ill, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). The vast majority of patients  at least 97 per cent, based on available data  will recover from these without any issues or medical help.

In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.

What have genetic tests revealed about the virus?

Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the virus and released them to experts working around the world.

This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.

Examinations have revealed the coronavirus did not change much  changing is known as mutating  much during the early stages of its spread.

However, the director-general of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, yesterday said the virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.

This means efforts to study the virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.

More study may be able to reveal whether the virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the virus coming from animals which have developed separately.

How dangerous is the virus?

The virus has so far killed 82 people out of a total of at least 2,800 officially confirmed cases  a death rate of around three per cent. This is a higher death rate than the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.

However, experts say the true number of patients is likely considerably higher and therefore the death rate considerably lower. Imperial College London researchers estimate that there were 4,000 (up to 9,700) cases in Wuhan city alone up to January 18  officially there were only 444 there to date. If cases are in fact 100 times more common than the official figures, the virus may be far less dangerous than currently believed.

Experts say it is likely only the most seriously ill patients are seeking help and are therefore recorded  the vast majority will have only mild, cold-like symptoms. For those whose conditions do become more severe, there is a risk of developing pneumonia which can destroy the lungs and kill you.

Can the virus be cured?

The Wuhan coronavirus cannot currently be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the question. Antiviral drugs can, but the process of understanding a virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.

No vaccine exists for the coronavirus yet and it's not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.

The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.

Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.

People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.

And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people's temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).

However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.

Is this outbreak an epidemic or a pandemic?

The outbreak has not officially been confirmed as either an epidemic or a pandemic yet. This is likely because, despite the global concern, the number of people who have been confirmed to be infected is still relatively low.

A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the 'worldwide spread of a new disease'.

An epidemic is when a disease takes hold of a smaller community, such as a single country, region or continent.
BOSTON, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- K1 Investment Management ("K1"), a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies, today announced a $21 million investment to Gravyty , a market-defining provider of fundraiser enablement solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI). K1's investment empowers Gravyty with significant resources to continue its aggressive growth in bringing AI-assisted fundraiser enablement to the social good sector which includes higher education institutions, nonprofits, healthcare organizations and hospitals.

Gravyty provides a suite of SaaS-based fundraiser enablement solutions that empower frontline fundraisers to personalize outreach, build new relationships with prospects, and deepen relationships with donors faster and more efficiently than with traditional methods. By transforming how fundraisers build relationships with top donors, Gravyty customers expand their fundraising workforces without making additional hires, build donor pipeline at scale, inspire giving, and raise revenue on their missions to change our world.

"I'm excited for this next step in Gravyty's journey as we expand the use of artificial intelligence to solve the world's biggest challenges through philanthropy," said Adam Martel, CEO, Gravyty. "As the first company focused solely on building tools to empower the fundraising operations, Gravyty has unlocked efficiencies and results that are orders of magnitude beyond what was previously possible. K1 has unparalleled experience in assisting innovative software companies such as ours scale through its operational support, and we couldn't be more excited to partner with their team to make AI accessible to all nonprofit organizations."

Gravyty already empowers thousands of frontline fundraisers at leading nonprofits, colleges and universities, hospitals, and healthcare organizations.

"Higher Education is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the past 100. I believe this means that our sector's best days lie ahead as we learn to leverage disruptive technologies. Gravyty is already transforming how fundraising can work by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, and those results allow us to fund student success, leading research, and more at Westmont College," said Reed Sheard, Vice President for College Advancement and Chief Information Officer, Westmont College.

"For 15 years, Cure Alzheimer's Fund has provided research grants to the world's leading scientists who are working to understand the disease and find effective treatments. Gravyty and artificial intelligence empower our fundraisers to achieve high-volume and personal outreach as we strive to establish multiple touchpoints with our ever-growing donor pool. Not only are we talking to more people because of Gravyty, we're also inspiring giving that will lead to a cure," said Laurel Lyle, Vice President, Development Operations and Fundraising Programs, Cure Alzheimer's Fund.

"We are honored that Adam, Rich and the Gravyty team chose K1 as their preferred investment partner, and look forward to supporting them as they cement their position as the market leader in fundraiser enablement," said Mike Velcich, Principal at K1. "The direct return on investment that Gravyty's platform provides by increasing the quantity and quality of donor relationships has clearly resonated with its customers."

About Gravyty

Gravyty is the social good sector's first and leading provider of fundraiser enablement solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Fundraisers love Gravyty because the platform automates the most time-consuming processes that get in the way of doing the work they love  developing and cultivating relationships with donors. By empowering frontline fundraisers to personalize outreach more efficiently than ever before, build new relationships faster, and deepen existing relationships with donors through automated stewardship, Gravyty transforms what's possible for organizations through fundraising.

Visit www.gravyty.com to explore how Gravyty and AI expand the fundraising workforce without making new hires, build donor pipeline, inspire giving, and raise revenue for organizations on a mission to change our world.

About K1

K1 builds category leading enterprise software companies. As a global investment firm, K1 assists high-growth businesses to achieve successful outcomes. K1 invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. With over 85 professionals, K1 changes industry landscapes by assisting with operationally-focused growth strategies. Since inception of the firm, K1 has partnered with over 110 enterprise software companies including industry leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Checkmarx, ChiroTouch, Clarizen, ControlUp, Emburse, Granicus, Graduway, IronScales, Jobvite, Litera Microsystems, Onit, Rave Mobile Safety, RFPIO, Smarsh and WorkForce Software. For more information about K1, please visit: http://www.k1capital.com or http://www.linkedin.com/company/k1im .

SOURCE K1 Investment Management

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Monday visited Wuhan, the first such trip by a top leader to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, to boost the morale of millions of beleaguered people and medical staff,

Beijing: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Monday visited Wuhan, the first such trip by a top leader to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, to boost the morale of millions of beleaguered people and medical staff, as Beijing reported its first death from the disease that has killed 82 people, infected over 2,700 and prompted two top officials to offer their resignation.

A sense of disquiet prevailed in Beijing as officials announced the capital's first death from the deadly virus, a grim reminder that the epidemic has begun to take toll outside Hubei province. The victim was a 50-year-old man who had visited Wuhan and later fell sick after his return. Over 70 cases have been recorded in the Chinese capital of 20 million people.

Li, the second ranking leader of the ruling Communist Party of China who headed a high-powered working group to coordinate the virus control efforts, arrived in Wuhan on Monday to inspect the epidemic control and prevention work.

Wearing a mask, which now has become a mandatory in Wuhan and most part of China to avoid contracting the deadly virus, Li attired in special medical coat inspected some of the hospitals treating coronavirus patients. He spoke to doctors with a walkie-talkie and told them to prioritise the safety and health of the people and called for strict implementation of containment measures. He also inspected the construction of the two makeshift 2,300 bed hospitals being built in about two weeks.

The virus has killed 82 people and infected 2,744 across China. The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition. As many as 51 people have recovered while there were currently 5,794 suspected cases, the National Health Commission said.

Overseas, confirmed cases were reported in Thailand (7), Japan (3), South Korea (3), the United States (3), Vietnam (2), Singapore (4), Malaysia (3), Nepal (1), France (3) and Australia (4).

Amid rising public anger over the unprecedented health crisis, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang said that he and the city's party secretary are to willing resign "if it helps to contain" virus which originated from the city.

Zhou admitted that the lockdown of Wuhan, a city with a population of more than 11 million, was a tough decision and a first in human history. On Sunday, he said five million people from Wuhan left the city before it was locked down on 23 January.

"...We are willing to take whatever responsibilityincluding the resignation of Wuhan Party Secretary Ma Guoqiang and myself," Zhou told the state-run CCTV.

He also admitted that information was not disclosed in a timely manner at the preliminary stage of the virus outbreak.

From January 23, Wuhan and 17 other cities with a population over 40 million have been virtually shut with suspension of all public transport to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of the country. There is also strong criticism from the netizens about Zhou and other officials who addressed the media without even properly wearing masks.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Beijing to review the measures to contain the virus. WHO has so far withheld announcement of the global public emergency over coronnavirus as it spread to several countries. "We are working 24/7 to support China and its people during this difficult time and remain in close contact with affected countries, with our regional and country offices deeply involved," Tedros tweeted.

WHO is updating all countries on the situation and providing specific guidance on what to do to respond, he said.

The Chinese government is also facing the heat over thousands of foreigners, including a few hundred Indians, mostly students, who are stuck in Wuhan city which is under lockdown. With the Chinese government permitting US to airlift its Wuhan-based diplomats and Americans citizens, citizens of other countries also have been asking Beijing to allow them to leave. France, UK and South Korea too are trying to airlift their citizens stuck in Wuhan. A silver lining in the whole crisis is that no foreigner other than Chinese have been infected with the virus so far in China.

The Indian Embassy here has opened three hotlines (+8618610952903, +8618612083629, +8618612083617) to address the concerns of Indians. The Indian officials on Monday met the Chinese Foreign Ministry officials apparently to discuss the arrangements to evacuate Indians stuck in Wuhan. A decision on the issue was expected to take place shortly.

The Foreign Ministry officials also held meetings with diplomats of several countries. Over 2,000 Pakistani students in a video message made a request to their government to help them to leave the city. Meanwhile, the train and bus services between Beijing and neighbouring Tianjin have been suspended.

China has also extended the New Year Festival holidays till 2 February to prevent reverse migration of millions of migrants works to return to their work from holidays. Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice.

The government is focussing efforts to prevent mass gatherings and mass travel to ensure the virus is not spread fast.

Beijing has also launched temperature detection at 55 subway stations, including stops at railway stations and Beijing airport. Passengers with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to hospital.
Hundreds of women have been sitting on a road in south Mumbai's Nagpada area since the January 26 night against the CAA-NRC-NPR regime, apparently drawing inspiration from New Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protest.

Holding placards and raising slogans against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register (NPR), the women sat down on the Morland road outside Arabia Hotel on Sunday late night.

Most of them are residents of Muslim-dominated Madanpura, Jhoola Maidan, Apripada, and Mumbai Central areas.

They have so far not withdrawn their agitation despite senior officers of the Mumbai Police urging them to do so, an official said on Monday morning.

The women protesters can be seen holding placards with slogans like "We stand against CAA, NRC, NPR", "They tried to divide us, Respect my existence or expect my Resistance" written on them.

Slogans hailing Hindu-Muslim unity and brotherhood were also raised.

Senior Nagpada police station inspector Shalini Sharma said she had requested the protesters to take a prior permission from the police, but the women refused to budge and continued to occupy the road.

In Delhi, thousands of people, including women and children, have been protesting since December 15 at Shaheen Bagh and nearby Jamia Millia Islamia against the CAA and the NRC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) may end up losing a third of its revenue if it has to do away with interchange cost and switching fees for UPI and RuPay cards. This may also threatens its plan to go global, two bankers have said.

The Indian Banks Association, an industry body, recently wrote to NPCI not to charge the merchant discount rate (MDR) on RuPay debit card and UPI-based transactions. Tech2 has seen a copy of the letter.

NPCI is a service provider and it has a viable business model, it gets around one-third of its revenue from switching fees, interchange fees and other charges on these payment modes, if that goes zero then there will be compromises on its global expansion plans, said one of the bankers.

MDR is the fee that is paid by merchants to a bank for accepting digital payments from their customers.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech 2019, announced that UPI and RuPay transactions would be made free of charge. The government later made changes to the law governing such transactions, which led to bankers demanding relief.

RuPay cards are accepted across outlets in West Asia. The Indian diaspora can use UPI to send and receive money from India. RuPay cards are also accepted in Singapore and there are other markets that the NPCI, which enables digital payments and settlement systems in the country, is targeting. A drop in revenues could disrupt these plans.

In FY2019, NPCI revenue was Rs 980 crore, up 34 percent from Rs 728 crore in the previous financial year. The company, which is a not for profit, showed a net surplus of Rs 306 crore after taxes.

NPCI offers multiple payment services such as card payments through its RuPay debit and credit cards, smartphone-based payments through UPI and IMPS. It also operates Bharat Bill Payments for bill settlements and toll collection through FAStag. It offers USSD for feature phone payments and AePS for Aadhaar-based payments.

In FY20 so far, NPCI has processed 30 billion financial and non-financial transactions against six billion transactions reported in 2018-19.

Boardroom fall out

The IBA letter is bound to trigger discussions within NPCI, as banks, which are its ultimate shareholders, have multiple seats on its board.

Top executives of Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are among the members of the board that is chaired by Biswamohan Mahapatra, a career central banker.

There are going to be hectic parleys in the next board meeting at NPCI. The company will have to negotiate the pricing issue on its various services, said another banker in the know of the matter. There could be some further reductions in charges but making it fully zero would create major problems, the banker said.

If banks cannot make any money out of these transactions, where will they pay the service providers from, a top executive with a private sector bank said. And, if service-providers are not paid, how will the payments infrastructure survive which requires huge investments in technology?

Digital payments have taken off in a big way in the last few years. While NPCI does not make this data public, sources have told Tech2 that the success rate of UPI transactions hovers above 80 percent, largely supported by improved infrastructure.

Another major sticking point is that Visa and Mastercard, the two other large card schemes available in the country, have been left out of the zero MDR order. This has ended up skewing the market-- banks can make money out of such payment instruments, but not with NPCIs products.

The switching fee accounted for only 10 percent of the total cost of processing digital transactions; rest were charges between issuers and acquirers, one of the bankers said. Doing away with the fee will not help banks reduce their cost of operations.
The Allahabad High Court on Monday asked the Uttar Pradesh state government to submit a report on allegations of police atrocities against anti-CAA protesters in the state last month on February 17, the next date of hearing.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and justice Siddhartha Varma which passed the order on a bunch of petitions against police action on anti-CAA protestors, also directed the state government to ensure that family members of all those who died during the protests get the post-mortem report of the deceased.

The court further asked the state government to bring on record details of all those who got injured during the protest and medical aid, if any, provided to such injured.

The state government has also been asked to inform the court whether or not it verified media reports of police atrocities.

The petitioners had alleged that excessive force was used by the police on protestors resulting into several deaths and injuries. Police action was unjustified and in violation of fundamental rights of protestors, the petitioners alleged.

They also alleged that injured were not given proper medical aid and authorities were not providing post-mortem reports of those who died during agitation to their family members.

Additional advocate general Manish Goyal, appearing for state government, argued that no excessive force was used by the police and even police personnel were injured while trying to maintain law and order in the state.

More than 20 people died during violent protests against the new citizenship that law broke out across 15 districts of the state last month. Most of these deaths were due to bullet injuries.
DETROITA couple with musical backgrounds saw Shen Yun Performing Arts, and found the performance to be in perfect harmony.

Crystal Rumbell currently teaches band at a private school and has formerly taught both instrumental and choral music for Wayne-Westand Public Schools. John Rumbell, an amateur bass trombone player, is an engineer for DF Automotive. Both agreed that the compositions of the music and the choreography of the dances fantastically complement each other.

They visited the Detroit Opera House on Jan. 26 to attend Shen Yun Performing Arts World Companys matinee performance.

Shen Yun is a New York-based company that seeks the revitalization of traditional Chinese culture and does through music and dance in performances in over 100 cities around the globe every season.

Its amazing to hear the blend of Western and Eastern culture in the music and also see it on the stage and the dancing. Its just, its beautiful, and its a treat to see it as well as hear it, Crystal said.

John completely agreed. Its fantastic. The choreography is fantastic, but we also have the ear to hear the music and its just its fantastic, the blend between to hear the Eastern and Western. But a lot of the Eastern musicality of it, its just fantastic. Its a real, real treat to hear it, he said.

It was an artistic experience Crystal wanted to share with her students.

Crystal said she feels responsible to help broaden the perspectives of her students, and open their minds and ears to unfamiliar things, and realize what the world and other cultures have to offer. This is such a great way to show that, so Im really glad that Shen Yun is here, she said.

It goes across cultural lines. It goes across musical minds, it opens your mind. And it really helps, especially in one of the dances they showed what different cultures are experiencing across the world and how music is a bomb for whats going on as well. I think everyone needs to be shown exactly how that works, she said.

Being an amateur musician as well as one who comes from a musical family, John has a certain insight.

Music is always the second half of the story, he said. So when we see the performances, we see the dancing, all of that is simply amplified by the other half of the story being told through the music.

He explained that he particularly noticed this synchronicity during one vignette showing the Mongolian ethnic dance.

Both halves of the story coming together very seamlessly, very flawlessly. And it was a real treat to hear that and to see it all just come together as one, he said.

With reporting by NTD Television and Andrew Darin.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.
A DISQUALIFIED driver who panicked and left the scene of a road accident on the northside of the city, has avoided a prison sentence.

Niall Hogan, 51, of Mayorstone Court, Old Cratloe Road pleaded guilty, at Limerick District Court, to several charges, including driving without insurance, relating to the incident which happened at Kileely Road on March 24, 2019.

Sergeant Sean Murray told Judge Marian OLeary when gardai arrived at the scene of the collision near Hassetts Cross they were informed a car had been rear-ended by another car.

However, the driver of the offending vehicle was not present as he had done a u-turn and fled the scene.

An investigation was launched and gardai subsequently established that Mr Hogan was the driver of the car.

Read also: Uninsured Limerick driver crashed car 10 minutes after he bought it

The defendant, who was not the registered-owner, made admissions when questioned about the accident.

He admitted he did not have a licence, said Sgt Murray.

Solicitor Con Barry, said his client, who has 36 previous convictions, panicked and just kept driving following the impact.

He urged the court to note there were no injuries as a result of the accident and that Mr Hogan had cooperated with gardai when questioned.

While accepting his client has two previous convictions for driving without insurance, Mr Barry asked the court to note the both offences had occurred around the same time a number of months earlier.

What ever happened at that time, he was not thinking straight. He had no previous (driving convictions) until that date, he said.

In relation to the no insurance charge, Judge Marian OLeary imposed a 500 fine and disqualified Mr Hogan from driving for six years.

She also imposed a five month prison sentence which she suspended for two years.

Fines totalling 600 were imposed in relation to the driving licence and hit and run offences.
Press Release

January 27, 2020 Rotary International honors Bong Go with Golden Wheel Award For his dedication and passion for public service, Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go was given the Golden Wheel Award by the Rotary International District 3780 during a ceremony held on Saturday, January 25, at Novotel Hotel in Quezon City. Rotary International--a global humanitarian organization which aims "to advance goodwill and peace around the world"--confers the Golden Wheel Awards to outstanding individuals who best exemplify the Rotarian spirit of "Service Above Self" and the guiding principles of the Four-Way Test. As the main awardee, Go delivered a speech during the event, saying that he has always been reluctant to receive awards because he is only doing his job as a public servant. "Sa totoo lang, ayaw kong tumanggap ng award kasi ginagawa ko lang naman ang trabaho ko bilang public servant," he said while expressing his gratitude to the organization for the award he has received. Go, who served as aide to President Rodrigo Duterte for more than twenty years when the latter was still Davao City mayor, also recounted how the past few years has changed his life. "From being a relatively unknown individual serving a city mayor, I was thrust into a position of serving the country's most powerful leader and our beloved nation," he said, adding that he now has greater responsibilities to fulfill as Senator of the republic. "I am not just the bridge that connects the Filipino people to the President. As a duly elected Senator, I also now serve as their voice in the Senate," he said. Go then shared with the audience his plans and accomplishments during his first year as a lawmaker, including the progress of some of his priority measures in the upper house of the 18th Congress. "Isa po sa mga pinakamahalagang polisiya na ito ay ang Malasakit Center," he said. "Pinursige at pinaglaban ko na maisabatas ito sa Kongreso dahil alam ko na ang karamihan nating mga kababayan, lalo na ang masang mahihirap, ang matutulungan nito. "After the lengthy hearings and deliberations in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Malasakit Center Act of 2019--which I authored--is now a full-fledged law. It is also one of the first legislations to be approved by the 18th Congress," he added. Republic Act (RA) 11463, otherwise known as the "Malasakit Center Act of 2019", provides for the establishment of Malasakit Centers in 73 hospitals that are run by the Department of Health (DOH) all over the country and in the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. The center consolidates the medical and financial assistance that patients may apply for from four government agencies, namely, the DOH, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). Go also shared his other priority bills, including Senate Bill (SB) No. 206 which seeks to amend RA 8972 or the Solo Parents' Welfare Act of 2000 to expand the discounts, benefits, exemptions and privileges that solo parents are entitled under the law. "We know how hard it is to take care of children even with the help of our spouses, so imagine the immense difficulty and social stigma that solo parents must be facing every day," he said. "To help improve their circumstances, I am also pushing for several amendments to the Solo Parents' Welfare Act, which would expand the discounts, benefits, exemptions and privileges that they are entitled under the law. "I believe it is our duty to help them or else we will be setting them up for a future of failure and poverty," he added. Citing the country's vulnerability to natural disasters as manifested by the recent eruption of Taal volcano and the series of earthquakes that hit Mindanao late last year, Go also shared his proposed bills which seek to reinforce the country's disaster preparedness, management and mitigation efforts. "I have filed Senate Bill 205 or the 'Disaster Resilience Act of 2019' which proposes for the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience or DDR," he said. The senator stated that he envisions the proposed executive department to become "an empowered, highly specialized department with clear unity of command and primarily responsible in ensuring safe, adaptive and disaster-resilient communities." "Sa oras ng sakuna, ang mga kababayan nating mahihirap ang tunay na apektado at nagdurusa. Hindi man po natin malaman kung kailan eksaktong oras tatama ang mga kalamidad na ito, mahalaga po na manatili tayong handa sa mga ito," he said. Go is also pushing for SB 1228 or the "Mandatory Evacuation Center Act" which mandates the establishment of safe, permanent and dedicated evacuation centers. "If passed into law, this will require every city, province and municipality to construct evacuation centers that will be equipped with basic necessities, such as emergency kits and medicine," he said, adding that it is high time for the government to take a proactive approach to disaster resilience. "Wakasan na natin ang kultura na kikilos lamang kapag nariyan na ang problema. Huwag na nating hintayin na magkaroon pa ng isang mapanirang sakuna bago natin tugunan ang pangangailangan nating ito," he added. In congruence with the government's fight against corruption, illegal drugs and criminality, Go also mentioned his move to file a bill which seeks to re-impose capital punishment for certain heinous crimes involving dangerous drugs and plunder. "This law will not only serve as an effective deterrent against would be criminals; it will also establish that the Philippines is committed to building a better future for the majority of good, productive and law-abiding citizens," he said. Go then assured the audience that he and the President will continue to serve the welfare and interest of the people and the generations of Filipinos to come. "Gusto naming hindi na maging problema ang pagpapagamot ng mga mahihirap. Gusto naming labanan ang droga, korapsyon at kriminalidad. Gusto naming mabigyan ng magandang kinabukasan ang susunod na henerasyon," he said. Amidst various criticisms thrown at them, the senator also reiterated that he will continue to stay behind the President, saying "Gagawin namin ang lahat para sa ikabubuti ng bawat Pilipino. Kung ang mga sakripisyo at mga ipinaglalaban naming ito ang maging dahilan ng pagbagsak ng ating Pangulo, babagsak din po ako kasama niya." "Kailanman hinding-hindi ko iiwan ang ating Pangulong Duterte," he added Go also vowed not to waste any opportunity to do good, particularly to those who really need help. "Meron lang akong gustong sabihin, English po nakasulat sa aking speech pero tatagalugin ko po ito. Minsan lang tayo dadaan sa mundong ito kung ano pong kabutihan o tulong ang ibibigay natin sa ating kapwa tao gawin na natin ngayon dahil hindi na po tayo babalik sa mundong ito," he said. Ending his speech, Go said that while he never expected to become a senator, he will continue to use the opportunity given to him to be of service to the people. "Sa mga fellow servants ko sa gobyerno, yung mga governors dito, 'Gov' rin po ang tawag sa inyo para na rin po kayong mga public servants. Alam n'yo noon kapag nakikita ko ang Rotary governors, naiinggit po ako sabi ko sana maging governor din ako," he said. "Ako naman po hindi ko akalaing magiging senador ako, kami ni Pangulong Duterte patuloy po kaming magse-serbisyo sa Filipino dahil para sa amin ang serbisyo sa tao ay serbisyo sa Diyos," he ended.
Hyderabad: The State Bank of India (SBI) has some eyebrows by issuing a public notice stating that letters issued by the National Population Register (NPR) would be valid documents for the KYC (Know You Customer) requirements.

The notice was published in an English daily in Secunderabad on Sunday, amid the raging nationwide protests against the NPR.

Twitter users reacted immediately, condemning the bank for trying to legitimise a controversial move by the Central government. Many called for withdrawing their deposits from SBI to secure their savings. One user wrote: Take out your hard-earned money from all government banks. They may freeze your accounts in the name of KYC. We need to reject NRC, CAA and NPR.

It may be noted that a few weeks ago, the RBI had revised its KYC guidelines and made the NPR letters a valid document. Before SBI, the Central Bank of India had issued a similar notice.

Notwithstanding the guidelines, there is very little clarity about where these NPR letters will come from. Even SBI officials didnt seem to know about them.

A senior official told Deccan Chronicle, The NPR is not a new concept. We have had NPR updation exercises in the past as well. Even then, through my decades-long service, I never saw a letter issued by the NPR. No one has ever tried to submit it. I doubt many would do that now either.

The official emphasised that NPR letters were only one of the documents that could be used for KYC. Customers can continue to submit their Aadhaar, Voter ID, driving license, passport or MNREGA job cards, he said.
The new North American trade deal is expected to take centre stage when Parliament returns Monday, marking the first challenge for a Liberal minority government that will need Opposition support to pass legislation.

The House of Commons reconvenes Monday after rising for the holidays in December, giving Canadians their first serious look at Canada's 43rd Parliament in action.

Moving forward with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will likely dominate the agenda this week when the Liberals table a bill to approve the deal Wednesday.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland penned a letter to Opposition parties urging leaders to work together to pass the legislation behind the new agreement.

"I write to ask for your views and your support, as we, and our colleagues in the House of Commons, begin the vital task of debating the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement," Freeland said.

"No one, least of all the prime minister or me, expects anything other than a full, frank, and vigorous debate about the new NAFTA," she wrote. "That's exactly as it should be."

"I ask that we work together, as colleagues, to put Canada and Canadians first, and get this important work done without undue delay," Freeland added, echoing a similar call issued by Canada's premiers last week.

Both NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet are pushing for a full debate of the agreement in the Commons as well as studying the issue at committee.

The Conservatives are also calling for further study, but don't seem eager to delay the deal.

In response to Freeland's plea, Green Party interim leader Jo-Ann Roberts said the party was feeling "fairly positive" about supporting the new agreement.

Pharmacare NDP's priority

Meanwhile, the NDP said that creating a national pharmacare program will be its first piece of private members' legislation, though it doesn't expect to table a bill until next month.

Story continues

The party also says it will be pushing for the Liberals to comply with a 2016 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling to end Ottawa's discrimination against First Nation children harmed by the on-reserve child welfare system and under-funded child and family services.

Sebastien St-Jean/AFP/Getty Images

The House of Commons unanimously passed an NDP motion in December that could compel the federal government to abandon its Federal Court appeal regarding a decision ordering Ottawa to compensate the children and their families.

The party will also be keeping an eye this week on a ways and means motion on the Liberals' proposed tax changes that will raise the threshold of income exempt from federal income tax.

Other issues in play

The Green Party will focus on preventing Ottawa from approving Teck Resources' bid to build a proposed oilsands mine in Alberta, calling for federal officials to meet nation-to-nation with Wet'suwet'en members protesting the Coastal GasLink pipeline on their traditional territory and asking ministers responsible for Canada's new medical assistance in dying criteria to address a number of the party's concerns.

Justice Minister David Lametti plans to table new legislation for the criteria in February.

On Saturday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said he would be following the Liberals' handling of Canada-China relations.

"The China committee is up and running and we're going to be holding the government's feet to the fire on their relationship with China," Scheer said, ahead of the committee's second meeting Monday.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Scheer commented last week that the Conservative leadership race would not distract the party from holding the Liberals to account when Parliament resumes.

"The Trudeau Liberals might think that our leadership race will give them a free ride. They're wrong," he said. "We're all going to continue to be here in Ottawa and the House of Commons and on the committee floor every single day fighting for our vision for the country."

The Conservatives also said in an email that the party plans to bring forward an opposition motion Tuesday, but wouldn't provide further details.
OTTAWA - Outsourcing of work that could be done by federal government employees is costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and has created an unaccountable shadow public service, says a report from one of the country's biggest civil service unions.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada President Debi Daviau speaks with the media about the Phoenix pay system during a news conference in West Block, Monday February 25, 2019, in Ottawa. One of Canada's biggest civil service unions says outsourcing of work that could be done by government employees is costing taxpayers billions of dollars, with much of the money spent on sub-par work or failed IT projects. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Outsourcing of work that could be done by federal government employees is costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and has created an unaccountable shadow public service, says a report from one of the country's biggest civil service unions.

The report released Monday by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) says the government spent nearly $12 billion on management consultants, temporary contractors and information technology consultants between 2011 and 2018.

"The government is choosing to pay more for lower quality services for Canadians," PIPSC president Debi Daviau said in a statement.

"Instead of relying on the best public service professionals in the world, the government is wasting Canadians' money on overpriced contractors."

The union pointed to the failed Phoenix pay system as a stark example of how costs can spiral out of control when an outsourced project goes wrong.

That system, which has directly impacted tens of thousands of federal employees by under-paying, over-paying or not paying them at all, was supposed to save taxpayers money after an initial budget of $309 million.

Instead, it is forecast to cost Canadians $2.2 billion by 2023 as the government works to fix the problems it created and build its replacement.

"Canadians cannot afford one more failed outsourced IT project like Phoenix," Daviau said.

Annual spending on information technology consultants alone more than doubled from $605 million in 2011 to $1.3 billion in 2018, totalling $8.5 billion over the seven-year timeframe, according to the report.

While it did not dispute the figures, the Treasury Board Secretariat said outside work resources are often necessary to ensure the delivery of government services.

"Though Canadians can indeed rely on a world-class public service, professional services are sometimes needed to acquire special expertise, and to meet unexpected fluctuations in workload," Treasury Board spokesman Martin Potvin said in an email.

"Shortages in certain employment groups and specific geographic locations also make the use of professional services necessary to maintain operations."

The union said private corporations tend to win government contracts by bidding down prices. But those corporations have, over the years, found loopholes in their contracts to charge much more for the work that's done, PIPSC said in the first of what it expects to be a series of reports on outsourcing this year.

Information technology consultants are often needed to provide specific skill sets that government employees may not have.

But PIPSC, which represents about 60,000 workers, mainly scientists and professional employees at the federal, provincial and territorial level, said a two-fold increase in information technology outsourcing in just seven years indicates suggests managers are "inappropriately using consultants" to deliver a greater share of those functions needed to deliver critical government services.

Treasury Board disputed that, saying all contracts for outside work are issued in a fair way in accordance with government policies, guidelines and procedures.

By outsourcing the work, rather than training in-house employees, though, the union argued the government is creating an even greater reliance on private contractors because a transfer of knowledge within departments is lacking.

"Government outsourcing costs Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars each year and is leading to a de-skilling of the federal public service workforce," said the report.

"Staff report that they do not get enough training to do their job and the knowledge needed to maintain projects often follows contractors out the door when a contract ends."

The government acknowledged as much last year as it struggled to deal with the Phoenix pay system problems when it awarded a $137-million contract to IBM to handle day-to-day operations of the system.

The multinational company was initially responsible for the disastrous payroll system's implementation.

Under the new extension to the contract initially awarded in 2011, IBM was to integrate 170 of its employees into the federal public service for up to three years to stabilize the pay system.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2020.
The Islamic State group vowed to shift its focus from the remnants of its caliphate towards Israel, in its first audio statement since confirming the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In a purported audio message by its spokesman Abu Hamza al-Quraishi, the jihadist organisation called for sabotaging a so-called peace plan US President Donald Trump is due to unveil.

The spokesman said IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi encourages the groups fighters to launch a new phase and vowed major operations against Israel.

The eyes of the soldiers of the caliphate, wherever they are, are still on Jerusalem, the spokesman said in the 37-minute message.

And in the coming days, God willing, you will see what harms you and what will make you forget the horrors you have seen, Abu Hamza al-Quraishi said, apparently threatening attacks of unprecedented scope.

AFP could not immediately authenticate the message but the recording was published via the groups usual social media channels.

The jihadist organisation once administered a sprawling self-proclaimed caliphate straddling big parts of Syria and Iraq, where it minted a currency, levied taxes and ran school curricula.

Under pressure from combined military operations by Syrian and Iraqi forces supported by their respective allies, the proto-state collapsed last year.

IS has remained a potent outfit in its Euphrates heartland and surrounding desert hideouts however and its franchises in Africa and Asia have also continued to expand their attacks.

The group also has a presence in Egypts Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and which the Jewish state occupied for 15 years after the 1967 war.

The spokesman said IS leader Quraishi was determined, and has encouraged his mujahideen brothers in all provinces, and Muslims across the world, to launch a new phase.

That new focus is fighting the Jews and reclaiming what they have stolen from the Muslims, and this cannot be reclaimed except through fighting, he said.

Trump was from Monday hosting both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the premiers rival Benny Gantz in Washington ahead of unveiling his peace plan.

The IS spokesman made a direct reference to the Trump plan, which has already been rejected by the Palestinians, who ironically call it the Deal of the Century.

To Muslims in Palestine and across the world... be the warhead in fighting Jews and foil the so-called Deal of the Century, Abu Hamza al-Quraishi said.

He urged IS fighters, especially those in Syria and Sinai, to turn Jewish settlements into a testing ground for their weapons.

Some 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem among around 2.9 million Palestinians.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981.

On its southern coast, Israel imposes a crippling blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza, a strip which is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas and shares a border with Egypts Sinai region.

Since coming to office, Trump has already gifted Netanyahu -- who is running for re-election -- a number of political presents.

These include breaking with diplomatic consensus to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and ending US opposition to settlements.
The Congress on Monday moved the National Human Rights Commission demanding action against alleged police atrocities on anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that victims have been made accused in case-related FIRs and no police officer has been named.

The Congress delegation, led by senior party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, met top NHRC officials here and made a detailed 31-page representation which included videos and photographs as "evidence" of alleged atrocities and human rights violations.

After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi alleged the UP government has "gone to war against its own people" and urged the NHRC to act decisively to protect the "Constitutional rights of our citizens".

"A delegation of Congress leaders presented the NHRC with evidence of the atrocities against the citizens of UP by the State Govt., which has gone to war against its own people. The NHRC must act decisively to protect the idea of India & the Constitutional rights of our citizens," he said in a tweet.

The party also submitted a memorandum to the NHRC in which it has alleged that the BJP government in the state "treats its own citizens like criminals".

"Given the role of a reckless state government that views the law and constitution as mere inconveniences, treats its own citizens like criminals and wears its hostility towards ordinary citizens as a badge of pride, the duty of institutions such as the NHRC to act as checks and balances and to embody and protect the values enshrined in the Constitution of India becomes paramount," the Congress memorandum said.

It further said the NHRC has a "glorious history" of addressing injustices when all other institutions have fallen short. "We hope and expect that this instance will not be an exception to that legacy."



After the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi told reporters, "In Uttar Pradesh, there has been gross human rights violations. We have submitted videos and photos to the NHRC."



"It has been found that there has been a failure to lodge FIRs. Not a single police officer (has been) named as accused. There have been numerous FIRs against protestors in which victims have become accused," he alleged.

Singhvi said the Congress has given detailed facts including on "deaths of 23" people and also details on how they were killed "as some were shot in the chest".

"We showed videos of BJP and RSS people recruited as police mitras who were unleashed on people. Notices were given to people by administration threatening them against joining protests," he alleged.

The memorandum submitted by the Congress said photos and videos uploaded by witnesses, ground reports and other "unbiased" media reports show police firing and mercilessly beating of the protesters, in some cases even minors.

"They are also seen destroying public and private property. The fact that such actions were neither punished nor even taken cognizance of by the state government points towards one of only two possibilities - either the police and state government were working in connivance with each other or such actions were ignored by the state government in order to curb the protests," the memorandum said.

"Both conclusions are disturbing and directly offensive of the Rule of Law and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution," it added.

The leaders who met the NHRC officials included Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khurshid, P L Punia, Jitin Prasada, Rajiv Shukla and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.

The Congress leaders demanded a thorough probe into the deaths that took place in the state during violent protests against the amendments in the country's citizenship law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 19:43 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20613768d 1 Politics NasDem-Party,student-protest Free

Social media users have been outraged after discovering that the NasDem Party has reportedly been using a photo of Dede Luthfi Alfiandi, a protestor who is currently in prison, for advertising purposes.

The party has been widely condemned for its lack of empathy for the 20-year-old man who testified in a hearing session at the Central Jakarta District Court about physical torture he endured while in custody at the West Jakarta Police office. Luthfi was accused of hurling rocks at the police during student protests over controversial bills at the House of Representatives in Jakarta last September.

The viral photo, in which he clutches an Indonesian flag to his face, has become an emblem of the protests. The photo was reportedly used by NasDem to publicize its coordination meeting (rakor) held recently in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Twitter user @hadijoban posted a photo of the advertisement on Monday, saying "NasDem edited Luthfi's photo for an advertisement. Does it have the copyright? Does the party even care about Luthfi's poor state?"

Nasdem mengedit foto Luthfi untuk iklannya. Apakah Nasdem sudah minta izin? Apakah Nasdem selama ini peduli nasib Luthfi?



Bener ngga sih? @AlghifAqsa@haris_azhar @YLBHI



Kawal ketua @sandalista1789 pic.twitter.com/CwvLeB76e7   (@hadijoban1) January 27, 2020

In the edited photo, Luthfi seems to be holding NasDem's blue party flag, instead of the original Red and White flag. The advertisement also has a text reading "Loyalty in the name of friendship will not break apart easily, only through differences in political stance or social status. Friendship is a timeless bond."

The ad further says "Conscience for the country! Congratulations to NasDem in holding its special coordination meeting."

Another Twitter user Irman Abdurrahman said NasDem had taken advantage of the peoples spirit merely for the sake of a party meeting. "It's very objectionable of them."

NasDem executive Willy Aditya, on the other hand, shrugged of the accusation saying that the advertisement was posted by someone "unrelated to the party" as a friendly gesture.

"The ad wasn't posted by NasDem, but someone outside the party to congratulate it for successfully holding the event [in Makassar]," Willy said. (vny)
Prashant Kishor, the first from the Janata Dal United camp to raise his voice against the amended citizenship law, on Monday waded right back into the political row over the law, the protests that erupted in Delhi and the assembly elections on February 8.

In a tweet that appeared to be a sharp counter to Home Minister Amit Shah, Kishor said the EVMs in Delhi would only be pressed with love on 8 February.

The jolt should be dealt softly so that brotherhood and harmony are not endangered, Prashant Kishor tweeted in Hindi without taking any names.

8     EVM                       



Justice, Liberty, Equality & Fraternity   Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) 27 January 2020

The remark comes just a day after Amit Shah, who is leading the Bharatiya Janata Party offensive against Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, told voters to press the Electronic Voting Machines with such anger that its current (poll result) is felt at Shaheen Bagh.

Prashant Kishors counter to Amit Shah isnt his first. He has rebutted the Union Home Minister on more than one occasion during the last month over the citizenship law, remarks that have angered many within the Janata Dal United as well as the BJP.

JDU boss and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has, however, rejected suggestions that the party take action against Prashant Kishor for going against the JDU line on CAA. Prashant Kishor-led political consultancy firm I-PAC, has teamed up with AAP for the Delhi elections.

Shaheen Bagh, a locality in south Delhi near Jamia Millia Islamia University, has been the epicentre of protests against the amended Citizenship Act that started last month after Parliament enacted the law to fast-track citizenship requests from non-Muslims from three neighbouring countries.

BJP leaders have been critical of the protesters, sometimes alleging that the men and women who have spent days and nights on the streets had been paid off by the Congress and other parties. Some BJP leaders such as the party candidate Kapil Mishra have also claimed that the protest was a threat to national security because it had been infiltrated by groups backed by Pakistan.

Amit Shahs speeches at public meetings for the February 8 elections in Delhi have also underscored this narrative. Your vote to BJP on February 8 will not only result in victory for the BJP candidate, but it will also secure the country and the capital, and prevent incidents like Shaheen Bagh, Shah said.
Imo State Police Command has confirmed that the Action Alliance (AA) Senatorial Candidate for Okigwe Senatorial District in the 2019 elections, Hon Ndubuisi Emenike is dead.

KanyiDaily had reported that Honourable Ndubisi was allegedly shot dead by his security aide.

The security aid who shot the Imo politician has been identified as an official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).

But, the name of the official could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report.

The incident happened around 5 p.m. on Sunday at the country home of Miriam Onuoha in Umunachi, Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.

Mrs Onuoha was the APC candidate for Okigwe North Federal Constituency in the re-run election which held on Saturday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had announced the APC candidate as the winner of the election.

It was learnt that Mr Emenike was shot dead by the NSCDC official during the celebration party that started shortly after Mrs Onuoha was declared winner of the election by INEC.

The NSCDC operative is said to have followed his principal to the victory party.

Witnesses said the official was shooting consistently into the air and mistakenly shot his boss, disrupting the party which was already underway.

Mr Emenike fell and lost consciousness and was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Ndubuisi Emenike has been shot by one of his security aides. He was shot during APC victory party at Isiala Mbano LGA. He was shot at his lower abdomen by his aide, an NSCDC officer. This is very tragic and very unbelievable. We pray he makes it. The incident has shattered our victory party, one witness said.

The police spokesman in the state, Orlando Okeokwu, confirmed the incident. He said the NSCDC official has been detained and the killing is being investigated.

This happened less than two months, his fellow contender in the 2019 election, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu slumped and died while taking his bath at his Abuja residence.
Press Release

January 27, 2020 Gatchalian urges DFA: be ready to evacuate Filipinos in Wuhan The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) should prompt the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to have systems in place for the evacuation of Filipinos in Wuhan, Senator Win Gatchalian said. It is important, he noted, that these Filipinos should be located ahead of a possible evacuation, adding that the DFA should constantly monitor the situation in Wuhan of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) so that the government can address their needs. The DFA has reported that there are around 150 Filipinos in Wuhan City in China, the source of coronavirus that has already killed 56 people around the globe. The lawmaker cited the example of the United States, which initiated an evacuation of American citizens from the epidemic-stricken city. "We have to prepare for any eventuality", said the lawmaker, who expressed alarm that Filipinos are not spared from being infected if the virus is not contained. "Nakakabahala ang mabilis na pagkalat ng coronavirus sa iba't ibang bahagi ng mundo at mahalagang may regular din dapat na ibinibigay na balita ang DFA tungkol sa kaligtasan ng ating mga OFW", said Gatchalian. Gatchalian added that the DFA should coordinate more closely with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to ensure that overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are protected from the threat of the 2019-nCoV. According to the January 26 situation report of the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 2,014 cases of 2019-nCoV have been reported globally, 1,985 of which were from China. Twenty-nine cases were confirmed in ten other countries such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, the United States, and France. The 2019-nCoV was first reported in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. Symptoms of this new strain include fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing. As a type of coronavirus, the 2019-nCoV belongs to a large family of viruses that include the common cold, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Authorities warn that the virus is mutating and can be transmitted through human contact. The Department of Health recently revealed that 11 persons are under investigation for suspected 2019-nCoV. Two are in hospitals in Metro Manila, one in Mimaropa, one in Northern Mindanao, three in Western Visayas, one in Eastern Visayas, and three in Central Visayas. ### Gatchalian: paglikas ng mga Filipino mula sa Wuhan, China dapat paghandaan ng DFA Sa gitna ng mabilis na pag-akyat ng mga kaso ng novel coronavirus o 2019-nCoV sa mundo, hinimok ni Senador Win Gatchalian ang Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) na maging handa sa paglikas ng mga Pilipinong nasa Wuhan City sa China. Ayon sa mambabatas, mahalagang mahanap ang mga Pilipinong nasa Wuhan City at makamusta ang kanilang mga kalagayan bago isagawa ang posibleng paglikas. Dagdag pa ng senador, mahalaga ang patuloy na pagbabantay sa sitwasyon ng mga Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) sa naturang lungsod upang matugunan ng goberyno ang kanilang mga pangangailangan. Una nang iniulat ng DFA na nakikipag-ugnayan ito sa may isang daan at limampung (150) mga pinoy sa Wuhan City, kung saan nagmula ang nakamamatay na coronavirus. Sa kasalukuyan ay umabot na sa limampu't anim na (56) katao na ang namatay sa iba't ibang panig ng mundo dahil sa naturang virus. Ibinahagi rin ni Gatchalian ang halimbawa ng Estados Unidos na una nang sinimulan ang paglikas sa mga American citizen na nasa Wuhan City. "Nakakabahala ang mabilis na pagkalat ng coronavirus sa iba't ibang bahagi ng mundo at mahalagang may regular din dapat na ibinibigay na balita ang DFA tungkol sa kaligtasan ng ating mga OFW", ayon kay Gatchalian. Ayon pa sa senador, mahalaga ang patuloy na pakikipag-ugnayan ng DFA sa Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), at Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) upang matiyak ang kaligtasan ng mga OFW mula sa panganib ng 2019-nCoV. Ayon sa ulat ng World Health Organization (WHO) noong Enero 26, pumalo na sa mahigit dalawang libong kaso ng 2019-nCoV ang naitala sa buong mundo, mahigit isang libo at siyam na raan dito ay mula sa China. Sa kasalukuyan, dalawampu't siyam (29) naman na kaso ang naitala sa sampung (10) bansa sa labas ng China. Kabilang dito ang China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, France, at Estados Unidos. Uang naitala ang 2019-nCoV sa Wuhan, China noong Disyembre 31, 2019. Kabilang sa mga sintomas nito ang lagnat, ubo, at hirap sa paghinga. Bahagi ang 2019-nCoV ng isang malaking pamilya ng mga virus na kinabibilangan ng sipon, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), at Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Babala ng mga eksperto, maaaring maipasa ang 2019-nCoV sa pamamagitan ng human-to-human transmission. Nasa labing isa na ang inoobserbahan ng mga otoridad dito sa bansa na na-expose sa coronavirus.
The former bishop of Jalandhar is also accused of "abuse of a position of power" and intimidation of the religious. The ex superior of the Missionaries of Jesus accuses him of raping her several times from 2014 to 2016. The bishop's trial was to begin in November 2019 and has been postponed several times.

New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Msgr Franco Mulakkal, former bishop of Jalandhar (in Punjab), is asking that his name be removed from the list of defendants involved in the case of the rape of a woman religious in Kerala. The prelate is the chief accused in a trial that takes place at the Kottayam court, involving 83 witnesses in all, including Card. George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, three bishops, 11 priests and several nuns.

On January 25, the petition was filed at the office of Judge Gopakumar, of the adjunct District Court, by Msgr. Mulakkal's lawyer. The reason for the request, the lawyer says, is that the accusations against the bishop were made by witnesses who are resentful towards him. The judge will consider the discharge petition on February 4. Previously, the court denied other postponements requested by the bishop. The trial, initially set for 11 November 2019, has already been postponed several times to 30 of the same month, then to 6 January 2020.

Msgr Mulakkal is accused of raping the superior of the Missionaries of Jesus on several occasions from 2014 to 2016 while visiting the convent in Kerala and of "abusing his position of power". For his part, the prelate believes that the accusations are unfounded and defamatory. Conversely, the bishop accuses the nun of engaging in an illicit affair and concocting the case against him out of revenge because he had removed her from the office of superior.

The case came to the fore in September 2018, when five nuns held a protest demanding justice for the alleged victim. This was followed by Bishop Mulakkals arrest. After three weeks in custody, the prelate was released on bail awaiting trial. If found guilty, Mgr Mulakkal risks life imprisonment, but he has always said that he was innocent. In order to defend himself in court, he resigned from his post and has insisted that the charges against him are groundless and fabricated.
Madison County Sheriff Katy McCutcheon has decided to hold a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Black River Electric Cooperative meeting room in Fredericktown.

McCutcheon said she saw the need for the meeting because of recent questions regarding why suspects and offenders are being released from the jail and prison earlier than anticipated, as well as the recent spike in burglaries, thefts and suspicious drug activity.

Topics to be discussed will be the recent passing of Rule 33, bail rules set by the Missouri Supreme Court, that became effective, July 1.

"This new rule means that judges will no longer be able to detain certain nonviolent offenders before trial simply because of an inability to post bail," McCutcheon said. "Another topic that will be discussed is the issues Missouri sheriffs are having with the Missouri Department of Corrections new 'catch and release' policy."

McCutcheon said one of the issues deals with Department of Corrections not taking parolees back into custody after they violate their conditions of parole. She said another issue is the fraction of time a defendant serves once they are in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections.

"The last topic to be discussed is the establishment of community/neighborhood watches throughout Madison County," McCutcheon said. "With all the recent burglaries, thefts and suspicious activity, the Madison County Sheriff's Office has to rely on what the citizens see and hear."

McCutcheon said her goal in forming these community/neighborhood watch programs is to educate the residents of Madison County of what their rights are when they observe illegal activity.

"I would like to have the citizens living in these neighborhoods and communities be informed by either social media or text message communications on the illegal activity going on," McCutcheon said.

McCutcheon said she will be handing out applications to residents interested in being part of the neighborhood/community watch program at the community meeting.

"I will then make arrangements to have monthly or quarterly followup meetings with residents in their own communities in Madison County so that they don't have to travel all the way to Fredericktown," McCutcheon said.

If you are unable to attend this meeting and would like to participate in the neighbor/community watch program you can send an email request to mc9110000@sbcglobal.net or come by the Madison County Sheriffs Office to pick up an application and a flyer of the information discussed at the meeting. These applications and flyers will be available after the meeting is held.

Sheriff McCutcheon said her goal with the establishment of these neighborhood/community watch programs is to help deter criminal activity and to keep the residents informed of what is going on with their community.

Victoria Kemper is a reporter for the Democrat News. She can be reached at 573-783-3366 or at vkemper@democratnewsonline.com

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Appointment

27 January 2020

21c Museum Hotels, the award-winning Louisville-based boutique hotel, contemporary art museum and restaurant group, announced the appointment of Matt Bell as executive chef of its Nashville restaurant, Gray & Dudley, located in 21c Museum Hotel Nashville (221 2nd Ave N, Nashville, TN 37201). Bell is the former owner, operator and executive chef of South on Main, in Little Rock, AR.

Bell fell in love with Southern cuisine and culture when he moved to the South in 2005 from his home state of Montana. He studied at the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, TX and later moved to North Little Rock, AR where he began his career serving upscale southern fare for five years at Ashley's at the Capital Hotel. In 2013, Bell opened his first establishment, South on Main. Named the best restaurant in Arkansas by Business Insider, South on Main will continue service under new ownership, and the Oxford American Concert Series will also continue as scheduled. Bell is proud of his legacy in Little Rock and excited for his new adventure in Nashville.

In addition to cooking, Bell is a passionate advocate of social change. He has hosted multiple benefit dinners and has lobbied on Capitol Hill alongside No Kid Hungry to protect programs that benefit children impacted by food insecurity. He will continue his work with the organization in his new role at 21c Nashville.
The mayor of the Chinese city where a deadly virus broke out says he would be willing to resign if it helps the government contain its spread.

Mayor Zhou Xianwang told state broadcaster CCTV that both he and Wuhan's Communist Party secretary are willing to take responsibility for closing off the city, including being removed from office.

As the virus spread through China and overseas, transportation links to the city were cut last week to prevent more people from leaving.

Zhou also responded to allegations that the city was slow to disclose information in the early days of the outbreak, saying local governments are restricted from releasing information about infectious diseases without authorization.

Public health officials in Canada said Monday that the wife of the man who is Canada's first case of the emerging virus from China has also tested positive for the virus.

Ontario said the woman has been in self-imposed isolation since arriving in Toronto with her husband last week.

Ontario Chief Medical Officer of health David Williams said the woman tested positive for the virus at Ontario's public health laboratory. He said because she has been in self-isolation, the risk to Canadians remains low.

But Canadian officials have been reaching out to those aboard the China Southern Airlines flight who sat within two meters (6 1/2 feet) of the man.

Public health officials said the woman's husband, a man in his 50s, had been showing mild symptoms on his flight from Guangzhou, China, to Toronto. His first flight started in Wuhan.

Cambodia's health minister says a Chinese visitor to a popular resort is his country's first case of the new virus.

Hong Kong has confirmed two more cases of a new virus that started in central China, raising its total to eight.

Thailand's prime minister has spoken on television to try to reassure citizens that his government is taking all possible measures to cope with the outbreak of a deadly pneumonia-like virus in China.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha spoke Monday as public concerns rose after eight cases of the virus had been confirmed in the country, seven of them visitors from China and one Thai.

He said authorities so far '"are able to control the situation 100%, but we should not be careless." The prime minister said "suitable measures" have been taken to control the outbreak, including monitoring at the country's five international airports. Chinese health authorities said the new coronavirus had infected 2,744 people and killed 80 as of midnight Sunday.

Germany's foreign minister says his country is considering evacuating its citizens from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the center of a outbreak of a pneumonia-like virus that has killed 80 people so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hyderabad, Jan 27 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has moved Telangana High Court challenging the orders of a special court in Hyderabad, dismissing his pleas for exemption from personal appearance in the court in cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

A petition was filed in the High Court on behalf of the Chief Minister on Monday, challenging the orders by the special court.

Reddy's move came three days after the court dismissed his petition for exemption from personal appearance in ED cases. The court directed him to personally appear in the court for the next hearing on January 31.

Reddy had sought permission for his co-accused Jagati Publications, that publishes Telugu daily 'Sakshi' Ato represent him.

This was the second jolt to Reddy in disproportionate assets cases. The court had earlier dismissed his petition for exemption from appearance in CBI cases.

Reddy had made his first appearance in the court in the capacity of the Chief Minister on January 10. He, however, obtained exemptions on January 17 and 24, citing important official assignments.

Reddy is the number one accused in five charge sheets filed by the ED in the money laundering case. The ED filed the charge sheets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and attached the assets of several industrialists and co-accused.

The CBI had filed 11 charge sheets in the disproportionate case registered during 2011-12.

In what is called the "quid-pro-quo" cases, Reddy was accused of getting investments into his businesses by firms and individuals in return for the undue favours by the government headed by his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy between 2004 and 2009.

The CBI arrested him and sent him to jail on May 27, 2012. He was granted bail after 16 months in jail.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday urged international powers to boycott US President Donald Trump's "peace plan" which they see as biased towards Israel.

"This a plan to protect Trump from impeachment and protect (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu from prison. It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting.

"This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory," he said.

Trump is expected to unveil his "peace plan" for the Middle East after hosting Monday in Washington Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz.

It comes as Trump is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate while Netanyahu, who is facing indictment over corruption allegations, will contest an election next month which Gantz is hoping to win.

"We call on the international community to not be partners in this because it contravenes international law," Shtayyeh told the Palestinian cabinet.

"The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale."

The Palestinians have not been invited to Washington, having cut all ties with the Trump administration over its pro-Israel stance.

The plan is widely expected to be the most favourable towards Israel ever proposed by the United States, with alleged leaks -- denied by Trump -- suggesting it could declare settlements in the occupied West Bank legal.

The US proposal could also pull back from the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital after Trump in 2018 recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

While the US and Israel are likely to be supportive of the plan, the reaction of international powers could be key.

Two European diplomats told AFP the European Union was working on a statement reaffirming its support for the two-state solution along the traditional lines.

Shtayyeh said president Mahmud Abbas would call a meeting of the Palestinian leadership to discuss the best ways to respond to the plan.

In Gaza on Monday a few hundred Palestinians protested against the Trump plan, which Palestinians ironically call the "Deal of the Century".

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The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was attacked with rocket fire on Sunday, leaving one person injured.

Three rockets struck the embassy, including one that apparently hit a dining area. A U.S. official told CNN the one casualty was a minor injury.

The security situation remains tense and Iranian-backed armed groups remain a threat. So, we remain vigilant, a State Department spokesman said. We call on the Government of Iraq to fulfill its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities.

The embassy sits in Baghdads Green Zone, which was secured by American forces in 2003 and has since been home to several embassies and the base of many international operations in Iraq. The Green Zone has been attacked with rocket fire numerous times in recent months.

Violent acts against our diplomatic facilities are simply unacceptable, commented Representative Michael McCaul, (R., Texas), the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We must ensure the safety of American diplomats, troops and other Americans in Iraq.

Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah led a two-day siege on the U.S. embassy in early January, with members surrounding the embassy and trying to break in. Partly in response to the siege, President Trump ordered the January 2 killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

Iran retaliated to the killing by firing ballistic missiles on U.S. military positions in Iraq. Pentagon officials say 34 U.S. troops suffered concussions or traumatic brain injuries as a result of the strikes.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran are still jockeying for influence in Iraq and the capital city of Baghdad.

The Iranian presence here in Baghdad is very extensive, Fox News reporter Trey Yingst told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Its like an octopus tentacles, its reaching all over.

More from National Review
India's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday the country needs to look into the pricing mechanism of existing long term gas supply contracts with Qatar. He was speaking to a gathering of oil company officials in New Delhi.

India imports 8.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually under a long-term supply deal with Qatar. Spot prices, or current market prices, of LNG have dropped to multi-year lows in January, highlighting the loss being borne by LNG importing countries tied in long term contracts with suppliers.

Also read:International Energy Agency slams govt over pricing policy of natural gas
They are longtime friends and collborators.

And Kerry Washington turned out to support her BFF Eva Longoria on the red carpet for Sylvie's Love, which debuted on Monday at Eccles Center Theatre during Sundance Film Festival.

The pair, who first bonded over parenthood, looked their very best as they posed up together.

Supportive: Close friends Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria beamed as they embraced on the red carpet for Longoria's film Sylvie's Love, which debuted on Monday at Eccles Center Theatre

Longoria showed off her slender figure in a fitted white top with massive shoulder pads, matching tailored trousers and nude stiletto booties.

The Desperate Housewives alum wore her long, brown layers down with a dainty LAJOUX necklace with her child Santiago's name around her neck at the premiere in Park City, Utah.

Washington donned a head-turning leopard coat with cherries on it with giant gold hoops. The Scandal star paired the bold printed coat with tall black Chinese Laundry boats and wore her hair in a stylish crowned braid.

As the famous friends caught up, Longoria wrapped her hands around Washington and leaned in close for pictures.

Smile: As the famous friends caught up, Longoria wrapped her hands around Washington and leaned in close for pictures

In 2018 Washington called Longoria her 'soul sister' and talked to People about giving the new mom parenting advice.

'There's no guide book on how to be a working mom, particularly in our industry,' Washington told the magazine. 'I had women that were really helpful to me when I was pregnant. And as a working mom, I do try to pay that forward with a lot of my actress girlfriends, because it's tricky!'

Longoria was grateful, and joked Washington was 'basically my doula.'

Here for you: The pair have been friends for years are both attached the film 24-7, which is in pre-production, and will be Longoria's directorial debut and star Kerry Washington

The pair have been friends for years are both attached the film 24-7, which is in pre-production, and will be Longoria's directorial debut and star Kerry Washington.

At the film festival Washington watched her friend's film about a woman working at her father's record store in Harlem, who meets an aspiring saxophone player, in the late 1950s.

Longoria plays Carmen in this film, but has been gushing to fans about her most important role.

Enjoy: At the film festival Washington watched her friend's film about a woman working at her father's record store in Harlem, who meets an aspiring saxophone player, in the late 1950s

Winter white: Eva wore her winter white outfit to the 2020 Women at Sundance Celebration hosted by Sundance Institute and Refinery29

Women celebration: Aisha Harris, Shaandiin Tome, Callie Holley, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Eva, Gloria Steinem, Keri Putnam and Amy Emmerich attended the 2020 Women at Sundance Celebration

The proud mother is all about balancing her career and spending time with her almost two-year-old son Santiago Baston, her first child with husband Jose 'Pepe' Baston.

'He's amazing,' Eva told E! News about her son, at the 2020 Producers Guild Awards at the Hollywood Palladium earlier this month. 'He's really good. He's a good sleeper. He's a good eater, traveler. He's just a great kid. I got really lucky. I think God was like, this is what you're going to need to make it.'

Washington's next role is starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in Little Fires Everywhere, which premieres March 18 on Hulu.

Eva also participated Monday in the 2020 Women at Sundance Celebration hosted by Sundance Institute and Refinery29.

On stage: Eva spoke onstage during the 2020 Women at Sundance Celebration hosted by the Sundance Institute and Refinery 29

Multiple talents: The director, advocate and actress participated in the Park City event wearing an all-white outfit

Female directors: Longoria spoke during the Women at Sundance Celebration held to salute festival films created by women

Kerry Washington's husband Nnamdi Asomugha also stars in Sylvie's Love, was also in attendance at the premiere, though he didn't walk the red carpet with his wife.

Asomugha, 38, rocked a black hoodie under a black trench coat with black pants and black boots on the red carpet, where he posed with co-star Tessa Thompson.

The actor also serves as a producer on the film, which he spoke about in interviews with filmmaker Kevin Smith at the IMDB Studio at Sundance.

Asomugha has also produced Crown Heights, Beasts of No Nation, Harriet and the upcoming The Banker.

Red carpet ready: Kerry Washington's husband Nnamdi Asomugha also stars in Sylvie's Love, was also in attendance at the premiere, though he didn't walk the red carpet with his wife

Tessa and Nnamdi: Asomugha, 38, rocked a black hoodie under a black trench coat with black pants and black boots on the red carpet, where he posed with co-star Tessa Thompson

Interview: The actor also serves as a producer on the film, which he spoke about in interviews with filmmaker Kevin Smith at the IMDB Studio at Sundance
India on Sunday, January 26, 2020, celebrated the 71st Republic Day with a military parade showcasing the latest military equipment, armored vehicles and main battle tanks which are now in services with the Indian armed forces. Analysis and technical review by Army Recognition editorial team of tanks, combat armored vehicles and field equipment showcased by the Indian army during the military parade for the Republic Day 2020.



T-90S Bhishma main battle tanks at India Republic Day military parade, January 26, 2020. (Picture source Indian MoD press service)



At the Indian Republic Day military Parade 2020, India has showcase lot of military equipment and combat vehicles including the local-made developed artillery gun system 'Dhanush', the main battle tank of the Indian Army T- 90 Bhishma, the new self-propelled howitzer K-9 VAJRA-T and Advanced Light Helicopters- Weapon System Integrated Rudra and 2 Advanced Light Helicopters, Dhruv of Army Aviation.





T-90S Bhishma



The T-90S Bhishma is an improved version of the Russian-made T-90S main battle tank. this tank is manufactured under license in India since 2004.

The main armament of the T-90S MBT includes one 125 mm 2A46M smoothbore gun. A coaxial machine 7.62 mm PKT is mounted to the right side of the main armament and a 12.7mm air defense machine gun is fitted to the top of the turret.

The T-90S is also able to fire the 9M119 Refleks (NATO designation AT-11 Sniper) anti-tank guided missile system with a range from 100 m to 4,400 m. It can be used to destroy tank fitted with explosive reactive armour (ERA), as well as low-flying air targets such as helicopters, at a range of up to 5 km.



BMP-2 Sarath tracked armored IFV Infantry Fighting Vehicle (Picture source Indian MoD press service)

BMP-2 Sarath

The BMP-2 Sarath is an Indian version of the Russian-made BMP-2 tracked armored IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle). In 1984, India has ordered 700 BMP-2 from Russia that were delivered between 1987 and 1991 (most produced in India). A total of 400 BMP-2 Sarath ordered in 1985 were produced under license in India.

The BMP-2 Sarath is fitted with a two-man turret armed with a stabilized 30 mm cannon 2A42 and a 7.62 mm PKT coaxial machine gun mounted to the left of the main armament with 2,000 rounds. Mounted on the turret roof between the gunner's and commander's hatches is a launcher for an AT-4 SPIGOT or AT-5 SPANDREL ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) which has a maximum range of 4,000 m.

The BMP-2 Sarath is similar to the Soviet-made BMP-2 but there is special protection mounted around the exhaust.



K9 Vajra-T 155mm 52 caliber self-propelled howitzer (Picture source Indian MoD press service)

K9 Vajra-T

In May 2017, the South Korean defense company Samsung-Techwin, along with its local Indian private-sector partner Larsen & Toubro (L&T), signed a contract for the sale of 100 modified K-9 Vajra 155mm self-propelled howitzers based on the South Korean K9 Thunder.

The main armament of the K9 Thunder consists of a 155 mm/52 caliber ordnance with a maximum firing range of 40 km. A total of 48 projectiles and their associated charges are carried for ready use. Internally an automatic loading system takes projectiles from the storage position and places them onto the ammunition tray ready for ramming.

The Indian variant of the K9. Manufactured by Larsen & Toubro under license, consisting 50% component (by value) including 14 major sub-systems developed by Indian companies. It has been customized as per desert conditions.



Ashok Leyland FAT 6x6 military truck. (Picture source Indian MoD press service)

Ashok Leyland FAT 6x6

The Danush howitzer is towed by an Ashok Leyland FAT 6x6 truck chassis. The Ashok Leyland FAT 66 is an all-terrain military truck developed and produced by Indian automobile manufacturer Ashok Leyland. Designed for towing heavy artillery guns, it will replace the aging fleet of Scania SBAT111S used by the Indian Army.

The truck is designed on Leyland's "Super Stallion" platform. It is powered by Ashok Leyland's in-house developed 8-liter Neptune series engine that gives 360 hp (270 kW) of power and 1,400 Nm of torque at 1,300 rpm. The engine is coupled to an 8-speed manual transmission (2-speed transfer case). The truck runs on a full-time 6-wheel drive system with all axles having a differential lock.

The FAT 6x6 can run at a maximum road speed of 86 km/h with a maximum operational range of 700 km.



Dhanush 155mm/45 caliber towed howitzer. (Picture source Indian MoD press service)

Dhanush 155mm/45 caliber towed howitzer

The 'Dhanush' gun system, commanded by Capt. Mrigank Bharadwaj, was part of the Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath for the first time on Sunday, January 26, 2020. The 155mm/45 Caliber Dhanush gun system is a towed Howitzer designed indigenously by the Ordnance Factory Board.

The gun has a maximum firing range of 36.5 km and has the capability of automatic gun alignment and positioning. The gun, which is equipped with an inertial navigation system and advanced gun sighting system, has been designed to meet the futuristic requirements of the Army.



Short Span Bridging System. (Picture source Indian MoD press service)

Short Span Bridging System

The Short Span Bridging System 5m is a mechanically launched bridging system of MLC-70 load class to bridge small gaps and canals. In addition to bridging the smaller gaps, this bridging system will be compatible with SARVATRA bridging system.



Sarvatra 1 5m mobile bridging system on BEML Tatra truck. (Picture source Indian MoD press service)

Sarvatra 15m bridging system

The Sarvatra truck-mounted bridging system designed by R&DE (Engineers) of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Army and manufactured by BEML. The Sarvatra bridging system is mounted on BEML Tatra T-815 88 truck chassis.

The Savatra is a mobile bridging system using a modified Tatra 815 VVN 8 x 8 truck chassis. The Sarvatra is a 75 meters long multi-span mobile bridging system consists of five scissors bridge made of an aluminum alloy having a span of 15 meters each mounted on separate mobile platforms.

When the 15 meter long scissors bridge is opened out it is fitted with adjustable trestles to enable a number of units to be used to bridge wet and dry gaps. All five sections are laid to provide a total bridge length of 75 m providing a roadway of four meters. The bridge is launched/recovered from either end. With the help of telescopic legs, the height of the bridge is adjusted from 2.5 m to 6 m so that it is not easily visible from far.



Transportable Satellite Terminal (TST Vehicle. (Picture source India MoD press service)

Transportable Satellite Terminal (TST Vehicle)

The Transportable Satellite Terminal (TST) is a mobile communication system mounted on an 8x8 BEML Tatra truck chassis fitted with a satellite antenna mounted on the roof of a container.

The TST is able to provide network communication in combat conditions or disasters providing a quick connection to a satellite broadband service. Once the satellite broadband connection is established, emergency responders can connect their personal computers to transfer files, upload and download video, access Web sites and intranet systems, and check e-mail just as they would over ground-based services.

Some services allow the transmission of streaming video and videoconferencing. A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system can also be configured with the satellite broadband service, enabling phone calls and faxes to be sent and received.



Troop Level Radar for Akask air defense missile system. (Picture source India Mod press service)

Troop Level Radar for Akash air defense missile system

The Troop Level Radar is part of Akash Indian-made surface-to-air defense missile system. Each Akash troop has four launch vehicles with three missiles each and are known as AAL, one Troop Level Radar (TLR) mounting the Rajendra with its Power Supply Vehicle (TPSV), one Radar Sensor Vehicle (RSV) which is equipped with the 3D-CAR radar along with its Data Center Vehicle (DCV) which houses the radar consoles, data processor unit and communication unit, the CPV and the 3D-CAR Power Supply Vehicle (CPSV).

The Troop Level Radar (TLR) vehicle is fitted with the 3D radar Rajendra designed to detect and track air targets up to a range of 150 km. The antenna is rotated mechanically in azimuth to provide 360 coverage. The radar can be operated at 15 RPM (Rounds Per Minute) and 7.5 RPM.

The TLR Rajendra radar makes use of a passive phased array to search a volume of space, distinguish between hostile and friendly targets, automatically track up to 64 targets and command one of several launchers to engage up to 4 targets simultaneously. Initially designed as a standalone system, Rajendra is now equipped with the ability to integrate with a network of sensors, including long and medium-range surveillance radars of foreign and domestic origin.

Rajendra's multi-element antenna arrangement folds flat when the vehicle is in motion. The Radar consists of a surveillance antenna array with 4000 phase control modules (PCM's) operating in the G/H-Band (4-8 GHz), an engagement antenna array with 1000 PCM's operating in the I/J-Band (8-20 GHz), a 16-element IFF array and steering units. A powerful high-end computer computes phases for all the elements of the array. Rajendra controls the beam positioning sequence through-beam requests for each track at adaptive data rates and performs multifunctional roles like search confirm track -interrogate targets, assign and lock-on launchers, and launch/acquire/ track/guide missiles. The RDP supplies track data to the remote group control center. Rajendra features a Dual channel radar receiver and a C band transmitter, although the complete transmitting and receiving features and bands are unknown.



Akash Army launcher air defense missile system. (Picture source India Mod press service)

Akash Army launcher on 8x8 truck

The Akash army Launcher is a mobile air defense missile system mounted on BEML Tatra 8x8 truck chassis designed and manufactured by India's state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The development of the Akash missile system was started in 1983 with the first production in 2002. The first trial firings occurred in 1990 with the tenth stated test in September 1998.

The Akash missile has a launch weight of 720 kg and measures 5.8 m in length, 350 mm diameter and 1,10 5mm wingspan. The missile can fly at a speed of up to Mach 2.5 and has a height ceiling of 18 km. The 60 kg payload can use prefabricated tungsten alloy cubes warheads or a nuclear warhead. The Akash can intercept aerial targets from a range of 30 km and provide air defense missile coverage of 2,000 km.



Air Defense Tactical Control Radar (ADTCR). (Picture source India MoD press service)

Air Defense Tactical Control Radar (ADTCR)

The Air Defence Tactical Control Radar (ADTCR) is used for volumetric surveillance, detection, tracking and friend/foe identication of aerial targets of different types, and transmission of prioritized target data to multiple command posts/ weapon systems. The radar is capable of detecting very small targets and low ying targets. The system employs Active Phased Array Technology with Digital Beam Forming, distributed Digital Receivers and IFF Mark XII.

The Radar System, power & cooling systems, operator shelter, communication equipment etc. is congured on two High Mobility Vehicles. The Radar can be deployed in plain lands, deserts and in the mountain regions for the purpose of tactical early warning for Ground-based Weapon Systems.



Anti-satellite missile system. (Picture source India MoD press service)

Anti-satellite missile system

With space becoming a vital dimension of any country's economic and military superiority, A-SAT (Anti-Satellite) weapons play a critical role in providing the necessary strategic deterrence.

In March 2019, the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) launched 'Mission Shakti', India's first A-SAT mission and demonstrated its anti-satellite technology.

The Anti-satellite missile system is a missile mounted a trailer able to destroy a live orbiting satellite in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in a "Hit to Kill" mode. The covert technology of 'hit to kill', developed for the first time by India for such applications, enables it to destroy an enemy satellite by directly colliding with it with pin-point accuracy.
ANN ARBOR, MI - The Sexual Assault Victims Alliance started planning a vigil for survivors at the University of Michigan a month and a half ago, said group organizer Catherine Williams.

Last weeks sexual misconduct allegations against Provost Martin Philbert make their upcoming event even more important, she said.

The student group, which operates at a few Ann Arbor area schools, will light 100 candles from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5 vigil at the Michigan Diag to protest what the group calls the universitys systemic problems with the way they handle sexual assault."

Volunteers will discuss sexual assault reporting issues with students one-on-one for the first 30 minutes and final hour, while four survivors will host a panel speaking about their assault experiences from 7 to 8 p.m.

Each candle represents 50 victims, Williams said, so the 100 candles represents the approximately 5,000 victims of sexual assault on campus. In a 2019 campus climate survey conducted by UM indicated that 12.5 percent of students, more than 5,000, reported experiencing non-consensual sexual contact since enrolling.

University of Michigan releases extensive report on campus sexual assault climate

The event announcement comes just two days after the university placed Philbert on administrative leave for several allegations of sexual misconduct made Thursday and Friday, Jan. 16 and 17. President Mark Schlissel announced Philberts leave in a message to the students, faculty and staff.

Williams, a junior at Eastern Michigan University, said she actually thinks UM is handling Philberts case properly, so far.

I think putting him on leave until they can hold a trial and figure out what happened, she said, I think that was a very good decision. If the allegations are true, its comforting knowing that he will not be able to do this to anyone else in the meantime.

University of Michigan provost accused of sexual misconduct, placed on leave

Because the Office for Institutional Equity, which is overseen by Philbert, normally handles sexual misconduct investigations, the university has hired an external law firm, WilmerHale, to lead the investigation, said UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald.

UM promises serious sexual misconduct probe into provost as some express doubt, frustration

But Williams said UM has not created a climate that encourages victims to report assault, which the panel speakers will address.

Some have not gone through the official, formal reporting because they were deterred early on, she said.

The groups biggest complaint against the university is a sexual misconduct policy that allows accused parties to question their accusers directly, and not an adviser or attorney. Williams said cross-examination is necessary, but not by accused aggressors themselves.

They force the students to do cross-examination themselves, she said. Essentially, you have a potential victim being directly confronted by their assaulter.

The interim student sexual misconduct policy was updated in 2019 to adhere to a ruling of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

While the Sixth Circuits ruling requires allowing a live hearing and cross-examination, it notes that universities could allow the accused students agent, or lawyer, to conduct cross-examination on his or her behalf.

Fitzgerald said previously that questioning by personal advisers is not allowed at UM out of concern that not all students would be able to afford counsel.

Williams said the vigil will serve as a chance for victims a voice their concerns with UMs policies and reporting culture.

We need to start giving the microphone to survivors," she said, "and giving them a say in the policies that affect them.
By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quok Dawn has expressed his countrys interest in boosting economic ties with Iran, saying that there is high level of political will for expansion of the bilateral cooperation, the Iranian media reported.

Addressing the Iran-Vietnam business forum held in Tehran recently, Le Quok Dawn also said that the current limiting barriers must be removed in order for the volume of trade between the two countries to reach the $2 billion goal.

Iran and Vietnam are considering signing a preferential trade agreement with this regard.

Furthermore, facilitating visa issuance for Iranian businessmen by the Vietnamese Embassy in Tehran was one of the main issues explored by the two countries private sector representatives in the forum.

Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Deputy Head for International Affairs Mohammad-Reza Karbasi, Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quok Dawn, Vietnamese Ambassador in Tehran Nguyen Yen, and Head of Iran-Vietnam Joint Chamber of Commerce Mostafa Mousavi attended the forum.

Speaking in the event, Karbasi stressed that both Iranian and Vietnamese government officials are seeking improvement of economic relations along with good political ties.

Vietnam is a member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and Iran is an ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) member, while both countries are part of the Eurasian Economic Agreement, so they could help each other entering into the mentioned markets, Iranian official said.

Pointing to the fact that the volume of trade between Iran and Vietnam decreased by 30 percent last year, Karbasi noted that the two sides should take necessary measures to identify and facilitate the development of trade.

The two sides also underlined bartering trade as a good solution for tackling the banking problems between the two countries.

Diplomatic relations between Iran and Vietnam were established in 1973.

Three Iranian presidents (Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1995, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2012, Hassan Rouhani in 2016) have visited the country, situated on the eastern part of Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia.

During Rouhani's visit the two nations pledged to boost future trade to $2 billion.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Feral hogs

Regarding Noack green lights feral hog trapping pilot program in Woodlands, (A1 The Woodlands Villager, Jan. 22): Feral hogs are dangerous to our pets and our immune system, but I think killing a chunk of the population would be unwise. Immunizing the hogs would also be a waste of time and money. My solution would be to tag these hogs and study their behavior. This would allow us to find major areas where these hogs wander so we can protect these areas and keep both people and the animals safe.

Greyson Young, 9th grade, The Woodlands

Guns

Regarding Metal detectors eyed for some schools, (A3, Jan. 24): Adults, be responsible, lock up your guns. Parents, if your child is going to friend or relatives house, ask if there is an unsecured gun in the house.

With the right to own a gun comes responsibility. Responsible gun owners dont allow children to have access to unsecured guns.

Julie Marinucci, Houston

DAs office

Regarding Prosecutors caseloads dont exist within a vaccuum, (A11, Jan. 23): Prosecutors in the United States have almost always been given funding without much scrutiny. This week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp proposed taking $3 million from strapped public defenders and giving it to prosecutors, with no explanation. Howard Henderson wants to study how to measure the work of prosecutors.

Texas measured caseloads for public defenders and court-appointed private lawyers in 2015. The work of defense lawyers and prosecutors is not comparable. However, the methodology of that study is applicable to prosecutors. The study was required by the Texas Legislature, funded through the Texas Indigent Defense Commission and performed by Texas A&Ms Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI). First, a timekeeping study of 196 lawyers was completed over 12 weeks. Each task and type of case was identified by category. A cross-section of 319 public and private criminal defense lawyers across Texas provided comments about whether that was sufficient time for effective representation.

Finally, an expert panel of criminal practitioners was convened. Through independent assessments and then a facilitated discussion, the Delphi panel reached consensus about the time needed to provide effective representation in each type and level of case. The results were consistent with the separate time sufficiency study, thus validating each. PPRI took these findings and computed caseloads over a working year of 2,087 hours. Prosecutors could initiate the same type of study. Prosecutors are almost never asked to justify their work. Now they have been, and maybe they will.

Alex Bunin, Harris County public defender, Houston

Astros

Regarding Disgraced Astros seek to move on, (A1, Jan. 19): The Astros are damaged goods, the Texans imploded in the playoffs and the Rockets are in a funk. This has to leave H-E-B in a quandary as who they can feature in their humorous celebrity-focused commercials. I have a possible solution in a group that is scandal free and universally admired: The Muppets.

Robert Musgrove, Houston
Co-founded by stalwart space entrepreneur Dr. Kam Ghaffarian and former NASA ISS Program Manager Michael Suffredini, both of whom have in excess of 35 years of human spaceflight experience, Axiom plans to launch a node module, research & manufacturing facility, crew habitat, and large-windowed Earth observatory to form the "Axiom Segment" of the ISS. This new commercial platform will significantly increase the usable and habitable volume of the ISS, provide for novel avenues of research in areas such as isolation studies and Earth observation, and allow a gradual transfer of the innovative work being done on-station to prevent interruptions when the ISS is ultimately retired.

The company targets launch of the first module in the latter half of 2024.

"We appreciate the bold decision on the part of NASA to open up a commercial future in Low Earth Orbit," Suffredini said. "This selection is a recognition of the uniquely qualified nature of the Axiom team and our commercial plan to create and support a thriving, sustainable, and American-led LEO ecosystem.

"Axiom exists to provide the infrastructure in space for a variety of users to conduct research, discover new technologies, test systems for exploration of the Moon and Mars, manufacture superior products for use in orbit and on the ground, and ultimately improve life back on Earth. As we build on the legacy and foundation established by the ISS Program, we look forward to working with NASA and the ecosystem of current and future international partners on this seminal effort."

Central to the selection was the Axiom leadership team's extensive high-level expertise in human spaceflight management, space systems engineering and operations, utilization of microgravity, space finance, marketing, and law.

Ghaffarian founded Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, which rose to become NASA's second-largest engineering services provider, training NASA's astronauts and operating the ISS. These functions are now carried on by KBR, which bought SGT in 2018 and joined the Axiom team as a subcontractor on the winning proposal.

"A commercial platform in Earth orbit is an opportunity to mark a shift in our society similar to that which astronauts undergo when they see the planet from above," Ghaffarian, Axiom's executive chairman, said. "Our goal is to advance the state of humanity and human knowledge. I am glad to see the Axiom team, with its advanced human spaceflight, engineering, and operations expertise, recognized for its potential to do just that and build off of ISS."

Team Axiom also includes Boeing, Thales Alenia Space Italy, Intuitive Machines, and Maxar Technologies.

Axiom was founded in 2016 with the purpose of expanding human civilization into Earth orbit. In addition to building and launching the Axiom Segment, the company will launch crewed flights to the ISS and later the ISS/Axiom complex at a rate of about two to three flights per year. Shortly before ISS is retired, Axiom will launch its large power platform to provide the Axiom Segment power and cooling that ISS previously provided.

When the ISS reaches its decommissioning date, the Axiom Segment will detach and continue as a free-flying, internationally available commercial space station. This station will have been built at a fraction of the cost of ISS, the elimination of whose operating costs will enable NASA to dive headlong into a new era of exploration.

"There is a fantastically steep learning curve to human spaceflight," Suffredini said. "The collective experience at Axiom is quite far along it. Because we know firsthand what works and what doesn't in LEO, we are innovating in terms of design, engineering, and process while maintaining safety and dramatically lowering costs."

About Axiom Space

Axiom Space was founded in 2016 to make life and work in orbit a reality as a means to sustained deep space exploration and improving life on Earth. While building and launching the Axiom Segment to one day form the world's first commercial space station, Axiom will provide access to the ISS today by launching crewed flights at a rate of about two to three flights per year. More information about Axiom can be found at www.axiomspace.com.

SOURCE Axiom Space

Related Links

http://www.axiomspace.com


Heres what has happened so far.

Last week, in opening statements, prosecutors offered tawdry details about what they said were Mr. Weinsteins assaults on women; graphic testimony from witnesses followed.

The actress Annabella Sciorra testified that Mr. Weinstein had raped her in her Manhattan apartment in the early 1990s. On another occasion, she said, he showed up uninvited outside her hotel room in his underwear, with baby oil in one hand and a videotape in the other.

On yet another, prosecutors said, Mr. Weinstein injected erection medication into his genitals before sexually assaulting a woman.

The week ended with testimony from the actress Rosie Perez, who said Ms. Sciorra had told her in 1993 that Mr. Weinstein attacked her.
The prohibitory orders have been in place since January 23 after a rally in favour of the new citizenship law was attacked by a particular community. The attackers had set on fire 85 vehicle and torched more than 40 shops.

Ranchi, Jan 27 (IANS) A curfew imposed following a mob attack on a pro-CAA rally in Jharkhand was relaxed for two hours in the Lohardaga district on Monday.

The Lohardaga district administration imposed curfew to control the situation. Despite it, anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters held meetings on road.

The district administration had to deploy additional forces including Rapid Action Force (RAF) to control the situation.

The BJP had staged dharna in front of the Governor House on January 25 to protest the Lohardaga incident. Senior police officials including those of the Inspector General rank have been camping in Lohardaga to control the situation.

According to the police some people have been detained in connection with violence.

In a similar incident earlier on January 12, a pro CAA rally was attacked in Giridih district. Several people including policemen were injured when stones were pelted on a Tiranga Yatra taken out by Hindu organisations in support of CAA in Jharkhand's Giridih district. Police then resorted to using tear gas shells and lathi-charge to disperse the mob.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has alleged that the Congress government in the state is soft on anti-CAA protesters.

ns
For the millions of people trapped in Wuhan and other cities in China's Hubei province, life has taken on a feeling of imprisonment and boredom.

While some 5 million people left Wuhan before officials locked down the city on Thursday in an attempt to limit the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, 9 million are left, according to the city's mayor. Roads are empty, prices of fresh groceries are surging, and inhabitants are wondering how long they need to stay in their apartments.

Premier Li Keqiang visited the central Chinese city on Monday as the Communist Party scrambled to contain the fallout of the disease, which has sickened more than 2,700 and killed at least 80 people. But that's of little immediate solace to those stuck at home, especially during the biggest holiday of year.

"We are living a life like a pig -- eat, then sleep," said Ann Zhou, a Wuhan resident in her early 30s, adding she hasn't left her home in Jiangan district in Wuhan city once since the lockdown started. "It's dull, but we have to be at home all the time to avoid contamination."

Allen Chen, a 25-year-old researcher at a tech firm who moved to Wuhan in December, said he hasn't left his apartment for five days. He said a lot of his colleagues fled the city when the government announced the impending travel ban but he decided it would be safer to stay. He also didn't want to endanger his family back in Tianjin by returning home.

He bought enough frozen dumplings and other groceries for about two weeks before the ban was imposed, and is reluctant to order food from delivery firms. He doesn't know when he'll return to work.

"I was quite panicked in the first few days, but now I'm getting used to it and in a better mental situation given that the death number looks small compared to the total confirmed cases. I think it's quite safe for me if I just isolate myself at home," Chen said.

Another Wuhan resident, who only identified herself as Hu, said the market was closed but sellers were hawking vegetables outside for three times the normal price. No one walks in the streets of Hanyang district where she lives. The 34-year-old student said she doesn't know when her university will reopen.

Along with worry over getting sick, there's frustration over how the local government and media have handled the outbreak, as well as concern over a lack of medical resources given the swelling numbers of sick.

"My Wuhan friends and I are all quite unsatisfied by the government's work," said Chen, the tech firm researcher. "The virus emerged in early December and they had a month's time to tackle it. But now things are in such a state, hospitals are short of everything. It's a neglect of duty."

Jasper Ouyang, a 26-year-old student who returned home to a village close to the city of Huanggang in Hubei for the holidays, says the provincial government has done a poor job handling the virus.

"Things would be in a much better situation if they took actions earlier."

Hu, whose husband is a surgeon at a major hospital in Wuhan, said medical staff are exhausted. Two doctors she knows came down with fever -- from overwork, not the virus.

"The last time I spoke with two of my doctor friends on Jan. 24, they said that hospital is being mismanaged. Contaminated patients are not separated from others. It's a bad situation," she said.

Efforts to expand capacity for patients will improve the situation, Hu added. The government is quickly building a new hospital in Wuhan to handle additional cases.

Even as authorities step up their efforts to contain the virus, for residents like Gabriel Tang, a 20-year old student at Peking University now back in his hometown of Wuhan, things will likely remain the same for now.

"We have stored a lot of groceries and necessities at home in advance, so there's not much pressure to go out for the time being," he said. "We are all being very cautious, trying to avoid going out. But on the other, we are very confident in the government."
Professor Yvonne Doyle - medical director and director of health protection for PHE - claims coronavirus may be already be in the UK

The killer coronavirus that is rapidly sweeping the world and has killed more than 80 people may already be in the UK, according to a leading official.

Professor Yvonne Doyle said the first case is likely to be somebody already in the UK who did not have any symptoms when they landed on British soil.

In hope of halting a potential outbreak in Britain, she said it is 'absolutely critical' the public health service and the NHS are ready for when the first case happens.

The Foreign Office is in talks with the US about how to evacuate hundreds of Britons stranded in Wuhan because of the killer coronavirus outbreak.

Officials are waiting for Beijing's permission before carrying out the unprecedented operation to repatriate almost 300 Britons.

China today announced it had extended its New Year holiday until February 2 to fight the outbreak, which has struck down more than 2,800 people.

Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director and director of health protection for PHE, admitted that airports are 'important' spreaders of viruses.

But in an interview with Sky News she added: 'The most likely place we might find a case is somebody in the country already.

Despite the strict guidance to try to contain the virus, one British teacher, David Marland (pictured), who has spent the last decade in Wuhan fears he may be spreading the virus throughout the UK because he claims he was given the wrong advice by an NHS 111 operator

He lived just five minutes from the seafood market thought to be at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak and walked through it nearly every day

'It's absolutely critical the public health service and the NHS are ready to diagnose that and are able to designate the person to the right facilities.'

Asked if she was alarmed about a UK case, she said: 'I think, with infections, health is global.

'We've been here before, we've dealt with Middle Eastern virus, we've dealt with SARS, we deal with flu regularly, which can be dangerous, but we're ready.'

And asked if there could be cases already in Britain, she said: 'I would expect so.'

Professor Doyle said efforts were continuing to trace the 2,000 people who have entered the UK from China on international flights.

She said: 'We are now looking back to see whether any of them are still in the country, because some of them will have returned to China, but there are moves to identify them.

'It's not always possible to find everybody but we are working to our best endeavours.'

Professor Doyle said washing hands with soap and water is more effective than wearing a face mask, although face masks are important for staff to use in hospitals when dealing with suspected cases.

And she urged anyone who has entered the UK from Wuhan and who has fallen ill with a fever, cough or difficulty breathing, to contact NHS 111.

The advice comes after a British teacher who spent the last decade in Wuhan was turned away for testing by operators of the Health Service's helpline.

Mr Marland claims he called the helpline as soon as he stepped off a plan at Gatwick Airport from Dubai, via Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, last week

China today extended its New Year holiday to fight the killer coronavirus outbreak which has killed 81 people and struck down more than 2,800 people. Cases have been spotted in Canada, US, France and Australia

David Marland, 34, lived just five minutes from the seafood market thought to be at the centre of the outbreak and walked through it nearly every day.

At least one person in his apartment block has tested positive for the deadly illness that has killed 81 people in less than a month.

Mr Marland, from Buckinghamshire, called NHS 111 as soon as he stepped off a plan at Gatwick Airport from Dubai, via Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, last week.

He expected to be hauled in immediately for tests, but was only asked if he had 'the sniffles'. Mr Marland was told to only call back if he began to feel unwell.

That was despite the recent discovery that patients can be infectious without showing any symptoms.

Carriers can spread the disease for up to two weeks before symptoms show, according to Chinese officials.

Mr Marland said: 'I'm potentially a risk to other people. I'm still within the two-week period so I could be spreading the disease everywhere without having any symptoms.

Thermal scanning at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Indonesia shows people's temperatures beside their heads  those who have high temperatures will be checked to see if they have a fever

The rapid-build hospital in Wuhan started to take shape today, January 27, as hundreds of people work tirelessly to build the pre-fabricated structure in a matter of days

'Maybe I should be staying away from people, but no one has told me to. They haven't given me any advice at all.

'I'm just getting on with my life - what else am I supposed to do?' He accused the NHS operator of just 'ticking boxes' and 'leaving the door open' to the killer virus.

But NHS sources told The Telegraph that the operator had correctly followed advice  which comes from Public Health England and says to ring if you 'develop a fever, difficulty breathing or a cough'.

All of the UK patients who have already been tested for the virus have been found to be negative.

Coronavirus: What we know so far What is this virus? The virus has been identified as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of pathogens, most of which cause mild respiratory infections such as the common cold. But coronaviruses can also be deadly. SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is caused by a coronavirus and killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in the early 2000s. Can it kill? Yes. Eighty-one people have so far died after testing positive for the virus. What are the symptoms? Its symptoms are typically a fever, cough and trouble breathing, but some patients have developed pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the small air sacs in the lungs. People carrying the novel coronavirus may only have mild symptoms, such as a sore throat. They may assume they have a common cold and not seek medical attention, experts fear. How is it detected? The virus's genetic sequencing was released by scientists in China to the rest of the world to enable other countries to quickly diagnose potential new cases. This helps other countries respond quickly to disease outbreaks. To contain the virus, airports are detecting infected people with temperature checks. But as with every virus, it has an incubation period, meaning detection is not always possible because symptoms have not appeared yet. How did it start and spread? The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. Cases have since been identified elsewhere which could have been spread through human-to-human transmission. What are countries doing to prevent the spread? Countries in Asia have stepped up airport surveillance. They include Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Australia and the US are also screening patients for a high temperature, and the UK announced it will screen passengers returning from Wuhan. Is it similar to anything we've ever seen before? Experts have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The epidemic started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in mainland China, Hong Kong and elsewhere SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MAILONLINE'S FULL Q&A ON THE CORONAVIRUS Advertisement

But a Public Health England boss last week warned it was 'highly likely' the never-before-seen virus will eventually come to the UK, as the infection continues to rampage across China.
Two men have been arrested as part of a cross border investigation targeting paramilitary style attacks.

Detectives from the PSNI's Terrorism Investigation Unit conducted a number of searches in the Strabane area on Monday morning.

A 32-year-old man was arrested under the Terrorism Act and is currently being held at Musgrave Serious Crime Suite.

The Gardai have also arrested one man in relation to the operation.
Days after BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya made a bizarre connection between food and nationality and drew flak on social media, West Bengal CM on Monday wondered who gave the saffron party leaders the right to comment on eating habits or attire.

Vijayvargiya, who is BJP's Bengal minder, recently said at a seminar in Indore that he suspected there were Bangladeshis among the construction labourers at his house as they were eating poha (flattened rice).

He also said the "strange" eating habits of the workers aroused suspicion about their nationality.

Addressing a workshop of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (students' wing), Banerjee said, "Who gave them (BJP) the right to make such remarks? Can you determine someone's nationality just by seeing him eat poha? Will you be able to verify someone's nationality based on the clothes he or she is wearing?"



Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last year said, during a poll rally in Jharkhand, that those indulging in arson over the citizenship legislation "can be identified by their clothes".

Banerjee, who is also the TMC supremo, iterated that she would not allow the NPR exercise in Bengal, unless necessary modifications were made in the form.

"Why is that people were being asked to furnish address and birth certificate of parents for NPR?" she questioned.

Charging the BJP with "doublespeak" and "hypocrisy", she said, "Some people want only one colour to persist...but our country is a beautiful mosaic of all colours.
Storyful

An affable deer created somewhat of a buzz in a neighborhood near Salt Lake City, Utah, he regularly visited over the holiday period.The deer, nicknamed Cooper by local residents, has been playing with children in the neighborhood of Herriman and was even spotted posing for photos, reports said.Herriman resident Angelica Lujan recorded footage of the tame deer interacting with her children outside of her home on South Rowell Drive.Speaking to KSTU, a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources representative said despite the deers friendly attitude, the best thing for the animal is for people to leave him alone.People dont realize these beautiful, cute deer can be aggressive as they get older. Weve had times in the past where these friendly deer, they do get aggressive, said Scott Root, Conservation Outreach Manager, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.Weve had kids hurt at bus stops. Bad things happen when we feed deer in a residential area, Root added. Credit: Angelica Lujan via Storyful
Congressmembers are calling for Google to take action against climate disinformation.

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis wrote a letter addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, requesting the company take action against climate disinformation  specifically on its video platform, YouTube.

"YouTube has been driving millions of viewers to climate misinformation videos every day, a shocking revelation that runs contrary to Google's important missions of fighting misinformation and promoting climate action," wrote Kathy Castor, chair of the committee.' "Last September, you proudly declared that 'sustainability has become one of Google's core values from our earliest days,' and announced 'the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history.'"

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The letter comes as YouTube, which is one of Google's largest businesses, faces scrutiny over the spread of hateful content and misinformation on its platform. In recent months, Google has updated policies to try and stem that -- especially as the 2020 presidential elections near. The company delayed its reaction to curbing misinformation among political ads following backlash late last year.

Castor noted various media reports and accused the company of incentivizing climate misinformation content while "giving free advertising" to those who promote harmful pollutants. The letter asked the company to stop monetizing videos that promote falsehoods and "take steps to correct the record" for those who've been exposed to climate misinformation.

The committee gave the company a deadline of Feb. 7 to respond with a plan to address climate disinformation.

WATCH NOW: Google to end microtargeting for political ads
A new teaser on Flipkart has confirmed 120Hz refresh rate for the phone. The teaser also confirms side-mounted fingerprint scanner. We can expect more details in the coming days.

After teasers, POCO India just confirmed that it will launch the POCO X2 smartphone in India on February 4th on Flipkart. The teaser image confirms extreme refresh rate, which will likely be 120Hz, Sony IMX686 64-megapixel 1/1.7 sensor along with a secondary camera, Snapdragon SoC with support for liquid cooling.

The liquid cooling image also shows something like a pop-up front camera and confirms a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, below the camera module, so it should be an LCD screen. It also confirms support for fast charging, USB Type-C port, bottom-ported loudspeaker and a 3.5mm audio jack. Since the phone doesnt show antenna cutouts so it will likely feature plastic body, similar to the POCO F1.

The company has also launched smoothaf.co.in website which shows the screen refresh rate of the phone you use. If its 60Hz it says that its almost 2 decades old and for phones with 90Hz refresh rate it says that You thought you are smooth and fast all this while, so the POCO X2 should have a 120Hz refresh rate.

We should know more details about the POCO X2 smartphone in the coming days.
Significant safety concerns about the quality and care of maternity services at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust highlighted in your article Morecambe Bay inquiry chief voices criticisms over East Kent hospital scandal paint a worrying picture.

In 2015 Dr Bill Kirkups report into the investigation of care at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust recommended that the role of medical examiners should be extended to review stillbirths as well as neonatal deaths.

The roll-out of a network of medical examiners across England and Wales is now well underway, with over half of hospitals having an established service. Medical examiners will initially scrutinise all hospital deaths not reported to the coroner, answer bereaved families questions and feed back any concerns to improve patient safety. The system will be extended to cover deaths outside hospitals in due course.

As lead medical royal college for medical examiners, the Royal College of Pathologists supports the view that medical examiners should work with coroners to investigate stillbirths and neonatal deaths. This would help identify unusual patterns, such as high numbers of deaths at one hospital, which can be a strong indicator of poor care.

Professor Jo Martin

President, The Royal College of Pathologists

Coronavirus care

I am a little surprised that people fail to see a disconnect between critiques of the Chinese response to the coronavirus and the desire to make an exception of American and British citizens. Wouldnt the early release of people from China exacerbate the risk of contagion?

Cole Davis

Norwich

The case for federalism

Keir Starmer is to be congratulated on his advocacy of federalism. The need for this in the UK has been clear for some considerable time.

He is also right to say this needs to be part of a wider reworking of our constitutional arrangements.

In recent weeks and months  especially with the prorogation issue and the attacks on the judiciary  this kind or radical rethink has become urgent.

While the work clearly needs to start with political matters it must go much wider to include economic and environmental issues too.

The Rev Andrew McLuskey

Ashford

Playing chicken

The US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, seems to be missing the point in his argument for allowing chlorine-washed chicken into the UK.

The objection is not to the process of using chemicals in the preparation of food  as he points out it is used in preparing salads. It is that the use of chlorine to cleanse the carcass after slaughter is to make up for the conditions under which the chickens are bred.

Geoff Forward

Stirling

Tourist participation

A tourist, apparently an influencer, was arrested for climbing a pyramid in Egypt. She seemed to think it was her right but what about the right to protect sites that have stood for thousands of years?

In Australia the climb to the top of Uluru, or Ayers Rock, has been discontinued for cultural reasons although again many people claimed it as their right to climb it.

There seems to be a drift from enjoyment to participation, from appreciation to possession and little regard for how others consider a cultural sight.

Lets just sit back and enjoy the uninterrupted view.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne, Australia

Brexit charity

Any Brexit 50p coins I get will be given to a refugee charity. Id encourage other Remainers to do this or something similar.

Alan Pack

Canterbury
File image

Iranians should not allow US President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" approach to harm national unity ahead of parliamentary elections, President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech, lashing out at hardliners over mass disqualification of candidates.

Iran's clerical rulers face challenges in keeping the economy afloat under increasingly tough US sanctions imposed by Washington after it withdrew in 2018 from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Vital oil exports have been slashed.

"We should not let Trump succeed in creating gaps between the establishment and people ... We should remain united ... Don't turn your back on (Feb. 21) elections. Let's have a high turn out," said Rouhani in a speech broadcast live on his official website.

"We should not let Trump and those terrorists in the White House isolate Iran."

Iran's hardline Guardians Council, which vets all election candidates, has disqualified about 9,000 of the 14,000 who registered to run in the elections. Moderates say in most cities they have no candidates to enter the race.

"This parliamentary election is a very important election ... I have written letters to relevant authorities to resolve the issue of disqualifications," said Rouhani.

"You (hardliners) claim that you will win the election. That is fine, but just let the election be a competitive one."

Since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, its rulers have swept aside challenges to their grip on power. But the gap between them and the people has widened since last year, when hundreds were killed in anti-government protests. Iran has yet to announce the death toll and rejects figures published by human rights organisations.

Tehran also risks a legitimacy crisis amid mounting public fury and international criticism over the belated admission of blame by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards for shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane by mistake.

Angry Iranians took to streets to protest against the delayed admission by the Guards.

The distrust between the rulers and the ruled, combined with economic hardship, bodes ill for the parliamentary vote in February, when Iran's rulers typically seek a high turnout to show their legitimacy, even if the outcome will not change any major policy.

"I am calling on our nation to vote," Rouhani said. "Even if you have criticism over issues and problems, please cast your vote."
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Six people have been displaced from their Outer Sunset house by a two-alarm fire Sunday afternoon, the San Francisco Fire Department said.

The fire, at 1270 48th Ave., was reported at 2:46 p.m. Sunday. One person inside the house was evaluated by paramedics but elected not to go the hospital, firefighters said. The fire was declared under control by 4:15 p.m.

The American Red Cross was called in to assist the displaced residents.

At almost the same time, San Francisco firefighters were called to another structure fire only a block away in the Outer Sunset, at 1254 LaPlaya St. That blaze was put out within about 20 minutes; there were no injuries.

Both fires remained under investigation Sunday afternoon.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Far from her status causing embarrassment, she is being lavished with gifts by Middle Eastern royalty and British manufacturers who have declared her cool

Carrie Symonds is the first unmarried partner of a Prime Minister to reside at Downing Street and to be invited by the Queen to Balmoral.

But far from her status causing embarrassment, she is being lavished with gifts by Middle Eastern royalty and British manufacturers who have declared her cool.

According to information released by the Cabinet Office under transparency rules, 31-year-old Carrie (pictured) was sent a wristwatch, two pairs of trendy sunglasses and cosmetics after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister last July.

The sunglasses were donated by manufacturers ToyShades, the wristwatch was from Shropshire clockmakers Newgate World, and the cosmetics were from King Abdullah of Jordan.

We saw a picture of her wearing Italian sunglasses, a spokesman for ToyShades tells me.

We thought, if the British First Lady isnt wearing British shades, then how could we convince the public to buy British? The glasses cost 44 a pair.

Not to be outdone, Newgate World sent Carrie a watch designed by the companys British owner Jim Read. His grandfather Eddie Read developed radio technology for MI5.

Eddie was a bit like Q in James Bond, says a Newgate spokesman.

Carrie Symonds is the first unmarried partner of a Prime Minister to reside at Downing Street and to be invited by the Queen to Balmoral

He invented lots of gadgetry, was proficient in Morse Code and was a staunch HAM radio fanatic.

We sent it to Carrie because we think she is cool.

Under the current Cabinet Office rules, if ministers and their partners wish to keep any unsolicited gifts valued at more than 140, they must pay for the portion of the value that is in excess of 140, plus any tax that the gift may attract.

But it seems Carrie decided she didnt want the watch or the sunglasses (even though they were under the limit)  or indeed the cosmetics.

The gifts are now being held by department and have become the property of the government.

Carrie is not a high-maintenance prime ministerial consort.

She wore a 69 Marks & Spencer herringbone coat and a 98 velvet Anthropologie skirt when she stood on the steps of No 10 on the day Boris led the Tories to a landslide victory.

The cosmetics were from King Abdullah of Jordan. Boris Johnson is pictured above greeting him outside Downing Street

Koala saviour Weymouth made an honorary Aussie

Conservationist: Weymouth, with wife Emma and a furry guest

Strewth!

Viscount Weymouth has been named Honorary Australian Of The Year for his efforts in conserving koalas.

Im thrilled that the High Commissioner saw fit to bestow this award, he tells me after receiving the accolade at Australia House in London.

Really, its for the whole team, of whom Im incredibly proud.

Weymouth  whose Longleat Wildlife and Safari Park is the only zoological collection in Europe to look after southern koalas  sent two specialists Down Under to help with the wildlife rescue operation following the bushfires.

Martin Freeman has come a long way from Slough and the BBC sitcom mockumentary The Office.

The actor, who played Dr Watson opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, has amassed 5.37 million for his acting company, Geoffrey Joseph Ltd.

The figure is disclosed in newly published accounts that suggest he made more than 750,000 last year.

Freeman, 48, became an unlikely Hollywood star with his performance as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit film trilogy, and went on to appear in blockbuster Black Panther.

Jessicas 30 outfit saves the big day...

Jessica Mulroney with her best friend Meghan Markle

Jessica Mulroney in the dress she bought as a last-minute emergency for her pal's wedding

The Duchess of Sussexs best friend Jessica Mulroney has a cool head in a crisis.

The 40-year-old wedding planner, whose father-in-law is Canadas former prime minister, Brian Mulroney, navigated a near-fashion disaster with aplomb at a marriage ceremony she helped to organise in Florida.

The mother-of-three  whose twin sons, Brian and John, were pageboys at Meghan and Harrys wedding in 2018  reveals that she arrived wearing the exact same outfit as an important guest, but solved the problem by dashing out to buy a 30 alternative.

Sharing a picture online of the new outfit  a figure-hugging magenta gown  she writes: What happens when the mother of the groom has the same dress as you? You find another one for $40 and just deal. Moms must shine.

Peacock Portillo struts his stuff in another trail blazer

Lurid blazer-wearing former Tory minister Michael Portillo reveals that he regularly splashes out on a new wardrobe to look his best on screen.

I spent part of this morning with my tailor planning new jackets, says dandy Portillo, who returned last night in the BBC2 series Great Asian Railway Journeys.

Normally, I get two or three new ones a year, so theres not a total turnover. Viewers, no doubt, will be able to see old favourites from several years ago, but the stock is refreshed.

And then, of course, there has to be new accessories: new shirts, new trousers, new pocket handkerchiefs, new nightshirts . . .

What a peacock.

Several of her die-hard fans had come dressed as her character Alexis. She is pictured with them above

Joans fans turn up as Alexis  big hair and all

Dame Joan Collins could have been forgiven for having an identity crisis when she attended an event near her Californian home.

The 86-year-old Dynasty star arrived at a theatre in LA where she was speaking on-stage about her life and career  only to see that several of her die-hard fans had come dressed as her character Alexis.

Will the real Joan Collins stand up? she captioned a picture online, depicting herself with two drag queens, Ethylina Canne and Morgan McMichaels (above), who both imitated her look by sporting 80s dresses, oversized clutches and similar hairstyles.
New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found that the recent violent protests in several parts of the country had a financial link with the Popular Front of India (PFI), the central probe agency also found that the organisation has it's offices in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, where the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is going on for more a month now, sources said.

The agency, which is probing the PFI under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has found that at least Rs 120 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the new citizenship las was passed by the Parliament late last year.

The ED source said that it suspected that these funds were used by PFI affiliates to fuel anti-CAA protests in various parts of the country.

The source said that in Shaheen Bagh, where women have been sitting on protest against CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for more than a month braving the severe winter chill, the PFI has three offices. There is also one office of Campus Front of India in the area.

The source said that Rehab Foundation India (RFI), which is also mentioned in the report of transferring money into different bank accounts, has one of it's offices in Jamia Nagar and another in Jungpura in South Delhi, while PFI's another affiliate SDPI has it's office in Hazrat Nizamuddin area. There is also one office of National Confederation of India located in Jungpura area.

The ED source further said that the agency identified PFI's 73 bank accounts and money trail of the funding to the tune of Rs 120 crore for the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests.

The source said that the bank accounts with huge transactions were detected in the last two months.

He said, "The ED has been keeping a close tab on the 27 bank accounts of PFI, nine bank accounts of RFI, 37 individuals and entities in 17 different banks."

"During the probe it was found that the money transferred into these bank accounts were either done by cash deposit, NEFT or RTGS or IMPS mode. And the amounts were withdrawn on the same day or within two to three days, leaving only minimal amount in these accounts," the source revealed.

The source further claimed that from the PFI's Syndicate Bank account, maintained in Nehru Place branch in New Delhi and in western Uttar Pradesh districts of Hapur, Shamli, Bahraich, Bijnor, Dasna and others, deposits of Rs 41.5 crore wwere made. "About Rs 27 crore was deposited through cash payments in 27 bank accounts," he said.

The source further claimed that senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal received an amount of Rs 77 lakh, while Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising received Rs 4 lakh, senior advocate Dushyant Dave received Rs 11 lakh and Abdul Samad received Rs 3.10 lakh in his bank account.

Last month, after violent protests against CAA and NRC in Uttar Pradesh, the state police had sought a ban on PFI, days after its complicity was suspected in the statewide violent protests against the amended citizenship law.

Nearly 20 people were killed during these protests in Uttar Pradesh.

An FIR by the National Investigation Agency and chargesheet against the PFI had formed the basis for the ED to file a PMLA case against it.

The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF).

aks/arm
Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and her Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Sunday announced that President Akufo-Addo will be paying a State visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from February 7  8.

This came to light when the two ministers met in Riyadh to discuss bilateral relationship between the two nations.

Madam Botchwey, who is the first Ghanaian Foreign Minister to officially visit the Kingdom, said the purpose of the Presidents visit was to deepen relationships between the countries.

She recalled that Ghana and Saudi Arabia had enjoyed cordial bilateral relations which date back to the 1960s and indicated that since then, the bonds of friendship between the two countries have witnessed steady growth.

Saudi Arabia is Ghana's oldest bilateral partner in the Gulf Region and that, our relations with Riyadh paved the way for the expansion of our bilateral relations to the rest of the countries in the region, she stated

Saudi Arabia, therefore, continues to remain a priority partner for Ghana in the region.

Madam Botchwey noted that Ghana as a peaceful and stable country offers a gateway to the entire West African market and beyond for the investment interests of Saudi Arabian industries.

She therefore, welcomed opportunities to form mutually beneficial strategic alliances in that regard.

She urged her Saudi counterpart to use his good offices to encourage Saudi investors to take advantage of the attractive incentives, within the context of the Ghanaian Government's agenda to industrialize the economy, to invest in Ghana.

On his part, Prince Faisal, who lauded the cordial relationship between the two countries; said the Kingdom was ready to welcome President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for a State visit.

Prince Faisal said outstanding agreements between the two countries should be finalised in order to strengthen the bilateral relations between them.

---citinewsroom
[January 27, 2020] Airworks Explain Why DJI Tello is the Perfect Drone for Kids

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The DJI Tello is literally a small bundle of joy. Despite weighing only 80g, it has a sturdy frame and offers many flight capabilities and intuitive controls. Designed by the Chinese startup Ryze Tech in collaboration with Intel and DJI, the Tello provides an impressive flight experience and is ideal for those who are just approaching the world of drones. To start flying it, users just need to throw it in the air and it will take off, thanks to the amazing feature Throw&Go. The Tello can also perform cool aerial stunts like 8D flips and flying up and down when in Bounce mode. It can be maneuvered from the touch of a smartphone and includes features that make flying incredibly fun. It is also equipped with a 5MP camera, returning impressive photos and videos. All these characteristics make the DJI Tello the ideal play companion for kids. But there is more. The flying experience can become an educational one thanks to Scratch  a computer language developed by MIT. Kids can now learn coding to program their DJI Tello Boost Combo. Through the mobile programming app Tello Edu, students can command Tello to perform corresponding movements by dragging coding blocks on their smart mobile device. Scratch is part of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at theMIT Media Lab and it can be downloaded for free. It was created having in mind kids between the ages of 8 and 16 but can be used by anyone who wishes to enter the programming world.



Coding is becoming an essential skill in the modern world, so giving kids the opportunity to learn it through play will certainly give them a valuable asset for the future. Scratch can run in more than 40 languages and allows users to create code through Drag&Drop, making it a complete learning experience. Children are encouraged to use their right and left brain to come up with solutions to complex problems. Using Scratch, users can create games, stories and animations to develop their skills. They can also control the Tello with a computer and input pre-planned flights.

The Tello Boost Combo can become an amazing learning tool for schools as well. They can be implemented in programs to make lessons more interactive and fun; students will be sure to be enthusiastic by learning through a hands-on approach and will also retain much more information. Using innovative teaching methods is very important for schools that always want to provide the best educational experience and keep up with the rapid transformations in the tech world. AirWorks, the official DJI dealer in Dubai, offers exclusive assistance in designing educational programs for schools using DJI drones. Their dedication to innovation and education is also manifested through the online learning platform DJI Educational, where users can find courses on how to use all DJI products. Beatrice Baldi

[email protected]

Tel +97145727599 Related Images dji-tello.jpg

DJI Tello

The best drone for kids Related Links DJI View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/airworks-explain-why-dji-tello-is-the-perfect-drone-for-kids-300993234.html SOURCE Airworks Trading LLC

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U.S. President Donald Trump says he will release his plan for the Israelis and Palestinians on Tuesday at noon (1700 GMT), as he welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

We are going to announce tomorrow at 12 oclock. We are going to show a plan. Well see whether or not it catches hold.

If it does that would be great, and if it doesnt we can live with that too, Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump said Israel has a very strange system, noting that he has been waiting for their third election in a year to conclude.

READ ALSO:

I look forward to making history tomorrow, Mr Netanyahu said.

Mr Netanyahu repeatedly thanked Trump, including for the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and the administrations hardline stance on Iran, which he dubbed the most anti-Semitic regime on the planet.

(dpa/NAN)
Smoking has been proven to be bad for health, causing a string of diseases such as cardiovascular disease, lung illness, and cancer. In the 2020 Surgeon General report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on tobacco, people are discouraged from smoking to live a healthier life but are also advised not to resort to vaping.

Image Credit: Africa Studio / Shutterstock

Three decades after the first Surgeon Generals report on smoking cessation, the Surgeon General, Vice Adm. Jerome M. Adams, has released a new report that provides updated evidence on the benefits of smoking cessation.

Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the country, and it harms nearly every organ, costing billions of dollars in direct medical costs every year.

Though there has been considerable progress to reduce cigarette smoking since the first Surgeon Generals report in 1964, 13.7 percent of people or nearly 34.2 million people were still smoking in 2018. In the report, they found that more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are smoking cigarettes.

U.S. Surgeon General Take Action To Help Patients Quit Smoking Play

In 2017, a majority of smokers want to quit completely. But, one of the major reasons why people find it hard to quit smoking is nicotine, a drug naturally found in tobacco, which is highly addictive.

Major conclusions

In a press conference, the Surgeon General, Dr. Adams, reiterated the important role of doctors in helping patients quit.

Forty percent of smokers who see a health provider each year isn't advised by those health providers to quit," Adams said.

Doctors should advise patients about quitting smoking, particularly for health reasons. Smoking cessation reduces the risk of premature death and can add about a decade to ones life expectancy. It also helps reduce the likelihood of experiencing negative health effects, such as cardiovascular disease, reproductive health outcomes, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD), and some types of cancer.

We know more about the science of quitting than ever before. As a nation, we can and must do more to ensure that evidence-based cessation treatments are reaching the people that need them," Dr. Adams, said in a statement. "Today, I'm calling on healthcare professionals, health systems, employers, insurers, public health professionals, and policymakers to take action to put an end to the staggeringand completely preventablehuman and financial tolls that smoking takes on our country, he added.

The era of e-cigarettes

The Surgeon General discouraged people from quitting with e-cigarettes since theres no adequate proof or evidence that it works.

The Surgeon General encouraged people to focus on what studies have shown about e-cigarettes. Also, there arent many studies performed to prove the benefits of e-cigarettes or if theyre effective to help people quit smoking.

There are other approaches coined to help people quit smoking, including FDA-approved medicines and behavioral counseling. These are cost-effective cessation strategies that are safe and proven effective by health experts. The two strategies increase the likelihood of successfully quitting smoking.

The report added that e-cigarettes are continuously changing, taking various forms of products, and are used in many ways. Hence, its not easy to make generalizations about their effectiveness in helping people quit smoking based on clinical trials. At present, there is no solid proof or evidence to conclude that e-cigarettes promote smoking cessation.

Health benefits of quitting smoking

Smoking cessation has many health benefits. For one, there is sufficient data or evidence that stopping smoking help reduce the risk of developing cancer, including lung, laryngeal, oral, pancreatic, bladder, colorectal, stomach, kidney, liver, cervical, and blood cancer.

In terms of cardiovascular disease, stopping smoking can help reduce the levels of inflammation and hypercoagulability markers, leading to improving the level of high-density lipoprotein or good cholesterol in the body.

Aside from that, smoking cessation promotes cardiovascular disease by reducing the development of atherosclerosis, which is a key risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, and stroke. Moreover, quitting smoking has shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Smoking cessation is also beneficial as it reduces the risk of asthma attacks, improves lung function, and promotes reproductive health.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:48:00|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least two people have been killed and several others are injured or missing after an overnight fire destroyed a dock containing around 35 boats in the U.S. state of Alabama on Monday, local media reported.

CNN quoted Jackson County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen as saying that two bodies had been recovered, with six or seven people still unaccounted for. He added some 35 boats suffered "total destruction" as a result of the fire in Jackson County Park in Scottsboro.

"The dock is collapsed; we can't get to all the boats right now," Harnen said. "We have a list of residents here and we are trying to confirm (the) whereabouts of everyone."
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has accused BJP of doing politics over the on-going protests in Shaheen Bagh. He said people have been facing traffic problems and BJP doesn't want to reopen the roads.

The Delhi Assembly elections 2020 are round the corner and political fronts have geared up to lock horns. On Monday, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a scathing attack and accused the BJP of doing dirty politics over the protest being held at Delhis Shaheen Bagh in demand to roll back the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Kejriwal said the Constitution of India gives every citizen a right to protest and its the BJP that does not want the roads in Shaheen Bagh to be reopened.

Delhi CM claimed that the saffron front wants to stretch this matter till the polling day (February 8) and does not want roads to be reopened soon. He added that the commuters have been facing heavy traffic problems between the Shaheen Bagh stretch of the Kalindi Kunj road and it would be reopened immediately after the elections.

Arvind Kejriwal said he can give this in writing that BJP does not want to open the route in Shaheen Bagh and situation to get back to normal as elections in the Capital would take place after a couple of weeks.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal: People are facing problems due to closed road in Shaheen Bagh. BJP doesn't want that the road should open and is doing dirty politics. BJP leaders should immediately visit Shaheen Bagh, talk and get the road re-opened. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/ypItgl5Die  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2020

Kejriwals statement was in reply to newly appointed BJP president JP Nadda and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who accused the Aam Aadmi Party of playing safe and doing vote-bank politics. A day ago, Nadda in a tweet had asked Arvind Kejriwal that acting against the anti-nationals would dent his vote bank.

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T he EU's chief negotiator has said frictionless trade after Brexit will be impossible.

Michel Barnier made the comments to an audience at Queens University in Belfast on Monday evening, just days before the UK is set to leave the EU.

The UK has chosen to become a third country; to leave the single market and the customs union; to leave behind the EUs framework of common rules, common supervision and common Court of Justice, Mr Barnier said.

It has chosen to create two regulatory spaces. This makes frictionless trade impossible. It makes checks indispensable.

Michel Barnier speaking at Queen's University in Belfast / PA

Speaking to politicians including former Irish premier Bertie Ahern as well as business and community leaders, Mr Barnier confirmed checks will take place.

Under the Brexit deal, the UK will leave the EUs customs union but Northern Ireland will continue to enforce the EUs customs code at its ports.

Unionists have spoken against checks taking place between goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, while there has also been widespread opposition to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Mr Barnier said the EU must be able to assess risks on any product coming into its market.

We will need sanitary and phytosanitary checks on food products and live animals, he said.

The EU must be able to assess risks on any product coming into its market and, if necessary, activate physical controls.

These checks must take place somewhere.

And as the whole point of the protocol is to avoid a hard border and protect the all-island economy, it was clear that they could not take place at the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The only real option was to use Northern Irelands other entry points. This is also where such checks are the easiest to implement. And controls will also take place in Dublin and other EU entry points.

Mr Barnier earlier met with Northern Irelands Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill and the regions economy minister Diane Dodds.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill (L) and Ecomony Minister Diane Dodds (R) greet the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier / AFP via Getty Images

He also visited Belfast City Hall, where he signed a book of condolence for former deputy first minister Seamus Mallon.

Speaking at Queens later, he welcomed the resumption of powersharing government in Northern Ireland following a three-year collapse.

He said Stormonts voice had been missed during the negotiations on Brexit and Northern Ireland.

As Brexit approaches, Mr Barnier said it is now the EU and the UKs joint responsibility to make this agreement work on the ground.

Michel Barnier, the EU's Brexit negotiator / PA

The EU takes this responsibility very seriously. And lets be clear: We have been creative and flexible in finding a workable solution. But this is a detailed legal text. Now is the time to implement it precisely, he said.

The Withdrawal Agreement must be applied with rigour and discipline by all sides. It cannot be reopened under the guise of implementation.

We will be monitoring its correct application very carefully.

The EU negotiator concluded by saying he continues to have a profound respect for the UK.
Order to put lawyer on wanted list in Roscosmos embezzlement case vacated

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

17:08 27/01/2020

MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court has overturned a ruling upholding an investigators order to place Chairman of Tretyakov & Partners law firm Igor Tretyakov on the federal wanted list as part of a 330-million-ruble (about $5 million) Roscosmos embezzlement case, his lawyer Stanislav Shostak has told RAPSI.

The matter is returned to Moscows Babushkinsky District Court for consideration by another bench.

According to Shostak, the defendant was not notified by law enforcement that a criminal case had been opened against him. Moreover, investigators violated the procedure of searches in his apartment and office, the defense lawyer said in court earlier. The searches were conducted without representatives of a law chamber, Shostak added.

Tretyakovs attorney insisted earlier that it was necessary to vacate the wanted notice as it is usually considered by courts as an aggravating circumstance.

Currently, Tretyakov is a defendant in the case on embezzling 330 million rubles (about $5 million) from Roscosmos. In late December, the case was returned to prosecutors, according to the lawyers attorney Stanislav Shostak. He is in detention now.

Two other defendants, ex-CEO of the S.A. Lavochkin Scientific Union Sergey Lemeshevsky and chief of the Unions legal department Yekaterina Averyanova were also detained. Later, Averyanova admitted guilt and signed a deal with

investigators in exchange for release from detention under house arrest.

According to investigators, the defendants have stolen assets of Roscosmos by signing fraudulent contracts for provision of legal services with the law firm. All the works were allegedly performed by the corporations own specialists. The overall sum of payments to the firm reached 330 million rubles.

Tretyakov pleads not guilty.




The increase in the number of home owners in Northern Ireland moving to a new property over the last 10 years has soared higher than anywhere else in the UK, a report has found

The increase in the number of home owners in Northern Ireland moving to a new property over the last 10 years has soared higher than anywhere else in the UK, a report has found.

And the average house price paid by UK home movers has surged by almost 135,000, or more than two-thirds, during the past decade.

Across the UK, home movers paid 330,984 on average in 2019, up by 69% from 196,386 in 2009, a rise of 134,598, Lloyds Bank found.

Those moving home in London are handing over 641,118, 103% more than back in 2009, when they would have spent on average 315,707 to buy in the city.

People are also taking larger amounts of equity with them as they take a step up the property ladder.

Home movers put down average deposits of nearly 100,000 in 2019, a hike of over 27,000 compared with 72,075 a decade ago, the research found. Londoners require the largest deposit of 197,700 towards a purchase, nearly double the average home mover deposit of the UK of 99,515.

Lloyds estimated there were 347,758 home movers purchasing with a mortgage in 2019 - up by 13% since 2009, but down by 1% on 2018.

Northern Ireland has seen the greatest increase in the number of home movers since 2009, according to Lloyds.

There has been a 47% hike over the course of the decade while the average house price paid here has grown by 15%.

Those moving home in Northern Ireland are paying an average of 191,286.

Their average deposit is 57,554 - 30% of the asking price.

In the South East of England, the number of home movers has barely increased at 1%, likely due to the average home mover house price in the area having grown 85% over the same time period, Lloyds said.

Andrew Mason, mortgage director at Lloyds Bank, said: "We've only seen a small increase in the number of people moving home over the last decade, with rising house prices likely to be the main reason for the slowdown."

He continued: "There are still areas that offer promising opportunity for home movers, with Northern Ireland and Scotland in particular looking more affordable.

"However, it's clear that the main challenge of raising sizeable deposits is not limited to first-time buyers."

Average home mover prices and deposit

Average home mover house prices in 2019 followed by the average deposit paid and the deposit as a percentage of the purchase price of the home, according to Lloyds Bank:
A senior journalist moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking impleadment in a batch of petitions seeking a direction to permit the Muslim Women to enter and offer prayers inside mosque.

A 9-judge Constitution bench said on January 13 that it would deal with the larger issue of whether courts can intervene in "particular religious practices" and hear a batch of pleas including those seeking entry of Muslim women in mosque.

Other matters to be considered by the bench include the issue of entry of women and girls of all ages in Kerala's Sabarimala temple, female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community and barring of Parsi women, married to non-Parsi men, from the holy fire place at Agiary.

The 9-judge bench is likely to take up for hearing these petitions in the first week of February.

The top court had on April 16, 2019, issued notice on a plea filed by Yasmeen Zuber Ahmad Peerzade and others seeking a direction to permit Muslim women to enter mosque to offer prayers and declaration of the customary tradition of denying them that as illegal and unconstitutional.

Petitioner Ziya Us Salam, currently associated with a leading magazine, had sought impleadment in the petition filed by Peerzade and said that neither the Quran nor the Hadith bars or prohibits the entry of Muslim women in mosques.

"That, neither the Quran nor the Hadith bars or prohibits the entry of Muslim women in mosques. In fact, in Quran at nearly 60 places, Allah asks both men and women to "establish" prayer, as opposed to merely offering prayer. Praying in isolation does not amount to establishing prayer," he said in his petition filed through advocate Farrukh Rasheed.

He contended in his plea that Prophet Mohammad himself permitted women to enter mosque and it is a permission well respected in mosques across West Asia, Europe and America.

"Men and Women pray at Masjid-al-Haram in Mecca and they pray in Al Masjid al Nabvi in Medina," the plea said, adding that Namaz is the second of the five obligatory pillars of Islam and is initiated with the recitation of the 'adhaan' which means a call for prayer.

He said that in India, though there may not be an explicit ban for women to enter mosques there is a "tacit ban" inasmuch as inter alia there is no separate entry for women, no separate ablution area for them and so on.

"This practice is against the tenets of Quran and Hadith. In India, Mosques are made by men for men. Women are seldom members of the mosque Committee and their needs and requirements are never taken into regard when mosques are constructed and managed. This passive discrimination is against the tenets of Islam and violates gender justice which is a Constitutional guarantee," his plea said.

He said that the practical ban on women to enter mosque in India violates her right to establish prayer in Mosque, which is permitted and encouraged by the Quran and Hadith.

Salam is an author of several books including one 'Women in Masjid- A quest for Justice', wherein he has argued that in Islam, Men and Women are equals and Islam does not prohibit the entry of Muslim Women in Islam, rather encourages it.

"When the muezzin pronounces, 'Hayya allas salah, hayya alal falah' meaning, 'come for Prayer, come for success' he invites everybody without any discrimination on the basis of gender. The prayer is to be offered in the congregation and for this purpose, a mosque is created so that everyone can assemble at one place," the plea said.

He said in his plea that in India, women rarely offer their prayers in a mosque and sought impleadment saying that he can provide a reliable insight into the issues for consideration in the present petition and assist the court in making a fully informed decision.

"There are many verses in the Quran and Hadith (Bukhari Shareef and Sahih Muslim) in which the Prophet has in fact encouraged the women to pray in mosque. The same will be cited and relied upon during the course of arguments," the plea said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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London to Kolkata, Sandakphu and Darjeeling - All in a span of 60 hours!



Background



I was planning to go to India in November as it was my parents' 50th marriage anniversary. During a discussion with a few Bhpians and members of East India Offroad group, a plan was hatched for going to Sandakphu in a group. It sounded exciting as it meant I could club a visit to the Himalayas along with the anniversary celebration in a single trip. On top of that, it was our 14th marriage anniversary as well. What can be a better place than the Himalayas to celebrate the occasion? The problem was that I did not get too many days leave as it was quite hectic in office in London. So it was decided that we would start the day after I landed in Kolkata and come back in 2 days. I wanted to take the Thar but a friend of mine (Shaswat) suggested that we take his Pajero Sport. It became even more exciting as I had always wanted to see how a long wheelbase vehicle tackles the steep turns of Sandakphu.



Luggage ready for the London-Kolkata journey. Don't miss the Team-Bhp sticker





The Emirates Airbus A380 at the Heathrow airport





My two beauties waiting at home -











I felt bad not taking either of them for the trip. But they have been to Sandakphu many times! So I hope they did not mind giving the Pajero Sport a chance.



The Pajero was already with PapaBravo, so I took it from him and started driving it to get a bit accustomed.







This Pajero is a heavily loaded one with Ironman high-lift kit, ARB offroad bumpers, Ironman snorkel, sump guard and a 100 kilo recovery kit etc. What I felt after driving the Pajero was that it bounced a lot more than a stock one due to stiff suspension and felt lethargic due to the additional weight.



Day 1 - Kolkata to Darjeeling via Sandakphu



The day after landing in Kolkata we started for Sandakphu in the evening at around 7:30 PM. The other vehicles had already started. Samba has published a wonderful travelogue with mind boggling pictures about this trip -

Bhpians Samba, SouraC and Avrendu were about 2 hours ahead of us travelling in Samba's Duster. They kept on updating us about the road conditions, jams, which roads to take etc. It was really helpful. I don't think I have thanked him even once for that. So I am saying "Thank you Samba" now if you read this travelogue. We met Bhpian Dip27in a couple of times on the way. He was driving a yellow Pajero SFX that looks stunning and can be identified from a long distance.



I was driving on the Kolkata Siliguri route after a gap of almost 9 months. The last one was in February 2019 while returning from Meghalaya. I was thoroughly enjoying the drive. In fact I was enjoying it so much that I refused to give the steering to PapaBravo. PapaBravo tried to coax me, then threaten me and finally complained to Rajsri. But I was not budging. I kept on saying that I was driving in India after a long time and I was not going to give up easily. Finally a deal was struck to hand over the vehicle at Islampur and I kept my word. The best part of the drive was that all four of us kept on chattering something or other throughout the journey. So many topics come up when you meet after a long time! I never felt tired even for a moment.



Dusty and smoggy SH7





The two Mitsubishis filling up diesel near Siliguri





We crossed Siliguri at 5 am. It took us nine and half hours to reach Siliguri from Newtown in Kolkata. We have never done this stretch so fast in any other vehicle till date. Shows how much of a difference a good long distance tourer can make. PapaBravo drove till Manebhanjang. In between, we made a small mistake and took the Darjeeling route instead of taking the Mirik route. The plan was to meet everyone at 8 am in Manebhanjang. Even after the route fiasco we reached there at 7:30 am.

Samba's Duster and Dip27in's Pajero were already at Manebhanjang. After a quick catchup, we started for Chitrey where we planned to have breakfast and wait for Biswadeep's Scorpio 4WD and Soham's Gypsy. We had to hire a MM550 from the Land Rover Association as they are not allowing private cars to go alone anymore. This MM550 was to become our lead vehicle.



Samba checking out the MM550





It helped us in one way. Shaswat's plan was to make a short movie on Sandakphu and this gave him an opportunity to capture the videos of the vehicles from a lead vehicle. Shaswat had a team of videographers who had already reached Manebhanjang. Shaswat, Ujjwal (the lead videographer) and his assistant Sunny hopped on to the MM550 at Chitrey.



Ujjwal, the lead videographer, getting the gadgets ready for the trip





Shaswat, the upcoming movie director





The stunning yellow Pajero SFX at Chitrey





The team having breakfast as we waited for the Scorpio and Gypsy to join us





From the left: SouraC, Avrendu, PapaBravo and BlackPearl





Got our picture clicked as we waited

"Change is the only constant" might sound very cliche, but that is exactly what came to mind while sipping hot tea in Darjeeling on a very cold night! Just 60 hours before that, we had been in London. A long haul flight, lengthy immigration process, jet lag, driving a big Pajero Sport after driving a little Mini Cooper for many months, the notorious Kolkata Siliguri route, drive up to Sandakphu, friend's AMS, drive down to Darjeeling - all in a span of 60 hours felt like a blur! Human beings tend to push the limit and keep on pushing it further till something unexpected happens. Then we start the process of analysing on what went wrong! That is exactly what happened to us on this trip.I was planning to go to India in November as it was my parents' 50th marriage anniversary. During a discussion with a few Bhpians and members of East India Offroad group, a plan was hatched for going to Sandakphu in a group. It sounded exciting as it meant I could club a visit to the Himalayas along with the anniversary celebration in a single trip. On top of that, it was our 14th marriage anniversary as well. What can be a better place than the Himalayas to celebrate the occasion? The problem was that I did not get too many days leave as it was quite hectic in office in London. So it was decided that we would start the day after I landed in Kolkata and come back in 2 days. I wanted to take the Thar but a friend of mine (Shaswat) suggested that we take his Pajero Sport. It became even more exciting as I had always wanted to see how a long wheelbase vehicle tackles the steep turns of Sandakphu.Luggage ready for the London-Kolkata journey. Don't miss the Team-Bhp stickerThe Emirates Airbus A380 at the Heathrow airportMy two beauties waiting at home -I felt bad not taking either of them for the trip. But they have been to Sandakphu many times! So I hope they did not mind giving the Pajero Sport a chance.The Pajero was already with PapaBravo, so I took it from him and started driving it to get a bit accustomed.This Pajero is a heavily loaded one with Ironman high-lift kit, ARB offroad bumpers, Ironman snorkel, sump guard and a 100 kilo recovery kit etc. What I felt after driving the Pajero was that it bounced a lot more than a stock one due to stiff suspension and felt lethargic due to the additional weight.The day after landing in Kolkata we started for Sandakphu in the evening at around 7:30 PM. The other vehicles had already started. Samba has published a wonderful travelogue with mind boggling pictures about this trip - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...sandakphu.html (A weekend road-trip from Kolkata to Sandakphu) . The reason for putting up another thread is to narrate our experience on the after effects of pushing the limits.Bhpians Samba, SouraC and Avrendu were about 2 hours ahead of us travelling in Samba's Duster. They kept on updating us about the road conditions, jams, which roads to take etc. It was really helpful. I don't think I have thanked him even once for that. So I am saying "Thank you Samba" now if you read this travelogue. We met Bhpian Dip27in a couple of times on the way. He was driving a yellow Pajero SFX that looks stunning and can be identified from a long distance.I was driving on the Kolkata Siliguri route after a gap of almost 9 months. The last one was in February 2019 while returning from Meghalaya. I was thoroughly enjoying the drive. In fact I was enjoying it so much that I refused to give the steering to PapaBravo. PapaBravo tried to coax me, then threaten me and finally complained to Rajsri. But I was not budging. I kept on saying that I was driving in India after a long time and I was not going to give up easily. Finally a deal was struck to hand over the vehicle at Islampur and I kept my word. The best part of the drive was that all four of us kept on chattering something or other throughout the journey. So many topics come up when you meet after a long time! I never felt tired even for a moment.Dusty and smoggy SH7The two Mitsubishis filling up diesel near SiliguriWe crossed Siliguri at 5 am. It took us nine and half hours to reach Siliguri from Newtown in Kolkata. We have never done this stretch so fast in any other vehicle till date. Shows how much of a difference a good long distance tourer can make. PapaBravo drove till Manebhanjang. In between, we made a small mistake and took the Darjeeling route instead of taking the Mirik route. The plan was to meet everyone at 8 am in Manebhanjang. Even after the route fiasco we reached there at 7:30 am.Samba's Duster and Dip27in's Pajero were already at Manebhanjang. After a quick catchup, we started for Chitrey where we planned to have breakfast and wait for Biswadeep's Scorpio 4WD and Soham's Gypsy. We had to hire a MM550 from the Land Rover Association as they are not allowing private cars to go alone anymore. This MM550 was to become our lead vehicle.Samba checking out the MM550It helped us in one way. Shaswat's plan was to make a short movie on Sandakphu and this gave him an opportunity to capture the videos of the vehicles from a lead vehicle. Shaswat had a team of videographers who had already reached Manebhanjang. Shaswat, Ujjwal (the lead videographer) and his assistant Sunny hopped on to the MM550 at Chitrey.Ujjwal, the lead videographer, getting the gadgets ready for the tripShaswat, the upcoming movie directorThe stunning yellow Pajero SFX at ChitreyThe team having breakfast as we waited for the Scorpio and Gypsy to join usFrom the left: SouraC, Avrendu, PapaBravo and BlackPearlGot our picture clicked as we waited Last edited by BlackPearl : 25th May 2021 at 13:26 . Reason: Typo
Coffee Folk. | Photo: Bridget N./Yelp

Looking to sample the finest coffee around town, without emptying your wallet?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the most excellent affordable coffee outlets in Fort Worth, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to get your caffeine fix on a budget.

1. Vaquero Coffee Co.

Photo: Tracy M./Yelp

Topping the list is Vaquero Coffee Co. Located at 109 Houston St., the cafe to score coffee, tea and more is the highest-rated source for inexpensive coffee in Fort Worth, boasting five stars out of 112 reviews on Yelp.

Regarding signature items, "We are primarily focused on serving friendly coffee quickly and affordably," the business notes on Yelp in the section explaining specialties.

2. Buon Giorno Coffee

Photo: Victor D./Yelp

Next up is Buon Giorno Coffee, situated at 915 Florence St. With 4.5 stars out of 296 reviews on Yelp, the coffee and tea shop has proven to be a local favorite for those looking for an economical option.

"A lifelong love of espresso and a desire to see authentic community gave birth to Buon GIorno," writes the history section of the business' Yelp profile.

Furthermore, "At Buon Giorno we seek to create an atmosphere where people of all ages can gather and interact with a sense of genuine community," it continues on Yelp in the section explaining specialties. "This is encouraged by through the centuries-old medium of drinking coffee, just like the European coffee houses of old."

3. Coffee Folk

Photo: Bridget N./Yelp

Coffee Folk, a destination for coffee, tea and more in Eastside, is another much-loved, low-cost go-to, with five stars out of 33 Yelp reviews. Head over to 4147 Meadowbrook Drive to try it out for yourself.

Yelper Tonya B., who reviewed Coffee Folk on Aug. 3, wrote, "Such a cute place. Great coffee at reasonable prices. And local!"

Don N. noted, "What a really nice and enjoyable place to get well-made coffees. Easy, free parking lot and also off-street parking, as well. Staff is very friendly and helpful. This is a nice option for people that like independent and family-owned coffee shops."

Story continues

4. Avoca Coffee

Photo: Rachel R./Yelp

Over in Fairmount, check out Avoca Coffee, which has earned four stars out of 432 reviews on Yelp. Quench your thirst at the economical coffee and tea establishment by heading over to 1311 W. Magnolia Ave.

As far as what the business is known for, "We specialize in coffee," it states on Yelp in the section explaining specialties. "Our expertise is making traditional espresso drinks. We also enjoy brewing coffee in ways most people are not used to."

5. Casablanca Coffee

Photo: Abigail Y./Yelp

Finally, there's Casablanca Coffee, a local favorite with 4.5 stars out of 110 reviews. Stop by 215 W. Eighth St. to hit up the eatery, which serves coffee, tea, breakfast, brunch and bagels, next time you're looking to satisfy your cravings without spending a fortune.

Yelper Catherine M., who reviewed Casablanca Coffee on Sept. 12 wrote, "The best regular coffee, and the Casablanco Latte is delicious! The owners are a father/son duo. They have great customer service and the prices are reasonable. The decor is cozy and charming. Very relaxed vibe. You immediately feel like a regular."

Allison K. added, "Great and affordable coffee. Bring your own cup of any size and it's only $1.50 to fill it up with drip coffee."

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
A kangaroo has been discovered brutally impaled with a fence post, in what wildlife carers believe was a deliberate act of animal cruelty brought on by road rage.

The marsupial was found with a fence post sticking through its stomach and out its back by a member of the public on Clayton Road at Thababen in south-east Queensland at the weekend.

By the time wildlife carers arrived the animal had died a slow and agonising death.

A kangaroo has been discovered brutally impaled with fence post outside Bundaberg in Queensland's south east

A report was lodged to the Queensland Wildlife Carers and Volunteer service on Saturday morning when the kangaroo was still alive.

However because it was a Saturday when the callout was made there was some difficulty finding a volunteer to respond and euthanise the dying animal.

There was also shattered glass around the side of the road where the animal was found.

Queensland Wildlife Carers and Volunteer President Christine Wynne told Daily Mail Australia the way the animal was impaled made it seem deliberate.

'That's my gut feeling and most of the other people I have spoken to agree,' she said.

'My feeling was someone was really cheesed off and in a total rage their car had been damaged.'

Ms Wynne said even if the kangaroo wasn't intentionally impaled, whoever had injured it had left it to die.

A member of the public contacted the RSCPA after finding the animal alive but seriously wounded by the side of the road

'If it was an accident why didn't they try to get help for it. But they didn't. They let it suffer,' she said.

'If you wanted to euthanise it humanely you would bash it over its head with a brick not force a road post through it's stomach. That's gross. They would have had to use a lot of force,' she said.
"Ganjlik Mall CinemaPlus" premium cinema theater held the screening of long-awaited film Bad Boys for Life, its first part was theatrically released 25 years ago.

Rustam Karimov and Arogun Johnny Ayomide, the actors of Azerbaijan State Russian Drama Theatre were disguised as Will Smith and Martin Lawrence characters.

The stars of rap comedy, the official partner of CinemaPlus, The Five; Epi and FTB prepared and performed soundtrack specially for Bad Boys for Life. Then the members of Break-Dance group Caspian Flava Crew Zevvar Karimov, Kamran Guliyev and Agil Guliyev performed thrilling dance for guests.

The event was attended by celebrity, famous journalists, bloggers and entrepreneurs of large organizations.

Directed by: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Vanessa Anne Hudgens.

Synopsis: Detectives Michael Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are back in business!

Well, they are suspended from all operations, but was anything ever able to stop desperate friends? This time Mike Lowrey gets hunted down by somebody from his past. So, the boys will face a great challenge!

CinemaPlus is always ready to please you with the best premieres of cinema world and make lovely surprises!

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
WASHINGTON - Senators faced mounting pressure Monday to summon John Bolton to testify at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial even as Trump's lawyers mostly brushed past extraordinary new allegations from the former national security adviser and focused instead on corruption in Ukraine and historical arguments for acquittal.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this May 8, 2014, file photo, then Baylor University President Ken Starr testifies at the House Committee on Education and Workforce on college athletes forming unions. in Washington. President Donald Trump's legal team will include former Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who led the Whitewater investigation into President Bill Clinton, according to a person familiar with the matter. The team will also include Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

WASHINGTON - Senators faced mounting pressure Monday to summon John Bolton to testify at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial even as Trump's lawyers mostly brushed past extraordinary new allegations from the former national security adviser and focused instead on corruption in Ukraine and historical arguments for acquittal.

Outside the Senate chamber, Republicans grappled with claims in a forthcoming book from Bolton that Trump had wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden. That assertion could undercut a key defence argument  that Trump never tied the suspension of security aid to political investigations.

The revelation clouded White House hopes for a swift end to the impeachment trial, fueling Democratic demands for witnesses and possibly pushing more Republican lawmakers to agree. It also distracted from hours of arguments from Trump's lawyers, who declared anew that no witness has testified to direct knowledge that Trump's delivery of aid was contingent on investigations into Democrats. Bolton appeared poised to say exactly that if called on by the Senate to appear.

We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information," Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said. We do not deal with speculation."

Trump is charged with abusing his presidential power by asking Ukraine's leader to help investigate Biden at the same time his administration was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid. A second charge accuses Trump of obstructing Congress in its probe.

FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2019, file photo, attorney Alan Dershowitz talks to the press outside federal court, in New York. Retired law professor Alan Dershowitz says he hasn't changed at all and has a long history of representing people whose views he doesn't necessarily agree with. Dershowitz is part of President Donald Trump's defense team at the Senate impeachment trial. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Republicans are to conclude their arguments Tuesday.

On Monday, Trump's attorneys, including high-profile lawyers Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz, launched a historical, legal and political attack on the entire impeachment process. They said there was no basis to remove Trump from office, defended his actions as appropriate and assailed Biden, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination to oppose Trump in November..

Former Florida Attorney Ggeneral Pam Bondi devoted her presentation to Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administrations diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. The legal team argued that Trump had legitimate reasons to be suspicious of the younger Biden's business dealings and concerned about corruption in Ukraine and that, in any event, he ultimately released the aid without Ukraine committing to investigations the president wanted.

In this image from video, impeachment manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., argues in favor of an amendment proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to subpoena John Bolton during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Democrats say Trump released the money only after a whistleblower submitted a complaint about the situation.

Trump has sought, without providing evidence, to implicate the Bidens in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Though anti-corruption advocates have raised concerns, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice-president or his son.

Starr, whose independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton resulted in his impeachment  he was acquitted by the Senate  bemoaned what he said was an age of impeachment." Impeachment, he said, requires an actual crime and a genuine national consensus" that the president must go. Neither exists here, Starr said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives as defense arguments by the Republicans resume in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. The stakes over witness testimony at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial are rising now that a draft of a book from former national security adviser John Bolton appears to undercut a key defense argument. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

It's filled with acrimony and it divides the country like nothing else," Starr said of impeachment. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment understand that in a deep and personal way."

Dershowitz, the final speaker of the evening, argued that impeachable offences require criminal-like conduct, though that view is largely rejected by legal scholars. He said nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offence."

Purely non-criminal conduct, including abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, are outside the range of impeachable offences," Dershowitz said.

In this image from video, Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Elizabeth Warren, a presidential campaigner like Biden but also a Senate juror, told reporters she found Dershowitz's arguments "nonsensical.

Even as defence lawyers laid out their case as planned, it was clear Bolton's book had scrambled the debate over whether to seek witnesses. Bolton writes that Trump told him he wanted to withhold security aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations. Trump's legal team has insisted otherwise, and Trump tweeted Monday that he never told Bolton such a thing.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump said. "If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.

In this image from video, Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Republican senators face a pivotal moment. Pressure is mounting for at least four to buck GOP leaders and form a bipartisan majority to force the issue. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority.

John Bolton's relevance to our decision has become increasingly clear, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she has always wanted the opportunity for witnesses and the report about Bolton's book strengthens the case.

At a private GOP lunch, Romney made the case for calling Bolton, according to a person unauthorized to discuss the meeting and granted anonymity.

In this image from video, Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Other Republicans, including Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, said if Trump's former national security adviser is called, they will demand reciprocity to hear from at least one of their witnesses. Some Republicans want to call the Bidens.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didnt know about Boltons book, his office said. But the GOP leader appeared unmoved by news of the Bolton book. His message at the lunch, said Indiana GOP Sen. Mike Braun, was, Take a deep breath, and lets take one step at a time.

Once the presidents team wraps its arguments, senators have 16 hours for questions to both sides. By late in the week, they are expected to hold a vote on whether or not to hear from any witnesses.

FILE - In this July 8, 2019, file photo, national security adviser John Bolton speaks at the Christians United for Israel's annual summit, in Washington. A single paper copy in a nondescript envelope arrived at the White House on Dec. 30. Four weeks later, news of John Boltons book manuscript about his time as President Donald Trumps national security adviser has exploded into public view, sending a jolt through the presidents impeachment trial. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

While Democrats say Boltons revelations are reminiscent of the Watergate drip of new information, Republicans are counting on concerns subsiding by the time senators are asked to vote. They are being told that if there is agreement to summon Bolton, the White House will resist, claiming executive privilege.

That would launch a weeks-long court battle that could drag out the impeachment trial, a scenario some GOP senators would rather avoid.

Trump and his lawyers have argued repeatedly that Democrats are using impeachment to try to undo the results of the last presidential election and drive Trump from office.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber during a break in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democrats, meanwhile, say Trump's refusal to allow administration officials to testify only reinforces that the White House is hiding evidence. The White House has had Bolton's manuscript for about a month, according to a letter from Bolton's attorney.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: Were all staring a White House coverup in the face."

Rep. Adam Schiff, who leads the House prosecution team, called Bolton's account a test for the senators.

In this image from video, White House adviser and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

I don't know how you can explain that you wanted a search for the truth in this trial and say you don't want to hear from a witness who had a direct conversation about the central allegation in the articles of impeachment, Schiff said on CNN.

Bolton's account was first reported by The New York Times and was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the manuscript on the condition of anonymity. "The Room Where It Happened; A White House Memoir" is to be released March 17.

Joe Biden, campaigning in Iowa, said he sees no reason for testimony by him or his son.

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This artist sketch depicts Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, listening to defense arguments in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

I have nothing to defend. This is all a game, even if they bring me up," he told reporters. "What is there to defend? This is all -- the reason hes being impeached is because he tried to get a government to smear me and they wouldnt. Come on.

Trump said people could look at transcripts of his call with Ukrainian President Zelinskiy to see there was no pressure for investigations to get the aid. In that call, Trump asked Zelinskiy to do us a favour with the investigations as he was withholding nearly $400 million in military aid to the U.S. ally at war with Russia.

Democrats argued their side of the impeachment case last week, warning that Trump will persist in abusing his power and endangering American democracy unless Congress intervenes to remove him before the 2020 election.

Eventual acquittal is likely in a Senate where a two-thirds majority vote would be needed for conviction

_____

Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Mary Clare Jalonick, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Daly, Laurie Kellman and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
Some firms have brought in so-called hangover days to accommodate staff with busy social lives. Photo: Getty

Flexible working is becoming the norm for many businesses, who allow workers to clock on remotely or work hours outside the traditional nine-to-five. The benefits are far-reaching for both employees and employers, boosting mental wellbeing, work-life balance, and productivity, to name a few.

Some firms are taking things a step further, however. Not only do they allow flexible working, but theyve brought in so-called hangover days to accommodate staff with busy social lives.

Digital marketing firm The Audit Lab is one such company which allows staff to be honest about why they wont come into the office and take a dedicated hangover day.

READ MORE: Christmas parties and team-building days: Whats the problem with forced fun at work?

A hangover day is essentially a work from home day that is booked in last minute. Due to the nature of our industry, which can involve schmoozing with clients and networking, there are a lot of conferences, events and work dos, the company explains in a blog post.

Our approach acknowledges that our staff may like to enjoy a drink or two at these events. A hangover day then allows them  if theyre feeling a little worse for wear the morning after  to ring up their line manager and ask if they can still complete their work, but from the comfort of their own sofa. Or bed, we dont judge.

There are several rules, including being honest, giving as much notice as possible and being prepared  making sure you take your laptop home beforehand so you can work from there. Employees are also asked to make smart choices for the business  so no calling in with a hangover when theyre due to do a presentation.

READ MORE: Netflix offers employees unlimited holidays  should all businesses try it?

According to The Audit Lab, allowing staff to be honest about hangovers helps build trust and a culture of openness. It also helps improve work-life balance and helps draw talent from the nearby hub of Manchester to the company, which is based in Bolton.

Story continues

Hangover days may seem like a great way to improve employee engagement. It could also be said to promote a culture of trust between the employee and their manager, a cornerstone of engagement  as the alternative is often that the employee calls in sick with a lame excuse, says Gillian McAteer, head of employment law at Citation.

It also protects the business from situations where the employee comes in when their fitness to work is impaired and at best, performs under par as a result or at worst, poses a risk to themselves, colleagues or customers.

READ MORE: Five ways to feel more alert at work and beat the afternoon slump

It sounds like a dream come true for many people, particularly those who have suffered through alcohol-induced nausea in a stuffy meeting room. But are there any downsides?

Perhaps the most obvious is that employees may be more inclined to go out drinking on a weeknight if they feel they can get away with it, which could have a detrimental impact on their work and productivity.

Critics have also pointed out that hangover days may also encourage staff to drink more, which is at odds with their duty to safeguard employee health and mental wellbeing. Alcohol is already often used by workers as a coping mechanism for stress and the pressures of modern life.

READ MORE: Paid leave: Why do we get holiday guilt?

According to the Institute for Alcohol Studies, as many as 89,000 people may be turning up to work hungover or under the influence of alcohol every day, costing the economy up to 1.4bn ($1.83bn) a year. On average, respondents believed themselves to be 39% less effective when they were drunk or hungover.

Hangovers are the most commonly reported negative consequence of alcohol use with significant health and economic implications. Whilst previous research has estimated the costs associated with hangover-related absenteeism in the workplace, the cost of reduced productivity of being hungover on the job has not been explored, said Dr Sally Adams, assistant professor in health psychology at the University of Bath, and an expert adviser to the project.

McAteer adds that employers should consider the wider implications such as religious discrimination claims from employees who are unable to benefit from this perk if their religion  or any other factor  prohibits them from drinking alcohol.

READ MORE: How to tackle work-from-home loneliness

A better approach would be to offer employees a couple of as you need it days which could be taken to cover hangover days, Christmas shopping or days when the employee is just feeling low, he says. Taking a day for themselves may be just what is needed to help them take care of their mental health and return to work reinvigorated and appreciative of having an employer who is interested in their welfare.

And while coming into the office after the Christmas party is one thing, its another if youre hungover at work every single week.

Andrew Misell, director of Alcohol Change UK in Wales, stated: Theres nothing wrong with having a drink, but knowing in advance that youre going to drink to the point where you cant get into the office the next day is a different story.
After all the Brexit bickering, a rare moment in Parliament yesterday: a House of Commons almost in total agreement.

It occurred during an Urgent Question granted to Tom Tugendhat (Con, Tonbridge & Malling) over Huaweis potential involvement in building the UKs 5G network, a decision on which is due from the National Security Council today.

Ex-Army intelligence officer Tugendhat wants nothing to do with Chinese telecoms giant, widely seen as an unofficial arm of President Xis government.

Tom Tugendhat (Con, Tonbridge & Malling) wants nothing to do with Chinese telecoms giant. The reaction around the chamber was almost unanimous. Handing our computer passwords over to Beijings waxworks was barmy

He informed the House that involving the Chinese was nesting a dragon in our critical national infrastructure and that such a move would be letting the fox into the henhouse when really we should be guarding the fence.

The reaction around the chamber was almost unanimous. Handing our computer passwords over to Beijings waxworks was barmy.

With Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan shipped over to the House of Lords, her junior minister Matt Warman was tasked with speaking for the Government.

Warman, incidentally an ex-technology reporter, offered up the usual guff about national security being top of the Governments agenda etc and that any decision made on Huawei and 5G will not be taken lightly.

As he spoke, the Prime Ministers PPS Alex Burghart (Con, Brentwood and Ongar) lurked by the entrance, eyeing matters intently.

From the Government benches, notably crammed with ex-military types, there was widespread incredulity.

He informed the House that involving the Chinese was nesting a dragon in our critical national infrastructure and that such a move would be letting the fox into the henhouse when really we should be guarding the fence

Sir Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford and Woodford Green) thought the decision to involve the Chinese bizarre.

Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) thought it extraordinary, dropping his hands to his sides in exasperation.

Crispin Blunt (Con, Reigate) had a pop at the Americans opposing the deal, saying it was motivated by their trade war with China. Otherwise, condemnation of Huawei was total.

Bob Seely (Isle of Wight), another ex-military intelligence sort, had a shopping list of queries.

Why have previous ministers claimed that Huawei is a private firm, when in no way is that true? he demanded.

With Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan shipped over to the House of Lords, her junior minister Matt Warman was tasked with speaking for the Government. He is pictured above at an earlier Commons session

Why are we told that there are no alternatives when there are? We have had so little parliamentary debate on this issue?

There are a number of questions there... Warman mumbled. The minister was struggling.

Warman gave what answers he could but looked to be gasping under the wave of opposition.

He reminded one of a discarded crisp packet swooshed around in a sudden upgust of wind.

Beside him, Helen Whately stared at her phone and puffed out her cheeks, offering little support. They can be thankless tasks answering these UQs.

John Spellar (Lab, Warley) suspected the Government was trying to build the 5G network on the cheap and was risking our relationship with America just to save a few bob.

Not often your hear Labour MPs sticking up for the Special Relationship these days.

After all the Brexit bickering, a rare moment in Parliament yesterday: a House of Commons almost in total agreement. It occurred during an Urgent Question granted to Tom Tugendhat (Con, Tonbridge & Malling) over Huaweis potential involvement in building the UKs 5G network, a decision on which is due from the National Security Council today

Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con, Harwich and North Essex) thought the real scandal lay in the UKs failure to build a 5G network ourselves.

This prompted supportive nods of the head from Labours front bench.

Alicia Kearns (Con, Rutland and Melton) an ex-Foreign Office bod, provoked gurgles of approval by reminding members that China would never have allowed a foreign power to be involved in building their own infrastructure.

Jonathan Reynolds (Lab, Stalybridge and Hyde) raised an interesting point that whenever MPs travel to China they receive security advice not to take their mobile telephones for fear of being compromised.

Were these really the sorts of people we should be doing business with?

Warman mumbled something about the UK managing its mobile networks differently from China.

Grumpy Chris Bryant (Lab, Rhondda) preferred a moan on behalf of his constituents.

We are talking about 5G, but a lot of my constituents would quite like to see some 4G or, frankly, any G at all!

Warman briefly managed a wry smile. How he must wish Boris would get on and appoint Morgans replacement to save him from afternoons like this.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 18:37:14|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian rebels are preparing to fabricate a chemical attack in areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces in northern Syria to frame the Syrian army, a military statement said Monday.

The state news agency SANA cited a military statement as saying that the rebels in the western countryside of Aleppo and the countryside of Idlib are preparing to fake a chemical attack to frame the Syrian forces and halt their progress against the rebels in the aforementioned areas.

The statement charged that the rebels are preparing to stage the attack under the Turkish support, noting that such fabrications will not achieve the intended goal of bringing the Syrian military operation to a halt.

The new development comes as the Syrian army has launched a wide-scale offensive in the western countryside of Aleppo and the southern countryside of Idlib with the aim of liberating areas along the road connecting Damascus in the south with Aleppo in the north.

Since the Hama-Aleppo road is under rebel control, people have traveled to Aleppo through another extension of the road.

The army is now prioritizing the recapture of the entire road between Hama and Aleppo, which will enable the travel movement to return to its pre-war time from Damascus in the south to Aleppo in the north without rerouting to other roads.
I must admit I always wondered whether it was wise to allow ourselves to become technologically dependent on another country, whichever country, for something as critical as 5G technology.

That is my view, but I would say if the decision goes the other way this week, as some of the signs seem to indicate it might, I hope there will also be some reflection in the US because we have never needed the Western alliance to be stronger than now.
OReilly, Talbot & Okun in Springfield has announced that Dustin Humphrey, a project engineer for the company, has recently become a Massachusetts registered professional engineer.

He specializes in geotechnical engineering, including foundation design, building settlement studies, and slope stability analysis. Humphrey has performed subsurface investigations, construction and earthwork monitoring, and landfill inspections throughout Massachusetts. He has experience with construction vibration monitoring and the assessment of potential impacts to nearby buildings and structures. Humphrey is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and practitioner advisor to the Western New England University ASCE student chapter.

OReilly, Talbot & Okun also has announced that Mark OMalley, of Hampden, was recently promoted to project manager.

OMalley specializes in providing environmental consulting and regulatory compliance services in Massachusetts, Connecticut and surrounding states. He has successfully implemented remedial projects of various scales and achieved regulatory milestones. OMalley will continue to bring technical expertise and a strong work ethic to each and every project.

OReilly, Talbot and Okun Associates Inc. is a geoevironmental and safety company with offices in Springfield and Westborough, and Manchester, Connecticut. To learn more, visit oto-env.com.
Chennai, Jan 27 : DMK President M.K.Stalin on Monday said he was deeply troubled on seeing the latest photo of imprisoned Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

In a tweet, Stalin said: "Deeply troubled to see this picture of @OmarAbdullah." Abdullah's latest photograph wearing a woollen cap and sporting a long white beard surfaced on social media on Saturday, and went viral.

The photo shows him smiling with snow in the backdrop. The photo has a retro touch to it. According to sources, the photograph is genuine.

The National Conference leader has been in detention since August 5 when the Constitution's Article 370, conferring special status to the state was abrogated.

In October, a photo of Abdullah, in which he was sporting a smaller beard, had surfaced.

Stalin also tweeted: "Equally concerned about Farooq Abdullah, @MehboobaMufti & other Kashmiri leaders who are incarcerated without trial or due process." The DMK leader demanded the central government to immediately release all political prisioners and restore normalcy in Valley.
The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are going on in a planned way, but the Narendra Modi government will not spare anyone involved in instigating the people against the latest law, said former MP Vinay Katiyar. People have been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Delhi`s Shaheen Bagh area for over a month now.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging in dirty politics and said that it does not want the stretch of road in Shaheen Bagh to be opened. "People are facing trouble due to the closed stretch of road in Shaheen Bagh area. BJP does not want it to be opened. It is indulging in dirty politics. BJP leaders should immediately visit Shaheen Bagh and hold talks with the people, and get the road opened," said Kejriwal in a tweet.

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Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed Kejriwal saying that he is silent on the issue. "Shaheen Bagh is emerging as a textbook case of a few hundred people seeking to suppress the peaceful majority. This is the true face of Shaheen Bagh and it is important that the country sees it. Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal both are silent," Prasad said during a press conference on Monday.

Protests erupted in different parts of the country last year over the Citizenship Amendment Act which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh if they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
Above, Iranian mourners of Gen. Soleimani, killed in a U.S. attack Jan. 3.

By Mark Hemingway, RealClearInvestigations

January 27, 2020

A lobbying group with alleged ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran is exerting its influence in Congress amid heightened U.S.-Iranian tensions over recent deadly episodes, including the American drone killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

In recent weeks the Washington, D.C.-based National Iranian American Council, which played a pivotal backstage role in securing the Obama-era nuclear deal abandoned by President Trump, has worked in public and behind the scenes to shape Americas response to the conflict.

On Jan. 7, after Iran fired missiles at U.S. military bases in Iraq, the group issued a statement saying, Donald Trump owns this 100%.

The next day, Jan. 8, it co-hosted a No War With Iran Strategy Call that featured presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with Reps. Barbara Lee and Ro Khanna, both California Democrats.

Days before Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had this post-debate flareup on Jan. 14, they were in agreement on a No War With Iran Strategy Call co-hosted by the group that worked behind the scenes to sell the Obama nuclear deal with Iran.

On Dec. 12, weeks before the crisis was touched off by an Iranian-led attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the lobbying group backed a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin by 17 Democratic members of Congress, urging the Trump administration to lift economic sanctions on Iran.

In response to the groups continued influence inside the Beltway, and at a time of alarm about foreign meddling in American politics, three Republican senators  Arkansas Tom Cotton, Indianas Mike Braun, and Texas Ted Cruz  last week sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr urging the Department of Justice to investigate the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and its sister organization, NIAC Action, for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. According to the senators, the group purports to improve understanding between American and Iranian people but in reality seems to spread propaganda and lobby on behalf of the Iranian government.

The organization characterized that description as slanderous, adding in a written statement: NIAC and NIAC Action are independent American organizations. We do not receive money from any government, are not agents of any government, and take great pride in our transparency.

But numerous observers say NIACs ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran are clear, citing evidence of close communication between the lobbying groups leaders and Iranian officials.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., are two of the three congresswomen with staff placed by the National Iranian American Council.

Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer who has worked on human rights issues on behalf of the Canadian government, told RealClearInvestigations that the understanding that NIAC is doing the IRIs work in the U.S. is completely accepted by serious Iran observers.

Sharooz said it has become more directly involved in politics through its recently formed action network, which endorses and works for candidates. It also runs programs and places interns in the offices of elected officials.

On Dec. 13, for example, the group announced that it had placed a former intern in the office of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, who had also signed the letter requesting the lifting of sanctions.

The same press release noted past NIAC Congressional fellows have included Yasmine Taeb, the first Iranian American elected to the Democratic National Committee. Taeb worked last year to get the DNC to pass a resolution condemning the Trump administrations decision to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal. NIAC also backed Taebs unsuccessful attempt to mount a primary challenge to Dick Saslaw, the majority leader in the Virginia state Senate.

Two other signers of the anti-sanctions letter also have staff with NIAC ties. Rep. IIhan Omar, D-Minn., has a legislative assistant, Mahyar Sorour, who mounted an unsuccessful run last year for an NIAC Action board seat. And Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., has a legislative assistant, Samira Damavandi, who caused a ruckus at a 2013 press briefing held by then-Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif, when she identified herself as working for NIAC and declared that Iranian sanctions were depriving the nation of medicine and food  a claim Royce disputed.

None of the three representatives responded to requests for comment.

Trita Parsi's high profile in the media is drawing scrutiny because of the groups presumed ties to the Iranian government.

The lobbying arm claims to have over 65,000 supporters and over 8,000 donors, although such assertions have raised doubts in the past. In 2010, a prominent co-founder, Trita Parsi, claimed the organization had 4,000 donors and 43,000 supporters. But the following year he testified under oath that its membership was only about 1,000 people, a number confirmed by the organizations internal communications.

The organization reports that it raised nearly $2.3 million in 2017 and spent $1.8 million in 2017. NIAC says it does not take money from foreign governments but relies instead on individual donations and contributions from influential foundations such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ploughshares Fund.

Parsi is frequently asked to provide the Iranian-American view on Capitol Hill and in the media. His high profile is drawing scrutiny because of the groups presumed ties to the Iranian government.

Parsi, who stepped down as NIACs president in 2018 but remains prominently featured on its website, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a report by Alex Shirazi in the Daily Beast, the idea for NIAC was hatched in 1999 at a conference in Cyprus. There Parsi, now 45, got together with Siamak Namazi, a member of a wealthy Iranian family with major business interests that depend on staying on the good side of Irans authoritarian leaders. Parsi, son of a politically active professor who moved his family to Sweden in 1978 to escape repression under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, co-wrote with Namazi an influential white paper on how to reorient Americas approach to Iran. It emphasized the need to gain influence on Capitol Hill with a goal of lifting sanctions then in place by, among other things, holding seminars in lobbying for Iranian-American youth and intern opportunities in Washington DC.

Two years later, the National Iranian American Council was founded.

Evidence suggests that the Iranian government was involved in the founding of NIAC, working through Javad Zarif, above, a longtime Iranian diplomat and the current Iranian foreign minister.

Parsi, who is not an American citizen, is recognized as the groups founder. But some evidence suggests that the Iranian government  working through Javad Zarif, a longtime Iranian diplomat and the current Iranian foreign minister -- was also involved.

In a 2002 video, Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor at Rutgers University and an Iranian presidential candidate in 2005 and 2013, said Zarif was directly involved in the founding of NIAC. The claim is entirely consistent with how NIAC has behaved, says Shahrooz, calling the group Zarif's publicists in the West.

Attempts to reach Zarif for comment, including through the Iranian Foreign Ministry, were unsuccessful.

A 2009 Washington Times article by Eli Lake reported that Parsi and others were in close contact with Zarif, even helping to arrange meetings between Zarif and members of Congress.

Experts consulted by the Washington Times determined that by arranging such meetings NIAC was potentially violating lobbying laws by helping the regime. This view appeared to be shared by the groups policy director, Patrick Disney. I believe we fall under this definition of lobbyist, Disney wrote in an internal memo published by the Times.

In 2009, federal prosecutors seized the assets of the U.S.-based Alavi Foundation, one of the nonprofits with which Zarif was involved. They alleged that along with NIAC's funding of Shia religious organizations and academic outreach in the U.S. (including a Mideast studies center at Rutgers, where Amirahmadi was once director), the charity was the locus of a money-laundering scheme organized by both Zarif and the Iranian government. In 2017, the foundation forfeited many of its assets to the federal government, including ownership of a 36-story $500 million skyscraper in midtown Manhattan.

In response to Lakes 2009 article, then-Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., sent a letter to Obama Attorney General Eric Holder  similar to the recent one by the Republican senators  asking the Justice Department to investigate whether NIAC is operating as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and lobbying disclosure laws. It is not clear what if any action followed as a result.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., center, has a legislative assistant who has identified herself as working for NIAC.

Further evidence of NIACs close relationship with Zarif emerged from the disclosure of internal emails and memos during the groups 2008 defamation lawsuit against one of its most persistent critics, Hassan Dai, who has long claimed that the group was acting on behalf of the Iranian regime.

The lawsuit dragged on for four years before a judge dismissed it, eventually forcing NIAC to pay Dai $183,480 in legal fees. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge John Bates, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said NIAC couldnt prove it wasnt acting at the behest of Iran. That Parsi occasionally made statements reflecting a balanced, shared blame approach is not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the regime, the judge wrote. Even a moderately competent agent of the Iranian regime would at times take pains to distance themselves from some policies of the regime. But the pattern here is overwhelming.

Parsi served as a foreign policy adviser to disgraced Republican House member Bob Ney, who was sentenced to 30 months in jail for charges related to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Although Parsi was not implicated in any of Neys crimes, he was simultaneously advocating the lifting of Iranian sanctions on Ney's behalf, and bribes to Ney were alleged to be part of a plan to evade them. According to the Justice Department and a report in the Washington Post, Ney in 2003 accepted thousands of dollars worth of air travel, luxury accommodations, and casino chips from Fouad al-Zayat, a Syrian-born businessman sued by the Iranian government in 2007 for failing to deliver on a deal struck in 2002 to deliver a jumbo jet to be used by Irans president.

As conflict in Iraq ramped up in the turbulent years after the 2003 American-led ouster of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Iranian forces led by Gen. Soleimani saw an opportunity to expand the countrys influence and weaken the United States by working with pro-Iran militias inside Iraq. NIAC found a receptive audience among left-wing interest groups. Hassan Dai told RealClearInvestigations that NIAC became part of this anti-war coalition and this coalition became very strong in 2008 and 2009 just before Obama came to office.

Early on, the Obama administration decided to redirect decades of American foreign policy by empowering Iran to be a countervailing regional power to rein in the excesses of Americas Sunni allies, as well as try to gain leverage over Tehrans nascent nuclear weapons program.

The first test of this strategy came in June 2009. After disputed balloting in which in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected president, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in a series of demonstrations known as the Green Revolution. The Iranian government responded with tear gas, arrests, and fatal shootings of protesters.

NIAC became an integral part of the fabled echo chamber of media spin that top Obama adviser Ben Rhodes boasted about in a New York Times Magazine profile.

In his book The Iran Wars, former Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon described the Obama administration ordering the CIA to cut off contact with the protesters and not to implement contingency plans to support them. The White House apparently feared that a popular uprising leading to regime change would undermine its outreach to Iran and hopes to achieve a nuclear deal.

This policy was a tough sell for the administration, but its good relationship with NIAC helped among Obamas antiwar base, if not Iranian-Americans like Hassan Dai. Years later, NIAC would defend Obamas stance during the Green Revolution to pursue the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Green Revolution leaders say NIAC revealed that it does not stand with the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. "I think Trita Parsi does not belong to the Green Movement, said Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an Iranian filmmaker who has served as the spokesman for the movement abroad. I feel his lobbying has secretly been more for the Islamic Republic."

NIAC had become a key partner with the White House by Obamas second term. NIAC also found a key booster and supporter in Ploughshares, the foundation that worked behind the scenes to fund and coordinate messaging among groups in support of the Iran deal, as well as to discredit the deals critics. White House visitor logs showed that Trita Parsi visited the Obama White House 33 times between 2013 and 2016 as NIAC became an integral part of the fabled echo chamber of media messaging that White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes boasted about in a New York Times Magazine profile.

But if getting the nuclear deal with Iran was a major accomplishment, Donald Trumps victory in 2016 meant it was doomed  and that pro-Iranian groups would receive more scrutiny.

In February 2017, just a few weeks after Trumps inauguration, a letter signed by 100 prominent Iranian dissidents urged Congress to launch an investigation into the efforts of Tehran's theocratic regime to influence U.S. policy and public diplomacy toward Iran."

While NIAC was not specifically mentioned, observers noted it would be an obvious target of such an investigation. A congressional staffer who spoke only on condition of anonymity told RealClearInvestigations that if an organization with close ties to Russia were repeatedly accused of lobbying for the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, not to mention taking an active role in staffing congressional offices and working to elect candidates, there would a 24/7 meltdown on cable news.

Instead, the source says NIACs work with the Obama administration conferred an aura of legitimacy on the organization.

In January, after Irans hostilities and the killing of Soleimani, Parsi appeared on CNN for interviews with Jake Tapper and Fareed Zakaria and on other cable news programs, and wrote op-eds arguing that it was the United States and not Iran escalating tensions.

NIAC's untouchable because Trita Parsi is on cable news all the time, says the source. And similar to the problems of getting the media to discuss the underlying facts in Russiagate, it's difficult to get the media to talk about Iran stuff because so much of the media was complicit, in some cases literally working with NIAC to sell the Iran deal.

Shahrooz, a critic of President Trump, argues that the current polarization in Washington is in some ways making it harder to confront the Iran lobby: And so if you say, 'I'm an anti-Trump organization and I want to push for diplomacy,' then suddenly the entire Democratic establishment seems to get behind that regardless of who's the one that's saying it. And I think that's how they've managed to survive for this long.
As a result, Russia was not invited to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, even though the Soviet Army liberated the camp.

The president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, refused to attend the Jerusalem event because he was not asked to speak, though Mr. Putin was.

But the Polish government has tried to weaponize history for its own ends as well, passing a broadly written law that would have made it a crime to accuse Poland of collaboration in the Holocaust. After an international uproar, with critics charging that the bill would stifle free speech and academic freedom, the government reversed course.

Organizers of Mondays ceremony stressed the modern-day lessons of the history of Auschwitz.

We see those old ghosts rear their heads everywhere today, said Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Anti-Semitism, racism, demagogy, contempt and hatred, he continued. We are becoming more and more indifferent, introverted, apathetic and passive. Most were silent as the Syrians were drowning, we silently turned our backs on the Congolese people and the Rohingya people, and now the Uighurs. Our silence is our severe defeat.

As he spoke  on the same ground where 1.1 million men, women and children, mostly Jews, were murdered  delegations from more than 50 countries looked on. The ceremony was designed to be as free from politics as possible, with the focus on fighting anti-Semitism and giving survivors one more chance to tell their stories.

Although the Holocaust remains a critical area of research for many historians and is a staple of school curriculums in many countries, there is fear that the memory of what happened at the camps is fading among younger generations.
(Natural News) As has been long reported by the independent media, so-called white supremacist groups are actually run by the FBI, and it was the FBI that masterminded the actions of a group called The Base, which provided a pretext for the authoritarian actions of Democrats. In particular, Virginia Gov. Northam invoked the fake threat of this white supremacist group to nullify the Second Amendment during yesterdays pro-2A rally in Richmond, underscoring how the treasonous FBI conspires with treasonous Democrats like Northam to both run the terror groups and then use the existence of those very groups as a justification to outlaw guns from law-abiding citizens.

As Big League Politics reports:

[S]tartling details have emerged showing that The Base may in fact be a group run by the feds. Another Base member Yousef O. Barasneh, 22, was arrested and charged on Friday with vandalizing a Racine, WI synagogue last year. Court records show that a federal informant had been giving orders to members of the hate group to commit acts of anti-Semitic terror.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week that a key leader within The Base was a federal informant responsible ordering anti-Semitic terror attacks:

One of the groups ringleaders became an informant and gave investigators details over the past several months. The documents in Barasnehs case do not name the person but note he has been federally charged in another state for his role.

The man admitted he directed the group to vandalize minority-owned properties, calling it Operation Kristallnacht, a reference to Nazi Germany and the night Jewish homes, hospitals and other properties were ransacked and destroyed.

The man told investigators he said: If theres a window that wants to be broken, dont be shy.

This would not be the first time that the federal government has infiltrated extremist right-wing groups and made domestic terrorists into intelligence assets. The FBI infamously paid off Ku Klux Klan leader George Dorsett of Greensboro, NC for years while he was still burning crosses and fomenting the hatred of minorities.

So sure, hed made some fiery speeches, theres no question about it. But if he hadnt, he would have been worthless, said FBI agent Dargan Frierson, who served as Dorsetts handler, essentially laughing off Dorsetts role in the terror group while working for the FBI.

The FBI, in other words, IS the terror group that threatens America. No organization in America has run more terror plots than the FBI itself, which routinely engage in faking 302 interview documents, fabricating evidence, and flat-out murdering patriots at their convenience (Bundy Ranch incident, anyone?). No American is safe while the FBI remains active, free to carry out its treason (James Comey), fraud (Robert Mueller) and ongoing crimes (Christopher Wray) against America. (Read FBIcorruption.news to stay informed.)

Watch armed government snipers on rooftops in Richmond, overlooking the kill zone of unarmed, peaceful citizens

The video channel on Brighteon known as Watchmen Incorporated has posted this eye-opening video, showing the armed government snipers in rooftop positions, ready to fire upon the kill zone cage that was set up by Gov. Northam on the grounds below.

Its clear from multiple sources and a vast array of evidence that Democrats were planning to carry out a mass slaughter of innocents, but their plans were derailed by the overwhelming number of law-abiding citizens who showed up and began filming everything in sight.

Watch this video to fully understand the plan that gun-grabbing Democrats have for America. Yes, they want to put you in a kill box and mass murder you from rooftop overwatch positions.

Brighteon.com/292dc44a-2e26-4119-a7be-54111cf66939

In effect, Gov. Northam deployed snipers in a Las Vegas-style tactical position to fire upon the crowd, and he made sure the crowd was entirely unarmed and unable to fire back once the shooting began.

Gov. Ralph Northam is a criminal traitor and should face arrest by the DOJ for his actions in Virginia. And that doesnt even count his complicity in baby murder, for which he will be judged by God if not the people of Virginia much sooner.

Stay informed. Read NewsTarget.com and watch more videos at Brighteon.com. And remember that Democrats and the deep state are waging WAR on the American people. They cant wait to have the opportunity to kill all patriots, Trump supporters, gun owners and Christians. Make sure you dont give them that chance, or they will take it.

Stay armed. Stay informed. Stay vigilant.
MATTOON  Conagra Brands has sold Lenders Bagels and its Mattoon bagel factory to Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc., a business unit of Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo.

Chicago-based Conagra announced the divestiture earlier this month in a press release on its corporate website, with the transaction including "the Lender's brand and related intellectual property, the production facility in Mattoon, Ill., and inventory." The factory is located at 3801 DeWitt Ave. in Mattoon.

Forbes subsequently reported that Conagra CFO David Marberger expects the Lenders transaction to close during the third quarter of fiscal year 2020. Forbes reported that Conagra had acquired Lender's, a refrigerated and frozen bakery business, as part of its $10.9 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Foods in 2018. Conagra reportedly has sold Lender's to Grupo Bimbo for an undisclosed sum.

According to Forbes, a company spokesperson did not comment on Conagras long-term growth plans in the bakery market but noted that the company regularly evaluates its portfolio of brands and makes changes based on strategic priorities.

Food Business News reported that Bimbo Bakeries USA, based in Horsham, Pa., also owns and operates the Thomas grain-based foods business, which includes bagels in its product portfolio.

In its article, Food Business News also detailed Lenders history dating back to Harry Lender starting his New York Bagel Bakery in his family's garage in New Haven, Conn., in 1927.

Food Business News reported that Harry Lender's sons, Murray and Marvin, began to freeze the bakerys bagels in the late 1950s to keep up with consumer demand, defrosting them for higher-volume weekend sales. This technique reportedly proved to be the catalyst for much of the future success for the company and the product.

According to Food Business News, the Lender brothers took ownership of New York Bagel Bakery in 1960. In 1965, they changed the name to Lenders Bagels and built their first industrial facility.

The Lender's plant in Mattoon opened in 1986. Community leaders organized the first Bagelfest and free bagel breakfast that year as a way to introduce the company to the community. The festival has been an annual tradition ever since then, with Lender's providing tens of thousands of bagels for the breakfast and the parade.

Officials at the Mattoon plant reported to the JG-TC in July that this more than 200,000-square-foot facility produces 2 million bagels per day when it is in full production. They also reported that this plant, staffed by approximately 250 employees, is the sole source for the refrigerated bagels and the frozen ones that Lender's sells throughout the United States, including to schools and other large workplaces.

Food Business news reported that Lenders was sold to Kraft Foods in 1985, allowing Marvin and Murray Lender to spend more time on community development and non-profit work. Kellogg acquired Lenders from Kraft In 1996 for $455 million, but sold the business after only three years to Aurora Foods for $275 million. Four years later, Aurora sold Lenders to Pinnacle.

Contact Stroud at (217) 238-6861.

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Introduction

The State Grid Corporation of China is developing and promoting 3D design standards to digitalize processes for lifecycle substation management throughout the country. The Miluo western 220-kilovolt substation is the organizations CNY 120 million pilot initiative, and the first substation to use 3D digital modeling throughout construction, operations and maintenance. Located in the Hubei province of China, the substation will significantly improve the grid structure in the Miluo area, covering 16-square kilometers and enhancing the reliability of power supplied to 160,000 residents. POWERCHINA Hubei Electric Engineering Co., Ltd. (HEEC) won the bid as lead designer to implement 3D collaborative modeling in accordance with the State Grids design standards and to deliver digital twins to the owner.

Background

The project presented numerous site challenges, including a complex surrounding landscape lined with large residential houses that restricted the layout of the substation facility. To accommodate the compressed footprint, the spatial location of each asset type  including underground works, building structures, electrical equipment and cable trenches  required multiple contributing engineering disciplines in close collaboration. Working against an aggressive 10-month schedule to complete construction, HEEC had to effectively coordinate with each construction organization to safely deliver the project on time. Faced with these design and construction difficulties, the team required integrated BIM, reality modeling, and simulation and visualization technology to apply 3D digital standards and achieve full lifecycle digitalization.

Creating digital context for immersive visualization

To accurately plan the project, HEEC used oblique photogrammetry, captured using an unmanned aerial vehicle, and 3D reality modeling software to survey the substation site and generate a 3D reality mesh. Using geospatial reality modeling helped establish a digital context for the project, visually capturing landscape, vegetation, rivers, lakes, roads and houses surrounding the project area to support substation site and corridor planning. The 3D reality modeling software generates high-precision reality models automatically and can visually reflect various information to help make decisions, said Wei Wang, executive assistant, senior engineering at HEEC.

HEEC relied on the accuracy of the 3D reality model to visualize and analyze the existing conditions, optimizing the incoming and outgoing corridor lines while also minimizing impact on agricultural land and houses bordering the substation. Using the reality mesh enabled the team to avoid the demolition of six houses and reduce the area occupied by the substation by 22 percent, saving 0.94 hectares when compared to the original design scheme. As a result, HEEC saved CNY 2.5 million through the optimal substation layout and reduced earthworks for bored and cast-in-place piles by 63 cubic meters to save an additional CNY 90,000.





Compared to traditional 2D drawings, using a reality modeling application provided reliable

environmental information to rationalize the substation layout amid the constrained site.



Collaborating across design teams

The compressed substation layout, while optimal from an environmental and residential perspective, required multiple engineering disciplines to collaborate to avoid collisions in the tight space. To ensure reliable, quality, detailed 3D design, HEEC established an open, connected data environment, and reengineered the design process. The team coordinated designs to integrate electrical, structural and underground modeling works and was able to avoid 30 collisions, saving CNY 800,000.

The electrical and civil engineering groups shared data and information through 3D models in discipline-specific digital applications that were then imported into the comprehensive substation model available within the connected data environment. Structural design and analysis helped refine the architectural model to achieve less than 1 percent deviation in accuracy between the designed and actual steel material, optimizing the steel frame with just 8 tons of steel to save CNY 120,000 in material costs.





A multidisciplinary design environment where structural, electrical and cable and raceway designs are integrated

helps s to keep all designers working with trusted information to ensure accuracy and speed design.



The interoperability of the design and analysis applications facilitated coordinated digital design to save 65 design days. Establishing collaborative 3D design workflows within the connected data environment, the team created an optimal engineering model, which identified and resolved clashes in advance, resulting in zero changes during underground construction. Through comprehensive collision inspection of the underground facilities, design errors are found in advance and about 30 construction reworks are reduced, said Wang.

Streamlining construction management

The engineering design model, combined with the reality model, forms the substation digital twin where construction drawings and material quantities can automatically be extracted. Committed to full lifecycle digitalization for delivery of the substation, HEEC explored various methods to use the 3D design model to digitally guide construction. The team relied on mobile applications to enable on-site construction staff to access and check the substation model and associated drawings. Using iModels and 3D PDF models facilitated integration of various forms of data and dynamic simulation, allowing construction crews to visualize equipment installation and better understand the construction process. Working in a connected data environment with these mobile digital solutions provided on-site workers with convenient access to the 3D design model, improving workflow and communication while effectively guiding construction to save 15 working days.

With dynamic construction simulation, HEEC performed a comparative analysis between the planned construction schedule and actual on-site process to effectively manage changes in real time. With the technology providers digital construction software, we can systematically and comprehensively manage and control the progress of the project, analyzing the progress deviation at all times to control the possible risks, explained Wang. Introducing mobile technology and the technology partners digital construction software, HEEC used the 3D design model to streamline construction management, achieving full construction digitalization to complete the Miluo substation 30 days ahead of schedule.

Modernizing substation workflows

By creating a digital twin of the substation using reality modeling, BIM, construction simulation, and virtual reality applications reduced total investment of the project by CNY 6.3 million. To realize full lifecycle digitalization of the substation, HEEC used near photorealistic visualization to establish and deliver digital twin models to the owner for more efficient operations and substation maintenance. Moreover, the visual animation technology adds the immersive virtual reality element to the 3D design model for optimal communication and understanding of the substation facility operations.





Robust 3D modeling and visualization tools are used to communicate design prior to construction, but also to support operations

and maintenance  making trusted information available whenever and wherever it is needed and understandable by everyone.



ROI:

Created the projects digital context to optimize substation layout, reducing land occupation by 22 percent.

Performed dynamic construction simulation to enable delivery of the substation project one month ahead of schedule.

Created digital twins of an integrated 3D solution for collaborative management, saving CNY 6.3 million.

Optimized collaborative design and resolved 30 collisions, saving CNY 800,000.

Integrated structural design and analysis to save CNY 120,000 in material costs.

As Chinas first substation project put into operation using 3D design standards and digital twins during construction, HEEC industrialized substation delivery for future State Grid initiatives. And this integrated workflow optimized the pilot implementation of collaborative lifecycle 3D modeling to deliver digital twin models, improving design productivity and providing strong technical support for construction, operations and maintenance.

Organization: POWERCHINA Hubei Electric Engineering Co., Ltd.

Solution: Communication and Utilities

Location: Miluo City, Hunan, China
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (January 27, 2020) -- While transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) continues to expand its pool of eligible patients, open heart surgery--resulting in excellent patient survival and fewer strokes when compared to TAVR--is the best option for young and middle-aged adults with aortic valve disease--at least for now, according to a scientific presentation at the 56th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

"Our research favors the use of surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in adults who are younger than 55 years old," said Jennifer S. Nelson, MD, from Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Florida. "Although young and middle-aged adult TAVR candidates do exist, thoughtful patient selection is critical to optimizing triage to SAVR and TAVR."

Using the STS National Database, Dr. Nelson and colleagues from Nemours and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio examined data from patients who were 18 to 54 years old and received aortic valve replacement (SAVR or TAVR) between 2013 and 2018. Approximately one-sixth of these patients had congenital (present from birth) heart disease (CHD). As a result, researchers combined data from two components of the Database: the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD) and the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD).

Overall, 1,580 unique CHSD and 44,173 ACSD operations were analyzed, and more than 15% of the operations were related to CHD. When isolated SAVR (no other complex operations were performed at the same time as the aortic valve replacement) was compared to isolated TAVR, the stroke rate was 0.9% versus 2.4%, respectively. The researchers also found that the 30-day mortality rate was slightly better for isolated SAVR than for isolated TAVR--1.9% versus 2.9%.

TAVR had an advantage over SAVR, though, when the researchers looked at the length of hospital stay: SAVR was longer at 6 days versus 4 days for TAVR (with the length of stay for TAVR expected to continue decreasing). This is especially noteworthy because the number of young and middle-aged adult TAVR candidates is increasing, with TAVR becoming more appealing to younger patients who want to minimize downtime and risks, according to Dr. Nelson. "The wisdom of extending TAVR to a younger adult population that mirrors the characteristics of an older population with acquired aortic valve stenosis may be reasonable," she said.

Dr. Nelson explained that there also are challenges associated with TAVR in younger patients. Most concerning is that little is known about long-term valve durability, and so only time will tell how the latest devices fare as TAVR use is expanded into this group. The researchers also found that patients in this study most often had aortic insufficiency (leakage of the aortic valve) rather than aortic stenosis (narrowing of the valve)--the condition for which TAVR valves currently are approved. Therefore, many younger patients may have a type of valve disease that is "not amenable" to treatment currently available for TAVR, explained Dr. Nelson.

"However, as the durability of these valves and the benefits in other types of valve dysfunction become known through longer-term follow up, I expect the TAVR trend will continue toward younger and younger patients," she said.

In addition, caution should be exercised in the application of TAVR to adult patients with CHD. According to Dr. Nelson, TAVR has been used only rarely in young adults and even less in adults with CHD. "Adults with CHD is a large and growing subgroup, but the anatomy of the aorta, aortic valve, and coronary arteries could present challenges for current TAVR devices. However, adults with CHD often have undergone several procedures in their lifetimes, so we must evaluate new therapies that could potentially avoid open, invasive operations. Further study is needed," she added.

Dr. Nelson recognized TAVR as a "disruptive technology" that has changed the way adult cardiac surgery is practiced. "When handled thoughtfully and responsibly, technological advances such as TAVR can help patients lead longer and fuller lives. As a congenital cardiac surgeon, I seek to define which patients will benefit the most from this new therapy and which patients are better served with other modalities," she said.

"Despite the excellent results and less invasive nature of TAVR in older adults, we need to exercise caution before offering this technology to younger patients," said Robbin Cohen, MD, MMM, professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who was not directly involved with this research. "We just don't know enough about the durability of TAVR in young patients, nor do we know what the best treatment option will be should TAVR valves fail from structural deterioration and need to be replaced."

The heart team approach, including an emphasis on shared decision-making and new collaborations between congenital and adult cardiac surgeons, has become especially important as the number of aortic valve replacement options increases, according to Dr. Nelson. When cardiologists and cardiac surgeons together evaluate aortic valve disease cases, patients receive comprehensive counseling and invaluable insight into all of the viable options for their valve choice, allowing them to make more informed decisions.

"Because each patient is an individual with unique characteristics, deciding on the best valve option means considering the whole picture," said Dr. Nelson. "Taking the time to learn about the risks and benefits of each valve option and sharing in the decision-making process with the heart team is the best way to make the right choice."

###

The other authors of the study were TM Maul, PD Wearden, HK Najm, O Baloglu, DR Johnston, and T Karamlou.

Find comprehensive medical information presented for patients by leading experts in cardiothoracic surgery on the STS Patient Website. For more information, contact Senior Media Relations Manager Jennifer Bagley at 312-202-5865 or jbagley@sts.org.

Founded in 1964, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 7,500 cardiothoracic surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The Society's mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.
Syria's Foreign Minister has written to the UN to confirm that they will continue to attack Idleb and Aleppo, to stop the attacks by terrorists writes SANA.

Syria has affirmed that the military operations carried out by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies in Aleppo and Idleb governorates come after appeals from the Syrian citizens and in response to the systematic crimes committed by the armed terrorist groups.

That affirmation came in two letters sent Saturday by the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry to the head of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General.

Armed terrorist groups, the top of them Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, the Security Council designated terrorist groups, continue to commit terrorist crimes targeting civilian gatherings, civil and service facilities, such as hospitals, schools and places of worship in Aleppo and its countryside and Idleb governorate in Syria, claiming the lives of a number of civilians, injuring others, mostly children, women and the elderly, and causing the destruction of a lot of infrastructure, the letters said.

The letters referred to the martyrdom of 23 civilians over the past week alone in the bombing that was carried out by these groups on al-Sukari neighborhood and other neighborhoods in Aleppo on Jan. 16, 2020.

The letters said that the precise and well studied military operations carried out by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies in Aleppo and Idleb come after the appeals from the Syrian citizens in these two governorates, and in response to the systematic crimes committed by the armed terrorist groups that continue to exploit the unwavering military and logistic support provided by Western countries and their tools in the region.

The letters touched upon the continued siege imposed on civilians by the terrorists of al-Nusra and other groups affiliated, to prevent them from exiting to safe areas through Abu al-Duhour, al-Habbit, and al-Hader corridors, opened earlier by the Syrian army in Idleb and Aleppo countryside, in addition to targeting civilians who are trying to get rid of the criminal practices of these groups.

Syria affirms, the letters concluded, that the military operations carried out by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies to eliminate the gangs of Islamic State, al-Nusra, and other terrorist organizations will not stop until the elimination of those terrorists, who threaten the safety and security of Syrian civilians.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
DETROIT - In some ways, the overflow storage facility for the Detroit Historical Society isnt all that different from a grandmothers attic. Theres a bunch of old board games, tons of out-of-date clothing and dusty sewing machines.

But thats about where the resemblance ends. Chances are Grandma never had an iron lung, the arrow said to have killed Gen. George Custer or Mayor Coleman Youngs armour-plated limousine.

Its magical in here, Elana Rugh, president and CEO of the historical society, told The Detroit News while talking in the warehouse officially known as the Collections Resource Center, a nondescript wood-frame building at Historic Fort Wayne. Theres so much people dont know.

Indeed, theres so much the society itself doesnt know, which is why Rugh and Jeremy Dimick, director of collections, are partway through the institutions first-ever, wall-to-wall inventory review to document what theyve got in the sprawling, 75,000-square-foot facility that started life as a truck depot during World War II.

Case in point? Poking through the Native American collection recently, Rugh came upon the arrow with a tag reading, Arrow that killed Custer. The only problem, as Rugh points out, is that Custer died from a bullet wound. But shes willing to cut the unknown individual who wrote the tag some slack.

Maybe the arrow hit Custer beforehand, she said. In any case, someone believed the arrow did it.

The resource centre, like Fort Wayne itself, is not open to the public, though Rugh says theyre considering opening it on special occasions.

Few museums, of course, can display all their holdings.

The Detroit Institute of Arts owns some 65,000 works, but only 10% are out at any given moment. The Historical Museum and Dossin Great Lakes Museum exhibit roughly 5% of the societys much-larger collection, which numbers around a quarter-million artifacts. So the challenge facing Rugh and Dimick in completing the inventory, which launched in 2014, is particularly daunting.

If they had 30 people working full-time on it, Rugh figures they could wrap up the process fairly quickly. But at the pace were going, she said, even with the hoped-for addition of two part-time employees, it will take years.

This work comes as both the Historical Society and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History are exploring the possibility of putting a 10-year millage on an upcoming Wayne County ballot that could clearly help with staffing issues. The two institutions have in mind a 0.2 mill tax that would raise $8 million annually.

But its not just a matter of manpower, counting and recording. Quickly running out of room for storage, and with donations from the public still pouring in, the society needs to decide what merits hanging on to, and what can be pitched  or in museum parlance, de-accessioned.

Since the societys collection belongs to the citizens of Detroit, strict rules govern taking anything out. We dont just sell it on eBay, Rugh said, tempting though that might be.

Dimick notes under ethical rules governing the museum industry, the most acceptable step would be to find another institution that might want the object in question.

So it could be donated or sold, said Rugh. The last resort would be a public auction so that everybody has a chance to get at it.

Donations still come in weekly. A committee of the museums board meets each month to decide what gets in and what doesnt. But they have to be selective.

At this point, Rugh said, new objects have to have true relevance to the city of Detroit and really good provenance. Space considerations in mind, we have to be really careful about what we collect.

From time to time, the museum puts out a call on specific topics, as it did with its award-winning Detroit 67: Perspectives exhibition about the citys uprising, which will be up through May this year. Come spring, theyll be looking for artifacts for an exhibit on Fisher Body, the automotive giant founded by the Fisher Brothers in 1908 eventually sold to General Motors.

To make the collection accessible to the wider public, Dimick and staff have digitized some 80,000 objects including film, photographs, maps and journals dating back to the early 1800s, now available for viewing on the societys website. At present, theyre moving onto three-dimensional artifacts, such as their 20,000-piece textile and clothing collection, including 800 pairs of shoes.

That still leaves an awful lot to be cataloged.

The list includes that iron lung from Herman Kiefer Hospital, a giant clockworks from old City Hall (allegedly wound by walking a treadmill), an enormous, furry, white bear head from a costume used on Boblo Island, a hollow log once part of the citys water pipes and  among the Societys collection of 70 vehicles  a Model T that was buried underground for decades near Seven Mile.

Theyve even got a cache of photographs documenting the installation of the controversial Line 5 running beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

But even with 75,000 square feet, the societys collection space is bursting at the seams. We dont have a lot of room for larger artifacts, Rugh said.

The team here does an amazing job maintaining the collection, she added, but this is an old building. Were at the point where we need a new roof, new dehumidifiers and improved security.

Theyre in talks with the Detroit Land Bank about possible other sites, but theres no timeline  and in any case, they need to finish the inventory first.

Moving, Rugh said, would be an epic undertaking.
PORTLAND, Oregon, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Aerospace Materials Market by Type (Composite, Metal, and Plastic), Application (Interior and Exterior), and Type of Aircraft (Commercial, Military, Rotorcraft, and Space): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026." According to the report, the global aerospace materials industry garnered $3.95 billion in 2018, and is estimated to reach $6.51 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2019 to 2026.

Prime determinants of growth

Surge in demand for lightweight and fuel-efficient aircrafts, upsurge in air passenger traffic in emerging regions such as Asia-Pacific, and increase in demand for new aircraft drive the growth of the global aerospace materials market. However, limited availability of options to design complex structures hinders the market growth. On the other hand, increase in demand for commercial aircraft in emerging countries that leads to increased production of aircrafts provide numerous opportunities in the market.

Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6276

The composites segment to offer lucrative opportunities

Based on type, the composites segment contributed to more than three-fourths of the total share in terms of revenue of the global aerospace materials market in 2018, and is estimated to continue its lead position throughout the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is estimated to register the fastest CAGR of 6.9% from 2019 to 2026. This is due to paradigm shift from metals to composite materials in the aerospace industry as composites offer better chemical, mechanical, and physical properties as compared to metals. The research also analyzes segments including metals and plastics.

The commercial segment to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on type of aircraft, the commercial segment held the largest market share of the global aerospace materials market, accounting for more than half of the total market share in 2018, and will maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. This is due to the shift from conventional metals to plastics and composites in commercial aircrafts. However, the space segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.2% from 2019 to 2026, owing to continuous demand for heat resistant and lightweight materials.

Europe to grow fastest & contribute highest revenue, North America to follow

Based on region, Europe accounted for the highest share in terms of revenue, contributing to more than one-third of the global aerospace materials market in 2018, and is expected to maintain its dominant position by 2026. Moreover, this region is estimated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 7.1% from 2019 to 2026, owing to huge concentration of aerospace manufacturers and related parts & components market players. North America held the second-highest position in the market in terms of revenue in 2018. The research also analyzes Asia-Pacific and LAMEA.

For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6276

Leading market players

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation

PPG Industries Inc.

DuPont

Solvay

SABIC

Sumitomo Bakelite Co. Ltd.

Toray Industries Inc.

Rochling

Hexcel Corporation

SGL Carbon

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Aerospace Plastics Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026

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A three-member Bhutanese delegation led by its election commissioner will visit the office of the Delhi poll body on Tuesday to learn about functioning of the electoral process in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

Their visit comes at a time when the office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer is gearing up to hold the assembly polls on February 8.

The delegates will meet Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh and also visit the poll museum.

"A three-member Bhutanese delegation will visit the Delhi CEO Office tomorrow, The delegation will be led by Bhutan's Election Commissioner Ugyen Chewang," a senior official told PTI.

The delegation will meet the CEO and other senior officers. They will also be given presentations on the election process and methodologies like Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation Program, better known as SVEEP, officials said.

SVEEP is the flagship programme of the Election Commission of India to spread voter awareness and promote voter literacy in the country.

The poll museum is housed on the first floor of the Old St Stephen's College Building at Kashmere Gate, while the CEO Office is located on the ground floor.

The museum charts the electoral history of the country from the ballot boxes period in 1950s to the present era when EVMs are used to cast votes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
IONOS, a company belonging to the international United Internet consortium has entered the Hungarian market, offering a wide range of internet services and business applications, according to a press release.

The brand has been present for years in a range of countries such as Austria, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Romania, Mexico, and the United States. Now Hungary and Bulgaria have joined this group.



The companys services include a wide catalog of cloud business solutions, and other tools related to internet presence, e-commerce, network security and group work support.



"Hungary and Bulgaria are countries with high GDP growth and potential for digital transformation," says Marcin Kusmierz, President of home.pl, which on behalf of United Internet is responsible for the international expansion of the IONOS brand in the CEE region.



"In both cases, government strategies actively support the development of the new technologies sector, and small and medium-sized enterprises are their main beneficiaries. We want to be their partner in the use of new information technologies," he says.



In Hungary, IONOS offers its own services and dozens of international cloud software providers, including Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft. According to the press release, the will also provide digital educational materials and consultations for domestic businesses in the near future.



"Importantly, we offer technical support in a local language and solutions tailored to the needs and realities of Hungary," Kusmierz adds.



In Q2 2020, home.pl plans to launch sales of internet services on the Czech and Slovak markets. It will be the firms fifth and sixth market in the CEE region.
S ex Education star Ncuti Gatwa says meeting Billy Porter was a magical moment that left them both fangirling.

In 2019 Porter made history when he became the first gay black man to be nominated and win in the lead actor category at the Primetime Emmys.

Gatwa hailed him for paving the way for him as an actor and praised Porter's "warm energy."

Discussing their meeting at London Fashion Week in September on the second episode of Clara Amfos podcast This City, Gatwa recalled how Porter approached him after recognising him from his Netflix role.

It was a very magical moment," he said.

And he was so lovely, and he was so kind. And he had such a warm energy. And I couldn't believe he knew who I was.

After actress and friend Rosie Williams hyped him up to approach the 50-year-old, Porter was eventually the one to make an introduction.

Emmy Awards 2019: Billy Porter's historic win - In pictures 1 /25 Emmy Awards 2019: Billy Porter's historic win - In pictures Billy Porter gets emotiontial backstage with his Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for 'Pose' Reuters Getty Images Reuters Getty Images Ryan Murphy congratulates Billy Porter, winner of the award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for 'Pose' /Invision/AP Ryan Murphy congratulates Billy Porter, winner of the award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for 'Pose' Invision/AP Reuters Reuters AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Reuters AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Reuters Invision for the Television Academy/AP

He came over to me, like [I] fell into his eyeline and he kind of was trying to suss out who I was, he continued. And then he came over. And he took my hand and he was [like] Where do I know you from? And I was so shook that I was like, I'm in a short called Netflix.

Gatwa, who plays Eric in the hit Netflix show, reminisced that he felt like a deer in headlights.

We were fanboying, fangirling, everything over each other," he added. "He's just such a legend and an icon in the path that he has paved for actors such as myself, characters such as Eric, [it] is incredible and what he's doing is amazing. And it was just such a lovely moment.

Asa Butterfield as Otis Milburn and Ncuti Gatwa as Eric Effiong / Netflix

Elsewhere in the episode, Gatwa discussed the struggles that left him facing homelessness in London.

He moved to the capital to pursue his acting career but struggled to afford somewhere to live before landing his role as Eric.

He has previously said how the only thing stopping him from sleeping on the streets was his friends and now on this podcast, he speaks of the prohibitive cost of living in the capital.

I was going from job to job, like theatre job to theatre job. I was booked and busy and it was peak [difficult] trying to pay rent and bills and then travel. And thats just to exist. Then youve got food. You have got to feed yourself. Youve got to clothe yourself. Its expensive to live here. I would like to try to cap rent prices.

/ Sam Taylor/Netflix

Asked what he would do if he was London mayor for a day, he said he would help house those without a place to live.

I feel like I would try to help the homeless situation, he said. You could turn this [empty buildings] into some really great affordable accommodation for homeless people.



This City is a podcast that reveals the stories, hidden gems and certified spots tried by some of Londons most recognisable names and has already featured comedian and TV host Mo Gilligan.

Guests do not have to be born and bred in London but the capital should be a pivotal part of their lives.

The podcast will feature special guests including producer Mark Ronson, Little Mixs Jade Thirlwall and BAFTA award winning director Louis Theroux.
Hundreds of international students have been left devastated after the agency they paid upwards of 3,000 to shut down without any notice.

An estimated 400 Brazilians are out of pocket after paying between 1,500 and 3,000 to the 4U Study agency, which had an office based in Arran Quay, Dublin.

They would get a student visa and the chance to study at an English language school in the capital for 25 weeks. First Visa recipients would also receive health insurance and two weeks' accommodation.

However, on December 24 the agency's owner, Djalma Remondini Filho (32), unexpectedly disappeared.

Two days later, the company's website and social media accounts were taken down.

The news also came as a shock to 4U Study's staff who have been left unemployed, including two of its Dublin employees.

While the majority of the students who have been affected are still in Brazil, some are stranded in Ireland with no means to return home.

Victor Gomes de Melo (23) lost 1,570 when renewing his course.

"It's an absolute nightmare - I feel so cheated and robbed," he said.

"I've been a student in Dublin for more than a year and since my college hasn't received my money from 4U Study, I lost my place and can't afford to go back.

"On December 27, every student who had been paying this agency received a message from its employees informing us that the owner had taken all of our money and disappeared.

"I thought it was just some sick joke, but I quickly found out this was no laughing matter."

Michelle Tyszczenki and her husband Edwin paid 4U Study 400 each for the first instalment of their English course at the start of December.

The couple also paid 112 for an insurance plan for their parents who were travelling to Ireland.

However, just one day after Christmas, Ms Tyszczenki noticed a Facebook post about the company's sudden closure.

"When I saw it, I immediately contacted the company's insurance consultant, who told me that he didn't know what was going on," she said.

"I am so angry and upset that we can't get our money back, but I know that many who are affected have contacted the gardai and police in Brazil.

"Hopefully, they will take this matter seriously because there are hundreds of us who have lost our hard-earned money."

Devastated

A Dublin employee of 4U Study, Filipe Farmento, told the Herald the company's closure came as a "massive shock" to him.

However, he expressed concern for the owner's well-being.

"I feel devastated because I have lost my job and don't have a salary for this month," he said.

"I created a WhatsApp group for all of the students affected and am trying to help them deal with the situation in the best way possible.

"Our flagship country was Ireland, but we soon spread out to other countries as well.

"I also consider the owner, Djalma Remondini Filho, as a very good person and friend.

"However, I can't explain why he did this. No one can contact him because he's changed his number and won't respond to our messages.

"I'm also worried about his well-being."

Several Dublin language schools expressed their dismay.

"We are doing our best to help the students affected," said ISI Dublin director Brian Burns.

"We are assisting these students with rebooking their programmes directly with the school at a discounted rate and advising them to seek legal advice in Brazil."

David O'Grady, boss of Marketing English in Ireland, described the situation as "deeply unsatisfactory".

Managing director of Future Learning Language School, David Ganly, said that it has enrolled a number of students at a discounted price.
Nairobi School is an outstanding learning institution that has been ranked as one of the best national schools in the country. The institute's emphasis on the mental, spiritual, and educational growth of the learners has helped in producing nothing but the best. The performance of the school over the past years is an indicator of its unmatched excellence.

Nairobi School is an outstanding learning institution. Photo: nairobischool.ac.ke

Source: UGC

Any man, young and old who has attained their education from Nairobi School, remembers the institute as a place where they built both their spiritual and academic foundation. If you wish your son to have the same strong foundation, the information below on the school's admission, fees structure, location, performance, among others, is enough to get you started.

About Nairobi School

Nairobi School lies on a 200-acre piece of land. It was established in the year 1929. The learning institute offers a well-rounded form of education to close to 1104 learners hailing from all the 47 counties in Kenya. Here is more information about the school.

Type : National, public

: National, public The Chief Principal: Mr. Maina C.

Mr. Maina C. D/Principal -Administration: Mr. Masake T.

Mr. Masake T. D/Principal -Academics: Mrs. Wangio M.

Mrs. Wangio M. Number of students: 1104

1104 Campus : Westlands, Nairobi

: Westlands, Nairobi Colors : Blue, yellow, grey and white

: Blue, yellow, grey and white Vision : be a world-class centre of academic, spiritual and moral excellence.

: be a world-class centre of academic, spiritual and moral excellence. Mission: provide of high quality education, through innovation, positive influence, team-work and self discipline; guided by the principles of professionalism, commitment and excellence.

Nairobi School location and admission

The national boys boarding school is located roughly 11 kilometres from the city. It admits boys between the age of 12 and 19 years and offers them a holistic type of education and KCSE after completing the four years of high institute education.

Nairobi School KCSE performance for 2020

Nairobi School is one of the learning institutions that have steadily upheld good results in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) over the years. In KCSE 2019, the school registered a total of 353 candidates with a mean grade of A- (minus) and a performance index of 9.55.

In 2020, the institution registered 374 students to sit for KCSE. The institution recorded a mean point of 9.41 points with the pass rate 93.85%. Nairobi School results for the 2020 KCSE, as well as for all the previous years can be accessed from the institute's official website. Alternatively, you can visit the institution to obtain information on the same.

Nairobi School pictures. Photo: nairobischool.ac.ke

Source: UGC

School curriculum

The institute follows the 8-4-4 education system with the curriculum that has been provided and approved by the Kenya Institute of Education under the Ministry of Education. It offers the following subjects.

Form 1 and form 2

The subjects taken by students at this level include:

Compulsory subjects

Mathematics

English

Kiswahili

Physics

Biology

Chemistry

Business studies

Optional (Students choose one)

Geography

History and Government

CRE

IRE

Optional (Students choose one)

Arts and Design

Agriculture

Computer Studies

Woodwork

Metalwork

Music

French

Form 3 and Form 4

Below is the subject combination for the students in form 3 and 4.

Compulsory subjects

Mathematics

English

Kiswahili

Physics

Biology

Chemistry

Business studies

Optional (Students choose one)

Geography

History and Government

IRE

CRE

Optional (Students choose one)

Arts and Design

Agriculture

Computer Studies

Music

French

Business Studies

Nairobi School fees structure

The details of the institute's fee structure and school account are not readily available to the public. Therefore, if you want to inquire about the same, you will be required to visit the school's principal's office at the school premises.

Nairobi School students. Photo: nairobischool.ac.ke

Source: UGC

Nairobi School alumni

The institute has been able to produce several significant individuals in the society both in Kenya and internationally. The old boys from this institute refer to themselves as the Old Cambrians Society. They include:

Kleptomaniax - A boys hip hop band

Edward Rombo - Famous rugby player

Michael Riegels - Lawyer, Civil servant in the British Virgin Islands

Timothy Rimbui - Kenyan sound engineer, songwriter and record producer

George Coventry - 13th Earl of Coventry

Geoffrey Griffin - The founder of Starehe Boys Centre

Musalia Mudavadi - Politician, Vice President in 2002

Shakeel Shabbir - Former Mayor for Kisumu and current MP

David Steel - Politician in the UK, Leader of the Liberal Party

Colin Rawlins - British colonial civil servant

George Nyamweya - Politician

Gitobu Imanyara - Kenyan politician and lawyer

Nairobi School contacts

Nairobi School address: P. O Box 30047-00100

P. O Box 30047-00100 Nairobi School code: 20400002

20400002 Email address: info@nairobischool.ac.ke

info@nairobischool.ac.ke Telephone number 1: +254 (20)4442799

+254 (20)4442799 Telephone number 2: +254 (20)4442855

+254 (20)4442855 Phone number 1 : 0740 547354

: 0740 547354 Phone number 2: 0741946507

0741946507 Official website: nairobischool.ac.ke

Nairobi School is a national boy's school that aims at producing nothing short of the best. It is known to produce holistic individuals who maintain high discipline in their lives.

READ ALSO: Top 20 most expensive schools in Kenya and tuition fees

Tuko.co.ke published the list of the top 20 most expensive schools in Kenya and tuition fees. While some individuals believe that education, a basic need, does not have to be exuberant, another group thinks that quality does not come cheap. Therefore, the most expensive schools in Kenya are sought after by the high and middle class, who believe in investing in their children's educational foundation. Read more in the article.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested the CMD of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), Kapil Wadhawan, in connection with its money laundering probe against dead gangster Iqbal Mirchi and others, officials said on Monday.

They said Wadhawan, 46, has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe and was "untrustworthy" in his dealings and statements made to the agency.

Wadhawan was questioned during the day at the agency office at Ballard Estate her. He had been questioned in the past too.

Wadhawan has been renamed in the ED custody till January 29 after he was produced before a special PMLA court here.

The case relates to Mirchi's Mumbai properties, which have been called as proceeds of crime by the ED, and three such properties were sold to Sunblink, the company linked to Wadhawan brothers, Kapil and Dheeraj.

It is alleged by the agency that Kapil Wadhawan "diverted" funds from DHFL to shell companies and later these dubious companies got amalgamated with Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd to "cover" alleged diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

The ED alleged that the conduit of Sunblink was "purposefully created by Kapil Wadhawan as CMD of DHFL and others just to obfuscate the trail of money for purchase of properties" from the Mirchi family.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi alias Iqbal Memon, his family and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai.

Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
My kingdom for a good night's sleep!

I'm writing this column from a hotel room. Last night, I returned find a 'Deep Sleep Pillow Spray' on my bed, promising to help me "fall asleep faster, naturally and wake up feeling refreshed". Beside it, another note invited me to schedule a wake-up call. "Don't lose sleep over sleep," it said.

A hotel offering a good night's kip? It sounds obvious, but the accommodation industry is selling sleep like never before - and for good reason.

This isn't rocket science. Research shows that sleep is crucial to our physical and mental health. 'Sleep hygiene' and bedtime rituals are very much on trend, wellness is big business and relaxation apps like Calm and Pzizz are popping up like mushrooms. We know this. Yet research from the UK's National Sleep Council suggests that 27pc of us are struggling to drift off on a regular basis.

"Room temperature and noise are the two top factors inhibiting sleep, followed by uncomfortable pillows and mattresses," says Julie Hastings, marketing director of Northern Ireland's Hastings Hotels, which recently surveyed 8,500 people on their sleep and bedtime habits.

Bed quality "influences almost three-quarters of hotel bookings", she adds.

Of course, there's a sales angle - the group wants us to know about its 'Cloud beds', made by King Koil in Kildare, about the jasmine-infused eye masks it offers guests, and its sleep expert Phil McCartan, whose tips range from the obvious (avoiding caffeine and taking an hour away from screens before bedtime) to the less so (ever tried a nightly "brain dump", where you write down stresses or worries before going to bed?) It can be tricky to sleep in a strange bed, but touches like these serve to make it sound appealing.

Hastings isn't the only Irish hotel brand selling shut-eye. Dublin's newly extended Westin offers the group's 'Heavenly Beds' and night-time lavender balm. The Cliff at Lyons in Co Kildare has 'Deep Sleep Kits' with fresh lavender bags, camomile tea, eye masks, ear plugs and bath oil, while the Blue Book's Dunbrody House serves breakfast until noon (civilised, eh?), and its Newforge House has a pillow menu.

West Cork's Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa has a two-night deal including a 'Sleep Tight Ritual' with a lavender foot ritual, massage and repair facial, and Elemis Sleep Pillow Spray and Sleep Temple Balm left for guests on its Irish Respa beds. The bill? 299pp.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a nap.
Saudi Arabia is closely monitoring developments in global oil markets resulting from "gloomy expectations" regarding the possible impact of the coronavirus on the Chinese and global economy, as well as on the oil market's fundamentals, its energy minister said on January 27.

OPEC and its allies can respond to any impact on the stability of the oil market if needed, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, but added that he was confident the Chinese government and international community could contain the spread of the virus and fully eradicate it.

The minister said the current impact on global markets, including oil and other commodities, was "primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite its very limited impact on global oil demand."

Crude prices fell more than 2 percent to multi-month lows on January 27 as the rising number of cases of the coronavirus in China and city lockdowns there deepened concerns over oil demand.

Brent crude fell by $1.36 a barrel, or 2.2 percent, to $59.33 by 0425 GMT, having earlier dropped to $58.68, its lowest since late October.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

US crude was down by $1.30, or 2.4 percent, to $52.89, having earlier eased to $52.15, its lowest since early October.

While most markets are being impacted by the spread of the coronavirus, many are closed in Asia due to Lunar New Year holidays.

"Such extreme pessimism occurred back in 2003 during the SARS outbreak, though it did not cause a significant reduction in oil demand," Prince Abdulaziz said in a statement.

He said he was confident the kingdom and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with other producers in a group known as OPEC+, "have the capability and flexibility needed to respond to any developments, by taking the necessary actions to support oil market stability, if the situation so requires."

Oman's oil minister told Reuters on January 27 that he fully supported Saudi Arabia's readiness to react to any impact the new coronavirus could have on the market. Oman is a member of the OPEC+ group.

OPEC+, which includes Russia, has been reducing oil supply to support prices. It has deepened its agreed output cuts by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.7 million bpd through March. The group meets in March to decide on its output policy.

Prince Abdulaziz said on Friday the aim of OPEC+ was to cut seasonal inventory builds that typically occur in the first half of the year.

All options were open when OPEC+ meets in Vienna in March, he said, adding that it was too early to make a call on the need for more cuts.

Health authorities around the world are racing to prevent a pandemic after more than 2,000 people were infected with the virus in China and 80 died.

The virus has created alarm because much about it is still unknown, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.
Farmers were a focal point of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers State of the State address, which he delivered last Wednesday night. In that address, Evers announced a package of bills to support agriculture and rural communities in the Badger State.

Evers called this a three-pronged plan, which starts with a special session of the Legislature to be held Tuesday, January 28, in Madison, Wis. The roughly $8.5 million package would bolster dairy exports, expand grant opportunities for on-farm processing, provide mental health support, and more.

We want to make sure we really do connect the dots for long-term strategies, not just in agriculture, but for rural prosperity in our state, Evers said in a teleconference following the State of the State address. We want to make sure we are moving forward in a proactive way.

He indicated that this package is anything but a handout. He said, We are looking for a way to help farmers stay strong.

Interim Agriculture Secretary Randy Romanski supported Evers comments. Agriculture is part of our heritage, he said. An investment in Wisconsin farmers is an investment in the states economy.

Although there has been some tension between the Democratic governor and the states Republican leaders in the past, both Evers and Romanski expressed confidence that the package of bills would get support from both parties.

Agriculture is not a partisan issue, Romanski said during the teleconference. I think everybody supports investing in our rural economic structure and our farmers and supporting their dedication and commitment to the rural economy.

Romanski said he believed farmers with small and medium-sized operations could use these resources, not only to survive but to improve their bottom line. We look forward to working with the Legislature to see these proposals through, he added.

We are past the point of pointing fingers, Evers explained. We just need to get work done. Our farmers need us.

From a dairy standpoint, Governor Evers proposal would include a $1 million commitment toward the Wisconsin Initiative for Dairy Exports. That initiative, if passed, would work in conjunction with current efforts by the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) to move U.S. dairy exports from 15% to 20% of the nations milk supply. Over 90% of Wisconsins milk goes to cheese, and most of that product is destined for sales outside the states borders.

An additional $1 million would go toward the Dairy Processor Grant program to fund new and innovative dairy processing opportunities.

More details about the proposed bills in Wisconsin can be found at the following links:

LRB-5420/LRB-5439 relating to: grants to dairy processing plants and making an appropriation.

LRB-5413/LRB-5433 relating to: providing planning assistance to farmers and making an appropriation.

LRB-5416/LRB-5436 relating to: farm to school grants and making an appropriation.

LRB-5419/LRB-5438 relating to: regional farmer support for stress and mental illness and making an appropriation.

LRB-5424/LRB-5440 relating to: creating a Small Farm Diversity grant program, providing an exemption from emergency rule procedures, granting rule-making authority, and making an appropriation.

LRB-5449/LRB-5450 relating to: county-based agriculture positions in the Division of Extension of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and making an appropriation.

LRB-5412/LRB-5432 relating to: promoting production of value-added agricultural products; creating an organic farming education grant program, a grazing education grant program, and a farm to fork grant program; providing resource conservation technical assistance; granting rule-making authority; and making an appropriation.

LRB-5414/LRB-5434 relating to: the Wisconsin Initiative for Dairy Exports and making an appropriation.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2020

January 27, 2020
Controversy has continued to trail the stay-of-execution order procured by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) against a previous order by the Federal High Court in Abuja for the imprisonment of its Director-General, Alex Okoh, for disobedience and contempt of the Supreme Court.

On December 17, 2019, Justice Anwuri Chikere of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Mr Okoh to be remanded in prison for a minimum of 30 days until he purges himself of the contemptuous acts disobedience of the orders of the Supreme Court.

Since July 6, 2012, the apex court had in a unanimous ruling affirmed BFIG as the winner of the bid for the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON).

In 2004, the National Council for Privatisation (NCP) had declared the Nigerin-American firm as the winner and preferred bidder for the plant with an offer of $410 million.

But, BPE unilaterally cancelled the bid in controversial circumstances. BFIG protested and took the matter before the court.

The case dragged till the Supreme Court, which gave the 2012 ruling, including an order of specific performance to BPE to rescind its earlier decision to cancel the bid, reinstate BFIG and hand over ALSCON to it.

However, after two orders of the lower court seeking the enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling failed, BFIG on April 4, 2019 commenced contempt proceedings against BPE and Mr Okoh.

On December 17, 2019, Justice Chikere ruled on the application granting BFIGs request for Mr Okoh and BPE to be remanded in prison for a minimum of 30 days.

BPEs counter order

In its reaction to the order, BPE, through its spokesperson, Amina Tukur-Othman, announced it had filed a motion for stay-of-execution and appeal against the judgment of the Federal High Court against it and Mr Okoh.

Again, on December 24, 2019, Mrs Othman announced that the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, granted BPEs application and ordered a stay-of-execution of the committal order against Mr Okoh.

BPE said the appeal, No. CA/A/117/M/2019, at the appeal court was pending before a panel of three Justices, namely S. J. Adah, Justice R. M. Abdulahi and Justice M. B. Idris.

In granting the application, BPE spokesperson said the appeal court directed that the stay-of-execution order would remain pending hearing and determination of the motion on notice fixed for January 20, 2020.

Confusion

But, at the resumed sitting of the appeal court on January 20, counsel to BPE, Mustapha Abdu, was unable to produce a copy of the judgment by Justice Chikere on which the stay of execution order was based.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter was present in court to observe the proceedings of the court.

Mr Abdu, who announced appearance for BPE, said he had filed necessary applications.

However, when the justices reviewed the documents before them by counsel to BPE, they were surprised that copies of Justice Chikeres judgment, which the privatisation agencys application for a stay-of-execution sought to counter, was not among the collection of documents.

When Mr Abdu insisted he had filed the copy of the judgment, the judges demanded he produces his copy as proof he had the document.

Unable to produce the document, the justices were compelled to adjourn further hearing in the case till February 25 to enable parties gather all the relevant documents and file their processes.

Implications

Meanwhile, the counsel to BFIG and lawyer from Patrick Ikwueto law firm spoke with PREMIUM TIMES ar the Court of Appeal premises shortly after the court sitting on the implication of what happened in court.

He said the inability of Mr Abdu to produce the copy of Justice Chikeres judgment, when the judges asked him, was a confirmation that BPE did not have the document.

In law, one cannot appeal or be granted a stay-of-execution of the order of another court without seeing a copy of the judgment of order one wants set aside.

READ ALSO:

The actual written judgment delivered by Justice Chikere was not released until late Friday, January 17, 2020. So, on what did BPE base its application for the stay-of-execution order it claimed to have procured since December 24, 2019?

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Again, how come the justices were not aware of the judgment they were supposed to have relied on to grant BPEs application and had to demand several times for its counsel to produce it in court? the lawyer said.

Order a sham- BFIG

On Thursday, PREMIUM TIMES obtained a copy of a petition by BFIG to the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the stay-of-execution order procured by BPE.

In the petition, the Executive Vice President of BFIG, Jimmie Williams, faulted the order and demanded the immediate enforcement of the order by Justice Chikere for the arrest and imprisonment of the BPE DG, Alex Okoh.

Mr Williams, who is also BFIGs General Counsel, had sent the petition dated January 21, 2020, a day after the appeal court sat to consider the application purportedly filed by BPE to counter the order to remand its DG in prison for contempt and disobedience.

The petition was titled RE: Mr. Alex Okoh and The BPEs Sham Stay of Execution Case No. FHC/ABJ/CS/583/2004.

Mr Williams argued that since Justice Chikere orally granted BFIGs Noticed Motion on December 17, 2019, for Mr Okohs committal to prison, the actual written judgment was not released until January 17, 2020.

He said BPE has never served BFIG with any application for a stay-of-execution with a certified order granting same.

On January 20, we (BFIG) appeared before the Court of Appeal, and was astonished to learn that no such stay-of-execution had been granted. The very court that was supposed to have issued the order, exposed the sham by asking the BPE to provide the court with a copy, and the BPE had nothing to produce.

Consequentially, this means that there is no impediment on this Court, its servants, law enforcement agents and its persons, from attempting to enforce and enforcing the arrest or imprisonment of Mr Alex Okoh, pursuant to Justice Chikeres ruling/committal order. Accordingly, we respectfully request the immediate execution of this order forthwith, BFIG counsel said in the petition.

BFIGs comment contemptuous- BPE

On Friday, PREMIUM TIMES contacted BPEs lawyer, Mr Abdu for his reaction to BFIGs petition describing the stay-of execution order by his client a sham.

Its blatant falsehood. It shows the desperation on the part of BFIG. Its obvious that they are more interested in getting the man (BPE DG) into jail, Mr Abdu said in a telephone interview.

He said when the matter came up last December, BPE informed the court about its inability to procure the ruling or judgment of the lower court, because the court had closed.

We requested the court to stay the execution of the order of the lower court. The court agreed and gave us the last adjourned date (January 20).

When we were there, at that time we were able to procure the judgment. We compiled and transmitted records to the Court of Appeal, since the lower court no longer have jurisdiction. We informed the Court of Appeal.

But, the court said rather than dissipate energy on motion on notice or exparte, the two parties should endeavor to file their briefs before the next adjourned date (February 25) so that the briefs proper can be heard. That is the position.

So, for anybody to say the stay-of-execution order granted by the Court of Appeal is a sham is irresponsible and a contempt of court, Mr Abdu said.

Asked why he was unable to produce the judgment of the lower court he said he procured on behalf of BPE when the appeal court Justices demanded from him on January 20, Mr Abdu blamed it on a mix up by the administrative arm of the court.

We provided the document (judgment of the lower court). It was with the administrative arm. After the court session, I approached the Registrar of the Court to know why the document was NOT presented, he accepted they were at fault, because they did not take it upstairs to the court along with the other documents, he said.
January 26, 2020 Jennifer Hopkins , 229-924-0343 x. 201

Finding Freedom After Civil War: The Sumter Freedmens School

Special Program to be presented at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 1st at Andersonville National Historic Site



ANDERSONVILLE, Georgia  At the end of the Civil War, thousands of African American men, women, and children who had been enslaved since birth were suddenly thrust into a radically changed world. What challenges did newly freed people in and around Andersonville face as they carved out new lives in a post-Civil War South? How did they rebuild families broken by slavery?



Dr. Evan Kutzler, Assistant Professor of History at Georgia Southwestern State University, will explore these and other questions as he presents key findings from research on the role of African Americans at Andersonville. This free program will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 1st at the National Prisoner of War Museum.



Andersonville began as a site of imprisonment and slavery, but between 1865 and 1867 it became a place where African Americans negotiated the meaning of emancipation and freedom. Freedmen worked with the U.S. government to transform the burial grounds of Union prisoners who died at Andersonville into a national cemetery. At the same time, the American Missionary Association established the Sumter School in an abandoned Confederate hospital southwest of the prison. A place once focused on caring for Confederate soldiers would now focus on educating those freed from slavery.



For freedpeople, the school and the presence of the U.S. government became symbols of a revolution they hoped would make good on promises made during the first American Revolution and embodied in the Declaration of Independence. For hundreds of black men, women, and children, the site of a notorious prison became a symbol not of captivity but of emancipation; not of despair but of hope for a better life. For them, Andersonville became a symbol of the struggle to move from the shadows of slavery to the light of true freedom.



Dr. Kutzler is author of three books, including Living by Inches: The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019). He is working in partnership with the University of West Georgia and the University of Alabama to research African American history at Andersonville, from slavery to the 21st century.



Andersonville National Historic Site is located 10 miles south of Oglethorpe, GA and 10 miles northeast of Americus, GA on Georgia Highway 49. The national park features the National Prisoner of War Museum, Andersonville National Cemetery and the site of the historic Civil War prison, Camp Sumter. Andersonville National Historic Site is the only site within the National Park System to serve as a memorial to all American prisoners of war. Park grounds are open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The National Prisoner of War Museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., daily. Admission is free. For more information on the park, call 229 924-0343, or visit our website at www.nps.gov/ande/. Visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ AndersonvilleNPS, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andeNHS, or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/ channel/ UC2IJCqxeKsKMlxDH5dfYMhA .



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About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 419 national park sites and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov Visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/ natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/ nationalparkservice.


Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 23:30:56|Editor: yan

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ALGIERS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday arrived in Algeria for a visit over the developments in war-ridden Libya.

The UAE foreign minister was welcomed upon his arrival at Algiers International Airport by his Algerian counterpart Sabri Boukadoum.

Algerian Foreign Ministry said that the two parties will exchange views on "regional and international issues of common interest, especially the situation in Libya on the light of the recent developments there.

Algeria and the UAE participated in the Berlin conference on Libya a couple of weeks ago as participants agreed to support Libyans to return to the path of dialogue to reach sustainable solution that ensures peace and stability.

The visit of the UAE foreign minister comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wraps up his two-day visit to Algeria.

The Libyan crisis was also on the agenda of Erdogan's visit, as he confirmed on Sunday that he and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune are coordinating their efforts to support the outcome of Berlin conference on Libya.

Libya has been hit by civil war since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011.
Like an American president in his final days at the White House, Stephen Poloz plans to leave a note in his desk drawer for the next Bank of Canada governor  just as his predecessor did for him.

He says it will be about the need to surround yourself with smart, critical thinkers who will challenge your views so that you dont overlook a good idea.

And in his own way, Poloz is already issuing a more public goodbye letter for Canada in advance of his departure in June, downloading some of his own ideas so that they arent overlooked in the heat of the moment.

He has written a couple of policy papers on the role of artificial intelligence in the economy, and built up a unit within the central bank devoted to grappling with climate change.

And in an interview with the Toronto Star this week, he is spelling out some thoughts on how to deal with the high cost of housing  that seemingly-intractable problem that weighs on so many people living in southern Ontario and the Vancouver area.

His solution? Shared equity.

Its a concept that the federal government has already flirted with in its First Time Home Buyers Initiative that sees Ottawa buy up to 10 per cent of a new home so that first-timers can more easily scrounge up a down-payment.

Poloz sees the concept going much further than that, and led by the private sector  banks, not government.

Heres how it works: If a prospective homebuyer wants a home for $1 million but can only realistically afford to carry a mortgage on $500,000, then an investor of some kind could be found to buy the other half of the home.

The homebuyer would live in the entire house, but only pay the mortgage on half of it. The investor who finances the other half would receive a rent-like fee for the housing services the homebuyer uses, and also pocket half the capital gains or losses in the homes value.

Thats complicated but thats a solution to the affordability issue, Poloz argues. Im thinking of it that way because it kind of gives me a clue of the sorts of things we could try to do to at least begin to address the affordability problem. We will not address it by wishing it away, or somehow building more houses.

As real estate prices soared over the past few years and household debt piled up, policy-makers have tried a range of measures to take some of the heat out of the housing market and help affordability. Regulators have imposed a stress test on borrowers so they dont get in over their heads. Governments have cracked down on foreign buyers. And there are a range of federal and provincial incentives and subsidies to build more homes, increasing the supply.

Taken together, the measures appear to have calmed down the speculation that had been notable in big cities. But as any big-city politician who went door to door during last falls federal election campaign would say, housing is very often still unaffordable.

The shared-equity idea is not a new one, but its certainly not pervasive in Canada. Poloz was inspired by House of Debt, a 2014 book by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi about how the great recession of 2009 was driven by the indebtedness of American households. In the book, the authors urge a rethink in how mortgage risks are shared between homeowners and their banks, arguing that homeowners shoulder too much of the burden.

Poloz spoke briefly once last spring about their book, pointing out a need for banks and financial services in Canada to think more creatively about risk sharing and mortgages.

But even the federal governments relatively timid foray into the world of shared equity has met with criticism.

Experts and policy-makers alike have said that the main reason homes are unaffordable in big cities is because there are not enough of them to go around and meet the demands of burgeoning urban populations. In other words, supply is the problem; not demand. And anything that encourages demand, including shared equity schemes, makes the supply problem worse.

Regardless, the deeply-rooted traditional approaches of Canadians and their financial institutions toward home ownership will have to adjust, Poloz says. The idea that success means buying a home, paying down its mortgage and using it as a nest egg and retirement income supplement is not compatible with high debt levels.

Like the people he surrounds himself with do to him, Poloz is asking borrowers and lenders alike to think more critically and openly about how we can all afford a decent roof over our heads.

As for that letter in the desk drawer from his predecessor, the high-profile and at-times-provocative Mark Carney? Poloz wont say what kind of advice it contained  except to add with a twinkle in his eye that hes followed every piece of it.

Canadas top banker on climate change, consumer confidence and what comes next

Stephen Poloz sat down with the Toronto Star this week to discuss his seven-year term as the governor of the Bank of Canada which comes to a close this June. Heres are excerpts from the interview:

On why companies need to come clean on climate change

When were talking about trying to promote among companies more transparency around what their carbon footprint is, and what their plans are, and so on, what that will allow is for investors like (BlackRock CEO) Larry Fink to be able to decide what share of his plans portfolios should be represented by companies that are emitting high levels of carbon, or gradually reducing them or whatever. Without that transparency, you get this gap in knowledge and you can have sudden movements, which could be quite painful and disruptive. With transparency, I think you help ensure that it will be a clear and gradual process for investors. It doesnt have a cliff in it.

On why consumer confidence deteriorated at the end of the year

2019, it turns out, the economy was in an even stronger place than we thoughtSo we should be less surprised that when you shock it with something like the trade war washing ashore and causing unemployment to rise in manufacturing and certain sectors of the economy, and you see your neighbour get laid off, (and then) you see around October, November, Decemberconsumer confidence goes down. So I say OK, if the world has now firmed up and we expect it to grow a little bit faster over the next two years, then thats as bad as that gets. That fuels the interpretation of it being a temporary thing. Its one more way I think were going to show our resilience. But we have to be prepared in case it is more profound.

On what he will do once he finishes his term at the bank

Its kind of unfair to ask me that at this stage because Im not really allowed to make plansWe were really careful not to use the retirement word and Im not ready to retire. So Ill be looking for something different to do. Well see what pops up. Theres no rush. Ive got a lot to do between now and June.

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A three-year-old girl was hit and killed by her own mother's SUV in a tragic accident in Texas.

The vehicle rolled down the driveway and hit the toddler after her mother had accidentally left it in neutral while unloading the car.

The girl, who had been standing behind the car, was hurried to hospital but hours later the Harris County sheriff provided a 'heartbreaking update' that she had died.

'Our prayers go out to this family,' the sheriff, Ed Gonzalez, said after the tragedy in Cypress, a suburb of Houston.

An SUV rolled down a driveway and fatally wounded a three-year-old toddler in Cypress, Texas, after the girl's mother accidentally left the car in neutral

'It appears a parent arrived home, began unloading the car, inadvertently left the vehicle in neutral,' Gonzalez said on Saturday.

'Vehicle rolled back striking three-year-old daughter. The child was pronounced deceased at the hospital.'

An earlier update had suggested that a resident of the home in East Laura Shore Drive had been backing out of the driveway at the time.

The sheriff did not provide further details, but reports say the girl who died was one of three children who had been traveling in the car.

Authorities at the scene in Cypress, Texas, where the Harris County sheriff said in a 'heartbreaking update' that the injured toddler had died in hospital

The mother and daughter have not yet been named.

It is believed the toddler died at Memorial Hermann Hospital on the outskirts of Houston.

One sympathetic local, Bonnie Holcomb, said it was 'heartbreaking for the family & friends.

'Prayers for strength, as life will be so hard for them. They will miss their child everyday,' she said.
Four attorneys are now running for what will be a rare contested campaign for an open judicial seat in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Adrian L. Brown, 44, an assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon for 12 years, announced her candidacy Monday. She serves as the offices civil rights coordinator and has handled cases involving the states mental health system, Portland police practices and disability access. She previously worked for seven years as a lawyer for the U.S. Air Forces Judge Advocate Generals Corps, where she served as a trial counsel and defense counsel for air force personnel.

The others who have filed to run are:

-- Portland criminal defense lawyer Ernest Warren Jr., 59, a managing member of the firm Warren & Sugarman since 1990. He previously worked for the Metropolitan Public Defenders Office from 1989 to 1990.

-- Civil attorney Rima I. Ghandour, 47, who has her own practice in Portland called Ghandour Law that specializes in construction defect, personal injury, products liability, commercial/business litigation and insurance coverage. Ghandour was previously a partner at Wiles Law Group, a staff counsel for Liberty Mutual Insurance and Safeco Insurance and a deputy county counsel for Orange County.

-- Sonia A. Montalbano, 50, a civil lawyer with the firm McKeanSmith who specializes in employment and business law. She previously worked as an associate and partner at Elliott, Ostrander & Preston, and was in private practice.

The candidates will vie for the seat being vacated by Gregory F. Silver, 67, who was appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2013. He plans to retire sometime this summer after the May primary election and has alerted other judges that he wont be seeking re-election. His term ends in January.

Silver said the timing of his retirement wasnt intended to prevent the governor from making an appointment. This spring, he said hell turn 68, mark 22 years of serving the state and decided with his wife Dale that "it is time to move into a new phase of our lives.'' He said he looks forward to serving as a senior judge after retirement with the approval of the state Supreme Court and remaining involved with victim impact panels, the Oregon Attorney Assistance Program, the Gus J. Solomon Inn of Court and the Campaign for Equal Justice.

"The best time for me to retire is what it is. The date of the election is what it is. Those two situations have come together in the way they did. There is no other explanation or motive,'' Silver wrote in a statement sent to other justices on Monday.

"Serving as a Circuit Court Judge has been the highest honor I could have imagined. We are all fortunate to have a bench  at both the trial and appellate court levels  comprised of incredibly smart judges and justices who serve with integrity.''

The open seat is a relative rarity. Judicial races in Oregon typically involve an incumbent appointed by the governor seeking to hold onto a seat. Nearly all sitting judges have run unopposed for re-election, and judges often time their retirements so the governor can pick their successors.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.

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Suella Braverman is a former Brexit Minister and is MP for Fareham.

Restoring sovereignty to Parliament after Brexit is one of the greatest prizes that awaits us. But not just from the EU. As we start this new chapter of our democratic story, our Parliament must retrieve power ceded to another place  the courts. For too long, the Diceyan notion of parliamentary supremacy has come under threat. The political has been captured by the legal. Decisions of an executive, legislative and democratic nature have been assumed by our courts. Prorogation and the triggering of Article 50 were merely the latest examples of a chronic and steady encroachment by the judges.

For in reality, repatriated powers from the EU will mean precious little if our courts continue to act as political decision-maker, pronouncing on what the law ought to be and supplanting Parliament. To empower our people we need to stop this disenfranchisement of Parliament.

Brexit has served as a flashpoint of the shrinkage of politics and the ascent of law. However, as Jonathan Sumption, a former Supreme Court Judge, has said, the empire of law has been expanding since the 19th century, gradually governing every aspect of life.

Traditionally, Parliament made the law and judges applied it. But today, our courts exercise a form of political power. Questions that fell hitherto exclusively within the prerogative of elected Ministers have yielded to judicial activism: foreign policy, conduct of our armed forces abroad, application of international treaties and, of course, the decision to prorogue Parliament. Judicial review has exploded since the 1960s so that even the most intricate relations between the state and individual can be questioned by judges. Full disclosure: I was a barrister specialising in judicial review prior to becoming an MP and can testify to the work on offer for hard-working, jobbing lawyers.

The catalyst for this proliferation was the Human Rights Act, which came into force in 2000. Whilst noble in its intentions, the concept of fundamental human rights has been stretched beyond recognition. Of course, there exist inalienable, indisputable rights and codifying them is no bad thing (although, starting with Magna Carta, the English had done much of this long before Tony Blair came along).

However, despite aspiring to operate as a treatise on immutable rights going to the heart of our humanity, the HRA (and the prolific rights-industry which it spawned) now covers complaints about noise abatement, planning rules, employment and social security and non-payment of rent. Strained interpretations of the Article 8 Right to Private and Family Life have meant that inherently political decisions to do with immigration and extradition have been overturned by the courts.

Now I am not lambasting the judiciary and nor is this a diatribe against human rights. What I am arguing is that the delicate relationship between law and politics is off-balance. I dont challenge the quality of our judges, but I do question their trespass into inherently political terrain for which a legal answer is wholly insufficient. Such political disputes can only be resolved through a democratic, consultative process so that public confidence is sustained.

The law, blunt instrument that it is, cannot be the crucible for political questions upon which divergent views exist within our society. Whether it is political matters like Brexit or ethical questions like assisted dying, only Parliament can fully test the whole panoply of views, nuances and interests. Messy, full of contradictions and anomalies, slow and frustrating- our Parliament remains the only source of decisions which have a legitimacy borne out of commanding a majority vote in the country.

I am pleased that that the Government has promised to update the Human Rights Act to restore the proper balance between the rights of individuals, national security and effective government and to set up a Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission to ensure that the boundaries of judicial review are appropriately drawn.

Yes, courts should operate to curb abuse of power by government but if a small number of unelected, unaccountable judges continue to determine wider public policy, putting them at odds with elected decision-makers, our democracy cannot be said to be representative. Parliaments legitimacy is unrivalled and the reason why we must take back control, not just from the EU, but from the judiciary.
The European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a resolution tabled by some of its members against India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which it says marks a dangerous shift in the country's citizenship regime.

The European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a resolution tabled by some of its members against India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which it says marks a dangerous shift in the country's citizenship regime. The resolution was tabled together by five groupings comprising of 559 members in the 751-member European Parliament. The government is bracing for six scathing resolutions on CAA and also includes Jammu and Kashmir as per a report in The Hindu.

The resolution, tabled by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the Parliament earlier this week, is set to be debated 29 January and voted on 30 January. A separate grouping, which represents 66 Members of European Parliament (MEPs), has moved a sixth resolution that supports the Act but calls for an impartial probe into excessive use of force by security forces against anti-CAA protesters, reports the Indian Express.

It makes a reference to the Charter of the United Nations, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the India-EU Strategic Partnership Joint Action Plan signed in November 2005, and to the EU-India Thematic Dialogue on Human Rights as it urges the Indian authorities to "engage constructively" with those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and consider their demands to repeal the "discriminatory CAA".

"The CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering," it notes.

"Instead of addressing the concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters," the resolution states.

This move comes less than two months before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to Brussels for the India-EU summit on 13 March and can impact the way EU member-nations engage with India, and amid Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, claiming that India might attempt to raise tensions at the border in order to divert attention from domestic protests against the new citizenship law and Kashmir issue, according to Dawn newspaper.

Imran who has been trying to internationalise the CAA and Kashmir, recently targetted the Modi government over the CAA, calling the administration "fascist and racist".

Imran after meeting with US president Donald Trump at Davos, urged the international powers, including the UN and the US, to help de-escalate tensions with India, saying they "must act" to prevent the two nuclear-armed countries from reaching a point of no return. "You cannot have two nuclear-armed countries even contemplating a conflict," Imran said while speaking during an interview with the International Media Council on the sidelines of the WEF annual meeting in Davos.

Imran also demanded that UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) be allowed along the Line of Control, the paper said. He said that he "came across a brick wall" when he reached out to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after assuming office in 2018, and the situation deteriorated after India carried out air strike in Balakot targeting Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp following the Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel.

But "things went from bad to worse" when India abrogated Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir in August last year, he said. "I just think that the path which India is going [on] is a disaster for India," Khan was quoted as saying by the paper.

The CAA came into force in India last December amid protests in India and around the world.

The government had stressed that the new Act does not deny any citizenship rights but has been brought in to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and provide them with citizenship.

The EU resolution sets out that since the May 2019 election, the government of India has reinforced its nationalistic orientation as it also makes a reference to the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, which removed the special constitutional status of the region.

The draft resolution, which falls under the category of Resolutions on topical subjects, expresses deep concern that India has created the legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship and that the CAA could be used, along with the National Register of Citizens, to render many Muslim citizens stateless.

It seeks to remind the Indian government of its obligations under the 1992 UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which establishes the obligation of countries to protect the existence and identity of religious minorities within their territories and to adopt appropriate measures to ensure that this is achieved.

Such a resolution, which has been characterised under the Relations with Asian countries section by the economic bloc, are used as a basis for engagement of EU member countries with specific nations.

If it is passed next week, it will be formally sent to the Indian government and Parliament as well as to the European Commission chiefs.

With inputs from PTI
(@FahadShabbir)

The Mongolian government on Monday launched a national campaign to promote domestic products ahead of the traditional White Moon festival or the Lunar New Year

ULAN BATOR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jan, 2020 ) :The Mongolian government on Monday launched a national campaign to promote domestic products ahead of the traditional White Moon festival or the Lunar New Year.

The campaign entitled "Let's give domestic products" aims to stimulate sales of domestic products and reduce the outflow of currencies during the national public holiday, the Ministry of food, Agriculture and Light Industry said in a statement, urging citizens to buy domestic products as gifts in the Lunar New Year.

During the month-long campaign, the ministry and domestic manufactures will provide people with information on traditional and social media.

The White Moon, the most important holiday in Mongolia, symbolizes the start of spring and the end of winter. The festival falls on Feb. 23 this year.

Mongolians spend an average of 357.3 billion Mongolian tugriks (132 million U.S. Dollars) annually to buy imported products as gifts in the Lunar New Year, according to the country's National Statistics Office. (1 U.S. Dollar = 2,706.2 Mongolian tugriks).
On Sunday night the New York Times reported that former national security adviser John Boltons forthcoming book provides a firsthand account of a conversation with President Trump that supports a key element of the impeachment case against him: that Trump directly ordered a freeze on aid to Ukraine until that countrys government launched investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. According to the Times account, which was based on information from sources who said they had seen the manuscript, Bolton said the conversation took place in August 2019, shortly before he was fired by Trump.

How does this affect the presidents defense against impeachment?

There was detailed testimony from witnesses in the House inquiry that the aid freeze was linked by the administration to the Biden investigation, but the accounts implicating Trump personally were mostly secondhand, a point repeatedly cited by the presidents defense lawyers in their opening statements on Saturday. Boltons account, if the Times report is accurate, is the first to link Trump directly to the effort to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take action that would benefit Trump politically.

What does this mean for the trial?

The rules set by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell postponed a decision on calling witnesses until near the end of the trial proceedings, following opening arguments by both sides and time for senators to ask questions. Democrats have sought testimony from Bolton and at least three other administration officials: acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Mulvaney aide Robert Blair and Michael Duffey, an official at the Office of Management and Budget. At least four Republicans would have to join the 47 Democrats in the Senate to support calling witnesses, and the prospects were uncertain at best until the Times story appeared. As of Monday morning, it looked more likely that Bolton, at least, might be called.

Story continues

Bolton, who declined to testify before the House, has previously said that he would appear if subpoenaed by the Senate.

I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton. Whether there are other witnesses and documents, thats another matter, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters Monday morning.

Romney, asked if he was making this comment based on conversations with other senators, said he had spoken with others who have opined on this as well.

I think the story that came out yesterday, its increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton, Romney said.

President Trump with then-national security adviser John Bolton in April 2018. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, tweeted, The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted Monday morning that if witnesses were allowed, then the Trump team should be able to call their own. In a press conference, he said he wanted to read the Bolton manuscript and was open to subpoenaing it if necessary.

What we have to do here is evaluate the manuscript and see if its a reason to add to the record, said Graham. When asked if he would support a subpoena to get it, he said, I want to know whats in the manuscript, yeah. I think thats important.

Who had access to the manuscript?

Boltons lawyer submitted the manuscript to the National Security Council at the end of December for review to make sure no classified information was disclosed in the book, which is scheduled for publication in March. The NSC has denied that anyone in the White House learned of its contents, with a spokesperson saying, Ambassador Boltons manuscript was submitted to the NSC for pre-publication review and has been under initial review by the NSC. No White House personnel outside NSC have reviewed the manuscript.

Jack Goldsmith, a White House lawyer under former President George W. Bush, said the executive branch often circulates manuscripts submitted for prepub review widely, including to political officials, & it often asks for deletions for reasons having nothing to do w/ disclosure of classified info.

Ned Price, an NSC official from 2014 to 2017, told the Washington Post, Its within the purview of the White House counsel to review records in the possession of the executive office of the president. Its almost certain he would have sought the manuscript.

Can the White House block the book from being published?

Its possible that Trump could attempt to stop the book from being published based on executive privilege, but analysts questioned the strength of that case prior to a series of tweets from the president that could further undermine that position.

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens, Trump tweeted Monday morning. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.

Ryan Goodman, a former Department of Defense special counsel and New York University law professor, said Trumps tweets could mean he can no longer invoke executive privilege on the contents of Boltons book.

Another unforced error, wrote Goodman. Whats remarkable about this tweet thread by President Trump responding to specific allegations in [Boltons book]: These statements by Trump may constitute a WAIVER of executive privilege! Cant publicly discuss the info, and then say [Bolton] cant.

Sen. Mitt Romney, seen during a break in President Trumps impeachment trial on Thursday, said Monday that its increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Can the House request Boltons testimony now, and what effect would that have on the impeachment trial?

Though Trump stated otherwise on Twitter, the House did attempt to get Bolton to testify, sending a letter to his attorneys on Oct. 30, 2019. He declined to appear, citing the White Houses policy of not allowing former or current officials to comply with the impeachment investigation. The House opted not to subpoena Bolton, avoiding what could have been an extended court battle.

When Bolton announced earlier in January that he would testify in front of the Senate, Rep. Steny Hoyer, a member of Democratic leadership, said that calling Bolton to testify was possible.

I think thats an option, but its not an option that were pursuing at this point in time, Hoyer said before the House officially sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Well need to see what the Senates doing.

If the Senate acquits Trump without calling on Bolton, a House hearing that includes damaging testimony from the former national security adviser could be embarrassing to Republicans, in particular Collins and other senators from purple states who are up for reelection in the fall.

Although the two articles of impeachment already passed by the House stand on their own, its also possible for the House to vote on additional articles. There is no constitutional barrier that prevents a president from being impeached more than once.

In such a scenario, if Bolton refused to comply with a House subpoena, it would likely trigger the legal process that Democrats chose not to pursue last fall. But Boltons book will presumably be public long before that process plays out.

Will this extend the trial?

If no witnesses are called, there is limited business remaining once Trumps legal team concludes its arguments. There are 16 hours of question time allotted for senators to query both legal teams, followed by a debate over whether to call witnesses (that could be a closed session) and then separate votes on the two impeachment articles. Conviction and removal of the president would require the votes of 67 senators, still considered extremely unlikely.

If there are enough votes to hear from witnesses, theyd likely be privately deposed before any testimony on the Senate floor, which would extend the length of the process significantly. The threat of a prolonged fight in the courts over privilege that would extend the trial has been hanging over the heads of Republican senators who might prefer that the trial end as quickly as possible.

Republicans have also floated the idea of calling on testimony from Joe and Hunter Biden, and even Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led the impeachment investigation and is managing the House case in the trial.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
These types of scams are referred to as social engineering schemes, which involve bad actors psychologically manipulating victims into providing sensitive information. Actions the bad actors might trick their victims into include wiring money to a fraudulent bank account or sharing commercially sensitive information with an unauthorized entity. These types of schemes are performed in a way so that the victims do not know they are being manipulated, and so they do not question the validity and security of their actions.

Read more: Social engineering and insurance  everything you need to know

While business email compromise attacks can seem quite simple in their deployment, theyre often very cleverly done. We shouldnt underestimate the social engineering sophistication by which these attacks are undertaken, Ryan Rubin, a partner for Ernst & Youngs UK Forensic & Integrity Services team, told Insurance Business in a previous statement.

Organizations might have the latest in cyber security, but protecting their own employees from being deceived is another matter altogether. Steve Crystal, head of financial crime at Sedgwick, has recommended that employees should be made more aware of the risks of social engineering so that they will not fall victim.

Placing emphasis on awareness by an organizations leadership team is vital  education for all colleagues [focusing] on what to look out for is fundamental. Its incumbent on each of us to work in a way that protects against risks and threats - and setting that tone from the top is key, Crystal explained.
Actor Hugh Grant was branded 'arrogant and patronising' yesterday after he said Brexit means 'the country's finished'.

The Left-wing millionaire described Britain's imminent divorce from the EU as 'a catastrophe'.

The journalist interviewing him about his latest movie The Gentleman had asked: 'How are you feeling now everything's kind of settled, are you encouraged?'

Grant, still sour still sour over the 2016 referendum and last month's election, replied: 'No, it's a catastrophe.'

The arch-Remainer, 59, went on to slap down the reporter's suggestion of a bright future and lamented: 'No, no, the country's finished.'

During the Christmas election, Grant hit the campaign trail to stump for pro-EU candidates, including the Labour would-be MP who tried unsuccessfully to unseat hardline Eurosceptic Iain Duncan Smith.

Actor Hugh Grant was branded 'arrogant and patronising' yesterday after he said Brexit means 'the country's finished' during an interview for his latest movie

Last night, the ex-Tory leader lashed back at Grant's latest Brexit broadside, calling it 'arrogant and patronising'.

He added: 'How little Hugh Grant understands or values his country.'

The Love Actually star was memorably pictured ashen-faced on election night after seeing Boris Johnson's thumping Tory majority predicted by the exit poll.

The December ballot, which crushed the pro-EU parties, handed the PM the parliamentary majority to ram through his Brexit deal - the UK is now due to leave the bloc on Friday.

The Left-wing millionaire (pictured beside co-star Charlie Hunnam) also described Britain's exit from the EU as 'a catastrophe'

He evoked the same doom-mongering language used in the interview during the election, saying he was canvassing with pro-EU candidates to prevent a 'national emergency'.

In a speech made on the trail with one-time Lib Dem candidate Chuka Umanna, he said: 'I dont want to sound dramatic  even though you could argue that is my job  but I really think we are facing a national emergency.'

Since the 2016 Leave vote, Grant has joined a chorus of celebrities berating the referendum decision and calling for a re-run.

Steve Coogan, fellow actor and friend of Grant's, famously mocked Brexiteers as 'ill informed and ignorant'.
Waco-area dealership offers maintenance deals and specials for local drivers.

Drivers in the central Texas looking for a comprehensive vehicle automotive repair shop will find the Richard Karr Motors Service Center checks all of the boxes. The team of certified service experts at the Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealership make owning and maintaining vehicles simple and stress-free. Along with the expert services, Richard Karr Motors offers service coupons and deals to encourage owners to practice routine vehicle maintenance.

The Waco dealership is offering a free multi-point inspection now through April 16. Service experts will check the vehicles fluid levels, hoses, exhaust, belts, undercarriage, steering, suspension, wiper blades and more during the inspection. The service team uses a color-coded key on their inspection sheets to help owners better understand the maintenance needs and current state of their vehicle.

The dealerships service center honors a range of service coupons and monthly promotions. Additional deals available now at Richard Karr Motors include a $200 GM Dealer Lane Rebate, a four-wheel alignment for $89.95, free wiper blade installation, a $159.95 full transmission service and more.

Richard Karr Motors offers routine vehicle maintenance as well as collision services. Using the latest technology and automotive tools the service and collision teams get vehicles running as good as new. The dealerships service teams will repair most vehicle makes and models.

The full multi-point inspection checklist can be viewed by visiting the service center page on the dealerships website, https://www.richardkarr.com/. For more specific inquiries about available services and deals, interested persons can contact a Richard Karr Motors service representative by calling 254-262-0982. The Richard Karr Motors service center is located at 900 W Loop 340, Waco, TX 76712 and is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
It's taken a while, but the First and Deputy First Ministers have finally found something on which they can wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, what seems to unite them is an eager desire to get their hands on everyone else's money.

Appearing on the BBC's Sunday Politics on Sunday morning, Sinn Fein's deputy leader Michelle O'Neill couldn't have been clearer that her immediate aim is to have revenue-raising powers devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive in order to plug the very considerable gap between what the Assembly wants to do and what it can afford.

The Deputy First Minister's suggested pathway to get there was through a commission on tax powers, in fact she said the new Finance Minister is going to set one up forthwith, though she was less clear about how to make ends meet in the meantime, because commissions by their nature tend to take time.

The inquiry into the cash-for-ash scandal is only now at the end of its deliberations. Deciding whether the Executive should be able to raise money, let alone how it should do so, would presumably be a much bigger undertaking. It couldn't possibly be done before the current Stormont term runs out.

O'Neill isn't wrong to say that a proper analysis of how Northern Ireland can self-fund improvements in public services is long overdue. Scotland has already taken on a number of revenue-raising powers and the Welsh Assembly now has an agreement that the first 10p of every pound paid in income tax stays in Wales. Consideration has even been given to allowing regions in England to become more self-funding.

Since the aim in all these cases is to make local government more accountable, it makes no sense to leave Northern Ireland out of the same conversation, especially since all the political talk around the Assembly right now is about money, or more accurately, the lack thereof.

First Minister Arlene Foster was banging that same drum on the BBC's Inside Politics a few days ago when she suggested that increasing tuition fees might need looked at again to plug the funding shortfall for universities.

Asked about that possibility on Sunday, Michelle O'Neill said she hadn't discussed it with the DUP leader, but that it wasn't on.

She said, "let's look at being creative" instead in terms of finding ways to raise money, but, in the absence of any new ideas, all eggs seem to have been put in the basket of this week's meeting between Conor Murphy and the British Government.

In the more-than-likely event that Boris doesn't bung a few extra bob our way, there's little the Executive can do. It has extremely limited powers to raise or borrow money.

Isn't there a bigger unanswered question underpinning this whole argument, though? Even assuming that the Executive got the power to raise revenue locally, why would anyone in Northern Ireland seriously trust the parties in government with that much control over their wallets?

When she was asked by the BBC's Mark Carruthers for the cost of mitigating tuition fees so that they don't have to rise to the same exorbitant level as in England, O'Neill admitted that she didn't actually know the current cost.

Further asked about Sinn Fein proposals to raise rates on the most expensive houses, she also conceded that members of her party "haven't had those kinds of conversations" with the DUP, which opposes the proposal.

If they're not even talking to each other about these things, what on Earth are they talking about?

With nowhere left to go, Michelle O'Neill predictably opted instead to blame Northern Ireland's problems on, you guessed it, "Tory austerity".

If this is the quality of debate being had in the Executive about how to balance the books, it hardly bodes well for the future.

There have been a number of independent studies done into how Northern Ireland could raise additional revenue, and they have unanimously concluded that, out of all the various tax powers which could be devolved, the only one with the potential to raise the significant amounts of money needed is income tax, and the problem there is that, whilst raising the rates on higher earners is politically attractive to parties of the Left such as Sinn Fein, there just aren't enough rich people in Northern Ireland to fund everything the Executive wants to get done.

The studies all agree that only an increase in the basic rate of income tax would bring in the huge amounts needed - and without wanting to state the obvious, that's unlikely to be popular.

There's also the problem that the UK Treasury may seize on any extra revenue raised locally as an opportunity to cut back the annual block grant to Northern Ireland, thereby requiring even more money to be squeezed out of local pockets.

God alone knows what the Executive would spend all this money on anyway, unless it's Irish language signs nobody needs, Ulster-Scots helplines nobody calls, or another job lot of special advisers, who are special only in the sense that they seem to be exempt from the rules under which everyone else has to operate.

Politicians may love spending other people's money, but that doesn't mean they're any good at spending it wisely, and they're definitely amateurs when it comes to understanding how to get the golden eggs without killing the goose that lays them. Arlene Foster certainly didn't seem to be considering the needs of already debt-burdened students when she casually threw out the suggestion of increasing tuition fees.

The other problem with giving the Executive finance-raising powers is that there would be no accountability whatsoever. There are only five Members of the Assembly who are not in government. All the main parties are part of the club, so who would be left to hold them accountable for the money that they raise and the way they choose to spend it? People's money would effectively be held hostage by the Executive, with little chance of ever paying the constantly increasing ransom.

Before being given such sweeping new powers, the Executive needs to demonstrate that it can sensibly manage the money it's already been given.

After three years without an Assembly, during which time the dysfunctionality of the old one has been shockingly exposed, it doesn't inspire confidence that the very first item on the agenda when ministers return is how to wangle more money from the people whose trust they've abused.

There's an irony here, which is that giving them tax-raising powers would, over time, arguably make them more responsible in how they spend public money, but they've not yet proven responsible enough to take the risk that it wouldn't quickly go pear-shaped.
Waterford Institute of Technology has confirmed that one of their students is in self-isolation having arrived back to Waterford from Wuhan city in China in the last number of days.

Wuhan is the city at the centre of the current coronavirus outbreak which has resulted in over 80 deaths.

In a statement, the college said: "A student arrived in Waterford on Sunday having left Wuhan some days ago before the city was closed; he is not ill and as a precaution, he has agreed not to attend college and stay in his accommodation by himself for the time being. We have been in touch with the HSE and are being directed by them."

A spokesperson insisted the student does not currently have any symptoms of the coronavirus.

Chinese authorities have confirmed that over 3,000 people are currently being treated for the deadly virus.

The government there has also extended its Lunar New year holiday period by three days in a bid to limit travel and halt the spread. The festival will now run until Sunday instead of ending this Thursday.

Travel to and from Wuhan has now been banned by Chinese officials.
T he Duke of York has shown "zero cooperation" over the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking inquiry, a US prosecutor has said.

Speaking at a news conference outside Epstein's New York mansion, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman was asked by reporters if the FBI had "reached out" to Prince Andrew as part of its wider investigation into Epstein's sex trafficking case.

Mr Berman said Andrew had been contacted but added: "To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation."

A source close to the royal family said: This issue is being dealt with by the Duke of Yorks legal team.

REUTERS

Buckingham Palace is not commenting on the matter.

Andrew stepped down from royal duties in November following a disastrous Newsnight interview in the wake of the scandal.

At the time he said: I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency.

Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in his jail cell last summer / AP

He was accused of lacking empathy for Epstein's victims and of failing to show regret over his friendship with the disgraced financier.

Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein, said in an interview with BBC Panorama that she was left "horrified and ashamed" after an alleged sexual encounter with Andrew in London in 2001. He has strenuously denied the allegations.

The Duke of York in an interview with BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis / PA

Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew three times at Epstein's request, including once in London in 2001 at the home of Epstein's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Andrew and Maxwell have both denied any knowledge that Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell last summer while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, was sexually abusing teenage girls.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre speaks during an interview on BBC Panorama / AP

In the BBC interview, Andrew insisted he was out at Pizza Express in Woking on the night Giuffre says they were together in London.

US Attorney General William Barr has vowed to aggressively investigate and bring charges against anyone who may have helped Epstein and Andrew has said publicly suggested he would willingly cooperate with an investigation.

Epstein victims' lawyer: Prince Andrew's co-operation 'extremely important' to get to bottom of what happened

Mr Berman made his remarks about the case during a joint appearance with members of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit victim services agency, to discuss a new New York law that made it easier for people to sue over childhood sexual abuse.

He would not discuss the Epstein investigation in detail, but reiterated that the case did not end with his death.

He also confirmed the investigation was looking at possible "conspirators" who worked with Epstein.

"Jeffrey Epstein couldn't have done what he did without the assistance of others, and I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward," he said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Are you looking to start investing this New Year?

Many people have listed saving money on their list of New Year's resolutions this 2020, but it takes a brave little step to actually see this through.

There are actually a handful of options on where and how to make more out of your hard-earned savings, but it all depends on your investment preference and risk aversion.

If you want to make the most out of your money, it comes with risks that you have to bear. Buying and trading shares at the stock market can give very promising returns, but the peaks and troughs of daily trading may give you sleepless nights and elevate your anxiety level.

There are also life insurance products with investment components, but profits would be realized several years down the road. Early withdrawals may subject you to hefty penalties.

The safest bet would be to deposit your cash in the bank, but a savings account wouldn't really give you any bang for your buck.

Consider Long-Term Negotiable Certificates of Time Deposit or LTNCTDs, which may be the balance you need between relatively higher returns with bearable risks.

While it may be a handful to read or say, LTNCTDs is actually a good option for people who can invest their money for at least five years. Interest earnings are higher compared to savings accounts as well as regular time deposits, and the interest earnings are tax-free.

Banks issuing LTNCTDs have the approvals from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and since these are deposits, LTNCTDs are insured for up to 500,000 by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation. These deposits cannot be pre-terminated but can be sold to the secondary market at a price if the investor wants to covert the deposit instrument to cash before the maturity date.

The Bank of Commerce LTNCTDs will be made available starting January 2020, with subsequent offerings possible later this year.

Interested to invest in LTNCTDs? Applications may be submitted in all 140 branches of the Bank of Commerce. One can start with a minimum investment of 50,000.

"You have a very, very safe product with a high return, and in the present tax regime [it] has no withholding tax and is insured by the PDIC. You cannot get any better deal  that is an LTNCTD," Bank of Commerce president and chief executive officer Michelangelo Aguilar told CNN Philippines' Business Roundup in an interview.

Bank of Commerce, an affiliate of San Miguel Corporation, is one of the countrys progressive banks and has been in operation for more than 50 years in the Philippines.

Standard Chartered Bank and Philippine Commercial Capital, Inc. have been engaged by the Bank as joint lead arrangers while Standard Chartered Bank, along with Bank of Commerce, will be the selling agent.

For inquiries on Bank of Commerce LTNCTDs and other products and services, the bank's Customer Care hotline can be reached at +632 8632-2265, Domestic Toll-free Numbers: (PLDT) 1800-10-982-6000 and (Globe Lines) 1800-8-982-6000, or email customerservice@bankcom.com.ph.
General Motors affirmed plans to build electric pickups and SUVs at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant and scheduled the start of production for late next year.

Output of electric Cruise Origin driverless vehicles will follow soon after the initial pickups roll off the line, GM said in a statement Monday. The automaker committed to investing $2.2 billion in the factory as part of the labor agreement reached last year with the United Auto Workers union.

GM's investment -- which will include another $800 million on supplier tooling and projects related to the trucks -- saves a factory that was marked for closure over a year ago. Detroit-Hamtramck will become GM's second plant in Michigan making plug-in models as Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra bets on demand for electric vehicles that only Tesla Inc. has sold in significant volume thus far.

"It's not if, it's when," GM President Mark Reuss said of EVs catching on with consumers. "Nothing happens by turning on a light switch, making vehicles and seeing consumers adopt them. But the turning point is now and we have to plan for adoption."

Once fully operational, the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will employ 2,200 workers, according to GM. The automaker plans to build a family of EVs at the factory, including a Hummer truck that will be sold by GMC dealers, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. The company also will assemble a family of electric crossovers and cars at its Orion plant north of Detroit.

For the 800 union members working at Detroit-Hamtramck, the investment is a sigh of relief, said Mike Plater, chairman of UAW Local 22, which represents employees at the plant.

"They were very serious about closing it," Plater said of GM. "It was difficult getting this investment."
The trial will resume in the Senate later on January 27.

Former national-security adviser John Bolton has made claims in an unpublished book that U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to freeze aid to Ukraine unless it investigated his political rivals, The New York Times reports.

The January 26 report said Bolton writes in the book that Trump had told him he wanted to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid to Ukraine until it helped him with investigations, including into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said.

Trump's legal team has repeatedly insisted that the president never tied Ukraine aid to investigations.

Read alsoRFE/RL: Trump heard asking on tape: How long can Ukraine last 'in fight with Russia'?

After the report went online, Democrats renewed their demand for Bolton to be called to testify in Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate. The president faces one charge of abuse of power and another on obstruction of Congress over his alleged efforts to prod Ukraine to investigate his political rivals while withholding US$391 million in military assistance to Kyiv.

The trial will resume in the Senate later on January 27.

Trump denied the claim in a series of tweets early on January 27, saying: I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens."

"In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," he added.

The document has been sent to the White House for prepublication review, a standard practice for some current and former administration officials who write books.

Bolton left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the aid to Kyiv on September 11 and has told lawmakers he is willing to testify, despite the presidents order barring aides from cooperating in the proceedings.

A July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the center of the trial. A rough transcript of the conversation revealed that the U.S. president had urged his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden, who is seen as a potential opponent in this year's presidential election in November. His son Hunter Biden was a paid board member of a Ukrainian energy firm when he served as vice president.

Critics say the crucial military aid to Kyiv was withheld as leverage.

"John Bolton has the evidence," tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York). "It's up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, [acting White House chief of staff] Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of Trump's actions testify in the Senate trial."

The Democrats need at least four Republicans to vote with them to seek witness testimony in the trial. However, the legislative chamber is controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans.

RFE/RL has not confirmed the contents of the draft of Bolton's book.

He left his post after disagreements with the president. Trump said he fired him. Bolton said he resigned.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have charged Trump with abuse of office and obstruction of Congress. A trial is under way in the Senate to decide whether to convict and remove the president from office. The chamber's 100 senators are the jurors in the trial.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the impeachment proceedings a "witch hunt."

Day seven of the impeachment trial begins on January 27 with Trump's defense team expected to continue presenting opening arguments. Other legislative work is possible as well.
Stanley was accused of wrapping a boy in bubble wrap and tape in 2013 in a janitors room at St. Margaret Church. The boy's eyes and mouth were also covered while he was left alone for an hour, according to the attorney general's office.
Of late, Cambodia is turning out to be quite a popular tourist destination for Indians and for good reason, too. The place has some breathtaking sights that are steeped in history, many gastronomical delights and of course very cheap beer. If you are thinking of a foreign holiday thats easy on the pocket, then Cambodia is definitely for you. I backpacked there not so long ago with a friend. This was our first overseas trip and we did consider Thailand and Vietnam. But Cambodia held a rather rustic charm and raw appeal for us that we wanted to explore further.

The period from April to mid-August is one of the best times to go to Cambodia if you want to travel cheap. These are the non-tourist months so one can get good deals. We had a budget of around Rs 60,000 (including airfare) per person for a trip of around two weeks. With this, we visited three major cities, two islands, one town, and several sites. We got two Air Asia tickets (two way) for around Rs 33,000 from Kolkata to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh via Kuala Lumpur. Once you are over Phnom Penh, you wont fail to notice the massive and all-encompassing Mekong River and the Tonle Sap River  a tributary of the largest freshwater lake in South Asia of the same name  that runs right through the city. Areas near the banks are densely populated and one could also see huge development projects on the ground.



National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh



Phnom Penh & its pavement parks

We got our visas on arrival ($30 or Rs 2,000 each) although there is an online option as well. It was a fairly simple process that didnt take long at all. It is a good idea to have US dollars and the Cambodian Riel (KHR) for smaller purchases. We also got a sim card ($8 or Rs 580) with an internet connection, something that came really handy throughout the trip. We had already booked a hotel in Phnom Penh via AirBnB in one of the main commercial hubs of the city. Our hotel was located not very far from two important tourist spots  The Royal Palace and National Museum of Cambodia. As we drove towards the city from the airport one early Sunday afternoon, we were amazed by the pavement parks that ran for miles. Teenagers were dancing, children screaming and playing, old men and women were relaxing. We saw a lot of activity in the parks every time.

Our rooms were pretty basic with clean toilets and two beds ($15 or around Rs 1000). We also found a few hostels for as low as $2 to $5 (Rs 140 to Rs 350). The afternoon we reached Phnom Penh, we headed to a night market nearby that was bustling with activity and illuminated with all sorts of lights. Once in, the market started with the clothes stalls and as we went further inside, there were the food stalls. One can choose from the different items such as pork sausages, fried chicken, spring rolls with a weird but tasty plasma and what not (around $1 to 5 or Rs 70 to 350). Carpets were placed nearby and people ate their meals under the open night sky and the cacophony of the market. The Killing Fields of Cheoung Ek Genocidal Center, one of the most well-known sites for torture and mass graves of the infamous Khmer Rogue Regime under Pol Pot was probably the most memorable place in Phnom Penh for us. This was located some 14 km on the outskirts of the city. The price of two tickets for the Center was $12 (Rs 800) and the to and fro tuk-tuk (autorickshaws) or autorickshaw ride was $14 (around Rs 900).

With the help of a very good audiobook, we went by ourselves to some 10 to 15 odd sites at this place where untold horrors took place. An ordinary tree with an extraordinary history called the Killing Tree was used for smashing babies to death; a memorial where hundreds of skulls of the slain dug out of the mass graves were placed in giant glass cupboards. A whole day affair, the site left a sobering impact on us. It was a stark contrast from the glitzy high rises, fast cars and nightlife of the main city. A lot has changed in the country since those days.



Remnants of a library in Angkor Wat, Siem Reap



Picnic in lotus fields

As we moved away from Phnom Penh on our way to the city famous for the Angor Wat temples, Siem Reap, we got to really see how the village folks live. Houses are built on stilts to prevent flood waters from entering during the monsoons. There is a huge difference in the food too. One gets more rustic and homely dishes when compared to the ones in the city. Many of these were stewed dishes of vegetables and meat that included a lot of herbs and leaves. The pace of life here was slower and people more easy going. We travelled in a comfortable van (tickets for $15 or Rs 1,200) through the night and reached in 10 hours. Our abode here  a hostel called Tipsy Turtle ( $2 or Rs 140 per person) in a dorm of around five double beds. It had an open space in the middle with a bar. The rooms were on the ground floor and the first floor. Simple and basic. There were a few Canadians and Americans with whom we got along well.

We visited the Angkor Wat with a one day pass that cost $74 or Rs 5,000 for two tickets. There is however, a three-day and a weeks pass that are much costlier. Make sure you are a proper history buff or read up well before you take the passes of more than a day. For regular tourists like us, one day is more than enough. Angor Wat is majestic, to say the least. We left early in the morning by around 4 am to catch the sunrise just at the beginning of the temple. There are many depictions of Hindu mythologies throughout the temple. My favourite was the churning of the sea of milk on a huge wall of the temple. Just one day, but we were beyond exhausted.

Visit the Pub Street at night or during the day, get yourself a place in one of the numerous bar cafes and just watch a carnival-like atmosphere of lights and people going and coming as you slowly sip your beer, as we did. Or you can just pick a spot in one of the numerous mobile street food joints that would cook up anything from barbecued chicken or noodle soup for you. Many fishing villages are just outside Siem Reap on the tributaries of the Tonle Sap Lake. We visited one on a boat ($40 or Rs Rs 2,700) and saw a school that was on a boat, grocery shops and even a clothing store, also boats. We also had time for a picnic on lotus ponds fields on the outskirts of the city.



A bridge towards Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmer

Empire, that depicts gods and demons in Seam Reap



Kampot, the Bohemian hub

The last destination in our journey was a town not very far from Sihounikville called Kampot. Soon after taking the boat back from the islands, we immediately got a van ($10 or Rs 800) from the dock itself to go there. We had no plan to go at first but since we still had some money left, we decided why not. A quaint town of only a few kilometres radius, we were immediately bowled over as soon as we reached this place. A huge river ran right through the middle of the town. It was early afternoon when we reached. The journey took us just three hours. We walked around the main area and noticed quite a few colonial looking buildings.

As evening approached, the ferries docked near the bank of the river, lit up and flickered with a number of lights.

On the last day, before we left, we sat on the banks of the river and thought about all that Cambodia had offered us.
WASHINGTON  Top supporters of President Donald Trump are targeting Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey over impeachment, trying to turn the volatile issue against swing-state Democrats.

America First Policies, a political nonprofit affiliated with the main super PAC supporting Trumps reelection, is set to launch television ads Tuesday blasting Trumps impeachment as an attempt by the radical left to win the White House outside of an election.

Bob Casey is standing with radicals, the ad says, urging viewers to call his office and tell him that they are sick of the radical left abusing their power.

The 30-second spot is set to air on broadcast television and Fox News in the Harrisburg and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre media markets, two areas important to Trumps political strength in the state, and a sign that the focus is the presidents base. Republicans have argued that impeachment will backfire on Democrats.

America First Policies, associated with the America First Action Super PAC, plans to spend $200,000 on broadcast media in Pennsylvania, and more on digital ads. The TV ads are some of the few booked to run in the next several weeks specifically targeting Pennsylvania on presidential politics, aside from the lavish spending by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to Advertising Analytics, which tracks ad spending.

Casey, who isnt up for reelection until 2024, faces little immediate political peril. A Casey spokesperson pointed to the senators reelection in 2018.

The 2018 Senate election in Pennsylvania was a clear referendum on Donald Trumps presidency and policies. Bob Casey beat Lou Barletta by 13 points. Numbers dont lie," said spokesperson John Rizzo.

The ads hitting Casey are part of a $1 million national effort by America First, which is also targeting other Senate Democrats such as Alabamas Doug Jones and Michigans Debbie Stabenow. The group previously ran ads slamming Democratic House members, including Pennsylvanias Conor Lamb and Matt Cartwright, who each hold swing seats.
Huawei could be about to find itself at the center of an intense political rift between Britain and the United States. London is expected to grant the Chinese tech giant some access to its 5G network, according to a Financial Times report. Citing people close to the discussions, the FT reported that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is looking at imposing a cap on Huawei's share of the market. It's believed that Huawei, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, could be allowed to provide non-core telecom gear like the antennas and base stations seen on rooftops, rather than the key infrastructure used for processing customer information. But the U.S. has demanded an outright ban, like the one implemented in Australia. Johnson said he believed it was possible to achieve a resolution that ensures technological progress without compromising national security. "We're going to come up with a solution that enables us to achieve both of those objectives," the U.K. leader said Monday. "There's no reason why we shouldn't have technological progress here in the U.K.," he added, but Britain would also need to "protect our security interests and protect our key partnerships with other security powers around the world."

'Three is better than two'

Competition is a primary concern in the row over Huawei. Washington wants allies to block it on national security grounds, but doing so in a market like the U.K. would narrow the competitive landscape for 5G equipment providers down to Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia. "Huawei has become the poster child of the U.S.-China tech battle," Dexter Thillien, a senior TMT analyst at Fitch Solutions, told CNBC over the phone. "It's almost being seen to the outside world as the only player." Thillien said there was a concern that the major mobile network operators would be restricted in choice if Huawei is blocked from the country's 5G rollout. Three out of four of the U.K.'s big carriers  EE, Vodafone and Three  already use Huawei equipment in their networks.

"Three is better than two," he said. "If you ban Huawei, you have a choice between Ericsson and Nokia. You lack competition." Vodafone stressed that it doesn't use Huawei in its "core," and has "multiple layers of security and encryption" between Huawei and Vodafone's masts. Three said it remained in "close contact" with the government and would "abide by any directions given by them." EE was not immediately available for comment.

The U.S. has made no secret of its position on Huawei. Over the weekend, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a warning to Britain via President Donald Trump's communication channel of choice  Twitter. "The U.K. has a momentous decision ahead on 5G," Pompeo tweeted, agreeing with an opinion article from British Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, who said: "The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign." Tweet U.S. officials are concerned that the use of Huawei's 5G gear would put intelligence sharing with the U.K. at risk. Collaboration on intelligence has been a key part of the longstanding "special relationship" between the two countries. The main contention Washington has raised is with the possibility that Huawei provides Beijing with a "back door" to sensitive network information. Huawei has consistently denied such claims, stating it's a private company and would never spy for China.
The State of Tennessee is collaborating with multiple states and federal agencies to control Asian carp. The recently reported photo of a silver carp from Chickamauga Lake suggests that a few silver carp have migrated upstream through navigation locks. The most upstream observation of silver carp prior was Wheeler Lake near Decatur, Ala in March 2017. TWRA fish monitoring through 2019 has not yielded a single carp, suggesting that silver carp are rare in Chickamauga Lake.

Asian carp negatively impact Tennessees fisheries, recreational boaters, and local economies and we are committed to combatting this problem, said Governor Bill Lee. I am pleased that TWRA is looking at technologies to install a protective barrier in Tennessees reservoirs as well as subsidizing the removal of carp where they exist. My administration will continue to work with the TWRA to ensure our waterways are protected.

Tennessee supported and assisted with the experimental sound barrier at Barkley Lock which started testing on Nov. 8, 2019. This barrier is being evaluated to determine if a combination of sound, light, and bubbles will deter carp from entering Barkley Lock. TWRA has been subsidizing commercial harvest on Kentucky and Barkley to reduce numbers of carp. To date over 3 million pounds have been removed, and similar efforts in Kentucky have removed even more carp from the same lakes. TWRA will increase surveillance of carp in Nickajack, Chickamauga, and Watts Bar lakes.

Migration of carp from the Mississippi via the Ohio River is the primary source of Asian carp in the Tennessees reservoirs, said Frank Fiss, Chief of Fisheries. Successful reproduction of carp has been rare in these impounded reservoirs and their tributaries, making migration the main driver of population growth. Barriers are also needed in the upper Tennessee River to prevent additional carp from arriving. In December of 2019 the US Fish and Wildlife Service funding for Asian carp control was increased from $11 to $25 million. Additional federal funding is not guaranteed, but Tennessee will be requesting that funds be used to install barrier projects at strategic locations throughout the state.

Anglers are urged to report any sighting of Asian carp in East Tennessee to ans.twra@tn.gov, please include a photo, and freeze the fish if you can. TWRA does not anticipate immediate impacts on the fishery or any changes to fishing regulations.
Finance Minister Conor Murphy, Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill and First Minister Arlene Foster attend the funeral of Seamus Mallon (Liam McBurney/PA)

Northern Ireland needs to adopt Seamus Mallons legacy of building a shared future, Stormonts First Minister said.

Arlene Foster paid tribute to a man who has been described as stubborn and straight-talking and who could be awkward but was also thoughtful.

Mr Mallon was remembered during an Assembly sitting on Monday. At one point proceedings were adjourned to allow MLAs to file out into the Great Hall of Parliament Buildings to sign a book of condolences.

A huge portrait of the former SDLP deputy leader was placed in the hall for the memorial event.

The former deputy first minister once denounced as a denial of his humanity the IRAs killing of a neighbour in his home village of Markethill, a member of the security forces.

The next generation of SDLP politicians will live by Seamus Mallon's mantra - that is in our DNA - but all of us here would do well to live by Seamus's judgment of how we share this piece of landSDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon

He went to every conflict-related funeral in his constituency, even when he was not welcome.

The First Minister paid tribute to his opposition to violence, while working amongst republican supporters of the IRA in the Irish border city of Newry rather than from the relative safety of England or Dublin.

She said: Northern Ireland and its leaders must carry forward that vision, building a shared future where everyone has a stake and feels at home and working together in the interests of all our people.

The current Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill said his track record of working to create a better Ireland had left an indelible mark on politics and he had articulated nationalist interests.

She paid tribute to the critical role played by Mr Mallon and former SDLP leader John Hume in bringing about the peace process and their courage and risks taken to deliver that peace.

The Stormont Assembly and powersharing was restored earlier this month following a three-year hiatus.

SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon said her predecessor in the role had inspired her generation of party activists.

She said: Seamus was a man of peace, of non-violence, of justice, fairness, truth and of courage.

The next generation of SDLP politicians will live by Seamus Mallons mantra  that is in our DNA  but all of us here would do well to live by Seamuss judgment of how we share this piece of land.
Prominent patient rights campaigners have responded with dismay to the news that a patient advocate on the board of the HSE has resigned after only six months in the position.

Mark Molloy, one of two patient advocate on the HSE board, stepped down in protest at what he said was the "tokenistic" treatment of patients.

Mr Molloy told the Irish Times that he felt "let down" by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris over under-funding of the national maternity strategy.

His departure from the role led to criticism of the Government.

In a tweet, campaigner Vickie Phelan, who has led the calls for transparency and accountability over the CervicalCheck scandal, wrote: "So sorry to read that Mark Molloy, a wonderful patient advocate, has resigned from the HSE Board. Another example of patient advocates NOT being listened to, it seems..."

When the former CEO of Spinal Injuries Ireland, Colm Whooley, also tweeted that the development is "so sad", adding that "never were Patient advocates so important", Ms Phelan responded: "Colm, it is more than sad. It is a bloody disgrace!

"Never has it been more important to have patient voices heard with the state of our dysfunctional health service yet the system will NOT make room for us. This NEEDS to be called out now on doorsteps across the country."

Lorraine Walsh, a cervical cancer survivor who last year resigned as a patient representative from the steering committee set up to oversee changes in CervicalCheck, tweeted: "So disappointed to hear that Mark Molloy had to resign, not surprised as we are fully aware of the huge inadequacies in womens health in Ireland, maternity strategy inadequately funded, huge waitlists for Gynae and also huge waitlists for Colposcopy, its just not good enough!"

Stephen Teap, another campaigner whose wife, Irene, died of cervical cancer, tweeted that he is sorry to hear of Mr Malone's resignation.

He added: "I'll say it again(and again, and again....) there needs to be a proper structured platform for Patient Reps/advocates."

Mr Molloy and his wife, Roisin, are well-known campaigners and lost their baby son, Mark, as a result of failings at Portlaoise Hospital.

In outlining the reasons behind his decision to resign from his position on the HSE board, he referred to the publication last month of the HSE service plan, which he said would deliver only a fraction of the funding initially promised for the national maternity strategy.
Zindagi Na Milegi: 56 Indians part of this Pakistan administered spying WhatsApp group

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: A group called Zindagi Na Milegi administered by handlers in Pakistan has come under the radar of the police in connection with a spy case.

Mohammad Rashid who was arrested by the UP Anti Terrorist Squad in a joint operation with the intelligence agencies has been charged with spying and passing on information relating to the Indian Army to Pakistan.

Dolphines Nose: The operation that bust a major spying operation by Pakistan

He was paid money on several occasions and was added to the WhatsApp group Zindagi Na Milegi. It was found that there were 56 others from India who were part of the group. The police say that with the arrest of Rashid, they have cracked a major spying racket.

NEWS AT NOON JAN 27th, 2020

The numbers of the other Indians on the group have been shared with the police officers of various states. More arrests will be carried out and investigations are on.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Monday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hold a dialogue with protesters opposing the CAA-NRC-NPR regime, to prevent "further deterioration" of the current situation.

Singh also said the "movement" against the new citizenship law and the two other proposed exercises has now gone out of the hands of politicians, as it has turned into an "emotional issue".

"The movement against the CAA, NPR and NRC has gone out of the hands of politicians and political parties and has become an emotional issue, which should not be linked with politics," Singh told reporters here.

He made a brief stopover in Sehore to meet local leaders while on his way to Dhar.

Protests have been held against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country.

"Amit Shah had said that CAA bill will be followed by the NPR and then the NRC in a chronological order. Now, if they want to handle the situation properly then PM Modi and Shah should hold a dialogue with those staging protests.

"They should clear all doubts from the mind of protesters otherwise the situation will further worsen in the country," Singh added.

Answering a question on Shah's appeal to the people of Delhi where assembly polls will be held on February 8, Singh said, "As they (BJP leaders) have no issues to raise, they are setting the country on fire (by making such statements)".

Shah on Sunday said that people in Delhi should press the EVM button with such anger that the protesters in Shaheen Bagh "feel the current".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (SUAD) has opened Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence in at its campus in Abu Dhabi, aiming to provide research and consulting services in the burgeoning fields of artificial intelligence.



The inauguration ceremony was held in the presence of Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, Minister of State and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and Professor Jean Chambaz, President of Sorbonne University and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and Stephane Michel, President Exploration & Production Mena and Member in Board of Trustees of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and Pascale Sourisse, President Thales International.



Nusseibeh stated: Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence - Abu Dhabi recognizes the importance of digital transformation and the increasing efficiency of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, and addresses the emirates need for research and development in the field.



The university aims to transform into a scientific beacon for intellectual freedom, creativity and innovation, and expects to have a significant impact on the development of human civilization by arming future leaders with science, and fortifying them with knowledge.



To support the UAEs vision in empowering innovation, and in tandem with our strategy to provide the most advanced digital solutions that strengthen the universitys position in the UAE and the region; we are keen to offer the latest technology in the service of knowledge in artificial intelligence. In addition, the center is imperative to our strategy to develop new programs in science and research, commented Jean Chambaz.



The Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence - Abu Dhabi is modelled after and will be supported by its counterpart at Sorbonne University in Paris, an institution which ranks among the top universities in the world, notably in the fields of mathematics, computer science and robotics.



The establishment of Sorbonne Center for Artificial intelligence-Abu Dhabi at SUAD will boost cooperation between the universitys academic and research programs and our partners Total and Thales Group.



Our aim is to partner with an array of prestigious UAE institutions to advance research and literature in the field of artificial intelligence, whilst also contributing towards the sustainable development of the UAE, he added.



Dr Laurence Renault, deputy executive director for Academic Affairs at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (SUAD) said: Keeping pace with the 4th industrial revolution, the opening of the Sorbonne Center for Artificial intelligence-Abu Dhabi will position SUAD as a leading research center on Artificial Intelligence and its applications, notably to Climate, Environment, Exploration of the Universe, Health and Medicine  not to mention an in-depth reflection on the Ethical and Sociological issues at stake in this development.



We are happy to contribute towards the development of SUAD, a fast growing university that enables its youth to shape tomorrows world, Dr Renault concluded.  TradeArabia News Service
Filmmaker Jagan Shakti, who directed Vidya Balan-Akshay Kumar- starrer "Mission Mangal", was hospitalised on Sunday and is recovering, a source close to the director said.

As per multiple reports, the filmmaker collapsed while he was with his friends and was rushed to a city hospital.

"Jagan is now well and is recovering," the source told PTI, adding that the filmmaker has a clot in his brain.

"Mission Mangal" was based on real-life scientists, who contributed to India's first interplanetary expedition, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched by Indian Research Space Organisation (ISRO) in 2013.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - Activist organization, "For a Secular Mauritania", Monday denounced the arrest of several individuals alleged to be members of the LGBT community, and condemned the treatment meted out to them by the police, according to a statement reaching PANA here
Gurugram: Seven western disturbances have affected the weather in the national capital region (NCR) in January so far, said officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The higher than usual number of disturbances made sure the temperatures didnt deviate by more than two to three degrees from the normal, they said, adding that the month usually sees around two to three western disturbances.

A western disturbance (WD) is a storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Of the seven WDs this month, four, including the current one, were active and brought rain in the NCR, the IMD officials said, and predicted light rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The high frequency of WDs prevented the temperatures from falling drastically as compared to last year s January when the minimum temperature had touched 1 degree Celsius in the first week. As per IMD data, the minimum temperature in January this year has been around five degrees Celsius.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the IMDs regional forecasting centre at Delhi, said, Temperatures between January 12 to date havent deviated by a large number from the normal. The difference has been of one/two degrees.

The normal maximum temperature for January is 21 degrees Celsius, and the normal minimum temperature is 8 degrees Celsius, as determined by the IMD.

According to the IMD, no cold day/severe cold day was recorded in January in the city, unlike in December when the city saw the longest ever recorded spell of cold/severe cold days (18 days).

According to the IMD, a severe cold day is when two things happen  the minimum temperature drops to less than 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature is at least 6.4 degrees Celsius below normal, while a cold day is registered when the minimum temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum is 4.4 degrees Celsius below normal.

Experts said that western disturbances play a role in making the weather warmer. Whenever there is a WD, wind direction changes and cold, northerly winds are not able to penetrate central and peninsular parts, said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, climate change and meteorology, Skymet Weather.

The IMD officials said high wind speeds also contributed to the normal temperature. Wind speeds were high on several days and were around 20-25 kmph, which cleared the weather and caused a rise in the maximum temperature, said Srivastava.

In its Seasonal Temperature Outlook for December 2019 to February 2020, the IMD had said that there is relatively high probability for above normal minimum temperatures in the core cold wave zone that includes Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Laura Whitmore has hit back at claims she is contributing to the climate crisis by flying back and forth to Cape Town for Love Island.

The TV presenter is in South Africa for some episodes of the ITV2 show, but hosts the series spin-off Aftersun from the UK.

She also hosts a Sunday morning BBC Radio 5 Live show.

After a fan questioned why she did not broadcast from Cape Town, Whitmore said she only travelled to South Africa for certain parts of Love Island and added that she was also an advocate of offsetting your carbon footprint.

Projects

The Twitter user posted the message this weekend, asking why Whitmore was "flying from South Africa every weekend to do her Sunday morning radio show then back to SA to present Love Island".

Adding the hashtag #ClimateCrisis, the person added: "Surely there are studios she could broadcast from in SA?"

Whitmore replied: "Hi Jane, Love Island Aftersun is filmed in London - as all the guests are based in the UK.

"I'm only in Cape Town for the finale, public voting etc.

"And I'm an advocate of offsetting carbon footprint you'll notice on my Twitter. Thanks x."

Only days before, Whitmore tweeted about offsetting your carbon footprint, writing: "There's some amazing projects out there that you can use to offset your carbon footprint.

"I use co2nsensus.com as you can choose a wide range of projects to support.

"This time I chose Forest Plantations in Uruguay and they give you a certificate!

"Check them out!"
The Maharashtra government has written to its Karnataka counterpart to review the design of a bridge near Almatti Dam there which could be the possible cause of flooding in Sangli district, state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said here on Tuesday.

Almatti Dam, also known as Lal Bahadur Shastri Dam, is built on Krishna River and is situated in Bijapur in north Karnataka. It is a little over 200 kilometres from Sangli.

A team had been sent to study floods in Sangli and it found that the technical error in the construction of this bridge in Karnataka was one of the reasons for the situation, Pawar said at a press conference here.

"We have written to the Karnataka government to review the design of this bridge," he informed.

Sangli had faced severe floods in August last year, leading to the evacuation of over 50,000 people.

Pawar said there was a plan to purchase boats for flood rescue operations in the state and local youth would be trained to operate them in case of an emergency.

On a query about release of funds for Jalyukt Shivar, a water conservation project that was the flagship of the previous BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government, Pawar said no scheme meant for the betterment of the state's people will be scrapped.

The Congress-NCP, when in opposition, had claimed there were irregularities to the tune of Rs 4,800 crore in the Rs 8,000 crore Jalyukt Shivar.

Pawar also brushed aside requests for a comment on senior Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan's statement about the formation of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in the state, which also includes the Shiv Sena.

Chavan, speaking in Nanded on Sunday, claimed Congress president Sonia Gandhi had sought a written undertaking from the Sena that the new government in Maharashtra would work within the ambit of the Constitution.

Pawar said it was not appropriate on his part to comment at a time when the Sena-NCP-Congress government was moving in the right direction.

The deputy CM also said funds would be earmarked for a medical college in Satara.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Duchess of Cambridge donned a grey coat as she joined Prince William to pay her respects on Holocaust Memorial Day in London today.

Kate, 38, looked elegant in the bespoke Catherine Walker creation as she arrived for a service to mark the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation at Westminster's Central Hall.

Despite the solemnity of the occasion, the Duchess managed to flash a smile at waiting well-wishers before making her way inside.

Demure Duchess: The Duchess of Cambridge donned a sombre grey coat as she joined Prince William to pay her respects on Holocaust Memorial Day in London today, pictured

Sombre: Kate, 38, wore the Catherine Walker piece, which she previously sported last year, as she arrived for a service to mark the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation

Royal guests: Meeting Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as well as survivor and trust honorary president Sir Ben Helfgott ahead of the service

Support: The Duke and Duchess took their positions among the audience prior to the start of the ceremony, which will feature testimony from survivors of the Holocaust

Kate ensured attention remained on the service by keeping her styling simple, pairing the coat dress with tights, simple black court shoes and a black clutch bag from Jimmy Choo. She added a delicate pair of Cassandra Goad earrings.

The Duchess previously wore the coat, believed to be bespoke, on an outing with the Queen to King's College London in March last year.

Ahead of the service, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as well as survivor and trust honorary president Sir Ben Helfgott.

It is one of a series of events taking place across Europe to mark the solemn anniversary, including at the death camp itself, where the Duchess of Cornwall is in attendance.

Helping hand: Prince William held the umbrella over his wife as they arrived at the service

A day to remember: Despite the solemnity of the occasion, the Duchess managed to flash a smile at waiting well-wishers, pictured, before making her way inside

A dark day: The heavens opened as people gathered to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. Pictured, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving at the service today

Kate's appearance comes after she released a set of moving photographs of Holocaust survivors inspired by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer.

Four survivors, alongside their children and grandchildren, featured in the moving new photographs.

Kate was among those behind the lens for the project and described the survivors in her portraits as 'two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet'.

Each of the portraits depicts the special connection between a survivor and younger generations of their family, who will carry the legacy of their grandparents.

Pared back: Kate ensured attention remained on the service by keeping her styling simple, pairing the coat dress with simple black court shoes and a black clutch bag from Jimmy Choo. Pictured, the Duchess of Cambridge as she arrived for the service in central London today

Simple accessories: Kate added a pair of delicate Cassandra Goad earrings to her outfit

One of Kate's two portraits was of 84-year-old Steven Frank, originally from Amsterdam, who survived multiple concentration camps as a child.

He was pictured alongside his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie Fleet, aged 15 and 13.

Kate's other portrait is of 82-year-old Yvonne Bernstein, originally from Germany, who was a hidden child in France throughout most of the Holocaust.

Her father was in Amsterdam on business when Kristallnacht took place in 1938 and was advised to go into hiding, before making it to the UK.

Worn before: The Duchess previously wore the coat, believed to be bespoke, on an outing with the Queen to King's College London in March last year, pictured

She is pictured with her granddaughter Chloe Wright, aged 11.

In a photograph by Frederic Aranda, Joan Salter, 79, who fled the Nazis as a young child, appears with her husband Martin and her daughter Shelley.

John Hajdu, 82, who survived the Budapest Ghetto, is in a portrait with his four-year-old grandson Zac photographed by Jillian Edelstein.

The project aims to inspire people across the UK to consider their own responsibility to remember and share the stories of those who endured persecution at the hands of the Nazis.
This week, Ive been in Arizona helping my sister out with her freshly baked baby, and in my off hours Ive been catching up on Bon Appetits cooking videos on YouTube. Its an admittedly easy hole to fall into when you just want to put on something light and fun while youre changing diapers, and there are clearly many devotees who happily dwell at the bottom of that pit. The channel is a true digital media success story, with more than 5 million subscribers and almost 1 billion views in total, and it will surely influence how food outlets approach video content for years to come.

That level of impact is why it feels important to talk about how Bon Appetita microcosm of the food media with a huge platformcould be much better when it comes to accurately and meaningfully representing the cuisines and cultures it purports to represent.

The central conceit of these videos is that the Bon Appetit test kitchen is a fun, wacky workplace full of interesting and diverse characters from all walks of life. Its like The Office, but tastier! But once you actually watch the videos, its easy to see how often staffers of color are sidelined or relegated to cameos on their white colleagues shows.

Black people in particular, like editorial assistant Jesse Sparks, make extremely brief and infrequent appearances on the channel (like, countable on one hand). Notably, in one episode of Gourmet Makes, host Claire Saffitz calls up Gary Hall, a mail clerk for their office building, to try a dish. Hall seems like a nice, normal person, but I dont think we can pretend that bringing in someone random to eat something now and then counts as meaningful representation. If anything, that deficit is a damning indication of Bon Appetits hiring practices.

That said, model-turned-food entrepreneur Hawa Hassan is a recent and refreshing addition to the channel as a guest host, with two videos about Somali dishes so far. Her appearance is promising, but its limited scope makes me wonder if Bon Appetits editorial tack is to push hosts of color to focus on their own ethnic home cooking (framed as moms recipes rather than anything theyve created on their own) instead of the broader repertoire that the white hosts, like Molly Baz and Christopher Morocco, get to dip into.

Another problem with leaning on people of color to be experts in their own cuisines lies in the shortcomings of limited representation. What one Korean host might say about their style of home cooking could easily become conflated with the conventions of Korean cuisine as a whole, and so on.

Case in point: Bon Appetit recently stepped in it with a now-unlisted video about Northern Indian cuisine that got several points wrong. In the video, contributing editor Priya Krishna, whose parents were raised Hindu in Uttar Pradesh, is careful to use I statements when talking about the cuisine, like based on what I grew up with, but the video editors pair her statements with infographics that frame her personal observations as generalized and inaccurate claims. This incident shows how a false sense of expertise can be a burden foisted upon minorities in exchange for visibility.

At the same time, things get awkward if that expertise doesnt fit editors expectations. The invisibility of editors and their decision-making can lend a false impression of omnipotence, especially in video. In a recent blindfolded tasting video, staffers were asked to try international snacks and guess what they were. One of the items was an Indian snack mix, which Krishna correctly called out as namkeen. But when Sohla El-Waylly guessed it by its Bengali name, chanachur, the video marked her answer as incorrect.

On the other hand, its encouraging to see people of color get more space to step outside of those boxes. Rick Martinez, a host who seems to always be leaving or going to Fire Island for vacation, has recently taped demonstrations that step out of the Latin American culinary canon. It would be great to see more of him! And senior food editor Andy Baraghani has been a fixture on the channel; his mini-series has him going out into New York City and learning about different cuisines from expert chefs, which is generally excellent.

I hope that Bon Appetits leadership continues to broaden its own definition of what is possible in food medianot only to avoid mistakes but to model better ways of including diverse perspectives. Its an exciting new landscape for all of us in the food world, and it would be a shame to be hampered by the same old problems.

What Im eating

Soleil Ho / SFC

In-between making giant pans of lasagne and learning how to burp a baby at my sisters house, Ive gotten to eat lots of delicious Sonoran Mexican food. At Tacos Chiwas, an award-winning taqueria in Central Phoenix, local food critic Dominic Armato and I shared a round of gorditas. Made from flour and stuffed with a creamy and piquant pepper rajas filling, refried beans and shredded white cheese, they were more like pitas than the chubby, corn-based cakes that I was already familiar with. This is pure norteno comfort fooda warm, woolen shawl wrapped around your shoulders.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

But shortly before I left, I managed to sneak in dinner at the newish Berkeley incarnation of Easterly, a Hunanese restaurant with locations in Santa Clara and Millbrae. (Its on the updated Many Chinas, Many Tables directory!) The highlight for me was the stir-fried pickled long beans, which were tangy, salty and incredibly spicy. A glass of aloe drink will soothe your throatat least until the next bite.

Recommended reading

 I think Chronicle theater critic Lily Janiaks piece on her fields particular flavor of jargon pairs wonderfully with wine critic Esther Mobleys latest newsletter on the wild world of wine list syntax. Lilys translations of words like whimsical and urgent slayed me!

 As part of the Many Chinas, Many Tables package, contributing writer Ali Bouzari wrote up an explanation of wok heithat grill-like aroma that arises from using a wok. Admittedly, I also appreciate this because this was a question I threw at him a while ago; to see it as a full-fledged article is fantastic!

 This hilarious illustrated guide to (fictional, yet so true) Lunar New Year cleaning supplies by Irving Ruan and Jeremy Nguyen includes a spray bottle meant for polishing Stanford Medical School diplomas and Ms. Sandra Ohs Magic Eraser.

Bite Curious is a weekly newsletter from The Chronicles restaurant critic, Soleil Ho, delivered to inboxes on Monday mornings. Follow along on Twitter: @Hooleil
President Donald Trump's impeachment trial enters a pivotal week as his defense team resumes its case and senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal

Washington: President Donald Trump's impeachment trial enters a pivotal week as his defense team resumes its case and senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal. The articles of impeachment charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The debate over witnesses received a jolt Sunday night when The New York Times reported that Trump told his national security adviser he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it launched political investigations into his Democratic rivals. The newspaper said John Bolton's description of his exchange with Trump appears in drafts of his forthcoming book.

Not only did the revelation challenge the defense offered up by Trump and his attorneys, it sparked a fresh wave of demands by Democrats that Senate Republicans allow Bolton and others to testify at the trial.

The Capitol Hill maneuvering will be complemented by high-stakes efforts on both sides of the aisle to claim political advantage from the proceedings as the presidential nominating season kicks off in Iowa on 3 February.

What to watch as the Senate impeachment trial resumes Monday at 1 pm EST:

STAR TURN IN DEFENSE

After a two-hour opening argument Saturday, Trump's defense team will lay out its case in depth beginning Monday. White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Trump's lawyers don't expect to take the full 24 hours allotted to them, but there will be arguments from some familiar faces.

Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, former independent counsel Ken Starr and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will speak on specific topics.

Dershowitz said Sunday he would argue that the charges against Trump are too minor to warrant the president's removal from office under the Constitution. Even if true, they did not allege impeachable offenses," Dershowitz told Fox News Sunday.

The Trump team has also teased the notion that it would draw attention to Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company Burisma, while the elder Biden was vice president. An extended focus on Joe Biden, one of the leading Democratic presidential contenders, could mean blowback from even some of the GOP members of the Senate.

QUESTION TIME

Once Trump's team concludes, senators will have 16 hours to ask questions of both the House impeachment prosecutors and the president's legal team. Their questions must be in writing.

Chief Justice John Roberts will read the questions aloud. He is expected to alternate between both sides of the aisle. Many senators have been talking copious notes throughout the trial in preparation for the question-and-answer time.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters Saturday that Republicans expected to get together on Monday to start formulating a list of questions. We will meet as a conference and decide what questions we want to pose, what the order may be of those of those questions, he said.

WILL THEY OR WON'T THEY

Under the Senate rules passed last week, senators will get another chance to vote whether to consider new witnesses and evidence after the Q&A time is elapsed. Four Republicans would have to break ranks to join Democrats in the GOP-controlled Senate to extend the trial for an undetermined amount of time. If that happens, expect a bitter fight over which witnesses might be called and which documents might be subpoenaed.

After the New York Times report went online Sunday night, Democrats quickly sought to ramp up the pressure on their Republican counterparts. John Bolton has the evidence, tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Its up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trumps actions testify in the Senate trial.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no immediate comment, according to his office.

Besides Bolton, Democrats have called for testimony from Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney. An attempt to call either probably would lead to a showdown with the White House, which claims both men have absolute immunity" from being called to testify before the Senate, even in an impeachment trial. Bolton has said he would appear.

While Republicans have hoped for a speedy trial, Trump has called for the testimony of the Bidens and the intelligence community whistleblower whose summer complaint about Trump's July telephone call with Ukraine's leader instigated the impeachment inquiry.

But some Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have expressed resistance to calling those witnesses.

If the vote fails, the Senate could move swiftly to its vote on whether to remove or acquit Trump, giving the president the result he's been looking for as soon as the end of the week. Senate rules also call for four hours of deliberations before voting. Since senators are required to sit silently during the trial, expect a closed session where they can deliberate in private.

A NEW TAPE

Trump's lawyers argued Saturday that no one knows what Trump's motives were on holding up military assistance to Ukraine. A recording obtained by The Associated Press hours later suggests the president well understood that assistance was a point of leverage over Ukraine.

The recording is of 2018 meeting at the Trump Hotel in Washington that Trump had with donors. including two now-indicted associates of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The audio portion includes Trump inquiring about Ukraine, How long would they last in a fight with Russia? He later calls for the firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

The recording contradicts the presidents statements that he didn't know the Giuliani associations, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. They are key figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges.

If new evidence and witnesses are allowed, the recording could take center stage in the Senate proceedings.

THE POLITICS

The trial is resuming with one week to go until the Iowa caucuses, and is again keeping four Democratic contenders  Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet and Amy Klobuchar  in Washington instead of campaigning at a critical point in the race.

While they are trapped in Washington, Trump will venture outside the capital as he seeks both to exert political retribution on Democrats who impeached him and reward a party-switching lawmaker who backed him in the House.

Trump will hold a rally Tuesday in New Jersey to repay the favor to Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who became a Republican last month after voting against the articles of impeachment as a Democrat. And Trump is set to appear in Iowa on Thursday, days before the caucuses.

Meanwhile, Trump is already looking ahead to his likely acquittal, whenever it may come, promising that Democrats will face consequences for trying to remove him from office. Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man, Trump tweeted Sunday. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!

Schiff, D-Calif., is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the lead impeachment manager. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press whether he viewed the tweet as a threat, Schiff replied, "I think it's intended to be.''

NADLER ABSENT

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, one of the House managers for the Senate trial, will miss Mondays proceedings because of his wifes illness.

In a statement, the New York Democrat said he would be in New York that day to discuss with doctors his wifes ongoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Nadler has been a key member of the Democratic team investigating and prosecuting the case against the president.
State-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) on Monday got delivery of the first ZS EV of India.

placed the order for 5 MG ZS EVs that will be used by government officials to further the cause of (EVs) as part of its National E-Mobility Programme, according to a statement.

This procurement by is driven by the objective of facilitating faster adoption of disruptive solutions while balancing economic development and environmental sustainability, the statement.

With this initiative, seeks to create a market for through its unique business model of aggregation of demand and bulk procurement.

EESL is seeking to leverage the immense potential of replacement of existing vehicles in the government departments for initial demand aggregation.

Saurabh Kumar, managing director, EESL, said in the statement: "India stands at the cusp of a new era that will be driven by sustainability. EV adoption is the future of mobility and will play a huge role in curbing the growing pollution crisis, as well as reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels."



Commenting on the showcase of the ZS EV, Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, India, said: "Through several progressive measures such as the launch of FAME-II and BS-VI standards, the Indian government has been making major efforts to promote cleaner technologies in the country."



The Government of India launched the National E-Mobility Programme to provide an impetus to the entire e-mobility ecosystem including vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure companies, fleet operators, and service providers.

EESL is aggregating demand by procuring in bulk to leverage economies of scale. Till date, a total of 1,510 e-cars have been deployed and another 500 are under registration.

Energy Efficiency Services Ltd has signed agreements with various public sector undertakings, government departments, and state governments of Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gujarat, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and others for deploying e-cars.
He did it!

If you tuned in to Sunday evenings Grammy Awards you may have recognized Staten Island native Rob (Robert Michael) Kinelski  who along with Finneas OConnell and Billie Eilish accepted the Record of the Year Award for Bad Guy at the 62nd broadcast live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

FYI: Eilish and her brother Finneas OConnell nabbed all the major categories: the Album of the Year, for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go, where Rob mixed al 14 songs and Best New Artist on whats been dubbed musics biggest night.

Eilishs team included OConnell as producer; Rob Kinelski and Finneas OConnell as engineers/mixers and John Greenham as mastering engineer.

You could say it was an early birthday gift for recording engineer/mixer/producer, Rob, whos a Grammy winner already  since hes celebrating his 39th birthday today. FYI: Rob was born on Jan. 27, 1981 in Staten Island University Hospital.

As a youngster he relocated with his parents to Howell, N.J. and studied fine and performing arts at Howell High School before graduating from the School of Audio Engineering in Manhattan.

Upon graduation, he began a career at Sony Music Studios where he interacted with a number of performers. And while working with Beyonce, he nabbed Grammy for her Bday album back in 2006.

Since that time, Robs been residing in California, where he operates his own private recording studio  and where numerous artists have requested his expertise.

Now a resident of Burbank, where he lives with his wife, Jamie and daughter, Ruby Lee, its interesting to note Jamie also is in the music industry, where she holds the title of vice president of Creative Kobalt Music Publishing, based in Los Angeles..

Robs parents Marilyn Dobbin Kinelski and Ken Kinelski couldnt be more proud!
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 09:16:16|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Clashes between Libya's UN-backed government forces and the east-based army in Abugrein town, some 140 km south of the city of Misrata, killed 24 troops and injured more than 100 from both parties.

"The battle in Abugrein town killed 12 and injured 55 of our troops," a source of the east-based army told Xinhua late Sunday.

The UN-backed government's forces also said that 12 of their fighters were killed and more than 50 others injured during the clashes.

The UN-backed government said Sunday that they have repelled an attack by the rival east-based army in Abugrein town and destroyed and seized a number of armored vehicles of the east-based army.

The east-based army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, has been leading a military campaign since April 2019 in an attempt to take over Tripoli from the UN-backed government.

Thousands of people have been killed or injured in the fighting, and more than 150,000 civilians were forced to flee their homes from the violence.

The two rival factions, which agreed to a cease-fire deal on Jan. 12, have been accusing each other of breaching the truce.
Honour comes as Rome commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Rome is to bestow honorary citizenship on Liliana Segre, the 89-year-old Italian life senator and Holocaust survivor, following a unaminous vote in city hall.

The honour, announced a few days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, is expected to be conferred on Segre "as soon as possible" at a ceremony in Rome.

A statement said the honorary citizenship was awarded to the life senator, "who survived the Nazi-Fascist persecutions", as a "witness to the tragedy of the Holocaust and interpreter of the values of justice and peace among human beings, for her work of testimony and upholding the memory of the Holocaust and her commitment to human rights."

Segre is also set to become an honorary citizen of Fiumicino, a town on the coast north of Rome, following a vote in favour of the motion by the town council.

The Milan-born senator was recently placed under police protection after being subjected to a barrage of anti-Semitic messages, receiving up to 200 hate-mails a day, including death threats.

Segre survived the horrors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz after being deported there in 1944 at the age of 13.
When I learned of the passing of Steve Reed, I cried and then said a prayer for his soul.

I cried because I lost a close and dear friend who devoted his lifetime to the city of Harrisburg, a city that he loved and cherished until his last breath. I said that prayer because his long-suffering ordeal with cancer was over and God thankfully took him from this earth.

I first met Steve when we were Young Democrats together in the late 1960-70s. Although shy and somewhat introverted then, he had an engaging personality when he talked about politics. He had moved to the capital city from Shippensburg to a rental home along Second Street with his mother. I believe he got his enthusiasm for wanting to contribute to the betterment of society through his mentor, President John F. Kennedy. Any young student of politics did because Kennedy was someone we could relate to at our age, and Steve was no different.

I remember meeting him on weekends to go door to door in citywide voter registration drives that the Young Democrats held. So, with those years of hard work to attempt to draw the registration gap closer of the Republican grip on the city, Steve waged an incredible campaign against a sitting incumbent for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 103rd Legislative District seat.

To everyones surprise, including his, he won that seat. He worked tirelessly, and his work and that of his volunteer army paid off.

That background was necessary to stress because that hard work put Steve in elective office and Democrats who came after him owes a deep deal of gratitude to him for paving the way . . . including myself when I ran to succeed him in the legislature.

After a short stint as County Commissioner of Dauphin County, Steve took on the campaign to become Mayor of Harrisburg in 1981. What has to be remembered is the condition of the city and the cesspool he inherited when Steve took the realm as mayor.

Volunteers again assisted the city to put its records in order because the federal government suspended the city from any grant until it did. The city lost valuable federal aid. As a result, at the beginning, Steve threw everything against the wall and nothing stuck initially, but then projects began to grow, and the citys reputation began to improve. Young people moved into the city and the older citizens were once again proud of where they lived!

His greatest contribution to his legacy was the credo to think regionally, both politically and economically. The City of Harrisburg is the hub of the region and the health of the hub will determine the fate of the region he would state on many occasions.

I believe that no one can take away that this city was again reborn going through an amazing renaissance under the administration of Mayor Reed. Those of us old enough to remember what this city was and what it became over the three decades that Steve was mayor can only be thankful for his service. I can only imagine what this city would have been without him.

I am also cognizant that Steve also was charged with the stolen artifacts case, and it has tainted his legacy. But I was proud when he rejected his attorneys pleas that they could win the case and stood before Judge Kevin Hess and pleaded guilty, to which he received two years probation. He took it like the man that I had always known him to be.

We actively were serving together on the Board of Trustees of Harrisburg Area Community College at the time of his death, always wanting to give back in any capacity he could. He was a person that I was happy to call my friend, and I dont abandon my friends. I was his until his last breath.

And if I can quote Matthew: Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.

Peter Wambach, Harrisburg
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Exports from Turkey of cereals and legumes to Iran increased by 40.5 percent in 2019 and amounted to $147.9 million, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend on Jan. 27.

In December 2019, Turkeys export of cereals and legumes to Iran dropped by 6.78 percent compared to December 2018 and amounted to $7.8 million.

In 2019, Turkeys export of grains and legumes increased by 1.6 percent, amounting to $6.7 billion.

In December 2019, the export of grain and legumes from Turkey increased by 5.9 percent and amounted to $628.8 million.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Referring to the Air India privatisation, Congress leader Kapil Sibal said when governments do not have money, this is what they do.

"The Government of India has no money, growth is less than 5 percent and millions of rupees are outstanding under MNREGA. This is what they will do, sell all valuable assets we have," Sibal said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

The government released the Expression of Interest (EoI) document for the national carrier on January 27, formally beginning the process of selling its entire 100 percent stake in the airline.

The government's sale of its Air India holding is expected to help the government meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

Various Air India employee unions will meet in New Delhi on January 27 to discuss the proposed privatisation of Air India.
California Real Estate Developer Sentenced to 15 Months for Making Conduit Contributions in Two U.S. Congressional Campaigns

San Francisco, California - Oakland-area real estate developer James Tong was sentenced to 15 months Friday for funneling tens of thousands of dollars of his own money through straw donors into two consecutive congressional campaigns for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, United States Attorney David L. Anderson for the Northern District of California, and Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett of the FBIs San Francisco Field Office made the announcement.

Tong, 74, of Fremont, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar of the Northern District of California.

A federal jury convicted Tong on Oct. 8, 2019, of two counts of making contributions to a federal campaign in the names of other individuals. According to the evidence presented at trial, in 2012 and 2013 Tong made $38,000 in conduit contributions to the initial and reelection campaigns of a candidate who was running for the U.S. House of Representatives. Tong provided envelopes of cash to his bank manager and another business associate and directed them to give the cash to individuals in the community, who then used Tongs cash to write checks in their own names to the campaign for the U.S. congressional candidate Tong was supporting. Tong leveraged financial obligations and the implied loss of business opportunities to induce his bank manager and business associate to distribute cash in the community to be donated. The network of straw donors included dozens of conduits, including at least one foreign national who was not eligible to make donations to federal elections. Tong also directed his middlemen to conceal the scheme by instructing the straw donors not to deposit the cash; and he later directed one of the middlemen to withhold information from the FBI after he was interviewed.

On Aug. 31, 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Tong charging him with two counts of making and causing campaign contributions in the name of another, in violation of 52 U.S.C.  30122 and 30109(d)(1)(D). The jury found Tong guilty of both counts.

As part of the sentence, Judge Tigar found that Tong obstructed justice when he told his middlemen to not deposit cash given to them. Judge Tigar also sentenced the defendant to a one-year period of supervised release and a $380,000 fine.

The FBI conducted the investigation. Trial Attorneys Amanda R. Vaughn and Rebecca G. Ross of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Waqar Hasib of the Northern District of California prosecuted the case.
Taking strong objections to resolutions being moved in the European Parliament against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), conveyed to the head of the European Union's (EU) legislative body on Monday that it was inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgements on another and the practice could be misused by vested interests.

With the European Parliament set to debate resolutions against the citizenship law, also asserted that there was no scope for outside interference in India's internal matters and the country was capable of addressing its concerns on its own.

The ruling BJP and the Congress also weighed in on the resolutions before the European Parliament, with the former questioning the objectivity of the members of the EU Parliament and the latter accusing the saffron party of internationalising the citizenship issue.

Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said France, a founding member of the EU, considered the new citizenship law an internal political matter of India.

The assertions came after close to 600 lawmakers in the 751-member EU Parliament moved six resolutions against the CAA, saying the enactment of the law marked a dangerous shift in India's citizenship regime.

Birla wrote to European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli over the resolutions on Monday.

"I understand that Joint Motion for Resolution has been introduced in the European Parliament on the Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. This act provides for easier citizenship to those who have been subjected to religious persecution in our immediate neighbourhood," he said in the letter.

It was not aimed at taking away anyone's citizenship and the legislation was passed after due deliberation by both Houses of the Indian Parliament, Birla said.

"As members of Inter Parliamentary Union, we should respect sovereign processes of fellow legislatures, especially in democracies," he added.

It was inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgements on another, a practice that could surely be misused by vested interests, the said.

"I would urge you to consider the proposed resolution in this light, confident that none of us wants to set an unhealthy precedent," he added.

Earlier, addressing a gathering at a book launch event here, Naidu said he was concerned at the trend of foreign bodies interfering in matters that were "completely within the purview of the Indian Parliament and government".

Such efforts were totally uncalled for and unwarranted, the said, expressing hope that they would refrain from making such statements in future.

"There is no scope for outside interference in India's internal matters," he asserted.

Naidu said whenever their basic and fundamental rights came under a threat, "citizens rose in unison and defended them, as was seen against Emergency".

"Our polity and democracy do provide enough space for expressing differences and dissents whenever warranted," he said, adding that as a result, India had emerged as the most vibrant democracy in the world.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal accused the government of internationalising the issue.

"The fact that the EU is debating the CAA shows that this government has internationalised the issue of citizenship law," he said.

Senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the objectivity of the members of the EU Parliament who backed the resolutions against the CAA, asking if they had ever raised their voices over the "victimisation" of minority Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan.

"The government of India has already explained that it (the CAA) is our internal matter. We believe in engagement. Lots of Left parties there have sought this resolution and our external affairs minister will engage with them and explain our position," he told a press conference at the Delhi BJP office.

The new law, passed by Parliament last month, offers citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

India has been witnessing massive protests against the new law with opposition parties, civil rights groups and activists saying granting citizenship based on religion is against the foundational principles of the Constitution.

There has been no reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs on the resolutions against the CAA in the European Parliament.

Official sources, however, maintained that the CAA was an entirely internal matter of India and that the legislation was adopted through democratic means after a debate in both Houses of Parliament.

"Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination," a government source said, explaining why India was opposed to the resolutions in the EU Parliament.
Wastewater overrun lands Phuket resort B10k fine

PHUKET: A Phuket resort has been fined B10,000 for releasing untreated wastewater into a public drain that empties into the sea at Merlin Beach, south of Patong.

environmentpollutionnatural-resourcesmarinehealth

By The Phuket News

Monday 27 January 2020, 05:02PM

Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup confirmed to The Phuket News on Friday (Jan 24) that the resort fined was the Absolute Twin Sands Resort & Spa, on Muen Nguen Rd near Tri Trang Beach.

The fine followed an inspection last Monday (Jan 20) led by Provincial Ombudsman Athiwat Yodwan, accompanied by officers from Patong Municipalitys public health division.

Mr Arthiwat explained that he was ordered to carry out the inspection by the Phuket Governor after images of dirty wastewater emptying into the sea at Merlin Beach went viral on Thai social media.

Mayor Chalermluck pointed out that the fine was issued for breach of Section 33 of the of Act on the Maintenance of the Cleanliness and Orderliness of the Country B.E. 2535. (See here.)

It is the maximum fine of B10,000, she said.

Banyad Horpetch at the Patong Municipality Sanitation Division explained to The Phuket News, We inspected the area on Monday (Jan 20), and found many hotels and properties releasing their wastewater into the public drain that leads to Merlin Beach.

However, to identify exactly which property was causing the problem we had to shut off the pipes from each property releasing wastewater into the drain until we found exactly which one was responsible, he said.

Mr Banyad said that the resort was one of three Absolute properties that feed wastewater into a central system, before the wastewater is released into the drain.

There is a condo, a resort and another condo building, and all three have their wastewater flow into the one treatment facility before it is released into the drain.

The wastewater treatment system has the capacity to treat about 80 cubic metres of wastewater per day, but these properties at their peak together release about 100m3 of wastewater a day. This leads to the excess wastewater flowing into the public drain untreated, he said.

Mayor Chalermluck said that the resort now had 60 days from last Friday (Jan 24) to improve its wastewater treatement system to cope with the load.

After the grace period has concluded (on Mar 24) officers from the Phuket office of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) and Patong Municipality health officials will inspect the wastewater treatment system to ensure it is adequate, Mayor Chalermluck added.

Until then, Absolute Twin Sands Resort & Spa has been ordered to take their excess wastewater to the Patong Municipality water treatment centre, Mr Banyad noted.

In response to the resort being fined, Absolute World Group issued the following statement to The Phuket News today (Jan 27):

On Saturday 18 January a leak from an underground wastewater pipe joint in the final phase of the Twin Sands development was identified. Technicians from the company sub-contracted for property maintenance promptly pumped the leaking water to an internal retention tank. Regrettably this caused a surge which escaped via an overflow to the public drain and then to Merlin Beach.

Upon recognising that a surge had occurred the technicians worked with Tessabaan officers to sandbag the public drain temporarily to prevent any further run-off to the beach.

The underground pipe joint was repaired within two hours of the leak being identified. And we have worked with the Tessabaan and our wider team to ensure the issue has been correctly repaired and fully rectified.

The 10,000 THB fine issued by Tessabaan was paid promptly by the sub-contractor.

We have taken all steps to ensure this will not occur again and can alleviate any concerns our fellow Phuket islanders may hold as we continue to work within the standards of the EIA, taking our environmental responsibility extremely seriously, the statement said.
Iraqi forces hit US Embassy in Baghdad

No casualties or material damage reported from attacks on high-security Green Zone.

Five rockets landed near the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said Sunday.

ATTACKS HAVE GONE UNCLAIMED

No casualties or material damage was reported in the attacks on the high security Green Zone, the state-run communication cell added.

The rocket attacks come two days after thousands gathered in Baghdad calling for US troops to leave the country.

The presence of foreign troops has been a hot issue in the country after Iranian top Gen. Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad earlier this month.
On Monday, Saeed Lak told the state-run IRNA news agency: Only some 23 percent of the people residing in the flooded regions have access to clean drinking water. In general and in normal conditions, for the majority of people in this region is difficult to obtain clean water to drink.

There has been extensive damage to the flood-hit areas, with the reservoirs that people used to get their water from destroyed. Now, people are understandably worried about getting drinking water and do not have available drinking water either.

One woman said: [Its] as if we have been forgotten!

IRNA cited an official in the Provincial Governorate of Sistan and Baluchestan as saying that as of January 21 the water of 60 villages is still cut off. This is reportedly what Mansour Bijar, deputy for coordination of construction affairs in the Governorate of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, told a Crisis Management meeting last week.

These floods, which have destroyed dozens of villages, have killed at least three people and thousands of animals since early January in Sistan and Baluchistan province, southeast Iran.

The authorities have done nothing to mitigate the flood damage or protect the people in the area, not even producing aid parcels or creating a shelter.

They didnt even react to ongoing evidence that there was a massive threat of floods. The General Manager of Meteorology warned authorities that the dams were in danger of overflowing numerous times during Crisis Management sessions, but the local Water Organization did not take them seriously and did not drain dams, which led to a major overflow.

On January 19, the Arman state-run newspaper wrote that the government also refused to pledge any money towards dredging the rivers.

The next day, the state-run Khabar Fori website wrote that the overflow of four dams in flood-affected areas of Sistan and Baluchestan province played a major role in the damage caused and that this was down to negligence in watershed management projects.

The website quoted Shahbakhsh Gorgij, a member of the High Council of Provinces, as saying: In 2007-2008, the Guno Storm destroyed the regions dam. While the dam could be reconstructed in a week, but the government has not repaired it after 13 years. This dam could decrease 70 percent of the damages.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "If you are a sponsor or manage any type of retirement plan, you had better make sure you have an ERISA bond in place," says Constantin Poindexter, President and Chief Underwriter of Surety One, Inc. Poindexter refers to the fidelity bond required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The purpose of the bond is to provide protection from fraud or other dishonest acts committed by a plan's trustee(s). The fidelity bond must be equal to no less than ten percent of the value of all plan assets. The bond is not an option.

Surety bond underwriter, Surety One, Inc. offers the ERISA bond required by federal law. The simple application for plans with qualified assets can be completed, the bond issued and delivered electronically within minutes. "Unless the plan contains a significant amount of non-qualifying assets or some odd investment vehicles, we issue ERISA bonds for our applicants within an hour or two, weekends included," states Poindexter, "We provide a six-line application for these. You fill it out, fax or email it to one of our offices, and your bond is in-hand in minutes."

ERISA fidelity bonds are generally low risk obligations and therefore freely written. Difficulties arise when a plan contains significant balances of "non-qualifying assets", i.e., assets that are issued by recognized financial institutions. Most insurance carriers decline fidelity bond coverage to these plans. Surety One, Inc. offers special programs for such "outside of the box" needs.

Says Poindexter, "ERISA bond underwriters look at non-qualifying assets and turn up their noses. I don't agree. First, the loss figures don't support the decision to decline these applications. Second, fidelity bonds are dishonesty coverages. Dishonesty is dishonesty no matter what the plan consists of. Plan contents don't turn an honest fiduciary into a thief. Third, if you have very significant non-qualifying balances, at some point your plan is probably going to be audited. We look at all applications and offer terms, regardless of the contents. Employer issued securities (ESOPs), labor unions, multi-employer plans are all fine, I'll bond that the Atlantic Ocean is going to catch on fire if I can get my head wrapped around the risk. I'm a bondsman. That's what I do, find a sound way to write a bond that makes sense from an underwriting perspective and write it."

Surety One, Inc. is an international insurance intermediary domiciled in Puerto Rico, licensed in all fifty states, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic. All ERISA fidelity bonds issued by Surety One, Inc. are backed by one of the nation's top ten surety insurance carriers, and appear on the U.S. Treasury's circular (T-List) of insurers qualified to guarantee federal obligations. For more information on ERISA fidelity bonds or to process an online application visit https://ERISA-Bonds.com. For more information call (800) 373-2804 or email [email protected].

SOURCE Surety One, Inc.
On the first day of 2020, a video of former Vice President Joe Biden circulated on Twitter. It appeared to show the presidential candidate agreeing with GOP proposals to cut Social Security benefits, a hot-button issue for Democratic primary voters.

Weeks after the video was posted by a Sanders campaign adviser, Biden publicly accused rival Bernie Sanderss campaign of pushing around a deceptively edited video. PolitiFact concluded that the video clip was taken out of context to create a false impression  Biden was actually opposing cuts  but the footage was not faked or altered.

PolitiFact looked at it and they doctored the photo, they doctored the piece and its acknowledged that its a fake, Biden said Saturday about the video clip, excerpted from a speech at the Brookings Institution in April 2018.

Its simply a lie, Biden said. This is a doctored tape.

Joe Biden in a frame from the doctored video. (Screengrab: via Twitter)

The larger point, aside from the semantic difference between a misleading tape and a doctored one, is the growing risk of so-called deepfakes  photos or video created or undetectably altered by technology  to spread disinformation and influence elections.

Last year, a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi altered to make her sound drunk or ill was viewed over 2 million times after it was posted to Facebook and shared by President Trump on Twitter. The video was relatively simple in its distortion compared to deepfakes synthetically created by artificial intelligence, but the speed with which it spread made it clear how unprepared some tech companies, news organizations and consumers were for the new technology.

The Sanders-Biden dustup is a good illustration that you don't even need to have a full-fledged deepfake in order to potentially cause disruption or raise questions and so forth because you can use much cruder methods to distort video evidence, Paul Barrett, NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights deputy director and author of its recent report on disinformation and the 2020 presidential race, told Yahoo News.

Story continues

Deepfakes are another step down the road on which we began with fake news and show the continuing development of problems having to do with harmful content in general and misleading content in particular, said Barrett.

The term deepfakes entered the mainstream about two years ago when a Reddit user who went by the moniker Deepfakes  a portmanteau of deep learning and fake  started posting digitally altered pornographic videos, The Guardian reported in 2018.

That year, Buzzfeed, with the assistance of film director Jordan Peele, showed how easy it is to create a completely fake video of a famous person  former President Barack Obama, who was made to appear to be calling President Trump a total and complete dips***. The clip, which was an acknowledged fake and not intended to deceive, has received over 7 million views on YouTube.

Deepfakes are kind of starting to take on the meaning of not just video, whereas it also kind of looks at audio, text and video in that all of these things can be generated by AI in a very methodical and targeted way, Wasim Khaled, CEO and founding partner of Blackbird.AI, a software company that uses AI to combat disinformation, told Yahoo News.

But according to Khaled, these types of distorted videos have evolved from advanced AI-generated face swapping technologies that people typically gravitate towards when they hear the word deepfake [to] what we would call cheapfakes, which anyone can put together, like the Nancy Pelosi video.

The video of Democratic frontrunner Biden, which Khaled said he would classify as a cheap fake and doctored video not using advanced AI technology, just editing, is an example of an assault on the public's sense of perception.

The goal is to shift public perception about a person, about an event, about a policy perhaps, he said. If you can shift that public perception enough to create some sort of a public outcry, now you have the mainstream media attention as well as the authentic population on social media that believes something [real] is now happening.

And while the video is very powerful, Khaled added, how those narratives spread and why theyre being spread is critical to understand.

There are two potential ways that deepfakes could be a problem, Barrett said. The first is in the October surprise scenario, where very close to the actual voting, you have a video that shows a candidate doing or saying something that they never did or said and because its so close to voting, theres not enough time to adequately debunk it and it could affect some portion of undecided voters and actually tilt the election.

An image made from a fake video featuring former President Barack Obama shows elements of facial mapping used in new technology that lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things theyve never said. (Photo: AP)

It was the risk of that kind of attack that led Pete Buttigiegs campaign to take the unusual step of documenting the candidates movements continually, compiling a record that could be used to discredit a faked video. If there is that doctored video, we have that vision to kind of combat it, Mick Baccio, the campaigns chief information security officer said at a cybersecurity conference last November. One of the problems were trying to get in front of is we keep [Buttigieg] in front of a camera pretty much all of his waking hours.

The other problem with deepfakes, Barrett said, could be carried out over the course of the election campaign  beginning now.

We would have a sufficient volume of distorted or manipulated video or still images, he said, so much so that people would grow cynical and apathetic in general so you'd end up with voters responding to all of this manipulated material by saying, 'I don't know what's true, I can't figure it out. They're all lying to me. I'm not even gonna vote at all.'

The technology for deepfakes is becoming increasingly accessible from mainstream platforms such as Snapchat (whose developer, Snap Inc., purchased an image- and video-recognition startup recently) and TikTok, which is building deepfake technology to enable users to insert their face into scenes and videos starring someone else.

Amid fears that altered videos could influence the next presidential election, political and business leaders  even the military  have entered the fight to stem the disinformation threat of deepfakes.

Following the Pelosi video controversy, the House Intelligence Committee held congressional hearings to investigate deepfakes that have the capacity to disrupt entire campaigns, including that for the presidency, as stated by the committees chair, Rep. Adam Schiff.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, left, greets witness Clint Watts, a cybersecurity and intelligence expert with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, at a hearing on politically motivated fake videos and manipulated media on Capitol Hill in June 2019. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Last fall, Califonia passed a new law, AB 730, which took effect on Jan. 1, making it illegal to distribute within 60 days of an election manipulated audio or video of a political candidate that is maliciously deceptive and would falsely appear to a reasonable person to be authentic. The law allows targets of deepfakes to sue the producers or distributors of the material.

But media experts argue such laws wont stand up against free speech protections.

Political speech enjoys the highest level of protection under U.S. law, Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told the Guardian. The desire to protect people from deceptive content in the run-up to an election is very strong and very understandable, but I am skeptical about whether they are going to be able to enforce this law.

Barrett argued that it's appropriate for governments to look at potential regulation of deepfakes, but called it a very tricky area because you get into government regulating content and you're in the realm of the first amendment. So you have to proceed with tremendous caution.

The fight against deepfakes and other types of disinformation, he said, has to be group effort, but social media companies have to take the lead on detection.

It's on their platforms that this kind of distorted material gets disseminated so widely and so quickly, said Barrett. And they are turning a profit on the provision of social media. So it's their responsibility to make sure that their systems are not exploited.

Social media companies, facing rising pressure to prevent the spread of disinformation and deepfakes, have developed new policies for technology that enables anyone to manipulate images, audio and video online.

Facebook, which declined to take down the doctored video of Pelosi on the grounds that it has no policy stipulating that content must be true, launched a Deepfake Detection Challenge last year to build better tools to identify manipulated media. As a part of the challenge, the social media giant provided over 100,000 AI-manipulated videos to help researchers test their detection tools.

A comparison of an original image and a deepfake video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo: Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The platform came under intense scrutiny after the Mueller report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election underscored misinformation campaigns carried out on Facebook and other social media sites by fake accounts connected to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), also known as the Russian troll farm. Facebook had estimated that IRA-controlled accounts reached up to 126 million people.

Since this revelation, the company has taken measures to combat disinformation leading up to the 2020 election, including purging accounts that used AI-generated profile photos and clearly labeling content deemed false by independent fact-checkers.

We know that our adversaries are always changing their techniques so we are constantly working to stay ahead, a Facebook spokesperson wrote to Yahoo News in an email. Weve developed smarter tools, greater transparency, and stronger partnerships to better identify emerging threats, stop bad actors, and reduce the spread of misinformation on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Protecting the integrity of elections is one of Facebooks highest priorities, the statement read.

But Facebook is keeping its policy of not fact-checking political ads, despite growing public pressure to not allow false information by candidates.

The Facebook business model is strictly to make money, Pelosi said at a press conference last week. They don't care about the impact on children, they don't care about truth, they don't care about where this is all coming from, and they have said even if they know it's not true they will print it.

I think they have been very abusive of the great opportunity that technology has given them, she added. They intend to be accomplices in misleading the American people.

Last year, a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seen here at a January news conference, altered to make her sound drunk or ill was viewed over 2 million times after it was posted to Facebook and shared by President Trump on Twitter. (Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the NYU disinformation study, 64 percent of Americans believe the platform is at least somewhat responsible for spreading disinformation (compared to 55 percent for Twitter and 48 percent for YouTube).

But some experts downplay the danger.

Technology-driven deepfakes are not as big a threat in 2020 elections. The tech is not there to get as widespread use, argued Khaled.

While he considers deepfakes one of the fastest progressing disinformation technologies and a breakthrough away from being a major threat in the near future, Khaled also pointed to less expensive and widely available means of creating and distributing manipulated content.

His advice to campaigns: The biggest thing they actually need to be focusing on this year is the disinformation on text-based content and how those are amplified.

Wasim continued: The fact is, for the types of deepfakes that are most harmful, it's really computationally heavy and requires significant resources or know-how. And the benefits of that approach is really not nearly as damaging as, say, Lets fire up hundred blogs and let's get 20,000 Twitter accounts to now tweet these different articles that we wrote up for a particular narrative and then [tag] all of the people who we think are going to amplify it, be it a Congressman, be it an influencer or be it another account with a million followers.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
There is nowhere to flee from Idlib. Residents, many of them impoverished, have come from other parts of the country and cannot return. Turkey, which borders Syria and already hosts over 3 million Syrian refugees, is not opening its doors. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly lashed out at Assads government since the collapse of the cease-fire, accusing him of violating the truce while warning as many as 400,000 civilians are escaping toward the border.
Kosovo and Serbia have made progress in working out the details of a deal on restoring railway traffic between their capitals, according to the special U.S. envoy to the Balkan nations, a week after the former war foes reached an agreement to resume commercial flights.



We made good progress this morning on issuing a Letter of Intent on railway cooperation, Richard Grenell said after a meeting between the Serbian and Kosovar delegations on January 27.



The discussions went well enough that we also discussed other issues, he said in a statement.



Grenell, who also serves as U.S. ambassador to Germany, hosted the talks at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. He has conducted separate meetings with officials in Belgrade and Pristina in recent days to discuss the railway agreement.



The statement comes after Grenell on January 20 mediated the signing of an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on the resumption of commercial flights between their capitals that were broken two decades ago when the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict escalated.



Kosovos outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj hailed the agreements as positive signs and said the deals would also push Kosovo to repair its railway system, which is in a miserable situation.



Relations between Pristina and Belgrade have remained strained after the Kosovo war that claimed more than 10,000 lives and left over 1 million people homeless.



Serbia continues to consider its former province part of its territory. Kosovo's independence, declared in 2008, has been recognized by about 100 countries, including the United States.



Talks on normalizing diplomatic relations were derailed in November 2018 by Pristina's imposition of 100-percent tariffs on Serbian goods and services in response to Belgrade's continued lobbying for countries to reverse their recognition of Kosovo.



During his visits to Pristina and Belgrade this month, Grenell urged the two neighbors to overcome their differences and to focus on economic development.

With reporting by AP
While tech leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had U.S.-China tensions top of mind, they also came looking to push their perspectives on climate change, antitrust and regulation of artificial intelligence.

Why it matters: Whereas once tech leaders were given a free pass (literally and figuratively) as the young darlings of Davos, they are now established leaders with heightened roles  and sharper scrutiny.

Climate concerns were front and center for Microsoft, which last week announced its plan to be carbon-negative by 2030, as well as Salesforce.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was pushing the World Economic Forum's 1 Trillion Trees initiative, and even managed to get the Trump Administration committed.

Driving the news: How artificial intelligence should be regulated was also a big topic in Davos, though companies' agendas varied.

IBM called for "targeted regulation" of AI. CEO Ginni Rometty was quick to point out that the company wants to see legislation focused on how specific technologies are used, rather than blanket bans, like Europe is considering for public use of facial recognition.

Google issued a broader call for regulation, including support for a temporary ban on facial recognition.

While other companies sought to make nice with critics, Palantir CEO Alex Karp vigorously defended his company's work with the U.S. government  including immigration agencies  in an interview with CNBC.

Meanwhile: Those were just the public pronouncements. Tech leaders spent much of Davos behind closed doors, meeting with top officials from around the world.

About three dozen of the tech leaders met with President Trump on Wednesday, though the discussion focused largely on the friendly turf of workforce training, with Apple's Tim Cook and IBM's Rometty delivering remarks.

Tech leaders also met privately with top officials from Europe, which is seen as taking the lead on regulation.

And then there were all the pop-ups.

The street outside the Congress Centre, known as the Promenade, was taken over by tech companies, who paid to commandeer the town's shops for the week in an effort to seem warm and fuzzy.

That was good news if you wanted branded lip balm or free food, but bad news if you wanted to see any remnants of the cute ski town.

Facebook threw its storefront open to highlight its platform security work, share a host of feel-good stories and demo its Oculus VR systems. Microsoft was demoing Hololens and serving up a yummy Thai curry. Surprisingly, Google's pop-up was open only to those with an appointment.

Go deeper:
The Libyan capital's sole functioning airport came under renewed fire Sunday, as fighting broke out hours after the UN mission in the country condemned ongoing violations of an arms embargo.

The UN mission in Libya, UNSMIL, condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the rocket strikes on Tripoli's Mitiga airport, which has been hit by repeated attacks in recent months.

UNSMIL said in a statement Sunday evening that the strikes had wounded at least two civilians as well as damaged the tarmac and a number of buildings at the airport.

World leaders met in Berlin last weekend and committed to ending all foreign meddling in Libya and to upholding the 2011 UN Security Council weapons embargo as part of a broader plan to end the country's conflict.

They also agreed to a permanent ceasefire and steps to dismantle numerous militias and armed groups, while pushing a political process under the UN.

But fighting broke out on Sunday in the Abu Grein region, 130 kilometres (80 miles) west of Sirte, according to sources on both sides of the conflict.

Libya has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with two rival administrations latterly vying for power.

The conflict deepened last year when military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of the south and east of Libya, launched an assault in April to seize Tripoli, base of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

'Blatant violations'

On Saturday, the UN had said it "deeply regrets the continued blatant violations of the arms embargo in Libya".

"Over the last 10 days, numerous cargo and other flights have been observed landing at Libyan airports in the western and eastern parts of the country, providing the parties with advanced weapons, armoured vehicles, advisers and fighters," it added.

UNSMIL said the ceasefire, which had provided much-needed respite for civilians in Tripoli, was now at risk of collapse.

"This fragile truce is now threatened by the ongoing transfer of foreign fighters, weapons, ammunition and advanced systems to the parties by member states, including several who participated in the Berlin conference," it said.

On Sunday, Germany's foreign ministry backed the UNSMIL statement and voiced concerns about "a series of unconfirmed but credible reports of embargo violations on both sides".

Haftar has the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia while the GNA is supported by Qatar and Turkey.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Algiers for talks with his Algerian counterpart on Libya's crisis and the January 12 ceasefire, which Moscow and Ankara brokered. Algeria shares a common border with Libya of some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).

Ahead of his departure, Erdogan lashed out afresh at Haftar, calling him a "putschist" and claiming he was "constantly behind violations of the ceasefire".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan backs Libya's UN-recognised government against strongman Khalifa Haftar who is supported by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. By Murat KULA (TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP)

The UN says the fighting since last April has killed more than 280 civilians and over 2,000 combatants, while thousands have been wounded on both sides. More than 170,000 Tripoli residents have been displaced.

Renewed clashes around Tripoli on Saturday killed at least one civilian -- a Moroccan national -- and wounded seven others, GNA health ministry spokesperson Amin al-Hashemi told AFP.

'Stable ceasefire'

The UN is hoping to hold inter-Libyan talks soon in Geneva to consolidate the sagging truce, as its mission in the country warns of "a renewed and intensified round of fighting".

A military commission established at the Berlin summit -- comprising five GNA loyalists and five Haftar delegates -- has been tasked with defining ways of making the truce hold.

"What's important now is to achieve a stable ceasefire, which the military committee '5 + 5'... wants to negotiate in the coming days," the German foreign ministry said.

Ankara dispatched troops -- in a training capacity, it said -- to support the GNA earlier this month in a move criticised by European powers and US President Donald Trump.

Western powers are keen to stabilise Libya -- home to Africa's largest proven crude reserves -- because of concerns Islamist militants and migrant smugglers, already active, will take advantage of the chaos.

Libya's National Oil Corporation said Saturday that oil production had plunged by around three-quarters since pro-Haftar forces launched a blockade the day before the Berlin summit, causing estimated losses of over $250 million.
The planned release of a significant amount of new spectrum for use by Australias mobile network operators (MNOs) and upgrades to telcos core networks will help unlock key enterprise use cases for 5G, including end-to-end network slicing, edge compute and high-speed indoor coverage.

Both Telstra and Optus last year began offering 5G mobile coverage in select locations, with Australias third MNO, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, revealing in December that it had partnered with Nokia to upgrade its network from 4G to the new cellular standard.

Telstra in May 2019 began selling its first 5G-capable mobile device. Optus in January 2019 revealed details of a 5G wireless home broadband service and then later on launched support for 5G mobile services.

From the perspective of Australias telcos, early 5G adoption will play a role in capacity offload for their 4G networks. For users within the still-limited 5G footprints, it will enable super-fast downloads.

However, for enterprises many of the mooted use cases for 5G, such as edge compute, supporting IoT deployments, and as a potential alternative to Wi-Fi, will be delivered courtesy high-frequency millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum and the move to 5G cores by MNOs.

Telstras network engineering chief, Channa Seneviratne, said that the telco saw the auction of spectrum in the 26GHz band, which will take place later this year, as a key step to unlocking 5G enterprise use cases in Australia.

We would really hope for 10x the amount of spectrum we have today, but it depends on the competition limits set by [the Australian Communications and Media Authority] and the government, the Telstra executive said in an interview conducted on the sidelines of Telstras 2019 Vantage enterprise conference

In October 2019, the federal government issued a direction to the ACMA to prepare spectrum in the 26GHz band to be auctioned for use with 5G. (In 2018 the ACMA auctioned off spectrum in the 3.6GHz band, which is being used to deliver the first generation of 5G services in Australia.)

The second key step will be Telstras shift to a 5G core, Seneviratne said. Currently both Telstra and Optus are employing the 3GPP-developed Non-Standalone 5G NR (New Radio) standard (based on 3GPP Release 15). At the moment, for example, 5G devices still rely on telcos LTE networks for some functions (call origination and termination, for example), and they are still employing a 4G core.

Much of 5Gs potential performance requires the installation of stand-alone infrastructure, ideally compliant with R16, which is expected to be finalized around June 2020, noted an October 2019 market trends report from Gartner.

The 5G standard outlines a number of new features that will become available as telcos upgrade their cores. So for example, one thing that we want to demonstrate as early as we can is a network slice, Seneviratne said.

A network slice is where we can say, either at an enterprise level or a traffic class level, Heres what you can do in terms of dialling up the bandwidth you want, the availability you want, and also the latency you want.

Thats something Im driving my team mad about, the Telstra executive said: How do we stitch the slice up through the 5G network, through the IP core network, all the way  truly end-to-end slicing. That is when were really going to start seeing enterprise use cases really coming to life.

Another feature the Telstra exec sees a lot of potential in is the Network Exposure Function (NEF), which will facilitate secure interaction between enterprise applications and a 5G network.

Thats another way you can expose network services up to a top-level application, including analytics and a whole bunch of things, Seneviratne said. That, combined with the slicing, is where you not only create the slice but you can connect it up to different apps.

5G will eventually be delivered over a combination of frequencies: Low-band (sub-1GHz), mid-band (1-6GHz) and mmWave (26GHz in Australia  although Telstra and Optus have raised questions about the future of the 28GHz band).

In a 5G briefing held late in 2019, Telstras networks principal, mobile innovation rollout, Paul Milford, said that company expected mmWave to be the key spectrum for enterprise and industrial applications, while mid- and low-band spectrum will be used to deliver enterprise and consumer mobility services.

mmWave will not only enable extremely fast data speeds, but the upcoming 26GHz auction will also mean that the amount of spectrum that telcos can use for 5G is greatly expanded: Up to 2.4GHz will be on offer in the ACMA-run auction.

The 5G core network is not going to go into production until early 2021, Seneviratne said. So the 5G core network in production and millimetre wave spectrum coming available are actually happening at the same time in terms of timing.

Telstra has already exploring the use of 5G for enterprise applications. In February 2019, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia released details of their collaboration to assess the use of 5G edge computing at CBA branches.

Were excited to be working with Telstra and Ericsson to test and learn on 5G and edge computing, the banks general manager digital and retail operations and technology, Pete Steel, said at the time.

These technologies have significant potential to enhance the availability, stability and performance of our network infrastructure and we hope they can help us provide quicker and better digital experiences for our customers.

An early focus of the partnership has been the potential of 5G to slash the infrastructure footprint of a bank branch, as well as moving CBA applications to the edge.

Seneviratne told Computerworld that Telstra was working hard, including through its collaboration with CBA, to develop a 5G edge compute framework that can be replicated across a range of industry verticals.

In edge computing, higher-bandwidth and latency-sensitive applications benefit from placing compute as close as possible to the wireless client device, especially when bandwidth is constrained from the edge back into the core, Gartner noted in its October 2019 analysis Market Trends: Will the Advent of 5G Make Enterprise Wi-Fi Connectivity Less Relevant?

5G can accelerate the deployments of truly distributed computing architectures where information is exchanged and processed in near real time across multiple nodes that are geographically distributed.

The author travelled to Telstra Vantage 2019 as a guest of Telstra.
(Newser)  In an account that the AP reports was delivered amidst sobs, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi on Monday testified that Harvey Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in July 2006. Her allegation is one of two that led to Weinstein being charged, and the 42-year-old detailed that allegation on the stand. She provided background, explaining she had met the movie producer at the 2004 London premiere of The Aviator and ran into him two years later at the Cannes Film Festival, where she inquired about working on one of his productions. A production assistant job with Project Runway followed, and he subsequently invited her to his Soho apartment. Haleyi said their visit was initially normal, but then he "lunged at me, trying to kiss me. I got up from the sofa and I said, 'Oh no.'"

story continues below

Haleyi testified that he ended up backing her into a bedroom, where she fell backward onto a bed and was pushed down when she tried to get up. The New York Post has her graphic description of what followed: "He pushed me down, he held me down by my arms. ... He forced himself on me orally. I was on my period. I had a tampon in there. I was mortified ... I kept trying to tell him, 'No, don't go there and don't do that. I'm on my period. I have a tampon in.' It was as if he didnt believe me and he said something like, 'Where is it, then?' like that and he actually pulled my tampon out." About two weeks later she met him at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, in a bid to try to "regain some sort of power or something," she said. Instead, he raped her, she testified. The New York Times reports Weinstein's lawyers will argue the two had a years-long consensual relationship. (Those lawyers in 2018 publicized a text Haleyi sent him.)
A team of international wildlife conservationists flew in Monday to examine four starving and sick lions at a zoo in the Sudanese capital where a lioness died last week.

Months of political and economic turmoil that rocked Sudan from late 2018 severely damaged the health of the lions faced with shortages of food and medicine.

The five-member rapid response team from Four Paws was conducting tests on the lions at Al-Qurashi park zoo where the animals have been held for years, an AFP correspondent reported.

A lioness died of dehydration and lack of food despite having received intravenous fluids after the launch of an online appeal for veterinary help.

The animals lost as much as two-thirds of their body weight after going unfed for weeks as Sudan's chronic cash shortage hit donations.

"It's now important to improve the conditions of the animals... and the next step is to find a long-term solution," Amir Khalil of Four Paws told AFP.

Khalil said carrying out tests on the animals would not be easy. "It's very difficult to approach the animals and very risky," he said.

"The animals are very weak at this moment, so moving them won't be the best thing," said Juno Van Zon, another member of the team.

"I think for now we have to focus on getting the animals healthy and also to train the people."

Al-Qureshi Park is run by Khartoum municipality but funded partly by private donations, which have dried up due to the economic crisis that sparked nationwide protests though much of last year.

An online campaign has been launched under the hashtag #Sudananimalrescue to help save the lions.

It is not known how many lions survive in the wild in Sudan, but a population lives in Dinder National Park on the border with Ethiopia.

African lions are classified as a "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Stepping up attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday dared the Aam Aadmi Party chief to visit the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest site at Shaheen Bagh so that the people of Delhi can decide whom to vote for in the assembly election.

Addressing a rally in Rithala in northwest Delhi, Shah said Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were against the construction of Ram temple, the scrapping of provisions of Article 370 and were not bothered about the country's image and soldiers.

The opposition fears that they will upset their votebank, he said and asked, "Are you their vote bank? Where is their vote bank?" To this, the crowd replied, 'Shaheen Bagh'.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader claimed the Delhi Police has booked Sharjeel Imam, a Jawaharlal Nehru University student, on the charge of sedition for his comment of 'trying to cut chicken's neck' and breaking the North East from the rest of the country.

"I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi," Shah said addressing an election rally in Rithala in northwest Delhi.

Imam was one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest.

Hitting back at the BJP, Kejriwal alleged that the saffron party does not want to open the Shaheen Bagh stretch of the Kalindi Kunj road as it is doing 'dirty politics' over it.

He said law and order in the national capital lies entirely with the Centre and 'if they are saying that they need permission from me, I am giving them permission, open the road in one hour'.

"I can give it to you in writing, the BJP does not want to open the route in Shaheen Bagh. The Shaheen Bagh route will remain closed till February 8 (election day) and it will open February 9," Kejriwal told reporters.

Calling Kejriwal a member of the 'tukde tukde' gang, a term used by the BJP to attack groups it accuses of working to promote violent leftists and separatism, Shah sought to return fire and said the protesters of Shaheen Bagh will not listen to his party.

"They will not listen to us. You people (AAP leaders) say that you are with Shaheen Bagh, if you have the guts then go and sit with them and let Delhi decide," Shah said.

At another election rally in Janakpuri, Shah accused Gandhi and Kejriwal of doing politics of 'vote bank' on national issues and 'supporting' the protest at Shaheen Bagh.

"The Modi government will not spare anti-national elements," he warned.

The former BJP president also attacked the Kejriwal government for not fulfilling promises like regularising temporary employees, providing free wifi, opening new schools and colleges, constructing roads and cleaning the Yamuna.

He claimed that Kejriwal came to power with the help of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement but 'completely changed' later on.

"He had said that he would not take any government accommodation or vehicles and other facilities but after becoming chief minister he availed all these facilities," Shah said.

He also slammed the Delhi government for not sanctioning the prosecution of former JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the biennial Defence exhibition Defexpo-2020 being held in Lucknow next month from February 5-9. The event is being touted as the biggest defence exhibition in the country so far in terms of participation of various stakeholders.

The theme of the Expo is 'India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub'. The aim is to bring the leading technologies in the defence sector under one roof and provide a myriad of opportunities for the government, private manufacturers and start-ups.

The event will cover the entire spectrum of the country's aerospace, defence and security interests and would be attended by major defence manufacturing countries including the US, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The event is also being seen as a major push by the government towards building a huge military equipment manufacturing infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh which has one of the two designated defence industrial corridors.

The number of companies registered for participating in the 11th edition of the DefExpo 2020 has reached 1,000. In the DefExpo 2018, held in Chennai, 702 companies had participated.

The number of participating foreign companies has also increased to 165 from the previous figure of 160.

The booked exhibition space by exhibitors for DefExpo 2020 has gone up by 60 per cent to over 42,800 square metres, compared to around 26,774 during the last edition.

Defence Ministers and Service Chiefs of 35 countries have confirmed their participation for the DefExpo. A substantial number of Memoranda of Undertaking (MoUs) are expected to be inked during the Expo, resulting in forging of new business collaborations.

The sub-theme of the exhibition is 'Digital Transformation of Defence' which aligns with the concept of the future battlefield. Manufacturing for the aerospace and defence sector through the application of newer technologies will also be focused upon.

In addition to exhibiting products and technologies and live demonstrations by the Services, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and industry will showcase the land, naval, air and internal security systems.

The 'India Pavilion' will exclusively showcase the jointness between the public and private sector, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)/Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and innovation eco-system, which is the key to the way forward.

There will be a sizeable Uttar Pradesh Pavilion at the DefExpo venue. Apart from displaying industrial prowess and huge potential for the investors, the UP government will organise several cultural programmes showcasing rich cultural heritage of the state. A unique experience for the visitors is planned at the Tent City, which is being especially erected at the venue.

The Central government has set up Defence Industrial Corridor in Uttar Pradesh with identification of six nodes. A Defence Planning Committee has also been formed. In this regard, the Government of UP has planned to build a defence manufacturing corridor along with the proposed Bundelkhand Expressway which will help in making India self-reliant in the field of defence production. The DefExpo will play the role of a catalyst in attracting not only investments but also cutting-edge technologies to the region.

The DefExpo 2020 is expected to see participation from over 70 countries and will be in line with the biggest of the international defence exhibitions.

Since 2016, the Defexpo has been changing venues after the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar decided to shift it to Goa from Delhi. The event was held in Chennai when Nirmala Sitharaman was the Defence Minister and now it has been shifted to Lucknow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Monday asked counsel of Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh Singh to approach its Registry for urgent listing of his plea against rejection of mercy petition by the President.

President Kovind had on January 17 rejected the convict's petition, which is the last constitutional recourse that a death row convict can exhaust.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "If somebody is going to be executed then nothing can be more urgent than this and it should be the top priority".

The Bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant asked Kumar's counsel to approach the Supreme Court Registry as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

Mukesh's lawyer Vrinda Grover is seeking the commutation of Mukesh's death sentence to life imprisonment from the apex court, as the President of India has rejected his mercy petition.

The Supreme Court's five-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, had on January 15, dismissed the curative petitions of Mukesh and another death row convict, Vinay Kumar Sharma. A 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped by six men (including a juvenile) in a moving bus in the capital on a chilly night on December 16, 2012, and was later given the name 'Nirbhaya' which means fearless. One of the accused, out of five adults, Ram Singh, had committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.The other three death row convicts, against whom the death warrants have already been issued are Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A recent gathering of the League City Transportation and Infrastructure Committee was an inaugural community forum for the group in which residents voiced opinions on topics ranging from Interstate 45 access to the reported woeful state of Wesley Street.

The feedback was met with approval from committee member Christopher Sims, the citys director of engineering. The group, which has forwarded recommendations to City Council that resulted in projects, has the goal of staging future forums, he said.

Were more interested in gathering information that helps us fill out future capital improvement projects, Sims said. We want to make sure we are working toward projects the citizens want and need.

And when the microphone was turned over to the residents in attendance at the Jan. 23 meeting, they got a mix of opinions.

Longtime resident Al Bacon said the committee should look at creative ways to gain access to the Gulf Freeway.

Not can but how

We need to create another access to I-45, and I think we should approach it not from the angle of can we do this, but how do we do this? he said. It can be done. You look at Webster with the flyovers that they did, Austin has a major flyover with a two-level (Interstate 35) going through downtown. We need to look at flyovers to connect to I-45.

Bacon pointed to the east side of the FM 518/I-45 intersection as an example.

We could make a (freeway) exit ramp that goes over the drainage ditch there that goes through (the shopping center) parking lot, he said. We could go on the other side of the road and turn Wesley (Street) into a ramp going onto the freeway in the other direction.

Wesley was also on Linda Lees mind. The street, she said, needed some major work.

It is nothing, but one pothole and bump and ditch washed away after another, and thats a major road from the (I-45) feeder over to FM 518, she said of the road, which extends from the interstate northbound feeder north to Main Street.

Sims said that although the road is slated to be repaved, work on the ditches was not planned but that he would contact the Public Works Department about cleaning things out.

Chuck DiFalco didnt so much have an idea of what projects he wanted to have done but rather what he didnt want to see.

There are a number of people out there who have fallen in love with public transportation, he said. I get it. I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and rode the Metrorail and it was incredible. Having said that, implementing heavy rail, even light rail, anywhere in the city limits would be an absolute disaster.

The problem, he said, was that rail lines in the Houston area are at ground level, which would lead to long delays on streets that cross the tracks as trains pass.

As an example, he pointed to the existing set of railroad tracks that passes through the center of League City.

Here you have the 800-pound gorilla, the rail line that parallels (Texas 3), which is heavily trafficked crossways east to west, he said. Freight trains destroy traffic during heavy commute times.

Introducing more railroad tracks would compound the problem, he said.

Were already gridlocked going east to west  adding trains would make traffic a disaster, he said.

Committee chairman Ed Poole said he was pleased with the inaugural go-round of a meeting/public forum instead of the presentations that usually occur at the sessions.

I thought it went all right, he said. I want to hear a whole lot more input from these. We had no clue what was going to happen tonight. It was like, Lets go. Well take the slings and arrows, if thats what comes. Well take the comments, because theyll be good. Thats what we want.

For more information on the committee, call 281-554-1000.

John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com.
Rescuers desperately attempted Sunday to find survivors in eastern Turkey in the rubble of collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake claimed at least 38 lives. Nearly 4,000 rescue workers combed through debris in freezing temperatures, helped by mechanical diggers, as hope was fading as the 48th hour approached. Three bodies were found in the city centre, nearly 40 hours after the 6.8-magnitude quake struck Friday evening. Hours later, two more bodies were found bringing the death toll to 38 in Elazig province and nearby Malatya, state broadcaster TRT reported. Rescuers carefully cleared the remains of the collapsed four-storey building where the bodies were found, using buckets to remove broken material as a sniffer dog was brought to the scene. Workers were searching for two people still under the rubble, Hurriyet daily said. Residents were still waiting to find out what had happened to their relatives. A group of women burst into tears on learning that the body of a relative had been found, while one woman fainted, an AFP photographer said. But rescue workers have so far saved 45 people, the authorities say. The government's disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD) said 1,607 were injured, 13 of them in intensive care. The story of Syrian university student Mahmud al Osman, who used only his bare hands to rescue a man and woman from underneath rubble, went viral. Osman told state news agency Anadolu he heard voices after the quake ended while Durdane and Zulkuf Aydin said they shouted when they saw Osman's telephone light before he and others helped rescue them. Turkey is home to 3.6 million Syrians in Turkey and although there are limited social problems, tensions have increased following an economic downturn. There was growing concern for residents amid the bitter cold, said Hasan Duran, a 58-year-old shopkeeper, who lives in Sursuru. "If it was summer, people could maybe resist a little longer. But with this cold, it's hard to imagine. Even we are freezing at home. May God give them strength." - 'Every effort made' - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday "every effort was made to ensure citizens whose homes have collapsed or been damaged will not suffer in this winter period." Environment Minister Murat Kurum vowed a "radical transformation project" for buildings in the region at risk in the event of another quake. Since Friday's quake, there have been 714 aftershocks, 20 of them above four in magnitude. Residents avoided returning to their homes because of aftershock fears. Around a thousand people were spending the night in two trains converted into emergency accommodation in Elazig station. "There is no risk of being caught in a collapsed building here and it's warmer than a tent," Berivan Arslan, 55, said, who left her home because of cracks in the building's facade. With her daughter and two granddaughters coping with the boredom by playing with a doll, she had spent two nights sleeping in a six-seat compartment. There are two trains on the platform while a third is scheduled to arrive Sunday evening from Ankara, according to the Turkish National Railway Company (TCDD). - Anger rising - But with not enough emergency accommodation to cover the needs of 350,000 residents in Elazig city, tensions were rising. In a public park in the city centre, dozens of tents have been erected, most of them accommodating Syrians, which has aroused hostility. "So, what, this is a refugee camp? I have no tent yet I am a Turk," an elderly lady told an AFAD official, who promised more tents would arrive Monday. The epicentre of the quake was in the small lakeside town of Sivrice in Elazig province, but it also hit neighbouring cities and countries. With a population of around 4,000, Sivrice is located south of Elazig city on the shores of Hazar lake -- one of the most popular tourist spots in the region. The US Geological Survey said the magnitude was 6.7, slightly lower than AFAD, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian fault in an area that has suffered no documented major incidents since an earthquake in 1875. The recent quake left many wondering how Istanbul would cope, amid heightened fears of a powerful one, which seismologists say is unavoidable. In 1999, a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Izmit in western Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people including about 1,000 in the country's most populous city, Istanbul.
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SEATTLE  The Osprey Apartments, at 2116 N 112th St., sold for just under $5.7 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Lee Rivera Enterprises LLC, which acquired the property in 1984 for $780,000.





. . .
Realty firm Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd reported a 91 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 1.81 crore for the quarter ended December.

Its net profit stood at Rs 20.58 crore in the year ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Total income also fell to Rs 85 crore during the third quarter of 2019-20 from Rs



137.37 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Mahindra Lifespace MD and CEO Sangeeta Prasad said, "we are delighted with the successful launch of Happinest Kalyan, which strengthens the hypothesis that a right product with right location is always attractive."



The company plans to launch new projects in Mumbai and Pune this quarter, she added.

"The subdued investment sentiments in the economy has adversely impacted industrial land lease volumes," Prasad said.

On operational front, Mahindra Lifespace achieved sales of Rs 196 crore (0.26 million sq ft) in residential business (excluding cancellation at Luminare).

The company's development footprint spans 25.3 million sq ft of completed, ongoing and forthcoming residential projects across seven Indian cities; and over 5,000 acres of ongoing and forthcoming projects under development/management at its integrated developments/industrial clusters across four locations.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers is the real estate and infrastructure development business of the Mahindra Group.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump said early Monday that he "NEVER told John Bolton that aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into the Bidens or Democrats," contrary to assertions Bolton reportedly made in the manuscript of his soon-to-be-published book, aptly titled, "The Room Where It Happened."

The president's tweet, just after midnight Monday, was his first reaction to a story in the New York Times about the forthcoming book by the president's former national security adviser.

The book excerpt, and the leak, could increase pressure on the Senate to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of the president and, beyond that, to challenge the core defense of Trump, his lawyers and his supporters in Congress.

The Times reported late Sunday that, in the manuscript, Bolton writes of Trump telling him in August that "he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped him with investigations" into Democrats including former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who had been employed by a Ukrainian energy company.

That linkage is at the heart of the first article of impeachment against Trump, which alleges that the president conditioned the aid to Ukraine and a visit to the White House by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the promise of an investigation that would serve to discredit a political rival.

Bolton's reported claim, if true, would seriously undercut Trump's attack on the reliability of the "abuse of power" charge. The president's lawyers have argued that claims of linkage between the aid and the investigations have come only from people with second or third-hand information, who are making assumptions and presumptions but have never directly heard the president make any quid-pro-quo connection.

Bolton, as his book title suggests, says he was indeed in the room at a critical moment and that it did happen, according to the Times' account.

Two people familiar with the manuscript, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of its sensitivity, confirmed to The Washington Post that it details Trump tying aid to his desire for probes into the Bidens.

In his tweets and retweets early Sunday, Trump portrayed Bolton as a vengeful man just trying to sell books. He retweeted an apparent supporter comparing Bolton with former FBI Director James Comey, who published a book after being fired by Trump. Besides, he tweeted, "the Democrat-controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify. It is up to them, not up to the Senate."

Bolton, said the retweet, "is running the exact same revenge playbook . . . all because he's mad Trump fired him for leaking and trying to start new wars."

Bolton's book appeared on Amazon overnight, available for preorder at $32.50 for the hardcover, $16.99 for the Kindle version and $39.99 for the audio CD, read by Bolton.

While trying to discredit the impeachment in the House and Senate, in part for lack of firsthand witnesses, Trump's lawyers have simultaneously worked successfully to block any testimony by anyone who would have gotten close enough to fit that description.

Bolton, at times tauntingly, has said he is ready to testify if subpoenaed and that he has plenty to testify about with regard to issues involved in the impeachment.

But a subpoena never arrived. And the chances that it would were getting slimmer by the day as the Republican-controlled Senate appeared mostly unified in opposition to any witnesses.

More News John Bolton's bombshell gives the GOP a glimpse of its nightmare scenario

With only a few days remaining in the Senate trial and acquittal a near-certainty, it was beginning to look like the whole proceeding would come to an end with Bolton's secrets still concealed. People were beginning to wonder out loud and on social media whether any contents of the Bolton book would leak and, if so, whether that would happen in time.

On Dec. 30, Bolton submitted his manuscript to the White House for a standard review of potentially classified information, according to his lawyer, Charles J. Cooper. The White House could have, and still might, stand in the way of publication of portions of the book on national security grounds.

Sunday night, before that could happen, the leak occurred.

The Times account was sparse, mentioned no other elements of the book besides Ukraine, and it did not directly quote the unpublished manuscript, offering only a broad description. It said "multiple people described" Bolton's account.

In addition to detailing Bolton's account of what Trump told him - the linkage between the aid and the investigations - the Times said the manuscript portrays Attorney General William P. Barr and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in a negative light.

"For example," the Times said as it described the manuscript, "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged privately that there was no basis to claims by the president's lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani that the ambassador to Ukraine was corrupt and believed Mr. Giuliani may have been acting on behalf of other clients."

"Mr. Bolton also said," according to the Times, "that after the president's July phone call with the president of Ukraine, he raised with Attorney General William P. Barr his concerns about Mr. Giuliani, who was pursuing a shadow Ukraine policy encouraged by the president, and told Mr. Barr that the president had mentioned him on the call. A spokeswoman for Mr. Barr denied that he learned of the call from Mr. Bolton; the Justice Department has said he learned about it only in mid-August."

"I never told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump tweeted early Monday. "In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."

The report about the manuscript is fueling renewed demands by Democrats that witnesses, including Bolton, be subpoenaed to testify in the trial.

Among pro-impeachment lawyers, it also triggered discussions about alternatives to a full Senate vote on calling witnesses, which has been considered likely to fail.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who is presiding over the Senate trial, "can easily subpoena these folks on his own," and he "can't even be overruled by Republicans in the Senate," Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general, said on MSNBC on Sunday night.

In a New York Times op-ed Monday morning, Katyal, his Georgetown Law School colleague Joshua Geltzer and former Rep. Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., elaborated. They pointed to parts of the 1868 Senate rules of impeachment, still in force, that give the chief justice the power to issue subpoenas without being overruled by the Senate. Once a subpoenaed witness is deposed, and only then, the Senate has the final say on whether the witness also testifies.

Such an aggressive assertion of authority by the chief justice in a proceeding where he presides over a trial committed "solely" to the Senate by the Constitution would be extraordinary, deeply controversial and therefore unlikely.

But the story gave renewed hope to Democrats in the Senate and the prosecutors, or "managers," representing the House that they might yet be able to sway enough Republican votes to get the subject of subpoenas on the floor for discussion, which is the first hurdle, and then issued.
WOODBURY  Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust has added a new series to its year round offerings of environmental education programs, Hiking with An Average Jill.

Leading the program series is entrepreneur Jill Roberts, a former accounting professional with a desire to share with the world how extraordinary the beauty one can discover in the most ordinary, according to a statement.

Roberts created the YouTube channel, Hiking with an Average Jill, which features her productions of mini-hiking documentaries. Using her personal granola recipes she also sells granola mixes with her own recipes, under the name An Average Jill Granola.

The personal stories I share through my writing, video documentaries, and photography are intended to inspire, teach, and offer a positive perspective, Roberts said. I may not write the next New York Times best seller, or produce a documentary that earns recognition, or capture the next National Geographic photo of the year, but I just might inspire someone who does. After all, Im just your Average Jill.

The Hiking with An Average Jill series begins in mid-February with Hiking as Exercise with An Average Jill. Cooler temperatures present the best conditions for being active outdoors, and the winter months offer some of the best hiking conditions to get exercise while participating in an activity to enjoy. Roberts will lead a hike to adventure through the more challenging trails within Flanders nature preserves. This is a hike, not a run, with a steady pace with only occasional stops.

These midweek hikes are being held Feb. 13 and March 24, with rain dates of Feb. 20 and March 31, respectively.

The location of the first hike is the Van Vleck Sanctuary, the main campus of Flanders. The group will meet in the Studio Parking Area at 5 Church Hill Rd, Woodbury.

The March 24 hike will take place at the Whittemore Sanctuary with guests meeting in the Parking Area at Route 64, Sherman Hill Road and Woodbury

Both sessions will start at 1 p.m. have a distance of 3-5 miles taking approximately 2 to 2.5 hours each. The cost for each hike is $5 for members and $10 for non-members

For those looking for a winter hike at a more leisurely pace, Discover the Beauty of Flanders with An Average Jill is another offering in the series. Roberts guides hikers along scenic trails within Flanders Whittemore Nature preserve, while she points out interesting landmarks and shares her own observations.

This 2-3 mile hike is at 10 a.m. Feb. 23, with a rain date of March 22. Hikers will meet at the Whittemore Sanctuary Parking Area Rt. 64, Sherman Hill Rd. The cost is $5 for members and $10 for non-members.

The Hiking with An Average Jill series will continue with Trail Photography with An Average Jill., March 8 and April 21, at a slow, but steady pace, allowing individuals to pause and capture trailside photos.

On April 8, join others for Hiking under the Moon with An Average Jill to experience hiking at night.

Full details on each of the offerings of this new series can be found at www.flandersnaturecenter.org. Look for the homepage link to the new Flanders winter/spring catalog. Preregistration is required and can be done online on the website or by calling Flanders at 203-263-3711 Ext. 12.

Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that focuses on environmental education, and on the acquisition, conservation, and stewardship of open space. Through its land trust initiatives, Flanders actively works to protect important natural sites and the areas landscape character and quality of life. Flanders manages over 2,300 acres of preserved land in Woodbury and neighboring towns. Educational programs for children and adults are offered year round. Trails at its major nature preserves are open to the public at no charge from dawn to dusk. For more information, call 203-263-3711 or flandersnaturecenter.org
Two Punjab-origin brothers, who were part of a Birmingham-based organised crime group that smuggled drugs worth millions of pounds by hiding them in chicken shipments from the Netherlands, have been each jailed for two years.

The sentencing of Manjinder Singh Thakhar, 36, and Davinder Singh Thakhar, 42, by the Birmingham Crown Court last week dismantles the group whose other members were previously jailed. They were involved in transport, often moving raw chicken around in unrefrigerated vehicles.

The brothers were involved in the criminal enterprise masterminded by Wasim Hussain, 34, and Nazrat Hussain (unrelated), 36, who set up a series of front companies which were involved in the importation of chicken from the Netherlands, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

On three occasions, heroin and cocaine worth around 5 million was seized hidden in chicken shipments. However, NCA investigators, working in partnership with the Dutch police, subsequently identified another 16 importations which they suspect contained drugs, which would have brought the overall street value to around 12 million.

Colin Williams of the NCA said: The crime group that the Singh Thakhar brothers were part of operated in numerous ways that bring harm to the UK. They used front companies to appear to be legitimate goods importers, they had links with criminals abroad, and the ringleaders were involved in conspiring to supply firearms.

Working with Dutch partners, the NCA spent several years bringing the entire crime group to account, dismantling their operation from top to bottom, and preventing them from fuelling violence and exploitation in the West Midlands and far beyond.

The NCA said Wasim Hussain and Nazarat Hussain have been jailed for a combined sentence of nearly 44 years.

The import of chicken shipments began in June 2016 and continued into 2017. After the first two seizures, the group set up a new company to try and cover their tracks.

They would use genuine shipping companies to move loads from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to distribution hubs where they would be collected by members of the group. The shipments were set up by Nazarat Hussain, who made regular trips to the Netherlands to meet suppliers.

Following the interception of two chicken shipments and the arrests of two gang members, the gang switched tactics, using two corrupt baggage handlers to collect three kilos of high-purity cocaine off a flight from Brazil to Heathrow.

But NCA officials were watching their moves, and officers moved in to make arrests as one of the airport workers met Birmingham taxi driver Adnan Ahmed Malik just outside the airport. Three kilos of high-purity cocaine was found in a rucksack in the taxi.

In June 2017, another shipment was dispatched from the Netherlands, but the drugs were removed by Dutch police, who were working with the NCA. When it arrived in Birmingham minus the drugs the group knew they had been busted.

Wasim Hussain rang his main Dutch criminal contact in panic, telling him throw your phone, throw everything, throw the SIM away. Wasim Hussain and Mohammed Shabir were arrested by NCA officers shortly afterwards.

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For Kelly King, that would mean peace of mind when she sends her 12-year-old son off to school in Chaska every day. Kade King suffers from grand mal seizures that render him unconscious and convulsing for minutes at a time. He needs his "rescue med"  an oral CBD oil  to snap out of it, because he struggles to metabolize epilepsy drugs and has even had adverse reactions to them.
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Socialist JCL Daga sworn in as President of Mahavir International Bikaner

49 new persons recorded membership in the oath ceremony

Bikaner, Senior social worker Jaichand Lal Daga was sworn in at the function held at Hansa Guest House in Bikaner, Mahavir International's President, a leading organization of social service with the aim of serving with love.

Santhosh Jain, Secretary of Mahavir International Bikaner, told that during the function former Municipal Corporation Chairman Narayan Chapada, Journalist Anand Acharya, Surendra Jain, Rajesh Baweja, Jatanlal Duggad, Manoj Gupta, Amit Daga, Dr. Ambuj Gupta, Hemendra Singhvi, Shiv Charan Sharma, Sumit Kochhar, Mohit 49 social workers including Dhariwal, Basant Daga, Pankaj Pareek took oath of membership to further the objectives of the organization. It has become a record of swearing together at any center so far.

After the oath, the new chairman Veer Jaichand Lal Daga laid out the outline of the service projects for the coming year, while expressing happiness over the joining of large number of youths and said that special work will be done to complete the services.

Veer Dr. JS Mehta Director Clinic, Rajuvas said that in the last years, Mahavir International and Rajuvas have done remarkable work in veterinarian and further service related to animal husbandry will be done.

Lunkaran Chhajed, the special guest of the ceremony, described the service projects being done for the whole society by Mahavir International keeping the distinction of caste, religion and region.

Former President of Mahavir International Veer Sumatilal Banthia laid the outline of the organization in front of the guests who attended the function, while Hemant Singi conducted the program.

During the function, a large number of Veeras including the National Executive officer Veer Santosh Banthia, former president Veer Champa Lal Daga, Vijay Vallabh Kochhar also attended the family.
by Tim Sommers

What if most speech is worthless? Or, rather, what if most speech that purports to count as a contribution to free expression is mostly worthless? Take the internet. Whats on it? Lots of great information and great journalism and even art. But, also, pornography. Lots of pornography. Between 15% and 80% of net traffic is porn, depending on which study you believe. But if you count semi-nude pictures, its got to be at leastwell, a lot. Lots of cat pictures, too. Then there are the blogs and comment threads and likes and dislikes. Even where these are about significant topics, most of opinions expressed are repetitive assertions of a fairly narrow range of already well-known opinions. And then theres the insults, the invectives, and general nastiness. I am not against porn. I am not even against insults per se. What I wonder though is, whatever value porn, for example, has for you, or whatever expressive relief you get from typing insults, should we think that these things ought to count as worthy the high value and high level of protection we ordinarily afford free speech? Maybe. Maybe, not.

There seems to be a lot of agreement that free speech is in crisis  on campuses, on the web, or on social media. But not a lot of agreement about what the crisis is supposed to be. There seems to be a lot of agreement that regulating, or interfering in any way, with free speech is bad. But not a lot of discussion of exactly what is bad about it. It sometimes seems that freedom of speech is just an empty phrase to be filled in by whatever you happen to think that it would be good not to have interfered with. (Maybe, youve encountered the internet joke that suggest you can now argue for anything by saying what you want to argue for and then asserting Because freedom!) And so, the crisis sometimes seems to be just people you dont like interfering with something you do like. (Have you ever heard of a conservative pundit complaining about a liberal speaker being de-platformed or vice-versa?) My point is, unless we engage with what is good or bad about freedom of speech, its going to be hard to evaluate what the crisis is and whether we can regulate our way out of it. So, lets start there. Or, rather, here: What is free(dom of) speech?

I think it helps to think of speech more broadly as expression. Surely, we dont just mean by speech here what we mean by speech in ordinary discourse. In fact, in ordinary discourse speech refers mainly to (what Brian Leiter has called) mundane speech: small talk, giving directions, coordinating when to meet for dinner. [Though I disagree on several points, I am influenced throughout by Leiters The Case Against Free Speech (file:///C:/Users/17249/Downloads/SSRN-id2450866.pdf)] Even though you are not supposed, for example, to talk during the movie, this is not the kind of speech that most people are worrying will, or even could, be regulated. Non-mundane expression presumably includes (at least) artistic, scientific, philosophical, and political discourse (construed as broadly as possible)  and has many modes: speaking, writing, singing, dancing, blogging, podcasting, painting, drawing, sculpting, texting, posting comments on internet threads, and basically anyway you can convey information, or express emotion, especially the kind relevant to non-mundane expression.

What, then, is the free or freedom part of free expression? I think its easiest to illuminate by talking about what the arguments for that freedom are. There are three broad categories: autonomy arguments, marketplace of idea arguments, and who regulates the regulators arguments.

The autonomy argument really has two sides. Autonomy is both the expression of, and an instance of, our freedom. That is, as a free person, I should be allowed to express myself and you shouldnt be allowed to stop me. By definition, in a liberal democracy that kind of freedom gets a certain priority over other kinds of, for example, consequentialist considerations.

But almost no one believes that considerations of autonomy trump everything. Consider that the courts have always acknowledged time and place restrictions on speech. You are not allowed to yell fire! in a crowded theatre, for example. (One thing you probably should know about that frequently invoked example, though, is what it was that the person who was in trouble had done that the court thought was the equivalent of yelling fire! in a crowded theatre. Here it is. They were standing on a street corner handing out pamphlets urging people to oppose Americas entry into World War I. Its not the best example, in other words, but you see what I am saying.) Anyway, its not just time and place restrictions. Some kinds of speech are subject to prior restraint. In matters of life and death, say National Security, the government has the affirmative ability to silence you before you even start talking or reporting. (Given the widespread abuse of national security to not only cover up wrong-doing, but to simply keep average citizens in the dark, this is (again) not an unproblematic example.) Maybe more telling, then, is institutional constraints on freedom of speech.

You dont have anything like unlimited freedom of speech at your job. And there are ways in which the people you work for can limit your speech even when you are not at work or no longer work there at all (for examples, there are non-disclosure agreements that have been around a long time and a recent trend of employees being fired or disciplined over social media comments or photos of questionable taste). Also, the legal system and the courts have been rigidly constructed to limit free speech in the interest of coming to correct conclusions about the issues before them. And consider universities. Universities put all sorts of restrictions on who can speak and when. If you dont believe me, come to one of my classes. Raise your hand if you want to speak. (Though I wouldnt call the police on you if you refused to change seats. (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ball-state-professor-called-police-class-because-student-would-not-n1121201) Probably.)

Long story short, whatever autonomy interests we have in speech still have to be balanced out against, not only benefits and harms, but what is conducive, in certain contexts, to the function of the institution. Here the interest in autonomy meets the idea that the value of free speech is that it creates a marketplace of ideas.

We owe this phrase, the marketplace of ideas, to John Stuart Mill. Add to it that the remedy for bad speech is more speech (paraphrasing the legendary Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis) and you have the basic idea. One thing to notice is that if you already believe that we have good reasons to be skeptical about the outcomes of unregulated marketplaces in general, maybe you ought not be too sanguine about the outcomes of unregulated speech markets.

Consider science. I think that science has been more successful than anything else at dragging us closer to the truth. And I think in certain ways science is a model of a kind of market place of ideas. The core idea is that anyone and everyone can contribute and that all the ideas and information are available to everyone. No one mandates anyone elses opinions about, for example, what the best theory currently available in some area on some topic is. Instead, the success of a theory is that it gains adherents over time. If it becomes the dominant theory its only because the people who study whatever the theory is a theory about think its the best theory about that. But science is hardly an unregulated market. Everyone mostly means only people with certain qualifications. And to the extent that information is made available its through refereed journals. Outside of the strict confines of your field, you still have freedom of speech in general; but whether your speech counts as a contribution to your field is highly regulated.

Ideally, though, science is self-regulating. The rules are formulated and enforced by participants. Attempts by outsiders to use money or politics or whatever to influence the views people are frowned upon, at least by scientists. (But sometimes still unavoidable. Political interference on certain issues like smoking, fire arms, and climate change is a problem. And the influence of outside funding across the board has always been an issue.)

Which brings us to the third category of reasons why we need freedom of speech. Suppose you think that the efficacy of speech would be improved by regulating speech and you think that the benefits of that improvement would be great enough to outweigh the costs to our autonomy. Now, ask yourself, who is going to do the regulating?

Pause to consider what some people count as current symptoms of crisis in free speech. Some people think that its a huge crisis that students at some colleges are protesting and disrupting invited speakers. It might be that some of these protesters think that calling out racism, misogyny, or homophobia is more important than free speech. But it might well be that the objection is not only to the speech itself, but the way the speech is legitimized by being presented in official or quasi-official university settings. As we have already noticed, universities are rife with restrictions on speech. And in this case the power imbalance, such as it is, tilts in the direction of officials of the university rather than a relatively (sometimes, absolutely) small group of students. If you think college-aged kids yelling at Charles Murray or Ann Coulter is a crisis of free speech, I think (at a minimum) you radically underestimate the strengths of the institutions  and the power of political actors  involved.

Sometimes the claim is, more broadly, that brave, important voices in our culture are being marginalized. Unfortunately, people who say that dont usually mean, for example, Colin Kaepernick, but more like the voices of the Intellectual Dark Web. I dont want to beat a mostly dead horse, but there is no such thing as an Intellectual Dark Web. There is such a thing as a Dark Web. But none of these people, as far as I can tell, are on it. Rather, they are supposed to be a thing because they have all been marginalized for their unPC views in a world gone mad with PCness. What are these views? Sam Harris doesnt like religion, but especially he doesnt like Islam. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bombing-our-illusions_b_8615) And he thinks that whether or not people-of-color have lower IQs than white people is an idea that hasnt been given a fair hearing. (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/27/15695060/sam-harris-charles-murray-race-iq-forbidden-knowledge-podcast-bell-curve) Christina Hoff Sommers (no relation to me) thinks feminism has gone to far. (https://www.amazon.com/Christina-Hoff-Sommers/e/B001H6WUC2%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share) And Jordan Peterson thinks something about Lobsters and hierarchy is inevitable or something. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=6ypVbUBEZHg) Its hard to tell.

How they have been marginalized is even harder to tell. They are mostly wealthy (Peterson was making over $60,000 a month on Patreon at one point and have good jobs (Sommers is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and Steve Pinker, another Dark Webber (https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/1186065313516924929?lang=en) is at Harvard). They have almost all written best-selling books and made many media appearances  and several have popular podcasts. Leaving aside the issue of the substance of their views, if you think they symbolize a crisis of marginalization in free speech; I respectfully suggest you dont know what marginalized means.

I could go on like this. Some people think #MeToo went too far. Which is odd because almost everyone called out by the movement has eventually admitted that they pretty much did what they were being called about. (https://www.vox.com/a/sexual-harassment-assault-allegations-list/steven-wilder-striegel) Or, maybe, Cancel Culture is out of hand. (https://mashable.com/article/cancel-culture-2019/) I dont know. Shunning people has a long history. But I am not sure that internet shunning doesnt fit the meet speech with more speech model  in terms of how to address it.

Heres my candidate for the crisis of free speech, then. We are drowning in it. The internet began as a shining vision of a new democratic regime of free expression previous impossible before this great technological and sociological leap forward. Now we have people questioning not just the massive scientific consensus on global warming, vaccinations, and the world being round, but things as mundane (and yet important) as whether we can count on the Congressional Budget Office to keep their accounting practices nonpartisan. Remember the Tea Party? It began as a massive protest against Obama raising taxes at the exact moment, in real-time, that Obama was actually cutting taxes.

Weve got plenty of speech. Weve got precious little public agreement on basic facts. The reign of massive amounts of unregulated free speech has not led to democracy, its led to a world of alternate facts.

If we want free speech that contributes to a marketplace of ideas then, despite the risks it poses to expressive autonomy and the frightening question of exactly who is going to do the regulating, weve got to find ways to regulate it.

Heres one thing we could try without going straight to regulating speech directly. We could use anti-monopoly law to break up internet, and especially social-media, monopolies. You could even argue that I am wrong to blame unregulated speech at all, and that it is the de facto regulation done by private (rather than state) entities that has caused the problem in the first place. Maybe, but in the end, I believe that, whatever the risk, we are going to have to start regulating the content of at least some kinds of speech  at least at the extremes. Feel free to have  and express  a different opinion. Obviously.
Abhishek Jain

It is generally believed and argued by most economists that a rapid growth of exports leads to higher economic expansion. Last years Economic Survey bore all the tell-tale signs of that. Even the future blueprint is a proof of the Indias readiness to shift gears to push exports.

Aligned with this objective, the government in 2019 announced and implemented a slew of GST refunds-related measures to address financial hardships of exporters. Those included steps such as instructions not to seek proof of realisation of proceeds on exports or payment of tax before refunds are initiated when exports are delayed.

Given wide-ranging discussions on promotion of exports in the pre-Budget consultations by the Union finance minister, there is a general expectation of key announcements for the foreign exchange earners.

One such likely measure is the introduction of the earlier approved e-wallet scheme by the GST council. While the scheme was deferred for better evaluation of technical and legal aspects and requires the councils nod for implementation, any assurance by the government in the Budget should help ease exporters financial worries and restore the trust factor.

At a time when there are headwinds blowing in the Indian economy, the WTO (World Trade Organization) panel coming down hard on Indias export incentives has aggravated the matter. Recently, the dispute panel ruled that Indias key export promotion schemes, including the MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme), the SEZ (special economic zone) programme and the Export Promotion Capital Goods, flouted WTO rules and should be discontinued. The MEIS, in particular, was earlier expected to be shelved from January 1.

While India has gone for an appeal, the exporters are worried.

At the same time, the government has come out with the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported products (RoDTEP) as a possible replacement for the MEIS. The contours are still being worked out.

Separately, a new foreign trade policy, which could bring good news to exporters, is expected to be effective from April. So, foreign exchange earners are looking forward to incentives and related budgeting of cash outflow in the Budget.

Any decision about contours of export schemes and incentives remains a prerogative of the Ministry of Commerce. However, a positive overall direction in the Budget and assurance of long-term continuity of policies would cheer exporters.

The other long-standing demand of Indian exporters is drawback incentives for exports to Nepal and Bhutan. Currently, as realisation of these exports in not in foreign currency, the businesses have not been able to claim a drawback of the duties paid on import of goods, which entails an additional duty cost. This Budget could consider extending drawback benefits to such exports as well.

It could also consider proposals for reduction of export duty on certain goods such as bauxite, lower grade ore and the like for enhanced foreign currency earnings and better prospects of these businesses.

While some of the above proposals could be considered from a tax incentive perspective, wider policy measures to boost exports may be the need of the hour to help exporters as India looks to be a $5 trillion economy in the near future.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 06:41:30|Editor: yan

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HELSINKI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Finland's first Chinese New Year Symphony Concert was held here on Monday evening at the Finlandia Music Hall, drawing hundreds of audience.

Lv Jia, chief conductor of China National Theatre and Macau Orchestra, performed together with Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, and Chinese violinist Huang Mengla.

The concert started with a symphony composed from Chinese folk music Flower Drum of Fengyang, giving the audience a festive boost. Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto led the audience into the legendary world of a classic Chinese love story.

Chinese New Year has been celebrated in Helsinki for 14 consecutive years, but this is the first time a symphony concert was offered for the celebration.

Lv told Xinhua that the Finnish audience had a high expectation for the concert and had shown great enthusiasm. "Music is an international language which can bring peoples together, and help them better understand each other," he said.

Huang, winner of Paganini International Violin Competition in 2002, said: "The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto is a representative piece of Chinese music, while symphony is an art form with which western audience are familiar. I think the concert is a kind of innovative way to celebrate Chinese New Year in a foreign country and will help tell Chinese stories to the world."

The violinist also told Xinhua about the fun moment at a concert held on the eve of the Chinese New Year in Turku, southern Finland, when Chinese musicians taught the audience to speak Happy New Year in Chinese.

Organized by Finland-China Artists Association and supported by Chinese Embassy in Finland, the Chinese New Year Symphony Concert was held also to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Finland.
On January 27th, the world marks Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On January 20th, 1942, senior officials of the German Nazi Party met in a villa in the Wannsee district of Berlin to discuss what they called the Final Solution to the Jewish questionthe deportation and extermination of the Jewish population of German-occupied Europe. Subsequently, millions of Jews residing in German or German-occupied territories were arrested and transported to concentration camps. Most of them ended up in extermination camps, built specifically to kill millions of people by execution and extreme work under starvation conditions. In the three years between the Wannsee Conference and the end of the Second World War, six million Jews, as well as four to five million non-Jewish prisoners, perished in these death camps.

Today, the genocide that was committed by the Nazi regime against the European Jews is known as the Holocaust.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau facility in Poland, the largest and deadliest of the extermination camps, was liberated by the Russian Army on January 27th, 1945. The camp was nearly empty that day, as those prisoners who were still capable of walking were herded by their guards away from the invading armies. The liberators were met by some seven thousand skeletal prisoners who were too weak to be evacuated by their captors, and mountains of dead bodies.

The Holocaust was a crime against humanity so horrendous that the community of nations vowed to never forget, lest such atrocity happen again. And that is why, on every January 27th, we observe the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Its been 75 years, three generations since the end of the Second World War, and few are left who survived the Holocaust, and those who broke open the death-camp doors and freed the condemned. It is up to us now to never again allow hatred and intolerance to drown out our humanity and respect for the lives of others.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 27, 2020. See PA story IRISH Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Solidarity People Before Profit politician Richard Boyd Barrett, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 27, 2020. Niall Carson/PA Wire

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 27, 2020. See PA story IRISH Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

FIANNA Fail leader Micheal Martin has launched a stinging attack on Sinn Fein claiming the party is "extremely arrogant" to think his party and Fine Gael owe them a place in power.

And he hit out at Sinn Fein's opposition to the Special Criminal Court (SCC), claiming the rival party hates it because it defeated the Provisional IRA in the South.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald was under pressure to defend her party as she sustained attacks from both Mr Martin and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael.

It came as seven parties leaders clashed on the RTE Claire Byrne Live Leaders Debate in the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).

Both Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar have ruled out forming a government with Sinn Fein.

Ms McDonald called this "incredibly arrogant" and "obnoxious" saying it disregards the party's voters. She also said it's "deeply hypocritical" given that the other leaders "shake hands with Sinn Fein ministers in the North".

Expand Close Fine Gael leader, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Fine Gael leader, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. Niall Carson/PA Wire

She said her party would speak to everyone after the election.

Mr Varadkar said his opposition to Sinn Fein "isnt anything personal" and is entirely based on policy and principle.

He claimed the party is "soft on crime and hard on taxes" and pointed out that Sinn Fein doesn't support the SCC which he said will be used to "lock up drug lords".

Mr Martin went further saying: "I would say SF extremely arrogant to say we or Fine Gael owe them a place in power. We dont."

He added:

The reason Sinn Fein opposed the Offences Against the State Act and Special Criminal Court since they came into Dai Eireann is because the Provisionals within their movement dont allow them vote for it, Mr Martin said.

The old provos hate the special criminal. Why? Because the Special Criminal Court defeated the Provisional IRA in the Republic, he added.

He also argued that the role of the Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle "can't be glossed over" and he claimed that "unelected people" dictate policy to the partys politicians.

Ms McDonald was asked by host Ms Byrne if she has taken a pledge to take all directions from the Ard Comhairle.

The Sinn Fein leader insisted the Ard Comhairle is "not some shadowy unelected entity".

She said it's elected at the Ard Fheis and claimed it's "no different to the GAA".

Mr Martin insisted it's "fundamentally different".

HOUSING

On housing, Mr Martin said young people are saving with great difficulty but they need help.

Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin said Fianna Fail hollowed out the ability of local authorities to build house. Mr Howlin said social houses should be built on public land and his party would build 80,000 new homes.

Mr Varadkar said he wanted everyone to be able to buy their own home. He said lots of people could afford a mortgage but cannot save because of high rents. The Taoiseach said Fine Gael is building new homes and social housing and will continue to do so if returned to power.

Mr Martin said the Taoiseach promised the exact same thing four years ago and he was promising the same thing again .

Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan said he would contract private developers to build homes on public land. He said he would pull in every single resource to tackle the housing crisis.

Expand Close Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 27, 2020. See PA story IRISH Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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Ms McDonald said there was a housing emergency and said the country needed the biggest house building programme that the state had ever seen.

The Sinn Fein leader said housing schemes being offered by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail sound great but will only push up prices.

She called for action for renters who are being fleeced by run away rents adding that Sinn Fein would freeze rents for three years.

Mr Howlin and Ms Shortall also said they would freeze rents.

Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall said large scale tracks of land are being hoarded by site owners.

People Before Profit member Richard Boyd Barrett received a round of applause for saying the government should not sell off land to developers like it did through Nama. Mr Boyd Barrett said a stigma had been created around social housing.

Expand Close Solidarity People Before Profit politician Richard Boyd Barrett, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 27, 2020. Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Solidarity People Before Profit politician Richard Boyd Barrett, during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 27, 2020. Niall Carson/PA Wire

He said publicly owned banks are racketeering on the back of people who are trying to buy homes at high mortgage rates.

Ms McDonald said the country needs a government that acts in the common good to solve the housing crisis.

Mr Ryan said improved public planning was needed before new housing was built. Ms McDonald said for four years Mr Martin claimed he had secured housing budgets during his budget negotiations with Fine Gael.

You have allowed the situation to get to this point that people were degraded by this crisis, Ms McDonald said.

Mr Varadkar said we need housing for everyone including social, affordable and private housing.

He told Mr Martin that Fine Gael had to clean up the appalling mess Fianna Fail made of the economy when they took office.

CRIME

On justice and crime the leaders were asked if they would reopen rural garda stations that were closed over the last decade.

Mr Martin offered no commitment on that and said he would be more interested in restoring community gardai saying they're the lynchpin of tackling rural crime.

Mr Howlin said communities like Drogheda that have seen serious crime want gardai to be visible in their areas.

Mr Ryan recalled the words of the first garda commissioner Michael Staines who said: The Garda Siochana will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but by their moral authority as servants of the people.

The Green Party leader stressed the importance of community gardai and investment in technology.

Mr Varadkar said Fine Gael don't intend to reopen any rural garda stations but added: "We won't close any more".

He said more staff and gardai are needed and his party will ensure 700 are recruited every year.

Mr Varadkar was asked about the decriminalisation of drugs and the first TV debate where he hesitated when asked if he himself had taken illegal drugs.

The Taoiseach quipped: "Ill try to avoid a long pause this time".

Mr Varadkar who previously confirmed that he smoked cannabis in his college years said Fine Gael wouldn't go as far as decriminalising drugs.

However, he also said his party would focus on a health and education approach saying it's not a good idea to give a young person a criminal conviction for possessing small quantities of drugs.

CLIMATE

At one point Mr Ryan complained that climate change, the "crisis of our time" was not being debated.

Ms Byrne promised it was coming up and he was later challenged on the need to reduce the national suckler herd to cut greenhouse gases.

Mr Ryan said there would have to be a smaller suckler herd but said farmers should be paid properly for environmentally friendly measures through the EU's Common Agriculture Policy.

He insisted the herd could be reduced while farmers got increased incomes by focussing on premium products,

Mr Varadkar was asked about a claim by junior minister John Paul Phelan that there are "nutters in the Green Party."

He replied: "Theres a fair few nutters in every party including my own".

Mr Martin chipped in: "Thats an awful thing to say about John Paul Phelan".

More to follow...
ALBANY  A recent poll by the Siena Research Institute shows surprisingly strong support for much of what Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democrats in the Legislature want to accomplish this year.

More than seven in 10 New Yorkers, for example, support a ban on Styrofoam containers and a bond that would devote $3 billion to environmental restoration. Marijuana legalization is supported by nearly 60 percent of voters.

The only unpopular policy in the poll, as it turns out, is one that Cuomo and the Democrats have already passed: Bail reform.

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Roughly half of New Yorkers now say bail reform is bad for the state, the poll said, and the legislation is even less popular outside of New York City. Only 32 percent of upstate residents support it.

The numbers are a stark warning to those us who believe bail reform was an important step toward a fairer system  one that grants poor defendants the same rights as the wealthy. Clearly, bail reform is losing the public-relations fight, putting intense and increasing pressure on lawmakers to undo what they've done.

The falling poll numbers are understandable, given the blatant fear mongering in recent weeks from opponents of the changes  the prosecutors and politicians who are spreading misinformation that obscures the truth. Even before the howling of recent weeks, there was tremendous confusion about what bail reform actually changes.

So, let's go over this again.

Bail reform has done nothing new; the rights it grants to everybody have always existed for the rich and powerful. When men like Sheldon Silver or Harvey Weinstein are accused of crimes, they post bail or large bonds and remain free unless convicted at trial. In Silver's case, he has remained free even after his conviction.

Where's the outrage? Why aren't prosecutors and Republican lawmakers holding press conferences about that?

Even defendants accused of horrendously violent crimes  Chris Porco, who attacked his parents with an ax in Delmar, is the example I used in a prior column  were allowed to remain free pending their convictions. (Porco was wealthy enough to post $200,000 bail.)

Would the now-convicted killer have been more dangerous to the public if he'd failed to come up with the money? Of course not. His wealth was irrelevant, but he would have stayed in jail without it.

Likewise, a non-violent thief who can post $3,000 bail is no more threatening than one who can't. The money is irrelevant; being poor doesn't make a defendant inherently more dangerous.

But as practiced, New York's legal system has long operated as if poverty equals danger. It was a tremendous perversion of what a fair justice system should be. It was an affront to a constitution that insists on every person, rich or poor, being treated equally under the law.

Consider that before reform more than 60 percent of the 21,000 New Yorkers in jail on a given night had not been convicted of a crime but, unable to make bail, were simply waiting for their trial to begin. That's according to the Vera Institute of Justice, a research organization focused on criminal-justice issues.

In 2015, 62 percent of the jail population in Albany County was held on misdemeanor charges, also largely because of inability to make bail. In Saratoga County, it was 70 percent, the Vera Institute says.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Infamously, a teenaged Kalief Browder, accused of stealing a backpack in the Bronx, waited three years in Rikers for a trial that never came  a nightmare that brings to mind the inhumanity of totalitarian regimes, one that should have no place in a free and fair society.

And so, the Legislature enacted bail reform, which does something very simple: It eliminates cash bail for misdemeanor and non-violent crimes. It says that if you are poor, you won't sit in jail just because you are poor.

If you disagree with bail reform, well, what's a better alternative?

Should we go back to the old system, allowing poorer defendants to sit in jail while men such as Weinstein, charged with two counts of rape and other charges, are allowed to walk free? Or should all defendants, rich and poor alike, simply sit in jail before their trials?

I'm not arguing for that the second option, although it would be more fair, in a sense. It would at least treat the rich and poor equally.

But you'll notice that equality isn't what prosecutors and politicians are asking for as they denounce bail reform. They aren't saying that the Weinsteins of the world shouldn't be free before trial. They're saying poor defendants shouldn't be.

They're arguing for a return of the status quo. They're arguing for a legal system that, for anyone who believes in what the constitution says, should be an affront to patriotism.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Employees of German retailing giant Kaufland have shared their disappointment with the company's sudden decision to exit Australia, a move that shocked staff, suppliers and the broader retail industry.

Last Wednesday, the retailing powerhouse announced it would make an "orderly withdrawal" from the local market, providing no reason other than a desire to focus more on its European operations.

The decision  made after Kaufland had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on hiring, logistics and property but before it had opened a single store  sent the retail sector into a tailspin, prompting significant commentary analysing the company's surprise exit.

The pull-out also left more than 200 staff across the company in limbo, many of whom had left positions at prominent Australian retailers to work for the German giant, including former Woolworths executive Mark Hewlett and ex-Myer boss Richard Umbers.
(Alliance News) - President Energy PLC on Monday reported increased reserves at the higher value Neuquen basin in Argentina.

The Neuquen proved and probable reserve as of the end of 2019 stood at 13.4 million barrels of oil equivalent, over 20% higher than the same period a year before.

Overall Argentine proved and probable reserves increased marginally, to 25.9 million barrels from 25.0 million barrels. Proved, probable, and possible reserves in Argentina increased by 40% to 43 million barrels.

President said this reserve only includes producing assets in Argentina and does not include its other assets in Paraguay and the US.

"In a year when no drilling took place, albeit numerous workovers, the reserves replacement and increases in key producing reserves in the Neuquen basin in Argentina is commendable and sends a positive message underlining the future potential in our current assets. At the same time, our Puesto Guardian concession remains an important and valuable asset which will also receive our substantive attention this year," said Chair & Chief Executive Peter Levine.

"Thus, with a resumption of development and exploration drilling in both Rio Negro and Salta, we look forward to another year of reserves growth. Furthermore, whilst abiding by the prudent and appropriate mantra of 'step by step', we do not rule out a more substantial leap or two in 2020 if and when the right opportunities arise," he added.

Shares were 0.6% lower on Monday morning in London at a price of 4.02 pence each.

By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Generic Sweden (STO:GENI) shares have continued recent momentum with a 39% gain in the last month alone. That's tops off a massive gain of 278% in the last year.

All else being equal, a sharp share price increase should make a stock less attractive to potential investors. In the long term, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, but in the short term prices bounce around in response to short term factors (which are not always obvious). The implication here is that deep value investors might steer clear when expectations of a company are too high. Perhaps the simplest way to get a read on investors' expectations of a business is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios.

Check out our latest analysis for Generic Sweden

Does Generic Sweden Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?

We can tell from its P/E ratio of 36.18 that there is some investor optimism about Generic Sweden. The image below shows that Generic Sweden has a higher P/E than the average (20.1) P/E for companies in the it industry.

OM:GENI Price Estimation Relative to Market, January 27th 2020

Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Generic Sweden shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. The market is optimistic about the future, but that doesn't guarantee future growth. So further research is always essential. I often monitor director buying and selling.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Generally speaking the rate of earnings growth has a profound impact on a company's P/E multiple. When earnings grow, the 'E' increases, over time. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers.

Notably, Generic Sweden grew EPS by a whopping 48% in the last year. And its annual EPS growth rate over 3 years is 29%. I'd therefore be a little surprised if its P/E ratio was not relatively high.

Story continues

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

The 'Price' in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future) by investing in growth. That means taking on debt (or spending its cash).

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

Is Debt Impacting Generic Sweden's P/E?

The extra options and safety that comes with Generic Sweden's kr18m net cash position means that it deserves a higher P/E than it would if it had a lot of net debt.

The Bottom Line On Generic Sweden's P/E Ratio

Generic Sweden has a P/E of 36.2. That's higher than the average in its market, which is 19.8. The excess cash it carries is the gravy on top its fast EPS growth. To us, this is the sort of company that we would expect to carry an above average price tag (relative to earnings). What is very clear is that the market has become significantly more optimistic about Generic Sweden over the last month, with the P/E ratio rising from 26.0 back then to 36.2 today. For those who prefer to invest with the flow of momentum, that might mean it's time to put the stock on a watchlist, or research it. But the contrarian may see it as a missed opportunity.

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.

Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Generic Sweden. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.27

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Czech Republic wants South-Eastern Europe to have the same level of energy security that it has, Foreign Minister of Czech Republic Tomas Petricek said in an interview with Trend.

In this regard, he emphasized the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

The Czech Republic has been involved with the Southern Gas Corridor from the very beginning - during our EU Presidency, we organized the Southern Corridor EU Summit on May 8, 2009. Being a country fully linked to the North-Western European gas market centered in Rotterdam where 100 percent of gas for our country is sold/bought (we have no long-term contract), we would like our EU friends in the South-Eastern part of the European continent to have the same level of energy security that we enjoy, said the foreign minister.

Talking about the energy cooperation between Czech Republic and Azerbaijan, Petricek noted that his country imports about one third of its oil from Azerbaijan via the Baku  Tbilisi  Ceyhan pipeline.

It is oil that has made the Czech Republic, a geographically relatively distant country with size and population similar to Azerbaijan, the 5th biggest trade partner of your country. I think those figures are rather self-explanatory, noted the minister.

He also highlighted the role of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which was constructed with active participation of Czech companies.

The BTK railway corridor is key to Azerbaijan's efforts to become a transport hub which is essential not only to the diversification of your own economy but also to facilitating transport between Europe and the Asian continent which is, to be sure, not limited to China. This is obviously in the interest of the both of our countries, and it makes us the more proud of the good work done by Czech companies in the construction of this extremely important infrastructure project, added Petricek.

---

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Ramallah, Palestine  Mon, January 27, 2020 19:28 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2061371bd 2 World US,Palestine,Israel,conflict,diplomacy Free

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday urged international powers to boycott United States President Donald Trump's "peace plan" which they see as biased towards Israel.

"This a plan to protect Trump from impeachment and protect [Israeli leader Benjamin] Netanyahu from prison. It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting.

"This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory," he said.

Trump is expected to unveil his "peace plan" for the Middle East after hosting Monday in Washington Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz.

It comes as Trump is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate while Netanyahu, who is facing indictment over corruption allegations, will contest an election next month which Gantz is hoping to win.

"We call on the international community to not be partners in this because it contravenes international law," Shtayyeh told the Palestinian cabinet.

"The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale."

The Palestinians have not been invited to Washington, having cut all ties with the Trump administration over its pro-Israel stance.

The plan is widely expected to be the most favorable towards Israel ever proposed by the United States, with alleged leaks  denied by Trump  suggesting it could declare settlements in the occupied West Bank legal.

The US proposal could also pull back from the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital after Trump in 2018 recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

While the US and Israel are likely to be supportive of the plan, the reaction of international powers could be key.

Two European diplomats told AFP the European Union was working on a statement reaffirming its support for the two-state solution along the traditional lines.

Shtayyeh said president Mahmud Abbas would call a meeting of the Palestinian leadership to discuss the best ways to respond to the plan.

In Gaza on Monday a few hundred Palestinians protested against the Trump plan, which Palestinians ironically call the "Deal of the Century".

Topics : US Palestine Israel conflict diplomacy
Photo: Boston Shawarma/Yelp

In search of a new favorite halal spot?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the best affordable halal restaurants around Boston, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best spots to fill the bill.

1. Boston Shawarma

Photo: boston shawarma/Yelp

Topping the list is Boston Shawarma. Located at 315 Huntington Ave. in Fenway, the Middle Eastern, halal and Mediterranean spot is the highest-rated budget-friendly halal restaurant in Boston, boasting four stars out of 575 reviews on Yelp.

If you're looking for more, we found these details about Boston Shawarma.

"Boston Shawarma's been bringing an authentic dining experience to Boston for over 30 years, serving up homemade dishes from their family's Middle Eastern recipes," according to the history section of the business' Yelp profile. "They use only the finest, freshest ingredients and Halal meats, all wrapped up in a delicious pita or served alongside stuffed grape leaves and other classic sides."

2. Garlic 'N Lemons

Photo: jasmine s./Yelp

Next up is Allston's Garlic 'n Lemons, situated at 133 Harvard Ave. (between Hefferan Street and Glenville Terrace). With four stars out of 583 reviews on Yelp, the Mediterranean halal spot has proven to be a local favorite for those looking for a low-priced option. Yelpers rave about the spot's homemade hummus from owner Rozetta Helvadjian and her sons, Mardig and Ara.

3. Azama Grill

Photo: wil s./Yelp

Allston's Azama Grill, located at 54 Harvard Ave. (between Cambridge and Franklin streets), is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the cheap Middle Eastern and halal spot four stars out of 307 reviews.

The site has lots more information about Azama Grill.

"Representing the third generation of Azama Grills," the business states in the history section of its Yelp profile. "The first grill began in 1923, in Egypt."

Want to know more?

"Growing up in Egypt, in the family business, I experienced the authentic food of the culture," per the bio section of its Yelp profile. "I learned how to treat food with love and respect like in the old days. I am also an artist, which allows me to bring creativity to my food."

Story continues

4. Chicken and Rice Guys

Photo: mimi t./Yelp

And Chicken and Rice Guys, a downtown halal spot, is another budget-friendly go-to, with four stars out of 141 Yelp reviews. Head over to 280 Washington St. (between School Street and Spring Lane) to see for yourself.

The site can tell you a thing or two more about Chicken and Rice Guys.

"Chicken and Rice Guys originated in 2011 to bring NYC's delicious chicken and rice to the streets of Boston," per the history section of its Yelp profile. "Since then, we have expanded to three trucks, a catering and event business and plans to open a brick and mortar operation."

In terms of signature items, "Halal chicken plates, lamb and beef gyro plates, tofu plates," it states on Yelp in the section about specialties.

5. D'Guru Restaurant

Finally, there's D'Guru Restaurant, a downtown favorite with four stars out of 139 reviews. Stop by 187 Devonshire St. (between Winthrop Square and Milk Street) to hit up the Indian and halal food truck next time you're looking to satisfy your cravings on a budget.

Yelper Hitashi S., who reviewed D'Guru Restaurant on Oct. 7 wrote, "This is probably one of my favorite North Indian food take out places around downtown Boston. The meal sizes are pretty good for the price too. It's so close to home-cooked meals that it reminds me of home and makes me super happy."

Yelper Lucinda A. wrote, "I enjoy this restaurant because they give you a lot for your dollar. During my lunch breaks, the line is always out the door. The amount of flavor is delicious. You can tell they cook from the heart."

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Southern Baptist megachurch pursing semi-autonomous model by adding new campus

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A megachurch in Georgia has decided to pursue a multisite model for worship by adding a second campus that will have its own pastoral staff.

Christ Place Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Flowery Branch headed by pastor Jeff Crook that boasts approximately 8,000 members, plans to add the new campus by October of this year.

The new campus will meet at the North Hall Community Center and Park in Gainesville, which is about 30 minutes driving time from their main campus.

The church forwarded The Christian Post an FAQ document explaining that the new campus will not simply broadcast the main campus worship, but rather will have a level of autonomy.

Our mission is to reach and raise the next generation to live out Gods truth. We feel that a part of this mission is to reach and raise the next generation of preachers and worship leaders, the church explains.

Pastor Jeff will lead a preaching team that will develop and deliver messages together  same text, same message title, same outline. Each pastor will then preach with their own style to fit their context in their location.

The congregation was founded in 1955 and originally named Blackshear Baptist Church, with pastor Crook beginning his tenure in 2004.

In February 2018, Blackshear Baptist changed its name to Christ Place Church. According to a press release at the time, the change came as part of their move to a new facility.

We have clarity of mission, and the vision God has given us pounds in our hearts, the 2018 press release said, according to The Christian Index.

The new name will help us better accomplish our mission. The name will also keep our vision constantly before us. Ultimately, we desire to make Christ preeminent in everything, even our name.

In recent years, some prominent multisite megachurches have opted to make their satellite campuses more autonomous.

In 2017, for example, The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, headed by pastor Matt Chandler, announced their plan to make all of their campuses autonomous by 2022.

We believe, compelled by the Holy Spirit, that ... to multiply out to individual autonomous churches gives us the best possible ability and capacity to contextually reach the city of Dallas with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Chandler said at the time.

We're all a bit anxious right now ... because this thing really is beautiful, and God has done some stunning and spectacular things. We're just compelled that there are better days ahead."
Press Release

27 January 2020

LAS VEGAS - MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) is proud to announce that it received a perfect score of 100 on the 2020 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation's premier benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation. MGM Resorts joins the ranks of more than 680 major U.S. businesses that also earned top marks this year.

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The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

"The impact of the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index over its 18-year history is profound. In this time, the corporate community has worked with us to adopt LGBTQ-inclusive policies, practices and benefits, establishing the Corporate Equality Index as a primary driving force for LGBTQ workplace inclusion in America and across the globe," said HRC President Alphonso David. "These companies know that protecting their LGBTQ employees and customers from discrimination is not just the right thing to do  it is also the best business decision."

The 2020 CEI evaluates LGBTQ-related policies and practices including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive health care benefits, competency programs, and public engagement with the LGBTQ community. MGM Resorts' efforts in satisfying all of the CEI's criteria results in a 100 percent ranking and the designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.

"At MGM Resorts we have a long-standing history spanning over 20 years, of threading diversity and inclusion within the fabric of our culture," said Jyoti Chopra, Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity & Sustainability Officer for MGM Resorts International. "As we continue to Focus on What Matters and embrace humanity, we are committed to strive for equality for all and we proudly stand with the LGBTQA+ community."

The 2020 CEI rated 1,059 businesses, of which 686 achieved 100 percent, earning the coveted distinction of "Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality."

MGM Resorts has a record of support of the LGBTQ community, as a National Corporate Partner of HRC and otherwise; For example, MGM Resorts was a founding partner of the Las Vegas chapter of the Human Rights Campaign in 2004. In 2011, MGM Resorts expanded its supplier and construction diversity programs to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ)-owned firms.

Years before same-sex marriage was legalized across the entire United States, same-sex commitment ceremonies were performed at chapels at MGM Resorts' properties, which continue to develop specialized marriage ceremony offerings and outreach to same-sex couples.

For more information about MGM Resorts International's commitment to diversity and inclusion, please visit: www.mgmresorts.com/focused.
SEATTLE - More than 330 Amazon employees violated the e-commerce giant's communications policy Sunday in an unprecedented public display of support for colleagues who were warned that they could be fired for speaking out to criticize the company's climate practices.

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of workers concerned about the company's business with the oil and gas industry as well as its carbon footprint, published quotes from the workers in a post on Medium. The comments, all of which are attributed to Amazon workers by name, are a mass defiance of company rules that bar workers from commenting publicly on its business without corporate justification and approval from executives.

(Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

"Amazon's role in the climate crisis is staggering and alarming," wrote Scott Ogle, a queue management analyst, according to comments viewed in advance by The Washington Post. "While the company has publicly announced measures to reduce emissions and impacts in the coming years, it does not add up with its ongoing support to oil and gas industries and its efforts to silence employees who speak out. I stand with fellow employees who prioritize sustainability over profits."

Another employee denounced Amazon's efforts to stifle criticism.

"Solidarity to the workers facing retaliation for standing up!" wrote Charlie LaBarge, a software engineer.

The group on Monday plans to post a video of employees speaking about the danger of climate change and saying they won't be silenced.

Amazon encourages workers to advocate for causes they believe in but wants them to pursue those convictions when related to the company's business internally, spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement. Workers can submit questions to executives during all-hands meetings, and they can join internal interest groups, such as ones that focus on sustainability. Employees can also attend lunch sessions with Amazon leaders to discuss the issues, as long as they are willing to keep matters raised in those sessions confidential.

"While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics, we do enforce our external communications policy and will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems," Herdener said.

To illustrate Amazon's focus on sustainability, Herdener pointed to an initiative Bezos announced in September agreeing to measure and report Amazon's emissions on a regular basis and meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years early. Critics said at the time that the commitments lack accountability and transparency.

"Of course we are passionate about these issues," Herdener said.

The employee group claims credit for pushing Amazon to take those steps, but it wants the company to go further. The group has called on Amazon to commit to being carbon neutral by 2030, to end cloud-computing contracts that help energy companies accelerate oil and gas extraction and to stop funding politicians and lobbyists who deny the existence of climate change.

Amazon workers are part of a growing activist movement among tech workers. Along with thousands of Amazon employees, Google workers walked off the job Sept. 20 to protest corporate climate policies. A year before, thousands of Google employees stepped away from their desks to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment claims.

Workers at both of those companies, as well as at Microsoft, have criticized the development of facial-recognition technology from their companies, fearing misuse by law enforcement and other government agencies.

Amazon's employees are betting the company won't crack down on them; Google's workers say they were fired in retaliation for their public criticism of the company and their attempts to organize. Google said the recent firings were a result of policy violations regarding the accessing and sharing of internal documents and calendars. The company has denied that the firings were retaliatory.

The activism of Amazon's workers is different, said Margaret O'Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington and the author of "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America," a chronicle of the tech industry. Collective action is rare among white-collar workers, and even rarer among the coders, testers and engineers who work for tech giants.

"This is not something we've seen before," O'Mara said.

The challenge for Amazon is that it is selective in its hiring, investing large sums to entice employees to join the company and train them to develop its sophisticated products and services. Though the workers speaking out account for a small fraction of Amazon's total workforce of 750,000, including warehouse workers, they would be costly to replace.

"These high-skilled workers are among these tech companies' most valuable assets," O'Mara said.

Sunday's protest follows a threat to fire two workers who spoke out about the company's environmental policies in October. Maren Costa, a principal user-experience designer at the company, and Jamie Kowalski, a software development engineer, told The Post in a joint statement that the company is contributing to climate change as its cloud-computing business aids exploration by oil and gas companies. The pair raised concerns related to a new set of statements from the company outlining its positions on a variety of issues, including an acknowledgment that it would continue to work with the energy industry.

Within a few weeks, both employees were called into meetings with the company's human resources staff, and both received letters in November from a lawyer in the department discouraging violations of Amazon's communications policies. The letter to Costa warned that future infractions could "result in formal corrective action, up to and including termination of your employment with Amazon."

Rather than back down, the activist employees dialed up the pressure on their employer. The employee group that solicited the comments aims to fight Amazon's communications policy in numbers so large retaliating against everyone would make it challenging to conduct business.

"The idea is to intentionally break the communications policy so prolifically that it is unenforceable," the group wrote in an email to colleagues soliciting policy-breaking quotes.

"Hundreds of us are now putting our job on the line - because we all believe that speaking up about the climate crisis is necessary and the right thing to do at this time," Sarah Tracy, a software development engineer, said in an email to The Post. "A policy that prevents employees from speaking out in this way at this time just won't work for us."

Employee criticism went beyond condemnation of the company's climate policies. Workers also called out Amazon's cloud-computing business for its work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which some have criticized for separating parents from their children at border facilities, and condemned Amazon's treatment of its warehouse staff, some of whom have complained about unsafe working conditions.

"No more collaborating with ICE or with oil and gas. No more abusing warehouse employees with inhumane quotas," Hilda Marshall, a data linguist at the company wrote. "Amazon is in a position to turn the tide, and the time is now."

One worker suggested Amazon nix its Ring doorbell-camera business, arguing that the privacy concerns are "not compatible with a free society." Ring acknowledged earlier this month that it fired workers in recent years for improperly accessing users' video data. Last year, a hacker accessed a Ring camera in an 8-year-old girl's room and used it to harass her, something the company attributed to the theft of credentials that provided access.

"The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck," wrote software development engineer Max Eliaser. "Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back."

Moreover, members of climate group say speaking up about important issues, even if it means disagreeing with senior leaders, is an ingrained part of Amazon's corporate culture. At the core of Amazon's culture are 14 leadership principles, intended to guide decision-making at the company, including "Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit," in which workers are encouraged to argue their convictions, "even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting."

"I thought Amazon was a place where those who see something that's wrong and bring it up are celebrated for being leaders, not threatened with firing," said Victoria Liang, a software development engineer and a member of the climate group.
EU Ambassador to Korea Michael Reiterer, right, meets Korea Customs Service Commissioner Roh Suk-hwan during a celebration to mark the 38th International Customs Day at the Imperial Palace hotel in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, Jan. 21. International Customs Day, proposed by Korea to the World Customs Organization (WCO) in 1981, is observed every Jan. 26  the founding day of the WCO. It recognizes the role of customs officials and agencies and tackles their working conditions and challenges. The 2020 celebration in Seoul attracted 19 ambassadors and other members of the diplomatic corps from 51 countries. / Yonhap
Vicky Pattison has revealed she is set to become an auntie after her sister Laura Adamson went into labour on Sunday afternoon.

The Geordie Shore star, 31, could not contain her glee as she posted a Boomerang video capturing her delight while she rushed to hospital in Newcastle to assist her expectant sister and meet the bundle of joy.

In a gushing caption, she praised her sister, who wed in Mexico last year, branding her sibling 'a true trooper' as she went into labour.

Yay! Vicky Pattison has revealed she is set to become an auntie after her sister Laura Adamson went into labour on Sunday afternoon

Vicky penned the caption: 'I AM ABOUT TO BECOME AN AUNTIE!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!! The face you make when you wake up and discover your sister is in labour.... GET ME TO NEWCASTLE!!!!!!...

'Heard from [my mum] that my brave @laurajadamson is handling things like a true trooper and absolutely smashing it! Im so unbelievably proud of you Laura and honestly cant wait to meet Mavie...

'(Side bar: Im proud of mothers everywhere as what Ive seen Laura go through is horrendous and you all deserve a medal- Im currently rethinking my life plan and settling firmly on just being a doggo mam)'.

Back in October, Vicky sent her social media followers wild with pregnancy speculation after posting an image of Laura's baby scan.

Expecting: The Geordie Shore star, 31, could not contain her glee as she posted a Boomerang video capturing her delight while she rushed to hospital in Newcastle to assist her expectant sister and meet the bundle of joy

She uploaded a picture of her younger sibling's ultrasound on her Instagram page on Monday, and propelled her fans into a spin as they jumped to conclusions.

Alongside the snap, Vicky wrote: 'I can't believe in less than 3 months we will meet you little girl!!!!

'I have never loved someone I haven't met so much!! Baby girl I will love you fiercely and protect you at all costs and also spoil you rotten and definitely be the fun aunt..

Oops! Back in October, Vicky sent her social media followers wild with pregnancy speculation after posting an image of Laura's baby scan

'(@hadamson_94 Can be the authoritative aunt) Having major baby shower blues on this Monday morning.. so I thought Id post these pics to remind me what a special and beautiful day we had!!

'@laurajadamson And @dannya2008 You two are going to be the best parents in the world- you deserve this blessing and Im so happy your little family is growing!!!'

Dozens of fans had been fooled by the image, with one saying, 'My heart skipped a beat for a second then', and another adding: 'for a minute then I thought this was YOUR baby scan.'

Auntie to be: She shared a picture of the scan on social media

Exciting times ahead: Vicky's sister Laura and her husband Danny are soon to become parents for the first time

Laura and her husband, Danny Adamson, will become first-time parents in three months after getting married in a Mexican beach ceremony in January, with Vicky as a bridesmaid.

The former Geordie Shore star is in a relationship with former TOWIE star Ercan Ramadan, 26, with the couple getting together three months after she called off her engagement to John Noble in November 2018.

Vicky was previously accused of 'attention-seeking' in August after she hinted at an engagement to Ercan. In a post on Instagram, she shared an image of her clinking glasses with her boyfriend while on holiday in Tenerife and stated it was the best night of her life.

In the snap, the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! winner cuddled up to Ercan and toasted their champagne flutes, with her left hand and ring finger deliberately hidden from view.

Warm wishes: Dozens of fans had been fooled by the image, with one saying, 'My heart skipped a beat for a second then'

No: Vicky was previously accused of 'attention-seeking' after hinting at an engagement to former TOWIE star boyfriend Ercan Ramadan, 26, in August (pictured)

Vicky embellished the snap with sparkles and captioned it: 'Tonight has been one of the best nights of my life... THANKYOU for making me the happiest girl in the world.'

A source confirmed to MailOnline at the time that Vicky was not engaged to the ex TOWIE star and said they were merely filming for her new reality show.

In the wake of the photo, fans turned on the starlet, slamming her for 'playing' followers with the snap and for being attention-seeking.

When a follower wrote: 'Engaged again?' another responded: 'Attention seeking more like'.

A third wrote: 'You said that with the last boyfriend.'

Another follower was mocking the star for being deliberately obtuse in the caption, writing: 'Why is she playing us with this caption and hiding her ring finger?'

Not impressed: In the wake of the photo, fans turned on the starlet, slamming her for 'playing' followers with the snap and for being attention-seeking

Vicky and Ercan recently took the next step in their relationship by moving in together in an east London flat, marking the first time the TV personality had moved to the capital on a permanent basis from her Newcastle base.

The move is a big step, with the reality star previously living in a hotel when she was in London for work commitments.

The TV presenter started dating Ercan three months after splitting from her former fiance John when he was pictured getting close to multiple women in Dubai during a lads' holiday while he was still engaged in November 2018.

In March, Vicky called things off with Ercan because she felt they got together too soon after her split from John.

A source told The Sun at the time: 'Vicky has decided to call things off with Ercan because it was all moving too quickly. She felt like it was too soon after her split from John Noble to get so involved with someone else.

Big step: Vicky and Ercan recently took the next step in their relationship by moving in together in an east London flat

'She really fancies Ercan and they are very much still friends but it's just not the right time for a serious romance. They might end up getting back together in the future.'

Last year, the reality star opened up about her split from ex fiance John to MailOnline and said she doesn't think about her former flame anymore.

She said: 'I don't think about him anymore. I don't know that man. He's rang me a couple of times since. Unfortunately we own a house together.

'He's very keen to get the money out of this house and have his ring back and just wanting to move on with his life. I think the ring is cursed, mate.'

John's proposal was Vicky's second, after her Geordie Shore co-star Ricci Guarnaccio, 32, popped the question during a Cancun MTV special in 2012.

She said: 'Clocking the engagements up aren't I? I think it would be dead easy to become twisted and I've not had the best relationship with men and I've had some shockers but if I changed myself they'd be winning.

'I love so much and probably too much. If I really care about them they become more important than me. That's a lot for some people to take but if I changed, they'd be winning.

'If I can love the wrong men as much as I have, imagine how much I'll love the right one, it'll be amazing. The best revenge is living well. I'm not going to give up.'
BERLIN (AP)  Researchers say theyve mimicked the voice of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy by recreating much of its vocal tract using medical scanners, 3D printing and an electronic larynx.

In a paper published Thursday by the journal Scientific Reports, the authors say the technique allowed them to produce a single sound - somewhere between the vowels in bed and bad.

The eerie tone is unlikely to be a precise reflection of the speech of Egyptian priest Nesyamun, whose mummified body the researchers worked with, because the tongue has lost much of its bulk over three millennia.

We have made a faithful sound for his tract in its current position, but we would not expect an exact speech match given his tongue state, said co-author David M. Howard of Londons Royal Holloway college.

The model alone also isnt enough to synthesize whole words or sentences, the authors said, noting that this would require the ability to calculate the audio output from the vocal tract as its shape is being changed.

But this is something that is being worked on, so it will be possible one day, said Howard.

Rudolf Hagen, an ear, nose and throat expert at the University Hospital in Wuerzburg, Germany, who specializes in thorax reconstruction and wasnt involved in the study, expressed skepticism. Even cutting-edge medicine struggles to give living people without a thorax a normal voice, he said.

Co-author John Schofield, an archaeologist at the University of York, said the technique could be used to help people interpret historical heritage.

When visitors encounter the past, it is usually a visual encounter, said Schofield. With this voice we can change that, and make the encounter more multidimensional.

There is nothing more personal than someones voice, so we think that hearing a voice from so long ago will be an unforgettable experience, making heritage places like Karnak, Nesyamuns temple, come alive, he said.
Sunday night, a burst of widespread snow showers moves into Central New York. This will bring areas of

light to moderate snowfall. Overnight, we will accumulate a few inches of snowfall. Plan on needing some

extra time brushing off your car and driving on these snow-covered/wet roads. Here's how much snowfall could

be on the ground when you're heading out the door Monday morning:

Throughout the day Monday, the snow will become lighter and more scattered. This is because our wind

direction will change from Southwest to Northwest. This will bring cold air down from Canada over the warmer

waters of Lake Ontario. The warm and humid air over Lake Ontario will condense and form clouds as this cold

air moves in. These moisture filled clouds will create snowflakes as they travel towards land. As these

clouds move inland and are forced to rise as they travel up into the higher elevations, they will drop the

snow they are holding. This is how lake effect snow bands form and why the highest elevations receive the

most snow. Here's how much snowfall you can expect throughout Monday:

The snow eventually tapers off towards Monday night with just a few lingering snow showers overnight. Drier air moves in Tuesday, which will inhibit any lake effect snow showers from forming. We will just have mostly cloudy skies throughout the day.
News of the deal, which one analyst said followed regional and international pressure on both sides, sparked street celebrations in the capital of Khartoum (stock photo)

Sudan's ruling military council and its pro-democracy movement both welcomed a new power-sharing agreement reached yesterday.

It raises hopes of an end to a three-month political crisis that has paralysed the country and led to scores of deaths following a violent crackdown on peaceful protesters by authorities.

News of the deal, which one analyst said followed regional and international pressure on both sides, sparked street celebrations in the capital of Khartoum.

The crisis has gripped Sudan ever since the military ousted long-time autocrat Omar el-Bashir in April.

The sides agreed to form a joint military and civilian sovereign council to lead the country during a transition period of three years and three months, said a statement by the Sudanese Professionals' Association, which has spearheaded the protests. The joint council had been a sticking point in the negotiations.

The council will include five civilians representing the protest movement and five military members. An 11th seat will go to a civilian chosen by both sides.

A military member will preside over the council for the first 21 months, followed by a civilian member after that, according to the statement.

"Today, our revolution has won and our victory shines," the SPA said in the statement.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The session of the Board adjacent to the defense minister of Armenia was held on January 27 dedicated to the combat readiness of the Armed Forces in 2019, the results of combat service and the actions taken to further improve the moral-psychological condition within the troops, the defense ministry told Armenpress.

The session was also attended by the representatives of the commanding staff of Artsakhs Defense Army.

In his opening remarks Defense Minister of Armenia Davit Tonoyan said the situation in the frontline in 2019 has been quite calm thanks to the efforts of the military-political leadership and the concrete strategy and actions of the armed forces. But he added that this is not enough and additional efforts are needed to further strengthen the combat preparedness of the troops and ensure the inviolability of borders.

Chief of General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtyan delivered a report at the session introducing the works done so far, the achievements and shortcomings. He informed that the upgrading works of new armament and military equipment continued with a large scale. The Armed Forces fulfilled their tasks at the highest level and managed to give counter response to the provocative actions of the adversary.

Defense Minister Tonoyan gave certain instructions and tasks on the upcoming activities.

At the end of the session several subdivisions and officers were awarded for their service.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Baby kangaroos, wombats and other animals have been orphaned by the Australian fires. Read more

As bushfires ravage Australia, heartbreaking images are ricocheting around the world of burned or orphaned baby koalas, wombats and other native animals and birds displaced by flames that have devastated their habitats.

Spreading just as fast has been the worldwide response to save them.

Last month, the animals got an assist from the The Handwork Studio in Narberth. The studio, which teaches craft arts like knitting, sewing and woodworking to children, hosted two free workshops in which volunteers of all ages created comfort items for orphaned and injured animals.

For baby kangaroos, they made sling-like carriers, to be worn by human volunteers, to hold the orphaned joeys, who no longer have the protection of their mothers pouches. And for little wombats, they sewed up swaddling wraps. Both items help mimic the natural environments the marsupials use as they grow. The volunteers also knitted nests for displaced birds.

We have closets full of fabric and yarn we were happy to use, said Julia Yosen, 36, the Handwork Studios executive director. This is our wheelhouse.

Yosen and her staff were inspired to host the workshops after seeing a Facebook post from the Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild of Australia, which creates items needed by animals affected by disaster. The guild was soliciting the efforts of crafters worldwide to help sew, knit, and weave the items, since the marsupials, especially, will likely need multiple pouches as they grow (the tiny critters are also known to chew and tear at the crafted items).

It was compelling that people could help by doing the same things we do every day, said Ana Castro, 29, the studio manager.

The volunteers created their items using instructions posted by the Australian collective and then worked with the Maine branch of the Rescue Collective Craft Guild, one of the regional U.S. coordinators of the relief effort, to make sure their donations get into the right hands.

For Adina Silberstein of Mt. Airy, who joined about 25 crafters at one of the sessions, the effort was personal. Her sister and family live in Adelaide, which sits along the countrys southern coast but has not been immediately affected by the fires. Silberstein, 44, has visited the country 17 times in 20 years.

We go running in the hills and we see scores of kangaroos, she said. The koalas are harder to spot, but its very exciting when you do.

 READ MORE: Fires set stage for irreversible forest losses in Australia

Silberstein, who owns Queenies Pets, a dog-walking and pet-sitting company, feels great empathy for the affected animals.

Theyre left not understanding whats happening around them, said Silberstein, who is planning an upcoming trip to Australia and will look for more volunteers opportunities while shes there.

The workshop attendees ranged in age from five years to 70 and included Frankie Miller, 14, who has been attending Handwork camps for a number of years and already knows how to sew.

The Bala Cynwyd middle-schooler sewed pouches for orphaned kangaroos and wallabies, using both a unicorn fabric and a blue fabric, and gave high praise to the events instructors. Miller was also pleasantly surprised by the number of young children who participated in the event; it meant they were getting involved early in activism, which aligns with the teens own interest.

I want to make a change in the world, even though Im still young, said Miller.

On the day of one of the workshops, the weather forecast was foreboding but the snow didnt deter Emily Morgan, 41, who traveled to Narberth from Voorhees, N.J.. Her experience wasnt without setbacks, however.

I absolutely failed at knitting, laughed Morgan about the birds nest she attempted to create. She did a quick pivot to sewing and was able to finish up a colorful kangaroo pouch.

The worldwide call for crafters help has been so successful that the Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild of Australia has now posted a note asking volunteers to stand down.

Rescues have enough pouches and medical supplies to treat the surviving animals (and sadly, there are not as many as we hoped), the group posted. Indeed, an estimated billion animals, birds and reptiles have died in the fires, and few rare species will most likely go extinct. Now, the guild is asking for monetary donations to help feed the surviving animals whose habitats have been destroyed.

Nothing will go to waste, said Yosen about their surplus pouches and nests created at Handwork Studio. She believes there will be a continued need for such items in the future, since massive fires in Australia - and in the United States - are becoming a constant.

These could go to California, she said.
Minutes after the magistrate court remanded him in judicial custody in an earlier case, gangster Ejaz Lakdawala was arrested in yet another case of extortion. Caught from Patna in Bihar on January 8, this is the third case in which Lakdawala has been arrested. The gangster is booked in 31 cases of extortion.

Lakdawala will be produced in the metropolitan magistrate court on Tuesday, said an official from the anti-extortion cell (AEC). The gangster had called a Mumbai-based builder several times in December last year. The builder had given a written application against Lakdawala. After Lakdawalas arrest, we verified the incident and the application was converted into a first information report (FIR) under section 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) and he was arrested, said an AEC official.

Lakdawalas lawyer Devanand Manerkar, who is also representing his daughter, Sonia, has moved a bail application for her. Sonia was arrested from the Mumbai international airport on December 28, 2019, when she was trying to flee Nepal on a fake passport, along with her 11-month-old daughter. After an inquiry, the police arrested her again on January 6, for threatening and extorting a builder in Bandra. Sonias arrest led the AEC to Lakdawala. Sonia is currently in judicial custody. The court has rejected Sonias bail application on the grounds that the case is sensitive, said Manerkar.

Lakdawala was brought to Mumbai and first arrested in the same case in which his daughter Sonia was named as accused. After his police custody in the first case ended on January 21, the AEC arrested him on the same day for allegedly threatening and demanding 2 crore from a businessman in Jogeshwari in 2016. The businessman had refused to give extortion money, so Lakdawala ordered an attack on him. But the AEC foiled the attack and arrested the five accused. Currently, they are in jail.

Meanwhile, the AEC arrested Salim Furniturwala alias Salim Maharaj alias Salim Penwala alias Salim Dadhi, a police informer, in connection with an extortion case, along with Lakdawala. Salims role came to light after the interrogation of Lakdawala. He allegedly provided the identity of the victims and contacts to Lakdawala, said an officer.

We will produce him in court on Tuesday along with Lakdawala and conduct an inquiry to know his exact role, said an AEC official.
Stepping up attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday dared the AAP chief to visit the anti-CAA protest site at Shaheen Bagh so that the people of Delhi can decide whom to vote for in the assembly election.

Addressing a rally in Rithala in northwest Delhi, Shah said Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were against the construction of Ram temple, the scrapping of provisions of Article 370 and were not bothered about the country's image and soldiers.

The opposition fears that they will upset their votebank, he said and asked, "Are you their vote bank? Where is their vote bank?" To this, the crowd replied, "Shaheen Bagh".

The BJP leader claimed the Delhi Police has booked Sharjeel Imam, a JNU student, on the charge of sedition for his comment of "trying to cut chicken's neck" and breaking the North East from the rest of the country.

"I want to ask Kejriwal whether he is in favour of apprehending Sharjeel Imam or not? Whether you are with the people of Shaheen Bagh or not, please tell the people of Delhi," Shah said addressing an election rally in Rithala in northwest Delhi.

Imam was one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest.

Hitting back at the BJP, Kejriwal alleged that the saffron party does not want to open the Shaheen Bagh stretch of the Kalindi Kunj road as it is doing "dirty politics" over it.

He said law and order in the national capital lies entirely with the Centre and "if they are saying that they need permission from me, I am giving them permission, open the road in one hour".

"I can give it to you in writing, the BJP does not want to open the route in Shaheen Bagh. The Shaheen Bagh route will remain closed till February 8 (election day) and it will open February 9," Kejriwal told reporters.

Calling Kejriwal a member of the 'tukde tukde' gang, a term used by the BJP to attack groups it accuses of working to promote violent leftists and separatism, Shah sought to return fire and said the protestors of Shaheen Bagh will not listen to his party.

"They will not listen to us. You people (AAP leaders) say that you are with Shaheen Bagh, if you have the guts then go and sit with them and let Delhi decide," Shah said.

At another election rally in Janakpuri, Shah accused Gandhi and Kejriwal of doing of "vote bank" on national issues and "supporting" the protest at Shaheen Bagh.

"The Modi government will not spare anti-national elements," he warned.

The former BJP president also attacked the Kejriwal government for not fulfilling promises like regularising temporary employees, providing free wifi, opening new schools and colleges, constructing roads and cleaning the Yamuna.

He claimed that Kejriwal came to power with the help of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement but "completely changed" later on.

"He had said that he would not take any government accommodation or vehicles and other facilities but after becoming chief minister he availed all these facilities," Shah said.

He also slammed the Delhi government for not sanctioning the prosecution of former JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Burma Rohingya Women Killed by Artillery Shell in Myanmars Rakhine

A woman injured when an artillery shell fell on Kin Taung Village on Jan. 24, 2020. / Buthidaung News Agency / Facebook

SITTWE, Rakhine State  Two Rohingya women were killed and seven others injured when an artillery shell hit Kin Taung in Rakhine States Buthidaung Township over the weekend during fighting between Myanmars military and the Arakan Army (AA).

One victim was 18 and the other was a 25-year-old mother, according to deputy administrator of Buthidaung Township U Hla Shwe.

One died on the spot and the other died on her way to the hospital. We heard that artillery shells fell on the village amid the fighting, U Hla Shwe told The Irrawaddy.

Seven injured villagers were sent to Buthidaung for treatment.

They said an artillery shell fell on their village while they were sleeping. I dont know which side was responsible. But the villagers said Battalion 551 [of Myanmars military] fired three shells and one of them fell on their village, said U Hla Shwe.

Colonel Win Zaw Oo, a spokesman for the Western Command of Myanmars military, said there was an exchange of fire when the AA launched an attacked at around 1 a.m. on Saturday on Myanmars military and the border police at the Phone Nyo Leik Bridge. He said the military had received a tipoff that the AA would blow up the bridge.

The AA troops have attacked the security forces at Phone Nyo Leik Bridge numerous times. Kin Taung Village is to the west and our forces were also in the west. How could a shell fired by us fall on that village? The directions are different, said Col. Win Zaw Oo.

AA information officer Khaing Thukha blamed Myanmars military.

The AA has no reason to target civilians. The Bamar army, whenever it commits a war crime, blames us to cover up its crimes, he said.

They are indiscriminately shooting with the intention of killing anyone in Rakhine State. Ask the villagers. They know which army was close to their village, he added.

Four Rohingya children were killed and six others injured in a landmine explosion in Buthidaung Township on Jan. 7. Myanmars military claimed the mine was laid by the AA.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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For about the last five years, the Greeley, Colo., Police Department has been steadily expanding its use of a not-so-widely-known technology that provides officers with certain pieces of personal information with the simple scan of a license plate.On the one hand, law enforcement officials credit automatic license plate readers, or LPRs, with helping officers recover stolen property and remove violent offenders from the streets. On the other hand, opponents see license plate readers as a violation of an individuals right to privacy.Although Greeley police has been expanding its use of license plate readers, its not a new technology for the department. The agency acquired its first license plate reader around 2007, said Greeley police Chief Mark Jones.The department has four license plate readers: two fixed units and two mobile units. Jones declined to comment about where the two fixed units are located, saying that revealing the locations would contradict their intended purpose. One of the mobile units is attached to a police cruiser, while the second is on a trailer that moves to different locations throughout the city.A mobile unit costs $30,681, according to a May 2019 work session presentation to Greeley City Council. The cost includes a five-year warranty, installation, software licensing and helpdesk services. However, Jones said Greeley police acquired all of its license plate readers through grants.A license plate reader captures, at a minimum, a vehicles license plate number, as well as the date, time and location it was scanned. They can also provide an officer with a variety of other information, such as whether the vehicles registered owner has a suspended license, an open warrant or if theyre an active gang member or a sex offender, to name a few. License plate readers can alert law enforcement if a license plate or a vehicle has been reported stolen or if its been tagged by other law enforcement agencies as a vehicle of interest.If youre an officer driving around with a mobile unit, the feedback is instantaneous, Jones said. You know immediately if someone has a warrant, if the vehicle is stolen or if the owner is a sex offender.And with four units, Greeley police can collect a lot of data. According to the May 2019 report to city council, Greeley polices license plate readers scanned 592,493 license plates in the month of April. 4,185 of those were attached to drivers with a suspended or revoked drivers license. Officers recovered nine stolen vehicles and identified 655 people with open warrants. They also recovered 101 stolen license plates.People often ask what the big deal is about stolen license plates, Jones said. Stolen plates are a much bigger deal than just a stolen plate because people often steal license plates to decoy their movements when committing other crimes.When the license plate doesnt match the vehicle, usually it means thats probably a car we should be paying attention to because theyre probably up to something.License plate readers also are becoming an important investigative tool for the department, Jones said, and are used not just by the patrol and traffic divisions, but also investigations, the Special Enforcement Team and the Weld County Drug Task Force. Those specialty units employ the information compiled by license plate readers to search for suspects or to verify information provided by a witness, Jones said, such as the direction a getaway vehicle was traveling after a crime.The information compiled by license plate readers goes into a statewide database accessible to Colorado law enforcement, Jones said. Data is automatically deleted after one year in accordance with state law.Despite the benefits to law enforcement, some consider license plate readers an unnecessary piece of surveillance equipment that could too easily be used by police for non-investigative purposes, such as tracking the movements of innocent citizens.Theres nothing to stop them from tracking the movements of everyone, said Denise Maes, public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado. If they put it in front of a rape crisis center or a Muslim prayer house or a Planned Parenthood, its going to track everybody who goes in and out of those places, and I find that really worrisome.There have been cases of inappropriate use of license plate readers by law enforcement in cities across the country. Possibly two of the most infamous cases include a lieutenant in Washington, D.C., who in 1998 pleaded guilty to extortion for using license plate readers to blackmail vehicle owners who frequented a gay bar, according to a 2012 Wall Street Journal report. In 2015, the Los Angeles Police Department floated the idea of sending Dear John letters to the homes of men whose vehicles were scanned in areas of high prostitution, according to the local CBS affiliate.Another one of Maes concerns is how common the technology has become, saying there are few places left where the motoring public can go without having their personal information instantly downloaded by police.Theyre pretty big in Aurora, we know theres a lot of them in Denver, we recently heard about them in Pueblo and now were learning about them in Greeley, Maes said. My guess is theyre a heck of a lot more pervasive than I could even imagine.In a 2012 report, the Police Executive Research Forum estimated 71% of all municipal, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies in the country use some form of license plate reader technology. Windsor police also has a license plate reader program, using one mobile unit that is detailed to investigations. The Weld County Sheriffs Office has one vehicle equipped with a license plate reader used to find stolen vehicles and vehicles of interest. Evans police doesnt have any license plate readers.Maes biggest issue with license plate readers is the idea often pushed by law enforcement officials that they use the technology to keep the worst of the worst in check.I always think law enforcement searches for the worst-case scenario so they can sell you on this type of surveillance technology, Maes said. Hey, were going to catch sex offenders. Really? Youre driving around or you have it parked somewhere and youre watching the comings and goings of everybody, or youre scanning the parking lots of different places hoping to pick up something.But Jones cited the figures to say Maes perception of Greeley polices license plate reader program is off base.Look at the volume, Jones said. Just because it hits 600 warrants doesnt necessarily mean were making 600 arrests. We dont have the ability to monitor this thing 24/7 and we dont have time to run down people who arent already on the radar for other criminal activity.
The governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, has condemned the recent attack and killing of innocent people in Kwatas village in Bokkos local government area of the state.

Unknown gunmen on Sunday allegedly killed scores of people in Kwatas community of Bokkos local government area of Plateau State. Casualty figures are unknown at the time of writing this report.

Mr Lalong, in a statement issued by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Makut Macham, on Monday in Jos, said the government and security agencies would ensure that justice is done to those affected, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

He described the attack as another attempt by criminals to take the state back to the dark days of insecurity which it has substantially overcome.

The governor commiserated with families of those killed and injured and directed security agencies to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime and ensure their prosecution.

My heart again bleeds by this tragedy as lives of innocent citizens are cut short for no reason.

Security agencies must go after those who are behind these attacks and their sponsors so they can face the law and be taught a lesson.

We do not need another circle of bloodshed in Plateau State as all well-meaning citizens have committed to peaceful coexistence and tolerance.

My administration will not allow anyone, no matter how highly placed, to jeopardize this peace, he said.

The governor reiterated his commitment to work with the federal government and relevant stakeholders in strengthening community policing, ensuring robust intelligence gathering and early intervention to forestall a reoccurrence of such incident, the NAN report highlighted.

(NAN)
A 28-year-old Chinese globetrotter has been admitted in the government-run Infectious Diseases (ID) Hospital in Kolkata on Sunday after doctors at a private hospital, where she first went, suspected it to be a case of the deadly Coronavirus infection that had killed at least 80 people in China till Sunday night.

The Chinese woman had fever and complained of headache. Doctors at the ID Hospital said they did not find the typical signs of the infection.

With no interpreter around, ID Hospital authorities had a tough time understanding her. The woman identified herself as Jua Humin, a globetrotter from China, doctors said.

She has been kept under observation at the isolation ward of the ID Hospital.

The ID Hospital is the only referral hospital for such cases in south Bengal. Hospital authorities are in touch with their counterparts at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

The symptoms, which she is showing, do not match with the classical symptoms of the Coronavirus. We are in touch with NIV. She has been kept under watch in the hospitals isolation ward since Sunday, said Asish Manna, acting medical superintendent and vice principal of ID Hospital.

Hospital authorities said that Huamin had come to India from Madagascar on January 24. She fell ill and got admitted in a private hospital in east Kolkata. Since she was suffering from fever and headache, the doctors sent her to the ID Hospital on Sunday night.

Senior officials of the state health department rushed to inquire about the patients condition and the hospitals infrastructure.

This is the second time that people have rushed to the ID Hospital suspecting a Coronavirus infection.

Last week, a woman named Rajashree Basu, went to the hospital and had to be kept under watch at the isolation ward for a few hours after she returned from China and complained of diarrhea.

The woman is a school teacher in Yuxi city in Chinas Yunan province. She was, however, released after doctors confirmed that it was not a case of Coronavirus infection.

Meanwhile, a 32-year-old Thai woman, Surin Naktoy, died in a private hospital in south Kolkata on Monday. According to hospital authorities she was admitted on January 21.

Since she was a foreign national and was suffering from respiratory problems we have informed the health department. We have also sent swab samples to the health department. The Thai consulate has also been informed, said a senior official of the hospital.
Srinagar, Jan 27 : An Army personnel was reportedly injured in an exchange of fire between the security forces and militants at Arwani village in Kulgam, South Kashmir.

According to available information, on a specific input about the presence of militants in the area, a joint team of the police and army launched an operation.

The firing has stopped now and a search has been launched to trace the terrorists.

Last Saturday, the security forces killed three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants at the Hari Pari Gaun in Pulwama, South Kashmir, including Jaish chief Quari Yasir and two of his associates - Burhan and Musa.

The Army said that with the killing of Quari, the Jaish leadership has been wiped out in Kashmir. Quari was an IED expert and played a supervisory role in the February 14 Pulwama attack last year in which 40 CRPF men were killed.
One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Advance NanoTek Limited (ASX:ANO).

Our data shows Advance NanoTek has a return on equity of 52% for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn A$0.52.

View our latest analysis for Advance NanoTek

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

Or for Advance NanoTek:

52% = AU$9.6m  AU$19m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)

Most readers would understand what net profit is, but its worth explaining the concept of shareholders equity. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company.

What Does ROE Signify?

ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the yearly profit. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else equal, investors should like a high ROE. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies.

Does Advance NanoTek Have A Good ROE?

By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As you can see in the graphic below, Advance NanoTek has a higher ROE than the average (5.8%) in the Chemicals industry.

ASX:ANO Past Revenue and Net Income, January 26th 2020

That's clearly a positive. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For example, I often check if insiders have been buying shares.

Story continues

Why You Should Consider Debt When Looking At ROE

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking.

Advance NanoTek's Debt And Its 52% ROE

One positive for shareholders is that Advance NanoTek does not have any net debt! Its impressive ROE suggests it is a high quality business, but it's even better to have achieved that without leverage. After all, when a company has a strong balance sheet, it can often find ways to invest in growth, even if it takes some time.

The Bottom Line On ROE

Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. You can see how the company has grow in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
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A Congress delegation led by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra which met top officials of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Monday in the national capital demanded a probe into alleged police atrocities in Uttar Pradesh against anti Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.

The delegation highlighted alleged brutalities committed by the Uttar Pradesh police on anti- CAA protesters in 15 districts in the state last month.

Salman Khurshid, Abhishek Singhvi, Jitin Prasada and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu were part of the delegation. The Congress delegation demanded a thorough probe into the deaths that took place in the state during the violent protests against amended citizenship law.

After the meeting Rahul Gandhi tweeted saying, A delegation of Congress leaders presented the NHRC with evidence of the atrocities against the citizens of UP by the State Govt., which has gone to war against its own people. The NHRC must act decisively to protect the idea of India & the Constitutional rights of our citizens.

Almost two dozen people were killed during the protests, many of them in police firing. Clashes between the police and protesters took place in Meerut, Bijnor, Varanasi, Ferozabad, Sambhal and Kanpur.

Last month, UPs Inspector general (IG) of police (law and order) Praveen Kumar said that 1,113 people were arrested in connection with different FIRs registered across the state while preventive action were initiated against 5,558 people.

Earlier this month, Uttar Pradesh government decided to review the arrest of over 1,200 people, languishing in jails, for their alleged involvement in violence that erupted during anti-CAA protests. Authorities had also admitted that some people were mistakenly arrested during the police crackdown.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who has adopted a hardline stance against the protesters last week warned protesters against raising Azadi slogans, saying that they were raised in Kashmir and amount to treason that attracts strict punishment.
(UCBs) have reported nearly 1,000 cases of fraud worth more than Rs 220 crore in the last five fiscals, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Responding to an RTI query, the central bank said a total of 181 fraud cases involving Rs 127.7 crore were noticed during 2018-19.

A total of 99 and 27 such cases involving Rs 46.9 crore and Rs 9.3 crore were reported during 2017-18 and 2016-16 respectively, it said.

As many as 187 cases of fraud involving Rs 17.3 crore were reported in 2015-16 as against 478 such cases involving Rs 19.8 crore during 2014-15, the said.

During 2014-15 and 2018-19, a total of 972 cases of bank fraud worth Rs 221 crore were reported by the UCBs, it said.

"Cases of frauds reported to are required to be filed by as criminal complaints with law enforcement agencies. are required to look into aspects of staff accountability and punish the guilty through internal proceedings," the central bank said.

It declined to share details of action being taken on these fraud cases saying "it is not readily available".

"The information in respect of action being taken or already taken is not available readily for providing to the applicant," the said in reply to the RTI application filed by PTI.

The cases of frauds assume significance as the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) bank has been under the RBI's restrictions since September 23 after the central bank had found financial irregularities, including huge under-reporting of loans and non-performing assets to real estate developer HDIL to the tune of Rs 6,500 crore, against its entire assets of Rs 8,880 crore, using hundreds of dummy accounts.

A total of 1,544 UCBs across the country have deposits of a whopping Rs 4.84 trillion as on March 31, 2019, it said.

Of them, a highest of over Rs 3 lakh crore worth deposits are in 496 UCBs in Maharashtra alone, followed by Rs 55,102 crore in 219 such banks in Gujarat and Rs 41,096 crore in 263 in Karnataka, among others, according to the RTI reply.

To ensure that UCBs adhere to norms and depositors' money is safe, RBI has put in place off-site monitoring mechanism which requires the UCBs to submit periodic returns, statements, etc. to the central bank, it said.

"On-site examination of UCBs is also carried out at prescribed periodic intervals through sending inspection teams to the UCBs. Based on the findings of the inspection and off-site returns filed by the UCBs, appropriate supervisory action is taken against the UCBs by RBI," the central bank said.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says some parts of the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was drafted at the residence of P...





Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says some parts of the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was drafted at the residence of Pat Utomi, a professor, in 2014.





According to Laolu Akande, senior special assistant to the vice-president on media and publicity, Osinbajo said this at the 5th edition of the Airtel Touching Lives in Lagos.





The vice-president said the APC included a social safety initiative to specifically address poverty, among other things in its manifesto.





Listening to each story of a life touched this evening must remind us of the many others who need our help, our comfort and our kindness. The poor and vulnerable always need a voice, Osinbajo was quoted to have said.





In 2014, Mr Wale Edun, Prof. Pat Utomi and I met at Pats home to write portions of the manifesto of the APC.





We all agreed that a fundamental pillar of our partys plans must be to create a social safety net for the people. We were convinced that government owed a duty to the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and those who cannot work.





Social safety nets are not merely acts of sovereign kindness; they are a sovereign obligation  a responsibility.





Osinbajo said the feeding programme has had impact on 9.5 million children, adding that 2.2 million petty traders have also benefitted from loans.





Today, the social safety net scheme is the fore of our Social Investment Programmes where we are feeding about 9.5 million children in public schools in 34 states across Nigeria; we are giving monthly cash to about nearly a million households as part of our conditional cash transfer scheme; we have given, as at the last count, 2.2 million loans to petty traders whose inventories are no more than N5, 000, he said.





We have also engaged about 500, 000 young men and women, who have been unemployed (over different periods of time) under our N-Power programme. But we are still very far from touching majority of those who need help.





It is clear that to do so, we need far more resources behind that programme. This is why the work of social conscious companies like Airtel is so vital. Bridging the huge gap between what government can do and what is left to be done.




Century Business Solutions Partners with Dynamic Consulting to Bring a Top of the Line Payment Solution for Microsoft Dynamics F & O to the Market Were looking forward to helping Century build this product,, says Dynamic Consulting CEO Jonathan Stypula. Were telling everyone to get ready for a payment solution with award winning customer support and unparalleled integration. Its a game changer.

Century Business Solutions is excited to announce its partnership with Dynamic Consulting, a Microsoft Dynamics reseller and implementation specialist, to allow credit card processing directly within Dynamics F & O.

Century has integrated with Microsoft Dynamics for over five years and provides payment processing for Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Dynamics AX, Dynamics GP, and Dynamics NAV.

Century Business Solutions development team has built a payment integration to Dynamics F & O that will be released in February 2020. The integration will utilize Centurys proprietary payment gateway, EBizCharge, to provide credit card processing in Dynamics F & O for thousands of merchants across the country.

We are thrilled to have Dynamic Consulting add EBizCharge to its Dynamics F&O and GP solutions offering, says Chris Robinson, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Century Business Solutions. Dynamic Consulting has guided the Century Development Team to ensure a powerful, easy to use payment process that streamlines credit card and ACH payments for merchants. The result is that Dynamics clients now have a secure, productive means to process payments within F&O and GP while reducing the monthly fees currently paid by the merchant.

Centurys payment integration will enable merchants to processauthorize, capture, void, and creditcredit cards and debit cards directly within Dynamics F & O.

The powerful EBizCharge payment gateway allows merchants to lower processing fees by submitting line-item details directly to the bank. EBizCharge is fully PCI-compliant and offers advanced data encryption and tokenization technology to ensure maximum transaction security.

EBizCharge automatically posts payments and marks invoices as paid, so theres no need to go back into your software at the end of the day to balance your general ledger.

EBizCharge is designed to pass more information through the point of sale. Line-item details and invoice information are automatically passed to a PCI-compliant payment gateway, which helps qualify credit cards at reduced interchange rates and provides the lowest payment processing fees for Dynamics F & O users.

The Dynamics Community has been missing a comprehensive payment solution for years. Were looking forward to helping Century build this product, and even more excited to have an excellent tool to recommend to our customers, says Dynamic Consulting CEO Jonathan Stypula. Were telling everyone to get ready for a payment solution with award winning customer support and unparalleled integration. Its a game changer.

Century provides free, 24/7, in-house customer support and extensive chargeback management to all its customers.

The EBizCharge payment gateway will help streamline workflows, eliminate double data entry, and make payment processing more efficient within Dynamics F & O. With EBizCharge, users can run custom reports, sort through transactions by category, and immediately release funds when issuing refunds.

The partnership between Century Business Solutions and Dynamic Consulting will simplify credit card processing and streamline payment acceptance for thousands of Dynamics F & O users across the country.

About Century Business Solutions:

EBizCharge by Century Business Solutions is an all-in-one payment solution that provides payment processing technology to over 20,000 merchants in the U.S. and Canada. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, Century was ranked on the annual Inc. 5000 list honoring the nations fastest-growing private companies. In 2018 and 2019, Century was also awarded the Silver Stevie Award for Payment Product and Service of the Year by the American Business Awards, the worlds largest premier business awards. EBizCharge fully integrates with over 50 major ERP, CRM, and accounting systems. For more information, visit https://www.centurybizsolutions.net.

About Dynamic Consulting:

Dynamic Consulting started as a group of senior engineers working in the aerospace industry, frustrated at the pace of their Dynamics implementation. After working to solve the many project roadblocks, they became determined to help other organizations in similar situations. Dynamic Consulting became a place for senior implementation managers and consultants to help organizations modernize their businesses and deliver great project results.
New Delhi: Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad arrived in Delhi on Monday morning after he was put on a flight by police in Hyderabad, where he was detained while on his way to take part in an anti-CAA and anti-NRC event.

Promising to be back soon, the Dalit leader said on Twitter early on Monday that Bahujan society would never forget the insult.

Azad, who landed in Delhi shortly after 9 am, said police had denied demonstrators the right to protest and alleged that they had been beaten up.

In Telangana, dictatorship is at its peak, people's right to protest is being snatched, first our people were lathi-charged, then I was arrested, now I am being taken to the airport and are sending me to Delhi.

Remember Bahujan society will never forget this insult. Will be back soon, he tweeted, tagging the Telangana Chief Minister's Office.

Azad is unwell and will be taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, his aides said. If he's okay, the Dalit leader will go to Karnataka on Tuesday to address two rallies in Gulbarga and Bidar.

He also plans to attend the birth anniversary celebrations of late journalist Gauri Lankesh on January 29 in Bangalore, they said.

Police in Hyderabad said there was no permission for the event on the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register that Aazad was supposed to address.

Azad's detention came days after he was released from Tihar prison in Delhi following his arrest for allegedly inciting people during an anti-CAA protest.
Trumps defence team continue their arguments on Monday following three days of presentations by House Democrats.

US President Donald Trumps impeachment defence team started its second day of arguments on Monday, following three days of presentations by the Democrats making the case against the president.

On Saturday, Trumps defence team offered only a preview to its line of defence, apparently responding to the ratings-minded presidents complaints that the first day of the United States weekend is the Death Valley of television viewing.

In just two hours of arguments, Trumps lawyers maintained that Democratic House of Representative managers prosecuting the case had not presented a full picture to senators while framing the impeachment as an attempt to undermine US democracy.

The seven Democrat House managers had previously been given 24 hours of arguments over three days to make their case. Trumps team will have the same amount of time.

As Trumps defence team prepares for what is expected to be a much longer second day of proceedings, here are all the latest updates as of Monday, January 27:

Senate adjourns for the day

Things will pick back up on Monday at 1pm local time (18:00GMT).

Dershowitz: Nothing in Bolton manuscript would rise to the level of abuse of power

Constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trumps defence team, said former White House National Security Advisor John Boltons accusations would not rise to the level of an impeachable offence.

His comments came after Trumps defence team largely ignored the weekend revelations about Boltons book in which he reportedly wrote that Trump had told him that he wanted to continue to withhold congressionally approved military aid from Ukraine until officials from the country agreed to help with investigations of his Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

If a president, any president, were to have done what the Times reported about the content of the Bolton manuscript, that would not constitute an impeachable offence. Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations  even if true  would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offence, Dershowitz said during opening arguments on Monday.

Senate resumes session after dinner

Trumps defence team says they have two more presentations: one from former independent counsel Robert Ray and the final one of the evening by constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

This is stunning: Quotes from Day 7 of Trumps impeachment trial

A New York Times newspaper report that former National Security Advisor John Bolton has written in an unpublished book manuscript that Trump told him he wanted to freeze security aid to Ukraine until Kyiv helped with politically beneficial investigations prompted fresh calls by Democrats for Bolton and other witnesses to testify at the trial.

Here are the top 10 quotes of the day:

President Donald Trump

I havent seen the manuscript, but I can tell you nothing was ever said to John Bolton.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney

I think its increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton.

Republican Senator Susan Collins

The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

This is stunning. It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president.

Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offences charged in the first article of impeachment.

House Manager Adam Schiff

It completely blasts another hole in the presidents defence.

This would be another witness that would corroborate in very direct terms, if this report is accurate, that the president told him unequivocally he was holding up the money until Ukraine did these investigations.

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow

It is our position, as the presidents counsel, that the president was at all times acting under his constitutional authority, under his legal authority, in our national interest and pursuant to his oath of office.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham

If there is a desire and decision by the Senate to call Democratic witnesses, then at a minimum the Senate should allow President @realDonaldTrump to call all relevant witnesses he has requested.

If there is a desire and decision by the Senate to call Democratic witnesses, then at a minimum the Senate should allow President @realDonaldTrump to call all relevant witnesses he has requested.  Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 27, 2020

Republican Representative Mark Meadows

Were talking about an unpublished manuscript that only anonymous sources have seen, leaked by someone at the 11th hour, just as Democrats are losing what little impeachment momentum they had left. Weve seen this playbook used before. Americans wont buy it.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal

They are fast losing any shred of credibility by essentially ignoring the need for the evidence from John Bolton and others who have first-hand knowledge. They say there isnt enough evidence. But theyre trying to stop it from coming before the Senate.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden

Lets remember one thing: why the mans on trial. Hes afraid to run against me.

Trump team targets Bidens

Democratic senators were visibly uncomfortable during the presentation by Trumps lawyers detailing an appearance of a conflict of interest in Hunter Bidens paid position on the Burisma board.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, rubbed his temples beneath his eyeglasses, his face flushed and red. Other Democrats sat with arms crossed, frowns upon their faces. Some held their heads in their hand and looked downward at the floor as Trumps lawyers spoke.

Staff lawyers for the House managers passed hurriedly scribbled notes to each other.

The son of former Vice President Biden was paid an estimated $3m over three years to be on the Burisma board, Trumps defence claims.

All we are saying is that there was a basis for President Trump to raise the issue with Ukraine President Zelenskyy, argued Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and member of Trumps team.

There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

House Intelligence Committee challenges claims it never sought Giuliani testimony

The House Intelligence Committee, a tweet, challenged a claim from Trumps defence team that they never sought testimony of the presidents personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

White House Claim: The House never subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, therefore he is not central to the Ukraine scheme. Reality: Giuliani was subpoenaed for documents on September 30 and deposition notices were sent to three of his associates. Giuliani refused to comply. #TruthMatters pic.twitter.com/gUm2H8WxTJ  House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) January 27, 2020

Trump lawyer Jane Raskin: Focus on Giuliani meant to distract from lack of evidence

Trump Lawyer Jane Raskin argued on Monday that House Democrats focused their inquiry on Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to distract from the fact that the evidence does not support their claims.

She described Giuliani ascolourful and controversial as well as an expert in fighting corruption during her arguments. She said Giulianis role had been overblown by Democrats and was based on presumptions, assumptions, and unfair conclusions.

Schumer: Bolton revelation a little bit like Watergate

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer characterised new information reportedly detailed in the draft of a book by John Bolton as a little bit like Watergate  referring to the scandal that took down former President Richard Nixon.

Its a little bit in this case like Watergate, said Schumer, in that in that every week more evidence comes out The average American is saying, why dont they want witnesses and documents?  Why is [the president] so afraid of having witnesses and documents?

Senator King predicts five to 10 Republicans will vote for witnesses: report

Senator Angus King, one of two independent Senators in the chamber, has said he thinks five to 10 Republicans could vote to allow more witnesses in the trial.

Im already hearing a number of Republicans who are moving toward voting to at least hear from John Bolton, if not other witnesses, he told National Public Radio.

Responding to whether four Republicans would vote to hear from witnesses, King said: I think therell be more. My bold prediction will be five or 10.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [File: J Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press]

Bolton, publisher and literary agency deny coordination with New York Times

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, publisher Simon and Schuster and Javelin Literary agency have denied leaking a draft of the former White House officials new book to the New York Times, according to media reports.

The statement further denied that the information was leaked to garner excitement for the upcoming book, The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir.

Hillary Clinton urges Americans to call Republican Senators

Former secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton urged Americans to call their Republican Senators.

A trial that doesnt allow testimony from material witnesses isnt a trial at all. Its a cover-up, Clinton tweeted on Monday as the seventh day of the impeachment trial began.

Your Republican senators need to hear from you today, she added, with the telephone number for the Senate switchboard.

A trial that doesn't allow testimony from material witnesses isn't a trial at all. It's a cover-up. Your Republican senators need to hear from you today. (202) 224-3121https://t.co/38CGlIXM4G  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 27, 2020

Trump says he has not read Bolton manuscript

President Donald Trump charged the report that he told former Security Advisor John Bolton about wanting to continue to withhold aid from Ukraine until they help with investigations into political rivals were false.

He told reporters he had not read Boltons draft of his upcoming book, which reportedly detailed the exchange. The president made the comments as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Starr: Nixon, Clinton impeachment involved crimes

Trump lawyer Kenneth Starr argued on Monday that the previous Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton impeachment cases involved crimes, unlike the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

The line of argument underlines a continueing debate over whether a president can abuse power without committing a crime. Democratic House managers had previously argued that a crime is not required for a president to abuse their power.

Trump lawyer Kenneth Starr:  We are living in the age of impeachment

Trumps lawyer Kenneth Starr began his arguments on Monday by portraying impeachment as an increasingly normalised and partisan endeavour, saying: We are living in the age of impeachment.

Like war, impeachment is hell, or at least presidential impeachment is hell, said Starr, who lead an investigation that resulted in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.

"Every time there's a policy difference of significanceor an approach difference of significance about a policywe're going to start an impeachment proceeding?" pic.twitter.com/rPod6JYmQX  The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 27, 2020

Trumps defence team have framed the impeachment proceedings as a partisan attempt to overturn the 2016 US elections.

Trump lawyer Sekulow begins arguments

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said the defence team will continue the same line of argument they started on Saturday, by framing the proceedings as Democrats attempt to overturn the election.

Sekulow said the impeachment proceedings were part of a pattern and practice of attempts over a three year period  to interfere with our constitutional framework.

Senators, Senate chaplain wish Chief Justice John Roberts: Happy birthday

After Chaplain Barry Black gave the opening prayer for the seventh day of the impeachment trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell began the proceedings with a bit of levity.

As the Chaplain has indicated happy birthday, McConnell said to Roberts, who is constitutionally mandated to preside over the trial. Im sure its exactly how you wanted to spend the day.

Roberts turned 65 years old on Monday.

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts smiles as Senate chaplain retired Navy Admiral Barry Black wishes him a happy birthday during the opening prayer of the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump. [The Associated Press]

Senate chaplain references death of Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna

Senate chaplain Barry Black referred to basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who died in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday, during his opening prayer as the seventh day of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Senators Braun, Barrasso say Bolton revelations do not change the facts

Senator Mike Braun said the President had already said: What Bolton is contending in his book promo is not the case.

However, he admitted that the Bolton revelations added some fuel to the fire and will increase the decibel level and intensity of the debate over whether to allow witnesses.

Bolton, in a draft of his new book provided to the White House, reportedly said Trump told him he wanted to continue to withhold aid from Ukraine until they agreed to investigate his political rivals.

Meanwhile, Senator John Barrasso said the facts of the case stay exactly the same and called the Bolton New York Times report a story about selective leaks from a book you can pre-order on Amazon.com.

Schumer: Bolton revelation goes right to the heart of impeachment trial

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has renewed calls for former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify in light of new reports.

Bolton, in a draft of his new book, reportedly wrote that President Donald Trump had said he wanted to withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country agreed to help with politically motivated investigations.

This is stunning. It goes right to the heart of the charges against the president, Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offences charged in the first article of impeachment, Schumer told reporters on Monday, adding any shred of justification for not calling Bolton to testify had been removed.

It boils down to one thing, we have a witness with first-hand evidence of the presidents actions for which he is on trial. He is ready and willing to testify, Schumer said.

Murkowski: Time is almost here to determine if Bolton testimony needed.

Moderate Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Monday she is curious about what former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton has to say, following reports of his manuscript, and it is nearly time to consider whether senators weighing evidence in the impeachment trial need additional information.

I stated before that I was curious as to what John Bolton might have to say  Ive also said there is an appropriate time for us to evaluate whether we need additional information  that time is almost here, Murkowski said in a statement.

US Senator Lisa Murkowski [File: Leah Millis/Reuters]

Collins: Case for calling witnesses strengthened by Bolton report

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the case for calling witnesses had been strengthened by the New York Times report on Bolton.

The reports about John Boltons book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues, Collins said in a statement she posted to Twitter on Monday.

My statement on Bolton developments. pic.twitter.com/3M59J7suts  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 27, 2020

Bolton, in a draft of his new book provided to the White House, reportedly said Trump told him he wanted to continue to withhold aid from Ukraine until they agreed to investigate Democrats.

Romney: Increasingly likely at least four senators will vote for Boltons testimony

Republican Senator Mitt Romney said on Monday that it was increasingly likely at least four Republican senators would join Democrats in calling for John Bolton, the former White House national security adviser, to testify in the Senate impeachment trial of Trump.

A simple majority is needed for such a measure to pass. Bolton had reportedly written in an unpublished manuscript that Trump had told him in August of last year that he wanted to keep withholding military aid from Ukraine until the country agreed to help investigate his Democratic rivals. Bolton has said he will testify if subpoenaed.

Senator Mitt Romney was one of only two Republicans to vote in favour on introducing new evidence in the trial [J Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press]

No White House personnel outside of National Security Council have reviewed Bolton manuscript: Spokesman

The spokesman for the National Security Council has said that no other White House personnel have reviewed a manuscript by Bolton.

In the draft of his upcoming book, Bolton reportedly recounts that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country agreed to launch investigations into the presidents political rivals.

Bolton had submitted the draft to the White House for a standard review process, The New York Times reported. The review may have given insights into Boltons possible testimony to Trumps defence team, the newspaper noted.

Schiff: Trump tweets intended to be a threat

The Senate impeachment trial took a break on Sunday, but tweets from the president did not.

Trump again claimed there was no evidence of wrongdoing presented by Democrats, derided those prosecuting the case against him, and claimed he never told Bolton that he was withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for politically motivated investigations.

In one tweet, the president said that Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!

Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020

Asked later on NBC whether he considered the tweet as a threat, the California lawmaker  a House Democrat who is leading the impeachment team  said he thought it was intended to be.

Who is on Trumps defence team?

Trumps defence team will begin their second of three days of arguments on Monday. Read more about the key players in the trial here.

Who are the House managers?

The House of representatives designated seven Democrats to present the case against Trump, which they concluded last week.

Bolton to testify?

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Trump said he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals  information attributed to former national security adviser Bolton in a draft of his forthcoming book.

The report, which was later confirmed by The Associated Press news agency, challenges the defence offered up by Trump and his lawyers that the freeze in aid was related to a general fight against corruption in Ukraine.

Under the rules resolution passed at the beginning of the trial, debate on whether additional witnesses can be subpoenaed will begin after the defence finishes three days of arguments and the Senators are given 16 hours for questions. In light of revelations, that debate will be particularly lively, especially since Bolton has said he will testify if subpoenaed. Read more on what to expect this week here.

Former national security adviser John Bolton has said he is prepared to testify if subpoenaed [File: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/The Associated Press]

Trump tapes, new evidence?

A new recording has emerged of a 2018 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC that Trump had with donors, including two now-indicted associates of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The audio portion includes Trump inquiring about Ukraine and asking, How long would they last in a fight with Russia? He later calls for the firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

The recording contradicts the presidents statements that he didnt know the Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. They are key figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges.

As Senators debate whether new evidence and witnesses will be allowed in the trial, the recording could take centre stage in the proceedings.

What has happened so far in the trial?

The impeachment trial of Trump began in earnest last week, after a ceremonial start on January 16 that saw the swearing-in of Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the proceedings, and the 100 members of the Senate.

On early Wednesday morning, the Senate voted along partisan lines to approve Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells rules resolution after nearly 12 hours of debate. Meanwhile, 11 amendments introduced by Democrats were blocked. Read more about that day here.

The Democratic House managers then presented their arguments for three days, followed by Trumps defences first arguments on Saturday. Catch up on the live blogs from Wednesday, Thursday , Friday and Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at welcome dinner for Holocaust survivors and their families hosted by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation, in Krakow, Poland, on Jan. 26, 2020. (Shahar Azran/WJC via AP)

Zelensky Marks Auschwitz Anniversary Honoring Survivors

KRAKOW, PolandUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute Sunday evening to Holocaust survivors, telling them on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the death camps liberation that they are an example to humanity.

Zelensky spoke of the importance of protecting humanitarian values and freedom against the hatred that threatens civilization in a short speech at a dinner in Krakow organized by the World Jewish Congress. He received a standing ovation for his words.

You are truly amazing. You are strong and incredibly courageous. So you are an example that we should follow, Zelensky said through an interpreter. The Holocaust is named the dark period in the history of humanity. And you are the rays of sunshine that penetrated the darkness.

Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent and has family members who perished in the Holocaust, is to attend commemorations Monday at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau former death camp, where Nazi German forces murdered 1.1 million people. Most of the victims were Jews.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is also expected to attend commemorations but didnt attend the dinner. A small lower-level delegation of U.S. officials arrived at the dinner after Zelensky spoke.

Hatred needs to be done away withit needs to be uprooted. We need to get rid of hatred because this is the single greatest power that is ruining our civilization, Zelensky said. We need to stand guard and protect humanism and freedom. We must stop evil before it actually threatens humanity.

He also paid tribute to the Ukrainian gentiles who risked their own lives to save Jews, calling them a source of pride.

By Vanessa Gera
Dutch Amateur Radio Union - magazine available The January 2020 issue of the Dutch Amateur Radio Union's magazine is now available for free download



Among the items in this issue is a report on the popular Heelweg microwave meeting that took place January 11.



There is an introduction from new DARU Board member Bert Woest PD0GKB in which he notes "too traditional clubs eventually become cumbersome, poorly maneuverable institutions".



He says amateur radio has issues which include:

 Full licensees who look down on Novices

 aversion to new ways of organizing or stubborn resistance to non-traditional ways of working



Download the magazine from

https://www.daru.nu/downloads/category/2-magazine?download=141:daru-magazine-januari-2020



Previous issues are at

https://www.daru.nu/downloads/category/2-magazine
DALLAS, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Borden, one of America's favorite dairy companies founded in 1857, has been granted consensual use of cash collateral for another 30 days after the latest Jan. 23 court hearing in its voluntary reorganization proceedings. This authorization enables Borden to continue operations and honor obligations in the normal course of business.

Borden is continuing to work with its lenders and will participate in a mediation in the coming days to develop a strategy for the Company to exit bankruptcy. The Company's next court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 24.

"We, along with our legal and financial expert consultants, are confident that Borden will accomplish our goal of longer-term stability. We have now had two very positive court hearings, and we feel encouraged that this momentum will help us reach faster alignment with our lenders," said Borden CEO Tony Sarsam.

The Company initiated the voluntary reorganization proceedings on Jan. 5 to pursue a financial restructuring designed to reduce its current debt load, maximize value and position the Company for long-term success. It intends to work closely with creditors, customers and employees to identify value-maximizing restructuring plans that will benefit all stakeholders.

For additional information about the reorganization, visit bordenfinancialreorg.com.

About Borden

Founded in 1857 by Gail Borden, Jr., Borden is a heritage American brand that produces more than 35 wholesome and delicious products enjoyed by millions of people every day. Borden was the first company to develop a patent for the process of condensing milk, as well as the first company to use glass milk bottles. In 1936, Elsie became America's favorite spokes-cow, and was recognized in 2000 by AdAge as one of the top 10 advertising icons of the 20th century. Today, Borden is headquartered in Dallas and operates 12 milk processing plants and nearly 100 branches across the U.S. that produce and distribute nearly 500 million gallons of milk annually for customers in the grocery, mass market, club, food service, hospitality, school and convenience store channels. The company's People First culture has inspired decades of loyal tenure among hundreds of the 3,300 people Borden employs. In 2019, Borden landed the No. 16 spot on Forbes' list of America's Most Reputable Companies, highlighting the company's well-earned trust amongst consumers. For more information, visit bordendairy.com.

SOURCE Borden Dairy Company

Related Links

https://www.bordendairy.com/


New Delhi, Jan 27 : Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday hit out at European Union (EU) lawmakers for moving resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying India did not need "advice or guidance" and there was "no scope" for "outside" interference in India's internal matters.

Addressing a gathering after releasing the book 'TRG -- An Enigma' here, Naidu said, "Such efforts are totally uncalled for and unwarranted and I hope that they would refrain from making such statements in future." The Vice President said that as a mature republic and democratic polity, "India is capable of addressing the concerns of its citizens and needs no advice or guidance in such matters from others".

"As a republic with 70 years of experience, we have successfully withstood various challenges. We are now more united than ever before and no one should have any concerns in this regard," Naidu said.

The Vice President also complimented the people for India's successful 71-year long journey as a republic and said that we as a nation will always be committed to justice, liberty and equality for all our citizens.

Asserting that our democracy provided enough space for expressing differences and dissent whenever warranted, the Vice President said: "Whenever basic and fundamental rights of citizens came under threat, they rose in unison and defended them, as was seen during Emergency. As a result, we have emerged as the most vibrant democracy in the world." His remarks came when the European Parliament is set to debate and vote on a motion tabled by a large chunk of its members against India's new citizenship law, which it alleges marks a "dangerous shift" in the country's citizenship regime.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday lambasted Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying "mocking" the Shaheen Bagh protest, which "represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi", amounts to "mocking Ahimsa and Satyagraha".

He also criticised the central government and said that the "real tukde tukde gang" is the ruling party which is determined to divide the country on religious lines.

Earlier in the day, Prasad had said that the ongoing protest at Shaheen hadBagh in the national capital is offering a platform to the 'tukde tukde gang' under the garb of opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The BJP leader had also alleged that the protest was emerging as "a textbook case of a few hundred people trying to suppress the silent majority".

"Now, the Law Minister calls the protesters at Shaheen Bagh as part of the tukde tukde gang. The real tukde tukde gang is the ruling party that is determined to divide India on religious lines," Chidambaram said in a tweet.

"Only those who despise Gandhiji would abuse the protesters at Shaheen Bagh. Shaheen Bagh represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi. Mocking the protest at Shaheen Bagh amounts to mocking Ahimsa and Satyagraha," he said on Twitter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kilkenny is a town in Ireland that is full of rich heritage sites. You need to visit this town if you plan to visit Ireland. Have a look at a few places to visit in the culture-rich town.

Things to do in Kilkenny

1. The Black Abbey of Kilkenny

The Black Abbey of Kilkenny is a Catholic structure that tourists need to visit if they like rich stone structures. It has beautiful windows and walls. It was established in the year 1225 and has, ever since, been marked as an important place in the country. It was one of the first houses of the Dominican Order.

Read | UK Relaxes Travel Advisory For Pak, However, Advises Against Travelling To Certain Areas

2. Medieval Mile Museum

Medieval Mile Museum in Kilkenny is one of the most famous places in the country. The museum was built by the wealthy merchants of the city. It is spacious and full of sculptures that you cannot take your eyes off.

It displays the most civic structures of the country. It has the Ossory High Crosses which are famous here.

Read | Republic Day 2020: Train Passengers Travelling In Tejas Express Sing National Anthem

3. Kilkenny Castle

Kilkenny Castle is one of the must-visit places of Ireland. It must be visited especially if you are looking for historic beauty. This fortress was built in 1195.

It was an important part of the defence system of the country around the time of its establishment. The place is open to the public if they wish to visit and learn more about the happenings around it.

Read | Three Years Later, Trump Travel Ban Heads Back To Court

4. St. Canices Cathedral

St. Canices Cathedral is one of the most famous churches in the country. It is also called the Kilkenny Cathedral. It has been built in a unique style and that is what attracts the visitors. It was built in the 13th century and is magnificent in structure. The stone building has 8 bells for the Holy purpose. The place has a long history and must be heard and experienced by every curious traveller.

Read | Best Travel Books About Delhi To Know More About The Capital City

Image Courtesy: Shutterstock
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will meet with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan in Geneva on Jan. 29-30, Spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva told Trend Jan. 27.

Abdullayeva was commenting on the information spread by the Armenian media about the meeting.

As you know, Elmar Mammadyarov has recently announced a meeting with his Armenian counterpart in late January, the spokesperson noted. In this regard, confirming the disseminated information, I would like to note that Elmar Mammadyarov will meet with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Armenian foreign minister in Geneva on Jan. 29-30.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Legacy automakers are in a race with one another and a slew of start-ups and technology companies to capture growing demand for electric vehicles while also preparing for the advent of autonomous vehicles. G.M.s Cruise Origin, for example, faces competition from Uber and Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Googles parent company, Alphabet.

At the same time, that fight over an electric future has helped to reinvigorate the American automotive industry.

In 2018, Ford Motor announced that it had bought Michigan Central Station in Detroit, and would convert the abandoned office tower and train station  a symbol of the citys decline  into an urban campus focused on developing businesses that use self-driving cars.

Last year, Fiat Chrysler said it planned to spend $4.5 billion to update several Detroit plants, an investment that it said would create 6,500 jobs and allow the company to start making electric versions of its Jeep models if customer demand increased.

As part of an existing joint venture, G.M. and South Koreas LG Chem have invested $2.3 billion in a separate plant near Lordstown, Ohio, which will make the battery cells that will power the electric vehicles made at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, the company said. Executives have said that the venture, in the same area where G.M. shut down a plant last year, would create more than 1,100 jobs, with a groundbreaking expected later this year.
Late last week, over 40 world leaders landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and to declare never again in the World Holocaust Forum.

Vice President Mike Pence was in attendance, as well as representatives from the three other Allied powersRussian president Vladimir Putin, UKs Prince Charles, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

We gather on this occasion, here on Mount Herzl, to fulfill the solemn obligation, an obligation of remembrance to never allow the memory of those who died the Holocaust to be forgotten by anyone, anywhere in the world, Pence said in his opening speech.

For the Vice President committed to his Christian beliefs, the trip was also a spiritual one, according to CBN.

For Christian believers, were grounded in the conviction that were called to bless Israel, he said. The Bible tells us that those who bless her will be blessed and those who curse her will be cursed.

Really, since before the American founding, Americans called for the restoration of Israel to the Promised Land. And when Israel was restored in 1948, America was the first nation on earth to recognize the Jewish State of Israel. And weve been with them every step of the way because its a heart connection, he said.

There was a new level of urgency at the fifth anniversary of the forum as violent antisemitism rises in Europe. Last year, Germany released a report warning the country of an increase in antisemitic attacks, particularly by Islamist extremists. And the US has reeled from several shootings at synagogues in recent years.

In his speech, Pence encouraged people to remember the past in order to honor the future.

Memory is the constant obligation of all generations, he said. And today, we pause to remember what President Donald Trump rightly called the dark stain on human history, the greatest evil ever perpetuated by man against man in a long catalog of human crime 

Today we remember when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer.

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Pool

Mikaela Mathews is a freelance writer and editor based in Dallas, TX. She was the editor of a local magazine and a contributing writer for the Galveston Daily News and Spirit Magazine.
In Pics: PM Modi to inaugurate new campus of Classical Tamil institute in Chennai today

India has everything needed to be hub for medical tourism: PM Modi

Assailants hack BJP leader to death at busy market in TN

India

pti-PTI

Tiruchirappalli, Jan 27: A BJP functionary was hacked to death by a four-member gang near here on Monday following previous enmity, police sources said.

Vijaya Raghu, 40, a zonal secretary of the party at Palakarai, was working in the market area when the assailants surrounded and attacked him, they said.

Police said though he was rushed to a hospital, he died. Raghu had developed enmity with Babu who the police were searching in connection with a theft case and hence the suspicion that he was behind the killing, the sources said.

However, police were investigating from various angles. Some BJP volunteers blocked vehicular traffic demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

A BJP functionary claimed Raghu had organised pro-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and had been warned by some outfits, On hearing about Raghu's death, party leaders including C P Radhakrishnan, Pon Radhakrishnan and other senior leaders visited the deceased worker's house and expressed condolences.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Jan. 27, Trend reports.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Some people come to God through drink, drugs or devotion. In my case it was the rain. On one of those mild, clear January afternoons when you can momentarily sense invisible tokens of spring in the air, it seemed the perfect time for a stroll around Mountjoy Square Park.

Killing an hour in advance of a visit to the Mater, the vibe of this north city haven comes laden with the ghosts of our literary history. Imagining the contemplative steps that might have been taken by Yeats, O'Casey and Joyce, all of whom lodged in this Georgian quarter at various times, I invited those spirits of old Dublin to wash over me and, who knows, guide my fingers across the keyboard to a classic retirement plan like 'Ulysses'.

Then, right on cue, the skies opened without warning - a deluge that went from shower to relentless torrent within a minute. Dashing for cover, I ran the sidewalks in search of sanctuary, only to find myself on Gardiner Street outside the neoclassical grandeur of St Francis Xavier Church. Any port in a storm, said I, entering the sanctified stillness within.

The place was empty, not a single supplicant or saintly auld wan to be seen anywhere - just you and I, Lord, and my how the years have flown. "God cannot be found in noise and restlessness," Mother Teresa advised. "God is the friend of silence, we need silence to be able to touch souls."

Prodding the memory for a clue to when last my knee genuflected in his house, the mind wondered what tribe I now belonged to. Is it lapsed Catholic, ex-Catholic or a latte-light Catholic? Or perhaps 'practising Catholic' fits best, given that we've been at it for 2,000 years and are still getting it wrong.

Either way, though, it's a calling akin to IRA membership - 'once in, never out'. Like a marriage that should long ago have called it quits but stayed together until the mortgage was paid off, God and I maintain a polite truce, mindful of each other's space, always wary of the spark that'll ignite a ding-dong or altercation. My problem is war, disease, torture and 'The X Factor' - creations that could not have come from a supreme divine being.

I mean, pardon me getting all Ricky Gervais on it, but are you havin' a laugh? Like everybody from Plato to Nietzsche, I need some sign you're really there - or at least the winner in tomorrow's 3.30 at Sandown.

And yet, here in the stillness and grandeur, it's hard not to feel something hallowed and sanctified in this solitary shelter from the tumult and clamour of the outside world.

Maybe, in the end, my dear old dad had it right: "Don't wrap yourself in knots about the next world, just try your best to get it right in this one."

Stepping out into the blue sky of Dublin and the demands of real life, I skipped over the puddles idly wondering how long it would be until my maker and I had our next get- together.

After all I really love... a classic tune by the Lee

This evening things get serious down south as the winner of Cork's most beloved song will be announced.

An initiative of Cork City Libraries, in association with Creative Ireland, the objective was to seek out the tunes that have stood the test of time in the hearts of Corkonians.

Filtering down from a start list of 84, the final 10 include a batch of expected classics, including 'The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee', 'The Boys of Fairhill', 'Going to My Hometown' and 'An Poc ar Buile'. My vote would have to opt for 'After All' by The Frank and Walters.

"After all I really love you/After all that we've been through/

Days they go by/And you're always there at my side/Girl I'm glad you're mine." In a word - perfect.
Lincoln County deputies arrested an armed man in Yachats Saturday afternoon holed up in yurt he had broken into in the small town on the central Oregon coast, the sheriffs office said.

Deputies initially responded to a reported burglary in the 1200 block of North Yachats River Road after a caller reported seeing smoke coming from a yurt that was supposed to unoccupied and a black pickup truck parked outside. Arriving at the scene, deputies discovered trees had been cut down to block access to the property.

The deputies and two Oregon state troopers check the yurt and found it unoccupied, but discovered several edged weapons, a bow and arrow, and pellet gun inside. They also determined that police in Santa Rosa, Calif. had identified the Toyota Tacoma pickup as a vehicle of interest in a recent bulletin.

Deputies called in a K9 unit and had withdrawn from the immediate area when they saw a man with a bow and arrow leaving nearby woods. They ordered him to drop the weapon, which he did, but deputies could see other weapons on his person and did not approach him.

The man surrendered after 15 minutes of negotiation. He was identified as Michael Gordon Richie, 37, of Forestville, Calif. He was taken to the Lincoln County Jail and booked on charges of first-degree, possession of a restricted weapon by a felon, carrying of concealed weapons, second-degree criminal trespassing, third-degree theft and third-degree criminal mischief. His bail was set at $232,500.
Cambridge University Press has reached a transformative Open Access agreement with the Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE).

It is the first such read and publish deal signed with JUSTICE by any publisher, the first major read and publish deal in Japan and a first for the Press in Asia.

Read and publish deals pay for an institution to access a publisher's journals and also covers any Article Processing Charges the institution's authors would normally pay to publish their work Open Access with that publisher.

JUSTICE is Japan's largest organisation of library consortia, with more than 500 affiliated university and research libraries. Those institutions can now choose to opt-in to the three-year agreement, which would allow their authors to publish their research articles in Press journals that publish open content. In addition, each institution will have access to the journal collections they currently subscribe to.

The ground-breaking agreement follows a number of similar agreements between the Press and higher education and research institutions around the world.

Chris Bennett, Global Sales Director for the Press, said: "We see read and publish agreements like this as a key part of a sustainable and responsible transition to Open Access. To have such a framework in place for Japanese researchers who want to publish their work Open Access is a hugely important step.

"We are delighted to be the first publisher to sign such an agreement with JUSTICE and are proud of its truly transformative nature."

Seiji Hosokawa, Chair of the JUSTICE Steering Committee, said: "We are pleased to announce that we have agreed our first Read and Publish contract with Cambridge University Press in line with the JUSTICE OA2020 roadmap.

"We expect this agreement between our two organizations to lead to a deeper transformation of scholarly communication in Japan."

###

Notes to editors:

About Cambridge University Press: Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University's mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Its extensive peer-reviewed publishing lists comprise 50,000 titles covering academic research and professional development, as well as school-level education and English language teaching. Playing a leading role in today's international marketplace, Cambridge University Press has more than 50 offices around the globe, and it distributes its products to nearly every country in the world.

About JUSTICE: Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) is a consortium created to ensure a stable and continuous flow of academic information for their affiliated researchers, including the e-journals that are essential for education and research activities in Japanese universities. Its mission is to contribute to the enhancement of the nation's academic information infrastructure by contracting, managing, providing, and preserving e-resources and by training personnel with necessary skills. JUSTICE was established in April 2011 with the support of the National Institute of Informatics (NII). At present, JUSTICE is comprised of over 500 participating libraries and is the nation's largest organization of library consortia.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Quito, Ecuador  Mon, January 27, 2020 07:02 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206108435 2 Environment Galapagos,tortoise,animals,scientists,ecuador Free

A scientific expedition to the Galapagos Islands will spend ten days searching for relatives of two tortoise species believed to be extinct, including those of the archipelago's Lonesome George, park officials said Friday.

George, the last known member of the Pinta tortoise species, died in 2012 at over 100 years of age after refusing to mate in captivity with females from related subspecies.

Park rangers and scientists from the Galapagos National Parks (PNG) and Galapagos Conservancy will tour the Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island in hopes of "locating and removing a group of giant tortoises with partial lineage" to the extinct Pinta and Floreana species, the park said in a statement.

They chose the area because whalers and pirates who would eat the animals were thought to have dumped some of the tortoises there in the past to lighten their ships' loads.

The Galapagos Islands, located 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, were made famous by Charles Darwin's studies of their breathtaking biodiversity.

Read also: Species-saving Galapagos giant tortoise Diego can take a rest

In 2008, a similar expedition took blood samples from 1,726 tortoises, 17 of which had a "significant percentage" of genes in common with the Pinta species while about 80 showed a "partial lineage" to the Floreana species, PNG said.

Studies have found "tortoises that have up to 90 percent of the extinct species' genes, meaning that at least one of their parents is a purebred and possibly lives on Wolf Volcano," said Jorge Carrion, the park's director.

The expedition is searching for suitable tortoises to begin a breeding program in captivity with the hope of eventually repopulating the islands, said expedition leader Washington Tapia.

Eleven giant tortoise species remain on the Galapagos Islands, while four others have been classified as extinct since Darwin's 1835 arrival.

Topics : Galapagos tortoise animals scientists ecuador
Win The Wilderness: Alaska

Rating:

The Trial Of Christine Keeler

Rating:

Wanted, young newlyweds to abandon their lives in the UK for the untamed west coast of North America. Must look good on camera.

The mountaintop house in Win The Wilderness: Alaska (BBC2) might be the perfect retreat for any couple desperate to escape the paparazzi. Lurking photographers will be torn to shreds by bears.

Duane and Rena Ose felled 2,000 spruce trees to build this wooden palace, 1,205ft above sea level and close to the Arctic Circle in the USA's most northerly state.

They've been there 30 years since Duane first staked his claim. It's a magnificent piece of architecture, the size of a hotel, with its own airstrip. Honestly, it's perfect for you-know-who.

Six British couples will test their survival skills, living rough in the biggest state in the US in a bid to win a mountaintop house in Win The Wilderness: Alaska

But Duane and Rena are in their 70s and want to hand their masterpiece on to the next generation of pioneers before the hardships of Alaskan life get too much for them.

So they've invited six British couples to test their survival skills, living rough in the Biggest State in the Union. Likely prospects are invited to have dinner with the old prospectors. At the end of the six week series, Duane and Rena will choose their own successors.

It's a novel twist on the reality show  and, for a generation struggling to get their feet on the housing ladder, a tempting challenge. All they have to do, to own their own home, is swim across a freezing lake and maybe wrestle a cougar. That's easier than getting a mortgage these days.

The show was full of handy tips: for instance, if a black bear attacks you, it wants to eat you. A grizzly, on the other hand, will want to rip your head off to protect its territory. That won't help you to survive but it's interesting to know.

I don't suppose Duane and Rena are giving the place away for nothing. They'd have to be soft in the head, and there was nothing soft about those two.

Perhaps the Beeb is buying the property as a prize. A three- bedroom house in that part of Alaska, set in a few acres of forest, sells for under $250,000 (190,000)  probably within budget.

Slogan of the weekend: The ATS girls' or women's infantry in World War II had a motto, Tony Robinson revealed in his History Of Britain (C5). 'Beauty is a duty too,' they said, applying powder and paint for Saturday dances. Old Adolf never stood a chance. Advertisement

The money might not be hard to find but worthy winners will be. RAF engineer Matt and his accountant wife Rachel were the first duo to be invited up to Ose Mountain for a look-see. The young couple seemed strong candidates until Matt mentioned his love of travelling.

Duane's face turned to thunder. He and Rena clearly don't approve of globe-trotting. 'You don't want to leave it for the bears to chew up,' he growled.

The bears chewed up Christine Keeler, at the sad and tawdry end of the Profumo Affair. Police, politicians, her own relatives and former friends  they all took a bite.

Sophie Cookson has emphasised the wretchedness of the central figure throughout The Trial Of Christine Keeler (BBC1), never seeking to glamorise. Paul Ritter, with a tour-de-force speech as her barrister, summed up the truth: she was abused and exploited by everyone she met, and probably couldn't imagine any other kind of relationship. With the charismatic Stephen Ward (James Norton) dead and Christine condemned to prison, this was a depressing end to a sordid business.

Writer Amanda Coe, who resisted preaching for so long, couldn't help adding a dreadful and implausible scene between Profumo and wife (Ben Miles and Emilia Fox), as they debated women's sexual rights in the language of millennials.

The flashbacks and timeslips didn't relent either. I'd love to see the whole six hours, edited into chronological order.
A home-made bomb exploded at a hospital in Hong Kong on Monday. No casualty has been reported yet.

The police are searching for people behind the incident, Sputnik reported citing local media.

The explosion hit Hong Kong's Caritas Medical Centre at around 2.30 a.m. local time on Monday (18:30 on Sunday GMT). Around 20 patients were evacuated.

"Staff at the accident and emergency department heard loud bangs in a public toilet, and found that there was an explosion in one of the compartments," a spokesman for the hospital said, as quoted by a daily.

The hospital promptly informed the police, declaring its readiness to assist the investigation, he added.

"We condemn the deliberate act which caused damage at the center, and threatened patients' safety," the spokesman further said.

Experts, who arrived in the hospital, said this was a home-made bomb explosion since a broken glass bottle with batteries and electric circuits inside it was found at the site.

The bomb was not very powerful, a representative of the district police department added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Kunal Kemmu says the makers of the recently announced "Go Goa Gone" sequel haven't officially reached out to him but he is looking forward to the second installment of the zombie comedy.

The first film, which featured Saif Ali Khan, Kunal, Vir Das and Anand Tiwari, followed three men whose Goa holiday turns out to be a zombie nightmare.

Saif played the role of Boris, a Russian mobster-turned-zombie hunter, in the Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK-directed film, which released in 2013.

"In the last two years, every six months there were speculations about the sequel. Now I've reached a stage when I've stopped saying 'It's happening.' I'm now like, you give me a script and tell me when we are shooting," Kunal told PTI.

When pointed out that the sequel was officially announced by Eros and Dinesh Vijan earlier this month, Kunal said, "We haven't been reached out to officially, we haven't seen a script yet. We knew of an idea. But I'm waiting."



According to the makers, the sequel will take off from the point where the original ended. All the actors are expected to reprise their characters.

Kunal, who had also written the dialogues for the first movie, said "Go Goa Gone" will always be a special film for him.

"It started in a room with Raj, DK and I. We wrote it together. Nobody wanted to put money in it or believed in it so we thought we will write it. Before my daughter Inaaya, this was a baby we gave birth to and nurtured. I'm happy the film has a recall value even after all these years," he added.

There were reports that the sequel will go on floors this September but the actor said he hasn't heard "anything in an official capacity".

"We had met before this, when we announced it, but there have been a lot of logistical issues on this film. That's something that Dinesh and Eros will be best to answer," he added.

Kunal will next be seen in Mohit Suri's "Malang". Also featuring Aditya Roy Kapur and Disha Patani, the film is scheduled to be released on February 7.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Study.com, a leading online education platform, today announced a Working Scholars partnership with CA Libraries to help California's public library employees and graduates of library-based high school degree programs obtain a bachelor's degree for little- to no-cost. With support from a Library Services and Technology Act grant, the program will be available to California public library employees statewide, as well as to library patrons who graduated from the Career Online High School program at three pilot libraries.

Career Online High School is a program that enables community members to obtain a GED while gathering the skills needed to enter the workforce. The Working Scholars project was supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

This two-part Working Scholars program is initially kicking off for the states public library employees and COHS graduates from some of Californias biggest cities including San Jose, San Diego and Sacramento. Californias public libraries encompass more than 1,100 public library locations, with more than 145 million annual visits from residents across the state. The massive network of libraries is operated by 17,000 staff and 1,600 volunteers who help libraries serve their communities with free resources, services, and programs. With the sheer amount of reach, the Working Scholars program gives library staff the opportunity to lead youth by example as staff members pursue their bachelors degree.

The Working Scholars program offers new routes for empowerment and personal success, said Greg Lucas, California State Librarian. It opens an opportunity where traditional paths might be closed.

Working Scholars was launched by Study.com at the end of 2016 to help adult workers improve their skills, enhance career mobility, and earn a college degree. To help meet the needs of adult students, Study.com developed a completely online and mobile-first curriculum, containing over 225 college credit courses that are accepted at over 2,000 colleges throughout the United States.

The work done by the California State Library greatly impacts the state of California with the incredible information and services they provide to the community. With a college degree, these groups of students can create career mobility for themselves and have a potential to earn 50 percent more lifetime earnings from this program, said Chris Mancini, Chief Growth Officer at Study.com. We love this partnership with California libraries because were removing all primary barriers these students had from obtaining their degree and were now empowering them to reach it. Libraries played an important role in my childhood  visiting them weekly with my mom and brother. So Im also personally thrilled with this program.

The first official cohort launch for San Jose patrons who are Career Online High School graduates begins today with others launching in the next three months. For more information about Study.coms Working Scholars program, visit: https://study.com/pages/working-scholars-overview.html.

To learn more about the California State Library and our public libraries, visit: https://www.library.ca.gov/.

About Study.com

Study.com is an online education platform that helps learners of all ages excel academically and close skills gaps. From test prep and homework help to earn low-cost college credit and developing workplace skills, Study.coms online courses, short animated video lessons and study tools have made learning simple for over 30 million students, teachers and working professionals. Study.com was founded in 2002 and is a privately-held company located in Mountain View, Calif. Learn more at http://www.study.com or download the mobile app from the iOS app store or Google Play.

Media Contact:

Marshall Hampson

PR & Media Relations Manager

mhampson@study.com

(916) 749-0001
New Delhi, Jan 27 : The government has asked Air India to be ready to operate a special flight for bringing back vulnerable Indians, including university students from China, in the wake of rising worries over coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan province and reports of new cases of viral infection in other parts of the country.

"Only Air India has wide-body aircraft and so we can operate special flight with a B747. We are awaiting directions from the government," said an airline official.

But the official added that there is growing apprehension within the airline that bringing people from the infection-hit areas of China could pose a bigger challenge in case even a single person with symptoms of infection gets onboard.

"Presence of one infected person could put 400 people's health at risk," he said.

Ever since the deadly coronavirus was detected in Wuhan province, as many as 2,008 cases of confirmed infections have been reported from various parts of the country with total death toll climbing to 80 so far.

The Ministry of External Affairs has said that as of now no Indian in China has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak and the embassy in Beijing is in close touch with all Indians in Wuhan and elsewhere in Hubei province.

The Indian government is in touch with Chinese authorities to ensure that Indians are safe. It is learnt that India has requested China to permit Indian students stuck in Wuhan to leave.

In order to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the local government authorities in Wuhan province had earlier suspended all public transportation, including buses, trains and flights.
India on Monday pressed its largest LNG supplier Qatar to lower price of gas supplied under long-term contract to reflect falling rates of the spot or current market, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Qatar supplies 8.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural annually to India at a price linked Brent crude oil. Landed price comes to $9-10 per million British thermal unit, while the same gas is available in spot market at half the rate.

After talks with visiting Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Pradhan said, "LNG contracts should reflect current market reality".

"All energy producers have to revisit this old practice (of pricing LNG linked to oil) and come to new methodology reflecting demand-supply," he said.

India has in the past used its status as Asia's third-largest LNG buyer to renegotiate deals with Qatar, Australia, and Russia. In 2015, it renegotiated the price of the long-term deal to import 7.5 million tonnes per year of LNG from Qatar, helping in saving Rs 8,000 crore.

In 2017, it got ExxonMobil Corp to lower the price of Gorgon LNG and a year later convinced Gazprom to lower rates also.
Senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday questioned the objectivity of members of European Union (EU) Parliament who have backed resolutions against the CAA, asking if they ever raised their voices over "victimisation" of minority Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan.

His assertion came after close to 600 lawmakers in the 751-member parliament moved six resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying the enactment of the law marked a dangerous shift in India's citizenship regime.

"The government of India has already explained that it (the CAA) is our internal matter. We believe in engagement. Lots of Left Parties there have sought this resolution and our External Affairs Minister will engage with them and explain our position," Prasad told a press conference at the Delhi BJP office.

The powerful 28-nation bloc is set to debate and vote on the motion tabled by a large chunk of its members against the CAA.

Asked about the upcoming EU Parliament's debate, Prasad asked a counter question, "Have my esteemed friends of EU Parliament sought to raise a voice over victimisation of Hindu girls or a Sikh Granthi's daughter in Pakistan? It is high time they also need to be objective."



The European Union (EU) Parliament should not take any action questioning the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures, government sources had said on Sunday.

India hopes that the "sponsors and supporters" of the resolutions will engage with the government to get a full and accurate assessment of facts before they proceed further, the sources had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The share price of UltraTech Cement gained 2.4 percent intraday on January 27, as most brokerage houses remained bullish on the stock and raised their price target after the December quarter earnings.

While having an overweight call on the stock, Morgan Stanley raised its price target to Rs 5,350 from Rs 5,000 as the earnings were in line with expectations. Trends and commentary showed signs of a demand revival.

"The company remained our preferred pick within our cement coverage as the demand seen in December will be sustained over the coming months," it added. The brokerage increased its FY21, FY22 EBITDA estimates by 2.2 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.

Sharekhan, too, kept its buy rating but with a revised price target of Rs 5,200, rolling forward valuation to FY2022 earnings.

The brokerage expects UltraTech to be one of the key beneficiaries from the government infrastructure spend and affordable housing.

UltraTech reported a 90.2 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit in the third quarter at Rs 711.3 crore on revenue of Rs 10,354 crore that fell 0.9 percent YoY.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 23.7 percent YoY to Rs 1,973 crore and margin expanded by 380bps to 19.1 percent during the quarter.

Its restated standalone adjusted net profit grew 79 percent YoY led by a 4.4 percent rise in realisation and flat opex.

The company showed strong operating performance while Century's exit capacity utilisation improved to 79 percent.

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Consolidated net debt reduced by Rs 3,486 crore leading to drop in net debt/EBITDA to 1.87x from 2.83x in FY2019.

UltraTech said it would expand capacity by 3.4 MTPA in the east which is expected to commission by FY2021-end and the integration of Century's cement business is likely to be completed by the end of Q2FY21.

"Ultratech Cement reported Q3FY20 earnings in line with our estimates. However, earnings missed consensus estimates by 6 percent due to lower than expected volumes. Century cement posted EBITDA per tonne of Rs 267 per tonne against break-even in Q2FY20, driven by improvement in utilization, lower maintenance cost and gradual migration to Ultratech brand," said Prabhudas Lilladher. The brokerage reiterated its buy call with a target of Rs 5,110 from Rs 4,675 earlier.

Around 84 percent of Century cement's volumes would be migrated to UltraTech brand by Q2FY21 against 55 percent in the month of December.

Led by well-diversified regional presence and with capacity of 117 million tonne and market share of 22 percent) and highly efficient operations, UltraTech remains the best candidate in cement sector to play Indian infrastructure and housing theme, said the brokerage. It which expects the company to beat street expectation on fast turnaround of Century cement, backed by improvement in realisations and lower energy and logistic costs.

Hence, it increased EBITDA estimates by 8.1/10.7 percent for FY21/FY22.

The management remained optimistic on demand recovery, driven by government infrastructure spending and a recovery in the real-estate sector. It expects EBITDA per tonne of Century's plants to improve to Rs 1,000 per tonne in Q1FY21.

Emkay also said UltraTech's Q3 consolidated results were in line with estimates.

"We raise FY20/21 EPS estimates by 6.2/8 percent factoring in lower interest costs. We believe UTCEM will be the key beneficiary of improvement in cement demand. We roll forward valuations to FY22E and maintain buy rating," it added.

While raising price target to Rs 4,600 from Rs 4,425 and Rs 4,340 from Rs 4,246, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies maintained neutral and hold ratings on the stock respectively, even after Q3 results were with their estimates.

"Excluding Century / Binani acquisition, the company's volume rose 1-2 percent YoY. Demand has picked up in many of the other regions since December," said Goldman Sachs. It expects an uptick in profitability & demand in Q4 and also in FY21. It raised FY20-23 EBITDA estimates by 1-3 percent).

Jefferies said the demand commentary was positive but Century turnaround looked tricky. "UltraTech remains on deleveraging glide path. The company did not bid for Emami due to a mismatch in valuation expectations."

The stock has rallied 15 percent in the last one month. It was quoting at Rs 4,700, up Rs 58.95, or 1.27 percent, on the BSE at 1055 hours.

: The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Police are investigating a 'racist attack' after footage of a white schoolboy being kicked and beaten by a group of eight black teenagers in France was uploaded and shared on social media.

A video on Twitter shows the teenager being repeatedly kicked in the commuter town of Etampes, south of Paris.

Around eight youths are involved in the assault, which took place outside the Jean-Etienne Guettard high school.

French police are investigating after a video surfaced on social media last week of a group of black teenagers beating up a white schoolboy in Etampes, south of Paris

An image taken from the video, which was uploaded to Twitter last week, shows one of the gang dragging the youngster by his collar and kicking him outside the high school in Etampes, southeast of Paris

The youths can be seen kicking the defenceless youngster in the video, which has been retweeted 2,200 times since last week, while he tries to protect his face outside a high school in Etampes, near Paris

The boy being assaulted is the only white person in the film, prompting accusations that he may have been attacked because of his colour.

One poster wrote: In Etampes, a band of thugs attacked one white high school student for fun while those filming laugh. This racist, anti-white aggression is one too much.

The video is not dated, a source told the Parisien news outlet, adding: We see a teenager on the ground taken to task by eight other young people.

Laughing, they kick him then one of the attackers jumps on the young man. Behind the camera, we hear laughter then a girl's voice which says: It's not easy".

The mob can be seen kicking the schoolboy as he curls up on the floor outside a high school in Etampes near Paris

French prosecutors are aware of the horrifying video since it began being shared last week. They said there has been no complaint brought forward by the victim, who is pictured holding his nose after the relentless attack

A spokesman for Frances National Police force said the incident was under investigation, and that it could be a staged video-aggression.

The police referred to the Happy Slapping craze that started in the UK in 2005, and which saw bored youngsters carrying out violent attacks so that they could be filmed and posted online.

Prosecutors in Evry-Courcouronnes have also been made aware of the Etampes video, but no complaint has yet been made to them by the victim.

Filming an assault carried out by an accomplice is a criminal offence in France, one that can punished by up to five years in prison and a fine equivalent to around 63,000.

Bernard Laplace, the Mayor of Etampes, said the apparent attack was scandalous, adding: We will be particularly vigilant about this kind of intolerable behaviour.
The European Union has called on Sri Lanka to enact a law on campaign finance to improve transparency in the election process and prevent the biased poll coverage by private and state media.

Sri Lanka has no laws to restrict campaign finances. The independent election monitors have been calling for a law to do so.

Presenting its final report on Sri Lanka's November 16 presidential election, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) called for a law on campaign finance among its main recommendations.

The EU's chief election observer Maria Matias commended the country's Elections Commission (EC) for its credible and professional work in the recent presidential election.

The electoral process was well managed by the EC, and we noted that campaigning on the ground was peaceful and the atmosphere calm despite a small number of violent incidents, Matias said.

"However, the absence of a law on campaign finance and the biased election coverage by private and state media contributed to an uneven playing field and limited the opportunity for most candidates to convey their message," she added.

The mission made 23 recommendations to improve the electoral process.

"The law should include clear provisions on timely disclosure before and after elections, oversight, sanctions and enforcement.

The mission also asked the government to empower the independent elections commission.

"The law should empower the elections commissioner to issue, in a timely manner binding regulatory instruments with clear provisions for enforcement and to develop and codify internal procedures.

The recommendations call for creating a level-ground of campaigning while urging better cooperation between social media platforms and the elections commission.

The EU had deployed 30 long-term and 30 short-term members from 27 EU member states assisted by Switzerland and Norway from October 11 to December 12 to assess all aspects of the presidential election.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
This is Up and Down, where we give a brief thumbs up or thumbs down on the issues from the past week.

Up

The cleanup of a massive diesel spill under downtown Mandan is done after more than 35 years. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality updated the public last week about the process to decommission the site, which involves plugging 200 wells in downtown Mandan and tearing out the connected piping. Since the cleanup began in the 1980s, 770,000 gallons of diesel have been recovered. The spill was the result of fueling activity at the BNSF Railway yard. The railroad reached a $30 million settlement with the city and state. Several monitoring wells will remain in place to make sure no more diesel migrates from the site. The cleanup has been a success, but its a good reminder for our state how long it takes to clean up environmental contamination.

Down

Cases of chronic wasting disease in North Dakota deer saw a significant increase recently. Eight deer killed by hunters last fall tested positive for the fatal disease that affects deer, moose and elk. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in hunter-killed deer to 24 since 2009. Wildlife officials say the spread of the disease is expected, and it has not yet progressed to eastern North Dakota. Its a concern for the state, which sees a boost in tourism from hunters estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars each year.

Up

Drivers of electric vehicles will have less range anxiety, or fear of running out of power while driving long distances, after 10 communities get new charging stations installed. The stations will be funded in part by the $8.1 million awarded to the state through the 2016 Volkswagen settlement between the federal government and the auto manufacturer. Most of the charging stations will be fast charging stations, which can offer a nearly complete charge in 30 minutes.

Down

North Dakota law enforcement agencies continue to encounter large quantities of drugs. Last week, Grant County had its largest meth seizure ever after the sheriffs department intercepted a package with 5 pounds of meth worth $40,000. In a different case, a Bismarck police investigation led to the seizure of 200 pounds of marijuana and several pounds of THC concentrate. Large seizures are becoming more routine, rather than the exception.

Up

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation plans to expand its Good Road Recovery Center drug treatment facility in north Bismarck. The tribe is building a 40-unit transitional living center for women and children and a wellness and outreach center to offer a continuum of care to those seeking addiction treatment. The center has treated 46 people since it opened in 2018.

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The Duke of York, in his role as colonel of the Grenadier Guards (Jonathan Brady/PA)

The Duke of York has provided zero cooperation with FBI officials investigating the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, according to a US prosecutor.

It comes after Andrew said he would consider giving evidence under oath over Epstein if push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so in a controversial BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019.

Here is a timeline of the dukes relationship with Epstein.

 1990s

Andrew told BBC Newsnight he first met the since-disgraced financier through his girlfriend back in 1999.

But in March 2011, the dukes then-private secretary Alastair Watson, who spent nine years in the role, wrote to The Times newspaper saying Andrew met Epstein in the early 1990s.

Andrew later says he sees Epstein infrequently, adding probably no more than only once or twice a year.

 2000

Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell are seen on holiday with Epstein at Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

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Epstein and Ms Maxwell attend a party at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen to mark Andrews 40th birthday, the Princess Royals 50th, the Queen Mothers 100th and Princess Margarets 70th.

 2001

Virginia Roberts claims to have had sex with Andrew three times, including one orgy, with the first encounter allegedly taking place in Ms Maxwells London townhouse.

Ms Roberts claims to have had sex with Andrew on two more occasions, at Epsteins New York home and at an orgy on his private island in the Caribbean.

 2008

Epstein admits prostituting minors and is sentenced to 18 months in prison.

 2010

Epstein is released from jail.

Andrew is photographed with the disgraced Epstein in New Yorks Central Park.

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Footage emerges years later, reportedly shot on December 6 2010, showing him inside Epsteins Manhattan mansion, from where he is seen looking out from a large door of the property waving a woman goodbye after Epstein leaves to get into a chauffeur-driven car.

 2011

The duke quits his role as UK trade envoy after the fallout from the Central Park photos.

 2015

Buckingham Palace denies Andrew has committed any impropriety after he is named in US court documents related to Epstein.

A woman, later named in reports as Ms Roberts, alleges in papers filed in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is under the age of consent in the state.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Andrew, in his first public engagement since he was embroiled in the allegations, responds, saying: Firstly I think I must, and want, for the record, to refer to the events that have taken place in the last few weeks.

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Whatsapp The Duke of York laughs during a reception with business leaders at the sideline of the World Economic Forum in Davos Michel Euler/PA)

I just wish to reiterate, and to reaffirm, the statements that have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace.

In April the claims against Andrew are struck from US civil court records following a federal judges ruling.

 2019

Newly released legal documents show that Johanna Sjoberg, another alleged Epstein victim, claimed Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaires Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Buckingham Palace said the allegations are categorically untrue.

Epstein is found dead in his jail cell on August 10, having killed himself after being charged with sex trafficking.

Later that month a pilot on Epsteins private jet claims Andrew was a passenger on past flights with the financier and Ms Roberts.

The Sun newspaper reported that David Rodgers said in evidence released in August that Epstein, Andrew and the-then 17-year-old travelled to the US Virgin Islands on April 11 2001.

Buckingham Palace describes the evidence statement as having a number of inconsistencies and said that Andrew was on a different continent in some cases.

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Whatsapp Andrew speaking about his links to Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with BBC Newsnights Emily Maitlis (Mark Harrison/BBC/PA)

Following Epsteins death, a statement from the palace says that Andrew is appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epsteins alleged crimes.

Breaking his silence on the issue for the first time since 2015, Andrew then releases a statement on August 24 saying: At no stage during the limited time I spent with him (Epstein) did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction.

In November, BBC Newsnight reveals the duke has spoken about his relationship with Epstein in a no holds barred interview.

Presenter Emily Maitlis wrote on Twitter that it was a no questions vetted exchange.

In the interview the duke said he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Roberts and added he could not have had sex with her in March 2001 because he was at Pizza Express with daughter Beatrice on the day in question.

He added he did not regret his friendship with the sex offender but admitted he should not have gone to see him in New York in 2010 to break off their friendship.

A letter from Mr Watson to The Times in 2011 resurfaces suggesting Andrew met Epstein in the early 1990s rather than 1999 as he has previously stated.

A statement by His Royal Highness The Duke of York KG. pic.twitter.com/solPHzEzzp  The Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) November 20, 2019

Four days after the interview, the Duke of York released a statement confirming he was stepping back from public duties for the foreseeable future with permission from The Queen.

Andrew also said he deeply sympathised with all of Epsteins victims and added he was willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.

Four days later, the duke issues a statement saying he is stepping back from public life, with the Queens approval, as lawyers for Epsteins victims say they plan to subpoena Andrew to be questioned under oath.

It comes after businesses, charities and universities begin to cut ties with the duke following the car crash interview.

In December, he joins his mother and senior royals for a private Christmas Day service at church in Sandringham but misses the traditional public event where crowds line up to get a glimpse of the royals arriving and leaving.

 2020

On January 19, Andrew makes a rare public appearance by joining his mother at church in Sandringham, the first time they have been pictured together since the week after his Newsnight interview.

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The fallout of the Epstein scandal returns on January 27 when US prosecutor Geoffrey Berman tells reporters in New York that the FBI has reached out to the duke in connection with the probe, adding Andrew has provided zero cooperation.
China's deadly coronavirus is becoming stronger and carriers of the disease can pass it on even if they show no symptoms, health authorities have warned.

Already, nearly 2,000 people have been infected and 56 killed by the disease as of Saturday night.

Health authorities around the world are racing to prevent a pandemic after a handful of cases of infection were reported outside China, including in Thailand, Australia, the US and France.

The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because much about it is still unknown, such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases.

China's National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said the incubation period for the virus can range from one to 14 days. But unlike Sars, infection can occur even when there are no symptoms, making the disease difficult to control its spread.

Sars was a coronavirus that originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003.

"According to recent clinical information, the virus' ability to spread seems to be getting somewhat stronger," Mr Ma said.

The Lunar New Year holiday, traditionally celebrated by hundreds of millions of Chinese travelling around the country and abroad to see family, began on Friday but has been severely disrupted by the outbreak.

Mr Ma said China would intensify its containment efforts, which have so far included transportation and travel curbs and the cancellation of big events.

The country may extend the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

The virus, believed to have originated late last year in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife, has spread to cities including Beijing and Shanghai. Hong Kong has six confirmed cases.

The World Health Organisation this week stopped short of calling the outbreak a global health emergency, but some health experts question whether China can contain the epidemic.

Chinese President Xi Jinping described the situation as "grave" at the weekend.

Health officials in Orange County, California, reported that a third case of the virus had been registered in the US in a traveller from Wuhan, who was in isolation and in good condition.

On Saturday, Canada declared a first "presumptive" confirmed case in a resident who had returned from Wuhan. Australia confirmed its first four cases.

No fatalities have been reported outside China.

Yesterday, China temporarily banned nationwide the sale of wildlife in markets, restaurants, and e-commerce platforms. Wild and often poached animals packed together in Chinese markets are blamed as incubators for viruses to evolve and jump the species barrier to humans.

The US State Department said it would bring back home its people at its Wuhan consulate while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government was working with China to arrange a charter flight for Japanese nationals to return from Wuhan.

The outbreak has prompted widening curbs on movements within China, with Wuhan, a city of 11 million, on virtual lockdown and transport links all-but severed except for emergency vehicles.

Health authorities in Beijing urged people not to shake hands but instead salute using a traditional cupped-hand gesture. The advice was sent in a text message that went out to mobile phone users.

Beijing also postponed the reopening of the city's schools and universities after the Lunar New Year holiday.

Hong Kong had already delayed the reopening of schools to February 17.

China has called for transparency in managing the crisis, after a cover-up of the spread of the Sars virus eroded public trust, but officials in Wuhan have been criticised for their handling of the current outbreak.

"People in my hometown all suspect the real infected patients number given by authorities," said Violet Li, who lives in the Wuhan district where the seafood market is located.

"I go out with a mask twice a day to walk the dog - that's the only outdoor activity," she said.

Illustrating the extent of disruption to life in China, overall passenger travel declined by nearly 29pc on Saturday, the first day of the Lunar New Year, from a year earlier, with air passengers down 42pc.

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of flights from China, although some experts have questioned how effective these efforts are.
Thomas Markle has warned that 'everything will come out' if he faces daughter Meghan in court.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing a newspaper for publishing a personal letter she sent to him in August 2018.

Mr Markle has already agreed to be a witness and pledged to expose what he said were 'lies' about him.

'It will be emotional. I don't know how we will both accept it,' he said.

'It would be the worst place to have to meet her and Harry - but it might come down to that because I will certainly testify against the things that have been said about me. The lies.'

Thomas Markle, appearing in a Channel 5 documentary that aired last week, has warned that 'everything will come out' if he faces daughter Meghan in court

Mr Markle, Doria and their daughter as she started her career and within a few years of this photo she would be earing $40,000 per episode of Suits

Mr Markle also called the Sussexes' decision to step back from their duties the 'dumbest thing'.

Labelling Prince Harry 'whipped', he also told the Sun his daughter 'has turned into his mother'.

The two have not spoken since the fall out before the Royal wedding in 2018, with Mr Markle yet to meet Prince Harry or grandson Archie.

He revealed he had gone to the Mail on Sunday - the sister paper of the Daily Mail - about the infamous letter in order to defend himself from attacks from Meghan's friends in People magazine.

Meghan, 38, has accused the newspaper of breaching her privacy, her data protection rights and her copyright when it published extracts.

The 75-year-old has already given lawyers previously unseen text messages that reveal the breakdown of the relationship between father and daughter.

Mr Markle also called the Sussexes' (pictured) decision to step back from their duties the 'dumbest thing'

Thomas Markle said he knew Meghan would be a star after seeing her perform as a teenager

Mr Markle added: 'I'm tired of being lied about and not being defended.

'I put the newspaper in this position by offering up a portion of that letter, which led to them being sued.

'This is my fault so I have to stand up for myself. It is a responsibility thing.'

In the letter, Meghan allegedly accused her father of breaking her heart 'into a million pieces' and causing her to 'crumble inside' by colluding with a paparazzi photographer.

Mr Markle, however, said the Sussexes had done 'exactly what they told me I shouldn't be doing' by stepping back.

He added: 'They are cashing in on the Sussex name.

'They've gone commercial. They should be just called Harry and Meghan now.

Mr Markle showing some royal souvenirs he keeps on the mantle of his home during the Channel 5 documentary that aired last week

'Leaving the Royal Family is the dumbest thing they could have done.

'I don't think they thought this out. It's almost an abdication.

'The only thing I can say is there are people who say she was reaching out to me and saying she loved me.

'Well the word 'love' is not there at all, in relation to me.'

Earlier this month half-sister Samantha revealed her father was 'deeply hurt' by the letter, telling the BBC: 'If he is called, he will come.'

However, Mr Markle revealed it won't be easy to testify due to the love he still holds for Meghan, but admitted it was his responsibility.

He said: 'It would definitely be a two-Valium day for me.

'My nerves would be going, my stress levels would be very high and my blood pressure up.

'If I saw her, I would say: 'I'm sorry, I wish we could have sat down and worked this out'.

Thomas Markle has shared his family album with Channel 5 including this picture of him bonding with Newborn Meghan as she changed her nappy after her birth in August 1981

Thomas holds his daughter, who he described as his pride and joy, saying he couldn't put her down when he was home from work

Meghan is cuddled by her mother Doria on a sunny Californian day when she is around a year old in a previously unseen photo

'I don't like the idea of sides, of being in a battle with my daughter. I don't like not being able to talk to her.

'But in a way I would be thrilled to meet her, wherever she shows up. Although that (a court) is not the ideal place. I love my daughter. I think I have made that clear to everybody.

'It hurts we couldn't find a way to make up. All I want to do is tell the truth.'

The latest revelation from Mr Markle comes just a few days after he appeared in a bombshell documentary charting the relationship with his daughter.

The 75-year-old shared extraordinary unseen photos and films of his Duchess daughter for the Channel 5 film where he spoke of their loving and close relationship

He also described his pride after the birth of his daughter in August 1981 as he opened up to Britain's Channel 5 in a film, watched by 1.2million people last week - just days after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex started their new life in Canada.

Meghan sits up on her parents' bed in another a new family photo shown on the Channel 5 documentary

Mr Markle says Meghan's childhood years were 'the happiest of my life' as he shared dozens of pictures of her key moments including on the day she entered the world and as father and daughter bonded while he changed her nappies in the following days.

There are also a string of happy photos of Meghan with her mother Doria Ragland, including at family Christmas parties and summer picnics near their home in California, before she moved in with Thomas as a teenager after the couple's divorce.

Mr Markle has also shared rare home video footage of Meghan's first school productions where he says a star was born, her high school graduation and leaving for college.

An emotional Mr Markle also said he was 'jealous' and cried as he saw the Prince of Wales walking his daughter down the aisle and justified making the film to defend himself and rebut the 'trashy things' said about him.
[January 27, 2020] Breg, Inc. Adds Benefits and Eligibility Checks to Breg Vision Software for Orthopedic Bracing Programs

CARLSBAD, Calif., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to a frequently cited pain point for both orthopedic physicians and their patients, Breg, Inc.'s latest software release will improve transparency around the cost of durable medical equipment (DME) products like knee braces, shoulder slings, splints, boots and crutches at the time of dispensement. Billing for medical products varies widely based on contracted pricing with insurance agencies, individual healthcare coverage and deductibles, so doctors often can't give their patients precise cost estimates on products at the time they are prescribed. Breg Vision 7.0.8, available now in Apple's app store, features real-time benefits and eligibility checks that account for each patient's specific insurance plan. Using the app, doctors can identify the best products for a patient's recovery, then assess estimated costs with them upfront, empowering patients to be part of the deciion.



Breg Vision is also the only orthopedic management software on the market that can connect directly into healthcare providers' Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, seamlessly integrating DME inventory management into the supply chain. To learn more about Breg Vision 7.0.8, please visit www.breg.com/impact/vision/.

About Breg, Inc.

Breg makes orthopedic bracing and devices, but more than that, we make durable medical equipment programs easier for our customers every step of the way, from hurt to healthy. We are committed to supporting practitioners through comprehensive partnerships, supporting patients with high-quality products and services, and delivering seamless support to facilities navigating the complexities of modern healthcare. As the largest U.S. provider of cold therapy devices and second largest domestic provider of orthopedic bracing, Breg provides products to millions of patients annually. Founded in 1989, Breg is based in Carlsbad, Calif., and is a company of Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic investor focused exclusively on the health care industry. Visit www.breg.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/breg-inc-adds-benefits-and-eligibility-checks-to-breg-vision-software-for-orthopedic-bracing-programs-300993761.html SOURCE Breg, Inc.

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New Delhi, Jan 27 : Amid nationwide protest over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has identified an organisation named Rehab Foundation of India (RFI), which has funded over Rs 120 crore for the protest.

The ED also alleged that the payments were made to senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, senior advocates Indira Jaising, Dushyant Dave and a person named Abdul Samad, who is also named in National Investigation Agency (NIA).

An ED source told IANS, "While keeping a tab on the Popular Front of India (PFI), we identified 73 bank accounts. And following the money trail of the funding we came to know about Rehab Foundation of India, which has funded over Rs 120 crore for the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests." The source said that the bank accounts with huge transactions were detected in last two months.

He said, "The ED has been keeping a close tab on the 27 bank accounts of PFI, nine bank accounts of RFI, 37 individuals and entities in 17 different banks." "During the probe it was found that the money transferred into these bank accounts were either done by cash deposit, NEFT or RTGS or IMPS mode. And the amounts were withdrawn on the same day or within two to three days leaving only minimal amount in these bank accounts," the source revealed.

The source further claimed that from the PFI's Syndicate Bank account, maintained in Nehru Place Branch in New Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh districts of Hapur, Shamli, Bahraich, Bijnor, Dasna and others, deposit of Rs 41.5 crore was made. "About Rs 27 crore was deposited through cash payments in 27 bank accounts," he said.

The source further claimed that Sibal received an amount of Rs 77 lakh, while Jaising received Rs 4 lakh, Dave received Rs 11 lakh and Abdul Samad received Rs 3.10 lakh in his bank account.

Speaking to IANS, Sibal said, "I have never received any amount from any organisation except through litigation. And I don't even remember. Give me the dates of the receipt and then I shall find out and let you know." Sibal, who is also a senior lawyer, further said, "if I would have received the payment then it must be a cheque payment, as I don't take cash." He said: "If this amount has come to me through bank transfer then I must have raised a bill for a case. And if that amount is paid for legal services then what is wrong in that?" he said.

Sibal also said that he has never appeared for any one linked behind the anti-CAA protests.

"I have not represented any of the PFI cases and also not of the anti-CAA protesters. PFI has never paid to me," he said.

The ED source further said that it has been noticed that Rs 1.04 crore was deposited in 15 bank accounts of PFI in 10 banks and Rehab India (five banks) during the period starting from December 4, 2019 till January 6, 2020.

He said that the deposits were in the forms of IMPS using mobile and deposit amounts vary from Rs 5,000 to Rs 49,000. The amount of deposit was kept below Rs 50,000 in order to prevent the disclosure of the identity of the depositor.

The source made another shocking revelation stating that nine offices of PFI and related organisations have also been opened in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area to fund the ongoing protest against the CAA.
UN says six civilians killed in Afghanistan airstrike



Kabul, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2020



At least six civilians were killed in an airstrike in northern Afghanistan over the weekend, the UN confirmed Monday, as fighting continues to rage across the country despite hopes the US and Taliban were hammering out a ceasefire.

The UN's findings come days after reports first surfaced that several civilians had been killed in an airstrike in Boka village in northern Balkh province.

"UN gravely concerned as its initial findings indicate at least four children and two women killed Saturday by pro-government forces airstrike in Boka village, #Balkh, #Afghanistan," tweeted the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The US and Afghan militaries are the only forces in Afghanistan that have the capability to carry out airstrikes in the country.

Balkh governor's spokesman Munir Farhad confirmed that civilians had been killed in Boka, but said officials were still investigating the incident.

The statement comes as Washington has for weeks been calling for the violence to be reduced in the country, amid talks with the Taliban over a possible agreement that would see US troops begin to leave Afghanistan in return for security guarantees.

Taliban sources told AFP earlier this month they had offered to initiate a brief ceasefire of seven to 10 days, but there was no announcement of the proposal by either party.

The Taliban are aiming to reach a withdrawal agreement with the US by the end of January and are prepared to "scale down" military operations ahead of signing a deal, their chief spokesman said earlier this month.

The two sides had been negotiating the deal for a year and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when Trump abruptly declared the process "dead", citing Taliban violence.

Talks were later restarted in December in Qatar, but paused again following an attack near the US-run Bagram military base in Afghanistan.

Any agreement with the Taliban is expected to have two pillars -- a US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a commitment by the insurgents not to offer sanctuary to jihadists. It would ultimately have to win final approval from Trump.

Last month, UNAMA reported that more than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade -- a grim milestone after more than 18 years of war since US and NATO allies invaded the country following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

str-emh-us-ds/fox
An Australian woman participating in a cake-eating contest on the countrys national holiday died after she choked on a piece of the countrys national cake.

The 60-year-old woman was a competitor in an Australia Day competition at the Beach House Hotel in Hervey Bay on Sunday, 9 News reported.

The annual holiday marks the anniversary of when British ships first arrived in New South Wales in 1788, and is celebrated across the country with various events  including competitions like the one in which the woman participated.

Competitors were eating lamington, Australias national cake, which is made of butter or sponge cake thats coated in chocolate sauce and rolled in coconut, when the incident occurred.

RELATED: Mom Issues Plea to Parents as She Prepares for Sons Death After He Tried the Choking Challenge

She reportedly suffered a seizure as she ate and subsequently choked on a piece of lamington.

Witnesses told 9 News that the pubs security guard and manager quickly jumped in and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but that the woman died after being transported to a local hospital.

RELATED: Family Sues University Where 20-Year-Old Daughter Died in a Pancake Eating Contest

The Beach House Hotel addressed the tragedy in a statement on Facebook, saying hotel staffers were offered professional support after witnessing the incident.

The management and staff of the Beach House Hotel offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of one of our patrons following the tragic event at our venue on Australia Day, the statement read. We acknowledge and thank our supportive patrons, staff, and the Queensland Ambulance Service for their prompt and professional response while this tragic incident was unfolding.

Video from the event obtained by 9 News shows competitors consuming cake as a large crowd looked on.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said India cherishes its "very special friendship" with Bhutan and expressed confidence that ties between the two countries will continue to deepen in the future.

"Extremely touched by the lovely #RepublicDay wishes! You have wonderfully highlighted the unbreakable bond between our nations. India cherishes the very special friendship with Bhutan and I am sure our ties will continue to deepen in the times to come," the Prime Minister tweeted in response to Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering's wishes to India on the occasion of 71st Republic Day.

In a special message on his Facebook page, Tshering said that Bhutan has drawn "immense inspirations" from India's journey over the decades.

"In your friendships, we sought courage. In your magnanimity, we have solicited confidence. And today, as you celebrate the auspicious Republic Day, the people of Bhutan and I take the opportunity to offer our gratitude! May its people enjoy good health and happiness at all times. I wish you all a Happy 71st Republic Day!" said Tshering, adding that Bhutan and its people heartily pray for India's continues peace and prosperity.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A teacher who is living with his pregnant wife and child in a city that is at the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak is hoping to get his family out safely.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2020 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tom Williams along with his wife Lauren and son James are seen in this undated handout photo. Tom Williams is a British expat who has been living and working for about five years in Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province in China. His wife Lauren, who is from Langley, B.C., is about 35 weeks pregnant, he said in a telephone interview from Wuhan. He also has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, James, who was born in White Rock, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Tom Williams *MANDATORY CREDIT*

A teacher who is living with his pregnant wife and child in a city that is at the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak is hoping to get his family out safely.

Tom Williams is a British expat who has been living and working for about five years in Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province in China.

His wife Lauren, who is from Langley, B.C., is about 35 weeks pregnant, he said in a telephone interview from Wuhan. He also has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, James, who was born in White Rock, B.C.

We are quarantined in the city, he said.

While he said things are pretty calm and under control he noted the road closures have added a little bit of worry for when they will have to get his wife to the maternity hospital. She is due in the middle of February, he said.

Were due to give birth in Wuhan. Thats becoming a little bit more risky as time goes on, Williams said. Its a changing picture. Its changing everyday. New stuff and new guidelines going on.

He contacted the emergency hotline for the Canadian embassy over the weekend, he said.

Staff there put him through to Ottawa and he said he was told that he and his family should stay put.

Theres no imminent plans to evacuate Canadians from the city, Williams said, adding that he would like to get out of Wuhan as soon as possible, but was prepared for the alternative.

If I have to stay behind, so be it. As long as my wife is guaranteed a safe birth.

Other countries need to follow the lead of the United States, which has had a flight approved while working with the Chinese authorities, he said.

Particularly for people who are at higher risk.

China has now reported more than 2,700 cases of the new virus with at least 80 deaths, and officials say the rate at which it's spreading is accelerating.

In a news conference in Ottawa Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said 167 Canadian citizens in the affected region have registered their whereabouts with the federal government, a voluntary move that helps Canada keep track of them and get them information.

Eight of those have requested some form of "consular assistance," he said.

Canada doesn't have a standing diplomatic presence specifically in Wuhan. Some of its allies, such as the United States, have large consulates, which they're evacuating. They're taking some particularly vulnerable citizens with them on charter flights, where there's room alongside the diplomatic staff.

Canada does have a hotline for Canadians to call if they need help.

"We are also liaising with our international partners to ensure options to ensure the safety and well-being of all Canadians who need consular assistance in China," Champagne said.

In Wuhan, Williams said local shops are still open and well-stocked, however, some of the roads are allowing only approved vehicles.

"If you are more central in the city or closer to the epicentre of the virus then there are only approved vehicles allowed on those."

People have to wear masks according to guidelines and local authorities are checking peoples' temperatures, he said.

Williams and his family are not in the central part of the city, so cars are still allowed but theres very little traffic, he said.

Although the situation is sad and upsetting, Williams said hes quite peaceful about it.

It is what it is. You can't control these things sometimes, he said. Were trying to have hope instead of fear.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2020.
by Melani Manel Perera

For activists, the evidence and details to substantiate the head of state's claims are lacking. The issue of missing persons "is not only a political fact, but also has legal implications and deeply affects their families".

Colombo (AsiaNews) - To say that the 20 thousand people who disappeared during the civil war are dead, after 10 years of silence in the face of repeated requests from family members, is "irresponsible and insensitive". It is when Catholic priests and activists from Sri Lanka support AsiaNews, condemning the statements of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, that last week dissolved a stubborn silence on the fate of the thousands of people lost in the final stages of the conflict.

According to activists, the evidence and details to validate the head of state's claims are lacking. "How can they claim that 20 thousand people died without saying how, where, when and at the hands of whom, in front of desperate and anxious families?". Fr Nandana Matunga, director of the Human Rights Office of the diocese of Kandy, says: "The president must clarify how he has obtained this knowledge, otherwise it is only a guess without foundation. Innocent families and parents have been looking for their loved ones for more than 12 years. "

The priest continues: They are not satisfied with a simple death certificate. They want to know the truth, what really happened to the victims. Many of them remember the exact date and time, not only of when relatives disappeared or were killed, but also of when they were handed over to army officials in the later stages of the conflict. "

Ruki Fernando, social activist rewarded for his commitment to peace, criticizes Rajapaksa: "He is following in the footsteps of Ranil Wickremesinghe in making occasional, insensitive and irresponsible statements. Political leaders must understand that the issue of the disappeared is not only a political fact, but also has legal implications. More importantly, it is a question that deeply affects the families of the missing."

Some Tamil families, he says, have been protesting on the street for three years, with massive participation of other families who unite from time to time; still others have filed petitions in several courts in the country; they attended meetings with politicians, including the president, and an immense series of initiatives. " It is true, he admits, that "some were kidnapped by the Tamil Tiger rebels, but what happened to all those who surrendered to the army?".

For Brito Fernando, president of the "Families of the Missing" association, "at least the president has admitted what no other government had said before. But where did he get the 20,000 number from? The Missing Persons Office has never outlined it, nor the other commissions. The president ruled out disappearances after the war. But what about the famous white trucks on which the surrendered people were picked up? And the 5 thousand soldiers whose where-abouts are no longer known? ". The activist reports the numbers cited by other associations and prominent political figures: the ex-president of the island Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumaaranatunge in 2016 said she had accepted 65 thousand complaints; in 2017 Amnesty International said that the reported missing persons could be up to 100 thousand.
Sujatha Rao By

In accordance with constitutional requirements, the Centre constitutes a Finance Commission (FC) every five years to recommend the devolution of shareable resources between the Union and the states. For such determination, the FC holds detailed meetings with every state government and UT, besides commissioning sectoral papers.

The 15th FC, in an unusual departure from convention, constituted a High-Level Committee (HLC) with an unusual set of Terms of Reference that had little to do with resource devolution and more to do with state policy. As per the report, the HLC provided recommendations under four heads:

1. Regulatory framework - a) declare health as a human right; b) bring public health under the concurrent list of the VIIth schedule of the Constitution.

2. Human Resources for Health - a) banning private practice in medical colleges and suggesting that the FC constitute a committee to study the financial and governance implications of implementing such a policy; b) improving teaching of medical and nurse graduates.

3. Public Health Expenditure - a) increase public spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2025; b) base state funding on eight parameters such as increasing health budgets, universal immunisation, etc.

4. Strengthening delivery by focusing on primary health care - a) earmarking 70% of resources for primary care; b) managing resources for building infrastructure estimated to require about Rs 2 lakh crore.

What is unclear is how these recommendations, falling in the domain of public policy, help the FC in allocating resources. The banning of private practice is an issue that requires painstaking negotiations with doctors, particularly because a large number of private hospitals depend on dual practice by government doctors. This clearly falls outside the FCs ambit.

Though amending the VIIth Schedule for a more rational distribution of powers and responsibilities between the Union and the states is an important issue, the report does not provide justification for its recommendation to bring public health under the concurrent list. If accepted, the immediate implication would be the further centralisation of policymaking and empowering the Centre to legislate on these issues.

For example, a favoured recommendation of the Centre is converting district hospitals into medical colleges that many states are resisting, particularly NITI Aayogs idea of handing them on a 60-year lease to private investors. In this situation, the Centre can legislate taking over district hospitals and hastening privatisation without any accountability to the consequent distortions it may create in the development of the states health system.

What instead would have been useful and of immediate value is listing medical education and drugs under the Union list and shift maternal care, family planning, etc., that are key components of primary health care, to the state list, making funding, if any, from the Centre subject to achieving measurable targets and milestones. This is because the immediate need is to ensure the strict uniformity and quality standards of education as well as drugs at an all-India level.

Likewise, primary care is highly contextual, necessitating local solutions and innovation to achieve the goal of universal access to primary care that also includes health determinants - water, sanitation and nutrition. Yet, a barrier to such full realisation is the overbearing control of the Centre by way of conditionalities, funding and guidelines that are most often out of sync with the states needs. What is needed is fiscal arrangements like block grants subject to measuring outcomes. The HLC did not consider these issues nor consult the states. Instead, it reiterated the same recommendations of raising health spending to 2.5% of GDP and earmarking 70% of the funds allocated for primary care.

The HLC Report made useful recommendations on medical and nursing education that, if implemented, could help improve quality. However, here again there are contradictions - even while the HLC recommends further relaxation in rules to expand the availability of teachers and teaching sites by converting district hospitals to medical colleges, it fails to address the affordability of implementing such recommendations by cash-strapped states. Likewise, the recommendation to deepen the role of the private sector by providing more incentives to establish medium level hospitals of 200 beds, private medical colleges and so on lack justification.

Instead, what ought to have been discussed and examined in greater depth - considering that all six members were from tertiary care sector, two from the corporate sector - was why the corporate sector is sick, what needs to be done to stall further sell-outs to foreign capital, why the corporate sector has not added even a single bed in India in the last couple years and why medium and small hospitals are under closure in states like Kerala. The crisis in the private sector is as acute as in the public sector. Without addressing the financial model of the private sector, providing tax-based incentives is like pouring money into a black hole.

As such, the HLC deliberations will be of little utility in helping the FC determine the resources to be devolved to the states. The whole range of recommendations are more for the Ministry of Health and the National Medical Commission to consider. The financial model of healthcare in India needs straightening with a mix of policy and fiscal measures and ought to have been the central focus of the HLC. Once again, an invaluable opportunity to positively discriminate in favour of the high need and low resource states to bridge disparities and ensure equitable access to a guaranteed minimum standard of health and well-being, has been lost. The health sector is indeed jinxed.

Sujatha Rao is former Union Health Secretary and author of Do We care? Indias Health System. You can reach her on mail at ksujatharao@outlook.com
Author Philip Pullman complained the new Brexit 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma - only to be lectured about its correct usage on social media.

The 73-year-old novelist told his followers the commemorative Brexit coin should be 'boycotted by all literate people' because it is missing the 'correct' punctuation.

The coin reads: 'Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations', followed by Friday's date - when Britain will officially leave the European Union.

He implied the 50 piece should instead read: 'Peace, prosperity, and friendship', with the Oxford comma used before the 'and' to make clear the three components of the list are separate.

But his intervention sent Twitter into meltdown, with users split on whether the controversial punctuation mark is used in British English and others mocking his complaint.

Novelist Philip Pullman, 73, (pictured) told his followers the commemorative 50p Brexit coin should be 'boycotted by all literate people' because it is missing the correct punctuation

The His Dark Materials writer tweeted: 'The Brexit 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma, and should be boycotted by all literate people'.

Brexiteers on social media responded: 'Happy Brexit day!' and 'Still leaving' under a picture of Prime Minister Boris Johnson giving a thumbs up.

One person wrote: 'I thought it was used after three or more' and a confused face emoji.

Someone else simply commented: 'It does not need an Oxford comma'.

The new 50p coin reads: 'Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations', followed by Friday's date - when Britain will officially leave the European Union

While someone else wrote: 'An odd hill to choose. The Oxford comma is unnatural, unnecessary and unliked.'

The Times Literary Supplement's editor Stig Abell was another literary voice to condemn the lack of an Oxford, or serial, comma on the coin.

He wrote that 'not perhaps his only objection' to the coin was 'the lack of a comma after 'prosperity'', which he claimed was 'killing him'.

The Oxford comma debate stretches back years, with fierce arguments on both sides.

Those who condone its use claim it is essential before the final component in a list of three or more to separate each one.

Mr Pullman implied the 50 piece should instead read: 'Peace, prosperity, and friendship', with the Oxford comma used before the 'and' to make clear the three components of the list are separate

Several were puzzled by Mr Pullman's use of the Oxford comma and others denied the coin needs one

It is also important to separate elements of a list where one of them has the word 'and' included in it.

But many others argue it is unnecessary and not used in British English.

What is the Oxford comma? The punctuation mark, also described as a 'serial comma', is the final comma that comes before the conjunction in a list of three or more items. The first printed references can be traced back to writer F.H. Collins, who published it in his Authors and Printers Dictionary in 1905, before it appeared in the Oxford University Press (OUP), and became a controversial staple in the Oxford Style Manual. Advertisement

The Brexit 50p piece was unveiled by Chancellor Sajid Javid yesterday.

He said: 'Leaving the European Union is a turning point in our history and this coin marks the beginning of this new chapter.'

Approximately three million Brexit coins will enter circulation across the UK on Friday with a further seven million to be rolled out later this year.

Mr Javid, who is Master of the Mint, was given the first batch of coins, and will present one to Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, this week.

As part of the launch of the coin, the Royal Mint will open its doors for 24 hours to let people strike their own commemorative Brexit coins.

But it has sparked uproar among remainers, with Lord Adonis, a Labour peer who has consistently fought to reverse Brexit, tweeted: 'I am never using or accepting this coin.'

Meanwhile, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin doctor, echoed a similar sentiment as he said he will ask shops for alternatives to the coin if he is handed one in the future.
PHOENIX, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabis Industrial Marketplace is pleased to welcome Sun Valley Health as an expo sponsor to our Arizona B2B Cannabusiness Expo in Phoenix on Feb. 13 - 14, 2020. Sun Valley Health aims to optimize the certification process by putting patients first, and to provide franchise opportunities for those interested in operating their own clinic.

Arizona B2B Cannabusiness Expo in Phoenix on Feb. 13 - 14, 2020 Sun Valley Health

The couple behind Sun Valley, Dustin and Andrea Klein, have grown to five Arizona locations, serving over 20 percent of Arizona medical marijuana patients, and have opened in Las Vegas. In addition to serving over 20,000 patients a year, Sun Valley has launched their own CBD products: Sun Valley Science; a series of full-spectrum products, and Sollievo; a line of terpene-enriched, no-THC tinctures.

"Cannabis Industrial Marketplace" provides online and expo cannabusiness experiences. The 2020 Expo series stretches throughout the US focusing on emerging markets with the online resource CannabisImp.com providing access to over 4,000 Cannabusiness suppliers, backed by Strategic Market Solutions, LLC, a B2B lead generation company.

Attendees at our Arizona expo can discuss nationwide franchise opportunities at Sun Valley Franchising's booth, but those looking to obtain their medical marijuana card in Arizona will also be able to visit the expo's certification clinic.

According to Andrea Klein, the five-step clinic process models traditional medicine, putting patients more at-ease:

Paperwork See first doctor See second doctor Upload application to state website with help of staff member Get paperwork within 2 - 48 hours after appointment

The process takes anywhere from 45 minutes to one hour. "It's similar to traditional medicine, but with an alternative product that is better for [patients]," she said.

Adding, patients can expect their paperwork to be approved within 48 hours. "They get their card as quickly as possible," Klein said. "If it's a hassle, we handle it," she added. Appointments can be scheduled online https://www.sunvalleyhealth.com/cimp/ or at Booth 156 at the expo.

Additionally, attendees interested in Sun Valley franchise opportunities can look to Booth 100, and to attend Dustin Klein's seminar "A Proven Strategy for Starting a Cannabis Business with Limited Regulations & Low Investment" on Feb. 13th at 1:30 p.m. to learn more.

To purchase passes, head to azcannabisexpo.com/tickets.

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SOURCE Cannabis Industrial Marketplace

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BUCHAREST -- A judge in Romania has infuriated the son of a victim of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime by ruling that the communist dictator's feared secret police did not "systematically exterminate" imprisoned political dissidents after the mid-1980s.



Bucharest Appeals Court Judge Mihaela Nita wrote in her January 22 opinion that the 1985 death in custody of anti-communist dissident Gheorghe Ursu could not have been the work of Securitate agents because Ursu was not really a dissident.



"The policy of the Romanian state at that time was not to suppress forms of opposition to the political regime and the ruler of the state through violence and physical elimination," Nita reasoned while acquitting two former secret police officers, Marin Parvulescu and Vasile Hodis, in connection with Ursu's November 1985 death in a Bucharest prison cell.



Ursu's son, Andrei Ursu, told RFE/RL that the ruling was an insult to both his father and the memory of more than 1,000 Romanians killed by Romanian security forces before the December 1989 revolution culminated in the summary trial and execution of the widely reviled Ceausescu and his wife, Elena.



Ceausescu ran a ruthless police state that was characterized for over two decades by torture, arbitrary detentions, and secret trials against real and perceived enemies.



Ursu insists that his father died in custody after he was repeatedly beaten and tortured by Securitate interrogators.



Nita wrote that Romania's former Department of State Security, known as the Securitate, was no longer working in 1985 with "a clear intention of systematically exterminating any opponent of the state authorities."



She also said the elder Ursu's opposition to Ceausescu's regime was "insignificant" and that he was "a person who'd been privileged for a long time" under totalitarianism.



Therefore, Nita concluded, Ursu would not have been investigated by the secret police and Securitate agents would not have sought revenge against him for his views on Ceausescu.

'Intimidated By Ex-Agents'



Andrei Ursu told RFE/RL's Romanian Service on January 23 that the acquittal of the former Securitate agents shows that Romania's communist-era secret police "still have power within state institutions and in mass media."



"She was intimidated by these former Securitate agents," Ursu said from the United States, where he now resides. "She gave in to the pressure of the former Securitate."



"It's the only explanation I have," he said. "It may have been because she was afraid or because of other forms of influence. But I have no doubt that she has perverted this case."

Gheorghe Ursu was a construction engineer specializing in seismic risks and a published poet who was active in Romanian dissident circles.



Securitate files released after 1989 show the secret police began to target Ursu after he criticized Ceausescu's response to a 1977 earthquake that killed more than 1,500 people in southern Romania and damaged many buildings in Bucharest.

Ursu was on a team of experts assigned to assess and repair buildings that had been damaged by the quake.



He was outraged when reconstruction work was suspended in 1984 so that Ceausescu could instead focus resources on building the so-called House of the Republic -- an infamously megalomaniacal architectural project in Bucharest that now houses Romania's parliament.

Letters To RFE/RL



Ursu expressed his anger in at least two letters that he sent to RFE/RL at its Cold War headquarters in Munich, Germany.



Ceausescu reportedly was infuriated when the Romanian public heard Ursa's letters being read on the air by RFE/RL's Romanian Service.



As the secret police closed in on him, colleagues at the office Ursu headed seized a diary-like registry from his desk in which he'd been writing daily grievances against the totalitarian regime.



The secret police searched Ursu's home after his colleagues turned the notebook over to the Securitate.



According to his criminal file, Ursu was arrested on charges of illegally possessing foreign currency after agents found 15 U.S. dollars and 10 Deutsche marks at his home.

Andrei Ursu said Parvulescu and Hodis used torture to try to force his father to say that he'd been paid to send the letters to RFE/RL.



"They wanted to prove that he wrote the letters for money rather than out of any personal conviction -- or simply that he was crazy," he said. "It was an attempt to cover up an authentic act of dissent against Nicolae Ceausescu -- to discredit the accusations against Ceausescu and to discredit Radio Free Europe."



"If he had played by their rules and said that he had received money for writing those letters, they probably would not have killed him," Andrei said of his father's death.



In the indictment against Parvulescu and Hodis, prosecutors in a military trial court charged the two with "crimes against humanity" in connection with Ursu's death. They said the two conducted Ursu's interrogations and oversaw his torture through "systematic beatings."



The prosecutors also named two communist-era interior ministers, George Homostean and Tudor Postelnicu, when the trial against Parvulescu and Hodis began in August 2016.



But both Homostean and Postelnicu died within a year, before the military tribunal reached a verdict.



Previous trials over Ursu's death implicated Ursu's cellmate, Marian Clita, and two local police officers who worked at the prison.



In 2000, a court convicted Clita and sentenced him to 20 years in prison after he confessed that he'd beaten Ursu to death after being ordered to do so by jailers.



Clita's sentence was later reduced and he was freed in 2008. He is now serving another prison term in Romania for the murder of a Danish flight attendant.



Police Colonel Tudor Stanica and his subordinate Mihai Creanga were both convicted in 2003 on charges that they had ordered Clita to kill Ursu.



Each was sentenced to 20 years in prison. But Stanica was released on medical grounds after serving just 11 months, and Creanga was released after five years.



Ursu's son insists that Clita's confession was a performance aimed at protecting those who ordered his father's death from justice.

Written by Ron Synovitz in Prague with reporting by Adelina Radulescu in Bucharest


Some incumbent players have begun reconsidering their future investment plans for 5G and national broadband, which are slated to form the fulcrum of the governments ambitious Digital Communications Policy.

It is estimated that the global 5G value chain will generate $3.5 trillion in economic output by 2035. India is also keen to board the 5G bus sooner than later. Recent events such as demonetisation and low mobility price points have leapfrogged India to a pervasive digital adoption over the past 18 months.

Indias digital footprint is quite prolificover 1.2 billion mobile subscribers, 450 million social media users and 200+ million Indians using mobile banking and digital payments. At the current pace, it is estimated that Indias digital economy has the potential to reach $1 trillion by 2025.

The launch of 5G-enabled technologies is expected to be transformative in the telco and other industries by unlocking various disruptive new technologies. Hence, telecom infrastructure and services are increasingly emerging as critical determinants of a global economys growth and well-being. With an inherently mature IT/ITeS sector, India stands poised to benefit from harnessing new digital technologies and platforms to unlock productivity, as well as to reach unserved and underserved markets; thus catalysing economic growth and development, generating new-age jobs and livelihoods, and ensuring access to next-generation services for its citizens.

A recent Deloitte study estimated the Indian digital economy's contribution is at 5 percent of the GDP. This is likely to grow by 1.5-1.75 times in the next 2-3 years. The telcos will need to make significant investments to make 5G a reality including investments in 5G spectrum (the recommended base price is nearly 30-40 percent higher than other markets that have seen a 5G launch such as South Korea and the US), fiberisation and backhaul, and network densification.

However, the telecom ecosystem enabling this continues to be under severe stress. Some of the long incumbent and leading telecom operators are under significant strain with an overall debt of Rs 4 lakh crores with around 25 percent of this pertaining to licensing fees and related dues.

A sustained hyper-competitive environment and a multitude of indirect levies ranging from telecom regulatory fees linked to revenues, custom duties on imported telecom gear and the GST regime of 18 percent have further added to the financial stress. This situation has led to most players operating at negative EBITDA. Some incumbent players have begun reconsidering their future investment plans for 5G and national broadband, which are slated to form the fulcrum of the governments ambitious Digital Communications Policy.

If India has to become a $5 trillion economy sooner, telecom will be one of the pillars on which the foundation would be laid. The task before policymakers is to ensure that the advantages of the telecom infrastructure and related technologies support its divergent demography, economic conditions and urbanisation.

Some key expectations of the sector from the upcoming Budget are:

Investment incentives to be offered, either by way of accelerated depreciation or through additional allowance in respect of capital investments, to attract foreign telecom gear manufacturing companies to set up manufacturing facilities in India. This will, in turn, propel the government initiative for job creation and also boost small and medium enterprises in the sector.

Incentive plans and relaxation from tax/regulatory fee for initial years on 5G acquisition to ease the pain of financial outgo in post 5G scenario.

Revisit spectrum charges and other levies faced by the telecom companies and potentially offer amnesty schemes for past dues.

Clarify the impact of certain amendments introduced by the nce Act 2012. For example, royalty definitions do not apply to payments against Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC). It is needed to clarify that payments made for bandwidth arrangements are pure service arrangements and this will go a long way to reduce litigations pending in various courts.

Introduce a litigation settlement scheme, similar to Sabka VishwasLegacy Dispute Resolution Scheme to settle long-pending disputes.

Extending deduction of 200 percent of expenditure incurred on research and development in telecom, to bring in new technologies and the same should be extended beyond 2021.

The airtime sold by telecom companies through distributors is on a principal-to-principal basis and has been a matter of extensive litigation. In the interest of both telecom companies and the revenue authorities, special provisions may be introduced to tax the profits earned by such distributors. Further, to improve the tax base and collections in tax, such revenues may be subject to tax deduction @ 1 percent at the source. Seeing the revenues of telecom companies, it is not difficult to calculate the expected increased cash in tax flows for the government.

Abolishing DDT and making dividends taxable in the hands of a shareholder would make foreign investors eligible for a credit of tax in their home countries, thereby improving the return on their investment.

In order to address the situation of companies being unable to claim MAT credit due to lapse of the 15-year time window, necessary amendments should be made in the law by removing the time period within which set off of MAT credit shall be claimed/

Launch and adoption of 5G offers a rare opportunity for India to play its part in developing an inclusive and indigenous technology by building R&D capabilities, developing homegrown intellectual property and design-led manufacturing. To achieve these macro objectives, the telecom sector needs a helping hand right now. As such, the government can take some definitive steps to create an environment that provides the necessary impetus for the next evolution of growth in the sector and resolve some long outstanding issues.

(The writer is Partner, Deloitte India)

Follow full coverage of Union Budget 2020-21 here
New Delhi, Jan 27 : After Shaheen Bagh, a key site of the anti-CAA and NRC stir, Nizamuddin area in the national capital could become the another hotbed of protests.

Around 500 people have gathered at a spot in the area, set up tents and are camping there since Sunday. It could clog the vehicular movement on the Barapullah flyover, creating traffic snarls on both sides of it.

"We are protesting in a peaceful manner without causing inconvenience to anyone," is the common refrain of protestors.

The protesters, mostly residents of the rural pockets of Nizamuddin, had gathered there, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), south-east, Chinmoy Biswal told IANS on Monday.

Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik has been briefed about Nizamuddin protests. Since the matter is considered "sensitive", no police officer is willing to talk about it.

On being asked, DCP Biswal said it was "peaceful". Around 300-400 women and children were sitting in a park, he said and added, the main road was open.

The Delhi Police brass is facing a challenging task to make protesters understand that the sit-in could create traffic jams, routes diversion and closure of roads causing inconvenience to commuters.

Due to the Shaheen Bagh protests, the traffic on the Noida-Delhi road that passes through Sarita Vihar, Kalindi Kunj and DND flyway has been affected. The police have put up barricades on the Noida-Kalindi Kunj-Sarita Vihar route.

According to intelligence sources, the protest, in due course, may grow bigger and spill over on to roads. And if that happens, Barapullah flyover would be affected.

A Nizamuddin police station officer said, "The instruction is to keep an eye on the protesters and ensure they don't get any opportunity to create disturbances." When the police on Sunday tried to prevent protesters from setting up tents, the women confronted the cops. "We are not here to cause any damage. We will just sit peacefully. Without tents, it will be difficult for us and children during the cold nights," one woman said. On Monday, despite the police objections, tents sprang up on the spot.

(Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be contacted at sanjeev.c@ians.in)
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has warned against holding elections as a formality and favoring one faction at the expense of others, less than four weeks before the parliamentary vote in February.

According to Islamic Republics constitution, the Guardian Council, an election watchdog, must give its seal of approval for every candidate registering to run in parliamentary and presidential elections. The Council was established to keep those not loyal to the system out of power.

However, the watchdog is guided by the Islamic Republics ideology and follows the wishes of the Supreme Leader and his allies. In this years elections, it has disqualified an extraordinary number of candidates, most from the so-called reformist camp loyal to the Islamic Republic. Close to 90 current members of parliament have been barred by the Interior Ministry and the Guardian Council to run in Februarys elections.

Speaking to a gathering of provincial governors, Rouhani stressed the importance of peoples voice and participation and warned that the biggest danger to democracy is formal elections. However, despite a semblance of elections, the Islamic Republic is not considered a democracy, with its violations of human rights, non-competitive elections and systematic clampdown on freedom of speech.

Rouhani also stressed the rule of law for sustaining what he said is the legitimacy of the current ruling system. He added, It is very important for people to feel that they can choose one among several options.

Rouhani, who has been under relentless pressure by hardliners, complained that the election watchdog has turned into an executive power and his government, which is consitutionally tasked to run the elections has turned into a simple operational entity.
Washington: US President Donald Trump has furiously denied he told his former national security adviser John Bolton that military aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump accused Bolton of telling lies to sell a book.

In a draft of his forthcoming book leaked earlier, Bolton recounts Trump told him he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to the country until it aided political investigations into his Democratic rivals.

The revelation challenges the defence offered up by Trump and his lawyers in his Senate impeachment trial and raises the stakes as the chamber decides this week whether to seek sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses.

Then national security adviser John Bolton listens to US President Donald Trump in 2018. Credit:AP

Bolton's account was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the manuscript on the condition of anonymity to discuss the book, The Room where it Happened, ahead of its release March 17.
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], Jan 27 (ANI): As a precautionary measure amid coronavirus outbreak, Bhubaneshwar Airport Authority on Sunday conducted a screening for incoming passengers at Biju Patnaik International Airport.



The Odisha government on January 25, had issued an advisory with the precautionary measures required to be taken.

"In view of reported novel Coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak in China and also few cases of other parts of the country i.e. Maharastra, Telangana and Kerala, it has become a necessity to closely monitor the situation and create the facilities for management," Director of Odisha Public Health had said in the order.

The Health Department also asked the airport authority to establish a screening centre and report the identification of such cases to the health officials.

Meanwhile earlier today, Airport Health Organisation (APHO), Bengaluru issued figures stating that out of a total of 392 passengers who arrived from China during the past 14 days none reported positive for the coronavirus during thermal scanning.

The organisation further said that a total of 392 passengers underwent thermal scanner screening from 8 am on January 26 till 8 am today at the Kempegowda International Airport here. (ANI)


ATLANTA, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Cancer Society and Pfizer have approved grants totaling more than $2.5 million in nine communities focused on reducing racial disparities and helping optimize outcomes for women facing a breast cancer diagnosis. The grants, funded by Pfizer Global Medical Grants and overseen by the American Cancer Society, are the first in the Integrated Approach to Breast Health Equity Competitive Grant Program, a three-year collaboration working to promote equitable outcomes for all women living with breast cancer

While breast cancer death rates have decreased consistently since 1989, attributed both to improvements in early detection (through screening as well as increased awareness of symptoms) and treatment, not all women have benefitted equally from these advances. In fact, in the most recent period (2013-2017), black women had a breast cancer death rate that was 40% higher than white women, despite having historically lower incidence rates. This disparity is magnified among black women under 50, among whom the death rate is double that of white women.

"We know that cancer affects populations differently, including racial and ethnic minority groups bearing an unequal burden of cancer across the United States. Differences in breast cancer mortality among black and white women are particularly striking," said Laura Makaroff, D.O., senior vice president, Prevention and Early Detection, for the American Cancer Society. "The need to address health disparities in communities across the country is critical. These grants will serve to inform our efforts as we continue the ongoing work of fighting inequity in health and healthcare."

Factors contributing to the breast cancer mortality disparity between black and white women include differences in stage of cancer diagnosis, tumor characteristics, and access to timely and high-quality prevention, screening and treatment.

"Optimizing care for people living with cancer, regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, geographical location or tumor stage or subtype, is a key priority for us at Pfizer," said, Dany Habr, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer Oncology. "But, addressing disparities in cancer care can't be done by one organization or even a few. That is why we are proud to partner with the American Cancer Society on this initiative, and we look forward to seeing the impact of these projects on the breast cancer community."

In a highly competitive process, each applicant was asked to provide local solutions to local problems across the breast cancer continuum. The awardees will pursue a variety of efforts, from cancer screening to support in cancer survivorship, for women that could otherwise go unserved.

The awardees chosen for funding beginning in January 2020, are:

Georgetown University Medical Center, DC

Medical Center, DC Massachusetts General Hospital, MA

General Hospital, MA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , NC

, NC MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, NJ

Health Research Incorporated, NY

Community Health Centers of Greater Dayton, OH

The Ohio State University , OH

, OH Rhode Island Department of Health, RI

University of Washington , WA

About The American Cancer Society

The American Cancer Society is a global grassroots force of 1.5 million volunteers dedicated to saving lives, celebrating lives, and leading the fight for a world without cancer. From breakthrough research, to free lodging near treatment, a 24/7/365 live helpline, free rides to treatment, and convening powerful activists to create awareness and impact, the Society is attacking cancer from every angle. The Society does not endorse any product or service. For more information go to www.cancer.org

SOURCE American Cancer Society

Related Links

http://www.cancer.org


After BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya made the bizarre connection between food and nationality and drew flak for it, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday questioned the right of the saffron party leaders to comment on the eating habits of people or their attire.

Vijayvargiya, who is BJP's Bengal minder, had recently said at a seminar in Indore that he suspected there were Bangladeshis among the construction labourers at his house as they were eating poha (flattened rice).

He also said the "strange" eating habits of the workers aroused his suspicion about their nationality.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told a poll rally in Jharkhand last year that those indulging in arson over the citizenship legislation could be identified by their clothes.

Banerjee, who was addressing a workshop of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (students' wing), said, "Who gave them (BJP) the right to make such remarks? Can you determine someone's nationality just by seeing him eat poha? Will you dictate what someone should eat? Will you be able to determinbe someone's nationality based on the clothes he or she is wearing?"



She said, "They (BJP) should remember we are not their bonded labourers, the people of India are not their bonded labourers".

The TMC supremo who is a strident critic of the BJP, iterated that she will not allow the NPR exercise in Bengal unless necessary modifications were made in its form.

"Why is that people are being asked to furnish addresses and birth certificates of parents for NPR?" she questioned.

Charging the BJP of "doublespeak" and "hypocrisy", Banerjee said, "Some people want only one colour to stay ... But our country is a beautiful mosaic of all colours."



Banerjee termed BJP's 'Abhinandan Yatra' in support of CAA across Bengal as 'Bisarjan Yatra' (immersion procession) and asked students to approach every household to counter the saffron party's "misinformation campaign".

She claimed that BJP is asking people in few pockets of south Bengal to submit their Aadhaar card number to its local party unit for updating their names in the voter list. "Why are they (BJP) asking for that? What is their motive? Please don't give them such details, they don't have the authority to ask for your Aadhaar details".

On the demonstration programme of different wings of the TMC, Banerjee said its trade union wing will hold a three-day protest at Rani Rasmoni Avenue from January 28 against the move by the BJP-led government at the Centre move to sell off stakes in AI, BSNL and other central PSUs.

The students' wing will launch their sit-in against CAA at the same place from January 31.

On February 1 and 2 the students and youth wings of TMC will hold sit-ins in every block of the state, while a human chain will be formed in every block on February 5 to "save the Constitution", she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Monday visited Wuhan, the first such trip by a top leader to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak to boost the morale of millions of beleaguered people and medical staff, as Beijing reported its first death from the disease that has killed 82 people, infected over 2,700 and prompted two top officials to offer their resignation.

A sense of disquiet prevailed in Beijing as officials announced the capital's first death from the deadly virus, a grim reminder that the epidemic has begun to take toll outside Hubei province. The victim was a 50-year-old man who had visited Wuhan and later fell sick after his return. Over 70 cases have been recorded in the Chinese capital of 20 million people.

Li, the second ranking leader of the ruling Communist Party of China who headed a high-powered working group to coordinate the virus control efforts, arrived in Wuhan on Monday to inspect the epidemic control and prevention work.

Wearing a mask, which now has become a mandatory in Wuhan and most part of China to avoid contracting the deadly virus, Li attired in special medical coat inspected some of the hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

He spoke to doctors with a walkie-talkie and told them to prioritise the safety and health of the people and called for strict implementation of containment measures.

He also inspected the construction of the two makeshift 2,300 bed hospitals being built in about two weeks.

The virus has killed 82 people and infected 2,744 across China. The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the virus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition. As many as 51 people have recovered while there were currently 5,794 suspected cases, the National Health Commission said.

Overseas, confirmed cases were reported in Thailand (7), Japan (3), South Korea (3), the United States (3), Vietnam (2), Singapore (4), Malaysia (3), Nepal (1), France (3) and Australia (4).

Amid rising public anger over the unprecedented health crisis, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang said that he and the city's Party secretary are willing resign "if it helps to contain" virus which originated from the city.

Zhou admitted that the lockdown of Wuhan, a city with a population of more than 11 million, was a tough decision and a first in human history.

On Sunday, he said five million people from Wuhan left the city before it was locked down on January 23.

"...We are willing to take whatever responsibilityincluding the resignation of Wuhan Party Secretary Ma Guoqiang and myself," Zhou told the state-run CCTV.

He also admitted that information was not disclosed in a timely manner at the preliminary stage of the virus outbreak.

From January 23, Wuhan and 17 other cities with a population over 40 million have been virtually shut with suspension of all public transport to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of the country.

There is also strong criticism from the netizens about Zhou and other officials who addressed the media without even properly wearing masks.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Beijing to review the measures to contain the virus.

WHO has so far withheld announcement of the global public emergency over coronnavirus as it spread to several countries.

"We are working 24/7 to support China and its people during this difficult time and remain in close contact with affected countries, with our regional and country offices deeply involved," Tedros tweeted.

WHO is updating all countries on the situation and providing specific guidance on what to do to respond, he said.

The Chinese government is also facing the heat over thousands of foreigners, including a few hundred Indians, mostly students, who are stuck in Wuhan city which is under lockdown.

With the Chinese government permitting US to airlift its Wuhan-based diplomats and Americans citizens, citizens of other countries also have been asking Beijing to allow them to leave. France, UK and South Korea too are trying to airlift their citizens stuck in Wuhan. A silver lining in the whole crisis is that no foreigner other than Chinese have been infected with the virus so far in China.

The Indian Embassy here has opened three hotlines (+8618610952903, +8618612083629, +8618612083617) to address the concerns of Indians. The Indian officials on Monday met the Chinese Foreign Ministry officials apparently to discuss the arrangements to evacuate Indians stuck in Wuhan. A decision on the issue was expected to take place shortly.

The Foreign Ministry officials also held meetings with diplomats of several countries. Over 2,000 Pakistani students in a video message made a request to their government to help them to leave the city.

Meanwhile, the train and bus services between Beijing and neighbouring Tianjin have been suspended.

China has also extended the New Year Festival holidays till February 2 to prevent reverse migration of millions of migrants works to return to their work from holidays.

Universities, primary and middle schools and kindergartens across the country will postpone the opening of the spring semester until further notice.

The government is focussing efforts to prevent mass gatherings and mass travel to ensure the virus is not spread fast.

Beijing has also launched temperature detection at 55 subway stations, including stops at railway stations and Beijing airport. Passengers with abnormal body temperatures will be sent to hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The controversy over the clash on the BBC's Question Time between the actor Laurence Fox and the academic Rachel Boyle hasn't gone away. But I'm getting a lot of fun out of it.

In case you missed it, she opined from the audience (by pre-arrangement with the BBC, it later emerged) that Meghan Markle had been "torn to pieces" by the Press because of racism, which Fox hotly denied.

"We are the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe," he said. "It's so easy to just throw your charge of racism at everybody and it's starting to get boring now."

It got livelier when she dismissed him as a "white privileged male" and he retaliated with: "I was born this way. To call me a white privileged male is racist."

It went on for a while, the audience was divided, the viewers were divided and in due course the media got on to it and Boyle and Fox became heroes to very different constituencies.

I keep very much in touch with the 'woke' world, as I'm writing a satirical crime novel called Death Of A Snowflake.

For those of you who live a sheltered life, woke is a term originally used by African-Americans to denote awareness of racial and other kinds of social injustice.

It now refers to the armies of wokeists who denounce anyone who does not share their fashionable opinions about everything from climate change to what is known as gender fluidity.

The book is causing me more trouble than the 12 novels I've already published because reality seems more ridiculous than anything I can imagine.

For heaven's sake, how could I have invented Greta Thunberg?

But I haven't given up yet, because I think that those of us who are prepared to stand up to these ideologies should stand shoulder to shoulder.

And I think one of the most potent weapons we can use against them is humour, because they are an utterly humourless, self-important bunch.

Titania McGrath is a magnificent participant in the battle.

The creation of Andrew Doyle, a comedian and former teacher with an Oxford doctorate in early Renaissance poetry, in her parody Twitter account she is described as a 24-year-old "radical intersectionalist poet committed to feminism, social justice and armed peaceful protest" who identifies as non-binary, "polyracial" and "econsexual" who comments unforgivingly and self-righteously on any sins against woke theology.

Boyle, who alarmingly is a university lecturer in primary education, appears to be her soulmate, but is not invented.

She was particularly upset that Fox quoted Martin Luther King: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"Fell out with @LozzaFox (not arsed)," she tweeted. "Upset a (majority white) audience (not arsed) but called the treatment of Meghan Markal what it is 'racism'."

"This is the bravest tweet I have ever seen," responded Titania.

"Thank God for activists like Rachel who are calling out these white bigots who insist on treating everyone the same irrespective of skin colour."

Boyle is three-quarters white, but she makes much of her black grandfather.

"Thank you for the amazing support that I have received after BBC Question Time," she tweeted. "This work isn't easy. Being a Black academic researching race and ethnicity isn't easy. Having conversations with ill-informed privileged people isn't easy. But THIS is what I came to do."

I explored earlier Boyle tweets and found this magnificent specimen from just after the polls closed on December 12: "Historically the exit polls have been pretty reliable. May God help us all. If you made this happen - a plague upon your house. I. Have. No. More. Words."

Would that she had lived up to that.

What is encouraging is that reasonable people have had enough, are laughing at the woke activists and standing up to them.

Andrew Doyle will later this year be touring the UK with Douglas Murray - author of the magnificent The Madness Of Crowds: Gender, Race And Ethnicity - in a discussion show called Resisting Wokeness.

I for one will be laughing along with them.




Haiti - Social : Haitians multiply the stratagems to enter clandestinely in DR





Haitians use all kinds of stratagems to try to enter Dominican territory by trying to thwart border surveillance authorities said a representative of the Corps specialized in the security of land borders (Cesfront) "We have detected Haitian traffic in different vehicles, including ambulances and tankers dedicated to the sale of water [...] lately at least 20 illegal Haitians have been discovered while they were hidden in a truck loaded with live chicken cages."



Recently, migration inspectors arrested at a military checkpoint in the Laurel sector, 3 km from Dajabon, a Dominican driver (Jhonny Castillo Lemoren), a corrupt employee of the Haitian Consulate in Dajabon, who was carrying 4 undocumented Haitian illegal immigrants in a Land Cruser Prado vehicle, with diplomatic plate, D00922 used without authorization from the consular authorities.



Major General Estanislao Gonell Regalado traveled to Dajabon province and met with military and civilian authorities who are concerned about the influx of Haitians, to decide on more specific actions to counter these attempts.



It should be noted that most of these attempts fail. According to military authorities since the beginning of January, more than 6,000 Haitians (30% more than in 2019) have been turned back at the borders for attempting to enter Dominican territory illegally.



Despite these failures and the importance of these figures, this does not discourage our compatriots, some of whom do not hesitate once back home, to make one or more new attempts...



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-29862-icihaiti-dr-806-haitians-intercepted-in-a-few-hours-at-the-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29660-haiti-flash-the-dominican-army-sends-new-reinforcements-to-the-border-with-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29590-haiti-dr-the-dominican-republic-strengthens-its-border-with-a-6th-interagency-base.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-28433-haiti-security-10-new-border-surveillance-complexes-will-be-built-in-dr-by-the-end-of-2019.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-29552-icihaiti-dr-the-dominican-government-evokes-the-exodus-of-haitians-at-the-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29466-haiti-flash-dominican-republic-will-build-a-17-km-long-wall-at-the-border.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-29447-icihaiti-crisis-hundreds-of-haitians-fleeing-haiti-intercepted-at-the-dominican-border.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-29376-icihaiti-dr-the-dominican-army-reinforces-its-special-unit-of-intervention-at-the-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29127-haiti-dr-military-reinforcement-at-the-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29108-haiti-flash-dominicans-send-their-combat-planes-to-monitor-the-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-28884-haiti-riots-10-000-soldiers-at-the-border-protect-the-dominican-territory.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-28839-haiti-dr-the-dominicans-worried-further-strengthen-the-security-of-their-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-28553-haiti-flash-in-dr-haitians-under-the-eye-of-drones.html



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Islamabad [Pakistan], Jan 27 (ANI): Manzoor Pashteen, the charismatic, pacifist chief and founder of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), was arrested last night in Peshawar along with other five members of the organisation.

He was arrested with no charges by a group of individuals in plain clothes, and for many hours his whereabouts remained unknown. Only late in the morning, and after the PTM members, human rights activists and a good portion of the Pakistani civil society protested and raised the issue of his arrest - and of course, after the hashtag #ReleaseManzoorPashteen was trending in Pakistan - he has been produced in a court and sent to prison on fourteen days judicial custody with the phantomatic charge of being 'anti-national' and for making remarks against the Constitution of the country. Which, of course, he never did.

On the contrary, he has always been a strong advocate of constitutional rights. "Strongly condemn PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen and other Pashtun Tahafuz Movement activists arrests on unknown charges. Instead of addressing genuine grievances of the Pashtuns the State is using such cowardly repressive measures to terrorise and silence a peaceful rights-based movement. PTM is a continuation of Fakhre Afghan Bacha Khan's nonviolent struggle. The illegal abductions and arrests of peaceful protesters have given more strength to the movement demanding Constitutional rights, justice and accountability" declared Bushra Gohar, a former lawmaker of Pakistan and a Pashtun activist.

According to PTM supporters, Manzoor, in fact, has been arrested simply because the State and the Army did not want him to attend a series of events and demonstrations scheduled for this week.

"The protests were announced against the destruction of markets and homes in the recent military operations by locals in Waziristan including the Mehsud tribe and the Utmanzais and to ask compensation for it. The Pashtun Qaumi Jirga was an initiative that Manzoor and PTM had announced to gather Pashtuns from different walks of life to discuss the current situation of Pashtuns" said a local activist.

The PTM movement was born in fact mainly to ask for their constitutional rights, denied de facto by the Pakistani state and the deep state. According to them, the local population has been suffering for years in silence. Their houses, their markets and their villages had been reduced to dust under the mortar shells of Pakistani Army. Entire communities have been forced to flee. Political opponents, ordinary citizens, activists, and intellectuals have disappeared or killed in 'encounters' even though they never owned a weapon.

The PTM also accuses the Army of using the tribal areas to hide the 'good' jihadi and to make the local population live in a climate of pure terror. They have asked the Government to stop enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. To send the missing persons to a Court and, if they are found guilty on something, to punish them according to the rule of law.

The Army has been trying to crush the movement during all the past year, arresting people without any clear charge and killing a number of activists in fake encounters. One of the demonstrations scheduled for in the coming days is in fact a commemoration for the death of Arman Loni, murdered last year during a police raid. Arman Loni, a Pashto lecturer, and a poet had been killed during a peaceful sit-in Loralai. And many others, during the past year, have been imprisoned or they are simply 'missing', including human rights activist Idris Katthak, who was kidnapped months ago by the usual 'unknown' fellows and plainclothes and since then has been disappeared.

"Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally" says Amnesty International, while PTM is inviting his members to keep calm and wait for a strategy to be worked out.

Meanwhile, the Movement will hold a conference at the Islamabad Press Club calling for the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen, his companions and all the other PTM members and supporters imprisoned or missing. There are no so many chances they will be heard or listened, but, as the same Manzoor said many times their "fight will go on" in a peaceful and democratic way. Despite everything.

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shanghai in the wake of the widespread outbreak of coronavirus (Molly Holt)

Dramatic images show how Shanghai - one of the biggest cities in the world - is now a ghost town amid the outbreak of coronavirus.

Brit Molly Holt today told Yahoo News UK how she started her east Asian travelling holiday in the Chinese city three weeks ago, before the widespread outbreak of the deadly disease.

Ms Holt returned to Shanghai for the final week of her holiday, only to find the citys famous hustle and bustle has completely disappeared.

Meanwhile, everywhere smells like disinfectant, she said.

An empty shopping mall (Molly Holt)

An empty underground train (Molly Holt)

As of Sunday, coronavirus had claimed 81 lives in China after it spread from Wuhan. There are nearly 3,000 confirmed cases worldwide with nearly 6,000 suspected cases.

It prompted the Shanghai government to stop a majority of businesses operating until February 10.

Ahead of her flight home, Ms Holt said: We started off in Shanghai, moving to Tokyo and Hong Kong [where a city-wide emergency has now been declared], before returning to Shanghai for the last week. Everywhere we went, the virus travelled with us.

A deserted Shanghai street (Molly Holt)

Shanghai: 'It's an absolute ghost town' (Molly Holt)

Shanghai is a very different place compared to three weeks ago.

Everywhere we go is closed. Nobody is on the underground. Shanghai has lots of shopping malls, and though all the shops were open, there was no one there. The workers were there, but no visitors to the shops.

Of the atmosphere in the city, which has an estimated population of 24 million people, Ms Holt continued: There is definitely fear.

Everyone is wearing the masks. Lots of people would wear them anyway [due to air pollution], but now every single person is wearing one. The authorities are disinfecting everything - everywhere smells like disinfectant.

Read more from Yahoo News UK

Coronavirus outbreak sees Great Britain women's Olympic basketball qualifiers moved from China to Serbia

Coronavirus infection: everything you need to know about the outbreak from China

Coronavirus: do airport screenings and face masks work?

The change in three weeks has been very dramatic. Its an absolute ghost town.

Story continues

Meanwhile, more than 50 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK - but all cases have been negative.

---Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK---
NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Francesco Baschieri, president of audio technology company Voxnest , has been accepted into the Forbes Business Council, the foremost growth and networking organization for successful business owners and leaders worldwide.

Baschieri was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

"We are honored to welcome Francesco into the community," said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Business Council. "Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world."

As an accepted member of the Council, Baschieri has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to help him reach peak professional influence. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum and at members-only events. Baschieri will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

Finally, Baschieri will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team.

"I'm grateful for the opportunity to join so many respected business leaders in the Forbes Council community," said Baschieri. "It's a great chance to further cement how Voxnest is leading the way in the podcast technology industry."

About Forbes Councils

Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive.

About Voxnest

Voxnest is a technology company that provides professional solutions for podcasters and the brands looking to engage with listeners. The company's comprehensive tools for podcast creation, distribution, management, measurement, monetization and advertising include Spreaker, catering to independent podcasters, Spreaker Enterprise, a turnkey platform for enterprises, and Dynamo, a standalone monetization solution that gives any podcaster, regardless of host or distribution platform, the ability to earn revenue using Voxnest's real-time, dynamic ad injection technology. The company also works directly with brands looking to deliver highly-targeted, high-impact advertising campaigns through podcasts. The company, launched in January 2018 following the merger of Spreaker and BlogTalkRadio, is led by co-founder and President Francesco Baschieri and is headquartered in New York.

Contact:

Ivey Amburgey

[email protected]

704-620-5943

SOURCE Voxnest
No power can stop Kashmiri Pandits from returning to Kashmir: Rajnath Singh

India

pti-PTI

Mangaluru, Jan 27: No power can now stop Kashmiri Pandits from going back to Kashmir, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday, forcefully defending the NDA government's decision to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir and abrogating its special status under Article 370.

In an address at a rally here, the Defence minister also sent a strong message to Pakistan and said India will not let anyone live in peace if it is harmed. "We will not touch anyone, but if someone bothers us, then we are not going to let them live in peace," he said.

Referring to the exodus of a large number of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the late 1990s at the height of militancy, Singh said no power now can stop them from returning to their homes.

On the Citizenship Amendment Act, the minister said it is not a law to hurt the sentiments of any religion but to give relief to victims of religious persecution.

Mahatma Gandhi had told Nehru to give citizenship to minorities like Hindus and Sikhs if they come to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled that vision by bringing in the law, Singh said.

On several non-BJP states refusing to implement the CAA, the defence minister said it it is a central law and everyone should follow it.

Accusing the Congress of misleading people on the issue, he said the party should not forget its duty towards the nation just because it is in opposition.
A local BJP functionary was hacked to death by an armed gang at the busy Gandhi market in Trichy city on Monday.

The victim, Vijayaraghu, who is BJPs zonal secretary and a contractor of the vehicle parking lot in the same market, was brutally assaulted by a three-member gang at a tea shop.

As shell-shocked public ran helter skelter, the assailants wielding machetes and long sickles fled the scene leaving Vijayaraghu in a pool of blood.

The Gandhi market police moved the severely wounded BJP functionary to the Government Hospital. The victim later succumbed to his injuries.

BJP workers gathered near the hospital and demanded that the assailants, whom they claimed were Islamic fundamentalists, be arrested.

The party workers also resorted to road blockade and dispersed only after the police assured them of speedy action.

The preliminary inquiries by the police have revealed that the murder was due to personal enmity between one Mithai Babu and his associates with the victim. Even earlier, Mithai Babu, who runs a mobile lottery outlet and is out on bail, had made an attempt on Vijayaraghu, police added.

Special teams, headed by an additional commissioner of police, have been formed to nab the absconding culprits.

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Chandra Shekhar Aazad likely to attend Gauri Lankeshs birth anniversary on Jan 29 in Bengaluru

India

oi-Mousumi Dash

New Delhi, Jan 27: The Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad arrived in Delhi on Monday morning after he was sent back to Delhi by Hyderabad Police. He is reportedly unwell and will be taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He is likely to attend the birth anniversary celebrations of late journalist Gauri Lankesh on January 29.

Reportedly, he was put on a flight by Hyderabad police in, where he was detained while on his way to take part in an anti-CAA and anti-NRC event.

According to his aides, Aazad is unwell, hence will be reportedly taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Detained Bhim Army Chief forcibly being sent back to Delhi

According to PTI, Azad is likely to visit Karnataka on Tuesday to address two rallies in Gulbarga and Bidar, if he is well. In Bengaluru, he is likely to attend the birth anniversary celebrations of late journalist Gauri Lankesh on January 29.

On Monday, through Twitter, he pledged that Bahujan society would never forget the insult and he will "back soon".

Aazad, landed in Delhi after 9 am today. Besides this, he alleged that the cops had denied demonstrators the right to protest and alleged that they had been beaten up.

On Monday, the Dalit leader wrote on Twitter that in Telangana, the tyranny has reached its peak. People's voices are being suppressed and rights to protest is being snatched. He alleged that protesters were baton-charged followed with his arrest.

Hyderabad Police detains Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad

"Remember Bahujan society will never forget this insult. Will be back soon," he tweeted, tagging the Telangana Chief Minister's Office.
by Gerald Dworkin

At least since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 the issue of Conscientious Objection (henceforth CO) has been an important one in the context of Catholic hospitals and women patients. Such hospitals object to the provision of abortions, contraceptives, sterilization, fertility care, and gender-affirming care such as hormone treatments and surgeries.

In 1973 the Church (the Senator not the institution!) Amendment was passed. This stated that individuals in institutions receiving federal funds may not be required to perform sterilization or abortions contrary to their religion or conscience. No such individual shall be required to perform or assist in any health service program or research activity if such program or activity was contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions.

In 1997 when Medicare Advantage was passed it included a restriction that no such plan, nor any Medicaid-managed plan, was required to provide, reimburse for, or provide coverage of a counseling or referral service if the organization objected to the service on moral or religious grounds.

In 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act said a State could prohibit abortion in qualified health plans. It also introduced a new restriction. Government-funded institutions may not discriminate against individuals or institutions on the basis that such institutions do not provide any health care item or service for the purpose of causing, or for assistance in causing, the death of any individual such as by assisted-suicide.

The last clause indicates that the issue of end of life care has assumed some prominence. Religious institutions are specifically exempted by most states from honoring requests to refuse or withdraw lifesaving treatment, and most recently in California a number of hospitals have forbidden their doctors to provide medically-assisted dying to patients even if the procedure takes place in the patients home and the physician is not present.

While it is often the case that such institutions assume an obligation to refer the patient to institutions which have no objection to the treatment at issue some object to such referrals as being complicit in the evil and refuse to do so.

To show what is at stake, here is an actual case. I am not claiming that such cases are frequent or typical. But it is important to understand that such cases occur,

At a Catholic hospital in a large Eastern city, Dr. S admits a patient nineteen weeks pregnant and miscarrying. He recommends,and the patient agrees to, the medically indicated treatmentending the pregnancy. But the hospital ethics committee denies his request because of the institutions moral objection to abortion. Although the fetus has no chance of survival, an ultrasound still detects a fetal heartbeat. The woman becomes septic, with a 106-degree fever and profuse bleeding. Watching the patient dying before our eyes, the doctor makes a decision: he performs the abortion. The patient spends another ten days in intensive care and suffers permanent injuries.

Conscientious Objection arose initially in the case of military service. Some persons called up under a draft refused to serve because they had moral objections either to war in general or to particular wars. They refused to kill enemy soldiers in war. While the Quakers were the group most likely to appeal to considerations of conscience, the arguments for not punishing conscientious objectors were often secular and the laws offering alternative service were extended to those who objected on secular grounds.

Since conscription was abolished the issue of CO has shifted to issues of discriminatation and health care. While the issues of discrimination in providing servicesthe recent controvesy about cakes for gay marriages are important I want to concentrate in this blog on CO in the provision of health care.

We are considering the legitimacy of CO in a profession which individuals have chosen to enter, have to be trained in, and whose services are offered to the public. Of course there are many legitimate reasons why a physician may refuse a given medical service. It may be illegal, unsafe given the patients history, medically inappropriate, or a violation of clinical norms. It may be that the physician does not feel competent in the procedure requested. It even may be the case that a physician not wanting to treat or perform certain procedures for moral or religious considerations has chosen not to learn such procedures. For example, a physician who is opposed to Infant circumcision may choose not learn how to perform the operation. It is also within a physicians prerogative to choose not to specialize in a given medical area because she disapproves of that area.

It is also firmly established that doctors may not discriminate against patients because of objections to the patient. The AMA code of ethics states doctors  may not discriminate against a patient on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, or other nonclinical characteristics.

So the issue may be defined as the following. May a physician who has chosen to receive training and competence in some specific area of medicine refuse to exercise that competence on a patient who requests a specific procedure in that area of competence because he has moral or religious objections to that procedure or treatment?

In some cases the answer is clearly he may not because the procedure in question is essential to the nature of the specialty. An internist may not refuse to give a physical examination to a female patient because his religion forbids him to have physical contact with a member of the opposite sex. An internist who cannot give a physical exam is no more an internist than a surgeon who cannot perform surgery.

Leaving such odd cases aside what are the arguments for CO?

There do seem to be cases of medical treatment that most of us would judge as morally objectionable and believe that health care providers ought not to participate in. In Guantanamo prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest the torture that they were subjected to. Nurses were ordered to force-feed such prisoners and refused to do so. This case, however, has many special features that are not relevant to most CO in medicine. It is not part of a medical rationale for force-feeding someone that he is engaged in a protest against torture. A similar case is the presence of physicians at the torture of prisoners whose function is to monitor the patient so that they do not die and torture may continue.

The argument for CO in these cases is that in the context, these are not medical procedures. They are performed against the recipients wishes and are not in service to any ends of the recipient which are promoted by medical treatment.. But abortions, sterilization, contraception, gender re-assignment surgery are at the request of a recipient and do promote important goals they have. So for these procedures CO has to have a different rationale.

It is true that physicians have some discretion about who to accept as patients , what areas of medicine to specialize in, and what procedures within a specialty to be trained in. Given this freedom to practice medicine and to refuse some patients for specific reasons she cannot take on new patients, she prefers to deal with poor clients who cannot readily find doctors, she prefers to deal with female patients only, she prefers to confine her practice to delivering new babies rather than to treat infants. So why isnt one reason to refuse a treatment or procedure that the doctor has strong moral beliefs that the treatment is wrongful?

The motivation for allowing the doctor to refuse is the same one that provided a justification for CO to pacifists during times of war. To require such a person to participate in an activity which he believes is unjust and a violation of rights is to demand that he act counter to principles which define for him what kind of person to be.

Following Cecil Laborde we can speak of integrity-protecting commitments where integrity is thought of as an ideal of congruence between ones ethical commitments and ones actionsa commitment, manifested in arefusal to act that allows an individual to live in accordance with how she thinks she ought to live.

It is important to understand that CO, although associated most prominently with religious institutions, can be argued for on completely secular moral grounds. The recent case of adding ritual circumcision of infants to the public health system in Norway clearly illustrates that refusal to perform certain operations need not be based on religious grounds. Many Norwegian doctors refused to participate in such surgeries on the grounds that they objected to a mutilation of a non-consenting patient with no medical justification. As one doctor put it If one had a religious group that required the amputation of a foot nobody would perform that operation.

I leave as an exercise for the reader the case that this quotation brings to mind  body dis-morphic disorder. These are cases of individuals who feel that their leg is a foreign part of the body and are greatly discomforted by its presence. They request its removal. Many doctors refuse to perform the operation in spite of the fact that many patients report a greatly improved quality of life after the operation.

But even with respect to less controversial CO in the context of health care we must insist on protections for patients who want or need the procedures for which we allow CO. CO places a serious burden on those to whom service is denied and those who impose that burden are morally required to take measures to alleviate that burden.

There are two such requirements. First, patients should be given clear notice by hospitals and doctors that such CO measures are in force. Hospitals should make it clear by signage, or other means, that they have such restrictions on medical treatment. Ambulances which transport patients usually to the nearest facilityshould inform patients that such hospitals have such limitations. Doctors who refuse treatment are obligated to refer patients to doctors who have no such restrictions.

One way of seeing the force of the need to mitigate the potential harm to patients is to see this as implicit in the justification given for CO in the first place. This justification was in terms of protecting the ability of COs to live a valuable life as they see it. But having access to necessary health care is one of the most important requirements for anyone leading ANY desirable and valuable life. So the very same consideration that justifies allowing COs is present , even more centrally, in the protection of the health care interests of patients.

Consider the recent rule proposed by the Trump administration which would allow employers with religious or moral objections to contraception to opt out of paying for birth control under the Affordable Care Act. These organizations have refused the compromise offered to them of informing the insurance companies of their objection thus enabling the companies to subsidize such costs. This accomodation was offered to them in a decision by Judge Aliotohardly a flaming liberal. Nevertheless many religious groups challenged the accommodation, saying that objecting and providing the required information would make them complicit in conduct that violated their faith. I would argue that the burdens of complicity, such as they are, cannot be justified in comparison to the harm that the 100,000 or so women affected , many of whom could not afford the most effective forms of birth control, would incur.
MANILA  Thousands of people displaced by the threat of eruptions from the Taal Volcano have begun returning home after the Philippine authorities said the danger had subsided.

Their return comes after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Sunday lowered the alert level because of reduced activity in Taals main crater.
Asian News International

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the Gaganyaan mission will be a historic achievement in the field of science and technology for India in the 21st century and a milestone for New India.

"On the solemn occasion of Republic Day, it gives me great joy to tell you about 'Gaganyaan'. The country has taken another step towards this goal. In 2022, we will be celebrating 75 years of Independence. And on that occasion, we have to fulfill the pledge to take an Indian into space through the Gaganyaan mission," Modi said in his first 'Mann Ki Baat' address of the year.

"Gaganyaan mission will be a historic achievement in the field of science and technology for India in the 21st century. It will prove to be a milestone for New India," he added.

The Prime Minister further said four pilots of the Indian Air Force have been shortlisted for the mission and they will be going to Russia for training for the mission.

Modi said these talented youth were symbols of India's skills, talent, ability, courage and dreams.

"Four candidates have been chosen for the mission as astronauts, all four are pilots of the Indian Air Force. These talented youth are symbols of India's skills, talent, ability, courage and dreams. They will soon be going to Russia for training in the next few days," Modi said.

He expressed hope that the mission will lead to a closer and deeper relationship with Russia and extended his greetings to all persons associated with the project.

"I am confident this will be another golden chapter of friendship and cooperation between India and Russia. They will be trained for over a year. After that, the responsibility of carrying the hopes and aspirations of the nation and soaring into space will rest on the shoulders of one of them. On the auspicious occasion of Republic Day, I congratulate these four youngsters and the Indian and Russian scientists and engineers associated with this mission," he said.

The Narendra Modi government has sanctioned Rs 10,000 crores for the Gaganyaan project. The launch will coincide with the 75th year of India's independence in 2022.
The has arrested the CMD of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), Kapil Wadhawan, in connection with its money laundering probe against dead gangster Iqbal Mirchi and others, officials said on Monday.

They said Wadhawan has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe.

The case relates to Mirchi's Mumbai properties, which have been called as proceeds of crime by the ED. Three such properties were sold to Sunblink, the company linked to Wadhawan brothers Kapil and Dheeraj.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi, his family members and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai.

Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right-hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.
T he Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have joined Holocaust survivors in central London to mark 75 years of the liberation of the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The pair walked through the rain to Westminsters Central Hall for the poignant commemorative ceremony, which honoured the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, the Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

William and Kate both lit candles in honour of those killed in the Holocaust during the ceremony on Monday night.

As the Holocaust Memorial Day service began, Prince William read an extract from a letter written by a friend of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, which described her efforts to save Jews in Athens.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge lights a candle / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Last week Prince Charles visited her tomb on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where she was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in Israel for sheltering a Jewish family during World War Two.

The duke and duchess began today's sombre event by meeting with Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), and the trust's honorary president and Holocaust survivor Sir Ben Helfgott.

William and Kate attend the national UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony at Central Hall Westminster / AP

William told them: "We were talking this morning about how you carry on this message for future generations. We will do our best."

The royal couple then helped survivors to light six candles on stage, which will be used to light 75 candles to mark the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation.

The Duchess of Cambridge lights a candle during the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony / PA

This year also marks 25 years since the Srebrenica genocide, in which Bosnian Serb troops and paramilitaries led by Ratko Mladic attacked the town, murdering some 8,000 men and boys.

The HMDT promotes and supports Holocaust Memorial Day, which has been marked in the UK since 2001 and which aims to educate communities about the past, honour those who survived such terrible atrocities, and take action to create a safer future.

The Duke of Cambridge addressed the congregation at the poignant ceremony / REUTERS

The charity also works in partnership with many other organisations to ensure the life stories of survivors are shared with hundreds of thousands of people.

This afternoon's service follows news that Kate is to display moving photos of Holocaust survivors at a special exhibition later this year, bringing together 75 powerful images of survivors and their family members to commemorate 75 years since the end of one of the worst atrocities humankind has ever seen.
Dividend paying stocks like China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG:386) tend to be popular with investors, and for good reason - some research suggests a significant amount of all stock market returns come from reinvested dividends. Unfortunately, it's common for investors to be enticed in by the seemingly attractive yield, and lose money when the company has to cut its dividend payments.

A high yield and a long history of paying dividends is an appealing combination for China Petroleum & Chemical. We'd guess that plenty of investors have purchased it for the income. Before you buy any stock for its dividend however, you should always remember Warren Buffett's two rules: 1) Don't lose money, and 2) Remember rule #1. We'll run through some checks below to help with this.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on China Petroleum & Chemical!

SEHK:386 Historical Dividend Yield, January 27th 2020

Payout ratios

Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. China Petroleum & Chemical paid out 101% of its profit as dividends, over the trailing twelve month period. With a payout ratio this high, we'd say its dividend is not well covered by earnings. This may be fine if earnings are growing, but it might not take much of a downturn for the dividend to come under pressure.

We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. Unfortunately, while China Petroleum & Chemical pays a dividend, it also reported negative free cash flow last year. While there may be a good reason for this, it's not ideal from a dividend perspective.

Is China Petroleum & Chemical's Balance Sheet Risky?

As China Petroleum & Chemical's dividend was not well covered by earnings, we need to check its balance sheet for signs of financial distress. A quick check of its financial situation can be done with two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA measures total debt load relative to company earnings (lower = less debt), while net interest cover measures the ability to pay interest on the debt (higher = greater ability to pay interest costs). China Petroleum & Chemical has net debt of 0.079 times its EBITDA, which we think is not too troublesome.

Story continues

Net interest cover can be calculated by dividing earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by the company's net interest expense. China Petroleum & Chemical has EBIT of 11.21 times its interest expense, which we think is adequate.

Consider getting our latest analysis on China Petroleum & Chemical's financial position here.

Dividend Volatility

One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. China Petroleum & Chemical has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. This dividend has been unstable, which we define as having been cut one or more times over this time. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was CN0.092 in 2010, compared to CN0.38 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15% a year over that time. The dividends haven't grown at precisely 15% every year, but this is a useful way to average out the historical rate of growth.

China Petroleum & Chemical has grown distributions at a rapid rate despite cutting the dividend at least once in the past. Companies that cut once often cut again, but it might be worth considering if the business has turned a corner.

Dividend Growth Potential

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Why take the risk of a dividend getting cut, unless there's a good chance of bigger dividends in future? Over the past five years, it looks as though China Petroleum & Chemical's EPS have declined at around 7.9% a year. A modest decline in earnings per share is not great to see, but it doesn't automatically make a dividend unsustainable. Still, we'd vastly prefer to see EPS growth when researching dividend stocks.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. We're a bit uncomfortable with China Petroleum & Chemical paying out a high percentage of both its cashflow and earnings. Earnings per share have been falling, and the company has cut its dividend at least once in the past. From a dividend perspective, this is a cause for concern. There are a few too many issues for us to get comfortable with China Petroleum & Chemical from a dividend perspective. Businesses can change, but we would struggle to identify why an investor should rely on this stock for their income.

Given that earnings are not growing, the dividend does not look nearly so attractive. Businesses can change though, and we think it would make sense to see what analysts are forecasting for the company.

If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
/Courtesy photo

It was announced Monday that Omni La Mansion Del Rio is being sued for $1 million after a toddler on the River Walk was hit by a falling object back in 2018.

Cassandra DeLaCruz is suing after her two-year-old son Jacob Francisco was hit in the head by a glass ketchup bottle that allegedly fell from the fifth floor of the hotel on Aug. 18, 2018. He suffered serious injuries to his neck, brain and other parts of his body. The lawsuit alleges the injuries to the child could be permanent and have already impacted his health and wellbeing.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The Ukrainian jetliner stood ready for takeoff at Irans main international airport bound for Kyiv, packed with passengers and so many bags on one of the cheapest routes to the West that the ground crew rushed to unload some luggage to make its weight for flight.

Nearly an hour late, Tehran air traffic controllers finally cleared Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 for takeoff, carrying a newlywed couple, Iranian students bound for universities in Canada and others seeking a better life abroad.

The plane would be shot down only minutes later by Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Up until the moment soldiers fired missiles at the Boeing 737-800, Iran had faced decisive moments on how to respond to the world around it amid tensions with the U.S. Those decisions ultimately doomed the flight and all 176 people aboard, and also led to the public being lied to for days afterward, in the words of the countrys foreign minister.

What Iran decided then and later also reflects beyond the immediate tragedy, offering a glimpse inside of the country more than 40 years after its Islamic Revolution.

The downing of the jetliner highlights the limits of the civilian arm of Irans government against the absolute power held by the nations Shiite theocracy and the paramilitary forces beneath it. The anger that followed shows the choices Iranians make in the countrys sanctions-crushed economy and the unabated rage still lurking on its streets.

How Iran responds as a whole will affect a coming year that appears poised for further tensions. Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers hangs on a single thread, one that permits international inspection of its atomic sites and is already threatened. President Donald Trump, facing an impeachment trial and an election campaign, promises to impose ever-harsher sanctions. Meanwhile, more economic protests in Iran remain a threat as well.

The regime understands that Iranian society is a powder keg right now and that if its not careful, itll lose control of the situation really quickly, said Ariane Tabatabai, an Iran analyst at the U.S.-based RAND Corp. So, its using every tool at its disposal to avoid losing control.

THE FIGHT AND THE FLIGHT

Even before Trump entered the White House, he campaigned on a promise to tear up Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That agreement saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Reached under Trumps predecessor Barack Obama, the deal kept Irans atomic program under constant surveillance by international inspectors and unable to produce enough material for a nuclear bomb if Tehran sought one.

Trump, however, unilaterally withdrew America from the arrangement in May 2018, saying it didnt go far enough in limiting Irans program, its ballistic missile stockpile and its influence through proxies in the wider Middle East.

Iran waited a year before beginning to break limits of the accord, each move slightly narrowing the estimated year it would need to have enough fissionable material for a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists it doesnt seek an atomic bomb, although the U.N. nuclear watchdog says evidence shows the Islamic Republic once had an organized weapons program that it ultimately abandoned in 2003.

Through the summer, tensions steadily rose with mysterious oil tanker attacks that the U.S. blamed on Iranian mines, as well as drone and missile assaults on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Iran denied involvement in those assaults, although it did acknowledge shooting down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seizing tankers.

Then came the December death of a U.S. contractor in Iraq, following by an American airstrike on Iranian-backed forces allegedly behind the attack. Iranian-backed militias violently protested and attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The crisis reached a fever pitch Jan. 3 as a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who oversaw Irans proxies in the region. Trump later threatened to bomb 52 sites in Iran, including those important to the Iranian culture if Tehran retaliated.

Iran vowed revenge, and early on Jan. 8 it launched ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq housing American troops, causing injuries but no fatalities among soldiers there. Iranian officials informally warned journalists and others that any American retaliation would bring missile strikes on Dubai and Haifa in Israel.

Yet commercial planes kept flying through Iranian airspace. Before the Ukrainian jetliner, nine other flights left Tehrans Imam Khomeini International Airport. The airplane was delayed nearly an hour to remove luggage from the overweight flight, investigators say.

Some have questioned how the flight could even be allowed to take off, as the Guard insists it suggested commercial aircraft be grounded amid the tensions.

But Iran isnt alone, as the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight No. 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 shows. Pakistan remains the sole recent country to close its airspace over the risk of war as it did in 2019 amid tensions with India.

Countries cannot be relied upon to close risky airspace, nor issue damaging guidance on their own territories, wrote Mark Zee, the founder of the air-safety organization OPSGROUP. Governments have more pressing motivations: Trade, tourism, commerce. This will not change.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 took off at 6:12 a.m. Its flaming wreckage would fall from the sky only six minutes later.

RECIPE FOR DISASTER

Just northwest of the airport, a Revolutionary Guard base among Tehrans arid foothills hid so-called coffin launchers  ballistic missiles tilting skyward. Defending that base was at least one Tor-M1 anti-aircraft system, a Russian-made tracked vehicle whose spinning radar detected the flight. Its turret turned toward the flight, a secondary radar now tracking to get its position.

An operator inside would be able to see the flight as a blip on its radar screen, showing its speed and altitude. Commercial airliners broadcast their location by transponder, but it remains unclear what information those in the Tor had, said Jeremy Binnie, the Middle East editor of Janes Defence Weekly. Its also unclear if jamming or some sort of communications breakdown affected the troops thinking.

What is clear, however, is that the Guard, known for its aggression in confronting U.S. Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf, controlled that areas air defence. Iranian forces already stood at a high-alert level, fearful of American retaliation for the ballistic missile strike on the Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops hours earlier.

And that Tor unit, with an effective range of 12 kilometres (7.5 miles), fired one missile at its maximum distance toward the aircraft, according to a later briefing by the Guard. Surveillance video later obtained by The Associated Press showed that the missile streaked across the darkened sky and exploded.

The missile went off like a massive shotgun shell, pelting the airliner with a cloud of shrapnel. A piece of the fuselage and the cockpit later recovered showed its windows smashed and the metal scorched.

Ten seconds after the first explosion, the Tor crew fired another missile. It struck near the plane, which turned into a ball of flames before crashing in the rural town of Shahedshahr.

You can see how guys at that level of autonomy, high tensions and not clearing these civilian aircraft out of the airspace is a recipe for disaster, Binnie said. They just cant go on like that.

DAYS OF DENIALS

The Guard, answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, knew their missiles downed the flight when news broke of the crash. It remains unclear when they told Khamenei.

The 80-year-old cleric has final say on all state matters, faces no real check on his power and hasnt commented publicly on what he knew when.

But air-crash investigators, Iranian diplomats and others strongly denied that a missile shot down Flight 752, even as images from the crash site showed shrapnel damage to the plane and one image appeared to show the remains of a Tor-fired missile.

The head of Irans Civil Aviation Organization, Ali Abedzadeh, also mocked comments by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. officials saying they believed a missile brought down the plane.

Scientifically speaking, their statements are not valid at all, Abedzadeh said.

The next day, Irans regular armed forces announced that the Guard unintentionally downed the aircraft as a result of human error. Iranian officials apologized, with at least two of the Guards top commanders publicly saying they wish they had died. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif went as far as to say the Iranian public were lied to for days.

But comments by Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani suggest Irans elected leaders initially knew nothing about the Guard shooting down the aircraft.

Its highly likely that most, if not all of the Rouhani government, were not aware of the same facts that were available to senior members within the Guard, said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior fellow focusing on Iran at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

This split in power between Irans civilian government and the theocracy has been on display since 1988, when then-Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi resigned. In a letter to then-President Khamenei, Mousavi criticized foreign policy and extraterritorial operations that took place without the knowledge and orders of the government.

There is talk everywhere about the foreign policy of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, without the government knowing about these policies that are mentioned everywhere in the country and the world, Mousavi wrote. After an airplane is hijacked, we get news about it. When a gun is fired in the streets of Lebanon, and the word gets around everywhere, we become aware of the situation. After explosives are found on our pilgrims in Jiddah, I learn about this affair.

Mousavi added: Unfortunately, despite all the harm and damage that these actions have caused the country, still operations similar to these can take place in the name of the government at any second and any hour.

This time, however, the operation saw Iranians killed inside the country itself by those supposed to be protecting them.

WHAT COMES NEXT

Iran put down street protests by students and others over the downing of the flight. But those demonstrations pale in comparison to recent unrest faced by Iran, particularly protests over government-set gasoline prices spiking in November. That unrest saw at least 300 people killed, according to Amnesty International.

While an earlier round of nationwide economic protests struck at the end of 2017, things only have gotten worse with the sanctions re-imposed on the country by Trump withdrawing from the nuclear deal, particularly those blocking Iran from selling crude oil abroad. Without that crucial source of government funding, Irans government struggles to make ends meet.

So far, Trumps administration has vowed to continue its maximum pressure campaign on Tehran. Trump himself has used the killing of Soleimani, whom he described as a terrorist monster, as part of his stump speeches at campaign rallies.

With Iran losing as much as $4 billion in revenue every month due to U.S. energy sanctions, it will not be easy for Tehran to hold out for the possibility of a new U.S. president being elected in November 2020, wrote Niamh McBurney, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany instituted the so-called dispute mechanism of Irans unraveling nuclear deal, opening the possibility of international and U.N. sanctions returning.

My sense is that basically the Islamic Republic currently is a pressure cooker, Geranmayeh said. We will have periodic and probably escalatory ... protests in the country. A lot of what happens depends on how the security apparatus responds to these protests.

However, any major threat to the government could see the Guard employ the same bloody tactics it used in Syrias long war.

If there is a similar threat to their own power inside Iran as Bashar Assad faced, my sense is that they will use an infinitely more amount of force to push back to secure their own power, Geranmayeh said.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
An independent Mournes councillor is to contest charges of twice assaulting a woman police officer.

Henry Reilly (61) of Ballynahatten Road, in Kilkeel, is further accused of resisting the constable, resisting a male constable and causing criminal damage to a police radio and ear piece on September 30, 2019.

The defendant sits on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

Reilly has previously served on the council as a member of the UUP, the DUP and most recently UKIP, but had to resign from the party as his job with a charity did not allow him to align with any political party.

The court has previously heard that police body camera footage was part of the evidence in the case. He did not appear at Newry magistrates for the attitude hearing on Monday.

Defence provided two payslips to the court from the accuseds pension and from local government. Legal aid was then granted.

Obviously these are significant charges, said his defence.

It is anticipated that there will be some issues. He is a man with a clear record."

District judge McGarrity adjourned the case to March 9, for a contest date with a review in late February.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to Tuesday hear the Centre's plea seeking Rs 7,844 crore as additional fund from successor firms of US-based Union Carbide Corporation, now owned by Dow Chemicals, for giving compensation to victims of 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy.

The bench, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M R Shah and S Ravindra Bhat, will hear the curative petition filed by the Centre for enhanced compensation for the victims.

The Centre is seeking a direction to Union Carbide and other firms for Rs 7,844 crore additional amount over and above the earlier settlement amount of USD 470 million for paying compensation to the gas tragedy victims.

Over 3,000 people had died in the tragedy due to release of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas.

The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) gave a compensation of USD 470 million (Rs 715 crore) after the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 killed over 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh more.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Quest Diagnostics, one of the nations largest medical lab testing services, will take over operations of Houston-based Memorial Hermanns diagnostic and testing labs this year.

The hospital said Monday it would transfer the ownership and management of nearly 30 standalone lab centers and nearly 60 lab sites located within physicians offices to Quest. Memorial Hermann will still own the diagnostic labs located within their hospitals, but Quest will provide lab management services.

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, were not disclosed. After the deal is finalized, Quest will also become the preferred provider for lab services for the hospitals health insurance plan, Memorial Hermann Health Plan.

As part of Memorial Hermanns commitment to lower the cost of care, the system intends to utilize Quests expertise and scale to improve cost-efficiencies while maintaining the high quality services and comprehensive resources needed to make Houston healthier, now and for generations to come, Dr. David Callender, president and CEO of Memorial Hermann, said in a statement.

Callender said in a recent interview with the Chronicle that the hospital system wants to drive down cost and improve efficiency.

More hospitals are turning to Quest and other large services to run or outsource their testing, slashing costs as health care providers feel pressure from insurers to stop raising prices.

Insurance companies have fought with hospitals for years about how much they charge for their lab services, especially compared to what insurance companies and other payers can get from Quest, said Ken Janda, an adjunct professor in health care management at Rice University.

Other Houston hospitals havent gone down that path because lab services are profitable for many, Janda said.

The acquisition is the latest move by Secaucus, N.J.-based Quest to expand into the Houston market. Quest owns seven testing labs and offers services at several other independent testing locations in Houston. Randalls began offering Quests in-store testing services at some locations in 2017 through a national partnership with the grocers parent company, Albertsons.

This relationship will also strengthen our laboratory and service network in Greater Houston, which in turn will empower more patients and providers in the area to access quality, cost effective service at the Quest Diagnostics location most convenient for them, Steve Rusckowski, Quests president and CEO, said in a statement.

The company works with about half of U.S. doctors and hospitals.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

Twitter: @gwendolynawu
A photo of a newborn baby abandoned in east London has been released by police desperately seeking his mother.

The boy was around 12 hours old when he was discovered on a doorstep in Hackney on Saturday.

Officers were called to the abandoned child in Sandringham Road at around 11.40am and he was rushed to an east London hospital.

He has been named Edward by hospital staff and is doing well in their care.

The newborn baby boy is being looked after by hospital staff / Met Police

Police are becoming increasingly concerned for his mother's wellbeing and have urged her to come forward.

Detective Sergeant Andy Barry, from Central East Area Safeguarding Unit, said: Baby Edward was only about 12 hours old when he was found abandoned on a doorstep in Sandringham Road. Edward is being well cared for by hospital staff and is a healthy, bonny lad.

I am reaching out to Edwards mother. You are my primary concern. I do not know the circumstances around Edwards birth, but as a father myself, I understand how daunting becoming a parent can be.

Met Police

I can offer you help, please be assured that you are not in trouble. Edward is safe and well and your health and wellbeing is our priority."

Edward was born outside of a hospital, police have said, and was found wearing a grey babygrow and a grey hat.

He was wrapped in a white knitted blanket.
The ban on gatherings of more than 50 people in Delhi to stop coronavirus spread will also cover protests including the one against the amended citizenship law in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on March 16. However, in the latest update, the Shaheen Bagh protestors will have refused to follow the order of the Delhi government
Lock of Albert Gallatin & Company Musket. The CP stamp indicates the piece was produced for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania NPS Photo

January 24, 2020

Contact: Brian Reedy, 724-329-5470

POINT MARION, Pa.  On Saturday, February 1, 2020 the Friendship Hill Association and the National Park Service will display an artifact making its return to Fayette County, a Gallatin musket. Produced at New Geneva under state contract with Albert Gallatin & Company and with employees under the supervision of gun maker Melchior Baker they made nearly 1200 stand of arms. The contract was to produce muskets, bayonets, cartridge boxes and broadswords to supply Pennsylvania militia units defending the Commonwealth. Several contracts were awarded to gun makers but Gallatins was the only one west of the Alleghenies. Of the muskets made in New Geneva, fewer than ten are known to exist today.

A brief program, starting at 11:00 a.m. in the Gallatin mansion, will include a signing of Deed of Gift acknowledging transfer to the National Park Service collection. Guest will be welcome to view the musket. Light refreshments will be available.

The musket with bayonet, which dates to about 1799, was purchased by the Friendship Hill Association (FHA), the parks friends group. FHA is a non-profit group whose mission is to support the National Park Service at Friendship Hill National Historic Site. The group has made numerous philanthropic contributions to the Friendship Hill NHS over their thirty plus years of partnership. After conservation, the musket will be on display in the Gallatin house museum.

Admission to the event is free. The Gallatin House is handicap accessible with restrooms that are open to the public.

Friendship Hill National Historic Site is located on Rt. 166 between Point Marion PA and New Geneva, PA. For further information contact the National Park Service at 724-329-2501.

www.nps.gov/frhi/learn/news/presskit.htm
Vancouver, January 27, 2020 - Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV: LA) ("Los Andes", or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a net smelter return ("NSR") royalty agreement with Resource Capital Fund VI L.P ("RCF") for a total price of US$8 million, payable in tranches (the "Royalty"). The Royalty applies to the sale of all locatable minerals produced from the San Jose 1/3000 exploitation concession (the "San Jose Concession") that forms part of the Company's Vizcachitas Project in Chile ("the "Project"). Under the Royalty, RCF will receive 0.98% NSR for open pit operations and 0.49% NSR for underground operations. Los Andes Copper Ltd. is listed on the TSX-V under the ticker: LA.

Following this transaction, the overall NSR level for the San Jose Concession and for the other concessions covering the mineral resources of the Project is 2.00% for the open pit operations and 1.00% for the underground operations. The economic model presented in the Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") dated June 13, 2019 already includes an NSR level of 2.00% for the open pit operations and 1.00% for the underground operations for all mineral resources.

Highlights

Gross proceeds of US$8 million from RCF US$1.5 million has been paid by RCF on closing and registration of documents in Chile The remaining US$6.5 million is scheduled to be paid in four equal quarterly installments, the first of which is due on March 31, 2020

The financing will be primarily used to fund a Prefeasibility Study ("PFS") for the Project and to prepare a baseline for the environmental approval package

Fernando Porcile, Executive Chairman, commented:

"I am delighted to announce the completion of this NSR royalty agreement which highlights the continued support from RCF to the Vizcachitas Project, and strongly positions the Company to continue successfully developing the Project.

Following the completion of the Project's updated PEA, released in June 2019, the proceeds from this NSR will be used to advance work on the PFS, which has already commenced and is progressing well.

Further drilling programmes are also expected as part of the PFS and to explore prospective areas immediately surrounding the current mineralization. We are processing the environmental permits for this drilling.

"I look forward to keeping the market updated with further progress."

For more information please contact:

Fernando Porcile - Chairman

Tel: +56 2 2954-0450

Antony J. Amberg, CEO - Chief Geologist

Tel: +56 2 2954-0450

E-Mail: info@losandescopper.com or visit our website at: www.losandescopper.com

Los Andes Copper Ltd. is a Canadian company focused on developing the Vizcachitas copper-molybdenum porphyry project in Chile.



The company owns 100% of the Vizcachitas project, one of the largest advanced copper deposits in the Americas. Vizcachitas is to become Chile's next major copper mine. The project is a copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit, located 150 km north of Santiago, in an area of very good infrastructure.



The Project is currently undertaking a pre-feasibility study.

Certain of the information and statements contained herein that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Securities Act (British Columbia), Securities Act (Ontario) and the Securities Act (Alberta) ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend"; statements that an event or result is "due" on or "may", "will", "should", "could", or might" occur or be achieved; and, other similar expressions. More specifically, Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information; including, without limitation, the achievement and maintenance of planned production rates, the evolving legal and political policies of Chile, the volatility in the Chilean economy, military unrest or terrorist actions, metal and energy price fluctuations, favourable governmental relations, the availability of financing for activities when required and on acceptable terms, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, current and future environmental and regulatory requirements, the availability and timely receipt of permits, approvals and licenses, industrial or environmental accidents, equipment breakdowns, availability of and competition for future acquisition opportunities, availability and cost of insurance, labour disputes, land claims, the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Management's Discussion and Analysis in the Company's financial statements. Such Forward-Looking Information is based upon the Company's assumptions regarding global and Chilean economic, political and market conditions and the price of metals and energy, and the Company's production. Among the factors that have a direct bearing on the Company's future results of operations and financial conditions are changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, a change in government policies, competition, currency fluctuations and restrictions and technological changes, among other things. Should one or more of any of the aforementioned risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the Forward-Looking Information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/51814
Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan participated in the event dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the National DayRepublic Dayof India.

During the event, Grigoryan and Indian Ambassador Kishan Dan Dewal participated in the opening ceremony of an exhibition dedicated to India.

Then, during the solemn reception the Deputy Prime Minister made a congratulatory speech.

"Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and India, it has been succeeded in turning the deep-rooted historical friendly bilateral relations into an interstate warm and partnership relations based mutual respect and trust," he said, in particular. I believe that with joint efforts, we can achieve great success in developing our bilateral relations.

Taking this opportunity, allow me to express our gratitude to the Indian Government and Indian people for their caring attitude towards the Armenian community and the Armenian cultural heritage that has centuries of history in India."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Several private schools located in Manila City and Quezon City have suspended classes on Monday as the novel coronavirus that originated from Wuhan, China continues to spread worldwide.

Chinese schools including Hope Christian High School, St. Stephen's High School, and Uno High School in Manila City have suspended classes indefinitely, saying they are gathering more information on travel details of their students and staff during the Chinese New Year break.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said to date, there is no confirmed case of the novel coronavirus or 2019-nCov in the country. The suspension of classes is not in line with current DOH guidelines, he added.

"Definitely no need as of now," he said on Monday.

The following schools suspended classes and work for Monday, January 27:

-Chiang Kai Shek (Algue and Narra campuses)

-Philippine Cultural College

-Tiong Se Academy

-Saint Jude Catholic School (until Tuesday)

-Lorenzo Ruiz Academy

-Philippine Academy of Sakya

-Pace Academy

At least 11 individuals are placed under investigation for suspected infection of the respiratory illness. Duque said the cases under investigation have been recorded in different hospitals around the country, but there are two suspected cases in Metro Manila, particularly in Muntinlupa City and Pasay City.

Related: 11 under probe for suspected coronavirus in PH  DOH

Manila City's health officials denied reports a Chinese national infected with the new coronavirus was brought to the Metropolitan Hospital in Binondo.

Manila City Health Officer Dr. Arnold Pangan confirmed a 27-year old male, who was working at a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO), was hospitalized on January 25 due to fever and cough, but denied it is linked to the new coronavirus strain.

"Manila Health Department Surveillance Team, in coordination with DOH surveillance, and as per investigation, patient has fever and cough but negative on history of travel to Wuhan, China, and no history of exposure to a host or positive case," the doctor stressed.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said private schools who chose to suspend classes have to conduct make-up classes.

The new coronavirus has left 80 people dead in mainland China.

According to the World Health Organization, common signs of coronavirus infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, it can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory infection, kidney failure and even death.

Following the spread of the new coronavirus in parts of Asia, the United States, France, and most recently, Australia, the Philippines' Department of Health has asked all tourists who have been to Wuhan and who show symptoms to immediately seek medical attention.

China's health minister Ma Xiaowei on Monday said the new coronavirus can spread before symptoms show.
Russia is marking the 75th anniversary of the lifting of Nazi Germanys siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) during World War II.

A wreath-laying ceremony will be held today at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.

Commemorative events will be held at the Museum of The Defense and The Siege of Leningrad.

A reenactment of the Leningrad victory salute will take place at 20:00 local time.

The Siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941, until January 27, 1943. It is estimated that 1.5 million civilians died during the blockade.
Warsaw/ Oswiecim (Poland): World leaders joined ageing Holocaust survivors in Poland on Monday to mark 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops, amid concerns over a global resurgence of anti-Semitism. More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished in the camp`s gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease.

Set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940, at first to house Polish political prisoners, it became the largest of the extermination centres where Adolf Hitler`s plan to kill all Jews - the "Final Solution" - was put into practice.

Speaking before Monday`s ceremonies, David Harris, head of the American Jewish Committee, said groups ranging from far-right white supremacists to jihadis and the far-left were fuelling anti-Semitism worldwide. "Jews in western Europe think twice before they wear a kippa, they think twice before they go to a synagogue, think twice before they enter a kosher supermarket," he told Reuters.

A 2019 survey by the US-based Anti-Defamation League showed that about one in four Europeans harbour "pernicious and pervasive" attitudes towards Jews, compared with 19% of North Americans.

In Germany, 42% agreed that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust", it said. Two people were killed in a shooting near a synagogue in eastern Germany in October 2019, in what officials called an anti-Semitic attack.

After visiting Auschwitz last week, Mohammed al-Issa, the head of a global Muslim missionary society, said governments and Muslim communities should do more to combat anti-Semitism. "European countries should have stronger and more active laws that would criminalise anti-Semitism," Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL), told Reuters.

More than a dozen heads of state including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will take part in ceremonies starting at 3.30 p.m. (1430 GMT) at the "Gate of Death" where rail tracks led trains packed with victims into the camp.

The commemorations take place as Poland seeks to highlight its own suffering during World War Two, in which six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed and Warsaw was razed to the ground. For many non-Jewish Poles, Auschwitz remains the place where the Nazis jailed and killed Polish resistance fighters, the intelligentsia, Roman Catholic priests and innocent civilians.

Critics say the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government is not doing enough to counter anti-Semitism and is instead focussing on what it sees as Polish heroism during the war and downplaying Jews` claims to postwar restitution of property seized from them. PiS says the West fails to grasp the extent of the nation`s pain and bravery.

One survivor, a Jewish Pole, spoke about the need to remember Auschwitz. "We need to do everything possible to keep this world from acquiring amnesia," Benjamin Lesser said at the camp on Sunday. "It`s hard to believe civilised, cultured, educated people could become such monsters."
Launching the new website, along with our updated branding, has been a great way for us to start the year. It was nice to step back from our customers' work and give our own site a complete overhaul.

LKCS, a full-service marketing services provider, offers an array of digital, print, and statement solutions for financial institutions nationwide. Recently, the company launched its newly redesigned website which demonstrates their web development skills and delivers information about the companys products and services.

Launching the new website, along with our updated branding, has been a great way for us to start the year, said Karl Ribas, Director of Digital Services. Were so focused on launching our customers' sites as a priority, that it was nice to step back and give our site a complete overhaul.

The new LKCS website was streamlined to simplify and focus on a cohesive design with a purpose. The sites focus is to introduce the company and guide customers through their suite of services. With User Experience (UX) principals at the basis of the design, it features a new user-friendly navigation structure, prominent call-to-actions, and updated contact forms. Customers also have the ability to schedule an appointment with a sales representative directly from the website.

On the homepage, the addition of a video montage of LKCS services was produced to give a quick look at the companys personality and team.

We take a lot of pride in our facility and employees, says Rose Pollard, CFO and Co-Owner. We felt a video would be an effective way to tell a story and let people get to know who we are. It is definitely an important highlight.

Also new is a more robust portfolio, which allows customers to dive deeper into web design, print and mail pieces and statement programming projects. Each portfolio piece features images of the main project as well as additional images highlighting other elements of each project. Each piece also has an overview description of the project to show the innovative solutions and improvements LKCS delivered for each client.

New services which were previously not available on the old website are now present. Customers can learn about LKCS Online Mortgage Lending Platform, which can boost financial institutions mortgage and home equity loan growth. There is also LKCS Video Production Services, which offers customers an affordable way to produce animated videos or have existing video footage edited.

The new website was built on the Sitefinity Online Marketing platform, developed by Progress. Sitefinity CMS is a web content management system for delivering personalized experiences across sites and devices. The Online Marketing edition gives site owners the ability to experience website personalization and to test and optimize pages for continuous improvement and lead generation.

LKCS new website was redesigned by their in-house team of web designers and programmers, with management overseeing the direction and progress.

About LKCS

Based in Peru, Illinois, LKCS is the leader in providing end-to-end marketing, graphic design, commercial printing, direct mail, web development, and statement processing services to financial institutions. Combined with over 50 years of financial marketing expertise, LKCS leverages the latest technologies and techniques to improve marketing results and return on investment for our clients. We do that. Additional information about LKCS can be found at https://www.lk-cs.com.
The spread of a new coronavirus across Asia and into Europe and the United States has created a challenge for governments and health authorities desperate to stem its advance.

While the primary focus is on preventing deaths and averting mass panic, it is inevitable that economists and investors are looking at what the impact might be for growth and financial markets.

As Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank wisely points out, economists are not qualified to judge how dangerous the spread of the virus may eventually be.

But they can look back at previous episodes and the obvious incident to reach for is the SARS pandemic in 2003 that grabbed the headlines as it caused around 800 deaths and led to severe disruptions in China between March and May of that year.

Economic data for 2003 show a temporary dip in Chinese GDP growth during the height of the SARS pandemic to 9.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2003 from 11.1 per cent in the previous quarter, followed by rates of 10 per cent in the final two quarters of the year.

Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Show all 154 1 /154 Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Paramedics wearing personal protective equipment carry patient on a stretcher on to an ambulance in North Point district in Hong Kong, China Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker wearing protective gear takes a rest as he waits for ambulances carrying patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at an entrance of a hospital in Daegu, South Korea YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker sprays disinfectant on an ambulance after carrying a patient infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Daegu YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People wearing protective face masks shop at a supermarket in Casalpusterlengo, one the northern Italian towns placed under 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is taken into an ambulance amid a coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy REUTERS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulances and health workers are seen outside the Padua's hospital, northern Italy EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers in coaches leave MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire after being repatriated to the UK from a cruise ship hit by the coronavirus in Yokohama, Japan and head to Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People rest in a temporary hospital situated in the Tazihu Gymnasium in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Buddhist monks wearing protective face masks pray during a blessing ceremony for the people affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia REUTERS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers wearing protective gears carry a patient infecting with a new coronavirus to a hospital in Chuncheon, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Soldiers in hazmat suits sanitize cargo from a China Airlines plane at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan City, Taiwan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Barricades are seen to block the entrance a the gate of a local mall in a nearly empty area in Beijing, China Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor wearing a protective facemask waits for customers at a shop in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The body temperature of an Iraqi child returning from Iran is measured upon her arrival at the Najaf International Airport AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers hand out free facemasks at a shopping district in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers wearing protective gears carry a patient suspected of contracting the new coronavirus toward an ambulance at Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo, South Korea AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker disinfects a shop at a market in Shanghai AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A restaurant worker wearing protective clothing as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus passing a bag of food to a customer on the street outside their restaurant in Beijing AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A recovered patient is discharged from Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built makeshift hospital for novel coronavirus patients, in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers in protective suits disinfect a factory with sanitising equipment in Huzhou, China China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits attend to a patient inside an isolated ward of Wuhan Red Cross Hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A drone operated by the Suwon municipal government flies around Changyong Middle School spraying disinfectant, in Suwon, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers transfer medical waste at Leishenshan Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a protective mask rides a bicycle with his children in Guangzhou, China EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Volunteers in protective suits disinfect a railway station as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Changsha, Hunan province, China cnsphoto via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman repatriated from Wuhan carries a child as she walks upon her arrival at the Van Don airport in Vietnam's Quang Ninh province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff checking the body temperature of a patient who has displayed mild symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A medical worker in protective suit transports oxygen tanks at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Boys wearing protection masks, gloves and modified water bottles sit on a cart at the airport arrival terminal in Guangzhou EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Employees work on a production line manufacturing protective suits at a clothing factory in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province cnsphoto via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits move a patient at an isolated ward of a hospital in Caidian district following an outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in protective clothing, including face mask and gloves, carries a bucket as he works inside of The County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton, southern England, after it closed for "urgent operational health and safety reasons", following reports a member of staff was infected with the strain of the novel coronavirus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers of the ecology and environment bureau collect samples from the sewage system of a hospital in Xinle, Hebei province China Daily via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man in protective clothing cleaning the County Oak Medical Centre GP practice The British government warned the outbreak of novel coronavirus was a "serious and imminent threat" and reported four new cases that brought the total recorded in the country to eight. Two hospitals The Royal Free and Guys and St Thomas', have both been designated as "isolation" facilities, with both currently housing Britons who have returned from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to the newly completed Huoshenshan temporary field Hospital in Wuhan. The global coronavirus death toll rose again with Hong Kong announcing its first death from the outbreak on 4 February EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff wait as coaches carrying Coronavirus evacuees arrive at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, in Milton Keynes, after being repatriated to the UK from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan PA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A crew member of the cruise ship Diamond Princess talks to a worker wearing protective gear standing near the vessel, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Doctors scan a patient's lungs at Huoshenshan temporary hospital built for patients diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan Xinhua News Agency/AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People wearing protective suits walk from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with around 3,600 people quarantined onboard due to fears of the new coronavirus, at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Indonesians who arrived from Wuhan are sprayed with antiseptic at Hang Nadim Airport in Batam. People evacuated from the Chinese city at the centre of a deadly virus outbreak, were transported to a quarantine zone on a remote island at the edge of the South China Sea, shortly after landing Indonesian Foreign Ministry via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman wears a protective mask as she shops in a market in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members hugging each other in an isolation ward at a hospital in Zouping in China's easter Shandong province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A portrait of Dr Li Wenliang is left at Li's hospital in Wuhan. He is regarded a whistleblower on the outbreak and died of the coronavirus which triggered wide-spread mourning on Chinese media Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Officers in protective gear enter the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where people tested positive for coronavirus, after the ship arrived at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Firefighters and personnel from the health ministry participate in a drill to prepare for the potential arrival of passengers infected with the coronavirus at the Viru Viru International Airport, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Scientists are at work in the VirPath university laboratory as they try to find an effective treatment against the new Sars-like coronavirus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers in protective suits attend to patients at the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital to receive patients with mild symptoms caused by the virus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A girl wears a mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus outbreak, in Bangkok, Thailand Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man is transferred from the World Dream cruise ship to an ambulance at the Kai Tak cruise terminal in Hong Kong as health officials conduct inspections AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers from a disinfection service company enter Lotte Department Store in central Seoul, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man who arrived from Hubei province talks with police at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor holds a handheld digital thermometer near health officials preparing a health check for arriving passengers from China at Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A resident walks across an empty track in Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A scientific staff member works in a secure laboratory, researching the coronavirus, at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members preparing equipment to meet passengers of a military plane, which evacuated citizens of Russia and ex-Soviet countries from China's Wuhan province Vsluh.ru via Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff wearing protective suits as they prepare to disinfect a Vietnam Airlines plane at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi Vietnam Airlines/AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A South Korean person, who was evacuated from Wuhan, arrives at the National Medical Center after showing suspected symptoms of novel coronavirus, in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Officers in protective gear escort a person (under the blue sheet) who was on board cruise ship Diamond Princess and was tested positive for coronavirus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor being disinfected by his colleague at a quarantine zone in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Buses carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan, arrive at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Indonesian health officials conduct an exercise drill in transporting a patient requiring isolation at the Belawan port in Medan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Pasteur Institute in Dakar, designated by the African Union as one of the two reference centres in Africa for the detection of the new coronavirus that appeared in China, is hosting experts from 15 countries on the continent this weekend to prepare them to deal with the disease AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A government worker disinfects a co-worker after visiting a quarantined woman's home in Qingdao EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An aerial view of the deserted roads and bridges in Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical workers hold a strike outside the Hospital Authority as they demand for Hong Kong to close its border with China to reduce the coronavirus spreading Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person has their tempriture checked in Qingdao, China EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Malaysian nationals being directed from a bus by health officials in protective suits as they arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, after being evacuated from Wuhan Malaysia's Ministry of Health/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People hoping to buy face masks crowd outside a medical supply shop that was raided by police for allegedly hoarding and overpricing the masks, as public fear over China's Wuhan Coronavirus grow in Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government has been heavily criticized after failing to immediately implement travel restrictions from China, the source of a deadly coronavirus that has now killed hundreds and infected thousands more Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Residents wearing masks and raincoats volunteer to take temperature of passengers following the outbreak of a new coronavirus at a bus stop at Tin Shui Wai, a border town in Hong Kong Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Italian citizens repatriated from Wuhan going though a health control zone after landing at the Mario De Bernardi military airport in Pratica di Mare, south of Rome, prior to be placed in quarantine Italian Defence Ministry/AFP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers arrange beds in a 2,000-bed mobile hospital, set up in an exhibition center, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A doctor checks conditions of occupants in a hotel accommodating isolated people in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city of Wuhan, arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital. The Chinese army deployed medical specialists to the epicentre of the spiralling viral outbreak that has killed and spread around the world AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A baby wearing a protective face mask is pushed by a woman as they arrive from Shenzhen to Hong Kong at Lo Wu MTR station AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A health worker checks the temperature of a woman entering a subway station in Beijing Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A young child wears a protective mask and is covered in plastic while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance crews arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, as it prepares for a return flight from Wuhan, China. Eighty-three Britons and 27 foreign nationals who were trapped in Wuhan are being flown back to the UK Tom Maddick / SWNS Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A woman carries a baby wearing a protective mask as they exit the arrival hall at Hong Kong High Speed Rail Station Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Camp beds at a Medical Assessment Center set up at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on the eve of the arrival of German citizens evacuated from Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Funeral parlour staff members in protective suits help a colleague with disinfection after they transferred a body at a hospital in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Muslims wearing masks pray for the victims of coronavirus at a mosque in Ahmedabad, India Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical officials waiting for people who wants to check the novel coronavirus at Myeongdong shopping district Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children wear plastic bottles as makeshift homemade protection and protective masks while waiting to check in to a flight at Beijing Capital Airport Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A patient assisted by medical staff gets off an ambulance in Wuhan AFP/Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus People line up to buy face masks from a medical supply company in Nanning, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Countries began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by a new virus that has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by SARS Chinatopix via AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Millions spent their normally festive Lunar New Year holiday under lockdown Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Children with face masks wash their hands before prayer at Erawan shrine in Bangkok. Thailand has detected eight Coronavirus cases so far AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An Indonesian health officer points at the screen of a thermal scanner for passengers China confirmed that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus virus can be transmitted between humans AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Hospital workers wearing protective eyewear and masks examine an Indonesian student who returned from China in quarantine at a hospital in Banda Aceh AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Ambulance staff dispose of an outfit at the hospital in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A person checks the temperature of a passenger to help stop the spread of a deadly virus as he arrives at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International airport in Palembang AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Nepali students, wearing face masks, attend a class at Matribhumi School in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Two Buddhist monks wear face masks while walking along a street in Yangon AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting a residential area in Ruichang, part of Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020. - China is rushing to build a new hospital in a staggering 10 days to treat patients at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak that has stricken thousands of people, state media reported on January 24. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) HECTOR RETAMAL AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Vapor blurs the goggles of an ambulance driver while they work, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff getting on an ambulance in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A vendor of traditional masks wears a facial mask at his shop in Thamel EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An ambulance driver talking with medical staff in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers produce protective suits at a factory in Nantong AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers scanned by thermal imaging for body temperature as they go through health measures and procedures after they landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Thai royal guard wears a mask while on duty at the Grand Palace in Bangkok EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A shopper wearing goggles with a face mask and gloves uses a self checkout machine at a supermarket in Wuhan AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Italian Red Cross putting on protective gear, getting ready to give health checks to passengers that landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of the Hong Kong government's Civil Aid Service gestures at the entrance to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village which is being used as one of two quarantine centres for people who have been in close proximity with suspected cases of a SARS-type virus. Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan STR/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A Malaysia Health official checks passengers going through a thermal scanner upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Staff disinfecting Yingtan North Railway Station, China China banned trains and planes from leaving the major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on January 23, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed lives and spread to other countries AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A passenger walks past a quarantine control station at Narita airport, Japan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Patients queue up to seek treatment in Wuhan Tongji Hospital Fever Clinic, in Wuhan EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Quarantine workers spray disinfectant at Incheon International Airport, South Korea EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A member of staff checks the temperature of a guest entering the casino of the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau, after it reported its first case of the new SARS-like virus AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of the Three Gorges Medical Laboratory offering free masks to the public in Yichang, China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Gabriel Leung, right, chair professor of public health medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, speaks about the extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conducting searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine officer at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, uses an electronic thermometer to check the temperature of passengers arriving by plane from Wuhan The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A screen shows cancelled flights at Tianhe airport in Wuhan AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials hand out information about the current coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A store owner argues with security guards as he attempts to enter the closed Huanan wholesale seafood market AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Handan, China's northern Hebei province AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff and security personnel stop patients' family members from being too close to the Jinyintan hospital Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus maya-goodfellowAn airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A rescue worker walks past a notice about new coronavirus that has broken out in China Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Health officials wear face masks at an inspection site at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A staff member checks body temperature of a child after a train from Wuhan arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou AFP via Getty Images Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A quarantine station measures passenger body temperatures at Narita Airport JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a notice displayed near a quarantine control station at Narita airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers walk past a poster alerting on coronavirus screening ahead upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus An employee sprays disinfectant on a train, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Kazakh sanitary-epidemiological service worker uses a thermal scanner to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms possibly connected with the previously unknown coronavirus, at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading "face masks are sold out" at her pharmacy in Shanghai AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus The Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, EPA Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan Reuters Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong AP Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A notice for passengers from Wuhan Getty Coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus A man wears a mask while riding on mobike past the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market Getty

Capital Economics estimates that global growth lost roughly one percentage point of growth but by the end of the year was some three points higher than before the SARS outbreak. The main impacts stemmed mainly from falls in retail sales and travel as people sought to avoid crowds through fear of contagion.

The key question is what has changed in the structure of the Asian and global economies that might indicate a different  better or worse  outcome this time. There are perhaps three fundamental shifts.

The first is the sheer size of Chinas economy. Back in 2003 it accounted by 6 per cent of global GDP whereas now it is more than 15 per cent which means that, to borrow an old but apposite phrase, when China sneezes the whole world is at greater risk of catching a cold.

Secondly, the explosion of social media means that bad news travels even faster than it 17 years ago, meaning there is a greater risk of misinformation causing panic and causing uncertainty that leads people to cut back on travel and spending plans.

Recommended Coronavirus death toll rises to 80 as Britons told to leave area

As Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Asset Management, put it: The rise of fake news over social media means fear can spready globally more quickly. It is fear of disease, not disease itself, that has the biggest economic repercussions.

The hope is that these will be offset by the third factor, a greater level of preparedness by the authorities than 17 years ago, both in terms of taking action to contain the virus and in ensuring they ahead of the news.

As the death toll in China passed two dozen, Beijing responded swiftly and decisively to the outbreak, putting 10 cities under lockdown, stopping local transport services and cancelling flights to prevent the usual mass movement of people for the New Year festival. Last year it took some four months to officially report on the SARS outbreak.

No one can rule out the possibility that the coronavirus will be worse than SARS and there is an obvious danger in complacency. But spreading panic can be equally harmful and for now, the expectation is that the global economy will take a temporary hit from which it will soon recover.
A woman was killed and five others sustained injuries following an accident between a vehicle of the U.S. embassy and a car in Islamabad on Sunday, police said.

The accident took place near Faisal Avenue Chowk on Margalla Road when the US embassy vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser, collided with the car coming from the other direction, reported Dawn.

The injured were rushed to a hospital.

Police also seized the US embassy vehicle involved in the accident. It has also arrested a Pakistani driver named Amjad Zaman. However, it was not clear who else was in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trump impeachment trial: President's defense team goes after Bidens originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Revelations in Bolton book rock Senate impeachment trial, Trump lawyers focus on Bidens in 2nd day of arguments

GOP's Romney wants to hear from Bolton, Collins says reports strengthen case for witnesses

Trump calls Bolton allegations 'false,' says he hasn't seen manuscript

As White House lawyers spent their second day defending President Donald Trump at his Senate impeachment trial Monday, questions raised by a reported draft manuscript of a forthcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton gave Democrats new hope in their call for new witnesses to testify.

PHOTO: Day 6 of the impeachment trial against President Trump begins at the Capitol, Jan. 27, 2020. (ABC News)

MORE: Bolton manuscript says Trump personally tied Ukraine aid to Biden investigation: Report

In an unpublished version of Boltons book "The Room Where It Happened" reported by the New York Times on Sunday, Bolton said Trump told him he wanted to continue withholding nearly $400 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials in Ukraine helped investigate Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden.

PHOTO: National Security Advisor John R. Bolton listens as President Donald J. Trump meets with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House, July 18, 2019. (The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE)

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, one of four GOP moderates Democrats have targeted in hopes of getting their support for witnesses, said Monday it's "important" senators hear Bolton's account to make an "impartial judgment."

"It's pretty fair to say that John Bolton has a relevant testimony to provide to those of us who are sitting in impartial justice," Romney said. GOP Sen. Susan Collins said the reports about Bolton's book "strengthen the case for witnesses."

PHOTO: Sen. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters as he arrives at the Capitol, Jan. 27, 2020, during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Trump denied Bolton's allegation in tweets early Monday morning.

MORE: 66% call for witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial: Poll

The ABC News team of correspondents and producers is covering every aspect of this story.

Here is how the day unfolded.

9:02 p.m. Second day of defense team's opening arguments ends

Story continues

Dershowitz's arguments were largely constitutional and, at times, very scholarly. At one point he read William Blackstone quotes from two very old, large, yellowing books, which were dogeared with pink sticky notes.

He acknowledged that his position on the matter has evolved over time and said that a crime is necessary for a president to be impeached.

Impeachable offenses, he said, are treason, bribery or those actions that are similar, but perhaps lack certain jurisdictional elements. Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are not similar crimes, Dershowitz argues.

"This is the key point in this impeachment case, please understand what I'm arguing, is that purely noncriminal conduct, including abuse of power and obstruction of congress are outside the range of impeachable offenses," Dershowitz said.

"The framers did intend to limit the criteria for impeachment to criminal-like conduct akin into treason bribery," he added. "And they certainly did not intend to extend it to vague and open-ended and non criminal accusations such as abuse of power and obstruction of Congress."

At the close of arguments for the day, Cipollone encouraged senators to consider the "golden rule of impeachment.

"For the Democrats the Golden Rule could be do unto Republicans as you would have them do unto Democrats," Cipollone said. "And hopefully we will never be in another position in this country where we have another impeachment but vice versa for that rule."

The defense team's opening arguments will continue on Tuesday.

--ABC News' Allison Pecorin

8:47 p.m. Dershowitz argues Bolton revelations do not rise to the level of an 'impeachable offense'

The Harvard professor emeritus raised the new revelations from Bolton's transcript, as reported on by the New York Times, in his presentation before senators.

He argued that the details in the new reporting, even if true, do not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.

PHOTO: Alan Dershowitz speaks on the Senate floor during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, in Washington, DC. (ABC News)

"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense that is clear from the history that is clear from the language of the Constitution," Dershowitz said. "You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like quid pro quo and personal benefit."

--ABC News' Allison Pecorin

7:46 p.m. Robert Ray argues charges 'cheapen' impeachment process

Robert Ray argued the charges against Trump "cheapen" the impeachment process by relying on what he called insufficient evidence and that Trump actions do not rise to the level that they warrant removal from office.

"The charge must be treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. It must be one for which clear and unmistakable proof can be produced. Only if the evidence actually produced against the president is indeed irrefutable such that his own constituents, in this case the sixty-three million people like me, who voted for President Trump accept his guilt of the offense charged in order to overwhelmingly persuade a super majority of Americans and thus their senators of malfeasance warranting his removal from office," Ray said.

PHOTO: Robert Ray speaks on the Senate floor during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, in Washington, DC. (ABC News)

6:49 p.m. GOP senators praise Trump team going after Bidens

During the dinner break, some Senate Republicans tell reporters theyre impressed with this last hour of opening arguments made by the White House legal team. including Eric Herschmann, who continued the attack on Hunter Biden's work on the board of Burisma.

"Why do they want to pay him millions of dollars?" Herschmann asked. "Well, he did have one qualification, he was a son of the vice president of the United States. He was the son of the man in charge of the Ukrainian portfolio for the prior administration and we are to believe there is nothing to see here, that for anyone to investigate or inquire about this would be a sham."

"Let's take a step back and realize what actually transpired, because the House managers would have us believe this had nothing at all to do with our government, nothing at all to do with our country's interests, nothing at all to do with our vice president, nothing at all to do with the State Department," Herschmann said. "It's simply private citizen Hunter Biden doing his own private business, it was purely coincidental that it was in his father's portfolio in Ukraine in the exact sector, the energy sector, that his father said was corrupt."

PHOTO: Eric Herschamnn speaks on the Senate floor during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, in Washington, DC. (ABC News)

"This afternoon was devastating for the House managers," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas says. "We have heard just the beginning of the serious evidence of corruption, involving Burisma Ukrainian natural gas company that paid Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, a million dollars a year." (There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either of the Bidens.)

"So, I get the press loves to obsess over the latest bombshell," he says, referring to a report abut John's Bolton's allegations. "Listen, I don't know what John Bolton's book says or doesn't say, I've seen the New York Times coverage but at the end of the day, it doesn't impact the legal issue before the Senate. The legal issue before this Senate is whether it president has the authority to investigate corruption," Cruz says.

GOP Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming takes a shot at the presidential hopefuls on the Democratic side, joking that they sat with eyes "wide open" in shock.

"Everyone was paying close attention for the discussion about the Bidens but the four people whose eyes were fully wide open were Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Michael Bennett and Amy Klobuchar," Barrasso says.

Ernst, from Iowa, then chimes in with a laugh, and a taunt about Iowa caucuses next week. "Iowa caucuses, folks. Iowa caucuses are this next Monday evening and I'm really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters," she says.

--ABC News' Mariam Khan

5:05 p.m. Bondi uses Bidens to claim Trump's concern about Ukraine corruption justified

Hitting on the alleged conflict of interest theme, Bondi uses a video clip of House testimony from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent in November: "I raised my concern that Hunter Biden status as a board member to create the perception of a conflict of interest," Kent, who oversaw Ukraine policy, says.

Questioning Hunter Biden's qualifications to hold a board position, Bondi cites the generous monthly compensation he received as more grounds for suspicion.

PHOTO: Pam Bondi speaks on the Senate floor during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, in Washington, DC. (ABC News)

Bondi turned to Vice President Joe Bidens efforts to force the corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin out of office, in exchange for $1 billion in security assistance, alleging that Shokin was investigating the Ukrainian oligarch owner of Burisma at the time.

Bondi played a 2016 video clip of Vice President Biden appearing to brag about his ability to use the U.S. aid as leverage to get the Ukrainians to vote Shokin out: "I'm leaving in 6 hours, if the prosecutor's not fired you're not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch, he got fired and they put in place someone who was solid at the time," Biden says in the clip.

She then suggested that Joe Biden advocated for the Shokin's 2015 dismissal in an effort to protect his son, Hunter.

MORE: Fact-checking Trump's accusations against the Ukraine whistleblower and the Bidens

"What he didn't say on that video, according to the New York Times, this was the prosecutor investigating Burisma -- Shokin," Bondi says. "What he also didn't say on the video was that his son was being paid significant amounts by the oligarch owner of Burisma to sit on that board."

But there is a notable omission: Shokin faced widespread criticism from several high-profile international leaders (and anti-corruption advocates in Ukraine) who said Biden's recommendation was well-justified.

The IMF threatened to withhold aid to Kiev in early 2016 citing "Ukraines slow progress in improving governance and fighting corruption," according to Christine Lagard, the IMFs managing director. And once Shokin was removed, the European Union's envoy to Ukraine, Jan Tombinski, lauded the decision as "an opportunity to make a fresh start."

She also doesn't mention that Kent repeatedly denied GOP suggestions that Biden did anything wrong. In fact, Biden was acting in accordance with U.S. policy and in agreement with concerns raised by European governments and anti-corruption advocates in Ukraine

Pam Bondi alleges that Biden's pressure campaign to dismiss a Ukrainian prosecutor was part of an effort to protect his son, Hunter. But the prosecutor faced criticism from domestic and international anti-corruption advocates, who say Biden was justified. https://t.co/mwngTqaIEa pic.twitter.com/ax7yACZuYn  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

Bondi then, in the context of all these allegations against the Bidens, quotes Trump's request from the transcript of the call with Zelenskiy.

"The House managers talked about the Bidens and Burisma 400 times but they never gave you the full picture," Bondi argues. She attempts to make the request sound fair and reasonable under the circumstances.

After laying the narrative out, Bondi says there is enough to make the case that it was fair for Trump to ask Zelenskiy to look into the matter from an anti-corruption standpoint.

"You've heard from the House managers, they do not believe that there was any concern to raise here. That all of this was baseless," Bondi says. "And all we are saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue, and that is enough," she says.

--ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky and Lucien Bruggeman

4:45 p.m. Trump's defense team goes after Bidens at length

Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and a member of Trump's defense team, brings the argument back to Hunter Biden and the questions from Republicans about whether his role with the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma was a conflict of interest with his father's position in the Obama administration.

PHOTO: White House adviser Pam Bondi presents her opening argument on day 6 of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, at the Capitol. (ABC News)

It's the first time Trump's defense team has brought up the Bidens at length.

Bondi argues that Democrats have made Biden part of the impeachment issue even though Democrats did so saying accusations of any wrongdoing are "baseless." So have the Bidens.

MORE: Hunter Biden sits down for exclusive interview with ABC News

"We would prefer not to be discussing this. But the House managers have placed this squarely at issue, so we must address it," Bondi says before reviewing the timeline of Hunter Biden's involvement with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and news media coverage and questions about the appearance of a conflict of interest when he served on the company's board.

"Now, the House managers might say without evidence that everything we just have said has been debunked, that the evidence points entirely and unequivocally in the other direction," she says.

MORE: Biden sought to avoid conflict of interest before 2008 campaign: Court records

"That is a distraction you've heard from the House managers, they do not believe that there was any concern to raise, all of this was baseless and all we are saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue and that is enough."

Bondi has the chamber riveted, according to ABC News Devin Dwyer. As she started on the topic of Hunter Biden, Sen. Maria Cantrell mouths "bull****" as she turns to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen beside her.

There are expressions of dismay and concern on several faces of Democratic senators. Sen. Cory Booker openly scowls as he stands in the back of the chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stares dead on at Bondi with a look of skepticism. Sen. Chris Coons, a close ally of former Vice President Joe Biden, aggressively takes notes.

Many of the presidents Republican allies  Sens. Graham, Barrasso, Braun, Thune  are nodding along. Sens. Romney, Collins and Murkowski diligently take notes.

4:26 p.m. Inside the Senate chamber: Republicans listening intently

ABC News' Katherine Faulders reports on the scene inside the Senate chamber:

During Jane Raskins presentation focusing on Rudy Giuliani (in which she tried to downplay his role while attempting to distance the White House from Giuliani by telling senators his style may not appeal to them), senators seemed very engaged - especially Republicans - who intently listened and took notes.

GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Mitt Romney are especially engaged, and members of the Trump defense team are noticeably craning their necks during certain portions of the presentation to see how senators are reacting.

3:30 p.m. Raskin: Democrats using Giuliani as 'a colorful distraction'

"Rudy Giuliani is the House managers' colorful distraction," another member of the president's legal team, Jane Raskin, tells senators, in her first turn speaking during the Senate arguments.

PHOTO: President Trump's personal attorney Jane Raskin presents her opening argument on day 6 of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, at the Capitol. (ABC News)

"The House managers would have you believe that Mr. Giuliani is at the center of this controversy. Theyve anointed him the proxy villain of the tail the leader of a rogue operation their presentations were filled with ad hominem attacks and name-calling: 'cold-blooded political operative,' 'political bagman.' But I suggest to you that he's front and center in their narrative for one reason and one reason alone: to distract from the fact that the evidence does not support their claims," she says.

Raskin argues the Democrats' case is based on assumptions around Giuliani's role, including that his motivation was to benefit the president politically, and that the case for impeachment doesn't put his role in context as the president's personal attorney.

She says Giuliani has said multiple times that his interest in Ukraine is not related to the 2020 presidential election and predated the announcement of former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign, a big talking point in the Democrats' argument about the timeline of events.

Raskin argues Giuliani was a "minor player" and a "shiny object" designed to distract senators and that his work related to Ukraine would be used to defend Trump against allegations that were the focus of former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation -- that his campaign colluded with Russian operatives to interfere in the 2016 election.

Trump counsel Jane Raskin: "The House managers would have you believe that Mr. Giuliani is at the center of this controversy." "But I suggest to you that he's front and center in their narrative...to distract from the fact that the evidence does not support their claims." pic.twitter.com/mM4kX6g16b  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

Giuliani, like Trump, has pushed a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, sought to interfere in the election, even though U.S. officials have said there is no information to support that claim.

"As he has stated repeatedly and publicly, he was doing what good defense attorneys do," Raskin says. "Following a lead from a well-known private investigator, he was gathering evidence regarding Ukrainian election interference to defend his client against the false allegations being investigated by special counsel Mueller."

Mueller's report found that while there was insufficient evidence to charge members of the Trump campaign with engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election -- it did not find there was no evidence of contacts and cooperation or "no collusion" as Trump has claimed. It also found that Russian operatives sought to manipulate the election through misinformation and other types of interference.

"If Rudy Giuliani is everything they say he is, don't you think they would have subpoenaed and pursued his testimony? Ask yourselves, why didn't they?" Raskin says. "In fact it appears the House Committee wasn't particularly interested in presenting you with any direct evidence of what Mayor Giuliani did or why he did it. Instead, they ask you to rely on hearsay, speculation and assumption evidence that would be inadmissible in any court."

2:42 p.m. Purpura: White House was working to set up Ukraine meeting even without an investigation announcement

White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura rails against the Democrats' assertion that a meeting with President Trump was linked to the opening of an investigation, arguing that he was genuinely interested in combating corruption in Ukraine when he asked President Zelenskiy to announce investigations and withheld military aid.

PHOTO: Deputy White House counsel Michael Purpua presents opening argument on day 6 or the impeachment trail of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020, at the Capitol. (ABC News)

He argues that, despite arguments the White House made the announcement of investigations into the Bidens a requirement before Trump would meet with Zelenskiy, the White House was working to schedule a meeting for weeks without any announcement.

Purpura says the two presidents met as early as their schedules allowed at the United Nations meeting in September, but that Democrats insist that was significantly different than a meeting at the White House.

"They claim the meeting couldn't be just an in-person meeting with President Trump. What it had to be was a meeting at the Oval Office and in the White House. That's nonsense," he says.

"Putting to one side the absurdity of the House managers trying to remove a duly elected president of the United States from office because he met a world leader in one location versus another, this theory has no basis in fact."

In arguing that the first article of impeachment "must fail," deputy White House counsel Michael Purpura says the "Ukrainians said that there were no quid pro quo" and "felt no pressure." Purpura adds that Trump "enhanced America's support for Ukraine." https://t.co/z0ZoXRPc8T pic.twitter.com/0wC9YAOOCs  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

1:57 p.m. Starr calls this 'age of impeachment'

Ken Starr, the independent counsel who pushed for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, says "the Senate is being called to sit as the high court of impeachment all too frequently. Indeed we're living in what I think can be aptly described as the age of impeachment."

"Like war, impeachment is hell. Or at least presidential impeachment is hell," he says. "Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment including members of this body, full well understand that a presidential impeachment is tantamount to domestic war but thankfully protected by our beloved first amendment a war of words and a war of ideas. But it's filled with acrimony and it divides the country like nothing else," he says.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump's defense counsel Ken Starr presents opening argument on day 6 of the impeachment trial at the Capitol, Jan. 27, 2020. (ABC News)

He then argues that the Constitution and a the "common law" of impeachment requires a 'violation of law" to be alleged.

"And so, the appropriate question, were crimes alleged in the articles in the common law of presidential impeachment in Nixon? Yes. In Clinton? Yes. Here? No. A factor to be considered as the judges in the high court. Come as you will individually to your judgment. Even in the political cauldron of the Andrew Johnson impeachment, article 11 charged a violation of the controversial tenure of office act, you're familiar with it, and that act warned expressly the Oval Office that its violation would constitute a high misdemeanor, employing the very language of cognizable crimes. This history represents and I believe may please the court, it embodies the common law of presidential impeachment, Starr says.

Her repeats Republican arguments against the obstruction of justice charge against the president, saying House Democrats should have gone to court to compel documents and testimony blocked by the White House. He counters comments from Adam Schiff and other Democrats that the court process would have taken too long, adding to the risk the president's actions would influence the 2020 election.

Starr says there is a precedent for expedited proceedings in a case like impeachment.

"The House of Representatives could have sought that well-trodden path, it could have sought expedition, it could have sought expedition, the courthouse six blocks down the judges are there, they're all very able, they're hardworking people of integrity. Follow the path, follow the path of the law. Go to court," he says, adding that he believes all House subpoenas issued before the House voted to authorize the impeachment inquiry would be ruled invalid.

Ken Starr: "Here, we have tragically  for the country and I believe, tragically for the House of Representatives  in article 2 of these impeachment articles, a runaway House ... it has run away from the Constitution's demand of fundamental fairness." https://t.co/z0ZoXRPc8T pic.twitter.com/nDcYzysHxF  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

He argues that Congress should use its oversight powers to hold the president and administration accountable, despite the administration's refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations, release documents, or comply with subpoenas. The lack of cooperation from the White House has been a main argument in Democrats' charge that the president has obstructed justice in the impeachment inquiry.

"Again, sitting as a court, this body should signal to the nation the return to our traditions. Bipartisan impeachments. What's the alternative? Will the president be king? Do oversight. The tradition of oversight. An enormous check on presidential power throughout our history and it continues available today.

"In Iran-contra, no impeachment was undertaken," Starr says, referring to the scandal under President Reagan in which Reagan agreed to send arms to Iran to use money from that sale to fund Nicaraguan rebels or "contras."

1:19 p.m. McConnell tells GOP colleagues to 'stay the course'

Sen. Mitch McConnell tells his GOP colleagues "stay the course" during their pre-trial lunch, Republican Sens. Mike Rounds and Kevin Cramer tell ABC News's Devin Dwyer.

Both men said McConnell offered repeated assurances that their game plan is sound and a vote on witnesses will happen at the appropriate time.

Cramer said it was a "keep your powder dry" pep talk.

"Its more of a wrinkle" he added of the Bolton news.

PHOTO: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-KY), arrives at the U.S. Capitol for the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 27, 2020. (Mary F. Calvert/Reuters)

"The whole message is still we made the right choice in the first place. We said we finished through phase one we've heard the attacks and now lets hear the defense and then we'll ask our questions and then we make a decision on material witnesses," said Sen. Rounds.

Asked if he wants to hear Bolton, Sen. Lamar Alexander said: "I worked with my colleagues to make sure we have a chance after we've heard the arguments. After we've asked our questions to decide if we need additional evidence and I'll decide that at that time."

Meanwhile, President Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow begins by previewing the arguments the president's defense will make today.

While he doesn't make a direct mention of the Bolton claim, he appears to refer to it. noting that his team will deal only with "publicly available information."

"What we have done on Saturday is the pattern that we're going to continue today as far as how we're going to deal with the case. We deal with transcript evidence," Jay Sekulow said. "We deal with publicly available information. We don't deal with speculation, allegations. That are not based on evidentiary standards at all".

He said the president always acted within his legal authority when he says Trump asked Ukrainian President Zelenskiy to investigate corruption in his country, even when that involved a U.S. citizen, and repeated Zelenskiy's statements that he did not feel pressured in his July 25 conversation with Trump.

PHOTO: Legal Counsel for President Donald Trump Jay Sekulow speaks during impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump at the Capitol, Jan. 27, 2020. (ABC News)

1:06 p.m. Prayer for Kobe Bryant as trial resumes

Senate Chaplain Barry Black, in his opening prayer, references the deaths of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash over the weekend, saying it serves as a reminder of our limited time on Earth.

"As this impeachment process unfolds, give our senators the desire to make the most of our time on Earth," he says.

Senate chaplain: "As millions mourn the deaths of Kobe and Gianna Bryant and those who died with them, we think about life's brevity, uncertainty and legacy. "Remind us that we all have a limited time on earth to leave the world better than we found it." https://t.co/z0ZoXRPc8T pic.twitter.com/tWaZjTqU8l  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

On a lighter note, the chaplain and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also recognize Chief Justice John Roberts' 65th birthday as the proceedings get underway.

1:05 p.m. Sources: Trump legal team preparing legal fight to block witnesses

As the second day of opening arguments from Trump's legal team gets underway in the Senate, senior level White House sources tell ABC News the presidents lawyers are preparing for the possibility of witnesses in the impeachment trial.

Sources say the legal team is preparing an aggressive, drawn out legal fight to block the testimony of potential witnesses.

-- ABC News' Jonathan Karl, Katherine Faulders and John Santucci

11:58 a.m. Trump says he hasn't seen Bolton manuscript, calls allegations 'false'

President Trump says this morning that the allegations in the Bolton manuscript are "false," and says he hasn't seen the manuscript.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 27, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Asked in the Oval Office, "What about the allegations in the Bolton manuscript?" Trump replies, "False," then scoffs and mouths "false" again.

He makes the comment before a meeting in the Oval Office with Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Earlier, before entering the Oval Office for that meeting, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that he had not seen the manuscript.

--ABC News' Ben Gittleson

11:46 a.m. Republican Graham suggests he could now be open to witnesses

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham suggests he could now be open to witnesses provided its done in a "balanced way"  possibly to include votes on Hunter and Joe Biden.

"If were going to add to the record, then were going to go to Hunter Biden, Joe Biden and all these people," Graham tells ABC News' Devin Dwyer Monday morning.

When asked whether this means hes changed his position on calling the Bidens  he says he has not -- that he still opposes calling them for the sake of calling them -- but says it might be reasonable to include them in votes if the Senate moves to votes on witnesses.

As to whether he has any reason to doubt Bolton, Graham says hes withholding judgment until he sees more. "Im not going to make a commitment about something I dont know about."He says he might be interested in subpoenaing the manuscript.

At the same time, other Republicans dismiss the Bolton allegations.

There is "nothing new here," says Sen. John Barrasso, a member of the Senate GOP leadership from Wyoming.

GOP Sen. John Barrasso dismisses report on Bolton book: "I think there's going to be something new coming out every day, very similar to what we saw in the Kavanaugh trial. New information, old information told in a different way to enflame emotions." https://t.co/6SDLB2tPYd pic.twitter.com/AvRQUJ2pf8  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

"It really doesn't change anything, in terms of the process. We knew that the discussion of witnesses would be here soon ... What it's done is taken an already hot topic and added some fuel to the fire," says GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana.

PHOTO: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. speaks during a news conference about the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol, Jan. 27, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

11:15 a.m. Schumer calls Bolton report 'stunning'

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calls the Bolton revelations "stunning," saying they "go to the heart" of the case against the president.

"Ambassador Bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offense charged in the first article of impeachment." Schumer tells reporters.

The Senate's Democratic Leader repeats his accusation that the White House had engaged in a "cover-up" in order to subvert the impeachment investigation and Senate trial.

"Anyone who says the House case lacks eyewitnesses and then votes to prevent eye witnesses from testifying is talking out of both sides of their mouth," Schumer adds.

He asks, given the Bolton developments: "How can Senate Republicans not vote to call that witness?"

Sen. Chuck Schumer: "We have a witness with first-hand evidence of the president's actions for which he is on trial. He is ready to and willing to testify. How can Senate Republicans not vote to call that witness?" https://t.co/HUrM52BtDi pic.twitter.com/pIWLHQQ8wz  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

"This the test for the senators. They have taken an oath to be impartial. They have just learned there's a key witness going to the heart of the allegations. The question they have to answer is do they want to hear the truth?" lead House manager Adam Schiff told CNN Monday.

10:54 a.m. GOP's Collins says Bolton revelations 'strengthen case for witnesses'

GOP Sen. Susan Collins, another key Republican moderate, issues a statement on Twitter shortly after Sen. Mitt Romney speaks, saying, "The reports about John Bolton's book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a numbers of conversations among my colleagues."

PHOTO: Senator Susan Collins(R-ME) arrives at the Capitol, Jan. 27, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

"From the beginning, I've said that in fairness to both parities the decision on whether or not to call witnesses be made after both the House managers and the President's attorneys have had the opportunity to present their cases.

"I've always said that I was likely to vote to call witnesses, just as did in the 199 Clinton trial," she says.

My statement on Bolton developments. pic.twitter.com/3M59J7suts  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 27, 2020

Earlier, Romney said he cant speculate on what impact Boltons testimony would have on a final decision of whether to acquit the president but said that "it's relevant and therefore, I'd like to hear it."

Sen. Mitt Romney responds to reports of John Bolton's draft manuscript: "John Bolton has a relevant testimony to provide." "I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton," he added. https://t.co/vatOIuwBfa pic.twitter.com/Fsj6UUmP8k  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 27, 2020

-- ABC News' Devin Dwyer

ABC News' John Santucci, Ben Gittleson and Chris Donovan contributed to this report.
DAVENPORT, Iowa - A woman has taken a plea deal on charges stemming from the beating death of her 5-year-old son in Iowa.

Jacqueline Rambert pleaded guilty Friday to child endangerment resulting in death and child endangerment-multiple acts, station KWQC reported. Prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge in return for her pleas.

Rambert agreed to testify against her co-defendant and former boyfriend, Tre Henderson, at his trial, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 3.

Court documents said Henderson assaulted JaShawn Bussell in April 2018, causing head and other injuries that resulted in the boy vomiting several times over a four-day period. The child was taken to a Davenport hospital and then flown to an Iowa City hospital, where he died after being taken off life support.

Rambert and Henderson are both from Chicago but were living in a Davenport apartment when the boy was assaulted, authorities have said.
Three people from Pune who recently returned from Chinas Wuhan have been kept under telephonic medical supervision by doctors from the state health ministry for possible Coronavirus infection.

Although all three do not show any signs or symptoms of being infected through the virus, the state health ministry is keeping a check on them through telephonic supervision.

State health director Archana Patil said, All three have recently returned from Wuhan in China. This is the third day of their return from China and although they have not showed any symptoms of being affected by the virus, we are keeping a check on them through telephonic supervision. They have been sent to their homes from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport when they returned from China.

Patil refused to disclose any information regarding the patients but confirmed that they were least possible to be infected by the virus.

Since the outbreak of Corona virus, ministry of health and state government has issued strict guidelines and advisory to civic bodies and government hospitals.

Wuhan was one of the first places to be hit by the new virus named Coronavirus. This respiratory disease spreads through air by exposure to cough droplets of the infected person. The symptoms include cold, cough, difficulty in breathing, and pneumonia. Till now China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and America have reported corona virus infected patients.

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) official Sanjay Wavare from the health department said, Since there are no direct flights from China to Pune, all the visitors and people returning from China are being screened at the Mumbai airport itself and accordingly being screened or sent to their native places. No case has been detected yet from Pune.

Isolation wards prepped at Naidu, Sassoon hospitals

In view of the coronavirus scare, the civic-run Naidu hospital and the state government-run Sassoon general hospital will start isolation wards with infection prevention facilities.

The nursing staff in these hospitals has been trained for necessary precaution and safety procedure in case any infected patient or a suspected patient is admitted in these wards.

Dr Sanjay Wavare, assistant health commissioner, said, The isolation wards will have approximately six to seven cots and will be separate from the rest of the patients. The nursing staff will be trained to provide basic nursing care for these patients and so accordingly the facilities will be provided.

Wavare further added that the staff will also be issued guidelines as to identify symptoms and take necessary precaution while attending to these patients. He further said, It is not quite likely that any infected person would come to the city as all visitors from China and infected countries are being screened at the Mumbai airport. Also, if anyone is suspected of being infected then they are being admitted to Mumbais Kasturba hospital for further treatment. So there is hardly any chance that the virus would enter the city.

Wavare further said that any suspected patients or person returning from China is kept under supervision for over 28 days and also it is not likely that the symptoms appear late.
By Michael Erman and Lisa Girion

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Alex Gorsky on Monday faced questions from plaintiffs lawyers over the timing of his sale of company stock, as he testified for the first time in a jury trial over allegations that the company's Baby Powder causes cancer.

Gorsky told the jury that he had sold company shares in November 2018, two days after a Reuters reporter contacted the company and summarized in an email her review of documents that showed J&J knew small amounts of asbestos had been found in its talc on occasion since 1971.

Gorsky testified that he was not shown the email from the Reuters reporter at the time of the stock sale.

On Dec. 14, 2018, Reuters published the story that showed J&J had failed to disclose that small amounts of asbestos, a known carcinogen, had sometimes been found in its talc over several decades. After the Reuters report was published, a selloff wiped out more than $40 billion from the company's market value.

At the time, J&J dismissed the Reuters' report as "an absurd conspiracy theory."

"My trade took place at a time when I did not have that kind of knowledge about the article," Gorsky said on Monday. Gorsky testified that he followed all of the appropriate approval processes with the company's board of directors and legal team regarding the sale of company shares after exercising stock options.

J&J faces more than 16,000 lawsuits alleging it sold powders contaminated with asbestos and failed to warn users. It also faces a federal criminal investigation into how forthright it has been about the products' safety.

Filings made by J&J to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that Gorsky sold $38.6 million of company stock on Nov. 16, two days after Reuters made its findings known to the company.

On Monday, Gorsky acknowledged that his net proceeds totaled about $22 million. In response to questions from a lawyer representing J&J, Gorsky reiterated that he had not been told about the Reuters email in advance of the stock sale.

He also acknowledged that he sold less than 10% of his holdings in the company in that transaction and that the shares would be worth more now if he had held onto them.

Story continues

A J&J spokesman said that Gorsky had notified the company's legal department about the planned sale on Nov. 12, 2018, two days before the Reuters inquiry. The stock sale was prompted by plans to buy a house, he said.

The spokesman provided no further details, and Reuters could not independently confirm the purchase.

RELIED ON EXPERTS

Gorsky was subpoenaed by plaintiffs' lawyers as a witness in a trial playing out in a courtroom near J&J headquarters. The plaintiffs, three men and one woman, all have mesothelioma, a rare and incurable cancer that they allege was caused by their exposure to asbestos in Baby Powder in infancy during their diapering.

During an earlier liability phase of the trial, a jury awarded $37.2 million in compensatory damages. Now plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking to persuade a new jury that J&J failed to do enough to ensure the purity of its product, and therefore additional punitive damages should be awarded.

"I was told by the experts in their fields that we were using the most appropriate, most up-to-date technology to make sure our talc was safe," Gorsky testified.

In response to a question posed by plaintiffs' lawyers, Gorsky also told the jury he did not read all the internal company documents related to potential asbestos contamination in Baby Powder, including those contained in links in the Reuters report.

"I did not read all the documents, but I would rely on the experts in these fields," Gorsky testified.

J&J had fought against the subpoena, arguing that its CEO had no first-hand knowledge about the safety of its powders and that the case involves corporate conduct that occurred long before he joined the company.

Compelling his testimony "would serve no purpose other than to harass Mr. Gorsky and divert him from his executive responsibilities," J&J said in a motion.

The New Jersey Supreme Court turned down the company's request to suspend the subpoena last week.

In October, J&J disclosed that a contract lab for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had found asbestos in a bottle of Baby Powder produced in 2018. The company questioned the finding and commissioned tests on samples from the same bottle and talc from the same lot.

Less than two weeks later, J&J announced those tests had found no asbestos, other than some contamination it blamed on an air conditioner in the lab.

Gorsky's journey to the witness stand can be traced to the lead role he played in company efforts to rebut the Reuters report, which prompted plaintiffs lawyers to subpoena his testimony.

In the days following publication, the CEO personally attested to the safety and purity of Johnsons Baby Powder in a video posted on the companys website, as well as in an appearance on CNBCs Mad Money.

"We unequivocally believe that our talc, our Baby Powder, does not contain asbestos," Gorsky told the investment shows host Jim Cramer.

(Reporting by Mike Erman in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Lisa Girion in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in New York and Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Writing by Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
With a confirmed case of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) reported from its neighbouring Nepal, India has stepped up vigil at the Nepal border, and is screening people travelling across the border.

Union health secretary Preeti Sudan on Monday chaired a meeting through video conference with chief secretaries of the five states bordering Nepal  Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, to review their preparedness.

Special focus is on travellers from Nepal visiting religious and other tourist places in India, said health ministry in a statement.

Special health teams have already been deployed at border outposts in Jhulaghat and Jauljibi in district Pithoragarh (Uttarkhand), and at Panitanki entry point in West Bengal, and will be soon be expanded in the other states that share borders with Nepal, added the ministry statement.

Secretary reviewed the preparedness of these bordering states in terms of orientation of health and other agencies; adherence of various prevention and management protocols; awareness regarding prevention of coronavirus among the people being screened and those transiting the border with Nepal; self-reporting by these people; isolation wards; protective gear etc., said the ministry statement.

As part of extra vigil, the Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments have started medical examination of people coming from Nepal, said a senior health ministry official. Orientation sessions have been conducted of teams from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the medical personnel, and health officials in these states.

Regular awareness drives are being undertaken through miking, distribution of leaflets and signages at the border check posts. Apart from thermal screening of travellers from China already taking place in 7 airports, screening will also begin at ports.

Shipping ministry has communicated to the national port authorities as they have been directed to follow up with the inland waterways authority of India, and coordinate with the maritime states. All possible steps are being taken to check the entry and spread of the infection. So far there has been no positive case of coronavirus infection in India, said the ministry official.

The Centre has advised the states to involve rural heads to conduct special Gram Sabhas in coordination with department of Panchayati Raj to enhance awareness regarding the coronavirus diseases, its symptoms, preventive measures, reporting etc. in the border villages, said the official. The state governments have also been asked to involve the Hotels Association for wider self-reporting by travellers from across the border, added the official.

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Improperly mixed chemicals cause a shocking number of fires, explosions, and injuries in laboratories, businesses, and homes each year.

A new open source computer program called ChemStor developed by engineers at the University of California, Riverside, can prevent these dangerous situations by telling users if it is unsafe to mix certain chemicals.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates 4,500 injuries a year are caused by the mixture of incompatible pool cleaning chemicals, half of which occur in homes. Even in laboratories and factories where workers are trained in safe storage protocols, mix-ups and accidents happen, often after chemicals are inadvertently combined in a waste container.

The UC Riverside engineers' work is published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. Their program adapts a computer science strategy to allocate resources for efficient processor use, known as graph coloring register allocation. In this system, resources are colored and organized according to a rule that states adjacent data points, or nodes, sharing an edge cannot also share a color.

"We color a graph such that no two nodes that share an edge have the same color," said first author Jason Ott, a doctoral student in computer science who led the research.

"The idea comes from maps," explained co-author William Grover, an assistant professor of bioengineering in the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering with a background in chemistry. "In a map of the U.S., for example, no two adjacent states share a color, which makes them easy to tell apart."

ChemStor draws from an Environmental Protection Agency library of 9,800 chemicals, organized into reactivity groups. It then builds a chemical interaction graph based on the reactivity groups and computes the smallest number of colors that will color the graph such that no two chemicals that can interact also share the same color.

ChemStor next assigns all the chemicals of each color to a storage or waste container after confirming there is enough space. Chemicals with the same color can be stored together without a dangerous reaction, while chemicals with different colors cannot.

If two or more chemicals can be combined in the same cabinet or added to a waste container without forming possibly dangerous combinations of chemicals, ChemStor determines the configuration is safe. ChemStor also indicates if no safe storage or disposal configuration can be found.

Grover, who experienced a destructive lab fire caused by incompatible chemicals during his days as an undergraduate, said he takes the threat very seriously.

"I'm responsible for the safety of the people in my lab, and ChemStor would be like a safety net under our already strict storage protocols," Grover said.

ChemStor's functionality is currently limited to a command line interface only, where the user manually enters the type of chemicals and amount of storage space into a computer.

Updates are forthcoming to make ChemStor more user-friendly, including a smartphone app utilizing the camera to gather information about chemicals and storage options, as well as an integration with digital voice assistants, some of which have already begun to be developed specifically for chemists, making ChemStor a natural addition.

"Any system can communicate with ChemStor as long as the input is fashioned in a way that ChemStor expects," Ott said.
By Ayman al-Warfalli and Tuvan Gumrukcu BENGHAZI, Libya/ANKARA (Reuters) - Eastern Libya's military commander Khalifa Haftar on Sunday sought to open a new front by moving forces towards the city of Misrata, which is allied to the internationally recognised government, officials and residents said.

By Ayman al-Warfalli and Tuvan Gumrukcu

BENGHAZI, Libya/ANKARA (Reuters) - Eastern Libya's military commander Khalifa Haftar on Sunday sought to open a new front by moving forces towards the city of Misrata, which is allied to the internationally recognised government, officials and residents said.

The pick-up in fighting erodes a shaky truce and comes a day after the United Nations warned that an arms embargo was being violated by foreign powers backing rival Libyan camps.

The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Russia, Turkey had agreed with western powers at a summit in Berlin last Sunday to push for a lasting ceasefire and uphold an existing arms embargo.

But Haftar's Libya National Army (LNA) moved from the central city of Sirte towards Misrata.

Fighting between the LNA and forces from Misrata was centred on the town of Abugrain, 120 km east of Misrata itself, both sides confirmed.

Two LNA fighters were killed and eight wounded, an LNA source said, adding that his forces later retreated taking some prisoners with them.

In April, Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli and has made small gains with the help of Russian and African mercenaries.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has been sending troops to defend Tripoli, said Haftar cannot be trusted.

The Libyan general abandoned talks on a ceasefire in Moscow this month and blocked oilfields during the Berlin summit.

The LNA is backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, while Turkey supports the Tripoli prime minister, Fayez al-Serraj.

Speaking during a visit to Algeria, Erdogan said Libya "should not be allowed to turn into a playground for terrorist organisations and warlord".

Before leaving for Algeria, Erdogan said Haftar's forces had repeatedly violated the ceasefire. "He's continuing attacks with all his resources. However, he will not be successful here."

Libya has had no stable central authority since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. It has had two rival governments, in the east and the west, for more than five years, with streets controlled by armed groups.

In Berlin, foreign powers agreed to form a special committee made up of five military officials from each side to shore up the shaky truce. They are due to meet for the first time this week in Geneva.

The U.N. mission in Libya said on Saturday numerous cargo flights bringing advanced weapons, trucks and fighters from countries that took part in the summit have been landing in western and eastern Libya.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Ahmed Elumami, Hamid Ould Ahmed and Ayman al-Warfalli, Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ulf Laessing, Editing by John Stonestreet, Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
(Newser)  China continued to step up measures to deal with the coronavirus outbreak Sundaybut it may be far too late to stop the virus from spreading widely. The mayor of the city at the center of the outbreak disclosed Sunday that an estimated 5 million people left Wuhan before the city was locked down last week, the South China Morning Post reports. Zhou Xianwang said that included people who rushed to leave the city after the lockdown was announced Sunday night, as well as millions of people who left earlier for the Lunar New Year. Authorities say the holiday has been extended by three days, until next Sunday, to stop the spread of the virus, reports the BBC. The break will last even longer in cities including Shanghai, which has ordered most employers to remain closed until Feb. 10.

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The head of the World Health Organization will hold a special meeting with officials in Beijing on Monday to discuss containing the outbreak, which has now killed at least 81 people and sickened close to 3,000, reports the Guardian. Most of the cases have been in Hubei province, which includes Wuhan, but there have been cases in most of China's provinces and at least 44 cases in other countries have been reported, including five in the US. All the US patients, including a woman diagnosed in Arizona on Sunday, had traveled to Wuhan, authorities say. Countries including France, Japan, and the US are planning to evacuate their citizens from the city, the AP reports. Officials at the US Consulate in Wuhan say a charter flight to San Francisco on Tuesday will evacuate consulate personnel and some American citizens considered to be "at greater risk from coronavirus." (Read more coronavirus stories.)
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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2020 / MjLink.com Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Social Life Network, Inc. (OTCQB:WDLF), is pleased to announce Plus Products, Inc. (CSE:PLUS)(OTCQX:PLPRF) as a Featured Presenter at their MjMicro Virtual Investor Conference hosted by MjInvest on Wednesday, January 29th at 12:30pm ET.The MjMicro Virtual Investor Conference, hosted by MjInvest.com , provides a platform for both public and private cannabis companies to pitch and present their stories to investors through an online virtual conference, while providing a unique opportunity for private and institutional investors access and deal-flow to the best-in-class cannabis companies in the world. The MjInvest digital platform also allows companies and investors the ability to communicate after the conference concludes through chat features and direct messaging capabilities.During the virtual conference, Jacob Heimark, Co-Founder, CEO & Director from Plus Products will host a featured presentation to update investors and analysts. Plus Products is a leading branded products manufacturer based in California, the largest and most competitive cannabis market in the world. PLUS is one of the fastest growing edible brands with the top selling products in the state. The company's mission is to make cannabis safe and approachable - that starts with manufacturing high-quality products delivering consistent experiences. All products are produced in the company's dedicated food-safe cannabis manufacturing facility in southern California.CLICK HERE to add the Plus Products online presentation to your calendar.To access Plus Products Virtual Presentation through the MjInvest.com Investor Platform, please click this link on Wednesday, January 29th, 2020 at 9:30am PST / 12:30pm EST. https://www.mjinvest.com/plus-products-presentation About MjLink.com , Inc. MjLink.com Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Social Life Network, Inc. and is a cloud-based cannabis social network and digital media company based in Denver, Colorado. MjLink operates as a multinational cannabis technology and digital media organization with four industry specific social networks: WeedLife.com , a consumer-to-consumer social network, MjLink.com , a business-to-business social network, HempTalk.com , a business-to-consumer social network, and MjInvest.com , a cannabis industry investor network that produces the MjMicro Capital Conference.For more information about Social Life Network, visit www.SocialNetwork.ai DisclaimerThis news release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the United States Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, with respect to achieving corporate objectives, developing additional project interests, the company's analysis of opportunities in the acquisition and development of various project interests and certain other matters. No information in this press release should be construed as any indication whatsoever of the Company's or MjLink's future financial results, revenues or stock price. These statements are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained herein.CONTACT:Investor RelationsIR@ Social-Life-Network.com 855-933-3277SOURCE: Social Life Network, Inc.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 01:51:38|Editor: zh

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Rescuers work on the site after an earthquake in the province of Elazig, Turkey, on Jan. 26, 2020. The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey on Friday has risen to 36, with 1,607 people injured, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) reported on Sunday. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey on Friday has risen to 36, with 1,607 people injured, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) reported on Sunday.

A total of 45 people were rescued from ruins, and search and rescue operations are still going on in the debris of one building at the city center, the AFAD said in an updated statement.

The earthquake occurred at 8:55 p.m. local time (1755 GMT) in the province of Elazig at a depth of 6.75 km and was followed by 788 aftershocks, according to the statement.

The analysis of a total of 1,521 constructions in both Elazig and the nearby province of Malatya by experts revealed that at least 76 buildings were fully wrecked, and 645 others were severely damaged, the AFAD added.

Earlier in the day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the problems were mostly in the villages of Elazig.

"We will detect the scope of the damage there and launch the construction works quickly," he told reporters in Istanbul before departing for Algeria.

The AFAD statement also said that some 10,000 tents suitable for families were shipped to the region, and more than 4,200 of them were installed in line with the demand in the field.

The agency also shared a couple of bank details on its website for those citizens who want to donate money for the earthquake survivors.

The Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute has revised the magnitude of the tremor from 6.8 to 6.5 on the Richter scale.
The High Commissioner of India to Nigeria, Abhay Thakur, says Indias investment relationship with Nigeria exceeds $15 billion.

Mr Thakur told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 78th Anniversary of India Republic Day celebrations in Abuja on Thursday that both nations had enjoyed warm, friendly and deep-rooted bilateral relations.

Our relationship with Nigeria dates back to 1958; India established its Diplomatic House in Lagos in November 1958.

At present, India is Nigerias largest trading partner and Nigeria is Indias largest trading partner in Africa. India is also the largest buyer of Nigerias crude oil.

Over 135 companies are owned and/or operated by Indians or Persons-of-Indian origin in Nigeria.

Some Nigerians from Northern Nigeria were taught by Indian teachers, treated by Indian medical doctors and grew up wearing Indian clothing and watching Indian movies in the 1970s to 1990s.

The enormous goodwill earned by Indians can invariably be felt in interactions with the government and the civil society.

Both countries were in the forefront of international anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggle and closely collaborated in various international fora.

The presence of a large Indian expatriate community of about 50,000, the largest in West Africa, adds value to the importance of our long-standing relationship, Mr Thakur said.

He particularly recalled that Nigeria and India had a long-standing relationship that began before the British colonial times which had translated to the exchange of professionals into Nigeria.

Today is a very special day because it is not only the 78th anniversary of the India Republic Day, we are also marking the 60th year of Nigeria and India relationship; in fact, our relationship is age-old and started before independence.

At the beginning of British colonial times, a lot of Indian professionals, such as teachers and doctors, entered Nigeria.

We also exchanged students, cultural troops, political delegations and capacity building programmes.

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So, we have a very vibrant relationship and I must say that in all of this, Nigeria and India are each others strategy partners and have a close security relationship as well, he said.

He said India was proud to have a robust relationship that saw three Nigerian Presidents benefiting from `Indian Defense High Tech Programme.

He added that India was Nigerias largest trading partner globally, while Nigeria was Indias trading partner in Africa.

Thakur added that Indian companies were the second largest employers of labour in Nigeria after Nigerian government, saying that Indian corporate interests were scattered around education, tourism, medical tourism and business.

The relationship grows stronger by the years. As Nigeria and India economies grow, our external engagement will also grow, and we will have more to learn from each other and more to gain from each other, he said.

The year 2020 has a whole lot of initiatives, but the most important will be the Fourth India Africa Investment Summit.

The last one was in October 2015; it was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari. We look forward to the next summit which will be held later in the year.

NAN reports that more than 200 members of the Indian community attended the flag hoisting ceremony at the High Commission to commemorate the day.

Other side attractions included children recitation and songs by some of the members of the Indian community.

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(NAN)
TROY  Troy officials are proposing redevelopment of the riverfront property on Second Avenue in Lansingburgh after Price Chopper on Monday announced it would permanently close its store there at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29.

The 72 employees, 20 full-time and 52 part-time, have been offered comparable positions at the nearby Market 32 stores in Brunswick and at Hudson Valley Plaza in Troy, at the Market Bistro in Latham, or at the new Watervliet Price Chopper store.

All are brands of the Golub Corp.

"It's never easy to close a store  and we rarely do  but we have an obligation to make business decisions that support the company's continued health and growth," said Mona Golub, the chain's vice president of public relations and consumer services.

"After thoroughly reviewing the store's current and future viability, as well as the operational challenges related to the floodplain, we concluded that closure is the appropriate action to take," she said. The store is immediately next to the Hudson River, and has experienced some flooding over the years.

The supermarket, which opened in November 1976, backs up along the river shoreline.

Closure of the Lansingburgh Price Chopper presents a unique opportunity to improve the Lansingburgh commercial district and increase public access to Troys waterfront," said Steven Strichman, commissioner of planning and development for the city of Troy. "Potential conversion of this suburban style shopping plaza into a walkable, urban mixed-use districtenhanced by CDTAs Bus Rapid Transit line and other improvementswill bring further investment to the Lansingburgh neighborhood.

We are pleased to know affected employees will be transitioned to other store locations, and look forward to working with the Golub Corporation and their affiliates on the future development of this prominent waterfront location, Strichman added.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello said she asked economic development officials to meet with Golub Corp. "to discuss possible options with them such as an upgraded Market 32 or other economic development options.

"Should the Golub Corporation refuse to look at alternatives, the property is a prime piece of waterfront property," Mantello said. "While there are several new housing units along our waterfront across the river, this could be a great opportunity for something other than housing units, such as a possible restaurant and commercial development with waterfront land and water trail and public access amenities such as docking."

Golub Corp., whose Central Markets brand dates from the early 1940s, switched its Central Markets to Price Chopper in 1973. It opened its first Market 32 store in 2015. It currently operates 133 Price Chopper and Market 32 stores in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Of the 133, 25 are Market 32s.
Michele Tantussi | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The present generation of Europeans are lucky heirs to the wisdom and sacrifices of their elders who built the rules and institutions to manage the project of the economic and political union. People and leaders of the six signatories of the 1957 Treaty of Rome  France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg  deserve enormous credit for having led the process of postwar reconciliation and the continent's recovery in peace and prosperity. With perseverance and great competence, they have crowned the original customs union of the late 1950s with the single market, the common currency and a monetary union managed by a genuinely independent European Central Bank. Those original six, and the rest of the 19 current euro area members, represent the hard core that is expected to lead the European integration. The French and Dutch voters  and those in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region last Sunday  have shown that European constituencies are strong enough to defend that project from xenophobes, populists and nationalists. It is, therefore, a shame that the present euro area leaders are allowing virtual economic stagnation and high unemployment at a time when they have plenty of room to improve their people's welfare.

So far, only the ECB has saved the day. Despite Germany's wrong and self-serving protestations, the ECB has been able to keep the economy afloat while preserving price stability, the soundness of the financial system and facilitating fiscal consolidation in nearly all EU countries. In spite of that, political leaders have been unable to come up with growth policies that would build on the ECB's extraordinarily low credit costs. What are those growth policies? The monetary, fiscal and structural policies are the triad of a policy mix that is supposed to work in a coordinated manner to maximize demand, output and employment. The sad truth is that the ECB's monetary policy had a virtually solo run, with fiscal and, to a lesser extent, structural policies largely missing in action. And that's not the way it should be. The euro area's roughly balanced books offer ample room to offset the private sector weakness with tax cuts and higher public spending. Indeed, the area's public sector deficit in the first three quarters of last year was only 0.65% of GDP. Unfortunately, that is a meaningless statistic, because Germany, with a budget surplus of 1.7% of GDP in the first nine months of last year, refuses the coordinated, or unified, fiscal policy. But Germany has no moral qualms about using the customs union to live off its European trade partners with a surplus of 137.4 billion euro, accounting for two-thirds of its total net exports during the January-November period of last year. As a result, we have a situation where Germany and 9 other euro area countries with balanced or surplus budgets will not cut taxes or raise public spending to accelerate economic growth that would provide jobs for 12.3 million unemployed, or 7.5% of the euro area's labor force.
The enemy used grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.

Russia's hybrid military forces have already shelled Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, since Monday midnight.

"Since [Monday] midnight, Russia's occupation forces used grenade launchers of various types and heavy machine guns to attack defenders of the village of Pisky in the Skhid (East) sector," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Headquarters said on Facebook in a morning update on January 27.

Read alsoUkraine says OSCE SMM's freedom of movement in Donbas still restricted

No Ukrainian army casualties registered on Monday have been reported yet.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia's hybrid military forces on January 26 mounted 12 attacks on Ukraine army positions in Donbas, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action and another one as wounded in action; in addition, one was killed and another one was injured in a booby-trap blast.

The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and rifles.

Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the town of Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Lebedynske, Starohnativka, Novohryhorivka, Hnutove, Orikhove, Novotoshkivske, Krymske, and Bohdanivka.
President Donald Trump hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ahead of unveiling a "peace plan" already flatly rejected by the Palestinians -- but providing both leaders welcome distraction from their respective political crises.

The White House meeting with Netanyahu and, separately, with his arch rival Benny Gantz, thrusts Trump right into Israel's tense election scheduled in just over a month.

Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's centrist Blue and White party are polling neck-and-neck.

An Oval Office sitdown with Trump and a second session on Tuesday, when the two men are expected to roll out the peace plan, will reinforce Netanyahu's message that he has the US president's ear.

It will also boost his standing while he fights a mounting corruption scandal.

Despite signs that the White House peace plan is dead on arrival, Netanyahu is talking it up as the "deal of the century." For Trump, the two days of meetings should cement support among right-wing Christian evangelicals -- a key part of his base in the November presidential election -- just as his Senate impeachment trial climaxes.

Trump has already thrown Netanyahu a string of political presents.

These include breaking with international diplomatic consensus to recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which were seized from neighbouring Syria, and ending opposition to Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

This time, he'll be presenting a peace plan that critics say will heavily favor the Israeli side in the conflict with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians say they were never included in the plan's crafting and have rejected it in advance. The fact that they are not invited to the White House this week appears to underline their point.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday urged international powers to boycott the plan, which he said was designed "to protect Trump from impeachment and protect Netanyahu from prison".

"It is not a Middle East peace plan," Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting. "This plan gives Israel sovereignty over Palestinian territory."



Overseen by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the plan has been gestating in secret for so long that skeptics asked whether it even really existed.

Aaron David Miller, a Mideast expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Kushner's team wants to "finally, basically demonstrate that they have a plan" -- and to do so ahead of the US presidential election.

In the short term, said Dennis Ross, a US diplomat who worked on the issue under several administrations, "anything that can divert attention away from what's going on" is the goal.

Last Thursday, Trump described the still-unpublished plan as "great" and said it "really would work".

Netanyahu said before leaving for Washington that he was "full of hope that we can make history." Gantz is also enthusiastic, saying the plan will "go down in history," allowing "different players in the Middle East to finally move ahead towards an historic regional agreement."



But on Sunday, Palestinian leaders warned that instead of bringing peace, the plan could trigger their withdrawal from key provisions of the decades-old Oslo Accords, which sought to map out peaceful Israeli-Palestinian relations.

"The US administration will not find a single Palestinian who supports this project," the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"Trump's plan is the plot of the century to liquidate the Palestinian cause."



Netanyahu is campaigning on a continuation of his hardline policies that he says are needed to provide security for Israelis, but critics say condemn Palestinians in the occupied territories to an increasingly bleak future.

Adding to the prime minister's worries, the transnational radical jihadist Islamic State group on Monday reportedly vowed to make Israel its main target.

According to a purported audio message of its spokesman, IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi is encouraging the group's fighters to "launch a new phase", with major operations against Israel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Sunday condemned the rocket attack on the US embassy in the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

An attack occurred once again against a foreign diplomatic mission when Katyusha rockets landed inside the campus of the US embassy, said a statement by Abdul Mahdi on his official Twitter Page, the Xinhua news agency reported.



"We denounce the continuation of these condemned and outlaw acts that weaken the state and undermine its sovereignty," the statement said.



Abdul Mahdi, commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, said that he has ordered the Iraqi forces to deploy and look for the attackers, as well as launching an investigation into the incident, in order to arrest those who fired these rockets, according to the statement.





"The continuation of such irresponsible act, which makes the entire country to bear its consequences and serious repercussions, would lead to damage the country's higher interests and its relations with its friends, which may turn Iraq to a battlefield," the statement added.



Abdul Mahdi also confirmed that his government is "committed to protecting all diplomatic missions and take all necessary measures in accordance with the law."



Abdul Mahdi statement came after an Interior Ministry official said that four Katyusha rockets landed in the evening near the US embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone.



Later on, a statement by the media office affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said that five rockets hit the Green Zone, without giving further details.



The heavily fortified Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. The roughly 10 square km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital.



On Friday, the Iraqi prominent Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr called for a scheduled withdrawal of US troops from Iraq through peaceful means.



The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq on January 5, two days after a US drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.



Over 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.
The under construction link building which collapsed at the Odisha airport. (Photo: PTI)

Bhubaneswar: Odisha police on Sunday arrested Dillip Khatai, chief of construction company Dillip Constr-uctions Private Limited after an under-construction link building between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here collapsed on Friday night.

The police had on Friday detained Khatai and interrogated him in connection with the airport mishap. Apart from Khatai, Airport Authority of India AGM Asish Sarkar and two engineers - Abhilash and Goutam Ray - were arrested by the police.

Following their arrest, the four persons were produced in a court which rejected their bail plea and send them to jail. Sources said the construction company was banned by the Airport Authority of India for three years in connection with delay in a project.

Now the question remains as to on what grounds the firm was roped in by the BPIA for the construction work.

Notably, a person identified as Antaryami Guru, a resident of Baramba in Cuttack district, was killed and few others suffered injuries after roof of an under-construction link building caved in at around 10 pm on Friday.

The BJD demanded a thorough probe into the incident and strong action against those responsible for the same.

Party spokesperson Sasmit Patra said, We demand adequate compensation for his family .
A teenage boy has been held by Borivali police in the metropolis for allegedly raping a minor girl several times after promising marriage and getting her pregnant, an official said on Monday.

The accused and the 16-year-old victim knew each other from school and the matter came to light last week after the girl's mother found medical abortion pills in her home, said the Borivali police station official.

"The victim narrated the ordeal after her mother confronted her about the pills. A case was registered on Thursday. She has said the accused had promised marriage and would repeatedly rape her in his room," he said.

Senior Inspector Laxman Dumbre of Borivali police station said the 17-year-old accused has been arrested under sections 376 (rape) and 312 (whoever voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry) among others of IPC and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The chaos that the Obama-Clinton diplomacy unleashed in Libya continues to grow. It started when U.S.-French-NATO-led military intervention toppled Col. Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. After his government fell, Gaddafi was then beaten and sodomized with a bayonet by an irate mob of Libyans before being shot to death. This prompted our illustrious secretary of state Hillary Clinton to show the class she is noted for by crowing, "We came, we saw, he died."

Yes  Gaddafi, who was no threat to America, died. So did any semblance of stability in Libya, and the ensuing chaos reverberates to this day. Due to the power vacuum created by Gaddafi's abrupt removal, Libya has now become a battleground for proxies motivated by Libya's oil wealth and fighting for geopolitical influence and over ideological differences. The country is a confusing mess. Here is a thumbnail sketch to sort out the parties currently involved.

Tripoli is the seat of the provisional government. It is backed by the United Nations and is supported by Turkey, which has over 1,000 troops there along with another 1,200 or so battle-hardened Syrian fighters.

On the other side is the warlord Khalifa Hifter, a former Libyan army general. He is backed by Russia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is reported that Russia has brought in about 1,500 mercenaries. These include skilled snipers and personnel to guide artillery and air support. This situation is dangerous and could lead to a direct conflict between Turkey and Russia.

Then there's Europe. It has a lot at stake in Libya. Libya is a breeding ground for Islamic extremists. This, plus the fact that Libya's long Mediterranean coastline lies in close proximity to Europe, makes Europe vulnerable to infiltration by terrorists. And if Libya descends into greater instability, untold numbers of refugees will head for Europe. That's the last thing the Europeans need.

Despite having vital interests in Libya, Europe has more or less stood on the sidelines. Its greatest effort so far has been to hold an international conference sponsored by Germany last week to broker a ceasefire among the warring parties. This gabfest went nowhere, with little if anything resolved.

It is not possible to predict how things will turn out in Libya except to say it can be nothing good. If there is a silver lining in this hot mess, it's that of all the players militarily involved, the United States is not one of them. The U.S. has been content to admonish Hifter, who, believe it or not, is an American citizen and former CIA asset, to play nice.

President Trump is currently struggling to disengage the U.S. military from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. This is not a simple matter. But he is wise enough to know that it is far easier not to get America involved in conflict in the first place than it is to extricate the country from one it's already engaged in. And Donald Trump is acting accordingly. Not all presidents would be so restrained.

There are several takeaway points for the Libyan situation. First, it again shows the utter recklessness and incompetence of the Obama-Clinton team, which President Obama continued when John Kerry became secretary of state. Everything the Obama administration touched turned out bad. Second, Europe is (and will be) paying a steep price for allowing itself to become militarily impotent. All it can do is watch events unfold and talk, talk, talk. Third, Donald Trump is demonstrating that he's serious about no new wars without true provocation. This is an improvement. And fourth, those paying the highest price for this Obama-Clinton-induced mess are the Libyan people themselves.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 27, 2020 17:10 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20612d89d 1 City transjakarta,director,Ombudsman,maladministration Free

Transjakarta shareholders have decided to sack the city-owned company's new president director Donny Andy S. Saragih less than a week after his appointment following revelations that he had previously been convicted of fraud.

Donny, the former Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) deputy head, was found to have lied during the selection process to fill Transjakarta's top position, according to a statement issued by the Jakarta administration.

He initially passed the competence test and expertise test stipulated in Government Regulation No. 54/2017 on region-owned enterprises (BUMD) and Jakarta Gubernatorial Regulation No. 5/2018 on the selection of city-owned company officials. He also signed a statement letter on "obeying the law" in an attempt to hide his criminal record.

According to a case registered in 2018 at the Central Jakarta District Court, Donny, along with Porman Tambunan, also known as Andi Tambunan, was charged under articles 378, 55 and 64 of the Criminal Code for fraud. The court found the pair guilty on Aug. 15, 2018, and sentenced them to one year imprisonment and ordered them to remain in the city.

Prosecutor Priyo W subsequently filed an appeal to the verdict, which the court granted on Oct. 12 of the same year. The court also requested that the two be detained, Antara has reported.

Donny and Andi then filed a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court, but it was rejected in a verdict dated Feb. 12, 2019, and the pairs prison sentences were increased by two years each.

The BUMD supervisory body (BP BUMD) initially received the report on Donnys legal status on Saturday. Transjakarta shareholders proceeded to cancel Donny's appointment, made during the company shareholders' meeting on Jan. 23. Donny was to replace former president director Agung Wicaksono.

The shareholders also appointed Transjakarta technical and facilities director Yoga Adiwinarto as acting president director on Monday.

The Jakarta Ombudsman had suspected maladministration in Donny's appointment after it received a tip-off and conducted a background review of Donnys criminal record.

Citing the 2018 gubernatorial regulation, Jakarta Ombudsman head Teguh Nugroho said that candidates for city-owned company director posts must not be have been convicted of any crime in the past five years.

How can a person [found guilty] become a BUMD official in Jakarta? We are still confirming this and delving through the documents, Teguh said as quoted by Antara.

He said the Jakarta Ombudsman would also summon officials from BP BUMD to investigate whether there had been maladministration in the appointment. (ami)

https://www.antaranews.com/berita/1267011/ada-dugaan-maladministrasi-soal-dirut-transjakarta

Topics : transjakarta director Ombudsman maladministration
T he public is being urged to take note of changes to healthcare now Britain has left the EU.

At 11pm on January 31, the UK left the EU more than three years after the referendum.

This triggered changes to healthcare for UK citizens especially when it comes to accessing medical treatment abroad.

But what other healthcare changes should Brits be aware of?

Changes to healthcare for UK citizens is imminent such as European Health Insurance Cards will no longer working / AFP via Getty Images

How will Brexit affect me travelling to another country?

By the end of 2020, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) - which has enabled Britons to have access to EU healthcare in an emergency - will no longer work.

Travellers are advised to ensure they have adequate travel insurance for the full duration of their trip, both in 2020 and beyond.

What if I already live abroad?

Things will remain the same until December 31 2020.

After this point, some people will retain full entitlements to healthcare in the country where they live.

Broadly, these groups are UK nationals living and working in the EU as of December 31 2020, who will continue to be entitled to healthcare in that country.

The withdrawal agreement / PA

British ex-pat pensioners will also continue to use their S1 form - the certificate that entitles them to healthcare in another EU country on the same basis as a resident of that country.

What about EU citizens living in the UK?

According to official statistics, there were around 3.7 million EU nationals living in the UK in 2018.

Under the Withdrawal Agreement, EU citizens already in the UK and those who arrive before 2021 will be allowed continued access to the NHS for free as long as they apply for "settled status".

How will Brexit affect the movement of NHS workers?

The NHS and social care are very dependent on migration - around 50 per cent of workforce growth recently has come from migrants. / PA Wire/PA Images

The NHS and social care are very dependent on migration - around 50 per cent of workforce growth recently has come from migrants.

While some details have yet to emerge, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised a new "NHS visa" making it easier for doctors and nurses from around the world to work in the UK.

The Department of Health and Social Care says it has a clear priority to ensure the 65,000 EU staff currently working in the NHS, and the 115,000 EU staff who work in social care, can stay under the EU settlement scheme.

What about medicines?

In the long run, the UK looks set to leave the European System of Medicines Authorisation.

What will replace it is currently unclear, but there are concerns that if companies have to deal with separate UK and EU systems, this could drive up NHS costs and might deter the introduction of new treatments.

The Department of Health says patients will be able to access medicines after Brexit in the same way they do now thanks to an implementation period.

This will last until December 31 2020.
N one of the private companies that refurbished Grenfell Tower have accepted responsibility for the catastrophic fire which killed 72 people, an inquiry has heard.

Firms expressed "no trace" of accountability despite experts saying the work failed to meet building regulations, counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett QC said.

The second phase of the investigation into the disaster opened on Monday, and the inquirys chief lawyer accused corporate companies of pointing the finger at each other without accepting any blame.

Built in 1974, the tower was extensively refurbished between 2012 and 2016, most significantly when flammable aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding was wrapped over its concrete exterior.

The first part of the inquiry found this was the principal reason for the rapid spread of flames.

The Grenfell Tower fire claimed 72 lives

Mr Millett said in his opening remarks: With the sole exception of RBKC (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) not a single core participant involved in the primary refurbishment of Grenfell Tower has felt able to make an unqualified submission against their own interests.

With that solitary exception Mr Chairman, one finds in those detailed and carefully crafted statements no trace of any acceptance of any responsibility for what happened at Grenfell Tower.

Not from the architects, not from the contract managers, main contractors.

Any member of the public reading those statements and taking them all at face value would be forced to conclude that everyone involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower did what they were supposed to do and nobody made any serious or causative mistakes.

Protesters outside the Grenfell Tower public inquiry in London / PA

All core participants who played a material part in Grenfell Tower have laid out a detailed case that it relied on others and how in no way was the work it did either substandard or non-compliant (with building regulations).

In every case, what happened was, as each of them would have it, someone elses fault.

The second stage of the inquiry will consider how the high-rise block came to be covered in flammable cladding.

Lead refurbishment architects Studio E said it did not have any knowledge that the products used on the tower were unsafe and said product manufacturers had produced materials and testing data which had the effect of misleading designers to consider that their products were safe.

The second phase of the inquiry began on Monday / PA

In a statement to the inquiry it said: Studio E considers that it acted as would be expected as a reasonably competent architect in its position and called itself a conscientious, ethical and responsible firm.

Rydon, the main contractor, said the providers of the cladding and insulation, Arconic and Celotex, had misled buyers into believing their products were safe for use on high-rises despite appearing to know of the dangers.

An internal report from an Arconic director in 2011 noted the material Reynobond PE was dangerous on facades and everything should be transferred to (FR) fire resistant as a matter of urgency, according to counsel for Rydon Marcus Taverner QC.

The email, sent by official Claude Wehrle, added: This opinion is technical and anti-commercial it seems.

Mr Taverner also read out an internal Celotex email from November 2013 which showed officials knew using the insulation CelotexRS500 alongside aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding could be dangerous.

Tributes to victims of the Grenfell Tower fire / Getty Images

The email said: We cannot seem to find or design a suitable barrier in which we have enough confidence that it can be used behind a standard ACM panel which we know will melt and allow fire into the cavity Or do we take the view that our product realistically shouldnt be used behind most cladding panels because in the event of a fire it would burn?

The company marketed its insulation as being suitable for buildings taller than 18 metres after it decided to get into the lucrative high-rise market in 2013, Mr Taverner said.

The second phase of the inquiry began at a new venue in Paddington, west London, with a small number of demonstrators playing drums and music outside.

It comes after a member of the inquiry panel resigned after she was linked to a charitable arm of the firm which supplied the tower blocks deadly cladding.

Engineer Benita Mehra resigned on Saturday after it was disclosed she is an immediate past president of the Womens Engineering Society.

Michael Mansfield QC, representing the victims, leaves the Grenfell Tower public inquiry in London / PA

According to the societys website it last year received funding from Arconic for an apprentice conference.

Michael Mansfield QC, representing victims, said there has been a stunning silence from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Cabinet Office on the resignation of Ms Mehra from the panel on Saturday.

He added there had been not a word about whether there is going to be a replacement.

Grenfell Victims' Lawyer Calls Government Inaction A 'Stunning Silence'

Mr Mansfield told chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick it would lend considerable force to this venture if he could confirm whether she would be replaced and what the difficulties are.

Survivors groups have said phase two of the inquiry must focus on who is to blame for the devastating refurbishment of the 25-storey building between 2012 and 2016.

Grenfell United, a group representing bereaved families and survivors, hoped the next stage of the inquiry will expose the people and organisations who put profit and agreed above our safety.
Hyderabad, Jan 27 : The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council, the upper house of the state legislature, is set to become history with the Assembly on Monday adopting a resolution to abolish it, for the second time in 35 years.

Nearly 13 years after the Council was revived by then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, it is now being abolished by his son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The passing of unanimous resolution in the Assembly has set in motion a lengthy process which involves passing of a Bill in both Houses of the Parliament.

In 1985, Andhra Pradesh became the first state to abolish the Council as then Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao had done away with the House of Elders, citing it to be a burden on the state exchequer. However, the real reason was the fact that his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lacked majority in the Council and opposition Congress, which was dominating the House, was stalling key Bills passed by the Assembly.

Jagan Mohan Reddy cited similar grounds for his move and for him, the villain is the TDP. He was irked by the last week's development when the Council referred two Bills to a select committee, thus delaying the process for creating three state capitals.

The TDP has 34 members in 58-member Council while the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has just nine members. Opposition Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) has 6 members, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) two members and Congress one. There are three independents and three seats are vacant.

Jagan, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, felt that the TDP is misusing the Council for political gains by stalling the Bills passed by the Assembly, directly elected by the people.

The YSRCP, which came to power in May last year with a landslide majority, has 151 members in the 175-member Assembly.

It was in 2004 that then Congress government headed by Jagan's father initiated the process to revive the Council. Then Leader of Opposition and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu opposed the move, interestingly on the same grounds which Jagan cited during the debate in the Assembly on Monday.

Chandrababu Naidu and all his party MLAs stayed away from Assembly to protest against the "undemocratic" move by Jagan government. In a one-sided debate, Jagan played the video clippings of Naidu's speech in Assembly in 2004 to expose his "double-standards" on the issue. He also played a latest video in which Naidu is seen assuring TDP leaders that the TDP would revive the Council after it came back to power.

Jagan explained how Council has no public utility and how it was used as rehabilitate Centre for the politically unemployed or those defeated in the direct elections.

Jagan, however, did not refer to the arguments put forward by his father in the Assembly in 2004 to justify the resolution for reviving the Council. "It was a decision by then Congress government. Jagan is a successor of his father and not the Congress party," YSRCP spokesman Ambati Rambabu later explained before the media.

The state Legislative Council was first constituted on July 7, 1958 under Article 168 of the Constitution and inaugurated by the then President Dr Rajendra Prasad.

Jagan argued that that was the time when literacy rate was low and a need was felt to have intellectuals and academicians in the Upper House.

"Today the situation has changed. We have many well-educated members in the Assembly. The Council is no longer required as it is only serving the purpose of delaying the process of passing of bills and proving a burden on public exchequer to the tune of Rs 60 crore annually," he said.

The Council was abolished by TDP government led by N.T. Rama Rao on May 31, 1985.

It was Congress government at the Centre under Rajiv Gandhi's stewardship that passed a Bill in the Parliament to abolish the Council, despite stiff opposition from state Congress leaders who argued that the move was against the party's interests in the state.

In 1990, the then Congress government made an attempt for revival of the Council but in vain. The Congress in its manifesto for 2004 Assembly elections promised to revive the Council and Rajasekhara Reddy got a resolution passed in the Assembly immediately after coming to power.

Jagan had made no such promise in his election manifesto but the developments of the last few days, especially with regard to three capital Bills, compelled him to remove the roadblock.
Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, a dwindling number of elderly Holocaust survivors will gather at the former German Nazi death camp on Monday to honour its over 1.1 million mostly Jewish victims amid fresh concerns over anti-semitism.

More than 200 survivors are to come from across the globe to the camp the Nazis built in Oswiecim in then-occupied Poland, to share their testimony as a stark warning amid a recent surge of anti-semitic attacks on both sides of the Atlantic, some of them deadly.

"We want the next generation to know what we went through and that it should never happen again," Auschwitz survivor David Marks, 93, told reporters at the former death camp on Sunday, his voice breaking, heavy with emotion.

Thirty-five members of his immediate and extended family of Romanian Jews were killed in Auschwitz, the largest of Nazi Germany's camps that has come to symbolise the six million European Jews killed in the Holocaust.

From mid-1942 the Nazis systematically deported Jews from all over Europe to six camps -- Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Organisers insist that Monday's memorial ceremony must focus above all on what survivors have to say rather than the bitter political feuds that have tainted the run-up to the anniversary.

"This is about survivors, it's not about politics," Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress, told AFP on Sunday as he met a group in the former Auschwitz camp, now a memorial and state museum run by Poland.

"We see anti-semitism rising now and we don't want their (survivors) past to be their children's future, or their grandchildren's future," he added.

Royals, presidents and prime ministers from nearly 60 countries will attend the ceremony, but no top world leaders.

Israel hosted US Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin among others at a high-profile Holocaust forum marking the anniversary in Jerusalem last Thursday.

It was seen as rivalling the event in Poland, which has tricky relations with Israel. Earlier, Putin sparked outrage in the West after falsely accusing Poland of colluding with German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and contributing to the outbreak of World War II.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda, who called out Putin, snubbed the Jerusalem forum after he was denied the opportunity to speak there while the Russian president was given the floor. Duda will make an address on Monday in Auschwitz.

While the world only learned the full extent of its horrors after the Soviet Red Army entered the camp on January 27, 1945, the Allies had detailed information about Nazi Germany's genocide against Jews much earlier.

In December 1942, Poland's then London-based government in exile forwarded a document, titled "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", to the Allies.

The document included detailed accounts of the unfolding Holocaust as witnessed by members of the Polish resistance, but drew disbelief and only muted reactions from the international community.

To inform the Allies, Polish resistance fighters Jan Karski and Witold Pilecki famously risked their lives in separate operations to infiltrate and then escape from Nazi death camps and ghettos in occupied Poland, including Auschwitz.

Regarded as exaggeration and Polish war propaganda, "a lot of these reports were simply not believed", renowned Oxford historian Professor Norman Davies told AFP.

Despite "strong demands" by the Polish and Jewish resistance for the Allies to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz and other death camps, "the military's attitude was 'we've got to concentrate on military targets, not on civilian things'", said Davies, an authority on Polish history.

"One of the targets that the (British) military did bomb was a synthetic fuel factory near Auschwitz" in 1943-44, he added. Although Allied warplanes flew over the death camp itself, no orders were given to bomb it.

"It was one of the biggest crimes committed by those that were indifferent, because they (the Allies) knew what was happening here, they could have done something about it and they deliberately didn't," Auschwitz survivor David Lenga, 93, told AFP.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of all Nazi Germany's death and concentration camps and the one where most people were killed, primarily European Jews, but also Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and Poles.

Operated by the Nazis from 1940 until 1945, Auschwitz was part of a vast and brutal network of camps across Europe set up for Hitler's "Final Solution" of genocide against the estimated 10 million Jews in Europe at the time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lima (AFP) - The first indigenous transgender candidate to run for parliament in Peru says it's time to end the culture of machismo in the South American country.

"I suffered, in my own flesh, the consequences of inequality, discrimination, violence and corruption," Gahela Cari, 27, said in an interview with AFP before Sunday's nationwide parliamentary ballot.

"We have to stop educating future macho men," she said during a break from campaigning.

Her candidacy comes as awareness of transgender people and their rights is growing in many countries.

"I'm an animal-rights advocate, an ecologist and a student leader," Cari told AFP. "I come from that part of the left that has always fought."

Cari, who has promised to support the anticorruption reforms of President Martin Vizcarra, is running as a candidate of the leftist Together for Peru party, which seeks to end the political crisis that led Vizcarra to dissolve Congress on September 30.

Small, thin and calm in demeanor, she sported an Andean hat over braided hair during her interview, with bright red lipstick and, tied to her left wrist, the green scarf that symbolizes support for legalized abortion.

- What motivated you to run for Congress? -

CARI: "We want trans people to have more opportunities. We don't enjoy the same conditions as the rest of the population. It's no coincidence that our life expectancy is less than 32 years. Here the state doesn't guarantee our rights."

"(Congress) has been more concerned with defending the corrupt. I'm tired of traditional politics. That's why I entered politics, to put Congress at the service of the citizenry."

- How do you present yourself to voters? -

CARI: "I introduce myself as a trans, indigenous, migrant woman. I was born in the south of the country. My mother is from Ayacucho and my father is from Puno. In this country we receive an education that aims to repress who we are, to repress our sexual identity and to repress our cultural identity. They force us to be ashamed of our roots."

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"In a country that teaches you to be ashamed, a country that educates in order to repress you, to describe yourself as an indigenous trans person is already revolutionary. It is using your body to fight; fighting without even uttering a word."

- What is the main point in your platform? -

CARI: "We want to finish (Vizcarra's) political reform, to complete the reform of the justice system and to launch an economic reform that guarantees the voices of the citizenry and of vulnerable populations."

"We do not want the situation facing women and LGBTQ people to continue, which is why we are proposing a reform to put the fight against gender-based violence and all forms of discrimination on the table."

"We need to stop raising future macho men, future homophobes, future transphobes and woman killers. We need education with respect. I have suffered transphobic bullying in school."

"We're fighting to decriminalize abortion in all cases because we don't believe that a democratic state can continue to condemn a woman to be a mother against her will."

- Is it true that you practiced prostitution? -

CARI: "I had to be involved in prostitution though I didn't want to. It was for a short time... but it was the most complicated stage of my life."

"It was when I was about to finish university. I had gone five days without eating and my stomach was empty. It was a matter of necessity. I got out of it thanks to a network of contacts and thanks to feminists who saved my life."

- Were you also a catechist? -

CARI: "I was a catechist. I am a believer, I believe in a loving God. I believe that no religion can serve to justify hate."

- If you studied law, why aren't you practicing as a lawyer? -

CARI: "After finishing my university studies, those in charge refused to let me join the professional association. Without that membership, you can't work, though I tried hard. That depressed me for a while."

- Is it difficult to campaign in a country with a tradition of machismo? -

CARI: "We have had to face situations of discrimination throughout the campaign. We have been threatened and have suffered situations of harassment and physical violence."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-27 20:07:27|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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CAIRO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced eight persons to life in prison for joining the Sinai-Islamic State (IS) branch, official news agency MENA reported.

Life sentence in Egypt means 25 years in prison.

Other 29 defendants were handed varied jail terms ranged from one to 15 years in prison while seven persons were acquitted over the same charges.

The defendants, from seven provinces in Egypt, were accused of joining the IS and forming seven terrorist cells to assault the police and army men and premises from 2015-2018.

They were also charged over planning for killing the Christians, causing disorder and jeopardizing the society safety, MENA added.

Egypt has been experiencing anti-security attacks since the Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi was ousted in 2013 and his Muslim Brotherhood group was banned in 2014.

Most of the attacks, that killed hundreds of security men, have been claimed by an IS branch in Sinai Peninsula.
Readers hoping to buy China Maple Leaf Educational Systems Limited (HKG:1317) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. Investors can purchase shares before the 31st of January in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 13th of February.

China Maple Leaf Educational Systems's next dividend payment will be HK$0.056 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of HK$0.084 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that China Maple Leaf Educational Systems has a trailing yield of 3.5% on the current share price of HK$2.97. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.

See our latest analysis for China Maple Leaf Educational Systems

Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. That's why it's good to see China Maple Leaf Educational Systems paying out a modest 42% of its earnings. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Fortunately, it paid out only 35% of its free cash flow in the past year.

It's positive to see that China Maple Leaf Educational Systems's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

SEHK:1317 Historical Dividend Yield, January 27th 2020

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. It's encouraging to see China Maple Leaf Educational Systems has grown its earnings rapidly, up 54% a year for the past five years. China Maple Leaf Educational Systems is paying out less than half its earnings and cash flow, while simultaneously growing earnings per share at a rapid clip. Companies with growing earnings and low payout ratios are often the best long-term dividend stocks, as the company can both grow its earnings and increase the percentage of earnings that it pays out, essentially multiplying the dividend.

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The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. China Maple Leaf Educational Systems has delivered an average of 36% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past five years of dividend payments. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.

The Bottom Line

Is China Maple Leaf Educational Systems worth buying for its dividend? China Maple Leaf Educational Systems has been growing earnings at a rapid rate, and has a conservatively low payout ratio, implying that it is reinvesting heavily in its business; a sterling combination. China Maple Leaf Educational Systems looks solid on this analysis overall, and we'd definitely consider investigating it more closely.

Ever wonder what the future holds for China Maple Leaf Educational Systems? See what the 11 analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow

A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
When ballots for the March 3 primary start arriving in the mail next week, more than a quarter of Californias registered voters may be shocked to find theyre cut out of the presidential race.

The growing number of voters who register as no party preference wont find a spot on their ballots for the Democratic presidential race unless they have specifically asked for a Democratic ballot.

Thats not going to make them happy, said John Arntz, San Franciscos elections chief. His office is already gearing up for a flood of angry calls when the first ballots arrive Monday or Tuesday for those who vote by mail.

We opened our phone bank earlier this month and immediately started getting calls about the presidential primary, Arntz said. But were adding more people for next week.

The problem applies only to the presidential race. In every other contest in California, the state uses a jungle primary system, where all the candidates regardless of party are listed on a single ballot, everyone votes and the top two finishers move on to the November general election.

In presidential primaries, though, the national parties set the rules. Since no-party-preference voters dont belong to a party, they dont have any candidates in the primary.

While Republicans bar anyone not registered as a member of the GOP from their primary, Democrats have opened their presidential primary to all independent voters. But those voters have to ask for that Democratic ballot.

Thats a message election officials across the state have been working to get out for months.

In November, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla put out a guide on the presidential primary rules for voters of all parties, Sam Mahood, a spokesman for Padilla, said in an email. In December, county election officials sent crossover ballot request postcards to independent voters and followed up with emails.

Since fall of last year, (no party preference) voting rules has been one of the primary focuses of our social media posts, Mahood said. We anticipate running paid social media ads to inform voters of these rules as well.

The new state voter pamphlets, which were sent out last week, also include a page telling people How to Vote for President.

The state and local efforts have had an effect. In San Francisco, more than 15,000 of the citys 154,000 independent voters have already requested the Democratic ballot, said Arntz.

But there are certainly going to be people who havent picked up the information, he said.

For independents voting at the polls, theres no problem. They can simply request a Democratic ballot right there. If they want to vote in the GOP primary, they can change their registration to Republican at the polling place, even on election day, Arntz added. The American Independent and Libertarian parties also allow independents to vote in their primaries.

Its only a bit more complicated for no-party-preference voters who have already received their president-free ballots.

Even if they have those ballots in hand, theres still plenty of time to request a Democratic ballot and have the original one canceled, Arntz said.

In San Francisco, that can be done online, by going to the voter portal at the elections office website and requesting a crossover ballot, which will be sent in the mail. Its a similar process for voters in other counties.

Voters dont have to surrender their original ballot, Arntz said, although they have to remember to cast only one of them.

The online option works only until a week before the election, since the city wont mail out ballots after that.

No-party-preference voters still can get a Democratic ballot, but they have to do it at a polling place or City Hall, Arntz said.

Reaching those voters is a big deal in California, which had 5.4 million independent voters as of Oct.1, the most recent state registration report.

Thats more than the entire population of 28 states, including all four of the early-voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

For the Democrats, thats a lot of potential voters in a presidential primary contest that polls around the country say is razor-tight. Party officials are hoping that independent voters who vote for a Democratic presidential candidate in March will stick with the Democrats in the November battle against President Trump.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com
Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects." https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Harvard-masters-students-visit-Port-Arthur-15006061.php

The City of Port Arthur has had a tumultuous history, from attempting to find mutually beneficial agreements with its industrial neighbors, to repeatedly rebuilding from a barrage of devastating storms from the Gulf and searching for solutions to end a cycle of poverty faced by many residents, among other issues.

People across the nation are beginning to take notice, looking at the challenges such as climate change and racial inequality, through a variety of lenses.

The most recent group to become aware of the situation was made up of seven students from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. They visited Friday as a part of two different fellowships that focus on social change through activism, social enterprise and other strategies; and reducing disparities in African-American communities through health care, education and economic development, among other solutions.

The students come from a variety of different backgrounds, including engineering, education, labor organizing and economic development.

Each year, the fellows pick a place in the United States to spend several days and learn about its culture, people and politics, said program manager for both fellowships Akiesha Ortiz. This year, the students chose to spend a week in Houston but wanted to spend a half-day in Port Arthur as a part of that trip.

Port Arthur really was going to be the highlight of our trip from the beginning, she said, noting that the students dont usually pitch such a specific place or topic to explore after picking the initial city.

Hillary Anderson, a student Ortiz said was instrumental in the decision to spend time in Port Arthur, said the community was an ideal place for the group to visit because of the struggle around environmental justice.

Communities of color often can be vulnerable to climate change and pollutions harmful affects, she said.

Houston and Port Arthur are interesting places to visit because the local economy relies heavily on the oil and gas industry, but the same industry is responsible for adverse health outcomes in the community, she said in an email. As future policy leaders, we must recognize this tension and engage with the folks who are already doing amazing work on this issue.

Students are expected to use the information gained during these visits to grow their leadership abilities through the understanding of new communities.

We really want our students to have an impact on communities, small, big, national and international, Ortiz said.

To gather that information, the students took more than an hour-long toxic tour of the city led by Port Arthur Community Action Network founder and CEO John Beard.

That came after talking with Beard, Groves resident and former mayoral candidate Suzanne Williamson and Port Arthur City Councilman Cal Jones from the Port Arthur City Halls nearly-360 degree view of the city about several issues, including the Thanksgiving Day blast at TPC Groups Port Neches plant and how in-lieu-of tax agreements are negotiated.

Weve received more than we ever thought wed get, Ortiz said. Everyone has been so in-depth, so knowledgeable. The work everyone is doing is so touching and meaningful.

The tour included narration from Beard through a few neighborhoods, pointing out how vacant lots outnumber functioning houses in some places and the number of homes that people still havent returned to since Tropical Storm Harvey.

He also explained the 2017 German Pellets fire and the distance between the companys silos and homes nearby; the saga of Oxbow Calcining and its status as one of the largest emitters of sulfur dioxide in the state; and how the Carver Terrace apartments were moved after, he said, the federal government determined they should be demolished in part because of the hazards of living so close to petrochemical plants. Previous Beaumont Enterprise reporting shows the then-Port Arthur Housing Authority Director blamed the age and the density of the units.

While on the tour, Sarah Leadem, who has a background in grassroots and labor organizing and is pursuing her masters degree in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, asked what Beards organization is doing to mobilize the community and what health remedies residents demand from industry.

Beard said the biggest thing his organization can do at this time is call out the issues and raise public awareness, because many people arent aware of the issues, dont feel like speaking out will accomplish much or dont want to speak out against plants for fear of retaliation.

A lot of people say you cant beat city hall, he said. Yeah, but you can beat up city hall. Thats part of our strategy, to constantly bombard them.

He said reports of cancer-related deaths are far from uncommon in the city, however many people dont understand the link between how close they live to petrochemical plants and refineries and their health problems.

Brooke Wages, who studied mechanical engineering and worked in oil and gas before leaving the field to do nonprofit work with formerly incarcerated people and is pursuing a masters degree in public administration from the Kennedy School, asked Beard what conversations the city is having to try to diversify away from relying on the petrochemical industry. She also asked before the tour began how people who work at the plants respond to potential hazards, versus those that dont.

Beard said the city really isnt looking at diversification.

He explained that the negative impacts on residents health are a lot easier to stomach when theyre also being paid a living wage by the plants.

Livings cheap here, but you can make a whole lot of money, he said. If youre not making the money, if youre living in Section 8 (government-subsidized housing), what do you do?

The students program doesnt require any immediate work with the City of Port Arthur to remedy the issues discussed on the tour. However, Beard lobbied them to come back; and Wages said she planned to reach out to him later about potential future collaboration.

Ortiz said Harvard hopes the experience will help students get a better idea of how culture and different perspectives impact policy decisions and help them in the future to really consider the intention behind policy based on whats going on.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitlinBain
Konpasong, one of the eight members of Mr. X's drug ring sentenced to death Jan. 23, 2020, is pictured in an undated photo.

Authorities in Laos last week sentenced eight people to death for their roles in connection with the major Southeast Asian drug ring run by drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha, better known as Mr. X.

Fourteen others connected with the ring were handed sentences ranging from two to 20 years.

A clerk at the Vientiane Peoples Court confirmed the death sentences to RFAs Lao Service Monday.

They are sentenced to death. They can appeal their sentences if they file within the next 30 days. Additionally they can hire their own lawyers or consult the court for advice, the clerk said.

The Lao Phatthana Daily identified the eight using singular names in a report published Saturday.

The group includes five men, Kinoy, 36; Vat, 41; Konpasong, 43; Phetsakone, 24; and Maysengsone, 42; and three women; Pavina, 19; Vats wife Keo, 39; and Konpasongs wife Manyvanh, 43.

They were convicted on charges of purchasing and selling heroin and meth, weapons trade, buying and selling stolen property, money laundering, and assault. Under Lao law, possession of more than 500 grams of heroin or meth is punishable by death.

Sisouk Daoheuang, who is believed to have been Xaysanas second-in-command, will be sentenced separately at a later date.

Xaysana himself was arrested with two accomplices in Jan. 2017 in Bangkok Thailand. A Thai lower court initially sentenced him to death in 2018, but this was reduced to a life sentence because he confessed during the investigation.

RFA reported in December that Xaysanas life sentence was upheld by a Thai appellate court.

According to documents from the lower court case in 2018, several members of Mr. Xs gang were arrested in 2016 for hiding 1.2 million meth pills in an SUV they used to cross the First Lao-Thai Mekong Friendship Bridge between Vientiane, Laos and Nong khai, Thailand.

Thai police interrogated the suspects, who revealed they were working for Xaysana. From there they were able to expose the size and scope of the drug smuggling network.

The steep increase in seizures of meth in Southeast Asia points to a growing demand of the drug in the region, where 287 million methamphetamine tablets were seized in 2015, according to the 2017 report of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Most of those seizures took place in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, UNODC said.

Reported and translated by RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Japan has offered technical assistance for the preservation, restoration and protection of ancient Buddhist sites in Pakistan.

The offer was made during a visit by Japanese Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Kanasugi Kenji to Taxila Museum and ancient Buddhist sites in the city on Saturday, as per a report by Dawn.

Speaking on the occasion, Kenji said that Japan recognises the importance of cultural heritage and attaches great value to its preservation.

The minister noted that the government of Japan has provided equipment worth millions of rupees for archaeological research, maintaining and upgrading the facilities needed to preserve the cultural heritage in Pakistan, and would continue supporting the country in this regard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Donald Trump said on Monday he will announce his long-delayed Middle East peace proposal on Tuesday and that he believes Palestinians will eventually go along with it despite their refusal to engage on the subject.

Sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump said his plan 'makes a lot of sense for everybody.'

Of the Palestinians, Trump said, 'It's something they should want,' but he declined to say how it would be good for them.

Trump will deliver joint remarks with Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday to outline his plan, which U.S. officials intend to generate momentum toward resolving one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

Palestinians fear the plan will dash their hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Meet my peace partner: Donald Trump gave Benjamin Netanyahu a ceremonial welcome to the White House and will unveil his peace plan with the Israeli leader on Tuesday

One side: Benjamin Netanyahu is Israeli prime minister after two successive elections in which neither he nor the opposition leader Benny Gantz were able to form a government, and Israelis will vote again in March in another general election

Oval Office welcome: Trump brought his secretary of state Mike Pompeo and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has been working on a 50-page peace plan for three years, to meet Netanyahu

Close relationship: Donald Trump has praised Netanyahu and there are suspicions in Israel that the timing of the peace plan is designed to boost him in the latest election

Rejected: This was the reaction in Bethlehem to the peace plan, with protesters burning images of Trump

Get ready to burn: Protesters in the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem hold up the pictures of Trump they are about to set on fire

'They probably won't want it initially,' Trump said. 'But I think in the end they will... It's very good for them.

'In fact it's overly good to them. So we'll see what happens. Now without them, we don't do the deal and that's okay.'

Trump added, 'We think there's a very good chance that they're going to want this.'

After his session with Netanyahu, Trump met separately with Benny Gantz, the head of Israel's centrist Blue and White Party, who is the right-wing prime minister's rival in a March 2 election.

While Trump allowed reporters and cameras in for his meeting with Netanyahu, the session with Gantz was held without the presence of the news media.

'It was a very good meeting,' said a spokeswoman for Gantz.

Palestinian leaders say they were not invited to Washington for Trump's presentation of his long secret peace blueprint and that no plan could work without them.

'We reject it, and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights,' Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday. 'It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause.'

Palestinians have refused to deal with the Trump administration in protest at its pro-Israeli policies such as moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, whose eastern half Palestinians seek for a future capital.

Trump's two days of meetings with the Israelis stand in contrast to a trial in the Republican-led Senate weighing articles of impeachment submitted by the Democratic-led House of Representatives against the Republican president.

But whether it truly will jumpstart the long-stalled effort to bring Israelis and Palestinians together is far from certain.

Palestinians denounced a $50-billion economic revival plan the Trump administration set forth last July to lift the Palestinian and neighbouring Arab state economies because the proposal did nothing to address Israeli occupation.

The White House hope was that support from both Netanyahu and Gantz would provide momentum.

Having both Israeli leaders present removes the domestic Israeli political tensions, said a U.S. source familiar with internal deliberations.

'The rationale...is it depoliticizes this to the point that, no matter what happens on March 2, the two leaders of the two largest parties can potentially be supportive,' the source said.

The Trump plan is the product of three years' effort by senior advisers Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, as well as Jason Greenblatt, who left the government last autumn.

Present: The Trump plan is the product of three years' effort by senior advisers Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, as well as Jason Greenblatt, who left the government last autumn. Kushner was in the Oval Office on Monday

Key questions: Further obstacles to a peace deal include the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied land such as the Kida outpost near the Israeli Shilo settlement on January 27, 2020 near the Palestinian city of Nablus

Guarded: Israeli soldiers guard a bus station at the Tapuach junction, also known as the Zatara junction, south of the city of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

No doubt of feeling: This was the scene in Gaza City. The plan has to wrestle with the rise to power in Gaza of the Islamist movement Hamas, which is formally committed to Israel's destruction

Also briefed: Opposition leader Benny Gantz was given an off-camera meeting with Trump after Netanyahu got a formal welcome

Rejected: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - who met Prince Charles last week - has said Washington can no longer be regarded as an honest mediator

The proposal, more than 50 pages long, aims to take on some of the most difficult issues separating the two sides, such as the status of Jerusalem.

But Palestinians called Trump's proposal dead in the water even before its publication.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Washington can no longer be regarded as an honest mediator. In addition to the actions he took on Jerusalem, Trump slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

Palestinian and Arab sources who were briefed on the draft fear it seeks to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation, in what could be a prelude to Israel annexing about half of the West Bank including most of the Jordan Valley, the strategic and fertile easternmost strip of the territory.

Further obstacles to a peace deal include the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied land and the rise to power in Gaza of the Islamist movement Hamas, which is formally committed to Israel's destruction.

The Trump administration in November reversed decades of U.S. policy when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer regarded Israeli settlements on West Bank land as inconsistent with international law.

Palestinians and most of the international community view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.

Netanyahu, a veteran right-wing leader, faces political and legal troubles at home as he heads for his third election in less than a year, and was indicted on criminal charges in November. He denies any wrongdoing.

Netanyahu's principal domestic political rival, Gantz, a centrist former general, last week lifted his objection to having the peace plan published before Israel's March election. He had previously seen it as interference in the vote.
Another aviation tragedy in Iran was averted when all the passengers walked away after their MD83 plane apparently overshot the runway at Mahshahr airport.

Caspian Airlines flight 6936 had taken off normally from Tehran airport on an early-morning trip to the city in southwest Iran.

It is believed to have landed at 6.35am local time. Some reports say that the pilots had reported a technical failure.

The aircraft, registered EP-CPZ, was a 25-year-old US-built twin-jet. From smartphone footage and photographs on social media, it appears to have overshot the runway after landing and crossed a busy dual carriageway.

The undercarriage has been ripped off but no other damage is evident from the footage.

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Passengers are shown leaving the aircraft from exits on the port side, jumping a short way down to the ground from the front and rear doors and climbing out onto the wings from the centre exits.

It is reported that 135 people were onboard, including some children.

The crew directed the evacuation from inside the aircraft. There is no sign of the emergency services, despite the risk of fire after an incident such as this.

Earlier this month, all 176 people aboard a Ukraine International flight from Tehran to Kiev died when the aircraft was shot down by Irans Revolutionary Guard.

Caspian Airlines suffered a fatal accident in 2009 when an engine fire aboard a Tupolev 154M occurred shortly after take off from Tehran on a flight to Yerevan in Armenia. All 168 passengers and crew died.

Irans airlines are subject to sanctions that prevent the country from acquiring modern aircraft. President Trump ended a multi-billion dollar deal for the nation to buy new planes.

As a result, Iran has long depended on planes that are regarded as obsolete elsewhere. It was the last country to operate the Boeing 707 on passenger services.
On Sunday morning at Shaheen Bagh, thousands had arrived to celebrate Indias 71st Republic Day. All arrangements were in place. But a group of protesters around the flag-hoisting spot had a conundrum on their hands  how to ensure the flower petals remained in the folded flag.

We had figured out everything else. But figuring out how to put flower petals inside the flag and folding it accordingly proved to be a challenge since we dont do this on a regular basis. We hadnt conducted a rehearsal for this part earlier and were worried if the flag would unfurl properly. But everything went smoothly, said Hena Ahmed, a resident of Shaheen Bagh, who has been protesting there since December.

Blocked for over a month by those protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, the arterial Road 13A reverberated with the words of the national anthem and Preamble of the Constitution as citizens celebrated a janta ka Republic Day while continuing their agitation for the 43rd day.

It feels like Eid. All of us here were up all night preparing for the celebrations and now that the flag has been unfurled, we will go home and return in another couple of hours for the janta parade, Ahmed added.

Three elderly protesters, popularly known as dadis [grandmothers] of Shaheen Bagh, unfurled the 55-feet high tricolour along with Dalit student Rohith Vemulas mother Radhika and Ballabhgarh lynching victim Junaid Khans mother, Saira Bano, as protesters occupied every inch of the road, chanting slogans.

It is sad that on a day when we should be celebrating our democracy, we have to fight to save it, Radhika Vemula said. Addressing the crowd later in the morning, Jignesh Mevani, an independent MLA from Vadgam in Gujarat said, We celebrated this Republic Day with our sisters, mothers, and dadis from Shaheen Bagh. On the other hand, the government invited a Brazilian president who made objectionable comments on rape.

Residents who generally prefer to go to India Gate or enjoy the parade from their living rooms on most Republic Days spilled on to the streets of Jamia Nagar and Shaheen Bagh on Sunday to assert their constitutional rights and celebrate their idea of India. The makeshift tent at Shaheen Bagh saw several women matching their tricolour attire with orange, white, and green bangles and patriotic symbols pinned to their clothes.

We go to India Gate every year. But this year, since we had to exercise our right to protest, we decided to come here. The atmosphere here is electric. The kind of sloganeering and celebrations I saw here were different from my India Gate experiences, said Razia Khanam, another resident who came to attend the protests.

A few kilometres away, at Jamia Millia Islamia, protesters read the Preamble in English, Hindi, and Urdu and hoisted the national flag and sang the national anthem. A group of students, artists and locals also collaborated to create at least eight tableaux on themes of unity, womens rights, patriotism, and freedom, which were paraded from Jamia to Shaheen Bagh on e-rickshaws.

The idea behind e-rickshaws was to ensure the parade is more accessible to the public, and to convey that people are now thinking differently, said one of the artists associated with the project who chose not to be named.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - After seven years in Congress, Bainbridge Township Rep. Dave Joyce has established himself as an ardent defender of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and one of the top Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee, which allots federal money.

The former Geauga County prosecutor who represents one of the least demographically Republican Ohio congressional districts thats held by his party faces a primary challenge from retired carpenter and Navy veteran Mark Pitrone of Stow, who describes himself as a Tea Party Republican.

The winner of their March 17 primary contest will run against attorney Hillary Toro OConnor Mueri, a 42-year-old lawyer and former naval flight officer from Painesville, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary. The 14th Congressional district they want to represent includes all of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties, and sections of Cuyahoga, Summit, Portage and Trumbull counties.

Pitrone, who mounted a longshot Democratic primary challenge against former Congressman Zack Space in 2008 when he lived in Tuscawaras County, says he decided to challenge Joyce after hearing many of his friends say Joyce has to GO! over the last three to four years without any of them mounting an official challenge.

So, I spent about 50-60 hours gathering signatures on ballot petitions and qualified, says Pitrone, who converted to the Republican party in 2012 because the Democratic party got way too crazy" for him and his interests were always very conservative and constitutional.

He figures his chances of defeating an established incumbent on a shoestring budget are slim to none but felt someone had to step up.

He says hes upset by some of Joyces votes, including his support for massive federal spending bills that had to be passed on tight deadlines, and his failure to sign onto a recent legal brief that urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

I would just like to get the government back to its constitutional limits and save us a whole lot of money and a whole lot of time, says Pitrone. I want to bring us back to the Constitution and get away from all the garbage that we have thrown into the federal government that really belongs to the states and the people.

He says he plans to pursue his campaign by appearing at community and Republican Party events.

Retired carpenter Mark Pitrone is running against incumbent Dave Joyce in the 14th district GOP congressional primary. (Photo courtesy of Mark Pitrone's congressional campaign)

Joyce describes himself as a proud conservative who has prioritized the concerns of middle class Northeast Ohioans since coming to Congress.

In addition to helping to ensure full funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative on the repeated occasions that the Trump administration has recommended cuts, Joyce says hes prioritized fighting the scourge of opioids, securing health care for veterans and trying to create jobs.

Joyce says the Great Lakes cleanup money ensures safe drinking water, preserves wetlands that filter contaminants from groundwater, and protects streams and rivers that run into Lake Erie.

Topline government spending numbers are set by President Trump and the leaders of the House and Senate, and Joyce says he tries to ensure Ohio gets its fair share. He says he also strives for lower taxes for the middle class, securing better trade deals that allow American workers to compete, and working to roll back the regulatory state thats been built up over past administrations so people can get the job done and not have five- to 10-year delays on projects while they wait for regulatory agency approval.

He says he votes with the National Right to Life Committees anti-abortion positions 100 percent of the time, but didnt add his name to the legal brief that Pitrone cited because he doesnt like to sign onto friend of the court legal briefs.

I voted against taxpayer funding for abortion and I am ready and willing to protect the unborn, says Joyce. It is not like adding more pro-life people to the brief will sway the court. The court rules on precedent and the precedent is set.

Joyce describes himself as a strong believer in states rights, but says some decisions have to be made at the federal level. He believes many decisions are best made locally, citing a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision to revise a controversial Obama-era water protection policy that critics including the state of Ohio said was overly broad.

Local people can make better decisions than having a blanket ruling from the federal government," said Joyce.

Map of Ohio's 14th Congressional district

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Global clothing and shoe brands, including Adidas, PUMA and Levi Strauss have written again to Cambodias longtime leader saying the countrys record on labor and human rights threatens to bring down sanctions on its crucial garment industry.

The letter urges the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen to amend a trade union law, repeal the law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and drop all outstanding criminal charges against union leaders.

The credibility of Cambodias apparel, footwear, and travel goods sectors are at stake, said the letter, seen by Reuters.

We are concerned that the labor and human rights situation in Cambodia is risking the loss of trade preferences for Cambodia, they added.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment on Friday.

Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said he had not seen the letter but said it might contain the same out of date concerns that we have already addressed according to the Cambodian law and legal process.

The European Union will decide next month whether or not to strip Cambodia of its Everything but Arms (EBA) initiative after a European Commission report found that Hun Sens government has cracked down on the opposition, civil society groups and the media.

The European Union accounts for nearly half of Cambodias exports, the countrys largest industry, which employs about 700,000 people and accounts for 40 percent of gross domestic product.

The letter, sent to Hun Sen on Wednesday, represents major apparel and footwear companies, including Adidas, Levis Strauss, New Balance, Puma, Ralph Lauren, Under Armour, VF Corporation and American Apparel & Footwear Association.

They urged the government to amend the trade union law again as the amendments made on Jan. 3 fell short of international labor rights standards, fail to eliminate arbitrary hurdles to union registration, and restrict the ability of all unions to fully represent their members.

The brands also urged the government to repeal law regulating associations and NGOs.

The current law enables an atmosphere of harassment and repression against civil society organizations and unions, they said in the letter, adding that the government should cease further baseless judicial proceedings against labor activists.

The brands said they had contributed to the $9.5 billion in garment, footwear, and travel goods exported from Cambodia last year and many of the companies signing the letter have been sourcing from Cambodia since the garment sector was established in the country in the mid-1990s.
A whale watching trip in Monterey Bay Thursday brought a triple threat of surprises to tourists and biologists on board.

First, there was the surprise appearance of a gray whale calf swimming alongside its mother months before we typically see young gray whales migrating through the area. This time of year, gray whales are usually making their way south along the California coast on their way to Mexico, where they give birth in protected, warm lagoons near Baja California. But this calf appears to have been born early, so the mother-and-child pair were already on their way back from their Mexico vacation, heading to Alaska to feed.

"The calf looked very young and was swimming strongly alongside of mom!" Nancy Black, marine biologist with Monterey Bay Whale Watch, told SFGATE in an email.

That alone would have made for a special outing, but then came the out-of-season sighting of 60 humpback whales. Black said it's the largest winter humpback sighting she has seen in Monterey Bay in the last 30 years.

They too are usually down in the warmer waters off Mexico and Central America to mate and breed.

ALSO: The 49 things you have to see in California before you die

"Now that the humpback population has greatly increased since the 1970s after the end of whaling, not all the humpbacks head to the breeding areas. This is a sign of success for this once depleted population and many of these young whales are now concentrated in Monterey Bay due to the abundance of fish."

The group was feeding on anchovies in an eight-mile area in outer Monterey Bay, said Black.

To top it off, the humpbacks were accompanied by a hungry group of dolphins. There were several thousand Pacific white-sided dolphins, as well as the rarer Northern right whale dolphins, which don't have dorsal fins.

You can see all three rare sightings in the whale watching group's video at the top of this story.

Alix Martichoux is an SFGATE digital editor. Read her latest stories and send her news tips at alix.martichoux@sfgate.com.
People walk under a screen warning about a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. AP



South Korea's government on Monday raised its infectious disease alert level one notch to "orange" amid rising public concern over the spread of the Chinese coronavirus in the country.



The decision reached at an emergency response meeting chaired by Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo, came on the same day Seoul announced its fourth case of the novel virus that has resulted in 80 deaths so far in China. The new coronavirus has infected 2,794 people in 14 countries worldwide.






A Nigerian woman, Augustina Nwatoka, who is in her 60s, got married for the first time in Anambra State on Saturday.

The groom, Mr Nweke, a widower, said he chose his wife because of her good character.

The newlyweds hail from Anambra State.

Mr. Okeke is a Lagos-based businessman while his new bride works in Anambra State.

Their wedding held at the St. Theresas Catholic Church in Enugukwu, Anambra State.

It was the talk of the town.

The ceremony was witnessed by friends, family members, and other well-wishers.

According to culture and tourism enthusiast, Nneka Isaac-Moses, who shared the news on social media, the bride is loved by everyone in the family.

Isaac-Moses said the bride who is fondly called aunt Nwatoka is related to her husband and has always been there for her younger relatives.

Taking to Instagram, she wrote, Shes in her 60s and got married just yesterday for the very first time! Yes!! Isaac and I had to dash back to the village in Anambra state to witness the most beautiful wedding of this century!

Aunt Nwatoka, as shes fondly called, was literarily swept off her. Having found happiness, the groom who lost his first wife many years ago is giving himself another chance. And who would have thought that our dear Aunt Augustina Nwatoka at her age will ever be married! God is awesome. God is merciful. He never gives up on His children so, be positive as this year will not pass you by, she added.

Check out photos from the event below.

The couple flanked by Isaac and Nneka Moses (PHOTO CREDIT: Nneka Isaac-Moses)

The Bride (PHOTO CREDIT: Nneka Isaac-Moses)

The couple (PHOTO CREDIT: Nneka Isaac-Moses)

the happy couple (PHOTO CREDIT: Nneka Isaac-Moses)

The Couple (PHOTO CREDIT: Nneka Isaac-Moses)
The Border Security Force on Monday night shot down a Pakistani drone along the International Border in Jammu, officials said.

The drone was in a forward post in Arnia belt here, they said.

IG BSF, Jammu Frontier, N S Jamwal told PTI that it is a drone-like flying object without a camera.

"We are investigating it," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The City of Cape Town is asking the courts to allow it to buy electricity directly from independent power producers (IPPs), which, if successful, would help to prevent load-shedding for millions of South Africans.

The City of Cape Town launched this legal action in December, challenging the Minister of Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).

The City of Tshwane is also pursuing this solution, having written to the Minister of Energy as far back as March 2019 requesting the same remedy.

The City of Cape Town has invested extensively in technologies to assist with the switching process during rolling blackouts, said DA leader John Steenhuisen.

In addition, the Steenbras Dam generation capacity has already been used to mitigate against rolling blackouts in Cape Town.

Big step forward if successful  Expert

Energy expert Chris Yelland told eNCA that the court case is aimed at allowing municipalities to buy electricity from the cheapest source possible.

At this stage, they are prohibited to do so because of the single-buyer model of Eskom, Yelland said.

He said municipalities should be given the ability to buy electricity directly from IPPs, but for this to happen, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe must give them permission to do so.

This permission is not being given, however, which is why the City of Cape Town has launched court action against the minister.

If this court case goes in favour of the City of Cape Town, it will open the door for other large metros to buy power directly from IPPs, said Yelland.

He explained that most large metros, including Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Durban, and Port Elizabeth all want to generate their own electricity.

Yelland added that this is not a new concept and that municipalities used to generate their own electricity before Eskom became a monopoly.

Chris Yelland interview
Over the years, emoji have cropped up in movies, on home decor and all over apparel. Could cars be the next stop?

A bill was filed in the Vermont Legislature that would make some of the characters a customization option for license plates.

The bill, proposed by state Rep. Rebecca White, says symbols could be added in addition to the distinctive number assigned by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles or the numerals and letters selected by the registered owner of a vehicle as a vanity 12 plate."

If the bill passes, Vermont would be the first state in the USA to allow emoji plates.

Trending on Twitter: People seek a social media break to process Kobe Bryant's death

How Jeff Bezos was reportedly hacked: Could you be next?

Most frequently used emoji

Its unclear which emoji are included in the proposition, but the most popular emoji, in general, are the face with tears of joy, the red heart, the smiling face and the rolling on the floor laughing face, according to the Unicode Consortium, which sets the international standards for characters, including emoji.

Vermont charges a $48 annual fee for vanity plates, though its unclear how much plates with emoji would cost. Dots, dashes or "other special characters or symbols cannot be used" on custom license plates, according to the state website.

In 2019, Queensland, Australia, became one of the first places in the world to allow emoji on license plates. The five emoji allowed in the jurisdiction include the laughing, smiling, winking, love and sunglasses emoji, CNET reported.

Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: License plates may get emoji under Vermont bill
Afghan officials in the northern province of Balkh said at least seven civilians were killed in air strikes, prompting protests in front of the district governor's office.

Local officials said three women and four children were killed in the air strikes in the district of Balkh late on January 25.

Several hundred people blocked a key road in the district and gathered in front of the district governor's office, demanding an investigation.

Khyber Amiri, one of the organizers of the demonstration who spoke to RFE/RL, accused government forces of targeting the homes of "ordinary people and creating terror."

Afghan forces have been conducting ground attacks and air strikes in Balkh, which shares a border with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.

The Defense Ministry said it was sending a fact-finding mission to investigate the reports of civilian deaths.

The ministry said it had conducted operations across the country against the Taliban during the last 24 hours, killing 51 militants.

With reporting by Reuters
An inquest jury has returned a verdict of unlawful killing in a case where a retrial of a suspect has been prohibited by the High Court.

The trial of Michael Furlong for the murder of his friend, father-of-two Patrick Connors (37), collapsed in controversial circumstances in 2013 following the dramatic intervention of then State pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy.

She expressed concerns over the evidence of then deputy State pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber, including that he did not have his post-mortem report peer reviewed.

The High Court later prohibited a retrial, with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns saying he could not imagine how pathology evidence difficulties could be addressed or resolved.

At an inquest in Gorey, Co Wexford on Monday, Dr Richard Shepherd, a consultant pathologist from the UK, said the examination by Dr Jaber appeared to be technically correct, but he disagreed with some of the conclusions.

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Dr Shepherd, who reviewed the case for the DPP in 2014, said in his opinion Mr Connors died as a direct result of blood loss caused by two deep injuries to his scalp.

In his evidence he suggested one wound could have been caused by a sword and another by a serrated knife found at the scene.

He said it would have taken considerable time for Mr Connors to bleed to death and that prompt treatment would have saved his life.

Coroner Dr Sean Nixon recorded the cause of death as haemorrhage due to scalp wounds inflicted by a knife.

Following the verdict, Mr Connors family said that while they had now got some closure they remained devastated by the collapse of the trial and were exploring whether the High Courts prohibition of a retrial could be challenged.

Neither Prof Cassidy nor Dr Jaber attended the inquest. The Office of the State Pathologist opted not to send a representative, saying it was unable to be involved because of ongoing legal issues unconnected to the Connors family or the trial.

Mr Connors, a member of the Traveller Community, died following an incident at the Carraig Tur apartment complex in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.

The inquest heard gardai were called to the complex at 11.30pm on April 28, 2011 after receiving a report that Mr Connors was covered in blood. But they left without seeing him after he and another person spoke to them from behind a door.

Expand Close Michael Furlong, pictured in 2009. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Michael Furlong, pictured in 2009.

Mr Connors declined any further assistance and an ambulance was cancelled.

At 8.15am the following morning Mr Furlong went to his local shop and informed members of staff Mr Connors was dead on the steps of the apartment.

In subsequent garda interviews, Mr Furlong insisted Mr Connors had fallen and hit his head while in the flat and was bleeding heavily from that injury. He denied causing the injuries, saying he had gone to bed and only discovered Mr Connors on the stairs the next morning.

The inquest heard of extensive blood staining inside the lounge and kitchen of the apartment.

Sergeant Paul McCarthy told the inquest that when Mr Furlong was asked under caution if they had a row, he replied yeah but almost immediately said no, no.

The sergeant said Mr Furlong went on to say: He was bleeding when he arrived. He lay on the couch and then he went mad.

Dr Shepherd, who has previously given evidence at the inquest of Princess Diana and the trial over the murder of British MP Jo Cox, said the post-mortem examination conducted by Dr Jaber had been extensive and appeared to be technically correct.

But he said Dr Jabers report was convoluted and difficult to follow and that he disagreed with some of the findings.

Dr Shepherd said Mr Connors suffered two sharp traumas to the head, one measuring 9cms and the other 4.5cms. In his opinion, neither of these was self-inflicted or accidental.

He disagreed with Dr Jabers conclusion that the level of alcohol in Mr Connors system was toxic and contributed to his death.

The level of alcohol at the time of death is consistent with inebriation, but it is far less than any toxic level. In my opinion the alcohol has not caused or contributed to death, he said.

In my opinion Patrick Connors has died as a direct result of blood loss caused by the two deep injuries to his scalp.

It would take some considerable time for blood to be lost to cause death. In my opinion prompt treatment would have prevented death.

After retiring briefly, the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

The foreman said it could only reach one conclusion as the injuries on both sides of the head were not self-inflicted and the measurements of the weapon were equal the width of the wounds.

Dr Nixon offered his sympathy to the Connors family, several of whom were present, for their sad and very tragic loss.

They have been through the courts and the very unusual ruling being brought in which precludes any further criminal investigation in this case, said Dr Nixon.

After the hearing, Mr Connors sister Elizabeth Cash said her family remained devastated that no one had been brought to justice.

She said it was difficult, based on the evidence at the inquest, to understand why a retrial had been prohibited.

If there were issues between Dr Jaber and Prof Cassidy, why did they not just adjourn things for six months so they could resolve their issues, she said.

Ms Cash said the family would be examining whether the prohibition could be lifted.

Dr Jaber resigned shortly after Prof Cassidy's intervention and now works abroad. Prof Cassidy retired in 2018.

In a letter to the DPP she said that while she and two other colleagues agreed that Mr Connors' injuries were more than likely the result of an assault, her main concern was Dr Jaber's opinion about the mechanism of death. She also expressed concerns his report was not peer reviewed.

Dr Jaber had stood over his handling of the case and has stated peer review was not a contractual term of his employment.

Before his resignation, he wrote a number of letters to the DPP and the Royal College of Physicians suggesting Prof Cassidy was not qualified to hold the job of State pathologist.

However, the Department of Justice expressed full confidence her.
Climbing in Sudan, new routes in Taka mountains above Kassala

Chris Warner from Australia reports about a rock climbing trip to Kassala in western Sudan with Jonny Baker which resulted in a handful of new routes in the Taka Mountains,

In the West of Sudan there lies a great collection of granite domes with a few existing routes and plenty of potential for more first ascents of impressive lines. All the climbing is situated above the town of Kassala.

Jonny Baker and I arrived in Kassala on the 25 December 2019 for a 20 day stay. We spent the first day exploring the many domes for new and existing lines. Previous information was very patchy and confusing with regards to names and locations. The towers dont appear to have individual names but are grouped under two names, Jebel Totil and Jebel Taka. We decided to give more descriptive names to each feature in reference to their location. From our research there has been very little activity. The first climbing was done in 1939 by some Brits to gain the main summit of Jebel Taka. Some Czechs visited in 1981 and put up a few routes, French came in 2003 and put up about 3 lines and two Americans did a new route in 2013. Then some Brits came over a few visits and established several shorter lines on the smaller rock features and did some bouldering.

Our first new route was up Middle Jebel on the north face. This is the only dome that you can walk up. We established the route Jebel Rebel, 6a+, 320m. The route was climbed ground-up and bolts were placed on lead. The route offers some great mixed climbing that gets only a few hours of morning sun.

We then went to climb the south face of Jebel Totil thinking we were doing a new route but found bolts on the second pitch. This was not surprising as its by far the easiest way to the summit. We climbed 3 pitches separated by some scrambling and made the summit in about two hours, we then rappelled the same line. The route gets full sun, so an early start is essential.

This route gave us access to the summit as we spied a dyke line on the west face we wished to climb. We then rap bolted and cleaned the dyke over 4 days. This line gives some amazing climbing on steep terrain on a continuous feature the whole way. The rock quality on the higher pitches was outstanding with interesting and fun climbing on positive holds. We named the route False Prophet, 7c, 340m. We then flew our paragliders from the summit back down and were greeted by hundreds of children from the small village we landed next to.

After this route we then climbed the existing routes, Khawadja on Jebel Taka North and the original route of Brown-Hodgkin 1939 on Jebel Taka. We flew again from both summits.

The last new route we established was on the North face of Jebel Totil. We named this route Bat Shit Crazy, 6c, 230m. This route was done ground-up with bolts placed on lead. It starts with several slab pitches to gain the higher crack system that leads to the summit. This route gave some nice climbing on varied terrain.

Kassala offers a great deal more new routes over the many towers. The hot temperatures make it very difficult to climb on the south faces but most of the best rock faces more to the north aspects. We were fortunate to get many days with temperatures in the mid-twenties giving pleasant conditions in the shade. There are many cracks, but most are discontinuous and would require linking together with bolts between. The faces are very featured granite and surprisingly solid to climb. We found the local people to be most friendly and helpful, they didnt seem to be bothered by our climbing on the rocks but were naturally puzzled as to why we had come so far to do this.

Chris Warner, Australia

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New Delhi [India], Jan 27 (ANI): Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has called all the floor leaders of the Upper house for a meeting at his residence on January 31, ahead of the Budget session of the Parliament.



The Union budget will be presented on February 1, by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Ahead of printing of documents relating to Union Budget 2020-21, the customary 'Halwa ceremony' was held January 20 at the Ministry of Finance, North Block.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and other government officials were also present at the ceremony.

Congress parliamentary strategy group, chaired by interim President Sonia Gandhi, had also called for a meeting ahead of the Budget session. Further, a meeting of like-minded parties has been called on January 30. (ANI)


Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda on January 27 accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "supporting those who want to break India", as he raised the issue of AAP government not giving police the permission to prosecute ex-JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case.

He also sought to know from the AAP national convener "whether acting against anti-nationals would hurt his vote bank".

"Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. They were threatening to violate India's sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet," Nadda tweeted.

"They (police) sought Kejriwal's permission to prosecute this 'tukde tukde' gang but one year later, till yesterday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank," he wrote on the microblogging site.

In its campaign for the February 8 assembly polls in the national capital, the BJP has often raised the issue of the AAP government so far not grating the Delhi Police its nod to prosecute the accused in the case of raising seditious slogans in the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

On January 14, the police had filed a chargesheet in the court against Kanhaiya Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, saying they were leading a procession and supported the seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

A court is Delhi has directed the police to get the requisite nod by February 19.
A trial date has been set for a man accused of killing a San Antonio police detective as the officer sat in his patrol vehicle in front of Public Safety Headquarters in 2016.

State District Judge Ron Rangel signed a scheduling order setting April 27 for the capital murder trial of Otis Tyrone McKane, 34.

Detective Benjamin Marconi, 50, was working an overtime shift when he pulled over a motorist in front of the police station around 11:45 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2016. As Marconi was sitting in his SUV, a man approached the officer from behind and shot him twice in the head.

Security camera video taken from the police station captured the shooting. The next day, McKane was spotted on video entering the Bexar County Courthouse to get married.

McKane, 34, was apprehended by authorities about 28 hours after the killing. He confessed to investigators that he was upset about a child custody battle and lashed out by killing Marconi, a 20-year SAPD veteran.

In the Jan. 8 scheduling order, Rangel set deadlines for pre-trial motions to filed. Pre-trial matters are scheduled to be heard by Feb. 7. The deadline for a plea agreement and proposed juror questionnaires is Feb. 24.

General voir dire, along with questionnaires for prospective jurors will be distributed by March 6, with individual jury selection to begin March 16.

Normally, jury selections for most cases take about a day. When seeking the death penalty, it can take a few weeks to choose a panel of 12 jurors and two alternates who are willing to send someone to death row, said Judge Sid Harle, who oversees the 4th Administrative Judicial Region, which covers 22 counties.

Statutorily, you have to talk to each juror apart from others so they are candid about the death penalty, he said.

He said once in the Central Jury Room, the judge would give an introduction about the case, and the prospective jurors would receive questionnaires and be released so they could have time to fill them out.

Afterward, both prosecutors and defense attorneys receive copies of the questionnaires, and between five to six jurors would be asked to come in again for a day of questioning by both sides, based on answers in the questionnaires.

They will know whether it is someone they want to keep, or get rid of, Harle said.

Killing a peace officer is a capital offense in Texas. If convicted, the punishment is either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Texas Penal Code.

The last time Bexar County jurors heard a death penalty case involving the slaying of a police officer was in 2016 when Mark Anthony Gonzalez was convicted of killing Bexar County Sheriffs Sgt. Kenneth Vann, 48. Vann was at a traffic light at Rigsby Avenue and Loop 410 on the East Side around 2 a.m. on May 28, 2011, when he was shot more than 25 times by an AR-15 rifle. The barrage nearly decapitated Vann and he died at the scene.

The Bexar County District Attorneys Office declined to comment on the McKane case because it is pending.

The trial will be heard in the 379th state District Court with Rangel presiding.

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales announced last year that he would seek the death penalty against McKane, stating that the facts in the case met the standard because of the cold and calculated nature of the defendants conduct.

Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Despegar Buys Mexican Travel Agency Best Day for $136 Million

Despegar said Monday it would acquire Best Day, one of the largest travel agencies in Mexico, for $136 million as it looks to grow mobile bookings.

The purchase price was 17 times Best Days earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization  a measure of profit  of $8 million last year.

In 2019, Best Day booked about $140 million in revenues, with about 70 percent of its revenue generated online and about 70 percent of it booked by Mexicans.

As Skift noted in its profile of Despegar earlier this month, the company wants to double its mobile bookings by 2025. Acquiring Best Day will help with that goal, enabling Despegar to boost its group annualized revenues by about a quarter.

Best Day primarily sells all types of travel to consumers. However, it also has a business-to-business unit, HotelDo, that offers wholesaler services. The company also is a provider of destination services.

This acquisition is a significant landmark given our goal to continue expanding our operations in Mexico, Latin Americas most important tourism market and the seventh most important destination worldwide, said Despegar CEO Damian Scokin in a press statement.

Damian Scokin CEO Despegar

Despegar CEO Damian Scokin shown here speaking at a company event in Argentina in 2019.

For more context, see our story earlier this month: Latin Americas Despegar Wants to Double Bookings by 2025: How Realistic Is That? and about the other giant player in Latin America via Skifts profile this month of Brazils CVC Corp.

Subscribe to Skift newsletters covering the business of travel, restaurants, and wellness.
New York, Jan 27 : As governments including in India plan more e-bikes on roads to help tackle traffic congestion, like any Internet-connected device, hackers can cause a series of attacks in e-scooters, including eavesdropping on users and even spoof GPS systems to direct riders to unintended locations, warn researchers including some of Indian-origin.

Vendors of Micromobility vehicles can also suffer denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and data leaks, said researchers from University of Texas at San Antonio.

"We have identified and outlined a variety of weak points or attack surfaces in the current ride-sharing, or micromobility, ecosystem that could potentially be exploited by malicious adversaries right from inferring the riders' private data to causing economic losses to service providers and remotely controlling the vehicles' behaviour and operation," said Jadliwala.

The micromobility e-scooter analysis was conducted by Jadliwala alongside graduate students Nisha Vinayaga-Sureshkanth, Raveen Wijewickrama and post-doctoral fellow Anindya Maiti.

The global e-Bike market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.01 per cent to reach $38.6 billion by 2025 from an estimated $21.1 billion in 2018, according to marketsandmarkets research firm.

Computer science experts at the university have published the first review of the security and privacy risks posed by e-scooters and their related software services and applications.

According to the review, to appear in the proceedings of the 2nd ACM Workshop on Automotive and Aerial Vehicle Security (AutoSec 2020), hackers can cause a series of attacks.

Some e-scooter models communicate with the rider's smartphone over a Bluetooth Low Energy channel.

Someone with malicious intent could eavesdrop on these wireless channels and listen to data exchanges between the scooter and riders' smartphone app by means of easily and cheaply accessible hardware and software tools such as Ubertooth and WireShark.

Those who sign up to use e-scooters also offer up a great deal of personal and sensitive data beyond just billing information.

According to the study, providers automatically collect other analytics, such as location and individual vehicle information.

This data can be pieced together to generate an individual profile that can even include a rider's preferred route, personal interests, and home and work locations.

"Cities are experiencing explosive population growth. Micromobility promises to transport people in a more sustainable, faster and economical fashion," said Jadliwala.

To ensure that this industry stays viable, companies should think not only about rider and pedestrian safety but also how to protect consumers and themselves from significant cybersecurity and privacy threats enabled by this new technology," the authors noted.
A Toronto woman is trapped with her 10-month-old son in the government quarantine in Wuhan, China and says she is terrified that they will become infected by the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 2,000 people worldwide and led to 56 deaths.

Everyone wants to leave. If it was you, you would want to leave as well, Xi Huang told the Star by telephone Sunday. The morning (when the lockdown was issued), my dad came in to my room and he saw me and cried, and I cried too.

Huang, a permanent resident of Canada who is completing her masters in international business at Ryerson University, lives in North York with her husband Bill So, where they welcomed the birth of their 10-month-old son, Ian. Now on maternity leave, Huang is visiting family in the Wuchang District in the city of Wuhan. The district is located across the Yangtze River from the seafood market where the coronavirus outbreak is believed to have originated.

I was going to stay here until April and Bill was going to visit us in early March, Huang said, but the outbreak changed everything.

Shortly after learning of severity of the virus, Huang decided to leave early and booked a flight home for Jan. 24, the same day the entire city went into lockdown. All public transportation and airports were shut down and the local government advised people to stay in their homes, Huang said.

Currently we all feel OK at home. The thing is we cannot go out because you dont know when you are going to get infected. Because of the incubation period, you might not have any symptoms, she said.

Huang and her family havent left their home for over a week and stay in separate rooms to prevent any transfer of the virus.

We live in different rooms just in case, because I have to be 100 per cent sure (my son is safe). If one of us is infected we cannot infect others because we need to take care of the baby.

If Huangs son contracts coronavirus, she worries that he wont get appropriate medical attention because he doesnt have Chinese government ID.

So, who hasnt seen his son since October, says he misses him very much but feels helpless to do anything on the other side of the world.

I am mentally drained out. I dont know how fast it is spreading. I fear for their safety. I want them to find a window of opportunity to leave, So said.

Their family has informed Global Affairs Canada about their situation and wants to be evacuated. They received a response stating that the Canadian government does not pay for medical evacuations or interfere in medical care, So said.

The government email also said that Canadians abroad are subject to local laws and the government cannot override the decisions of Chinese authorities.

While 80 people have died of the virus in China, the World Health Organization has not declared the outbreak an international public health emergency.

The first presumptive case of coronavirus in Canada was identified in Toronto on Saturday. The patient, a 50-year-old man who returned from Wuhan on Wednesday, is being treated at Torontos Sunnybrook hospital.

Health officials say the viruss symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat and pneumonia. If the infection travels to your lungs, a person can have difficulty breathing.

Experts suspect the virus was first transmitted from wild animals, and that it may be mutating. Mutations can make it deadlier and/or more contagious.

Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1

Osobe Waberi is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @OsobeWaberi

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Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini gestures as he speaks during a press conference in the Lega headquarters in northern Milan following the results of the European parliamentary elections, on May 27, 2019. MIGUEL MEDINA | AFP | Getty Images

Italy's fragile coalition government is breathing a sigh of relief after Matteo Salvini, a prominent right-wing politician, failed to win a closely-watched regional election at the weekend. But the vote has exposed the weak dynamics underpinning the government in Rome. The opposition anti-immigration Lega party, led by Salvini, lost in the vote in Emilia-Romagna to the incumbent center-left Democratic Party (PD) on Sunday. With most of the votes counted Monday morning, the PD's candidate Stefano Bonaccini was seen with 51.4% of the vote and his Lega-backed rival, Lucia Borgonzoni, with almost 44% of the vote. The candidate for the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) had secured less than 5% of the vote, according to preliminary results from the region. Although the result is something of a reprieve for Italy's fragile coalition government, made up of the PD party and M5S, Salvini's Lega party is leading national voter polls and has performed well in several other key regional elections, including an election in the southern region of Calabria on Sunday in which Lega, along with other center-right parties, garnered a majority of the vote. In the meantime, the M5S has been polling badly in regional elections and last week, its leader Luigi Di Maio resigned, calling into question the future of the movement, and its place in the coalition government.

Against this backdrop and despite Lega's defeat in Emilia-Romagna, the new PD-M5S coalition led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is as weak as before, according to political analysts and economists. "In the aftermath of Salvini's defeat in Emilia-Romagna  where he has campaigned tirelessly across the whole region since mid-November  the risk of snap general elections is lower," Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo Intelligence, said in a note Monday. "However, the likely thin margin of the center-left win in this traditionally leftist stronghold shows once again that Conte's PD-Five Star Movement (M5S) coalition government rests on rather shaky foundations," he noted. Loredana Maria Federico, chief Italian economist at Unicredit, said in a note Monday that "political tensions are likely to keep lingering, as several conflicts within the ruling coalition will likely remain." Conflicts mainly relate to the difficulty the governing majority has in moving forward with judicial reform, how to proceed in the case of the ailing Ilva steel plant and differences of opinions over how to manage motorway operators following the collapse of a Genoa bridge which killed 43 people in 2018. These conflicts are those in which M5S, PD and smaller coalition partners will find it hard to find common ground, Federico said, adding that as a result, cabinet meetings and processes of approval in Parliament will be monitored particularly closely in the coming few months.

Short sigh of relief
On Monday, the Supreme Courts conservative majority allowed the Trump administrations public charge rule to take effect. The government may now begin to deny visas and green cards to anyone it decides may rely on public aid.

Mondays order will force countless immigrants to forgo health care, food stamps, and housing assistance; it will drive families to illness, starvation, and homelessness; and it is impossible to square with federal law.

The 54 decision is both a humanitarian catastrophe and an act of rank hypocrisy: The same conservative justices who rail against executive lawmaking by federal bureaucrats approved a policy written by bureaucrats that radically alters the laws passed by Congress. The public charge rule furthers Trumps effort to limit legal immigration by any means necessary. Congress has failed to pass any legislation furthering this agenda, so the Department of Homeland Security simply rewrote the law in 2018 to reduce the number of individuals who can legally enter and remain in the United States. DHS zeroed in on a federal law that denies visas and green cards (or lawful permanent residence) to individuals deemed likely to become a public charge.

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Such statutes have a long, sordid history in the United States: They were first passed in the late 19th century as part of a xenophobic backlash against immigrants from countries whose residents were deemed non-white or incapable of assimilation, including Ireland, Italy, and China. The current statute directs the government to consider five factors when determining whether an immigrant will become a public charge: age, health, family status, financial status (including assets and resources), and education and skills. Immigrants deemed a public charge are denied visas or lawful permanent residence.

In crafting this law, Congress rejected any bright line rule that would prevent immigrants from getting or keeping legal status because they might need some government benefit. Interpreting the statute, the government directed consular officers to ask whether an immigrant would become primarily dependent on cash benefits like welfare, or undergo long-term hospitalization. But officers could not focus on any one particular factor, instead examining the totality of the circumstances.

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The Trump administrations new rule changes all that. It dramatically broadens the categories of suspect assistance to include food stamps, housing vouchers, and Medicaid. An immigrant who uses cash or non-cash benefits in any 12 months of a 36-month period will be deemed a public charge. Using two kinds of benefits in one month counts as two months of use. So an immigrant who relies upon Medicaid and food stamps for half a year will automatically be deemed a public charge.

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Because these guidelines are utterly unmoored from the actual law, three different courts blocked the new rule. On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a nationwide injunction, allowing the rule to take effect in every state except Illinois, where a different court kept it on ice. The majority did not even hint at its reasoning for lifting the injunction. All four liberals dissented.

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SCOTUSs ruling will devastate immigrant communities in the United States who rely upon even modest public benefits to survive. Many immigrants currently hold temporary visas and wish to become lawful permanent residents in the future. They may unenroll from Medicaid, abandon food stamps, and lose their homes to preserve their ability to gain green cards. Attorneys fighting the rule estimate that hundreds of thousands of people will be affected. These individuals, including children, will suffer malnutrition, poverty, homelessness, and preventable disease. Moreover, immigrants who are denied a green card may lose their legal status altogether, forcing them to leave the country or risk deportation. The rule will also exclude a large number of immigrants seeking entry from abroad, who face the daunting task of proving total self-sufficiency, not just now but indefinitely.

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This extraordinary burden might be legally tolerable if Congress had demanded it. But Congress did no such thing. Instead, the Senate refused to implement a version of the new rule as recently as 2013. But Trumps Department of Homeland Security would not let a little thing like congressional inaction stand in the way of its nativist goals. So the agency converted Congress limited definition of a public charge into a sweeping category that will subject as many as 94 percent of legal immigrants to extra scrutiny.

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The Supreme Courts conservatives have warned against this kind of lawmaking by executive fiat. Justice Neil Gorsuch has railed against the administrative state, castigating the delegation of legislative power to federal agencies. Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh, have all endorsed Gorsuchs crusade against agencies efforts to rewrite or expand the law beyond Congress intent. These justices rail against the flight of power from the legislative to the executive branch. And they claim to vigorously oppose any judicial deference to federal bureaucrats interpretation of the laws passed by Congress.

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Except when those bureaucrats are appointed by Donald Trump. The courts conservatives have repeatedly intervened to let Trump bypass the law and executive immigration policies that are plainly unauthorized by federal law. They have also blessed the Trump administrations strategy of short-circuiting the appeals process to get relief from the Supreme Court. Thats precisely what happened here: The Justice Department leapfrogged over the court of appeals to get their case before the justices. Gorsuch even attached an acerbic concurrence to the order, joined by Thomas, scolding lower court judges for blocking Trumps policies nationwide. The message from the conservative bloc is clear: Trump gets to crack down on immigration to his satisfaction, and any lower court that stands in his way will incur SCOTUSs wrath.
Towns along the dwindling Barwon-Darling River system, in the state's parched north-west, hope that mobile desalination plants will provide relief from brackish drinking water as the drought tightens its grip.

Some locals in the small outback towns of Brewarrina, Bourke and Walgett have resorted to using bottled water as their main source of drinking water, despite assurances from health authorities that the tap water, though extremely salty, is safe to drink.

The drought-affected Darling River near Bourke, in north-western NSW. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Brewarrina, which sources its water supply from a weir on the Barwon River, will on Tuesday become the first of the three towns to switch on a desalination plant, which the council has borrowed from Tenterfield Council, more than 600 kilometres away.

Mayor Phillip O'Connor said the town's raw water supply was purified at the local treatment plant, but this process could not remove the high sodium content that resulted from the lack of inflow into the river system.
Cross River governor, Ben Ayade, has finally spoken about the continuous detention of Agba Jalingo, a Nigerian journalist who is standing treason trial for criticising the governor.

Mr Jalingo, the publisher of CrossRiverWatch, was arrested on August 22 over a report alleging that Mr Ayade diverted N500 million belonging to the state.

In court, it is Federal Government versus Agba Jalingo, not Cross River State, Mr Ayade told reporters on Monday at the presidential villa, Abuja, where he went to meet President Muhammadu Buhari.

Hes in court for treason, a state does not have power to try anyone for treason, its not me.

Mr Ayade said the journalists arrest and trial is in connection with Omoyele Sowores #RevolutionNow protest.

On his Facebook page, he sent pictures where he was being teargassed at the revolution march in Lagos. His own pictures, posted by himself and when Sowore was being arrested, he went back to his Facebook to post that the revolution has just started, we will continue this battle until revolution works. He admitted this in Court, Mr Ayade said.

You are seeing him as a journalist, but hes not, hes the chairman of Sowores party in Cross River State so hes a politician. He has a primary calling, which is journalism.

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Once he started the campaign to overthrow the government of President Buhari, he ceased to be seen from the point of journalist because he has become the state chairman of a party.

Governor Ayade, however, says he has been working for Mr Jalingos release from Calabar prison where he has been incarcerated.

I am of the opinion that Agba should be released because I think he was just youthfully excited.

If you ask Agba Jalingo today, Im the one working with his lawyers for his freedom, Im the one sustaining him and sending upkeeps, he said.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Jalingos lawyer, Attah Ochinke who said, I can confirm I have been in discussions with officials of the Cross River state government in that direction (Jalingos freedom).

Mr Ochinke said he would not comment on Mr Ayades claims that he has been sending upkeeps to the detained journalists. It is not through me, he said.

The governor spoke on his relationship with Mr Jalingo whom he said is his brother. He said the journalist betrayed him after he assisted him and his newspaper. He accused the journalist of serial acts of blackmail.

Please dont get it wrong, Agba Jalingo is not just from Cross River State, hes not just from Obudu, where I also come from, hes my brother.

Please ask Agba Jalingo, that CrossRiverWatch, the first person to give him money to set up the office was myself. His official vehicle, it was me. I dont have to list all of these, he knows that I have funded and supported him, but journalism stops where blackmail becomes part of your strategy.

Today you need something, then Ayade is a good man and you start writing all the good things, but if I take my phone and show you our WhatsApp communication, you will call me a godly man. Today I need money to set up a computer school, tomorrow I need money to feed my birds, the other day I need to be INNOSONs sole distributor in Cross River State, I do all that.

But when I dont get a thing right you go to the social media and write something as careless as Governor Ayade has taken N500 million to Russia. You impugned my fathers name, my character, my family name, for just a personal request that Ive not met, out of many that I have met.

Please for once, put yourselves in my shoes. All I simply did was to stay out of the issue, the governor said.

I have an intellectual background as a professor, I will stand with journalists at all times and I will never prosecute somebody.
The family of a teenager who was killed in a crash last August is set to urge the foreign secretary to try his suspected killer in her absence, as the Prime Minister slammed the US for refusing to extradite the suspect.

Harry Dunn was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.

Anne Sacoolas, 42, the wife of a US intelligence official based at RAF Croughton, was granted diplomatic immunity after the crash, sparking an international controversy.

It comes as Prime Minister has said the refusal to grant an extradition request for the suspect charged in connection with the death of Mr Dunn is a 'denial of justice'.

The Dunn family is due to meet Dominic Raab at the Foreign Office today.

US President Donald Trump (left) with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson has slammed the US

Harry Dunn (right), 19, died when his motorcycle crashed in a head-on collision with a car allegedly driven by Anne Sacoolas (left), 42, on August 27 last year

The family of Harry Dunn (left to right) mother Charlotte Charles, stepfather Bruce Charles, family spokesman Radd Seiger, father Tim Dunn and stepmother Tracey Dunn

This is while Mr Johnson's words have been welcomed by the teenager's mother, Charlotte Charles, who said they are 'words that need action behind them'.

Mr Johnson is the latest senior government figure to criticise the US secretary of state's decision to reject the request for the return of Anne Sacoolas to the UK  following in the footsteps of the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary.

On Monday, the Prime Minister's spokesman told a Westminster briefing: 'We believe that this is a denial of justice and the individual concerned should return to the UK.'

Harry Dunns mother Charlotte Charles is pictured above. She will be at the Foreign Office today

The Prime Minister also 'reiterated the need' for Mrs Sacoolas to return to the UK during a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Friday.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo rejected an extradition request by the UK Government for Mrs Sacoolas on Thursday.

Reacting to Mr Johnson's comments, Mrs Charles told PA that he needs to 'use his power' to put the pressure on Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo to send the suspect back to the UK.

She said: 'The fact that he has come out and said that is obviously a good thing but we hope that he can follow this up with actions now.

'He needs to use his power, because he's the only person with the power to tell Trump and Pompeo that she needs to come back.

'It feels good that he's on the same page as us and this is certainly a step in the right direction.'

Asked what her message to the Prime Minister would be, Mrs Charles told PA: 'Make the country proud of you. There are a lot of people out there who don't necessarily have faith in this government and this is a chance for him to restore a bit of that faith.

'It's certainly another step forward but until I see action, they are not empty words, but they are words that need action behind them to show us that they are 100% going to stand up for us.'

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is set to hold a 'vitally important meeting' with Mrs Charles and the rest of Mr Dunn's family on Monday.

Mr Dunn's parents have said they are confident talks with Mr Raab will be 'constructive and productive'  adding that it is 'more important now than ever' to be on the same page.

Mrs Charles and Mr Dunn's father, Tim Dunn, have disputed the Foreign Office's claim that the suspect had diplomatic immunity at the time of a road crash.

The teenager's parents have said they expect the Foreign Secretary to make it clear there will be 'severe consequences' if the US government continues to refuse to return Mrs Sacoolas after their meeting.

Mr Pompeo is set to have a meeting with Mr Raab on Wednesday.
A woman who returned from China last week was admitted to a Patna hospital on Monday with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus that left 80 people dead in the neighbouring country, officials said.

Patna/Chapra: A woman who returned from China last week was admitted to a Patna hospital on Monday with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus that left 80 people dead in the neighbouring country, officials said.

The woman who is in her 20s returned home to Chapra, the headquarters of Saran district, from China on 22 January and she was taken to the Chapra Sadar Hospital three days later. From there, the woman who was pursuing a PhD from the Tianjin University in China, was referred to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Monday.

"She has been kept in an isolation ward. Her blood samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences here for tests," PMCH Superintendent Dr Vimal Karak told PTI.

The mode of treatment will be decided based on reports of the tests, Karak said.

Asked if it is a case of Coronavirus, he said the Chapra Sadar Hospital referred her to the PMCH saying it is a suspected case of coronavirus. "I can't say anything on this until I get test reports from the NIV in this regard," the PMCH superintendent said.

In view of the deadly virus spreading rapidly outside China, including Nepal, Bihar health department on January 25 had issued an 'advisory' asking district officials and hospitals to stay alert and monitor the situation. Nepal shares 729 kilometres long border with Bihar.

The death toll due to coronavirus epidemic rose to 80 in China on Monday.
The conference, due to be held on Monday and Tuesday, focuses on means of renewing religious discourse, refuting misconceptions about Islam, and discussing women and family issues

Egyptian prime minister to deliver the president's speech at Al-Azhar's International Conference on the Renewal of Islamic Thought on Monday, presidency spokesman Bassam Rady told state run MENA agency.

The conference, due to be held on Monday and Tuesday, focuses on means of renewing religious discourse, refuting misconceptions about Islam, discussing women and family issues, as well as the roles of the religious, academic, and international institutions in this regard.

It is scheduled to also include representatives of the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), Dar Al-Efta, the highest institution tasked with deciding religious questions and affiliated with Egypt's Al-Azhar, as well as Muslim councils from 46 Muslim countries.

The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, said in earlier press statements that the conference will help achieve the institutions message in demonstrating the tolerance of Islam and renouncing extremism.

The Egyptian President has repeatedly stressed in recent years the importance of having balanced religious discourse to confront extremism and radical ideology, blaming outdated religious discourse for holding Egypt back, and often calling on Islamic clerics to reform their religious speech to confront extremist ideology.

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Microsoft founder Bill Gates has allocated $ 5 million from his charity fund to support China in the fight against a new type of coronavirus, China Daily reported.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the source, is actively cooperating on this issue with Chinese partners - private and public organizations involved in the elimination of pneumonia. The allocated funds will be used both in identifying infected people, placing them in quarantine and treatment, and for accelerated development of a vaccine against the virus.

"We are deeply concerned about the development of the current epidemic and express our high respect to those who are fighting on the front lines," said Yinuo Li, director of the Gates Foundation China.

"It has always been our focus to improve the level of infectious disease prevention and control, as well as to strengthen global health and safety. We look forward to working with our partners to meet the challenges."

According to him, the charity will also allocate $ 5 million to support African countries in taking preventive measures to control and minimize the risk of the spread of new type of pneumonia on the continent ..
Curt and Adam both bring innovative service and skill sets to our firm that will guarantee our future growth, said Leila H. Watson, co-founding principal of Cory Watson Attorneys. We are thrilled to recognize their hard work.

Cory Watson Attorneys, a personal injury law firm with offices in Alabama and Tennessee, announced today that it has elected two new principals to its nationally recognized practice  Adam W. Pittman and J. Curt Tanner.

Adam Pittman brings expertise to the Class Action, Consumer Protection and Product Liability groups, while Curt Tanner will continue to lead the firms Motor Vehicle Accident practice group.

We are proud to announce Curt and Adam as principals in our firm, said Ernest Cory, managing shareholder of Cory Watson Attorneys. Their experience, expertise, and commitment to our clients is unparalleled, and we look forward to their continued success.

The move will further strengthen the firms ability to provide excellent legal representation to its clients across the country, and ensure long-term growth for the firm.

Curt and Adam both bring innovative service and skill sets to our firm that will guarantee our future growth, said Leila H. Watson, co-founding principal of Cory Watson Attorneys. We are thrilled to recognize their hard work.

About Adam W. Pittman

An attorney with the firm since 2013, Adam W. Pittman is a lawyer with a passion for helping clients navigate the highly technical and complex legal issues that arise in product liability and class action cases. Admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 2011, he specializes in litigating automotive defects and fights to hold powerful corporations accountable for consumer fraud. Pittman handles complex litigation throughout the country, and was part of the successful trial team in Cruz v. Nissan North America, where a Los Angeles County jury awarded plaintiffs a $24.9 million verdict. He earned his law degree from The University of Alabama School of Law, where he was Senior Editor of the Alabama Law Review. Pittman serves as a junior board member for the Crisis Center of Birmingham, and is actively involved in the Emerging Leaders section of the Alabama Association for Justice.

About J. Curt Tanner

A driven advocate for his clients, J. Curt Tanner fights for justice in personal injury, civil litigation, motor vehicle accident and mass tort cases. A member of the firm since 2016, he represents personal injury clients across the state of Alabama as well as Tennessee. Tanner began his legal career by representing individuals against some of the largest banks and investment firms in the world. His dedication to securing justice allowed him to help obtain a seven-figure settlement in a Ponzi scheme case on behalf of his clients. A Birmingham native, Tanner holds a bachelor's degree from Auburn University and obtained his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, where he volunteers his time by mentoring law students in the Moot Court program. Tanner is also involved in the legal community as a member of the Alabama Association for Justice and the Birmingham Bar Association.

About Cory Watson Attorneys

Cory Watson Attorneys is a nationally recognized personal injury law firm with offices in Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, and Nashville, Tennessee. The firm has recovered more than $2.7 billion for clients across the country. Cory Watson Attorneys are frequently at the forefront of major class actions and multidistrict litigations involving dangerous pharmaceuticals and product liability, and are often appointed to leadership positions in national cases. Firm practice areas include Personal Injury, Product Liability, Class Action, Asbestos, Business & Commercial Litigation, Dangerous Pharmaceuticals, Defective Medical Devices, and Environmental/Toxic Torts. To learn more, visit CoryWatson.com.
A team of district administration, who was on a land acquisition drive for the proposed Jewar international airport, was on Monday injured after being allegedly attacked by locals.

The injured officials include police personnel and Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Gunja Singh, who had gone to take transfer of the acquisition of land for the airport.

Speaking to reporters about the incident, District Magistrate BN Singh said, "There have been a total of seven acquisitions happened till date and in these seven months, there was not even a single such incident happened. So I believe that people are handing over their plot of land willingly. This was an exception, police will do their job."

Jewar airport or the Noida International Greenfield Airport will come up in the 5,000-hectare area when fully constructed and is estimated to cost Rs 29,560 crore, according to officials.

The first phase of the airport will be spread over 1,334 hectares and cost Rs 4,588 crore. It is expected to be completed by 2023.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A mother has been jailed for 14 years for stabbing her bingo night friend who accused her of stealing 4,000.

Paula Ayres, 51, stabbed her friend Julie Page, 63, in the neck and back with a Stanley knife in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire, forcing her to play dead to get away.

The friends spent years sharing their winnings, with Mrs Page even giving her bank card to Ayres, who withdrew cash every Sunday when they went to play bingo.

But Portsmouth Crown Court heard how Ayres began plundering the account, leading to the nearly fatal confrontation.

Mrs Page told the court she believes Ayres overheard her on the phone to her sister earlier that day when she discussed her suspicions about who had taken the money.

Later, Ayres stabbed Mrs Page in the neck twice and five times in the back. Her ear was also ripped because her earring had been pulled out.

Paula Ayres, 51, from Hampshire, stabbed her friend Julie Page, 63, in the neck and back with a Stanley knife after a row over missing 4,000

Mrs Page believes bingo night friend Ayres attacked her after she overheard her discussing her suspicions about who took the missing money

Cardiff-born Mrs Page told the court she 'played dead' and Ayres left the house.

But Ayres was arrested soon after and police found she had put the Stanley knife in her washing machine to cover up the crime.

In court, Ayres claimed she had loaned cash to her friend on their bingo trips, but Mrs Page said: 'I've never taken a penny off the woman.'

Traumatised Mrs Page opted to give evidence from behind a curtain in court - and said she 'shocked' when her friend of twenty years put her hands around her neck during the confrontation.

She told Porstmouth Crown Court: 'I said to Paula, what's wrong with you? Why are you doing this?'

Ayres, of Bishop's Waltham admitted stealing nearly 4,000 and grievous bodily harm but denied attempted murder.

However, jurors found her guilty.

Ayres was arrested after police found she had put the Stanley knife in her washing machine to cover up the crime

Paul Casey, defending, told the court he could offer 'no mitigation' for the 'extremely grave offence'.

Sentencing Ayres to 14 years in jail, Judge Roger Hetherington told how photographs of Mrs Page's injuries showed 'copious amounts of blood.'

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable John Duggan said: 'This was a horrific assault on a vulnerable lady in her own home, by a woman who was supposed to have been a friend of some years.

'It was intrinsically linked to the theft of nearly 4,000 from the victim's bank account.

'The severity of the offence is reflected by the sentence the judge has passed.'
Thermal sensors have been installed at Amritsar international airport to screen passengers for deadly novel coronavirus, the Punjab government said on Monday.

The government will also set up a screening facility at Mohali international airport on Tuesday, state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said, adding no case has been detected so far.

Thermal screening is already being done at airports in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

The state health department also found no symptoms of infection among the four passengers, three at Amritsar airport and one at Mohali airport, who travelled to China recently, the minister said.

"There were only four people who had travel history to China. All of them have been found asymptomatic by the department of health," he said.

He said people who travelled to China in the last 28 days can report to their nearest district hospital for any assistance.

Officials at both the airports have been asked to display advisory for passengers to self-report their illness.

The minister reviewed the preparedness of the state in terms of logistics, isolation wards and ventilator status and advised people not to panic.

Singh said the state Health Department was fully aware of the situation and had made adequate arrangements to deal with any emergent cases.

"The state and district cells have been activated for early response and daily situation is being monitored by authorities and appropriate actions are being taken," he said.

As on January 26, 29,707 passengers from 137 flights have been screened for novel coronovirus (nCoV) infection symptoms and no case has so far been detected in India.

Novel coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus that has so far killed 80 people and affected 2,744 in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

It has emerged from a seafood and animal market in China's Wuhan, and is suspected to have spread to as far as the United States. According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. and SAFFORD, Ariz., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Effective January 1, 2020, Legacy Home Healthcare of Southern Arizona, serving Greenlee, Graham, and Cochise Counties, has been sold to Eden Health, a 100% employee-owned home services division under the EmpRes Healthcare Family of Companies. This transition includes two Medicare-certified home health agencies located in Sierra Vista and Safford.

"The acquisition of these agencies is the perfect fit into our portfolio. Legacy has been great to work with while we managed their daily operations. Staff at each location already support our core values and demonstrate the dedication to patients that Eden is known for, so the acquisition just makes sense," said Brent Weil, President and CEO of the EmpRes Healthcare Family of Companies.

Both agencies will continue to offer skilled nursing, physical, speech and occupational therapy, medical social services, home health aide care, and private duty services. Over the next 12 months, Eden Health plans to invest in the growth of these agencies to service additional areas in Southern Arizona, with a focus on creating access to quality home health and hospice care for the residents in these communities.

"Our organizations put quality of patient care above everything else we do. I am confident that quality will continue to be at the forefront of our strategy in these communities for years to come," said Jamie Brown, Vice President of Home Services, in a statement announcing the deal. "The acquisition of these two home health agencies will pair nicely with our existing in-home hospice presence in both markets, which will provide a seamless transition from one care setting to the next."

About Eden Health

Eden Health is a division of EmpRes Healthcare, a 100% Employee Owned Family of Companies providing management and consulting services to rehabilitation and post-acute care centers, assisted and independent living communities and home health, hospice and home care agencies throughout Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.

To find out more about Eden Home Health, please visit www.eden-health.com.

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Londons FTSE 100 Index finished in the red as worries over the spread of a new coronavirus in China sent global stock markets lower (Chinatopix/AP)

A student who travelled from Wuhan to Waterford is in self-isolation as a precautionary measure.

The student, from China, left Wuhan a number of days ago before the city was closed and arrived in Waterford yesterday.

Waterford Institute of Technology confirmed that the student is not ill or showing any symptoms, but is staying in isolation in his accommodation in the city area as a precaution.

They said they have been in touch with the HSE about the precautionary measure.

If the student does not develop symptoms within 14 days of arrival in Ireland, he is clear of the virus.
PharmaCielo will sell a broad range of extracts  including both CBD- and THC-dominant profiles  to XPhyto Therapeutics Corp., for German market distribution

Three-year agreement signed, covering a minimum delivery target of 30,000 kg, beginning mid-2020

GAP and ISO 9001:2015 Certifications Provide Key Quality Confirmation to Customer

TORONTO, Jan. 27, 2020 /CNW/ - PharmaCielo Ltd. ("PharmaCielo" or the "Company") (TSXV: PCLO; OTCQX: PCLOF), the Canadian parent of Colombia's premier cultivator and producer of medicinal-grade cannabis extracts, PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings S.A.S., announced that it has entered into a three-year agreement (the "Agreement") with XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. ("XPhyto") (CSE:XPHY; FSE:4XT), whereby PharmaCielo will supply medicinal-quality cannabis extract oils and isolates, including those containing THC, to XPhyto for analysis, further processing, product development and manufacturing at its European Union Good Manufacturing Practice-certified ("EU GMP") facility in Biberach in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, and thereafter for sale into the German market.

"PharmaCielo has a significant opportunity to export an ever-expanding range of medicinal products into the German market, including those containing THC, and we are very excited to work with XPhyto to leverage this opportunity," said David Attard, CEO of PharmaCielo Ltd. "As the largest medicinal cannabis marketplace in Europe, Germany is also the most demanding in terms of product quality. Our ability to meet market requirements for verifiable quality parameters was essential to establishing the relationship. We expect to generate meaningful revenue through this agreement over the next three years and are focused on continuing the ramp-up of our sales efforts through 2020."

XPhyto is a Canadian headquartered company focused on cannabinoid-based formulations and clinical validations. The company owns two German subsidiaries, Bunker Pflanzenextrakte GmbH and Vektor Pharma TF GmbH, and is expanding its current licensed German cultivation, processing and product R&D to address near-term medicinal product opportunities in the German marketplace.

Hugh Rogers, CEO of XPhyto, said, "In order to meet medicinal market demand, XPhyto looks forward to working with PharmaCielo as the preferred supplier for our European import and distribution business with the industry-leading cultivation and process standards necessary to supply premium oils and isolates for our innovative medical cannabis products, such as oral films, transdermal patches, and topical treatments."

The three-year Agreement is PharmaCielo's largest volume sales agreement to date and represents its first agreement to include THC profile products. The volume product range include minimum 99% pure CBD and THC isolates, broad spectrum oil with cannabinoids and terpenes with 0% THC, as well as full spectrum oil with cannabinoids and terpenes, including THC.

Exports are planned to commence in mid-2020 following completion of necessary product range regulatory protocols. Minimum total volume under the Agreement is approximately 30,000 kg over the three-year period, with each year's shipments growing progressively higher.

Delivery of products to Germany under the Supply Agreement remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV").

Additional Information

Pursuant to the Agreement, XPhyto granted PharmaCielo 500,000 Common Share purchase Warrants ("Warrants") with an exercise price of $2.00 per Common Share.

As a term of the Agreement, PharmaCielo will enter into an agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") to purchase CAD $500,000 of unsecured convertible debentures of XPhyto (the "Debentures"), to fund expansion of its processing capabilities. The Debentures mature two years from the date of issue and bear interest of 8.0% per annum. The Debentures will be convertible by PharmaCielo into 500,000 common shares of XPhyto subject to certain XPhyto acceleration rights. The purchase of the Debentures is subject to approval by the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"). XPhyto will also grant PharmaCielo 500,000 Warrants with an exercise price of $1.50 per Common Share.

About PharmaCielo

PharmaCielo Ltd. (TSXV: PCLO, OTCQX: PCLOF) is a global company, headquartered in Canada, with a focus on ethical and sustainable processing and supplying of all natural, medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts and related products to large channel distributors. PharmaCielo's principal (and wholly owned) subsidiary is GAP-certified PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings S.A.S., headquartered at its nursery and propagation centre located in Rionegro, Colombia.

The boards of directors and executive teams of both PharmaCielo and PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings are comprised of a diversely talented group of international business executives and specialists with relevant and varied expertise. PharmaCielo recognized the significant role that Colombia's ideal location will play in building a sustainable business in the medical cannabis industry, and the Company, together with its directors and executives, is executing on a business plan focused on supplying the international marketplace.

About XPhyto Therapeutics Corp.

XPhyto is a next-generation cannabis company focused on formulation, clinical validation, and European imports, distribution and sales. XPhyto's 100% owned subsidiary, Vektor Pharma TF GmbH, a German narcotics manufacturer, importer and researcher has expertise in the design, testing and manufacture of thin film drug delivery systems, particularly transdermal patches and sub-lingual (oral) strips. Vektor also holds a number of narcotics licences issued by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), including import and manufacturing permits, as well as EU GMP lab certification. XPhyto's 100% owned German subsidiary, Bunker Pflanzenextrakte GmbH, has been granted a unique German cannabis cultivation and extraction licence for scientific purposes by BfArM. Bunker has two exclusive R&D collaboration agreements with the Technical University of Munich, Chair of Beverage and Brewing Technology and Faculty of Chemistry. XPhyto is pursuing additional opportunities in Europe including commercial cannabis cultivation, processing, manufacturing, import, and distribution. In Canada, two exclusive 5-year engagements with the Faculty of Pharmacy at a major Canadian university provide certified extraction, isolation, and formulation facilities, drug research and development expertise, as well as commercial analytical testing capability.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as, "expects", "is expected", "intends", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Certain statements contained in this news release, such as those relating to targeted export growth volumes, targeted export sales and minimum revenue projections under the Agreement in 2020, the timing of commercial deliveries and expanding market delivery for THC and CBD products in Germany, the approval of the TSXV, the purchase of Debentures and the Warrants under the Purchase Agreement, the approval of the CSE, and the perceived benefits from the commercial arrangement, are "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including the ability to obtain all necessary governmental regulatory and TSXV approval related to the commercialization and exportation of PharmaCielo's THC and CBD products from Colombia to Germany, CSE approval of the issuance of the Debentures and Warrants, that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, PharmaCielo's ability to meet its obligations under the Agreement and management's ability to execute its overall business plan. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, the regulatory regime relating to the importation of cannabis products into the German market is constantly evolving and as a result is subject to uncertainty, that the market for THC and CBD products in Germany is volatile and could diminish the profitability in this jurisdiction, failure to obtain necessary TSXV, CSE or applicable government regulatory approvals, the Company may be unable to export or distribute commercial product to its sale channels due to economic or operational circumstances, that demand for PharmaCielo's products in Germany may be less than anticipated, that there may be higher than anticipated competition in the German market, risks associated with operating in Colombia, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to cannabis producing companies. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

SOURCE PharmaCielo Ltd.

For further information: David Gordon, Chief Corporate Officer, +1.416.864.6116, www.PharmaCielo.com; Media Relations: International: Gal Wilder, Cohn & Wolfe, T +1 647-259-3261, [email protected]; Colombia: Maria Paula Pena Fdz., SPR GROUP S.A., PBX: 57-1 2877234, [email protected]; Investor Inquiries: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.pharmacielo.com


PESHAWAR -- Police in Pakistan have detained the leader of a civil rights group that has criticized the military's operations in the northwestern tribal regions.

Manzoor Pashteen, leader of the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), was taken away by officers in the city of Peshawar overnight, police told RFE/RL on January 27.

Pashteen is accused of sedition, hate speech, incitement against the state, and criminal conspiracy after a rally organized by the PTM attracted thousands of people in the city of Bannu on January 12.

He has not been formally charged yet.



Mohsin Dawar, a Pakistani lawmaker and a PTM member, called Pashteens detention "punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful and democratic manner."



"But Manzoor's arrest will only strengthen our resolve," he wrote in a tweet.



Amnesty International South Asia said Pashteen has been "arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally."

The PTM has campaigned for civil rights for ethnic Pashtuns since 2018. The group has attracted tens of thousands of people out to public rallies to denounce the powerful Pakistani army's heavy-handed operations in the militancy-hit tribal regions and the military's alleged connection with Islamist militants.



The military has accused Pashteen of treason by criticizing the army falsely.
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan and Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Medan and Pekanbaru  Mon, January 27, 2020 15:33 716 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20614bf96 1 National elephant,zoo,BKSDA,Medan Free

A 55-year old female elephant named Neneng has died at Medan Zoo in North Sumatra after reportedly losing her appetite to eat for days.

Sucitrawan, the zoo's veterinarian, said Neneng's health condition had deteriorated drastically over the weekend after she had constantly rejected meals in the past week.

Prior to her death, the doctor's team had tried to boost the giant mammal's stamina by injecting at least 57 bottles of an isotonic fluid, Ringer's lactate solution, and glucose solution into her vein, but to no avail.

After days of struggle, Neneng died on Saturday at around 10:30 a.m. Her carcass was sent to a laboratory for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

"In the meantime, we conclude [preliminarily] that the animal has died of old age," Sucitrawan said.

Medan acting mayor Akhyar Nasution, who visited the Zoo right after hearing about Neneng's death, said he felt saddened by the news. He underlined that the "public have to know about the lab's result."

Medan Zoo's manager, city-owned Pembangunan Medan, claimed that elephants at the zoo had always received special attention and abundant amounts of food.

Following Neneng's death, the animal park has only one female elephant aged 50.

"We intend to ask the BKSDA [Natural Resources Conservation Agency] for a couple more [elephants]," Pembangunan Medan director Putrama Al Khairi said.

A visitor, Halimah, said she frequently brought her children to the zoo to ride an elephant for only Rp 10,000. (74 US cents). "It's sad to hear about the elephant's death. She was the star of the zoo, because [people] could ride her," said the 47-year-old resident of Padang Bulan subdisctrict.

In a separate development, a 20-year-old elephant kept at the Buluh Cina ecopark in the neighboring province of Riau is reportedly four months pregnant.

The "happy mother" Ngatini had been transferred to the park from an elephant training center in March 2017, along with her male partner Robin, to lure visitors. (vny)

Topics : elephant zoo BKSDA Medan
A sit-in protest was held in the South Howrah area against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the proposed Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Population Register (NPR).

For the past ten days, a protest like Delhi's Shaheen bagh has been going on in the North Howrah area. Now a similar protest has started in the South Howrah area.

Speaking to ANI, a protester Khurshid said, "We are protesting against CAA and NRC."

Hitting out at the government he said, "They want us to show papers. I ask them they are now sitting in the Parliament because of our votes, and that was possible with our voter ID card. And now they want us to show papers. Are they not satisfied with our voter ID card?"We will continue our protest till they roll back CAA and do not implement NRC," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Members of a tour group have been assessed for novel coronavirus infection at Rotorua Hospital.

Three members of a tour group of 19 were assessed at the hospital yesterday as public health services were alerted that they may have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus.

The tour group arrived in Auckland on Saturday evening from Australia and then travelled to Rotorua.

The three people with suspected coronavirus are from China, Rotorua Hospital has confirmed.

Public health services were concerned the people may have been exposed to the infection on a previous flight in to Sydney on January 20.



As part of a co-ordinated response by health agencies, the group were firstly assessed by St John paramedics, a statement from Lakes District Health Board says.

Three people were then taken to Rotorua Hospitals Emergency Department for further assessment. While they were found to have no symptoms that would indicate infection with the virus, a range of tests were taken for processing.



Expert advice was obtained from the Ministry of Health and Infectious Disease specialists and the three patients were able to be discharged last night and re-join their tour group.

Toi Te Ora Public Health medical officer of health, Dr Neil de Wet says that public health services continue to follow up and monitor the group and are currently reviewing whether any further measures are necessary.



Symptoms of the coronavirus include fever, cough, and trouble breathing, and can appear anywhere from two to 14 days after exposure.



"Local public health services have been working closely with the Ministry of Health to ensure appropriate protocols are followed and any risk to the public is managed appropriately."



Lakes DHB Chief Executive Nick Saville-Wood says DHB staff are aware of the need to be vigilant for signs and symptoms of people who may present to the emergency departments with flu-like symptoms.



He says DHB staff are working closely with Toi Te Ora Public Health to keep health professionals across the Lakes district informed of the risk.

Cases of the virus have been confirmed in Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, the US, and France.

There are four confirmed cases in Australia and more than 50 people have died from the virus, all in china where the disease originated.
JACKSON  Halfway around the world from this Western ski town theres a place called Jackson Hole, China.

And no, the name isnt a coincidence. Located a few hours north of Beijing, Jackson Hole, China, is a small town that bears an uncanny resemblance to Jackson, Wyoming, and the surrounding valley. Although its not an exact replica, the architecture and layout of the town are remarkably similar  theres even a place called Cowboy Bar, a clear nod to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

How did Chinas Jackson Hole come to be? Why was it built to imitate Jackson Hole, USA? How do the citizens of the replica town live day to day?

Those questions were what inspired filmmaker Adam James Smith to make his feature-length documentary Americaville, along with co-producers Qi Zhang, Wang Qihan, Wei Guang, Song Ke, and Tang Yi.

Although originally from the United Kingdom, Smith is no stranger to life in either the United States or China. His childhood was spent in both countries due to his fathers career, and he has lived in China on and off for the past 10 years.

Smiths first feature-length documentary The Land of Many Palaces, released in 2015, investigated the recent large-scale migration of Chinese farmers who leave the rural countryside and resettle in more urban areas, often at the prompting of the Chinese government.

Just as production for The Land of Many Palaces was wrapping up, Smith heard of a gated, secretive cowboy town that had popped up outside Beijing. Jackson Hole, China, was a place where people were leaving the city to go and live out their own versions of American culture and the American dream.

I couldnt get this place out of my head, the way they described it, Smith said. While my first film was about the mass movement of rural communities to cities, this story is the opposite  wealthy urban people leaving for imagined small-town American life because of issues like pollution and crime in the cities.

Despite the towns emphasis on privacy, Smith managed to live there for several months in the summer of 2015. As he collected interviews and filmed the day-to-day happenings of the town, a narrative started to emerge.

The story took shape around the collision and contrast of American and Chinese culture, and Smith began to examine what it meant for a community to copy an inferred lifestyle of another country.

The documentary primarily follows the life of a woman named Annie Liu, who came to Jackson Hole, China, because of her love for American culture and her hope of fulfilling the ever-elusive American dream.

Of course, the promise of the American dream is the pursuit of happiness and fulfilling everything you desire, and Annie moved to Jackson Hole, China, with that in mind, Smith said. She was hanging a lot of expectations on this town, and it represented more to her than just a place to own a house and a yard.

The town is made up of a broad cast of characters: wealthy retirees, government officials, construction workers, real estate agents, hotel personnel and restaurant servers. Some people even work in Beijing and live in Jackson Hole during the weekend, commuting the almost two and a half hours to and from on a weekly basis.

Not everyone in Chinas Jackson Hole had the same expectations of what living in a Wild West town might look like. For some the town represented community, but for others embodying American culture meant focusing on individualism.

The town wasnt really a proper community, more like different communities and different types of people living together, Smith said. And they all wanted different things from this town. Some loved American culture, some wanted to escape pollution, and some just wanted a big house.

So, when it comes down to it, maybe the story of Jackson Hole, China, isnt really all that different from Jackson Hole, USA.

Watching the film may help locals answer the question Why is Jackson Hole so popular in the Chinese imagination? Smith said. I hope it might change how people think about their hometown. Im hoping it will be like holding up a mirror  seeing your place through someone elses eyes.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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RIO DE JANEIRO - Over 30,000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in southeast Brazil that also killed 54 people and left 18 missing.

The storms in recent days caused floods and landslides, submerging entire neighbourhoods and sending homes tumbling down hillsides in the states of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. Rains subsided by Monday, but were expected to resume later this week in some areas.

Flooded roads created violent rapids, sweeping up victims, cars and other debris.

Those evacuated were being housed in makeshift shelters in churches, schools and fire stations. Local authorities have asked for donations of clothes, sheets and mattresses for the victims.

In Minas Gerais, 15,000 people were evacuated and in Espirito Santo nearly 10,000 more, according to local rescue efforts. In Rio, at least 6,000 were evacuated, according to local news media, citing figures from various municipalities. Rio state authorities didnt immediately respond to a request for official data.

Local authorities warned that the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, home to nearly 6 million people, could see up to 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain in the next three days.

The city had 171 millimeters (6.7 inches) over one 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday, the highest rainfall in 110 years. Over 120 municipalities in Minas Gerais state have declared a state of emergency.
Tamra Judge announced she was leaving the Real Housewives Of Orange County after 12 years this weekend.

Creator Andy Cohen had plenty to say about what he called a 'very dramatic' departure during his SiriusXM show, Radio Andy, on Monday.

Andy's comments come after word that Tamra stepped down after Bravo offered her a 'humiliating' pay cut from $900,000 a season to $20,000 for three episodes in a 'transitional role.'

Roller coaster: Andy Cohen reacted to news Tamra Judge and Vicki Gunvalson are leaving the Real Housewives Of Orange Country on his radio show Monday, calling the news 'very dramatic'

'Big weekend, big weekend in the Housewives world,' the Andy said as he phoned in to the show. 'I mean, it was very dramatic.'

This weekend both Tamra and Vicki Gunvalson announced they were quitting the franchise.

During the chat Andy learned that Tamra had been on an unfollowing spree, deleting Cohen, her co-stars and the show's production company Evolution Media from her friend's list.

'Oh, now this I didnt know!' Andy said of the revelation.

'She unfollowed all of us on social media?' he asked co-host John Hill while laughing incredulously.

Andy also confirmed reports that Judge turned Bravo down after she was offered just three episodes to wrap up her storyline.

'She didnt want to do that,' Andy revealed.

Stepping aside: Andy's comments come after word that Tamra stepped down after Bravo offered her a 'humiliating' pay cut from $900,000 a season to $20,000 for three episodes in a 'transitional role'

Confirmation: Andy also confirmed reports that Judge turned Bravo down after she was offered just three episodes to wrap up her storyline, saying 'She didnt want to do that'

He also defended the show for wanting to transition Tamra out of the core cast.

'Listen, shes been on the show for 12 years. We wanted to give her a sendoff. She has been an incredible housewife, she really has. Shes been dramatic... She has been great! We had been wanting to kind of shake it up a little bit for a few years.'

He still was open at the chance of Tamra's return, telling his co-host: 'Im hoping  and this is not lip service  Im hoping that she will come back in some form in either this season or the next couple. I just think shes just someone who I am always interested in. I always want to check in with her.'

Cohen's shared his initial reaction on Twitter Saturday, saying she had 'an unprecedented run from a woman who was always entertaining, surprising and dramatic  and never ever aged.'

Leaving on her terms: The 52-year-old reality star 'walked away' from the Bravo series after 'Bravo bosses wanted [her] to be bridge from the old cast to the new in season 15 and she refused, an insider told Radar on Sunday

The reality star 'walked away' from the Bravo series after 'Bravo bosses wanted [her] to be bridge from the old cast to the new in season 15 and she refused, an insider told Radar on Sunday.

'Tamra got her pick up contract letter last, after the other ladies, and it had major conditions in it,' the source said, adding that Judge 'was even more than demoted to a friend role' as 'she'd have very little camera time ... and it meant she would earn next to nothing in reality TV terms.'

The insider laid out the details of the offer the network had made the Southern California native.

'She would go from $900,000 a season to $20,000 an episode for just three show appearances, which would add up to $60,000 total,' said the insider. 'It was humiliating.'

Lots to say: Tamra's castmates reacted to her and Vicki's departures

Her message: Talking to Vicki, Shannon Beador (above January 15) shared: 'You will always be my tres amigas sister.' She told Tamra 'You will always be my ride or die, soul sister and friend for life'

Tamra's castmates reacted to her and Vicki's departures.

Supporting one another, Vicki commented on Tamra's announcement saying: 'We have shared so many great and not so great times together and it has been the ride of our lives. Thelma and Louise  now where do you want to go?!'

Talking to Vicki, Shannon Beador shared: 'You will always be my tres amigas sister. The show may be over, but our friendship will always continue on. Will miss seeing your hospital visits, taking tequila shots, driving gold carts into restaurants, flipping kayaks, and basically just whooping it up! Love you!'

For Tamra, Shannon wrote: 'You will always be my ride or die, soul sister and friend for life.  Love you !'

Kelly Dodd was less kind, sharing a video of a fan celebration the ladies resignations and the message: 'Oh my God! Tamras gone too? Kelly Dodd is the queen of the O.C.'

Crowing herself: Kelly Dodd was less kind, sharing a video of a fan celebration the ladies resignations and the message: 'Oh my God! Tamras gone too? Kelly Dodd is the queen of the O.C.'

New horizons: Braunwyn Windham-Burke told Us Weekly : 'I am grateful for the opportunity to be a housewife for many reasons, and my friendship with Tamra is no exception. I will miss filming with her, but know I have a friend for life. I cant wait to see what she has up her sleeve'

Braunwyn Windham-Burke told Us Weekly: 'I am grateful for the opportunity to be a housewife for many reasons, and my friendship with Tamra is no exception. I will miss filming with her, but know I have a friend for life. I cant wait to see what she has up her sleeve.'

Season seven through 11 castmate Heather DuBrow also spoke to the outlet, saying: 'Iconic RHOC cast members Vicki and Tamra always brought a mixture of fun, chaos and drama in the OC.

'I know the fans will definitely miss seeing their lives unfold in front of the camera. I love these women, they are my sorority sisters and Im excited to watch their next chapters!'

Drama-rama: Season seven through 11 castmate Heather DuBrow also spoke to the outlet, saying: 'Iconic RHOC cast members Vicki and Tamra always brought a mixture of fun, chaos and drama in the OC'

Mixed message: Lydia McLaughlin had mixed feelings, sending a sweet message to Vicki while staying slightly shady towards Tamra

Lydia McLaughlin had mixed feelings, sending a sweet message to Vicki. 'Its the end of an era. To the OG of the OC- I adore you @vickigunvalson. My experience on #rhoc would not have been the same without you. I have laughed so hard with you- and am always rooting for you. Excited to see all you do in your next adventure. #whoopitup.'

But she wasn't as kind to Tamra.

After a fan commented 'Shoulda got rid of Tamra!!!!', she replied saying 'They did!' with a some enthusiastic emojis.

Gretchen Rossi of seasons four through eight seemed to have similar feelings.

Hot and cold: Gretchen Rossi told Vicky: 'Ahh you had an incredible run! You will always be the OG of the OC.!' but was accused of knocking Tamra in a video shared on the same night as the news broke

'Ahh you had an incredible run! You will always be the OG of the OC.!' she commented on Vickis post.

And though she didn't mention Tamra directly, she shared a 'celebratory' video Saturday which many interpreted as shady.

'We are celebrating! Yay!' she said while with husband Slade. She did not explain what exactly she was celebrating, but did thank God for 'crushing evil.'

'We are driving up to L.A. right now. Were going to go meet some friends. We are so freaking happy right now so we are going on date night. Were just celebrating life and God being good and God taking care of us and blessing us and crushing evil!'

Family response: Not only did the cast react, but Vicki's daughter Briana Culberson also spoke out, calling her mom's departure 'very sad.' Briana also appeared on the show throughout her mother's seasons

Not only did the cast react, but Vicki's daughter Briana Culberson also spoke out, calling her mom's departure 'very sad.' Briana also appeared on the show throughout her mother's seasons.

Responding to an Instagram commenter asking for her reaction, she responded: 'Im not really a "statement" kind of girl, but I will say that its very sad and the end of a wonderful journey for my mom.'

'Weve had a lot of fun as a family on the show and Im very proud of her and love her. Her absence will be significant and she will be very missed on the show,' she concluded.

Bidding adieu: Barney took to Instagram Saturday to announce her departure from the program she appeared on from beginning in November of 2007

Moving forward: Tamra and husband Eddie Judge were snapped at an event at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California last week

Judge took to Instagram Saturday to announce her departure from the program she appeared on beginning in November of 2007.

'Its been a wild 12 years,' she said in an Instagram post in which she posed next to husband Eddie. 'But its time for me to move on. Im sad to go but Im very excited about my future. Love  you guys.'

She subsequently told People, 'It's been a wild ride, and after all these years, I'm looking forward to life away from the cameras. I was offered a chance to come back to the show in a limited role, but would prefer to walk away on my own terms.'

Longtime affiliation: Tamra tied the knot with husband Eddie in June of 2013, which was documented on the Bravo series Tamra's OC Wedding

Vicki, 57, who was a friend of the main cast in the past season, announced she was leaving the series Friday.

'I will always be the OG of the OC, but its time to say goodbye to The Real Housewives of Orange County,' Gunvalson said in an Instagram post Friday. 'Its been an incredible ride for 14 years and I want thank all of you for your support, for your love and for "whooping it up" with me along the way.'

Gunvalson added that she's 'been working on new projects that will be exciting, empowering and inspirational' and later added a comment to Barney's farewell post.

'We have shared so many great and not so great times together and it has been the ride of our lives,' she said. 'Thelma and Louise . now where do you want to go?!'
A settlement of 1.4m compensation for the widow and three children of murdered Garda Tony Golden was approved by Mr Justice Michael Twomey in the High Court today.

Siobhan Phelan SC told the court it had been agreed that Ms Nicola Golden, the late gardas widow, would receive 961,000 with 439,000 being divided up among the couples children Andrew, Lucy and Alexandra.

Ms Phelan, who appeared with barrister Eamonn M.J. Coffey and James McGuill Solicitors for the family, said Lucy (10) would receive 137,000 for mental distress and loss of dependency; Alexandra (8) would receive 146,000 and Andrew (6) would receive 156,000. The money will be lodged to their benefit in court until they are 18 but application for interim pay-outs on their behalf may be made to the court.

Micheal OScanaill SC, who appeared with barrister Joseph OSullivan and Tanya Canning for the Minister for Expenditure and Reform, told Judge Twomey that the parties had agreed to mediation and had met in Dundalk on Friday and had finalised all issues.

He said a global figure of 1.4m had been agreed and details of how much would be received by each dependant would be outlined to the court by Ms Phelan. He said that on behalf of the Minister and everyone engaged in the mediation he wished to extend deepest sympathy to Ms Golden and her three children following their tragic loss.

Judge Twomey, sympathising with the family while approving the settlements, complimented all parties involved in the mediation on the basis that it had prevented the family from the stress of a full trial to measure compensation.

Ms Golden was a State nurse with the HSE at the time of the murder but had not worked since the shooting of her husband and, the court heard previously, could no longer work in the position.

Nicola Golden pictured at her husband's funeral in 2013

Garda Tony Golden was 36 when he had been shot after responding to a domestic violence complaint in Omeath, Co Louth, on October 11, 2015. He was shot five times and killed in a murder-suicide attack that had shocked the nation.

In uniform and unarmed he had accompanied Siobhan Philips (23) to the house she shared with her physically abusive partner Adrian Crevan Mackin only to have been brutally killed by him, a known dissident Republican who had been released on bail on a charge of membership of the IRA. He had previously been given a three-year suspended sentence on firearms charges in the North.

Mackin, after shooting Garda Golden, shot his partner four times, including one bullet to her head before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

Ms Philips, who survived her injuries, is living in Co Down. She had two children by Mackin and has issued personal injury proceedings against the Commissioner of An Garda Siochana, the Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General alleging negligence.

Todays court orders included all of the Golden familys legal costs which are to be adjudicated upon in default of agreement.
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- N26 Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of one of Europe's fastest-growing mobile banks, N26 GmbH, today announced it has reached 250,000 U.S. customers. Having only launched in the U.S. last August in partnership with Axos Bank, N26 has grown rapidly to become a leading force in changing how American consumers bank.

N26 Hits 250,000 U.S. Customers in First Five Months. N26's innovative technology and design deliver a banking experience people love to use.

From its inception, N26 has focused on creating a seamless, beautifully designed user experience that provides customers with a forward-thinking, and flexible banking experience. Just last month, N26 expanded its Perks program, one of the first debit rewards programs, to offer cashback and discounts from leading brands, including Booking.com, Lime, and Headspace. Additionally, N26 recently launched a redesigned core navigation in an effort to help streamline the actions that matter most to users.

Without ever setting foot in a branch, through N26 customers can open an account in less than five minutes, instantly transfer money to their friends with MoneyBeam, and easily open sub-accounts for their savings goals using Spaces. Accounts opened through N26 also have no hidden fees and offer access to a network of over 55,000 Allpoint surcharge-free ATMs. Also, users can get their pay up to 2 days earlier with direct deposit*. Banking services in the U.S. are offered by N26 Inc. in partnership with Axos Bank, Member FDIC.

The app also gives customers access to a range of security features, including setting spending limits, locking their card if its lost, and enabling or disabling international charges. With several launches planned for 2020, N26 aims to stay at the forefront of innovation by delivering products that address customer needs, with the ultimate goal of empowering users to make their money work for them.

"American consumers are too reliant on traditional banks and face roadblocks to their financial health that have no place in the 21st century. N26 was founded to radically transform the industry and break down these barriers through the power of technology," said Nicolas Kopp, U.S. CEO, N26 Inc. "We're incredibly proud to have reached a quarter-million U.S. customers in our first five months and we are just getting started. We have big plans to offer millions of future N26 users a feature-rich, easy-to-use banking experience."

Globally, N26 GmbH surpassed 5 million customers as it reached its fifth anniversary on January 26. Boasting a strong workforce of almost 1,500 employees, it combines 80 nationalities across offices in Berlin, New York, Barcelona, Vienna, and Sao Paulo.

N26 has put a heavy focus on its investments in product, service quality, and people. In 2019, N26 had a year of unprecedented growth, more than doubling its global customer base  which accounts for more than every single year previously combined. Additionally, the company raised $470 million in funding, which bolstered its launch in both the U.S. and Switzerland, as well as fund the opening of a new Tech Hub in Vienna. N26 launched new products and features designed specifically to make banking even more personalized and flexible to suit a range of lifestyles.

"5 million customers is a great achievement, but it's not just growth that we are after. We are today, one of the biggest players in digital banking. But we have not forgotten our original mission - to challenge an industry that is ripe for change. N26 has proved that banking can be simple and intuitive through the use of technology," added Valentin Stalf, co-founder and CEO of N26.

To learn more about N26, visit https://n26.com/en-us

About N26

N26 GmbH ("N26") is building the first mobile banking platform the world loves to use. Founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, N26 is focused on reinventing the banking experience for today's digital lifestyles. With its state-of-the-art technology and no branch network, N26 offers customers an easy signup process, and a banking solution that gives them control over their finances. With 5 million customers in 26 markets, including France, Germany and the UK, N26 is one of the fastest-growing challenger banks in Europe, operating with a full bank license since 2016. N26 employs more than 1,500 people in Berlin, Barcelona, Vienna, New York and Sao Paulo. It has raised more than $670 million from the world's most established investors, including Insight Venture Partners (US), GIC (Singapore), Tencent (China), Allianz X (Germany), Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures (US), and Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures (Hong Kong).

N26 operates in the U.S. via its wholly-owned subsidiary, N26 Inc., based in New York in partnership with Axos Bank, Member FDIC. The N26 Inc. app is available on Android, iOS and desktop. For more information about N26, please visit n26.com.

About Axos Bank

Axos Bank is a federally-chartered nationwide U.S. savings association that provides consumer and business banking products through its low-cost distribution channels and affinity partners. With approximately $11 billion in assets, Axos Bank provides financing for single and multi-family residential properties, small, medium and large businesses in target sectors, and selected specialty finance receivables. Axos Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Axos Financial, Inc., a financial services holding company listed on the NYSE under the symbol "AX" and a component of the Russell 2000 Index and the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. For more information about Axos Bank, please visit axosbank.com.

*Faster funding claim is based on a comparison of our policy of making funds available upon receipt of payment instruction versus the typical banking practice of posting funds at settlement. Fraud prevention restrictions may delay availability of funds with or without notice. Early availability of funds requires payor's support of direct deposit and is subject to the timing of payor's payment instruction. Accounts offered through N26 are established and maintained by Axos Bank, Member FDIC. N26 Inc. is not a U.S. bank and is a service provider of Axos Bank. All deposit accounts held in the same ownership capacity at Axos Bank are combined and insured under the same FDIC Certificate 35546. All deposit accounts through Axos Bank brands are not separately insured by the FDIC from other deposit accounts held in the same ownership capacity at Axos Bank.

SOURCE N26

Related Links

http://www.n26.com/en-us


But neighbors of some properties began complaining to the city that wild parties and the disruption caused by constant turnover was ruining the fabric of their neighborhoods, he said.

The city lacked teams to investigate complaints, so when they did come in, Lincoln Building and Safety staff would look to see if they could find an advertisement for the rental online, then call the owners and notify them of the complaint.

It was time-consuming, and "we didn't have a lot of results," Connolly said.

The city never charged anyone, he said.

Wild parties aren't just a concern for neighbors, but also for homeowners, they said.

Megan Ahern has smart locks on the doors of her Airbnb home near Second and D streets because she takes her no-parties rule seriously, she said.

"I know when, every time someone opens the door," Ahern said.

Some operators she knows have decibel meters or use cameras to monitor activity at their property, she said.
Five rockets crashed into a riverbank near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on January 26, wounding three people.

Three of the projectiles hit the diplomatic installation, with one striking the embassy's cafeteria, security sources told AFP and Reuters.

The incident on January 26 came amid anti-government protests in the capital, Baghdad, over corruption, foreign interference in Iraqi affairs, and the presence of U.S. troops in the country.



One protester was shot by Iraqi security forces, Reuters reported.



Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the rocket attack that targeted the U.S. Embassy.



In a statement, Mahdi confirmed Iraq's commitment to protecting all diplomatic missions.



The same day, a U.S. State Department spokesperson called on "the government of Iraq to fulfill its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities."



It was the third such attack this month.



On January 21, three Katyusha rockets fell near the U.S. Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone. Nobody was injured.



Meanwhile, pro-Iranian demonstrators attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on December 31 to condemn U.S. air strikes two days earlier that killed at least 25 members of an Iran-backed militant group.



Iraqi security forces and guards fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.



Days after the embassy attack, the United States killed Qasem Soleimani, the longtime head of an elite unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) known as the Quds Force, in an air strike outside Baghdad on January 3.



In response, Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. forces on Iraqi bases.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary on Monday asserted that resolutions passed by non-NDA ruled state Assemblies against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were wrong.

The Centre has complete jurisdiction over the issue of citizenship and state governments cannot do anything on it, Choudhary told reporters here.

"The passage of resolutions against the CAA by state Assemblies of non-NDA ruled states is a tool to put political pressure on the Centre," Chaudhary said.

Assemblies of Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab and West Bengal have passed resolutions demanding that the contentious citizenship law be withdrawn.

"The issue of citizenship comes under the Centre's jurisdiction. Parliament has the power to make laws on citizenship. It is the constitutional duty of all the state governments to implement the law enacted by Parliament on citizenship," said the Speaker who won from Sarairanjan seat of Samastipur district on JD(U) ticket.

Intense politics is continuing across the nation on the CAA, proposed countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), he said.

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar said earlier this month that a country-wide implementation of NRC was "needless" and had "no justification".

Kumar who is heading a coalition government with the BJP in Bihar had also said that a discussion in the state Assembly was needed on the CAA, NRC and the NPR.

The party had voted in favour of the CAA in both houses of Parliament. JD(U) national vice president Prashant Kishor, however, has taken strong exception to the law and even thanked the Congress for passing resolutions on CAA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

Trend:

Bakcell became the winner of National CSR Award 2019 for its activities in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) area during the year 2019.

The National CSR Award 2019 was presented to Bakcell for its Communication through Arts project, implemented since the year 2010 together with the United Aid for Azerbaijan (UAFA).

The National CSR Award 2019 competition is organized by the Azerbaijan Women Entrepreneurship Development Association and Proaktiv PR Agency as a continuation of the state policy on promotion of CSR projects and social projects implemented by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

CSR projects carried-out during the year by local companies and international companies operating in Azerbaijan were submitted for the competition and evaluated by the awards commission in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals, set by the UN General Assembly.

Note that the jury of the competition was composed of representatives from the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, State Committee on Family, Women and Children problems, Agency for Development of Small and Medium Businesses, National Assembly of Youth Organizations, CSR Turkey and CSR Azerbaijan organizations. As a result, 7 out of 34 participating projects were selected as winners.

I am proud to say that corporate social responsibility program implemented by Bakcell is one of the first and most long-living CSR programs in the country. Within the frames of our Bakcell Stars CSR program, established back in 2009, has covered thousands of people to this day. Communication through arts project, which is awarded with the National CSR Award 2019, has been implemented by our side for 10 years in a row. This project has a major significance for integration of children with a need for special care to the society said Suheyla Jafarova, PR and Corporate Communications Director of Bakcell.

This project, continuously implemented with support of Bakcell is aimed at provision of children with special needs with equal rights and possibilities, efficient organization of their time and complete integration to the society. During this time, well-over 1000 children have attended educational classes in drama, dancing, art and creativity lessons at the Community based Rehabilitation Centers (CBRC) in Yasamal, Khachmaz and Ganja. The study groups, organized within the frames of this project ensure positive changes in the attitude of the public towards children with special needs and disabilities and facilitate their successful integration in the society.

It should be noted that Bakcell receives the National CSR Award for the second year in a row. Last year, the company was awarded the National CSR Award 2018 for Start and improve your business project, implemented together with SOS Childrens Villages Azerbaijan association.

Bakcell offers a wide range of products and services to users of modern mobile communications. The company provides its customers with the best-in-class mobile internet.

With more than 8000 base stations, Bakcell network covers 99% of the population and 93% of the land area of the country (excluding the occupied territories).

Today, Bakcell has the largest 4G network in the country in terms of coverage area and capacity, covering almost 93% of the countrys population and the central parts of all the regions of Azerbaijan (excluding Nakhchivan AR and occupied territories).

For more information about Bakcell products and services, please visit www.bakcell.com or call 555. For press releases please see www.bakcell.com/en/news .

If you are not a Bakcell subscriber, but wish to find out about Bakcell and its products and services, please call 012 498 89 89.
Beijing: China continued to reel under deadly coronavirus epidemic on Monday with the death toll due to it sharply rising to 80 amid the country's National Health Commission reporting 2,744 confirmed cases of the fatal affliction till date.

The Commission also termed the condition of the 461 people being treated for the virus, officially known as 2019-nCoV, as 'critical'. The Commission's said during the past 24 hours, 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths from the disease were reported.

By Sunday, the pneumonia situation had resulted in a total of 80 deaths, while 51 people had recovered and 5,794 remained as suspected patients, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the Commission as saying.

A total of 32,799 close contacts have been traced, the commission said, adding 30,453 among them were currently under medical observation while 583 others were discharged on Sunday.

Almost all provinces in China except Tibet have reported the virus cases.

In addition, 17 confirmed cases were reported in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, besides eight in Hong Kong, five in Macao and four in Taiwan.

Overseas, confirmed cases included seven in Thailand, four each in Australia and Singapore, three each in the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan, France and Malaysia, two in Vietnam and one in Nepal.

The mayor of the Hubei province capital Wuhan, which has emerged as the epicentre of the epidemic outbreak, said he expects another 1,000 new patients in the city, official media reported. "There are signs showing the virus is becoming more transmissible. These walking 'contagious agents' [hidden carriers] make controlling the outbreak a lot more difficult," he said.

Mayor Zhou Xianwang said "it was possible to add about 1,000 cases" based on the number of patients in hospital being tested or undergoing observation in the city.

A high power committee, formed to fight the coronavirus epidemic under the chairpersonship of Premier Li Keqiang, on Sunday said the virus' ability to spread was getting stronger and announced a slew of measures to combat it.

To curb the epidemic, China has decided to adopt a host of measures including delaying and reducing conferences and major events, extending the current Spring Festival holidays and supporting online work.

To reduce population flows, the meeting decided on measures such as extending the Spring Festival holiday, which is scheduled between Jan 24 and 30, and delaying the start of the spring semester at colleges and schools.

It called for maximum efforts to reduce the mortality rate of patients and enhance their treatment.

More research will be conducted on cured patients and treatment measures will be further refined, with more training programmes scheduled for medical workers, an official statement said.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday said researchers have isolated viruses and were selecting a strain, Xu Wenbo, a director of CDC's virus institute said.

Xu told media that researchers had used high-throughput genetic sequencing to identify pathogens one day after the first four samples were sent from Wuhan on January 2.

China's National Health Commission on Sunday said the new coronavirus is contagious even in its incubation period, which lasts up to 14 days, and that the virus' ability to spread is getting stronger.
Industry Update

Appointment

27 January 2020

Andy Laubscher

Promoted Corporate Director of Operations

At Cooper Hotels in Memphis - TN, USA

share this article

Cooper Hotels Corporate Director of Food and Beverage Andy Laubscher was promoted to corporate director of operations. Laubscher began his career with Cooper Hotels in 1997. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Cooper Hotels Cooper Hotels is a privately owned hotel development and management company based in Memphis, Tennessee. Its portfolio includes 20 hotels in five states. The company operates primarily Hilton and InterContinental Hotels Group brand properties. more information

Recent Appointments at Cooper Hotels Shannon Dilworth - Director of Revenue Management 27 January 2020  Revenue management specialist Shannon Dilworth has been promoted to Cooper Hotels director of revenue management. Since joining the company in 2001, she has held positions in sales administration, sales management and revenue management. read more

Geoff Thompson - Vice President of Operations 23 January 2020  Geoff Thompson has been promoted to vice president of operations. He most recently served as both general manager of the Embassy Suites Detroit Metro Airport and regional director of development and operations. read more
The Indian Navy on Monday, January 27, announced that next-generation offshore patrolling vessel, INS Sumedha which has been mission deployed at the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy patrolling, participated in the 71st Republic Day celebrations for the first time at the newly established Indian embassy at Djibouti (Country in Eastern Africa).

The Indian Navy also took to its official Twitter handle and shared the pictures of the Republic Day celebrations on the vessel.

READ | INS Sumedha rescues 13 Indian crew members who were stranded near the Somali coast

Tweeting further, the Indian Navy also informed about the instrumental role played by INS Sumedha in the recent rescue of the crew which also had 13 Indian citizens from a drifting private vessel in early January.

#INSSumedha was instrumental in the recent rescue of the crew (comprising 13 Indian Citizens) of a dhow Al-Hamid, which was in distress & drifting near the coast of #Somalia (2/2).#IndianNavy #MaritimeRescue@IndiainKenyahttps://t.co/JqIMpcIhgo  SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) January 27, 2020

READ | Indian Navy's three-dimensional strength highlighted at Republic Day parade

INS Sumedha Rescues 13 Indian Crew Members

According to the official site of the Indian Navy, a boarding team with a naval technical team embarked on Al-Hamid for routine checks onboard and render assistance. The technical team assessment further revealed that a traditional wooden vessel known as 'Dhow' had suffered a broken engine shaft after which it was towed to safety away from the Somali coast.

The official site stated, "A traditional wooden vessel known as Al-Hamid was detected on January 6 by an Indian Navy helicopter launched from the deck of INS Sumedha, which confirmed that the vessel was in distress and drifting near the coast of Somalia.

READ | Kochi: Indian Navy contingent assemble to parade on occasion of Republic Day

71st Republic day celebrations

Marking a first, PM Modi had paid tribute to fallen warriors at the National War Memorial which was inaugurated in February 2019. CDS Gen Bipin Rawat, Army Chief Gen Naravane, Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh, Air Force Chief Air Marshal RKS Bhaduria were present.

After hoisting the flag at the viewing platform at Rajpath, India witnessed its states' pride and the Indian Army's firepower in its 90-minute parade. 22 tableaux  six by central ministries and departments and 16 by states and Union Territories were paraded on Rajpath. The states which rolled onto Rajpath were Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.

This Republic Day witnessed several firsts. These include - Prime Minister paid tribute at National War Memorial, Tania Shergill - the first woman parade adjutant, DRDO contingent showcasing ASAT, Contingent of women bikers of CRPF, Tri-service formation andTableau of Jal Shakti Ministry. While the entire country has been torn by the recent protests against the amended Citizenship Act, Republic Day was celebrated with pomp throughout the nation.

READ | Republic Day celebrated across Jammu amid tight security arrangements

READ | PM Modi highlights diversity in India with photos from Republic Day Parade
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to media in the House of Commons foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

By Kelsey Johnson

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's minority Liberal government kicked off the ratification process for a new continental trade pact on Monday and urged opposition lawmakers to formally approve the deal as quickly as possible.

Canada is the only country still to ratify the trilateral United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which updates the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who led Canada's negotiating team, urged lawmakers to set partisanship aside. The Liberals do not control the House of Commons and must rely on opposition legislators to govern.

"The ball is in their court," Freeland told reporters on Monday after formally giving notice the government would be introducing the necessary legislation on Wednesday.

"I am calling on all members of Parliament to support the agreement and to support its entry into force with out undue delay." she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the new trade deal into law on Wednesday. Trump made the renegotiation of NAFTA a key element of his 2016 presidential election campaign.

Canada's main opposition Conservative Party has expressed a determination to examine what it calls potentially worrying aspects of the deal, but also says it has no intention of dragging the process out.

Business and industry groups want the Trudeau government to ratify the trade pact as quickly as possible to alleviate economic uncertainty. Free trade is critical to the economies of Canada and Mexico, which both send around 75% of goods to their much larger neighbor.

"It is crucial for businesses that this agreement is ratified in an expeditious manner," the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

(Reporting by Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa; Editing by David Ljunggren and Marguerita Choy)
Donald Trump: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Donald Trump has reacted angrily after the manuscript of ex-national security adviser John Boltons new book was leaked in which the former aide claims the president told him the decision to withhold military assistance to Ukraine last summer was explicitly tied to demands for an investigation into Joe Biden.

If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book, Mr Trump tweeted, arguing that the House should have subpoenaed Mr Bolton when it was gathering evidence in November (it did), prompting impeachment manager Adam Schiff to say the revelation blasts another hole in his counsels defence.

As the trial resumes today with the presidents legal team continuing to hold court, Mr Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opposition counterpart Benny Gantz at the White House for a briefing on his plans to bring peace to the Middle East.

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Nobel Laureate and economist Abhijit Banerjee has said India's banking sector is stressed and that the Centre is in no position to bail it out. "Financial sector is the biggest stress point currently. There is no question that the finance sector is something we should worry about, the banking sector is stressed. The government really is not in a position to bail it out, so we are talking about a long process of attrition, that's going to be costly," Banerjee told the media during the 13th Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday.

He asserted that people had no confidence that the economy would grow, a big reason they were not spending on cars and two-wheelers. "We also know that due to a demand deficit in the economy, cars and two-wheelers are not selling, and those things are signs of a general fact that people lack confidence that the economy is going to grow fast so they are holding back, they are not spending," he said.

He said the slowdown would have an adverse impact on India's long-term plan to alleviate poverty. He also said low job creation in urban sector would hurt the rural sector. "Poverty alleviation has been happening mostly on the strength of the fact that urban sector creates low skill jobs, and a lot of rural sector works in the urban sector and sends money back. That's the peak source of transmission of growth from the urban sector to rural sector. And as soon as the urban sector slows down the rural sector, the people in construction workers don't have as many jobs. All of that will feed back on the rural sector," the 58-year-old Indian-American economist said.

Also read: India needs a better opposition: Abhijit Banerjee

On the question of general "lack of trust" in data, Banerjee said it should be a matter of worry for the Centre that foreign investors were getting "nervous". He added that Modi government needed to provide "true data" to people if it wanted to attract "global" investment. "They don't know where they are going, what they are getting into, I mean those are real issues government should look into. If it wants to have more investment and more involvement in the global economy, then I think it needs to provide true data to people," he said.

On the political situation in the country, the Nobel Laureate said India needed a better opposition which was the heart of any democracy and the ruling party should embrace it. "India needs a better opposition. The opposition is the heart of democracy and the ruling party should want a better opposition to keep it under check," Banerjee said.

He also said there was no co-relation between authoritarianism and economic success. "You can easily argue that Singapore had a successful dictator and can easily come back and talk about Zimbabwe. We can talk about this ad nauseum... At some level authority is an illusion," he said.

The Indian-American innovative MIT economist, his wife Esther Duflo and Harvard professor Michael Kremer jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".

Also Read: Who is Abhijit Banerjee? Indian-origin economist who has won Nobel Prize

Edited by Manoj Sharma with inputs from PTI
Taliban claims US aircraft crashed in an area controlled largely by the group.

The Taliban has claimed a US forces aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan hours after the plane went down in an area controlled largely by the group.

The Taliban statement on Monday came hours after social media was rife with suggestions that the plane was from state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines.

However, the company said the rumours were not true. All the flights of Ariana Afghan Airlines have been completed normally, read a statement on the carriers verified Facebook page.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Afghanistan also denied reports that the plane was a commercial flight.

According to our information  no commercial airline crash has been recorded. And Ariana Afghan Airlines have reassured us that all their planes are accounted for, said the organisation.

@pajhwok reporter Saifullah Maftoon visited the area in #Ghazni province, where an Aircraft crashed today, #Taliban said few US force officers were killed in this incident. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/vJ1fB2kspb  Pajhwok Afghan News (@pajhwok) January 27, 2020

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the crash killed lots of US service members. However, the group often exaggerates casualty figures.

An aircraft of American occupiers has crashed in Ghazni province, Mujahid said in a statement in the Pashto language, adding that all crew members onboard were killed.

The spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Sonny Leggett, said that the military plane, a Bombardier E-11A, crashed in the Ghazni province and an investigation of its causes was ongoing.

The Bombardier E-11A is a US Air Force electronic surveillance plane. Video from the crash site circulating on social media appeared to show its charred ruins.

All on board feared dead

Al Jazeeras Zein Basravi, reporting from the Afghan capital, Kabul, said: The spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province has said that according to his people on the ground, this is was not an Afghan aircraft. So that would suggest this is not an Ariana Airlines aircraft as previously was suspected by many people.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

The last major commercial air crash in Afghanistan occurred in 2005 when a Kam Air flight from western Herat to Kabul crashed into the mountains as it tried to land in snowy weather.

The South Asian nation, however, has seen several deadly crashes of military aircraft.

One of the most spectacular occurred in 2013 when an American Boeing 747 cargo jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Bagram airbase in the north of Kabul on its way to Dubai. All seven crew members were killed.
Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad arrived in Delhi on Monday morning after he was put on a flight by police in Hyderabad, where he was detained while on his way to take part in an anti-CAA and anti-NRC event.

Promising to be "back soon", the Dalit leader said on Twitter early on Monday that Bahujan society would never forget the insult.

Aazad, who landed in Delhi shortly after 9 am, said police had denied demonstrators the right to protest and alleged that they had been beaten up.

"In Telangana, dictatorship is at its peak, people's right to protest is being snatched, first our people were lathi-charged, then I was arrested, now I am being taken to the airport and are sending me to Delhi.

"Remember Bahujan society will never forget this insult. Will be back soon," he tweeted, tagging the Telangana Chief Minister's Office.

Aazad is unwell and will be taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, his aides said. If he's okay, the Dalit leader will go to Karnataka on Tuesday to address two rallies in Gulbarga and Bidar.

He also plans to attend the birth anniversary celebrations of late journalist Gauri Lankesh on January 29 in Bangalore, they said.

Police in Hyderabad said there was no permission for the event on the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register that Aazad was supposed to address.

Azad's detention came days after he was released from Tihar prison in Delhi following his arrest for allegedly inciting people during an anti-CAA protest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Indian equity market started the week on a negative note on the back of weak global cues.

Market sentiments took a hit by rising concerns over fast-spreading coronavirus, as it might lead to a slowdown in the global economy, said experts. Investors were also cautious ahead of the Union Budget which is scheduled for later this week.

Sensex witnessed the second biggest fall in January, dropping to its lowest level in a month. The index closed 458 points, or 1.10 percent, down at 41,155.12. Nifty finished with a loss of 129 points, or 1.06 percent, at 12,119.

Nifty formed a bearish candle on the daily scale as supply pressure was visible at higher levels and is hovering near its 5O-DEMA which has been acting as support for the last few sessions. "Going forward, if Nifty fails to surpass 12,150-12,200 zone, it could drift towards the next major support of 12,050-12,000 zone, while on the upside, the hurdle is seen at 12,200

then 12,250," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades:

Key support and resistance level for Nifty

According to the pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 12,078.47, followed by 12,037.93. If the index moves up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 12,188.07 and 12,257.13.

Nifty Bank

Nifty Bank closed 1.29 percent down at 30,837.40. The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 30,688.3, followed by 30,539.2. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 31,106.8 and 31,376.2.

Call options data

Maximum call open interest (OI) of 55.74 lakh contracts was seen at the 12,200 strike price. It will act as a crucial resistance level in the January series.

This is followed by 12,300 strike price, which holds 42.05 lakh contracts in open interest, and 12,500, which has accumulated 40.77 lakh contracts in open interest.

Significant call writing was seen at the 12,200 strike price, which added 30.64 lakh contracts, followed by 12,300 strike price that added 11.4 lakh contracts.

Call unwinding was witnessed at 11,700 strike price, which shed 29,175 contracts.

Put options data

Maximum put open interest of 43.72 lakh contracts was seen at 12,000 strike price, which will act as crucial support in the January series.

This is followed by 12,200 strike price, which holds 28.78 lakh contracts in open interest, and 12,100 strike price, which has accumulated 24.25 lakh contracts in open interest.

Put writing was seen at the 11,900 strike price, which added 4.84 lakh contracts, followed by 12,100 strike, which added 1.8 lakh contracts.

Put unwinding was seen at 12,200 strike price, which shed 9.4 lakh contracts, followed by 11,800 strike that shed 1.43 lakh contracts.

Stocks with a high delivery percentage

A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in these stocks.

36 stocks saw long build-up

Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long build-up was seen.

6 stocks saw long unwinding

105 stocks saw short build-up

An increase in open interest, along with a decrease in price, mostly indicates a build-up of short positions. Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short build-up was seen.

No stock witnessed short-covering

There was no stock which witnessed short-covering on January 27. A decrease in open interest, along with an increase in price, mostly indicates a short-covering.

Bulk deals

(For more bulk deals, click here)

Quarterly results

Maruti Suzuki, CG Power and Industrial Solutions, Century Textile and Industries, Central Bank of India, Cummins India, Chemo Pharma Laboratories, Infibeam Avenues, JK Lakshmi Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Manappuram Finance, Mastek and Ramco Systems are among the companies that will release their December quarter numbers on January 28.

Stocks in the news:

HDFC: Q3 profit surged to Rs 8,372.5 cr versus Rs 2,113.8 cr, NII grew 9.8 percent to Rs 3,296.7 cr YoY.

InterGlobe: Q3 consolidated profit jumped to Rs 496 cr versus Rs 185 cr, revenue grew 25.5 percent to Rs 9,932 cr YoY.

Torrent Pharma: Q3 profit rose 2 percent to Rs 251 cr, revenue fell 4.1 percent to Rs 1,966 cr YoY.

United Spirits: Q3 profit jumped 15.2 percent to Rs 232 cr, revenue increased 2.9 percent to Rs 2,587.6 cr YoY.

JK Paper: Q3 profit rose 18.3 percent to Rs 131.8 cr, revenue dipped 5.6 percent to Rs 820.6 cr YoY.

Music Broadcast: Q3 profit dipped 37.8 percent to Rs 10 cr, revenue declined 20 percent to Rs 69.6 cr YoY.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 438.85 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares of worth Rs 10.51 crore in the Indian equity market on January 27, provisional data available on the NSE showed.

Fund flow

Stock under F&O ban on NSE
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday expressed happiness over meeting former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and said she was like a "guardian" to him.

"I had talked to her over the phone. I met her and it felt good to me. I did not even know that she was coming to Ranchi. She is like a guardian. I felt good that she came here," Soren told reporters here.

Earlier, Rabri Devi and his daughter Misa Bharti met RJD chief Lalu Yadav at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here.

Prasad is undergoing treatment at RIMS. He had appeared before a special CBI court here to record his statement in connection with a fodder scam case on January 16.

Yadav, a former Bihar chief minister, was convicted in the fodder scam case that pertains to illegal withdrawal of Rs 139 crore from Doranda treasury in Bihar during the period from 1990 to 1996.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Press Release

January 27, 2020 National Bible Day Message My warmest greetings to the Filipino people as we celebrate National Bible Day. Every last Monday of January, we gather as a nation to reaffirm our faith. By virtue of Republic Act No. 11163, we take time to unite amidst diversity in professing the teachings of our Lord. As we rejoice in the Word of God, may we take this opportunity to find more meaningful conversations with one another. Let us endeavor to be bearers of the good news throughout the world and allow the wisdom of His Word fill our hearts with love and joy so that we become a people of believers who rebuke the wicked and promote good. In Mark 3:24, the Holy Bible says, "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Let these words of our Lord resonate in our actions. Abandon our earthly ways that divide our nation. In every crossroad we face as a people, choose to live with compassion. Build a nation anchored on God's divine providence and mercy. Pass the torch of faith entrusted to us so that we continue to be a prosperous generation determined to fulfill the promises of Heaven. For the longest time, our nation has faltered by trying to live by bread alone. While it is imperative to nourish our body to attain physical strength, feeding our spirit and soul by witnessing the Living Truth is the way towards salvation. Take this day to communicate with our God to express our undying gratitude for the multitude of blessings we receive as a nation. Let this celebration aflame our hearts that we may be bold in professing our faith. May the light of Christ guide our paths towards living a meaningful life.
JERSEYVILLE  The trial of Roger Carroll, a Jerseyville resident accused of the 2010 murder/kidnapping of Bonnie Woodward, is set to begin with jury selection on March 9.

Carroll was charged in April 2018 with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealing a homicide in Jersey County. Those charges were amended later that month to include a third first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping charge.

Since his arrest he has been in custody at the Jersey County Jail.

As we move closer to trial, the states ever confident that the evidence we have to present will result in a conviction, said Jersey County States Attorney Ben Goetten.

The charges were the result of new evidence discovered after a March 2018 domestic incident when Carroll was found on his property in what investigators said was an attempted suicide.

Woodward was last seen June 25, 2010, near her vehicle in the parking lot of the Eunice Smith Nursing Home, where she had worked for 27 years. In April 2018, investigators said multiple witnesses reported seeing Woodward near the car talking to a white male described as being in his 40s, and several saw her leave with the man.

Part of the initial investigation also centered on the disappearance of Woodwards stepdaughter, Heather Woodward, then 17. In 2018, investigators said Carroll had used her as bait.

Investigators said Heather Woodward moved out of their home on June 10, 2010. She later walked into the East Alton Public Library and told them police were looking for her.

Investigators said Carroll kidnapped Bonnie Woodward with the help of his son, Nathan Carroll, 16 at the time. After Roger Carroll allegedly killed the woman, the two tended a fire for more than a week in an attempt to destroy the body.

Nathan Carroll, who testified before a grand jury, had been given full immunity in part because he was a juvenile and was dragged into the incident, Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said at the time.

The case will be prosecuted by Goetten, former Madison County Assistant States Attorney Jennifer Mudge (now a special prosecutor with the Illinois Appellate Prosecutors Office) and Madison County Assistant States Attorney Crystal Uhe. Mudge will be the lead prosecutor.

Jennifer and Crystal have been working this case since its inception some 12 years ago, Goetten said. It has been an honor working this case with two such exceptional prosecutors.

Jennifer and Crystal have dedicated their careers to advocate for victims and bring to justice those that harm the public, he said. Were all looking forward to the opportunity to bring justice to Bonnie Woodward and her family.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.
B oris Johnsons controversial friend Jennifer Arcuri has taken up a role in British journalism  as Standpoint magazines technology columnist. US businesswoman Arcuri was at the centre of a scandal last September when it was alleged that Johnson, when he was London mayor, improperly steered public money into her company accounts and intervened to get her spots on trade missions he was leading. She then gave a series of cryptic interviews about her intimacy with the PM, claiming that they had bonded over a love of Shakespeare but that Johnson had cast me aside like I am some gremlin during the furore.

Arcuri is set to write a column on tech each issue for the monthly Right-leaning magazine, with her first offering appearing this week. The tech world is full of people who look like Dominic Cummings, Standpoint editor Edward Lucas told The Londoner on his hire. Im big on genuine intellectual diversity and she is really good at the human side of cyber security. Standpoint readers are perfect targets for cyber security because we have a high-end readership.

Lucas explained that he met Arcuri four years ago when they were both speaking at a conference. He then interviewed her for a Radio 4 documentary at her Shoreditch flat, the residence that Johnson supposedly visited for technology lessons which became famous for having a pole for dancing.I couldnt swear to there being a pole there, but she did tell me: This place used to be a nightclub, Lucas said. It was full of cyber-security equipment, which was much more interesting.

Arcuris first column is on spear phishing, where scammers send malicious links to targets. In it she recommends regular software updates, two-factor online authentication, and pass phrases rather than passwords.The Londoner is excited to see what Acuri does with her new gig. As her former friend Johnson would tell her, being a high-profile columnist can really open doors for you in this town.

--

The war against the Brexit 50p coins continues. After Andrew Adonis declared I am never using or accepting this coin, Remainer footsoldiers have their own plans. Arm yourself with a permanent marker, Andrew, advised one Twitter ally. Write EU on them. Im going to. That might get the message across. Another, writing on the New Europeans Facebook page, said: Put them in a pot. Get them out of circulation... 16 million people voted Remain. Im sure we can remove this coin very quickly. Great to see people moving on.

--

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Edwina Iddles is the new communications chief for the Cambridges  her previous role was head of press at the Home Office. A former colleague tells The Londoner Iddles new role is her dream job. The Londoner agrees. From Bodyguard to The Crown.

--

Extinction Rebellion has admitted its mooted designation as extremists by the police left its members terrified. That was getting a bit scary wasnt it! One day we wake up to find were extremists, the next not, then ish, then not, the climate protest group said. We reeled from the news and searched for words, it added, until the plans were dropped.

A chilli-hot burns night

(L to R) George Barnett, Pixie Geldof, Alexa Chung and Greg Milne (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Ned's Club London)

Alexa Chung and Pixie Geldof made it a Burns Night to remember over the weekend as they grooved to a band that claim to be the most famous bagpipe band on the planet, namely, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Alongside pal Greg Milne and Geldofs husband, musician George Barnett, they soaked up the Scottish atmosphere at The Ned in Shoreditch. Geldof said on her Instagram: The Red Hot Chilli Pipers really threw down last night, while Chung confessed she doused her dress in red wine. Also there was former cyclist Victoria Pendleton. Across town at Annabels, Betty Bachz and Mimi Xu were among the hosts of a Chinese New Year bash, celebrating the Year of the Rat. Actor Ruth Wilson joined rapper Tinie Tempah as Chinese dragons and rat dancers entertained guests.

SW1A

Labour leadership hopeful Emily Thornberry met local activists for breakfast in Hornsey and Wood Green last week at cafe Stellas Room, which serves delicious fare including baba ganoush with rustic bread and Portobello mushroom and brie burger. Her team tells us Thornberry had a good chat with people but it doesnt sound like she was looking to win back the infamous white van driver  sausage rolls were a fiver.

David Gauke says hell be the guy saying I think the musics a bit loud. You can all go home if he were to attend any Brexit parties on the 31st. The former justice secretary also told Christopher Hopes podcast he would probably have a full continental breakfast the morning after.

Labour deputy contender Dawn Butler told Open Labours hustings yesterday: I want to be like John Prescott but without punching anyone. Tough on crime...

Sophie Cookson says British people are fascinated by the Profumo affair because of our bizarre attitude to sex. The actor, who played Christine Keeler, the model who had an affair with married war minister John Profumo in BBC drama The Trial of Christine Keeler, tells the Radio Times: The British are notorious for being quite prudish with a stiff upper lip, but we love something a bit racy that titillates us. Anything about sex and our little antiquated prudish ears prick up. Expressing sympathy for her character who was absolutely crucified for having multiple relationships with men she asks: Well, what were all the men doing? Quite.

Quote of the day

'She thought I was one of the people who sits in the chairs to fill them'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was an honor for him to meet with Holocaust survivors, telling them on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp's liberation that they are a living testament to the strength of humanity.



Probably, humanity has not yet come up with the words that could describe the indestructability and strength of your spirit, he said at a dinner on January 26 with Holocaust survivors and their families in Krakow, Poland, organized by the World Jewish Congress.



During his short speech, Zelenskiy denounced anti-Semitism and racism while speaking of the importance of protecting humanitarian values.



Most of these memories have a common call: Dont be silent! The younger generation must know these stories, know about the horrors of the Holocaust in order to never allow anything like this on the planet again, he said, receiving a standing ovation for his words.



Speaking through an interpreter, the Ukrainian president added: You are strong and incredibly courageous. The Holocaust is named the dark period in the history of humanity. And you are the rays of sunshine that penetrated the darkness.

On January 27, Zelenskiy is set to join more than 200 survivors and delegations from nearly 60 countries at the site of the former concentration camp where 1.1 million people were murdered, most of whom were Jews.

Himself of Jewish heritage, Zelenskiy has said he had family members who perished in the Holocaust.



Hatred needs to be done away with. It needs to be uprooted. We need to get rid of hatred because this is the single greatest power that is ruining our civilization, Zelenskiy said. "We must stop evil before it actually threatens humanity.



He also paid tribute to the Ukrainians who risked their own lives to save Jews, calling them a source of pride.



About 10 percent of the 27,362 Righteous Among The Nations were Ukrainian gentiles, according to the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.



I am proud that more than 2,500 Ukrainians have been honored with this high title, the Ukrainian president said.



Zelenskiys speech came amid concerns over a global resurgence in anti-Semitism.



A November 2019 survey by the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League found that about one in four Europeans harbor "pernicious and pervasive" attitudes towards Jews, compared with 19 percent of North Americans.



In Germany, 42 percent agreed that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust, the survey findings said.



Zelenskiy also is scheduled to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda during the visit.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-28 02:49:16|Editor: yan

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COPENHAGEN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Denmark's Ministry of Immigration and Integration said in a press release on Monday that 2,716 people applied for asylum in Denmark in 2019, a decrease from 3,559 in 2018 and the lowest number in 11 years.

Mattias Tesfaye, Minister for Immigration and Integration, termed the new figures as "positive".

"Record low asylum numbers are good news. Our resources are best used by helping more and more in the immediate area," said Tesfaye.

According to the press release, most asylum applicants in 2019 originated from Syria, Eritrea, and Somalia.

The latest figure compares especially favorably with 2015 when 21,316 applied for asylum in Denmark as a consequence of Syria's civil war.
An outbreak of a new coronavirus that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan has already killed 81 people in China by Monday. Infections have been confirmed in many other countries. But of the nearly 3,000 people who have so far contracted the virus, the vast majority live in China.

Most of the deaths, 76 people, were in the central province of Hubei, the center of the outbreak.

Officials in the capital, Beijing, which has a population of about 21 million, announced the first death in the city from coronavirus Monday. The patient, a 50-year-old man, had traveled to Wuhan on Jan. 8 and developed a fever after returning to Beijing a week later. He was diagnosed on Jan. 22 and died of respiratory failure, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission announced.

Across China there have been 2,744 confirmed cases, of which 1,423 cases were in Hubei. The youngest confirmed case is a 9-month-old girl in Beijing.

The mayor of Wuhan said there were about 3,000 patients in the city being treated for the virus. Half of those patients, he said, would eventually test positive for the disease.

Thailand and Hong Kong have each reported eight cases of infection; the United States, Taiwan, Australia and Macao have five each; Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia each have reported four; France has three; Canada and Vietnam have two, and Nepal and Cambodia each have one.

There have been no deaths from the virus reported outside China.

110 people in the United States are being evaluated for infection.

Some 110 patients in 26 states are being evaluated for infection with the Wuhan coronavirus, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

Five of the 110 have tested positive so far, and 32 have tested negative.

That is a cumulative number and will only increase, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

At the moment, the risk of infection in the United States is low. But Messonnier cautioned that information about the outbreak is changing rapidly, and the CDCs response and guidance is constantly revised.

The CDC continues to screen passengers arriving in the United States whose travel originated in Wuhan. Officials are considering broadening the effort and revising official guidance on travel to the region, Messonnier said.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has arrived in Beijing to understand the latest developments and strengthen our partnership with China in providing further protection against the outbreak, he said in a tweet.

Some public health experts are skeptical of Chinas efforts to contain the virus

Chinas efforts to contain the spread of the disease by keeping tens of millions of people corralled in the major cities in Hubei province have drawn skepticism from some experts in public health and epidemiology.

The lockdown will pose tremendous challenges, starting with getting food, fuel and medical care to those affected.

At this stage of the outbreak, the things that make the most difference are finding people, diagnosing people, and getting them isolated, said Dr. Tom Inglesby, an infectious diseases specialist and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

If you isolate the city, then my question and my concern is that youre making it harder in a number of ways to do those things you need to do, including getting sick people to the hospital and getting supplies into medical facilities, he said.

Other experts said that the travel restrictions had probably come too late and that the barriers would prove too permeable. Five million people had left Wuhan before travel out of the city was restricted, said the citys mayor, Zhou Xianwang.

You cant board up a germ, said Lawrence O. Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University and director of the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law. A novel infection will spread.

Some experts, however, said the lockdowns could help, at least in theory.

Anything that is done that increases social distancing can help decrease the spread of the virus, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you do it right, its not impossible it will have positive impact.

Hong Kong hospitals in turmoil as workers prepare for possible coronavirus cases.

Hospital workers in Hong Kong are trying to prepare for an outbreak of coronavirus cases  with memories of the SARS epidemic of the early 2000s still fresh.

In the past week, doctors and nurses have drawn straws to determine when they would work in coronavirus isolation wards for six-week shifts. A hospital rearranged its cafeteria so that all tables faced the walls, a precaution from the SARS era to prevent employees from infecting each other during their meals.

The SARS outbreak killed dozens of medical workers. Many still suffer from lung damage 17 years later.

Many hospital workers are calling for stricter border checks as Lunar New Year holidays come to a close this week, and a wave of visitors and residents are expected to return from the mainland.

A new union, HA Employees Alliance, threatened to go on strike if the government did not close its borders to the mainland.

Arisina Ma, the president of the Hong Kong Public Doctors Association, called for stricter border checks, and for possibly requiring visitors and residents to stay home for 14 days, the incubation period for the disease, after returning from the mainland.

We are waiting for the worst to come, she added. Of course we will try to stop it but I am not sure if our government is efficient and determined enough to stop the worst to come.

At the same time, the citys hospitals are still reeling from the anti-government protests that flooded their wards with patients over the past seven months.

Early Monday morning, hours after protesters set fire to unused public housing units designated to be medical quarantine areas, a handmade bomb exploded inside a hospital toilet cubicle, a police official said. The two small explosions filled the emergency ward with smoke but caused no injuries.

Wuhan mayor claims responsibility and offers to resign.

Wuhans top government and Communist Party officials offered to step down Monday amid growing criticism in the city that local authorities response to the outbreak was too slow.

Zhou said in an interview with the state broadcaster CCTV that he and Ma Guoqiang, the citys party secretary, would take responsibility for the crisis and resign to appease public indignation.

Our names will live in infamy, but as long as it is conducive to the control of the disease and to the peoples lives and safety, Comrade Ma Guoqiang and I will bear any responsibility, Zhou said in the interview.

Medical workers in the city have accused the local government of reacting too slowly to the crisis, and residents have used social media to complain about a ban on travel that has made it difficult to get access to food and health care.

The mayor defended the travel ban, which was enacted last week and effectively cut off the city of 11 million people. He called the restriction unprecedented in human history.

Chinas No. 2 official visits Wuhan as anger at the government grows.

Chinas second-highest ranking official, Premier Li Keqiang, on Monday visited Wuhan to inspect local efforts to contain the disease, the government said.

In pictures released by the state-run news media, Li is seen wearing a face mask and a blue protective gown while posing for photos with health workers. He was also seen speaking with a patient in an isolation ward via video conference.

The premiers visit comes as the central government is under increasing pressure to prove it is adequately coping with the crisis. Videos circulating on Chinese social media show doctors straining to handle the enormous workload and hospital corridors loaded with patients, some of whom appear to be dead.

Rare signs of public anger have also percolated on social media, as Wuhan residents complained that an impromptu ban on cars in the city left many unable to get access to food and hospitals.

Still, several residents interviewed said they had heard about Lis visit and welcomed it as a sign that the central leadership was committed to supporting the city and surrounding areas that have been locked down since last week.

This shows that theyre getting serious, said Shao Shigui, a retired steelworker from southwestern China who was strolling on a promenade by the mighty Yangtze River, which cuts through the city.

He had come to Wuhan with his wife to help their daughter, who is pregnant, and said he was taking a break from the monotony of staying indoors.

In China, if a leader visits, that shows that all the resources of the government can be mobilized, he said. Im not panicking. We have to wait this out.

On Saturday, Xi Jinping, Chinas leader, convened a meeting of the Politburos standing committee, the senior-most executive body of the Chinese Communist Party, as a demonstration of the governments hands-on approach to the outbreak.

Hospitals in Wuhan have posted messages online urgently appealing for medical equipment. Li, who has been assigned to oversee the national response to the outbreak, pledged to provide Wuhans health centers with 20,000 pairs of safety goggles.

China extends long Lunar New Year holiday to limit travel.

Trying to temporarily limit travel, the Chinese government extended the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday by three days, meaning it will go through Sunday rather than ending Thursday. Workers will return to work Feb. 3.

The holiday, Chinas biggest annual celebration, began Friday, the eve of the Lunar New Year.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel during the holiday, either for tourism or to visit family. The week, known in China as Spring Festival, typically includes large public events, but many festivities have been canceled this year.

Many tourist attractions have been shuttered including the Disney theme parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong, along with the Forbidden City and sections of the Great Wall in Beijing.

Wuhan residents venture outside only out of necessity or boredom.

Residents of Wuhan have largely hunkered down to quietly wait out the crisis, mostly staying inside their homes, and venturing out only for supplies and food, medical visits and occasional bursts of exercise away from other people.

Cities, towns and even villages have erected checkpoints and roadblocks intended to ward off any outsiders who might carry the coronavirus.

On Monday, most shops remained closed, but supermarkets, fresh produce stores and pharmacies remained open  although many pharmacies have run out of protective masks, hand disinfectant and other supplies intended to protect against the virus.

Residents with fevers and coughs who worried that they may have contracted the coronavirus continued to line up at clinics and hospitals, but in fewer numbers than on previous days. The streets were mostly free of cars, and many residents walked or rode bicycles to do their shopping.

Its possible to live, but its not a real New Year, said Qiu Dongjun, 38, construction worker from rural Hubei province who was carrying a bagful of shopping, mostly instant noodles and tins of precooked porridge. Ive been eating so many containers of instant noodles that my mouth and nose are raw.

Foreign governments make plans to evacuate citizens.

Foreign governments with nationals stranded in Wuhan scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the epicenter of the outbreak, even as China imposed official travel bans.

The State Department said it had chartered a flight to take consular staff members and other U.S. citizens to San Francisco from Wuhan on Tuesday. The department said priority would be given to those at greater risk from contracting the virus because of the flights extremely limited capacity.

At least one American, a father of three young children, declined the offer after the U.S. government said his wife, a Chinese national, would not be offered a seat.

France, Japan, Spain and Sri Lanka also said they would bring home nationals. Once in France, evacuated nationals would be required to spend 14 days in quarantine.

Russia was in talks with China about evacuating its citizens, local news media reported. Russian tour operators have stopped selling trips to China following recommendations from the countrys tourism watchdog and would only work to evacuate travelers, Reuters reported.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Press Release

January 26, 2020 Bong Go wants free legal aid to soldiers, cops facing charges for carrying out duties Military and uniformed personnel facing any charge arising from an incident related to the performance of their work shall be provided with free legal assistance, according to the bill filed by Sen. Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go. Go said he filed Senate Bill No. 393 because the cost of litigation often proves to be too burdensome for any enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP). "With the meager livelihood earned by our soldiers and police officers, the State must do its part to ensure that those tasked with the duty to serve and protect are adequately served and protected," Go said. "Our peacekeepers, the members of our Armed Forces and PNP, are seen as dispensers of justice who place their lives on the line on a daily basis so that we may enjoy the peace and freedom envisioned under the Constitution," he added. Like any other sector of the society, Go said, the military and police should not be denied access to legal assistance which they may need as a consequence of the faithful performance of their official duties. Under the bill, the AFP chief of staff, the chairperson of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) or the PNP chief shall authorize the legal office of their respective agencies, with the assistance of the Public Attorneys Office (PAO), to provide free legal assistance to any officer or enlisted personnel of the AFP and PNP within 24 hours from the official receipt of the information or charge sheet. Go said the amount needed to effectively carry out the measure shall be sourced from the government's Legal Defense Fund (LDF) through the General Appropriations Act (GAA). The LDF provides for reimbursement or financial assistance to government officials and employees, including police officers, in relation to the cases filed against them as a result of the performance of duties.
Urban cooperative banks have reported nearly 1,000 cases of fraud worth more than Rs 220 crore in the last five fiscals, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

IMAGE: Depositors of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank stage a protest outside the Reserve Bank of India building in Mumbai Photograph: ANI Photo

Responding to an RTI query, the central bank said a total of 181 fraud cases involving Rs 127.7 crore were noticed during 2018-19.

A total of 99 and 27 such cases involving Rs 46.9 crore and Rs 9.3 crore were reported during 2017-18 and 2016-16 respectively, it said.

As many as 187 cases of fraud involving Rs 17.3 crore were reported in 2015-16 as against 478 such cases involving Rs 19.8 crore during 2014-15, the RBI said.

During 2014-15 and 2018-19, a total of 972 cases of bank fraud worth Rs 221 crore were reported by the UCBs, it said.

"Cases of frauds reported to RBI are required to be filed by banks as criminal complaints with law enforcement agencies. Banks are required to look into aspects of staff accountability and punish the guilty through internal proceedings," the central bank said.

It declined to share details of action being taken on these fraud cases saying "it is not readily available".

"The information in respect of action being taken or already taken is not available readily for providing to the applicant," the RBI said in reply to the RTI application filed by PTI.

The cases of frauds assume significance as the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) bank has been under the RBI's restrictions since September 23 after the central bank had found financial irregularities, including huge under-reporting of loans and non-performing assets to real estate developer HDIL to the tune of Rs 6,500 crore, against its entire assets of Rs 8,880 crore, using hundreds of dummy accounts.

A total of 1,544 UCBs across the country have deposits of a whopping Rs 4.84 lakh crore as on March 31, 2019, it said.

Of them, a highest of over Rs 3 lakh crore worth deposits are in 496 UCBs in Maharashtra alone, followed by Rs 55,102 crore in 219 such banks in Gujarat and Rs 41,096 crore in 263 urban cooperative banks in Karnataka, among others, according to the RTI reply.

To ensure that UCBs adhere to norms and depositors' money is safe, RBI has put in place an off-site monitoring mechanism which requires the UCBs to submit periodic returns, statements, etc. to the central bank, it said.

"On-site examination of UCBs is also carried out at prescribed periodic intervals through sending inspection teams to the UCBs. Based on the findings of the inspection and off-site returns filed by the UCBs, appropriate supervisory action is taken against the UCBs by RBI," the central bank said.

Ashwini Shrivastava is a journalist with PTI. She can be contacted at money@rediff.co.in.
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